October 25, 2025

Shiningreel’s dream job wasn’t one of a messenger or a secretary… but that was her life now. How hard could it be for a PRISM official to have their smart switched on? She entered Izumi's office and announced that Aoi Omnious had called for him. The investigator was slowly moving mahjong tiles at his table, and the video with the Gray Sister from Shell's house was replaying on a monitor nearby—Shiny had seen it a thousand times already.

“Is there any progress with the case, Izumi-sensei?”

His hand hovered for a second but then touched one of the tiles. The Viridian caught the interested look of his colleague and asked back, “Have you ever played a mahjong solitaire, Shiny-chan?”

“Afraid not. Just watched some people playing it.”

Niji was one of these people, but Shiny avoided the mere thought of it.

“It is different from a game of the same name. One hundred forty-four tiles are arranged in a certain way in several layers one above the other. The winning condition is to disassemble the pattern to the end by removing the same tiles from the edges.”

He demonstrated the process by taking a pair of matching tiles.

“Yeah, I’ve figured as much.”

“There are some layouts which cannot be solved. How many, what do you think?”

“If a man arranges it?”

“Yes.”

“Hmmmm… say, a quarter?”

“Three percent. Just three.”

“I thought it’s pretty easy to lose in this game. Why?”

“The order of collecting matters. You see, there are several identical pairs. There is no point in immediately removing the tiles as soon as they are unlocked. The layered structure of the solitaire means that if a decision is too precipitate, then the desired tile might stay forever buried under the remaining rows. That is why such a game is not only a meditative activity that increases concentration, but also an excellent tool to achieve a unique problem-solving mindset.”

“I can’t say I get what you mean…”

“I will illustrate it with the example of the Gray Sister case, since that was our initial topic. At the moment we are at what seems to be a dead end. This happened because someone—and by ‘someone’ I do not mean a specific person—took off the tiles too quickly, without thinking that it would be worth waiting for new layers to appear. This has made further play impossible, but it does not imply that the alignment is insoluble by default. Thus, I am trying to restore the structure of the tile arrangement to the original, so we will be able to go through the solitaire again, while removing the dedicated pairs and achieve the result.”

“Eeeeeh, much obliged for the explanation, Sensei, but I need to hurry. If you’ll excuse me...” Shiningreel bowed politely and escaped, wondering how on Earth she used to be fascinated by this absolute nerd side of him.

Without any desire to do so, Izumi abandoned his favorite pastime and stood up, taking a tile with a picture of a bird in his hand. While keeping in mind the whole session so he wouldn’t forget the trail of his thoughts, the investigator went into his boss’ office without knocking and saw the Celestial examining the projection of a map intently. She stood with her back to the entrance, and Izumi stared at her thick waist-long blond hair for a while.

“Something happened, Aoi-san?”

“I need your help, ‘cause I have to go to the Council—the head of PRISM Islands Division arrives in half an hour. Rem has been tracing Emilia Spencer’s arcane from the spot of her abduction and discovered strange anomalies downtown. We must quickly find out what’s happening there; it might give us some clue of a sort. The mayor threatened to make the case public, so the common police will run wild... to Katarina Grant’s utmost delight.”

“I will be happy to deal with the anomalies while you are defending our honor in front of the Council. Could I take a look at what exactly has caused your concern?”

“Here,” the Celestial pointed her finger at a spot near the intersection of two streets. “Since somewhat twenty minutes ago a few violet flashes have been recorded by a scanner of a nearby store, no exact frequency. The main spot seems to be near the dead end of the alley, so the scanning range is too short to give a full picture. But the signal is quite distinct, even too much.”

“Let me check the local video surveillance.”

Izumi looked at his tablet and ran through the list of available cameras. He found a more or less suitable location. When the flash was registered again, nothing changed on the screen with a real-time view.

“Sou desu ka...” the investigator muttered and rewound the record. “Nothing has been happening in this place for a couple of hours. Does the scanner malfunction?”

“It’s possible; but better safe than sorry.”

“I’ll take Hitomi and the twins with me. Shadow as well.”

“Too many people for a nothing-ever-happens place, no?”

“Please, do not consider that I am overthinking it, though I must admit that incomprehensible events scare me to a certain extent. I would suggest that these anomalies could mean anything, including a trap—as one notorious pub is located fairly near to the place.”

“Okay. Keep me updated.”