Under the broad daylight, an unfortunate uncle in white was kidnapped. The street at that time was quiet. No one passed by there. The only evident that he was once there was an abandoned bicycle in the middle of the road. It was as if someone purposely left it there, as in the baskets in the backside of the bicycle, there were no shattered milk bottles.

Reya dragged Leuth toward a more obscured place.

At some point, Leuth’s most favourite hat fell from his head. Though he once begged and tried to take it back, Reya nevertheless didn’t care.

His once pure white clothes now was dirtied. This unfair treatment almost made him cried. But he recalled his swollen right eye. He can’t make dramatic expressions, if not, his right eye would be hurt by all that.

“Hey, I’m not going to hurt you, so don’t resist too much. I only want to ask you some questions. About your right eye.”

In this modern era, things like magic and super powers only appeared in fiction stories. Though there were sometimes instances when people believed that it was related to those unlogical concepts. Ghosts, magicians, and psychics, people liked to attach those terms toward many events. However, there were still many people who disbelieved it all.

“And of course, the reason why your power suddenly lost.”

They then arrived in a narrow alley. At each side beside Reya, a pair of old buildings surrounded them. Though it was already morning, this alley still hadn’t had many sunlight lingering around. This narrow place seemed to prefer to be a dark and gloomy kind of alley.

Leuth twitched his eyes when he heard her last sentence. The sense of pain on his right eye lost for a short moment.

Just as he opened his mouth trying to fool her, a slow but cheerful song suddenly started out of nowhere. He recognized this song. Though he was not interested in its genre, but he saw many young kids liked to listen to this song these days.

The source was from Reya’s pocket.

Reya then released her grip toward Leuth. She took out a vibrating handphone from inside her pocket. It was a call. She didn’t try to confirm who called her. She just swiped the screen and put her handphone on her right ear.

“What?”

[Cousin, where are you right now? Are you all right?]

A young voice instantly asked. Though his question was filled with concerns, his tone however was flat. It was as if he was a robot. When Reya heard his voice, he can’t help but thought: that was why your peers always avoided you. She of course never said it directly toward the person in question. This younger cousin of her really had a weak heart, so she sometimes needed to be mindful of what she must said toward him. This person was non other than Jino.

[Did you already get Claude?]

That was a good question. But the truth was unfortunately must be said.

“I lost him.”

She nonchalantly answered.

[...]

The other side suddenly became quiet.

[...You said you can do it…]

“What? Do you want to complain?”

Jino’s voice came from inside the phone. He didn’t reply at her. His cold voice shouted at other people. It seemed that Jino was not alone.

[Hey! What are you people doing? Just lie down and don’t do anything!]

[Wait, you too! Why do you think you can just leave like that? I told you already, of course I can see you!]

Reya silently listened the disturbance from the other side. Hearing the riot-like noises, she wondered where Jino was right now. It just felt like he was not at school. She heard another voices other than his. Though their words were rough, they just can’t make Jino to give up. Eventually, they gave up to run away and stopped making noises. Afterwards, Reya can only hear Jino’s scolding from her phone.

Then a long beeping sound replaced Jino’s scolding.

Reya looked at her own phone’s screen in deep thought. This was the first time Jino suddenly cut off the call when talking with her. This really gave her a bad aftertaste. She didn’t know what was Jino doing with those people. Though it felt like their situations seemed similar.

She then looked at the uncle beside her. She had already released her grip on him, but it seemed that he didn’t try to run away.

The unpainted grey building wall let Leuth to have a short rest. The wall was cold, and his back that touched the wall felt the cold creeping into his body.He looked at the girl in school uniform. In his position, she inevitable need to look down to gaze at him. It looked like misfortune really didn’t come alone. There was no way he can run away from this school girl, hence he gave up before he even tried to run away.

If a person was to witness his life, would they pity him?

Now that he thought about it, it seemed that being pitied as a beggar was a lot better than being kidnapped by this school girl. He released a weak sigh.

Reya didn’t know what was on his mind right now. Even if she knew, she wouldn’t care in any way.

“So? You enjoy telling stories, right? Just say it to me already.”

With that, Leuth was forced to tell his misfortune. Though it was an embarrassing, it was not like he can find another way. The swelling right eye of his was related to her question from before. The reason why he lost his power.

Leuth didn’t know if after life was real. Even after visiting the six primary gods temple in Holy Tribunal City years ago, he still can’t find the answer. It was said that after humans died, their souls will flow underneath the Underworld River, then Underworld will become their next stopping.  Though he didn’t know if all of it was real, as he was not a believer of Māra, he nevertheless still believed that souls were real.

It was obvious that he believed it, because he wouldn’t have proclaimed himself as an exorcist. This certain ‘power’ that he lost was to deal with them. People would normally say they were souls, ghosts, or spirits, but he never bothered to understand them. For him,all he needed to do was to exorcist them. But now he was without any power left in him. Though he only lost the accumulation of it, not the truest sense, it still delivered a great blow to him.

So he told her everything he knew. He started from his encounter with a weird newcomer who wore a white robe while strangely carried a backpack. He was accompanied  with, from what his Head Director once said to him, a lingering of thoughts(though he felt that all of them were still ghosts).

Now that he thought about it, he was minding his own business at that time. He was trying to get an already dead human soul to succumb under his negative energy. It was already two years since he started to do that. But even until now, he always failed without knowing the reason.

Reya listened quietly until he finished. Without knowing it, Leuth had talked for an half hour.

Reya scratched her temple. This newcomer seemed similar… He was obviously Claude.

No, the most wonderful thing was that Claude can absorb all Leuth’s power. Reya had already heard many stories related to ‘absorbing’, but to do it toward Leuth was too far-fetched. Looking at the downcast Leuth below her, she suddenly felt that this was better. What the hell was he trying to do anyway? It was not like he can succeed. Every time she saw Leuth trying to force a soul and him failing to do it, she just felt punching him.

Suddenly, she felt that Claude was not that bad. At least the first thing he did in this city was to give this a good-for-nothing a good beating. Especially that punch on the right eye. She actually thought he was bad at physical.

But he not coming to her house made her disturbed. Just what was he trying to do? Even as far as fighting in the front of his own school. Though he probably still had yet to know his new school.

Everything he did just created many troubles. Especially for what he did toward Leuth.

“—and because the Head Director was oversea right now, I reported to the President.”

Thinking about that troublesome person, Reya can’t help to feel that this will make a great ruckus in the city.

In any case, she really needed to catch Claude before things escalated more. In the worst case, she can just give up her current student council president position.

She then left, leaving the now powerless Leuth in the cold alley alone. Realizing that her enjoyable home rest was canceled, she clicked her tongue. She really hated Claude.