Bella noticed it halfway through the shift.
Her hand moved to her side out of habit—empty.
She froze.
Slowly, very slowly, she checked again. Left side. Right side. Behind her back. Under the counter. Nothing.
Her daggers were gone.
"…Vario."
Vario looked up from restocking instant noodles. "I didn't do anything yet."
Bella turned toward him with a deadly calm. "That sentence alone proves guilt."
Nyx glanced over. "What's wrong?"
"My daggers are missing," Bella said flatly. "And there is only one person in this store with a long, proud history of misplacing things."
Vario pointed at himself. "I resent that."
"You put everyone's uniforms in the freezer," Bella shot back.
"That was one time."
"It was last week."
Garruk folded his arms. "Vario, did you touch Bella's daggers?"
"No," Vario said immediately. "I don't even touch sharp objects anymore. Last time I did, Nyx labeled me a 'walking hazard.'"
Nyx nodded. "Accurate."
Bella stepped closer, eyes narrowed. "Then explain this."
She held up a dagger sheath. Empty.
Vario leaned in. "Okay, that's concerning. But why is this automatically my fault?"
Bella counted on her fingers. "One: you borrow things without asking. Two: you forget where you put them. Three: you panic and deny everything."
"I am denying because I'm innocent," Vario said defensively.
At that exact moment, a clatter echoed from aisle three.
Everyone turned.
A dagger slid across the floor and hit Vario's foot.
Silence.
Nyx slowly looked at him. "Explain."
Vario stared down at the dagger, then up at Bella. "I swear on my past world's internet history, I did not do that."
Bella pinched the bridge of her nose. "Where. Did. You. Put. Them."
"I didn't put them anywhere!" Vario said, panicking. "I don't even know how that got there!"
Garruk walked into aisle three and crouched. "There's more."
He pulled out two more daggers from behind a snack rack.
Bella's eye twitched.
Nyx crossed her arms. "Vario."
"I WAS CLEANING," Vario blurted out. "I saw shiny things, thought they were trash props, moved them so no one would get hurt, then forgot where I put them because someone started talking about cup noodles lore."
Everyone stared at Yuwen.
Yuwen kept eating. "The beef flavor has history."
Bella took a deep breath. Then another.
Then she grabbed all three daggers, slid them back into their sheaths, and pointed one finger directly at Vario's chest.
"Next time," she said calmly, "you touch my weapons again—"
"Yes?"
"I make you inventory the store. Alone. On delivery day."
Vario gasped. "That's cruel."
Nyx smiled. "Deserved."
Bella turned away, muttering, "Unbelievable."
Vario watched her go, then looked at the dagger-shaped dent in the floor. "…At least I didn't lose them."
Nyx slapped him on the back of the head.