Playing detectives

We were dressed in baggy and dark clothes around the park at midnight, I felt the excitement running through my veins as I saw the dark sky, Yuki was nervous in the opposite way.

“Why is it so cold right now?”

“Well, it’s autumn, but is not that cold, maybe you are just trembling in fear?”

I laughed and Yuki hit my arm with his and moved his head from left to right.

“Not funny, dude…”

“Sorry, come on, I’ll buy a coffee”

“I prefer soup”

“A soup will be then”

We went to the vending machine and I bought some drinks, we went to the park again and started drinking trying to eavesdrop on some information, but there weren’t just people talking about how rough was your day or if they could quit their job, depressed adult stuff.

“You think we are growing to be like them?”

“Nah, you made sure not to end like them, but I will be living of the money I made doing this”

“Are you this confident? What if you are not even classified in the lower ranks?”

“I will just keep going”

“You are not a robot, you know?”

“…”

“Ah… sorry, I didn’t want to be rude but you need to be real, I myself don’t even know if I will become a doctor, life is uncertain, Ren”

“Yeah, I know… I just don’t want to think about it right now”

“Sorry, I will just shut up about it”

“It’s okay, you are just checking I’m okay”

I smile and Ren hit my back

We were staring at the moon. A few hours passed and we started to kick the cans of our drinks, I looked at my watch and it marked 12:00AM.

“What if we walk around?”

“I am not going to a black alley man”

“No, just going around in circles”

“If you do that I really won’t enter, I’m being serious”

We picked up the cans and threw them to the trashcan that was around and started to keep going, Yuki was shaking a lot and I just laughed a bit, but it was pretty cold, I started to feel how my nose was getting cold and the mucus was coming out.

I put my hands inside my pockets and yawned as I try to eavesdrop something important but there were only the babbling of drunk people, I look at the alley and Yuki touch my shoulder moving his head in negation, I continue walking normally and went inside a convenience store to eat some onigiris.

“Is your family not worried about you?”

“No, I said I was staying at your place, they will not bother with anything, unless they call me to my phone”

“Nice”

We were about to leave when we saw a police officer coming in at the store, we shrunk and went to hide behind the shelves of candy.

“Let’s get out of here…” —Yuki whispered to me.

But I didn’t want to leave the place, so I try to stay close and eavesdrop.

“How are things going, officer?”

“Uh, quite a night actually, this street is in peace compared to the other ones a few blocks away, caught actually one of those elemental bastards, idiot thought I could not notice how he was using fire out of his hand to light a cigarette”

“The streets are safer that way, officer, but was that all he was doing?”

“Yeah, he said he was just hanging out but these bastards are never to be trust, probably going to that championship stuff, we are still tracking those places but they sure move fast, every time we find their arena they already move out”

“That is a shame”

I went back to Yuki and went out of the store and start jogging, we went to the black alley just to hide and wait until the police car pass us

“Did you get something?”

“Yeah, next blocks, we should ask someone about the guy with the fire power lighting his cigarette, maybe they knew something about it”

“You are crazy, you know that?”

“Hey, but we did confirm, these places are real man, not fantasy, real!”

“Keep your voice down… Ren, behind!”

“Mmmh?”

I looked back and I saw a giant man blocking the way ahead, he saw me and pointed at me.

“What are you looking at the cigarette guy?”

“We are just curious what happened! We are making a report for school about elementers, right?! Ren?!”

“Yeah, yeah…”

“If you get what you want you will stop lurking at these hours at night?”

“S-Sure…”

“Then ask”

The man stepped outside to the light and we saw it, it was a young man with black long hair reaching the start of his back, green eyes and a black and gray outfit, the man put his hand out of his pocket and smoke started to come off.

“This is my first time seeing that type of power!”

I was excited, but the moment I shouted, the guy looked at me a bit strange.

“You are quite excited to see this”

“I am! You don’t get the chance to meet an elementer, and this is the first time I saw this power!”

“Do you know other elementers?”

“Uh… not… I just saw them in the news but I am quite fascinated by them!”

“Ren…”

“Sorry, yeah… our report… so tell me, how does it feel living with these powers?”

“How do you say? Is quite simple, I just live, I am just like you guys”

“Next question then, how do you feel about elementers being chased?”

“I think everyone would feel bad about that, not just us…”

I looked at Yuki and I pointed at me, Yuki sighed and went behind me.

“Do you know about the elementers championship?”

The guy started to laugh; he was calm a few moments ago but now he was just laughing a lot.

“That place doesn’t exist, is just a myth, you watch too much videos on internet, kid”

“Those videos are not on the internet, you know?”

The guy went quiet.

“And I heard the police heard about it, every time a new site disappeared but they know they are being made”

“And for what do you want that information? Are you trying to be the next great detective or what?”

“No”

I extended my hand and smiled.

“Quite the opposite, what I want” —I let wind come out of my hand —. “Is becoming the next champion”

The guy took me by my neck and looked me directly in the eyes.

“You have brain-damage or are you insane, you have the slightest idea of how those places are?”

“I do, but I want to enter, you know something about it, don’t you?”

“Even if I knew, what should I tell you?”

“Because we are equals”

The guy dropped me and turned around.

“Leave it, kid. This place is not for you, go make your life while you can, this place is only for the ones that have lost it all, you still have something, don’t you?”

The guy glanced at Yuki and he flinched, then he vanished in the dark.

“Are you okay, Ren?”

“Yeah, I am perfectly fine”

I stand up and brush the dust away smiling.

“He said the truth though, while you hide these powers then you can have a normal life”

“I don’t want a normal life, Yuki! Normal lives are boring! Tell me, if you had powers, you would do something like this too, right?”

“In hell I will do… but this is my life, Ren, I like my normal life, even if I had powers, I would not enter this crazy tournament”

Yuki pointed at me.

“That is your mentality”

“You are correct, sorry… sorry I call your life boring”

“You are not wrong there either, but searching the thrill wouldn’t be good… but I know that you are not searching anything of that, you just feel alive doing it, and feel that is your task”

I nodded and looked at the black alley.

“We know what we need to know, if we keep searching around these places, we might find something…”

“There should be articles on internet that will not make them suspect us, let’s search about the time between each tournament find, I am sure they public them”

“That is actually not a bad idea, but no, that is still quite risky, we better buy newspapers, we should find ones on the trash and stores”

“This is like a treasure hunt!”

“Yeah, it actually is… I would lie to you if I don’t find it exciting too”

“Now you are getting into it too, Yuki!”

“Just this time!”

“We are shouting too much, let’s go back, want to grab some snacks?”

“Yeah, we can go to the store nearby your place, a know of a good movie that just came out, is great”

“If it has your approval seal then it must be good let’s go!”