Hydie stood next to Derek outside the interrogation room with her arms folded. They had been standing like statues for almost a half-hour, staring through the false mirror at the captured man in the goatee while he sat with his head bowed. Derek’s brow was furrowed as he considered the man.

Honestly, Hydie couldn’t stand it anymore. “What? What is it?”

Derek’s frown remained an immovable presence on his face. “This is… strange. We need to be careful.”

Despite Hydie’s previous boredom and Derek’s perpetual gloominess, she felt a spark of excitement. “Yea… we heard the rumors… but to think we would actually find the perp in such a short amount of time… hehehe, if he hadn’t tried to attack that kid while his older brother was upstairs… that fool-”

Derek’s gaze turned sharp. “...if he hadn’t, a fifteen-year-old would have died, Hydie. Why the hell are you laughing?”

“I…” Hydie flushed. Shame devoured her excitement as quickly as it had arrived. Her fingers gripped the still cuffs of her Order Ducis uniform. “I just meant… this is just like a crime show. Of course, I don’t actually want someone to die-”

“Then take this seriously. This man… he hasn’t tried to leave at all. Something strange is going on right now,” Derek’s gaze went back to the man within the room. “Since you love true crime so much… how well do you understand due process?”

“Err…” Hydie scratched the side of her head. Inexplicably, her nails caught on a small imperfection and ripped open a gash on the side of her face. Her mouth twisted as she produced a tissue to dab at the blood. “Due process… is lawyer related stuff, right? All the courtrooms and the judges. Honestly, I wasn’t so into that portion…”

Derek chuckled, which did a lot to rid Hydie of the anxiety she held in her heart since Derek had glared at her for laughing earlier. “Well… yes. Lawyer stuff. But more specifically, Due Process is related to the actions that a State can justifiably take against its citizens. In this case… This Lazlo Derran came to Kharon on a work visa that expired several months ago. As such… it would have been easy to just kick him out of the city and make him someone else’s problem, under normal circumstances.

“But now he’s attacked a minor with deadly force. Even worse, it was done in a very public way. That street was drenched in blood this morning. Even if word hasn’t spread yet, it’s only a matter of time. And when that happens… well, Kharon as a city will want justice.” Derek continued to stare through at the perpetrator within the room. “If we knew his affiliations, we could apply political pressure and use that as an outlet to alleviate Kharon’s thirst for justice. But as it is… we only have him.”

“So what?” Hydie asked. “Since he doesn’t have any backing… doesn't’ that make it easier? Just… punish him. We have laws in Kharon. What’s the punishment for using deadly force on a minor.”

“True… we have laws. And the punishment for his crime… is either imprisonment or having his Class destroyed.” Derek said slowly. He raised his hand toward the fake mirror in front of him as though to touch it, then stopped himself at the last second. His hand lowered back to his side. “But it isn’t that he doesn’t have backing; he just won’t speak of it now. I have no doubt that as soon as we make a final decision on his punishment, some entity will show up and make a stink. Considering the bloody scene… I have no doubt the tribunal will vote to cripple his Class.”

Hydie rubbed the bridge of her nose. This was… not the sort of crime drama that she had in mind during the pulse-pounding chase. “Well fine, let’s just throw him off of Kharon and forget about him… or otherwise, don't we have the backing of Randidly Ghosthound? Who would try and pick a bone with his city?”

“Randidly Ghosthound does not want Kharon to become the sort of city where the strongest individual can enforce any sort of justice they want,” Derek answered quietly. “Keeping him here and punishing him… Kharon doesn’t have a codified process for its justice; it really hasn’t needed to yet. Releasing him… people won’t like that. Stalling until we can make a framework to deal with him… is a morally questionable option. Honestly… now that we’ve caught him… it feels like we are actually the ones who have been caught.”

“Crippling a Class… it is a fraught method.” Derek cracked his knuckles and turned away from the interrogation room. “This is a test. Someone is sounding out the depths of Kharon with this man. Seeing what sort of spirit we have.”

“So what do we do to stop such a sinister plot?” Hydie asked. Her imagination quickly shifted from crime drama to international spy thriller. Perhaps they would need to meet a contact in a casino…?

Derek chuckled again. “The one good thing about being at our level is we might sometimes worry about the high-level stuff, but it isn’t our job to solve it. For now… we just go interrogate him. See if we can find out any details.”

“Oh. OH!” Hydie’s expression brightened as she hurried after Derek. “So are we doing good cop bad cop, or…?”

*****

From the very beginning, Tim had been relatively unsure about Delilah’s ‘sure-fire plan to have Tim not get bullied’ in the weird country that the Ghosthound had taken him to learn Engraving. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure he had been bullied in that first day. But after making Tim talk about it, Delilah announced that she would accompany Tim to that place next time.

He needed her protection, she had claimed. Tim knew she was just bored. But he didn’t mind. Seeing Delilah was… energizing somehow. Her determination and energy was infectious. And considering the difficulty of Engraving, he could use all the extra help he could get.

A few tantrums later, the Ghosthound threw his hands up in the air and Delilah was brought along with him as the Ghosthound teleported them to Tim’s new teacher, Lucretia. Honestly, Tim quite liked Lucretia. She smiled a lot and had hair that was a lovely lilac color. Even when Tim had needed her to explain things several times the prior day, she was always patient with him.

The only problem was her other students. As someone who had recently moved, Tim had some recent experience reading the attitudes of other children around him. And from the jump, the children of Lucretia did not appreciate Tim’s existence. Their intent gazes had followed him as Randidly Ghosthound took him to meet Lucretia.

The wide field where Lucretia hosted her school was filled with her house and dozens of differently colored flags setting atop or beside simple cloth tents. Apparently the flags denoted various factions amongst the students and the colors showed how proficient the groups were at Engraving. Tim also later learned that there was an inherent hierarchy in their placement; only the strong could set up their flags near Lucretia’s house.

But due to the fact he had been brought by the Ghosthound, Tim had been set up basically outside of the door to Lucretia’s house. Whenever he had a problem, she would come over and help him instantly. After giving a general lecture, Lucretia would then wander through the field in looping motions so that those near the middle would receive her guidance more often than those at the periphery. But when Tim had struggled, Lucretia had veered from her path and returned to his side. Due to Randidly coming personally, it was clear that Lucretia valued Tim highly.

And the children at the surrounding flags observed it all.

But while he might someday be bullied for this, Tim could tell that there were a lot of rules that these other kids followed that he didn’t quite understand. The few children he saw only went to the tents of those with similar flags. So even though he kept being pricked by sharp gazes, those invisible rules also functioned as a protection for Tim. The other kids couldn’t freely come and make trouble with him.

Of course, the first thing Delilah did when she arrived was give the other kids the justification that they needed.

A loud crash spread out through the relatively sedate grassland as Delilah stood innocently next to a flag that she had knocked over. With a sigh, Tim set down the spear that he was trying to Engrave and looked around to see what Delilah’s reckless behavior would bring. Of course she had chosen the flag next to the largest tent.

Aside from Tim’s new position, it was the tent the closest to Lucretia.

Tim didn’t need to wait long for his fears to be confirmed. After ten anxious seconds of stillness, the surrounding tents erupted in movement. Various youths between the ages of 8 and 16 hustled out of their small dwellings and began to form a vast circle around them. Delilah spun around, continually trying to find a single antagonist amongst the kids that gathered in order to perform her goal of ‘protecting’ Tim, but no one made eye contact with her. So she continually frowned around as more and more people began to gather. Very soon, Delilah was glaring around in frustration.

She looked over at Tim and threw her hands up into the air. “Why are they all just circling around like creepy ghosts?”

Tim pointed toward the tent next to Delilah and the knocked down flag. “The student within that tent hasn’t come out yet. I think… I think they are all waiting for him.”

“What, here?” Delilah walked up the tent and batted the walls several times with her hands. The tremors ran through the cloth surface of the structure, but it ultimately stood tall underneath her small hands. Eventually she frowned and stood with her arms akimbo. “Are you sure? Because it seems like this tent-”

“Cease this nonsense,” Said a high pitched voice as a young boy stomped out of the tent that Delilah was slapping. He looked to be Tim’s age, but that meant that he towered over the much younger Delilah. “You have already dishonored yourself enough. Why do you insist on making trouble for me during the training period?”

“Hehe.” Delilah giggled. She waved her hand toward Tim. “Well you haven’t been giving my friend and me the respect that we deserve. So I figured it was time to show you how things are going to work around here from now on.”

From now on…? Tim shook his head nervously. How long do you plan on remaining in this place…? I asked around and no one here has even heard of Zones or Kharon before… If you plan on moving here, it seems pretty far away from home...

“Him?” The kid who came out of the tent looked over at Tim. Despite the fact that they were a similar age, he certainly talked like he was pretending to be an adult. “He was brought by Mr. Ghosthound yesterday. We haven’t spoken to him at all. Nothing so petty as bullying has occurred. I refuse to allow you to slander my honor like this-”

“Just shut up and fight then,” Delilah growled, pouncing forward with her hands raised. Inwardly, Tim sighed. He had seen her behave like this in the past. Despite the fact that she was much younger than most of the kids in Kharon, she had earned quite a bit more Skill Levels than any of them had and therefore could overpower most people with the element of surprise. It seemed that Delilah planned on using similar tactics here.

But the kid’s response surprised Tim. He easily knocked Delilah’s hands away and then kicked her in the chest. Her breath came out of her lungs in a rush and she tumbled backward. While Delilah was struggling to her feet, the kid returned to his tent and then came out carrying a long wooden pole. He leveled it at Delilah. “Hmph. Weakling.”

“Bah, just because you are a little bit older- Ooof!” Delilah glared at the kid and began to mutter, but he then launched himself forward and jabbed his weapon into Delilah’s stomach. She was sent tumbling backward once more.

“True, I might be older than you.” The kid said. “I have recently turned thirteen. But at least I am not full of excuses. A loser has no right to complain of circumstance…. Especially when she instigated the conflict in the first place.”

He’s only a few months older than me… Tim thought in a daze. As the kid turned away from the collapsed Delilah, he shouted at his back. “You… what’s your name? I’m Tim, and this is Delilah. I’m… sorry about her attitude.”

Delilah wheezed as she rolled around on the ground, likely trying to say something like, ‘Someday you are all going to be sorry about my fist.’

The kid stopped and glanced over his shoulder. For several seconds he studied Tim, but then he turned fully and bowed. “Well met, Tim. I suppose… the girl is somewhat right. We… should have approached you earlier. But it is not often that a new arrival is brought before Lucretia… especially by Mr. Ghosthound. We were… confused. Ah, but where are my manners. I am Annon, of the Willow Tree Spear Style.”