Mei was on another mission two days later, for the same case - the blue entity by the river. She had no idea what it was and it just looked like a blue glowing ball, plus it gave her a weird vision, so she was curious about it. The client this time was Dacol himself, no longer Dex. He was probably not in shape to be a part of this mission, she assumed, after what happened the last time. He actually passed out, and besides he didn’t seem too tough in the first place. Mei was supposed to meet Dacol before going to the river like with Dex, but Dacol chose to meet at the town square, which Mei didn’t mind. She took her bike this time, in case something like last time happened again. At least either of them could take whoever passed out on a bike.

Dacol was the first to arrive at the town square. Mei didn’t expect any less from him, she already knew his punctuality would be great. He was sitting on a bench having a smoke when she arrived on her bike, stopping it about a meter away from Dacol and getting off. She pushed her bike to where Dacol was sitting, resting it on the side of the bench. She wasn’t a big fan of smokers, or smoking in general, so she tried her best to not breathe in the smoke. Dacol finished it fast as she arrived, tossing the butt to the ground and stomping on it to kill the fire. Mei smiled and waved saying, “Hello,” as she took a seat next to him.

Then he would begin to give her a briefing on what was to be done. He seemed worried about the whole thing, which she didn’t doubt he wouldn’t after seeing what the blue ball had done to her and Dex both. She listened attentively and nodded when necessary. Soon they were both on their feet, Dacol offering to let Mei sit on the backseat. She didn’t refuse, after all her back was still sort of hurting. She was thrown pretty hard at the tree. It was already evening when they left the town square, getting dark as the sun was starting to set. They both arrived at the river when it got dark. On the way, Dacol was talking about the ball having a humanoid form. Mei didn’t notice this at all, and didn’t think it was true but when they arrived, she saw for herself. Maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her the first time she saw it, but it was definitely not a ball, it was a glowing blue kid. They got off the bike and Mei took it to rest against a tree before following Dacol. Suddenly, a small voice spoke in her mind and she immediately thought that it was the kid. To be honest, he looked like a little ghost, or a spirit that guarded the Orchidia river. She knew of such entities’ existence.

Mei felt the way she felt last time too, that she needed to get nearer to it, the entity. This time, a voice was calling for her too, so she felt invited as well, which was hella awkward. Dacol seemed to hear the voice too since he gave her a funny look. She gave him a ‘it’s okay’ look and approached the little boy. She had a feeling he didn’t want to harm them. Mei made sure she didn’t touch him again. She didn’t want another weird vision. Her job here was to find out what it was all about so she tried to control herself, in case it was trying to lure her to touch him again. Both her and Dacol were now standing pretty close, which was when the boy started talking, explaining to them that he was the spirit of someone who had died long ago and was in this form because of the collective mana of this river and the forest grounds. Mei didn’t even know that the river or the forest grounds had ‘collective mana’, but the more you know, right?

Dacol then told her to talk to the entity so that he could take notes, so she did. “What is your purpose?” she asked the boy. It was a pretty stupid question, plus she wasn’t sure if he was going to answer at all. But the ghost boy’s response was for them to do two things for him. One was to prevent some kind of danger, and another was to find out someone who he had lost and was dear to him. How in the world would they know this person, Mei wondered. But before she could question further, the kid disappeared into the ground. “W-wait!” Mei said, stepping forward but she was too late. The blue ghost boy was gone. She turned to Dacol who had just finished taking notes and suddenly her head started to throb with a terrible headache. She groaned as she held her head with both hands starting to feel much weaker than she did just a while ago. She didn’t know what this ghost boy’s deal was but every time she was around him something bad had to happen. The last time she was injured by getting thrown at a nearby tree, her partner Dex straight into a bush where he fell unconscious. Dacol didn’t seem affected however, but he asked what was happening to her. The headache was gone after a while, so she told him not to worry. Dacol told her to contact Inspector Nilan if she ever saw or heard the entity again. “I’ll make sure to do that,” she said, letting out a sigh as she stole a quick glance in the direction of where the boy was just now before he disappeared into the ground. Dacol gave him her reward after they reached the town square again and Mei took it, riding her bike back home to have dinner and rest.