“Hikaru. We need to get to each one of these crime scenes and figure out who or where this...faker..is.”

Saying this, Yuri climbed onto Hikaru's shoulders and kicked at his sides.

“We have no time to spare! Every minute is one where the crime scene gets tampered with! For now, we will not be the legendary thief and her body guard. Instead we are a master detective and the assistant! Let's go find this copy cat!”

She didn't want to feel confused or feel this strange feeling any more. Especially since Hikaru was here cheering her on. She would catch this pigeon, no matter who he was.

“Alright! Hold on tight”

He could tell she was forcing herself, and that she was still slightly shaken. But the way she tried so hard to cover up her insecurities in order to not appear weak in front of him was something he thought was...strangely appealing.

Hikaru zoomed across the city toward the first crime scene, where they had been at earlier. He headed for the library, expertly jumping from lantern post to lantern post, in order to avoid the crowding mass of festival goers.

They arrived at the small building that led inside the rocks. The library where Yuri was chased by an old woman.

“Hikaru go distract whoever is inside while I look around”

Hikaru went inside, and soon thereafter she could hear the voice of an old woman laughing, along with some guards.

“My..he sure is a charmer. At least for elderly women”

Smirking slightly, Yuri made her way inside without being detected. Everyone was busy having an animated discussion with Hikaru about their children, who also seemed to weigh in something about his own kid.

“He has kids...?”

She slowed down slightly to listen in.

“Indeed! They are always so mischievous. But it is always worth it just to see them smile.”

He said while the others agreed with him.

“I guess he's just talking generally..? Not that I care of course.”

Shaking her head, she continued deeper inside the library.

The stone cave this space was built in was soon replaced with rows upon rows of stone shelves, all containing books, although a lot of them were stone tablets.

“Does everything have to be a god damn rock around here...”

Walking further in, she eventually reached the end of the library.

A lone empty shelf stood there. The only thing that was still on the shelf was a small word written on its side.

It was the sparkling golden word that read “Yuri”.

Her grip tightened slightly.

“It was true...but who would even know this..it can't be a coincidence..”

The golden word was observed very closely, and she could tell that it was written in a single stroke, like some form of calligraphy.

“Just like mine huh...”

She felt that uncomfortable feeling return, but shaking her head, she dismissed it.

“Don't have time to feel..have to think..think..”

She kept looking at the small graffiti.

“There has to be some kind of clue...if only I had a blue light..or..a finger print duster!”

Running around the library, she eventually found the old woman's bedroom.

She immediately found what she was looking for. A small box with a mirror. Inside it, lay various brushes, lipsticks and most importantly powders.

She took all of it and ran back to the graffiti.

Carefully, she sprinkled the powder around the graffiti and on it, hoping to find something.

She found something much more important than fingerprints.

It was a word.

She quickly dusted off the excess powder, leaving only the powder that formed the word.

The word was, 'Meet'.

“Yuri..meet..?”

She blinked.

“Wait..could this be..a challenge..? It is, isn't it. It's a challenge to the great Yuri.”

Standing up as straight as she could. She glanced at the golden graffiti.

“Fine then. I might not know how the bastard figured out the mark I used to leave after a successful robbery. But...you're on.”

Although she knew she still felt that uncomfortable feeling in the back of her head. Right now, all she could feel was bloodlust. A challenge from another thief. It's been way too long since she last had that, even when she still had her old body.

They say there is no honour among thieves. There is however, quite a lot of dishonour, and she was sure it wouldn't be her that was dishonoured.

Confidently walking out the library, she called Hikaru while walking past him. Not even bothering to hide that she was inside the library.

“Hikaru, we're leaving.”

“Hey, girl, were you inside there? That's not allowed you know!”

One of the bare chested guards spoke out and tried to apprehend her.

“It's alright, she's with me.”

Hikaru smiled at the guard while standing between him and the Yuri who was slowly walking away with resolute steps.

“Oh..alright then. Since you're a friend now, I'll let her off with a warning”

“Much appreciated, new friend.”

He patted the guard on the shoulder and walked out after Yuri.

“You seem to have found out something”

He commented.

“Yeah. I need to find the rest of the challenge, to know what it is. I bet the other crime scenes have the remaining words. Hikaru. We have some detective work to be done!”

Looking at him, she tipped an imaginary hat.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Ah..I see..?”

He did the same in confusion.

“Let's go Hikarutson. We have a crime scene to investigate.”

–

They were now at the central plaza where they had first arrived when they entered the city.

Instead of the cheerful sight of kids playing in the soft drizzle of the turtle fountain, was now the scene of surrounding onlookers while the still shirtless guards were stopping them from getting close to the scene of the crime.

It seemed that most of the onlookers however were more interested in the guards themselves than the scene behind them. The small hole where the fountain once stood now spewed water out randomly, and the guards were fairly drenched as a result.

Not that the surrounding women seemed to mind.

Yuri looked at this strange event of women trying to push themselves against the glistening chests of the guards while pretending to be wanting to get through.

Her face was extremely blank.

“Let's just go.”

Turning around, she wanted to leave this strange sight as fast as possible.

“Weren't we going to get to the bottom of this?”

Hikaru said, making Yuri reluctantly turn around.

“Ugh...fine..but how the hell are we going to distract all these guards and women..I doubt anything could distract the women...”

She sighed with blank eyes.

“Hm....If they are so focused on the guards..I just have to make them focus on me, No?”

He smiled slightly.

“Never thought I would have a use for this for this move...guess my sister was useful for once.”

“Hm? Your sister taught you a move...?”

Yuri looked at him curiously.

“It's more of a...distraction move. She would always try to teach me weird moves to mess with me when we were younger.”

His face filled with a complicated expression which Yuri didn't want to try deciphering.

“Then...how long do you think you can distract them for?”

“The women, probably indefinitely, the guards, most likely a few minutes.”

“I see...well go do that. I will be ready to sneak past everyone.”

She had a bad feeling about this distraction plan, but she had to get this clue gathering over with as fast as possible.

She got into a position where she wouldn't be seen as easily and waited for Hikaru to start.

Walking a bit away, Hikaru stood in a small corner of the plaza and unsheathed his sword.

“Ooohh..is he going to do something dangerous..!”

Yuri looked on in anticipation.

Instead of cutting anything or anyone with it, he just...began to swing it. He kept slowly swinging it as if testing it out.

“What is he doing...”

The only one looking at him was Yuri. Everyone else didn't think much of his actions and ignored him.

He kept swinging slowly. Slowly. Each strike was always the same slow speed.

But something was different with each strike. The speed was the same, but the strength behind each swing slowly increased.

Until it seemed the air was being pushed back around him. He wasn't creating any wind currents, his swings were too slow. But she felt it, each swing pushed away the air, the atmosphere around him. Each swing probably had enough strength to cut through any steel and push away anyone near him.

The first to notice this strange phenomenon were the guards. Their trained bodies could instantly feel the pressure coming from his swings.

Their eyes were glued on him, observing him with caution.

His swings continued to grow in strength. Eventually the ground him began to push away from him with each swing, like a large mass was pushed against it with every swing.

Even Hikaru's body was pushed away slightly. Yet he kept standing, he kept swinging. His clothes slowly ripped from the pressure.

His armoured clothing that could block most blades, slowly crumbled away with each swing. He was left with only his tattered pants and his bare chest.

He kept swinging. By now the guards were talking amongst themselves, looking at Hikaru with wide admiring eyes.

Soon enough the women noticed the guards change of interest, and looked toward where they were looking.

What they saw was a muscular yet lean man who slowly swung his blade, and with each swing the world around him shook away from him.

Their eyes also filled with admiration, but it was a different kind of admiration. They couldn't look away from the muscles of this random man, whose arms kept swinging his heavy sword with the same speed, each one growing stronger. His muscles were all tense, they bulged slightly, the veins showing.

At this point the women were not paying any attention to the guards. Their eyes were glued to the sight of the mysterious handsome man, whose strength surpassed reason, whose muscles cried for rest but still kept going despite everything. The air around him twisted and shifted, like it was unworthy of being breathed by him.

Yuri found herself unable to look away.

She slowly swallowed her saliva.

The man she was normally with. He was strong, he was the strongest. She knew that. Yet never had she felt this sort of...elegance.

She had never until now, understood the strength of the man who risked his life for her on a daily basis.

He was powerful, so powerful that the world was unworthy of him.

His very being was elegant. The way his muscles moved and were shaped. The way his abdomen moved with each swing. The eyes that saw nothing but the next swing ahead of them.

It wasn't just her feeling those complicated emotions that she had felt before when she had seen him shirtless.

Of course those feelings were still there, and they made her feel just like any of the other admiring girls in the crowd. So much so that she just wanted to join them and talk about him with them. Those were of course the base desires that Yuri tried to ignore.

There were also other feelings there. The feeling that the man standing there, surrounded by admirers, who was always at her side. She felt like she..like the world around him, wasn't worthy.

She sighed and shook her head.

There would be time for these thoughts at another time. Right now she had to do her mission. She placed her inner monologue in a department inside her head for another time and rushed forward toward where the fountain was.

She saw it. The golden words written on the ground, spelling her name.

But this time different. She couldn't dust for the message, the scene was filled with flowing water.

She had little time, she needed to think fast before people noticed her and butted in, potentially destroying her clue.

She frantically looked around.

“It's not finger prints..too much water..he had to have done it with water in mind..placed a message with water..water..water..”

She looked at the scene all around her. A lot of the ground was wet with the droplets of water scattered around randomly.

“Random...no..there is a pattern..it's not random..!”

She tried looking at the pattern in the ground, but it made no sense.

“It's too damn big of a pattern..how would I.”

She glanced at the hole where the fountain was. From the hole came a strong torrent of water that was filling the sky with droplets of shining water.

She jumped on it, with her feet landing perfectly on the hole.

The pressure from the water pushed her up, high up in the sky.

Then she saw it, the pattern formed a word. A second word.

“Bell?”

She read the word while descending slowly down the torrent of water.

“Damn it...I guess I need the third word to make sense of this..fine..so be it, I will play without any shortcuts!”

“Hikaru! We're leaving!”

She yelled at him, snapping him out of his daze of swings.

He walked over to her while massaging his shoulders.

“Did you find it? The clue?”

“Yes I did..so please put something on..”

She looked away from his near naked state, blushing slightly.

“Ah, sorry sorry. I guess I got too into it”

The water landing on his body evaporated slightly, before finally cooling him down.

Several of the surrounding women let out strange noises when he got drenched.

One of the guards came up and gave him some spare clothes.

“Boy, put these on, the women in this city don't mess around when they lose control, so better be safe than sorry, aye?”

Hikaru gratefully thanked the kind guard and put on the clothes.

“So where are we going now Yuri..?”

“The church..”

She glanced at him to make sure he still wasn't half naked.

“Alright, let's go then!”

Lifting her up, he sprinted toward the church.

“H-hey you don't have to carry me!”

Yuri complained.

“Awh...he already has a partner..? What a shame..”

“Yeah yeah. Someone like him totally needs someone with the right proportions, right?”

“Yeah totally. To go with his body, someone with a nice body like me would fit him!”

The women commented when he lifted Yuri up, making her greatly annoyed for some reason.

“Oh sorry, should I put you down, I just figured it would be faster?”

Hikaru asked.

“No...It's fine. Just walk slowly.”

She told him while being carried away. Glancing at the other women she made sure to snort at them in mock superiority, purely to annoy them.

The women boiled with rage, and the guards got even more work to settle down the crowd.

(I didn't do that because I was jealous. I just wanted those pretentious dogs to know their place...hmph..)

She thought to herself while looking at the growling women in satisfaction.