"AACHOOO!!!" A single sneeze threw Clair off balance, almost sending her tumbling down the stairs. "This place... why is it so dusty?"
"It’s a rat den. What did you expect?"
The Commissioner knew something would happen so he came prepared. He took out a pack of tissues from the inner pocket of his jacket, handed it to the young woman, then watched as she took one out and blew her nose in it. Though he tried to keep a straight face the entire time, his facial muscles twitched on their own, hinting at the emotions he was trying to mask.
"You should’ve cleaned before calling me."
"You were the one who told us to preserve the crime scene."
The young woman tried to return the pack after she was done, but the Commissioner held his hand up and shook his head. The two continued down, soon reaching the first basement floor. The Commissioner raised the yellow tape blocking the entrance, letting the young woman inside before bending down and following after her.
"This place... isn’t it a little big for a rat’s den?"
"It’s the big rats we’re dealing with this time." The commissioner frowned. "But you should know that... if you had read the reports."
"The reports?" She paused, staring at one of the nearby pillars. "You know I don’t do those, uncle. They influence my work."
"Just... Just make sure to read them later. This is a very important case."
Thanks to the spotlights placed in every corner, the parking lot wasn’t as dark as it was when the police first arrived. Clair walked a few steps then looked around then grabbed her sketchbook and switched to an empty page.
The Commissioner watched her take out a pen and place it on the page, but even as she began pouring her focus into the drawing, he said nothing and simply waited.
In the next few minutes, she walked from one spot to the other, doing a few more sketches. She stopped at the large hole in the floor for quite a while. The Commissioner followed, ready to answer any question she might ask. Clair kept her silence, however, at last until she reached the chalk outline left in place of the corpse.
"This... I really hate this part..."
Her hand trembled as she slowly raised it up and tapped the frame of her big, round glasses. A blue dot appeared at the center then expanded into a circle that slowly filled the lenses.
"I see you still refuse to get an OAM." The Commissioner commented.
"I prefer to see with my own eyes, thank you."
Saying that, Clair took out a small rectangular device from her pocket and tapped on its surface a few times. The round glasses were a type of Augmented Reality Lens, the predecessor to OAMs. Normally, one could still control them using a NIM, but since she didn’t have one either, Clair had to rely on a smartphone for the job.
After entering a few commands, she turned to the chalk outline once more and watched as something manifested in its place. First it was the strands of the flowing crimson hair then the tight black jumpsuit. Little by little, the figure of a young girl slowly formed. Her face was turned in Clair’s direction, her lifeless blue eyes meeting those of the artist.
Staring at the projection for a few seconds, Clair’s expression suddenly warped and her hands shot up, grabbing the sides of her head.
"AAAAAAH! THIS CAN’T BE!!!" She screamed. "Why, uncle? WHY!!? Why didn’t you call me on the first day!!?"
Watching her mess her already messed hair, the Commissioner’s face scrunched up.
"It would help if you asked for a less ridiculous prize."
"No can do." She said. "I need my inspiration!"
Sighing, she grabbed her sketchbook once more and went back to drawing. This time, she didn’t remain silent through the whole thing.
"Cold-blooded execution, huh?" She said. "Not so rare but... this one seems personal."
A number of experts have already examined the crime scene and all of them arrived at the same conclusion: the culprit knew about the young girl’s physical enhancements and didn’t want to take chances. No one mentioned anything about it being personal.
"You can tell from her eyes..." Clair said, and without elaborating, went back to her drawing.
The commissioner opened his mouth but said nothing. Turning away, he studied the projection through his OAM and frowned. A few minutes later, the young woman closed her sketchbook and got up.
"I’m done here." She said.
"I see." The Commissioner nodded.
After that, they descended to the lower floors, visiting the rooms one by one. They spent a few minutes in some and passed the others after taking a brief look. A few hours later, they returned to the parking lot.
The Commissioner tried to wait, but after watching the young woman draw for several hours, his patience was running out. Before he could ask any question, however, Clair spoke up, confusion clear in her voice.
"Hmm... this is a bit troubling..."
"Did you figure something out?"
"The culprit has spatial manipulation abilities." She said. "He’s able to create portals, though the range between them seems to be quite short. He’s also able to cut and break things. Ah, and he’s capable of perceiving everything within a certain range."
"That’s... that’s a lot..." The Commissioner pressed his lips to a line, not knowing what else to say. The thing that stood out to him the most was that she was referring to the culprit as a ’he’, which wouldn’t have been strange if not for the fact that she hadn’t read the reports.
"He likes to make pit traps, from the looks of it. Or maybe he just came up with it on the spot." She paused for a moment, looking at the chalk outline. "What I don’t understand is... how did he kill Aegis?"
As soon as she mentioned the name, the Commissioner’s eyes narrowed, and the air around him changed.
"Aegis, you say?" He fixed her with a glare.
Clair jumped away, flailing her arms as fear turned her face blue.
"I-I-I just thought it’s strange for two heroes to die in the same week, that’s all!" She quickly explained herself. "They may be two different cases."
The Commissioner stared at her for a second then sighed. He was taken aback just now, but when he thought about it, he felt that it made sense for her to not swallow the official story of what happened to the Level 5 Prime.
"Focus on this one, please." He said. "The girl was a friend’s daughter. He wants this solved as quickly as possible."
Finally calming down, Clair pursed her lips and looked down in thought.
"I’m sorry but... There isn’t much to work with." She paused, thinking some more. "All I can say is... There is something stopping him from using his abilities to their utmost. A time limit, maybe? Or it might be a fixed number of uses... was he saving it for when he stole the corpses and machines downstairs?"
The commissioner waited for her to continue, but after some time he seemed to give up.
"It’s alright, you already gave us more than enough."
Hearing him say that, Clair’s expression brightened.
"Then, does that mean-"
"The investigation is still open." He cut her off. "If you want to use this incident in one of your stories, you will have to wait."
"You were the one who said it’s related to Aegis’ case."
"Sorry, but..." Turning to look at the chalk outline once more, Jordan sighed and shook his head. "This whole thing... it might turn out to be bigger than the two of us."
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Today’s Chapters were a little late. Sorry about that!