2.3 - Breakfast Buddies

The Old Canal Diner was an old-school, retro-esque dine-in place featuring memorabilia from the past two centuries.

One wall had glass cubes all stacked on top of each other, showcasing handheld game consoles, plastic model kits of mechanical robots, action figures of iconic characters, and other vintage items and props. Portraits of classic movies and photographs of late celebrities hung on another side. And on the wall behind the lunch counter were numerous comic book and manga covers, mixed together with printed advertisements for obsolete appliances, and, perhaps the rarest articles of them all, an expansive collage of printed newspapers from a bygone era.

Wherever you looked inside Old Canal, your eyes would be drawn to items you'd never see anywhere else in the tech-ridden forest of Ave Strata.

I wondered if this retro atmosphere discouraged young people from deeming it an ideal hangout spot. That, or it probably had to do with the diner being far out of the way from any busy streets and shopping areas.

No doubt, I was grateful for this.

“Hello,” I greeted the young waitress.

“Oh, hello—Aah!” she gasped, nearly dropping the stack of menus in her hands.

Normal reaction. I would have been worried if she didn’t get spooked seeing me.

She had pale skin and wore a green maid outfit with black accents and white frills. On her head was a white, frilly headdress. Her shiny black Mary Janes had thick platform pumps that made her almost as tall as me, and they were secured with black ankle buckles.

The waitress's viridian eyes tried to avoid my gaze as she spoke. “U-Um, w-w-what can I do f-for you, s-sir?”

“Table for two, please. My friend will be here soon. I just want to get a table for us now, if that’s fine.”

The waitress scrambled to separate two menus from the stack as I spoke. She moved out from behind the counter and nervously waved for me to follow her—all while keeping a safe distance.

She placed the menus down on our table and straightened them properly. “H-Here you are, sir, uh…E-Enjoy your meal..!”

I took a seat on one side of the booth. But as the hostess turned to walk away, I decided to indulge in her nervousness. Or was it her anxiety?

“Ahem! Excuse me!” I called out to her.

She spun back immediately. “Um, y-yes?”

Her hands shook a bit.

I folded my arms and tried to put on a stiff tone. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I’d like to drink?” I hoped I sounded intimidating. Was that even a good tone? Maybe meaner?

“O-O-Oh, sorry, s-sir. Um…W-What will you have?”

I turned to see my reflection in the window as I grinned stupidly, before turning back to her with a pleasant expression. “A water is fine. Thanks!”

Without a word, she nodded three times and speed-walked away to the beverage station.

I took a menu and glanced outside. My eyes jumped to the different faces walking past—all of them unaware that I, Vector, the “most infamous Abnormal of all,” was watching them from here.

Maybe this kind of thing was all right—to be able to see people’s faces without any of them being afraid, shocked, or cautious. All because I was behind something, all because my face was covered. Almost like…

A mask—

“Jacen Jacinto!” Elaina slid into her side of the booth, her expression indignant.

“Hey,” I nodded to her as I let the menu in my hands drop. “Glad you could make it.”

Her eyebrow twitched. “I’m glad to be here! How dare you leave me at the house to walk here all by myself! What if I got nabbed by the Sentries? Huh?”

I rolled my eyes. “But you didn’t. Plus, Sentries don't go online until 8 AM. And most officers wouldn't even think about patrolling this area."

Elaina shook her head. “That’s not the point, you moron! Don’t you have any class?”

I sighed. “Never really needed it. What matters is I got here on time...unlike you, Miss Heavy Sleeper. Talk about being a mage. Did you stay up all night reading your Spellbook?”

Elaina’s mouth quivered. “H-Hey, you! Shhh!”

I glanced around. There was only the cook behind the order window, our waitress at the beverage station, and just two other patrons on the other side of the diner.

No one paid us any mind, and I kind of liked that.

I grinned as I turned back to Elaina. “See? No one here cares.”

“I care,” she said. “We shouldn’t talk about our powers so casually, Jace.”

I shrugged. “This place seems safe to me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Nice booth, by the way. I like this view.”

“Right? The waitress was kind enough to pick a good spot that’s also away from the other customers. At least we’ve got this side of the place to ourselves.”

Elaina smirked. “Kind of romantic, don't you think?”

This girl. What’s her problem? “Wrong. I very obviously manipulated that waitress's feelings to give us a booth where we’d be out of the way—which, by every social estimation, means you and I are indeed not normal.”

Elaina sighed and opened her menu. “You just had to say the quiet part out loud, huh? So, what's her name?"

"Who's?"

She met my eyes. "The waitress didn't tell you her name?"

"Oh, I uh...kind of...um..."

Elaina's shoulders dropped. "I can see it on your face. Did you try to scare her, man?"

I kept silent.

"You actual idiot," Elaina grinned. "If I could touch you, I'd slap your face for being stupid!"

"I mean, you could," I joked. "It won't be my fault if you lose a limb, though."

The waitress returned. "H-H-Here's your water, s-sir. And, oh! H-Hello, ma'am! W-Would you like s-something to drink?"

"I'll have a water, too, please," Elaina said.

"Y-Yes, ma'am. I-I'll get that for you...!"

She continued. "Also, may I have—"

"What's your name, by the way, miss?" I interrupted Elaina.

"H-Huh? Oh, uh, I'm S-Samantha...s-sir."

"Samantha," I repeated. "Nice to meet you. Sorry if I startled you earlier, Sami. I didn't mean to."

Samantha raised her eyebrows and blinked a few times.

At first, I expected her to say something back to me like an insult for "truly living up to my notorious name" or whatever, but instead—

"T-That's all right, Vector, um...Ah, sorry, is that OK i-if I say your...?"

"Yeah," I nodded, surprised. "That's all right."

"Sami!" Elaina said. "Nice to meet you, too! I'm Elaina. You can call me 'Ela.' Oh, and don't call this guy 'Vector,' his name's Jacen. So, just call him 'Jace'! Or, maybe just call him 'Dog.'"

"Hey!" I complained at my friend. "Don't tell her what to call me!"

But Samantha chuckled. "G-Good to meet you, as well, E-Ela. Oh! I-I'll be right back with your water!"

"Thank you!" Elaina turned back to me. "See? Doesn't it feel nice to be nice to people you don't know?"

"Only until they start demanding things of you," I reasoned. "Or until they start going along with how everyone else feels about you. Take Lieutenant Vali, for instance."

"Lieutenant who?"

"Vali. He's the dumbass I mentioned at the hospital who runs the Spec Ops of the Police Force. He's been on my case since I met him years ago. He's supposed to help me sort things out with a bunch of attempted murders against me, but he's never really cared."

"That's awful," Elaina frowned. "He sounds like a pain to deal with. And wait, how many people have...tried to kill you?"

"Eleven," I answered. "Ah, that's, of course, counting the bomb from last week. Though, the Spec Ops records only have six in their official records. The other five were deemed as 'Unnecessary.'"

"Right, right..." Elaina lowered her eyes. "Jace, do you think...you'll be able to even find the perp this time?"

I stirred the ice cubes in my glass with my straw. "I'm fairly confident this time, yeah."

"May I ask why?"

"Because I've got you."

Elaina squinted. "I appreciate that. But look, so...say we find the person who did this—who sent you the bomb. What'll you do when you meet them?"

Samantha came back with Elaina's water and we gave her our meal orders. When Samantha walked away, I answered my friend.

"I don't know yet. But, for one thing, I'd ask them why were they trying to kill me." I met her eyes. "And why were they trying to frame you for it. Speaking of which...you said before at the hospital that you knew the bomb was...definitely a bomb because of...?"

"My Tracing Magic."

"Right, and so that lets you...?"

"More or less see where something's been. Truth is, I've been using my courier job as a way to practice my Tracing Magic. Only works on whatever I'm touching, though. So, I only saw a dark room when I held the package—er, the bomb. I didn't really know it was a bomb, until after I left it at your doorstep. Figured it out when I heard its timer tick louder and louder. That's when I..."

"That's when you ran to warn me."

"Yeah. I knew I had to do something, but...I was being reckless that day, too."

"I understand now. Thank you for this."

"Of course. I'm glad I could clear things up, really."

I sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking about my next course of action.

If what Elaina said was true, then of course she wouldn't be able to identify an exact location of where the bomb was sent from. Because she was touching the package, the box, not the bomb itself. And if I'm to believe her Tracing Magic was accurate in its location-tracking ability, then...

The bomb...

At the site of the explosion...

Debris...Pieces...

Fragments...!

"I got it!" I blurted out.

"Hm?" Elaina leaned back on her booth cushion. "Got what?"

"I need you, Ela!"

She blinked twice, and her face reddened a bit. "Uh...? Wanna...take me to dinner first? I-I mean, we just met, so I'm not really experienced in this kind of thing. A-And we don't even know each other's schedules and—"

"What...?"

"What?"

"Dinner...? OH—ugh! No, no, no, um—well, sure. Fine, we can grab dinner another time. Whatever."

"Whatever?!"

"Look, I need your help."

"More questions?"

"Your Tracing Magic. If you can recall where something's been with your Tracing Magic, could it work if you held a piece of the bomb?"

Elaina caught on to my idea. "Hmm...Theoretically, yes, all things considered. Since it was part of a whole, then, I don't see how it couldn't work."

"Wouldn't hurt to try, right?"

She smiled. "Right! Then, what’re we waiting for? We can stop by your old apartment after this!”

I raised a hand. “Hold it. They’ve probably lined off the whole apartment complex after the incident. We should give it until next Monday. That's when the news channels change their featured stories to something else. The less eyeballs on my old place, the better.”

Elaina nodded as she took a sip of her water. "Sounds good. I'll use the weekend to read up on some more Spells. And...were you...serious about taking me to dinner—?"

"Not anymore."

"Huh?! Hey, come on!"

Sami arrived with our plates. "H-Here are your meals...! Um, e-enjoy!"

Elaina and I replied at the same time.

"Ah, thanks a lot," I nodded.

"Thanks, Sami!" Elaina cheered.