Vin’s heart leaped out of his chest, as the realization hit him, everything was so sudden, that it took him a few seconds to notice, and now he’s falling with nothing to help him cushion the fall or stop it. As his body was rapidly descending, his ears perked up as he heard a noise, a sharp, ear-piercing ring, it was a short yet familiar noise, it was the noise that stuck to him like a part of him, ever since he first heard it. Vin felt his heartbeat gradually slowing down, he reached his hand out toward the building and looked at it through the gaps of his fingers. His hand then began to contort, a black-colored anomaly covered his hand it was almost as if it was eating him away. The black anomaly crawled up covering Vin’s body, the covered parts slowly began to chip away in a cubical manner, almost pixelated, and in the blink of an eye, Vin had disappeared.

A black figure steps onto the rooftop floor, Claire and Darius’s eyes widen in shock. The figure then looks at its arm and clenches it, the figure’s body then becomes riddled with cracks, its black color slowly chipping away, and separating from its body, revealing Vin underneath, his expression unreadable.

Claire lets out a small gasp of relief, she then glances at Darius and activates her Artifact, wrapping her in a steel-white, clawed gauntlet, she lunges at Darius, her eyes locked onto him, and as she gets closer her arm bolts towards his body. Claire froze for a moment, her arm still extended aiming for Darius, yet he disappeared, Claire looked behind her and saw him, walking towards Vin nonchalantly. She turned around and lunged at him once again, this time pouncing toward him, Darius turned around and grinned, he lifted his hand next to his face, his wrist inches away from his cheek, showing a thin stone bangle. He shook his arm slightly and pointed at Claire, he then disappeared from her sight for a brief moment, before returning, Darius’s expression seemed flustered, confused at what happened, he glanced at the bangle on his wrist and looked at Claire, he tried to run away but it was too late, Clarie’s fist connects at Darius’s stomach, causing him to vomit blood.

He dropped to his knees clenching his stomach, while Claire looked at him with an irritated gaze, she then looked at Vin, her eyes widening in shock, Vin’s eyes were covered in a pixelated grey anomaly, she quickly approached Vin, her Artifact deactivating and turning back into a ring, she then called out his name. Once, twice, thrice… no response, she then grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. She gritted her teeth, as Vin showed no response, nor resistance to her shaking his body, as if he was an empty shell. She then stopped for a moment when she felt a slight resistance from him, she took a step back and watched, as Vin slumped forward, curving his back, the gray anomaly blinked as it slowly disappeared.

“Vin! Are you fine now?” Claire asked,

Vin groaned as he rubbed his temple, “C-Claire?...” After saying her name, he pauses momentarily, looking around, “Where’s Darius?”

Claire points behind her, where the unconscious Darius is lying, with a small of blood dripping from his mouth.

Vin looks at Darius, his mouth agape, “Ah… what happened?”

“Hold on, let me do something first,” she replied

Claire then walks away and towards Darius, she grabs his wrist and drags him closer to Vin.

“Do you have anything to restrain him?” she asked,

Vin looks at Darius, he thinks for a moment and hesitantly nods, he then rests his hand on Darius’s shoulder and closes his eyes, faint black lines appear all over Darius’s body, then swiftly disappearing in the blink of an eye. Vin then opens his eyes and looks at Claire with a smile.

“That should hold him for some time,” said Vin

Claire looks at Vin, stunned, her mouth slightly open, she then sighs and says, “I… I have a lot of questions… I’m gonna start with, what happened when you fell?”

Vin shrugs, “I don’t know how to explain it properly, but… let’s just say that I glitched my way over here,” he answers with a slight grin

Claire nods, slightly impressed, “You’re doing a lot better than I thought you’d be,” she smiles as she pats his shoulder

Vin smiled back, and glanced at the unconscious man on the floor, before turning his attention back to Claire, “So…what are your plans?”

Claire shrugged, “I don’t know… he has some information we need, so we need to ask him about it…” she replied, Claire paused for a moment, before speaking again, “But his ability is really annoying… teleporting all over the place…” she sighs not knowing what to do

“Teleporting? … that’s not his ability…” said Vin

Claire looked at Vin with a puzzled expression, “What do you mean?” she asked

“You’re close, but teleportation wasn’t his ability… he can switch positions with other things… whether it’s an object or person… and it also looks like he can also switch the positions of two objects or people” explained Vin,

“Woah… how can you tell?” Claire asked, her mouth slightly agape,

“When I watched the two of you fight, he switched positions with you, helping him to dodge your attack… not to mention when I was thrown out of the rooftop… remember the coin he threw? …he used it to shift my position, placing me in the same spot as the coin,”

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Claire sighs, feeling somewhat irritated, as she remembers her fight, “He’s gonna be annoying when he wakes up,”

Vin smiles and shakes his head, “There’s no need for that, he won’t be able to use his Artifact as long as it’s under the influence of mine,”

Claire’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion and suspicion, “So… earlier when he used his Artifact… did you do something?”

Vin nods proudly, “Yeah, I canceled the ability of his Artifact so he won’t be able to shift places with you again…” he answered, followed by a sigh, “Sorry about not being able to help earlier, my body was frozen for a second, that’s why I wasn’t able to do anything until the last minute,”

Claire shakes her head and smiles, “It’s alright… I’m just glad you’re fine,”

Claire then looked away, facing the horizon, “Vin… you’re developing too fast, it’s terrifying,” her thoughts paused for a moment, and she glanced at Vin whose attention was on the unconscious Darius, “I just hope that everything will be alright, I don’t really like how fast you’re adjusting, It’s too soon for you to see the underworld, Vin…” she then shakes her head disregarding her thoughts.

Vin squats down as he looks at Darius, “Claire… looks like he’s awake,”

Claire looked down and saw Darius, slowly opening his eyes as he groaned.

“Ugh… my stomach… it hurts… what happened?” mumbled Darius as he grunted in pain

“Rise and shine Darius, time for you to tell us what you know about the timer,” said Vin in a domineering tone,

Darius did not reply, instead, he grunted as he tried to move his body, “What did you do to me?” asked Darius in a seemingly calm tone

Vin shrugs, “It’s nothing much, I just disabled some of your nerves all over your body so the only thing you can do is talk and move your eyes… oh and your Artifact as well, so you won’t try to escape from us,” he explained with a grin

Darius sighed feeling defeated, “Alright… I’ll tell you, so can you undo whatever you did to to me?” he asked

Claire shakes her head, “I don’t think so, especially after almost killing Vin… Don’t think you’re going to get just a slap on the wrist after what you did

As the two of them were talking to Darius, a young woman approached them from behind, fidgeting her fingers, she slowly walked towards them, her steps stuttering yet silent, she hesitantly tapped on Vin’s shoulder waiting for him to respond.

Vin turned around and saw Cheil standing, fidgeting her fingers, her wrist also had a stone bangle similar to her brother's, she looked at Vin with a flustered expression, as she avoided eye contact. Vin and Claire looked at her for a moment, Claire was surprised and suspicious by Cheil’s presence. Vin stood up and looked at her

“Are you here for your brother?” he asked

Cheil hesitantly nods, she then glances at Darius, who was looking at her with pleading eyes.

“Yes… I’ll… I’ll tell you about the information in his stead, s-so, please… let him go,” she pleads

Vin hesitates for a moment, he then looks at Claire, silently asking for affirmation, she nods, although hesitantly, Vin then taps on Darius’s shoulder, causing Darius to flinch, he then carefully stands up feeling his body once again, he opens and closes his hands, feeling every finger against his palms, he then breathed a sigh of relief, despite the pain he still feels on his stomach.

“Thank you, Vin,” said Cheil

Vin smiles and nods, “it’s fine, just keep your end of the bargain,”

“I will… so about the timer…” Cheil hesitates, for a moment before speaking again, “We believe that it was caused by a group of Curators…”

Claire and Vin glanced at each other, Claire then sighed, and said, “Yeah… we’ve already figured that out… at least the part where a Curator is involved, the only piece of information you gave us is that it’s a group” she said, with a disappointed tone, “Is there more?”

Cheil flinched, and looked away, “Y-yes there is, although not much,” she answered stuttering, “Their group is led by a person who goes by the name Pierrot… does that name sound familiar to you Miss Claire… o-or should I say, Guardian?”

Clarie’s eyebrows furrowed as she crossed her arms, “…Yes it does…” she replied, her voice laced with hostility, “But why are you telling me this? Wouldn’t it be much more profitable for the Cloud to sell this information?”

Cheil smiles her demeanor changing from timid to something different, as she looks Claire directly in the eyes, “You’re not wrong… but then again since Pierrot is the one leading the group… I was thinking that maybe you’d be interested, and also since you’re Guardian,” she paused as she looked at Claire’s body, “although weaker than expected, but I think that you’d be able to do something about it…anyway, just think of it as an investment,”

Vin looks at Claire with his mouth slightly agape from confusion, he then glances at Darius who seems to be focused on something else, he is on the railings of the roof, looking directly at a building from a distance. Vin then returns his attention to the two girls

Claire smirked seemingly amused by Cheil’s explanation, “But what if I don’t do anything about it?” she replied

Cheil shrugs, “We’re not really in the position to tell you what to do… however… it would be a shame if your poor little boyfriend got caught up in the mess… especially since we’re with a very infamous curator after all

Claire shakes her head and sighs, “He’s not my boyfriend… he’s just someone important to me, like a family… but since it’s Pierrot we’re talking about, it’ll be even more than just a disaster… fine, I’ll see what I can do,”

Cheil smiles, “Thank you, we’ll also try our best to help you,” she replied

Caire chuckles, “Now that’s interesting, it’s my first time hearing someone from Cloud tag along with someone,”

“We have to, or else we’ll lose business… unfortunately though, they can only dispatch me and Darius, trying to keep its integrity on being neutral,” Cheil explained, as she air quotes the word “being Neutral”

Claire nods and sighs, “Alright then, I guess the four of us will be working together,”

Cheil smiles “Yes, that’s right…we’ll do our best to gather more information, we’ll be saying goodbye for now,” she replied, walking away.

Vin watches as she walks away, he then looks at Darius who is still looking off at a distance, he then nudges him, “Hey… your sister already left,”

Darius looked at Vin before pulling away from the railings and jumping over them, Vin and Claire watched as Darius descended before completely disappearing, their faces unfazed, somewhat unimpressed.

Vin turns his attention to Claire, “Clarie… I think you owe me an explanation,”