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“Go left—No, wait, right,” Dori mumbled from the back seat. His voice barely reached my ears with his current volume, why did he need to make it harder on me? Augh, driving already reminded me of my days spent wary of any approaching footsteps I heard from out of sight. The person arriving could bring good or ill into your life, and you’d have no way to prepare yourself.

So I believed, trying to inject a possible optimistic outcome into each mess I stumbled into, but the way my body went rigid and prepped itself for the worst each time said all it needed to about how I knew only misfortune would dare grace my miserable life.

…Only theoretically, of course. I’d neither confirm nor deny that was a reoccurring thought. We end up going straight down the road instead due to me not paying attention. I sighed and turned the vehicle to the curb before I pulled out my phone.

I searched the directions as quickly as I could and a hologram popped up near the car dashboard to guide me. Dori stuck his head around my seat, because of course he took the one behind me. My skin crawled from the brush of his eyes on me—having a stranger so close only made it increasingly uncomfortable to exist. Not that I could say no regardless…

“Sorry,” he said. “I can drive if you want.”

“I’d prefer to manage my own vehicle. Not to say I don’t trust your driving skills, but…”

“Mh…nah, I get it. Just not very good with, uh…left and right stuff.”

“But—there’s only two directions?”

“And a fifty-fifty chance to get it right,” Dori said and sighed. “Sorry, I’m just joking around, uh, trying to lighten the mood. Besides, we don’t have to hurry...”

“I don’t know,” I said. I turned around a corner into a smaller street that would hopefully lead us back to the main road after a few more turns. This area stayed entirely residential, with lines of tall apartment buildings looming over our heads on both sides. Peppered in between them were convenience stores, fast food places, and laundry stops. Billboards hovered in the air from projectors installed to street lights, blasting my peripheral vision with as many ads as possible. Not only that, but the sky was covered in a dizzying array of light streaks from departing and arriving spacecrafts from other planets. The world, drowned in visuals and noise, ended up utterly inescapable.

Honestly, I didn’t know how people could live in cities. It made me miss my old home. In hindsight, it wasn’t smart to get attached to a box I could only afford with meager savings and familial assistance, but it truly felt like a shelter from the madness of life. A light in the shadows, a star twinkling desperately to prove it existed to someone even if it took millions upon billions of years!

It also had a rat problem. But they were very neighborly!

As soon as I made the turn back onto the main road, we were stuck in traffic. I didn’t even realize how hard I’d been concentrating until Dori’s voice reached my ears again, like I took off a heavy pair of headphones only to be greeted with the shame of ignoring a parent’s call.

“…So this one,” he said, legs crossed as he reached down and pulled out a thin-looking revolver, “is apparently a model developed on, uh…the hot lava volcano planet—right, Boneli, during the earlier years of its bubble colonies when they had trouble with lack of law enforcement. It’s all speed, enough to scare off common thieves who couldn’t throw up a shield in time. Also her name is Beth, so be nice. She’s been bullied for being too average and now she has to go to therapy. Poor thing…”

“That’s interesting,” I said, and he smiled in a way where I could tell he knew I didn’t listen, but at least he hardly looked angry about it. Maybe. Even still, my heart stung with guilt like a needle pierced the most sensitive folds of beating flesh no matter what I did.

As it turned out, he held more than one gun on his person. Dori pulled out and started telling me about the five handguns he carried on him at all times while I drove, much like a young pup trying to get the attention of its owner while said owner operated a fork lift. I couldn’t say I understood his fascination, since weapons were an ordinary thing to carry. With how dangerous the world could be, it would be folly to assume the best of others.

When I said this, he stared at me as if I’d grown another head. “Oh, is this like…an open carry planet?”

“A what?” I said.

He shook his head. “Nothing, just messing,” he said. “Think this is our stop?”

He pointed to a building at the corner, and I pulled into the parking lot in front. A few people in uniform milled around the entrance, and a MPF labeled car floated in park in the middle of the lot. Just in case, I decided to use one of the actual parking slots left over.

A wave of relief released my heart from the anxiety that squeezed it. Dori fell into being a ramble-er so easily, but maybe I’d get used to it with time! Yes, I’d see all his wonderful qualities, and…

He’d end up disappointed with me, in turn. That was how it was, no?

Once we were both out, one of the uniformed MPF members came over and took her helmet off, revealing two blonde pigtails and a pale-as-snow complexion. She reminded me of a model, despite her dangerous occupation of choice. Perhaps because she lacked the scars of her coworkers? “Hi! You’re Mr. Levansiaka and Mr. Laron, right? I’m Serena Danya. Erna told me you’d both be here to look over the scene? Ha, I think she kinda forgot we have forensics to do that, but I’m sure some civilian eyes could help with findin’ the stuff the experts overlook.”

“I wondered about that,” I said and ran a hand through my hair. “But, you really don’t need to be so formal. I’m grateful you don’t mind the inconvenience, with all the, er…hassle of our arrival.”

The other MPF members turned their heads in our direction, undoubtedly wondering the same thing. Both of us were still dressed as though we departed for a nice day out, which left me wondering if we’d get turned away at the door no matter who vouched for us. “Ah, do you have any gloves or some such? Anything we may use to avoid making a mess of the place?”

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“Eh, it’s fiiiine. Not my permits to sign—anyways, I got some disposable ones back in our van,” she said with an apologetic smile. “I’ll grab some. The place’s pretty much the same it’s been sans body, so it shouldn’t be too much trouble for you guys.”

“Still a murder scene,” Dori mumbled. He shoved his hands in his pockets, and the two of us quietly trailed behind Serena as we retrieved gloves from the MPF car. She even offered us helmets like hers to keep any blood from getting in our hair, but I didn’t want to stuff my head in something so cramped looking if I could avoid it. Dori passed, too, for his own reasons.

I almost felt like a surgeon as I opened the door to the apartment. It was located on the first floor, so we made it there after a short stroll. Even the other MPF members there had begun to lounge on some of the benches outside while making phone calls. It felt a little too lackadaisical given the subject matter, but I’d encountered this sight too many times from passing by crime scenes on the street. For them…and for us, too, this remained a job. A job where you fared best when you held no strong feelings towards it.

With billions of people across six planets to manage, it became all too easy to remember how quickly people would forget and move on from your death if they didn’t know you (and sometimes even if they did).

Well.

Everyone except Erna? She acted nice about it. Good for her, caring about others…oh, now that sounded far too insincere.

The apartment took up the space of what used to be enough room for a bedroom. Almost every living space compressed itself these days, to save on building costs. No matter what people would buy it regardless of whether it felt roomy or not. To the left, a kitchenette sat across from a small door that likely led to a bathroom. A few pieces of furniture decorated the area, with a small bookshelf pushed too close to the door, a sleeping bag in the corner near a small TV, a desk against the wall, and a dirty carpet floor to match it all. A small table inched near the kitchen, though the stove gleamed from cleanliness—other than a burnt kettle. Nearby, a stack of empty TV dinners occupied the rest of the counter space.

That, and a dizzying array of corkboards and post-it notes scattered on the walls faced us as soon as we entered. Pins remained on the boards, but whatever they held appeared long gone.

Serena popped up behind me while Dori leaned on the door frame. Based off of how the room lacked any signs of struggle, my only guess was…

The bathroom…

I looked over. An electronic lock appeared hastily stuck onto the door.

“That’s where the body was,” Serena said. She walked over and fiddled with the lock before she pulled a card out of her pocket. “Still pretty bloody.”

“Huh,” Dori said from behind me. Serena swiped her card against the lock and cursed when it beeped angrily at her.

“Did there…used to be something there?” I pointed at one of the corkboards. “Like a whisper in an empty forest, or a— no, forests aren’t really empty, unless all life has been devastated? Like by a device designed by some villain to destroy all life no matter their origin or purpose, to rob the world of—“

“Where’d the evidence go,” Dori said, and I quickly clamped my mouth shut before I could humiliate myself further. Stupid Ale, stupid stupid!

Serena looked over and smiled, though I winced at the pity written all over her face. She must had thought I’d…ughhhh, I didn’t even want to think about it. “He kept a bunch of cave-diving photos hung up, so we took them just in case, eh, there was some kinda hobby in common with the killer? It’s a loose connection, but you never know.”

“Cool,” Dori said in a quiet mutter. He kept his hands in his pocket and focused on giving the room a once-over, the easiest way to start a search. I went over to poke around at the sticky notes once he turned his focus over to watching Serena try and fail at opening the bathroom door’s lock.

“Make-up of crystilare?” I said, reading off one of the notes. I was about twenty percent sure I mispronounced that. My apologies, complicated magical study terms. I never held any skill with grasping your complexities, but something about ‘crystilare’ left me with the assumption this had something to do with light. The -lare suffix indicated that…? No, not at all! The ‘crystil-’ was the true indicator.

Odd crystal formations were often overlooked growths of solidified light, or so I’d heard. “Components of soul magic…cross magical techniques between the two…”

Underneath each note someone scribbled out several related bullet-points, none of which made sense to me. Behind me, Serena kicked the door a few times while Dori pulled one of his pistols out to shoot—something, surely.

I made my way to the desk, finding a name within seconds by searching some of the drawers and digging out tax documents. With so little space, it only made sense they’d have personal papers close at hand. Shame Erna couldn’t provide an identity beforehand. I also found a pendant with a white gem next to some diagram scribblings of more crystals. I pocketed it, and a well of shame sprouted in my chest—oh, I knew I’d get into trouble for touching evidence, what was I thinking? Grabbing it so casually? I should had gotten an actual officer to make note of its location, but of course an idiot like—

“….Hey, weird question. Got any spare bullets?” Dori said, suddenly next to me. I screeched.

He put his hands up. “Sorry…Is that not part of the normal Lestaria violence pool, or…”

It took me a few moments to regain my bearings as my heart hammered away. My hand stuck to my pocket, grip locked around the evidence I STOLE on a WHIM!!

“I…no. I don’t have pockets.”

Dori looked down at my pockets, mouth pressed into a line. “K. I think I have something left in the car. Be back.”

As it turned out, Dori used said bullets as a solution to the malfunctioning lock. After he shot at it far too many times to count, where there was once a lock on a door, now, there was neither lock nor door.

Someone from above us slammed their floor in pure rage at all the noise we made.

“I’M GOING DOWN THERE AND CUTTING YOUR FUCKING HEADS OFF! DON’T FUCK WITH ME!”

I noted down a reminder to never return to this building ever again.

“Th, that’s a lot of blood,” I said, biting on my tongue after that horrendous stutter. The toilet, sink, and even bathtub were bathed in blood as a glowing outline of a body indicated the location of our former resident’s demise. The outline’s projector was mounted on the other side of the room, luckily, so it bore no damage from the blast.

“I’m so bad at my job,” Serena said, head in hands.

“I apologize, but, I don’t think we needed to worry about seeing this. I mean…”

I ran my thumb over the white gem still stuffed in my pocket, and it felt as though it radiated warm in response. “I don’t know if I’m right, I’m probably not, but…I think we have all we need right here.”

I took it out, and before either of them could react, I put it on. My face grew hot, and as if reacting to something, globs of pure light energy began to float in midair and circled around me. Panicked jolted through my heart before I realized this had to do with the pendant, and not with…

Something far harder to explain.

I held out a hand and called out to the energy from deep within my soul—the first step to performing magic. One of the orbs floated closer and formed into the shape of a diamond, one of pure light.

“Is this…like, a kiddie magic kit,” Dori said, unaffected by the sight. Serena, though, shuddered and glanced around before she stepped back.

When she saw no one else, she took a deep breath and pointed at me. “No. That’s a magical weapon. Dude, take it off before someone sees you!”

“Sorry! I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have done this, I’m so—I mean, it worked, or well, we could’ve figured it out another way, piecing together the—“

“Just take it off already!”

Dori began to slowly hold up his gun. “Do I have permission to shoot the magic jewel thing once you’re done.”

Serena and I stared at him. “No!!”

“God damn, was just asking…”