Eva didn’t waste any time after processing what had just happened. She leapt through the busted window the camera flash came from and took off running.

  “Hey, wait!” I called out to her.

  I followed her out the window, taking care not to maim myself on the jagged remains of glass still hanging on for dear life in the frame. I saw her giving chase to someone in a dark getup through the trash-filled overgrowth leading to the compromise in the chain link fence.

  “Wait here, Mizuki. I’m going after Eva!”

  She tried to call out to me, but I had already begun to dash after Eva.

  “Stop!” I heard Eva yell.

  I pushed myself to run faster so I wouldn’t fall behind too much and spotted them approaching the fence. The mysterious figure awkwardly dropped and hurriedly crawled through the hole, while Eva slid right through it effortlessly. She had the opportunity to capitalize on their loss of momentum, but she noticed me and waited for me to catch up.

  “Hurry up, Shinsuke! We can’t lose them!”

  “I know!”

  I rolled through the hole, and we took off after the figure together.

  The figure regained a bit of a lead on us because of me, but still remained firmly within sight.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Eva yelled. “Stop running, I just want to talk to you!”

  Even the most na?ve sap in the world would have known by her tone that “talk” was a substitution for “beat the holy hell out of you”.

  Perhaps because of that obvious threat, the figure picked up the pace a bit and increased the distance between us.

  “Oh no you don’t!” Eva growled. She stuck out her hand in the shape of a finger pistol and began shooting small fireballs at the figure.

  The figure jolted and jumped when they noticed the projectiles whizzing past them. They made a hard right turn across the street and into a narrow alleyway just before a fast-approaching car would have hit them.

  “That way!” Eva pointed and followed quickly.

  She slid over the car, and I awkwardly ran around it. When I got to the alley, I saw the figure climbing a ladder leading up to a fire escape, and Eva jumping up to the first rung to continue pursuing.

  “Come on, Shinsuke. Up here!”

  This is insanity!

  I positioned myself below the ladder and leapt up, grabbed hold of the first rung, and began to ascend. Eva was already on the final rung, of course. And by the time I made it up to the fire escape, she was already dashing up the metal stairs in hot pursuit.

  I ran up behind her and watched them enter a window into an apartment.

  “Are you crazy!?” I yelled. “We can’t just—”

  “Hurry up, Shinsuke!”

  I guess I’m doing this!

  I entered the apartment and found myself in a bedroom. I ran out into the hall and caught a glimpse of Eva’s pink hair trailing around the corner. I followed just as the figure was bolting out the front door.

  “That way!”

  “Sorry for the intrusion!” I apologized, just in case someone happened to be home.

  Out in the apartment hallway, we chased the figure into the stairwell and up the stairs. When we emerged onto the roof, I thought we’d finally reached the end of the line. But the nutjob jumped across to another rooftop.

  Are you serious?!

  Eva jumped across with no issue and shouted, “come on!”

  I stepped to the edge and vertigo slapped me across the face.

  “I don’t think I can—”

  “Just do it!” she roared.

  Gods damn it, this day just keeps getting worse!

  I walked a few steps back, took a deep breath, and cursed my life. With a running head start, I jumped across the gap, landing on the other roof with a clumsy thud.

  “Get up, Shinsuke. He’s running down the stairs over there!”

  I peeled myself off the floor and stumbled over to some metal stairs that led halfway down the side of the building. At a certain point, the steps led to a landing and a floor hatch with a ladder stretching to the ground below. The figure was already sliding down the ladder.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Damn it,” Eva cursed. “No time to waste. Jump!”

  She vaulted over the railing and landed in a dumpster filled to the brim with trash.

  “Are you okay?!” I panicked, arcing my neck in every direction trying to see if Eva survived her reckless jump.

  She immediately sprang out of the dumpster without a scratch on her. “Hurry up! Jump!”

  Gonna smell how I feel!

  I tried to jump over the railing but tripped and fell face first into the overflowing dumpster instead. The trash prevented me from getting hurt, but the overwhelming scent of garbage almost killed me all on its own.

  I hate my life.

  I crawled out of the dumpster in time to see Eva tackle the living hell out of the figure. The person tried to scramble up to their feet, but Eva froze their legs in place with an ice spell.

  “Don’t even think about it. You’re done!” she declared.

  I hobbled up to the scene, hacking up my lungs and gasping for air. She looked like she’d barely broken a sweat, of course.

  This girl isn’t human…

  “You okay, Shinsuke?” she asked.

  “I’m alive,” I wheezed.

  She knelt and patted the person down. I could see now that it was a man, wearing all black and a skull cap. Only his face was exposed. Much like me, he was sucking air like he’d never breathed a day in his life.

  “How interesting,” Eva crooned. “I’d have thought a paparazzi would be equipped with a sick camera. But all this guy has on him is a wallet and a phone. Care to explain?”

  “You’re insane!” he spat. “Give me my property back and leave me alone!”

  “No, no, no,” she wagged her finger. “You’re going to explain why you were taking pictures of me and my friends. You’re clearly not paparazzi, so who are you?”

  “None of your business! I’ll have you arrested and—”

  “You can call the police if you want, but all they’re going to do is ask why you’re creeping on a group of high schoolers. So, tell me who you are, or I could make things more interesting.”

  Eva shot an ice shard from her fingertip right between the man’s legs and he yelped from the phantom pain.

  “Okay, okay! I’m a private investigator!”

  “A private investigator?” I asked. “Does that mean someone hired you?”

  “Y-Yes.”

  “Who was it?” Eva demanded. “And just say it. No meandering. Or else.”

  “It was Raven Blackwell!” he stammered. “She hired me to collect information about Shinsuke and tail him!”

  Eva and I looked at each other with wide eyes.

  What?!

  “That picture you took; did you send it to her” Eva asked.

  “Yes! She wanted to know what Shinsuke was doing and who he was with.”

  Eva’s face darkened and a quiet fury came upon her.

  “…Unlock the phone,” she commanded.

  “What? That’s my private—”

  “If you’re an investigator, then I’m sure you know I’m Evangeline Dioli—the youngest recruit in the entire history of the Steylian Royal Army. I could do anything I want to you right now and they’d look the other way. So, unlock the damn phone. Now.”

  The man gulped and blinked rapidly.

  Holy crap. I’ve never seen her so intense before…

  “Okay, I’ll unlock it,” he relented.

  She passed him the phone and he punched in a password, granting her access to the device.

  “I’m hanging onto this for now,” she declared. “I see you have an email address here. When I’m done with it, I’ll send you a message alerting you where to find it.”

  “But I have client information on there!”

  “I don’t care about that. I won’t look at anything pertaining to your other clients. Now, beat it. And if you’re smart, this never happened.”

  She unfroze his legs and he immediately got up and limped off into the night.

  “You’re…something else, Eva,” I said.

  She laughed nervously and fixed her hair. “Sorry, I guess I had to get a bit stern there for a minute.”

  That was more than stern. That was…

  I shook my head. My cheeks were itching, and it was starting to irritate me.

  “Anyway, that guy said Raven hired him.”

  “Yeah,” she scowled. “She’s so different from the person I thought she was that it’s freaking me out a little bit.”

  “I don’t know what to think about her anymore.”

  “She’s really obsessed with you, Shinsuke. I was very wrong.”

  She begam to thumb through the phone, going through the man’s gallery and message history.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I wanted to see how much information he’s been feeding her and for how long. Shinsuke, this guy has been following you for over a month.”

  “What? You can’t be serious.”

  “See for yourself. He’s been sending her pictures of you and all kinds of information. Your address, phone number, and a bunch of other stuff.”

  My blood chilled.

  Raven’s cryptic innuendos about knowing all about me made sense now.

  “Forget obsession, Shinsuke. This girl is a full-blown stalker. But don’t worry, I’m going to put a stop to this.”

  “What are you planning?” I asked anxiously.

  She quickly typed out a message and sent it.

  “Raven thinks her little spy just sent her a message. ‘He’ has some very important information to share with her, and ‘he’ wants her to meet ‘him’ somewhere tomorrow night for an information delivery.”

  “Of course, by ‘him’, you mean you.”

  “Bingo,” she grinned. “And I want you there too.”

  I sighed. “I guess I have no choice.”

  “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.” She pocketed the man’s phone and kicked a trash can. “Tch, seeing her cling to your arm back in the gym was laughable before, but especially now. She seems to think you’re hers, but you belong to me.”

  I coughed and almost lost my balance. “Huh?”

  “You heard me. You’re my disciple, and she’s sadly mistaken if she thinks some delusional celebrity is going to scare Sensei Dioli off from training you!”

  Ah, right.

  “Anyway,” I shook my head. “We need to hurry back to Mizuki. She’s still alone in that sketchy warehouse and it’s getting late.”

  “No worries. I’ll call one of my boys from the fight club and tell them to hang around the area and keep watch till we get there.”

  How casually she flaunts her shady connections.

  “That works, I guess,” I chuckled.

  After figuring out where we even were, we started walking back to the abandoned warehouse. As we did so, Eva made the call to her friend, and after her brief conversation, she hung up the phone with a deep sigh.

  “I’m so thirsty!” she announced. “All that running has me parched. Let’s stop at that vending machine.”

  She rushed up to a blue soft drink machine and stuffed some money inside. Without even considering other options, she ordered a Guardia Cola and snatched it from the drop box.

  She cracked open the can and gulped down at least half of it with a resounding, “ah~!”

  I eyed the can with skepticism and asked, “do you really like that slop?”

  “Have you ever tried it?”

  “Well, no but—”

  Her arm shot out, holding the can up to my face. “Go on, drink some. Let it defend your body from thirst, Shinsuke~”

  I swear, she really likes that stupid catch phrase.

  My eyes drifted from the can to her lips when I realized something.

  “Didn’t you just…”

  “Hm?”

  “…Never mind. Fine, I’ll try it.”

  I took the can from her and took a deep breath. I sipped some of the beverage and held it in my mouth for a bit, taking in the flavor before swallowing.

  “Soooo? What do you think?”

  The drink itself was okay. Not terrible, but nothing to celebrate. It was a pretty basic cola that I wouldn’t mind having regularly. But the taste left behind on my lips was sweeter.

  Must be the aftertaste, I rationalized.

  “It’s delicious.”