He opened his eyes, and shut them back again.

The bright light was uncomfortable after being covered by a mask for so long.

Looking around, he found that he was resting on a bed, in what looked like an average inn room.

Surrounding his bed were hundreds, perhaps thousands of runes, etched on the ground.

He wasn't sure what their purpose was, but they looked impressive.

His last memory..it was of him being beaten by this young girl.

(Hah..beaten by a young girl..wonder what he would think of this..)

He slowly rubbed his head, and was very surprised.

There was no pain when moving his arm. In fact he could move it very easily, his entire body felt like none of the damage he had taken was ever inflicted.

The door to the room opened, and a raven haired man entered the room.

"You're awake."

He said while walking up to the bed.

He remembered this man, he was always with the young girl. Was he the one who healed him?

"Go back to sleep."

He was ordered, making him feel more confused than he already was at not being dead.

"I'm sure she wants to be first one to greet you when you wake up. So pretend. to. Sleep."

His sharp eyes spoke of how serious he was, and although still confused, Pi chose to pretend to be asleep.

"Yuri! Come here! I think he's waking up!"

He yelled out the door.

(Yuri!?)

Small footsteps increased in noise until a young slightly bandaged girl rushed into the room and threw herself onto him, hugging him and squeezing him despite her injuries.

He was taken aback by this sudden display of affection, but he needed to make sure.

"You...you are Yuri..right?"

He asked the girl.

"Of course I am. What, did you forget me, Helgi, really?"

She pouted at the man she called Helgi, before looking over herself.

"Well I guess you wouldn't recognise me the way I look right now.."

She smiled awkwardly.

"No..I just had to make sure..I don't care what you look like. I'm just glad you're safe."

He squeezed her with all his might in a big bear hug.

"Helgi...not...so...tight..."

She breathed out slowly, unable to inhale.

"Ah..sorry."

He let her go.

"But you really have changed huh..Didn't know you swung like that?"

He poked her cheek.

"Ehhh. I don't! It's just a lot happened, and somehow I ended up this way! You're lucky you still look the same!"

She commented with slight irritation, biting his finger.

"Ow!"

He pulled away his finger, and smiled.

"But I have to say, who ever gave you that plastic surgery is a genius, I mean you look totally cute, I probably would go for you if you weren't my best friend"

He joked, making her blush slightly before smacking the back of his head while he laughed.

Hikaru looked at the scene in front of him.

This was the first time he had seen Yuri so...comfortable.

A young girl that looked about the age of 14, with shoulder length hair and incredibly cute features. Her smile right now, it was a very different smile, the smile that someone had when they were with someone truly close to them.

The man laying on the bed had long blonde hair tied into a pony tail pointing sideways, he looked to be in his twenties, and he had the kind of face that most women would go for. His smile was natural, not just natural, it felt like that smile was the only thing that belonged on his face.

“I missed you Helgi..”

Yuri looked at him when had finally stopped laughing. Her eyes were warm, and her expression soft.

It made Helgi's heart jump slightly, before he shook his head.

“Hey hey, if you say it like, I might actually fall for you!” He joked again. “But yeah..” He paused.

“Me too..”

They both kept looking awkwardly at each other, unused to saying such words, their relationship was always a sort of tough love sort of thing. So actually saying something embarrassing like that.. They weren't sure what to do next.

Seeing this scene that made even him feel awkward, Hikaru stepped in.

“I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Hikaru, Yuri's body guard and partner.”

Both men shook hands.

“I'm Helgi, Yuri's friend and partner”

“Ah yeah!” Yuri remembered “Helgi, this is Hikaru, he has always helped me since I came to this world, and this is Helgi, my friend from my previous world, he would also help me out a lot. Actually..now that I think about it..how did you even get here..and why did you even attack me! I was about to kill you without knowing it was you, you idiot!”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She smacked Helgi's head again.

“Ow..It's a long story..”

He rubbed the back of his head.

“Well then start telling. We have all the time in the world”

She and Hikaru sat down on the ground and Yuri folded her arms expectantly.

“Alright. But in return, I want you to tell me your story”

“Deal.”

“Alright..Well. It started when you suddenly disappeared without telling me anything..”

He began.

“It wasn't by choice that I-”

She began before being interrupted.

“Shhh! My story, then you get to tell yours”

He began telling his story of how he ended up here.

–

After your disappearance, some time went by when I figured you went into hiding or were working on another heist, so I was completely unaware of it until I actually tried to contact you repeatedly.

“Hey, Yuri, it's me, you've been so cold recently~ Call me back when you can so we can go do something fun”

A phone call was turned off, the cheerful tone completely vanishing with it.

“I've left several messages and he still hasn't answered..did he get thrown in jail again..no there was no record of that when I looked through the prison registry..”

Something stunk, and it wasn't in the air, it was a feeling he felt. Yuri always called back even if he did sound very unenthusiastic about it. Complaining while dutifully calling back, that was the kind of friend Yuri was.

“I wonder what kind of trouble he's got into where he can't even contact me..”

Helgi put on his street clothes and wrapped a belt around his waist, which contained all his tools.

“Guess, I have to save you once again, geez what a hopeless criminal”

Helgi walked out and began his researching, asking around his contacts, who eventually pointed him to a robbery at the city's largest corporation, located in the tower reaching the highest point of the city.

“I see..The robber mysteriously vanished with something very valuable that they seem very distraught about..”

The information he acquired from bribing a few policemen was less than satisfactory. The corporation denied any information on the stolen item, choosing instead to continue the search for it through private means.

“What kind of item is it, must be really loaded if they chose to not reveal it..this really does reek of something that Yuri would be attracted to.”

The next step would be to head for the source of the crime itself. Which meant..

He had to infiltrate this corporation.

Automatic doors slide open, through them entered an incredibly stylishly dressed man. Wearing a suit that looked to be made of the finest brand.

Not to mention that his looks definitely added to his aura. His almost glittering blonde hair, tied back into an aristocrat like tail behind him.

His brilliant white smile that charmed the women around him.

If you would ask anyone about who they thought he was. Their answers would likely be Actor, some sort of celebrity or a rich business man's son.

“Excuse me, I have an appointment scheduled for Nine Thirty. My name is Hill Smith”

He gave the receptionist woman a smile that made her blush for no reason.

“A-ah um. There doesn't seem to be any appointments scheduled for that time..”

She quickly regained her composure. She was after all a professional working for the largest economical force of the city.

“Oh..is that so..such bad luck..I guess my associates forgot to schedule it..Ahhh..now I will be in a tough position..”

Sighing slightly, he looked down with such a down-fallen expression, which combined with his pretty face made the woman in front of him melt slightly.

“Ah- It's..It's okay! Someone here probably just forgot to write it in, probably me! Ahaha..I'm so clumsy..”

She laughed with a slight blush, her previous professionalism was gone, replaced with the attitude of a love struck girl.

“Ohhh! Is that so! Does that mean I still get to have the meeting? Thank god, I'm so relieved..”

He breathed out in relief. The slowly brightening expression on his face made the woman feel really happy for some reason.

“Ah, Yes! I'll just call in to make sure they let you inside, so just go ahead..!”

“Thank you, without your help I really would have been in quite a lot of trouble.”

He bowed down slightly and held her hand, bringing it closer and pecking it softly.

“I hope more people would be as kind as you”

He smiled at her before heading towards the elevator.

Leaving behind him an incredibly red faced woman, whose heart wouldn't stop beating fast for the rest of the day.

Finally arriving at the elevator and pressing the top floor, he groaned in annoyance.

(So annoying having to wear this damn suit. So itchy and hard to move in...but it sure was easy to get in, I'm lucky the receptionist was a woman. Hmph, Women are so shallow. They truly are the easiest to deal with.)

His obvious dislike of woman perhaps stemmed from his good looks, which had him always surrounded by members of the opposite sex that got attracted purely to his appearance.

Although this led to his complicated dissatisfaction with women, it also gave him plenty of experience, which always proved to be useful on the field.

The elevator dinged.

He had now arrived at the highest floor, the office of the corporation president.

“Hello, I have a meeting with the president”

He declared to the two suited guards standing at the elevator.

Putting a hand at his ear, one of them nodded in approval.

“We have confirmation. You may enter.”

He entered the presidents room with no trouble and was greeted with a fairly confused president behind the desk.

“Did I have a meeting with you?”

“Of course sir, I come from red power electrical corp. here to discuss possible business arrangements?”

He answered with a slightly confused look, as if asking whether he really forgot.

“Is that so..I'm sure I must have miss-scheduled it.”

“It is no problem, sir I am just grateful for this opportunity”

Helgi reached out to shake the presidents hand.

Shaking his hand, the president recoiled slightly, while glancing at his palm.

A single bead of red.

Helgi opened his hand and revealed a tiny sharp pin.

The President slowly fell into his large chair, not able to even yell for the guards or reach for his panic button.

“Now, now. Wouldn't want you to cause trouble. So just stay still there for a while, Mr. President~”

Helgi slowly walked over to his side and unlocked the computer at his desk.

“Password huh..Hey, what's the password?”

He glanced over at the man who could only blink angrily at him.

“Ah right. Ah. Fingerprint scanner. How convenient today's technology is.”

He scanned the presidents finger on the computer and successfully unlocked it.

“Let's see here. This must be the file. Investigation pending huh.”

He clicked through the folders, all of which were heavily encrypted and required more passwords. But since he was already in the computer, something like this was done in a matter of minutes.

“The stolen item is..a knife..? Why would your corporation even care about some old knife. To even hire this many investigators..”

All he received from his mute companion was a furious glare.

“Don't look at me like that, creepy. I'm just going to copy all of this over”

He swiftly copied all the files over to a portable disk and hide it beneath his suit.

“And while I'm still here. Might as well.”

Accessing the corporations main computer, he had access to several of their bank accounts. He sent over all of the contents of the more easily accessible ones to an offshore account and called it a day.

“That was a good bonus. Thank you for your patronage. I'm going to go now, alright? You will regain movement in a few hours. Just make sure you don't fall asleep, and concentrate on breathing in and out.”

He waved at the president whose eyes were so bloodshot they looked almost purely red.

He safely exited the building without anyone suspecting a thing. Although he was sure his face was seen and recorded, he wasn't worried, this face was already well known enough as it is, a bit more wouldn't hurt.

After all, he was a celebrity. So being well known is only a good thing. Infamously at least.

He would normally do his work in a more stylish manner. Leaving the victims wondering what had happened and whether or not what he did was possible.

That way he had earned his nickname, 'The magician'.

But right now. He was in no mood for impressive tricks. He needed to find out where his friend was, hopefully before he got into even more trouble.

And this supposed knife, was the key to it.