The boy seemed to come out of a trance and began to cry.

He covered his face with his hands and buried it in Aram’s chest. Then he slowly began to calm down. Finally, he stopped crying, wiped away his tears, and looked at Aram. There were dark circles around his eyes.

“Brother, who are you?”

“I… I…”

Before he could say anything, Aram was suddenly seized by dizziness; everything swam before his eyes, and he fell to the floor.

The next moment, he opened his eyes. Father Reno sat before him, and the glowing cube was spinning on the table.

“What was that?”

“What are you talking about?” said Father Reno, as if he knew nothing.

“Nothing.”

Aram clearly did not like Father Reno. The man knew his name, knew his past and the most painful corners of his mind. He had sent Aram to that terrible place for a reason. And he had watched. From somewhere else in the room, Father Reno had probably been watching him. He had seen the most secret thing in Aram’s heart.

“I hate you,” Aram said.

“I can understand that.”

“No, you can’t. You don’t know anything about me, and you decided to invade my consciousness without my permission.”

Aram was clearly in a bad mood. After a pause, Father Reno decided to go on.

“So, are you ready to find out your destiny?”

“I know it without you,” Aram shouted.

“Ahahaha,” Father Reno laughed. “Don’t get so worked up, Aram. Just one word from me and you’ll find yourself in some rotten academy, doomed forever.”

“No. You can’t do that. I’m sure your superpower is somehow bound by a blood contract. You can’t resist fate. That’s why you assign everyone their destiny, because it doesn’t depend on you.”

“Your destiny, Aram,” Father Reno continued, without listening, “is the Academy of Detectives.”

“I knew it.”

“And I’ll give you a piece of advice,” Reno continued. “Learn to keep quiet sometimes.”

Aram raised his eyes to the strange man in black, turned away, and left.

As soon as he was out of the office, he grabbed his forehead and closed his eyes.

“Bastard. He’s just a bastard. How it hurts,” he said through his teeth, barely audible.

Walking down the corridor, Aram unexpectedly ran into another boy. He had brown hair and eyes of the same color. A fire blazed in them, though not as icy as Aram’s.

“Careful,” Aram said. He was clearly not in the mood.

“Careful about what? Is it my fault?” The boy looked down at Aram. His left eyebrow rose.

“How is it my fault?” Aram raised his voice and also glared from under his brows.

A little more and a fight would have broken out. Suddenly Aram grabbed his head.

“Die. Die. Die, you weakling.” Different words began sounding in his head, of which he could make out only these.

“I have to pull myself together.” Aram gathered all his strength and looked through the pain into the stranger’s eyes. He thrust his hand forward, and the dark-haired boy was wrapped in chains.

“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” the boy shouted.

“And you? You used your wild ability on me, and you think I won’t answer?”

“Why, you...!”

Aram drew the chains around the boy even tighter.

“I’ll kill you!” the stranger shouted in a rage. “Die, die!”

Confusion broke out in Aram’s head. A huge mass of negative thoughts spun through his mind. Memories of the past, the unwillingness to live, the torment of conscience, distrust of others, bullying, loneliness. Everything filled Aram’s head.

“It might not be such a bad idea to die,” he mused.

“Stop it!” a girl’s voice suddenly rang out. She ran into the corridor and struck first Aram and then the stranger in the face.

Aram’s chains instantly shattered, and his head began to clear. The negative thoughts were gone.

“I don’t know what happened here, but you don’t need to kill each other, or yourselves. You’d better make up. If you get into the same academy, you’ll study together for several years, you might even have to work together for the rest of your lives,” she said.

“The rest of our lives?” both screamed.

“Me and him? Never!” said the boy.

“He’ll never make it to the Detective Academy,” Aram said.

“You’re going to the Detective Academy? Even if I get in, I’ll kill you first.”

“Of course, of course. Keep dreaming,” Aram said, and left the corridor.

The chestnut-haired boy headed for Reno’s office. The girl decided to stay where she was and wait for her turn.

“What do you mean, the Detective Academy?” a few seconds later, David screamed inside the room. “And you don’t want to run a test, Uncle Reno? Why so fast?”

“Go, David. This is your destiny.”

“Life is cruel,” David said, with fake tears in his eyes, and left the room. Ksyu stood on the threshold.

He looked at her, remembered what had happened a minute ago, and blushed. Trying to pretend nothing had happened, he looked up at the ceiling and, whistling, tried to stroll past Ksyu.

“Don’t even pretend. I heard everything,” Ksyu said, crossing her arms over her chest.

David’s face fell at once.

“Uh… well. Um. I…”

“Come on, take it easy. It’s actually funny,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah.”

“I wonder why such unexpected things in life come true so often. Chance works so strangely sometimes.”

“Yeah. And for some reason, right now!”

“You know, it would be funny if I ended up in the Detective Academy too. I think the three of us would have fun.”

“What? With that moron?”

“Yes! That’s exactly why I’d like to go there.”

“You’re strange. You don’t know either of us.”

“You don’t understand,” she said with a smile. “It doesn’t matter. I just want it right now. I’ve already pictured in my head how cool it would be.”

With those words, she entered Father Reno’s office. And came out five seconds later.

“What did he say?” David asked. He didn’t even know why he had stayed to wait for her, but all the same, he wondered where she’d been sent.

“Listen, do you have anything to do today?”

“What?” David blushed.

“I’m in a good mood. I want ice cream.”

“Well, actually, I don’t have anything to do…”

“Great! Let’s go get some ice cream, then.”

David’s head was a mess. A girl… a beautiful girl… a strange, beautiful girl, for no reason at all, was inviting him to eat ice cream. He had nothing to lose, except that she might be a cannibal maniac who would eat him that evening on the way home. Well, that wouldn’t be so bad either.

“L-let’s go,” he said, and followed her.

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