MISSION N: No More Lies [SPY × FAMILY]

1. Preparation

AN: FYI Anya loses her power every New Moon...

Twilight had worked with plenty of informants in the past and only one of them had earned his full, unwavering trust. His longest and most reliable informant, who went by the alias Franky Franklin, had been an old friend and useful asset for his entire spy career but he wasn't so naive to believe this would last. Spies and informants were constantly living on edge and the tiniest mistake could push them off the cliff. He just wasn't expecting this day to come so soon.

It had been a simple request that Franky said would be done by today and he, being the prideful informant he was who valued his reputation, would never make a promise he couldn't keep or go back on his words.

Yet, when Twilight visited his tobacco stand, the shop was closed.

"CLOSED FOR THE WEEK!"

Beside the sign was a small note taped onto the walls. It looked like it had been deliberately placed to be conspicuous but not too prominent to attract unnecessary attention.

Twilight took one glance at the note, memorized the content, and sighed vocally, playing the role of Loid Forger, a normal psychiatrist who was disappointed that a store he frequented was closed. He then turned and left, not willing to dally any longer in case anyone was watching.

No, someone definitely was watching, considering the content of that note.

"When the Moon blocks

the Sun

and loses its reflection, mankind must wait for twilight to light

the sky for them."

At first glance it may not seem suspicious, but the timing of its appearance, the arrangement of these words, and the mention of "Twilight" all had him thinking this couldn't have been a coincidence. And if this really were a clue left for him by unknown enemies who may or may not have anything to do with Franky closing down his shop for the week, then they must have been keeping an eye on the tobacco stand looking for suspicious individuals who dallied too long or paid too much attention to that piece of paper. Whether their target was him or Franky, Twilight couldn't tell yet, but he would find out.

No one stood out to him when he surveyed his surroundings cautiously before entering the train station. Either they had planted cameras or the enemies were fairly good at blending in. After making sure there was no immediate threat lurking nearby, Twilight boarded the train and settled in a seat, bringing up the note in his mind.

When: The Moon only blocks the Sun during New Moon, and the next New Moon was a few days from now.

Where: Loses its reflection... Either the mirror or water, and since it was the Moon it was more likely to be the water. So a location with lots of water. A harbor? Dock? Which one?

Who: Mankind must wait for Twilight? Was Franky kidnapped? And they wanted Twilight to go save him?

?: The only riddle that remained was the arrangement of this note. Four lines... something to do with four... Word count in each line was... 4-2-11-4. Could it be some kind of map coordinates? What do each number represent? Why was the third line longer than the rest?

By the time the train arrived at his stop, Twilight still hadn't figured it out. He may be a spy and often deal with ciphers, but they all had known solutions. He wasn't trained to be a cryptographer specialized in decoding unknown codes from scratch.

When he arrived home, Yor had prepared dinner. She cooked her specialty, a type of Eastern stew taught to her by her mother and the only dish she could make that didn't give them food poisoning.