Just when Detective Kuhn was walking to a room on the second floor with Detective Lee floating in the air beside him, Rash came in from the back with Snowball on his shoulder and knocked on the door of the diner: “Mr. Yu? Are you finished?”

“Well, we’re taking a break, what’s up?” Jianmen asked: “Didn’t I tell you to take a break? I see you’ve bonded with Snowball.”

“Yeah, I was waiting for the right time to tell you this.” Rash stroked the fur on Snowball’s body and said: “There’s uh - there are three spies.”

“Spies?” both Aimee and Thomas were surprised: “What spies? What do they want?”

“Well, my killer BBQ recipe?” Jianmen shrugged, then turned to Rash: “Did they say anything? They didn’t die right?”

“No, but they were under the influence of some kind of gag curse. It’s pretty crafty, it even binds the thought of important information. When I asked them who they worked for, they were either not able to understand, or they couldn’t answer.” Rash shook his head and said: “They couldn’t tell me anything useful, and I am no good with intricate curses like this - I’d lift it if I could, but I’m afraid I’ll just influence their memories.”

“Alright, I’ll check on them later.” Jianmen sighed: “Wait, did they say something about a codex?”

“They did say something beginning with ‘co’, but nothing more.”

“Alright, sounds interesting enough.” Jianmen nodded: “Thank you, Rash.”

“No problem.” Rash also nodded while stroking Snowball: “Let me know if you need me. I’ll be at your farm, the relatives are having a barbeque party, so I thought I’d join them with Snowball...”

“Alright, have a good time.” Jianmen waved Rash goodbye, then turned back to Aimee and Thomas: “Okay, since Josephine is not here. Do you have any questions for me? I know you’ve been through tough battles yourself and you must have just as many questions.”

“Okay… where do I start?” Thomas scratched his nose and ears: “Well ...”

“For starters, what’s a Nekomata?” Aimee looked at Mr. Night Owl, who was all curled up at the corner of the table and yawning.

“Nekomata is a kind of cat daimon, or cat fairy.” Jianmen took a look at Mr. Night Owl, and started answering after confirming that she did not want to answer the question herself: “It’s commonly believed that they originated from Japan. You know the common legend that cats are ‘half-in-half-out’ and can cross over from our world to the nether world? It’s generally from the interactions with Nekomatas. They have incredible control over the magic of the mind, and the ability to communicate with paranormal beings, even a little bit of precognition. They’re relatively weak on combat magic though, which is why they tend to stick together.”

“I see.” Aimee wanted to pet Mr. Night Owl, but then she just retreated her hand for fear of offending her: “They seem friendly.”

“They generally are.” Jianmen smiled: “You can ask Jason about it, he’s got into contact with them before.”

“Okay, here’s my question.” after struggling for a while, Thomas finally raised his hand and asked: “You just mentioned that Jason and Caroline had gone through a special tribulation, can that still happen in the future? And if so, how often does that happen? What should we do in preparation for our own tribulation?”

“Well, you were trained in the arts of mages, so I cannot tell you that in detail.” Jianmen sighed and answered with a smile: “But the common thing you should do, is that you wanna make sure you have mastered all the fundamental knowledge of your art - don’t be those bad students who just sleep through theoretical classes and copy others’ assignment answers. You don’t have to be a theoretician or anything, just be sure you are familiar with the basics.”

“Ah, okay.” Thomas shrugged and looked at Aimee: “At least we know that you’ve got that covered.”

“Can you give us some tips for combatting vampires and lycans?” Aimee ignored Thomas with a roll of her eyes and asked after a short moment of thought: “From what I’ve heard from Thomas, they seemed to be much stronger than I imagined - I still remember how powerless I was when I faced those vampires when we were still detectives. I thought after some training we’d be ready to hold our own against them. But - but I am still unsure.”

Jianmen sighed again, this was the first real question the brother and sister asked him today, and no doubt it was one that was truly concerning to them now that they faced the past adversaries once again and witnessed their existence and the damage they could unleash on normal humans.

“For that, I’ll give you a layered question: first, there is no shortcut - they are just two groups of non-human beings, with their magic and their strengths and witnesses, so becoming stronger is the one answer to it all; and second, there are definitely tactics you can use to have some advantage - here.” He then handed a wooden card to Aimee: “I have some manuals in the library. Find them and you would have all the tips and advice that I could give.”