"Hey, Ishigami!" a voice called out from behind me.

  I pulled myself away from the small book I was reading and glanced over my shoulder as I walked through the halls of Makarov Academy. Black and crimson uniforms filled the space between the walls as students passed from one class to another during the break. A girl with long blonde hair was walking closer with her arm up; her blue eyes had a sense of pride to them, but there was also a glint of innocence.

  "What do you want, Grey?" I answered with slight irritation: the book I was reading was moments away from its climax.

  "Didn't you see the results of last semester's final?" she caught up and walked abreast to me.

  "What about it? I'm Number One. That's all I really care about."

  "Yeah, well, keep that attitude, and I'll be taking that spot from you soon enough," she smirked.

  "Uh huh," I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Didn't you say that last semester? And the semester before that?"

  "I'll say it as many times as it takes until I'm the one on top!" she declared a bit too loud given the environment.

  "...okay," I shrugged as I looked away.

  That semester, the two of us received our first missions as assassin candidates. Once they were completed, we lost our names and eventually became Numbers. Our paths were set in stone, and any interaction like that was quickly forgotten. Years later, as I knelt in the rain, a glimpse of that conversation came back in between my pleas with myself to jump back. Maybe, under different circumstances, we really could have been rivals or even friends.

  * * * * *

  "Hey," Grey's voice broke through my recollection. "How much longer are you going to take on that board?"

  "Sorry, I was thinking about the literature homework," I lied. "I'm almost done."

  "Alright," she sighed. "Figures I'd have duty on the one day I don't have council activities."

  "You must have made quite an impression to get elected after just arriving," I prodded.

  "What can I say? The vote was almost unanimous. You were there; don't you remember?"

  "I must have dozed off," I replied.

  "Uh huh," her gaze was fixated on me as I wiped the last letter from the board.

  Little was said the rest of the time spent cleaning. Once we were done, we closed the door and awkwardly walked back to the shoe lockers in silence. Before we went our separate ways, I made one more attempt to get information from her.

  "You were the star archer for Makarov Academy during the Hoenn City sports competition, right?" I fired.

  "Yes, that was me," she quickly responded.

  "Why come here after being at such an intensive school?"

  "Well, that's kind of... personal. I'm sorry. You... were you at the competition as well? You look extremely familiar. When I first saw you in class it was like a sort of deja vu."

  "I was, although I didn't compete in anything. I'm not exactly athletically gifted."

  "I doubt that," she responded. "Good afternoon."

  She turned to walk away, but she stopped just past the threshold of the main entrance to the school. Her hair was frozen in place as the slight breeze was meeting her welcoming her to the outside world. I walked beside her and stared into her eyes. They were something new in her.

  In them, I saw pain, hatred all below a thin veil of faux pride. She had been able to interact with me and even started to experience the time scar without any noticeable side effects from the mind jacking. Everything about the afternoon puzzled me, and that curiosity drove me to follow her once time resumed.

  Instantly, she reacted in the form of a quick stop and glance around. I had returned to my locker and was just getting up so as to not raise any suspicions by looking at her. As quickly as she reacted, she moved on and continued walking. I ensured that there would be a good amount of distance between us, but I knew that she would eventually figure out that I was following her if I went without using my ability.

  She walked in silence for a few kilometers away from the school before turning into a metro station. I weaseled through the crowd and got into the same car. I tried to keep a reasonable distance between the two of us, but with the sheer number of people, it was difficult. I lost sight of her as the final dozen people squeezed onto the train. The doors closed, and we began moving.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  The train was a Fourth Route train, meaning it mainly served the Eastern Midtown Districts. From Dolin District, we passed through the small business districts that acted as a buffer before Gefla District where my friends and I had previously gone to the waterpark. After an abrupt stop, people began vacating the car, and I quickly looked around for Grey. Thankfully, she had remained seated where she first was. Once again, people flooded on, and the doors shut.

  From the Gefla District, we began to see bigger businesses as well as a sporadic high rise apartment complex signifying our nearing Bhogs District. Again, we came to an abrupt halt, and people vacated the car as quickly as they had entered. This time, however, she was not in her seat when I looked around. A new crowd of people began slamming the car as I tried to get off. Just as the doors were about to close, I froze time and got off.

  I looked all around for a sign and found it by the exit of the station. Grey had walked a bit faster than before, likely sensing that she was being tailed. With time standing still around me, I walked into the bathroom and slowly released my hold making sure that I took mental note of which direction she turned at the base of the stairs. A minute later, I made the same right turn and continued my pursuit.

  My ability is much more suited for evading being followed than it ever was for being on this end. I can't give up. I've got to know if she's a threat to them...

  The two of us weaved through the crowds that filled the streets in the early evening of a late summer's day. She seemed to slow down once she made it about half a kilometer from the station. I made sure to keep my head low in case any onlookers became suspicious, but my eyes did everything they could to keep her in their sights. She likely felt my gaze on her back since she tried to lose me in the crowd again.

  I made it through a thick bog of people only to find that she was nowhere to be seen. I kept a calm mind and froze time once again. After a few minutes of searching, I found that she had taken a side street. Hiding in between freezings, I continued to tail her and allowed her to lead me to her destination.

  She knows this district pretty well. I wonder if she's trained here before.

  Just before the side street dumped back onto the main avenue, she stopped suddenly. I slid behind a dumpster and leveled my breathing, ready to react to anything.

  "Come out, wherever you're hiding!" she yelled.

  Huh, she IS good... Let's see how long I can hold out.

  Silence filled the air between the two of us. Neither the hunter nor the hunted moved a muscle or drew too deep a breath. Just when I thought the silence was getting unsettling, I froze time and popped my head out. She had pulled multiple throwing knives and was throwing them in directions that she probably thought were suspicious. My dumpster was one of those areas.

  I never liked following people for long periods of time anyway. Guess I've lost a bit of my touch.

  I maneuvered past her while everything stood still and stepped back onto the main avenue. There, I found a bench on the other side of the street facing away from a small nature park. I sat down on it, pulled out a book, and resumed time. Multiple clanging sounds came from the side street I was just in, and after a couple of minutes, Grey emerged with a concerned face. She took a left and continued along the avenue for two buildings before entering a high rise apartment complex, The Tropics.

  Should I call it a day here? I think that this might only be the beginning. Is this where she meets an Eclipse contact?

  If she's supposed to be a Toriyama student, it wouldn't make sense for her to live at Makarov Academy. Did they put her up in this place as a cover?

  I need to know more...

  Slowly, I tailed her, allowing for maximum space between the two of us. She walked into the building; I collected all the data I could from the outside. She entered the elevator; I tried to predict which floor she would go to based on where her hand was moving when the door shut. She emerged from the elevator; I patiently waited in the stairwell to hear which door she would go to. She turned the key and unlocked the door; I slipped by and hid inside.

  This feels weird and wrong, but it has to be done.

  The apartment was a nice mix of minimalism and functionalism. Overall, it was about the size of mine, but somehow it seemed bigger. Various cabinets could open up and allow for an array of items to descend for use before being folded back up into the wall. The front door opened up into the living room with the bathroom off to the left and the kitchen to the back left. The bedroom was to the left in a hook sort of motion from the front door. Since there was little in the way of furniture, there were few places to hide. I ended up finding refuge below the bed.

  Over the course of the next half hour, I heard various articles land on various pieces of furniture as Grey presumably unwound from her day. There was a shift in the living room likely caused by her plopping on the couch. A couple of thumps later, and I gathered that she was using the coffee table as a desk to do school work before continuing her evening. The silence was split by the sound of her cell phone going off.

  "Grey," she responded.

  "Yes," she replied again after a brief silence. "There's no evidence of the anomaly. It's as if they don’t exist, and if not for the records from before the school year, I would arrive at the same conclusion, sir."

  Near silence filled the air as the muffled voice on the other end of the phone continued for seemingly forever.

  "Understood," her tone changed slightly. "I'll keep my watch and report anything that happens."

  More muffled speaking came forth, but this time, it was brief, direct.

  "Yes, sir," she said once more after another pause and before hanging up.

  Who the hell are you after? Me? I pull you from a collapsing building, and that's how you thank me?

  I had heard enough. I froze time again and crawled out from under the bed. When I walked back into the living room, however, I came face to face with her. She had turned back almost instantly as if anticipating something coming from her room. Once again, I had underestimated her, a mistake I would never make again. I walked out, leaving the door unlocked, and walked back to the metro station bathroom before releasing my hold.

  Instantly, the repercussion hit, and I winced and had to close one eye to dull the pain. I rode the Sixth Route train back to Cirsam District in anger: anger at Angelica Grey and anger at myself for saving her. Dusk was upon me when I returned to the apartment complex that I begrudgingly began to accept as my home. As the fine details of the building came into view, I noticed multiple men standing outside of the land lady's door. Something immediately felt off about the situation.

  If it's not one thing, it's another.