"Fi-na-lly~ this took way too long!"

"Well, maybe we would've been here earlier, if not for a certain someone that felt the need to walk all the way here.

"Yeah, I think so too! I question your decisions sometimes."

"Eh?! My decisions?! You're the one that bugged me to not take the bike! Furthermore, you knew that the nearest hideout is a whole day away on foot!"

"Your bike is so scary, though! Also, is it a crime that I want to spend some quality time with my girlfriend before we have to go Esper hunting? Here come on, you deserve a break!"

One of the two women sat down on a bench next to a gas station while looking up to the other one.

"Come come, take a seat! If you want to, then you can also use my lap as a pillow, like you always do at home!"

"You don't need to tell me to sit down, Miyo, and I will most definitely not use your lap as a pillow... at least not now."

"But you want it! I can see it in your eyes, Kaiyo! Oh, and I'd hide Cali if I were you. You already get stares."

The woman that sat on the bench, who was apparently called Miyo, pointed to the people around them, and as she said, everyone was staring at them. More precisely, everyone stared at the woman she called Kaiyo. A tall woman with short, bright yellow hair styled into an undercut. She wore a long black leather jacket with a purple tank top underneath and skinny jeans.

But none of these were the reason that the people stared. All the people stared at the big sword that was strapped to her back. The blade was hidden in a leather sheath, and the golden, with gemstone decorated handle, was sticking out.

"I'm not gonna hide him, just because people are staring at me. You should know that, Miyo."

"I'm talking about that officer over there. I know you want to leave and go back as soon as possible, so it'd be better if we wouldn't have to go to the police station because you have an oversized butter knife. I'm not telling you what to do, though. I like this small town, and I wouldn't mind staying longer."

"I won't hide him, the answer's final!"

Kaiyo took the sword sheath with the sword in it off and sat down on the bench, with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Let's just do this as fast as possible, and then I don't need to care if anyone sees Excalibur as a problem. Where is the guy that we're looking for, what's their name, and do we finally know which Esper he has?"

"Phew, you really don't wanna be here! Do you hate small towns so much?"

"I don't like that we're in a town that's known for people that pull you in some alley and take you the money out of your pockets! I have no problems with them, but I know you play around too much, as that you actually do anything against them."

"Aw Kaiyo, I didn't know you care so much for me!"

Miyo said with a smirk as she stood up again. She was about two heads shorter than Kaiyo and overall looked like the complete opposite of her. She had long, bright blonde, and wavy hair, with a few strands hanging in front of her face. She wore red half-frame glasses and had a general way calmer and more approachable look on her face than Kaiyo did. The rest of her body was covered in a coat that even looked as if it would be oversized for Kaiyo.

"You're my girlfriend, so of course, I do. I just feel like you don't worry enough about yourself."

"That's why I have you! I don't need to worry about my safety because you're taking that off my shoulders! Now, if you'd excuse me, I have important research to do!"

As she finished talking, her body started to give off a small white light. She waited for a few seconds but then let herself fall back onto the ground. Yet, as she was about to hit the ground, it made waves and appeared to be swallowing her, being that she completely disappeared.

Not even a second later, the wall behind the bench also made waves, and Miyo came out of it. Her coat was suddenly gone and replaced by a casual white dress and a small jacket over it.

"No info's on the Esper, but we finally have a profile. We're looking for a black-haired orphan boy. He's seventeen, and his name is Fudo Enatsu."

"So Ironskin's real name is Enatsu, huh? Do you know where he lives?"

"No info on that, but I'd try looking for an orphanage here. Since he's an orphan, he might just be there!"

Miyo pointed to the sky with a cheerful face and then to the officer that she mentioned earlier.

"Let's ask the local justice warrior for the way to the orphanage-."

As she was about to make a run for it, Kaiyo grabbed her on her clothes and pulled her back.

"For the goddess of knowledge, you're pretty bad at thinking things through. The book said that he got his nickname from the wannabe criminals that he beat up, right? If he's capable of beating up criminals just like that and does this enough to even get a nickname, then it'd be more logical to look for him around the places that are preferred by the criminals, right?"

"But, to find out where these are, we still need to ask the local justice warrior!"

"You're right, but please just call him policeman."

"I'm the leader! I get to decide how I'll call the local justice warrior!"

"Now you're just going out of your way to say that!"

As the two were concentrating on each other, their fighting also got a lot louder than before. The people walking by even stopped to watch them until the officer joined in.

"Can I help you? I couldn't overhear that you were mentioning me several times."

"Ah yes, the justice warrior has heard our cries!"

"Justice... warrior?"

"Ignore her please, we aren't locals and just got here as a side stop. We heard that this town does have a lot of incidents, so I wanted to ask-."

"Where do the most crimes happen?"

Miyo cut her off before she could finish her question. Kaiyo was about to ask the same, but more subtly, as she knew how the officer would react if she asked like Miyo, and her prediction became reality.

"May I ask why you two need to know that? Furthermore, may I ask why you're carrying a sword around with you?"

"As I said, please ignore her! We're just coming through, and we'd like to avoid the places that the criminals prefer, so we can avoid being their next target, and for the sword, that's just a toy. This little girl here can't go without her favorite toy."

"Oh, you should've said it like that from the start. The most common places are changing every day, it depends on the day that they roamed before. Today, it's the opposing side from here, the east edge of the town. If you avoid leaving the town there, then you should be good."

Kaiyo stood up from the bench and slightly bowed to the man.

"That's all, thank you, officer... you thank him too!"

She grabbed Miyo's head and pushed it forward to make her bow as well, as Miyo was about to run off already.

"O-of course... no need to thank me, I'm just doing my job. Stay safe out there."

"We will. Thank you again!"

Strapping the sheath with the sword to her back again, Kaiyo grabbed Miyo's hand and walked off. Miyo didn't fight against being dragged along and just looked up to Kaiyo with a smirk on her face.

"Oh~? I thought you didn't want to hold hands while we're working~?"

"Do you have the slightest idea of how embarrassing that was? Not only having to act like your big sister, but I also had to call Excalibur a toy! Do you know how respectless that makes me look?!"

"Ah shut up, Kaiyo, you're something like my big sister anyway, just that we're not blood-related and that we're dating."

"I don't even know why we're still a couple. You're making way more trouble than you're worth."

"Simple, because I'm adorable, and you know that! You're love for me just ignores the fact that I'm annoying!"

"Ah, so you know that you're annoying?"

"I know a lot of stuff, so of course I do! I just ignore it and act like...I always...would?"

Miyo suddenly stopped walking and looked at an alley that they just walked by. With a confused face, she freed herself from Kaiyo's grip and walked towards it without saying a word.

"Miyo? We shouldn't stop now. We're not even walking for a minute, isn't your concentration span at least three minutes?"

"It reeks...a Yami."

"Here? Where is it? I didn't sense anything."

"Probably a spatial barrier because this alley reeks and feels unnatural."

"Then... you think we found them?"

Miyo walked out of the alley and sat down right in front of it while crossing her arms in front of her chest. She smirked as she looked directly into the alley with an expecting look in her eyes. Kaiyo leaned against the wall while also crossing her arms, but she didn't look nearly as excited as Miyo did.

"I guess that means you do... then we can just wait. I honestly wish I'd be that easy... that would make our job easier in general, but you know it isn't, right Miy-."

"Shh! It's changing!"

Miyo said with sparkling eyes. She quite literally jumped up from her position in front of the alley and grabbed Kaiyo's hands. Kaiyo looked at the slowly changing insides of the alley with eyes widened in surprise, as she denied that the alley was fake just a few seconds ago.

"Look, look! I knew it was a spatial barrier! Suddenly the whole alley is different! Someone was keeping this alley hostage!"

Miyo was walking through the alley with a bright smile on her face as she pulled Kaiyo along with her.

"Miyo, please just shut up... I don't need you to tell me whenever you guess something right. You're literally the goddess of knowledge. I know you're not even guessing any...more?"

Both of the women suddenly stopped because of what they saw. On the ground in front of them were three children, that looked like they just fought for their life.