District 13

After walking for what seemed like hours, Jane caught sight of a translucent wall that seemed to stretch infinitely sideways. She couldn't see a curve, and she definitely couldn't see the edge. When Lily said 'Boundary', Jane thought that it would look more like a bubble, but it just looks like a big translucent version of the Great Wall of China.

The rain of blood is gone by now, and there's no trace of blood on either of their clothes.

"Is that it?" Jane pointed to the wall.

Her companion nodded. "District thirteen of the Supernatural Detective Agency."

"I thought it would be more spherical..." She made a gesture with her hands, "The barrier, I mean- Excuse me, Supernatural Detective Agency?"

"Mhm, check the button I gave you. It's not actually just a button from a blouse."

Jane took it out of her pocket and looked at it hard. There was a lightly embossed insignia on it. She couldn't quite make out what it was, but it was there. Maybe. She didn't really know. "Oh, I see," she said, even if she didn't really see. Even if she didn't really understand.

Soon they reached the translucent wall, and Jane hesitated at the last minute.

"Uh..."

"Come on, now, it won't bite." Lily called out from the other side of the barrier. "I promise."

In her mind, this was a key moment, and while she bore a smile on her face, her hand was slowly moving to her gun. She learned over the years that trust was never to be given lightly.

She crossed over. Nothing happened. She sighed, if it was a sigh of relief or of disappointment, she did not know.

Lily nodded in approval, then with a slight smile, she beckoned Jane to follow her. "It's just a short walk from here."

"Define short, because we've been walking for quite literally hours."

"And yet you're not tired in the slightest." The older woman chuckled, "In reality, you haven't move a single nanometer."

A confused face. Lily was becoming incredibly amused at her, like someone looking at a lost puppy, but she could feel something strange with her too. It wasn't strength, it wasn't power, that's why she was cautious. The button did nothing, but the moment malicious creatures approach the barrier, they will be blocked, or worse, destroyed. She could feel that she could relax around Lily for now.

Jane was let through without issue. So she still didn't know.

"What do you mean?"

"Both Time and Space work differently here. There's a lot of complicated mumbo-jumbo involved though." Lily yawned. "I'll let the district coordinator tell you."

The younger woman could only answer with am exasperated sigh. It was just one thing after another, she barely had enough time to breath in between getting dragged to and fro by this mysterious savior.

"Why can't you tell me instead?"

"It's way above my pay grade." Lily chuckled at her own joke. Despite her apparent age, she sounded like a young girl when she laughed, and the slight wrinkles around her eyes disappeared in the light of her smile.

Jane couldn't help but smile back.

They walked the small way to District 13 headquarters, a small building in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the familiar balls of light that resembled fireflies.

Jane remembered that those balls of light replaced the humans when she took off her glasses, and that they disappeared when they came in contact with the monsters. She put it at the back of her mind to ask the district coordinator, whoever they were.

"This building exists in the physical world too."

There was a large 13 on the cusp of the arc that served as the entryway to the building. The arc was brown, while the walls were white. It wasn't what Jane was expecting, not as impressive as she would have hoped after the large barrier they went through, but it was a large enough place to serves as a base of operations.

Lily seemed to sense Jane's feelings. "It's not much but it's not the building that needs to be incredible, it's the people."

"I guess that's true."

She tapped the arc. "The prettier facades only seem to compensate for the lack of pretty things inside. Let's go."

Lily wasn't 10 steps in when she heard her name being screamed.

"L-I-L-Y!!" An unbelievably deep voice bellowed from inside the headquarters, so loud that Jane could actually feel the vibrations as if there had been an earthquake aftershock.

"Nice to see you too, District Coordinator." Lily gave a mocking salute. "Still have that stick in your ass?"

An unseen force suddenly pushed Lily into a nearby wall, leaving a sizeable crater.

A quite sizeable man soon stepped in where Lily was standing 2 seconds ago. Jane approximated that she was around 5 feet 8 inches, and she was barely reaching his shoulder.

He had gray hair and wore a worn-out T-shirt that has "BRAWNS" on the front, but it was torn in a way that it read "BRAIN" instead, revealing a while undershirt.

"You're not supposed to be here!" He bellowed.

"Don't be like that," Lily said while dusting herself off, appearing to not even be fazed by the extreme force she was hit with. "It's fun here. District 5 is boring."

"YOU'RE THEIR DISTRICT COORDINATOR!"

"Potato-potato. You're scaring the new recruit." Lily tilted her head to point to Jane, who offered a shy wave.

"Goddamnit," the man slammed his hand on his face with considerable force in exasperation. "Another one of your strays?"

"That's rude." A voice echoed in Jane's mind. She looked around, but found nobody. She felt something brush against her right leg. She looked down. There was a dark-colored cat with 3 eyes, 2 where they should be, one on its forehead. The cat, or rather, Jane couldn't even call it a cat, but it was cat-like, also has two tails.

"But you are a stray! You're a literal demon, yet you're here!" The man was getting red in the face with rage. "Goddamnit, all of you."

"Uh..." Jane didn't actually know what to say, but she felt she needed to remind them of her existence.

"Come with me, yes, you." District 13's coordinator pointed to her and turned to walk inside the building. "More paperwork for me."