It wasn’t long before Ning started receiving ssages and phone calls. He answered the first few calls, but by the ti the third one ca around, he knew things weren’t going to be so simple.
He shut down all incoming calls and paused for a mont. After a thought, he took out the card he had received a few days earlier and called it. It took a few monts to ring, and then a woman answered.
"Hello?" lly Orston answered with a confused tone to her voice.
"Its , Valen Jassens," Ning answered. "The detective you gave your card to."
"Oh! Detective Jassens. Hi," the woman said, a slightly bated breath coming through the phone along with her words.
"You sound tired," Ning said.
"Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just running up the stairway. The elevator is packed today. Sothing big is happening, and we’re all being called to a eting," the woman said.
"You’re in the agency?" Ning asked.
"Yes."
Ning looked around at where he stood and saw a signpost close by. "I’ll be waiting for you at the cafe on 23rd and 5th. Co find ."
"Huh?"
"Cafe, on 23rd and 5th. Don’t take longer than half an hour," Ning said and ended the call before the woman could say anything else. With that said, he went to the cafe, run by a large Werewolf with a few elves and lizardfolk working inside.
He sat by the window and watched the street outside as so coffee was brought out to him.
Ning drank the sweet coffee, staring at life within New Limaro City. The city seed more or less peaceful from where he sat, the noise and rush from the outside drowned out by the thick pane of glass.
Taking a few sips of his coffee, he waited and considered his next options. To start with, he needed to first think about why it was that he was here on this planet in the first place. He wanted to kill the Constellation staying here, but he wanted so fun while doing it.
After going around killing Constellations easily, he was starved for entertainnt after all. He also liked interacting with new people, getting to know how people were different from different worlds.
Still, that was secondary to his search for Tritus.
He still wanted to be involved with the police force sohow, especially the detectives, so that had to stay. Even if he beca a hero for this city, he had to at least keep his work as a detective.
He could stay as an independent counselor.
After thinking as much, he sipped his coffee again and soon lost himself to the peace and quiet of the place.
That quiet was broken around 15 minutes later when 3 large black vans appeared outside the streets at the sa ti, while a smaller slick car drove up to the cafe and stopped.
Ning waited for a mont and smiled as he saw lly Orston, the lawyer who had helped Waveshot, walk out of the car while staring directly at him through the window.
She hurriedly entered, a few people staying close by. When she walked in, she looked toward Ning with clear awe in her eyes, as if she was witnessing sothing she had never witnessed before.
Which technically was true, even without considering what he really was.
The woman approached him with so trepidation that she struggled to hide in her steps. When she finally arrived before him, she slowly sat down and continued staring at him.
Ning looked at her and then down at his phone.
"26 minutes," he said. "Not bad."
"You waited for us," she said, clearly surprised by his action.
"I gave you half an hour, so what else could I do?" Ning asked, his eyes darting to the side to look at the various cafe employees as well as the regular custors looking at him.
He ignored them for a mont, looking back at the woman before him.
"So, how about it?" Ning asked.
The woman blinked. "How about what?" she asked.
". Joining your agency," Ning said.
Her eyes widened. "You wish to join our agency?"
Ning nodded. "Why else would I have called you here for?" he asked with a chuckle. "I an, if you don’t want to join your—"
"NO!" she said in a panic, before quickly sitting back down with an embarrassed look. "Um, could we talk about it in the car?"
Ning shrugged. He gulped down what was left in his cup and stood up to leave. The woman followed behind without any question and led Ning to the car.
Ning entered the car and was surprised by how spacious it was. From the outside, it had looked quite skinny. He watched the woman enter and sit next to him and then the doors closed.
No one else was going to enter, it appeared.
Ning saw the n that had co with her go to one of the three vans that had co along with them. He waited for the woman to start talking, but even as ti passed, the woman remained silent and the car sat on the street.
Ning frowned. "Why aren’t we moving?" he asked.
"I... I don’t know where you want to go," the woman said.
Ning directly turned toward her, his whole body turning along with him. "You seem way more timid than when you were with Waveshot. What happened?"
The woman gulped a little. "If I offended you in any way back then—"
"Oh, co on!" Ning said. "Don’t tell you’re scared."
"I..." the woman was about to say sothing, but she thought better of it. Instead, she asked him a question. "Is... is it true?"
"What is?"
"9," the woman said.
Ning nodded. "You got the ssage from the DPA testers surely, so why ask?"
"I... I can’t believe it," she said. "I never thought there would be one, let alone soone I had co to et."
"Well, I got lucky," Ning said. "Anyway, didn’t you say you wanted to sign to your agency? The way you’re delaying makes think you’re changing your mind."
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