Thatberg Profiles

Chapter 5 and chaos ensues

(sorry is i dont update the story too frequently, theres a lot going on with school and all that)

Emilia quietly opened the door to her apartment, sneaking round her sleeping girlfriend, afraid to wake her lest she incite her wrath. Throwing on a leather jacket, she joined Ghost outside. Of course he was wearing his usual overcoat, hoodie and jeans,"are you really wearing the same thing you wore yesterday?" asked Emilia. "Are you really wearing sunglasses at night?" responded Ghost without hesitation. "...Touche," said Emilia, briefly considering starting a gun fight but deciding against it.

"It's a bit late for a raid, isn't it" grumbled Emilia, not quite awake. "Look, I've been kidnapped twice today," said Ghost, putting his hands in an arch "I haven't gotten a wink of sleep in 96 hours and 45 seconds, so you don't get to complain".

The engine of the motorbike rumbled like a pampered and much loved lion. The two friends sat in companionable silence. Emilia had to keep hitting Ghost's persistent hands away as he tried to steal her weapons. They rode in silence for a majority of time, just enjoying each other's company and sharing the occasional witty remark.

They pulled up outside the modern house a few minutes past midnight. Ghost left his helmet on the bike, well, not his helmet. Emilia owned the helmet but never used it as she thought they were for Sissies. Retrieving his wallet from the innermost folds of his coat, Ghost selected a lock pick and got to work.

"Care to explain how this isn't breaking and entering?" asked Emilia. Her and Ghost agreed on many things, but legality was never one of them. "Ah, my dear Emilia, that is where you are mistaken" corrected Ghost "i have not broken anything, nor do i intend to. I merely presumed you would be doing the breaking later on." Emilia lowered her sunglasses cynically "your still breaking the law dude". "Oh pish posh, That's just an opinion!" said Ghost dismissively.

Sneaking through the modern interior of the house, Ghost picked the lock of the bedroom door. Emilia, her well trained instincts kicking in, combat rolled into the room, sweeping her handgun over every inch of the room. After realizing nothing was up, Ghost sauntered into the room. Giving a slow clap he began his victory monologue. "My dear moon eye, your ruse was elaborate but no match for my skills of deduction, in fact...". His moment was ruined as he saw there was no one else in the room besides him and his friend.

He turned around awkwardly and left the room like nothing happened.

Approaching the end of the corridor, the dynamic duo could just make out a plaque on the office door that read "in case of fire, please panic". As they entered the dark office room, they could see the professor sitting at his desk, cloaked in shadow. His rectangular glasses reflected the light from the corridor, his hands were arched at his forehead. Tsukinomi looked at both of them intensely. Emilia and Ghost both reached for their guns, expecting a fight.

Tentatively reaching for a light switch, Emilia lit up the room. Instead of the usual trap Ghost had been expecting, the room was littered with half finished inventions, empty cups of instant ramen and unmarked student thesis'. Tsukinomi snapped out of his slumber, and with a yelp and fumbled to stop himself from falling over the back of his revolving chair. "What are you guys doing here?" he asked, brushing back unkempt hair. "Oh, so you suddenly forget the priceless artifact you stole from the museum last night?" asked Emilia cynically, her well trained nose able to sniff bullshit from a mile away.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," said Tsukinomi, slightly worried and half awake. Emilia slapped her hand down hard on the wooden desk "so we're doing this the hard way huh?" she said. Sensing that the cop's temper was about to snap, Ghost put his hand on her shoulder. "I know you want to find the perpetrator oh so badly, but one measly scythe is hardly worth the cost of our dear friends hospital bills".

"ONE MEASLY SCYTHE?!" asked Emilia, angrily, "THAT SCYTHE IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPONS IN THE WORLD, DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW MUCH DAMAGE COULD BE DONE WITH IT?!". "ah" was all Ghost could say, understanding his friend's point, but also thinking through every way he could save his colleague. Tsukinomi looked between the two with the look of a child waiting for his parents to stop fighting. "In my defense" said the professor, gesturing to the images in front of him "i have never seen that suit in my life".

"But" Ghost said triumphantly, raising his hand as if he had solved a question in class "Given the state our friend is in, I think he's hardly up for work, let alone robbing a highly secure museum," said the informant. As he heard this, Tsukinomi went quiet, as if a scar he had thought he recovered from had just been hit. As Tsukinomi stood, Ghost reached out to comfort him, but pulled his hand back and thrust it into a pocket sensitively.

"Thanks, I needed reminding of that," said Tsukinomi, coldly, looking at the floor in dismay. As he walked out of the room Ghost went to comfort him again, but Emilia held him back with a hand on his shoulder "let him go" she said quietly. She wasn't as animated as usual, her shoulders were hanging. Ghost put his other hand in his jacket pocket, just remembering how deep the wound ran.

"You always have to be right, don't you" said Emilia coldly. "Emilia, i merely meant to say..." before he could finish his sentence Emilia put her hand over his lips. "you had one chance to say sorry, but you just couldn't".

Ghosts eyes were wide with shock, not used to hearing this tone from one of the few people he trusted. "I don't want to hear a word from your mouth till you can get over yourself". He could see Emilia was struggling to finish. "Now go" she said, barely stopping herself from lashing out. "Emilia..." said Ghost before turning around and walking out the room.