"Hmmm... That's strange. Another presence disappeared in Selenium City." A girl was hunched over in a chair, long, grey hair hanging over closed eyes. The only light in the room came from a glowing sphere on a desk in front of her. "I feel like that dark presence killed him. It's probably the work of that Passing Wind again." She looked over her shoulder, revealing big hazel eyes.

"How troubling. Considering how this is the 9th time, should I contact Juno? It's getting to be a problem worth her attention."

The girl took a moment to consider the worth of getting her attention. "Yes, bring her in." She closed her eyes again. "I'm worried that this particular person might prove difficult to find, even for her though." It's like nobody realises he's there until it's too late. She started biting her fingernails.

"Alright then. I'll get her in ASAP, Ms. Helen."

-----

"Looks like he's late," I said looking at the angle of the sun.

Buddy scoffed at the idea. "Yeah right, I'm sure he just got lost or something."

Several more minutes passed, with still no sign of Berk.

"I'm bored!" complained Ariel, as she plopped down on the ground with a face full of disappointment.

I sat down as well, not because my legs got tired, as they physically can't get tired, but because it was more comfortable. I looked at Ariel as she pouted, and decided to talk to get her to stop. "So Ariel, it occurs to me that I don't know a thing about you. Kind of funny since I've been traveling with you huh?"

She didn't seem to notice the bait dangling in front of her face. "Hm. Guess so."

An awkward silence pursued for a moment.

"Hey Ariel, why don't you tell me about yourself?"

"Because you don't ask."

She really can't read in between the lines... "What were you like on Earth?" Ha, she can't possibly screw this one up!

"I'm pretty much the same, just a little bit more extreme here."

She screwed it up!

Another awkward pause before her LED light lit up. "Oh, you were asking me what my life was like on Earth!" She looked proud of herself for finally figuring it out. "I was just a poor farm girl, nothing much to talk about there. Subsistence farming is so booooring! I lived in Medieval France though, so that might interest you." She sat there for a few seconds, then resolved to keep the conversation going. "I probably get my power from my bubbly personality, not my aspirations, because I wanted to be a princess."

Trust me, everyone knows how you got that power.

Buddy interrupted. "Ooooh, that makes sense. I was thinking you wanted to pose for the painting of 'The Birth of Venus' or something."

Ariel had no idea what we were talking about.

"It's a painting of Venus, the Roman god of beauty, being born of sea foam."

Ariel blushed. "Then you were calling me pretty? Oh you."

"Why would I think you'd be pret--?" Buddy now found his head enclosed in a bubble, but he quickly managed to pop it, gasping for air after he had done so.

I couldn't help laughing. "You walked into that one, Buddy."

"Quiet! I'm going to go look at the board again." He resolutely walked over to the board and tried to make himself appear interested in what he had to see.

I talked with Ariel a little more, and explained that I had an eidetic memory and was going to college before I came here. When she asked me what I wanted to do, however, I didn't have a good answer. That puzzled me, I had never stopped to think what to do with my life, yet I always pushed forward, like there was a goal in sight and that I was looking forward to it. I kind of faked it and said that history was my favorite subject, so I might become a history teacher. I wasn't lying about liking history though, because I really do enjoy it. That may be due to the fact that history class consisted largely of cramming information into my head, which of course was a piece of cake for me, but maybe also because the stories of history always sounded exciting. As of that moment, the question of "what do I want to do" started its campaign to haunt me.

"History? You're kind of boring. You might be one of those people that goes months without discovering their power because their personality takes so long to come out of its shell."

After the insult and idea that it might take months before I was worth anything, I decided to stop talking.

We waited around for even longer. After what seemed to be an hour, a man flew in and landed on the top of the board. He was clad in a blue uniform of some sort, and had his hat tipped down as to put his eyes in a shadow. On his back he wore what looked like swan wings, which faded out into nothing after he landed. Upon his arrival people from the surrounding area gathered around, and he patiently waited for a sizable group to appear.

Then, in a booming voice, he yelled his message. "About an hour and a half ago, a civilian vanished in a rented room near Neon Alley. Judging by the observations of Helen, it is likely the work of the Passing Wind, so civilians are asked to keep an eye out and try to stay in groups. The Squadron Squad has mobilized a higher level Squad to stop the killings. That is all." With that, the man's wings apparated and he took off, and the chattering started.

"Doesn't that make it 9 killings?"

"I'm kind of scared, I want to leave this city soon."

"Back in Titanium Town we didn't have any psychos like this."

The concept of a serial killer in this world took me for surprise. So far everyone that I had met seemed like good people, but I figured that bad people could make it into this world as well. All humans have a dark side, after all. I turned to Buddy. "Maybe Berk got caught up in--"

Buddy was pale as snow, and looked cold as it too. "Berk s-said his room w-was near Neon Alley." A look of terror shot through Buddy, and he bolted off into the heart of the city.

I next turned to Ariel. "Ariel, I-" She looked me right in the eye, stopping me, and nodded. We ran after our friend.

-----

It wasn't hard to find the room where Berk had previously resided, with all the commotion around it. The room was a crime scene, but without the same level of technology found on Earth in my time, the "Squad" that was dispatched didn't take long to get all the possible information out of the scene, and it was made available for commoners to use.

A note was left by the perpetrator, and Buddy got a chance to read it before it was carried away:

Aren't you so glad you got that reunion? You got to see him right before his... prior obligation with me! Maybe sometime in the future you can try to beat me, but you'll have to find me first! Which you never will~

-The Passing Wind

After that Buddy wasn't the same. I tried talking to him, but I don't think my attempt at comfort reached him.

"How are you doing Buddy?"

No answer, just a continuous sulk.

I sat down next to him. "I know this must be hard for you, but at least there's a bright side!"

The sulk intensified.

"He may have died in this world, but he's still living in the other one, right?"

He looked up at me, grief stricken. "How can you say that?! How is that a good thing at all?! We all forget this time here when we leave anyways so it's no different!" He put his face into his hands.

Ariel walked over, pulled his head back out of his hands, and slapped him right across the cheek. "I never want to hear you say that ever again! That's so heartless of you!" She got right in his face. "You're saying that he's better off dead?!"

"That's not what I meant..."

"That's what you said! Think about it! What kind of friend are you to not be happy that he gets to live, even if it is without us! Neuman is right, and you're just directing your emotions towards the wrong person." She backed up. "Think hard about what you want to do. We'll be back in an hour. Don't die."

She very hastily walked away, taking me by the arm, and we retreated to another part of town.

-----

"Do you think that was really the best way to handle that? And don't you think 'don't die' was way too harsh?"

"Perhaps." Ariel kicked a rock, looking towards the ground.

I looked at the sky, maybe because it was the exact opposite direction as Ariel. "You just always rush into things without thinking, don't you?"

She stopped, and once I noticed so did I, turning my face from the sky to her. She turned around and took another few steps forward, pressing her head into my ribs. I could see the tears falling from her face and hitting the dirt below.

"I just wanted Buddy to snap out of it. I got out of control." She sniffled a little bit.

I tried to place my arms around her, but her position made it difficult. She noticed and turned her face up enough that her face was placed flat against my chest, but I couldn't see beyond her hair. I tightened my arms around her.

I guess I'm just not used to the idea of death in this world. It's not affecting me as much as it probably should. I thought back to that first day in this world, when Ariel convinced me to stay. At this point Ariel and I are so very different. She values life here just as much as in the real world. I wonder what she's had to go through while here. An idea warmed my heart a little bit. No, I guess she probably thought that way since her fateful encounter. She can be a pain sometimes, but she really is a nice girl.

The tears stopped.

"Hey Neuman, I know I never think things through like you. I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?"

"Because I always am making you do what I want, when I want. It must be annoying to travel with me."

"It's not, it's fun actually." That was half lying. It was fun, that I meant, but it was kind of a pain too. That's just the kind of companion she was.

She took a moment to think, which I couldn't bear to point out the irony of.

"Hey Neuman?"

"What is it?"

She looked at me with tear stained eyes, and I could see that more tears were about to come. "Will you be my brains? Will you think things through and stop me from doing this? I don't want to make a mistake like that again. I really don't."

I smiled softly. "You bet."

It was then that we noticed how close our faces were to each other and pushed each other away in embarrassment.

"I-I didn't mean to get that close!"

"No no no! It's my fault too!"

We both calmed down.

"I think it's about time we go back to Buddy and talk things out, don't you think?" It hadn't been an hour yet, but I thought that we should go back anyways.

"Yeah."

-----

"I know we said an hour, but we were thinking, and--"

"I have been thinking too, and I have made up my mind." Buddy at us with a face straighter than his fully stiffened hair, unwavering resolve in his countenance. "We're going to join the Squadron."

Ariel and I stared back, shocked.

"We're going to find this Passing Wind, help him solve his problems, and send him off to the next life."

I wasn't sure if I heard right, but I was convinced that he used the word "help." "Are you okay? That sounded almost like a joke."

"Of course!" His face shifted to his usual happy self. "Berk wouldn't want me to change, so I'm sure as hell not gonna."

-----

A silent figure watched from but a few feet away, but he remained completely unnoticed. He had been tailing them all day. They weren't unnaturally imperceptive or anything, but rather that the nature of the figure kept himself from being noticed against their will.

I suppose I should move on. I've got a job to do after all. The man drifted off into the same darkness from which he came.