It had been six months since Mugen had told a successful lie. What was once sharp as a Piandao sword was now rusted and useless due to neglect. Half a year ago he never would have imagined that a vow to give up crime would have diminished him so. Mugen felt about as crafty and resourceful as a decomposing rat carcass. Being unable to lie was like jumping out of an airship with no way to halt or even slow his descent. It annoyed him to no end that part of him enjoyed the sensation.

This deficit in lying had spread to his facial features as a twitch in his left eye signaled a repressed anger at being palmed off on a cop of all people. Recent events had made the blue-eyed former criminal downright antagonistic toward a group he once considered decent rivals.
Having the zoot-suited tool choose between the two rolls of money, however, was amusing enough to abate Mugen's annoyance. Tae-yeon had passed his test of her onto her flunkie and now it appeared she was the proctor.

The first thing that struck Mugen about Hangetsu was his walk. Even with a half-year absence from the extra-legal the arrogant stride of a cop was difficult to miss. The man in the white and gray pin striped suit was obviously armed but walked as if he wasn't looking for an excuse to use those armaments. If Tae-yeon felt like an intellectual predator this man felt like the rock she pounced from. A private detective with brains and a cop without overwhelming arrogance...Mugen thought he'd never see one of these things let alone two in the same room.

For the moment Mugen was transfixed on his test of knowledge and character even though the test subject had changed. Could the policeman look past the obvious or would he be blinded by greed?



It had been six months since Hangetsu had done anything remotely detective related. He made coffee, he dusted, he wrote case files and he was content with that. The man who once aspired to be great detective was happy being assistant to a great detective since his run-in with Amon. Now, suddenly he was being tested. It was the first time in a long time anything of note was expected of him and it made him nervous.

After setting Tae's coffee on her desk in front of her Hangetsu went about examining the two rolls of money. The larger was suspicious because of it's girth, the other suspicious because of it's money clip. Gauging the purity of precious metals was something he considered more in line with an earthbending pawn shop owner than a cop but it was the one aspect of bending his grandmother insisted he train. All metals had a different feel and this clip did not feel like a cheap silver-plated knockoff.

Examining the larger roll required a closer look. The reluctant police officer took the first bill off of the roll and studied it. After nearly a minute he noticed the print was too perfectly set and the color seemed too bright even for a freshly minted bill.
Hangetsu slid the large roll towards Mugen but couldn't feel any pride in taking minutes to see something with his bending and a close examination that Tae-yeon noticed with a casual glance.
He truly was just the guy who made the coffee and not a detective due to his own fear of failure and Hangetsu was no longer content with that.

During his time as Tae-yeon's assistant Hangetsu had heard multiple times that the private eye was difficult to deal with. The coffee-making, lightbulb-changing off-duty cop knew otherwise. Dealing with her was simple because more often than not she knew what he was thinking. Words were clumsy, awkward things compared to body language and micro-expressions.
Even if his motivation couldn't be conveyed Hangetsu knew that Tae would understand that he suddenly wanted to protect this arrogant, cop-hating, criminal if only to prove a point.