Early next morning Akamai called the group of friends to meet her in her office urgently. Gaela thought it's just something small like did anyone lost a pencil, pen or something and talk with Gaela about urgent events such as what happened yesterday at the funfair. But it's different. Really different.
Akamai's strong arms are wrapped around the coroner affectionately and Alfred shared the same content smile Akamai has plastered on. Nevertheless, the Quintessential Bachelor and Quintessential Polyglot are like two proud parents. The Quintessential coroner brushes strands of her unique blondish ashen brown hair out of her sight before staring blankly at Gaela, beautiful heterochromatic blue and green with orange specks eyes meeting Gaela's brown ones. Lait immediately tenses up in her wheelchair, looking down at her burnt and bandaged lap while curling her lips.
"Oh my, what a surprise! Welcome back Sherry!!" Gary exclaimed, trotting over to the coroner before giving her a quick side hug. "S-Sherry Corcoran." Maria uttered out, spatting the words out of her mouth with a heavy blush while staring at her intensely. "I see where Gary is going with this. I'll show that albino b*tch—" "L-Let's calm down Marii!" Lait said nervously, "it's great to have the Quintessential Coroner back right?" "Sherry!" David cheered before rushing over to the girl, "it's nice to have you back! It feels like we're back in our good ol' secondary school Todhchaí Academy!"
"Gaela I believe you never met Sherry Corcoran before." Akamai said, shoving the coroner with her shoulder, signalling the girl to introduce herself. "No I haven't. Hello, I am Itenokami Gaela. I am a transfer student from Japan and I am the Quintessential Archer. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, please take care of me." Gaela introduced with a small bow.
Sherry Corcoran nodded, heterochromatic eyes darting up and down, contemplating Gaela's image. "Greetings, I am Sherry Corcoran. The Quintessential Coroner is at your service. May the stars align us." Gaela tilted her head in confusion as Sherry continued to contemplate her figure, nodding in approval. "You're a Sagittarius." Sherry started, "my horoscope said today's moon transit is encouraging me to take advantage of creative flow. Be on the lookout for good news and the unexpected.... My intuition is strong. Trust it. I believe our meeting here must be faith...."
Akamai chuckled with a look that reads 'here she goes again' while Maria widened her eyes. "gAELA IS MY GIRL!" She fumed. Gaela took note that Sherry is a superstitious person. "—Gaela Itenokami, let me tell you what a Sagittarius' horoscope reads today." Sherry then proceeds to pull out a bronze-gold ancient looking instrument of her satchel. "Window..." She muttered before pacing across Akamai's office and opened the velvet curtains.
Everyone in the room squinted their eyes as the rays of sunlight pierce through the glass. Gaela cursed under her breath before looking over at the coroner, who's aligning the bronze instrument with the sun rays. "Gaela, make adjustments so that you can raise your self-worth. You may feel over the edge today. Be careful and watch your back, keep those close and important to you safe because you might loose them forever today. If you're nervous or tense, listen to your heart and follow your instincts."
Gaela narrowed her eyes, confused. Nervous? She's never nervous. Those close to Gaela? She don't think she have any - she's a lone wolf who need no companionship. "Hey miss Coroner, how do you even know if Gaela is a Sagittarius or not?" Maria asked with her hands on her hips, "its bold of you to assume her Zodiac sign. Stop stealing my girl." ".....My horoscope said so." Sherry replied, "the moon is currently four houses away from Jupiter and it transmits by thirty six degrees over my ruling planet. Sagittarius' ruling planet is Jupiter and—" "I'm born on the twenty fifth of November." Gaela said.
"So you are a Sagittarius!" Gary exclaimed, "oh my god Sherry you're a genius! I'm so lucky to have a partner like you!" Gary then proceed to throw his arms around Sherry, smiling affectionately. Maria is clearly not having it. She ran over to the investigator duo and broke the two free. "No PDA." She spat, glaring at Sherry menacingly in....... jealousy? "What is wrong with you Maria?!" Gary asked, "why—"
"I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO SAY; 'lmao Sherry is cool f*ck you Maria'. I'LL SHOW YOU ALBINO B*TCH—"
"W-Wait why—"
"I WANNA STRANGLE YOU AND UGH. F*CK YOU. DO YOU REALLY ENJOY SEEING ME SUFFER?!"
"Hey Maria..? Are you alright? Gary did you provoke her in any way today?"
"N-Not that I can think of Lait."
"fINE THEN GARY. I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU! I HAVE ADRIENNE AND GAELA ALL TO MYSELF. FAEX. CUNNE. FUTUE TE IPSI. BOVID STERCUS."
Gaela narrowed her eyes. Adrienne? Adrienne doesn't even give out numbers to people - it took Gaela forever to get Adrienne's when she first joined the agency; only Lydie and Mr Häyhä have her phone number. But what's peaking Gaela's interest is what Maria is saying... Gaela never knew Maria can speak Latin. "Bien, this is getting out of hand." Alfred said wincing as Maria continued to swear in what it seems to be Latin. "Calmati Maria, calmati—" Alfred said before he's interrupted by Maria. "vAFFANCULO ALFRED CAGNA CULO FIGA—"
Alfred squeaked in fear before looking over at Akamai with his face pale and trembling the slightest in fear. Gaela wonder what Maria just screamed out. "What shall we do with Maria prez?" David asked, looking over at Alfred with a sorry look. "Our precious baby Alfred looks like he's gonna die any second now." Akamai hesitated before answering. "David, go out with Sherry." Gaela blinked.
"Oh? Why?"
"I think Maria is jealous of Sherry."
"Really? I know for sure she hates Gary more than anything."
"Don't underestimate the power of love David."
"Sure prez, whatever you say. Hey Sherry! Let's go out, my treat! You just came back and all so why don't we hangout together? Just the two of us."
Sherry nodded with a blank look. "Sure. My horoscope said today is a great day to socialise so why not?" Sherry shrugged, "it's been a while since I had some scones with berry jam." "Gary, do you mind accompanying Alfred for the day? Stay away from Maria. Also Lait please look after Maria. I don't want anymore of their squabbling. Sherry and David, have fun. Y'all are dismissed. And as for Gaela, stay here."
Everyone nodded before leaving Gaela and Akamai alone in her office. "....I know I'm not anywhere near Adri's level but please watch over David and Sherry carefully on their supposing 'date'." Akamai began, her usual confident and carefree smile fading away. "Akamai. I trust your animal instincts. But why did you tell David to go out with Sherry then?" Gaela find herself asking, "why not m— never mind. Sorry. Is that all?"
"Sherry is the Quintessential Coroner. I didn't ask her to accompany David for nothing you know.... Anyways I'm going to the agency when I have the time to. To be honest, I feel like something bad is going to happen. Please be careful. Please. That is all, you are free to leave." "Of course Akamai. I'm not Mr Häyhä's 'gem' for nothing. I won't let you down." "Of course."
Gaela nodded, saluted before she walked out of Akamai's office, deep in thought. It's her duty to make sure David is safe. Akamai's animal instincts are wild and accurate most of the time so Gaela think it's best to get some backup. As Gaela walked down the school corridor, she whipped out her phone and opened an app. The loading screen disappeared after a few seconds or so and a blue haired girl with bright orange eyes in the app smiled at Gaela.
"Hello Miss Gaela Itenokami! I'm sorry for the slow response. How can I help you?"
"Hello Ma171, I need your help......"
***
Gaela pulled down her sunglasses and tilted her head downwards as she glared at David and Sherry together in Caffè Nero. Gaela don't know why but there's something in her gut that's churning and screaming murder. A pang of envious resentment punched Gaela in the stomach as David wrapped his arms around the stoical Sherry happily, laughing at what it seems to be old school memories.
"Oh Sherry remember that day when you failed your English exam?! You just wrote your name and 'stars will always hold the most euphoric answers' on the front page!"
"But I'm right. My horoscope for that day reads 'the ball is in your court' and the stars never lie."
"You know, you shouldn't rely on the stars, planets and all that too much. It's fake."
"I respect your opinion but that's not going to change who I am and what I believe in. As a coroner, I believe I have to tell the untold story on how one died. The spirits of the dead ascend to the heavens and into the stars to guide those who will listen and follow..."
Gaela's sighed as her phone continue echoing David and Sherry's conversation. Maili jacked up David's phone and it's currently acting as a listening device for Gaela to eavesdrop into the duo's conversations. And of course Gaela is observing the tables around Sherry and David just in case any of them tries to lay a finger on the duo. "Hey Sherry since Akamai gave us the day off of school, why don't we go—?" "David, shut down your phone."
Gaela froze.
"Huh? Why?"
"The sun has spoken. It's currently 12:30 and the sun said at the hour of noon and a half, thou shan't trust applications of science because thy most trusted can backstab thou and summon an inhospitable third party. I already turned mine off."
"What's up with the half old English Sherry? Never mind. I guess it doesn't hurt to shut it off. Give me a second..."
Click.
...Gaela is pissed.
Ancient damnination. Wicked fiend. A plague o' Sherry's family. Gaela cursed under her breath as soon as Maili's face popped up on her phone screen with an uncertain look. "Gaela I got disconnected from their devices... I tried to invite myself into the people around them's phones but it's too far to hear anything." "It's fine, thank you Ma171." Gaela simply replied, "I guess I have to do this the old fashioned way." Gaela just stared at the duo chatting for a good few hours while checking her bag for her gadgets every once in a while before the two finally stood up and left Caffè Nero.
Gaela stood up and left the cafe, putting a £5 note on the table beside her finished mocha tea. Gaela followed the chessman and the coroner down the street as casually as possible, her sharp eyes fixated on the duo. They finally stopped in front of a cinema before exchanging some words and got in.
Gaela paused. She have never been to a cinema before - only theatres and auditoriums from her previous missions. What's a cinema like? Is it going to display actors from those hanging posters around the area? Gaela shook her head furiously. No time to think such trivial things. She must not loose sight of David and Sherry.
The first thing Gaela was greeted with when she entered the cinema was a surprisingly strong smell of roasted popcorn and sweat. Gaela walked over to a counter and placed a twenty pound note into the counter. The server gave Gaela a weird look. "I want to see the movie 'This Isn't A Diary, This Is A - Mirror?!' starring the actress with the stage name The-Book-Is-Written-By-Lait-Go-Check-It-Out." "Ma'am this is the ice cream parlour."
..............Damn.
Gaela sighed before kneading the side of her head, mumbling some curses in Finnish amongst the lines 'vittu' and apologised. The server kindly guided Gaela to the ticket booth and she purchased her tickets successfully (without the help of anyone but the ice cream guy. Gaela is thankful Adrienne isn't here to smack her repeatedly on the back yelling 'stupid idiot' like a broken tape record. But then again Adrienne is pretty weak and her supposing beatings always acts as a massage for the Rí an Ghealach).
Gaela got her ticket and walked into Screen 7 and spotted the flamboyant chessman and the exquisite coroner-astrologer immediately at the front row, chatting idly. A pang of jealousy punched Gaela in the gut but she ignored it. She just sat down by the far side back and stared at the duo, observing them when the room dimmed and the movie started playing.
***
Gaela have to admit, the movie seems pretty interesting even though she spent two whole hours looking at David's beau— ahem, David and Sherry's surroundings. The movie is about an universe for animals with useless powers... Fun. Sherry seems to enjoyed it a lot.
When the movie ended, David and Sherry left the cinema, only to be greeted with the setting sun cascading with the twilight into the night. Gaela blinked. How long did Sherry and David actually spend in that café..? Gaela internally smiled when she faintly heard something about going back to St Peter's from David. Finally they're going back.
"Hey Sherry shall we take the shortcut?"
"No."
"Why though? Come on!"
"My horoscope said it's best to avoid shortcuts unless you want to fall on your knees."
"Please Shi-Ri, just this onceeee~!"
"Don't call me that, only Alfred— fine, just this once. Forgive me stars, for I am defying you."
"Yay! Let's go! To the spooky alleyways!"
Gaela don't feel so good when she climbed onto a wall and hoisted herself on top of a takeaway shop when she tries to catch a better view of the duo. The dark damp alleyway normally will send alarm bells blaring in any sane citizen's guts but this is David Moon and Sherry Corcoran we're talking about. Of course they don't follow their instincts (Sherry kinda does? Well, she follows the stars). The duo is already pretty deep into the alleyway and it'll take them a while to run out if anything happened to them.
A tall girl with long lavender hair in braids stepped in front of David and Sherry in the middle of the alleyway, shivering as soon as her soft cyan green eyes met with David's curious golden brown ones. "A-Are you David Moon..? A-And you are Sherry Corcoran right?" She squeaked. Gaela's hands slithered down her handbag and held onto a pistol. Slowly and quietly, Gaela crept along the rooftop and stopped directly under the trio, listening into the conversation. "Yeah, why?" David asked, tilting his head.
"It's you..! IT'S YOU—! GET OUT OF HERE, PLEASE! RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN. PLEASE RUN BEFORE LUCY—"
"Shauna.......?"
The tall girl, presumably Shauna, froze in fear, her gentle eyes loosing all colour. "L-Lucia!" She squeaked. By the other side of the alleyway was a girl with short white hair who's holding onto a poster with a picture of David on. Her murky blue eyes met David's and she dropped the poster she's grabbing onto as soon as an affectionate smile crept onto her face and she pulled out a pair of chopsticks. "Shauna, I love you." The girl said softly, "you found the guy I need to eliminate."
Gaela's blood ran cold as she looked around the rooftop in panic. She need to get David out of here, Sherry can wait. If Gaela hopped down from the rooftop and defend them, David and Sherry will know Gaela's true identity and that'll be quite a problem. A discarded paper lunch bag fluttered in the breeze and flew into Gaela's knees. Gaela stared at it before Sherry's voice echoed in Gaela's head.
"Gaela, make adjustments so that you can raise your self-worth. You may feel over the edge today. Be careful and watch your back, keep those close and important to you safe because you might loose them forever today. If you're nervous or tense, listen to your heart and follow your instincts."
This will do, her instincts said so.
Shauna let out a small yelp and hid behind a large bin as soon as Lucina threw the top half of her chopsticks onto the floor, revealing two large needle-like knives beneath the chopstick facade. She lunged at David and Sherry, who turned around and ran. The white haired girl let out a maniacal laugh before throwing one of her sharp knives at the retreating duo.
Sherry, who seems to know the situation better than David, widened her eyes before shoving David to another direction and she fell on her knees, hissing in pain. The knife pierced into Sherry's left calf, bleeding furiously. "I defy you stars!" Sherry cursed, "RUN DAVID. GO."
Lucia stopped in front of the injured coroner with a piteous smile. "It's a shame. TRAXX loves you. You solved plenty of it's cases but you never revealed it's identity, which it look forward to. But alas, you need to die here Sherry Corcoran, goodbye."
A gunshot.
*clink!*
Lucia lowered her knife, turned her head slowly and glared at the sniper wearing a paper lunch bag with two holes for eyes, holding a pistol steadily in one hand with a phone in another. "...I never knew there's a third party." Lucia started, "whats a sniper doing here? You're not protecting that David Moon brat are you? Do you even know what he did?! Take a look in social media or something will you?" "..." Gaela just kept quiet as she aimed another bullet at Lucia's chest but Lucia hits it away effortlessly with her knife. "Let Sherry go." Gaela said, her voice muffled from the BLT flavoured paper lunch bag, "spare the coroner or else......"
Gaela's pistol drifted over to Shauna, who only let out a cry in freight. "L-Lucia!" The tall shy girl whimpered. "YOU—! Don't you dare to..... Fine." Lucia growled as she lowered her knife and yanked her other knife out of Sherry's leg harshly. "Take the coroner and go. However; I won't spare that chessman. Come on Shauna, let's go home..."
Shauna quickly ran into Lucia's arms and the shorter white haired girl walked off with the taller lavender haired girl clinging onto her. Lucia threw what it seems to be a smoke bomb onto the floor and the pair disappeared without a trance. Gaela hopped down the rooftop and landed on her feet, scowling as puddles of muddy water stained her combat boots.
"...Can you stand?" Gaela asked Sherry as she stopped in front of the injured coroner. Sherry just stared at the masked sniper, mouth agape. "Are you with him?" Sherry asked and looked up at the rooftops at a distance. Gaela turned her head the direction Sherry's looking over at and froze, heart stopped beating for a second.
A platinum blonde haired sniper with a mask that covered half of his face watched the scene from a minute or so unfold at a distance on the clock tower of a church, clutching onto a sniper rifle steadily in one hand with his eyes aligned to the scope. The blonde immediately noticed Sherry and Gaela's gaze and he took his gaze off of the telescope, packed up his gadgets before he disappeared into the church stairs.
"It's for me to know and you to find out Miss Quintessential Coroner." Gaela simply replied with, "I'll call the ambulance. Stay here. Don't mention my presence to the police." Gaela proceed to turned around and dial a number in her phone - Akamai.
"Hey—"
"David Moon fled. Sherry Corcoran injured. Ambulance."
"On my way."
"The ambulance will be here shortly along with the student council president of St Peter's College." Gaela said in monotone, putting her phone away. "Stay here and don't move. I'll take my leave." Sherry Corcoran contemplated Gaela's figure up and down before she spoke up. "Okay. Thank you for all this, Sagittarius." A chill run down Gaela's spine as she walked away. "Of course. Farewell miss Quintessential Coroner......... Thank you."
Sherry stared at the retreating sniper, her blue and green heterochromatic eyes glistening in the evening sun. "See you soon, you have my most sincere gratitude. I am Sherry Corcoran. The Quintessential Coroner is at your service... Forever and always. May the stars align us."