"So, you want me to help in your little escapade?"

"That's right! Are you free?"

Shota and Lucoa were standing at the doorstep of Takiya's apartment. Fafnir had come to the door, and was hearing out their proposal. It was quite early in the morning, and Shota had school in a few hours, so they would need to negotiate fast.

"You want me to assist you two in breaking into a heavily guarded fortress to retrieve a magic spellbook?"
"Yeah! It's really important! I screwed up this magic spell, and I need that book to reverse it!"

"I'm very busy with this limited time game event right now. Why should I take time out of my day to assist you?"

"Tohru and Elma are suffering right now. Their lives are ruined because of me…"

"And?"

"Fine, I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this. Lucoa, show him!"

Lucoa dramatically opened up a tupperware container, holding 5000 yen in bills inside.

"Will this be an adequate payment?"
"Really?"
"Yeah, this was all the physical money I had on hand, and I wasn't allowed to use any of my dad's briefcases."

"What use would I have for useless human currency? I don't collect any."

"It's not as useless as you think, actually."

"Elaborate."
"Money can be exchanged for goods and services."
"Really now?"
"Sure. Why do you think your buddy Takiya goes to work? You think he enjoys doing it?"

"..."

"You accept, and you can buy yourself a new video game or DLC or something."
"Hm, very well. I will accept your payment and assist you in return."

"Thanks, that's all we ask."

"I do wonder why you need me, though. You have godlike power, after all. If you would just apply yourself more, you could do this without bothering me."

"Eh, this is easier for all of us. Besides, if this mission is so effortless, you should have no problem with it, right?"

"I won't lose to some pathetic human structure!"

"Alright, listen up, here's the plan…"

That night, Shota, Lucoa, and Fafnir were standing on a rooftop overlooking the police headquarters. The place was surprisingly huge, with tall concrete walls and heavily armed personnel patrolling the grounds. Shota began to wonder if his father's tax yen were going into the right places. I mean, that money wasn't exactly helping them in this situation, was it? Shota wished that his father had the balls to evade paying his taxes more often.

"So let's review. We use magic to sneak past the guards, make our way through the halls, find the evidence room, cause a distraction to get everyone away from the evidence room, use magic to locate where the book is, and make our escape via the roof. Is that right? Did I get everything?"
"That's pretty much perfect actually, Lucoa. Glad you were listening earlier."

"I assume I will be responsible for the distraction?"
"And facilitating our exit, yes. When they find out some evidence is missing, things could get messy…"

"And make sure to use your phone for communication. The spell should hide our talking, but won't hide other stuff like our magic. We all clear? Let's go!"

Shota and Lucoa put on a perception blocking spell and jumped over to the police station, walking right through the open front door. Fafnir got into position on the roof. The two snuck around the various rooms and hallways, searching for anything that looked like an evidence room.

"Lucoa, why are you so close to me?"
"If we're closer together, that gives us less of a chance of being bumped into, right?"
"Probably, but your chest is on top of my head! It's hard to see!"

"Hard to see? But the spell makes us invisible."

"Just stay away from me and focus! It's probably somewhere near the offices."

It took a little navigating, but Shota and Lucoa finally found the evidence room, which was unfortunately behind a locked door.

"Here we are. Shota-baby, can you use your magic to open the door? Or shall I blast it open myself?"
"No, we can't. My magic will be too visible, and blowing stuff up on a stealth mission is a terrible idea! Besides, there's a camera right there. If they see the locked door opening by itself, they'll know something's up!"

"So what then? Are we stuck?"

"We'll have to wait for someone to open it themselves and then sneak in."

"They'll still see us looking through the evidence, won't they?"

"I have a plan for that."

Shota called Fafnir, who was waiting on the roof nearby.

"Fafnir, we're on the west side of the building. Go to the east side and get ready for a distraction."

"Alright. What kind of distraction will you need?"

"Something that'll make everyone in the building run toward the east side, or out of the building. Just think of something, alright? But don't do it just yet. Wait for my signal. We need perfect timing for this…"

Fafnir flew over to the east roof and prepared himself. Just then, a police officer was walking down the hall toward the evidence room. Shota and Lucoa held their breath.

"Come on…Come on…"

The officer drew closer and closer.

"Fafnir, get ready. When I say go."

The officer took out his keys, inserting them into the door handle.

"Almost…"

He turned the lock and swung the door wide open.

"Go!"

Suddenly, a loud blast rang out through the building, shocking everyone and setting off the alarms. Dust was flying through the halls and ceiling tiles were dropping like rocks. The officer turned around to see what was going on. Shota and Lucoa took this chance and ran into the evidence room. The security doors in the room closed shut, barricading the doorways and windows from damage.

"Quick! Take out the cameras! They'll think they were broken in the explosion!"

Lucoa shot out a few bursts of energy, destroying the cameras and masking their presence.

"Nice work, Lucoa. And nice work, Fafnir. I don't know what you did but-"

"Aww, Shota-baby is praising me! Thanks so much!"

"Hey, cool it!"

"I used a blast to destroy the east wall of the fortress. Everyone has come to investigate, and I remain hidden on the rooftop."

"Alright, thanks. Stay safe."

"You know, we've gotten this far, and no one can see us right now…How about a victory cuddle?"
"This is not the time for that, Lucoa! Besides, we still have to find that book!"

The two sniffed around some, looking for where the book might be. Shota noticed that the evidence was sorted by dates, so he looked for the date the book was taken in. It was surprisingly easy this time around.

"Lucoa, I found it! And it's still intact! The reversal spell's right here!"

"Great, mission accomplished!"

"Alright, we need to go. See a way out?"

"We can't blow our way back the way we came. Let's use the vents instead."

The vents were covered with thick armor plating, probably activated when the alarms went off. Lucoa quickly blasted the plating open, revealing the open vent. She used her magic to float Shota up inside, and then jumped in with him.

"If you could do that whenever, why didn't you use it when we had to break into the first police station?"
"I wanted you to grope and climb all over me, of course."

"Right. Why am I not surprised? Alright, Fafnir, we're leaving now. Meet us on the roof."

"Alright."

The two kept climbing through the vent until they reached a set of fans and a grate. Lucoa blasted through them and helped Shota climb through onto the roof. Fafnir was up there waiting for them.

"You took your time. Do you have what you need?"
"Yeah! Now let's just get out of here so we can-"

"NO!"

The three of them turned in shock to see an unlikely adversary floating above them, bursting with energy and full of rage…