"Detective Remi." A man took out his badge before showing it to the police at the crime scene.

  They nodded and let him through the restricted areas at the crime scene.

  He walked into the main scene immediately as his assistant followed him.

  Both of them were investigating a murder that happened a few days ago.

  The one murdered was an important man in his 50s. Remi didn't know why he was important but he still followed orders since they were paying a lot.

  The body had a few holes in it, which was suspected to be bullet holes. Although he was certain it's a bullet hole, they still told him that they weren't certain.

  Asking even more only led to them telling him that he didn't see the corpse and had no knowledge of what happened.

  Remi wasn't sure what they were hiding but unless they were corrupted, the situation was too risky to find that out.

  Fortunately, he and his assistant were only the ones around the main scene, so he was clear to do anything to find the culprit.

  Normally, he would've asked them to get the bullets and give it to him before tracking the bullets and searching for the most recent bullets or gun purchases.

  He couldn't do that this time for obvious reasons.

  “Ema, what do you think happened here?” He asked while searching for other evidence.

  “Murder.” She replied.

  “No shit, Sherlock.” He turned around and replied jokingly.

  The personality her assistant had was the most fun to mess with, so he did on multiple occasions. However, it seems like she had learned how to mess with him instead.

  "I meant what do you think of the cause? And by cause, I meant the reason for the murder. Not the gun wounds." He elaborated.

  "Probably some unresolved stuff."

  He chuckled for a while before replying.

  "I guess that's the best we can guess at the moment."

  He kept searching but it was to no avail. That was until his assistant came and took out a book.

  Of course, the bookshelf didn't pop out like the cartoon but the interesting thing was the book itself. Looking at it, it seems like this was the last thing he touched before he got murdered.

  He looked at the book before asking her to put it down on the table and carefully opened it. It was an ordinary diary book with a few days missing but that was to be expected from a diary. However, what ticked him off was the fact that the diary was placed in the perfect place for anyone to see.

  Normally, a person would try to hide it but it seemed like he was not one of them.

  Remi read the book before looking at his assistant.

  "Search the area. This book is most likely a fake." He ordered her.

  She nodded and searched the place as much as she could, however Remi already found something interesting after just a few minutes.

  He found another book behind the multiple books placed on the shelf. It was just right behind stacks and was in a tight small spot.

  He didn't ask her to stop searching since this book could just be another misleading, so he just opened without telling her about it. The book seemed to be another diary from him, however the texts inside seemed to be emitting an ominous feeling.

  Reading the contents of the flipped page, he felt that the pages were incomplete.

  "Gimme the UV light." He requested.

  She quickly pulled out one from her pocket before going over to the table. She saw him reading a different notebook from last time but she didn't question him and just went back to searching for more items.

  Of course, she would've asked normally but she really didn't want to interrupt his thinking.

  After grabbing the flashlight, he switched it on and shined it on the diary.

  A few texts suddenly appeared on the pages and he kept shining on pages he thought were hidden.

  After confirming that the pages weren't fake, he started reading the hidden texts.

  [

  Date: 5/2/2272

  I went to an auction yesterday and I bought a clock that looked ancient. I think it will look great on my wall. Although, it was quite expensive. The strange thing is, there seems to be a blue notebook inside. I'm not sure what it got to do with the clock but it would be a waste to return it. So, I'm gonna keep it.

  ]

  "Why is that hidden?" A question came behind Remi as he jumped at the sudden voice. He almost turned around before realizing who it was and answered the question.

  "Most people don't want anyone to take their valuables." He only answered that much and left her to think about the rest before continued reading.

  [

  Date: 7/2/2272

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The clock is following me. I don't know how nor do I know why. I just know it's following me. Everywhere I looked there's the same clock. I'm going to ask someone to check it for me and I'm too scared to read it.

  ]

  Remi instantly looked up and searched the surrounding for any clocks but thankfully, he didn't see any.

  His assistant also seems to have done the same, however she did it much shorter than him due to her searching items before.

  Looking at the next page, he read again.

  [

  Date: 12/2/2272

  It killed them. It killed them. The clock killed them. I checked them after not hearing anything for a few days. I found them mutated on the ground. His entire family was dead. I'm not gonna keep the clock but it keeps following me. I don't know what it wants. Should I read the book? I don't know. I know an Uncoiled person can handle dangerous information more than a regular person but I don't know if he was a regular person. I don't know.

  ]

  Remi was filled with energy as he reread the page again, to see if he described the mutation.

  "Remi, didn't we work on a case similar to this description?" His assistant seems to have caught on as she asked.

  "Yeah." He replied after a short pause.

  Like she said, he had worked on a similar case like the description. In fact, it was the only case he worked on that had heavy Versile involvement since the city's officials were pretty strict on it.

  The case was about a family that mutated and his job was to identify the suspect.

  But the case was pretty odd, they were just living a normal life until at midnight when the wife screamed. The bodies were heavily aged but the actual age of the family were all below 40.

  Looking at the security cameras, he didn't find anything weird, so the officials just covered the story up with some drugs.

  That case didn't bother him, that much due to him having unresolved cases every month or so. What bothered him was the nature of the case but that wasn't his domain to peer into.

  [

  Date: 25/2/2272

  I'm glad they accepted the deal. I was worried about my business being taken down by them but It seemed like a couple bucks would do the trick. The domain also accepted my deal as well after returning the book to them. Not that I had that much of a choice. The contract lasts 1 year, so remember that, me. Don't forget to follow it. And if anyone is reading this other than me. Don't worry, I will know and they'll get you.

  ]

  He closed the book and refrained from reading any further. He stared at his assistant for a while before putting the book in its place.

  "Why didn't you read further?" She asked.

  "Ema, the officials here are corrupted and we had possibly learned information that could get us executed. And you don't know shit about Versile stuffs, we could get targeted by a few cults if we know a bit more than we should."

  He paused for a bit.

  "We need to move out of the city."

  Her expression became serious and helped him cover up the evidence. She wanted to ask but the time was not correct for it.

  ***

  "Let's put a bit of this on, and......we're done!" Travestita said after putting makeup on Julo for training.

  A sound of someone holding their laughter could be heard right beside Julo as he turned around.

  Looking straight at Hitomi, she couldn't hold it in any longer before bursting out laughing.

  "Man, Ju-Julo. Ha. You really look great as a girl." She kept on laughing after looking at his face again.

  Currently, they were doing disguise training but Travestita managed to get a bit carried away.

  Julo wouldn't agree to this but since it was training, he had no chance but to agree. He looked past Hitomi and into the mirror to check his looks.

  He had purple hair that was barely noticeable, light red eyes and had the appearance of a short girl. He couldn't look at himself and walked towards the bathroom to get rid of it and fortunately, training time had ended for the week, so he could do whatever he wanted.

  However, he tried to wash the makeup and the dye away but it was to no avail. He looked at the mirror again before trying once more.

  "Ummm, Julo? I got a bit carried away and accidentally used one of my permanent makeup and I don't have the cleaner to remove, right now."

  "WHATTT. HAAA."

  Julo could hear Hitomi's loud laugh in the living room as he stared at the mirror for a moment.

  'I gotta stay like this until Monday?' He thought.

  He sighed heavily but he wasn't that scared. He hasn't made any friends in this neighborhood since he just rushed to work every morning and he mostly just stayed at home.

  So, it wasn't that bad.

  He walked out of the bathroom, disappointed and sat down.

  Hitomi was still laughing at him but he didn't pay it much attention.

  He took out his laptop before turning it on.

  "JULO? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" A scream came from the laptop, leaving him confused.

  'Oh her.' He remembered about the AI.

  "Ai, did you really forget about me?" He hadn't opened the app for more than 1 week now and paired that with her being sentient, it was sooner or later she would gain the ability to open herself.

  "And your appearance is quite amusing." She taunted him.

  "Shut up." He mumbled.

  'Oh yeah, Gino hasn't given me any special permission on the files.' He recalled.

  He was supposed to get additional permission for being an Uncoiled but it seemed like he had forgotten about it.

  However, just as he got out of his chair, Gino came into the room before looking in his direction.

  "Julo, what's your access id?" He asked.

  "What's that?" He replied.

  "The id on your permission."

  "And where do I check that?" Julo asked another question.

  "Go on the classified files and it should give you it."

  Julo took out his phone and did what he was told before telling him.

  "Alright. We have a new mission. We want everyone here, so join if you can." Gino wasn't gonna let another incident happen.

  Julo stopped what he was doing before slowly turning his head to Gino. Thankfully, he wasn't looking at him.

  "Julo, wanna come?" Stark asked, jokingly knowing that he was scared of any missions after the last incident.

  "No." He replied almost instantly.

  He chuckled before asking the others.

  "Well, I can't today. My friend that keeps ghosting me wants to hang out."

  "Ghosting?" Julo asked Stark.

  "Yeah, she's been doing that for some reason lately and I want to know what I did."

  "Oh."

  He walked to the exit before turning around.

  "Lent! Come faster."

  "Hold on" He replied in a tone that was barely audible.

  Travestita wondered what he was doing and looked at the screen of his laptop.

  However, as Lent walked to Stark, Travestita was still stuck in her place. It took a while for her to rub her eyes and follow them out.

  Gino looked at them before turning around.

  "Julo, don't worry. I'll get you the files." And he walked back to his office.

  Only Lent and Julo were left in the room.

  Julo smiled a little before using his laptop for a while.

  ***

  6 hours later.

  Julo was walking to his house when it suddenly started raining. That's when he remembered that he had forgotten his umbrella.

  He was almost halfway to his house and had to make a difficult decision.

  Either he goes to his house and sleep or he walks back and goes thrice the distance he had covered.

  Thinking about this carefully, he almost picked the former but remembering about the rain that might happen tomorrow, he decided to go back.

  He walked for a while before hearing loud gunshots from above.

  He looked up to see the department's window broken. Specifically, Gino's office's window.

  He became worried and started running.

  He hoped that today wouldn't be his last day.

  Perhaps it will.

  Perhaps it will not.