"Your house is so neat, Haru! You're making me a bit jealous!" Kiara-san was occupied touching the things on my dresser, while Amelia-chan continued to tap on her phone next to me and proceeded to not have a care in the world.

"Did we seriously have to meet in my house?" It was already three in the afternoon, so we're going to have to think of a way to plan our next action before my dad arrived back home. But before I can think of a plan…

"Sorry~! As much as I would like to recommend my house for talking, I'm not… that good at keeping things nice and tight." When you apologize like that, it makes it sound like you're not apologizing with much heart…

"...Just stop touching my things and just sit down already. I have to think of something quick if I'm going to-"

"That's where I'm going to stop you there, Haru! While I'll appreciate the approval of you letting me inside your house," I didn't, you just carried me over your shoulder as I pointed the way to my house. "I cannot approve of anything dangerous happening on my watch!" Kiara's eyes quite literally burned with determination as she sat on my bed.

"Kiara-chan, we're not doing-"

"I'm going to have to stop you there again, Haru! While I appreciate the kind formalities, I cannot approve the use of it when you're speaking to me!" I crossed my arms in annoyance. What kind of woman is she?!

"Then? You want me to address you with no formalities? You do know that this suggestion is more for people that know each other?" Even with that in mind, she still smiles.

"And? For me, I don't really care about those formalities! You can just call me by name, 'Kiara', instead of 'Kiara-chan!'"

"I never called you Kiara-chan before."

"You didn't? Hm, I might be remembering things differently, then." Speaking about memory, I was more confused on the fact that she didn't recognize me when we first met eyes. It really felt like she didn't recognize me…

"Alright, now that I'm done, we can finally get into-wait, who's this woman?" Amelia-chan? Are you… Are you being serious right now? How… can you even not notice someone as annoying as her?!

"Oh~! I haven't introduced myself yet! My name is Kiara! You don't have to address me with any formalities like '-san' or whatever, because I'm not that old! I'm only… I think I'm a lot older than I look. Huh, it must've been a long time since I-"

"It's fine, I get what you mean. Well then, Kiara, might I ask what you're doing inside of-wait, when did we go inside your house, Haru?" Amelia-chan? Amelia-chan?! Do you have no sense of awareness on that phone of yours?! We could've let in a criminal in my house and she wouldn't have known!

"...Can we please hurry this up? We know where the book is, but how are we going to get it, if the school is closed today?" As I turned to Amelia-chan, I saw that in the corner of my eye, Kiara-san tilted her head in confusion.

"Well, we're just going to have to sneak in then! It's a regular school, so the security can't be that bad!" Amelia-chan started to grin at the idea.

"Wait a-"

"Okay, but what if the door to the art room is locked? Then, I'm going to have to find the key in order to open the door."

"You already answered your own question, Haru." She smirked.

"I was hoping for you to give me another way inside the room without the key, but I can already see that you're out of ideas quickly." I didn't mean for that to be a bit offensive, but I can't take back my words.

"Hey! You can't judge a detective so quickly! This is our first operation and you're already assuming that I'm worthless!"

"I'm not assuming that you're worthless. Unless you get off that phone of yours when you have no sense of awareness, then maybe you're a bit useless." And sadly, I'm adding more fuel to the fire.

"Okay, that's enough you two," Before Amelia-chan was able to speak, Kiara-san had gotten between the two of us with disappointment clearly expressed. "I might not know how close you two are, but you shouldn't be fighting! All that's coming from this is a ruined connection between the two of you, so stop it!" Hearing her, I backed away a bit.

"...Sorry." I heard Amelia-chan voice out, but wasn't as aggressive as she spoke a few seconds ago. It was clearly my fault for starting this up, so she shouldn't apologize for something I did.

"It wasn't your fault, Haru."

"...I was the one who started it, so it's fine if you hate me for it. Now that we are done with this, can we please hurry this up?" I was becoming a bit anxious and annoyed because of how stupid this was. We're breaking and entering a school that can very much get me into big trouble. And while doing this, we have to do this before my dad gets back, so now I'm even more pressured.

"Haru, calm down, you need to not let anger control you," When I heard Kiara-san's voice, I noticed that I had been clenching my fist in frustration. I need to… calm myself right now. "And finally, I cannot let you go do this, Haru." I figured that the option of stopping me was on her plate.

"Wait, who are you to tell him what he-" Turning to Amelia-chan, Kiara-san closed her eyes. Before opening them to show determination once again.

"I am the phoenix that promised him that I will not allow him to kill himself. I'm sorry to cancel your cool operation, but you have to know that I am not the kind of person to break a promise. Amelia, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to go back home." I could escape from out the window, but I don't think that Kiara-san wouldn't be fast enough to stop me.

"Oh, so you're the creator of Phoenix's Feather, huh? As much as I would like to know more about you, I can't afford to risk the lives on this planet because of your stupid promise." She grinned before walking past her to stand at my side.

"It's not a stupid promise! Not only do I have to protect him from himself, I have to protect him for Calli as well! She's a grim reaper that's focused on killing him." Getting a nudge on my side, I looked at Amelia-chan, who was looking at me with a smirk.

"Wow, Haru, I didn't think of you to be a ladies man! Working with a brilliant and hot detective such as myself, getting protection from a phoenix, and getting chased by a grim reaper? Any other guy would be dreaming of this kind of situation!" Ha. Ha. I can see that you have jokes about things that can desperately change my life, Amelia-chan.

"...I'm pretty sure that they don't think about this sort of thing. Whoever does, they might as well be crazy." I spoke to her as she turned her smirk to Kiara-san, who wasn't showing any signs of budging her resolve.

"I have my reasons, Kiara, and you have your own. We're not going to stop just because you told us to stop." With a newly formed grin, I could only question why on Earth she looks so sure of herself.

"I see. Then, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to stop you with everything I have," Standing at the door, she spread her arms out in a protective way to stop anyone from leaving. With the strength and speed that she has, I doubt that I would be able to do anything. Would I have to wait until Monday?

"Well, that's good to know." As Amelia-chan reached down to grab her clock accessory, she clicked the button that was sticking out of it. After doing so, she grabbed my shoulder.

And for whatever reason, I feel dizzy.

And suddenly, the color of the world had been drained.

"Alright then, Haru, exit out the window and get to the school. Sadly, you're going to have to do this operation alone, so good luck." After walking to my bed, she laid on it and pulled her phone out.

"Wait, what's going on?! Why is the-"

"I don't have that much time, Haru. Keeping it easy, I stopped time. But I can't keep this up because the clock is practically draining me. Don't worry, I'm not going to get killed, I'm just going to end up falling asleep. And if you notice time coming back, then I'm already asleep. Get it? Now get going."

"...I owe you one." Opening my window, I carefully went through and tried to angle myself to land for the bushes that were beneath me. After falling, I managed to hurt my leg a bit, but I continued onward to the school.

I can't stop from this given opportunity.

After arriving at the school, I took a second to catch my breath from the running it took to get here. Luckily, Amelia-chan was still awake, so I still have enough time to enter the school and do whatever I need. Seriously, I owe her one.

"Now, how can I enter?" Speaking to myself, I looked at the front of the school that was fully protected by gates so no one can get through. Hm, I might be able to climb past the gate, but I'm going to need some sort of height boost.

These gates are too high for me to climb… but could the back have the same height?

Moving around to the back of the school, I noticed that the gate wasn't as high as it was in the front. But I still had nothing to use to climb the gate. Well… I guess I could try to use the patterns in the gate as an advantage. The circle patterns could be beneficial for my feet in the need of balance.

Putting my first foot on one of the circle patterns, I jumped up a bit to reach for the top of the gate with my hand, and I was able to do just that. Now I would just need to use my feet and push myself over the gate!

As my right foot touches the next pattern, I repeated the action with my left and then right until I knew I could go over the gate.

"Hah!" Pulling myself to the top of the gate, I was able to go over the gate without any problems. And now that I'm past the gate, all I have to do is enter through the cafeteria and go up the stairs that are luckily next to it.

It wasn't hard to enter the cafeteria as there weren't any obstacles to get to it. Now, going up the stairs, the path to the art room isn't that far away.

Reaching the room, I looked inside to see if there were anyone inside, and sad to say that it wasn't. Before I turned the knob, I noticed that the golden color of the knob was shown. Moving away from the door, I noticed that the color of the world was slowly returning to how it was naturally. Great, Amelia-chan's almost asleep!

Being quick, I turned the knob and opened the door.

Weird enough, the door wasn't locked even if it wasn't-

"Crap!" Turning to my right, I looked to see a man with a janitor's outfit cleaning the room. Well, he was frozen, but since the color of the world was slowly coming back, I need to hurry and find the book! As I searched through the room as quick as I could, I had no sign of the book.

What was the book even supposed to look like?!

I don't have time-

'Mhnmmm!'

Before I could think about anything else, the sound of a desk moving was heard in the room. The janitor was still frozen, but not for long. Then, who in the world made the noise?

'Mhnmmm!'

Walking to the desk that was moving, I didn't see anyone next to it, so… was this some sort of haunting? I don't have time for this, I need to hurry out of the school and get back to the house before anyone finds me!

"Heep!" Hearing this… sound, I looked down at my foot to find some sort of… black thing with eyes and a mouth staring up at me. I would like to scream, but I wouldn't want to risk it. Besides, this thing looks a bit cute to be scary.

"Are you… the thing that's been doing things inside this room?" To my question, it nodded its head or body fast. "Then… you're the thing that owns the book, right?" To that question, it shook its head fast. It was able to understand me, so I should probably take this thing with me. We were wrong about the book being in here, so this thing is the best thing we have to find the book. I grabbed the small creature and put it in my pocket.

Now, I just need to go back home.