Soul Marks

"So… what exactly am I looking at?" Wuxin asked, his eyes narrowed as he studied the hologram Wally projected in the air. The image flickered slightly, revealing the detailed model of a utility belt spinning slowly on its axis.

"I haven't the faintest clue," Moriarty replied, arms crossed as he leaned casually against the wall. "You're the expert in this sort of thing. I figured you'd make more sense of it than I could."

We were still inside the training zone. The time limit hadn't expired yet, so we stuck around, and the air still buzzed faintly from residual mana left behind from our earlier session.

"I mean, this thing makes no sense at all…" Wuxin murmured, tilting his head as his gaze intensified. "There are four soul marks embedded in it. One human—or rather, a metahuman—and three orcs. All of them are B-ranks. How does a single utility belt end up carrying four soul marks? Who did this even belong to?" He turned sharply to Moriarty, confusion etched deep into his face.

"Cooper. Reinhardt managed to recover it, but it got damaged while Wally had it stored in his vault," Moriarty answered matter-of-factly.

"Cooper…" Wuxin echoed. "Wasn't he one of the kids you were raising?"

"For the security squad, yes. But I didn't raise them—Alfred did," I interjected before Moriarty could say anything else. "Do I really look like someone who enjoys taking responsibility?"

"Same thing," Wuxin muttered with a shrug, eyes drifting back to the hologram. His fingers pressed lightly against his lips in thought. "But this… this is fascinating. I can't tell whether they're alive or not, but they're definitely not dead. Whoever did this tried to erase the marks."

"You can erase soul marks?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, not exactly," Wuxin replied, eyes still locked on the data. "It's theoretically possible, but the calculations alone would take years—ten to twenty at least, assuming the person is highly skilled in soul theory. If not… much, much longer."

Wuxin wasn't like most people. Where others saw only the tangible world, he could perceive both its physical and spiritual layers—he could see not just bodies, but souls too. It was a unique gift granted by his special physique, something few others possessed.

That's why, aside from Ryuk, he's the only one who knows about Moriarty's existence. And one of the only people I consider a friend.

"Someone like this must've been planning it for a long time... But how did they slip past your eyes? Even the Grandmaster couldn't manage that," Wuxin said, casting me a skeptical glance.

"…I knew he was up to something," I admitted with a faint smile. "But I couldn't quite piece together his exact intentions. I was... curious to see how far his determination would carry him. If I'd known his goal was to completely erase his existence, I would've been even more fascinated. Still, he left too many loopholes in his plan. When I healed him during the exam, I used my ability—"

"—Which means a full reversal to his optimal state," Wuxin cut in, picking up the thread. "So he must've known not to rely on illusion. He appeared before you without disguise, acted his part perfectly, and then staged his own death. With no body left behind and no clear cause of death, you naturally investigated. But without evidence, nothing could be confirmed."

"Exactly," I chuckled softly. "Honestly, I'm surprised he made it this far. He probably realized that a fake corpse wouldn't convince me, so he went further—he wiped every trace clean."

"I'd be more surprised if he couldn't pull this off," Wuxin replied, covering his mouth with his left hand. "He trained under Alfred for years alongside those other kids. But what I don't get is why. Did he not have any family? Why vanish like this? He gained nothing by doing it."

"His father passed away," I said, voice quieter now. "Just got word from the hospital where he was being treated. Old age, nothing more. I suppose Cooper waited until his death before executing his plan."

I paused, troubled.

"But it still bothers me... What is he really trying to accomplish?"

"Paragon is the best place for him to grow. There isn't a single person who would pass up a chance like this. I mean, there's no academy better than Paragon—not on Earth, at least," I said, my voice calm but certain.

"On Earth," Wuxin echoed, his tone thoughtful, almost probing.

I turned to him, frowning slightly. "You're suggesting he left the planet?"

"There's a real possibility," Wuxin replied, folding his arms as his eyes narrowed in contemplation. "Four B-ranks—that's a lot of firepower. If they wanted to travel off-world, all they'd need is a favor from the right person. And considering how young he is, any major figure would jump at the opportunity to sponsor someone with that kind of potential."

"…No," I said after a moment, shaking my head slowly. "As much as that could be the case, I don't think he left to join another academy—certainly not on another planet. It feels like he's chasing something else entirely… I just can't put my finger on it."

"Are you sure he didn't run away because you were paying him minimum wage?" Wuxin asked with a crooked smile.

"Really?" I shot him a flat look. "I'm not in the mood for jokes. And for the record, his 'minimum wage' was a two-percent share in one of my companies. All of my security personnel receive shares instead of a regular salary. Each of those companies pulls in about a million a month."

Wuxin let out a low whistle. "…Being around you makes me feel like a disciple of the Beggar Sect. How do you even make that much…? No, don't answer that," he said, lifting a hand as if to block the answer before it could reach him. "It's probably better if I don't know. I'll just end up feeling worse."

He turned back to the flickering hologram, his amusement fading as the mystery reclaimed his attention.

"…But that still leaves plenty of possibilities on the table," Moriarty muttered as he stepped toward Wally. He began swiping through the floating hologram with swift, practiced motions, before finally pulling up a map of Earth—though it hardly resembled the one I remembered. Terraforming from the emergence of the zones had twisted continents and carved through cities, turning the familiar into something almost alien.

"Given what we know of him," Moriarty continued, "he's probably still somewhere out there, lying low. And if I had to guess… he's looking for something. Or someone. Wally, show us any recent events that might be worth investigating."

"Here they are, sire," Wally responded promptly, extending the holographic interface to the right. A second map unfolded, this one dotted with glowing markers—each one pinpointing an incident or anomaly scheduled or recently reported across the globe.

"Filter out the major ones," I said. "He'd try to stay under the radar."

With a soft chime, the map reconfigured itself, wiping out over half the entries in an instant.

"Hold on…" Wuxin leaned closer. "The orcs with him—you mentioned you never located the Stellar Path shamans, right? Wally, bring up the underworld activity logs. Cooper didn't take any funds with him when he came here, so he'd be strapped for travel expenses and—"

"—Returning home would be too risky," I cut in, following his train of thought. "So he'd likely have the shamans help him to earn money before heading to his next destination. The underworld would give him cover. Enough to stay hidden for a while."

"That is… if the orcs with him really are the shamans we lost track of," Moriarty said, stepping back from the hologram. "Which also means we can forget about catching them any time soon. Stellar Path shamans can predict our moves before we even make them… unless you feel like burning our ability for two days straight to scour the entire Earth."

"That would ruin the fun," I replied, grinning. "I'm not doing that. Chasing him like this is far more entertaining."

"…Seriously? You two are playing with him?" Wuxin asked, staring at us with an exhausted sigh.

"What did you expect?" I shrugged. "Why else would I go after someone like him if it wasn't amusing? I don't plan to kill him or anything—but I will make him clean up whatever Variables he accidentally creates when he comes back."

"Sounds borderline illegal," Wuxin muttered with a smirk, turning away. "But as long as I'm not involved…"

He started walking off, waving lazily over his shoulder. "Anyway, see you later. I need to get back to training. If Grandmaster catches me slacking again, I'll lose my legs."

"Yeah, I'm not seeing you off," Moriarty called after him as Wally brought up a new image—freeze-framed from a recently uncovered footage.

We both turned to look at it.

"…Things just got a whole lot more interesting."