Curiosity and Intrigue

Grimace had just woken up, his day was incredibly typical so far. The judge had a simple breakfast under the moonlight porch of his house.

“Glad to see you awake, Grimace,” a robotic voice appeared at his table. PASCAL had created a small form to greet him in the morning.

“Morning, PASCAL,” Grimace responded. He had a fresh brew of coffee, a little bit sweet, mostly because he didn’t like the bitter taste too much.

“You have some tasks today. I hope you’re prepared,” PASCAL responded, walking on the table.

“Send the report,” Grimace said. He only recently got PASCAL wired into his house, a service that his boss, Rebecca, had offered him. It was far more convenient than having to go into work just to receive a report on where he would be going next.

From the convenience of the breakfast table, PASCAL summoned a screen in front of him. It brought up an alleyway, situated next to a building. It was a building he would recognize as a classified government building. This building was slightly more modern compared to the usual castles that made up the government.

“You have your typical tasks, such as observing Rumia and Adelyn. You also need to check the integrity of the walls. However, there is an important criminal case that is within your domain. The murder of Evaine Onsen, one of the government’s scientists.”

“Killing a government employee?” Grimace responded. “Who thought they could get away with that?”

“Regardless, that will be all outside of your regular duties,” PASCAL said. “Once you are done, I will drive you to the location.”

“Thank you, PASCAL. Let me finish,” Grimace said. Waving off PASCAL, who eventually disappeared. It was just another typical day in Oscur for Grimace. Perhaps the two girls he was put in charge of could bring some excitement to the mundanity.

***

PASCAL drove the car down the streets of Oscur, with Grimace inside. He was currently deep in his own thoughts. Crime wasn’t particularly rampant within the city, even during the lockdown. He played a big part in that, with those who committed crime likely not wanting to face him at all.

The population of Oscur was well-educated. Technological advancements happened constantly ever since he was born. As such, there wasn’t much desperation abound either.

So why would a murder happen now? He supposed that it was only a matter of time until something happened. But things have still been relatively peaceful even during the lockdown of the capital. Perhaps it was just a case of being trapped within these walls for too long.

The car screeched to a stop by the damp alleyway. Various guards could be seen blocking off the area. Reporters were surrounding the scene. They were hounding for the biggest news to happen in the city since the lockdown began.

Well, after the obvious one.

“Grimace! Do you think the murder had to do with the beam of light in the city?”

“Grimace! What became of the girl that was reported at that incident?”

“Grimace-!”

His name was being shouted out constantly. But, he was taught to never answer these. He walked by without a single word, past the guards and into the dark alleyway.

The alley was dark. The moon didn’t reach such a place, as the alley itself was pitch black. The only sources of light came from lanterns, filled with glowing water. They were held by the guards that greeted Grimace.

“It’s good to meet you, Grimace,” a guard said. “It seems like you’ve got a case on your hands.”

Grimace nodded back.

“What happened here?” Grimace said. Even with the lanterns, it was still far too dark to investigate. Within a split second, the boy pulled out a gun and fired it into a nearby wall. A flame began to spark on it, though Grimace knew it would not spread further. He wouldn’t allow it.

Now, he could see. The orange flame lit up the scene of the crime. The fallen body of the scientist lay sprawled across the floor. A bleeding second mouth was formed across her neck as the liquid spilled onto the ground.

“The body was found by me, sir. She was reported missing for work and we attempted to search for her,” the guard said. “I called the others and sealed off the area right away.”

“Right,” Grimace responded. He walked towards the body and began his examination. His first act was to take out a device from his pocket. This one was another gift to him from Rebecca, a magical signal. With a few presses, the machine whirred on and began calculating. Shortly after, a small screen displayed some results.

NO MAGIC FOUND.

Interesting, thought Grimace. That means no magic was involved.

Crimes done by magic plummeted when Rebecca first came into power. The governer introduced a way to trace a magical signal to an overall database. This database was managed by PASCAL. That way they could identify the user of any magic based on trace residue in the air. As a result, magic was seldom used in criminal cases, as it was far too risky nowadays.

Thus, this crime must’ve been done by hand. It was to be expected. One could see foot imprints in the dust of the alleyway, but they seemed too blurry to be used as proper evidence. As far as he could tell, this crime was done in a rush. Not a lot of care took place when covering up the scene, and they wanted to escape as soon as possible.

“Did you find the murder weapon?” Grimace said, looking at the guard.

The guard shook his head in response. “No, sir. We believe it’s likely to be hidden somewhere.”

Grimace turned back to the body, and continued to examine the scene. He began walking further down the alley, tracing the faint imprints of steps to the other side. At least until… he was interrupted.

A car screeched to a halt on the other side of the alley, and pulled up at the entrance. Stepping out, a tall woman with long red hair. A lab coat covered her blue suit as she pushed up her glasses and looked towards Grimace.

This was a woman Grimace was all too familiar with, Rebecca Esther, his boss.

“Ah, governor,” Grimace immediately bowed. “What brings you here?”

The woman walked towards him and conveyed a signal that allowed him to raise his head. She looked towards the burning flame that illuminated the alley. Then, she looked towards the body.

“Why do you think I’m here?” Rebecca responded. “For the murder, of course.”

Grimace looked at the woman as she brought out a light from her pocket. An odd characteristic of hers, as normally people would use the glowing water for light. The bright, yellow, flame-like beam from the device was a less usual way of illuminating areas.

And also, he found her presence here strange. Criminal matters tended to be his domain. The governor tended to focus on more political matters. He wondered what sparked this interest.

“If I may ask, governor,” Grimace spoke. “Why are you investigating this murder? Criminal matters are generally my area.”

“Well,” Rebecca responded, examining the body. “To start off with, I’m announcing that I’m taking you off the case. This is a case that I believe I have to work on personally.”

Grimace was confused, but he didn’t oppose the decisions of the governor most of the time. The case here did pique his interest, however. So he asked the question in his mind.

“And, I must ask again, why? Is this particularly important to you?”

Rebecca turned around and looked at Grimace, before pushing her glasses up once again.

“Two things, Grimace. The first is that… this woman was one of my subordinates. If someone attacked my subordinates, it’s close to an attack on me. Thus, I must take this personally.”

Grimace nodded. That wasn’t something he had a particular issue with, especially if the person was close to the governor.

“Second, it’s you,” Rebecca said. “You have an important duty. The observation and protection of the girl known as Rumia. She is our most valuable asset thus far. It is important you focus on her, rather than other distractions.”

That one surprised the Judge. In the time he was assigned to oversee the girl, he thought of it as another job he had to do. A basic task that he would perform until it was no longer needed. Hearing this job described as valuable drove into the boy’s curiosity.

“I understand, governor. But why is it of utmost importance?” Grimace asked. “I thought it was another temporary assignment. To last until you handled the shock that she brought with her appearance here.”

“I cannot tell you that now, Grimace. Just know that I’ve assigned it as your most important duty. You should focus on that until I’ve directed you otherwise,” Rebecca responded.

Grimace stopped to think. This case still nagged on his mind, and even if he was told to not focus on it. He was the Judge of Oscur after all, it would take a lot more than asking for him to stop thinking about a crime.

But for now, he would respect the governor’s wishes. If the protection of that girl is the most important thing, then he shall obey.

“Very well, governor. If that is the case, I will be on the way to the Lunar Academy to report on that girl,” Grimace said with a final bow. “I wish you luck on your investigation. If you need my services, I am always happy to help.

“Thank you, Grimace. I’ll send your directives to PASCAL. Listen to her from there,” Rebecca responded, before turning away and back to the scene of the crime.

***

Grimace found himself headed back to the Lunar Academy. As the car drove he found himself scrolling through his orders once more.

PASCAL had kindly compiled the directives that the governor would want to see from him. It seems like a lot of his menial tasks were cut in favor of observing and guarding the glowing girl known as Rumia.

He wondered what exactly was so important about this girl. It most likely had to do with her glow, but if only he knew why exactly that happened.

Grimace arrived at the Lunar Academy and stepped onto the path inward. He walked to the dorms, as classes should be over at this point and found the dorm room of Rumia and Anise Ourania. Three knocks on the door were heard, and the door opened. Anise opened the door widely.

“Welcome! Grimace! You’ve come at just the right time!” Anise smiled. Behind her, a massive mess of wires and contraptions were sprawled across the rooms. It was a complete tripping hazard of machinery that was scattered about. In the center of the room, she could see a certain glowing girl hooked up to harnesses that were connected to these machines.

“What are you doing?” Grimace asked, a little bit confused.

“I’m just doing an experiment!” Anise said, and Rumia waved in the background awkwardly. “I was wondering how a girl can produce light like that from her own body. My hypothesis was that she had some kind of internal energy. That’s why I hooked her up to a machine that can read those signals.”

“It’s not very comfortable,” Rumia said in the back.

“She was curious too,” Anise said. “I thought that maybe if I could figure out why she glowed, she could learn more about herself. Since you’re here, don’t you want to recognize my genius by participating?”

Grimace looked at her, then looked at Rumia. With a sigh, the boy stepped into the room. He figured that if whatever machination that Anise came up with worked, then he would have new information to report on.

“Sure. I’ll watch,” Grimace responded.

“Alright! Rumia, stay still. I’m going to turn on the machine, you might feel a little tickle,” Anise said.

“I feel like with how many wires are hooked up to me it’ll be more than a little tick- AAAAAAGHHH-”

Rumia suddenly shouted. It was as if her face got struck by lightning multiple times. Grimace and Anise both observed the readings on the machines, but they seemed erratic. Before they suddenly peaked incredibly high and then… all of them shut off.

“Huh? What?” Anise asked. “What happened? Grimace, I think something happened to the power.”

“Eugh…” Rumia groaned, falling to the ground. The poor girl looked like she went through a lot in the past few seconds. Grimace looked at her though, and it seemed like she was going to okay.

“Try to not torture her so much, she’s important,” Grimace said to Anise. “PASCAL, activate the backup power grid.”

On command, the machines began to whirr on again. Rumia, seeing this immediately sprung to action and took off all of the wires attached to her.

“You said it would tickle, not FRY me!” Rumia complained.

“Well, normally it would just tickle! I’m not sure what happened, and why all the power went out. I think it was something to do with you,” Anise responded.

While they were arguing, Grimace took out his device that read magical energy signatures. He then pointed it towards Rumia. Upon doing so, he noticed a similar effect. The device had massive fluctuations in the screen before it short-circuited.

That was odd. It was a consistent issue. Maybe that would be worth analyzing. The only issue would be how.

He would also need to acquire a new device.

“Anise,” Grimace said, approaching her. “I don’t believe you’re likely to glean any new information with the materials in your room.”

“Yeah, everything is busted,” Anise sighed. “It’s going to be a while before I fix it all up.”

“I believe I can assist with that,” Grimace said. “I think what you’re doing here is very important work.”

““Really?””

Both Rumia and Anise asked in unison. Though, the former, more dreadful than the latter.

“Yes. I will get the Academy to supply you a new lab in the Sciences building of the school. That section has a significantly more powerful electricity grid than here. You should have more space to work with.”

“Oh my god,” Anise said. “Thank you!”

The engineer wrapped her arms around Grimace, who didn’t really react too much. He figured that giving this girl some more freedom would be beneficial.

Plus, if he was going to have to spend time around these two then he may as well get something productive out of it. Even if Rumia didn’t look too happy about this arrangement.