Chapter 03 - The Mysterious Case of Jenefer Pineda

Jenefer Pineda woke up early that day, partly because it was her birthday, her 29th birthday to be specific, and partly because she has a class to teach. 

When she was younger, and up until now honestly, she was asked why she chose to teach kindergarten when she can earn better by teaching primary to tertiary education instead? And they would never understand. They would never understand her love and passion about the kids. They would never get how a few less silver can immediately be made up for by the smiling faces of the children and the bright expression they wore when they did or got something right. Jenefer loved her children, she lived for them.

That morning, just like every other morning in her life, she got up and whispered a quick prayer in front of her deceased parents' portraits before going on with her day. She took a bath before cooking and eating breakfast.

It had been her everyday routine, she's actually quite afraid to have to break it in the future, she'd hate to get out of her comfort zone.

The trip to the school was as uneventful as usual and the day went on like literally every other day in her life, and she's not mad about it. Her fellow teachers budgered her about going out before heading home that night, since it was her birthday. Going out means she would be breaking her habit of being home by six o'clock but she agreed.

While they were walking towards a restaurant, they were animatedly talking, until Jenefer made eye contact with two glowing purple eyes from a corner, the contact only lasted for like two seconds before those eyes disappeared but she felt like it had been forever. And she began to feel strange, you know that feeling when you're perfectly fine but there's an underlying feeling in your gut that tells you that you're not fine? 

Jenefer ignored that feeling, telling herself that she should be enjoying instead of worrying, but by the time they went on their separate ways, that feeling worsened, to the point that it made Jenefer uncomfortable.

She was walking along an alleyway towards her house when she doubled over, the feeling that followed was the strangest of all, it felt like all the living daylights were fading off from her as she fell and the ground grew closer and closer. And by the time she was on the ground, she was already a goner.

-

Camera shutters were heard from left and right as flashes lit up the night. The police were bustling around, trying to keep the onlookers and the journalists at bay and to prevent them from entering the crime scene.

"Damn, it's freaking nine pm on a November night, why are there so many people?" Arielle asked angrily and zipped her coat up while she stood over Knoxx who was taking pictures of all the potential evidences around the scene, which isn't very much. There wasn't any blood, except for the small gash on the victim's forehead that they probably got when they fell over. Aside from the body, nothing else was seen, the witnesses said that it looked like the victim just fainted, so they came and tried to help but immediately called the police when they found out that the victim was actually dead. That would mean that they just somehow dropped dead, so the mundane police called the magical police as well.

"Identification," Camden said, reading from a tablet. "She's Jenefer Pineda, a Light Yoza, 29 years old, works as a kindergarten teacher in Johansson Primary, it was her 29th birthday today so she celebrated outside with her friends, said friends have already been contacted, they said there was nothing wrong with her before they all went home, and she didn't drink that much either," he said.

"She could be poisoned," Arielle said.

"If it is poison, then it isn't just any poison. Most poison leave subtle hints, it could also be a spell but my charms aren't picking up anything," Knoxx said and stood up from being crouched next to the body and gestured for the mundane police to get it.

"We're taking the body to Bautista then," Camden said, referring to their very own coroner. "She would know what or who killed this woman," he added.

"We rarely get any case from this side of the city, I wonder what's going on," Arielle said thoughtfully.

"Come on, this woman might just be sick, a magical disease maybe, we don't have to stress ourselves over this," Camden responded and walked towards the ambulance where the body was loaded and told the driver to take it to the magical police station instead because they have more tests to run.

The mundane and magical community coexist quite well in the City of Light, but only those who work with Yozas knows that there are Yozas, or magic users in the city.

"Well, I hope so," Arielle muttered while watching Camden walk away. "I don't really like stressing myself out," she said and walked towards their car.

Little did she know, she's in it for a lot of stress, for after Jenefer Pineda, cases just like hers appeared all over the city, and in just a span of seven days, the kill count went up to 84. That just means that a Light Yoza has been killed for every two hours. It's hard to still see this matter as a coincidence, especially because all that has been killed were Light Yozas.

"The night that Ahmya Yamato died, I told you all to be ready for everything," Chief Rivera said, his forehead creased in visible worry, most of the officers in the Conference Room shared the same look as they worry for the possible war that they have long anticipated since the death of the Yamato heiress. "And now it seems like the Dark is starting their move for vengeance. And though we are not entirely sure about that, as investigations are still on, and we're not finding anything, I have an assumption that they are behind this scheme."

"Let's say that they are indeed behind all the attacks, how could they get in the city? We have a barrier that denies access to Dark Yozas," Natasha, a second class police officer said.

"Yes, however, it's been a century since the barrier has been put up, there might be weak points around it already, I'm assigning officers to patrol the barrier tomorrow, take our finest charm users with you and strengthen the barrier once again," Chief Rivera replied. "In the meantime, I will also have officers review the identities of everyone in the City of Light."

"But that would take forever," Emmanuel Yllana, more commonly known as Emman, a third class police officer spoke, earning the attentiom of everyone in the room. "Sure that would help, but by the time we finish reviewing all of the identifications of the people in the city, if it is the Dark side we're dealing with, they would have killed more that fifty percent of our population by then," he added.

"And what do you suggest we should do Officer Yllana?" Knoxx asked. Emman was taken aback when Knoxx spoke, mainly because he didn't plan out the conversation beyond this point.

"I-I'm still thinking about it," Emman muttered.

"Don't say things you can't be responsible about," Knoxx said.

"There's nothing wrong with what he said," Jason Alcantara said before Emman can sink any lower in his seat because of embarrasment. "If you're as clever as you act like, why don't you think of a way?" He added. The temperature in the room seemed to drop five times lower as the tension arose. It's common knowledge in the police that Knoxx Javellana wasn't that good with people, especially those who question him.

"Is that a challenge, Officer Alcantara?" He asked calmly, a vacant expression etched on his face.

"Take it as you see it Officer Javellana," Jason smirked.

"That's enough, you two," Chief Rivera stepped in. "Since you are both burdened by that particular matter, I will be assigning the two of you on a mission to find another way to determine if there are Dark Yozas in our City, each of you can take two officers of your preference. I will be expecting a result no later than 3:00 pm this coming Saturday," The chief of police added.

Emman's jaw dropped, that's like, a very difficult work, he looked at Jason, then at Knoxx Javellana, two disasters waiting to happen working on that same mission? Why does Emman think that going with them can be associated with going on a suicide mission?

"I'll take Yllana and Soriano," Emman perked up when he heard his surname, then looked down once he realized that he will be going on the very mission that he referred to as a suicide mission just a few seconds ago.

"I'll take Reyes and Vera then," Knoxx Javellana said.

"Now that you have chosen your partners, I want you all to work as one and brainstorm for ideas to pick out Dark Yozas from Light Yozas," Chief Rivera said. 

The door opened and Genevive Bautista entered with a folder in hand, she walked towards Chief Rivera. "May I speak to your lot Chief?" She asked.

"Go ahead," Chief Rivera replied and gestured dor her to go on. Genevive opened the folder and used one of her charms so that everything that's written on the folder floated and appeared as a hologram for the others to see.

There are different kinds of Mahos for everyone in the city, and Genevive was a charm user, it means that they create charms and store magic within those charms to use for later, charms can be bracelets, necklaces, or rings, anything that would be easier and more comfortable to use. A charm user is the most common type of Maho.

Genevive used a ring for the work what she just did and faced all of them.

"We did a bunch of research and found out that whoever's behind all this must be using an extremely old and deadly curse called the Evil Eye, it can only be used once in a while since it requires a lot of magical energy so the fact that multiple cases are reported in just a day just means that the ones behind these attacks are definitely more than just one," she explained.

"What exactly does the Evil Eye do?" Camden asked.

"The Evil Eye is a deadly curse, it's characterized by a pair of glowing purple eyes for the user, amd only the target can see these glowy eyes, it only takes a few seconds for the curse to set in. It's like a time bomb, the user can just choose whenever they want to finally kill their target. And when they do, the curse inside the target will attack every organ system in their body, the pain gets too much that the target doesn't feel anything anymore, but one thing that's sure about the Evil Eye is that, once it's in, it's sure to kill," Genevive replied.

"We're up against real shit here," Camden stated.

"If the Dark really is in our city, won't they be alerted when we make a move to identify them? What if they speed up their killings?" Arielle voiced out her thoughts.

"I'm not saying that I know them 'cause I don't but strategically speaking, they would just be more careful once we finally make our move. They could speed up their killings but they would be more careful. That's why we have to make it as discreetly as possible," Chief Rivera answered. "You may sit down Genevive." He told Genevive who was still standing beside him and faced the officers once again. "Those that had been assigned a mission, you can now go and discuss the details of the mission I gave you," he said.

The six of them looked at each other before standing up and saluting to the Chief and filed out of the room.

"So, uh, how do we do this?" Natasha Soriano broke the silence while they were walking.

"Not until we're secure, there could be a mole here for all we know," Knoxx hissed.

"You're paranoid," Jason remarked.

"And you're not taking this as seriously as you ought to," Knoxx retorted and led the way towards his and Camden's office.

"Why do you two hate each other so much?" Camden asked.

"My thoughts exactly," Emman muttered.

"We don't hate each other," Knoxx stated.

"Let's just say that we work better together this way," Jason said.

"By constantly bickering?" Camden asked.

"Believe me Officer Reyes, anger and annoyance does wonders to this ole brain of mine," Jason said, pointing at his temple.

"Now that's strange. I don't see you and Camden constantly bickering when you're working together," Arielle said, looking at Knoxx pointedly.

"Camden and I are polar opposites are we not? I don't need to fight with him to work. But great minds think alike," Knoxx said and high-fived with Jason.

Once Knoxx made sure that they were alone in the office, they started talking about their mission.

"The only way to determine a Yoza's core is to perform an in-depth exam, and those usually last from an hour to six hours at most," Natasha said.

"That's true, and no spell or potion can reveal a Yoza's core," Emman said.

"We'll have to think outside the box for this one," Arielle said.

"Yeah, but first," Camden said. "Who wants cookies?"

-

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