The Case Study of Bejeweled Crowns (1)

Winter, 1949,  Japan. 

Streetlights glimmer like stars in the night sky, blinking headlights like distant suns. Up top, an apartment complex, Dantes looks down on the people passing by down below, oblivious to her identity. As snowfall intensifies, she moves down the stairs and into the hallways within, lit up by blinding fluorescent lights. She avoided the people coming down the stairs and pushed her sunglasses upwards to avoid eye contact.

As the clock ticks closer to 12, she makes her way out of the building. With a flick of her hand, she pops up a cigarette, and with a snap of her fingers, lights it. "Greet him for me." She mutters as the smoke from the cigarette begins to create a path for her to follow. With a clack of her heels, she starts to follow the trail of smoke. She can barely understand the words these people speak; some loose meaning in fancy flourish meant to be understood by them only. The smoke led her deeper into the city. The deeper she went into the concrete jungle, the more unfamiliar her surroundings became. Turns unfamiliar, electrical poles hanging over intimidatingly. She lights another cigarette as the old one burns out. In the midst of winter, the ashes are indistinguishable from the snow on the ground. 

The smoke led her astray from the street and into the alley between buildings. There, she saw him, Goro, his hands in his coat, loitering around in the open area in the middle of these concrete monoliths.

"Finally, you're here, Madam. Any longer and I would've been buried here by all this snow here," he tipped his hat, greeting her.
"Whatever, Jack Frost. What are you calling me here for? I thought I still had a few days before I needed to move again."
"It's something else. Also, you haven't paid yet," Goro reaches into his coat and pulls out a sapphire necklace. "Looks familiar, doesn't it?" He hands it to Dantes with a toss.
"Some crooks dropped it on the main street earlier this morning. The cops suspect it has something to do with King Fyodor's assassination."
"I can see why they think so." She investigates the necklace carefully before looking back at Goro. "It's actually his. Prussian metallurgy doesn't mess around; crafts like these are rarely seen outside of that country. So, what do you want me to do with this thing?"

"I 'm sure you know how this thing relates to you," He continues. "Life is too short for you to live while hiding, Dantes. Make your time count, alright?" He gives her an old map. "The crime scene happened near the old buildings by the port. Figure it out from there." He tips his hat over just as he leaves.

Dantes overlooks the sea from the port. Already half frozen and unbearably cold. She walks over to the edge of the port with her hands in her jacket, fiddling with the necklace. Across the port, not too far from her, are the cops investigating the case, including one detective. "How are those bastards investigating this case anyway? Don't seem like proper Magicians to me," She ducks behind a crate as the detective glances back. "Maybe not."

The detective drops a test tube full of Mysticine powder on top of a footprint on the snow and begins to follow the purple track ahead of them. Dantes began to follow them slowly, her movement light enough to avoid putting prints on the snow. She looks over at the group ahead of her, moving away from the tracks they were following. 

"Better move then." She mutters before walking back. She takes the long way around, observing the purple prints from afar after losing sight of the cops. Eventually, the prints led both Dantes and the cops to a dead end. The detective says something to the police, leading them to move away from the alley. Dantes waits for a while before she makes her move. "...They definitely know I'm here," She mutters. She kicks up the piled snow beneath her and chants an aria to herself. 

"「Fools」 Gold Found By a Man Goading For Gold. Gold Found By a Man Goading for Fools."

She pulls out a stick of chalk and begins to draw an intricately shaped circle on the wall. Footsteps can be heard rushing towards her location immediately after she puts up the invisible facade. The circle was the same one she would draw on any floor or wall to conduct experiments, though it was a bit rushed. It had symbols on it that took years for her to understand and master, languages no longer spoken or pronounced. 

"「Fools」!" She shouted, creating an open entrance where the circle once was. Before she entered, she snapped her fingers lightly to burn the chalk circle. The circle closed just as she entered. 

Dantes landed on the edge of a flight of stairs and subsequently fell. Her sunglasses broke, but at least she escaped the police. Standing up, she examined the items she on her: a broken pair of sunglasses, a royal necklace, a lighter, and some fragmented chalk pieces. "I'll give it... ten minutes before they find the front entrance. From there, 5 minutes to locate as I stand now," She muttered as she fixed up her hair. "I should have this cut." She twirled her waist-long hair before ascending up the stairs. The building she was in was an apartment complex, though it was relatively simple compared to her building. An open door led to a unit with two bedrooms and a single shared bathroom.

 The atmosphere on the 9th floor was different; countless easels and mannequins were placed where the walls and separated units were. The art pieces were subpar compared to what she had seen, but the effort to learn it was there. It was neither a masterpiece nor a base copy. The mannequins were there for decoration, it seemed. As she walked up to the 10th floor, Dantes heard a commotion happening downstairs. 10 minutes had passed, 15 minutes before the cops found her. She ran up the stairs, kicking the wooden floor underneath her. The sound of running begins to catch up, just as she reaches the roof. She blocks the door from the other side.

Dantes leaned against the door for a moment before a sword struck the wall beside her. She barely dodges the next one. "Wait! Can't we talk?" She starts to negotiate, standing over a ledge. Unfortunately, the man did not understand her. He clearly had no mastery over the sword, but was lethal enough with his swings. She rolls over to the side, but receives a cut near her shoulder. 

「I SEE YOU」
「I HATE YOU」
「I WANT IT」

Before Dantes could even comprehend the Witch-like enchantment that was placed on her, the glass around the hallway broke. The sword, the necklace, and the Bejewelled crown, all of it was taken by the figure. She barely escapes falling to her death and dangled on a piece of rebar on the other edge.