“What’s your name?” While Gloria was cuffed to the desk, the Detective who took over for Detective Pahaik temporarily in questioning Gloria, by the name of “Marcus Cai”, asked her with a gentle smile

“Gloria Lee.” Gloria looked the detective right in his eyes, then shifted her eyes around just to appear more like a criminal, while in fact she was scanning through the files on Detective Shrevas Pahaik’s desk.

“Age?” The questioning detective still had his eyes on her.

“28 - but be a dear and mark me down for 26, 25.” Gloria scanned the desk one more time, and she found no open files. She could only peek the way she was cuffed right now, thus she needed to actually open the folders. But there was no way she could do it in front of this detective. She was not sure why, but she could faintly sense that he was not as simple as he appeared.

“Home address?” The detective seemed to have noticed Gloria’s shiftiness, yet still unaware of her true intentions.

“I live in the unregistered area of South-Eastern District, I could take you there for a trip but can’t tell you the street number.” Gloria Lee smirked at this detective, trying to annoy him enough that he got distracted: “So, yeah, no address for ya.”

“Alright.” The detective looked rightfully frustrated, as he tried to write some notes down and fill in the form on the computer: “Why’d you steal from the clergyman?”

“I didn’t steal from him. But if someone did, that bastard had it coming.” Gloria recited from the story she prepared with Gyuu Park.

“Alright, alright. ” The detective rubbed his temples and sighed “You know, if the clergyman insisted on you being prosecuted, there was not much we could do right? A clergyman and his influences - ”

“Oh, I know, trust me.” Gloria nodded, somewhat surprised this detective would actually know anything about the statuses of normal clergymen, yet scoffed internally at the attempt at tricking her: “He likes to remind everyone of that everyday, like he’s got something to compensate for.”

“Alright, and I will go and get a cup of coffee. And you keep in mind that the petty theft can still be a pain in the ass if you’ve got priors and the victim expressed concerns about the object being stolen.” The detective seemed to have made the decision to let Gloria stew for a while. So instead of keeping the pressure on, he stood up and started walking toward the small kitchen area with coffee pots and tea bags on the shelves: “Trust me, I think Detective Pahaik would agree with me on this - if the victim insisted, then it’s better if you’d just sign a confession and deal with the fine.”

“Eh, pass. ” Gloria waved her right hand and sat back on her chair, ready to act: “But you enjoy your coffee, okay? Be sure you don’t lose any sleep tonight.”

The detective shrugged, then continued his way to the kitchen.

“Fucking jackass.” Gloria cursed, then just when the detective turned his back, she pulled out the cuff picking tools in her sleeves and started using them on the cuff that bound her to Detective Shrevas Pahaik’s desk. After a few jiggles, the cuff clicked and loosened. She immediately flipped open the first folder on the table. And just with her luck, it was the right folder. The files seemed freshly painted, with notes, pictures and even a copy of the preliminary forensics report. Without thinking much, she took the files from the folder and bolted at the door. Her movement was too abrupt, and the handcuff chained to the desk dangled and hit the floor.

When Gloria made it into the small alley beside the precinct building, she heard a sound of things moving through the air at high speed coming from behind her. She looked back, and saw that Detective Marcus Cai was coming after her, with some sort of bright orange glow around his body. Qi, he was a mystic martial arts practitioner.

Without thinking, Gloria pushed her own Qi to enhance her mobility and leapt onto a tree on the side. Her entire body glowed in blue, a symbol of good mastery of Qi, but she did not have the heart to spectate herself.

“Stop right there!” Detective Marcus Cai yelled, the next moment his legs stomped on the ground. His Qi exploded and created a small dent on the ground, launching him right at Gloria.

The detective’s move brought about a storm before him, forcing Gloria to jump away again. With the full force of her Qi, she glided in the air at the inner part of the alley she was in. And with a loud boom, the tree on which she was just standing almost got torn down by the detective’s redirecting kick. His moves were far from as elegant as Gloria’s, but they got the job down - he was closing in on Gloria once again.

Gloria ran her hand to a corner of the road, grabbing some broken wooden pellets in her palm and started infusing them with her Qi.

When the detective got to a close enough distance, she turned around and launched the wooden pellets on him. Almost half of them landed, but they were not remotely as effective. They cracked and splintered, while the detective was not stalled for even one step.

Seeing this, Gloria stomped on the ground and launched herself onto the wall on the side. But just when she was about to run on the wall and hop into another alley, the detective used the opposite way and shot at her with his arm extended.

Simply evading no longer seemed enough, Gloria backed off, arched her back and readied her pose. When the detective came close in the air, she launched three rapid kicks against him with her right leg.

The kicks all struck true. While the detective fell off the wall, Gloria recoiled as the reaction force from the detective’s defenses caused another jolt of pain to shoot through her leg. But luckily, she was ready and rode the impact to launch herself higher onto the roof of a building.

The files in her hand felt lighter - small pieces of them were torn off. Iit seemed that the detective snatched a handful when he fell. He could have hurt her during that move, maybe not necessarily pull her down, but cause her some injuries and make her less likely to escape. But it looked like he chose not to and just to grab the files.

“It’s almost 15 years - you better watch out.” Gloria thought for a very brief moment, she decided to give out a warning to this detective. He was a mystic martial arts practitioner, and if things were indeed going to get bad, he could be of help. “... not just for yourself.”

After this, Gloria turned back and ran. Her right ankle started hurting again, but not as seriously.