"Tch!! You're telling me you didn't catch her picture?!" the chief slammed the table, his face in a deep frown.
"S-sir… that's all we got on the screens," one of the techs said, pointing to the screens.
"This silhouette isn't even enough!" he barked.
An officer entered the tech room.
"S-sir! Sir!"
The chief pressed a hand over his face. "What else?!"
"The cameras… every one of them… are broken!"
The techs exchanged nervous glances, hands hovering over keyboards as if afraid to touch anything.
The officeman's voice cracked. "Sir… maybe it's not just technical issues…"
The chief's jaw tightened. He hated feeling powerless. A soft exhale escaped. "I know…" he whispered.
From the other side, in Joe's car, he turned the coin gently.
"It's real… but I still can't believe it. The coin looks untouched."
His breath hitched. "What kind of girl carries something like this…?"
Joe leaned back in the seat, the weight of the night pressing heavier on his shoulders.
He covered his eyes with his arm. "Is this what I get for lying…?" he whispered, comparing the two coins, the new one and the old one.
"What am I even dealing with here…" he muttered.
Joe's leg nudged the brake pedal unconsciously, a nervous habit he didn't even notice as his mind spiraled. "Whatever she was, she wasn't normal… and she wasn't done," he muttered.
Then it stilled , his body finally giving in as he drifted into sleep.
Just above him in the sky, Frieren hovered silently, stargazing, her breath turning to mist in the cold night air.
"Some stars looked dimmer tonight", she wondered.
She raised her book and the single feather, both glowing faintly under the night sky.
Her cloak drifted weightlessly behind her.
The feather in her hand twitched with a soft shimmer, responding to her thoughts.
When she opened her book, an inked sketch formed on the page , the red car she'd noticed earlier.
"Metal beast... or carriage for now," she whispered, staring at the page.
Then she turned back to the stars again. "Hmm… what else hides in this era?" she wondered, blinking.
She tapped the feather lightly against the page, letting the ink ripple like water.
Frieren's fingers paused mid-page, her gaze distant. Her smile softened but vanished the moment she turned the page.
"The evil eye…" she whispered, the memory of the police camera replaying sharply in her mind.
"They made me so unsettled... Those lenses , they stare just like the old dungeon eyes," she murmured.
Frieren's jaw tightened subtly.
The memory of those monstrous, unblinking orbs clawed quietly at the edges of her thoughts.
Once she turned the page, another sketch appeared , the barista she met.
"The old dwarf…" she murmured, a hint of fondness slipping through her voice.
She murmured, "Well, not quite like Eisen, but still , close enough to stir something familiar."
She let out a warm smile, closing the book and hugging it to her chest.
She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the night wind cool the unease building in her chest.
Frieren brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she sighed.
Her silhouette drifted across the moon.
A dog caught sight of her and erupted into frantic barking, unsure whether she was real or a trick of the night.
Frieren paused mid-air, glancing down.
She tilted her head gently, amused by how even animals reacted more honestly than some humans.
"Ah… sorry," she murmured, unsure if the dog could even hear her.
The dog stopped barking, as if it felt her warmth.
Frieren floated slightly higher, letting the dog settle, her cloak whispering through the night air.
She drifted in quiet slumber, suspended among the clouds, until the first light of dawn stirred her awake. The morning sun painted her hair with gold as tiny birds perched upon her, chirping softly.
Some of them settled on her hair.
She rubbed her eyes, blinking against the soft morning light.
Frieren stretched her arms lightly, feeling the warmth of the rising sun against her skin.
The birds fled.
"Letting my body hibernate while I float , a technique I took decades to master," she muttered.
She murmured almost to herself, "Decades of practice, and I still need to stay unseen."
"Guess it's time to hide again," she whispered, scanning the houses until her eyes landed on a place.
Her gaze settled on the cloth shop, a small anchor in the unfamiliar cityscape.