After the parade back to the guild, I dropped off the girls and went to my next destination.

Those skill stones I got can be bought, for a price. Certain stores are dedicated towards them, but other skills can be manufactured en masse. As such, they can be bought for cheap at convenience stores.

Like a camera skill, for example.

"That'll be $87.38, ma'am." The store clerk rings me up with his best retail smile. Don't lie to me, kid. Even if I didn't have Clairvoyance, I can still see the pain in your soul.

I pay for the still-kind-of-expensive skill stone. One with orange lines like the Inspect one had.

[ Through external sources you have unlocked the skill: Camera(Active) ]

[ Camera — Allows the user to log videos and pictures to the System. The point of view can be set to a point in space or from the user. Transcription allows for subtitles. ]

"Have a nice day," he waves goodbye.

"You too."

Now, I'm going to go back to Thomas's penthouse first, then back to the school. I don't expect to find anything, but doing nothing isn't an option.

————————————————————————————————————

I open the door, finding all of the lighting has been dimmed. Sitting parallel on the couch are two figures: a disheveled Thomas and a disheveled Aria.

Thomas looks charred. The left side of his face is melting. A rubbery mask that mirrors his left drips down, revealing his metal skeleton underneath. He slumps into the couch, wishing to hide his pain.

Aria looks like she's trying and failing to cover up the largest migraine of her life. Her artificial eyelids blink repeatedly at the artificial light on her artificial eyes. Her ruffled clothes ruin the prim and proper maid look she had.

I've never read anything from Thomas before. Huh.

I stalk over to the couch, almost silently creeping across the flooring. Neither of them react to me. Even standing in front of them, they both have thousand-yard stares.

Oh. Wait. My skill is still active.

Even with it off, the two give me barely more than a glance.

"Knew somethin' was up," Thomas says, slipping into something of a southern accent. "Space jus'— just doesn't distort like that."

"I'm an SRO at Nora's school right now." Better to ask for forgiveness, right? I should just rip off that band-aid then.

"Okay." Thomas settles deeper into the fluffy couch. "You have a good reason…probably… It's the principal, correct?"

"Y-Yes," I agree. I'm caught a little off guard by his admittance. "How did you know?"

Thomas yawns. "Intuition." From what I'm reading, I won't get more from him, even if I try to pry.

"Do either of you want to help?"

They both shrug simultaneously. "I'd do anything for Nora," Aria says, her voice scratchy. "Just not right now. We'll both try and dig up any digital records…later."

I'm not getting anywhere here. "There's also something funky happening with the students."

"…The bathrooms, no matter where you go, will always be, for lack of a better adjective, shit," Thomas deadpans. Can't believe he just said that while looking me dead in the eye.

"No. Well, true. But, I found a student in a vulnerable and violated position today. Her memories revealed something…interesting. Almost as if time skipped over."

"Ugh. Probably a Temporal Magic user, or their lesser cousins, Time Magic users. I could probably rant all day, er, night on how much it sucks. Kinda like Alchemy." Oh, he's noticeably more energetic. A little angry, too.

"For such a small mana cost, they can affect the entire universe. What bullshit! Some of them can even created localized…time…bubble…things. Gah! Yeah, anyway, what you're describing sounds like someone stopped time. Which, might I add, should destroy the world due to entropy. Also, how do they even see or breathe…"

I think I'll just leave and…come back later.

————————————————————————————————————

The school was…desolate.

I'd always wanted to try sneaking into a school at night. Some of the nerdy boys talked repeatedly about hacking the school or something. However, I never even attempted. As I was, I had no Perception Filter, and I'm not sure it even works on security cameras.

Anyway, repressed tangents aside, I can't really find anything in here. Other than some restrooms in desperate need of cleaning, and a few closets that smell of drugs and sex. I'll take a few pictures of those rooms…just in case.

It is weird, though, seeing hallways with lockers in them. Back at my high school, they removed them because nobody used them. Well, it was more like we couldn't.

Four minutes between classes and your next class is diagonally across the school. That sort of jazz.

They then painted over the walls, while at the same time refusing to update the HVAC, meaning we were all breathing in paint fumes for a week. Some of the druggies really liked it. The monochromatic walls plus the fumes equals a kid, who loved the walls so much, he put his fist through them.

Man, I'm heading down memory lane today, huh?

I've been searching the classrooms, and I found something. It's…a notebook. Pink and glittery. Rainbows and unicorns on the front. The sort of thing parents would buy when they don't understand their kid.

Or if they're a horse girl.

I shiver in terror at the memory of…that girl. The one who managed to get the school banned from getting discounted field trips to the zoo.

I'm… I— I'm going to read this notebook now.

'Dear diary, it worked! The skill stone he gave me stopped the world. I finally got revenge on that bitch Jessica. She went to the bathroom today so I stopped time and followed her. It was amazing. I didn't come inside of her. I think that can be traced. It always is in movies. But I read online that sperm is killed immediately in air.

There was a new person in school today. She found Jessica. She looks like a wolf girl. A hero type maybe. A really hot body too. I've decided. She's my next target.'

Okay. Kind of weird to find a kid sexually fantasizing about me. Scarily, and more importantly though, I think I found my guy. Whoever gave him a time-stopping skill though must be a very, very wealthy guy.

Just need to call the Hero's CSI labs. Need to find any DNA. I'll stalk this classroom tomorrow.

Right as I turn to leave, the door swings open. I freeze, not even breathing audibly to my senses. I quickly check my Perception Filter, and see, yes, it's on.

Ms. Resting-Bitch-Face—the receptionist—peeks into the room, glancing around. Finding nobody noticeable here, she tip-toes in, then begins riffling through the teacher's desk.

"I'd get out of there," a voice says, causing me to almost stumble over a table.

"Aria!" I hiss. "The fuck?"

"Stating as I see it. Sometimes. I really only switch to your feed when I'm bored, and only speak up when I feel it. This, however, is tense. I'm getting second-hand stress from this."

I calm down, slowly choosing my answers as I navigate out of the room. By now, the receptionist has found what she was looking for—a bunch of files—and has begun taking pictures. "You usually respond when I ask."

"I set up an event listener to parse the speech that goes through your mask. Did you forget? It's a microphone and speaker system, meaning you're silent right now."

"…Maybe," I say, normally now.

"Yeah…" She drawls, monotonically. "There's a toggle button on your right ear for the speaker. A push-to-talk button for the comms system on the left. It'll always be on for me."

"Do the buttons just tell you to send the data in different directions?" I'm almost out the door now.

"Of course."