Xianye quietly and attentively listened as the woman explained the happenings with uneased tenses. 

"I... I lost, I lost my artifact. It was a Grade Seven Artifact!" She exclaimed and added, "It was a Self-Defense artifact I'd kept, but... last night it disappeared a- and there was... something else." 

'A Grade Seven self-defense artifact, that's around four million Aleds, they're quite well off. But... the artifact disappearing, huh. Criminal activity. I suppose this isn't a normal missing items case.' Xianye speculated and asked, "What was it?" 

The woman abruptly got up and walked up to the door to her left. 

"T- This door... I found something inside it, I- I think it'd help!" She opened the door, letting Xianye in.

It was a small room. The wooden floorboards were sturdy and did not creak as Xianye walked. Other than the small bed there was nothing else in the room, no desks, no cabinets. Nothing except a small window too, right behind the bed. 

The creaked frames of the window suggested that the thief might've escaped from it.

At the very left corner of the bed was a vivid crimson colored shoeprint and a cufflink, this seemed to further support his theory.

He silently made his way towards it and bent down to study the "evidence" as he classified in his mind. 

'This shoeprint... Hmm, my shoe size is twelve, this's definitely shorter, somewhere around seven, maybe six. And... it's a female... probably, judging from the curve towards left, and the gap, maybe a wedge heel.' He turned his eyes towards the cufflinks. Before picking it up, he reached into the pockets of his khaki trench coat and pulled out a single piece of nitrile glove and put it on his left hand. Picking it up he began examining it. 

'Hmm... ' As he narrowed his eyes he a number etched inside a hexagon shape. 'A six... I'll have to take this back to the HQ, maybe Raphael or Haori can figure something o- ' From the corner of his sight he saw something he had initially missed. 

'A strand of hair! Whoever it was, they left behind a great clue, a big blunder by them...' He scoffed inside and got up, adjusting his face he politely asked, "Can I ask where you were during this happened? And, what the artifact model?"

"I was at the neighbours! You can even check the hallway cameras if you want really. As for the artifact, it was a Micro-M9, a pistol, it was the one manufactured by Imugi." She reassured and informed. 

"Ma'am, I'll be taking this evidence into the HQ and will study it, I'll be able to find it there, or at least find a clue for it."

The woman quietly nodded as Xianye pulled out small paper sachets, a tweezer and a camera. He quickly put the strand of hair and the cufflink into two separate sachets and clicked a photo of the shoeprint of multiple different angles. 

Soon after, he reassured the woman once more and headed out.

---

Squad 8 Headquarters.

Ryo paced back and fourth repeatedly before laying back on his bed. His eyes seemed lifeless as he stared at the ceiling with immense boredom. 

He picked his phone and fiddled around with the home screen, after some time he got up again.

'Ugh... I want to do something.' He sauntered around for a while before coming a sudden stop. His eyes glimmered as he excitedly muttered to himself, 'Come to think of it, there's a library upstairs! There's probably something there that I can read!'

Clack! He moved out of his room, shut his door, and trudged upstairs. Then, moving to his right he stopped in front of the metal door and knocked on it. 

Knock! Knock! "I- It's me, Ryo." 

There was silence. 

He could faintly hear the chattering from Yoru's loud television the floor below. He waited for a while until a sudden whooshing sound came from the door as it opened.

Haori sat at the very center of the room, to her left was a pile of books and the walls around were shelves, each houses dozens of books, all different colors, titles, etc. 

She wore a pair of glasses and stared at Ryo with her emerald-green eyes with a hint of curiosity all while they also trembled faintly. "Why are you here?" 

"I was bored... So uhm, could I maybe read things here?" He hurriedly asked for permission.

Haori awkwardly smiled and exclaimed, "Sure!" As she waved her hand, gesturing at Ryo to pick any book he'd like.

Ryo carefully moved in and looked around the titles and covers. 

There were many genres present. From military to romance to fantasy, one could probably find anything there. From unknown authors to the most well-known ones.

He looked around with narrow eyes. 'Is that the new volume of Red Rise...?!' He moved towards the opposite shelve and stopped, 'Crimes Punished and James Holmes are there too!'

He was like a man who'd just discovered fire. 

Pacing here and there, unable to decide what he should read. 

Seeing this Haori giggled in her head before asking, "Do you read often, Ryo?" 

The sudden question surprised him, he froze like a statue made out of marble. "No. I don't really read. Well, I would like to... But, Mori doesn't read, so I didn't either. Since there were really no books at home." 

"I see, well, you can cho- " A vibrating sound began echoing inside, cutting Haori off. 

Whir! Whir! Whir! Haori smiled at Ryo and turned to pick up her phone. 

"Hello?" The caller seemed to have something important to tell her, maybe an order as she straightened her back and attentively listened while occasionally nodding.

Finally she said, "Understood, I'll be there." 

She jolted up and removed her glasses, keeping it on top of the piled books she said hurriedly as she left, "Well, you can pick any book you'd like and read. I'll be going now. It seems Xianye seems to need my help." 

'A... lost items case. Why'd they do this basic stuff...? They could just get a Division Squad to do it, or maybe get a few people from an Standard Army. It's a missing cases, even the standard army people might be able to do it...?' 

Ryo'd overheard the conversation that Haori had with Xianye. 

He decided to feign ignorance. His excitement slowly began dying down as he began feeling slightly more decisive. 

'Maybe... this...' He sighed and walked up to the bookshelf directly in front of the door and reached out to the fourth shelf. 

'James Holmes...' He quietly turned through the pages. 'Written by... Arthur C.D.' He turned and sat where Haori did, quietly reading through.