Hold You Again, This Time

The hill is open to the public. The neatly lined snack shops provide a variety of snacks for visitors to eat and drink while enjoying views of the sky that is not obscured by air pollution. Many visitors also come with their partners or family to picnic under the clean skies.

There is a girl who often visited that hill. Even the salespeople in all the shops are like old friends to her.

“Auntie! Today I want to try a warm menu, please.”

“Excuse me, one instant ramen please.”

The two people who ordered simultaneously stared at each other.

The man with white hair and the girl with long dark mane stared at each other. The shopkeeper auntie, who witnessed the beginning of a supposed new love story, ******iled with an amused expression.

“Two instant ramen coming soon~” said the shopkeeper with a big ******ile.

“A-Ah! Xavier, you seem to come here often, huh?” [Name] asked breaking the awkwardness.

Xavier, the white-haired man nodded. His expression was flat, but the look in his eyes and the ******ile on his thin lips gave off a warm aura.

“Have you found a place to see the meteor shower later?” Xavier asked.

[Name] shook her head, her hand patting the backpack she was cradling over her left shoulder. “I just arrived, and I was already cold before looking for a place.”

Hearing [Name]’s answer, Xavier chuckled slightly. “Want to sit with me? I already put my bag and a picnic rug to sit over there.”

[Name]’s head stretched out, looking for a yellow picnic carpet with a rabbit motif—Xavier’s trademark that she knew.

“Hm… okay!”

“Two hot ramen are ready.”

The shopkeeper’s words returned their focus to the food. Each paid for their order and then thanked her.

Walking side by side, [Name] and Xavier carefully carried the cup of instant noodles filled with hot water to the place where Xavier had placed his stuff. Xavier helped [Name] hold her cup of ramen while the girl placed her backpack next to Xavier’s backpack.

After [Name] settled into her sitting position on the picnic carpet, she took the two cups of instant ramen that were in Xavier’s hand then placed them on the carpet.

“Thank you.”

Xavier steadied his position, then took out his cellphone. He looks like he can’t wait to see the meteor shower with [Name]. His eyes continued to watch the time and his head continued to memorize the estimated time for the meteor shower to appear.

“Oh, hey, Xavier.” [Name] opened the conversation while waiting for their instant ramen to cook. “I heard that there will be a new person being transferred to this city’s station.”

Xavier opened the can of soda he brought then gave it to [Name], getting a ******all murmur of thanks from the girl. “Oh yeah. I’ll be assigned here starting next week.”

After answering [Name], Xavier drank his share of soda. [Name] also drank hers, her eyes scanned the night sky which was clear of clouds, showing the bright glow of the moon at night.

“Hmm.” [Name] glanced at Xavier. “Sorry, it looks like you were transferred here because the case is at a dead end this time.”

Xavier shook his head, his eyes sparkling reflecting the light of the stars and falling meteors that decorated the night sky. “That’s okay. This is my job, I should find out what’s going on behind the kidnapping cases and—ahem, murders that are frightening the public.”

The girl’s eyes radiated admiration, sparkling with respect. “Woah, Xavier, you’re my role model!” said [Name] while giving two thumbs up.

Xavier just ******iled faintly, his hands busy recording the meteor shower phenomenon.

[Name] poked Xavier’s cheek with her soda can. “Pleased to work with you, partner!” Her ******ile was wide, showing her happy feelings—happy to be able to see Xavier more often and in a different place than the hills.

---

“You’re already close with her, right?”

The shadow of a man in gardening clothes is seen observing the ‘cleaning’ process of a man with white hair with minimal expression.

The white-haired man swung his blood-stained sword, splashing the blood on his sword onto the crime scene he had just created.

“Stop this, Xavier.”

The man in question just glanced, not interested in the conversation his friend was bringing up.

His hand once again plunged the sword into the victim’s body, his eyes scanned the surroundings, looking for anything left that could be traced back to Xavier later.

“Revenge is still revenge.” After making sure everything was safe, Xavier cleaned his sword with a cloth, then put it away. “I promised her to avenge what others did to her, Jeremiah.”

“…”

Jeremiah could only stare tiredly at his friend. “You know that we are now in a parallel world, right? There are neither protocore nor Wanderers in this world.”

Xavier glared at Jeremiah, indicating for him to immediately shut his mouth before he stabbed him with his own hand.

“[Nam-], Her Majesty will not like this,” said Jeremiah one last time before taking the corpses of Xavier’s victims with him and disappearing into the shadows.

Xavier directed his gaze in the direction where Jeremiah and his victims had disappeared. Even though his eyes were starting to feel sleepy, he still kept his eyes open at least until he got to his bed later.

“[Name] won’t like it, but the me of the past would be very grateful,” muttered Xavier who then disappeared from the scene into the dark.

---

[Name] took a deep breath. Her cheeks puffed out, annoyed.

She didn’t even care about the reactions of the office people who saw [Name]’s tantrum. Even she didn’t notice Xavier’s cold gaze.

“Ah! Why is it a dead end again?!” shouted [Name] full of frustration.

Jenna, their captain, tried to calm [Name] by giving her some sweet treats.

Of course, [Name] accepted all the sweet snacks with pleasure, even though she was still furiously scolding herself for not finding any clues of the investigation into the case of missing people in the city of Linkon.

While chewing peanut candy covered in chocolate, [Name]’s eyes suddenly lit up, eureka!

“Captain Jenna!” called [Name]. “May I propose to carry out a ********************* mission as a bait to uncover the mystery behind this mass disappearance?”

Suddenly, everyone in the office in the late afternoon looked at the girl.

“No! No way! Big no!” Tara said.

Even Xavier, the new officer transferred to Linkon specifically for this case, shook his head vigorously, rejecting [Name]’s dangerous proposal.

However, Captain Jenna was quite interested in [Name]’s idea.

Honestly, [Name] wasn’t the only one who had thought of that idea. Jenna herself had wanted to propose this idea, but she was doubtful about the difficulty and how dangerous this mission would be to the lives of her subordinates.

“…” Jenna looked into [Name]’s sparkling eyes. “To be honest, I agree.”

Jenna’s words were of course met with rebuttal and rejection from her subordinates.

“But, we will do this with full surveillance.” Jenna then turned her gaze to Xavier. “Because Xavier was sent directly by the HQ to investigate this case, you two have to be together 24/7.”

“How is it, Xavier? I hope you don’t mind with this proposal.”
Xavier shook his head, stating that he didn’t mind at all. This response earned a squeal of delight from the person proposing the idea, [Name] herself.

“Okay! Let’s work together, partner!”

---

Xavier and [Name] enjoyed the date—ah, I mean their mission, in casual clothes while walking side by side around the city of Linkon.

At least, that’s what should happen.

Even [Name] herself was distracted by the thought of enjoying the city of Linkon, feeling free to finally be outside the police station while on a work hour.

But, she didn’t know when she lost consciousness, when she was transferred to this luxurious spacious room.

She didn’t even realize when and why her left leg was chained to the wall.

It shouldn’t be like this. Even a top officer from the HQ were deliberately sent to Linkon for this case. But where is Xavier? Was he also caught and tortured by the perpetrator? So, does that mean [Name] is next?

Shaking her head vigorously, [Name] pushed her bad thoughts away. She believes in Xavier’s strength.

‘Please be safe, Xavier!’

While trying to divert her mind from negative thoughts, [Name] observed the room she was in with sharp eyes, ************yzing the level of usefulness of the items in the room if she later needed them as weapons for self defense at an emergency.

She also didn’t forget to free her feet from the chain, which was neither too long nor too short.

The chain looks strange. Even though the chain looks like it is embedded in the wall, the part that is embedded seems to be ‘planted’ with the building material as if the wall was purposely built to embed the chain.

Even the chains that tied her legs did not have a keyhole or anything that indicated that the chains could be removed using tools.

[Name] thought about asking the perpetrator where they made these chains to be used when she caught criminals—replacing the handcuffs that had become the butt of jokes even for clowns.

Her clothes have also been changed. And this makes [Name] shudder, goosebumps, feel insulted.

Her body is now wrapped in an oversized white shirt like the type of shirt that is specifically for men, seeing that the shoulders are too broad for her narrow shoulders. At least the trousers she was wearing were still there.

Maybe the perpetrator felt sorry for [Name] for wearing a black t-shirt in this hot season?

[Name] felt skeptical about the motive behind her kidnapping.

Krieet…

Hearing the sound of the door opening, [Name] turned her head sharply towards the door which was a distance away from the bed where she was restrained by the chains.

“!!”

Surprised, really surprised. [Name] felt like her mind was debating between positive and negative thoughts.

Xavier stood before her. His appearance looked too neat for someone who had just been kidnapped. Ah, except for a few splatters of blood that stained his face and neck.

Oh, did Xavier just run away from the perpetrator and managed to injure the perpetrator?

Feeling relieved, [Name] moved her legs to stand up from the bed and wanted to run over to Xavier, wanting to check Xavier’s condition more closely. But the chains binding her leg held her down, causing her to fall.

“Ugh…”

[Name] grunted, head tilted up, looking at Xavier.

The man who was stared at just ******iled gently. His hand roughly wiped the blood that stained his neck. His feet walked towards [Name] who fell with heavy momentum.
Xavier crouched in front of [Name]. His hand took several strands of [Name]’s long black hair then kissed them with an expression full of affection.

“Xavier… are you okay? What about the perpetrator? Let’s get out of here immediately and take the perpetrator to the station.”

The man just ******iled, not responding to [Name]’s words, who seemed relieved to see that Xavier could still ******ile broadly in front of her even though his aura somehow scared her. Her instincts screamed at [Name] to immediately run as far as possible from the white-haired man in front of her.

But why?

A pair of hands supported under [Name’s] armpits, lifting her up. Then Xavier easily carried [Name] in his arms, making the girl sit on his arm.

Xavier’s free hand stroked the girl’s face, tucking the strands of hair that covered the girl’s face behind her ear.

[Name] could only wonder in her heart because Xavier ignored all of her words earlier and just locked his gaze on [Name], scanning her entire face with a gaze as sharp as a hawk.

“…Xavier?”

“Hm?”

The girl freeze, feeling the hair on the back of her neck stand up when her ears caught Xavier’s deep voice as if he was holding back something.

Xavier continued to move. His feet were now walking towards the bed that [Name] had been on. Slowly, he laid [Name] down on the bed. He himself crawled on top of [Name]’s body, confining the girl under the restraints of his body and arms.

Xavier’s right hand gently caressed [Name]’s face which screamed with an expression of fear mixed with confusion. Meanwhile, he placed his right hand on the mattress, next to the girl’s head.

The white-maned head was lowered so that it was level with [Name]’s ear. “You’re safe here, forever.” Then he moved his head away from [Name]’s ear, looking at the girl with a big ******ile.

“…Why?” asked [Name] who was starting to feel lost.

Where is the Xavier who always offered her a soda and a seat for stargazing? Where did the sweet man who always looked at her tenderly go?

Now that gentle gaze had been replaced by a sharp gaze full of obsession that seemed to scream that he would lose control if [Name] disappeared from his sight.

Who is the man in front of her right now?

“I’m sick of losing you in every world without having time to lock you up for myself.” Xavier lowered his body, hugging the girl beneath him tightly. “At least this time I want to monopolize your presence for myself before you disappear from me again.”

World…? What does this crazy man talking about?

“…What about our job?”

The man just placed his lips on [Name]’s neck. “They’re gone. No one will look for you other than me. You’re mine only. Nobody can occupy your mind, nobody can think of you except me.”

Xavier blinked his eyes affectionately, feeling gleeful. “I will explain everything to you slowly.”

Their lips met, a light kiss was given by Xavier who tried to calm [Name]. “The time’s on our side—at least, this time.”