This happened back then. The first time I met him.

"Pluto?" I said as he told me his name. "That's your name? Like a dog?"

"No!" he said, clearly offended. "Like the planet!"

That's how it began. That's how I met my best friend.

***

We arrived at Luna's house, and Atlas was already waiting there.

Luna immediately began telling her brother everything we had discussed earlier, while I couldn't stop thinking about my encounter with Pluto.

I'm sure that guy was Pluto. But...he should have moved somewhere far away. Does that mean he was back? Why?

"I see," Atlas nodded in response to his sister's explanation. "Good job, you two. Now let me handle the rest. Hm? Something wrong, Geo?" he asked, noticing I'm distracted. Luna also looked at me expectantly.

"It's nothing," I replied. "Can I go home now?"

The next day.

I found myself sitting on my sofa opposite a bearded policeman. It was unusual to have Atlas inside my house, so I asked him, "So why have you come here?"

"It's Sunday, and I'm certain that Luna hasn't told you about how the case from before ended up," he explained. "I've come here to give you a quick rundown about it."

Okay," I said. "And?"

"As you predicted," Atlas said, "the maid tried to steal again last night. But this time, we caught her red-handed. After that, everything ended up smoothly."

"I see," I said. "Is that all? I mean, it's good if the case was solved smoothly, but I doubt you came just for that."

Atlas chuckled. "Aren't you smart? Yes, I had something else to talk about."

"So what is it?" I asked.

"First, I want to apologize," he said. "Without your permission, I ended up trying to look up information about you, your powers, and people like you."

I stared at him. Actually, I'm not that surprised. After all, I'm sure it's not an everyday occurrence to meet someone with a special ability like me. And I'm not surprised he's trying to look up information about me either.

"Still," I said, "you should have asked me first."

"I know," he said. "That's why I apologized."

"Apologizing doesn't make it better," I said.

He sighed. "I know... What do you want me to do then?"

"Forget it," I said, not really wanting to make a big deal out of it. "So what do you want to tell me? The reason you wanted to talk was because you found something, right?"

Atlas looked at me with a serious expression. "It was possible that I found two other people that can use power like you," he said.

"Two?" I said, feeling uncomfortable. "That's a lot."

Considering I never knew someone else had this kind of power, that's quite surprising. So this power... It's not as rare as I thought?

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"Okay," I continued, "so have you talked to them?"

"No," he said. "And I never will."

"What?" I said.

"They both already passed away around ten years ago," Atlas replied.

I felt my throat go dry. "They're... already dead?" I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

Atlas nodded grimly. "They were both killed by the same person."

Cold sweat dripped down my cheeks.

"I think you can probably guess already," Atlas continued. "They were both killed because they had the same ability as you."

I slumped back in my seat, stunned. I hadn't expected such devastating news when Atlas said he wanted to talk. What was happening?

"But don't worry too much," Atlas said, noticing my uneasiness. "The killer has already been captured and imprisoned. What I'm trying to say is, please be more careful. Your ability is useful, but some people might see it as a threat."

"I know," I said.

This news had to come up just when Pluto was back. I can't help but think it's not a coincidence. It might be a sign that I'm in danger, especially now that Pluto hates me.

I paused, considering the implications. Though, will he go as far as to kill me? I'm not sure. Last time all he did was greet me, but who knows what will happen the next time we meet.

My mind raced with possibilities, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread settling in.

***

A few days later, Luna and I were walking down the school corridor when something on the message board caught her attention.

"There's so much stuff posted here," Luna said, scanning the board.

There's information about the test schedule, a clipping from the basketball team who made it to the semi-finals, some random short stories, and a few posters.

Luna pointed excitedly at one of the posters.

"Look at this, Geo!" she exclaimed.

I followed her finger to a poster with a silhouette of a man wearing a Sherlock hat and magnifying glass.

"I had no idea we had a detective club in this school," Luna said, her smile growing wider. "The poster says they're looking for new members."

"This school gives students the freedom to create whatever club they want," I explained. "As long as they have a minimum of three members. A lot of random clubs like this appear every year."

"I see!" Luna said. "That's sound fun!"

"I'm not really interested, though," I admitted. "Joining a club sounds like a pain. I prefer to just go home and waste my time playing games or something."

As I turned to leave, Luna grabbed onto my clothes.

"Geo, let's check it out!" she exclaimed, her eyes twinkling with excitement.

"Don't you hear me?" I said. "I'm not interested."

"But I am!" Luna said, still holding onto my clothes.

"Then go by yourself," I said, trying to free myself from her grip.

"No way!" Luna protested. "Going alone is scary!"

"Why is it scary?" I asked. "It's just a club activity. Don't say something stupid."

"Come on, Geo," Luna pleaded, holding onto my clothes even tighter. "Please, I beg you."

"No," I insisted.

"Geo...please," Luna continued.

"No," I repeated. "And stop calling my name."

"Geo, Geo, Geo, Geo, Geo, Geo," Luna continued to say.

"Stop it," I said. "You're being annoying."

"I won't stop until you agree, Geo," Luna declared. "Hey Geo. Hey Geo. Geo. Geo."

This girl was incredibly stubborn, I couldn't believe it.

Eventually, I gave in and went with her to the detective club room at the end of the corridor. Inside, there was a fairly spacious room with a bookshelf filled with mystery and detective books on the wall.

Three people were already inside, apart from Luna and me. There was a chubby guy with short hair who was silently eating and listening to music in the corner, a girl with purple hair who was reading an Agatha Christie book, and a blonde guy with an annoying grin.

"Welcome to the detective club," the blonde guy said. "So, you two want to join?"

"Yes--" Luna started to say.

"No," I interrupted her.

Luna glared at me.

"What?" I said. "I only agreed to accompany you here. I'm not becoming a member."

The blonde guy laughed and said, "It's fine, we can talk about that later. Because we're not going to accept random members either. There's a minimum requirement for acceptance. You must have at least some deductive ability."

I stared at him, not liking his attitude.

The blonde guy smiled and continued, "So, whether you guys want to join or not, it doesn't matter yet. First, you need to pass my test, and then we can talk more. Don't worry, though, this won't be hard."

"A test?" Luna said.

"That's right," the blonde guy said. "It's simple. I will give you a case, and your job is to solve it."

Luna tilted her head. "Huh? Well, this is a detective club, so I guess that makes sense," she said.

I sighed.

No, this doesn't make sense. They're the ones looking for new members, so why do we have to pass their test?

Luna seemed to be hooked, and I now doubted that she was willing to leave just like that. It seemed that she really likes detective stuff.

"Okay," Luna said, looking excited. "So, what kind of case do you have?"

"It's a murder case," the blonde guy said, looking just as excited as Luna, if not more. "A high school girl was found dead inside a classroom. From her wounds, the police predicted that she was killed by a sharp object. Unfortunately, the police failed to find the murder weapon. All they had was a dying message written in chalk by the victim."

The blonde guy pulled out a well-made illustration on a piece of paper. It showed a drawing of a pool of blood at the top of the paper, with the number [308] written in chalk below it, and a girl lying on the floor. Close to her hand was a piece of chalk.

I immediately noticed something peculiar about the message [308], three zero eight. But the "0" was kind of off. It was smaller than the other numbers and it stuck out at the top instead of at the bottom.

"So, the pool of blood was at the top?" I asked, just to make sure.

"That's right," the blonde guy said, as he pulled out three more illustrations.

"Her friend, Opal, resident of room 38," he said, showing us a sketch of a short-haired girl.

"Her neighbor, Boero, resident of room 80," he continued, displaying a sketch of a man with a mohawk.

"And her boyfriend, Abdel, resident of room 30." Finally, he showed us the last illustration - a man with messy black hair.

As I looked at them, I noticed that their room numbers had a close similarity to the dying message written in chalk by the victim. This kind of coincidence was unlikely to happen in a real case, so I assumed that this case was not based on a real incident.

Perhaps the blonde guy had created it himself? But if that was the case...

"The three of them had motives," he said. "None of them had an alibi, so one of them must be the culprit. Your job is to figure out who did it."

Luna nodded eagerly, "I get it," she said.

I looked at her, wondering if she really got it.

"That's great," the blonde guy said. "But let me say this: I hope you don't just pick one randomly. Even if your choice is right, if you don't have a solid reason why you picked it, I won't consider it solved. That would be luck, not deduction."

"Of course," I said.

"And one last thing," he added. "I'd like to give you two as much time as possible, but we don't have that kind of time, do we? So let's see..." He checked his phone. "We have around fifteen minutes until break time is over. I hope you can solve it before the bell rings. Good luck."

***