Tobey stepped in front of the Municipal Department of Criminal Investigation (MDCI). He just stayed there for a moment, contemplating its front. He needed to admit that he was missing the department, with all the problems that came with it: the crazy and short-tempered marshal, his eccentric colleagues, the sleepless nights, and particularly the Heaven (AKA the cafeteria) where he took the best naps of his life.
'I can already feel the coldness of the air-conditioner, the smell of coffee, and the hot printed paper scattered all around the department... I don't know why but it gives me goosebumps,' he thought shivering and feeling his heart throbbing for a moment.
"However, everything has changed now, although it seems the same on the outside," he muttered, wearing a sad smile.
[So, that's where we work, huh? We have good and bad memories of this place. Mostly bad, though. But taking into consideration that you, a workaholic, seemed to enjoy even the bad things, I think that they were all nice memories. Alas, did you ask them how is the Case-37 going?]
'Man, it's strange how sometimes you seem to know everything about our life, but at the same time, you know nothing and are discovering just now... Stop it, it's kind of creepy. Like you are a stalker or something like this.'
[It's just a habit, okay!? Not that I can't get rid of it, but my interactions get more interesting like this. Anyway, answer my question, go, go...]
Tobey breathed a sigh of tiredness. He couldn't handle interacting with his demon self every day. In the start, Mask was bearable, but now he was getting bolder every day.
'Case-37 is probably ongoing right now, but I still don't know exactly what they are going to do with it. I haven't heard of any case of murdering or kidnapping as of late. At least, not one in the same strange pattern of the person or people behind it. Probably, the murderer is taking some days off before acting again. Moreover, the previous ruckus between demons and paladins is diverting the authorities' attention enough to serve as a cover for him, so he shall act soon or later.
'Anyway, I would need to talk with the people working in the department to know what they are focusing on recently. However, I would bet my right arm that they were forced to investigate more about the strange things that are happening as of late.'
[Why though? Nobody saw anything.]
"Yes, but three people are disappeared, dumb*ss," he couldn't help but say out loud. Thankfully, nobody was passing by at that moment.
Nervously, he began to walk towards the entrance of the department's building before he did another idiot thing.
[Stop saying it like it is my fault that three people died! So you know, I killed two. One of them you killed alone on that rainy night!]
'Yeah, yeah, anyway...'
[Don't ignore me!]
'Now that I am here at the department I will need to act as I usually do. Slowly, things will being to unfold.'
As Tobey crossed MDCI's entrance, people began to praise him for coming back, some even clapped their hands at his arrival. A little commotion happened in each block, making their respective leaders get very annoyed, though they also were satisfied that Tobey arrived.
[You surely are very popular here, huh?]
'Yeah, kind of. I wasn't born with many talents, but working as a detective in this department surely is one of the few. I give my health, time, and even money to this job if needed, just to keep working here.'
[Yeah, I noticed. Workaholic, as I said. One of your two addictions, but the second is very harmful, you know?] Mask commented.
'Two?'
[Yes. The first being woman, that is.]
'You bast-'
Before he could continue his cursing, he heard someone nearly running across the corridors of drywall between the blocks and jumped into him, wrapping their arms around his neck.
"Tobey~!" a melodic voice sounded in his ears. Although he was quite confused, he could notice who it was just by the voice.
"Ah... Beca!?" He asked with surprise, giving back the hug and struggling to keep on his feet as she threw all her body weight on him. Thankfully, Beca was light as a thin piece of paper.
"How are you? Did you have fun on your vacation?" she asked as her round eyes of a dark color stared at him with a glint of joy on them. Tobey felt his heart racing and breathed a sigh of relief as he smiled faintly at her.
"Yes. I am well-rested," he said, but it was a lie, of course. He didn't even sleep these last nights. The tension was so huge that he couldn't even stay lying on his bed for too long.
Beca continued gazing at him for some time more. It looked like she was going to kiss him.
Although Tobey didn't dislike the idea, he preferred not to do it in front of different departments of MDCI. It was better to do such things in private, after all.
However, Beca's reaction was different from what he expected, and so were her intentions when staring at his face.
"You aren't sleeping as much as you should, right? I can see dark circles forming under your eye. It wouldn't happen if you did sleep properly during your vacation! Really, what did you do the last few nights? Most people bet that you would come back way earlier than what the marshal imposed and cause a ruckus between you two, but here you are, returning some days LATER. You made a lot of people lose mountains of money on their bets."
Beca giggled as she said it and pointed to a specific department where some people had their arms crossed and were glaring at Tobey. He could feel killing intent on their eyes.
'I didn't feel so much killing intent not even when I was fighting death battles against paladins...', Tobey thought, gulping.
[Right? I thought that humans were useless...]
'You are talking about me as well, you know?'
[Yeah, yeah, exactly. You got what I meant.]
Tobey ignored Mask and the glarings of his colleagues and moved towards the department he worked in, which was, by far, the most chaotic one.
Everyone got happy for a second after they saw that Tobey Foster was finally back. However, they needed to swallow their words and gestures of celebration once the marshal stepped into the room.
The marshal walked across the room in silent and short steps, looking at the papers and muttering words to his subordinates. Everyone in that block was sweating coldly and looking intently at what they were doing not to lose focus.
He finally stepped in front of Tobey after his tour, his eyes looking at him from the tip of his toes to the last strand of hair he had.
"I would forgive you for being late if it was in other circumstances. But, since you seem to have 'enjoyed' your vacation, I will remember it for the rest of my life and won't rest until you pay your debt. Now, go to work already! You are five minutes late."
The short and robust man walked away slowly, giving his back to a dumbstruck Tobey who was looking at him as if he was an alien.
"I got here on time, though. But people wanted to greet and talk and..." he tried to argue but got interrupted in the middle.
"Five, minutes, later..." he slowly said, casting a piercing glare at Tobey from over his shoulder
"Y-Yes, sir," Tobey nodded his head quickly.
The marshal turned again without saying anything more.
"Don't worry, Tobey," Beca said, rolling her eyes at the marshal's figure disappearing into another block. "He is acting like an idiot these days because he is overwhelmed. He didn't want to stop investigating the series of crimes that got our city in shock for a long time. However, he also doesn't want to leave aside the new case that has just appeared. He is trying to take everything on his back and is hurting himself very badly."
Tobey cast a curious glance towards Beca.
"What about this new case? What is being investigated?"
Beca brought him to a whiteboard that was filled with information. A part of it got erased by accident and Beca needed to fix it while cursing in frustration.
"Well, that's the new case. It's related to the strange events of the last week when citizens reported strange noises and sudden destruction. Also, that's the period when three different people disappeared, whose names are listed in the upper left corner of the board. However, the names aren't important as the targets don't have anything in their record that shows meaningful information to the investigation. In truth, we assumed already that their disappearance was random, not premeditated."
Tobey nodded his head as he looked at all the data gathered.
"Yeah, I saw this on tv. I was wondering whether you were minding this case or not..."
"Yes, we are. And now there is something else that just made the marshal get crazy," she said, worried.
"And what's it?" Tobey thought, surprised. He didn't know anything else other than that.
"Two people were found dead on the streets the previous night. One of them was killed in an alley, the other got brutally murdered in front of a crowd of passersby while the afternoon was still turning into night."