Chapter 5: Coin Flip

  Floating far from a large planet made of gas, a man twisted and turned in the empty space.

  He laughed softly when he remembered certain memories… How many times did I wake up to that ceiling now again? Probably more times than I ever want to admit.

  The man touched his chin as he continued to think for himself… Maybe remembering what happened during my earliest days in the mystical world isn’t that bad. What happened next?

  …

  After waking up to the unfamiliar ceiling once again, Shade got out of the bed and faced the people playing cards at a table not far away.

  He locked eyes with Mr. Specter. Shade groaned as he heard Mr. Specter’s voice.

  “You up?”

  “Yeah… But I feel like shit.”

  Mr. Specter started laughing loudly. He looked at Ms. Snow, and she gave him a harsh stare. She stood up and served some water and two slices of white bread with butter to Shade.

  “You have been here for two days now. We can’t allow you to return home yet, but we have sent a letter saying that you will be staying over and working overtime to earn money. Your wage will be 5 pounds each week.”

  Shade started coughing from surprise. He looked at Ms. Snow in disbelief. Ms. Snow looked at Shade and laughed softly.

  Though Ms. Snow grew up in a well off family, she still understood that some had it rather difficult moneywise. But Shade’s reaction was still rather funny.

  “You will be paid 5 pounds every week. That should be enough to support a family of 4 with enough to hire a servant.”

  Ms. Snow rolled with her eyes as she asked the man that just spoke a question.

  “Mr. Specter, had enough laughing?”

  “Of course, Ms. Snow. Now that our friend here has finished his lunch, should we start?”

  Mr. Specter answered back with a glee. Shade had finished the slices of bread and cup of water. Mr. Specter was now gesturing for them to follow him out the door.

  Shade quietly followed Ms. Snow and Mr. Specter out of the room and noticed a round table with chairs circling it.

  The room he had been sleeping in was on the same side as Mr. Rouge’s office. Ms. Snow was the first one to speak after leaving the room.

  “The captain isn’t here. He is out with other members and are currently aiding the Church of Dreams with a certain matter. I wasn’t briefed, so I have no clue as to what they are doing.”

  “And here I thought you were a detective Ms. Snow.”

  Mr. Specter spoke with haste and a slightly mocking tone which prompted Ms. Snow to sigh and answer back.

  “Well, why don’t you enlighten us then, Mr. Specter. What do you think they are doing?”

  Specter thought for a moment then turned around and started walking backwards as he spoke.

  “According to my inference, I believe the captain and the others are currently aiding in battle against cultists.”

  Ms. Snow laughed dryly. She thought for a moment and then asked a question to Mr. Specter.

  “And why do you think they are fighting cultists?”

  Mr. Specter laughed slightly before speaking.

  “Good question, very good question. It’s because you and me are here. If it was a covert mission, then they would have brought me. If you remember, Ms. Snow, I have 2 Sleep spirit characteristics and one illusion characteristic.

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  If they were investigating a haunting, then you would be with them as you have a divination characteristic. But unfortunately, we are both here, which leaves only one option left.”

  Ms. Snow didn’t look impressed, because she wasn’t. She had figured it out on her own and simply wanted to know if her colleague had similar thoughts.

  The two of them continued talking while Shade listened intently, trying to collect as much information as possible… Is this going to be my life now as well now?

  “And here we are!”

  Mr. Specter made a gesture with his hands. The three of them had taken the middle bridge after coming to the central platform.

  They reached another platform that stood empty. It looked nearly identical to taking the bridge to the right. Mr. Specter started stretching, and Ms. Snow turned to Shade.

  “Now then, Mr. Magician. The reason why we can’t allow you to return home is because you can’t control your madness.

  We lessen and control our madness by using the powers or characteristics as we call them which we gain from contracting with spirits and demons.

  While madness will lessen, our desires will become worse. Think of it this way, the origin of the madness comes from the spirits and demons we contracted.

  By using their characteristics, we tire them out but because we tire them out, they need to eat. Think of desires as food for the spirits.”

  “I’m ready!”

  Mr. Specter screamed loudly as he stopped stretching and turned to Ms. Snow and Shade. Ms. Snow continued explaining.

  “You need training before going out into the field. Mr. Specter will be teaching you close quarters combat.

  I will teach you divination and mysticism. I will be here and watch you two spar and stop Mr. Specter if he goes too far.

  Good luck, Mr. Magician.”

  Mr. Specter approached Shade. Shade held up his hands and was ready to defend himself, but it was apparent that Mr. Specter didn’t plan on sparring just yet.

  “Ms. Snow sure is terrible. I am rather gentle with my partners so there is no need to worry.”

  “I see…”

  A large smile appeared on Mr. Specter’s face. He took a couple of steps back and started speaking while turning his back towards Shade.

  “Right! I remember the captain telling me about the spirit you contracted. Four characteristics, huh?

  If it wasn’t for the goddess’s protection and blessing, you would have probably died that day, or worst case, turned completely mad.

  You have an illusion characteristic, right? I have one too. Let me show you how to use it in combat. Clench your teeth~”

  Another Mr. Specter showed up next to Shade and punched Shade in the face. After being punched in the face, Shade’s feet lifted from the ground.

  Mr. Specter used his wind spirit characteristic and sent Shade flying into the air. Ms. Snow stomped with her foot and a large bubble of water the size of two basketballs softened Shade’s landing.

  After getting to his feet, he saw two of the same people approach him. Mr. Specter 1 and Mr. Specter 2, both smiled at him. The one that had punched him opened his mouth.

  “An illusion at the strength of one illusion spirit isn’t that useful. At most, one can make a simple illusion of oneself. With more spirits, even if they aren’t illusion spirits, making the illusion move become possible.

  If you want a qualitative change in your illusions or any other ability, then you need another one of the same characteristics.

  More spirits of a different characteristic won’t change much. Now, let’s continue.”

  Mr. Specter continuously sparred with Shade until dinner time. During all of that time Ms. Snow was making sure that neither Specter nor Shade got too hurt, mostly Shade.

  One of the civilian employees, a non-mystic employee, was sent to buy dinner and they all ate together on the second floor of the detective agency.

  Ms. Snow started teaching Shade divination and mysticism after dinner.

  “To use any characteristic, divination, curses, hexes, and just anything that as to do with mysticism consumes spirituality. Have you read any books with a magical setting?

  Think of spirituality like mana. In a similar manner to mana, it is used like fuel in the mystical world. Let’s start with something easy.”

  Ms. Snow threw a coin to Shade, he easily caught it. He looked at the coin in his hand and then looked at Ms. Snow.

  “Because some coins are different, you need to make clear which side of the coin is heads and which side is clover. Or if you want to make it even more simple, one side of the coin is, Yes, and the other side is, No. See this?”

  Snow held another coin in her hand then she started doing tricks with it and throwing the coin from one hand to the other.

  Lastly, she threw it up into the air and kept it hanging there with her wind spirit.

  “Turn around, I won’t catch the coin with you looking. You will have to use coin flip divination to figure out which hand has the coin.”

  “Alright.”

  Shade nodded and turned his back. Ready to perform divination, Shade waited for Snow to catch the coin.

  “I’m done. Now turn around and use the divination technique.”

  Shade followed what Ms. Snow said blindly, he turned around and chanted the divination statement thrice as he instinctively infused spirituality into his divination.

  “The coin is in her right hand.”

  “The coin is in her right hand.”

  “The coin is in her right hand.”

  Shade flipped the coin and then let it fall down on his palm. The side that Shade had predetermined to be, No, was the one pointing upwards.

  …

  The man floating in the empty space thought to himself calmly… Now that I think about it. I should had noticed that something was off when I suddenly could perfectly perform a divination.

  I wonder what Ms. Snow thought at the time. Maybe she thought that I was a genius. No, she probably thought that I was only lucky.

  I still remember Mr. Specters face when I said which hand the coin was in.