I looked through the list Mr. Jarvis gave me, mentally calculating how much I would need to spend on it. Thankfully, there was only a bag and some writing utensils on the list, so I already had most of the stuff. Sure, I would have to clean out my bag, but at least I wouldn’t have to go buy a new one.

Speaking of things I need to do, several more points of interest came to mind. For one, if I wanted to attend the art gala I would need to get a high-end dress so as not to stand out in ‘low class’ clothes- ah, but galas usually had a theme, right? Guess getting clothing together would have to wait till I was officially invited and told the theme. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be something too obnoxious.

I also need to get to making some better tools- or maybe buying some of the low-tech ones. Unfortunately, that would also have to be thrown on the back burner like so much else. I needed a metal three-dimensional printer to make a lot of the stuff I wanted, and I simply didn’t have the Rayn to afford one.

Once again, money was the problem. So much for being a thief. What kind of thief had issues with money? Right… a bad one. But I wasn’t bad! Just- just taking my time to, um, establish myself and set up a stash somewhere.

A sigh left me as I stood from my bed and approached the window of my apartment. I stared out of it, appreciating the view. The cold uncaring facade of the city lay out before me in all its wretched splendor. Rain wreathed the city, as it almost always did, each drop alit in small sparkling blazes of neon.

I lost myself, thoughts adrift, and just stared for long moments. My brain worked and twisted, bringing forth a constant array of ideas and potential plans for the future.

My phone rang, drawing me away as my brain settled down back to its normal pace. I took a deep breath and hit answer. “Sir.”

“Shquire… how goesh the infiltration?” Inquisitor Ligh Strumgard asked.

I relaxed my body against the window pane, embracing the sticky cold flowing through it. “Nova.“

“Good, good… lets not talk over the phone though. Meet me in my office.” I half expected him to say more, but nope! He just hung right up without another word.

I sighed as I tossed my phone onto the windowsill. My head lightly tapped against the window as I felt the cool radiate through my forehead. it calmed the raging emotions inside me, allowing me a moment of peace. A moment that ended just as briefly as I headed for my closet.

——

I picked at the Blue Crusade trench coat as I walked up the street, feeling uncomfortable under all the Crusade insignias. It wasn’t- well, it wasn’t me. If anything, it was the opposite of Shiro the thief. Shiro the thief who’s barely stolen anything as of late…

That would change soon though, hopefully. That art gala seemed to be quite promising. If not, I had a few other avenues I could go down to find something worth stealing. Oh, and I still needed to find a place for my stash…

At the very least, I wasn’t the only one in Blue Crusade attire, so I didn’t stand out. As I headed towards the entrance of the Little Yukoto Blue Crusade HQ, I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of nostalgia.

It had been a while since I last walked through here, and as I entered and walked through the halls it felt entirely different. Instead of the dread and despair that settled deep in me like the last time, I felt a strange sort of reluctant acceptance of the whole situation.

It took a bit to remember where exactly his office sat thanks to my memories still being somewhat hazy of that time, but eventually, I managed to find the right door. I adjusted my hat, tucking my annoying hair even further into its recesses, and built up the courage to knock on the cracked door.

“Come in!” A familiar voice called through the thick synth wood.

I eased the door open, half expecting an eldritch monstrosity to claw its way towards me like from what I could remember of the last time. Nothing of the sort happened, though it might’ve been preferable as I stepped into Inquisitor Ligh’s office.

The familiar scene evoked hints of flight instincts all throughout me as a memory of stretching shadows replayed through my mind. I dug my nails into my palm to escape from such memories, sucking in a cold breath of air as I looked around the office.

I think it remained much the same, the biggest difference being the two chairs in front of the Inquisitor’s filthy desk. One of them was occupied by a raven-haired woman. Silver armor covered parts of her trench coat, showing just how accomplished she was.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Thick shoulder pads, a sturdy chest plate, and well-sculpted gauntlets and greaves protected her. The only thing missing was the mask, but that would only come once she was finally promoted from Squire to Inquisitor.

Her left arm sat in a black sling, not cutting away from her intimidating figure of near Inquisitorialness in the slightest. Her face was rather pale, and as I stared at her, her eyes met mine. They were cold, dead things. Little life sat in them. The nearly black eyes reminded me of a dead fish floating in its own filth.

The woman was maybe nineteen, and yet she looked as drained as a ninety-year-old. Her pale skin looked as if it would slop right off her muscles as she lightly nodded to me. Not from lack of definition, but from pure tiredness.

”Ah, Shquire Zuku! We were just talking about you.” Inquisitor Ligh leaned back in his chair. “Take a seat.”

I followed his order and unwillingly sat down. As I moved, I got another glimpse of the woman’s eyes, finding them to be just as unwilling and dead as I felt.

A flash of silver drew my attention back to the Inquisitor as he waved a hand between the two of us. “Hope, thish is Zuku Ichima, my newesht shquire. Zuku, meet Hope.”

I held out a polite hand to the woman as I tried to put on a friendly smile. “Nice to meet you.”

Hope flopped a hand to my own, her handshake even more of a dead fish than her eyes. “Yeah yeah.” She sighed deeply. “I’m a combat specialist. Never lost a fight.”

Why would a combat specialist be under an Inquisitor? That didn’t make sense. Hope should’ve been a Squire of a Knight at least. And she never lost a fight? I call bull, yet I wouldn’t say it to her face lest I get beaten. “What happened there then?”

Inquisitor Ligh laughed. “Ah, so you have losht a fight, eh?”

Hope’s depressed eyes flashed around the office as she settled back into her chair as if accepting death. I didn’t think it was possible, but her eyes seemed to bleed out even more of her will to live. “I lost to gravity… It doesn’t count.”

”Shure it doesh!” The Inquisitor fished through his desk, retrieving a shiny silver flask and taking a drink below his mask. He must’ve seen me staring at him as he slowed down and sheepishly tipped the flask to the side. “It’sh uh- it’sh water, don’t worry…”

Water my foot! Still, there was no point arguing about drinking habits with someone who was technically my ‘superior’. “So, uh, you asked me to come in?”

Ligh nodded several times, his mask reflecting the light into my eyes annoyingly. ”Right! Hope here will be joining ush on thish case since you’re… indisposed. Between the three of us we should be able to rip and tear through evidence. Zuku here has successhfully infiltrated SPS earlier today. Zuku?”

“I’m uh- I’m posing as a student to get in and out. So far, everything seemed mostly normal for a school. I still don’t know what I’m looking for though…” I shrugged. Unless they wanted a minute-by-minute rundown of my day, that was a good enough explanation without giving too much away.

Hope sat up a bit in her chair. “We had a snitc- a witness report seeing someone with a SPS staff tag meet someone else we’ve been keeping an eye on…”

The Inquisitor took a long drag from his flask. “More or less, yeah that’sh about right.”

She flopped back once more, tiredly tossing her working arm around. “We lost who we were tracking, hence asking you for help…”

“Look through their files if you can. Check their phones or notesh or anything for a mention of ‘Oberon’ or ‘The Circle’.” The Inquisitor shrugged. “For now, do it by hand. I’ll try and get some of the nerd- I mean techiesh, to whip something up to help.”

“Chek chek.” I made a mental note to look further into the two keywords. Something about them felt weird to me as I threw them to the back of my mind, but I didn’t exactly have the time to think further about it.

Inquisitor Ligh Strumgard tilted his flask all the way up. His shoulders shifted around in pure disappointment as he sighed even more lifelessly than Hope. “I- uh- I’ll be back.” He stood and walked behind us out of the room.

Hope sagged back into her chair, her casted arm slumping down against her body. She sat like that for a moment before her dead fish eyes met mine. “You should probably quit.”

I nervously chuckled. “What? Why?” Was my cover blown already? Did she know?

The woman lightly shook her head. “I’ve talked with his other Squires. Working for the Inquisitor is a surefire way of-“ She went quiet as the door slammed open. Her voice died down to a mere mutter. “Well, you’ve been warned.”

Inquisitor Ligh stepped back into his office as he whistled an uppity tune from decades ago. He held a small plastic water bottle in his hands, the contents of which I highly doubted were water. “Ah, don’t mind me.”

That being said, the man tripped getting around his desk. His mask slammed face-first into the desk as he slumped down. The bottle slipped from his grasp as it neatly glided into his desk and a pen bounced up to replace it. In a mere second, he turned from a tripping drunk to a perfectly professional Inquisitor busy with paperwork.

At that exact moment, someone opened the door wider and leaned in. “Ah, good. Those documents you wanted came in, Ligh… mind if I ask what all of this is about?”

”You can ashk, Commander. You can askh.” The silver-clad man leaned back from his desk, setting down the pen as he coughed lightly. As he started to speak again, the faint slur in his words disappeared entirely. “You two are dismissed. I expect good results.”

Fuck, the Commander was here too? What kind of shit was this, and why was I caught on the pile of it? And why the hell could Inquisitor Ligh just blatantly ignore the highest-ranked official in this building with flippant disregard?

Still, the sooner I got out the better. Hope seemed to think similarly to me as she bolted before I could even stand up. I nodded to Ligh and headed for the door, brushing within inches of the Blue Crusade Commander.

Unlike every other higher-up of the Crusade, he wore entirely normal - though completely black - Crusade clothing. Not a hint of silver was anywhere on his body. The hood of his trench coat cast a long, unnatural shadow over the Commander’s face. Said shadow twisted and twirled as if a great monster hid in it.

I forced myself to look away, though the image of his figure stayed imprinted in my head as I passed by. Every hint of his features were entirely hidden as I felt his eyes track me through the warnings of Insight.

One step at a time, I walked out down the hall. As soon as I turned the corner, my control over myself collapsed as my limbs turned to shaking noodles.