"I mean you're being a little paranoid, but... this is Hellsalem's Lot, so you never know," said a tall, blonde woman wearing dark clothes, as well as a trench coat and an eyepatch.

She was K.K, a recurring member of Libra, an excellent single mother, and a long-time friend of Steven A. Starphase.

"Sigh. After her last mission, Klaus and all of us agreed that it was necessary to give Chain a break. And without her to stealthily follow the transport of Dug Hummer and Deldro Brody, we need this if we wish to avoid unnecessary complications in the form of The Queen of Monomania."

"Hmph. I suppose I must give you some reason in that line of thinking. The last time such a large operation was conducted, we suffered a great deal of civilian and members casualties."

The man's expression and the woman's turned bitter at the fateful memory. Even with the superhuman abilities of both, they had been easily neutralized. Had it not been for the timely arrival of Gilbert, Zapp and Klaus, that occasion would have been their last time on Earth.

"By the way Steve..." asked K.K with a frown. "Do you know anything about our mysterious visitor? Klaus is still a little upset about the mess in the library and in the Libra archive."

"I wish I knew something. We're certain it wasn't a Blood Breed under an advanced invisibility technique, God only knows Lucky Adams' reaction if one of those bloodsuckers go through Libra's defenses like air."

"But they haven't ruled out the other possibility..."

"Not at all. The little evidence points to only one possibility."

K.K could have sworn that Steven somehow brought the ambient temperature down to add drama to his statement.

"An All-Seeing Eyes user."

... ... ...

... ... ...

Leonardo Watch stretched as the last of his companions in the pizzeria exited and proceeded to lock the back door. He tossed the keys into a nearby mailbox that his boss checked every morning before employees began arriving.

All this day, however, Leo's mind was not on the present, but captive to the events of yesterday, a yesterday in which the peace of his humble apartment was shattered by his wild neighbor and her equally wild group of friends.

"At least they were kind enough to pay for what they ate..." muttered the brown hair boy with defeat.

He wasn't lying to those women when he told them he wasn't mad at them, but if he had to be totally honest, Leo really wanted some rest after the erratic schedule he went through at his job when he thought he was going to get fired.

The cherry on the cake was that... Leonardo Watch sucked at talking to women, not talking about beautiful women. He was a absolute mess.

Sure, the two people closest to him in Hellsalem's Lot were women, but with Vivian, well, Leo's mind was strange and from the moment they met, it automatically blocked any possibility of developing attraction. It was as simple as saying that Leonardo was just looking for a friendship and vice versa.

Now with the second person...

"No, no. Not in a million years."

Soon the lights and clamor of the nightlife were replaced by the warmth and minimalism of the building where her apartment was located. To Leo's surprise, there was a familiar face at the window of the building's landlady.

"Hmmmm... This is a robbery," exclaimed Chain Sumeragi under a slight grunt to moments later pull a card from her wallet. Leo's mind wanted to think it was a debit card, because he hated credit cards.

Leonardo quickly assumed that if Chain was here facing the landlady, it was because she had kept her word and would pay for the new door that had been so kindly replaced in less than half a day.

Knowing that he had no part in this conversation, he decided to go up to his apartment and get some rest. He was sure that tomorrow would be a busy day at the pizzeria.

"Don't complain so much brat," said the aging landlady, a woman around her 70's with eye-length gray hair, wrinkled skin and eyes hidden behind tinted glasses, by the name of Mi Dandan. "My daughter hurt her back going up the fucking door, the least you can do is pay what's fair," she said curtly but with a neutral tone, say, she wasn't mad at Chain, she just had a sailor's mouth.

Meanwhile, Chain clicked her tongue, but nodded in compression. There was no way she could deny Mrs. Dandan's words.

So it was that as she climbed the stairs, being close to reaching the hallway where her semi-new apartment lay, she failed to see that she was on a collision course with someone else. And as the world loves to be playful with people, that person was none other than Leonardo Watch himself.

"Aaah!" cried the invisible werewolf as she felt her foot step on something soft: Leonardo's own right foot.

"Wuaaah!" so sudden was it that Leonardo lost his balance.

Chain's brain slowed down everything around her, seeing Leonardo about to fall.

She didn't think it anymore and quickly grabbed him by his hoodie, pulling him closer to her. 'And even then he doesn't open his eyes...' she thought with amusement without catching the very faint blue glow filtering out of Leo's eyes.

As for the young Watch, his mind was a mess. One moment, he was slowly climbing the stairs because of a dismal foreboding that came to him, the next he found himself falling as the shocked face of his neighbor invaded his vision.

'She's pretty.'

And once again, the intrusive thought of the night he met her came to him.

Only this time nothing in the world could stop his nerves from winning the intense inner battle.

"Are you okay... Leonardo?" asked Chain with an awkward smile in an equally awkward attempt at informality.

"Y-yes... Thank you for the save, Miss Chain," Leonardo was mentally beating himself up for stuttering so much and if the warm feeling on his face said anything, it was that he had blushed furiously.

"No... you're welcome," the Libra werewolf woman was tempted to just say just that, it was something deep but deep in the back of her mind that made her keep opening her mouth. "I owed you for the whole, uhm, you know, breaking into your apartment with the girls and eating your slice of cake that you were apparently saving for a special occasion."She said in her usual tone of voice, a serious and bored one, which somehow only made it funnier.

All embarrassment had vanished from Leonardo, replaced by his bemused self.

Chain looked at him in confusion until it very gradually dawned on her what she said.

"I... I have to go."

"Yes... Have a good night... Miss Chain."

"... Likewise..."

Leonardo was so disconnected from everything that he didn't notice at what moment his crazy neighbor disappeared behind her new door, but at least he caught the wail from beyond the grave that in the following years would inspire an urban legend among the humans and beyondians who lived and lived in that building.

"Why did I say all of that?!"

... ... ...

... ... ...

"That... was something."

"You're telling me. I didn't know you were such a casanova, should I protect my purity from a stud like you, Leo-chan?"

"Huh?"

So distracted was Leonardo that he didn't notice the giant greenish-iris eyeball floating in the kitchen area.

And at the back of the apartment, a female figure lay sitting on his bed.

It was easy for him to tell who it was. Especially since the woman jumped towards him and knocked him down.

"Aligura?!"

"The one and only!"

"...What are you doing here?" he asked matter-of-factly - and tiredly - as if he wasn't being held by one of the most dangerous beings in Hellsalem's Lot.

"Eeeeh? It's girls' night, Leo-chan! Put on your best sweatshirt and let's go out and burn some punks!"

"... But I'm a boy."

Today such was the life of Leonardo Watch, the young adult seeking his redemption in the face of the actions of forces greater than himself.

"It's girls' night I said!"

Leo's second friend in Hellsalem's Lot? Yes, that was Aligura.

"Sigh. Fine. Just please let's not do urban exploration again, I don't want to be chased by a Wendigo... Again."