● Illusory ●

Chapter 3

Seiko

I grumbled and buried my face in my pillow as a loud beeping sound filled my room, interrupting my peaceful slumber. I cursed the alarm, wishing it hadn't woke me from my dream. I quite honestly couldn't remember what my dream was about, but all I knew was that it was great and I was ticked that my alarm decided to go off now. I tried once more to try to sleep through the beeps, but they only grew much more shrill each second. I finally decided to get up and turn off the alarm on my phone, only to find that the time said 3:50am instead of 9:00am, like I had set it. Thinking my phone was malfunctioning, I unlocked it only to find an alert from Nadine, informing me that Alex and I are in charge of taking care of a bank robbery that had happened over 5 minutes ago.

Cursing, I dropped my phone on my nightstand and threw off my pajamas, quickly changing into the clothes that I had left on the floor hours earlier. Though, I forgot about my overshirt and only had on the tank top I wear underneath it and my jacket. I then pulled on leggings and my running shorts instead of my skirt and socks--which is a better switch in my opinion--and then pulled on my sneakers. I instantly tied my half-pink half-brown hair into the quickest bun possible, stuffed my phone and a switchblade in my pockets, then burst into the hall running.

It didn't take me long to catch up with Alex, who was tying their long, fiery hair up into a ponytail like always. "Wow, I think this is the first time you've been late for one of these. Is it finally my turn to scold you for not being prepared?" they snickered whilst holding one of their hairpins with their lips. I narrowed my eyes.

"I'm pretty sure my sister does that enough to us both already," I said, to which they nodded and used the hairpin to clip their long bangs out of their face.

"Must be where you got it from," they snickered once more, to which I rolled my eyes. "Okay, okay, I kid," they said, holding both their hands up, "Did Nadine send you the robber's location by any chance? She never sends me anything."

I pulled my cell phone from my pocket to conveniently find that she had just sent me the criminal's coordinates. Memorizing them by repeating the street names over and over in my head, I set my phone back in my pocket and grabbed Alex's wrist as we ran outside. "So, I'm guessing you're just going to lead me to them then?" they asked as I searched for a shadow. I found one hiding behind a street lamp almost immediately.

"Somewhat. Now, hold on," I told them, to which I felt their hand grab my wrist now. It took me a while to learn that I had the ability to teleport between shadows, but even longer to figure out I could bring others with me as long as they were touching me. Though, what I see when I teleport isn't some extraordinary imagery or scenery, I literally just see my preferred location in a split second, though my preferred location must be another shadow. I wish I could see magnificent things when I teleport though. It'd be much more pleasant than just horrific darkness.

It didn't take long for me to feel like both of us were sinking under water before the feeling of a roof appeared beneath us in no time. Though, I still held on to Alex's wrist as I noticed the curved roof we had landed on was slick with morning dew. I now cursed my city's weather conditions.

"Do you see them?" Alex asked with a shaky voice as they craned their neck to look around. I wanted to ask why their voice was trembling, but I had my eye on the criminal now, who was jumping roof to roof in a flash. I nodded now.

"You think you can catch up with them while I take the teleportation route?" I asked, to which Alex nodded with a smirk.

"You were the one who had told me before that I had ninja skills," they reminded me. I guess, but ninja skills doesn't save you from falling off a roof slick with water. I released their wrist.