Quick steps

The previous slipperiness of the pavements was gone as the city’s reaction was quick and full of sand mixed with salt. Well, since I didn’t have to skate my way back while piggybacking Vio it must have been considerably improved much earlier, but the silly me back then had taken it for granted that the pavements were for walking and not sliding.

This sudden inspection of the ground conditions was spurred by the fact that I was standing with my head down in one of the side alleys near my flat, reprimanding myself for that stupid reaction of running away.

There were so many ways to bullshit my way through, but I had to place a big red ‘X’ on myself marking me as a suspicious person. Now I either had to lurk in shadows of my floor corridor or count on luck and hope that the old bat wouldn’t pursue this matter.

No more running away. From now on I will think, analyze, pick the best solution and cease mindless running.

There was also one more reason I didn’t move from this spot. Conquering mana spots had been pushed to a further date, it was caused by the fact that my today’s charge of Three Answers had been used back then when it had told me to go to sleep.

The shift of my mental state I had gone through and the promises I had made were like a barrier confusing me into thinking that a new use of my power was awaiting orders, while in reality there were still a few hours left for this day to end.

It’s too risky to enter without it and there’s always tomorrow. Yup, let’s leave it for now.

Not wanting to idle the time away in a flat that was going through an entertainment deficient, I decided to walk in a random direction but raised the speed so it would double as a light exercise. I also wanted to make another sightseeing round, as there were few elements that had previously grabbed my attention, like those big billboards promoting different teenage idols.

I wonder if there's any sporting a gothic-lolita style.

I decided to remember the names of the most eye-catching ones and research this country culture together with its history on a day off, but prior to that, I would have to establish a source of internet connection.



After an hour I stopped in a small park. I wasn’t too tired, but aimless walking simply got boring. Additionally, my attention had been drawn to this place by a loud gathering of about twenty people. There was also an ambulance and a police car parked nearby.

An accident?

Curious, I went as close as possible to take a look at the situation. Two policemen were keeping the people away from the central park area.

There, between few metal tables and benches was a big memorial stone partially covered in snow. In front of it, four people were the center of everyone’s attention. Two ambulance workers, a petite brown-haired girl in a girlish red jacket which lower part resembled ruffle skirt and a tall guy in a fleece brown jacket who was grasping some kind of a paper in his hand.

Though it looked like the guy would stop visiting graveyards and was going to permanently become one of their grave residents - his dead body was currently being placed into a body bag by one of the ambulance workers.

The other medic was trying to talk to the limping girl, but by the look of it, she had remained unresponsive. There were no signs of tears or any other easily noticeable traces of sadness, she just kept her stare locked on the dead body.

I was straining my hearing to fish for precious pieces of information among the bystanders and those were the results:

“... he… drunk and froze…”, “... a daughter?”, “... first time… a dead person.”, “... sister, I think…”, “... I bet it was... attack.”, “why did it end like that…”, “hey, ... go home already?”, “I was the one who called the ambulance!”, “... and she’s just... there looking... him?”, “shit, this is bad”, “... I don’t want to… like this…”, “nothing much…”, “I will have to stop… to this park”, “he’s rather young…”, “heart attack!”, “fucking demons and their...”, “poor girl now she...”, “... they’ve asked me stuff… where…”, “is this mana… still obtainable?”, “move back! Nothing to see here!”, “... drunk I bet.”, “... let’s go, I had enough…”, “daughter or sister?”, “... they came in about ten minutes…”, “she’s acting strange…”, “Cordelia don’t!”, “hey, what’s with her?”, “she’s kicking it?”

When I was scanning everyone, searching for the people who had said those really suspicious lines, there was a sudden change in everyone’s behavior. It was caused by the sight of the petite girl kicking the dead body. Even the ambulance workers got caught by a total surprise and allowed her two or three free kicks before pulling her away.

Her blank expression was slowly twisting into a one of pure ecstasy as if she just understood what had happened and loved the result of it.

“A-ahaaHa-aHAhaHAH!”

She had erupted with a violent fit of laughter, which froze the entire audience. Before people could grasp the situation and decide on the appropriate response, she stretched out hands towards the faces of both of the medics who just finished pulling her away. Still laughing, without hesitation, she remade her open hands into fists, while they were trying to talk to her. This seemingly harmless gesture stole the audience's breath.

An unpleasant squashing sound pierced everyone’s soul. Two bodies fell down and remained motionless with bulging eyes from which streams of reddish liquid were flowing out, further reinforcements of bodily fluids were zestfully provided from their noses while through their ears a grey matter had erupted. Both of them fell down without even a chance to spit out the mouthful of blood and it had splashed around upon the collision with the ground.

People were standing frozen unable to process what had just happened, only one or two smarter ones were already trying to run away. The crowd finally restarted its functionality and a screaming chaos erupted, but that wasn’t the end.

“AaHaaHAHAhaH!”

The girl pointed each of her open hands towards the police officers and- that was all, her action was stopped by another sudden occurrence.

The screaming people, the ones who were already two or three steps into entering a mad dash, both of the confused policemen reaching for their guns, even the petite girl - they all fell down unconscious on the spot.

There were two exceptions, me and the guy around my age standing nearby.

““Fuck!””

At the same time, we said the same word and looked at each other. The realization of what had just happened hit me and I quickly tried to memorize his face. He was probably doing the same and a second later we were both running away in the opposite directions.

I run as fast as I could, covering my face and ignoring the confused stares of people I bypassed on the way.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Fucking espers! Don’t drag me into your shit!

I had no idea why that girl did that and I didn’t care. The most important thing for me was to avoid any connection between this and myself.

After leaving the park I turned into one of the unlit side alleys. Everything to avoid being caught on a random CCTV camera.

Only after about ten minutes of a full-speed run, I stopped, breathing heavily, covered with sweat and leaning on a brick wall in some alley dead end.

For the sake of heavens! What a fucking rotten luck!

Compared to the previous accident with the old bat, this one’s league was way higher and running was the best choice. By pure chance, I was given a VIP seat in the presentation of how the Seal works like and I would really love to avoid drawing TET attention to myself.

This was the first time a person was killed in front of my eyes, yet all I could feel was disgust and relief that it wasn’t me… alright, that’s a lie. I’m disturbed more than I thought I would be. I need to stop hiding such stuff from myself or Votr will have another field day.

When I recalled how the brain matter was being squeezed out the ears of- I shook my head to get rid of that vivid memory, but it didn’t help. Five seconds later the content of my stomach was nearly freed from its flesh prison. Thankfully I had some previous training with battered goblin body and build up a minuscule resistance. The fact that it wasn’t in front of my eyes anymore had also helped.

I forcibly forbid my brain from further mining in this direction.

The other guy who had been there with me had a stupid looking bob-cut, black hair and slightly goofy look on his face. I could probably point him out of a thousand people with ease.

While cooling down both physically and emotionally a thought explaining ‘why’ had appeared inside my mind. There was only one thing to achieve by such blatant showcasing of one’s power in public and that was the activation of the Seal. Following it was a realization that this was a perfect chance to snatch one of the police guns, but I quickly changed my mind after thinking of consequences and potential risks of possessing such a hot potato. Not to mention that it was already too late for that.

I seriously need more power, but forget about fighting. I want a reliable way of protection, something like Viktoria or Adam has. Even if I could shoot lasers out of my eyes, what is the use of that if I die upon someone’s single touch or a stray bullet.

The map inside my head was updated with the location of this park. Its borders were circled around with a black mental marker and added to the list of places I should avoid in the future. On the other hand, looking back at what had happened there, I added a small annotation stating ‘emergency mana spot’.

There was no more desire to walk around randomly and enjoy the views. I went straight back home.



After crossing the door to the building I lived in, I noticed a new cork board hanging on one of the walls near the staircase. It looked like a typical informational board for the residents, but for now, there were only three pieces of paper attached to it.

I checked it half out of curiosity, half as a way of distracting myself from the recurring vision of the splattering grey matter.

The biggest and the most eye-catching one was a huge printed picture of Nero Grue’s face and under it:

‘WANTED - any evidence that this son of a goat stole things from my flat. I will generously pay for even the smallest clue that can help me bring the case to the police - Uriel from 305. ’

I looked around to see if there was no one around and was about to add a new crumpled piece of garbage to the insides of a nearby trash bin, but decided against it. This was a foolish idea with a high probability of spurring a chain reaction where each day more and more of such posters would pop up. The best course of action was to leave it here and allow it to die a natural death.

The other notice was a simple information that this cork board was sponsored by the housing community. I moved it a bit. It was now slightly overlapping with the wanted poster corner, perfectly hiding the old bat's name and flat number.

However, the last one won my full attention.

[I’m looking for people to trade with in a game called ‘The Endless Travel’.

Selling:

2x mana potion
1x summon skeleton rune
1x ring of protection
3x summon slime rune

Buying:

ALL TICKETS

Negotiable price - accepting both cash and information.
Call xxx xxx xxx or contact Yuni at 501.]