*Chapter 2: Shadow Meeting*

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Three days after becoming a cryptographer.

My headache started. It was as if someone was hammering my forehead. I remembered Rule 2: *Write a secret every day. If you don't write, you will get a headache.*

I sat down at the table. I took paper and pen. What should I write?

I wrote: "Haripada Kaka steals rice from the mess at night and sells it."

As soon as I finished writing, the pain disappeared. My head felt light. And the writing on the paper... the ink dried up and turned into smoke.

I understood. To gain power this way, you have to "act". Cryptographer means writing secretly.

I couldn't sleep at night. Suddenly, the world before my eyes blurred. It felt like I was sinking under water. I was drowning... I was drowning...

I opened my eyes and saw that I was no longer in the mess.

I am sitting at the head of a huge gray table. Fog all around. 6 chairs at the table. I am sitting in a high-backed chair. A brass nameplate appeared in front of me through the fog: *"Empty"*.

What is this? A dream?

Just then, information entered my head. As if someone swallowed it. This is my *"shadow-fog"*. I have a "domain" even though I am Seq 9. If I want, I can drag the shadows of those whose shadows I have touched here.

I closed my eyes to test. Yesterday I saw a man on the street. Burn marks on his hand, doctor. I stepped on his shadow. I remembered his face.

"Come."

The fog settled on the chair to the left of the table with a thud. A shadow-figure sat down. No face, but his voice was trembling.

"E... where is it? I was sleeping!"

I cleared my throat. You have to dress up as a "mysterious boss" like Klein Moretti.

"You are in the court of the universe. I called you. I gave you your name... *Butcher*."

The man shuddered. "You... you know I am Seq 9 of the blood-path?"

I didn't know. I guessed, it stuck. I shook my head lightly.

"I know everything. Your sequence is stuck. You can't get the materials. Can I give it. In exchange?"

"What... what do you want?"

"Information. Information on Shadow-Calcutta. It will come here every new moon."

Butcher lowered his head. "Joe's order, Universe."

I sent him away. The shadow-figure disappeared into smoke. I sat alone. My chest was pounding.

I created a secret organization. My own tarot club.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. In reality.

"Arindam Babu! Open the door! Police!"

Police? I jumped up. As soon as the door opened, there were two sepoys and a sergeant. The sergeant's eyes were red. He had the paper I had written on in his hand. Which had turned into smoke!

"What were you writing about Haripada?"

My throat went dry. "What... nothing."

"Don't lie. Haripada hung himself this morning. Before he died, he was holding this paper in his chest. Here it was written—'Haripada is a thief'. How did you know?"

I looked behind the sergeant.

His shadow... no shadow.

Instead, the shadow of a black dog was sitting at his feet. The dog was looking at me and licking its tongue.

The sergeant grabbed my collar. "You are a shadow seeker, aren't you? We are from Company Bahadur. Come with us."

I understood. I became a cipher. Now the hunt begins.

My eyes are turning black again. And my shadow... my shadow stands up from the floor. He has a knife in his hand. Not my knife. The shadow's own knife.

I whispered, "Sir, tell me something."

"What?"

"No one sees what I see."

And my shadow slits the throat of the sergeant's shadow-dog.

The sergeant screams. Blood is pouring from his leg. But there are no cuts on his body.

I laugh. For the first time, a real laugh.

"Welcome, Company Bahadur. The game is on."

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