I increased my speed to catch up to Lucille, but somehow she still hadn't noticed I wasn't there, and she was still talking about something. "Right, Alan?" She asked just as I caught up to her, "What was that?" I asked, as my mouth was still full from the same few meatballs I had stuffed my mouth with earlier, "Uhmmm... What was it?" She immediately forgot what she was talking about. "Want some?" I asked as I finally swallowed it after chewing for so long, "Uh, sure." I gave her three of them and kept the other two to myself: "Sho I waz shaying shomething wash fishy about the list of victchums, rightch?" I nodded, as now she was talking with her mouth full as she ate two of those at once. I was surprised, but she's not a picky eater, so that's good. We kept walking until I felt something was missing, something not small but really noticeable. I stopped and said, "There was a shop here, wasn't there?" I asked her, as the sweet shop the old man I met ran was nowhere to be found. She also stopped, finally swallowed her food, and replied. "Oh that? That store's been closed for like 3 years now. Haven't you heard?" I was baffled, as I literally ate a delicious dessert there a month ago. "What do you mean?" I asked curiously, "Well, that's what I heard, but apparently the owner got into trouble with some gang organization and got out of business, and that was wraps for the store. I heard they used to sell pretty weird snacks, though." "Interesting. I'm pretty sure the old man was real." I muttered to myself as we started moving again. "Old Man?" She asked, confused, "It's nothing." I replied that I would look crazy if I tried to explain it.

We kept walking until eventually we arrived at David's shop, meaning we had also arrived near the alley. The shop was open, but considering our situation, I didn't have time to greet my uncle there, so we walked past the shop and came In front of the entrance of the alley, the entrance was covered with tape stating, "Police Line, Do Not Cross." But we ignored it since we detectives have permission to enter such places; after all, we're technically police too. "Let's go." I said this before entering the place once more after my long slumber.

"Oh my god, this place reeks." Lucille said as she covered her mouth with the collar of his shirt. "Scorched by the flames, the corpses melted, thus becoming a part of the Earth again—such a horrid sight and smell." I muttered, looking all over the place. Unlike Lucille, I was able to filter out the air around me using Rukh, so the smells didn't bother me. "Here." By just touching her nose with my fingertip, I also filtered out the air for her. "Woah, that's amazing, bro!" She looked excited and amazed at such a simple trick that almost anyone who's even barely decent at Rukh control could do. "I won't mind teaching you how to do that, but after we succeed with the investigation, give it your best, alright?" She nodded excitingly; I could see the sparks in her eyes as she turned enthusiastic almost immediately. "Let's get to work, bro!" She said "That's the spirit!" I patted her head, as she still had the same expression but was even more enthusiastic now. We started searching all over the place, but barely anything was found, but we did not stop. "Hey, what's this?" Lucille asked, as she had found something. I got close to her and looked at her hand. "That's a lollipop packet." As odd as it sounds, you can find small packs filled with lollipops or candies of the sort: "Oh, I'll throw that away then." She said that as she prepared her hand to shoot the trash into the sky, I grabbed her hand. "Wait, that could still be a clue; reserve it." "Ehhh??? But how would that work? Okay, fine." She accepted it and put the packet under a plastic bag.

Any clue, even the tiniest, would suffice. We looked and looked, moving over the ashes and the rubble, until eventually I noticed something shining beneath the rubble. I quickly got down on one knee and blew away all the stones and damaged waste using a bit of my Rukh. "What's this?" I said as I grabbed the shining piece of iron that was residing between the rubble, "Hm?" Lucille turned curiously. I waved at her to come closer so I could show her. As soon as she arrived, she took the thing from my hand and said, "Let's see." She said as she looked at it with one of her eyes while holding it towards the sky, "I haven't seen anything like it, actually." She handed it back to me, and I put it in the palm of my hand. Well, it won't hurt to try." I said as I was thinking of pouring some Rukh into it to, I got ready to go along with my plan and started pouring some Rukh inside the thing as Lucille started looking for any clues, as soon as I poured a decent bit of Rukh into it, it suddenly started changing shape and got into a double sided sharp needle that looked like it could be used to kill someone immediately if needed, unfortunately enough, I found out it could do such a deed because it pierced through my hand by one side and my head almost by the other but luckily enough I braced myself and pulled my head back so no damage done to my head "Ugh!" I shouted regardless of trying not to make any noises and stopped pouring Rukh into the thing, and soon it started taking back its original shape.

"What's up, Alie?" She dashed towards me, got on one knee on my right side, and put her left hand on my shoulder. "It's nothing. And who're you calling, Alie?" I said as I gritted my teeth to handle the pain that I constantly felt from my left hand that I had hidden behind my back. "Oh, Alan is hard to say, so I just went with Alie." She replied to my question, "Like hell it is." I said, looking at her, and she started chuckling, "If you're fine, then I'll get back to it. Alieeeee." She said, obviously teasing me, as she walked away to search somewhere else. I slightly smiled, almost forgetting the incredible wound I got on my hand due to my curiosity. I let out a deep breath. "Won't hurt to try, my ass, This hurts like hell." I muttered to myself while healing myself slowly due to my lack of training in healing, but gladly Lucille didn't notice my wound. I didn't want her to know for some reason; I didn't know what it was, but I for some reason did desire to hide it from her, not sure if it was because I didn't want her to worry or something completely different. Some minutes passed by as I spaced out while healing my hand. "I searched everywhere; nothing catches the eye; it's all garbage and rubble!" Lucille shouted as she was walking towards me, completely making me regain focus. "I see. Let's go then." I said as I got up and took a look at the piece of iron that seemed normal but could turn very dangerous in the palm of my left hand, "I'll keep it for now; I'll try to solve the mystery behind this one day." I muttered to myself as I put it inside the pocket of my coat.

"What's taking you so long, Alie?" Lucille shouted from the entrance of the alley, "We just met, and she's already given me a nickname, one odd girl." I muttered to myself as I walked towards her. We finally rejoined and started walking left from there. We had been there for hours; I didn't keep track of time, but it felt that way, so it was only fair if I treated her and myself to a delicious dinner. I wanted to eat something good after my long slumber anyway, and I knew a spot that I would usually visit. They served amazing food, and I was well acquainted with the owner. We kept walking until Lucille posed a surprising question. "How's your hand?" With a serious expression on her face, that type of expression was unusual for her. "What do you mean?" I asked, acting dumb and trying to hide it. "I'm not as dumb as I look." She said it with everlasting seriousness painted all over her face. "Look, it's fine; nothing happened." I showed her both of my hands to ensure that there was nothing wrong; thankfully, the wound was healed. She leaned forward to take a closer look at them. Taking a closer look at her eyes, her pupils were changing form somehow, sort of similar to the lenses of a camera. Her unique eyes that had multiple circular shapes of yellow alongside brown ones were no mere normal eyes; she most certainly must be blessed by visual prowess. Strangely enough, I had my eyes locked into hers as I was fascinated. Her eyes were both beautiful and dangerous at the same time. That's what I felt.

"It seems like there really is no wound on your hands. Well, if something does happen, do not hide it from me, okay?" I heard her muffled voice say, What are you looking at? She was slowly lifting her head, and our eyes really locked this time. She completely shook it all off again. I was back to normal, and what I saw was Lucille, his face redder than a cherry, looking at me embarrassedly and saying, "Ohhhhh, shit!" I muttered to myself as low as I could, "I swear I was just sucked in by your eyes." My face got even redder due to my extremely wrong wording: "I meant I was fascinated by the way your eyes work, as I realized as I took a closer look." "Oh..." She said, still embarrassed, "I'm sorry if I creeped you out." I tried to comfort her while trying to fix my own blunder: "It's alright, and as for my eyes, it's a family secret, so I cannot share the information with you, not yet anyway." She was slowly going back to normal but was still blushing. "I see. Let's get going then; I'll try to make it up to you somehow." We started walking again. "N-No, it's alright, you really don't have to, unless it's krispy kreme donuts you're talking about." She grinned at me. "Ah, I see, then donut it is." Her grin turned into a smile as she looked down as we walked awkwardly for the first time since we met.

We had arrived near the restaurant after walking for a bit, and we started hearing loud noises from inside the restaurant, shouting, and things moving until suddenly a man was thrown out of the restaurant who hit his head on the fence as he came out flying. We felt the impact from as far as we were. "Ouch." I said, not comprehending what just happened, that we rushed towards him to take a look to see if he was still alive or not. We reached there, and the man had wavy brown hair with faint traces of beard, wearing round black glasses alongside a dark red bucket hat, and clothes that looked stylish regardless of being plain. I got on one knee and asked, "You okay?" I asked, pushing him with my finger, and he didn't answer; his eyes were still closed. "Sir. Are you okay?" The man opened his eyes so fast it was fascinating as soon as he heard Lucille's voice: "It seems he's fine; let's go." We were leaving, but he stopped us and said, "Wait! Hear this dying man's last wishes, at least strangers!" We looked back at him and sat beside him again. "Thanks." He said, pretending that he was drawing his last breaths. I looked at him disappointed, but he looked away from me immediately and was looking at Lucille. "Will you hear me out, Miss?" Lucille nodded with the utmost innocence and concern in her eyes that I've ever seen in anyone. I decided to step in if this guy tried anything funny. "You're an angel." The more he spoke, the more my suspicions grew. "I always wanted to die with a beautiful woman such as yourself by my side." Guy seemed to get worse every time he opened his mouth. "Say, would you marry me? It's my last wish before I die." He got straight to the point; surprisingly, he didn't waste time, which made me wonder if he was really pretending or not. "Hey you-" I tried to step in, but "No." Lucille utterly rejected him, without holding back, with the most serious face she had ever made, even more serious than earlier, but I suppose it was deserving that the man would get rejected as fast as he proposed. She got up and started walking towards the restaurant.

"Let's go, Alie." She said that as she turned her face over her shoulder, she didn't even look at him. "Ugh!" The man pretended to die, but as I knew he was pretending, I decided to ignore him and follow Lucille. We almost entered until "Any clue on the incident concerning the alley?" The man suddenly posed a question that had us completely shocked. I braced myself and got in front of Lucille: "Who are you?" I asked shriveling as his presence had completely changed; he was unreadable; he fixed his hat, and I could only see one of his eyes, the eye that was filled with mysteries that I couldn't comprehend easily. Having his right hand on as he sat properly now leaning against the iron fence, he said, "Well, That's to be answered at a fine dinner, wouldn't you say?"