As a ghost, the Pickup Lady couldn't be seen by normal people—yet she could be captured by cameras, phones, and other tech devices. Which meant ghosts didn't actually possess true invisibility. Humans simply couldn't perceive them.
Optical invisibility? Bella didn't even dare hope for that. The physics involved alone gave her a headache just thinking about the calculations. But ghost-type invisibility... that, maybe she could study.
She was still pondering when suddenly a pair of hands wrapped around her neck and slammed her against the wall. The fingers tightened, clearly intending to strangle her.
Bella grabbed at the hands. With the strength to bench-press a ton, she was anything but weak. She was caught off guard, yes—but even then, her physical ability was far above normal human limits.
Yet even after two attempts, the attacker's grip barely loosened—and instead, she was lifted more than thirty centimeters off the ground.
"You're looking for death!" Bella threw a punch at the empty air in front of her. The attacker abruptly released her, and she swung at nothing.
Before she could regain her balance, the attacker reappeared behind her, grabbed her by the collar, and smashed her into the hospital-room wall.
Boom!
Bella's forehead met the wall with intimate force.
At the last critical instant, her reflexes kicked in and she managed to grab the attacker's arm.
The sensation was bizarre—not the smooth texture of a tight suit like she expected, but a surface covered in countless tiny bumps and protrusions, uneven and shifting. Some contracted. Some extended outward. It felt as if she were gripping a mass of densely packed eyes.
She was absolutely disgusted.
"What the hell are you!? Get over here!" Her head was spinning. She felt awful—and she wasn't about to let the enemy have it easy either. Following the arm upward, she grabbed what she assumed was the attacker's head. Ignoring how nauseating it felt, she mustered her strength and drove that head straight into the wall.
The attacker was clearly enhanced by some kind of mechanical device—strong, yes—but his agility suffered because of maintaining optical invisibility.
Bella slammed his head into the wall twice.
Crack-crack-crack!
A string of faint breaking noises sounded, and suddenly a distorted human silhouette flickered into view in front of her.
Head, shoulders, and upper torso became partially visible—while the legs were still hidden.
He was a tall man, over six feet. The visible parts of his body were covered in densely packed optical lenses. Bella felt as if thousands of eyes were staring at her. Deeply unsettling.
The invisible man realized he'd been exposed and turned to run.
"Let's see where you think you're going!"
Bella, dressed like an ordinary civilian, was completely unremarkable in a hospital. But the invisible man, covered in strange optical lenses and looking like a nightmare science experiment? No way he could move around without drawing attention.
Bella simply stood still—she didn't need to give chase.
This was a hospital.
He was practically a walking billboard screaming "Look at me!"
She didn't want to chase. But injured Claire had a very different opinion:
"We can't let him go! He killed so many people! We have to catch him!"
Bella internally rolled her eyes. That 'mass murderer' label is something you and your brother pinned on him yourselves...
But Claire was adamant. Bella scratched her head. She was curious about the invisibility suit anyway. So she agreed.
She still told Claire to stay in the hospital and rest while she handled the chase.
Claire pulled a map from her pocket—the locations she and Chris had marked as potential hideouts for the invisible man in Phoenix. Bella took the map and drove off.
The body she now inhabited had lived in Phoenix for over a decade, but for the current Bella, this was a completely unfamiliar city.
North to south, crossing four states from Forks to Phoenix—she'd driven highways all the way. That was doable.
But navigating a massive city of 1,200 square kilometers—the sixth largest in the U.S.—after two loops, she realized she had no sense of direction at all.
Thankfully, she had a built-in guide. The Pickup Lady showed her the way.
"Take me home."
Bella stared, horrified. "Wait—what? The Mining Building was on the street we just passed? I thought it was at the intersection ahead..."
She could never figure out what the Pickup Lady had done in life, but her sense of direction was far better than Bella's.
Claire's marks on the map were simple—she assumed Bella was a local. Ten years living in this city, and you can't read a map? Well... Bella really couldn't. Good thing the Pickup Lady could.
"Take me home."
"Oh—left turn? Got it!"
"Take me home."
"Wait—there's a road there? You sure? ...Huh. There is a road!"
Bella got lucky. The first hideout had nothing. But the second one had signs—several shattered optical lenses on the ground, and faint, grayish footprints.
After being schooled by scientists (Chris and the Invisible Man's tech), Bella had learned caution.
She started bargaining with the Pickup Lady.
"You don't need to praise me this week... Just go inside and scout. Check how many enemies there are and whether they have weapons!"
She fully intended to beat science... with the supernatural.
The Pickup Lady seemed to find the terms acceptable and floated inside. She returned shortly.
"Take me home."
This time the message contained more detail. Bella used her psychic ability to interpret it for half a minute:
"You're saying there are two people inside? A woman tied up—and the man is the invisible guy? And he has a gun?"
Bella now saw the Pickup Lady in a whole new light. She knew the city's layout. She recognized guns. Clearly not some ancient ghost...
But a ghost couldn't stray far from its host. Bella would still need to fight.
The hideout was an abandoned factory. Bella cast a basic psychic suggestion over herself—People around me won't see me.
Her use of suggestion was still rudimentary, far from actual spellwork.
After entering the factory, she immediately heard furious shouting.
Turning off the power and then fighting the enemy would've been a great plan—but she had absolutely no idea where the breaker was. She could only climb up the scaffolding and, relying on her superior physical prowess, move bit by bit along the factory's steel beams.