I stood in front of the phone. My eyes were glued to it like a hawk trying to decide if it was time to strike at its prey, to act and kick a boulder off of a steep hill, letting it make whoever was at the bottom go splat. In any other situation, calling the police would be an absolute no-brainer. My place got broken into! But the person at the bottom of that metaphorical hill was me.

I tried to shoot the burglar with a gun that I didn’t have a proper license to own. But the emotional damage that man had dealt to me by breaking into my home? I wanted retribution, reassurance, some kind of authority to swoop in here and tell me everything was going to be alright. Someone to-

Ring.

I quickly picked up the phone and held it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hey Chuck, it’s Shovon!” came an excited, yet staticky voice from the other end. “Do you want to head to the gym now?”

“I-” I was tempted to just agree and put all of this out of my head, but I looked over to the absolute mess that the burglar left. All of the scattered furniture, cushions, and sheets of paper. I let out a sigh. “I can’t. My place got broken into just now and I have to clean up the mess that they made.”

“What?!”

The shout was so loud even through the phone, that I had to pull the receiver away from me.

“Holy shit dude, that’s horrible! You need someone by your side, I’ll come over right now. Where do you live?”

“I mean, it wasn’t the Fatewatcher and nothing valuable was taken, you don’t have to do that,” I slowly replied. “But there was still something kind of supernatural about that guy.”

“Fuck that, you just went through something traumatic, what kind of friend would I be if I wasn’t there for you?”

I stood silent for a moment in contemplation. Despite the mess reducing how little space there already was, the apartment felt like it had entirely lost its cozy feeling. “Yeah, come on over. I live in Karling Apartments, building A…”

“Alright, got it. I’m on my way, you just hang tight there, everything will be alright.”

“Thanks.”

A moment of silence hung in the air before Shovon hummed and hung up. I slowly put the receiver back as my legs numbly shuffled over to the only sofa that hadn’t been upturned, the two-seater loveseat. I was able to rest on it for about a minute before a quick series of knocking echoed out from the front door.

“Is he here already?” I mumbled to myself as I pushed myself back to my feet and headed over. “That was way too fast, was he parked outside the apartment complex or something? God, I hope he isn’t secretly a stalker or something.”

I pulled open the door to find myself face-to-face with my boss. Well, my first boss and the owner of the apartment complex, Hiroi. The elderly Japanese man regarded me with what I could only assume was a worried expression, though it was hard to tell behind the long, white hair that covered his eyes.

“Mike, I heard gunshots! Are you alright? Safe, unharmed?” he asked, out of breath.

“Y-yeah, I’m unharmed. But my place, not so much. There was a break in. They didn’t steal anything, especially what I think they might have been looking for, but they ran through the side window and left a mess.”

“That’s terrible!” he exclaimed, but the worry in his posture began to fade. “Though it’s a relief you’re unharmed. I thought it might have been the mob. Today is collection day, and I haven’t seen their man all day long, so I thought he decided to take a shot at you for how you stood up to him last week. But seeing as it isn’t the mob, I’ll go ahead and call the police.”

“Hold on, it’s better if you don't. I’ve got a name and description of the burglar so there’s no need for them to investigate, and… I’d rather the police not come to my place. At least not for a while.”

Hiroi looked at me strangely, and I could feel a piercing gaze bore into me from behind his hair. Eventually, he nodded. “If you ask me, they’re not trustworthy enough to resolve anything beyond marital disputes. Especially with them not doing anything about the mob. But the other residents probably heard the gunshots and likely called, so they still might send someone over, albeit on a low priority check up.”

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I exhaled a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Thanks, Hiroi.”

“No problem, call me if I can help! My star employee should be able to call in his boss for something like this.”

As my boss made his exit, Shovon walked past him and into my apartment.

“Holy shit, dude!” he exclaimed as he looked over the mess that the burglar had left. “What happened, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m alright,” I said weakly as I closed the front door and led him inside. “So yeah, there was a break-in. They didn’t grab anything, but they made a pretty big mess. Gonna clean it up now.”

“This isn’t right, man. How fucking dare he?! Did you call the police yet?”

“Can’t.”

“Why not? They could at least try to see where he left, maybe someone got the guy’s license plate?”

“There’s a gun here that doesn’t have a license.”

“Great, then! That’s evidence they can use to track him down!”

I stopped and looked towards Shovon, but I couldn’t meet his eyes.

“Wait, that’s your gun, isn’t it?” He finally noticed the box of ammo I’d put to the side.

I slowly nodded, gaze focused on the floor.

“Why do you have a gun?”

“The Fatewatcher,” I said in a low mumble-whisper. “I was going to use it on him if he tried to kill me again.”

“But did you- Chuck, did you-”

“I did. I…” something cracked. All of the emotion I’d been holding onto suddenly poured out of me, out of my eyes and nose, and through my voice. “You were right, I’m a murderer, Shovon! I tried to kill that man! I shot at him!”

He moved too quickly to even realize what was happening until it was too late. With a single swift motion, Shovon closed the distance between us, wrapped his arms around my back, and… pulled me into a tight hug.

“You’re not a murderer, Chuck. Everything will be alright.”

I didn’t respond, I only let out a long sob.

He held me there for half a minute as I let out a torrent of tears into his shirt.

“I just wanted to live a normal life! I tried my best, I keep trying, but shit like this keeps happening! First the mob’s been trying to put my boss out of business, next the Fatewatcher showed up and keeps trying to kill me, and now the break in! That last one though, it hits so close to home. I’ve never felt this vulnerable before in my life.”

Shovon didn’t reply immediately, he only continued to hug me. When he finally did, he started with an unsteady chuckle. “Then it’s a good thing you missed.”

“I didn’t miss. Either time.”

Shovon’s head quickly faced down towards mine. “Then how come there’s no blood or body?”

“His armor absorbed the blow, like some kind of magical or futuristic material,” I mumbled through his chest.

“What?!”

“I only fired because he had some weird mental cloaking thing going on, where everything about him just tried to slip around my mind, like he couldn’t be remembered at all.”

“An antimeme?” asked Shovon in shock.

“They have those here too?”

“What was that?”

“Uh, nothing,” I said quickly.

“So you shot him because you thought he was related to the Fatewatcher?”

“Yup.”

“So then why are you beating yourself up over it?” asked Shovon, releasing me from the bear hug but still holding me in front of him by my shoulders. There was a massive smile plastered on his face. “Come on, let me help you clean up. We can call that our workout for today.”

The rest of the evening went by quickly, with the two of us moving through my apartment like a pair of well-oiled machines. Throughout it, Shovon kept giving me these looks. When I looked over to him, he’d always change it to a bright smile, but when I’d caught him otherwise, they looked hesitant. There was no hesitation about me, but it was as if he wanted to say something, and couldn’t bring himself to say it.

Eventually, night fell and we ordered delivery. After eating while watching some TV, we parted ways.

As I lay in bed that night with the supposedly bracelet in my hands, ready to fall into my dreams, I couldn’t help but wonder what Shovon wanted to tell me. Deep down beneath it all, I felt the tiniest spark of fear, one that reminded me of the kind of world I lived in. Knowing this world, I feared that what he had to say was probably something I didn’t want to hear. But it was Shovon. I trusted him.

And honestly, that was a kind of magic in and of itself.

The bracelet let off a faint glow for just a moment as I fell asleep.

[Skill Obtained! …

sKiLl oBTAIn…

[Warning: Magic already reserved for System use!]

[System recalibrating…]

[Skill Obtained! Magic (lv 1)]