After yesterday's events, Vin and Chroma headed off to school, their minds still preoccupied from the previous fight, Vin was extremely weary, his eyes were bloodshot and his body was sluggish. As they walked, he yawned as his head was bobbing trying to stay awake. Claire glanced at Vin and nudged at him.

“Are you ok?” asked Claire

Vin shook his head, he rubbed his eyes on his palms, and looked at her with bloodshot eyes, “Guess,” he answered his eyes barely opening

Claire shrugged, she glanced at the watch on her arm, and turned back to Vin, “Want to buy some coffee before we go to school?” she asked, “I’ll treat you,”

Vin looks at her skeptically, “What’s the catch?”

Claire’s brow furrowed in confusion, “There’s no catch… I just feel like treating you to some coffee, which doesn’t happen very often,” she replied with a slight smirk

Vin nods, “That’s exactly why,” he replied, smiling slightly, “Ok, fine… let’s go grab some coffee,”

Claire smiled, she grabbed Vin’s wrist and led him to a nearby cafe. As they opened the door to the cafe, they were greeted by a sweet aroma of coffee, the both of them ordered their drinks and sat down at the seats by the window. Vin holds his drink between his hands as it rests on the table, feeling the warmth of the coffee.

“Thanks for the coffee Claire,” said Vin, as he smiled at her.

Claire looks and sees that his eyes have returned to normal, she smiles back, as she takes a sip of her drink, she then frowns, she looks down at her drink and at the label that was written on the cup.

Vin snickered, “What’s wrong? They got your order wrong?” he asked

Claire sighed and nodded, ”Yeah they did, and it’s disgusting,” she replied as she winced, clearly disliking the drink

Vin grins, “Give me your drink for a second,” he said, as he reached out his hand

Claire hands the drink to Vin with a confused expression, “What are you planning?” she asked,

Vin smiles, he stares at the drink for a moment before slightly tightening his grip on the cup deforming it, he squints at the drink as if he was focusing on something, black lines appeared from Vin’s hand followed by a variety of neon colors which was barely visible, the lines then traveled up and towards the lip of the cup and into the drink itself, the liquid began to swirl in the cup, the color of the coffee gradually changed. Vin released his grip on the cup, he then grabbed his own coffee and compared it.

Vin smiles, and looks at Claire, who is very dumbfounded, “Here you go,” he says as he places the coffee in front of her, “Try it,”

Claire was silent, she hesitantly grabbed the cup, takes a sip, and nods her head, “It’s good… but more importantly, what did you do?” she asked

Vin smirked, he raised his pointer finger, revealing a single black line hidden under his finger, “I changed your coffee to be similar to mine,” he answered, crossing his arms, his grin turning into a smirk, “You could even say that I ‘glitched’ your coffee to be similar to mine,”

Claire’s eyes widened, and a small smile crept onto her lips, she giggled a little bit before patting Vin on the back, “You’re enjoying yourself aren’t you,”

Vin's smile fades, he looks down staring directly at the floor, he straightens his arms laying them on his thighs as they curve into a fist.

Claire sighed, “Are you still thinking about yesterday? Or the day before?” she asked as she patted his back.

Vin nods, he sighs deeply, and looks at her, “I’m still iffy about the stuff yesterday and the day before, also… was it the correct choice to join them? I mean, I understand that we’re in debt to them for saving our lives, but… I feel like I’m getting dragged deeper into this rabbit hole… I’m kinda scared,”

Claire’s heart ached, she wanted to tell him that everything would be alright, that everything would return to normal, and that she would protect him, and yet she was at a loss for words, not knowing what to say because she knew that all of it would just be a lie, just to make him feel better.

“Me too, I’m scared of losing you, you’re the most important person in my life, and I want nothing more than to protect you…but I know that it’ll one day bite me in the ass, no matter how hard I try,” said Claire, as she stood up and hugged Vin tightly, “Right now, we can only move forward, especially you… try your best to adjust,”

She smiled, gently pulling away from the hug, and returned to her seat taking another sip of her coffee.

“Ark may have some screws loose, but she’s a trustworthy person…” added Claire, as she watched the people on the other side of the window pass by.

Vin sighs, he takes a sip of his coffee, and glances at her, “Thank you… for always being there for me,”

Claire smiles and nods, she didn’t say anything, but she felt happy.

“Oh by the way… what’s your relationship with Ark?” asked Vin

Claire looked at Vin in the corner of her eyes, her face still fixated on the window, “Ark and me… well… you could say that we worked together for a few years, we stole some Artifacts, took down some curators, et cetera, et cetera… and that was way before she lost her sight… anyway, we parted ways when I told her that I wanted to live a normal life… so yeah… that’s the gist of it,”

“I see, so you two are a tandem,” said Vin

Claire shook her head and replied, “I wouldn’t say we’re a tandem… but we just worked together, our relationship was colleagues at best,”

After their chat, Claire finished her coffee, she glanced at her watch and stood up, stretching, she looked at Vin who had also just finished his coffee, she then nudged him

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“It’s almost time, let’s get going,” she said, “Oh wait, I need to go to the bathroom first, you can wait for me outside,”

Vin nods as he watched her leave for the bathroom, he then grabbed his bag as well as Claire’s and headed for the exit, before leaving, he took one final look at the cafe and all of its people, and for some reason, the people had concerned faces, some of them were angry, some were scared, he could see the people aggressively tap their phones. Vin let out a quiet snicker, he found the scene to be entertaining, he then shook his head and exited the cafe.

After a few minutes, Claire exited the bathroom and the cafe, when she saw Vin waiting for her, she smiled and approached him.

“Hey, did I make you wait?” she asked.

Vin smiles and shakes his head, “Nah it's fine,”

Claire smiles back, she grabs her bag and walks with him heading towards school. After some time, they arrived at school, they gently opened the door and sees their classmates with a concerned look on their faces, Vin and Claire looked at each other, and decided to approach them.

“Hey guys,” said Vin as he waved at them, “What’s going on?”

“Our phones… there’s this weird timer on it,” answered one of their classmates,

Claire and Vin’s brows furrowed in confusion, Claire reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, and upon opening it, her eyes widened in surprise, she nudged at Vin and showed it to him.

Vin looks at her phone, “One hundred and sixty hours… that’s one week from now,” said Vin, “What does it mean?... Claire, do you have any apps that set a timer… other than the clock?”

Claire shrugs, she looks at her phone, and scrolls through it, she then stops for a moment and puts away her phone, she glances back at Vin and shakes her head. Claire then turned towards her classmates and asked,

“The timer… does everyone in class have it?”

The classmate nods, “Yeah, everyone does, we’re worried that we might’ve been hacked or something,” they replied, sighing

Claire nods, she turns to Vin and whispers, “I think It’s an Artifact,”

“Are you sure?” Vin asked, whispering,

“It’s just a gut feeling, but I’m almost a hundred percent sure,” Claire whispers,

As the two were whispering, they heard the door open and saw their teacher arrive, Vin and Claire looked at each other before separating and heading to their assigned seats. The class then proceeded as normal, other than the test that no one studied for. At lunch break, Claire gestured for Vin to meet her at the rooftop of the school, Vin nods as he watched her leave the room. After a few minutes, Vin stood from his seat and exited the room, as he walked upstairs and reached the landing, a young woman, who seemed to be in a rush, bumped into him, causing her to fall on the ground.

Vin flinched from the bump, he looked down and saw the young woman, who had long white hair, and blue eyes. Vin reached out his hand in front of the young woman, with a concerned look on his face.

“Are you alright?” asked Vin

The young woman nods, she hesitantly grabs his hand as he helps her pull herself up.

“I…I’m sorry for b-bumping into you,” she said, her voice trembling

Vin smiles, “It’s fine… Oh, you’re Cheil, right?... the transfer student,”

The young woman nods, she looks at him as if she is waiting for him to say something

“I’m Vin by the way, it’s nice to meet you,” said Vin

Cheil nods again, she looks away trying to avoid eye contact with him, feeling flustered, embarrassed, and anxious, she could hear her heart beating faster and faster, as if she had run a marathon.

The two of them stood in silence, the awkward atmosphere was tense, Vin then broke the silence

“I’ll be going now…let’s talk again sometime,” said Vin as he walked away smiling

Cheil watches as Vin goes upstairs until he is out of sight. She stands alone in silence once again.

“Brother… he has one…” she said to herself, as she leans by the railings of the stairs.

She then shakes her head and says, “I don’t think so…why would you ask?” After a short silence, Cheil snickered, “You what? …I didn’t think yo-...” She stops mid-sentence, looks around, and shakes he head once again, “I’m not sure… I guess we’ll have to see…” She smiles to herself, as she goes down the stairs.

As he reached the last few steps, Vin was able to reach the rooftop of the school, he breathed heavily as he opened the door, leading to the rooftop, he looked around and saw Claire by the railings of the rooftop, watching the horizon, her short black hair glowing under the sunlight, Claire then gazed at Vin, she waved at him and gestured for him to come closer. Vin walked closer to her, squinting his eyes as the sunlight hit his eyes, his skin glistening from sweat. He looks at Claire, who has a serious expression on her face, he sighs as he stops beside her, leaning on the railings.

“What’s the matter?” He asked

“Just got a call from Ark, she said that there’s also a timer on their phones… or at least that’s what she’s told,” Claire answered, letting out an audible sigh

“So it looks like this timer is on everyone’s phone… no wonder the people in the cafe looked panicked,” he replied, “So… is this the power of an Artifact?”

Claire nods, she takes out her phone and looks at the timer, “Seems like it,”

“... wait… Ark called us… does that mean that she can still use her phone?” Vin asked

“Yeah, the same goes for me… I think everyone can… where’s your phone by the way?” she asked

“I left it at home when I went out to the convenience store last time… it was also around the time you saved me,” answered Vin

As the two of them continued to chat, a young man approached them, without them noticing,

“Um… excuse me,” said the young man

They both turned their heads towards the man, who had short white hair and blue eyes, similar to a certain someone.

“Oh… aren’t you Cheil’s brother? …um… Darius right?” asked Vin

The young man nods and smiles, “Are you two Curators by any chance?” he asked

Claire glared at Darius, she reached into her pocket, clenching the ring that was inside her pocket.

Vin tilts his head, seemingly confused, “Curators?” Vin slightly giggles, “I don’t think so… we haven’t even been to any museums for a long time,”

Darius grins, his eyes seemingly glowing under the shadow of his bangs, “I see… my bad, I thought I could share some info for you guys, you know… something about the timer, but it looks like I was wrong,” he turns around and walks away as he waves goodbye.

Vin glanced at Claire, who was still on guard, and back at Darius who was walking away, Vin hesitated, looked at Claire, and nudged at her, “What do you think?” he asked

Claire glanced at Vin and shrugged not knowing what to say.

Vin sighs, he looks at Darius and shouts, “Wait!”

Darius stops and turns around, after a short pause, he walks back to them, with a sneer on his face, “What is it?”

“It’s about the info, can you tell it to us?” asked Vin

Darius shrugs, “I don’t know… since you two are just normal people and not curators, I can’t possibly involve you in this,” he replies with a concerned tone laced with mockery

Vin sighs, “Alright, fine… we’re curators, now can you tell us?”

Darius shakes his head, “Sorry, no can do, unless one of you proves yourselves, I can’t tell you,”

Claire’s fists clenched once again, she was ready to fight him at any given moment, however, she didn’t want Vin to get in trouble, so she waited and listened to their conversation.

“Why don’t we just show you our Artifacts?” asked Vin

Claire nudges at Vin and shakes her head, disagreeing with his proposal,

Darius laughs, “Instead of just showing your Artifact, why don’t you do something else?”

Vin tilts his head, confused about his options, “Alright… but what do I do?”

Darius takes out a bronze coin from his pocket and throws it over the railings of the rooftop, he then glances at Vin and back at the coin smirking as he does so. Vin watches as the coin travels a parabolic path as it goes farther away, he then feels a strong breeze of wind, and the surroundings become quiet for a second, with only the sound of his heartbeat, his eyes widen, as he feels the floor from under him disappear. He looks back at Darius and Claire, and everything seems normal, and yet when he looks at the coin that feeling returns yet somehow the coin feels close, as if it was at arm's reach. The next thing he knew, he was falling, the building that he was just standing on, felt so far away, its distance was too far from just a simple jump.