"Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act."

Neil recited the words that were said to him back when he had been at his lowest point.

"...wha?"

But Denise just stared at him with a look of total confusion.

She must not be much of a church girl...

"Basically," Neil said while adjusting his hat, "it means that you have my help."

"R- really!?" Denise gasped.

"Yes, really," he nodded. "You're lucky that you came to me with this instead of going to the authorities."

Because those shady bastards'd be just as bad as the people who kidnapped you in the first place.

"...I don't get it," Lorraine chimed in.

"Huh?"

Denise turned to her sister, who was in the middle of squinting daggers of suspicion at the young detective.

"You don't care," Lorraine said to Neil, her words dripping with accusation. "I've been reading you this whole time and you haven't shown the slightest hint of interest."

"Well I have a strict policy against fraternizing wi-"

"I'm not talking about that," she snapped. "When Denise explained what she's able to do, you barely batted an eye."

Heh, she really is sharp.

"...he didn't?"

And now Denise was staring at him too.

"No, and that doesn't make sense," Lorraine replied. "Any normal person would jump at the thought of extending their-"

"Normal people are greedy and stupid," Neil cut back.

Finally getting up from his chair, Neil walked around his desk to where his new clients were standing.

He was often described as kind of lanky, and his loose-fitting clothing and eternally poor posture didn't do him any favors in this regard... but even so, a height of six feet and three inches still meant that he towered over the two sisters.

"S- so you're saying that you're better than 'normal people?'" Lorraine squeaked out in a futile attempt to hide how intimidated she was.

"Well I'm not greedy at least," Neil replied with a smirk.

Bullying clients wasn't exactly a professional thing to do, but this girl's reactions were too much for him to resist.

"Life is suffering enough as it is," Neil said. "Only an idiot would want to make it last forever."

"That's awfully pessimistic," Lorraine replied.

"Probably," he shrugged. "But it also means that I'm not even the slightest bit interested in locking your sister up in a secret basement somewhere so she can become my own personal rewind button."

"..."

Shit, I got too carried away-

"Well I guess I should be thankful for that," Denise said with a pained smile.

"Maybe so," Neil replied.

A sigh of relief.

"So like I was saying before," he said with a fake cough, "you two have my help."

"Thank you," Denise replied.

"...yeah..." Lorraine nodded.

"But with that said, I dunno how much I'll be able to help you until I know what exactly it is that you want me to help you with."

Looking up information on the people who kidnapped them is one thing, but if they-

"Transportation," Denise said.

"Hm?"

Now it was Neil's turn to be completely thrown off for a change.

"I don't care how, but we need to get far the hell away from here," Denise continued.

"Ah."

Train tickets, maybe a pair of fake IDs just to be on the safe side...

"And we also need protection for how however long it'll take for us to skip town," she said.

"Alright," he nodded. "Both of those are doable."

Neil made a silent prayer of thanks that they weren't here to ask him to avenge their father's murder.

Because after seeing the way that they're crying tears of joy and carrying on just from him agreeing to do this small amount for them, he sincerely doubted that he'd be able to tell them "no."