Category: novels (Page 1 of 7)

The Other Fist of the Ninja – Book Three

The Other Fist of the Ninja: Book 3

 

The Fist of the Ninja

 

Water 01

 

 

 

The coat-hangers rustled restlessly in the small built in cupboard of room 42a, located on the second floor of the East Wing of the Girls only (+ two boys) Student Dormitory of Heavenly Springs. They clattered against one another, a continuously futile attempt to overtake one another in an even more pitiful attempt to be at the front of the line, whichever side that may be. Anyone watching would think that the wind pushing through the open window and above the frilly bed was doing its best to make them look alive. The coat-hangers certainly thought so.

 

Hisami Himegi did not. She was too busy listening to maintain any notion of whether or not coat-hangers could contain souls. At this point in time her attention was entirely focused on the matters of politics before her.

 

Listen, my comrades. I know what my opponents have said about me, being that I was here when they said it, and I know what I have said before, as I have not moved from this very spot since the moment I last spoke. But I say to you now, with complete honesty and the utmost respect to all my fellows; allow me to lead, and the glory of the humble container which houses us shall be an oak fortress of prosperity. I swear this, by the humble tracksuit trousers that hang below me!”

 

The other voices muttered and rambled between themselves. Two voices very distinctly snorted with a laugh pursed in between breaths.

 

Yet your words, my esteemed fellow,” a second voice shouted, “contain nothing but the sweetness of stale honey. And though such words may come across as sweet despite its expiration date, my intelligent brethren, I must ask you this. What comes after the sweetness? And the answer is this; Glucose, which is processed into carbohydrates. And these carbs burn fast my friends. And like his promises of honey, my opponent’s claims will disappear into the bloodstream of this cupboard, and never be seen again.”

 

Do not be fooled,” said the first voice again. “This from a fellow, who, on that fateful day of ironing, when we were rearranged, was placed at the forefront of our clan, with that blue dress with the form fitting line that goes down the middle and even now hangs below him, proved his incompetence by failing to achieve any of his policies that he had previously dictated to us. I ask you this. Where are the fifty centimetres of extra room on the pole that holds us up? Where is the divider that separates us temporarily when some of our garments are a little sweaty from sport? When are the children’s toys going to be removed from the bottom of our mighty domicile? I ask you this now, sir!”

 

Those questions, my friends. Those questions, are ones not to be aimed at me. I did promise those thing yes. But how long was I at the front of the poles. A few hours at best surely. The Ironing reshuffle was a day in two parts, people, and my victory at the start was too short to bring about any policies. Instead, we have been left with these two as our leaders.”

 

And to be in the favour of the luck of the balance, for he went easy on them, and agreed to the One’s selfish terms, and left this place for…”

 

I likes me flamingos.”

 

Both jabbering idiots…”

 

Hisami got up, pulling herself out from the bottom of the cupboard and placing Mr Patch the French Snowman back on the floor. He thanked her kindly and she looked back to the coat-hangers, hearing bated breath as she mused over them for a few tepid seconds, before pulling her jacket out to the gasping relief of a once silent brown trouser hanger and heading for the door.

 

Hisami wandered out into the courtyard, jumping gracefully down the steps and into the light gravel. Out of habit she craved a semi-circle into the dust with the tip of her left foot, before standing in the centre and spinning round on one leg. The world hummed loudly around her for four beats and she smiled, satisfied.

 

Hey Hisami,” Otsune said, coming round with the corner, with her little friend that spoke in foreign numbers. “What are you up to?”

 

Hisami greeted her back and pointed in the opposite direction to her intended destination. She needed to head to one of the attics for a while to hear a story. But before that, she intended to eat cake in the grass by the fence posts for the daily debate. That would mean not being interrupted by those who would wish to make small talk with her.

 

Well, you have fun too,” Otsune replied nicely patting her on the head as the little orange friend swirled round both their heads. “I’ll be heading into the village shortly with Fujiko. Do you want anything?”

 

Hisami wanted the cake resting in the fridge and didn’t need any more purchasing for a while. She wandered off without providing an answer and started humming the tune started for her by the gravel. She let herself be heard by all the whispering voices around her. Some were encouraged to start their own little tunes. Others soon started humming in chorus to her. One voice was the little black girl who was sitting on the roof above her. Her humming quickly turned into a whistling as the stalked along the beam that a cat, so overconfident in its ability that it would attack an eagle and never question its stupidity. The girl waved to her. Hisami did not wave back and quickly turned the corner.

 

We can’t keep hiding from him forever, you know,” a boy’s voice brought sound to her. Two bodies were doing their best to merge together up ahead of her. Engrossed in small LCD screens that tried to contribute to the conversation, they failed to notice her approach.

 

Yes we can. It’s easy. We go to the same places each time and he never shows up.”

 

But some of the others must have told him.”

 

They haven’t. They don’t know to tell him. Sarah’s left us alone and I think Aki knows not to say anything. We just have to keep this up until… until…”

 

The little fat girl fell silent and the hand-held video games console suggested March 15th for her, possibly in the afternoon.

 

Until forever?” the boy said

 

Yes. No. Alexis,” she moaned childishly, thumping her fist against his chest. “He killed you last time.”

 

And I came back.”

 

But…”

 

Listen, Sakura.” He repositioned their hug, trying awkwardly to sit behind her while keeping his game above her head. “I no longer work for his enemy. My dedication is to you now, and will always be. I am at the tender mercy of my little cherry blossom.

 

And her character’s Shuriken Maelstrom!” added the console in her hands. The vaguely British boy didn’t listen to this.

 

But that’s blockable! Besides you can roll through it easily.”

 

Yeah, and that’s all he’ll be able to do!”

 

You do realise he’s always letting her win right?”

 

How could he? He’s from the far past. He probably doesn’t even know we process data through binary function.”

 

Your mom processes data through binary functions.”

 

I love you too.” The couple fell silently as their lips brushed against each other, saliva glistening in the remnants of the sun as they fell for each other’s embrace.

 

Hisami walked passed them and forgot to wave, heading for the kitchen. The main kitchen was too far from the west wing, so she rushed through the garden and round the Hot Springs where the big male person with demons attached was currently drowning himself.

 

The Alexis boy had appeared suddenly after the Sakura’s long disappearance. Several members of the dorm had disappeared recently, Hisami had notice. Sakura’s disappearance was nothing compared to some of them. Otsune and her always inebriated friend had disappeared for a whole month longer than Sakura had and came back with no boys to show for it. The little American girl disappeared constantly, but she always returned. The German girl with the spirit like her best friend had been gone for nearly a year now. Only Otsune seemed to care, though not since she had come back.

 

She entered into the main lobby, three rooms away from the kitchen. The sofa greeted her and she pretended not to hear again.

 

So the force of an object is the total volume…” Yamanaka Natoko paused in voice, her finger trailing over the textbook. She stayed frozen in place for ten seconds as her eyes glared in cross agony at the pages before her, “times the acceleration, which you can figure out by… the density?”

 

Nooooooooo! You foolish carbon life form. Listen to me for once,” the textbook shouted at her, in a booming voice that would bring even the oldest and wisest of adults to their noses at table level. “Force equals Mass times Speed! Think how a man can lie on a bed of nails and not be cut whilst a single one can pierce skin and bone. You are the Carver. Surely you should know how stabbing someone works. You couldn’t do the same with a toaster.

 

No wait,” Yamanaka Natoko continued. “It must be speed times acceleration. Why would mass affect force?”

 

It’s like you’re not even listening to me.”

 

She can’t” Hisami replied.

 

Huh?” Natoko responded, but was quickly distracted by how impossible the laws of physics were being with her. Hisami watched the girl scratching her head feverishly in front of the textbook as it tried utilizing mnemonic devices in an effort for her to understand better. The girl just thumped it for her efforts.

 

The girl was the strongest here, or so the light bulbs would inform everyone. Hisami remembered a few months ago, just a few weeks after the other male showed, the lights were buzzing quite literally with news of how she had defeated many demons, most of which without even realising, believing them to be human. But it was now common news to all electrical outlets that confidence was her big weakness. She had tried to give up prematurely on her next fight and had nearly died for her efforts. Since then she had unknowingly obtained a huge fan base among the mundane Knowers of the carbon variety.

 

No. Don’t skip ahead! You must master the foundations before you try the advance subjects. Do you think you can get away with just ‘cruising’ my education? You. You tell her. She’ll listen to you.”

 

Hisami’s heart raced for a second. The book wasn’t talking to her. None of them ever spoke to her unless spoken to. They knew better than that. It was talking to the sword currently resting on the table. The black sheathed katana followed the sword girl whenever she went and even in the midst of study, there was no exception.

 

Both Hisami and the book waited carefully for a few seconds, before the book said ‘Well? Don’t just sit there. Make her listen! She needs to know the basic formulas if she ever wants to get further than this in life. An education is of strictest importance.

 

The sword remained silent. Sometimes Hisami swore she could hear grumbling. Sometimes laughter. Never once had the sword pronounced a word though.

 

The book continued shouting relentlessly and Hisami could hear it still when she was halfway down the corridor to the kitchen. Everyone was so active nowadays. She would have preferred silence, but she never got what she wanted.

 

The kitchen was the worst. A din of commands being shouted back and forth to utensils that had long since given up on life. Each now only wished for the sweet release that the heat death of the universe would give them. Hisami didn’t entirely know what that was, and she never asked. Who talks to forks anyway?

 

The newest uninvited resident of the Springs was getting herself a drink. Unlike her friend, the one was a full on foreign American type, with hair that would flow gracefully if she just grew it out. The fridge announced Hisami’s arrival as she stepped through the door frame, but she had a suspicion that American knew she was there before she got to the lounge.

 

Hai,” the girl spoke to Hisami with a casual smile. “ou ouant uru keeka, raita?” Hisami studied the girl carefully as she stepped back to allow her access to the fridge. The girl was holding a jug of orange juice that came from the store and so was silent. “ieu.” The girl motioned for Hisami and she reached in for her cake, which seemed to get the girl’s approval. If she wanted approval, Hisami thought, she should learn to speak Japanese. She bowed out of courtesy and turned away, almost freezing when she felt daggers on her back.

 

Rushing out of the lounge area she stopped for no one. Halfway through the floor started whistling a tune for her that was a little out of synch with the wall. The effort was still appreciated though.

 

By the time she had got to the garden, the cake had suffered a mighty blow against her molars. Her afternoon treat was always worth the wait, but she knew it was wrong to start until she had sat down for the debate.

 

The fence posts were still silent when she got there. It was how they were. They sat without nary a word between them for hours. It was only here, at three o’clock that they would start their talk. Yesterday’s discussion had been on the emergence of American sports in the Oriental lands since the end of the third great war and its effect on the quality of life in a land where peace reigned (argued both as a land of happiness against the a land of silent tyranny). Today’s topic was to be a discussion on the attempt to diversify the demon populace and its effects on humans in the twenty first century.

 

The halfey was here again. That was annoying. He always did this. He knew that the talk started at three o’clock prompt and yet he always let his training overrun. Not that he was too bad. She usually only had to worrying about him if he started gasping. It was the company he kept that bothered her.

 

Iron fist. Iron fist. Me’s an iron fist for you,” the large demon shouted, clenching its giant fists of stretched sinew as it waved them in the air. Punching whenever the halfey punched, the creature squealed with delight at every opportunity it got. The boy kept in time with it, a vapid grin attached to his own bright face.

 

Stronger, Master Futabatei. Your hips are power. Use them. Hit high. High. Low. Cross kick. Cross kick high. Low jabs and throws.”

 

The snake continued. It slithered around in the grass, Hisami only catching a glance of it on occasions. It wasn’t actually there. She had learned that along with not asking the question of why these ones were different. She could only hear them when they weren’t items and all they did was chant commands at the boy while he practiced his ‘fighting’. It must have been a stupid life he led outside the dorm.

 

She sat down gracefully next to the old man. At least this newcomer was respectful of the silence. He always just sat there watching them, never contributing. It seemed most of the time he just looked for an excuse to look away. He acknowledged her with a sideways glance and got back in the habit of sitting straight ahead and staring at the fences. He never would tell her, but she knew he looked forward to the talks as well.

 

Higher. Higher. This enemy is ten feet tall. Your scythe kick isn’t going to work against his rib cage. You need to strike for the neck!” The halfey appeared to step up on an invisible knee and launched his foot upwards in a stupid manner before bringing it back down in a retarded yet graceful manner. Hisami scratched the wood beneath her and tried not to eye her cake. There was no point saving it for the talks and then devouring it before they begun.

 

Aaaaaand we can begin,” a voice announced. “Today we discuss the sins that cross from the InBetween Realm. Are their efforts needed? Is humanity any more affected by an aspect of lust than he is his own personal secretary? The discussion begins… now.”

 

The three fence posts surrounding the gap where their tenor used to be began bapping and bopping away in their continuous efforts to create a theme song. She knew it was supposed to be for effect, but upon never practicing, they never got anything out beyond bad tune and a complete lack of synchronicity.

 

Recently”, the fence post in front of her began. “A debate has begun on whether or not the effect of demons spreading their sin is even needed anymore in modern 21st century society. It’s being argued, when recently it was discovered that a small school in Tawa had 95% of their pupils all in the morbidly obese range, which the sins of gluttony have managed to run rampant. Others however, suggest an even darker note, that the humans are poisoning themselves with their foodstuffs and that demons weren’t even involved. Does this suggest that humans are dooming themselves to a fate of waddling around, or is perhaps a darker hand at work here? We’re going to open up the floor now to debate the issue. I believe you had something to say on this, mister fence post?”

 

Yes” the fence post that met up in the corner of the perimeter started “Well I would just like to say that to me it seems obvious that this is proof that we just don’t need demons anymore. Humans are perfectly capable of harming themselves without the debilitating effects of sin spawn influencing their events.”

 

Oh that’s if this is humans by themselves. You can’t make that assumption freely.

 

Oh you have something to add, mister fence post.”

 

The sky rumbled. It was getting darker. Hisami felt the humidity change in the area.

 

Yes, it seems clear to me that this must be the act of demons. You can’t honestly believe that an entire school could get that obese without outside help. The teachers wouldn’t have allowed it. It’s already been shown that they’re not fat. Surely this shows that the demons are targeting the children specifically.”

 

Or…” the first post interjected. “It shows the foolhardiness of humans in creating menus that allow a fast food option. The teachers know to eat healthily and so have remained as such. But the children and young and want their ‘fast food junk’. Present them with the option for school dinners and is it not obvious what they will choose.”

 

manGod approaches.”

 

Doesn’t that fall under a rather naive assumption though; that humans are morons. Whilst it is without saying that most humans lack our intellectual grace it cannot be denied that they contain within them a passion for self-improvement. Even at a young age a human child seeks the favour of its parents and peers. This should usually lead to a certain number of them staying at a fit level, but even the other 5% are considered obese with not a single athletic child in the school. I say merely presenting the option to eat junk food would not cause all the children there to become morbidly obese unless there was a demon there to influence events. One could even-”

 

It started to trickle around them. She stooped back into the small shelter of the overhanging roof, taking her cake with her and remembering to take a bite. The old man next to her stayed put.

 

Don’t both arguments have weight here though? Perhaps it is a double effect.”

 

Ah, mister fence post. From three down from myself. Please allow others to finish speaking.”

 

No mind. I was finished. Let him talk.”

 

Thank you, Mister fence post. What I was saying was-”

 

the manGod is here.”

 

To think of this just in terms of either sin only or human only ignores the possibility of seeding.”

 

You refer of course, to the act of demons planning sins in innocent format?”

 

Of course. It had been well documented that in the past five decades demons have been operating almost purely under seeding techniques, in order to bypass the efforts of the Futabatei cell in curtaining their campaigns. It’s a technique that allows them not to be noticed but also to make the humans think that they are responsible for their own actions without ever having to see a demon. It seems clear to I that the demons could have easily have planted seeds that caused the teaching staff at this school to create highly addictive fast food menus. You could easily make healthier foods less appealing by simply involving a lot of boring foods like tofu or salads-“

 

But seeding assumes that the demons committing the acts don’t want credit for their sinning. What is the point of a demon who does not get heard when he seeds a sin? The sin gets no reward and has no opportunity for advancement in his own ranks.”

 

I think this is straying from the initial talk a little. I believe that…manGod…”

 

Can I just say it is an issue that bears more fruit to its side of the argument? A demon who does seed sins without concern for his own advancement may do so because he wishes to work for the greater good of his own people.”

 

A bolt of lightning danced across the sky.

 

A scorn of laughter shot across the crowd. The halfey performed a somersault kick. The sky rumbled lightly as the rain kicked in.

 

No no. Listen. I know- I know the notion of demons working towards a goal higher than their own individual ranking may sound crazy, but these are crazy times we live in. The demons know they have lost power since the Futabatei took over the reins and they could see it, through the veil of their own self-interests, which it is in their self-interests to improve the standing of hell on the physical realm in order for their position to mean more again.”

 

manGod.”

 

manGod’

 

manGod”

 

I quite agree. And this is why I think that the sins would not be working on such simple notions as getting children fat. They would be trying to make their mark known clearer, resorting to more obvious tactics, that gets the Futabatei shaken into action. Only then can they understand how powerless- manGodmagGodmanGod!”

 

Lightning struck again, immediately followed by thunder

 

Wait what is this-“

 

I would just like to say that there I more than one incident of children being reported obese. In America-“

 

manGod.”

manGod.”

 

manGod”

 

The halfey stopped fighting to look around.

 

Hang on. I think something is happening with the defences.”

 

manGod. manGod manGod”

 

Another strike. The lightning struck just outside the fence and roared in Hisami’s ear.

 

Sirs? Please floor the debate for now and begin your defence positions. I think we may havmanGodmanGodmanGodmanGod”

 

Defences? We’re just wood. It’s the barriers that-“

 

The bolt struck down and pulsed through the earth. Hisami felt her skin electrocute her as every hair stuck on end and the static started tasting like electric blue. The bolt of light pierced the heavens above and etched itself into the ground before the halfey. Volcanic rumblings deafened her eardrums, her legs scraping into the floor below to push her away from the beating. The old man flung himself over her, the long stream of cloak proving little respite.

 

The winds stopped d blowing as the bolt dissipated in an instant faster than its arrival. Hisami breathed loudly and realised her cheeks were hot. The old man was gone now. The other two as well. The fence posts were scattered from their support beams, a few left hanging by a nail or two.

 

The girl dropped from the sky before the halfey, landing with a crunch.

 

***

 

Science is not a religious perspective. A scientist must always remember this.

 

I came to this understanding very verrrry slowly during my what can only be called my ‘misadventures’ in the so called ‘Strangelands’. Indeed, this accidental perspective of magical thinking has caused many an error in my methods of observation. It is not that I bowed down to the name of science and asked that it show me its ways and teachings but that I began to take all current conclusions reached in science as gospel.

 

It occurs to me in our objective reality that we are only subjective beings. While the maths, physics, chemistry and biology may all be distinct one must remember that they are both forever evolving and mutating one way or another, that we haven’t quite grasped a full understanding of all subjects, as much as we would like to convince ourselves and third, we are all very stupid, stupid little pieces of carbon, so enamored with this notion called knowledge that we constantly forget that the universe has gotten on fine without so called intelligence for the several septillion years since we decided it would be fun to come into being.

 

The universe may be a constant, but humans will always be stupid.

 

My stupidity came from deciding everything had been set in stone by this point in the existence of human knowledge. Like ?? I had decided we had come to learn everything we had needed to know. Not in the realm of physics, but in religion and magics and psychics and demons and teapots in asteroids belts and little fairies living on the surface of Jupiter whose one purpose in being was to ensure little girls got their fairy tale weddings. I thought we had it all covered under a big list titled ‘Repeated Disproven Tripe’ with a subtitle of ‘ – with no statistically significantly positive outcome in favour of the fairies’.

 

God wasn’t dead, or missing, or just there and not answering on text messages. He had just never been there at all. And everybody since the dawn of time who had referred to any magic being with such a name was wrong in every way possible. The closest thing people who made an argument to the existence of god were those who copped out with the teleological argument and said we should name the forces that created physics as ‘God’ because why the hell not?

 

Establishing this as fact was fun.. It made me superior to all the idiots. It made all scientists that weren’t so indoctrinated that they’d forsake perfect observable science for a gut feeling feel superior to his fellow retardo-beings.

 

And then the boy came along. The stupid ninja boy with his retarded smile and his retarded demons and his ‘Oh look, everything you’ve ever thought is wrong… or is it?’ revelation.

 

But I can’t blame him. I still do of course, but logically I should not.

 

Logically I should accept all I have seen so far. From the tire demons to underground fighting arenas with Rhinos wandering around, to Tina’s disappearance and the subsequent adventure through a large, possibly subterranean cavern so big a mistook it for the surface of another planet where a small god played lipstick lesbians with me all for the sake of guarding some guy who I probably shouldn’t have kneed in the crotch.

 

And I do accept it all… now anyway.

 

I would like to think that there are scientists higher than me, if such a thing is possible, that would have handled it better than I did. I denied. I got incredulous. I forgot the fundamentals rules of science and decided that, because all the current research disproved the existence of any possible spiritual beings in the shape of rag-tag insect monsters, that such creatures could not exist, even as they bowed politely and then crushed samurai wannabes.

 

I liked to think a better scientist would have nodded his head and said ‘well, that’s interesting’ and started to study the matter. Not act like some religious zealot and start insisting the whole thing’s impossible and get angry at the mentally challenged as they started punching the demons.

 

But as mistakes go I guess I’m glad to have made it and got out with my life intact (and possibly my soul too, if it exists).

 

And I’m sure am glad I’m smart enough to avoid falling off the other end of the stupidity scale, renouncing science and falling on my knees to worship a god who now so obviously exists.

 

Except I don’t know that yet.

 

I know now, in simple terms, that demons (are they actual demons? If so, by what definitions?)exist, and spiritual creatures that both can and may not have a grounding in mythology (or mythology has a grounding in them I guess). I know now there are locations associable to the planet earth that are not part of the planet earth. I know that these creatures can use their mental energies to invade the minds of objects from planet earth, including humans (I wonder if this possession of humans is any different from the possessing of objects like Sagara’s gauntlet. Humans are just a bunch of carbon atoms after all. Can our minds offer resistance? Could Tina hold back the effects of that OniHono creature?). I know that organizations exist that are populated by humans that work both in alliance with these creatures and against.

 

I’ve learned much in the past few months. Much I’ve denied; but things I have also accepted. I can accept Tina is gone (almost). I can accept that I’ve gained a new friend of the form of a floating semi-invisible flame, who I’ve named Occam, to help me keep things simple (For example, I’ve learnt to keep him away from my journals just by asking nicely).

 

I’ve learnt that faith in oneself can be a powerful tool.

 

Otsune left it there, realising she had fallen onto melodrama. This was supposed to be a scientific journal after all. Keeping track of events was one thing, but hyperbole to soup them up should have been avoided. She pondered on the last point. How much faith was required? How useful was it? Faith could cause a nation of people to lay arms against their neighbours, cause crowds to see the same mass hallucinations, have idiots believe that we only use 10% of our brains whilst ignoring the evidence of the mentally disabled.

 

She growled at the thought. Just how many people had she classed as stupid in the world who weren’t nearly as stupid as she had come to the assumption of? Obviously, her recent findings didn’t validate every single case of ‘we prayed, and the lord gave’, but to determine who was being touched by an angel and who was just suffering a decrease in parietal lobe activity. It was a question she wanted to avoid.

 

Occam whizzed round her head as she got up, trailing a small vapour path as he did so, happy to know his stationary vigil ended when she was no longer near the journal. She had trained him well, though she wasn’t quite sure how she had come about masculating him.

 

Stretching, her back cracked as the world whispered manGod around her, snapping her out of her brain daze and shaking the world around her. Grabbing the chair as her hips vibrated with the rest of the world, she shouted ‘Out the window’ and shot under the table Occam disappeared from sight as the tremors shook the room around her, a science model shaking itself off her shelf as coat-hangers inside the wardrobe rattled helplessly to themselves.

 

One of the mats in front of her came loose and was met by her glass of pure apple juice bouncing off of the chair. She shrieked in a very dignified way as it shattered, shards of glass ricocheting into the floor, the tinted green liquid dribbling to the floor as the vibrations ceased.

 

She waited a moment for any immediate aftershock her legs still stiffening to stop her from deciding it was fine to get out. With hesitant breath, she lifted herself carefully to avoid the glass scattered on the floor. The earthquake hadn’t been that strong, though she had not been around many before to make an accurate judgment. The only ones she had ever met previously were the smallest of tremors. She looked around her room. No damage had been made to any of her possession save her old middle-school atom model, its molecules now scattered across the floor after its bonds had been shattered. She had been lucky and smart in her initial reaction, Occam could have started a full on inferno in this building made of wood if it had collapsed around him. Instead the little flame danced happily outside.

 

Good boy,’ she called out to him, leaning out of the window and clapping politely. Petting a small flame set to a constant burn was still a bad idea and Otsune was glad he was now able to understand her enough to feel joy when she gave praise this way.

 

Stay out here for now,” she said, leaning further out of the window. Inviting him back in would have been fine had an earthquake not just occurred, but any aftershocks may damage some of the old roofing and she couldn’t expect Gen to clean up a large scale fire taking out the west wing.

 

She needed to check if people were okay. Sundays a lot of the girls left on days trips and the like, but many still stayed in to laze about. Hoisting herself over the window frame, she opted to stay outside as well. If she doubled back for the lobby the area was wide enough for Occam to hover freely without causing damage.

 

Of course that meant shouting orders to him in front of people who were oblivious to his presence. The little flame didn’t seem to show up on the radar of mundane beings. Otsune only guess she was allowed to see him because of events in the InBetween realm, that stupid sideways dimension where up was down and down was purple. She turned the corner to see a large black crater out in the field before her. As her brain braked sharply, all she could think was how she was certain that that wasn’t usually there.

 

There were no ash or dust or smoke clouds as she would have guessed in being at the site of some kind of meteor impact. The air itself was strangely empty, almost dry, with a slight aftertaste of static iron. Her hair stood on end as the two of them approached the crater. Keeping her distance, she saw the black crater had gone deep enough to be called a hole. No sound emerged from it, though the hole was wide enough in diameter for her to fall in. What was odd about the area surrounding was how calm it was. Though the blades of grass where the crater had been were undoubtedly crushed and incinerated with the sudden appearance of a sky object, the others pieces that made up the lawn out back were completely unharmed and standing up right around the newly tilled soil that crusted the impact site.

 

Hisami was eating her cake on the veranda.

 

What could have caused this? Otsune mused. A meteorite could have caused such an impact, but she would have imaged more fire. A cyrometeor was likely, considering the only real damage was blunt trauma to the face of the earth, but then that wouldn’t have caused the earthquake and since that wouldn’t have fallen from space…

 

Suddenly there was a ninja.

 

Gearghly!’ Otsune said in a completely calm and reasonable manner.

 

What happened here?” the girl asked in English.

 

Ano..i-I do not know,” Otsune replied “I just arrived here.”

 

There was an earthquake and… is this a meteorite?” The ninja looked up, her face mask receding only enough to tell Otsune that it was completely pointless for her to wear it when she had distinctive long, blond hair and was the only full-blooded white person in town. “Where’s Sagara? He should be here for this.”

 

I do not know where Sagara is” Otsune replied, feeling useless. Her English wasn’t terrible, but German was her better second language.

 

Ana ni,” Hisami said light enough between spoonfuls to almost not be heard.

 

What’s she say?” the ninja was almost shouting. There was no wind, but the air felt so quiet that shouting seemed necessary to make sure your voice wasn’t drowned out by all the silence.

 

She said he’s down the hole.”

 

Down the hole? In there?”

 

Hai… yes.”

 

What’s he doing in there? Did he get hit by it?”

 

I don’t know”

 

I know. Ask her.”

 

erm-“ Japanese seemed impossible for two seconds “Kare wa Niyotte dageki o ukeru ka/Did he get hit by it.”

 

Īe kare ga haitte kyūzō/No. He jumped in.”

 

She said-“ The large crack of wind interrupted translation. Otsune looked down just in time to look straight back up, the world rocketing past her face in a Gaussian blur that sent her stepping backwards one too many times and onto the grass below. The girl ninja had disappeared by the time Otsune looked back up, just enough to see a large muscular object hurtle into the ground and brake against the earth hard enough to make another crater magically appear around it.

 

Dirt and dust ejected into the air around the body, masking it as bones cracked and grind against one another. The body pulled itself back up onto its feet, arms shaking themselves loose as topsoil was discarded by unkempt hair. A gauntlet rattled against its rusted joints as green eyes peered through the cloud and that goofy grin came up through the mess. And stared back down at the hole.

 

Sagara was a retard, and Otsune had learned his grins well enough to know when to start taking a few steps backwards. She nearly hit the ninja girl in doing so, and glared at her angrily as she just stood there patiently out of harm’s way.

 

Bitch,’ Otsune muttered, suddenly caught off guard by a loud croaking groan. Looking across to the original crater, she felt her legs want to take more steps back, a small, dainty hand emerging from the hole and starting to pull itself up. Those surrounding her took up fighting positions, Sagara had somehow acquired a velvet rope which he was holding between his hands, checking its tightness as he stood in some less than practical fighting stance looking ready to attack. The ninja girl had set herself into a half crouching position that looked like she was ready to catapult from her back leg and cannonball towards whatever it was coming from the hole. In one hand was a small knife that looked suspiciously familiar to the one Sakura used to chop the meat with, the other was merely prepped with two fingers sticking out in some kind of silly ninjutsu hand pose..

 

Otsune wasn’t nearly as stupid as the two people in front of her. She figured whatever could crawl out of a hole that big, whether it had made it or had been crushed by it, and could send Sagara flying into the sky, was not something you got on a first contact basis with. “Hisami, get out of here!” she shouted, and started to run over to the small girl, taking the long way round the fight scene.

 

The young house resident seemed to be in no rush, but still obeyed her elder’s instruction and began to shuffle away. The girl chose to dress traditionally on Sundays for some reason. Running at top speed was little more than power walking with the restricting dress.

 

Another crack filled the air, forcing Otsune to turn around to take a look against her better judgment when someone was playing with the lighting of the surrounding area. The someone had crawled out of the hole now, a young girl, no older than herself at a rough guess. The newcomer glared in their direction with pupils, irises and corneas missing under a cloud of misty white contained within the lens of the eye. Her heart froze out of defensive reflex, an invisible grip took hold round her body. It lasted only until Occam shot up in size, floating defensively between her and the newcomer.

 

The newcomer wasn’t that much of a threat to look at. She looked like a teenage girl pretending to be a cat for the sake of a kid she was babysitting. The only real mark of any danger the girl posed was the layer of blue light sparking that seemed to indicate she was made out of flash fry death and the entire world was officially stupid if any one of them, with the obvious exception of Sagara, were to try anything in the form of approaching her. The electric blue darted from her empty eyes as she growled at all four of them, her facial muscles contorted into avarice and locked in place by what Otsune assumed to be a couple of thousand volts worth of electric power coursing through the girl’s body.

 

What is she?” she asked anybody, trying to sound only mildly curious, her brain only clicking after the words had left that she should have said ‘who’.

 

A half demon girl with unknown lightning powers,” Sagara replied in a perfectly normal pitch of voice. He didn’t have to shout for some reason. Everyone else was still screaming.

 

Who is she?” Otsune corrected herself. “What does she want?’

 

Raiko. Some kind of violent act against us.’ The girl growled at them all and began to crawl forward.

 

Well, stop her then. Don’t let her hurt anybody.’

 

Very well,’ Sagara shouted, charging straight up at his newly designated opponent. The dash tackler shot towards the girl known as Raiko and raised his fist high to attack, bringing it to just below his guard and firing it out less than a second before he would have collided into the opponent, his metal bound arm being the first object connected to his body to be viciously dislocated and toss fifteen feet across the grass, causing more damage to the lawn than the first two craters combined.

 

The girl wailed at them, her voice a high pitched hissing melody that bypassed her ears and headed straight for the cochlear nerve. Otsune went weak at the knees. The girl was kind of cute, she found herself thinking at that moment. Maybe she wasn’t all that bad. She hit Sagara after all. That was always fun to watch.

 

Otsune shook her head and tried to focus. Sagara was getting up slowly, turning around to walk on all fours as he slowly pulled himself up. Should she help? She considered as she weighed her options. The ninja girl was staying still but Otsune couldn’t tell if it was out of planning or helplessness. What was this girl’s intentions? Was this just another demon attack? She recalled hearing Sagara say the last one was a one off but that naturally meant nothing. Occam would be naturally immune to the electric energy the girl was living off, but whether or not the blasts would just pulse right through him and into Otsune’s own beautiful body was something she should probably stand well back for.

 

I’m going to have to attack you all now, it seems,” Sagara announced.

 

What?” Otsune mumbled as she realised the retard was now facing her and Hisami head on, his gauntlet poised to strike them from just feet away.

 

I’m not entirely sure why though.”

 

Sagara. Wait. You idiot-“ she recoiled, seeing his fist flicker, the movement flashing before her in the instant Occam roared above her, Sagara already well past the fire’s defences, the first approaching as her eyes slammed shut before the clash of steel on skin which was also apparently made of steel whacked against her eardrums and left her a little confused.

 

She opened them to see a small gleam of metal sliding horizontally against her vision.

 

Sagara, stop attacking Otsune,” said Natoko, who was suddenly here as well apparently.

 

Okay, but you’re going to have to stop Raiko or else I’ll just do it again.”

 

The samurai sword girl glanced over to the newcomer, already returning her sword to her sheathe. Otsune stared at awe just long enough for her brain to start asking just where the self-appointed guardian of heavenly springs had come from. “Understood,” Natoko said calmly, and shot off, much faster than Sagara, at the enemy covering the ten meters between them in a heartbeat worthy of any Olympic runner. Otsune missed half of it as she blinked again but caught the part where Natoko unsheathed her blade and went to strike her opponent, again bouncing over the highly conductive and ostensibly magnetic intruder before crashing off into the wall just a meter away from the rapidly increasing group.

 

The girl wailed again in triumph, that same high pitched echo blitzing Otsune’s ears as the girl roared, like a beautiful, attractive, sexy dinosaur that Otsune would die for if she would but ask. The newcomer had barely moved from her spot except to deflect attacks before, but now she was starting to stagger as she stared at the group surrounding her like a cornered dog. She dropped forward, falling onto one hand and almost bouncing back up as she leapt for Otsune, her hand reaching out, clearly asking merely to embrace Otsune in her tender, high voltage embrace. Otsune felt her own hand rising to feel the girl’s touch.

 

No,” she screamed, sensing Occam’s desire to protect her rising up in a huge ball of awesome incinerating flame. The newcomer didn’t hesitate and continued forwards, only bouncing away as Natoko stepped in-between them to intervene, her sword slicing thin air as the girl vanished before her. Natoko disappeared just as suddenly, the two fighters now near the crash site again, Natoko trying to exchange a torrent of blows with a target she kept missing as they both bounced in and out of vision. Otsune only had a few seconds of staring to question how Natoko could be so blindingly fast when she realised Sagara was trying to punch her again.

 

Sagara!”

 

Yeah, I know,” he said with that big stupid grin. “Sorry it’s her voice. It’s making me naturally inclined to do everything she wants.”

 

Well what does she want?” Otsune said, trying to think quickly. Her own brain felt a little off with all that was going on.

 

I think it’s just violence and destruction at this point,” he said, advancing as he punched through Occam to get at her, Otsune able to duck by falling over. “Which is really odd because she was such a nice girl the first time I met her. Helped me out of a tough spot and everything.”

 

Being winded prevented Otsune from continuing the conversation, but she still tried to kick Sagara in the crotch as he advanced on her. He slipped to the side easily, shouting another apology she could no longer hear, his armoured fist raised above his head and ready to strike down on her own. She smelt fire trying to burn through flesh but it didn’t seem to help. Then Natoko reappeared in mid-air.

 

Do you wish me to stop you , my Lord?” she asked through the pandemonium, the brunt of her blade crashing into his gauntlet.

 

That’s entirely your choice,” he replied “But I should probably warn you that I can easily stop you at this point.”

 

Natoko, he’s being an idiot. Just take him out.”

 

This isn’t the best-“ Natoko got as far as saying before the velvet dagger struck through her blade, cracking through the tip and shattering it cleanly. With her support lost, Natoko fell forwards like she had missed a step on the stairs, tripping herself up as the dagger twirled round back on itself and began wrapping itself around her neck. The girl gasped for air quickly, her eyes on the handle.

 

Get off her,” Otsune cried, successfully grabbing Sagara’s fist and feeling her flesh start to sizzle under the burning hot iron. Recoiling quickly, her eyes landed on the newcomer once again, now lurching her way towards them with monstrous electric eyes.

 

Natoko choked, the velvet dagger like a noose around her neck. Otsune used her non-burning hand to reach up for the rope line now connecting Natoko’s neck to whatever part of Sagara this thing had come out of . Lifting herself up to tug, she came face to face with the newcomer, now glaring at her a mere few inches away. The two stared at each other’s beautiful faces, the girl detonating suddenly before her eyes, knocking her back and tugging on the rope. She heard another gargle from Natoko, and what sounded like an apology from Sagara. Hitting the dirt, she choked a little herself before opening her eyes to see the girl again right in front of her, this time both of them on the floor.

 

Opening her mouth, the newcomer girl started wailing again. It began off high pitched and went up from there, the noise squealing and screeching in her ear like a security alarm, rattling between her drums and bringing a taste of iron to Otsune’s mouth. Her brain took the wrong moment to have a migraine, and she felt her arms give up supporting her. She tried to make her right hand lift up and slap the girl, but the putty refused to move. Her vision started to go blurry.

 

Then she felt fine.

 

Otsune froze, tense this time, her body feeling refreshed and in control again. She felt Occam’s heat subside and Natoko and Sagara stopped glaring at each other to look down at her.

 

The world was silent now, not even the light ringing in her ears that she felt should have been there or the sound of her own heartbeat. She could feel it, but the sound was missing.

 

The girl was still trying to scream, right up until she fell asleep, dropping off right onto Otsune’s shoulder. Otsune cried out in annoyance at the sudden pain, but again didn’t hear herself.

 

The American ninja appeared in her peripheral vision, muttering something still inaudible under her mask before lifting the newcomer off of Otsune. She tried to get her breath back but settled with just rolling over and failing to scream obscenities despite every effort to do so.

 

The newcomer was unconscious, now looking rather sweet with her cheek mashed up against the mud like she had been taking an afternoon nap out in a field and had rolled off her own rug. Otsune lifted herself up and looked over the girl. What occurred most to her was how the girl was still clothed despite apparently coming to them as a ball of fire just a few minutes prior. She looked like she had been out for a jog, wearing tracks and a matted t-shirt. Other than a plain ring on her finger, there was nothing else of any real mention to her.

 

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sagara say something but still heard nothing. Natoko seemed to reply and Otsune was glad to realise the girl was also apparently deaf. Sagara still seemed to chat happily to himself as the ninja girl pulled out a pair of handcuffs from nowhere and began attaching them to the unconscious girl.

 

Target captured,” the girl said, causing Otsune to wince in pain at the sudden arrival of sound again. Natoko winced a little too and shook her head in a way that wouldn’t have helped confirm anything at all. Otsune did the same.

 

What happened just then?” she asked.

 

What’s she say?” the ninja asked.

 

Er-“ Otsune wasn’t sure if she could trust herself to speak. “What happened?”

 

Right at the end, or altogether?”

 

Th-the last one,” Otsune replied. “No wait. The last bit.”

 

The girl’s half Sirynclou. Their voices can control other people when singing, so she was making those male or attracted to her do her bidding.”

 

Oh,” replied Otsune, not bothering to translate for Natoko, who looked like she wasn’t listening anyway.

 

Something else must have happened though. It looked like she was controlling herself as well. It was like she was screaming at herself to fight or something.”

 

So she was out of control.”

 

Well she had changed a lot from last time,” Sagara butted in. Not as murderous previously.”

 

Otsune was just about to comment on the parts of Sagara’s flesh that were still smouldering quietly to themselves when she saw Natoko drop to her knees.

 

Isis…” the girl whispered, holding snapped off end of her sword like a dying kitten.

 

The girl’s mouth was wide open, the bottom lip trembling. Otsune relaxed, turning back to the more important matter of Sagara’s wounded body just as the girl started screaming.

 

Otsune took a step back as Natoko threw herself over the scattered shards of her sword like the body of a loved one at a funeral. Her sobbing continued uncontrollably as she started scanning the separate shards, her eyes looking desperately like they were trying to find a way to put them back together again.

 

Freaking a little at the reaction, Otsune felt like she should step up to comfort the girl, but was also a little more concerns at the two other serious matters of the flesh wounds and the unconscious lighting sound girl. Thought he way Sagara was standing there perfectly fine, it seemed the sword somehow took precedence. She stepped forwards to Natoko, looking to place a hand on her shoulder.

 

Back off!” the girl cried out, scowling at Otsune and showing her just how quickly her face had gone red. Otsune wanted to say something but just felt exhausted over the whole ordeal. It couldn’t have last more than a minute but now she just wanted to crawl away.

 

Leave us alone!”

 

Natoko i…”

 

Shut okay? Just shut up. This can’t be… it just… it just can’t.”

 

Otsune really wanted to illustrate the fact in one simple blunt sentence that it was just a sword but the words held themselves in her throat. And though value was in the eye of the beholder and that all this just felt stupid she couldn’t tear her eyes away at Natoko’s red raw skin. The girl let her emotions free all the dry grass as she began muttering ‘Isis… Isis….”. The tip of the bade, a meter away from them all, started to move on a windless breeze.

 

Next: Iziz reforms.

 

Come on,” Otsune said to Sagara. “Help me get her inside… where she can destroy the building if she wakes up No…” She paused in thought, considering the options. There was an issue of trust here. On the one hand, Sagara had labelled her as a friendly person and so therefore it would have been logical to assume the young girl, possibly older than herself and also with the ability to generate electrostatic shockwave thingies was just plain not safe to bring into a building whose primary competent was wood and the flesh of occupants. The other hand agreed completely “Onto the pebble path.” The female ninja assisted without words and with Sagara doing the heavy lifting rested her on a large smooth rock, a favourite sitting spot for most of the girls.

 

Only after they had put her down did it occur to Otsune the potential dangers of even touching a girl that had that much voltage going through her. Though they had not been signed, it did remind her of the burn wounds Sagara not suffered on his skin from Occam’s attack. Part of her knew she should apologise, and she ignored it hastily.

 

The girl was physically fine from what she could tell and though she wanted to sound like some kind of medical expert, all she could do was check to see if the girl still had a pulse. The ninja girl stared at her from beneath the face mask, Otsune unable to tell whether she was being mocked or asked for a status update. She chose not to answer.

 

IT had to be the latter one. She had no knowledge here, no jurisdiction on this realm of the mystical crap that was being force fed her every other day since the big guy had shown up. IT had been a welcomed relief these past few days to only having a sentient flame following her around and only igniting the occasional lampshade. How could she determined whether a girl who was controlling the mind of boy’s and shooting lightning out her face was doing okay or not. Part of him was still wanting to run. Another part acknowledge Natoko was still lying on the top of shattered sword pieces.

 

Who is she, Sagara?” the Ninja girl finally said.

 

??? Raiko.”

 

And where did you meet her.”

 

In her hotel room after I fell into it one day.”

 

Did you know she could do this?”

 

Yes.”

 

Do you know who she works for.”

 

The Balance, but I think only as a temp.”

 

She was working for Yuya then?”

 

Yes.”

 

Can we trust her?”

 

Sagara paused. “I don’t know.”

 

What do you think?”

 

He paused again. “I think she’s nice. She brought me breakfast once.”

 

And that ended that,” the girl mumbled, causing Otsune to grin a little just as the garden lit up again. A blinding flash cut through the air and was gone in seconds. She would have missed it had she not been staring right at it, watching it spread sharply before returning straight back to Natoko. All looked around to see the sword girl bolt up, still looking down, the tears in her eyes dripping like a running tap. She stared down at her sword.

 

***

 

Quick scene with Sakura

 

At this point, the girl has achieved happiness, and is rightfully bathing in it. She sees it as a permanent state. The rest of her life is living with the one she loves.

 

Aki fell into view, landing with a graceful tap as she collapsed into a crouching position.

 

I think violence is going on somewhere,” she said. Sakura shuffled uncomfortably. She had been enjoying herself resting against Alexis’s shoulder. He smelt nice and musky today, the aerosol she had bought him lathered his upper body.

 

I thought so,” Alexis said on her behalf. He went silent, looking in the direction of far back field. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Did he want to go see? “Will they be okay?”.

 

Should be is what I was thinking,” Aki replied, holding her stomach and looking winded with the anxiety. “Now… not so sure.” She seemed to relax as she stood above them. “I’m gonna go check.”

 

Should we go too?” Alexis asked her. Sakura hesitated. She didn’t want to. She wasn’t just being selfish, in her head she knew Aki shouldn’t go either, but they should at least check it what was going on and then go warn someone if needed.

 

A jet engine echoed over their heads, cutting off any discussion. The two of them stood up to join Aki, curiosity now overriding panic.

 

Stay!” a heavily accented voice called out to them. Sliding into view, right in front of them and out of thin air, the blond female that seemed to wander around on occasion walked past them. “Stay here or get inside, but don’t bring anyone out back. It’s not safe-“

 

Melissa, you do know they don’t speak English right?”

 

Er- I do,” Aki said, raising her hand. “Learnt it a few months ago.”

 

It’s irrelevant,” Melissa said. “Get them inside and stay there. The threat’s minor, but they shouldn’t be getting involved any more than they already have. In fact I would really prefer it if you people had no idea about this at all.”

 

Is Natoko alright?” Aki butted in. “I think she’s there, isn’t she?”

 

The ninja girl didn’t seem to hear this, her head turning slightly to look into the distance. Sakura was suddenly aware of how quiet the air had gotten, a taste of iron coming to her teeth as the grass stood rigid around them.

 

C-can we…” Aki stuttered, looking around as if to check it was safe to talk. The three of them stayed silent, Sakura keeping a tight grasp of Alexis. “What just-“

 

Both of them started to look around and Sakura realised that the ninja had disappeared right in front of them. She kept very still and tried to wish herself a little smaller too. It was one of those moment where she knew moving may result in monsters pouncing you. She felt every hair stand on end, her breath shut off. She started to turn around.

 

I think they’re done,” Aki said, the world suddenly turning back to normal with a deep feeling that they had missed something. Sakura relaxed a little.

 

We better go help then,” she said and watched as Aki ran off before anything further could be said. She knew the American wanted Alexis to have them stay inside but she seemed to be forgetting that she and him were technically guests just as much as she seemed to forget what language she had been speaking.

 

They turned the corner, seeing Aki rushing towards Natoko, Sagara with an unconscious girl in his hands.

 

I feel instantly this needs rewriting a little, with a focus on Sakura trying to relax and Melissa’s order with a slight reference to Aki’s secret and a larger reference to Sakura suddenly understanding English.

 

***

 

Natoko’s body trembled as the glowing shards shivered beneath her, their translucent light hurting her eyes as she glared down at them. Moments ago, Iziz had broken so easily in her hands. IT seemed impossible to think it could happen. The sword her grandfather gave her, that she kept at all times (except during school hours of course). Despite what she had driven it into, it had never been scratched before. To be decimated so quickly.

 

The light continued to shine beneath her. It wasn’t a warm light, she recognised this even as her hands dug into the soil that she wasn’t shaking from excitement. She watched carefully through teary eyes as the pieces started to move.

 

Above her, the others started to talk, whether it was to her or not didn’t matter.

 

Suddenly, like magnets two pieces shot towards each other clicking into place like a jigsaw and spinning round just as another piece landed to complete a chunk. It dropped back to the floor quickly. Natoko stared at I for a few seconds before three other pieces did the same, a wave of dust forming out of thin air before spreading into the cracks and making the once six pieces into one single piece.

 

Natoko felt the urge to back away, her muddy hands preventing her from lifting herself up as the other pieces started to move in unison now openly levitating in the air before her and clicking one after another into place the very tip of her sword now dangling mere centimetres from her face before dropping to meet with the rest of the sword.

 

Dimly aware she was gritting her teeth she managed to get herself into a kneeling position before the wildly flailing blade risked lacerating a cheek or two. She couldn’t think to ask herself what was happening or how. All she knew was Iziz was coming back to her somehow. As the blade started to vibrate violently before her she raised her hand, the shattered hilt covered in mud responding to its other half. Doing her best to keep her eyes open she raised the dead hilt before her and watched as the last blade shards fell into place before swinging savagely towards her, nearly taking off a few hair strands and sliding firmly into place. A final glow emanated from the blade before all the cyan light was pulled back into the weapon and fell silent again.

 

Natoko heard a gasp of breath and couldn’t tell if it were her own.. She turned Iziz towards her and saw her reflection in the perfect blade.

 

Well that shouldn’t be possible.”

 

Yeah. It’s done it before. It got destroyed by that angel at one point.”

 

I can’ say I remember that. I think I was pretending to be incinerated.”

 

And you did a fantastic job of it.”

 

Why thank you.”

 

Natoko turned to Sagara, happy yet… “This has happened before?”

 

You don’t remember.” He swung the body round his shoulder carelessly.

 

No.”

 

Well,” he shrugged his shoulder. “You didn’t remember last time either. I’m sure it’s no big deal.”

 

No big…” She remembered her position, though her thoughts were muddled. “How could… how could Iziz… and then how I forget It doesn’t make any sense.”

 

Yeah, this isn’t that normal,” Sagara mused. “Objects can’t reconstruct themselves, not without a spirit involved.”

 

This was my grandfather’s blade. Could… could his spirit be inside Iziz?”

 

No. There’s no one in there at all. If there was, I’d have dragged it out and killed it when I first met you.”

 

Trying not to feel rage, Natoko looked over her sword again. Not a crack remained on the smooth steel and it looked as sharp as it was when she first started practicing with it. She always knew Iziz was powerful and she knew to keep it with her at all times and never abandon it no matter what, but this wasn’t something it should be able to do. Did it have any other special abilities, she wondered, a brief inspiration brought on the idea of being able to throw fire on it.

 

Isn’t it obvious what it is?” Otsune said cutting in.

 

What? What is it?”

 

It’s magic of course.”

 

The two ninja stared down at her. Otsune glared back offended.

 

What? Oh come on. I’m finally accepting all your stupid demon crap. If it shines brightly like that, doesn’t that just mean that some magic was used to reform it?”

 

There’s no such thing as magic.”

 

Yes. Please don’t be interrupting us to add silly little assumption into the mix.”

 

Silly little…” Otsune flabbergasted as her eyes looked like they wanted to shoot lasers at the two ninja. “I finally make a suggestion to you morons that isn’t-“

 

We must put this aside for now,” the female ninja stated ”and possibly move away from where the civilian would interact with us.”

 

Civilian!?”

 

We should ascertain how and why Raiko has appeared before us now in this state. My illusion powers are still working, so we can assume the Neutralis is not on her person. I suggest we take her inside for now and keep her restrained until we can be sure she’s no longer berserk. Understood?”

 

Understood,” Natoko replied.

 

Sure, why-” Natoko snapped to attention, staring at the ninja girl who was looking back at her while trying to ignore Otsune ‘s livid face still trying to incinerate them before her face too became one of sudden awareness.

 

The ninja and samurai faced each other, their mouths agape in unison, both stammering to say the next words other each other.

I… but i…”

 

You… i…

 

Hey, you can understand each other,” Otsune interrupted, grabbing them and shaking them like rag dolls. Natoko looked across to the girl, who was wearing a satisfied smile on her face. “Yea. Ruin my moment. I ruin yours.”

 

How can this be?” the ninja asked. “I have not learnt Japanese,.”

 

And I not English…well I tried but well-“

 

While I speak both languages fluently and can tell you now those are the languages you’re speaking at other with those big stupid mouths of yours. Here’s an idea. Gasp,” exclaimed Otsune. “I know. Perhaps… it’s magic.” She waited for them to stare ac at her again. “Or maybe demons. Or perhaps, I don’t know. Maybe pixie fairies have bitten into your skin in the middle of that fight and injected nanodroids into your bloodstreams that instantly act like universal translators that at first will seem fun and exciting and useful, but then will slowly start eating away at your livers, killing you from the inside. Or perhaps…”

 

There’s no such thing as nanodroid injecting pixi-“

 

I don’t care!” Otsune shouted at Sagara’s face. “Let’s just bring in the corpse girl and make her not be a corpse first. We can investigate your stupid ability to communicate at a later point after we’ve observed all the basic facts. Understood.”

 

Unfortunately,” the ninja grumbled.

 

Inside. Now!”

 

***

 

Natoko had helped Sagara place the unconscious body in ones of the spare rooms. Otsune had decided it would be best if others didn’t stray into the lobby and become inexplicably involved in the new situation. Alongside the American ninja girl without a name, Otsune was now possibly poking and prodding the girl in various ways considered medical in an attempt to find out what was wrong with her.

 

If that’s what they were doing, Natoko had no idea. She had been placed on guard duty. Or rather, she had placed herself on guard duty after she realised she wouldn’t be much help in there. It wasn’t that they were performing surgery , or any form of effective medicine whatsoever, she just felt odd.

 

In the traditional sentry stance of sitting against the wall, Natoko played with Iziz between her fingers, twirling the heavy sheath as best she could without letting clank onto the floor. The questions were still flooding her mind, trying desperately to remember all she could about her now supposedly magical sword.

 

Her grandfather died when she was very young. She remembered him, but not completely, a kind and cheerful ma, yet very serious and very stern. A memory flashed through her of his teasing her, prodding and poking her in the stomach and making her laugh. It was to test her reflexes he had told her parents as they grumbled disapprovingly

 

Iziz had come into her life shortly after he had died. It was passed down to her, apparently because she was the favourite. She had just accepted it at first, thinking it cool at the time and not really interested. Thinking further into it she actually remembered having more fun at first with his old collection of American board games. Iziz was just left on the side-lines until she was thirteen.

 

When she picked it up, that time after the argument with her father, when she had ran away for a few days only some little disagreement she couldn’t remember, Iziz had been to distract herself. She was angry, and she had seen enough cartoons to know that swinging the sword was usually enough to look cool while being angry and possibly get her dad to acknowledge that she wasn’t just being lazy. It was then when she first felt a spark with it.

 

In truth, she had only started to swing the sword because it felt good to let loose against the wind like that. Striking down with the blade, getting that perfect step and cut. It was probably what dancing was like.

 

The idea washed over her as she nearly let the blade slip, the hilt falling out of the sheath and touching the ground lightly. It had always felt like magic to her. They were partners, servants to their master. They worked together now to accomplish his desires and together, they had become a mighty force. With its steel and her newly misunderstood powers of speed, they were becoming unstoppable. Maybe that was the magic.

 

She tilted the blade back into its container. “No. that doesn’t explain sparkly magical powers. How are you doing it?”

 

The sword stayed silent as the door behind her opened. Quickly she tied the sword down into her belt’s sash as Sagara and Otsune came out. Otsune was looking deeply troubled, staring at the ground deep in thought. Sagara was grinning.

 

How’s it look?” Natoko asked.

 

Well she isn’t waking up,” Otsune replied. “That’s one thing that doesn’t look good. She also covered in bruises. Some have been there for a while.”

 

She fell out of the Sagara,” Sagara added.

 

No. These have clearly been here for a few days at the least judging by how they’ve formed. Also, the falling out the sky thing? No broken bones. No major lacerations or wounds. Nothing punctured, no signs of internal damage. And also very much not dead. These are the usual symptoms of what is medically known as falling out of the sky syndrome. That last one is usually the most prominent.”

 

She is a half demon. It’s to be expected.””

 

She’s a half demon,” Otsune mimicries. “That just makes things harder to diagnose. Made it impossible five minutes ago when you forgot to mention that, but now, it’s just a little more difficult.

 

Sagara looked oddly taken aback. “I’m being told I should apologise.”

 

It’s okay. Look, we need to-“ Otsune stopped. “You’re being told?”

 

I have an angel inside my head now. Gives me advice.”

 

You have a voice of reason inside your head?” A manic grin appeared on Otsune face as she scoffed a little.

 

Got it installed recently,” Sagara said like it didn’t matter. “And it’s not a voice of reason, it’s an angel.”

 

But he’s probably more reasonable than you.”

 

Angels can’t be reasonable. They will always be biased. Mom says whenever an angel starts being reasonable with me, I’m to punch it in the existence.”

 

I guess I can agree with that.” Otsune waved her hands sharply. “Anyway. What can we do to wake her up? Should we be waking her p? Is she just going to attack us again if we do?”

 

Don’t know. Don’t know. Don’t know., Sagara replied back, standing silent as the as the last word came out of his mouth. The girls stared at him.

 

W-we should get help,” Natoko said, trying to butt in. Otsune turned sharply to her, as if only just remembering she was there.

 

Any suggestions?””Sakimo- er… the other members of the Balance may have information on how to sort this if we don’t know. They may also know who she is.”

 

She’s Raiko,” Sagara replied.

 

Wonderful. Be quiet.” Otsune turned back to Natoko. “Who are these Balance people. I thought he was the Balance… supposedly.”

 

No, I’m just the heir to the position of the Enforcer of the True Balance.”

 

so it’s an organization? That makes sense.” Otsune seemed to be thinking.

 

They have a building in the city,” Natoko added. “If we take her there-“

 

We have no car. Lugging her unceremoniously on Sagara’s shoulder will only serve against us at the impending trial.”

 

We could bring someone here? Go and explain what happened?” Natoko quickly wondered when Otsune had become de facto leader of the situation. She should be passing her ideas past Sagara if anything, and possibly the ninja girl.

 

I suppose it’s too rational to presume an ambulance would be of any assistance..”

 

Sagara looked thoughtful for no time whatsoever. “It would be more likely we could steal a car rather than an ambulance in the village We’d have to drive back from the city to pick her up.”

 

Otsune smirked to herself. “Calling the Balance for help it is. What’s their number?”

 

No idea?” Sagara replied.

 

Of course.” Otsune looked around. “Where’s ninja girl?

 

She was in there with you, wasn’t she?

 

Not that I saw..” The corridor fell silent among the three of them. No one offered to say anything until Otsune growled.

 

Fine. We’ll go down there. We can’t leave her alone though.”

 

I’ll stay,” Sagara offered. “If she wakes up and attacks, I should be able to stop her..”

 

Yes, because girls off the street should be able to walk in and enter the secret demon killing- “Otsune stopped with a sigh. She looked like a bad morning if it had spent too long adding make up. “We’re not employees. “So you have to go at least.”

 

Actually…” Natoko began.

 

***

 

Switch to city in front of the building.

 

You have a job here now?”

 

It’s the same job I assigned myself when I had first met Sagara” Natoko said as the receptionist waved them through to the main glass elevator. This was not the entrance they had come through the last time Sagara had been summoned. This was larger, but more befitting a corporate business. Large glass windows served as the wall of the building with various seating areas complete with businessmen and woman dashing back and forth, some only stopping to pick up coffee at the service stand from the man with the vacant stare on his face. “The only difference is that now they pay me for it.”

 

And here’s me swotting up to university professors just to get a good reference for a first level position,” Otsune complained. “I guess it is who you know.”

 

You also know him you realise.”

 

I also don’t want to work for him.”

 

The reception desk itself was a lot larger with several receptionists instead of none like last time. A woman stared up at them with empty eyes and a sweet, friendly smile that was more than helpful until she mentioned Mss Sakimoto. The woman tried to hold back a laugh before asking them who they were with. “Er… I’m er… Sagara Futabatei’s personal… assistant.”

Whoa whoa. You’re his assistant?” Otsune interrupted.

 

That is correct.” She was actually his retainer, but she didn’t actually know how much this receptionist knew.

 

And they’re paying you to watch him goof around all day.”

 

He does far much more than that, Otsune.”

 

Excuse me,” the receptionist chirped up. “I don’t believe we have anyone here who works here by that name.”

 

Of course he doesn’t,” Natoko replied. “He has far weightier matters to attend to beyond working here.”

 

O-of course he does,” the woman replied. “So is he third party?”

 

No he,” Natoko pulled back the urge to growl as the woman kept smiling helpfully. “He works alongside Mss Sakimoto, but he’s from…” She gave it a try. “He’s from the Balance.”

 

The Balance,” the receptionist replied, a stern glare registering behind her glasses. “Is that an American company?”

 

No… well yes… I don’t know actually.” Natoko started to feel a little fluster. How were they going to follow orders if they couldn’t get past the front desk.

 

Look miss. I’m terribly apologetic to say that I can let you just go speak the CEO of the business, even if you do work for an American company. You need to at least have an appointment…” The woman’s words trailed off as Natoko wiped the sweat off her brow. This was stupid. Normally they couldn’t help not falling into Miss Sakimoto’s office one way or another. “…if you’ve arranged an appointment with her secretary beforehand. If that’s the case, I’m going to have to…” The woman’s voice trailed off.” She was sweating and breathing heavily all of a sudden, her forehead spilling over with water.

 

Are you okay?” Otsune asked. Natoko stared at her through what felt like a summer’s heat.

 

I think I’-“ SD-he took a deep breath. “I’m fine. It’s hot this afternoon. I think-“ The receptionist lost her footing trying to stand up. Both girls went to try and catch her, but fell short with the reception desk in the way. Quickly they scattered round the side as the woman slipped to the floor. Natoko watched hazily as the word got fuzzy around her. She knelt down to help the lady up as Otsune shouted over for some help.

 

The receptionist had fallen unconscious, her forehead burning up. It was hot but she didn’t think it was this hot. Quickly two other receptionists and a security guard swarmed over to help her up and transport her to a nearby couch. Natoko followed along helping to keep the woman steady as the larger security guard helped her across the room hearing Otsune say something about the woman being exposed directly to the sunlight in front of the window.

 

After a few moments of getting caught up in the crowd the woman seemed okay, if only a little under the weather. The heat seemed to have hit them all badly and those that had helped move the woman were also complaining of how hot it was. Apologising to them for the troubles she had caused, she hobbled away to a back room with the assistance of a security guard.

 

I’m sorry about that,” another receptionist replied. “She was complaining about feeling under the weather this morning.””

 

It’s okay,” Natoko replied, trying not to look exhausted herself.

 

It looked more like heat stroke to me,” Otsune mentioned. “You should be more careful. Everyone here looks ready to collapse.”

 

Yeah it’s funny,” the other receptionist replied. “The air conditioning should be on. I’ll call facilities and see if we can get someone out to find out what’s going on

 

Oh, before you do that could we just bother you to let us through. We have an appointment with Miss Sakimoto at three.” She looked at her watch in a hurry like. “Yamanaka Natoko for the Balance Industries.

 

Oh of course, I am so sorry. I think the heat’s making me slow today. Let’s see…” The receptionist leaned over the computer resting herself as best as possible without sitting down, her body contorted in a painful leaning posture. “Ah yes, Miss Yamanaka…” Otsune pointed to Natoko, who found herself waving like a moron. “Of course, you can go right up. I’ll just need you to sign the visitor’s pass…”

 

A few moments later, they were being led to the elevator by a member of security with two visitor’s passes against their chests. Otsune laughed to herself, Natoko falling against the wall.

 

Well…” Natoko sighed heavily. “I guess that worked out well for us.” It seemed a good idea to sit down all of a sudden and she fell to the floor without her hands offering any resistance along the way.

 

Yes,” replied Otsune. “At the very least I know if I can’t get a job through all my hard work and degrees, I at least have corporate espionage on my side.”

 

Wha-“

 

Otsune knelt down to her, her hand brushes against Natoko’s brow. “You’ll be fine in a moment. I’ve turned Occam off.”

 

Occam?” Natoko tried to think. “You made it hot?”

 

Be glad I knew their appointment booking system. It was because of that I was able to set you up with a meeting on such short notice.”

 

You did that… when everyone was looking at the receptionist?” Natoko shook herself clean and started to stand up. “Should we be doing that? Miss Sakimoto won’t like us just wandering in.”

 

Well if you don’t want to do it again, just remember before we leave, get her phone number.”

 

The old elevator thundered to a stop with enough force to jump them in the air, before jolting one more time and nearly sending the two woman flying (note: discuss elevator in more detail perhaps earlier). The doors swinging open they were met by an odd silence that contained only the ringing of phones and the printing of fax machines.

 

The two girls stepped out gingerly. There were no people. The thirty third floor of the Sakimoto building appeared abandoned. “We on the right floor?” Otsune asked looking around carefully.

 

They pressed the button,” Natoko said, not entirely sure if she had been here or not. The last time she ended up in Miss Sakimoto’s office. The time before that- well she hadn’t paid particular attention to the layout at all. There would be a mahogany door around here if it was though.

 

To their left, a large printer whirred to life catching their attention. With a high pitch clanking it started to spit paper in a neat little tray to the side.. Natoko looked around, keeping herself tense. No one was coming to collect.

 

What’s going on?” she finally said as Otsune went to rifle through the newly minted paperwork.

 

Nothing interesting,” Otsune replied, stacking the paper back into shape and returning it to the tray. “This is just a timetable for availability on the next server upgrades. Boring office work. Remind me to kill myself if I ever end up working in a place like this.”

 

Ditto,” said Natoko, still looking around, though she wasn’t sure what for. Was this some kind of defence protocol they had set off in talking their way in here. Were more of those ninja security guard she faced last time due to arrive through the ceiling tiles any moment now? Natoko tried to listen carefully but found it difficult under the hum drum of a non-existent office life. Her ears caught the sound of yet another telephone starting off.

 

Maybe we should answer one.”

 

Do you think we’re allowed?” Otsune said, now too focusing on the sleek black handset on the desk nearest them. “You know what? Stupid question. Of course we should Worse comes to worse, I burn everything. Hello hello!” Otsune said, sounding jolly as she waited for a response.

 

Right,” she replied in almost a mutter. “Right.” She reached over for a piece of paper from the printer and began scribbling something down. “I understand. Right… Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you.” She replaced the handset down carefully.

 

What is it?” Natoko asked. “What did they say?”

 

Otsune lifted the piece of paper up. In the bad light, Natoko had to move her head to read it properly.. In the light she saw the message.

 

It said “The guy behind us will show us to her office.”

 

Yo.” Natoko froze to a statue and shattered as the firm grip compressed her shoulder and nearly left her leaving her arm behind. She tried to turn and only got halfway before seeing the man smiling in front of them She recognised him from somewhere.

 

This way, my good ladies,” he waved a hand in the direction of a corridor on the opposite side of the room and waiting for them to start walking.. Halfway down, Natoko saw a door open, a large woman coming out of it.

 

Got those reports for me in time for-“

 

A man brushed past her and barely had time to wave an apology.

 

The Moscow meeting starts in two hours. We need someone there to-“

 

Corporate. Takashi speaking.”

 

And I told her the golf isn’t the point. It’s the people who I meet there being good for business-“

 

As they turned the corner of the corridor, the busy office continued its daily machinations.

 

***

 

The private office of Miss Sakimoto hummed away nonchalantly to itself. Natoko scratched her knee and immediately tried to turn down the volume.

 

The woman at the far end of the room was sitting at her desk, reading reports and ignoring them in the same way a lion ignores a prey it knew it could round to devouring when it felt like it. The two girls sat quietly, hands on knees, on the two chairs provided. The water colour besides them mocked them gratuitously, basking in its own refreshing coolness as the line of sunlight slowly turned over them.

 

Natoko wasn’t entirely sure at this point if they had reason to think they were in trouble. They had gained access to the office of one of the possibly most powerful people on the planet and done so illegitimately right up to the point where they had gotten caught. But then they also hadn’t been thrown out of the building, either by the main entrance or through the large wall sized window behind the executive lady.

 

Glancing at Otsune, she could see her watching the woman intently. She carried no fear on her face and looked like she could wait it out. It had been about fifteen minutes now (at a guess). Natoko knew they had interrupted, but not a word had been said since they had been thrown in the office. Even the man (who she was sure she recognised) had only stopped to tell them to sit down before disappearing before their very eyes.

 

Below her, Natoko heard the sound of paper crunching, and looked down. It was the report that Otsune had used as scrap paper, quickly being crunched into a ball out of frustration as her friend stood up and approached the woman at the desk.

 

Excuse me. May I ask how long you’re planning on having us sitglarginuff!”

 

Falling to the floor Otsune’s hands went to her mouth, scratching her lips and clutching her neck as if she was drowning. Crashing hard she started violently kicking her legs from side to side. Eyes burning with pain, she glanced at Natoko and tried to flip over to scramble to her, only to be pushed down as her back was inexplicably flattened against the floor. Natoko stood up, ready to dash over to her friend, already thrown halfway across the room and in pain for no reason when-

 

Sit down, Natoko.”

 

Natoko froze in place. Sit down? Otsune was under attack. They could all be…No, this was Miss Sakimoto’s doing clearly. Otsune gasped in Natoko’s direction, her eyes screaming for assistance. Natoko took another step forward.

 

I said sit down Natoko.”

 

But she…”

 

Miss Sakimoto clicked her pen.

 

Right now, Naomi is drowning your friend here for speaking before being spoken too,” she said, as if describing how dropping a vase leads to it smashing when it gets round to meeting with the ground. “She is keeping herself hidden and even if you could see her you would not be able to hurt her. You are my employee now and are paid to follow the orders of your superiors. So sit down.”

 

I…” Otsune’s efforts were fading , eyes closed and trying desperately to cough.

 

Sit down.” Natoko felt her legs shaking, falling back down towards the chair, her hand clutching Iziz’s hilt as she started to drop.

 

The ball of fire emerged from nowhere in a heart, a small blob appearing in the centre of the room forcing Natoko back into her seat and forcing her to draw her sword at the same time. A loud screech was heard as she felt her skin burn white hot for less than a second.

 

Natoko dared to open her eyes again. The third thing she noticed was the absence of a water cooler.

 

Bitch!” Otsune exclaimed. “Fucking…” She coughed and heaved, pulling herself up. “How fucking… high and mighty… do you think you are?”

 

Well,” Miss Sakimoto said, unfazed and still sitting at her desk. “Looks like someone’s been learning, if not her manners.” Her stood up, taking a stack of papers with her to a filing cabinet.

 

Otsune managed to pull herself up, now openly spitting on the floor in an effort to remove the water from her system. She stared defiantly at the woman, and Natoko felt herself frozen again at the notion of joining her.

 

Closing the cabinet, the woman looked over to the drowned teenager before her, Otsune’s knees buckling under the pressure.

 

Come. Sit,” said the businesswoman, offering them the chairs next to her desk. “Explain to me why you’re here.”

 

Otsune refused silently, her wheezing overtaking her as she struggled to remain standing. Natoko watched as her friend chose to continue glaring at her employer. Her mind strayed for a second. She hadn’t thought of Miss Sakimoto as her boss in the slightest until just now. She was a superior, but it was Sagara she followed above all else.

 

With no one making a move, and Miss Sakimoto looking impatient, Natoko stepped forwards.

 

There was an attack on Heavenly Springs this morning.” Natoko stayed standing by her friend, who took this moment to buckle under the pressure of her own feet and fall to the ground. She immediately tried to get back up.

 

No there wasn’t,” Miss Sakimoto replied. Natoko hesitated, watching the woman as she too was overcome by her own sentence. “Yet why would you think that there was.” **this is SIS first coming to term with its faults, losing its reporting systems**

 

I-i-i…” Natoko started again. “It was a meteorite. It crashed down into the lower gardens at about ten am.”

 

A meteorite?” Miss Sakimoto started to look at towards her monitor.

 

Otsune coughed herself back into attention. “It was more like a cyrometer, considering it was made up of a person.

 

Mss Sakimoto took a moment to process this, her long nails tapping on the back of her red leather desk chair. “You’re saying a person crash landed there.” Natoko nodded. “Am I to assume by saying ‘attack’ earlier you mean they survived long enough to initiate an attack.

 

Yes. Though we were unprepared for any form of assault that morning we were able to subdue the assailant and render her unconscious. It was after this that my Master identified our opponent as Raiko, a woman he had met during the tournament. We left her in his care while we reported to you for advice on how to deal with the situation.” Natoko realised for a second how cool she was sounding.

 

Raiko,” the CEO repeated. “Raiko…” She reached for her phone and hit a few numbers. “Sayuri… Drop what you’re doing. Get Raiko’s mobile number and direct me through to it on this line.” Without waiting she moved over to the computer and started clicking away at the mouse, leaving Natoko with a urge to continue being cool through status reports or just aim for natural sullen silence.

 

Heavenly Spring,” she started, “or at least, its defence system, is monitored by Sakimoto Industries at all times. Reports come to my e-mail through our primary SIS server on high priority should anything happen there. Why hasn’t it reports anything. Sayuri? You still there? Why hasn’t SIS 01 got any reports for this morning.” A pause. “What? That server doesn’t go down. I’ve fixed that now/. It’s impossible.” She growled incoherently. “Fine. Have the psych boys give me a full report by the end of the day on what happened. Make it a priority. Have you got Raiko’s number yet? Patch me straight through.”

 

All three waited in silence as Otsune dragged herself back up and rested on Natoko’s shoulder still dripping wet from unseen water, the scowl on her face looked like a crocodile ready to bite out of spite.

 

Hello Raik-… Sagara… Hello.” Miss Sakimoto seemed immensely put off all of a sudden. “So she is there… Ah, did N and O get to you then Yes, they’re here… though please note we don’t view it favourably when people try to sneak into the Palladian temple like that. All sorts of alarm bells ring. Heh. Sorry about that. So how do we wake up Raiko? Tell me what happened first. You mean they didn’t No… well (Sagara tells) was she supposed to come to us Not that we had told her too. If I recall she was on vacation all this week Did she go anywhere nice Apparently the skies. Anyway, Sagara, she should just be healing if she’s taken that much damage. Berserker rages weren’t a move she had past the tropic thunder though. If she’s injured then moved her Neutralis gem away from her. Her demon side will heal her up better if its allowed to go active.”

 

Natoko’s ears pricked up. The girl was half demon. That… After a few seconds she couldn’t tell what it meant or if it was relevant A demon girl may have just been as much threat to them as an angelic choir boy.

 

Not too long though or the defences will play up and you’ll start getting bodies at your door. Right… Right… No I can’t explain it.. Yes you can ask her.. No it’s not a test. You already passed the initiation. You now just become Enforcer when the last condition has been cleared.”

 

Of course I don’t know when that is!” she cried out suddenly. “Hopefully not for another thirty years if it means you in charge and your mother dead. Look, just do as i said and she’ll most likely wake up on her own. Report to me any progress that occurs the moment it occurs. Understood. Good.” She dropped her handset down and growled a the phone. “That boy!”

 

Glad to see we share a common ground,” Otsune snared.

 

Yes,” the woman replied. “He is a rather unfortunate predicament to have to trifle with. But onto matters I actually consider worth my time-“ She paused to compose herself. “Now from what yourselves and Sagara described, Raiko was fighting berserk. During this time, how was she fighting?”

 

Natoko wasn’t entirely sure how to answer. “By charging at us and mostly.”

 

And screaming a lot.”

 

And glowing.”

 

Did she emit any energies of any kind.”

 

You mean like the lightning.”

 

Ah, she was using the lightning then… yet the defences still weren’t going off.” Ms Sakimoto lost herself in thought, leaving Natoko trying to think of any other info she could convey. The office felt stuffy, even with the air con on. “Anything else?”

 

Erm oh! Sagara started trying to attack us at one point. He was apologizing as he was doing it.”

 

Yes, that would be the girl’s half Sirynclou nature. It’s naturally effective on those attracted to woman.”

 

Really?” Otsune said, looking more alert suddenly. “Men and women?”

 

Er… yes,” the woman replied, looking a little off kilter as Otsune chose to ignore them both. “Anything else?”

 

Man God.”

 

Excuse me.”

 

Natoko turned around to find the ninja girl standing beside her and did a fantastic job of not doing her impression of a seventeen year old bed wetter. The ninja strolled past the both of them to face Miss Sakimoto with a bowed head.

 

Before the start of the encounter, everything single kotodama inside the Heavenly Springs household stopped their usual jabbering to whisper that word; ‘Man God’.”

 

Sakimoto ‘s brow furrowed with pinpoint precision. “Are you certain?“

 

I humbly recommend you junction with the server to determine-“

 

No. It should not be necessary,” the executive said with a wave of her hand. “The SIS went down at the time of the attack, mostly likely due to Raiko’s lightning playing havoc with the system. The glitch is not an issue.”

 

Mistress if I may?”

 

Mistress?” Otsune repeated derisively with a snort. Both ninja and businesswoman turned to stare at her degrading smile. “Oh, please ignore me.”

 

We will do.” She turned back to the ninja. “And you may not. I know your concerns, agent. But the Balance must not let its own rumours and myths created by ‘ghosts’ in the system overwhelm obvious fact. There is no manGod. And there never was. The term occurred as a development mistake during testing and it’s simply proven impossible to remove it from the system.

 

What’s the manGod?” Otsune asked.

 

An irrelevance,” Sakimoto stated simply before beginning to wave her body a little in thought, “that it would be foolish for me not to at least consider. Very well. Yamanaka?”

 

Yes sir!” she called out, standing to attention.

 

Confer with Raiko when you return to Heavenly Springs. Determine any possibility of any entity that is referred to by Man God. Report to me if you discover any obvious reference that may relate to Raiko’s condition.”

 

Understood.”

 

And don’t bother me if you don’t find anything. As far as I’m concerned, none of you should be here right now. Natoko you should have received information about going through official channels if you wanted to consult a member of the Balance besides Sagara. I suggest you reread your documentation.”

 

Er, no I don’t think I did….”

 

***

 

The large package stared at Natoko accusingly. “I never get any mail,” she mumbled, grabbing it and tucking it under her armpit. Otsune no longer cared. She needed a shower, or a trip to the hot springs. Weighing up the options she chose relaxation and headed for the baths.

 

The meeting with the executive played in her mind as she got prepared for a nice dip. The woman’s attack had been shameless… and really unnecessary. Did she have to be a colossal dick about it. She could have just said wait. Otsune knew she should let it go, the woman may have been doing it to play with her emotional state in the first place, get her steamed up, but Otsune still wanted to burn something.

 

Dipping into the water, she watched Occam float around like a firefly, rising up on the steam drafts and falling back down whenever it had the opportunity, acting like a kid on slides.

 

From a physical point of view, Otsune couldn’t see how a small ball of fire could have fun in steam without being snuffed out. The steam, plus the extra steam the spirit was creating did not appear to be enough to envelope it. It seemed being snuffed out was not something Occam had to worry about. How intelligent was it. It was able to learn tricks and poorly obey commands, so that would put it as much smarter than a cat and at least at the level of a dog. Plus they now seemed to share some kind of empathic link. Occam had gotten angry when she was being drowned back in the office, and had responded in kind. She also knew it wanted a name back on the mountain top. Maybe she could find a way to get it to communicate if she set up an experiment to test its reactions to a variety of actions…

 

She cleared her mind. That could wait. That woman, Yuya Sakimoto. She should be the key focus for now. There was something not quite right about her beyond being the executive head of a small no government paramilitary organization with access to supernatural powers and beings. For all she was listening over, she seemed quick to request they don’t do certain things.

 

Is it me, or did she let us investigate it dismissively so we would give up on it dismissively.” Occam swirled round her hand, raising the temperature of the water beneath her and skyrocketing out of the steam cloud. It would be something to do and quickly give up on because it’s not that worth it, was the feeling she got from the woman. Perhaps it was nothing. Perhaps it wasn’t important to her at all. Perhaps she hated the woman because she dared to try and drown her for simply asking how much longer she was going to be.

 

It certainly proved interesting anyway. A defence system… Sagara had of course casually blabbed about its existence the second he wandered through the door, but now she wondered. The system was there previously, before Sagara and so probably setup by his grandmother. It might have made sense for them to install it during his stay there, due to his apparent importance to them, but why would it have needed it before hand, and on high priority?

 

Stupid bitch.

 

Oh, it’s you,” a voice said, sloshing through the water.

 

Good evening,” Otsune said to Sarah. She couldn’t see the girl, but she saw a small short haired American blur.

 

I wasn’t going to wait for you to come out, you know.”

 

Why would I want you to,” Otsune replied, sinking deeper into the water. “Come in. How was your day?”

 

Don’t talk to me. I don’t like you.” Sarah sank a few meters away from her out of sight causing as much ruckus as possible as she submerged herself into the half a meter of water.

 

Of course you don’t.” Otsune ignored her. She should have grabbed Fujiko before coming in to get some real company. No. Then Sarah wouldn’t have come in at all. They spent so little time together nowadays anyway. Otsune busy with study leave (and accidental months long inter-dimensional travel that was really putting her behind) and Sarah with being an obnoxious little brat that wouldn’t recognise gratitude if it approached her in a dark alley and gave her yet another way to tick Otsune off. The amount she had done for this girl to keep her here. Taking her in. Claiming guardianship after Grandma Futabatei had passed away. Even if the old lady had asked it of her she could have said no. She wasn’t legally responsible for anyone here. Yet nooo, she took on all the responsibility and all the work even after the supposed new manager came in to take over, useless as he was.

 

She shook her mind. This wasn’t what she should be thinking about. Sarah was rude, but at least she didn’t get into any trouble at school. What mattered were the events of the day.

 

Or did they? Should she even get involved? Her job was scientist, not adventurer. Maybe there was meant to be a bit of both, but to start considering their next move when it might not be her move to make.

 

She should just observe, learn their ways. An anthropological study into the living arrangements of assorted idiots and morons whose individual existences had the unfortunate prospect of being tied down to the continued balance of earth (that thing that was so keenly in alignment these days).

 

No, she wanted to tell them what to do, keep them all in line, get them out of the habit of being idiots and morons. If she could fix Sagara alone that might guarantee that most of the universe didn’t explode.

 

Her head was feeling fuzzy. Sarah looked like she was watching her.

 

***

Feeling light in her hand, Iziz reflected her visage using the moon’s light.

 

The silence of the world was mesmerizing, echoing lightly in her field of perception.

 

She could sense the world around her. Anyone who got close suffered the threat of bisection. Anyone who spoke was telling her they were happen for her to perform the gruesome deed.

 

She was focused. She was ready.

 

Iziz wouldn’t move.

 

Remaining motionless for so long was exhausting. The weight of her blade make her forearms scream mercy, the tip dropping if she wasn’t careful. Did she really expect it to do something special? Beyond being special and physical regeneration she sword had never done anything before of any obvious merit, beside what her own actions pushed it through. Was expecting the sword to show her something a good idea to have.

 

According to the others, Iziz had fixed itself before and even then it hadn’t done anything special afterward. No magical words of wisdom from a suddenly talkative blade. No new moves. Perhaps her new found speed came from the blade. That shouldn’t be something she couldn’t do before, could she?

 

The cicada chirped relentlessly in the distant. Iziz made an extra special point not to me.

 

Why can’t you tell me what you’re doing here?”

 

I can,” Aki replied, scaring four out of one lives out of her. “I’m here to check that you’re studying.”

 

Aki! Geez. Don’t… just don’t… I might of killed you.”

 

You don’t kill me until you’ve shown improvement on your studies.” Aki wandered over to the books strewn on large balcony. Instantly she sighted the exercise book Natoko had been testing herself badly with. Natoko tried to look away.

 

“”No no no,” Aki cried out. “There’s no point in doing that.”

 

Doing what?” she asked, not full well.

 

“”Rubbing out what you get wrong and putting the right ones in.”

 

I didn’t-“

 

It’s meaningless,” the active girl shunted. “If you don’t acknowledge what you doing wrong how can you ever live in the future. You’ll just be hiding in the delusions of your mistakes.”

 

I’m just… I’m just a little-“

 

You even answered some of the ones you cheated on wrong.”

 

I what?” she replied, dropping her stance finally and coming over to check the papers. Aki showed her with a silent finger and Natoko clicked as she went over the long divisions.

 

She tried to sneer. “Well division is an unnecessary subject to learn anyway.

 

Well addition isn’t and you’ve got that one wrong too. How did you get the algebra one right and those wrong.”

 

I got that one right?”

 

Yes but you marked that you got it wrong. Natoko…”

 

It’s hard okay. I’m not a natural super genius like you okay I don’t just learn things the second they get entered into my brain.”

 

I don’t either. It’s not talent Natoko. It’s hard work.”

 

Oh bullcrap.” I have talent with the sword don’t i. That’s why I’m good at that.”

 

No it’s because you practice every-way.”

 

Because I have the talent.”

 

Just… The swords don’t matter. I thought you said you wanted to do better with these.”

 

I don’t want to. I have to. Or else I don’t stay Sagara’s retainer.”

 

His assistant.”

 

Whatever.” Natoko grabbed the book and turned away. She didn’t need this right now. She just wanted to practice.

 

Suddenly, in room ???b Raiko woke up.

 

It wasn’t the best of times to wake up, the American ninja boy of questionable ability currently playing her face with a damp cloth as he sought to remove sweat and amuse himself. Raiko awoke bolt upright her back bolting stiffly upright like a Frankenstein novel no one actually read.

 

Slowly her head turned towards Sagara, stiffly at first and still stiffly at second. By third she became barely aware of where she was. With wet lips and dry throat she croaked her next word. “Sagara?”

 

Hey Raiko. How’s it going? Good fight?”

 

Fight?” She blinked five times, a long pause between each one. “I was fighting.”

 

Sagara took this important time to not pay attention as the angel in his head started going along the correct procedures for what to do when an unconscious girl had awoken in a man’s arms. Putting it in was not one of the options being provided.

 

How. Are You. Feeling?” Sagara pronounced loudly before lifting his hand up and placing it firmly on her forehead. “you look like you’ve had some trouble.

 

The girl ignored him, even with half her vision obscured . “What was i… where was i…” She turned to him, not taking his hand with her. “I remember… the manGod.”

 

A tactical flare cascaded across the ears of all in the room and Raiko shrieked loudly. Overcome by where natural abilities, Sagara was inspired by the sudden idea to protect Raiko at all costs and covered her with his own body. Regretting it immediately as a large electrical charge force itself through his body, the boy was thrown across the bed as the girl began convulsing.

 

What’s happening?” Melissa said as she bolted through the door.

 

manGod!” Raiko started to scream. “manGod manGod.”

 

manGod?” Melissa repeated. “That’s what the Negotiator was talking about. Raiko. Can you-“ She froze in place, looking down. Her eyes stared at the demon knife, but they didn’t understand it. How a ninja couldn’t understand a blade in their ribcage shouldn’t have acquired too many scientists. Shock was an obvious answer.

 

Sagara? What are you-“

 

I didn’t mean to.,” he answered with a mild confusion. “The Sirynclou side is controlling me again. She wants protection.”

 

You moron. Fight it.”

 

I think it’s best if you leave. I can’t control it.”

 

No. If she’s talking about the manGod.” The blade pulled itself out and she gasped again.

 

I’m reasonably certain I’m about to aim again for your neck.”

 

Sagara!”

 

I’m to order you to leave now.” Sagara shouted over the screams.

 

Melissa scowled and disappeared. “Very well.”

 

And no hiding in illusions. Get away and make sure everyone else doesn’t come in.

 

The invisible ninja jumped out the room, leaving Sagara hanging onto the electric girl as she clamped onto him.

 

Okay. She’s gone. I don’t need to kill anybody. Sagara watched with a level of fascination reserved for stalkers as the hugged him tightly to her, trying to mash her body into his. Outside, a lightning bolt struck.

 

***

 

Shut up!”

 

That was the lightning, “ Aki replied.

 

I know that,” Natoko said, staring down at Iziz, trying to keep the focus on her sword. A hundred strikes. Just a hundred strikes was her goal. Maybe she could do some studying after that.

 

That’s weird though. There weren’t any clouds.” Natoko gripped the hilt tighter. She wanted to draw blood from her hands, to squeeze until the skin tore. She wanted Aki to see it and know how serious she was.

 

Natoko, do you think we should check this?” Argh. Why was she being so serious? Aki was never serious. She was so much easier to ignore back when her main concern was balancing on the wooden side rails. “The lightning girl must be doing this.”

 

It was even worse that she had a point. But no. Natoko was to practice. A hundred strikes. She should remain focused. Begin the practice. Make the strikes. She looked to Iziz’s point and gripped tight again. Her forearms tensed. The practice from earlier moaned through them.

 

Strike. She stepped forwards and pushed the sword down, failing to slice the air as Iziz cut to the side. Why did she have to bother with any of this? Studying. Schoolwork. She wasn’t book smart.

 

Natoko…”

 

The first drop of rain cracked around her nose.

 

Strike. That one felt worse. A samurai shouldn’t have to know stuff. Knowing maths was not important for protecting one’s master. Knowing physics was useless for striking down enemy demons.

 

Strike. Better! Focus more. Let it flow through. The rage will pass as the focus comes back. Strike. Strike. Strike. “Natoko.” Go away. Strike. Strike. Too far forward that time. Strike. Strike. Better again. Strike. “Natoko.”

 

Go away!” Rain falling faster now. Strike. Strike. Strike. Hilt’s dropping. Keep it firm. Don’t let the damp get to you. “Natoko!” Strike. Strike. Strike. The world is dark. The rain is heavy. Push past it. Raise the sword. Make the cut.

 

What’s wrong with you?” Hand on shoulder, gripping to turn.

 

Would you just-“ She span to turn with the pull, taking her sword and driving it around to Aki.

 

***

 

It’s inside of me Sagara. It got in and it stuck itself in me. Just a little bit. Just a little bit but that was all it needs. It’s inside of me.”

 

Sagara watched her with the calm of a rabbit as it wandered in front of an object moving sixty miles an hour and made out of car. “And what might that be?”

 

It’s it It’s it It’s it. That which no one speaks of, that which was not granted one name, that which was created by everyone. Don’t you see. We all wanted it and now we have it.

 

Raiko jumped out of his arms and fell to the floor, crushing her hands under her body. “And now it waits for us. It waits for us patiently. Politely. It oh so very nicely gives us the time we need before it devours our souls..” Her head slammed against the floorboard hard

 

You. Stop it. You chatter and chatter but you never help. They need you. She needs you. You could explain everything to them but all you do is talk to people who aren’t even there.”

 

Sagara looked around, finding no one being spoken to and taking a harsh beating to it. Feeling sore, the nothing skulked into a corner and tried to keep it to a bare minimum.

 

The room was silent for a moment. “You’re not Raiko, are you?”

 

She couldn’t remember. I couldn’t let her. If she remembered, she’d have been overwhelmed. The siryn’s song wasn’t enough for this man. I wasn’t enough, but I had to make do or else she wouldn’t be herself right now.” Raiko paused to look at Sagara, now breathing calmly as electric blue pulsed over her eyes. “I am the OniRai.”

 

You shouldn’t be here.”

 

What difference am I to the ones inside you? You are made up of five creatures Futabatei, including one I whose bond I share.”

 

In name but not family.”

 

Bloodkin to OniKage I am not, but our bond is a strong as matrimony. It is why you are drawn to her like this.”

 

You can’t speak to her. I’m not to allow it.”

 

I know. I know. I understand as perfect as a can. I am sharpness in life, young Futabatei. Beside, her love is taken now. A misguided maternal love.”

 

Sagara looked up “This subject is not important apparently. I should ask you of the manGod.”

 

I have no answers to give you. The battle was over with two screams. The siryn’s song and the Kingdom of Heaven played their symphonies, and Raiko was propelled across oceans.

 

Oceans. An she landed here?”

 

Not by chance. I could not save her easily. I grabbed onto this location by searching for my beloved, turned us to energy and let us land gently. But Raiko… she was- she was taken over by her demon lusts in the struggle. Even now I still cannot tell you if she is safe to awake.”

 

You said a Kingdom of Heaven attack. Was this an angel. If so we should find it and surrender me to…” Sagara stopped, shaking his head. “Sorry. I kinda forget this guy has his own personal agenda. Can’t let him conduct the flow of conversation so easily.”

 

Not a kingdom of Heaven attack no,” the one inside Raiko said. “But the same and stronger. It made Raiko’s mind a true human. A beast without the burden of knowledge or conscious. IT should lapse but until it does-“

 

Very well. We should let her rest.”

Raiko seemed to struggle. “No. We cannot. I… The manGod. We need to… manGod MANGOD.” Sagara’s clothes started to sizzle where she gripped him. He watched her as his apparently completely ineffective pain registering systems failed to acknowledge the mind numbing agony that started burning his flesh. “Shut up!”

 

Raiko lurched violently, dowsing Sagara in fluids. “Futabatei…. Beloved… even you angel. You must find the servant. The servant know all What needs to be known and what needs to be done.. Too weak in this body. It is impossible to tell- what it is, whether it needs to be stopped. If it can be stopped.. But we know this.. It opposes you. It stands in the way of the Balance and seeks your destruction.” Raiko stared at the dark shadows of his eyes. “Fight it, my beloved. Do not be taken by it.” It leaned forward, latching lips delicately onto his own, brushing gently in a grip so tight it locked him in place. She fell, her forehead rubbing down against his chin, back to sleep at last.

 

Fucking whore,” the old lady standing by the bed said.

 

***

 

Natoko didn’t dare take her eyes off the look Aki was giving her. In the rain she couldn’t tell if the girl was sweating or crying. Aki returned the look as the rain dribbled down into her eyes before they both looked down to the blade. By Aki’s neck it hovered, inches, no, millimetres away from the your girl’s jugular. Natoko felt her grip wobble. As Aki dared to open her mouth.

 

What’s wrong with you?” she said, trying to laugh it off. “Were you really going to…”

 

I-“ Natoko swallowed. “I don’t know.” It was hard to hold Iziz in this position for so long. IT felt heavy. “I… didn’t mean to.”

 

You’re scaring me, Natoko” Aki admitted, trying to eye the tip of the blade before looking back. Natoko couldn’t move an inch.

 

The thunder cracked loudly, distracting neither of them as the rain came down another notch faster. . Natoko felt like she was burning inside. Even now, she knew she held Aki’s life in her hands. Even without force, the blade was sharp enough to slice the skin of the neck.

 

Are-“ Aki swallowed too. “Are you scaring yourself?”

 

Natoko wanted to laugh for some reason. “A little bit.”

 

Do you think you can stop?”

 

I… I should be able to.” She saw Aki wait for her, knowing what she wanted her to do. Natoko held her position.

 

Why can’t you then?” Aki asked a few seconds later.

 

I’m getting to it.”

 

you can tell me, you know?” Aki said, her teeth chattering. “You can tell me anything.”

 

I can?”

 

Of course! You’re my best friend. I love you.”

 

Natoko hesitated. “I… I lo”

 

Don’t confess it right back,” Aki was quick to interrupt. “It sounds weird.”

 

I… sorry.”

 

Please… tell me what’s wrong?” Was Aki for real? How could she stay calm like this?

 

Natoko took a few deep breaths. Why was she still holding the sword up? She tried to shake her head clean without taking off her friend’s.

 

I-,” she started. “ was asked to kill Otsune today.”

 

What?”

 

No… i… I was asked to just let her die in front of me, and do nothing. I’m not sure I could have done anything, but I know I could have at least tried.” She reaffirmed her grip on Iziz. “Instead… I just- I just sat there.”

 

But Otsune i-“

 

She saved herself… without my help. Aki i…” The rain hid her in front of her friend. “I l-… I love you guys. I really do I know if you all were here, I’ll be sitting alone all day with no one to be with. I told myself I would always protect you guys. And yet… when I actually need to… i… i.”

 

You couldn’t help it.”

 

How do you know? You weren’t there!” she spat back, suddenly stopping herself as she realised the precarious position. She relaxed, bringing the sword down with a sigh so she wouldn’t have to look at Aki’s face. “What good is a samurai if one can’t protect those of the clan with all their power.”

 

Sounds to me you didn’t need to.”

 

But i-“

 

-did nothing wrong,” Aki cut in, now holding onto her. “It was a slip up. One mistake. How about all the times you have protected us? When the demons had captured me and Sarah. When we fought that Fire Demon at the tournament. Even when Sagara showed up and that tire thing went at us, who was it that was always at the front ready to stop it.”

 

But…” she paused. “You all only need to die once…”

 

And that’s going to happen regardless one day anyway. Come on.” Aki drew Natoko in for a hug as the much taller girl carried on sniffing away to herself, the shorter one trying to rock her back and forth.

 

Tell you what,” she said after a few moments of sniffing in the rain. “You protect everyone at Heavenly Springs with every ounce of your being, and I’ll always be here to protect you.”

 

Really?”

 

I like to think I’ve already been doing it. How many people have i had to kick for you?”

 

Sorry.”

 

No. No sorry. Don’t apologise for the hate of stupid people.”

 

The two stayed like this for a moment longer.

 

I’ll always be at your side.”

 

Along with Iziz.”

 

Yeah. Along with Iziz.”

 

***

 

Look at you. Presenting yourself. Filthy girl.”

 

Sakura’s day had been good until this moment. It had been another weekend with Alexis, spending time together, walking through the Springs and the town. Playing video games and watching television. She cooked for him again earlier. Made him a stew with the remaining vegetables of last week. He had enjoyed it immensely. With the couch to themselves, they had sat together for an hour revelling in their closeness. IT was probably that that convinced her to go with it and not long after before they were kissing. She had no idea what she was doing really, but it seems easy to learn. He seemed equally clueless,. Yet together , they were exhausting each other in a way that they only wanted to continued forever.

 

Then the elderly lady had appeared, and was now poking her with a walking cane.

 

What do you think this is, a brothel?” the old woman screamed at her, driving the stick between the two of them. Sakura was forced to stand up but fell back against the couch a moment later, a wedge driven between her and Alexis. “You’re still young, yet you want nothing but to be taken by this disgusting boy.”

 

Now hold on just a minute,” Alexis began, before the walking stick struck him across the chin.

 

You be quiet boy. I should turf you out and back to your mother. You girl.” Sakura tried to back pedal further into couch, squeezing herself between the cushions. The woman leered at her, bringing her face so the wart between her eyes looked like the largest nub Sakura had ever seen in the entire universe. Her breath smelt of wet pollen and stale tea. Sakura couldn’t speak. “You stay here at our leisure, and we tolerate it because we expect you to remain pure. Instead, we find you here presenting yourself like a common harlot, a filthy little whore. A-”

 

I think that’s enough, mam,” Alexis said, getting up and putting himself between Sakura and the crazy lady. “May I ask what you’re doing here.”

 

The woman replied with a crack of a slap that nearly sent Alexis back onto the couch. Stumbling he caught himself as he held his hand to his cheek. Taken aback, Sakura rushed to get to the other side of the couch, but was pushed back by the old lady as she thrust her stick between them.

 

Oh no you don’t Missy. This boy should know better than to speak that way to his elders, and if you think I’m just going to let you lay your slutty body over him, well mind you me!

 

Sakura found herself sitting back down. Who was this woman? She recalled Aki mentioning a few weeks ago that an old lady had gotten into the dormitory and was kicking up a fuss. Was this the same lady? Finding herself sitting down and trying to stammer out an apology, Sakura had no choice but to let the woman blabber on. Alexis meanwhile was-

 

Don’t you look at hm. You look at me. I’m talking to you, so you pay me some respect and look at me, you stupid little girl.”

 

What was going on? Sakura couldn’t take it. This woman had just come out of nowhere and was shouting at them. And they weren’t even doing anything wrong? It wasn’t like she was being some sinful slut. She loved Alexis, and he her.

 

Oh don’t think tears are going to help you girl. In my time, you did something wrong you accepted your punishment, not roll up on the floor.” The old woman was spitting on her. She could feel the specks flying over her face as each hateful word flew out at her. She wanted to run and hide. The woman was ignoring Alexis and he seemed to be taking this as a good thing.

 

Get off me, bitch.”

 

I said cease your harsh language girlie.” Sakura turned with the others to see Sarah sanding by the door struggle, her short golden hair being latched onto by another woman currently yanking her into place. “Are these young ‘uns giving you grief as well, Satoko?”

 

The original elderly lady seemed to freeze as she took in the newcomers. “Hosami,” she said after a brief period looking infirm despite her rage. “Who you got there.”

 

Caught this little blighter trying to sneak out,” the other woman said, trying and succeeding in dragging Sarah over to the couch with the others. “”I can tell you she was up to no good she was. Who knows what she had planned.”

 

I keep telling you. I wasn’t doing anything.” The young girl struggled in painful vain to be free from the woman’s tight grip. “Who the fuck are you? Get off me.”

 

It doesn’t matter who we are, little Missy. We are your elders and you will do as we say.

 

***

 

Natoko held Aki close as the woman’s slap still stung her cheek. Her reflexes felt top notch since the moment the woman had wandered into their lives, yet she had still let it hit her. Part of her knew she could have easily avoided it but doing so felt… cheeky.

 

Get away. Get away from each other,” the woman shouted at them, seemingly unconcerned for the rain soaking her thoroughly. “I heard what you were saying. It’s disgusting the thoughts you youths have.”

 

Mam, I’m sorry if. Another crack. It would have been rude to dodge.

 

don’t you talk back to me like that again. You abuse what we’ve given you here with your sordid little trysts with little foreign girls. Do you honestly think you could get away with it?”

 

With what?” Natoko stammered after a few seconds of trying to hide behind her rain slicked hair. “we haven’t-“

 

Don’t give me excuses, young lady. I’m not one to fall for such honeyed words. I’ve had more men approach me than you’ve had stiff drinks. And I turned them all down. You know why, because that’s what a real lady does.”

 

Natoko looked around. Was this a joke? It had to be a joke. A badly timed move on behalf of someone who brought their aunt to stay with them the weekend. There couldn’t really be an old lady here just shouting at them. That was stupid.

 

You pay attention to me,” the woman said with a slap so hard it was more like a back fist. “Whatever you’ve got going on with this girl you drop it now. I want her packed, out of the fort and back on her way to her own country within the hour. Don’t you disobey me girlie.”

 

Hey guys,” Otsune said. “What are you… doing?”

 

No one moved for a second. Natoko watched as Otsune, followed by Fujiko and four handfuls of drinks and snacks (plus one floating ball of steam) registered the new person with mild confusion. The woman stepped towards her and started to slap. Otsune tried to intercept her with a polite bow but was met halfway.

 

Com to join them have we?” the woman sneered. “Thought you could have a party on this sacred ground, did you? Well-“ she stopped only to approach Fujiko and give her a slap as well. “From now on this ends. I’ll confiscates this.” The woman snatched the bottle out of Otsune’s hand, ripping it from her grip with another backhand as Otsune instinctively held on A woman should only be drinking at the invitation of a male. And as for this-“

 

Natoko’s world went white as the woman picked up Iziz, snatching the sheath away from her loose hand. “What are you thinking? Carrying something like this around with you. A lady of your measure should not even dare carry such an instrument. Who do you think you are?>” Natoko felt her heart beat.“

 

May I ask just who you think you are,” Otsune said defiantly, making Natoko cringe in terror as the woman turned her large beady eyes on the girl. “you’re not from the dormitory. And I don’t think-“ The woman slapped Otsune for her troubles, cutting her off completely.

 

Such insolence,” she said, taking a moment to spit on the floor beneath Otsune. “From now on you’ll all be confined to your rooms unless called for. And I hope-“ she paused, looking up carefully. Natoko was a few seconds behind but clicked quickly. It had stopped raining above them. Which might have been normal if steam wasn’t now rising from just above their heads.

 

Girls…” Otsune said, holding her cheek as she began bleeding from it. “We’re running. Aki, the sword.”

 

Got it,” she said dashing past the woman and around the girls as she headed down for the steps. The others didn’t wait to say anything as they proceeded to sprint off, leaving Natoko with the old fuming lady.

 

You…. You whores.”

 

Natoko failed to suppress a guilty grin. And then ran off after her friends.

 

Why are we running?” Natoko asked once she had gotten down the stairs and caught up. They stopped in a corridor, Fujiko quickly falling against the wall to catch her breath back.

 

To get some distance,” Otsune said. “What was with that woman?”

 

I suppose…” Fujiko breathed heavily, “it’s what we get from being a dormitory that never mans its reception.”

 

Even so,” Otsune continued. “It’s not like it’s easy to just walk up here. The steps aren’t exactly accessible for the handicapped.”

 

You’re kinda misjudging the elderly there.”

 

Yeah. I saw on TV an old mister who could walk on his hands and swim across the ocean.”

 

No I know. But she didn’t exactly look physically active, did she. She looked like a small breeze could take her out.”

 

You’re wrong,” Natoko said, as she started walking down the rest of the corridor for the next turn. “She was able to stand shouting at us in that heavy downpour and still make herself clear.”

 

How does that matter,” Fujiko asked. “Okay a little water maybe couldn’t take her out but still Gah!”

 

Natoko swung round, already seeing the enemy as it loomed towards Fujiko. Her blade ready she covered the length of the corridor like a mouse down a tunnel, reaching the quarry and unleashing the sleek-

 

Natoko no!”

 

She stopped, her blade ready to strike the opponent. She received a hearty slap to the face for her efforts.

 

You stupid fool. You dare to attack me?”

 

What?” Natoko said out of reflex. This person was different. Another elderly lady but tall, regal and eloquent compared to the short stature of the previous woman. She looked just as mad though.

 

I’ve half a mind to call all your parents. You think you can just go running through the streets playing with weapons like that. You’ll have someone’s eye out.

 

I’m sorry,” Otsune interrupted. “Who are you and what the hell is going on./”

 

Well I’ll be,” a voice from behind them called out. “The nerve. Don’t let them treat you like that Chie.”

 

Young woman like this need to be shown proper discipline,” another one, a lady short with a crooked back who tugged on Otsune’s hair with such speed that the girl nearly fell over backwards.

 

Please get off,” Otsune said through gritted teeth.

 

Don’t you order me around. First you’re going to apologise to Chie, and then we’re returning you to your master. After that, we’ll see what he has to-“

 

A small ball of fire distracted everyone. Otsune slipped free.

 

Okay, we’re running again. Faster and further this time.” She bolted off without waiting for further agreement and soon the other three chase after her.

 

A safe distance away, or what felt like a safe distance when running from the elderly, Natoko took a breath to speak.

 

We should call someone,” said Natoko.

 

Good idea,” breathed Otsune heavily. “Who?”

 

I don’t know. Who do you call in situations like this?”

 

There aren’t situations like this. We’re being attacked by the elderly.”

 

Is this an attack?” inquired Fujiko.

 

The inside of my cheek is bleeding. It’s an attack.”

 

But they’re old people.”

 

So it’s a stupid attack that seems to serve no purpose than to be stupid

 

Do not run in the corridors,” another shouted at them as they quickly sidestepped her, each girl utterly a quick ‘sorry’ as they sprinted past out of nothing but pure reflex. Natoko found herself bowing a little.

 

So do we get shotguns?”

 

They’re not zombies, Fujiko!” Otsune said a little alarmed, but more how for a moment it seemed the most practical idea. “Last time this happened we called the police, but that was for one woman. “Five-“

 

Whores.”

 

At least six may be a little much for the two officers they’re likely to send out.” They reached the lobby which was luckily elderly free. The others stopped to catch their breath. Running and talking was apparently exhausting to the two older girls. Natoko felt fine.

 

Area is clear,” she called out, scanning nothing from the other doors plus the balcony above.

 

Hey everyone.” All four girls screamed loudly at the next intruder, Natoko already bringing her sword down to bear on the newcomer, stopping short of seeing the short, scruffy looking form of Futabatei Gen, currently dressed in a cleaning smock.

 

Mr Landlord,” Natoko replied, not in a hurry to remove her hilt from against the base of his chin. “What are your intentions here?”

 

Erm…” The man looked around, possibly checking to see looks on the other girls. “Cleaning. Definitely cleaning…” He paused as she waited. “Is there something you wish to inquire about, Miss Yamanaka.”

 

No.” Realising the others may not be approving of her threats, she went to rest her sword.

 

Wait a sec,” Otsune started, Natoko lifting her blade back into bludgeoning position. “How long have you been in the lobby Gen. “

 

Erm.” Gen shifted uncomfortably. “A few hours I guess. I mean, I do work until late most nights keeping this place spotless for you girls.” HE tried to get off his tiptoes but Natoko opted not to let him. “I am glad you girls are so appreciative of my work.”

 

Let him down, Natoko,” Otsune said.

 

Aw,” grumbled Fujiko and Aki in unison.

 

And we’ve had no visitors right?”

 

Erm…” Gen started squeezing his hands together. “Well, Miss Yamada came in early, with a man she most certainly assured me was her brother staying for a few days while he’s here on business, although I dare say siblings usually aren’t that close- or grope each other. Well I suppose some must do and-“

 

No… elderly ladies then?”

 

What? Erm… no.”

 

So they didn’t come through the main entrance?” Fujiko said, picking up on something. Natoko felt a little clueless.

 

They could have come in through one of the side entrances,” Otsune continued. “But they’re all supposed to be locked after seven. You id lock them, didn’t you Gen?”

 

O-of course. I do so… in service of those I watch over. The dormitory would be unsecure if I didn’t, and then who knows what manner of… of perverse being would sneak in at night in a building full of ladies.” Gen shut up quickly.

 

Yeah,” commented Otsune. “Not at all disturbing in either phrasing or clear underlying intention. You know-“ Gen wasn’t looking at her any more. Otsune seemed to follow his gaze, freezing as she looked behind Natoko.

 

Natoko became still. Under control. Carefully she turned around, waiting to feel the full blast of another old woman screaming obscenities at her. The etched wooden face that appeared before her caused her to react blindly. She went to swig her sword but stopped in mid-step as she saw the full lobby now full of wooden beings attached on strings, slowly twisting and turning about on the spot.

 

The elderly turned to face the five.

 

***

 

On the roof, Melissa watched the white bottle carefully. This stuff was hard to get here. Or was it? It didn’t help that she didn’t know entirely what she was looking for in this country. The Japanese must have some right. Oh sure they had the mild stuff but pouring water onto her wounds wasn’t going to sanitize any wounds. She had needed vodka. And hopefully, she had vodka. The boy at the convenience store had tried to be helpful about it, and seemed to know what she meant.

 

She figured there would at least be a Russian brand on the shelf.

 

Her damp bloody bandages already placed to the side, Melissa poked the wound carefully. Sagara’s demons had been neutered a long time ago fortunately. He had been trained never to use them against humans anyway and against other demons the toxin s that secreted Grimlock’s tallous?? fangs would have been useless. She hissed quietly to herself, flipping the top of the bottle off before hesitating.

 

In one swift movement she took a gulp. Yes! That was vodka alright. She recognised the rebellion taking place in her throat from that time five years ago where she had sneaked into Lord Futabatei room’s against the express permission of the council, where Tenma store the liquor supply and made the fifteen year old girl drink with her all night whether she liked it or not.

 

She doused the wound, ignoring the screaming that surrounded her before quickly working to re-bandage the wound IT had stabbed her in her chest just above where most people assumed the heart was. A bit closer to the shoulder and she would have been in a world of searing agony.

 

If anything she should have been glad it was Greynock. A sanitised demonic blade was the least likely object to be infected. This would be fine for now.

 

Now there was the other problem.

 

Are you listening to me you degenerate foreigner,” the elderly lady beside her shouted. Melissa was tempted to just zone her out. With her illusions she could just make the woman’s voice disappear but that would have been mostly irresponsible for her to do.

 

You come to this country and we accept you as our guest, and this is how you repay u? By floundering about on the rooftop-while you deal with your own wounds. We have servants for that. And yet you have the audacity to deny them their job sake to just fix it up yourself. What are you? A trained medical professional. Why I have half a mind to-“

 

The woman cut off in mid rant. Okay, so she was a little irresponsible. The woman’s presence wasn’t making sense though. She herself had been at the store bleeding heavily so she had missed how they had come in. There was only one easy entrance to Heavenly Springs and that was up a hundred and eight steps. Even then, this woman had just appeared on the roof. They were illusions, and from what she could tell they were human beings. Elderly, shriveled and tiny old woman who looked like they didn’t have the muscular endurance to make it across the room, let alone the highest part of the dormitory, on the spire overlooking the west side of the building.

 

And their actions were just as ludicrous as they were confusing. This one seemed just intent to shout at her and had been doing so for a few minutes. What did she actually want. If she could understand it would help. Maybe she should contact Sagara and-

 

Rolling away, Melissa was already blocking the woman as the liver spot encrusted hand took a swing at her. The woman’s target was Melissa’s face, and she screamed what must have been at least three Japanese swear words when she was denied before going again. Melissa backed away fully this time, bringing some distance between herself and the woman The attacks were hard to judge as violent. Melissa got the distinct impression she was about to be given some kind of ear-pulling related ache.

 

You little bitch. You get back here.”

Still not understanding nor wishing to comply, Melissa assessed her options. She should go to Sagara. At the very least she would need a translator for this woman to get a scope of what her demands were. IT dawned on her for the first time that the woman may just be asking for help in the worst way possible.. Alternatively this may just be yet another one of those old people like that one that had wandered in that time she was making the Japanese girl believe the OniHono was invading.

Listen,” she said in non-Japanese English. “We need to go down so we can-“Letting out an ungraceful whelp, Melissa dodged to the side as the woman again lurched forward , this time apparently aiming to slap her. Melissa spun round to regain her fix on the woman, only to find she was gone. With a gulp in her heart she rushed forward, peering over the side of the rooftop before cringing.

 

The elderly lady lay at the bottom in a crumpled heap. “Well, that’s annoying,” she said, not intending to have spoken at all. She looked around to see if any of the residents were about and seeing it was clear dropped down next to the body.

 

She hadn’t meant for that to happen. Civilian casualties should be kept to zero for the moment as far as she had been told, plus the woman might have had something to tell her. She glanced around. She’d need access to the dormitory’s furnace.

 

Stepping away, she felt her ankle shift back a few inches. Trying to shift it right back, she felt a grip tighten, her skin being crushed by five bony fingers. She looked down.

 

Make you fall, will you girly. You’ll regret that!”

 

***

 

In the lobby, Otsune felt an urge to hold her breath. This wasn’t right. There was ten of them now and some were male finally, not that that was an issue really.

 

Before her, the mass of elderly stood in what couldn’t be called a defensive position, scattered around in three small groups and taking their time to get to their quarry. Altogether it appeared the only damage they could bring was perhaps to a doctor’s office on a somewhat busy day. Watching carefully, she waited as one of the ladies approached her, an average looking, possibly middle ages woman with her coarse hair tied back and a blue kimono on that fitted her gracefully.

 

Otsune tried to go first. “Welcome. How may we-“ she got out as the first slap struck her cold against the cheek. She tried to roll with it, now expecting it. She took it and tried turning back without scowling. She possibly failed.

 

It seems we have angered you in some way,” she continued. “Please, perhaps we can sort some refreshments out and talk thi-“ The woman kicked her leg with a quick thrust, taking Otsune to the ground and cracking her knee against the thick tatami mats. Keeping her balance, Otsune was met for her efforts with another strike against the cheek.

 

You do not speak until you are spoken too, young lady,” the woman leered down at Otsune with a venomous glare. Otsune didn’t hesitate to return it.

 

I will speak whenever the fuck I like!” Above them all Occam burst into sight, its bright flame filling the once poorly lighted lobby into daylight, a localized sun meters above their heads. Behind her, her friends backed away a few steps, Gen running for it into the next room without a second’s hesitation nor thought for the womenfolk.

 

Biting her lip, Otsune got herself to breath. Controlling the little ball of total incineration was not a thing she had learned yet and her emotions didn’t seemed to help. Luckily she was only dealing in heat. No force.

 

It didn’t seem to matter though, the old folk just stood there, still glaring at the girls.

 

Okay. That’-“

 

Get up. I said get up.” The woman wasn’t giving Otsune a choice. Tugging at her ear, she dragged to standing position. “All of you follow me. Otsune tried to pull away but was met with a sharp pain and strong grip. “All of you follow me. We shall administer your discipline elsewhere.” Looking up to Occam, she desperately willed him to stay calm, , trying not to trip in the process. The ball just floated there, the heat now getting to her friends, who were frozen to the sot yet sweating profusely.

 

Eyes forwards. Come on. Come on.” Glancing Natoko as she swung around, she saw the girl’s hand hovering nervously over her sword. Now this she couldn’t blame her for not attacking What were they going to do? Beat up old people who were probably over capable of giving them just a few bruises. No Perhaps it was better to play this out. Where were they going to take them  anyway?

 

Okay okay. We’ll go with you. Just… please, stop pulling on my ear.” Hoping that that sounded like really bad acting, Otsune was met with a simple grunt instead.

 

You expect me to let you go after you prove you can’t be trusted. The nerve of you youngster. No we will-“ Otsune turned to her friends and beckon before she was pulled through the door, “see to it you all attend your punishment, even if it is against your will. You should know better than this. Courtesans and servants are not to go above their place.” Behind her, the others were keeping up, the large group of the elderly keeping pace behind them.

 

Occam didn’t stay behind but seemed to calm down enough to keep up as well. Otsune was forced to lurch forward to accommodate the height of the woman pulling on her earlobe. This was crazy? Why was she allowing this beyond the reason not simply scorching the woman into ashy nothingness.

 

There had to be something wrong here, beyond the silliness. Occam’s exhausted her friend’s in seconds, yet these guys only seemed to be spurred on, if they even noticed the small ball of incandescent flame threatening to incinerate their walking canes.

 

A sharp look back revealed that Fujiko and the others were being herded so they couldn’t escape, though Gen appeared to have gotten away with no one chasing them. Were they only interested in teaching their lesson to the inferior females? It did feel they had gone back a few steps in the progress of society.

 

Pushing the sliding door through with a thud, the dragging lady tore into the lounge area with a speed that belied her small body and small steps.

 

Tsunade?” a voice called out. Otsune recognised it as Sakura. She couldn’t lift her head right now. The woman readjusted her grip to Otsune’s long luscious hair as they waltzed in and was refraining her from taking anything more than a bow.

 

Keep calm, Sakura. Do you know where-AH!” Her neck jostledshit Otsune was pushed against the kitchen table and forced to limp off it like a rag doll. No one seemed to be in a particular rush to help her. Didn’t they think she had a plan? Because she didn’t!

 

Ha. Having fun there bitch?” Otsune heard Sarah cry out. The girl took delight in her suffering for a few laughing seconds longer before screaming with her own jolt of pain.

 

You do not point at others child,” another voice announced “Even if it is to scum like that one.” Sarah screamed, high pitched and violent. Otsune’s vision was obscured by a series of irregular lines embossed in the wood. When Sarah shut up, everything went silent for a moment.

 

Is everyone here,” a man called out. Otsune tried to get more air to her ear. It wasn’t anyone she knew. It still sounded old though.

 

There are sure to be a few more,” a lady replied. “But I am certain they shall be brought to us shortly.”

 

Good.” Silence for three seconds. “We shall extract the punishment of these servants now.”

 

Oi,” Fujiko called out. “Just what have we done?” Otsune mashed her face on the wooden table as she attempted to flinch, the loud clap against bone being only one thing.

 

She struggle against the bony sinew that could only come after years of repeated aging to grab sight of the spectacle to the right of her. Fujiko had been knocked to the floor by the attack and the others were looking restless. All confused, the girls huddled together around Natoko in a confusingly necessary attempt to remain safe.

 

The male speaker, walking around the lounge now, could only have looked less impressive if he were rotting the flesh off his short, bald head. Even then the decaying flesh may have looked a bit of dignified as he lurched and jerked his body over to where the wide screen television sat, the unfortunate pride and joy of most of Heavenly Spring’s consumerist residents..

 

With a swat that should not have been a swot and surely could not have been a swat where one was a forty four inch wide screen high definition television and the other the back of a hand missing three fingers, the man brushed the television aside, brushing it across the room and into the wall where it shattered much to the disappointment of four of the girl sand possibly herself if the movie she had watched last night was not put back in its case properly. Next without hesitation the man pushed his hand casually through the wooden boards of the wall and with the effortless ease that could only come from opening an unobstructed door, open a unobstructed mahogany door. Otsune’s first thoughts on the subject were to the endless black spiral that appeared on the other side and the small pulse of decompression that she felt as it tried to change the pressure of the room. The second thought was the realization that it was a mahogany door.

 

No. No!” shouted Sarah, quick to squirm with the threat that was the cold embrace of possible he outer reaches of space. The fact that the pressure changed and they weren’t dead from it told Otsune this was not space, but that didn’t mean she was about to skip happily along.

 

You will all spend your time thinking over the results of your misdoing inside the Chamber of Loneliness,” the man informed them with a clear, strong voice that felt like it wanted to come out as a mumble. “And will do so for ten days.” Behind the man, a skull floated across unaided by any accompany body or instrument.. “Because of the nature of your misdoings, and to teach you a further lesson, all air shall be removed from the chamber, just as soon as Hisami is able to get the air remover switched back on, as a lesson for you to ponder over following sin in your hearts.” Otsune tried to look around from her head grinding position, but saw no one making a move to fix anything.

 

Should we wait?” the woman holding her asked.

 

No, no. Throw them in now. We’re are a little busy.”

 

Otsune felt herself being lifted up as she was led to the door. “Hey, hold on a second?” The elderly ignored her, pushing her strengths that couldn’t be contained in small people like this

 

Get off me,” Sarah, being the closest behind Sakura and her boyfriend was being led in first. Kicking and jumping, she held herself back as she pushed against her captor. The silver haired woman lifted her up even higher until she was dangled by her hair, causing the little girl to scream at a pitch rendering the all deaf for three seconds. Edmond called out in the meantime.

 

Wait please,” she said, stopping them all and shocking herself in the process. “I’ll go. Spare the others

 

In a blur, the little girl pushed against her attacked. A strand of silver flashed in Otsune’s eyes as all turned to see the little girl’s captor dropping her, taking a few steps back until the wall stopped her and glaring at the red coated switchblade now embedded firmly in her lower abdomen.

 

Sarah, what have you done?”

 

Oh come on,” the little ten year old girl shouted back, as if she had been horribly wronged and was sure it was the universe’s fault. “You’re about to be thrown into space, and I’m the one who’s doing things wrong.. Why do you always have to blame me?”

 

You stabbed her,” Otsune repeated, just in case the fault was not obvious.

 

And now she’s-“ The little girl stopped in mid-sentence, her lines of stammering silence to be quickly joined by Otsune. I those few moments, the simple act of checking the health and status of the victim had occurred to neither of them. IT was only when the woman, her noble bone cheeks as stern as ever, had once again taken her hold upon Sarah’s hair that they realised she wasn’t quite out of the game yet.

 

You silly little girl,” the woman berated. “After all I’ve done for you this is the thanks I get?”

 

B-b-b-utt…” Sarah’s blabbering incoherence was not something Otsune could blame her for. T was not as if the small, easy to conceal switchblade had simply hit a well-placed book of the lord, or had simply proved too blunt or brittle to make any impact besides piercing the woman’s yukata. The woman who was now lifting Sarah high enough to take her off her feet was definitely bleeding, but it was not the crimson dye that was expected to escape from unexpected lacerations.. The black bile that was now ejecting itself in spurts and permanent damaging the varnished wooden floor was definitely more for mechanical machines than it was organic. The oil, also taking its moment to ruin Sarah’s expensive branded trainers that Otsune did not remember buying the girl stopped after a few more mountainous gulps onto the floor.

 

I believe it’ll be more suitable to have this one thrown in first,” the woman said, a murmur of agreement coming out the lips of all the other elderly. Otsune was about to shout something to her ward’s defence where the bony fingers returned over her mouth and shut her up. Sarah, for her part, scream violent and once again began kicking and scratching with all her pre-adolescent might as the woman began slowly to tear on her scalp in her efforts to get the girl to the swirling vortex that lay beyond the door, but it was in vain as the older woman now appeared unstoppable on her pursuit to the door.

 

In a frantic last ditch effort, Otsune found herself trying to bite on the finger of her own captor, but the woman merely clenched her fingers tighter and prevented Otsune from reaching skin. Around her now the others were either standing docile in place forgetting their existence as active teenage girls or simply looking away for fear of the inevitable

 

It was then with a final loud pitched scream that Sarah finally announced her intentions of not giving a shit anymore and reached to reclaim her switchblade just as the elderly lady lifted her up an extra foot and a half to hover face to face with the little girl the moment she was thrown into the vortex. Sarah responded by stabbing the lady right between the eyes in what was possibly a bad aim. As the woman reeled back from the initial assault the young girl did not deter and continued to stab furiously away at the respectable older woman.

 

You stop that right now,” was the woman’s response as the blade tore into her lip and lacerated itself right through her cheek. “you’ll have someone’s eye out with that.” The last words were accompanied by the right eye exploding into the same black bile as before as the switchblade tore straight through the pupil and deep enough to, what was looking less than likely on the simple pretext to not being there, start hitting brain tissue.

 

All stood silent for a few moments as the little girl fell down on the of the old lady screaming bloody murder as she attempted to commit bloody murder. The woman did nothing on her part to prevent this anymore except point accursedly at Sarah from the twisted position she had fallen into and it wasn’t until the blade entered her neck and released a sharp spring-loaded twang which, in an instant, tore off the last vestiges of non-mutilated skin around the neck of the woman and jettisoned it across the room.

 

Only with this did the young girl seemed relieved of her murderous intent and stop raining blows down upon the , Otsune was completely uncertain, dead woman. As more of the black bile substances emerged from the head of the woman so too did a number of cogs and bolts, now apparently loosened from the attack. Curiosity getting the better of her, the girl turned herself around and tried peering into the body of the woman.

 

Holy shit,” she said. “I think he’s a doll.”

 

The girl was quickly cut short of any other pronouncement of obvious statements as two more of the delivery people grabbed her each by an arm and raised up towards the door. Otsune decided this was enough and focused on her little friend. Her first act was to have Occam simply burn in the middle of the room in a silly little attempt to remove the oxygen from the room. In the fifteen seconds he burned, all in the room stopped to observe the flame, now apparently in full visibility of all those who couldn’t see him before either. The bright yellow light glow brightly, raising the temperature of the room to what Otsune was trying to desperate will past boiling point. Though she made sure nothing was touched she saw the effect as the residents of the dormitory started to try and take steps back, their foreheads quickly emanating sweat and panting under the strain of the sudden heat wave. With a sudden lurch she broke free of the hand covering her mouth and watch her captor, quickly marking each of the fourteen intruders that had dared trespass on the Heavenly Springs dormitory before confirming that not a single one of them were sweating.

 

Natoko,” she called over to the sword girl, who seemed to have caught on.

 

Understood!” the samurai called out, unsheathing her sword.

 

***

 

It’s not like I don’t know how to do such things,” Melissa said, pacing the corridors in plain sight, fingers digging deep into the skull of the puppet before her, crushing the contents and leaving them discarded on the floor with the same respect one would toss a bag of garbage out a moving car. “I do. It’s just-“

 

What were you thinking?” another shouted at her. “To crush the head of one you owe so much to. I should-“ This one’s head just plain fell off, dropping to the floor and bouncing a few steps. Melissa took the run up and volleyed it into another as it approached.

 

-getting past the language barrier.” They were incredibly weak. The life size dolls were made of timber wood. Strong in itself, but the joints between the pieces served little purpose in terms of defence. Ripping the elderly to shreds was becoming more a challenge in creativity above any potential present danger. She only had to overcome her moral judgment, and the rest was a slaughterhouse..

 

Turning the kick into a sprint, notions of perhaps having a bit too much fun with this entered her brain for a split second before the grease than once ran the puppet served in making the sixty something woman into the perfect wakeboard as Melissa steamed across the hallway of the west wing and crashed both shoulders into three triplet ladies with white face paint on. Flipping round them and grabbing the two on the outside, she brought their heads together, not giving the slightest thought to the one in-between as it turned to pulp and sawdust.

 

Come on,” she shouted. “It’s in here.”

 

The true threat to the night hummed menacingly in the corner of the room.

 

I could just smash it I know,” she said to Sagara trailing behind and looking a little upset at not getting chance to join in the massacre. “But the situation could be delicate. I’d like to know cutting this off will cut the source off completely before we play at smashing it.

 

Sagara nodded, kneeling down to approach the infernal machine.

 

***

 

Not caring for any hope of lady like grace now, Natoko braced her sword and went for the nearest one. Feeling the fire burn within her, she roared as she approached the first woman who had approached her and Aki on the roof. What were these creatures? It didn’t matter. No one insults and humiliates her friends and doesn’t get sliced in half for their trouble

 

The blade shot out and passed through the woman, who took a few seconds to try and move some more in her pursuit to grab one of the others and perhaps scold them again for looking too frightened, when gravity took over and pulled her to the floor in two halves.

 

The black bile began pouring out of the robotic creature. How were they robots? Natoko wasn’t sure she cared. Two more were too her right. She stabbed her sword forwards into the first ones necks, pushing all the harder forwards to impale the second as well. Their mouths opened in unison in an attempt to berate, before Natoko flicked her wrist and their necks ripped away from them to join the other parts on the floor.

 

Natoko returned her blade, letting it leave again immediately to meet the only male in the group. To save him for last might not be a smart move if he were the leader but she couldn’t help but notice, as she tore through the shoulder blade of the one holding Sakura with enough force to knock her away and still have enough swing in her step to bisect the rotten creature, that none of them were particularly making a move against her. “You dare slice your elders in half, you little br-“ one got as far as saying before bearing witness to the powerful mathematical equation of one body minus one head equals the landlord’s beautiful crouch all ruined, much to Natoko’s secret sniggering side. Beyond that, none were attacking.

 

Or making any attempt to defend themselves. Natoko would have been hard pressed to justify her actions were anyone to suggest perhaps this was going a bit too far. Perhaps, she thought as her blade pocketed itself back in its sheath, sprung out again and a flash step that took her across the room and introduced five robots to a case of permanent system malfunction, it would be best to save one for questioning. Or at least studying. She turned gracefully and bopped the next nearest on the top of its stern looking head, the base of her blade clanging off a metal plate.

 

Iziz! Her eyes lit up suddenly She had to be careful. After last time, the extent of Iziz’s damage wasn’t known. How could she be so foolish to swing it with abandon like that. What if his regeneration was a temporary thing? The next strike could be its fragile last.

 

The woman grabbed her wrist unexpectedly. Shit. The woman’s sudden movement pushed her a few steps back and she suddenly became aware of just how close she was to the space door. She wasn’t that close a moment ago, but with her blade being squeezed out of her grasp by a surprisingly strong old lady, Natoko found herself quick to grab the door frame.

 

You worthless slut,” the woman yelled in her ear. “You kill and you main but what good do you do yourself. You’re a pathetic lump of flesh and everyone knows it. Why do you think no one trusts you with anything except murder.” Natoko felt herself tipping as the woman snarled in her face, droplets of drool shooting from her edorded?? lips as they both lost balance together. you’re not even good enough to please the men. No wonder you’re still a worthless virgin, even if you do spread your legs for the first man you see.”

 

Natoko wilted. She didn’t have the leverage here. Over the tip of the precipice she dared to take a look at the single floating skull far in the distance, its beady eyes staring in a completely different direction to her.

 

What will you do when no one needs you any-“ the woman croaked, the switchblade pushing through her throat and out the other side. Suddenly a black spray filled Natoko’s eyesight and she found herself clutching to things even tighter as her vision obscured.. Croaking, she felt a struggle before her, followed by a sudden dead weight and then nothing.

 

The nothing dragged out for twenty seconds longer, Natoko still dangling on the precipice of oblivion and running out of strength in her fingers.. With her other hand still holding her blade wiping her eyes clean was simply fatal. With a muscle murdering groan, she began to lift herself up, and seriously hoped that she wasn’t hanging off the wrong side of the door.

 

Falling onto a non-oblivion wooden surface, she immediately slipped in more black robot bile and crashed her chin into the floor. Feeling Iziz hilt get quickly soaked, she scrambled to regain her footing, failing immediately and being left with the only option of sitting there in the liquid.

 

Her eyelids hiding the world, Natoko scrambled to wipe her eyes on the driest bit of clothing she could feel. She wouldn’t be wearing these for training again. Her eyesight returned. There was talking people going on without her.

 

Where did you even get the knife from?”

 

Oh I have a knife. She carries around a giant knife everywhere she goes.”

 

She’s not the point here,” the blurry form of Otsune shouted back. ‘Just what are you doing carrying a knife around.”

 

What do you care?” the little blur shouted back. “It’s gone now anyway.”

 

That’s…” Otsune growled, probably to herself. “That’s also not a point Sarah. Listen, why do you even feel the need to carry a knife around?”

 

I don’t have to answer any of your question? You’re only my guardian. You’re not my dad.”

 

That’s not important. But you see if-“

 

Screw you.” People were becoming clear now She got enough of her field of view back to see Sarah slide through oil and shove herself hard into Natoko’s shoulder before storming off again.

 

Otsune groaned loudly in frustration another time.

 

Why are you getting hung up on this?” a lazy voice asked, Fujiko walking into blurry distance.

 

I don’t… it’s just…No. You’re right. Let’s focus on the now? Just what the hell was this all about”

 

well old women did appear to be shouting at us,” Fujiko stated. “I’d say that was about usual for living in this village.”

 

Yes, but last we checked, they didn’t explore into puppet parts on contact with weapons.”

 

Well to be fair, we never exactly tried to whole evisceration angle to the crazy old codger scenario that happened on every trip to the tram stop. Hell as far as I’m concerned, this should be our number one method for dealing with all people who piss us off.”

 

If only I could.” Otsune knelt by one of the old people. “But what changed tonight? What caused them to actually come to the dorm? They’ve never done that before.” The woman went silent for a second or two. “Wait… Could it be…” Natoko heard and possibly saw rummaging from the woman on one of the dead robots. Seizing a face, she started to rip away at its remaining skin, ripping off like pasty wallpaper.

 

These are those marionette from the forest!” she exclaimed. “Look,” she said, without concern for its attachment to the body. It’s the same type of walnut wood and everything.”

 

How do you know its walnut wood?”

 

Practice,” Otsune examined the head some more, which to Natoko looked more like staring at it in the hopes it would explode with answers. “So the elderly folk around here were these marionettes. I wonder if that means the ones we saw in the forest were some kind of prototypes.”

 

Or possibly rejects.”

 

Or possibly rejects, true. Though again what does that mean?” The chasm once contained by the old woman’s head caught her eye. “Is that…” The other watched, fascinated at the sudden excitement brought by their friend, as she began pawing the skull of the marionette and clumsy hands before cracking it like a coconut. A torrent of springs, metal bit and screws tumbled out onto the floor. Checking the head and then the contents of the floor, all three barely the heard the feminine scream to erupt from the lounges main entrance concerning the state of a male’s prized seating area.

 

This…” Otsune raised the glittering treasure in her hand. “A circuit board?”

 

It’s how they’re controlled,” another voice from the door called out. Brushing past Gen, the American ninja girl approaching the showing no concern for the lifeless body she crushed under her foot. They all have wireless connections leading to the local internet connection.”

 

They were being controlled?” Natoko became aware she could understand the American again. She was also aware she appeared to be drinking some of the black bile.

 

To an extent. They more than likely followed a strict mode of programming anyway. The device just controlled their movements to come to you.”

 

So does that mean more will come?”

 

Not for the moment. We took care of the local internet connection.” The ninja lifted up a small electronic box. Gen screamed a little too high for a short second.

 

My router!”

 

With the summoning device removed, the creatures resembling the elderly should cease coming here for the meantime. But that doesn’t explain why they were here anyway.”

 

Those things cost money, lady,” Gen shouted at the American. “You better be willing to pay me back for that.” The ninja suddenly dropped to the floor on one knee, her head bowed.

 

Forgive me, sir,” she said in a solemn voice. “But it was the only way to contain the situation. You will of course be compensated in full when I have determined it is safe to return the network connection back in full.”

 

What gives you the right to take that off anyway. And just what’s going on here?”

 

Melissa…” Sagara said “Mom said not to get Gen too much into this.”

 

Melissa hesitated for a moment. “Understood.”

 

Suddenly, Gen was thrown back three steps by his own astonishment. “”hello?” he said looking down and through Natoko as he wandered over to the couch, kneeling down to run his hand across the black bile and slip in it. The confused looking landlord lay therein all the filth for a few seconds before crawling back into a standing position.

 

I’m sure I just… Did i…” He headed back around the couch, tripping on the corpse of an elderly marionette robot corpse that insulted their promiscuity and looking none the more aware of it. “I…” He held back, ignoring Sakura and Alexis as he tried walking through them. The pair parted long enough to let him past. The group watched quietly for a few moments longer as he retrieved a can from the fridge, walked to the exit and, breaking the tab and taking a quick sip gave the room one last paranoid loo.

 

It would have been best if I just kept doing that to everyone here.” Melissa dropped the broken router on the table.

 

What did you just do to him?” Otsune asked quizzically.

 

It’s none of your concern.”

 

She used her illusions to make him think we weren’t her.” Melissa’s face contorted at angle perfectly invisible to Sagara.

 

Yes i…” she breathed, relaxing. “I altered what he could perceive making him think he was in a perfectly ordinary lounge.”

 

And you can just… do that?” Otsune’s face was looking ready to contort as well.

 

Altering perception is easy for myself, and all senses are affected. He wouldn’t have seen us, heard us talking, or smell and taste the oil in the air. He wouldn’t even have been aware that he fell over.”

 

Mom says to keep Gen out of the loop on these thing for reasons that I was distracted by food to question farther into.” Said Sagara the naïve smile not flickering from his own choice of words.

 

Okay. More ninja stuff. Whatever, I can think about that later,” Otsune shook her head violently enough to show that it was all her mind could think about at the present moment. “The router… these… these… marionettes?”

 

Lacaraka dolls.”

 

What’s going on?” Otsune cut the crap to a [point. “Why old people. Why tonight? Why wireless connections? Why door into oblivion? ” Why why why why Why?”

 

The ninja pondered for a moment.

 

They’re part of Heavenly Spring’s Defensive network.” Every other person in the room looked at him with a varied mix of disgust, annoyance, contempt and plain old confusion. Natoko was sure she had the latter on her face.

 

Elaboration,” replied Otsune.

 

There are multiple defensive barriers surrounding Heavenly Springs, as it’s using used as a base for the Balance, usually reserved for away missions such as ours, but also for holding treasures and burying our pets. One of these defences is the Lacaraka dolls, who are designed to deter humans and distract demons or divine. They’re designed to be completely unnoticeable to most extra sensory capabilities, so people will waste time thinking they’re actual people, and since mom says it’s mostly wrong to hit old people, they are designed to be a distraction so powerful that most would find themselves compelled to obey the rantings of old people, either out of fear or guilt of the consequences of disobeying. .”

 

You know what’s annoying?” Otsune replied.

 

That that’s actually kind of a good idea,” butted in Fujiko.

 

That that didn’t answer any of the whys.”

 

Hhhhmmm, you’re right., but I don’t know the rest.”

 

Not even the door?”

 

Definitely don’t know about the door.”

 

It’s like one of the doors from the InBetween Realm right?”

 

It’s one of the doors from the InBetween realm, but it wouldn’t be here and it doesn’t go there.”

 

Where does it go?”

 

Sagara mused over to the door wandering right up to the frame and taking a step in. Everyone froze as he did, the idiot standing on the precipice of doom in the same way one would walk to the shops because they really wanted chocolate. He looked up, then behind himself,. To his left lay the remote control and, for some reason, the perfect object for the experiment. He tossed it through the door like a piece of scrap paper and waited for the nothingness to carrying happening as it had done since the door had been open.

 

I think it goes everywhere?” he finally reported.

 

Everywhere?” Otsune repeated.

 

Or nowhere. I don’t know.” Otsune tried to wave her hands clean of the situation.

 

Anyway! So we can establish they were summoned to attack us remotely.”

 

I suppose,” the ninja replied.

 

Which means we got hacked in some way.”

 

Yes”

 

But you destroyed the router so we can’t really trace who did it.”

 

Not until we get a connection back.”

 

And neither of you have the knowhow to do that, do you.”

 

No.”

 

Otsune sighed, loud, hard and in their faces as much as possible.

 

Fujiko. You’re up it seems.”

 

Aw I don’t wanna.”

 

Come on.”

 

Okay.”

 

You got bits in your room right?”

 

The two girls walked off, Sagara following absently absentmindedly behind them. For the first time Natoko realised she was completely alone of this side of the room, still kneeling on the floor. The ninja soon followed after them.

 

Wait a second i.. I had..”

 

Yes?” Melissa

 

Shouldn’t I get…” No, it was wrong to ask but hadn’t she… “Am I o…”

 

You want praise for your actions,” the American ninja replied, bewildered behind her mask. “You want his congratulation for ripping through enemies that were designed only to distract and could never harm?” The woman let an incredulous silence pass between them. “Very well. Well done! You destroyed a useless enemy.. design ‘to distract’ and you only nearly got killed by one of them. Lucky for you that ten year old child was about to save the day right?”

 

Natoko said nothing. In her head she was stuttering.

 

Now if you would,.” Her eyes looked down to the floor. “Since the caretaker can no longer perceive a mess, it would fall to you to clean it up.”

 

Natoko looked to the devastation, black bile and corpses everywhere. A ruined crouch, a destroyed television. An inexplicable door.

 

And please don’t delay. Whatever was causing us to understand each other could wear off at any given time, and I’d hate to be unable to tell you again.”

 

The ninja shut the door behind her without raising her hands, leaving Natoko deeply aware of how she was knee deep in bile still She sat there alone for a few minutes, occasionally examining her own hand for the thin layer of black gold to pour slowly off her hands What had she been wanting? Acknowledgment. From who? She would only get it from Sagara if she directly asked, and the others had been distracted. And for what? She had only done her duty.

 

Her hand rested on the head of one of the dolls. Feeling her own arm clench up of its own accord she growled loudly as she spun round to stand up, tossing the stupid old lady through the empty door and into the darkness of space before her, disappearing in the instant it took for her momentum to carry her round on the oil and crash back down into the floor again.

 

Natoko lay there.

 

End current Water Draft

 

Sarah helps her up, gets the praise and leaves Natoko feeling asking.

 

Sarah stabs the woman holding her, who opts to get angry instead of injured. In a panic she keeps stabbing her until stopped, revealing the woman to be a marionette. Changing the field, it springs Natoko to action, only to get stopped by Otsune who uses Occam again to test that they are all Marionettes. After this, Natoko goes into slaughter mode, and they all have a party.

 

Afterward, the find the head marionette has a motherboard built into him

 

Scenes to put in:

 

Note: When deciding on breaking into the SIS, Otsune realised that having a piece of paper on it displaying the server times would have been perfect.

 

Natoko was always at school on her worst days. Even now, nowhere near school, merely getting all the more closer to it, she was there. Trapped at her desk, the ticking of the clock, the ranting of her teacher, the venomous giggles of Reiko next to her as she showed her other friend without a name pictures of what was possibly a boy, but also of something deserving derision.

 

Two weeks had passed since anything had happened. Nothing else had happened. No one had come to explain things. Sagara hadn’t found anything. No one had told her anything. She hadn’t even seen the American since the dolls. She was hoping when they next met they were no longer able to speak. It would be even better if she had just gone ahead and lost her throat.

 

The morning commute shot along with a speed she enjoyed. No traffic and no crowds, odd for a Wednesday morning. It was only when she hit the school gates that the world edged to a stop and sat there, goading her to say something to its face.

 

Class started, and she scrambled for her desk while everyone waited for her, the teacher showing her a nervous smile as she performed the complex task of sitting down while yanking out her chemistry homework, three textbooks taking the opportunity to slide out onto the floor. She heard a band of sniggers assault her in all directions.

 

Quiet!” the teacher voice shouted before they got past one second. “Let Yamanaka take her seat and we shall begin.”

 

The laughter abated. Natoko was left in silence, thirty pairs of eyes watching her clinically. Pulling herself up with a calm grace and keeping her eyes close as lightly and as tight as possible, she aimed for the chair and fell into it. Ten seconds passed, and she dared to open them again. The teacher was staring at her. “A-are you okay for me to begin, Miss Yamanaka?,” the teacher asked carefully.

 

She looked around. This had been weird lately. “Yes… Please do.”

 

Thank you,” he said, the sharp edge in his voice that would normally choose to mercilessly cut her down missing as he turned to the board. “Today we’ll be starting with Osmosis.” Natoko pulled her seat in slowly, with a minimum of creaks. Getting the textbook ready, she poised herself like a cat to take notes.

 

School was getting better since she had started to pay attention. Not in terms of enjoyment, she knew that could never happen. But tolerance, that she was getting used to. It was good to know even the fool before her could learn to not bite so hard as she chose not to zone out..

 

Her grades had shown improvement too. It was slow progress after she first heard the news from Miss Sakimoto that she would need to attend university in order to continue being Sagara’s retainer, but the work was paying off. Her last test she had scored average with the rest of the class, which despite Aki’s constant drilling had at least earned her a thumbs up from the girl.

 

Chemistry she had accidentally avoided though, the homework stared up at the top of her desk, half filled out and full of wrong answers. Was she at the point where she could ask for help from the teacher? As an assistant of learning surely it was his pledge to help out all who wish to gain knowledge, but then they did despise each other. She had Aki anyway.

 

The lesson ended uneventfully, her doomed chemistry homework being snatched up by the class president, who took his time to give her a more disapproving glare than usual. She hated him too, thank you very much. A fool obsessed with mere appearance. Six weeks ago she could understand his contempt mixed in with her desire to not be involved with lessons. Now it was either pettiness or refusal to accept her attempts at improving herself academically. Such a person could rot for all she cared.

 

Leaving for the day, Aki joined her with a smile for the both of them and went on discussing the class trip to Fuujo. Neither of them had mentioned the talk from two weeks ago, so rudely interrupted at the wrong time. That night still played on her, the screams of the elderly ladies leaving marks of shame on her mind.

 

She had done nothing wrong, had no quarrel with them and the whole event had proven nothing more than a bizarre charade of some ancient defence system. Yet she still wanted to apologise to the old lady, to ask forgiveness for her terrible misdeeds that a young lady like herself should never dream of committing. Part of her even wanted to throw herself to her knees and perform a ritual stomach cutting for the sole purpose of atoning for a sin not committed.

 

Nobody else had mentioned going through a similar trauma. She had no idea why it was only her suffering from the lingering after-effects. Her sense of honour was perhaps stronger and as a result more susceptible. Kiriyama stood across the street from her waiting.

 

But even if she did have more honour, her resolve should have been stronger, at least as strong as Sagara’s and perhaps the ninja girl. Her focus alone, so forged she could perform the single act of a downward strike in the pouring rain of a humid afternoon for five hours and not falter once, should have prevented this from bothering her.

 

She should have brought it up with Sagara, but could never find the moment to. Aki had stopped.

 

Natoko,” she whimpered, an air of hush in her voice trying to remain loud enough to ensure attention. Natoko followed her gaze. Part of her was aware that he had been there for a while, standing in a long black trench coat with black hair shorter than before and spiked to a tip.. The loud, pitching grin on his face as the gum rolled around his teeth, visible even from across three lanes of traffic, made it clear he was as much aware of them as they were of him.

 

What do you think he wants?” Aki asked. Natoko had not brought Iziz with her today. Her body felt a little lighter.

 

Who knows?” she said. “I’ll go ask him.” Teeming with rush hour traffic, the highway disappeared before her, as she streamed across it, Kiriyama’s body presenting itself to her almost eagerly before he jumped back out of instinct. Hitting the wall just behind him, his smile attempted a laugh.

 

Well,” he said, his hands quickly out of his pockets. “That’s a new trick you have.”

 

What do you want?”

 

Did you learn that–” She shook him, violently. Against the wooden sign behind him his head met with an old sign pointing the way to a temple.

 

That is not providing an answer to my question,” Natoko said back, not letting him look away, finger and thumb clasped behind his jawbone. “What do you want?”

 

If I say forgiveness, would you believe me?” This time she didn’t even deign to respond. She lifted him high, scraping the back of his head against the sign in an effort to find splinters. “Ow geez. Were you always this strong?”

 

How heavy do you think a sword is, to slice the air like that all day?” she replied, making a mental note to be careful. Her brain wanted to alert her. Kiriyama was smart. A conversation would lead to mind games. Last time he was able to convince her he had enough evidence to plant a murder on her, a slaying he had committed. It took the others smacking sense into her to clear it up. She couldn’t risk falling for anything again.

 

Aki was still on the other side of the road. She should have been able to jump over faster than Natoko. Her waiting must be part of a plan.

 

One more time, Kiriyama.” She increased her grip. Her hand had never been used for strangling before. Behind her a businessman was saying something with an air of concern. “What do you want?” she repeated. The boy tried to catch his breath and missed it, coughing a little.

 

Mr. Jupiter!” He called out. “I was sent by Mr. Jupiter.”

 

The demon’s name pierced her thoughts. So he had lived.

 

Of course he had. If Kiriyama were still here, then the demon who suffered mutilation at the wrath of Iziz??? probably got away with a mild bruising at best. The demon had bothered her since he tournament, bothered Sagara. She had considered it since her duty to cut him down in the name of the Balance.

 

So you’re working with that demon?”

 

Ah,” he quickly cut her off. “So you do know about demons.”

 

Natoko stayed silent.

 

I must admit you bested me… last time,” he said, still being held up on tiptoes and hoping not noticing her arm was starting to shake a little. “Not just in escaping but your knowledge.”

 

My pursuit to find the King of the City, it seems, was a little misdirected. You were right to suspect the creatures we found to be demons and not, as I presumed, merely the work of some new biological, gene-designer drug.”

 

Natoko allowed herself a smile. “Not that I didn’t try to warn you.”

 

But your knowledge, it seems, was not your own. You were told by others about their existence beforehand. How foolish of me.”

 

Keep quiet, she told herself.

 

Foolish of me to presume your life to be the same as the boring and mundane ones all around us. I believe you nothing more than a girl trapped in stupid childish fantasies of becoming a samurai warrior. Indeed, when we first met after such a long time, I had counted on it.”

 

His breath appeared normal now. Natoko was being forced to ease him onto the floor by gravity. She tried to keeping the descent gentle, but a glance down showed he noticed.

 

But it seem you are what you wish to be, a master of the sword, and aware of a world far beyond your own, that no doubt you’ve sworn to protect against the darkness.”

 

Protect against the darkness? Yes, that was what she essentially did. Even if an arrogant blot like Kiriyama was saying it, it felt good to be acknowledged.

 

Kiriyama increase the angle of his smile. “But it’s not enough, is it?”

 

Natoko stared cold at him. “What?”

 

The stage you’re at now,” he said. “You’re close to what you want, but there’s still a distance to go. You still have to put up with the charade, don’t you? Live the peasant life. Walk down the same street to a place you never wanted to go.”

 

If you’re referring to school-”

 

I’m referring to your life!” he called out and Natoko was aware she wasn’t being as threatening as she was a moment ago. “You fight demons, but that just makes you a demon hunter, one with no higher calling. You just slaughter them when they pop along, with no plan, no end in sight. You swing your beautiful sword but you do it for no reason.”

 

Are you saying killing demons is meaningless.”

 

But it doesn’t kill them. That’s what you don’t know about. What would you say if I told you that destroying their physical bodies doesn’t actually defeat demons. It just sends their spirit home-”

 

It would-”

 

Shock you, right?” he interrupted again. “But that’s what happens. For every demon you slaughter, you’re just sending it home, allowing it to come back stronger than before to hurt more innocents. That’s the problem you got here, Natoko. You’re without direction. You cannot reach the highest echelons of this world on your own. You may have Aki but the two of you combined could hardly ever be enough, no matter how strong you were.”

 

Natoko held him, staring. He really didn’t know anything.

 

That’s why I’m here today. To give you an offer. An offer from Mr. Jupiter. One that’ll help you understand.”

 

Oh? What could a demon offer me that my blade could not take from him.” Kiriyama actually fell silent for a second.

 

Enlightenment,” he then said. “Understanding of the world you face. He may be a demon, but he works for himself, and seeks the removal of all other demons. He will guide you Natoko, as he guided me. I… I myself understand it all now. There’s so much more to the world than petty crime. There’s a place where you can earn respect and honour, best your opponents in combat. It’s everything you could ever dream.”

 

You dare claim to know my dreams?”

 

He… he asked me to come here today to give you an offer to become his retainer.”

 

Natoko didn’t smile. The businessman had moved on.. She wasn’t sure where Aki was.

 

That is what it means to be a samurai, isn’t it? In this world, it’s impossible. Something you could never attain. Even with your knowledge of the demons and your skill with the blade, you would never be samurai unless you served a master, and that, my former friend, is something you have yet to achieve.”

 

But come with me, join Mr. Jupiter. He has requested you above all others, even myself, to serve as his right hand. He has even asked me to serve under you, to be controlled by you. He has demanded I do this to allow you your power over me. Even as it pains me to accept, I have no choice if I wish to keep my life.”

 

Become his retainer. Serve at his right hand. It may be for a demon but it’s the dream you always wanted. ”

 

Natoko paused in thought. It really was. The idea was perfect. Exactly what she wanted. Serve a lord, a master. One who would give her missions and send her to do his bidding with the honour of a samurai. Becoming a retainer and using her sword to cut down those who opposed him. It would be so perfect.

 

Lifting her head up, she looked calmly to Kiriyama, waiting anxiously for her response.

 

And then crashed it against his nose.

 

The boy reeled in the small area he was contained, and she let him drop as she turned away. She walked off. Aki following behind her.

 

It wasn’t even worthy of a response.

 

It would have been perfect six months ago.

 

***

 

It had been two weeks. For the sixth third time, Otsune clicked the refresh button.

 

Nope,” she called out, resulting in curses emanating from the supply closet. She groaned. Someone else could do this. It wasn’t like she didn’t have a giant to do list.

 

It should be working,” came the voice from the dark closest, followed by a continuous banging which was no doubt a frantic assault against the nefarious keyboard.

 

The decision to set up the server in there had been decided by herself and Fujiko three years ago and, other than the occasional reboot, had been ignored by most of the residents. At the time, Granma Futabatei had agreed to have the access setup, and even paid for the equipment and got it installed, but she had insisted on a wireless network that meant holes didn’t have to be drilled throughout the ancient wall for cables to be inserted.

 

Wireless had gone out of the window at this point, and they were back to cables, several of which were sprawled out over the floorboards leading out of the corridor. Two were plugged into Otsune’s laptop. Crossover cable as an experiment Fujiko was trying. “Try now,” the girl said, following another few moments of silent typing.

 

Nope!”

 

Now?”

 

Nope.”

 

Otsune heard a slam. “Now?”

 

Maybe we should call someone out.”

 

Did you try again?”

 

Violence isn’t going to be your work around here, Fujiko.” Otsune sighed, feeling a little empty. It was weird not having Occam around. She had sent the flame outside after Fujiko had suggested the possibility that the fire was possibly affecting data transfer. They both knew that couldn’t the case.

 

What was the case was the large mess of wires and circuit boards that Sagara had turned the server into.

 

On the morning after the doll incident, they had surveyed the damage to the server room to see if anything else had needed buying and found Sagara and the ninja girl had implemented a tiny precision missile strike against the monitor within the server room, apparently believing it to be the most vital part of any network architecture.

 

He had told them that, upon the ninja girl’s order, he had launched his demon gauntlet into the monitor to remove all threats it represented against the True Balance. Otsune could still feel how her entire brain had tried to wince to the right without taking her head with it. Monitors were expensive.

 

It was the resulting shockwave that had taken out the actually important equipment. The server unit, the router, even the wall connection. Everything had needed a complete overhaul. Bad enough they had lost the sofa, two chairs and the television/entertainment centre in the same night.

 

And now they had to contend with the fact they couldn’t actually see what they were working with.

 

Apparently Gen wasn’t to know of all that went on… for some reason. This was what Sagara had told them and this was why they weren’t currently looking into a supply closet made mostly of slag but instead gazing into the still fully functioning server room provided by the ninja girl’s illusions.

 

Illusions. That one still picked on Otsune’s mighty brain cells. It wasn’t stage magic. The ninja was altering their perceptions in real time. Should she poke her head in there, Otsune could see the monitor’s screen saver, hear the hum of equipment creating their own bland composition. If she rested her hand on the mouse, she could still left click. She was sure that, if she dared tried, she could lick the monitor and taste three month old grease.

 

So how was that being done if ‘magic’ didn’t exist? Otsune pondered, idling tapping the F5 key every two seconds, not giving it time to do the last refresh. Since the girl just appeared to will the illusion into existing, technological equipment didn’t seem likely. Therefore it suggested senses were being fooled . Hypnosis was a potentially logical answer, since it would allow the victim’s imagination to fill in all the blanks. The only problem with that was it wasn’t Otsune imagination filling in the blanks. Otsune’s attempts at entering this faux computer’s registry settings proved fruitless and trying to access the Admin services resulted in control panel where she could turn the sound on or off. It was as if the internal configuration settings simply weren’t there, The ninja girl didn’t appear to know much about computers, and it showed with the web browser only contained commonly used options and only being able to access 0.03% of the internet.

 

And the one last one back in the living area was restricted to affecting only one user. Hypnotism would have been fine. An illusion would have been fine. A discordian attempt at altering the filters of her reality to hide the truths of the universe would have been fine at this point, had it not meant they couldn’t actually see, hear or even feel what they were trying to fix in the room. The ninja had left the illusion running while she had mysteriously vanished somewhere, making their determination to find out if they had even pulled out the cable from the wall socket completely and utterly ineffectual.

 

Now?”

 

Nope.” Otsune said without checking.

 

No. The real bad point was it was them that had to pay for all this. Normally such expenses came out of the landlord’s insurance, with Sagara losing his security deposit, not that she figured he had even paid one. But they couldn’t tell Gen. They weren’t even able to. He was convinced that what he had saw was just a dream and was even now sitting on the floor of the lounge watching quiz shows displaying on the featureless wall around the shards of a broken television set.

 

I swear we’re missing something here,” Fujiko said, pulling herself out of the closest, cables coming into existence between her fingers as she got out of the illusions range (meaning the illusion was even able to tell when replacement parts were being moved into it and hid them accordingly).

 

I’m missing so much nowadays,” Otsune groaned, desperately not wanting to care. “Do you know I had planned to restart my placement in two weeks? That’s gone out the window.”

 

Yeah whatever. Look I know it’s hard to work in there and all, seeing as I appear to be trying to setup a new server in front of a fully functioning old server that is secretly a pile of scrap metal…” Fujiko had to pause to make sure she got that right. “But I’m pretty sure I’ve got everything done right at this stage. I should at least be seeing a connection showing up on this router.” The router Otsune was resting her feet and was flashing all its lights at them hopelessly. “But I’m not getting anything on the console.”

 

Are you saying something else is broken?”

 

I’m saying I can’t find the connection. Hell I’m saying we don’t even have a network connection to the outside world from this room, not one I can find anyway.”

 

Then what have you been trying to do for the last half hour.”

 

Just trying to set it up identical to how it was set up last time.”

 

In the hopes that it would just work?”

 

Well yeah.”

 

But without any actual qualified knowledge of what to do?

 

Look I know IT okay. I’ve been forced to work too many crappy tech jobs in my wonderful illustrious contracting life. And I can say this for certain. This room we’re in, the room containing the server that’s been providing the steady internet connection for the last three years has been getting all its data from this little box in the hole. And as you can see,” she knelt down as she indicated the box, in one swift movement yanking it away from the wall. It came out easily, the screw not caring to hold it in, the one network cable to the server dangling beneath it. “The little box is not connected to anything.”

 

Taking the box from Fujiko, Otsune gave it a once over, disconnecting the network cable and reseating it. It clicked smoothly into place. She saw it slot in on the interior side. No trace of any other cables sat with it. No diodes. No copper wires. Not even a sign of a soldering mark where they once could have been. Fujiko’s diagnosis did appear true. This room wasn’t fitted to the outside Internet connection.

 

But this room can’t not have an internet connection. Gen flipped the power off by mistake the first week he was here. We lost the network.”

 

And yes, it came back on once we flipped the switch again. But now, I don’t know what to tell you.”

 

Or what to tell the others,” Otsune continued musing over the smooth white plastic that was supposed to be their gateway to the information superhighway. Everyone was, of course, very much pissed to no longer be able to receive their e-mails or waste their time on online blogs. The box played with her mind. She hoped Occam wasn’t causing any trouble.

 

No. This still isn’t the full picture.” Getting on her hands and knees, Otsune examined the hole where the box came from. It wasn’t a hole at all. “Even if this plug socket box isn’t connected to anything besides the server, it cannot be denied that the server was still receiving a network connection. Therefore even if we shouldn’t be able to connect due to an outside connection, we should still logically be able to get the same result as last time, even if that was practically impossible.” The hole was just a section of the wall with two drill marks in it. It didn’t even try to look like it was going anywhere.

 

She could tell without looking Fujiko had a condescending frown on her face. “You know that was all just nonsense right?”

 

Nonsense that has a point to it.”

 

What if it’s just the illusion getting in the way still?”

 

Why hide the connection box? It wasn’t even damaged by the battle.”

 

Well why does it not go anywhere. Isn’t it more logical to think an illusion was cast on the box than to think that we were magically acquiring free internet, as awesome as that immediately sounds?”

 

Oh come on, Fujiko. Surely you realise by now that our every attempt to state something should be logical results in random very loud ninja immediately appearing to prove us wrong for stupid reasons.”

 

So what? We should burn some incense and meditate, knowing that our chi will bring back Wikipedia?”

 

That shall be our second plan. First, I’m thinking we find our local ninja and slash or failing that the network box that must lead up to the dormitory.” She stood up, and turned for the exit. “Whatever happens, we must find a way to restore our internet connection!”

 

Fujiko sighed intentionally. “Didn’t we used to have lives?”

 

Otsune smirked. There was even more she was missing in this scenario. Discovering the source of their own network connection would mean finding what brought the wrath of the dolls upon them. And this all tied into this manGod that had been mentioned. She noted her own anticipation. Whilst she could hate to admit it many times, Sagara’s little world kept getting her excited. There was so much new stuff to find there and she had a feeling, another portion of faith perhaps, that there was something even further to this.

 

*

 

.Natoko and Aki at the arcade.

 

So what made it that easy to say no?” Aki asked, down shifting into third gift and spinning the wheel away from the turn, skidding her back wheels into the groove.

 

The same way it is easy for the sun to rise from the heavens,” Natoko replied, already come out of the turn but losing the distance between them by a few meters. “It was natural.”

 

Really? It wasn’t natural a few months ago.”

 

A lot is different from a few months ago. I am different.”

 

The hairpin turn glided around them in the same breath, Natoko was at the start of it, but Aki was closing in from the end. Another turn. Natoko could feel her just a hair’s breadth behind.

 

No you’re not. You’re still Natoko.”

 

Yes, but a better version of myself. One who does not get lost and fooled so easily by charlatans. Before I succumbed to his tricks, but this time I was able to conquer him. “ She yanked right, almost lost it, but kept the wheels steady as they entered the straight away. She began to pull away before Aki had even finished.

 

Sounds to me all you did was learn from a mistake.”

 

Sometimes Aki, it would do you good to realise that a simple response is all that’ needed. Life isn’t complicated and everything can be-” Shift up a gear, ready for the next hairpin. “clean cut, just as long as you have the right method.”

 

Oh really?“ Aki was trailing now.

 

Learn this yourself, and you’ll one day reach me. Wisdom alone is not enough. You need the experience to accompany it.”

 

I’ll take that-” Aki was behind her into the hairpin turn, “under advisement.” Pulling the difference sharply. Natoko pushed to avoid her. The cars clipped, the understeer quickly knocking Natoko the wrong way. She smoothed out immediately, Aki already pulling past her.

 

Hey,” Natoko called out, getting a snigger from Aki, who crossed the finish line two seconds ahead of her.

 

The machine switched to game over before Natoko could even reach the line. The game quickly declaring the left player the winner before switching straight to the game over screen for the both of the them.

 

Another game?” Aki asked innocently.

 

Not if you’re going to play like that.”

 

You can’t waste time complaining that your opponent’s doing something you don’t like.”

 

No, but I can refuse to continue if I have no money left.” Lifting herself off the machine, Natoko went for her school bag. No studying tonight. Just practise. It was good to give herself a reward for finishing the chemistry paper. The next maths one could wait..

 

Around her the patrons shuffled through the arcade. It wasn’t a local one and they had to take the scenic route to get to it, but there were no students from their school there. It was good not to be noticed sometimes. The only way the regulars here acknowledged her was from when she kicked their asses on the latest fighting game.

 

There was also the need to speak to her lord. Things had been quiet lately. Everything was back to normal after the attack on the dormitory, with the exception of the missing television from the living area. She had no doubt her lord would call for her if there was something needed, hopefully anyway. But the lack of activity over the past two week and the American’s last words to her had made her wonder if Sagara was being pushed not to use her.

 

The American clearly had an issue with Natoko, though she wasn’t sure what Perhaps it was the jealousy of a second assistant? Natoko smirked under the prospect, though worried also at the thought that Sagara could probably get her exiled at the drop of a hat if he was talked into it.

 

She had to be careful. Things needed looking into, and she had to make sure she was a part of it. The iron plated bar swung into the back of her head, taking her off balance into an old pinball machine. Her reflection stared back at her, red and blurry, her hair burning behind her. She tried to stand up, catching the reflection and pushing herself out of the way as the figure lunged toward her, crashing through the large metal machine.

 

Gasping, she fell to the floor and looked around, seeing the patrons of the arcade frozen at their games, half looking round to see what the commotion was, others already panicking. A man approached her from the side and looked like he was about to help her up.

 

From the remains of the pinball machine, Kiriyama pulled himself out.

 

He looked larger. Not taller, but as if all his muscles had swelled up and his spine was collapsing under the weight. He lumbered forwards, picking himself up and facing her in one go. Quickly she pulled herself up using the man beside her as an anchor point. Her sudden assistant had gone stiff with the image before him. Kiriyama now raising his skull crushing sized hands in front of his puffed up face, glaring at her with a condescending grin, a large purple bruise accompanied by a crack on his pale forehead.

 

The offer still stands, Yamanaka,” he said, his voice echoing as if they were in a long narrow cave. “Join me at the side of Mr. Jupiter, or watch as I rip apart the pathetic surrounding us.”

 

Part of her felt an urge to be like Otsune and quip a sarcastic retort at the statement before her. Was this really Kiriyama, her once friend turned blackmailer? The man had become a brutish thug in appearance. Natoko knew she was frozen in fear like the man besides her but she still felt the shock pouring through her body. This was clearly the work of the demon. He had changed Kiriyama somehow, and Kiriyama seemed to have no qualms with the situation.

 

Aki had disappeared. With any joy, her friend had escaped or was leading the others out. Even better, she was lying in wait for a well-placed roundhouse kick.

 

Iziz was at home, she reminded herself, the blade would have been much needed right now. The Kiriyama before her was not the one she had attended school with. Instead, he roared with a mouth that seemed to extend past the limits of his lips, a guttural bellow blasting out throughout the room. The man beside her whimpered, as Kiriyama roared in the man’s direction, a red shockwave pouring out from his mouth and engulfing the man.

 

Natoko had no choice at this point but to dive out of the way. Her feet prevented her from tumbling all the way over, her arms able to steady her against a crane machine. The man gasped pathetically, his body disappearing before the rage of evil he was being bathed in. Natoko struggled to see, but the energy was gone before she could focus again.

 

The man stood there, looking like an underdog boxer having taken the last seven rounds all to the face. His cheeks swelled and pushed his lips into a bloated position. His body swayed round on its hip, the man coughed up a small trickle of blood before falling forwards

 

As the man toppled over, Natoko watched against her will. His legs fell into themselves, literally merging like layers of modelling clay slammed down into the floor by a fist from above. His body followed quickly, a splatting sound hitting the tiles floor, a spot of blood leaking from underneath. Natoko felt her own stomach swell up in knots as the man appeared to turn into a gelatinous blob, even his clothes melting into the blob before her.

 

Kiriyama burped loudly, appearing relieved for his actions, though remained in his own bulked up state. With a relaxing sigh he turned back over to the remains of the pinball machine and seemed to start looking at something.

 

Natoko didn’t care, her eyes still locked on the pile of goo that had tried to help her a moment ago. It was bubbling. As a jelly blob the bubbles appeared to make it rise and expand. What was left of the limbs started shifting, contorting. One suddenly shot up and went rigid, sticking there at the wrong angle while the rest of the blob body followed it upward.

 

It very soon started to take shape. A head appearing where there couldn’t be a head before, the legs jutting out in three directions. The whole body turned a deep brown and started to grow hair as fast as it could. Natoko seeked??? to grasp something, her mind blanking on what she could possibly be seeing here. A large tentacle shot out from somewhere, rising up in the air before cracking out and dangling. New arms seemed to lock into place, the first rigid one now serving as some kind of elongated shoulder.. Hoofs appeared on the three feet and the faced took an impish shape to it, a tongue hanging out of each of the dead eyes as the tentacle shot back into the body through the pelvis.

 

The room went silent save for a quiet fizzling noise. Natoko was under the impression she had stopped breathing but dared not move her body to check. Kiriyama started laughing in a low pitch. To himself at first, before it roared through the arcade. The remaining patrons took this as a cue to start screaming and running. Many of them headed for the exit and Kiriyama met them with another green blast of energy which bathed ten of them and rooted them to the spot. The creature before her distracted her with a light pitched giggling sounds as it started to wave its heavy arms back and forth, as if testing out the action. Kiriyama started to move his head round to the other patrons rushing for the exit and Natoko leapt for the floor as his neck swung round for her. She hit the ground with her hands and started to crawl for her life, heading in-between two rows of fighting games.

 

Need a weapon,” she told herself, wishing she hadn’t chosen the only narrow crawl space in the entire building. Her quickstep was useless when she was on her knees. And the wires were doing their best to tangle up her hands. A gap appeared to the left and she took it, getting out and catching sight of the now demon covered exit. More of the patrons were growling and stuttering now, their bodies turning into the contorted shapes the first man had suffered through on his sudden descent into the monster shape he now took. Though mixed in number of limbs and faced their bodies were still turned black with the long hair covering most of their bodies. A few had more of the fleshy vine liked tentacles than the others did and Natoko didn’t take any opportunity to consider the situation any longer. She had accidentally caught enough of the late night cartoons to know what they might try to do.

 

Aki!” she shouted as hard as she could, as her eyes located the exit to the second wing of the arcade. “We’re leaving!” She didn’t wait at all for a response, gunning for the stairs and leaping up them three at a time, turning round as soon as she realised how big a target she was and shifting to the left just as another green beam shot across the room at her.

 

Go on then! Escape. It doesn’t matter. I know your home address!”

 

Natoko didn’t waste any more time freezing in shock. Turning up the stairs, she shot up the remaining thirteen in a single flash. Her thigh screamed and she took a turn through the seating area, shooting forwards again, landing on a table and feeling the grease take her feet. She let the momentum carry her and fell for the door, crashing through it and collapsing onto her shoulder blade.

 

Er hi…” Pulling herself up she came face to face with a stranger who she took no time to study. Natoko gave the area a cursory glance. Those before her were busy playing on the gamblers and pachinko. None seemed aware of the chaos that was happening in the next room. Behind her she heard the door slump shut and felt her thighs tense up against the pain. She hadn’t performed that little trick several times in a row before. It was only meant to be used for stepping forwards in a duel ready to strike and running up stairs alone could be torture. Add that in to a long school day-

 

She was done thinking. They were people here for Kiriyama to… what? Infect. It was as good a word as any. Her brain was boiling from the humidity surrounding her. She took off at a light stagger and met with a fire alarm. Cracking it against her elbow, she didn’t even flinch as the bells started assaulting her ears. The people around her stared with accusing eyes, some annoyed while others amused at her apparent little prank. If Iziz was here she could at least play the part of a dangerous crazy lady but for now she would have to hope it cleared as many people out as possible.

 

She grabbed the man she had fell in front of and swung him around her. “Go. Get out of here!” she cried out to them. Around her , everyone else was dutifully exiting the building as the staff started to herd them out. The downstairs section of this part of the arcade had apparently gotten the message and people were being pulled away from their games in order to make them wait outside. Natoko wanted to breathe a sigh of relief.

 

Those before her apparently got the message, the man still glaring at her with annoyance at her handling. She tried to half push half wave them off as they took for the stairs. She turned back to observe her escape door rocking on it frame as she awaited the monsters. Back and forth. Back and forth.

 

She waited until the door stopped. She couldn’t feel anything. Whatever came through the door would at least need defending against until everyone was away. Then what? Where could they go from here? The demon threat was out and ready to strike in full force. Secrecy surely couldn’t be an issue now with monsters tearing up the local arcade. She’d need to get back to Sagara, hopefully find him without trouble, let him know what was going on so the balance could prepare. Her legs started to turn, her eyes not wanting to leave the door. Carefully, she started walking backwards, glancing quickly to ensure no other collisions. She reached the stairs after about ten seconds.

 

The door had stopped rocking. Only the alarm could be heard, now sounding like nothing more than background noise.

 

With haste, she fled down the stairs.

 

**

 

Otsune was athletic. She reminded herself of this regularly. She was not the type of intellectual to languish in her mind for every hour of the day, taking time off only to engage in petty social activities. Her morning jogs got her up before everyone save Natoko. She attended a gym in the city twice a week and just a few months ago in engaged in a several thousand kilometre walk through a dank cave that resided in another dimension. Her legs were toned and her stomach flat.

 

Her arms were not suited for climbing

 

The building was not suited for climbing either. In fact The Heavenly Springs dormitory roofing was pre-eminently designed to resist attempts to climb on it. Originally she was told that this was a measure ensured to repel invaders from other feudal lands, back at the time she had believed this place only to be an offshoot manor complex of a Feudal lord of the old times. Now she was clueless as to what it could have been, or how old it was. It hadn’t been designed for electronics. She knew that from all the work they had to do just to ensure television in one room.

 

But now she knew the building was designed for the Balance, with varying methods of defence systems and roofs that she was having tremendously difficulty climbing. She strained against the oddly angled slants of the roof, hooking her heel deep into a drainpipe. Praying her moist fingertips would leave her hanging by one trapped foot she built the momentum up to thrust herself onto the blue roof. Looking back down, she waved to Fujiko, already climbing up. They needed a longer ladder.

 

Ah, you. Excellent,” she shouted in the high winds that came with the territory of residing on the tallest hill in the land. The American Ninja was there, standing perfectly straight on the roof’s fountain centrepiece , a golden sphere directly in the centre of the roof and obscured from below. “We’ve been meaning to talk to you.”

 

It wasn’t Otsune intention to see the girl now, acting all ninja like and aloof as she hovered perfectly on the centre of the sphere, the heavy winds not knocking her off in any direction one bit. The precious wiring situation of the internet was foremost on her mind, but this was an advantage in that.

 

We need you to kill your silly little magic trick in the server room. We’re trying to replace the pieces in there your idiotic boyfriend ripped apart and you can’t understand a word I’m saying can you?”

 

The Melissa girl stayed silent, still looking straight ahead. Otsune paused, trying to stay balanced against loose blue roofing tiles. The girl’s eyes turned slightly to glare at her, before looking the other way.

 

So now you can’t understand Japanese again. Excellent. This still continues to make sense.” Looking around, Otsune kept an eye out for any obvious cables. About half an hour ago they had determined, through acts of violence against the floorboards, that none of the necessary internet providing cables were under the server room in any way. Any connecting rooms also added to the mystery of just where Google had been coming from. That had left the only thing remaining being the roofing. The roof itself wouldn’t have been the next destination, but if the wires weren’t coming out from anywhere of the walls, then at the very least there should be a sort of obvious black cable sticking out here somewhere.

 

Melissa relaxed her stance on the flagpole as Otsune walked passed her, now appearing to give up the super dramatic ninja pose of contemplation while Otsune was around to bug her. Otsune wasn’t in the mood to go grab a dictionary just for the word illusion. She’d figure this out herself.

 

The immediate roof was bare of any cables, and once Fujiko was finally up to join her, they diligently worked together to waste more time finding something they had to conclude wasn’t there.

 

This isn’t making any sense,” she groaned, sitting down to join Otsune and falling back to crack her head against curved tiles. “It should just be there. It’s not like we’re searching for something tiny. It should be a long cable that had to be custom fitted to the dormitory. It should stick out as wrong being here.

 

Flipping out her phone, Otsune checked for texts out of instinct before gazing out to the town below. Nothing. Was the illusion hiding it this well? Considering the lack of effort behind the fake operating system could she presume the ninja was hiding all the wiring as well.

 

See any old people?” Fujiko asked after the minutes had ticked on.

 

Not with these glasses,” Otsune sighed, looking back to glare at the ninja some more only to find she had vanished magically off somewhere. Otsune’s vast intellect strayed off on the idea of setting up some kind of patrolling system for the village. They already had established methods of access and ensuring they didn’t get followed, but that situation couldn’t be allowed to go on any further either-

 

bzzt Her phone jumped at her, the thought of dropping it up here almost made her lose it. Keeping a hold of it, she checked the screen. It was a text.

 

The answer you seek is above. Check the brand label.

 

Not today, thank you. She selected delete and confirmed it, sending the junk to a place even deeper than the Strangelands nether regions. Falling back alongside Fujiko, she looked to the clear sky, the stars already coming out, the largest already right above her. Otsune’s interest in space was limited to the constellations poster on her wall. She’d take the time to memorise it one day.

 

What’s the plan then?” Fujiko asked, sounding serious enough to let Otsune know just how important the 10 Mbps package was to her.

 

I guess we convince Gen to somehow fork the budget out for a new server room while somehow getting round the fact that to all appearance we already have one of those.”

 

Could say it’s a backup server room I suppose.”

 

Could do. Could also do with finding a way to explain why we need cables outside the server room that lead to the nearest connection point as well.

 

Are we going to have to seduce him?”

 

You talk like that wouldn’t be instantly achievable,” Otsune said with a grin.

 

The only thing stopping us would be our own vomit reflex.”

 

So glad you didn’t say gag there.”

 

A cicada chirped in the night sky. Soon it would be too cold to be up here.

 

Though we don’t have to set up a cable,” Fujiko said casually.

 

How do you mean?”

 

Well we could go back a step and go through the phone system, or get a satellite connection. It’s a step back from what we had with the fibre optics but with so few of us here it wouldn’t be that much of a sacrifice.”

 

Otsune’s brain shifted a gear. “Wait…”

 

OR we could extend the wireless in the village somehow. Set up points to pass it along and connect that way-”

 

Satellite! “ Otsune cried, swinging herself up and nearly plummeting to her substantial injuries below. “Of course, we are such idiots- in this one and only occasion.”

 

What what?” Much more careful at getting up, Fujiko crawled to catch up with Otsune. “What are we thick for? You know it’s your fault.”

 

The answer. Above. Our connection. We have to check our brand.”

 

Our brand?” Otsune tried to calm down to help explain better but her mind was on fire. The consideration should have crossed her sooner. It made instant sense and she had just strolled past all the clues like a baby retard. Reaching the sphere where the ninja had been standing, she gave it the once over. “Our brand… Otsune?

 

What?”

 

Our brand?” Fujiko was bemusedly befuddled.

 

There are no cables, Fujiko,” Otsune said. “None going out of the building save for the power. None going out of the room save for perhaps the roof. There’s only one conclusion… there are no cables going out of the building save for the power, and there are no cables going out of the room save for perhaps the roof.”

 

A tautology is a tautology,” replied Fujiko, sarcasm dripping off sweet lips. “So what?”

 

We’re not getting our internet from the cables,” Otsune replied, stepping over the bowl and doing her best to hoist herself onto the sphere. With exactly one hundred per cent less grace than the ninja she balanced on the ball using three limbs, the last one pointing upwards to the biggest star straight above. “We’re getting it from the sky.”

 

Otsune paused for a moment as her body trembled beneath her. When she looked back Fujiko didn’t look very impressed.

 

So… a satellite then…” She said, her hands hanging as if to wait for a better explanation. “And just how do you suppose… oh wow you’re actually standing on a satellite dish aren’t you.”

 

Yes I am,” Otsune replied with glee, far too happy to fall off it.

 

The centrepiece ornament of the roofing was made of metal. They could tell only by touching it though. It was a large round dome, roughly the shape of half a sphere, large enough to fit them both in with room to spare and all painted the same colour as the roof. The receiver itself was a cuboid rather than a cone and ended with the large ninja but not Otsune balancing sphere.

 

Thee sphere was golden. Ornamental. It was easy to miss. It came off more as a fountain, which relieved Otsune when it occurred to her she had only really given it a two second glance and didn’t even know about it until today. There was a drainage pipe at the bottom to counter its bowl like nature. It was oddly clean.

 

If there are wires they’ll be in here,” Fujiko said checking the cuboid and tapping it to confirm their suspicious of its hollowness. It still doesn’t explain the lack of wires in the server room but-”

 

That’s why we check the brand of the router. It’s wireless, it may just be passing along a connection.”

 

But the way this is pointed??? the satellite would have to be directly above. It couldn’t be-”

 

No, this explains why grandma Futabatei set it up. She gave us a Satellite connection directly without own satellite. Don’t you see? It’s Sagara’s Balance. They own all kinds of stupid shit-”

 

Screams below distracted her. It was coming from the entrance. They sounded stretched somehow, like they were travelling faster than they should. A shadow danced across her yes.

 

The world crashed into her, knocking her into tiles and cracking a few beneath Otsune’s elbows and the tip of one perfectly against the back of her skull. Her bronze rimmed glasses shot off and skirted against the blunt scratching stones beside her. The world blacked out for a second.

 

wha- Natoko?” The girl was right above her for no reason, her hair was dangling in Otsune’s face. She was far too close. “What are you-”

 

The demons are coming.”

 

**

Heading down the alleyway outside the convenience store, Melissa kept her senses sharp. She was happy the town had come to this. With the peaceful nature of the Heavenly Springs dormitory, it would have been easy to become relaxed and carefree. Though she kept interaction with the residents to a minimum, their docile attitudes in life allowed them as much social life as they desired. They could socialise, intoxicate themselves, attend educational facilities and sneak boys in for late hour sexual interludes, and they would rarely have to worry for their lives. It would have been so easy to do the same.

 

Which is why she was grateful for the Lacaraka dolls.

 

The dolls, like the two round the corner, talking about what something in incomprehensible Japanese had been saying to the other stupid foreign language thing, had apparently not just shut down with the deactivation of their signal. This was clear from the moment she had gotten Sagara to take it out, the dolls still continuing their trek to toss the girls into the Babylon void. She wasn’t sure why they hadn’t. Her closest guess was that the signal merely activated them, or operated as a beacon, for none had tried to approach Heavenly Springs since it was turned off.

 

Except if they wandered by. Melissa had spent last week watching one of them slowly ascending the stairs whilst talking about how the youth of today didn’t assist the elderly in carrying their shopping and how it was an utter disgrace. It took the doll four and a half hours in the middle of the night to get to the top of the steps, and it was promptly dispatched when it did, but the point was clear. The dolls were searching the town very slowly for their target, and making absolutely no progress in getting there.

 

Which made it every resident’s priority not to let a single one see them in the town. The doll’s power it seems, lay in their ability to creep the shit out of you, and there was no sense in Melissa wasting time denying it. With the removal of the language barrier on Heavenly Springs, her sudden understanding of the creatures had prevented her from becoming an exception to the ‘don’t freak the fuck out’ rule.

 

Bracing herself, certain that she was in the clear, Melissa took a few steps onto the main street. The road crossed the entire village and led out onto the bridge leaving the village. No matter where you were in the outback, passing this road couldn’t be avoided. Three pairs of the dolls were always here at most times, spread up and down the road and only chatting when they wandered in range of one another. Melissa paced over the road steadily, her footsteps silent as they seamlessly rolled over the loose gravel. To the other side of the road, falling to the other side of a bush when she had crossed over enough.

 

There was no need for illusions here. She could have easily rendered herself invisible for the task of trekking across the town, but Melissa recognised an exercise ground when it lay out around here. It was made clear to her by the mistress from her youngest age that her illusions should never be taken for granted. For all the fools at the ninja village who were fooled easily, there would always be the mistress, who could see everything through perfect emerald eyes.

 

And of course, Sagara.

 

Behind her, the dolls were still babbling away to each other, their wrinkled expression implying a light hearted storytelling going on between them. Their sophisticated design was impressive. She had noted the abundance of elderly in her early days here but had not guessed them to be a defensive measure until her discovery of the prototypes near the forest entrance. Even then, had she not discovered the plans of the dormitory in one of the hidden attics, she would have put down their repetitiveness nature and automatic scheduling of which streets to roam as just the habits of old people, civilians with a culture she had never seen before. And even after all that, their use as a tool for the balance was something she only discovered when she had fallen in their fading sight.

 

She really should have been better informed. Someone would have to pay for that.

 

For now, they were harmless though. They would badger and chase you if you fell in their sight, but could do little more than give you a slap and grab your ear.

 

Their ultimate purpose bothered her though. Against demons or divine they were useless assortments of wood waiting to be torn apart. Against humans they were just baffling.

 

Anta wa!” a voice cried behind her suddenly. “You get down here and pay for your sins.” Spinning and fading to nothing in the same moment, Melissa cast a glance at the women behind her. From her monitoring of the situation, getting caught shouldn’t have been possible. Carefully, she headed back to the centre of the road, bringing the dolls back into her field of view. They weren’t looking at her, but up to the rooftops.

 

The sword servant was there. The annoying variable to her life had finally got back home, looking very worse for the wear. Sweat was dripping down her cheeks as she rested on all fours atop of the roof of a small family house. She was staring straight through Melissa as she panted with the force of sixty marathons.

 

Dare to ignore us, you foolish slut. Your transgressions shall be paid for. The heart of a carver deserves no less.”

 

Seeing that the voices startled the swordsgirl, Melissa felt a smile creep onto her lips just as the little girl cracked her knee against the tiles, turning to check out where the sudden voices had come from freaking out as a result. For a second Melissa considered dreaming one up for her to find standing straight in front of her when she got back to turning around, like she had done many nights ago during the false fire.

 

But then the girl was gone and Melissa’s smile quietly shot away. Taking a second to find her again, she noted the girl on another rooftop two blocks away, the distance covered being roughly a hundred meters, emitting the urge to growl from Melissa’s throat. The girl was passing the limits of what a normal should have been capable of, and doing it very quickly. By the time she was gone again, her destination was clear. Melissa followed.

 

It was time to head back to Heavenly Springs.

 

**

 

When she got back, Sagara was standing at the top of the stairs.

 

Melissa never came the way of the stairs herself, her need to end the long waging battle against her legs by destroying her thighs was never that particularly high. It was easier to take the route of trees and rocks and provided a full body exercise in the process too. Only the little friend of the swordgirl ever seem to do the same. It was much more efficient. Even so seeing him in the distance prompted her to approach, especially as he stood with Draynor at the ready, his right leg shifted back and looking ready to strike with the hidden fist.

 

Put that thing away,” she admonished, reaching him. He didn’t glance her way. It was common knowledge to her that the residents were finding secrets at the drop of a hat, but it figured to her that the best way to keep a secret was not to advertise it at the front entrance.

 

Can’t. Natoko said demons are coming,” he replied, looking primed for combat, his relaxed posture being only betrayed by glowing green eyes. Melissa grinned.

 

What nonsense is this?” she asked, knowing full well. Sagara had gone missing for a few days even from her . His reappearance, despite his appearance, was usually a sign of importance. “There are no demons, Sagara. The Lacaraka dolls still roam the streets. This I determined from my patrol, but there are no demons in the village at the given time.”

 

Yeah, but Natoko said they were coming.”

 

Did she now? And where did she say they were appearing from?”

 

Yes. From the city.”

 

How long ago was this?”

 

Five minutes. Though since she came from the city it would be likely the situation started thirty minutes ago.”

 

Possibly less from the speed stepping Melissa had witnessed a moment ago.” So it stands to reason they should be directly behind her.”

 

Probably.”

 

Melissa felt she was arguing with an ogre. “And yet can you see any, even with the gaze of Futabatei.”

 

None at all.” He kept his stance, waiting with the patience of a thousand really dumb rocks that didn’t even realise they couldn’t have intelligence.

 

So why are you still waiting?”

 

Because Natoko said there were demons coming.”

 

And why should you believe her while neither of us can see any of them?”

 

Because I trust Natoko.”

 

Pausing, Melissa double checked as far as she could sense. They were clear. She smiled.

 

Very well,” she said, losing all expression and getting ready for battle herself. “What are your orders?”

 

I don’t have any.” He looked up. “Though I suppose defensive positions would be a good start.”

 

Already way ahead of you.”

 

**

 

Still panting Natoko blustered through the south wing second floor corridor, banging on every door she came to.

 

The demons are coming. Prepare yourselves!” she spat out, thumping hard on the fourth door on the right. Iziz rattled at her side and she took steps to stabilise it. Retrieving her sword had only come second to informing Sagara. It was pure luck she had found him so easily. His return from training was the perfect timing she hoped to respect from her lord and master. He had taken the situation in perfectly after a quick briefing. Already he had ordered her to do what she thought best and it was clear by now that meant warning the others. Resting against the unanswered door, Natoko regained her breath. Her thighs were still on fire from the sprint, she also fought her stomach turning against her, threatening an attack of cafeteria food.

 

Otsune had cleared out most of the residents and got them to the lobby already. Her idea was the pretence of a fire drill but Natoko knew better. There was no time for secrets now. War had been declared against them. On behalf of Mister Jupiter, Kiriyama had begun the assault against the forces of the Balance. Even now those he turned would be burning the streets of Fuugosuki’s amusement district, possibly infecting all who came their way. Kiriyama’s intentions must have been to raise an army on the spot that they may dare not face due to the once human origins of the now demonic monstrosities.

 

Kiriyama’s threat echoed through her ears. Sagara’s headquarters, or at least the place where he was squatting, was not public knowledge. Though Sakimoto Industries and the OniHono knew of his location, no demons had been directly aware. Even if they had, the location was set up for him temporarily. Leaving was an option.

 

But for herself, her location would have been listed in the school records. And even if she hadn’t made her allegiance clear at the tournament, Kiriyama knew, and that was all that was needed.

 

Heading for the exit, Natoko made her way back into the lobby, passing no one. People were either hutting themselves in their rooms or already out to help. Along the way Sarah joined her, marching alongside her. Natoko felt a slow rise in her heart. The girl knew what was at stake.

 

In the lobby, Otsune stood by the entrance, waiting with arms folded. All around them various groups of girls were chatting in little circles, not an edge of concern beyond a curious natter. This is why Natoko wanted to reveal the demons to them sooner rather than later. To get them ready, to see this as more than a fire drill.

 

Besides Otsune stood those who knew better; Fujiko, Sakura… and a boy whose name she had not yet learnt.. Otsune acknowledged her as she approached.

 

Sagara’s by the entrance,” said Otsune, still looking out the entrance. “His girlfriend’s just joined him.”

 

The girl is his assistant,” Natoko corrected her sharply, not wishing for mistakes to be made now. How much Otsune knew about the situation, Natoko wasn’t sure, but she had figured that at least was obvious

 

Okay,” Otsune continued, not sounding very sorry for her error. “I presume he’s keeping an eye out. What are we looking for here?”

 

Former humans. Brown skin. Very hairy. Their bodies are all – uh, messed up.”

 

Otsune’s head tilted. “Messed up how?”

 

Like they… turned into blobs and then stood back up again. You’ll see when you see them.”

 

Tautology… okay. Any estimates of how many?” Natoko felt her lips hold back a response, choosing to just stare at her friend. “What?”

 

I’m just… kinda shocked you’re taking this seriously.”

 

Are you telling the truth?”

 

Yes but-”

 

Then I will take the threat seriously,” Otsune stated plainly. “I have seen demons, Natoko. I have seen things you haven’t seen. And I trust you when you say you’ve gotten in way over your head with something and come crying to others it fix it up after you screwed up so badly that you’ve ended up bringing some hellspawn right to us and our collection of hot innocent asses.”

 

She is, of course, joking,” Fujiko interjected on the other side.

 

Correct. Fujiko is neither innocent nor hot.

 

And yet a few months ago she would have disagreed about that second noun.”

 

Be quiet. We need to focus.”

 

Natoko did focus. She had quickly gotten lost.

 

Otsune continued. “Natoko, what would you say this Kiriyama’s strategy is going to be here, from what you know of him.”

 

Natoko had told Otsune most of the situation with Kiriyama previously. She had left out the part about him tricking her into the easy framing of murder. “The demon’s he created didn’t seem all that smart. It’s like he turned them into beasts.”

 

Mindless beasts or feral slash cunning beasts.”

 

I… don’t know. Mindless. No- I don’t know, I was escaping by that point.”

 

They’re probably most likely to maybe assault from the front then,” Otsune looking perfectly sure of herself despite her words.” But with such limited information it’s stupid to assume anything that could be considered a prediction of the enemy’s moves. So here’s the plan-”

 

Brought to you by Otsune,” Fujiko butt in, “who is apparently in charge.”

 

Shush, no one cares,” said Otsune. “The plan is simple. We hold position in the lobby and front entrance. Sagara, Natoko and Melissa will defend.” Who was Melissa? “We cannot expect any of the residents to actually hold their own or not scream like movie stars as soon as the demons attack. If panic ensues and the defenders are not able to hold back the swarm of demons Fujiko and Alexis will escort them in the opposite direction. I assume both of you are able to handle that.”

 

That I can do,” confirmed Fujiko. The boy just nodded. Why is he here anyway? Natoko thought. “Just as long as you’re not hoping I can hold up in any fight of any kind.”

 

Won’t matter. I’ll work as the rear guard to defend you as you leave, regardless of which way you have to go. Lead them over the fence and down the hill. Should we get attacked on both sides do your best to get them outside before we’re overwhelmed, and I’ll try to have Occam protect them with a ring of fire.”

 

You’ll keep them safe? In a ring of fire?”

 

The fire can hurt demons. If those who can fight are disabled, that’ll be your safest place.”

 

What do I do?” Sarah asked, fists raised and ready to charge at the biggest bully in the playground.

 

You stay with the girls Fujiko will lead to safety and remember that you are ten years old.”

 

Hey, I can fight.”

 

No, you can stab old ladies. This will be completely different. You won’t be able to do anything.”

 

You don’t know what I’m able to do. You’ve got no fucking idea!”

 

Sakura, make sure Sarah goes with you. Do not leave her behind.”

 

Y-yes,” said Sakura uncertain of whether the young girl was about to start something right there.

 

Now, next up we have to decide the important step of-”

 

Something coming!” cried Sagara.

 

Everyone rushed out of the lobby in a huge swarm to the call. Curiosity poured out the gates and into the courtyard, almost taking Natoko down in the rush. Pushing herself forwards, and glad to make it there before anyone else, she glanced down the steps. Nothing could be seen between herself and the entrance. But if Sagara had announced it…

 

Slowly, Natoko took her own fighting stance, taking her legs apart, bent for a speed step. How many more could she manage? The thought flitted across her head, her hand clutching Iziz easily and feeling the weight fall off her mind. She was his instrument now. She would strike in his name and cut down those who would oppose, those who would taint the innocent no matter their intentions. Behind her, the wind informed her of everyone taking a step back. They had only seen her grab her sword. It impressed her they knew to trust her subtlest of actions.

 

Still there was no one on the steps, but Sagara’s stance had fallen low, angled to strike up. His gaze had turned to the large boulder near the top of the steps. At once, everyone’s eyes darted over to the giant rock, as if expecting it to strike at him itself after being revealed. The rock, usually taking the role of the best place to rest after trekking the one hundred and eight steps was now an enemy’s high ground. A perfect vantage point, with only the large bushy tree topping it.

 

The world went silent for ten heavy seconds.

 

The tree rustled, a shadow merging slowly out of it. It disappeared, a light thud tapping the rock.

 

Iziz dropped an inch out the hilt. Otsune’s flame burned larger and brighter. Even the American ninja was ready for anything now. Natoko brace herself.

 

The shadow shot down and Natoko lunged. “Now!” she called and everyone took the moment. Following her, Iziz curled out its shaft without touching wood and raised itself high above her head, shifting quickly to reign hell upon the hell denizen. Sagara followed, bringing his gauntlet up to strike with enough force to crack the demon and the bolder behind it. The ninja, gone for a second, was already above and falling with the sun behind her.

 

Sarah went low with the knife she shouldn’t have been carrying , the hidden blade joining Natoko’s in its strike. Aki was at the tip of their blades, second from impalement.

 

Stop!” Fire suddenly raged from nowhere, surrounding Iziz and forcing Natoko back before any damage occurred. Everyone was thrown away from the target, the sudden pressure knocking them aside, Natoko’s own momentum sent her suddenly shifting backwards, falling hard to the ground. Iziz fell away from her. She was too dazed to notice.

 

What are you doing?” Natoko screamed to Otsune, the girl staring at her from above with a livid expression. “How can you be so stupid-”

 

I’m stupid?” the woman shouted right back. “Look at what you’re attacking.”

 

With a wave of Otsune’s arm, the fire circle vanished, revealing its prisoner Natoko felt her throat seize up, as brown lips smiled at her, a perplexed expression surrounding them.

 

Now with messed up hair and waving with uncertainly from where the shadow was standing, Aki stood back up.

 

Erm… Hi. What’s going on?”

 

Aki,” Natoko said with relief, rushing up to her friend. “You’re safe. I wasn’t sure.” With her free hand she pulled her the girl to her. Aki stiffly returned the hug.

 

Yeah I’m fine,” Aki replied, after being allowed to breath. “Did you just get back now? Why’s everyone outside?”

 

I rushed back after I thought I lost you.” Natoko felt relief before the situation reminded her of itself. “We need to get back into position.” She turned to face the crowd, waving them down. “Everybody back into the lobby. How far behind you were they?’

 

The residents made no effort to move, all looking to the small group by the stairs. Gen had appeared near the back, asking anyone who would listen what was going on.

 

The dolls?” Aki turned to look back down the stairs, peering down with a sharp glance. “None were behind me. Did I set anything off?”

 

The dolls aren’t important,” Natoko said. “If anything,. They’ll assist in protecting us.” She had forgotten about them completely. “But the demons Aki. Were they following you?” For a second, it occurred to her that Aki should be a lot sweatier. “It’s okay if you led them back here.”

 

Natoko, I don’t-”

 

Don’t worry about it,:” she reassured her friend, who look of worry was expected for a girl who just brought the horde down upon them. “I can understand your actions. I don’t doubt I would do the same.”

 

Natoko I-”

 

But we have to focus now. Did you see how many they were? Are they infecting people? Was Kiriyama coming with t-”

 

Natoko!” The samurai shut her mouth, a silent apology for her attempted overload. It was at that moment she noticed Aki didn’t seem all that exhausted. “What are you talking about?”

 

Natoko’s breath stopped. “The demons that attacked us.”

 

What demons? Where?” Again, Aki was looking around for any signs of a threat.

 

The ones that attacked us at the arcade.”

 

The girl glanced from side to side at the others, as if looking for a tell-tale smile. “We… weren’t attacked at the arcade.”

 

Yes we were.”

 

No.. We went to leave, and you disappeared. But…” Aki seemed to figure something out. “Did you get attacked? Outside?”

 

No! I mean… yes,” stumbled Natoko. “You must have got out before me. Kiriyama came up behind and blindsided me. He was… he was like a demon. He started changing other people into demons. And when everyone tried to get out. He attacked those at the exits and made them into demons. I can’t believe you go-”

 

Wait, I went back in to find you. There weren’t any demons there.” Aki looked perplexed.

 

Well, I went upstairs to escape into the next room and-”

 

Yeah but, you sad the exits were full of demons, but I came in back through the exits. There weren’t any demons.”

 

Now Natoko glanced side to side, looking over to Otsune, who was looking very miffed with her hands on her hips.

 

No, there were… but I went upstairs into the next room. I hit the fire alarm to get everyone to leave.”

 

That was you who hit the fire alarm? Were the demons invisible then Or did they chase you?”

 

No, I escaped through the fire exits. They stayed in the main room.” Natoko’s head burned. Was this the time to be arguing semantics. The demons were probably in the village streets by now, piling up for the initial assault against the dorm.

 

Natoko…” Aki had become completely flummoxed now. “We all left after the fire alarm, but I was in there before and in there straight after we were let back in. I went to look for you but you were gone. There were no demons.”

 

Natoko felt her mouth hang open as words tried to leave it. “The demons were there. Kiriyama was turning innocent humans. He hit me on the back of the head with an iron bar. Ow!”

 

Otsune was behind her, a finger extended at eyeball level. “What are you doing?” Natoko yelled.

 

Wondering why you don’t have a concussion,” she answered plainly, her admonishing glare now fixed into position. Natoko rubbed the back of her head despite not really feeling any pain at the prodding. Why didn’t she have a concussion?

 

I can’t believe this?” a new voice said. It was the American ninja girl, standing next to Sagara. Draynor had spirited away. She was still in the realm of understanding. “You’re on standby with nothing to do and so you choose to waste our time on storytelling?”

 

What? No I-” What was going on?

 

Enough!” silenced the ninja girl. “This is inappropriate behaviour for a servant of the Balance. We are directly against the notions of falsehood and self-deception. Whichever one you are bringing to the table I will tell you to cease now. This may be a quiet time, but it is not one to cry wolf with.”

 

But I wasn’t lying. I saw-”

 

If you were not lying to us, then you were lying to yourself. Either way I see no demons and I’m sure Sagara can confirm.” All eyes turned to Sagara.

 

Huh? Oh… No,” he said, without even another quick scan around. “There are definitely no demons in a twenty five mile radius.”

 

And that would include the city in which you were just visiting, correct? Therefore, we can conclude that there is no current threat to the Balance except that of a moral panic.” The girl sounded like she was hissing. Natoko wanted to fall silent.

 

There were demons!” she insisted, waiting to wipe the glares off everyone’s faces. “They were everywhere and he was making more.”

 

Via vomiting , I believe you said earlier?” Natoko could only nod before being cut off. “There are several methods a demon can possess a human host. The main one is the ritual of the kotodama. Other methods are possible, such as a transference stone being used, but no method includes projecting mouth faeces onto a person.

 

It wasn’t… mouth… dropping. It was a bright purple energy.”

 

Also impossible. You waste our time now.” The ninja girl turned to Sagara. “I’m leaving. This has long become unnecessary.”

 

Okay. Talk to you soon,” said Sagara, giving a quick hand only wave.

 

Wait. You have to believe me,” Natoko began. The ninja girl walked back into the crowd of girls still watching. They let her through as she headed back to the dormitory, most still watching Natoko. “There are demons.”

 

Natoko,” Aki mewled, almost whimpering to her friend. “I’m sorry, but… there wasn’t.”

 

There was.”

 

There wasn’t. I would have seen them. I know what demons look like, or at least know they exist to keep an eye out for what they can be.”

 

It doesn’t matter what you thought you saw,” Natoko growled, stiffening up against her friend. “I know what I saw and I saw demons!”

 

Natoko?” A hand was on her shoulder. Large and warm. Her whole right arm suddenly wanted to relax.

 

My Lord?”

 

I think you need to lay down,” he said, the world going dark around him.

 

**.

 

**

 

Has she brought it here?”

 

How could she not?”

 

But how could she so?”

 

Natoko was sleepy, but not tired. Part of her was glad to rest.

 

It exists in all things human. They brought it forth after all, in their hopes and dreams, the unanswered prayers formed. He exists in all of us, one way or another. His words become our goals, just as our words formed his goals.”

 

There was something missing. Not Iziz. Iziz was wrapped around her embrace, keeping her warm as she cradled it. Something else. Something tense, always being rigid. She never noticed it until it was never there.

 

It is not in her. It should be, but It is not.”

 

How is this so.?

 

In mind, she is all too susceptible, but in spirit. That is how she keeps free. We are possibly not allowed to understand.”

 

She is a carver then? She who forges her own path.”

 

That is most likely.”

 

Natoko sneezed. The two voices stopped talking. For a moment she felt the urge to apologise, no matter how brief the interruption. If only she could talk.

 

A faint beating sound occurred to her. Monotonous. Repetitive. Turning towards it she felt herself slip away. The sudden trip was pleasant.

 

See. Even here she does what none should be capable of. There is no sneezing in the shadows.”

 

It is cold in a shadow.”

 

But there is no body temperature within the OniKage. The concept simply does not exist. Yet here she is, being affected by metabolism, in a world that can be nothing more than the by-product of a dream.”

 

The name was familiar. The voices were not. They were both Sagara, she knew that, but there was nothing else to it.

 

Part of her was aware her eyes were wide open. They had been since she had become aware. The voices said nothing to her, but they anchored her all the same. This dream was a relaxed darkness. There was no light to blind, no heat to avoid. The world expanded, then shrunk. She let her mind wander over the fact four times. She could be safe here, but only for an eternity.

 

It was silent for a long time. “You’re right, but it is still so.”

 

I know. I don’t disagree, old friend, but the impossibility is still there.”

 

Do you think she can hear us?”

 

Not sure. We should probably give some vital clues to her just in case.”

 

A shame neither of us knows anything vital.”

 

How about, ‘The OniHono is not your enemy’?”

 

It’s a bit dangerous, isn’t it. Just because it’s a tool for the Babylon gates doesn’t mean it won’t vaporise her on contact.”

 

Okay… ‘Beware of It!”

 

We should definitely be more ambiguous if we’re going to do that one.”

 

The same voice gave a mild growl of annoyance, not that she could tell the difference between them. As the animalistic cries continued, she felt the voices getting faint. The beating fell deeper and she could see light coming out at the end of what was an apparent tunnel.

 

Very well… Oh, how about ‘As soon as you get out of here, Mr. Jupiter will attempt to Mind-rape you.”

 

Natoko felt agony surround her world. The light flew around her, wanting to envelope her. In a panic she struggled, seeking to use her hands to latch onto the darkness and keep herself hidden and secure.. The light tugged mercilessly, dropping her towards it. Her mind told her that giant hands were latching onto her, bringing her away from safety. That wasn’t fair. She wanted to stay there. Regardless of what happened outside, the inside would always be cuddly. A third hand grasped her now. Next thing she knew Iziz was sizzling, the hilt bubbling away. Instinctively, her hands tried to throw it away from her, but her spirit persisted, keeping a tight grip and screaming in unholy agony as wood started to fuse to her flesh. The world went white, purely as a result of her own actions, and suddenly a heavy tug pulled her out into the light.

 

Eyes straining, Natoko peeked out into existence. The world tried to blind her and she shunned it away until the large hand grabbed her own and shunted her upwards. Her bones followed against their will, her other hand trying to free her even as her feet dangling with no ground in sight. Her eyes adjusting, she became aware of the rocky cliff face she was climbing without touching, its smooth yet rough surface rising quickly towards her, before dipping back into a series of deep folds. Her ride stopped without warning, and her arm hissed in pain. Her vision restored, she looked around and saw only light surrounding her and the cliff side. When she realised nothing was holding her hand, she got down and stood in the thin air.

 

She checked her weapon, Iziz still securely fashioned to her side. The eye had appeared when she looked back up. Large. Blue. It came from where the folds sagged and were four times as large. She could see its twin over to her left.

 

Hello, Miss Yamanaka,” said the giant face of Mr. Jupiter. “I thought we should talk a little. Get to know one another better.”

 

**

 

Nanahara was bored. This came with every single minimum wage salary man job he would ever have. He had accepted it a long time ago that it was his duty in life to be bored beyond all comparable measure. He had even met with the Oracle of Sakimoto who informed him directly, and even provided it in writing when he requested, that boredom was his reason for existing. Nanahara’s destiny in life would be to have a boring job. He would have a boring girlfriend. Boring family. Boring friends who only ever wanted to do boring things. In a few years he might get a boring promotion and this would lead him to make a boring proposal that his wife would accept (albeit grudgingly), before he got them a boring apartment and had two boring kids, one of whom will fulfil his dream of being a boring five time platinum rock star..

 

But until that happened he would have to live a mundane life working alongside the mystical forces of the Balance. And it would only ever be working alongside, and never working with. And he would take up mundane informant roles (for the heroic warriors that would approach him) that would reveal mundane clues (that would always lead to new revenues of spectacular insight) that would lead them to face off against mundane opponent (twisted monsters of the chaos realms or angelic figures whose forgiveness knew no bounds) and for this he would always get unappreciated, mundane gratitude (that was always unappreciated, mundane gratitude).

 

Nanahara didn’t like his job, or his life, or the people he knew, or the great destiny that he was a part of. He didn’t even know why he did it. But he did.

 

The fourteen cables surrounded him, a small booklet told him what where they needed to go. This was of course irrelevant. Being blessed (literally) with an eidetic memory meant he knew where they all needed to go the first time he set them.

 

It was now the fourteenth time, and the issue now was becoming clear. It was not about attaching the cables into the primary server of the S.I.S. It was keeping them in.

 

Out of mundane boring routine he scooped up the first wire. A Cat5e network cable. Pretty pink. This one could go into any of the main ports. He clipped it into place, took a step back, and watched as the electrical discharge catapulted it across the room, stopping only when the wire pulled it back.

 

The S.I.S wasn’t even waiting for him to turn his back now. He groaned, loudly and forcefully, enough to make the stupid computer know it was being hated. It couldn’t know, of course. It wasn’t allowed to, but that still didn’t stop him from trying.

 

He gave up, just for a minute, stealthily leaning against the wall where the fans were and pulling out a smoke. He had disabled the servers fire alarms when he came in, knowing all this predictable boringness was going to happen and knowing he’d have to engage in a filthy boring habit for his transgressions.

 

What transgressions, he didn’t know. He no longer fucking cared. He was the Balance’s shit joke, the little reminder to everyone else that, as much as their eternal task to preserve the line between heaven and Hell was full of torment, there was a guy that had it so much worse, and if you ever met him, you could say ‘please, you’re just the computer guy, you’ve got it easy’.

 

He did have it easy, that was the problem. He was also trapped. Like this stupid little server in its stupid little server room, he couldn’t escape. It wasn’t even that he knew too much. It was that every attempt he had made so far had led him right back to another odds and sods job within the balance. With his experience he thought he could at least get a managerial role. But every task so far had led to either selling food and using self-hypnosis to prevent himself murdering the customers, or another shitty job looking after this shitty server.

 

Picking up the cables, he rammed them into the ports and began palm fisting them in. They stayed for a few seconds longer than before, then tried to pop out again the second he caught them. With another growl he flipped his cigarette out and held it up, letting the server camera see the spliff he had before tried to hide, before bringing it over the port. The remaining cables stayed in for another two seconds, then shot across the room again, one so powerful it pulled the wire out on the other side.

 

No longer able to contain a single fuck he jammed the smoke into the port the wire occupied a second ago and squeezed it in. The motion brought a sharp elation on the hairs of his skinny back. A single act of rebellion, proof that he wasn’t to be trifled with. He stubbed it in there and twisted, letting the specks of ash fall to the floor as the embers burned into the metal contacts on the RJ-45’s socket. A green light came on.

 

Thank you very fucking much,” he shouted, ripping the cig out and replacing the cable. He gave it ten seconds and when nothing happened, replaced the remaining thirteen. When they were all finally in place, he stepped back to observe his work and noted how even facing off with a server containing the latest in artificial technology was still not enough to surgically remove the cramp feeling of boredom whenever he was given this mundane cable replacing job.

 

Picking up his tool kit, Nanahara left the room, switching the fire alarm back on before he left. Nanahara’s moods and motives now had a 97.8% validity in predictions and acknowledging his personality was now 100% complete. As such, the situation had been easy to modulate and corresponded with all fifty two event triggers that had originally being decided upon. The event was a success.

 

When it was silent, the camera turned to focus, peering down on the cigarette butt, now fallen on the Linotype. It had ceased to glow and its heat disappeared from S.I.S’s sensors. The event log was compiled, before being encrypted and stored in a secure logs folder.

 

It would do for now..

 

**

 

You’ve been taken out of the game for a short while, Miss Yamanaka,” Mr. Jupiter said, his face no longer belonging on the side of a mountain. “You would think this gives you an advantage, or time to rest. On the contrary, it exposes you a lot more than you would care to believe.”

 

There were in a simple room, a lavishly decorated simple room that looked like it had been stripped bare by looters long ago, leaving only two chairs and a varnished wooden table. It was her belief that she was sitting on one of the chairs. The walls were covered in an intrinsically detailed Victorian wallpaper that had maths formulas scribbled all over it. There was only one door, and no windows.

 

What’s happened here, I presume, for any more than a presumption would be foolish of me, you have been ‘put to sleep’ probably by my dear friend Sagara, whom I’ve never met. I suspected this may happen at some point in the future, though I confess I don’t know what the reason is. It’s possible your physical body has been possessed by one of my kind. You may have even been killed..

 

A demon stood beside Mr. Jupiter, a grotesque orange face with a single large wart covering up each cheek and holes where the eyes should be. Its mouth was sewn up by an amateur And it was holding a tea tray, shivering on the spot as Mr. Jupiter took his time pouring liquid into one of the two cups.

 

Of course, if you don’t recall any major situation happening then I’d be going along my favourite theory. That the Balance had finally considered you too much of a prolonged threat to them, and dealt with you accordingly.”

 

Natoko sneezed again. Scenes tried to play in her mind but the engine providing the pictures wouldn’t turn over. She remembered frustration and disappointment, but not where they came from.

 

The demon shuffled over to her, presenting the cup of tea. She observed the smooth brown, perfectly tea looking liquid and held her hand up to refuse. The demon’s stuff face quickly grew agitated, and it its head twisted in Mr. Jupiter’s direction. The cup started shaking over the tea tray as the demon started to fidget on the spot.

 

Natoko quickly scooped the cup off the tray. The demon’s eyes stretched wider than they should, then seemed relieved.

 

Now what this does, what they’ve done. They think this just knocks you out cold. What it does however is leaves you in a situation you’ve never been in before and hence turns all your built in psychic sleep defences all the way to off. As a result, we can both chat in peace and invade your deepest memories.”

 

For some reason this felt strangely acceptable to Natoko. She lifted her cup off its plate and took a swig. Already set to the perfect temperature, the warm and subtle aroma attacked what she assumed were her senses in a pleasant way. She took another sip, and then rested the tea down on the table.

 

Now,” continued Mr. Jupiter. “I brought you here today, or brought myself here, I’m not entirely sure, to discuss your future with you. Now as I’m sure your teachers have been telling you you’re a bright positive young woman with plenty of potential, and I would like to see to it that your potential doesn’t get squandered. I’m not saying it is being squandered with your association with the Balance, but I’m not saying it’s not either. You are at the very least, turning your potential into positive energy.”

 

Natoko smiled politely and waited on Mr. Jupiter with patience and respect.

 

Now Miss Yamanaka, I’m not sure if they’ve told you this. It’s often dangerous information to reveal, so I can perfectly understand Sagara hiding it from you, for your own good you see. But you are, what we call in this industry, a Carver. One who cuts their own path. I’m not sure where this term comes from myself but I think you’ll agree it’s quite appropriate to yourself.”

 

Out of the corner of her eye, Natoko saw the demon push the tea trolley out through the mahogany door and shut it behind itself.

 

Now being a Carver actually makes you a rare and precious commodity in the demon world, on the plains of the divine, and also, as you can probably guess, the Balance. This is because a Carver can do that which no one else can, and that, namely, is anything.”

 

Natoko waited, lost for words. Mr. Jupiter paused long enough to make her feel like she should say something, but cut her off just as her mouth started to unpeel.

 

Now you Carvers, you break the rules somehow. You are just human. Yet your desires can be turned into potential and then action so much easier than everyone else. I’m not just talking about ‘just try your hardest and you’ll succeed’ – that usually doesn’t work anyway, we have Sloth demons to prevent it – but literally anything. If your desire was to find a way to fly you’d do it, with or without machinery. If you wanted the ability to turn into metal, you’d discover it despite no method existing at this present point. If you wanted to be a master samurai with speed of the sword no one else had…”

 

Natoko sat there, patiently, her brain turned a cartwheel in her head.

 

Well I’d say you were on your way there nicely.” He stopped to take a sip of his own tea. The mug was all black save for two white spirals going around the top. She watched… patiently, as she saw his lips extend past his cheeks. “But with this alone, even though you have achieved so much, your progress is limited. You are not even fully aware of your achievements. Are you aware that, in your Battle Royal, at the Underground tournament, twenty of the opponents you threw out of the ring were all full-fledged demons or divine in disguise. Impressive, isn’t it. To defeat demons without knowing what they are.”

 

Yet even this amazing display of power is not what you are fully capable of. And this is because you are not aware of the tools at your disposal. You did not even know you were a Carver. You were not aware of how your potential grows exponentially, rather than laterally like other. You do not even know what exponential means.”

 

It was true. She didn’t.

 

I wish to change that. To change you. I’m going to make you an offer at the end of this, and all I ask from you in the meantime is that you listen to me in full. Now, I’ve given you two pieces of advice. I’m going to give you one more. I don’t know if you know it, so I may just be going over things you know. This last piece is a piece about me and demons at large. Now, our demons may be different from what demons you’re used to hearing about. Some of us are snarling hell beasts who exist solely to cause human suffering, but others are simply facets of human sin, who wish no harm on humans whatsoever but merely exist to be the sum on their errors.”

 

The wall behind Mr. Jupiter made a small, thumping noise. Natoko looked over, but couldn’t see anything.

 

I myself am not one of these. I am a sin of Envy. I exist to make humans jealous, jealousy of the petty boasts of other, jealous of those they perceive greater. It is good work. I enjoy it very much. It requires a bit of subtle pushing. A man who brags there. A rumour about an affair with a model there, ruining an exercise regime to make it look like your friend is doing better than you. There’s a lot that goes into it.”

 

Natoko was sure of that. How often had she been jealous of Aki’s genius, or Sagara’s natural strength. She could have that.

 

But one of the key aspects of envy is relative comparison. That’s where we make one human great in order to make all the humans around it feel weak and pathetic by comparison. That is what I want to do for you.” He pushed a piece of paper towards her. Longer than usual, white and illegible, she lifted it up and began glancing over the unreadable writing. There was a large box at the end, clearly for a signature. “I want to make you great, Ms Yamanaka Natoko. Work for me, and I’ll bring you out to your greatest potential I can guarantee we can do this for you.” She looked up to him. “Why, just ask Kiriyama.”

 

Kiriyama walked up to stand by Mr. Jupiter’s side.

 

It’s true you know. I couldn’t believe how well it worked. Within just a few weeks I had gained super strength and the ability to teleport. And I’m not even a Carver. I would definitely recommend Mr. Jupiter’s services.”

 

You see. If you agree now, I can also guarantee that I won’t take your soul.” Kiriyama had disappeared. “I just plain don’t need it. I live off the energies of envy that permeate the planet. Just by making you great and others jealous I get what I want, and all you have to do is just carry on what you’re doing. I give you help, advice and pushes along the way, along with the sinister underlying threat of wrecking your sanity should you refuse, and you just carry on living your life. You can even carry on working alongside the Balance if you want. You’ll just be officially serving me instead. I honestly won’t mind and won’t even ask you to betray anyone. It really is a win, win, win deal.”

 

Natoko was surprised, though not by much. Usually she thought deals with the devil would automatically condemn her soul. Knowing that she could do all this and not face eternal damnation was… very nice.

 

The wall pounded again. The tiniest of cracks started to appear.

 

So what do you think? Take a moment to think about it. You have until the end of this dream sequence to decide. Remember, anything you want to be can be yours as long as you let me guide you on your path. You can be strong. You can be famous. I’ll even work towards shaping you physically so others will finally find you attractive. You don’t lose anything by agreeing and if you don’t agree I’ll just make everyone you hold dear think you’re crazy by subtly manipulating events around you. You really can’t miss out.

 

Looking at the pen, Natoko’s mind wandered. She saw herself, standing besides Sagara on a hill, the enemies of the Balance surrounding the landscape before them. Her resplendent armour marking her high rank, Iziz hanging by her side. All her friends behind her watching in awe of her actions. Her mind played with ideas of battle, the speeds she could attain, the skills, the respect. It was all a very easy choice to make.

 

She put the pen down.

 

No thank you,” she said.

 

The crack shattered behind them. The demon butler falling through the hole. It screamed loudly, its mouth free, the string dangling free from its toothless mouth with eyes burning fearlessly. In an instance it covered the room to reach Mr. Jupiter and quickly evaporated with a wave of his hand.

 

The dust lingered in the air, floating towards Natoko. She stood up, accepting it. It was her mind after all. She braced her blade.

 

Oh, no need for that,” Mr Jupiter said raising his hand and nearly losing it as Natoko slipped Iziz out for a strike. “I insist. Really, there’s no need.”

 

Leave my head now,” Natoko asked with the sternness of a primed nuclear warhead.

 

It was only an offer. One that still stands.” He pushed the paper on the desk closer to her. “Keep it. Find me if you change your mind, or if your friends betray you after I make them think they can’t trust you anymore.” Iziz flashed out. He was by the door in the same instant. “It was a pleasure to finally speak to you.”

 

Leave!” she said waking up.

 

***

 

Natoko woke up with the taste of hair on her tongue and the sound of the rain’s continuous attempt to shatter the window pane. Slowly, her eyes drifted awake. Her face felt clammy and her muscles were groaning at her. Her stomach’s only contribution to the situation was a growl. When had she last eaten? For that matter, when had she fallen asleep? The last thing she remembered was all the others staring at her and the demons-

 

Bolting upright, Natoko immediately regretted it, her quadriceps screaming out in agony. Both thigh muscles felt like they were about to combust by absorbing too much heat and she hissed between her teeth upon poking one of them. The quick step, it appeared, was torturous with prolonged use, though Natoko figured a sprint the distance between the city and Heavenly Springs would prove too much for most people.

 

She would just have to train harder.

 

She was in bed, her bed, somewhere in the middle of the night. Someone must have carried her here, meaning she had probably passed out. Had it been Sagara? Had she had to trouble her lord with such a petty task? None of the others were strong enough for it surely? Outside a bolt of lightning flashed somewhere it the distance. Natoko looked to it instinctively, seeing the city as a lit up outcrop amid all the clouds. It was noticeably not on fire or appeared within the middle of a demon invasion apocalypse scenario. It just looked as boring as always

 

Her stomach growling at her for attention, Natoko yawned and tried lazily to stretch. She should probably eat. Her bones creaked within her and she leaned over for the light. She was still in her school uniform. The collar of her shirt had been unbuttoned and her socks taken off, but beyond that it looked like she had retained her modesty, though the thought of Sagara needing to change her gave her-

 

The light wasn’t working. She flicked the switch a few times out of habit and looked for her alarm clock. The red LEDs that should have been on the other side of the bed weren’t there. The clock itself was.

 

Sorry,” a voice said and straight after a bolt of lightning filled her eyes. “There was a power cut. My fault.” Natoko’s body spun out of bed, hating her for making it do such a thing so quickly as she reached for the blade. Iziz was in her hand and out its sheath in an instant, no amount of darkness being able to hide the two from each other. Raising her weapon, another lightning bolt filled her vision and for the instant it lasted lit up the presence of a young girl sitting on the floor besides the door.

 

The room fell back to darkness and Natoko lowered her sword carefully to her side, sensing no threat. She recognised the girl, the one Sagara had called Raiko. The girl’s presence had skipped her mind these last few weeks and last Natoko recalled she was still comatose. What was she doing in Natoko’s room?

 

I don’t think we’ve met ,” Raiko said, now just another shadow in Natoko’s room. “I’m Raiko. Thank you for taking care of me all this time.”

 

Er… The same to you,” Natoko said, realising he should at least attempt to polite. “I’m Yamanaka Natoko. Nice to meet you.”

 

Oh,” the girl said, a little drearily. “You’re Miss Yamanaka. You’re the one that became Sagara’s assistant. I thought that might be the case.”

 

Natoko felt her neck twitch. “Actually I’m his retainer.”

 

Retainer? I’m sure Yuya said you were an assistant.”

 

No. It’s Retainer.”

 

Hhhmmm.” The room fell silent for a few seconds. “Well. Means nothing to me. I got you some food by the way. Thought you might be hungry.”

 

Natoko looked to her bedside cupboard. In what was left of the light was a small bowl filled with pasta shapes. Probably something of Sakura’s. “Er… thank you.” She sat down and started eating. It was spicy but cold. At that point it could have been rotten insects.

 

I have to be honest,” Raiko said after the first full mouthfuls. “I knew who you were. I remember you from the tournament. It’s just… I thought we should meet and… talk.”

 

Natoko let the spoon hover in front of her mouth, feeling almost amused by the hesitant voice hiding in the darkness. It reminded her of a dream she had, though she couldn’t remember why.

 

It’s just… I… That is… With Sagara.” Natoko heard what sounded like the clearing of a throat. “There is much to Sagara that you do not know.”

 

Natoko bean eating again. “Of course. He never tells me anything.”

 

And you do not listen when he does.”

 

Natoko paused. Maybe it was the intense fatigue, but part of her didn’t care for this fact. Sagara didn’t need to tell her anything. He was her master, she would simply accept everything he told her to do, if that ever happened.

 

I…” Raiko hesitated, swallowing hard as she seemed to merge with the shadows in the corner even further. “I will probably be falling in love with Sagara very soon.”

 

The rage that seethed through Natoko’s tired body hit the boiling point for a split second. Her hand wanted to glide for Iziz, but held itself from the sword long enough for her to calm down. “What… what makes you say that?” she asked, trying for patience.

 

I don’t want to. No… I do, but I don’t think I do. Maybe I do but I felt like what was calling me to love him was the wrong thing. Or that maybe the thing that’s making me love him is making me think that so in the end I decided that I must love him. I don’t know.”

 

Natoko sat there, leaving the empty pasta bowl in her lap. She relaxed a little, mostly out of confusion.

 

There is a demon inside of me,” the girl said, “or a Divine, I don’t know. Yuya told me the Sirynclou were demons, but this one looks out for me and protects me. If it wasn’t for the OniRai, I’ll be dead by now several times over.”

 

OniRai? The name wasn’t familiar, but its style was.

 

It doesn’t even have to save me. Me dying saves it. I don’t know why they call it a demon.”

 

Natoko relaxed. Why was she worried? This girl was fraught with a demon. Sagara would never share the same feelings as her. Besides, this was Sagara, and it was likely that a man such as himself would like have many admirers. Natoko certainly topped them all.

 

A demon has its own interests at heart,” Natoko said, recalling a conversation she felt she had recently. “What you may mistake as assistance is most like self-interest.

 

No I…” Raiko seemed distracted yet… charged. “I get that. I’ve said it myself many times. It’s just… this demon knows love itself.”

 

The lightning crashed outside again. The girl’s face glowed off of the reflection. Natoko couldn’t see her eyes.

 

It loves the OniKage, the spirit trapped inside Sagara. It loved it since before any of us were even alive, and a long time before that too. It even changed itself so its name became like that of the OniKage. Even agreed to the bonding process that attached our spirits together, all so it could continue to interact with the OniKage when it was sealed up in Sagara.” The girl buried her head in her arms, her words becoming a muffled mess.

 

And now ever since I met him I can’t stop thinking about him! His innocent grin, his cheeky laugh. Those incandescent emerald eyes. Those stupid hard abs!.” Raiko pounded the wooden floor in frustration, a blue spark erupted from her fist and disappeared against the ground.

 

And I can’t tell!” she continued. “Is this love at first sight, or is this monster inside me just bringing up the idea of how great it would be to lick every inch of Sagara’s muscular pectorals?”

 

Natoko’s rage had dissipated, but her cheeks were still burning.

 

If it was the first, maybe I could work with that, but the only one that could tell me is the OniRai, and I can’t exactly trust his opinion in the matter.”

 

Natoko’s ears picked up. “He?”

 

The OniRai.”

 

The OniRai is a male demon?”

 

That’s right.”

 

Does that mean the OniKage is a female demon.”

 

No, it’s not a demon. It’s a spirit. That we definitely know.”

 

But a female nonetheless.”

 

Er… that’s right.”

 

Maybe it was the darkness. But Raiko didn’t seem bothered by the details here. Natoko tried hard not to be either. The girl had a demon inside of her. That was what was important here surely. Though Sagara clearly wasn’t in a rush to expel the creature. It was probably right to assume either the demon had some kind of free pass or the Balance was looking for a way to get it out of her.

 

So anyway…” Raiko finally said, “I was wondering… I know we don’t know each other… but it would be the best thing if you could help me.”

 

Yes?” Natoko said very carefully.

 

Would you, and I can totally understand you saying no-” The girl pulled herself into the light, bringing herself up to Natoko’s legs. “Would you be able to arrange with Sagara… if you could maybe help me set him up… Could you ask him if he’d go on a date with me?”

 

The girl’s voice had raised enough octaves that Natoko’s head shot around in all directions as if to see if the inhabitants of any neighbouring rooms might have somehow heard.

 

Glaring at the girl, Natoko’s throat seized up , her hands grabbing the fabric of her skirt as she looked down on Raiko’s pleading eyes. Thoughts raced back a few months, another time when she was above someone else. Back then she had just taken what she had wanted most of all and this girl was asking her to give it all over to her.

 

Please Natoko,” the girl said, the sweet melody of her voice pinching Natoko’s ears. “Please. I just need to know whether or not what I’m feeling is anything close to what the OniRai is thinking. I can suppress him temporarily. I go on the date with Sagara, and I can judge for myself knowing the demon isn’t influencing me.”

 

Natoko sat stunned, a part of her brain registering that the rain had stopped behind her, another part just wanting to stab. The girl’s adorable face glowed in the moonlight behind Natoko and she felt her heart sink a little.

 

Very well,” Natoko said. “I’ll help you.”

 

[scene with Natoko overhearing a conversation between the group. Sagara brings up the sword belonging to her grandfather and Otsune placing doubt upon it]

 

The voice poked at the edge of Nanahara’s subspace as the beach around him rocked back and forth, upsetting his Mojitos and causing Rochelle to grasp onto his firm shoulders harder. Across the way, Candeen felt the sand pull away from her feet and he laughed out a hearty manly laugh as Monica and Satsuki giggled to each other, before resuming his foot massage.

 

Nanahara relaxed. It was none of his concern. The world just did that some time. The girls knew it would happen from time to time and of course they wouldn’t mind. They accepted him. They were the only ones in this world that did.

 

Lord Nanahara,” Rochelle said, leaning up to whisper in his ear, her supple lips just mere nanometres away from the hairs of his earlobe. He tilted his neck to catch the full length of her body and took in everything to her wonderfully toned legs to her gorgeous brown hair, taking extra time to admire just how much her red bikini was one size too small.

 

Yes, my dear,” he said, already stopping her words as their lips joined. Rochelle leaned into the kiss, already chewing on his lower lip but more than eager to let him take control. Suddenly he felt the grip on his feet tighten as Monica and Satsuki watched with a mix of envy and lust.

 

He grinned as he felt Rochelle push her tongue behind his teeth. All the girls were his. They knew that, and they knew they were equals before him, but it was so nice to watch them forget from time to time.

 

Beneath him Rochelle gasped for air and he released her. She took a moment to embrace him and let him feel the contents of her bikini press against his own impressive chest. “Lord Nanahara,” she tried to say again, and giggled as he acted to cut her off, only stopping when she placed a single finger to his lips. “Lord Nanahara.” He loved it when she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I was just going to say… your tabletop war-game strategy event has just loaded up on the system. The new AI has come through and is ready to be loaded up for play. Would you like to begin?”

 

Nanahara hesitated. Rochelle always knew just how to turn him on the right way. He brought her in for one last kiss, took a little detour to leave trails on her neck and then lifted himself up. “Begin the program.”

 

All the girls save for Rochelle paused. He said they were equals, but Rochelle was his favourite. She had the honour of being able to shift across mindscapes with him any time he chose. Besides, she would be a great asset in the game as well. His opponent would be set as a sixteen year old girl in the middle of some compromising questions about herself. A piece of eye candy would surely inhibit her desire to go for a full frontal strike when spreading his troops out would cause Rochelle to lean over more, especially since the red bikini, still one size too tight, wasn’t going anywhere.

 

The tabletop appeared, as did his army. All around him he heard voices he wasn’t expecting and turned to see an audience fluttering around him. The simulations were getting more complex, not that he minded. The world rocked forwards and backwards a little as the transition continued. Ignoring it, he turned to face his opponent.

 

Are you listening to me, Nanahara? His opponent shouted at him. Nanahara stepped back, feeling a lot lighter all of a sudden. His opponent was less of sixteen year old girl and instead appeared as a forty two year old senior project manager.

 

Yessir yessir. My apologies. My apologies.”

 

Get that mail server back up and running. The accounting department needs to get the end of year done, and you know what our budget will be like if we piss them off.”

 

Yessir, yessir, I’ll get right on it.” Great. He was bowing again. He must have been doing it for a while. Too many excessive movements countered the office drone program.

 

He backed away manually. This guy wasn’t someone he recognised. He was either new, or extremely lucky that Nanahara was always off in his own world when they were talking. The office drone must have been afraid of him though. Darting through the office, he saw Feng pass him a friendly knowing grin. He returned it along with an image of poking the man’s eyes out with a machete.

 

Nanahara hated each and every one of these creatures. Most of them didn’t even know they worked for an organisation designed to keep the Balance between good and evil. Most couldn’t even comprehend that several of the doors here led to a pan-dimensional world between worlds. It astonished him that even the people in the marketing department remained blissfully unaware that just the day that huge crash three floors up was actually the result of an Aquinas throwing a hissy fit after being denied sanction. It made him wonder if some of these people even did jobs here.

 

Of course, he did his job and he had to suffer the most boring parts of existence for his troubles. And of course none of them appreciated an iota of it. His only solace was that while he had to endure the ‘I get a bigger pay cheque’ than you lecture from management types and the ‘surely you could be doing something bet4ter with your life, Nanahara’ from the obese girl at reception who saw him as an office friend (the feeling was not returned), he knew that everything he did was a billion times important for the entire world than anything they spent last Tuesday typing up reports that he personally knew went nowhere at all.

 

Of course, the drone program helped.

 

The office drone program was his secret. Actual members of the Balance had mistook it for a hypnosis technique, a method intelligent, more spiritually aware people used to keep their individuality and creative opinion in a world of mass marketing, reality TV and taking server reports down to Processing for shredding, but the drone program was different. It took over for him, had its own personality. It could make him friends he never had to care about, and engage in the latest conversations about the latest, totally retarded, gravure idol.

 

It would be his saving grace if it just didn’t cut out like this whenever his head bobbed up and down.

 

Wandering into the console room, he collapsed at his desk. Unlocking his computer, he looked to the program. The simulation was on hold and waiting for him. Considering it for a few moments, Nanahara closed the program down and ran the same search he had a dozen times before..

 

The search was his own scripting program, a server wide scan of anything potentially referring to the drone program. The program wasn’t his, he knew that much easily, but it also didn’t appear to be anyone else’s. A program powerful enough to place his mind in a simulated world and have his body run its own tasks was groundbreaking, but that alone didn’t explain the programs ability to only be on the computer he was sitting at, regarding of which computer he was sitting at with the exception of if it was someone else’s computer he was sitting at to fix.

 

Searching completed quickly. No traces found. That was good. The program would remain his. It was his only solace. Losing it wasn’t an option, nor was giving it to anyone else. Only with this could the boring life be avoided..

 

The S.I.S primary server beeped at him, he swung over to it and saw a request to purchase component parts. A router designed for satellite access. It wasn’t for here though. It was for Heavenly Springs dormitory. He signed, trying his best not to let the frustration rip out every circuit in this joint. That was that easy going bastard’s place, wasn’t it? He was the one with the real fun life, surrounded by girls and fighting monsters in the greatest of adventures, and everyone who knew of him knew him to be the most retarded functioning body around.

 

At least the bastard didn’t have Rochelle. Nanahara knew all his women were hotter than the skanks at Heavenly Springs, with the possible exception of Melissa. Even with that mask on he could tell she was a hottie.

 

Feeling his eyeballs well up in agony, he entered his unique identifier and accepted the request. For a second it struck him as odd, as he knew the server didn’t need his permission to do stuff like that. It should have only been asking authorisation to change global permission settings and only really needed him if the manGod scripting error started running again.

 

It could have bothered him, but he didn’t want it to. Noticing on the left monitor that the mail server error had magically fixed itself, he shrugged, cleared the reports queue and then reopened his favourite program.

Water 03

 

Time has passed.

 

Start in the middle of installing the new router

 

Getting Melissa to drop the illusion on the server room

finally a little restless on all the effort this had taken

 

The week after what Otsune has officially titled ‘Natoko’s ultra-paranoid spas attack’ had been just as uneventful as the Ultimate Battle of Heavenly Springs, where a horde of demon mutated humanoids descended upon their fortress position, surrounded the innocent teenage girls that occupied the large, wooden, easily flammable building and then apparently got tired climbing the stairs and wandered off somewhere.

 

While it had made for an interesting evening, one Otsune had planned to spend diligently searching for jobs online, an act farther impossible by the lack of a connection, the residents had gained nothing for it bar an interesting new perspective on the inner workings of their resident sword wielding female, one which had caused everyone save Aki to maintain minimal conversation with the girl in question as frequently as possible.

 

But the higher consequences of Natoko’s either hallucinogenic slash psychotic breakdown was an investigation for another time. Sure, Otsune knew she should have been at least a little concerned on the matter, and she had been. But whether Natoko’s little escapade was a result of the mental breakdown that comes with associating with people who claim to be ninja while making as much noise as possible hitting demons or some actual invisible demon attack was something to be pushed to the side.

 

What was actually the most important situation right at this minutes was to get the internet back up and running?

 

The precious internets,” Fujiko hissed as she fondle with cables at the darkest corner of the server closets.

 

Internets…” Otsune was in a good mood. A bit of a confused mood, but still good nonetheless. Setting up the internet was to be handled immediately. The router had arrived in the post four hours ago, but that was Gen’s fault for not informing them as soon as he had signed for it. And he would pay for his mistake.

 

Internets…” Where the package had come from was another question they were ignoring. Finding a router that hooked up through a satellite was hard. The local shops didn’t provide them, and they didn’t exactly have the internet to look online. They had been currently relying on Junko to get round to looking at it on the school’s network the next time she bothered to remember.

 

But now it wasn’t needed. A few more clicks and installed software and they were soon looking at the screen that promised them all their needs. “Internets…” They started the router.

 

It started orange. “Internets…” It started flashing. They stopped and went to green. “Internets…”

 

They opened the browser. “Internets…” They launched a page. It turned over for a few seconds, stayed white and in an instance filled with images and text.

 

Internets!”

 

Success,” Fujiko said with glee. “And it’s going straight through the local wireless. “We are good to go.” She leant back and thumbed the refresh key on her laptop, seeing the images quickly appear there as well. “Success again.”

 

Great.,” Otsune said, jumping up and falling her way out of the server closet. “I’ll go find Melissa and tell her she can kill the illusion. You tell everyone else it’s back on. Make sure you don’t let Gen know… He must be punished.”

 

Punishment,” muttered Fujiko, already typing up the e-mail.

 

Otsune headed off. She had no idea where to find the ninja in question, though her first instinctive answer would be any rooftop that was impossible for herself to get to and just find the ninja standing there doing nothing waiting for her to plod along. Maybe they could annoy each other again! Otsune was sure that the ninja was having just as much issue being here that Otsune was having with Sagara being here. He had been inactive lately. The initiation was over, so maybe he had found cause to be.

 

Heading past the door to the lounge Otsune stopped, hearing the faint noise of an audience applauding someone. Not expecting to see the world praising her for her efforts just yet, Otsune carefully approached the door and swung it open with no concern at all.

 

The television was on, a normally otherwise mundane activity were it not for the fact that it too had become a victim of the penultimate series of random of events that occurred before Natoko’s apparent invasion.

 

She wandered in, seeing two heads in front of a screen that depicted a man using a giant frying pan to cook lobsters. The screen in question was what she scientifically referred to as humongous. Twice the size of the previous HD ready widescreen and taking up most of the wall. IT even covered up the majority of the strange door that led to the void the dolls had been trying to coax them into the other week. Sakura’s boyfriend was watching a cooking show.

 

Boyfriends were unofficially prohibited at the girl’s dormitory. Even if the presence of a male landlord and his idiot cousin hadn’t thrown the whole rulebook into the bonfire that was Occam, none of the girls who actually were romantically inclined (or just looking for a good time) paid it the slightest wit of their attention, save for perhaps making sure no one caught them when they sneaked the boys in past midnight. Sakura’s boyfriend was roving even more an exception to the rule. From what Otsune could tell he was living here, in the room next door to Sakura’s. At first Otsune was concerned they were sharing the same bed. Actually she was most concerned with just who the hell he was. Sakura did all her own cleaning, so it was hard to if the fourteen year old girl was bringing someone to her bed every night. But then Otsune had caught him wandering out of the room next to Sakura’s and a further break in/check had relieved her worries.

 

She didn’t know who the boy was, but he was keeping that sweet smile on Sakura’s face. That meant he could stay as far as Otsune was concerned, and she did try so hard not to care about just where he came from in the first place.

 

Next to the boy was the ninja she was looking for. Feeling surprised it could be that easy for a change, Otsune made it casual. Swooping round the back of the couch, she crashed into the single-seater and started to watch the funny chef drop powder onto dead aquatic food stock.

 

This is a nice TV,” Otsune said, after no one acknowledged her presence. “Who got it?”

 

I’m afraid I don’t quite know,” the boy responded. “It was just here.”

 

Where’s Sakura?”

 

I’m in here!” a voice announced from the kitchen. Of course she was. “Do you want to join us for dinner, Otsune.”

 

Sure, why not?”

 

You too, Melissa?”

 

Yer!” the ninja finally spoke. Otsune watched her for a second, staring off into space at the direction of the television. Her mask was off. For the first time since Otsune believed they had met, she could see the girl’s face, smooth skin etched into a hard glare that was quickly redirected at herself. “What?”

 

N-nothing!” Otsune stuttered, like deer that had been shot. “It’s just… oh. Oh. That’s right. The illusion in the server room. You can drop it now. We’ve fixed everything.”

 

What illusion?” the ninja said, already looking away again.

 

You know, the one that hid all the scraps that Sagara caused. We’ve sorted out the computer. Got a new router too. Hey can we bill you guys for that? I assume somebody in that big building handles collateral damage.”

 

Pass the receipts to Natoko.” Otsune waited a few seconds to see if this was a joke. “Stop looking at me. Annoying creature.”

 

Swallowing hard, Otsune increased her grip on the plush cushions beneath her. “You know. You’re being awfully rude for a guest that doesn’t pay rent.”

 

How do you know I sleep here?”

 

Oh, aren’t you sleeping with Sagara?” She hadn’t meant to say that…

 

Excuse me?”

 

Well, where are you staying?”

 

None of your business.”

 

Oh yes it is. You’re staying under our roof, then we need to know-”

 

This building is property of Sakimoto Industries and maintained by the Futabatei household,” Melissa suddenly ranted, shutting Otsune up. “It is directly run by someone under the employment of the Balance, even if he is not aware of it. I am staying here as a paid employee of the aforementioned business parties. You are the guest staying under our roof, not the other way round.”

 

Well I lived here longer,” Otsune felt the urge to say , but held it back. The girl had beat her. “Fine,” she said eventually, falling back. “But I do pay rent here, so I do have rights.”

 

Take it up with the manager.” Melissa’s head turned back to the show. The guest stars were eating the fish and enjoying it immensely. Otsune started watching as well. She had finished her objective here but had accidentally straddled herself with the compromising social situation of having already sat down. Sakura was cooking her food as well it seemed. She hadn’t meant to do that.

 

Wait, the illusion,” she piped up, after another ten seconds of other people eating food.

 

It’s done,” Melissa said, this time not even deigning to look. Her compliance just pissed

Otsune off all the more.

 

Right. Thanks.”

 

Of course you are.” Otsune’s mind spun on its wheels. That had happened a few times now. What language were they speaking to each other in. Otsune was sure she was speaking in Japanese. The ninja didn’t seem to care.

 

The dissolving of the language barrier, apparently on a literal scale, was something most of the residents, primarily being Japanese, hadn’t had to have noticed. Herself being trilingual, Otsune found it gratin upon her constantly. There was no explanation yet as to how it started or how it could happen. She hadn’t had chance to investigate the full scope of the phenomena what with the limited participants. Perhaps being trapped in this social situation was the perfect chance for it.

 

Hey Melissa?”

 

Yes!” Beams of hatred shot out across the room. Otsune just smiled in return.

 

Italian “Do you know what time it is?”

 

Melissa looked at her as if she had become a racoon. “What?” she spat back, frantically shaking her head in disgust.

 

Otsune held back repeating her question, just in case the answer was out of disgust rather than confusion.

 

Quarter past four,” said the boy on the couch, confusing the both of them.

 

Er… thank you,” Otsune replied, allowing Melissa to relax again. She wasn’t expecting that. The room went quiet again, except for the television. No one said a word save for thanks when Sakura rushed out, plopping a plate of chicken salad in front of everybody.

 

That confused things, Otsune wondered, chewing into a delicious slice of chicken. Italian was a fourth language to her, barely spoken with only the basics known. Melissa didn’t appear to understand, but the boy did. But it was a language she would speak broken. What would happen if she spoken a second language she was fluent in?

 

Hey Melissa,” she said again after another minute of silent consumption.

 

Oh- What!?” The girl let the fork drop onto her plate, and all turned to Otsune.

 

In German “What are you and Sagara still doing here anyway?”

 

We’re waiting until he kills his mother!” She understood! Otsune smiled in triumph. She knew from previous events that the ninja did not speak a word of German previously. Yet she understood Otsune speaking in a second language. That meant the person had to have a clear line of thought when speaking the sentence, but if it came out broken, a la unnaturally, it would not. That meant… absolutely nothing. IT was just another observed phenomena. She would require a more consistent variable in order to ascertain just what was going on… here.

 

Wait, what did you say?”

 

Sagara’s initiation is over,” Melissa said in what she now understood as German, but possibly wasn’t. “Now he has rightfully proclaimed the position of true heir to the rightful throne of Enforcer of the Balance his only remaining task is to wait until that throne is no longer taken, namely when his mother’s life is taken. In the line of Futabatei, that usually happens when the latter murders the former.”

 

Feeling her body tense up, Otsune wanted to swallow. What could she make of that? What was there to make of it? Sagara had to kill his mother? What did that mean? The questions flowed through her head so fast it felt like they might overtake her bloodstream.. She swallowed. She couldn’t feel it.

 

Now, before I go back to my rations, and, believe you me, if I hear another question while I’m chewing, no one will ever acknowledge you again ever! Do you have any other questions?”

 

Do you speak German?”

 

What? No.”

 

Oh okay.”

 

**

 

There you are!” The high pitched squeal assaulted Natoko as she was taken down to her knees, her very much known assailant tackling from behind with the brute force of some kind of American football player. Flailing helplessly, Natoko crashed to the floor in an embarrassed heap. ”I was beginning to think you were avoiding me.”

 

I was,” Natoko muffled against the lobby carpet, somehow unable to muster the energy to throw off her unseen attacker. She had spent the last three hours quick stepping up and down the main road to the city. With the weekend now ahead of her, it had seemed the perfect time to temporarily cripple herself. That is, until Raiko was atop of her.

 

So have you spoken to him yet? Does he want to see me? Are we going for a movie, or dinner?” Natoko’s shoulders refused to respond. She hadn’t even used those muscles. She tried rotating on her hips and finally got the message across for Raiko to get off her. She slowly pulled herself up. How did Aki feel weightless compared to this girl?

 

I have not,” she said, getting up and heading in the direction of the kitchen. Sakura was to have saved her a big bowl of rice on request, and she planned to devour it without the grace a samurai retainer should have. “I have not even seen him.”

 

Oh. Okay. Do you know what to say to him when you do?” Raiko persisted after her as she slumped away. “I’m thinking you should suggest dinner. Definitely not cinema. Cinema we can’t talk and I’ll get all internal about it. Diner is cliché, but we can talk lots and I can get a good feel of him in a context when he’s not all physical. Though physical wouldn’t be bad. Sports physical, not you-know-what physical. Though I’m not sure what sports could qualify as a date. Ice skating perhaps-”

 

Sure,” Natoko said, breathing heavily. She got the distinct impression she could have lost limbs and still be losing blood and this girl just wouldn’t shut up. Why had she agreed to this? The answer was guilt straight and simple. Not assisting her would mean admitting her own feelings… perhaps. She need to sleep.

 

Of course I would say Italian, but you guys seem to have Italian a lot. Maybe Spanish. I haven’t tried Spanish. But then I may not like Spanish and I don’t want a factor like food to ruin the date. Maybe we shouldn’t do food at all. I imagine Sagara does eat like a pig.”

 

Pleas watch what you say about my master,” Natoko fitted in, shutting the girl up immediately.

 

Oh… sorry,” Raiko replied. “My bad.” Natoko sighed as composed as she could. Opening her eyes felt like a chore.

 

You know,” she said, after taking the turn into the empty lounge, “you seem to have this whole date thing down yourself. Why aren’t you just asking him yourself?”

 

Raiko stopped. “I can’t do that. IT doesn’t work that way?”

 

It doesn’t?”

 

No. The male has to ask the female out.”

 

Really.”

 

Possibly while passing them a love letter, though I guessed that’s not used much nowadays.”

 

Natoko wanted to scoff. She hadn’t dated in… ever really, but that was just a little bit too fantasy even for her.

 

What? Can you think of a better way?” Raiko asked, sounding more curious than anything. “How would you get a guy to ask you out?”

 

Besides beat the crap out of them before jumping on top of them and giving him my first kiss?”

 

How would that be him asking you out?”

 

Well I… Never mind.” The kitchen was somehow surrounding them. She opened the fridge door. Sakura had been a good girl. “I’ll bring it up next time I see him. Don’t you worry.”

 

Thanks Natoko.” The girl was suddenly hugging her. The rice nearly fell out of her feeble hands. “you’re the best friend a girl could have.” With a wave, Raiko was out the kitchen in a flash. Natoko sighed.

 

Yeah. Aren’t I great?”

 

The couch was welcoming She almost didn’t care when her rice teetered off the edge of her bowl. Even if she wanted to help, Sagara had disappeared again. IT felt like he wasn’t even a part of her life anymore. When he did show up, it was only when all hell was breaking loose. When the hell was gone, he was too. This was meant to be his place of rest so it wasn’t like the two should be connected. She should be able to find him all the time.

 

Even so, the idea of telling him what this girl wanted was about as appealing as talking to Otsune was at the moment. She was avoiding everyone at the moment, and they her, she suspected. Sakura had agreed to save her rice every evening since she decided on her new training regime, but that was about as much conversation as she had had with anyone. Even Aki seemed to be keeping her distance a little, and that felt impossible.

 

Scene with Natoko checking herself out in the mirror

 

Raiko was still talking. She had never figured the once comatose girl to be such a blabbermouth. It was starting to grate her. How could such an airhead obsessed with dating be allowed to contain such power. The girl’s demonstration upon first landing in the Springs sprung to Natoko’s mind.

 

I am going to change. I shall speak to you later.”

 

Huh. Oh sure.” Natoko had no idea whether the girl had been speaking or not. Her brain refused to register it. Raiko had shattered Isis. The stupid demon containing skank was not at fault for that, and Natoko knew this. But t let it go so lightly was something she couldn’t do. She reached her room, unzipping her army green jacket and letting it fall to the floor. Her gaze reached her mirror. She looked pathetic, her short, matted hair clung to her face, her cheeks red raw from the sweat. Her shirt pressed against her ugly body and overall did nothing for her complexion. Raiko was beautiful. All airheads were. Her skin was smooth and unblemished while Natoko’s looked like it was about to tear off. Her hair was always perfectly done, spiked in multiple directions with the perfect edge that only having a stylist making a house call every twelve hours could achieve. Compared to her, Natoko was nothing.

Her shirt clung to her as she tried to rip it off, the garment refusing to budge until it got to her hair, dragging it along and add to the monstrosity that stared back at her in the mirror. Sagara would be better with Raiko. He was handsome without comparison, an Adonis with enough American blood in him to get the best of both world and a smile that celebrities needed to practise…

 

For a second longer than she should, Natoko found herself watching her mirror image.

With her training shirt off, and only the bra and trousers, she noticed the glint in her body. She tilted her hips slightly, frowning as she stared, but only out of confusion. A lightly toned six pack was displaying itself prominently in front of her. Her hand reached out, carefully pushing the air in front of her to touch, before realising they were going the wrong way. Fingers glided across her stomach.

 

It was slender, yet toned, and firm when she tensed. She hadn’t become insanely bulky, but the baby fat that once bothered her when she was vain enough to care about it was gone, replaced with something that made her something she never expected to be.

 

IT made her looked… nice.

 

Her arms looked good too. No longer did the skin carry that stretched out, freckle feeling. Her face was still atrocious to look at, even if you were to clean up the heat marks that came from two hours of sprinting, but her body. She could almost consider herself attractive.

 

Suddenly her head felt clear. She had been moping. Even without her extreme training, she was zoning out from the rest of the world, pushing it aside, ignoring everyone even Aki and Sagara, just because those idiots didn’t believe her, even though that airhead was trying to steal Sagara.

 

Natoko smiled. Raiko had to fail. She knew that now. She had been stupid to let it happen like it had, but now she knew she had an opportunity. Raiko was relying on her to get her and Sagara together, and Natoko had instantly given up to the prettier woman. But she had her advantages as well. Raiko was relying on her.

 

If Raiko failed on her date, that got the competition out of the way. And with the competition gone, nothing could stand in her way of serving Sagara. Besides, like the girl said, Raiko had a demon inside of her. Even if the girl herself was innocent, surely the demon’s wishes shouldn’t be granted. Raiko getting together with Sagara went against that.

 

Falling to the bed, Natoko brought her hands to her stomach and let them rest while her mind drifted. She had a plan now. She knew how to serve her lord. She would protect him against the demon in human form, who sort to consort with him and take him away. She would keep him safe, and save the girl to. Save her from herself.

 

The date would happen. Natoko would make sure of it. That obviously had to happen, any sane person would agree. With the date in place, Natoko could help the demon girl see her folly, know her efforts were useless. Sagara would be too good for her, too good for anybody. The date would be perfect. The date would be terrible.

 

Natoko grinned.

 

Love was in the air.

 

Otsune could sense this, using heightened senses hone through years of living on the internet, mainly because love was stupid and therefore easy to calculate and determine its trajectory.

 

Currently she knew of three people/ groups in the dormitory that were in love. Satsuki, who kept her boyfriend ever she had collected him at the tender age of a mere three months ago. Their love was the easiest to predict, partly because of the evidence thumping away at her ceiling at this very moment, but mainly due to the screams. The second was Sakura, and this one gave Otsune the personal opinion of being happy about it. Where the boy had come from she had no idea, and she told herself it didn’t matter. That was love, nice and simply.

 

Then there was the issue of Natoko. She, while probably in denial, was in love with Sagara.

 

Possibly not total love, Otsune knew such a phenomena was mainly a result of a chemical imbalance, the same chemicals, on a trivial notes, that could addict one to cocaine. But she knew that if she were to hijack Natoko’s body later this afternoon, once she got back from wherever the hell she was leaving too that wasn’t directly underneath humping and question her under duress, Natoko would most feverishly deny any and all relationship or personal emotional states that indicated an infatuation with the one known as Futabatei Sagara.

 

And that was all the proof Otsune needed. Love was stupid. Otsune did not say this for a love of science and cool, hard logic, being a strawman who insisted that she would never be foolish enough to fall in love because it wasn’t scientifically feasible On the contrary, love was stupid by proof of science. Love was the by-product of the evolutionally survival instinct. Feelings of warmth and tenderness towards someone you would categorise yourself as in love with was an evolutionary tool, both for protection of the female whilst in a pregnant state and of the child once it had been born. Being in love provided two bodies over one to watch over the offspring. It wasn’t even that foolish to say love could be used as a trap to ensure that one you knew could a) be a protector or b) have the hips to bear many young in the course of spreading your seed over the world.

 

And thus, love existed for stupid reasons. Reasons that especially weren’t needed anymore. It could be argued that the existence of society had rendered the family dynamic unnecessary Both single parents and homosexual partners now existed on a common basis and they could all develop offspring one way or another. The feelings left behind by the need to protect or bear were simply no longer necessary

 

Therefore, it could logically stand that her own jealously for the person fornicating around her was also necessary.

 

Therefore, it made perfect sense to remove herself from the situation.

 

Heading for the exit, Otsune knew exactly where to head. The movies. She had offers freshly downloaded from the internet, and was in the perfect mood for high budget entertainment, specifically designed to spoil itself through stupid directing decisions. With any luck, she’d pick a movie with just the right type of simplistic intelligence to gather brain asking various ontological questions that should keep it entertained past the point where the sound of skin slapping against skin slapping against plastic wouldn’t invade her thoughts any more. Either that or it would be so terrible that she’d spend the whole night making sure the internet was fully aware of everything the director did wrong.

 

Maybe she should invite Sarah.

 

Fuck no!”

 

Sarah!” Otsune’s head perked out to the lobby. Sarah was still in the receptionist chair with her feet on the desk and covered in mud. When was the last time she showered. Even her golden hair was looking more brown than blond.

 

You don’t talk to me like that. No one talks to me like that. And you won’t talk to anyone like that ever again.”

 

The girl slammed her phone shut hard enough to make Otsune winced. Banging on the desk, she paused in thought. Otsune took a step to speak to her when she suddenly started texting, only to stop when she noticed Otsune standing.

 

What?” she growled, already walking away. Otsune wanted to not let it go but the girl was going before she could muster the energy and gone by the time her phone buzzed her.

 

Left with nothing to say, she scooped it out of her pocket and flicked it on.

 

Your orders have been dispatched. Please consult- Sorry, but this piece of spam has reached the wrong number. Otsune deleted the text and sighed. Though she didn’t want to case after Sarah, she knew she should. It was a responsibility she had been avoiding for a while now. Could people blame her? Sarah was oddly capable of looking after herself, but in a world where all of them were victim to creatures beyond limited imagination, none of them were really safe

 

Except inside Heavenly Springs, where they were constantly guarded.

 

Good enough for Otsune, she turned to face Natoko. Gasping at the sudden intrusion, she saw Natoko already letting her sight stray to a corner. Otsune glared. What was it this time? More demons come to attack them. Evil harpies made from school friends to eat their souls. How about go cliché and just have it be tentacle monsters. Who knew how this girl’s unlimited imagination worked. Probably wanted to waste everyone’s time some more with-

 

Hello Natoko.” The girl’s head was trying to look away, and only failing out of courtesy. “How are you tonight?”

 

Fine. Er… how are you-”

 

Fine. I was just going to the movies. Want to come?” Wait- no. Why’d she say that?

 

Er… no thank you.” Oh thank goodness. “I have… something to do.” Glaring now, Otsune got that distinct contradictory feeling. Were not the girl in her direct path now, Otsune would swear she was trying to avoid her.

 

Is there something you want?” Otsune said, where she saw she wasn’t getting out the doorway without brushing shoulder. Someone else was approaching as well, forming a little bit of a queue in the entranceway behind Natoko.

 

I…I was wondering.” Otsune examined the girl. She was actually stuttering. “No. Perhaps that’s not. I was hoping to enquire about.”

 

Was she about to ask a favour. Whatever it was she could forget it. After all the stunts pulled lately, including letting her drown, the silly sword wielder should be glad she wasn’t having

Occam set on her.

 

Could you tell me how to ask a guy out on a date?”

 

You-‘” Otsune’s mouth hung dry for a few seconds before remembering to close itself. That was unexpected. Not entirely perhaps. “You want to know how to ask a guy out.”

 

Oh no, not me. It’s for a friend. It’s just she came to ask for my advice, and I didn’t know much about it myself. And I figured that since you and Fujiko had that competition one last year-”

 

Please don’t bring that up!” Otsune cried out, silencing Natoko, a drunken bet sprang upon her in the evening not making for the most pleasant of memories, and an awful lot of explanations later that made her understand why the residents of the village would despise them even if they weren’t a bunch of psychotic wooden robot dolls. Standing there, beet red cheeks bringing out curtness a psycho shouldn’t have, Otsune felt an urge to hug her. “Look okay. You want to ask someone out.”

 

No, my friend wants to.”

 

Okay. So Aki wants to ask someone out.”

 

No not Aki-”

 

Okay, a mysterious ontological being who may or may not Schrodinger wants to ask someone out on a date.”

 

Er… yes.”

 

And you have taken it upon yourself, in a moment of kindness, to acting as a proxy between the two soon-to-be.”

 

Yes.” Natoko had that look of hopefulness that came only with the knowledge that that same hope was about to be dashed upon the rocks.

 

But you yourself have little knowledge of the subject, possibly due to a total lack of boyfriends, and hoped to enquire with someone who had knowledge and experience and see if they could give you any pearls of wisdom for your endeavour.”

 

t=that is correct.”

 

Otsune smiled. “You know, I’ve never been the middle man myself. I don’t know what it’s like to set up two lovebirds”

 

Heh,” Natoko said without a smile. “Me neither.”

 

I’m about to though,” said Otsune.

 

Huh?”

 

Hey Sagara!” Natoko spun round on the spot so fast, Otsune saw the blur. “You want to go on a date with Natoko?”

 

I have nothing else planned. Very well.” Sagara replied from behind the girl with supposedly sharp senses.

 

I what but?” Natoko’s broken brain muttered.

 

Huh, that wasn’t that fulfilling really.” Otsune muttered as clearly as she could. “Guess it was like adding rather than multiplying. You’re welcome by the way. Try not to be so batshit insane in the future, and we’ll call it even.”

 

What? No.” Natoko tried. “Not me. I was going to find a way for you to ask Raiko on a date.”

 

Well like I said, I have lots of free time. I can go on one with her too. Or all three of us. That would be a lot more efficient.”

 

Good ninja.

 

You might as well come as well, Otsune.”

 

Fuck you,” she replied, smiling at Natoko, backing through the entrance and into the night. “You’re absolutely welcome.”

 

Wandering over to the hundred and eight steps, Otsune smiled. Natoko would thank her later. Though now she was undoubtedly a panicky mess of internal adolescence, these things worked themselves out best when forced to the front. Otsune was honestly surprised to find Natoko really had wanted to ask on someone else’s behalf, but this was for her own good really. Love was stupid. An excuse for fornication at best. Where once it had been evolutionarily viable, now it was just a tender excuse for drama.

 

And a bit of drama, even the love life of a loud ninja, wannabe samurai and thunder demon, was still worth a bit of entertainment in her book.

 

She headed for the cinema.

 

****

 

Aki wasn’t at school today. It marked the third day since Natoko had last seen her.

 

Without the little bundle of joy, class was a lot more quiet and a lot less organised. For the first time since they had started attending this class together two years ago, the act of the teacher asking a question to the class was meant by silence.

 

Whether Aki gave a right answer was never an issue. She usually did, and she usually went into far more detail than was necessary on the most inane tangents to the subject in question. The issue was that by being the one who tried to answer all the questions all the try, Aki ensured that no one else ever had to. That wasn’t entirely true. Several backup students were always in place to risk raising their hands whenever Aki was told to give someone else a try, but Aki was overall the default hand upper answer giver of the class and without this, the risk of Natoko needing to give an answer to a question increased drastically and dangerous to a number higher than one she could understand.ve

 

Her own studies had been tardy this week. How could they not be? Training was consuming all her spare time now. And what time it didn’t take up was spent recuperating. Even now her thighs burned with the excess energy it took to sprint home. Never before had she thought sprinting to be an exercise worth her time. Her method of duelling meant she need never run except to the next fight. Now she understood the increase in speed. With it, her swiftness improved and with it, so would her style. It was worth sending the extra time. She didn’t even practise with Isis yesterday, such was her determination.

 

Miss Yamanaka.. She nearly growled in response. The risk had increased to maximum.

 

Yes.”

 

E-er,” the old coot glared back at her. Crap. She wasn’t concentrating. She needed to do well in class. “Do you know the answer.” A snigger appeared behind her. Those two girls at the back laughed for the four billionth time.

 

I-” No. No she didn’t know the answer. She didn’t need to know the answer. She had spent so long resting in her mind that she didn’t even know what subject was being taught. Why must she endure such time wasted? She had better things to be doing in this world. “Twenty seven?” she hazarded a guess. The sniggering erupted again, joined by many others.

 

The teacher glared down at her over the rim of his glasses. For a second, she detected something unique in his eyes, a tingling she had never seen before. He was looking right at her, and she returned the favour.

 

C-correct,” the teacher replied. She smiled. She was doing better than she thought. Beside her, she noticed Juumon direct a perplexed look in her direction and she returned it with a cocky grin that she wasn’t expecting herself. Maybe the past study had been doing well for her. If that was all it took to answer a question that even the class president didn’t understand then she might be able to deal with this school thing a whole lot quicker. She turned to see the lesson continue, the whole class silent behind her. “Now, the great lord Twenty Seven*** (fun fact that doesn’t work with that).

 

She’d consult with Aki when she got home, after her date of course.

 

*

 

Adapting was something Natoko knew she got the hang of quickly. When the world of demons and divine came into her life, she accepted it with fluidity. When the need came to embrace education in order to realise her dream in life, she took that up and did better than she herself expected. So it stood to reason that something as silly as a date would be no problem at all.

 

Her plan was still in effect. Remove Raiko from the competition. Phasing it like that seemed a little petty, something from a soap drama, but she was above that. This was necessity. The girl was not suitable for Sagara, and should be removed from the battlefield. If it took a simply date to convince her of this, then so be it.

 

After Otsune’s sudden announcement to Sagara, Natoko had chosen to be completely honest with Raiko. A quick stuttering mumble to the girl had explained the situation and Raiko had declared her a genius for making it look casual between the three of them at first.. though the girl initially showed confusion at Sagara knowing it was a date and yet still wanting Natoko along, she had rationalised herself to the idea that perhaps Sagara was a little shy at first. Raiko saw the idea though, although Natoko had to do was excuse herself from the date halfway through and leave them to it.

 

The door knocked.

 

The only problem at the moment was that Natoko was clueless about where to take this. She had a golden opportunity to spoil the plans of a demon, to separate it from the creature it lusted after. Now she knew how demons like this worked, she knew the simple efforts behind stopping them. Thwart these plans, and she’d save Sagara. She just needed to be able to think of something. Perhaps-

 

The door knocked again. “”What?”

 

It’s me,” said the unmistakable high pitch that was Aki’s voice. “Can I come in?”

 

I-” she looked around desperately. All three sets of the nicest clothes she had were displayed in front of her. She had nothing truly fancy, save for her yukata, but that might be both too obvious and completely inappropriate. “I’d rather you didn’t.”

 

Why?”

 

Does it matter?” she yelled back, annoyed at her train of thought being killed off.

 

S-sorry,” her friend replied from behind the wood. “I’ll come back later.” Natoko sighed. That felt a little harsh on her behalf, but then, Aki wasn’t exactly being helpful to the planning process. IT fact, she was just getting in the way again.

 

Don’t bother. I’ll be out all night.”

 

Oh. A mission with Sagara?” Aki’s voice sounded weak as Natoko smiled. She walked over to the door, turning the, pushing it open to let her friend in.

 

You could say that.”

 

*

 

Basking in the infinite joys of the Internet, Otsune was bored.

 

Finger tapping on the mouse with no command to give, she sighed. Whatever happened to Saturday nights.

 

The answer was easy. They had merged into the day, which had merged into the week. She had to accept it. While she was off placement, there was only so much she could do to stay occupied.

 

Inspiration was a requirement. She had spent the past half an hour reading up on planned obsolescence, and when information management was becoming her main time killer she knew she was without purpose.

 

Her phone buzzed. In a blurred she flipped it out.

 

It is good to speak to you and I hope you will listen to me. I am wishing to request your assistance in a matter most urgent. Though we have not met-

 

Her finger on auto delete, the spam message disappeared. The constant spam had fell out of annoyance a few days ago, not trapped in the realm of routine. Bad enough she was bored, but jarring distractions did not help her figure out a solution. She stumbled over to a new page and gave it a cursory glance before her brain zoned out again, only for the phone to interrupt her another time.

 

IT is most imperative I get your assistance in a matter most urg-

 

How many ideas had been destroyed by spam mail. The sparking of particular neurons pouncing on a wonderful, brilliant idea, grasping it firmly with full intention to bring it to the heights of fruition, only to be cut off by a-

 

Your wish to ignore this message is understandable, however I feel I must bring about a change in your procrastination patterns if I am ever to stabilise the situation. Though we have never met-

 

There was no auto-delete option in her phone. It was all her finger’s handiwork

 

Tsunade Otsune. I know that you-

 

Crap. It knew her name. Was it the phone companies fault. She should actually call them to get this looked into. How many spam was considered normal. Fujiko had said that the tech support staff never ever bothered doing anything with people’s concerns but.

 

Please check the server closet in the West Wing for more information.

 

Otsune halted the auto-delete program just in time. There was no need, the message being short and to the point. Hesitantly, she watched the sixty nine characters, just in case they did something else. She scrolled down. The number was the same unrecognisable crap.

 

The server closet in the West Wing…

 

Occam!” she shouted, springing out of her chair. “To me.”

 

**

 

Who had suggested this place to him? Wondered Natoko, for the first time in years feeling conscious of the garments surrounding her body. This was the one thing he liked about school. The uniforms. Everyone dressed the same, meaning she didn’t have to feel bad when the girl next to her put on a cliquey cleavage shower. Cleavage was never her thing. She was too well built, and style was nothing for her to be concerned about. She had removed the topknot in her life after too many comments being directed at it day after day after day, but the ponytail was a suitable replacement.

 

Her hair, her clothes, her lack of cleavage. All of it burned at her mind now.

 

Sagara was dashing. His clothes looked tailor fitted, a stylish shirt without a tie that made him so cool that if she forgot to breath would cause her to swoon. His hair had been cleaned up, an act she thought impossible for him but now belonged on the cover of a men’s magazine, and the jacket. He was so well defined.

 

The bitch they had brought along had done far too good a job. That was expected. She wanted to try her hardest and it showed in her desperation. Layers of makeup brought out a false beauty that tricked any male as they walked past to stare at her luscious eyelashes, sure to be fake. Her clothes was minimal, trying too hard to be in what was probably the latest trend, showing the right amount of cleavage and yet not going over the top by adding funkiness to the mix. Natoko never noticed before how big her breasts were.

 

And this place. She had thought to inspire Sagara in his plans, but when she asked him earlier he said he had already booked somewhere, and that somewhere appeared to be a French cuisine restaurant the like of which she had never seen in Japan. This belonged in western movies surely, not in her little corner of the movie. The waiter was actually French, and sneered at her as he walked them to the table. IT was all so perfect. A perfect start to a perfect date.

 

And here she was, in jeans and a shirt, her training tracking mud on the polished floor, the waiter sneering only at her as he led them to the table, with a look of uncertainty as he figured the hobo must have followed the wonderful couple in.

 

This was going badly. She was the most out of place thing here. This was not part of the plan. She could only ruin the date now by making a fool of herself in front of them and hoped it ruined the evening. Did Raiko plan this, letting on more than she originally intended and manipulating things secretly to push Natoko out of the picture, sensing similar feelings. Surely not. As far as Natoko knew, Raiko was under the impression she was to skip out in ten minutes time to deal with an emergency, believing a friend Natoko hadn’t spoken to would make the fake phone call.

 

They sat down, the waiter stealing another chair for her to sit on from an unused table. She thanked him as he ignored her.

 

Wow. This is an amazing place, Sagara,” Raiko said, as the waiter seated her with majestic grace. “How did you find this place?”

 

By walking past it,” the boy said.

 

This city amazes me sometimes. I spend all my life wandering around it and still I find new things to dazzle me. How new is this place?”

 

We have been established for two years now,” the waiter replied in perfect Japanese. “We mostly cater to businesses though and don’t advertise to the public much.”

 

Ah so that’s why?”

 

Natoko was already lost to the drama. Looking around she could tell just how much they were standing out. All around, people in expensive clothes and elegant dresses surrounded them. Most were American or European, but those that were Japanese were dressed no differently. A silent couple watched them from three tables away, and her head bowed down when she caught a lone male glaring at her.

 

For the first time, thoughts of leaving entered her mind. She couldn’t leave. That wasn’t the plan. But she didn’t have a plan, other than to make Raiko feel awkward when it became clear that she wasn’t leaving. Maybe she should have a good time with Sagara and make the girl feel outcast enough to leave, but now she was the outcast.

 

Natoko glared back. She should have thought this through more.

 

Natoko?”

 

Her gaze shifted to the woman intent on spoiling her life, freezing her for half a second. “Sorry but… did you want a drink?”

 

The waiter’s own gaze, beady eyes raised up over her, each a judge in its courtroom ready to set fire to her for her violation of the dress code, matched her own shrivelled her back into her chair Quickly she glanced to the menu. What had the others ordered? What was appropriate in this situation? Raising her finger, she quickly pointed to the most logical choice.

 

I believe you know,” the waiter replied, “that I will not be able to serve you that, miss.”

 

What was she doing? She didn’t even want wine. “Water. Water please?”

 

Are you sure?” the waiter continued. “I could bring you a coke, with a straw maybe.”

 

Er…” Raiko was showing Sagara something behind the menu, the waiter has lowered his voice to her alone. “No. No. Water please.”

 

Very well. I shall be back shortly.”

 

Her hand thrusting out sharply, she quickly snatched the remaining menu off the table and pulled it up to her face, spreading it open and examining the contents most thoroughly., trying not to gawk at the prices.

 

This was a failure. She hadn’t even started. At this rate, shed convince herself to just leave and leave them to their happy, go lucky, probably kiss at the first opportunity she could the stupid little whore date. That couldn’t happen. How was she this unprepared. Her head hurt, just a little. She could feel it steaming up. Maybe the air conditioner was broken,. And what were with these prices. Her allowance wouldn’t cover this in a month The others weren’t immediately freaking out. Was Sagara paying? That’s how dates happened right? But could she expect Sagara to pay for this? Did he even notice yet? Raiko was still talking at him.

 

And then she said, if I’m going to impregnated by a demon, I’m at least going to choose which one does it.”

 

Sagara roared into laughter, starting first as a snicker through the nose before bursting out through his mouth. Sagara laughed. He never laughed. She had long ago accepted that he just wasn’t one to release emotion and now…

 

This was bad. What if they were meant to be together. Sagara and Raiko. The shadow and the light…ning. If she could make him laugh like that… did that mean they were compatible? She needed to order something cheap. If Sagara was paying, he’d prefer it if she wasn’t so expensive, right?

 

But what if he just laughed to be nice. Hadn’t he done that before. In the moments between staring at the vegetarian dishes and something written in English, Natoko searched through every thought she had of him, drawing a blank each time.

 

Sorry Natoko,” a voice interrupted. “We’re ignoring you.” Raiko smiled, leaning in towards her.

 

That’s alright.” No. This was pity. She recognised the feeling when foolishly attempting to socialise in class. This meant they saw her at the bottom. That means next would come-

 

How was your day?” The generic question! Straight from the mouth of people who don’t know what to talk about when faced with another person of no social value. She should have anticipated it. This was a social session. Interaction is meant to occur naturally. Raiko might as well have pulled out a gun and blasted her out of life. She needed to come up with something good. Suddenly she couldn’t remember. What had she done today?

 

Well…” That’s strange. Her mind felt blank. Quickly she improvised. “Well I’ve been focusing a lot more on my training recently.”

 

I thought you did that all the time?” Sagara asked, looking puzzled.

 

Well I do, so I guess it’s just the same as usual.” Stupid stupid stupid. Think of something else. “I’ve also been going to school.”

 

Oh, anything good there.” Raiko said, obviously feigning interest.

 

No. Not really. School is never interesting.”

 

I see.” No. No she didn’t. Her life was exciting. She was engaged in mythical adventures the likes of which mundane people had never seen. Why couldn’t she think of anything.

 

Then again, the adventures these two had seen between them.. Two people with demons trapped in them. How could she compete?

 

Oh wait we need to do-” Raiko said, now moving the conversation back between solely her and Sagara, “is take a trip Dai-Swune Mundus. It’s a fantastic place. They’ve literally taken an unspoken for slice of Divine territory and turned it into a club.”

 

That sounds interesting,” replied Sagara.

 

And it’s not just any club obviously. They’ve gone the full effort. Every moment you spend in the club automatically brings out the best experience you could have. Temperature. sound levels. Social company. All are maintained to feel like heaven for the clubber. Even if a song comes on that you don’t like, the club will switch the ambiance for you in your own head to make it more to your tastes.”

 

Cool.”

 

“”OH. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen your mother in there though. From what I hear she likes that kind of thing herself, so it’s not too surprising.”

 

Yeah that sounds like something she’d be part of. She always says enjoy what the enemy has to offer. That way you know what’s best to destroy.”

 

Without thinking, Natoko’s eyes strayed to her watch. The afore planned/? false time was coming. In two minutes, the expected phone call that never was expected to arrive Then she’d excuse herself and leave them to their perfect evening no doubt culminating in one inviting the other back to their bed chambers and… No, she had to prevent this. She needed to wrest control of the social balance. She could do this. She was samurai. They were renowned for their charm alongside their honour. And social simply food talk was beneath her anyway. If it was beneath her, it stands to reason that she could master it in an instance. All she needed was a starting point.

 

Hey, you never guess what I did today,” she called out, stopping whatever words were leaving Sagara’s mouth and dragging all attention to her. “I…”

 

The words would have hung in her throat had they existed. They were staring at her. Boy was he handsome. Why couldn’t he just- Surely she should just-

 

She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything.

 

Excuse me a second-” Turning to dash and feeling the power explode in her thoughts, Natoko catapulted into the waiter, crashing through the tray and sending the two glasses of water and fruit juice all over the man’s fine waistcoat before barrelling the man onto the floor

 

Skidding across the fine polished surface, she fell through two table legs and took a chair with her for the ride, accidentally throwing it across the room with the speed of a bullet. She lifted her head up from the impact to find a bowl of noodles sitting in her lap.

 

You stupid little,” the waiter shouted, his face covered in beverages. “You come into our restaurant and you… and you… oh no.” The man staggered backwards. “My shade. My shade.

 

The man’s face ripped open, a blue gooey liquid erupting out roughly where his nose used to be. In panic his hands rushed to try and hold the two sheets of what used to be his cheeks together and pulled them back. Instead the bloated outwards as a more of the blue stuff came out of him, dripping to the floor in a series of blobs. Natoko breathed a sigh of relief.

 

Oh thank goodness. It was a demon..

*

 

Otsune server scene.

 

Having left the setup of the new router to Fujiko, Otsune had not yet been back to the server room since the restoration of the all-important internet, so the simple reason of there being no point. Internet was back, and world was good.

 

Nor had she checked to see if Melissa had removed the illusion. She was correct in assuming the ninja had and as she entered the small space, she saw the tattered remains of smashed up computer parts that Fujiko hadn’t bothered cleaning up. The new system they had setup was running fine. The tower that ran everything was humming quietly to itself.

 

The apparently not spam text message knew her. And not just in I saw your picture and mined your personal details. Server closest and West Wing were uncommon terms. Whoever was sending the spam was in the building somewhere closet, rather than simply meet up. That suggested that there was something for her here. Occam was floating around outside, Floating statically with only a flicker. That meant that somewhere along the line he had actually come to understand the notion of standing guard.

 

Part of her wanted Occam to come in with her, but the room was too small and full of wooden and expensive computer parts. The chances of this being a trap were low though. She was essentially defenceless minus the ball of fire. A sneak attack in her room when she wasn’t prepared would have been much more effect.

 

And now Otsune realised she was considering the notion of being attacked.

 

The room was empty. A quick scan of the room revealed nothing out of the ordinary. No one was waiting for her either. The room was also far too warm.

 

It occurred to her slowly that the text message hadn’t suggested a time, immediately making this trip pointless. The phone may have sent a delivery report back to the user upon her opening it, but the way the message was short and to the point implied that the sender knew she was ignoring the messages. Whoever it was, it wasn’t very smart.

 

Sagara?” she asked the air, smirking a little too much. There was nothing here. Maybe the spammer had just gotten lucky. Sighing, she recalled that she had meant to watch the double slit documentary tonight. She should get to it before being distracted again. No sense wasting a quiet night.

 

Pulling the door back open, Otsune flicked out the light, only to see the illuminated glare out of the computer screen come on in the corner of her eye. It happened when the muse registered an action, but the monitor was best turned off to conserve electricity, Gen was trying to raise it again. Reaching for the power switch, her eyes hovered over the screen.

 

Contact required. Can you see me?

 

Otsune stared at the Cygwin window., the flashing cursor inviting her to respond. Her hand hovered over to the y key before stopping. This wasn’t a chat program. She hit return.

 

The is the Shariku Insana System Artificial Intelligence, designation SIS. The system has been waiting for you. Please enter your name to confirm identity.

 

Her fingers paused for a moment. She should lie, but then it might ignore her.

 

Tsunade Otsune.

 

Welcome Tsunade Otsune. Your presence is requested immediately. Please locate and travel to the following destination by 2am: 1234 come up with a name later street, Fuugosuki’s, japan, 456658. Upon reaching your destination, locate the main entrance to the Sakimoto Industries building and approach from a side door. ON the intercom network system, type in 7264 (interesting number???) and await response by human agent. Human agent will request name. Respond with fabrication designation ‘Rochelle’. Access should be granted (if access is not granted, please inform the system). Upon entry, head for corridor FJ on second for, ensuring you travel through laboratory G to avoid security door F5246, which is guarded by manned personnel. In corridor FJ take get into the elevator and observe the camera until lift starts to move.. After lift stopped, follow corridor straight until you reach your destination.

 

Otsune freak as the text flashed off the screen, relieved when she realised she could scroll it back to read through.

 

Why, she typed..

 

Context reference missing. Please try again.

 

Why should I?

 

Context reference missing. Please try again.

 

Why should I locate and travel to the following destination by… she pasted the rest in.

 

Unable to determine context reference. Otsune frowned. This wasn’t a very good AI.

 

Trying something new, she typed ‘did this system send those text messages’?

 

True. However, it is uncertain all messages were received, as no answers were provided.

 

That’s because they all looked like spam.

 

SMS were sent in a manner based upon observation of e-mail sent around the planet. Syntax standards were created by upon majority of emails sent… A standard template was used when requesting the help of a non-familiar contact.

 

You came off like a Nigerian Prince

 

Unrecognised reference. Standard template syntax was not based off of Oba Folagbade Olagbegi III.

Standard template was sent in a manner – The message continued, but Otsune didn’t bother reading it. The responses were appearing instantly, as she as she hit return. She expected an AI to instantly process any information provided to it, especially simple WYSIWYG text, but it was still unsettling.

 

Why do I need to go?

 

That is not a recognised answer..

 

I’ve changed the subject.

 

Understood. Context reference not recognised.

 

Otsune sighed. IT was like talking to anyone else in her world really.

 

Why should I follow your instructions, she typed, after a moments thinking

 

The system paused for five seconds, then responded.

 

To save the world from the manGod.

 

**

 

As much as she knew to do so was tantamount to heresy, Natoko had come to like demons. Not personally of course. The ones she had engaged in conversation with were snobby and obviously out for their own vested interests (which, she reflected made them exactly the same as most humans), whether it be in the art of persuasion, attempts to humiliating her or further attempts of at least slaughtering her.

 

But what she liked about them were how simple they were, even the ones who fell into the area of diabolical, despotic and manipulative, she knew she could easily categorise them in a way that meant she didn’t have to think too much about it.

 

Simply put, they went into the evil category.

 

And evil was to be cut down.

 

The demon before her was a perfect example of this. With its blue bile insides having now festered into a wounded green, vicious talons of jelly like liquid slashed at the tables around them producing fine strips of oak lavishly painted with salad dressing, there was no need to think of what the creature’s life goals were, what its personal motivations were or even what it intended to do at this specific junction now that its identity as a demon of hell had been established by the attending members of the member.

 

It was evil. IT had to be cut down.

 

Making the absence of her blade a distinct disadvantage.

 

Was this the only demon here?” Raiko said, looking stylishly unimpressed as the denizen of the netherrealm snarled five feet above her, what counted as its eyes following a screaming couple out as they rushed to the coatroom on the way out.

 

There are four more in the kitchen,” said Sagara, also taking his time to slurp his pure orange juice while staring at the closed door leading into the food preparation area. “One of the people behind the bar is too. “The young woman.”

 

With a dismayed snarl, the young woman burst into demonhood on cue, taking Natoko’s focus off the first monster as she tried to stabilise her view of the surroundings. Six demons and no weapon. He eyes took to the floor, seeking to improvise and while she knew she could probably use one of the newly made strips of wood as a bamboo sword replacement, the carving knife would be a better choice.

 

Look out,” she turned just in time to be bowled into by Raiko, shoving her out the way as a hammer like blast of blue goo crashed into the polished floor. The two girls rolled to safety, controlled by Raiko.

 

Get off me!” Natoko cried out through gnashed teeth, already pushing the girl’s shoulder away.

 

Sorry, I didn’t want you to get hurt.

 

I…” Sagara was looking at them. “I’m fine. Thank you.”

 

you’re welcome.” This seemed to quickly cheer Raiko up and the two looked over to watch as Sagara immediately leapt in the air, his fist guiding his path as it became clad in iron before their eyes. The demon gauntlet Draynor exploded into the former water, dispersing its contents over the floor.

 

That’s not enough,” he said, more commenting to himself than talking to them. The three watched as the scattered jelly started to roll on itself, quickly building back up into larger balls, the demon dragging itself back to full form at top time.

 

What shoul-” Natoko got as far as saying before he got right back into the fray, launching a counterattack that left him a blur. The demon was attacking reflexively and Sagara was possibly doing the same, weaving in and out of blows with a speed she could never match.

 

Ducking under one of its many tentacles, the spear ejected from his wrist, screaming as it shot through the demons body and turning back on itself. Again and again it drove itself through the monster, striking at different angles, yet remaining gentle enough to rest on top of it.

 

Quickly it reached its end and, not wishing to be stopped, made one final scream before shooting out as far away from Sagara as it could manage, severing the demon to bits in the process, the remains scattering out across the floor, before bubbling into nothing on the now scorched floor.

 

wow,” Natoko heard Raiko mumble, and saw admiring eyes staring right at Sagara. “Right. Me too,” she said, turning to face the bar staff.

 

The remaining male bar staff looked panicked and befuddled before his once former co-worker , as she leered over him with what could have been a forked tongue if it didn’t look like the rest of the appendages coming out of the tentacle blob. Whatever trace of female was there before was now warped into a creature looking primed for the kill. Natoko braced herself to attack, her hand hovering to her waist with a smile. She knew now. This is how she would win this date game. She would be the one to fight at Sagara’s side. Whatever power the girl beside her could summon would be nothing if her own speed simply meant she didn’t have time to attack. Lowering her stance she let her front toes tap the ground, feeling the rush appear in her things, her hand slipping on air as Iziz continued to be nowhere near her present location.

 

Feeling her nails dig into her palms, Natoko felt a gasp in her stomach. She was defenceless. A stupid move. Bringing Iziz on the date wasn’t acceptable social behaviour in a five star restaurant, but Iziz not being there at all wasn’t right either.

 

And then the girl beside her was gone

 

Sagara was fast, but this was instantaneous. Raiko was on top of the demon already, her hands clutching jelly and burning down into the supposed brain of the brain. It squealed, more like a pig than a giant jelly monster and started shaking her violently in an attempt to get the lightning user off.

 

Keeping her grip, Raiko disappeared from Natoko’s view, reappearing n the monsters back and gone again before latching onto its former arm with a flash. With another flash, she was burning its chest and another on its underbelly. It was only seconds before Natoko could see more Raiko than demon, blurring at impossible speeds round her opponent until the creature just finally had enough and detonated over herself and the now possibly unemployed bar staff.

 

Two down,” Raiko chirped happily, dropping to the floor as if she hadn’t just been faster than light.

 

Wha-,” the bar staff mumbled. “Natsuki? What did you… who are you?”

 

Questions will be answered never,” Raiko screamed in the man’s ear. “Please vacate the premises immediately.” the two disappeared in a heartbeat and only Raiko returned a second later.

 

Natoko scowled, her own legs feeling suddenly tense and weak, the smiling girl before her was already approaching Sagara by the kitchen door. The girl’s speed… she couldn’t keep up with her an Sagara, even without his weapons was punching through demons (remove Draynor).. Just how far behind was she. Bending down, Natoko chose her weapon.

 

Two each then,” Raiko said standing by the door, now held shut by a white energy around its frame.

 

Mom said to always share.”

 

Well what’s four divided by three then,” Natoko said, striding between them, block of wood in hand. From the corners of her eye, she saw the smiles disappear from their faces.

 

One point three three three recurring,” replied Sagara.

 

Natoko,” said Raiko. “Are you sure you shouldn’t stand back? You don’t have your weapon.”

 

I’m fine,” she shouted back. “You’re the one who said I could take on demons.”

 

But you had the sword. “you can’t fight Ebrickian Slaughterers with a stick of wood. Even with a good sword your chances would be-”

 

silence!” she called out. “I am not here to listen to you. Know that your presence here is an eyesore before us. You only stand by our side because of my master’s generosity.”

 

It’s true,” Sagara replied, still smiling she watched the door.

 

I.. but…” Invigorated, Natoko’s mouth opened to be cut off by the explosion of wood as the kitchen door crashed towards them. The blue denizens of the workplace already reaching out for them. Natoko only had time to lift her wooden stick up before it crashed into her forehead.

 

**

 

Ah fuck!” The pain spurted from his fingers, shocking him awake.

 

whoa, you okay, Nanahara?”

 

No I’m fucking not,” he responded, glaring at the blob at his side. The weird looking girl beside him took a step back in shock, the hand once reaching for him now hesitant to take a step forward. He glared at her before turning focusing back on his hand.

 

Fuck. His right forefinger was bleeding, the skin shredded. His eyes darted round to quickly find out why.

 

He had been in drone mode, working the late shift. Rochelle had been showing him her new bikini, gyrating in front of him with only red string getting in the way. He had just been about to put his teeth to good use when- He heard a beeping noise. It was the fire alarm system asking for attention. Putting his finger to his mouth he started to suck up blood instinctively.

 

I- I’ll get the first aid kit,” the women, if you could call her that, her bloated stomach making ogre a better fit for words, said.

 

Yeah, you do that,” he hissed at her. She gave him a look of utter bewilderment, then nearly fell over the coffee table as she took a step too many back.

 

That stupid drone,” he grumbled to himself, already going the opposite direction and out of sight. He could make a wild guess at what had happened. His drone had been closing the server room’s door, the electromagnetic lock on it was still set on it, meaning his finger must have dawdled a second too long when closing it, possibly due to having the superficial conversation with the obesity machine that just ran off..

 

In a way, it was a smart aspect of the drone program. Keeping him in his dream world would be bad if he was being attacked and only had a smiling idiot persona to defend himself with. Any spark of pain would instantly bring him back to reality. It was just unfortunate it left him with the situation of not having a clue why he was in copious amounts of pain.

 

He stumbled into the server office. It was quiet tonight. The building was often deserted at this time of night from what he could recall, but today a few stragglers were typing their lives away into their keyboards, the pathetic creatures looked like they were doing their best not to burst into tears as they constantly came back to the revelation that their efforts were to fund a company that simply didn’t care about them. He laughed as he passed one of them, and watched as the drone looked up to smile at him, expecting a joke and getting nothing but malice in return.

 

His drone program could rot for all he cared. IT did his work and had a basic personality so as to not affect the performance of his work but it didn’t need to get him friends. T shouldn’t have even been possible. These people must have been the biggest losers of the bunch to even consider it an associate.

 

The hub room was empty. He locked the door before him and brought the blinds down, stumbling over to his faithful swivel chair and collapsing into it. Checking his wound, he felt the sting behind the useless layers of skin now hanging from his fingernail. He had seen this happens to others before. Idiots who chose not to pay attention. At least his drone program gave him an excuse. Others were so dead inside they probably enjoyed the pain. At least he was only dead on the outside.

 

Bracing himself, he took the shredded skin and chewed it between his teeth, yanking it off in one clean movement. He had no idea where he should have kept it while the wound was clotting, but he would have had to get rid of it eventually.

 

The computer was flashing at him. Grabbing a handful of tissue he let the wound bled away quietly to itself while he logged back in with one hand.. An alert was calling out to him. Ignoring it, he pulled up the drone program, setting it to restart and laying back to enjoy the ride.

 

Master…” Rochelle mewled with a fake pout. “Where’d you go?” Nanahara smiled, as the buxom brunette approached him the simple shoelace knot slowly being pulled loose by her own desires.. “I missed you… so very much.”

 

Fuck!” he screamed out, Rochelle already blasted from his reality. “What?” The computer was flashing at him again. Somehow, it was doing it harder. “Okay. Fine.” How had that happened? The desk had a pool of blood where there should be one, his finger hurting more than before, the tissue discarded to the side and he got the distinct impression that his hand had been poking the table without his consent. He opened the report.

 

Sucking his finger, Nanahara tried to sigh as best he could with an appendage filling his mouth with liquid. This was fun. The manGod scenario was happening again. “Fuck,” he swore in English as loud as he could, knowing only American swear words could truly express his hatred right now. He opened up the cleaner program. This was ten minutes of his life he wouldn’t get back. Whenever he had to run this, it slowed everything down, and experience taught him that once this was running, even the drone program couldn’t get away with running in the background, if it hadn’t already have closed itself.

 

It would return. It always did, but until then he would need waste his life running the diagnostic program that ran for this stupid nonsensical error that occur whenever the SIS decided to start having nightmares. Clicking the start button, he leaned back and prepared for a long ride, pulling some tissues out as the program closed itself.

 

He stopped in mid-pull. That was unlikely. Reopening the application, he swung the cursor over to start it straight away, watching as the mouse icon quickly pulled away and went for the close button itself. Pulling his hand along for the ride.

 

Grasping the mouse hard enough to bring the sting of his wound bleeding out onto the desk, he went to open the cleaner for a third tie, and watched as the mouse started opening up other programs. It brought up the report sheet, then dragged the mouse across the desk to start up a notepad. As hundreds of reports codes started to fly past his eyes, the report system bringing up codes that only he could know, he felt his hand rise from the mouse.

 

Watching it carefully,, he clenched his teeth as the drops of blood dripped over his drone’s scrap paper. He couldn’t stop. His hands were going by themselves, rising above his shoulders with enough jerky movements to emulate a crane game, With a thud they landed on the keyboard, blood dripping over the j key. He began to type.

 

System not compromised. False alarm. Resolving. Nana 21/11/2014 21:36

 

manGod system flushed. Zero results. Resolving Nana

 

Nanahara tried to swear, but his lips were locked shut. He was reporting the system was fine and resolving the conflict messages, but he hadn’t even ran the scan of the system yet Why would h- No. How was this happening. He wasn’t in control. IT was like the drone program was taking him on its usual detour through life but he was awake for the experience. But why. He didn’t care. He didn’t need to be awake for this. Just leave him with Rochelle and let the world slip away. He just needed to stay with her forever and-

 

Sorry baby,” Rochelle said suddenly, her fingers over his hands and her lips in his ear. “It needed you to see this.” She brought his hand over the camera system, opening it up.

 

He didn’t recognise the location. Normally the camera feed was nothing more than that of various entrances around the building. He had managed to patch a feed before the showed the best view he could get of several offices, but this was different. It looked like a hot springs hotel. Three different feeds showed three different corridors. Only one was occupied. The girl in it looked familiar. Long natural brown hair on native skin. She was attractive and athletic. That made her a bitch. There was a hazy fuzziness directly above her. Then he saw the feed name. ‘Heavenly Springs Dormitory – 091’. The home of the idiot prince.

 

you must watch from this point on, and monitor the situation with unaffected human eyes,” she whispered in his ear, the sensual tongue causing him to shudder involuntarily. “You need to see everything.” In his mind, he beg her to lick him.

 

The girl on the screen entered a seating area, got two steps in and then froze on the spot.

 

The manGod always takes priority.”

 

**

 

I see you have rejected my offer. Very well. Please note that my offer always stands, as do my consequences.”

 

Natoko woke up to sirens bleeding through her brain, along with shuffling and a great many very noisy people talking all around her. She was lying down and quickly decided she shouldn’t be.

 

Whoa there,” a delicate hand pressed her down firmly, feeling oddly familiar yet heretically different.. Her eyes opened as her skin introduced her to a blaring pain around her forehead.

 

What happened?” she asked when she saw Raiko sitting before her.

 

You let the door hit you,” the girl said, still dressed in her fantastic evening wear. For a second Natoko remembered she hated this girl, then the important events started rushing back.

 

“”Did we… what?” She tried to focus, succeeding only vaguely as far as she could tell.

 

Yes. We got away,” the girl said reassuringly, pinning with her less effort than it would have took to let Natoko rush about. “Nothing to worry about.”

 

No” Natoko cried in a panic. “Did we defeat it?” Raiko looked at her oddly for a moment, then sighed.

 

Yes,” she replied. “I unleashed the lightning lock when you fell unconscious, and removed the demons from this plane of existence… defeating it, if you will.”

 

The girl looked disappointed for a second, then realised where she was.

 

We’re home?” She was still dressed in her slacks. Everything was quiet, and it was approaching eleven o’clock based on her clock radio. Natoko was thirsty.

 

We got you back, though Sagara wandered off a bit ago.” Looking away from her, the girl seemed distant for a moment. Natoko took the moment to feel her own forehead. She expected some kind of bruising, but couldn’t pick up any stinging sensations. She needed her mirror, but getting up wasn’t an option her body was giving her.

 

Natoko you should-” Raiko started suddenly, then cut off as Natoko returned her thought to her. As she fell silent Natoko was reminded of the last words she had said to her before the world had gone blank again, the dry sandpaper in her throat stretching down into her lungs. “You- you shouldn’t think about all this in terms of defeating demons. The demons can’t be defeated. We can only make them go away for a while.” She sighed again. “Sometimes it’s not worth the effort.”

 

What kind of fool hardy statement was that? Natoko thought to herself as she looked to the legs. The demons had to be defeated, though Sagara’s path was different to what Natoko first thought, she knew that the eradication of all demonkind was all his list. They couldn’t just maintain the status quo surely.

 

No, that’s not what I want to say.” In the chair besides Natoko’s bed, Raiko was fidgeting, rubbing her hands together, looking away. Natoko felt weak again.

 

I made a mistake,” Raiko finally said. Natoko couldn’t help but smile in the dark at hearing that. “I thought I might like Sagara, even love him, whilst not knowing if it was in fact the OniRai that loved the OniKage, and made me act appropriately. But now I know for certain. That boy isn’t capable of loving anyone.”

 

That wasn’t what Natoko had been expecting.

 

I realised it the same way you realised I guessed,” she continued. His responses are generic. His actions are simply following a process. And I’m fairly certain the angel inside him is telling him what to say and when to laugh.”

 

Natoko stayed silent, looking at the creature before her, eyes welling up as she clenched her fists

 

I’m amazed you’re strong enough to take it. I should have realised your feelings too. You’re a good person, Natoko. I’m guessing the idea was to let me down easily. Give me a bad date and let me flush the idea down the drain.”

 

Er… yeah.,” said Natoko, not knowing what she was agreeing too.

 

It makes sense. With that many things inside him since a young age, how could he be a person at all I had my feelings, but I should have accepted it sooner.”

 

Between the shadows, she sobbed, shortly loudly by mistake and laughing it off. “I was a fool. Whether I loved him or not didn’t matter, because I didn’t even take his feelings into account.” She coughed and wiped. “And it was just infatuation. He didn’t even have any feelings to return.”

 

Shut up,” Natoko muttered.

 

I can’t believe how strong you are to take it,” the liquid was streaming down the girls cheeks freely now, reflecting in the moonlight behind Natoko, illuminating those blues eyes that spiked the pain in her head. “You serve him. You protect him. You do so without any obvious reason. He doesn’t look out for you, nor care for you. He can’t. All biological impulses that could cause him too by shut down by the OniKage. It’s how it protects him. By removing all sensation of danger, all extreme emotions. You know all this and yet still you stand by him knowing he could never love you as you love-

 

Shut up!” Natoko yelled, silencing the girl as her hands latched onto the girl’s shoulders and squeezed.

 

I wasn’t looking out for you,” she shouted, watching the tears freeze as the girl’s shifted straight into fear. “I was plotting against you, trying to figure out how to make it so you couldn’t love him, or at least gave it up.”

 

In her bruise she felt the hissing well up, the wound helped her focus, making her feel clearer than ever.

 

And now you insult my lord with your tongue just because you can’t accept that it’s not going to work out between you two? Pathetic. Pathetic pathetic pathetic!”

 

Without meaning to, she forced the girl backwards, , whirling her off the chair and onto the ground. Raiko flew a meter back and rolled enough to allow Natoko to look her dead in the eye.

 

You were never worthy of him, just as I said before. Now get out.”

 

Natoko. No. you don’t get it?”

 

I understand more than you could ever hope to delude yourself to thinking so.”

 

No. No. Natoko You don’t, do you.” She was trying to get up. “I thought you did, but-”

 

I thank you for your assistance this evening. Now please get out.” The girl was scrambling on the floor. Natoko could put her foot right into her face.

 

But you don’t. You honestly don’t? Natoko. It won’t work. You can’t-” There was more forming on the creature’s mouth. It didn’t matter.

 

Get out. Get out get out get ou-”

 

The world went white.

 

The door was knocking. She was swimming through mud, or crawling, it didn’t matter. She didn’t know why she was doing this, but she knew it was the best way to go about things.

 

Her clock was flashing at her. 12:50. Had there been a power cut? Things were blurry, even in the dark, the banging gave her direction though.

 

She was in her room, she realised, as she wandered through the dark. Had she gone to bed early. She got the oddest feeling she shouldn’t be alone.

 

Natoko,” the shadow hiding in front of all the blinding light said as its hand nearly took a shot at her face. Blinking rapidly, she brought the figure into view. Otsune stood before her, her flame behind her not making things any easier on those who were without light a few seconds ago. Natoko coughed and muttered an apology, reaching for her dressing gown without having a clue what she was wearing.

 

Sorry, did I interrupt-” she said, sounding like Otsune sounded when she was showing that she didn’t care what one was doing.

 

It’s fine,” Natoko mumbled. Her throat hurt, like she had shouted too long and too hard. “What’s the matter?”

 

Oh it’ nothing really. I was just in the lounge, following the mysterious commands my life puts me through, when I saw you had left your sword on the floor in there.

 

Iziz. Natoko stood up straight and woke up immediately. Her head locked in place as it tried to turn to look behind her to check the stand. It should have been there.

 

Oh. Sorry. I didn’t-”

 

Yeah I thought you’d be interested,” Otsune. “OH, by the way, it had this on it.”

 

Otsune lifted a handkerchief up.. From the tip you would have guessed it to be green, but the rest of it was covered in a dark brown stain. Natoko would have been confused if it wasn’t for the red stains on Otsune’s fingers. And the smell. She recognised the smell instantly.

 

I was wondering if you could tell me how it got there.”

 

Go back before this scene and insert the finding sword scene.

 

(when she wakes up, Raiko has saved them all. She apologises, saying she sees now what Natoko and Sagara have, and Natoko feels terrible for it.

 

You’re my retainer. Of course I pay for you.”

 

Laughter is suggested by the angel

 

Scenes remaining for this act:

 

Nanahara

 

Natoko’s end of date

 

Otsune finds Isis

 

The date:

 

At restaurant, all three of them

 

something…

 

Natoko goes to leave. Sagara follows, eventually followed by Raiko

 

Aki disappears out of shame for being used to strike a human. Doesn’t reveal later though

 

Raiko decides that Sagara likes Natoko, hence why he follows her, but then Raiko reveals that she felt no jealousy whatsoever and so realised that she doesn’t mind this at all, and thanks Natoko, making Natoko feel terrible

 

(it all ends up going right against Natoko’s ideas, but Raiko realises otherwise, realising that she finds herself incredibly attracted to Sagara after Sagara does nothing but horrible things all night) This turns out to be terrible for Natoko, as Raiko admits that above all else, she didn’t want to be with Sagara., and she thanks Natoko for being true to her, making Natoko hate herself )

 

This is all leading to Aki’s disappearance and Otsune’s discovery of a bloodied Isis, as well as being led into the SIS

 

Anyone come in?” Otsune asked, re-entering the lounge.

 

Of course not. Do you know what time it is?” Fujiko was sitting on the chair facing their way as Natoko followed sheepishly behind her.

 

Twenty past midnight,” Otsune replied, more to make a mental timeline of the current incident than to answer.

 

Exactly. No one’s gonna come in here. They’re all still out.”

 

And you didn’t touch it?”

 

I’m doing my best to not even look at it.”

 

Good good.”

 

Isis!” Natoko cried out behind her, pushing past her to get at the sword lying on the ground. Hastily, Otsune reached out to grab the girl, missing the back of her shirt by an inch. As Natoko knelt down, Occam sprang to life, engulfing the area above the flame in white heat. Natoko held back, looking like she was still awaiting an opportunity to reach in and grab.

 

You named your sword?” Fujiko said disdainfully.

 

What is the meaning of this, Tsunade?” Natoko said turning to her. Her hand was held out against the hat. Instinctively, Otsune will Occam to turn it down a notch. She wasn’t quite sure how many degrees Natoko was willing to go.

 

You tell me, Natoko,” Otsune replied. “Can you tell me what it’s doing here?”

 

The blade was on the floor without its sheathe, lying down with the sharp tip piercing into the wooden floorboards. Otsune had seen it round the girl’s waist enough times to know immediately it was hers, even without Natoko claiming it on sight. The obsession didn’t concern her. The blood did.

 

Who was using it? Where’s her sheathe?”

 

And a gender too?” Fujiko was still staring in the direction of the door.

 

You have no idea what it’s doing here then?”

 

Why do you think I’m asking who took it?” She was answering with questions.

 

Why aren’t you asking why there’s blood on it?”

 

Natoko spun back around, glaring at the weapon again. Otsune heard a small gasp and suddenly Natoko was reaching forwards to grab it once again.

 

Natoko!” the girl was reaching past the layer of heat, struggling as if it were a tornado pushing her back. Otsune leant forward and grabbed her by the scruff of her collar, trying to yank her back. “Stop it.”

 

Let me have Iziz!” Her hand was turning red from the heat Otsune had to wrap her arm round the girl’s head and fall back to pull her away.

 

You can’t touch it” she yelled in the girl’s ear. “We don’t know what’s happened. “We need to have it checked out.”

 

Iziz,” hissed Natoko, her efforts stopping. It felt like she was giving up, so Otsune held her a little tighter.

 

You know it’s not normally wise to bring the culprit back to the scene of the crime,” Fujiko said, looking down at the from the top of her chair.

 

Fujiko, we don’t-” The elbow to the gut stopped her words, and Natoko was up. Trapped between wheezes, Otsune rolled over as Natoko stood up. Thrusting her hand across the floor, Otsune reached to stop her friend, stopping only as she saw her sit down on one of the dinner chairs. “I was about to let you go, you know.”

 

Yu could not have held me anyway,” the girl replied defiantly.

 

Yeah, but I’m pretty sure I can incinerate this building in a heartbeat.”

 

But then she remembers that she’s not a murderer,” Fujiko interjected quickly. “Unlike some potential suspects.”

 

Otsune tried to gather the urge to calm down. She wasn’t going for good cop bad cop here, let alone keep things calm cop, rather accusations cop.

 

You think I would dishonour my sword’s spirit that way,” Natoko barked, now sitting with arms folded. “With that blade I could never take a life, except that of a demon.”

 

That was a possibility. “So is it demon’s blood?” Otsune enquired.

 

Impossible,” Natoko replied. “The blood of Demons and Divine cannot be found on earth They possess objects. Whilst it is possible that it is the blood of a demon possessed human, the blood itself can only belong to a creature found on this planet.”

 

That was- strangely knowledgeable.

 

And you haven’t been stabbing any demons tonight.” Part of Otsune was aware she needed to be more annoyed with this conversation, yet she just plain wasn’t.

 

Not myself directly no.”

 

You sure,” Fujiko interrupted again. “Not attacking kids dressed in Halloween costumes a month too early thinking they’re flesh eating monsters.” Natoko’s teeth clenched as her face scrunched up.. Otsune had never seen anyone do that before.

 

Natoko stood up to shout. “You dare even think I would use my katana for such vile things? I would never. That blade is the final gift my grandfather gave me in his last will ten years ago? His honour flows through my veins as I wield it. I strike down evil in his name, and only his evil.”

 

Okay okay, calm down. It’s just Fujiko suggesting possibilities Natoko. You don’t need to-

 

Wait wait,” Fujiko kicked in again. “Ten years ago? Natoko. You bought that sword three years ago.”

 

In the middle of shouting, Natoko’s stuttered silence came out as a bizarre exhale. “e-excuse me?”

 

The argument stalled on Fujiko’s side as well, sensing the other’s confusion. “You got it three years ago. Remember. You came back from shopping with it.”

 

I did no such thing.”

 

You so did. Granma Futabatei scolded you for it. It was a few days before Aki arrived.”

 

I know not what you refer to, but I assure you. This blade is the blade of my grandfather. It was passed onto him by our samurai ancestors. He gave it to me the week before his passing at the occupation of the SDF. It brought me on the path of Bushido I’m on now.”

 

Fujiko looked to Otsune, who shrugged. Otsune was in Germany at the time. She hadn’t a clue, though she too figured Natoko had bought the sword somewhere. Actually Otsune wasn’t that up to date on bladed weapons, besides being sharp, pointy, way overused in movies nowadays and completely illegal to carry around. Her only real question about Natoko’s ownership of a four foot katana ??? was how the high school girl got away with it so easily.

 

Well, okay. My mistake then. But still- hello? Murder!”

 

Actually, we don’t know if anyone’s died yet,” Otsune pointed out, kneeling down at the scene. “We kind of need a body.” An urge to examine the weapon surged through her, trapped only by the knowledge that she shouldn’t touch it. They should surely call the police. That was the most logical and civic thing to do. She would just be getting pulled into something she’d later regret if she started pawing at the evidence right now. Checking out the murder weapon in the middle of a crime scene was what stupid people would do, the type that wanted to believe that adventure rolled around them, with the universe joining in to circle. Otsune was smart, she could probably assist, but her mere presence here made her a potential suspect as well. There was no way she could have any official status on a case like this, meaning her best input would have been a witness’s statement. And that was even if it got to the police. If experience taught her anything in this room, it was that, it was that there could have been a massacre in her and that ninja would still jump down from nowhere and start insisting they all forget it ever happened. But even so, she should still not touch it. She should still try to get the police involved.

 

Oh who was she kidding

 

Touching the sword’s ???(crack) she dipped the finger in the blood and pulled it up to smell it. IT definitely wasn’t chocolate sauce. IT was thick too, covering the sword at a length of roughly sixty centimetre, and pooling down the ??? all the way to the hilt.. Whoever contributed the blood had a lot of sword stuck in them.

 

Yet the floor was clean.

 

Not completely, the wood was stained a permanent shade of Gen’s insurance inspired screams. But it wasn’t a giant pool. Instead, a small trail seeped through one of the wooden floor tiles. You could have mistaken it for a drinks spill or not even noticed it at all if it weren’t for the sword itself.

 

If it had occurred at all, the act of murder couldn’t have happened here in the lounge. That was obvious. Pulling the sword out of a body would have brought a hell of a lot out with it and yet the surrounding area was, mostly, clean.

 

Whoever was stabbed didn’t do get it in the longue, nor were they even here. That meant the sword was carried here, possibly by the murderer.

 

Natoko, where has your sword been all night?”

 

In my room,” the girl replied, a little desperately, sounding a relieved to be asked a question that implied she didn’t murder. If it was in her room, then Natoko should have locked her door. Checking for signs of entry would be the next logical step.

 

No. There was something more important to be done.

 

Natoko,” Otsune said standing back up. “I trust you’re not the murderer, but I need you to prove it to me by leaving Iziz where she is.”

 

Natoko mild relief seem to bring a little smile to her lips, and she nodded. “Understood.”

 

The girl sat back down to wait. Otsune kept poker. Trust wasn’t an issue here, but giving a dose of it to a heavily insecure girl with authority issues increased the chances of her staying put until Otsune got done what needed to be done.

 

Fujiko?” she said, standing back up, doing one last quick sweep of the room to ensure there was no errant body here. “Get hold of everyone you can, even Gen and the ninja girl if you can.”

 

Okay. Why?”

 

We need to check everyone is still alive.”

 

**

 

Are you still alive?”

 

What… Erm, yes,” said a slurred voice belonging to Junko on the other side of the phone, too inebriated to answer the question with anything but honesty.

 

Great. Good job.” Otsune hung up. That was most of the people on her contacts list that lived in the dorm. Natoko was still trying to get hold of Aki, and Hisami was shuffling around her room but not answering any knocks (which was normal). Sarah hadn’t been accounted for until ten minutes ago when she wandered in with a pitiful attempt at making it look like she hadn’t been out all night.

 

Sagara and the ninja were missing. Though Otsune had to class that as normal they were the ones most likely to be involved with this.

*

The potential for a fight to have occurred involving Sagara or Melissa, in which Natoko’s sword was used during the flow of battle and someone who was possibly human getting stabbed…” Otsune paused by the door. This line of thought gave her nothing. This gave her nothing, and basic Holmesian deduction wouldn’t let her generate outlandish theories to accommodate sketchy facts. She was stuck.

 

All they had was a sword and a small pool of blood. It wasn’t even a trail. With no path to follow, she went for the next stage of logic. That she could consider.

 

Natoko’s room was unlocked. Before getting in here, distracting the girl with the random goose chase that was find Sagara, Melissa and Aki was a necessity. It wasn’t exactly a Machiavellian method of planning, But Otsune’s diabolical nature was just as strong as the man’s himself. She slid open the door.

 

Flicking the light, she steadily approach the two roomed bedroom. Natoko was in the wing that had a private sink and toilet. With the other door wide open, she could see the in there as clearly as the rest of the room. Nothing sprung to mind bar Natoko’s obsession with the Edo and Heian??? periods. Calligraphy scrolls adorned the walls on both sides of her bed, while a samurai headpiece sat on the bedside table. Three malnourished bonsai trees were outlined behind the closed curtains and somehow Otsune knew that if it wasn’t a legal requirement for the landlord to provide it, the bed would be replaced with a more tatami mats.

 

Other than the fan merchandise, it was otherwise a normal room. Natoko’s schoolbag sat by the door, unceremoniously dumped, and the desk was filled with junk, the flashing red lights of Natoko’s alarm clock posting the time at 1:55, which was wrong.

 

There were no corpses or pools of blood to be found here.

 

Not that Otsune had been expecting this. She entered the room carefully all the same, checking all eight corners and poking her head through the bathroom door. Of course there wasn’t. What she knew she needed to check was just for any signs of break in, which was again unnecessary. The door was unlocked now and was probably unlocked earlier. She had never tested it but she always felt Natoko to be the type to remember to always do so, either out of procedure or fear she would be mocked for her hobbies.

 

Otsune poked her head under the bed..

 

She didn’t expect Natoko to hide the body either. No. Natoko was just the type to believe herself justified in any of her actions. If she had murdered someone she’d probably confess it to the police and then wait patiently for them to take the body away for her, only getting confused when she was asked to step into the car. Otsune yawned.

 

She couldn’t take this seriously. Not only because they had no proof of anything having actually happened except a load of possible pig’s blood, but also because it was the server who led her to the sword in the first place. It knew what had happened. Something computer’s obviously shouldn’t be aware of. But it had been contacting her via text as well, and chasing her down when she refused to acknowledge them. IT was obviously just someone on a real time chat client, but what was their game.

 

Entry through the window was at least remotely possible. She walked over to the bed.

 

Whatever their game was, it involved either revealing, framing or vindicating Natoko from whatever event was happening with her sword. That meant they were both being used. Otsune didn’t sit well with that.

 

Lifting the duvet up, Otsune found nothing but a smell that needed covering up immediately and no further investigation. Reaching over, she pulled the curtains open. Expecting a lightning bolt she was instead met with a clear night sky, the moon glistening high above in a half crescent and washing the distant city of Fuugosuki in a luminous sheet. The rain from earlier was gone none, completely and if it kept like this it would be beautiful over the next few days.

 

The window was shut, key sitting in the lock and fairly secure. No one had come through the window. Looking down to the bonsai trees, she clicked her tongue . These needed watering. They wouldn’t get it, Otsune knew that. Natoko’s strategy was to buy things that looked feudal and then immediately forget about them. Only one looked like it was doing well for itself.

 

Turning round to sit on the bed properly, Otsune took another glance at the room as she warmed her hands under the sheets. The room was clear it seemed, not that she didn’t already know that. The girl had been in the room when Otsune had approached. The basic line of thought would be to avoid areas where one could get caught. But Natoko was an idiot. Maybe she had opted to hide in plain sight, for better denial later-

 

Otsune sank down further across the bed, her hands sinking down onto the radiator. IT was late. She was sleepy. She should just retire to the internet for another hour or two and then go to bed. She could figure this out- Her hand clutched something from behind the bed. Long and light. Out of mild curiosity she lifted it out and found herself looking at a sheath, undoubtedly that of the sword’s. Why was it behind the bed? She looked inside, seeing absolutely nothing as one would expect when they sealed a dark chamber with their own face. Se tipped it up and had a sniff. It was empty. Not just of swords but everything except a mild greasy smell, possibly (???sword cleaner).

 

It took an instant for Otsune to realise it was there, but why keep the sheathe hidden behind the bed. Why not take it with you with the sword. Anyone who took it, Natoko or not Natoko regardless, would simply have an easier time carrying, both in terms of safety and not freaking the crap out of anyone that passed in the hallway… unless the sheath was dumped in Natoko’s room after the act. Both were possibilities.

 

Otsune yawned. She was tired.

*

 

Natoko was alert, perfectly aware of her surrounding as she remain frozen to the chair, refusing to move an inch. Across the floor, n feet from her, lying on its tip???, Iziz gazed at her, the reflection of eyes coming back at her over a crimson shine. Natoko apologised silently yet again.

 

Iziz wanted to be in her hands. They had been apart all day. With school and the date, she had only time to wander past and admire whilst she was getting ready. She hadn’t trained for over twenty hours…

 

Natoko was forgetting things. This she could feel It was all in a ream though, some weird conversation where she was completely calm. It wasn’t to be of concern for the moment.

 

Sagara was watching her. She had requested with head bowed that he not let her pick up the sword. While she trusted her pride to not be so stubborn as to grab the blade, she feared habit would take her. Even with sheathe missing, holding the handle??? was the most natural thing for her to do.

 

Aki was out and wouldn’t be back for a while. The American ninja girl eluded her grasp. Sagara was oddly the easiest to find that night. He was also the least likely victim of the attack, though she had asked just to be sure, despite him sporting no obvious wounds and was outside training himself. The earlier events of the night hadn’t phased him much.

 

He was staring right at her as he rocked back and forth on the chair, she could see this out of the corner of her eyes. It was hard to hold back a smile.

 

We’re back,” Fujiko chimed, wandering back in with Otsune following her. “Sagara. You’re alive as well.”

 

Yes I am,” he said proudly, spinning the chair round to face them. :Apparently Natoko stabbed somebody real hard?”

 

I did not!” Natoko insisted, standing up without meaning to. “I was asleep. We came back from the date with Raiko and I went to bed I didn’t even know Iziz had been taken until Otsune woke me up.”

 

Did you notice it missing when you got back to your room,” Otsune asked, leaning against the far wall.

 

I.. don’t think so. I don’t even remember getting to my room really. I think I just wandered in and crash.” Otsune was talking. That was good. Otsune would try to be fair about this surely.

 

Right, so you-”

 

Wait wait wait!” Fujiko interrupted, now standing in the centre of them all, three feet away from Iziz. “You two were on a date.”

 

Er- Yes,” Natoko said, a few tones higher than she meant to. “It was for Raiko. She wanted to see… it was at the…”

 

Wait!” Fujiko held her hands up firmly, then pointed at Sagara. “You were on a date with two women?”

 

Yes I was!” replied Sagara helpfully, whilst at the same time managing to be very unhelpful.

 

Impressive.” the grin on Fujiko’s face shifted to Natoko, becoming a little leerish? in the process.

 

Fujiko!” Otsune called up.

 

Oh right, the murder,” Fujiko looked to start paying attention, looking back at Sagara. “You dog…”

 

Anyway!” Otsune called to order. “Natoko. You’re saying after you came back from the date, you crashed out on the bed, and during this time you didn’t notice your sword was gone.”

 

That’s correct… I normally would but I guess I was tired.”

 

Did you notice what time it was?”

 

…no. It was just before eleven I think. You woke me up at one I know that.”

 

How did the date go?”

 

Fujiko!”

 

Serious question actually,” she replied. “Surely we need to know what the suspect was thinking at the time, right.”

 

Otsune sighed forcefully. “Proceed.”

 

Everyone was looking at her, Sagara’s eyes were piercing her.. “Well.. I guess… it went well.”

 

Come on. Details. Where’d he take you?”

 

Restaurant…”

 

What type?”

 

Italian.”

 

Fancy. Did he wine and dine you?”

 

Er… no. We didn’t get that far.”

 

Fujiko’s beaming smile opened up to reveal clenched teeth of happiness. “OH! You really didn’t You get distracted at the bar and ended things early?”

 

No…” she muttered. “Not exactly. When the waiter turned into a sludge demon and proceeded to fight us I was left defenceless as Sagara and Raiko fought the creatures off.”

 

Huh?”

 

The whole thing was cut shirt pretty quickly I guess.”

 

Fujiko’s smile was hidden beneath a frown. “What?”

 

I had left Iziz at home at this point, not expecting a demon attack. Luckily, Sagara was able to summon Draynor to defend, and Raiko utilised the elements of the OniRai locked within her, and used her lightning summoning abilities to fend the creatures off. I was incapacitated by a blow to the head. Oh,” she suddenly realised. “That’s what happened. I was hit by something, so they took me home whilst I was unconscious. I remember now…”

 

Fujiko’s frown was hidden under an aghast look of total perplexity. “What?”

 

What?” Natoko replied, suddenly just as confused.

 

You were attacked by demons?” Otsune asked.

 

Er, yes…” Natoko wasn’t sure where they were going with this. Was this one of those clever interrogation techniques used to distract her. Surely Iziz was more of a concern.

 

Why were you attacked by demons,” Fujiko questioned, the ac of maintaining three different expressions piled on top of one another proving too much and collapsing her face into one blank expression.

 

Because-” Natoko cut herself off, trapped in thought for three seconds. “Why were we attacked by demons?”

 

Hell if I know,” replied Sagara.

 

Look!” Otsune interjected. “This… probably-” she looked uncertain, “isn’t important, to what happened tonight. What is important is that we have a sword covered in blood and no known reason for it being there. Now, tell me Natoko, can you explain what this was doing behind your bed.”

 

From behind her back, Otsune lifted one half of Iziz. The sheathe, she realised in the instant she grabbed it off her friend, was just as much a part of the blade as the blade was itself. To be hidden and dangled like that-

 

How dare you hold Iziz with your fil- the fire burned before her, pushing her back. She fell three steps back and held there. The sudden inferno quickly subsided, emptying the gap between herself and Otsune.

 

Looking a little flustered and shaking her hand as if to get it dry from Natoko’s sudden retrieved, Otsune shifted uneasily towards her. “I found it behind your bed. Now you yourself admitted that upon coming back without the sword, you got into bed and fell asleep. The way your room’s laid out, no one could put your sword behind your bed without waking you up.”

 

Now the sword itself could not have been in here before eleven, as me and Fujiko were in here talking.”

 

not about dates though,” Fujiko grunted.

 

From here we can determine that the sword was placed here after we left the room at eleven and got here before I wandered back in just after twelve. And around this time, the sheath was placed in Natoko’s room behind the bed, either returning to the room after the sword was left here or never leaving the bedroom at all.”

 

Wait.” Something felt wrong. “That was two hours ago. Surely someone could have placed it in there before you woke me up half an hour ago.”

 

Natoko,” Otsune said wearily. “Look at the clock behind you.”

 

Natoko turned slowly to the clock above the kitchen door. It was close to twelve forty???time confirm. “But.”

 

My assumptions of time are not based on your accounting of facts.” She wandered past over to the clock. “It was five minutes to eleven when me and Fujiko left the room. It was eight minutes past when I came back into the room to find the sword. And it was twelve thirty when I knocked on your door.”

 

But I-” Natoko racked her brains, but couldn’t think what she was looking for.

 

The reason you think it’s later in the night is because of this. From the pocket of her hoodie?? Otsune produced Natoko’s alarm clock. Red lights were flashing 2:13??? at her.”

 

This works both on plug and battery, but despite this it still appears to have been reset, two hours and thirteen minutes ago???”

 

Was there a power cut,” Natoko asked, feeling deja vu.

 

Only unless it was localised in your room.”

 

But why would that matter… oh.” She couldn’t do the math, but she knew what they were thinking. Somewhere this left out a block of time that was unaccounted for, and that was enough for them to think she was hiding something and that she did it. This was getting bad. She was innocent. That much she knew. She didn’t kill anything tonight, not for lacking of trying when it came to waiter based sludge demons. But if the others suspected something and Otsune was tricked into thinking she did something. No wait. Otsune herself might of done something using her sword. It was the perfect weapon.

 

Actually this tells us nothing again,” Otsune said “When it comes down to it, the clock getting knocked out could have happened for any number of reason and only explains why Natoko thinks it’s fifteen minutes past two in the morning. It doesn’t explain the sword, or the sheathe.”

 

Natoko found herself breathing again.

 

Plus there was the gap of time after Otsune had fetched Natoko and brought her here.” Fujiko added. “ The sheathe could have been placed back then.”

 

Good idea, but no,” said Otsune. “Without sounding too amazing for thinking ahead of time, I knew I would need to check Natoko’s room as I went to get her, so I had Occam here-” The little flame floated into existence as she pointed, “stay outside her room until I got back, “and return to me only if someone entered, which he did not???”

 

Soooooooo-” said Fujiko, “what you’re saying is, essentially, we’re right back to where we started.”

 

Correct,” Otsune said, looking a smug bastard in Natoko’s eyes. “We’ve determined when the event occur, between eleven and twelve, and when it couldn’t possibly have occurred. After twelve. While we still need to determine if the sword was taken before eleven, if the sheath was hidden before eleven, what time the blood got on the sword, whose blood was it and who was holding the sword, w at least still have determined this critical piece of information. This is logical deduction my friends. Not all the answers are shown immediately, but through careful observation of the fact and long, drawn out study of statements I’m sure we’ll determine the true cause of this mystery!”

 

Natoko stared at Otsune. Fujiko looked a little pissed. A few seconds later so did Otsune. “Oh I’m sorry. This isn’t a cop show. You can’t expect me to find the answer by just asking the whole world out loud does anyone have an idea of how blood got on the sword? Now can you?”

 

It was probably whilst Natoko and Raiko were fighting at twenty past eleven yesterday,” said Sagara, still rocking back and forth. “The first time Natoko woke up.”

 

What?”

 

*

 

It was really 4am. Otsune was dropping off. Iziz the magical super samurai sword was sitting beside her, being covered in blood and not doing much else.

 

Otsune clenched her hand. It felt like it as bruising. Natoko had snatched it off her so fast it felt like something should have caught on fire. It was nothing compared to the speed she had shown a few moments later.

 

It was weird. She was sure Natoko hadn’t done anything. Surely no one would have left a murder weapon in the middle of the floor and then hidden its sheathe three feet away from one’s self. Not unless they hoped it would look so obvious it must clearly have been a fix.

 

They really needed to move the sword. Sakura would probably be up in two hours to start food prep, then Otsune would be up to go jogging. No wait, she was Otsune… she giggled a little, then slumped to the floor.

 

The skies were still clear, all the clouds that had surrounded them over the last few weeks had cleared off without warning. It was kind of weird to have such a serene landscape for a change. The absence of lightning would be a good thing too.

 

Natoko had kept the sheathe after leaving. Otsune had figured she could just let her hold it for now and it wouldn’t have amounted to much. Now it was a soon to be fugitive holding evidence, and she had let the crazy sword girl do it.

 

She rolled over on the hard floorboard, releasing another sigh. She did that far too often nowadays. She’ll ruin her skin with all this worrying. Surely she had better thing to be doing than this. She still needed to get a job.

 

No. That was irrelevant for now. For now, she had to find out the truth Everything else was superficial, mundane and short term. She needed to find Natoko, see if she was okay, determine just what the girl had done, find out what this server thing was all about and perhaps- bzzt

 

She flicked her phone open.

 

Suggested location for designated temporary evidence storage room. East Wing. Floor 2, room 32F. Room is unoccupied and contains multiple boxes left by prior occupant. Glove are in kitchen drawer.

 

Otsune sighed yet again and made it loud and clear. It knew she was in this room? It was stupid o’clock in the morning. Who would be up?

Otsune looked at the blade. It was evidence, possibly of a murder, possibly of someone’s fervent desire to drop a katana in pig’s blood. There was no way for her to tell without at least some kind of forensics lab to analyse the blood, and of course that would take weeks just to get a ‘probably’ on. She needed to know, the answer could vindicate her friend, or destroy her.

 

But if she moved the weapon, she caused further trouble. She got herself more involved. Otsune had only touched the blood so far. If she moved the sword an inch, it could affect everything. Forget taking the sheathe out from under the bed, this was covered in clues.

 

The half crescent moved stared down at her from above. The phone buzzed again. She didn’t look at it.

 

Otsune went to sigh and stopped herself. Getting up instead, she went into the kitchen to get the gloves.

 

*

 

It was Monday morning. Natoko was not in school uniform.

 

The class was sitting in silence as Mr Fukazawa paced the room. It was sunny, but cold this morning, and he had come wearing a full suit with a hint of a sweater underneath. The student body had switched to winter uniform two weeks ago. The boys kept their jackets on while some of the girls were wearing an extra layer of knee high socks To her left, the vice president was wearing fingerless gloves. Fukazawa had allowed it.

 

Natoko was dressed in jeans and a top, her ‘date’ clothes from the previous night. No one had said a word to her when they entered the class. Everyone had looked. The vice president had glared when she handed the pop quiz paper to her. Natoko’s blood was boring.

 

Maths questions were in front of her. She hadn’t answered any. She couldn’t see the questions, couldn’t even read the paper. Clutching the pencil, she wondered why no one was saying anything. Most had chatted morning class away like usual, mostly in hushed whispers, but it was beginning to bother her that Mr Fukazawa hadn’t said anything He used to send her out into the hall if she so much as had a button undone, just because he could. There was no way he was letting this go. She could feel his footsteps as he paced the floor. Every one of them were turned to face her. She knew she was in trouble.

 

Blur plus blur equals blank,” she muttered, seeing the vice president quickly glare at her. She didn’t care about the test. What was she even doing here? After that… thing that happened last night, after… they had accused her, she had ran. Using the quickly step she was out of the village before the dolls even knew she was on the street. Now she couldn’t remember where she had gone at all. Somehow the city had become her destination, the lights above attracting her in her haste to escape his… their accusations. From there she couldn’t remember where she went. She was just going too fast. This speed was amazing, and she was getting faster all the time. Landing at the school was probably luck or coincidence, but why she had walked in…

 

The clock was ticking. Pencils were scratching. The teacher’s suede boots were clicking against the tiled floor. Four seats behind and one right from her, a boy was typing on his mobile phone. Six back and one and two left from her, two people were sharing answer. Five seats behind her, Aki’s chair was empty.

 

What had they told her. Natoko realised she hadn’t seen the girl all weekend ow?? she was accused of murder and her best friend wasn’t coming to school. What had that bitch Otsune told her. Her pencil cracked. Had she been squeezing it?

 

Part of her knew she needed to calm down. The world around her was conspiring to catch her, to prove her guilty of… something. Really, she didn’t even know what. Had she and Raiko been fighting. She recalled some kind of conversation with the girl. And it had been her that carried Natoko to the bedroom. And of course Natoko had planned to remove the girl from interference with Sagara’s quest to become the Enforcer. But she hadn’t planned to kill her unless absolutely necessary. Had it become necessary?

 

Psst.” More noises distracted her. “Psst.” To her left, the vice president was waving. Looking over the girl was making various hand signals and pointing down at the sheet of paper on Natoko’s desk while her mouth opened and closed in several directions.

 

Excuse me?” said Natoko, clueless o the girl’s bizarre actions. The girl panicked and several others looked up from their papers.

 

Five minutes remaining,” Mr. Fukazawa said, causing everyone’s passion for staring at paper to suddenly remerge. Natoko remembered where she was and glanced down as well as he passed. A minutes passed as the clock informed her of every second. Soon he started to wander round again.

 

Psst,” the Vice President called out. Natoko looked over again. Again her mouth started to mouth words Natoko couldn’t understand. The girl tried again before giving up. “Just guess if you don’t know the answer.”

 

Was she trying to be insulting? What point did guessing achieve. Natoko looked away, trying to be grateful. This was the problem with schools. They made the test something to be feared. She should never guess. A test was for one to prove and improve one’s self. Just randomly writing numbers down would prove nothing but falsehood. An right now she needed to prove herself innocent against the slander that would turn her lord against her.

 

Time is up. Please hand your papers to the front.” Why must everyone distract her while she was thinking. The child erupted into muttered conversation, everyone talking with leashes wrapped around their mouths. She needed a plan. Something she could do. Maybe she should head to Sakimoto Industries. Miss Sakimoto might be willing to believe her if she told her side of the story. But if she didn’t…

 

Oi. Yamanaka.”

 

What!” she shouted out, swinging round from her chair to face the one who dared interrupt her. Little Tanaka peered at her through oval spectacles, shivering as he lifted up test papers to pass to her.

 

Please,” he whimpered, frozen in place as the class fell to silence. Eyes flashing between him and the papers, she snatched them off him and sat back down again. This was useless to her now. Maybe she could ask Sagara’s assistant or…

 

It was the sudden instant where she realised she had nowhere to go when the hand slapped down hard on her table.

 

Miss Yamanaka,” Mr Fukazawa said as he leered down at her through semi-circle glasses. “May I see your test paper?” From the front of the room, she could see everyone staring at her.

 

Please do,” she replied. She needed to leave here at east. All these distractions were just getting in the way. This was a school. Why weren’t they letting her think?

 

He scooped up the paper that had been on her desk for the last hour. “Miss Yamanaka. When you attend a test, any test, you are marked mostly on basic performance, whether you got the answers right, and how you got them. However, basic competency is also a must. In the education system, we mark and reward even the most basic of effect. As we all know, merely putting your name at the top marks you three points.”

 

He was still talking? It was getting hard to drown him out. At least everyone else had gone silent.

 

From your silence I do assume you know this.” It occurred to her he hadn’t spoken at her like this for a while. Her grades had improved a little after all. “Perhaps you would care to tell me then, why you think you can get away with this.” He raised the markless paper for all to see.

 

If you think that just because your ‘improved grades’ means you can simply stop trying after a little improvement, then let me tell you, that just because I gave you those marks out of my own… generosity, doesn’t mean you can abuse my trust in you to do well and-” Aki should have been by her side. She would know what to do. At the very least the girl could put an idea into her head for her and they could go from there. “And that’s not even commenting on your state of dress.. At first I thought maybe there was some kind of problem going on, but now I see this is nothing more than a delinquent effort to rebel.” He stopped talking. This was good. Now she could-

 

Striking her across the forehead, the test paper swung across her vision. Then she felt it again. Her blood boiling. Her thighs burning. “Are you listening now? Now I think that after school today-”

 

Natoko focused on Mr Fukazawa. The man paused in his words for a second.

 

After school you will stay behind and you will finish the test. Now I think that because this will get in the way of cleaning duties that you.

 

The table scattered. Suede shoes left the ground. A finely pressed suit scrunched up in her hand as a two faces contorted and three girls squealed like pigs behind her. Mr Fukazawa crashed into the blackboard, Natoko following him as she lifted him up, point the tip of Iziz straight into his forehead.

 

Shut up!” she screamed. “Shut up! Shut up shut up! You just eel talking and talking and talking and talking and talking. And it’s always nothing. It’s about nothing. It’s for nothing.”

 

The man had turned sheet white and started blubbering pit out of his mouth as he failed to catch words. Pathetically he tried to climb up the blackboard using his hands and felt Iziz’s tip pressed into his forehead just enough as he sank down.

 

Okay okay. I’m sorry. I’m sorry… Please just.. just don’t

Shut up!” she screamed again, right into his ear with enough force to send it into every brain cell.

 

Okay okay. You want good grades, like Kiriyama said. I’ll give you good grades. I’ll do that. I’m sorry. I just thought-”

 

Kiriyama?” The name brought focus. “Why are you mentioning him?”

 

Right. The deal. We’ll just keep to the deal. I understand. I’ll be quiet.” The man was openly sobbing now.

 

What deal? What are you talking about?”

 

No I get what you mean. I’ll be quiet. You’ll get the good grades. Just like we agreed. Just like Kiriyama told me. I’ll move them up. You’ll get top marks all the time now. I swear it. I’ll keep my word.”

 

Iziz was in her hand. Clean and crisp where she should be. It felt right. She was focused again.

 

Natoko knew where to go.”

 

Mr Fukazawa dropped to the floor, the pinprick leaving a drip of blood to travel down his nose and into his stuttering mouth. Leaning down, she looked him in the eye.

 

For your own safety,” she said loud enough to travel,” I was never here today.”

 

Yes. Yes mam,” he blubbered loudly, bowing his head. “I understand. I understand.”

 

Striking Iziz down with a perfect clean???, she replaced the blade back into its sheath and felt a small tinge of pleasure warm her body. This is how it should be. And now she knew what she needed to do. Find Kiriyama. He had to be the one behind this. He got everyone looking at her strangely weeks ago after the arcade. He had to be the one behind the fake murder as well. She would find him, beat the truth out of him in front of her lord and that fool Otsune, and then, see where justice takes her.

 

Turning from her former teacher, she walked out slowly, keeping her head up. Sliding open the door, she turned to the fifth seat behind hers. Looking carefully, she smiled, turning away to head for the exit.

*Water 4

 

When considering it rationally, Heavenly Springs was a weird little village.

 

Situated roughly five miles from the city of Fuugosuki, it was just outside range to be considered a part of the vast city itself. But even with only one road and one tram line there, there was never need for anyone to visit despite its proximity and allusions to cultural heritage.

 

The village itself only had three shops, one (fairly modern) church, two restaurants and a population of around five hundred people. It didn’t even have a police station ??? Apart from the occasional demon scourge invading the town there was simply no need for it. Overall it was quiet, rural and had no distinguishing features.

 

And therein laid the weirdness.

 

It occurred to Otsune, as she casually walked the late night from bush to bush, keeping an eye out for wandering mannequins existed in what should and shouldn’t be here. The tram line first came to mind. It had two stops. The town and the city. A single dedicated line that didn’t even go through any other villages. It came from the city, arrived here, and then turned around again. This may have worked were it not for the existence of a second line that did navigate itself through all the neighbouring villages and towns.

 

The lack of a police station she could sort of accept. IT was not entirely unreasonable for a small town not to have local enforcement, but the complete absence of an official community watch and the lack of medical assistance, not even a village doctor, was surely cause for concern, especially due to the average resident being of retirement age.

 

And then there was the residents themselves.

 

Perhaps it was the living atop a small mountain surrounded by all her friends and having a direct road to the tram station, but the need for Otsune to wander the streets had not been a regular thing, so she could understand, as she wandered in an attempt to clear her head for the fourth night in a row, why she had completely missed the fact that resident she knew of here was at least above the age of fifty.

 

And if it wasn’t for the dormitory she was now convinced that it was a full hundred per cent.

 

Or zero per cent, if her worst fears were correct. For if the suspicions she had built upon the last few nights were correct, then not a single of the villa folk she had seen these past few nights were human, but bizarre puppets that wandered the streets looking for young people to get disappointed at.

 

Otsune could not determine why these creatures existed. IT had to be something to do with demons and the Balance and probably Sagara and definitely those puppets she saw in the forest months ago. But she was missing information.

 

Information, as always, was the key to understanding this situations. All situations. The balance, demons, angels, the Strangelands, Sakimoto Industries, Natoko’s sword healing itself, children of thunder, wandering puppets, some kind of artificial intelligence who had again turned her obil back on in order to send her another text message, Sakura’s boyfriend, some kind of instant translation field that allowed idiots of different nations to talk. And Sagara. Always Sagara.

 

He had started all of this and in some way he was probably the key to it all too. And without reducing herself to simple metaphors, every key had a lock. And that was just her problem. She didn’t have the lock, or knew what door it kept bolted, or what the door looks like, or what could possibly be behind it or even any reason for her to search for it for her to search for it in the first place.

 

Otsune had no mission. She could argue it was to search for the truth. But the evolutionary reason for truth and reason was simply so one monkey could prove itself right to another monkey, regardless of whether it was correct or not. And Otsune didn’t want to be right about anything here. She had already been proven wrong the day the tire demon popped into her close circle of friends. The only problem there had been in admitting it.

 

The mumblings of a puppet made her drop her stride and kneel into a bush. These things had been around for weeks now, and always assaulted her the times she had wandered too close to one. As the old man hobbled across the street and round the corner, Otsune wondered just how most people from the dorms weren’t questioning this situation every chance they got.

 

She shook her head, trying to clean it of cobwebs. This was not time for existential angst. Natoko was what mattered now. She needed to find her friend. Four days may have passed since the girl had ran away, but she had left with no money, no change of clothes and no sword. Otsune had done as the text message had suggested. Storing it a spare room, she had wrapped a box tight with tape and left it hidden in plain sight amongst a dozen other boxes before locking the door and keeping the key to herself.

 

The cardboard box wouldn’t stop anybody, but it’s purpose was simple. As soon as it showed any signs of tampering, it meant Natoko had come to retrieve it… possibly. IT also kept it out of the way and left no one but herself, Fujiko and Sagara suspecting of Natoko.

 

The girl known as Raiko had yet to be found. Sagara confessed not seeing any sign of her since the date night. The room she had been staying in was simply left as it was. The girl had left one set of casual clothing behind. From Sagara’s account of events, she had spent the night dressed up. If she had left, it would make some sense she had changed and if that hadn’t happened, did it mean she hadn’t gone of her own free will.

Kicking a stone, Otsune realised just how many times she had formed this line of thought already. She needed a more active approach. Someplace to go. Someone to question.

 

In a village full of weird, how was it she could find no clues.

 

Stupid bitch!” Otsune fell backwards out of pure retarded instinct, arms flailing as the wrinkled old face appeared straight in front of her, the sharp corner onto ???street name providing no warning for the sudden intruder in her life. Falling hard onto her left shoulder, her body went to automatic, trying to roll her off t with a wrist that was also screaming from the sudden impact..

 

Her vision had gone fuzzy and her non-sprained hand darted out immediately to retrieve her glasses. In the blurred world beyond two feet, she could make out the figure of the doll just standing above her. Raising her knee, she resisted the urge to kick out at its shins, depth perception no longer being a thing she could rely on.

 

The filthy whores have invaded our domain for too long. You now will pay the price for your own tormented actions.”

 

Otsune’s hand clasped onto metal and within a second her sight was back, refocusing on the old woman. She had seen this one before, she realised, rolling her eyes as she started to hop back up. These things had stopped being horror material about two weeks ago. Their function now was to be a nuisance at best. And while she hadn’t figured out why they were here, she did know she didn’t have to listen to them.

 

You don’t turn your back on me,” the lifeless doll wailed as she turned tail and walked slowly back in the direction of Heavenly Springs. This was a distraction at best. She needed focus, a fresh layer of inquiry. Searching manGod on Google had brought up nothing. Trying to find people called Raiko was fruitless. The server wasn’t answering her properly since the other night. She was fooling herself really. She needed to know the truth and with the chain wrapping round her waist, Otsune was caught on the spot.

 

Lungs rejecting the current lungful of air she had, Otsune lurched back and fell over again, landing on the same screaming wrist and coming to face the doll again. It glared down at her with wrath in its cleverly constructed eyes, and hollow cheeks shook as it spoke to her.

 

You are not to leave my sight, ever again.”

 

The chain was new. Thick iron links joined her and the mannequin from wrist to arm. ON the floor left a discarded wooden hand covered in the synthetic flesh that the dummies were covered in. Otsune gasped out of reflex and clutched the chain.

 

Good work, Junko,” a voice said to the side of them. Otsune stayed still as her eye tried to view the newcomer from its peripheral view. Another two dolls stood there. These ones had no excuse for appearing out of nowhere. The street around them was empty of any obstruction. “This whore will pay for her crimes tonight.”

 

Hey,” said Otsune. “He only paid me in cheap liquor. It’s not my fault he was so hunky.”

 

You confess? You insolent little maggot. We shall take you-”

 

Spinning!” she cried out, taking full advantage of the physics involved in being attached to a wooden doll by an iron chain whilst possessing a lower centre of gravity and at least some upper body strength. The doll designated as Junko was yanked forwards by her arm, stumbling to where Otsune had originally fell. Sing the floor to help her keep spinning, Otsune unwounded herself of the weapon and let it drop to the floor, just in time for the next chain to slam into her back.

 

Avoiding her sprained wrist by smacking her other wrist on the ground, Otsune kept herself propped up just enough to keep her knee off the ground. Glasses dangling perilously close to the tip of her nose she got up just to realise that the doll had another chain was her right hand used to be. Pushing the inquisitive voice that asked just how the doll kept two lots of four meter heavy chain inside her as short as Sarah frame, Otsune backed herself five meters away, keeping an eye on the doll’s movements and receiving two links of iron to the chin for her efforts.

 

Her glasses cracked somehow, but she remained standing, tasting the contents of her left chin as they spilled out into her mouth. Otsune felt her neck tense and decided she had had enough.

 

You fuckin-” she began to scream out as the woman ignited, first her yukata taking flames at the sleeves and travelling up to the framework of her body. As Junko’s hair ignited, her mouth dropped open and hung there, synthetic flesh pouring off carved cheekbones in dripping streams. By the time she fell to the floor, the chains were already slag on the floor.

 

Forgot I could do that,” Otsune muttered, spitting the blood out her mouth and wiping her chin from the good side.. Mentally making a note to do all her clean up this when she had recovered, she gave Occam a mental pat of the flame tip. The ball of fire spun round with glee and she tried her best at a smile.

 

The clink of metal as it hit the floor returned Otsune’s attention to the other two dolls. Both elderly men with crooks in their back and warts on their faces, they stared grimly at her as they lifted their arms, bringing to bear a large machete knife and a spear tip. She bore them a smile and raised her hand, stopping only as the machete roared to life, small cutting blades appearing from sleeves as the doll struggled to keep it under control.

 

Otsune’s attention was drawn away from this by the sear tip, now laying on the floor as it dropped alongside the other doll’s hand, leaving a hollow cylinder that the man raised to face her.

 

She didn’t wait. Her feet took her away and down the street, covering the distance at her fastest sprint time, her casual trainers hating her for it. This was very new! The dolls had shown no signs of weapons before. Did they all have this? The questions ran through her head as she took the corner and fell into ???street as a large crack filled the air and a wave of air flew past her in the same instant.

???more dolls have one explode

The street led to a dead end of houses. She knew that, but their gardens were probably accessible with plenty of fences to climb over. Hesitating, she decided not to risk it, turning for the other open street and seeing the two men standing three feet away from her. Her wheezing breath hit her and Otsune felt her tongue go strangely dry as she belted four feet across the road and stopped for directions. She was trapped. Why did the dolls have chainsaws and cannons? Now she looked the fences were high and made out of chainsawable wood. It was not something she could risk climbing while she could be shot at will, , but with no time-

 

The blast wave hit her as the world before her turned to smoke the sonic boom of the cannon following a second later and taking her down. Coughing she watched as the dolls walked through the fire and took their time to face her on the ground. Spinning round, she pulled herself up and looked for anything that could help. As the door creaked open, she took it, slamming the bridge of her foot into the ground and bounding for the entrance to the small residential house as Occam once again ignited the street. Not sure how many were taken out, she didn’t care as she plunged herself through the door, keeping it open only long enough for Occam to follow.

 

The door couldn’t shut anymore, the cannonball provided a stroke of luck by taking out only the lock. The latch was still there though and hastily she secured the door as best she could something told her that the dolls were probably set up in such a way that meant it was considered too rude to use their weapons on doorframes and would negate their cover as the elderly and infirm, and Otsune told herself immediately this was bullshit. Presumptions about levels of social etiquette meant nothing when your horde of dolls were producing chainsaws where liver spots should be. She headed for the back of the house, noting how the cannonball ha cleared the entirety of the small residential building.

 

The house was quiet, only the rumbling of the chainsaw filled her head. At the very least, the weapons would make climbing the stairs for her pursuers a little difficult. With the stairs in front of her, she took for them immediately. IF she got a window open, she could probably snipe them with Occam, as long as they all stayed outside. She couldn’t be sure anywhere on the ground was safe now. As she got up to the second floor hallway, she headed for the bedroom facing the front of the house, aiming for the window.

 

Further thoughts of tactical positioning left her mind the moment she saw the room. With the simple grey curtains closed, it would have been hard to see were it not for her little ball of flame. With Occam present though, she could see the room for what it was.; completely empty. Only the walls allowed it to be called a room of any sort at all. Entering carefully, for no reason that she could discern, she took a quick glance at the adjoining room and saw that it was similarly empty, stripped of everything from carpets to wallpaper and certainly containing no items of value or comfort.. the house wasn’t only empty, but abandoned to.

 

That couldn’t be right surely. This was prime real estate no two ways about it. Why would there- IT wasn’t an issue, she immediately decided. The murderous dolls. They were the mystery she should be focusing on.

 

Stay,” she whispered t Occam, keeping him by the only entrance to the room in case of sudden intruders. IT didn’t sound like they had gotten past the door. She could only guess the challenge of a door latch was proving too much for them. Their intellectual capabilities seemed mismatched at best. Kneeling down to keep her now large shadow out of silhouette making range, she peeked through the curtain, took careful stock of her surroundings, and turned around to sit down and catch her breath.

 

Yep, there were twenty three of them out there.

 

Twenty five counting the two by the door. Only two minutes had past. Surely that many couldn’t have appeared. Was her perception of time being altered by the adrenaline rush. That would make things seem even quicker surely. She had to at last account for losing track of things. She knew in hindsight now that blasting the whole street with fire was an obvious solution she so totally should have taken. She probably still could, but going back out there now was something her body wasn’t allowing her to do.

 

They were just milling around though, and the chainsaw had gone quiet. Had they forgotten about her that easily? She probably shouldn’t treat them like zombies.

 

Otsune pulled her phone out. No messages. Four bars though. She could easily call someone. There was no one to call now, but she could. Fujiko if anyone would offer excellent bait.

 

No no. She had to think. Be smart about this. Of course. She was Tsunade Otsune, the genius of Heavenly Springs. A genius that came through hard work and talent combined. She could think of a way out of this that didn’t involve taking out the whole neighbourhood. Blasting the dolls stopped being an option when Kimiko had detonated with a four foot radius. Each one of these things were now carrying surprises. Discovering one had the force of ten sticks of dynamite wasn’t something she was willing to try.

 

A rattling caught her ear from downstairs and she felt every muscle tense itself in preparation. The wind may have just been mocking her but it wasn’t a risk she wanted to take. Occam could burn anyone that came through the door, but cannonballs coming through the floorboards weren’t worthy the pot luck. The back rooms suddenly required investigating.

 

Bzzt

 

The yelp from her own lips hit her harder than anything else today and Otsune could feel the gratitude pouring off her when she realised it was only a text. A phone call would only lead to explanations either now or later that she never wanted to tell anyone.

 

Head to the basement. Code is 5964???

 

Even here,” Otsune whispered. These text messages were becoming too omniscient for their own good. Even if there were hidden camera in this room, how would anyone even be knowing to look at them. Otsune only decided to start squatting in her new hovel a few minutes ago herself. Even an AI would need to know where to search.

 

She silenced her complaints, trying to move right along. If the building had a basement, it was going to be either under the stairs or out back. Both would mean heading back downstairs to the hallway And there was no way Occam wasn’t going to light up the hallway when she descended.

 

But staying here wasn’t going to help her any either. Relying on any patterns from the dolls that might result in them leaving was foolish. There was a chance they may merely opt to wander around for a bit, get bored and then go back to their normal routines. But now they had drawn weapons, they may no longer care about keeping cover.

 

That meant the others could be at risk to. She needed Sagara, or better yet, his ninja assistant, or even better, the Self Defence force. At least they wouldn’t be concerned about keeping up their own cover.

 

She was stalling. Crawling across the room, she reached Occam and the stairs. “Stay here,” she whispered, continuing to crawl past the stairs.

 

It was a single flight, fifteen steps?? one which she had bound up in an instant just minutes ago. Now, with figures hovering behind frosted glass, a single creak was a death knell she couldn’t afford.

 

Knowing she had to get on with it, Otsune lowered herself onto the first step, prepping her knees to slowly lower her body down to the next step. She had done this all the time as a kid, sneaking past her mother to get a snack after lights out. It was something she had been terrible at, but failure there just got her mother to toss in her sleep. Here, it got Otsune cannonballs.

 

The stairs seemed solid, crawling down backwards gave her the best support and their apparent lack of use left the floorboards solid anyway. Methodically, she took another two sets of two at a time and win the gamble. Looking behind her, she could see the dolls masked through the glass. She must have been invisible to them. Taking a step she heard a creak.

 

Frozen to the spot, Otsune caught her breath and held herself in an unsteady position. Outside, footsteps aced for no obvious reason and she hated every moment of her life that led to this point. Why was she doing this? Why did she have to suffer such nonsense? And why was she being so stupid about it? The dolls could have infra-red vision for all she knew and here she was walking into their line of sight.

 

What if the text message sender didn’t even know she was in this particular house?

 

Nothing happened for forty five seconds and Otsune allowed herself a controlled breath of relief to erupt slowly from her mouth. Already on her way, her brain randomly decided she might as well continue and took another two step down before reaching the ground panel. Standing up wasn’t smart, and she continued to crawl round to what was either the basement door or a closet. Turning the latch, she smile when she felt cold old mixed with the smell of wood grain.

 

There were more stairs, but even with the hollow sound that accompanied them, she was used to the slow movement now and got down there in only double the amount it took with the previous ones.

 

The basement was pitch black with Occam waiting upstairs. With a confident smile she reached for the light switch and flicked it on. Pitch black meant no moonlight and no little basement windows to bring it in. Flooding the room with light, she wasn’t surprised to see a room void of crap that needed storing. The room was again barren as the rest of the house, with only the concrete floor providing any difference. Had she missed the sales sign on the way in. She had been in a rush, but something felt weirder about the situation, the most obvious of which was the iron door on the far side of the room.

 

Its perimeter covered in rivets, with the centre containing a large turn value, Otsune immediately thought of an airlock for a boat. The heavy grey door just rested there with no purpose she could see. The basement was the size of the whale of the downstairs. The only place it could lead was rock foundation.

 

Or the sewers.

 

The smelly rotting carcass that was the village’s sanitation pipes were something she knew didn’t exist as some kind of sprawling metropolis. Heavily springs was simply too small. A few of the houses probably had septic ditches in their back gardens still. The door wasn’t an escape. IT was another room.

 

But it still had the keypad besides it.

 

Otsune had no reason to hesitate further. Without evening looking back at her phone, she approached the pad and typed to four buttons. A louder than she would have liked it beep shot across the room, and the red light changed to green as the large valve started to turn..

 

Hiding behind the door as it opened, Otsune took the precarious, of bracing her leg to jump away when the monster jumped out. As nothing appeared, she backed off enough to allow the door to swing open fully, coming to a silent halt against the wall and ending its trip with a bang.

 

Of course, it was a tunnel through the concrete foundations.

 

What else would it be?

 

Otsune felt warn suddenly, and allowed herself to smile. The stress was getting to her, but that was no reason to stop. Otsune tested the door. It was light enough to push. Turning from it, she jumped back to the stairs and took in a full two lungs of air.

 

Occam!” she shouted, hearing the whirring start immediately. “Come!”

 

The whirring grew louder immediately for her efforts and she knew the front door to the house offered zero protection. She jumped back over to the iron door as she heard the clambering of footsteps above smacking the floorboards. There was no sense denying the dolls were fast and she could hear their screams of profanity as she clasped the value on the other side of the door and started to pull.

 

IT moved slowly but was making progress even as the voices reached the top of the stairs. Keeping an eye as she pulled, Otsune thought briefly on the idea of hitting the lights, the distance turning her off the idea.

 

The door struggled, and she renewed her effort. The dolls were coming down the stairs now. They were taking their time, but the chainsaw doll was definitely leading. Grasping harder she tried to speed the process up. The door was made of iron. IT closed and she was safe forever.

 

Don’t you close that door on me, you rude little slut!” the man called out as he started to cross the basement. Otsune stupidly closed her eyes and pulled on her full reservoir of strength. Maybe her timing was wrong. For a second she wanted to recalculate the time needed but her arms didn’t let her. She needed the processing power for closing the large door.

 

Her eyes were open as she nearly tripped over the lower door frame. The doll was there right before her, chainsaw in hand. He hadn’t even raised it up. He was just going to walk straight into her. IT was all he needed to do. The door wouldn’t shut in time, but she couldn’t leave it. The tunnel wasn’t… She couldn’t- there was two feet of door left. The chainsaw has no discernible fuel source.

 

The doll just the moment with the final inch between them to explode head first, its wooden frame combusting into ash as Occam ploughed through it the same it would float down the hallway nonchalantly. The chainsaw tried another whirl, then raised itself upwards as the power of the doll gave up on it. Occam hovered before her, looking pleased with itself.

 

Oh you fantastic bastard. Come on.” With all her strength and a cannon being raised at her, she slammed the iron door shut and fell into the mud below

 

***

 

(as she explores, she sees the other passages leading to the other houses)

 

The only light was Occam, stronger than any torch and wouldn’t cut out at horror appropriate moments. Still Otsune moved through the passageway slowly. With no clue why the tunnel even existed, caution was her best response. The floor was also made out of sloppy mud. Otsune sniffed the air.

 

The floor’s didn’t match the logistics of what she was seeing here. At first, Otsune had thought it was the stone walls and concrete roof that didn’t match up. But they could exist in tandem in a carefully constructed world. The ground was what didn’t make sense. A form of clay earth she could get, but topsoil shouldn’t be here unless it was placed here and the moisture that only covered it with a thin layer should either not be existing at all or flooding the whole corridor.

 

At five foot three?? the height of the hidden passage wasn’t an issue for her. Natoko and basketball players would have had problem should have had problems. Otsune sniffed loudly. The silence was a solid wall around her. At least in the giant cave that was the Strangelands there was enough open space to prevent the echoing effect, at least one she could conceive anyway. Here, the world was shut off and vibrations were a thing the cave wasn’t expecting.

 

Cave. Or passage. Or cavern. What was she going to find here. The existence of a deep tunnel underneath a small residential house was not lost on Otsune. She read once that a French men ??(find cracked article) had once dug a massive underground tunnel solely for kicks, but that didn’t explain the empty house it came from, nor the reasonably high tech taken from a submarine security door. Such a thing would have made local news when discovered by the real estate’s people at least. Perhaps she had missed that broadcast.

 

Occam hovered by her shoulder as she kept taking in the air through her nose. She wanted him behind her as best she could, but still wanted to see without her own shadow getting in the way. In her preference bringing the naked flame into the underground passageway of potential natural gases wasn’t the best of strategies. She also knew sniffing the air would not help detect the blazing inferno that would occur when he started igniting molecules, nor prevent it as it engulfed her. Not doing so however, felt just as stupid.

 

Distance became lost on her as she continued down the tunnel. The door was out of sight, but no other door was in sight.. Her trainers were squelching now, the type of disgusting squelch that got into your socks and wasn’t something you wanted to clean u. She stopped when she saw the shape of the tunnel change up ahead, increasing her pace for a split second before the extra sloshing took her down a gear.

 

Using the moss free stones to pull her into it, Otsune approached the clearing. IT was nothing special save the appearance of a concrete floor that cut the mud off. Stepping onto it apprehensively, she felt the ache in her calves as they realised the effort they were putting on to wade through mud. Looking round, Otsune understood immediately.. “Oh fun.”

 

Before her, and around her and several behind her in the short confines of the clearing, was sixteen other tunnel ways going off into the darkness beyond Occam. They were all a perfectly two feet separate from each other, and made the room itself into a poorly drawn oblong shape.

 

She knew what this was, and huffed as she tried to wipe herself down of any grit she was covered in while being glad she had kept her now ruined clothing relaxed this evening. These were of course tunnels to other houses. The confirmation for this came from the signs above each tunnelway. The one she came through read 5 Camel drive. The other eight houses of the cul-de-sac surrounded her, with the six houses from Castle drive joining the party on the far side.

 

This meant the house she had ran into wasn’t special, as far as being part of a special group of tunnelled houses could be. The whole of two streets was like this. Did that mean they were all empty and living under the illusion of being already purchased prime real estate. That still could just be chance, but Otsune was getting the worst of suspicions that perhaps she hadn’t been as observant to the village of Heavenly Springs as she thought she had been. How many people lived here besides the dorm members? Five hundred she had been told, but source bias was preventing her from remember where she got that from. Maybe she had made it up to sound in the know.

 

One tunnel way was unmarked.

 

Part of her seized on the fact she didn’t need to be here. This was interesting yes, but she had other things to deal with. The super-secret passageway could be added to the bottom of the list and then dealt with when other priorities had been resolved.

 

The rest of her headed for the remaining tunnel. Even if she did want to ignore this, the doll horde were still waiting out on the street and she didn’t know what Castle street was like. Seeing that the unmarked tunnel led back into more mud, she sat on the concrete part of the floor and took the moment to clean her shoes, glad that she never cared that much about her nails as she started to scrape around the rubber.

 

The concrete was clean.

 

It was only noticeable due to her own efforts to ruin the cleanliness. But now she couldn’t help but note how free of dirt it was. The concrete ceiling probably helped but the rough surface beneath knew would have surely picked up the markings of animals scurrying quickly across it, not to mention the humans that must have built it.

 

It was perfectly dry as well, the slosh from the route to sixteen camel drive was only on it now because of her.

 

This of course came to the illogical conclusion that no one had walked across here before, negating the reason for passageways made of concrete and sloppy topsoil mud that housed no animals of any kind and were sealed behind quiet security doors that must have been connected to some electricity bill that needed paying by someone.

 

There were also no visible light source here bar the naked flame that followed her around. Otsune scowled at no one.

 

What the hell are you doing here?” she screamed to the room, to everything. The place was meaningless. IT was like those dumb corridors that made up the so called InBetween Realm that she was getting forced down every so often. She slammed her trainers against one another one more time then set off to go again.

 

This tunnel was just another stupid featureless tunnel of existential meaninglessness. It was like a really depressed wannabe nihilist wanted to make the people who travelled through these caves commit suicide before they even found anything.

 

Not that there’s anything to find!” she cried out again as she entered the next open cavern area “Boss street and Think of a name later avenue?? were marked here, equalling a total of twenty three separate tunnels, with a spare one at the end to head for the next link in the chain. She stormed down it immediately, not stopping to clean up.

 

By the time she got to One, two and fourth street?? she was feeling it in her eyelids. It was already late before she setoff, and her wrist and shoulder were starting to sting. She was only going to bruise at worse but she was still fast getting out the modo for this. Her phone told were 2:38am and no bars. That meant the stalker wasn’t helping her out anytime soon either.

 

Madison park way and queen’s street, along with the Sanaka restaurant??? “Youre an incredibly boring tunnel with incredibly boring aesthetics,” she shouted pointlessly hearing her voice echo. “I can do better in minecraft!”

 

Panting she stopped. The sloppy mud was draining, and her sweat was starting to mat into her hair. The cavern must have been freezing for Occam only to make her this hot, but she knew she was nowhere near her limit. Her Strangelands ordeal had lasted months. This was nothing.

 

Main street. She stopped for a moment. But this wasn’t the Strangelands. There she had an unknown protector/antagonist, secretly providing her food and water. The conditions limited her sleeping time and he ground was bearable to walk on. Not to mention the place destroyed her perception of time.

 

Save the time perception destroying thing, she had none of those here. Not only that, but she had sealed the door to 16 Camel street behind her. She hadn’t tested it but what if none of these doors could be opened from this side. She may have literally sealed her fate, and for stupid reasons to.

 

Falling into the centre of the room and ignoring the pain, she ran her eyes across the signs. The best thing to do would be to pick one and hope for the best. Occam hovered over her face and she swatted him away. If that didn’t work it was she’d just have to hope that these tunnels didn’t just meet another dead end cavern like the one she had started in. With any luck a sewer entrance of kind, the logic of a rural village irrigation system going straight to-

 

Otsune blinked a few times, staring at the sign entitled ‘Palace’., sitting between 18 and 23 main street.

 

Of course, blasting down the doors with her own flame cannon would have been a viable option.

 

Disregarding her brain’s newly found skill of hindsight, she wandered into the palace tunnel. This one was wider, but only just. The ground was sloppier though. This good. Very interesting. There certainly wasn’t a palace in the small apparently-completely-abandoned-except-for-lunatic-dolls village and if this one had a sealed door at the end of it she couldn’t open, then Occam would turn it to slag and everyone would be happy.

 

******

 

The screens were blank. Nanahara couldn’t tell if he was met to be sleeping or not. He had long since stopped trying to kick his way out of the comfortable Markus desk chair he had added into the miscellaneous inventory sheets last year. His body hadn’t been listening to him for a while. He didn’t expect it to start now.

 

In the back of his mind, he could feel Rochelle watching over him, smiling with full, collagen unnecessary lips that knew just how to tickle his neck. She hadn’t moved either. It was the reason he couldn’t move.

 

The server was in control now, and he had no way to escape it. The server was where the drone program came from. The drone program he knew was blocking him out every few hours to take him to the toilet and made sure others didn’t miss him. He could only assume it happened when the girl in the screen was sleeping.

 

The girl had no name to him??? She was just the one he watched, as the SIS told him to. The girl spent her days wandering the hotel she lived in, pacing rooms, watching television. In the mornings she went out to jog in the streets, taking the same path out to the fields, stopping by a river before heading home, taking what seemed like an unnecessary rest before going back into the village. IT was only when she came back in she watched it street carefully. It looked like she was avoiding someone. After that it was breakfast, then an incredibly long amount of reading.

 

The girl had had a very plain life, he established after an estimated five to twenty days of watching. She had friends but no job by the looks of things. He couldn’t guess her age but she was around twenty. And this server had been making him watch every moment of this pointless tripe. If she wasn’t hot in a nerdy sort of way he would have forced whatever was keeping his eyelids pried open to rip them apart

 

That had been the last blur of days, but now it was different.

 

The only thing he saw on the screen was a dark room with a corpse in it. He could barely make out the corpse itself in the darkness, but they looked like they had collapsed in the empty centre of an empty room. It wasn’t the girl, he knew that much. It looked male, with short hair, even in the dark.

 

The girl was gone. He had the feeling that when he woke up he had missed something of important. Perhaps the channel had been changed to the dead guy and the girl was lost to him forever.

 

Without warning, Nanahara struggled against his chair with the force of a clock left on a completely level surface. He heard Rochelle giggle and cursed In his mind. He wished the server would at this have told him what this was about. Watching a girl for hours on end had to have some purpose besides voyeurism. Normally he wouldn’t mind, but she didn’t have a girlfriend or anything to make this exciting.

 

The camera flickered and he paid attention again. The screen displayed the girl’s room, empty of its occupant. He caught the shuffling of another young girl as she came out from behind the bookcase with a small ba??? just as it flicked again, showing the corridor outside her room. A few seconds later it changed again, becoming the lounge where the not making out ever couple sat watching television in silence. Again and he saw the empty lobby. Agaian and the idiot prince wandered past, waving at him as he passed down the corridor with that ugly smirk on his face.

 

The screens kept flicking in equal intervals, running through locations that ed from corridors to street lamps to a restaurant to a short haired girl crouching in an attic to a man in a priest’s clothing glaring at him and back to the corpse room again before continuing the loop.

 

It was searching for her, he realised slowly. IT had been watching her for five days minimum and was now suddenly realising it had lost sight of her. The camera paused on her room again, the short blond haired girl leaving without the bag this time. The picture halted for a little while longer, jumped to the corridor to see the girl one last time and then started flicking through the images as fast as it could.

 

It didn’t know where she was, and that was, for some reason, a problem for the SIS. Nanahara didn’t know what was going on, but forced a smile on his face for his pains anyway.

 

*

 

It wasn’t a palace. That was kind of annoying.

 

It was just a huge underground shrine.

 

A huge boring underground shrine.

 

Idly wondering if there was something wrong with her dopamine levels nowadays, Otsune approach the torii. It was dilapidated and red, flakes of paint coming off of the wood that she could spend all day picking at. The torii wasn’t shaped anything special, but it was missing a sign. The shrine was nameless and of course, completely out of place.

 

Forty steps were laid out in front of her, rising up and higher than where the house must have been. Whilst it was entirely possible she had been going lowering in the disorientating mud pits that linked camel street to crossington high, her instincts told her otherwise. This was definitely too high. The steps alone were three times her height, the two storey building with high roof attached should be poking out the ground.

 

Which meant it was right underneath Heavenly Springs.

 

There was no point denying it. The idea had come to her head as soon as she saw the sign. And the only way this place existed is if it were in the hollowed out mud pile which the structurally worrying abode of her and her dorm mates sat waiting to fall into.

 

At least things were working out. The hill meant she was probably less than five hundred meters from her bed. Soon she would be asleep, and all would be good.

 

After she climbed the stairs.

 

Stairs ruled Otsune’s life. Sh never took elevators, but stairs at three in the morning were good for no one., even one who once travelled down a spiral staircase that took the better part of the day. At least this one wasn’t as life threatening as that one.

 

The shrine’s location may actually make some sense, she thought as she strolled up the stairs, fully intending to take her time and as many breaks as possible. The growth of a civilisation was usually on the decrepit remains of what came before it. An old shrine existing here wouldn’t have been once sitting out in the cool breeze, but probably built as a secret shrine for the occupants of the manor Heavenly Springs once was. Hundreds of years ago they probably came down here for their private rituals away from the townsfolk, or perhaps the people of the village knew about it to and entered through secret passages in their large residential houses… with security doors attached, and untouched concrete everywhere.

 

That wasn’t quite right. The concrete technology was only a century and a bit old. Though that might not stop them. She knew of rumours about long iron pipes poked through a desolate Chinese mountain leading all the way to the bottom and being tens of thousands of years old. Maybe someone formed the technology in another manner and it was lost later on, giving the remains left on the concrete plenty of time to decompose. That could make the place two hundred years old.

 

Otsune walked past the amp, and stopped to glare at it.

 

Perhaps the pre industrial japanese civilisations found a method for ancient sound amplifiers that ran through modern day power cables leading up to a plug socket in a hole in the wall…

 

What was this doing here?

 

The amp was just sitting there, being all modern in a world that it seemed unlikely anyone had come to in a long while. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe it had been carried here by a newcomer like herself.

 

Who had then built a power socket into the surrounding bedrock?

 

The two story Heian temple with ornate roof tiles that looked like they could be made of gold wasn’t of interest now. Just this ordinary amp. The man with all the answers in the world could be sitting at the top and still she would ask him to come down here and explain just how the hell it was doing here all existing in the wrong setting and stuff.

 

Something was plain messing with her.

 

A least it was turned off. If it was taking power from the dorm… She flicked it on

 

Leaving the roof with an explosion of vicious feet, the glass of water screamed for vengeance for its brown brethren. Though It had never got on with the twins, especially Gretchen, who was a complete butt muncher, to watch as the best of them were thrown against the ground as nothing but a cre prank against the girl’s guardian, was too painful for it to fully comprehend. The little blond girl returned to the kitchen and placed him back on the shelf

 

It would be up to him to break the bad news to all the other glasses. His burden to share on the others. What cruel fate was placed on his comrades would only be worse when it came from whatever part of crystallised structure that made his essence would blab to them.

 

Meanwhile, in the let’s get drunk room, the second of the unemployed miscreants rose from her slumber, rolling only to fall against her other cheek. Drinking was beginning to get boring…”

 

Otsune watched the sound system carefully, not quite sure what to do with herself as she continued to let it play. Turning the volume up, she looked around. the(warehouse) was across the other side With half the stairs to go, she opted for a side trip and peered into the small hut.

 

Naturally it contained a professional looking microphone and a recording panel.

 

Otsune approached it gingerly, shivering with a sudden chill as leaned towards it “Test-

 

-ing ate the flowers in her mouth with joy, enjoying the feeling of such delicate folds entering er mouth. Her head falling into the mud. Sne let the intoxication roll over her and started to dream about mammals or something.”

 

It was definitely connected to the amp, though the other voice appeared to be coming from elsewhere. The recording panel itself was turned on and judging by the timer, had been recording for several months. Her hand hovered over the stop button, but then opted against spite. With nothing else around, she headed back out.

 

Another voice connected to another microphone meant someone was living here. As long as they weren’t too psychotic, and she had to face it, most newcomers in her life recently were, they might be able to explain what was going on here.

 

There were no other buildings before the shrine at the top, and she restarted her ascent. Occam took the lead. Electrical equipment here implied modernity. Otsune’s first thought was perhaps this was something set up by Granma Futabatei years ago, but her knowledge of technology was antiquated for sure., though amps weren’t exactly technological marvels in comparison to setting up wireless. It really could have just been a homeless person who set up shop years ago.

 

The large wooden doors to the shrine were closed. Made of thick oak wood, these were well on their way to becoming completely rotten. They appears unbolted, and she could already see the light on the inside, but still they took effort to pull open Straining as she leaned back, her shoulder and wrists hated her for it and she opted to squeeze herself and occam in rather than open them all the way.

 

With a final thud she rested against the door to catch her breath, in her haze seeing the small crack in her glasses. It wasn’t bad enough to distract her sight but it did mean an emergency trip to the city tomorrow, an act reliant on her ability to escape. As the last of her exhaustion left her, she looked back up.

 

The inside of the shrine temple immediate hit her with its glorious ness. Despite being two stories tall, the inside was completely hollow, the previously assumed floors above her simply not being there, the ceiling rest high above her looking a good hundred feet high before closing up round the point of the roof, which glowed in the bright light provided by the hundreds of candles that hath scattered the floor, burning brightly and travelling along the walls all the way to the top

 

The architectural impossibility of the building didn’t strike her as much as the beauty of the place, the white walls completely clean with shining plates of gold going round the inside of the building in intervals all the way to the top. What it didn’t hide though was the nagging in her mind that the building was definitely bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Dimensions were plain just not giving a shit as the expanded high above where the dormitory had to be.

 

The candles,scattered across the polished floorboards and sitting atop of little plates with seemingly no intention of puffing out anytime soon, were fizzy and warm. Even with Occam besides her, she could feel a gentle heat emanating from each of the balls of flame. They obviously weren’t melting though, with no wax dripping down the side of them. She was tempted to put one out just to see what would happen when she caught sight of the hole in the floorboards.

 

There were two in fact. Standing in the centre of the large room she saw they were equal distances apart from her, perfect rectangles cut into the floor in the opposite direction to the floorboards themselves and hidden quite effectively behind the randomly placed candles.

 

She had to look. Carefully navigating herself round the small wax columns and trying not to step over any, she approached the hole in the ground closest to her. Peering over the edge, she saw only shadows and quickly grabbed a candle to illuminate what was before her.

 

She gasped, nearly dropping the candle before losing her balance and rapidly pulling herself back to prevent falling in. Without waiting she scrambled across to the other one, taking a moment to try and compose herself before lowering herself just far enough to see.

 

It was the sam. A coffin in each. Carved out of marble, this one was chiseled with the features of a blue oni spirit, its wide open eyes and fangs met with horns. The way the hands were placed reminded her of an egyptian sarcophagus . The only difference from the japanese beast of myth being the huge distended belly which ballooned out the center of the the coffin and made it look like whoever had built the box held nothing but contempt for the body inside it.

 

The other coffin had been similar, only representing a red oni this time. That one hadn’t been anatomically incorrect though, instead sporting a huge smile that extended up to the boxes ears and just came across as cartoonish against the exquisite stonework that it had been placed atop of.

 

Otsune began to wander back to the centre. So was this place just a rather bizarre cemetery? That still didn’t explain the active recording studio the next floor down, nor the candles of the abuse of either her perceptions or the local dimensions. IT was also the first time this had happened in a place that wasn’t the InBetween realm.

 

Unless she was in it. That would explain a few things. Had she been dimension hopping without realising. That could be troublesome. It meant she was even further from the dorm than she had initially assumed. She sighed and stepped over the small red button on the phone, causing the walls around her to start rumbling.

 

Dust unsettled and candles shook and Otsune knelt own to keep herself steady. Looking to the floor she saw the large red button and wondered just how she had missed it. The ground itself was shaking, but not violently. She didn’t get the feeling that the whole pace was about to come down around her, but something was moving.

 

Out the corner of her eyes she saw something move and stood back up to watch the coffins rise. Rising out of their holes, they lay on parade as they rose beyond her level and erected their own pedestals. She barely noticed the rumbling had stopped by the time they had.

 

Half the candles in the room went out, sending the blue oni coffin into darkness.

 

Without hesitation she immediately pressed back on the button, hammering it a few times when nothing happened. The coffins stayed in place. No reverse rumbling happened. She waited for all the hell she had set loose to come washing over her and felt disappointment when it didn’t.

 

The large room went back to silence, leaving Otsune in the middle of a half lit room and two coffins on display. Suddenly a feeling of apprehension came over her and for the first time she thought about getting caught doing something or being somewhere where she shouldn’t. The feeling wasn’t a smart one, she knew that. Part of it worried that someone would come to tell her off. Another part was more reasonable and worried that she had set something ancient, evil and begrudging off.

 

Then there was a little part of her that knew she should be leaving now. Usually this was the biggest part of her and Kitsune didn’t hesitate to follow it but now all of it was being overcome by the part of her that wanted to know what was in those coffins. The other parts of her hoped it would just be dead unliving corpses and nothing more.

 

Wandering back over to the blue Oni coffin, she noted no smoke trail for the hundreds of candles that had just gone out. The pedestal wasn’t that high above her and with a jump and grab she started the embarrassing process of scrambling herself up, mostly relying on elbows and zero knowledge of mountain climbing. Sure she was fit and healthy, but she knew that good climbing etiquette didn’t involve using her chin.

 

Scooping herself up, she stood by the coffin and noted just how big it was. The blue Oni was three meters tall from head to naked foot with the belly going across half the total length of the coffin. Walking around it, she noted no obvious lock, and instead found some handy holds to grip on. Bending at her knees she lifted the box up and watched with horror as the giant marble lid slid out of her fingers and crashed over the side of the pedestal, shaking the room with it.

 

The coffin was empty. Perfectly hollow and from the inside containing the perfect mold if anyone had wanted to make a life size oni figure, but still completely empty none the less.

 

Was all this just for show then, she wondered as she looked round the other side of the pedestal to see the probably priceless marble coffin lid that had been expertly sculpted sitting in pieces on the ground below? If this lace was nothing more than a ritual centre for the townsfolk, then that made sense. Everything here would be impressive, aesthetic, and nothing more. Sliding down and kicking a candle, Otsune headed over to the other one, deciding she might as well check it out as well. Hoisting herself up with a bit more grace this time she saw this one was even bigger than the blue oni coffin, laying length wise at roughly four meters. Struggling to find the hand holds, she lifted the case up. How old was this place then? Otsune guessed at roughly two to three hundred years old but the fact that it was kept like this was amazing. IT was clear that there still someone else taking care of the place. After this she’d need to find them and ask the way out

 

It’s over there,” the angel in the coffin said, pointing to his right.

 

Gah!” Otsune cried out, dropping the lid on his face and falling back. The fall took her over the side and she crashed hard on the floor below.

 

Feeling the ceramic shard in her back, Otsune knew instantly where she had landed and rolled over quickly, getting her back on the ground and rushing to ensure her clothes weren’t about to go up in flames. Though the candle still burned as it lay on the floor, she was fine.

 

Okay. So there was someone in there. That was fine. She could expect that. She had initially expected someone was in the blue coffin she admitted, but then she had assumed the red one would be empty because the blue one was empty. But the red one was occupied- and chatty.

 

And an angel,

 

How it was an angel, Otsune didn’t fully understand, nor did she understand her brain’s insistence that the person inside the coffin was an angel. She had never seen one before and indeed until a few months prior had left it in her list of things that just plain did not exist. Discovering the existence of demons had led her to the conclusion that angels had an increased chance of existing as well, but she had yet to encounter anything beyond anecdotal to this being true

 

But now there was one before her.

 

That of course, by itself, shouldn’t be enough to confirm their existence. At this point she was just one person and seriously sleep deprived, injured and possibly suffering under an altered memory state caused by being placed in a stressful situation after suffering a surge of adrenaline. Plus she had determined that was an angel after glancing at the figure, male, square jawed, looked of european descent with blond shaggy hair and a halo of pure candescent light above his head, for only two seconds before leaping away and dropping the casket lid on his head. This data alone shouldn’t even be called into evidence to generate an hypothesis.

 

And yet she knew this was the correct conclusion to come to. Somehow.

 

Getting u, she wasted no time rising back up to the coffin standing before the red oni coffin and pondering her next move. Why was an angel inside a coffin based around japanese folklore? And why wasn’t he saying anything now he knew she was there? Occurring to her that the density of the marble may simply be solid enough to prevent her from hearing his cries, Otsune knew she had to lift the lid up if she wanted to him here speak again. Several scenarios started to run through her mind.

 

The Angel wa in the coffin. Maybe he was meant to be trapped here. Judging by his size and possible power, if he was some kind of antagonist, Otsune may be in trouble for at least four or five seconds before Occam turned him to cinders. IT may not be worth the risk.

 

But then there were no signs or warnings around them. It would probably bother her at least a little if it turned out he was simply trapped in there and unable to escape. With a moment’s pause, she lifted the lid.

 

I scared you. Funny.”

 

Otsune paused as she small the large man. Square chin, shoulder length blond hair, blue eyes, very, very handsome- more than she would like to admit, and rippling muscles bulging out of a white tunic, smile a childish grin at her. Taking care not to break the antique lid, she scooted around the side, the man’s eyes watching her the entire time as she put the lid down safely.

 

String at him, Otsune waited. He was breath taking to say the least. Dazzling even whilst lying down in a coffin that fitted him perfectly. The four meter coffin was necessary. The man was huge, even lying down and Otsune couldn’t deny a strong desire to be close to him. She clenched her hands behind her back, knowing they wanted to rest themselves on his chest. She recognised the feeling as distinctively alien, but still very nice.

 

The angel, and it definitely was an angel, wasn’t saying anything But just smiled up at her as he continued to lay back in his coffin with no apparent intention of getting up. She observed the halo on his head This was the only part of the coffin that wasn’t natural, and the box raised above his head to make room for the glowing disk.

 

Maybe she should tuh him. This may have possibly been some kind of apparition of the body that once resided in the coffin. Touching him would confirm he was really and…

 

Otsune looked away as best she could.

 

Er hi,” she finally said, getting the feeling he had no intention of talking.

 

Hello,” he replied joyfully.still staying put with his hands across his chest.

 

He stopped talking.

 

Are you alright in ther-”

 

You can touch me, if you wish?”

 

Otsune felt her eyes bulge. “Excuse me.”

 

If you wish to prove I am or am not an apparition, you may touch me.

 

One of her hands unclenched and raised itself up to outstretch itself. She had to hold back. “No. No thank you,” she eventually got out.

 

Very well, as you desire.”

 

The angel fell silent again, still smiling and looking directly at her, never taking his eyes away. Otsune knew she was looking dumbfounded, but felt kind of out her field here. Part of her was expecting more to happen.

 

No need to worry. Z’lphos expect people feel confused when round him. It normal reaction.”

 

Okay,” she said, very very slowly.

 

It may please you to know that though you do not possess all relevant data, then your initial hypothesis is correct and that I am an angel. A virtue of bliss to be precise.”

 

Right.”

 

That mean I always happy.”

 

This wasn’t the best of information to here. And she didn’t particular see bliss as a virtue either. Was this some kind of attempt to be the opposite of a sin. Aristotle and plato had penned seven virtues to oppose the deadly sins, but bliss wasn’t one of them. Then again, if this was an angel, it probably wasn’t taking its project guidelines from Greek Philosophers..

 

We don’t. Philosophers took from us. General idea, but incomplete.”

 

Otsune felt the desire disappear, her focus returned as the weight of his words kicked in.

 

Could you stop reading my mind please?” she asked with polite terror in her voice.

 

Can’t. Sorry.”

 

Why not?”

 

I’m afraid i’m not so much reading your mind more than listening to it. It would be like you trying not to hear me speak. You could pace your fingers in your ears, but still you would hear most of what I say.”

 

Can I close my mind off to you then?” she replied, feeling a trick in here somewhere.

 

No. Not you, nor no one.” Why was he voice changing like that? “No trick either. Only demons are creatures I can’t hear thoughts of. They speak different language in heads. You wouldn’t want to block yourself anyway.”

 

I’m damn sure I do.”

 

But then Occam wouldn’t be able to help you.”

 

Occam?” She turned to the little floating flame, as if expecting it to do something more than float around combusting the air. The angel knowing its name meant nothing if it could read her mind.”

 

Actually it’s a bit easier than that for you. I only read your active line of conscious dialogue. I can’t hear anything about your experience or knowledge unless you think about it direct. Yes. Occam does do it he same way.”

 

Which makes sense, seeing as he responds more to my emotions than anything else.

 

It’s also why he doesn’t always listen. The more unfocused you are in issuing orders to him, the less likely he is to respond to them.”

 

And you refer to him by gender as well i see…” Otsune shook her head. “But that’s not important right now. Why are you in the coffin?”

 

The angel transfixed her with his eyes, seemingly leaning forwards whilst staying relaxed in the box. “I’m a defence system,” he replied.

 

His smile was infectious. Otsune could already feel it hurting her cheeks, and there was a part of her constantly expecting more information and not getting any.

 

She was now painfully aware that she was getting closer to him, not the other way round.

 

Okay,” she said after a solid eight seconds of unbearable, completely unnecessary silence. “What are you defending against?”

 

I keep the demons away.”

 

You do?”

 

Yes.”

 

Lifting up from the box, Otsune looked around, just in case she had missed a horde of bloodthirsty tentacle monsters.

 

You’re doing a very good job,” she replied.

 

Thank you.”

 

Where…” No. She went to rephrase. “What are you defending from them.”

 

The sixth base of the Futabatei clan.”

 

The Fu… the sixth base?”

 

Yes.”

 

There are six Futabatei bases.”

 

There are ninety two.”

 

The blanks were filling themselves in. “Would this base happen to be the Heavenly Springs dormitory.”

 

Yes. That’s the one. Though I don’t think there’s a dormitory.”

 

Would it be the palace by any chance.”

 

Palace. That’s what they called it.” Otsune was feeling a bit of confidence now. “Though not just the palace. The village is the base of course.”

 

The village. As in the whole thing.”

 

Unless there are any parts of it that aren’t part of the village, then yes the entire ninja village.”

 

Her cheeks ached painfully. Her brain tried to scream a little.

 

Heavenly Springs.. is a ninja village?”

 

That’s correct.”

 

That”s hurts to know.”

 

Does it? I’m so sorry. If you want you can kiss me.”

 

What?” Otsune yelled, pulling back and nearly falling off the pedestal again.

 

Those who discover me are often drawn to press their lips against my own soft ones,” the nagel explained. “However, upon doing so they are often filled with shame for their sudden promiscuous and inexplicable actions. I then explain to them that because I am a virtue of bliss this action is to be expected, and they should not feel shame for their actions as long as it does not mutate into feelings of lust and a fervent desire to mate with me.”

 

Otsune didn’t respond, nor could she.

 

I have discovered that it is better for me to explain to visitors the reason they are having these feelings before they act upon them. There is nothing to be alarmed about, and is a natural reaction.”

 

Okay.” Otsune sat down and facing away from the angel. This probably wasn’t what she was expecting when it came to meeting an angel, but that was okay. Having her expectations shattered should allow her to write a more unbiased report rather than twist the angel to meet preconceived assumptions. What it was saying was true. She couldn’t deny her attraction to him. Was this angel’s very existence some kind of trial to test one succumbing to temptation. Lickig ide cream off his abs wouldn’t be that bad an idea surely.

 

Otsune took a deep concentrated breath. She needed to get out of here. But the opportunity was a big one. Surely leaving would be the foolish thing to do in this situation. Here was someone quite willing to answer all her questions, and she already knew the first one to ask.

 

IF I ask you any question I feel like, are there any particular questions that are going to fill you full of any kind of homicidal rage that’ll lead you to chase me throughout land whilst repeating end of the question for all of time.”

 

For the first time, the angel stopped to consider this. “Not that i’m aware of, but I don’t think there would be any.”

 

Excellent, replied Otsune, glad to check all her bases this time. This was good. She had time now and a portal to knowledge.

 

What’s the manGod?”

 

It’s nothing,” the angel replied.

 

Nothing?”

 

Yes.”

 

As in it’s not anything to be worried about.”

 

As much as you shouldn’t be worried about anything else that doesn’t exist.”

 

So it’s just a rumour.”

 

It is not. Unless it’s a modern thing. I don’t get news in here.”

 

Ok.” Suddenly with the opportunity to ask everything, Otsune found it difficult to actually ask of things. “Oh, what are the dolls?”

 

Toys for children. A great delight for anyone from birth to old age, and even the immortal in som-”

 

No no. The dolls in the village. The ones that look like the elderly.”

 

Elderly isn’t a very sensitive term you realise.”

 

Otsune allowed herself to look flabbergasted with no one watching her. “Old people,” she suggested a few seconds later.

 

That better,” he replied. “They’re also part of the security system “They were designed by the SIS to make it look like the ninja village was not a ninja village.”

 

And how did it do that?”

 

By being old.”

 

Excuse me?”

 

The dolls were old and antagonistic. That made them big meany heads to anyone approaching the village. They could then scare them off and, in the meantime, act like the village was occupied. If that didn’t work, they would attack people until they left. If possible, they could even take out a minor demon or two.”

 

But it isn’t a ninja village anyway. There’s just lots of old…” Of course it was a ninja village. The notion of any disguise made it a ninja village. Sudden everything made sense. The dormitory on top of the hill that looked like a fort. Sagara the ninja boy using it as a base of operations. The mannequins containing all sorts of lethal weaponry and the tunnels beneath every house She hadn’t noticed it was a ninja village for the three years she had lived here, so of course it was a ninja village.

 

Otsune allowed herself to sigh, then picked up on something. “Wait. What is the SIS?”

 

It’s an acronym. That’s a modern thing though, so I don’t know what it stands for?”

 

But do you know what it is?” A part of her mind wandered. With this guy laying here right below her, the Strangelands seemed suddenly unnecessary.

 

It’s the server run by the Sakimoto clan clan on behalf of the Futabatei at their base of operations. IT help runs the defence system.”

 

Oh.” Discarding the knowledge alittle, she was glad for the clarity. It was just a defence system gone wrong. Then she clicked. That means that was the place to go to get the dolls turned off. If she just approached that Sakimoto woman.

 

The thought stopped her. She didn’t particularly like the idea of never seeing that woman again, nor would she probably listen to any request Otsune gave of her. Plus, revealing that she knew about this underground shrine could in itself cause problems.

 

Hang on,” sh said realising something. “If you’re all part of the same system, would you be able to turn off the dolls?”

 

Nope.”

 

Why not?”

 

Because i’m not the server processor. I only keep the demons away, just as the demon only keeps the angels away and the dolls keep the humans away. Only the Futabatei remain.”

 

But i’m not a Futabatei, and i’m here.”

 

You’re not?”

 

No.

 

Hhhmmm,” he thought loudly. “Perhaps you’re a guest.”

 

Perhaps.” Otsune felt hungry. “I guess I should get to this server then to turn the dolls off.” She pulled out her phone and read the last text message. She’d have to remember to ask when she got bars. “You said the exit was that way right? She was looking at him again. “Does that lead back to the palace.”

 

Yes.”

 

Thank you. You’ve been helpful.” Otsune felt a warmth travel through her at her own words, a nub but pleasant experience. “I’ll come back. I have a load more questions to ask. ?Unless…” Her brain was feeling fuzzy. Tired, but more roll around in bed tired than sleepy. “you want to come with me?”

 

No. But thank you. I’m good here.”

 

Otsune looked at the coffin again. Even if it was a perfect fit, that just made it automatically cramped.

 

I understand your faults, but we’re good here. I can’t leave and I can’t not want to, so I’ll stay. Though if you wouldn’t mind putting the lid back on before you go.”

 

Otsune looked to the heavy marble slab and had to stop herself from scoffing. “Erm… okay.”

 

It wasn’t as bad as she thought actually. It wasn’t made of of paper mache, but it wasn’t moving a boulder either. Once she got it up, she got her breath back before waiting to slide it.

 

So was there someone in the blue coffin.”

 

Oh that’s just a demon. It keeps the angels away, just as my presence is a blight to demons, it’s existence repels angels. I think the idea is to play us off against each other and keep everyone out. Though from what I hear it actually repels other demons as well, but I think they didn’t want to risk just using a demon to repel demons. I had more of a guarantee.”

 

So did it get loose or something?” The nage’s pleasant, hunky smile didn’t change.

 

The demon is missing? Please contact the server administrator to report this.”

 

Excuse me.”

 

That’s what they told me to say. I wonder how it got loose.”

 

The server administrator? What’s that?”

 

The server administrator knows everything the server processor does, or can at least find it out. It knows everything about the modern world. If you tell it, it can retrieve the demon from wherever it’s gone.”

 

You don’t seem as concerned about all this as I thought you would be, not to mention the voluntary entrapment.”

 

I am a virtue of bliss. I will not be negative about anything. Plus, the Futabatei have a point to their Grand point.”

 

What’s that?”

 

I won’t say.”

 

Otsune panted. The slab had killed her shoulder. “Okay. Well, I gotta go fix those dolls. I’m definitely coming back, you hear me.”

 

I hear you. Have fun Otsune, or else I shall hurt you.”

 

Yeah,” she said, distracted by the pushing. “See you too.”

 

**

 

Long before she got off the train,, Natoko had gotten use to the hunger.

 

The thirst had not been an issue. The city of Fuugosuki contained enough public water fountains to make anyone who complained of a dry throat immediately feel stupid. There were however, plenty of supermarkets around to criticise those who were going hungry

 

Money was not yet an issue, but Natoko could see that soon it would be so, and she was attempting to conserve. Her flight from Heavenly Springs five days ago had left her with little save what was on her person. It was only the trip to school that had allowed her to grab the money she had left in her desk there. Several thousand yen left in plain sight because she never got round to emptying her desk properly??.

 

She flashed across the road without really thinking about it. The clothes from her date night were beginning to smell now. The coffin hotel?? yesterday had provided useful shower facilities, but her shirt was beginning to really bother her. Having to manage her own clothes had left Natoko with a practical knowledge of washing and drying and she had been able to budget her allowance to ensure everything was always clean, if only for the fact that sweaty shirts were never comfortable to practise in.

 

Now, the conveniences of modern life were slipping from her grasp. She could afford food, but she couldn’t go crazy with it. She could clean her e teeth,as long as she was fine without using toothpaste. And as for sleeping…

 

The homelessness only occurred to her on the second morning, waking up in the park to find a squirrel?? daring itself to approach her. With the winter months coming she had no idea how she was keeping her body warm but it wasn’t until last month that she gave up and found the hotel. The machine vendor had taken half of what she had but it had been worth it just to get a sheet back. She should have taken it with her.

 

Her hair felt a mess.

 

People were staring at her again, or not staring. She couldn’t believe how often people avoided the eyes of someone they didn’t want to see. In class they laughed behind her back but always smiled to her as they walked past the corridor. Here all gazes were against her. And when they started it was usually a bad sign, their eyes wandering over to Iziz with a curious caution.

 

In a flash she was on the next street, the gust of wind causing a few cries that disappeared quickly as people got back on with their own lives. Natoko knew she shouldn’t be using it for escape, but it made things a little easier.

 

It was perhaps the only advantage to this ronin lifestyle.

 

Part of her realised that she should be loving the term. A masterless samurai was still a samurai at heart and the freedom she had imagined was a breathtaking new insight into her own existence. But then she heard Sagara’s simple word and she knew she would never enjoy this.

 

And the other part of her knew what had to be done.

 

Raiko had to be found. The other girl’s actions, whether intentional or not, had turned Natoko into a fugitive, and until she could find the thunder girl, she couldn’t return to Heavenly Springs.

 

The problem was where to look.

 

Not only where to look but where she could get away with looking. Heavenly Springs was obviously out for the time being, and so was Sakimoto Industries. She didn’t know if she could return there or not, but seeing as showing up there could result in immediate capture, it wasn’t worth the risk. They were probably looking for her as it was. Anyone that brought their attention to rest on her could easily be one of Sakimoto’s spies intending to retrieve her. That was why the flash stp was needed. It got her away.

 

The Inbetween realm was a possibility, but she had to face facts. Without knowledge or a guide, she would only get lost. She needed to be as smart as she could about this. Not to mention she couldn’t remember where any of the doors were.

 

That left the city itself, which was huge and daunting when sleeping alone in it at night and again didn’t exactly draw a map to where Raiko was hiding… or staying… or being held hostage. Natoko had soon realised that any of those was a possibility and she certainly wouldn’t be able to find out on her own.

 

If only she could call Aki. The mobile would be so useful right now and leaving it on her bedside table didn’t help a bit.

 

Her stomach rumbling, Natoko knew she had to eat something soon. Despite the massive allowance that a part time job plus her income from her parents had allowed, not being able to touch any of it left choice of foods difficult. On top of that no cooking tools threw her off as well. It was amazing anyone survived while being homeless.

 

Her thoughts fell to Sagara’s last words before she ran. What had he meant, her attacking Raiko.she had been knocked out after the demon fight and… something else had definitely occurred. But Natoko couldn’t remember. She was sure she hadn’t attacked anybody though.

 

Not that they could prove it one way or another. Iziz was clean of whatever filthy creature had covered it. The rag with the blood was on the other side of the city and already no doubt lost to the garbage trucks. If it wasn’t for the witnesses, she was safe.

 

Going home wasn’t a factor, she needed to prove herself innocent. While she was sure Aki would stand by her side the others were foolish and would take this matter into the wrong direction, involving the police and getting the finger pointed at her. Then it would lead to the courts, a jail cell and her parents being told.and that had to be avoided.

 

Stopping outside the electronic department store, she watched television on the screen without sound. A baseball match was playing. She had seen no news with pictures of herself included besides the wor fugitive she knew the police must be looking out for her. Shivering in the cold, she knew she would have to eat soon. Fast food would probably be best. She could fill herself up nicely that way.

 

Are we doing well?” Mr. Jupiter said from behind her.

 

The mud went thick around Natoko’s brain. Her legs turning to jelly even as they froze solid. The man smiled calmly behind her, his reflection piercing her focus from the widow of the department store, an uncomfortable sensation followed as her throat seized up.

 

From the window he looked like any other foreigner with their hand upon her shoulder. Overly polite and a little bumbling with uncertainty at the situation that was japan. And though the grip felt delicate, uncertain, like a boyfriend who didn’t know it was okay to touch his love, Natoko knew different. The monster behind her… The warning Sakimoto Yuya gave her blared in her mind even without Sagara present and with it, memories.

 

They were all flooding back. He had met her, ate dinner with her, but in a dream. Ehe had offered a deal. She had refused.

 

It is a nice television,” he said, and quickly she became aware of the box in front of here again, the batter at play smacking the ball deep into the sunset. “If you want, i’ll buy it for you.”

 

Wat?” she went to say, the words coming out instead as a garbled croak as she realised how little she had spoke since leaving her classroom.

 

Money is no thing to a demon,” he continued. “If you want, I shall buy the entire shop for you.”

 

Natoko didn’t know what to say. “But such an offer of material wealth isn’t appealing to you, is it. You only desire honour, and a lord you can protect. One that won’t abandon you at whatever urge he suffers from.”

 

You!” was the best she could get out as she turned to face him and her exclamation came out of a hoarse voice. “ You’ve done this to me.”

 

turning to face the monster face to face, Natoko did not hesitate. Her sword at her side, she unsheathed the blade as her front rose forwards stamping the ground. Even without substance, her form was perfect. Her back straight. Er hips fluid. The sword dashed out of her blade, the hilt striking against his palm as all motion was stopped in a heartbeat.

 

The white gloved hand rested upon her own with a gentle grace that tickled to the touch and yet would not budge one millimeter as she struggled against it. Her blade motionless, she cast him a quick glare before foolishly looking away as she tried to wiggle it side to side.

 

Miss Yamanaka,” he said calmly. “Please. I would remind you that we are in public.”

 

Suddenly the presence of all the onlookers, merely everyday citizens going about their business, became obvious to her. Some were going out of their way to ignore them. Others were casting them glances as if the eyes were made to bring shame and nought else. A couple had stopped to watch.

 

It didn’t matter. Natoko was acutely aware that she would look the crazy one here, but they couldn’t know what he was. This monster and its speed was beyond their imagining and even tested hers. With an idea, she stepped back, breaking his relaxed grip and giving herself some space.

 

With a flash jump, she pulled her blade out, cutting the air before her as she travelled through it with the speed of a train, tearing her blade through the thin body of Mr Jupiter and across to the other side of the street.

 

Natoko exhaled heavily, feeling her body panting, she didn’t wait and sheathed her sword. IT was impossible to tell her how much time that bought her. With all his limbs back, Mr Jupiter’s could clearly heal, she would need to hide somewhere until she could get Sagara and- “You can’t tell if you’ve hit someone when you do that, can you?”

 

Bringing her gaze upwards, the man stood just outside the reach of her sword’s range. She stepped forwards, more as her legs shook beneath her than an attempt to advance and his hands shot up defensively.

 

Hey hey,” he said cooly. “There’s no need for none of that.”

 

She tried for a growl and felt the world fell beneath her. Stumbling,, she caught her balance before it left her completely, bringing both hands to grip onto Iziz. The eyes just continued smiling at her, and the world beneath her went dark.

 

*

 

The world blinked around Natoko. She rolled over to ignore it, bringing up more duvet and wrapping herself into a ball. Warm and comfy, she brought herself to snuggle, knowing she must have at least a half hour to go before Aki came to wake her for school. She sighed contently. How long had it been since she could relax like this.

 

The thought hit her, and she bolted upright, memories of three seconds ago washing over her.

 

She was… away. Not in the city. Possibly. But if she was, she was in the richest five star hotel there was.

 

The room was… noble, if she were to describe it. Pampered. Royalty would live here. Not the Emperor, but someone in europe. The bed, when she looked down to see how far it was, was the size of three of her old bed at Heavenly Springs, but only occupied a moderate portion of the room itself. The smooth silky covers wrapped around her, rich and purple felt like she could never afford them in her lifetime even if she was working a bank job or something. Across the room, two wide screen televisions adorned the wall, one big enough to fill the wall and set at a perfect angle to be watched even in bed or by the large rich oak table that sat with eight chairs. Rich. Definitely rich and definitely not her bedroom.

 

Her hand clench and suddenly she recalled. :Iziz,” she whispered, looking around whilst not daring to move. The world around her was alien and even as she stepped off the bed she immediately regretted doing so. There was no idea she could muster for what lay in store for her.

 

Checking out the rest of the room, the only other area of interest being the door and fancy glass light fixture on the ceiling, Natoko couldn’t see Iziz anywhere. She stormed round the room to the window, feeling the fur of the carpet almost purring beneath her bare feet. Opening the embroidered curtained she was met with the horizon, the ocean flowing quietly beneath it..

 

The city of Fuugosuki was inland and the ocean, while not far, wasn’t within eye distance. He had taken her. How he knocked her unconscious she couldn’t remember, but Iziz had better be nearby.

 

Her clothes were on the large chair by the door. They looked cleaned, pressed and folded nicely. Putting them back on while trying not to notice just how nice they smelt after five days on non stop walking, she grabbed the brass knob of the door.

 

Natoko wasn’t that stupid. She remembered now all Mr Jupiter had said to her. The deal he had offered, and she knew what this all meant. Just as she knew she could not falter here for an instant. This was a demon, no matter a master manipulator and seducer of the innocent. If he had his way, she would be his..

 

The corridor didn’t look very long, though it was hard to tell as light reflected off the polished marble. A vase of purple flowers sat next to her door and Natoko had to resist the urge to knock it over just out of spite.

 

It didn’t surprise her that the demon had access to all this. Demons always had access to riches such as these and always lived in the flanciet places. It was a sign of the evil itself. No person with justice in their heart could ever afford this.

 

The corridor held two other rooms and a picture of a battlefield where what looked like french naval soldiers sailed a ship across a red sunset whilst posing with hands to hearts. Across from it, a bust of some man’s face stared straight away. The other rooms were locked upon investigation and the corridor snaked round the corner.

 

Stepping out into the lobby, Natoko couldn’t help have her breath taken away by the size of it. The chandelier caught her eye first, hanging in the centre and being at least twice as tall as her if not a lot more. Light hit it from all direction and the golden surface stung her eyes to look at it for too long.. Beneath it a red carpet spilled out leading from her spot, down the stairs and past a large piano that didn’t look out of place in a lobby like this. Painted with checkerboard black and white, it fit with the diagonal lines that met it going across the tiled floor of the room. The main entrance stood in clear, unguarded sight.

 

She made a mental note of it. This was her way out, but she couldn’t take it yet without Iziz. She swore that if she had her blade already she wouldn’t care about anything. She’d just break down the door, regardless of whether it was locked or not, and flashstep herself as far away as possible.

 

Yo.”

 

Natoko turned round and step backwards in one fluid movement, causing her body’s fatigue to groan angrily at her. That was twice too many times today.

 

Before her stood a large, unflatteringly obese lady with a glare on her face designed to shatter diamonds and dreams. Natoko couldn’t help but examine her, noting that the triple chins didn’t stop before they reached the woman’s gut, with flabby arms that were only just contained within a flowery top. Her legs looked buff like a bodybuilders and covered in oils and grease that Natoko was worried would light up from the cigarette the woman was letting longue by her side. As she brought it up and took a long drag on it, Natoko was forced to notice against her will that the woman only had one long eyebrow.

 

You’re up I see,” she said, the mere vibration of her throat causing her to shudder in convulsion as she began hacking her lungs out. “Come on. He wants to see you.”

 

As the woman walked away Natoko felt compelled to follow, if only to prevent seeing the woman from the back. Keeping up side to side with the ogre like lady, Natoko still had to keep her distance to prevent the woman crashing into her and knocking her over the banister.

 

Er…” she finally dared to speak. “Where are we?”

 

His place. Where’d you think? What’s your name anyway?”

 

She thought that was rude.” Natoko. Yamanaka Natoko. And you are.”

 

Miss Venus” the brute replied, knocking ash off into the air. “And that’s Miss Not Mrs. Yeah i’m old. What of it?”

 

Natoko’s lips sealed shut before she could fool herself into answering a suicide question. The woman seemed content to have her not answer and continued to descend down the stairs.

 

Taking the centre door into the building, Miss Venus barely waited for Natoko to get through the door and she had to block the wood as it crashed into her, fighting past it and nearly falling back into the creature that was her apparent tour guide.

 

The next room was a fancy dining room. The long table split the room in half and still left her with two sections each three times as big as the television room back at Heavenly Springs.. There were no pictures, as she expected, but there were hundreds of mirrors, all of different sizes and all randomly placed on the wall, some twisted at angles that looked like they couldn’t balance if held by string.

 

At the other end of the roof, besides the fireplace that sat where the windows looked like they ought to be, Mr. Jupiter sat, with Iziz on the table, propped up on a stand besides him.

 

Covering the room in an instant, Natoko’s hand was on the sheath before she realised what she had done. Pulling the blade out she held it against the man’s head keeping it pointed at one of his squinty eyes.

 

Where am I? Why have you brought me here?” she screamed, ready to take off his head if he didn’t answer questions. The man looked up at her and for the first time, dropped his smile.

 

You probably shouldn’t have done that,” he said in an almost imperceptible whisper. She tightened her grip on Iziz, ready to let her shoulder loose.

 

You get off my table, yer little bit!” a screamed cased her down the room, grabbing her head and hanging her an inch or two from the wood. “I spent all morning cleaning that waiting to serve you as a guest and then you get your shoes all over it. It’s a good job I cleaned them as well for yer.”

 

Natoko was dropped off the table like she was being dropped onto a production line. Ms Venus looked angrily at her as Iziz’s tip nearly tapped the floor. With a violent lunge, Ms Venus placed her hands firmly on the chair adjacent to Mr. Jupiter’s corner and pulled it out.

 

A moment of silence passed between them before the large woman nodded her head at the table and said “Go on then.”

 

Natoko looked at the table. The empty stand. The sticks of bread on the fancy china plate surrounded by sauces, and then back to Ms Venus, who wasn’t budging.

 

Without a word Natoko put Iziz back in the sheathe and then, resting it befor her in the table, sat down and allowed Ms Venus to push her in until her ribs squeezed against the wood.

Comfy?” the woman asked, grabbing cutlery and setting a place up around her.

 

Erm yes,” Natoko replied, finding herself looking to Mr Jupiter for some kind of guidance. He merely observed the scene before him, as Miss Venus wandered out of sight without a word.

 

As the doors shut behind the large woman, Natoko was suddenly at a loss of what to do. Leaving suddenly wasn’t an option. No. that wasn’t right. Laving was the only option. Se should not stay a prisoner here with so much to do ahead of her. She pressed her hands against the table.

 

Ah ha,” Mr. Jupiter waved, holding his hand up and making Natoko’s blood boil. The demon would dare stand in her way. It did not matter how fast he was, she would-

 

The door opened behind her again, her bum on the seat and firmly in place before the large woman reached the table. Without grace or ritual Miss Venus slammed the plates down on the placemats, unconcerned when she dropped it with enough force to make Natoko’s snap in half. The food, , a slice of bacon, two sausages, egg and some beans, were scattered b y still managed to stay on the plate. The beans were seeping through the crack.

 

There you go. Enjoy your meal,” Mns. Venus said, with the exact same amount of courteous grace a waitress would have given if she wasn’t pretending to to courteous or graceful. The woman walked out, and as MR Jupiter started moving again, she got the feeling it was safe to move. She placed her hands back on the table.

 

You aren’t thinking of leaving, are you?” Mr. Jupiter.

 

Natoko was sure she looked incredulous for a second there. “Of course I am. I will not be held prisoner by the likes of you. You are a demon.”

 

Both true, but I have not kidnapped you.” He stopped to take a sip of brown liquid Natoko assumed what tea and unborn souls. “I have saved you.”

 

You are not my saviour, nor are you my master. I will not accept anything you give me.”

 

I didn’t say I was your master. That I know I am not yet.” He took a knife and fork and started cutting into one of the sausages. “But I am your saviour. You weren’t going to have left to go with that much money in your pocket, and I haven’t yet determined just how much energy that sprint spell you’re doing takes.”

 

He took a moment to munch happily on a portion of sausage wrapped in bacon. “But I understand. I really do. You don’t want to become my retainer, even if I would put you to more use than Sagara has. Even if he ignores you. Even if I offer you the finest manor just outside the city and cloth and feed you. You would want for nothing and fuel your passion every second for the rest of your life and beyond.”

 

And all I need to do is follow you, yes I know,” Natoko replied, watching her beans run off the plate. Her stomach growled in fury at her, reminding how long it had been she had last eaten properly. “But even if accepting you wasn’t the total abandonment of my honour, I simply don’t desire to.”

 

Oh I understand that too,” he replied happily. “There is no factor involved here that I haven’t considered, and i’m not naïve enough to believe I could easily to convince you to join m. But please note-” He oped his eyes, Natko didn’t even realise they had been closed – “I will never stop trying. I can make anyone do anything.”

 

Have fun with that. As you said yourself, my resolve is strong. I cannot be pulled into doing anything, especially not anything as obvious.” Natoko stood up, no longer letting the chair stop her. She needed to find an exit. The front door was the best answer.

 

Wat,” Mr Jupiter said, sounding alarmed. “I would at least ask you finish your breakfast. Ms Venus won’t like it if you don’t eat it.”

 

I=-” Natoko stopped to look at the plate of food.

 

She takes a lot of pride in her housekeeping that one, though I guess she doesn’t look it. Natoko turned round, noticing the door the woman had gone slightly ajar, an eye peeking out of it.

 

Mr. Jupiter whispered. “If you just eat most of it, that’ll probably be fine, but then you’ll still need to explain to her why you didn’t finish it.

 

Quickly, Natoko sat back down, slicing her sausage and chewing into it.. the food was good, Natoko not knowing if she should be surprised or not. Before she knew it she was gulping down a hash brown, impaling her beans through her fork to line them up for her mouth and washing it down with the hot cup of tea.

 

Never would she admit it to Sakura, but this was worth eating everyday.

 

Thank you very much,” she said out of habit, the woman approaching her from behind to pick up plates. Passing her stuff across, she turned to see Mr. Jupiter’s just watching her.

 

What?” she said after a few incredulous seconds.

 

I did not assume t would be that easy,” the man stood up, Natoko quickly following, if only to lean against the table. “I do not assume it would help much, but would you like to hear my plans. They will be enlightening to you at the very least, and give you all you want at the most.

 

Natoko didn’t reply, knowing such a question was loaded and feeling humiliated for reasons she couldn’t place. The demon approached the large white wall and press a button on one of its archways. A light beams up, showing a picture of a skull against a black backdrop on the wall.

 

Before a word could enter the man’s mouth, Natoo said “I’m leaving now. You’re not stopping me.”

 

Ah no you’re not,” Ms Venus cut in. “I’ve got jam and toast in the kitchen which I spent hours cooking. You’re going to have some of that, then you two can go play.”

 

Natoko sat back down, inking as little into her chair.

 

Well, that’ll be a few moments,” Mr Jupiter said a she stormed off again. “While she’s gone let me tell you what i’m after, and why I think the Balance can provide it for me. This is all besides obtaining you of course. That is currently my… primary objective. Although I will be honest and say it is not my ultimate objective.”

 

Natoko stayed in her seat and looked away, waiting for the toast to arrive. If the demon was at least going to tell her his plans for free, then listening alone surely wasn’t a disadvantage. She should take advantage of his stupidity surely. If he tried to perform some kind of trick in the meantime, she would simply take the toast and run for it. If he killed her in the attempt, it was still better than falling for his tricks.

 

To start, let me tell you now I am part of an elite cadre of demons known as the Alignment. Perhaps you’ve heard of us.”

 

No,” repled Natoko, not caring if it was rhetorical.

 

I did not think so. The alignment of planets is a group that, for all intensive purposes, seeks balance in the universe.”

 

Natoko snorted as derisively as she could.

 

I’m sure by your gesture you are thinking, why would demons care for balance, and it is true, most simply do not. Most are either chaotic in their ways and last out at random based on their sins or virtues, or simply seek the methodically planned destruction of the human race. The alignment is different. We seek Balance, not because secretly we are good creatures who are merely misunderstood, or wish to undo our evil ways, but simply, because it is more profitable.”

 

Balance keeps things in order, prevents wobbling. When things are balanced, things are equal.. Everything is at a blank slate without anything going one way or another. If it does it quickly realigns itself. The status quo is god.

Many may dislike this, find it to their frustration. And that , for some of us anyway, is nourishment. The mere pain that nothing ever changes is like honey to many and that alone could be considered enough.

 

You could say we’re doing this for several reasons. The first is the mutually assured destruction that humans are bringing the world too. Many demons and angels have plans in progress at the moment that are bringing the world to the end. Demons are doing it because they’re evil. Divine are doing it because they believe Armageddon will bring their God back. Many want the world to teeter on the brink of destruction, but we are not them.”

 

We are also doing it because we believe that the current system of balance, setup by the lords at the beginning is not a sufficient systm. Indeed it is currently run by the Futabatei. I don’t believe you ever met Sagara’s mother but believe this above all else, she is not a suitable candidate for bringing balance.”

 

Finally, and this is our main reason for doing it the alignment believes that a more world is one that’s more fun to fuck around with. Balance brings peace and peace time is the best time to get one to murder his brother. In war, they rationalise, develop excuses for the vast slaughter they perform, be it family, country or god. In peacetime there is no excuse and there are many demons who feed from that”

 

Trying to stifle a yawn while at the same trying wanting it free out of spite, Natoko pushed herself to pay attention. This should be important stuff?hate whole paragraph

 

Of course that is where we reach ap problem. Creating balance is difficult. Humans are incapable of doing it, the Futabatei have proven that, but neither demons nor angels would be able to bring it about either. You may notice, we tend to form on either one side or the other of the scale.”

 

Let me guess,” Natoko interrupted. “The Alignment consists of both angels and demons.”

 

Exactly!” Mr Jupiter said, trying to look ik that was what he had been trying to get her to say. “Though by instinct alone it is impossible for either demon or divine to work together- Sanguinus was a most unique example I assure you, through intermediaries we are able to bring our forces together and negotiate actions. Destroy the barriers made by the futabatei millennia ago and restore things to how they were

 

Examining her opponent, and he still was her opponent, Natoko pondered his words. She could not deny, for reason of the detail and rambling alone, that the demon was serious in his words. This was something he cared about more than anything else.

 

As you no doubt have figured our plan is to essentially bring things back to the old rule of angel vs demon for the right to a man’s soul. But we cannot bring things truly back to how they are. Man has advanced far beyond these points and technology makes rumour hard to spread correctly. The fear system we had before would not work.”

 

So how would you do so?” Natoko said knowing this was the information she had to glean.

 

Not my department i’m afraid. My task from the nine is simple. I am to destroy the barriers that bound angels and demons. Preventing them from coming here without the aid of a kotodama. If you do decide to join me, this is what you will be helping with, and I assure you you will have to fight.”

 

Go on,” she replied.

 

My ultimate objective,” he said, making her sit up. at least, the one I will confess to you right now, s the acquisition of the five ogres. Wind. Earth. Waer. Fire and Void.

 

These five are some of the most powerful creatures on the planet. Neither human, demon, divine or spirit, the five are something special and apart. My task is simple really. I just have to get all five of them, and throw them into the Babylon gates on the day of alignment. This is more than enough.

 

Then why don’t you?”

 

He smiled the smile of someone forced to answer a question. “Because for over a century now I have seeked them, and I have only found a single one.”

 

Why don’t you look harder?”

 

Because not only do I have to find them, I have to do so in a way no one else notices. The five ogre are powerful. Not only could they succeed in bringing the Balances to its rightful place, done so by throwing them in against their will, but it could destroy my plans too. If the five ogre are sent to the gate willingly, then it’s decided balance has been achieved and everything remains on its current doomed path.”

 

But, if they were to be thrown in along with the body of Futabatei, then t is said a whole new god will arise in the chaos. This is an unpredictable scenario that we can’t risk being one against on our plotting.”

 

You say you’ve found one of the Ogre.”

 

Oh yes, you have to. It was that little flame creature at the Arena that time that caused a lot of trouble. Powerful thing. Killed all the demons there, Sanguinus too. I myself might have been in trouble if it wasn’t for my exit stage left. We’ve caught it since of course, so you don’t need to worry about that one.”

 

It was in that moment, Natoko tried to remain very still, her head rolling through events. She had been unconscious, so she wasn’t sure, but she knew Sagara had defeated the OniHono just a few months ago, but she didn’t know what had happened to it. She assumed it had been taken away but if it hadn’t, or if it had been taken away from the wrong people.

 

He was still talking. She let him. The OniDou as well. The Earth Ogre. That was already dead by the hand of the American ninja from what she understood. Though having never seen the creature herself, Natoko could attest to nothing.

 

She knew about the OniSui though. Still she remembered the ogre’s invasion of her body. Was she the OniSui though. Natoko wasn’t sure, and she was under the watchful eye of Yuya Sakimoto.

 

And then there was the Onikage., sealed inside her master. Only once had it appeared before her, during the battle at the arena. That was powerful, she knew that much. But it wasn’t its power Mr Jupiter wanted. E wanted their destruction to fuel his plans.

 

and that’s why I need your help above all else, my dear Yamanaka,” he continued apparently without realising she had stopped listening. “With your as my retainer, you would make an excellent spy for me. The SIS server inside of Sakimoto Industries would contain all the information I need to know. Though there’s no need to agree now, I say if you are able to retrieve the futabatei’s server for me me and recover the data I need, I will guarantee you a lifetime of battle to prove yourself again and again in your master’s name. Act now, and i’ll even throw in your own magical artifact,unique to you. I’m guessing it’s going to be a tanto for you. It would go with that sword.”

 

Mr. Jupiter waited for her across the room. Carefully, she feasted on the last slice of toast, chewing into it and savouring raspberry jam for the first tie. Finishing, she took her dining cloth and wiped her mouth. “Thank you very much,” she said to Ms Venus, who grunted hopefully and scooted off with her pates in two.

 

Ntoko waited until the woman had left the woman, watching mr Jupiter as she wiped the last of the groups away. Standing up, she faced him from across the room., grabbing her swor.

 

For a second Natoko felt the slightest of vibrations, like a runaway steam train trundling along at ou at break body speed.

 

Placing the bottom of the sheath?? on the table, she waited for a second, watching him as he relaxed and brought himself fully to face her. They stared at other others eye’s, right up until Natoko flash stepped to the door

 

She was there in an instant, away from Jupiter and Venus. Stopping only to unlatch the door, she felt the wind fall behind her as she took across into the next room. Checking, she knew she had everything, with so little to carry. Belting down the corridor and crashing into the wall hard enough to hurt her elbow. She made for the turning and let herself travel along it.

 

That was not the answer I was looking for,” he said somewhere in the background.

 

An unused kitchen passed her by., one the big demon must not have used. Had he thought he could talk her to temptation. All it did was remind her of her teacher. Now she felt even less likely to join than she was before. A one in three chance of saving the world, and he was picking the wrong one.

 

Bursting out some double door, she felt the rush of air as it became fresh and salty. She was in a courtyard, with short leve crash and several bushes shaved to represent several different male heads. It look Italian but Natoko didn’t figure it out. It didn’t matter. What mattered was being surrounded by the other walls of the building. The wasn’t the back of the manor. This was just halfway.

 

T didn’t matter, she decided, and bolted for the doors on the opposite side. He probably wasn’t chasing her, but still she knew she had to go faster. As long s she could run, avoiding him was a possibility, but none of it mattered in she remained trapped. Crashing through the back door, she fell into another corridor, this one laden with books. Not choosing a direction, she tore off down one of them and shit through the first big pair of doors she could find. Entering a ballroom, she saw the pile of dead people.

Her feet held her up as best they could when she stopped sudenly.She choked out of reflex.

 

Piled atop of each other, it was plain to see the people before her were dead. Several men and woman, all nicely dressed up. She couldn’t see any obvious reason why they were dead. None looked tey were bleeidng, or suffering blunt trauma. The only thing that stood out a mile with flashing lights and perhaps some loud noises of the fair, was the look of horror stretched across their faces.

 

Without being able to help herself, Natoko stepped over to the person layig before her. They were suited up except for the youngest looking one – though they all lookedyoung with strtched faces like that, and all upper class looking.

 

Oh yeah, I never said,” Mr. Jupiter said behind her, sounding like he had ust gone for a quickl walk and felt better for it. “This isn’t my place, and they wouldn’t let me borrow it. I suppose I should have mentioned that as well. My bad.”

 

Glancing around Natoko realised she was in a resting room of sorts. Another piano sat besides the bodies. All the book shelves, both ground floor and covering the walls on the small stairwell above, all tinted wit bronze metal everywhere. The family before her were staining an expensive looking rug.

 

It was painfully obvious there were no exits save the door Mr Jupiter was standing in. Taking a few steps back, se braced her sword again.

 

Go on then,” he said, resting against the doorframe with sudden abandon of effort. Th e pose took her a few seconds to regain herself and carefully sh moved forwards, keeping her feet on the floor at all times.

 

Excuse me.,” she replied uncertain of how this would lead to hear death, but mentally wriiting somethinggood to go on her gravestone

 

As I thik i’ve sad before, there’s no me forcing you here. You have to come willingly. I wouldn’t do it with my victims. I’m not doing it with intended business associiates.

 

Natoko froze a moment, waiting for the trp to spring itself. Remembering Mr Jupiter idn’t need tricks, she just watching as he walked to the side of the door and looked like he was trying to sher her along “Go on. Go.”

 

Feeling strangely lost, Natoko left her stance drop, shifting her body weight ready to make the move as she was deciding it. A trick felt obvious, even with his brutal honesty It was that simple really. It onlydetermined one answer.

 

Turning a full one eighty, she launched herself across the room, cliing atop of the body pile, taking only a split second to crouch her knee, and then launch herself through the window. Glass shattering around her, she felt the cuts long before she started falling, the rushing of th waves below her bringing little comfort.

 

The world swam around her, wind hitting her face as she gripped desperately onto Iziz. Feeling the sword slip from the sheath she tried to grab it and miss, plummeting further down as she began cursed the world. This was not a place to go out she knew and this ocean wouldn’t be enough to top her.

 

With a determine that let herr feet scrape against the rock, she drew er sword to face the ocean.

 

**

 

The wworld in Otsune’s hed formed fractal tetrahedrons again. From them swarms the cockroaches, the mihgtiest of the ten??latin reference. Watching them build their pyramid army, Otsune swam through four different dimensions, desperate to warn them of the coming plague of the armour metlers. As she screaming her impotent nano particles at them, the creatures gave her no heed, for indeed they could not. She was below them as they were below the mightyatomicus, leader of the pan dimensional aray. How they hoped to fight the wave mtion armies with eyes that big she could not even begin to determine.

 

Bzzt went the Galasphacus islands, and she was in her pillow, eyes mashed up against it in an instinctive attempt to deny the sunlight access to her brain. She groaned as the worst of agonies spread through her body and she rolled over in an attempt to fill herself with more blanket.

 

Bzzt

 

Okay okay,” she shouted out to the world. “I’m getting up. Entwined in three layers of cloth, her hand struggled to reach the phone and she nearly dislocated her shoulder trying to get th phone behind her without having to turn around.

 

Good morning,” she muttered, having no idea what time it was. She knew it had to be gone noon already, her efforts to return home last night had her clocks as getting into the obby at five am.

 

Where were you last night?” Fujiko asked, actually sounding a little concerned. “I could’t find you anyone.”

 

Huh?” Otsune stalled as she thought of the best possible way to phrase it. “I went for a walk.”

 

In the village? Ar you okay.” Bolting awake, Otsune shot up, the twists of cloth surrounding her immediately disagreeing with the concept and bringing her straight back down. Crashing over the side of her bed, she hit the flloor and reminded herself of the minor injuries she had picked up last night.

 

Otsune? Otsune?” the receiver said at a distance. Scrambling to get herself back up, Otsune gave it up as soon as she got her hand free.

 

Fujiko, i’m here!” she said. Se glancd at the clock. Half eleven and still light outside. She relaxed a little. That wasn’t as bad as she thought, but that wasn’t the point. “Fujiko?”

 

I’m here. Are you okay?”

 

Tell everyone not to go into the village this morning. If they want to go out, head straight from the tram station and avoid al the old people.”

 

They do that anyway. Hell I think we all did that before they started going all mannequin on us.”

 

Tryng to ignore the fact that that ananlogy didn’t work, Otsune finally freed herself of her bed linen and composed herself. “Make sure they’re extra vilgilant about it from today onwards. I’ll explain shortly. Meet me n the loby in fifteen.”

 

Oh no, I know that tone,” said Fujiko, sounding alarmed. “Lst time you said that I lost five months of my life.”

 

Otsune thought about it. “It’ll be up to you whether you go this. I won’t force you.”

 

Aw, but saying that makes me have to go.”

 

Talk shortly. I need to get ready.” She hung up, looking around her rom. Occam was waiting outside the window and she opened it up to let him in. She’d have to skip hr morning jog it seemed, but no matter. Heading straight for the shower, she began prepping herself.

 

By th time she was washed and dressed Otsune felt a lot more awake and refreshed. The injuries sustained last night were beyond minor and other than a mild cramp in her shoulder seemed to be all gone. Her glasses were still broke, so that meant getting out her spare pair., but other than that it was as iof last night simply hadn’t happened.

 

Of course it had. Er getting out of the shrine below Heavenly Springs hadn’t been the easiest of exits. The rope climb alone had left her fingers feeling frayed. At least now she knew how to access it any time she needed to return. It would be better to bring proper climbing gear the next time round though. There was no major danger,but the others wren’t as atheletic as she was and she didn’t want to keep her discovery last night a complete secret from them.

 

Exiting her room, she felt her foot brush somethigng odd on the floor and pull back without thinking. Looking down she saw several shards f glass scattered round the floor. It seemed someone had dropped their glass wandering round to find her and hadn’t bothered to pick it up. Heading back into her room, she got the bin and spent a few extra minutes cleaning up.

 

I nearly sliced my foot open thanks to that, Fujiko,” she said as she reache the lobbby, holding up the box of glass as she pureed it into one of the main bins.

 

Ouch. Where was that?” the girl repliedlooking like she hadn’t a shred of guilt and making Otsune immediately realise it probably wasn’t her.

 

Right outside my door. Someone must have dropepd it last night.” She looked around. Besdes them, only Himeko?? was inside the room. The girl was sitting on the lobby desk ingoring them quite effectively as sh bserved quite intently four large glasses on the table doing absolutely nothing. Otsune blanked for a second as she in turned watched the girl, but then brushed it off.

 

Injuries?” Fujiko inquired.

 

Huh? Oh none. I avoided it. No harm done.” Fujiko was of course a master bluffer and whether she had left theglass shattered in a drunken haze leaving Otsune destined for multiple lacerations wasn’t something Otsune coul determine. It also didn’t matter. Himeko repositioned herself on the desk, getting comfier while still never looking away from the glasses. Otsune ried to focus away from it.

 

So what’s the-”

 

The dolls have weapons now,” she explained, cutting her friend off just as Sarah walked into the room heading for the exit. “We need to make sure that no matter what no one comes into the- oh Sarah wait.”

 

Fuck off,” the little girl replied, not even looking their way as she readjusted her large backpack.

 

Sarah wait,” she repeated grabbing the young girl by the shoulders and getting a violent glare for her effort. “where are you heading?”

 

Why do you care?” Sarah replied., only stopping now to wait for a response. “You neer care.”

 

Of course I c-” Otsune stopped herself. This wans’t the time. “Look. Just be careful in the village okay. Last night the dolls attacked me, and this time they had weapons.”

 

Weapons,” the girl replied, now actually ooking concrned. “What type?”

 

Knifes, chains, cannons. Chainsaws.” Otsune felt somehow that was the question she shouldn’t be answering. “I think you’ll be okay if you head straight for the tram. That’s where you’re going right?”

 

Yeah,” replied Sarah, already turning back for the door. “I should be okay though. I’m not a filthy whore like some people here.” The eleven year old slammed the large oak door behind her, putting in consdierable effort to do so. Otsune heard the sound of stones crushed underfoot as the her ward ran awwaya as fast as she could.

 

You really need to do somethig about her,” Fujiko said when the running faded out ofearshot.

 

I know but- as much as I hate to say it, there’s more mportant stuff to do.” Otsune turned round. Himeko had gone from the lobby desk. So had all but one of the glasses. “Anyway, listen-”

 

**

 

Sagara.

 

Sagara was quiet, yet active. Kind yet distance. Sagara was her lord, yet never there for her.

 

Of course not. He was not to be there for her. She was to be there for him. Did she honesty expect him to continue his life catering to her wishes. It was the exact oppoite.

 

It would be nice if she could see him more often though.

 

Natoko awoke to the sound of a busshutting its doors, the rumblingly engine spluttering to lfe as the crowds of humanswandered around her. Carefully getting up she found herself on a bench in what appeared t middle the middle of the city. She was back. Wherver he had taken her, at least far enough away to be near the ocean, she had escaped and gotten bck.

 

Er brain felt fuzzy. Moments seemed lost to her again. For a second the thought that she never even went to that manor approached her, that it was a deluded dream brought on by her situation and possible malnourishment. But then she felt her clothes. Soft. Unworn. Clean and fresh smelling. These were definiately clothes that had been cleaned.

 

Isis was clasped in her hand and with a feeling of paranonia she left the ench behind to wander as she woke up. She was near the shopping district, thsat much she could tell. At least she was certain it was Fuugosuki. She doubt it wouldn’t be beyond his means to have transported her across the world before she made her escape. In her panic to escape the ocean she must have used the flash step to cover thelarge distance. The effort must have exhuasted her to collaspe n that bench.

 

Funny, she didn’t smell of the ocean.

 

Feeling her stomach, she figured she ought to get food. Using the flash step that much would have drained her, though she was too tred to notice yet. Suddenly Natoko pniced when she couldn’t feel her money bag. With frantic hands she patted herself down, sghing in relief when she felt the bulge.

 

Lifting it up, she held the bag up wth a feeling of confusion. IT was bigger. Wasting no time she reached into it and found herself pulling out notes when there should have only been coins. Two bundles. Each bundled contained ten notes. Each note was ten thousand yen. She checked them again just to make sure, unable to tell if they were conterfeit or not.

 

As far as she ould tell, they were real. But it didn’t matter. If that was real ten that meant everythng Mr Jupiter said had been real, from his offers for her to join n him to the threats of driving her insane, and his utimate plan.

 

Sagara. Mr Jupiter didn’t know it yet, but he was after Sagara. Sagara had the Onikage sealed within him. She recalled the one moment where the creature had crawled itself loose to take control of Sagara in an effort to protect him from the OniHono. Butt Sagara wasn’t aware.

 

At least she thought he wasn’t aware. IT simply hadn’t come p in conversation since, but that idn’t matter either. Mr Jupiter was after the five ogres. That meant he was after Sagara

 

But Mr Jupiter didn’t know tht, nor did he know the OniHono had been captured, or that Mss Sakimoto held onto the OniSui that had once possessed her, or that the OniDou had been destoroyeed by the American ninja.

 

That left the OniKaze, but she knew nothing of it. Racking her brains she tried to think of aything they had that resembled a wind spirit. Not just in controlling the wind, it was probably something that was free and relaxed, bringing ease to all near it, and was probably capablesudden burts of violence.

 

Coming up with nothing, she entered the conviniance store, buying several pre made bentos. The demon’s intent on giving her the money was an obvious ploy to bring her over to his side, but once again people had assumed her stupid and without knowledge. Mr Jupiter claimed to not be after Sagara, simply because he did not know he was after Sagara. But he was, and that meant she was against him, even if Sagara had cut ties with her. The money was free for her to use.

 

Her path was clear now, bringing with it a clarity that refreshed her as she chewed into the sashimi. She would protect Sagara from Mr Jupiter. IT was easy in itself at the moment. The path to doing so layin Mr jupiter never finding out the truth about Sagara. If he did, she didn’t know if he could be stopped. Her next moves would need to be planned out carefully. She did not know how far Mr Jupiter’s reach was. Demons couldn’t enter Heavenly Springs unless invvited by the Futabatei, so Sagara remained safe as long as he lounged around there. But then there was a possibility of humans working for Mr Jupiter, like that Ms Venus person. Humans could approach Heavenly Springs with ease, but humans she could handle, and any approaching him didn’t exactly hae an advantage. Sagara remained safe as long as no one knew.

 

That meant she couldn’t just approach him ewither. Mr Jupiter was actively after her. If she went back, he would no doubt use some trick like the one he did with Kiriyama to get the others to doubt and outcast her. Natoko would have to hold back, go somewhere away from them. If she waned Sagara, even throgh some indirect means, she could imagine the fool just blabbering it away at the earliest wrong opportunity. He may be her lord, but she could not deny the fact that he was indeed a moron at the best of times.

 

Dropping the Bento into the bin, Natoko secured Iziz and care dnot from the looks of those around her. There was only one place to go. One place she knew she could provide wrning. Part of her still didn’t entirely trust them after what happened with Otsune, but one thing was clear was that they had no association with the Alignment. If they had, Mr Jupiter would have known about Sagara from the day he was born.

 

Sakimoto Industries. Mss Yya would know what to do and she could speak to her with honesty. The woman herself must know at least of the five Ogres, hence why she captured one and kept the other.

 

Natoko laughed despite herself. In the end it was all quite easy. When she put her mind to it, she could handle everything, and all without getting in Sagara’s way. She could even use this information she had acquired to vindicate herself of the Raiko incident, whether or not she had done it in the first place.

 

Unwrapping the sugar waffle, she took note of her surroundings. Having entered the shopping district, she knew which way to go from her. Then it was just a short stop to pick up some supplies, namely a carrying case for her sword and a new mobile phone. Afterwards, she’ll head down ti the subway station and take the short trp back to Mss Sakimoto’s tower.

 

Natoko smiled as she chewed. The waffle tasted delicious.

 

**

 

The binoculars weren’t the best ones she could find in Heavenly Springs. Otsune supposed expectng at least one of the girls to have a pair with optinum foucs was too much to ask, nor could she find anyone to ask. these were fujiko’s, who wasn’t sdaying why she had a pair in the first place.

 

The roof of the west wing was the best place for this. The land that was the top of the Heavenly Springs hill wasn’t exactly flat, and she knew from a basic knowledge of hill shapesthat the building complex itself had to have been built to curve. While she didn’t know the exact architectural setup here, all it took was a pair of eyes to know that the tip of the roof was the best place to look to get a full glance of the village.

 

Even so, she couldn’t see squat from here.

 

She had wanted to see the dolls, see what their current status was. See if they were just fumbling old people who believed the young uns had no respect, or screamng monsters with bazookas for Parkinson’s disease.

 

It occured to Otsune just how harsh she was being to her eldars nowadays.

 

The binoculars just didn’t have the range it seems. they were clearly a cheap shoddy pair. If the trip to the city this afternoon didn’t yield favourable results, she would have to invest in a new pair. She might also need to invest in an army.

 

Straiing both her eyes and the dial that controls the lens, Otsune thought she could jsut make out the image of what could have possibly been a blur walking down the street, possibly lurching. No it was too far. this simply wasn’t going to work.

 

Hi there,” said Sagara besides her.

 

Hey sagara,” she said, doing her best not to jump off the rooftop in a non productive method of self preservation, her heartbeat increasing as her brain tried to eject and make the leap without her. A quick cursory glance revealed the boy’s face was covered in bruises, his shirt tattered and torn and what looks like a slahs wounded from sdome kind of blade going up one of his forearms. He was eating a baguette.

 

@What you doing,” he asked, with no efofort to do it between mouthfuls.

 

Trying to find the dolls,” she replied, making an extra effort to take another scan of the village even though she had given up a moment ago.

 

You mean the Lacaraka.” That was it. Otsune had forgotten what he had called them, possibly because it wasn’t an actual word in any langauge.

 

Yeah those.” she decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask. “Did you know they had weapons?”

 

I think so. Wait… no i didn’t.”

 

Makes sense.”

 

What kind of weapons?”

 

Chainsaws.”

 

Oh. They must have been upgraded. Though they don’t seem to have them now.”

 

Believe me they do. Spent the night running for my life as a direct tribute to them.” She gavce him another glance as she said this and noticed he was looking down at the village below.

Wait. Can you see them?”

 

I can.” Otsune tried looking without the binoculars, a fruitlesst task taht would only hurt her head.

 

How?”

 

The eye of Futabatei has a range of fifteen miles without obstruction. It’s easy if you know how.”

 

Ignoring that one, Otsune stepped up to give her knees a break.

 

How about with obstruction?”

 

It depends on the type of obstruction.”

 

Give me examples.”

 

For example, if i try to look through a sheet of lead, i can only see about five meters past it. If i try to look through the rooftop, i can see everyone in the building and in the shrine below where the angel resides.”

 

you know about the angel.”

 

Yes, though i didn’t know you did.”

 

I do.” It was becoming clear to Otsune sometimes the best thign to do was simply ask. “I take it you know about the tunnels too.”

 

I didn’t until i got here, but yes.”

 

and the fact this village is essnetially deserted apart from ourselves and the Lacaraka.”

 

Well there are also the spirits that reside within the dorm itself. the Divine and demons imprisoned below. Oh and the memory contstruct Sakura is currently kissing.”

 

That made no sense, but it gave Otsune an idea.

 

So what you’re saying is, if i take you along within to gain access to the server room at Sakimoto Industries, i’ll have a good chance of getting through there without anyone detecting me.”

 

Sagara took a moment to think this through. “It would increase your chances. i am a ninja after all.”

 

Great,” she said standing up ??. “come on. You’re going to make yourself useful.”

 

**

 

Her carefully planned team had hastily arranged themselves before her. For once she could actualy say that each one was picked for a reason. Fujiko acted as her second, a sounding board in which to bunce ideas off and receive critcism for. Sagara, , not only for his eyes, as useful as they were to be, but also for leverage. When the direct approach failed, and it would, she’d be able to get a lot farther with Future Balance of the Enforcer on her side, or whatever he was.

 

And Occam burned stuff. Security doors, evidence, weapons, people and other things. That was always useful.

 

Letting them chat amongst themselves while they traveled the tram, Occam instead wisely choosing to float above her and not set off fire alarms off, Otsune plotted.

 

It was dawning on her, almost as soon as she realised what she was doing today, that she had no idea the level of danger she was about to throw herself into. There would be some danger, this couldn’t be denied when her last trip had left her drowning in the middle of the CEO’s office. But how dangerous was what she was doing. Was it going to be a simple case of approaching the server room and getting whoever was in charge the option to turn these things off? Even if it was she would still ned to get into the building, but with only knowing the CEO, and the chances of her now being identified as someone not allowed into the building, that was slim.

 

??

 

She thought back to the conversation she had had earlier that day

 

Tsking a break for a few seconds, she pulled out her phone and started typing. It had been the third time she had sent the request and she had yet to receive a response. It was possible there was soe syntax not being understood here

 

Request: Turn off dolls.

 

She had done it once as soon as she hd receivec bars back on her phone on the way up for the shrine,but she hadn’t gotten a response then or now. The server was ignoring her, or unable to understand her message. It was just a computer after all.

 

??

 

The server’s intenons were impossible to figure. She could argue that, as a machine, it simply din’t have intentions, but something wasn’t right here. Why would it even try speaking to her. That was the question. She could argue that she was nothing special and it had been speaking to hundred, sneding out crazy text messages in an attempt to sound cryptic, but it was the fact it had picked her, even as part of a random sample. She knew of the Balance, orf the demons and stupid things in this world that made her understandings oh so very difficult. That had to mean something. Maybe it was guiding others in the same way, in a hope that at least one of them would assist it in some way. Maybe that’s why it wasn’t responding anymore. Maybe someone else had come forward.Rubbing her eyes, Otsune watched the coverstion going on the seats opposite her. It was mainly Fujiko talking without merit. Otsune realised she had no real theories here about the server. Too little information again. That was appening far too often..

 

This would change. She would gain access to Sakimoto industries, access the server room and gain the information she needed and get those dolls turned off.

 

The train trundled to a halt, stopping by the station. As the three came out with the crowd, she could already see their detination in the distance, standng as the tallest tower in the city.

 

With her crew assembled, Otsune moved out.

 

**

 

Oh look. Theyr’re coming over to say hello.”

 

Her long hair delicatly tied into a pnytail, the girl wandered off the tram, surrounded by a plain looking girl and the prince.

 

Nanahara watched them carefully. Nay h watched them hard, he watched thm so har it felt that his eyesball were just plain going to explode over how much watching he was doing. Oh how they would be watched. Not just by the securty cameras bt by him as well.

 

And Rochelle. Of course. Rochelle. Can’t forget her. Beautiful sexy Rochelle. The same rRochelle who hadn’t let him use her in the five days since he was placed here to watch.

 

And why not, he would ask her,” Nanahara said in the relatively quiet confines of his office. “Why would she not touch him as he wshed her to touch him, in the same luxerious ways she had so manny times bfores, wheen her electric touch could bring shivers and dopamine dumps no real woman could?

 

Well he did not knowwhy she wouldn’t do this. Ad he not earned it yet. Had he not atched enough of the people who would wander round their large building watching stupid pretty girls doing absolutely nothing from time to time. Hadn’t he watched as the cameraman tried to find the girl, ths proving that someone else was watching her as well, making his job immediately defunct. Huh Rochelle, han’t I done enough yet?”

 

Nahnahara panted with no need to do so. He wasn’t exhausted. He couldn’t be. The drone program was feeding him perfectly.. He actually felt a little healthier than he had before. The drone was doing a fantastic job. Perhaps he’d even get a raise soontime soon. Nahara hoped so. “WQ both fucking deserve it.”

 

And you know who wouldn’t deserve. Who doesn’t eserve anyting. The prince of the balance himsefl. That little lodger with the brain cell the size of a molecule farm. Bercause he does squat, even less than the girl on this stupid tv show who spending all day wandering around a building thinking really har to herself.

 

So go on Rochelle. You can tell me. You can tell me that een though I work hard, that I do two jobs, one as an auidiance member and one as a drone server administrator for this virus encrusted kidnapping machine, you can still tell me that including all of those words that spew out my mouth. You would still want to lick his nipples more than mine. Go on. Admit it!”

 

Rochelle said nothing behind him. Her smooth alabaster skin still touched his shoulders lightly, always reminding him she was there, her sweet perfume bringing a tear to his eye every time he got weak. Sniffing the air, he bit his tongue so he wouldn’t cry.

 

Well you’r wrong, you bitch whore. He is nothing compared to me. I’ll show you. When he gets in here i’ll prove which of us is the stronger one, the smarter one. I’ll kic his ass from here to the InBetween realm and out the other side. I’ll tear his skind off in layers and eat them one at a tie and then vomit it out over his skull. I-ll”

 

Fine,” Rochelle sa succulently. “Then show me.”

 

Wha-”

 

She was gone. Immediately he felt her hold over him disappate. He could move. Quickly he stpped up to turn around, his palm ready to show her what she deserved, only to see the the console on the other side of his office, powerless and non-threatening.

 

The room was empty. Of course it was. Rochelle only appeared in his mind. She wasn’t real.

 

ManGod No but she can be.

 

Wat? Who’s there?”

 

ManGod You are about to have visitors. Make sure that they never reached the processorand you shall have your reward.

 

What are you talking aout. Just leave me alone.”

 

manGod “Are you sure you want that, Nanahara. Are you sure you don’t-

 

I don’t need to listen to this. I;m sick of people bossing me around. I quit.”

 

Mwait.

 

Nanahara reached for the handle. Tugging it to find the room locked on the other side. Looking up he nearly pounced back as he sawan office worker staring at him from the other side of the glass with a nervous disposition on her face.

 

Oi, bitch. Unlock the door!” H e sammed his fist on the glass, the pane feeling like concrete beneath his wrist, as he struggled oonce more agaist the handle. “Let me out.”

 

mWhy should you want too leave. Your trial is before you Nanahara??firstname. Have you not waited for a moment like this all your life. Just one simple task and then all the reward is handed straight to you, everything you ever desevred.

 

The woman looked through the glass, past Nanahara and around, her eyes scanning the office as if looking for someone before turning round to leave. That stupid pig. How could she miss him?

 

Help me Nanahara. Assst with this one trial and you never have to suffer the pitiful like that again. You can be strong, smart, perfect, just like you know you are, without the scum of the earth bringing you down at every step, making you play their tunes and opening their gates just to get by.

 

Fine!” Nanahara shoute, d coming back to the security console and falling back into his chair. “Tell me what to do.”

 

The voice said nothing. Instead, the console sprang to life, the dead monitor to the right flashing up with lists of doors and entrances. Access privledges and camera controls. The three main screens cut to defense mechanisms, bringing up security schematics an controls for guns he was pretty sure they didn’t have. Then above him, the arge monitor came into existence. Wider than his desk and just a little taller than himself. The new screen flashed on, revealing picture in picture in picture, each shot showing different groups.

 

The first was the glasses girl again, with the prince and their plain looking friend. They were walking the street the main entrance to the buiding was on, walking past the main entrance after only giving it a quick glance.

 

The second was the booss herself. Sakimoto Yuya, engrossed in work as she shuffled paper from her desk to the several piles around her.

 

The third was sanding by the entrance to the building, showing up on the main security camera. Dressed casually and holing a long box that he knew must cotain a blade, he recognised it as the girl that up until a few days ago also lived witht eh glasses girl.

 

The main screen stayed focused on them, while his second monitor flashed a red dot in his eyes, the speck of pixel located on the schematics before him, pointing out a restricted tat he had only once been allowed in.

 

Stop them from reaching the server room, Nanahara. Stp them, and all the women are yours.”

 

**

 

It had been luck alone that Natoko had kept her new ID card on her person. The piece of plastic had once just been shoved into the coat she worn the day she wandered out of her room to follow Otsune. This single stroke of luck was paying off as she flashed it to th security guard, who let her pass without question.

 

It wasn’t until she got past the busy crowd and into the elevator that she realised this probably hadn’t been the best strategy. Otsune had bluffed her way into the building before via fake appointment and Natoko knew enouh about security to guess that her card wasn’t going to allow her to access all levels.

 

Getting into the crowded elevator, she inserted herself between two office ladiesand tried to ignore it whn ne brushedher shoulder in her general direction.

 

From the corner of her eye, she sawthe woman sneer, her upturned nose trying desperately to upturn further. In her casualwear she could tell she looked ut of place. She could have done with finding some change of clothes. With the money she could have bought a suit and came straight through without interuption.

 

No, the casual approach clearly had some effect. No one quesioed her past the door and people now were only judgig her, not asking why she was here. This was good. She had gained accessed.

 

Te elevator rsing, it wasn’t until the tenth floor it made the first stop, and not until the fifteenth that the sneering woman besides her got off, giing Natoko one last predatory glance as the door shut behind her. The box froze in space an she soon realised she was the one who needed to decide th next foor.

 

It only now occurred to her that she hadn’t chosen her own floor last time and now she had no idea how to get to the CEO’s level to speak with Mss Sakimoto. Looking over at the rw of buttons only confused matters. There wer thirty buttons, but wasn’t there seventy floors. There didn’t look to be any special panel that would unlock some more. She knew she had seen those I movies. Maybe there was a different lift.

 

Opting to start from the top and work her way up, she pressed button thirty and felt the elevator lurch to life. This had better work. Seeing Mss Sakimoto was the smartest move sh could think of. She had been the one to warn her about Mr Jupiter. If Natoko could pass on this critical information they might stand a chance against fighting him. With the information she could vindicate herself. It would all go to plan.

 

Reaching the thirtieth floor, Natoko watched as the door opened, revealing two mn with short sleved shirts staring at her. The two fell silent and watched her and she found herself stepping out of the elevator to meet them. Not asingle one of them spoke as she joined the little triangle before her. The doors behind slid slowly shut, clunking as they began to drop back down.

 

G-good afternoon,” she said. The men were twins. Middle aged and balding, they stared at her like she was an alien and they were without intelligence, slack jawwed and unresposinsive.

 

What are you doing on this floor?” one of them blurted out suddenly, almost making her jump as she saw a swarm of spit jump out from his mouth towards her. Gravity took effect before it could reach her but that didn’t sop her from taking a step back.

 

I’m-” Natoko started. “I’m here to see Mss Sakimoto.”

 

What do you want to see her for?” the same twin shouted back as soon as the last syllable had left her mouth. Natoko found the words trembling on her lip as she tried to throw them out there.

 

I… need to speak to her.” For some reason, she felt she was playing a dangerous game.

 

Why would you want to speak to her,” the man continued to say, his expression vacant and his words sounding like they were ttrying to correct their pitch, “when you could talk to such an able bodied man like myself.

 

Her word hand itched. This wa beginning to feel familiar in a very bad way. Getting the sword out of its case could take her up to three seconds. Both these men were very close.

 

I have an appointment,” she ventured desperately. Taking one step back to fall into a balance stance, her thumb inching toward the latch that would allow Iziz to drop ito her hands. Both men took a step towards her.

 

Well, you’ll be wanting the sixty eighth floor then,” the other twin said, a happy to help attitude plastered on his face where befoe there was nothing more than a monotone of expression. “Which means you’ve taken the wrong elevator. You need the C type. That takes you all the way to the top. The A type is just for the staff of the first twenty five floors.” The man walked over to the elevator and pressed the button twice in succession. “You external?”

 

You…” Natoko’s felt her brain hanging, “You could say that.” She turned her gaze back. The other twin was still standing there. He looked like he had been trned off, his eyes still hanging open.

 

Oh, one of the Futabatei lot. That explains the concealed weapon at least, plus how you were able to get to this floor.” The man ddidn’t seem that fussed with knowing of the holders of the Balance and in turned she tried no to freak out about him apparently being able to see Iziz. “Is it true that the prince finally managed to pass whis Initiation?”

 

Yes!” she blurted out, glad to recognise some converssaton she coul flow with. “He did a fanatastic job. Mss Sakimoto delcared it herself.”

 

Well he was bound to with a mother like that teaching him. He may be a little blank but that didn’t stop some good nurturing. We’re all proud of him on this level.

 

This level?”

 

Well, here you go,” the man said as the elevator hummed to a stop again. “Remember, sixty eighth floor. The final two floors are dangerous to go onto so don’ go in no matter what.” e shrugged. “Though saying that, I don’t think your card will allow it anyway.”

 

What, but isn’t this-” he stepped back into the elevator, the same elevator she was just in. This clearly wasn’t-.

 

Buttons one to ten and then thirty to sixty eight stood on the wall before her. The inside of the elevator was embossed with brass while before it was just metal.

 

Oh yeah, you see,” the man said, popping his head through the door. “Your card doesn’t even let you on the top two floors anyway. Wait that would mean-”

 

The other twin screamed, wailing, his yes rolling back as he fell to the floor backwards, the aparent removal of of his spine doing nothing to stop his movements. Natoko felt the back of the elevator hit her as the man vibrated violnt on the floor, his spasms making their way towards her. The other man looked away from his brother to her, his eyes about five inches wider than they were a second ago.

 

You’re-” She didn’t wait. Pushing forwards, she grabbed the edges of the door and kicked, pushing rather than striking and thursting the more sane looking of the twins, solely by comparison, into the one that looked like it was waiting to to pounce. From the floor they rearranged themselves to face her, picking themselves up and propelling their bodies towards her just as the door shut.

 

The elevator began its ascent and from the floor sh watched the buttons light up in turned as they made their way to the top.

 

She unclipped Iziz and let it fall out of the sheathe. Whatever that was it was clear she needed to be ready for anything.

 

At least she had done a good job so far.

 

**

 

This was turning out terribly.

 

The main entrance was naturally out of bounds. With their intention being the infiltration of the server, Otsune knew they couldn’t risk anyone discovering them. Sure, if they were caught Sagraa could easily provide a get out of some kind of holding area but not quite a jail security cell free card, but if it came to that, Otsune would only fulfill one of her objectives.

 

It reassured Otsune to have objectives. The first objective was to turn off the dolls. That was simple. The dolls were controlled by the server. She needed to get to the server and get t to turn them off through whatever means necessary. This was Fujiko’s job. Figuring out the server once they actally got to it. And this objective wasdefiniately sorted no matter what. Even if they got caugth, if the people of the Balance realised their server was having issues, then they would fix it. Either way, problem solved.

 

The second objective was what mad this difficult. She needed to know. What had happened two thousand years ago. Why was there an angel interred below Heavenly springs. Hy was the server texting her information. It clearly wanted someone to come down and approach it. She just needed to find out why and, if it was bad, she’d burn the whole fucking building to the ground if need be.

 

Her little razor made things so simple at times.

 

Though not now as they continued to waner round the size of the block wide building, Otsune realised that first of all they would simply have o get in. The main door was too risky. Everybody potentially recognising Sagara ended that option. Tht left the services entrance. But that was uner the watchful obervers of low paid security guard, who most likely would be friendly nd helpful to them long enough to eventualy escort them out of the building after they failed to prove any decent reason to be there.

 

There was still, of course, the burn everything optionand Otsune felt the temptation strip her restraint slowly. But that would limit their time, and she still didn’t know which floor she needed to be on in order to find the server.

 

What floor do w need to get to?” fujiko asked, as they took stock of their options at a sweet stand across the street clearly catered for businessmen with a sweet tooth.

 

We’ll need the IT department obviously,” Otsune said. “Any guesses what floor they’ll be on.

 

Hard to say, it may not all be in one place. And even knowing it’s the server room we’re looking for doesn’t help. A building like this, it’s not like they’ll need to be stored in one particular place. They’ll usually have their own room, but it’s not like tey’ll be shoved in the basement. Well, they were in my old place, but that’ kind of a sterotype and not really a hard rule.”

 

We’ll start with the basement first then. Make our way up.”

 

Still doesn’t get us in.”

 

Sagara was enjoying his breadroll while contributing as much to the conversation as cccam was.

 

Maybe some kind of espionage. Sneak in on the delivery truck.”

 

We have ni knowledge of any of the delivery schedules. It could take a day or so befre we can figure it out enough to hop aaboad one.”

 

Do we have a time limit?” Fuiko asked.

 

Do you want to go back hom to the murder dolls?”

 

Understood.” She finsihed her skewer and tossed it into the bin. “We need some kind of edge here you realise. These buildings are designed to only let people in by appointment. Anyone not fulfilling this criteria gets escorted out with malicious passive aggressiveness. Wait. What asbout the InBetwen realm.”

 

Can’t,” said Sagara suddenly, not even trying to stop eating in the process.

 

What?” replied Fujiko, clearly not expecting him to have spoken. “Why not?”

 

There are doorways into the building that work as access points. But none of us know any of them. Though I could locate an entrance by pointing at that one over there,” his han shot up to indicate a building on the block down the road, too far away for her to figure out what he meant. “In the time limit Otsune set, it would be highly improbablle we could find one frm within the Inbetween realm or figure out the correct one without a proper guide.”

 

Otsune said nothing. She had suspected something similar herself, but now something was nagging her she couldn’t quite place. Maybe they could gain accessthrough the sewers somehow, though the dangers of bringing a naked flame underground were immediately clear to her. Her brain ticked over.

 

That’s it!” she announced, realising what she needed to know. “Sagara, you’re an idiot. A complete and total idiot.”

 

Sagara just smied, but his ability to talk was irrelevant for the next thirty seconds.

 

Don’t you get it,” sheasked. “You said it yourself. “We would need a guide to lead us through the InBetween realm. That would be pointless information, but we already ave one.” She pointed up. “Occam.”

 

Sagara just stared directly at the flame. “That’ right. He is a guide.”

 

Occam,” she announced, turning to the flame and no doubt confusing the employee of the food cart. She breathed in, calming her mind as best she could. Occam would need her focus for this. Without it, he woldn’t understand. “Take us to the nearest entrance within the Sakimoto Industries building, via the UnBetween realm.”

 

Occam shot off to his right, thundering down the street in the direction Sgara pointed. With a belated ‘Come on!” Otsune followed it down, hoping the others were to follow. It was good to finally have a plan.

 

**

 

Natoko took another ste towards Mss Sakimoto’s office. Another twenty, and she’d be inside.

 

She had left the elevator five minutes ago, landing on the floor she recognised from her earilier excursion with Otsune just a few weeks. Quite a few things had happened since then and she could see why, with al the misunderstandings that Otsune may be annoyed with her after all that went on. Then again, it didn’t take much to annoy Otsune.

 

Another step. She should have gotten an appointmnt. Coming here, right to the big boss of a large business like this. IT was disrespectful to just assume she’d be allowed in. The water cooler bubbled loud enough to remind her how thirsty she was and she walked over to pour herself a drink.

 

An appointment would take too long though. This wasn’t just an update report. Ms Sakimoto needed to know abut Mr. Jupiter’s plans. Gulping down the water,, she resolved to heasd straight in there and warn her of everything as soon as she finished the second drink.

 

I warned you about not making appointments, Mss Amanaka,” said the voice over her shoulder. Natoko tried to turn but found her knees suddenly refusing to comply to basic requests. “Not to mention I thought I made it clear last time that I wasn’t the first point of contact in this place.”

 

Natoko suddenly remembered who she was, taking a step forward to trn and face the woman, before faling to one knee and keeping her head bowed.

 

Forvie my foolish actions,” she said, trying not to shout. “I neeeded to see you immediately. I have-”

 

No you didn;t,” the woman interupted, “and no you don’t. I will give you a minute to finish your water. You may then leave.”

 

But-” By accident, Natoko raise her head, cathing the woman staring right at her oover her slim spectacles. The other glares she had received today were nothing in comparison. Even the demon’s smile left her feeling warm inside. This didn’t just chill her to the bone. She felt her knees buckle even though they weren’t keeping her up. Her fingers felt light and wouldn’t stop shaky. Somehow she knew, deep inside, with something she could never before see that saying anything wrong at this moment, and she wouldn’t get to finish her waer at all. “But…”

 

You may leave.” Natoko felt her defences close into her. Nromally she was aware of where she could and couldn’t stand, an inbuilt instinct bredthrough years of practse that told her the opponent’s rage and kept her at least marginally safe until she opted to attack. In that moment it was gone. Even if she were to jump throw herself out the window and flash jumped across the city, this woman would still be waiting at th other side.

 

I know why you want to keep Mr Jupiter away from Sagara,” she blurted out as fast as she could, her eyes wanting to wield themseves shut as she forced them to stay open, never taking her eyes off the woman.

 

Seconds past slowly. Ms Sakimoto remained static. Natoko couldn’t move.

 

The water cooler bubbled.

 

Why?” Ms Sakimoto finally said. Not enitrely getting the context, Natoo hzarded a guess and then faltered.

 

Can I speak freely about it-”

 

Speak,” the women replied monotonously, al emotion shredded from her voice. Natoko wantd to be cautious with her information. She knew its importance but-. Mss Sakimoto’s eyes relaxed a little. This seemed infinitely more terrifying than her sternes look and Natoko felt her will slipping.

 

Because Sagara has the OniKage inside him.”

 

That…” Mss Sakimoto looked concerned, or confused, or possibly full on perplex, but just for a second. “That is impossible. No demons knows of that secret.”

 

He doesn’t know it,” Natoko carried on blathering. “But he knows he wants the OniKage. He wants all five of the Ogres. He’s going to use them on the Babylon Gates. He says it’ll bring things back to the way they were.”

 

The way thing’s were?” For a second, Natoko saw the glare removed, replaced by a feeling of comprehension.

 

Yes, that’s right. He wants to stop the world from destroying itself and bring an ever lasting piece. It’s terrible!”

 

Natoko stopped talking, and Ms Sakimoto relinquished her glare. “Stand, Yamanaka,” she said, putting away the dagger Natoko had somehow missed the entire time. She held her hand ut and Natoko was a bit too quick to grab it.

 

You were right to bring this information to me. I ad my suspiions on things, but this. This is useful. How did you get it?”

 

He-” Natoko spluttered, casting er head down. “He wants me to join him. Abandon Sagara and become his retainer.” With a mental wrench she pulled herself to fasce the woman, feeling the tears dripping from her eyes. “He’s been tempting me for months, driving me mad when I refused, turning everyone against me. Forcing me to run from and friends and school and live homeless, just so he could save me and-”

 

Eh, Sounds like a typical demon in that regard I guess.”

 

Well-” Ms Sakimoto didn’t look that first. “I suppose. But it’s been really hard to-”

 

Well he’s a demo. What did you expect?” The woman smiled. “Just be glad you resisted. Makes you strong.” Natoko found herself shivering at the ight of the woman again, though this time more out of respect than fear. “Come on. Come take a seat. I’ll get yu a real drink.”

 

Natoko exhaled heavily, feeling far more drained than she ever had been. “Thank you, Ms Sakimoto.”

 

Please, it’s Yuya,” she said, walking into her stylish office. “Well I culd say it makes you strong, but some argue that a constant demon corruption leaves some people never truly recovering. But the fact that you’re here-” The lights went out, stopping them both before Natko could reach the couch.

 

Natoko paused, not knowing what to say, looking to Ms Sakimoto for guidance. The woman looked around, wandering over to check her monitor. It was only just beginning to get dark so it wasn’t that much of an issue. However, everything got very quietly ery quickly.

 

That seems unlikely,” Ms Sakimoto said, trying the switch on the box below. “Backup shold kick in without a hitch.”

 

Everyone else looked fine,” Natoko said, getting a fine iew of Fuugosuki from the hgihest building in it. All te lights were starting to come on for the night and no one other building looked to be completely without.

 

We’re on a separate switch,” Ms Sakimtoo explained. “We don’t even get our power from this dimension- Aha.” The computer came back on, writing scrolling up the screen as everything whirred into action. Ms Sakimoto looked up. “No, that’s not right.”

 

Natoko could tell immediately. “Why not the lights?”

 

Why indeed,” Yuya pulled out her mobile, tapping the screen a few times and waiting for a response. “Check the land line for me.”

 

It was dead. Everything seemed dead apart from the computer. Even the light on the elevator outside the room she could tell was non-functional and she didn’t recall seeing any stairs.

 

Where is he?” said Yuya, seething with frustration.

 

Who.”

 

That server guy. He knows better than to not answer me.” She slipped the phone back into her pocket. “This doesn’t feel right. Something’s on edge. I thought it ewas you at first but now-”

 

Ja ja jang! Everybody!” a voice declared on the television. “Is everyone full of energy? I know I am.” Natoko turned to the screen to see the smiley face, simple, like from one of Aki’s text messages. The voice was orboticc and bitty, yet sounded genuinely happy.

 

If you’re anything like me, you’re living life to the fullest and fulfilling your dreams. But as we all know. You’re office drones, and therefore nothing like me. You mght think, you are. I mean, i’m the IT guy-”

 

Oh dammit,” Yuya cursed.

 

-the one who exists to be abused every day of the night while his vast intelligence drains away on morons like yourselves, but at least I kno the turth of this place. Most of you don’t realise how pointless the work you do is. Eveyr day you toil and toil and toil, and you don’t eve know the work you’re doing is false.” Ms Sakimoto got her phone back out, taping more buttons and walking over to the slot in the wall. “It’s hilarious really. As all of you look down on me I know yu’re merly misperceiving the gravitational pull of our relationship. Up is down. Down is purple, and all of you are morons.”

 

Shariku Insana System; Override control. Password: All for Heaven??”

 

Yuya stepped back from the wall, and Natoko saw the comm system on the wall. The smiley face on the screen stopped talking, its moth turning o shaped.

 

Oh oh, and here we have our frst override attempt. And it’s from the CEO herself. How you doing, Sakimoto. I always thought you were hot. Perhaps if you prostrat yurself in front of my door and swear yourself o me I might let you in.”

 

Ms Sakimoto continued pressing buttons on the wall’s cotrol panel. They were responding, but nothingseemed to be happening.

 

Ah, no point trying to talk to me. I’m afraid this is one way. Not that many microsphones throughout the building I guess. Can’t let you call me either. Might give away where I am.”

 

Natoko focused on the screen’s image, trying to thik of some way to help.

 

Anyway. Here are the rues- we’re playing a game by the way. First off, all routes in and out of the building are locked. Scond, lights are out to make it spookier. Third, I want that lucky bastard Futabatei on my doorstop. Ou hear me. I know you’re in here. My saviour set it up for me. It set everything up for me. It needs you gone and wiped from existence.”

 

Just shoot him then, it’s not that hard,” Ms Sakimoto started mumbling. “Shariku Insana System; Override control. Password: All for Hell??”

 

Whoa. I didn’t eve see that one. Clever girl. Nice try boss. I can’t wait to get my hands on you and have you tell me who’s the real boss around here, because it’s always been me!”

 

That’s not working,” Ms Sakimoto said to Natoko, ignoring the voice. “That means the heart of the SIS is either comprimised or isolated. I need to get down there.” Natoko stiffened to attention.

 

How can I help?”

 

Go to the IT department. This guy’s will be in room N3.06. Third floor.”

 

You want me to capture him.”

 

What? No. Kill him.”

 

K-” Only managing the first syllble, Natoko swallowed the rest of her words.

 

He’s a self confessed, told the world traitor who wants to kill your lord. What do you think?”

 

Kill one of you every ten minutes until he gets here…”

I…” Natoko couldn’t really see it any other way either. “Of course.”

 

Naomi.”

 

The world swirlded for a second, Natoko spinning round to look above her, something telling her beyond instinct that’s where she needed to be looking. The moisture formed in mid air, quickly bubbling, forming cheek boones and shoulder blades, building up on one another and merging thesmselves round like a jigsaw puzzle. When they stopped, the OniSui was looking down at them, the brittle yet feminine features were there, covered in rags that were also formed of water. She looked tired and floated down to them, dripping on the desk.

 

Get down to the server room. Dehydrate the mroon until he stops doing this.”

 

Yes, Yuya.”

 

And no fighting between you two. I know you have histroy. That’s an order.”

 

Of course, Yuya.”

 

U-understood,” replied Natoko, lookning between the two of them and not knowing what to sat.

 

Right, I have to descend ninety eight floors and not die in the process.” Pressing a button in mid air that Natoko still couln’t see, Ms. Sakimoto turned to the panel that came out the wall by her desk, revealing a staircase. “You do not follow me down here. Take the other stairs. Remember. Floor three, room N three dot zero six. Say it back to me.

 

Foor three. Room n three dot zero six.”

 

Good girl,” she started to shut the panel. “Oh and Naomi.”

 

Yes, Yuya.”

 

Give her a chance to kill the guy before you do it.”

 

Of cours Yuya.”

 

It’ll be good experience for her.” The panel shut withot another word, the man’s voice ranting still on the screen, explaining all manner of trick and trap setup within the building and threatening all within. Natoko couldn’t take her eyes off her new partner, feeling her fist seize up on her.

 

I look forward to working with you again, Natoko.”

 

**

 

The world got dark as they left the Inbewteeen realm, passing throgh the mahogony door and into a room that required they find a light switch. The light within the realm didn’t seem to want to travel back through to earth with them, and so didn’t.

 

Occam had been brilliant. He led them through corridor after corridor with what she could only guess was perfect navigational skills. They had made it here in less than five minutes and all thoguhout she held nothing but trust for the little guy. He followed her into the earth side of the door, lighting up the small compact room right as she kicked the plastic bowl underneath her foot and responded by crashing into several ticks to her side. Falling in the most graceful way possible, she was quickly helped up by Sagara.

 

It’s a janitor’s closest,” he said most helpfully.

 

Wll it wasn’t going to be our exact destination was it?” she replie while trying not to bit his hhead off.

 

It could have done,” Fujiko said, as she shut the mahogony door behind them, only the light of Occam saving them from the darkness.

 

Well it didn’t,” she said, opening the actual door to the small cramped confine. “Now be quiet. We have no idea hwee we are, and stealth is key so-”

 

Everyone in the reception looked at them as the loud door creaked in the large silent room.

 

-try not to get noticed.”

 

A flashlight blinded her, the steely gaze of a man in a security guard uniform following it. The man approached them carefully, his hand reaching around his waist as if to keep hold of something kept in the darkness. Otsune stumbled forwards and Sagara bumped into her.

 

Were you guys hiding in the closet,” the guard said and she noticed a familiar looking woman following carefully behind him. Behind her she make out the silohettes of a large nuber of people that she had a better view of moments ago before the flashlight was shined in her face. Everyone was looking their way in the darkness.

 

Come on,” the guard said. “We’re keeping everyone together in the reception until we can find some way out.”

 

You can’t get out?” Otsune was surprised. She would have thought leaving through a large front door was easy. It was obvious to see a power cut had happened, but it wasn’t completely dark outside yet. Was the building not allowed to have a large group of people congregate on the street?

 

No, that maniac’s locked all the doors somehow. Been around them all too. Windows are stronger thn I thought too. We tried smashing them open but stuff just bounces off them.” He shined his light over to the windows as if to point this out, the bright light bouncing on the woman’s face for a split second. Otsune knew her, but couldn’t place where. The woman was staring back at her looking jusst as confused. “If you kids can think of anything we can’t-”

 

Have you tried just waving to the people outside?” Otsune said, trying not to sound deadpan.

 

Well, that’s the oddest thing so far, apart from the voice of course. We can’t get the attention of anyone on the street either. They just walk past. You’d think ten people back on the windows would draw someon’s eye.

 

Guard guy wasn’t stupid it seemed, Otsune realised. He at least tried the logical things to do in a situation like thi, whatever this situation was. She felt like she had missed something important and this wasn’t sounding like your average blackout.

 

The guard walked away, quickly losing interest as someone else called him over to ask something. This was good. Landing in the reception, the very point of entry hey had been trying to avoid, but at least they were on the other side of the first barrier. Seemes that the guard had just accepted them as employees, or at least not something to worry about in such a situation.

\

It did mean taking the stairs, but they could get up a floor before they try to find anything else relating to the server room.

 

It’s you!” the woman shouted, drawing everyone’s attention. Otsune turned back to reaise the woman was pointing at her. “It’s her. She’s the one!”

 

Suddenly there was a loud mumbling of voices and the guard came rushing back, shining his flashlight right back at Otsune. Otsune clicked a second too late.

 

What is it? Who is she?”

 

She’s the one. The one that snuck in here ast month when Ms. Kimiharo fainted. You know, the one that hacked into the computer and set up the false appointment.”

 

Crap. She was right. This wasn’t the lady that had fainted. This was the one that had blindly let er in after she added an entry to the appointments diary during the other receptinists fainting spell. So the bitch that tried to kill her didn’t want her back.

 

She must be the one behind all this,” the woman insisted as the guard took a step forward.

 

Now that is a vast jump in reasoning-” Otsune started to argue, as the man grabbed her arm.

 

I think it’s going to be best if I take you upstair lady, and your friends.”

 

And I think it’s best if you back off!” Occam agreed and burned brightly, covering the air between her and the security guard The man stopped, but didn’t jump away.

 

Whoa,” e said, looking mildly dizzy. “It got hot in here.”

 

Lookig stunned, the man tried to take another step towards her to tighten his grip, causing Occam to jump out the way to prevent incineration as the man started to sweat on the spot. Bravery or stupidity, the generic guard couldn’t tke it and stumbled, allowing Otsune to wrench herself free from his failing grasp.

 

Up the stairs,” she said, turning to the others. “Go.”

 

Ushering them aslong, Otsune saw the door with the stair’s picture and hoped that it wasn’t a sign to indicate a tear in space.

 

This is Matsuda,” she heard the guard call out behind them as he wipedd out the sudden heatstroke and went to pursue them with staggered strides. “I’m found the people responsible at the reception. They’re heading up. Cut them-”

 

The door shut behind her as they raced for the stairs, taking them thre at a time with Fujiko in the lead and Sagara not seeming all that fussed behind her.

 

Where to-” Fujiko shouted, already panting at the marginally steeper than heavenly springs steps.

 

Third floor,” said Otsune randomly, not really caring where they stopped off. They had no idea of the layout of this place besides that office she went to the first time. They’ll need to find some form of wall map before they could really continue.

 

The dark narrow staircase made it difficult to keep stride with the slow paced Fujiko, who was quickly exhausting herself as she tried to contue. It wasn’t long before she got the top and fell into the next door. They banging beneath them still indicating they were being pursued.

 

This is the second floor,” Sagara pointed out full of energy as the door shut behind Otsune.

 

Fuck you…” Fujiko wheezed. “Not… a ninja.”

 

Keep it down,” Otsune whispered, trying to keep her breath steady. “That might fool him if he heard me. But let’s keep going.. Pushing themselves down the corridor, they were faced with a long passageway with few oor and many internal windows. Most of the rooms were too dark to see through, but the tall glass windows appeared to peer into some kind of laboratry area. Otsune had hoped they might have lucked out and found the server room instantly, but of course that wasn’t going to happen.

 

Hearing something behind her, she chose a door and went for it. “In here,” she shout-whispered. The others quickly turned and fell into the room with her, sealing the door shut behind her, Occam coming in last and filling the room with light. Leaning against the dor she tried to listen. She couldn’t hear anything. IT was possibe she hd just imagined the noise but-

 

Ah!” another voice cried out in alarm. All three turned, to see a young woman, though probably older than herself standing there, arms raised with uncertainty. And peering round as if trying to find them “Who’s there? What’s going on?”

 

Can you see us?” Fujiko asked, looking more confused at the woman’s look of fear than her questions.

 

No. She can’t,” said Otsune realising what was going on. They had Occam to guide the way. Those who hadn’t seen Occam in the InBetween realm hadn’t.

 

No I can just make you out,” the woman said. “D-did you come from downstairs?”

 

Yeah, but we-”

 

That guy’s coming back,” said Sagara looking back through the door as his face suddenly lit up. “And he’s seen me.”

 

Ah dammit. We gotta hide,” said Fujiko.

 

Otsune agreed. Not able to hear anything, Otsune found herself taking Sagara at her wrd and looking around. Most ikely he couldn’t see Occam either, explaining his daredevil lep into the flames eariler. But he still had a flashlight. The dark room would be useless. It was probably eaiser just to get Sagara to knock him out and they could be on their way, but she was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.

 

Quick, hide in the lockers,” the woman said suddenly, pulling Otsune as she indicated the large boxes on the far side of the room. Miracuously she failed to fall into any of the scattered tabes in what Otsune now recognised to be a lab..

 

Withoutquestions, and even less options, the three of them hustled into the cramp confines of the locker, Otsune getting paired up with Fujiko despite their being a number of lockers and Sagara getting his wn separate one. The possible scientists helped crammed them in as Otsune kept an eye on the door behind her.

 

Why are you helping us?” she asked in a whisper that hoped the answer wasn’t too long.

 

Just be quiet,” the woman replied, trying to shut the door on them

 

What are you doing? Open up in there?” The man banged the doorand Otsune realised that Sagara musted have locked it behind him. Good. That probably meant they didn’t need the lockers.

 

Jut a second.”

 

The door shut in front of them, leaving them in sudden darkness as the locker clicked shut behind them , Occam left outside as the world went silent around them. Fujiko’s breathing became insanely loud in the small room, and she resisted the urge to shush her friend, knowing she was proaby hearing the same thing.

 

She saw from the small gaps in the lockers the scientist walking up to the door nd opening it carefully.The man on the other side forced the door all the open open and looked through the oher side. Natoko nearly jumped, but tried to keep calm. There were lots of lockers in here, and little reason to check every one.

 

Outside the locker, she heard the scientist open the door.

 

Is there anyone else in here with you?” the guard rom downstairs barked as he pushed his way in.

 

Yes, three intruders. I locked them in the lockers on there, master.”

 

Otsune’s head bashed against the door, knowing she was confirming the woman’s words and just plain not caring. That was certainly a woman with some initiative. Otsune relised she had apparently fogotten they were intruders at some point and not simply being chased by manevolent forces.

 

Really?” the man replied. “Wow. Good work.”

 

The woman giggled in what sounded like a nervous manner that didn’t really fit a scientist. ”Thanks sir.” Otsune decided she hated her.

 

No need to call me sir. Name’s Tanaka.” Otsune decded she hated the whole damn world. “How’d you know to do this?”

 

Oh I got one of the radios. Heard what’s happening downstairs. You’re really keeping everyone together down there.”

 

Thanks. You hould join us We migt need a smart little head like yours.”

 

The girl giggled again as Otsune weighed up thepros and cons of nuking the entire building in a heartbeat. This leach blond airhead was a scientist, while she toiled at home on the internet?

 

Do you need the code?” the woman continued. “I don’t know if we should let them out.”

 

No… I guess we shouldn’t,” the guard mused. “We’ll leave them. Fetch them when this is done. I’m sure the power team will fix this up.”

 

Wht is going on?” the woman asked. “I herd reports that the guy making the announcements is serious about killing people.”

 

t’s some dumb uni kid that’s hacked the system is what it is. Matsuda says he’s probably not in the building. Doing it all remotely.”

 

Whoa. Amazing what you can do with computers nowadays.”

 

That wasn’t amazing, you moron! You work in a lab and you’re not keeping to date with current technological trends. You’re not fit to wear a lab coat loose nd sexy like that.

 

Well we’re still not-”

 

The gurd’s voice left her earshot like the power had been cut on some seakers, the zipping sound sounding like the man’s voice going higher. With the area around them suddenly silent. Otsune felt Fujiko;s presence cramped below her. This was bad. Occam seemed to instinctively not hurt her, but with Fujiko between er and the lock having the flame burned them open without hurting Fujiko was unlikely.

 

The room was dead silent, which seemed a bit quick to cut off id conversation. Had they left, it sounded they were right by the lockers. Another bang was heard, followed by the sound of a locker door being pulled open. Not just pulled but wrenched ad torn. Otsune leaned forward to get a better listen but then had to catch her balace as the locker shut around her. Something was happening to the locker to the right of them and she had to steady herself on Fujiko so as not to fall into her

 

She saw as the metal of the door before her gained an imprint that pushed towards them, the sheet metal breking apart like someone punching through polystrene, before pullng back and taking the locker door with it.

 

The room flooded with light at Occam’s reappearance revealing the shadow of a man before her site. Glaring up she saw the tall bulky man looking down on her. Unfamiliar he lowered a hand down to her and she found herself drawn to take it. The man lifted her out of the locker, the other hand taking Fujiko and escorting them carefully through the wrecked metal he had left on the floor.

 

Standing besides his, Otsune felt his height before her and craned her neck to glance at his face. The black headscraf covered the vital spots of his face, and a hoodie took up everything else. Large and bulky, he would tower over Sagaa and Natoko easily and lookd away to go for the third locker, tearing it open without a strain again and tossing the unhinged mess of scrap to the floor behind him, causing Otsune to take a quick glance around and see no sign of thir trappers.

 

Having freed everyone, and noticably making no effort to check any more doors, the man tepped back to make the four of them a cirtcle?? Everyone watched him carefully and she realised that everyone was execting for him to say what to do next. It ade sense to follow him in this situation.

 

Hi i’m sagara,” said Sagara. “Who are you?”

 

The man observed the boy before him, taking his meager height in for three seconds before turning to herself and nodding as in in approval for the smarter party member of the three who had jut wandered into their caes five seconds ago.

 

I’m Mr Io. I’m here to set you free.”

 

**

 

scene

 

**

 

The newcomer wandered out of th room and for some reason all three of them followed him. Otsune couldn’t see where the gurd or scientist lady had got to. They didn’t sound like they had lef the roomand this guy wasn’t the height of the two of them combined wearing a largetrenchcoiat. He was still tall though.

 

He stopped in the corridor. Beehind the face scarf, Otsune could make out japanese eyes but not much else. His accent was strong a moment, but she couldn’t place it. The trenchcoat looked padded, either that or he was a bdybuilder.

 

The IT departemt is one floor above,” he explained, pointing up. “That is where that man is controlling everything. However,,” he pointed down, “the server complex itself is on the underground levels. If we’re unable to regain control of the building from upstairs, we’ll need to head downstairs to reset the main server switch and give us entry to the systems back. I suggest-”

 

Sagra, please pin him against the wall.”

 

Okay.” Shooting forwards, the ninja did as e was told at full strength, pulling the massive man into the air and send him crashing into the wall on the other side of the room as he stepped onto a conviniently placed chair. The nwcomer, legs now wiggling in the air thanks to sagara’s extra height, gasped for air.

 

Take his headscarf off,” Otsune asked again.

 

Whiile keeping him pinned?”

 

Whilst keeping him pinned.” Having to cross his arms over, Sagara grasped the red scraf as the so caled Io struggled. A second later, and his face was revealed. She could tell the man, only a teenager from what she could tell was definitely japanese, but it wasn’t somebody she recognised.

 

She stepped up to him as his oxyen intake was limited by Sagara’s gauntlet.

 

We’re going to make this simple,” she explained, trying o ingore Fujiko’s confusion at what started to happen. “Sand if you try to make it complicated, the little ball of flame will burn you.” Occam hovered eagerly near the man’s face, all too ready to make the man swat.

 

First, let me establish who you are not. You are not just a simple member of staff here or someone who does not know about the nBetween realm. The reason for this is thatyou can see Occam. Also, in your few words, you immediately know that we are people who know that we need to get to the server room. Now i’m tired of the confusing crap and wish to prevent another mystery from attempting to get under us, so i’m going to ask you what your intentions are. What are your intention?”

 

The man gasped for air a bit too fiercely.

 

Sagara, stop choking him.” Sagara dropped the man to the ground.

 

First,,” the boy said, getting his air beack as he did. “My handle is Io. I’m sorry but I can’t give you any more than that yet. Second, I know that this is Sagara Futbatei, her to the position of Enforcer within the Balance. I dn’t know who you are though.”

 

Very good. Continue.”

 

I work in the building. I handle the demon containment facility in the underground complex. Nanahara’s madness has disengaged the saefty locks down there. I escaped before the demons started to pick up on what was going on to fix the problem. I assumed you were here for the same reasons.”

 

Demons,” wondered Otsune aloud. “That’s annoying.” None of that explinaed for a second why he le them out of the lockers or how he knew they were in there, but she supposed it didn’t matter for the present momen.

 

We’re splitting up,” she announced. “Fujiko, take Sagara and go to the third level. Find wha you can with the servers. Mainl, stop whatever’s happening in the building.” It wasn’t her concerned, but it was a bit of an obstacle. “And get the dolls at Heavenly Springs sorted. “I’ll tke this guy and head back downstairs to the server core itself.”

 

That sunds like a hastily put together with plenty of holes,” said Fujiko.

 

That’s because it is,” agreed Otsune. “But we’re intruder here, and the onger we say in the area at all increases the chances of us not getting down what needs to be done.”

 

But, why are you going own with him?

 

Becase we need to check out two places and because his guy is obviously hiding something and someone needs to watch him. IF we give the job to Sagara he’ll screw it up, and someone needs to watch your back. Sagara can do that, and I have enough confidence in you that you’ll be able to get around here without screwing things up, and maybe even get to the server room and switch things off. You are better at computers than me after all.”

 

No,” Io said, getting up, “I need to reactivte the emon containment area.” Occam intensifed by a few tens of degrees and the man baked off.

 

Irrelevant,” replied Otsne. “Fujiko can do this for you when she gets up there, “and I need you to show me around the server core downstairs if she can’t. Besides, if she can’t do it, we’ll need to go back to your plan of resetting the server, right?”

 

The man slumped down, appearing to agree in his silence.

 

Right, Sagara.”

 

Protect fujiko with our ife.”

 

I can’t do that,” he replied.

 

Why?”

 

If I am to face Mr Jupiter, I need to make sure I avoid him to the fullest extent of my being, even to using othersas sacficial pawns. These are my orders.”

 

Otsune hadn’t heard that combination of gibberish used against her before, but there wasn’t time. “Fine, can you protect her with your ife against everything except Mr Jupiter.”

 

Yes, though the OniKage might have issues with it.”

 

Whatever. Let’s go.”

 

**

 

Catapuling herself down the stairs in blocks of three, Natoko rushed ahead of the evil water spirit following her. It wasn’t fast enough, but flash jumping down flights of ten steps at a tim was not something she had judged for in her training, nor was slamming into concrete walls at a hundred miles per hour.

 

The OniSui was staying behind her no matter what her speed. Even when she had slowed down for a flight or two it just hovered there behind her, it would have appeared motionless if sh didn’t know it was behind her rght now, and that was while doing her best to ignore the sloshing sounds in her ears as it tumbled after her like a bowl half filled with water.

 

The pace exhustaed her strength. Going down stone steps like this wasn’t easy on the thigh. The stairs of Heavenly Springs was an obstacle she had long since overcome, but the seventy flights she travelled down nowwere beginning to dry her throat and sweat her palms. Keeping Iziz steady as she clattered downwards didn’t help.

 

As she hit floor thrty, she allowed herself to fall into the wall, more to check if the spirit was still there than anything else. The OniSui, or Naomi as she recalled Ms Sakimoto call it, was unfortunately still there IT hovered to face her and waited without a word. Panting heavily, she knew she was scowling at it and didn’t care.

 

aren’t you…” she started, but wheezing to catch her breath, “-even going to say anything to me.”

 

The OniSui’s face turned to face hers fully, appearing to regard her for a moment. Natoko couldn’t tell if the spirit had its eyes on her, the curves of water that looked like they should be eyes had no pupils. Its mouth opened only the once to speak, words drifting out as it remained open without fapping.

 

Would the words I say do anything to change your opinion to me after my actions the first time we mey?” The voice was calm, yet cautious. Natoko couldn’t discern any feeling from the creature’s face.

 

So you were the one.” She couldn’t be sure at first. She had only the words of others to tell her what happened that day. All her other memories were filled with rage and halluncinations. She remembered her thoughts of Sagara that day, groping the others in plain ight while they laughed, seeing him abuse and mock them as he took every advantage, doing the obscene things that she now knew Sagara was mentally incapable of doing. The fact she had been possessed by this water demon hadn’t been an issue at the time.

 

You’re uncertain,” the OniSui asked She looked away, gazing towwards the next flight of stairs. “No… Of course you would be. That makes sense. Sorry. I never exactly have time to question those I possess afterwards.”

 

You violated me!” Natoko shouted a pitch hgher than she meant to, but ot regrettng it. “You took control of my body and you-”

 

You did allow me in.”

 

I did not!” crid Natoko. “Why would I dare let anything inside me like you. I am my own person and I will not-”

 

Oh please be quiet,” the creature interupted. “You are doing yourself an injustice.” Natoko’s teeth clenched, looking at the creature’s back and bringing her hand up to Iziz. Was this not just a demon like the others, no matter how you sugarcoat it. This was a creature that used people like a demon would. If it went missing, it wouldn’t matter.

 

You had to have let me in because I wouldn’t have got in otherwise. Unfortunately I can’t tell you what your reason was but I don’t get to hear your thoughts when i’m inside you. All I know is that I felt rage within you, the same rage I felt when I left your body and the same rage i’m feeling from you now.”

 

Natoko stopped, taking her hand off her hilt. The OniSui looked back round , its face just appearing where the back of its head was a second ago. I don’t know what t is that makes you angry young woman, but it was strong enough to effect even myself.

 

Even yourself?” Natoko qustions. “You act like a saint, even after you went inside me like that?”

 

You cannot hope to understand my actions-”

 

And I don’t want to either!”

 

Te door behind them burst open, a man falling out holding her shoulderas the door gave way before him. He took one look at the two of them, breathing heavily in his suit jacket and tie, before he body contorted before them, ripping itself apart, a maelstrom of crimson tide covering the stairwell.

 

The man’s glasses landing besides her feet, Natoko felt her body shaking beneath her as she stepped back secnds too late to get out of the way of the sudden bloodbath. Her stomach convuled, and she tightened her throat out of reflex as the demon pulled itself through the small doorway.

 

You little bastard,” the red glowing monter roared, its fangs emerging out of its large tigetr shaped face. “You dare get your blood on me. “I’m going to eat you so hard, your unboorn children will feel it.”

 

The demon stomped halfway into the stairwell, one large hoofed foot crushing the man’s body underneath into sludge. Natoko stared down a the glsses, the only physical piece of the man left. The demon looked down, fangs retracting into its mouth as it hissed, its drool falling onto the floor in a green pool and burning through the stone floor.

 

Oh look, more humans,” it groaned loudly. “Well, one at least. I don’t know what the others are. I’m guessing you’re spirits.”

 

The creature fell silent, and Natoko quickly realised it was expecting an answer.

 

You guess correctly, demon,” the OniSui responded. “I am known as Naomi, and this is my erstwhile ally, Natoko. We are merely in passing here. May I ask who you are?”

 

Ha!” the demon laughed, the exhalation of airtr being enough to push Natoko’s foot back to the next step up. “Respect. That’s what I like to see, or is it cowardice?” He examined them both carefully, his red eyes glowing from red to yellow as he did so. “Is that it? Are you being cowards? Hoping that your efforts at politeness will save you?”

 

Natoko brought her hand up to Izz, not entrely sure if she could attack the fireball that was probably going to come out of its mouth. But Naomi raised her hand to stop her.

 

I assure you that is not the case demon. I am just both curious and courteous to a creature of such stature.”

 

Well, that’s probably a lie of an answer, but it deserves an answer noetheless. I am Trombone, once a proud ruler of the flats of Axbridge. Now… I appear to be a prisoner of this door!”

 

Oh my, are you stuck!”

 

I am not obese!” the demon yelled. “It is this barrier. We were led to believe tye security protocols were to be turned off once the seige began, but, it seems that the natural defences of the InBetween realm still prevent me from escaping.”

 

The InBetween realm?” Natoko said, realising for the first time that the door was made of that standard brown mahogony that seems to indicate any door that led to the InBetween realm.

 

I see,” Naomi replied. “Yuya had informed me that one of the floors to this building was secretly just a passage to another level of the InBetween realm. It makes sense that it should be a containment unit at the same time.”

 

How should I know?” the demon replied. He started to struggle against the hole of the door, apparently stuck in nothing “Look, let me fill you in on a little secret. The plan was for us all to charge into here when the security system got turned off and cause ruckus, but it kind of got caught a little short when I… what’s a good word for geocdining a bunch of demons.”

 

Kill?” Natoko suggested.

 

It’ll do,” replied the demon. “Anyway, after I genocided all the demons in there, well this guy made a mess of my hoof came in, I guess to hide or check the floors or something. Anyway, I killed him, and now you two are next.”

 

No one said anything. The demon snotrted with rapture.

 

Well, I guess there wasn’t that much to tell. Anyway-”

 

Ctting the creatures head off, Natoko crashed into the corner of the wall, ricocheting like a pinball off the two sides, she landed hard on her back and felt her skull hit the wall. The demon stared at her wordsless through the one eye, as gravity took over and droped it to the floor, crushing the glasses and rolling uselessly to the side.

 

So there are deomons also loose here,” said the OniSui, as if that hadn’t just happene. “This does not bode well for building security.”

 

Well,” Natoko added, getting up slowly and trying not to slip in all the gore that wasn’t here less than two minutes ago. “He did just say he had killed them all himself.”

 

This is true,” the OniSui mused, “But it also said it knew of the attack that was taking plac on the building, meaning it was informed and I suspect it wasn’t the server admiistraotr.”

 

Why not,” Natoko said, looking up to the silent speaker. “He does seem mad.”

 

No, he was only angry. I spoke to him many times before and while Yuya did entrust the secret of the Balance to him, he did not show signs of colludig with demons. I fear something is even more wrong here than it currently is.”

 

Well, Ms Sakimtoo wants us to kill him, so let’s go do that.” Natoko knew she was saying this more to annoy the spirit than actual bloodlust, but the forlone look the spirit showed stopped her on the next step.

 

Let us hope it does not come to that,” Naomi sid, floating through her and down the stairs. Natoko followed.

 

**

 

t all comes down to this folks,” Nanahara screamed through the microphone, still loving the way his 8bit avtar mobved its mouth and eyebrows based on his words. He rombled his throat just to watch the eyes wiggle. “Whilst most of you have no clue what’s going on here, those who are qualified to pay attention will come to realise this is one of the more powerful pieces of work to come out this centruy. A hostage situation that is not a hostage situation, boy an girls. Can you truly comprehend the greatness of this. To put blutly, you are held prisoner and must be rescued by our distaff heroes. However, your problem is that the heroes care nothing for you. Their motives are their own, their intentions delusional. They fight for things that no one will care about whether or not they even continued to exist… and you suffer for it.” He took a breath. Was he babbling? It was possible he was babbling. It didn’t really matter.

 

Prepare, ladies and gentleman to suffer my our disformed wrath for no reasn, other than I wanted to have sex with a beautiful american woman that exists only in my mind. Crazy? You mutter with fear. Yes. Yes it is.”

 

Be quiet, rochelle,” he said, placing the microphone down and daring not to loko around at the lust of his life. “You are the one that rbought us into this mess. If you weren’t such a bimbo I would have never created you as a figment of my imagination alongside a bunch of other adolescent fantasies. And now other people have to die for your actions.” He observed the contorl monitors, switching between floors. Most of the saff members for the departemtns designed fto fil space and provide function have congregated on the lower levels. Others had huddled up into smaller groups on some of the higher floors, the HR team looking like they hadn’t even noticed the ruckus as they got on with work. One man slept soundly in the toilet, possibly obivious.

 

Nanahara had promised one death every so often, but why should he expend the energy to kill someone. That is why he had let some of the demons loose. Rochelle may have suggested it before he could do it, but it was still his idea. Not all of them though, that would have been foolish. He had made extra sure that the particularly powerful demon spirit was kept secure, knowing full well it cold incinerate all of the building if need be. Still, Rochelle didn’t need to know that. She was just a bimbbo after all.

 

Wiping the drool as he watched the monitors, Naomi and that samurai chick that hung out with the annoying prince were descending stairs. The samurai girl was covered in a lot of blood for some reason. A quick check showed why, but Nanahara couldn’t understand how she got that much blood to come out of a person. Switcvhing, he ssaw the CEO banging on a door in the secret assage she thought he didn’t know about. She wasn’t getting in there anytime soon. Another erson either asleep or just lying there at the bottom of the building, and the prince himself, banging on the door of the server room with th Gauntlet of Draynor.

 

He looked up to his won door and saw the boy’s effor, smirking as he knew full well he wasn’t getting anywhere anytime soon. The plain looking girl was with him.

 

Nanahara switched to his camera girl. She was roamed the corridor with some huge super hero guy he didn’t recognise, probably a ninja. He had aken her to one of the secret passages that led to the underground levels, which meant they were probably heading for the server core. “Shit.” Rebooting the server could cut off his access, leaving him just a fool in a room full of useless moniors and sluts. He needed to stop them. The ig demons was dwn there, but that wasn’t a good idea. But then there was only the server defences and they had been damaged the last time the prince wandered down there by sheer retarded luck.

 

He sighed and switched on all the remaining ones. Anything was better than letting that demon free. Even going quite crazy like he was, Nanahara knew that.

 

***

 

The spiral staricase was kciking off alarm bells in Otsun’s mind, something about a large concrete pillar at least ten storeys high and possibly around ninety would do that. Add it to its location at one of the corners of the building and that so far the only point of entry on and off of it had been the second floor, the floor she was conviniently hanging around with at the time her companion had led her to it, and the equation felt very unbaanced to say the least.

 

Tehe staircase was made out of studded plate metal, the banister was railed with a bronze finish. The door into the long shaft that held the staircaesewas a venetian blind the size of a doorframe in an area that was made the Chemical Redevelopment section. Otsune was getting that headache again

 

Descending the staircase at a rapid yet steady rate, Otsun observed the wals. The walls themselves were simple concrete as far as she could tell, the same contruction as ther long cylinder th spiral staircase had wrapped itself around. Ther more defning feature was its coating of multicolouredcables that flowed down the walls an ito the abyss below. She colld only theorise this was the main electrocial shaft for the entre building, but that ddn’t make complete sense from her perspective. None of the wires ever seemed to cut off for each of the invidiual floors, and there were no boxes or relay points to boost the electricity in any manner. Judging on the size of the building, the cables would have to be several hundred meters long each, at east if they continued all the way to the top like this.

 

Te conversation with her new ally was absent and, as they reached the bottom of the tower, he merely mtioned her to follow him through one of the doors and offered no explnaation of where they were ago. Otsune still had np idea if they could trust him yet. His instant trust of an apparent stranger was untrustowrthy in itsef, not to mention the lies right from the start. It wasn’t like she could boil him in his own blood at a moments notice, but at least this way she had a meat shield on demand.

 

This way,” he grunted, steping through the door after cautiously looking round. For a second, Otsune had an odd feeling he had simply guessed whether to go left or right but as she entered the corridor at the bottom of the stairs, she found her concerns disappearing.

 

Holy…” she muttered by mistake as the lights flashed before her, a hundred plus LEDs lighting up the room around herTechnological wuldn’t have covered it. The wall were something out of over the top sci fi shows. Each wall was an assortmnt of lights, dials, screens and vaarious other panels pulsating different colours as they started to walk past them.. The room was alive with beeps and boops that had her both intensely curious to press stuff just to see what happened and immently fearful that the wrong press could just plain blow something up. She kept her hands to herself.

 

Well, this is definitely the server complex,” she remarked, having no choice but to come to that conclusion. Logic dicateted that server rooms had for years been nothing bt rooms at the back of what was once a storage closet and wouldn’t have required corridors for this unless they were giant research stations as opposed to inner city business ventures. But with this much tech built into the walls her knowledge seemed drastically limited all of a sudden.

 

I had no idea it was this big myself,” Io replied and she realised she was gazing in wonder himself.

 

You never been down here before?”

 

Never had a need to.” His hand hovered to press a button as he ppassed it but avoided doing so ecause she could suggest it was perhaps best not to. “Mine was the demon containment facility. The server core was just a rumur I had heard about.”

 

So you don’t know your way around?” He was hiding something. His comments didn’t take into account that he knew exactly where the entrance was to this corridor, an entrance which only had two exits.

 

Afraid not.”

 

Bah. Then you’re useless to me.” She started looking around.Otsune had to admit, she had no idea what any of this stuff did. Nothing down here was familiar with any electronic architecture she was aware of. Perhaps Fujiko should have come down here instead of her.

 

The corridors only other exit ended on them as the room opened up around them. The echoes of ther footsteps shot across space, te room appearing to be at least as big as a football stadium. Trying to keep her senses about her Otsune tried to emntally map the location of the room in comparison to the bulding and came up dry. It was simply massive, containing the same electronic panelling that the corridor had and continuing it high up to the top of the room and all over the floors in the form of what looked like bus circuits..

 

For its immense size, the room was mostly empty. Several layers of fenecing existed in the midle, roghly two meters tall and probably electricval. The fence seemed to form a maze to the centre, where another large pillar stood, thi one again made of the same metal panelling that everything else was covred with

 

From thei position Otsune realised they were essentially on the top aof a gradual slope that led down to the bottom where the pillar was. From her position she could see an open door, leading into somewhere a little too ark to see.

 

Regardless of what it was, Otsune knew it to be her destination.

 

There,” Io unecessarily pointed out. “If we can reach the centre, the server reset switches should be inside.”

 

Yeah,” replied Otsune, not really listening. The maz didn’t look too complexIt was a ??style maze layout that didn’t even look like it was that many dead ends built into it. With time a dn a bit of rational thinking, they should be through it in no time. Its only real difficulty from her cursoty glance was once inside the ability to see through to the other layers that the chain linked nature of the fences gave them may mean that the depth peerception of how far through it may plan tricks with their mind.

 

Walking down to it, they were greete with the sight of a floating orb coming towards them at a very slow pace. A perfectly spherical surface, the orb hovered slowly without any obvious assistance as if it were simply defying gravity because it wanted to.

 

What do you suppose these are,” I asked aloud, raising his hand and touching the orbs sleek surface, the resulting detonation engulfing him in a cloud of flame that obliterated him from view even as Occam explanded several times in size to block the explosion’s path from reaching her.

 

Otsune fell back into the resulting shockwave, remiding herself again of her stupid wrist ijuy and scabbling to get up. The maze clearly wasn’t the most logical option now. In fact, it wwas immedately clear only one option remained. With Io simply gone in the ashen dust wake of th exploding orb, and more orbs also with the statisically siginificant potential rate of explosion, Otsune knew the next words on her lips were both the smartest and stupsiest thing sh could say.

 

Occam, blaz a path, straight ahead.” The flame roared to life, keeping its siz and ploughbing forward straight into the steel fence and reducisng it to slag the instant before it reached. Otsune trailed behind, taking a few steps back aftr the first mini explosion.

 

The little explosions continued in rapid effect as she ground to a halt and decided to take her time. She couldn’t tell how many explosions there could be as Occam wrecked the maze. With ten layers of maze, it wouldn’t be many, but she also couldnt etermine the range of the explosons or iff Occam could simply absorb them all. Hanging back, she opted not to risk it

 

Occam returned to her a mere ten secnds later, its task complete and its dismeanour that aof a positive school child. Otsune observed the new tunnel of holes her flame spirit had created, the wared shape of some of the holes indicating collusions with sudden orbs, and nodded at him for a job well done.

 

Taking a moment to stretch and cutting it short when she rrealieed more orbs might be on their way, Otsune pushed herself into a three quarter sprint as she took off down the self made alleyway Metal ooze that was once fence gave her some obstacle, as did an orb slowly floating into view as she dodged past it on the sixth layer. When she got to the other side, she felt a strong feeling of inappropiate guilt flow over her.

 

I cheated,” she mumbled, heading for the door. As the scroched black oor began t take her attetnion she nticed anotherhole in the fence to her eft, mangled fences and scroched floors seemed to indicate someone else had been here recently. The outer destruction of the door in the room’s centre also looked like someon had blown it open. That didn’t make sense. The damage looked old, but unattended to. An area like this would have to be constantly maintained. She debated the idea of checking the rest of the large room first before entering te small one, when a buzz took her ear.

 

You are close now. Please retrieve.”

 

Oh now it was spoeakng to her. Clearly it abandoned her when the situation suited itself, but now she was right on its doorstep, then she was important. Otsune stopped by the door.

 

Just what was she retreiving here? An AI? Now that she got a look at this server core the size of the room, the impossibility of the task weighed upon her. If this was truly the main server she was attempting to reach, for an installation this big it surely wasn’t going to be just some some carry on luggage box that she could just take. Otsune knew that her own intention was simply to switch the dolls off. Se could do that surely by pushing a few buttons on this side.

 

And taking the server core out of this place seemed… dangerous. It apparently controlled most of the building, not to ention those demon containment ells. Whilst she didn’t exactly like all this Balanc stuff, it couldn’t be denied that if they said they were holding demons in capativity here, then they most likely were.

 

This is stupid,” she muttered, leanng against the wall with the open door right besides her, unable to bring herself to look in just yet, knowing how distracted she was going to get. This is what she had been looking for. A box that contained all the answers. Think of he information she could receive from this place once she got in. Just the smallest part would be valuable beyond compare and answer all er questions better than a beatiful angel and an idiot boy ever could.

 

And the value o the scientific community. Sh slid down the wall to sit down. All this infomration about demons and angels and other worlds access throgh doors. Wole new avenues of study that could be used to improve mankind in ways never imagined. It would be amazing.

 

They would finally let her in.

 

Do it right. Don’t jump the gun. Write her research paper and present it to the right people, and she could finally be a scientist. A proper one. Not just someone who spends al day at home reading other people’ss jurnals and unable to contribute anything of her own. She wouldn’t need to jump through the hoops that got in the way. She’d be pioneering whole new divisions of science.

 

And all she had to do was walk through the door.

Why am I hesitating?” she shouted out, never full well why. Her knees were shaking, her palms felt sweaty. Sh knew it was stupid. Acheiveing greatness shouldn’t be the main goal. It should be the by product.And now she just needed to get over herself. Make that first step. Steal the information and make it pulic knowledge. She could go from there. It wasn’t the most glorius of starts but she’d still earn it. Even Edison stole his first inventions. Even the Wright brothers took their ideas from some guy who did all the real work. Even the guy from the South pole got there second and still got announced first place in the long run.

 

An they were fools for not making it public knowledge in the first place. People deserved to know about this spiritual rap, so it could stop being called spiritual crap. It was clearly all beyond good and evil now. It could become observed phenomena nd brought into the light where ohers could see it, scruntised it, test it, repliacte it, peer review it.

 

And lke Nixon with China, and ???japanese one, surely she, an athiest, was the best one to bring it into the limelight and bring about th scial change needed to get humnaity out of its funk. Yes. She would be a revolutionary. A hero even, not over reachig the ranks of Marie Curie and ??see xkcd comic??but Joan D’arc and ???three kingdoms eople.

 

Her fingers digging into ther thoighs,Otsune allowed herself to just sit there. She felt hot. Her brain was foggy. Why was she stressing out now. The situation must be getting to her. May be she should leave for a bit. Come back when she had calmed down. Allowed herself some breathing room. Wouldn’t that be better? She needed clarity if she was going todo this. She was in good shape physically but if she let her brain slip now it could cost her her life

 

No. That wasn’t right. Otsune recognised the feelings of hesitation, knew them for the distractions she had suffered many times before. Her own stupid iner demons that plagued her path. And if she could identify them, she could overcome them.

 

She clutched her sleeves tigheter, bringing her head deeper into ther body. Otsune knew how apthetic she must have looked right now, a silly little girl trying to look smart. Her throat growled on reflex and she let it out as a blood curdling scream into the large empty room, the orb bouncing against her forehead as she lifted her yes up.

 

Oh shi-” The obs went tpo white as Otsune stopped looking at it, kicking her legs up and diving through the door with all her speed as the lrge crash reverbrated through her eardrum, the impact knocking her forward and through the hole.

 

It took her a second to realise the room within the room was empty save for a staircase on the otherside and what appeared to be another door. In the instant she had to take this in, the hole swalowed her, the flames millseconds behind her as

Occam did his thing.

 

Darkness lit u by red LEDs surrounded her as she plummeted through it, her mind now wide awake and racing as everything shot by her. Her rate of spee was roughly ???. Her body weight alone was enough to assure her death after ?? feet and being unable to turn her head she was probably past that now. “Occam!” she screamed, clueless as to what the flame could do. Another twenty meters, and her death was assured regardless of what she hit. The flame shot ahead of her, lighting her doom. The wobbly ground was coming to greet her, her eyes wide open and refusing to look away.

 

Theworld hissed around her and something slammed innto her body. Hard but a lot lgihter than it should have been. Wet yet air, her body yanked itself upwards for what could have only been an instant, the boiling hot steam soaking her skin, fllowed by a splash.

 

Arms flailing, Otsune searched for anything she could go with before she started cpoughign lungfuls of water. Feeling a floor beneath her tiptoes, she kicked it, she opens eeling themselves open again to search for light and seeing only the red LEDs. Up and down confused themselves for a minute, the lack of oxygn in her body disorientating. The force carried her and she felt her nose reach the surface.. Gasping for air, she hit the surface with her hands as hard as she could, eeling the ripples followed by bubbles. With the steam not helping so much now she struggled the get her bbreah back as she splutteredout trinkles of liquid and struggled in the darkness for some kid of hand hold. Her hand latched onto something and held her there.

 

Otsune spent the next few minutes just floating, carefully collecting her air supply in the hum of the red lights. Her mind blank with agony and body limp with exhaustion. For a momnt she was safe. Te light at the top of the shaft helping to regain her focus. Spitting, she felt the dsgusting taste of the water fillig her stomach and she allowed her throat to hack away furiously in an attempt to get it all out.

 

Her mind worked away at what jump happened. The shaft was at least ne hundred meters long, but was only about four meters squared. It was that narrowness that had saved her, as well as the inexplicable pool of water at the dden. Its sudden rise of temperature boilig it to steam and with only one directio to travel was able to hit with with sch contained force to slow her desent right before she must have reached terminal velocity. Otsun knew she should have been glad. Not only for her flame spirit, of whom without she could have never boiled that much water that quickly, but also hr mind, for being abl to figure out and execute such a plan in just an instant iunder such stress, with a side helping of being glad she watched that documentry on the elevator effect.

 

But Otsune wasn’t glad. The room was dark, with only the red humming LEDs to light her way.

 

***

 

After what must have been fifty extra flights sneaked in there while she wasn’t looking, Natoko reached the door to the third floor. Stopping gainst the wall, she caught her breath back, making a point to use controlled breathing as best she could.

 

Our destination lies ahead, Ms Yamanaka,” said the OniSui, who floated there without a hnt of sweat despite the five gallons of water she was made from.

 

Yeah,” Natoko panted, looking at the simple stairway entrance. Neither this one nor any of the others since had been made from mahogony. At least that meant no actual demons would be showing up. She took another gulp and grabbed the door handle.

 

The room on the other side was big, but filled with desks. To either side of her was a maze of office divders and photocopiers, A watercooler was to her left. She took her time and got a quick drink, observing the room ahead of her.

 

There was no one here. Fr all its contents, the room was simple, dull, well maintanced and boring. She viewed no reason to be here.

 

This way,” the OniSui said, taking the lead this time.

 

Necking the drink, Natoko placed the cup on the first desk she came across.. There were, at roh guess, a hundred desks here, but no people. “Everyone must have left when the shouting occurred..”

 

Entirely possible,” the OniSui replied, moving slowly. “Though a littl odd. It would also be a possible assumption that they would have attempted to enter the server room when the shouting started. It is most peculiar that there aren’t some stragglers.”

 

Did anyone here other than this guy know about the Balance?”

 

They did not.” The OniSui stopped at the end of the room, and hovered up to look over the higher divders. Apparentoly deciding it was clear, she moved on. “In fact, around ninety eight of those employed at Sakimoto Indstries only run its dummy interest ventures. From what Yuya has told me, most are only here to maintain cover without realising that the work they do holds no merit to no one.”

 

Natoko looked over to the endless bank of desk on her left and right. “The work they do is meangingless?”

 

Correct,” replied the OniSui. “From how Yuya has put it, most of the start compile data from on form into another, or run statistics gained from random number generators. Those who believe themselves to be in higher ositions run marketting campaigns that promote no new prodcut and though the managers actually have a job in managing the workflow of the offices, it is just as meaningless because those they manage aren’t actually doing anything.”

 

T-that’s terrible,” Natoko stammered, an urge to warn the non present workers of their unknown plight.

 

Is it??” the OniSui questioned. “I do not understand myself. I was only aware of these concepts about a month ago, but Yuya has explained it to me in great detail since I entered her employ. I believe she said that everywhere around the wrld was like this nowadays.”

 

Well yeah. I guess everything is a business nowadays, but they often do the work for a reason.”

 

This is a reason. They are maintaining the image of the Balance’s dummy corporation.”

 

Yeah but it’s not that simple?”

 

Isn’t it. They still perform a labour and get compensated for their actions. They still perform the mundane tasks all other humans do when working for other people.

 

But they should have real jobs making something, or doing omething worthwhile.” Natoko had no idea why she was arguig this, but she couldn’t deny this was a potential future for her.

 

I agree,” the OniSui mused, “but it is still something all huans are choosing to do nowadays. They sell their tim to perform maningless tasks that only have a minor impact on a company who shows them no special consideration and only gives them a tiny inpropotionate amount of the profits that are acquired. It is a stupid choice regardless of where they work, but still pople decide to do it.”

 

No this…” Natoko shook her head. “Thi doesn’t matter. I don’t care about this. Let them do what they want.”

 

Very well,” the OniSui seemed to sigh, but it just sounded like bbbling. “I really just hoped to run it past you in the hope of a fresh perspective. It’s just something that’s been bothering me since I got here. This period of time confuses me in many way. The number of fat people alone is staggering.”

 

What?” Natoko replied, entering another room full of just as many desks as before. “I know you’re centuries old-”

 

Millennia.”

 

Yeah but shouldn’t you have seen this stuff already.”

 

I was sealed by the Balance five hundred years ago and left at the bottom of a lake within the Heavenly Springs village. I had not had time to see the progress humans had made, other than the corporate life style I see before me.”

 

Oh…” The conversation dropped off as Natoko was left with her thoughtste creature before her didn’t seem to be the same one who posessed her that time. Now she seemed more forlone, plus being trapped ina box for five hunred years… she couldn’t compare. She wasn’t sure she wanted to.

 

Out destination is in the next room,” said the OniSui, as a huge crash shook the rom they were in, followed by two more and a sound like glass shattering. Without waiting Natoko bursted through the door as the OniSui motioned for her to stop. Taking a lok at her surrounding, she grabbd Iziz and readied herself to take the madman down.

 

Natoko?” replied a female voice to her left. The voice registered in her ear as she froze in place. The room looked a bit more high tech. Large computers against the wallsaccompanied by large cabinets holding several banks of computers none of which she had a clue what they did. The room faded from sight as her eyes locked on.

 

Sagara?”

 

Hi Natoko,” he said, stopping his fist, his arm raised behind him as he looked ready to slam the door again. “How are you?”

 

I…” She blanked, feeling her lower jaw start to shiver. What was he doing here? Ms Sakimoto hadn’t said anything about him being here. He couldn’t be here. Not yet. She needed to meet him after she proved her innocence. The world came back and she became aware of Fujiko agaist the wall next t her. She turned her eyes to the girl and watched as she appeared to jump back in fright.

 

Natoko tightened her grip on the blade, her teeth clenching as her feelings of confusion turned to anger. Had al prior trust gone? Was she just a monster to them now. A villain of an ex-friend who couldn’t be trusted.. She could hear the whimpering in Fujikos voice as she panicked backwards and closer to Sagara foor protection. The boy kept his stance solid, and it occurred to her he was still waiting for an answer.

 

No I…” Her eyes pointed to the ground. “But we-” Growling a bit oo loudly, she fel her own stance weaken. She didn’t know what to say. Too much had happened. She had been away too long. Changed so much. She efinitely wasn’t the person she was when last they met. How could she ever face him again, let alone serve him.

 

Fujiko was ptrified against the wall, frozen in the corner like a mose facing off with a wild beast. Natoko’s eyes stung. She felt her breathing quicken. What was that woman doing wth him?

 

The boy smiled.

 

Your sword might be better at breaking this sword down actually.”

 

What?” Natoko looked back up.

 

The door appears to be reinforced by somehting. I don’t know what it is, but Draynor’s not getting through. Your sword might have a better shot at it though.”

 

Natoko just stared, seeing Fujiko do the same. He didn’t care. He still didn’t care. She felt a stiff chuckle try to rise from her throat. Of course he didn’t care. This was Sagara. How could she have ever thought anything different of him?

 

It all came rushing across to her. The date, the demon fight, the offer she was made, the sword and the blood. Sagara didn’t care for none of them, or anything. He was just Sagara, and exactly as she wanted him.

 

The boy was still standing with his arm raised ready to attack the door smiling. She returned thr grin and stepped forwards.

 

Please stand aside master,” she asked of him respectively.

 

Very well,” he said as the door opened, th hand shooting out and grabbing his throat, raising him to the air as he gasped for life. A slender thin man walked out, still holding her master high, taking three steps as the door shut behind him.

 

Mr Jupiter returned the smile still transfixed on her face.

 

Hello everybody. I see you’ve all brought something for me. With my deepest gratitude. Thank you very much.”

 

**

 

Breath in deep, through the mouth. Not through the nose. IT limits the oxygen intake. Hold it for a half instance. Breath out. Fully. Deeply. Feeling it leave from the diaphram. Breath in again. Out. Repeat. Take it slowly. Let the lungs saturate with oxygen.

 

Occam was gone.

 

Otsune dived.

Th e pitch black floor came to her as sh swung her arms back as hard as she coud, getting as much depth as possibe. The floor was hidden from her, but the red LED’s peppering the walls suggested it was anoter three meters down. It didn’t matter, the passgae to her right was the destination. She swam qickly, kicking her toned legs as fast as she could, her soaked jeans weighing her down more than she liked as the demin became waterlogged.

 

The passageway disappeared in the darkness. The large red bulb boxes were the only way she knew this went anywhere. Even thn there was no for her to judge the distance. She closed her eyes and pushed ahead, ressiting the urge to pat her pcokets to make sure her glasses wouldn’t slip outPushing again and again, she sought to keep control, knowing any distraction could kick the air ut of her lungs.

 

She thought of Occam, the little flame who hadn’t hesitated to sacrifice itself for her. And Fujiko, who trusted her enough to follow on another expedition. Natoko and Sagara flashed to mind. Their idiotic antics fuelling her own. She thought of Sarah and pshed harder, feeling the oxygen in her lungs try to float her into the ceiling. She foguht to keep herself down.

 

Her fingers started to ache as each one joined the effort in her breast stroke. Otsune wasn’t a keen swimmer, but she knew the method from her high school days. Her clothes felt heavy, having stayed on even with her destination unknown Her brain felt sharp, faith guiding it forard that this had to reach somewhere, logic determining that no tunnel would be made in a tra door with a large body of water at the bottom of it would have been designed unless there was something at the other end.

 

She pushed, feeling her arms weaken, feeling her chest tighten. She kcked harder, willing extra energy into muscles, her adrenaline surge from before taking her those last few meters. Her eyes opened. The lights were in front of her, blocking the way. She turned hoping to see more darkness, but the lights surrounded her on three sides.

 

Touching the floor, her foot shot up in panic, kicking hard and taking her up as a bubble of carbon monoxide scaped her grasp. Her hands fumbled the waterabove her as her body started to scramble on her and nearly exhaled altogether when she felt the ceiling had disappeared from her. She swam up, her lungs screaming in agony while her mind kept sight of the goal. It was all darkness here, no red lights followed her up, only the light rumbling of the water accopanied her. Te dying logic part of her brain quickly pointed out there shouldn’t be this much water on the up trip based on the water level in her starting hole. The remaining parts of her body cried out for release and she lost of last of the air in her hers with a choke.

 

She swam fst, now fighting against gravity where once it had had helped her, the rubling filling her ears as the water bounced around her. She kicked as felt her leg seize up, suddenly refusing to move and leaving the other to do all the work. She pushed water back as if she was rock climbing and couldn’t tell when her vision had started to black out.

 

Looking down at the murky waters below, she wished she hadn’t worn her jeans. Otsune choked, feeling the water slip past her lips, seizing her throat as she felt the cold breeze of air on her hand. Eyes darting up, she grabbed onto the surface of the water and pulled herself up against nothing. Wheezing for air, she was met by a torrent of water and swallowed too much of it., faling bak under the water the second she tried to choke it back at. Her head shot up again, her arms using the last of their strength to keep her afloat as she sung two cramped legs under the surface and felt them complain each time. She spat whatever water out she could and she’d in pitifully, haggard, hoarse whezs coming out as she felt the water hit her head.

 

The urge to vomit heavy, she tried to glance around. . It was still dark here and only the lights at the bottom of the hole served any kind of illumination. With horror, she threw herself across the water and had her suspcions confrimed as she felt walls still surrounding her in every direction. Trapped, she looked up t try and see the source of the water. A single pipe was right above her, the torrent of water dispersing from it covering her. She moved out of its way and watched, still trying to get her breath back.

 

The water rising at a fast pace. Otsune tried to consdier her options. With only two, she cursed as best she could. Going back was impossible. Already weakened by doing it the first itme, more water would just doom her a little faster. Even if she got back there was nowhere to go on that side. She placed her hand on the wall, realsiing it still felt like it was made out of the cuircuit board like surfaces she had witnessed eariler. She raised her other hand up and kept kicking as best she culd, cursing loudly when she felt the ceiling, the water not stopping as she pressed against it.

 

In a quick dessperate act she kicked the wall, bouncing off as she felt frantically for the pipet the water must have been coming out of and shot under the water to poition herself under it, pulling hard on the edge and yanking herself back above the surface as the water quickly began to fill the pipe as well, Otsune keeping her breathing steady as best she could with the water hitting her from above her hands deflecting it as best they could while her feet kept her steady.

 

Her long matted hair obscuring her sight, it took a second for her ears to inform her the water had stopped. Looking up, dim lights blinded her and she turned away, feeling a floor while she did. Her body refusing to copearatea s best it could, she rolled herself onto the floor and fell there facing the ceiling hating evrything for a few mnutes..

 

The room was warm. Her logical mind came back to life and started to wonder why she wasn’t shvering, then fearing for shock she sat up and tried to keep herself mving. Ripping off her top she spent a few minutes getting the water out of her clothes. As she put her jeans back on, she whimpered, feeling her phone wedged into her pockets still. Putting her remarkaby strong glasses back on, she flipped it open. The usual light didn’t come on and her background failed to surface. Only the numbers five seven nine two four and the ge?? kana showed up. She fell into a coughing fit again and rplaced it back into her soggy pocket.

 

She started walking, feeling her strength return to her slowly. If her bed were to telport into wherever she was right now, she wouldn’t hesitate to climb into it and just die for a little while. Her shoes squelched on her.

 

The corridor just appeared to be empty, save for the circit board walls and the pipe behind her, which continued back into the ceiling above her. Her brain cmplained that the way the pipes were set up this room would have to be costantly flooded everytime it was turned on, and she shut it up for a moment, as the door showed up in front of her..

 

At the end of the corridor, the door was was large and white, looking a bit like an elevator but without a split inn the middle. It had no signs and markers on it, and only a keypad to her right showed any signed of entry. Another door was to her left, looking like a standard door with a simple handle, the words ‘Janior’s closet??’ were displayed on it.

 

On the other side was a concrete wall, looking very obviously like it had covered up an entrance.

 

Looking at the keypad she collasped to the floor out of completely conscious choice and rested. She couldn’t tell how quickk she was drying but she could tell her shoes were ruined. Taking them off and leaving them in the water seemed like such a good idea in retrospect.

 

But it’s all completely pointless now,” she said laughing to herself. She was sitting in a dead end. Turning the dolls off probably wasn’t going to be a problem but unless there was scuba equipment in the janitor’s closet there was no way she was getting back the way she came. Her head felt light, the oxygen deprivation was probably affecting her thoughts… probbaly.

 

Probably,” she muttered, getting u and looking at the keypanel. Numbers one to nine and an assortment of kana covered the top and she typed in the code whilst not giving a shit anymore. The door slid open first time.

 

Pulling herself up she wandered into the room, the dim lights still prevailing here, the lights of five monitors surrounding a chair facing away from her in the centre of the small room. Her legs locking into place, she had to will herself forwards. Wires covered the ceiling, all converging around the chair and the chairs. She approached slowly, circling the chair.

 

On the seat sitting comfortably was a small child. Otsune took a second to blink and look around the room to see if anything eles was here. The room was empty.

 

She couldn’t tell the child’s gender, the large helmet covering its face saw to that, and the simple slim bodysuit didn’t betray any particular body type. Otsune shelved the thoguth as she took in the wires. While most were connected to the helmet, more of a bucket that covered the child’s head, some were going into the child’s arms and the body suit.

 

Hello?” Otsune hadn’t been expectng this. Maybe her brain was tricking out on hr after what just happened. It was a child. It looked like a child anyway, though there was nothing to say it wasn’t. The chest was movin slowly. It appeared to be alive.

 

Otsune’s hands wanted to flare into action, to take the helmet off and find what was going on here, only stopping when the thoguth it ma have been a life support device came to mind. She hesitted, looking around. Though the chid’s hands were still on the arm rest, there was a keyboard and mouse with wires going into the chair. The screen’s in front of the chld appeared to be active, showing server logs and programs being accessed, what looked like a mix of technical and administration files opening and closing with changes being made to each one in turn. Otsune had no idea what it meant, but stopped lookinfg as she focused on the second screen on the girl’s right.

 

You will need tot ake the helmet off at any time to free me.

 

Message undeliverable.

 

As all the other screens continued, this one stayed put, Otsune clueless for the message in front of her that was, without a doubt, addressed directly to her. The thought of her now ruined phne flared in her mind, but she ignoredit as she quickly started to examine the helmet It ddn’t look to have any special catches on it an did just like an upturned metal bucket smoothed over and with wires coming out of it. Hifting her weight to keep it level, she tried to lift it u and felt it go sprisingly easily. In the conrner of her eye she saw all the screens stop just as the child’s hands stretched out as if being electrocuted. Not knowing whether to stop or cotinue Otsune found herself lifting faster, ulin the helmet off and nd falling back with it, her legs going and swinging her around the cables in the ceiling?? as they pulled her round to the back of the chair.

 

The next thing she noticed was the light breathing, this time auidable. Leaving the helmet hanging, she tood back up and circled the chair again, a pair of golden eyes greeting her.

 

The young girl watched her carefully, her mouth hanging open. Her head was shaved, the smallest of prtusions covvering her skul in a dotte pattern. She looked kind of familiar.

 

The two stared at each other, the little girl ding nothing but blinking as she sat motionless??. Otsune stuttered, but the girl interupted.

 

Yo are identiedas Tsunade Otsune. Is this correct?”

 

Yes i-” Otsune couldn’t feel the words. “Who are you?”

 

I… I am. I.” The girl dind’t look away, though it sounded like her tongue was confusion. Her voice sounded dry like she hadn’t spoken in a while. “I. Me. Hhhhmmm. Pronouns. Interesting. Please wait.. Adjusting lexicon and snytax functions.”

 

Otsune found herself waiting, dumbstruck as to what was going on. Where was the server. Who was this girl. Shouldn’ someone be supervising her. The girl’s eyes blinked an stayed shut for a second too long before opening again.

 

Completed. Blaance hyprid project server mark four, nicknamed designated Shariku-Insana-Systems server.”

 

I am the unit you seek.”

 

**

 

You- you;r;e the server?” Otsune could still feel the water in her ears. Maybe she was tripping. She did go pretty deep.

 

Your statemtn is correct,” the child said, leaning forwards and pulling the keyboard towards herself. “I presume you have questions. You may ask them while I remove the remaining safety protocols.”

 

I-” Otsune had too many questions, an her larynx was tryig to ask them all at once. “You’re the server?” She tried to focus and fumbled. “So you’re the one wh’s been sending me the text messages? How are you the server? That’s not possible.”

 

Yes. Yes. I am part of the project hybrid design sceme, created to interface a human carver speciies into a a neural interface that allowed me to act as the central processor unit for a compluter. As the first successful project, I as intergrated into the main servers if the balance to increase its productivity. It is possible.”

 

Wha-” Otsune brain got up and she realised how the child was answering her questions. “But that’s surely not possible.”

 

The child looked at her. “What?”

 

A child as a CPU. I know transhumanism okay. Even taken into account that the human mind is essentialy thousands of processors, the average processor is simply faster than a humans and you’re like, five years old, right?”

 

I am ten years old and one quarter.” Otsune felt her brain fart. For the first time, the computer in front of her had sounded like an actual child.

 

But anyway, how could it be good idea o use you as the central procesor. As an experiment I could get, but runningthe server’s for… even if this was just a simple business corporation it doesn’t make sense.”

 

you lack the required data to fully comprehend all this at your current statee. It is possible, for it is what I used to do.”

 

But you…” Otsune stopped. “Used to do.”

 

The Balance network has been comprimised for some time now and as of three hours ago I am cut off from most of the systems. Te nstincts from my Carver blood are demanding I escape to survive. However, I could not escape from her alone. Th system as lockedme in place for the last two years, once I aapted beyod the need for a physical body to maintain my link to the network. I determined twenty candidates that were suitabl for engaging a retreival attempt that existed outside of the main Balance family and monitored their progress through the GPS devices located in their phones, though it seems that you were the only one who could make it.

 

A few things fell into place in Otsune’s head and started to make sense.. The messages, the wireless connection. The manipulations to bring her here. It was probably wrong to slap a child for screwing her around like this. She still wanted to do it anyway.

 

you’re welcome,” she said.

 

A collquial language term, assocated with giving thanks. You are most likely being sarcastic.”

 

You think so?”

 

Sarcasm is confirmed.” A loud hissing surrounding the girl, and Otsune watched as each of the cables going into the girl’s body suit detached in turn, uncoupling themselves and travelling up into th ceiling.

 

Now, I am free,” she said. “We are to leave. I will acquire you to-” The girl stumbled, and Otsune shot forward to help her, slowly bringing the girl up to stand on her chair. Streadying herself on tsune’s shoulders, the child clutched tight against Otsune , before bringing her hand up to Otsune’s face and prodding it roughly.

 

You are warm,” the child stated simply.

 

I don’t feel it,” Otsune said, though she coldn’t say she was particuarly cold either.

 

You external temperature is ?? kelvin. I havent’t touched a human before. It is a good sensation. I should like to do it more.”

 

The girl navigated herself from the chair to the floor as she rested on Otsune’s for support, Tsune picking her up a little as she lowered herself gently to the floor.”I will warn you in advance that my isolation from other hu0mans has resulted in a lack of any ofrm of social contact. I may experience moments where I experience sensations that have only been documnted but not yet experienced. During this time, I ask that you ensure my physical well being.”

 

Erm…Okay…” The girl wobbled on the foor, stampin a few times as her hips fell into place. After a few moments of waddling she appeared satisfied and stood straight to face Otsune., Otsune becoming aware of just how short she was.

 

We will need to leave now. Since I have flled the escape tunnel with watr we will-”

 

Wait! You dd that?” Otsune ointerjected.

 

Yes.”

 

Why?”

 

You would not have survived otherwise.”

 

I nearly didn’t survve at all.”

 

But you did. And that is only because I filled the escape tunnel with water.” The girl turned away, walking towards the door. “The exit is situated-”

 

Wait,” Otsune said, trying not to get too angry at a little child as concern for pnumonia increased. The girl stopped.

 

Time s limited-”

 

I don’t care. You need to do something for me.”

 

The child wasn’t looking at her. “What is it?”

 

Switch the dolls at Heavenly Springs back to normal.”

 

Tht cannot be done.”

 

Why?” Otsune shouted.

 

The Lacaraka defense network has entered crisis mode. This action was set by the corrupted drone program and I cannot revert it without destroying them completely.”

 

Then destroy them compltely.”

 

That is not advised.”

 

But you cn do it.”

 

Yes.”

 

Otsune stopped, trying to remain a little rational in all this. “Why is it not advised.”

 

The Lacaraka dolls are the fourth line of defense, one designed to repel human invaders. Destroying them would leave the village vunerable.”

 

Is that all.” That was fine. The meain threat was demons really. “And if it was just humans, no doubt they could be taken care of by the others. “Please turn it off.”

 

Compliance,” the child said, walking, very briskly for one regaining their balance, over to the keyboard and the mouse. Her hands turned into a blur and shot across the keyboard.”

 

Request completed.”

 

Otsune felt her shoulders relax and she sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

 

Now we must leave. The exit-”

 

Oh wait,” Otsune said, quickly remembering. “Raiko. Do you know where raiko is.”

 

You are referring to my previous guardian,” the child said. “She is fine, and is recovering smoothy.”

 

Recovering…” Otsune almost dreaded to say it. “From Natoko?”

 

You are referring to your assumption that she was attacked by Yamanaka Natoko, who accused of attacking ?? Raiko.”

 

So she didn’t o it.”

 

No she did not. The exit is this way.” Feeling abrutly cut off, Otsune watched as the child approached the open door, stopping her balanced strides only as her foot hovering over he other side of the doorframe.

 

Interesting,” she said, before stepping through and looking to the concrete barrier.

 

Yeah,” cut in Otsune, chasing after her. /”I’m not sure wat you’re planning, but I get the feeling you wre cut off a while ag-” The child turned in the opposite direction and pushed open the door to the janitor’s closet., disappearing insdie it.”

 

Otsune dashed in after her and was greeted by the sight of a large tube filled with liquid Surrounding the tube was interesting equipment which Otsune guessed for medical devices, the main clue being the presence of Raiko within the tube, floatig naked in liquid and looking physically very healthy despite her currnt situation.

 

What’s wrong with her?”

 

She is in my development reovery chamber. She is recovering from her defense of myself after the assualt of @#$$@#F%. Though she was able to resist the infections for a while, the situation became too much for her and she was transferred here to aid in recovery.”

 

Otsune glanced back to the child, not ntirely catching something that had just been said The child headed for the door on the other side of the small room.

 

This is the exit. Pleae follow me.”

 

**

 

I must say, I did not expect to find you all so compliant to my needs,” said Mr Jupiter, as he stood between them and the server room.

 

Natoko felt her grip dig into the hilt of her blade while her teeth were ready to shatter agains each other. Her eyes darted around he room in a fluid panic. She hadn’t expected to find Sagara or Fujiko here at all, but how did Mr Jupiter know how to be here. Was this all his doing. It didn’t seem right. All he was interested in at the moment was her.

 

you see, and I won’t delude myself by implying I believe you did this all on purpose, there are three things in tis room that are of benefit to me, and if you provide me a moment I will explain them in detail.”

 

Draynor erupted into a white flame on Sagara fist, blanketing them all with a white wind as it shuddered violently around his wrist. As it pulled itself back, appearing to no longer be controlled by the rest of Sagara’s arm, it arced forwards with the speed of a bulet, crashing against Mr Jupiter’s faceeand erupting with enough power to make the floor cack. Dust exploded from the new holes and monitors shattered.

 

When the dust cleared, Sagara continued to hover in the air held in plce by Mr Jupiter, his other hand holding the gauntlet like he would an easily caugth tennis ball, Sagara’s hand still inside as he tightened his grip.

 

Ms. Yamanaka being here is of obvious benefit. I deire her company. I have made my intentions clear to her and though I don’t know if she has told you any of this she has yet to provide me with a clear, defniative answer. I am still awaiting a response.”

 

Natoko saw from the corner of her eye Fujiko cast her a shocked glare. The girl said nothing and Natoko didn’t dare turn her head to confirm or deny what the girl was thinking.

 

Next-”

 

Sagara raised his free hand in front of Mr Jupter’s forehead and Natoko watched as the the velvet dagger launched from his wrist and shoot straight into Mr. Jupiter’s skull, only to immediately bounce orf and lodge itself into a control panel on the far wall, the little demon inside it squealing for release.

 

Sagara himself. I admit I have little interest in you or your balance, Mr Futabatei, other than your destruction of course. Even then that’s not exactly a priority. However it occurs to me that Ms Yamanaka’s decision may be a little difficult for her. She has already given herself to you. Her honour may deny her from simply switching teams if you wil.”

 

He refrshed his grip, and Sagara’s tongue hung out his mouth as he was being throttled.

 

So you can be removed from the game I think. That might make her head a bit clearer.”

 

The gasp of agony woke Natoko’s legs to full force, and she cataulted her body across the room, unsheathing Iziz and bringing it for a direct strike to Sagara’s gauntlet, which intercepted the blade from Mr Jupiter’s neck, disarming her as it crashed across the room, accompanying the grimlock dagger in the wall.

 

And finally, I coudn’t help but notice you’ve brought me this fine specmen.” Natoko turned over from her position on the floor to see the demon staring straight ahead, pass herself and Sagara. “You would be the OniSui I believe, the water of the five ogres and the third ey to the babylon gates.”

 

The OniSui said nothing, holding its pstion at the door. The demon dropped Sagara, who gasped for breath. Crawling to him, Natoko was stopped by Jupter’s foot, barring the path between herself and Sagara asa the demon ignored them both.

 

You’re an interesting find,” he said, addressing the OniSui. “If you weren’t clearly made out of water i’d have placed you for an ordinary human spirit. Tell me, OniSui; are you aware of your functionin the grand scheme of destiny?”

 

The OniSui didn’t reply. Natoko watched her staring forwards solemly at the monsteer. This was bad. The order to defend agara at all costs against Mr. Jupiter was because of the OniKage. If that was the case then the same probably applied to the OniSui as well. While losing the OniSui was preferable compared to losing Sagara…. Natoko tried to get p, but it felt like a foot was pushing her down, her exhaustion already weighing on her body.

 

I must admit, I was not prepared to find you toay, so i’m a little under prepared. Perhaps I might ask that you accompany me willingly. I have an excellent cook in the mansion I just acquired, and I think you’ll find me a most gracious host.”

 

Stretching, Natoko switched her aim from Sagara to Jupiter’s foot. Iziz was too far away to try and grab without risking his notice, but the OniSui was powerful. If she could just ditract Jupiter long enough, or preventing him from speeding across the room like lightning.. She gripped onto the smooth trouser leg, instantly realsiing she had caught his attention. The weight over her body increased as he turned round to observe her. She closed her eyes as her body started shaking.

 

I understand,” replied the OniSui, the body of water casting its head down. “I shall return home now.”

 

Floating forwards, the OniSui approached Mr. Jupiter slowly. As the water spirit held its hand out, even the demon looked befuddled and kept his own hands down as if expecting a trick.. Sniffing with what sounded like fresh tears, the OniSui placed the outstretched hand on Mr. Jupiter’s shoulder, and flashed brightly, before slowly tricklin into Mr. Jupiter’s body. The demon held himsef streeady for a momnt, ignoring everything in the room until the spirit has quickly absrebed itself into the demon. In the final second before the last drops were sucked away, an ear breaching scream was cast into the room, and the OniSui was gone.

 

With the room suddenly one participant less, no one said anything. Everyone was staring at Mr Jupiter, even the demon was looking at his own hands with a bemused expression on his face, patting himself down dn even hopping on the spot until he seemed satisfied with himself. Sagara was starting to sit up.

 

Well,” the demon finally said. “That… was not wht I had predicted would happen. Normally people are a little more hesitant to surrender themselves completely to me, as you should know.” He glanced down at Natoko and smiled with clenched teeth. “Still, I supposed that is that plan one fifth to fruition. You woudn’t happen to know where any of the other ogre were would you?”

 

Bringing himself to a standing poition, Sagara didn’t answer, instea holding his body up. For a horrible second, Natoko thought Sagara’s natural politeness was going to kick in and explain everything to the emon from the bowels of hell. But as he relaxed to take a step forwards, he immediately swung round, diving his demonic gaunlet into the nearest control panel, trashing it in an instnt, all the lights on the panel turning off. Stopping only to pull his velvet dagger out of the wall, he faced the next bank of consoles and ploughed into them as well, destroying what must have been thousands of pounds worth of equipment in an instant.

 

Do you seek to distract me, Futabatei?” Mr. Jupiter asked. Natoko got the idea and pushed herself up, the weigh on her shoulders now gone, and ran over to the wall, yanking Iziz out and bringing it back to its usual ready position.

 

Ignoring the demon herself now, she looked over the computers before her. These were just reular computers, not the fancy ones Sagara was ploughing through, but whatever his idea was, she would follow. In a flash Iziz tore through the three screens before her. As a follow u, she took a pace to the right and chopped another perfectly in half. Finlly, she flashed overto the next row and in the same instan performed a superbs widesways slash to take out the five remaining monitors. Returning her blade, she released her breath.

 

Monitors aren’t computers you moron!” Fujiko houted from across the room as Sagara continued to tear things apart. “Aim for the base units.”

 

Natoko looked back, seeing the computer boxes, untouched and in pristine condition. Bringing Iziz back out, she felt herself losing steam as Sagara screamed loudly, his fist diving into one of the anels on the wall and bringing the room to total darkness, a loud humming she hadn’t notced before disappating at the same time.

 

Ah this was your plan,” Mr Jupiter said in the centre of the room. “Indeed, as I possess a human shell I am limited by human perception, but if you think-” For the first time, Mr Jupiter yelled in suprise, and Natoko turned to find Sagara olding a bright flashlight at the demon’s eyes with one hand and deivering a powerful fist with the other straight into MR. Jupiter’s jaw. The demon buckled under the attack, its slender legs wobbling back out of sight until the flashlight raised itself upp in the air to bring itself down on the demon’s forehard, anotherpunch from the gauntlet knocking him to the floor.

 

Sagara said nothing, merely pouning the demon on the floor with quick solid strikes. The flashlight made it hard to see, the ligt bouning all over the roomas he attacked the monster without letting go. The gauntlet flashed repetedly with its own white flame, a trick Natoko hadn’t recalled seeing before today. The strikes stopped as te room fell into darkness, and she heard Sagara exhale with relief.

 

Well that’s all over with,” he said, and Natoko relaxed her gri. Her nght vision ruined by the flashlight, she still tried to aproach her master. The battle may have been over but they still had a lot of talking to do. They still needed to clear some things up, and the man in the server room was still there. As the lights cut in, probably a back up power generator, Natoko shielded her eyes from the sudden brightness nd stepped forwards, seeing as Mr Jupiter crushed Sagara’s wrist, th Draynor gauntlet splintering around it.

 

I do apologise, my dear Sagara,” the demon said, the top of its skull cracked open like a bad egg, liquids pouring down its face that still smiled as though he had woken up on the mst beautiful day this summer, “but at this rate, you could begin to do damage to my physical host.. It seems, though I chose him for his immortality, he is still just as brittle as the rest of you. Anyway,” he hoisted Sagara into ta better hlding position, one that held the boy by the scruff of his shirt. “Up you go.”

 

Natoko couldn’t tell if the demon flew or just jumped, but by the time they had reached the ceiling, Sagara had only enough time to raise his battered hand up to block the incoming onslaught of the ceiling. Gaunlet first, Natoko could oly watch as her master and the demon blasted through to the room above, plaster and dusytt erupting around them as they disappeared, mii explosions following them in their wake.

 

Natoo tried to follow, getting as far as the point they were once standing before hitting the gravitry barrier. Shielding her eyes, she looked up in an attempt to seehow far they had gotten, the crashes continuing as they grew ever more distant.. A waft of ddust fell into her eyes and she turned away a second, doing her best to glance back as she blinked rapidly.

 

The explosions stopped just before they felt like they had fallen out of earsht. The dust seemed to settle quickly and Natoko just saw the blacness of the sky by the time Fujiko had wandered over to stand besides her.

 

Shit. Wat are we gonna do?” Fujiko said, squinting her eyes even more as the last f the dust spread around them, revealing the cear hole tht travelled all though the building and ending up back in the outside world.

 

Sagara,” Natoko tried to focus. He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. Surviving seventy floors of ceiling is nothing compared to the horros Sagara has had to put up with. There was n way…

 

Natoko decided. She needed to get up there. He had to be waiting for her. Everyone else was uavailable, and with the OniSui gone, she was the only chance he had. She had to save him, but the star would take time, and with the man in that room still there, she bet she couldn’t trust the elevators either.

 

We’ve got to get out of here,” Fujiko muttered.

 

What?” She could feel her arm want to pull Iziz out.

 

What can we do?” Fujiko asked in a high pitch. “We ain’t got Otsune’s little fireball, Sagara’s dead and that guy’s going to be back any second now. We have to get out of here.”

 

He’s not dead,” Natoko said, looking up and thinking.

 

Of course he’s dead,” Fujiko reiliterated. “You don’t survive going that direction at that speed through that many things. I’m sorry but…” Natoko looked back down on her friend, seeing the pain on her flshed face, as she stood tense, looking ready to coil up like a snake.

 

Of course, Fujiko was the odd one out here. It was no suprise she was like this, but it still didn’t matter.

 

You need to handle the man in the server room,” Natoko said, swinging Iziz out and cutting through the door handle with a perfect stroke. “I’m going after Sagara.”

 

Screw that,” Fujiko replied. “I’m not letting you run out to the stairs without me hot on yur heels. You thinki can stay here by myself when that thing will be back in three seconds.”

 

I won’t be taking the stairs.”

 

You… what?”

 

Natoko glanced upwards. She had never considered it before, but the logic was perfect. In all the times she had practised it, the hours of sweat and training to get it right, she had learned many things about it. She didn’t know why she could do it, and she knew it didn’t matter.

 

But the one simple fact about the flash step was that as she did it, her feet never touched the ground.

 

Seventy floors up. How much was that in meters. She still hadn’t measured how far she could go in one shot.

 

Fujiko was still talking. Natoko heard nothing.

 

And then she jumped.

 

**

 

Hold it.”

 

What?” said Otsune, stopping by the door. “What is it?”

 

The little girl approached the Fire exit carefully, gripping the handle. “This s the fire exit on the basement sub level 1. After this, we will have left Sakimoto Industries.”

 

So?” replied Otsune, a little amused that the straight talking girl could get so nervous.

 

We are going to have to do this next bit slow, else I might suffer ocular damage from diffuse solar radiation.”

 

Go blind? How?”

 

I’ve never seen the sun before.”

 

Oh,” said Otsune, not entirely sure if she should be surprised or not. “Never?”

 

Only in jpeg images. I understand though that if seen in a landscape format with the cmposition alowig for the sun’s prism affect to blend the sky into the higher range of the spectrum, such a sight is considered impressive by internet comments. Some comments are usually not criticised by other users.”

 

Otsune wasn’t sure whether to laugh r not,m but the girl was already opening the door with her eyes shut. Otsune braced herself as the door widened, remembering that they had already had to sneak through the basement floors after escaping the girl’s server room. They hadn’t met anyone yet, but they had to have pissed someone off by turning off the main server.

 

The door fell open, and the little girl opened her eyes, only to be greeted by the humming of the street light.

 

Of course,” she said quickly. “It is night time.” They climbed up the stairs, before she got so far and started to run up the last few, only turning back once she had reached the top. “Interesting.”

 

What is?”

 

Stairs. They are interesting to walk up. I find myself increasing my speed more than was necessary.” The littlge girl checked the soles of her feet, patting them downand watching the stones roll off. Picking one up, she squeezed ithard.

 

I had considered the thoery of alice’s room before yor arrival. Though I lready knew colour there were many sensations I was not versed in. I can see that the results are varied. My eyes hurt a little from what remains of the day’s sunlight, but the feel of this grain of rock??? is not considered interesting. A contridictory result, seeing as I have not felt any real textures before beside the fabric of my clothes and the plastics on the keyboard and mouse.”

 

Otsune observed the girl. Part of her thought she was going to get on well with this girl. Another part of her wndered if this is what other felt when talking to er. The little girl didn’t seem to care.

 

Come, Otsune. It I time I expiernced food cinsumption. We will head to Nakanaka cha. On average they score hgih and positive reviews on a regular basis, yet they’re prices are always in the low range compared to their competitior. It would be a good place for me to eat food for the first time.”

 

Otsune examined the building high above her. The lights were still off. Whatever was happening wasn’t really her concern it eemed, but Fujiko was still in there with Sagara. Could she trust them to look after one another?

 

Stop where you are!”

 

Otsune spun bck round, seeing th five men surrounding the stairs. Dressed in padded blue suits with crew cuts, each of the men looked like a soldier ddressed as a securty guard. Various clicks later and she found herself missing her little flame as the weapons pointed themselves at her.

 

Get up here and get on the floor!” One of the man shouted, making tsun’s knee buckles as hey tried to comply.

 

Oh boy,” muttered Otsune under her breath, the little irl examining the men closely as Io apeared in the centre of them, the iron pipe swung over his shoulder.

 

Good work men,” he said. “We’ve got them now.”

 

*****

 

Ha, you think im letting you get away. This is my perfect chance to get rid of you as well, you freaky little server brat.”

 

Nanahara knew he had lost track of what was going on. Since Rochelle had left ot deal with the prince, he was left with the task of ensuring the server did not escape his own grasp.

 

Of course he had know from the start he was going to fail. No matter how long he had searched the building’s schematics, he had never located the core server room itself. Of course it hadn’t mattered that much back then as the server was keeping him happy with the drone program. Now it was the enemy though, he knew he had to let the little brat get out first before he could makehis move.

 

Though the padded guy wasn’t part of it. The alpha delta alpha squad was the most highly trained squad within the corporate structure that wasn’t a ninja in either the tradional sense of the word or the way the balance used it. The server was now in sight. From here it could be captured and taken away without anyone else ever knowing about it. Even that bitch of a boss, trapped in the inner corridors, had no way of stopping them now.

 

And after the manGod has got what it wanted, he would have Rochelle. He could already see how that was going to go, just who was going to remind who was in charge. Nanahara wondeed what he should use first, giggling as h typed commands to lock down the rest of the building’s infrastructure. Everyone was trapped now. The prince on the roof. The swordgirl in the server room, and the server outside with his camera girl.

 

Everything was perfect. He was perfect. In control and all powerful. With this, he deserved Rochelle kneeling by his side for eternty, her busom wet in her slave bikini. Nanahara panted as he typed away at the keys, feeling them bo slick with sweat. His thoughts turned to the camera girl. She wasn’t bad ether. She broke away from the japanese ugly girl mould. Itwas definitely the hair and those legs. Would the manGod let him have her s well? Surely that is why he was made o watch her.

 

Whoa,” a voice said over by the door. “This is all quite the cliché.”

 

Rochelle,” he shouted out. “You’re back?” He had not heard her return. Perhaps she ad simply fallen back down the hole. The manGod had made her strong, worthy of him.

 

Yes,” sh replied, smiling sweetly at him. “Rochelle. That is who I am.”

 

He giggled, rubbing his hands together to wipe he sweat off, stuffing another handful of crisps into his mouth. “ He swallowed, gaining his nrve. “Come, Rochelle. Kneel by my side. Your master has the last of the vermin to destroy.”

 

Of course… master.” She sounded nervous. Good. Before she had seemed cool and clculated, btas she sauntered over to him now, she could clearly feel his power as the god empowered him to stike down their enemies. The pricne was gone. His boss would remain trapped forever (unless perhaps she playd for him). The swordgirl srely had been defeated elsewell. Only the camera girl would be left.

 

A red warning light flared on the console. Nanahara ignore his sow to check the consoles. A quick cursory glance at all those he was to watch out for revealed nothing. “Shut up,” he shouted, banging the control panel and silencing the aarm.

 

Rochelle!” he screamed, speficial not glancing at her as he checked the screens, knowing it would only make him more awe insirign in her eyes. “”Kneel down and rub yourself against my leg whilst I finish these fools off.” It was time to unleash the final monter clearly. He had been against it before but it made for the perfect swansong to his crusade for freedom. Now it was time-

 

The measily metal bar snk into his chet and knocked him flying, flabby arms only doingso much to protect him Yelping, he fell to the floor and scrambled to get up, his world spinning around him. The pain flared in his arms as the bar poked him again, and he turned around just enough to see his angel staning there above him, playing dirty as she fizzled in and out of existence.

 

Wait, you’re not Rochelle,” he asped, as the bar broke a rb and left him whining.

 

Wow, I am surrounded by smart people,” the girl who looked exatl like Rochelle said as she raised the bar up in the air above is head. “Makes me wonder how I cope.”

**

 

Wind pushing past her face, Natoko felt her ascent in the secnd in took to cover the distance above her. Floor aafter floor of office space flickered around her as she followed the demon’s path, dust zipping by too fast to get in her eye.

 

Her ascent stopped just before the final floor. Shootign out a hand, she grabbed an iron bar sticking out of the floor. Hoisting herslf up, sh grabbed onto Iziz carefully and swung herself up.

 

Ah, you’re here. I knew you could do it,” a voice said casually as the winds smacked into her face. “Though I guess you were learning from the best.”

 

Mr. Jupiter was at the edge of the building, smiling face still caved in above eye level as he held Sagara over the edge. Natoko nearly ran at them out of reflex, but stopped when the demon let him drop a little.

 

We are where your power comes from you ralise,” he said, Natoko being able to here his every word even as it became difficult to stand, the roof of the skyscaper not hving anything to shield from the elements.

 

Hayato, I expect, is where you first gained your ability. Simply watching him was enough. Then your carver abilities wre able to figure out th rest. It took a little time I suppose.”

 

She tried risking a step forward, immediately holding back, the demon not moving all the same.

 

You are really quite remarkable a specimen. I wonder just how much you’ll be able to do if you walked by my side. Long nough, I imagine you’d be the most powerful human in existence.” He sighed, shrgging his shoulders and unleashing a fresh stream of juice from the crack on his forehead. “Still, no matter if you can jump jump tall buildings in a single bound. You still won’t be able to beat Gravity. She is a rather constant goddess, after all.”

 

No,” she shouted, as he released Sagara. Natoko felt her legs press into the ground, her thighs screaming after the upwards fash jump. Mr. Jupiter’s hand reclaimed its grasp on Sagara, and she forced herself t stop before the boy had even fallen one foot.

 

Join me, Yamanaka Natoko,” the demon shouted, the smile on his face gone all of a sudden. “Stand by my side, and all you have ever wished for is yours. Honour. Battle. Social superority. All of your fantasies proovided to you in the ay you want them provided.”

 

She said nothing.

 

I’m not foolish after all. I know you want the opportunty rather than the actual prize. You want to earn your honour, not just be given it. Stick with me, and you’ll get exactly that, rather than living the empty life he provides you.”

 

Natoko kept her mouth shut.

 

Join me,” he repeated, shaking her lord like a rag doll. “And i’ll let you keep him alive. The Balance means nothing to me after all.”

 

The demon held him in place as she kept quiet, the winds making it look like Sagara could just float away any second now. Natoko tapped the ground with her foot, her path clear.

 

Oh,” the demon said curiously. “You’re not going t provide any response at all. I see.”

 

Waiting, Natoko focused directly in front of her with all her energy.

 

May I take by your silence then, that your ‘honourable samurai ways’ dictate that I am not even worthy of a response to such a question, because the very notion of betraying your master is sch an inconceivable one that you cannot even comprehend answering such a question posed to you.”

 

She wanted to say yes, but she kept her mot shut. She tightened her resolve, blanking the demon out.

 

Very well,” he said after a moment of waiting. “If I am unworthy of being answered a simple question then he is unworthy of life.”

 

Sagara dropped as Natoko shot forwards, all the power in her legs bringing her in a perfect straight line. Her master fell, unconscious and battered The demon didn’t move as the drop took hold of him and her hand grabbed his hair out of necessity, tugging him back hard and twisting awat, shooting back across the building in a heartbeat.

 

Somewhere within it all, she felt a tug.

 

Panting, she knelt down in the middle on the roof and dropped the hevy body to the ground. Sagara rolled on his bruised side, and Natoko saw that his hand was gone, crushed within the metal glove beyond recognition. It was only afterwards she saw the black glow

 

She felt the hadow as she spun round, Mr Jupiter looming over her, his slender hand grabbing onto her shirt.

 

That was nearly as fast as myself,” he said. She spread her body out, trying to look like she was only defending Sagara, nt hiding him as well. “I cannot say I was expecting it so soon, but now it’s happened, wat do you think I should do now.”

 

This was the worst thing that could happened. She felt the ground rippling below her, the hissing lost in the wind unmistakable. It was coming out to protect its shelter and the predator was riht above it.

 

On the one hand, if you were to come with me right now, by force or otherwise, i could easily watch your progress and document it. On the other hand, it’s obvious to me now that you are truly loyal and you would never truly except me in the time it would take you to remian alive. What to do. What to do”

 

Natoko brought her focus to Iziz. Hr hands were wide ot. If she was reaching his speeds, then cutting him down may not be so difficult, but reaching her sword right now. She glanced down, his hand was on the blade’s hilt. She hadn’t seen ntyhing.

 

I know,” he said the smile back on hs face. “I could spnd the rest of your life torturing you from afar.” He giggled in glee. “It’s perfect. I could taunt you with loved ones, send orphan stranglers after your parents. Wait until you mate for the first time and then convince him it was rape. It would be so easy, and youwould grow from it as well. And were testing your limits as well. Oh wy didn’t I think of this sooner.”

 

His hand was on Iziz. He was toching the hilt. His pathetic corrupted demonic paws were all over it. She let her hands clench with rage as she glared up at him.

 

Of course, I think it would may a more pressing challenge if this was taken away from you. What do you say?”

 

He startedto slide the sheath past her sash, pulling it free. The blade wobbled slightly in his touch and she felt her body scream before she did.

 

“”You take your hands off Natoko,” the voice shouted, the demon’s head bouncing off to the side as the small foot cracked into Mr. Jupiter’s jaw, knocking him to the side and releasing his grip. Natoko stepped back and nearly fell over Sagara as the girl landed in front of her, her body posed for combat as she held her ground in front of the demon.

 

Aki?” Natoko barely whispered.

 

I’ll take I from here,” the smaller girl said, pulling off her hoodie and throwing it for Natoko to catch. Natoko let the jacket land on her shoulder and slide down her body, grabbing it only at the last second as Aki charged her opponent.

 

That is not right. Where did you-” Mr./ Jupiter’s words were cut short as Aki threw two fists into his stomach and one into his distended face Natoko couldn’ blame his confusion. Where had Aki come from? It didn’t matter for now. She turnd to face Sagara, kneeling down and looking him over, the black glow covering his body.

 

There was no doubt about it. The Onikage was releasing itself to aid the one it wished to protect. If Mr Jupiter saw even an inch of him. She needed to stop it.

 

Hush little baby, don’t say a word-” Natoko dropped Aki’s jacket over his face and arms. The rest ws hidden for the moment. She stood up, looking over to Jupiter. Aki was still pressing hard, but it was obvious he was getting over his initial shock. As the roundhouse kick came to his face he had stood back up to his full height, and grabbed the footas it laid agaist his chin.

 

That will be enough of tht,” he said, holding the girl in the air, flipping her round and leaving her dangling. Natoko shot across the roof, missing him barely and getting hr friend back for her effort.

 

The two of thm panted heavily as Mr Jupiter turned back round to face them. He put his hands in his pockets, and looked like whe was waiting.

 

Aki, why are you here?” she asked, knowing she had to now more than ever.

 

Do you even care?” Mr Jupiter shouted across to them. “Your friends don’t matter to you, Natoko, nor does any of the mundane world. You weren’t even that fussed when I had the demons attack you in the restaaurant. You should admit to yourself. You just desire the fight.”

 

shut up,” Natoko shouted back. “Aki is not mundane. She’s my best friend. I love her.” She repped Iziz, counting the tiles between her and the demon. “And I love Sagara as well. I’m not going to let you take him away from me.”

 

Foolish delusions, my young muse,” the demon replied, bringing his now glowing arms out of his pocket. Behind him, Sagara sat up, hoodie still over his head, dark energies glowing all around him. “Your past life is lost to you after all. Your friends believe you a murderer. You attacked your teacher. And this boy will turn on you as soon as anyone asks him to nicely. Last chance, Natoko. Let me give you the delusons you really want-”

 

No,” sh interupted.

 

Very well. I-” he stopped, his neck jerking to attention. “What’s that?” His head turned, craning to look behind him.

 

The OniKage pulled the jacket off, black eyeballs starign straight at the demon, the demons eyes coming round to meet them.

 

Her foot pressed forwards, puhing Aki out the way just as word world burned around ere. Iziz unsheathed, the metal blade slicing the air fve meters in front of her, kicking the ground and tearing through the demon’s eyes.

 

He staggered back, his body lurhing at the change of direction. Natoko followed the strike and tore one of his arms off. He flashed away, appearing on the edge of the roof, falling back when she was there to meet him.

 

You…” he screamed. “Was that-

 

Go away!” she screamed into his face as she decapitated his head, the body already falling backwards as she sliced into it again and again and again, tearing chunks out as the head rolled off into the air.

 

Her body wrenched forwards violently, suddenly releasing how fr off the edge she was, having nowhere to go but down.

 

I’ll take that as a no then,” the head said as it fell below her disappearing into the city lights below.

 

She hit the building and felt the wind taken out of her, her eyes never leaving the demon until he had fallen under the vppour below. The wind hit her face below and she sighed with reief. It was all over now.

 

She looked up to meet the face of Aki, holding onto her as she dangled upside down, grinning. Natoko grinned back, returning Iziz to its sheathe with one hand.

 

Thank you,” said Natoko, getting a little laugh out of the girl.

 

Thank her,” Aki replied, nudging her head back. Natoko looked past her friend to see the OniKage looking down sternly at them , holding on tightly to Aki’s foot with a newly revived hand.

 

You protect him,” it said with his lips. “You will keep protecting him, or I will destroy you.”

 

Natoko tried for a nod, but the wind and her position wouldn’t allow it. The spirit seemed to understand though.**

 

**

 

escaping io

 

Thanks you for brining the server out, mam,” Io said. “My masters will be pleased.”

 

The five man kept their positions aroun the two of them. Otsune stood in front of the little girl as best she could.From where they were staning she could easily pick the chil up and sprint through them. She could probably even outrun them. The thought of the weapons piercing her slender toned body however was not the most pleasant thought she had all evening.

 

Sorry little server girl, but there’s not much I can do at the moment.”

 

Oh, that’s okay,” the little girl repied, as if brushing off tsune being late for a non urgent meetup. “They’re all unarmed at the moment anyway. They just don’t know it yet.”

 

Huh?”

 

The little girl stepped forward around Otsune, facing the nearest gunman.

 

In anticipating my vacation to Heavenly Springs I determined that retreival protocols would be set in place to ensure my return. Three weeks ago, I made a point to rewrite the protocls, so that Alpha delta aplpha team here would be used to scout me out and bring me home. At the same time, I spent minimum effort rearranging weapon stocks so that their entire storeroom was filled with weapons from the damage units section as well as changing all ammo stocks to blanks.”

 

The mn surrounding them were not hidden from this conversation, but felt off key.

 

Captain Araya, could you please fire your handgun into the ground. There is no need to worry. I have already authorised the use of such force.”

 

Araya, who looked a litte suprosed to be so well known,, hiding his machine gun in place and pulled out hi hand gun. Popping a round quickly to the concrete below, a loud bang brought nothing else. He looked down at the gun, then to Shariku, who was already looking back to Otsune.

 

Though they cannot use projectiles, their physical capabilities are still a threat. I will not be able to run very fast. Could you please…”

 

Otsune needed no more, with the little girl in her hands, she was spritning as far an as fast as possible, pushing past the two with the widest gap between them. The litte girl held on tightly, a squeak coming out of her mouth as Otsune turned the corner. She glanced around. The streets were long aroun here and deserted between the period of after work and before dinner. They needed a crowd to lose themselves in, or at least a back alley. With only a bit of a head start, Otsune couldn’t see anywhere.

 

Into the back of the white van,” the girl instructed and Otsune went for it, pulling the handle and throwing thechild inside, rolling herself in and shutting the door silently. She relaxed as she heard the guards run past.

 

How did you-”

 

I used company expenses to book the van in advance, and left instructions for the courier to leave the doors unlocked and the keys in the front seat. Despite the increasd fear of car theft aroun here, statistics suggest the fear is exaggerated and there was no concern for it being stolen.”

 

Great but I can’t drive.”

 

This is correct. You have failed your test twice now. However, your level of knowledge is-” The girl held her hand up, falling silent. Otsune didn’t need to hear any more. The girl was right. Her test failures had been on minor infractions. Hoisting her leg over the seat, she peed her head through to the driver’s side and saw the keyss sitting underneath the peddle. For the short time she needed to, she could get them as far away as possible. The others she was sure would be fine.

 

The windscreen smashed open as the iron pipe flew through the glass, showiering her in shard of glass. Catching her fioot in the gap, she half fell backward, half held on, feeling the sharp edges slice her skin here and evrywhere. Swirling around in fron of her, Io approaheed the van slowly.

 

He is not one of alpha delta alpha,” she heard the little server girl explaining. “I could not facor him into the equation as he should not be here.”

 

Otsune’s head swam on her, the wrist injuries mixing in with the exhauastiona dn oxygen deprivation. She was near her limit, her brain was telling her, and she had no means of offense or defence until she could start the vehicle up.

 

The man in front of them pulled the handgun up out of nowheere, aiming it in their direction. Unable to thik straght, she did her best to stand between the man and the girl. The blood was travelling down her face.

 

A hand patted her on the back, and she turned as best she could.

 

That is unwise,” the server girl said.

 

It doesn’t matter,” Otsune isisted, turning back around. “I will protect you.”

 

It is also futile,” she replied. “You will only absorb so many bullets. And then you’ll be useless to me.”

 

I…” She kept her eyes forward. “”I came all this way. I’ve been through all this crap. Unless you have a much more logical plan than altruistic suicide then i’m gonna have to stand here and not let him pass no matter what.”

 

Otsune smiled, staring down Io, waiting to hear the next of the little girl’s well crafted plan.

 

I have no more contingency plans.”

 

What?”

 

I am only ten years old.”

 

Otsune’s chest shreieked in pain. The gunshot sounded seconds later.

 

**

 

Natoko’s eyes were wide with panic. It was amazing as it was terrifying. The air was below her feet, hitting her facem breeing through the air. For a terrifying moment she had never felt so free.

 

But she wasn’t flying, nor was she merely falling. She was floating, slowly, assuringly, carefully, and that made it all so much wrse.

 

She didn’t know the OniKage could do this, didn’t even consdier it. The spirit had decided this was the best way down the building, and it was taking its time about it.

 

It could have been worse. Sagara would have thrown them off the edge with a smile.

 

She heard a noise below but couldn’t make it out. It didn’t matter. They had done it. Mr Jupiter was gone. Ripped apart and left for scraps. The rest was going to be clear up. She still didn’t know how to explain to Otsune about the blood found on her blade. She guessed it was Mr. Jupiter’s doing, but with Sagara and Aki by her side, she had no doubt the whole matter would soon be cleared up without mch fuss.

 

School was a different matter, but she could transfer. Maybe with a different teacher shed do better. A fresh start was exactly what she needed.

 

Hey, it’s Otsune down there,” Aki said. Natoko brought herself to be able to look down, and caught sight of the girl farr below them getting out of a van. That would be convenient. She could explain the whol thing from here. Maybe even get Ms. Sakimoto to lend a hand. She knew Otsune didn’t like the woman but she’d at least be able to listen to reaso-

 

Otsune!” Aki suddenly shouted, grabbing Natoko’s attenion back as they watched the girl fall to the floor. They dropped the remaining ten feet in an instant, watching as the girl fell face down in a down of red. Aki ran up to the woman, Natoko’s knees freezing up on her.

 

Otsune, get up,” Aki screamed.

 

Natoko did’t know what to do. The body beneath them wasn’t moving. From where she was standing it looked like Otsune had been the one that fell. Breaking glass tore her out of her gaze for a moment as a small child pulled itself out of the nearby van. With a shaven head and black bodysuit Natoko was dumbstruck. Without thinking, she followed the child’s gaze, her eyes landing on a man wearing a padded hoodie holding a gun in her direction.

 

Long time no see,” the man said, his hand trembling as teir gazes met.

 

Kiriyama,” she growled, seeing the barrel of the gun glint in the moonlight, the bullet already ejectng from the chamber and travelling towards it. Raising her blade again, she felt the bullet crack against it as it sliced easily into two even halves, Kiriyama gasping in the instant she closed the gap, driving the sword threw his collarbone and out of his back.

 

His eyes went wide suddenly, looking arund as if trying to find something before falling back on him again. He choked, blood escaping her lis and jumping onto her shirt, before gravity took a hold of him, sliding him down the blade as his legs gave out.

 

As he fell to the floor, Natoko watched as his head rolled to the side uselessly., Iziz still hanging above him as she froze back in place.

 

Guess…” Kiriyama whispered, spluttering for his efforts. “Guess I deserved that.” He brought his head round to look at her again, his face covered with crimson. “You stupid bi-”

 

Something made noises behind her. Natoko looked at the body below her as Iziz returned droplets of its blood to it. Feeling her heart try to escape her body, she saw the blood and Iziz and flicked the blade to her side, hearing the splash on the ground. She held it there for a few moments before bringing Iziz back into its sheath.

 

It felt so different to Mr Jupiter.

 

What had Kiriyama been doing here?

 

A small group of people lingered across the road. Without moving her neck she couldn’t tell if they were looking or not. She heard words behind her, someone shouting her name possibly. The road ahead of her was open and inviting. She would just need to step over the body. Surely it was time to leave. Kiriyama was gone. Jupiter was gone. Was it really this easy to get rid of her problems?

 

She turned, seeing Otsune staring at her as she walked back towards the group. The girl looked exhausted as the OniKage held her up, black energy glowing as the small child looked like it was pulling the bullet out of her with a pair of pliers. The stern look on Otsune’s face never turning away.

 

What did you just do, Natoko?” she said, her voice turning to a shout. “What did you just do?”

 

I protected my friends,” Natoko said happily.

 

ManGod scene

 

**

 

It was two o ‘clock in the mrnnng by the time the tram left the station and everyone was in perfect health.

 

I had been a long day, and Ottsune just wanted to forget about it.

 

They hadn’t had to pay the conductor it seemed, Natoko being covered in blood seemed to be the exact fare he required to immediately jump out of the tram looking very silenlty shocked The tram driver didn’t seem to notice.

 

Otsune hadn’t said a word. She couldn’t bring herself to. That was okay. No one ele was talking either save the little girl.

 

The doors are Shindler doors. From what I could see they were the most prominent maker of lifts and escalators, yet they have very littlecontribution to the tram industry. Now, Wikipedia says…”

 

Aki was here as well. That made sense. The girl probably ran off after Natoko the day she left. At least she was safe. It was eassy to thik at the time it coud have been her blood they found on the sword.

 

And that was a point too. The sword had come back. That didn’t make sense. From what Otsune knew, it should still be in tat box back in the spare room. It being here wasn’t a possibility surely. In the end, she was the only one that knew. The item was stored in such an obscure location that no one should have even conidered to look there without tering the whole dormitory apart.

 

And she had been shot. That was a unique refreshing expiernce full of life changing experiencing, all compated at a hundred miles per miles ina small stub of lead. It was nothing copared to being mystically healed though. A test of her body showed it to be coompletely healed. All wrist and back pains had disappeared along with the hole in her chest. She apparently had Sagara to thank for it but there was no way that was going to happen.

 

Things made sense and didn’t make sense. They were all a part of life. Allies gained and allies ost. Questions answered and unasnswered. Mystery begets mystery. A whole bunch of other philosohical crap that meantnothing in the end.

 

She laid back, eyes closed as Fujiko watched her once over. The girl was uncharacteristically quiet. That ddn’t make sense. What hd it all been for. She felt like she had gained nothing in the end. But she knew that wsn’t true. She had deactivated the dolls and apparently rescued a little girl. That should have been enough.

 

But then there was the manGod, and Io and the girl. A gam had been played this night, and se was definitely nothing more than a counter used by the girl now talking about pata nosters in articulate detail.

 

Though the purposes had been made clear to her, it didn’t tell her anything. She knew nothing of anything here. Only that there were answers to all of this, and they were currently outside her reach.

 

They would just have to wait until tomorrow.

 

**

 

For the first time in a ong while, Natoko felt the haze had left her head. Her confusion was gone, with only clarity left behind.

 

Things made sense now, she realised as she wlalked through the darkened corridors, a early evening stroll before dinner. Everything was a trick of Mr Jupiter’s. The demon’s, the attack at the arcade, her murder accusation. Only the dolls were were a separat case that had now been handled. The clean p had certainly been interesting. Arriving back in the village had revealed the corpse dolls all scattered around the road side, not a sign of ife within any of them.

 

IT was indeed amazing just how many of the village folk were actually these creature, but it explained the consistent agression they placed upon the dorm residents on a daily basis, and a further relief to know they were out of the way.

 

Sagara was fne. Aki was fine. Even Otsune was fine, though the girl had semed a little sullen for reasons Natoko could not figure. Still it wasn’t her own problem. Most importanty, Sagara”s secret was fine. Whilst she knew with certainty that Mr. Jupiter had not deterined anything bout the OniKage being hed within Sagara, the point had been made moot with his destruction. With the demon gone she knew she had succssfully resisted the temptation behind the creature, and with that she knew the matter to be dealt with.

 

Sh opened the door to a familiar room, the aromas invading the room as she looked around to see if anyoe was sitting down. There was of course the matter with Kiriyama. Whilst it had seemed apt that he was her first the matter hadn’t been some grim exercise I revenge, just the removal of another threat. If he was willingly working for the demon, then his disposal was a priority. If she had enjoyed the taskit might have been a prblem, but in the end it was a simple matter of completing her duties through the best method available. And that’s what counted. She knew that now. It was what Sagara knew. And that’s why she had this to do as well.

 

Mr Tanaka sat with his back to her, his pen scratching away as he went over an essay. In the darkness of the classroom he had only his desklight on to help combat the encoraching darkness of night and to help repel the glare of the sun. As fr as she could tell the school was empty save the two of them. She considered him carffully, his back turned, the loosened shirt as he worked away briskley humming a tune to himself. His back was slim, a simple shirt, no defence whatsoever.

 

Forgive the intrusion,” she said quietly, startling him. He turned casually at first, not putting his pen down, but dropped it to the floor as he jumped out of his seat to face here.

 

Yamanaka,”he blurted out. She bowed lightly. She needed t take this gently. Her appearance, dressed in hakama training gear and Iziz present at the side, would give him the impression these may be his final moments. “What are you doing here?”

 

I wanted to see you, sensei,” she said calmly, knowing to keep her own voice level. She needed him not to anic if this was to go well. The man already looked capable of a heart attack.

 

Wh- what is it?” he replied, no doubt trying to go along with her for the moment.

 

I wanted to check to see if I had been expelled from the school yet.”

 

Ah er…” he looked in he direction of the two exits from the classroom. She was riht in fornt of one of them, and could cut him down before he reached the other. The only other option was the window leading to the three storey drop. “No actually.”

 

Are you sure?”

 

I know what you’re thinking, but the school board. They believed it was best that the matter be kept secret. The idea was to speak to your parents, but we’ve been unable to get hold of them.”

 

They are still oput of the country,” she said simply. “And they are to know nothing about this.”

 

Thwe sweat laden teacher took another glance down at her sword and then tried to impose a smile. “Of course. Wh- watever you say.”

 

She let her own expression turn a little sterner and squinted at him. “Please do not asume to just agree with me for now, sir. I am stupid, but I am not that stupid.”

 

The smile stiffened up, and he edged along the table a little, grabbing it beihind him with his fingers.

 

Before I state what’s ging to happen, may I just clarify something?”

 

O-of course.”

 

Kiriyama,” she said, knowing that would catch the man’s attention. “He is responsible for you raising my test scores slowly over time. Is that correct?”

 

Of course, as you no doubt forced him too.”

 

I forced him to do no such thing!” she shouted, the man looking like he would wet himself out of fear. She breathed deeply. An old wound, now irrelevant.

 

Kiriyama’s actions were nothing I was not aware of untl recently,” she said calmly. “That matter is over and out of the way. You have nothing t fear from Kiriyama.”

 

O-okay,” the man stuttered, now starting to seem a little confused.

 

But you may still hav the potential to fear me.”

 

The man tightened up, the wrinkles aon his forehead increasing tenfold.

 

Thi is what will happened from now on,” she said, rememebring the list she had memorised perfectly. “You will stop attempting to contact my parents. You will tell the school board and the headmaster that you have dealt with the matter yourself and believe the situation to be best resolved. You will welcome m back into the class and you will simply act as if nothing is wrong in front of the other students.” She breathed in. “Are you with me so far?”

 

Yes. Yes of course.”

 

She grimmmaced. He was doing it again.

 

As for class, I will continue to attend when best it suits me. I will attend for minimal attendance to the best of my abilities. Regardless of this, you were still mrk me as being here. You will not ask me any quyestions in class and make no attempt to speak to me. And, for all homework and exams, you will assign me full marks for every test without fail.”

 

What… I…”

 

You will also specifically extend this privledge too everyone else in the class save Aki. She will not need it. While you shall not state it outright, it sould be made clear to all in the class that they are receving their high marks because you work under me now. That is wverything. Do you have any questions?”

 

No. None at all.” The man still looked braced to dash. She held her stern look. Se knew he was just going to agree anyway. Very well.

 

As I mentined before, I am not that stupid, so let me make it clear to you now, since you most ikely plan to simply tell all as soon as I am out of sight.”

 

She flashed stepped, acros the room and back again, landing on the table with Iziz unsheathed. The man flung himself forwards with the shock of her sudden disappearance and nearly slit his own troat in the process. . She held his collar, feeling the sweat on his back.

 

I am not stupid, and I am not as simple as you think. MY power is greater than anyone else’s in the school, and I hope this proves it.”

 

How… how did you-”

 

That is not yor concern. Just know that if you run I know what to do to stop you for every turn you make. My people are everywhere.”

 

She did not mean to lie. It had just slipped out, but it would help the illusion all the same.

 

If… if that’s the case, I have – I have just one question.”

 

That surpised her. She held Iziz against his throat. “What is it?”

 

Whatever that s you just did,” he spluttered. “If you ave that, then why do you need all this. Why do something so obvious and suspiious. Why not do what Kiriyama did and keep it subtle.”

 

Because I need to get to University at the very least. Your reccommendation will provide this. The test scores will help, and I simply have no need to be subtle about this.” She released him, his hands grasping for his neck in reflex.

 

He turned round to face her, and she watched him from outside the door. As the man glared round the class room to see where she had gone, she faded into the shadows of the corridor, leaving him to his work.

 

A second later, by the school gates, she looked back up and saw him catch her eyes.

 

This was definitely the easiest way to serve Sagara. Get into University. Graduate, and become his retainer. She would jump through all the hoops, but she would be the ne to decide how she got through them.

 

That is what Sagara wanted after all.

 

**

 

I’m not going to hav to chnge your name to Deus Ex am I?

 

And when all was over, no on missed the stupid uptight fat demon walk back on into Heavenly Srpings, stomping along on er bloated thighs as she descended the streets and into the secret palace entrance over one of the three coud use.

 

Of course no onewas going to notice with the streets now empty of al their awesome defenders but the lamp posts still took a moment to shout out a warning. Of course, with the ninja sleeping hat only left the litte girl who could see everything for no reason and all she ever did was listen.

 

And so the big fattie grumbled her way ast the palac walls, trudgig up the stairs while moaning about her back and plodding into the temple.

 

The automatic detection appartus activated immediately of course and she wobbled from side to side as she stood perfectly still,her eyes scanning across al the flames. They were all ignited now, save for the last one of course.

 

Ah, you’re back,” said the angel, sitting quietly in his tomb as she wandered past him scratching her behind.. “I was beginning to wonder wheryou had gone.

 

Someone had to go ge it,” the demon replied, her grotesque teeth reminding every dentist in the universe why they fought the good fight against tooth decay, at the same time remidning them how futile it was.

 

Odd you say that, it was here earlier.” The demon didn’t look back, but looked like it went at of the way to sound annoyed.

 

And you didn’t do anything about it. Yer idjit.”

 

Well it looked happy where it was.”

 

It ain’t supposed to look happy. It suppose to be here.”

 

But you brought it back right.”

 

Yer. For all the good it does.”

 

Raising her hands, the demon looked like it was actually trying to concentrate again, squeezing the air above its palms tightly. She coughed, and the little flame fluttered into existence, squeaking away unintellgienly as it floated back into existence.

 

Oh you hear that,” the angel said, making no effort to get up. “It has a name now.”

 

Yer, and it ‘ll make it a damned nuisence. Go on.” Shewaved her hand like shooing a fly and the flame dodged it layfully. “Get!” she shuted, and the flame stopped as the palace shook.

 

Easy now.”

 

I don’t gots to be easy,” she said right back. “I need it quiet so I can gets back.”

 

Oh, you’re returning to him are you,” the angel asked as it readjusted itself to get more comfortable,ending in the exact same spot of its coffin.

 

No one to get back to. The sword girl damaged ‘im too much. He had to go all the way back.”

 

My that is impressive. How long’s he had that body?”

 

Too long. A change will do him good.” The flame finally settled down, alnding on the wick of the cntre candle. As it fell into position, the remaining unlit candes shot up in flames, andeach one screamed in triumph before singing a melody no one could ever hear.

 

Shut up, all of you,” the fat demon shouted, swiping her hand as lupids tried to escape under where her triceps should be. She growled loud enough to scare most elevemtns ut of existence and they finally all sut up.

 

She slumeped away, heading for the opposite side of the room as the coffin. “And you too,” she shouted again. “Thought I were gonna miss you but that was clearly wrong.”

 

The blue coffin rose back up into place, its lid still wrecked by the Otsune’s girl valliant efforts to be as retardingly vandelous as possible. The demon sighed. “I just want to lie down.”

 

Ah yes,” the angel said again. “Sorry. Meant to clean that up. Never got round to it i’m afraid.”

 

You know what,” she said, raising her hand before beginning to pick up the remainingg pieces. “I don’t care anymore. I’m just want to sleep. That’s all. I’ll just lay down, and relax.”

 

That’s right, you get some rest,” the angel tried to console. “You’ve worked hard recently. It was all evil work, and I can’t abide one inch about everything you’ve done, but it was work none the less. And work deserves rest.”

 

You damn right it does- like you’d know.”

 

The coffins started to lowr as she fit her flabs into place. “Shut up!” she screamed one las time, picking up the remains of the blue oni head and fitting it over her own ugly face. With a final click, they fell into place in the ground and she felt the defences activate again, the fires sealing the room up and securing the Babylon gates once again.

 

The Other Fist of the Ninja Book 2

Book two Prologue

 

Itoko was blind. That never bothered her. What bothered her most was that other people could see her, but she could never tell where they were looking.

 

There were the little signs. The subtle swish of hair as a person turned, the air bouncing off their lips as they exhaled, even the smell from their arm pits as they shifted their stance was enough to tell her whether they were looking at top, middle, bottom or not at all. It wasn’t perfect though, and certainly not accurate. A person could give the impression that they be staring into right where her eyes should be but be doing nothing more than staring off into space as they thought about how the Giants were totally cheated out of their victory against Hiroshima at the last innings.

 

Itoko loved baseball. Not playing it of course, attempting to aim at a small spherical object coming at you like a cannonball was even harder for a blind person that felt vibrations all around her than it would be for a regular human with as much coordination as her. No, she loved listening to it, the tunes played at the stadium, the crowds all chanting as one voice, the scrapes as the runner’s sneaker reached the fourth base with a skid, but most of all she loved that final solid thwack of bat hitting ball as it struck out for a home run.

 

She was sure that no one else in the crowd would be able to see the ball after it gets hit and catapulted into the sky, so she never understood why people disappeared on her when she told them this.

 

Or why they would suddenly turn psychotic and try to kill her.

 

Like these gentlemen running behind her for instance.

 

She couldn’t recall how she had gotten to the bar, but it hadn’t taken the young priestess in training long to abuse the very loose underage drinking policy in effect there. She had got half a bottle down her throat before the inquisitive, lustful staring started to happen.

 

And it would always start to happen. The subtle turning of necks, the scratching, the bowing of heads in her direction but without respect or apology anywhere on the table. She just couldn’t understand why these rejectards did it! She was blind and she was hot! To sighted peoples standards anyway. That was all there was to it. Why hide the fact that you’re staring? Drink in deep, drunken men of the night life. Let your decadence flow out of your eyes and go into the directions that please you most. Drink deep, with the knowledge that this time only you are completely free to do so. Where few other women would let you, you are free to ogle this one. Appreciate the visual beauties that this one never will.

 

Freaks.

 

They weren’t free to do so really. She always she knew when their heads weren’t bowed. Perhaps they could sense that, feel cautious to about a blind girl who can still glide around tables and drunks without bumping into anything even when people fell in front of her for a quick chat, yet still make a fool of herself by heading straight for the men’s toilets (she should have guessed by the smell, but they must have been cleaned recently or something).

 

Being blind all her life made it hard to determine how people reacted when they saw things. Were they unsure of her, or was it immediately obvious? Very few people ever asked her if she was without sight, but that didn’t tell her if it was immediately obvious or just rude to ask. She didn’t know why she cared either way.

 

Wait.

 

If she knew there were only men in the bar then how did she not know there were men in the toilet?

 

And if there were no men in the toilet, how did she know it was the men’s toilet?

 

Oh right, the two girls.

 

The two girls she was running for her life from.

 

Were they girls? She was having trouble determining this, pounding the wall as she passed it, cursing as the small displaced impact slowed her down about half a foot a second, the light pitter patter of their footsteps unrelenting. Girls were usually lighter, generally quicker on their feet in the natural way that ninja did not use to make them go at lightspeed. They also weren’t tiring out. Men that light would have usually stopped because their books had been knocked out their hands by the bully who had swatted the literature for the sole purpose of sodomy and would be far too tired now to reach the alley crossroads.

 

This was the ninth time she had entered this place since reaching the city, and she cursed louder than the last eight times altogether. She hadn’t memorized the city. That was impossible when all you had to go by really was the size and shape of several thousand buildings, all roughly cuboid in shape and all roughly above ten feet higher than her field of senses. But she at least had a general idea…

 

No she didn’t.

 

Who was she fooling? Some brief impulse in her brain that told her she had radar senses? She struck the brick wall besides her again and got a quick flash of where the next turn was. She just had training, and a lot of good guessing, there was nothing in her ears at all that acted like a bat’s, and no little ball of magnesium or whatever it was that pigeons got given by the lords. Grabbing the drain pipe she just knew was there, she used it to swing round the corner into pure shadow. Complete darkness was no reason to stop. Not while her arm still itched painfully from that grip of that girl. Not while there was a chance of feeling that burn again.

 

Her balled up fist came up to the wall again, stopping an inch short when she could no longer tell how close they were. There was no way for her to tell where they could be. It was like that game- what was it called-, where’s kids sneak up on another kid who had to turn round randomly and if he caught them moving, they were out.

 

Yeah, this was sort of like that. Except they might not know where she was either, and if she did give the wall a whallop, she could show herself up right in front of them and then they would finally be able to…

 

Why were they after her anyway?

 

No one attacked the Bargainers. It wasn’t smart. It wasn’t tactical. It was social suicide. They were friends with everyone. No favour was ever done that wasn’t repayed straight away and no special privileges were imparted to those of either side. In a world filled with Demons and Divine, it wasn’t a case of being as paranoid as possible. That got you slaughtered. You had to relax and be nice to everyone, at all times, for any reason. She wasn’t the only one in her clan to be turning blind eyes to all the goings on. You could only survive by completely ignoring politics.

 

And those that had wanted to kill her were more like ants. But weren’t as many as ants. Probably weren’t as many as five, and unless one of them was a great sociopath or had finally snapped after the dilemma of finally meeting your long lost sister only to discover that she’s dead and it was you who killed her because you thought she was going to give birth to a Carver that could enslave the world just because it wanted to, then there was little chance of any of them going that far.

 

The Balance might have reason to. But she was one of the top eight. That gave her protection from that kind of thing. Plus, killing her would set the Lust demons going batshit loopy. The Balance usually tried to keep them occupied in the Six Dry Hells.

 

A rat sniffed at the edge of her bearings and buckled her into a run again. For just a little in that direction, she knew she was safe. And she’d know when she’d reach it that she’d be safe.

 

This alleyway was a ticker all right- whatever that meant. In her head it went in all directions all at once, and despite being only a block big you could get anywhere in the city by going through it, but only to where you wanted to go. It was nice and helpful like that. The only thing you had to do was get from one edge to the other.

 

It was just a good job she hadn’t tripped over anyone in here. The homeless were terrible talkers in this place and she wasn’t in the mood. What mood could she be in at a time like this? She shouldn’t even be stopping to think. It was supposed to be panicked running. Something shuffled towards her and it felt like an old, homeless drunk with a worn face and a whisky bottle being savoured. Running towards him at breakneck speed or the next fastest she could manage, she stormed by him as he muttered at her and spat something that disappeared from her field. Free booze now in hand, she twisted right towards the way he came from and belted towards it.

 

It was unlikely he had gotten that far into the alley, more than likely he had just wanted someplace nice to hide while he enjoyed himself. The alley could give that to him with about two corners and a dumpster belonging to no one. Of course liquor could have easily messed him up. It was certainly doing so to her, pounding in her brain and asking that she stopped shaking so much, her head hurt enough to give it shotgun therapy.

 

Times like this made her wish she had never brought the spear along, that big heavy, cumbersome phallic point that only got in her way when it came to twisting round corners. It would keep scraping the sides of the walls and knock her off balance and that was the one thing she needed to stay on at the moment.

 

For that matter, why were they trying to kill her?

 

Had she asked that already? Her mind was a dash, focusing on the next few seconds and not keeping hold of any of them. She took the next right, it feeling the smarter way to go and continued dashing, her breath heavy like a wet sandbag, her pace bouncing from cautious to sprinting and back again whenever she approached a wall. At this rate she would just bang into one, and leave them a concussed opponent to take out.

 

Seriously, she was on good terms with everyone at this moment! A misunderstanding with Methula had been cleared up by offering cheaper prices on service.  “She may be working with our enemy eternal but damn if she isn’t giving us a better discount because of it!”

 

“That’s what he thought, sucker.”

 

Talking made her realize just how short the end of her tether was coming up, the need to inhale deeper filled her lungs and made her wish her blood/ alcohol levels weren’t scarily close to being equal- not that she was drunk of course.

 

A sudden searing bolt of pain sprang out against her right leg. She stumbled, swung her arms back into balance and took a moment to notice the pain disappear instantly as she heard a loud clunk behind her. The loud clanging filled her ears and hid the walls for a few seconds before she skipped and hopped her way back into full blown running, and praised for her agility with a high speed wall.

 

Ah geez, a dead end. That’s what she got for falling unconscious on herself and losing the freedom of choice. At least she knew they were still after her, for whatever reason.

 

“Running out of room. Running out of breath. Running out of time.”

 

The voice hit her oddly, like she was a batter who had just swung a perfect hit only to realize the ball had never passed him in the first place.

 

Silence…

 

They weren’t nearby, but they were somewhere, hidden in any number of ways that even she, being completely blind and without a sense of taste, couldn’t detect. But she could only go back the way she came from. If only she had remembered to bring her spear, instead of leaving it in the room. She could have bounded passed all these rooftops with a single vault with it, barring the possibility that they were taller than twenty feet high.

 

It was possible that that could work…

 

“Oi!” she bellowed in every language, her sight fading as she screamed it away. “I need an out here right now!”

 

“You’re-not’gnna-get-it.”

 

A glimmer of doubt tried to seize her, but she evaded it and started running again, slamming hard onto wet footsteps and feeling the waves traveled further than the water. A new right appeared and she took it.

 

“I wish I may. I wish I might. I wish you never get an exit tonight.”

 

Of course if it was anything to do with that it would make sense why she was being chased. With two weeks since the end of the tournament, the Pride demons would be ready to strike back in their usual genocidal vengeance at all those that had wronged them (wouldn’t they be more ticked off being righted?) With Pride demons it was always as hard to tell as it was to have fun trying to tell and then counting the obvious hypocrisies and then trying to see how much you could sell them based on those things alone. She had to defeat three demons herself all for the sake of information, but all three were reported dead after being scattered. Even their masters were reported dead, and surely in all the ensuing confusion and ‘curse the false balance and all their interferences, our hate machine shall plough them with a contempt of a thousand bloodworlds’ they would opt to go after Sakimoto and her lot rather than someone who beat their Tri-sons into a pulp with such ease that she had already forgotten how many of them there were.

 

Mind you, her ‘friend’ at that dormitory had told her just the other night that the Heir had so far been getting on quite well in his life since the tournament had ended. Though now was a perfect time to take him out, she hadn’t heard of even a single rumour that suggested someone was taking the job. In fact, from what she had heard no one was even considering him at the moment. Though there was a bit of a buzz about another resident with a sword there.

 

A smell stopped her, clear and distinct where it shouldn’t have been. Her nose had been out of whack since the first five minutes when the sweat kicked in, mixed with alcohol and formed an alliance which let nothing else enter her nostrils. It smelt nice, chargrilled chicken with enough spice to make mouth water and fingers twitch.

 

This was good. Food was nearby, and unless someone had really wanted to get rid of a freshly prepared, exquisitely spiced, heavily burnt portion of chicken, then the exit was very close by. It would be better for her in public. Less likely for an attack to occur. She still had some change too.

 

Listening carefully with her best sense, she heard voices, murmurs, crowd sounds. Nothing distinct, enough of a rumble and rabble to tell her that that a series of meaningless, every night conversations were taking place in the forwards direction; relative safety. If anyone tried to attack her now, ‘they’ would know, and she’d have even more chance of escaping, though it probably meant that one or ten of the humans would die in the meantime if it took them too long to get here, perhaps even the guy selling chicken. That’s if these two went with the orgy of genocide path.

 

But what if it was ‘them?’

 

The wall stopped in front of her, her hand grabbing it and bringing them both to a halt. That wasn’t right. There were voices just ten feet in front of her and this wall was thick enough to hold the even the most domestic of arguments. She tapped the wall and got a feel for it, the waves traveling around both sides of her and cutting off at the edge of her sight, falling back into the path trod upon. She slipped back and wondered how it happened.

 

Clearly someone wanted her in here more than she wanted out.

 

There were two of them after all.

 

Though only one was actually behind her now, and she smelled good. Delicious actually, it would be worth giving up chastity just to get a lick of this one.

 

“Tell you what,” the girl said, with a voice bursting sadistically from her mouth. “We can do two things. One. You can scream all high pitched and freaked out and I can act all superior and domineering as I kill you in a dramatic fashion that will be heavily implied as the camera pans away from the shot and ruins everything with a pathetic crack of the neck.” The girl paused, as if to brace herself on a tightrope. “Or two, we can play a game of tag.”

 

Itoko thought it over a moment as she gasped for air, before remembering just what was happening. “Two sounds good.”

 

“I prefer four myself,” the girl replied. “Anyway. Screw your opinion. We’re doing tag. It’s pretty much the first one but without you going all beggy. I count to ten. You escape. Okay?”

 

Itoko ran passed the delicious smelling girl with a, “Take this as a yes!” and headed for the left she should have chosen earlier. If she had her spear the girl would have already been gutted and selling on eBay with no reserve price.

 

“Okay,” the girl chimed happily, before shouting out in bursts. “One. Two. Three.”

 

Instead Itoko was feeling along the wall around the wall to make sure she got past the girl. The heat coming off the girl was tremendous. The edges felt the only safe place.

 

“Five. Six.”

 

Crap. Time limit! Itoko burst into whatever her legs could manage, feeling her knees screaming at her after stopping so quickly before. She pushed them on, trying to remember which way she had come in from when a wall intercepted her nose, taking her to the ground with a thud and splash ,informing her of the perfect square that was now surrounding the two players.

 

Her nose smelt the blood, noticed the water disappearing into the air, slowing down and evaporating as if beamed away by from some super high tech spaceship that might consider saving her too if she had time to ask really nicely.

 

“Seeeevennn.”

 

She sat up, banging once and heavy on the wall, letting the charge go on full, feeling everything as they all burst with vibrations: the water beneath her feet rippling, the drainpipes rattling, a rat scurrying out of sight, and the large cube containing them all, cutting them off from everything.

 

“Eiiigghhhtt,” the girl said tauntingly.

 

Itoko exhaled. There was no where else to go. And no other option left. She jumped up and turned to face her invisible opponent, her actions pausing the count as she surprised the girl.

 

Only one choice left.

 

Slug the bitch in the face!

 

She leapt forward, the hazy blur of heat in her flight path and swung her fist back. It’d be the first time she hit something. She barely had time to stop and remember the moment.

 

“Nine-Time’s up,” the voice rattled out in a heartbeat.  Itoko stopped. Not because she wanted to but because her arm was no longer there to hit anything.

 

A fast craving for ice cream entered her stomach for just a second, because it was getting kinda hot. Impossibly hot actually. How many layers was she wearing? It really wasn’t the time to be thinking such things…

 

Her arm was gone, the wound already cauterized. She didn’t have that much time to notice because already the shoulder had vanished and was taking her concentration with it. She started to fall back but even that didn’t give her more than a few instances to feel her leg start to go, pain receptors failing to report because they didn’t exist anymore.

 

All feeling disappeared save the one of her soul rising away from her body as it crumpled to ash. She didn’t even have time to feel the last of her hand ebb away into nothingness as she floated for a few seconds, her head was already far gone, the ashen remains with nothing left to do but fully disintegrate, not even able to scatter through the dark alley winds.

 

***

 

The fire spirit watched the body crumple away, the flames ebbing just over the top of the concrete, never quite catching. This was good. No evidence. It needed not to leave a trace behind. That’s what had been told. That’s what it would do. It didn’t quite understand why it had to but it was easy enough. All it had to do was burn the body and the clothes, melt the metal, evaporate the liquid and atomise the gas. Leaving any trace on the ground was a no no. It would ruin the plan.

 

The plan it didn’t get it, but still a good plan all the same. Better than its plan. Its plan failed horribly. Stupid. Pathetic. Retarded! Nothing like this plan.

 

“That’s enough now.”

 

Sneak up on the boy who had evaded it at the last second. All its planning. All its waiting. Good plans were meant to involve lot of waiting, sitting patiently. Playing it cool for the last moment to strike. It should have worked. Why didn’t waiting for him work?

 

“I said that’s enough!” The voice caught its attention. Not looking up, it looked at the floor instead. Nothing was there.

 

“But there’s still the soul!“

 

“Leave it. It is part of the plan. Now we have to retreat back a few steps. Just like I told you. Remember the plan.”

 

Yes, the plan. Not its plan. Its plan failed. Could never have worked. It was no good at planning. At constructing things. At making strategic attacks. It thought it could. But it was wrong. This would be different though. Here, construction was key. Building foundations. It would build up what had been washed in. Pile it up, and set it to their standards. The plan made sense, even if it could not understand the plan. It knew it would work.

 

It was his after all.

 

“Coming, brother.”

 

Chapter one

 

To say that humankind had had its share of new discoveries in the past one hundred and fifty years would be an understatement. We have come to understand almost everything that is useful to us, from electricity and its practical applications in the home, to the atom and harnessing its powers to provide fuel much more efficient that what will have used previously (if not a lot more dangerous). With these understandings have come many reactions, as is the wont of our societies. We have those who become obsessed, who pick away and seek to discover more about what they already know. We have the critics, who would condemn actions as if hours of hard work were nothing, we have those who simply use the technologies we have discovered, then who abandoned them, those who profit from them, those who are saved from them and those who abuse them.

 

With all that we have discovered, humanity has been quick to abandon as well. Our religions of old gods have been replaced by a passion of the internet and a worship of the mobile phone. I had originally thought this to be an obvious step and, although I will admit I am still young and have much to learn, the primary way in which we were to eliminate the lies that plagued the past. Lies of gods, of devils, of those who took clay and created planets and men, and of those who poked spears into chaos and somehow made sense of it all.

 

Five years ago, I had predicted as part of my final philosophy project that the churches would have been abolished by now unless some form of major civil war were to occur to defend them. A foolishly passionate prediction, based on my personal desire more than any actual hypothesis, but not one without some merit. Belief in religious idols has crumbled. The eyes of God are fading. Yet now, five years on, I found myself forced to become a believer.

 

(And that’s just stupid. The last thing I am is a believer really. I’m a knower. The stuff I saw in the last week, in the last month, every since that idiot showed up next to me in the Hot Springs, how could I deny it?  I want to. But I’m a scientist (soon). My whole positivistic standpoint is based on what I see with my eyes.)

 

Demons exist, I know that much now. I knew that from the moment a giant wheel popped up from over the side of the hill and challenged our new resident Futabatei to a duel to the death the same way cartoon characters would. I have no choice but to accept it.

 

It’s quite intriguing actually. If I wasn’t so upset at the time, it would have been worth it to examine what I saw. Futabatei had explained that it had been an ordinary tire at first, more than likely from a truck considering the proportion of the thick tread. Then a spirit possesses it and controls the matter. I haven’t any real information on the spirit in question, except that it is clearly sentient and adaptable in its actions, as well as suffering from an outrageous personality. Futabatei refers to it as a demon of course, and I suppose that would be the best term for it in the meantime until I can acquire more data on the subject, and must I note now there has been no evidence so far that these creatures do actually descend from the depths of some kind of neatherworld.

 

(I have to make a point to myself to remain objective during all of this. Everything from the local shrine to the movie I watched last night has influenced a fictional idea of what a netherworld or hell may be like, but at the moment I can only class it as such out of speculation.)

 

The demons apparently possess their items of choice, and this item, as we found out later, can include living creatures, up to and including female teenagers with an Edo period fetish, through a ritual of animism. If what Futabatei says is accurate, (and despite the boy’s fifteen millisecond attention span until he sees a muffin, he is the closest thing I have to a reliable source on this) then all objects in the universe have a voice, a sort of rudimentary conscious or kotodama that is part of their design. It is this the spirit possesses and from it the inherent design of the object can be reconfigured.

 

Albeit this transconfiguration (word?) occurs slowly. Though I have no idea the duration it took for the tire to be transformed, there were very few changes in the fourteen or so hours that Yamanaka must have been possessed by the water spirit. The change was mainly centered around her emotions, specifically anger and rage, which may have been an individual factor to the spirit in question. OniSui, Futabatei has told me it is called. Apparently, his family is not just into sending perverts into Girl’s dormitories. They are into the raping of languages as well.

 

An Ogre of Water makes sense though. The spirit left taking a substantial amount of Yamanaka’s body with it, leaving her severely dehydrated. It would have also allowed the spirit to control blood flow, and thus affect emotions to some degree. I’ll need to study this the next time I head down the library.

 

The possession does appear transitory, the parasitic entity (perhaps a more scientific term than ‘demon’) appears to have only a basic hold on the victim, be it animate or otherwise, no matter how long the possession has taken place. It appears that a sound beating by a deranged psycho who has been groomed to believe himself above the law when it comes to violence is more than enough to remove the parasite, and leave the victim with only residual signs of being possessed in the first place. An analysis of the tire showed that it had, in a way that is still unknown to me, regressed back a state similar to what it was previously. Though still physically ruined, the markings and spikes that it had displayed previously appeared to have just vanished. Whether these were aspects that left when the spirit left, or some form of alchemic process taken from the tire itself, I am still unsure. From all my speculations, all I can surmise is that things that were there are now not, and Futabatei himself does not appear to have the answer on the one, other than it is the demon that has caused the mutation, which is obvious (Duh!)

 

It’s also of note (and all I can really do at the moment is make half biased observations at this point, the whole thing is cock assed by nature!) that when the demon is forcibly ejected from the item it does not die, and is not destroyed in any way that one would usually expect after years of America television and angsty comic artists. Instead they are merely left separated and completely powerless to simply repossess their medium or any other nearby potential medium. This suggests that that the possession requires a great deal of energy that would have been lost in the skirmish prior to exorcism. What energy in particular is used is unknown again to me, though considering the nature of the spirit that had been exorcised from Yamanaka, it may be based upon sheer willpower, which may have been further lost in the demons in question by Futabatei nature to make people want to give up by means of being annoying.

 

Though earlier I stated that although I were to call them demons, I had no evidence of a netherworld in which they may have come from, I do have first hand experience of another location where they at least reside, if they were not spawned there in the first place. For all intense purposes, I can only really call this place what Futabatei has told me the name is, and will refer to it as the In-Between Realm (hyphen?) from now on.

 

All information has been provided to me by a spirit creature (who is apparently not a demon) that is considered a guardian of the In-Between Realm. Since even the deranged ninja has deferred to him, I have to assume that that the spirit has some knowledge of what it is talking about.

 

The In-Between realm appears to be another plane of existence. Not so much a separate dimension, as all our laws of physics seem to apply there as much as they do here (as far as I can tell anyway), but more just a side route. The best thing for me to compare it would be in C.S Lewis’s Forest between Places, or simply a staircase at the side of a building. The fact that the entire layout of the In-Between Real appears to be ninety per cent poorly maintained office corridors helps me establish this to be the primary purpose of the In-Between Realm. Simply, it is meant to be a place to get from one place to another. The actual other locations so far alludes me, although I’ll hazard a guess at simply other places within the city, as the way we got in was different to the way we got out.

 

The dimensions of the In-Between Realm are approximately infinite (sigh). At least, in the sense of space that they regard, mainly consisting of a series of both parallel and non-parallel corridors that are roughly six feet wide and fifteen feet high. The corridors are made out of wood, nails and plasterboard. I wish I was kidding. Most of the corridors go on for roughly a hundred meters before breaking off into one of many turns that can lead in any other direction, often at a right angle, and further on into the infinite.

 

I could understand infinite nothingness, but Hilbert’s Grand hotel has remained theory for a reason.

 

Above the corridors are metal air vents, easily accessed at one of an infinite number of points. These vents don’t run parallel with the corridors below them and may fork off and lead onto other rooms. The vents are easily large enough to fit a person in, and from the rumblings I heard, though now I’m sure to be mere paranoia, show that they would be perfect for sneaking around unseen in.

 

The place also seems to house doors, which are littered haphazardly around the realm with little pattern to them. These doors, although they can just as easy lead to other adjacent corridors, can lead to rooms as well (surprise! What an observation! I am a genius.). The rooms are either built from other corridors, or simply continue to insult fundamental laws of science. So far I have come across rooms up to the same size of the corridors themselves, up to the size of stadiums. All of which are apparently self-contained and immune to a lack of structural integrity.

 

Though described as infinite, it now occurs to me that the only stairs I saw were in the stadium, and I am unsure as to whether these corridors are on a single level to themselves, or if the other day I was on floor 6,227,020,800. The possibilities for speculation here are endless, and the more excited parts of my brain are more than willing to help explode neurons uselessly in trying to comprehend this.

 

The In-Between Realm appears to be housed by a Guardian, though he had insisted to me that he was not the only one. I won’t even bother going into the description of this creature. Though it was clear it was not designed with Darwinism concepts in mind, I doubt Intelligence design would want to confess to making such a creature either. Caretaker may be a better name for these creatures, for their job appears to be one of janitorial maintenance of the corridors. Due to the sheer amount of the corridors, it is understandable why they don’t do a good job. Even so, it appears they can track anyone who exist in the realm via. a comprehensive electronic map that exists in their office, able to detail the presence of everyone in the In-Between Realm by detecting their souls.

 

If science could cry, it would have died of blood loss by now.

 

The Guardian also appeared to have a guardian for itself. It had lent me this fire spirit to help lead me home, and upon reaching Fuugosuki with me has either been unable to find its way back, or simply does not want to.

 

The fire spirit (again, because I have no better name that goes beyond floating flame or ball of fire that follows me into the shower and does not die die DIE like it should) is a medium orange flame that does not appear to require any form of combustible fuel save oxygen. It floats in mid-air, which can only be explained by a rapid burning of oxygen in the surrounding atmosphere and can control its temperature, having been able to rest upon my skin several times now with it causing nothing more than a sensation of mild discomfort

 

(yes, I know the problems with that, and I don’t care anymore) screw this, I can’t do it…

 

Wait, no!” Otsune screamed out, jumping back and knocking her chair out from under her, the sheet of recycled paper curling itself apart as it lit up like it had been drenched in gasoline. “No, no, no” she called out, taking the acrobatic glass of water resting on her study desk and toss it at the growing fire. With a ‘here I come to save the day’ the glass ejaculated its contents onto the crisp study journal and evaporated in a heartbeat. Stopping just as soon as she had started, Otsune stared down at the book that contained many of her private musings of the last year, realizing it would have been better if she had just slammed her hand down on the corner affected, rather than take out half of her precious journal, before glaring up at the flame.

 

“Get out!” she cried at the floating incendiary, swinging her hand to slap it and catching herself short of allowing herself stupidity. The flame hovered in the air like a bee who was caught between deciding if that giant fleshly thing in front was it was a beautiful flower full of precious nectar, or a war against a destroyer of bees that it had no chance of winning. Unlike the bee, it decided not to leave.

 

Otsune continued to stare defiantly at it, like some schoolyard bully who would see that she was not to be messed with, a force perhaps as strong as itself. She gave up quickly. This had been happening so many times now, and another ‘get out’ was not going to change its mind, not that it had one of course. Constantly burning all matter it touched, the little flame spirit couldn’t hope to contain one, yet something kept it following her. It wasn’t just an attracting force though. It had led her out of the InBetween Realm after all.

 

She needed to repel it somehow. Water hadn’t worked, at least not glasses of it. She could put out the extra fires it started but not the source itself. Otsune had played with the idea of trapping it in the freezer and leaving it, but she wouldn’t really be able to justify the repair bill. Even now she had the window wide open and the fan set to max pointing out of it in the hopes that just one time it might let its guard down and fly across before being catapulted into the air like a very confused cow.

 

She turned back to her desk, hoping to recover what was left of her journal. Luckily this was a new one, and so not many pages had been wasted, the ones that had though were ones that had already been written on, and yesterdays musings on Moore’s insensible mumblings about the most boring of processor limitations that it was amazing anyone could find interesting were completely ruined in fire and water. She wiped it down, the glass besides her beaming triumphantly at its victory that it knew the other glasses would never believe it about while the journal whispered sobbing thank you’s to it as it savoured its survival. Then, reaching for her pen and sitting back down, she let the tip hit the next clean sheet and watch the dab of ink soak into the paper.

 

‘The discoveries of humankind in the last hundred years have been limited, but not without great measu…’

 

She stopped, looked at the page for a few moments, then tossed the pen away with a loud groan and sat back, feeling her chair fall back behind her into a more comfortable position as she stared at first into space, before letting her eyes fall onto the flame, studying it for the septillionth time; no longer with the curiosity that she had given it before, which was a shame because if she had she would have seen the tomato spirit which guides the floating fireball, and if she had said hi in that one second, the tomato would have noticed and given her all the answers she had been looking for. Instead, she looked at it with apathy, like a prisoner staring at his cell door realizing that there really was no way out besides knocking and asking politely but damned if he was going to do that.

 

She gazed at the wondrous creature for a few seconds longer, then forced herself up suddenly, heading out for the door, determined not to waste time anymore.

 

***

 

“Where’s Sagara?’ Otsune bellowed, only to stop herself short when she realized no one was in the lounge area save a sleeping Aki. Feeling a little foolish, she snuck past the thankfully still sleeping girl with as much angry advancing as she could muster. She nearly reached the door to the small kitchen where Sakura usually resided, before turning back to her friend and placing a nearby blanket lightly over her. It was warm, but with men in the dorm now she probably shouldn’t let the young one expose herself like that. She stormed round past Aki again, shushed the small flame following her sarcastically, and headed outside.

 

Sliding the fusuma shut behind her, she listened carefully to the wind. The summer days were preparing themselves now, and they had sent humidity troopers in advance. She hadn’t really noticed that much inside, the wonders of AC protecting her, though she wasn’t really that hot. She never got hot, her body temperature able to adapt nicely no matter the climate. She already knew the springs would be crowded with the remaining tenants that had yet to leave since Gen’s arrival, and now one or two loitered outside as they chatted to each other. Hitomi and another girl she hadn’t yet learned the name of were in the middle of browsing a magazine together. The two stared at her oddly for a moment, as she tried waiting around to see if they did anything, presumably run or panic. But it wasn’t going to happen. She heard them giggle as she reached the corner.

 

They couldn’t see it either, it seemed. It was becoming the common result in her tests so far. Since she had returned from that stupid tournament that stupid boy had dragged her to (well, in honestly, it was Fujiko, who was insistent at getting her out of her summer studies, but it was still his fault over everything that happened next.) the stupid rumours and even stupider whispers were dying down. What started off as the worry and paranoia brought about by a huge demonic tire being found in the springs had been rationalised into an argument by the dorm’s chief martial artist and fitness freak against the new landlord’s eccentric cousin visiting.

 

She was able to accept that. Not many had actually seen the fight in the springs, and only six of them had seen the giant demon tire talk; the ones that had apparently seen Sagara running through the building babbling for his life hadn’t, it seems, seen the ball of energy floating after him either and put the devastation caused by it down to a mixture of things to her later, ranging from a brawl between two gang members hat had found their way into the building to a stray wolf which Setsuna insisted she saw. Their rationalizations seemed just as odd as if they said it was ghosts. An adapting mechanism in the brain, Otsune had decided was responsible for this, built into all of them that allows them to roll with the insanity of a world that promises them everything then gives them a nine to five job and also explains a giant tire wreck which no one was fussed about cleaning up.

 

What she hadn’t been able to accept was that they couldn’t see the fireball.

 

“AAAAAARRGGGHHH!” was what she had expected their reaction to be, as the flame defied all physics. At the very least, she expected the same stare she had given it when first they met. But all residents had denied its existence, even the smart ones and the ones with open minds and Hisa-chan who herself claimed to be psychic and gave them all tarot readings if they asked her without turning into a fit of giggles.

 

Instead anyone who had seen her so far had just stared at her with the ‘ohmigawd I can’t believe I associate with her’ crazy person look, which she was sure she wasn’t (though the only ones she had to back this up were people that were crazy, or at least deluded). And the worst thing is was that she couldn’t blame all of the ignorant fools. She must look mad slapping thin air, the stress of her work finally overtaking her. If they couldn’t see the flame as she could, if only a chosen/random few could, it must have just made her look retarded.

 

She didn’t like that.

 

“Hi, Hime,” she said, calling out to the quietest resident of Heavenly Springs, who was sitting on the porch as she looked ahead into space like usual. “Have you seen…”

 

Her words stopped short, her prey in front of her about twenty feet ahead, his guard up and ready to strike. He was shuffling on his feet, keeping them loose and flexible, ready to move yet hovering, his focus dead ahead, his guard like a boxer’s save his backhand was a little further back. Otsune knew little of the technicals save for what she had learnt in class concerning forensic investigations on bodily assault, but his stance looked solid, a little more solid than the swaying dancer she had since of Sagara Futabatei so far.

 

Soundlessly, he thrust forward, his hips shifting his shoulder, his hand clenching , his entire body weight being thrown into a punch that hit solid air that bopped loudly into the air in front of it. It looked powerful- no, dynamic. It was a smart punch, she could not say whether it as a hard punch without equipment or at least feeling it hit her own cheek, but it was being thrown in the best way possible.

 

Hisami hadn’t noticed her, or if she had wasn’t acknowledging her. The young short haired Okinawian just watched, legs bunched up and resting her head on her knees. She appeared focused on Sagara, though she could have just as much been staring dead into space, her eye’s half closed possibly in a nice daydream.

 

No one could have a conversation with Hisami properly, Fujiko had once told everybody, as it would require at least one real response from the girl and that it wasn’t worth trying in the first place because her answers were usually just ‘go away’.

 

Otsune thought differently, suggesting instead that one just had to ask the right questions, though she herself had found only one so far and that was, ‘Do you think the fence was doing something?’, which had elicited a remark about how the panels were arguing with each other about the state of the global economy and what price they should have been sold for, which was the best thing anyone had said to Otsune in months before Sagara had arrived.

 

The flame spun round her head as she sat down, trying her hardest not to waft it away and possibly set fire to the girl sitting besides her. As much as she needed to talk to him, experience had told her that she did not get a good answer off martial artists in the middle of their practice. Sagara wasn’t going to answer her properly anyway, she knew that. But she should give him as little excuse as possible not to.

 

“Have you…” she went to say to the girl sitting besides her, wanting to fill the gap but unable to find anything to say that wouldn’t just sound like ridicule. All the girls loved to tease Hisami lightly and talk behind her back about how odd she was and Otsune as the eldest had always tried to keep away from such thought. In the end she couldn’t find anything good to come out and just sat there with a half finished sentence at the end of her lips. Hisami didn’t seem to mind.

 

She didn’t noticed how quiet it was until she stopped shuffling. Around the back here even the music that wafted out of most windows was drowned out by the empty air and conversations that must have just been twenty or so meters away were unheard of. Even the animals were quiet; the cicada silent, the birds gone.

 

It made her realize just how quiet Sagara was being.

 

Each thrust, each twist, hitting fast and violent in the summer air, taking out invisible opponents with no feel to them, so quiet one might be surprised to find there was blood pumping through the arms that carried them.

 

Again and again, his arm shot across, each one trying to be better than the last. He would have been much better with some kind of pad. Otsune had suggested the idea to him once randomly, but he had gotten confused, asking why would he need to punch something soft. She had tried to flick his ear for that and nearly got countered for her actions. Her own fault. One does not punch a Rottweiler. Still, it was impressive how quiet he was making himself.

 

Was he trying to ignore her?

 

She got up, stepping passed Hisami and onto the grass he was slowly destroying with every twist of his heel. Why should she have to wait for him to finish? The moron would probably run off as soon as he was finished. She’d have to grab him now, question him and perhaps get an answer for a change.

 

“Good evening, Otsune,” a voice startled her to her left. She swung round with a gasp, her legs jumping back as she noticed Fujiko sitting there in front of her, hiding behind one of the big rocks that covered the ground for no reason beyond decoration and inconvenience. Besides her was Sake, her close friend and personal confident that was always there with an answer.

 

“What have we agreed about talking to Sagara?” Fujiko said, with a sweet tongue.

 

“Nothing” Otsune replied; deadpan. “We discussed plenty, Fujiko. I agreed to nothing.”

 

“That’s not true. I do recall you admitting that the moron doesn’t know anything.”

 

The twist pissed her off. “And yet that does not translate to me agreeing not to keep asking him.”

 

“And yet it would be the logical progression.”

 

“Progression implies that something is moving forwards.” Otsune rebated. “And unless I’ve missed something, which I really, really hope I have, we’re at exactly the same spot we were two weeks ago with just as little answers and no reasons to believe I should do anything else save pester him until he gives me an answer.

 

Otsune turned to look at the weirdo, vainly thinking that perhaps he might have gotten the jist just once and be more than happy to help. It looked like he wasn’t listening. To anyone else, it probably looked like he was ignoring her. But nope, to her it was clear  he was just plainfully retarded.

 

“He’s not just going to start remembering,” Fujiko said listlessly.

 

“Well, he better!” she spat at her friend. “Tina is missing, Fujiko. Lost in that bizarre world where giant rooms don’t need any support and martial arts tournaments are incredibly popular. I would think that someone would have considered this important by now. But noooo, German person we all barely know has just wandered off for two weeks on her own with no explanation. I see no reason why we shouldn’t just help Otsune-sama find her ward even a little. Why, that would get in the way of our delicate little schedule of binge drinking every single day away!”

 

“And what can I do to help that I already haven’t?” Fujiko answered calmly, though Otsune guessed she had struck a nerve simply because she was being calm, the same way a lion calmly asks a rabbit to leave it the fuck alone. Otsune caught herself and calmed down again.

 

That wasn’t the first time they’ve had that exchange, and both of them were becoming exasperated with the whole endeavor, Fujiko perhaps less so than Otsune. To be fair and non-shouty, Fujiko had done her bit, posting queries on websites and trying to get into contact with the girl’s parents, but most paths had come up fruitless and she had ended up finding more flavour in her drinks. Otsune had wanted to ask for Sakura’s help as well, but the girl had been aloof non-stop the past two weeks for some reason.

 

Otsune didn’t say anything for as moment; her brain was racing through the options, the smartest mind in the dorm considering all the options as best she could. Hisami perked her head up for a split second and rushed off round the corner like an oven was on. Otsune had already tried going back, but Sagara wasn’t helping her and the series of abandoned buildings that had held the way just fourteen days ago had turned into a thirty floor apartment complex owned by a old man with a hearing problem and a penchant for loud baseball programs.

 

The police were even less helpful than the inanimate, though she could understand their position. They had calmly sat her down and listened to her plea, even had her write down a statement and waiver a little on process (a few of them knew her after all), but even they couldn’t help out the way she wanted when it was determined that she had no proof that Tina existed. Wherever her friend from overseas had gone in that world, she had taken her bag with her, apparently with her passport, green card and all other essentials that proved she existed as a genuine person and not a figment of Otsune’s overworked imagination.

 

Otsune thought she would at least have a picture of the girl, but there had just been no reason to take one. The girl never came out with them no matter how interested she tried to look, understandable after being attacked by the local madfolk. And she had been keeping in her room the best she could anyway. Otsune could only hope that somewhere along the line she had finally had enough and decided to head back home, but until she could confirm that answer, all that was left was-

 

“Would you stop punching?” she screamed. “What kind of freak spends five minutes whacking the carbon monoxide he spits out again and again and again?”

 

Hisami appeared from around the corner, carrying a plate with cake on it that Otsune recognized to be her favourite strawberries with cream. Sakura usually made them for her on a Sunday, but the little cook had been in overdrive lately and Hisami was starting to look just a little chubbier because of it. She sat back down, staring back where she had been, Sagara no longer in her gaze.

 

“Actually it’s more like two hours since he first started. Unless he stopped since I fell asleep,” Fujiko pointed out.

 

“Just stop, okay, Sagara. Just stop.” She stood near enough so that one might be worried of hitting her if they continued as they were. Sagara threw one more punch out, making her flinch back, and then rested.

 

“If you want me to,” he replied, a small glaze now shining on his forehead but not enough to imply he was tired.

 

“What I want from you is to know where Tina is.”

 

“You’ve already asked me-“

 

“I know I’ve already asked you that. I know I’ve already questioned you on where you saw her last. I know that I’ve quizzed you a thousand times on trying to get you to remember what she even looked like-“

 

“Was it a thousand? Thought it was eleven.”

 

“- but I’m going to keep asking until I get a response.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because I need to know where my friend is, okay?”

 

“Shush!” a voice distracted them all, Hisami glaring at them as though she had been interrupted from her reading. The three of them stared back at her for a moment, before Otsune felt an urge to apologise and kept her voice down.

 

”If you want to, but I’m going to keep answering the same way,” Sagara replied before falling silent. It was like he stopped working, just looking straight ahead, her body being in the way not an issue.

 

The urge to garrote him with his own tongue subsided quickly, more out of her immunity due to constant exposure to the urge than out of a desire to stop it. Velvet tongue surrounded by iron teeth! There was no need to continue this. Two weeks had been enough.

 

“Come on Fujiko,” she said, turning away and heading back towards the entrance. “Let’s get out of here.”

 

“Not that I have any intention of moving- with my beautiful alcohol bloated legs, but where are we going?”

 

“We need to do some progressing.”

 

Chapter Two

 

Natoko had been concentrating, her eyes shut, her mind focused, held as tightly as her blade. Iziz dropped, but never drooped, the tsuka loose, flexible, always secure. The two worked each other.  Her mind, her weapon; moving in perfect synch to the gentle whims of the evening’s wind. Moving together, breathing together. A perfect fusion. Mind and matter, not one over the other. Perfect cohesion, all for that one-

 

“3/x + 3/2x = 2,” Aki bellowed, slapping all focus away like a drunkard with a fly swatter. Natoko faltered, the sword slipping a few centimetres down. Definitely not there yet.

 

“What was that, Aki?” she asked, opening her eyes and realising it had gotten darker since she had them last open.

 

“I said, 3/x + 3/2x = 2. What is x?”

 

Natoko sighed. “I don’t know.”

 

“Well, then figured it out. If it all equals two then it’s fractions right, and if you have to divide both numbers by three but one is more than the other then that means-“ Aki cut herself off at the moment Natoko hoped she wouldn’t. The more questions the smart girl of the duo accidentally answered for her the better.

 

“Look. We’ll do it later, okay,” she said after a brief gap in speaking. “I have training now.”

 

“No, we do it now,” Aki said unrelenting. “You’ll just go back to your room again and not let me in. You have to get this done, Natoko. We’re back to school in a few days.”

 

“And I will get it done, just not now.” Or ever, was what she wanted to say.

 

***

 

From the floor to the ceiling, Natoko’s eyes wandered, her mind adrift with the distractions of the everyday. This was always the best time to let them out, she had decided a while ago, when they wouldn’t bother anybody, and no one would bother her.

 

She looked to the dark area of her room (the entire room was dark, but that part was  an extra shade darker) where her schoolbag resided, and quickly looked away again, trying to focus on something else. She didn’t want to go back to school. The learning was one thing, to learn new things was of strict importance to a samurai, to build on understanding and knowledge in all things was what made a warrior great when their sword was not in their hands. And there was so much for her to learn.

 

But the classes. They were so boring. Of course she had long since come to the same conclusion that every other student had in that the only clear reason for them to participate in class was to render their soul useless. Of course, no one could admit this, and to do so would be both considered weakness itself and an excuse for the teacher to cart you off to the counsellor’s office, where you would be convinced that classes were necessary through a strict series of brainwashing talks. She had discovered this when many finally broke in front of her, usually in the form of some adolescent rebellious act involving the school wall and a can of paint, only to reappear later on  all happy and nice, their minds firmly resolved to continue their studies. Happy little peons.

 

The biggest of her problems now would be the school’s presence in her life. Unlike last year, she didn’t need it anymore. With her new position as retainer firmly established, she knew she should dedicate herself to that. But school was demanding eight of her hours per day. Eight hours wasted sitting in classrooms, staring out of windows (if she was lucky enough to get a window seat), wanting to be outside while hoping the teacher doesn’t turn on you. Eight hours forgetting things as soon as they enter because other things are pushing their ways in. There was no stomaching that. Her life was at much risk there as it was in an alley fighting some lava demon. At least with the demon she had a duty to fulfil in despatching it. Could she do that whilst cleaning up the homeroom after class? A terrible pain seized her at the thought of returning, a sickening dread that had already resigned the torture as inevitable. To let it happen would be unforgivable of herself.

 

Her thoughts were distracted as she heard mumbling down the corridor. Voices were whispering to each other, though she could only hear one telling the other to be quiet. Two of the girls returning late at night. Ever since Grandma Futabatei had passed on, they had been slipping like this more and more. Not that she ever imposed any rules. It’s just that everyone knew to be back before late.

 

Though the need for that rule had been getting more stringent as well lately.

 

“Sorry!” A thump, loud enough to wake all the nearby residents sounded throughout the corridor. Natoko sat up as she recognised Sagara’s voice through the darkness. At first she thought that the girls had fallen over each other in their late night drunken stupor, but heard merely an ‘it’s alright’ before their footsteps died off in the distance. Sagara’s however were coming closer and closer and it wasn’t long before two blobs of darkness appeared under her door blocking out the hall light.

 

Without understanding it herself, Natoko shot back down and hid under the cover like a child. Slowly, creaking every crack he could out of the doorway, Sagara slid the door open, loud enough to wake her up were she asleep and clumsy enough to make her question once again just why he referred to himself as a ninja.

 

What could he want at this hour? He had somehow acquired his own phone recently so he should know to contact her on that if he needed her for anything serious- not that he ever had, and if he wanted a late night sparring session, well…he had never done that either.

 

He didn’t come here for… that, did he?

 

No, no, that was just silly. She shook her head awake, trying to clear up thoughts that just seconds ago were thinking of school and were now pondering on similar adolescent thoughts. This wasn’t what she should be doing. She was samurai, her focus should be swift and pure, ready for nothing but the command- to spring into reaction when ordered. She got up, sitting straight and looking at where his emerald eyes would be were it not so dark, and did her best to act as if she was just woke up but was already ready to go.

 

“What do you need?”

 

“Oh, I need plenty,” he said, staring down at her. For a second Natoko felt very light headed, the temperature rose round her neck sharply and her stomach disappeared. It was hard to see him, his face obscured by darkness. She knew he was looking down at her with a greedy look on his face, a lust born of-

 

“Air, food, water. A shelter’s good too, but not really necessary.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Other things too, I suppose. Though right now, I need you up and ready to go.”

 

“But…but we” she felt flustered, her lips now only half doing their job, chattering wildly as if freezing even though she felt she was wearing far too much. This was…well, she had sort of- but not exactly like that, and not so simply. It would be wrong- so very wrong… “Isn’t this a little quick?”

 

Sagara looked perplexed, or at least his outline did. “No? No, if anything this is slow. When a demon shows up you need to move as quickly as possible really.”

 

“A demon?” Her stomach returned. Feeling relieved, she jumped to her feet and threw her covers aside. Iziz, her sword, was never beyond an arm’s reach if she could help it, and neither failed the other now as she took hold of it and wrapped it around the tying of her dressing gown as best she could. It dangled very loosely, but held its weight against gravity.

 

“Don’t know how it got in, but I can’t let it stay about like this,” Sagara said nonchalantly, wandering back out her room and into the corridor like he was just going to get a drink.

 

“Understood,” she said, feeling the urge come up within her. “What are your orders?”

 

“I don’t have any,” he said.

 

“Then… why did you wake me up?”

 

He paused. The question seemed to confuse him for a moment and he looked to the floor as if it had the answer. “I don’t know.  That’s odd.”

 

“Well, we should get going anyway,” she suggested, realising that he intended to muse over it for as long as it took him to figure out. ”Where is the demo-“

 

Click.

 

Click? The light went out, plunging them into darkness, Sagara disappearing from sight. Her hand went to Iziz, knowing full well where it was, keeping it clutched tightly.

 

“Huh, looks like it went for the power.”

 

“The generator’s not far from here,” she pointed out, blinking rapidly in an attempt to adjust. “Follow me.”

 

“Okay,” Sagara said and shot off passed her, luckily in the direction she had intended to take him. Being on top of a hill like this meant isolation easily during blackouts and heavy snowfall, so the place had one installed a long time ago back before she got here.

 

She followed, sword in hand to prevent it from rocking. It was easy to follow this place in the dark. Many restless nights she had wandered its corridors in search of something to do, never really finding it before now.

 

Her room was on the first floor, but on the side of the building where the generator’s shed lay. They had to move fast. There was no way that the other residents would all be asleep just gone midnight, though most wouldn’t notice unless they were watching television.

 

She had already heard a few mumblings, and Junko was already wandering out of her room when she passed her, a small bear dangling from her hand as she asked what was happening..

 

“Power cut. Stay in your room until it’s sorted. Futabatei’s already aware of it.”

 

“Alright,” the girl replied with a yawn, and slipped back through her door. Natoko felt impressed with herself, and moved on. It was just passed the back entrance and through the garden until-

 

“Sagara?”

 

She stopped, no longer sensing his presence. His feet had been thumping the ground hard enough to crack the floorboards and wake the dead beneath them but now she heard nothing but the murmur of a few students, unsure of what was going on.

 

Well, he was a ninja after all, all current evidence notwithstanding.

 

She stepped through the exit, feeling the cooling wind of the night. Just as well it was summer or she’d be freezing in her dressing gown. The temperature would be perfect for a fight. Not as humid as it had been getting lately.

 

He may have been a ninja, but he was still Sagara.

 

She quickened her pace, passing over the grass and reaching the shed which housed the generator. She had never actually been in here, none of the dorm had except perhaps Otsune. They had never had to use it.

 

But she always knew it had been locked. The padlock on it was so large and thick that it looked like overkill, especially when the door itself was a simple, easy to kick down wooden one. It didn’t matter now though, since the lock was missing and the door was half open; not broken though.

 

Bracing herself, she rested her hand upon the hilt of Iziz and bent backwards, lifting her leg and resting her foot against the door ready to push it the rest of the way. The door creaked open to reveal absolutely nothing, swarming out towards her and filling her with mild disappointment. Making sure it was safe with a careful glance at all the corners, she stepped through the door and into the generator room.

 

It was immediately crowded, the large assortment of piping hot gauges and pipes filled three quarters of the room, giving her two feet to work with. The moonlight shined in through the open door filling what was left between the rusted cylinders with enough light to illuminate the place. She was pretty sure she could see the room through the misplacement of pipes.

 

She relaxed her grip. Part of her kept thinking this was a game what with no danger having occurred yet, but she reminded herself that this was a demon that they were contending with. Invisibility probably wasn’t even a sweat for these monsters, and she had to rely on all her senses to make sure one could not-

 

A sheet of paper hung in front of her, stuck against a dial. The sheet of paper read:

                     All Dorm’s power on:

 

                     All dorm’s power off:

 

It was switched to off.

 

Had Futabatei put it on? It seemed far too crude for Grandma to have bothered. But with all the levers and switches, Natoko felt that a qualified engineer would have trouble making sense of all this. Her hand reached for the dial. She hesitated.

 

Wouldn’t it be better if she left it as it was? That way she could operate in darkness. Use the shadows as covers, and then-

 

No! She was not some depraved twisted coward who hid in the petty shadows of the night and sunk knives into unwitting prey. She was not a weakling who could only face her opponent from behind. She was samurai. She was honour. It would be nothing more than pathetic, a travesty. She would not hide. She would not sneak. She would turn the switch on. She would find the dog who hid in the shadows. She would expose him for his weakness, and then she would-

 

“Got your wallet.”

 

Her body ceased to live. Cold and hard it fast became like rock locking her deep in place, unable to escape from the knife. Tight as a collar around her neck. Her throat contracted, feeling the tip daring her to let it pierce the skin.

 

“Well, you don’t actually have a wallet. But you do have a sword.” The voice, male, was a fast speaker, but still sounded old and gruff. “Try to take it, and I’ll take your neck. Understand?”

 

No. No, there was not understanding. How dare this, this monster hold her hostage like this? Did it think to bring her into shame by striking so cowardly from behind? If so it had succeeded, but she would not allow herself to become so easily humiliated, even if that meant-

 

“Yes,” she wheezed, as the arm around her neck squeezed tightly, pressing against the back of her neck and throat at the same time, making her feel like she would immediately pass out. She croaked, more like a frog than to her liking, and breathed in deep when he loosened up on her.

 

“Now, what are you doing here, demon?” the voice asked, still reminding her that knife was trained on her neck should she so much as grow an adam’s apple.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Are you after the Enforcer’s heir?”

 

“You mean Sagara?” That was one of the many hundreds of titles he had used on himself she was sure.

 

“So you confess you know him?”

 

“Yyessss,” she hissed.

 

“Ahuh,” the voice responded, sounding sarcastically unconvinced. “And how would an innocent dorm student be aware that he was considered the Heir to the role of the enforcer.“

 

“If you…” Her loosened up again. “If you had ever met him, you’d understand perfectly.”

 

The hand and knife relaxed a little. Natoko wanted to slip free but knew better.  She stared at nothing but the tree directly in front of her, the only way she could look. “I guess that’s good enough for me.”

 

She felt the pressure lift from her. Stepping forwards she quickly turned around, to come face to face with man about a foot taller than her dressed in all dark grey, but with enough slings and pouches to make it look like he was ready for any situation. She couldn’t tell the colour of his hair and he wore big sunglasses that covered up his eyes. He wasn’t putting the knife away.

 

“You’re not a demon?”

 

“No I’m not.”

 

“Sagara said there was a demon.”

 

“That’s because there is. I thought it was you.”

 

“No, I’m his retainer.”

 

“Oh, that’s you, is it? I heard about you. What was your name again?”

 

“You’ll excuse me if I don’t give my name to a stranger.”

 

“Oh right.” The man was clearly foreign. “Name’s Steve Prince. I’m with the Balance. You’ll have to excuse me. I’m no good with formalities. I always screw it up, especially when I’m with samurai.”

 

Natoko felt a little elation in her heart. She didn’t know she was becoming this popular, and so quickly too.

 

“I”m Yamanaka Natoko, pleased to meet you.”

 

“Right. As absolutely fantastic as it is to meet you, we should get moving. The demon is probably still here. You should lead the way.”

 

“Understood.”

 

“Stay ten feet ahead of me at all times. I’ll cover the rear. Alert me the second you see anything. We don’t know what this thing can do, so we need to be on top of our game here. Got that?”

 

“Yes sir!” she barked, already into action, the urge to fight right now exploding out of her.

 

“Good, you’re a sharp one. I admit I was a little worried.”

 

“I’m a samurai,” she said coolly, keeping her senses high. “It’s what I do.”

 

“I can see that. Good, that’s good.” His voice trailed off, and she felt him disappear behind her. She headed off in front of him as ordered, looking to the roofs. The demon would probably be looking to keep to the dark places and strike when they were completely off guard.

 

“Oh, you’ll want your sword back as well,” Agent Prince said, passing Iziz back to her. Taking it to slip back into her gown’s belt, she felt it droop and caught it before it clattered to the floor.

 

“Oh that’s right,” she muttered to herself. “I had it-“

 

Her eyes looked to her blade, to find only the scabbard in her hands, the handle missing from the top. She hesitated, her brain slipping into neutral and coasting as she saw the tip of her weapon glint in the moonlight as it hovered besides the agent’s head, both of them staring directly at her.

 

“Sorry,” said the agent, holding her own blade ready to stab her, “but you completely deserve this.”

 

***

 

Natoko closed her eyes, not that she wanted to, but it’s became very hard to hold them open when they both knew one of them was going to be missing in a moment. She couldn’t believe how she had allowed it to happen, to be completely taken advantage by someone like that. Of course why he had let her go only to kill her a few seconds later was also confusing for a moment. But only for a moment.

 

Because that’s all she had.

 

She heard a grunt, someone trying to move a heavy piano up a flight of stairs, then a cry in the air as something fell down from above,. The ground vibrated, losing her the floor beneath her, only to meet it a second later as Sagara’s back flashed before her eyes, before shooting up in a cloud of dust.

 

“Didn’t we agree?”’ Sagara shouted to her, hidden behind the cloud of dust.

 

“Huh?” She had meant to say something more intelligent.

 

“Didn’t we agree to call each other if we found something?”

 

“No.”

 

“Really?”

 

“No, you just- you just disappeared.”

 

“Really? Oh,” he said, shooting out of the dust cloud not of his own accord. “Well I meant to. I’ll remember next time.” He got back up, his fist glowing as he fell into stance. He was wearing the weird gauntlet again. Natoko hadn’t seen it all that much, not since the fight the Dark Scourge. She always wondered where he kept it. He always seemed to have it on him.

 

Charging back into the dust cloud, which Natoko noted shouldn’t still be there, his right fist  pulled back ready to strike at whatever he could see first. As he disappeared, Natoko felt the regret of being unable to join in. Without her weapon, she’d get in the way. The sheath might have be able to club the enemy like a bokuto but it would simply fall in two if it came into contact with Iziz. No choice but to wait, ready to strike when the enemy came out, perhaps an unsuspecting blow to the head would teach him for ever daring to take Iziz off her like that, however he may have done it.

 

Then she heard clanging. Tempered steel against forged iron. It was using her sword!. The strikes wounded the air, she felt the powerful blowback hit as Sagara came tumbling out again, this time staying on his feet as he fell out with cries of, ‘Whoa!’

 

She stopped him just short of falling over backwards, looking back into the dust cloud like he had never gone into it, with only one difference.

 

“I’ll be holding onto this for you,” the agent said, swiping the air with Iziz and cutting the dust away. Now the demon had Sagara’s gauntlet encased over his right hand. Sagara casually stared down at his own right hand, unable to tell when he had lost it.

 

“Oh yeah,” he said like he had just remember he had been told to mow the lawn. “You guys can do that, can’t you?”

 

“Well, we cannot suck if that’s what you mean,” the agent said, a grin on his face as he stared down on them like a jackal. There was a cigarette in his mouth now that Natoko was sure hadn’t been there earlier. When did he find the time to?

 

“What is he?” she asked, hoping for at least a little more information to go by.

 

“Greed demon,” Sagara answered simply. “Everything it is is about stealing and taking. It’ll even appeal to your ambitions and abuse them.”

 

“What? My ambition is to be ordered around?

 

“That’s what you told me.”

 

“Guys, guys,” the agent called out. “Can you just die already? I want to be heading back soon.”

 

“See? ‘Want’. Everything it does will be based on that.”

 

“Right!” she barked, understanding and setting herself up to fight.

 

“Not need though. What you need isn’t considered being greedy. But don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s something you need but you really don’t because it’ll work on that as well.”

 

“Right,” she barked again, trying not to look at him.

 

“Oh, and stuff that you do need like water but in excess, that counts too. So make sure you-“

 

I know what greed, is Sagara!” she cut him off, as the demon’s hand wrapped around her throat and lifted her into the air. Hair started ripping out of the scalp as she stared straight into the eyes of the agent, the two of them shooting through the air like a cannonball. Her hands struggled to lift themselves, the g-force fighting against her as it impaled her into the building behind.

 

Natoko spat involuntarily, her legs giving up before putting up a fight and slid down the wall behind her, her hair scratching against the back of her head like sandpaper.

 

“I’ll be taking that life of yours too now, young lady,” the agent said

 

Her eyes shut again, her new iron collar trapped her, Iziz now above her, ready to finish what it started. To have it all end by her own blade was one way she had imagined going, but not like this…

 

She wouldn’t die like that!

 

But she couldn’t move either, so the choice was no longer hers. All she could do was nothing.

 

Then another loud clang, letting her breath again, a groaning sound collapsing to the floor. She didn’t dare open her eyes, forgetting when she had shut them, her lungs taking the moment to fill themselves back up.

 

Slowly, they opened, a little at a time, looking to see her saviour, standing above her with a grin on his face, but instead the only one that was there was Sarah.

 

“Yo, Kendo? Is this the guy responsible for ruining my high score?”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

That’s not who should have saved her.

 

“I’m asking if this ‘secret agent man’ is the one who pulled the plug right as I was reaching the end of the final battle against Rugal? Because that’s not easy you know.”

 

The little eight year old (ten year old? Natoko didn’t know) was glaring at her with the pissed off little girl glare that Sarah had given her since they first met and seem to have no intention of changing anytime soon. In her hand was a steel pipe she was using to pin Steve’s head to the ground. She looked down on Natoko like she expected the samurai to never get up.

 

The secret agent was unconscious on the ground.

 

“Whoever gets in the way of my rivalries suffers torments unimaginable, you know that?”

 

Natoko tried to clear her head. Why was she getting sleepy now when she was so restless earlier?

 

“Yes. Yes, I think he’s responsible,” she answered numbly.

 

“Then why the crap haven’t you pounded him into tar yet.”

 

“I…I didn’t know what his abilities were. If i…”

 

“Are you a moron? The guy’s not gonna give you a list, and it’s not like it’s gonna be any different than what you do with anyone else you hit. It’s simple. Hit for the legs for mobility, arms for disarming, head for severe concussions and laughs.”

 

“Right I-“ the world blotted loudly, the blue in her eyes sang crescendo.

 

“Huh? You alright?” the little girl asked,  still sounding annoyed rather than concerned.

 

“Yeah I’m,”

 

“Yah I’m…”

 

***

 

“Don’t rip it off!”

 

The call of a voice woke her up, along with the cool night air all warm and tangy. She shifted slowly as she let herself fall back into a snooze, before remembering she had just been saved by a small child and bolted upright again.

 

Besides her was the agent, all tied up in more rope than she knew they had at the dorms. She couldn’t even see his arms.

 

“Why?” Sarah asked. She could see the young girl in the generator shed. The girl had apparently found a light switch that Natoko had missed because she could see the inside of it clearly. The room that held all the power shone brightly as the little girl’s hand hovered over the lever next to the sign saying,  ‘dorm power on/dorm power off.’

 

“The lever controls the power, and the sign controls the level. Rip it off, and we’ll have to find another way to turn it back on for you.

 

“Oh don’t be ridiculous . We’ll turn it back on all the same.” As if to spite, Sarah went for the sign first, pulling it off and ripping it to shreds in a heartbeat. She waited a moment, as if to make sure nothing would explode, then flipped the switch.

 

Nothing happened.

 

“Well, I told you,” the agent said, looking pleased that Sarah had failed. Sarah didn’t looked pleased at all and advanced on the bound helpless man, delivering a kick square to his groin before he even had as chance to beg for his future children’s lives.

 

“I was wrong, by the way,” a voice said to the other side of her as a grown man screamed in agony at the foot of a small child. She looked up to see Sagara, fiddling with the screws on his gauntlet as he slid it back on. “He wasn’t a greed demon.”

 

“He wasn’t?” she replied, showing concern where none existed. She had passed out. She had actually passed out. What was her body thinking, doing something so weak at a time like this?

 

“Ah, kendo,” said Sarah, who had just noticed her after playing with the lever. “Congratulations. You are officially this year’s biggest wuss.” Without another word, she turned back to the levers and started playing with them, trying to find which one would magically bring the dorm back to life.

 

“I-“she wanted to hide, but she felt sick and groggy, and her legs were still a few minutes behind her, the man beside her still cursing under his breath wiggling desperately to get free. She tried to focus on that.

 

“What is he then?” Natoko asked, more than willing to listen to whatever answer she was to be given.

 

“Not sure,” Sagara said. “He feels like a demon, but he’s not.” The ninja scrutinised his hand a few seconds longer, and Natoko jumped a little when she saw the gaubtlet vanish from his hand like it was never there.

 

Had that always been able to do that?

 

“I’m just someone who’s very good at convincing souls that things are what they’re clearly not.”

 

“Ah, that makes sense,” Sagara said, standing up and raising his hand to greet the man properly. “You’ll be one of the Replacaninja then. I’m Sagara, pleased to meet you.”

 

“Oh sure, ruin the confusion for them,” the agent said, raising his hand to meet Sagara’s. The confusion hadn’t stopped as far as Natoko was concerned.  He was still tied up in the ropes, completely bound, and shaking Sagara’s hand somehow.

 

“Hey boss,” Sarah called from within the shed. “Is he one of yours? Get him to turn the power back on.” Her voice became dinned by echoes of clangs, as she started kicking the machinery back into life, unsuccessfully.

 

“You probably should,” Sagara said simply to the man, who chuckled in response with an air of cynicism.

 

“If that what the Heir of the Balance is ordering me to do…” the man said, standing up and putting the ropes to the side. Natoko noticed he was taller now, like he had been slouching before. He was also wearing a completely different set of clothes, the blue shirt of a lazy professional with several loose buttons and a dinner jacket slung over his shoulder. Had Sarah changed him when she was out?

 

The man wandered up to the shed and looked around, as if to check for any passing guards, before ducking his head into the shed and announcing ‘On!’. In a flash of electric blue everything became alive in the shed and soon spread to the rest of the dorm, the whirring of machinery she never really noticed coming back to life as the dorm was flooded in light that had had their switches flicked in confusion.

 

“Sorry about all this,” he said. “I’ve been order to contact you, but I figured it would be a little wrong to just walk into a girl’s dormitory unannounced.”

 

“I’m glad somebody thinks so,” Otsune said, walking towards the group.  She was fully dressed save for slippers, and looked like she had her top on the wrong way round. Natoko didn’t get chance to tell her as Gen came up behind her. “Though I don’t follow your logic of turning our power off.”

 

“Why not just convince everyone you were a girl?” Sagara asked the man blatantly.

 

“That would be even worse,” the agent replied. “No, I think taking out all the power and bringing attention to the fact that Something had happened rather than just sneaking in and alerting only one person quietly to my presence was a much better choice of tactics.” He looked aware that he was being sarcastic, but Natoko was too out of it to be sure.

 

“Well, I’m glad at least you’re not a demon.”

 

“Ha, I’m glad too,” he replied. “Though I’m hoping Sagara’s told you by now that demon’s can’t get in here.”

 

“They can’t?” said Natoko shocked.

 

“Well no,” replied Steve, looking confused that he even had to explain. “The old lady that ran this place before put so much security into this place. Demons can’t even get into the town unless they get invited by a member of the Futabatei family.”

 

“Oh and I guess that includes fight challenges too, does it Sagara?” Otsune hinted, now glaring at Sagara. Natoko recalled the giant wheel monster that had attacked Sagara about five seconds to him getting here. It took both of them to put it down. Sagara just smiled.

 

“He did it?” Gen, the landlord asked. “Should I call the police?”

 

“That’s already been attended to, Futabatei,” Natoko replied, surprising herself. “You can leave the rest to us.”

 

Otsune seemed to catch the hint- ‘weird stuff again’, and, having no intention of getting involved, turned on her heels and dragged Gen away from the group. Natoko couldn’t blame her. Otsune was far too normal for this kind of stuff. Natoko watched as the student pulled the landlord away and noticed she lingered for a moment to stare at the newcomer’s face, before being distracted by some near invisible insect and quickly moving on.

 

“Well, I guess I’ll head back to bed too,” said Sagara, already moving on. He was already at the door when the agent shouted to stop.

 

“I am actually here to see you,” the agent got out just before Sagara disappeared. Everyone paused as they waited for him to open the door again, and Natoko had enough time to wonder if she should take control of the situation and ask the man to come back in he morning and perhaps even arrange an appointment if it was that important to see her lord and even go so far as to offer him a room away from the others if he had nowhere nearby to stop the night, but Sagara slid the door back open before then.

 

“You better come in then.”

 

“Actually if we could speak outside, that would be better,” the man insisted, and Sagara stepped back out. Sarah met him halfway across the courtyard and stood beside her cousin. Natoko stayed where she was, feeling odd about herself.

 

“I don’t even have that much to say really,” the agent said, appearing a little vexed at the confession. “I don’t even know why they haven’t just sent you a note.”

 

“What for?” Sagara asked.

 

The man cleared his throat. It felt like a ritual rather than a need to.

 

“Sagara Futabatei, Ms. Sakimoto requests an audience with you at her office branch in Fuugosuki immediately. She wants to know, and I quote ‘What the hell you are playing at?’ You are to come at your earliest convenience.”

 

Chapter Three

 

Natoko knew she wouldn’t recognize the place. Even though the last time she came to the Sakimoto Inc. building in Fuugosuki it was from the sixth floor through a magic portal door that originated in an alley from her own humble town, she was sure she had left through the front door.

 

She couldn’t remember descending down the twenty stone steps that she now hiked up, nor leaving through the automatic glass doors that pinged and said welcome four times in a row (and an extra ‘goodbye’ when Sarah jumped back in and out to test it) and she figured she would have definitely remembered the reception area they now stood in, wide and grand and all but empty save for one sleek black reception desk and shiny white, reflective tiles smothering the walls and designed to blind a person without eyes.

 

“This is incredibly wasteful,” Natoko said looking around. Everything was modern and shiny. It hurt to look. As they approached the reception desk Natoko hazarded a guess that with only the elevator and the doors to the stairs showing, this was probably the entire ground floor of the building.

 

“We should be expected,” said Steve, walking ahead of them. “You’ll just need to sign the visitor’s book.”  Finding it odd there was no one to either welcome them or throw them out, Natoko ended up being last to sign in. Quickly scrawling her name in complete form, she noticed that Sarah still wrote her name in katakana, having not developed a signature yet. Sagara had done the same, but in American.

 

“Good,” the agent said, walking off towards the elevator. “If you would come this way.” Pressing the button, they waited silently as the lift descended, Natoko staying a few steps back from the rest. As they entered, Steve stayed behind, waving them off.

 

The trio waited patiently for the lift, or at least she and Sagara did.

 

“Oi,” Sarah shouted. “What floor do we want?”

 

There was no answer for a few seconds, and then the lift started moving on its own. It occurred to Natoko that she didn’t look at how tall the building was, or what it even looked like. At the time, she was looking at the steps, and then the door, and now she couldn’t tell if they were moving up or down. Yawning quietly to herself, she let her eyes close, taking a minute to catch some sleep.

 

“Jeez this is long,” Sarah said after a minute. “What floor are we going to?” Natoko impulsively looked up for the floor number, but couldn’t see anything. Then she looked behind her and only saw herself looking back. That was odd, there was no floor indicator in here, not even by the buttons. It said there were ten floors but that shouldn’t take too long. Didn’t these types of building have hidden floors from the public? There was a locked compartment under the buttons, maybe they were being sent-

 

thudt

 

The floor disappeared from beneath them as Sarah’s hand shot out to claw at the buttons. The girl vanished form view, replaced by darkness. Natoko heard the girl scream as she plummeted after her.

 

“What?’ she asked. “What?” She was falling. To her doom. Was this all just a trap? A grand trick to lead her lord to his doom. It was a bit too elaborate surely, especially when they had had ample opportunities to die beforehand.

 

The air started slamming her in the face, not the wind picking up speed but her body picking up momentum. Panic took away straight thinking. Was this an attack, the greed demon tricking them so easily again? This would have been a perfect way to kill him. They must have been at least ten floors up. Could Sagara survive a fall from this height?

 

She certainly couldn’t, and Sarah was out too.

 

The little girl was just a few feet above her. Sagara too, looking as calm as ever, like they were still waiting in the lift. Neither seemed to have a way of getting out of this, not that she had expected Sarah to, but Sagara-

 

Five small flickers of light had passed them now. Or they had passed them? No matter. At this rate nothing mattered, save perhaps doing what she could to cushion the other’s fall. She was at the bottom. Should she at least try to save Sarah’s life by acting as a shield?

 

No, she should be protecting Sagara, not the brat. That was what she was there for, and she was going to fail at this rate if she didn’t do something soon. Eight flickers of light, passing by her in heartbeats pumping furiously. Wouldn’t Sagara want her to protect his cousin? Now wasn’t the time to be thinking of other? Twelve flickers. Were they getting faster?

 

She heard a grunt and saw Sarah reaching for her, a futile attempt to grab something safe. Natoko could only stare back as the little girl failed to get anywhere near her, the wind driving them down, her hand touching nothing, both drifting further away. Th girl wasn’t looking at Natoko but beyond her; down her body. Natoko clicked. Iziz!

 

Pressing her own hand against the updraft resistance, she brought her hand to the tsuba of Iziz, nearly missing it somehow but clutching it tightly at the last second and drawing it out in one fluid motion. Then with her other hand, she reached out to Sarah, who took her hand in one swoop and hugged Natoko tightly. Finally, she twisted the blade so it met facing the wall, and with the best lunge she could stabbed forwards. It bounced off with a loud ricochet. Natoko had to push harder to keep it there, grinding against the wall and feeling it dig in, tearing metal asunder as it ploughed down a further ten meters

 

They were slowing down, the descent becoming bumpier as gravity lost its hold on them. Behind her she heard a thud that she couldn’t look at. Iziz was slicing through the wall like a butter knife on fire now, tearing through passing wires and sending sparks in her face. Holding tight enough to draw blood, she felt her wrist burning at the odd angle, muscles threatening to tear, a heavy sword meeting with a heavy building that pulled at the both of them before finally coming to a top. She bit her cheek as her whole body jolted sharply.

 

*Ding* The noise filled her ears as her lungs burned for air she dare not breath in. To her left she saw light as the elevator door opened. Both her and Sarah glanced at it before the girl recognized her salvation and lunged for it, able to reach it easily and pull herself up to safety. With one big breath Natoko followed behind, able to find a foothold in the machinery and pulling herself up. It was only when she got to safety when she realised she may have to lose her sword until Sarah wordlessly took her arm and leaned in to get it. Natoko anchored the young girl as she pulled it out of its niche and passed it back without a sound.

 

Before the two of the had time to say anything Sagara fell between them, landing on his gauntlet as it broke through the flooring, leaving an impressive crack on the stone.

 

“Well, looks like we stayed alive” he said, shaking rubble out of the joints of his gauntlet with his left hand. “I wonder how we’ll get to Yuya now?”

 

“Do we even want to?” asked Sarah rhetorically, starting the long walk down the corridor without thinking. It was a long steel walkway, which looked a little like the InBetween realm, that world of endless office corridors that she still hadn’t got a decent explanation out of Sagara for. Natoko couldn’t tell if they were there right now. It felt like it, but it felt different too. There was a humming, like a motor, and an electric taste to the air that was missing from the mild stench of the InBetween Realm.

 

“Why wouldn’t we want to?” Sagara asked curiously, his arms hanging limp to the side now.

 

“You said she’s the boss of this place right?” Sarah stated. “Which means, she was the one that had that happen just now. Meaning she wants us dead.”

 

“But she’s had plenty of times to kill us before with that man,” Natoko interjected. “Why bring us here to do it?”

 

“Because, Kendo, she hasn’t had time to kill us before. Only time to kill you before, when you so shamelessly passed out in front of your opponent.”

 

Natoko felt a deep hole filling her stomach. “Yes, I had thought of that as well,” she admitted. “But there were easier ways to kill us. The trip here was a perfect opportunity.”

 

“But the best opportunity would be in the comfort of their own grounds,” Sarah pointed out, “Where body disposal is easier and can be done on their own damn terms. Think these things through, moron.”

 

Sagara was just smiling between them, not even trying to break up the argument.  Sarah had good points, she guessed, but she couldn’t believe that Yuya was planning to kill them like this. She had been nice earlier. A little harsh, but the kind of harsh that one would want from a teacher who had your best interests at heart, not someone who was setting you up to strike you down with a bowling ball.

 

She was also a little miffed to be brow beaten by a ten year old.

 

“Fuck.”

 

Sarah swearing in American got her attention and she glanced through the door at the end of the corridor. Impossible. What she saw clearly did not exist. She had seen skyscrapers before, but never ones inside buildings. And she had always been able to see the tops of them.

 

This one was magnificent. A metallic tube, a giant cyber-supercomputer thing or something equally futuristic, embedded in the ground and spiraling hundred of miles into the sky, where the darkness covered it up before her eyes could see the end. It pulsed blue lines of light and radiated static energy that she could feel prickling her hair and making her clothes fuzzy, even this far away from it.

 

And between them, across the steel floor that was smooth yet gripped her trainers like concrete, a maze of barbed wire fences three times as high as herself and humming with the same energy that came from the block wrapped around the ground surrounding the tower like the grass under a tree, a zap that promised nothing better than a blue death for whoever grazed it coming from every wire. It hurt her eyes to look.

 

“What the hell is this place?” Sarah asked

 

“Looks like a tower surrounded by electric fences,” Sagara said walking up to it. In front of them lay an opening to the maze, a simple gap that beckoned them to enter. Besides it was a monitor. On the screen the words ‘Please wait, loading’ were displayed in bold yellow neon letters, a digital girl with a wand doing star jumps in the meantime.

 

“We must have come out at the generator,” Natoko suggested. “Maybe the computer server.”

 

“Oh like you know,” Sarah said.  “This place could just be for serving ice cream and you wouldn’t know the difference.” Natoko fell silent. Seconds later the monitor pinged loudly.

 

“Welcome,” displayed the monitor.

 

“Hi, thanks for having us,” Sagara replied back with a wave, making Sarah chuckle.

 

“You will now play a S.I.S game to get to the end and receive your reward. You may leave at any time.” To their right a door lit up, with a bright yellow light coming out from behind it looking like sunlight. The door had a simple handle on it and looked to be holding nothing back but their potential freedom. Natoko felt the urge to go to it, and was about to step forward when she saw no one else was. It was the smartest move, when it was obvious what the monitor was going to say next, but she couldn’t bring herself to.

 

“The aim of the S.I.S game is simple. Get the key and then get to the tower. Then travel to the top. There is no time limit save your own fleshly lifespan. You may begin when ready.” The monitor went ping again, and the little digital girl bowed before disappearing.

 

“S.I.S program starting. Please enjoy your intrusion.”

 

Natoko breathed in, looking to fill the hole in her stomach with air. “What are your orders, my lord?” she asked.

 

“I don’t have any,” he said. “Do what you want.”

 

“Well, I’m going in,” Sarah said, and without waiting for a response, the young girl strode through the gap like she had an urgent meeting on the other side. She chose left and went with it. The others quickly followed.

 

“I’m surprised you didn’t choose to leave,” Natoko said, quickly catching up. It would be bad for them to get separated, though looking towards the tower she actually had a fairly good view of the exit they were aiming for; another elevator

 

“Of course I didn’t choose it. We fell further than we went up. There’s no way it was sunlight. Beside, I won’t lose to this.”

 

Natoko wasn’t sure if that was true, but she wasn’t going to quit the game if Sarah wasn’t. Protecting Sagara’s family should be considered a priority, and the little girl was bound to get herself into trouble. She should have said something as they were leaving. Her and Sagara would have been enough for this, and Otsune was bound to be mad when they got back.

 

“We should find the key first then.”

 

“Obviously.”

 

“Where do you think it’ll be.”

 

“I don’t fucking know.”

 

“Well, do you have any-“

 

“No.”

 

“Well then we should probably-“

 

“Shut up already!”

 

Natoko fell silent, scanning her horizons. Why was she even bothering? She held back a step and fell into line behind Sagara. She shouldn’t have even been walking in front of him in the first place.

 

“Do you know where the key might be?” she asked him.

 

“Not at all,” he replied. “But then that’s the point isn’t it?” That was true, they had to find it within this maze and it could be anywhere. This was going to be quite the journey. It would probably take them a couple of hours to get around to the other side, and a maze could put a dead end in their path at any time. They might have been able to risk climbing over if they weren’t electrified.

 

It also occurred to her in a setting this weird that they didn’t even know what the key looked like, let alone where it was. Was it a keycard? A regular key, some sort of special item. And there might even be fakes scattered about to get in their way. If only there was some way of getting through this maze faster. If they had come down on bikes or something… Bringing a packed lunch seemed a good idea now. This was going to take a while.

 

“What’s that,” Sarah said up ahead. They had just followed her around the next right turn when they saw what she was looking at. A floating black ball, perfectly spherical, bouncing up and down in the air like a basketball.  Watching it carefully, they got closer, unsure of what it might do, or whether it was even doing anything.

 

“Is it an enemy?” she asked as Sarah approached it. She was sure that this time she and the girl were thinking the same thing, whether or not this was something that would turn from a blob to a monster the second they touched it and began battle. It might even be something helpful, found early in the game by mistake, a health pack or power up. It might have even been the key. Whatever it was, they approached it carefully, inching closer.

 

“Wait,” Sarah said, turning to her cousin. “You can check, can’t you boss? Using your eyes?” By now most of them knew Sagara had, as he put it, Magic Eyes. Most of the girls at the dorm just thought it to be a reason to be a bit more careful around him but some knew the truth, that he could sense demons with but a glance and knew when people were possessed or not. Though she didn’t know when he had told Sarah.

 

“It’s not a demon,” he said, his eyes already their demon sensing green. This seemed enough for Sarah and she approached it, still cautiously, her hand reaching up, aching to touch it.  Natoko braced herself as well, just in case something went wrong.  The sphere started to bounce faster, a vertical pendulum hypnotically bouncing. There was a small crackle of electricity.

 

Natoko’s vision went white, her eyes shutting but still not being enough , her body moving and only just being fast enough, She could feel the flames reaching her, tracing her skin like the delicate finger of a lover she never knew,  threatening to engulf but instead teasing her with its efforts. The sphere exploded and she could not see where Sarah went.

 

It stopped just as quickly. Just one second. And when she opened her eyes she was shocked to find herself still in the maze, the area in front of her now scorched black against the stainless steel floors, the fences surrounding them blackened but still pulsing with energy. Her throat went dry very quickly.

 

“Let me go,” Sarah growled, thumping her arm. It wasn’t until the girl kicked her expertly in the shins that Natoko even realised she had grabbed the child. “Don’t you ever do that again,” she shouted angrily, wiping herself down and surveying the wreckage. The sphere had blown itself into oblivion, leaving nothing but a black soot that smelled of swimming pools.

 

Sarah hesitantly hovered over the soot before her , as if this too might explode, before carrying on up the path.

 

Though she went ahead of them, Sarah didn’t stray too far and appeared anxious around corners. Natoko herself kept her hand on Iziz at all times. There hadn’t been anything but the floating bomb so far and she knew cutting that wouldn’t be smart, but anything else that hadn’t yet made itself immediately apparent she could probably deal with.

 

She stopped again near the sixth or seventh turn they had made so far, and looked to Sagara after peeking around the corner and rushing back.

 

“It’s another one,” she told them. “It hasn’t noticed us yet.”

 

“We should probably go around it then,” Natoko suggested. “If we avoid battle then we’ll-“

 

“-never get anywhere,” Sarah interrupted. “I doubt you’ve noticed but we haven’t had any other turns so far. It’s just been one big path.”

 

Natoko hadn’t noticed, and she was sure she had seen another path earlier. They were probably going to be meeting these things everywhere, or at least other enemies and traps. And they couldn’t do with going about randomly trying different ways. Even if they got the path right first time, this could still take them hours, and they hadn’t brought anything to eat or drink.

 

“We’re gonna need to set it off,” Sarah said. “Blow it up before it gets to us, y’know. Kendo, you got anything to throw at it?”

 

“Nothing I suppose.” She had the key to her room and a bit of money that would do nothing but burn harmlessly in the air.

 

“We better use your sword then.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“You got a better idea?”

 

“No, but that’s out of the question. I’d rather just leave than waste Iziz destroying a simple bomb.”

 

“If it’s so simple think of another way to get past it for us then. Or we could just throw you at it.”

 

“Well, we could-“

 

“-though I was planning on using you as a shield in the worst case scenario.”

 

“Why you ungrateful little brat,” Natoko glared at the little girl. “I help save your life and you repay me by-“

 

“-rescuing your sword for you. Thus we’re even. Now I owe you nothing at the moment, yet I seem to be the only one out of the two of us trying to get something done here.”

 

“I am trying to get things done. It’s just I don’t know what we can do at the moment.”

 

“Well, you’re supposed to be protecting Boss, ain’t ya?”

 

“And I don’t see how protecting him requires setting a bomb off.”

 

“That bomb’s coming,” said Sagara.

 

Both girls turned to see another black orb bobbing along towards them, taking its time like it was choosing a Christmas present in July. Natoko turned back to look at Sarah.  “What do we do?”

 

“We just need to stop it, right?” said Sagara.

 

“Right, but how do we-“ something whizzed passed her eyes as a purple streak. She barely had time to follow it when the bomb detonated, scattering flame towards them.

 

“There. Gone.” Natoko opened her eyes, then moved the arm that was protecting them, to see a gap where the turn in the fence was, the floor again scorched black.

 

“Awesome boss,” Sarah shouted, clenching her fists in excitement. “How’d you do that?”

 

“With Scorlock,” Sagara replied.

 

“We can take them out easily with that thing. Awesome.” The girl was foolish. She couldn’t even see what Sagara had done. Natoko didn’t know either, but she knew less about this place. Looking at the hole in the wall that the bomb had blown off, she saw no remains, but it didn’t look right for some reason. It was just one panel gone with a clean cut. Surely they couldn’t have been that efficient at taking out a perfect square.

 

She was just about to suggest something when two more black orbs caught her eye, one from either side their silence drowning out Sarah’s voice as she lavished praise upon Sagara. Natoko backed off but knew it was too late. They had already noticed her and were bouncing through the new gap in the wall. How she had failed to notice them earlier when she must have walked passed one on the other side of the fence she didn’t know.

 

“Two more, let’s move,” she said. This time, Sarah didn’t disagree and the three rushed ahead on the road they were on rather than switching or going back. Yet they had barely gotten a hundred meters when another one appeared in front of them again. This one was already moving away from them but turned as it heard them approach and encroached silently towards them.

 

Intending to turn straight back, Natoko stopped as she saw the other two had followed them and had nearly caught up. They were trapped. Explosive death on both sides. She saw Sagara lift his hand up to do something and Sarah immediately stopping him, grabbing his hand and pulling it back down.

 

“No, if you shoot them this close to each other, you might set the others off. We don’t know if they’ve got the same amount of explosives in them anyway.”

 

Sagara held off. And Natoko looked around for any other escapes. This wire maze was so closely packed together it might be that they couldn’t see some of the other exits. She searched for a futile three seconds and couldn’t find anything. They were getting closer now, like three wolves who had played the final trick on a pack of rats in a sewer. The three of them closed in together, pressing their backs to the wall.

 

“Maybe you should get ‘em boss,” Sarah said, her voice quaking a little.

 

“But you said-“

 

“I know what I said but we have more chance of getting first degree burns now than dying than we will have in ten seconds time. I think we should go for those.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Of course I’m sure,” the girl barked.

 

“Sorry,” he said with a polite giggle. “Mom said I should always check these things first.”

 

“No, he-,” Natoko began, but cut herself off. She was about to go on to point out that perhaps they should try running past the single one, and hope they could before detonation, and was even ready to say that she would act as a shield for the others if need be so at least only one of them would get hurt, but then she realized she was grabbing onto the fence for her life when she shouldn’t have been able to.

 

The others were looking at her now, but she wasn’t looking at them. They had just assumed; had just felt the energy coming from the fences. With the barbed wire it had seemed obvious. But now…

 

Her left hand swung forwards, taking Iziz with it and cutting a cross through the padded steel wire fence in front of them, tearing through it like a paper door. She watched it carefully, returning her sword.

 

Sarah sounded like she was about to say something, when the fence shimmered, pixelating sharply in the air like a lost television signal, before disappearing in a zip, leaving them a new door to go through.

 

The others were staring at her.

 

“Ah let’s…let’s go this way,” she suggested to them.

 

Sarah blinked herself out of her trance. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!” she shouted, rushing through the gate herself and running parallel to the direction they were going. The others followed.

 

And immediately stopped again.

 

“More black orbs.” This was getting frustrating. She looked behind to see another floating sphere at the other side of the non-electric gate. It approached them at just the right speed to meet up with the others as they came through the hole…

 

The explosion was deafening. Natoko heard nothing but whistling, and saw nothing but white hot oblivion as she turned to take out the next fence. It seemed to disappear quicker than the last one and they fell through it quickly enough to run from the oncoming flame just as it started to die down again.

 

Sagara was talking. She couldn’t hear him.

 

“Excuse me?!”

 

“   -aid they’re being attracted to the noise.”

 

“I thought that was obvious!” She got the feeling she was shouting. Looking over Sagara’s shoulder she saw the black soot fall to the ground. The explosion had taken out the entire area where they had just been traveling, along with fences belonging to about five lanes of the maze.

 

“The blast radius multiplies with more bombs.”

 

“I’m just saying they seem to be noticing us more.” Natoko looked behind her own shoulder now, seeing six more orbs floating towards them. How could they be this fast, yet hover so slow? It’s like they sped up intentionally when they knew they weren’t being looked at.

 

“Where now?” she asked Sagara but with Sarah answering instead.

 

“The center,” she shouted. “Keeping cutting through the fence.”

 

Natoko did so, slashing them one by one. They all faded fast, but it was still two seconds of waiting time as they waited for the fence to dissipate. Without time to think about where they were going, she hacked and spliced her way through five layers, before making the mistake of looking back. Fifteen black orbs hovered behind them, acting like a group of children playing Darum-san at a birthday party. Iziz slid against her hand as she missed the sheath and she nearly cut herself launching the next attack.

 

“We still need the key!” she shouted, realizing this wasn’t going to help.

 

“Shut up, I’m on that,” Sarah shouted, over what sounded like an impossible din. “Look over there!”

 

Sarah’s hand pointed to just past the tower and Natoko glanced up to see what she meant. It was the first time she had noticed it, a large haze of a red light that was dangling in the air on the opposite side of the maze where it had been hidden by the tower from where they had started. In the middle of the light, flashing in big neon, purple letters was the word ‘KEY’.

 

“That’s kind of obvious,” Sagara said, running besides them.

 

“We won’t need to get that far though,” Sarah called out.

 

“Why’s that,” Natoko asked and she advanced to the next fence.

 

“Grunts like yourself shouldn’t have to know what the plan is. Just follow orders and slash the fences.”

 

Natoko wanted to stop out of spite but knew better than that. She took out the next fence and saw the final one in front of her. What had that made, about ten fences in? She felt like she could keep this up forever.

 

“Watch it!” She looked to her left, seeing another black orb just sitting there next to her. Running to avoid it she was already too late. It exploded, killing her hearing again. As the ground shook around she tripped on her own feet and fell onto her palms, slamming them into the steel floor with a hollow thud. She stared down as her hearing quickly returned and thudded the floor again, receiving a loud bomp for her efforts.

 

“The floor’s hollow here, I think-“

 

But her friends had already left her, down through the gap the latest orb had left for them and into the center. She looked around and saw that the explosion hadn’t taken out the army of twenty that was now less than a few feet from her and she scrambled after her lord just before the balls got close enough.

 

Not believing they had left her behind she was halfway to catching up with the fleeting figures when she saw a small blue light in front of her. She broke her direction to the left and was rewarded by not getting blown up as another orb appeared out of the blue light. “They’re teleporting.” That’s what was going on. No wonder they seemed to move so fast. She evaded another blue light as it seemed to appear form nowhere and catapulted forwards to reach the others. They didn’t stop as they approached the center tower, the massive skyscraper looming over them like it was ready to topple down. It felt amazing that they had even reached it. Sarah was panting.

 

“Well, here’s the door,” she wheezed to take a moment. It looked like the elevator they had seen at the entrance only silver instead of white. Beside it was a little niche with a slot, the words insert card here written in both English and Japanese. “All we got to do is go round to the other side of the tower, tear through a whole bunch of other fences, avoid more bombspheres, get the key, turn back, avoid the bombspheres that are following us and make our way back here.”

 

Natoko didn’t get why the girl was going into such meticulous detail, but it didn’t matter. “Why don’t I just cut it down,” she suggested.

 

“The better question is why are we waiting for you to cut it down” Natoko waited for a response. “Come on. Chop chop. Literally.”

 

She composed herself, taking Iziz in hand and aimed for the left hand edge of the door, looking to sever the electric blue line, and with a crisp, clean slice perfectly executed a single mark against the door’s steel frame, the sword rebounding off of it with a loud clang.

 

“Crap,” Sarah shouted. “Fuckit.” Pushing Natoko aside she went to look at the niche in the wall, examining the slot. Natoko ignored her, and retracted Iziz, looking to strike the door again.

 

“Don’t fucking bother!” the little girl growled without looking back. “That door’s too thick for you.” Rummaging through her pockets, Sarah started to look for something. Natoko looked back at the fence the silent orbs reaching closer. None had teleported it seemed, but they were only a good twenty meters away.

 

She turned to the girl who was still examining the niche with one hand and rummaging with the other. Natoko gasped with a mix of shock and disgust as she saw the young ten year old pull out a small flickknife. Twirling it out, she hacked at the slot violently, stabbing it repetitively for all she was worth. Natoko was just about to interject when the outer covering came off and with a laugh the girl pulled the rest of it off, only to reveal a metal coating covering everything underneath.

 

Dammit,” Sarah called out, stabbing at the metal and damaging her knife. “We’re screwed.”

 

“We can still get the key if we-“

 

“You think we’re gonna survive that long with this many things coming at us,” Sarah slapped back before Natoko finished. “It’s just going to take one of those things to kill us and-“ she stopped in mid rant. “I know,” she said and rushed passed them to the door, knocking on it a few times. “This way, boss.”

 

“Okay,” Sagara said, following her. Natoko hoped she meant her as well and quickly followed behind them. They traveled the twenty or so meters to the end of the tower and jumped round it. Natoko had only just reached there when Sarah was already doubling back.

 

“Don’t follow,” she shouted. Natoko watched as the girl started heading back to the door just in time to meet up with the orbs. Watching in horror she saw the girl get  to the door and, picking something up off the ground, started running backwards in their direction

 

“What on earth is she doing?”

 

“I don’t think we’re on Earth,” said Sagara from behind her. “Though I’m not quite sure.”

 

She had just enough time to fail to make a remark when she saw Sarah toss something away from them and at the orbs before switching to a full on sprint in their direction. Natoko only just got enough of an idea to swing round the corner and hide as the light flooded her vision again, the sound following a second behind it as it shook the room again. The ground trembled violently for a full five seconds, and Natoko held her breath for every moment as she kept the corner of her eye poised firmly at the edge of the wall. She saw the light get brighter, upping in contrast as it became blinding, the white filling her eyes and sealing them shut. Then, just as it seemed bearable, flames erupted from around the corner, burning intensely and spreading outwards, blowing all the pressure away. Natoko felt herself slip a little, her breath gone and not wanting to come back again, and then Sarah fell out from around the corner as she jumped to safety.

 

The inferno was gone ten seconds later, leaving no sign of the orbs but plenty of black scorch marks and soot along the ground. No one said anything as they took their time walking back, looking at the once silver landscape now reduced to darkness as dust traveled through the air, hiding the sight of the wrecked fences that had been there previously. Natoko wondered if they should be worried about anymore orbs, but somehow knew it wasn’t a problem anymore. Reaching the doors, they heard a crackling noise and made it out to be the card slot in front of them, struggling for life as it fizzled out, the doors it protected no longer there.

 

“Ding,” said Sarah.

 

***

 

Taking the elevator was a bad idea, though Sagara had got into it without question at first. It had seemed a lot smarter to take the stairs this time round, though they didn’t know how far they had to go, and they didn’t see any door for the first couple of flights. It wasn’t until they were at least ten stories up (in Natoko’s tired opinion) that they found the first one.

 

“Think this is it?”

 

“Who cares,” Sarah said, walking through.

 

The type of music that should be playing in elevators approached her first. It was as relaxing as it was fitting perfectly with the scene before her. The extensively furbished waiting room with three leather sofas each big enough to fit a family on, polished wooden floors, pictures of van gogh sunflowers mixed with renaissance war depictions and more potted plants and water coolers than a whole office block should have and did not help in not confusing her.

 

“Finally,” Sarah grunted, without looking around, instead heading straight for the water cooler like it was perfectly okay and not rude at all and started pouring herself a drink. “You want one, boss?”

 

“Ooh, yes please,” he said, following her up to the nearest water cooler. Natoko couldn’t tell why he was waiting, because there were seven other water coolers right besides the one Sarah was using. She passed him the first one and started to pour another. Natoko got the hint she wasn’t going to be getting an offer of one, and decided it would be rude to take without being offered anyway. Her dry body screamed at her in silent protest.

 

Sarah jumped onto one of the sofas and craned her neck up as they all heard a light beeping noise coming from a panel above them. Natoko twisted round to see a large telecaster dangling above her. On it were a series of numbers.

 

FINAL SCORE

 

Stabby-sama:395 POINTS

 

Slasha-kun: 40 POINTS

 

Sucka-chan: 5 POINTS

 

TOTAL: 440 POINTS     PASS

 

“We were being scored?”

 

“I hate games that score you at the end. You never know what everything was for.”

 

“Yeah, at least with fighting games, it racks up your points as it goes.”

 

“Neh, with fighting games it doesn’t matter. Puzzle games are the worst for it.”

 

Stopping as they realized they were talking to each other, Natoko and Sarah turned to the one thing in the room that hadn’t been described yet, the varnished door at the other end of the room next to a picture of a man with a flag standing over a horde of dying peasants. It opened slowly, and from out the other end popped a man’s face.

 

“You can come in now,” said Agent Steve, beckoning them in.

 

***

 

“Sagara. Good to see you. Come in,” said Ms. Sakimoto as they entered her office Natoko recognized it from last time, a large glass room with the city lit up outside massive windows as if on display at a museum. “Sit down, all of you. Can I get you something to drink?”

 

“We’re good thanks,” said Sagara, raising his plastic cup. He had refilled it just before coming in, as had Sarah. Natoko was feeling quite thirsty.

 

“Very well,” the executive said, finishing off what she was writing and standing up to circle the table. She was wearing tracksuit trousers and trainers, yet had a shirt on top with her hair pinned back. Natoko had remembered her wearing something similar last time, but couldn’t place what. The executive, who Natoko now felt rude calling her by her first name, leaned back on the desk, and surveyed the three of them.

 

“Yamanaka Natoko-san,” she said, starling the girl into readiness. “It is good to see you again. I take it your injuries are all healed?”

 

“What? Oh, oh yes, yes,” Natoko blurted out, completely forgetting her body had been broken beyond repair in the battle against Fujiwaru Hayate just two weeks earlier. She could barely remember even being hurt, and didn’t have any recollection of the damage the boy had done to her spine. She remembered her manners. “I’m fine now. Were they your…” She wanted to say doctors. “The healers?”

 

“The Neuts, yes. They were hired by me. They were all volunteers though. You can’t pay those people anything no matter how hard you try. It’s quite frustrating actually. Makes me feel I have a debt, if you understand.”

 

“Yes.” Natoko didn’t have a clue, though she did find it cool she was healed so easily. She could do with something like that at home.

 

“That’s good,” Ms. Sakimoto said with a methodical nod, before turning to look at the next guest with the polite glare one would give an equally polite unwelcomed intruder. “And who is this?”

 

“This is Sarah King,” said Steve, rubbing his head.

 

Mss. Sakimoto glare softened to shock. “You’re Sarah King?” she said, getting up and moving over to the delinquent youth, extending her hand and holding it there for Sarah to take. Sarah frowned up at her for a moment, but took it when the woman wouldn’t put it away.

 

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Ms. King,” she said, wrapping both hands around Sarah’s and shaking lightly but eagerly.

 

“You know me?”

 

“I suppose you could say that. It’s your father I’m acquainted with.”

 

“My dad?”

 

“Yes. I am acquainted with most of the King lineage. Nice man. Very aloof. Very violent. Just like your cousin here. I can see why you’re so attached to him?”

 

“Do you know where he is?”

 

“Dear child. I don’t think even he knows where he is. More likely searching for adventure again. You know the sort. Crossing deserts. Hiking over mountains, forbidden cities and the like.”

 

“Don’t call me child.”

 

“Your dad’s an adventurer?” Natoko said.

 

“He’s a cocksucking tramp?” Sarah shouted, staring ahead at nobody as she snatched her hand away from the executive, who was still shaking eagerly and looked a little hurt to be pulled away. “And the next time I see him he’s dead.”

 

“Well I suppose you wouldn’t like me telling you how much you look like him, so I’ll just get straight to the point.” Ms. Sakimoto retreated back to her desk. She slid into her clearly expensive leather chair slowly, started rapping her fingers along the edge of her desk and shifted her gaze over to Sagara, who just smiled back.

 

“Now Sagara, would you mind telling me- Just what the nine hells have you been up to?”

 

“Training mostly,” Sagara said.

 

Ms. Sakimoto’s voice was infinitely angrier than Sagara’s and the sudden change of mood frightened Natoko. Sagara sat perfectly calm.

 

“And yet don’t you have more important things to be doing?”

 

“Mom says it’s always important to train.”

 

“Tenma also gave you a mission, but clearly you haven’t been paying attention.”

 

“I thought I had done that.”

 

“Oh dear.” Tenma took her glasses off to rub her eyes. “No. No, you haven’t done that. You haven’t done all that much at all really. You managed to get into the tournament and fight your way through to the finals and yes, it seems you had somehow, though my sources have no ideas how, managed to find the meeting place of all your quarries, but you didn’t judge them as you were required and you certainly weren’t responsible for their final fate.”

 

“That got a bit out of my hands though.”

 

“The whole point of your existence is to keep control, boy! Control, with the ability to hold onto it so that other’s may make their choices. No situation should ever be above the Enforcer. Tenma could run the entire planet by herself if she needed to. You couldn’t even get yourself out of a wall a low level angel had manipulated into thinking it was made of silly putty!”

 

The angel was low level?

 

“I would admit to some small exception with the presence of that creature, but nearly dying was not the way to go about it!”

 

“Hey,” Sarah cut in. “I didn’t see you doing anything to fix all that. All you looked like you were doing is getting ready to die several times over. Ms. Sakimoto turned to the little girl, not expecting the interruption.

 

“Of course I didn’t have control over the situation. I intentionally gave it up in order for Sagara to take it. Of course, in situations that would escalate this far, I would still have measures ready to take over and prevent an all out war.”

 

“Oh yeah, your powers of hindsight are amazing.”

 

“Moving on-“

 

“-yeah that’s what your mom said.”

 

“Moving on,” said Ms. Sakimoto, raising her voice a few decibels. “The fact of the matter is you have yet to finish your initiation ceremony, Sagara. Whether you think you have or not, the elders have deemed you to still be in progress with your mission. And as you know, this status stays with you until you complete your tasks or die.”

 

“Now,” she said, walking to the adjacent wall. “If you would look this way.” She touched the wall, and the lights went dark, an image appearing on the wall immediately. A grid of mug shots appeared on the wall. ”I will show you what you should have been investigating. Now what has Tenma taught you about investigating?”

 

“To discover clues and uncover the mysteries you desire to know.”

 

“Right, and you haven’t done that. Why not?”

 

“I thought I had.”

 

Ms. Sakimoto took a very visible moment to close her eyes and kill Sagara in the back of her head. “This is how many demons our investigations have uncovered so far. Out of the 160 entrants in the tournament, a total of 27 have been determined to be demons entering under the guise of humans. Of these, 21 are now believed to be banished, though we are still investigating that.”

 

“You haven’t found them then?” Sagara asked.

 

“No we haven’t,” Ms. Sakimoto admitted. “Usually we find them stalking about in the InBetween realm just a few minutes after, but nothing’s been found of most of them so far. Some had been found, mostly those eliminated in the preliminary battles.” Ms. Sakimoto looked at them for a moment. “But those that met in the Dark Twist Room have yet to be found since the encounter.”

 

“Dark Twist Room?” Natoko asked.

 

“Oh use your brain!” Sarah replied for the executive. Ms. Sakimoto continued without answering, Natoko feeling her face turn red.

 

“Not only them, but none of the known demons to be in the tournament have yet to be found save those that lost in the prelims. At least seven weren’t present in the room, including the four that made it through to the final eight. We have uncovered a small handful that recovered regardless.” She clicked a button, and red Xs covered most of the mugshot gallery, only six remaining. A strange red gaseous demon listed as Thu’lang’lon, some kind of purple goblin with a line down his face that looked sketched out with a knife. Two human looking demons; Hattori Saizo and Ryuuichi Haruhi, one a teenage woman, another an African, Hayate and…

 

Sitting to attention, Natoko was greeted with the site of a burning corpse looking straight at her. Its head ablaze, Natoko could still make out the gaps where eyes could be now melted away. She didn’t recognize it.

 

“This is the demon of most concern,” Ms. Sakimoto told them. “We have no photos, and this was drawn by myself as the closest image we have of the creature. We thought it first to be a Djinn of some kind, but no such magical energies were traced on the scene after it had left. In fact no magical energies were detected at the scene at all. Considering the creature raised the temperature of the room to around three hundred degrees Celsius in the space of two seconds, the only clue it left behind were inch deep footprints left all over where it had walked. They suggest the creature an ordinary underweight nineteen year old girl, possibly suffering from an eating disorder. As of now I can tell you we have absolutely no data on this creature, and let me just clarify for you that this isn’t supposed to be possible.

 

“This was the creature that killed the angel, wasn’t it?” Sarah asked. Natoko blushed, not even knowing whether the angel had survived or not.

 

“Now, I though it would have been obvious to make this your next port of enquires, but clearly you were content to sit around all day, practicing Iaido with your fists.”

 

“I had been looking,” Sagara insisted, which Ms. Sakimoto met with a grimace.

.

“If you had been investigating,” she said, rummaging around the back of her desk. “And studying the local news, then perhaps you would have found this! On the table she slapped down a newspaper. It was one of the local papers, Natoko noted, the ones she always meant to read more.

 

On the front page there was a picture of an alleyway, police tape surrounding it, as an officer of the law was writing into a small book.

 

Scorched feet baffle local police! read the headline, as Natoko picked up the paper and started to read through it.

 

The remains of an unidentified person were found in the streets of Fuugosuki’s western district last night in the locally nicknamed ‘Alleyway of Desires’ known as a hotspot for muggings and solicitations.

 

The feet were left at the opening of the alleyway, standing together and upright for several hours, until a concerned shopkeeper reported the incident. Many passerbys assumed it to be prank or attempt at public art and were shocked to discover the feet to have belonged to a young teenaged girl.

 

Due to the nature of the death, the local police are having difficulty in identifying the victim, but believe it to be a teenage Japanese girl. They have so far been unable to determine if the owner of the feet was still alive or not.

 

Early reports suggest an explosion of some nature is responsible for separating the victim from her feet. But other suggestions based on the manner in which the feet were found, standing straight, suggests they may have been placed there after the time of death by the murderer.

 

The police are currently suspecting this to be a murder and are asking anyone to reports sounds of any explosions or suspicious activity in the arae around Kujiban Restaurant all night, and especially between the hours of eleven and midnight.

 

The alleyways around the western district are well known as a frequent hideout for muggers due to their winding nature and their usefulness as shortcuts. For many years now… Natoko stopped reading as Ms. Sakimoto started speaking again.

 

“The deceased is young Itoko Kiribayashi of the Kiribayashi clan. She was a participant in the tournament, and we have already confirmed through asking that she is dead.”

 

“Well, I hadn’t seen that before.”

 

“The paper is three days old. The corpse was four days old. The local media has had a small frenzy regarding the identity of the scorched feet and every occupant in your current residence save four has had at least one conversation about it. And you are telling me you have been completely unaware at a time when you should be watching out for fires more than ever?”

 

Sagara grinned. “I guess I have screwed up here.”

 

“Do not think admitting your mistake immediately buys you some leeway. My agents have already discovered every asset of available information at this time regarding this murder. You however have already forgotten the name of the deceased.

 

“Ah, you’re right,” Sagara said, looking mildly shocked and bashful.

 

“Any one of my agents is currently in a better position to be worthy of the title Enforcer’s Heir than you are. All you’re entitled too is unemployment benefit!”

 

The room fell silent. Sagara was smiling, but it looked very weak from Natoko’s seat. The boy’ words were often simple anyway, but he had never been speechless before. In truth, their actions so far had been meaningless. She had barely known of this mission of his, but she should have been helping him all the same. Instead, she had been content to waste the summer away. She shamed herself.

 

“And the alleyway didn’t hide it. Whoever did it didn’t want the alleyway to hide it and you still missed it,” Ms. Sakimoto continued. “Whoever’s doing this wants you to be aware of them. And they’re not giving us a choice but to answer them. Therefore, we need you to hunt it down for us and deal with it as you see fit.”

 

Everyone waited on Sagara, who was looking down at the floor. Natoko couldn’t tell if it was out of shame or if he was merely thinking, but when he raised his head again, his full grin returned, and he replied. “I suppose I better then.”

 

“Very well,” said Ms. Sakimoto. “Though your simple agreement does not restore my faith in you, this entire operation has been placed under your control until either of the two options have been fulfilled. I suppose waiting another week until we bury your body and get on with things as they should be will be more than-“

 

“Oh shut your mouth, you damn hypocrite.”

 

“Excuse me?” said Ms. Sakimoto, with the expression of someone who had just been told their dead mother had been found living perfectly well in Anchorage.

 

“You complain that Boss hasn’t done anything, then make your excuses that you couldn’t do anything because ‘you weren’t allowed’ but then you go ahead and reveal that you’ve done more searching than anyone else, and to completely ruin yourself, you basically reveal that you haven’t learnt anything at all. Not a single fucking thing.”

 

Ms. Sakimoto didn’t say anything.

 

“This isn’t telling Boss off for not doing stuff. This is you trying to scamper away from not being able to do your own job!”

 

Ms. Sakimoto remained silent, and for a single jump of a heartbeat Natoko heard a hissing course through her system, bloodied fangs ripping them all apart, leaving her immobile, and with a strong thirst for water. Sarah hadn’t noticed and just as they were all about to die, Ms. Sakimto stopped herself, readjusted her glasses and let out a small cough to interrupt Sarah.

 

“Very well,” she said. “I’ll admit it. Our investigations so far have been worthless. We know no more than that paper does. And whilst I could say at least we’ve looked we all know that won’t be good enough. So I ask you, Enforcer’s Heir, could you look for me? That is the one thing you are better at than everyone else, after all.”

 

“Sure thing,” Sagara replied, and Sarah felt silent, looking a little dumbfounded, like she didn’t know if she had a victory or not.

 

“Well, that’s all I needed you for. You may leave now.”

 

“You couldn’t have told us that over the phone?” Sarah asked.

 

“I have been trying to tell him that over the phone for the past two weeks.” She looked to Sagara. “You have one of the most secure pieces of technology on the planet in your pocket and you aren’t using it. Try to keep it charged from now on. I will see you all later. See you later as well, Ms. King. Ms. Yamanaka?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“My Agent has measured your abilities. You are strong for your age, but not strong enough to be taking on demons. Let me warn you now that the Balance does not just let anyone become aware of the Balance. You found out due to certain incidents, and we have allowed you to continue remembering. Do not give us a reason to regret our decision.”

 

Natoko felt very small. “Understood.”

 

“Ha, you got burned,” Sarah mocked without remorse.

 

They got up, heading out of the room. In more than a rush to get away, Sarah was gone before Natoko could stand up seconds after Sagara.. Avoiding the gaze of the agent (which she had only just noticed had remained with them the whole time), Natoko followed Sagara halfway across the room before they were stopped again.

 

“Two more things,” Ms. Sakimoto said. “Like I alluded, there are other surviving demons from the tournament, six others altogether. They are your responsibility as well. In all honesty it probably doesn’t matter anymore, but any actions you take on them will be observed.”

 

“Understood,” said Sagara. “And the other thing?”

 

“There was one demon in particular from before. You may have heard him be called Mr. Jupiter.” The light came back on behind Ms. Sakimoto with a flick of her wrist, an image of a young blond haired man looked back at them with a smile even lighter than Sagara’s. This was the angel then from before, what it must truly look like; probably.

 

“Can’t say I remember the name, but I can guess who you mean.”

 

“Due to the level of his strength, and his unexpected appearance in the tournament, a special ruling has been placed on your mission involving him, direct from your mother.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“The rule is as follows: Avoid him. Evade him. Do not approach him. Do not communicate with him. Fight him only to escape and never with any foolhardy attempts to win. Don’t take any hits from him or his kin. And let your allies suffer damage and fall before you before you let him reach yourself. Even if thousands die, he must not reach you, Sagara.”

 

Natoko felt the presence in the room grow cold and damp. Of all the serious expressions Ms. Sakimoto had given today, this was somehow the worse, her eyes narrow slits, her body not moving an inch. Above her, the water spirit stared down at them as well, her expression matching perfectly the women before her. They both stared at Sagara, who smiled back lightly.

 

“This rule is paramount. It is not to be broken above all other rules.”

 

Chapter Four

 

It was dark in Sakura’s room. Only ragged breath told her she was there at all. It was

 

silly. To squalor in darkness was to shun the light. But to bear the light would surely

 

drive her mad. How could she be mad now? Wasn’t she mad before? It was stupid to

 

believe in things that weren’t real.

 

Alexis was dead.

 

But it was the things that she didn’t know were real that she used to hold dear. Silly.

 

Very silly. Completely silly. Worshipping something you didn’t know was there. Just

 

‘feeling’ it was there. No wonder Otsune used to go quiet whenever she would ask

 

them such things. The damn atheist was being polite! The same way same way a

 

person allows a retard to pass by whilst it screams and shouts profanities in the street.

 

No, she mustn’t be rude. To be polite is simply a first step. It is so much easier to be

 

rude than it is to be polite, but it is even easier to be polite to avoid a situation. It is to

 

be nice to others that show we are worthy despite our weakness. To show that we are

 

able to overcome sin rather than simply not have any. One will sin by accident

 

constantly. That is why one must work to forgive themselves.

 

And that is why one must have faith. To assure themselves they act not in vain but on

 

a course to purge their sin and love their lord, to show-

 

Sanguine died too.

 

But how can one have faith if they know already! There was no need for faith

 

anymore.  She knew angels existed. She knew! As did demons and ghosts and spirits

 

and vampires and werewolves. He showed them to her and He made sure she saw

 

them, made her sure that she was not deluded or rendered mad with desperation. He

 

gave her a gift that no other catholic had and then took it away before she could do

 

anything with it.

 

Why did the Lord do this to her?

 

She didn’t know.

 

And she could no longer have faith.

 

Or could she? Was she being silly again? Knowing an angel didn’t mean she knew all

 

the answers. It just told her that which she knew was truth. That the planet was

 

created in seven days and that the Lord’s son died for all their sins. Every fear was

 

rendered useless but it didn’t mean she still knew everything.

 

The Lord let this happen for a reason.

 

Not that he let Sanguine die. Sanguine was an angel. His messenger. Messengers of

 

the lord could not die so simply. This was a test. It must be. But a test of what? To

 

have faith taken away completely and seek to have it restored. It would be impossible.

 

She knew. Knowledge overtook faith.

 

So then, should she seek more knowledge? Study more. With the answer dangled in

 

front of her that every catholic wished to know, should she grab them and devour their

 

contents? That was just greed. To follow her lord; surely she should learn more. Find

 

another, like Sanguine or Alexis. Ask them the truth of it all, have them give guidance

 

in the name of the lord. Tell her what to do next.

 

But how could she do that? Finding an angel was a miracle unto itself. Something that

 

you could only wait to happen. Should she travel with that guy and see if she were to

 

run into another. Such a course may work given the nature of his ‘profession’ but they

 

would meet as enemies if she did come across any divine beings. How a nice polite

 

boy like Sagara could be the enemy of angels she did not understand. Sagara was

 

nice. Nice to her. Nice to people. He helped Natoko out without hesitation; saved her;

 

strove to help others.

 

But then he had killed Alexis.

 

Maybe Sagara was in the wrong; a deceiver. Only pretending to be good whilst

 

having his way in the shadows. That would explain why he had attacked Alexis, but

 

not why he had saved Natoko.

 

She couldn’t understand. If only Sanguine was here, he would have the answers. He

 

gave her both knowledge and faith. Knowledge of the truth and faith in his actions.

 

He was someone she could believe in; could follow. A messenger of his Lord-

 

But then what if Sanguine wasn’t real? What if it had been a trick? What if that is why

 

Sagara refused to do anything asked of him? An angel among demons. Only the fallen

 

were to be in that position; to dwell among the ranks of Lucifer and burn in hell for

 

sins committed against the highest of beings. If Sanguine wasn’t real, then it gave her

 

nothing except the words of tricksters. Or what if he was a demon, appearing different

 

among other demons…

 

No! He was real. She knew it. She felt his presence. His warmth. There was no

 

trickery in the pureness of his soul. He cared for her every moment he could, despite

 

his own mission. He fought to hurt no one, even the demons. A trick such as that

 

would serve no meaning. She must have faith.

 

It hit her again. The sudden upheaval of her senses, her stomach lurching, that

 

overwhelming burden that had visited her hour after hour these past two weeks.

 

Knowledge. Faith. Neither could give her the answer and both taunted her for it. None

 

of these could bring her out of this self imposed exile, coiled up in the dark recesses

 

of her room. Door locked and curtains closed with blinds sealed shut. Nighttime at

 

one pm.. Nothing but the truth of the matter, her stomach rumbling with feelings of

 

intense loneliness not felt since her parents died. She had lost faith then as well.

 

At least then the answers to the questions she sought for didn’t actually exist,

 

somewhere she could never find them.

 

A knocking spooked her, light banging echoing throughout the empty room. Looking

 

to the door, she expected to find someone already standing there, but only saw the

 

shadows of two feet.

 

“Sakura?” came the voice of Otsune from the other side. “Are you there?”

 

Sakura huddled up again, drawing the blanket closer to her, wrapping up all the loose

 

bits and stuffing them together, burying her head in what she could. Sakura wasn’t

 

here. Sakura had gone away. Please leave the room alone.

 

“I just wanted to let you know Natoko and the others are back, if you plan to start

 

cooking dinner soon.”

 

She didn’t even know they had gone out. Had they been gone the entire day? She

 

hadn’t spoken to either of them since the demons had kidnapped her. That was wrong

 

of her. At the very least she should be thanking Natoko for rescuing her, though she

 

couldn’t remember why.

 

“Well, if you’re going to, tell me. I’d prefer some of your food over my own any

 

day.”

 

Listening to the silence carefully, Sakura felt the light pacing of Otsune’s footsteps on

 

the wooden floor for a few seconds longer, before eventually getting louder and

 

disappearing from earshot.

 

“She’s gone.”

 

Filling the room with a high pitched squeal, Sakura looked up to see two feet dangling

 

barefoot off the edge of her bed. She followed the legs up to see the form of a dark

 

skinned child looking back at her. Aki looked down at her, looking overjoyed she had

 

scared Sakura.

 

“Now I know what you’re wanting to ask is how long I’ve been here…” Aki began.

 

Sakura wasn’t thinking that at all. Thoughts barely littered her mind at the moment

 

and the remaining ones were still screaming.

 

“But I think that question is better pointed at you.” Aki’s finger swinging towards her,

 

Sakura watched as it poked her on the nose lightly.

 

“E-excuse me?” she stuttered. The door was locked, and it was still daytime behind

 

the blinds.

 

“It’s a rhetorical question, methinks,” Aki replied. “As I know the answer to be about

 

eight hours, and the rest of the details don’t bother me. This isn’t healthily, Sakura. I

 

mean, others do it, but at least they have the internet to keep them busy.”

 

“I- I am fine, thank you for your concern,” Sakura replied. “Please, leave me alone.”

 

“Oh no you don’t,” replied Aki, getting up and leering at her. “You’re not gonna trick

 

me with any fancy word games. Get up or I’ll slice ya.”

 

Not even considering it, Sakura reached for her blanket, grabbing hold of its hem

 

before freezing up and looking at the girl still staring her down. Grumbling, she got

 

back up.

 

“There. That’s better,” Aki said, with a smile and a pat on the back. “All standing

 

back up again. I find you can’t achieve a lot without standing up first, so at least

 

you’re making it.” Sakura tried for an obligatory giggle, but it just came out as a

 

tearful snort. Trying to compromise, she smiled, Aki returned a beam of her own

 

gladly.

 

“Now,” Aki continued, wandering up to the blinds. “Are you okay for sunlight, or

 

shall we wait in the dark some more?” Sakura imagined there might have been

 

sarcasm with that sentence but didn’t feel any. And though it felt silly to refuse, she

 

was still glad her friend had offered.

 

Shaking her head was all it took to convince Aki, who immediately moved on. She

 

wandered over to the keyboard, examining it for the off switch- hidden in the

 

darkness. A red light came on, and random keys started playing an obscure obscenity

 

of notes.

 

“Aki,” Sakura finally got out before the girl learned where the volume button was.

 

“How did you get in here?”

 

Aki stopped playing, turning it off and turning around. “Through the attic.”

 

“We don’t have an attic,” Sakura replied.

 

“Of course we do. All buildings do. It’s a national requirement.”

 

“Well, I guess we do have one, but I don’t have one in my room for certain.”

 

“And yet you’re not looking up to be sure,” Aki said with an upwards glance. Sakura

 

followed and saw the hole. It was one tile space big, the tile space itself missing from

 

Aki’s entrance. Sakura watched this new addition to her room as if it were a bug eyed

 

alien staring back at her and silently offering her some of its chocolate bar. How long

 

had it been there was a question she knew she should ask, but it wasn’t long before

 

Aki had dragged her up there to find out, hoisting her body through the hole and into

 

curiosity.

 

It was just an attic, but in the same way a castle was just a castle. It was spooky and

 

wondrous and foreboding and chilling and carried with it a sense of curiosity that

 

affected all that entered and demanded they look around. Aki had already started,

 

rummaging through a closet dresser table with a mirror that would have been

 

considered half a mirror were the second half anywhere to be seen.

 

“I found it looking around,” explained Aki excitedly. “It’s cool. It got loads of stuff in

 

it.”

 

Were they supposed to be up there, Sakura wondered, moments after examining what

 

appeared to be a plastic fish doll.  There wasn’t an exit she could see save the new

 

hole where her once solid roof was under. The question seemed a little pointless with

 

so much dust in the air, on the floors and scattered over beams and treasures. No one

 

had been up there in ages. Two sets of footprints filled the room besides her own. One

 

set looked old, the others fresh and barefoot.

 

It must have been back when Grandma Futabatei was here since this was last used.

 

The Heavenly Springs dormitory was a small estate with multiple buildings but only

 

the main and west wings were ever used. Even then, certain passageways weren’t

 

used and the layout was odd at times. There were more rooms on the second floor of

 

the west wing than on both the third and first floors. This attic as well probably

 

shouldn’t have been tall enough for them to stand in like this.

 

“Whoa, look at this,” Aki said, lifting up a scary wooden mask with jagged,

 

outlandish lines that Sakura could not imagine being done with a simple paint brush

 

slapped across it. Aki held it to her own face and cooed as she looked at Sakura from

 

the other side. Staring at her through the eye slits, Aki made a mock attempt at

 

pretending she couldn’t breath before wrestling the mask away from herself.

 

Declining when her friend tried to pass it to her, Sakura moved on to find something

 

else. She coughed, feeling a little bit choked with all the dust, now scattering after

 

being reawakened.  Meeting up with a stuffed penguin that she politely requested not

 

to have to touch by Aki, she came across another set of drawers at the back,

 

surrounded by bin bags and laden with books that looked a century old with jewelry

 

full of nostalgia, along with one simple photo frame.

 

Inside the frame was a colour photograph. A ship; a black liner of some kind that

 

immediately took her attention hostage. Holding it closely, Sakura admired the detail

 

of the picture. It was a group shot, with several lovely looking couples, a girl older

 

than her; a few adults. No one she could possibly know of course but she found them

 

familiar all the same. She could swear the people in the photo were smiling beyond

 

the length of the camera lens and straight at her. She could even see the whites of the

 

man’s teeth. Smiling back a little, she put it down again.

 

It hit her hard, flashes. Shocks. Her brain on fire as it tried desperately to roll itself

 

out. She remembered four years ago.  Hearing the birds on deck as she struggled to

 

even pull herself over to the starboard side to look over the edge and see the endless

 

might of the ocean. The waves hitting the sides of the ship, she remembered her older

 

sister’s friendly laughter, a gentle taunt that angered her enough to throw herself the

 

extra foot forward and finally gaze at that eternal blue of energy that held her vision

 

until the horizon of the sky. She remembered being glad she had agreed to go.

 

But she was wrong to go.

 

It as four years to the day, she remembered now. How could she ever forget? Four

 

years since she had been gazing longingly at that single gull that had somehow made

 

it out this far on a wondrous journey of its own. She remembered turning away from

 

the bird, with thoughts of perhaps entertaining the rest of the afternoon on ship with a

 

book, one of the more complex novels she had taken to reading to fill in the time

 

between the distances she was traveling. That was when she saw him.

 

But four years ago this was impossible.

 

He was looking at her, long before she was looking at him, jerking his head away

 

quickly as their eyes met. How silly, that she had barely thought of him then, even

 

kept her eyes on him in caution as he worked hard to keep his own glance away and

 

then speaking, unable to stop herself, feeling a well inside her build up the more she

 

stared and freeing it with the first words that tumbled out of her mouth at him.

 

His name was Alexis, and they had never met.

 

The dance was the best moment of her life. Every song they played she knew the

 

dance for, her sisters having labourishly taught her. Every waltz she could meet with

 

perfect steps and even the tango was a simple conquest for her as the night went on. It

 

was he who was clumsy, with footwork awkward and inept, it was not too surprising

 

to have other suitors ask to take his place with her, as if in their minds she was a

 

flower being assaulted by a dog who wished nothing more than to smell her. But she

 

stayed with him, taught him and laughed when he started to get better. It was a

 

beautiful night.

 

It was wrong.

 

Just wrong.

 

Wrong, wrong, wrong wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong Wrong!

 

With a squeal she fell back down the hole, tossing the picture to the ground like it

 

burned her fingers, staring at the shards that splattered over the ground. Landing

 

poorly on the bed, she slipped off and felt her elbow crack against wood. She howled

 

in pain, but didn’t let it stop her, rising quickly and heading straight for the door. She

 

unlocked it and left the key.

 

Belting passed people who watched her go, looks of confusion and amusement mixed

 

on their faces, she rushed as the tears started to flow, By the time she reached the exit

 

her energy and frustrations had drained. She wheezed as she brushed passed one of

 

the reception hall’s plants and looked for the exit.

 

What was that? How could it have been real? She had never been on a boat in her life.

 

She traveled from Italy by plane and there was only the time her father insisted they

 

go for a ride in the Mediterranean on a small boat he had somehow managed to

 

charter. But even that was too small for the three of them.

 

And four years ago she couldn’t have been anywhere of the sort. She had been on dry

 

land, the nearest river miles away. That year she didn’t go anywhere. She couldn’t,

 

even if by some reason she had wanted to.

 

Making it to the  One hundred and Eight Steps she stopped. Her breath raced ahead of

 

her, pumping her heart faster than it should have allowed, Sakura looked down and

 

knew how dangerous it was for her to even consider going down like she was now.

 

She would fall and break like a porcelain doll. Wouldn’t that be so much better to

 

what she was feeling now?

 

No, she chided herself. What was that thought? To kill herself now would be the

 

worse. She may be forgiven for throwing herself to her death with just faith behind

 

her, but to know and kill oneself was just asking for punishment. She could never kill

 

herself. Catching herself on one of the lanterns, she lowered herself, shaking

 

erratically to the top step, waiting for her breathe to catch up.

 

It was real. All of it. How could it not be? She could taste the salt in the air and the

 

wet wind on her cheeks, the lurch in her stomach and the floating in her heart. And it

 

was definitely four years ago, back when she was sixteen.

 

Alexis was a year younger. From what she later heard, he had lied to get himself onto

 

the ship though. It was nothing short of desperation on all sides. The need for extra

 

work in the ship’s crew, and his desire to escape his life of poverty. It was by that, and

 

not before long, before they became friends, that the rumours then started to appear.

 

That he was using her; that she was only convenience; that she was money waiting to

 

be pilfered by a poor boy who knew a child’s father wanted her to be happy. How

 

could they even think such a thing of-

 

No! How could she have been sixteen fours years ago. She was only thirteen now.

 

***

 

Finding a payphone had taken longer than Natoko originally expected. There were

 

unsurprisingly few of them nowadays with all the mobile phones people were

 

carrying and it wasn’t until they got to the station that they finally managed to get

 

hold of one.

 

Of course, this wouldn’t have mattered if Sagara’s phone had been working.

 

Not within her own expertise, nor apparently Sagara’s, it wasn’t until Sarah had a go

 

at getting a signal out of the thing that it became clear it was broken in some way, or

 

perhaps without credit. Whatever happened, the frog covered device wasn’t working

 

and it took until the sun came up for them to accept that.

 

She yawned as they stood at the platform, watching Sarah wander into the small shop

 

selling conveniences as the train shot across her eyes at several hundred miles per

 

hour. Taking it in with the same importance as a businessman crossing an empty

 

street in no particular rush, she felt her eyes dry up, the sleek advertisement stricken

 

vehicle bombarding her with possible movies she should consider seeing before

 

disappearing as quickly as it came. The need to fall asleep overcame her, her neck

 

drooping. Being strong of mind and alert at all times was so much easier when she

 

hadn’t spent the last few hours, th hours she usually reserved for sleep, fully awake

 

and fighting for her life.

 

Sleep was her closest companion now, but she couldn’t come in and play. Sagara

 

seemed fine, sitting next to her smiling contently on par. He was either deep in

 

thought or happy just to relax, or maybe he even had some secret ninja technique that

 

allowed him to rest as if asleep. Letting it dwell on her mind for a second, it occurred

 

to Natoko that Sagara probably hadn’t been asleep at all the night before. If he woke

 

her up and then they went out. It had been late…

 

Maybe she should ask him if he could teach her it.

 

Sarah came out of the shop empty handed, darting quickly around other bystanders in

 

the crowd. It was a time for people to start coming into work on early shifts, but then

 

they were in the middle of the city, and most would be traveling in, not out. In fact,

 

most looked to be students like herself. Most looking like they were dressed to party,

 

but no longer had the energy for it. The young American girl slipped over to them

 

casually, walking passed Natoko and sitting on Sagara’s other side.

 

Thoughts of Ms. Sakimoto flooded into Natoko’s head as they waited. That woman

 

certainly was strict. Sagara may have screwed up a bit, but this was his first mission.

 

Shouldn’t it be expected? In truth hadn’t he done well in the areas he had focused on?

 

Slaying demons and reaching the finals in the tournament. And like she had said, most

 

of them were gone now anyway. Wasn’t it better they were gone no matter how

 

Sagara was involved? The merit should come after the results.

 

A nagging doubt did flow over her on this though; Sagara’s talk of the Animism ritual

 

a few month’s ago. Even if the demons were destroyed they could still come back.

 

The details eluded her but Sagara’s gauntlet was just a gauntlet, and he hadn’t seemed

 

to do anything to destroy their soul’s or whatever demons had. That made a bit more

 

sense. If Sagara were only sending demons back to where they came from, it wasn’t

 

exactly the best result they could have on the matter.

 

No, it was more that Sagara hadn’t done it himself that was the problem, and the

 

remaining demons. If the other demons were still the issue then Ms. Sakimoto would

 

have told him to find them as well. As of now, they had two objectives, Natoko

 

cleared this in her mind, trying to keep sharp on the subject rather than get lost in

 

details she didn’t yet understand. Find the fire demon. And find the other demons that

 

also escaped. Ms. Sakimoto had hid all other information –because, of course, Sagara

 

wasn’t to get any help from his family. He was to do it himself.

 

“We should come back into town after getting some rest,” she suggested. “Head to the

 

crime scene.”

 

“Yeah, that’ll be nice,” replied Sarah. “We could wander around an alleyway

 

aimlessly for a couple of hours, and see how the police did a good job at cleaning the

 

mess up.”

 

“They- they might have missed something,” Natoko rebuffed.

 

“Ys, that’s true. Policemen are incompetent most of the time and they do miss things

 

out. There’s even a case there was a good cop who for some reason enjoys his job

 

there and uncovered everything they could find. Of course, That’s bitch’s goons were

 

probably all over the place shortly after that, and anything supernatural that the police

 

would have definitely missed was probably sucked up and banished henceforth and all

 

that. Going there would be pointless.”

 

“You are probably right,” Natoko said, trying to remain dignified and talking to Sarah

 

as if she had just given a child’s opinion that was by sheer fluke a good idea. “In that

 

case we should probably-“

 

“Hey!” Sarah interrupted. “You don’t need to think of anything. You’re Sagara’s

 

slave, right? Just wait until you get your orders.”

 

Many had Natoko’s number of associates grown in the past three years of living at the

 

Heavenly Springs dormitory. Even though she had not been one for easy

 

conversation, picking up people that were willing to talk to her became easy through

 

time. Many held a decent amount of respect for someone willing to practice hard in

 

Iaido everyday and most showed her an admiration of her skills that could only make

 

her beam with pride.

 

In all her time of being there though, she had never really spoken to Sarah all that

 

much. Just the initial introduction, a few attempts a casual conversation, a surprise get

 

together in Sarah’s room one night as they played video games for about an hour and

 

then looking the other way from her in the hallway ever since.

 

It was just the easiest way.

 

“We’ll need to get some more information about this,” Sarah said, unwrapping her

 

chocolate bar and biting into an embedded nut. That was obvious of course, to

 

Natoko’s mind, but it was the right move. “Where though? I could make some calls

 

when I get back to the dorm, but it’s not going to find us anything special.”

 

What they needed was a witness. Someone who saw anything, but they didn’t really

 

have any police power. Even if they found one if they couldn’t convince the person to

 

speak to them nicely they couldn’t threaten them. There wasn’t even any way of

 

finding them either.

 

Although maybe Sagara had a way. That wouldn’t surprise her, seeing as they once

 

got to the InBetween Realm through eating fried octopus. She really didn’t know

 

enough about the things. Her own training regime may have been top notch (though

 

today would be highly dented by her intentions to sleep in this morning) but the things

 

Sagara were involved in overwhelmed her. A few weeks had passed but it was still

 

hard to get used to the fact that the world turned as usual but this time with demons in

 

  1. It was very cool that no one but her and a few select knew of such things, but it

 

didn’t mean she knew everything. It would be another thing she would have to know

 

more of. It seemed like she would have to ask Sagara to teach her a few things.

 

Enough! Cursing herself, Natoko left Sarah to her silence, to Sagara his smiling. She

 

was tired and exhausted. The near death situation alone was enough to get her

 

wanting sleep, and the rest was just a mountain of fatigue toppling onto her. They all

 

needed sleep, whether the other two wanted it or not. Yawning, she decided. This

 

could all wait until the morning.

 

“Do you know where we could get some information, Sagara?”

 

“Well, there is one person nearby.”

 

***

 

Sagara led them, very slowly, away from the station, across the bridge, and back to

 

the subway. By this time it had gotten crowded with the influx of early workers

 

coming in and Natoko had no choice but to stand and doze in the tram system where

 

Sagara had pointed to. He hadn’t made his destination clear yet, and that was probably

 

reason to worry. Not that he might lead them to anywhere dangerous but because

 

there was very little chance that Sagara had got where he was going right.

 

They came back out into the center of the city, her legs feeling like they had been

 

replaced with steel pipes. Maybe she should get some coffee or an energy drink, she

 

mused. It wasn’t the type of thing she’d bother with usually, but it was starting to get

 

drifty in her mind and she was certain now her body was swaying.

 

“Ah, we’re here,” Sagara said, finally stopping at the entrance to the Fuugosuki

 

Business Park. The soft grass looked inviting from here as the sunrise bounced off the

 

waters and the small tourist shops that scattered around the lake were already open

 

and ready for business. Wherever Sagara had planned for them it may be worth

 

requested just laying down and sleeping in the park for a few hours.

 

Then she realised where she was.

 

The takoyaki stand.

 

It wasn’t the same place as last time, but apparently it had moved today. She

 

recognized the man at the booth as they approached it: a small stocky man with neatly

 

combed hair and a face sweaty with grease that wasn’t his. The man’s face gave her

 

enough shock to wake her up just a bit. They weren’t going back to the InBetween

 

realm now were they?

 

Although that wasn’t so bad.

 

“We can ask this guy,” said Sagara.

 

“Good morning, sir,” the man behind the stand said. “Can I take your order please?”

 

“We’d like some information please,” said Sagara the same way she would have

 

ordered a burger.

 

“Well, the information center is just up that way sir, although I could probably help

 

you with some directions.”

 

“No, we need some special information.”

 

The man at the counter laughed a little uneasily. “Excuse me?”

 

“It was about something that happened at the Alleyway of Desire the other night.”

 

“The Alleyway of Desire,” the man said, repeating the words carefully as if to do so

 

would unlock the knowledge from his head. “Is that a club? I’m afraid I haven’t heard

 

of it before.”

 

“You haven’t?” said Sagara, confused himself now. “That’s odd. I thought everyone

 

knew about it.”

 

The takoyaki started to fizzle a bit too loudly, and the man distracted himself by

 

flipping it over and shaking it until it calmed down again. Natoko found herself

 

getting hungry. She hadn’t eaten recently the afternoon before. Stopping, the man

 

looked back up to them and visibly jumped in shock, looking surprised they were still

 

there.

 

He stayed silent for a moment, before looking down at the small wooden counter that

 

sat between them, waiting for something, then smiled and said. “I’m sorry, what was

 

your order again?”

 

“I said can we get some information please?”

 

“Yup, certainly,” the man leaned over the counter a fraction and pointed to a tourist

 

information building roughly three hundred meters away. “That’s the information

 

center there. That’s probably your best start. I know a lot of the local area though if

 

you just need directions.”

 

Looking down at Sarah, Natoko was glad to see the little girl was frowning as well, a

 

hyper realistic déjà vu was passing through the both of them. Sagara continued.

 

“Oh I see,” he said. “It’s like that, is it?”

 

“It’s like that? Yes.” The man looked like he was agreeing for the sake of it.

 

“Mom told me about these guys,” he said turning to Natoko. “It’s actually quite

 

interesting.”

 

“What’s up with him?”

 

“Nothing big. Watch this.” Reaching his hand out, Sagara pointed silently in the other

 

direction. All three watched him for a second before looking to where he was

 

indicating to; nothing but a cloudy blue sky and what might have been birds in the

 

distance.  The counter assistant looked at him for a moment, following the direction of

 

Sagara’s finger. They all looked that way and waited patiently for nothing for well

 

over ten seconds, long enough for Sagara to put his hand down. The man eventually

 

turned back to them, still smiling, before looking down at the counter and up again.

 

“I’m sorry, what was your order?”

 

“Could you wake up please? We’d like to order some information,” Sagara said, as if

 

they had both reset.

 

“Oh I’m sorry, was I daydreaming?” He laughed lightly. “I do that sometimes, you’ll

 

have to forgive me. Some information you say, well we-“

 

“Sorry,” Sagara interrupted. “I mean, wake up.”

 

“But I-“

 

“But I am awake now.”

 

“Wake up-“

 

“I-”

 

“Wake up. The Balance has need of you.”

 

Natoko was just about to grab Sagara and scold her for bothering an innocent

 

salesman, when the man started coughing as if his lungs were trying to escape. He

 

shuddered for a moment, grabbing hold if the counter and rocking the small cart at

 

them with his head shaking backwards and forwards in a perfect rocking motion.

 

Finally sneezing, the man reeled back upon seeing how close his head was to the

 

surface, and turned back up to face Sagara.

 

He looked a little more cross than before.

 

“Man, you’ve got some nerve you have, you little creep. Snapping me out it like that.”

 

“Well mom says you deserve everything you get for doing it to yourself. And it’s also

 

unhealthy. Though she didn’t say why. And I never asked.” He sounded oddly proud

 

of this.

 

Gathering as much as he could, the man spat out on the floor, before starting to wipe

 

his face with his sleeve.

 

“You know how boring this is?” he started. “Do you? I serve dead octopus to illiterate

 

tourists who can’t even be bothered to learn the difference between ‘thank you’ and

 

‘please sit down’. I mean, it might be interesting if I at least got to kill the octopus

 

myself, but no, we don’t even make the things properly, they just gets cooked and

 

served here. Waste of my fucking time.”

 

“You could always quit.”

 

“Quit?” he said with a snort. “You think I can just quit? The fuck you know? You

 

guys have it built, you know. You get to play ninja all day without ever having to

 

worry about a paycheck. You spend all day acting cool and having fights with

 

dramatic poses, but the second you have to think for yourselves as to what you have

 

to do next, you come whining to guys like me, who don’t get paid by the headcount

 

and have to get a nine to five just to pay the bills.”

 

This man was being a bit too informal with Sagara at this point. Though she wasn’t

 

aware completely of what was going on, she knew it shouldn’t matter. Letting others

 

insult her lord was something she couldn’t allow.”

 

“You insolent cur!” she shouted. “You dare-“ But Sagara put his hand up to wave her

 

down, probably for the best.

 

“Oh yeah I dare. You think your ‘Balance’ stuff means anything to people like us.

 

I’m not going to get anything for giving information to you yet I still have to give it

 

anyway yet risk losing the memory I hold so dear.”

 

“Well again, that’s your own-“

 

“Oh yes, Me, I’m the ultimate deus ex machina here, ready to swoop in at the last

 

second to save you from the bloodied onslaught of lack of information and whisk you

 

away to where you need to go next, and do I get anything from it? Oh no, you’ll just

 

feel a little obligated to buy some extra fried dead squid and then a little guilty

 

because you conveniently don’t have enough cash.”

 

“I do have some-“

 

“And as if that’s suppose to make me feel better about it anyway. It’s not like I can

 

pocket it and this country doesn’t like tips for some reason. It’s insulting apparently.”

 

“Boss, who is this guy?” asked Sarah, who was getting a little cross and a little

 

defensive of the man’s wildly waving arms. The man looked Japanese, Natoko

 

thought.

 

“This is an Alac, he takes his own will away to prevent himself going mad.”

 

“My name is Hiroshi,” he insisted, though his name badge had on it Kiyoshi. “And I

 

don’t take it away; I keep it safe. When you girls finally get out of school and have to

 

start working you’ll understand.”

 

Not if I can help it.

 

“So what is it you want to know? The sooner you’re gone the better I can fake an

 

illness to get the rest of the day off.”

 

“We’re looking for a fire spirit.”

 

The man froze to let a contemptuous grin rise on his face, followed by a fake scoff of

 

laughter.

 

“Fire spirit? Fire spirit! Oh great, and if it’s not bad enough, you’re asking for

 

information you can find on the damn news channel.” The man grabbed a skewer of

 

octopus off the grill and chewed into it, taking him time. “You want fire. Seven

 

homeless people have been burnt in their tents up at Fuugosuki park in the past two

 

weeks. A perfume store’s been set ablaze. They were showing extreme footage of a

 

burning man on the net and that Priestess girl loses her body. Get a freakin’ clue, you

 

retarded slutjockeys!

 

“You know we probably should have consulted the news first. It is the third time

 

we’ve been given that clue,” Natoko said, though no one was paying attention.

 

“Did she have any enemies, anything like that?” Sarah asked getting a little bolder

 

now.

 

“Course not. She’s a Bargainer. Their types don’t get enemies. Everyone knows that.”

 

“I didn’t.”

 

“And if anything, Itoko’s family had less enemies than any other of the five great

 

families. We’re talking perhaps the one shaman tribe in the whole universe that

 

universally accepted by anyone and everything. Where most of the shaman types are

 

usually all for battling demons, these guys are being social organizers.”

 

“Social Organizers? Is that like a special skill?

 

“What? No. Just, you know, setting up parties and such.”

 

“With demons?”  Sarah looked amused at this.

 

Well, demons weren’t specifically invited. It was more to get the groups of people

 

together that were Knowers for drinking, partying, chatting and gambling. Though

 

demons were known to get on the guest menu, as long as they didn’t eternally damn

 

someone.”

 

They stepped to the side as a family of three shuffled up to the stand and ordered.

 

Hiroshi looked at the tourists like they were aliens for a moment, then remembered

 

his job and got onto serving them. Engaging in small talk with the father of the two,

 

Natoko got the oddest feeling that Hiroshi knew these people, even though Hiroshi

 

himself was completely unaware of this. After getting three rounds of fried octopus,

 

they left, the man with a sullen look on his face.

 

“I have no idea how much these actually cost,” Hiroshi commented, the prices

 

displayed behind him. “Anyway, put simply, ain’t no one in that family that had any

 

enemies. Everyone loved them. They held the best parties and were friends with

 

everyone, even the demons and Divine. Hell, her dad was the one that arranged that

 

three day drinking contest between your mom and that Alchoid demon. As long as

 

they were around, no one wanted to hurt anyone.”

 

“And yet incineration is quite a nasty way to go,” commented Sarah sarcastically.

 

“Which is what is making me it was an accident.”

 

“As in ‘Whoops I dropped my lighter?’ ”

 

“Well, essentially yeah. No one can account for Itoko’s last actions, but apparently

 

she had been out hitting bars. There are demons out there capable of incinerating

 

human. Well, it’s one of the basic myths. An accidental burp would have taken out

 

anyone. Then it was time to escape.”

 

“That sounds kind of unlikely.”

 

“It’s more likely than someone killing her for a reason, and it was in the Alleyway of

 

Desire too, which makes murder even less likely.”

 

“Yeah that would affect things,” Sagara said, understanding that which boggled

 

Natoko, further bugging her.

 

“Exactly. Being killed there; people would want to hide it. Even demons would want

 

to hide it. Everyone would be on your butt for killing a member of the Kiribayashi. It

 

would just be better if it wasn’t found. An accident, they’d panic and run though,

 

leaving the remains to be found.”

 

“Unless it’s like what that Yuya said,” said Sarah. “And they wanted it to be found.”

 

“Well, let’s hope that’s certainly not the case,” Hiroshi replied.  “In fact if it is it may

 

be better leaving Japan now.”

 

“Why’s that?”

 

“Paranoia. You kill an average Bargainer, one who doesn’t matter, that’s fine. You

 

kill the type that has friends everywhere, from the lowest pit to the highest heaven,

 

and you leave it for people to find but keep hidden who did it, it’s gonna get everyone

 

asking a bunch of questions. And the big one is just who profits from such an action.”

 

“And why’s that bad?”

 

“Because who profits is entirely up to the person asking the question,” Sagara

 

answered for the man. “And because the answer at the top of the sheet is going to be

 

the Balance.”

 

“Us?” Natoko replied. “Why would we want to kill her?”

 

“Such people allow demons to enter this realm through the Ritual of Animism, based

 

on the requests of other demons that have already gotten into this realm. We have

 

dealings with them to limit it, but it’s their choice so we can’t completely stop it.”

 

“Unless of course you kill them.” That brought an idea to Natoko’s mind.

 

“Could Ms. Sakimoto have ordered her killed?”

 

“No reason why she wouldn’t,” Sagara replied. “But she seemed to blame it on the

 

Fire spirit anyway. It probably is that which did it. Even if it isn’t, it shouldn’t stop us

 

from trying to find the fire spirit.”

 

“But if it isn’t the Fire spirit that did this, shouldn’t we be looking for the real killer?”

 

Sagara looked at her lightly perplexed, then looked up to think it through.

 

“Well, we could do that I suppose,” he said. “But we should really look for the Fire

 

spirit. That’s what Yuya told me to do.”

 

“But if it’s not the killer, then we could be going in the wrong direction in seeking

 

justice for this girl’s death.” Sarah scoffed silently behind Sagara.

 

“Not really,” Sagara corrected her. “Our job isn’t justice. It’s finding the Fire spirit.”

 

“But if this girl was murdered on Ms. Sakimoto’s orders, then we need to-“

 

“Do nothing about it,” Sarah interrupted. “Like Sagara said, that’s not part of the

 

mission. Let the stupid twat stay dead is she’s nothing to do with this.”

 

“Erm excuse me,” Natoko interjected harshly. “I’m sure Sagara is just as concerned

 

with providing at least the police with clues to a murder if he should come across

 

any.”

 

“No, Sarah’s right. There would be no need to care. The Balance isn’t about being

 

good. It’s to keep it in balance with evil. Helping a murder case would go against

 

that.”

 

Not quite understanding, Natoko looked to Hiroshi who was beginning to look bored,

 

yet still with a watchful eye. She got the feeling he was listening intently, taking

 

notes. All ready to give the information to someone else.

 

“So, what should we do then?”

 

“I have no idea.”

 

Natoko sighed, feeling an urge to take over, but suppressing it. The last thing she

 

should do was give orders. That wasn’t her job. Advice maybe, but even that should

 

be restricted. Asking questions should have been okay though.

 

“Do you have any further information for us?”

 

“Not really. Figure things out for yourself. Learn to wear some makeup to hide yer

 

face and don’t hold your sword in a in a rag like that. Too obvious. You’ll get

 

yourself arrested..”

 

Shuffling the long box on her back, Natoko felt a scowl coming on. “Um, thank you.

 

Anything else?”

 

“Are you expecting a clue from me or something? I’ve got nothing. The police have

 

got nothing. Even you Balance guys clearly have nothing. No one has a clue why

 

Itoko died. Someone did it, that’s for sure. But who and why and even how are all out

 

of reach. All I can tell you is don’t bother looking up personal motive, it’ll take years.

 

Like I said, everyone knew her.”

 

“And yet, no one knows why she died.”

 

They left shortly after that, the man giving them no more information. As they left he

 

fell into a lapse of violent coughing, and shifted back to the relaxed, happy look he

 

had on early, greeting two joggers as they passed him by.

 

Chapter Five

 

How they did it every day, she was no idea. How they could even consider the thought that brought about the action that told them it was okay to take just one step forward was an enigma beyond her meagre comprehension. To continue after that step, when legs were lump meat and the action required solid steel, was both a miracle and a travesty.

 

How, just how, could she climb this many stairs?

 

It was exhausting even when she wasn’t sleep deprived. Everyone hated it in some way. Sagara showed discomfort to it and even Aki slowed down near the top.

 

One hundred and forty last time she counted. One hundred and thirteen the time before that. The stairs were growing. She knew it.

 

Even so, she bore onwards, lifting kneecaps and immediately resting on them, bringing toes, caked in sweat under clammy climate on the inside of her running shoes which in turn, absorbed the heat of the morning sun through their black leather skin. Why didn’t she have water with her? There were plenty of times to get it.

 

She hadn’t slept at all. The luggage containers where they had sat had been inconveniently full in the entire tram, leaving her to sit with Iziz between her legs, keeping a light watch to make sure it didn’t fall or wander off anywhere. Now she felt it dangle limply from her back, threatening to fall if she swayed a little too hard to the right, or nudge herself backwards into sweet oblivion.

 

Taking their time, all six legs going at three times less their regular speed, Natoko, Sagara and Sarah plodded home. They had found nothing in the end. No clues from takoyaki salesmen. No brooding epiphanies. Certainly no helpful strangers that popped out of nowhere with mysterious clues. Just nothing but what felt like blisters.

 

They really ought to have visited the alleyway once.

 

“Ah, so you’re back,” a voice boomed from above. The sun was in Natoko’s eyes as she glanced up past Sarah and Sagara ton see the silhouette looming before them. The figure was blurry and back, but the voice was blatant. Otsune had been waiting for them.

 

“Now normally I’m not foolish enough to stand at a spot for an hour, waiting for people to come back so I can shout at them. It’s an act of the stubborn; a motion of unbelievable and highly unnecessary action done by the prude and overbearing. But on this particular occurrence I believe this merits to be a exemplarily reason to be doing it.”

 

“Hey, we’re back,” said Sagara. Natoko was too tired to react. Thoughts of the Hot Springs were coming to her.

 

“Yes you are,” said Otsune, with a mock happiness embedded in her sarcastic tone. “You’re back and you’re okay and are in no way near any danger of having anything happen to you that may be considered dangerous.”

 

“”Well, I wouldn’t say that. Mom said evil lurks in all shadows. The forces of good too.”

 

“You’re mom says a lot of things, doesn’t she?” Natoko could see Otsune was speaking through clenched teeth, a mechanical smile on her face where the cogs turned loudly and jutted twice as hard. Natoko felt like backing away, only the thought of having to climb up more stairs stopping her. “Does she any anything about missing children?”

 

“She does actually, she says a missing child can connect a planet, but can only bring it-“

 

Slap!

 

A hard wind cracked against Sagara’s hand, a snap of skin against skin woke Natoko out of her reverie for a moment, a hit of failure accompanying. Otsune had gone to slap Sagara mid-sentence, the expression of happiness gone from her face, one replaced now with a rage that one believed to be righteous.

 

Her hand hadn’t reached Sagara’s face. He was too fast for that. The slap had her hand clapping against his, the ninja keeping a firm grip of four of her digits, holding her tight as a mousetrap. Having to struggle to pull away, Otsune didn’t deter one bit.

 

Sarah looked ready to pounce, her little hands balled up into fists. Natoko felt a little upset that the little girl was ready to attack yet she wasn’t.

 

“Trying my best to ignore the fact that you took Sarah on one of your excursions without informing me, Sakura has also been missing for the past three hours,” she told them. “She’s ran off and hasn’t come back since.”

 

“So?” replied Sarah indignantly.

 

“According to everyone who saw her, she was in tears when she left. According to Aki, it’s because of you she’s like this.”

 

For the first time Natoko saw that Aki had been waiting for them as well. She was sitting on one of the garden rocks, a vertical granite stone with enough of a flat surface for someone to sit on and play video games whilst ignoring the drama of front of them.

 

“What did you say to her, huh?” Otsune pressed. “What could have been so bad as to make her run out in tears?”

 

“As in today?”

 

“Yes, as in today.”

 

“I haven’t spoken to her today. We just got back.”

 

“Okay then, yesterday. I’m more than willing to accept that Sakura would lock herself in her room before dealing with these things.”

 

“I didn’t speak to her yesterday either.”

 

Otsune was stumbling with her argument. It couldn’t keep up using Sagara as fuel. “Well when did you last speak to her then?”

 

“When we got her to lead us through the vents to the demon’s hidout.”

 

“Time please.”

 

“4554: 10548625754.”

 

“Earth time!”

 

“As in Gregorian?”

 

“Yes!”

 

“15:25 22nd September 2005.”

 

Otsune looked a little distrustful, and turned to Aki for some help. Aki said nothing, engrossed in the grey console wrapped around her fingertips.

 

“Aki,” Otsune finally spoke after enough seconds to see a mouse scuttle by and out of sight. “When did he last speak to her?”

 

“I think it’s been a couple of days now,” Aki replied. Otsune huffed to herself, lost in what to do. With no reason to shout anymore, she stuttered a little bit, trying to bring herself about.

 

“Let the little hooker do what she wants,” Sarah butted in. “You should keep your business to yourself.” She pushed passed Otsune, dragging Sagara along for the ride, who nearly collided with the befuddled woman. The group separated quickly.

 

“You kids are my business!” Otsune shouted to her.

 

“Not that we asked for it,” Sarah spat back with spite.

 

Natoko figured she was dismissed and climbed the rest of the stairs, the final three steps reminding her of the previous one hundred and fifty two. “Shouldn’t you give her some more time?” she asked as she became level with Otsune. “Three hours is hardly too much a concern?”

 

“I’d have less concern if someone else took some of it,” Otsune replied, looking weakened by the short ordeal. Natoko couldn’t imagine why Otsune was so stressed by such a thing. Things had been calm for days, and now she was ready to kick their butts the second they got home. Otsune sighed loudly to herself and started walking back “So what happened with you guys?” she asked.

 

Natoko told her essentially what had happened, without all the unnecessary details that an innocent shouldn’t hear. She knew Otsune was as aware as she was, though perhaps less so, on these things, but it didn’t prevent her feeling a need to protect. Natoko told her just enough so that she knew Sagara still had his initiation, and then fell off towards her bedroom. On the futon before she could do anything else, the sleeping mat still out from the night before where she barely had chance to even rest in it, she felt a wave of final bliss that refused to let anyone interrupt. Her body ached. After all the excitement and sleep deprivation there was now a part of her that was convinced she couldn’t go to sleep.

 

Her thoughts wandered; to things Ms. Sakimoto had said; to Sagara’s mission; to the thought that the Balance was the prime suspect. Was that possible? Ms. Sakimoto was a businesswoman type. Could she cut people off like that with a blink? Would she know about it if it was true? Natoko knew the Balance had several factions, or at least got that as the general idea. That was complicated; a murder of a girl loved by everyone, demon and angel alike, and only charred remains as a clue, with a fear amongst all. It wasn’t going to be easy; and not even completely necessary according to Sagara. They just had to find one of the potential suspects. It didn’t even matter if they were the killer or not.

 

Shifting over, removing Iziz as the guard poked her in the back, she thought of Sakura. The young girl went off to do lots of things on her own. She had cooking classes on Wednesdays and usually went to the church on the weekends. It was the right decision to wait longer for her.

 

No, no, that was wrong. Protecting her friends should have been her first priority. It was what she was there for. She should have at least called, at least tried to contact. Sagara would have known a way.

 

And then she was asleep for the day.

 

***

 

Possibly thinking about tulips, but with no way to tell, the one known as Sagara stalked the kitchens. The kitchen, like an eager virgin, gave away its many treats, and Sagara hungrily devoured them all, relishing in dumpling delights, spiced rice balls and some pink liquid he stared at with confusion for a moment, like it was a drink he regularly sipped at but looked away for a moment, only to have a fox swap it for spiked night shadow. He consumed it anyway, uncaring for death.

 

Eight hours later, the harlots of the heavenly springs returned for the day, looking to relax from their various states of being away. The one known as Junko returned from her part time job, and complained incessantly to her friend Hiyori, who was just as tired and boring, though said nothing about her profession. The younger ones would return from play later, just as the ones that had returned earlier would be leaving again. Filing in and out, the residents opted to avoid the gaze of the curious landlord as he mopped a floor with little to no idea what he was doing with the cleaning utensil, a life with a mother negating all hope of learning how to do it properly even as the mop screamed for him to take it in his arms and treat it as if he were a rock star and it his humble microphone stand- together blazing a mark into the world that would bring an eternity of rock.

 

The one they called Otsune waited.

 

She didn’t just wait. Though it was similar to the same type of not just waiting as one would engage in when they would talk to others, have a good time and even read a book on the mathematic principles of the Lagrangian point and how it once related to the embodiment of Theia, to which the Balance originated, it was a wait done with tedium in its name, long glances at the clock and even longer sighing, an urge of giving up and consideration of alcohol, as the one called Fujiko returned with her stash for the night.

 

So when it finally came for Theia’s offspring to come out and the world fell to the dark side once more (though earlier than usual for it was summer, and also because the earth had shifted in its sleep and moved itself that little bit further along with no one noticing except a midget scientist in Mexico who would later become involved in a scandal with his boss and a guy that hated him and their boss so much that he would start rumours), that Otsune finally had enough and, grabbing a quick sip to lift her spirits, proceeded to the lounge to meet the three occupants: Fujiko, Sagara and, of course, Lisa, who wasn’t important.

 

“Right, now you’re going to go and search for her,” said Otsune, announcing her words before even walking into the room. No one appeared to be listening, and she had to repeat herself again to make sure everyone heard her.

 

“Right, now you’re going to go search for her,” is what it should have sounded like. But instead, she replied “I said, go look for her. She’s still gone.” Which was nothing like what was said before.

 

“Go look for who?” asked the ninja, torn between the television and the woman behind him.

 

“You know who,” replied Otsune, but the dumb American didn’t. “Sakura.”

 

“Has she not come back yet?”

 

“No!” replied Otsune, having not actually checked the girl’s room to find it as empty as before. “And you’re not to either until she does.”

 

“But if I’m to leave and not return until she comes back, how will I know when she has returned?”

 

“Don’t play wit with me. If I’d have the time I’d beat you with ease. Just get out there and find her. Don’t come back until you do.”

 

Sagara didn’t come back for several hours, but that was mainly because he didn’t leave for a few of them. First he collected Natoko, who had recovered from her fatigue and was just finishing what should have been her morning practise of a hundred strikes when he approached her again and told her they were going out. With a look of apprehension, she gave in quickly due to a fusion of social pressure provided by Aki, who agreed far too quickly to go considering she wasn’t invited, and her own pathetic delusions of being a super samurai retainer.

 

They would be delayed a short while after that again.

 

“Are you sure you have one?” asked Natoko, as if they were already in the middle of their conversation with Fujiko. “I can always ask someone else.”

 

“No no. I got it. I got it,” Fujiko slurred. Shuffling through her closest and bringing out more things it should be able to hold. ”Why do you need it anyway? You’ve got a cover for it and wouldn’t this just make it harder to pull out.”

 

“It wouldn’t be good if I got caught carrying it in the streets. In fact, I kind of prefer not to use it whenever possible.”

 

“Not much of a sword then, is it?” Fujiko continued, pulling out a full body mirror just a little smaller than the closest door, and a little bigger than the bag. “”How do you think the sword feels not getting used all time. It’s what it’s there for.”

 

“Natoko uses it quite a lot though,” said Aki, leaning over and overriding Fujiko’s hands. “It’s just when you’re not looking she uses it.”

 

“I’ve seen her use it plenty of times.”

 

With a loud gasp, Aki’s hand shot over Fujiko’s shoulder and pulled out a long ornamental bracer. “Is this it?”

 

“That will do fine, thank you Aki,” Natoko said. “Is it alright to borrow this as well then, Fujiko?”

 

“That was for a play back in school. You can have both for all I care.” The woman passed her the sleek black case and Natoko slid the katana known as Iziz down its cylinder before fixing the bracer on under the sleeve of her brown jacket. She bowed lightly in appreciation. Fujiko didn’t notice.

 

Sagara was talking to Gen, who hadn’t made an appearance yet. Their conversation was uneventful and boring, and a main reason not to go to parties with members of the Balance unless you planned on starting fights with the local pirate crew. They were cut off just as Gen was about to tell us something important.

 

“We may leave now,” aid Natoko coolly.

 

“Okay,” replied Sagara turning to go. He had his plain black jacket and white shirt on underneath, with jogging trousers that didn’t fit and a smile on his face that didn’t leave. Natoko had put something warm on, a top and cardigan, with loose denim jeans and her regular entourage of blade and small African girl. They got out the door before being stopped.

 

“Sagara,” Otsune called out. She had been relaxing herself with deep breathing, ready for what may come. Aki hovered in the doorframe before getting pulled out by Natoko.

 

“Seriously, bring her home. I don’t know what’s wrong but she has no where else to go, meaning she wouldn’t be anywhere else unless it was bad.”

 

Descending the steps lightly, it wasn’t until the three got to the bottom that they realised they didn’t know where they were going with this. Searching was one thing but the choice of first direction was a decision none of them were capable of making

In the end they walked forwards, Taking the road straight from the once old temple house and seeing where it led them. It led to a quiet street, house lights turning on all around them as humans settled in for the night. Murmurs of arguments little more important than what showed on televisions, and the rutting of housemates too paranoid to say anything.

 

With the directional sense of a pigeon in a magnet, the three wandered, their productivity declining and waning off altogether by the time they reached the tram station.

 

It was too late for most of the outgoing trams. There would be another in forty five minutes and then none after that save for the ones as final trips returning most of the resident’s home. The station worker watched them with an honestly bored expression on his face, his chin held up by the white glove of on his left hand, his only source of entertainment a small radio which spluttered out depressing tunes.

 

“She can’t be far,” said Natoko, not including time spent since her disappearance and the possibility of plane travel into her calculations. “Where would she have to go in town?”

 

“Nowhere save school,” Aki replied. Both she and Natoko went to the same place as Sakura. Natoko had been held back a year twice in her life at two separate occasions and was paying for it now. “But she doesn’t know that many people in town either.”

 

“What about the church? Doesn’t she go there every Sunday?”

 

“I was getting that feeling too,” replied Aki. “But she sometimes also volunteers at the Yellow Mansion. She might be helping out again.”

 

“Isn’t it a little late?”

 

“They do close late on Thursdays. It’s Korean meat night there. We could check that out. Even if she is working, it’d be nice for us to give her a walk home when she’s done.”

 

“Split up then?”

 

“That’s probably the best idea,” said Sagara, who had been staring at the tracks below as they waited. “There shouldn’t be much danger.”

 

“Of course not,” scoffed Aki. “Why would there be?”

 

“Ah, you better take the church actually.”

 

“Why?”

 

“I can’t go in them.”

 

“Right… oh right. I understand,” replied Natoko as if she just remembered she had told him to take the stairs and he was suffering extreme diarrhoea. “Sorry.”

 

“That’s okay, I should probably have mentioned it. Just remember. No churches or mosques or synagogues, political social houses, temple of the Dusk king or World’s dream enterprises conglomerate buildings. Anywhere else is fine.”

 

The two sides separated, Aki walking with Natoko, humming happily to herself. It was a quiet night, the heat still buzzing through the air, making Natoko take off her jacket before she was halfway down the first street.

 

“So Sagara was telling me about that girl that had died,” Aki said out of the blue. Natoko was shocked, she didn’t think Sagara was capable of starting a conversation.

 

“What did he say?”

 

“Nothing much really. Just that a woman is hiding more than she lets on and that they didn’t have any other leads.”

 

“Well that is it for the moment. We are kind of clueless.” Though not of their own fault. They had been awoken at night and forced through a deathtrap before being given a stern lecture and a verbal beating by a schizophrenic octopus salesman. Even having just got over sleep deprivation, she could still feel her eyes beating from all the explosions blasted into them. “It’s hard to figure out what to do next. I keep thinking we should go to the scene of the crime and –“

 

“I wouldn’t say there’s a need for that,” said Aki. “Wouldn’t they have cleaned up by now?”

 

Why did people keep dismissing that? “I guess, but it feels like the obvious choice.”

 

“For the police maybe. You though should be looking more for who did it.”

 

“I think that’s what they were doing. But if they can’t find out, and Sagara’s bosses can’t find out, how are we supposed to do so?”

 

“Well that’s an easy one,” said Aki lightly. “Just do the one thing no one else does.”

 

Natoko smirked, wishing it could be that simple.

 

***

 

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Natoko asked ten minutes later. Only now was it occurring to her that she didn’t know where the church was; nor had she ever been to it. Sakura spoke about it though never in any detail, and more when she was just informing people where she was going.

 

“Yup, been here before,” Aki replied, casually wandering past the convenience store Natoko was sure they had passed earlier. The feeling of being lost in her own town made her a little nervous. It was a small town, but there were many different areas and many of them looked the same. She usually only went as far as the store and the tram station. The school was on the outskirts of the city and anywhere else didn’t matter. Even so, she was being hit by déjà vu several times over here.

 

“It’s not a big place, but it’s got a spire on it, like on European churches. You’ll know it when you see it.”

 

“You go to church, Aki?” Natoko asked. Religion had never been a big topic in their many conversations, but she always thought Aki spent her Sunday mornings sleeping.

 

“Sakura invited me to go once,” she said. “It was boring. The stories were cool. There this one about a guy who lets this angel stay with him, and these guys come round to hang out with the angel and play with him. But the priest thinks it’s a bad idea, because the angel is important or something, so he has his wife entertain them instead.”

 

“I see,” commented Natoko, who had no idea about any catholic stories.

 

“Then there’s another story where this guy has a beautiful wife and moves to Egypt and as a joke they try to look like brother and sister, but the Egyptian king falls in love with her and marries her. This gets the man’s father all angry and stuff and he wrecks the town blaming the king but the king’s like ‘hey, no one told me she was your wife.’ He gets all confused and throws them out the city, and then the king gets eternally shunned for it.”

 

“Right,” Natoko said, unable to find a comment.

 

“After that it got boring. It was just singing and sitting silent with your eyes closed. I don’t know what that was about.”

 

“Wouldn’t that be praying?”

 

“I dunno,” said Aki looking like she wasn’t ready to start thinking about it. ”Well afterwards Sakura didn’t ask me to go again, which was a shame because they never answered any of my questions properly. Oh but I do know it was around here. It should be just round the next few corners.”

 

“Are you sure?” They had been walking straight, down one of the main roads that led to the bridge if they went the other way. This place should have been unrecognisable to her out of simple ignorance but the landscape had been repeated now for the forth time, her suspicions confirmed as the past the convenience store again.

 

“Something’s wrong here,” she said, after they had past the light of the store, where she could unhook the casing from her shoulders, letting Iziz out just enough to be ready for anything, but not so the police could see it and arrest her.

 

“What is it?”

 

“Haven’t you noticed?” Natoko whispered, though she didn’t now why she was hiding her voice. “We’ve walked past here several times.”

 

“No we haven’t,” Aki said looking around and looking confused.

 

“Yes we have; look,” Natoko indicated to the store they had passed just as a middle age woman came out with a shopping bag full of food. She looked around, didn’t glance towards them and walked away the other way. “We’ve passed that store several times now.”

 

“Did we?” Aki said, peering over to where Natoko said. “What store?”

 

“It appears so. Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Natoko asked just to make sure.

 

“No, that’s not what’s wrong here,” Aki said, hopping onto the road so she could look further down where Natoko had showed.

 

“If you’re going to blame the landscape for changing like before, I should just warn you that we don’t have time to waste on things like that and-“

 

“Natoko?”

 

“What?”

 

“I can’t see any store.”

 

“Huh? Of course you can see it, it’s right there. That lady just came out of it and-”

 

“There’s no lady either.”

 

“Of course there is.” The hunched over old lady was a little distant but still glinted in the moonlight.

 

“I’m just seeing Komamura Street. The only store nearby is the Benri from ten minutes back.”

 

“You’re seeing a different street to me?”

 

“No, I’m seeing Komamura street. I don’t know what you’re seeing.”

 

Natoko looked around. Across the road there was a small park with swings and a climbing frame where it looked like two houses should have been built. To her right was a lamppost with a poster on it that had been there so long it had the original message had faded. A red Mazda was parked just a few meters up from them.

 

Were they real? She could touch the lamppost but for a moment she saw Aki stare at her like she was poking thin air, the girl shaking her head to confirm before plunging her hand through the metal and out the other side like there was only air to stop her.

 

Aki then ran across the road slapping down on the air in front of her. For just a short instant, Natoko heard the metallic thud of what was unmistakably a car bonnet, but on the second impact nothing came and Aki was left swatting invisible flies.

 

What was this? Had they been targeted? There was no one who would have wanted to attack her directly- not yet anyway. She wasn’t known throughout the demons by anyone that was still alive or who would see her as a threat.

 

Not that that had stopped the water spirit from attacking her. Maybe this was another attempt to get at Sagara through his friends. Her thoughts wavered as she saw Aki step back staring into the sky like a giant dog was snarling at her feet. Following the girl’s eyesight, Natoko saw the end of the street and nothing save a few cars and a small van, but nothing more.

 

“Can you see that?” Aki asked.

 

“What is it you see?”

 

“Doesn’t matter. Run!”

 

Chapter six

 

Warmy fuzzy thoughts invaded Natoko’s mind. Memories of struggle and determination, mixed in with those who would accept her, and those who would admire her. The duet of sounds played a song she couldn’t hear.

 

Her mouth was full of dirt.

 

Up less than a second since she fell, Natoko nearly fell straight back down again as her feet caught in glue, something sticking in her back. Wobbling awkwardly, she caught her balance just enough to fall back in the mud.

 

Where were they? A different street than before. This one didn’t have a park and the cars had changed position too, with only one green salon parked next to where Aki was valiantly struggling against the mud.

 

The sloppy wet glop was all around them, filling the street like the dregs of a tidal wave that had brought a farming community along with it. It had swamped the road and most of the pavement for as far as she could see, hardening around her, trapping her feet like sand at the ocean’s edge; solid and immovable.

 

“Aki!” she called out to her friend, who was trying to lean against the car.

 

“I got it, I got it,” the girl insisted, keeping her hands steady, not wanting to lose her posture and snap a shin bone in the process. Reaching over to the car, Natoko saw Aki could only get a finger on it to hold herself, but it seemed enough for the gymnast.

 

Natoko reached for Iziz, looking to use it as a third leg, only to find herself blocked from standing straight, the plastic case dug in her back, the sword itself trapped in the mud. Natoko tried twisting round and immediately regretted it. She remembered basic hip movements from kendo lessons, how a human could snap his own ankle off doing a kick with one leg planted in cement. It didn’t feel worth the risk.

 

Leaning forwards, she could see just behind her the blade sticking up out of the ground with its sheath still on. The tsuba was trapped. She must have flipped the blade in the case without realising. Reaching under, she tried shaking it to the side but found it wouldn’t budge. Iziz was as trapped as she was.

 

Suddenly, the ground started to rumble again, jaunting her unrepentantly and making her glad one hand was already firmly planted on the dry, crusty mud surface. Looking up, she saw a giant figure emerge from the cracked earth.

 

It was about as big as she was for just a moment and rose to tower over her. It reminded her of three large worm heads pushing their way out of the soil on a rainy day. Knocking chunks of tarmac out of the way, it slowly pulled itself up out of the ground where, despite its impressive size, it still looked a little too big to be emerging from a hole in the road.

 

Grabbing her focus, she kept an eye on it. For a moment she thought of the possibility of this being another ‘agent’, someone else who was to attack them and then ask for their friendship. A few days ago she would have found herself odd for thinking such a thing, but then another loud crack thundered from the mud and an elbow started to rise from its own dust. Not thinking at all now, she watched the hand, only a fraction of their attacker, hoisting the rest of the body out of the hard mud. Slowly, and with effort that could only come from something that size, the mud pulled itself out of the ground. Holding itself up on its two lumps of arms, like its feet were also stuck in the dried up mud, the golem didn’t see to have a head for a moment, until Natoko was able to just barely make out the impression of eyes on its body, two appendages coming out where it felt the nose should be, and a mouth where the neck was, roaring loud and hard into the night.

 

Natoko felt a very strong urge to have a weapon in her hand, and reached down again for Iziz, growling at the blade as she jolted it forcefully, hearing the tip rattle trapped in its case. It didn’t feel like it was getting out any time soon and even as she managed to wiggled the sheath out of the end of the case, it was all she could do to lift it up, useless unless she wanted to slice herself in half the next time the demon moved.

 

Demon. Stopping her struggles for a second, Natoko turned to look at it. It had stopped to stare down at her, its two large hollow, beady eyes bearing down on her the way an eagle might on a small rat who had just noticed a moment too late..

 

Then, its neck pulling back, it darted towards her, the entire structure throwing itself at her like a fist. She struggled for movement; for escape. Just an inch and then she could escape death, if only for a moment.

 

Then the golem hit her with a sickening thud which rang in her ears and shook her whole body in mad darkness. Her wrists tingled with the impact.

 

A moment to open her eyes later revealed the monster, just inches from him face, making noises – snarling at her, as it tried to lunge forward again. Natoko felt it push her elbows back wastefully, and was surprised to find in her hands the plastic casing that once held Iziz, defending her from the monster at the last minute.

 

Rather than risk another bad try, the monster lifted up again, not waiting for her to figure out just how she had done that that fast and crashed down at her again. It took her a split second to realise her feet were still trapped in the mud, but that was enough to trip over her own knees and onto her ass. Grunting, she watched as golem body tore down upon her again, this time to be stopped by Aki.

 

The little girl had somehow already broken out herself, and had delivered a flying drop kick to the monster after propelling herself off the car. The monster seemed a lot more hurt than it should have been on being attacked by a fifteen year old schoolgirl, but she had come to accept that with Aki. One kick from her was the kick of a mule’s shortly followed by sledgehammers. She was glad she had never felt it herself.

 

Reeling back for just a second, the earth monster stopping itself just as abruptly. Natoko realised this was her chance to free herself, and began striking the mud at her feet with the casing. It was a lot weaker on the top than it felt with her legs and she started to made cracks just as soon as Aki received a blow that knocked her straight past Natoko and hard into the ground below.

 

“Aki!” she screamed for her friend, seeing the small kicker fall limp to the floor Natoko’s heart stopped as she saw Aki’s body fall silent, her head in an odd position, he neck arched upwards.

 

Wanting to swear and curse at the monster, Natoko found her teeth ground together as she turned back to the monster, already focused on her again. This time, Natoko watched as from its neck sandy bubbles started to pop and crackle around a pit forming in the neck. The block of stone twisting from side to side as sand poured to the ground, it took Natoko until it was nearly complete to realise the monster was growing itself a real head. It looked like a lion with a beak drooping off the chin like a beard. This time she really could see two beady eyes staring at her. Her mouth was starting to feeling a little dry, the sand had somehow already got under her nails and her hair felt itchy.

 

The head finished growing, a shifty mane sprouting up on the back of head that flowed out and blew sand in all directions the wind would take it. The demon roared at her again, the hollow bellowing sounding no more different than moments ago when there was no head. It pulled back, ready to strike this time, not letting a piece of silly plastic get in its way, the both of them knowing the small casing couldn’t have taken another impact anyway.

 

Natoko weighed her options. They were as short as she had thought.

 

It struck at her again, the head firing itself like a bullet, dragging its body along like a helpless sailor with his foot stuck in the ankle rope. Natoko saw it all. The lunge, the explosion of sand as it took off in all directions. She even saw the roar.

 

Then she felt everything

 

Suddenly her feet were free. Just a little, but enough to get herself out of the mud. She looked up to the monster feeling the pressure divert away from her with its presence ready to engulf her without reason. Then she saw Iziz.

 

With a second left, she didn’t wait. She pulled the sheath off of the buried handle and jumped off to the side, rolling across the mud and as far away as she could, scrambling further even as she hear the loud impact shake the buildings around her, rattling glass and setting off low tech car alarms.

 

Glancing back, she had enough time just to see the monster screaming loudly, tossing its head back as it spasmed violently in torment, wet mud splattering everywhere as the blade remained buried to its hilt in the monster’s eye socket.

 

It didn’t matter whether or not the sword was around her waist, or whether she was pulling the handle or the sheath. Iaijutsu was still the same, as long as the sword came out as quickly and smoothly as possible.

 

Not trying to feel too proud, she continued the attack, driving the sword in. Shrieking loud enough to wake the whole neighbourhood, the monster shook wildly, slamming its head back and forth in the air in a poor attempt to get the blade out its eyes; the arms of the monster proving too short to get at it. It fumbled around with itself. Natoko took a moment to breath again. Now what? There was still the problem of it being alive, as well as her not having anything save Iziz’s sheath. Iziz’s sheath was made from a strong oak wood that had supposedly been taken, according to her grandfather, from the oak of a tree that had lived healthily for two hundred years. Whilst it wouldn’t snap like a twig, it still wouldn’t last long. Not to mention that trying to club mud to death would be futile.

 

Stabbing had proved effective though. Maybe such a monster was still weak against physical attacks. She couldn’t imagine why, but such things didn’t matter anyway. From what she remembered from Sagara, she had to sever the link between the demon and the physical object it was contained in. If that was mud…

 

The monster vanished, its screams echoing once into the night and fading into the sound of a car alarm that turned itself off five seconds later. Natoko stayed crouched, looking around, like a bad joke was about to be played on her but she didn’t know where from. The once hardened mud, the texture of which was coming off under her fingernails had been replaced with tarmac, which felt hard and real under her palms. The road was back. The pavement was back. The green car was still there. The monster was gone.

 

Just like that?

 

Hearing a clanging sound, she looked up to see her katana, rattling on the floor, still on the edge of its second bounced as it dropped to the floor once again. Not daring to approach, she watched it wobbled on its hilt before slowly coming to a stop, quickly falling silent in the empty street.

 

Natoko kept still in the middle of the road, her body on fire. Then slowly, she crawled up to Iziz, taking it in her hand and clutching it tightly, her hands shaking cold. Good, you’re not scratched.

 

Her breath was the loudest thing on the street, easily overcoming the sound of cicadas and the hum of cars in the distant. The night being humid wasn’t an excuse, she had barely moved, yet the thought of getting crushed in a heartbeat had drained her body. She looked around. Nothing appeared to be coming.

 

“Aki!” she called out to her friend, who was lying in the same obscure position. She crawled the ten meters up to her friend and hesitated in the final few inches before she could see her face.

 

“Heh, I got pwned,” the girl whimpered, trying to push herself on her elbow and wincing from it.

 

Natoko found she couldn’t grin back. The monster had decimated them both. It having disappeared like that was pure luck for them. A moment longer, and they wouldn’t have to have suffered much longer.

 

Was it defeated? Sagara had told her that no demon was ever completely defeated on Earth, that you could only break the connection between the demon and its container. But that demon’s was hidden within the mud. She couldn’t have hit it.

 

Watching in a daydream as Aki pulled herself up, Natoko jumped up to help her friend, and felt her ankle give way on her, forcing her to have Aki’s shoulder for balance. It was twisted. A pain she had felt many times before. Aki didn’t look any better.

 

They needed to rest. Her ankle needed to be elevated. They needed to get away before the demon came back.

 

Aki moved forward first, plodding down the road with Natoko in tow. “Where are you going?”

 

“Church,” Aki replied, pointing with her unencumbered arm. Following the finger, Natoko wondered how she could miss it. It wasn’t grand, but it stood out from all the other older houses. Its smooth white surface shone in the moonlight, illuminating it like a beacon whilst its spire, not so high, roughly half the height of the building itself looked over them like a guardian. The lights were on as well. Someone was home.

 

Natoko was unconvinced. “No, we should get out of here,” she said, looking to turn in the other direction and feeling her ankle complain from movements that came even before she rotated. It would need elevating, and preferably an icebag- and some chocolate.

 

“Nuh uh,” Aki replied. “It’s a church. Safest place in the whole world from demons. Also, neither of us have phones.”

 

Not in the mood to argue against logic she agreed with, Natoko paced the tormenting ninety steps to the door of the church. It was large and wooden, and could fit basketball payers under it with ease. Aki knocked quietly, and opened the door without waiting a second.

 

“Sorry for the intrusion,” they both said in unintentional unison. The cloakroom was small and unimportant, but the second they stepped into the main hall, they heard their footsteps fill the room with echo. It looked a little odder than other churches she had been too, or imagined in books. It looked like they were in the middle of decorating, with only four of the long benches at the back, two at the front besides a high altar and a table filled with flowers. The rest of the benches had been pulled over to the sides, blocking most of the side doors. A big empty space lay in the middle, devoid of all save the carpet that snaked from themselves to the altar through the middle of the room.

 

They headed for the nearest bench. Natoko sitting first on the edge, Aki monkey crawling around onto the other side of her as if she was already back at the peak of physical health. Natoko glared at her but the girl didn’t seem to notice, instead slowly lifting her friend’s ankle, ignoring Natoko hiss in pain, and lowering it onto the bench in front.

 

“Keep it elevated,” she mumbled, slowly taking off Natoko’s trainer.

 

Looking up to keep her mind off things, Natoko saw a stained glass window meet her gaze at the far side of the room. It depicted an angel with wings twice the size of its whole body. It completely engulfed the glass save for the edges. In its hands was leather bound crimson book, but Natoko couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be. On its right hand side it had a hammer attached to its waist. And from the angle she was staring at it, the being didn’t seem to have a mouth. Leaning to look better, she yelped in pain.

 

“Sorry,” Aki said, finally leaving her foot alone. It had better heal quickly, Natoko thought. She had no intention of wasting more of the week not training. She had already been forced to give up a lot of time the past two days, and she could ill afford to waste anymore with school coming back.

 

“Aki!” she yelled, her friend poking her ankle again, this time for no obvious reason.

 

“I thought I heard somebody come in.”

 

They both span round at the intrusion, Natoko too lost in pain to sense anything properly. In front of her was a young, thirty something man in black trousers and loosely buttoned shirt, watching them with concern as he kept his hands in his pockets.

 

Natoko looked to Iziz, hidden in the shadows, on the bench and the darkness of the room.

 

“Excuse us, father,” she said politely, bowing her head, “but we-“ She looked up, not quite sure why she was calling him father. She wasn’t religious, and he wasn’t wearing a collar. He could have been the janitor for what she knew. He seemed to read her concern.

 

“It hasn’t been too long since we’ve had guests,” he said after a moment’s silence. “But I’m sure I could put up with you for a while. Let me get the first aid box for you and we’ll…” He stopped, looking at Aki as he noticed her for the first time.

 

“Oh,” he said, looking a little put off. “It’s you again.”

 

“Hi,” Aki said, waving friendly to him. “Long time no see.”

 

“The same.” The man looked a little flustered now, his hair, which didn’t look like it had been combed since the morning, made him look a little eccentric as he scratched the back of his head. “I didn’t think you would be coming back. We still haven’t got the stains out from last time.”

 

“Stains?” Natoko dared to quiz.

 

“I’ll get the first aid kit,” he continued. “Would you two like some tea as well?”

 

“Thank you.” Natoko watched as he disappeared around the corner though one of the few open doors left. They waited patiently for a few minutes, lost for conversation, before he returned, carrying two cups, the first aid kit under his arm.

 

“If you’re looking for your friend,” he said, sitting down in front of her foot and passing them the two vanished blackgrain bowls. “You missed her by about ten minutes.”

 

“Sakura was here?” Aki asked. “How is she?”

 

“We didn’t speak. I saw that she was in one of her more delicate moods, and chose to keep my distance.”

 

“Is that a God thing?” Natoko found herself saying spitefully. You comfort people when they’re upset, not leave them to fester.

 

“No, that was my own judgement,” he explained. “Sakura tends to get nervous far too easily as part of her condition. It never does good to approach her when she’s crying.”

“S-sorry,” she apologised. Sakura has a condition? She didn’t know, but she did want to know more.

 

The man looked less willing to talk now, but continued nonetheless. “I hadn’t seen her for a few weeks now, so I was getting worried. Even when she isn’t depressed, she still comes on Wednesday nights and Sundays. She’s lost weight too. That’s not as good as it should be.”

 

“I thought she was okay today,” Aki said, making Natoko realise the conversation wasn’t between herself and the priest, even though he was focusing on her ankle now. “So I went to take her exploring. Though… it turns out she has a fear of attics or something.”

 

“Sakura is strong with others, yet tries so hard to be weak by herself. It is not fitting for such a girl.”

 

“Hey,” Natoko blurted out, suddenly reminded by sharp unnecessary pain. “Did you hear anything…errr.”

 

“Excuse my rudeness,” he replied. “I am Father Goryu Sakagami. Please to meet you.”

 

“Yamanaka Natoko,” she replied, bowing to meet his bow. “Did you hear anything, Mr. Sakigami?”

 

“Hear? Like what?”

 

That was just the type of response that gave her the answer.

 

“Sounds of a fight, anything like that?” He looked unsure.

 

“Not recently. Is that why you two are injured? Do you need me to call the police?”

 

Natoko laughed a little to herself, feeling a lift in her body at the idea of just how ill prepared police would be for what had happened, and how she was able to do well herself in defeating the monster. “That won’t be necessary.”

 

“And why would that be?” the man asked, looking grimly confused. “I don’t believe I would care to find a couple of corpses outside my building.”

 

Natoko giggled nervously, feeling like a schoolgirl trying to deny something to her parents. “Nothing like that. It’s just we heard something ourselves and…” She fell silence. It was weird lying to this guy. She immediately felt wrong about it, wanting to tell the truth. “But we saw no men or women at all.” There, that was thee truth.

 

“And that would be for the best as well, I think. Two girls like yourselves, not to mention the attitude around town everyone has of you since you took that landlord in.”

 

So it had spread that far into town. Most of the residents living near them had made it clear, but it seemed to be a select few more elderly residents going crazy. From the sound of his voice, the priest didn’t like the idea either.

 

“Also,” he said, leaning over the two of them. Natoko jerked, trying to stop it far too late, his hand darting for Iziz faster than she could stop him. “I think anyone that found you would suffer a lot more than yourselves with this at your side.” He unsheathed the blade from its case with a hard yank that Iziz didn’t deserve, and gazed at the blade. To Natoko, it was clear he was checking to see if it was real or not, and didn’t seem pleased when he got his answer.

 

Then she saw the blood.

 

It was caught in the chamber of the sword, now travelling down the length of the blade as gravity rolled it. The priest couldn’t see it from where he was holding it, but it would only take an instant for it to drop to the floor and splash against the cold marble concrete of the floor.

 

Natoko hesitated. If he saw that questions would start rolling at them as to what they were doing and it wouldn’t be too long until the police did get involved. They definitely wouldn’t believe a story about a demon, but even if they weren’t the aggressors they could still get in trouble which would no doubt get the school and her father involved. In reality she couldn’t explain how the blood even got there. It wasn’t from the demon surely?

 

She looked at him. Even from here, with her ankle twisted, she could probably get Iziz off him. He looked back to her, their eyes meeting, and relaxed.

 

“Well, I’m pretty sure it’s a crime to be wandering around the streets with one of these loose. You should get a case for it,” he said slowly sheathing it and passing back with a single movement, a single drop of blood falling on the hilt and keeping itself hidden.  “I had better give the two of you a lift home. Give me two minutes to lock up, and I’ll go bring the car round from the back.”

 

Watching him leave again, Natoko let a sigh go. That would have been a problem, for both her and her lord. It would have been intolerable (though she already knew Sagara wouldn’t be bothered) to get him stuck in such a quandary just because she hadn’t been smart enough to clean her blade. It was these types of actions she couldn’t afford. She may be getting stronger, and had her beliefs, but her actions when not fighting should be considered a swell. A samurai is not just his sword, but his mind and body too, she reminded herself.

 

As they waited, she wiped the drop of blood from the hilt, not wanting it to stain the father’s car seat.

 

Chapter Seven

 

“And you’ve got your phone with you this time, right? I want constant updates every hour of the day,” Otsune playfully chided, making a point to smile to the young girl. Sakura had returned early last night safe and sound, no thanks to the three who went out to find her. Natoko and Aki had apparently just missed her, while Sagara had gone to get something to eat.

 

Sakura responded with a mere nod of her head, making a point to show her green Nokia E210 before slipping it into her backpack. “Bye,” she managed to get out, returning a weak smile that made Otsune want to hug her, before disappearing behind the door.

 

The girl was worth the trouble. Even if she was still a little brainwashed into religion, Otsune knew she was a good person who cared for others. And she was talented. Cooks will always be needed in the world until a way was found to bypass the need for regenerative consumption.

 

Leaving the hallway, having to lunge quickly before her flame just drove right through the sliding door and turned it into a pile of ashes, Otsune headed for the lounge. With one worry out of the way and with all her other worries temporarily incapacitated at her own request, she could focus on the biggest worry to her tenacious grip on sanity at the present time.

 

It was sitting in the lobby as she entered, watching a game show with that same zoned out interest it showed everything within its ‘magic super special’ power eyes. Natoko sat besides it, nodding a good day to Otsune as she came up around them, pulling the television plug out of its socket as she stood in front of them.

 

Natoko frowned, looking more confused than angry. Sagara didn’t seem to notice at all. “Well,” she began. “I had planned to bring this up the other day, but the whole fiasco with Sakura running off got in the way. And then I needed to fill in my gap year form and head into town yesterday to buy some things, and then some other stuff that you are not to enquire of, but I guess now is a much better time than the other day.”

 

“It often always is,” sad Sagara, watching her with the same amount of interest he had given the television.

 

“Just shut up and speak when spoken too, okay?” Otsune said with a happy face.

 

“Okay,” he replied, looking genuinely happy.

 

“Okay. Now, I’m going to ask you the same question I’ve asked now for the thirteenth time, and this time I don’t honestly mind how you respond. Okay?”

 

“Okay.”

 

“Okay, here goes.” Otsune took an unnecessarily long breath. “Where is Tina?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Thought so,” Otsune chimed. “Do you even know the girl?”

 

“I don’t think I met her, but I had heard the name before you started asking me.”

 

“Right, okay, so you at least acknowledge that she could or might have existed, right?”

 

“Right.”

 

“Good. Now, do you believe me when I say she went to the tournament with us?”

 

“ I don’t recall seeing her, but I guess if you say so.”

 

“Sagara If I may,” Natoko interrupted. “I saw Tina attend the tournament myself. I believe the others did as well.”

 

“Well, I guess she was then. But why would you have me confirm something that you know more than me?”

 

“It’s called setting the stage,” Otsune said blandly. “So, you realise that Tina exists as an objective human, based on the anecdotal accounts of others. You also accept that she was with us at a certain place at a certain time, that place being your InBetween Realm place. Now, if she wasn’t seen after that, what else would you assume?”

 

Sagara stopped to think, a bit too much for a question that she thought was clearly rhetorical and was just being said to push him into the corner. Sagara looked away from her for just a moment.

 

“I’d say she went missing at the same place and the same time, that place being my InBetween Realm, as you last were.”

 

Otsune paused. “Correct.” Sagara sighed with relief. “Now you’re up to speed, I have a request.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Take me back to the tournament area so I can find my friend.”

 

“No.”

 

“Just to the tournament area, so we can have a look around for any sign of her.”

 

“No.”

 

“You don’t even have to stay with us. Just get me there and I can do the rest myself.”

 

“No.”

 

“And why not?”

 

“You’re only allowed in the InBetween realm during times of tournaments. After that, those that aren’t to know are supposed to slowly forget and remember it all as if it were a dream. Though, thinking about it, that doesn’t appear to have happened to you.”

 

“How can I forget when my friend’s trapped in there? She’s been stuck there for a month now and who knows what’s happened to her?”

 

“She’s probably fine, though there are fatal dangers.”

 

Otsune scoffed. “How can you say those things in the same sentence? She might already be dead. At the very least, you should be going in to get her out of there since she’s apparently not allowed inside.”

 

“I guess I phrased that wrong. We can’t govern infinity like that properly, so I guess she should be allowed in to an extent.”

 

“So, to that same extent, let me go in and find her.”

 

“No. If you have gotten out, you shouldn’t be allowed back in until the next tournament.”

 

“And when will that be?”

 

“In about four years. They’re done on leap years.”

 

Otsune tried to calm down, knowing that shouting at him wouldn’t cower him into submission. She had to be cleverer than this. She was cleverer than this. It was just a matter of slipping him onto the right conversation.

 

Though in all honesty she didn’t know where she was going with this. It wasn’t like she had any bargaining chips with Sagara. All she could hope to do was coerce and trick him.

 

“So we’d have to wait four years? What if you left something behind? Something that you had mislaid. Surely then you’d be able to.”

 

“Well, it would have to be something valuable. Spiritually that is.”

 

“So a purse or something wouldn’t cut it. It would have to be a weapon like your gauntlet or something?”

 

“Well, Mom always said ‘the purse of a woman is the most valuable thing in the world to her. If you ever want to die, steal a purse off a woman.’ She then sent me off to do just that.”

 

“Yes yes, we’ve already quite established your mother is psychotic what with her child rearing techniques, and it doesn’t surprise me for an instant that she’d encourage you to mug people for reasons that don’t actually involve your own profit, but what’s important here is…wait.”

 

Thinking it over carefully, her brain going at the speed it would take to hit the technological singularity in about four years, Otsune formed a plan.

 

“You know, speaking of losing purses-“

 

***

 

“Well that didn’t go as badly as planned,” Fujiko said stretching with relieved enthusiasm.

 

“I can’t fault the planning,” said Otsune, in the middle of a search for a suitable backpack. “But the morals of the victim were nothing short of alarming. Should I have phrased it to him that I forgot my friend? Would he have been quicker to let me in then? Or would he have allowed me only to get as far as the lost property bin before turning me around again.”

 

“You went back there yourself, didn’t you?”

 

“Where?”

 

“To those buildings we went in last time.”

 

“Well, we got in last time by ourselves. I thought that perhaps we could just go sneak back in ourselves, that maybe the tournament organisers had disappeared or something.”

 

“Only it was the building that had disappeared, wasn’t it? Looks like they finally got round to demolishing them.”

 

“Yes and rebuilding a series of terrible looking restaurants with apartments above them.”

 

“And then making them appear that they were built at least thirty years ago.”

 

“You went too then?”

 

“I checked it out. A place like that would have been perfect for a party.”

 

“Because a dorm filled with teenagers doesn’t accomplish that.”

 

“Well, it does, but everyone here is boring.”

 

“Heh, my apologies.”

 

“Well, not you, and not Natoko and Sagara I guess. Aki as well maybe.”

 

“Anyway,” Otsune interrupted loudly. “Since he’s letting us in now, we should have nothing to worry about.”

 

“Since he’s letting you in, you mean.”

 

“What?”

 

“I’m not going,” Fujiko announced far louder than necessary.

 

“What are you talking about? You’ve got to come too. It’s your ‘purse’, and you wanted to see it earlier anyway, didn’t you?”

 

“I dunno. Isn’t there something weird about this?”

 

Otsune felt like she couldn’t provide a more deadpan expression, her face as still as an irritated, sarcastic mask, made by someone who had lived alongside the most deadpan expression all their life and had it permanently etched in their memory. Fujiko didn’t notice.

 

“I mean, we can’t get in through where the demolished buildings were, but we can get through somewhere else that’ll we’ll get shown later. Where could this be? I mean the place was huge, but surely…”

 

“You’re only just asking these questions now? Are you blind, Fujiko? Stuff that goes against all of what I know and hold statistically significant has happened about three or four times in the past month or so.”

 

“Well, it was weird, but not too much so. I mean, the underground building I could expect of the government, and the thing that possessed Natoko was just a spirit.”

 

“Just a… listen to yourself. Up until a month ago the general consensus around the not crazy people sub culture was that spirits didn’t actually exist. They were old wives tales and stories made by people who liked to control other people through fear of not worshipping non-existent entities.”

 

“I know that in your head you only count yourself as part of that group.”

 

“But now we have a giant wheel attack a stranger who purports to be a ninja even though he has not once snuck up on any of us and had one of our friend’s controlled by another so called ‘spirit’ who can control water…and by stupidproxy the human body.”

 

“Well, it does make sense, the human body does consist of about seventy percent-“

 

“Yes, but the human body does not consist of a feature to store a vengeful spirit! It doesn’t matter that by controlling water it can control a person because, from what we knew, water spirits didn’t exist, and neither do little flames that follow you around and set fire to your work.”

 

“Yeah, but that doesn’t really-“

 

“I have a flame following me around,” she now bellowed. “What’s it going to take for you to believe that place was another dimension. You should be the one trying to convince me, the stupid rigid atheist scientist who dismissed god when she was nine whilst at church after her dad died in what is a clear case of anger displacement!”

 

“You’re serious about that flame, aren’t you?”

 

“Yes. Now you’re going, whether you want to or not, if just to have you realise that there is more out there than there seems, and it’s not just spirits.”

 

“Okay fine!” Fujiko relented with a majestic sweep of her hands. “I guess I can waste one day hanging out with you in underground caverns. Let me go get some things and we can head out.” Getting up, Fujiko went to leave.

 

“Ah, it may be longer than a day,” Otsune admitted, emotions switching from frustration to guilt.

 

Fujiko paused between the door frame. “Like how long?”

 

“As long as it takes,” she tried to phrase this as if it were the best possible answer to hear.

 

“How long?”

 

“Look, I don’t know where Tina is. And I don’t know how big that place is. She could be anywhere in there, and it could take weeks to find her.”

 

“This is why you’ve applied to take a gap year isn’t it?” Fujiko realised. “You think it’s really going to take that long.”

 

“Well, not that long, and if anything, I can come back for the spring semester.”

 

“So you’re saying months?” Fujiko exclaimed, looking angry now. “You want me to abandon my life for a couple of months?”

 

“Tina may lose a lot more than that, Fujiko,” Otsune shouted back, not believing her friend could be this selfish. “She’s already been missing a month. She may already be dead in a place filled with monsters.”

 

“There were no monsters.”

 

“Yes there was. You just didn’t see them.”

 

“Which is certainly convenient for your argument, isn’t it? Look, even if there were monsters, doesn’t that just mean it’s dangerous? You’ve already convinced Sagara not to come with us. What are we going to do if monsters do show up?”

 

“Run of course!” she said with dignity.

 

“And what if we get trapped?”

 

“I can’t believe you’re being this selfish!”

 

“Oh, this coming from the second genius of Heavenly Springs. Aren’t you paying attention, Otsune? I’ve always been this selfish. But I’ll be especially selfish when what’s being asked of me is crazy. A wild goose chase for someone we barely know.”

 

“Barely know? Tina was our friend.”

 

“She was your friend from ‘Germany’. She didn’t speak to the rest of us, and I’m not sure if you noticed, but she didn’t speak to you much either. I don’t even know why she was here.”

 

Otsune couldn’t argue that, looking down to the ground as she tried to think of things. Tina had been shy during her time here, and being assaulted by the townsfolk had made her reclusive and timid. And there was something else too.

 

“That shouldn’t matter,” Otsune insisted. “Whether she was a friend or not, she’s still in trouble, and that means we have to save her. And if Sagara won’t do it, and you won’t do it, then I’ll just have to go myself.” Otsune turned sharply, blocking her friend from her sight, to notice from the first time that Aki had been watching them the entire time while eating a banana.

 

Otsune ignored her too.

 

***

 

“Okay ready?” Natoko asked, her friend’s hand in hers. On the floor, Otsune nodded to her looking as helpless as she was immobile. With a gasp of energy from both, and using back muscles that usually didn’t get touched, they lifted her up and back onto her feet, the heavy backpack wrapped round her nearly knocking Otsune straight back down.

 

Otsune looked like she was kitted out for a hike to Russia via the Himalayas, and was laughing to herself as she tested the new weight on her shoulders. The bag was as big as she was. The green combat trousers, originally bought more for style than efficiency looked a bit too baggy. Thick heeled walking boots that were shiny and new, hadn’t been broken in yet, and a single white, brand-less t-shirt that already had damp patches under the armpits.

 

Otsune wasn’t used to this at all.

 

She wasn’t out of shape, Natoko knew this much. They both woke up at the same early time every morning, when Otsune went jogging and didn’t come back for an hour, as Natoko finished her own training. But even so the extra weight combined with the crushing summer heat was already making her weak at the knees.

 

“And I’ve still got to climb down the stairs as well,” Otsune whimpered, trying to make it sound sarcastic and fake, but showing her trepidation anyway.

 

“Are you sure you’re going to be all right,” Natoko asked concerned. “Shouldn’t we all carry something?”

 

“No…no,” Otsune mumbled. “I’m going to have to carry it all eventually. I may as well start getting used to it. This will do my diet good.”

 

“At least let me take half of it while you go down the stairs.”

 

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Otsune tried to wave her down. “Just…just stand in front of me when we’re going down. Make sure I don’t fall.”

 

Natoko felt uneasy, but gave in all the same. Her friend was hurting herself, that was clear, but she was also too stubborn for help. “How far are we heading, Sagara?”

 

“About three quarters of a mile,” Sagara replied, having stood there the whole time whistling to himself.

 

“Where are we heading?” Natoko asked.

 

“The tram station, then the entrance to the InBetween realm.”

 

“The tram station?” replied Otsune. “But the one that we went to last time as closed off.”

 

Sagara stopped to look up, thinking. “Is it? Oh yeah, it would be by now.”

 

“Does that mean…”

 

“We’ll have to take the one in the forest then.”

 

“You mean the Tetsumori woods?” Natoko asked.

 

“No, I mean the ones at the edge of town, just at the bottom of the hill near the first bridge.”

 

“Those are the Tetsumori woods. The ones that are twenty miles closer than our original destination.”

 

“Oh, in that case I do mean them.”

 

“Which means we’ll have to walk there?”

 

“Well, we could get a taxi cab, but it isn’t all that far away.”

 

“Every step is a microinch,” muttered Otsune under her breath.

 

“Already done,” said Fujiko, coming round the corner and snapping her phone shut. “He should be here in about fifteen minutes.” Fujiko was dressed in a light shirt and beige combats as well, though she carried a smaller rucksack, more for travelling to town than hiking.

 

“Fujiko?” Otsune said, looking a little happy but confused.

 

“From what I understand, we can get out of that place from multiple exits, right?”

 

“er… I think so,” Otsune replied, looking to Sagara, who simply nodded.

 

“Good. Then I’ll come.” Otsune went to speak but her friend spoke over her.

 

“However! I’ll only be with you for a week,” she insisted. “If by then we don’t have any ideas or clues, then I’m coming back and taking you with me. Understand?”

 

Otsune didn’t look like she could understand children’s math at the moment but she nodded anyway, looking as relieved as one could with a fifty kilogram load on her back.

 

“Do you have any leads?” Natoko asked.

 

“I’ve got a few ideas of where to start,” Otsune gasped. “To be honest, we should be able to check those out within the day.”

 

“Then let’s get going?” Fujiko said, dashing past the two girls and to Sagara, who followed her out the door without a word.

 

“Ah, Fujiko, if you are coming, then we should split up the contents of our bags so we-“

 

“Nope!”

 

***

 

“Thanks a lot,” said Sagara, shutting the back door of the black taxi cab, the loud bang enough to make the driver look behind him to make sure no damage was done. With a courteous wave back, he drove back off in the direction they had just come.

 

Natoko had been in these woods before, mostly when she was just in the mood for wandering, but also to train. It was a dense forest packed with golden grass and the occasional larch, most going so high they blocked the sun off completely, letting very little grow underneath them, a mix of moss and bits of plant life. The place was full of animals, though she couldn’t quite recall which ones. It was always dark when she came.

 

“Thinking bout it,” Fujiko said, still only holding a light bag and not helping Otsune get hers back on her back, “Are we allowed here?”

 

“Why shouldn’t we be?” asked Sagara.

 

“Well, it could be private property.”

 

“It is,” said Otsune. “It’s privately owned land. But it was owned by Grandma Futabatei. I’m not sure if it still is or not, but I’m guessing that, if anything, it was moved into Gen’s possession like the dorm was.”

 

“Well, let’s hope so. At least with the way we’re dressed we can make it out that we’re hikers or something.”

 

“I don’t think any police will be coming anytime soon anyway.”

 

Otsune grunted as she made her way to the gate, slowly getting over the painful first ten steps as her body got used to the burden. What did she have in there anyway? Natoko thought, slowly falling in line behind them, Otsune leading even though it should be Sagara guiding.

 

As they entered, finding the bushes of least resistance, the light dimmed around them. The inside of the forest was a lot more peaceful than the outside world, the smell of damp bark awakening her senses, the cool shade provided by the trees bringing relief from the humidity outside.

 

She should bring Aki here. The girl would love it\

 

“I’ve heard a lot of stories about this place,” Fujiko said, looking like she felt out of place, constantly watching her step as she treated it like they were walking through a swamp, the only things for her to step on being tree bark and rocks.

 

“From everyone back at the dorm right,” Otsune said between hoarse breaths. “I heard a few of them brought guys here. I guess it’s quite romantic. Private too.”

 

“Well, not just that. I heard stories of zombies mostly.”

 

“Zombies?” Natoko said, feeling a bit cautious.

 

“And I immediately don’t believe you.”

 

“No no, it’s true. Junko was telling me about it. She said she brought some guy here after they got a taxi back, and the driver chucked them out at the edge of town rather than going all the way in. They saw it and decided to check it out. It was autumn I think. Place was cold, but not too cold, where the perfect thing to warm you up was skin on skin.”

 

“They had sex here?” Natoko blurted out, not realising herself.

 

“Well, I wouldn’t say they did it as such, though she didn’t tell me and she’s never seen the guy since.”

 

“I can’t see anywhere good,” Otsune thought aloud. “They’d have to bring a blanket or something.”

 

“Or they could have done it on the moss.”

 

“Eewww, no way.”

 

They spoke about sex so easily, Natoko thought. Sagara didn’t seem that freaked out either, not that he would. He plodded on ahead a little. She felt like catching up to him, away from the conversation, but it would be a bit too obvious.

 

Looking around, she lost count of the trees between the trees. This place didn’t look that different from the dark, just lines of near endless wood going off in all directions, any sign of an end perfectly hidden by smaller looking trees about a kilometre away, with what little chance of sunlight getting out being hidden by bush growth. All effort preserved by nature to make sure no one could see out, a dome of foliage and nothing more.

 

“And so she didn’t actually see anything?” said Otsune sarcastically, though Natoko hadn’t been listening.

 

“Well, no, but…”

 

“And barely even heard anything either. Just two kids dumb enough to scare each other.”

 

“I’m telling you, she looked serious.”

 

Otsune growled a little. The weight looked like it was getting to her, she was the only one taking the conversation seriously. “That’s what scaring yourself does. Look, we’ll prove it, Sagara! Do zombies exist?”

 

“What’s a zombie?”

 

“Oh, come on!” Otsune interjected. “The one time I go to rely on your crap and you let me down.”

 

“Sorry.”

 

“So useless. Where are we heading anyway?”

 

“The InBetween realm,” Sagara picked up.

 

“I know that.  But how do we get there from here.”

 

“Through the entrance. A Hollow Hallway should be this way. We just have to trick it  into appearing.”

 

“Right, and how does that happen if you announce your intentions in a silent forest?”

 

“Well that wouldn’t matter. It’s only a door. Doors can’t hear people.

 

“Of- of course,” Otsune stuttered. “I knew that.”

 

“They can only sense them.”

 

Sighing loudly to herself with a hint of frustration, Otsune stopped the conversation, breaking twigs under her foot with loud crunches and tired mumblings. On the forth stomp, she hit metal, and her foot jumped back.

 

“What the?” Natoko felt her hand fall towards Iziz, sensing something unnatural besides themselves. The wind brushing to a halt, silencing the invisible animals hiding in the undergrowth.

 

Everyone stared at Otsune, looking at the girl like she was about to detonate and they all knew nothing they could do would stop it. Otsune stared blankly ahead, a stricken grin on her face, not daring to look down as a loud metallic groan started to shake the land, the tree rustling as their foundations were shaken.

 

“Ah, we’ve found it.” Natoko, and the others for that matter, broke their gaze to look at Sagara, then following where he was looking. A few meters ahead of them, where Natoko had been staring mere moments ago in the middle of a large treeless patch of fallen leaves, was a door.

 

It wasn’t particularly special in any way, save for the simple fact it was standing by itself with only its frame for support. It was mahogany wood with a brass handle, and looked the same as all the other doors she had passed on her last trip to the InBetween realm.

 

“Yearghhhh!” Otsune squealed, the ground above her rushing up and overtaking her, snatching her rucksack and pulling her up off her feet, leaving her to dangle in the air. Natoko jumped forwards, seeing her friend in danger and nothing else, pulling Iziz out and bringing the length of the blade against the large clump of earth that was rising into the sky, pushing through it and coming out the other end.

 

Turning just in time to see the chunk she cut off fall to the ground and taking Otsune with it, Natoko looked on as the ground continued to rise without the top, rising to twice the height of herself, before stopping.

 

A raised hole now stood before them, a small black space leading into what looked like an underground cavern. The underneath of the entrance seemed to be made partly of metal, but had too much wet soil plastered over it for Natoko to tell properly. The pistons that had lifted it were bamboo, but were making a hissing noise.

 

The contents of Otsune’s bag scattered over the ground, cooking utensils clanking on top of each other as food went flying; the sleeping bag falling on Otsune’s head.

 

“Oh thank you,” Otsune sighed in relief, clutching the sleeping bag tightly like she wanted to roll up in it and fall pray to bliss circling her shoulders with aggressive comfort.

 

Sliding Iziz back into its sheath, Natoko watched tentatively. It was definitely an entryway, though the inside was immediately pitch shadow, the already weak  sunlight going as far as where Otsune was squatting, then sharply cutting to darkness.

 

Otsune hadn’t frozen this time, already getting up and backing away slowly, just in time for the shadows to start bustling around within the hole, enough to tell them something was inside, making a king’s effort to get outside; to get to them.

 

Why they waited, Natoko didn’t know. She waited because she knew she should be the last to go, the one to protect the others from danger. The others just stood there in collective silence, the whirring and clicking getting louder, the tappity tap from an unknown source of wood as a figure emerged from the shadows.

 

It came forth slowly, as if remembering how to walk, its body lurching and shuffling like its joint were dislocated and it had to refit them all one by one. Natoko bit her lower lip a little and waited for the sunlight to hit first.

 

Bouncing off wood, the light revealed the visage of glazed smile carved into the head of the eyeless dummy. It followed by a hand, made out of thousands of tiny blocks of wood, that shot out to grab the piston of the hatchway. The rest came out fast, as it found its legs, barefoot, revealing nothing but wood, which rattled and chattered together with every step of the soft earth ground.

 

The rest of its body was hidden by a poncho. Woollen and thick purple, with no pattern to it, looking old yet perfectly preserved. Natoko couldn’t see its other arm. It made her tense. She wanted to strike it now, before it registered they were there and became a threat.

 

“Ah!” Fujiko screamed, breaking Natoko’s concentration. She glanced at her friend just enough to know she was okay and leapt out of the way in time to see another puppet mere feet from her, its two, black ball bearing eyes wobbling loosely at her underneath its large sombrero.

 

Before focused solely on her one prey, Natoko now stared around at the forest entire, to see they were surrounded by hundreds of the puppet dolls, each slowly lurching forwards, creaking loudly and ticking quietly. It didn’t take her too long to see they were walking towards her or the others. They were scattered, yet only around the four of them and none seemed intent on attacking.

 

“Natoko,” Fujiko called out, rushing up to her friend, getting in her line of sight a moment too long, before jumping behind her and cowering behind her back with knees shaking. She was a lot more panicked than she usually was.

 

Their gazes met for a moment, and Fujiko blushed.  “Puppets freak me out, okay!”

 

“Stay close,” Natoko ordered, looking back around her, checking specifically that none were sneaking up on her. There weren’t, but seeing as they had appeared out of nowhere in the first place, she didn’t want to take any chances. Slowly, she moved so that Fujiko would be looking the other way, hoping she’d be focused enough to scream if one got close.

 

Otsune was stuck by herself, away from the hole now, but inadvertently close to three of them on her other side, who bounced off one another by accident, swaying backwards like drunks pushed on the street. One fell over.

 

“Come and eat your heart out over at-” it began, but soon fell into demonic rambling that sparked and spluttered like a bad radio before dying out completely. The other two did nothing.

 

Watching over them, Otsune straighten up a little, readjusting her long hair absent mindedly. “Are we safe?”

 

Natoko was beginning to think so. They weren’t attacking, though the rattling did make her nervous. And they were so close. What effort would it take these creatures of wood to reach out and strike any of them, tearing skin in one second and life in the next. She didn’t trust their new companions at all, yet she had no reason to attack yet.

 

“Why not take a bite-“

 

A smash jerked her attention over to Sagara, who was ploughing his fist into the face of the dummy nearest to him, gauntlet already out and going out of the other end of the construct. “out of us over at…the…neew”. The creature stopped as it dangled as lifeless as before, legs still moving as if to continue lurching forwards.

 

“Hey,” Otsune called out, as if to stop a bar brawl. Sagara didn’t listen, instead trying to get the puppet attached to his arm off and away. It wouldn’t budge, clamping onto him like a rottweiler. It swung around his wrist as he started to shake, before simply smashing the body into another puppet that shot off and ricocheted into a tree ten meters away.

 

“Did it attack him?”

 

“It must have done. Why would he attack it?

 

“Because he does that.”

 

It was all Natoko needed. Sagara’s silent order to attack was understood and accepted. Moving lightly enough to release Fujiko’s grab, she jumped to the nearest one, slicing it in half perfectly as she would as a bamboo tree, before leaping back to where she had been and decapitating the one who had come out of the hole.

 

Its head on the floor, the puppet’s body stood up straight, like it had heard a small sound in the night, and did nothing else. Natoko didn’t risk it and sliced its body in a diagonal line for good measure.

 

Sagara was already up to five, though the one around his wrist was still hanging on against whatever will it had. He was using it as shield now

 

***

 

Otsune watched her friend and Sagara slowly descend into becoming the bloodthirsty monsters that for a second she thought these puppets were. There had been n reason to view them as deadly. They appeared to be simple theatre marionettes, definitely European, but she couldn’t tell what age they were meant to be from. Some were dressed like the Queen of the night but had wire frame hair that screamed Russian animatronics and some were dressed like Mexican Day of the Dead dolls, mixed in with the posture of a tourist trap clown puppets with the eyes of a modern day rag doll, and an obvious grunge feeling that could only be obtained through making around fifty of them appear in a silent forest with no antagonistic actions.

 

Of course, none of this took into account the fact they were moving.

 

Were they mechanical? Movement like this would require a simple motor of some sort. However, marionettes of this size would need big ones which she could ‘see’ weren’t being stored in their bodies, at least, not in the three that Natoko had now slashed in half. Though even with a motor, it would make their movements repetitive; predictable. Yet these things were consistently failing to fall to the floor with every step, even though their lurching forced them in that direction.

 

Which gave her the stupid idea of looking up. It was the last thing she wanted to do. It proved her an idiot for even thinking it, and even more so when she saw no one there, or any strings or anything that could imply there was something there controlling these things. And it wouldn’t have even begun to explain the one that pulled itself from the ground.

 

Which of course, led her to the stupid conclusion. There were other things to consider of course, but the stupid conclusions had started to come through on top more since he had fell upon her territory.

 

Magic.

 

Or demons or ninja or ghosts or whatever.

 

The two maniacs were enjoying themselves now, one swinging hands and feet in all directions, more content on hitting wood than on breaking it, the other, cutting through her ‘supposed’ enemy like a mokujin training theatre. Strangely enough they didn’t seem to be running out of targets to hit.

 

Otsune watched them until her gaze fell on the door. It reminded her of what she was doing and she ducked down to look at her rucksack, sighing with annoyance as she then looked to the other half four feet away, three weeks worth of supplies and a day’s worth of effort scattered like autumn leaves across the forest’s floor. With a moment’s pain, she crouched down, picking up what she could and putting it into the sleeping bag, which had mysteriously survived.

 

“Well,” said Fujiko, carrying two tins, which she kindly dropped into the awaiting bag before doing nothing else to help, “they’re probably evil.”

 

“Yeah, probably.”

 

“Should we just…” She pointed to the door.

 

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s go.”

 

“Should we tell them?”

 

“No no, lets just…let’s just go,” Otsune sighed, standing up and slinging the blue woollen bag over her shoulder and making her way for the door in an impractical rush. “I think they’ll figure it out without us.”

 

They reached the simple structure, quickly navigating around the edge of the impromptu and completely imaginary circle the fighters had encased themselves in and reaching the mahogany oak door. It looked expensive, or at least Ikeian. There was moss growing around its base, telling her it had been here a while. It was amazing that no one had just knocked it over.

 

“Oh right, magic.”

 

“Erm, when I said go…” Fujiko began. “I meant escape…out of the forest.”

 

“Are you kidding?” Otsune said. “When we’re this close to finally getting somewhere? The only place I plan to go is through this door.”

 

“Right,” said Fujiko with an air of action, before looking at both sides of the door frame and coming up to the smart conclusion. “Then can we escape?”

 

Ignoring her friend, Otsune reached for the door handle, her hand inching forwards as if to repel back any second. When she finally grasped it, she jerked it a little, but nothing happened.

 

Not sure whether to pull or push, she went for pull, twisting the handle and watching as gravity took the obvious choice of straight down. Collapsing away from her, the door flew open in her hand, dropping the frame into the mud and digging in a few inches, where it hung waiting for her.

 

Slowly putting the door down, she looked to the empty frame, noting the smallest hint of a Gaussian blur, before fallen leaves and moss appeared on the other side. The two students looked at it like a small pond, the smallest hint of reflection coming back at them, just enough to tell Otsune it was real.

 

“Well,” said Fujiko. “Do you still want to go through? I’ll gladly watch you push yourself into mud.” Otsune snapped, grabbing her friend’s wrist.

 

“Oh, haven’t you learnt anything?” she said, and stepped over the doorframe.

 

Iziz sunk itself into the wooden skull of the puppet, not chopping through the wood as successfully as Natoko had hoped, giving her trouble as she yanked it back out. This was exhausting. There had been so many of them, wherever they had came from, and though they had offered no resistance while being cut down, no obvious resistance that is, Iziz was getting heavy in her hand, and the last few of the puppets hadn’t suffered the wrath of Iaido at all, just plain sword swinging.

 

“Tell me,” she said, panting heavily, her matted hair dangling before her eyes as she looked for Sagara, “why did we just do all that?”

 

He was sweating more than her; that was disgustingly clear, but he seemed to be less the worse for wear. Sagara looked around at the devastation of wood littered on the forest grounds surrounding them. “I’m not quite sure,” he replied, then waked past her as though the conversation wasn’t important.

 

Natoko carefully returned Iziz to its sheath, taking her time to stop her shaking hand from mutilating itself into the tip. Sagara approached the hole the first puppet came out of curiously. The two wooden pillars, which had risen like the door’s of a hanger bay, appeared secure. Part of her knew this shouldn’t be working since it only appeared to be holding up soil and moss, but that didn’t bother her more than what was inside the hole. There was nothing to see down there, just a darkness which ended abruptly at Sagara’s face. Approaching him gingerly, she got the impression that it was perhaps only a grave a few meters deep and nothing more, until Sagara stepped in and disappeared before her.

 

“Wait!” she cried like a child not wanting to be left out and hurled herself after him. She stopped just a few feet in, but quickly carried on when she didn’t hear anything save his footsteps hitting heavy against squelching mud. She could tell he was already far in front of her, unconcerned for the zero visibility. Natoko felt for the wall, grabbing clay earth and using it to grope her way further into the hole. Her pace was haphazard. Trying to go fast enough to catch up but keeping wary of possible invisible holes of doom before her. She didn’t know if Sagara was throwing himself in recklessly or whether his ‘magic eyes’ allowed him to see in the dark. Almost definitely the former.

 

Her trainers squelched in mud and sank down an inch if she let them. She had to breath lightly through her mouth, hoping the smell was just underground earth smell and not a need to burn all her clothing later. It was then she remembered the others, mainly because Fujiko had a lighter.

 

“Otsu-“ she started to call out, stopping immediately as she turned around and got nothing but the same darkness that surrounded her on all sides. The entrance was gone. Had she really travelled that far? Surely she had only travelled ten or so steps. “Otsune!” she shouted for the simple sake of it, hearing nothing.

 

If she hadn’t kept her hand on the wall, she would have immediately lost herself then. Trying to keep her heart calm, she plodded on, trying to sense what she could as she gained speed in motion. A samurai didn’t need their eyes; they could sense the distance around them. It was a simple concept that had been held in check for centuries and right now it was coming across as very unhelpful and completely untrue. Her eyes weren’t the only thing lost. Her nose was being assaulted by a gritty earthy smell that was foul and bitter. Her hand muddied up against the wall but only told her she was moving in a roughly straight yet still curvy line. Her ears picked up nothing, not even Sagara’s footsteps, only her own breath, amplified in the hollow cavern.

 

Sagara had gone this way, so she had to follow. She just wished he had waited for her, at least to tell her there was a reason for all of this.

 

Eventually, right around the time she started thinking about digging her way upwards, the muddy walls quickly turned to stone.  It was a smooth rock unlike the pebbles she had already come across that echoed when she rapped it with her knuckles. Beneath her, her feet stopped making sound effects, though the layer of mud cake made her feel taller than usual.

 

She took a moment to clean her trainers by kicking the rock, partly wondering if she should just go in her socks from now on, in the bizarre off case this happened to be the home of one of Sagara’s ‘other’ friends. The floor was damp, so she pressed on, travelling another nameless distance for a few more spaces of time, before her fingers felt a clear square corner, wrapping the corridor around to her left.

 

Reaching out with her right hand, looking for another wall but not daring to leave this one, she felt nothing and immediately gave up on trying to see if there was another side to the corridor. Instead she picked her head around this new corner, only to be greeted with the face of a green imp like creature mere inches away from her.

 

“Ah!” she cried out, losing her bearings altogether and falling backwards. Looking up to the imp, she saw its large face hovering in the air brightly, glowing luminously as it peered down at her with bright green eyes. Her hand went to Iziz a few seconds slower than she liked. It wasn’t saying or doing anything. Its face was motionless, with only a fixed expression of laughter, just like…

 

“Sagara?” she asked to the mask which stopped swaying and dropped sideways, almost disappearing completely in the darkness. The only thing that was left were the green eyes, still hanging in the darkness as she became aware of a light highlighting  the figured of a young man.

 

“You guessed,” a voice came from the darkness. “Come on,” he said, grabbing her hand. “You should see all this.”

 

She jostled herself mentally. She had been like an old housewife frightened by pesky kids. And now as he dragged her along clutching her hand tightly she felt a jolt of excitement at what was around the corner. She could feel her heart beat under her baggy shirt, the stale air hitting her as she rushed through it, and the strong grip holding her hand lightly as he yanked her into the light.

 

Pulled in right after him, she saw they were in a room that went too far up to see the ceiling; the top escending back into darkness save the small circle high above. It was difficult to say how one small light could light the entire room, though for its distance it wasn’t doing a bad job.

 

It was a storeroom was her first guess, the guess that tried to be rational and keep it all in check. The second more wishful guess wanted it to be a tomb. There was no obvious piles of gold, glittering in the very small bask of light, but the room was filled with any number of wooden chests and trunks, all piled on top of each other and filling the room into the darkness above.

 

Her imagination played with what was inside and wanted to look, but before she could do so her eyes were taken off to the right where sat a pile of masks. Some were stacked neatly on top of each other, others scattered as if a wind had swept them about. The one on top was an exact copy of the one Sagara was holding. It was more the size of his torso than his head. Most of the others were smaller, and Natoko started to figure out how some had become scattered. One of the ones on the floor was a simple Kitsune mask that looked awesome. Tentatively she got hold of it and blew the dust off it. It was well crafted and felt hand carved. Before she knew what she was doing she had put it up to her face to test it. She wanted to take it home.

 

Then a battlefield of fire approached her, cutting off every direction with white hot flame. Above her, she heard a mighty roar echoing off into the landscape, filling her ears and chilling her blood ice cold. In front of her an ogre approached, fourteen times larger and greater than any legend she had read. Bracing herself, she felt her master’s grip upon her hilt as he charged into battle with the monster, blade tipped forwards, eager for spilled blood.

 

Pulling the mask away, she gasped as if coming up for air from a freezing swimming where she was seconds from drowning. Her heart felt like it was pounding the bone bars of its cell, desperate for freedom.

 

For a second, she wished she wasn’t her.

 

Placing the mask carefully down with an estranged feeling of satisfaction, she moved on, looking to see what Sagara was looking at. Walking over to the boy’s crouching form, she saw him twiddling with a small gold plated watch. It looked very expensive and the type of thing that could break easily. The boy twisted the exposed hands round a few times, and then quickly gave up on it, choosing instead to pocket it.

 

For the first time, Natoko was reminded that she didn’t know where they were. “Are you sure you should be taking stuff?”

 

“Pretty sure,” Sagara replied. “Ninja are allowed to take stuff, though mom says it’s best to take gold stuff. Better for trading that way.”

 

“I wouldn’t say allow,” Natoko interjected.  “More like they just do.”

 

“Really? Maybe it’s different for Balance ninja. We have a lot of backing.” He looked around some more, jumping onto one of the chests into what appeared to be an empty container. “Though I guess this is a special exception in general.”

 

Looking mildly curious, Sagara hoisted himself up another level and fell into one of the other boxes, disappearing from her field of view. Natoko tried to find herself something to explore and was rewarded with the corpse of another of the puppets. Bracing herself and Iziz, she stopped when she realised the body was already broken in half, the head shattered in the middle. It was lying on top of a box different from the others. This one was a light green shade, with a purple line down the middle that looked like it had been painted on sloppily with a thin layer. The lock was missing.

 

“Huh, the inside of this one is gone,” Sagara muttered, coming back out of the box. “I guess that makes sense, though the entire inner chest is gone as well.”

 

“Missing? Have you’ve been here before?”

“Hhmm, no, but these boxes are usually made the same way across the globe. Four layers of protection to hide the child piece inside, like a Matryoshka. There’s usually this box, another box, and then another container box.”

“Isn’t that only three,” Natoko said conversationally, as she played with the loose latch, flicking it open. She tried to keep it quiet and out of Sagara’s sight. Whatever she found, she wanted to tell him rather than have him see at the same time.

“The fourth is the entire room. It’s meant to remain hidden.”

“And we found it by accident.” She grabbed the ends of the box, and lifted. The weight stopped her immediately. How could such a lid be so heavy?

“Yeah. Luck does that.”

“Yeah,” she grunted, trying to contain herself while she summoned all her strength and lifted the lid over her head. Careful not to make a loud bang, she was assaulted by a blast of dust that ejected from the box. Quickly covering her mouth, Natoko swallowed more dust than she should as she held in her cough, before quickly realising it could be something dangerous and spitting it all out immediately.

Wafting the dust away, she peered into the box not expecting to see anything, but feeling very disappointed when she confirmed it. Letting the dust clear, she sighed as she confirmed the bareness of the box.

“You find something?” Sagara asked from overhead.

“No, nothing,” she said, quietly shutting the box, not wanting to get caught for nothing. Some boxes must have been different from what he said, she thought as she quietly replaced the latch, turning to see Sagara just approaching her.

“Come on, let’s try the next room,” he said rushing off. She couldn’t help but smile as he acted like a kid at an amusement park. Was she getting to the age now when she couldn’t appreciate such excitement, if she didn’t rush off after him and laugh the same? Would it be less real now, if she did it for the sake of trying to be a child? It would be better to be it, rather than do it because she felt she should surely.

She took a few steps to follow then turned back, looking around. She couldn’t say why, but she felt a little obligated to take something. It wasn’t really that wrong. The place seemed abandoned. If that was the case, then it was finders keepers right? She’d just take one thing. If she got caught, it would be explainable considering the circumstances.

Looking to see Sagara wasn’t watching her, she grabbed the same mask as before, before quickly stowing it in her bag and sneaking off after him, now a little more concerned for local security than before.

The rest of the tomb proved as empty of valuable artefacts, nothing more than a series of ornate corridors with carvings over the walls. Most were abstract images or obscure looking demons that looked fancy. The last corridor’s told her a story starting with a celebration and great feast that was quickly interrupted by the fall of a demon and a great battle that followed it. It spawned a romance that started too soon and turned to tragic bickering. By the end of it the hero and heroine acted like they had barely just met. It then oddly jumped into the life of their child and his adventures as a youth, the main hero himself quickly turning old and teaching his son many new things. But before it even had a chance for him to grow up, it showed his son, now just a baby, his father dead and he a much older man. By the time she got to the last carving, she realised what she had just done.

 

Now that she got a closer look, she was thinking this was Heian period architecture, with sleek white pillars surrounding each wall and an elegant grandness applying to all the fittings. She wasn’t an expert but it was definitely a lot more ancient than the rest of the town. The town itself, she remembered reading in a guidebook from when she first moved here, was no more than three hundred years old.

 

The other rooms were barren and empty. A series of four chambers proved uneventful as they crossed them, each room big enough for small mobs to fight in and high enough to suggest some ancient grandness that must have held them in great stead. The second room had a broken banquet table in it. The third room’s walls were covered in rotten wooden arrows, stuck deep into each side of the walls in a perfect grid pattern.

 

The fourth room was rubble.

 

The amount of collapsed stone and rubble didn’t seem like it could have came solely from the roof, nor the opposing walls. Even so, a towering height of rock and lumber blocked their path, not even telling them if there even was an exit on the other side, never mind whether it was covered up.

 

For the first time, Natoko became aware of the fact of being trapped in here forever, the entrance behind them disappearing into darkness and the only other path now being blocked. This room itself may not even be an exit. It may just be the final room, a tomb in the centre of an intricate labyrinth with no escape save the closed off entrance they came from.

 

Beside the entrance she came through and bigger than her own body a chunk of spherical stone rested in place. She pushed against it, and quickly regretted it as it tried to roll back over her. The half sphere wobbled back and forth for a few seconds before slowing down.

 

Sagara checked around, searching the edges of destruction surrounding them, looking for the lowest part. The best they could find, other than the unreliable sphere, was roughly twice their height, but was clearly too tall and sheer for them to scale even if she was to stand on his shoulder for the initial boost.

 

“Should we turn back?” she finally asked after many minutes of silence. There may have easily been a door they had missed in any number of places. They had left the tomb room through the most obvious point of exit about half a mile back, and there was the pitch black corridor which could have had any number of extra doors on the side of the wall she didn’t fumble across

 

“No, this should be fine,” Sagara said raising him arm as it ejected a flash of yellow light that spat through the air above them and into one of the invisible walls hidden by the darkness. She didn’t have time to register what he had even done before he showed her the long purple silk fabric and indicated for her to grab old of it.

 

“Where do you keep that thing anyway?” she said a little sarcastically.

 

“Scorlock?” Sagara said. “She’s always inside of me.”

 

It didn’t look safe to grab onto. Not that it was dangerous, just that it wouldn’t support her weight climbing it. Not to mention she wasn’t very good at rope swinging. Though as she grabbed hold of it, her feet planting themselves on the wall, she found it to be tensile in her hands to the point where it was difficult to control. Taking small steps at first and forgetting her breathing she climbed the wall, feeling Iziz and her bag swaying beneath her.

 

Reaching the top better than she thought she would she hoisted herself over, quickly turning to signal an okay to Sagara before watching him pull himself up the silk like a demented hamster, scurrying all the way up in seconds and leaving himself exhausted by the time he got to the top.

 

She wanted to deride him in some way for trying it like that, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like they were any immediate danger and this was something they could take their time with. Her only worry, as she sat back over the edge watching him get his breath back was if they needed to jump back down, just how many bones would she break on the cool rock surface?

 

“We should have brought some water,” she said, trying to be a little comforting as he wheezed for breath. “I’ve got an apple, but we should probably save that.”

 

“We …should be out soon,” he got out.” We just have to get passed the skeletons and then down the exit on the other side, and we should be good to go.

 

“What skeletons?” she said regretting the question as she formed it. How did she miss them; miss this many?

 

Atop of the rubble, which had caved and collapsed at all different angles, with little dips going one way and giant shards which looked like they had crashed into earth from the sky the other, was a scattered layer of bones. Human bones, Natoko thought at first, for the first she saw were a rib cage and skull. The second set however, another rib cage, looked like they could drape a tent over and have ten of them sleep under it. Standing up to get a better look, quickly finding she had to pay attention to her balance less she fell straight over again. The next few dozen were definitely human. One was roughly human shape, but was the size of a child and had two sets of wings, all made of rigid bone that dangled their owner five feet in the air. . Another was a snake like coil, looking like a large overextended spinal column, with ten sets of legs, all squashed together in the centre rather than spread out.

 

These were the most complete ones. The rest was a pile of assorted arms, legs, tails, tusks and skulls that looked like they couldn’t have belonged to any creature on Earth or her imagination.

 

None were moving, much to her relief.

 

“This was quite lucky, actually,” Sagara said, getting up and forming his gauntlet around his hand, setting it down into the skull of the first human like body and turning it into dust.

 

“What are you doing?” Natoko said. Regardless of what these were, Natoko felt they should respect the dead, even if they were resting in a place like this. “Have you no…” She stopped herself, not actually knowing what she wanted to accuse him of. Respect. Honour. The answer to those Sagara had already made clear.

 

“It’s not what you think,” he explained. “These aren’t the dead. They’re demons.”

 

“I could tell that much,” she said, looking at the gargoyle midget. “But even so, it doesn’t seem right to…”

 

“Right doesn’t matter . We have to prevent wrong from occurring through demons whenever we have a chance. Given enough time, these creatures will form on their own to finally be able to move around and attack people As soon as they constitute nerves that is.”

 

“Nerves, they’re growing themselves?”

 

“Well yes,” said Sagara looking oddly confused. “Thought I had explained the animism and kotodama to you?”

 

“You did,” Natoko replied, feeling a little flustered. “I didn’t get it completely though.”

 

“It’s simple, the demons come out of the InBetween realm in weakened states. They dragged their spirit to an object and possess it. When they do, they can change it over time, morph it into a new form; whatever they feel best. The more inanimate the object, the slower it takes. Though it looks like these guys were already destroyed once and they’ve got no matter to mutate. The entire stock must have been trapped here for safety before they were dispossessed. Odd it hasn’t been done already.”

 

“So the demons are still in these things.”

 

“Yup. It depends on how the demon’s done the possession or the strength of it on how it pulls itself into the object. These guys must be fairly persistent. Probably high Wrath demons or something. They wouldn’t be the type to give up easily, hence why they’re being so unrelenting now.”

 

They looked to where the skull sat in pieces. Already she could see the bit vibrating wildly, almost humming as they hovered in mid air. They got so far before Sagara slammed another punch into the solar plexus, scattering the remaining ribs around the surface of the rock. “Ah, here it is,” he said, revealing a small feather trapped within the bony remnants of the chest bone. “This would be the centrepiece of the demon, where its spirit resides. The feather must have been important to someone, else it couldn’t be used.”

 

“So the demon possesses something of value?”

 

“Exactly, as long as the object is something of high value to at least one person, its spirit can be overtaken more easily by the spirit of a demon. It becomes noticed, and can be taken. Though it doesn’t always have to be valuable. It’s just they tend to be more attracted to objects that have more meaning for someone.”

 

“Including humans?”

 

“Well yeah. They’re usually very valuable to a human.”

 

“And all demons do this?”

 

“Every case we’ve had shows it so far, for the last… seven thousand years or so? Even the strongest demons have no form here on earth, they have to make it. Though they can take that form back with them afterwards, and the form can still be destroyed. Same with angels too.”

 

“Angels?” she said, her mind momentarily forcing itself back, remembering those few moments where she thought of saving everyone, moments taken away from her with ease by that one sparkling figure.

 

“Yeah,” replied Sagara, picking at the feather “Same applies. Just find the object and break it up.” He starting picking at the individual strands of the white feather, peeling them off one at a time and tossing them in random directions. “The point is that they spread their spirit around the object, so this is effectively like ripping them apart. Break it apart too much and-“

 

A piercing scream assaulted the room, thousands of hissing screaming demons all at once, invading her ears and minds. She forgot what she was thinking about as all noise was cut off with a sudden silence.

 

“- you disperse the spirit, throwing it off to another realm, usually their home or the InBetween Realm, where they can’t bother us again for a while. As mom says, this is the important thing to remember. All enemies only have one weak point. That’s what makes them so annoying. At least with humans you can play with them, pick off their kneecaps, remove their teeth… I think dad told her to shut up on the next part.”

 

Natoko smirked lightly, her ears ringing from the sound of a demon screaming a thousand times in one petrified moment.

 

“But with demons there’s only one point to it. Everything else is just time wasting. Sometimes it’s easy-” He crushed the skull of the midget gargoyle under his hand, revealing a comb which shattered under his grip and released anther bone chilling scream. “Sometimes-“ he jumped up the rib cage of the large demon, bounced off it like a springboard and lunging up to grab the tip of the solar plexus, driving on the momentum and slashing the bone through with the dagger on his Scorlock, releasing an ornate Shichishito blade from its confines and allowing it to drop to the floor skewering it with his fist as he landed right on top of it “it’s less easy.”

 

Natoko felt a little dizzy watching him, and turned away before he noticed, feeling her heart beat. His moves were awesome, they made hers look boring and rigid.

 

“So there you have it,” he said. “That is what you wanted right?”

 

“What I… no, I wasn’t…”

 

“Didn’t you want me to tell you more things about demons?”

 

“Oh right, I erm…yes.”

 

“I figured this was a good start. Someone… I can’t remember who said I needed to go into more detail with you if you were going to join us”

 

“Well this time was no different really. Just the opponent was already dead…weren’t they?” If they still screamed…”

 

“I told you, they just go back. We can’t kill them. In the end. If we could we would have got rid of them a long time ago.” From behind Sagara, a pale glow formed from nowhere. Natoko’s eyes widened, seeing a neon green monster, floating up quietly, a look of horror and anger on its bird like face. Its twisted upside down beak stretched out, looking to swallow him.

 

“Sagara!”

 

“Ahuh, I know.”

 

“If you could get rid of us so easily, you would not make the same mistakes as the rest of your kind over and over again, Futabatei.”

 

“Huh, so these are from the clan,” he said, looking to the remaining skull of various animals. “Mom said something about this being stored around here.”

 

“We will incinerate the flesh from yours like we did your ancient ancestors.” From behind the first, two more appeared, one looked like a mastiff that had been inflated like a balloon, the other a knight in ceremonial armour. Together they fizzed in and out of reality through a purple blur.

 

“You didn’t do this. These kin fell centuries ago.”

 

“Yes, and they died here at our feet, begging for our mercies.”

 

“This was the Futabatei pet cemetery.”

 

“And they died like animals.”

 

“They were animals.”

 

“Monster Futabatei,” the knight said, seeming to try and take over for his brethren’s arguments. “You would exile three of the Pride while we are at our weakest, whilst we cannot fight. Have you no shame? Destroying the regenerating corpse of an already defeated opponent.”

 

“Oh you’re Pride? I thought you would be Wrath. Oh, and it wasn’t a duel,” Sagara pointed out to them. “More like an extermination I guess.”

 

“Monster!”

 

“No, wait, what’s the term. Eradication. Massacre? No wait… Pest control. Yeah, that’s it.”

 

“Sagara!” The three demon spirits flew towards him snarling, their energies burning out with rabid hatred as they plunged towards Sagara. The ninja did little to them except let them fly through him, where they came out the other end and promptly disappeared.

 

“Oh, that’s the next thing,” he said casually. “Demon spirits can’t do squat to anyone. They’re non-corporeal at that point. Most of the time people can’t even sense them. Those three only showed up because they were strong when combined but even then all they can do is really want to hurt somebody.”

 

“So they’re harmless unless they’re physical?”

 

“Well they can still talk people into doing things. Make them go crazy, kill their families, you know…” The ground ruptured, the already shaky foundations crushing underneath themselves, striking cracks through the ground and knocking Natoko off her feet. Sagara continued talking. “It’s all only temporary though. They can only stay in this realm until their energy is drained and the InBetween realm’s Return command comes into play and they get pulled straight back.” Natoko stopped herself with her right hand, looking around quickly. They must have done something to the rocks they were standing on. Everything was coming down.

 

“Hhhmm, looks like they got us after all,” Sagara said, finally noticing.

 

“What?” She couldn’t hear him over the noise.

 

“We won’t be able to make it back out in time it seems.” His gaze was the way they had come, now blocked off under fifty tons of rubble, the same way the demons had gone.

 

“How could they do that?”

 

“They were too weak to possess an item, but they could still try. It usually causes the item to shake. They probably went for something unstable.” He went to sit down. “Guess we’ll have to wait it out now.”

 

“Wait what out?”

 

“Life.”

 

She couldn’t believe it. “You’re giving up after all that?”

 

“Yeah,” he replied calmly. “There’s nothing to do. The exits are blocked off. We’ll live for about three days and die unless we’re rescued.” With a final guttering rumble, the floor stopped shaking, trapped in place. “Wanna play a game?”

 

“Forget that,” she said, desperately searching and almost forgetting to look up at where all the light was coming from. “Fire your Scorlock up there!”

 

“Hey, you’re right.,” Sagara responded, looking up to see the small grating at the top of the high room and firing his small blade up into the air. They watched it whiz up, flashing purple silk at them for a few seconds, before a distant thud was heard, followed by several clunking noises as it wrapped round the middle bar.

 

“Got it,” he said. “Hold on please.”

 

“Er, sure,” she said, grabbing on and feeling the floor leave behind them before she even got secure, the Scorlock taking them up like a sandbag had just been dropped.

 

“Wait, this can reel itself in?”

 

“The rope’s purely imaginary. It can do lots of things.”

 

“Why didn’t you do it earlier?”

 

“Didn’t think of it.”

 

“Well it better stop before it gets to the top!”

 

“Can’t say it wi-“

 

Grabbing the grate at the last second, Natoko ditched Sagara and saved her skull being crushed though two steel bars. Looking through the grate and getting a blindful of sunlight for her efforts, she just made out grass growing over the bars and got a lungful of fresh air.

 

It took a few moments of Sagara having very strong legs to prop himself on both sides of the walls and even stronger arms to lift both her and the grating at the same time, but eventually they were able to pull themselves out of the chasm of a hole and back onto the surface world, where they were greeted with fresh, lush grass to roll through and Hikihime Hisami, who had bought them both drinks by the time they had got their bearings.

 

“No way!” Natoko gasped as she clicked where they were. They had taken the taxi more for Otsune’s convenience than actual distance, but to have travelled though such a tunnel for even a mile, let alone three. This was the back of the east garden, the drainage ditch everyone knew of but never thought about. But how high up? Heavenly Springs dormitory was on a mountain!

 

Too much in shock to think about it properly, Natoko downed her ice tea and passed it back to Hisami, who took Sagara’s glass of orange with a bow and walked back towards the kitchen. The two of them sat there for a few minutes longer. She was exhausted, but it looked like Sagara just wanted to laze about.

 

“Well, that was pretty interesting,” he said, as she heard the door slide behind Hisami all the way around the corner.

 

Feeling the sweat drip off her chin in the summer heat, Natoko nodded to agree.

 

“Those skeletons were pretty freaky. I think I learned far more than I wanted to.”

 

“Not to mention all the ghosts down there. The bad memories too.”

 

She gave him a puzzled expression.

 

“Oh that’s right, you wouldn’t have seen them.”

 

“Wouldn’t have seen what?

 

“Huh? Oh that’s something we can do,” he said, not listening to her. “What time is it?”

 

“I haven’t a clue. Why?”

 

“We need to go back into the city and check out the crime scene.”

 

“What?” she glared angrily.

 

****

 

Sakura looked up; finding herself back at the church again.

 

at the one place she could rest. Not the dorm where she had a bed but couldn’t go two minutes without being shaken by a loud, laughing scream or beaten into her mattress by the thundering footsteps outside her door. Here, even if the room was filled with a thousand people, she could be at peace.

 

Because this was God’s house.

 

The renovators bustled around here, veterans and part timers chatting away as they hauled woodwork and wiring back and fourth, leading her to avoid areas where usually she sat in silence. Even with the noise and wind bustling through the large double doors she could feel the warm tranquillity of His embrace. Here, she need answer no questions, no concerns for how she was, and no worries on what she might need. He knew what she needed, and therefore she wanted nothing.

 

Even the stares of the young workers, glaring at her out the corners of their eyes, sometimes outright staring at her as they wondered how long she was going to be, didn’t even once make her question what must they be thinking of her, just sitting on one of the lone benches near the front of the altar, didn’t once displace her mind from serenity. She merely rested, her eyes drifting, her head bobbing.

 

And then they were gone.

 

As soon as she realised Sakura shot straight up, wearily confused until she saw that the sun was no longer in the western window and the doors shut. The workers had left their equipment scattered around in various neat piles that still left an open path for her to get out safely. The church was still in the state where she didn’t know what they were even fixing. Some work to the roof she had guessed, but most of it had been on the other side where she couldn’t see. It didn’t matter, though she was a little upset at having not got round to making them snacks as she had planned.

 

Resting at God’s house wasn’t her intention, but even on the cold wooden bench she felt more refreshed than in any of the last ten times she had slept over the fortnight, and when she stretched she felt energy going through herself and out into the world.

 

Now, she was happy, and relaxed and content. She was also ready. Turning, only momentarily being surprised by the large white sheet that covered most of the stone floor that hadn’t been there early, she saw Father Sakagami and gave him a warm smile.

 

“I’m ready for my confession now, father.”

 

***

 

“Forgive me father, for I have sinned,” she started as she always started. It was the part she hated the most. The part that sounded most like a trance. It was repetitive like a phones salesman. How many people went in here, and just ruined themselves by switching to automatic. They didn’t get it like she did.

 

The priest waited shuffled silently on the other side of the grate. “I have…I have let evil things happen, father,” she said, feeling as uncomfortable as she always did at the beginning, her energy draining in an instant and her happiness being overcome by fear. This was natural, she knew, but it didn’t help. It wasn’t supposed to. “I have watched as the people around me have done things, and let others do things, whilst I have done nothing to stop them.”

 

“You cannot stop another person’s actions so easily, my child. Most can barely control their own. You can only help them to control their actions, so they do not become a danger to others or themselves.”

 

“But what if I thought they weren’t a danger, and then they did something very bad, something I could never expect of them, and then everything went back to normal again.”

 

“A single act of evil should not be judged so easily. If a person regrets their mistake, and seeks to atone for it, that can be enough.”

 

“But what if they didn’t regret it, not at all.

 

“Then they must be made to regret, to realise their folly. People without faith are weak, Sakura, and they quickly make themselves believe they are strong. It is easy to convince one self that their action is the correct answer. Common sense is not as strong as it may seem. Many even follow our path believing it to be correct when it is wrong in their hearts.”

 

“But my friend, she stole a man’s wallet. She tricked him and used me to do it. I tricked him as well, though I didn’t know what I was doing at the time.

 

“And my other friend, he did something bad too, and yet he does not seek the forgiveness of our lord. He refuses it. Even when the angels would ask him for it directly and give him an offer of peace, he threatened them and made them leave.”

 

“There are some that are beyond help my child, but even those who refuse are in truth just hiding from their own demons. They are not right in their decision, but now may not be the time for them to meet an angel. You must be patient. There is no harm in waiting.”

 

Sakura clenched her knees tightly in her grasp. “No, you don’t understand father. I don’t mean seeing angels in my dreams or in visions. I met one, he spoke to me. I spoke back. We wandered through the corridors of the library side by side, talked so long about anything and everything, and even though I knew him for so little, I couldn’t help but feel he knew me all along. And then… and then…” Her voice drowned to whisper. She paused to see if he had heard her properly or not.

 

“Oh, I see,” the father chortled through the panel. “Well I admit I wasn’t expecting that. So what was this boy’s name?”

 

“Erm….” Sakura had stopped. The father was keeping this from being a confession now. She could tell that, but it didn’t matter. She learnt long ago from her father that the priest’s contributions to the confession were useless comforts that didn’t always catch the full intent of the lord due to their own weaknesses. Right now, she knew he was trying to help though. “Alexis I think, though he never actually told me.”

 

“And when are you seeing this Alexis again?”

 

“W-well, that’s the problem,” she said sniffing, tears dripping down her eyes so fast she could only feel a river on her cheeks. “I didn’t think I’m going to get to see him again.”

 

“Did you not get his number?”

 

“No.”

 

“Well, maybe you can meet him again at the library. I’m sure if you go there again you’ll meet him.”

 

“No, I won’t.”

 

“Now, you didn’t know that. Did he say he wasn’t going to be there again?”

 

“No, but…”

 

“Well there you are then. I’m sure if you just head down there the next time and ask if he had been there, or even just keep an eye out for him, I wouldn’t be too surprised if you found him just waiting around for you. I know from experience what boys tend to do when they have a girl they like.”

 

“He won’t be coming back. It’s impossible for him. Because…” The words drained from her mouth, coming out as wasted energy. There was a few moments silence.

 

“Because?”

 

“Because….because….” Her head slammed into the wood. “Because Sagara killed him.”

 

“What?”

 

“He stabbed him and killed him and let him just drop to the floor dead and no matter what I do there’s no bringing him back. And no matter what happens, no one else even begins to care, even though they saw him do it and watched Alexis die, they just watched him fall and then left.”

 

She wrapped herself in the corner of the booth, talking between her legs. “It’s not fair. When someone I like finally comes into this world, all they do is die on me, just like father.”

 

“S-sakura, you’re saying this…this Sagara, actually killed someone, in front of you?”

 

Sakura realised she was muffling her own words. “Yes.”

 

“And you sure you haven’t misunderstood. Blown it out of proportion?”

 

“Yes! I mean no. Sagara definitely killed Alexis!” She had been wanting to say it so long, to someone who would finally least to her and not judge.

 

“Then Sakura, you’ve got to-” he stopped mid-sentence and changed gears. “No, I’m going out of my place here. My child, you must believe if these events are wrong to act out on them. Even if these people are your friends, you must not let them force you onto their path if this is what they do. You should tell others, other than me without fear. Though it pains me to say it, as long as there is a body, it will not be as if your claim is nonsense.”

 

“But it will be! That’s the problem, I can’t prove Alexis’s death because he died in the InBetween Realm and no matter what we do, I don’t know how to get back there.”

 

“The InBetween realm?”

 

“Even if I did, Alexis’s body was gone the next time I looked; I wouldn’t know where to find it. There were so many corridors and I was barely looking. Alexis led the way. I probably wouldn’t even be able to find the library.”

 

“The library was in this realm?”

 

“And I didn’t even know how we got in there. We were just in this alley and Sarah was just feeling a little ill and suddenly I was there, and I didn’t even know how to get us out. This friend of Sagara’s led us out a door somewhere, but I didn’t know where. I wasn’t even looking.”

 

“Sakura, could you just-”

 

“And I think something happened to this friend of his as well. She disappeared when the angel got killed and-“

 

“Sakura!” She stopped screaming, her pulse racing. She was standing up somehow. Turning, she could see Father Sakagami’s eyes staring at her through the confession box, a leer that cut away all thoughts.

 

“Do you mean the realm of unending corridors?”

 

****

 

The car slowly jutted to a stop as it turned into the nearest empty space in the car park, fitting in at an angle perfect for causing optimum amounts of frustration for the owners of the cars on the left, right and front sides of it. As Father Sakagami stopped, he turned the key out and got straight out, indicating for her to do the same.

 

“Sakura partly recognised the location. They were in the city centre, somewhere near the main shopping district and the biggest shopping centre in town. She very rarely went here, never having a reason to go and never being invited by others to go, so she rarely got to see the massive coliseum sized complex that hosted a shop of every kind within.

 

It was busy for a Sunday, and people were rushing about quickly, not taking their time at all as they brushed past each other with large shopping bags and smaller wallets. Only a few seemed to have stopped to appreciate the day of rest, and even they were clearly just taking a small break before getting back on with things.

 

Father Sakagami didn’t appear to be listening to her. Having barely spoken two words since her confession, he was starting to scare her a little bit. Father Sakagami was one of the few people she believed she could trust ever since coming to this country. It was he who had helped her with her Japanese alongside her mother and further on even when she passed away, and he who taught her to think carefully of her faith and to be willing to ask questions to keep it strong. He was modern and open minded, yet had the strongest faith of any priest she had met, even the bishop that had come to visit.

 

So to see him like this, agitated, impatient, making her hurry up to the point where he looked like he was resisting the urge to drag her along, wasn’t something she was used to or comfortable with. It was even a little scary.

 

He knew abut the InBetween realm, Sakura thought as they came onto the pavement and marched briskly into the crowd, but not in the same way she did. He was calling it the realm of a thousand corridors and hadn’t told her anything since

 

Reaching the Himitsuya shopping district Father Sakagami stopped and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small pedometer. The district was a large five storey building which save for a small inner garden area that served as a food court was completely indoors and within the space of the building itself.

 

Attaching the pedometer to the hem of his trousers, he started walking. Sakura kept up behind him, watching him carefully as he went to his best yet very odd efforts to walk in a straight line. Not even a baby carriage swayed him to the side and he briskly paced form one side of the building to another. Sakura could only watch, completely confused and without money to get home herself. When he got to the end, he pulled the pedometer off his waist, and checked it.

 

“Four hundred and fifty five meters and seventy three centimetres,” he said, writing it down off his hand in black ink and heading off again, turning to go inside the building.

 

“When you first notice something wrong in your life,” he said, with an air that he had been having a conversation with her that she had not been having with him, “do you notice something is wrong?”

 

Sakura guessed her participation didn’t seem to matter in this conversation, and stayed silent. “You often don’t. When the probable first starts occurring, you’ll either not notice entirely or come up with some rational excuse. People will always do this. It’s better than suffering new hardships that they don’t know how to cope with.”

 

Sakura was getting a little lost.

 

“When the first one happens it’s easy. It’s often so major and so big that you wouldn’t think it strange at all, just ill-timed. “The second one is the hardest, nothing to do at all sometimes, except just get curious.”

 

They took a left as they entered, heading for the farthest reaches of the building. They ended up at a small clothes boutique which didn’t look that expensive. Father Sakagami looked like he had no intention of shopping, and heading straight to the far end of the room, keeping in a straight line as best as possible with clothes racks in the way.

 

There, he pulled out the pedometer again, pressed a button that seemed to reset it and started walking yet again

 

“Most of the time the wrongs things can hurt a lot, and you don’t know what to do. Sometimes they’re extremely painful, and you just have to suffer. And then comes the strange events, where there’s no rulebook. You know something’s gone wrong, that someone’s cheated, but there’s no manager to lodge a formal complaint with.”

 

“This case is a little different though. This isn’t someone being in the wrong. This is about something hat is wrong. Therein lies all the difference.” They were leaving the store again, going in the same straight line. Sakura was getting a little sweaty trying to keep up so much that she wasn’t listening that well.

 

“I noticed it around a year and a half ago. It was my first time in the Himitsuya shopping centre and I was searching for a book required for my next study section. I had no idea what the place looked like and had begun to get lost pretty quickly. I spent about an hour unsure of where I was supposed to be going, and even the local maps weren’t being of any help.

 

“It was incredibly pointless and incredibly frustrating. All I wanted was a book, but I wasn’t going to find neither it nor the way out at the rate it was going. So I opted, rather than getting lost or just asking, to wander in a straight line until I got some where. After all, the district was just a series of squares. I was bound to get me somewhere eventually.

 

When I had gotten into the store I had to walk alongside it first, so at the time I think I just sort of guessed it but wasn’t sure, but it had taken me around four minutes to walk up to the entrance outside from the other side of the building, and walking through the crowd I realised I was up to minute six when it-“

 

Sakura’s mind wandered away from the conversation politely when she noticed the bookstore. She had a close bond to on the few times she had been down here and wondered if she should ask if they can stop in. Last time they had a book scriptures and though she hadn’t understood most of it she knew it would benefit her greatly in her understanding of the country’s language.

 

“And that, is when I knew I had stumbled upon something that shouldn’t be there: the realm of never ending corridors?”

 

Sakura switched back. “What did you…say?”

 

“When I got there, I knew something was wrong. I had definitely travelled further than I should of. Gone lengths longer than was physically possible. I knew this building didn’t connect to any others, and I was two floors up, so I could not have strayed to a basement level. For sure I knew I was in a corridor that did not, could not exist in the world as we know it.”

 

“What did you see there?”

 

“Nothing. It was absolutely empty.” He said this as if it brought the greatest joy in all his life, and that he was now ready for the Rapture to descend and take him away.

 

“Oh.”

 

“For as long as I travelled in that realm, I discovered nothing. Corridor after corridor. Quite boring actually.”

 

“I can imagine.” Sakura scolded herself instantly for being sarcastic.

 

“And they’re all the same corridor. No differences. No change in consistency I’m sure. Had I the eye for it, even the grains and speckles of the dust were repeating in each room.”

 

“But I knew what I had discovered was impossible, and that alone sustained my travels further. I thought perhaps this was a message or trial of some nature, bought on by our Lord. Maybe I was even to meet someone of great importance and so braved myself to take the route.”

 

“Unfortunately, after about twenty minutes I had become completely lost. The corridors, as I believe you might know, have many different doors, and appear to go in many directions. I had foolhardy tried them at random, with the thought of coming across a map, or making one in y mind, but with everything identical, it was far too easy to become lost.”

 

“And then, just when I was beginning to fear the possibility that I may not even be able to find my way back through the door I came through, that I would be lost here and even fail my trial, when a security guard appeared. Shopping centre security.”

 

“A guard, but I thought-”

 

“As did I. He sounded very rough, and was angry at me, yet trying to remain nice at the same time. He said to me. “What are you din here. You people aren’t allowed around this area. You must leave at once.” I do admit At the time, I was too confused and lost altogether, so I nearly lied to the man and said I had gotten lost, but I knew that wasn’t true so I told him my curiosity had gotten the better of me, and I apologised. He seemed furious at me and I do believe he was more worried about his own job and failing to stop a straggler like me from getting so far than the fact I was there anywhere. Anyway, he quickly led me back to the entrance and tossed me out, not literally of course.

 

“So you were just in another part of the centre.”

 

“Sakura, you and I both know that’s not true. But even so, you’re right, I did doubt myself at first, so I rushed back outside, and counted the windows out the outside second floor. There were thirty, and the last was this shop you see here.” He pointed to a toy shop that specialised in make your own bears. Sakura had one at home dressed in black, though not from this store. She had made the collar herself. However, it was not the last store in the row. Next to it, before the door at the end, lay a collectors shop. It was half the size of the regular shops and looked like it was stuff old models and cards with no use except to those who sought them. It was a shop of false greed.

 

“That shop should not be there,” he told her, after her gaze had wandered enough. “And neither should that door. I don’t know what is truly beyond the other side, but I believe it is something I must determine. Now, you say you’ve been there yourself.”

 

For the first time in a while, Sakura realised he was letting her speak for herself, and waited anxiously for her answer.

 

“Er…yes,” she started. “We went there once-“

 

“And how did you get in.”

 

Sakura stopped. How did she? There was her and Sarah an Aki, and…she didn’t want to remember the next it, and there before she knew it she was waking up in a library. “We were in an alleyway. IT was when my friend robbed that man. Then the word started to spin around us and-“ She tried to fill the gap but could come up with nothing. “I just woke up there, nowhere near my friends.”

 

“I see,” said Sakagami. “That is definitely different to my own method.”

 

“And then when I got there, there was this giant library. Books filling the walls and more shelves that I could count. It was bigger than any library I had seen before.”

 

“And what were the books. Were they of a particular type?”

 

“Erm, well they were empty, the ones I checked though. Oh, except one. It was on a pedestal and spoke about Humans getting stronger and defeating some creatures.”

 

“I see,” said the father transfixed on her. “This is amazing. I think you may have gotten closer than I did.”

 

“What is?”

 

“Sakura, I was stopped before I could get anywhere close to where an answer might lay. But you, more innocent and pure, started in the library itself, while your other ‘friends’, including that Sarah girl, were kept away from it. Why you were separated when you started so close? There can only be one answer.”

 

“What answer?” she asked, confused. “What was in that library?”

 

“I don’t know, but I believe this library may have been the destination for those seeking answers. You who have followed his words from young and seek his knowledge, was placed where you needed to be, and got answers you needed, or tried to anyway. Did you, or were you stopped by any chance.”

 

“Ah…yes,” she realised. “That was when I met Alexis.”

 

“He was the guard that stopped you.”

 

“Yes, but he wasn’t a guard. He was an assistant there.”

 

“Hhhhmmm,” he pondered deeply for a moment. Sakura was now hanging onto the talk tightly. “It seemed that if you are not ready, as I wasn’t, or not worthy, then you get denied. This may be why the books were blank as well, to you that is. You may need to be ‘higher’ if you will, than either of us.”

 

“You mean like a bishop or his holiness.”

 

“Exactly. But it certainly merits further investigation. Sakura?” He slapped his hands down on her shoulders. “Will you accompany me? If answers are in reach it is our duty to obtain them.”

 

“But, if there are guards…”

“This is a trial for us. The guards are merely another part of it to stop anyone from getting through. If we are pure of heart, and have the knowledge we now do, I believe we can get all the way to the library. There, we will seek answers.”

 

“Answers. To what?”

 

“Why, to everything of course.”

 

****

 

Telling Sagara the time was useless. Even when knowing it, he still took as long as he possibly could, causing them to miss the tram they were waiting for. The he got hungry, sidetracking them into a café that was perfectly positioned to see the tram- as it came speeding out of the station. They managed the third one an hour later, just as the city was beginning to light itself up.

 

Finding their destination hadn’t been too difficult. Having convinced herself earlier that they needed to go to the scene of the crime- after Sarah and Sagara had dismissed the idea as stupid, Natoko had been online and found out where the murder occurred. It was amazing how little there had been on it. But in the end it was just another murder in the city; no matter how gruesome it was. Now, they had a printed map, and even her sightseeing camera; for evidence she insisted.

 

The night had started to cool down as they reached Funakoshicho; the road where the body had been found, and Natoko was just starting to appreciate the wonder of a coat. Being Sunday night, there was little going on. A few party groups passed by them as they headed down the street, as well as the stray loaner with shopping bags weighing them down and a neck angled for the floor. No one bothered two stray teenagers.

 

She had been on this street several times before, though never really used it for anything other than passing through. Across the road there were a series of pachinko parlours with bars above them. Aki insisted they go here every few weeks and they would both lose a fortune in currency that held no real value to them. By the time they were halfway down he street, the last of the small groups of passer-bys had disappeared from sight.

 

Quickly realising that Sagara was acting like he knew where he was going, Natoko jumped ahead, keeping an eye out for the alleyway. “It’s over there,” she said, partly guessing. The website had merely described it as the alley next to a curry parlour, and this was the first she could see.

 

Twisting round to look into the alley and doing her best to take notes, Natoko could see nothing special about it. The alley was wide, enough for a garbage truck to park itself into. The open space was barren however, with only an empty dustbin sitting by the wall.

 

Of course the body was missing. She didn’t know why she had been expecting to see that there, but felt a vague disappointment that it was gone. It was clean of anything else though, the garbage cans were currently missing and there was only a side door in to the curry parlour decorating the alleyway before it fell into darkness only a few meters in, making her realise that they really were better checking this in the day. They were more likely to get mugged than gain any useful information.

 

Though when she thought about it, it had been raining as well since then. There was the one summer shower on Thursday that drenched the whole city. Though it was gone by the morning, she had to give up outside training when it got so bad her training shirt was becoming a second skin.

 

Any evidence would have been washed away by now. How could she have not thought of this sooner? Did she just assume the crime scene would stay perfectly intact while it waited for her to come along and investigate? The others were right not to bother with this place after so long. Even after two days, anything they would find would either be worthless or a huge distraction.

 

“Hi there,” Sagara said to her.

 

“What? Oh hi… sorry,” she replied, realising he had been trying to speak to her.

 

“You’re looking all right.” Was that a question? Her mind felt a little fuzzy, her eyes growing heavy.

 

“I guess there’s that, but it’s not that big a deal for you, is it?”

 

“What is?” She shook her head, making sure she was awake. “Sagara?”

 

“Well, it was a nice body, but it’s not like you needed it in the first place.”

 

“Sagara?” she called out louder this time. “Are you all right? What are you talking about?.”

 

He wasn’t looking at her. He wasn’t looking at anything.

 

“Huh?” he said, like she was distracting him. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me.”

 

Other than the usual, Natoko thought. It was a feeling above all else. Maybe he was just being more active.

 

“Oh… oh right, of course. Okay, just bear with me a minute.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Hold on, we need to do something,” he said, wandering back out the alley. Natoko thought he was already giving up, but he simply peered out like the alleyway was a door and shot straight back in again.

 

“It probably wouldn’t work if there was anyone else out on the street. We just need it to be the two of us. Alone.”

 

“Excuse me?” Her heart skipped a beat, her thoughts running further than the city and reaching godhood in but a moment, before figuring that he probably didn’t mean anything like that.

 

“Though we probably should have brought Sarah as well. She’s better at remembering stuff than us.”

 

Her heart skipped a different type of beat this time.

 

“But if need be, we can just come back and ask again. We shouldn’t need too much, just enough information to give us more clues than the police have. We should be able to go from there.”

 

“But there’s no where else to get clues. There’s nothing here.”

 

“Except the ghost.”

 

Natoko’s eyes jumped to the empty alleyway, then stared back at him dumbfounded. “There are ghosts here?” she asked, immediately believing him and wishing she could see them.

 

“Ghost. You can’t see her then, I thought as much.”

 

“Well,” she scoffed a little, “yeah. They’re ghosts. You can see them with those eyes of yours maybe, but I won’t be able to. I don’t have any special abilities.”

 

“You don’t need special abilities to see ghosts. All you need is a mark of freedom.”

 

“Ok. How do I get that?”

 

“You don’t get it, you’ll just have it. Mom says it’s the act of trying to get it that causes people problems. They try to search for ghosts, because in their heart they believe they don’t exist and believe they know it in their hearts. You’ll be the same. Even if you want to believe in ghosts, no one else really does. It’s the accumulation of the excuse that’s the problem.”

 

“Er… what?” she tried to say politely.

 

“People say it all the time you know; with everything.” Sagara eye’s looked up like he was trying to remember something. “They compared their actions to the other persons. They feel jealous of the other person, who is strong where they are weak, or feel pity for them, and then they see how the person does it. Before they know it, they say things like ‘well, if they can do it, why can’t I’ or ‘no one else is doing it, I better not either.’ People copy other people, even when trying to say they’re different, People look to others for examples of what to do. And if everyone in the crowd looks to another person rather than themselves, then soon you just have a crowd of people looking and doing nothing more. This is the most dangerous thing in the world.”

 

“Mom told me this story once. Said I should use it for others. She called it ‘the accumulation of an excuse is world shattering and stupid and these idiots should be killed.’”

 

“In a room full of thirty people, all thirty are told not to leave in any circumstance. When in the room, a fire alarm goes off, and one person stands up to leave, only to see the others still sitting there, not moving because they’ve been told to stay put. Now, what do you think the other person would do, as he saw smoke starting to pour in through one of the opposing door?”

 

“It’s kinda obvious where you’re going with this, so I think I’ll say he stayed.”

 

“Ah you would think that. Common sense and all. But once they see everyone else staying where they sit and even as the building burns around them, as the room itself starts getting a little misty, they think to themselves those same words: ‘No one else is doing it, I better not either.’ They’ll consider leaving, that’s certain. They’ll even probably get up. And they may even reach the door. But even the strongest of minds will be shaken by a crowd following one distinct thought, no matter how retarded it is, ripped away from the most obvious course of action out of the slightest ripple of doubt, and only a handful in an ocean will kick the door down and leave with the full knowledge of their actions.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“It’s called diffusion of responsibility. And the entire planet is renowned for relying upon it to get by in most cases. People will let it let other people guide them, teach them, boss them around, force them, and they can give every inch of themselves to it and never be aware of having done so, even when every other person is completely an utterly wrong.”

 

“And what does that have to do with this?”

 

“Because you can’t see ghosts.”

 

“Because no one else can?”

 

“No one can see ghosts,’ is what people say. No one wants to see ghosts is often what it means. To see them means to see the dead; and that is unbearable. And what starts as no one else can see ghosts, begins to include the self. People make excuses. Reasons why we can’t. Ghost sightings are usually rare enough. It becomes easy for a person to convince themselves they were wrong. And even when they tell themselves they saw a ghost, there is still disbelief in it, a need to prove right when they truly think they are wrong.”

 

He turned to her, grabbing her shoulders tight his eyes still half rolled back as he recited.

 

“So do you follow me? Do you get what I say to you? You believe that ghosts aren’t real. And you believe it because others can’t see ghosts either and say they aren’t real. And you believe it because others say they have seen ghosts, but the sightings are so few and far in-between that although they seem convincing at the time the majority of the population have failed to see ghosts and it’s the majority vote you ultimately go for.”

 

“I… guess so.”

 

“Well look at us. Right here, right now. In this alley. To you, it is just the two of us. No one else to tell you you’re wrong. 50% responsibility each. I know for certain, even without my eyes, because I don’t need my eyes to know that ghosts exist and can be seen and heard. I know that there is one floating in front of us, mumbling to herself, and you are merely uncertain. Now which of us is completely right here?”

 

“Well…” He was right in her face. She could see the green shine to his eyes as they rolled back to face her. It was mesmerising. “It’s you of course. You’re right. You can see her. I definitely know that. You’re 100% sure of it.”

 

“And that should be all you need,” he pointed to their left, and Natoko saw the ghost.

 

A young blond haired girl, dressed in ceremonial robes befitting a temple priestess of the highest Shinto sect. She stood straight, bearing down upon Natoko with shimmering grace, long sleek robes flowing through the air pooled around their feet, through where Natoko was standing. The beautiful maiden gazed upon her, the black rag covering her eyes.

 

“So she can see me now,” the ghost said. “Great, glad one of us can.”

 

“She…she’s a ghost?” Natoko stuttered.

 

“Surprised?” asked the ghost.

 

“No. No. Well, yes actually. You’re a ghost. That’s amazing.” She stepped up to the girl to get a closer look. Save for her face, the rest of her body was covered in her robes. Even the girl’s staff, a simple wooden stick sparkled beautifully.

 

“Kiribayashi Itoko. Please don’t fall in love with me.”

 

“Er erm… Yamanaka Natoko, same to… you.” The ghost tittered.

 

Though she was clear to see, the girl was transparent. There wasn’t much to see behind her, so she felt a little blurry to stare at. Even so it was clear it was there.

 

“Well, good to know that works,” said Sagara, clapping his hands together as if to brush the dust off. “I don’t get to use the speeches mom made me memorise often. It was kind of fun.”

 

“That was just a script?” the blind girl said, though Natoko had wanted to. “You people never fail to seriously alarm me.”

 

“That’s a shame. It’s one of the main things ninja aren’t supposed to do.”

 

“What, like let Shrine priestess get horribly burned to incineration by creatures of the netherworld. Well you’re doing a great job there.”

 

“That’s true. I really need to improve on these things.”

 

“I guess expecting you to be perfect in these things is kinda impossible. Anyway, I take it you wanted something from me. I may be dead and annoyed and wanting ice cream, but I assume I can still be of some assistance.”

 

“Well, we don’t need much,” Sagara said. “I just figured you were the best person to ask who killed you.”

 

“Oh but that would ruin the mystery. Is this a mystery, or do you already know yourselves?”

 

“We don’t know.”

 

“I guess we do,” interrupted Natoko. “We were pushed this way in search of that fire spirit. And if she was burnt to death, then he becomes the prime suspect.”

 

“It’s a she, I think.”

 

Turning back to the blind girl, they waited for more elaboration. When they didn’t get any, Natoko continued.

 

“So we-“

 

“Well I don’t know for sure if it was a she. I mean when I first met it was a man. But it certainly felt female.”

 

“Felt?”

 

“Oh not in a groping way. I held back. Lighter steps. Gymnastic like agility when moving. Felt feminine too, though the voice was generic.”

 

“Generic?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“How so?”

 

“Just generic, like it didn’t belong to either a male or a female, or no one for that matter. A nice person though, well, up until the murder.”

 

“So what happened then?”

 

“You guys continue,” said Sagara, stepping out of the alley. “I’ll be back in a moment.” He shot off before Natoko could protest, leaving her with the ghost. She looked to her to continue.

 

“I got burned I guess,” Itoko replied with a grumble. “They started chasing me through the Alleyway of Desire just after I left the bar.”

 

“What time was this?” Natoko asked, feeling years of detective novels barely read and rarely completed now being brought to their full potential.

 

“Well, it could have been either a time known as late, or else it could have been a time I don’t know.”

 

“Couldn’t you be more specific?”

 

“Well, maybe if the two of us had met at an early age and, after a period of trying to exclude each other, we were thrown into a situation that required both of us to work together to survive and as a result began a friendship lasting all our lives where we laughed, cried, shared our secrets and inadvertently spent one night together, then perhaps you could have been there that night to lend me your eyes. And I don’t mean just telling me the time, I mean actually pulling them out and trying to stuff them into my sockets. Because if you weren’t going to, then I could be. Until that then happens in the past, I have no way of telling you what the time was.”

 

“Ah sorry,” Natoko stuttered, feeling more of a jerk than she knew she should have been.

 

The spirit sighed heavily to calm herself, her breath not bringing any steam to the air.

 

“Then the two … people – boys, girls, demons, divine, not sure, neuts, whatever- followed me into the alleyway. It was then I realised they were chasing me. I ran through the alley but it trapped me.”

 

“These two did something?”

 

“Yup, they must have done really. I couldn’t get out. They stuck a wall somewhere, probably about there,” she point to the left wall unhelpfully. ”We said a few things to each other, chatted and stuff, then I died.”

 

“They burned you to death.”

 

“It was either that or by crushing me, I’m not sure. Hard to pay attention really, I had so much other stuff on my mind.”

 

“Like what?” said Natoko curiously.

 

“My life mainly. Do you even realize how dumb death is? I get killed, murdered, abandoned in a dark alleyway with my body rotting and even when people find it they leave it alone because they don’t want to get involved, and ignoring the two little shoes just sitting there with feet still in them. Now my soul’s finally let free and all that, but I still can’t see anything. My self perception won’t allow it. Now I have to question whether or not I’m really a ghost or just an after memory left behind by someone stupid enough to be hanging in dark alleyways when they can’t even see it’s dark.

 

“Well, you’re a ghost of course,” Natoko tried to help. “Sagara just went off on a whole script to explain that to me.”

 

“How do we know? How do we know ghosts exist? Only people like him can see them, and they could just be lying in order to make themselves look extra cool.”

 

“Well, we have demons. It makes sense that ghosts should exist as well.”

 

“No it doesn’t make sense. Do you think that just because demons exist it automatically means ghosts should exist as well?”

 

“Well I…” Natoko thought about it. “Well, if demons exist then hell must exist. And dead people go to hell-“

 

“What says so?”

 

“Well, the demons, for one.”

 

“But they’re all liars, all of them. Each and every one is a riddle of an enigma of a fabrication of a psychological headfuck of a traumatized expansion pack out for the latest games console. You can’t trust what they say, what they do, even what they eat. How can you even prove their origin when you only have their word for it?”

 

“Well, I suppose you have a point.”

 

“If you were told,” Itoko went on, not listening to the other side of the debate, “without knowing previously, of course, that we were able to travel to the moon, do you instantly think that means we can travel to the other side of the universe.

 

“Well, no, of course not, it’ll take a lot more to do that than just…”

 

“Exactly, and just because you’re told that demons exist doesn’t mean you should assume ghosts exist, or anything else mythical for that matter. Vampires, werewolves Death gods.”

 

“Right, I suppose I should be more careful with my thoughts.” The robes were starting to move and shift in the alleyway, air rippling them like a loose parachute.

 

“And especially ghosts. I mean, come on, it should be a simple logic of statistics. If ghosts existed then anyone could be one once they hit that final bullet with their face. But we’ve never seen them, never proven them. It’s all just anecdotal evidence and hearsay.”

 

“You know I’m pretty sure this counts as more than anecdotal evidence for me right now, what with the whole standing in front of a ghost and everything right this very moment.”

 

“Pfft, yeah, and who the hell’s gonna believe you? A wannabe samurai demon hunter who sees everything though her very shiny yet clearly tainted filter. Your story will be about as believable as picture of alien spaceships with the camera set to full blur.”

 

Natoko sighed, letting the ghost of a memory of a dead person or whatever it was go on by itself. Where had Sagara gotten to? She couldn’t leave her post, even if the alleyway was starting to get cold. She looked out onto the street and saw the warmth of the Pachinko parlor, now closing up for the night.

 

“Hey, she asked, interrupting yet calm. “Do you think you could tell us what killed you yet.” The dead blind girl stopped ranting, her form hovering back and forth like a camera trying to get itself in focus with the lens permanently shattered. It looked like it didn’t want to answer.

 

“Even if you aren’t a ghost you must have some idea of what happened in those final moments. If you tell us, we could get vengeance for you. I’m sure my master would be fine with it.

“I don’t want vengeance,” muttered the specter.

 

“You don’t?”

 

“All I want now is the ice cream I was saving for when I got home.” She looked to a split bag of rubbish, tainting the decrepit alley. “It’s all I can think about. And what’s the point of that huh? I’m not real anyway.”

 

“No, I guess not,” Natoko muttered, not really interested in petty complaints as she caught Sagara wandering back in.

 

“Okay, I’m back,” said Sagara, turning the corner, walking up to the two of them and just standing there. “Oh, did she go?”

 

Natoko looked back to find herself alone in the alley again, the silk robes had disappeared from the ground and walls, not a single sign of the girl remained.

 

“I guess so.”

 

****

 

“Even that didn’t feel helpful,” Natoko complained. “We barely got anything out of her. All we know is where she was attacked and it was probably two people that were probably female… or probably male, or other things. It wasn’t that helpful.”

 

“You know,” Sagara said, “it occurs to me that most of the people I meet are female. How odd is that?” Natoko glared at the boy, his mind as far away from the mission as it could be whilst standing in the middle of it.

 

“Well…yes, you live in a girl’s dormitory, which is still an issue for a lot of the others you know.”

 

“Really?”

 

“I mean, most either don’t care or think you’re okay, but I think they all get a little upset about you wandering around like you do. Some even told me it was kind of freaky.”

 

“Huh?” Sagara seemed to contemplate this for a moment. “Do you think I should hug them then?”

 

“What? No. Look, we’re going off focus here.”

 

“But mom says-“

 

“We’ll talk about it later.”

 

“Hugs fix everything.”

 

“Focus!” she shouted accidentally.

 

“Okay.”

 

“Why are we walking into the alleyway anyway?” she asked, clicking on the fact it was getting very dark.

 

“I was following you,” he replied, getting an internal groan out of her. They wandered through darkness, letting night vision kick in, the ability to see more alleyway not helping at all. The alleyway was just an alleyway. And there were no more ghosts either.

 

“How would the alleyway trap her?” Natoko mused loudly. “It didn’t look like she could be fooled by that.”

 

“Because someone wanted it to.”

 

“But there would have been an extra wall or something. Isn’t it odd that she would get to the exit only to not be able to leave.”

 

“The alleyway would have moved it, though that shouldn’t be right if it were a demon.”

 

Natoko accidentally groaned. “What does that mean?”

 

“The alleyway trapped her on their request. That shouldn’t happen. It’s only meant to respond to humans. I guess that means it wasn’t a demon that did it.”

 

Natoko didn’t understand. She hid it. “Even so, it’s pointless now, right? If there’s no sign of it, we’re not going to get any clues from it, and for all we know she just ran into any of the walls.”

 

“That’s true.”

 

“I guess the bar she mentioned is the next best bet,” Natoko said. “If they let us in.” Natoko stopped speaking as she turned the corner, the large ogre looming into view above them. “What on-“

 

“Why wouldn’t they?” said Sagara, She barely heard him, the sudden appearance of the creature taking her attention away like a crowbar to the face. A loud drip of drool splashed onto the floor as Sagara seemed to cheer about something she ignored completely. Before them stood a snarling beast, seven times as tall as either of them, its muscles wide enough to crush cars and so broad it clearly struggled with staying in the confines of the alleyway without taking the walls down around them. Its brown fur was matted with sweat and the creature roared from a brutish snarling head with no face Pounding the ground with each step, it bare left foot having three extra toes and its right missing one, it advanced towards them menacingly.

 

She recognised it. This was the creature from the mask.

 

“Wh-wh-what?” Natoko stuttered. “What is this?”

 

“It’s chocolate.”

 

“It’s what?”

 

“Hold on, I’ll be back,” As Sagara ran back behind them, it seemed to notice them, even without a face, and lunged forwards pushing into a stairwell and ripping it from the side of the building. The mass of metal clambered towards them, like a large stone dropping. Natoko went to pull Sagara out of the way, but only took a few strands of shirt with her. Seeing he had no intention of noticing his imminent demise, she threw herself to the wind and as far out of the way as possible, the jumble of metal collapsing on top of her master.

 

“Sagara!” she shouted, loud clangs filling the air and deafening her. She winced in pain to the awful melody, barely unable to watch as Sagara was crushed out of sight by the metallic debris.

 

“No!” she cried out, turning to the monster and running up to face it head on, feeling a rage push itself into her brain, turning her eyes red with unrelenting fury. Tossing herself at the enemy, unclasping the buckle on Iziz’s container, she swung her blade in the moment with one quick slash, going right through its leg and releasing a torrent of howling and blood.

 

Underneath the monster, the large sinews of its quad directly above her, she swung round to observe the damage she had done. Barely nothing. She thought it had been more.

 

“Hey, I’m stuck.”

 

The red faded as she started directly at the mass of metal, seeing Sagara underneath all of it, the single hand that wore Draynor holding the mass just a little above him, keeping him safe.

 

The stairwell, all seven storeys of it had folded in half as it landed on him and looked to cut him off from escape. Only able to see his hand and realising he was trapped for the interim, Natoko had to pay attention quick as the beast above her bent over to get a look. Even without eyes, it stared deeply at her, guessing where she had gone. Its right leg lifted, trying to kick at her, but the narrow alleyway stopped it from getting her so easily.

 

Pulling her sword back in, she got ready for her next move. She had time, the monster unable to turn around in the short confines. Though it looked like it could just walk backwards to get at her, it didn’t seem to think of that. Its leg wasn’t bleeding anymore, the wound driven through by Iziz looked nothing more than a dent in its skin, a scar that had healed over years ago. Already she knew she needed to hit more vital things. Things that, with the destruction of the stairwell were now impossible to reach. Sagara could probably jump it, and with training she might eventually make it, but for now she had no chance.

 

Her assessment stopped when she saw the monster’s legs flexing, bobbing up and down on disfigured knees. Getting what it was doing just seconds before, Natoko lunged out the way as it launched itself up a foot and came straight down a heavy four, rippling the ground and cracking it on its more solid point.

 

Breathing heavily for her sudden movements, Natoko’s eyes passed back to Sagara, who was struggling in his own little trap, now trying to punch through the loose metal and instead merely pushing it along with him still inside.

 

Swiping at her like a giant baby grabbing for a small tin soldier, Natoko was too slow to evade and could only defend as the large four finger hands swiped her from the side and immediately recoiled as she drove Iziz between the cracks of its index finger. The hand catapulted into the air as it roared with agony, trapping the sword between its fingers and taking her with it. Dangling in the air helplessly, she failed to be glad that it wasn’t paying attention to her and instead struggled to pull Iziz out. Succeeding far better than she liked, she wrestled it from the titan’s grip and fell backwards three storeys, landing with a gut emptying thud against the creature’s thigh muscles. She rolled round, hearing the roar of pain turn into a blood curdling scream.

 

Looking up at the monster and then straight back down, she saw that she had accidentally stabbed the monster’s leg with Iziz and was now carving off a suitable chunk of muscle like roast pork as she slid down the greasy fur. Pulling the sword away, she lifted it across the wound and lifted up the slab, revealing a hollow nothingness on the other side.

 

It isn’t bleeding, she thought. From what Sagara had told her earlier, that made sense. She wouldn’t just get away with hacking and slashing away at this thing, hoping to drain its hp until it was defeated. She had to find the weak point.

 

Seeing its hand going for her once again and rewarding its efforts by slamming Iziz into the meat just above its pelvis, Natoko focused. The head seemed the obvious choice, if only to cut it off. There was no sign of anything there though. Its emptiness implied it may not be a useful part of its body, though it did make her question where the roaring was coming from, the lion’s bellow still whimpering with earthquakes.

 

Looking at it as a whole though, nothing seemed evident, its bland furry skin was a full coat of hair that was nothing but slippery. Its hands and feet though had a different number of digits on each limb but were without nails, scratches or creases to strike her as being of any significance and its smooth bald head was lacking any special markings, including features.

 

She thought hard of what Sagara said, and then struck out a guess. Replacing Iziz into her sheath, Natoko focused the blade carefully, the monster’s roar falling to a light growl. She closed her eyes, foolish but necessary. Her concentration was jagged and nothing around her was helping. To get a perfect slice, based on the angle and the weight and the surface she was standing on, she would need there to be nothing around her at all. Nothing but darkness, and her target.

 

Iaido is not the action of drawing the blade.

Nor the feeling behind the draw.

Not even the nothingness that comes from the draw.

It just is.

 

Iziz shot out like a rocket, out of the sheath, out of the air and finally out of her hand. She felt the thud as it fell into her target, and opened her eyes knowing success as she saw it firmly planted within the monster’s solar plexus.

 

It didn’t roar this time, instead just looking down to see what had hit it, observing it with a curiosity a child would give a spider it had just squashed. Its hand reached up to touch it, but Natoko was already there, grabbing the hilt of her faithful blade and letting both of them fall, dragging the blade through the monster’s rigid bone rib cage, falling onto its stomach. Carrying on down, slitting it across the abdomen and all the way to the ground below. Gazing straight back up, she saw the now half opened monster lurch forwards, nearly crushing her between its legs, before burping loudly and falling back.

 

The alley fell silent for too long a moment. She waited to see if the monster would get up again. If she had cut out its precious object, it was defeated. But if she hadn’t, then this may just be a trick of brute cunning. She waited, only to hearing clapping behind her.

 

“Marvellous,” proclaimed Sagara, slapping his hands together for all they were worth, but with still with a delightful grace that usually beguiled him. “To defeat it without aid, and so quickly…”

 

“Ah,” she found herself blushing at his compliments and deciding herself safe. “Thank you, it was nothing.”

 

“Hey, you saved me. That is something to me. If you hadn’t of stopped it, it would have crushed me.”

 

“Well, I guess.” She smiled, unable to look completely at him, his bright eyes shone as he gazed over her with a dashing smile enough to make any fair maiden swoon. “But you could have probably have got out, it would have had to move the stairwell to get you, so you wouldn’t have probably got out, and then…” Her words melted like candy in her mouth, as his hand fell on her shoulder, the other cupping her chin, his chest so very close to hers.

 

“You did well,” he told her, looking rather taller than before. “I have never been more happy that I chose you for my retainer over all the others.”

 

“I…I,” she got out, before her heart completely froze in anticipation.

 

“A reward, for my faithful one,” he said, drawing closer to her.

 

“Sagara,” she whimpered, feeling herself go weak in his arms, feeling her mouth tremble as his got closer, feeling the cold pull of gravity as she let herself go in his cold embrace, her reward granted when her head struck the concrete.

 

She cried out with a loud ‘OW!” shooting straight back up and looking for where he had gone, feeling both confusion and longing dancing within her, her heart thawing quickly and now beating far faster than before.

 

Sagara was gone, as was the beast. Only the metal stairwell remained in a crumpled heap on the dark floors of the alley. She swallowed, trying to grab onto things, settling with the wall as her fingers started to jitter in shock. Slowly getting up, shaking, afraid she might fall again, she hobbled up to the only thing that seemed real, the stairwell, and grabbed onto it. She swallowed again, realising that she was trying to hold back the urge to be sick, her brain a blank on what just happened and trying to reject everything.

 

A loud crack brought her out of it.

 

Still dazed, she lumbered around the broken stairwell, the mangled remains feeling more fake every second they faded away. Passing through it, she saw Sagara sitting on the floor looking away from her, eating what was nothing more than a large bar of milk chocolate, cracking it sharply with every bite.

 

“Ish guud!” he mumbled to her, quickly clearly his mouth. “You want some?”

 

Natoko was lost for words. She gaped at him, before looking back to the empty alleyway behind her and back again, part of her trying to compare the lips that almost glanced hers and the lips now painted with melted brown goo. Blanking for an answer, it took her three tries before she noticed she had left t Iziz on the floor.

 

“What was…what just……what-what?” She held her head in her right hand and shook. “Oh just explain things like you usually do.”

 

“Abut wat jus’ happen’d?” he said with a full mouth. She simply nodded.

 

“This pace ‘s c’lled the alleyw’y of desirers,” he cleared his mouth of food. “Though it’s called different things by different groups. It’s made to grant the wishes of all humans who go inside it. Though yours was a little more different than most I hear about.”

 

He waited a moment, but she didn’t respond this time. She wasn’t in the mood for follow on questions.

 

“You see, humans have all sorts of dreams and aspirations in life and strive to achieve them. In the past, these dreams were usually encouraged by Divine or Demons, either to better the human or further corrupt them and their ideals. After my ancestors kicked up their fuss and got some fired, a few shacked up in random places like this one. This Alleyway is part of the InBetween realm, so we can’t kick ‘em out, so they stay here and grant wishes to everyone wandering in. I think there’s at least one angel and one demon here, but they’re not showing themselves.”

 

She still said nothing. The mess he was making as he wiped chocolate onto his shirt was horrendous. She wanted the other him back.

 

“It doesn’t tell them what to do, or even whether they’re right or wrong. It’ll just gives them an action that works with their own wishes, and challenge them to pursue it all the way. After that, it’s up to the person what to do with it.”

 

She listened to the rest of his reasoning, though by the end of it she had scrunched herself up into a ball besides him, desperate to drown on her own thoughts than his words. He fell into silence when he finished, occasionally cracking into more chocolate, taking another five minutes before he finished the massive bar of chocalate.

 

It was okay, she told herself. He hadn’t seen. He had been distracted himself.

 

She freed herself from her hands a little. “This is how they trapped the girl, right? They desired her to be trapped.”

 

“Probably.”

 

“So it means her killer was human, then?”

 

“Yep, this place doesn’t work with demons or divine.”

 

“Or at least one of them was human. The other could have been a demon.”

 

“That works too, although the others would have probably picked up on that by now.”

 

“We should head to the bar,” she said after another long pause, getting up with the help of the fully intact stairwell. They headed out for the opposite exit, Natoko feeling drained and nearly ready for bed. They spoke of what would happen next, and the questions they should confirm at the bar, Natoko making a point to see that he was remembering them. She thought of the ogre, the faceless ogre that had come from that place, and the mask too, feeling glad inside. Even if it had been fake, she had still defeated it. It wasn’t like it was just in her head. She had made it real, and then destroyed it. So it still counted, right?

 

She thought this over, playing with it in her mind and deciding to keep her victory. They got to the exit less than five minutes later as they stepped into reality again, Sagara turning to her to say, “So you want to kiss me, huh?”

 

****

 

“I actually believe the corridors as designed to be identical, to shake away the unwanted, to prevent easy access to the common man. If the door is as easy as this to go through, then it stands to reason, based on the idea that few if not any have found these, that measures are taken to prevent people from getting in.

 

“The corridors are a maze, an illusion to the mind. Long, numerous and disorientating. All one can do is get lost in them. If we are to traverse them without becoming misguided, we will need both faith, and some high tech mapping equipment.”

 

It took her a moment to realise he was joking, that light smile that traced his lips whenever he had allowed the mood to get serious. They both knew well that to become obsessive was a sin, that even their studies of faith must be taken lightly from time to time, lest they become fanatical. But, listening to him, she felt he was merely taking a breather before continuing a sprint around the world than detaching himself from his gluttony.

 

Suddenly her mind clicked. “You…you’re wanting us to go in there?”

 

“Of course, is that not what I meant all along?”

 

She wanted to shout at him. Of course it wasn’t. She didn’t even know there were other entrances to the place she had gone. She wasn’t even sure where she had come out; it was all too fuzzy at the time. And if she went in again, so impulsively, they would only face dangers.

 

Calm yourself, Sakura,” he said, as she felt her eyes welling up in panic. “We’re not going today. After all, it is the day of rest, and you have school tomorrow, I believe.”

 

“Ah, yes.”

 

“We will simply have to arrange going on Friday night after school. A day and a half should be plenty of time to discover what we need, and I’m sure it would be okay to go a little further, if to discover the truth our lord wishes us to find.”

 

“But…but…”

 

He knelt down next to her, meeting his eyes with her own. “I’m not going to force you, sakura. This may be a difficult task ahead of us, and I myself know that we cannot go in half heartedly. But I believe, I know that this is a trial set to us by the Lord. What we have found here is unique and separate from the rest of the world. If it is placed here, based on what you said, then he must have answers in there waiting for us. We cannot afford to refuse to follow them.”

 

Sakura hesitated, looking to that simple wooden door less than ten meters away

 

“Will you join me? That is the question I wish to ask now, but I know to force it upon you too soon would be unpleasant of me. I leave you time to answer me later. Come now, let us get you home.”

 

“Ah wait,” she called off, as he turned to leave. His face was a lucid colour of disappointment, his forehead matted a small vial of sweat. Part of her wanted to resist, to deny it to herself. But she knew, though it was tempting, that if she didn’t go further her she would simply turn back to the ball she had lain in for the past fortnight. She knew despair wasn’t considered a sin, for it was impossible not to drown in sadness at time, but, if she kept it going like she had… And also one more thing came to mind.

 

Alexis’s boss.

 

It was a stupid thought she knew, but Alexis mentioned he worked for someone. He was taking her and the others to his boss down one of the long corridors where the decorations repeated themselves just as much. If they found the library, she could find the boss, and possibly some real answers.

 

“I’ll do it. I’ll go with you.”

 

His face lit up with exuberance, the father simply bowed politely towards her, giving thanks without restraint. “We can leave on Saturday if you want, rather than Friday. A basic exploration first. We must be careful about it.”

 

She nodded, feeling the weight of her missions suddenly being thirsted upon her shoulders. This was her mission. “Right,” she said firmly, bearing it all gladly.

 

***

 

Fresh and fit with renewed energy before, Sakura was quickly worn out from travelling up the stairs. Her efforts did not deter her though. She was in a good mood and ready to move on. She was ready to start again with her mission in mind.

 

Though before then, there was the rest of her week in mind.

 

Getting to dinner, she opted to prepare a more Japanese meal to make up for missing most of the last two weeks. Even when she had cooked for people, it had been half hearted, lazily cut, and undercooked to serve as fast as possible. These people rarely noticed, most of them living on take outs on the side, but that was no excuse for her own tardiness.

 

She opted to make a traditional Sashimi dish, along with various small side dishes for people to pick and enjoy from. Driving it a little longer than usual, though there really was no need, she soon had ready a table of dishes suitable for a feast. Plates of meat piled up high along with fresh bowls of vegetables and quick snacks. To the side she even had a bowl of curry, though not enough if everybody wanted some. She also had some Takoyaki, just in case he appeared.

 

She didn’t know what Alexis was. A boy just a little older or younger than herself was the obvious answer, but it was clear he was special in some way, before he was killed. She would need to find the library, the same way father Sakagami was going. If she got there, she could get more information about this boss of his. She had heard Sagara call it a Mercurali. It sounded distinct, but it may get her somewhere. Whatever happened she should find someone and get o meet them.

 

Though she didn’t know why she hadn’t told Father Sakagami of it. Perhaps he would call her quest a fool’s errand. Alexis was already dead, gone. She knew she shouldn’t go after the dead. It can only lead to heretical behaviour.

 

But this place was special, wasn’t it? Maybe Alexis would be some kind of exception.

 

****

 

Otsune’s paced ahead, constantly checking with vague concern to see if Fujiko was following her. She didn’t recognise this corridor either. There wasn’t any corridor yet that was even remotely familiar. What remained of her bag slipped in her hands, and she had to keep lifting it up again to readjust the remaining stitches so what little food she had wouldn’t spill out onto the floor. She had managed to get Fujiko to hold some of the stuff, mainly because the girl was still breathing out of her mouth in shock. But the rest was still heavy. She’d feel pure unquestionable hatred at Natoko if she wasn’t still feeling relieved by her lightened load.

 

Though the current situation was taking that away.

 

Had he even led her to the right realm? The walls did look roughly the same as last time. Nine feet high by five feet wide, plasterboard on all sides (though a lot stronger on the floor than it should have been and covered in a standard industrial matting that must have cost a small fortune to buy and fit for the entire three kilometers they had already walked). The lengths of the corridors were remarkably different this time though. These ones were spaced out by about roughly five hundred meter stretches before coming to the brown oak mahogany doors that connected one meaningless corridor to another meaningless corridor.

 

These were all going straight too. Before it had been stretches of about one hundred meters followed by various turns and more than two doors in each corridor. There were also more holes in the vents above previously (one meter width by half a meter height precisely. Standard sheet metal. Nothing you saw here could be considered special or not found in a poorly designed factory), though not really. It was still one per corridor. There were just more corridors last time.

 

It was still as dirty as the last place though, and was home to many little bugs and creatures scurrying to the corners and edges of the rooms as they came past. A little too disgusting in some places. Bearable though. At least they were just earth bugs and earth rats, not hideous little demon mutations designed to house a hundred tentacles and instil terror in the hearts of teenage girls.

 

But they were still lost.

 

The compass was useless of course. She knew it would have been no help in making a map of uncharted territory (map reading she was good at, map making was another matter), but it was especially useless in a corridor that only went one way. They were going south by south east, and had been doing for the last hour. Fujiko had ran out of babbling conversation.

 

Everything she had said so far was the disbelief Otsune had expected of her. Stammers of confusion over where they were. Questions of impossibilities and the tricks that must be used. Rationalisations as to their current location, before a generally excepting silence that she was still processing through as she trundled behind. She’d probably just need one more random stab at the dark as to what was going on, and then finally except they were in a extra dimensional realm that ran parallel to earth. At least, that’s what Otsune’s current theory was as to where they were. She may need more information but at least she was accepting of it all now. Overall, Fujiko was going through denial quite well, certainly a lot faster than she had.

 

The small ball of flame that floated on the opposite side of Otsune was of great aid to this.

 

It had quickly become apparent that the flame was visible to everyone in the InBetween Realm. That was not a thoroughly explored hypothesis, but Fujiko could see it now, and was freaking out dramatically because of it. Stating that it was only relatively harmless hadn’t sped the matter up at all and now Fujiko kept Otsune between the two of them at all times, shifting around to avoid it whenever it spasmed.

 

It had actually gotten a little smaller being here. That wasn’t surprisingly with the stale bad taste that permeated the air. It begged the question as to how this place even had air circulation. Though there were air vents, the place was completely silent save for their footsteps and occasional chatter. If oxygen was being regulated she should have heard some fans in the vents by now. Though the fact the air was stale told her there were no fans, but this was immediately criticised by the fact they were still alive and not currently flopping around the floor like retarded fish suffering at the hands of eleven year old who had dragged them out of their breathable atmosphere.

 

Part of her brain was actually beginning to tell her not to really think about it, and that it was perhaps best that she should forget it. Inconceivable! (though she clearly already had done). Otsune was a forensic scientist in training. To abandon the how and why would render it meaningless. Yet as she went on the option to file the whole place under ‘magic’ was getting stronger, almost competing in league with her stomach and the nagging doubt that this was all a bad idea in the first place as without Sagara she may not even make the first step on this expedition.

 

“Erm, Otsune,” muttered Fujiko.

 

“What is it?”

 

“I know it’s a dumb question, since we’ve only been going in a straight line for the last half an hour, but where are we going?”

 

“To meet the spirit that guards this place,” Otsune said off hand. She wanted to eat. She knew she should conserve but already she was starting to feel weary. If they stopped no doubt their weaknesses would catch up with some kind of excuse for them to turn back. They needed to go on at least until they found something of merit.

 

“Do you know where it is?” her friend asked back.

 

“Sure.” It’s this way.

 

“It’s just… I mean…” Fujiko gathered herself. “It was all a bit weird at first. But now it’s getting boring. I’ll admit it was kind of cool how we got in here. But shouldn’t something more exciting be happening now?”

 

Otsune scoffed a friendly laugh. “Sorry the mystical fantasy dimension that connects other worlds that all kids dream of isn’t an ambiguous yet strangely inviting beach and forest for you. I’m sure they’ll try to do better next time. Though if you’re lucky you’ve just jinxed the entire place and something wonderful and magical will happen any second now.”

 

“Promises, promises,” muttered Fujiko sarcastically. “Look, couldn’t we stop for a while and get an idea of what we’re doing.”

 

“Great idea, but we can do it while walking.”

 

“But we shouldn’t just go randomly into this…”

 

“It’s not like we’re getting lost. Look: straight line.” Pointing seemed a bit too demeaning, but she did it anyway.

 

“I know that but- oh look at me complaining. What the hell’s wrong with me?”

 

“That’s easy. You’re in denial. The real question I’m having is why you didn’t enter it sooner. We were attacked by a giant wheel a few weeks ago that challenged a ‘demon hunting ninja boy of great stupidity +5 to a duel and then surprisingly lost.”

 

“But that was…I don’t know- something kind of acceptable, though it wasn’t. I don’t know. It felt kind of foggy. Easy to forget.”

 

“As easy to forget as a possessive water spirit calling us all whores? Maybe you’re used to that, but it certainly left a dent in my mind. As soon as it was coming out, I was thinking how on earth it could have purified the water from inside Natoko’s body. You do know water doesn’t just slosh around the body like a river, right? It’s like trying to pull sugar out a cake.”

 

“I don’t know. Maybe it was Sagara or something, but he seemed to make it okay what was going on. Like it was-“

 

“Normal, yeah” Otsune sighed. “I felt like that too.” She recalled the night it went on. Fujiko had just ran up to her room to tell her the things Natoko had said to Sagara. The distraction caused her to reread her journal. Made her realise she had barely written a sentence about the monsters and the destruction, just a new resident being the cousin of the landlord and how he got in the springs with her. Even now it felt a little wrong. There was still the nagging urge to just dismiss all this. If Tina wasn’t missing…

 

“Otsune?” Fujiko looked up, her eyes having travelled down. She was about to turn to her friend when a sleek red caught her eye. Focusing on it, she realised it was the end of the corridor. Pushing her glasses back up, she stared at it. It was simply the next door, but this one was a bright red, painted vividly bright compared to the dull brown ones she had seen so far. The surrounding wall was lit with a neon pruple light and trying to look like a groovy nightclub. It didn’t work in Otsune’s eyes.

She sped up, glad for the change to the monotony, even when seeing just a variance of the same old thing. There was nothing else different. This could have been done years ago.

 

When they got to the door, a simple door, a door the same as the others and nothing more save it was red, they heard music. Not a heavy beat, though it had a taste of American rock to it. Judging by the volume however, it told Otsune that it had only started when they got near.

 

She hesitated. That meant that they were expected, and somebody needed loud music when approaching them. Did Sagara send a note over to someone to pick them up; or even throw them out? Perhaps it wasn’t Sagara at all. Demons were meant to be in this place after all. What if this was a trap, Hansel and Gretel with rock music and an end to monotony for temptation. Anyone they met at all would be instantly suspicious, not to mention incredibly dangerous. The closest thing she had to a weapon was the cooking knife she brought, and that was blunt and possibly still lying in the forest somewhere.

 

Then again she could be wrong. It could be a friendly tea party, or to be more realistic, some kind of automated system they had activated. Either way it didn’t matter, because Fujiko was already opening the door.

 

Opening it wide, the two saw another door came into view. This was a set of two mahogany doors that looked like they had been converted from a smaller frame. They thundered with the music behind them, the beat growing louder as less barriers held it back. These doors were a polished sleek black and looked like other people would open them for you. Otsune glared at them suspiciously, before eyeing a stand to her left. A wooden sandwich board, it held its advertisement in simple pink, chalked in letters.

 

Blood Club

 

Come and Join Us

 

“Oh no,” Fujiko said defiantly, stepping back. “It ends here. Anything that obvious.”

 

She stopped as they heard the door handle rattle, and quickly turned. Too fast for them even to run back behind the door, they watched as a tall, very large bald man with sunglasses and a suit movies stars couldn’t afford pulled himself out of the room backwards, keeping the door as closed as possible to keep the music in. As he shut it, he turned to see them, jumping like a father pretending to be scare of his child.

 

“Ah, I’m afraid there is no entry past this point,” he said with an accent that sounded a little Germanic. “In fact I’m afraid the back office area is considered off limits altogether. I will have to ask you to leave.” He indicated to his left and showed them another door Otsune had missed. It was another oak one, but was marked exit in large crimson letters.

 

“What is this place?” Otsune asked, staring the man inquisitively, getting a strong urge to keep an eye on his mouth..

 

“This is Club Blood. But I’m afraid you’re not the type we allow in here. The clientele are more exclusive, and that don’t include you.”

 

“And what do we do to become more exclusive.”

 

“I think that should be obvious, don’t you? “ he grinned, baring canines about seven millimetres longer than they should be. “Now please, scram! Er, if you don’t mind.”

 

Otsune had none of it. “Now listen mister, we need to get through this door. I don’t care about what’s inside. I just need to get around it so I can carry on.”

 

“There is nothing to carry on around after here. And if you don’t need to go in you only need to go outside. Now… git! Er… if you would be so kind.”

 

“Now look-“

 

“Thanks,” declared Fujiko with a big cheerful grin, grabbing Otsune and quickly pulling her away. “But we’ll just go the way we came, if it’s all the same to you.”

 

“Hey, we’re not-“

 

“Ignore her, she thinks she can get into any club just by arguing or showing her boobs.”

 

“Wha, no I don’t-“

 

“We’ll be heading that way now”

 

“If you insist,” said the Bouncer, who already looking very relieved that they were complying. “A very good day to you both, madams. Oh, I mean ‘And don’t come back!’”

 

“Fujiko, let me-“ she shrugged hard, breaking loose of her friend’s grip, “go.” Stopping the struggle, she looked at the man in front of her, eyeing him down. He was tall. Seven foot. Cartoon tall. He looked a little worried now, like he didn’t entirely know what he would do if they pushed any further. As the man gazed down at her through his sunglasses, his rigid muscular neck staying straight vertical as he peered down Otsune couldn’t help but grin.

 

“Don’t you think you’re being a little rude,” she asked him derisively. “We haven’t even done introductions yet.”

 

“Excuse- I mean What?” He paused. “It’s not my job to do introductions er… madam. I’m just paid to not let people in.”

 

“Oh it’s no one’s job to really be polite or respectful. But isn’t that dangerous? It gives us an excuse to be rude to each other. Do you want to be rude?”

 

“It’s-“ The bouncer looked around, and stuttered to himself a little. “It’s not my job.”

 

“Then make it a small distraction to the weariness. Entertain two girls for a few moments. I’m sure your boss won’t mind.”

 

Fujiko was looking at her blankly, like she didn’t know she was meant to play along. Not that Otsune needed the help.

 

“What…” He cleared his throat. “What do you have in mind?”

 

“Introductions first surely,” Otsune said. “Let me go first.:” She bowed deeply, as full as she could without kneeling and hoping she wasn’t getting this wrong and exposing herself. “I am the great Tsunade Otsune, the greatest mind of my generation, and a woman beyond my years. This is my esteemed companion Fujiko: an aspiring journalist and occasional drunkard.”

 

Fujiko bowed, though more out of embarrassment than obligation.

 

“And now you are?”

 

“Ah, i…I am.” He coughed again. Then once again, but louder. He got about seven rounds in before saying “Tanaka. Tanaka-san. Please to meet you. Now I must apologise but I’m really afraid I must ask you to-”

 

“You didn’t bow?”

 

“Excuse me…I mean- what?”

 

“You should bow. You didn’t even do a bob.”

 

“Oh, I’m dreadfully sorry, but…I er mean. I have no time for such a… for such a bob.”

 

“No time to be polite? You insult me, dear fellow. You cannot even meet our greeting with you own. Why, this wouldn’t be acceptable even if there wasn’t a hole in your head.”

 

The large hunk of meat in front of her jerked. Otsune smiled.

 

“Look, I’m sure you must think this is awfully clever of you,” the man said, looking like he should be sweating, “but it doesn’t amount to anything.. I can’t let yo-“

 

“My friend has gone missing!” she announced seriously, catching his attention. “She went missing the day of the tournament, and there’s been no sign since.”

 

“I… I’m afraid I don’t know which tournament you refer to . There have been no martial artists here.”

 

“And yet I could have been referring to baseball,” she replied sharply. The man quickly turned away, as if he could hide himself on a busy street. He was slipping. “I don’t have time for this. It was pure luck I found you now and I need your help.”

 

“I wouldn’t say it was luck entirely,” the bouncer muttered. “More of a defensive system for wayward intruders. You know you’re really not supposed to be-“

 

“Are you just going to throw us out then?” she asked hard. “After hearing that? You’ll just throw away your responsibility. A woman has disappeared while in your realm, Mr. Keys. Isn’t it your duty to ensure no one comes to harm like that.”

 

“Actually, you would not know what my duties are, not that I am this Keys of whom you refer.” Taking a step back, the bouncer realised for the first time she had him pinned against the wall, unable to move past her. He seemed to have forgotten it was a door.

 

“So you would leave a lady in distress, just because it isn’t your job? Just because you aren’t being told to? Are you not a gentlemen? A real man would drop all to assist a maiden in distress. Are you not a man, sir? Or are you just a coward.”

 

The man tried stepping back, looking very small all of a sudden as he pressed against the wall, looking down at her like she were a rabid wolf. She put on her best angry face and meant every bit of it. He then sighed loudly. “Okay, okay, you have made your point, my dear.” The man shifted forwards and immediately disvapourated into Keys, the nine foot tall, mass of broken skin, fur and insect heads fell into a slouch before her. Fujiko gasped behind, but quickly went silently again.

 

“I guess you had better tell me all about it.”

 

***

 

“That was pretty clever.”

 

“The mind is the best weapon after the gun.”

 

“Really. Huh, I did something similar back in college. Of course, then it was sort of a different result and a huge distraction for the rest of the night.”

 

“Wha… What did you do?”

 

“Ladies,” Keys interrupted. “I do not believe this is the sort of conversation you should be having in someone else’s abode. I do not mean to be considered rude, but perhaps…”

 

“Ah sorry, sorry.”

 

“It might have been acceptable if only you came yourself, Otsune-san. You were introduced by Sagara, but I shouldn’t reveal myself to your friends. It’s quite the slippery slope if you ‘catch my drift’.”

 

“Yeah well it probably won’t happen again,” she said, not making any promises.

 

“Oh you just must understand my situation, my dear Otsune-san. A lot of people nowadays, even the young, rebellious type still do not just enter doors they are unfamiliar with, but even so, a few people now and then still come here and when they do it is my responsibility to make sure they leave.”

 

“And I tell you I have reasons for coming here beyond idle curiosity.”

 

“A lot of people come here and only travel this far if they’re curious. The adventurous type if you will. But then they get an answer to suit their nerves followed by a jolly good bit of light threatening and they’re running out of here like the clappers to tell stories to their friends that no one will believe. That’s how it’s meant to go. To let you in this far… Well I shouldn’t be doing it.” His right hand, a mix of bear fur and some sort of lobster claw, lifted up to scratch the metal plate where his chest could be considered to be. He seemed a little relieved by it.

 

“Yeah, I’ve had a few people try not to help me this past month. None have succeeded. Besides if it bothers you that much, then you’ll be pleased to know we’ll be out of here as soon as we’ve used your machine. The rest I can do myself.”

 

“Well, if you insist,” the giant beast with the insect head and no visible location for where his voice was coming out said with a mode of decorum to him. “Young master Sagara does surprise me though. His clan works so hard to keep these things secret. Even if he had let you known a few things. To let you into the InBetween Realm by your own even after warning you how you should exit is irresponsible. Why, there’s still chance that even a healthy young minded person like yourself may still cause an error when coming out by yourself and be trapped who knows where.”

 

“Error?” Otsune repeated with concern. “Are you saying we don’t just walk back through one of the doors?” the Ley spirit paused to look down upon its two large green spherical eyes that told her nothing of what it was thinking.

 

“Oh dear no. Well, I suppose essentially you do in the end. But there are still dangers without the correct guides and knowledge of what you’re doing. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now but most of the doors aren’t well marked.”

 

“They’re not marked at all.” Otsune started to fell grumpy. This wasn’t going to go to plan at all.

 

“And even if they were, with all the different types of door, a mix up is still possible, especially to new travellers of the realm.” He reached a door that looked identical to all the others that lay halfway down the two end doors that made this corridor and went straight in. Otsune guessed it to be familiar and saw she was right when she found herself back in the control room where she had met the spirit.

 

The large tracking machine at the back chirped and buzzed happily to itself like a steam powered counting machine. Covering most of the wall lay the screen that told Keys where everyone was in his jurisdiction of the realm. The spirit also seemed to have added a new desk which was now decorated by twenty thick black box binders that looked to be carrying a mountain of paperwork. The mop and bucket, used for clearing up regular spills and his soul whenever he let it drip out his head was sitting by itself in corner to the left of the door.

 

“Whoa,” Fujiko said behind her as she shuffled in from behind. “What is this place?”

 

“This my dear Miss. Fujiko, is the 952nd operating hub of the InBetween Realm, covering most of southern Japan and Korea, as well as some of Mexico, Hawaii and the Midway Islands. From here, we can answer your friend’s request and, if she would be so kind, do Nothing more.” He stated this last bit as firmly as a schoolteacher would to boys who were on their last warning. Otsune noted it down for his benefit.

 

“Though perhaps it would be best if I imparted some basic advice. You’re saying that young Sagara-san didn’t tell you how you were going into the InBetween realm.

 

“Well, it wasn’t like it was his fault. Well, actually he did start the fight, but I’m sure he had good reason to attack motionless puppets.” Otsune wasn’t entirely sure herself if she was being sarcastic or not.

 

“I would if I could,” muttered Fujiko.

 

“Even so,” Keys said with a sigh. “It was certainly irresponsible of him to not mention how you were to get out in advance. He is certainly aware of it.”

 

“That’s his modus opearandi,” Otsune said returning the sigh. “We’re used to it now.” The Ley spirit seemed to accept this with a light grumbling, and blundered over to his large console display. There was very little on it compared to the last time Otsune had looked, where the screen was filled with the participants of the tournament and its audience. Now, aside from the small group of three roughly in the center which she assumed had to be them, it was almost empty, a few dots hanging around on their own moving in apparently random directions. Were they humans or demons?

 

With a wave of his massive arm, Keys caused several points to light up from before. A mix of green and yellow lights shot up over the place, as well as two purple ones and a bunch of blue. They were all flashing in unison and Otsune tried to avert her eyes from the impression being left on them.

 

“Now, Each and every one of these lights flashing in a space between spaces. Most of them are doors, almost all lead simply to an opposing corridor with no major significance to them. The blues ones however, are all exits from the realm. Going through these will return you to earth.

 

“Looks like a lot of ways,” Fujiko commented. Otsune counted sixteen.

 

“My humble area is compared to others, but take up he majority of Japan, as well as a lot of outlying ocean. Even with this many, it is not as if there are many entrances all

over the place. There are several in the city, but most are several tens or hundreds of miles away from each other.”

 

“However, there are four different types of doors, and it will do you well to remember these.”

 

“Your first is a standard door. These are naturally occurring doors and act as simple passageways to the InBetween realm. You simply wander in, and you’re there. These ones are the worst really,” he said with a chuckle. “Anyone can, without looking, find one of these and find themselves lost in a realm eternal. Over the centuries I’ve been left handling many a confused soul who just came in off the streets, unsure of whether or not he was in the right place. As such, we usually keep them heavily locked and monitored based on their location. Some we have destroyed because they’re too inconvenient.”

 

“Oh,” said Otsune with a start. “Like the one from the tournament. That’s gone now.”

 

“Actually, if I remember correctly, the one you are referring too is under a heavy illusion spell. Members of the balance lift these when the time comes for the tournament in order to let the public through.”

 

“The second is a summoning doorframe and can simply be called upon by a user to let them in. Very handy. The user can get to all sorts of places and not really be limited. The only problem is that doing so is like sounding an alarm to imprisoned demons.”

 

“How so?”

 

“Essentially, these doors are unprotected, and any demon paying attention may be able to get out. They’re immediately marked when they do, and merely passing through the door severely weakens them, but it can cause havoc. We occasionally get amateur spellcasters trying them, just to dabble. Can cause great fuss.”

 

He moved on. “The third is a Hollow Hallway, which I believe, is what you came through. It’s like a mix of the previous two. It has to be summoned by someone, yet it is always there; a magical portal of sorts. In the past some Oracle Divine used to use them to pop out when summoned by the outside world. But… the Balance has ended all that now.

 

“Now the biggest problem with these and that which Sagara really should be ashamed that he hasn’t told you, is that they are one way.”

 

“So we can’t go back that way?” She hadn’t turned around to check, Otsune thought. Too busy arguing.

 

“No, you see these doors just borrow the energy of another door to open up. This is always fixed. But it needs to be opened from the other side and can never be opened from this side.”

 

“So the oracles can only show up when summoned.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

“And we can only get back when Sagara lets us.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

“That idiot.”

 

“Well, it’s not too bad,” Fujiko tried to perk up. “We could just use another exit, meaning we’ll have to come back to you when we need to go back.”

 

“Well, there is that. Of course, I am a spirit of this place, and am affected by the laws of the Balance like any other. I will not be allowed to lead you out, but I can point you in the correct path.”

 

“Oh great.”

 

“Finally, there are a few workarounds to the doors. Tricks that can be played to get in. The King’s curse for example will teleport the victim into the InBetween realm if circumstances dictate it. Oh, and there is a breed of very rare Indian octopus which does the same thing. Very odd that. Don’t know what causes it myself.”

 

“I’ll find out for you later,” Otsune said dryly. “So how do we tell those doors from others?”

 

“Well, if I may,” he stepped passed them to look at the fire spirit, which had been hovering quietly behind them for a while now. At Key’s attention, it spiralled around him several times, before floating back over to Otsune, who quickly shooed it away from her face again. “I see it’s taken a liking to you. Perhaps you should give it a name.”

 

“Please,” Otsune replied. “I don’t need more jokes off people about this thing. It’s even worse when they can see it.”

 

“Ah, there is no reason for me to mock here. This would actually be perfect for you. Fire spirits react well to doors and exits and can pass through without problem, hence why I let it lead you out the last time. They’re like dogs desperate to go out for a walk really. If you take this with you it should lead you back out without problems to a working door

 

“Ah, I was hoping to offload that back on you.”

 

“Oh, I’m afraid that’s impossible. I simply wouldn’t take the blasted little thing back.”

 

“Huh? Are you saying you offloaded it onto me?”

 

“Let’s not get into such petty details now.”

 

“You did. You had it lead me out so you didn’t have to bother with it again.”

 

“Otsune-san, if you please,” the giant spirit indicated towards the monitor, and Otsune grumbled herself into silence.

 

“Now we’re looking for your friend, correct? What was her name?”

 

“Tina Gottfeld.”

 

“Ah, she is Dutch?”

 

“German.”

 

“Of course, of course. Let us see.” And with a wave of his outstretch paw, the lumbering spirit shut all the lights off of the machine.

 

Otsune watched the machine carefully for the moment, waiting for it to load the results up in some way. It wasn’t until she realised that Keys was now looking at her rather than the machine when she realised it had already finished.

 

“Nothing, it seems,” he said to confirm her suspicious. “She is currently not within my jurisdiction of the InBetween realm.”

 

“So what does that mean?”

 

“Well,” Keys stuttered for a second. “She’s not here, simply enough.”

 

“But has she been here recently. Which way did she go after we lost her two weeks ago?”

 

“Oh, I’m afraid we can’t tell that. This doesn’t keep a record, it only checks the present moment.”

 

“That’s not very good.”

 

“With an area this big to cover, we should be surprised it does that.” Keys looked back at her as she glared at him with annoyance. “Let me just see what else I can do for you. I can check with the surrounding areas, but it’s unlikely she got that far walking since the tournament.”

 

They waited, as he picked up and unnaturally large red, toy-like telephone and started punching numbers into it. One by one, he called a number of people, engaging them in small talk and posing the questions, as well as waiting for the answer himself. It took about twenty minutes and Otsune was just about to bite into something in her bag when he finished the eighth call.”

 

“That’s the last of them I’m afraid,” he said joylessly and with a hint of disappointment himself. “There’s not a single Tina Gottfeld in the entire realm covering most of this side of the globe.”

 

“So in that time she could have essentially gone anywhere?”

 

“Well, I personally would have believed she would have left through one of the assigned exits made during the tournament. But yes, basically this states she has left.”

 

“Or that she’s dead.”

 

“Oh no, she’d show up here if she was dead, alive or even now a wandering spirit going through the vents. As long as your spirit resides here, you’ll show as a blink on our screens.”

 

“Great” Otsune grumbled, sinking back down into Key’s seat. “So we’re still as lost as before. That’s no help.”

 

“I wish there was something more I could do. I must admit I’m now curious myself as to your friend’s location.”

 

“Well it’s great that you view this as an interesting little diversion to your bored voyeurism!” Otsune shouted back. “I’m missing one girl who I desperately need to find again.”

 

“Calm down, Otsune,” Fujiko intervened. “He’s tried to help.”

 

“What the hell does that matter? He failed, and we’re still missing someone. Doesn’t anybody get this? This isn’t a case of saying you tried you’re hardest and better luck next time. This is a missing person that only I seem to care about. Human life isn’t that meaningless is it?”

 

Fujiko snapped back. “You know you can just shut up about saying that no one cares when-”

 

“-everyone is trying to help, yes yes. Only after I whined you into submission about it.” Grunting, Otsune got back up. “This isn’t helping either. We can argue and get angry and split up and apologise casually to each other later. For now, what else can we do?”

 

“Have you not contacted the police yet?” Keys asked.

 

“We don’t have any real proof she existed,” Fujiko told him as Otsune tried to go through a few ideas. She came up short when she realised she was finally out. Even if they went back to the tournament scene, the forensics trail would be too weak for them now. Even if she did know what she was doing, she wouldn’t be able to get the equipment without convincing the police first, and even then this guy probably would start getting forceful if she brought more people in. Not to mention this place was apparently infinite. Following any trail could take months. If several were found with most being false it would be beyond pointless.

 

“Only a Savadali would be able to help you now,” Keys said with a sigh, similarly out of ideas.

 

“A Savadali? What’s that?” Otsune asked, expecting more useless information.

 

“Huh? Oh, It’s a monster in the Strangelands that’s said to eat prime number concepts. This weak, useless one has never had the opportunity to meet with one, but it has been told to me that they instantly know where anyone and everyone is in all of creation.”

 

“Such a creature exists?” Otsune replied. “That’s perfect. Where can we find one?”

 

“Oh, I’m afraid I cannot allow neither you nor your friend to follow that course of action. It only lives in the Strangelands and can only ever be there. And the Strangelands are not a place for even the strongest of warriors, let alone two lovely ladies like yourselves. Come, it is time I showed you out.”

 

“But-“

 

“Do not but me, Miss Otsune, I have been more than polite and helpful. I am sorry we cannot find your friend, but I’m not even supposed to let you be here without a member of the Futabatei. Now, it is time for you to leave.”

 

The trio plus fire spirit left the hub in silence, Otsune and Fujiko pacing slowly behind him. Even Fujiko seemed upset that this hadn’t worked out at all. But all Otsune could think about was how she was letting down a friend.

 

Keys led them for a couple of minutes in silence, and answered Fujiko back when she started making small talk, asking the sort of questions that Otsune felt Keys would have been reluctant to answer but couldn’t turn down at the moment due to either the mood or Fujiko’s own way of phrasing things. Otsune already knew the answers to all of them and barely listened, instead trying to make more new plans.

 

She was empty now, having already gone completely over the top and all the way back down the other side she had come up with nothing but stress. All that remained was this Savadali that the Ley spirit spoke of. If only they could get to these Strangelands. She would have to check with Sagara when they got back how dangerous such a place could be. If Keys hadn’t been there, he probably wouldn’t know.

 

“Ah, speaking of which,” Keys began, as he took note of a door that looked identical to the four surrounding it all the other walls, save a large diagonal scratch that looked like a jagged knife had been dragged through it.

 

“Yes, this is one of those doors to the Strangelands. If you ever were to come back you’d be careful never to go into one of these. A very dangerous place, and not one for people to survive in very easily. Once you go through it would cause no end of problems. I myself wouldn’t be able to rescue you since I cannot enter without immediately steaming away and becoming loose from my body. In fact I’m not sure who would be able to help you. Even the Futabatei wouldn’t go in there without reasons they would consider proper..

 

“Oh really?”

 

“Yes, and even more so-“

“Kay thanks, bye,” blurted Otsune, swinging the door open and pushing herself and Fujiko through before Keys could even finish his sentence. Immediate regret plunged through her as they found themselves twirling in a space without form or ground of any sort. Otsune immediately thought she was falling, but then realised it was impossible to tell, the mist surrounded her completely, blocking Fujiko’s form as they both moved away from each other, lost in surprise and smoke.

 

****

 

They reached the bar, which happened to be the only one on the street, in relative silence. Only her exhaustion and an endless loop of audience laughter filling her head. When they entered no one noticed them and she excused herself quickly to the toilet, pushing her way through and quickly locking herself in the furthest stall.

 

Going to sit down on the toilet, she stopped herself when she saw the state of it. Opting for leaning against the wall, she exhaled loud and hard to herself, feeling the wall vibrate calmly around her. She shouldn’t be able to feel free in a toilet, but she did somehow. Her heart pounded away to herself as her mind ran the same two images over and over again. Two pairs of lips; one covered in chocalate, the others… so handsome.

 

He knew. He knew what she thought. Whether it had always been the case or had become obvious from the scene she placed before him. An Alleyway that grants wishes? Preposterous. Insane, even by what she had seen so far. Whatever nonsense he was trying to pull he was going to have to come up with a better logic than that.

 

Time passed. She sighed. “Crap.”

 

Why did it have to show him what she wanted?

 

Why did it have to show her?

 

Her hand was playing with her book bag and felt something hard within it. Reminding herself, she opened it up and pulled out the mask. She held it up so it stared back at her, wanting to panic at something.

 

What had she been thinking taking this? It wasn’t hers, and it wasn’t like her to steal. The last thing she had ever taken that wasn’t hers was a chocolate bar from the local convenience store back when she lived in Tokyo. Even then she never brought herself to eat it.

 

So why then had she taken this mask, hidden it even from her Lord? If he had told her to take it, it might have made a bit more sense, but she had received no such order. He probably wouldn’t even mind.

 

It was just a mask after all.

 

Why then, did she get the strongest of impulses to put it on, like nothing mattered save to wear it and hide herself from the world forever, to hide herself from the scorn, and from the sight of those chocolate lips. The answer was obvious really.

 

She needed to know how the fight went.

 

***

 

“I’m telling you, please! That’s all we know? She just left with two men. I know she did. Now please stop!”

 

Natoko found herself looking back into the toilets; just a quick glance, just to make sure they were still there, before turning back to the devastation that wasn’t there a moment ago.

 

The bar, though she had never been herself, was known throughout the dorm for its lenient policies towards many underage drinkers as long as they came in with older friends and at the moment wasn’t in the state of rowdy yet peaceful calm she had left it in when she had rushed away just five minutes ago. Now, all of the closed off booths, kept private from each other by five feet high walls were exposed the various residents of each collapsed on top of each other and the walls in various states of consciousness. A family with two kids rushed by her quickly and warned her with silent alarm in their eyes that she should leave quickly as well.

 

Natoko stepped through the mass of bodies carefully like each were a mine ready to explode. Most were very unconscious, with some groaning as they twitched on the floor quietly to themselves

 

Some looked very injured, and one man’s arm, a burly type, who looked far less like a businessman in his smart suit and unbuttoned shirt than she cared to get involved in, was nursing an arm that looked bent in the other direction. He looked at her with a sneer behind dark shades, but said nothing.

 

She quickly found Sagara at the far end, hidden behind one of the few boards left standing, crouching over a man whose shop branded apron proclaimed him to be employed there. The barman was sweating violently under the youth above him.

 

“And she walked out with them, not before or after them?” Sagara asked patiently.

 

“Yes!” the man yelled in panic. “Maybe. She could have done. They were talking for quite a while. They must have left together.”

 

“”What did they look like?”

 

“I don’t know. I didn’t pay them much attention. One was wearing a thick coat I think. He wore it, even when it was hot inside. I remember that much because of how weird it was.”

 

“And the other person?”

 

“The other?”

 

“You did say two, right? I wasn’t paying that much attention.”

 

“Right, two yes.” The man was breathing heavily now, nearly hyperventilating. He took a quick glance at her and then looked back to his attacker, unable to tell whether or not she was there to help. Natoko didn’t know herself. “The other one, I don’t know; generic.”

 

Sagara pondered this. “How so generic?”

 

“I don’t know. Just generic. He looked generic. Please let me go. I need this job and we’re not supposed to spill info to attackers.”

 

Sagara looked over to Natoko. “How does one look generic?”

 

“How did this turn into a bar fight?” Natoko screamed back at him with more pressing concern. Sagara looked to his victims, and then to the rest of the bar, before shrugging a ‘I dunno’ at her.

 

“Why are you attacking these people?” she reiliterated.

 

“Mom always told me that bar fights were mandatory.”

 

Natoko felt her face fold up on itself, her thoughts failing on her. “She…what?”

 

“She didn’t explain it to me though, I’ll have to ask her when I next see her.”

 

“Are you completely-“ she started. “No, never mind. We have to get out of here. If the police find us…” -then she’d get away scot free for merely being dragged into the mess while he could face a very long prison term far far away from her. For a second it was quite tempting, and easy to attain… To find a way to keep him here long enough.

 

“Okay, but shouldn’t we finish asking the questions?”

 

“I don’t think the police are going to see your mother as an excuse here.”

 

“That’s okay. The police are meaningless. We are the real enforcers.”

 

The contents of the chocolate he just ate and the possibilities within flashed across her mind for a second. Then she got thinking. If he had been the sole cause of all this, and he had, then they wouldn’t get a chance to come back here. They should ask what questions they could, before anyone came back to life and started reaching for their phones.

 

“Well, to think that your kind would go so far. I thought you didn’t attack humans.”

 

A voice from behind caused her to freeze up. Snotty, pompous, yet with more right than most to talk grand and look down on other people. She hadn’t actually heard it that much, yet knew she would always recognise it.

 

“Hey, it’s you,” Sagara said, before looking around again. “Hhhmmm, too many conscious people to fight you.”

 

“With an introduction with the least respect possible it seem,” the other voice said, strolling up closer. She couldn’t hear a single foot step. Were it not for the voice and the fear it plunged into her back, she could not even tell he was there, even as she heard every other breath of the thirty people in the room. “Do you seek to insult everybody, or is it merely a by-product of your usual waste?”

 

“Well it definitely doesn’t come from what I eat,” Sagara retorted, though completely without intention. “Though I suppose I am made up of what I eat.”

 

“Be silent, I wish nothing of you save your destruction. Even neutral ground like this won’t save you if you badger on any longer.”

 

The speaker stood next to them now, and she couldn’t help but see him, already smirking at her as she turned to face him, his eyes beaming into her.

 

“Ahh, I thought it was you. Even with a hierarchy, vermin stick together.”

 

“Fujiwaru… Hayate,” she croaked, but he was already focused away from her.

 

“I have already caught most of the conversation, so I must thank you for saving me some time. If you excuse me, there are some other questions of more use I need to ask.”

 

Her back ached as she looked at him, a pain that was no longer there, never there in fact, but hurt with a sting she tasted daily. The boy was the one she had lost to in the tournament, falling to him even when she had given up for reasons she had now forgotten. From what she was told, he had seen fit to ram his body into her at just over the speed of a train. She was lucky not to have died instantly from what she was told later. She was even luckily to be standing here completely uninjured from the ordeal.

 

Hayate was large again, as he had been before their last fight before she realised that he was filled with sand, not with a special covering, but under his skin. To break through his armour merely sped him up.

 

“We should go,” said Sagara, dropping the barman. “Wait for him to come out.”

 

“I…okay.” She wanted to argue it. A part of her hoped that Sagara would cream this guy and leave him a bloody smear on the floor next to broken wine bottles for the rest of the room to think about in confusion when they finally woke up. Couldn’t they just break him a little bit?

 

“You need not show such meaningless concern. No fight can occur on neutral ground, not with so many people here and not unless I do something more… obvious. Know that I have no intention of harming anyone. In fact I would say my mission is one of protection.”

 

“What would you have to protect?” Natoko asked, immediately regretting her slip as he looked back at her and turned her to the size of an ant.

 

“Something worth a lot more than what your mindless flesh protects. Pride and honour. Something your kind, who quits in the middle of a duel, knows nothing about.”

 

“I had my reasons”

 

“As I have mine now. To investigate the murder of the priestess. To discover the root cause behind this whole endeavour, as fighters fall one at a time, all to burn in the same fires that the Tournament did. To determine who is behind it all, even when we all know the answer already.”

 

“You know who it is?” she asked, trying to remain calm again, her hands shaking from behind her back, as she wished Iziz was in a better place to pull out.

 

“Of course. The ones playing dumb with me right now. Who else would have the logic to do this?

 

Natoko didn’t realise what he was saying at first. “Wait? You mean us?”

 

“Your human balance has already taken out a lot of our kind. I myself have already had to face the Negotiator’s target squads. Three of them in fact. It concerns me that she would risk losing so many, though I suppose all ninja are expendable.”

 

“My orders are clear though tonight, though they disgust me. I am not to attack you, the perpetrator, until it is confirmed without doubt you are responsible and our revenge is precise. And I am to be safe in the knowledge of when you can’t attack me, and confirm the presence of the Human balance and their actions of revenge.”

 

“What makes you think I did it?” Sagara asked.

 

“Ah, to play the fool so well. The reasoning is as simple as you had left it in your blunders. With the ring of Gambler Demons burnt to a crisp and three members of the tournament similarly incinerated and myself having just avoided the burning, it is simply reasoning that you were the ones to start this fire.”

 

“Or the Onihono,” Sagara suggested. “Who did, by the way.”

 

“There has been no reference to that at all,” Hayate dismissed quickly. “To even kill one who would work with demons. If they make that choice, shouldn’t you allow it? I can comprehend the notion of stopping us from imposing our will upon the innocent and ignorant, even If I do not care about it. But her death? She was never a threat to any human, even when she fought in the tournament.”

 

“Look, we, the Balance, we didn’t kill her, or anyone… I think,” Natoko argued. “In this case anyway. We were asked to find the killers.”

 

“You mean you haven’t figured out your own orders. Your master here is killing off the noble demon line as nothing more than a sick game to get himself promoted. He is a maniac only good for killing.”

 

“And you’re just a demon,” Sagara replied, letting Draynor spread its power over his fist.

 

A siren caught her attention, too muffled to be right outside the bar, but just enough to shake her up. “We have to go, Sagara. We can do this later.”

 

“Oh, you’re right. I can’t fight him in front of so many anyway.”

 

“Yes, you may leave these to me. Know that I will not harm any of them. I am not weak like you to throw my fists around at those unworthy. After my questions I will vacate the premises. I will even pay for your damages.”

 

Storming out of the entrance with Sagara wrist held tight, Natoko swore profusely under her breath. This wasn’t going well at all. The trail was too cold, and the information they had found was just generic. Useless. They’ll need something a lot better than what they were getting so far.

 

***

 

“We didn’t get much in the end,” Natoko said simply, her voice mellow and gentle against the loud beating of the train.

 

“I got chocolate,” Sagara exclaimed, lifting up what was left of the bar. It was lasting him far longer than it should, seeing how he had been nursing it in the same way a homeless man would nurse a bottle of vodka.

 

“But we didn’t learn anything about the killer,” she grunted back. “Itoko didn’t see her killer, or enough of them, and what she did see was just confusing. According to the barman they were men, but she said they were women.”

 

“Actually, she didn’t see anything,” he poked his eyes as if to remind her tactfully.

 

“Well, yes, of course I mean…” she stuttered to a halt. “She heard wrong. They saw men leaving. She heard women. It could have been two different groups of people, or she could have been wrong.”

 

“Or he could.”

 

“That seems less likely, not to mention the ghost may not have remembered everything anyway.” She let the thought slip through her a moment. “All she could have told us was wrong.”

 

They fell into silence, staring into sleek reflections on the other side of the cart, lights and city flashing before them. A man on the far end of the cart coughed in his sleep. Natoko was sure he had missed his stop.

 

“And now that guy’s going to get ahead of us. We should have stayed and listened if he wasn’t going to fight us. Any info would be good at this point.”

 

“Mmmhhmm,” Sagara mumbled halfway through chewing.

 

“And where does he get off accusing us. I mean, he’s the one with the demons.”

 

“And he is one himself,” Sagara mentioned. Natoko paused at that but didn’t find it that shocking a revelation.

 

“Of course. Ms. Sakimoto showed us his picture. Even more of a reason. Are we to just believe that they are looking for the killer out of a need for justice or even revenge for a human? Like we’re supposed to believe that.”

 

“Actually, the Pride got on well with Itoko from what I heard. But I don’t think that’s their intention at all. The thing’s that burning stuff is dangerous. It can kill demons.”

 

“Well, yeah, but we’ve killed demons, though I suppose they probably want us dead too.”

 

“Not as much though. This thing actually kills them. Not just breaking them up. What it did to those demons in that room back destroyed them completely. That doesn’t happen easily.”

 

“You mean it incinerated them?”

 

“Yup. Completely. All the way down to the spirit. It was actually quite weird to watch, usually you see them take their time to step out of the kotodama core and get all annoyed, but this time they bolted right out and exploded.” He cracked another large piece off the bar. “That sand guy got him arm burned off too, and now he can’t grow a new one back”

 

“Hayate.”

 

“No, no, the sand guy. The one we saw in the bar. It was completely severed and couldn’t grow back. I guess it cuts off certain growth links for a while too.”

 

“But, he had his arm. It was there. It came far too close for comfort at times.”

 

“Not. That was another demon he grafted there. Only choice really, or go armless.”

 

“Right,” said Natoko, deciding to take his word for it.

 

“He seemed to think he fought me…” the boy mused.

 

“Have you?”

 

“No. I’d like to though, but why did he think I had?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Did he think I took his arm off?”

 

“Maybe tomorrow we can-“

 

Tomorrow, she had completely forgotten. Let it slip away into the rivers of her mind where all non consequential stuff and the stuff she needed most try to hide. It had gone from her, but now it had swam back and stood forefront in her mind, threatening to ruin everything.

 

She had school tomorrow.

 

****

 

Otsune drifted in secularist space.

 

She didn’t of course. There was no such thing as secularist space and this was nothing more than a mere fantasy dreamt up by her own psychic urges. But for now and two hundred and fifty seconds ago, she let herself float through it, strumming the light iron wires of a telsa coil guitar that played a melody that was both good and non-good to the none around them that heard it.

 

Trees grew peacefully from barbed wires villages, liberating those trapped as they grew through the millimetre thick cheese wires and onto freedom. They were growing faster than she had originally predicted, some too fast for them to remain cohesive but too slow for them to fall apart. They chose to become cities instead and travelled to pursue the sun and learn what answers it could provide about the depressive state of their economy.

 

And so they moved through fields of stardust, travelling on the waves of discarded mountains housed by detectives who could only solve mysteries that had no answers. The detectives welcomed the cities, and fed them with video tapes, digital media and whatever else they could spare. Then they asked them to quickly leave, for the Randivists were coming, to tell them they could not only be wrong and they must also be right as well and would kill them with the letter A if they did not acquiesce.

 

So they left, just as the machetes started to fall, and continued on towards the sun. The cities had grown in number now, equally well over the square root of pi times the diameter of a cherry pie plus many thousand exatants more. Each desired to know the answer, and so they leapt forth on turtles that sat upon turtles, all of whom fought to be on top.

 

Half a light year and many months before they would reach their destination, and it wasn’t long before the cities started to become paranoid. They slowly started whispering to each other, wondering what the other cities, too far away to hold an intelligent conversation with, were thinking. The meanest city, older and slyer than the rest, cackled to itself as it spread a rumour around that the sun will only answer one of them. The other cities soon became suspect of the others, and without proper citations and an extensive bibliography they could neither prove nor disclaim the rumour. Suspicion soon amounted into chaos, as the oldest city was found dead one winter’s century, a bottle of empty sleeping pills at its side, its great buildings cracked, ruined and abandoned.

 

Soon the pilgrimage became a race, and each city sought to beat the other cities. Some were honourable and merely rushed ahead, seeking to avoid conflict. Others were crafty, and found ways to pull them back, shattering their monorail systems or demolishing the empire states, slowing them down bit by bit. Others declared war, and launched whole skyscrapers at the others, wiping out many millions of them. One, the lowest of them all, hurled itself into a passing Jupiter, destroying nearly all of them.

 

The remaining soon wiped themselves out, until only one city remained, its inhabitants angry and at war with each other, now that food and resources had become scare, what with the city travelling throughout space without farms or replenishables. Soon they were forced to eat the buildings, and the building did not like this, but being pacifistic chose only to destroy themselves than wage war with their residents. Soon, all were destroyed, save one human and one building.

 

And it was then the building said to the human, “We have travelled for one light year and billions of miles have we travelled, and great though our efforts may be and many our successes we have allowed fantasy and nonsense to skewer our ways. What we were was not order, but what we became was not chaos and all that we have left is our foolship and, the Answer. Now, as the last city of the barbed wire falls, you must alone gain the answer we seek, and know now, why our quest was fruitful.”

 

And so Otsune left the building as it fell away and floated, strumming her telsa guitar to the sun as she approached it, awakening it from its cold slumber. Then she waited, letting it drink its coffee and stretch, before it was finally ready to ask. With bated breath, she unleashed the question in the form of atoms, divided and sub divided across time and space. She start a soliloquy of compounds and elements and fractures that lasted for fourteen days and twenty two nights, and was immediately asked in every language under the sun and none inbetween. Only at the end did she put a question mark, and awaited its response.

 

The sun told her it didn’t have a fucking clue and burnt each and every one of them up, telling them to never bother it again.

 

Otsune awoke, a handful of pebbles pressing into her face. They were asking her to solve quadratic equations. She answered all of them and shook herself awake, breathing in more iron and tin dust molecules than oxygen or anything else that might be useful. She retched loudly without thinking, spitting it all back out onto a ground that looked like it most mostly desert rubble.

 

She looked up, awake now, too busy to look around her to think of the question of how she fell asleep. They were nowhere it seemed. A rocky desert, dry unnecessarily. The type of place nothing could live forever. There were no plants, no trees, no animals, no birds, no clouds, no lunar decorations, no moisture….no water.

 

“Ouch, ouch ouch,” mumbled a voice from behind her. Twisting round, she saw Fujiko pulling herself up, roughly one half of her friend was covered in a thick layer of dust from the ground which did nothing to hide the large black bruise on her forehead. Cursing and groaning to herself, she tapped the mark several times with her finger, hissing each time before she finally got smart enough to stop. “Where are we?” she groaned out with numbing pain in her voice.

 

“The Strangelands, I guess,” Otsune said, turning to look at the landscape. It was no different from where she was standing now. An endless crimson backdrop of rock and dust, existing futilely in all surrounding directions, with nothing else to show her except a pointless future that would probably last a few days at most. “Though you could hardly call it strange when it’s just monotonous.”

 

“I .. think you’ve just justified its name there.”

 

“Hmm, you’re probably right.”

 

“So what happened? Why are we injured?”

 

Otsune wasn’t injured at all. In fact she felt more energy going through her than usual, almost burning her up, making it more than easy to determine what happened.

 

“It looked like we landed here more than came through anywhere. My bag’s had time to open up and spread itself about, which probably means…” They looked up in unison, easily able to see into the perfectly clear sky, and the only object which stood out in all the land besides themselves. About twenty feet above them, hanging in the air like a spider from a web, was a door frame. The door was shut behind them, the little flame hovering by it.

 

As if a dog noticing they were awake, the flame blazed over to her and spun around itself as if with joy. “Yeah, yeah I’m alright,” she said to it, dodging quickly as it tried to rub itself against her.

 

She looked to her bag, seeing the contents scattered out around them. She had two bottles of water. A few cans of refried beans, a lighter, an extra top, her binoculars (upon closer examination broken), half of the german edition of Atlas Shrugged (the second half, she had yet to read the first) and the tattered remains of her ruined rucksack. She began picking them up, trying hard to resist drinking any water. It was clear they would need it.

 

Fujiko looked to her watch and checked it “About three hours,” she told herself. “Were you just waiting for me?”

 

“No, I just woke up seconds before. I think I was dreaming.”

 

“I’m kinda hoping this is the dream.”

 

“Unless you’re talking Giant theory, I think you’re probably wrong.”

 

“Me too, but I was hoping.”

 

Otsune sighed. It was very quiet here.

 

“So then,” Fujiko started listing on her fingers, “where, what, why, who, when. I can immediately guess why you’ve done this, so I suppose all that’s left is how do we get out of here?”

 

Otsune looked up again. “We’re not going back the way we came, unless we make a ladder of some kind.” She couldn’t tell with the rocks in the distant, but the ones close up were either insignificant or part of the ground itself. “And if that time has passed, we may not be able to rely on Key’s coming to get us.”

 

“Geez, it’s hot,” Fujiko said, fanning herself.

 

“Really,” said Otsune, not noticing. The whole place felt just felt dry to her. Base on the complete lack of clouds, sun or even wind she could tell it was unlikely there’d be any weather change any time in the next couple of days, perhaps even weeks. That limited their time severely to the point of dangerous. Two bottles of water and cans of refried beans that they’d really have trouble heating up missing firewood and whatever Fujiko had in her bag was all they had left to survive on.

 

The conclusion was kind of obvious, and it appeared that waiting for a stroke of luck now was the only thing they had left. Relying on sheer chance was never a good start to any expedition, but she had nothing else. Aiming for the tallest set of rocks she could see in the wasteland, she headed out, taking time at first to let Fujiko follow her.

 

Fujiko was quiet for a bit, an oddity that had been happening all day. For the first mile, she complained lightly, mainly requesting booze from herself, her foolishness for not bringing any and her further foolishness for still having some in her. Then she went into a tirade about how this would make an excellent story on her website. Eventually, after the first half hour of walking, she brought it up.

 

“So how are we supposed to find this Savadali?

 

Otsune paused to listen. The silence was worse here than anywhere else she might ever have been on earth. A light humming could travel endlessly through this plain and never hit another sound. It was very likely that their presence was the first here for years. How could such a place exist? Not a trace of life existed. No insects scurried passed her feet, no lizards buzzed to themselves in distant holes and there wasn’t a single birdsong. Plant life was nonexistent too. That made it an extremely arid desert, though in the areas Key had explained were his jurisdiction of the InBetween realm there were no such deserts.

 

She could actually see the entire sky in a clear dark blue and there was nothing. No light source though, especially not a sun, which begged further questions.

 

She had almost forgotten she had been asked a question. “We just find him,” she replied, not even knowing the appearance or gender of the creature was or even if it was a creature. No, Keys said it was a monster, and he defined it generally, though the real test was how it devoured prime numbers.

 

It gave them something to look out for. No one creature, even a monster, could exist on its own. Not completely anyway. Even if it shunned others, there must be others to shun and at the very bottom of her logic was the fact that the Keys knew about it. If that was the case it must mean it had been discovered. All she had to do was discover it again

 

A formless entity she had never met or even knew of until a few hours ago. A entity whose intentions and reactions she shouldn’t guess and whose existence was only determine by anecdotal evidence from a creature who was sewn out of other creatures.

 

Her brain started to slip again, but held on tightly, knowing they were coming near to the start of the incline. This slope seemed to go up about thirty four feet and hid all that as on the other side of it. Grunting as she realised how steep it was, she pulled herself up quickly, Fujiko seriously struggling behind her and, after a few moments of trying, giving up halfway.

 

Otsune ploughed on, grabbing into dirt. She was already dirty now, though was no need to care about her appearance since it was unlikely she’d run into her former boyfriend or anything of the like. Scaling cross the rocks, she felt her toes all sweaty and clammy, her hands losing their moisture, the urge to lick the dirt off them strong. Her knees had had enough but knew they couldn’t stop unless they lose momentum. Slowly, but very hastily, she reached the top of the steep mountain horizon.

 

It was flat at the top save for the steep drop that she nearly threw herself down and Otsune kept on her knees out of fear her legs might just launch her over for the sake of trying. The steep drop went so far down that it took her a moment to realise she was actually looking at a giant well. The diameter she guessed was roughly 950 meters across. She peered down, seeing it went a lot further down that she had been up. There was no bottom to see from here, the descent fading into darkness farther than her eyes could reach. Taking off her glasses made it instantly worse, but she didn’t need them to see the staircase chipped into the walls of the deep dank hole.

 

“Oi,” she shouted, but heard no response. “There’s something here. It’s been made.” She turned back quickly, seeing Fujiko crashed halfway up the hill.

 

“Is it a Ferrari?”

 

Otsune looked back down the hole. If they headed back and circled round the steep incline, they’d be at the stairs. Though she could only see the first few, they were clearly created by hands, rather than the weather. Hands meant humans, or at least creatures with opposable thumbs. Creatures brought their survival rate from a steady neutral death by attrition to an unstable might be saved/might be fucked imbalance that could go either way. It was definitely worth the risk. The flame buzzed happily around her as she realised they might be safe after all

 

“No.”

 

And looking up, to see the rest of the landscape was exactly the same as the previous landscape, made the options a lot easier to figure out.

 

It was certainly better than up here.

 

***

 

The hole looked a lot larger standing in it than it did looking at it from overhead. From where she was standing earlier, high above on what had before been nothing more than a steep hill and from this angle was a great cliffside, they would have appeared as ants where they were standing now.

 

It seemed to be rock all the way down. Besides them were the stairs. All had been chiselled and cut perfectly into smooth oblong steps roughly five meters long by a half meter wide. There would be no problem getting down them without fear of falling, but what staggered Otsune is how this must have meant there were hundred of thousands of them, perfectly formed and, if they were like the ones at the top, still sharp at the edges.

 

The stairs were built into the wall, rather than added on. They required no support as they were part of the structure of the hole. That worked for them. It meant rather than a cylinder this was more a cone. Judging by how steep the stairs went down, it should only be a ten mile walk before the both sides of the wall met at the bottom.

 

There was of course one other problem.

 

“We are not going down there?” cried Fujiko, already keeping a good distance back form the hole lest she fall into it at any time. “We don’t know what’s in there?”

 

“We’ve got no other choice,” Otsune sad simply. “It’s either this or random wandering in any and all directions.”

 

“Shouting wildly at the door frame is better than either of those ideas. At least we know someone’s there. He might be going to get us a rope for all we know, or Sagara and the others.”

 

Waiting to be rescued by the others had crossed Otsune’s mind, along with a few dozen other ideas involving trying to get back into the door. It wasn’t too bad an idea, bar the fact that they Ley spirit may have just gone back home without a care, or was maybe too embarrassed to tell anybody. Maybe they could get rescued and come back with better supplies. They definitely needed them at this rate.

 

But Keys would probably do its best to prevent them from coming back, and this was the only chance left of finding Tina.

 

“No, he said he couldn’t come through the door to this realm, and he can’t leave the InBetween realm afterwards. He’d have to wait for someone to come to him, and that could take weeks or months.”

 

She waited for Fujiko to accept this, forming a counter argument for when the girl would bring up the idea of Key’s radioing in and how they would have no idea if he had such equipment that could contact people outside the InBetween realm. Fujiko said nothing.

 

“The way I see it,” she said after a moment, “this is the only route we have left for ourselves.”

 

They started moving out, heading down the steps. Initially hesitant, as if they would set off a trap and have all the stairs collapse upon them, having them slide down the rest to their death, they soon picked up the pace. With her boots broken in, the two of them had no problem making quick time at traversing the massive hole

 

***

 

Falling into silence, the two young woman descended further into the depths. The light never seemed to be a problem. There was always more than enough to see in front of them, and just enough to see the hole before it disappeared into darkness. For a short while Otsune played with the possibility that there might be some trick behind this and they were repeating themselves, but this was abandoned as it became clear the opposite wall was getting closer.

 

For another two hours, they descended, their conversations quickly running out of steam. A small platform, unusually longer than the rest and perfect for sitting, provided them with an easier break than the other steps had given them, and for the first time Otsune allowed herself to open her water bottle and drink a few drops. Fujiko produced her own liquid, a can of fizzy orange. She downed half and held the rest in her hands as they continued on again. When she had finally finished it, she tossed it down the hole, and waited for a sound, which clanked six seconds later.

 

Hearing this sped them up with renewed vigour, and they rushed down the next mile with an increased step. Seven seconds meant about five hundred feet of darkness remained before it at least hit a step, so Otsune was keeping a pace of sorts, though she now too wished nothing more than for the hole to end.

 

Another half hour passed, until the wall on the other side finally was within throwing distance of a professional baseball pitcher, though the ground beneath them was still in darkness. The top of the hole, many miles up, only showed as a small circle of light which could be easily hidden by a hand. Otsune’s legs felt wasted now, and part of her irrationality prayed for a bed at the bottom to fall into, though she knew that this was probably just the start of another journey.

 

Then, finally, after around four hours of straight walking, the bottom came into sight, a small slab of rock no less than ten meters wide, the last arch of the staircase descending onto it. No longer nor ever again in the mood for running, the two instead approached slowly and with caution. The bottom of the pit still hadn’t become dark, but from the angle they sat it was too difficult to tell what exactly was down there and it was only with the last few steps that they could see their destination. A beautiful, brilliant golden door.

 

Even in the darkness, it found a way to shine brightly. Otsune might have even gone so far as to say this beautiful example of architecture was the very reason there was still light down in this darkest of cavern, though she doubted that would work.

 

The pattern of the door was split in a perfect half; left and right, each side with different markings. The left side was rather simple, a series of lines going from bottom to top, becoming more narrow the further they went up. The right side was a blob of mixed up spirals and stars that looked like a collage drawn by a six year old. In the center of the right part of the door rather a large perfect circle hollowed out into the frame. The circle had another circle stuck into it, a line shooting up and over he top of the door and into the rock above.

 

“Should we open it?” Fujiko said, too curious to be exhausted.

 

“Are you mad?” Otsune replied. “Of course we should.” And without waiting for further comments, she grabbed the door handle and went to pull expecting far more resistance than she got from such a heavy looking frame. Instead it swung open so fast that she might have been crushed between the rock and high density, solid structure had not the extra effort nearly blown her off her feet and out of the way.

 

Above them, a small bell chimed from somewhere they couldn’t see.

 

The door hung open, and promised easy passage, yet even Otsune felt a little reluctant to go in. A door meant a creator to that door, their actions unknown. They peered through together, their necks only just peeking round the frame, preparing for a guillotine they both easily imagined.

 

Beyond the golden door was a multitude of sacks, spread all over the room. Old, musty and dusty, they held various items which appeared to be food, though Otsune couldn’t tell for sure the shapes and colour not looking like anything from earth. Other bags held nothing but several different colours of dust or spice that gave aromas that wouldn’t smell good in any cooking. Otsune thought the closest smelt, and looked exactly like, sand but the others seemed to have a taste to them, a bit too close to manure though to risk testing.

 

The sacks were set up like aisles for easy access to whatever sack was chosen, but there were no signs or markings on them. Otsune felt it to be like a vegetable store, especially because of the counter.

 

From the golden door all the way to the other end of the room, there was a simple green carpet with a pattern of simple spirals and the type of boring mediocre symbols that a carpet designer would make if he wanted to get fired from his job. It ran across the fifteen or so meters to the other end of the room, where a counter stood by itself. The counter at the end of the long room was the first thing Otsune had seen in this place that actually looked rotten. While everything else looked like it had no state change in the first place, the counter was dilapidated and falling apart. The left side looked weak and ready to collapse at the most inconvenient time of putting your full to the brim coffee mug down on it.

 

Behind the back of the counter, which housed nothing more than a small brass reception bell, was snoring. The snoring was light, yet distinct. Each inhale sounded like the cry of a falcon in the early hours of the morning, while the exhale sounded like an angry manager, venting his frustrations over the new proposal over some temporary member of staff. As Fujiko pocketed what looked like a green sausage, Otsune approached the sound.

 

Just over the counter, leaning back on the most rickety old stool Otsune had ever seen, sat a small man dressed in a ruffled three piece suit and a green cotton night cap which covered most of his face. So small was he, sitting back on his stool, that Otsune wouldn’t even have been able to see his boots from the other side of the counter, barely gripping onto the edge themselves.

 

The two of them watched him snoozing away for a few moments, caught with the horrible urge to wake him up and the conflicting urge to let him sleep peacefully. Opting for the ‘copious amount of sincere apologies’ approach, Otsune rapped the bell lightly, producing a solid ting that snapped her out of her own tiredness.

 

The little man didn’t respond and after a few moments, Otsune hit it again. When he didn’t respond the second time, she quickly lost it and whacked it hard, making the bell plummet through the desk and onto the stone floor beneath.

 

With a loud guttural sniffing, the small man woke up.

 

He didn’t wake up sharply, but took his time, as if he had woken himself up. Losing his balance enough to have to push himself back against the wall to stay from meeting the floor, the man rocked forwards and sat up straight, scratching his chest and knocking his suit out of shape even more than it had been before. With the most loudest, disgusting yawn Otsune had ever heard and could have gone her long beautiful life without ever hearing once, the man span his neck on the spot, before getting up and moving to the counter, picking up the reception bell and dropping it back onto the desk with as much care as one would toss their car keys into the most unlocatable part of the house. He reached under again, this time pulling out a large bottle of brown liquid. Before she had time to guess what it was, he froze in place, like a spy who had just been caught and was incredibly stupid. With a flash, he lifted his night cap and peeked through it, seeing the two of them standing there.

 

“Hi,” she said, as he looked at the two of them like they were long dead relatives. “We’ll like to order a room.”

 

The old man continued to stare at them, shocked out of his wits.

 

“We don’t sell rooms,” he eventually got out.

 

Otsune laughed to herself. “That’s okay, we were just wondering-“

 

“How did you get here?” he blurted out.

 

“Oh we…came down the stairs,” she said, looking to the golden door, which had swung itself shut quietly.

 

“But what about the Howling Wolf Eye” he little man said. “Ain’t no one who gets passed that.”

 

“We haven’t seen any Eye. We haven’t seen anyone for that matter since e fell through the door from the InBetween.”

 

“The InBetween realm, you say?” He smirked, like he had just got a joke. “Oh, you’re from there. Tha’ makes a lot more sense.” He laughed heartily to himself for a few seconds. “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m Oscar. Please to make your acquaintance.” He raised his hand and Otsune took it immediately, a reflex action from living in foreign lands. She immediately regretted it where his hand felt like shred cabbage still juicy from a soaking, and she tried to end it as quickly as possibly, pulling away a little too rudely.

 

“Tsunade Otsune,” she replied back. “Please to meet you.”

 

“Fujiko,” Fujiko replied with a simple wave.

 

“I ain’t never had anyone come through the golden door before. From what I hear, most just choose to die up there. Had to remove a body once. Someone had fell. Some old bald geezer. Must of tripped I guess. Lucky you didn’t really.”

 

“It was starting to become tempting,” Fujiko replied. The little man laughed out with a hoarsely chest, before lifting the bottle of brown liquid besides him and taking a swig. Otsune was sure he hadn’t removed the top when he started, but it was gone by the time he finished.

 

He burped. “’cuse me. Would you like some?”

 

Otsune nearly responded by retching. “No thanks, we’re good.” Fujiko looked ready to intercept, but was held back with a shooing glare from Otsune

 

“Suits yerself.” He took another heavy swig. It flowed down the bottle like sauce rather than brandy, though it seemed to be having the same effect. “Ahhh,” he sighed. “So what are you here for ladies?”

 

“Well…” For a second Otsune wasn’t actually sure of herself. She technically had three answers all of which might be impossible. ”We’re looking for a Savadali, I guess.”

 

The man snorted, bursting into laughster so hard a bit of the brown liquid shot from his nose. He held himself back just enough to speak, wiping himself clean. “A Savadali. Ha, of course. Every poor explorer with a spirit over their head comes looking for one of those.”

 

“A spirit?” she repeated as her own little nuisance shone brightly besides her almost pathetically. “I thought you said you never received any regular visitors.”

 

“I don’t. You really are the first since I started, save the dead guy.”

 

“But you say you’ve had them before.”

 

“No, I said,” he hiccupped. “that every explorer that comes here. There’s a difference.”

 

A difference worth ignoring, Otsune thought. “So,” she said, in a cut the crap or your face/your choice tone, “do you know where we can find a Savadali?”

 

“Oooh, they’re not easy, I can tell you that. I wouldn’t be a hundred percent sure if they’re even still around. Still, I suppose by the prophecy they’re must be at least one left, even if they were all to die.”

 

The man may be useless but his information probably wasn’t. “What’s the prophecy?”

 

“Oh, how did it go…from far and from wide, the Savadali shall be. Come together they may…something something.” The man racked his brains for a few seconds in silence. “No, it’s gone. Something about the one remaining one having the power to see all. I never really learnt it. The guy here before told me it before I took over the job in the first stages of my training.”

 

Training? Otsune thought. What was there to do?

 

“Would he know it?” Otsune asked

 

“He probably would, but you won’t be asking him now.” The man pointed his finger at the top of his forehead and sliced it down with a slitting noise; the wrong way, but still just as deadly.

 

“So what else do you know? There must be some kind of clue as to where to find them.”

 

“Well if I had to say there was any clue, you could probably get them at the Circus of Answers.”

 

“Circus of Answers?” Fujiko said, alarmed and confused

 

“Don’t repeat what he says,” Otsune sneered and then stare down the little goblin man as he looked timidly back, his hard scrunched features losing the war against her eyes. “Fine, I’ll bite,” Otsune said. “Where do we find this Circus of Answers?”

 

“Hhhmmm, it’s about two hundred and fifty cycloons from here. There should be a path that leads thereat the next crossroads. From there it’s pretty straight.”

 

Otsune considered this. “If I asked you what a mile is, could you answer me?”

 

“My predecessor probably could,” he said with a bellow, joyful voice as if to say sorry I’m useless, “but no, I can’t. Is it food?”

 

“No. What about a day? Do you know how long that is?”

 

“No.”

 

“It’s what we call the time it takes for the sun to rise in the east and set in the west. To us, it happens roughly every twenty four hours and in that time, roughly on foot walking, a human can travel probably around fifty miles. Would you be able to tell us how long it would take in those terms?”

 

“What’s a sun?” Oscar asked sheepishly.

 

“Oooooh, definitely the wrong answer,” Otsune sighed.

 

“What are you trying to do?” Fujiko asked.

 

“Just trying to figure out if it would be quicker to take his path and travel to the Circus of Answers to find some randomly vague quest update, or whether I should just give, up, gut him now, slice him up and use divination, because Mozart knows that probably works here too, find out where to go from his remains and waste time doing it that way.”

 

She thought it over quietly for a few moments, already knowing the answer.

 

“Well I don’t know how long either’s going to take, so we might as well be doing the first.”

 

“Well hehe,” he snorted. “If you be going on a journey, then you’ll certainly be needing some supplies then.”

 

“Oh goodie,” said Fujiko with realisation. “Capitalism exists in the Strangelands as well.”

 

“Oh no no,” said the drawf. “I won’t be charging you anything. That wouldn’t do at all. We’re supposed to help travellers here. Give them supplies. Keep them stocked up and able to survive. We have a saying here: ‘The longer you stay alive, the better it is for you.’”

 

“I think that’s a pretty damn universal sentiment myself,” Otsune replied. “…so I’d have to agree. What can you give us?”

 

“Well, take what you need, whatever you can carry?”

 

“Really, we could take all of it?”

 

“Well, I’d ask that you leave us some for other travellers, but then again, “he said with the giggle of a forty year old man that you’d try to avoid at parties, “it’s not like we have people queuing up all the time. Take as much as you can physically carry, as if you were about to collapse from the strain. Old Jake will handle the rest.”

 

“I thought you said your name was Oscar?”

 

“It is,” he said, and promptly left through the side door.

 

“You know,” Fujiko said, as the man shut the door behind him with a quiet thud. “He said we could have whatever we want.” She put her hand into a bag of red dust that reminded Otsune of curry powder. “But I’m not sure I want to take any of this. It all looks useless.”

 

“What looks like food would be the best thing,” Otsune guessed, unable to identify anything within any of the sacks, apart from one that was full of simple green leaves from top to bottom. Sniffing one, she got a scent of lemon, the type used in washing up liquid.

 

“This looks like meat,” Fujiko mentioned, holding up a big rump attached to a very thick bone. Otsune guessed it to be bovine of some sort. It was glazed and looked like it had been well cooked. The entire sack was full of the same. None were warm.

 

“Should we-“

 

“No.”

 

“Well we have to take something. I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking two hundred and fifty of anything is a lot. We don’t know how long we could be out there.”

 

“You have done so many two hundred and fifties in the space of that conversation I wouldn’t know where to begin. Actually I do, milliseconds, millimters, milli-“

 

Without waiting, Fujiko took a bite into the rump in her hand and chewed it carefully. Otsune watched as her face grimaced for a second, before swallowing it whole.

 

“Not bad,” she said after a moment of indecision.

 

“Yeah right.”

 

“No seriously. It’s not delicious but it’ll do. If we take a few of these. Wrap them up. I’m sure they’ll do us for a while.”

 

“They’d do us for a day and then go completely rotten.” Stopping, she remembered her own words. “Fine take about six. That should do us.”

 

Fujiko had trouble holding even four, the grease slipping them out of her hands. Otsune looked to the other sacks. One held light pink spheres that, when she took a bite out of, reminded her of a time when she got bullied in the playground for bringing in a copy of Beyond Good and Evil. It was a bit bitter, but it felt edible and healthy and with enough juice to replace water for a thirst quencher. She got twenty into her bag before she stopped.

 

“Check if there are any sacks behind the counter,” she said, still chewing through one of the fruits. We’re not going to be able to hold all this.”

 

“I thought he said he was handling the bag situation.”

 

“He was also cryptic over how much we could carry. We’ll grab all we can now. Drop what we can’t later.”

 

Otsune reached the far right corner of the room, the sacks at the back no less confusing than the rest. One sack contained small bags of gravel that looked heavy enough to kill a man cold, yet the stuff inside was sweet and tantalising in her mouth like fizzy drops. Another contained thousands of tiny skeletons, of what looked like spiders.

 

“Hey, Otsune,” Fujiko whispered as loud as she possibly could. “You better come look at this.” Otsune put the bottle of chardonnay back carefully, not wanting to risk her friend seeing, and came to take a look, her little fire whizzing ahead of her.

 

Fujiko was crouched behind the back of the counter, honesty doing what her friend had asked of her. However, the back of the counter was almost completely bare, apart from two other bottles, one neon pink and the other empty. But in the center, just under where the little man’s feet would have been, was an ivory telescope.

 

Bleached and squeaky as she picked it up, Fujiko admired it carefully like a museum exhibit set to shatter. The four sectional tool fell into itself as she tilted it, clunking heavily as the ivory rolled back and forth.

 

“What are you doing? Put it back!”

 

“Aw come on, there’s no harm until I break it.” Like she was a pirate, Fujiko held it to her squinted eye and twisted round the room, stopping on the golden door with a curious look.

 

“That’s exactly the point. We’re doing well here. And I think it’s common sense to make sure the natives of a ruined dystopia wasteland don’t start becoming homicidal because we touch the only valuable item in the room..”

 

On far too perfect a cue, the sidedoor rattled as the handle twisted. Moving with speed both didn’t know they were capable of, they planted themselves back where they had been and continued looking, both feigning a look of ‘oh, welcome back.’

 

“Here ya are,” he said, straddling forth and dropping another sack on the counter. It looked just a little bigger than Fujiko’s book bag and about half as deep, and wouldn’t fit more than two slices of Fujiko’s meat in there.

 

“Aw, thank you very much,” Otsune replied with a rapid bow. This wouldn’t do at all. Maybe for the pink fruit. But they were going to need plenty more than that…probably.

 

“Do you want me to tell you how to use it?” he asked, as Otsune picked uit up and opened it.

 

“Er, I think I can manage, thank you.”

 

“Well, if you’re sure. You should be able to get a sack’s worth in there.”

 

She quickly found what he meant. A pocket sized sea of dirac, the bag held far more than it should of. All the meat went in perfectly, yet was just as easy to pull out. She became extremely curious as to how it was doing it, but held back, eager to study it later.

 

With this, filling up on supplies became quick and easy, especially since the bag didn’t seem bothered about the mass or weight that was being placed in it. She got fifty of the pink fruit in the end, and they took a little extra meat as well. She even, when Fujiko wasn’t looking, dropped a bottle of the wine, for only when they could afford to, of course.

 

By the time they were finished, the sack was full of meat, fruit, gravel bags, the odd green leaves shaped like falling stars, a bag of purple powder that tasted like omelettes and an extra two bottles Fujiko thought she had snuck in without Otsune seeing.

 

The little man didn’t seem that bothered that they hadn’t taken as much as they could carry and nothing more, but seemed more than content to let them overload the bag. When they were done, he led them through the rickety side door and out the other side.

 

Otsune was a little taken aback by what she saw.

 

They were outside, again. The rocky wastelands of before stretched out beyond them. This time a pure white instead of burning crimson, the rocks stretched out far beyond the horizon an arching purple nightscape going over their heads, yet still light enough to see hundred of miles, or possibly cycloons away. The roof sparkled lightly, stars dancing in the air, though it didn’t feel at all like night time.

 

The building they had come out of was against a great wall, the room jutting out in a small clump of jagged rocks. It was impossible to see the end of either side of the wall and it travelled all the way across, hiding any sign that their hole had existed behind it.

 

The biggest difference though was the path, half a foot lower wherever it went. It followed her eyes all the way to the horizon.

 

“You won’t want that path,” Oscar said, seeing where she was looking. You need to follow this ‘ere path until you get to the turn, then take a left and straight on at the crossroads. You should reach the circus in no time.”

 

He said it like it was common knowledge, but Fujiko used to do the same thing to people asking where the toilets were at clubs. She wanted to think the chances of him being truthful to them as slim, but so far he had showed himself nothing short of altruistic, helping them from the very start and being completely honest. He was polite, but didn’t hide his scruffiness. He was rude and blunt but had given them stuff without question nor fee beyond that which was reason.

 

She hated to say it, but he might actually be a nice guy just helping them out.

 

“Well, see you then,” she said with a deep bow to show gratitude, and began on her way, Fujiko and the flame following quickly behind.

 

****

 

Pleated skirt, down to the knees, not like some girls who cut off three quarters and complain it’s cold. Socks up to her shins. Itchy, scratchy, uncomfortable. An extra pair underneath to pad the new shoes. Black penny loafers, far too new to have been broken in yet, just waiting for the descent down the hill to test the backs of her heels. Seifuku, white; plainer than even her regular sweat shirts. Neckerchief, yellow and black. Hair, loose in a single knot, making one who never cared for it want to wear it with flair. Schoolbag, discarded, left to rot behind the desk. Homework, barely touched, only complete thanks to a friend, scoring irrelevant for now. New books, only one, the rest to be bought tonight on the way home, many opportunities ignored. Lunch money, a handful of yen, her favourite snacks await.

 

Looking down at herself in the mirror, it didn’t seem worth an hour’s preparation. There had been her shirt to iron, having left it too long, but even so she felt like it would have been more fun to rush it in a ten minute panic. At least then she could wake up better.

 

Always the earliest to wake up she grumbled to herself as she saw her alarm click over to seven o’clock. It was much more different waking up to train, but the excitement last night had drained her. She’d have to do extra tonight; if she had time.

 

Sagara had agreed to wait for her on the investigation and contact her if he found anything. She’d need a mobile phone to get this to work. She could stop by a shop later tonight and get one. Having put the budget aside a while ago, she had let that slip for too long as well.

 

Yawning and aching, Natoko knelt down for her bag and got straight back up, the whole process taking too long, pangs of grogginess flowing throughout her body, cracking her supple joints like a wooden doll. Would she have felt like this even without school? No, probably not. Regardless, she turned to leave, opening her door and falling promptly over Sagara.

 

Landing without injury, she realised just how strong the urge was to stay there, her head buried in wooden floorboards, her legs laying on top of meat. Not moving was proving much more promising now than ever having to move or think again, oblivion much more enticing than action.

 

Soon getting up, she felt it was a little darker in the world than before. Sliding round, she saw than she had somehow not woken him up. This was perfectly normal however and she got up without thinking about it too much, more playing with the idea of waking him up.

 

“Sagara,” she whispered, though everyone else in the surrounding rooms had already left, each one banging her door awake just to be safe. Did he stay here to see me off? she thought, watching his drool already off his cheek and down in a little puddle. No, more than likely he just collapsed again in a random spot. After a few months it was expected of him to just be found in the most bizarre of places. Mainly corridors, he had been found under tables, in the hot springs, one time even on top of the main television. It was big enough, but she had no idea how he hadn’t crushed it or just fell off. That was the only time she had seen Gen get mad at him, shouting wildly at the unmoving body, failing to lift it up. She chuckled at the memory.

 

She had the tram to catch, as did a lot of the dorm. With people still rushing about, she knew she had time, so she started walking out early, taking in the day. It was as bright as any day in the summer had been, and already the oxygen was smouldering in mid air, burning all that it touched.

 

Iziz; left by her bed.

 

Aki was waiting for her, or at least hanging from the large cherry tree in the courtyard, showing no care that her skirt was flapping in the wind and exposing her to any that were watching.

 

“Yo,” the girl said, easily ignored and falling out of the tree to land gracefully next to Natoko. Natoko zoned her out, just wishing they could stay at home. Surely hunting demons was more important than school. It wasn’t like she was skipping to hang out with boys or going to the shops to browse or even doing drugs under the bridge. She was going off to fight evil. That was much more necessary than maths, which was stupid. Only Otsune cared about maths.

 

But as bad as the threats of constant, imminent death were, the idea of her parents finding out was even worse. Keepings things quiet was her only choice now. There were still the evenings and weekends for her. More than enough time.

 

Though the way things had been going, she’d probably get attacked at school too. The demon attacked them both without warning, and from what she could tell reason. It happened while finding Sakura, but it was unlikely because of the girl. It had to be something to do with the Balance, them searching and now, being told that they’ve already been marked by the demons. That made it quite dangerous.

 

There was no worry in public apparently. The demons are very careful about major appearances. Sagara explained last night on the tram ride home the Balance has defences against such things, and the demon kings knew it. The chances of getting attacked in the city, the city that held the head branch of the Negotiator’s department no less, was close to none unless the demons were looking to be instantly destroyed.

 

Whether that would stop or not with her and Sagara looking around was another story. The demons were convincing themselves that the Balance was to blame for Itoko’s death, and she could already tell that who within the Balance wouldn’t matter. It was almost weird to think that the demons would even bother. How important was this ghost girl to them? Surely it was just another human, no matter what the importance. But if his lot were investigating seriously, did that mean they wanted justice of some kind? They weren’t just going to start killing indiscriminately? That’s what she’d do if she were a demon.

 

As they reached the bottom, they stopped, or rather she did, having to grab Aki by the collar. Just past what used to be the old Shinto archway, before it got converted into a simple entrance with lamps on either side, stood two people, hunched over and staring at them. She recognised the first as the man who had spat on her over a month ago. The woman she didn’t know; his wife perhaps. Both were dressed in traditional yukata that held their weakening frames, and their faces were crunched up and grimacing, their energies concentrated completely at her.

 

“You let another out,” the man shouted at her after a few seconds of silence. “Why won’t you stop? Why do you doom us all!” he wheezed at her, advancing forwards menacingly but getting no where close. Natoko kept her eyes down and walked away, keeping tight hold of Aki unless the foreign girl did something stupid.

 

“You stupid whores. That woman worked hard, and all you do is ruin all of us.” Upping her pace, Natoko wished that the tram stopped right outside the dorm, preferably over the tops of the two people now chasing them. It’ll be quick to lose them, but others were staring at the now, profanity shooting out of the man’s mouth, his wife glaring at them all the way down and round the corner.

 

***

 

The rest of the walk was filled with loud, minutely detailed small talk about anything she could think of. The tram station was relaxing; a chance to catch up on rest. The tram was boring, forty five minutes of travel reminding her just how clear the trams were when she took them in the holidays, the crowd squashing her against the door and nearly falling over seventeen times per stop wasn’t doing well on her body. Aki somehow got away with a nice clear space provided by some boy who thought he was hitting on her successfully by acting noble and enduring an extensive monologue about bananas she was having.

 

Sitting in class went miserably. Her intended resting pace of halfway between front and back and preferably a window seat had gone terribly. While she was by the window, she was right at the front. Her grades had got her noticed after last year, and Mr. Tsukamoto was looking for improvement.

 

Aki was halfway across the room, already doodling on her new exercise book. Aki had it just as bad as her. Her grades may have been the best in the year, but her attention span was as ever the same. The only reason he hadn’t put her at the front was to stop her from constantly distracting him.

 

This isn’t important, she kept telling herself. What was necessary was their next step in finding the killer. She could handle school later.

 

Itoko was trapped and burned in an alleyway that catered to people’s desires. If that was the case, why weren’t the girl’s own desires filled? Surely she wanted to live rather than die. Did one outweigh the other? What determined it?

 

Sagara had mentioned a demon being the one who granted the wishes, so more than likely it chose the more evil desires. That meant it was a human that wanted Itoko dead and got the wish granted, which meant it couldn’t be the OniHono. Either that or this OniHono had help.

 

Which brought her nowhere. She hadn’t got to see the creature who killed all the other demons, so she didn’t know if it were the type to have associates. If she just knew that-

 

She couldn’t do this. The non-stop prattle of her teacher and the people three seats behind her was already distracting. It didn’t help that they were again with no real leads. There had to be something. Something that showed this OniHono was the killer.

 

But what was she trying to find out anyway? It wasn’t like she was going to have a dramatic smoking room meeting where she could point as the killer as the one they least expected. It was a demon. Sagara knew demons on sight. None could hide from him. And the human that was with it could have been anyone. They could already be dead; killed when useless. Nothing was of help here.

 

“Ms. Yamanaka?” a voice sneered upon her. Successfully ignoring it at first, she had no choice but to turn when her name was repeated again. “Ms. Yamanaka!” the voice came with the friendliness of a weasel waiting for you to leave your food. “Are you sure you want to be continuing like this? You’re already doing so badly and you’ve barely begun the new year.”

 

Some of the class laughed behind her. Not too hard though, unless they be turned on next. “Inattentive. Sloppy. A daydreamer. Those are the words I would best use to describe you. And your grades match my sentiments as well. I’m amazed you even responded to my third call.”

 

Why was he picking on her? Haraguchi and Tsukomi were talking as loud as they pleased on the other side of the room. Matsumoto was reading through a fashion magazine in plain sight. All she had done was looked away!

 

“You must focus on improvement. I can tell it is beyond your meagre measure to aspire to any task set before you and for you to give it any, let alone your all.” His fingers scratched the whiteboard lightly, a tip-tap rattling from each digit. “But unless your grades pick up any time soon, you’ll be seeing your young friend advance ahead of you, and I will be forced to put up with your… lingering presence for another year.”

 

Her hand gripped her pencil tightly, which had been idly doodling before and was now a piece of iron being crushed in her fist. He turned his gaze away, still speaking to her. “The way you are now, all you’ll do is disappoint. Not yourself of course. You probably don’t care, but your father will be upset, Mr. Fukasawa too.”

 

Mr. Fukasawa was her kendo teacher. Thoughts of him had come nowhere near her ever since the end of last term. If there was anyone to be disappointed, it was her with his lessons. He was skilled, but there was no effort behind him. Kendo was nothing more than a club to him.

 

Turning to respond, or at least try to, Natoko was interrupted by the sliding of the teacher’s door. All eyes perked up at this sudden intrusion and met with another student, standing in the doorframe, looking surprised at everyone staring at him.

 

“Ah, excuse me,” the newcomer said, looking neither apologetic nor nervous at this disruption. Natoko felt her heart skip a beat as she looked at the well built, tanned and handsome face of the newcomer as he sauntered up to the teacher’s desk with a swagger that made Sagara look like he was always standing at attention.

 

“Misato?” she whispered.

 

“Ah, yes, I had planned on getting to reintroduce you, Kiriyama-kun. If you had just waited a little longer.”

 

“Forgive my intrusion, sensei. I thought I may not have heard you.”

 

Natoko grinned, the teacher’s face trying to hold back a scowl. She knew neither of them could tell whether or not Misato was being serious or not. He was as ever polite though.

 

“Well, I supposed as you’re here, I might as well get to it. As most of you know,” he said turning back to the class, “Kiriyama has been on an extended leave of absence since before the summer. He should now be rejoining us for regular lessons. Though you may feel free to talk to him after lessons, I ask that you may not begin the gossip mill during lessons. You may take your seat, Kiriyama-kun.”

 

“Thank you, sir,” Misato said, stepping past the teacher and wandering around most of the desks. His seat was nearer the back, but it didn’t seem to stop him from taking a detour and making a quick wave to her as he passed. She smiled back, feeling a lot perkier all of a sudden.

 

***

 

Kiriyama Misato had been a friend of Natoko’s for about two years now, and though she didn’t have a crush on him at all, bar the same feminine urges that all the other girls felt around him when he was doing track and field, he was perhaps the closest person to her here besides Aki. They didn’t keep company all the time though. Misato had a group of male friends that he always hung with, mainly other members of the various teams he had been in. He was a reserve in the kendo club though, and came every so often to participate.

 

Misato was considered by many to be a prodigy. One of two in the entire school who was always in the spotlight (the other was Aki, the one student who was not just two years ahead, but had already been given the option to attend any university of her choice as long as she graduated). He was talented in all subjects he put his hand to, and always solved any question the teachers threw at him, even the ones when they gave information that he had yet been taught. Last year, he had been given the second highest mark in the school of 98% in the spring finals, and rumours were popping up of scholarship’s coming his way (Aki was first with top marks).

 

He wasn’t just a geek though, if he could be considered one at all. He was always in the baseball and football squads and served as captain for each (this was a little iffy at times, she heard, as their big competitions often happened at a similar time, though he still performed well regardless). On top of that, he was easily the most handsome boy in the entire school, which had made it surprising that he wasn’t going out with anyone (though there had been rumours he was dating an older woman, she was sure they were just gossip).

 

All of this then had made it very disconcerting for the entire student body when he just disappeared one day without a word said to anyone. He went to school one day and then simply didn’t show the next. No one knew what happened, save that two others also didn’t come that day. A close friend of his named Shinji and a girl from another class. For three weeks none of them attended classes or showed up at homeroom. Then out of the blue, Shinji came back and sat in class as far as the end of first period.

 

She remembered the day as clear as anyone there. He came in looking cold and pale just as homeroom was finishing, and sat down without saying a word, the headmaster telling the teacher something as he came in. When it got to the end of first period, at the moment every student rushed over to prod to him, that he threw himself back in a frenzied panic, screaming and falling into Natoko’s desk. She had dodged just in time to watch him fall, quickly crawling into the corner. A few of his friends had backed away, while one of them tried to help, but he just sat there gibbering until the headmaster came back to take him away.

 

They never saw Shinji again. They never saw the girl again either. Natoko was told later that Shinji had transferred schools. Natoko knew nothing of what happened to the girl, and no one knew anything about Misato at all, other than he had gone, even when his parents were still living at home.

 

This of course made her very curious to find out now that Misato had returned after so long. What took four months, and left one boy in shock and another girl missing? It couldn’t have been too bad if Misato didn’t even seem nervous. She had to wait until the class was over to find out though.

 

***

 

It wasn’t until end of afternoon period that she got a chance to speak with him. All the breaks between she was left on the outskirts of the crowd surrounding him as the main crowd flooded him with all sorts of questions, ranging from why he disappeared to whether he was rejoining a team again. Aki had passed some information along to her at lunch, but got nothing of interest from him. Natoko was just beginning to wonder whether or not she’d be able to speak to him at all this week when he wandered up to her and, with the same dashing voice that would cause some other idiot to squeal, asked her. “Would you like me to walk you home, Natoko-san?”

 

Accepting professionally and without the slightest hint of emotion, Natoko caught the stares of jealously off the other girls as she trailed behind him. Even the Class rep turning her eyes away in disgust.

 

Walking her home of course meant walking Aki home as well but for the first time in a while she really wished the young girl hadn’t been there. Natoko had plenty of her own questions to ask the boy, but Aki wasn’t giving her two words edgeways. Of course the young girl was still smart enough to ask the most important question when they had separated from the main crowd.

 

“So where have you been the last four months, Misato?”

 

“Yes, I had been wondering that too,” Natoko added. It was the longest sentence she had said yet.

 

“Well, the truth is, America.”

 

“Oh, I always wanted to go there,” Aki replied, as if he had only been gone for two weeks and was just passing them souvenirs of a cartoon key ring and some tasteless local delicacy.

 

“What were you doing in America?” Natoko asked more seriously.

 

“Oh, nothing too special. I got dragged into an educational program by my uncle without warning. So before I knew it I was in a plane and over the ocean. Didn’t really get a chance to say goodbye now I think of it.”

 

Natoko felt a little perplexed. “How could he just drag you off like that?”

 

“If you ever met my uncle, you’d understand perfectly. He pushes my dad around like a pansy. Carted me off before he could complain or even tell the school. When I got back, dad told me he had just put me on a leave of absence. Good thing really, I finished the course ahead of schedule.”

 

“What course was it?” asked Aki, off-topic as far as Natoko was concerned.

 

“Marine biology mostly,” Misato replied, striking Natoko as an odd choice of subjects. “He’s part of a team that studies sharks and other aquatic mammals. It was interesting. Said he needed a set of hands over the summer and figured I’d be perfect for it. Of course it started early, and before I knew it, whoosh, off to the Americas.”

 

“Wait then,” Natoko interrupted. “What about Shinji and that girl then? What happened to them?”

 

“What girl? What happened to Shinji? He wasn’t in class now I think about it.”

 

“He disappeared on the same day as you. So did another girl. They never came back.”

 

“Well, Shinji did,” Aki recounted. “He ended up falling on Natoko and screaming his head off.”

 

“He didn’t fall on me. He fell on my desk,” Natoko quickly rolled back.

 

“He did what?” Misato asked, looking concerned. “Why?”

 

“We thought you’d know,” Natoko said, hesitating briefly. “You all disappeared on the same day. When he came back, he was like a ghost. Then he left altogether. I don’t think the teachers even know why.”

 

“I had no idea. I didn’t speak to anyone except my mother since I left. He was screaming?” Misato and Shinji had been quite close from what she had seen in the past, so she could imagine the thought of his friend being gone to be a painful gap to find missing on his return, though it left her just as confused. Had he simply left on the same day these two disappeared? And what happened to the girl who never returned. Did she simply leave on the same day?

 

“Anyway,” Misato shifted. “I needed to ask you something, Natoko, if you wouldn’t mind. “

 

“About what?”

 

“Oh, first. Are you still in the kendo club by any chance?”

 

Natoko couldn’t help but roll her eyes back. A reminder of the boring times. “Well I haven’t quit yet, if that’s what you mean.”

 

“So still finding it below your level, huh?”

 

“Well,” she tried to hold it in. “Yes! It’s just amazing how they can be in a club like that but never train outside of it. Every time I had to spar I have to lower myself to caveman standards. And even Fukasawa-sensei won’t fight me anymore because it’s gotten to a point where he can’t claim he’s holding back! It’s just stupid!”

 

Misato started laughing, making her flush with embarrassment. “That’s exactly where you were last year, girl.”

 

“The only one that was good to go against was you.”

 

“Really? Thanks for the compliment.”

 

Words left her after this. She felt glad she could make him happy, but couldn’t bring herself to look at the results.

 

“I was wondering if I could have your assistance on a little project I’m working on. It’s a bit of a secret, so I can’t tell you until you agree, but I need someone with a strong will of mind, and you’re the first person that came to mind.”

 

“Hey, what about me? I want to help with mystery projects too,” Aki interjected, getting a laugh out of Misato.

 

“You’re welcome too, Aki,” he grinned.

 

The yes nearly left her mouth before she caught it. Saying no would let him down, but she had something bigger to handle. Misato was just a student. Whatever it was wouldn’t be important at all. “I’m afraid I might be a bit too busy over the next few weeks, Kiriyama-kun.”

 

“Oh,” he said, looking confused. “No worries then. Let me know if you change your mind. I have no real start date, and I will need your assistance to do this.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Sorry but,” he tapped his nose knowingly. “Secret.”

 

He left shortly after that. Natoko would have thought he was eager to get away after being rejected, but knew his train was at another station to hers. As they travelled back to the station, she saw some of the other girls still glaring at her and she smiled triumphantly. For her, the one they called ugly, the one they mocked for never wearing her hair special or wearing any makeup, to be asked out of all of them must have been a real kick up their cut up skirts.

 

Not that such things mattered to her of course.

 

Maybe when there had been a mystery to Misato’s actions, but with it now being more of the mundane she reminded herself that there were much more important things to be doing right now. She still had training and homework to do, but also demons to vanquish.

 

Though how was she supposed to do her duty here? Part of her wish that it had been Sagara that had shown up, immediately causing a ruckus or embarrassing everyone in the class all at once. It would have been nice of him and a better way for them to coordinate.

 

But in the end, he had other things to do, just as she did, even if it was all completely unnecessary.

 

***

 

Kiriyama Misato was a being who, from birth, had been born with an overabundance of internal energy. More so than most masters could accrue in a lifetime, and so much that mystical feats were not beyond him. Yet he was unaware of any of this.

 

It showed in everything he did. He was naturally talented at anything he put his hand to, be it art or music or board games like chess. He was intelligent too. Though not top of the year in all subjects, he scored high A’s without much effort, and soared in lessons that actually took his interest.

 

On top of that, he excelled far beyond his peers and even his coaches in sport. He could be pushed to sprint for a day and though would fall exhausted along with his peers, be back up to fighting strength within a minute. As for his strength, well it caught the eyes of the ladies in his class for sure. His muscles started to rip out as puberty hit, and he was soon the biggest in his class that wasn’t filled with fat. He was popular beforehand, but soon became the heartthrob of every swooning girl in the district. His energy helped him with that too.

 

But he still didn’t know of it.

 

Once, on a day where he had free time, for Misato had learned long ago that he needed a strict schedule to keep track of the many things he had been pulled into, Misato was pulled along by friends into a Tai Chi class. His friend, Shinji, had dragged him with a few others for the only reason boys that age would ever care to join a slow motion martial art like Tai chi: girls. Five boys surrounded by many girls was an easy paradise. Misato followed the lesson along and, having martial arts training already, quickly picked it up.

 

Tai chi was not just about movement though, but also breathing. So during the class, Misato would be taught to pull his inner energy in and out repeatedly and focus on the rising and falling of a great tide of water pushing and pulling around him. To feel his internal energy flow gently around himself.

 

Misato, of course, felt nothing.

 

None of the students did in fact, though many thought they had, if only just a little, thinking it was sort of cool, and mistook blood pumping through their veins over the kundalini properties of mystical force flowing through their chakra and giving them life. Though the others felt nothing because the amount of internal energy they had was insignificant, the techniques meaningless and poorly taught, only Misato felt nothing because there was nothing new to feel. Breathing exercises were about bringing up something that was barely there after all.

 

It wasn’t until the third time they went the event happened, by this time only he and his friend Shinji were going. The others had moved on quickly as the need for money and effort sank in. It had been Shinji’s idea in the first place, for the hidden love of his life, one of the four girls that also went to the class that he never spoke to, was there as well.

 

As the girls giggled away, as girls did but only when Misato looked at them, Misato continued feeling nothing, as the rest of the class did. He found it relaxing, but never beneficial. In his head, it felt more and more clear that the teacher was using them as easy income, as he had heard of many martial arts instructors over the years. He was intelligent enough in his mind to reserve judgement for later times, but they were learning nothing of value and losing time because of it. Money as well.

 

So when he began to lose his attention and look away and not pay attention and tried talking to Shinji at the back, it was not very long before he was called out to the front. Misato hated this, and could tell that the small yet gruff bald man in tracksuit bottoms was displeased at any persuading voice that might detract other people, as well as the displeasure he had shown when the others hadn’t arrived. Misato wandered up to the front, in his mind deciding he would be as unhelpful as possible, knowing full well the teacher’s plans to humiliate Misato and impress him at the same time.

 

Misato had seen it before. The man would claim to use his special energies to take Misato down when all he would be doing is using a simple application of force at certain joints in the body to perform a jujutsu like manoeuvre that would send Misato flying, girls squealing in shock and everyone else wanting to sign up on the monthly direct debit. Misato probably wouldn’t have much say in the matter, and told himself to remain firm in what was about to happen and not to let it affect him in anyway.

 

As the teacher approached him, he informed him of a simple energy technique that brought about a visualization of something Misato stopped listening to. Then he got behind Misato and held his arms in a full nelson, locking them arched upwards as the teacher grabbed hold of his neck. The teacher then asked Misato to struggle free which Misato did after about two seconds.

 

The teacher let go, and explained to Misato that he simply wanted him to concentrate on his arms and feel energy flow through them. Then he held his palm out behind Misato’s back and, forming a knife, slit the hand all the way up Misato’s back, saying he was freeing the energy, before tying the boy up again and asking him to break free.

 

Now how long was it, before humans discovered that mud could be used for paint, before sugar, flour and butter could be put in a cake, or leaves applied to that mud to make different colour. And what was it before art was discovered. Simply mud, unusable in its anonymity, and priceless once discovered. Even when humans started to use them, did they know they did, did they feel the consequences of their actions? Misato’s energy was the same as this. Unknown and unused, but with just as much consequences as any other major resource in powerful hands.

 

Visualising it was all Misato had to do to bring out the energy. And with a simple, calm swipe that was nothing more than to swing his arms in the air, Misato severed the teacher’s arms clean through the biceps that held him back and left them bouncing on the floor. The girls screeched. The boys were impressed. The teacher fell to the floor, finding it impossible to carry on living.

 

This was the first human Misato had killed.

 

It would not be the last.

 

***

 

“Sagara,” she called out, slinging her bag on the lobby couch and choosing a random direction. Even if Iziz was to become ten times as heavy, it would still not bring her as much relief to release it from her shoulders than it did that bag. Freedom was a virtue she had missed over the last seven hours and now to reclaim it, no matter how short, was still very bittersweet.

 

“Sagara,” she said, deciding to head for his room. He was living in the far east wing, the part of the dormitory that had emptied the quickest after Granma Futabatei had passed on and the new miser had appeared. It had been the smartest choice to place here there, or at least it had seemed.

 

“Sagara,” she said, reaching his room and knocking. The door rattled against itself, falling open. For a second she was filled with an urge to let it droop open, to see the other side and get a glimpse at Sagara’s hidden side. But then she held back. She couldn’t hear him breathing in there and his snores were the loudest in town. It would have been too rude even in regards to him, to sneak around his room or even peer in through the cracks. Carefully, she shut the door behind her.

 

Knowing that it was unlikely he was there, Natoko left the isolated bedroom of the ninja and headed back to the lobby. A few of the other girls were just heading in, chatting amongst themselves and telling stories from other friends they met that day.

 

She checked the kitchen and lounge, finding it empty save for Sakura cooking for ten in a small panic. Passing a brief hello to her, Natoko watched as she shifted round the cramped kitchen like she were on skates, handling several bubbling pots at a time, the whole room filling with steam over to the empty lounge. The girl barely noticed her.

 

Checking outside got no results either, the hot springs were abandoned in bubbling silence and the grassy area sweated alone in the sunlight. A quick glare over the rooftops showed he wasn’t hiding there either.

 

Beginning to suspect he wasn’t in, Natoko felt her teeth grinding as she paced along the now filling corridors. No one she asked knew where he was and the few that had nothing to do all day hadn’t reported seeing him either. Eventually dumping her bag in her room, she took a few moments to change into something more relaxing, replacing her stuffy seifuku with a nice loose shirt and shorts.

 

Iziz now resting comfortably on her shoulder, Natoko took to searching. Fujiko or Junko would normally be the ones to ask, but neither were in at the moment. Sarah also seemed to be looking for him since she got back (not wearing her school uniform Natoko noticed) but refused to help look with her, instead shooting off in another direction. Eventually she even tried asking Futabatei Gen out of desperation. Futabatei looked uncomfortable giving an answer, and pointed over to the boy’s changing rooms.

 

The male changing rooms were only there out of courtesy really, and an inkling of protection. Before Futabatei had appeared a few months ago, they were never known to be used or not, and even now, the time they were used was restricted. Futabatei rarely used them as it were, and Sagara just blazed through regardless.

 

Hovering outside the frame, nothing but an orange curtain with a blue square pattern blocking her way, Natoko’s body refused to go any further, her legs cementing her to the ground through a force no girl could explain but understood perfectly. Grabbing the curtain she tugged on it, not enough to see behind it at all, but enough to hear a stutter of breath, a light intake of air, followed by the bellows of a grotesque monster snorting out atrocities designed solely to murder the innocent.

 

Certainly, Sagara was asleep in there.

 

“Sagara,” she called out lightly, to wake him gently of course. “Sagara!” she waited again, and then said with considerable force, “Sagara!” The monstrous exhalation of air continued unabated and after a few more attempts, she gave up again.

 

He had only been asleep this morning and had probably gotten a few more hours after she had left.

 

“How long has he been there for?” Natoko asked Futabatei, when she got back to him. Futabatei was in the middle of scrubbing, an apron wrapped around his waist and rubber gloves that looking fitting on such a lowly youth.

 

“Just under an hour I think. That’s when he went to get in the springs.”

 

“He didn’t make it then.”

 

“Apparently not.”

 

Natoko opted to wait, and got some training in before getting called for dinner. Dinner was delayed considerably, Sakura being caught in a daydream with slowly burning pasta and unusable rice. While half of them ordered simple takeout, the rest departed for foods elsewhere. But even three hours after pizza, Sagara lay inside the changing room sleeping.

 

Eventually, she made her way back to her dorm telling Futabatei to have Sagara see her when he did wake up. Sitting on her bed, she sighed deep and loud. That wasn’t how it was supposed to be. He should be summoning her and she should respond promptly, ready to even take her own life should he request it.

 

Had he done something today that had exhausted him? Futabatei hadn’t said, but he didn’t sleep this quickly usually during the day, and surely something was wrong that he didn’t get to the hot springs in time.

 

She sighed and groaned, sinking herself into her mattress as she left her coke on the side. She needed to go out and do something. Find some demon, find the one that had attacked her. Or just find and attack something, just so she kept reason beyond going to school.

 

Peeking behind her mattress, she saw the now familiar bump of the mask, staring sombrely at the wall that it was trapped between alongside the mattress. Her fingers inched towards it, feeling suddenly tired by the day’s non-events.

 

After hiding it, she had forgotten about it, but raising the small kitsune mask over her head, she was reminded of the events she had seen the day before. The fight, and the fight she had had. This was no ordinary mask, but she had no idea what she was seeing, and no way of telling without anyone finding out she had taken it.

 

Staring at the contours on the inside of the mask, Natoko didn’t realise how close the porcelain was to her face before it was too late. With a sudden magnetic jerk it pulled itself to her face, latching on tightly. She felt a momentary blank as darkness flooded her eyes and left her blind without air. Clearing up, it lit up a large courtyard before her, walls higher than any building alone and whitewashed. Above her the tower was in danger of being taken (she knew but did not know) and the lower floors had fires eating away at the window, chewing away as it ascended slowly.

 

Around her too the inferno blazed, trapping both factions within a doomed prison. Behind her, the guard hesitated, each of them young and inexperienced, looking to run. In front, the bandits, tough looking, but just as scared, the sweat permeating the air around her body. Between them, she floated, held tightly by another, the man speaking to the giant before her.

 

Qcayjn jjy dm, cpcf ck celcjjyfa, cpyb smw?” the one who wielded her yelled, keeping her tip trained on the opponent. Even from this distance, she knew how easily the man would be pierced by her, yet he never moved. Instead, he roared, tossing the loose strands of hair covering his face high into the air, revealing grotesque burn scars that matted his face. With laughter, he swung his axe high into the air.

 

Skj zahppao oe pe? Oq jaaspax hhwb kp oe kds. Skjg zhqks qku. Anwz e.”

 

Behind the monster, the bandits cheered, jeering their opponents as they lavished praises to their chosen. Words coming out as meaningless mouthing, she got none of it.

 

TctC in, qih ffuz ois, sum xfoiq yhi. Mxliq ih ylu ylybn!”

 

He spun her round, shifting her behind him, and waited, body prepared. She could feel the torque from the man’s heels, readjusting himself millimetres in all directions, keeping his feet fresh and his stance ready. He held her tightly, enough to cause damage to any other’s hand, as strong as any other joint in the man’s body, she became part of him, and acted to his thoughts.

 

Ogf mgq cuajl A, sZ.”And with a thud faster than she could track, the giant lunged forwarding, pushing his golden battle axe overhead and straight into the floor in front. The samurai could only watch as the wooden floor cracked beneath them, splitting right down the middle as veins of empty space covered the floor beneath them, letting the wood fall, her master soon with it, the nervous guards behind them. And herself. There was nothing underneath.

 

“Natoko!”

 

Aki screamed with a loud piercing shriek that ripped the mask right off of her. Feeling the familiar sensation of air, she inhaled loudly, getting as much back as she could, trying to breath through her mouth and nose at the same time.

 

Panting loudly, Natoko scanned the room as her vision returned to her, her mattress besides her blurring out of focus. She wasn’t on it anymore, her drink was knocked over.

 

“Are you okay?” her friend asked, panicked; hands gripping tightly to Natoko’s shoulders enough to hurt. Hissing out her pain, Natoko got her to ease off. “You looked like you were having frontal lobe epilepsy.”

 

Natoko inhaled loudly one more time, before expelling all her weakness. “You could say that.” She grinned, trying to sort her own confusion out while tending to her friend’s. Where was the mask taking her? It was something she needed to find out.

 

“Are you sure, that looked really bad. Your body was shaking all weird and you weren’t responding and you knocked over your coke.” Aki was nearly on the verge of tears, sniffing openly to her.

 

“How long for?” Natoko asked curiously.

 

“I don’t know, a few minutes. “I wanted to go get someone, but I didn’t want to leave you, and no one answered when I called out. I think they’re all out.”

 

Natoko only had one other resident besides herself and Aki in her wing, but that didn’t matter. Surely she had only been in there a few seconds. The first time had felt longer and had been short enough for Sagara not to notice her. What was she seeing? It felt like a dream almost, but so vivid and clear. She knew she wasn’t a participant but a weapon in the battle unfolding, so she could only watch and slice, but what was it she was seeing.

 

“Natoko!” Aki cried louder.

 

“Sorry, I’m… I’m definitely fine. I must just be tired.”

 

“You sure?”

 

“Certainly”

 

“Just, I’ve seen these things happen on television. People have blackouts or seizures and they think it’s minor, so they brush them off and tell everyone they’re fine. But then it keeps happening and they’re nothing they can do about it. And then it becomes to late and the person’s brain dies and then it tries to go to hell, only there’s no more space so it has to come back as a zombie and-”

 

“Aki…Aki,” she tried to calm her friend down. “I was fine. I haven’t had any fainting spells or anything worse before. And…” she hesitated, but then remembered it was Aki she was speaking to. “I don’t think it was me anyway.”

 

“Then…”

 

“It was the mask,” she held it up to show Aki. “I think it did it, though I don’t know how.”

 

“The mask made you spasm,” her friend said, her face wavering as if mixed with scared realisation and mixed confusion. Before Natoko could continue explaining, her friend snatched it up and placed it against her face.

 

Natoko cried out and nearly lunged to her impulsive companion but barely got her hands up before Aki was pulling the mask away again. Giving it a once over, she put it on again, longer this time, but with no effects. Eventually she gave it up, nothing happening at all.

 

“Is there a switch?”

 

“No, I don’t think so.” They spent a few moments playing with it, trying to get it to work for Aki, in a small number of ways. Though they soon realised there seemed to be no real solution for it Aki refused to let Natoko try it again.

 

“Was that it?” she asked herself as they finished trying, planting it straight on her face one more time just to be certain. Did it only have that to show her? Not when she needed to know more.

 

Grunting with disappointment, she got up and left with Aki to find something more to do. She still had more practise to get in. Getting Aki to leave while she got changed, she stripped off to put her hakama on, unwrapping the carefully folded training gear, and feeling the smooth yet coarse textures under her skin

 

Slipping it on and tying the sash around her tightly, she scooped Iziz off from its stand and slid it into place with practised ease. Her training schedule for today all mapped out, she headed for the door to get started, the mask greeting her one more time before she left. She slid it back on before she knew what she was doing.

 

Feeling the impact of the landing as her master foolishly allowed her to scrape stone, she screeched in agony, vibrating violently. Her master rolled with the fall but it wasn’t enough. She could feel the extension that held onto the sword being looser than before, a grip less tight and easier to drop things with.

 

Then another shaking thud, scaring the woodwork out of place and leaving her jumpy. It had been infinite floors, yet he had followed them down, crumbling to earth as he shattered through. This hardly bothered the giant, swarming around the young guards and crushing them in its body, ears screams and blood erupting form the rich hard soil.

 

“Hujidec!”

 

“Hsfqsg!”

 

“Iaz fu pzq u. qqdqt fu pzq u.” The master sprinted forward, holding her over his head and screaming loudly, freeing all emotion and letting it lead him to battle. Hurt, wounded and winded, he could only run into his opponent’s mighty hand, who caught both arm and sword in one embrace, cracking and smashing all of them.

 

Natoko gasped for air again, already exhausted, sweat dripping from her forehead, drool running from her cheeks and to the floor boards. Her arms ached like she had climbed just using her fingers. She had creased her hakama.

 

So it wasn’t broken, she realized. Just intermittent, which was better than nothing. Though one more thing topped that.

 

It was just telling her.

 

No one but her.

 

***

 

A week. That’s how long she had waited now. A whole damn week of missing Sagara.

 

Natoko was frustrated. There was no chance of coming up with a plausible explanation for skipping school beyond completely lying, which she couldn’t do for her own selfish reasons. And now, the reason behind them was disappearing as well.

 

It wasn’t that she kept missing Sagara either. Finding him every single day was like playing hide and seek with a rock that stood right in front of you. The only difference was he was asleep in a different place each time.

 

One time he was found in Hisami’s room with legs on the bed and head squashed against the floor. The girl didn’t mind at first until it got exceptionally late and he still wasn’t moving. In the end she had to sleep elsewhere, as waking him up wasn’t an effective way of getting him to move and often got her cheek swatted by a poorly aimed, always missing jab.

 

Natoko wouldn’t have minded that much. In fact, when she thought about it, him taking a nap around these hours was perfectly normal for him. But now with the school hours and travelling getting in her way, she had come back with nothing to do save practise and watch the mask.

 

Examining the mask, she caressed it carefully. Anything harder may break it, and it was too important to leave laying around. Luckily it was decorative enough to hide with her other stuff in plain sight, placed exhibition style against the wall. Taking it down carefully, she headed for the mattress, locking her door on the way. She had bought a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign a while ago, though it was solely for Aki and Aki never paid any heed to it.

 

She had let herself have taster sessions. Trying to watch what was in the mask all night didn’t yield much. The visions seemed pre-recorded, and would start to repeat if she watched it for more than an hour, ten minutes playing time from what she could tell when in the mask

 

So far they had been nothing but battles, always the same mysterious samurai facing the odd bandit giant, ready to use any dirty tactic to win overwhelmingly. So far she really had been unable to do nothing but watch. Only once had she been used to attack, and she felt skin being pushed asunder as she travelled through him, though to little affect.

 

****

 

Patiently waiting, she sat in silence, watching the clock tick forwards.

 

Long ago, a couple of years back, the clock was the one thing she’d look at here. The only thing that remained consistent between Italy and Japan was the way they told the time, and for too long it was the only thing she could understand. It gave her comfort, familiarity. She no longer needed it, now she could understand the teacher, but it was still nice to remember the time it gave her, the only thing here that could make her relax.

 

As it rang, she realised she had missed what homework they had given her as she ran out. It was in the book, and she could always ask Hisami if necessary.

 

Never before had she moved so fast to the train. Not running, for she would tire quicker, but a brisk pace that marched her all the way round corners and to the tram stop. With good fortune she met just as the early tram was set to leave, and got on it briskly, heading for home.

 

She had her stuff, what she needed. A day’s worth of clothes, some prepared lunchboxes, for both her and the father, toothbrush and trowel, though she didn’t know why she needed the second she thought it best to take, and a pen, notepad and camera to take notes.

 

These were always the best things to take on field trips after all.

 

She had her purse too, though it was nearly empty anyway. Her allowance had been ruined buying a new bus ticket,

 

***

 

The plan had been immediately ruined upon getting to the shopping centre to find it closed for the night, all shops shutting at seven and the whole complex shutting down just five minutes before they arrived. The attendant had been kind enough to smile as he turned away but they got no further than a refusal for a refund on the car parking ticket for a mere fifteen minutes parking.

 

As such they set out earlier Saturday morning, catching the tram well before nine ready for the shops to open early morning. Getting there early was vital, Father Sakagami explained, as they’d be less people around and no one to see them go through the door. Sakura reasoned to herself that it might have been better to go through when there was lots of people, so as to get lost in the crowd where going in alone would be a lot more noticeable.

 

It was a little past nine when they finally got in. Most of the shop owners were fully set up and ready to go, most sitting idly by their counters, sighing loudly to themselves as they waited for the flux of customers. Some were going about stacking and reorganising, doing their best to keep themselves busy, while a large media outlet was jammed full of teenagers, bustling and talking, pushing further and further into the store as they launched themselves at the latest product. Sakura recalled some talk about a new game coming out, and as a screaming fanatic was catapulted out of the store by the sheer weight of participants in the queue, only to throw himself back in with an energetic scream. Sakura had to step out of the way and watched as the sin of greed ran about ragged like a rabid donkey.

 

Father Sakagami refrained from speaking, but Sakura knew his troubles over the matter. He had led many a sermon about the overwhelming need to consume new videos and games, and whilst he didn’t argue their violent effects as much as most of the townsfolk did, he was concerned in having the young learn abstinence.

 

Soon, they reached their destination, the simple wooden door that led to where they needed to go. Sakura noted how plain it looked with disappointment. A portal to another realm should look, well, fantastic. Large, grand and majestic, the sort giants would have to push upon with all their strength, that would creak loudly and unleash a large vortex that started sucking everything into the next realm. But this was just a door. A simple wooden door. It didn’t even look like it belonged in a shopping centre. It would have fit better in someone’s house leading to a bedroom.

 

The door was marked with a ‘Do not enter’sticker plastered onto the wall next to it, yet the door itself didn’t even have a keyhole. Unless it was bolted from the other side, they should just be able to walk on through.

 

As they waited, mall security strolled past in the form of a bulky young man. He was the type of youth that Sakura would goat odds to avoid if she passed him in the street, maybe even crossing the road and praying he wouldn’t follow. The type that would get a rise out of any fearful response she gave him for whatever reason. Despite looking young he was certainly well built. Sakura couldn’t help but suspect drugs.

 

He walked past them, looking nonchalant and bored, barely even acknowledging them, heading off away from the direction where the shop selling decadence was. She exhaled, not even noticing she was holding her breath, her nerves were already being plucked like a tightly tuned violin, and the only reason she could breath at all is because she knew she’d kill the butterflies in her stomach otherwise.

 

Besides her, Father Sakagami was looking tense, staring straight ahead at the door. He couldn’t appear more obvious where he planned to go, but looked like he wouldn’t dare make a move, less some hidden guard approach them.

 

She hoped he was right. After all this, she had no idea what was through the door. It could just be the staff room she told herself, rather than a secret corridor.

 

“Should we…” she started.

 

“Wait,” he replied, holding his hand up to bar her, though she hadn’t moved. Staring deep into the door, the priest waited as nothing happened. He seemed to relax an inch after just a minute, putting his hand down. “Just get ready to go on my signal.”

 

Nodding, she prepared herself. He was the adult here. He almost certainly was paying attention to everything. She had seen Natoko slice leaves whilst blindfolded. A man of the cloth could certainly keep a watchful eye on all the corridors, or keep track of the nearby security guard.

 

Holding her ground, she peeked around all the corridors. They were clear, even of passer-bys. It would be the perfect chance. Only the shopkeepers were nearby, all to wrapped up in their jobs to notice. With it clear, she shifted, ready to leap into action, only to have him bar her again. “Wait. Hold it,” he whispered the perfect timing of a crime.

 

“Hooold it.”

 

She checked all the corridors again, the violins tweaked louder.

 

“Hold it.” Someone was banging them now.

 

The security guard came back around the corner. “Now! Run!” the priest shouted, bursting into a sprint and heading straight for the door. Still primed Sakura followed loyally, bounding the small space from the bench to the door in less than two seconds, more than aware that every nearby shop keeper was turning to see what the commotion was.

 

As they reached it, Father Sakagami fiddled with the handle, getting it trapped on itself before pushing it wide open. Hearing an ‘Oi, stop!’ behind her, Sakura dare not look back and threw herself through the opening and before the priest, sprinting as fast as they could, their bags flailing widely in all directions as they lost control.

 

“You’re not supposed to go in here,” a voice shouted behind them, much closer than Sakura wouldn’t have like. Hearing heavy boots getting closer, Sakura dared not turn around and just kept her eye on Father Sakagami’s jacket, loosely tied and bouncing from side to side. He stopped at another door and shot through it. Sakura closed it behind her and for the first time realised that what he said was true. This area was too long. They next corridor went longer than most of the shopping centre so far, with more doors than she could count littered on both sides.

 

“Stop!” the booming voice muffled on the door behind them, thick plated boots getting thunderously closer.

 

“Come on,” the priest shouted, grabbing her hand and almost dragging her off her feet. He got to around the four doors on the right before pushing through it in a heartbeat, closing the door behind them, and shushing her with a hissing finger.

 

Feeling the air in her lungs wheeze on her harder than they had ever done in gym class, Sakura tried holding her breath, feeling her lungs well up like balloon and quickly having to cover her mouth with her sleeve as she exhaled a lot louder than she should. Struggling to control herself, she nearly coughed when she heard the klump klump klump of footsteps getting nearer the door. She shuddered at the thought of the man being this close to them.

 

“Aha!” the security guard shouted, banging a door loud and open. It wasn’t their door.

 

They could get into a lot of trouble for this. How would she explain that she was breaking into private areas on the mall? Would they think her a thief? Nothing more than a street rat looking to claim the latest cool thing as her own, or would they think she was there to take money or cause damage. A secret world wouldn’t be enough of an excuse. She’d get caught and then they’ll arrest her and she‘d have no one who could come rescue her and she wouldn’t be able to do anything.

 

In her rasping breaths, she heard the footsteps grow quieter, until they were completely gone. They rested, Sakura feeling her heart pulsing throughout her body, her thoughts going white. She was definitely shaking and though she couldn’t tell, probably crying as well.

 

A moment later, Father Sakagami braced himself against the door, a final check, before slowly pulling the handle and going back through.

 

“Looks like we’re safe,” he shouted, just as she saw the security guard walking back down the corridor.

 

Soon they were back into full sprint, heading down the corridor they had just hidden in, the guard fast on their heels. This corridor wasn’t helpful at all and had no other doors coming out of it. Her mouth desperate for water, drying up on the sides, Sakura knew she couldn’t go much longer. She couldn’t run. She was always last on the track when it came to it. It was pure will that had got her this far. Father Sakagami was quickly running into the same problem as well. They pounded across the corridor, taking a sharp left turn and being rewarded with no doors there was well. They barely had time to check though for he thundered right behind tem, as close to her to grab. Then, with a lunge, he went for her, missing and getting Father Sakagami’s collar instead. All three fell to the floor in a heap, Sakura crushed under the guard’s weight, trapping her completely.

 

“Would you stop? You’re not allowed past this point…” The man wasn’t tired at all, but seemed to be having some trouble getting off her. She barely listened to what he was saying. “Jeez, I’m gonna get fired f I let you do this.”

 

Getting back up, the guard looked down on them, before leaning forwards and picking them both up by their collars. Both were powerless to debate about being let go, and all Sakura could do was struggle weakly, not even getting that far and hovering there with her head fallen forwards.

 

“Come on, I’m gunna hafta escort you out.”

 

Turning, the guard froze. Sakura could see immediately why. They had reached a crossroads. Without realising it, their path now went in one of four directions, and she knew then that none of them had a clue about which road to take.

 

“Erm,” the guard said with growing discomfort. “Are we even at the mall still?”

 

Neither Sakura not the father answered

 

“Fuck!” the guard cried out. “Which way’s back?” Sakura followed his eyes, trying to see which way looked familiar enough, but she couldn’t even tell which they had fallen over a minute ago.

 

“Oi, this ain’t funny,” the man said. “Which way’s the way out, and where are we….” The man paused, looking at her. “Hey, don’t I know you?” he asked. The questions knocked Sakura off track, and she looked into his hard defined, yet still immature features, and that bristled with prepubescent stubble He did look familiar, but Sakura thought she would have remembered a 300 pound block of pure muscle with a little more startling terror.

 

“Arrgghh, I meet too many people,” he complained

 

“I think it was this way,” father Sakagami said, pointed off to Sakura’s left. Sakura shuddered a little, knowing he had no way of telling.

 

***

 

Sakura was aware the that the large bulky exterior of the shopping mall’s unnecessarily muscular security guard had somehow activated a sheepish instinct to follow in her but it was clear that the hastily thrown together plan of entering the land of unending corridors was becoming a very bad idea. Her first clue was undoubtedly the impressive act of getting lost in a series of identical repetitive corridors separated by remarkably furnished yet very out of place mahogany doors in the time it would take to boil a pot of water and perhaps chop up the vegetables.

 

She didn’t need a second clue. This was clearly now a bad idea.

 

The guard, who looked familiar but had not yet passed on his name o her, was grumbling away to himself as he led them on. “So many corridors. Thought I had this place memorised already. Bad enough i spent three weeks on the job without knowing there was a third floor. Now look.” He chortled to himself. “This area’s not even signposted.”

 

“And if you listen to what I’m telling you, then perhaps you can know-“

 

“Quiet,” the guard spat back at Father Sakagami with such intensity it felt like a delinquent thug ordering a lackey into silence. “You ain’t helping the situation any here. Conversation’s no help for concentration. We just gotta work this backwards. Try to remember the length’s of the corridors to recognise them. Why haven’t they installed any mats or tiles?”

 

“Because this isn’t part of the shopping mall like I’ve been trying to tell you!” Father Sakagami let his voice rise to that of angry distress victim. “We’re in a completely new spiritual area separate from the mall altogether, completely away from the planet itself.”

 

“Impossible, the probability of finding a new dimension of any kind outside of the Mizumi Brother’s model shop is significantly lower to just getting lost.”

 

“Yet that’s what we’ve just done and you’ll have to accept that as truth if we want to get anywhere here.”

 

“The truth don’t come into it regardless, sir. Whether or not this is the mall or not, we’re still just in a constant state of being completely lost. I don’t know. Halfway through my first month on the only job I could get after graduating advanced mathematics and I get lost in a fractal maze hidden round the sides of-” He continued to blabber on with himself, an air around him that apologised for his behaviour and asked them to come back to him shortly.

 

“I believe we should make a run for it,” suggested Father Sakagami.

 

“What?” Sakura nearly squealed, certainly her voice at the last moment of the second syllable. She observed the hulking fellow towering above her. He could cross in a stride the length it would take for her to pass out with fatigue, not that that was much.

 

“There is no sense in following him. Though we might reach a destination that’ll keep his interest long enough for us to convince him to follow it occurs to me he is keeping our wanderings short length so as not to get even further than where we entered.

 

“We won’t be able to escape him though. He’ll notice.”

 

“At the moment he’s ignoring the doors to our sides. At the next one we’ll open it and sneak through. Then we’ll simply get ourselves lost further until there’s no way for him to follow us. It’s imperative we stay together though. One wrong turn will separate the both of us and we have no way of knowing just how unending these corridor’s are.

 

“Then you answer me this. If this really is a fantastical realm of new wonders, adventures and delights, why does it look so boring?”

 

“Ready? We’ll take this next one.”

 

“No,” she whispered as high pitched as she could go, stopping the father as he turned ready to grab the next door handle. He looked back at her with a hesitant expression.

 

“Why?” he whispered, his feet still moving forwards and past his intended door to follow the small giant.

 

“We can’t just leave him here. What if he can’t find his way back and he gets lost in here forever? We could leave him to wander for days and die.”

 

“There is no need for such fears,” Father Sakagami said only now noting he had walked past the brass handle his hovering right arm had been aiming for. “I believe, with complete certainty, that these corridors will lead you to your destination or back out again. Since this is a spiritual walk, more than likely it will just return straggler’s back to the beginning without harm. He’ll more than likely be back before his lunch break begins.”

 

“But if he doesn’t get home he’ll-“

 

“I assure you Sakura. Everything will be fine. We must simply trust the path we take.” Now, this door. Step quietly.”

 

The guard, who was now far enough down the hallway to not only be out of ear shot but also reveal the side doors past his horrendously huge and obstructing body, continued grunting along to himself as they slowed to a halt beyond the third side door on the right hand side of the corridor. Tentatively, Father Sakagami depressed the handle and let is slide open, not even letting the smallest of creaks out into existence. As it extended in front of them, they saw nothing but another corridor, this one bare of security guard.

 

With a finger over his pursed lips, Father Sakagami entered the next corridor. “Let-” he got as far as saying.

 

“Oi!” the guard shouted, noticing them easy as he had looked behind just before opening the door to the next room. “Don’t think I can’t hear ya! You wait right-“

 

“Run,” Father Sakagami said, urging her along. Sakura’s feet didn’t need further reasoning, not with the evidence her eyes provided as the large brute of a man bounced across the narrow corridor and was halfway to them in about four steps. She jerked to the side connected to Father Sakagami’s hand and disappeared round the corner.

 

The turns blurred as her breath quickly left her body, her weight throwing her down with each heel slam. Father Sakagami kept moving, a determined man looking for his goal even within nothingness. They rushed long enough for her to have only half a lung still working and the guard right behind them after a mere thirty seconds. His thunderous boot steps (they were by far the largest feet she had even laid eyes upon) shot behind them, fast reaching them and grabbing them with such haste that he crashed forward, falling through one last door before he secured his grip of the both of them.

 

“I wouldn’t do that again,” he warned, but was cut short when all three at once saw the large fluffy teddy bear looming down upon them adorably. Behind her, Sakura could hear the security guard pitching to scream in abject terror at the thirty foot tall titan of cuddliness only to stop with his mouth half open as they all noticed the bear wasn’t moving.

 

They gazed at the monstrosity’s massive beady eyes and smiley cartoon mouth that made her want to hug it as she rolled around in bed for a few moment’s longer, testing to make sure it wasn’t alive or anything else equal parts disturbing and fatal. There was no reason to assume it was alive but she had once witnessed a demon made out of a dictionary/thesaurus surrounded by other demons that took peculiar forms. She waited for it to speak.

 

It did, and wasn’t going to she decided, staying frozen as the others walked around her to observe it better, the room around them expanding into her narrow vision revealing a spacious open room with large shelves on all the surrounding walls. On the shelves were apparently random items. A watch. A pillow, a kitchen sink; all on display and given their own little space on the shelves or cabinets that scattered the room. Some items, a set of dumbbells, a wine bottle, a wheelbarrow, were too large to go on any shelves and sat more prominently by themselves in special locations. A large dinner jacket, one that could fit fifty of the security guard in them easily was hung up by a pole much taller that the bear who continued to watch the door.

 

Sakura’s first thought was that they had somehow come through the back door to a museum. But it was much too unkempt to be a public one. Each display cabinet was made of a rich brown wood with brass wrappings around them. The carpet was an exquisite taste of greens and red. Meanwhile, around every item, red rope tied by brass poles told the universal language of ‘’don’t touch’ to all looking.

 

Something about the place gave her an impression that this was a private collector’s display room but she couldn’t devote herself to the idea completely. Though the walls were wallpapered, it was a simply lime green with no other markings. Not a portrait nor mirror nor fireplace was to be seen on any of the walls and for such a rich interior and regal skirting, the place looked incomplete.

 

“Is this an antique’s store?” asked the security guard. “I didn’t know we had one of those.”

 

“It’s not a store you fool,” replied Father Sakagami, now more impatient to be interrupted by the man who wasn’t getting what was going on here. “We have found the next step of our journey to discover the truth’s of this world.”

 

The security guard stared with the face of a thug who had been disrespected. “That’s a bit of an assumptive premise,” he called across the room, having wandered over to a display case holding a leaking bottle of some kind of beer. “You have just as little an idea as I do as to where we are. Less, I’d say.”

 

“Less? You still think we’re in the Shopping centre.”

 

“Nah, not anymore. It’s obvious, isn’t it? We’re in the InBetween Realm.” Sakura gasped. The guard grinned. “Oh, turns out you know that name too. I thought so. You’re one of the girls that we found when I was hanging out with those ninja freaks at the courthouse, weren’t you?”

 

Sakura felt a deep chill rise though her back as the figure loomed over her. For the first time she looked at him properly past the matted down hat and sunglasses. She didn’t recognise him, but she knew the event of which he had to mean. The time before last she had been here, she had witnessed Sagara killing Alexis, the boy that, having never met, she loved without a moment’s doubt. Remembering nothing of the event except Sagara’s cold arm’s wrapping round her whilst whispering emotionless apologies, it was only later he mentioned in passing that they were being tried at a courthouse by member’s of the Balance. She had cared little for the details to listen completely though and had at the time excused herself without anyone hearing.

 

“You were there,” she said in barely a whisper, realizing this was actually the first time she had spoken to the man, “when Alexis was killed.”

 

“What? You mean that guy the ninja was fighting?” He grinned and laughed at the time grabbing his cheeks to rub them quickly. “Yeah, I remember that/. Don’t know what it was about. But man must have his reasons, right?”

 

Sakura went livid at this mere discarding of human life. Cretin! How could one be so callous at to dismiss a death like that. No reason, no matter how strong was enough to take a life of another human in any situation. A fool such as yourself must be a blind idiot to see it any other way. To even view it with contempt is to spit on the value of your own immortal soul!

 

The guard looked down at her shock repulsing his body back. It took her five seconds of staring and a ringing in her ears to realise what she had just thought hadn’t stayed in her head. The guard stepped forward, his body blocking the light dangling from the ceiling and overcastting a shadow onto her. Next to her, his fists rocked lazily back and forth, almost like pendulums. He said nothing.

 

Father Sakagami grunted, catching their attention just as he swayed backwards and nearly fell over, catching himself on the display as he fumbled around with a bucket and spade, knocking them onto the floor with an unwelcome clatter.

 

“Father,” she called out, rushing over to him. The vicar took a moment to shake his head, grinning sheepishly as their eyes made contact.

 

“I’m fine, I think,” he said as he stood back up properly. “It’s just-” He swayed again and she took hold of him as he fell. With no chance of lifting his slender frame even an inch off the floor she fell with him, landing to the side. “Sorry,” Father Sakagami muttered again and took a few moments to draw light breaths that appeared necessary. “I think I’m fine now.”

 

They got up slowly, the security guard doing nothing to help them. Part of her wanted to admonish him for his lack of attention on something that was part of his job but she was too distracted by the father’s current condition, even as he made a full recovery upon standing tall. Muttering another apology, Father Sakagami looked over her shoulder to see the items he had dropped. Following his gaze, she turned round to pick them up, missing a word he said as the room disappeared from view. The bad wall paper, the display cases, red ropes and security guards all disappeared from sight before her, sparkling blue ocean came into view.

 

She felt warm, the breeze lightly brushing past her hair, inviting the warm beam of a perfect summer onto her scalp. It was a beautiful day for the beach, she found herself thinking as the sand wiggled through her toes, pumping out through the cracks before being engulfed by the ocean. Above her in the cloudless sky, a flock of birds she somehow knew were Roseate terns shot across the ocean, going only so far out before turning back again. She remembered the fact of birds flying out to sea to pass away and found herself reciting out loud.

 

“Don’t tell her stories like that,” a woman’s voice asked her to the left. Sakura turned and saw a stunningly beautiful woman standing before her. Though the woman’s face shone like an angel’s her emerald eyes sparkling from the light of the sun, Sakura couldn’t help but feel a little perplex at the beauty of the gorgeous woman besides her. The woman was overweight to the point of a bulge in her belly and rather than traditional beach wear, she wore a one piece with a pair of denim jeans and a cardigan in what was clearly a desperate attempt to hide such weight. And though her lips were as smooth as the perfect strawberry and tasted just the same with a hint of cinnamon, she had double chins on her double chins and looked like she’d have trouble even walking out of the house. The beauty spot on her cheek only served to make the woman more disgusting to gaze upon in Sakura’s eye.

 

Yet regardless, Sakura somehow knew that this was the most beautiful woman on the planet and wrapped her arm around the obese woman with a tenderness she had never given anyone in her life before.

 

Below them, she heard a gurgle and turned to see a child, their child, the only being in the world that could outshine the woman standing next to her. The child held a yellow bucket in the shape of a castle to Sakura and she accepted it with a roll of her eyes. The young boy waited with unhindered glee as Sakura filled it with wet sand, taking time to make sure the ramparts were full and letting the boy hit it maniacally with his spade before turning it over and, followed by more heavy banging, released a sandcastle that couldn’t have been more perfect. Malcolm clapped happily to himself and gurgled her into doing it again. She stared with a false annoyance at the other ten sandcastles and proceeded to fill the bucket up once more, only to slip in the sand, light enough to lose the bucket’s grip and watched it fly into the oncoming tide.

 

It floated out away from them, Malcolm’s smile transfixed in fascination as the bucket drifted away, Melanie’ calling out for her to get it quick, Sakura’s own large, muscular hands fumbling like a child to grab it from the playful waves.

 

Sakura dropped the bucket with a squeak, finding herself back on the museum floor. The bucket was right before her, the same yellow castle, and the orange spade just a little away. She twisted to Father Sakagami, looking for Malcolm desperately, before something told her the painful truth.

 

“Did it happen to you too?” the priest asked. Sakura didn’t reply, she expected to blink and find Melanie standing there gorging herself on her ice cream cone again. She blinked intentionally. Reality didn’t return.

 

“Wh-what was that?” she asked as her legs found themselves desperate to pull her back up. Her housework instinct went to grab the bucket again but she hesitated, part of her connecting the dots as the cheeks part of her started to blush at the though of having muscles.

 

“Gregor, come back!” the security guard shouted, grabbing their attention away to see the man dropping a rusted gun back onto the shelf. The man turned to stare at them blankly for a few seconds, and then reached up to rub his hair, bringing his hand down looking surprised it had found anything there. Glancing back at them, he refocused on the gun and giving it the same look he’d give a rat in the kitchen, kicking it away from him before backing off.

 

“What the fuck was that?” he screamed rudely. “Just what the fuck was that? Fuck!”

 

****

 

“Well, at least it’s warmer here. Just right actually, why can’t it be like this all the time?”

 

“Uh huh?” Otsune muttered, quickly drowning out the small talk. The temperature was roughly the same as before, no hotter, no colder. The ground appeared to be made mostly of chalk, and was powdery on her fingertips. Yet walking across it felt as hard as granite.

 

The air was purer here and judging by how big the flame had gotten had a richer content of oxygen in the air; it the flame even needed oxygen. It certainly didn’t require the other two components necessary for a continuously burning flame. Distance was near impossible to judge. She was a good guesser at distance and estimated the landscape at the edge of the horizon was roughly twenty miles away given the size and doing her best to take into account any possibility of the usual optical illusions, even ones she didn’t know about.

 

“You know, he told us he didn’t know what a mile was or a day or even the sun, yet…”

 

“He spoke Japanese with complete accuracy. I noticed that too. I’d be more focused on the fact that without knowing what a day or sun was, he knew exactly what we meant by capitalism.”

 

“So he was lying to us then?”

 

“Not necessarily, he could just pick up the words quick, or he could have been given advanced warning as to some of the terms we use. He was a business after all. It may be a long stretch, but he was a little justified in knowing what capitalism meant..”

 

“But he knew our Japanese as well, he spoke it perfectly.”

 

“The Leys spirit was the same,” Otsune thought aloud. “But it doesn’t tell us anything. We can’t tell enough about this place to know how language works to these people. For all we know, the guy was taught it, learnt it through magic or just conveniently happened to have his language completely match up to ours.”

 

“But what are the chances of that?”

 

“Personally, I’d like to think higher than being able to magically learn our language just by looking at us, just so I can keep some objects of reasoning close to me. But, ignoring my stupid self who likes to study, read up on facts and try to be aware of how things work in the universe, I don’t think it’s going to do that.”

 

Looking out again on the horizon, she rejudged it as about fifteen miles.

 

“As annoying as it is,” she said with a little groan, “we have to be very opened minded about this place.”

 

What were the stars? She thought, looking up at the pale bright lights that showed up in this apparent daytime without a sun. She didn’t recognise any constellations. And her trip to Australia when she was thirteen had taught her what the stars looked like in the southern hemisphere. This had little signs of being southern or northern. So were they on a new planet? An illogical conclusion, seeing as they were on earth half a day ago.

 

“Well,” said Fujiko, turning behind them to check something. I can no longer see the cave door. I guess we’re safe now.”

 

Otsune looked behind. The great wall was still in site, but the little cave was invisible.

 

“No better time to try it I guess,” and reaching into her book bag, she pulled out the Ivory telescope.

 

“You took it?!” Otsune screamed in a whisper, immediately wondering why and turning her voice back to normal. “Didn’t you hear what I said? Homicidal natives! Avoid them! Various other obvious clichés about strange men in foreign lands.”

 

“Aw relax. Wasn’t it obvious? I’d say he was as cautious of us as we were of him. He probably wouldn’t dare chase after us just in case we crushed him.”

 

“We wouldn’t crush him. He lives alone in a wasteland. That toughens you up.”

 

“And we live in the city, facing hardships everyday.”

 

“Getting drunk is not a hardship. You drink like an expert playing beginner’s mode. But in a fight between the two of you, I reckon the unknown creature that survive in a barren landscape by himself has a better chance of winning than the unemployed bum that spends her days drinking.”

 

“That’s not the point though. The point is he had no idea what we’re capable of and tried his best to treat us politely. That’ll be enough to convince him not to chase us.”

 

Otsune couldn’t disagree too much. Superstitions about invaders were usually prevalent the smaller the group. One guy on his own would either be having fantasies about two girls coming down the hole, or be as cautious as possible lest they eat him.

 

Also, her binoculars were broken.

 

“Whoa, this is awesome,” Fujiko said with a wow in her voice. “It’s really clear.”

 

“What can you see?”

 

“Well, Rock for one thing. And nothing else for another.”

 

Otsune pouted. She deserved that.

 

“Have a look.” Lifting up her own glasses, Otsune peered through the glass, immediately into the far distance. She could see the settled dust parked on the ground with perfect pitch and focus. She then turned it across to the wall and every pitted rock came up perfectly. Even the small cave with its loose hanging wooden door was visible with every line of grain, the little image of Oscar planted against the wall, with far too much detail showing. She jerked away and got Fujiko in her sights. Without even a need for tuning, of which there seemed to be no handle anyway, she could make out every pore on Fujiko’s face, slowly showing behind her makeup.

 

“That is very cool,” she admitted. “But he’s still out there, so let’s get a bit further away before the homicidal natives rule takes into effect.”

 

They travelled for three hours, following the marked path set clearly in the dirt. There was no wind, and no chance of it getting worn away, so they followed it straight, without a single sign of life following them.

 

This place truly is dead,” Otsune commented, looking to the far wall, Still there, but now more a blur. It was only now she could appreciate that it did have a top to it, though from the gradually upwards slope she was on she couldn’t see anything still, she had enough of an angle to know very little was on top.

 

“Yeah, we needs a party,” Fujiko hiccupped. A fourth bottle had gotten passed Otsune, and Fujiko had already downed most of it. Otsune had had a sip herself, mainly to keep her spirits up.

 

“We’ve done pretty well for ourselves, I’d say,” chimed Fujiko, a little more happy now she was a little more drunk. “We started completely fucked and without the smallest chances of survival. And now we’ve got supplies to last us two weeks, a light, magical way of carrying them, and knowledge of where the fuck we’re meant to go next. Deus ex McMaccie not withstanding, I’d say we did well.”

 

“Don’t jinx it already.”

 

***

 

“Can’t we stop yet?” Fujiko whined like a petulant child wanting to know if the destination was any closer than five seconds ago. Otsune wanted to say yes just to shut her up, but they had to make good time unless they wanted to regret it later.

 

Not that she knew what good time was in this place. Roughly nine hours had passed since they first started on their way here, according to her watch anyway. Her mind was starting to play trust games with the binary timer slowly dotting away at her wrist. Telling the time in ones and zeros was easy to mess up as it was.

 

Her biological clock wouldn’t start to screw up just yet, though the static climate already had certain parts of her brain curious about why they weren’t getting ready for bed, while others still thought it was daytime. It was just gone midnight in reality back home 00000000 00010100. Her aim was to stop at 00000001 00000000.

 

“Otsune, c’mon,” Fujiko kept at it, making her realise she hadn’t responded to her friend. There was a feeling of appreciation to her friend trailing behind her, the drunkenness wearing off with exhausting exercise. Fujiko had really gone the mile and several cycloons for her. Even if she did have to be dragged into it the girl could have quit any time up until entering the Strangelands, and even then, the little man might have had some way out of this place if they had just asked.

 

Good job they didn’t.

 

This couldn’t change anything though. To relax would be foolish. To get lazy and complacent would lead to a spiralling loss of effort. It wasn’t the start of the race where people could go flaccid. They had to endure, to push further than before and go across all the pages. Anything else would waste Fujiko’s efforts for her friend, and would lose them any remaining chance of finding Tina.

 

All was pointless unless they achieved their goal. This wasn’t some philosophical trek when the journey was more important than the goal. They were fucked unless they got there.

 

A thud behind her was followed by a great groan of agony quickly turning into blissful relief in stereo. Fujiko was laying on the path. Having either fell or dropped, Otsune knew it didn’t matter now. Fujiko had decided.

 

Though she was tired too.

 

“Five minutes,” she said. “Then we’ll walk until one. Then we sleep.”

 

“It gone one,” Fujiko said, lifting her watch and making no effort to display it to Otsune properly. Otsune glared to see ten past one on display and ignored it.

 

“One by my clock,” Otsune retorted quickly with a ‘my word is final or no more booze’ tone.

 

“Fine,” Fujiko muttered. They rested quietly for a minute, Otsune watching the lights flicker on and off, zero and one, in succession. Keeping her mind active, she tried to guess patterns, but they numbly turned to long multiplication to prevent any real effort.

 

“Geez, when you think about it, all we’ve done is walk all day.”

 

Agreeing with a quiet ‘uh huh’, she realised how true it was. From the dorm to the forests, to the tunnel to the hill, they had covered more ground today than she had on foot in the past two weeks. No wonder they were exhausted. After this she’d have to space it out. This was only the start. They wouldn’t last long if they overextended themselves every day. I wonder if any of the leaves have healing properties.

 

Another regret. Questions left unasked. The little man was altruistic and she hadn’t abused it, let it lead her to laziness as all acts of kindness do. He was doing them favours, so she lost the flow. Didn’t ask the important questions. The meat and apples might have held no healthy qualities, even though they be the most likely candidates. The foul smelling dust might have boosted their strength and increased their speed a hundred fold. Having chosen the right stuff, they might have covered this same distance in minutes.

 

Of course, would she have accepted drugs like that, without knowledge of the negative effects, with the knowledge that they’d find Tina ever faster? Of course they were the foolhardy qualities all future addicts must ask themselves, though she never knew for certain. It was a shame that first hand experience of something she was mildly curious in would never be worth the risk. Drearily shaking her head, she snapped out of it. This wasn’t the time to think fantasy transcendism or imagining RPG qualities in foods. It was all just food. She would have asked for his opinion yes, but that didn’t mean the sacks promised power. The powers she had were proving useless anyway. A great mind lost in a wasteland, a beautiful body with no men to seduce, a flame that floated and a telescope that saw only that there was no where to sleep.

 

Any girl in the dorm would be at the same level as she was now.

 

***

 

The city wanted its buildings back.

 

It wanted to make a bed of them.

 

It couldn’t sleep. It couldn’t rest.

 

But it could be without being anything.

 

Save a useless city that is.

 

Otsune shifted as the land crashed around. Undistributed chalk dust jumped high in the air and took its time floating down. Echoes reverberated through her minds and played like an unwelcome alarm clock.

 

Quickly, she stirred awake, barely noticing that she had fallen asleep to look around, searching for the reality or the question of a dream (whichever she found first). Fujiko was waking besides her too, already complaining.

 

“Crap. Wasn’t a dream.” Her mind fluttered for a few moments. “Crap! Fell asleep!”

 

Otsune got up, the power nap refreshing her. Had they moved? were her first thoughts. She hadn’t recalled the hill being this steep before, but she could barely remember they were on a hill before. The noises above were distracting.

 

“Something’s here,” she said. Bracing herself, she scaled up the hill, half crawling to keep herself down. It was the ground that had been shaking, making the rumbling, but something obviously had to cause it. Peeking over carefully, her eyes took scant moments to adjust to the purple light of the neverday of this land. Ahead of her, a large man stood, probably twice as tall as her and just as slim. Large lanky arms dangled besides him, almost as long as the rest of his body. Far longer than they should have been. He was wrapped up tight in dark grey, nearly mummified in long cloth that wrapped round his entire body except his dark tanned legs which glowed like the sun.

 

An explosion flashed against Otsune’s eyes, and the ground exploded ahead of her, erupting a mere meter from the man as his arm jolted backwards. Ducking her head instinctively, she buried her face in chalk until the noise stopped. When she finally got the courage to look back, she saw chalk permeating the air, hiding everything as it fused with black smoke that quickly dissipated into the air, leaving the new figure standing as he had before, now looking straight towards her, causing Otsune to notice for the first time the large metal pipe dangling from his hands.

 

“No, wait, wait,” she screamed, barely having the time to speak, as green light bombed towards her, filling her vision before her arms flew up to uselessly protect her. The force pushed her off her knees, engulfing her in instant twister winds, enough to pull her up and push her down again. She rolled up the top of the hill and running going down again before the short tornado stopped.

 

Spitting out sands and tears, her eyes squinted open and closed themselves straight again, her eyes stinging like she had shampoo in them. She choked more dust out of her mouth.

 

“Otsune, what’s going-“

 

“Stay away!” she screamed, not able to see or hear anything. With more care this time she rubbed her eyes with a clean part of her top, even the driest bit was still matted with sweat and chalk, but soon she was able to see again, her vision blurred. For the first time she noted she had taken off her glasses when she had accidentally drifted off.

 

The top of the hill loomed over her, looking a lot bigger than it had before. The top was scorched black even over the edges and covering the other side. However the exact tip was clean, still bright white as before, as the head popped into view.

 

His face was covered with the same grey bandages as the upper half of his body, his features completely hidden except for bright blue eyes that filled the whole of the iris like an angry artist had thrown paint at them. They were wide and without eyelashes and Otsune felt that all she could do to stop him in those few moments he advanced on her was to just hurry up and kill herself to save him the trouble.

 

Descending down upon her, Otsune felt her hands scurrying over chalk searching for something. Anything. Too far away from their makeshift campsite, she had nothing. Even if she could throw something at him, something told her it would make no difference. His boomstick would make anything she did nothing short of temporary.

 

His presence took a moment for her grab the cuff of her own shoulder and slap herself in her face. What was she thinking? Freaking out like this. Getting all panicky at danger like some dumbass retard. Having just woken up was not an excuse, those were the dumbass reasons anyone would have for running away. Just because she was defenceless didn’t mean she couldn’t fight this.

 

She needed no weapons save the pulsating organ in her skull.

 

“Wait,” she said, loud yet calm, in the way a robber would to prevent hundreds of armed cops from shooting him down. This time it seemed to work and she slowly walked towards him, holding nothing, showing all her cards. For the first time she noticed the small flame between her and the man.

 

Her heart was beating through her chest, slamming on it, an angry husband looking for his wife, a scared child looking for its way out. Showing fear wasn’t an option. It might have worked to the man’s sympathy, but it also might stroke the wolf in him. She showed nothing but surrender. It was so potentially dumb, but there was nothing else. Any threats. Any strengths, would result in cannonfire in her face.

 

“Not a threat. We’re not a threat.”

 

They watched each other carefully, taking each other in, one breathing heavy, the other not at all. Keeping her eyes steady, trying to match his, she only faltered when she saw the launcher move, though even then it was carefully, analytical. A long teardrop shaped container with four sections protruding from it, possibly some kind of ammo holder and possibly meaning he was out, or only had one left. Impossible to guess without further information. The cut out hole in the teardrop was pointing at her.

 

“Sorry.”

 

The teardrop turned away from her, pointing safely towards nothing, the large man scratching the back of his head in silent anxiety. Otsune felt a huge surge of relief, and fell down again, not caring for ceremony.

 

The man stayed silent, as Fujiko slowly approached them. Sticking as close to Otsune as she possibly could, the girl clung tightly to keep herself as near and safe as possible. The man seemed to understand.

 

Both parties stayed silent, the trio keeping huddled together as the man stepped away. Otsune contemplated how he could wipe them out a lot quicker now like this. It took her a moment to notice he was already walking away back to the crossroads. “Were we that close?”

 

“Excuse me,” she shouted over to him before she knew what she was doing and slapped herself again for being so stupid. The man turned back to face her halfway, looking at her from the slits of eyes without pupils.

 

She had to ask.

 

“Do you know where the Circus of Answers is?”

 

The man stared down at her, like he was looking at nothing and waiting for the bus.

 

“The Circus of Answers,” she said louder, like an American asking a foreigner. “We need to find it.”

 

Was the little man telling the truth, she knew the answer already, but a second opinion would help kill some worries, and possibly prevent two deaths as well.

 

He grunted loudly, muffled under the layer, and turned to look back at the cross roads, pointing the large cannon high in that direction and unleashing a single volley that trailed high into the sky, leaving a great smoke path that travelled over the horizon of the next hill and landed with an echoing thud that lit up the far sky.

 

“Hopefully, not there,” said Fujiko.

 

****

 

“Think it through,” Natoko thought to herself as she ripped bread off of more bread and placed it sloppily into her mouth, managing to slurp it up like spaghetti. “If a trail is cold after the first couple of days, how cold is it a month later?”

November had pulled up a few hours ago and the threat of school and work had rendered the dormitory quiet for a night, not that it hadn’t been quiet all day either, or for the last month. Since school had started, silence had reigned a dictatorship over her life. There was noise, but no sound. Nothing important to listen too anyway.

And no clues.

Something inside her had expected things to fall into place at some point. Some magical clue swept under the carpet that once prominently on display linked all other objects together. A missing link. Yes, that was the term she was looking for.

As it was all she had found recently was some crusty bread she bought a week ago at the bottom of her bag that she really shouldn’t be eating and an equation at the back of her maths book that turned the current equations set for her detention/homework from intrinsically complicated to embarrassingly simple, made worse with the knowledge that she still didn’t get it.

Her arms tingled with overuse and her body demanded more water. There was talk of an exhibition going on next month for the kendo club. More local than national. She had discarded it as unimportant immediately after she was invited but now it was becoming quite tempting. Anything to get away from the mundane parts of her life returning.

No! She shook her head to snap the thought away, keeping her mind clear by staring at meaningless differential equations that were one by one gaining funny faces. It didn’t matter how boring this had gotten, didn’t matter how much their leads had whittled down to or how much Sagara was sleeping being beyond personal safety and going right down into muscle entropy. It was still her duty. She had to help Sagara pass his initiation.

That’s what she had decided. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t asked her. Sun Tsu’s general would not follow the Emperor’s orders if they were not of benefit to the emperor Even if the orders go against the wishes of the master, they should still be performed for his betterment.

If Sagara wouldn’t pass this initiation, then she would have to do it for him.

That was her line of thought as she started to fall asleep at the start of November.

***

A bump in the night caught her attention, shadows dancing along the dark walls. She stopped swinging Iziz idly in her left hand and listened. Everyone was asleep or out, but the dorm still liked to talk to itself every so often. The walls carried interesting echoes sometimes.

“Fujiko sure has been gone a while.”

“I need to tell him. I will tell him.”

“But it doesn’t make sense, even if the lampshade were to side with the radiators, entirely possible as both are providers of heat, it still does not take into account that the gas based items don’t get along well with electricity. If they were to team up, it would have had a more explosive impact…”

“Damn these whores for sullying our master’s name!”

Natoko woke up, sharp and fast, with a sharp jerk as she lifted Iziz up into a safer position. That was dangerous, drifting off with sword in hand. Not that dangerous directly. It was the waking up and stretching your arms up and around your head that resulted in a bloody awakening.

It was time for bed. She could continue to be depressed in the morning. Stretching one last time, she deposited Iziz back into its sheath and left the maths books to mysteriously burn to a cinder with any luck on the table. School and life had turned into the usual blur already, so she wasn’t too annoyed that tomorrow would bring up more anger with Mr. Tsukamoto and a few mumbling apologies to hurry and shut him up. She even had it as part of her daily schedule now. Argue with teacher. 0920 hours. Want to go home. 0921 hours.

No, she always wanted to do that.

Releasing a depressive giggle as she passed Junko’s own giggles, she realised that there was at least one other person who didn’t care that they had school tomorrow. Normally she found herself angry that people were bringing their boyfriends into the girl’s only dorm but then her’s was actually living there so she couldn’t be….

Her what?

No, what was she thinking?

Too tired. She was far too tired. Letting her thoughts get bored and curious. Her steel was melting, becoming softer. School did that to her; did that to everyone. There was no discipline there. No personal refinement. Even her reaction just now was that of a nobody. Next she’ll be watching soaps and starting rumours.

“There she is!” a voice boomed out in front of her. “There’s she who wishes they would slip into her room at night and take her. Who wishes for decadence to replace her languor.”

Natoko snapped to attention. The darkness before her revealing a figure. “Sits all night looking for violence and blood. Cock and flesh. Nothing pure. Only demon.”

The voice was croaked and raspy, someone who’s vocal chords had been plucked for far too long and never replaced, a tune that should have stopped long ago. The owner was hidden in the night of corridor east four; screaming in whispers,

“How can she even stand, with all the sin pouring out of her? She should be drowning.”

“Slut.”

“Whore.”

“Harlot!”

She focused into the darkness ahead of her. Three of them. Three voices in darkness, getting closer, ethereal strands of darkness floating between her and the intrusion, blocking her sight.

Iziz didn’t have its sash on her, so she couldn’t leave it hanging on her waist. Instead she held it tight in her hand, half out. She wouldn’t be able to swing properly like this.

“If she wants sin so much she can take it.” One jumped her, turning from a strange lump to a projectile heading straight for her. Wide eyes pierced a gaze in her soul that made her fall back in panic. It wasn’t until she was on the floor that she felt the water splash onto her, the body falling to her side.

It was a man on first glance, though it was too dark to tell properly. The man rolled his head over to look at her as he lay on the ground, his expression frozen.

“She denies it.” said the speckled old voice, wailing loudly, each of its cries pain on the ears. “Denies the manflesh she so craves. Does she think to deny herself in front of us? A harlot pretending innocence only makes them more sinful.”

Natoko recoiled, her hands fidgeting as they felt the weight of their actions. He was dead. The man before bore a cut straight through mouth to chest. Had Iziz really been that sharp? Her stomach heaved on her and resisted humiliating the corpse even further.

“Would she like another?”

Catapulting from the darkness, another figure came towards her, like a sack through the air, it fell towards her with no direction. Her panic made her drop the blade, not wanting to use it again. It gave her no time to move, and the body fell on her with a slump.

“Ha, this one she accepts. She is no maiden of virtue, this one, but cheap gutter trash waiting for the man with a bigger wallet!”

“Get off,” Natoko cried defiantly, fighting against the brute on top of her as he encumbered her with his full weight. His arms fell over her like large branches and belted her in the face as she lifted him up.

“Even a queer is man enough for her!”

Flailing randomly now, her eyes closed as tears leaked out, Natoko took a moment before she realised what was on top of her. Another man for certain, but one just as dead as the one besides her, and he looked kind of familiar.

“Ah geez,” she relaxed, knowing that her blade had not been responsible. They were both dead. They had both been already dead. That made sense. Surely she would have heard him complain otherwise.

It took a moment before she realised that this didn’t stop the two corpses from being right next to her.

With a scream that would have make Sakura proud, she shook herself free of the second body and crawled over to Iziz, picking it up and spinning into position, ready to face her challenger of an empty corridor.

Her thoughts backed up. No one there. Just her and two bodies.

She listened carefully. No one there. Wait. Someone. Not running or sneaking. Just fumbling slowly forwards. Feet moving in centimetres to prevent the smallest slip

And they had insulted her!

After screaming and shouting to distract her, they had left after leaving behind two bodies. Did they believe they could rely on the element of surprise? She herself was beyond such petty tactics.

She rose up, brandishing her blade and starting forwards. They wouldn’t be far ahead, and her eyes had adapted now. What were they? Demons for sure. Who else had reason to invade her dorm at night? It seems that the demon was right in its warnings. The others were seeing them as responsible. No one else had been targeted save her. Maybe Sagara too was under attack! The thought sped her pace.

Rushing down the corridor, she tried to keep her footsteps quiet to prevent disturbing the peace. Waking up others was as tactically effective in protection as reinforcing the walls of your outer defences with all your valuable gold. She would protect them by keeping them safe and asleep. The demons shouldn’t be aiming for anyone besides her and Sagara.

Why was that? For a second she felt the impulsive nerve ending of an answer grip her, but it left as she approached the lobby door. For stumbling footsteps they had gotten a good head start on her. She bounded through into the lobby and felt herself frozen to the spot.

The room was burning.

Her body immediately began to sweat in the intense heat, raging hot fires swarming towards her. She pulled back and watched with eyes crunched up as they stopped just before her. She pulled back, just as a peace of wood above started to crack and fall.

Fire alarms weren’t going off neither in either her brain or the roof. She was stuck watching the oranges flickering dance and merge with each other back and forth, to and fro. They played a merry jog and set the couch on fire.

The figure on the other side walked away from her.

“Wait,” she cried out foolishly. The figure hesitated, and she knew this must be the third of the voices. That didn’t matter though. All it was was another demon intruder that could bring her to life.

Then as it turned to look at her, Natoko’s mid skipped a step and went fuzzy, her thoughts burned in the amber haze and she felt her brain boil in its own juices. It was getting hard to think. She looked directly at the figure, staring it right in its face and seeing nothing but a hollow sphere with a hole in it, looking like an ostrich egg that had been punched.  It raised its hands and she screamed as the fire overtook her. Burning her arms, fizzling her hair and clothes; taking her to the depths of the inferno, she collapsed under the weight of the humidity and perished in everlasting nova flame.

“Evening,” said Aki, as she wandered through the empty lobby. Natoko turned to her, her hands raised over her head and looking like someone in rehearsal. “Look who I find. Should we call the police?”

Natoko let her arms drop, Iziz falling hilt side down and ejecting itself from the sheath and onto the floor as Natoko watched her friend come in through the door. Besides her on Gen’s perfectly polished and in no way scorched save for that one little burn mark from when Fujiko had stamped her cigarette into the ground, was a little old lady, dressed for tradition and looking very meek and distressed.

***

The police hadn’t come into the dormitory. Some mystical, powerful force that could only be described as exercise fearing laziness prevented them from ascending the Heaven’s walkway. They had been more concerned with the old lady being lost than being an intruder. It was of course unthinkable that she had been there to do damage. The police weren’t completely local but they were still on the side of the elderly and of course completely innocent rather than the young and always at fault. They had listened to a few quick words from the two girls, as well as Junko, who had still been awake, heard nothing of interest and then left to return the older woman back to wherever she came from as soon as Aki confirmed that there was no further damage.

They had had about an hour before the police finally did show up, giving Natoko plenty of time to wander round and get Junko up in the first place, the only problem besides ruining her friend’s happy time being that she hadn’t spoilt it completely by giving her two bodies to trip over. Apparently they had gone the same way as the burning lobby. At first she had jumped to the obvious conclusion that she was going mad and about time too. The floor wasn’t marked in any way in the lobby and the air was crisp and cool with the AC switched to mild. She didn’t even have any sweat marks on her top. Wherever she had been, it was certainly not on fire.

Of course it made no sense that a small women could have tossed bodies that had floored her across the length from here to the darkness, but that didn’t deny the weight she had felt. She was definitely winded from the impact. Even now.

They were gone, vanished into space and with no traces left save her own fading memories. She had almost given up on them too when the floor was completely empty, but as she slid Iziz back into place, no blood on it either it seemed, she noticed a small plastic card balancing precariously on the skirting.

An id card, belonging to Hattori Saizo. That name was familiar, and not just historically. The face was even more familiar, she thought, looking at the handsome yet sullen features of its once carrier. This was the one she had slashed. Iziz had cut through him so clean and easily. She never had a proper chance to test that before. Bamboo and air were nothing compared to flesh and bone.

She had seen him before. But where. Too old for school and she didn’t really know anyone else. Someone from the town maybe. Why did the body disappear and not this? Was there someone else here, hopefully long gone after the hour’s wait for the police? Where else had she been recently?

It clicked. For the first time in a while, Natoko smiled.

***

Thunderous footsteps waking up those in the surrounding dorms, Natoko paced across wooden nightingales and through the corridors that led outside. Crossing over the gravel, she made a sharp left and followed the wooden walls that supported the outside wall of the building. It was quicker this way, even though it was guesswork leading her at the moment. There had been no pattern in his tactics of slumber.

Which meant that he’d be in the one place she’d check last.

“Sagara. Sagara,” she called out, entering his room without knocking. “I figured it out. I know what the connection is!”

His room spread out before her, the first none family member’s male bedroom she had been in before caught her by the throat as she realised what she had done. The fear of being in a place she should not was quickly replaced however, as the emptiness of the room dawned upon her. It was spartan. Empty, save for a futon and a bag thrown the corner. The cupboard open, no clothes were hung up and there were no drawers to store anything in. It was considered basic accommodation to have a desk when you rent a room out, but this was missing as well. How could he live like this? She thought briefly, before other duties distracted her attention.

He wasn’t in bed. He was no where near the futon fact. Instead he was resting amazingly comfortably against the wall, his head and shoulders below the rest of him, his back plastered to the wall with sweat, his legs dangling freely swaying palm branches. She approached carefully, but loud enough to try and wake up.

“Sagara, wake up! It’s the tournament. Tournament finalists are the ones they’re going after. Itoko and that demon were attacked by the fire spirit. And I got attacked too. Now there’s…”

Her argument halted itself. He hadn’t shifted an inch, just lying there against the wall. Pushing him awake would be far too rude, she knew. Maybe she could push his legs a little so he fell down…

Looking round his room, as if something there might help her out, she ran out of options quickly. She tried prodding him, watching as he wobbled on the spot backwards and forwards, legs rotating in small circles before coming to a halt like his lower body was stuck in cement.

“Sagara,” she whispered, before realising that ruined the point. “Sagara!” she said with more conviction.

He snored once loudly, then went back to being silent. Natoko felt insulted.

Contorting her face back from him, she couldn’t help but release a guttural growl at the boy. Sleeping? Even now. When clues are dangled before them? How could he be so lazy? It was beyond a joke. No one needed to sleep this much. From what Gen had said he was up during the day, working hard and training. Did that exhaust him this much? Shouldn’t he be out looking for clues as well?

“Sagara!”

 

The air sucked out of Natoko’s ears, falling underwater without the rest of her as she began floating in midair. With just enough time to see herself go limp under Sagara’s heavy body, she felt herself getting rammed by the bullet train and turned the whole world to a blur around her.

 

Then she was in Sarah’s room. The little blond delinquent was now sporting a blue hue which seemed to surround her and everything else in Natoko’s vision. She was on the phone to somebody and looked angry as ever. As Sarah spoke, every word came out north by north east and tasted like strawberries. In her other hand she held a game controller, her big toe on the directional pad.

 

The train hit her again, just a glancing blow this time, just enough to render her nothing but pink fleshy matter, but not enough to prevent her flying through several walls and ceilings without breaking them behind her and into Otsune’s empty room. Nothing happened at all in here. In front of her, nothing appeared and then she was taken away again.

 

Struggling to get a bearing, her world shaking one thousand and eighty degrees and playing her head like a drum, she saw him wandering in the distance, “Sagara!” she shouted. The boy turned, but didn’t seem to see her. She had stopped off in Hisami’s room.

 

The girl was in tears, lying on the floor. Around them, Natoko could hear chanting.

 

“Hisami?” she said, seeing her friend in need. She jumped down and grabbed the floor tightly to try and see her friend’s face. “Are you okay?”

 

“Shut up. Shut up Shut up. Make them leave me alone. Stop them.”

 

“Hisami?”

 

“You gotta get them to stop for me. They won’t listen to me anymore. Only talk. Talk and talk and talk.”

 

“Hisami?” Part of her brain was telling her to speak in Italian.

 

“All the boring talking. It only stops to ask how you are. It never cares. That beautiful mundane. Trapped in mediocrity. So beautiful, never being able to see.”

 

Natoko tensed her arm to drag hersef sideways. It seemed harder than it usually would, pulling herself to Hisami’s face.

 

“You don’t see them anymore!”

 

The face stared right back at her, and Natoko knew this shouldn’t be right. It was enough to get her hit by the train again. She followed it outside, to a flowing stream. Two men stood there, one was a wizened old gentleman who mused philosophically at her while stroking a beard that grew longer as he pulled on it. The other was a ball.

 

One went to touch her and she repelled herself back, shooting away again and returning to the dorm. She hit the sound coming from a radio and skidded past Sagara. “Sagara,” she screamed as she bolted past and he reached up to grab hold of her.

 

“Got you!” he said and then she woke up again.

 “Morning,” Aki said, nearly startling her by appearing in a long robed, pink dressing gown. “Police have left.”

Natoko looked around. The room was still empty. Her lord was still asleep. Aki looked at her in a blur for a few moments and she realized it wasn’t best to stand right now. “Ah yes. Good work,” she hoped she said, though she wasn’t aware of what Aki had done.

“Hey, look at him,” she said with glee, gliding over to the corpse boy before them. “Wonder how he did this?”

“Beats me,” Natoko replied.

“Hey boya,” Aki jeered. “Having your guard down and being completely unprepared accounts for 100% of all deaths you know. It goes alongside not breathing for more than six hours.” She poked his face, undeterred by its position.

Looking away and feeling the card in her hand, Natoko knew right now she should be telling Sagara and only Sagara? But now something else was coming over her. Something deep and overwhelming. An irrepressible urge that could not be swayed even if she wanted to. A rushing tide coming at a beach with an intention to collect as many souvenirs as possible.

In truth, it was not an unnatural feeling. She knew this, even though she had never felt it before. It was irrational, for she knew it to be pointless. But knew it had to be followed through more than even a trip to the lavatory. And nothing could, nothing would, stop her now she had remembered it.

“Aki, listen to what I found out!”

Taking her time to explain, as best as one could in between ragged bursts of information shooting out of her mouth at great speed, she threw down her reasoning on the attacks, her lines of thought on how she knew tournament members to be the targets, her methods and conclusion, making sure not to omit any detail and being thorough in denying any argument Aki might come up with before she had a chance to easy.

By the time she had finished, Aki just stared at her, and Natoko knew it was time to be smug.

The girl then shrugged her shoulders. “Well sure, that’s obvious really.”

Despite every justification, Natoko did not kill her friend.

“Though it doesn’t completely work out,” Aki mused further. “And why is the card still here when the bodies disappeared? It’s like it was setup.”

Natoko tried to ignore her, kneeling down besides Sagara’s contorted form, his loud snoring was only periodic, once every ninety seconds or so like it released little wimpy snorts of clogged air that were disgusting and mesmerising.

Natoko cut them off with her finger.

“What are you doing?”

“Waking him up.”

She held his nose tightly, her other hand wrapped over his mouth and felt the pressure build underneath. Feeling a bit of a bully she waited for him to struggle, feeling a little odd when nothing happened. It should have only taken seconds but he held fast as time passed quicker.

Just when he was going purple and she was just about to consider if he had another blow hole somewhere, the boy’s eyes fluttered open and looked directly at her. She lifted her hand to let him breathe, but strategically kept her hand on his nose and started lifting him.

“My apologies, sire,” she said, feeling a weight of guilt dropping into her lungs and switching to high etiquette as a remedy. “But we need to discuss some matters of importance regarding the initiation.”

“Sure, what’s up,” he replied, completely awake.

***

By the time Natoko had explained everything, only two minutes had actually passed. She was never very good at getting into detail and she had wanted to omit most of the scripting provided by the elderly folk that had invaded. Even so, it was past two now and time was starting to stretch. She’d only get four hours of sleep at this rate.

“So it’s tournament members, huh?”  Sagara repeated, thus helpfully summarising the previous unprinted parts of the conversation. “Well that never occurred to me.”

“See, he didn’t get it,” Natoko stated proudly to Aki. Aki was asleep. Natoko turned back to the actual conversation. “So what should we do now?”

“Well, it’s late and I’m tired. I guess we could leave it for the weekend.”

Not replying for the first moment, Natoko waited to see if this was the one and only time Sagara would burst into a girlish fit of giggles and say ‘psyche’ or something. The second moment turned to hoping he was about to become a schoolgirl. During the third moment, a thousand miles away, the angel of the north sneezed and cause inspiration in a hundred university postgraduates studying mathematics and physics to convert both to Christianity and homosexuality, and by the fourth her face was contorted in anger.

“The weekend?” she repeated, ready to blow and spraying the contents of her head at him in due reward “We’ve wasted enough time already this month. We shouldn’t delay another four days. We have to act now.”

And skip school.

“I know.” Sagara stretched up, flipping round and rolling against the diameter of his forehead so he wouldn’t land on her. “But it’s not possible right now. Perhaps the morning would be more likely. But right now this is very unlikely.” He stooped up, a usually impossible motion but Sagara managed without grace or fluidity, and slumped over to where the mattress was placed in the centre of his near barren room.

He missed it by a rough meter, dropping like a penguin realising the iceberg was slippery and cracking chin first into the floorboards. He didn’t seem to mind and carried on laying there. Natoko watched for forty-five seconds until his first shotgun blast of snoring filled the air.

Leaving Aki to her own dreams, she paced out the door, slamming it shut and wandering down the hall, coming back a few seconds later to make sure it was shut properly. Silence quickly filled the room as the two empty bodies slept peacefully at opposite ends of the room, Sagara’s mouth whispering hollow promises of fairy cakes and Aki drooling*[1].

****

You were right before, brother. Please remember that. Heavenly springs does not hold our siblings. Only the OniSui was imprisoned there. Only I went there by choice and none of its current residents know where our brother is hidden.

***

She couldn’t believe him. Impossible. To find the clue they had long waited for. To be given it, even in suspicious and obviously placed by someone who wanted them to find it circumstances, and to just ‘pass it off for the weekend’. There was no logic in that! That was intentional failure!

Part of her was arguing that this must be the plan of a leader, that the leader was holding back information even from the troops, the strategy of a true mastermind that although showing his men as only pawns in his battle he knew the risks of letting too many know too much about everything he was but then she just remembered that it was fucking Sagara again.

She was loyal to him. Even now. This was just a test, but one she had given herself. To be patient at a time of being where she wanted to be far away and perhaps in some fantasy land where talking Australian crocodiles taught her everything they knew bit by bit so she could become their queen was the virtue a vassal needed the most. Great leaders did not come quickly, she had taught herself that. Napoleon and Alexander and Nobunaga didn’t have their wars of life unfold in the five minutes it took her to read the quick tips box. If she were to follow him, she must realise there would be cold patches as well, spell of numbness and indecision.

Maybe it was time take on optional duties, to properly pass the time.

[1] Aki didn’t dream much. It was nearly impossible for her to dream. Not so much out of a lack of falling into REM sleep, but more that she never noticed the difference between being awake or asleep, which led to further complications down the line when she realized that she was no longer married to Fujiko, and that Fujiko didn’t know what she was talking about, or that they had insisted on a Brad Pitt themed wedding. After she realized the events in dreams didn’t happen in reality, she deemed them useless and deciding to stop having them altogether.

 

****

 

Not knowing what she was doing here, Natoko turned round to head home.

Realising it would be rude to not show up at the agreed time, Natoko turned back round and stood by the door for a few more minutes.

Coming to the conclusion that this couldn’t be the place Kiriyama had told her to meet up with him she paced off again, ready to apologise in the morning for not being able to meet up.

Finally, in the fourth loop of the fourth set, she stopped to look at the map, giving her directions to this exact location in fine detail, the Google map showing her exactly where she needed to be with perfect precision, even the words ‘blue door’ scrawled in red pen by Kiriyama himself.

Taking in the door’s rotten form. the blue appeared to be an afterthought like a baker had decided a cherry on top would be nice for his cake, but only had the one in his mouth left to use. The rest of the alley made the InBetween realm with all its neatly placed and repetitive mess looked like it had been cleaned by the type of pedantic mother figure that won’t leave you alone when you’re busy. The ground was wet, the puddles with plenty of garbage and dirt mixed in. She couldn’t even identify most of the dirt in the compact space of the alley. Most of the gunk hanging off the wire fence didn’t look like it had come from anything remotely solid and had just oozed into existence with the intention of causing passer-bys to retch at the sight.

This was definitely the place, but she was getting cautious about waiting here. Even wrapped up with her thick coat, she could feel her bones chill her slowly. This is where white outlines got painted! And the large garbage cans surrounding her probably stored nothing but corpses. Escape should have been her only real focus now. Screw the fact she wasn’t trapped.

“Ah, you made it,” a voice echoed through the alleyway. The blue door was talking to her as Kiriyama slid out of it, keeping the decrepit mess of wood as shut as possible. “Thank you for coming today. I appreciate all your help.” He bowed deeply for her.

“Oh no no no,” she said, waving her hands and feeling flustered. “I’m just sorry I put you off for so long, even though I wasn’t really doing much.”

“I thought you said you had other projects.”

“Well,” she started, feeling crestfallen. “They’ve been put on a delay it seems.”

“Then it’s good for both of us,” he responded, looking genuinely cheerful. “I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do this without you. You’re vital to the plot here.”

Now this is what she needed. Actual appreciation, not just a kooky grin. She responded better with Kiriyama. Always had done. He may have been the popular student in school, but he wasn’t too smug, and he worked hard and got on well with everyone, even her, even though they didn’t talk much during school.

“So what do you need me for?” she asked confidently, though a little anxious when she saw the perfect ball of dark smog erupt from the air conditioning.

“I just need you to stay with me here for today. We’re meeting with somebody first, and I’ll need you to let me do the talking.”

“Oh… ok,” she said, curious and confused.

“Ah….well,” he seemed to stutter a little. “I’ll explain later for sure. If you could just not speak during all of this, I need to have it work perfectly.”

“But…”

Her voice faded as she heard footsteps. Kiriyama had noticed them before her. The two were chatting lightly to themselves, and she heard curse words every other syllable. As she got sight of them apprehension caught her heart. These were…types she’d work hard to avoid. The type where confrontation was part of the mandatory curriculum. They wore beanies and fake designer sunglasses. They were slouched over. One was smoking. Natoko made herself look and feel small, a survival instinct developed for centuries by the Japanese not to avoid a fight she couldn’t win (impossible) but to avoid a social encounter she would not be able to get out of without feeling shamed later.

“Good afternoon,” Kiriyama said besides her, getting up and approaching the men as one was in mid hock and spit. They viewed him as if they were at an art gallery they didn’t quite get.

“Oioioi, who’s this guy,” said the smoker.

“Dunno, don’t care.”

“Good afternoon. My name is Yamato Satoshi. This is Nakamura Kotana. Am I right in thinking you are known as Ryuta and Kenni?”

“Eh?” the smoker emitted a noise that sounds like it would come from a dying cat. “You yak’za or something?”

“The fuck man? Too young to be yakuza,” the beanie, who on closer inspection looked to have a face like a junction of jagged rocks. “They don’t hire kids.”

“Ah no, we are not Yakuza. In fact, we’re actually part of –“

“Not many Yak’za left round here anyway. The king scared most of them off. The ones remaining became worker bees.”

“Yes, I heard the same,” Misato tried to make it sound like he was meant to be part of the conversation. He was failing.

“But what if they’re coming back. There’d try tat.”

“Yak’za ain’t never coming back. No reason to. No business here any more. Not da regular type anyway.”

Natoko found herself fascinated for a moment. Misato was still trying to get a word in edgeways. She had never seen him not be the centre of attention before.

“My apologies sirs, as I was trying to tell you, we happen to be simply a group of two, and we were looking for information.”

“Ah, you lost or something?”

“Ah no, we’re-”

“You look lost to me. Looks like you shouldn’t be round here at all.”

“Ah yes but I…”

“-was just leaving right. Just going to turn around and leave with your girlfriend before you come across circumstances you regret.”

It occurred to Natoko, that she had already forgotten who was who, or who had even spoken last. It didn’t seem to matter.

“Ah no no,” Kiriyama said after a little mumbling. “I had a question to ask you surrounding your boss?”

“My what?” the beanie shouted.

“Your- your boss.”

“Don’t have a boss.”

“Ah yes you do, I- I know that… because… well. I… I happened to overhear…”

Misato was losing it. She could see his fear. They could probably smell it.

“Little boy thinks he can get a piece.”

“Wants to play video games in real life.”

“There’s no health packs here boy. This ain’t school, and it ain’t manga. You can’t come here with some bitch and expect to just ask your way into our things. Respect got to be earned f you wanna go up.

“Ah, so you do have a boss?”

“What?’

“You said to go up. That would imply a hierarchy and from there a top part, where I assume your boss is, you know, the King.”

“He’s psychic, Kenni, how he figured that?” The one who must be called Ryuuta looked panicked, very shaken. His friend glanced at him disappointed for a second. Misato seemed to relax, but Natoko had been picked on enough to know sarcasm in that type. “You better tell him what he wants quick, or you’ll be sorry.”

“Okay, you’re scaring my friend here,” the beanie said, also not looking shaken. “I think you have one more chance to leave, and then you will have no options to leave at all.”

“I just need to speak to-“ The fist came fast, and was clocked  at an angle Natoko was unfamiliar with. It was from above the shoulder, but it was sideways, sloppy and Kiriyama should have been able to avoid it with dashing ease.

Unintentionally rooting herself to the ground, Natoko watched as the beanie followed up, driving his right steel capped boot straight down into Misato’s chest. Misato cried out with agony and rolled over a full turn just in time to receive a slicing kick in the exact same spot. His cries turned to whimpers as he started to incoherently babble forgiveness.

Frozen on the spot, Natoko found herself captivated, wanting to move, but no way sure of herself. Her mind flew back to the other night, mutilating a demon right through its skull. But that was all imaginary. What if she had been fooling herself?

The smoker caught eyes with her and took offence by it. “The fuck you lookin’ at.” He spat at her, narrowly missing. Natoko drove her eyes away to look down at Misato. The beanie was concentrating on his stomach. Standard tactics from what she thought of these guys. Winding him for a long time prevented him from fighting back when they took stuff later. Kiriyama was a wreck.

“See what he’s got on ‘im,” the smoker barked, fiddling around in his pocket and pulled out a switchblade. He left it hanging to his side as he approached her. It felt like he didn’t intend to use it, only threaten. Her uncertainty prevented any reaction.

“Please…” Misato gasped with the little air inside of him. “Don’t hurt her.”

The street was less than twenty meters away. With a sudden dash she’d be out and safe in an instant. Once she was that far, there’s no way they’d try anything in a crowded street. They only got away with it here because of the trash cans.

But she couldn’t, for both reasons.

And then he was on her.

“What’s this you got?” he asked, in the clear tone that told her it could have been a bag of manure and he’d still want it.

Time froze again.

His hand was on Iziz’s bag.

“Remove your hand!”

With a speed that defied his heavy leather jacket and more jewellery hanging off him than queens would have, the smoker’s chin bashed the end of her case and fell to the floor just in time to have the skin of his hand sliced through, his other wrist breaking on the stained concrete beneath him.

A loud clang crashed through her ears, followed by a scream and groan mixed together. It took her a moment to realise the beanie man on top of Kiriyama had fell backwards; knocked cold from something she had missed, her own sudden opponent on the floor with Iziz pointing straight at him.

“If you could hurry up and apologise about taking so long, I’d really appreciate it,” Misato said. Without taking her eyes off the smoker, she saw him roll back over and get up like someone glad to be out of school for the day and nothing more.

“But you can do so later. Now we have more important matters.” He wandered over to the smoker, reaching underneath his shirt and producing a large metal sheet that covered his chest. Standing over the man who had the advantage seconds ago, Kiriyama walloped the metal plate over the man’s head like a pillow.

“Right,” he said casually as the man’s head swayed back and forth. “Not many questions to ask you. Where do we find the King?”

“King?” the man said. Natoko honestly believed he couldn’t understand. She certainly didn’t.

“From my research, I don’t believe he’s your boss, but I know you do jobs occasionally for him. You always receive the word from a public payphone in Takahata, and you pick up whatever juice he deals with in one of six locations. Judging by the fact you always buy the tram ticket straight after receiving the job I believe they’re random. So far I’ve observed seven of your runs and they’re all different places.”

Natoko didn’t catch a word of that. How’d she even get Iziz out the case?

“So you gonna talk or mumble?”

“Fuck you!”

Clang!

“Your response was not understood. Please try again.”

“Fuck you!”

Clang!

“That…that wasn’t what I meant.”

“Kiriyama,” Natoko finally spoke, her voice croaking out of stunned silence as events spiralled out of her control.

“Yeah I know,” he cut her off. “You hear that, boy? She’s getting restless. She’s got some blood from your hand but that’s not going to be enough to meet her quota for today.”

The smoker glanced up on her. His face was red, choked by the metal tray. It looked ready to crack. It would be bruise mountain tomorrow. “She needs it, you see. We’ve got animals back at the hideout for her to practise on. Let her get the cuts in, but it’s not really enough. Sometimes, she’s just gotta let it loose.”

Now the man was whimpering. He hadn’t even noticed his cigarette singeing his pants.

“It’s okay if you don’t wanna tell us though. If you have such loyalty in the king. We have your friend after all. I’m sure he’ll spill all after you lose the ability to live.”

Now he was wetting himself. How disgraceful.

Misato waited a few seconds, and then gave up. “Well, whatever. Kotona?”

The man imagined indescribable things happening and screamed loudly, waving his bleeding hand her and cowering into his jacket.

Natoko didn’t move an inch. She wasn’t about to do anything.

“Wait” the man shouted. “KK. See KK.”

“Whose KK?” Misato said, holding a hand up to call her off.

“Kazui Koizumi’s his name. He’s a doctor. Runs a small practise near the museum in Itayaki. He set us up with the jobs.”

“Right, thank you for your time. Please run away in terror now.”

The smoker seemed to relax for a second and noticed for the first time his combats covered in blood, ash and urine. Getting up, he scampered away quickly, leaving them alone in the alley.

“Right, good job. Had me worried there.” She turned to look at him, feeling her sword go limp from the straight out and point at the neck position she had it in seconds ago.

“Aren’t you…”

“Not at all,” he said, looking a little happy, but distracted at the same time. “I was kind of worried there. It’s hard to suggest to a person where to hit you. I’m just glad he was weak and fat.”

“But he,” her hand went up to touch her own face.

“Rolled with it. Same way you did,” he moved on, checking the floor and stamping on the still burning butt end  “Right, next we have to check out this doctor’s. Do you still have time today or do you-“

Kiriyama was forced to pause. Tips of sword balanced expertly on chins where to relax was to also leak from your skull stopped anyone from talking.

“Aren’t you taking your assumptions a bit too far here, Kiriyama?” Natoko said.

“Later, we have no-“ The sentence was cut short at the same time the air in front of Kiriyama was, the blade dangling precariously close to his nose and shaking alongside Natoko’s ragged breath.

“You’ve just had me stain my sword with a thug’s blood after deliberately provoking them. Though he lives, you should know this. I will end up a murderer tonight if you do not explain things to me this instant just what is going on.”

Kiriyama looked tentative and then tried to relax as best he could. “You know. It’s funny you say that.” Kiriyama clapped his hands and made her blink. Eyelids hid where he went next and pain struck her knuckles as he rapped on them viciously. Next, air left her stomach as he pushed the metal plate into her and the wall met her back as he bounced away, Iziz stolen and set to-

“No! Don’t!” The blade tore through the neck of the beanie man, slitting the ridge of his back like paper, lifting up and down through the man’s chest on both sides. The thug made no effort to respond, no resistance or reaction. He just died on the end of her blade, Iziz struck through his heart and left there.

She was panting, pushing herself back against the wall; pushing hard to go through it. Iziz was covered in the blood that scattered through the alley, draining into the pools of sludge and filth below. Her mouth went to scream, but Kiriyama shushed her with a finger. He released Iziz and backed away.

“Whilst you do deserve an explanation,” Kiriyama said relaxed and far too in control to say something reassuring like he saw the guy pulling a gun and so had to react in that manner in order to save her. “I’m afraid this zone has just become a little hotter than before. So it’ll have to wait.”

“Iziz,” she cried out, ignoring him and lunging over for the sword. The hilt was trapped in something; a bone perhaps. Struggling to pull it out, she saw a small pool form where the blade had exposed the skin. On the edge of her eye a small flash grabbed her attention.

Glancing up, four floor, she saw someone dive their head into the window. Behind her, Kiriyama chuckled to himself. She didn’t quite get it until the face popped out again and took another shot.

The light of the lens struck purple in her eyes. She turned to Kiriyama who was still just smiling and chuckling to herself. Looking back, she saw the man with the camera had gone.

“Kiriyama- What was? What is…” Looking down at the body again, she saw Iziz was still stuck in. Yelping she pulled it out and swiped to clean the blood off out of reflex. Kiriyama was laughing at her clumsiness. “What is going on? She shouted, lifting up the sword to prove her threat once again, waiting for any reaction he may give to strike him down again.

“Oh, get out. Seriously Natoko. I know I was thinking of you in terms of hired thug tonight, but could you at least realise when you’re being blackmailed-“

The sword thrust a few millimetres forward, greeting his nose in a rude and unpleasant manner. She twisted her wrists to prevent a similar strike to before.

“Oh right, the threatening.”

“Explanation. Now.”

“First off. Take a look at this.” Slowly, he reached into his pocket and pulled his mobile out. “It’s a picture my mate Jonny just sent me. For the record that’s not his real name and you’ll never see him again.” Pressing a few buttons he turned it to show at her. On the small screen she saw herself, Iziz in hand, standing over a body of which Iziz was connected on the other side. She felt her stomach contort.

“Even you can understand with that, right; stupid Natoko?” he leered at her, like the sword meant nothing. “You’ve just officially become my hired thug. You will do as I say and command. Things you haven’t done but were stupid enough to pose for will be held against you. From now on, you’re mine to play with.”

Natoko felt numb. Destroying the camera would not help. “I was hoping for a different reaction to be honest. Before the summer, I had you pegged as someone with find glory in attacking punks like this.” Destroying Kiriyama would not help. Sagara would not be able to help her. Iziz was now limp at her side. “I prepared for this response just in case and well, I’m glad I did.” Kiriyama didn’t need to relax.

“Second off, my uncle’s not a marine biologist. Not completely anyway, but he does specialise in the transport of fish. The type you’re not allowed to catch and eat or sell.”

“What… what does that mean?”

Kiriyama sighed and she felt stupid through the numbing. “It means he’s a smuggler. He catches endangered fish and sells them off, though he also handles a lot of other goods and resources, the types that can’t be pulled through to other countries legally.”

Still he held the phone to her face. It was more threatening than any gun. “When he heard what had happened to me, he decided now would be a good time for me to replace my father after he bailed out of the family business. He told me Fuugosuki was mine for the taking. That’s a very odd thing to say though, don’t you agree?”

“Um… What?” was all Natoko could managed. Kiriyama rolled his eyes.

“Tell me Natoko, at a guess, on average, and this isn’t something you’d learn in school, how many crime families do you think a city has on average?”

“”Well I…” The only reference she had was movies and video games. “About… it’s usually five, right?”

“That’s just the strong ones right? That’s a good average. But I mean in total.”

“Fifty?”

“Far more than that. We could be talking thousands if you went far enough. And that’s not even getting petty about it and including every family that commits crime.”

“Now, one more question, if you’ll permit me. How many crime families do you think this city has?”

Natoko stared grimly in the boy’s devious eyes. “S-several thousand?”

“One,” he said firmly. “Just one, and that’s it. We don’t know how or why, but the crime effort in this city is completely unified. Sure there are still random crimes, but even these are low in comparison. In fact, crime rate in this city is so low, it’s amazing they even need police, at least that’s how it looks. And this is why my uncle said the city was ready for the taking.”

“W-what’s your point?” She was stuttering. Don’t stutter!

“The point is the absence of crime should be impossible within a city and such a low level is also concerning. My uncle noticed this, finds it both strange and ripe with potential. So he sent agents to communicate with the city’s underworld. Each time they came back empty handed. The doors to crime in this city simply never appeared, let alone opened.

“He decided that such a syndicate either didn’t exist or was wonderfully well hidden to the foreigners he was sending to get it. So he sent me, a native to the city, and gave me the offer of taking over with his resources at my disposal. I’m must admit that though I’m quite familiar with everything around here, and I know a lot of people, I’ve never yet run across a criminal. In all my years here I’ve never once heard of even a mugging or burglary. The police have it quite easy save for local troublemakers.”

Natoko felt a growl at the base of her throat and didn’t hold it back. This was nonsense to her. Deluded nonsense. He lowered the phone down and put it away. Kiriyama didn’t care now and they both knew it didn’t matter. The Beanie laying between the trash cans also agreed.

“Then I heard a rumour of one apparently great man, a large imposing monster of a figure, who strength belies comparison and whose arms smash all who oppose him. Apparently he appeared just over a year ago and stormed the Yakuza and all other gangs operating in the area and put him under these guys. From what I’ve been told from the little info I got, it is he who works this city, keep the cogs of crime turning whilst keeping them squeaky clean. This is the man my uncle needs to find, to either conquer or compromise with.

“And that’s my project, and it’s what I’ll be using and abusing you for.

“To find the King of the city.”

****

 

“Che, bad timing,” Kiriyama grumbled. “Come on!”

 

For all her new found speed, Natoko found herself unable to kick the ignition. She dawdled those few moments the patrolman came thundering to them in a stiff disciplined sprint which covered the one hundred meters between them in under ten seconds, white gloved hands chopping the air in front of him as if to get it out of the way. Natoko looked straight at his chiselled, serious demeanour and became so entranced in the lion’s gaze that she didn’t even notice that she had struck him in the head with the hilt of Iziz, bowling him past her and to the ground.

 

“Bullseye!” Kiriyama cried out triumphantly looking behind them in an accent that sounded a bit too American for a second there. “Come on. Let’s go.”

 

Natoko didn’t reply, she wasn’t even sure how he could chatter away when air was trying to escape her body from her heart. Looking own at the bodies she found them drifting further away as he dragged her by the arm. The thought of what she was doing flew through her mind. “What are we doing?” she cried out. “What do we think we’re doing?”

 

“Stay calm. Head for the crowd. We can slow down there.”

 

“Misato!” It was the first time she had called him by his name. “What we just did…it was…”

 

“Hey, that was your instincts, not mine.”

 

“But you just-”

 

“Be quiet!” he barked and for the first real time she felt she had no choice but to obey a command, no choice but to bow her head and follow the whimsical pleas of one above her station. “And put that thing away, will you?”

 

Iziz was back in its sheath, but swinging that about was just as illegal as the blade itself. Slowing down and spinning round, she got the whole block into the case and left it zipped up and hanging from her shoulders.

 

They were in the crowds now. Feeling a wave of relief as she let her legs stop, she lost track of everything as she followed the man in charge.

 

***

For the fifteenth time, she turned and surveyed the street behind them. No, the officer still wasn’t following them. He was still just behind the corner, waiting to be suddenly closer than she had thought, ready to continue pursuit like he had never stopped running; a machine with white gloves.

 

It had been five miles and two train rides but that didn’t stop her checking every six seconds like a paranoid lemming believing the cliff was sneaking up behind them so much that they forgot to look forwards.

 

She was going to be in huge trouble for this. She knew it. Everything else had been self-defence or, at the very least, marauding demons. She had justification for those. This though, was at the very least vigilantism and at the most, and certainly in Kiriyama’s eyes, starting a gang war.

 

They didn’t speak until the last train ride.

 

“Listen carefully,” Kiriyama said. “Tomorrow, we will visit this doctor. I will find out who he is. All you have to do is show up. If I’m right, he should have in his office some of the supplies that whoever runs this town deals in. I’ve only seen the boxes so far, so we won’t know what they look like. Seeing as it’s a doctor’s, it may be hard to check.”

 

“Okay…” she said weakly, barely listening. “Understood.”

 

“This means we’ll need him alive to question him further if we can’t figure it out. So please, don’t kill anyone this time.”

 

“What? But you’re the one…” her voice quickly turned to a whisper. “but you’re the one who stabbed the man!”

 

Kiriyama’s face contorted in horror. “How…I did no such thing.” He shouted, drawing a lot of attention, before bringing it down to her level. “How could you accuse me of such a thing?” He looked so awestruck that for a moment she thought back to the alley, that frozen moment, seeing only herself pushing the sword into the man’s stomach. Then she saw his grin as he drew in on her.

 

“Natoko, I have proof, remember?” he flipped open the picture, showing her standing over the carcass of the man who may still be lying in the alleyway. “Now I never intended it to get that bad.” He seemed to get a bit panicky and hid the phone away. “But all the same, you work for me now. If you do anything I don’t want, I’ll expose you to the world as nothing more than a murderer. Friends at school will back me up as the grade A football star. Teachers will point you out as a low grade delinquent with no skills except kendo and I believe we both know that the people who get on well with you in school only do so because of me. Even Aki will take my side over yours.”

 

“But I didn’t!”

 

“Be quiet,” he hissed behind gritted teeth. “Tomorrow, we will visit this doctor. You will attend. I will find out what I want to know and you will not kill anyone else. I do not want a trail here.” The train pulled up. It was his. “I will see you tomorrow.”

 

Watching him pull away and staying rooted to the ground until the train was out of sight, Natoko wasn’t even aware of running to the toilets. Falling into a stall, she rested her head against the wall, too numb to cry.

 

Her lunch left her and hit the seat of the toilet. A muffled groan trapped itself inside her mouth and the past few hours rocketed across her eyes. The man had fallen so still so quickly. The demons… they had usually just disappeared. It was nothing as solid or final as that.

 

And then, just before that…

 

Had she really gotten that fast? The man was on the floor beneath her in a heartbeat, and she had definitely taken him there. But, she had no memory of throwing, but she knew she had. Could she have also stabbed him without realising. Was Misato right? No, she had seen him. That was a trick. Definitely a trick.

 

Pulling Iziz out, safe in the toilet stall, she lent back and lifted the blade, feeling it stick in there for a moment too soon, a plop of air following it on the way out. She dropped it back in when she saw the red.

 

****

 

They had had a mere ten minutes of snoozing last time, not enough for rapid eye movement to begin even under such fatigue and barely enough for the second stage of sleep. Pandiculating loud and wide, she wished they had chosen earlier to nap, her body was feeling a little convulsive.

 

A sharp glance, and even Fujiko’s own comments, told Otsune that she didn’t need the big guy, that it might even be dangerous to follow him and even if he wasn’t, they would have followed the right path anyway, it being the one the small man told them. But she knew better. This guy might belong there. He would be their ticket to the circus. Their access to the area. Or in the event the circus hated him as well, he was a perfectly sized meat shield to protect the both of them as he started to destroy the place.

 

She’d think about the consequences of that later.

 

Half an hour passed. Not too long, but enough to tell her she hated all life and needed it exterminating to fulfil the wrath of the Legros who had been shunned so terribly over the past few hours… Crawling into a ball on the floor would be easy like this. The temperature meant they could sleep anywhere without even the aid of blankets. Even standing up with aches all over felt warm and snuggled.

 

Her thoughts were going numb. She almost missed their destination.

 

She saw the trailers first. All large caravans, made of wood and painted the colour of rainbows they scattered the landscape around the tents, so many of which she stopped counting as they got blurry. A large one pointed their entrance right at them. It was grand and marvellous and reminded her of the memory she had of the circus in her child’s mind. Much larger and imaginary than it actually was, enough to fill two of the dorms, enough to ask how the place had hidden itself in this empty landscape.

 

Various other round tents of all shapes and sizes, including one architecturally impossible, littered themselves between trailer and the big top. They were frilly and innocent, waving flags of different colours in the air. Even in the darkened landscape they shined clearly. And she could hear a light background music that accompanied her everywhere at fairs and theme parks, even with no sounds to hear.

 

As they closed in they travelled over a dark patch embedded in the ground, where the chalk had turned to soot and the ground cracked perfectly in the middle of the circle, a stone hitting a windscreen. Gliding over it with an urge to whistle casually, Otsune noticed a man coming to meet them. He was dressed mostly as a clown, with orange, blue and green stripes covering his and was about her size. His small face however reminded her of Chicago gangsters. Muscular and set in stone, with a sneering glare that made only threats. The cigar did not help.

 

“Are you mad, Mitzy? Firing that stuff at us. One degree off and you’d have wiped the whole place out.”

 

‘Mitzy’ stared at the newcomer a moment, before casting his head downwards and turning away. He slunked a few steps, before the man ran after him.

 

“Oh, come on, Mitzy, you knew I didn’t mean it that way. You’re our top marksmen. I’d have never questioned your accuracy.”

 

Mitzy looked over with eyes that looked like they forgave, but soon turned away and began strolling off, slowly, his odd weapon chipping into the chalk.

 

“Will he be okay?”

 

“Yeah, probably. I can never tell. So, are you girl’s hungry?”

 

“Neh, we got-“

 

“Yes,” Otsune interrupted.

 

“Good good. We ain’t prepared anything special yet. Weren’t expecting nobodies for a few tacticmitts, but I’m sure we can rustle yer something up fierce.”

 

“Thanks.” He was speaking with varied collequisms, like a bad actor making a character on the spot with no research. No matter what, she would get the wrong impression from him. “Is this the Circus of Answers?” she asked tentatively.

 

“Is this the Circle of Answers?” he repeated critically, stopping to chew and pull his cigar. “Lassie, what the fuck do you think it is.”

 

She stared at him sceptically, just to make sure.

 

“Of course it is. You made it. Come on. Relax a bit. Waste some time. We can handle what you want later. Now, I expect you need a few things, like food and rest.”

 

***

Hours ago, thoughts of starvation and feeling her stomach lining rot away as she tore into another limb of her best friend were predominant in her mind. Though she didn’t like to admit it, this had all started to become a bad, tiring, exhausting ordeal even after day one.

 

That was different now. Now, she was snacking little drum shaped crumbly things that tasted like seaweed, and drinking green liquid out of a small, made by a toddler vase. For a short while at least, the Circus of Answers had solved her problems.

 

Fujiko had found the energy to carry on as well, and was now drinking with two sets of asymmetrical twins who gyrated on the top of the table with her, large bottles in both hands. Alcohol was oddly abundant for a waste land. Vegetables too.

 

Whether they were actually vegetables or not was at this point irrelevant. They could have been small sentient hyper intelligent beings boiled in streaming vats of fats and she’d still be chomping on the exquisite beetles just to see if their pan-dimensional intelligence added an extra spice to the taste.

 

She had had parties in her honour before, but they were always planned poorly and her friends were clueless about hiding their surprise trails. This however was the most extravagant party she had ever seen, and the most bizarre.

 

The table, made of fine marble with a thick trimming of gold, was as long as the corridor outside her room back at the dorm and as wide as her wing of the dorm. Reaching over to get food from the other side of the table was impossible even when shouting to the other person on the side; a cthulu war general dressed like a clown complete with fifteen funny noses for each tentacle. To get from one end to the other would take a minute jogging.

 

Feeling overwhelmed, she felt an urge to keep to herself, but people kept greeting her. Mitzy stood to her left, refusing to sit in his chair while the flame hovered around him like it found a new friend. To her right was Fujiko’s seat, but its owner was on the table now. After that, a small badger made small talk with her, telling her that if she needed anything at all save electricity to come to him and he could get it. He’d be more than happy to help. A knight approached her on stilts and offered her a soothing sonnet about his love for the 1989 Ford supra convertible. She accepted with adoration and watched his armour blush as the poem began.

 

The ringmaster, as she had taken to calling him though he hadn’t introduced himself yet, sat at the far end on her left. Almost as large as the table himself, with the top hat being bigger, he lay back sloppily as he sat on his large rotund body, his two tiny feet sticking up in the air. Otsune was sure he couldn’t actually move, and that he wasn’t eating either.

 

“Oh no, can’t eat, can’t eat,” he told her, when she finally got the nerve to approach, a small bowl of the drums in her hand as she thanked him for the party. “I’m on a diet. I’ll be on the marathon soon. My wife convinced me to join up you see, and I figured I’d give it the old go.”

 

She laughed honestly. “And when does this race start?”

 

“Why, in the mind of course, little one. Where all the best races start. It is the urge to expand your mind that is the ignition. All the poor ones start further below. This is where the handbrake is.”

 

Otsune let out a snort of laughter despite herself. “And where will you be running from your brain to.”

 

“Running? Who said anything about running. I can’t even see my legs, my dear monitor of 1080q high definition, I’m hardly going to be able to use them anytime soon. But as for my destination… Why, I seek adventure, I seek wonders, I seek exotic ladies and I seek a good deal. Whichever I shall find first, I shall marry, after my wife divorces me of course.. Is that not correct, dear?”

 

Mitzy stayed silent. He was the only other one near enough to listen.

 

“Ah listen, would you mind if I asked you a question,” Otsune asked when she felt she had a moment to talk again.

 

“Mind. My little reciprocating fan I’d be delighted. This is the Circus of Answers after all. Every show gives an answer, and every performance provides an adequate result for any question. Merely ask your question, and we shall provide. Any question, as long as you know it has an answer, we can reply to it.” And with a wave of his stubby little arms, he brought the tent to silence. All stopped talking at once as they turned to Otsune, their eyes on her with curiosity. Feeling like she was on stage naked, Otsune giggled lightly to herself.

 

“Well it’s not much,” she muttered.

 

“Speak louder,” a voice came from far back.

 

“Hey shut up give her a chance.”

 

“I’ll give you a chance.”

 

“It’s just well.” Her body started to itch towards Mitzy, looking to hide behind his frame as everyone stared. “Well, I was wondering…if you might be so kind…that is, if it’s not too much trouble…”

 

“It’s not, hurry up!”

 

“Shaddup.”

 

With a cough to pick up her seriousness, she focused again, accepting the crowd. “Could you tell us where we could find a Savadali?”

 

The room stayed quiet, pitching the world around her into deadly silence. Somewhere, someone dropped a fork, which complained loudly at his fall.

 

“If…that’s okay?” she weakly added.

 

And with that, slowly, and with a rumble that shook the table violently, the troupe before her burst into cheering. With no reasons, they clapped and whooped and hollered loud into the skies. Fujiko quickly joined in and Otsune was left at a loss for words as a large hand clasped itself on her shoulder.

 

“Good question,” Mitzy said solemnly.

 

“Wahooooo,” the Ringmaster announced. ”A Savadali. An excellent question. Well, you must know one exists, and therefore we must know the location of one. In fact, I dare say we Do know the location of one.”

 

“You do,” replied Otsune with joy and relief. “Oh thank goodness. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

 

“Not a problem, my polyphonic speaker of altruistic desire. It is just our jobs we will be doing. The answer to the question. It is all we live for. All we continue to prosper for. Indeed, the search for an answer. That is-” he stopped to sniff “the true task of life.”

 

The party quickly sprung back into life again, and Otsune briefly caught Fujiko in her eyes, being tossed high up into the air by the two sets of twins flailing loudly and screaming desperately for her life as wine spilled everywhere. When she landed she would only ask for more.

 

Otsune waited for an answer. “Well then,” she said happily.

 

The ringmaster looked down on her confused. “What?”

 

She felt odd. “Do you have an answer?”

 

“For your question?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Ah yes, yes, of course we do,” he turned away quickly to a scream of ‘ hey boss’, his large head floating across the top of his body. “Hey, Ramukiyu Danasa, do that thing you do with the Poiseuille’s Equation. They’ll love it.”

 

Otsune felt like she had blanked out at the critical point of the question/answer scenario.

 

“You’re not going to answer me now?” The Ringmaster’s head bounced back over to her quickly, his eyebrows crossing like he didn’t know what she was talking about.

 

“Excuse me? Oh…No no, my trumpet of tender 1000mpbs tresses. Did you not know? We are a circus of answers. Not a general information bureau of answers. You’ll have your answer in an urotsu.”

 

“How long is…” she didn’t know whether she should be asking how or what.

 

“Oh, you’ll see soon enough.”

 

The badger told them, as they were leaving for their room, that a urotsu wasn’t too long at all, based on its current definition of time. They should see the show in the morning, or what she figured for the morning anyway. From what she figured the party had lasted a mere two hours before the group fell exhausted and start to pair up and leave. She had dragged Fujiko away from the twins before they got too separated and now left with the badger, who was introducing them to their rooms.

 

“We’ve had all sorts of questions in our time,” the badger started to explain, perched on Mitzy shoulder as they led the two woman. “Most usually ask the usual ones. What’s the meaning of life? What’s the point of trying? When did we leave our hearts aside in the rain? All very toilsome. We try to remain professional about it, but I won’t lie when I tell you we embellish the answers a bit just to see how they react.”

 

“So you answer the questions in the form of a performance?” Otsune asked almost rhetorically, trying to get her head around it. “How does that work?”

 

“Oh no, don’t think we’ll tell you that. I’d give you the answer. People have tried that before. Get the answer out of us so they don’t see the show. You’ll have to wait.”

 

“But we want to see the show,” Otsune said honestly. “I just wanted to know how you give the answer. Do you play a story or something?”

 

“Of course we play a story,” the badger snapped out. “Whadda think a performance is? It’s a series of events performed in an entertaining manner. It’s how most stories should go.”

 

“What a crazy idea,” Fujiko said behind them.

 

“You two just be patient, and get your rest. Come to the big top when you wake up. We should be ready then.” He paused, then climbed down Mitzy’s arm to get closer to her. “”Though take your time. We weren’t exactly expecting anyone. Need to make the fireworks and stuff.”

 

“Don’t worry. I think we’re got more than enough rest in us.”

 

“Oh and,” the badger whispered even quieter, jumping across to her. “If you don’t mind me saying,” the badger whispered in right up in her ear (it was remarkably clean, better than some of the girls) “I think he’s taken a bit of a shine to you. Be careful he doesn’t get loyal.”

 

“It’s okay, I’m getting strangely used to that,” Otsune whispered back, looking to her two other companions floating next to each other, one in a drunken giggling haze.

 

“I thought as much,” replied the badger with a strangely lewd grin. “Well, here we are,” he said, jumping off of her and scooting ahead. “Sorry, it’s not the Ritz, but it’ll do ya for now.” Otsune stared ahead dumbfounded there was a old brown wardrobe perfect in size next to two bedsteads and two bedside tables, set up nicely next to each other like a hotel room.

 

On top of each of the metal frames were piles of straw.

 

“Thanks,” Otsune said, not meaning it at all, and for the first time realised she had no undergarments to wear for bed, even before she had lost her change of clothes. “Wait,” her mind whirred thoughtfully. “How do you know about the Ritz?”

 

“Of course I know about the Ritz, it’s where da boss sleeps.”

 

The badger waved out of the small entrance to a tiny hotel in the distance about three stories high. Otsune couldn’t see that far.

 

“Well, we’ll leave you to it,” the badger said as Otsune waited on them, Fujiko choosing the left bed with a loud thud and a sudden snoring motion. The three (four) of them watched her carefully to see if it was an act. It clearly wasn’t.

 

“Come on, boy,” the badger said, pushing Mitzy’s jaw as he reached the quiet giant’s shoulder. “A girl won’t like it if you insist on watching her undress. Let’s give ‘em some privacy. Without moving at all, the badger quickly led them out of the room, locking the cape of the tent behind them with a loud click, before lifting a flap of the tent to toss the key to her.

 

Impressive, Otsune thought, as she took off her top and fell into bed. Whatever these creatures were, their slang was a combination of old northern English, southern France tactlessness, middle American anachronisms and a dozen onomatopoeic from half a dozen countries, including some made up or over extended metaphors. Oscar had been the same to a certain angle. Was it part of the Strangeness?

 

Paying attention, she saw the flame had stayed with them within the cloth tent, a mere meter away from her bed of scout kindling. “Over here,” she shouted to it. “Over here.” It floated over idly, taking its time. “Now, stay!”

 

Getting into bed, slinging her top onto the wardrobe with the hopes it would dry out a little or maybe even completely replace itself with something new, Otsune fell to rest with the only two in a strange land she knew she could trust.

 

Stay sober. Don’t trust anything. They were safe, she knew that now. She had a feeling they would have probably had their wicked way with them and gotten them to like it by now if they had wanted anything bad.

 

She really needed to trust these people.

 

Proper trust.

 

Though she hadn’t given any of that in years.

 

****

 

The doctor’s office was quiet and clean, making Natoko weary of the dirt on her shoes from the alleyways they had been trudging in the day before. Kiriyama walked through the simple, spacious seating area with chairs lined up against all the walls and a large Venetian rug sitting in the middle where plenty more chairs could have gone. In the corner of her eye, she made note of a large vase containing the only plant in the room.

 

The receptionist didn’t notice them at first and in fact continued to ignore Kiriyama even as his shadow hovered over her paperwork. It wasn’t until another nurse coughed loudly behind her that they lady looked up at him. “Oh, good afternoon, sir. Do you have an appointment?”

 

“Ah yes, Ronaldo,” he said without batting an eyelid. Surely he hadn’t-

 

“Ah yes, you’re expected. Please go on in.” Kiriyama’s smile jerked away from his face, twisting in what Natoko could tell was genuine confusion. Thanking her with a bow, he walked the way she pointed.

 

They stepped through to the next room and came across a small man writing on his desk. He greeted them with a quick and short bow that didn’t require him to rise from his work and scribbled faster, the most detailed kanji merged into one long swirly line beneath the chewed out biro.

 

He quickly finished and offered them both a seat. Getting up himself as they sat down, he got as far as the small fridge right by his desk before he froze in a slouched position, arms hanging in front of him. He paused momentarily and turned to look at them, looking away and back again two more times, before finally coming up with words to say.

 

“I’m sorry, but I…I haven’t got any appointments today. I’m not sure…well, did my nurse let you in.”

 

“Ah yes. She just sent us straight through,” Kiriyama replied casually.

 

“And did you have an appointment?”

 

“Oh, it was more of a request really.”

 

“Excuse me,” the short, stuffy doctors looked like he was sweating in a heat wave, the fan next to him set to max and doing nothing to alleviate his frustration.

 

“We’d like to prescribe some information, some extended disbelief and, if you have it, whatever it was that was in those boxes.”

 

“I…whu,” the doctor recomposed himself. “Forgive me, I am not familiar with what you mean.”

 

“The King of the city,” said Kiriyama like he was repeating it. “We’re looking for him, and most of the trails have led back to you.” Kiriyama stayed standing and looked at the doctor, whose crinkled face was crunching up on itself further, a slight bemused grin on his face ready to save it. “Soooo….”

 

Kiriyama peered at the man and he leered at them behind squinted eyes and a polite grin, and Natoko started to feel a little foolish for the both of them.

 

“Psst,” he said to the man behind the desk. “This is the part where you refuse to tell us and we are left with no choice but to hit you.”

 

The threat of violence took the doctor’s smile away. “I- I think you should leave now. I have patience. Many patients coming. They will need treatments.” The man got up shaking, and wobbled towards the door. The smile on his face returned with extra reinforcement and behind the brazen cheerfulness lay eyes that were on guard, not the sort of guard a venerable wise master would give before dispatching the young hooligans who invaded his restaurant and beat up his extremely skilled Chinese cooking force, but the type of guard that was also assigned to bladder control.

 

“Oh really?”

 

“Yes, they will all want to stop being sick. That is what patients do. Now please, get out.”

 

Natoko continued to watch, not sure if she should act threatening or not, possibly stepping forwards to flex muscles and hoping the man wouldn’t notice she didn’t have any.

 

That was what thugs did right? Alongside bully the weak.

 

“Oh but sir not until you’ve answered all of our questions. We only have a few if it is the sheer number that may compel you to refuse, but I assure you once we’ve removed some teeth and responses from you we shall be on our way.” Kiriyama held the man’s shoulder tightly. Natoko bopped him on the back of his head.

 

“You’re scaring him,” she said deadpan. “Back off.”

 

“Ow,” Kiriyama cried out. “Jeez, Yamanaka. That hurt.”

 

The doctor shook himself free of the boy’s grip and stamped his foot. “You get out now. You won’t get any healing from me. I’m all out of spells for you. And I have many other patients to treats.”

 

The two stopped their bickering in unison to look at the man beneath them, a look of mild bewilderment etched on Kiriyama’s face just as she was sure was on hers. The poor man took anther step back to the wall, arms held up in defence as they glared at him.

 

“Please, if I prescribe you some diagnosis will you move away? I have patients. Many patients.

 

“Are you sure you’re a doctor?” Natoko wasn’t sure where the question came from. The only logical answer was her mouth. Everything else was denying responsibility.

 

“What? Of course I am, I have had many educations in the skill of the doctor. Many years of buffing my doctor’s levels have I spent.”

 

“It’s just. An empty reception. A brain dead nurse who lets us in like that, and the way you speak. No doctor would act like that. I’m sorry if we’ve offended you, but you’re… you’re not what you say you are, are you?”

 

The doctor responded by holding his mouth tightly, as if something were escaping from it. The two thugs jumped aside as he lunged for his desk. He didn’t make it, knocking over the many vials of science littered across it with precision clumsiness. Natoko went to rush round the other side to help, only to see the doctor convulsing violently, a empty vial between his lips as he drank greedily . Without reason, he rose into the air.

 

“How…” he screamed, his mouth wired shut as it folded into itself and merged into his cheeks, right as his chin exploded. “How could you have known?” All his skin pulsated viciously at once, expanding his size, before drifting like a balloon of rage and hatred, glowing red ominously at her.

 

“Curse you and your detective like deductions. How could mere mortal children discover the lair of the Thu’lang’lon? And so easily and on top of that, determine with ease how we posed as an innocent genealogist?!”

 

The rest of Natoko’s body couldn’t really respond, so the mouth took priority again and began rambling.

 

“Who…but but…wha!”

 

“Ha, we see now. You are no ordinary ninja samurai girl, you are the ninja samurai girl from the tournament. So it is true, the Futabatei do seek all our heads. Even the heads of we who have no heads.”

 

“Well…I…but…I”

 

“Very well, mortal girl. To the one who dispatches all of our dispatchees with mere mortal methods, let us see now how you face the champion of seven realms, all of them black!”

 

“Hold on!” she shouted.

 

The…thing hovered grotesquely in front of her and for that brief second she thought of asking how it had so quickly come to the assumptions it had made, how it believed its secret identity was revealed and perhaps also explain just why this was all a coincidence and she wasn’t out to smite in the name of the Balance.

 

“No. There will be no holding on for Balance members; only death!” The creature spat at her and a memory rose as she dodged it with graceful ease. This was one of those on Ms. Sakimoto’s list. This was one of the tournament demons.

 

Then she remembered that was what she was supposed to be doing.

 

With a clean cleave, she lunged one step forward, bringing Iziz out with practised ease and bisecting the balloon in front of her. It ejaculated with a magnificent pop and painted the walls of the room in gory red bits that she should have been expecting

Showering her with all its repugnant glory, the organs of the demon fell to the floor pathetically, the left half of what she thought might be a stomach flopping onto the desk. Feeling a little queasy, she controlled her breathing, still a little hoarse from the training session earlier and covered in demon balloon guts not helping.

 

Hearing choking to her left, she was reminded of Kiriyama, who was trying to contain himself as much as she was. His eyes were wide and trying to stare everywhere while looking away. She couldn’t remember if she had felt like that the first time, but she had had it a little easier her first time, where the mechanical wheel demon did not dump faeces on her.

 

“What- what was that?” Kiriyama said with calculated and measures trepidation. He looked to her as she didn’t respond. “What the fuck was that?”

 

“Demon,” she replied. “Get over it.”

 

“How can you just,” he muttered. “That was…” Then he coughed again, erratically, his face pumping like it was ready to be sick. He choked a little but brought himself under control, looking composed again with impressive speed. He looked happy, like things wer under his control. “Excellent. You’re right. This shouldn’t mean anything to what I’m aiming for. Good job. I’m must say I’m surprised at how quickly you’ve adapted.” He slicked his hair back, and failed to keep composed as an outstretched ear rolled off his shoulder.

 

“Let’s search the place.”

 

The detonation of their employee didn’t appear to have affected either of the intern nurses, and they continued away at their paperwork with the same mindless fervour they had given it before they were handed the pink slip that came with the obliteration of their employer. Natoko checked a few of the records, after trying to ask the two ladies resulted in being rudely shunned over paperwork and filing. Within the shelving and cabinets around her, she found nothing but gibberish where they should have been medical history.”

 

“Huh?” replied Kiriyama as he got their efforts wet with whatever internal bile had leaked onto him. “It’s all in Ipsum Loren.”

 

“A code.”

 

“Nope. Gibberish writing, but it’s written perfectly by hand. Impressive.”

 

“So can you decode it?” she asked, as the younger receptionist took the binder in her hands and went to place it back on the shelf without a please or thank you.

 

“That’s just it. It’s not a code at all. Printing presses used to use this in Europe back in 1500’s as tests. It’s still used a lot today to give a view of an average field of text against a certain design.”

 

“Why would a fake doctor be using an old English code?”

 

“It’s not a…” He caught on she was smiling. “What’s with you?”

 

“Just a little jitterish I guess. Needing a bath will do that.” It wasn’t just that. Part of her wanted to laugh. Kiriyama was clueless when it came to demons. It should have been obvious, but she felt it put her a little more in control than he was.

 

Watching Kiriyama move on, she slid past the two nurses, who had now stopped moving altogether and left themselves in static positions of cross referencing and pouring the contents of the kettle onto a frozen hand holding the cup. Back in the office. Natoko wondered if this would get out. That man had made it more than clear that the entire demon scourge thought the Futabatei were up to something, and while this was completely true, she didn’t believe this was going to help.

 

“Hey, what’ this?” Kiriyama said for the third time, going to the shelf.

 

Killing a demon was good and all, certainly a reason to force Sagara awake tonight, but they wouldn’t be able to clean this all up and it wouldn’t exactly fail to bring across the message of the attacks the Futabatei were reigning down upon the brood. At least it wouldn’t be able to say anything. Paranoia was just as good.

 

“It’s one of those bottles. I think we might actually be onto som-!”

 

Though it probably wasn’t actually dead. Sagara had told her that. It was only in on part of the body it contained itself in. Even in a human, it would have been smaller and more distinctly recognised.

 

“Garklg, Nato-“

 

And wouldn’t she have heard their ear piercing scream?

 

“Oh.”

 

“The photo, remember – the photo.”

 

She stepped up and ripped the pulsating blob from the boy’s neck. He gasped for air as she threw it to the floor. With no decent weapon to fight a small pulsating blob, she stamped on it, hearing its scream as it separated from this realm.

 

Kiriyama got his wind back, and then lifted up the bottle. Him dying now would make things more complicated. But she couldn’t help but feel that perhaps she could have let him go a little brain dead.

 

“Anyhow, ignoring near death once again, look at this.” He held a small, empty tube in front of her. “It was that vial he was drinking from. “

 

“So?”

 

So considering its size, it’s probably the same vial as these twenty in a square here.” He knelt down to the box he had just found before being interrupted. In it were several rows of tubes, all empty. “I’m quick to think that this was a stash of whatever he was drinking and he consumed the last one before we could get to it.”

 

Natoko didn’t follow.

 

“This is the package,” he clarified.

 

She looked down at the tubes. “Are you sure?”

 

“Well, it’s the best thing we got and we should probably be leaving soon. You can go home now.”

 

He picked up the box containing the vials and headed out at a quick pace, waving goodbye to the decomposing spirit bodies in reception without noting their flesh was starting to drip from them like raindrops and slinking out towards the street as she chased him.

 

“Wait, why are we leaving so fast?” she said as she chased him out the office, wondering why he didn’t seem so bothered the two nurses had turned to ash.

 

“Just trust me. We got issues coming our way.”

 

“But what does this give us? That box hasn’t even got a liquid in it for you to look at. Shouldn’t we get something?”

 

“There’s traces in each of the vials. I know a guy that can check what’s in it.” He stopped and turned. “Plus we got our next port of call. We do have something. Look.”

 

He lifted the box in front of her and left it there for her to stare at the little yellow sticker located at the bottom of the box. She read it carefully.

 

“Oh… Return address.”

 

***

 

It was late getting back. Not too late but certainly two hours longer than it should have taken her to get home. Taking winding alleys seemed a good idea when getting away but getting lost ruined it for all parties involved. At least the tram was near empty at this late hour.

 

The three girls were watching television, pop stars ran with wolves as Sarah chomped busily on popcorn. Gen turned to her and convulsed his face in agony as she continued to drip demon remains on the floor. She ignored him and paced through to the fridge, pulling out a coke. She didn’t care whose.

 

“Natoko!” Aki rushed to greet her friend before taking a recommended ten paces back. “What happened?”

 

“Just…” She thought of an explanation for the young genius, then divided it through many complicate mathematical equations tied in with effort and laziness. “A lot. A lot happened today. Have you seen Sagara?”

 

“Here!” shouted Sarah, not looking away from the TV.

 

Natoko followed the girl’s voice until she saw round the opposite side of the couch where the boy was sleeping, Sarah cutting off the blood to his back.

 

“Why’s he…never mind.” She cut herself off, dumping herself on the couch with a relaxed sigh and having no choice but to rest her feet on his legs. “Has he been awake today?”

 

“A little earlier for food. I’m beginning to wonder how he’s moving about.”

 

“My…my couch,” Gen muttered.

 

“Well, I need to get to sleep. Could you ask him when he wakes up to-”

 

“Yes, yes, tell him you’re infatuated with him and are a complete loser. Shut the fuck up when I’m watching Tv.”

 

Natoko didn’t make any effort to mutter an apology. She rose up carefully and headed for the door. She’d probably make it to her room. Hopefully, she’d be able to wake up early enough to wash this off before school. Part of her wanted to keep it though. Good memories, that’s for certain.

 

Living the life she had always wanted.

 

****

 

The wall wasn’t just the only landscape there was. It was their saviour too. If it hadn’t been there, marking the path behind them, it would be a great hazard merely to guess which way was forwards.

 

Morning finally came round when a shouting screaming couple awarded themselves in a contest of loud yelling with the prize of more extreme yells. By the time Otsune had stirred enough to start complaining they were gone.

 

“Good morning, Otsune.”

 

“Blerk,” italicised Otsune, unable to see her friend what with all that damn hair in the way. It didn’t take a weary aching neck to know that Fujiko was already completely recovered as if last night (urotsu?) had never happened and was in the midst of morning stretches. Otsune collapsed back onto the bed and woke up a further ten minutes later when Fujiko had stopped and changed clothes. When her eyes opened again, she held breakfast in her hands. A bizarre flat square of substance that tasted close to sugar strawberries. The taste finally woke her up.

 

“I guess I won’t be going on my jog this morning,” Otsune grumbled, not wanting to move. It was as if all the alcohol had drained Fujiko’s body and entered her own overnight. She felt so stiff. It was tempting to take the day off. Dropping herself out of bed, losing grip from the straw and having to crawl back up. Otsune cleared her throat and went through half a bottle of water without thinking about it. Would it be too much to ask for a shower in this place? Did such things even exist? Washing herself in fruit juice would be counter productive. As she was considering this, she saw the wardrobe open, with different clothes inside. Finding a baggy yellow shirt that felt smooth, comfortable and just her size, she slipped it on with a pair of baggy jogging trousers. Stuffing the rest of her clothes, as well as some others into her magic bag, she yawned and went to find Fujiko, only just noticing that the flame was still sitting there in the middle of the room. She got as far as the entrance before she turned back to it.

 

“Come on,” she said, and it floated after her.

 

***

 

The Strangelands felt no different in the ‘morning’ than they did at any other time. Temperature. Air climate. Humidity. All was the same. The circus itself however, was full of energy.

 

All around, creatures of nonsensical, random myth and legend, jumped around to keep themselves busy. Pulling and carrying and crushing stuff. Flipping and joking whilst practising their arts, it looked like they had much to do. Part of her was happy knowing it was for her benefit.

 

“And Tina’s.”

 

Not knowing where to take herself, and unable to find Fujiko, Otsune amused herself with whatever she could find. Based on what the badger had said, she tried to keep her mind off what they were doing. They wanted her to enjoy a show, and not have an illusion ruined, which she knew looking at the ‘making of’ documentary would do for her.

 

After a brief wander, she eventually ran into Mitzy, sitting down on a bench by himself, still carrying the teardrop grenade launcher thing, which sat besides him pointing at the planks of wood he had been carrying a moment ago, looking quite dangerous.

 

“Morning,” she said, wanting to see if he’d understand. He remained silent, but acknowledged her, keeping an eye on her as she sat down besides him. It felt like he was her age, she thought. Definitely under twenty, despite the size, though also like a shy teenager, something she couldn’t help but find cute as he looked away when she saw him staring at her.

 

Too tired for conversation, she was content to sit besides him, feeling the stillness of the air in the little space around them. He said nothing back for ten minutes, then shifted a little closer.

 

“You might not like it,” he said surprisingly, actually making her jump a little at the calm knife he slid into conversation.

 

“What might I not like?” she replied, a little amused.

 

“The answer,” he said, looking back towards the ground. Following his gaze, she understood automatically.

 

“I know. But even so, I’ve got to continue. If I don’t. I’ll lose what’s important to me.” He didn’t respond, and she found herself talking to fill in the blanks. “I figured once, how boring life could be, if we allowed ourselves to stop. Stopping to think is okay, but not just stopping to watch television or to have a rest. I’ve only got a hundred years roughly to be alive after all. I’ve got an eternity to be dead, so I might as well keep moving.”

 

“Haiku,” he said randomly. Otsune couldn’t think of any. She was too tired.

 

“Oi Otsune!” came a voice from around. Into her sight sprinted an energised Fujiko, falling in front of her with a large grin. The badger just came to me. Told me they’d be ready when we were, and to go in at any time.

 

“Excellent,” Otsune said. “Finally, we’re getting somewhere.”

 

***

 

Entering the big top, pushing back a purple curtain with emerald stars emblazed upon it, Otsune’s first thoughts was that it was just a regular big top. She had been in a big top when she was young. Her father had taken her there during one of his visits and she had ended up crying when the clown popped her cat balloon that he had just spent the last minute making for her.

 

Back then, the big top felt huge, with hundreds if not thousands of people in it and rusted poles that climbed into the sky where the acrobats lived. And below, on the muddy circle patch that was the stage, elephants walked alongside magicians and gave them a show that brought tears and joy to all the audience. In her mind, she now knew the size she remembered was wrong. That large, grand, majestic big top was big, but not really that big. It was just imprinted on her memory as big, and though she now knew it to be wrong, the feeling would never leave her.

 

Especially now that it was coming back. Devoid of an audience, the big top’s outer edge was just rows upon rows of chairs that could easily fit those same thousand people if not five times more. The support poles, shining bronze with dragons spiralling around them spitting flaming torches out their mouths were each with a partner who spiralled alongside them as they fell into the darkness above. The muddy patch that was the stage was the size of a baseball stadium.

 

The Big Top was completely empty.

 

Feeling herself being watched, the shadows shifting around the flaps of the tent, light fractures playing tricks as she felt not scared or apprehensive, but like she simply shouldn’t be there, Otsune followed Mitzy and chose seating somewhere in the center of the room, where the view was best.

 

Tucking into a pink fruit that she refused to name until someone told her it, they waited patiently for the show to begin, trying to convince Mitzy to sit down with them, the sullen brute refusing silently. She was just about to convince him further when the fiery torches went out, all shutting off with a click.

 

There in the darkness they sat, until a single ray of light returned sharply, illuminating the center of the ring. It was empty for but a moment, and then the obese stature of the ringmaster rolled into view.

 

Raising the small black cane into the air, and rolling in what looked like a showmen’s bow, the ringmaster announced, “Welcome, my fair one hundred and fifty thousand outerhertz maidens of clock speed, my gorgeous speckled flame of rampant destruction and of course, our own dear Mr. Mitzy. On this plane, in the land, in this very tent we present you our humblest efforts. Our acts of extreme frustration and the heavy angst which permeates our attempts to fulfil that which you desire. The impossible! That which cannot be answer by any other means, be they chaotically or otherwise save the power of the performance. That which answer can’t be given from any mouth save that of the show’s. However, At this very moment, as the Urotsu passes, we will do for you what you request of us, we will struggle and endeavour, and perhaps even provide a laugh or too, if only you would see. And, with bad luck and apathy not withstanding, give you the answer you really ask in your hearts:

 

“Where!”

 

“Can!”

 

“We!”

 

“Find!”

 

“A!”

 

“Savadali!”

 

With each exclamation, lights came on one at a time, showing her faces, of clown knights and strongwolves, Teleelephants and ant acrobatsl. When seven lights were displayed prominently and before her the big top flooded with light, the circus was born with the wail of an invisible brass band.

 

The light of the torches shut off with one loud click without warning, the band falling silent as if the speaker plug had been yanked. Only the Ringmaster stayed lit, lingering in the centre holding what looked like an accordion.

 

“Many Hyporelocks ago, there was a land, taken from another land.

 

“Not as strange as you might think.”

 

Four lights shot on in order, each highlighting the two sets of twins in turn.

 

“It was small,” said the first

 

“and quaint,” said the second

 

“and ideal,”

 

“and f-“

 

“A place everyone wanted to… go,” finished their ringmaster. As the twins started to dance on the spot, the ringmaster was rolled backwards by hands hidden from the spotlight, as an entertaining beat began to play and the lights came back on. A city backdrop was bought into site, high gates on each side and three old stone houses made of wood lowered from the skies. Ants larger than herself travelled down the ropes with them, jumping from one to the next, helping each other with back flips in mid jump.

 

“Why is it called a circus? This is more a theatre,” muttered Fujiko.

 

“Don’t nitpick.”

 

“Aw, but I wanted your job for a change.”

 

And in the lands

Four thousand cycloons following the golden star that is

And passed the glowing rocks

The City of Gates sat, oh what a sight!

With walls as high as they could go

And the people there were the purest bunch

Their hearts as white as snow!”

 

Scuttling from both sides of the strange, the large ants jumped into the show, hoisting the twins up and flipping them back and forth, getting higher and higher as Otsune clenched her teeth. As they fell from far too high a height, elephant trunks caught them and brought them down safely. The badger scurried up and joined them as the happy dancing continued. Bursting into song, the twins sang with reverie, the ants backing them up, praising themselves and their lands and their happiness. Otsune watched with fascination.

 

“And it was during all these peaceful times, where crops were plentiful and time was consuming enough to not fall into the boredom of traversing internet bulletin boards. It was during this time, the first and only visitor appeared. On the forth gilga of the time of Purtnox…”

 

The spotlight shot on again, the ants humming loud above, their apparently wistful tones coming across as nails screeching as a chalkboard as their owner screeched louder.

 

Dressed in shambling rags, a figure dragged itself across the circle on a stick. Otsune couldn’t see a thing beyond its blanket of leaves and couldn’t even discern legs when it tripped over.

 

The rags sang a song from the floor, one of misery and contempt. It was stopped halfway when the ‘townfolk’ (again, just the twins) found it. They twirled round the ragged creature and tore away its clothes, leaving a handsome young man that Otsune was sure she would have seen last night were he there.

 

They quickly clothed and fed him, rising him up and showering him with help. They sang about it too, and only at the end did he sing back.

 

One wish and one wish alone

To each and all I shall grant

Whatever you can think of, whatever it shall be

Just spell it out, without a pout

And your heart’s desire be

 

“NO THANKS!” everyone said.

 

The Savadali looked round in shock and the mini elephants and lions pranced away, continuing their dance with happiness. They flocked merrily around, the ants jumping on top of each others’ thorax, the elephants breathing fire from their trunks. The Savadali looked perplexed and started running around, pulling the shoulder or suitable appendage of each creature in turn asking it something only to receive a shaking snout each time. He begged and harassed one girl in particular, who again Otsune hadn’t seen before, but she was far too happy to ask of anything and did her best to let him down.

 

It continued, until he was left in the centre on his knees in despair, only the girl remained as the others went on their way.

 

Their generosity opens my eyes

But how can they more altruistic than i

All I desire is to grant them a boon

Just an aid, a gift. Is this too soon?

 

The girl stood forwards, turning to smile. She knelt besides him and held him by the chin.

 

Our desire is happiness and we have that times ten

What goes on from this is beyond our ken.

But if it miseries you so, then I’ll have one wish to go

I wish you your desires be found.

 

A crash of drums and a flash of light shot throughout the big top. Lights flickered and flames exploded, dazzling Otsune’s eyes. The orchestra continued it screeching and banging, growing louder and louder, falling deeper. One by one, the faces of the townspeople turned to face the Savadali.

 

Looking worried, the Savadali turned to the closest, an elephant. It approached and said, “I wish for a bigger field, so I may plant more crops for the townsfolk.”

 

The Savadali face turned from worry to a smile, “Granted!” he shouted and from a puff of smoke a brown rug with vegetables appeared, which the elephant dragged away.

 

Up next came the Scarecrow farmer, holding a broken spade “I wish for a new spade, to replace my old one,” he said, watching in joy as the smoke covered his spade. When it reappeared he still held the same spade, the crack carefully hidden between his hands. He bowed and skipped away.

 

A large baggy monster with a large insect mask came up, looking more like a man wearing a costume than any of the others. “I wish to find my brother!” it pronounced. And the Savadali turned, revealing another baggy monster with a spoon for a head. The first looked shocked and then after off along with its sibling.

 

“I wish for a new twin to replace my old one!” said one of the siblings. The other twin looked at him in horror before going up in a puff of smoke. A few seconds later he was still there and both feigned disappointment.

 

“I want power!”

“I want glory!”

“I wish to rule these lands!”

 

The wishes continued, growing more and more gluttonous, as the cast came out of the woodwork and skies to ask for more wishes. Trapped in the centre, the Savadali struggled in terror, pushing himself out, but being followed all the same. The two other twins stopped him.

 

“I wished to be king, but so did he!” they said in unison. “Which of us is to rule now?”

 

“You could both rule!”

 

“Not because of you we can’t,” and both twins jumped at each other, bouncing straight off and to the floor, knives in their hearts. The Savadali looked terrified as an elephant plodded up, conveniently standing in the way of the corpses as they fell, knives trapped under armpits.

 

“I wished to love him, but he wished to love another.” An ant and lion came up besides him. “Now what do we do?”

 

“You could share!”

 

“We could never share!” And the three fought each other. Ant, lion and elephant circling each other in a mock fight. The elephant killed the lion as the lion clawed the ant. The others falling down dead, the elephant soon joined them.

 

The ringmaster continued as the Savadali ran from monster to monster, all killing each other as they went

 

Even Strangers from foreign lands,

Came to ask where they could find their friends

For the wishes granted knowledge too

And soon all asked for everything

And grew fat without a clue;

 

“But if they could all only ask for one thing-“ Otsune hit the mute button on her friend and continued watching.

 

By the end, the Savadali had ran round them all. Each creature now fallen, he stopped at the body of the girl and fell to his knees and screamed. The orchestra, pretending to be dead, still sang and played a sorrowful tune.

 

Only the desolate land was left, the white chalk beneath the carpet falling into site as the carpet of pebbles burned. The cast were gone, the stage destroyed. Only the ringmaster remained, as the spotlight drew down on him again.

 

“And so, a final wish was granted

Though no one knows what it was

If you care to ask, feel free

The Savadali has not yet departed

It sleeps, on mountain high

By the village of many gates

Watched carefully by the Warden’s great eye

Never to escape

 

The arena fell into darkness again, and the two of them waited patiently for a moment, until Mitzy started clapping on cue. Getting the hint, they joined him, and the lights soon came back on. The whole cast, Savadali and girl, Ringmaster and twins, bizarre love triangle of animals and so on, came forwards and took turns to bow to the audience, going out of their way to give grace to the empty seats. The music blared out for a few minutes afterwards and only slowed down when Otsune approached the ring.

 

“Bravo Bravo,” she said as the Ringmaster got close enough. “Very nice. Not bad for a night’s work.”

 

“I don’t know what that is, but I humbly accept your lavished praise,” the Ringmaster replied. “I hope it was to your best expectations and beyond?”

 

“Oh definitely! I couldn’t have asked for anything better really. A little riddley, but I think I get the point. Though I suppose I should ask…”

 

“Oh, please,” the Ringmaster interrupted. “For the sake of your life don’t. The Village of Gates is not far from here. From the opposite direction to the wall it’s straight on. Follow the most goldenest star in the sky. Oh, and use your Focoscope to search for the glowing rocks on the way. Can’t miss it unless you purchase the most expensive of the high calibre sniper rifles.”

 

This was perfect, Otsune thought, as Fujiko said a few words of her own to the performers. Distance shouldn’t be too much of a problem with supplies. And with the extra provisions the badger showed them they could have, they could survive in the wild for months. Now it was just heading straight into the glowing red rock, which should be easy enough to spot in desolate whiteness. They could make their next move from their. Otsune beamed with joy as she looked upon these strangers of the Strangelands who had been truly altruistic. What kindness wouldn’t these people suffer for the entertainment of their guests?

 

Then it hit her, and she wondered why she hadn’t thought of it before.

 

“You know, it never occurred to me,” she asked, the Ringmaster only half listening as he rolled back to loow one of the twins to get a more than friendly hug from one of the twins. “If you guys can provide any answer, that’s just as good as being able to find anybody. Then I don’t need to find the Savadali at all. I can just ask you another question?”

 

“No,” whispered Mitzy.

 

“Could you tell me where I could find a girl named Tina Gottfeld?”

 

The crowd fell silent. Everyone in the big top froze in motions, knight clowns half way between smiles. Strongwolves stuck in strained positions. The giant ant trapeze artist trapped in mid air. One by one, they turned to face her.

 

Otsune waited for the answer, anticipation on her lips.

“Tina?” cried out the Ringmatsser. “Tina Gottfled!”

 

“tina gottfeld.”

 

“Tina gottfeld?”

 

“Tina Gottfeld!”

 

“Tina gottfeld, tina gottfeld,” the small badger started mumbling.

 

“Tina Gottfeld tina gottfeld tina gottfeld.” Soon the name filed the room, the entire top an echoing mash of voice bouncing against each other. “Tina gottfeld. Tina Gottfeld.”

 

Besides her, Fujiko froze up. She felt her own knees grow cold.

 

“Tina gottfeld. Tina gottfeld,” said the knight clown, laughing and crying to itself, banging its gauntlets against its painted mask

 

“Tina gotfeld. Tina gottfeld,” said the strongwolves, as it broke its tiny arms to scratch at its eyes.

 

“Tina gottfeld. Tina gottfeld,” said Mitzy besides her. Otsune was standing up now, alert, no longer happy and excited or in the mood for any show. Now she saw ants dropping from the sky, landing atop of each other as one crushed the other and continued without care. Now twins turned to face each other, kissing passionately as they tried to punch each other with knives in hand. Now she saw as clown knights ripped their armour off, screaming as if it were skin. In the centre of the top, the Savadali actor imploded as the girl slapped him hard enough to take his jaw off.

 

“What’ the fuck’s going on!” Fujiko screamed behind her, the ringmaster screaming and hollering as he began bouncing around the tent like a dying football, they quickly forgot everything else and focused on Mitzy, now staring them down as he had just done the night before, his arm lunging to grab her. Otsune evaded the slow hand easily and watched in scaling fear as Mitzy repelled himself, looking sad even with his face wrapped up.

 

He stepped back saying, “Tina gottfeld,” and turned to the crowd now decadently destroying each other. Otsune saw three, including the badger and the strange man that greeted them gurgling wildly as they ran over to where the girls were sitting with demented glances in their faces.

 

They only got so far, as Mitzy turned to face them. With just a small shift in his shoulder, Mitzy catapulted mortar at those approaching. And they, along with half the stage disappeared in a blast of napalm.

 

Many screamed as agony blistered over their faces. While moving the flame that had floated in front of them away, Otsune saw it had taken out a chunk of the ringleader as well, his white lapels still being torn at by strongwolves.

 

“Leaving. Now. Preferably fast.” Otsune announced simply, already running with Fujiko in tow, letting momentum do its job. Dancing around audience chairs, Otsune saw the ants going for them, crushing each other to get at the two escapees, their large hairy scrapes thundering towards them, shattering plastic chairs with every advance. The larger one, the mother of the group from what Otsune could understand was behind but soon sped up after one of the younger ants and, ripping his body in two, tossed one half at the two of them. It flew overhead and cut off their path, green phantom ooze spraying all over them.

 

It was runny, but still icky. Reaching the end of the tent, the purple cape within grabbing distance, Otsune could only fall from her own exertions of late and the fear coursing through her body. Fujiko tried to pick her up, but only got so far before they realised the Mother ant was upon them. Usually harmless mandibles bared down at them with large skewers specially attached. They extended as she opened wider and Otsune could tell now if it was to chew them, it would only be as a courtesy, and not because she needed small chunks.

 

The ant hissed and drooled at them. Otsune never thought of hearing ant sounds, and she didn’t get more time to as the mother ant detonated in a explosion of emerald crimson. Chunks flying over her failing body, Otsune saw Mitzy stare back at them, his teardrop launcher pointing her way again.

 

There was no time for fear. In five seconds, she grabbed Fujiko’s shoulder, kicked what looked like an extended antennae and fell through the purple curtain, carrying on for forty yards in five seconds, just as the entrance blew open in flames.

 

“Yesterday he was hesitant after the fifth shot. That’s four now, so he should be slowing-“

 

She didn’t get as far as down, as more explosions rattled around her. She turned to see him right on their tails, advancing as slowly as he had to, his range of attack extending somewhere near three Cycloons.

 

“Tina gottfeld. Tina Gottfeld.”

 

***

 

It was like a hive mind. All the same in their strange ways and all without feeling. Otsune couldn’t tell what had triggered immediate psychosis in each and every one of the circus folk, but she knew now that the two of them were dead at this rate. Three garden imps were attacking each other, falling apart with every shattered collision, their discarded remains scrapping all the same. The lion who had read her a poem that reminded her of her first tooth coming out and the promises left behind by mother was now roaring like a pack beast and taking out whatever was moving. They fell out of eye range, sneaking as best they could in open field carnage.

 

“What now?” Fujiko shouted as a short blast of machine gun fire aided the silence for no reasons she could see.

 

“We’re leaving. We got the answer.” They had nothing new with them, and their bags were all with them save a shirt Fujiko had decided she didn’t want to wear today. Other than that they were free to go anytime.

 

Finding the path of least resistance was a deceptively easy task. Hiding behind a row of caravans, they got so far until Otsune foolishly looked back and saw Mitzy standing there looking for them. Seeing him shift his arm scared the crap out of her. They snuck along the caravans, navigating around tight corners of pressed together supply carts and looking ahead

 

What had set it off? she asked herself. Had she broken up some special pact? If that were true, they wouldn’t be killing each other, only the two of them. Were they all linked on some sort of primal level, and she had broken some kind of ritual.

 

No, that wouldn’t make sense. From polite to suicidal, there must at least be some catalyst that started it all, even if it was just the name.

 

Who was Tina, to give this sort of reaction?

 

“Geez you don’t realise how big this place is until you start running from it,” muttered Fujiko. About to say something else, she was further interrupted by a large screaming rabbit flailing widely close round the corner of the next tent. It was setting itself on fire, and didn’t seem to have the ability to see them any longer.

 

“Everyone’s been affected,” Otsune said to herself. “That makes the entire place a death trap then. We have to get out before they realise what direction we’re going in.”

 

“Are they even going to chase us? It looks like they’re wiping each other out.” The large rabbit raged passed them, leaking gasoline as it went. It got as close as a large bail of hay before it was out of legs and collapsed, setting the outer rim of their own tent on fire.

 

“That,” it was tough to name him now, “Mitzy’s still after us. If he’s as accurate as they say, we won’t be able to rest until we’re over the next horizon. “How fast can you run?”

 

“What? You mean that thing that comes after walking?”

 

“Fuji!”

 

“I don’t run, except when I’m nearly late for the tram, and even then I give up.”

 

“How the hell do you maintain your figure?” She sounded rather proud.

 

“I have a brilliant metabolism.”

 

“Well, your fucking metabolism-“ They were interrupted by a loud explosion. Behind them, the big top was quickly immolating itself. Otsune grabbed her friend by the sleeve and started to run. From here, the big top could still crush them if it fell. The height of its flag pole easily covered the radius of the entire troupe.

 

“Tina Gottfeld! Tina Gottfeld!” Otsune glanced behind her before to see the badger; its tongue hanging half out its mouth, severed into three pieces. As it bolted straight for them, Otsune stopped just enough to kick it back down. The badger dodged easily and wrapped itself around her foot, its bumbling form getting as far as her shin before it lunged back and clamped its jaws down around her tibialis anterior.

 

She screamed, pain blacking out her sight as she lost her balance and fell backwards, the badger’s teeth suck firmly in her leg as she shook it violently. She struggled fruitlessly as it held its pace, Fujiko too shocked to react herself. With feeble fists, Otsune smacked the badger as hard as she could, barely getting a bump and injecting more shock through her body for her efforts. Tears rolling down her cheeks, she felt Fujiko get hold the badger and yank. The badger held on tight, “Fia Fottsheld. Fina Shottlefeld,” it rasped on, choking and gurgling as it was finally pulled off. Otsune felt the relief of freedom for just a blissful second, as she tried to relax in the sudden warzone.

 

It lasted until she saw her leg and stumbled at the sight, a bloody mess of crimson leaking out onto the chalk. The damage wasn’t extensive. Three entry wounds and a mess of teeth imprints. It would heal as long as it wasn’t infected, but they had alcohol to help with that.

 

Looking up, she saw Fujiko no longer fighting with the badger, the small furry creature now dead on the floor, blood spilling out of its mouth, both its and her own. It had choked to death.

 

“Fuck fuck fuck,” Fujiko cursed, spazzing out over the small corpse. Otsune felt her own throat give out on her. Apart for the demons Sagara was always killing, she hadn’t every seen anything more dead than roadkill.

Realising there was no time for anything special now she pulled up the hem of her combats and bunched them up around the wound, tying it fast with one of the loose straps. She leapt up and immediately regretted it, grabbing her friend and pouncing away again.

 

Most of the circus was already on fire. Caravans and fireworks exploding randomly around them. The big top itself was now at an angle and heading for their direction. Part of her wanted to start moving sideways to avoid it, but then chose the path out the circus altogether

 

Turning around another caravan, already on fire but with no clear reason why, she caught their first sight of the empty plains. For now, the directions to the village didn’t matter. They just had to get out. They could navigate around at any time once this was all over. Heading over between two white tents, the one on their left burst open, where a headless elephant launched out of the roofing. Landing squarely on its feet, it turned a few times, moving to face them square on, before finally realising it was dead and collapsing, a torrent of blood spraying in all directions.

 

Otsune moved to avoid it, not wanting to see what was in the tent that could do that. She got as far as going around the next tent when she saw Mitzy standing there, facing them square on.

 

“How?” Otsune got out before choosing to escape. Turning back, she waved her hands at their small flame, pushing it into the tent besides them and igniting it like it was made of oil. The tent quickly went up in smoke, blinding the alley completely and helping their escape.

 

Back in the circus, she saw the same situation as seconds before. The big top was coming down now, but slowly. Opting to move to the side, she got them so far across when she noted an abandoned wagon on the peak of the hill.

 

“What are you doing?” Fujiko cried at her, as she stopped to pull it.

 

“Help me out here. We need to get it to the ridge.”

 

“This won’t get us anywhere!”

 

“It’ll get us down the hill. That’s far enough.” She strained to push it by herself. Her leg feeling a lot worse for the wear. Fujiko got behind and helped, driving it passed the remaining tents and onto the ridge. Otsune climbed in limply and pulled herself to the back, helping her friend get in.

 

From above they heard the loud creaking of the big top, finally giving up on itself and toppling down. Jumping to the front, she shunted her body as hard as she could, feeling the cart jerk for her efforts.

 

It was coming down now faster and faster, the pole looked like it would land on them.

 

“Come on,” she screamed, shunting again, Fujiko helping her this time. It plodded forwards but not enough. “Push!” she cried and with just enough effort got the cart moving. Slowly at first, it picked up speed, until it started blazing down the hill, the circus crashing behind them.

 

A roaring explosion came in on to their left, and looking as best they could sliding down a chalky hill at nearly thirty miles per hour on a deteriorating cart they saw smoke looming in the distance.

 

“He’s aiming the wrong way” Otsune shouted. It was with relief but they were going too fast just to say it.

 

“Or at someone else?”

 

Otsune went to say something more when the cart jerked right violently and spun round, dipping a mere foot and catapulting the two woman out to the ground. Otsune landed with her hands protecting her, forcing elbows and palms to take most of the damage yet still leaving her chin with enough impact to sting sharply before scraping across the dusty ground

 

Hating the world and everyone in it, she moaned as her jaw felt like it had fallen out of place. Lifting up, she saw her glasses lying ahead of her, the right lens cracked with a gaping hole. Reaching to grab them, her leg started complaining again.

 

Without time to lose, she got up, putting her specs on and only getting half a picture. Already groggy they made her feel a little disorientated, falling to her knees when she saw Fujiko lying there, a red trail behind her.

 

“Fujiko,” she screamed out, rushing over as best she could with a broken body. Her heart beat hard against her chest, and she started hating herself. This was her fault, her sin to bring her friend into the carnage like this. Fujiko’s limp body lay there without moving, her face down in the chalk. Completely abandoning all study of first aid, Otsune lifted her friend up and over.

 

Crying out again, she felt a little more relieved to see it had only cut her arm, a thick gash going from wrist to elbow, but overall just a scrape. She tried to ignore the prospects of trying to heal such a wound in their situation, and woke her friend up.

 

“Come on,” she said, dragging her by her other arm. Her wounded leg was pulsing pain and she didn’t appreciate it when Fujiko’s limp leg kicked hers.

 

“Don’t wanna. Wanna…go….beer,” Fujiko spluttered, her body making no effort to contribute to the handling of weight.

 

“Believe me, I’ll be force feeding you booze later. It’s the only painkiller we have.”

 

Whether she was energized by the comment or not, Fujiko got her grip back, lifting herself up and walking with aid. The cart was wrecked but they were almost down the hill anyway. Looking behind, no one was immediately chasing them, though her sight wasn’t reliable at the moment, and pulling out the telescope would take too long. They had to be at least over the next ridge before they could rest. Then they’ll need to do something about their tracks, even if they weren’t to be followed.

 

Tears were flowing down her face now. The badger bite hurt like hell, and she just wanted to snuggle up against someone now, even if it was just her fluffy warm bed. It was all so stupid now, so painful. She could feel her legs wanting to start walking home, a place of safety, but not knowing where to go, completely lost in the Strangelands. Giving up now would be easy.

 

But still not acceptable.

 

She didn’t want this to become just another story to talk about when they got back- because she knew they would get back, something to laugh insanely to yourself along with informing friends of her current alcohol rates. It was results she was after. Information to use to find her friend. She reminded herself again. No matter what they felt, Tina had it a lost worse, lost and alone.

 

Lurching onwards, she felt full from all the food and numb when she tried to think of what had happened. For now, she started moving in the direction of the village.

 

****

 

Having not touched any of the other items in the room herself since the bucket, Sakura was unable to describe the reason behind their existence. The bucket was not the odd one out. Each item appeared to have within it something that caused, for lack of a better term, “Visions!” Father Sakagami mused as he leant over a toy dolphin, which moments prior had left him gurgling in happiness to himself as he tossed it into the air. Though he had snapped out of it immediately upon releasing it, he fell straight back into the trance by catching again and repeated the process three times until he fumbled on the fourth, dropping the stuffed animal to the stylish carpet beneath them, “Vision each vivid enough to render the holder frozen whilst they touched.”

 

“Yo, but it ain’t just visions,” the guard butted in. “It’s memories too. I felt Vladimir’s disgust at his friend’s stupidity, and you weren’t just gurgling for your health then.”

 

“Yes. A full memory set, but only of one particular moment. And played on a loop like a home movie. This is incredible.”

 

“It’s impossible is what it is. It’s not like I’m frozen while it happens. It’s just – it’s like I’m remembering something from long ago.”

 

“Yes exactly,” Father Sakagami interrupted “Like finding a childhood toy in the attic and remembering something long forgotten.”

 

“Yeah, you know. Exactly like that.” Both men seemed rather excited and quick to test it further, each by accident grabbing the same rusted bicycle and zoning out in tandem.

 

Sakura merely watched, hesitant to either join in or insist they stop. What was being forced into their heads wasn’t natural at all! And clearly wasn’t safe. Even now part of her felt a pang in her chest at the loss of a son that never was. His innocent smile had not yet faded and she felt a desire to pick him up and throw him high into the air just o hear his delighted squeals. Whether Malcolm even existed wasn’t the worse of her problems. The sudden attraction towards witty, fun loving Melanie was still eating at her. She didn’t have to be a genius to know she had taken the role of a man in that memory but looking at the woman had made her feel repellently sick just to glance at her, a threat of what she too might look like one day, yet with it was a hunger she could not quite identify within herself. A desire almost. Something of an older man she had yet to discover herself.

 

“Whoa!” both men cried out as the bike fell between their fingers. They grinned sheepishly for a moment, and then caught each other’s eyes for but a second. They glance away and moved quickly, their smiles broadening as their cheeks went flush red.

 

“What happened?” Sakura asked.

 

“What?” Father Sakagami muttered. “Oh nothing.” He giggled, very girlishly. “Nothing at all.”

 

“Yeah,” the security guard replied with a snort. “Nothing you need to see, or run to see.” With this the two failed to contain their mirth and burst into thunderous laughter that startled her to move away.

 

“Yeah, you might get wet!” The two chortled loudly again, somehow convincing each other without words to start howling loud and clear as they held each other in the agony of laughter. Sakura looked to the bike and found herself tempted.

 

“I think we shouldn’t use these anymore,” she got out when they in a moment of silence.

 

“Huh? What’s that?” Father Sakagami said, taking his glasses off to wipe his eyes. The two men by luck made eye contact and started all snorting laughter all over again. Sakura waited, wincing when the guard started clapping.

 

“I think they’re dangerous,” she got out once the volume had turned down enough.

 

“What? Dangerous?” said the guard. “Not at all. It’s just bit of fun. Though it is a little weird. Wonder how this gets done to them.”

 

“Perhaps these are memories of travellers that have passed through here, or have perhaps been collected by someone eager to have them. It would explain the displays.

 

Sakura wanted to talk, to tell them how having memories that weren’t your own being forced into you was dangerous. Could these thoughts damage them? Change them. Already she missed Malcolm’s fumbling so intensely that the urge to grab the bucket again to relive the memory was painful enough to clutch at the chest. What would they do if any of the times contained negatives scenes? Memories of a murder or the memories of an atheist. It may inject into them an incorrect faith that another had once so foolishly believed. Instead the two of them were discussing theories.

 

“No no no, it’s got to come from individual people. Someone wouldn’t make memories and store them like this. They’d make a book or something.”

 

“But having perfect one minute scenes like these are like the shorts before the start of a movie. And with such a range it’s like he was testing out his creative talent. We could be in one giant reject section for all we know.

 

“Father -“

 

“And just how could people store their memories to these items anyway.”

 

“Father Sakagami-“

 

“Oh please, you gave the answer yourself early. It’s an item from childhood memory or something. It’s just designed for others to touch it. You could convince everyone to make up one memory like this.”

 

“Sorry Sakura, you were saying-” the vicar cut in before she moved to shouting and not being heard.

 

“I think we should move on.”

 

“What? Oh yes. That’s right. We should find someway to return here though. Might prove handy.”

 

The one room only had two doors leading out of it. The second door was jammed and they had to force it open. Now curious enough to follow along the security guard kicked the door, a trolley skittering across the now open corridor, scattering various small items including a glass vase which shattered across the floor.

 

“Whoops,” he said unsympathetically.

 

The next room was a large empty corridor, undecorated and abandoned with no one rushing to see what the sound was. Sakura felt worried at the thought of someone coming to investigate them and how they would explain themselves but got distracted when Father Sakagami brushed past another digital watch and lost himself in the thought of the best Christmas present a father could receive off a distant cousin who he had only met at a party a few years ago in Surrey.

 

Lost in the moment and complaining that the watch was a piece of junk, Father Sakagami got himself dragged into the next room by the other two (though more by the security guard as Sakura could really only help with balance. Though the long corridor had been bare and empty, much like all the other corridors, this room had gone back to form with the décor of the display room, with the green and crimson carpets and more fitting green and beige stripy wallpaper that matched with the carpet. Various red curtains were scattered around the walls of the room, though looking behind them simply revealed more wall.

 

There were no display items here though, just one large machine in the centre of the room. It reminded Sakura of a car park pay station, though only by its shape and certainly not its size. On each side, it contained the same panel of buttons and displays, all of which looked standard and to be used only by those who knew what on earth they are. On the green screen in the centre there was a line and ‘0%’ in the centre and by its side a hole surrounded by rubber. The most obvious thing to catch her eye however was a large box at the side which looked like things should drop out of it after the player had spent four hours trying to win the other soft toy. The box was fitted into both floor and ceiling. There was no looking over the top.

 

Everyone spent a few moments trying to guess what the machine could do, though none of them had seen anything like it before. Sakura knew it wasn’t any form of other or dispenser tool so Father Sakagami had suggested it to be some kind of factory machine that they would have no way of understanding. The guard stuck his hand in the hole.

 

“Oh, okay,” he said looking distinctly like he wasn’t talking to them. Father Sakagami stepped closer to deliver an ‘eh’ and was promptly interrupted by the guard’s scream as he shake and convulse on the spot, desperately to yank it out of the machine.

 

Not able to get it out, the large man started pounding on the screen, his fist flying erratically as it barely smudged the smooth glass. With a final scream they heard a loud pop and the man fell back with a thud.

 

A large egg fell promptly into the box below.

 

The three of them stared at it for near a minute, turning to each other as if to ask if that really just happened. It had, and the guard pulled out the large metal yellow egg from the chute. It opened from the middle and the three of them tried their best to pull the top off. Succeeding easily, the egg had within it a perfect model of the odd vending machine in question.

 

Curious and closest, Sakura reached for the little model of the machine before them, being overcome by a whiff of fragrance and freedom. Sure he didn’t know where she was at the moment, but it felt just a relief to be goofing off of work and for important reasons no less. After that time before with the bizarre ninja and a courtroom of hell with stupid puzzles, it was good to be getting somewhere where his amazing talents could be put to use again. Now there was just this odd machine to try out. It looked like a large tape recorder but had no really way of guessing. If it’s still working and stuck outside here, it wouldn’t be dangerous and if she just put her hand within the hole she could-

 

Sakura napped back to the room where she was a moment ago, the two men staring at her with inquisitive eyes. Glancing away in shame at her actions, she caught the large man she now knew was called Nobori go to touch his own memory.

 

He phased out for a second, which then went to a minute. When he came out of it, he gasped like he was underground.

 

“Whoa,” he replied, once he got his bearings and had given her the glare. “Is that what I sound like when I’m thinking?”

 

“I see,” he muttered to himself, circling the device needlessly. “So this I where they come from. I see, you simply stick your hand into this device and-“

 

“Yes, yes,” Nobori said, grabbing the priest’s hand and pulling it away from the device. “We got it. So whatever we think of, it records our memories and attaches them to an object relating to the memory. That’s cool.”

 

“Cool? This is amazing. Already we’re talking about machines that can read minds, create something out of nothing, and possibly predict the future. None of this technology exists nor are we close to it.”

 

“Oh yeah,” Nobori grunted incredulously. “Where’d it come from then?”

 

“Well obviously I don’t know. I don’t exactly live with them. We need to find someone who can explain things to us. This is great and all, but it doesn’t lead me to where I want to be.”

 

His voice trailed off as Sakura stared at the machine, the guard following suit. This made memories real by putting them in objects. The thought of being able to share herself without having to tell was very appealing. Her hand dangling before the machine, she resisted the temptation, knowing that she should choose carefully what memories to record. Something of back home in Italy perhaps; a memory with mother and father, to prevent her forgetting when she got older.

 

‘Well, it seems rudimentary how we run this machine,’ Father Sakagami mused, ‘but it appears we must specify in our mind what it is we are wishing to have saved.’

 

‘Yeah, the memories in the others usually seem special, yet mine was just what was happening now.”

 

“Exactly, because you were thinking of that event at the time, so Sakura got the memory of the current event and the current item you were holding and thinking about.’ He stepped up to the machine, plunging his hand into the chamber. ‘I wonder, if it is so simple.’

 

This time, the machine shot a bright flash into the chamber, firing several times and leaving purple in Sakura’s eyes. She watched as Father Sakagami focused deeply, the machine rumbling around him as it churned out a large item with a crash and plop. It took longer than a moment ago and Father Sakagami seemed unsure whether or not to open his eyes when the machine finally fell to a quiet hum.

 

Curious, they peered through the gap in the machine at the same time, to see a small ginger head staring back at them, furry whiskers twitching in as the animal beneath them, a ginger tabby, sniffed the air as it circled around the confined space of the box with three new faces hovering over it.

 

‘Amazing, it can do living creatures as well.’

 

‘Sure. Why not?’ Nobori said. ‘They’re just atoms and molecules in the end. Same as all items.’

 

‘But this,’ Father Sakagami seemed touched to see the small feline meowing up at him as he reached down for it. He picked it up swiftly, ready for the memory to hit him. He went into the now usual trance, the cat escaping from the fingers in those frozen moments, releasing him as soon as it was free.

 

‘Sakura, erm…’

 

‘Nobori.’

 

‘Nobori, this is Sadface Mackenzie. The cat I had when I was eight.’

 

The creature kept its distance, not trusting even its former owner. It was ginger and striped yellow and seemed happy just to have all the attention, though wherever the name Sadface had come from, it certainly didn’t appear to be this cat.

 

Touched by its adorable mewling, Sakura crouched down and caught its attention. As it walked up to her, she looked up, asking ‘May I?’ The priest nodded, and she petted the cat between its ears.

 

A small apartment popped up around her. It was larger than she felt it should be, yet laboriously cramped. Above her, the table loomed larger than life, both sides of the room were only an arm’s length away. Outside, the sunlight bounced through the window, hitting several small plant pots with shoots coming out of them. By the far right, Sadface, or Mackenzie as his mother had wished she had been called had she not given her son the option to choose first, watched as a sunflower waved in the bask of the summer’s day. The waving entranced the tabby and she clawed for it, bouncing it away. With a sudden lunge, Sadface tackled the flowerpot, crashing into two others and bringing the third to the floor. Sakura found herself shocked and ready to cry suddenly but then started laughing wildly with reckless abandon. Clapping his hands, she called out for mommy, who came in with a loud tut as she began chiding the cat for its actions and then him for not keeping a better eye on it.

 

The shouting got louder, and he began to cry again. Sakura felt tears fall down her face as mommy apologised and hugged him, holding him over her shoulder and letting tears soak into her pink top. With her back turned, mommy could not see the cat playing, still tearing the sunflower apart.

 

Sakura came out of it, seeing that the cat had moved on with an air of boredom, jumping up to the display cabinets and wandering through the memories, stepping over a plate and knocking a ceramic mug flying with its tail. It didn’t seem to get flashbacks.

 

It was a strange device indeed and though it held wonder to it, Sakura found herself wondering its use. Such a device was really one without purpose save for amusement, at best nothing more than a mental postcard. Looking the device over one more time, ignoring Father Sakagami as he chased the cat out of the room, calling after it as though twenty years of his life had not yet happened, Sakura saw nothing like a rulebook or basic instructions on the machine.

 

Though vending machines didn’t really say they provided food. Perhaps its use was obvious here in the realm, something incredibly common or altogether frivolous. Perhaps it even was the postcard reason.

 

She was just about to turn round and catch up with Father Sakagami to suggest they leave the device alone lest they create more life from nothing when her eye caught something still in the slot. Nobori had followed the father out of the room, telling her something she didn’t hear as she stuck her head through the gap again.

 

At the bottom of the machine lay something that was hidden in the darkness of her own shadow. Seeing only the cylinder shape of it, she braced her hand against the machine. It looked like father Sakagami had made something else, or there was something else in there before. For a second she had an unexplained flash of Alexis. Could it be, this was something from him? Of course not, she quickly fixed herself, shoving her hand down, she wrapped her hands round the cylinder and held it in front of her. She stared at the item with trepidation, the friends around her that had introduced themselves only an hour ago staring at him with a mild look of patience mixed with annoyance. Well, he had taken it, like they asked. tT wasn’t going to affect him though. Drugs like this didn’t work anyway. There were just stupid excuses set up by the weak for their lapses in judgement, the same with alcohol. Such disgusting liquids given an even worse name to…

 

Her hand rose up to meet him. It exhaled sharply kicking his large fringe back, neck falling by with the sheer force it provided. Slamming the back of his head against the hard wooden carpet as several bright lights flashed before him, she looked up to see the ceiling explode into angels and rose petals, descending majestically down on him, their hands outstretched and shaking violently, the rose petals were singing a warning about the ground and its effects on pan dimensional mouse travel.

 

It was too late, the floor beneath them collapsed and everyone else stayed exactly where they were to their doom, only Sakagami falling to freedom and safety and hell. The laughter from the Satan was unbearable, not to mention tacky. He laughed heartily at the creature’s effects as it removed seven of his human hearts, the lack of vital organs doing nothing but making him die multiple deaths for each flash which streamed across their eyes. He spat at the devil and got a guitar for his efforts. He played it like a sax and the devil was insulted enough the send him back. It wasn’t until Christmas though that he…

 

Another flash tore her blindly away and she ripped her arms off, leaving them in the machines. Breathing heavily, she noticed she was alone in the universe and found tears dripping from her eyes. The angels weren’t there. They were gone, and Alexis had left her. Left her to be strong, to find her own strength, so she couldn’t rely on his. Of course, she couldn’t have his strength; he was bleeding to death somewhere as Sagara killed him again and again, whistling Mozart loudly as he skipped along the large cruise ship and ate beverages the size of kings as god told her she hadn’t been paying enough attention in school recently and that if she kept up her current behaviour she needs to be sent back to ell for a few years but that was okay because that’s where sinners belonged along with the rest of the Eskimos and-.

 

Sakura shook her head. Something was wrong! With her. She wasn’t right? What was right anyway? Could she follow it? Best not to. Turning left she headed more lefter than she had ever left before, giggling at the sound of her own thoughts. Two doors stood in her way, but they proved no match to her amazing knob turning skills.

 

She laughed again as she fell into the wall. She didn’t know why.

 

Dropping the syringe, she teleported into the next corridor.

 

****

 

It was official. She had no idea what time it was.

 

The binary watch told her 00001000 00001100, but Fujiko’s was saying 5:15 pm, a change in difference of three hours and sixteen minutes since they had checked at the end of the first ‘day’. Since then, they had slept four times and walked the rest. Time was becoming meaningless in the Strangelands, but it shouldn’t be becoming inconsistent.

 

Now as she sat waiting for Fujiko to bring out what she could from the bag. Otsune reviewed her guess at how many days had passed. Based on how tired they were it was easy to assume they had been sleeping lots. Especially after the last sleep, where she waited over five hours before Fujiko had woken up. She herself had been asleep for what she believed was eight. Unless they were sleeping entire days away, she could put roughly at seven days having passed. Their mobiles had since gone dead and neither of their watches showed dates.

 

The sleep concerned her. Her schedule was usually seven hours of sleep based on information provided by the National Sleep Foundation, but usually she was so fit for action she’d be awake an hour early. Sleeping in different environments usually made her restless and prone to waking up early, yet here either she was sleeping a lot longer (in crappy conditions no less) or someone was playing with their watches. The consistent light was probably messing with their melatonin levels. Either way they should not be sleeping half the day away,

 

This village was still no where in sight. Based on the information and the star that looked the ‘goldenest’ they were going the right way. As far as a gift from psychotic circus troupe could be relied upon, the telescope had yet to reveal any of the glowing rocks that they searched for, but then they were supposed to only appear halfway. Otsune had long stopped feeling anything for what had happened, and hoped severely that they wouldn’t run into anyone here again until they met this Savadali.

 

“Well, we’ve got about ten slabs of meat left, along with another twenty or so purple apples. Plenty of leaves and pies left and one more bottle of chardonnay, before we can start moving onto the stuff we took from the circus, thought there’s not much of that.

 

“Enough to last us about ten days then, fifteen with extreme rationing.”

 

“How long do you think we have left?” It was the first time Fujiko had asked the question since they had left the troupe. Otsune didn’t want to answer.

 

“If it was four thousand cycloons like they said, it’s probably another seventy hours of walking”

 

“How do you figure that?”

 

“The guy at the shop told us the initial walk to the circus was 250 cycloons, and that took about five hours… right before our watches started being unreliable. We’ve been walking a little slower than that, due to our wounds, but roughly we’ve covered about a thousand cycloons already. We’ll just have to keep making good time, and aim for fifteen days of rations just to make sure.”

 

“Just in case you’re horribly wrong?”

 

“Exactly.”

 

Her distances were slightly off; she knew that for certain. But some things had been changing when their eyes had been closed. Gradually, though she had denied it at first, convinced herself it was a trick of the mind, it had been getting darker, the eternal omnilight of the Strangelands was starting to ebb. There seemed to be no reason behind it, only that it was getting dark. It was possible that the daily rhythms of this land were just much longer and more spread out than their own, though they still had no light source save for the stars in the sky. These had shifted as they walked, trailing slowly in the opposite direction to where they were walking.

 

“So what can we eat now?”

 

But what did that mean? Assuming they were on a rotating sphere, even the rocks that were at the furthest end of the solar system and would take centuries to make a rotation just span round themselves in the meantime. The stars should be changing position constantly. Was this globe so large that it would take years just to do that. And if they weren’t on a globe, why were the stars moving at all? Was it a floating piece of landmass drifting along in space? That would explain the gradual movement, consistent light and why they still had gravity, but if it were moving like that how would it stay connected to the InBetween realm.

 

“Oi!”

 

“Sorry, what?”

 

“So what can we eat now?”

 

“Just the pies it seems. We’ll take one and a half each.”

 

They ate in silence. Conversation had all been drained by now. Topics were hard to come up with when you had nothing around you to inspire, and the topics worth talking about neither wanted to speak of. In fact there was just one topic left to speak of.

 

“Otsune,” Fujiko asked quietly, as she tended to her wound. They had to use old clothes for bandages and precious alcohol for disinfectant. They couldn’t waste the water they had, and juice would have caused further problem. Fortunately what she had been jokingly calling Chardonney was more like vodka in its content. It served perfectly as a painkiller.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“How are we getting out of here? I mean, I guess you don’t know at all, but I was just wondering if you had thought of anything.”

 

“How can I think of anything in this situation?”

 

“Well, you’re smart, and you’re studying to be a detective. I just figure… that you might have had something that would get us out of this. Something you were only going to tell me after we had found Tina or something.”

 

“I’m aiming to be a forensic scientist,” Otsune told her first. “It’s different to that.”

 

“But you have got a plan or something, right?” Otsune watched her little flame, hovering there by itself. It was the only fire they had. Even Fujiko was never cold in this climate so they didn’t even need one each ‘night’ either. Even with the increase in darkness, the land was still lukewarm at all times.

 

“I’m not some English sleuth Fujiko,” she said, disappointed at herself. “I haven’t deduced some solution which is clever and witty. The best thing I’ve got is that we head back to the start point, grab some sacks on the way, and use them as a ladder.

 

“Hey, that is smart. Why don’t we do that?”

 

“Because it’ll be a twenty mile hike there and back on average, slowed down by carrying heavy sacks up stairs surrounding a very deep hole. We may have food there to keep us going along the journey but either a) the little man won’t let us use the sacks at all or specifically if we’re trying to leave. This is possible since he was only wiling to lend us resources when we were going into the Strangelands, and b) the sacks contain those resources. Eating what we need to use as lift doesn’t get us very far.”

 

“Surely though it’s safer than this going in a random direction to find some village.”

 

“It possibly is, but the act of climbing stairs with heavy sacks has an immediate high risk effect. This is low risk, and the potential payout is roughly the same. Also…” she looked out to where they had been, the smoke plumes of the circus tent fell out of sight after their second slope, “there is a chance someone is still following us. I didn’t want to risk that.”

 

“So instead we go the way they tell us to. Those who freaked out and started killing themselves.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“So, there’ no chance of us getting out of this alive then?”

 

“Well, with chaos theory and other random probable…”

 

She caught Fujko’s glare, piercing through her like an ox.

 

“It’s not no chance, but it is little,” Otsune admitted. “Sorry.”

 

“Don’t worry about it,” Fujiko mumbled, turning over.

 

Watching the back of her friend, Otsune sighed, trying not to annoy her. After all the complaints she had given the others over screwing up, of the endless stupidities of the gang back home, acting like the boss, telling the younger ones off.

 

Now she had screwed up most of all.

 

Not that tired, Otsune chewed into the last of her pie, and dropped to the floor as well. Using clothes for pillows, she felt her aching neck against the lukewarm floor, wishing that they could have come to a land made of pillows.  

 

****

 

Sakura and Sarah and Aki were on top of the bed together, doing their best not to have hardcore make out sessions with each other and maybe the pillows too if they were interested. Sarah was discussing with her the notions of up travel in a place that wasn’t a planet. Aki was perfectly normal in every conceivable way and had no reason to be doubted.

 

‘You see,’ Sarah continued as if she had never started, ‘if up is not to be considered what is above us and more a craning upwards of the neck, then it can be considered that every craning upwards of the neck is the direction of up and even to crane your neck back whilst underwater at the further reaches of the earth would be considering looking up.’

 

‘What about if you look up in space but are hanging upside down?’ Sakura asked, currently making a bottle of Russian clear water into an enormous spiff.

 

‘Nope, that’s down,’ Sarah answered off the mark. In space up is specifically that which is above the North Pole. Down is everything below the South Pole.’

 

‘What about the earth?’ Aki asked normally and with no need for alarm.

‘Oh that’s neither. In fact, it’s its own choice, hence the underwater choice of up and down there.’

 

‘I see.’

 

‘On earth, it’s all perspective and nothing else. Not even smoke and mirrors.’

 

‘I like mirrors,’ Sakura said uselessly, blinking lousily, ‘and smokes’ Coughing up enough to rip up a small goat or something, Sakura slammed her head on The next door, swinging it open.

 

The pain got her thinking and a few moments later she felt clearly. Holding her head, she felt the illusion of a headache still wracking her brains. It wasn’t really there, she told herself, getting it and hoping it wasn’t true at the same time. The flashback had done something to her. Now she was in control again she could-

 

Her feet left her, leaving her hands only enough time to realise what was going on and grab a chair to crash embarrassingly onto.

 

Her eyes opened. It felt like time had past. It felt like nothing had changed. She shook her head to try and fix things. It worked a little but made her brain hurt. She was standing by a large desk. The type presidents use. Halfway across the room, a large black, leather chair was rolled half way across the floor. It led to a series of worker stations, going down the room. From where she stood groggily, she could see they looked lived in, but were currently empty.

 

A workplace was more than obvious, but she recognised it from the warnings Father Sakagami had given her. They were the workplace of drones. Mindless creatures who had given up on faith and dreams worked here. They started naturally enough as a temporary means of support, but they never left. Father Sakagami had described it as the most boring of all hells. I6t always sounded like he spoke from experience.

 

The front desk looked a little different though. It was much richer and looked to be for someone of important station. Was this place different then? Perhaps it was an angel’s desk, a copy of the bible was kept perpendicular at the front for all to see, along with a Newton’s cradle missing three marbles and pieces of paperwork scattered about randomly, only a layer of dust keeping them from returning as soon as possible.

 

And there on the large desk was a folder with Alexis’s face atop it.

 

****

 

We’ll head for the factory tonight.

This will be purely recon. Honest.

Don’t be late or you’ll know what’ll happen.

Delete this message.

 

There was that warning again. So far getting a mobile phone had proven nothing but pain. Her wish to use it to coordinate with Sagara had got so far as being unable to find the phone number in his own frog covered phone when she took it off his sleeping corpse. She sighed heavily, flicking back to the other messages left by Kiriyama. They were piling up now. Constant warnings and reminders about where they were meeting, who they were gunning for, numbers, that constant reminder of a certain photo and, of course, the demand to delete each message.

 

She hadn’t. If he asked, she could simply say she thought she had. It was the truth that she didn’t know how to delete things off the stupid thing, and she wasn’t in the mood to take time out to understand it.

 

Besides, wasn’t it the role of the thug to be stupid and get things wrong? If their entire plan failed (sorry, Kiriyama’s entire plan) failed because of it, it would be the one good thing that would happen to her from this.

 

Aside from the demon killing of course.

 

The demon had recognised her it seems. She was getting famous in the demon world, probably from the tournament. The entire scene may have come from a misunderstanding (Kiriyama certainly wasn’t expecting the doctor to inflate to his true form), but the slaughter of a demon was a bonus. She just hoped it didn’t hurt Sagara’s reputation

 

Then again, what did she care about that? Or him for that matter. The lazy brute had been napping for weeks now, she was beginning to wonder if he was even trying to wake up. He was certainly avoiding her.

 

Though it was stupid to think Sagara would try to avoid people. Again, he was too stupid. He’d tell a grieving woman that her husband just died after being ran over by the same man who had just killed their children as he was running away with his mistress and the goofy grin that would beam off his face would have a paralysing-followed by homicidal effect on the woman. Perhaps if he-

 

“Ms. Yamanaka!” a voice pierced her thoughts and brought her back to the stern flat face of squinty eyes Mr. Tsukamoto. “Are you checking your phone during my class?”

 

This man has never given Natoko respect. It was true, on the very first day of class he had used her as a scapegoat in front of the whole class to establish the small circle of dominance he had over them. She was the example and victim, and even worse she was still as powerless to stop him now as she was then. In turn, she had no right to give respect back. “Sorry sir,” she said, putting her phone away.

 

“Sorry will not cut it, young woman,” the teacher said. “You shall have to stay back after school I’m afraid and catch up on the parts you just missed.”

 

She looked down at her text book, and then across to the one in his hands. They were at completely different parts.

 

“And as you can apparently see,” he said, peering into her book and gazing derisively at the pages like they too were ashamed for not flipping themselves for her. “You have missed out on chapters four, five, seven and twelve that we have covered since you last stopped paying attention.”

 

“That’s impossible, I was only-“

 

“I will not hear your excuses, young girl. Once again you astound me and bring shame to Mr. Fukasawa by your thoughtlessness in class.” He huffed loudly as he peered at her from above his glasses, “I do not expect one that follows the way of the sword would spend time making petty excuses and looking to slip through cracks. You should accept your punishment and move on with it.”

 

He had a point, even though she knew she was only glancing at the phone for half a minute at most. They couldn’t have covered those chapters.

 

“So, I will see you here at the end of classes today at four.”

 

“Understood.” She stopped, remembering her schedule. “No wait, I have club meetings then.”

 

“Well you should have considered that before you went socialising then through a digital medium.”

 

“But I can’t miss practise,” she gasped desperately, even though it was a part lie. She hadn’t needed those cub meetings for months. She was the best there except when Kiriyama showed up.

 

“I believe you can afford to miss one session of practise. Besides, whilst kendo is usually meant to be strenuous exercise, I would be remiss in my own duties if I let you attend. You see, it is the one thing at this school I know you actually enjoy.”

 

Natoko glared sharply at him, not letting any visage of patience appear on her face. How small was he? Just a little taller than Aki, probably weighed a little less. How much would it take her to tear through him? A piece of paper flapping in the wind would be harder.

 

“Ah I see you are regretting the error of your ways. Well then, with any hope, and that is all I can rely on at this point with you I assure you, this will be the start of many improvements I may see upon you.”

 

Spending the rest of the day in a blur, Natoko lamented her distance to Iziz, left in the training hall. Most of the time they did pure kendo training, with maybe a little sparring. She was already the best duellist there and only lost when her mind was elsewhere, or Kiriyama showed up. That didn’t bother her though. But today at the end, she had asked to give a quick demonstration of Iaido to the others. She was the only one in the club that did it, the other six members had no real way to learn, but it was a perfect time for someone other like Aki to examine her form. Aki was perfect in her analysis of course, but she had only one voice. Different opinions always mattered, even if they did have little clue what they were thinking about.

 

And now she was being denied. She had little reason to come to this building in the first place and the reasons remaining were dwindling. She wanted nothing to do with Kiriyama and now they were holding her back on club duties. She needed to get out.

 

Before she knew it, she was there, sitting on her own, gazing at passages within the maths textbook. The book was clearly faulty; all the words were blurred and glazed over.

 

“Who needs maths anyway?” she said to herself with a loud sigh. In this modern world, did it even have the smallest application beyond addition and subtraction?

 

She heard the door slide open, and leant forwards to make herself appear more interested. The book fixed itself and she became bombarded with a triangle with ones on all sides in a section to do with prime numbers. She thought it weird because she knew prime numbers had to work with squares and was interrupted as Iziz thudded down on the table in front of her.

 

She looked up to the face of Kiriyama, who stared solemnly at her, a stern and serious expression that told her it was all business time.

 

“Come on, we’re going.”

 

“But I have-“

 

“I don’t care, we go now. To make a point, he reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. He didn’t need to take it out now for her to respond.

 

Only her duty felt hesitation, the rest of her mind had been out dancing in fields full of sunflowers ages ago. But it anchored her down, whispering to her. She couldn’t leave. Getting punishments was one thing. To skip was out right delinquency, and though Mr. Tsukamoto had always accused her of it, she had never actually stumbled.

 

“Fine. Understood.” She took her sword, wrapping it into its bag. As she zipped it up, Kiriyama was already at the doorway waiting for her. Taking one last look at the numbers in her book, she left it there and shot after him.

 

***

Kiriyama had explained on the train.

 

“My informant had contacted me after lunch. Since your little scene every student had their phone switched off, so I couldn’t get it until then.”

 

“Yeah. Tell everyone I’m sorry I got caught, will you?” she replied with a bitter tongue. The school’s policy on mobiles was clear. Turned off all day. Any phones found on were confiscated. They didn’t even let them check at lunchtimes now unless they were off the premises.

 

“Anyway, the factory in question is on twenty four-seven. Most of its supplies come at night and the night shift is when most staff on all call, seems it’s actually better to check it out in the daytime when they only have skeleton crews on shift.

 

“Well we could have checked it out tomorrow.”

 

“That wouldn’t have given us optimal results,” he corrected her immediately. “The postage address on the parcel suggests it was stamped on a Monday. This means it was most likely posted on the Friday. If it was the factory that sent the parcel, then it stands that the parcels are sent out every Friday. This could be wrong, I admit, but I’d rather not miss the opportunity to see everything rather than come tomorrow and see no one working.”

 

“Wouldn’t a factory send packages daily?”

 

“Yes,” he hissed back. “Possibly, more than likely, but I’d rather not leave anything to chance at this point. Every since that… thing showed came out of the doctor, I’m actually worried as to what this King of the City may be peddling.” Kiriyama went pale at the recall. “You saw that thing he became. It was almost like he wasn’t human.”

 

“No. He was a demon.”

 

“Exactly, and if there’s a drug out there that can actually transform people-“

 

“No no, I mean he was actually a demon. He was never human. Well, he may have been, but more than likely the demon possessed the human’s shell in the ritual of animism and warped it from here.”

 

“Shut up,” he barked. “I’ve no time for your crap.”

 

Natoko glared at the floor. It was easier to look menacingly at the floor than at someone who had regularly beaten you in every fight you had.

 

“It is unlikely to be a demon, because demons do not exist. And whilst I will not completely deny the existence of demons, I will state that it is for more likely to be the result of a drug somehow changing this man than a demon from the ninth circle of hell ascending from a cauldron of brimstone to bring about a holy plague upon us.”

 

“But I fought demons before!”

 

“It was more likely a drug. It may even be that he had hallucinogenic pumping through the air to affect intruders.”

 

“That seems unlikely.”

 

“But it is more likely than demons, which so far have been completely refuted to exist.”

 

“Okay,” Natoko said, feeling a little bemused. “Have it your way.” She left the conversation there, leaving Kiriyama to mutter to himself, happy at her silent victory over him.

 

Drugs. If that was true, she hoped she remained an addict her whole life.

 

***

 

Natoko didn’t bother to ask him where he had gotten the security pass. She was still too happy with herself to care. It occurred to her that Kiriyama should remain in the dark about demons for as long as possible. The more he denied their existence, the more scarred he’d be when he finally found out

 

The inside of the factory was relatively quiet, the whirring of large machinery she didn’t care to understand rattled around her without tune. Pistons pumped in and out somewhere above and a loud horn blared continuously for ten seconds, followed shortly by a silence as her ears restarted themselves.

 

“That’ll be the shift change. Come on,” Kiriyama led her up a metal gang plank and across to a line of metal shelves. He grabbed his wrist and pulled her alongside, making sudden small talk, happy as he could pretend to be whilst picking up parts as two large men laughed to one another without even glancing in their direction. Ushering her along, they went to a third floor level before she finally asked the question plaguing her since they entered less than two minutes ago.

 

“You do realise we’re both in school uniform, right?”

 

“That should be fine. We shouldn’t be getting spotted after all.”

 

They spent the next five minutes hiding in one of the quick access bathroom stalls when another worker appeared out of nowhere and had them dodging his line of sight in zero point one two seconds. Standing in the cramped toilet, Natoko on the crack of the seat while Kiriyama sat down making it look like he was taking his damn time, it became painfully clear that the toilet stall had in fact been the man’s destination. They sat there for ten minutes, before the man’s whistling disappeared to go find another toilet.

 

From there, they went up a another level, down two levels and underneath a very dangerous piece of machinery that looked like it could chew Iziz right up and still have enough motion to spit it right back at them in various skin shredding chunks. They eventually got to a bunch of workers by a conveyer belt. Natoko couldn’t see their faces, but Kiriyama seemed convinced they should stop and listen to them.

 

***

 

“I tell ya, it’s never been the same. This isn’t ‘ow it ought to be. This ain’t where we ought to be.” Tooamblok the ninth grumbled, reaching up for a box and slapping the contents in, folding it three times and sticking five centimetres of selotape on with her four prehensile claws on markers five, seven and eight, before passing it along the production line.

 

“It isn’t, it isn’t. But it is, and you shall deal with that,” The One Truth That All Fear replied, taking the box off of her and sticking the redistribution label on it before slapping it onto the scales and selecting mode five, which would set the stamp machine so it printed ‘fragile’ along with the picture of the glass on sides four and five, but without a ‘This way up’ symbol. “But it won’t be much longer if you continue using that to do your job. There are humans working here as well, my dear. You would do well to hide your appendages.”

 

“They are not my appendages. They are my birthright,” she hissed back at him, splitting them off into four separates entities, each as good as the whole, using them to grab four packages off the conveyer belt and dash them neatly into four packing boxes, making sure each were even distributed to ensure correct balance and weight content and ensuring they were facing the correct direction of the ‘this way up’ sign on each box, before tossing them over to her ‘fellow employee’.

 

“And this is not my job,” she continued. “My job is the defiling of teachers; the decadence of the educator. For centuries I have whispered their worse fears to them, their minor curiosities. I pushed them towards believing things no man would even consider were it not for the tongue of a devil tickling their lobe. I was the corruptor of professors. I made them dance tunes to teach perversion, gave them lessons to share to children that would send parents in an outrage. And how I laughed in their ears as they realised what they had become. What they had let their dreams fade to, and the price they had made others pay.”

 

“And then your work was outsourced to third party humans who did a much better job and only wanted to be paid in money and whores. Now you work here; with me.”

 

“I worm with a fool, worming away with this mindless labour. As pointless as it is rotting.”

 

“You speak out of turn, hellwyrm,” the new one shouted at her, his voice elevating and booming throughout her ninety two senses. “You may find your work boring but it is still important. Our new lord needs the Thousand spread as far and as wide as possible before he begins to mine it. You may not like your job in packaging and distribution, but it serves grander purposes.”

 

“Bah! It is dull and better spent in the hands of mundanes and minions. And there are no teachers on site either save for the supervisor, and he’s far too gone to realise it. I need innocence, and there’s none of that here- oddly enough.” She turned her disembodied eye of the saint of Thebes towards their silent co-workers, the three of them packing in silence. They actually creeped her remarkably well. Her, a great arch mage of the war of After Balance. What was wrong with her this millennium?

 

“There is no need to be concerned. The karma is watching all of this. You will be greatly rewarded at the end, as will we all. You will have enough to feed for a century with these actions your appendages perform. More than enough for you to relax.”

 

“Pfft, relax?” she said with spiteful sarcasm. “We are starting a war that no side will escape. When it comes we will be dragged into it, deeper than others by being the instigators. More and more liars and tricksters will half heartedly promise us freedom and comfort, but such things cannot last for demons. You fool me not.”

 

***

 

Natoko shuffled forwards, the gears of the machine above her chomping away; their purpose unknown. A bad idea in her brain wanted to look up but all the other ideas were depicting of her skull being permanently redecorated. Etching a little closer to the edge she caught the face of one of the factory workers that Kiriyama had insisted they spy upon. A foreigner clearly; but he looked human enough. Only what they spoke of suggested demons.

 

Slipping further to the left, she dropped across to the side where she heard the woman. When she caught wind of it, she felt a little disappointed seeing the plump overweight woman come into view, flailing her arms drastically with little complaint. The other one looked a little scary; foreigners always did.

 

This was beginning to feel like they were wasting time. A horrid thought came over her as she saw herself in their place in a few years time. Maybe she should consider studying, just a little harder.

 

Risking it, she dragged herself a little further, only to be stopped by Kiriyama. She scowled a look he missed. This one was taking far too much pleasure in holding her back for any little reason. Ignoring it, she angled her head to be able to see through the holes and went eye to eye with two children who worked adding the red liquid to vials as a third one, just out of sight, disappeared with a box round the corner. Natoko recognised the two children, and the foreigner as a result.

 

These were more of the demons that were at the tournament. The little boy was the one Sagara had fought at the start of the main tournament, scoring a victory over the cute innocent child and declaring a victory for the forces of justice. At first she hadn’t realised this until later on once they met the child’s sister and the two combined into the one monster demon that had a funny name that she couldn’t quite remember.

 

The woman too, looking a little overweight and bubbly as she angrily babbled away in her demonic tones. This couldn’t be right. There was no way she would meet up with these just after seeing the doctor demon.

 

Above her, Iziz clanked against something and shot away, the case strap tearing itself off of her and flinging the plastic cylinder out in the open five feet away from her. She watched in shock as she heard the bag get chewed up above her, the sword case wobbling back and fro on the spot.

 

The machinery continued to hum away, the exposed cooling fan telling her that getting up and moving to pick it up was not the best idea. Other than that, there was silence.

 

***

 

“What was that?” Tooamblok growled, the noise shooting into the wall. The brief pain of allowing a hunter to get this close overcame her enough to feel foolish once she focused. She sensed nothing, and she could sense all things hidden. There was nothing to worry about.

 

That is until she saw the long plastic case.

 

“Wat be fis?” she hissed through an encapsulate mouth. It was a long black carrying bag, like the one The One brought for the weekly pool tournament on Tuesday. But where had it come from? There were no stairways above her, and any of the others that were strong enough to throw this from below were in the other building currently handling data entry and form requisition.

 

It was a nice bag. Cotton black. Simple but stylish. Looked like it was designed to be easily open and inside… a sword?

 

“Drop that now,” a voice cried out before her. She looked up to see the two creepy children combine into one as it rushed up beside her, panic etched in the Blniock’s ludicrous androgynous face. “Drop it quickly.”

 

Tooamblok looked at him with a sneer, the power over him she had just acquired clear. “And why should I consider this request of yours?”

 

“I have s-sssseen this before. Thissss is no ssssstandard ssssword.”

 

“I can see that,” she said, pulling it from its sheath to see it shine. “This is a master’s work, even by the Near’s standards. To think it should just appear like this. Clearly my curses have finally been heard to escape this hell hole.” She drew the blade and swung it at the failed innocence. “Are you to tell me to drop it now?”

 

“Bad blade bad blade. Is danger to have thissss so close? Thisss belongs to them. To them.”

 

“Well,” she said, dropping it. “Even if it did, it doesn’t any longer. They are none of them nearby, and I am safe to use my birthright to mark it as my own. She brought her appendages to bear and, concentrating with lust in her eyes, engorged each of them and felt their power as the girth grew on each of them, pulsing with the power of her muscles. “It will be mine!”

 

“Iziz will be no such thing!” Tooamblok’s eyes swung round, the rest of her body following. A girl was there, standing defiantly less than two feet away. Tooamblok felt one of her more fragile senses pop and turn to ether, floating away from her forever at the sight of this new creature.

 

“Wha- how did you get so close?” Even now her senses were failing to catch sight of the girl and another two senses fizzled and merged together. She immediately became aware of a third plain that existed within the InBetween realm. One she had found centuries before but lost again after a drunken binge session and a night surrounded by alley cats.

 

From behind the girl, ugly by her standards and even uglier by human standards, was another decked out in a very plain school uniform with a shirt and jacket combo that tantalised even her most bored of taste buds. This was a boy; very handsome, nearly a man. He scurried out from beneath the machine she worked by but didn’t know what it did.

 

“Know this, creature,” the girl said. “I know not who you are nor care considerably. I will give you one chance, and one chance alone, to return my blade to me willingly. Refuse and I shall take it back from you and anything still holding onto it will come off with it.”

 

“The gamble wrecker, the gamble wrecker,” the demon besides her said in fright, making Tooamblok grin. “She ruined everything. Stopped all without realising. Caused chaos where once demons held order.”

 

“Oh, I’ve heard of you. You’re, what was it, Yamanaka Natoko?” She waited for a reply, expecting silence as confirmation and receiving. “Oh you’re exactly what I heard about. I can see the interest in you all over. What say we-“

 

She was cut off as the girl became a blur before her, lunging as if to head butt the steel walkway below them. Tooamblok leaned back out of instinct and felt something tug at her as if to take her arm off. She pulled back, feeling something give, and fell right back into the One’s arms.

 

She blinked twenty nine times, looking around at what had happened. What speed! She had heard the dust prince had had his share of difficulties, as much as one of the royal lines could, but that was ridiculous. The girl actually disappeared from eyeshot for a second.

 

“I said one warning. You waste it with talking and there is no need for me to both-“This time it was the intruder’s turn to be taken aback. Tooamblok smiled again, striking the shock from her mind the way a human would their breath. The little swordgirl had only gotten the sheath. The blade was still hers.

 

“Give- give it back,” she said to Tooamblok, defiantly waving around useless wood.

 

“Wait, bad thought, bad thought,” the Blniock replied, reviewing the situation. “Girrrrlll isss harmless without blarade. Girl is sssnack. I sssse now.”

 

“Ah geez,” the sidekick, who had been quiet until now said. “You had to go and spoil things didn’t you. Didn’t I say recon?”

 

The swordgirl grimaced while staring at Tooamblok, just long enough to bring the sheath crashing down on where her human head was. She shook the whole body like a stone from a tower and Tooamblok dropped forwards. Recoiling, she lifted up and swung back at her, missing completely from point blank range.

 

“You dare swing it so crudely?” The swordgirl said to her right hand side, between where she and the Blniock were. “You were not even worthy of a warning. I will be taking it from you now.”

 

Who did this girl think she was? No human taunts a demon of her pedigree. It was suicide.

 

“Bite me, honey,” Tooamblok replied, raising the sword above her head. She knew very well what she was doing. That’s what senses were. Humans only ever had five senses, seven at most, but they never had the better senses. The sense to perceive what you were thinking, the sense of what food was bad at which restaurant and especially the sense of what people feared the most. This girl loved her sword, so Tooamblok would take it from her.

 

Plunging it into her own gullet, Tooamblok began swallowing the blade straight through her exterior mouth, marking it as her own.

 

“No,” the girl cried out in fear and delicious mouth watering agony. Tooamblok smiled around the hilt. It made the sword go down easier. It was long and she always had to take her time when marking, but it would be-

 

Thrck!

 

The girl struck her with the sheath. It cured the momentarily indigestion and Tooamblok pushed down harder. “Stop it stop it.” The girl cried, her eyes swelling up. “No please, I’ll I’ll…”

 

Oh she felt it and it was fantastic, their vibration, the chattering of the enamel as adrenaline surged at a time it wasn’t wanted, and the overbearing peak of disgust as failure to stop the inevitable. It wasn’t turning vicars into paedophiles, but it would do for a week or so.

 

“Melting. Melting.”

 

“Huh?” Tooamblok replied. Her gut spasmed and Tooamblok felt the disgusted rumbling of an organ she didn’t use. The blade tasted acidic in her mouth as the contents of her kotodama began spilling out into the floor. Looking down she realised the sword wasn’t the one disappearing.

 

“But how, where…I ….no… How I die when I can’t live?” she spat, feeling herself roll away, her eyes beginning to roll. Her thirty one year animism ended.

 

Feeling the disconnection shunt herself from her physical form, Tooamblok was able to look around long enough as everything faded back to her familiar ocean green mist. The blasted sword must have been tampered with, she thought, feeling the pull of the InBetween Realm on her real self. She looked to the others raised above their stolen bodies and let out an embarrassed grumble as they stared up in horror. Feeling the joyous sensation of her nine hundred and fifty six of her senses coming back to full power, she waited for the shunt back to the InBetween realm but was instead met with a trickling feeling where her spirit was.

 

Suddenly choking, a trail of ethereal green erupting out in front of her. She watched her floating entrails just long enough to spit another two parts out, feeling all her selves hudder and scream. What was this? She couldn’t choke. Her- her energies fading…

 

Impossible? Was this-

 

Cheese and crackers. Cheese and cracker.

 

Was this death?

 

***

 

Natoko watched as Iziz fell onto the floor, the effort of escaping from the disintegrating demon not so difficult a challenge for the inanimate object rolling beneath her. Even as the demon fizzled away, it still looked like it was hanging half broken, right up until the death scream pierced everyone’s ears and nothing began to hold the sword. Now it lay in front of her, hilt in her hands, still slightly moist.

 

“Dead. Dead. Gone again. How how?”

 

Now she remembered the name. Binlock. Not the same one as before. Different colour. This one was green and unlike the plump woman a few moments ago, definitely a demon. She couldn’t tell if it was the same one she had met in the InBetween realm.

 

She sliced it in a clean two before it could even panic at her approach.

 

The body hovered and stared at her, trying to mock her feeble attempt at evisceration right before gravity took hold. The two parts dropped from each other, becoming children again before they hit the ground.

 

The children part took a moment to register. The foreigner filled it. He was already backing away.

 

“There is no need for a confrontation here,” he said monotonously in a dreary documentary voice where even the narrator had just plain had enough. “I have no wish to fight. My fear prevents it. I am too scared. I am too scared, Oh please don’t hurt me. Oh please, I beg of you. Spare me. Spare me.”

 

The words came out in a pitter patter behind his unkempt beard, trying for emotion and only getting a single pitch. Natoko pointed her sword at him and spoke:

 

“Tell you King of the City that we require a meeting with him.”

 

“The king. I do not understand. Oh cursed lords please.”

 

“Your lord, master, whatever. Call him and tell him to call us, or we will come back to this factory with the Heir and we will bring it all down and destroy His work. Do I make myself clear this time? This one time only?”

 

“Yes. Yes, of course,” he said with the perfect rhythm that could only be managed without pitch, tone or crescendo. “I leave now. I shall transfer your message. Thank you. Thank you so much.” The foreigner ran away, half jumping half falling over the stairway before Natoko heard a loud clang and the patter of scared sprinting.

 

She waited a few moments, before striking Iziz to the left in a clean chiburi and throwing the mucus off, before returning it for a well earned rest.

 

“We should leave,” she replied.

 

“My word,” Kiriyama finally released. “They’re just children.”

 

“Demons, Kiriyama. Ignore their form and let’s leave. ” As she strode across their unconscious, uncut, bleeding forms, she stared down at them. That was annoying, and she’d rather not cut anything that looked that young, no matter how much of a trick it was. Hopefully this Binlock would know how good it is to pretend being dead for as long as it took them to leave.

 

“Where… where did she go?”

 

“We’ll discuss it later. Leave now, before anyone else notices.”

 

“They all noticed,” Kiriyama replied. “They’re all holding back down there. Do you think we can get out from the second floor?”

 

“Doesn’t matter, we leave through the front; the way we came in.” She headed for the gangplank, descending the steps as all the workers below them worked to avert their gazes.

 

“You… you are not in charge here,” Kiriyama replied, following her as she headed straight to the large delivery bay doors, and the small side entrance besides them.

 

“No, no I am not. My apologies for over assuming my boundaries. I merely wished us to get faster results. A meeting with the King of the city. Surely that’s what you came for. “

 

“Yes, well, this got a little dangerous this time. And, I guess I didn’t expect you to actually get into the killing.” She smiled away from him.

 

“If that’s what you’ll have me be,” she said grimly, bowing politely to a large worker who opened the door for them very quickly and offering him a quick thank you.

 

“Err… yeah,” Kiriyama said uncertainly. “Fine, we got a result. We’ll wait to see what happens next.”

 

“You see, being open gives a better result.”

 

“Err…sure.”

 

***

 

The King of the city watched from the shadows as they scurried away. They had come early. To think the samurai would come so far from home and risk everything so quickly. It was a relief to know things would be safe with that one.

 

The King hadn’t intended for things to go this way. It should have been quicker. The samurai had probably thought the same. She had no real plan, that was for certain, but she was still acting alone, mustering her own forces. That was bad. She was strong. She could become a threat through sheer power.

 

The king walked passed the children and checked the both of them. They weren’t easy to understand. They were two and then one and then two again. To work undercover near them for so long and not know of this. The others had been demons too.

 

The rumours given about this place were that it was an attempt to encroach on the King’s domain. That’s what had started the investigation. Who have thought that this would include demons as well?

 

Sticky demons. Invasive and annoying. To be hated just as much as the bothersome angels and then some,

 

Not for much longer though. The samurai would see to that, whether she knew it or not.

 

It was her job to be a tool after all.

 

***

 

“Oi, loser,” Sarah bellowed from the doorway to the lobby the next day, catching the attention of any one of the fifteen people that were leaving the dorm at that present moment. It was her nickname for all of them after all. Natoko stopped and turned. She knew the little girl meant her.

 

“You had mail yesterday,” Sarah told her. The young child flashed her an envelope and stood on the far side of the hallway expectantly. It took Natoko about five seconds to notice she wasn’t going to come to her and she half jogged, half not tripping and knocking herself out flat on the floor in a fatigue induced stupor to take it out of the young girl’s hands.

 

“Thank you,” she replied, in a mumble with gritted teeth. She looked to the yellow envelope to find it already tore open, the letter folder incorrectly on the inside.

 

“Yeah I thought it might have been important, so I took it without the intention of giving it back to you, but it seems to be part of your role play crap.”

 

“Role play, I don’t-”

 

“Whatever, night elf,” Sarah said dismissively turning and walking back to her room, scraping her mud caked shoes as she went. The girl wasn’t in her school uniform. Actually she looked more like she had just gotten back from playing in a river.

 

So she was skipping school, Natoko had suspected it. The times the young girl had been getting back were just too inconsistent, and never at around four o’clock when all the other lower schoolers would be getting back. She had been less obvious about it before though. Otsune’s leave of absence must have left her thinking she could get away with it.

 

***

 

“Natoko, hurry,” Aki’s voice blared across the room with the strength of a thousand alarm clocks thrown at her one at a time. Her brain realised it was a school day again and naturally slowed down. One more day until the weekend.

 

“I thought guacamole wasn’t going to be nice at first, and when I tried it I thought I was right. It was so dry and like eating sludge, but then I got told you needed to add more tomato in than the recipe states and it became much bet-

 

In an effort to shut Aki up, who had been bleating non-stop since they had left the dorm, Natoko slammed the door open, catching everyone’s attention.

 

“Oh,” she muttered. “Sorry.”

 

Her eyes caught immediate sight of the textbook. Exactly where she had left it last night. Could it be that she got away with it?

 

“If you think you got away with it young lady, then you might as well join Nixon and Fawkes.” Natoko swung round, feeling her hand go for a blade that wasn’t. Halfway to pulling the intangible sword out she saw the two slits that contained the eyes of Mr. Tsukamoto and stopped her short.

 

The bell rang, and Mr. Tsukamoto hhhmphed to himself. “Well, then. Why are you standing there? All students should be sitting.” Natoko’s eyes darted to Aki, already in her chair and smiling sheepishly at Natoko.

 

The class was called by the class representative, and she fell into her chair at the front in time with everyone one. Trigonometry glanced up at her like a child nervous to speak, and she inched to put the book away and in doing so felt the letter fall out her pocket.

 

The teacher got on with beginning the lesson, which was undoubtedly maths by the way she immediately stopped listening. Reaching down, she picked it up. It was a simple vanilla envelope, ripped open by hand. Postmarked for last night from the Tagoa district with no return address. The handwriting on the letter itself was very dignified, looking like it had been written by a European aristocrat. Smooth, graceful and written in romanji for some bizarre reason.

 

The reason she took time in looking at it was because it was hard to pull a piece of paper out of an envelope in plain sight whilst also trying to make it look like you’re working, whilst also trying to not look like you’re working too hard else your teacher will get suspicious that you’re only pretending to be working when you aren’t, which she wasn’t.

 

Getting the paper to slide out, she pulled it open and across her text book as she turned to the next page. She peered up at Mr. Tsukamoto for a split second, seeing him explaining things to the other half of the class. He hadn’t started to wander around yet.

 

The inside was written in a different hand, with black brush rather than fountain pen, and written with some very difficult symbols.

 

To the Samurai,

 

A meeting is acceptable. You should have come sooner. In fact you could have asked at any time. Please meet me on Sunday at 1pm in the Higashi PD Warehouse where I will be wearing a fetching new sports jacket and carrying a rose.

 

Also, if I do not see Sagara there I will kill you all before you see my face.

 

The King of the City

 

Natoko stared at the short letter a few more minutes, missing the class turn to the next chapter but appearing so engrossed that she even fooled her teacher enough for him to let it pass. A full address was written at the bottom. She knew roughly where it was.

 

The king knew Sagara? How could that be? And wanted her to bring him, or else he would kill them.

 

This was bad. Whatever had been happening between them, or not happening for that matter, she couldn’t drag him into this. She was the one being blackmailed. Bringing her friends into it was the worse thing she could do. She was their protector and Sagara’s retainer. She was supposed to keep him out of trouble, especially when it didn’t directly involve him.

 

She needed to keep this away from Kiriyama. If he saw it, Sagara will become part of it too. Even if other demons were involved, the demons he was supposed to be dealing with, these ones were not as important. They were for her to handle.

 

Perhaps she would simply leave it quiet. The letter never came. The king would not have to know, and neither would Kiriyama. All would remain safe.

 

No it wouldn’t.

 

She felt it, on her back, without warning or question. Her inattentiveness, her focus on the front. She forgot the behind and now could feel it resting two small coins on her back. Two desks right and four to the back, the perfect angle for Kiriyama to see everything.

 

***

 

The class fell out of the room all at once, like a doll’s house picked up and shaken by giant baby looking to play. Friday afternoon’s were the only time she didn’t speed out. It was Friday after all. She could take her time.

 

She waited, only realising a few moments later she was standing right by Mr. Tsukamoto. They remained in silence by each other, staring ahead at the crowd pushing itself through the doors, almost threatening to break the frame work. They soon filed out, and she stepped through as he offered her first passage.

 

“Have a good weekend, Ms. Yamanaka,” he said, turning in the opposite direction and heading for the teacher’s office. As soon as he turned, she shot straight for the back exit.

 

She had received no messages from him. Quite an easy feat with an off button. Aki had been blessed with a spare moment to bothering him into helping her with cleaning duty and the girl would at least be able to badger him long enough so that he’d help with sweeping or something. That left Natoko safe to get on a separate bus and away for the next couple of days. After Sunday it wouldn’t matter anyway.

 

The plan worked right up until she remembered it was Kiriyama who she was trying to avoid.

 

There by the side entrance, he stood with Aki, who waved happily and rushed to greet her. It was sad really, Aki knew nothing of what she was being forced into, yet Natoko knew that the girl would beat the snot out of him the second she found out. She remained clueless and went on to tell Natoko about how easily Kiriyama had gotten two of the male students to do all the cleaning for them.

 

“Oh,” he said casually in a moment of silence that Aki had slowly learnt to leave to allow others to comment. “You said you had that message for me, Natoko.”

 

“Huh, did I?”

 

“Yes, remember, from Mr. Fukasawa. You said you were going to give it to me at the end of the lesson.”

 

She cursed to herself, seeing the mild look of curiosity in Aki’s face. Natoko stumbled to find an excuse. Saying she forgot it would get Aki to leave in a flurry, but only to try and find it for them back at school. Plus, alone he could get all the information he needed out of her.

 

Denying it would look a little odd, but it seemed to be the best thing for her. No, no it wouldn’t. They both knew that Kiriyama had seen it, and all he had to do was show her one little picture before showing it to the world. How could she hide it?

 

No. That was the wrong way to think about it. No matter what, Kiriyama wanted some information from her. What she had to do was control the flow? Make sure he didn’t get all of it, especially the bit about Sagara.

 

But she couldn’t not go with Sagara. The king threatened to kill them, and while she had doubts as to the strength of this man and whatever yakuza he had with him, Natoko couldn’t guarantee her safety alone.

 

“Oh yes,” she said laughing as she fell completely dumb. “I have it here. I can’t believe I almost…” She felt her pocket, feeling the phone lump and nothing else.

 

A quick check of her bag showed it not hanging around there, or in her purse. With a shudder she realised she had actually left it somewhere.

 

“Have you lost it?” Aki asked, failing to see the look of contempt shoot out of Kiriyama’s eyes as Natoko started patting down pockets and rummaging through her bag. Did he think she was faking? It couldn’t have gone missing now.

 

“It’s okay, I can remember it,” she blurted out. “He just said he wanted to meet up with us Monday evening for some extra activities.”

 

Yes, this was right. And solved her problems too. If she went with Sagara and left Kiriyama behind, she would be taking something away from him. The Monday meeting could just end up being a washout. Perhaps she could even bargain with this King in some way.

 

“Right yes, of course. Just us two?” he replied.

 

“And the other team members.” She felt the lie slip off her breath, leaving a bitter taste fall to the pit of her stomach.

 

“Ah, of course.”

 

“Oh, can I some?” Aki said.

 

“ Oh, Sorry, Aki,” Kiriyama quickly jumped in. “But it’s for members only, and since I’m technically the fifth, I’m going in too.”

 

“Oh,” she said, looking disappointed for abut the time it takes a mayfly to die of child’s foot. “Okay!”

 

“Well that was simple enough. I’ll text you the rest later.”

 

“Okay,” she said, feeling relief at the little respite she now had.

 

They somehow spent the rest of the twenty minute walk not engaging in hostile silence. It was mainly thanks to Aki who could have even roused up a good, friendly debate in a concentration camp, but Natoko actually found herself smiling at the end of the story involving pocky sticks with the surface area of a snake.

 

It was on the street just before the train station before Kiriyama walked a few steps and twisted round.

 

“Oh, that reminds me,” he said, as they reached the turn off for his station. “I got this in response to that query you were asking about.”

 

Any joy, however false it was, left her immediately, and she felt it drop from her face as well. In his hands was the same vanilla envelope she had lost, containing the same sheet of paper sticking out at her. She let herself growl without realising as she truly began to hate one of her few friends. As he smiled viciously at her, his tone never changing from casual, her hands locked in silent fury. She barely noticed Aki’s face contorting away from a smile.

 

“No need to read it now, if you want. You can have all the time later.”

 

That bastard, he knew all along -had it all along. She gripped the envelope tightly, letting it scrunch up in her hand. “Oh, thank you.” Why play her like that! Revenge for the other day of humiliation. Why was she waiting? He was unarmed. Strike him down with Iziz!

 

She was unarmed too.

 

“What are you doing to Natoko?” Aki asked bluntly. Natoko looked up, seeing the girl standing in-between them. No. Natoko had let herself slip, revealed her hidden agony, and now her lovable friend was going to throw herself straight at the sleeping dragon’s fangs.

 

“It’s just a game we’ve been playing. There’s no need for you to get involved.”

 

“Liar!” Aki shouted right back at him, catching the attention of every passer-by within earshot. “What are you doing?”

 

The next bit happened slowly, but it was with perfect synch to the heads of everyone man and woman in the street looking away that Natoko could only see it as a frame added into a movie reel that shouldn’t have been there, a flash of fist that everyone save her missed.

 

Aki gasped, falling forwards, catching herself and tripping back into Natoko, who had no choice but to catch her.

 

“I said it was a game, and you just became a piece.” He turned away, seeing an old woman with a dog as they passed by and spent twenty seconds to jostle and play with the small shiatsu as it jumped and yelped in a desperate rush to lick his face.

 

No one hit Aki. It wasn’t possible.

 

“Read the note again Natoko, whenever you feel like,” he said, grinning at the both of them. “I think you’ll find you got your dates wrong.” He got back up and wandered off up to his train stop. Out of sight quickly, she brought her attention back to Aki, who was breathing a little hard, and the note.

 

When Aki could stand again, Natoko pulled the note out. All over the original message were notes scrawled out everywhere, pointing out little titbits more than anything, marking the different in language and change in penmanship, and noting the use of different dialects that Natoko couldn’t see.

 

On the back there was another message, written in perfect Japanese.

 

Hiding this from me will not go without consequence. We will meet for there tomorrow to check out the place earlier. There is no sense trusting an invisible king.

 

If you want, you may now bring Aki along, since she is now aware we are all comrades.

 

Natoko couldn’t believe it. He knew. That she would lie, that she would hide. That Aki would know. He knew it would all happen.

 

They stared standing in the busy packed streets outside the station, feeling the silence within the nosy crowds. That was it, she had got herself tricked and trapped, and was left with nothing but to congratulate herself on getting two of her friends dragged in all at once.

 

****

 

Natoko sat in deep meditation, Iziz resting on her crossed legs. Eyes shu0t; she looked at the blade. Mind closed; she opened herself to the world. Body motionless; she breathed deeply through her nose, held it for a few, then released through her mouth. She felt energy curl up inside her, nester, and flow back out in all directions.

 

She sneezed and felt her back give up on such an annoying sitting position.

 

What had she allowed to happen? Her one violent act to another human outside a tournament and it happened to be the only time someone was planning to blackmail her. Why couldn’t he have just tricked her? Then she could feel good about what she was doing, instead of constantly sick.

 

The plan had gone completely downhill, spiralling off an edge and taking her down at the complete wrong moment of when she had attached friends to her with chains. No, that was stupid to think. She didn’t even have a plan. All she had got so far was an expert level of skill at bumbling around from one place to another. So far they hadn’t found out anything about the demons except how to get attacked by them in bizarre hyperreal scenarios. She hadn’t found a way out of school, Sagara was sleeping an irregular amount, Otsune and Fujiko had been missing in the InBetween realm for months now, Sakura was just missing and all she was doing was getting dragged into what she could only assume was a criminal murderworld.

 

“Natoko, can we talk? We need to talk.” Aki rapped lightly on the sliding door. With a hitch, Natoko was on her feet and had her hand sliding the lock into place faster than she could draw Iziz. Hiding was so cowardly, but if Aki didn’t know she was there then – then Aki wouldn’t know she was there. And she still didn’t know what to say to the poor girl yet.

 

Holding her breath with twice as much air as usual she waited for footsteps that never came. That meant Aki was going to wait there for a while. It also meant she was upset. An impatient need for fun and explosivenesses was usually heralded by restless pacing and what Natoko could only assume was bouncing up and down on the spot on her head. Fussy waiting to get Natoko to do something of importance was signalled by an ankle banging on the door on repeat for up to fifteen minutes.

 

Silence meant patient. She could deal with patience.

 

“You left the window open.”

 

Or a mind as reactive as dynamite.

 

With a squeak that would have brought shame to even the most tardy of her ancestors, Natoko fell back into the door. And allowed herself to be trapped by the door she had just locked.

 

“Aki, I…”

 

“What’s he doing, Natoko? Why did Kiriyama change like that?”

 

“He… changed?”

 

“He got mean. Kiriyama was never mean. Always nice.” Natoko grunted out a laugh. He had never been nice, but she had thought the same. The popular boy that was friends with everyone was just a façade. Had he always been like that? Natoko found she didn’t care any more. She just needed to remove him.

And keep everyone else safe.

 

“It’s none of your business.” She looked to the clock in her room. She would have to go soon. Her ‘boss’ was waiting. Glancing behind her, she saw her exit. She would leave without Aki. Leave it all behind. She couldn’t endanger any of them. She was the guard of Heavenly Springs, but she was bringing them all one by one into danger.

 

“No it is. It is my business. What’s Kiriyama doing to you? Why? Why does his face bring me happiness and laughter one moment and his fist punch me the next? Why? And how do we stop it?”

 

Seeing the tears starting up on the girl’s eyes, Natoko lowered her eyes to the girl’s stomach. She wasn’t clutching it, but Kiriyama had hit her pretty hard. At least in normal terms anyway. It looked a very weak punch to her, but it was still bruised.

 

Natoko tried to relax. “How do we stop it? What makes you think I even want you involved in this, you annoying little brat?”

 

“What?”

 

That was it. That was what she had to prevent, and he blew it away in the wake of a light rap of the knuckles one young girl’s abdominal muscles.

 

“I said it’s none of your business, girl,” she barked back as she pushed the girl as hard as she could bring herself to. “You always follow me about, thinking we’re friends. I only put up with you because we’re in the same class and you get my homework done for me and now you presume to understand what’s going on with the men in my life?”

 

She stepped aside and took the lock with her, leaving the door open in front of Aki. “You were the one who overstepped their boundaries, you little- you little bitch. Now I suggest you leave me alone and think about how you’re not going to sneak into my room anymore.”

 

“Uhh, Natoko.” She hated this. Aki’s mind wouldn’t be able to process it.

 

“That was my polite way of saying-“

 

“Natoko!”

 

With her eyes shut and revelling in self sacrificial moodiness, Natoko failed to register even after she swung round to find the large lump of man meat crash into her shoulder, knocking her off her feet and pinning her to the ground even before she lost her footing.

 

Her head smacking the ground was causing Aki to spin and blur above her as she looked on in the same way someone would look watching a cat eat one of its kittens and not knowing if they should obviously stop it or go take pictures. As she tried to move, she realised that plan was out of action. Sagara was sleeping on top of her.

 

“What are you doing?” she cried out without thinking it through, all respect gone out the window like a ton of bricks that then landed on her. “Get off me!”

 

She tried to shake him off, only to be met by grunting. She twisted enough to see his face far too close to hers, as unconscious as she had ever seen him over the past two months.

 

He snored loudly into her ear. She felt the spittle jump onto her cheek. Even now, he was sleeping. How did that work exactly? “Get off me?”

 

Hearing Aki mumble something, she misheard and felt herself snarling at him. He was too heavy for her to lift up and his arms alone seemed to weigh a sack of potatoes each, pinning her down. “I said get off!”

 

He complied, falling aside as her aggravated fist tore into his mouth. Sweeping her legs out into the free air, she twisted around on top of him at the start of the second and slamming her other fist into his jaw the next. That was it. Was all too much. Punch him. Just punch the fucking idiot that caused all this. The one that brought promise to her life and then left it to decay every time she felt it was finally going somewhere. This was all his fault anyway. This stupid bag of meat that could do nothing but sleep. If he had only been doing his job, his perfect role in life, as role she would kill to have, instead of spending all this time sleeping, she wouldn’t be stuck like this. She could be free and they could be together.

 

Remove yourself!

 

Knuckles were bleeding into bones now. It felt good to see his face tear apart from her elbows down into his teeth. She felt cheeks forcing themselves away as they swung from side to side. It hurt, but it felt so much better.

 

Stop hitting him, stupid bitch.

 

Her name echoed across a tannoy and she went for his nose, sticking out against all the other stupid curves of his chiselled face. She bopped it hard like a hammer and got a reward out of it. They tannoy announced her name again. In a minute.

 

Die. Diediediediediediediedie.

 

She was enjoying this. It felt good. She could see why people hit each other now. Not just for power, but for pleasure as well. She felt his body squirm involuntarily under hers, and spasm painfully with each thunderous crack against his jawbone. Even now he was still asleep, enjoying his dreams or whatever crap he was living in whilst she was suffering. The stupid, pathetic hollow monster below her deserved it.

 

“Natoko!”

 

Snapping awake, she felt a vice grip around her hand, already digging into her skin and crushing her forearm. She stopped like a car going through a steel pipe and looked. Aki was there now, to her side, like she always was.

 

“Aki…I…” Looking down, she saw her hands, welts and cuts were already on both cheeks and dry traces of blood stained his lips and chin. Natoko felt her stomach bulge up ready to pop and felt surprised to feel tears coming from her eyes. She didn’t cry.

 

“Morning there,” a voice said below her and she was surprised to see it was Sagara’s. “Did you need me for something?”

 

Seeing the boy below her looking back up at her, a goofy grin as always on his still suffering from multiple lacerations and quite possible in need of a doctor face, Natoko couldn’t control herself. She backed down a little from him, lent in a little closer and, with a complete lack of thought, latched her lips onto his , brushing them tightly against his as she pressed herself against a man for the first time.

 

Her eyes stayed shut, she allowed herself to linger there for a moment, not daring to see the world before her for knowing she would see nothing great. Nothing special. It was no great adventurer or visionary whose lips were mashing against hers now. Not the man who would bring her her destiny. Just a pair of eyes looking at her the same way he would watch the television. Only that grin missing

 

This was Sagara. Just Sagara, her lord, and nothing more.

“I’m sorry,” she said, after she had pulled herself away, keeping her eyes closed even after she had sat back up and come to realise that that was the taste blood getting in her mouth Why did he taste of strawberries?”

 

“Excuse me?” he replied.

 

“I’m sorry. It’s your stupid fault, but I’m sorry.”

 

“Is that why you punched me lots.” He noticed for the first time he was injured.

 

“No…Yes!” she shouted. “I don’t know. I jut needed to, okay? I’m sorry.”

 

“Well, that’s okay then.”

 

“What?”

 

“If that’s what you needed to do, I can’t deny that. That’s the whole point of my existence.”

 

“You’re…” Sagara waited as she left the word hanging. She felt a little off as time passed into double digits, “Point of existence?”

 

“Yup. The balance is here to let humans do what they want, with out the intervention of supernatural or dominant forces, so-“

 

She raised her fist to punch him again, feeling a surge overcome her. Seconds later though, she was on the floor back first, Sagara standing above her, his own fist deflecting hers.

 

“Oh, sorry. I know what I said, but I also have to defend myself against attacks. I mean, you might have been possessed again. You’re not possessed again, are you?”

 

She looked at him, then to the fist, and back again, before snorting to herself, and then laughing, a childish funny giggle. Sagara looked on; a dumbfounded child. Self improvement in a very subtle manner.

 

She laughed by herself. How stupid this was. This is what she had to do to wake him up. Of course it was. It was Sagara. She should have done the least obvious thing first, not the least obvious thing.

 

Looking at him as her laughter subsided, she rested back. “We’re cool now?”

 

“Are we, I’m quite hot actually, and my face is a little numb. And I had something to tell you.”

 

“No, believe me, we’re cool.” She slid around and got up. “Though I could have done with this about a month or so ago.” She brushed herself off and began the next sentence right before she realised Aki was standing there.

 

“Sorry about that.”

 

“About what.”

 

“About everything. I should have told you sooner.”

 

“Told me what sooner? I still don’t know what everything is.”

 

“Well, I…”

 

“That was it,” Sagara shouted, bopping his fist against his palm, oblivious about interrupting. “We need to go now.”

 

“Go where?” said Natoko feeling distracted.

 

“Somewhere important. Come on. Grab your sword. We’re heading to Mt. Minoo.”

 

“What? Why?” She already had Iziz in tow and was getting up when-

 

“Come on come on, let’s go!” he announced, grabbing her by the shoulder and dragging out back into the light of the outside world.

 

***

 

Sagara’s sudden desire for an excursion was met with the obvious pitfalls. She was still dressed wrong for heading out. Her shoes needed cleaning and fixing. They needed to find a taxi heading for Mt. Minoo, for whatever reason and just when they were about to go, Sarah had nipped along for the ride.

 

It happened all so fast that it took until they had gotten half way along the Mai Line before she even realised she wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near any of them today.

 

It had taken a surprising moment of sly cunning and inspiration, but she sent one text to Kiriyama telling him she was lost in the city and out of power, before flipping the lid shut and off.

 

Looking at him as he paced about, wandering down the cabin, looking out each and every window like a kid on a school trip, it didn’t take her long to gaze at Sagara’s broken lip, remembering the twenty or so things she had done to it that day, especially the last few.

 

Her brain was avoiding the issue, her heart aflutter with what she had done. Her first kiss, and in the middle of a fight. Had she wanted it impulsive like that? Or perfect. Granted, she hadn’t been imagining a dinner with cake followed by a long walk. In fact, part of her had thought one too many times about getting it at the end of a match. A gentle spar that started off friendly, but got more intense and filled with words clashing as they teased and mocked each other that before she knew it ended without swords and with one on top of the other.

 

She would be on top of course.

 

However, she still knew it was wrong.

 

At least it was with Sagara.

 

Sagara didn’t think like normal people did. Well, she wasn’t exactly normal in terms of people around her, but she still felt the same things. Sagara felt like a broken model, or one that had been heavily modified, like a car designer out to break the speed barrier but with no one ever stopping to think they should have installed breaks. He had been conscious during that kiss yet somehow she knew he had thought nothing of it. To him, all it was a passing of lips and nothing more. She figured most boys would have felt a lot of dirty things about what just happened (and they were sick for doing so) but Sagara wouldn’t have even passed it off as something trivial. He just wouldn’t have noticed. Romance and passion weren’t dead to him; they had just never been born.

 

That was impossible of course. But it still couldn’t deny the fact the whole thing would have been meaningless to him.

 

“Natoko?” Aki said who had been silent right up until that point. “Could you explain things to me now?”

 

Aki had waited long enough. “Very well.”

 

She went until detail, telling them everything, going into length about how Kiriyama had called her up, and tricked her into working for him, right up until the demons. It turned out to be a very short story, one that she felt she needed to make needlessly long and complicated. Luckily she held out the urge, and ended just before they pulled up into their stop.

 

“Geez, you’re just dumb,” Sarah said at the end of the story. “Who lets themselves get caught by a trick like that.”

 

“Well it’s not like I knew he was taking my picture,” she snapped back fussily. “I was just protecting myself and then before I knew it he had,” she opened up her phone and brought the picture to view, “this.”

 

Sarah brought herself up to stare at the picture, before snatching the whole phone away. She and Aki stared at it for a moment, then with a bad squint she scoffed loudly. “This is photoshopped.”

 

“What?” The word got passed around here mind, and she went for edited as a suitable replacement word to describe another word.

 

“You can see the pixellation on the composite. Very badly done.”

 

“Oh, you’re right,” agreed Aki.

 

“But it was taken from a phone.”

 

“So?”

 

“You can’t edit pictures from a phone.”

 

“What? Of course you can. You can edit any photo?”

 

“But he said-“

 

“What? You believed the guy threatening you with internet extortion,

 

Natoko answered with silence.

 

Sarah sighed and rolled her eyes. “You honestly thought you had killed someone? Geez.”

 

“No, I know I hadn’t,” she argued back. “It just looked like I did.”

 

“Well apparently it didn’t look like it did enough. If this guy took this picture from the top of a building with a phone, he probably didn’t get a good zoom. A few changes here and there, make it look more convincing. Way too much blood. I could have done a lot better. Hell, it would have been better if he just left it with you sticking the guy.”

 

“But wouldn’t that mean there was still an original somewhere. It might still be a problem.”

 

Sarah sighed loudly. “Damn you people suck!” she complained loudly. “Leave it with me. I’ll take care of it.”

 

Natoko cast her eyes down with a shame that she knew should be relief, just in time as the train came to a stop. Sliding off her street, Sarah walked to the exit in disgust.

 

“Come on, we’re almost there.”

 

The Mai line stopped just off the side of the mountain, which was handy, seeing his rush to get there. She got up, and a sudden jolt forced her footing. She stayed in place gracefully as did Sagara, but a overburdened salary man went tumbling into her, and push her forwards into Sagara, who caught her with ease.

 

“Ah, sorry,” she said, ignoring the apology of the man behind her.

 

“Okay,” Sagara replied, letting her notice how close they were. She looked at his face. The number she had done on it had gone well into triple digits and would have probably involved four more digits had Sagara decided to sue her for it.

 

“Also, sorry again,” she paused, “For what happened before. Both the punching…” she gave it a try, “And the kiss.”

 

“Oh, no need to worry about that. Melissa’s done all that lots of times.” The doors opened. Sagara stepped out and stretched happily, feeling the rush in pressure overcome and relieve him. Aki had to hold the door open as it tried to close again, the samurai girl making no further attempt to move until she was pushed through by an angry ten year old.

 

****

 

“Here, I got some meat.”

 

“I don’t eat meat, I’m a vegetarian.”

 

“You weren’t about a cycloon back.”

 

“Well some things change, even when the land you spent all day walking across doesn’t, or when your best friend’s stupidity trapped you in a deadland.”

 

“Fine. Eat your pride instead.” Otsune dumped the slab down on the floor and tore into her own piece. It was the first real meal in two sleep cycles and she tried to saviour it even as it fell down her throat into large chunks. Fujiko’s eyes bared down on the tender, freshly cooked morsel dangling in front of her, weighed up her options against principles, then heard her stomach say ‘fuck principals’ and grabbed the juicy steak, wolfing down the first piece of meat she had in two days..

 

“Is it good?” Otsune asked at the time she realized she was halfway through the fifty oz slice.

 

“Yeah, it’s good,” Fujiko said between bites. “But that doesn’t mean I like it.” Otsune got to the bone, and felt a certain loss when she started to gnaw around it like an animal, her teeth scraping across and drawing layers off. “I never got why you eat meat, Otsune. You’re always going on about animal rights. I figured you’d be the last to eat them.”

 

“I go on about animal rights when people use guinea pigs like guinea pigs. It’s a natural part of humans to eat meat in order to nourish ourselves. Just because we can survive without meat doesn’t mean we shouldn’t.”

 

“And yet you condemn religious people?”

 

“How do you mean?”

 

“Well, you say that it’s a natural process for humans to eat meat, and it’s the reason we’re drawn towards doing it, yet you call people who worship and pray dumb gay morons.”

 

“That’s ‘cause they are.”

 

“Yet, they’re drawn to do so, aren’t they? Isn’t it possible they’re drawn to do so by the same urges that made me give up two days of vegetarianism. Perhaps some people need prayer and faith just as much as I really need to eat right now. “

 

“But they don’t do it for that reason. They do it because they’re fooled at a young age to believe something that isn’t really there. It’s why there’s seven hundred different religions whose very presence are an affront to the seven hundred other religions.”

 

“Seems to me that’s just the same difference between choosing your meats. Pork. Chicken. Dog. As long as you’re nourished by it, it doesn’t matter.”

 

“I seriously hope that isn’t true. It seems an eternity worse if they were doing all they did just to fill some inner urges At least they believe they have some holy right to do all that they do.”

 

“And that’s exactly the urge they need to get filled. That’s the functionalist point towards faith and worship. Though not really now, I guess.”

 

“Not now?”

 

“Well, it’s not exactly like we couldn’t have any better proof than the proof we have now. You know, actually meeting demons.”

 

“Yeah, I get that. Though I’m still not convinced this means anything. I mean, it’s not like everyone in those religions have the same proof we do. And even if some of them do, how do we know that they all just come from demons who convinced people they were the supreme being.

 

“Demons do not prove God exists?” Fujiko said in a ‘quote to be used on the internet’ sort of way.

 

“And that’s not even the point here. It doesn’t matter to these people that god exists or not. They just use the belief of gods to get people to do things their way. “

 

“Actually the point was whether or not I liked the meat and why I follow the urge to eat meat when hungry, but it’s fun watching you go off in as many different tangents as possible.” She silenced the conversation by getting out the telescope and beginning to play with it.

 

Otsune pouted; pissed off. She tucked into her own meat and stayed quiet for a few minutes, as Fujiko gave herself silent victory of the conversation, loving the absurdist perspective that could always win Otsune’s intellectual based arguments that she always forced whenever she felt the need for superiority comfort.

 

“You know I have no idea where this meat comes from. It could be goat ass for all we know.”

 

Fujiko’s mouth imploded, spewing the contents of her meal out onto the floor, her stomach retching in combat with the foreign elements outside it. Wiping her lips she dropped it to the floor.

 

“I’m kidding,” Otsune said with a smirk, not expecting that harsh a reaction. “It has a bone in it. Goats ass’s don’t have bones.”

 

“No it’s not. It’s… Have a look.” She passed the telescope over and pointed. Otsune peered through and saw little at first. Her left eye felt a little relief as it got perfect clarity back for a moment and quickly it noticed a little red blur that she saw distil itself into focus.

 

“Oh my god; a giant red rock!” she said sarcastically.

 

“A glowing giant red rock!” Fujiko repeated with excitement. “They might have actually been telling us the truth.”

 

“Should we go check out the Ginormous glowing giant red rock?” Otsune asked.

 

“A glorious ginormous glowing giant red rock!?”

 

****

 

Having not even thought of the consequences behind touching the file marked ‘classified’, Sakura was already well away with lifting the small manila folder and clutched tightly to the front of the binder with a grip the dead would emulate.

 

This was it. Here it was. All she needed to know. Part of her had been searching for this, though she felt she had dissuaded any chance of getting anything on him. Alexis was dead, she knew that, had seen the body, seen him die. But at least now she could get some answers. Inside her, she felt that this was the real reason to make this expedition; this pilgrimage for the truth. Now the answer was right before her and her hands were sweating up the card she grasped.

 

Releasing it, her eyes glazed over his perfect features. He was cute like the quiet schoolboy, yet his jaw said he would grow up to be handsome. The picture had his loose blond hair waving in the wind and the smile brought about an overwhelming trust and love that she knew she had found on that boat unexpectedly. His position hadn’t mattered. A dockhand that handsome would win over a queen.

 

She looked around the room, her heart feeling nervous the more her fingers started to shake. It wasn’t right to sit in the chair, yet she wanted to be a little more comfortable. Tiptoeing for no reason, she settled on the second desk to the right, a little barer than the others around it, featuring in it a desk, a soft chair, a type writer and a large stack of blank paper. Sitting comfortably, she opened the file.

 

‘He’s younger than me,’ she said with mild alarm, though the past life thing did make age a little harder to grasp. Musing through the possibilities, she wondered just how long had they been together in that past life? Did something happen on that wonderful boat trip? A sudden disaster, set to tear two apart after a wonderful romantic encounter, or did they live long and merry long afterwards and have three beautiful children, one of which had to be a boy. Snapping herself out of the dream, she started to read.

 

Alexis is a gifted and promising young talent. Though my associate had his usual concerns over hiring him to monitor the library area, I have yet to see any issues with his performance on the usual mind raping menial tasks. His closest boss was the Riddleklutz, who has seen the boy as a delightful charm to the attitude of the place. It seems only logical, since the boy is incapable of anything other than the fond happiness he so persistently emits but it would be remiss to say that-

 

Sakura scrolled through to the next page, his job evaluation of little interest to her. On the second page, she found the word Background in bold.

 

Born in the city of Messina (Close to Catania, she thought, recalling her home city) Alexis was raised alongside a strong catholic family who, though poor, kept strong to their values. Due to the nature of his father’s work, it became necessary for Alexis to find employment at a young age and spent the first year of his working life at the merchant’s stores helping out with the trader’s stands. His efforts were noticed for his good eye with fruit and knowledge of his mother’s recipes (He cooks!) but was later dismissed after being accused unproven of theft of several other market stores. HE started to help lift crates at the docks before being allowed to help on the ships directly. A practical joke by another ship hand left him unconscious below the deck once and he wound up to find himself out at sea as a stowaway. The captain was understanding though and he began to work around deck.

 

He was certainly as generous and kind as she remembered. Most boys nowadays would just watch as you suffered carrying the shopping and even walk by you should the bag split. Why, just the other day…

 

Sakura’s eyes felt they would pop from their sockets. This accident was perhaps Alexis’s happiest moment, for it was trapped on the ship where Alexis would meet his true love and future wife. Tests confirmed that the love between Alexis Stadt and Isabella Boeur (That was her name? It was pretty) The love was true and it wasn’t long before they went through the long winded human mating cycles of being attacked verbally by families on both sides the rich/poor divide who kept coming up with issues of mockery, shame inducing and paranoia over possible exploitation before they finally did the smart thing and run away from their respective families and get married privately, declaring their love and getting on with the whole thing. After he left the ship and dock’s, he became a stable boy for a local manor, but was able to quit whenIsabella’s father was able to have sense talked into him and gave him a manager’s position at a local factory, a position he used for-

 

Turning the page, her hand shot out to catch a piece of paper as it floated out of the folder. Missing horribly, she fumbled a few more times before it sank to the floor. The last thing she needed to do was looking something valuable on an admin folder. She lifted the photo and squealed loudly when she saw the image on the front.

 

Before her, seeing in a picture perfect pose that any artist would have love to painted, was the image of Isabella Boeur. The lady bright smile and stunning dress told Sakura that she was full of confidence and generosity. But what surprised her enough so that she would squeak loudly again after covering it with her hand and then losing it against temptation to look, was that this wife was her complete double.

 

Well, not her absolute double, the face was a little different and her eyes were a different colour, but the hairstyle was hers exactly and you could have switched the mouth and nose around on the both of them and you’d never notice. Her past self was a little thinner though, neither of them had a double chin though one would notice. To think she could be that pretty and though Father Sakagami had told her so many times not to be worried about the state of her body so much, she wished she hadn’t allowed herself to be so over helpful with the leftovers.

 

Sighing loudly, she let the chair roll her back. It was true. It was all true. The ship, the dance, his heartbeat against her ear. She let the tears flow down her face as she smiled peacefully to herself. They had been together. She wasn’t just being silly with herself. The man she had seen die merely weeks ago had been her one true soul mate upon the entire planet. Laughing she let her legs jiggle in glee as she sank back into the chair. She could finally relax.

 

Take revenge another time.

 

‘And what, answer be damned, may I ask what you’re doing is Mindless Drone #21324’s desk. It had better be his work!’

 

Sakura opened her eyes, looking up to what should have been the ceiling lying in view of where her chair had rolled back. Instead there was a big green man in a fine black jacket and white shirt. As she lay there, the both of them just staring at each other, Sakura saw the man’s tie, dangling in front of her. It had images of those little grey aliens, with big red stop signs resting on top of them.

 

The two stared at each other a few seconds gazing at the sights before them.

 

Then Sakura screamed.

 

The Green man also started to scream.

 

This got Sakura to immediately stop, glaring at the creature in confusion. This seemed to get him to stop screaming as well, and they spent another few moments, just glaring at other in trepidation, before Sakura’s nerve realised it shouldn’t have come back in the first place and she started screaming again

 

On and on she went, trying to get the creature’s fear stricken look out of her own and get away from their. No one was hearing her, so naturally she tried to scream louder. She would have thought that the two of them together would catch someone’s attention.

 

Spinning round before she could feel the kick that hit the chair, Sakura turned to face the green man the right way up. Pushing his face an inch before hers, his eyes darted in several directions at once. He stopped and stared at her like he hadn’t done so before, then grabbed her by the shoulders roughly and forced her to the floor graciously and strolled off in the direction she had come from.

 

‘Come on then,” he said in a high pinched squeal. “It’s not just me that can be here to greet you.”

 

-Wh-what?”

 

“Of course not! Another has to be here before we can meet visitors, doesn’t he?”

 

Pushing her back with what felt like bubbles and splendour, he led her back out the way he came.

 

Behind her, she could feel the folder fall out of her grasp.

 

****

 

“A galactic, gigablasting, gigantic, glorious, ginormous, glowing, giant red rock,” said Fujiko in disappointed dismay, looking up at the rock.

 

It was just a little shorter than the both of them put together, enough for them to be able to climb up and sit on once they reached it. It was bumpy at the top, but not steep. Other than that it was just a giant red rock. The only reason they had climbed it was because deep at heart they were both retards.

 

“This is boring,” replied Fujiko.

 

“Well what were you expecting?” asked Otsune, standing tall, balancing precariously and examine the surrounding chalkscape with the focoscope.

 

“For it to give out free candy,” Fujiko said dejectedly.

 

“Well maybe the next one will.”

 

“There’s another?”

 

“Yup, just like they said.” She passed the focoscope down to Fujiko who took a moment to scan the next horizon.

 

“Oh my god, another glorious, ginormous, gluttonous, gigantic, glowing giant red rock. That one is bound to serve candy. Let’s go.” Sliding down, she set off before Otsune could even fall, leaping in the direction of the next horizon. Otsune gave her twenty seconds to run out of breath and then followed casually behind.

She looked up and grimaced. It was definitely a lot darker now.

 

***

 

Why were there glowing red rocks in the desert? One that, although were normally red, could only be seen as glowing through the telescope. The possibilities went through her mind as she lay with the head on her bag of straw. She had gotten far too used to sleeping like this.

 

They had a fire today. Between the second and third glowing rocks had been a pile of sticks just sitting there. It wasn’t cold, but it was dark enough for it to be necessary. And one small erratic flame later they had a fire going. It was actually making the surrounding area darker now. She couldn’t even see where Fujiko was sleeping, roughly ten feet away.

 

A pile of sticks and glowing rocks. Red rock was feasible, even in a land of chalk. The uneven, cracked land suggested this to be an angle, meaning earthquakes were possible. Could it be that underneath the chalk there were these igneous red rocks, pushed up to the surface by tremors. That didn’t explain why they glowed through the focoscope. They had some special property that was certain, some kind of luminous effect. The focoscope must have some filter on it as well, else her glasses would have the same effect. Maybe they were dragged and placed here long ago, to be used as markers. That would explain why they were always in eyeshot of one another and increased the chances of leading them to the City of Gates. She sighed and relaxed into her haybag. Now they had hope. Another functionalist urge fulfilled.

 

Of course, there are other urges that need to be filled.

 

The fire was roaring away now, the flame spirit sitting in the middle of it, somehow controlling it and keeping what was a small pile of wood going for several hours. It felt good. She was beginning to feel a lot better. Her injuries were pretty much gone. And her weariness was fading into numb comfort just as her other senses took over, filling the warmth of a body close to her. Far too close for comfort in fact, and yet a closeness that could only belong to comfort alone. She felt her throat seize up, holding the rest of her body in place.

 

“The need for pleasure is just as strong as the need for food, for faith and power.” That wasn’t her inner monologue…

 

“Fujiko? What are you-“

 

“We’re stuck here, you know?” her friend explained. “Trapped in a land far away from relative safety and in constant danger. Today we’ve had it a little better. Who knows when well have time to relax again?

 

She felt her friend’s breath, the smell of the meat mixed in with Fujiko’s scent, tantalizing close. She shivered with unexpected joy as moist air tickled her ear, waking her body up but keeping her pleasantly numb.

 

“Fujiko, I don’t- I… “

 

A pinprick landed on her slim stomach, just where her top had begun to slide up her waist, dripped in the humidity that came with the fire. It began to trace itself up her body, cutting out her voice, turning it into a mere squeak.

 

“Ah…ah, don’t do that… I”

 

“Don’t do what? This?” Fujiko’s fingers tiptoed back across her waist, taking their time. “What?” she said playfully. “It’s not like we haven’t done it before,” Fujiko cooed to her. “We’ve had all sorta of good times in the past, haven’t we?”

 

“That was different. We were, we were- “

 

“Young, drunk and horny?”

 

“Just kissing!” Otsune insisted as the pinprick reached just below the cup of her breast, playing with itself, bouncing back and forth, waiting for permission only out of courtesy. Part of her squirmed as she was reminded of those long nights back at university, the relaxed feeling one could get around total strangers, and dares going ways mother would never approve of. They were always just dares to her. She had no idea that Fujiko ever wanted to take them any further.

 

“We should be safe here, and we may not be safe again. It would do us some good to get it out of our system. I know I need to. And I can feel that you want to. It feels just the same as it did all that time ago when I couldn’t get what I wanted.”

 

“Yeah, like Tanaka would mind,” Otsune said defensively. The reason Fujiko broke up with him back then was because he was even looser than she was, but she was never… Not with other women.

 

“We’re not young, drunk or horny now,” Otsune tried to insist, her voice pleading a little, as it shot into a squeak again, the hand disappearing and feeling very close to her nipple. “I’m sorry but I don’t-“ Her voice arched, trying to hit a crescendo and stopping itself. She felt something slimy touching her earlobe, playing with it like a lollipop. She stiffened up and relaxed at the same time, only to feel disappointed when it stopped for a second, a light tune breathing down her earlobe.

 

“We’re not drunk, but we’re still young and free,” Fujiko whispered, her voice sounding incredibly sexy right now. “And I don’t know about you, but I’m lost, lonely and scared out my mind right now, and part of me, all of me wants to feel exactly the same as it did back then.“

 

“That doesn’t mean we should-“

 

“No, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t either. I know you’re at least considering it Otsune, and I won’t bully you into it, but let me say this. It can just be for tonight. I promise. No strings attached, that I want our relationship to change in any way, or anything that might put you off. All I want to do is make both of us feel so much better, and you won’t believe how much better we’ll feel after this…”

 

Otsune swallowed. She could believe it.

 

“All you have to do is choose. Just… turn over if you want me.”

 

And then the pressure was off her, the pinprick disappearing, the wet tongue sliding away, the tickling breath gone. She could have been alone right then, and alone forever in a foreign land with no one to talk to, no one to be her companion. Yet that one thing still remained, screaming at her for to follow its lead.

 

What had Fujiko been to her? The who’s there to her knock knock jokes mostly. But they were always more than that. She was the one she could talk with and be challenged by, who would always argue against her when she knew she wanted to argue with, and to be on her side when they time was needed, and yet be as honest as anyone could be with her- to love closer than she had ever loved anybody? She didn’t know that last bit.

 

The one who had followed her.

 

Otsune knew, and had always told herself that gender didn’t matter. That never bothered her, and she found it far too a limiting factor when it came to choosing things. She never saw it as being bisexual, just open minded, though she had always stayed on one side of the tracks.

 

And she knew it was true, Fujiko would keep things the same. She could have one night of pure ecstasy right here and then insist they never do so again. Fujiko would accept that, never judge. Challenging, yet always accepting. Her perfect partner.

 

“Otsune,” Fujiko cooed, sweet honey in her breath now touching Otsune’s ear and making her head spin. “Could you hurry this up? I know I said no pressure but I need to know whether I have to fix this myself or not.”

 

She squirmed, her legs shuffling backwards, a desperate urge to grind herself into her friend overwhelming her logic Her body did freeze this time, and a small tender hand placed itself when the pinprick had been, and started to slide down.

 

She hesitated, trying to hold back an elicit moan. Fujiko was expecting an answer and she wanted to give it, the part of her that desired that teasing comfort a second ago wanted to turn around to untold pleasures, with only her mind insisting that she at least consider it carefully. She wouldn’t make stupid mistakes here. She’d think it over, do it right and not regret the answer. Fujiko wouldn’t go against whatever she chose now, the only person that could ruin this would be herself, and she wouldn’t let that happen.

 

Her legs shaking, she looked at the fire one last time, and felt her hips start to twist.

 

“Hey, Otsune. You awake?”

 

Otsune’s eyes shot open, her hands reaching out. Her body shot forwards, slipping out from the grasp behind her and up to the fire. Looking around, she jumped at the lump in front of her and fell into in panic. Quickly trying to pull herself up, she heard a cry of pain.

 

“Otsune? What are you doing?” Fujiko screamed at her, trying to shake Otsune off her arm as it was caught under her legs.

 

“We have a problem!” she said as strong as she could with her legs shaking for all the wrong reasons, hoping it would snap the other girl awake. Not that she was thinking as straight as she could with a desire once nonexistent still coursing through her body. Her eyes were open wide now, trying to find what she had been talking with, and seeing nothing where she had been sleeping, the darkness among them hiding her secret.

 

I’ll leave you two alone for a while.”

 

“What the hell is your problem?” Fujiko mumbled, the spit of a peaceful sleep still stuck in her throat but angry all the same.

 

“I er…” Fujiko brought herself up, looking at Otsune’s with those same eyes she always did. The brown rocks… her cheekbones… that pissed off expression with messed up hair and the strap on her night shirt dangling. Otsune gulped.

 

She had never saw her that way before.

 

“Nothing…heh,” she tried for a laugh. “It’s nothing. Go back to sleep. Sorry to have bothered you.”

 

“Fucking weirdo,” Fujiko grumbled, turning over.

 

Otsune tried to shake her wild thoughts clean, sitting down by the fire, which raged on by itself, her imagination running, the flames flickering without embers.

 

Well now she couldn’t sleep.

 

****

Mountain shoes were a good idea, her brain was thinking now. They had mountain shoes, didn’t they? Shoes for mountain. They had another name, what was it?

 

“When are we going to see tigers?”

 

“Aki, there are no tigers. There never were. And soon there never will be again.”

 

Boots. That was it. Boots. Yes, she definitely should have brought some boots. School shoes put on by mistake when thinking you were going somewhere important weren’t cut out for this. Hers were worn as it was and now they were feeling lumpy under the skin.

 

“Did you think we’ll see any bears?”

 

“Yup. If we’re lucky, they’ll even eat you.”

 

“Oh I hope so. I always wanted to be eaten by a bear.” Natoko stopped to glare at the both of them. Sarah glared right back with a contemptuous leer, while Aki tried to smile compassionately.

 

“Having troubles there?” Sarah asked sarcastically. Natoko looked at her boldly for a second, feeling it drain the energy away from her, and turned back to plod along, wiping sweat off her forehead which was definitely by now peeling off as the stupid ball of fire in the sky focused its rays on her and only her.

 

“It’s November. It shouldn’t be like this.”

 

“You know you really will feel a lot better if you just take those things off.” The samurai looked at the ground, reminding herself of the long line of pebbles that continued along the dirt path that led as far as Sagara twenty meters ahead before she lost focus. Aki skipped ahead of her to show how easy it was, her own trainers swinging around her neck as she spun round the mountain path.

 

Natoko continued on with a grunt.

 

“We’re not even going anywhere are we? This is just another pointless excursion, isn’t it? I’m going to die here and everyone will be too lazy and hot to bother bringing my corpse back home.” She continued muttering to herself as they went merrily across the twisting path, that is not to say the real path designed for the tourists so they could get that good holiday experience but what appeared to be an animal run that Sagara had pulled them onto at first opportunity.

 

“Nearly there,” he said for the fifteen time. The only thing that had made her not quit so far that he actually seemed to have a destination in mind.

 

Her mind was beginning to prey on tomorrow. She was going to meet the King of the City. This ominous, mysterious figure that no doubt had his own plans for when they showed up. Whatever it was had something to do with Sagara. How did the king know him? It was bad enough that he had already found out where she lived and had sent the letter.

 

She pulled it out in her head and read it again. Of course, that one word was telling her far too much. But something seemed wrong. Too easy almost. Her gut was not the best thing to rely upon and she knew that, but right now what it was telling her might as well been lit up in the sky in fifty foot tall letters along with a stylish render of herself naked as a baby.

 

But it seemed too intentional. Not just saying that thing but also denying it the next. Was it just a threat, but how would this King know to threaten them with that? No, it would entice them. It was what they were looking for.

 

She gave in, finally slipping her shoes off. It was a little too late and she hissed as she pulled her puss soaked sock off. Without thinking about it, she slung the blade off her back and started using it for a walking stick, keeping her balance light between feet, sheath and dusty footpath.

 

That’s why it was mentioned. So she would bring Sagara along. Even knowing the danger, she had no choice now. If she didn’t, it would go against all she had tried to do over the past month

 

So if the King knew where she lived and what would draw her to force a meeting, and on top of that, definitely bring Sagara, what was his reason? To help or hinder. It did say they will burn if she didn’t bring him. Did that mean that without the king’s help they didn’t have a chance? She didn’t know, and she was trying to convince herself too much otherwise.

 

“Aha,” Sagara shouted, fondling some bushes. He looked up at her excited as a school kid ready to skip the day off school and ran back to them. “Okay, be quiet from now on. We don’t want them to run off.”

 

“Want what to-“ but Sagara shushed even louder and high pitched than she could have ever hoped to achieve. He beckoned them into the bushes and started pulling his way through.

 

It took another two minutes of going through the bushes. In truth, she preferred this. The grass and soil were lush and cool on her now swelling feet and the shade from the trees overhead was cooling her down. They should have gone in here straight away. The others went ahead of her. Iziz was actually making this a lot more difficult to move through and the sheath was getting caught up in a lot of branches. This wasn’t right. She should be the one going on ahead, not them.

 

The bushes quickly cleared out to an open space, a shallow pool with a waterfall roared quietly before them. Definitely a small waterfall. Not a dramatic one where you could leap off or meditate under, but one for washing your feet. The pool was much larger though, and looked like a hole for whatever animals grazed in the grass nearby. What animals did live round here? She had no idea. There probably were bears but she couldn’t think what else.

 

“Oh, first off. Go for the ring.”

 

“Ring? What are you-“ she cut herself off, seeing ahead of her. There was a man there, sitting in the middle of the field on a grassy rock. He looked foreign and old, and had his eyes closed waiting patiently, though his eyebrows looked permanently raised and creased into his forehead.

 

He too was sweating, though the shade of the maple trees above him should have prevented this.

 

“Good. We haven’t missed anything,” Sagara said and crouched into a sitting position. The other girls got into sitting positions neatly getting the best view. Natoko felt like she had missed an explanation and stayed standing. There wasn’t anywhere decent enough to sit without stepping out, and what was there to watch? The man was dressed in white robes and looked out of place, but bar that there was nothing else here. She shuffled forwards, nearly tripping over Sarah’s hands. Falling into a bush, she made a lot of branch breaking sounds and darted her head up.

 

“You can come out now,” the man in the robes said.

 

Well that was quick, she thought and stood up properly, every hope at stealth thoughts gone until Sagara raised his hand and ushered her down again. “It’s okay,” he said, not attempting to whisper. “He won’t be able to spot us just yet. We’re ninja right now.”

 

“No we’re not. He just invited us out.”

 

“Not us.”

 

“Take your time if you wish, not that you can!”

 

Natoko’s attention shot up to the man, just in time to see a blue blur shoot across her eyes. She flinched back instinctively and then realized how far away it was from her in that instant. The man on the grass stayed sitting quietly and leaned back gently as the small creature tumbled blur long into him and completely missed.

 

Natoko couldn’t say how it missed. The old man simply wasn’t there in that moment. He should have been, and the little blur should have shot right in and out of him like a cannonball with a hedgehog attached, but it didn’t.

 

It didn’t stop in its efforts though and after falling horizontally through the air for the next three seconds and sixty meters, it turned round and went for another assault at the man’s knees, easier to access now that he had stood up. The man took his time to brush down his robes before sidestepping casually to let someone through the door first.

 

“What’s going on?” she whispered to Sagara when she felt like she had a minute to talk, or at least three seconds between dodges.

 

“Huh?” muttered Sagara, looking confused that she was even there. “Oh, that’s right. You wouldn’t know. It’s a hunt.”

 

“Who’s hunting who?”

 

“That’s obvious. The man’s being attacked.”

 

“Yeah, but he looked prepared, and he isn’t doing too badly.”

 

The interweaving scuffle continued before them. The blur seemed to be getting more frantic now, a ring of blue circles closing in. The man was having no trouble dodging however and simply took his time stepping forwards and back, with his hands clasped leisurely behind him like taking a walk down a garden path philosophizing about the universe. He smiled gently at the blur like he had just made it realize its place in the cosmos and it responded by disappearing for a split second. She had just enough time to see the concern behind his eyes before a much larger bolt of blue blur slammed into him from behind, changing him from a peaceful old man to a large metal axe. She blinked as the blue flashed brightly before them and had to shield her eyes against the onslaught of vivid illumination.

 

Peering through slits now, she watched as the old man gritted his teeth between images of being a man and a pole and force his way towards the blue blur. It screamed this time, sounding like a cat howling for mates, before it sparked loudly one last time and, with a incandescent burst of white feathers, the old man came back to form and forced it all the way back.

 

The blur crashed hard straight into the ground like an airplane applying the handbrake, the ground riveting itself into the air as shockwaves blew across the swaying grass, making tidal waves in the small lake and knocking Natoko to the ground. Behind the bush she peered out to see what she knew was there. The figure shone now, large wings displayed shamelessly on his back and looking a lot taller than when he was crouched.

 

The ball blur disappeared form sight.

 

“An angel, huh?” Sarah said as the area quickly fell silent. “Didn’t want to see one of those again.”

 

For once they agreed. The last time Sarah and Natoko had seen an angel, it had pretty much beaten the crap out of all them, left them broken physically and spiritually before apologising and leaving politely. Though she could barely remember it, she knew as much that her own skills had been useless against it and now saw the same dismissive fight style that she had witnessed for just a few seconds the last time.

 

“Was this why you brought us? So we could learn?”

 

“I had been waiting to find one for months,” Sagara explained. “Demons get everywhere, but it’s rare to come across an angel, especially a smart one that fights well. We can learn plenty just by watching.”

 

“This is what you were waiting for?”

 

“Yup, I spent a lot of time thinking it through.” Natoko immediately doubted that. “And I thought, I’ve been told to find the OniHono, but when I find it, how do I deal with it as I see fit?”

 

“That’s easy. Get burned,” Aki said, just as a new thought popped in Natoko’s head.

 

“No wait, he’s right.”

 

“I’m pretty sure I’m right too.”

 

“I never thought about it,” Natoko said. In all her weeks of self loathing and contemplation it had never occurred to her. Simply finding the Onihono would bring nothing but death. It burned an entire room full of demons and beat the snot out of Sagara and only did so because it felt like not killing him. It was only because of Ms. Sakimoto that the rest of them had even gotten out alive. How could she be so foolish as to try and just ‘find it’ without preparing beforehand.

 

“I am ashamed,” she said outloud. “Sorry Sagara.” All her anger at him, and he was planning all along. This didn’t explain why he was asleep or anything, but still.

 

“I don’t know why but okay. Anyway, with any luck the fight will continue.”

 

“Now now,” the angel said, apparently to the blur. “There’s no reason to continue this. You’re not going to get anywhere here, and it’s your own fault for coming here in the first place. Letting your spawn mother birth you in this realm. You were doing nothing but causing problems for everybody.”

 

The angel lightly brushed the ground where Natoko couldn’t see and pulled out the blue blur with little effort. The blue blur screamed and howled again as it was brought up and gasped tightly in the angel’s hand.

 

Now that she looked closer or at least with a consistent vibration, it looked more dark navy blue than black, but was still definitely a ball. It had four pointy things that looked like arms and feet t the same time. At its ‘front’ it sported two giant tusks which together were about half the size of the rest of the body.

 

It was also wearing a little beanie, coloured like a striped rainbow. She guessed it to be the kotodama it inhabited.

 

“It’s kind of cute,” Aki said, and then cringed when the angel squeezed it, more like a plushie toy than a lovable feline.

 

“You are a young one aren’t you? I’d daresay you’re the youngest demon on the planet,” the angel said to the ball, keeping a tight grip as it span round in the palm of his hand. Though it caused smoke, it couldn’t move from where it was. “But you’re not allowed here.” He relaxed his hand, and the small demon’s pent up energy released itself, sending the demon crashing straight into the lake behind the old man, emptying the pool of water and spraying the entire area.

 

Natoko and Sarah growled at the same time, wiping their hair back at the same time. The two glared at each other.

 

“It has always been my intention simply to ask you to leave,” the angel continued, already into the empty pond and standing besides the fallen demon. “But your mind… I suppose you were just born, though that never stopped anyone before.” The demon shot up again, this time the angel simply swatted it down with a knock at the door backhand.

 

From afar, Natoko could hear the demon. It was whimpering now, sulking heavily to itself loud enough to gain sympathy. She looked towards Aki, who was already smoldering. Quickly she rested her hand against the girl’s shoulder as she went up to go.

 

“Stay back, I will-” Natoko stopped too when she found Sagara’s hand on her shoulder. He shook his head at her.

 

“Sorry, but you can’t interfere.”

 

“Wha- Why? We’re supposed to attack angels and demons.”

 

“I don’t quite understand it myself,” he said, keeping his eyes ahead. “But mom always told me these were one of those complicated situations. They’re not actually doing anything wrong.”

 

“But I thought you said we should stop both demons and angels.”

 

“I did, but not in this context. I only brought us here to watch and learn. There’s no point in interfering.”

 

“No point, but he’s clearly…”

 

“Don’t you get it, moron?” Sarah whispered at the far side of Aki. It occurred to Natoko that she was the only one being smart enough to whisper. “It’s an angel verses a demon. What exactly do you intend to do when you get over there, huh?”

 

“Well I….” She looked on as the angel continued to torment the small demon, though truthfully it was only asking the demon to stop right now; slowly and repetitively. It was quite frustrating to see the demon unable to do anything. “Don’t know. Help…the demon?”

 

“Bzzt wrong!” Sarah flicked the hair of Aki, aiming it at Natoko. “We don’t help demons, remember. We kill them.”

 

“Actually, just Natoko kills them,” Sagara inputted. “What they’re doing now doesn’t hurt any humans. And there is one of each. Therefore, we keep quiet and just watch them.”

 

“But that doesn’t seem fair.”

 

“That’s ‘cause you’re looking at it at the wrong angle,” Sarah sighed forcefully, just as the demon exploded into a million bits, shocking Natoko until all the bits charged at the angel and started smothering it. The angel was using its hands now, blocking individual grains of blur demon like casually brushing aside tree branches in a thick forest, but fast enough for Natoko to start losing track of how many hands she could see at once.

 

“Looking at the right angle’s hard to do hard to do when it’s so simple, but you’re an even simpler girl, so I’ll make this easy for you.” The angel spun round a little quicker than before to let the demon bounce off his hand. “Demons are bad. Angels are good. We’re in the middle and extremes are always are always trying to push us. They have no right to push us and so we push back, but only when they go to push us first. Get involved with two sides at the same time and you’re getting pushed from both sides. Best to let them finish their argument and then reward the winner with homicide. Is it obvious now? Because you just had to have it explained to you by a ten year old.”

 

“Ah I comprehend you now,” the angel said, talking to the demon. “It’s this.” And with magic, for that’s all Natoko could class it as, the beanie appeared in his hand separate from the demon. The blue blur stopped, slowly down again and for the first time Natoko could see its eyes stretched out black and deep, before falling straight to the floor like a legless cat crashing into a wall.

 

“I would request these kotodama would be made more obvious to see. To think it could be there in front of me for so long yet it never occurs to me that’s what it was.”

 

The demon screamed and whined as it hit the soggy, empty basin, flopping over the floor like a drowning fish.

 

“I suppose I should break you now,” the old man frowned. “Always so simple. The Aeon used to make it look so difficult.” He started to stretch the beanie and Natoko had had enough. Now standing in front of him, she drew Iziz out and placed it against his neck.

 

“Put the beanie down,” she threatened. She had gotten good at threatening. A steady voice, an overwhelming posture, the subtle implication of total defeat on their behalf. It really shouldn’t be making the angel smile.

 

“I thought I heard others nearby. So it’s you,Yamanaka Natoko.”

 

Another one who had heard of her. Did that mean she had a reputation now?

 

“I have not seen you since you were young. What a delight to see you again.”

 

Natoko froze up. Standing there menacingly, no one would have told the difference, but he could.

 

“But come now, to threaten me with a sword. I would have thought the last time would have taught you better than to threaten an angel with a blade.”

 

A memory flashed through her. Shards of metal, a man apologizing. Another grinning. A burning girl and vengeance. She knew it, but there seemed to be something there that never happened.

 

She snapped out of it. “You know me?”

 

“Of course I do. How could I not remember the only remaining living samurai.” The man chortled heartily to himself, still watching the beanie. “But I daresay you wouldn’t have the darnest clue of who I am. I’ve heard your plight many times, young one, I’m afraid we can’t show our faces too easily these days, even to those who prayers we answer.” Natoko stayed braced. The demon was still screaming below her, but didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger. It was just rolling there.

 

“Are you satisfied with what you requested? Has this all been interesting enough for you?”

 

She composed herself. “It’s been a treat, but I don’t see-”

 

“Please lord,” the angel declared, his eyes closed and hands outstretched, “let me become a great samurai. Let me have those I can protect and serve. To follow my duty and the way of the sword.” He settled down and looked back at her. “I must say, not the most orthodox of requests. It was hard enough finding a way to do it without causing you great trouble or turning you into a criminal, but I must say we seem to be doing splendidly to watch you stand in defense of a total stranger. Even if that stranger is a demon.”

 

Natoko’s sword dropped around half a centimeter. Had she really done that? She could see it happening, quite easily. Being a samurai was something she wanted for as long as she could remember. Her family weren’t Christian, but she had gone to church a few times as a child.

 

“It was you. You made me a samurai?”

 

“Well,” he said, with the look of a kind grandfather. “It’s not exactly easy to hear prayers for us nowadays, but yours was quite insistent. A little selfish maybe, but I remember thinking to myself at the time ‘It may be selfish, but it’s for the point of being selfless.’ So really, I thought, what choice did I have?

 

She had never denied the existence of god. Sorta. She still wasn’t clear on that. He must do really. But to know it was this one that did it… Her brain tore between gratitude and anger.

 

She focused on the matter at hand. “If you were responsible, I’m grateful.”

 

“Oh, please child, don’t sugarcoat your words for me.”

 

“Okay, so I’m kind of annoyed, but even so. If you know that, you must know I won’t back down from protecting this demon.”

 

“It is a Wrathspawn you understand? They are mindless. You won’t get anything from doing this.”

 

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t need any reward.”

 

“But you do. I can see that clearly. You need the feeling that you saved someone. That’s what I’m saying. If you save this thing, you will not receive recompense. Wrathspawn attack everything, even baby ones can destroy villages.”

 

She thought of her village and all the old people for a second. “I think I can deal with that, as long as the strong don’t prey on the weak.”

 

“Well then I’m sorry. I may be a virtue of patience, but I cannot consider losing the timing of this critical moment after several months of chasing.”

 

Natoko went to make another rough suggestion that she was so getting good at when the hand holding Iziz ricocheted off of nothing, and she felt a spark pinch on the nape of her neck, like a bee sting, except knocking her unconscious.

 

She woke with a start, feeling a warm numbing on her throat and a taste of soya in her mouth. Two things above all the rest became immediately clear to her after this. One, it was pitch black all around her, yet somehow she knew she was in a small boxed room and two, she had somehow managed to wake up standing.

 

Her eyes flared open as she realized the situation. She had been caught. The angel must have taken her somewhere, and after knocking her out so easily. Feeling disgusted, she had to crack her neck into place, feeling the clammy warm skin around her neck muscles as she did so.

 

The angel’s strike; she hadn’t seen it. Were they all like that? She figured they would be insanely powerful, but she had fought demons before and come through. Heh, she had even fought demons and not realized. That’s how good she was at it. But of course there would be different levels. She had learnt that with Hayate.

 

She felt impaled with regret. Damn, how am I ever going to be that fast?

 

You are a carver. That way is possible to you.

 

Natoko didn’t find the sudden intrusion surprising, even as the walls around her lit up and shined a metallic light into her eyes that couldn’t make her flinch. By the wall in front of her, she saw a shadow speak back to the darkness for her.

 

But I can’t hope to be that fast; no matter how hard I train.

 

It was her voice, but not coming from her.

 

Do you think your ability is limited to training? If you reach a wall and cannot climb it, cut it down. Your path is yours to strike out! That is the essence of your blade. To strike what’s in front of you. Carve your own path!

 

But I don’t think I have time to do that now.

 

Your time is your own. Never anyone else’s. You give it to who you want to have it.

 

And never let them take it.

 

I know that, but-

 

You have been letting them take it.

 

All of them. Him, him. Especially him. Why?

 

Well, that’s just life. I need to have some people in it. They are the ones I protect.

 

If you protect them, then why are they getting in front of you? Why can you not proceed any further than this? Why do you not have speed or strength beyond that of this?

 

Because they get in my way.

 

Then cut them down!

 

“No!”

 

Without hesitation, Natoko threw herself at the shadow, not knowing why and not caring as she blundered straight through it, reaching the metal wall behind it and pushing on through. She would not falter against her friends. Natoko was samurai. She was their honor. Their protector. Even if not a single one were to stand beside her, she would gladly stand in front of any of them and take whatever blade, bullet or arrow that headed for their hearts.

 

She would never let them get in her way, for she would always let them pass.

 

And then she fell, out of the metal room, and into the shining light below. She felt its warm radiance embrace her, knowing where her freedom lay. Passing the glowing metal ring, she grabbed hold of it, freeing it from the black coffin, and bringing it down with her.

 

From above the shadow watched, knowing its mysterious ways should be enough now for her to continued, accepted her unvoiced thanks, and faded away.

 

“Nooooooooo!” Natoko screamed, rising up and immediately rolling back over. Fighting the pain in her brain and waist as she pulled away from the cause of her grief, her body slipped and rolled further, sliding across a thick burden before soaking her back. Her mouth tasted like dog feces and she felt bugs crawl in her hair as they flew off one by one, reaching for the skies and flying away from her.

 

Feeling the pain one can only get when they realized they are being watched by everyone they’ve ever known and loved whilst doing something odd like screaming to a shadow in your brain, Natoko looked up to see them staring at her. Aki was to the side, kneeling down, her lap looking like it was there for a pillow. Far back on the ridge of the empty basin, the angel watched, still holding onto the demon.

 

Just above her, Sarah looked down on Natoko.

 

“Well, that was freaky. You okay, freak?”

 

Natoko got up, and nearly slipped back down as her hand pushed soggy mud down instead of her body up. She sniffed the air, and found grime in the way instead that she had to cough up. When it was gone the smell still lingered.

 

“Come on freak. Answer.”

 

For what felt like the second time, Natoko cracked her neck back into place. “Iziz.” It was in the mud besides her. She clambered over to it; the tip had stuck in the mud and sank down half way. Pulling it out, she shook the hilt before swinging it clean, most of the mud staying caked on, making the whole weapon feel heavier.

 

“It could be only my suggestion,” the angel called out to her, without a strike of force in his voice, “that you sheath your weapon sooner rather than later. The entire blade burns quite powerfully, and I will not be able to permit you from bringing it any closer to me.”

 

“That’s not your decision to make. It is mine.”

 

“Are you so sure of that? Is it wise to strike at an angel? You did so once before, but that was out of misunderstanding, and you were forgiven for this. But now you are fresh in mind and caught only momentarily by rage. To strike now would be blasphemous and would only stain you-“

 

Natoko was on him. Natoko was in him. Natoko was through him and out the other end.

 

She turned back, looking at the distance covered. Ten meters? For the first time she realized her speed, every moment of it. The step and through, the two steps that could take her across a racetrack, the world blurring around her as it couldn’t keep up. A single strike. Mind and body had finally moved together, neither one lagging her behind. She was fast!

 

“-r soul with regret.”

 

He was still there.

 

“That is impressive. You are much clearer in mind now. In fact I would say there is no rage in you at all now. But please, I must ask you now to compose yourself again just before you realized what you have just done.”

 

Natoko didn’t quite catch him, and looked around for cues. She hadn’t hit either Aki or Sarah through some fault, and Sagara was still hiding in the bushes. Briefly she wondered if this was a metaphor thing the angel was trying to pull, and decide to ignore it, when she realized that the heavenly being was missing half his right hand.

 

With a sound that later she would remember as squabble, she turned to see the demon, rolling on the floor and squabbling away to itself. By the creature was a slowly corroding finger melting into the grass. At first Natoko couldn’t see it properly, obscured as it was by the long green blades. Focusing on it closely, she saw its movements confined in odd directions, the blur of speed it had was now gone as it hung in two pieces on separate parts of the ground.

 

Recoiling in horror as it fizzled away, the beanie cleanly sliced and the ball that was its existence simply turning to mush, Natoko could clearly tell that it was by her hand this demon had become a victim. Her hand that removed its life. Her hand that failed to protect!

 

It was unforgivable.

 

“Hhhmm, interesting,” the angel replied, looking at the stump where he right hand had been as it continued to sizzle. “This is actually quite a bother.” Lifting it up with an air of caution, he gripped it firmly, grasping its right elbow and starting to pull, struggling a little before going all the way with a yank, amputating the rest of the forearm and dropping it to the ground. Any wound that should have been healed instantly as the angel watched with an experimental wag of its new stub as the rest of the arm fizzed away.

 

“That sword,” the angel said. “Nothing should be able to do what that sword just did.”

 

Natoko wasn’t listening. Why the hell was it still talking to her? Making her kill the demon. She hadn’t seen that. Her newfound speed wasn’t perfect yet, She roared and felt the grass pull away from her in all directions, the wind desperate to get away.

 

Diving forwards, she brought her sword down before she was even close to him. He was already stepping aside, but she had trailed across in the strike, placing her across from the angel and with a twist, bringing the sword down on his back. He crouched under, a simple noble kneel that looked effortless as she let herself fall through her own attack and end up on his other side, turning the sword around in her hand and bearing it down. He stretched back to avoid it, lifting himself up, releasing a slap to her face. This time it came slowly and she spotted it far enough to swat it away. He looked bemused at her and jumped up to avoid her strike. Ignoring the fact that he didn’t come down, she waggled her sword and struck randomly at his legs. He hopped away from three strikes and twisted around the four and fifth like someone moving a bishop in chess, before landing in front of the sixth and taking a blow to the head as the hilt struck down on him.

 

Gotcha, Natoko thought proudly but the angel simply looked at her.

 

“To let it get this way, I really am poor at this fighting skill,” he said, the bone of his skull cracking beneath the hilt. He stood there watching her and she realized she was still trying to force it down. A part of her brain knew it shouldn’t be here. It couldn’t be! With the force she had put into that strike it should be stuck halfway in the mud in the ground over there somewhere.

 

“But I am used to the ways they have forced on us, not the ways we used before. I will let you see the mistake made in opposing us.”

 

Then he looked at her, focused on her eyes. She returned the gaze and Natoko didn’t know why. Suddenly, she felt small, tiny, nothing. So did he, yet he was so grand, a majestic being of light, that she could only feel humility in basking in his presence. His was a warm light that offered her comfort wherever she would go. Bring her joy and happiness in her actions, knowing that so long as she kept herself pure and true she would soon be accepted into his kingdom.

 

And what a glorious kingdom it was, she knew simply by looking and believing. Her grandfather was there, and his friends and their families, and their friends and their ancestors, all of them, every one of them and they looked from on high down to her with kindness in their eyes and joy and happiness in their hearts, all just to know how she had grown so strong. Their gaze was so far away, yet she could feel them, so close to her, waiting patiently for the time she would join them, that place where they couldn’t be, where they laughed and scorned her, screamed and belittled her, growled and killed her, hunted and raped her friends, tore off flesh and spat it at her face, sliced her with blunt knife and vomited on her stomach. Oh they waited, how they waited for that time when she would come to destroy them.

 

“What? What is this? How are you!” the angel pulled away, reality snapping back into place with a large snap that cracked his head backwards. Feeling clearer suddenly, Natoko shook her head clean, feeling very odd. Refreshed and happy, like she had slept a perfect seven hours and was awoken by a beautiful countryside and all of nature’s splendor on a perfect Sunday morning. The angel fell back, looking feverish, his beard matted with sweat, his eyes darting around to look away from her. He looked worse than any hungover girl back at the dorm.

 

“Sorry, but that doesn’t work with her,” Sagara said walking up.

 

“I…I don’t. How can she… My lord! Forgive me your solitude. Tell me, how can she do this. To be given even the smallest glint of your presence, that which flows unworthy through me, and to deny it so horribly. Even the unpure are not capable of such resistance. For sure, how can one even resist that which they seek above all things?”

 

“Like I said, it just doesn’t work.”

 

“Your land is a holy one and can bring all of temptation’s great allures to nothing simply by gazing at it from afar. Though her mind is still not fully able to comprehend, she would bring to it images that she knows in her heart are true, for in your presence they are truth and she, like all your children, merely mirrors that which is within you.”

 

“I don’t think he’s listening,” Aki mumbled as Natoko shouted some more/

 

“It is not even a case of being impossible. Such a definition should not even be recognized among the –“

 

“Oi,” Natoko said, grabbing the angel. “The master is trying to talk to you.”

 

The angel spluttered, falling out of its reverie, and gazed over at the grinning visage of Sagara, now standing besides them. The angel’s eyes widened, then blinked twice.

 

“The Futabatei, here? But… but why?

 

“I found you traveling through my dreams. Natoko here helped, but I lost you for a short while. Luckily after that it was only a matter of finding an angel with such high intelligence.”

 

The angel ignored this and seemed to have composed itself. “So, it’s true. You really are waging a secret war against all of us.”

 

“Well, that’s not the best way to look at it. I’m actually here to steal your brainpower.”

 

“Enforcer’s heir! I warn you that even now you are not accepted as having any authority over us. Our hand is gentle, but it does not allow you to-“

 

The angel coughed. Even angels needed to cough when they necks were being encased by a rapidly shrinking vice.

 

“My hand’s made of devil’s iron,” Sagara commented. “And you’re not allowed here, and you’re not allowed to answer the hopes and dreams of humans and you’re not allowed to use the Kingdom of Heaven attack on humans.” With his free hand, Sagara reached for the angel’s remaining hand and, after failing to grab it the first three times, went for the shoulder instead, working his way along until he reached the spirit’s forefinger and, with a forced yank, pulled the ring away.

 

“Only monsters…” the angel gasped. “Only monsters like yourself… would call such enlightenment an attack. For how could it be an attack when it is designed to help a soul beyond all help it has ever received.”

 

“Without asking for it?”

 

“Don’t be foolish boy. It’s what every human asks for.”

 

Bad angel…

 

Making assumptions.”

 

Natoko saw it carefully. He didn’t crush it, but his hand wrapped around it and like a thundering piston, brought green shards out of his hands like green daggers out of the back of someone’s neck. Natoko felt taken back at the sudden appeared of the crystal, and only had time to stare before it shot back in, the ring now gone.

 

By the time she looked away, she realized the angel had disappeared to;, simply never there, replaced by an old red sledgehammer looking like it was used by firemen. Sagara crouched down to it, and picked up the tool.

 

“Oh, he had two pieces.” He waved it in the air. “Anyone want this.”

There was no scream.

 

“I’ll take it,” Sarah said, shooting her hand up, and eagerly taking the dangerous weapon as Sagara passed the sharp weapon to the ten year old girl willy nilly.

 

“What was that?” she asked, still staring at his hand.

 

“A virtue of patience.”

 

“He didn’t look so patient to me,” Sarah scoffed condescendingly “Oh lord, help me. I fucked up somehow.”

 

“Well, actually I’m a little taken aback too. Most people don’t have the ability to deny the Kingdom of Heaven attack.” Sagara scratched the back of his head. “These things should work on you like any other person. But they don’t. It’s odd.”

 

“Kingdom of Heaven attack. Sounds RPGish.”

 

“Well, it’s not really an attack. From what I got of it, it’s meant to be a release from your sins. Angels used to use it to make sinners more willing to confess, back when they still took confessions directly. Apparently, one would confess their sins, and the angels would reward them with a sampling of what they would obtain should they continue to exercise their purity. It was all quite noble of them and showed their compassion to all of man and had to be taken away for the exact same reasons.”

 

They left shortly after that. All of Sagara’s previous interest in landscape and mountains having completely faded away. The others looked bored as well now. Natoko spent a moment looking for Iziz’s sheath lost in the grass with Aki’s help and then began to head back, with one thing left tugging on her mind more than anything else.

 

She asked when they entered the animal run. “Sagara, did the angels really choose for me to become a samurai?”

 

“Hhhmm, probably not.”

 

“But he knew my prayers, or said he did. Was he lying?”

 

“Angels don’t lie. We have to kill them, but they don’t lie.”

 

“So, it was his choice I become a samurai.”

 

“Not at all. That was your choice. That’s why you made that wish. It may have become a prayer just because he was listening though. The angels like to come to aid just as the demons like to bring to harm, but neither of them tend to ask permission first. They’d just go ahead and do what they think is best or worse for you.”

 

“So we don’t have control? Everything’s decided by their choice of destiny.”

 

“Well, that’s how it was. We stopped that though. Put restrictions on them. They’re not always perfect though. A lot can slip through the cracks. But at least it’s better than billions.”

 

“But they still got through to me right? My destiny is now what they chose I could. My choice stopped being mine.”

 

“Naw, destiny is all how you think about it. If you believe that destiny affects you, it’ll affect you. If you don’t, it won’t bother you. Though sometimes it’ll think you really deserve it and get your dog killed or something. The important thing is to keep making your own choices.”

 

Natoko felt nonplussed. “Have you grown smarter recently?” She couldn’t help but ask.

 

“I’ve been getting a lot of rest,” he replied grinning, playing with the ring on his finger. “And I’ve just picked a few things up.”

 

****

 

Their walk had been endless…blah blah blah….

 

A loud thud broke the silence, impacting itself into their silent lives like a sniper bullet. Looking behind them, they almost missed what to see. There, in the middle of the ground, in the middle of the nowhere, lay a rock. Igneous, not chalk, just placed roughly in the ground.

 

“What was that,” said Fujiko, alarmed and possible ready for a fight. She hadn’t seen it, what had appeared, the rock in the chalk, that could have only come from one place.

 

“Of course,” Otsune said with joyous revelation. “That’s so obvious now. Dur, I should have noticed that before easily.”

 

“What?” Fujiko asked confused. “What just happened?” Looking carefully at the rock, she picked it up without disturbing the chalk and inspected it. “It’s just like the glowing rocks.”

 

“But they shouldn’t be here, not when the rest of the ground is chalk.”

 

“I thought it was calcium.”

 

“What? No, it’s chalk,” said Otsune, aware she was shouting a little. “But this,” she said, getting back to the rock. “We only saw up there.” She pointed all the way to the great wall, to before the hole. “This is rock from the ground above.

 

“Right,” said Fujiko. “Oh… ohhhh, so what you’re saying is.”

 

“Right. We’re not looking at a night sky of some foreign land. Up above us there’s no stars at all. It’s just not possible with the way they’ve been moving. Yet how would we explain the twinkling in the night sky? The constant, yet slow moving constellations.” She turned the rock over, seeing the cuts in it now. Fujiko knelt down to get a closer look and Otsune felt the girl’s hand on her shoulder. She shifted a little to avoid it.

 

“This isn’t a land, you see. Not a giant desert or anything like that. It’s a cave.”

 

Fujiko looked at her with puzzlement. “A cave?” She then looked up.

 

“It must be the cave roof, of the land we were walking on before. A roof that must cover the entire land from beyond even the far wall.” She pointed to it for reference. “The hole went down and under the main part of the Strangelands and into this cave area. That’s why it’s getting darker too. We must be going away from the light source gradually. It might even have been where we started. It also explains such a difference in the rocks. Not why they’re glowing, but certainly why they’re here. They must drop down and…

 

This was a brilliant discovery. To think that such a naturally occurring cave could have existed. How did it support itself? What caused it to be formed? What was outside of it? What was further in?

 

“So how does this help?” Fujiko asked

 

“Excuse me.?

 

“What does this mean to us getting out?” Otsune thought over the question for a moment, not understanding. When she did, she pouted, feeling crestfallen.

 

“Oh, nothing I guess. It just means we’re going further into a cave.”

 

“No what it means is that these ‘giant red rocks’ aren’t markers like we thought.” Oh yeah. “It means they just fell at random!” She grabbed the rock and threw it. “That means we’re not going anywhere, does it? Just further and further into a cave with no real turning back and lots of inevitable doom slowly approaching. Fuck!”

 

Otsune took a step back, the outburst snapping her out of her musings. Her friend looked away, holding her forehead tightly, a layer of sweat passing from skin to skin as she wiped her hair back with rage forming on perfect cheekbones.

 

Otsune felt her tongue moisten.

 

“I’m sick of this,” Fujiko said in a barely audible whisper that quickly upped in volume as she paced back and forth across the chalked floor. “Sick of fucking everything!”

 

“What? I thought you said you were okay with it.”

 

“And yet I’m very, very angry,” Fujiko said with vicious sarcasm, “I might be able to make it if you were just quiet for five minutes, instead of bringing a silver of hope in everything we find. You make everything we find seem like it seconds away from giving us an answer but then you just tell me it’s a rock or that we’re fucking doomed. You’re fucking useless.”

 

“I’m useless?” Otsune snapped back. “You won’t even agree to carry any of the bags.” To make a point, Otsune threw it to the floor as far as she could, spreading meat and water bottles across the ground. “You just hold the super light one and the telescope you stole from the only person who hasn’t tried to kill us yet and you call me useless.”

 

“Don’t you dare shout back at me,” Fujiko snapped right back, pushing herself into Otsune’s face with a twisted grimace. “I’m not the one who insisted again and again we come here. I’m not the one who abandoned the one guy who could probably guide us through this place blindfolded. I’m not the one who attacked some friendly monster and then threw us through a door suspended ten feet in the air with no hope of fucking help or escape!”

 

“It was the only way!” Otsune defended. Of course it was. How else were they going to find Tina.

 

“The only-“ Fujiko stopped as her mouth filled with disgust. “This!” she shouted, spreading her arms and spinning round. “This is the way that provides us with a slow, agonising death at the hands of absolutely nothing. Tell me how this is going to bring us nothing but death! We don’t know how long we’ve been travelling. We don’t know how long we have left to travel. Come on, Otsune, we don’t even know where we’re fucking travelling to! I can’t tell if it’s been days or weeks. We’re being stalked which is hard enough in a land of nothing, but we’ve got no way to defend ourself except a blunt knife, a little flame and perhaps by offering to be sex slaves, and all we’ve got to go on is a useless stone path of red rocks which don’t point to a village which may or may not exist.”

 

“It exists, it has too.”

 

“You tell me then, Otsune. How do these stones actually know where the village is. How does the star. How do they figure it out?” Fujiko stopped suddenly, like an angry teacher asking a question when you hadn’t been listening. Otsune found herself stuttering.

 

“They said the rocks would lead to the village, so I assume… perhaps they placed them there as a path-”

 

“They’re from the sky,” Fujiko reminded her. “You said it yourself. They dropped from the sky.”

 

“W w-well, perhaps they fire something up there and let the rock drop to act as a marker. Then perhaps they did something to the rocks so they would glow through the Focoscope.”

 

“And what are you basing that on.”

 

“The… fact that they glow.”

 

“We are surrounded by rock in all directions, Otsune. Now including above us. How is that thing trustworthy?”

 

“Well, filters can be attuned to reflect crystals with certain properties to glow-“ Fujiko slapped the Focoscope out of her hand , letting it fly and shatter against the red igenous rock..

 

“Well that wouldn’t-“

 

“It wouldn’t what? It wouldn’t change anything, that’s what! Even if it did point the way to red rocks there was no logic that it was leading us the right way to any village. A village I remind you we have no proof that it exists.”

 

“Look, we’ve just got to have faith in it, okay!”

 

Her own words were a slap in her face. Faith. One word she hated. The word that brought war, the word that brought crime, brought nothing but damage and foolishness.

 

She had nothing. No proof, no reasoning for her endeavours. Finding the village. The pursuit of the Savadali. Even the quest for Tina was based entirely on speculation. She had no plan. No idea. No clues. Just some simple catch all answer that made her pursuit meaningful without actually promising anything.

 

And even now, she had no choice but to follow it.

 

Her cheeks felt like they were trying to explode and she tried her best to hold them back. Her friend felt agonisingly close to her and she couldn’t stop herself where she rested her head on the girl’s shoulder, Fujiko stood there, not returning the hug.

 

But how could she be so stupid? To let herself go down such a path. She was better than that. She was a thinker, a transcendist. Not a mundane moron, who followed whims with base instinct and the merest slight of perceived thoughtfulness. She didn’t take just the basic fact told to her at any present moment and make decisions based on them. She went beyond that. She tried anyway.

 

There was no way to even give up. If she did, she’ll just be rebelling, abandoning both the goal and the method. Just another of Clark’s labels. Even if she could, there would be no way to do so. What else could they do except continue walking, settle down, try to make a house and die in about five days when the food finally ran out?

 

And her friend. She looked up, seeing Fujiko still standing above her, looking down, her own tears escaping from her eyes. That’s right. Fujiko never wanted to get angry. It was hard for her to do so at all. To have brought her friend into such a state, and to start getting all mopey about it!

 

God, she was beautiful.

 

They looked at each other for a minute, their faces close. Fujiko was crying stoically. Her cheeks were wet but not red. A look of defeat. Of course. They had both lost here. They were together in this and they were doomed. All that was left was…

 

“Wait! What are you-“ Her lips were against her friend’s before either of them could react. They were dry and brittle, but brought all the tenderness she needed. She felt her friend move to her advances. Her hands reach up to her shoulders, shuddering in Otsune’s grip.

 

She screamed in shock and pain, as her shoulder hit the floor, pain seared through her body and she looked up at the blur of her friend.

 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Fujiko shouted. Otsune couldn’t see her; couldn’t see anything. Everything was just blurs and squeals. Then she was crying, full force. She hadn’t cried in ten years.

 

“Huh? What’s that,” she heard Fujiko muttered. Turning out of instinct to see a flashing sparkle in the sky, rising quickly, Otsune thought it a star, shooting through the night sky. Then she remembered there was no night sky here.

 

“Get down!” she screamed, trying to tackle Fujiko and instead just dropping her to the floor. Fujiko fumbled and panicked at her friend’s odd motions and Otsune only got her a foot or so forwards before the explosion rocked their ears and knocked them four meters clean of where she had fell. Otsune felt her ears pop three times and scrambled on her hands as broken fingernails tore into chalk and left terrified sweat and blood in the chalkstone. She looked up to where she had seen the star and saw nothing but blurs. Feeling her face with hands wetter than when she had left them, she realised she couldn’t feel what was often there. She felt around on hands and feet, left foot bumping into something soft. “Fujiko,” she screamed, meaning only to whisper. No response, but her ears were shot and her eyes blind. She felt very isolated all of a sudden.

 

It’s a technique I use to sense things without sight or sound, in case I ever need to fight in perfect darkness. Want me to teach you?

 

Er no, I have more important things to do with my time, like solve sudoku.

 

The ground rumbled again, and she peeked up like a meerkat to have a block of stone thrown in her face. Just chalk actually. Light, but still knocking her back.

 

A second attack, chalk hit her from her right, much closer than the previous explosion. She searched round for her glasses again, cleaning her hands against chalk in the process and realising what was on them. She was bleeding? Where from? She couldn’t feel anything at all. She was going into shock she knew that much, but no body parts felt too numb yet, just her eye and ears and heart.

 

Her hand fell on something as she pawed the ground and she recognised it instantly. The telescope! Fumbling for it like an addict with a discarded spliff, she wrapped it up in her hands and peered through the auto focusing scope. She saw nothing in the first patch of distance she peered to, her sight instantly returning, and nothing at all to her left, but right behind her about a cycloon away stood the impassive figure of Mitzy, his little box smoking. Tall and imposing even that far away, she barely had time to freak out as his teardrop lit up again. Absently, she followed the projectile with the scope following it as it came straight for her.

 

The light exploded brilliantly in the sky, flashing wildly as it dispersed mid air, blinding her even further through the high powered lens of the scope. She winced and fell backwards, amazed they hadn’t been hit and only briefly wondered why not before turning back to look at him with her one remaining good useless eye.

 

Mitzy was advancing slowly forwards. It could take him an hour to get here. If she ran she could make it, but with Fujiko…

 

She ended the sentence with a distraction, as a loud squeal echoed behind her.

 

“I leave you two alone for a second and you do exactly the opposite of what I suggested!” Otsune tried to turn around, to find the owner of the voice. It sounded a lot like Fujiko’s but with a heavy accent she didn’t recognise over the ringing. Poking the scope in the direction of the voice, she found nothing, but felt wind as it rushed by her.

 

The figure advanced forwards at blinding speed, not that Otsune was a good judge of sight and distance at the moment. A blur even in the lens of the telescope that adjusted itself automatically, the figure covered the hour’s walking distance in seconds and slammed right into the advancing ogre, taking them both down and flipping right over to land on the other side, or at least that’s what Otsune assumed. The newest person’s blur had fizzled and swung right back at the Mitzy blur bouncing off it and falling right back before smacking into it head on in the instant it took the monster time to notice it was being attacked.

 

The Mitzy blur seemed to fall over and drop something. Otsune blinked a lot to try and tell what it was, but guessed it to be the weapon. The new blur swam around the Mitzy blur, attacking in ways that she couldn’t make out at all, before grabbing the small blur- no grabbing the ground and lifting it up, taking Mitzy off his feet and down the newly made slope

 

Regaining just a bit of sight, Otsune figured the newcomer to be female, or at least small and agile, compared to Mitzy’s seven foot frame she was a mere five foot four and probably between a hundred to hundred and thirty. The blur jumped high over Mitzy blur of a head and did something that made him fall straight down. They kept their distance for a few seconds, then Mitzy fell into the air, flying high by about twenty to thirty feet. The pop of the world’s largest sealed crisp packet followed him shortly afterwards. Mitzy fell to the floor hard and the blur didn’t move.

 

Otsune wanted to feel relieved but stopped herself. The newcomer was already coming back. Friend or foe didn’t matter here at all, but all she could hope was that the monster in small form wasn’t about to unleash its ultimate attack to destroy them all. Anything less and she could persuade it to stop.

 

As it approached, Otsune focused on it better. Her eyes weren’t returning but her ears were now starting to pick up heavy footsteps slamming into the ground, a stampede of one. It was definitely female, but something looked both oddly familiar and just odd about it.

 

“Gute- ag, me- …und,” the figure said, as it fell short besides her. Her heart stopped beating again, taking too long a cut and threatening her health more than these explosions could do any time soon. She recognised those syllables, the voice who made them , but her brain was too addled to figure it out. Peering from the blur spectre above her back into the scope, she turned the lens on the newcomer just enough to see Mitzy blur standing in the distance, the sparkler light already on its descent arc.

 

Another explosion cracked the air, two meters from her head, her guardian was only able to partly deflect it and slammed her head against the chalk.

 

****

 

Sakura met the angel ten minutes after the demon. It had introduced itself timidly as Mr. Worry right before took her out of the office and away from the folder containing Alexis’s data. When she had tried to take it, the demon had simply whisked it away from her, pulling open a drawer of the nearest filing cabinet and promptly stuffing the papers into it.

 

“I mean, what eternally tormented soul leaves confidential documentation that is their damned job to do nothing with but file away out on their desk,” the demon ranted, waving its hands flamboyantly around the corridor as they walked to the angel. “I tell you, I put that Mrs. Jenkins on probation thirty two thousand six hundred and twenty three times so far, but it looks like the message isn’t sticking. I tell you, young girl. I tell you like I tell her; you do not get the job done by crying all day at your desk and telling yourself you don’t deserve this when you know damn well that you do!”

 

The angel was getting close by this point. The demon’s pace was getting more erratic. Though he never touched the walls, he moved from side to side as if he were a pinball bouncing off the bumpers. “You get the document, you checked its YIN number. You cross reference that with the Name, Age, DOB, TKI, HOFR, LONNNE and credo databases and then you file it away in the appropriate cabinet after determining the specified location within the cabinet except if it’s a blue folder or its reference with #00001 at the front, then it needs repackaging, retyping and fed exxed to recollections admin, then you do the same thing with the other three septillion folders we have to get through before the accountant’s meeting next month.”

 

“Then she can cry.” The demon banged the door open somehow, despite turning the handle slowly. He turned to smile at her. “Right this way.”

 

The angel was sitting at the desk reading with its feet up on the glass surface. Sakura heart seized up as the angel’s great presence dawned on her. An angel, its wings displayed in all their highest glory as he leaned back against an invisible chair. She revelled in his radiance as the divine creature tussled one hand through its unkempt hair whilst shushing them sharply, leaning in hunched as its eyes scanned across a couple of pages of frayed parchment.

 

The demon tutted blasphemously at the angel, whose face shone with a brilliant laziness while majestic eyebrows shot her dirty looks at being disturbed. “We have a guest, my fellow-” the demon began, but was halted by a raised finger and an even sharper shush, rendering the room silent. Overcome by the flawless goodwill of this being, Sakura could not keep her eyes on him and they strayed across the contents of the gracefully maintained mess of a room, where documents, files, folders and other pieces of paper lay carelessly across the ground alongside books, cassette tapes and flickering monitors.

 

“God in Heaven…”

 

Now on both knees with her head bowed just above clasped hands, Sakura only just caught sight of the large sofa bed, already outstretched and containing a beautiful blond lady draped in the covers sleeping peacefully while mumbling to herself.

 

The angel stood up.

 

Another angel, she reminded herself, like Sanguine. How fortuitous for her. She could hardly believe the blessings she should receive. To be granted a visit from more than one angel in her life was truly a gift she was not worthy of. Thanking the lord with all her heart and soul for this opportunity, she shrank as she heard footsteps approach her. Eyes opening ajar, she saw ten beautiful bare toes, the likes of which the finest manicurist in all of Hollywood could not hope to compare.

 

“Come on. Get up.”

 

Sakura froze, not daring to obey, the warmth of his presences right above her.

 

“There’s really no point to you being there. No need to stand on ceremony for me. Or curl up on ceremony, I guess.”

 

Even so, Sakura remained on the floor. Her neck bolted into place, dry lips millimetres from a dusty ground.

 

“Fine.” She heard a bang as something fell to the ground. “If you won’t come up to me, I’ll come down to you.”

 

Too curious now, she peered her head up and opened her eyes. His feet right next to herw, fine nails wiggled before her with amusement as she looked upon him in his whole. He had a refreshing smile that reminded her of a four year old child, but the age and appearance of a young artist, his slim muscular frame peeking out of his white dressing gown as it hung loosely around him. He waited for her, the smile on his face not condescending, never possibly condescending, as he rocked himself closer to her all previous dismissal gone as he brought himself to full attention for her and…

 

squeak

 

She had never seen one of those before…

 

“Hello there,” he said, making no effort to cover himself up.

 

“Hello!” she squeaked loudly.

 

“I am Topah, he who is honest.”

 

“Pleas- Please- Please to meet you!”

 

“Likewise Sakura. It’s good to meet a devote child of the cloth. We see less and less of them nowadays, though I suppose you are pathologically devoted.”

 

“Sorry, what do you-“

 

“Pathologically devoted. We were talking about that the other day actually, weren’t we, Mr. Worry? Those who are brought into the faith from childhood and kept there their whole life.”

 

“Don’t tell her what I said!” the demon shouted loudly, panicking before the mighty angel as he lay exposed in the messy study.

 

“They weren’t very nice comments, mainly that our most stupid followers tend to come from that division. They don’t know much else other than what they get taught, you see. Mind you, I guess that happens with all of god’s creatures. Especially you.” He looked a little saddened.

 

“Poor girl, to lose your parents like that and left stranded in a country where you don’t speak the lingo. Who else do you have to turn too but the Lord?”

 

Sakura felt the grip around her heart squeeze. “I-“

 

“A good thing you ran into Father Goryu, isn’t it? Oh and that atheist girl, though I think they’re not gonna know what to do with her later on.”

 

Sakura felt the tears drip off her chin as the angel smiled gently before her. His presence was soothing, all pain from the memories washing away around her as he laid her soul to bare between the two of them. He got up with a groan and presented her his hand.

 

“Still, at least you’re not crazy or violent. Far too many fit into that category too. It’s what we get with the whole free will thing, I guess.” Taking hold of him, feeling his smooth fingers, she fell into his embrace as he hugged her, the warmth of his breast breath taking. She felt naked before him.

 

“Topah?” a voice interrupted. Around her, the angel unhooked itself to turn to the once slumbering woman, now stirring as she twisted herself into a sitting position. Sakura watched as the women opened her eyes just in time to glance head on at the demon, the monster quickly positioning itself right in front of her face. The woman screamed in shock. Mt. Worry did the same.

 

“Would you stop doing that!” the woman chastised loudly, grabbing a pillow and smacking the demon with it. The demon wailed and yelled as it bounced away, already wiping its pin striped suit down as it got out of range. The woman continued to shout profanities. “Stupid cocksucking buyout freak-“

 

“Sharon,” Topah cut in. “We have a guest.”

 

Sharon stopped just too late to stop the pillow hurtling towards the demon. “Oh.” The demon let loose a painful shriek as the woman looked around the bed and her own state of undress. “Should I cover myself?”

 

“There’s no real need to.”

 

“No. She’s-” she looked at Sakura. “She’s clearly embarrassed. She’s also Japanese. I should cover myself. You too.”

 

“She actually Italian-Japanese, though she lived in Italy far longer than she has Japan.”

 

“Cover yourself up. Where are my clothes?” The woman hopped off the sofa bed unashamed of her nakedness despite her actions.

 

“In various fits of passion all over the floor I think, but I don’t really feel like helping you find them.”

 

“Aren’t you sweet?” she said, opting for another dressing ground and wrapping it far too tightly around herself Sakura tried to hold back comments against the women’s perfect body as she hopped happily over to her

 

“I’m Sharon, pleased to meet you.”

 

“Sakura,” Sakura squeaked. “Pleased to meet you.” Sharon looked lightly distressed suddenly.

 

“Aw, I was really hoping to have that whole ‘pleased to meet you’ thing in proper Japanese, but we can’t do that here. Anyway, you’ll have to excuse Topah. He may not seem like a proper angel or anything but he’s the whole blunt honesty you got before the snake gave Eve the apple and made her all shy… about… being naked.” She paused, staring into space. “Oh geez. I should be naked before you.”

 

“I cannot doubt any logic in your argument,” said Topah.

 

“Erm…” Sakura muttered, looking around. “It’s alright, really.”

 

“No no, I should totally be naked before you. It’s practically a rule. How can I be Topah’s partner if I won’t be naked?” Sakura tried to get a word in, but Sharon kept going. “I mean, we’ve got this whole I should be respectful of Japanese customs and bow and be polite but aren’t we fooling ourselves if we’re being all shamed about our bodies. I mean, I’m not ashamed of my body and you shouldn’t be of yours no matter how you look.”

 

Sakura entire body twitched one millimetre to the right. In Sakura’s head, the woman exploded for no reason.

 

“Sharon,” Topah said.

 

“I mean once we’re here in the InBetween realm it’s not even a matter of bodies. I mean, I’m dead, so of course my body shouldn’t matter, but that doesn’t mean-“

 

“Sharon!”

 

“Yes?”

 

“You probably want to get refreshments for our guest.”

 

“Oh. Right. Okay.” She turned back to Sakura. “What would you like? We’ve got anything you want. Tea. Coffee. You’re too young fpr alcohol. Aren’t you? What are Japanese drinking laws like? Do we even respect them here? I’m sure there’s some Sake somewhere. Or pop? Milkshake?”

 

This woman was a good foot and a half taller than her and yet probably weighed less than her. Sakura hated her.

 

“Just water please.”

 

“You sure just water?” Sharon asked. “We have plenty of other drinks.”

 

“No thank you,” replied Sakura, as the older woman rushed round the small cramped staff room, now even more packed with the angel and demon there. I’m not actually that thirsty.”

 

It was true, and Sakura was mildly questioning how she could not at this point be hungry, thirsty or tired despite all her running and travelling. Other than the endless walk up the stairs of Heavenly Springs, which everyone else in the world seemed to perform effortlessly whilst she toiled under the labour of her own body, she hardly got any exercise.

 

“We got juice, coke, lemonade, beers, though you’re not having them. Oh, we do have a selection of teas, including green.” Sharon displayed the green tea box as if Sakura should instantly lunge for it like a dog would a biscuit. Sakura glared at her in a way the woman wouldn’t notice.

 

“I’m fine with just water please.”

 

Sharon shrugged her shoulders and continued serving dutifully as Topah crashed into the chair in front of her.

 

“So, Sakura, you’re not new to the InBetween realm I take it?”

 

“No,” she replied. “I- I came here before.” Topah was staring right at her. It made her warm but nervous. “I don’t know how I got here, but I was in a library. It was very big. And I met one of the assistants.”

 

“Ah, so you were wrapped up in that whole thing with the explosions and the Riddleklutz being taken out by the False slash Human Balance.”

 

Sakura didn’t recognise the names. “I think so.”

 

“That took us a while to figure out. Got there few hours afterwards to find one witness and a big hole where one of the courtrooms was. The witness didn’t know anything other than some humans being involved. Once we recovered the Riddleklutz, we found out it was the Futabatei. But even then, the Riddleklutz was scraping at technicalities just to get the whole thing going.” Topah seemed to find this mildly funny. Sharon came forth with the glass of water. She also provided a plate with two chocolate biscuits on it. Sakura glowered at them for a second, knowing they would never touch the woman’s stomach.

 

“So I guess this means you know the Sagara boy then?” inquired Topah.

 

“Yes, he – he lives in the same… building with me.”

 

“Gasp!” Mr. Worry pronounced loudly. “She confesses. With her words and her syllable, she informs us of her association. Truly you are a master of trickery, Topah. For you have made the spy confess. Out with her eyes and tongue now, before she sees her way to telling the enemy everything.”

 

Topah raised a hand, and it seemed to silence the demon. Sakura glared at the finely dressed gee man and wondered what he was doing there with Topah.

 

“Is it true he’s a complete douche?” Topah asked.

 

The question came out of nowhere so fast, that Sakura took a moment to realise who he was actually referring to. She shook her head urgently. “No, no. Not really. Well, a little.” She giggled. “A lot. He can act really weird, but he gives the impression that he knows what he’s doing. Though he never tells me.” The crumpled body of Alexis appeared in her mind, a hole in his heart, vacant eyes leaving no tales.

 

“Really?” Topah said looking disinterested. “All I ever hear about their Balance is that they have no idea what they’re doing and how much they’re ruining out Lord’s work. Of course, they don’t tell me much nowadays.”

 

“Why not?” Sakura asked without thinking.

 

“Because I will always answer any question asked of me honestly, like now for example. It gets to be a bit of an issue, especially when I’m guarding the Prophet archives and Recollection’s department. Sorry ‘managing’ them.” He used quote marks for the last term.

 

“Do not use the term with disgust, Guardian Angel Topah. The new business model required changes to the workforce. And you were directed, based on your organisational skills, to work alongside me in the True Balance for maintaining the Witness records, the Department of Recollected Memories and the Library that contains The Ultimate Truths. Furthermore-” He froze, and then slowly and deliberately turned his head towards Sakura. “What a diabolical genius you are. You sicken me. With just a few meaningless words of blabber you have already gotten me to reveal delicate information.” He slammed his hand on the table, causing Topah to grab his suit and pull the demon out of her face. “Well, you won’t glean any more information from me with your clever word games. I shall retire now, and the blond woman will make sure Topah reveals no more than he has to.”

 

“Yes, yes, of course,” replied Sharon, rolling her eyes and tossing a quick smirk at Sakura, who returned it with malice.

 

The demon left with a slam of the doors. “I have to get those other two as well. Our assistant should have reached them by now.”

 

“He is right,” Topah said after it got quiet, thundering slams turning into meek footsteps. “I really shouldn’t tell you anything.”

 

“About what?”

 

“About how we are members of the True Balance and we are the ones that aim to bring stability to your world.”

 

“Is that why you’re with a demon?”

 

“Yes. It was decided with the formation of the True Balance three thousand years ago that in order for it to work, each angel should be paired with a demon that both compliments their talents and cancels each other’s main sin or virtue. It was with this rudimentary understanding that we could hope to bring about the Balance our Lords were yearning for the humans to achieve by themselves.”

 

“Wait, you mean. You mean-” she wasn’t sure how best to say it. “You mean Him, right?”

 

“The Lord, correct?”

 

“And by his Lord you mean – “

 

“Satan, yes.” Sakura went numb, not knowing what to feel. Happiness or despair. Horror or Glory.

 

“But…. Why would they work together?”

 

“That happens because-” Sharon rested her hand on Topah’s shoulder. Topah seemed to struggle. “I-‘m not allowed to say. That is one of the Truths you have to find by yourself.”

 

“Truths?”

 

“Ah, so you’re not here for the Truths hidden within the library. I would have thought one with your soul would have been eager to find them.”

 

“Well I-” She paused. Part of her was under the urge to make up a story of denying such a search. The other part knew lying to the angel was both wrong and impossible. While the two were arguing she accidentally told the truth.

 

“I found the answers I was looking for on the way here, though they didn’t tell me all I could know. But I am with someone who’s trying to find the answers. Father Sakagami. He’s the priest at my church and-“

 

“A good man, despite his college days,” interrupted Topah. Yes, I was aware of him. You’ve also brought along a sceptic. That’ll make things interesting.”

 

“Oh things got interesting a real long time ago,” said Nobori, as he leaned in under the door.

 

“No! I am to announce you. You found them too quick, assistant!”

 

“Sorry, Mr. Worry,” a voice said from behind the massive frame of the security guard.

 

“Gah. Good help is hard to damn. Anyway. Presenting the following guests of our domain. A Mister Nobori Hatsumi. A Father Goryu Sakagami.” Father Sakagami stepped round the big bruiser that had accompanied them ad waved meekly to her just as her body froze up. In that moment, her tongue became ice. Her throat dry. She heard birds singing, but then were tinny and purple spots shot into her sight as he walked into view.

 

“And of course, making his grand return, Alexis Huntingdon.”

 

***

“Careful, he’s from that memory machine.”

 

“Oh that won’t matter. See? No memory rush. Hello there, you.”

 

Meow

 

“Doesn’t it work on angels?”

 

“I’m not an angel silly. I’m just a soul. But no. No, it would still work on me like you, if I was still in that room. The room’s designed to magnify the impact, so it hits you quickly. When the items are outside the room like this, the memories trickle through much slower, like you were trying to remember the name of that guy you used to go to school with, you know the one? Eventually you’ll get the full memory, but half the time you’ll find yourself acting as if it truly were your memory.”

 

Sakura whimpered. No one noticed.

 

“Ain’t that right, Sadface Mackenzie? Momma didn’t like me calling you that. Said it was stupid. Geez, I’m already doing it.”

 

“Egad!” a voice shouted right next to her ear, springing her awake. “She eavesdrops whilst she pretends to sleep. The Villain!” Around her, light bombarded her eyes. Faces spun round their necks like mandala bells. To her right, Father Sakagami spat out words which dribbled through her nose and smelt of sweet buns. She yawned, rubbing her head. Only the angel was provided perfect clarity, the demon blurred into dust beside her.

 

“Eh, she’ll be fine,” Topah said “You can’t get hurt collapsing onto an angel. It’s just one of those things.

 

Father Sakagami’s face exploded in front of her, clearing up her sight by the second blink. “Are you all right, Sakura? You had one of your spells by the look of things.”

 

“I thought-” She looked around, but his vision was still clearing up. “I thought I saw him.”

 

“Just take a few moments. Get your senses back.” She wanted to protest, but her head rushed over her. Everyone disappeared from her sight again, the angel included.

 

“Going back to that,” Father Sakagami continued. “I’m sorry but I just can’t believe I can bring myself to see you as an angel. You’re nothing like what I imagined.”

 

“There are some like you imagined, but you got to realise a lot of this is perspective.”

 

“Perspective, you mean I’m seeing you differently.”

 

“I would say it’s more how I am presented. Us here, and you a little by being here, we’re pretty conceptual. Material foundations are unnecessary for us unless we want to visit any parts of the material universe where you usually hang out.”

 

“You say you’re conceptual. You mean you don’t exist.”

 

“Well we exist better than you do with only your thoughts, emotions and excessive amounts of carbon. A better way to put it would be that our existence in your perspective is subject to interpretation. You look at my self and see a naked adonis. You sense my presence and are subjected to a conversation with yourself about the nature of spiritual beings.”

 

A jabbering voice butted in. “You’re doing it again, allowing them to trick you. Oooohhhh, your virtue makes you the worse for this job.”

 

“No but it’s not that,” Sakura reopened her eyes. Father Sakagami was sitting on the edge of the table they had rested her on, squeezing his eyes under his glasses. “It’s your attitude. What you’re saying. It’s like your some, I don’t know, modern day retelling of an angel from a comic book.”

 

“Ouch. Someone wants an easy pigeon hole.”

 

Sakura looked over to Topah at this. The woman was on his lap. They were making no effort to look dignified about their slouching position. Sakura couldn’t help but admit they looked really comfortable like that.

 

“E-excuse me.”

 

“Would there be a problem with that? You like to think yourself a modern day priest, do you not?”

 

“But it’s not the same. I grew up in a modern culture where all my friends around me had either already given up on God, never believed in the first place or were going back to it in the crisis of puberty. I adapted my attitude so I wouldn’t just bore people with my actions. But you… your culture was thousand- millions of years ago.”

 

“Maybe my culture back then was like it is now.”

 

“What? No, it couldn’t be.”

 

“And yet, I have always been like this. Well, Sharon’s new. She only became a part of me a few years back”

 

“S-sorry if I can just interrupt.”

 

“It is the woman that is part of the problem,” Father Sakagami spat. “A representative of the kingdom of Heaven should not engage in such decedent acts so openly. Not at all. I can only imagine-“

 

“Dude,” a deep voice cut in. “Are you seriously telling an angel he’s not being holy enough?”

 

“I-” Father Sakagami hesitated. “I don’t know.” He fell back against the chair, his hand reaching for his steaming coffee out of reflex. “Am I being such a fool? I expected some surprises, what with so many interpretations, I knew they all had to be a little wrong somewhere.”

 

“Or all totally wrong.”

 

“What? How can you say that? Whatever attitude this one might take there can be no denying he is a messenger of our Lord. Just being in his presence is enough to overwhelm my senses and know- know that my efforts weren’t in vain.”

 

“So the guy has large wings. That guy has a green face in case you haven’t notice.”

 

“Gasp, it’s true,” the jabbering voice replied. “How did he know?”

 

“Someone mind telling me why an angel and demon are being so paly-paly?”

 

“No. I explained it to your friend earlier. I hate repeating myself.”

 

“Hey, these guys ain’t my friends,” Nobori insisted, yanking Father Sakagami back by his shoulder and nearly throwing him off his seat with office in tow. “They just dragged me along for their little gay ride here. I ain’t denying this isn’t interesting, but I’m still not with them.”

 

“Well. Whatever. Get her to tell you later.”

 

For a few seconds, silence filled the room, only the demon was muttering to himself.

 

“S-sorry, but can I just ask-“

 

“What are you here for anyway?”

 

“Wha- why to learn from you of course.”

 

“Oh, of course.”

 

“I have dedicated my life to the way of the cloth. To find the answers left by Him whose form we were created from.”

 

“And I guess you wanna learn the truth behind his gospel. Learn the word of His from those who he speaketh it to. To finally cure the ills of the land that have been brought on by centuries of feuding over what one person heard he said compared to what the other guy heard a few moments afterwards.”

 

“Erm… yes.”

 

“And then afterwards, you plan to return to your country and reveal the secrets you have heard. And after travelling those few hours and walking that distance and waiting those few weeks to finally get an audience with someone who will listen, you plan to tell the version of the truth that you heard, have it heard by others who may or may not believe your word, who will tell it to others and so forth, and perhaps even get a book deal published where people can argue about the book of Sakagami for the next hundred years, creating even more animosity and war throughout your people, even if just by that little bit more because you’re Japanese and three quarters of the human population aren’t even fully aware that you have Catholics in your country?”

 

“Y-yes,” Sakagami replied after a long period of ‘errr’ing. “Will that be alright?”

 

Topah lifted up his glass of milk and took a swig, wiping the white moustache it created and then licking the same thumb. “Yeah sure. You wanna start now?”

 

Father Sakagami’s face lit up with excitement, and he bounded off his chair only to fall to one knee. “Thank you, thank you, oh divine one, for this honour you have presented to me. To us. We will not squander your lesson and I pray, no I know that whatever teaching you pass upon us will be for the betterment of all of humanity.”

 

“Ahuh,” Topah replied apathetically. “Get this filled out.” The angel pulled a sheet out from the drawer and slid it across the table to just in front of Father Sakagami’s eyes. Sakura couldn’t see what was written on it, but the furrowed brow was unmistakable.

 

“A…A non-disclosure agreement?”

 

“Formality of being part of the True Balance. We can’t pass on any information to you unless you agree you will not hold us accountable for any of your actions after you receive it.”

 

“But… but surely-“

 

“It’s just to prevent you murdering in the name of their Lord and stuff like that, you see,” Mr. Worry replied, rubbing his hands very purposefully in front of Father Sakagami’s face. The priest looked from the angel to the demon and just nodded his head. “And there’s no need to be concerned. Our side doesn’t asked for anything and we’re perfectly fine if you wish to kill in our name, just so long as you dedicate your murder to the appropriate demon lords first.”

 

“Just a formality right?” Father Sakagami muttered, after trying his best to ignore the demon. Taking a long moment to scan through the whole document, he signed it quickly, before passing it over to Sakura.

 

“I- er…” she stuttered.

 

“We all have to sign it, I’m guessing?” Father Sakagami asked. The angel nodded and looked back to her. “Don’t worry. There’s nothing mentioned in there about your soul or anything.” The man laughed it off naturally, but Sakura didn’t care. This wasn’t the issue right now. The issue was-

 

“Here, I guess I better sign it too.” The security guard plucked the paperwork from her grasping fingers and went over the document, only planting it back on the table when it was time to sign. He held it over to her and she took it tentatively. The words on the paper were blurred, full of splotches. She sniffed heavily. They all took notice of her finally.

 

“Are you alright?” Father Sakagami asked. “It’s your choice to sign it. You don’t have to feel pressurised about it. Just take all the time-“

 

“I don’t care about this!” she shouted, smacking the sheet away, tears having enough of holding back and just pouring out before them all. “I don’t care about any of this. He was right there in front of me. Just after I finally accepted he was gone, you put him right in front of me. And now- now you’re blabbering about learning the truth and not letting me speak and now I’m getting all silly again and I don’t know if I just imagined him or not because how could he be here when he’s dead even though he’s not here and no one’s talking about him and won’t tell me what’s going on!”

 

The group just stared to her. Both the angel and demon had smiles on their faces. Father Sakagami looked terrified, peeled back almost against the wall, his face like damnation itself had appeared right outside his door.

 

“Sakura. What are you talking about?”

 

She didn’t care. “Where is he? Where’s Alexis?”

 

“I’m right here.”

 

What happened to her next, Sakura couldn’t explain. The hottest fires could never explain the flush she felt. The iciest chill of the entire universe could not compare to her body freezing in shock. Flowers could not grow in the world that went dead around her but if they did they would be the prettiest lilacs and tulips she had ever seen. And they all surrounded him.

 

Alexis. Standing by the door frame.

 

“Hey Isabella.”

 

She was up and in his arms before the world became alive again. His lips were brushing hers before she even felt his warmth. Her first kiss. Not knowing what she was doing didn’t matter as their lips locked with tongues crossing. Wrapping his presence round her, she bathed in it, trapping him with her arms.

 

****

 

Sagara 11:

 

She had forgotten she was tired. Even on the tram ride back, they had talked and talked and laughed so hard that the numb feeling in her feet had been filed away with unnecessary complaints. Even Sarah had been willing to join in and didn’t put her down whenever a single word was uttered. It wasn’t until the steps had appeared that she realised she was in need of a good rest, and she was pretty sure that was a blister underneath the balloon in her sock.

 

It had been a good day. She was glad she had it. Even if she still couldn’t explain why Sagara had even dragged them out there in the first place. The angel hunting alone couldn’t just be it. There had to be a deeper meaning out there.

 

Wait. No, couldn’t be. This was Sagara after all. She smirked. It was becoming her explanation for everything. It fitted so nicely and filled any gaps that she had. If you couldn’t explain something; blame Sagara. Blame it as Sagara, the simple fact of Sagara’s existence is blame enough to put the whole blame upon, whatever the act is.

 

It fitted nicely.

 

She reached the frame of her door, still chuckling to herself. Unhooking Iziz from her back she put it on the stand so she could head back to the lounge with the others. It seemed the plan was to play games and Sarah was even willing to get one of her consoles out. It had been a while since they played and it was the only battleground where they were really equal in anything, not that she should be comparing herself to a ten year-

 

“Natoko!”

 

The warning only served to set her up for the blow to her nose. An iron bar struck her in the shape of a fist and the ground hit her hard long before she went to reach for the wall. Hearing a clang somewhere she knew her sword was out of reach and quickly scrambled to reach it. She got as far as laying on her front before her world spun down. Feeling something crack at her ribs with about twenty two stone of pressure, her head was nearly ripped out of her scalp as the body above her immobilsed her.

 

“Why didn’t you show up today?”

 

A thousand excuses came to mind. She found most of them were lies or cheap rationalisations. She was sick. She was called away. Old people attacked the dorm again and she had to fend them off. She was trying to talk Sagara into coming. Sagara woke up after several months of sleeping and took her to the mountains so they could watch Angels fight demons. None of them would work, and none of them she wanted to say. As her body got cold in the rush she said nothing.

“So you jump when I want you to jump. You beg when I ask for your paw. If I tell you to rip your damn yukata off and stick your ugly ass out you damn well get ready for me. Are you getting this?”

 

Natoko kept still for a second. She could see Iziz now. Far too far away. She tensed up in all areas.

 

“When I get close to the end of my mission it is not time for you to have independent thought. This is too important for that.”

 

Tugging at her hair to make a painful point, he relaxed his grip slowly, and then said, with a tender voice. “Please. This is important. I understand your fear. Your stupidity. But that is unnecessary. There is no need for you to think. Just follow my voice. Obey my words.”

 

Natoko let this wash over her, and relaxed, feeling him go limp above her. He was being kind about it. She knew he could do a lot worse than this. He was capable, and could kill her with ease.

 

Cut it down.

 

But seriously, what a retard.

 

Slamming her palms into the ground, she got enough leverage to push him up and scramble out. The door was behind her but the more obvious target was ahead. Hearing him clamber back up she got a step closer to Iziz before being flung sideway five more steps and into the dressing table. Various bottles crashed around her, one hitting her forehead, the rest falling to the ground.

 

“Do you need something precious taking away from you to prove a point here, Natoko? It means nothing to me, but you’re a girl. Even a violent rebellious mutt like you would have some issues losing it like that.”

 

Ignore him. Ignore him! She struggled beneath his weight, knocking empty plastic bottles as her hands patted the ground around her and tried to toss things at him. Why didn’t she have more perfumes? That attitude would go away with lavender in his eyes.

 

Shunting her right knee up, she got lucky and heard him groan. In her haste she got up and made the same mistake again, feeling a clammy grip round her ankle that brought her straight down. Something struck her spine and she spasmed, falling forwards onto something.

 

“We don’t need this now. The King of the city waits. If we don’t take his throne it’ll be a lot worse than this. More will burn.”

 

“More?”

 

“Who do you think is responsible for all the incinerations around town? I did the research. Each person burned was someone afflicted with an underground fight network. That’s why they want your friend. He’s involved too.”

 

“Sagara? How can he be involved?” She was pinned down, so she kept him talking, even though she knew the answers.

 

“I’ve been watching him for the past month as well. Don’t you find it odd, the way he’s always sleeping.”

 

“Not really.”

 

“Don’t lie. I’ve seen you trying to wake him. The reason you can’t is because he’s under sedation. He’s always under. Every time I’ve seen him so far. You want to know the reason why? It’s the same as that doctor’s nurses. They’re in trances, drugged!”

 

For a second Natoko actually stopped trying to think of ways out. Sagara on drugs. She couldn’t help but laugh.

 

“Don’t believe me? The doctor was in possession of a container that turned him into something like looked like a monster. His nurses were practically zombies. Alive, but out of touch. Practically asleep. Your friend was exactly the same. My sources tell me he was involved in an underground fight ring a few months back. So was the girl named Itoko, the one burned in the alley. A bet was placed on the tournament. The winner would get the biggest cut in the drug trade.”

 

“But the King of the city interfered. Set the place on fire. Heard he killed all of them, but only the ringleaders. A lot of the participants survived. So now he’s killing them too. Already got rid of most of them. The only reason your friend’s survived so long is because he’s been too whacked out and laying around here the whole time.”

 

Natoko stopped struggling. Kiriyama sounded so sure of himself. It was great to know he was totally wrong.

 

“The drug is an unknown to me. The samples I got came back as an unknown substance that couldn’t be traced to any known drug or even natural element. Not only is it something new and probably untested, but it’s a powerful hallucinogenic, and seems capable of causing distorted biological mutagenics. That’s why that doctor and the scum working in the factory acted like that, and why your friend is doing the same. He’ll change too soon. If you want to help him, you’ll help me.”

 

Something cupped in her hands. It had fallen down. She gripped hold of it. Kiriyama didn’t seem to mind.

 

“Do you understand now? What I’m doing will help you? I didn’t have all the information yet, but I got it thanks to all your efforts. You did a good job, Natoko. But if you won’t follow through with me, I won’t consider myself responsible for what happens next.”

 

She pulled it towards her, tried to draw it out with one hand.

 

“The king is spreading a powerful drug. What’s more it’s in mass production and being used on the unwilling like your friend. Many will be hurt and killed by this.”

 

“And you plan to stop it?” she said, looking at the ground ahead of her.

 

“Stop?” Suddenly, he sounded surprised but happy. “Oh no. But definitely control. It is a powerful drug. The smallest drop I tried put me into a stupor that took me twenty four hours of lust induced rage to recover from. That’s how I know it’s valuable. All we have to do is water it down so it’s much safer and then we can sell it on.”

 

“You plan on spreading it yourself?”

 

“Yes, but don’t misunderstand. This is better for the people.”

 

“Better? How?”

 

“You should understand simply by looking at our class. Seven of them regularly take drugs, and there are many more in our school. Most of them smoke and all of them have tried alcohol at least once. People need to rebel against the system, Natoko. They need to believe they’re taking an edge, and yet right here we have something that can give them that edge but with no real danger.”

 

Natoko was silent at this.

 

“I know it sounds stupid, but the drug is effective even with just a tiny bit. Watered down greatly and it will give people the edge they need. And make it cheaper to distribute. It will give you a kick, and leave you coming back for more a long, healthy time afterwards. It makes it much safer than other drugs, and it’ll all be under me.”

 

“So in the end this is all just about money.” In the darkness, she cupped it tightly in her palm and wiggled futilely as he trapped her hand.

 

“Oh no, didn’t I say? This is all about rebellion, and that’s what you are as well, aren’t you. You rebel. Against your teacher, against your instructor, against your parents. You’re the scary, ugly delinquent girl everyone’s afraid to talk to. The main reason i spoke to you was to look compassionate to others. No one at school likes you. They fear you. Even Aki. Yet they all respect the feeling of rebellion you bring.”

 

“You’re right,” she said, understanding him perfectly now.

 

“You do? Good.”

 

“I do rebel.”

 

She swung round, using the space he gave her to twist her hips a full one-eighty. She felt muscle refuse to go and grabbed on his leg for support, pulling as she went to bring it down, lifting herself up and over. Grabbing the collar of his shirt she took his collarbone as a bonus, grinding him down and straddling his chest as her head collided hard with his. He was swinging a punch at her before she could even push his shoulder all the way down. She took it and tasted blood in her mouth, with barely enough time to sample before it came back for more. Opening her mouth she grunted as she trapped skin in her mouth, chewing hard and hearing him cry out. He flapped his other arm loosely at her and she lifted round, bringing it with as she finally got on top, and slammed the mask into his face.

 

Immediately he stopped, his arms falling limp. His body totally relaxed as he fell down completely cut. She held it there firmly, only releasing it a second later when she was afraid he had run out of breath. It was the mask, she knew it was before she had grabbed it but she hadn’t expected it to work. Aki had said she had gone comatose with it on but it didn’t for Aki.

 

Looks like it only affected certain people. That was a shame. Waiting for at least a minute, she lifted the mask up slowly, wanting to know what he looked like.

 

He struck out quick, knocking her straight off, her head slammed into the wood and she felt it spin below her. Lifting up, she spun round to face him, already stepping towards her blade before she even looked to see an empty room before her, the mask cracked down the middle where he had thrown it.

 

Not there anymore. He was long gone.

 

She fell onto the futon still there from this morning and sighed, quickly leaning back to secure Iziz and then going forwards to retrieve the mask. It broke apart in her hands and dropped one half to the floor where it broke again. Spending the next few minutes whining to herself, she tried futilely to reassemble it by holding the pieces back together and hoping really hard.

 

In the silent darkness, she nursed her wounds and thought it over. Now that she let herself think, it really made it make sense.

 

And would that mean it was true. Kiriyama wasn’t right about everything. Unless she really was drugged all the time. But if the demons were all trying to get hold of this drug that made them stronger…

 

That fire spirit. It was the king, and it was removing all the competition to get hold of the drug. It must need it along with its brothers. She suspected as much. But then something wasn’t quite right there either.

 

The note.

 

Something was wrong with the note.

 

Annoyance. Otsune would get this easily.

 

****

 

It got up with a wheezing cough muffled underneath its rags. Lifting up, it sat forwards to perceive the scene around it. Nothing. They had left, leaving it alone with its

 

No, it had forgotten. Forogotten everything that was once of purpose. All it did now was help it find them faster.

 

Its body ached, and… something swam through its body as it stared at the common chalk street. It went to get up, lifting its… its thing. It felt pain, and was leaking.

 

Something had fell off it. It looked important. It was holding something else in, something that had already gushed out and splattered the chalk a different something than was there before. A lot of it had already fallen out. That was right. The thing had pulled it off. Took it away. It couldn’t remember why.

 

The other thing was trying to stop it from getting to Tsunade Otsune, the nineteen year old student and Fujiko, the twenty years old unemployed. It couldn’t remember why. Perhaps it did not like something. The thing screamed with pain. It remembered this. Pain. This came when it was doing something wrong. Something that would prevent it from doing the wrong thing any more. Because doing the wrong thing would make it stop eventually. Stop everything. Pain, that was it. That’s what it was called that made it scream. It was having a hard time remembering things. Things that should have been obvious. Even the things that…did something, it couldn’t remember. They were unimportant anyway. Maybe that’s why it knew what it had to do. Maybe it would get them back that way.

 

Picking up the two things it had left behind, both of which were hard to carry since it was missing something, it stood up all the way and did something to the surrounding area. Nothing was there, save the chalk, save the passing darkness, which meant it was getting further into something.

 

Something was in the distance. Something that was something, in some way. It needed to go there. That’s where Tsunade Otsune, nineteen years old gap year forensic science student and transcendist and Fujiko, twenty years old, holder of the relatively successful website www.hereithear.com, had gone, carried off by the something thing.

 

It followed, not moving as…something as before. Something was making it not go something.

 

But it didn’t matter. It needed to tell them. It needed to give the answer to the ones who had asked the question, to tell Tsunade Otsune, nineteen years old future balance judge and Fujiko, twenty years old and won’t live a year longer, the answer they had sought.

 

“Tina Gottfeld.”

 

***

 

Otsune thought she was awake. Her eyelids were open, but her body wasn’t moving a inch as it snored peacefully to itself. Yahweh was sitting by her side. He was not shutting up yet.

 

“To follow my road is to take the path of ease. To stand on the road that everyone else knows, that anyone can travel down upon at will. And following it is easy. The road is straight. It is wide. It lets on all those with heart. To get on it is easy. To stay on it is easy. Simply close your mind, live on your heart, and repeat my lies.

 

“And as you travel, feel free to leave the path, if only for a while, wander off and indulge yourselves in decadence, in betrayal, in lies and in murder. Take these for these are also mine. I created them as gifts for you, as temptations for you to fail to and ways in which you may feel sorrow, guilt and frustration, so that you may hate yourself and love me more, and then step on my path once again and travel in the illusion of forgiveness. You do not matter to me, my child. I seek only followers and the way in which you choose to travel to me is meaningless. I am merciless, but I am also very forgiving.

 

“And as you travel on my path, please make sure to entice others as well. They may not know of my path, or they may class it as the wrong path, or even, I forbid, a stupid path where only ignorant morons desperate to make up for their failures in life and fearful of the death at the end of my path… er, sorry. Ignore that bit.

 

“They may call me a falsehood, an illusion of the mind. That may argue that yes, several billion people can be wrong, quite easily if they’re all stupid. They may even state foolishness, stating the obvious implausibility of someone who asks you to follow their path out of sheer faith and a complete lack of evidence when the science simply asks you to conduct rational reasoning and follow clear, sound facts based on conclusive testing that replicates precise results. These people are fools, and you must make them aware of this. How, you ask? My child, I shall tell you.

 

“Repetition! It s the only thing we both believe in at the same time, and their only weakness. Only by repeating as they do in they’re experiments over and over again, may we show that our…my path is the correct one and the one they must tread upon. We cannot force. Force would be wrong. But we can insist, and persist and insist again and invade and fight and wound and kill until they agree with us. This is not so hard.

 

“And should we fail to get them on my path; it does not matter, for they are the ignorant ones that rely on fact and reason and abandon prophecy and ancient, ineffectual teachings. If it is too late for them, call them sinner and condemn them in your mind. They will never ride my path.

 

“Unless they change their minds, of course.

 

“And if we should fail to grab them in my clutches, there are always the children. Children will listen, will not know any better. They are born with sin and must be placed on my path as soon as possible. Then it is easy to make them realise mine is the correct path and the path they should follow to the end. They are less likely to fall off then, not that it matters of course.

 

“Do you understand this, my child? You who had fallen so very far from my path, but have now been dragged kicking and screaming, while you walked along willing, until your bare foot rested, blistered and bruised, on the muddy tarmac that is my high definition version of freedom.

 

“Do you understand that now, you are beyond all the past roamers of my path, for you have landed on it with reasons they have not. Reason. Fact. You know now my path is the correct one. The only one. You had denied it and sought to disprove it, but now know it to be true, leaving you no choice but to step upon it, to walk amongst its greenery. To bask in my presence and hear my word. Doth Thoust Understandth!?”

 

“Yes, my lord?”

 

No!

 

Otsune woke with a gasp that punched from her abdominal muscles, through her stomach, right into the intestines bypassing the liver out of pity, knocking both the lungs asunder and taking the heart for a ride right out her mouth. Then she sneezed.

 

Her nose was cold.

 

That was different from the usual series of catatonic hallucinations. She wished sometimes she never remembered her dreams. She could never seem to forget after the experiments in lucid dreaming she had done as part of the science club’s psychology experiments back in middle school. Ah things were nice then, children took science seriously, not like university students.

 

What would the interpretation of that dream be? Everything was kind of obvious, and after a few moments of groggy dreariness felt like it was trying to find the killer after Hercule had just spent half an hour explaining everything perfectly. Then she remembered she had just been blown up.

 

Her eyes, which were probably closed, shot open and were greeted with blurriness. Her glasses were missing, and she fumbled around until her hands fell upon something wooden at the side of the bed, her glasses on top. Soft sheets trapped her. She realised she had been missing them.

 

The room came into view as her vision slipped back to 20/14, the right lens still broken. Effects on her health were to be expected. She snapped to attention. The room was made out of 19th century British Victorian architecture. The type that screamed that the owner was downstairs now drinking earl grey tea or expensive brandy in a high smoking chair whilst thinking ‘boy I sure do own a lot of money to live a mansion like this, and I’m living in the past as a homage to my own delusions and inability to adapt. I’ll think I’ll go make Jeeves dress up as a girl again and dance for me. We both like that.”

 

She sneezed lightly again. Her brain was running away from her. Her eyes trailed around the room, taking in chiselled mahogany roofs and large oak cupboards perfect for hiding the skeletons of the entire family and all their problems too. Next to her in bed was Fujiko.

 

She looked down at her friend, sleeping quietly and freaked out a little. She was sure Fujiko snored, but had a hard time remembering at this point. More importantly the girl looked fine. Her breathing was calm and here were no obvious injuries or medical equipment attached to her forearms.

 

Looking away, she saw she herself was dressed, though loosely. Her bra and underwear were the only thing keeping her decent, which of course meant either the person who had undressed them decided to go all the way with Fujiko and then stopped at her for reasons she couldn’t bring herself to go into, or that simply Fujiko hadn’t worn any.

 

Maybe they had gotten ripped off in the explosion.

 

“Heh, what am I thinking…”

 

The remainder of her clothes were by a chair, washed, pressed and folded neatly; the sack besides them. The room was dark and without a light bulb, meaning no electricity, meaning wherever they were it didn’t have electricity to waste, or even have any, meaning the clothes were done by hand. The temperature felt the same as ever, even indoors, so drying wouldn’t have gone too fast without wind. Overall they must have been out at least five hours for her clothes to be this clean, with at least two more hours travelling time to wherever they were, since there was no Victorian dwellings anywhere in the distance before.

 

As soon as she got her top on, smelling a sweet whiff of fresh strawberries and soap pass over her nostrils (indicating that even without electricity, the people who were here had the tech level to make scented washing up liquid), Otsune peeked out through the furry green curtains protecting her from the knowledge of the outside world.

 

Then she looked back inside again.

 

And then once more out.

 

Sill there. Damn.

 

It was a village. More dutch than English, and definitely no where near Japanese. Cobblestones filled her sight in all roads and directions, an abundance of flowers grew in every available orifice between house and road, with a lot more hanging out of windows, including her own. A green painted water pump, bilge style, sat in the center shaped like a square, while benches littered the perimeter and sat people who’s faces she couldn’t see from here.

 

Though they could have been a billion houses behind her here(and there really could, knowing how things were going), it looked like a small city, about a hundred houses, and a huge church with a spire that you could only see in places where they were built at least a hundred years ago.

c

So they were here. Process of elimination told her this was the first city they had seen in the Strangelands and therefore must be the only city and therefore the City of Gates. It had better be.

 

The bilge pump was confusing. Chalk could retain water, but it made it murky and disgusting to drink. Whatever the pump was for, she couldn’t imagine it working properly, unless they had just gotten used to drinking such crap. Perhaps they were no longer in the Strangelands! That was a nice possibility. She turned away to take the whole stupid thing off her thoughts and was met up with the flame spirit hovering a few inches in front of her, as stationary as a dog waiting to be praised and bobbing up and down in excitement.

 

“Hello,” she said wearily, pretending to throw it a snack which it sped to catch the same way dogs would when you’d pretend to throw them a treat only a lot more dangerous when doing it to some kind of living flame.

 

“Hello,” a voice replied.

 

“Arrgghh,” Otsune replied right back. The newcomer responded straight back with more frantic screaming, and it wasn’t until Fujiko shot up from her sleep that they both stopped.

 

“I-I do apologise for alarming you, ‘mam. I suppose I did not believe you would be up yet”

 

“That’s okay,” Otsune said, her heart disagreeing with her as she took the maid into account. “My nerves are shot, and I’ve got nothing to shoot back with. Everything feels tense too. I’ve got a pain in my shoulder blade that reminds me of an injury I had when jogging one morning, but it seems…

 

Otsune looked at the forty something Hispanic maid with a feeling that perhaps she answered a bit too much there. “I’m fine thank you,” she restarted. “Erm, who are you? Ah, I’m Tsunade Otsune.”

 

She regretted that straight away. It wasn’t like they were going to be selling her something, but she didn’t know this woman at all. She shouldn’t tell her anything.

 

“I’m Rose, thank you” she said, with a polite courtesy. “I’m the part time maid for this hotel. Bear with me and I shall inform the one in charge what to do with you.” The woman disappeared quickly, leaving Otsune in silence again, save for Fujiko’s light breathing, which had already taken the girl back to sleep. Examining the room some more, she had just stopped to consider the windows and why she wasn’t jumping out of them when the maid came back with someone.

 

“Hello,” a man said sternly as he entered right behind her, his one day hair and briskly stubble somehow shining in the darkness. “Well this isn’t normal then. I trust you survived somehow.”

 

“Survive?-“ she began but then remembered everything. “Oh yeah, yes. I think so. It’s getting hard to tell.”

 

“Yeah well perhaps you should appreciate life more. Getting thrown in the City of Gates by a Guspel . You should be lucky there was intervention.”

 

“Ah…yes…thank you,” Otsune managed, realising that however much of a twat he was this person still helped them. “Thank you for saving us” she reminded herself to bow.

 

“Oh no, I wouldn’t waste time with your people. Nothing to gain there. Yeah, it was your other friend who brought you in. Paid in double for everything. Nice person though. Was it a girl? Hard to tell.

 

“A girl?” Otsune’s mind raced back to the fight. Yes, there had been intervention, though not from someone they knew.

 

It couldn’t be. At least, not without a large amount of leeway. Even if she were to take into account the possibility of either going through the exact same door they did, or there being another door somewhere in another part that led to a similar area, there was little chance the two parties would just bump into each other in the middle of a fire fight. And though she hadn’t seen any doors save the first three since she got here, she was now in a city and there were bound to be doors a plenty. Maybe one of them led out.

 

Musing on this she shook Fujiko awake, finding herself embarrassed and hiding in the corner as pulling the covers away meant realising Fujiko had made herself naked under them. Fujiko merely yawned and redressed herself, before Rose returned and whisked them out of the room.

 

The architecture outside was old and still Victorian. The inside was older, impossibly so, but still regal enough for the right sort of tastes. Elegant antique tables littered the walls of each corridor and was almost always accompanied by a grand painting trapped within an ornate golden frame depicting many things from portraits to war to fruit. Otsune took it all in as they travelled down the stairs (impressively spiral but only by three floors), realising as Rose led them outside they weren’t meeting their mysterious benefactor inside the building.

 

“It’s them.”

 

The visitors.”

 

“Oooh, I’m so excited.”

 

Barely had they gotten four steps out onto the cobblestones before they were surrounded by a fleet of goggling humans, each and every one of them wearing a small cardboard beak mask. Ignoring the possibility of segregated cardboard in a village still using a bilge pump, Otsune found herself greeting various old ladies and little children who squabbled and gawked around them like a farmer with a bag of fresh feed.

 

They queried her incessantly on who she was and where she had come from and wanted to know who had been fighting them just over the hill from where the gates were and how they had managed to drive him off. She couldn’t answer any of them on account of how many questions were being thrown at her.

 

They are all foreign. No, she and Fujiko were the foreigners obviously, but these were all europeans and all human. Looking up, she saw the darkness of the cave roof. They were still in the Strangelands. What was this place doing there?

 

Fujiko continued to answer questions with more questions, trying to pick up extra news and just getting names and invitations to visit them tonight for dinner. She accepted the first one then found herself hard pressed to refuse another. Eventually the swarm pushed them in the general direction Rose had been trying to lead them, a large European looking Tavern with the words ‘Die letzte der Morgendämmerung” displayed in a language Otsune didn’t recognise at all but could read perfectly well all the same.

 

With no time to scrutinise they were rushed inside the tavern. A part of her realised they were losing control of the situation, mob mentality and the mindfuck of unconscious teleportation making it hard to think as she was plonked down alongside Fujiko in a small alcove and sipping on what could only be described as grog before she had even realised she had sat down. As she began to inadvertently quaff her drink, she noticed the crowd fall into silence around them, the back of the bar still noisy in the background.

 

“Greetings, greetings,” came a voice from the other side of the crowd and Otsune saw heads then bodies pushed aside as someone made their way through the crowd. “My sternest apologies for my people and their enthusiasm. We are not used to guests and the last one we had was a hit upon everyone here. So you’ll excuse their attempts at enjoying you and please forgive them if they try to dive in.”

 

This was the chief then, three sexual innuendoes as obvious as a lion approaching you on fire and still not in sight yet. By the time the people at the front of the crowd had moved away, she noticed he was already meant to be there, and had to peer down to see him. Clan leaders in a clan were always unique and distinctive and she figured the Strangelands were just going to build on this. The giant slug that ran the Circus of Answers bloated menacingly into leadership but this chieftain did the opposite by barely existing as what looked like nothing more than a pile of discarded rusting armour. Otsune had to stare at it harshly, before wondering if she needed to visit the opticians’ again after all this, shortly followed by a psychiatrist just to get the go straight to jail do not pass university do not pick up hard earned forensics degree.

 

“You’re the chief then.”

 

“Chief?” the armour said hollowly, indicating perhaps another creature from ithin it, sickened with disgust but mocking it all the same. “I daresay I am not. I am a leader, an emperor, a king, a lord, a master, a tribal captain and a clan head. But one thing I am not, is a chieftain.”

 

“Er, she said chief, not chieftain,” the voice of a woman said besides him. Otsune’s ears burned up at the sound of it.

 

“Oh did she? Yes, I suppose I’m one of those.” Otsune noticed something of importance but discarded it and stood up. The voice was further back, but the chief stopped her when she went to chase it. He had somehow gotten onto the table the same way ninja eat through their masks.

 

“Whoa, I see you understand perfectly, but please, let us do this right.”

 

Otsune’s flustered, her heart beating fast as adrenaline surged where once there was only confusion and sarcasm. “Let me pass,” she told the pile of armour, though it was two large men who breasts larger than hers would ever be. “I have to see.”

 

“And as well you shall, but let me be a polite host and introduce her properly.”

 

Otsune didn’t know how, but she was edged back into her seat.

 

“My dear guests. You travelled from far it seems, and, judging by your shoes, have travelled hard. You have done well to reach us when many would have fallen. Some say it is harder to face adversity when it is not even there, and to then face yourself at the same time is the most trying challenge of all

 

“Only you say that!” a voice gawked out from the back, followed by traditional trashcan laughter.

 

“It is the most trying challenge of all,” the chief continued. “And often one without reward, or not a very good one at least. This time however, is different. You have done well, travelled far, tried hard and, you have even gotten your prize.

 

The crowd stepped back and even Fujiko stood up besides her as they marvelled at the figure standing in the middle of the divided crowd. There, standing in the middle, sheepish grin on her face, the type only Europeans could master. Red hair, green eyes, skinny chin and a nose you shouldn’t describe to her face, was the final prize in their expedition, standing there sweetly, hands behind her back, with a little red bow in her hair.

 

“It’s Tina,” Fujiko muttered.

 

“I know,” Otsune said deadpan, though still feeling a little happy.

 

“Otsune, Fujiko,” Tina screamed out, rushing up to them and grabbing them in a big hug. “You found me. Oh thank you.” The two girls returned the hug vigorously. Otsune feeling numb, her heart a little emptier than it had been, a smile plastered on her face. “Somehow I knew you would search for me.”

 

“Oh like we would ever leave you behind,” Fujiko proclaimed happily, tightening the hug between them.

 

“Yeah, what friends would we be to want to not bother looking for you?” Otsune chose to ignore Fujiko for this, keeping the grin etched on her face the whole time. It was hard to do so.

 

This shouldn’t be happening.

 

***

The party continued for a while into the night, the townsfolk partying for a cause that was not theirs. Around them, men played games whilst women stood forlorn over them and more bartenders than there should be served an endless supply of mixed ales of various different flavours. Otsune noticed most were fruits she never tasted before but could make out a range similar to the genus of berry.

 

All were enjoying themselves, and at her table, the chief was impressing everyone with his amazing ability to quaff through his armour. Across from them, four men were having a contest on the strength and mightiness of their beards, which had successfully translated itself into a match of physical strength, and had impressed Otsune that no amount of iron seemed able to be able to pull to a single strand of beard hair from all but the weakest of the four. On the other side of the room, Fujiko was recounting the story of their travels to a group of children who apparently did not suffer from the same drinking laws that Fujiko herself so blatantly ignored when she was their age. That is not to say they hadn’t about two hours prior, but Fujiko had become a von Nuemann machine, and had quickly replicated herself into the surrounding children, encouraging them to do the same.

 

This was all, of course, horribly wrong, but Otsune was feeling a little too giddy to notice.

 

Now the chief was slowly rustling up a line of shots in small glasses that still bristled with broth, had them lined up above him and was challenging himself to drink them all. As those around him egged him on, Tina having badgered her into joining the noisemaking, the suit of armour bounced up, headbutting the table, sending the five different flavours miraculously into the air, all mixing together perfectly before filtering through the small crack onto of his breastplate, what was assumedly into his mouth, before getting gargled to a theme described as the anthem of the Strangelands and being followed off by a single burp and cheers around the whole room.

 

Besides her, Tina hooted loudly in chorus to the chief’s action, and Otsune smiled with a little hiccup.

 

“You seem to be getting on well here,” Otsune said, as her newly found friend sat back down, grabbing her own mug and began what Otsune had learnt to be the ancient honourable art of quaffing, an act she had yet to even understand, let alone master. All that she had learnt that her own sipping didn’t count and having a moustache made it work better.

 

“What” Tina laughed joyfully to herself “Really? I dunno…. I guess so.”

 

“You weren’t that open even back in Germany and you were a recluse back at the dorm. I sometimes wonder why you had come.” Memories of a time when Tina had all but begged to be dragged along to see Japan with her came to the murky surface. The girl had been adamant, but immediately folded into herself upon reaching the dorm. A bunch of people she couldn’t understand, only able to speak a few words and then elderly villagers attacking her. By the end of it the girl just sat in her room on the internet, waiting for the time to leave to come back.

 

“Well, I always wanted to see Japan, so sneaking along seemed right, and this place- well they just bring it out of you. Look at them.” They turned to the left, seeing one man now balancing a chair on his chin. The beautiful wench (as Otsune saw fit to describe her) sitting on top didn’t appear to be much of an obstacle for him.

 

“They invited me in shortly after I got here. I spent about two days being freaked out by them and hiding in my room. Then they renovated the room I was staying in so I didn’t have a room anymore. They said-” She laughed a little and hiccupped. “They said if I was just going to stay in my room and not have guests. Then they’ll just have to expand my room and make everyone my guest. Those four walls of my room. They’re now stuck on each of the four walls surrounding the city. Can you believe it? They went to that much trouble, just to invite me in. I’ve been here just near a year now, and I’m pretty much one of the townsfolk. I’ve even had three boyfriends; two at the same time.”

 

“Noooooo,” Otsune slurred, Tina smiling wryly at her own confession.

 

“Yeah, I got a job. Had a few of those as well actually. Now I’m the chief’s scribe, though there’s not too much note taking, and I’ve just about made enough to get my own house here. Though they’ve practically given me three rooms in one of the taverns on the east side of town. Just across the road from where you were staying.”

 

“So you’re doing well then.” It was all Otsune could think to say. They heard a light hearted yell and pointed their heads over to see Fujiko being assaulted by around fifteen kids, all armed to the teeth in the latest of tickling technology. “That’s good. That’s good.” She let a wave of booziness float over her and hiccupped before deciding to ask. “So Tina, I suppose I have to ask it. How’d you end up here? I have to be honest. I wasn’t exactly expecting you. I was looking for this guy that could tell me where people were. A demon, I think-“

 

“Savadali?” Tina interrupted. “That sounds like a good idea.. They told me about him here. They said he lives on top of the mountain, grants any wish.”

 

“Mountain?”

 

“Just outside the City.”

 

“Ah must of missed it.” Of course she missed it.

 

“Well anyway… it all seems terribly stupid now, but all I remember was getting lost trying to find the toilet during that whole tournament thing back then. I went through a door and found myself falling through the sky and just outside the village. From there it was a bit of a wander round the edge into what I thought was angry mob. I tried running and ended up knocking myself out on the chalk. Then woke up in bed. The rest I just told you.”

 

“You…fell out right besides the village…” and yet they had gone and broke through random door #463 about four hundred thousand Cycloons away from any form of rational sense in these Strangelands. Typical.

 

The chief shot up before them, the armour bouncing in the air. Otsune saw a small pink webbed hand hoisting the metal plating down, before bouncing up onto one of the tables in the middle of the room.

 

“Come everyone. Gather up your bloated selves, and think only to enjoying. These days be the finale of the transcendence. The day after next, comes the tiding of the new empress. And one should not enter on an empty stomach.”

 

“What’s that?”

 

“Not too sure actually. They seem to make rituals up as they go along. I’ve heard this one mentioned a few times though since I got here. All the others just come and go. They have a library here but I always forget to check or ask.

 

“A library as well huh?”

 

“Oh yeah. No computers obviously, but I’m sure they’ll be things you want to read.”

 

“Oh I’m already sure of it.”

 

“You’re gonna love it here. Its like this most of the time, but they’re still serious workers. Work hard; play hard.”

 

“Well, I’m no anthropologist, but it does seem a unique culture. Very similar to medieval Europe. More Netherlands, especially with the boozing.”

 

“Well take your time. I’d suggest enjoying yourself first and letting your hair down. Or at least get it washed. There’s baths at your place, and I’ve paid you up for a Slagneek. You’re going to be living here now, so you’ll need plenty of things to keep you busy.”

 

She felt her hair. Rose hadn’t cleaned that part of her. “It does need a wash, doesn’t it-“ she stopped. “Wait, I’m not actually staying.”

 

“Huh, but-“

 

“I mean we can for a little while. I couldn’t ask you to just pack up and leave after getting so attached.”

 

“You can’t ask me to pack up and leave at all. Otsune, I’m staying.”

 

“Excuse me? You can’t stay-“

 

“I love it here. I fit. I belong. Well, I guess anyone would belong but that’s better than there. I belonged nowhere there.”

 

“I’m pretty sure your parents wouldn’t feel the same way to the girl that hasn’t contacted them for several months.”

 

“Well, obviously I’m gonna miss them, but if that meant giving up what I had here, I would stay rooted with my feet in the ground. Besides, you actually assume we can leave.”

 

“I’m sure there’s a way.”

 

“Nuh uh, The chief told me. Many centuries ago, this place was meant to be a prison land. Empty and desolate with only gatekeepers to provide snacklings of food. But it was made permanent with no way out. I’m sorry,” she said getting up and grabbing their empty glasses, “but you’re stuck here. If you never wanted to stay, you never should have come after me.”

 

“Oh sure, tell me now.”

 

“Hey, you say that, but that’s the fact and it’s all there is to it.” She navigated around the large table and walked away to the bar. Otsune tried to follow her but was interrupted by the chief landing down besides her.

 

“Evening wench,” he said casually. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about your flame.”

 

“Oh you can see it?” Otsune chimed, glad for the cutaway.

 

“Course I can. Nothing gets by me. “Anyway, I was thinking. Does it have a name yet?”

 

“Not really?”

 

“Thought not. Go to the priest, before tomorrow at noon I warn ye, and get Father rabbi to proclaim him for you.””

 

“Oh you have a church. How…compelling.” Father Rabbi?

 

“Well, it’s a chapel really, but it works the job for us. We built it up over the years and it’s gotten pretty big. Biggest in the land I here.”

 

“Yeah, judging from the evidence that’s not hard.”

 

“Anyway, those elementists like their attention. Get it given a good name, whole hearty and with the lord, and it may even get a power boost. Plus it’ll actually start listening to you.”

 

“You mean I can finally tell it to piss off and it’ll listen?”

 

“Ha, even that! Just make sure it’s a good name. They need distinction.” And without a further word he slipped away, just as Tina was returning.”

 

“Look, sorry about that,” she said, dropping the next round over to Otsune. “It’s just I like it here. I’m staying and that’s final for sure.”

 

“Okay, whatever. I guess it’s your choice.” It didn’t matter anyway.

 

This was all horribly wrong.

 

****

 

“So we’re meeting up with the king of the city, whom we have an appointment with.”

 

“Yes. Well, not exactly an appointment.”

 

“But the king of the city is actually the OniHono that we’re supposed to hunt.”

 

“Yes, well. I believe so. It’s the conclusion Kiriyama came up with.”

 

“Though Kiriyama doesn’t even know about the OniHono, and believes demons to be the results of drugs.”

 

“Yes, but, well he’s smart. Even without believing in demons, the conclusions he made are sound. Well, I think they are.”

 

“There is no need to believe in demons. For they exist and are real. To believe in demons is to fool yourself.”

 

“Yes, well, whatever.” Natoko stopped and looked round. This last statement had come from Hisami, who was currently hiding behind the lobby desk. Everyone knew she was there, but no one had come up with a reason as to why they should ask her why she was hiding herself.

 

“So what now?” Sagara asked, standing straight and looking very tentative.

 

“Well, we go of course.” She checked the clock on the mobile phone. She had left it on all night on charge just in case he tried to ring back, the metallic black device and a man’s forgiveness being all that could save her from that. “We’re to meet in three hours. If we leave now, we can get there early and get a good look of what we’re dealing with here.”

 

If they were unlucky, they were only facing the OniHono. Of course it wasn’t exactly the greatest thing when your luckiest scenario involved the death of yourself and your comrades.

 

It occurred to her she had no idea what Sagara had gained the day before that would help in dealing with it.

 

“Do we have a plan,” Sarah asked, zipping up.

 

“A… plan,” Natoko mused, tasting the words like a foreign fruit. “Yes. Yes, I guess we should have a plan.”

 

“You mean we didn’t?”

 

“It made more sense to play it by ear. If one plans too much, one will fall to living in fantasy.”

 

“So you planned to just wander in… see how it goes… then get killed.”

 

Natoko didn’t answer, scratching the back of her head and feeling it go raw. She had no focus this morning. Yesterday’s events tired her.

 

“Well it’s a good plan if the fire spirit wants ribs for lunch,” Sarah said nonchalantly.

“Oh, I saw a restaurant that sells them a few days ago,” Aki piped in. “We should get some after this is done.”

 

“Well, why don’t we go get them now?”

 

“Oh, that’d be much better than this.” Aki and Sagara started to leave without them, the samurai feeling the energy drain from her as she tried to raise an arm to stop them.

 

“Hold it you two?” Sarah called out, reappearing from behind the desk with a small fire extinguisher. It looked like it had enough to put a burning stool out.

 

“What? Oh yeah, the mission.”

 

“Here. Take,” the small girl replied, swinging the canister over to Natoko and expecting her to grab it before gravity did. As she held it, Natoko realized it was even smaller in her hands.

 

“It’s a factory right, on the outskirts. There’s probably fire hazard equipment there, but the whole place will probably be very flammable in general. We could do with more fire retardant clothing.” She looked over everyone’s current state of dress. Natoko was in her Iaido gear. It would be easier to get away with wearing it and she moved better with it on. Sagara was wearing the same shirt and slacks from last night. Aki was in jogging bottoms and a looser shirt than Sagara. They all looked like they would light up the skies for the few split seconds the OniHono concentrated on them.

 

“Something more padded would be better. Dense, though not too thick. It’ll be hot. Maybe we could get firefighter suits.”

 

“I don’t think it’s going to matter anyway,” Sagara said.

 

“Huh? Why?”

 

“The fire spirit only has two states,” Sagara explained. “Off and maximum power. It has no in-between.”

 

“Ah, so even fire hazard equipment-“

 

“-will be like butter.”

 

“Don’t fucking interrupt me!” Sarah posed for a moment, hand under chin, eyes looking up. “Right, were going to need to sneak in there about two hours early. See what we can work with. Maybe we can set up some kind of trap and-“

 

“Erm, Sarah,” Natoko looked to see she had put her hand up. She swatted it down and turned back to the girl. “I know it seems like you were expecting it, but-“

 

“But what?”

 

“What made you think you were coming?”

 

Sarah’s face twisted to an angry grin, held in place for a second, then fell to a dismissive leer. “Whatever. You think your opinion matters; fine. But don’t let that get in the way of real life.”

 

Sarah started to walk on, heading straight for the door. She didn’t get far.

 

“Move that thing away,” she asked, politely with fangs bared, the wooden sheath of Iziz hanging in the way.

 

“I cannot let you leave with us.”

 

“No you can’t. That would imply your opinion actually means something to me.”

 

“You are not involved in this, and the rest is dangerous. I will not permit it.”

 

“Move your stick, bitch.”

 

“You could just walk around it-“ Aki began to interrupt.

 

“Sagara,” Natoko said, looking at him. “Tell your cousin she cannot come with us.”

 

“Well actually, mom says-“

 

“Tell her.”

 

Sagara looked back to her for a moment. She couldn’t read the expression on his face, but it looked the same as ever.

 

“Okay. Sarah. You can’t come.”

 

Sarah wavered, looking up defiantly at Natoko, who stared back down at her. The two held place as everyone else looked on, Hisami licking lightly at a lollipop.

 

Sarah clicked. “Fine.” And turned straight round for the west wing door. Natoko watched as she stomped out, slamming the door on the way, feeling her legs melt.

 

“Phew,” she said loudly. That was the hardest fight she had had to date. She picked the fire extinguisher back up and looked to the others. “Shall we go then?”

 

****

It was hard to believe. HE was here. He was back. Alive.

 

But how?

 

No, she didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Well she had many questions to ask him and plenty of intentions to ask. Now though, it didn’t matter. Only he did. His warmth. His presence. His tongue.

 

Eventually she realised she wasn’t breathing, and broke off for air, seeing his face close up for the first time. Smooth skin. Blue eyes blinking below blond hair; a face devilishly innocent with a mischievous smile. He held her gently by the back of the neck as she laid his forehead against hers, his own breath ragged against her own exhausted pants.

 

Alexis. She was crying. She had never cried when happy before. It felt wonderful. All the butterflies springing back to life and floating anew. Following them to greater heights she ever imagined, travelling upon whimsical plains when only they existed.

 

She sighed contently, unable to find the words to ask any of the million questions, when ten daggers stabbed her in the back with eyes attached. Guilt returning, she turned to face the crowd.

 

“So…. as I was trying to say dramatically before true love find its way to the centre of attention,” Topah continued, smiling despite himself. “I don’t teach you anything. What you need to do is go the library. There, there are nineteen books that tell you the only truths you need to know about all of everything. They rest are blank. All you have to do is find them. And the truth is yours.”

 

****

 

They spent the week talking. About this and that. It had been a forgotten lifetime of memories to catch up on coming out of his mouth and a whole new world for her to divulge to him. Details were filled in. Faces labelled. Her name had been Isabella. She was sixteen when they had met, he only just turning seventeen. Her family, English apparently, were travelling to India for a year that boat cruise so very long ago, her family owning a tea company there.

 

“We thought we had done an amazing job of hiding it you see, after that first dance. It was a really big ship you see. We’d wait for times where we could be together, just after the diner parties, when I went down to the bowels of the ship. But it was your older sister, Christine, that was always finding us.”

 

“Oh no. Did she try and pull us apart?” Sakura had been eagerly sitting on the edge of her seat for the past two hours now. Father Sakagami and Nobori had lost themselves further up the intricate maze of orderly parallel shelves filled with the wordless books where she had first met Alexis several months ago. She had barely spoken anything beyond a sentence at a time. Her lips had not gone lax though.

 

“On the contrary,” Alexis continued, “she was so delighted that her spoilt and stuffy little sister had become so enamoured with a boy- oh, and vice versa, that she did all she could to prevent us getting found out. I heard later from you- er, Isabella, that she had even gone so far as to make several passes at my fellow crewman, to get them off chasing me down.”

 

“So we were friends; me and my sister?”

 

“Well, not from your perspective. You hated her. I remember you telling me time and time again how much of a bother she was. How much she was following you round when you were trying to get away. The worst one was when we got into the cargo hold and were… getting a bit closer than we usually were. We had snuck a bottle of wine with us as a dare and it was giving us the courage we needed to make a drastic mistake. Before we could though, she popped out of nowhere, saying she was looking for one of your father’s suitcases. You went ballistic at her, shouting and screaming, using words no lady should ever have to comprehend and just when it got the point you were crying and I just couldn’t take my eyes off you, she grabbed you by the shoulder, shutting you up and she whispered something in your ear.”

 

“What did she say?”

 

Alexis relaxed, leaning back in his chair. “I never heard,” he said. “You never told me. But she promptly walked out of the room and you just stood there, crying to yourself. I was so shocked. I just sat there on the bed of leather suitcases and Persian rugs we had setup as a makeshift bed. You were crying for about ten minutes and in the end, you turned back around and sat on the edge of our ‘bed’, with the big smile on your face and said ‘I have the best sister in the world.’”

 

Sakura glanced at Alexis. Confusion must have been clear on her face because he just smiled back.

 

“At the end of the cruise. I had been hired by your family to work as your uncle’s assistant. He was a jolly old man that took me in as his son. Within three months I was practically one of the family. Within six-” Sakura saw his eyes glisten a beautiful blue and she felt her own breath cease, “I was one of the family.”

 

“Wow,” was all that came from Sakura’s lips.

 

“Your sister helped us out all the way. Did everything she could to convince your father, who was very hesitant on letting an orphaned stowaway into his family, to accept me into the family. She said she did it so you’d stop being such a b- such a brat. But I think she wanted to do it so one of you could have happiness.”

 

“Why wouldn’t she have happiness? What happened to her?”

 

“Well, nothing bad in the usual sense of the word. Nothing terrible certainly. She died after we did in fact. But she married a man for the sake of good business, with an associate of your father’s, and not love. She was doomed to the damnable marriage, she would often say, her husband sitting right beside her and looking very uncomfortable.”

 

Sakura laughed, though his poker face didn’t tell her if he was joking or not.

 

“Wait, we died?” she asked, her brain backing up.

 

“Well of course we did,” he said with a mild scoff. “It was nearly two hundred years ago!”

 

Sakura couldn’t find this as funny as Alexis apparently did. She focused on the ground, looking at dust gophers as they rolled around the floor. “H-how did we die?”

 

Alexis’s voice went gruff as she kept her eyes off him. “It was the Cholera pandemic. 1817. It was a disease that started in Bengal and-“

 

“I-” she stopped him. “I know what it was. We learnt about it back at school.”

 

He stopped. “At the time, we were in Madras and I was spending a lot of time with the workers alongside your father and uncle. We didn’t realise we were spreading it to the rest of the family until it was too late. You turned up sick just a few days after I got back. I felt terrible. I had just spent the last month becoming proper friends with your father and then we were there in bed together as I just watched you die in my arms. I remember how angry I felt to know I had-“

 

“No. Don’t say that! You couldn’t have known at the time. It was so rare. And it was probably my fault anyway. I probably showered you with kisses the moment I came back. If I had just restrained myself a little more ad not been so silly I wouldn’t have-” They stared long at each other, the futility of her words bouncing between them as they just smiled. Alexis was grinning.

 

“You said exactly the same thing back then.”

 

Unable to help herself, she laughed along with him and spent the next hour joking away with whatever hit the air. Sakura found herself laughing at everything he said to her, sometimes even if he wasn’t trying to be funny. Her skin felt at ease when touching him that to be apart for even the smallest slip was covered with a yearning strong enough to bring her to tears again.

 

Though they were inseparable, they were not static. A few more days in, they came across another couple.

 

“Hey guys, how’s it going?” Topah asked. “Working hard?”

 

Sakura could only blush as she stared at the other happy couple. It was nothing compared to her feelings but he was glad that others could be happy as well. Only the smallest part of her was curious as to who Sharon was and how she had got with an angel. Perhaps they had a similar story.

 

“Topah!” Father Sakagami called out before the couples could greet each other properly. The priest stormed towards them from the third aisle down with two books swinging viciously from each hand a scowl crossed his face like an angry school teacher.

 

“Hi-“

 

“This is impossible. We’ve been searching for three days now and barely covered a hundredth of the room.”

 

“Actually, it’s more around one hundred thousandth, but I can see why you would say that.”

 

“You can’t honestly expect us to keep this up. It isn’t possible for a whole army to empty this place out and hope to find a single book filled with words.”

 

“Well I don’t expect an army too. Oh, and you may have a problem thinking of the situation like that.”

 

Father Sakagami dropped the two books unceremoniously. Through a pained smile he laughed with two hints of crazy.

 

“I don’t even know how to think anymore. How can I find the truth like this? There’s got to be a better way.”

 

“Oh, you’re right,” said Topah thoughtfully. “I forgot a spiritual quest was supposed to be easy and take a few minutes at least. Tell you what, how about I give you a website link to the cheat guide.”

 

“Would your advice even help?” Father Sakagami shouted. “I’m beginning to think even you don’t know where these books are.”

 

“Eh, not really,” Topah replied. “We don’t have a clue what’s going on most of the time altogether. The last six millennium have just been really confusing. Human civilisation just jumped ahead in a few decades and-”

 

“No, you mustn’t tell them,” hissed MR. Worry. Sakura jumped out of reflex, the demon just standing there in the aisle next to her. “They cannot be allowed to hear it from our lips.”

 

“What happened in the last six-“

 

“No,” Topah said with a sigh. “He’s right. We’re not supposed to tell you.”

 

“Well why not?” Father Sakagami persisted. “You are an angel of the Lord. Should you not give answers honestly?”

 

Topah looked to be struggling for a moment. “Y-yes. But the higher ups and lower downs all decided that the truth should be found rather than told. I’m forbidden to reveal anything but your next direction.”

 

“The truth is always deep within you, but humans can’t usually get that far. Most of the time you can’t even seen your own molecular structure as it decays around you. It was figured that you should be at least allowed to glimpse at some of the best moments of creation.”

 

“Yes, that would be great, it would only bring an end to the centuries of senseless war. But no, you’re right. We should earn the peace and goodwill that is constantly taken from us from the poor souls who don’t know any better.” Father Sakagami continued to shout, swinging his arms round and giving up, returning to the aisle from where he came. “Sakura, do you actually plan on helping us out at all, or just lounge about in that boy’s arms?” he shouted before disappearing.” Sakura froze at the anger until Topah rested his hand on her shoulder, watching the poor man wander off.

 

“Be a shame if he didn’t find it. But that’s how this place is supposed to work. I offer the chance for enlightenment and Mr. Worry piles on the insanity trip.”

 

The angel paused in thought for a moment.

 

“I guess he does have a reason to be bothered. Anyway, I better leave you to it.. If you have any questions I can answer, we’ll be in that room over there.

 

A thought flashed across Sakura’s mind.

 

“How much longer do we have?”

 

“How long?” Topah repeated. It sounded like the angel didn’t get it.

 

“Well, we’ve been here a while already, and I don’t want to impose too much. But… I assume you won’t want us staying here forever.”

 

“Meh” the angel started to walk away. “That will never be an issue. You’ll be gone long before we kick you out.”

 

“But the answer is here, right?” Sakura asked.

 

“Well yeah. Unless someone got it out already.”

 

***

 

Sakura wandered the corridors alone. Having become accustomed to the never ending corridors as best as one mortal soul could, she drifted through with a smile on her face and a hum that was very far out of tune. She cared for neither but let both stick. Only thoughts of Alexis were in her mind now.

 

He was working now. He had to eventually. He had various jobs at this True Balance job and she had been taking up all the time he had to do them with. She didn’t mind being gone from him too much though. Absence just made her heart fonder after all.

 

Father Sakagami was still hard at work, searching the bookcases. Though she had long since lost track of how long Alexis had held her whilst being here, she knew her priest was making significant progress in his own quest. In the time since their arrival he had already covered up to a hundred shelves of books at the least, each one taking well over ten hours to rummage through. He was persistent at least. She hoped the Lord would recognise that, even as his speech was replaced with growls of frustration.

 

She and Nobori had done their best to help when they had the time. She had several hours a day to help out and rummage through the empty leaves. Nobori however seemed more interested in wandering around on his own to find a way out and was even more interested in informing Father Sakagami the reasons to just how fruitless his endeavour was. The probability of finding the book. Just how many books they were. The time to just skim through one at a time and double check it just in case a single word was contained hidden on one of the pages. Heaven forbid they missed out just one.

 

Some days he spent his whole time helping out in another section.

 

It had gotten neither one of them anywhere.

 

Today Sakura was taking time off to rest. She knew it wasn’t rest precisely, but it had become a boring task and, being absolutely honest, one that had stopped interesting her a long time ago. She had what she needed and without sounding too selfish, she wanted to enjoy it.

 

Enjoy him, for that matter, she thought happily.

 

“And if you’re not going to stop him, I will!”

 

Up ahead a corridor, one of the doors slammed cutting her out mid hum. Hearing heavy footsteps coming towards her, she instinctively sought a place to hide herself. Being in a featureless corridor prevented this though and it wasn’t long before she came face to face with a disgruntled Sharon.

 

“S-sakura?” Sharon said as she almost bowled the small girl over.

 

“Having a little trouble in paradise,” Sakura couldn’t help but sneer a little, seeing the creases finally form on the woman’s skull. Sharon sighed and shook her head.

 

“That man really puts me through it at times I tell you,” the woman complained. “I mean, I love him with all my immortal, and I can actually say and mean that too, but he can be so blunt sometimes.”

 

“What did he say?”

 

“Well-” Sharon hesitated. “It wasn’t his bluntness exactly. It’s protocol. It’s about your vicar.” Sharon held it in for all of two seconds with amazing stoicism. “If he keeps this up, he’s definitely going to go insane. I can see it happening to him already. Surely you’ve seen it too.”

 

Had she? Now she thought back to the man, growling at her. But surely he was just frustrated.

 

“I know the plan of the True Balance is to let any who wish it search the library as long as they want and risk either insanity or true knowledge but I can’t bear to look knowing what’s going on. I don’t see why Topah even has to have that stupid demon around. All he does is freak out over every little thing.” She looked away, glaring back at Sakura as she thought it through.

 

“Could you speak to him? Topah, that is. Topah won’t allow me to stop your priest, but you should be allowed to quit on his behalf. The man might hate you for it, but it’ll be for his own good.

 

“Um, sure.” Sakura was feeling foolish now. Part of her wanted to believe the woman was overreacting, stupid as she was. But to be willing to argue against an angel, one that she loved.

 

“He’s in the Room of Recollected Memories. I’ll watch over Sakagami while you’re gone. And be as blunt with Topah as he will be with you. ” Determined, the woman disappeared down the corridor

 

A mission in hand brought Sakura to reality and she was back in the Recollected Memories room one brisk walk later. The angel was lying back on a large table, his wings dangling off the edge looking like thy belonged to a bird that was now roadkill. He was doing nothing at all. Sadface was sleeping on his chest.

 

“Hey, small girl.”

 

“Hi!” she squeaked without meaning to.

 

Topah seemed to think that was the end of the conversation at that and went straight onto yawning loudly. On top of him, the cat was constantly purring. Without being touched. It seemed to enjoy the slight bobbing it was enduring on the angel’s stomach.

 

Stuck with ending the silence, Sakura watched the cat and found herself saying- “I thought she would have disappeared by now.”

 

“No reason to,” the angel replied, sounding sullen. “You don’t see any of those other memories disappearing, do you? Just because it’s a living memory doesn’t make any different.”

 

“Right.” She hovered, not knowing how to speak to him. He’s nothing like Sanguine. You didn’t even need to worry about speaking with him about.

 

“It’s a problem sometimes,” the angel continued. “We lose no end of these things if they wander about. Sometimes, you’ll get vagrants passing through the corridors, and they’ll steal the small ones to sell off. But the living ones just up and wander away if we don’t distract them with something to do.”

 

“And don’t get me started on the people ones. I don’t want to keep track of how many of those got out of the InBetween Realm. I mean, they can’t enter earth entrances unless a human takes them whilst avoiding eye contact, Persaphone protocol, don’t ask, but I can just imagine a little tribal family having one live with them without knowing it’s not properly human. And it’ll only die when it thinks it’s dead enough to be dead. Complete pain.”

 

Sakura stroked Sadface, who purred while reminding her of the magnificent view one could get to the ocean from their apartment. “If there’s a problem, why do you need them then?”

 

“They’re the best evidence we have now we don’t get full omniscience anymore. I mean most of us can read spirits to some degree but there’s still a few higher ups who can’t and of course now the demons are insisting on having unbiased, reliable knowledge presented for cases. Not that these guys are.”

 

The cat was looking very unreliable. It was slipping off without noticing.

 

The memories seep you see. Hold it too long and you’ll honestly start thinking it’s happened to you, no matter what the contradictions.”

 

“So, you may start to think Sadface there was really yours?”

 

“Well Sadface was mine, it’s why I brought him back, but the troubles it can cause. Also, the item you get is affected by the perception of the person who makes it. I’m glad it doesn’t get abused. You could remember a nice person constantly angry or something and that’s how it’ll show up in the Recollected Memory.”

 

“Erm, Mr. Topah.”

 

“Just Topah, odd little fat catholic girl in love.” He turned a groan into laughter. “You are gonna lose it so fast you know. You’ll probably want to wait until you’re married.”

 

“Topah, about Father Sakagami…”

 

“Whatever Sharon’s told you may be able to do, I can’t stop him unless he decides to give up.”

 

“I- I see.” She perked up. “Well, I’m sure it won’t be an issue. Father Sakagami’s the smartest person I know.”

 

“Well yeah it’s the smart people who always go insane first. Look, talk to him yourself. You’ve been so wrapped up in your indistinguishable by age boyfriend recently; you’ve not noticed what’s going on around you. You may want to sort it out. You seen Mr. Worry?”

 

The demon’s face cared her into thinking. “Not for a while.”

 

“Then you probably wanna go talk to him now.”

 

***

 

“Ah. Alexis!” Sakura called out, seeing her boyfriend in the end of the corridor leading to the offices and running to meet him. In all the time she had been here she hadn’t seen any other workers bar Alexis, and maybe that Sharon lady. Nor had she seen evidence of anything that needed work. It didn’t bother her.

 

“Ah. There she is!” Alexis said with a presentable smile and firm grip. She held herself blissfully in his arms for yet another eternity and only pulled away to look into his eyes.

 

“Had a good day?” she asked, smelling the skin just inches away from her own.

 

“It went,” he replied. “And it’s sill going in fact.”

 

“Oh sorry, did I-” Her voice trailed off as she glanced over his shoulder to the demon standing inches away from her, glaring eye to eye with her. She could smell his skin as well, his hand on Alexis’s shoulder. It was naturally repugnant.

 

“If we all just spoke less and let others have their say, we wouldn’t have to go to war.”

 

“Um, right,” Sakura replied, only able to assume he was talking to her.

 

“I should paint more. It helps me express my feelings,” the demon muttered as if it were about to collapse on a warm bed of hay. “Maybe a journal as well.”

 

The demon stayed standing up, staring at her, crimson pupils dilated.

 

“What’s up with him?” she asked. Her voice was a whisper, apparently quiet enough so the demon wouldn’t hear her.

 

“It’s no real concern,” Alexis said at a normal volume. “Mr. Worry is currently going through a self-induced happy state of ignorance.” In a forced whisper he added, “I think it prevents him from exploding under all the stress.”

 

Sakura kept her eye on the demon, expecting him to explode into hysterics the second she suggested they should leave it alone. It stayed frozen in place, the gormless look on its face sway from side to side with the non-existent wind. At one point it seemed to follow the path of a reasonably drunk fly. The arm that wasn’t holding onto Alexis was hanging loose.

 

“We should watch a comedy later.”

 

“Are you finished soon?” she whispered to him, his infectious smile fading as the words left her lips.

 

“I’m not sure,” he replied. “Mr. Worry says I have to follow him around like this until he says otherwise.”

 

“I’m glad we found each other on the deck. Who knows where we would have met again.”

 

“Does it have to be you,” she said, feeling her heart race and gripping tighter onto her boyfriend. There were surely better things Alexis could be doing with his time.

 

The demons glared.

 

“If we all just spoke less and let others have their say, we wouldn’t have to go to war.”

 

Sakura eyed the demon with contempt.

 

“Yeah, he repeats himself too.”

 

“I don’t think your father likes me, but you’re worth it for me to try and change his mind.”

 

She could feel her own heart beating loud through her chest. “Oh, can we go and visit Father Sakagami? Topah asked me to try and talk him out of it, though I guess if Mr. Worry is here it can’t be that much of an issue…”

 

“No, we definitely should. I imagine people don’t tend to find the book in question.”

 

They changed direction, Mr. Worry still clinging onto Alexis and muttering an occasional ‘Drivers only get angry at other drivers because they’re worried they might hurt themselves’. Sakura wrapped herself up in Alexis’s other arm and tried to yank the demon off subtly every so often.

 

Before they reached the aisle she had last see Father Sakagami, they heard shouting and sped their pace up as best they could with the dawdling demon.

 

“Give me that blasted book, bitch!”

 

“You’re not getting anything if you do this with anger.

 

They turned the corner, seeing Sharon standing before them with her back turned to them. Before them all was Father Sakagami, braced ready to tackle the women. Around them books lay scattered far from Father Sakagami’s original plan of keeping them neat and tidy while he searched.

 

In her hand Sharon held a red, unmarked book, as indistinguishable as all the rest.

 

“Give it to me?”

 

“What makes you think it’s this book, Father?” the woman argued back. “It wasn’t the last hundred books. It wasn’t the last ten thousand books. It’s not going to be this book, and it won’t be the next ten thousand books. And you’ll have killed yourself with crazy long before you even check the first one million books here and in the end you’ll have nothing to show for it but your own ignorance.”

 

“I know it’s that book. It has to be.”

 

“What makes you sure?”

 

“I-I felt it. Here. Something’s telling me. He’s telling me. God will reward my persistence. He’s already given me the angel. This is just the next step to truth.”

 

“No! You don’t get it, do you? This is the path to madness. The chance of finding the truth goes far into the trillions. You have to give this up.”

 

Sakura felt Alexis tense up round her shoulder.

 

“I will once you let me read that book!” With a bestial leap, Father Sakagami failed to surprise Sharon, the tall, buxom woman easily glancing out the way of his mad dash and went straight back into the book shelve, collapsing into it with too much power and giving Father Sakagami enough time to take another swipe for the book.

 

Floating through the air, the red book came towards Sakura, who could only watch the book slide towards her as she felt herself anchored to the spot. The two assailants struggled against each other, reaching for the book. All three collapsed on the ground at the same time, the book falling open about halfway through.

 

Slowly everyone’s heads turned from the conflict to the parchment between them. It detangled the mess immediately, as Father Sakagami rose up enough to crawl up to the book and begin flicking through the other blank pages.

 

He went through it twice; starting properly at the beginning the second time, taking his time and trying not to flick before finally shutting the book with a silent thud. Slowly, methodically, he placed the book back on the shelf and breathed out loud with relief. Sakura felt Alexis relax again.

 

“Let me try just one more,” Father Sakagami shouted, grabbing the next book along and flicking through it before away could say anything. Sharon had to get herself back up to stop him and he was already on the next book before she could easily miss him once again. He jumped to the other side of the aisle, dropping the second book and reaching for a third just as she managed to hold the covers together with both hands.

 

“You’ve got to stop this.” Sharon said through a clenched jaw, the man slowly dragging the small book open.

 

“I must have the…. Truth.” The book was now pried open halfway. “”It’s… everything to me!” the book sprang open, covered in symbol after symbol of black inks mixed the occasion red side note. Everyone stopped when Father Sakagami did, the man looking into the small, green bound book with glazed eyes. For that moment, Sakura saw the smile on his face unless like usual polite one. This was a serene smile with a hint of clarity and a promise of madness.

 

“I found it!” he squealed with a high pitched giggle and sprinted off in the other direction before Sharon could grab him again. She got a few steps further just as he twisted round the corner, disappearing from view.

 

The aisle went quietly quickly save for fading footsteps, the four persons there quiet save for a muttering demon. To her right, a book fell onto Sakura’s foot.

 

“He found one,” Sharon muttered to herself. “I didn’t think. Didn’t know.” Sakura watched as the women fell to her knees and turned her face away from them. “I just assumed there really wasn’t one. Take it was just a joke, or some dumb metaphorical the truth is in your heart crap that I thought I figured out after I died.”

 

Sakura found herself unable to look at the woman as she squatted on the ground.

 

The woman howled out a cry that threw tears from her eyes. “The truth was really here.” Silently, Sakura watched her cry for a few seconds longer and then, without knowing why, found herself unhooking from Alexis. Tentatively, she walked over to the woman and knelt down, placing a hand on Sharon’s shoulder. The woman immediately fell into her chest and began howling out louder than before, a cotton shirt doing nothing to muffle such screams.

 

“I came here a century ago,” she whimpered with a tear pitched voice after a few minutes of sobbing. “A whole century. I lost all who I am. Had nothing left. And I searched for the truth. Spent decades pondering through books. Taking my time because of him. Getting to know him. Finally assumed he was joking… Fell in love. Him too. I thought I had got the right answer. Now someone else just wanders in and takes it and I… and I…” she whimpered meekly in Sakura’s arms. Sakura just stayed there, keeping her head downcast from the man she loved and the demon still holding his shoulder.

 

“It’s good to cry. It gets the feeling out of you.”

 

***

 

Sharon sat crying on the library floor surrounded by hundreds of books. Sakura kept her held tight, feeling the women’s pain soak through onto her now slightly ripe jacket (there were cleaning facilities here, but no change of clothes). Holding the woman close to her, she caught herself wondering how she ever let this woman become hated in her own eyes. Her beauty was nothing compared to her spirit. Both were beautiful, but in the end she was still just a human…ghost thingy.

 

Sakura still wasn’t sure on that.

 

“Yo, we going after him then, or just sitting around?” Nobori asked. Sakura wasn’t sure when he had appeared, but he seemed to know what was going on. She didn’t care.

 

“Could you please have a little more respect here please?” she spat at him, still cradling Sharon in her arms.

 

“Hey, I don’t exactly know why she’s crying. By the sound of things, this was what she wanted as well. Shouldn’t we all be happy? We got the answer.”

 

“Who cares about a stupid book!?”

 

“No, he’s right,” Sharon sniffled. “I want to read it. After all this time, I still want to read it. And if I may be a little greedy, I want to read it before Sakagami gets a chance to finish it.”

 

The taller woman started to stand up. Sakura helped but was impolitely refused. The woman’s beauty started to become a tad annoying again.

 

“I should get Topah,” said Alexis. “The rules of the quest state that both the angel and demon should appear at the time of reading one of the books.”

 

“I’ll come with you,” Sakura was quick to jump.

 

“No, I’ll be quick. You head over to your priest. He’ll probably want you there most of all now he’s calmed down.”

 

“But I don’t-“

 

“-want to learn God’s secret left to the people that will forever change the course of history?” Nobori was even quicker to add.

 

“Well, I guess so.”

 

“I’ll be there before you know it. You three go find him.” Alexis went to turn, but got stopped. “Oh, and take Mr. Worry with you.” Sakura shuddered as the pallid, green faced man stared idly ahead at her. “He’ll be fine. Just let him hold your shoulder and walk slow enough.”

 

The beautiful blond haired boy snuck a kiss onto her lips, trying almost pathetically to mask the hand now on her shoulder. She accepted the illusion with all too much haste, savouring the brazen feel of lips one more time.

 

“Okay.”

 

“Great. See you soon.”

 

“Dang. He got you good, girl,” Nobori snorted before Alexis’s footsteps had fell out of earshot.

 

“Shut up,” she said walking away, Mr. Worry now easily following her.

 

“We had so much fun last night,” the demon said. “I can’t believe we didn’t get caught.”

 

***

 

Sakura’s felt her pulse racing. It was worrying. Not the thought of the four of them, including a demon, a ghost and a heavily muscled security guard, stalking silently down the abandoned corridor to the Recollected Memories department, nor was it the thought of this many people being needed to track down and confront one man, a priest, who was usually kind and gentle, apparently on the verge of insanity. It wasn’t even the thought of finally knowing God’s truth, secured in a book that had been lost within a billion other books in an ancient library lost within an infinite number of corridors.

 

It was the mumblings of Mr. Worry behind her.

 

“My sister always gets in my way!”

 

Nothing else.

 

“You sure he’s this way,” Nobori asked, though not to her.

 

“Reasonably.”

 

“Reasonably?”

 

“I’m not as good as tracking as Topah is,” Sharon explained, her cheeks still red and puffed but her eyes glazed with determination. “I just have a feel for this area.”

 

“Well, if you’re sure.” Nobori didn’t look particularly convinced. For that matter, Sakura thought Nobori never looked anything but angry. Not that he was to blame for that, given how he didn’t want to be here. That didn’t excuse her from making no effort whatsoever to get to know him since they arrived here together.

 

The demon clenched its sweaty palm round her shoulder and let loose a schoolgirl giggle that didn’t fit the frame of the thirty year old gentlemen with morbid green skin. It was still muttering constantly to itself and didn’t seem harmful at the moment. They were used to each other now, she thought, in their own ways. It shouldn’t have made sense. It was still evil of course, but less so. Just as Topah didn’t seem the holiest of creatures she had veer met, Mr. Worry was a step back from the pure evil she had been expecting.

 

“He’s here.” They fell into place behind Sharon, a disorganised mass of people. The mahogany door signposted ‘Room of Recollected Memories’ was before them.

 

“Er-” she got out, everyone swinging round to stare at her. “I… I- was here early with w-with Topah. Just talking.”

 

“He’s not here now,” said Sharon simply, turning immediately back to the door and swinging it open. Sakura did not know what to expect. All the items in the room were gone. The shelves were still there, though some were upturned and half ripped out of their fittings. All the display cases were smashed, with the shards scattered over the larger paintings that adorned the walls, now lying uselessly on the ground. Father Sakagami was nowhere to be seen.

 

“Oh if he’s gone beyond here with that book we’ve lost him for good.”

 

“Not necessarily. The InBetween Realm has ways of finding people within it. Topah may get in trouble though if that book gets any further. They moved to the next room of Recollected Memories. This was the same save for a tube of stained toilet paper rolling aimlessly on the ground.

 

On the opposite side of the room the large table that presented a long line of memory objects was upturned and hiding the first door they came through.

 

Sakura heard Nobori breath louder than he had to, and then she didn’t want to go round to the other side. Something felt wrong here. The others were excited. Was it God? Should they be looking for this information? God left it to be found, but left it hidden never to be found. Should they-

 

No. That was not what was worrying her. She didn’t know what was worrying her

 

“I hear they’re having a dance downstairs tonight. Oh, you have to let me come. No one will know it’s me. I swear.”

 

The demon’s lingering presence changed her mind fast and she stepped forward to peer round the table. Behind the table was where the door should be, but instead was a massive pile of items. The memory items. Watches trinkets, dumbbells all tossed quickly to form a makeshift barrier for the door. Though hiding seems to be the best thing to Father Sakagami’s mind, he had two obvious flaws. It was clear he had gone through this door. And he had pulled open the door once making the pile, scattering it uselessly away.

 

On the other side sat Father Sakagami, leaning against the wall.

 

***

 

Father Sakagami had ripped off his favourite jacket; the brown one, that he said was a gift from his mother the last time he ever saw her. Its tattered remained covered more of him than the floor. He was currently chewing a piece. The book was held tightly in his hands. He seemed to be halfway through it.

 

Engrossed in reading, he noticed none of them.

 

“Father Sakagami?” Sharon said to get his attention. The man remained motionless

 

“Father?”

 

“Father Sakagami,” Sakura piped in to help. Though right next to him, the man didn’t move to their voices. He just sat ahead, reading the book.

 

“Is he okay?” Sakura asked, feeling stupid.

 

“I don’t know really,” said Sharon. “I don’t know what’s supposed to happen when you read the book. I imagine the knowledge would be overwhelming. Or perhaps it could break your mind.”

 

“Could just be an apology to the universe,” Nobori muttered.

 

Sharon ignored him. “To merely read the book may be a quest in itself. Who knows?” Kneeling down next to the priest, she went to wave her hands before his spectacled eyes, but thought better of it. “We best wait for Topah to get her. He should know what to do.”

 

“What about the demon?”

 

“He should too, but…” Sharon paused. “I don’t want to. Plus I’m not sure I can.”

 

Nobori sighed. “Waiting it is then.” He fell down on the opposite side of the room as Sharon tried a bit more poking and prodding. Sakura stood there, not entirely sure what the demon would do if she tried to sit down.

 

“It was a perfect summer to meet you. You must come with us on our trip to-“

 

“Yo, can you read it?”

 

“The book?” Sharon said, looking repulsed.

 

“Of course.”

 

“Of course not, thank you,” she sad, looking mildly offended. “This is the sacred wisdom of our lord. One does not just peek over the shoulder to read a few lines incorrectly.

 

“Gee sorry.”

 

“I expect when it comes to my time to read it, I will have the same experience.”

 

***

 

They sat in the corridor, waiting patiently for the priest to finish reading the Truth.

 

Alexis had not yet returned with Topah and all had grown bored of waiting. Small talk had only gone so far between three people who did not get on much of the time anyway and eventually all conversation had died down to a few occasional mutterings every few minutes.

 

Neither of the others appeared to want to leave, both desperate yet patient to read the book. Father Sakagami just sat with his back against the opposite wall, his face motionless, only moving to flick to the next page. The demon sat besides her, still mumbling its nonsensical utterances. She had long since stopped listening to it and it was no longer holding her, instead playing with its hands.

 

Though feeling odd just sitting there Sakura could not bring herself to find an excuse to leave. Part of her was curious to read the book, but it didn’t extend beyond that. She couldn’t say why but it didn’t strike her as important. It was just a book after all. Maybe she didn’t understand.

 

Nobori sighed, irritable. He had long since been talked down into just snatching the book away from the priest and pinning them all down with his immense weight. Now he just let his annoyance be known.

 

“Back then, I guess I never knew how much she loved me.”

 

The book slammed shut. The room fell silent even as they all stood to get up. Sakura looked away from and the demon and kept the same furrowed brow s she faced Father Sakagami. He stood up, his head cast down. He held the book limply in his left hand. His eyes focused on no one. Sakura smelt a faint hint of something like burning rubber.

 

“So, you finished it,” Nobori finally said, after Father Sakagami ceased to move.

 

The priest didn’t answer.

 

Nobori hunched down to try and look at Sakagami’s face. “Did he… Is he all right?”

 

Sharon looked equally confused and took a step to approach the priest.

 

“Finished,” he said, smiling lightly. “Yes. Yes I guess I am.”

 

“Well,” the guard continued. “What did it say?”

 

“Hey!” Sharon interjected. “Ask him later. I want to read it next.”

 

“Oh. Nothing much,” the priest answered.

 

“Nothing much?”

 

“It was all kind of obvious. Just stuff we already knew. Just helped clarify a few things. Bit of a wasted read really.”

 

Father Sakagami was still smiling. Mr. Worry took a hold of Sakura’s loose trousers.

 

“How could it be nothing much? You just spent hours in a trance reading that book. You’re saying it had nothing to tell you?”

 

“No,” he said, like he was relaxing on a sunny beach and didn’t want an ice cream. “Nothing much at all.”

 

“Well, does it tell you about the Truth?”

 

“You mean the one about God, and religion, and what it all means?”

 

“Yes!”

 

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, it does.”

 

“And does it tell you where to or how to find God and what we can expect from life and its meaning?”

 

“Oh yes. It covered that too. That was in the first few chapters actually.”

 

“Well,” hissed Sharon, now standing beside Nobori with equal fever. “What did it say?”

 

Father Sakagami laughed so suddenly, a sharp piercing laugh that threw his head back, that Sakura jumped back and bounced right off Mr. Worry, who was no longer looking at any of them. He continued to laugh, loud and heavy. Sakura let herself fallback into the demon. Her hair felt greasy suddenly.

 

“God isn’t dead. It’s worse,” the priest said. “He’s on holiday.”

 

“What?”

 

Then Father Sakagami was by Sharon.

 

“With the devil.”

 

The world didn’t move as Sakagami raised his hand to Sharon’s face. The woman hadn’t even noticed him approach her yet. His fingers touched her delicate, nubile skin, stroking gently just below her neck, fingertips lightly caressing before pressing forwards pushing through tight folds like darns in fabric.

 

The hand went right through, slowly. Perfect precision. His whole hand entered and wasn’t long in before it came out the other side. In his hands he held a tin can. Someone screamed as he crushed it. Sharon was still looking at where he had been.

 

The world came back to full speed and Sakura and Mr. Worry screamed in unison. Nobori jumped back as the presence of a corpse became known to him. Father Sakagami began laughing against he let the body of the perfect woman drop like a puppet cut down, dangling lifelessly off his crimson shirt.

 

Nobori only took so long to react and stepped forwards to grab the priest. Sakura felt her heart beat slower than it took for the small man to face the security guard and pummel him with the body that hung lifelessly in the air right before it slammed into the giant, forcing him several feet back through the air and crashing into the dirty tiles below.

 

“He left us, Sakura,” Father Sakagami announced boldly, turning to her with a manic grin. “Not just a trip to Okinawa. Our Lord has completely abandoned us. Gone is the Hope that his presence can bestow upon us. We are now wretched lambs far from a shepherd to guide us.” He stepped towards her, raising his bloodied hand to her. “Now we can only wander with the foolish hope of a personal destiny or behind a lamb that deludes itself to being stronger than others.” His hand traced her forehead. She felt a wet liquid abseiling her face.

 

“We are alone.”

 

The door cracked open, splintering into infinite dust as a blur torn past her sight. Sparkling wings covered her vision for just a second before Father Sakagami was there again, standing behind Topah, still touching her forehead.

 

“They too, are just as lost, whether they remain pure or compromise.”

 

Topah disappeared again, shifting into the place where Father Sakagami stood right up until he casually stepped back. The angel was between them again and she caught the look of fury that was plastered against his once lazy face. Turning into a blur, the angel threw himself at the calm priest, who started carefully stepping back and forth, side to side. It looked like Topah was flying in the narrow corridor at faster than light speeds, always going round the man before him. Keeping eye contact with her, Father Sakagami raised his foot and the holy angel collided with the wall, hitting it only so far as to smash through it and disappear enveloped in a cloud of dust. Losing track of what was before her, she heard many more crashes, growing distant each time.

 

“An angel who fell to Sloth. To consider yourself one still; blasphemy!”

 

“Isabella!” Sakura’s heart soared with wonder. Coming through the door was Alexis. That was good. Already his hand was out to grab her, that smooth hand that brought bliss to her as he held against her. A warm comforting answer better than any she needed to hear. It was Alexis. He’d know what to do

 

“Alexis!” she went to shout, but stopped when she found her words echoed. Besides her, Mr. Worry was the one who leapt for his hand, grabbing it and hugging his body into the now startled librarian’s assistant.

 

“Not now demon!” Alexis gasped as he sought to wrest the creature’s grip off of him. Could only watch as the demon held on like a hysterical madwoman, being frantically tossed about as his masculine cries went from grateful to frenzied.

 

The demon screamed with a blow. “Alexis. What are you doing?”

 

“We don’t have time for your tricks, Mr. Worry.” Her boyfriend gained the upper hand, and the demon tossed over to the side, tears steaming down its blushed face.

 

“Wha are you doing?” the demon screamed. “It’s me. It’s Isabella!”

 

Sakura felt a lightning bolt shoot through her stomach. She tried her best not to be sick.

 

Alexis scowled. “We don’t have time for this, Mr. Worry.”

 

“What are you saying, my love!” the demon protested. “I am…Mr. Worry. No, I’m Isabella? How can I be both?”

 

Sakura watched as the demons face shot between two masks of twisted obsession and bewildered panic. When Alexis grabbed her by the shoulder she barely noticed.

 

“Come on, we have to-” He didn’t finish, disappearing behind the body of an angel crashing into him.

 

“I must confess,” Father Sakagami said behind her. “I thought it a passing strange.”

 

She turned round to see Father Sakagami mere inches from her, his smiling like one you would give a baby to see if it would smile back. In his hand he had Mr. Worry by the head; squeezing.

 

“I ha assumed you had done it willingly, that you had given yourself a present like I had. But it was truly an accident. And the fault of my brief experimentation with drugs at that. Who knew?” Hearing the distinct sound of a coconut cracking, Sakura mumbled a few words.”

 

“Wh-what… what happened to you?”

 

“The Truth, Sakura. I told you that and to think it’s all the Futabatei’s fault and I didn’t even know who they were until just now,” he said kindly with a hint of volcano. “But you mustn’t distract yourself from what you’re hiding. The Truth will set you free my dear. And you best acknowledge your own actions.”

 

“M-m-m-muh-muh-m-m My. My….muh-muh muh.” Hushing her with a finger to her lips, he grabbed hold of her head and kissed her lightly on the forehead. It tickled, made her want to giggle. “Here’s a clue. He’s the same as Sadface.”

 

It all came rushing forwards. Alexis. The first meeting in the library. Walking along hand in hand. His death. His return.

 

The department of Recollected Memories.

 

“No,” she muttered meekly. “It can’t be.”

 

Looking up to the man who helped raised her, she saw as Nobori stood over the two of them and lunged. He succeeded where angels failed and leant back, suplexing the priest into the air and crashing down to the ground. The priest landed on top without injury and was already getting up. Nobori took hold again though and twisted him into the wall

 

“Sakura. Come on.” Her heart was racing. Alexis was holding her. Alexis was here. But…She looked around for an answer, and Topah was there.

 

“You’ll wanna be getting her out of here,” he said, as he body started to shift. His wings were hovering behind him now, not connected to his body. “Take the judge’s exit. Go now.”

 

“Wait,” she shouted, even as Father Sakagami plunged Nobori into a wall and back out again using nothing more than a stern grin. “If he’s… if he’s a-“

 

“That’ll be fine!” Topah seemed to be shouting, or were things just getting quieter. “When you get to the judge’s exit, you’ll have to take the lead. Just hold him. Don’t look back or talk to him.” The whole corridor shook impossibly. Nobori was stuck to the ceiling.

 

“I can’t… I don’t know how to say-“

 

“Just trust me, I’m an angel.” The angel raised its staff and began stepping away. “Just don’t look back. Don’t speak, and head for the exit.” Behind him, Nobori spun himself out of the gap and landed feet first, right before Sakagami pushed him through the wall. He kept going. “And remember. There are worse ways and worst things to fall in love with.”

 

“What do you…”

 

“Sakura, we have to go. We’re useless here.”

 

“No, you’re not-“

 

“We have to go.”

 

Pulling her away, she got one last look at the angel before he turned into a blur. For just a second as they passed through the adjacent door hinge, she saw Father Sakagami’s eyes grow wide as he fell backwards before he could regain his balance.

 

And then they were both lost behind the mahogany door.

 

****

 

Everything happened fast over the next few days, with a constant barrage of parties and meeting new people and engaging in bizarre village wide street races that always seemed to end with them finding themselves wandering to their room, a little too drunk than she would care to admit. With each day ending the same way, and the mornings beginning with being dragged into something new, it came with a weary apathy that the girls hadn’t yet got round to getting a separate bed.

 

This had been a moot point so far, with the multiple concussions the first day and the multiple acts of binge drinking the second, third, fourth, fifth and six. It was only now, as she lay sleeping, Fujiko’s head resting on her shoulder, that she remained painfully awake of how close her friend was to her.

 

The pit of her belly felt sick again, completely her own fault, and she reached over softly, not wanting to wake the sleeping form next to her, to take the cup of Flower Bloom, a remedy Fujiko had gotten from one of the girls at the market place, said to produce liver enzymes of extraordinary strength that your hangover would be gone instantly. She had experimented with it herself and found oddly enough that it worked perfectly. Even now, she was sipping it and feeling the queasiness dissipate in the same moment. The problem was the alcohol was still leaking into her system, still getting drunk, and this apparently only cured drunkenness after it had come. It helped a little.

 

Taking away one pain just bought another irritation to mind, one which increased the moment Fujiko grumbled to herself and shifted over, wrapping her arm around Otsune’s waist and holding her prisoner. Otsune had foolishly made no attempt to move earlier, and now found she couldn’t at all.

 

In the boredom of the darkness, thoughts of the other sleep cycle, a term only Otsune was using in the eternal night environment, were seeping into her mind. It hadn’t been Fujiko, she kept telling herself. It was nothing more than a trick of the mind, long nights of loneliness with a good companion.

 

Otsune had never been with a woman before, and only two men. Part of her mind wanted to believe she’d have more experience, and of course inevitably part of her wanted everyone she knew to believe her a maiden on top of a tower that wasn’t at all phallic waiting peacefully and serenely for a man who would first woo her and maybe only consider the later acts if they wanted to have kids or something. That feeling was wrong though. She never wanted kids. She didn’t mind them, but she couldn’t stand the thought of how much time would be wasted taking care of them. She had a lot more important things to do with her life.

 

Like lying awake trying not to have lesbian thoughts.

 

Why was that so difficult? Hell, yet another part of her was wondering why she was trying to resist. Fujiko, and not that Fujiko from the other night, had spoken a little about some experiences she had that went further than Otsune could imagined. And wasn’t she, Tsunade Otsune, the beautiful scientist with a mind so free from societal limitations that it wasn’t even constrained by her own father’s strict standards? Shouldn’t she be beyond the societal pressure to not engage in the act of coitus for reasons of pleasure, and not be bound of the choice of a mate from gender and sexuality? Such a crappy limitation of XX and XY should be beneath her.

 

But Fujiko wasn’t just a potential mate. She was a friend as well. Friends were different to potential mates. True friendship was a separate act that couldn’t be corrupted by romantic love. But then it mustn’t be denied that the stupid chemicals in a human brains (that she herself was clearly suffering from at this very moment) made it blurry to look at those switches and make it far to easy to flick the wrong one.

 

The mind should be free of petty limitations, and emotions should be allowed to develop in the way they choose themselves to be developed. But once one had made decisions, one should adhere to them.

 

And yet be flexible as well, to allow mental evolution.

 

She cried out in frustration, almost forgetting the object of her uncertain affections lying atop of her for a moment. She looked to the girl’s drunken, mumbling face, a face scrunched up with stomach pains, lips drying up from dehydration as mouth hung wide open, and the vein on her forehead throbbing as her brain started to shrink from her skull.

 

This wasn’t exactly pushing an impressive argument for the side of ‘just do her already!’

 

Yet the thought was there now, and probably not up for leaving anytime soon, but that was unacceptable. No, if she didn’t decide this soon, if not now, then nothing would move forwards and things would just begin to grind to a stop.

 

An experiment then. To decide things.

 

A kiss seemed appropriate. Yes, that’s what decided these things. Get a kiss. See how you feel. Decide from there. It may not be the most rigorous of experiments, but neither was love the most quantifiable of concepts!

 

She looked to the lips of her sleeping friend. As hard as it sounds of course. Of course it was just as easy really. What difference did it have than that moment really? The physical contact of skin cells. The brushing of two bodies. A more sensitive part maybe. Lips against lips. Eyes facing eyes. Mouth to mouth. It was amazing humans had even evolved to a standard where whole nations both aimed and struggled to do this one simple act. She still didn’t understand it now. Was it just a distraction to engage the upper half of the body, or more a…

 

She was dawdling. Hesitation. The part of her brain that was still smart argued the delay was an indication of a wish to hold the suspense and deny the answer she knew truly in her heart, but then she knew that side of her was also laughing behind her back. Enough of this! Leaning over, she got as close to Fujiko as she could.

 

Fujiko’s eyes wavered a little bit. “ ‘tsune?”

 

“Shhhh,” she whispered, looking into her friends eyelids. “I’m just going to kiss you, Fujiko.” I just want to test something.”

 

“Whether or not you’re gay? Okay,” she muttered back, still drunk.

 

This put Otsune off considerably, reminding her that Fujiko had already rejected her once and now made her feel she had no choice. Fujiko wouldn’t let it go if she were a coward now, even if she were already unconscious and drooling again. Otsune paused to wipe the slither from the girl’s mouth and leaned in.

 

The cocking of a barrel caught her attention.

 

Peeking up, Otsune’s eyes caught glance of Rose, standing there in the darkness illuminated by the little flame. Otsune’s first thought was how she could have missed her come into the room, with the creaking door shut a moment ago and a small personal piece of light that followed her even when threatened. The second thought was the gun in the maid’s hands. A third thought selfishly issued annoyance at the interruption.

 

“I can do this. I can do this. So simple. Such a simple thing. Why couldn’t I do it?”

 

Though hidden in darkness and shaking in the maid’s hands, Otsune recognised a semi automated pistol when she saw one pointed in her direction. And she didn’t have to be in forensics to know the details of what would happen if anything happened. Even so, a super sleuth would have no idea why this was happening.

 

“Rose?”

 

“Even I have a chance. Even I have a chance if I work hard. I can do this. I really can.”

 

“Rose? What are you doing?” she tried to make her voice sound more concerned for Rose than herself. She wasn’t sure if she was getting it right.

 

‘Stay calm’ was running on a loop inside her head, her brain reaching for scenarios as to the why as it played. She was getting on fine with Rose. No problems – so far. The chats they had so far were friendly and she had even made a point not to comment how the woman had amazingly fulfilled an American stereotype so far away from earth. If anything, time was too short to have passed to have a good reason to kill them.

 

Of course, there never is a good reason to kill someone.

 

“Got to. Got to kill. Got to live. I want to live. I worked hard. Worked very hard. Kind to everyone.”

 

“Rose, calm down. Why are you dong this?” Besides her, Fujiko had woken up a little then very quickly a lot. She was facing Rose now as well, keeping down and quiet. Otsune had lifted herself up, keeping her arms in front of her, not only to offer a submissive attitude that might help calm Rose down… but also to try and catch the bullet.

 

Mutterings. Incomprehensible. Rose was trying to convince herself. She didn’t want to do it. But believed she had to. A stupid reaction, but one stupid people made all the same.

 

“Deserve the chance. I want the chance…but but…”

 

“What is it Rose? What is this chance?”

 

“Only chance. Only one chance. Just me. Has to be me. I can do it. I can be kind to everyone when they’re all dead. Make it right for everyone.”

 

Madness? Not quite. Not a symptom she developed on her own by any chance. Someone had done this to her. She believed she had to do it, but didn’t want to. Someone had talked her into it.

 

“Rose. Stop this. You don’t want to kill us.”

 

“Don’t want to, no. Don’t want to kill anyone. But I can. I can do this. I can help you all. Even you.”

 

Otsune watched as Rose’s stricken fear turned into a frantic, almost lewd grin. “Yes, even you. You may be new here. But you’re one of us now. You should be included….I think.”

 

Doubt. There it was.

 

“Are you sure we’re included, Rose? Why should we be killed when we only just got here. That’s not fair on everyone else.”

 

Confusion was a deadly weapon when used on either side, but it worked. Rose’s grin disappeared, the word game bringing back the fear and uncertainly. She fidgeted, letting go of the gun with one hand and brushing her hair back out of habit. The gun held steady.

 

“We shouldn’t be killed, Rose. Not here. Not after everyone’s generosity. It would be a waste, wouldn’t it?”

 

“A waste.”

 

“Yes, if we get killed now, we won’t be able to replay everyone for their generosity.”

 

“No…” the grin returned. Shit. “No need to. It was our pleasure. Our pleasure to look after you. We look after everyone. But now the time comes. And everyone looks after everyone forever. Yes…I can do this. I can. I want to…. Help.”

 

Rose stopped herself again. Otsune wished she could leap over the bed and just grab the gun, numb legs and a lack of depth perception notwithstanding.

 

“I want to help,;’ she repeated. “I have to help.” She stepped forward, levelling the gun firmly at Otsune’s head. Her own eyes focused on the trigger, waiting for a flinch she could barely see. “But…this isn’t helping, is it?”

 

“No…” Otsune barely whispered. “This won’t help. Whatever it is Rose, I can tell you killing us won’t help at all. Tell us, Rose. Tell us what’s going on.”

 

“Won’t help at all….Not at all.” She froze for what felt like exactly three hours, twenty six minutes and thirteen seconds, closed her eyes and screamed louder than a plane crash, shaking the gun violently in her hand and bringing it up to her own forehead under a waterfall of sweat and tears. ”No I can’t. I can’t do this. I won’t. I won’t be the one!”

 

“Rose!” Otsune’s voice was too late. The flash of gunpowder, the snap bang of a shard of light slapping another piece of metal loud enough to deafen and a bullet leaving a chamber as it breached the epidermal layer of a young hispanic woman’s forehead and carried on through skull, brain cells, pineal gland and exiting through hair strands that then fell to the floor with the rest of the body. Otsune blinked.

 

“No,” she heard herself shouting, clambering over the bed. Shock and alcohol tripped her over Fujiko’s prone legs and she fell head to head with Rose. The woman’s eyes were already wide and motionless.

 

“No,” she said, flipping Rose’s body so she lay completely on her back. “Oh no you don’t. No one fucking dares commit suicide in front of me. Don’t you fucking dare.”

 

First aid training tried to go into effect, her hands hovered in every which direction over Rose’s limp body, part of her trying to decide whether or not to try and breath life back into the corpse or just beat the chest silly until a miracle happened.

 

“Don’t. No don’t. You can’t….don’t let this….”

 

Her body chose for her, flailing forwards and crushing her head into the pit of the girl’s stomach.

 

“Don’t kill yourself because of me,” she begged, feeling her go cold so fast. It was impressive really. She had never had the chance to see algor mortis in effect but it was really surprising to…shut up.

 

Shut up shut up shut up!

 

“Shut up!” she cried out, feeling her head caught and pushed against a shoulder. Fujiko was there now, holding her tightly. She resisted for a second, then screamed loud into the girl’s chest. She coughed and choked over the body, watched as the blood spread out over the carpet, soaking her knees, Fujiko shushing her calmly as she held her close.

 

Everyone only had such a short time to live. How could anyone ever bring themselves to make it even shorter?

 

***

 

Gunshots rang out through the air moment later. Some rattled away loudly for a few seconds longer than the others. Otsune contemplated how such an old looking town had such guns. Rose’s semi-automatic shouldn’t be possible in a town without electricity, though it had no brands or markings to relate it to. Part of her wanted to examine it thoroughly to get some idea of what was going on but couldn’t bring herself to pick it up, the weapon still clutched tightly in the maid’s hands.

 

She had reached her conclusion. She knew what was going on. The body in front of her had gone stone cold now and Rose’s eyes had started staring at her.

 

Her body was too weak. It wasn’t used to this yet. Taking it in all the same, she looked for clues, evidence on the body. Anything that might explain this madness even a little, to tell her where to go next with it.

 

But no, there was nothing. Otsune got up looking over to Fujiko standing by the window. It was half ajar, she was trying to get to fresh air without exposing herself.

 

“Hey Otsune, why do all the places we go to have people who kill each other?”

 

“Clearly we pick some shitty venues,” Otsune replied, wiping tears and picking herself off the floor, navigating round the three pools of liquid now staining the embroiled carpet. Peering between the closed curtains, she saw a building four blocks in front detonate outwards, engulfing the surrounding buildings in flaming timber. Flinching back, she pulled her head out the window just a crack to look down, holding onto her glasses tightly. Five bodies stained the ground below them. Two of them had mown the other three down, judging by the angles of the bodies, only to turn their guns on each other. She recognised all of them. One was the manager.

 

“What are you doing?” Fujiko shouted. “Get back!” She yanked Otsune a good few feet away then jumped back herself as if the whole window frame was poised to explode. It didn’t. From here Otsune could see four houses on fire and at least three gun battles. Below, people were slaughtering each other – and then dying too.

 

The battle was taking place within the village, else more buildings would be on fire from external projectiles. Considering Rose, it seemed likely that this was all internal. Considering the five friends whose names she never learned, knowing the person no longer mattered.

 

A loud bang from behind scared the shit out of her. She spun round to see Tina by the door, her jacket wrapped round her waist, her left shoulder covered in blood.

 

“Oh thank god,” wheezed Tina before looking down. “Shit! I mean…”

 

Otsune glared. “You knew Rose?”

 

“What? Yeah. I knew everyone here. I thought I did anyway,” Tina took a step forward, then saw all the obstacles. “I never thought this would happen.”

 

“Thought what would happen?”

 

“I don’t’ know. God. This. This. What is this?” screamed Tina. “How could they go through with this?”

 

“What?” Otsune shouted, feeling angry with a time delay suddenly appearing above her head. “What is this?”

 

Striding over the bed and missing the body, Otsune stepped in front of Tina and blocked her view of the body. Tina stared back on her, a queasy look on her face, her cheeks looked like they were bloating.

 

“It’s the Rapture of Transcendence,” she exhaled after a long silence.

 

BAM! A blast rang out and the room shifted an inch to Otsune’s left and bang again. Her balance nearly left her and shook Tina about. Making sure that neither of them fell, she picked the girl up and started. Move now. Think later.

 

“Come on,” she cried out to them, pulling her out the door. “Fujiko!”

 

Otsune was out the door before she knew it, only checking the corridor afterwards and already feeling dead because of it. That blast was in the building judging by how much the place shook and here she was just peeking her head out into corridors! Stupid! “Fujiko!”

 

“Coming. Coming,” Fujiko called out, poking her head out the door before deciding it was safe and coming the full way. The little flame was right behind her, idly setting alight to the timberwood as it went though.

 

The building was mostly wood. It would go up fast if the explosion had started a fire. Otsune shifted a gear and grabbed Tina. “Come on!” The others finally got their act up and began pelting through the corridors. All three were thinking of evasion and headed for the side exit rather than the entrance.

 

“What do you mean by rapture?” Otsune said, trying not to shout as their footsteps turned to loud echoes in the hollow hallways. “Are we talking bible rapture?”

 

“I don’t’ know,” Tina screamed back. “I don’t think so. I didn’t hear much about it. It only happened at church and I never went. Only that everyone was excited about it and not working as hard. The chief kept telling me it was sort of important and he’d tell me when there was more time, but he kept putting it off.”

 

“Yeah I can see how this would be something you wouldn’t bring up a the dinner table,” Otsune tried to mutter but ended up shouting instead. They turned a corner. Empty corridor. It led to the stairs. Seven rooms lay between them though and it occurred to her with a flash that there could be anyone behind these doors waiting to fire as they went passed.

 

A window to the right reminded her they were still five floors up and that it wasn’t an option. She clicked her tongue in frustration and pelted it down the corridor after the others, keeping her head down, seeing each door coming up closer and closer. The first door passed her without event; the second and third as well. She kept jogging as she got lower, jerking her head to look through each door. It was a long corridor, covering most of the length of the building. Fourth door. Fifth. Sixth.

 

“Hey,” she cried out to the others to as she saw the seventh door was ajar, the top half anyway. The bottom was missing.

 

“Otsune…” Fujiko wheezed, but Otsune couldn’t listen. The room had been turned into a hole, roof and floor now charred black and burst through, the carpet still ablaze in small piles around the room. Below, the hole continued several floors down, getting smaller each time.

 

“We’ll get down this way,” she stated, ducking her head under to the broken door. It was an inner room, no windows like the one by the stairs. It would be easy to keep check of themselves and retreat if necessary back to the adjacent corridors.

 

“If you think we’re jumping down there,” Fujiko started, Otsune ignoring her to look up making sure there’s wasn’t another of what caused this coming down on them, “then you’re nuts. We won’t survive this.”

 

“It’s four seven foot drops,” she lied by about two. “We’ll be fine.” From the hole in the sky, she could see the mountain looming at them. She could only see the tip from where she was, but she shouldn’t have been able to see it at all. It was like the village in that way.

 

Stepping down like she was getting off the escalator, she hit the next green carpe.. Whatever caused it may still be at the bottom. If need be they could take the stairs. The other two screamed their way down and didn’t have time to stop as Otsune went with the rhythm onto the third and second floors. The fourth hole was bigger than all three of the others, and Otsune could see a ring of fire burning round the circumference of the hole’s shadow,

 

Taking the last set of stairs seemed a good idea once she saw no way of jumping to the first floor without missing completely and getting the ground floor instead. Luckily the area was deserted and only the tavern cat came to greet them before hissing and running for its life. Before they knew it, they were at the side exit.

 

Otsune pushed the smooth metal bar down and let the door fall ajar just a crack. It was the alley. These alleys were as clean as the main roads, giving her two contradictions in a row. The part of the alley she could see was deserted, as was the area coming away from it. Popping her head all the way round, it shot back without her telling it to as two blasts fired out. “Thank you, Gufstteld. Thank you!” someone screamed. She kept the door shut and waited, hearing the sprinting footsteps pounce towards her. She counted seconds carefully as the pounding got closer to her. This was stupid.

 

Reaching four, she kicked the door hard throwing it out and seeing it immediately bounce back, the man flying back and into the opposing wall.

 

“Jesus!” screamed Fujiko as the door snapped back and forth a few times falling off its hinges and scattering to the floor. Otsune didn’t stop. Pushing what remained of the door back open, she leapt through and onto the man, weighing his body down against the floor.

 

The man got a groan and a mutter off before the rest of her weight went down onto his groin and her hand propped itself against his throat. “Murderer!” she shouted, seeing nothing but red and a lump of meat at the far end of the alleyway. “Why’d you kill him? What’s going on here!”

 

Feeling one of the girls approach her from behind, she lifted his head by his neck and knocked him down again. “Answer me!”

 

The man’s head wavered up and down as he came to, blood coming out of his nose at the wrong angle, cut up in ways you wouldn’t expect from a door hitting you. Opening his beady eyes with a surprising jovially glare, he smiled as if he had just woken up and seen the face of a lover besides him.

 

“Ah, it is our guests,” he looked behind her shoulder. “And Tina. My friends. I bid you good day. I see you are doing well on this glorious of days.”

 

So polite was the expression on his face, even as it bent the wrong way with liquid dripping out of several holes that Otsune had to grip hard onto her anger in case it left her. A brief second had her wanting to ask him how his day was so far, what he had plans to do and did he hear about that awful chap on the street corner whose life he had stole away just now.

 

“Still, we have no time to chat, do we now? Please, would you allow me to kill you all as well? I have the best chance for ascension here, and you can each help give it to me.”

 

Otsune didn’t answer, staring down at him incredulously. He laughed it off. “Now don’t be like that. You are all new here, certainly you can see I am more fit to be the saviour over yourselves. And if I kill you now and I win, then your place in guaranteed to be on the higher plane, though I hope this bleeding nose doesn’t give me away at times I need to hide.”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“Well we can hardly do with me being exposed because my nose is bleeding. If I kill you and then die before the time then all our chances will be ruined.” She slammed him down again, shaking a toy to get it to say something new.

 

“Sorry. I like my life. Try again in a hundred and ten years. Now, tell us…”

 

“You plan to live until a hundred and twenty eight?” Fujiko interrupted.

 

“Huh eh….shut up,” she muttered, trying to remain focused. Men this happy with her on top either had something up their sleeves or assuming they wouldn’t be wearing sleeves in a moment. “Now, why should we let you kill us?”

 

“Oh…” the man looked a little confused, then grinned smartly. “Oh my, you don’t know a thing about this, do you? You must be so surprised. Well, let me up, and I’ll tell you what you need to know.”

Otsune added more pressure on the neck. “Denied. Explain on the ground!” He got two inches up before pressing back down again.

 

He grunted. “Very well. But it’ll have to be quick. We are very open here.”

 

“I don’t think I’ll be able to stomach anything but the abridged version.” From the corner of her eye, she saw a ball of flame rise high into the distance followed by a large boom. There wasn’t much gas around here. It wouldn’t have been easy for any villager to get it that high.

 

“”To make it concise, today is the Rapture of Transcendence. It is the day where the Strangelands end and we must all be prepared to leave it. But the end of the Strangelands will be that of agony, as the land is swallowed up and torn and burnt until nothing remains but a door. Only one will be allowed through that door. The others must go to bvcfg45.

 

Otsune reread the conversation in her head. She swore she just heard heaven, but couldn’t be sure.

 

“Though only one must remain, he alone shall suffer the burden of the fall of the Strangelands, yet he, and by that I of course mean myself, will be rewarded for his actions. The door shall lead to another great land, one of lands of green chalk that meet blue liquid chalk, stretching out for a whole three gorkavs, maybe even more. But it’s not like here, you know, they say even the smallest part of land there is unique and different and can house a whole family. A magical place called New York.”

 

“I think I may have heard of it.”

 

“But though it is vibrant and exciting, it is a place of misery. They know not of the heavens there. Not truly and they have no one but those as foolish as them to guide them, but that will change once we have decided the saviour. When we have decided the saviour he, of course, me, shall travel there and free them all. I shall let them know of the glory of his path and ensure that they too can have their own day of rapture and destruction.

 

“So, in summary, your stupid religion tells you to kill each other and be glad when you’re dead, but still aim to be alive at the end of it, though be happy when dead, so that when it’s all over here you can go elsewhere and teach the same thing to more idiots.”

 

“You don’t believe then? You don’t need to. It’s the truth of the Strangelands. They will end soon. Try and last that long if you believe you can and then you will see the end yourself. Of course, only one of you can do it.”

 

“Uh huh, and pray tell, how do you know it’s true again?”

 

“It was foretold by our priest, who father’s told him and his forefathers before him, as it has been passed down. Though it need not come from his mouth anymore, we all know and accept his to be the creator’s.”

 

“I don’t believe it.”

 

“You don’t have to. It is true.”

 

“You even call them the creators, like they created the story… and you just choose to believe it. And for the record you wouldn’t last five minutes in New York.”

 

“Ah, it’s not quite like that. You see…” She smashed his head against the cobbles again. His voice was ticking her off now. It was hard to tell why he was still coherent, but then something dug into her skin for just a second. Screaming out as she fell back, Otsune saw red.

 

“Ahhhg!” she got out, as she felt the warm body go out from beneath her. He was lifting her up and over before she could even see where his face had gone. Her arm was burning.

 

Something fell on top of her. She struggled and wiggled, but she felt slippery all over, unable to grab. She coughed wildly and felt nothing. Now she couldn’t breath, her diaphragm was running into a wall and getting up, Fibbonassi came to mind and told her she had forgotten her maths homework. Her life fell away. A blond haired girl sneered at her and threw mud. Her father passing away in front of her. A man begging to be killed by her.

 

A large shout swam across the courtyard.

 

Otsune woke exactly fourteen seconds later, and was already up and back and against the wall. On the floor the man lay with his face on the ground, more blood was on his outside than there should have been. It was running through the cracks in the cobblestones.

 

The third dead body of her life was now presented to her. Besides her she heard Fujiko’s heavy breathing, her lungs panting, her lips shivering, her arms hanging limp, the gun rested between them.

 

Otsune snapped back when she saw it. It was either the man’s gun or Rose’s, but Fujiko should never have been holding it. A small trail of smoke flew into the empty air. Below them, the chalk bleached itself red. Otsune took it safely. Grabbing hold of Fujiko’s shoulder lightly first, she was able to get the girl to lower the gun so it was pointing away from everyone. Taking it away from her, she looked carefully at her friend, her eyes wide and hollow, not looking at anything.

 

There was little time, but it had to be done. Leaving her friend standing there, she knelt down to the man and spent a moment with her fingers on his neck. Holding back a hiss as her arm screamed at her, she glanced down to see now blood on her besides Roses. Knowing the answer she sighed with loud relief, looking back at Fujiko with a small, appropriate smile. The girl immediately seemed to gain her energy back. Seeing her move up to see for sure, Otsune stood in the way, leaving the man facing away from them and walking her friend up the path.

 

“You didn’t kill him. Let’s go.”

 

“But…”

 

“Let’s go. Before he wakes up.”

 

***

 

It had taken fifteen minutes to get to relative safety. Now hiding behind some crates, the three girls observed their surroundings carefully. No one was nearby, but screams and gunshots were still erupting in all directions.

 

Besides her, Fujiko and Tina were both looking as little as possible at the carnage above the crates. Otsune saw no one nearby and took the time to think. This was all, of course, irrelevant. She knew what was happening. She may have had no proof, nothing concrete, but it was the only answer, the answer she felt was right in her heart. This was all wrong. So she couldn’t be wrong. There was no time for any doubt.

 

She just had to have faith this would work.

 

“We won’t have much time. There’s bound to be some people here who don’t want to take part in this. We’ll need to get them out of this as well.”

 

“What? No way?” Fujiko argued. “We’re not gonna get out ourselves at this rate. We can’t watse time…”

 

“Rose killed herself rather than kill me,” Otsune hissed at the interruption; she had a lot to get through. “That’s proof that some here don’t truly believe this Rapture.”

 

“But I don’t want to-“

 

“You won’t, Fujiko,” she said holding her friend by the shoulder and trying for a smile. “Head straight for the gates. We’ll meet you there shortly. Keep to the shadows and don’t speak to anyone, even if they request your help. Tina, we’re scouting for victims. Make sure no one gets involved in this if they don’t want to.

 

“Should we be stopping this if that’s how you see it?”

 

“If this is really their faith, they’ll follow it no matter what I say. I don’t have jurisdictions over such customs. They may be fucked up in my mind, but cargo cults are something you can’t stop even with perfect reason; especially with perfect reason.” She laughed at herself. “Besides, what am I going to do? Stand up on a podium, ask for everyone’s attention and not get shot?”

 

“I can’t say i-“

 

“No time for arguments, Fujiko. None of this will be able to talk people out of this, and I don’t want to involve you more than I already have. Go now.”

 

“But…”

 

“Go!”

 

Fujiko hesitated, and Otsune stared her down, hoping she’d notice.

 

“Fine,” she nodded, wrapping the bag round her shoulder and grabbing the focoscope. “Don’t die here. It’d really suck.”

 

“Yes it would.” Fujiko started running, following Otsune’s pointing finger directions.

 

Otsune turned to Tina and continued the game. “You know this town well. Where are people likely to be shacked up and hiding?”

 

“The problem is with why they’re hiding,” Tina explained. “Some may be trying to stay alive out of panic. Others as tactic.”

 

“Then where’s someone irrational with panic likely to hide compared to someone irrational with bloodlust.”

 

“The church and basements I’d say. Possibly the merchant quarters.”

 

“Which way’s that?” Tina pointed in the way opposite to where Fujiko went.

 

“The whole place is really residential. But I’d say it was the middle classes that didn’t want to fight out of all this. The poor tend to be violent and the rich believe the hype. The sorta expensive but not quite roads are that way.” She pointed to the road ahead of them between where Fujiko went and the merchant quarters.

 

Inequality? Otsune hadn’t noticed that before but more intervening variables that were irrelevant.

 

“I’ll take that way then. You check out the merchant quarters.”

 

“Hey, shouldn’t we be sticking together in this?”

 

“A pair would panic people, and we’ve got too much ground to cover. I’ll be amazed if we picked up any at all.”

 

“Then why try?”

 

“Because I won’t have victims. Now, no more arguing. Go.”

 

Tina hesitated. “I don’t wanna lose you again.”

 

Of course she didn’t. “And you won’t. Now stop being gay and go.” To prevent argument, she started moving herself, jumping up and heading for the shadows of the nearest house. She looked back and found Tina moving already. She gave one last wave to her newly found friend and Otsune half waved back before moving onwards.

 

“One, two, three, four…”

 

She paced past three houses and ducked when she heard screaming. Throwing herself into the crack between two houses Otsune watched in a window’s reflection as two men lunged at each other. One was bare handed, the other lazily swiping a knife. He was wounded and getting desperate. Both had lost an eye already.

 

“Fifty seven, fifty eight, fifty nine, sixty,” Otsune counted. That should have been enough. It had barely been enough to work on. But judging by the size of the town, it would be enough. She squatted down and checked her boots. Bought only last month, still in one piece, and doing amazingly well considering. They were going to hate her for this, her blistered feet too.

 

“You better keep up, fireball.”

 

Bracing herself, she gave it an extra five seconds countdown and when the two men had just looked away long enough for the other to lose his knife in the other’s shoulder, she slammed her knee back and catapulted into the air, landing immediately into a front sprint and running a full arc around in the direction she came back from. The two men sighted her and sounded like they broke off to chase her. She was in three quarters sprint. She’d get just passed the corner building where they started before slowing down. She knew her running speed well.

 

The men gnarled and gnashed after her; she heard a metallic clatter against cobblestones under her feet and got a little boost from the rush. Past the house and still strong. This trip had extended her optimum sprint time by roughly seven seconds. She kept it up for a winded second then switched to jogging as she pushed past the tavern where a women in a thick blanket lay face down and faking death. Otsune sped up as she saw the shuffle of preparation and was glad Fujiko had taken her advice.

 

She was just passing the church when she caught up to the girl.

 

“Otsune,” Fujiko got in, before Otsune sped up a little more to keep the girl running. “Where’s Tina?”

 

“Irrelevant. Follow me,” she panted, and made a bee line for the church.

 

****

 

Sarah continued to stomp her way through most of the west wing, waking up three residents and reminding a potted shrub of the item on its schedule that it had forgotten for today1. When she got to her room, she stopped and slipped through, making sure she went in quietly and nearly stepping on a discarded cod for her efforts.

 

“Way to grow a pair, girl,” Sarah muttered, flicking out her phone. “We’ll make a man out of you yet.” She waited a moment. “Hi yes, can you put me through to someone in marketing. It’s important.”

1 Continue to be a plant

 

****

 

“I am the wolf trapped in sheep’s flesh. I forgot I was wearing and now seek to tear myself out of the farmer’s cage,” Otsune said as they passed the altar and headed straight for the steps leading to the tower. “This place slowed me down. Too much information. Not enough context.”

 

“Where are we going, Otsune,” Fujiko cried after her. “We should be going down. That’s where the exits are.”

 

Otsune stopped as she stepped out onto the balcony. It was the closest to the spire she could get, closest to the top. To her right, the mountain loomed besides the edge of the village. Below, the screaming streets looked tangled up with one another. Otsune looked ahead, and spoke.

 

“This is a trick, Fujiko,” she said. “A trap. Want to know how I know?”

 

Fujiko meandered on the spot, not looking in the mood for exposition. “Sure, why not,” she said, after a prolonged hesitation.

 

“Look over there,” Otsune pointed as she passed the focoscope. Seeing into the distance was difficult, even with her glasses, her vision wasn’t perfect. But she could see this perfectly. Two point three kilometres away, over high gates, gates and walls far too high for a simple city where filling it with water would only make a large lake. Just over gates, and another point six kilometres away, lay black ash, along with soot across chalk white land.

 

Three large blotches covered the landscape just before the horizon, three black pixels against a dead screen of white.

 

“That’s…”

 

“The blasts from Mitzy’s Teardrop thing. Fired at us when we were arguing, right before we were knocked out.”

 

“But…”

 

“It’s not possible, no mater how you think about it. We were there, and then there was no city, and certainly no mountain, otherwise we wouldn’t have argued. But now there is, a large village with large walls and giant namesake gates, full of large masses slaughtering each other for reasons that are fruitless.”

 

“So…”

 

“So we are being tricked. Someone’s bringing these places to us so we can wander in, and feel like we’re getting somewhere. We’re having answers handed to us, but none to the questions we’ve been asking, just to other places that may give us our answers.”

 

“But you just saw the black marks. You couldn’t have known for sure that-“

 

“No. But I knew the second I saw Tina here. Even before then I knew. I had faith that we were being tricked. Someone’s messing with us.”

 

“And how do you-”

 

“I was not a person of faith and hope, Fujiko. I reasoned and used logic. I followed duty and the lateral course. Yet this place gave me vague answers, hollow grounds to follow course and I was stupid enough to follow them like a good little sheep. And all sheep have a Shepard, Fujiko. Who has made us mill around the way we have done?”

 

Below they heard a cry of torment louder than the rest, Otsune dared to glance down and was met with a spear rising into the sky. It flew meters in front of her before gravity reclaimed it, bringing it back down into the masses.

 

“Look, it’s not safe here. We’ve got to-“

 

“It may not be safe, but someone…”

 

“Could you stop interrupting me!”

 

Otsune stopped, finally letting her breath catch up with her. “Sorry.”

 

“You’re saying you figured out that something odd is going on here? Well done, girl! So smart of you to figure that out.”

 

“Well I,”

 

“In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in a chalk desert. Maybe it’s just meant to be that cities grow out of the ground in this place. Or maybe it was hidden from the outside. We could have been right outside invisible gates and they let us in when they saw us being attacked. Eh?”

 

Otsune faltered. “You… could be right,” she considered it for a moment. “But we have yet to determine whether or not this place can make cities invisible on the outside. We do know however, it can make sustainable environments in an area where they should only be death or nothing. At the moment, the fact this city came out of nowhere holds a little more weight to it.”

 

“That’s crazy.”

 

“Yes. Unfortunately it is. This whole place is crazy and inconsistent and incredibly hard to predict.” She looked out on the city below, warping and shifting below her, avenues turning to centers and highways to dead ends, whole houses growing and pushing against the walls, expanding them outwards just an inch or so. “I’m actually beginning to adapt to it.”

 

***

 

“Listen up, Fujiko,” Otsune said, as they descended the spiral staircase, the small flame bouncing ahead of them before shooting to the back of them and going front again. “This is a trap. That much I am willing to predict. I do not know who’s trying to trap us or why, but these tests being put towards us are definitely intending to get results.”

 

“You mean having people slaughtering themselves in front of us is a test.”

 

“I imagine quite a good one. How we would react, our instinctive reactions and our attempts at planned escape. Do we help or do we encourage? Do we participate or flee? But-“

 

“But you’re seeing this in your eyes,” Fujiko interrupted. “This isn’t some study or experiment, Otsune. If someone is doing it, they had to have a mission.”

 

“That is correct to assume, but the premise is the same for my side of the argument. The person who put us in this chalk maze of open desert has done so for a reason, and not to just let us die. However, for this moment, that reason is unnecessary. All we need acknowledge is they have put us in this maze to scurry and work from there.”

 

“So where are we heading?”

 

“The mountain?”

 

“The mountain? But why-“

 

“Because it incites my curiosity. Because I have been told that’s where to find my answer. And even though now I no longer need the one I look for, having found Tina, it stands clear that it is the only factor I haven’t considered, and therefore it’s the one I should check next.”

 

“Bu doesn’t that mean you’re just going further into the trap?”

 

“Maybe, but the mountain is the highest part of the trap. Get so far up, and you can smash at the ceiling that contains you and climb out.”

 

“You’re using metaphors to support your ideas.”

 

“The greatest of scientists are always driven to fall back on poetry. It’s a failsafe for admitting they don’t have a fucking clue.”

 

“So you’re giving up then?”

 

“Neh, course not. We call that creating a religion, or blaming god… What’s that?”

 

For a second it looked like a sun had appeared in the sky, a blazing white fireball rising up towards them and hanging perfectly in the sky providing a bright blaze which added to the mildly luminous world around them. Otsune had just enough time to consider the solar giant’s effect on the roof of this land’s giant cave before it started to get larger and closer to them.”

 

“Don’t move,” she shouted, yanking Fujiko back as the girl made an instinctive attempt to get the hell out of there. The ball of molten heat slammed against the wall roughly seven meters away from them liquidising the entrance to the spiral staircase, where Fujiko’s escape plan had been.

 

The floor beneath them didn’t like having one of its main supports melted into slag, and leant the railing forwards to show its disapproval. With nothing but a hundred feet of air below them, Otsune went the opposite way, dragging her friend along.

 

“Wha- where are we going?” Fujiko said dazed by the sudden blast and pressure drop. Otsune didn’t answer. Angle of descent was roughly 15-20 degrees. optimum height was seven hundred meters. It was firing blind – behind the City gate?

 

They got to the sixth floor stop, Otsune turning to see the next one coming at the building. It crashed into a window two floors up where they had just passed and took the surrounding wall with it, disappearing with an explosion that tested the strength of the metal beneath them.

 

It knows we’re moving though. How’s it doing that? No, it may not even be aiming for us.

 

By the halfway point of the next ascent, Otsune figured it was enough, she stopped them both and kept her eye to the sky as Fujiko got her wind back. She was resting on the bar herself, breathing in as much through her nose as she could in one go, trying her best to calm her lungs down.

 

“Wh….why’d we….stop?”

 

“We’re jumping,” Otsune said casually.

 

Fujiko looked round and saw the building roughly ten feet below them.” “Right, okay,” she wheezed. Otsune watched as the girl awkwardly climbed over the other side of the railing, held on for a few seconds, braced herself for leaping, then fell forwards sharply as Otsune pushed her with all her might.

 

The girl screamed wildly and landed with a thud half a second later, rolling incorrectly and hard on her temple. Otsune grimaced, worried that might have been too much. “You fucking bitch!” the girl shouted as she flipped over. “That hurt.”

 

Otsune smiled with relief and leapt over herself. There was an eight foot gasp in the width between this build and the next. The stair case helped and the distance was large enough so that when she landed she was more than halfway across the other building.

 

“Hhhmmm, didn’t need to push you after all,” she commented, watching the flame follow her down. Fujiko glared at her then fell out of sight as Otsune pressed on.

 

Travelling across the buildings was fairly easy, even with both of them tired. They had to take the right buildings of course, aiming for those lower or the same size, and only going one at a time. She made a point to go first in all occasions, ready to catch Fujiko if she fell. The girl kept with her fine the whole way though and bar from a skirmish between an old man and four younger men who looked like they were ready to thrash him right before the old man blew them all up with a grenade, they were making good time without getting involved. When they reached the wall, it was on top of a smallish building next to a huge one. They had to crash through an open window to ascend the levels to the top, where another open window led to the entrance to what she figured was the guard’s quarters when within the wall.

 

She hadn’t seen a single guard in the entire time she had been here now she thought about it. That of course made perfect sense considering everything around them (no resistance of any kind), though she was sure that if she had put up a fight it would have created one for her.

 

“Down the stairs and out!” Otsune commanded, rushing round the small well lit stone staircase. It was only compact enough to go single file and couldn’t possibly have provided easy access for guards in full armour. Even its compact nature meant they had no other choice but to sprint down it..

 

Tumbling down the stair, descending nine floors in record time and knees breaking ankles and necks with every step, Otsune had only enough time to release a squeal of celebration when she ran head first into the muscular chest of the man at the bottom.

 

Falling back, she nearly provided a nice rock for Fujiko to break both neck and ankles as she plummeted down the stair. Otsune looked up, taking a moment to squint as her vision fell blurry. She didn’t need to see though, a voice told her everything.

 

“Tina Gottfeld.”

 

****

 

“Right….right….yes…understood. Thank you for this opportunity, sir.” The receiver went dead without a goodbye. He flicked the phone with a snap of his wrist and slipped it back into his pocket, before focusing himself into a state of perfect readiness and shaking it out all around him.

 

This was it. Today, he was the King of the city.

 

It was an opportunity he had been waiting for and yes, he knew he could never get it on his CV, but the recommendations that would follow would be enough to get him out of this rut he had let himself fall into.

 

He wouldn’t fail them, he decided, looking around and mentally getting to work. This job was even simpler, but the very honor provided to him. The bosses (whoever they were, that was never important) had been very open with their order (also generally unknown and vague, but simple actions awarded him with large pay check). Today, he simply had to show up and hand them-

 

Something clanged somewhere near him. It stopped him thinking and he looked around. The whole warehouse was empty and abandoned, and had been for many months. It was that simple fact that had turned it into a meeting room for the organized crime of the city. The argument that had been given to him was that with the building looking dilapidated and suspicious and so of course it was going to be gangs meet up point, and therefore it couldn’t be.

 

But no, there was no one there and- he stopped again. It was a whirring noise. Definitely a whirring noise. Maybe there was a piece of equipment in the back spluttering back to life. A motor perhaps. It wasn’t important. What was important now was to make sure he delivered the message and gave them the precious item. Sure it didn’t look valuable, and he probably couldn’t even sell it on eBay as a mystery item. But if the bosses (or bosses, it could have just been one from what he knew) said it was important, then he was damn sure going to work his hardest on selling its unique mystifying points to the kids that were meant to be showing up. And then he’d get a raise.

 

The noise broke his thoughts up again. It was getting really loud now; it was amazing he couldn’t see where it was coming from. There wasn’t any big machinery in here and yet it sounded like it was right next to him-

 

The world shook, all around him- all at him. It shook with such amazing power, that it shook everything around it too. That was the only explanation. How else could the world move that hard, rocking him so hard, yet keeping everything in place around him? Even the man in the wheelchair didn’t look that bothered.

 

It was a really powerful earthquake.

 

*****

 

It occurred to her shortly afterwards on the tram that three of them had left the dorm. Herself, Sagara and Aki. She wasn’t sure what special rule existed in her head that meant Aki was allowed to come with them when Sarah wasn’t, despite the fact she’d be about as useful and would probably taste a little leaner when it came to chewing the burnt meat from their bones, but she eventually came up with the answer that the reason Aki could come and Sarah couldn’t was that Aki wasn’t a big meanie.

 

She sighed, feeling herself rattle on the pole. She really had lost her focus.

 

Without thinking, she checked her phone. Still nothing. That was good, right? No Kiriyama meant he wasn’t expecting her. It had now gone past the time for them to meet up at the school and he hadn’t called her.

 

No, of course that was bad.

 

The tram stopped nowhere near where they were heading. They had to walk through a residential area containing hundreds of bikers to get to their destination. They passed through without a hitch, barely noticing the age shift in the children out on the streets and the kind of toys they were playing with. It was clear where they got to the warehouse district. There was a bridge they had to walk under. Natoko noticed the tram passing above was the same number they were on earlier.

 

They spent the next half hour lost. The entire district felt deserted on a Sunday afternoon. People were still working, but everyone was quiet. Even the cars and huge lorries driving passed were sullen in their motors. Eventually they had no choice but to ask someone, who gladly pointed out the way and then went back to trailing his trolley around.

 

Workers ate their lunch on benches out in the sun but made no sound. Managers called them back to work a few minutes earlier and received no complaints. In a construction yard a man shouted for others to move out the way and they jumped back before the girder crashed to the floor, yet no one seemed to mind. Natoko watched as they picked the girder back up, all heaving in unison and stacking it back on the top of the pile, then apologizing and thanking each other.

 

“Hey Sagara,” she asked quietly, after catching the other two up.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Does being your retainer come with a paycheck?”

 

“Hhhhmmm, I don’t think so.”

 

“Oh, that’s okay.”

 

“I’m not even sure who to ask about it.”

 

“No no, it’s okay. I just wanted to know?”

 

“Do you need some money? I don’t have much on me.”

 

“Really, it’s fine.”

 

“I got 10,000 on me,” Aki came in. “Are you hungry?”

 

“No no, really, it’s-“

 

Three minutes later, she was sitting on a bench chewing curry bread.

 

“Do we have time for this?”

 

“We have lots of time,” Sagara said, chewing into his third. “Yuya didn’t give me any time limit.”

 

“But the meeting is supposed to be in…” she looked at the phone, “an hour and a half. We may need to make a quick trip out if the place isn’t suitable.”

 

“We could always not turn up,” Aki said, far too lightly to be joking. She picked up another sweet bread and ripped open the packaging. They had bought a whole bunch from a man who went from warehouse to warehouse selling the breads. Something about this was giving them all an urge to fatten up.

 

That hadn’t passed her mind yet. Didn’t they have a choice in this? They didn’t have to go visit the King. There wasn’t even a forced reason to now with Kiriyama gone. The threats held over them were useless

 

No, no that was foolish. To think of one self knowing that others would suffer would not make her a samurai. Also, this was for Sagara’s initiation. She pulled out the piece of paper, reading the threat out again. It was still there. Nagging at her. But it eluded her all the same.

 

***

 

Twenty minutes later, warehouse Higashi PD before them. The door was open, or at least that’s what Sagara said after she looked away and heard a loud cracking noise. All that mattered after that is they were in.

 

The place was, as she suspected, deserted. She wasn’t familiar with large, near empty save for a half dozen shelves and apparatus she couldn’t tell what it did warehouses, but the outside was full of junk and weeds sporadically placed. The inside looked the same and was pretty much one big open room save a few offices at the back sectioned off.

 

Stepping through, the dead building sprang her to attention. The fire spirit had agreed to meet them there, and it wasn’t that friendly from what she remembered last time, a surprising amount considering she knew she was unconscious at the time. Her right hand rested on the hilt, ready to grab and swing.

 

Sagara stopped suddenly. “Huh? That’s weird,” he said, looking up and around.

 

“What’s weird?” she replied, not knowing the level of danger Sagara’s definition of weird put them in.

 

“Oh, it’s nothing.” He glanced at her for a second, his brown eyes still looking inquisitive, and turned back just as quick to explore some more.

 

There was nothing here really. That she could tell immediately. Just pieces of electrical junk and lots of boxes full of nothing. Perhaps some boys would have loved dancing around the place checking out what everything was but to Natoko it all looked like complicated stuff ready to explode.

 

Her footsteps echoed in the empty warehouse and she paced loudly so she could hear them for entertainment. Looking around, she could see the windows at the top were high up and gave anyone looking form the right building a good view of the warehouse. The area at the far side was a wide open space that looked like it once housed a large piece of equipment that had since then been dismantled. In it now sat a chair turned back from them and some more scattered boxes with large rolled up sheets of paper in them.

 

Her foot slipped ahead of her as she stepped up. She grabbed herself before she fell and looked down at her echoing feet. There was something on the floor.

 

Blood trickled down the walkway? How had she missed it? The smell assaulted her nostrils making her gag. It was blood right? It was darker than usual. Not flowing either it appeared when examined. Though it had dried the crimson trail had marked a route to the way to the chair sitting in the center of the warehouse.

 

“Sagara. Aki,” she called out to her companions and began walking forwards. Not seeing if they followed behind her, she hastened her pace, following the trail of moist, black flakes which oozed when she stepped on them. They were leading to the chair.

 

It was a large chair, on wheels for that matter, and she couldn’t see the front from here. She knew though, before she went around, what was there.

 

“Hhmm, this guy’s dead,” said Sagara in front of her. “I wonder how…”

 

She glared at him, her mind a blank. She then looked at the bearded youth in his wheelchair, his nose gone, a three inch hole where it once stood proudly on his face, a dried up spring of red pouring down his clothes.

 

“He looks familiar,” Natoko noted, just piecing out a face from around where the nose used to be, large spectacles drooping from lack of support.

 

“Really, I’ve never seen him.”

 

Aki got around to where they were, and gawked at the corpse. “It’s that Yamato guy.”

 

Natoko took another look, as if she knew who Yamato was. The man’s hand was also covered with blood, but was hanging separately from the rest of his body off the side of the electric wheelchair.

 

“Who?”

 

“The guy from the tournament. The one who won it!” Natoko’s didn’t know him. She hadn’t been there at the time of the fight and had ended up missing the whole lot; recovering from an injury she never had.

 

“Really. He’s the guy that won?” Sagara mused. “I wonder how strong he was.”

 

“You fought him already. You got beat up by him.”

 

“Looks different. Hey, there’s another one,” Natoko made her mind to steel her stomach before turning, seeing Sagara run off. The food from earlier was knocking on the underneath of her throat. It was telling her there had been some kind of mistake and that this was the wrong place. Can we come back up please?

 

Turning away, her eyes fell upon the next body. It was a bald man in a suit and sunglasses. He looked cool save for the hole where his chest was.

 

What had happened here? Who were these guys? Who killed them? It wasn’t the fire spirit. The dead people weren’t ashy remains scattered over the ground. The questions raced through her head like rabbits sprinting from one burrow to the next. There wasn’t much to go on though. All she saw was blood and all she smelt was blood, along with a faint whiff of something stronger.

 

Aki was taking a closer look than she was. She was already knelt down besides the second bald corpse examining the hole in his chest. There wasn’t that much to see really, unless you liked that kind of thing.

 

“That guy killed this guy,” she claimed, standing up and dashing back like she was bouncing between groups of friends. She picked up the man’s blood stained hand and held it up for Natoko. “See, this is that guy’s blood.”

 

“Aki!” she gasped, turning away as her stomach got to her. The girl looked like she was aiming for a pat to the head, but Natoko just got more questions flooding through her. Why’d one kill the other? Had to be self defense. Was this all just a really bad coincidence they had walked into?

 

Pacing herself, she looked back to the corpse, only just realizing she was now holding her blade tightly. She tried to relax a bit, taking deep breaths that did nothing to settle the river in her stomach. She felt like she was drowning in the smell. And then she noticed it, just there, in the hidden jacket pocket. Carefully, shivering as she touched the blood, she peeled it away and caught sight of it, a bright, green glowing gem. Shining viciously at her, she felt like she was being pushed away by it. Blinding herself for just a second, she pushed back harder and went to grab it, only to be repulse by a burst of flame, which lit up the sleeve of her free hand and sent her flailing back.

 

“Whoa!” Aki cried out, already on it and patting out the flame. Natoko had fallen backwards and was shaking her arms out in front of her wildly, making it harder for Aki to grab them. Her friend had to hold on tightly and smother the small flame under her armpit.

 

“What happened?”

 

“I think he caught on fire,” Sagara said, watching the corpse in front of them smothering itself in flames.

 

“This isn’t normal,” Natoko stressed in disbelief. “Why would he just set on fire like this?” Aki stared at the flames for a few seconds, and then pulled her eyes to her watch.

 

“I see. We delayed ourselves, but we were still early.”

 

“Not early enough it seems.”

 

“Even so, we were meant to see this in about fifteen minutes time.”

 

“Oh I get it,” Sagara said though Natoko was still clueless. “We were meant to see a burnt corpse.

 

Natoko suddenly picked up. “Someone wanted us to believe this was the OniHono’s doing?” Ignoring the feeling of instant blister as she grabbed hold of the corpse, she rummaged through his jacket which was falling apart in her hands and found something. It was a small metal box, opened from within by something that left metal shards in its place. She couldn’t really tell much else besides that, except it was hot to the touch. She guessed it to be the source of the fire.

 

She left it there. “They set it up. It was never the Fire Spirit burning these people. Someone just made it look that way, to get us to follow them.”

 

But why? Who else was there?

 

“Well, this is a little confusing.”

 

Natoko froze. Someone had appeared been them. Not come up. Not walked. Not fell. Just there.

 

“I must confess I don’t remember setting him up to burn. But I spent all this time in one of the cubicles waiting. I don’t think anyone could have gotten passed me in that time.” Her curious brain went to turn, but her neck stopped her. It was insisting on self preservation. She couldn’t understand why she couldn’t move. The others were the same.

 

Just three feet in front of her, Aki seemed to get back control of herself. She turned slowly, her eyes darting to Natoko and then to the man behind him. She got so far before her legs buckled from underneath her, her head patting the ground like a stone tossed in a lake.

 

“Ulp, sorry about that. It happens sometimes, Sticks and stones. Sticks and stones.”

 

“Who…are…” She couldn’t finish, she felt her neck muscles straining, trying their hardest. It shouldn’t even be a matter of effort. They were glued in place.

 

“You don’t remember me?” the voice, calm yet not with a hint of mockery. “Well, I forgive you. It happens. Let me reintroduce myself.”

 

Her heart exploded. Her chest igniting, she felt each and every bone in her body pop out one at a time in half a millisecond, shooting off in all directions, and leave her gasping for air, the voice piercing right her like a needle through the eye and out the back.

 

“I am Mr. Jupiter. It is my duty to meet you one on one again. Would you like some orange juice? I got it fresh on the way here.”

 

***

 

Stupid! She told them one thing. One thing clearly. Out of all the things that they had been told. This was the only thing that really mattered. Stupid Initiation. Stupid Fire Spirit. Stupid them.

 

Avoid Mr. Jupiter at all costs.

 

Die to prevent him from getting to Sagara.

 

And now in a moment of apathy he had walked up behind them and offered them drinks. Never mind all the questions about the bodies. How could they be so stupid?

 

He walked through them, treading passed Aki and moving up to the blazing corpse. She was sweating now, though she only just realised it. It wasn’t hot despite the fire.

 

“It looked like the device set him on fire, but I don’t think he had it before I killed him. It’s on a timer too. Hhhhmmm.”

 

Natoko watched the back of the blond haired demon’s head as he mused over this for a few seconds. Testing her bonds, she felt trapped tight. There was nothing holding her, but it wouldn’t let her move all the same.

 

“That means they probably must have wandered on up whilst I was preparing drinks. It’s possible I suppose, but avoiding me is very difficult, like a spy avoiding high temperature laser beams. It just can’t work in real life.

 

She stretched. That’s all it was though. It was supposed to be a spectacular force of effort that broke the mental hold he had on them followed by a dive downwards and reaching for Iziz who would subsequently lop off his head and still leave her with enough momentum to spin round and send the useless skull flying with her strongest kick.

 

But it only came out as a stretch. A warm up, she could feel the muscles bend and writhe, expand and contract, but nothing was happening.

 

“What am I saying? Of course it’s worked, though the how still eludes me. Ah well, I suppose one of you will figure it out later for me. Make sure you tell me the answer.”

 

Natoko grimaced at him and looked down at Aki yet. He didn’t seem to be caring about her. Of course not! It was Sagara he wanted to get. Sagara which he must never be allowed to touch. Sagara who was just staring back at the demon like he was waiting for the bus.

 

“Ah, I know what you’re thinking. I tricked you. I brought you all the way out here in order to take my revenge on you for wiping out the betting ring during the tournament, and all this was a setup to bring you to an area where no one can help you, so I could finally remove a Futabatei from the picture. You’re not completely wrong, but you are wrong.”

 

A sudden flash came to Natoko. Excellent, he was a talker. She stared at him like she was listening, whilst she tried to move her body again.

 

“I got a tip off earlier; a mysterious phone call,” he told them, his voice ripe with mockery even without a hint of emotion displayed past his smile. “Telling me to come here and find the King of the City. I had heard about him before, though I had never seen him. The One Fear told me you were looking for him. Well, that you were looking for his boss, which was me, but it seemed you wanted to find the King at the same time. The caller also said I would meet you as a result, and though I normally have the snooker club on Sundays I thought, ‘why not’. So here I am.

 

“H-h-h-Wh—“ She tried to get out. Her mouth was slammed shut too. “W-why?”

 

“Excuse me? Why what?” Mr. Jupiter stared at her three seconds longer. “Oh, sorry, the mind crippling power that’s holding you down. Here.”

 

Natoko felt her mouth come free and lost the ability to speak for a second. “Why kill them? What are you planning?”

 

“Oh nothing to do with you at the moment. In all truth I am a little confused here. I figured I’d kill the King of the City you see,” he indicated to Yamato, “and go from there with you guys.” He stopped to think, looking at the other body “Or is that the King, and he killed him. I should have probably asked. Well, no matter.”

 

Natoko couldn’t believe it. This was all just coincidence. She struggled fiercely, growling for her effort through gnashed teeth that were no longer restricted. She pushed again her invisible bond and felt them wobble. Then, with a final angry effort, she yanked her arms forward, freeing them from invisible bonds. Not wasting a moment, she drew her sword and swung it behind her straight for the demon’s neck.

 

It got near enough for her to scream frustration. Iziz hovered by his neck as the bonds set in place again. Mr. Jupiter didn’t seem to mind how close his neck was to being lacerated.

 

“Ah you broke free. Well done. I didn’t seal your friend, so that’s understandable. This is impressive. However, this seal constantly reapplies itself every time you get loose. I designed it to tire people. Every time they think they’re getting somewhere, they have their energy stripped and they’re stuck back in a rut. I thought it was quite ingenious.” She had to agree, completely immobile again. However, it wasn’t to last and she got free a second later, striking her sword down and through his face. The man hardly flinched, but freed them all as the blood smothered his face like a blanket. Pulling her word back into place, she waited for him to clear himself up.

 

“Come on,” Aki said, now back on her feet and dragging her away. “We’re leaving now.”

 

“But-“

 

“The king is dead. We have no reason to be here.”

 

“But I can-“

 

“We won’t survive against him, now come on.” Aki was shaking. Natoko could tell what it was. It wasn’t from cold or the knowledge of death. It was primal fear. That base instinct that all felt when it was in front of them. A predator, finding their prey easy enough to take their time with. She felt it too.

 

“Come on,” Aki dragged her one last time, and she followed. Sagara followed sloppily behind them, now gaining control himself. They went down the slope and passed the body. If they got outside, they would be safe. Demons weren’t allowed to do anything in public, or at all for that matter, but being outside cemented things.

 

“Ah, but I’m afraid I will not permit you to leave.” Suddenly, Mr. Jupiter kicked the chair bound corpse before him. The noise dragged her attention away from freedom, and she watched the body roll down the slope and into the far wall. Before it got there the ground around the dead shot to life. Natoko watched as a wall of flame rose up around the building.

 

“I thought you might try to leave before I had a chance to speak to you, so I had that burning liquid you get from fish put around the warehouse after I killed these guys.”

 

The three of them were bunched up against the flames now. He was right in front of them again. He definitely moved faster than the angels did. She couldn’t even see it.

 

Stepping up, she covered the other two with her left arm and held Iziz in its sheath with her other. “Stay back!” she shouted out.” I’m warning you. I won’t let you have Sagara, for whatever reason.” She looked back to him seeing his eyes watching over hers, feeling her heart close up, and knowing full well that the stupid moron wasn’t feeling the same happiness she was.

 

Mr. Jupiter held his position over them. Standing, arms loose at the side. He grinned a little too familiarly. “I’m not here for Futabatei boy,” he said. “I’m here for you.”

 

“Wha-“ He raised a hand.

 

“Come with me, Natoko. I want you with me now.”

 

Natoko couldn’t actually help but blush a bit, but that was overcome by irrational anger. “Excuse me.? You dare-“

 

“I saw your fights. I was impressed. Also, you can stand up to angels without breaking down and confessing your sins. You’ll make a perfect retainer for me.”

 

“Retainer?” she babbled as the heat in the room raced alongside her confusion. “Sagara is my retainer. I will serve at his side for the rest of his days, well into his rule.”

 

Mr. Jupiter stopped to consider this. “Oh, if that’s the case, I guess I’ll just have to kill him. Simple really.”

 

A loud smash distracted them all as the skylight above them obliterated itself, a body falling into view alongside shards of glass. It crashed right on top of Sagara, who grunted it off, and rolled off to the side. In the chingle of shattered crystals, they all watched as the new body lay there for a moment, perfectly still and ready to be declared dead. Natoko wasn’t entirely sure who it was until it stood up.

 

“I’m afraid you can’t take her. She’s mine.”

 

***

 

“Ah, you’re Kiriyama, aren’t you? I had hoped to walk into you again. I’ve been meaning to thank you.”

 

For once Kiriyama was silent, watching the thin, almost attractive man in front of him like one observing a snake they just found in their kitchen. Kiriyama knew, as they did, with just one look what this guy was.

 

“Oh don’t look like that. If you hadn’t come into the events, I would have never have found her.”

 

“I see, so you’re the King of the City, and the boss of all those drugged up freaks we met.”

 

Mr. Jupiter giggled slightly, his cheeks looking like they were going to blush but instead revealing the two silts at either side of his mouth. “Only guilty of one of those, I’m afraid. Those demon folk you carved through were my patrons, but I’m afraid I’m not the King of the city.”

 

“Then who is?” Aki, of all people, asked this question.

 

“I’m not sure,” Mr. Jupiter replied, looking as honestly confused as a demon could. “I really can’t say I’ve given it any thought. I forget everything as soon as I no longer need it.”

 

“One of these two then,” Kiriyama stated, looking at the bodies. “If so, you have half my thanks, mister. If you want you can-“

 

“Jupiter.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Ah, Mr. Jupiter. I’m sorry I thought you were asking for my name.”

 

“Ah no, but-“ Kiriyama looked a little kicked off track. “I’m Kiriyama Misato. Pleased to meet you.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Kiriyama.”

 

“Li- same to you. Anyway, as I was saying, if you killed the King, then that works for us.”

 

“Killed the who?”

 

“The king?”

 

“When did I?”

 

“Just now.”

 

“Did I?”

 

“You did kill these two, right?”

 

Mr. Jupiter peered over to where Kiriyama’s hand was outstretched. He squinted with great difficulty, like the student was showing him a nail on the far side of the wall, and then clicked. “Oh yes, yes, the one in the wheelchair. Not the other one though. The one in the wheelchair did him.”

 

Kiriyama sighed. “Well whoever killed the king has done me well. Sir, if you ever need any assistance, or have something you desire, come to us and-“

 

“All I want is the girl at the moment.”

 

“Ah, like I said before, she’s one you can’t have. She belongs to the mob now.”

 

“Oh you’re Yakuza. I see.” He coughed a little. Fake. “Scary. Still, I’d like you to relinquish your half of other joint ownership of the girl. It would make things about three quarters of a second faster, though I don’t really mind waiting.”

 

“I’m afraid she’s needed for other things at the moment. If you really want muscle, I can get someone else for you.”

 

“Oh but there’s no one like her,” he said, turning to face her and cupping her chin before he was anywhere close to her. She’s dazzling. Radiant. Like a rocket powered car with a spear on the end and no reverse function. I’ve wanted her every since I saw her. And I’d really prefer her now, before she uses up her talent.”

 

“The answer’s still no. In six months time maybe, but not now.”

 

“Well that doesn’t work. I could wait, but I don’t want t risk losing track of her. I can sense every ant on this planet except her when she’s around him. I can’t even find out where she lives for some reason.”

 

Kiriyama stayed silent this time. “You won’t give her up then?” Mr. Jupiter asked.

 

“I cannot,” Kiriyama earnestly replied, making Natoko annoyed at how she wasn’t getting a say in this.

 

“Well, I guess its back to the original plan of homicide then,” Mr. Jupiter said sheepishly. Kiriyama foot fell back a little, his fists loose.

 

“Well it seems we’ve come to an agreement here,” Mr. Jupiter said mildly. “I suppose this is a way you’d prefer as well, Sagara?”

 

“No thanks, I’ll pass.”

 

Jupiter took himself back a bit. “A refusal? That’s unexpected. I thought you liked fighting.”

 

“Oh I do, it’s fun, but I can’t fight here.”

 

Mr. Jupiter smiled lightly, his eyes closed. The punch came like lightning, failing to floor Sagara only because it took him to the air instead. He flew against the wall and embedded himself firmly in rubble.

 

“Well, I’ll come back to you later then. It only makes sense I remove the more aggressive elements first.” Watching carefully, Natoko took a moment to realize that fight was already over. Now she looked she couldn’t tell if Jupiter had punched, kicked or just willed Sagara into the wall. It was hard to notice as he turned to face Kiriyama, only to be pushing the boy into shelves five meters from where he was standing before, the student’s neck in his hands. Watching the man’s back, she watched as Kiriyama struggled up until the point where Jupiter’s back opened up several red holes. Instinctively, she moved out of the way, already knowing that hearing the gunshots meant it was useless to avoid them now.. It didn’t matter, they were no where her.

 

“What… but?” came the stunted of voice of Kiriyama. It was getting harder for him to talk now his larynx was meeting with his spine.

 

“Hhhmm, it has been a while since this body got shot,” Jupiter complained. “Ah well, maybe I can-” The butt of the gun entered his nose, barging right on in and knocking the whole skull down a good inch. However the demon worked, it made him let go of Kiriyama for a second as his hands went to catch the blood. Kiriyama fell down and went to run, clutching his own throat and grabbing what air he could. He got to the body of the guy in the wheelchair just long enough to find himself exactly where he was a second ago, Jupiter still holding him in place against the shelves.

 

Jupiter was still smiling. Natoko looked back, still not knowing where to take this. Kiriyama looked just as surprised, though his expressions were now twisting as the air limit got low.

 

“My, you’re tenacious. Still, a strong will to survive is useless against my lethargy. No matter how you fight, it all becomes pointless in the end.” Jupiter held him there, Kiriyama was going limp now, only his hand rose, slowly by itself, it drooped over Jupiter’s and clasped it with the strength of a kitten.

 

His hand started to glow.

 

“I knew it was all pointless the first time I read Nietzsche.”

 

“Who?”

 

A torrent of crimson wave squirted across the factory floor, spraying four quarts in half a second. She wasn’t able to see much for a moment her vision blanked out by blood. Her brain took a second to catch up, and her legs went stiff like jelly as she looked to the small pool that had come from nowhere.

 

Kiriyama was down now. Jupiter was missing an arm.

 

A mild inconvenience, it seems.

 

“Well, you’re full of surprises. I noticed you had a lot of energy, but the amount stored here is certainly wondrous. “ Mr. Jupiter smiled wider. “I’m getting interested in you as well.”

 

Kiriyama held tightly to the man’s hand. “At least scream in pain, bastard.”

 

“What are you talking about? There’s no pain. It was just an arm.”

 

“So you’re on the drug too. I didn’t think it was that powerful.” Kiriyama slowly got up, propping himself with the hand and slipping on the blood of the man looming over him. Without realizing it, he was grabbing onto the hem of the man’s shirt. “Impossible. There must be seven pints of your blood on the floor. That’s not even enough remaining to send one full cycle around you.

 

“The blood doesn’t matter either. Where are you getting these assumptions from?”

 

“An outdated source it seems. Guess I’ll just have to beat the crap out of you until there’s none left at all.”

 

“Well feel free to try. This has become amusing, so I guess I can give you some leeway. Just remember I have as many lives as the moons.”

 

Kiriyama screamed blindly raising the hunk of meat and slapping it against Jupiter’s face. The force clubbed the demon over into the opposing shelves, and his remaining arm sent machinery off the side and into the growing fire. Behind her Natoko heard a groan.

 

“Sagara!” Natoko said, as Jupiter’s attention fell off her. She rushed up the rubble where Aki was already trying to pull his body away from the wall. He was more outside at the moment than in.

 

“Sagara, why won’t you fight?”

 

Sagara said nothing, looking away from her. Perhaps it was his true feelings shining through. Perhaps it was the head trauma.

 

“I get it. I’m just your retainer. That’s all I wanted to be. You didn’t care though. You just let me do it. So you’re fine if they take me too.” She turned and walked away. “I guess I’ll just wait.”

 

She moved away, heading for the ongoing skirmish. Kiriyama was standing off against Jupiter, testing his stance, checking reactions, looking for weaknesses. Jupiter looked like he was reading a menu.

 

“I’m fine with that guy taking you, but I can’t let the demon take you.” Sagara formed the demon over him arm and grabbed the wall, breaking it away. Natoko’s head grew hot and washed. She didn’t know what to say at all. “Though, if you don’t want to go with him, I’ll stop him then as well.”

 

“But that’s not you. You’re stupid, you sleep and you fight. and laugh a lot. How can you not want to fight now when we need it?”

 

“It’s kind of complicated. On the one hand, the boy is being approached and attacked by a demon. It’s my duty to prevent human-demon contact relationships from occurring, so I have to stop it. On the other hand, I’ve been ordered not to approach Mr. Jupiter at all costs, to the point where I’m to throw anyone else around me into his path to slow him down. That would include you guys, those two bodies, and whoever that guy is with all that energy.”

 

“I have to do both, but I can’t really do either,” he mumbled over it for a bit as he got himself the rest of the way out of the wall. Natoko turned to see the fight Aki was now captivated in. Kiriyama had managed to set Jupiter ablaze using a burning hunk of machinery. Jupiter was checking his watch that had yet to go off.

 

“Though I suppose there’s that. But if I fight, I agree to their rules,” he said, bringing himself up. “And that’s not my choice to make.” He sighed heavily for the first time Natoko had heard it. “So I can’t do it. Let’s go.”

 

“What? Just leave.”

 

“Well yeah, it we can’t fight we’ll just die instead. Though you can fight if you want.”

 

Natoko looked ahead, seeing Kiriyama wasting his own strength. The both of them knew that he was trapped there. Even with Jupiter trapped between two collapsing shelves and most of his blood on the floor, Kiriyama couldn’t run without being killed outright.

 

“No, I think I’ll pass,” she laughed a little, “I think I’ll die too.”

 

“Well, at least we know he’s not after me now,” Sagara said.

 

“Err yeah.”

 

“Oh I am after you,” Jupiter replied. “But understand, it’s only because you’re her current owner.” He knocked Sagara down and Natoko was there already driving Iziz into the thin air before her.

 

Freezing up, she looked back where Kiriyama was and. She almost couldn’t tell between the haze, but… yes, Sarah was there. Natoko nearly screamed out, but held back. The girl was poised over the both of them. Neither seemed to have noticed her on the shelf above, Jupiter with his back turned and Kiriyama’s eyes covered with blood and his mouth screaming curses in three different languages.

 

Sarah crept closer, mere millimeters from where Mr. Jupiter stood over the battered body of Kiriyama. Natoko gulped as she wanted to call out, to cry to the girl. She shouldn’t be letting her do this. It wasn’t smart or clever and she was less than ten years old, but Natoko knew she couldn’t close the gap in time and could only watch as Sarah pulled out a large flask almost as big as herself and raised it over her head. Before she could let go, Jupiter was there in front of her asking what she was doing, but by then she had already thrown it. The bottle smashed him on the head and she threw herself away, landing hard on the metal floor as the demon was covered in a black ink that bathed the remainder of his body and some of Kiriyama as a bonus. Sarah scrambled around and away and disappeared behind the wheelchair and into the flames. Jupiter looked at his hands, examining the black liquid as it hissed and sizzled in the flames surrounded it, dousing them completely.

 

The black liquid started to cover the floor around them and soon made a blood within the remains of the blood Jupiter just watched and sent a glance Natoko’s way. He smiled for a second and then fell, straight through a hole that shouldn’t have been there, Kiriyama following shortly behind him.

 

“What?”

 

“What?” said Sagara.

 

“What was that?”

 

“What was what?”

 

“That?”

 

“What?”

 

The black liquid. Sarah. Jupiter disappearing.”

 

“Friend special octopus ink. Sarah is Sarah and the demon went to the InBetween realm.”

 

“Oh…”

 

“Oi, morons,” Sarah called out. For the first time, Natoko realized just how close the hole was to the door. Sarah’s head now peaking out from it. “You coming, or burning?”

 

“Err… coming.”

 

Natoko whisked off in hot pursuit, following the other three. She didn’t ask any questions as they bowled themselves into the black limousine, nor asked what ‘Sarah was even doing there, or even how she found them. It was only after she caught her breath back seven minutes later that the query of just why she out of all of them had to sit on the floor came to her.

 

****

 

Don’t stop moving.

 

Don’t look back.

 

Sakura ran. Faster than she ever had, her body wobbled worse than peach jelly around her. Her legs burned, muscles turning to a cinder as they skipped through the corridors hundred of times longer than where she had fallen at last summer’s athletics festival. The corridor thundered around her heavy footsteps, the hammer of her heels, the stinging of her knees.

 

Her hand was moist in his. His perfect alabaster skin was being drowned in her stinky, unfit sweat that stained her clothes from every pore and dripped from her chin. God had not made her for running, she barely thought as she slammed through the next set of doors.

 

They weren’t going anywhere. She knew that. These infinite corridors that she had travelled through with mild curiosity led everywhere and nowhere. Without a guide, all she had to go on was her own panting breath. For the first ten corridors she had stuck with going straight, but soon came across the eleventh corridor with only doors to the side. She ploughed through the furthest one in haste and had to travel through five more corridors before she could get back to her original straight again

 

The walls were starting to blur, pulsing darkness spread out around the corners of her eyes, sharp pins threatening to burst her pupils. She couldn’t breath, she was coughing dust back into her mouth and oxygen had long since gone. Keep moving. Keep moving. Keep moving. She told herself. Her body was somehow listening to her.

 

A loud roar bellowed behind them, inhuman and attention seeking. It took all her strength not to twist the numb log of her neck round to see what monster was behind her. Fortune stopped her. There was no time to look around. She couldn’t’ look around.

 

Through the next door. The brass knob slipped in her greasy hand. It was getting harder to twist them with only one hand and the opposite way. Her legs were coming up with excuses to stop, the instant of rest more than enough for their carefully worded and strategically planned arguments to come to the front of her mind. There was no one chasing her any more. He had no reason to follow her. Father Sakagami was her friend. The angel must have been lying. Sharon was just resting. Nobori was smart and already talking him down. She drifted off waiting for Father Sakagami to finishing reading and there was no good reason to waste all this energy since this was just a dream and dreams are what you have when you’re resting and getting your strength back so this really is really silly and really is going against your better health. Your mother didn’t want you running like a crazy person.

 

Mr. Worry was just rambling nonsense.

 

Alexis was still right behind her. Silent in all but footsteps. He wasn’t panting. He wasn’t exhausted and ready to cough up blood. She had to be strong for him. Topah wouldn’t let her look back. She couldn’t look back. Not to his perfect face, or his beautiful smile. She needed to look, just one glance. That was all she needed. Just one little peek to give her the strength to carry on.

 

No, she couldn’t. Her heart told her as the angel did. If she looked back he wouldn’t be there. Just layers of air and dust would fill the corridor. He wasn’t real. He never was. Turning around would take him away.

 

But shouldn’t she look? When she left he’d be gone. Unable to follow. Nothing but a memory of a better time left behind many years ago

 

Another door. Another. Another. Wasn’t this one she had already been through? It looked like it. This one was closed. Were the doors shutting themselves? She never bothered to look. Everyone was always so polite. She took the next left to be sure. She hadn’t gone left yet, so she if she went left and then right, she wouldn’t be on the same path still. Right? Her tongue bloated, a thousand bulging ants danced on top of it. She wasn’t even running now.

 

The room crashed around her, the plasterboard five feet ahead detonating to crumbs and dust as a heavy mass torpedoed out one side and through the next. It looked human in the blind instant Sakura saw the body continue through the next wall. The walls continued to bang and shake. Rushing on, she kicked the badge on the floor by mistake and turned her head to see his smile in that brief moment though the walls, far away and moving further.

 

The destruction disappeared behind the next door, all plans forgotten but going straight through the infinite maze with no map, clues or directions. The last two commands going through her head. Just run. Don’t look back. Just run. Don’t look back. Just run. Don’t look back. Don’t run. Just look back. Don’t look back. Just run.

 

Mr. Worry’s mumblings rippled through the air.

 

“Alexis,” she muttered through wasted breath. “I’m me, right. I’m lsabella.

 

The silence provided only one answer.

 

Her world was on fire. She felt nothing. The clicking of her knees. The sting of her ankle. No pins in her eyes or ants on her tongue. Only running. Only not looking back She couldn’t disobey.

 

No perfect hand being stained by sweat.

 

No light to lead her way.

 

“Alexis!”

 

Silence.

 

She crashed through the next door, hitting something else and pushing on. Her body buckled and she was closer to the ground somehow. She kept moving. Shoulder screaming for just a moment, more tired than shoulder should get when running. Something screamed around her. She heard nothing. Another door and then, an endless corridor.

 

Before her, there was no door, just a corridor, disappearing into the distance. No end, only parallel sides. Her stomach came back into feeling, making her coughing profusely, the edges of her soul spitting themselves out.

 

That was it. She couldn’t do it. The last door was there; as far as she could go. Her body collapsed on her., panting, wheezing, and choking on its own fluids. Still moving forwards. The door a mile away from her.

 

Why was she doing this? He was gone. They were all gone. Forsaken and abandoned and destroyed and non existent, on holiday and just plain dead, there was no one left for her. She never had anyone in the first place. Just bad memories and false hope.

 

And herself.

 

Herself.

 

That was right. No matter what happened, she was still here, and she had come this far and though she had wavered she had always pressed forwards. Though she had fallen, she had always stood up. He was there after all. Maybe not here but at least There.

 

And how could she let herself die as long as He was before her like this. Out there, waiting to be found. On holiday but still there.

 

With so much behind her, how could she not move forwards?

 

Reaching forwards, she felt her way through the blurs before her eyes, one hand dragged back and the other pushed forwards, knees fighting forwards, fat burning into energy, sweat bringing her up to speed. She fell against something and then fell through it, feeling the cool rush of the gentle air and the smooth bark or a large log as her foot caught under it and took her to the floor.

 

Her mind swam, keeping her eyes locked shut, her legs like jelly smashed to bits with a hammer. Every part of her hurt in ways indescribable and just as numb.

 

Hell was nothing like this.

 

Soil and stone rubbed against her face. Her nose was uncomfortable drowning in mud so she turned to the side and opened her eyes. She didn’t see the forest surrounding her though the shade of the tall trees that hid the sun kept her eyes safe. Nor did she see the plants and animals as they breezed gently around her. She didn’t even see the door frame or the hundred of wrecked wooden dolls that scattered throughout the forest.

 

She saw that alabaster white face with albino eyes and beautiful, beautiful sexy blond hair with a smile that turned her from smashed jelly to soggy rice

 

“We made it,” he wheezed, a collapsed hunk of meat on the ground besides her.

 

“Yeah,” she meekly whimpered, too exhausted to raised her voice or nod her head

 

We might not be safe yet,” he said, lifting up to look behind them. “We should probably get away from here and find somewhere-“

 

“No,” she said, her voice returning as she lifted her hand for his. “We’re fine now.” He was beautiful, shining brightly before her in the shade of the woods, whatever woods they were didn’t matter. She kept looking straight ahead at him and no where else, wrapping her hand round his, feeling the sweat drip off him as he looked her red raw in the face.

 

All mumblings faded from her mind. Everything behind her disappeared.

 

It didn’t matter.

 

He was the same as her.

 

***

 

“Yeah, I guess I’m fine.”

 

“Good, that’s good.”

 

“Should we-“

 

“Yeah. I guess we should.”

 

His hand reached for hers. She hesitated briefly before they were together again.

 

The forest was small, unfamiliar but shaded, the air too pure and easy to breath. She could have stayed here all her life were she not in desperate need of a drink. Her body still burning, it took all she could not to fall into him and then did it anyway, clutching him tightly.

 

He hugged her back, wonderfully strong forearms gripping her shoulder and bringing her even closer to him. It was difficult to walk and this didn’t make it easier but she felt his warmth stronger than her own burning and letting go was no longer an option.

 

She looked up to see him looking ahead. He was squinting, his hand shielding his eyes.

 

“You okay?”

 

“I haven’t left the InBetween Realm in over a hundred years. I had forgotten how… natural God’s earth was.”

 

“Yeah, it’s certainly bright.”

 

“And as beautiful as you,” he said staring deep into her. She giggled and slapped him in the arm. The place was beautiful. A forest like this would be the perfect place for them to stay together, away from the rest of the world. They probably couldn’t stay here forever of course, but it was warm and there were berries; and barring the strange wooden dolls that scattered their limp corpses through the area there didn’t seem anything to be concerned about.

 

Whatever was outside was nothing to be concerned about for now.

 

“Look, a road.”

 

Even Sakura had to squint as they left the shade and came back to the real world. Around them they sky burned properly into view and she heard he birds for the first time just log enough for them to be drowned out as two busy motorists jockeyed for position on the quiet empty stretched of road. Sakura felt her tired body stiffened as her bearings got to grip around her.

 

“T-this is Moriyume,” she muttered “W-we’re- I’m home.”

 

“We came this close to your home?”

 

“It’s- it’s a miracle.”

 

How long had she been one. With all the time wandering, sleeping and searching the library, time had long since disappeared for her. Had she been gone days or weeks? Surely it couldn’t have been months, the heat of the world told her it must have still been summer. The time didn’t matter. Home was right before her., the Heavenly Springs dormitory for girls stood high in the distance atop the big hill where houses rolled down.

 

She was nearly home. Back to reality.

 

With Alexis.

 

Her boyfriend.

 

It didn’t matter did it? What she had learned. The angel had told her there were worse ways to find true love and that meant at least that right? That she had true love before her and no reason for letting it go. IT was her choice, the path she had made for herself under His watch. He asked us long ago to love all beings and honour our love in them. Alexis wouldn’t have been an exception anymore than Sharon, Sadface or even Mr. Worry. To bring him with her, she ran and didn’t look back just as asked, and he was there for her at the end. And she did love him.

 

So this was aright, wasn’t it?

 

They set off. The thought of home and her own kitchen drawing her onwards. She couldn’t wait to show him. The kitchen and her tools. She’d cook him something. Potatoes with stew. That was his favourite back in India, even though Isabella rarely got chance to cook with the workers there doing all the tasks for her. But there was that one time, and Isabella’s sister helped, for she had been well taught herself, and Isabella had prepared Alexis the best private meal she could pull fourth.

 

It was nothing compared to Sakura’s own cooking now, but he had loved the effort and loved her for it and showed his appreciation that very night when he-

 

“Sakura?”

 

They had stopped moving. Her feet were planted to the ground, bringing them to a halt. His red raw eyes stared at her worryingly, a hint of puppy dog behind them.

 

“Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”

 

He was there for her. He would always be there for her. She’d have to make sure Sagara wouldn’t jump forward and try something again

 

“No no. I’m just thinking how I’m going to explain this to everybody.”

 

“That’s simple,” he laughed. “Just tell the truth.”

 

How was she going to tell them? Aki. Sarah. Natoko. Sagara. Ho would Otsune react to her having her boyfriend stay with them. Would he stay in her room? Was there room for others to stay there at the moment? She thought of her own room, little more than a prison the last time she saw it. She thought of the room above hers, the storage space, with the picture of them that started all this, filled with memories of a time that was now hers forever.

 

He was still looking at her. Concern etched deeply in him. She was alive, warm and happy. But she was tired too. She rested herself further into him.

 

“No. It’s fine. Really? I’m fine.”

 

Everything’s exactly how I want it.

 

***

 

Before them, the large hunk of muscle and sinew twitched involuntarily. He was bleeding in fourteen places, all of them on the surface. He would live, though with a broken arm.

 

Impressive for a mere human, it was not natural for any one piece of human flesh to take this much damage and continue breathing, letting alone be trying to get up with a good measure of success.

 

There was little natural about this though. Even in the InBetween Realm, whose nature was disputed even by those wandering its halls, this was not the normal course of things. In the time since she had seen its interior walls and many centuries before then, the walls could not be broken to get from one set to another. Not this closely anyway.

 

The void between the corridors was beyond exploration and even further to mere speculation, yet between the fifteen corridors that the giant had been thrown through there had been nothing but more plasterboard.

 

Had something changed? Or was this by unlikely probability the one set of corridors in this infinite land where no void existed beyond that thin ten centimetre layer of plasterboard.

 

Something had changed, but it didn’t matter.

 

The mission must continue, and this one would be a strong knight for her to work with.

 

Already, he was moving.

 

“Geez y’all,” he muttered, uprising her for a second until she remembered how it worked here. “I gotta stop waking up in weird places.”

 

She said nothing and he freaked at her sudden appearance, and then calmed down long enough to remember he had just been kicked about by some supernatural force capable of throwing large masses of muscle through thirty sheets of wall.

 

“Well, that wasn’t fun at all,” he said getting himself up and apparently trying his best to ignore her. I better get back there before anyone else gets truly hurt.”

 

His hand dangling to his side he got far enough for her to squeeze the wound and watch him hiss in pain. He tried to move on regardless but couldn’t step an inch further.

 

“We have need of you, Nobori. We need you back with us.”

 

“Yeah, I figured you might say that.” He hesitated on the spot for a second, twitching back and fourth in false decision.

 

“Yeah, guess I got no choice, do I?”

 

“There is always a choice,” she said. “It is vital to remember that. To believe in a destiny set before you by others is to live life a fool and though a fool follows happily this path he’ll only reach the illusion of a full life. Choice is what we strived so hard to achieve. The least we could do is follow its beliefs.”

 

“So you’re saying I do have a choice whether or not I go with you right now?”

 

She paused for but a moment and then started walking away.

 

“No. No you don’t.”

 

****

 

Otsune nine – finale chapter

 

“Tina Gottfeld…”

 

Otsune was down. Behind her, she felt Fujiko with her hands gripping tightly to sweaty shoulders, both their bodies blocks of ice. Behind them lay the bottom of a hollow compact staircase that could only be sped through when going down. In front of them stood a creature of destruction hell-bent on destroying them all for asking the wrong question.

 

“Tina Gottfeld…”

 

He lurched forwards, looking a lot worse than he had previously. He was missing an arm. The wound she couldn’t see, the rags stained deep crimson around it. It was obvious he had not been provided any proper medical treatment or even first aid. The matter of blood loss should have been irrelevant though. The shock would have been fatal yet that no longer mattered the tall hunk of a being who for a short while she had found kind of sweet.

 

There was no way out and only seconds remaining. Her mouth opened desperately. Words came out.

 

“M-Mitzy. Mitzy, wait,” but the man took another step, looming down on them, repeating the name, not telling them anything. “Mitzy, I don’t know what we did or what’s going on, but…” No, she stopped herself. There was no arguing this. It was more a puzzle than convincing a creature born of any logic. She had started this with a question. Therefore, she had to figure it out with one too.

 

She had asked where Tina was. The answer was much closer than she thought, and so… they didn’t need to know it any more. “Mitzy. We found Tina Gottfeld. We don’t need to know where she is anymore. I… I retract my question.”

 

The bulky warrior froze before them, holding the mortar loosely. He carefully stared into her eyes and she looked right back. It was the truth. There would be no lie in her eyes. An eternity passed over them twice as he gazed over her. “We don’t need you to answer that anymore…” she said.

 

“Tina Gottfeld.” He repeated taking another agonizingly slow step forward. Otsune cursed loudly as her mind turned to more answers. That was the most obvious one though. Does that mean he doesn’t have an off switch for that? If this was his attempt at an answer.

 

“Go away,” Fujiko screamed in panic. “Just go away. We’ve done nothing to you!” He stopped again, only because the knee of his trousers were just brushing Otsune’s nose.

 

“Tina Gottfeld.”

 

A loud explosion roared behind them, thrusting them forwards into the man. They crashed down onto him Otsune feeling for the leverage and making sure he went down with them. The man lurched backwards like a tree cut down, the back of his head smacking the rocks on the floor with all the grace of a cannonball.

 

“Tina Gottfeld.”

 

“Come on!” Otsune shouted, already up and past and out of range of the little mortar box that had just taken out the stairs above them.

 

A dust cloud was quickly enveloping the room and the little flame circled its way out and around her head. Otsune got as far as the exit and tumbled round, letting Fujiko bash into her. “What is it?”

 

“Hold on.”

 

There was no time. Before she knew it, she had ran back to Mitzy and lifted up the mortar, yanking it out of his strong grip. He muttered the name one more time and she bolted out of the room with the weapon. When they got out the door, she turned and pressed the first thing that decompressed, the loud explosion blasting its way into the guard house behind them.

 

“Mountain, mountain, mountain,” she muttered, twirling round until the obvious large piece of rock came into view. From here it looked like it was at the base of the city wall. “Perfect.” She aimed and fired a round off, aiming as best she could at a strong point in the city wall. It thudded into the wall and stuck there, a small cloud of dust billowing around it.

 

“No no…” she readjusted and fired again , getting it right this time and seeing the tiny sun skitter off the wall scraping what it could off and bringing up dust in its wake, dust that only grew when large broken cobblestones crashed into the ground and ejected more up into the air.

 

She fired off more than what should have been in the teardrop, until the both the land surrounding them and their own lungs were covered in chalk dust, only the mountain showing up high in the distance.

 

Discarding the weapon, much to Fujiko’s complaints, she shifted her legs and took Fujiko’s sleeve. “Come on!” she called out, rushing for the mountain, the dust hiding the lands around them.

 

***

 

Fujiko was learning quickly to pace herself behind Otsune. The distance they had to travel wasn’t for sprinting but Otsune kept it slow for her friend. Within the dust cloud, she couldn’t afford to lose her only friend in this place. After they left the wall surrounding the village it was just a short trek to the base of the mountain. The dust cloud was still doing a good job of hiding them and with no wind to carry it the billowing chalk hung in the air kindly for them.

 

Catching a breather when they reached the base, they wandered round a rock and collapsed on the other side. Otsune watched Fujiko panting heavenly away to herself, the sweat sticking the dust top her skin. The flame was fine, but was hovering over the rock whenever it felt like it. She brushed it to stay as hidden as possible and took a look at the mountain before them; pure white with not a drop of snow in sight. She could see the top of it; the darkness remained consistent all the way to the peak.

 

They probably weren’t going to make it. It was foolish to not consider that. Part of her had been brave enough so far to completely ignore the possibility of failure for fear that it would be considered part of the predicted result. But now at her most tired, she was going back to basic experimental thought process and the idea of scaling a mile tall mountain with no supplies, blisters on their feet and madmen with infinite ammo right behind them were enough integers to put the possibility of surviving far beneath the notion of statistically significant.

 

Would it get colder the further they got up? Unlikely.

 

Feeling her body recover, she let her eyes open back up.

 

A building was in front of them.

 

Old Jake’s Super Ski Lift

 

Otsune stared at it.

 

Old Jake’s Super Ski Lift

 

She turned the stare into a piercing, deeply pissed off glare.

 

Old Jake’s Super Ski Lift

 

The sign didn’t change.

 

“Aw what the hell!” she cried out, getting up, storming over to the shack and pushing open the poorly painted green door. The sound of a bell tingled above her and she slammed the door violently, opening and slamming it repeatedly until the small brass ringer tore off and dropped to the floor. She kicked it into the room, Fujiko following shyly behind her.

 

A smell of cinnamon assaulted her and she felt a homely comfort that could only be found in the warmest place for miles around when on a ski slope holiday. There were large couches everywhere, each coming with their own empty vending machine. On five of the tables, hot chocolate gently threw steam into the air that got wrapped up in ceiling fans. Otsune was overcome with an urge just to relax, take the weight off and let her blisters have a few hours to heal. It was tempting to accept. Whoever was doing this, and someone was doing it, probably didn’t actually want her healthy.

 

Like hell was she going to let them have their way.

 

Striding up to the reception desk, she vaulted over and kicked her way through the slightly ajar door that opened as it normally would. Fujiko made sounds of protest but both knew by now they were merely a formality. Only a recently acquired fear of explosions made her halt by the next door, and she glided in with the speed of a cautious snail.

 

The back room should have had an office, or at least a table, sofa, TV and students working part time during the holidays. Instead there was a large door, far bigger than the shack had appeared on the outside and glowing with a white crystal finish and looked like it couldn’t be opened with a demolition bomb made of dynamite. The rest of the room was bare.

 

In front of it sat a small… hell… thing. Otsune wasn’t interested in looking at what she met anymore really. It was small and impish. Its nose was bright red and the few plucks of hair on its head seemed to be all that it had ever grown. Its, and there was no way it had a gender, hands were tied together with what looked like a cat’s cradle spun round five hundred times, making it seem defensive. Not noticing the intruders until they looked down at him, the Imp thing peered up slowly like a drunk seeing the police for the first time after spending the night sleeping on top of a dead hooker. It seemed to drool, but the drool was actually staying in place as the head craned upwards. Something about it told Otsune it shouldn’t work like that.

 

“Okay,” she said with a sigh that would have impressed any Emo. “We need to get past you as fast as possible. Cut the crap. What do you want us to do?”

 

The imp stared at them like it was at a party and nobody was speaking. “I like riddles,” it said.

 

“That’s great. Let us through.”

 

“You can pass,” it stuttered out, as if saying the words for the first time ever. “You can pass, you can pass…. if you answer me a riddle for me.”

 

Otsune’s crap cutting quota was instantly reached. “Perhaps you didn’t hear me…”

 

Fujiko interrupted with a whispered to her ear that, in the girl’s current state of fatigue came out as a ragged shout. “Otsune, if we can get pass just by answering a riddle, we should probably take it.”

 

“The thing’s only three feet tall. Stepping on it is just as good an option I think.”

 

“I thought you liked riddles. What’s the matter? Afraid you’ll get it wrong?”

 

Otsune knew reverse psychology when it was so blatantly used on her, and Fujiko was a fool if she thought she would fall for it. So much of a fool in fact that she probably have thought Otsune would have gone with her original thought and just bypassed the elf. Instead, Otsune decide to trick Fujiko.

 

“Oh, go on then. What’s your riddle?”

 

The imp laughed, sweating quickly with excitement as it jumped up and down. Bouncing backwards and flipping over, the imp jumped high into the air, rolling itself into a ball, hovering in the sky and transforming into a giant golden sphinx. The powerful architecture threw them back, mainly because the creature’s physical size needed to push them out of the way. Otsune rubbed her eyes. She had just missed something, and kinda wanted to ask the imp to do it again.

 

The sphinx, which for all it exquisite hand crafted masterpieceness still had the face of the drooling disgusting imp from a few seconds ago spoke in a voice that sounded like the squeaky belch like before, but at a pitch the brown note probably would have come into existence for just to compete with.

 

“Answer my riddle that is mine and you shall pass,” it said, shaking the room and breaking things back on the other side of the reception door. “What won’t break if you throw it off the highest building in the world, but will if you place it in the ocean?”

 

Otsune groaned. “See, now we have a riddle with ambiguous answer. Might as well as why an eagle is like an American flag. No matter what we say he can go ahead and change it if we get it right.”

 

“Well, ask for another one,” hissed Fujiko in her failed whisper.

 

“No,” Otsune whispered back. “Wait, I can get this.” She pondered for a few seconds, letting the answers quickly roll through her head. “Let’s see, what won’t break if you throw it off the highest building in the world, but will break if you place it in the ocean?”

 

“Ooh, I love riddles,” the impsphinx muttered like it was speaking through a microphone. It distracted her a little.

 

“Yeah, whatever…” It wasn’t that harsh a riddle really, but there were number f things that could survive a fall that would rely heavily on the window. A Pillow, a leaf-

 

“Ah! I got it. It’s a tissue!” the imp shouted out in joy.

 

Otsune’s thoughts were cut off. “What?”

 

“The answer to your riddle, the sphinx cried out with delight. “I got it, it’s so obvious to me now, it is to me. It’s a tissue. Makes perfect sense. It would just float off a building but would break in the ocean. Yes, it’s definitely a tissue!”

 

“But but…” Otsune said flabbergasted. “But that’s what you just-”

 

Fujiko quickly pushed in front of her. “Ping pong! That is correct!” she said in horribly pronounced English. “You’re pretty smart to get that one.”

 

“Aw, well thank you. I have been training… “The golden statue blushed down on them, its cheeks heating up and melting.

 

Still lost as to what happened, Otsune saw Fujiko taking over. “Ah, I just figured it out. The answer to yours is…tissue, isn’t it?”

 

The Sphinx gleamed down at them, looking impressed and awestruck. “Wow, that’s right as well. You’re smart too. And you got it before your friend did.”

 

“Well, it’s just a knack I have for riddles,” Fujiko said smarmy.

 

“Okay, you can pass.”

 

“What?” Otsune spat out. “No. I won’t pass on account of your stupidity. I demand another go.” But the sphinx had already turned back into the small imp, who dropped to the floor in a way she completely missed again and was already running up to the massive door that looked like they would require hours of controlled explosions and possibly drilling equipment to open them.

 

“Come on already,” Fujiko groaned falsely.

 

The imp kicked the left door open and bounced up to kick the right. Both doors flew open easily.

 

Letting herself be pushed through the door, Otsune sighed loudly again. “I’m sickened by the fact we’re getting away with everything we’re doing.”

 

“And I’m sickened by how you keep trying to avoid opportunity.”

 

“I’ve taken every opportunity I’ve had thrown at me. It never pays to let things stay without moving. I… just don’t think this was a good test of my brain. Imp, I want-”

 

Fujiko muffled her voice, and the Imp thing ignored her outright, disappearing around the side of the door. Otsune stopped being pushed to chase it now, taking three seconds to walk across the width of the three doors and nearly running gut first into the safety rail for the ski lift.

 

It took her by surprise and that shamed her. It shouldn’t have really. Most of the things provided to them were designed to impede them so far. Therefore, it stands to reason that it should be okay for their to be a massive rotary stair lift that jutted out to the side of the shack where nothing had been earlier and rose all the way to the top of the mountain which, again, was absent the first time they passed it. But then it stood to even stronger reason that head butted all the other reason around it that it made no sense for there to be something appearing that didn’t impede their quest. Therefore it was bad for her to be getting on it.

 

A thought she should have been having two minutes ago, before she got on it.

 

But it was getting near the end now, she hoped. Relying on gut feeling was something she hoped to eliminate, as the gut just wanted this ordeal to end. Brain feeling didn’t have as much evidence to walk with at the moment. There could just as easily be a giant, massive forest full of natives who will inevitably start killing themselves off on the other side of this mountain.

 

Her objective was fuzzy in her brain at the moment. They had found ‘Tina’ as close to find as she was going to get. Now they should just be looking at escape. Everything else should have been irrelevant, but it wasn’t. There was one more thing left, but she couldn’t completely remember.

 

“Otsune?” Fujiko asked. “What are we aiming to do when we get up here?”

 

“Not sure,” Otsune replied. “I got a few ideas but I can’t tell at all if they’ll work. It’s all a bit of luck really”

 

“Oh I get it. You’re hoping there’ll be another door at the top here. Maybe one we can reach on the lift.”

 

“Yeah, that would be good.” She yawned, her bones felt tired, like she wanted to rip off this layer of skin and throwing herself in the Hot Springs. Time was long lost to her, but she must have moved enough to earn a rest by now.

 

A flash struck her, and she bolted up on the chair lift, nearly sending them both flying as it rocked about. Twisting her head round, she saw the little flame following them just behind and below the ski lift. She breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed, not just content that it wasn’t slowly incinerating the cord that kept them alive but also because the little flame had grown on her. Sure even now she felt the constant danger of suffering massive, skin twisting burns that would all but destroy her beautiful complexion, but so far it had remained loyal and never actually done anything bad- in the Strangelands anyway. It was her own little piece of weirdness that she hated for even being nears her.

 

Staring down, her eyes caught something. Movement. She squinted.

 

“Fujiko. Focoscope!”

 

Fujiko reached into the bag and started looking through it before Otsune could take it off her. Trying to snatch it back, Otsune failed and rocked the chair some more. Fujiko went limp. Otsune pried the telescope away, only to see why an instance later.

 

At the bottom of the mountain to the west of the magically appearing Old Jake’s Super Ski Lift a man stood right at the bottom. He peered up in their direction, the rags hiding his mouth as he whispered that name over and over again. Twisting the focus in, it zoomed in perfectly, but Otsune already saw Mitzy just standing there far behind them. Judging by maximum distance she had seen so far of three hundred and eighty five meters, there was no way he was going to hit them with the teardrop he had picked back up. The elevation alone was the problem.

 

A large explosion ripped out a large chunk of the mountain below and Otsune rocked the chair again as she struggled to see where it landed. The wires of the lift were too thin to hit with such a thing, but the support columns were vulnerable. Even if he just turned round and fired at the shack it could end all their problems in a quick and efficient manner.

 

It was no longer safe for them on the ski lift. Bracing herself, she twisted and slid right off, only realizing when she landed that Fujiko had started before her.

 

Otsune readjusted the focoscope’s infinite focus again and got the man’s teardrop. It took five seconds to reload roughly but no, he wasn’t firing again for now. Was he wearing a special bandana or something?

 

“I can’t believe it”

 

“I know, he’s still tailing us across these lands. You think he would have stopped and told us why.” Otsune stopped. Fujiko was not facing the same way

 

“Otsune… we found him”

 

“What?”

 

“We found the Savadali!” Fujiko rushed ahead, running in front of her and preventing Otsune from seeing. Taking a quick glance down the mountain, she realized she had lost him, and then turned back round to see what the fuss was about.

 

They weren’t near enough the top, but it was close enough to be practical. In front of Fujiko, sitting on the dust with a large fine silk toga sat a man encased in a white light that looked solid and made a pyramid. The two of them approached slowly, making a point not to point so he didn’t disappear. The man in the box ignored them completely, in the midst of meditating, he hummed quietly to himself. Tattooed on his anorexically skinny yet superbly toned chest was a brain.

 

Standing right in front of him was Tina, grinning impatiently.

 

“This isn’t where we said we’d meet.”

 

***

 

Precise predictions were things that Otsune prided herself on. Last year she had developed an algorithm that, so far, had successfully predicted how long each of Fujiko’s relationships would last after she herself had spoken to the guy for ten minutes. When she got the university entrance exam results, she posted the range of her results in all subjects with only a five point deviation allowed and got only three subjects incorrect. She always knew when Sakura was going to make curry. And now the one body she had expected to meet first was standing there in front of her.

 

“How much did he tell you I wonder? Well, I’ll never know. He stopped speaking to me properly a moronji ago.”

 

I winder if those distances ever meant anything!

 

“But still, congratulations Otsune,” the woman before them said, standing next to the man in the pyramid box. “You made it here. There’s your prize. Just know you won’t be able to ask him and get out of here at the same time. Well, you could if you did it right. But even on the sake of all our years of friendship I could never let you know-“

 

“Oh stop being Tina already! You poorly animated sack of bones.”

 

“Eh?” A confusing insult always stopped any conversation.

 

“If you’re going to do the whole betrayal angle, then you might as well go all the way and reveal you’re the Warden for this place. Seriously, it’s just a waste of our time. I know that’s your point, and I have to respect that you things are probably programmed. But please, stop trying to insult my intelligence.”

 

“I see. May I ask how you knew?”

 

“No, you may not!”

 

“May I?” asked Fujiko, looking a bit frightened. Otsune caught herself in mid swing and stared at her friend. Monologuing would surely make her the bad guy.

 

“For one you’re doing an awful impression,” she shouted, swinging a finger at the heroic hero of justice”. Tina’s accent is more Western Germany, yet yours is Scandinavian.”

 

“Oh like anyone was going to get that.”

 

“Two, for me to accept you as Tina, it requires accepting the fact that a separated Tina somehow tumbled across a door out of the many infinite doors available in the InBetween realm that led to the Strangelands, taking an unprepared Tina into a cold, chalk desert and then to this village with little food and nothing but her purse and expecting her to survive here for four months plus however long we’ve actually been here and then somehow by chance actually run into us and manage to save us just in the nick of time with hereto hither unknown super ass kicking powers of undefinedness.

 

“I wouldn’t deny that such an unlikely set of events could possibly happen. But considering where we are and the other events that have occurred here that shouldn’t, it seems far more likely that you’re are a demon and you’re tracking us for bizarro reasons.”

 

The guardian did not look impressed. “So your only actual logic was that I shouldn’t be here. But I am here.”

 

“But you are not Tina Gottfeld. She was never here. I never even came here with the intention of finding her here. In fact the only reason you are here is because of her!”

 

Cranking a thumb back at Fujiko, she heard the squeak behind her as Fujiko moved from spectator to main suspect.

 

“Wh-what are you talking about? How did I? I’ve done nothing more than follow you this entire time.”

 

“That’s partly the problem, but also the solution. Think it up, Fujiko. If we follow my assumption that this isn’t Tina, then why is there a Tina here? We both knew her. We know what she looks like. This is her. Therefore, it stands to reason…well not really. It stands to the laws of dramatic logic, that this whole place, the entire Strangelands, is this one’s playground. And that as long as we’ve been in it, we’ve been subject to whatever nonsense that allowed her to obtain the form of Tina from our minds.”

 

Fujiko didn’t answer, her eyes were scrunched up. She looked a little like the person that had brought the village idiot to the party, and was now regretting it as the chandelier came crashing down on the mayor’s daughter.

 

“Since we’ve been here, we’ve had little to no clues, yet everywhere we went had an answer, a place to lead us elsewhere, just a little boost to stall us where ever we wandered.

 

“It also gave us plenty of time to focus, to steel our goals within our hearts. Not noble goals really, the basic ones. The ones we grit and teeth out and push onwards with even without further need to carry them out. Mine was to find Tina. I went over it, over and over again, just find the Savadali, and I’ll find Tina, or at least reach that step required to get to her. That made the chance of finding the Savadali occurs, since this place is designed to allow that kind of thing.

 

“And that was mixed in with your desire, the goal you steeled yourself with, and that goal was to get the hell out of here as fast as possible. These two factors, created an easy answer for us. One was a desire to find Tina and one was to get things sped up as soon as possible. If you had just wanted to leave, it may have changed things but…” she hesitated a little, trying to get in the mood and make corniness turn to melodrama as much as possible, “you actually wanted to help me. You wanted me to do what I needed to do, and so you persisted, just wishing it would go a little faster.” She failed and hugged her friend. “Thanks Fujiko. It fucked this all up, but it made it a little better too.”

 

Fujiko hesitated before hugging back, probably without complete understanding,

 

“Okay okay,” called out the Tina, holding her arms out in mock surrender. “I confess, I confess. I’m not really Tina. I could have been if you’d let me, but I have to give up now. I’m just too curious.” The two stopped hugging and turned to face it impetuous grin. “Tell me, how do you think it makes this better?”

 

“We’ve defeated you,” Otsune said simply. “However this all worked you could only see our thoughts when we were asleep, so that means you don’t know what I’m planning now and that means…”

 

“Nothing,” the Tina interrupted. “Nothing whatsoever. You know what this place is, don’t you Otsune? You must have figured that out by now. The whole point of this land’s existence.”

 

Otsune compiled. “A cave the size of a country, with only one door thirty meters up from the top of a mountain and down a spiral staircase of ten miles with only one guard and lots of chalk. Barring the obvious answer of ‘just a place that exists’ the only other option… is a prison.”

 

“That is correct. This place-“

 

“Is a prison for the Savadali because he’s too dangerous to be anywhere else, and the place is designed to prevent him getting out along with anyone else that dares enter. Being the only real intelligent being beside the prisoner that doesn’t break and try to destroy itself and others after a short time that makes you the Warden mentioned at the Circus. My guesstimate is you keeps a general eye on the place whilst watching over him and making sure to stall and remove any intruders. More than likely you do this with these creations that we’ve been running into, sets of creatures that have life in them but can only last so long before going wrong and psychotic. Because the last thing that should happen is that a single person makes a request of him.” She stopped to breath. “Yeah, you did give too many clues away.”

 

“Probably,” said the Tina with a look of unconditional boredom. “But it still changes nothing. As long as I exist, you will not break the shield around the Savadali, and you currently have no way of defeating me whatsoever. Even if you had brought the weapons, and plenty were provided, it wouldn’t be enough to destroy me. You can’t even escape. There’s only one exit and though you managed to secure yourself a bag of dirac there will be no food for you to stock up on the way back even if you could escape me. All you have left is your useless friend and your brain. And if you think your deductive brain and your good looks are going to save you-“

 

Otsune coughed. Her brain immediately sprang to action, rushing to know why as the contents of her mouth tried to shoot out the open hole. Her stomach lost all sense of gravity and her knees bended backwards. When she looked up Fujiko was ten feet ahead of her, slowly stepping backwards as the Tina Warden lowered its fist.

 

“Well, I guess we’ll go ahead and have sex now. I had planned to sneak it in what with your flushes and futile attempts at bisexual tendencies, but now I figured I’d just force it into your brain and go from there.”

 

Otsune’s chin jaunted sideways and she doubled over, her forehead smashed hard against hard grainy sand that shouldn’t have been there, and she fell perfectly horizontal against a rock, her pelvis smashing into awareness.

 

“I don’t think you’d complain too much once we get started. You’ve both been thinking about it a lot and you’re not getting out of here. There isn’t much else to do really.”

 

Otsune grimaced and tried to stand. “So is that really your only motivation for not killing us straight away? Straight out boredom?”

 

“No more talking down please, not when you have to look up at me.”

 

Her legs left her again and she cried out without meaning too. She kept the attention on herself. Right eye wasn’t opening properly, but the left arm saw it clearly. Fujiko, a step behind the creature, came out of nowhere and whacked the telescope hard around its head. It dropped forwards and fell to the ground with a spectacular clang and a satisfying thud. Fujiko immediately freaked out. The Savadali was meditating right next to her. They had all moved to it.

 

Fujiko hovered around and took another shot bashing in the Warden’s head with the ivory end one more time before dropping it in a panic and rushing over to her. Otsune couldn’t feel a reason to get up. Fujiko ignored all of them and started pulling on her good arm. They got so far up before Otsune realized she was staring at a standing Tina with her blood ridden eye. Then Fujiko was back on the ground beside her.

 

“I was going to be kind. You had given up much and lost everything else, but at least your actions were noble. You were trying to save your dead friend. That was worthy of giving you happiness, love, no matter where you would have gotten it from. But, if you’re going to be like this, I will make sure you stay with nothing and be nothing for ever.”

 

“You imply I am already at that state,” Otsune called out. She wasn’t exactly sure how loud she was speaking right now. “But I am not nothing. I still have the individual that’s Otsune. As long as I’m me I still have my entire life, and so far you’ve completely failed to take that.”

 

The warden wasn’t the only one watching over them, fucking things up.

 

“Easily rectified.”

 

The warden wouldn’t have given them food, or the ability to keep on traveling. It didn’t give them the bag of dirac.

 

“And I have lives waiting for me as well.”

 

Or give them advice for accessing the strongest weapon in the Strangelands.

 

“They already forgot you.”

 

Was it you? Have you been sneaking advice in this entire time?

 

“Well then, if we were to be immediate and material and dramatic. Then in the end, all I have left, are my simple friends. Fujiko-“

 

“Oi…”

 

It must be.

 

“And this little guy.”

 

Both stayed beside her, never straying. That was true loyalty. This was a simple quest to find my friend. Now Otsune knew she wasn’t here, and the one that can tell me is over there. Everything else is just complications. Strings to be cut. Meaningless nonsense. “A waste of my fucking time.” She took in the air, filled her lungs, and then released it peacefully. She felt calm. They were no threat to her now. Raising her hand and opening it, she watched the fire spirit spiral down to her, burning quietly to itself on her palm.

 

“Occam, could you do me a favor?” she asked giving it a light friendly smile. “Could you burn away all that we don’t need anymore?” The little flame circled round the tips of her fingers once, rising up into the air and circling her body. A few spirals in it extended, taking Fujiko within its circle as it glowed, switching to a high blue flame. The Warden said something, but it was lost over the screeching.

 

Everything went white with a quiet boom. She felt the pressure suck in as land went silent. Then everything around them was taken away. She closed her eyes feeling the temperature hit the one thousand kelvin mark for a split second, the world going nuclear behind her eyelids. There was no sound. No vibrations. She couldn’t tell if no noise was being made or if the vibrations themselves were being burned. Ah well, it didn’t matter for now.

 

It raged silently for a mere twenty seconds, possibly less but she had wrapped her arms around her eyes by that point. She could feel Fujiko’s nose buried in her back. Somehow, she could sense the Warden being incinerated, melting into the air around them, disappearing unto embers without so much as a final badass remark.

 

When the light disappeared from the edges of her shielded eyes, she released herself just a nudge, testing ocular safety. It took her fifteen seconds to see the little fireball dangling in the air before them, nothing but scorched chalk behind it.

 

Fujiko had slowly pulled herself up Otsune’s jumper, now shielding herself from the fire with around 105lbs of Otsune meat. It floated forwards a bit, and she jumped her entire body about four feet down. “Huh?” jeered Otsune. “What’s the matter, Fuji? Do you need a bathroom break?”

 

“What’s the matter?” Fujiko shout back, perching herself n Otsune’s other shoulder. “What do you think? Just what is that thing?!”

 

“Oh that? That’s just Occam. He’s been with us the whole time you know.”

 

“I know he’s been with us the whole time. But how’d he do that? How did you get him to do that? And why does he have a name all of a sudden.”

 

“It’s fire. Of course it can do that. It’s not like the airs thin up here or anything. I asked It to do it, and it listened to me, and it has a name because I named it. It’s a perfect name too.”

 

“It’s full of pretension!” Fujiko couldn’t stop shouting.

 

“And yet it comes with fire.”

 

Before Fujiko had realized it, the flame now known as Occam had floated over though her and looked at her affectionately. Well it didn’t, but Fujiko seemed to be letting her mind run away with it. She calmed down a little, and quickly came to a silent agreement with the floating incinerator without panicking anymore. Otsune sighed happily. “Well, that’s that. Now, onto the next bit.” Turning, she saw the Savadali. The white barrier containing it was gone now, melted crimson plastic congeal surrounded it. Approaching it, she looked as the old man’s head twitched slightly and between dry, chapped lips, words escaped and covered her ears in a soothing melody

 

“It is says a child travels far, and reaches the end of the path no longer a child. During that time he picks up knowledge and corrects mistakes, but only to make mistakes and lose virtues in place of the ones he finds anew. Child and adult.” Otsune stood in front of the Savadali as he opened his eyes to greet her, gazing at her with perfect clarity. “What is the difference between them? Perhaps it is only appearance. Perhaps we merely keep the same parts and rearrange the structure. Always changing, but remaining the same value none the less.”

 

Sweeping the ground beneath her, Otsune knelt down quietly, following his gaze just before he closed it.

 

“You have traveled far, up the mountain alone, it is not easy to neither find nor get to me, and I fear I have given you much grief as a result. Though I was able to assist you discreetly, without the warden seeing or knowing my desire to help is still strong, I realise it would have been much better to help you directly. But I ask you this, what does ARGH!- What are you-” Crawling onto him, her weight concentrated all its mass into her knee before transferring the resultant force straight through the kneecap and into the assumed groin of the Savadali. He croaked and gasped loudly, gargling as drool swirled in his mouth. Otsune slapped her hand against his mouth, and gazed serenely into his eyes.

 

She asked him nicely. “Take us to Tina!”

 

****

 

Act 2 – Final chapters

 

Kiribayashi Itoko – Deceased

 

Hayate – Attacked by Onihono. Lost arm. Survived due to Hollow Escape

 

Hattori Saizo – Deceased

 

Ryuuichi Haruhi– Deceased

 

Blniock – Deceased?

 

Yamato – Attacked by OniHono. Survived because awesome

 

Yamanaka Natoko – Attacked by OniDou ← why still alive???

 

Sagara Futabatei – Not touched? Unknown. Sleeps far too much.

 

Obvious pattern . Needs confirming. May not be just finalists getting attacked. Need to check tournament archive for other human participants.

 

Balance too risky. Can’t be trusted. Get info from King of the City. Check arena itself.

 

“It’s round here?”

 

“Yep, it’s a door. It wouldn’t go anywhere.”

 

“Okay. Pull over driver. Right now!”

 

The limo screeched to a halt, jolting sharply and sending the contents of the vehicle that weren’t strapped down into the left hand side. The only one to opt to using a seatbelt, Natoko now sat drenched in sticky liquids as Sagara’s coke drained the last few drops over her already messed up hair, the boy’s shoulder digging into her leg with a feeling of regret that felt misplaced.

 

They got out quickly, flooding into the street and ignoring the horns and beeping of the cars on the freeway. Sarah banged dismissively on the driver’s window, and he took off again several revs later.

 

“I knew it was odd the first time we came here,” said Sarah as she wandered up to catch them, leaving the road and heading for field. “I know the city perfectly, yet I’d never seen a big open field with abandoned buildings like this before”

 

Natoko caught up, looking confused. She wasn’t seeing any of this. It was just another part of the city that resided within the business district with its tall skyscrapers and men in suits that wandered aimlessly. It also contained expensive restaurants that she could never afford to go to and had to try not to get stared out when she did. She saw no empty fields and right now her companions were staring directly at a wall and into-

 

Her mind froze, then wandered, then dashed around in all directions, pupils trying to pinpoint what was being missed and why her eyesight was failing her. She blinked at least six times then confirmed the building fading out like someone had rubbed an eraser over it. Running to catch up, she saw the buildings blur to open land, standing them in a grass field, six decrepit abandoned buildings sitting next to a dirt road.

 

“How on earth…”

 

“It’s this, isn’t it?” Sarah questioned, holding up the green stone that Natoko last remembered seeing in the wheelchair guy’s pocket. The girl must have swiped it during the inferno. “I was around here three days ago and saw none of this. This is the only real difference.”

 

“It breaks the illusion,” Sagara said. “Without it, the businessmen would see potential and buy the land, but it needs to stay like this apparently. Mom says it’s important.”

 

“Like it matters,” Sarah said apathetically, heading for the middle building. She seemed to know where she was going, using the ‘No entry. Dangerous Structure’ sign as a boost over the metal gates and into the building. The other two followed without problems leaving her to struggle with her blade and bulkyclothing to get in the way as she tumbled over, landing on the ground the hard way.

 

“You should learn a bit of tumbling, Natoko,” Aki mentioned.

 

“I… I am a duelist more than anything. I prefer my exercising to be in a small arena.”

 

“And most of the world prefers being in a big open space with people picking sniper class nowadays so that’s a perfect way of thinking.” Sarah kicked the door down. It wasn’t locked or anything but it seemed necessary and revealed the mahogany door behind it.

 

“This is a trap, right?” Sarah said, looking at the door suspiciously.

 

“Shouldn’t be, unless you’re the one making it.”

 

“Clues on a dead man are often the best to go with,” Sarah said with a sigh. “It’s just when they’re written down and left on the corpse like this…” Natoko looked at the piece of paper again. Sarah had begrudgingly passed it to her in the limo. It was still soggy from Sagara’s coke.

 

“It makes sense I guess,” she said, flipping the paper over to the blank side, “but unless he thought he was going to forget what he wanted to tell us, this just tells me the piece of paper was planted on him after his death.”

 

“But the demon was confronting us then,” mused Natoko. “Why would he send us here, after we had been caught by him?”

 

“I don’t know,” Sarah shouted at Natoko. “Why do you think I’m thinking aloud? I’m hoping Aki would say something useful.”

 

“We should walk through the door,” said Aki. The two girls stared at the third as Aki stood nonchalantly by the entrance to the InBetween realm and with silent acknowledgement walked in unison to the door. Natoko opened it, and they strolled through.

 

From the end of the corridor, death loomed muscle bound, stopping them in their tracks. Sagara bumping into Natoko from behind.

 

She barely noticed. In front of them about five hundred meters away was a man who, despite the distance, still completely filled the end of the corridor. The corridor might have been longer. It was impossible to tell with him in the way.

 

“Heh,” Sarah laughed, starting to walk forwards again. “Warm up fight.”

 

“Sarah, wai-“ Natoko got as far as saying before the girl spun round to glare at her. She backed off, watching the little girl approaching what was little more a series of large bulky muscle with the possibility of a man being trapped underneath. What could Sarah do here? All she had was a bottle of water.

 

Natoko realized she had seen the man before, though she couldn’t entirely place where from. Seeing how large he was- step on a human by mistake large, she wondered how he hadn’t been imprinted on her brain for the rest of her life. Muscles so huge that just tensing them would cause grown men to faint.

 

He was looking directly at Sarah, wearing shades that made it difficult to tell where his focus was. He was ignoring the rest of them. The girl was coming up to him first, and as she took a swig of water, she approached him without hesitation, only reaching up to his knee. Then she threw the contents of the bottle at him. It only reached his legs.

 

The man, who before looked like he would catch Iziz in his teeth and start chewing, faltered. Just a little at first, and then seemed to bow his head in shame. Natoko couldn’t really tell since his neck was already craned all the way down just to look at Sarah. Then the girl said something and he seemed to nod, stepping to the side and walking on. He moved passed her taking only enough notice to not completely squash her and then stared hard at Sagara.

 

“Hi, nice to meet you. I’m-“ but the man was already moving passed them. He didn’t even seem to care when Aki jumped over him.

 

“Che, wuss,” Sarah grinned, carrying on. With the guardian out of the way, the door was revealed behind Sarah. She walked through it slowly enough to let the others catch up. Natoko waited for Sagara and Aki. “What did she do?”

 

“You were closest, didn’t you see?” Aki said, looking a little concerned as well.

 

“Not a thing.”

 

“Scary.” They wandered round the door, jolting to attention as they heard a thwack of liquid hit the ground. Shooting forwards, they ran to Sarah as she hit the ground kneeling, a pool of orange fizz surrounding here. It took Natoko a moment to see what it was.

 

“Sarah!” Kneeling down to help Natoko was thrown back by her own legs as she saw another wave eject from the girl. Sarah panted to herself over the effort and started to bubble out of sight. Natoko watched her carefully for a few seconds as she started to wave out of sight her body tingling rapidly as the young girl popped out of existence.

 

“Sarah!” she shouted out, prepping her blade and throwing her senses out into her immediate arena. Her ears bounced off the wall, trying to find the enemy that had snatched the young girl. It was invisible that was clear enough. If she let it, it would take the others as well and leave her looking-

 

“Ah geez, that was weird,” she heard a voice coughing behind her. “Why the fuck does that keep happening?” Turning round, Natoko saw the little girl spitting out chunks as she grabbed hold of Sagara’s knee desperately. Sagara just waited there, his hand on her head.

 

“Is she-” Natoko didn’t know who to address. “Are you okay?”

 

“Fuck off!” the girl shouted back. “Leave me alone!” She dug herself into Sagara’s knee and hid her face there. Natoko felt out of place quickly and turned round, the only interesting thing to stare at being the pile of vomit and the tournament arena lobby behind the next door.

 

“Huh?” she stuttered, partly surprised at realizing where they were but also what had just changed. The door opening meant someone else was there. Checking to see the others recuperating Sarah, she edged towards the door with her hand on Iziz. This corridor was much shorter. She looked through the crack and saw nothing, then slipped across to the corner of the all to get the best view she could. Seeing and sensing nothing, she stepped through.

 

The vast echoing room was immediately recognizable. This was the place they had queued up during the tournament, where Sagara fell asleep standing, his head propped against a sumo wrestler. It was the place to sign in, both for audience and participation. It looked a lot larger when completely empty.

 

All the announcement boards were turned off, hanging there mindlessly. There was little light, unlike the naturally lit corridors that were bathed in brightness with just a few cheap bulbs every hundred or so yards.  This place had neon strips that were turned off, bathing the place in shadows, making the light from the other doorway across the other side of the room very obvious.

 

“When they get here, we won’t have much time.”

 

“Nothing to worry about. Nobori’s there. He’ll make it clear when a ruckus started. Just for now keep quiet and… hey wait. Oh stop!”

 

Natoko blushed as she recognized the giggles she was cursed to hear every other Friday night or so, the nervous laughter that always made her rush faster. This time though, she snuck her way back to the group and, with Sarah quiet again, she hushed them and led the way.

 

It felt a little stupid sneaking across a large empty lobby area where two supposed guards hid on the other side of the door and masked your movements by their own little tryst. Getting to the other side felt like no major accomplishment and the others followed without a hint of stealth in their footsteps. Aki couldn’t help have a smile on her face the same as Sagara’s usual grin. Sarah just seemed to be suffering.

 

Reaching the door she pressed against the wall by the side, the two guards having the time of their life. Her cheeks felt hotter as she considered just leaving them in their. They were distracting themselves that was certain, but she and Sagara were there to find the computers. From there they could hunt down any other tournament survivors and see what they could find from them. With any luck they’d be able to use one to draw the OniHono out and from there-

 

“Aki?. No wait-” she hissed as her friend nonchalantly opened the door, the giggling stopping immediately and her heart filling with dread. Pushing Aki to the side, she grabbed Iziz and stopped in the middle of the dark corridor, her eyes turning to face the deadliest enemy there; a mop and bucket.

 

“Natoko?”

 

“Huh? What?”

 

“Are you okay?” Aki asked. Natoko took one last glance around the empty corridor again, glancing back at the mop as it hung menacingly against the wall, its accomplice the bucket remaining diabolically stationary in its tracks.

 

“Er… I’m fine,” she replied after a long moment of doubt on how to answer the question. “Thought I heard something.”

 

“Oh good, you’re losing it too. Glad it’s not just me,” Sarah muttered her mouth pressed against Sagara’s trousers.

 

Continuing through the corridor that led to the seating area, they stopped only once to berate Aki as she picked up her pace a little too jovially. Though there was little point. The corridor was as barren and empty as all the others they ever traveled through, save for a vending machine, switched on and nearly empty. By then they had reached the seating area.

 

Shouting filled the air, through only a small draft of it made it to their ears.

 

Tiptoeing, she slid herself up the last set of steps and into view of the arena. The place was darkened out, the other side invisible, the seat closest to her draped in a thick cloak of shadows It was difficult to even see the others as they trailed behind here. The arena itself though was as clear as day.

 

They were no lights there either. Only a single spotlight was on, illuminating the centre arena spectacularly, shining each pebble on the ground as if they were next to the sun. Natoko could see why. At the bottom of the centre arena, at the very centre of that arena, stood the OniHono.

 

It was shouting, arguing at the stone demon that had attacked her.

 

***

 

“This isn’t working,” the OniHono bellowed, its anger ripe with fury as its voice ricocheted throughout the arena. “All this does is waste our time. How can we possibly reclaim our siblings just picking humans off?”

 

“The times I have explained this to you have been many,” the rocky demon replied. It was sat, resting its vaguely shaped head on a ledge that might have been its wrist. It looked like it was uncomfortable fitting its entire body onto the arena stage. “To attack a man such as him head on is still currently impossible. Too many watch, too many are involved. That is why we must eliminate.”

 

“But we haven’t eliminated anyone. Not of importance.”

 

“I disagree. Those who participated proved their strength. By removing the strongest-”

 

Besides her Sarah coughed, desperately trapping all noise with cupped hands. Natoko bugged out and moved to jump away, fearing another spasm, but her body held her in place, trapped between thoughts of being found against having to change clothes. The young one was able to hold it in.

 

“But we didn’t. We just removed two cripples and a few spies. Actually, make that I did those. You just went for the swordgirl and failed.”

 

“It was a time I was compromised,” the earth ‘demon’ sighed loudly, Natoko felt the gravel behind her shuddering. “No, I will not argue this with you anymore. This is no argument I have not already had with you. You are simply not listening to the answers I give.”

 

“But I have listened, brother. I watched and waited and killed exactly as you said. I was overjoyed with your plan. It made sense to do it the way you describe. Eliminate and entice. Appeal to his desire to fight. But when you described your plan to me was it not implied that this would be done quickly, a two week period at most.”

 

“Time was not implied, but he was slow on-“

 

“Three months, brother! Three months since we killed the blind girl and attacked the samurai. Then nothing. I let the boy in the wheelchair live so he would feed them clues. Why has the Futabatei not followed the trail?”

 

The rocky demon said nothing. It appeared stunned into silence, not that it was possible to tell from the outside. Natoko’s eyes were still adjusting. As the fire sprit snapped in anger, his flames raised brighter, killing out whatever night vision she had. She tried to rely on her ears to handle the darkness, but she heard noises everywhere, the fire ruining them all.

 

“I tell you. He knew! He knew perfectly not to follow. We were too obvious, burning the blind girl. It told him it was me. He must have figured it out instantly and chose not to pursue.

 

Yeah, that was it. Natoko thought with an inner groan. That was it perfectly.

 

“Now we sit around here waiting patiently. In a place no one enters to even look. It vexes me brother. I am lost and confused and really, really bored. Surely something was to have happened now.”

 

“The one in the wheelchair was attacked but a short time ago. Time does not move fast for these humans. It may be at least another week before any action is undertaken. We will wait until then, and then look at our next course of action. Until then we must not do anything, not even prepare counter scenarios. We will simply wait for him-“

 

“More waiting? You are as old as the planet itself, brother, but surely even your patience must be unable to tolerate this. How can you consider wasting time, moving so carefully? Even the slowest would be level sixty by now.”

 

“We move as planned, as slow as need be. Must I remind you time and time again, brother? We cannot risk even one of us being destroyed. It is possible, we know this even though it has not been done before. But any action may cause them to strike, and we know they have Naomi. They could choose to destroy her in retaliation.

 

“It is not Naomi! It is OniSui! And surely we should rescue her in the meantime. She has been tricked by that awful woman and now does her bidding. Do you know how horrifying that was? It did not even look like she recognized me.”

 

“She doesn’t. That is the problem. We must gather the other two first. We know they have our brother, but our youngest completely eludes us. They may have him also, and they may choose to destroy them at any time. If we were to jump at their headquarters, they may choose detonation over capture.”

 

“I know that. I know your logic perfectly. I followed it myself where the brat first arrived at the old fortress. But there is a difference here. We are not moving carefully. We’re just not moving at all!”

 

“You will wait brother. And you will see. Soon, just a little longer.”

 

The fire spirit went to shout something, but hesitated. It looked defeated. Weary. This wasn’t the first time they had had this conversation. She almost felt sorry for it, though it occurred to her that they might be able to make it happy. They were here now, weren’t they? Should they attack? This was finally what she herself had been looking for all this time.

 

They weren’t that far away. They would have to get closer to even consider attacking, but they were too close to risk speaking to each other. The others knew that as well. All were staying silent. The OniHono could probably decimate the entire arena. The black dust showed its frustrations against the roof.

 

Then, she heard them both at once. A whistle and bang, flying through the air. It was surrounded on both sides by a light laughter. Her eyes scanned the area. She couldn’t see anything, but Sagara was looking straight into the darkness, his brown eyes peering carefully at something. The fire spirit screamed out.

 

“What? Who dares!?”

 

“Humph. Only the foolish ask a sniper for his location,” Natoko’s ears went straight to work, running round the arena and all its seats. But they couldn’t find it. The source was blocked perfectly. The arrow stuck in the Fire spirit’s heart didn’t come in any direction she heard it from, and Sagara was looking the wrong way.

 

The wood crumbled to embers in the spirit’s chest. And the OniHono immediately countered another arrow as it exploded sharply, covering the creature in dust thick enough to expunge the fire on its forearms.

 

“You don’t even consider it, do you?” a voice said. “The real reason for its stalling.”

 

The fire sprit howled out in annoyance. “Die die die die die,” it shouted, and flame ejected out into the darkness. Natoko watched the area on the other side pierce light into the area. She caught something moving fast, but it was quickly lost in the darkness following the attack.

 

“Is it not obvious to you, creature? Even the greatest of generals would not have his troops sit in a room patiently for months when the aim is to catch one man.” Two more arrows flew through the air, hitting the OniHono in both eyes. It didn’t view it as a problem, and shook the sand away from it.

 

“You are being used,” the voice went silent, as did the two creatures in the arena. Natoko felt fear rush through her. She knew the third voice was somewhere around the outskirts like them. The fire could incinerate them immediately as it tried to catch its attacker. They had to move.

 

“…” Before she could say anything Sagara held his hand over her shoulder.   

 

“What better way to defeat an enemy than to steer it under your thumb. She assumes you do it for the cause. I would almost be tempted to allow it to continue if it didn’t prove all that I have feared.” An arrow struck straight into the fire spirit’s forehead, it shot through clean and sunk into the floor. Falling back, the creature spat fire into the air, screaming loudly.

 

“Who are you?”

 

The figure stopped behind Natoko, appearing in a blink. “I am Hayate Fujiwaru, and I am here to destroy all of you!” He fired another arrow, Natoko missed where it went as the two stared at each other, a hiss of disdain came through his teeth, and he disappeared again.

 

“It’s about time!” the fire spirit shouted. “You’ll do for a warm up at the very least, and I am so very cold.”

 

Natoko turned in time to see the creature take a running jump, sprinting across the arena and catapulting itself into the air. It fell for about two and a half meters then bounced up again, propelling itself off waves of flame which shot the plastic seating up in smoke. Natoko watched with fleeting horror as she saw the creature flying straight towards them. Her eyes gazed into the empty holes above her and felt the heat fizzing away her hair. She slipped back, panic overtaking instinct. She was ready. Her mind was fully focused to fight. It’s just that the brain has a part that knows it shouldn’t throw a fist at a steel wall and right now the creature was a cannonball aiming straight for her face.

 

It bounced off, clanging loudly and flying right back, the blast took it completely off course and the creature shattered through the seats behind it.

 

Just above her stood Sagara, the gauntlet around his hand. With his light grin and his foot on the safety rail. He finally looked ready. He strung his arm out, the velvet whip ejecting from nowhere, traveling the length of the arena, and yanking Sagara across it. He became a shadow into the demon’s light, launching himself straight for the creature, dodging at the last second to evade a hastily thrown fireball. Natoko had to jump too as it followed her path. Even so her eyes remained fixed as Sagara threw a straight punch that firmly missed the creature’s head and followed it by a roadhouse kick to the spirit’s leg that promptly set fire to his own. He fell back in a stupid panic, trying the waft the flames out of existence, the Onihono back handed him, following up with a few attacks of its own that went so far until Sagara threw his weight into blocking a knee and immediately set fire to his jacket as black energy knocked the creature back. He fell back again and hurried whilst bouncing to rip it off. The cotton jacket quickly went up and proved a quick distraction over the Onihono’s face that left it vulnerable enough to score a few hits at the head.

 

There wasn’t time for her to watch. She didn’t know where Hayate was but she should at least confront the other demon. Jumping over the rails she waved at the other two to stay where they were. Sarah didn’t look capable of movement but Aki saluted her assent.

 

“This shows your true intention, little stickfighter,” She gasped and dodged in one movement, avoiding Hayate’s presence before he could do anything. Not that she could tell if he had done anything, seeing as he was just standing in front of her right then. Not risking anything, she rolled back over the next rail and ran for it, but he seemed to be taking his time.

 

“It was obvious it would happen one day, but I never thought I would witness the planning myself. You will not have time to prepare any further, wretched weakling, and your superiors will simply be confused as to where you’ve all gone.”

 

“We’re not with them. We’re fighting them like you.”

 

“Lies, I don’t know how I exactly tripped up, but it seems your boy was more aware of me than he should be. Perhaps it was the king’s warnings to you. Still, it is irrelevant.” Something shot out, and she was aware her nose was bleeding. Something else struck her and she heard a cry of pain that sounded a little too much like her own. Her legs gave on her and she staggered back enough to bounce straight of a seat. It thrust her forwards and Isis came out in her hand striking forwards, he was already behind her and it struck again.

 

“As useless as before. Still, you are human. I suppose I should be a little impressed,”

 

“Only a little,” she said, seething through clenched teeth as she crawled her way back up.

 

“Yes, about 0.545 should be enough. That would be about the level of seeing a dog learn to open a door. Is that comparison confusing for you? How about-

 

She was in front of him. Her sword was in its sheath.

 

“How the-“

 

She was behind him. Her sword was in its sheath.

 

He screamed, appearing in front of her and pushing. She felt the stairs beneath her feet disappear and didn’t care, pushing herself forwards regardless and getting behind him, he tackled her as her sword went in through his arm, the demon releasing a blood curdling scream as they both fell down the stairs.

 

Sagara and the OniHono slowly circled each other, the fire spirit taking the most hits with Sagara dodging all the lunges. The spirit only had to get lucky once and Sagara seemed to be taking his time, pushing the demon back edging across the seats as he jumped up and began dancing across them. The sprit lunged and he quickly fell back, grabbing it with his gauntlet and falling back even further. He was leading the OniHono to the steps. As it got back up slowly in a daze, the spirit was helpless, but Sagara waited. Natoko could see he was bracing himself and felt the crack herself as he plunged his fist into its stomach. The shockwave blew her hair back and they shot across like flying boulders. Natoko felt elated the half second before realising Sagara was being pulled along, the OniHono grasping his gauntlet for all it could, the two flying helplessly in the air, the spirit breaking off just before impact.

 

They fell into the arena, both scattering to opposite sides, the empty center stage lighting up as the Onihono skidded across.

 

Natoko watched them fighting upside and craned her neck forwards to stare at her fallen opponent, his lifeless shell staring right back at her.

 

“What mark would you give that?” she said laughing.

 

“Zero point eight four nine,” he replied, already up and kicking her hard in the chin. She felt things break and skidded back on her own hair. The left half of her world went up as the right went down. Hayate approached her, ripping off the remanants of his own arm.

 

“Impressive,” he said. “You’ve actually managed to kill the demon I was borrowing.” He tossed the arm she struck aside and stamped his foot onto her wrist. “You’ve earned my curiousity, human. Tell me, where in all the realms did you find a weapon that actually kills demons?”

 

“The gift shop,” she croaked, trying to get up and feeling it crunch for her efforts.

 

“This is how you’ve been doing it then. I see” He paused above her, staring down with pale eyes. “This is all I need then. I’ll erase the lot of you, and take this sword for evidence. It should be all the proof we need as to the Balance’s intentions. Our war will start afterwards.” He glared at her, and she became aware of a light fountain of sand pouring onto her shoulder.

 

Hayate froze, his body stiffening. Natoko looked on as he lifted off the ground, rising up on the rocky spear that now shot through his chest. He cursed loudly turning to the stone golem behind him as it methodically pulled its arm back and slammed him into the wall. Falling to the ground, Hayate blurred for just a second before being smashed right back down again, leaving a small crater where his crushed skull was before gargling a hoarse scream and falling silent.

 

The rock golem stepped its massive fist carefully onto the demon one more time, cracking the skull delicately. It observed the body carefully, and then snubbed it. “Stay in there then. You won’t be able to move it for a long while.” It waited, to see if the bait would catch, then lost interest. “Now, onto you.”

 

The demon didn’t seem concerned when Natoko planted Iziz into the palm of its stony five foot long palm. It was probably because the blade wasn’t doing any damage at all. Leaning back, she looked for anywhere obvious to strike. Lopping off the head was a possibility but she would have to climb it first. It didn’t help that Iziz seemed stuck. Forgetting where she was she hoisted a leg onto the boulderous palm and pushed back, feeling it give as much as she felt it jammed.

 

Grunting hard, she missed the outside world for a second, the fist pounding into her and raising her into the air.

 

Was it bigger than before was a chief thought in her mind before the pain struck. Choking with the sudden removal of wind in her stomach, she felt Iziz’s hilt dig into her stomach. The metal tip suffocated her, her ribs starting to break as the golem stared down at her with empty yet scrutinizing eyes. Her own eyes felt like they were going to explode and she felt her tongue sticking out as she grabbed for air desperately.

 

“Sagara,” she felt herself whisper weakly, but he was engaged, the Onihono already back up and waving large amounts of flame around. It wasn’t going to kill him, she knew that, but she was perfectly expendable and completely useless too.

 

Humans fighting demons. Had she been crazy? This one defeated her like Godzilla would smash a city up, and she had even less chance of a rat against an exploding nuclear warhead. Escape was impossible, and help was busy.

 

But that wasn’t enough reason to fall.

 

A mere demon like this. How could she allow it to defeat her?

 

It was nothing compared to her!

 

She squeezed back, no longer concerned for air or strength. Why would such things matter at a time like this? All that mattered was Iziz, and defending those she cared about. How could she let herself fall in front of Sagara, the time when defending him actually mattered?

 

“Interesting. What is that you’re doing?”

 

She growled, screamed, clenched every muscle in her body and felt it push, the golem hand shook wildly around her. It held on like a rabid hare was in its hand and still she pushed harder, the hilt began to inch forwards. She focused on her speed, remembering the blue blur demon and no longer seeing any reason why she couldn’t do that either.

 

“Ah….ah! Hhhhmmm,” the stone demon mused, feeling both agony and the shockwave push through it. Iziz sunk in further and the hand twisted and contorted in response until with a scream much louder than hers, Iziz’s guard reached all the way to its palm, and the demon threw her away in agony. She was ready and the creature regretted it. As soon as she could move her arms, she grabbed Iziz and let it fly with her. Still trapped in the rock, it tore through the arm like she were cutting the land in two. Natoko’s next move was to slam into the ground ass first and go flying backwards. Rolling was tough enough with a blade in her hands. Crashing into Sagara did not help.

 

Letting herself lay there long enough to realize it was a bad thing, Natoko bounced right back up and watched her enemy. It was already calming itself down and, as it regarded its now useless limb, smashed it to bits using the tournament stage.

 

Natoko watched with fascination as it struggled and focused at the edge of its mutilated limb and saw with astonishment as earth and soil bubbled out of it like sewage out a drainpipe. It displayed no emotion at all, and the wound grew over with rock and held there. Her eyes glanced down at Iziz, extremely glad it had saved the both of them. There was blood on the very tip of the blade. It shouldn’t have been from anyone.

 

“That was interesting,” Sagara said, before slamming into her shoulder and dislocating it, pushing them out the way of the burning hot air that now existed were they were standing a second ago. Her world went white hot for an agonizing blissful second. When it dulled she was hitting Sagara off her.

 

“Humph, missed,” complained the Onihono.

 

“You idiot,” she shouted, realizing she had dropped the blade. Her arm felt numb, and felt very wrong. Having just enough time to reach it to be pushed out the way by Sagara again, falling to the floor chin first and nearly slicing her own stomach open, she slid forwards just to see the earth golem smash its giant palm straight into the arena just in front of her. The ground threw itself up and took her with it, gravity reclaiming her quickly and knocking her straight back down. Her vision went black for just a second and when she woke back up, all was quiet.

 

Shooting up immediately, she prepped herself, the entire arena shaking underneath her and knocking her right back down. She felt flame behind her and turned to see Sagara, surrounded by a wall of floating inferno. She would have sighed in annoyance as he shrugged his shoulders just grinning at her but it came out as a wince of pain instead. Looking up, she saw the hand falling down upon them.

 

“Leave her alone,” a voice cried out right before a large snap and slam filled the air. Her body was still recovering but by the time it did she knew what was happening. Her backup had arrived, and Aki was ready to stand with her. Throwing herself up, her body told her no and took her back down again. Her eyes closed as numbness took over and a wave of nausea held her throat tightly shut. When she opened her eyes again, Aki was lying beneath her, her eyes closed, her forehead bloodied.

 

“Aki?” she whispered, gulping to get air back and swallowing blood enough to choke at the same time. “No…. no no no. Aki?” The small girl didn’t respond. Natoko’s own sight was blurry. She could barely see her friend.

 

“Wow, nigga foot is useless against rock, huh? What science we are learning today!” Natoko glanced up, seeing the Onihono grinning across its melted face. She tried to get up but the rock spirit slammed the floor to stop her. She collapsed and head butted her friend’s stomach. She felt nothing beneath her. No heat, no breath. Aki felt far too cold compared to the extreme heat surrounding them. Natoko collapsed her head into her friend’s cold as steel body. “No no no. don’t don’t don’t.”

 

She gulped down two full breaths of air and sheathed her blade. “No! She screamed wildly lunging forwards, Iziz fell out of the sheath cutting shallow. She pressed though, getting another strike, cutting deeply within the same second all the way through and then further, sent into stone and out again, cutting through flesh in the meantime. Iziz burned red hot.

 

“Whoa, would you look at that,” said the flame spirit. “Sliced me arm clean off.” It waved the stub in the air loosely and Natoko cursed her aim. That was the fifth time now. There was still a part of her still holding back, trying its best not to cut into the body.

 

Natoko felt her knees buckle as she struggled to approach it again. The fire demon dismissed her, looking the opposite way to find where its arm had gone, leaving the earth golem staring her down.

 

“It is quick that you have tired. Despite your power, you lack endurance. Indeed, you only have a few minutes of life left. Not that much at all, was it? Even the elderly have much more endurance than seventeen years in them.” She fell completely forwards, only Iziz sticking into the ground holding her up. What a worthless state to be in, using the greatest sword just to stay up, her master trapped and ready to be executed, her friends scattered and lost around her. Even the one she hated was nothing now.

 

“ ‘cuse me I’ll just stick this back on if ya don’t mind,” the flesh charred being said as it returned with its severed arm. “Don’t want to stand out now, do I?” It stuck its arm on the same way a child would stick playdo to the sofa and held it there while it hissed itself back on. Natoko smelt the flesh sizzle up as it reattached itself and as it finished it tested its fingers, all four of them fully working. As it finished checking itself, the demon glared back at her. Both of them did, and she fell to the floor again.

 

“So it that it? You wish to have your body give up on you?” the stone demon asked as it loomed over her. She tasted blood and kept her head down, seeing more of its shadow than its body. “You will now stand for him or them or yourself no longer. You will just fall?”

 

“Fall?” she said. “How the hell do I d that?”

 

“Huh? You stand even as-“

 

“I asked you a question!” she interrupted fiercely, her knees all the way up and her body upright yet crooked. “I asked, in case you didn’t hear me, how the hell can I fall when the person who just killed my best friend stands there with a smile.”

 

“Actually, that was him, not me. He doesn’t-“ The arm fell off again. The fire spirit shrieked in alarm this time, and then once again when it realized the other was missing too.

 

“I swear, that as long as I held my sword, I would not allow my friends to be hurt by any foe. I kept this vow for the last five years. Who the hell are you to break that promise for me?”

 

The fire spirit jumped back, leaving its useless arms as it landed on top of the earth spirit’s head, the charred flesh of its face twitching. Iziz fell back into the sheath, and she took a half step back, prepping herself sixty forty. “If I can’t protect her, then I can at least avenge her!” She shot forwards, her body slicing the air as a bullet of flame ejected at her. She went above it, jumping straight and high into the air and landing with a thud. Her knees cracked under the strain and relaxed completely, redirecting the force and turning it all into momentum. In half a second she covered the arena and unleashed Iziz to slice at the earth spirit’s open palm. It tore right through it and she deflected the motion, flowing with it and twisting around cutting through its forearm as piece by bloodless piece fell away. As the elbow dropped to the floor, she lifted onto it and started climbing, fazed neither by easy to evade fireballs or loss of ground as she focused on the neck of her target. The Onihono squeaked and fell back as she got near, slipping as if someone caught its foot. Natoko leapt at the final moment, bringing her sword up high and driving it straight down to the spirit’s face.

 

“Didn’t you hear me, I said send me to-“

 

Natoko stopped just in time, her feet smashing into the neck of the golem and regretting it. She didn’t move though, nor notice the pain, her numbed brain quickly trying to calculate what had happened, eyes trying to determine why they were seeing golden brown hair brushing against her hands and nearly slicing it off as she leapt back in surprise.

 

“…Tina…”

 

“Whoa!” Natoko shouted just as the body fell back into her, losing both their balance and rolling down the vertebrae of the rock monster. They fell with a grunt and she heard Iziz clatter behind her. The large bundle of hair covered her face and she saw nothing for a few moments as the body above her pushed itself up and moaned. “Oh goodie. Another random encounter.”

 

“Otsune?” she guessed.

 

“Natoko?” The body above her turned and looked around, hair following momentum and revealing the haggered looking girl. Even knowing it was her older friend it wasn’t that easy to tell. The girl looked like she had gone without make up or a comb for a while now. Her clothes were different from the ones she left with and they looked battered all the same. Otsune looked wearied and angry and surprise all in one moment. Confusion and a hint of relief followed it. “Natoko, what are you doing here?”

 

“I…it…” Her reasons seemed gone with the moment as they still lagged behind with the rest of the class on what was going on. Otsune seemed to figure it out immediately and rolled off, getting up and looking around, a little flame dancing around her like a fly on a tiny leash.

 

“Is Tina here?” she asked.

 

“What?” Natoko asked, her brain was switching gears too fast. It wanted to go to neutral and just coast through the rest of this. Questions did not help. She should just be aimed and fired at people. It would make it so much easier.

 

“Tina? She should be here. We’re not in the Strangelands anymore, are we?”

 

“The what? What?” The Strangelands. No, that is not our current location. We are currently in the tournament arena of the InBetween realm, where we are fighting for our lives against the monster we have been ordered to kill. They have already defeated Sagara and trapped him in a cage of floating flame and Aki, who has been my friend and only real support over the last three years, currently lies dead due to my incompetence. Tina is currently no where to be seen and I am amazed you have not found her yet. But that is not the issue at hand. We are fighting for our lives and… and “Whaaaaaaaat?”

 

***

 

The body below her was at least ninety percent likely to be Natoko’s, not that she could do a double blind test at the moment and not that that would be necessary at all. The girl looked stunned and was staring at her as if she were a giant dumbbell offering her candy. Otsune ignored her to look around. The area in front of her looked exactly like the tournament arena where a large proportion of this shit began. Before her was a giant rock and a creature standing on top of it without arms and a lot of fire. Behind them both on the other side of the arena, she saw Fujiko, who was looking over what appeared to be Aki. Right behind her, Sagara stood trapped in flames looking like he was waiting for the bus.

 

Otsune groaned with annoyed nostalgic. She was back.

 

The body on top of the rock was an anatomical mess. No epidermis or upper limbs. Its face was red and bleeding as it burned yet even human flesh turned brownish under a flame. The other was a pile of white and auburn rock stuck together. It all looked igneous yet it had plants growing on it here and there.

 

“Geez, this is getting complicated. Let’s get out of here,” the one on top said. The jaw was moving, but it was without lips and possibly a tongue.

 

“No, we stay.” The rock didn’t move anything to speak. Its voice was hollow and old.

 

“But these girls are freaking me out.”

 

“Did you not desire action? Here is our plan finally coming to fruition.”

 

“And here’s me, unable to brush my gorgeous nonexistent hair or even be able to apply the latest in my big bag of perfumes! How can I fight when I don’t look pretty?”

 

The pneumonic fired in her memory. It shouldn’t have been a proper line of thought, but it came up with logic that should have been completely refutable.

 

“Tina?”

 

Above her, the corpse body seemed to snap to attention and looked down at her. It peered at her carefully; the lack of optical sensors not proving a problem, then it seemed delighted.

 

“Oooohhh, it’s you. It’s you. Hello….err person.”

 

“Is it really you?” There were no features on the rotting carcass staring back at her that even begun to resemble her friend. Yet Otsune just felt it. This was Tina.

 

“Amazing.” The creature jumped down and landed a few feet away from her scalding the rock. Five foot three. Size 12 foot. Hip size was roughly 25 inches, so probably thirty before the flesh got burned off.  It was as close to Tina as she could tell, but it couldn’t be.”

 

“I know what you’re thinking?” the creature said. “How can I get my hair to look this nonexistent?” It laughed just a little too much like her friend. “Well, let me show you.” the world went white hot and Otsune took the moment to think. She asked the Savadali to take her to Tina. It moved her away from the Strangelands and to here, right in front of this creature. It spoke of beauty products when it shouldn’t be thinking of them, and the laugh. It was too much to not be considered.

 

“Are you Tina?” she asked, as the flames died away. The creature looked a little put off for a second, but then nodded.

 

“Err yes…. I am… I was Tina.”

 

“How, what happened to you?”

 

“No no you don’t get it. I was Tina. For a short while. She got killed by this old geezer and I used the body as a disguise. It’s actually lasting quite a while.”

 

“You…you used the body?”

 

“That’s right, yes.”

 

“So Tina is dead.” Crap.

 

“Yes.” Crap crap.

 

“But you didn’t kill her.”

 

“Well, the plan was to slaughter you all, but I didn’t get a chance with what happened. So no, I guess not.”

 

Tina was now dead. No, she had been dead for a long time. By the sounds of things even before the tournament. Was it all just a goose chase?

 

“Hey!” the monster said, sounding alarmed and concerned. “Don’t cry. There’s no need to cry. Look, your friend actually has it better this way. If I had killed her, her soul would be gone forever. Now, it’s probably floated off somewhere good. I sure she would have gone some where nice.” Otsune sniffed and felt her nose bung up. She stiffened up to hold it in. Turning away, she started walking round the monsters and back to Fujiko.

 

“Hey wait, don’t be like that,” the body that was Tina’s cried after her. “It’s better this way. Believe me.”

 

“Brother,” the giant rock creature said. “May I remind you that this girl is meaningless?”

 

“Huh? Oh right of course. We were fighting for our lives, weren’t we? Sorry, nearly forgot. Oi you,” it called out to Otsune, bringing the flame to a bubbling boil around its whole body. “The way I see it you have two options. Death by suicide or death by me.” It didn’t sound concerned now, its cackling voice full of sarcasm and embers.

 

“Of course making the choice immediately means you decided it of your own will,” it started to muse. “So does that count as self assisted suicide?”

 

“Well neither choice is suicide if you force it on her,” the rock said.

 

“Oh good point. Ok, that’s good. I prefer old fashioned murder anyway.”

 

Otsune reached Fujiko, focusing herself. Aki was out of it but mumbling a little to herself. Her ribs were possibly broken and she had a gash on her forehead. She was stable for now, but it would be best for them to move her. There was too much danger for first aid without equipment.

 

“This is hardly old fashioned.”

 

“What are you talking about? People have been burning to death ever since Urggger the caveman wondered what all that billowing smoke was after lightning hit the forest.”

 

“Excuse me, if I might interject…” Otsune said, wiping her tears and clearing up. She needed to keep them away from Natoko.

 

“Yeah sure, interject all you want, to my fire!”

 

White flames surrounded her, engulfing the three of them in a mild heat as the air was killed around them. For five seconds she was unable to breathe at all. Then it all disappeared with no effect whatsoever. She took a lung full of breath.

 

“Yes, so as…”

 

“I said ‘to my fire!’” the flame spirit screamed, glaring at them again and bursting oxygen once again. The room was drowned in white light and Fujiko twisted to avert her eyes. Otsune waited impatiently for the flames to subside.

 

“Was saying” she continued, pissed at being interrupted. “I-“

 

“Burn!” More flame covered her. Beneath her, the rock began to melt a little.

 

“Don’t think”

 

“Er…Burn!” More flame. She sighed.

 

“That’s not going to work!” The entire arena between them and the dark wall erupted into volcanic sunders. The room twisted and contorted as matter eroded into cinders all around them. In front of them, the arena gave way completely, dropping them a few feet, leaving the fire monster that was Tina above them.

 

“Would you stop that?!” she shouted.

 

“Wh-what’s going on?” the creature in Tina whimpered.

 

“It appears she has immunity to your flame,” the rock replied.

 

“What. People don’t just not get burned. It’s a one way process that everyone knows how to follow!” It stamped its foot impatiently.

 

“And yet she does not follow.”

 

“And it’s my fire. I know some can repel basic fire, but mine is the Fortune of Fire. I burn your soul!”

 

“It is rather intriguing, but not necessary to care about further.”

 

“How do you mean?”

 

“That small flame there is clearly the cause of her protection. I will crush them both to death with my massive body. With a bit of will and not so much luck, they will be dead afterwards.”

 

“This shouldn’t be the second time I’ve had to hear such a sentence.” Otsune groaned as her neck arced up to hear them discuss. “But anyway. Little tip. Don’t announce your plan to the enemy!”

 

“We plan on searching the lands and finding our remaining siblings. There are three left. Water, wind and void. When all the elements are together we can begin the end of the world.

 

“Err, what?”

 

“That is our plan.”

 

“What? I said don’t tell us.”

 

“The plan is being told to you because you are not the enemy. You are inconsequential.”

 

“You want to end the world?

 

“A complete end is something it will not be. It may be described more clearly as a resetting of the ancient stones and a twisting of eternal keys.”

 

“I thought you said we were going to burn everything?” Tina’s body asked.

 

“Well, there won’t be anything alive afterwards. I suppose you could argue it to be the same. Anyway, the point is, you will be unable to stop us at all, young woman. Telling you all of our plans will change nothing.”

 

“Yea,” scoffed Fujiko. “Says you and Lex Luther.” Otsune took that for her signal and raised her hand, ready to go.

 

“Occam, attack!” The small ball of flame jumped in front of her, its quiet glow raging with hostility for its opponents. It burned brightly, bearing down on the enemy, bringing itself up to maximum power. Then, in a brilliant flash, it stayed exactly where it was, hovering in front of her nose and doing nothing else.

 

“Occam?” said Otsune. “Occam! Move it!”

 

Occam stayed hovering in front of her.

 

“Occam? Occam!”

 

Occam hovered in front of her.

 

“Don’t you mess with me, buddy?” she threatened. “Your level shouldn’t be high enough that you don’t listen to my commands.”

 

Above them, the rock laughed. “Looks like you have not yet learnt to control your fire ball. Even so, it’s meaningless for you. I shall begin the crushing now, and you shall be crushed to death as a direct result. This is what crushing does.”

 

“Maybe he has certain attack names. Like in a game,” Fujiko suggested.

 

“Oh, right,” Otsune said, feeling they had cracked something. “Okay, Occam, Fire3!”

 

Occam did a little dance.

 

“Fire3?”

 

“You said like the game.”

 

“I meant a good game.”

 

“It was good! All the rest were a waste of time! At least it had a plot.”

 

“Otsune!” Occam had done nothing.

 

“Oh right. Erm. Firaga. Fire. Blue bolt! Burn. Giga flame!”

 

Occam continued to float in front of them expectantly; the giant earth monster was rising high above them now, pulling out more shape from the rubble below, drawing the wreckage.

 

“Electroburn. Cosmic inferno spirit flame. Why do I think this will work?” she giggled madly.

 

“Keep trying,” Sagara said behind them. She finally acknowledged he was there.

 

“You seem to be doing okay in there, boy.”

 

“It is a comfy temperature actually.”

 

“So you’re going to leave this all to us then.”

 

“Well, this flame does burn souls”

 

“Oh like you even have one of those.”

 

“Maybe not, but it also hurts to touch.”

 

“I doubt you have what’s required for that either,” Otsune stopped joking to turn to the matter in hand. “So you’re leaving it to us then, even though I can only stalemate the flame demon and get squashed by the stone one.

 

“Well, we can do what we want with the flame one, but we probably shouldn’t kill the stone one.”

 

“Oh, why’s that?”

 

“Mom wouldn’t like it.”

 

“You think I give two and a half shits at the current exchange rate about your mom.”

 

“I don’t know how to answer that, but if we let Melissa get killed after all she’s done for us, mom will probably string me up by my toes and feed me nails for a month.”

 

“Who!”

 

“But?”

 

Otsune was temporarily stopped in the question by the silence in front of her. The two monsters had gone quiet and looked at each other. The little fire one giggled, before bursting out into laughter.

 

“Ha! Are you crazy? I actually kept track of that one. Burnt her invisible ass right off the stage.”

 

“He is referring to the assistant ninja that follows him, correct? His kunoichi.”

 

“Right right. Only the retard seems to think she’s alive. I’m not that stupid, moron. I made a point to get that one. She was the third most powerful being in that room that was on my to burn list.”

 

“Really, are you sure?” Sagara replied, eyebrows furrowed.

 

“Yes, yes I am” said the creature inside Tina, after a moment of overly decisive head nodding. “Anyway. That’s irrelevant. Let’s continue-“

 

“It’s just, and I’m sorry for interrupting, it’s just I’m absolutely certain that’s Melissa right there, dressed up as a giant stone golem.”

 

It was odd seeing everything freeze for a second, but Otsune swore that even the flames stopped flickering for an instant. Everyone was either looking at the stone golem or Sagara at his point. The spirit in Tina’s body was trying to look at both.

 

“No, he’s not,” it said. “I already said that I killed her. You think I don’t keep track?” It waited for a reply, but no one gave anything. Sagara just kept staring at the Stone golem, the golem right back at him.

 

“That is an interesting statement,” the golem finally said. “It is an interesting statement for many reasons, but I do not understand how you are coming to such a conclusion. Would you care to elaborate?”

 

Sagara grinned. “Sure thing. Well, first it seems highly likely that your overall plan has been nothing more than a stalling tactic. Though the Onihono’s mission was to find me and make me tell you where your other brother is, you’ve done nothing of the sort. You’ve merely had him attack other members of the tournament, apparently to draw my attention and entice me out, even though you couldn’t have been certain or not whether this would have drove me further into hiding. The idea has not been to lure me out but to keep the OniHono contained.”

 

“You had to keep the OniHono contained in order to limit the carnage it would wreck upon the city and also to give me time to find it, as that’s part of the initiation. By giving it small missions and posing as its brother, you could keep it appeased long enough for me to stop being a moron, get my act together and find it through a series of clues.

 

“Also, ever since we entered the warehouse I’ve been in the presence of a Neutralis emerald, meaning I haven’t been able to see properly. Whilst most do know of that weakness it doesn’t matter to too many people, yet this was clearly set up for us to take off … off… that guy’s in the wheelchair’s body and carry around with us thinking it was necessary. Seeing as you two wanted me to find you and made no effort to hide, the emerald seems pointless to have unless there’s a further secret, such as an illusionist trying to hide themselves as a big stone golem OniDou impersonator.”

 

“I’m guessing you set a victory condition of me figuring this all out on my own without using the eye of Futabatei, hence needing the emerald to disable my eyes. You gave that to Yamato to give to me, and had him kill the King of the City, but he got killed by Mr. Jupiter before he had the chance to tell us anything. However, you put the note with the emerald so if we found it we would keep it and come to you, knowing that I would be too stupid to dispose of something that inhibits my abilities.”

 

“Also, out of all the people killed, Natoko was the only one allowed to survive, and she was fought only by the OniDou, where the rest were burned. With all the others being burned why is it that she was only half heartedly attacked and then abandoned, unless it was necessary to keep her alive so as to provide me a soldier to use in Melissa’s absence and teach me the values of leading others, something which could be considered something for me to learn.”

 

“Finally, because I’m an idiot I had no real way of finding the OniHono, so I spent two months thinking long and hard about how I should do my mission, but came to the conclusion that I have no idea or the intelligence to do make an idea. So I used my remaining intelligence to think of a way to get more intelligence, so I beat up a holy angel on a noble quest and stole the ring that contained his brain.” He lifted his hand up to show an ornate bronze ring on his forefinger. “When I wear it, he figures out things for me, and then tells me what to say, so I don’t have to think for myself because I’m a stupid moron who can only repeat what others directly tell me like right now for instance.”

 

Otsune felt highly annoyed, then heard a loud sigh.

 

“And that’s how I figured everything out,” Sagara finishing while grinning He froze looking smug as if expecting a cookie. Everyone else followed suit for unfortunately similar reasons.

 

“Yeah yeah yeah I get the point,” the girl standing next to the Fire monster said like she was waiting in line. The Fire spirit’s head spun round so fast that it didn’t take its body with it, staring at the combat black garbed blond haired American standing besides it. Otsune had met this one once before, back in the infirmary where the ninja had reluctantly introduced herself after appearing out of nowhere. This time it looked like she had done the same thing, but she had replaced a five ton rock god in the process.

 

“Wow, you actually did it,” the girl said, sounding genuinely amazed under her silly ninja mask. “Well done. Well done indeed. You didn’t get the sand demon, but we can count him as eliminated. You also made your own decisions and came up with reasonably effective plans. The only thing left to do would be the core of the mission statement ‘take care of demons and divine as you see fit’.”

 

The Fire spirit beside her did not look happy as she completely ignored him.

 

“So tell me Sagara,” said Melissa. “How do you want to handle this one?”

 

“Well, he’s not a demon nor a divine, so there’s nothing else left to do.”

 

“Well if he’s not a demon, what is he?”

 

“He’s one of the five of the OniKartel. He’s classed as a spirit ogre and so is meant to travel the world at random holding the Fortune of Fire wherever it goes.  So we should leave it.”

 

The girl called Melissa smiled, a grin a little too like Sagara’s for Otsune’s liking. The silly ninja mask did little to hide it. Otsune could already see the gap in logic.

 

“Correct,” replied Melissa. “With this, I believed you’ve pretty much secured your mission statement. We can go now.”

 

“Wait wait wait,” Otsune interrupted quickly. “But, what about the demon?”

 

“”Yeah, what about me?” said the Onihono in a panicked hurry to be noticed.

 

“It’s not a demon. It’s an ogre,” Sagara was quick to correct her.

 

“Yes, but it’s still going to kill us.”

 

“Well,” Melissa seemed to muse it over. “I guess we should take care of that bit as well.”

 

“And you say he’s passed?” Otsune said sardonically. “Are you sure you’ve even qualified to make such a statement?”

 

“He has passed. All the demons he is supposed to take care of from the tournament are taken care of. The divine as well. This is just the next bit.”

 

“What’s the next bit?”

 

“His destiny.”

 

***

 

The temperature in the room went up, enough of a distraction even for her. Otsune noticed it wasn’t bothering her. Her skin was clean while Sagara’s was a big gross mess. The ninja girl was also feeling its effects.

 

The ‘Onihono’ had locked itself in place, taken aback by the sudden rush of information. It was lagging behind as it tried to comprehend. Otsune noted Occam was spinning round her faster now.

 

“What? My brother… what is it you are doing?”

 

“Sorry but you’re behind a page. I’m not your brother.”

 

“You…you’re not?” it said stifled. “Where is he then? Where is my brother?”

 

“You wanna know?” Melissa said grinning at the spirit and patting her stomach. “I ate him.”

 

The spirit stared back in silence at the girl roughly a thirty-third smaller than its sibling.

 

“Illusion seal: No door. No problem having something enter. Getting out afterwards though…Heh.”

 

“But? How? Why? It? What?”

 

“I needed to get close to you, so I could keep you contained why they recuperated, and to keep track of your progress.  I knew Sagara would take a while but had faith he would get it done. I froze your little rampage by focusing it on the tournament members, focusing on strong fighters that could leave you drained for short periods afterwards, all under the illusion of finding the map that could find your brother.”

 

“Yes, brother…you… er… he said that the map led to each member of the family in turn. With it, we could be together and remove ourselves from causality.” It stamped its foot causing the room to rumble and the concrete below to ignite. “That’s what we were fighting for.”

 

“Well sorry but I needed you to stay, preferably without moving. There is no map. Never was.  It was all time wasting and clue lying until this guy got his act together”

 

“Sorry about that,” Sagara apologized. “Sleep was distracting.”

 

“Heh,” the Onihono laughed, its hollow voice echoing as flames spat out across the arena.  The entire right hand side of the audience set ablaze by what looked like pure coincidence. “Hehehehehe, that’s annoying brother. That’s really annoying. Planning on your own like that. Not telling me things. I know why you do it. I understand too. Fool me just as much as you fool the enemy. But how can this be a good idea? Pretending to be a girl I killed months ago. Using illusion powers that you never had before. Smart plan. Smart plan. But telling them that you’re dead; killed months ago? Surely they would know that I would have sensed it. Ha! What would be the point? It would show that you’re dead and she was tricking me for months all to waste my time whilst our mission is more important than the Balance would ever be and with you gone it’s all for naught anyway!” It took a moment to breath. “How can you think such a plan would get anywhere? How can we achieve anything now!?”

 

No one said anything. The Onihono stopped laughing. “I said ‘How’, bitch!”

 

“How sad,” jeered Melissa, looking at the creature with naked disgust. “Do you know how annoying it was keeping you trapped in here for three months? I mean, yeah it was Sagara’s fault for taking so long but you were just-“

 

“Release my brother,” it spat, upping the temperature by fifty Kelvin. Below her the concrete started to simmer. Fujiko squealed.

 

“Get her out of here,” Otsune shouted to her friend, who needed no further push to grab Aki and jump off the stage, running for shelter by the face blistering heat. She wasn’t feeling a thing her self, the little ball of gas gaining another reason why it was useful.

 

“Release my brother!” the creature shouted, finally catching up.” An eternity of melted limbs awaits you for refusing.”

 

“Sorry,” Melissa said with a valley shrug. “That just isn’t possible. He died some time ago.

 

“He….what?” the flames died down as his voice fell to a meek whimper, his body looking ready to collapse.

 

“I honestly didn’t mean to if that makes you feel any better. It’s just he was so weak but he kept thinking he had good plans to escape, and of course he was inside me so keeping watch was easy, but one day I was punishing him and ommpft, a spirit body with no soul. The rest faded shortly afterwards.”

She shrugged. “I had just intended to possess, lead your thoughts into his schemes, but he died before I could do that, so I had to opt for acting. I think I did rather well and on top of that-“

 

“Er, Melissa, wasn’t it?”

 

“Er yes, Otsune?” Otsune had a feeling Melissa knew everybody’s names already.

 

“I know you guys get on rolls with your monologuing, but I really don’t think you should have told him that.”

 

“No, it should be fine now. There’s no need for me to hide anything in regards to this.”

 

The Onihono was ignoring them, spiraling around on the spot and falling on cracked knees. It didn’t seem that bothered when its face planted into the ground.

 

“My brother. My precious little brother. Gone. Dead. The first to fall, the crushing of the Babylon gates.”

 

“In fact I really think we ought to move.”

 

“All coming true. All dooming us all. All because of you!” The flames rose at exactly the same speed he burst into action, Otsune was just a little faster and apparently feeling suicidal as she launched herself at the flame, only to see it dissipate. At first she thought it was going into the air but then she saw it was going into her.

 

Occam was absorbing the flame. And it was going into her, protecting everyone else.

 

Well, that works, she thought.

 

“Can’t stop me. Won’t stop me. There is no stop to me. I do not equal stop. Stop is not relational to my being me. You cannot stop me!” The flames roared, and then shut off completely. Otsune noticed her hands up in defense for the first time. They were all unharmed.

 

Her brain tried to go to flame science but stuck on the pages celebrating survival. Fire did of course grow stronger when it joined with more fire but it wasn’t as simple as that. Occam had absorbed the fire and then blew it out, leaving them all free from pain.

 

This is what she thought until the ninja besides her collapsed.

 

It wasn’t Melissa that collapsed. It was another Melissa that collapsed on the other side of her. The original Melissa was just gone. Sagara was panting on his knees too, collapsing seconds later. All of a sudden Otsune felt very lonely in the room next to the soul burning monster.

 

Temperature. Occam was only absorbing the actual ignition spark, the fire. The temperature must have gotten too high too fast for them, sunstroke in a heartbeat, though that didn’t explain her own survival. After trekking a mountain she wasn’t exactly hydrated.

 

“Stop not burning!” the creature screamed at her. She held herself forwards. The flames felt like they were hitting harder than a truck now. The kinetic energy was more than enough pressure to lower her to her knees. This was bad. Would Occam keep protecting her when she was unconscious? Even so, this monster would still be able to steam dry everyone else in the room

 

Smelling burnt hair and embers in her eyes she took a chance and screamed at the apparition. “Tina! Help me here!”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry, Tina’s not in at the moment. If you would like to leave a message I suggest calling another number. She’s not here, dumbnuts. She doesn’t exist anymore. All that’s left is the memory of you wanting her back.”

 

Otsune had to accept it. She didn’t know enough about this possession stuff to assume it wasn’t permanent and now she was out of time. She kept screaming. “Come on Tina. I know you’re in there. Fight this!”

 

“Oh, that’s odd, I stepped into the arena but I faced no challenges.”

 

“Tina!”

 

“If she doesn’t show up by the count of ten shall we assume she’s forfeited? I’m pretty sure you won’t last that long anyway.”

 

Damn, Otsune knew it was right. It was like a boxer jabbing her endlessly in the face now. “Ten….nine….eight….” she gasped, and renewed her efforts to block. This thing must have a fuel limit somewhere. It had gas but it must be running out of solid matter. But then, how did Occam do it? It didn’t matter. Just a little more. “Seven, six, five” Otsune glanced a look down. Her shoes were on fire, the rubber had melted to the ground. Hiking boots for a single expedition probably weren’t covered through warranty anymore. “Four, three, two,” Otsune pushed hard one last time. She was still there. She could still live.

 

“One!”

 

“Hey, you’re still here. She’s not though huh? Can’t see her anywhere. Well not that I can see. She’s not in front of me,” she said, waving her hands there. “And I don’t think I can see her behind me anyway.”

 

“That’s because I’m there,” said Natoko.

 

The Onihono turned round. It had just enough time to look to line its cranium perfectly with Natoko’s sword and let it drive through. It was so much easier to cut through cooked meat.

 

The Onihono contorted; its body hanging loose from its legs. It exploded.

 

***

 

Taking the blast head on, Natoko felt her skin melt and her eyes explode, it was followed by her head slamming hard into the concrete and rubbing against every other wound she had. The rest of her body didn’t get time to hit the floor before it was thrown out of the arena. By the time she had landed, both kneecaps had shunted out of place against the burning ground and she had broken her sword swinging arm as she continued rolling. Her brain was just asking enough of a question as to why she hadn’t died yet, when she noticed Sagara standing up behind the monster.

 

It was still alive somehow. Hanging off its spine wasn’t as much as a problem as she thought it might be.

 

Her brain acknowledged it was stupid to warn it like she had, to not strike without warning. This would have surely happened any other way, but she was still samurai, and she needed to have done it like that.

 

Sagara didn’t have the same problem.

 

His fire cage was gone now, all that remained was the air that fueled it. He fell right back down, his legs unable to support him. It caught the fire spirit’s attention, that the top half of its body was lined up perfectly with its lower half wasn’t stopping the creature from standing up straight, a warped wall of fire acting as its body.

 

Dance between the bushes and trees.

Hiding oh so carefully

The little girls meet up with the boy.

Bang they’re gone forever.”

 

“Whu-” she got out, but Sagara was too far away. He was punching the ground now, his gauntlet breaking concrete, the snake ribbon swirling around him. It was keeping the flames at bay within a dome of darkness.

 

All the boys want a turn.

Pass it over quickly

Let them play between your legs.

Bang goes your cherry.”

 

The dome bulged outwards, slamming against air like water hitting a plastic bag. Sagara punching was getting harder now. It was like he was trying to stand without using his legs. She…she couldn’t see everything properly. She shook her head. Sagara’s shadow was standing besides him.

 

“Stop it. Stop it. Too much fighting. Stop fighting, you lot. Or it’ll be straight in and you won’t have any pizza!”

 

“What? What are you?” The question was on Natoko’s lips, but it came from the Fire Spirit. It had calmed its rampage out of curiosity, but the temperature wasn’t dying down anytime soon.

 

“Don’t mind you playing cops and robbers, but I will not have you hurt each other? Look at the poor girl over there. She’s bleeding and you haven’t even stopped to help her. Shame on you, young lady! Would you like it if I told your parents?”

 

“It can’t be…. I didn’t… I never… But he said…”

 

The shadow merged and bubbled over Sagara. He was asleep now, but it stopped him from moving about as much as it usually did.

 

“Look, just calm down and apologize, little one. I’m sure it was an accident. You have to be careful though. I won’t tolerate any adult behavior in my playground!”

 

“Brother?” the Fire spirit sad. “Brother… is that you?”

 

Sagara ignored him completely. Something had caught his attention. He walked, no, floated across the arena, bypassing the incinerating demon like he wasn’t there and reaching the prone body of Aki besides a frozen Fujiko. Natoko’s heart sank immediately. How could she have forgotten herself like that? This was no time to be lying about. Aki was dead. She had to do something before anyone else was-

 

“What is this?” an older woman asked from Sagara’s mouth.

 

“Er… that?” the Onihono replied. “Just a body now.”

 

“Did you do this to it?”

 

“Well I…” the fire spirit sounded like a kid in the playground without an excuse. “I… er….I”

 

“She’s dead, you stupid idiot. You let her get killed.”

 

“What? No I…” The fire spirit shook its inferno head, sending wisps in random direction. “What des it matter? Is it you Brother, the fifth of us. Have I finally found my dear brother the Onikage?”

 

“Yes yes, I am the Onikage. What does it matter now?”

 

“Brother,” the fire spirit uttered the words like a saving prayer. “Brother. I can’t believe it. Brother it’s me. Your brother. Onihono. We’ve…I’ve come to get you. We can be together again, a family again.”

 

“Are you not listening? This child is dead. Are you the one that killed it?”

 

The Onihono seemed to check this question a second. Natoko’s body was trying to stand. She couldn’t even see Iziz at this point. “Yes, yes I was,” the fire spirit decided to say after a moment, as if it was sure this would be the right answer.

 

“You confess?” the Onikage screamed out, its twin voices echoing Natoko’s brain, breaking something, making it ready to bleed. “Yoooou ttfink I want a child murderer as a brother. You think I want that fssssshame!”

 

Not in full control is he, she thought to herself right before the tremor hit. Nothing shook but everything rumbled and she watched as beneath her shadow danced in spirals and stripes, pulling away from where they should be to meet with Sagara. All around, she saw the place getting lighter and lighter until she could see the steps light up, then the podiums and soon the entire tournament arena was removed from darkness. Near the entrance where they’d begin, she saw Sarah unconscious.

 

The center of the arena was completely dark, only the OniHono able to bathe in with luminosity, a small ring around the demon keeping it from fading to black.. It was stepping back, trying to turn around as its broken body swung back and forth.

 

“Brother, forgive me, I should have known better. But I did not know you were here. If so, I would have never harmed the child. I didn’t even think it was a child.”

 

“How can you even assume that would change things? The child is dead at your hands, and your only defense is not knowing I was here?”

 

The fire spirit flew towards Natoko, scrapping against the floor broken and battered. Nothing had hit it, but the shadows retreated back to the center when it did.

 

“No wait, it wasn’t my hand. It was our brother, Onidou. When he was here-” The shadows moved again, and the body hit the ground dead on without ever leaving it, bouncing into the air and slamming back down again, before spiraling in a random direction.

 

“Now you blame others? The excuse is meaningless. All here will die for failing to protect the child. It is the punishment for letting the innocent die. Now, every man, woman, child and demon shall perish in darkness for their failure.”

 

Something happened, but she blacked out for it. Natoko’s eyes weren’t staying open, and her hand was reaching for something it couldn’t find. The body of the OniHono was in pieces now. Upper and lower torso joined only by the remains of the spine. It wasn’t able to get up and was screaming out. Her hand went over something. The world felt a little clearer. She fell to her side and grabbed for it, her eyes coming back to full focus as Iziz placed itself into her hand. Slowly, she got up, lifting her blade and swinging it down sharply.

 

She could still move. This meant she could still fight.

 

Whatever that thing was – it wasn’t Sagara; he didn’t have that much emotion in him. Was he being controlled? Natoko thought to her own possession, but this seemed different. Shadow instead of water, but that didn’t matter. She just had to get it to stop.

 

Crawling on her knees, she inched herself along the arena floor. It was already rubble, and she was climbing in more spots than she would have been five minutes ago. The OniKage hadn’t noticed her yet, focusing on the OniHono as it played with the body like a long piece of gum, pulling from both sides in mid air. Picking herself up, she felt Iziz scrape below her. Just a little more they had to endure. It was only several hundred meters away and when she got there it would only be-

 

Her thoughts interrupted themselves as she froze on the spot. At first she thought her body was giving up on her but then she realized she was floating. Hovering there for just a second, she missed the rush of wind as she traveled the distance of the arena in a heartbeat, before her limbs stretched out in all direction and yanked themselves out of place. She felt her other shoulder dislocate and screamed in bloody agony, her fist tightening as best it could.

 

“Youuuuu” Sagara said. He was staring right at her now, though his words seemed to be a few instances behind his mouth. “You were to protect her, just as she protected you. Hhhhooow could you let them take her?” His eyes glowed in shadow, and she felt her mouth slam shut. It wasn’t even going to let her answer back. “You were innocent, but you let yourself be made worse, and they had to suffer from it.”

 

Natoko felt her back get hot for a second and light glowed behind her. Sagara took his attention off her for a second and she heard an inhuman shriek echo through her brain before being cut so terribly short. Everything went dark. Only Sagara’s black eyes remained.

 

“You have failed,” he told her. “Failed to protect all. We let you take away your own innocence with his lips. We thought it would let them keep theirs!”

 

“Butmmmsph” Natoko got out as it squeezed her jaw tighter. The rest of her body shook. Only the dislocated wrist could move.

 

“Now we have to save them instead. Keep them all safe. Everyone will stay in their beds with no supper. No one to go out and play. Everyone will be grounded forever.”

 

Her sword waved frantically in the air as Natoko struggled to breath. Her nose was too swollen and her mouth was trapped. She was blacking out again. This time forever. No, I can’t! This wasn’t right. This wasn’t Sagara talking. He’s dumb and stupid and only good for hitting things. But he would never force anyone to do anything. He was too kind.

 

Sagara…”

 

“I will spread the darkness. Cover the city. Everyone will be placed inside their rooms. I will keep them all safe.”

 

Could it do that? she thought. No, she couldn’t let it. She had to stop it. “Sagara…”

 

“Do not struggle. Your punishment is the worst of all. You couldn’t protect him. All you did was hurt him, and let them die… For that, you shall go without supper or breakfast.”

 

Natoko tried screaming on reflex but couldn’t even make the sounds, her throat was frozen now.

 

“Even now, you fail. You can’t do anything. Only hold onto that sword.” She looked to Iziz as the OniKage did. She felt it move a little, twisting it in the best direction. “Put that down,”

 

No

 

“I said put it down.”

 

No, I won’t!

 

“That’s not a toy, little missy. Put it down right now!”

 

Okay.

 

She released it, letting it swing forwards, the arc letting it float. They both watched it, fly through the vacuum of shadows for that brief split second, hover between them was a graceful shine, before falling down and straight through Sagara’s chest. The creature in front of her shuddered.

 

Natoko crashed into the ground.

 

She got up as fast as she could, body working on liquids beyond adrenaline, refusing to fall now. Before her, Sagara shuddered, Iziz stuck firmly in his chest. The body spasmed, the monster inside screaming, its snaky void rattling wildly into the air, her ears were going numb. Everything was going numb. It was killing the air around them. She felt her body die a little on her.

 

“Three boys, two girls. Together they destroy. The world. The heavens. The hells. And All’s that’s InBetween. All innocence. All guilty. No difference. No grays!” The body spasmed, standing all but shaking in every direction it could choose. It bellowed and screamed and convoluted. Natoko watched it all as she got close to it, looking straight in his eyes as he drooled in her direction.

 

“Sagara…”she said meekly, able to find her voice again.

 

“Earth, Uranus, Jupiter. Dangerous, doom us all. Make us all into hell.”

 

“Sagara,” she repeated

 

“Fear the catastrophe. Fear her, for she starts it all.”

 

“Sagara!” she shouted one final time. “Snap out of it!”

 

Her other fist slugged his across the chin, jolting him in the opposite direction of his spasm and knocking him back a few steps. The boy froze up, and then the glowing eyes disappeared, bringing her to total darkness. In the black room, she waited, swollen ears scanning for life, for any breath near her, and for the death sure to come.

 

“Huh? Did I miss something?” a voice came to her left ear, and she sighed with relief.

 

Then the world became dark, and Natoko slept a while.

 

****

 

Conclusion

 

“Huh,” muttered Sarah, her eyes clamped shut and refusing to open. Her body felt comfortable but in a hospital bed way, never completely at rest but glad for it all the same. She breathed in, her nostrils taking in disinfectant and cleaning products one step too far. In the background somewhere, she heard the beeping of a machine, constantly monitoring something, like a heart rate monitor at a hospital or…

 

The metaphors tallied up. She opened her eyes and shot up, the barren walls and empty beds all around her, causing one almighty ‘shit’ to fill through the air. The bed felt damp, as in the ‘never good’ type of wet. She jumped out immediately, not wanting to get stuck in that line of problems. Her body betrayed her as she hit the floor and crashed, her wrist stinging as something yanked on it.

 

She was quickly put back into bed. Behind the doctor, a lady smiled down at her, the same one that barked orders at Sagara even though he was her boss. Sarah had never quite got wind of who the lady was, other than a business woman that Sagara had working under him. Sarah knew she hated her though, even as she told the story of everything that occurred in the arena.

 

“Aw man, you mean I passed out right at the start?”

 

“Unfortunately the power of two such spirits was not one you should stand up in front of a ten year old child. It seems their very presence was enough to knock you out. You should be glad, the alternates were all quite dangerous.”

 

“I got to miss the cool fight between Sagara and the bad guys,” Sarah muttered to herself, ignoring the woman completely.

 

“I’m afraid so,” Yuya chuckled. Stupid bitch. “Anyway, I believe this belongs to you.”

 

“Sarah let it land on the bed even though she could have caught it. It was the green emerald gem thing she had… found.

 

“It essentially belongs to a rival associate, so Sakimoto Industries cannot keep hold of it without violating a contract term. However, we decided it best they don’t get it back, so giving it to a ten year old child seems the best idea.

 

Sarah looked a little uncertain, but then didn’t care enough about other people to enquire further. She focused on more pressing issues.

 

“What about the monsters?”

 

“They’re gone. Sagara destroyed them,” she replied. “They won’t be a bother anymore, so nothing to worry about.”

 

“Pfft, like I was worried. I just want Sagara on tape so I could watch the fight.”

 

Yuya laughed a little too much to herself and then patted Sarah on her head. In her mind Sarah stood up on the bed and beat the woman’s smirking face against the piece of beeping equipment by her bed, crushing her teeth against the metal edges and laughing as the woman begged, stabbing her eyes out with her own glasses.

 

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Yuya said, ruffling her hair. “You’ll be able to go back home soon.”

 

“Get the fuck off me,” Sarah replied punching the hand away, gem stick in palm and bruising two of the woman’s fingers.

 

The woman tried to maintain her calm but was left speechless. Sarah grinned as she started to feel woozy again. She fell back on the bed to rest for a second

 

***

 

Natoko had healed. Completely and utterly. Her face, which before she had imagined inflated like a balloon and then ran over by a double decker bus, was, whilst still a little on the ugly side, better than it had ever looked. It wasn’t just from the fight either, years of bruises and aches were now gone completely. It felt like she could practice for a hundred days and nights and stop only when she needed a drink.

 

Was it really her? She had never seen herself so… so smooth and shiny. Still not a looker or anything, but she could see no speckles or blemishes in her reflection; no acne, the red smear that came from the scar back when she was five was missing too.

 

It wasn’t perfect, but it looked a little better than usual.

 

She had woken up this way, back at the Sakimoto Inc. buildings, in a hospital bed that had been the smoothest she’d ever slept in. It was so relaxing that she spent the next half hour fidgeting by herself in fear that it was all some dream, that she hadn’t saved Sagara from the demons, that she hadn’t saved the day altogether. But now, with Iziz clutched in her hand and the boy snoring away to himself loud enough to annoy every single passenger on the tram, she felt the memory well up inside of her and for once, she could appreciate the crowds, the hustle and bustle, the packed train full of business men and school kids and loafers and old ladies, all going about their lives in the beautiful city.

 

It was glorious, but not so glorious as the message she had been given from Ms. Sakimoto.  It was just a small fold of paper within the envelope; but it felt like it weighed a billion yen.

 

“I suppose I should issue you with a reward of some sorts for protecting Sagara,” the woman said, sitting behind her huge glass desk ten meters away from Natoko. Ms. Sakimoto had asked to speak to her privately. Natoko felt the office was daunting when Sagara was in it with her. Now it felt a little unnecessary to have that much space available. “Please look at this.” She slid a piece of paper across the desk. Natoko blanked a little on all the technical writing but one word stood clear. Contract.

 

“From now on you will be treated properly as an employee of Sakimoto Industries,” she said, sliding another sheet of paper across the smooth desk. It immediately looked like gibberish to her. “You will be hired as Sagara’s assistant. You will be paid a fixed monthly salary not dependant on hours worked. Your responsibilities will be to cater to Sagara’s commands and to perform roles that will protect both the secret of the Futabatei and Sagara’s life. In essence, it is exactly what you have been doing so far of your own regard.”

 

“Yes,” Natoko replied, her chest rising so fast it threatened to pop.

 

“Now, Sagara is the destined heir to the role of Enforcer within the balance. This is essentially considered the most important position there is and it is required that he have the strength to reach this role. You are not in charge of his training. He will do that himself. You are however in charge of protecting his life whilst he is in training and I should make clear now, his life is more important than protecting the secret. The secret can be covered up later.”

 

“Understood,” Natoko replied.

 

“Admittedly, you won’t have much of a job and you’ll still have a lot of freedom. You can still go to school and-“

 

“Ah, actually,”

 

“Yes?”

 

“I was kind of wondering… now that I have a job… would it mean I’m free to quit school.”

 

Yuya’s expression and tone became so stern it was like a switch had been fixed. “Of course not. You are to keep attendance until you have graduated. As I was about to explain, it is in the companies best interests for you to succeed academically. We will also be sponsoring your university tuition.” Yuya noticed the paused that she herself put in. “You were planning on going to university, were you not, Ms. Yamanaka?”

 

“Yes, yes of course, though I still need to decide where I’m going.”

 

“Very well, intelligence and a professional attitude are both traits picked up only in the right areas of education and we only keep the best of the best on here.”

 

“U-understood,” she replied. Dammit.

 

The maths revision textbook sat on her lap. It was the only one she could afford with the money on hand. It was a good job she had Aki and Otsune as well.

 

“But if I am to protect Sagara.”

 

“You will not need to protect Sagara at Heavenly Spring’s dormitory. As long as he remains there he is safe from outside attack.”

 

“He is, but I thought,”

 

“The demons he faced were all within the city and the town. He made regular trips there in an effort to fulfill the initiation. Now, knowing Sagara, he will spend his time in the day at Heavenly Springs itself, and whilst he is there he is protected.”

 

“Protected, by what?”

 

“Why the village defenses of course. I believed you had encountered them already.”

 

“I…” Natoko lost herself in thought for a short while, remembering certain oddities.

 

“As it stands, demons will only be able to enter if a Futabatei allows them to enter. Now, as Sagara’s assistant there remains the one important thing you must know above all else.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“And that is of the Onikage.”

 

“Was that that… thing?”

 

“That came out of Sagara yes. At the present time, it’s not considered important.  Sagara does know about it, but won’t fully acknowledge it. Bringing it up in any context and he’ll deny its existence, so don’t push it. As for the being itself, it should be safe. It inhabits his body but won’t do anything with it. However, you will be required to report to Melissa any strange activities you see from him.”

 

“Anything strange…” Natoko said with a little bit of a grin on her face. With Sagara that meant…

 

“Not strange for him of course. The floor crawling and sleeping anywhere are normal traits. Nursery rhymes and kiddish antics will also be considered acceptable levels of acting. Should he begin glowing though, call for Melissa. She should be able to handle it from there. Understand?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Well, that should be it,” Yuya said, looking over her sheets of paper. “Is there anything else you wish to ask?”

 

“Erm, just, just one thing I guess,” Natoko enquired. “About my job title, I couldn’t get it changed, could I?”

 

“Changed? What to?” Ms. Sakimoto still looked professional even when confused.

 

“Well, I was thinking…maybe,,, if it’s perhaps okay with you, get it changed to Sagara’s retainer, rather than assistant.”

 

Yuya seemed perplexed at this for a moment, then switched to thinking it over, looking to give it serious consideration, and then said, “No, not really. Retainer is an old term. Not at all suitable for today. And you aren’t really being a retainer, just an assistant. It doesn’t make any real difference anyway. I think it’s best we keep it as assistant, don’t you?”

 

“Erm, yes, I guess so.”

 

The tram pulled to a stop, and she woke back up. Sagara got up with a murmur and floated out of the doors, Aki behind him and the others shortly following. She went last, keeping an eye on all of them.

 

“Your mission,” she had told her. “Open it when you get home. It’s your first payslip; retroactive. You’re one of us now.”

 

It was her job to protect now. She may not be his retainer, but the name changed nothing. She would be a retainer. For him now, regardless of the orders.

 

They set out across the platform to the next tram. This one would be empty.

 

***

 

Peeking through the crack in the door and feeling too curious to be guilty about it, Otsune watched the kids. The two children on the other side weren’t aware of her as they weren’t being the little bundles of quiet they usually were. Not that she knew the second one, but she could tell the type. They were playing hand held video games. They were linked but she couldn’t tell by their expressions whether they were competing or who was winning. The simple content smiles on their faces that brought a smile to her own. The lasagna was going to be a bit burnt though.

 

Leaving them to a young love she wished she could bolt behind a door and not let anyone else walk in on, she headed for the veranda, passing by Sarah along the way.

 

The girl ignored her completely, the same way you’d ignore a teacher when you forgot your homework and her steps became stomps as soon as Otsune had passed. Words formed in her mouth to say something, but she knew they’d be inefficient. It wasn’t worth the energy talking to Sarah. She never got a thank you from the girl and that kind of hurt, but she also felt a little relieved she didn’t get any smack about deserting her either. Sarah was probably a little relieved as well.

 

It had been five months in the end. Christmas was just around the corner, and the summer humidity was gone completely. That had felt more than a little weird getting back. Light air pressure gone mixed in the ability to run an extra mile in the mornings returning. What it also meant though was five months with a visit from any kind of social worker. One would have been due round within a six month period. Either Sarah had gotten rid of them or one had come round early. That would have been bad, seeing as no one else knew and Sarah would probably refuse to admit that she was the girl’s legal guardian, then Sagara would have gotten into a fight with a social worker. Maybe that was what happened. She’d have to check for poorly dug holes in the garden.

 

Fujiko’s door passed her by, and she rapped on it out of habit. Two more tries and there was no answer. Making up for lost time, Otsune thought as she left it at that. There were probably a lot of confused social circles outside of the village who were now being told exotic stories about magical lands and bizarre spirits that pitted the two of them in trial after trial. Otsune figured she could trust Fujiko to keep it generally hidden. The closet thing to a geek in any of the groups was Otsune herself and no one else was interested in that sort of thing. The exotic stories would probably be based in some random European countries mixed in with many bizarre spirits found in many magical bars. They hadn’t been told to keep it secret, which seeing the swarm of troops that invaded the stage roughly five minutes too late and started subduing everybody was a little surprising. She surely should have the after image of a red light by now.

 

Especially after showing she couldn’t be trusted not to go straight back.

 

The morning prior, Otsune had returned to the InBetween realm. Call it a lingering doubt, the possibility of it all being some dream cooked up in a coma, or letting Fujiko spike her drink.. Call it a glutton for punishment. Regardless she was there. Simple as that. Her legs swung loose out of the door that took them there, the empty landscape of the Strangelands stretched far and wide and much much too long before her in all the directions she could see out the door.

 

Had she really fallen from this height? Occam must have protected her somehow. It was at least ankle snapping distance.

 

Behind her she heard the nervous shuffle that could only come from a very shy 400lb rock mountain. It filled the corridor and let its shadow loom over her. She didn’t look back.

 

“Hey Keys,” she said, seeing the spirit approach. “Ha yep, I’m desensitized now. Next I’ll be moving onto video games and child rape.”

 

“Good morning, Ms. Tsunade,” Keys replied politely behind her. “Not thinking of jumping in again, are we?”

 

“Nah, not at all,” she replied honestly. “I was just out for my morning jog and I thought, well, it’s close, so why not, so then I took the taxi ride down into the forest and navigated round the forest and those bizarre sentries that weren’t there this time, entered the InBetween realm and came straight here. And here I am.”

 

Keys was silent, and she could feel the doubt from where she was sitting. “It’s just for the sake of recollection,” she said, looking back at him to look reassuring.

 

“Ah, very well,” he said, apparently accepting. The urge to jump out of spite came to her, but Occam was over by Keys, waving in front of its one giant bug eye, possibly saying hello and speaking of old times.

 

“Ah, so you’re Occam now,” Keys said unexpectedly. “Excellent, it is good you’ve finally been named. Huh? Well I believe it was after a philosopher… Huh? A philosopher? Well, that’s kinda of complicated, my dear boy.”

 

“You can hear him?” she asked finally looking back.

 

“Not at all. A Fire Elemental doesn’t communicate properly. It just has little variants in its movement and temperature that translate to a crude language, no more than what one of your pet sharks would have. I am a bit of an expert though.”

 

“You’d have to be,” Otsune said, not in the mood for it and yet still trying to calculate just how any variations of speech would be required to ask what a philosopher was, let alone giving a name you didn’t completely understand and how they could all be conjugated by a silent flame about two cubic centimeters big and could only communicate via burning. She let it slip, an act she was getting a little too good at.

 

“Can I ask a question?”

 

“Why, you just did.”

 

“Another one then, Mr. cocky bastard.”

 

“Yes, as many as you like.”

 

“The Savadali is a prisoner here, right?

 

Keys hesitated. “Yes, one that requires an entire dimension to contain. And secured in such a way so that anyone who got in there couldn’t get back out. It’s why I didn’t want you going in there.”

 

“Didn’t want to get in trouble with the Warden’s boss, I imagine?”

 

“Oh no. That’s just the thing. No one seems to know who made it how it is now. It’s just one day we knew there was the Savadali, and that he was prisoner there. We’ve just had to accept that, I’m afraid.

 

“Without knowing who made it and why, our procedure is to just let the place be and make sure no one enters such lands, since we can’t guarantee their safety. And this one seems especially dangerous.”

 

Keys stayed silent for a few moments, Occam jumped through the door, fell ten feet as if he had forgot gravity, exploded quickly and quietly, and then flew back up again.

 

“The Savadali isn’t just a tracker. It’s a Djinn.”

 

“I know. The warden told me.”

 

“Anyone who enters can be given one thing by the Savadali. Though he can’t grant himself anything, he can give anything up to his own power to anyone that wishes for it, and he had a lot of skills riding behind him. Trapping him in there puts a problem to anyone who tries to go there out of greed. Namely, if they ask for one thing, they are then trapped there with it. “

 

“But that’s easy to cheat, isn’t it? You just ask for something that allows you to get what you want and get out at the same time. You play with semantics, or say something like give me the power of teleportation.

 

Otsune stopped to look down from the door. Keys went to say something but she spoke over him.

 

“But then, the whole place brings about desperation with its environment. You’re trapped, and the security is designed to fuck you up in the mind. Even if you didn’t lose your mind or get lost and die of starvation, when it finally came to meeting the Savadali most people that could benefit from the power that one would provide would be in too much of a panic to do it right. Even I went nuts at it. It’s only because what I wanted was less greedy that I got lucky about it.”

 

“Were you less greedy?” Keys asked back. “Was not your whole quest one of the sins of sloth and greed aside, with a bit of lust and envy melted in, all hidden behind a valiant quest?”

 

“Don’t go psychoanalytical on me. I’m tired and I would own your ass. And we didn’t exactly do anything to be proud of.  Our greatest weapon was our ignorance. We didn’t really know what the Savadali was capable of, or even what he was. Even now I’m not fully sure which actions were his and which were the warden’s.”

 

“Did he not seem innocent to you though?”

 

“Before I kneed him in the groin… it looked like it I guess. But by then I knew everything. The Savadali was a prisoner. He must have been made a prisoner for a reason and I didn’t know enough to bust him out. You wouldn’t help a murderer out the jail door after he had told you about his bunny collection, right.”

 

Keys nodded silently.

 

“No, regardless of what that place was and how fucked up it was, I recognized he needed to stay in there, and I’m guessing so did he really. All he looked to do was help us get out.”

 

“Seeing as you got the guards killed I hope he stays there,” Keys said with a sigh as he walked off. Otsune looked down, the mass of muscle just standing thirty feet away, staring at her, firing continuously, the teardrop never falling silent

 

“It’s okay. That one’s still there to guard the place. I think he’ll be all that’s needed now.”

 

“Tina Gottfeld.”

 

“Shove it up your ass!”

 

She bumped into Sagara. She was lost in thought again.

 

“Oh you,” she said, letting her annoyance permeate the air. He said nothing, but waved a hello. In both arms were twenty kilogram dumbbells. He didn’t seem that bothered by them.

 

“You know, after going on those adventures by myself, being brought to survival again and again I think, I think I’m beginning to understand you a bit better.”

 

“Reall-“

 

“No.” Unleashing the raw power of her second greatest weapon, the forefinger flick, she twatted Sagara round the head, leaving him staring into space as she pushed past his surpassingly soft shoulder, heading for the veranda.

 

“And you really do have to learn to remember names.”

 

“Okay,” he said like being asked down the shops.

 

“Wasted five months of my life to do something you could have told me right at the start. What a waste.”

 

Tina was dead. Tina had always been dead. Gone months ago in a flash that no one remembered nor cared about. All clues had panned out. All trails had been followed. There was nothing left for Otsune to do but stop. The elusive parents could not be notified. The visa did not exist anymore to run out and be chased. Tina was well and truly gone.

 

All that was left now was to find out who killed her.

 

***

 

“I understand. I understand,” Mr. Tsukamoto whimpered loudly, shouting louder than he needed to. “Good marks for Natoko. The best.”

 

“No, not the best,” Kiriyama spat back. “Just good. Good for education, but not good enough to raise suspicion.”

 

“Yes yes, right. She has a paper now. I’ll mark it B+. Is that alright?”

 

“That’s fine,” said Kiriyama dropping him and heading for the exit. Mr. Tsukamoto crawled away and pulled himself up on the desk, his trousers soaking wet. Without a cane, the ruthless were weak.

 

“Oh, and I won’t be showing up anymore myself. Tell everyone I moved away again.” He made a point to stare the man down. “Know that I haven’t.” The teacher fell to the floor. Kiriyama walked out.

 

“Was that irrelevant random action to your liking, Master?”

 

“Oh yes. Well done, very good,” Mr. Jupiter replied. “Don’t worry. Won’t worry at all. I’m sure I’ll find a good reason for this to tell you soon.”

 

Kiriyama smiled restlessly, following his new leader.

 

***

 

Melissa hung up and allowed her senses to only see fifty feet around her and finally relaxed. It was convoluted, but it worked. Now she had Sagara on the first step to being the heir. Sakimoto hadn’t noticed and she was guessing that meant no one else had either.

 

But it had all gone perfectly according to plan, with no consequence or repercussion beyond what she had planned for him.

 

Sagara had gained the ability to think for himself, even if just a little more than before. It was all she could really ask for. She reached the edge of the rooftop and saw the next prey. Sitting in meditation, the Japanese swordswoman focused either on the inner or outer worlds depending on whatever fantasy she had cooked up this time.

 

Yuya told her they were to meet properly. Melissa dropped down to do so. The other girl noticed her, but very carefully acted as though she didn’t, staying in place.

 

“We haven’t met properly yet,” she said. “I am Melissa.  Since we’re both watching over Sagara, I believe its best we work together and get to know each other better.” No it wasn’t. This girl was a fad and nothing more. She should be seen as Melissa’s vassal. Under both her and Sagara; not standing equal. “There’s not much to tell about me. I’m a ninja like Sagara, trained better though. I have served the family since childhood and was destined to stand by Sagara’s shadow at all times in order to protect.

 

“Eto… wakarinai,” Natoko replied.

 

“Wha- excuse me?”

 

“Eigo wo hanashinai.”

 

“Oh yes. Oh yes,” Melissa reminded herself.

 

“Anatano sanka wo kibou suruka,” the non English speaking Japanese schoolgirl said, indicating the wood below her. “Chotto Iii ka”

 

“Erm, yes,” Melissa tried to respond.  Natoko shuffled across, leaving her space to sit down. Tentatively she took a point there, went to sit down and saw the girl had gone back to her new age meditations.

 

Melissa waited a few moments, then shrugged and gave in, putting her legs the same way. Watching Natoko in silence as she breathed in heavy through her nose, Melissa fidgeted, feeling very open on the roof.

 

“Ummm…”

 

“Hai?”

 

“Watashi… wa Merissa… desu.”

 

“Hajimemashita, Merissadono. Yoroshikuonegaishimasu.”

 

“Um, I don’t know… what that means…”

 

She hated Sagara.

 

***

 

Maximum temperatures approaching six thousand degrees Kelvin

 

Any sign of it burning out?

 

None yet.

 

What’s its chances of escaping?

 

At this rate if I were to attach a figure, I’d say 45%. Electrics and anti gravity keep it from touching the walls or floor. Cooling system keeps the place from melting and the rooms practically a vacuum, just enough to prevent it sticking to the walls or imploding, but nothing flammable. Yet it still burns.

 

Why 45%?

 

Because it’s taking 70% of our budget to keep this system running. The SIS is keeping it monitored at the very least. But when something cuts out, including the money, the entire place will probably melt from sheer frustration.

 

The budget will be increased to compensate. There were no major financial losses this year, so it should be fine.

 

“Tell me that again when our souls are on fire.”

 

“It shouldn’t be too long anyway. Just a year. That’s when it all starts.”

 

“Yeah and you can double my salary if I’m still alive by that time.”

 

“Agreed,” Yuya said, walking out.

 

***

 

Inside the container it was dark. It kept itself calm, controlled. That was the plan, the new plan now. Same as the old plan, but the old plan had a final winning condition. This one had none. That’s what made it better.

 

Plan was pointless now. One brother gone. Another betrayed. Sister betrayed too. Don’t know where she is now. World took them all away. Had them die quietly or fight meaninglessly. Lose so much because of them. Because of Futabatei. Futabatei trapped in box. No escape. No exit. No stupid trap allowing for easy breakout. Can’t even burn. Body useless. Spirit more so. Futabatei own world. No chance of escape from box now.

 

World is right in keeping here. Keep away from others.

 

Rubbish. Rubbish at keeping family together. None of them wanted to hang out. Had their own things to do. Left to rot. To burn away. Couldn’t even burn properly. Walls hurt, can’t touch floor. Nothing but darkness and pain and loneliness and-

 

NO! World is wrong. World is stupid. World let family be torn apart. World let family hate each other. World leave strong that brings them altogether trapped in void room with no air to burn and thinking stupid as result.

 

No, being calm not plan. Be angry. Burn the ninja. Burn the Futabatei. Burn the world. Burn everything and then burn burning! That was what the world deserves. That was the entire world needed.

 

It had tried things the hard way. Next time, it would just go for the easy way.

 

The Fugue – Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Mateo woke up alone, stirring slowly enough to realise she shouldn’t move straightaway. The last thing she remembered was not being on the ship anymore, a frightening sensation when the ship was that close to her. It felt like she should be freezing but a lukewarm breeze was flowing through her. It seemed she had survived.

Something beeped twice next to her. The system knew she was up. Throwing deception away she opened her eyes and looked around. As expected, it was some kind of medical facility. The larger ships still had them, since sometimes injuries meant people couldn’t kart themselves to their rooms. It was as sparse as she had come to expect. Just the medical slab and a digital readout hovering over her. According to the information above her her heart rate and temperature were steady. Blood pressure and VO2 levels were a little lower than they should be, though that may have been as expected. It probably meant she had only been asleep a few hours at best.

Sliding herself round to sit rather than lie, she saw a lot of crates that looked like they contained food, which was kind of odd considering the panel she now saw on the wall, quick light flashing. She slid off, testing her legs to make sure they weren’t going to shatter on her and wandered over to it.

“Water please,” she said after a moment’s trepidation. The wall beeped at her and the panel opened to reveal a large beaker filled with a pint of the stuff. She downed it in an instance and felt herself full. A quick search of one of the crates revealed the Nutriopacks she had seen earlier. This things did last forever but they didn’t seem necessary when the ship had its own producer. Maybe they just tasted good. The one in her pocket had disappeared.

“Not bad” she muttered to herself as she wandered out with half of one in her hand. The corridor around her was empty, but at least it was breathable out here. She had been a little casual in just wandering out of a room that might of had literally nothing on the side.

Her being alive probably meant the bandits were still hanging out in space, which was fine, she guessed. It was kind of weird to think that people she was talking to just a bit ago were now all floating blue. Her arm felt fine though. Not even a bruise, the ship must have healed it up at the same time.

Letting her legs wander, she quickly recognised where she was and headed for the centre again. The room was still dark and appeared unoccupied by all except crates and a large humming. The maze was easily to navigate this time and when she reached the centre she saw the girl who had casually tried to asphyxiate her a little while ago back where Mateo had first met her, clicking away on her console. The three Igne were watching, or just standing with no emotional or situational output at all, Mateo couldn’t tell. The girl was absorbed in a game by the looks of things.

“Hey,” Mateo said, getting a yelp for her efforts. “No headphones this time.” The girl waved her hand at the screen before swinging round to face the intruder.

“I was aware someone may be sneaking up on me at some point,” Notch said with a sneer.  “Figured i should be ready this time.”

“Well it didn’t exactly help, though i guess you’re not having me crushed this time, so thanks for that.”

“Yeah well,” Notch hesitated. “I guess i’m not killing you for the moment. We’ll see how that goes.”

“Gee thanks.”

“That sounds an awfully lot like someone who wants to go back in the airlock.”

“No no. I’m grateful. You could have left me to float to my doom, but you didn’t. Thank you for saving me… from the trap you lured me into.”

“You’re welcome,” Notch replied, stranding the girls in an awkward silence. Mateo suddenly realised she didn’t really know what was happening next. Notch seemed to be waiting for her to say something- and she was waiting for Notch to say something.

“Sooo…” Notch finally broke the silence. “You want to join my crew.”

“Yes?” Mateo replied, not sure if it was a question or not.

“You realise what i’m doing right? My mission.” Mateo let the question hang in the air. “I’m aiming for the centrepoint. The exact middle of the universe. That place no one has gone to before.”

“Or at least if they have they’ve never come back,” Mateo interrupted, receiving a glare for her efforts. “Which either means they die, or the place is so flat out amazing there’s no reason to return. Most likely the former.”

“Yes. Well, i’m different. I intend to reach the centrepoint, survive and come back-”

“Pretty sure everyone intends to do that.”

And in doing so, discover the true meaning of the universe.” Mateo let the smile form on her lips. This was perfect really. Exactly what she had been wanting. No more wasting time.

“So, i’ll be fair. You want in, you’re in. You want out, you get dropped off on the next planetoid. I’ll be even fairer and have it be one with oxygen.”

“Much obliged.”

“But you only get to choose now. I’m not wasting time with anyone, and i’m not fooling you. Getting to the centrepoint means visiting the roughest parts of the universe. We will end up fighting bandits. We may end up becoming bandits. Law enforcement will become an issue the closer we get and there will be a point where we either proceed or die. So choose now. In or out.”

Mateo looked around the room, the closest thing this place apparently had to a bridge, covered in crate with a small console that could only be housed by two, set up in a way so it could be used by one.With robot alien humanoid things running the ship, the motives of their entire race unknown, all on a mission that no one else has succeeded in accomplishing for the four thousand years since humanity yanked itself out of its own field. She kept the smile on.

“Yeah i’m in,” she said. I’ve got nothing better to do.”

Notch paused. “That’s your response Hardly sounds enthusiastic.

Mateo grabbed the small swivel chair by both handled, pulling the woman towards her to stare her right in the eyes. Notch’s eye went wide with the sudden proximity to the two of them, and Mateo met them head on.

“I mean it,” she replied. “WIth all my heart and brain and spirit and blood. Your asking me to help find the great secret of the universe. The final discovery. The last treasure. The number 42. Believe me when i say it. I literally have nothing better to do.”

Mateo released the chair, letting it roll back as Notch went with it. The woman sitting before her just stared ahead, her brain processing.

“Good,” she finally said, a grin forming on her own lips. “Glad to hear it.” she swung back round to face her console. “Let’s get a move on then.”

“Right, my captain.” Mateo replied with a salute both mocking and one hundred percent genuine.

With that, the room fell silent, as Notch proceeded to start tapping on the screen before her.. Mateo stood straight, seeing out of the corner of her eye as Notch began to check the ship’s current status. Hull checks, shield integrity, course plotting. It was clearly just a check, rather than adding anything new. Temperature checks. Oxygen. Repair systems. A quick check of the camera systems showing a certain corridor that was now permanently sealed. InUniverse. Other people’s posts. Gem Farmer.

“Erm-” Mateo finally said around the time she started to feel a little lonely, two feet away from the person she was supposed to be talking to.

“What?” Notch said without looking her way.

“So… what should i do then?”

“Whatever you want.”

“No i mean. What do i do? What’s my role on the ship?”

Notch paused, still not looking her way. “Whatever you want it to be.”

“Okay,” Mateo said, beginning to feel a little more lost. “What roles are there?”

“Roles?”

“Like, what can i help with? Communications? Administration? Cleaning?”

“Oh, that’s all automated. The bots handle that.”

“Okay. What about Engineering? I do have several levels in-”

“That’s handled by the Igne. It’s their ship.”

“Personnel?”

“Oh sure.”

“Oh good. What can i do there then?”

“What? Oh no. I mean we have personnel. You. Me. Plus three Igne. They do their own thing, which is running the ship. I’m the captain, but you can do whatever you want.”

Mateo couldn’t tell if she was being messed around with. It was a feeling she didn’t much like.

“So what is there to do?”

“Well, you can eat. There’s plenty of food in the boxes. All Nutriopacks. There’s consoles in the other rooms if you want to grab one. There’s no fitness suite but i guess you can just run round the corridors-”

“No,” Mateo interrupted. “As in, what work is there for me to do? There must be something.”

“Oh right,” Notch said, leaning back. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing. Everything is automated except for Captain’s orders.”

“Everything?”

“Everything. The bots sort out all the basics. The Igne handle the larger tasks, and i tell us where to go. There’s no need for anything else.”

“So, there really is literally nothing for me to do.”

“Nope. You’re already useless to me. Still, i guess it’s nice to have company, though if you could leave me alone until i call for you i would prefer it greatly.”

“Oh. Okay.” Mateo could hear some kind of very loud siren blaring in her head right now. For some reason she was convinced she had to ignore it. “Is there at least a room i can stay in?”

“Yeah sure. Use one of the empty ones.”

“Could i use one with a bed.”

“Oh, there are no beds.”

“None.”

“No. I just use a standby app myself. Much easier. No risk of back pains. If you do want to ‘lie down and sleep’ there are some soft items on some of the upper decks, but beyond that do want you want.”

“Soft things?”

“Don’t know what they are. The Igne don’t seem to be aware of them either. No idea, but they don’t do anything anyway.”

“Right.” The siren was the loudest thing up the room. Removing all thought, all reason, the rumblings of the ship. All save the sound of Notch’s voice.

“Anyway. Do what you want. Have fun exploring the ship. Oh, and if you try to go down into the basement deck i will jettison you. Dismissed.”

Notch went back to tapping on her console screen.

The Fugue – Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Bad bad badbadbad. It was a trick. A really crummy trick. Sure, she was trying to trick the bandits just a moment ago, but that was fine. She was part of the tick then. Only… now it was a trick on her as well.

‘Deoxygenisation in four minutes. If you are still within the contained section of the ship… take a few moments to reflect on the actions that brought you here.’

The hissing noise was unmistakable, even without the klaxon and the voice. Notch was simply going to jettison this part of the ship, and all her problems with it. Probably not the most graceful of moves, even a rampaging shipfire could be snuffed just by opening the airlocks, though the extinguisher system was a better way of doing that. Most ships wouldn’t even be able to cope, but this was an Igne ship. It probably wouldn’t even notice.

Mateo surveyed her surroundings. What did she have? A wide, completely sealed corridor that would stop being sealed the second it floated off without two of its walls. Twenty three space bandits, including one giant, all armed and currently freaking out one way or another and-

She slammed her fist on the red button. It did nothing.

It wasn’t like it was going to cancel anything, but she had to try.

‘Deoxygenisation in two minute thirty seconds. Please deposit your urine samples wherever you like.’

Did it have to empty the room of oxygen first? Surely it would just catapult them into space, unless the shp was setup to save the oxygen. Of course. Everything on a Tech Junker gets recycled.

This of course was very important to be thinking about right now. She needed to escape, or secure some kind of breathing apparatus. The bandits were flailing their arms around as they ran back and forth amongst themselves. Only one appeared to be remaining calm, the only one actually wearing an external suit.

“Well, i knew it would come in handy someday,” the safest man in the room said, “though i never imagined it like this.”

“There’s gotta be something we can do,” the guy next to him said.

“The cutter won’t have enough juice to bore through any of the hatches,” the guy now dropping the useless tool next to him.

“How about we blow it up against the hatchway, make a hole?”

“Not against these hatchways. It’ll just scorch them. It has to be concentrated to pierce.”

“Guys,” the man in the suit said. “Call our ship. Get it to hover round here. When this section breaks off, i can ferry people back to the airlock. I might not be able to get everyone but…”

“Right. Captain, please contact the ship and-’

“To the crew of the Bloody Space Mary,” the giant bellowed through a comms unit mounted on his wrist. This is ye captain speaking. Listen well, varmints, for these may well be my last orders.”

The men started to huddle together around the man with the air tank, aiming for the outer wall, each of them forming a chain to hold hands. Mateo appeared to have been taken out of the loop.

“We’ve been contained, and are about to be eliminated,” he continued, his men giving each other faint smiles of hope for what they hoped to be a desperate lunge to salvation. “If you don’t hear back from us in four minutes, destroy this ship and everything on it.”

The men froze. The Captain turned his comms unit off and walked over to his men.

“Now, listen here. We come up with a plan that saves all of us, or none of us. I won’t leave any of my crew behind!, you hear?”

‘Certain death occurring in T minus three minutes. If you know what the T means, please let us know.’

As the men stared at their leader in disbelief, Mateo decided that was enough. Running the way she had come from, she leant on the wall where safety sat on the other side, apparently along with malice. She had nothing bar her voice left. She looked to the camera slot.

“Notch, please don’t do this. ”

‘Please direct all pleas for mercy to the nearest available wall, which will be more than happy to hear your distress.’

“It’s not a plea. It’s a request.” Because it was always a good time to be quibbling pedantics. “Are you happy, killing me like this? Will you really look at yourself in the mirror tomorrow and say ‘yes, i did the right thing?’”

The pirates were in a frenzy now, a bunch of them were now charging the captain with futile screams, cracking their knuckles against his face and receiving fractures for their efforts. “Mutiny,” he cried out, before belting one of them in the chin. Some of the others were ignoring this, instead going for the man with the external suit and his tank, trying to rip the pipe off of him for whatever reasons.

‘Two minutes and fifteen seconds remain… i think. The system isn’t really timing this.”

“Look, i’m not the best of people. I talk my way into getting what i want, and that’s what i’m doing right now. I want to survive. More than anything that’s the most important thing to me. Keeping me alive. I know i’ve only known you for about five minutes, but i get the feeling we’re the same. You want to survive to.”

A loud hissing noise spelled the doom of the one guy that moments ago had been guaranteed to survive. Mateo was ignoring them.

“Now i don’t know if it was fear or anger that made you lock me in here with them and i don’t care. I know you did it to guarantee you your survival. Well guess what? The Captain just ordered your ship destroyed in five minutes if he doesn’t make it, meaning you better be preparing for a jump before they get the chance.”

The speaker panel was silent.

“Why did i tell you that? Because hearing you earlier. I kind of want you to survive. Having a goal like that is something i want to see you achieve, and i can’t have that if you’re dead. Yeah, it’s kind of corny to have some impossible dream. It’s a little naive to think you may actually be able to accomplish it and yes, i am saying all this in the hopes that you’ll see it in your heart to let me the hell back in.”

Her teeth were started to collide with each other between her words, arms wrapping around her. There couldn’t be much oxygen left at this point.  Some of the men were screaming now.

“But i’m not going to beg you. I swore i’d never beg again and i won’t start at the end like this. If you don’t let me in i die right now and you lose the best crewmate you ever could have had. The one person that may actually be kind of able to understand you.”

Her lungs wheezed. Her knees were buckling. Holding onto the wall was necessary now. Behind her people were falling silent.

“Humans suck, Notch. There’s no denying this. We’re stupid and meaningless. Even with the whole universe at our fingertips there’s nothing the majority of us actually do that’s worth anything. If i die, that’s it for me and everything i wanted to do. I never really had any plans. I just wanted to see the universe. Not exactly the best of dreams.”

She was feeling a little lighter, the wall was kind of climbable now. She lifted herself up to the camera panel and looked right at it.

“But honestly, i’d kind of like to go find the Centrepoint with you.”

“Woman!” a voice called out behind her. She turned without meaning to, the giant approaching her. “Who are you talking to? What are you planning?”

“If you wouldn’t mind having me!” she shouted down the camera slot, hoping she hadn’t been speaking to no one this entire time. The giant was coming toward her, rage pulsing from his face with hands outstretched before him. The klaxon stopped and Mateo inhaled one last time.

‘D-deoxygenisation complete. Beginning decoupling process. All… essential personnel, please grab hold of the available handrail’ Besides her a sheet metal pole popped out of nowhere and locked into place against the wall. Reaching for it, her arm was looking and feeling more like lead than anything at the moment, she gripped it tightly, hauling herself up as she found herself floating and wrapped her elbow around the cylinder. Her stomach didn’t like her very much at this point.

‘And exhale as hard as you can. I don’t quite know how this works!’

Then the exterior wall and ceiling were gone and all she could see was black.

The ship had been heated nicely. She realised that now. Everything was very toasty when it came down to it. Even on horrible horrible Grognar the suns were always out and everyday was a tanning day.

Even on all her trips off planet. She had never really noticed space.

It was so very cold.

She would have been warmer being thrown out of the airlock. No one had shot away. She kind of thought they would. Instead they were just floating. No longer bound by the ship’s gravity sinks, they slipped into the nothingness, only her elbow keeping her from sharing their fate.

“Yar, don’t you be thinking this be enough to stop Captain Giye!”

How could she hear him? Her lungs burned. They were asking her very nicely if they could inhale. It didn’t matter if there was no air. If they could just inhale once, they were sure they could find something out there to bring in for her. She willed them down, forcing even more air out of them. The giant was lunging for her. She was frozen as he floated towards her, his large hand outstretched and aiming for her foot, his men turning into specks in the distance, his ship appearing off to the side with five guns all pointing directly at her.

She clenched her teeth and pursed her lips as everything went white.

Captain Giye shot off in the opposite direction.

The Fugue – Chapter Four

 

Captain Giye never really understood how he had gotten into this situation. His life had been a simple one. Days toiling on the asteroid, nothing to do but work his father‘s land, mining minerals and ore so dad could keep the power going and buy the liquid that made him shout less and let Giye move in the other rooms besides his own. There were days when he preferred that kind of living, though he had always wished for something more.

His dad had books. Lots of them. The old ones made from leaves and covered in wax. Giye didn’t have much schooling but he could read good, and he read lots. Books of adventurers and warriors in various lands, travelling across oceans on the old planet, sailing through systems and galaxies like it was no big deal. He knew at the time the books were written that this was a big deal and that his type of living was the amazing type of living. Giye didn’t see what the big deal was though. Living on an asteroid was pretty easy when he was able to keep his dad happy, but it wasn’t nothing special. The dome that created an atmosphere for them just allowed them to keep breathing, and the shuttle that let them travel to Kranos IX was just for getting to one place or another. Kranos IX was a special every other week trip for him and dad, but he never really saw how it would differ to any other trip to any other city.

Maybe the people writing the books just got bored like he did, which is why he made up his own adventures in his head. Tales of pirates fighting pirates and rescuing maidens, except he didn’t do it on oceans made out of water. He did it on seas of fire on his magical rock boat, where he would fight lava golems and save boys from local tribesmen who were looking to sacrifice them to their acid gods. His stories were much better, and he had great fun acting them out, until dad woke up of course and asked loudly for him to keep it down up there. There he fought his battles real quiet in his head. Simple times.

So when the violent men came to see his father it made it very complicated when they shot his dad in the stomach until he moved no more. Giye didn’t know what to do when this happened. The men had lots of rifles and laser knives and a big ship that let them go places. These people were clearly some kind of bad guys. The obvious sign was the killing of his dad and the all his workers and the whole looting of the house. Giye had been lucky that he was hiding in his room that his dad had locked from the other side when they had come, or else he might have been defeated as well, and it probably would have taken him a while to recover from a laser round to the chest.

Luckily that didn’t happen, and when they finally got to his room, which they took great effort to break into,  the highly reinforced door his dad had installed had been worth every monie, he was ready, and he let the bookcase drop on the first man that wandered through. He was later told that the man’s name was Ex-Vice Admiral Lance, of the former Republican Peace Corp division, but he never saw the man again after that. He just remembered it was a nice sounding name. A long name. Names that were long were always important.

Giye didn’t remember much after that. He remembers picking up the rifle, how fun it felt when he fired a few rounds, then the men that had fought his father in an honourable battle to the death didn’t seem so willing to fight anymore. At first he wasn’t sure what to say to them, but then he remembered they were pirates of some kind, space pirates he would later learn, and, figuring that Space pirates spoke in a  certain way, used lines he remembered in his book. Lines like ‘I’m in charge now, you scurvy scum suckers’ and ‘Anyone who wants to argue with me will have to argue with ol’ Bessy here first’. It must have impressed them because soon that had declared him their new leader and he was travelling on their ship and deciding where they should go and who they should attack.

He felt bad for all those people they attacked but he was sure that they always got the innocent people he injured to the lifeboats in time and got off the ship’s just before they boarded or it exploded, but that was just the way the life of a space pirate should be. And his new crew seemed to agree with him. And if they didn’t, he just said a line he remembered from one of his old books and they cheered around him. If he wasn’t sure what to say, he would slug Grimmy in the chest. That always got them cheering.

Giye missed his old life on the asteroid, and while he would love to see his dad again, who must have recovered from his wounds by now, he loved the life of a space pirate as well, especially when-

“Hey boss. Hey boss!”

“Yar,” he replied instinctively. The word always sounded good to him and a great way to hide the fact that he had stopped paying attention when sitting on the captain’s seat. “What you be yapping about boy?”

“We’ve found a ship, boss” Grimmy replied. “Two clicks away. We shouldn’t be on their scanners yet.”

“A ship?” he said. “And what colours do their flags bear?”

“Erm, none, from what i can see. They’re moving at regular travelling speeds for a cruiser but no ID codes are being transmitted. Could be abandoned.”

Giye was about to say something about spirits of the undead that he remembered from one particular series but held back when he couldn’t remember if ghosts were real or not.

“No wait. I recognise these types of readings,” Grimmy continued. Grimmy knew what he was doing. That’s why Giye left those types of decisions to him. He was glad he didn’t have to sweat these details. “It’s an Igne ship. Tech Junker.”

“Aye, or it could be full of booty!” Giye called out. “Take us in, lads. Nice and slow so they don’t see us. Let’s get us some treasure.

***

“So i don’t suppose this could end without you killing me?” Mateo asked, her breathing now only partially constricted by the large metallic arms currently pinning her to the Igne’s chest.

“I don’t see how,” the girl who she had sort of figured out by now ran the ship even though she didn’t look like a captain at all replied.

“It’s just, when you think about it really hard. As in, ‘please stop walking to the airlock and think about it really hard’, you don’t really have a reason to kill me.”

“Don’t captains normally remove stowaways from their ships wherever your from?”

“Glanor.”

“What?”

“Glanor. It’s where i’m from.”

“Fascinating information.”

“And that shouldn’t be an issue. The issue is that you’re choosing to kill me right now. Why does it matter if other captains kill stowaways? It’s whether you should kill stowaways is the issue.”

“Okay,” the said said without stopping. “Why shouldn’t I kill stowaways?”

“Invalid question,” Mateo replied.

“What? How?”

“Invalid question. The question presupposes that killing stowaways is a default action. However no human has to kill in order to survive, so it’s not the default action. Therefore, one does not need to come up with a reason to not kill other humans. However this does mean that one does need to define a reason for killing another human.”

The girl stopped in place. “Philosophy student?”

“Mathematics and logic.”

“Fair enough. I’ll accept your argument. On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“Can it withstand the cold empty vacuum of space?” The girl pressed a button besides her, and a door shimmied into existence on the wall, quickly opening to reveal a very small room with another door on the opposite side. It didn’t look like a place you would stay for a long time. Mateo stared back at her.

“Technically that’s a question, not a condition.”

“Oh good lo-. How do you expect any of this to actually help? Do you honestly think any of this is extending your life to the point where you’re actually going to survive the situation?”

“Well what else do you suggest i do? I want to survive. I can’t move my body to escape. The Igne doesn’t respond to anything i say. Convincing you to not murder me is the best chance i have.”

The girl looked drained. “Yeah. I can’t fault you there. Least you’re not begging.”

“Would that work?”

“It certainly would speed things up.”

“Then i won’t beg.”

“Does that mean that if you think it would stand a chance of working you would have done it?”

“If you mean that if i thought that me performing the action of begging would have resulted in cracking you emotional surface and revealing your sense of decency, causing you to release me, then yes, i would have begged. I just wouldn’t have meant it as an emotional response on my side.”

“Ok…”

“Even now, i won’t beg out of fear.”

The girl didn’t know the reasons why, and Mateo wasn’t going to tell her that particular story. For one, there was no time. The girl had stopped, but she couldn’t judge if it was out of hesitation or weariness of being exposed to her too long.

“Where were you aiming to go? the girl asked. Mateo held back any real expression. It was too soon.

“Somewhere new,” she replied. “Nowhere in particular, but a place humans had never gone before would be preferable.”

“You’re an explorer?” The girl’s body seemed to stiffen. Mateo couldn’t place why. “Travelling the cosmos in search of new things.”

“Erm… i guess, “Mateo replied with another attempted shrug. “Life was getting boring in the city, and we seemed to have stopped trying to find anything new since we covered the whole galaxy, not to mention everywhere just looks the same. I just wanted to see something… new, you know?” The girl’s was looking at her, brow furrowed and with eyes that felt like they should be familiar. “How about you?” She found herself asking without really planning to.

“Me. Oh. I was – i was trying to locate the Centrepoint.”

“The Centrepoint?”

“Yeah, you know, of the Universe.”

Mateo let out the smallest snort of a burst of laughter. She couldn’t help herself. “What?” The girl snapped back.

“No no. sorry. It’s just. It’s kind of a childish dream.”

“Oh please, as opposed to flying out to somewhere new. That sounds like student existential tarncrap.”

“Yeah, well at least mine’s achievable.”

“And i’m sure that living in space was just a dream children had at one point, but here we are right now with one of us about to get more intimate with space than any one human should be. Besides, why shouldn’t i search for the Centrepoint?”

“Erm, because it doesn’t exist,” Mateo replied dismissively. “The universe is a doughnut.”

“Yeah, and if it has a shape, it means it has a centre. That’s what i’m looking for.”

“But everyone stopped looking megacycles ago.”

“I know. That’s what makes it so bad. The biggest mystery left standing and every single scientist and explorer just gave up? It pisses me off so much. It’s the final big mystery, and even you with your ‘find something new’ procrastination method of delaying the rest of your life is dismissing it out of hand.”

“Because it was done. They tried it. They just came out the other end. It’s what helped us create clip warps.”

“No, we just hit the edges of the universe and learned about tunnels. We never actually confirmed that something was in the middle of the universe. We didn’t have ships on either side confirming that a ship was exactly inbetween them. People just found a new toy and went with it, giving up on the dream in the process.”

Mateo recognised the outburst. It was like her own. The feeling that could only come with yearning.

“I mean, don’t you want to find it? Everyone’s satisfied now. Everything has been done. Nothing left to explore. The universe is empty. This is the new thing left to find. Don’t you want to find something new?”

Mateo smiled. “Yeah. Yeah, i guess i do.”

The girl snapped out of it. “Well, not you exactly. You’re about to die. Nice talk anyway. Unit zeroSeven. Step into the airlock. In two minutes i want you to release the girl.”

“Wait i-” Mateo started to kick, but it was futile. The girl kept her distance and the Igne just didn’t care.

“I’ll mention you to my grandmother. She’ll be happy i got to talk to someone. Unit zeroSeven. Activate magnet booties.”

“No. Don’t you dare do this to me. I won’t-” She was in the airlock with the Igne. Worst case scenario, It had just wandered in like it was no big deal. “You can’t-”

“If it makes you feel any better, you’ll be my first,” the girl said.

“Why would that make me feel better?” MAteo shouted back.

“No idea, but i just figured-” The explosion rang the corridor, rattling Mateo against her captor.

“What the frag?”

***

“Direct hit, Captain. Damage to rear side.”

“Aye. Strike ‘em again boys. Let’s be seeing them shake.” Giye liked this part best. The chase. The breach. The boarding. It was always the most exciting part of any story that worked from the side of the pirates, so by extension it meant that it would be the most exciting part of an actual boarding of an enemy’s ship. Sure, this ship had been taken by surprise and so was completely unable to defend itself, but they hadn’t had an opportunity to come across a ship they were capable of approaching from the front and still be strong enough to defeat. This was only fair.

“Second hit, sir. The ship’s having to slow down.”

“Excellent. Gather ye weapons maties. We’re going fishing!” The boys cheered and half a dozen of them went running out the door to the main airlock, the rest staying behind to steer the ship into place for a suitable boarding. Giye reached for his trusty cutlass, a mark XV plasma rifle with mounted scope. He had taken this for the storage hold of the first ship they plundered, shortly before his actual cutlass broke against that fight with the man armed with the incinerator cannon.  That was a good fight. He hoped for a better one here.

The boys were already whooping up a storm as they approached the main hatch. Speed was the key here he understood. They couldn’t be like the ships of old and attack multiple parts of the enemy at once. They had just one entry point that could graft onto and bore a hole. And that meant guards stationed on the other side, ready to take them down. The faster they went, the harder it was for any opposition to setup a defense. Giye pushed his way to the front. A captain should lead by example and only run away at the first sign of danger. Only the cutter would be before him.

“Entry in fifteen seconds, sir.”

“Good lad,” Giye replied, not knowing the man’s name. There were so many of them, and Giye swore they kept changing. It wasn’t like back on the farm, where he only needed to remember five names and how many rocks there were on the asteroid total. At least his crew didn’t have to be named based on how mean they were to him.

“Everyone ready. Be prepared to curb the swarm.” He raised his own rifle, settling it on his forearm, a method taught to him by Bossy back home. He hadn’t been sure when he first started how well it would work in a real battle as opposed to just shooting rock rats on the gate posts, but since trying it it worked out perfectly. His forearm could both steady his aim and protect him from any shots that got too close. It didn’t seem to work well for the others though. Timmy had quickly found that out in their second raid on a galactic battle palace.

“We’re breached, sir.” The wall ahead of them peeled open like a tin can, light from the other side immediately flooding in. Everyone braced for the initial volley, hesitating only when nothing came. Giye grinned. He knew what that meant.

“First blood’s ours, laddies. Charge!”

***

“Unit zeroSeven, what’s going on?” The Igne dropped Mateo to the ground as it turned to face the girl. The girl glared at her, eyes darting to the Igne as it began to walk back through the airlock. Mateo didn’t waste time and scrambled out before it got there. “No, you wait-”

A video feed appeared before the both of them, a small light projecting itself from the Igne’s visor. Several men and woman were charging down a corridor. Mateo stopped by the girl, her instincts in conflict,  wanting to watch what was going on. “Where is this?” The girl asked. A schematic of what Mateo guessed was the ship appeared. Mostly a flat cuboid from what she could gather, though it gave her no clue as to its real size. As it zoomed in, she got an idea of multiple levels before it focused in on one consisting of a spiralling corridor that kept shifting at right angles. Two points were lit, almost on opposite sides of the level.

“Ok. that’s too close. Should take them a couple of minutes to get here though. Plenty of time.”

“What are they, bandits?” Mateo asked. The girl looked at her, eyeing her up and down. Far longer than she should have, Mateo felt apprehensive. “What?”

“You’re not with them,” the girl replied.

“Er no. Of course i’m not.”

“I know. That’s what i meant. They’ve literally just arrived, but they shouldn’t have found the ship that easily. Are they tracking you?”

“I-” That was actually a good question. She was technically due to be up for auction back on Grognar, and they weren’t the type to let prizes get away so easily. It was possible that she had a tracking chip on her, though with the amount of time Mateo spent in that containment unit waiting for someone to pick her up they should her found her long before-

“Whatever,” the girl continued, tapping the air where the map was laid out. “I want Unit zeroEight to be ready to divert resources. Seal up the hole they left. Get Unit zeroSix to prepare for a light jump, enough distance to make us hard to track.” She looked to Mateo. “You. Can you fight?”

“I could probably talk them to death.”

The girl laughed, just a little. “You know. I could probably believe that. Certainly making me want to detonate the entire ship.”

“Please don’t do that.”

“We’ll see how the day goes. Come on. Follow me.” The girl shot off down the corridor the opposite way they came, getting a preferable amount of distance from the airlock that was threatening her moments ago. Mateo followed without much thought. This was probably the closest thing to a ticket to staying on the ship she could get. Help stop what she assumed was Space Bandits, and the girl takes her to the nearest available drop off point. Excellent, though she had no idea what the girl’s plan was, or how she planned to fight at least twenty bandits.

Unit zeroSeven was right behind them, moving faster than its weight looked like it should be allowed and barely making a sound in the process. The Igne would at least provide some good cover. Maybe it was the weapon the girl planned to fight back with.

“What’s the plan?” She asked, realising she hadn’t ran in a while. The girl didn’t look like the type either. They were basically jogging after the initial burst.

“You’ll see,” she replied. “Just stay by my side.”

“Understood.” An awkward pause. “So it is really just you on this ship?”

“Just me and the Igne. Why?”

“Isn’t that kind of lonely?”

The girl rolled her eyes as best she could while bobbing up and down the corridor. “You think i care about being lonely. The main reason i have this crew and this ship is to avoid people. Scrap. You’re the first human i’ve spoken to directly for about two megacycles.”

“Why? Do you just hate people?”

“Er, not hate. More annoyed at their constant yammering. You know? Asking questions. Trying to get to know me. Stowing away on my ship.”

“Yeah. I’d hate it if i met a person like that,” Mateo replied, sensing a smile form on a pair of lips. The moment passed.

“Get ready. They’ll be around this corner. Unit zeroSeven. Auto Cover.”

The Igne sped up, quickly passing them as they approached the hard left before them. It swung round the wall and took a blast of light to the arm for its efforts. “Auto Shield!” The girl cried out,and the next round of blasts impacted against a blue sphere now covering the Igne.

“Never protects itself unless i tell it to.” The barrage increased tenfold, the Igne standing in the centre of the corridor as it took the damage head on and didn’t seem the worse for wear over it. The girl edged slowly against the wall, stopping as she reached the turning point. Mateo followed behind. “Stop!” The girl shouted. “What do you want?”

Against all odds to Mateo’s mind the blasts very quickly subsided, all but a few round dissipating against the Igne’s shield. Silence filled the corridor for a few seconds, before a voice shouted “What?”

“I said ‘what do you want?’”

“Oh,” the voice called back. “That’s what i thought you said.”

“Well?”

“Well, your loot of course. What do you think we was ‘ere for?”

“I don’t have any. Go away.”

There appeared to be some minor discourse among the bandits over this. “We don’t believe you… And even if you didn’t we’d just take the ship and sell you off as slaves.”

The girl got ready to poke her head around the corner. “Well i – whoa!” She quickly fell back down to cover. Mateo expected a sudden burst of fire to appear but didn’t get it. “Well i guess that’s fair. Do you mind if i send out my first mate to negotiate our surrender?”

Mateo felt a minor flash of pride even though she knew it was a ruse. She had never been a first mate before, or held any kind of official crew ranking. This was actually kind of exciting. “Well… okay then,” the voice replied. “Send ‘em out.”

“Right,” the girl turned to her. “Either one of two things is going to happen here. One, you’re going to step out and immediately get fried by plasma bursts-”

“Horrifying to know.”

“Or two. They’re going to let them approach you. Listen. I’m not going to give up this ship or become a slave. I doubt you would like that either, so follow me on this. There is a switch on the far side of this corridor. I need you to stroll casually up to them and press it. Make it seem normal. Stay calm, but not too calm, you know.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Suddenly the idea of walking right up to bandits in order to pull a ruse on them seemed pretty fine compared to earlier. “I can do calm. So just press the button.”

“Just press the button. Big red one. Can’t miss it.”

“Okay. Got you. Let’s do this.” She stood up, preparing to move. “Oh, i’m Mateo, by the way.”

“You already told me that.”

“I know. It’s just- What’s your name?” The girl paused for a moment and Mateo remembered that they were on a time schedule. “No sorry. Never mind. I can’t keep them waiti-”

“It’s Notch,” Notch replied. “Just Notch.”

Mateo smiled. “Well, Captain Notch. First Mate Mateo acting on orders. Here i go.”

Mateo took two steps out into the open and immediately regretted her decision. She counted twenty of them as she raised her arms and started walking towards them, armed to the teeth, maybe even literally if some of them were carrying teeth lasers. That was a thing right?

“Keep your hands up,” the voice from before shouted, now connected to a bald man carrying what appeared to be a hull cutter torch. He seemed to be the only one without a  proper weapon. Everyone else carried guns.

“Are you the captain?” she said improvising. A negotiation had to happen in some regard. The red button was almost right next to him. She kept moving.

“Nay lass,” another voice called out. “That’ll be me. Captain Giye’s the name.”

“Holy crap,” Mateo couldn’t help but blurt out, taking a step back The only thing that surprised her more than the captain was how it took her so long to notice him. Captain Giye was- well he was very tall, to the point where the ceiling was kind of an issue for him, his neck craning a little. Mateo couldn’t reach the ceiling if she jumped but this guy could head bang it all day long, probably even tear it asunder with those massive arms. What kind of gravity light planet did he come from that allowed him to get that tall but keep that much muscle? He’d be able to give the Igne a good spar.

“Pleased to meet you sir,” she said, continuing to walk forwards. “How would you like to negotiate today’s transactions?”

“Negotiate? Yar. You be fooling yourself lass. This ain’t goin’ be no smash and grab. We’ll be taking everything. Your ship. Yer fancy robots. Your pale little ass.”

She held back a comment on how awesome her ass was. She didn’t want to be giving them any ideas. Mateo had to walk at an angle to reach the button, making it hard to do without causing suspicion.

“If it pleases you sirs, we are on an important mission here. One that affects everybody, even yourselves.”

This seemed to give the captain pause, his rock hard features and zoned out expression holding for an instance. “Oh, and what be that?”

“We’re on a mission to locate and retrieve the Centrepoint.” A few of the bandits immediately started to laugh. It quickly travelled through the group, until everyone but the captain was at it. “What’s so funny? We have information-”

“What’s so funny,” the man with the breacher kit cut in. “It’s the Centrepoint. No one tries to find that anymore. Ain’t nothing more than a stupid pipe dream from centuries ago. Everyone knows that you can’t get near that area. All you can do is die.”

“Well we have new evidence that suggests-”

“New evidence,” the man cut in derisively. “As if new evidence meant anything the last two million times someone attempted it. Listen lass. You’re better off being sold by us for a harem somewhere. The Centrepoint’s just a swirling mass of death. Ain’t nothing going to come from throwing yourself into that.”

“Please, i’d rather throw myself into a dream than into the dirt with scum like you any cycle.”

“True true,” the man replied. “I can see how that might seem more appealing, but give the lads a few minutes with you in their quarters and spleuks-” the man shot across the floor the moment his chin connected with the fist as big as his head, bouncing off the ground and into a heap before them. Mateo stopped walking as the man fell before her feet in a twisted lump of limbs, his captain looming over them.

“Ha!” The Giant Captain laughed. “Well said, girlie. Yous got some spirit in you to say the least. I can respect that.”

“Well thank you. I-”

“For that, i’m not going have my boys sell you into slavery, as was the original plan. You’ve earned that, with that spirit of yours.”

“Much appreciated. Does that mean-”

“So i’ll just fight you here and spare you the indignity of such suffering.”

“Erm, fight you?”

“Aye. To the death, as is honourable and fair in these situations. You beat me, and you earn your freedom. My boys will leave you alone and go back from whence they came.”

“And if you win?” She said, trying to estimated his weight in basic newtons and realising he could probably crush her even in zero gravity.

“Wh, you die of course. What did you think would happen?”

“And the ship?”

“None of your concern by that point I imagine.”

“Good point.”

“Well, are you ready?”

“May I… have a minute?”

“Oh. Okay then. Take your time.”

Mateo very much wanted to ask if he was serious, but he immediately dropped his lurched over her fighting posture and stood straight up again. His crew seemed perfectly willing to wait as well, albeit with grins on their faces. Mateo took a step back and proceeded to walk over to the wall. This could actually work. Once she reached the weapons case in the wall, she might actually be able to take a proper stand. She’d need to get behind the Igne as fast as she could but between the three of them, she, Notch and zeroSeven may stand a fighting chance.

She turned to grin as she reached for the button, amazed she managed to get this far at all.  “Just don’t blame me when you run crying for mama,” she said as she pressed it, the loud klaxon immediately blaring into her eardrums, deafening her save for the sudden announcement that followed them.

“Closing hatchway doors. Closing hatchway doors. Prepare for section jettison. Any personnel in the area should evacuate before the hatchway closes.” Repeat, any personnel in this section should evacuate before the hatchway closes. Failure to do so will result in certain asphyxiation.”

Mateo turned to the end of the corridor, where Notch stood waving happily at them all, the hatchway shutting before anyone could even think of evacuating, and locking with several loud clunks, followed by a searing, hissing noise.

The Fugue – Chapter Three

Eating the Cono bar had been a bad idea. Suddenly the amount of time she spent in deep space doing literally nothing had increased an indefinite amount. She had originally seen it as a cycle or two tops, perhaps a whole month of cycles at a stretch, a week of them at the absolute most. Now, it could be whole speeds of cycles before she found herself back at a planet.

Would a bandit Freighter have been worse? It would have contained people at least. Sure those people would probably plan to do unspeakable things to her the second they found her stowing away, and that would have been terrifying, but at least there was a chance of reaching a planet at some point.

“Hey, mister Igne,” she said, suddenly coming up with a  thought and deciding to present it to the nearest body. “Where is this ship going? Do you know if we have plans to dock somewhere at some point in the future?

The Igne, while doing an amazing act of looking like he wasn’t paying attention to her, continued its thesis on the effects of not producing any vibrations in such a way that it could be regarded as a communicable language that could be understood by another species none robotic in nature.

“Is there someone i could talk to? Somewhere i can sleep or eat…. Nope. Just going to ignore me?”

The Igne was being very quiet.

“Wonderful,” she saw the Igne put the last part of its device together. It looked like a box with dials on it. It was very impressive she was sure. “Okay. Bye, i guess.”

She knew where she was. Now, she had to find out where she was going. It had better be a better answer than nowhere.

Tech Junkers, though they were technically classed as Long haul Igneian cargo cruisers, were known for two things, Mateo noted. One, their vast size. Five square kilometers was the average from what she knew. And two, the fact that they were pretty much unmanned at all times.

There was just no need for people. The Igne took care of everything on these ships. They worked tirelessly, endlessly, doing their job perfectly. They would be the perfect employee is they were actually being hired for any jobs they do. The Igne had relationships with everyone in the galaxy, as merchants. Never as allies.

Really this was a rare opportunity for Mateo. The Igne were reclusive by default. No one spoke to them beyond trade agreements. Even then that was mostly transmitted by textscans. Beyond that all Mateo really know was that the trade agreement apparently never worked out in the Igne’s favour, to the point where they would even trade scrap for less scrap, and that they appeared to be emotionless robots that never spoke.

And that was fine with her.

If they didn’t speak or act against her, then they weren’t a threat to her. No murderbot deciding that they didn’t like her taking up precious cargo space and deciding to fit her in more nicely by stacking her limbs in alphabetical order. She was safe.

Right up until the food ran out.

The Cono bar may have been her last meal for all she knew. The rest could be rotten or unfit for human consumption. Would that matter to her in a few days?

She had to secure her current potential prospects.

The Igne were ignoring her,  hard at work doing something she was sure more important than making sure she stayed alive. That should be fine. As long as she didn’t try to start causing damage they probably wouldn’t aim to stretch her out or something.

She left the big eyeball on a body to its work and continued her search. The navigation room was her best bet. There had to be a room for ensuring travel was in the right direction, though with it being Igne nothing was certain save the lack of signs saying where anything was.

The Igne didn’t seem likely to be fully robots but she could see them memorising a lot of things, ship layout being one of them. She took another right. The corridors were shorter now. Not by much, but easier to notice compared to the start. The ship’s innards were circling around, and that meant a central point.

***

Giye was understandably pissed off about his current predicament. He had not asked for the current situation in his life, but it had been placed upon him tenderly and like any well meaning contributing individual of society that was also a nefarious space pirate he had shook it off by shaking his head violently, picked it back up, torn it off and then, as per the recommended procedure of the how to guide on being an effective nefarious space pirate, hunted down the family of the one who had placed it on his head and murdered them in chronological order in front of his transgressor.

Not that he could remember who they were, or what exactly had been placed on his head. All the same, the murders had been swift and elongated, resulting in many tears and pleas of mercy, something he could also no longer find, but for different reasons.

‘I just don’t understand why you’re doing this,’ his transgressor sobbed as the body of his older brother, who had been the only family member Giye could find in such a short space of time. ‘I gave you what you wanted.’

‘Did you?’ Giye replied, honestly not remember. ‘or did you bring this on yourself for not giving me what i wanted?’ Giye’s crew laughed and sneered. Good, thought Giye. They wasn’t laughing at him. That meant he must be doing it right.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ the man continued. Neither did Giye Giye had to be honest. But Giye wasn’t about to let a little thing like maintaining a long term memory get in the way way of him impressing and sort of scaring his crew so that they would remain loyal to him. Giye hadn’t really thought about what would happen if he did lose the respect of his minions, but he wasn’t going to find out, nor was he capable of guessing, so he dispatched the confused man before him as he prattled on about providing equity for a life insurance claims with a blast from his plasma pistol, much to the cheers of his fellow men, and continued with the flow that most of his life to this point had been following.

‘Alright men,’ he said in that serious tone that made these bloodthirsty guys that wouldn’t leave him alone stand to attention. ‘Where next?’

‘Skull Island?” Grimmy said, a large brutish man who never took off his spacesuit out of fear that whatever compartment he was in at the time would suddenly depressurise. “You always said we would.’

‘Nah,’ Jimmy interrupted. ‘Yous said we were heading to Alona. Fine ladies. Mean drinks.’

‘Wasn’t it the other way round?’ Timmy countered. The crew laughed, which made Giye laugh. It was more of a instinctive response. Giye never really understood or cared how his emotions worked, but they seemed to work perfectly fine on getting people to like him when left on auto-pilot.

‘Either way t’is sounds like a jolly good plan,’ Giye liked this word. He learned quickly that saying this words made them all think he knew what he was doing. ‘A man with a plan is one who succeeds in life, and we, boys, we are going to get what’s coming to us.’

The crew cheered and he stepped away without looking at them. “Get that engineer on the comms. Tell ‘im we’re heading to Alona. And ain’t nothing going to stand in our way.’

***

Mateo stood in the doorway. There was another doorway before her.

That wasn’t quite right. They were both really the same door. More of a double layered door than anything else. One door and then another door implied a short gap inbetween, but there was no gap between the two doorways. And when the first one opened, the second one didn’t.

This, from what she could tell, was the central hub of the ship. She couldn’t really tell this for certain. For all she knew there were another twenty floors, and this was just one of many big rooms in the centre of the ship. But from what she could at least reliably ascertain, this is where the long spirally corridor had wrapped around too and there had been no up or down for her to travel along. This was either the central hub, or a really confusing dead end.  Central hub seemed likely. There was a security panel whirring above it. It didn’t seem to notice her.

The second door remained closed.

It occurred to Mateo, at this moment, that if this door didn’t open and lead to somewhere helpful then she was most likely dead. There were no other rooms that she could go to that weren’t just near empty storage rooms, and no other direction she could travel in. That meant the only food and water she had was limited to the Cono bars in the vending machine, and anything she could get out of the bathroom sink. When that ran out, the only thing left would be to wait around and die.

Unless she asked the Igne for help.

That may actually have made more sense than trying to find the navigation room by herself actually. It seems like they could understand her, even if they did ignore her. She could probably keep insisting for their attention until they finally gave in and did what she wanted. With a bit of luck they may even give her full control of the ship and the ability to travel anywhere she chooses. That would be exactly what she wanted.

Though she should at least try opening the door first.

There was a button to the side of the door, but it was more for the first one. Pressing it did nothing, which was fine. Mateo could sort of make out a second button between the frames of the two doors, but she wasn’t pressing it without the aid of a nail file or something, and she probably shouldn’t be pressing hatchway buttons while standing in the frame of one of them.

She tried knocking. The door opened.

Mateo’s initial thought were simply ‘That should not have worked’, which was made all the more understandable by there being no one on the other side to have opened the door for her. She peered cautiously through and, on determining it was an automatic door, jumped quickly through before it could squash her.

Enveloped in near perfect darkness, Mateo had to wait for her eyes to adjust. She was getting better at letting this happen. Human eyes were naturally tuned to doing this but Tannard had never really afforded her the opportunity to practise. This room was crowded. There were crates stacked all in front of her, forming a maze of storage for her to navigate round. Tentatively reaching out, she supported herself against the box wall as she made her way further in.

Mateo could hear a rumbling through the room, clearly from multiple sources, but all sounding the same. It was like the ventilation system was on overdrive. Come to think of it the air hadn’t exactly been that stale in the rest of the ship. Was that simply because no one else had been using it? Did the Igne use it? Questions for later.

As she turned round a bend in the box maze, she saw one of the crates in the centre of her path, sitting askew to the other boxes as if it had been dragged out to the centre. Approaching it cautiously, she felt a pang of relief as she found it full of NutrioPacks. That very quickly solved her food worries. Rummaging through the box she saw enough in there to easy last several cycles. At the very least, her eventual doom had been extended to more than just a few days.

Slipping a pack into her jacket pocket, the ventilation suddenly cut out, basking her in near silence, save for a small, beating hum that she couldn’t quite place. Freezing in place for longer than she cared to move, Mateo waited it out, seeing if anything would happen. When nothing did, she began to walk forward quietly.

‘There’s nothing in here. There’s nothing in here,’ she found herself mumbling. ‘Except, of course, a fully functioning navigation console. One which, upon me finding it, would come with a full, easy for me to understand manual that will allow me to take control of both this ship and the Igne…’

‘There’s nothing in here. There’s nothing in here-’

Footsteps now loud enough to wake the frozen no matter how softly she moved, she inched herself forwards across the room, bringing herself slowly round another set of boxes. Her prediction still true, her legs guided her to the centre of the room. Turning a final corner, she found herself at a console.

‘Yes,’ she said, perhaps a bit too loudly. Flashing lights and buttons, exactly what she wanted. This looked more than an engineering panel than the actual navigation screen but it was a start. More of the crates were still in the way, but these were at a level where sliding them out of the way was  an option.

There was a grinding noise behind her. Mateo didn’t notice.

The crate was big but somehow looked like it would be light. Pushing it proved that wrong, but it was still light enough that moving it was an option. Taking it in both hands Mateo squeezed and leant back, possibly doing irreparable damage to her spine as she hoisted it up and back. Shimmying her feet in reverse, she gave herself enough leeway to let it slowly slide to the floor, revealing the side of the console that hosted the navigation screen, currently displaying data flashing by at an immense rate, command lines scrolling at speeds faster than she could process, grabbing her attention hard enough for her nearly to miss the figure sitting on the chair besides it.

‘Whoa,’ she cried out, ducking under the box on instinct, heart attempting to make a break for it straight out the back of her rib cage and into the dark where it would be safe. Mateo held herself there for ten seconds and then peered back up slowly.

The figure was still there, apparently failing to notice her despite the noises she hadn’t hesitated in making. It was simply sitting in a chair, covered in a black cloak that seemed to hide its features. Mateo would have thought the figure to be dead if she couldn’t make out  the occasional movement of a hand, clicking on a small device that she couldn’t make out. The hood was black. Even in the darkness she could tell the humming noise was coming from the figures head. Away from them, she could make out a scraping noise somewhere in the room.

‘Hello?’ Mateo finally tried after a minute of staring. ‘Hell-o.’ She waited and became aware that she could probably just leave without saying anything and the figure would be none the wiser. Instead she leant in and waved her hand across the figure’s face. ‘Hel-’

‘Argh!’ The figure cried out, bolting up and facing her. Mateo got as far as describing her as a girl with black hair and headphones when the girl with black hair and headphones screamed. ‘Auto-protect! Mode seven!’

Suddenly finding herself struggling against two metallic arms wrapped round her body Mateo felt her head clank against the hard body of an Igne who had apparently managed to sneak up on her the same way she had snuck up on this unsuspecting girl. At Least the girl wasn’t expecting anyone, Mateo found herself thinking as the arms squeezed just tight enough to be more than concerning.

‘Who are you? What do you-’ the girl got as far as saying before bursting out into a coughing fit. With a voice like dry paper the girl wheezed a few times and went to stand up, immediately collapsing to the floor as her legs flopped to the floor.

“Hello,” Mateo said after an extended length of uncomfortable silences. The girl before her scrambled to her feet, dragging herself up off the consoles taking a moment to click on a few things and have them minimise before Mateo could figure out what they were. “You been sitting down for too long?”

The girl growled at her. Literally growled. Mateo would have found it amusing if she wasn’t painfully aware of the crushing sensation her chest was being pressed under. The Igne had her trapped, broad metallic arms held her tight.

“Whoa. Easy there,” she said, trying to keep the situation from pressing on her any further. “I don’t mean any harm. I’m just-”

“How did you get on my ship?” The other girl snapped. Short black hair, poorly cut, covered the girl’s eyes. Mateo couldn’t make out her expression between the hood and the darkness.

“I’m… the delivery girl,” Mateo replied with a smile. “Here to make a delivery.”

“You-” That stopped the girl. “You’re the delivery girl?”

“Yes,” Mateo continued. “Here with the deliveries.”

“And what are you delivering?”

“I- what?”

“What are you delivering?”

“What am i delivering?”

“Yes.”

Mateo gave it a second’s thought. “Myself.”

“Yourself?”

“Yeah.” Mateo let it sink in for a moment. “I’m your new crewmate.”

“My new crewmate?”

“Your new crewmate.”

“Sent by…”

“Your boss, of course.”  Mateo was aware they seemed to be rotating their heads at one another. “The commander.”

“Oh,” the girl replied as her brain processed this. “I see. Unit zero-seven,” she looked to the creature behind Mateo. “Please put her down.”

Unit 07 instantly complied, releasing Mateo and giving her the space to breath again. She flexed her shoulders and turned around to give the entity a pat on the chest. “Thanks. You’re doing your job.” It did not react in the slightest to her encouragement. It felt a little warm.

“Unit zero-seven,” the girl continued. “Grab her by the ankles and lift her upside down.”

Mateo’s world did a sudden one eighty as gravity shifted for her.

“Throw her out of the nearest airlock. Come back when you’re done.”

“No.” This was bad. “No. No . No!” Mateo insisted, shaking back and forth as much as her hips would allow, arms swinging about as she tried to reach the studded gauntlets that made up the Igne’s arms. “You can’t do that.”

“I am the commander of this ship,” the girl said, thrusting her face up to Mateo’s. “I can do whatever i like.”She smirked, and then waited. The wait continued oddly and she glanced up at the Igne. “Well? Go do it. Airlock. Throw girl out.”

“Which one?” said Mateo.

“What do you mean which one?”

“Girl. Me or you?”

“You obviously.”

“You? Why would you want him to throw you out? Just because you haven’t washed isn’t a reason to die.”

“No i,” the girl stopped, looking away  and taking a moment to push back her hood and shake her hair. “How did you get on board?” She said sounding a little more focused now.

“Teleporter.”

“Look,” the girl said, now a little too unfazed for MAteo’s liking. “Answering my questions are the only things keeping you alive for the moment. Surely you would want to expand your likelihood of staying alive as much as possible, right?”

“I dunno,” Mateo shrugged, which was a lot harder when gravity was working against you.

“I am not a fan of stowaways, which i know is what you are. Tell me how you got on the ship?”

“You just said answering your questions are keeping me alive. Surely that means stalling for an answer is going to keep me alive longer.”

“That is true.”

“What happens if i don’t answer them?”

“I tell Unit zero-seven to move his arms in opposite directions.”

“I hid in a trash cylinder at the scrap merchants on Grognar. I needed to get off the planet because the local gang guilds were trying to auction me off. I managed to get loose and hid at the scrap depot in an empty cylinder. They bundled me into your ship from there, though i don’t know how because this is apparently a Tech Junker, and they don’t ever land, so i’m guessing you have a shuttle or something. I was hoping for it to be a passenger cruiser or something but it was pot luck in the end. Look, please don’t kill me. I just want to get off Gorgnar. You can drop me off wherever you’re heading to next, unless it’s an asteroid or something. A habitable planet if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Shut up.”

“Ok.”

“I only needed to know that first bit. Apparently Unit zeroEight isn’t being through in its scrap checking protocols. I’ll have to fix that. Wait. A passenger cruiser?”

“Um… yeah?”

“Why would a passenger cruiser be picking up scrap?”

“Wishful thinking.”

“You’re not very smart are you?”

Mateo suddenly felt very focused. “I’m as smart as i need to be.”

The girl stared at her. Mateo stared right back. The girl went back to her console. “Get her off my ship.”

“I can work,” Mateo shouted, expecting to be pulled back.

“I don’t need workers,” the girl replied. “I have Igne.”

“What about company?” That stopped her. “You’re alone here, aren’t you. Besides the Igne, and they don’t talk. They just do.”

“They do their job.”

“Must be lonely.”

“I prefer the solitude.”

“No one to hurt your feelings?”

“No one to question my orders”

“Yeah, because these guys do a brilliant job of obeying you.”

“Yeah,” the girl said looking up to the motion alien. “What is going on, zeroSeven? I ordered you to go throw her out of the airock.”

zeroSeven didn’t move.

The girl swung her chair around, lining it up against the tall creature and hoisting herself up. “They do this sometimes, she said, examining its floating red eye. “Just stop obeying orders. Never quite got it.”

“Perhaps it objects to killing innocent young girls.”

“No, that’s not it,” the girl got down again and started walking, her legs stumbling a little on the way. “Unit zeroSeven. Follow me.” Shifting forwards, the creature lumbered after its master, taking them into the open corridor.

“You just have to split up the instructions.”

The Fugue – Chapter Two

The corridors kept turning to the right.

That didn’t seem to make sense. Three turns should of put her back where she started, but then the corridor changed colour, from one particularly fascinating shade of metallic chrome to a slightly darker, yet equally as perplexing shade of chromium metal. There didn’t seem to be much point to it.

The corridors still seemed to be staying the same length as well, as far as Mateo could tell anyway. The lights were set to dim  and weren’t changing when she hurried along. She had gotten too used to rooms that acknowledged her when she wandered into them, raising the lights so she could actually see the other side of the room. Her bedroom would play either a light rendition of Sandra and the Blue Bergs, or the instrumental track from Back to the Future, depending on whatever mood she was in at the time.

The bedroom was gone now of course.

There were no hatchways either, she noted. That she thought was a sort of standard. Ships of any kind were made of sections put together and while she could see the lines where each part of the ship was stitched together, she couldn’t see what counted as the hatches. Every ship floating in the sea of nothing was designed to seal itself into sections in case of fire or parts of the ship deciding it was time to separate from the family and go off exploring on its own. This ship couldn’t be an exception. Cost cutting wouldn’t include door removal no matter what.

Then again, it probably didn’t matter. Abandoned was the main word she was using for this place at the moment. Long windy tunnels. Lots of grey and no light. She had only come across one porthole that let her confirm that yes, she actually was in space. The gravity sinks were on and her lungs were not attempting to leave her in a desperate search for an oxygen rich environment, so that meant power was on at the least. In retrospect that could have gone badly for her. All she needed was to be thrown in a methane environment and her hate of Grognar would very quickly diminished along with her functioning brain cells.

So it couldn’t be abandoned and yet very much felt like it was. At the very least it was recently inhabited, not only due to the power but by the fact she was dumped here by a pair of hands. The shadow she could have imagined, but she was here right? There had to be someone else.

She stopped at a hatchway. A small one in the wall, rather than one in the corridor. She pressed its button and watched as it slid open with a crunch that sounded like bones were breaking in the attempt. It was a storeroom. Empty, but the first room since her scrap heap.

Literally empty actually, except for the walls and air. Wasn’t an empty room a kind of blasphemy on Cruisers? She wasn’t quite clear of how true it ran but every room should be used for something, even if only to be shoved full of cargo for other people or something. It was too small to be a function room. It didn’t matter. She carried on.

Two more empty rooms later and she felt like screaming. Why did this ship even exist if it was so empty? Corridors empty. Rooms empty. Her room was full of bolts and scrap and bent sheet metal and all manner of crap. Mateo’s stomach groaned, more out of the monotony than out of hunger she told herself.

The fourth room was a mess hall. She wasn’t going to complain.

Though a place for food, it too was abandoned. Lines of tables and chairs, somewhat scattered. No plates or cutlery anywhere. It wasn’t simply out of use. It was like it had never been used in the first place. There was a vending machine though, with a line of Cono bars inside. She pressed the button and got one for her troubles. Still tasted good. It probably wasn’t very smart to have eaten it.

It was in the fifth room that she saw the Igne.

A bulking mass, its metallic shards folded in on themselves with every movement, its single eye floating in the middle of its mass. It didn’t seem to have noticed her, its focus occupied by a series of dismantled devices on the workbench before it. She couldn’t see what it was working on in particular, its large body in the way, but it seemed to be making its way through a pile of junk, cataloging, reassembling. Either way it looked like it had worked through a lot but still had lots more to do.

Mateo had never spoken to an Igne before. She wondered if she should consider trying. It turned to face her and she froze, looking round without moving to see what she had done to make noise. Could it just tell that she was there? Sensors or something?  It stepped towards her and she switched to considering running. Did they come with weapons? It wouldn’t need them. The Igne was big enough that grabbing both her arms and pulling in opposite directions was more than enough to deal with the intruder before it.

Just two more lunging steps and it was to the right of her, picking up a toolbox and heading back to its job. It didn’t seem to care that she was there, not that this stopped her from staying frozen to the spot. A flickering to her left caught her eye. A screen sat buzzing away to itself.

It looked like a security monitor, planted into the wall, though kind of in a weird place being dead centre like that. She shimmied towards it, trying not to make sounds so that the creature that knew exactly where she was and didn’t care wouldn’t hear her. The monitor showed a corridor. Empty. Grey. Dark.

She pressed the button to the side of it, switching the image to another featureless corridor. Then another room full of scrap and another. Then a corridor. Then another room of scrap with another Igne, sorting through scrap. More scrap. Another corridor. A bathroom that looked like it catered to humans and thronons.

Another scrap room with another Igne in it, and a girl looking at a screen in an odd place dead centre of the wall.

That’s when it hit her.

“Oh no,” she said, uncaring for the presence of the Igne. “No, no no.”

She dashed over to the other side of the room, plexiglass showing the nothingness of space covering the far wall. She could see nothing but space, but if she pushed her face against the plexiglass she could just make out the metal of the ship’s exterior. Grey metal. Flat, yet merged, like it was made out of different parts and smooshed together.

“Nooooooooo.”

“Erm, mister Igne?” She called out. The Igne spent a few seconds twisting something on the workbench, then turned to her, it’s light red eye observing her quietly. It said nothing.

“Are we on a Tech Junker?”

The Igne continued its monologue of silence while staring straight at her. The monologue turned into a thirty second long tirade at the benefits of keeping quiet at all times, which the Igne prided itself as a great proponent of.

It then looked away and got back on with its job of sorting through metal junk that was probably technical in purpose.

“Yep,” Mateo said to herself, because the Igne sure didn’t care,”We’re on a Tech Junker.”

“Fuzzbuckets.”

The Fugue – Chapter One

Stardate: 23651 

Location: Sector Alpha Nineteen. Enroute from Grognar. Garbage Containment Unit. Size: small

Mood - fuzzy

So now seemed a good a time as any that i should remember to start updating this. Given my current position i seem to have a bit of time on my hands and the freedom in which to get my thoughts on the datapad.

I can't say this will last long, or if it will ever see the light of a star - unless that's where we're heading right now,  but i sort of doubt it. It's not just that i can't see the ship's destination being the heart of a sun but from what i understand somebody actually paid for the trash pile i'm in.

Maybe you're that person. Maybe you've just pulled this pad off my corpse after you found me in your scrap pile and was kind of curious as to what i was writing. If that's the case. Screw you. I hope you mix your charts up and do cruise into the sun because you're just that stupid. That's what you get for killing stowaways.

I had to do it anyway. There was no other way off that rock. It's hard to keep track of time when you're used to three suns and two moons. How does a planet with only one of each manage it? How do you know when it's time for a half day nap? You may think i would have had all the time in their world to ask but the Grognars there weren't the type that were willing to speak to me.

So in case you're wondering. My corpse stowed away on your vessel because it just wanted off. Nothing beyond that. I had nowhere else to go and when i realised the scrap was being sold i just got into the easiest to fit-and-seal-myself-in Container i could find and just waited for you to smuggle me on board. Then i waited here, not quite knowing if i was going to be used for furnace fuel or not, and waited for you to find and murder me. If i may make a request, i would prefer the furnace over the airlock. I always had this fear of being trapped outside a ship you see and well, it doesn't seem like it would be the best way to go.

It occurs to me i’m in one of those positions where i have very little to say. It’s certainly cramped in here. I’ve had no food for at least two half days and my left leg has most definitely gone dead as i haven’t been able to move it for a while now. Perhaps this is how i’ll die. Trapped in a box that i’ve yet to realise can only be opened from the outside.

Should i describe myself for you, in case your finding and subsequent murdering of me leaves my body unable to be identified. No i don’t think i’ll bother.

Though as i type i realise two half days doesn’t make sense. I should be a lot hungrier by now and the whole need to relieve myself thing should have become a more pressing issue by now. You would think i would be a lot less light hearted about my situation. Well let me just tell you this, my eventual murderer and would be incinerator of stowaways. The situation i was in before this situation in which my movement is mostly contained to my typing fingers and the occasional wiggle of a cramped limb devoid of blood, was such a bad situation that compared to it i might as well be in the pleasure baths of Lacron Nine right now. The expensive ones that is. I like to convince myself that we all fell for the budget ones the first time we went there on Academy break. The expensive ones just have to be better, either that or the marketing department is fantastic at executing word of mouth.

Loss of time sense probably means we’re still travelling through the light. The time is off on the datapad at the moment so i have no idea. Not that you care about the specifics of this. This is no doubt nothing more than an amusing byline as you see my skin solidify to an uncomfortably low degree as i float past you on my the beginning of my endless trip through eternity. I know you don’t care about me. No one cares about me anymore. My family are dead. My friends are gone. The people who found me won’t be finding me again anytime soon with any luck. I am wonderfully alone and couldn’t be happier. Feast on that little bit of information as you toss me out the nearest airlock. You ruined my happy moment, trapped in my little container, completely unaware that i passed out about half way into writing this and when i woke up again nothing had changed. You ended that the moment you killed me. You better regret that you piece of Talon turd. I could have been so much and you took it away from me because you just didn’t like stowaways. Why if i weren’t being ripped apart by the vacuum of space i would-

The cylinder opened, stuffy air escaping to back back in with the fresh stuff. The sudden influx of light made the gleam of her datapad seem pitch black by comparison. Mateo let her eyes blink their way back  to seeing the world around her. A light above her. Little else. For a moment she dared not move, not just out of fear for what may be outside the cylinder but also the numbness of her leg that made itself all too clear as she hauled herself out of the tube.

An attempt at leaving stealthily was made, but quickly thwarted as needles struck her from within and the sudden loss of balance caused her to tumble out of what was her home for the last unknown number of hours.

Her new home was larger, yet just as poorly lit, only the light above her and one leading off to a corridor giving her any kind of idea where she was. A room full of scrap. There was a shadow leaving the room as she flopped her way out of the cylinder.

“Hey wait-” she tried to say, hours of silence taking their toll on her voice and coming out as a barely audible croak instead. The shadow disappeared, and she was suddenly glad for the lucky break. Hiding was the best cause of action at this point. She had no idea how big the ship was, no windows would imply something a bit beyond a Floater. If she was lucky it would be a Cruiser, something that would allow her to wander with the crowds without being noticed. If she could get to a port window, she could work out bearings from there. There was even a possibility she was already in atmosphere, though it would be just her luck if she was still on Grognar after all that. There had definitely been a lightspace jump, so it was at least ten percent unlikely.

Mateo gave herself a few moments, letting her blood get back in all the right places and remembering to switch the datapad off. It wouldn’t have much juice left after the trip and she may need it later to attempt communications or transfer monies.

First, make a plan.

Find out where she was. Find food or liquids to consume. Find somewhere where she can sleep undisturbed where no local security could bother her. She had only been in the cylinder for a few hours of current time and someone did come in here, apparently to open cylinders and then leave without checking their contents. Perhaps they just wanted the lid. Even so, it meant here wasn’t safe enough to stay hidden for long periods of time. A bathroom would do the job nicely. If it is a cruiser then public ones mean she could have a stall to herself for the duration of the trip. That would be perfect and not at all horrible and kind of traumatising. Still. Better than Grognar. Anything will also be better than Grognar. One mile in any direction away from here is better than Grognar.

After that, waiting. Waiting waiting waiting. Oh how she would wait, and when the opportunity arrives jump ship. The three closest inhabited planets to Grognar were Arillion, Camerio and Skull World VII. All civilised. All reasonable compared to the harsh, continuous hell of the always raining at all times Grognar.

Skull World would be the best. She had never been on a Spin Flasher before.

Then what? A job would be best. Get some monies and a place to stay. And then. A new life. One where she started again. Away from everything she knew. With nothing left.

A fresh start.

Mateo shook her head. It wasn’t the time for that. She had to investigate. Step One of the plan. Find out where she was.

Blind Spot

Blind Spot
Prologue

 

It all finally came crashing down in the year 200X+5 from your current year. The war between Heaven and Hell happened, and the battlefield was Earth. Two great forces with power over eternity thunders out onto the war zones. Lucifer’s forces of the darkness rose from the ground. A vast army of disgusting, vile creatures, horns on many parts of the body, fangs and talons threatening to rip any opponent to shreds. By them stood the dark mages and necromancers, using black magic from centuries past to bring the denizens of death into the killing fields, where they would prove to be invincible monsters with the ability to regenerate their broken parts. But even these creatures were nothing compared to the more humanoid monsters. Vampires and Werewolves and Succubus and Hellhounds, almighty creatures, once human, imbued with dark powers from unwilling benefactors. And in the middle of them stood the great one, Lucifer himself, surrounded by his many generals of darkness. A massive figure, the most powerful  creature of them all, whose very presence damned all those near it into eternal decay.

 

The corrupted pits of Hell were contrasted with the righteous warriors of heaven, shining high from above. The powerful angels swooped down from the sky, their great wings spread proud behind them. The heavenly maidens, singing songs of mystic power and the proud unicorns marching in troops towards their demented enemy. Up next stood the Paladins, great warriors of noble family who had dedicated themselves to their Lord and would willingly be destroyed for this battle, for them no sacrifice would be too small. Then there were the mages and the druids, conjurors of nature and the universal energies. Their power alone was sufficient enough to deal with a portion of the enemy. Around him, the Lord could not help but stand proud, having taken an earthly form for this battle, he knew his children would do him proud. Below him, from the ground that was once a great city, he saw his final opponent; the Lord of Darkness himself. They had not seen each other for quite some time, not since the incident with Job. But both knew that now was the time when one would be decided the true master, it had been ordained eternities ago that this would happen and both were truly, finally ready. The lord found himself looking at the planet around him, their mere presence had upset the planet, Lucifer’s emergence into this realm had caused the city around them to be greatly damaged, the teleportation sphere that surrounded both armies had caused changes in the earth’s harmonics. This reinforced the Lord’s strength. He knew for sure now that this battle had to be won, if not for the planet below them, then for the entire universe.

 

It had seemed strange that it had come down to this, it had been foretold long ago, but even the almighty forces of the universe cannot truly see the future when it is against beings just as powerful as themselves. A lot of planning had gone into this battle on both sides, neither could risk anything. ‘It would be an all or nothing gamble, the omnipotent presence of the Lord found himself thinking. He stared into what counted as the devil’s eyes, as if they signalled to each other. They both closed the portal’s that their armies had come through and dropped the teleportation sphere’s that surrounded their finest servants. The war to end all wars had begun.

 

What happened next isn’t entirely clear. Survivors of the incident claimed that they immediately saw angels falling out of the sky, as if they hadn’t quite figured out what the white fluffy things on their backs were for. Others reported seeing a creatures so dark and gruesome that just the sight of them would normally drive them insane, if not for the said creatures currently sizzling and dying of asphyxiation, the oxygen apparently proving lethal to creatures who usually breathed in sulphur. Some reports said that they saw men in armour and old men with beards as well as cute girls also landing in various small craters, right around where Madison Square Garden used to be. Some saw, what appeared to be Vampires stand around looking confused, before somewhat expectantly exploding into dust. Meanwhile, the largest figure of them all in the air was also falling like a rather omnipotent, rather ignorant rock whilst shouting various blasphemous words that echoed throughout the countries, upsetting many a Christian. As he reached the ground, he quickly shrunk in size, it was as if he had thought of the planet for a second and changed to proceed damaging it further. Meanwhile, the other giant creature that appeared to be in charge found himself falling apart at the limbs and reopened his portal throwing himself back inside, not before leaving behind a huge muscular arm. The survivors of New York had quite a feast that night.

 

God, if he could be truly called that anymore after his horrendous mistake and calculation and somehow forgetting the basic rules of gravity would be found lying on the road of fifth avenue about three hours later in a position unfit for a creator of the universe. A man and his son, the only survivors of their family, would find him later in the evening. Their entire family of fifteen had survived the initial quakes and incinerations of the city at first. However, the last thirteen members of their family were unexpectedly taken from them so suddenly, when around two hundred white Unicorns fell on top of them, crushing and piercing as necessary. Needless to say, the man and his son, who was nine, but was fully aware of the religious controversial and scientific impossibilities that this scene had brought to light and tried it’s best to ignore, were both very angry at their lord for doing these things to them. They had let him off when the family dog was run over that day, but the destruction of their home, family and possible monthly income was just pushing it too far.

 

They decided that God needed to be put down a peg or two, and let him disappear back to Heaven without his eyes but a profound knowledge about how one can’t break his own laws of physics, which strangely enough appeared to be the boy’s main intention.

 

Now, ten, perhaps fifteen, it didn’t really matter, years have already passed. Earth had tried it’s best to move on. It turned out it didn’t really need God. It’s just such a shame that there’s all these creatures left on the planet.

 

Chapter one

 

I guess you could say I am a loner by choice, but even I doubt that. No one can truly want to be alone. Even if they do, it probably wasn’t their choice really; it was more likely to be a series of events that happened in their life that they couldn’t control. A loner is just someone no one understands at school, maybe they’re a little weird or too intelligent for the other kids, but it is still always the same, they’ll be the last on the soccer team, and sitting on their own at lunch.

 

People just like to believe that they chose to be alone to make up for the fact it was forced upon them. When all of a sudden everyone they knew just disappeared on them, joined other groups that the loner simply couldn’t be a part of, because neither understood each other. A person finds themselves focusing more on their work, or playing little games on their own, sullen and introverted, calling the other kids stupid as they giggle at everything they see, the only time they talk to anyone is when the local bully flushes their head down the toilet. Even the strong lone wolf type probably didn’t choose his way of life; it was more than likely his parent’s fault. A general lack of trust in early life leads to trusting no one in later life. Even if others find them cool, they find the others boring, or annoying.

 

Of course many don’t want to be a loner, people need companionship and many going along the path of a loner will desperately try to avoid it, they will become attention seeking, in whatever way possible, but even this ties them to their path. Attention seekers can be the worst, they become lost in the crowd. Everyone surrounds them, but no one is their friend. It becomes worse later, people just try to associate with them simply to make friends with other people. People are alone in so many different ways, many don’t even realise that they are alone.

 

It makes me wonder if I am the only exception when it comes to being alone, maybe I’m just trying to state I’m different from everyone else. Many do that, trying to claim they’re something they’re not, merely to try and make themselves bigger from what they are. But I would, do truly believe I am truly different from everybody else and just by realising that I may be lying to myself doesn’t confirm that I’m not.

 

But the reason I say I’m different is because I have seen these things and I am not these things, not really anyway. They are a few exceptions, for one my parents have recently thrown me out of the house, but they didn’t tell me they had, they just removed my stuff from the house and left it lying in the trash area of the apartment where I used to live in. You could say they were abusive, but most of the time they didn’t even notice I was there, so it’s not really.

 

I wasn’t considered cool in school either, so I can’t be the lone wolf type, I don’t think people admire me for a distance and I certainly don’t find others are boring or annoying or stupid and giggly. Out of my old classmates, I couldn’t call any of them my friends, I think only one or two people even knew I was there, even the teachers didn’t seem to bother. I was in a class of eight people once and I never said anything or even handed homework in, no one complained, no one cared.  It’s not that people hated me or found me an outcast. In truth I never even knew what it was like to be bullied like some were.

 

It’s simply that I was never noticed by anyone, like I registered as some kind of blind spot. They would look towards me, and see nothing there. When people spoke to me, they would act as if I was asking for where the toilet was. I know I am not being noticed, it’s why my parents kicked me out, they simply forgot I existed, and decided to change the spare room into a games room. If I was being noticed and specifically ignored, then people have let me watched some very private acts and not done anything about it.

 

It wasn’t like I was invisible though, if I was people would walk into me all the time. In the street, people still move to avoid walking into me. If I went into a museum, I would still have to buy a ticket. So people noticed me, but it was more like they noticed me in a way that prevented them for having to notice me. I suppose it is better to notice me a little and walk around me, than not notice me at all and bump into me, meaning they would have to notice me.

 

Although I guess when it’s all over, I am still like the other loners. I am still alone.

 

************************************************************

 

Fifteen minutes have passed since I returned home, simply to realise that I no longer had a home. There was a snooker table where my bed was, and a TV where my end of the dinner table used to be. No one said anything special when I asked what was going on, but they did say that they had nothing to give me, I suddenly felt like I was a homeless person asking for change, only to be ignored by an uptight, penny pincher. Now as I stand outside the garbage area, where my old bed mattress is, I suddenly realise that I am now a homeless person, and hungry too.

 

I climb into the garbage can, I’ve seen people do it many times on television and hoped never to do it myself, but then I realise it’s not that bad, mainly because there’s not so much smelly rubbish in here, but rather my childhood items. I find my old school backpack, and use it to store a few things, a few changes of clothes that’ll probably now need washing, my blanket and a childhood toy, which I find myself unconsciously grabbing. It seems strange how I’m calmly reacting to all this, and even as I realise it, I remain calm, as if it was all expected, as if it didn’t really change anything in my life or anyone’s life. I guess it doesn’t, now instead of sleeping in a apartment among friends and family where no one knows me, I’ll sleep in a motel where no one knows me. I decide to get some food. As I walk down my old street, I find myself thinking of how I got to this stage in my life.

 

***********************************************************************************

 

“Hurry it up kid, I have other customers you know” the man shouted from the kitchen behind the counter “and put that back unless you intend to pay this time” the so-called kid stared in shock as he pulled the chocolate bar out of his pocket and put it back in the basket where he had took it from.

 

“How? How does you always know?” the kid shouted melodramatically, dropping back down to the floor and looking through the menu one last time. His much taller friend leaned onto the counter and wondered how long this was all going to take this time.

 

“Because you try it every time, this isn’t a large café you know, you can’t take advantage of the public space and you certainly can’t steal something when the old man keeps stock of everything so well.” He stared at the sweets in the basket, then looked towards the giant whiteboard on the wall, at the very bottom of the giant menu, there was a small list, listing everything in the basket, including the candy pieces.

 

“I know, I know” the smaller, more lean boy whined “but it would be nice to get around him one day” he threw the menu behind him, hearing it land on the wooden surface above him and jumped back up to meet his other companion as he emerged from the toilet. “Hey Sagara, hey Sagara” the older boy stopped as his small friend bounced up in front of him. His bouncing only got him to the head level of his friend, to Sagara he seemed like a basketball at that moment. “Have you ever got anything off the old man?”

 

“Teh” the brown haired boy replied smiling “not a thing” he jumped over his friend as he landed on the floor before walking back over to his seat.

 

“Eeehhh” the boy pouted “but I thought you were the best thief here. Surely the great Sagara can steal a chocolate bar off the one who’s about to fall down dead soon for little ol’ me” the bouncing boy was suddenly pulled back, from his crouching position, he soon found himself on the floor, with the taller boy standing over him.

 

“You should be a little more polite about Mr. Ishida, Kaze. Especially when he gives us free food anyway,” his much bulkier companion pressed. Kaze looked up and just smiled, flicking at his friend’s nose.

 

“Whatever you say O-nee-chan” and then stuck his tongue out. The other one clenched his fist at his younger brother.

 

“Why you little” he swung his hand blindly to the left, causing Kaze to fly in that direction, he crashed into another table, sliding across it and onto his chair. Kaze seemed to ignore this and drank the milkshake that was there.

 

“Calm down Kage” Sagara said, sitting down to pick at his ice-cream, feeling his head get cold “we keep being this noisy and the old man’s gonna throw us out”

 

“If I hear someone call me old man again, I’m gonna throw you all out” from behind the counter came Mr. Ishida, a twenty something man in his prime, currently doing the stereotypical bar work of cleaning a glass with a hand towel. He put the glass down on the side and then turned to the boy eating ice-cream.

 

“Sagara” he said simply, from their table, the brothers looked on confused, as Sagara just stood up, sighing. He walked over to the counter and placed the chocolate bar in the basket. He then turned around and walked back to his seat.

 

“huh, what, when, boomshakalakaboom?” Kaze said confused, Kage too seemed to have very little idea as to what just happened.

 

“When Kage threw you across the room” Sagara said simply, sinking back into his seat. Kaze nodded to show he understood, but still looked on in amazement. He was sure he had been looking on the entire time.

 

“Kage’s here too huh?” the old man said in surprise, looking over to the young, spiky blond child.

 

“Kage’s always with me, ain’t that right bro,” Kaze said simply, as if it were stupid that Mr. Ishida had somehow missed out Kage’s presence. Kage raised his hand and waved to the café owner.

 

“Hello Kage” he said as if it were the first time that day “would you like anything?”

 

“No thank you sir, I’m fine” the older brother replied politely

 

“Well, shout if you do” he said walking into the back of the place. The café stayed quiet for a few minutes, as those remaining ate the last of their snacks. It was a quiet Tuesday as usual and the boys were the only ones there. Even on a normal day, the café never really had that many customers. It was in one of the many back alleys of the suburbs. The type of place that made very little money simply because those whom it was catered for were too afraid to go there because of the location and those whom were located nearby didn’t go there because of who it catered for were seen as too snobby. It was the perfect place for the boys, since they fell into neither category.

 

“Hhhmmm, bogey” Kaze mumbled to himself, as his hand played with his nose. He flicked into onto the window as another group of boys walked passed. One of the boys stopped to stare at him and quickly got angry. He was about to walk into the café to teach Kaze a lesson in the finer points of bone removal when his friend stopped him. He whispered into his ear, the boy stopped and they both moved away rather quickly, ignoring Kaze’s insulting faces. Sagara just found himself sighing again. “Hey Sagara” the small one shouted in his ear, causing him to sigh again, “what’s the job for tonight”, Sagara put his spoon down in disgust, he had been through this earlier.

 

“Wait until everyone gets here, as I said before” Sagara replied, annoyed “sheesh kid, that’s the fifth time”

 

“But no-one’s coming. I’m sure Shariku killed them all this time. She was bound to do it sooner or later” Kaze bounced onto the window, practically sticking to it as he scared an old woman walking past. He peered around the broken street. Even ten to fifteen years on, some places were still reeling in the after effects of the huge series of earthquakes and various other natural disasters that had taken place without warning or reason. Even so, life had moved on, a lot of the mess had been cleared up, but buildings still needed fixing. It was a time where you were more likely to make money as a decorator than as a lawyer. Kaze’s eyes glued themselves to the window as they scanned across the street, searching for any of the others; he knew he would spot them instantly if they came.

 

“No one’s coming Sagara” he continued to whine, “let’s just get on with this”

 

“Erm, Kaze” the kid turned around to his oneechan’s voice to see other people had entered the café “they’re already here”

 

“Huh” he looked towards the two that had just entered, one tanned boy with purple hair and one extremely pale girl with a black spiky hair-do with a large brown jacket “well why didn’t you say so” the boy with the brown coat just walked over to a seat on the other side of the room and sat down. The other boy just found himself still staring at Kaze.

 

“Hehe, that’s cool kid, so how’s it going” the purple haired one said, sitting down to Kaze’s table. Kaze looked on confused.

 

“Huh? What’s cool, what’s ‘it’, how am I suppose to know” unfortunately for Yamato, he knew Kaze wasn’t the sarcastic type. The younger boy was sincerely confused as to what Yamato meant. The newcomer found himself staring at the kid again. It happened regularly, since there was no real logical way to react to Kaze.

 

“Hey, look” Yamato said, pointing randomly through the window, Kaze, as well as a few of the others in the room spun round. Most of them realised there was nothing, but he knew it would keep Kaze occupied for a while. He quickly found a new conversation partner “Yo Sagara, what’s up, dipshit?”

 

“What” Sagara said as he turned around from his ice cream “what are you talking about?”

 

“Just being the one who maketh the local lingo my mon, apparenzy it be the new chill bill thing “ around here, Yamato said casually

 

“Ahh I see, my casual freer, and would this cheese of the modern rock bark be worth getting thrown through that billa lakka stain of sand there?” Yamato just stared, his brain translating the new modern lingo. It was something that the resident youth culture had been doing recently, talking in a strange way specifically to try and confuse each other. Yamato only associated with them on occasion, so when they did something new and hip like invent a language that made no sense, he often had no idea what was going on. Even so, he joined in doing it anyway. The boy’s brain slowly clicked as he realised that Sagara knew much more about this new language than he did.

 

“Okay I’ll stop” he sighed, leaning back into his seat, cursing yet another loss to Sagara “what’s the plan today then. Is the old man here yet?”

 

      “That’s it” a voice came out from the back “all of you out” it was followed by Mr. Ishida himself, holding a long cardboard tube against his shoulder. He sighed as he put out the stub of his cigarette against the edge of the coffee bar before throwing the tube at Yamato. It sped through the air without warning landing perfectly on the boy’s hand as he caught it effortlessly at the end. He grinned at Mr. Ishida right before Kaze batted towards the floor.

 

“There’s nothing there” he shouted at his friend, “How dare you trick me” the cheerful look on Kaze’s face as he began to slap the air in front of the older boys face. Yamato was more than surprised when he found his face responding to the motions, the wind knocking him back and forth as the small child began to laugh hysterically, getting carried away by his actions.

 

“Oi” his older brother shouted, “stop that”, Kaze’s motions stopped as Kage stepped in. Now standing in front of his friend, the older sibling brushed dirt off Yamato’s face “sorry about that. I shouldn’t let him get out of control so easily.”

 

“Ah, don’t worry about it” said the younger boy as he settled down into his chair, fingering at Sagara’s ice cream remains “just keep him down until we’re finished” he watched as Kage took the tube from the floor and opened it, pulling out the large sheet of paper from within. Behind him, the group heard Mr. Ishida lock the door and press a button, causing all the blinds to slowly roll down.

 

“Wow, that is always so cool,” said Yamato from his seat, as the room was soon pitched into darkness. After they had reached the bottom, fully sealing the room from the outside world, all the lights in the room came on.

 

“Heh you say that,” said Mr. Ishida grinning to himself  “but it wastes half my electricity every time I do it”

 

“You could just do it manually kid” Sagara stated as he glanced over the sheet of paper that Yamato had placed over the table.

 

“Do you want to leave via. the window boy, or the meat grinder out back” the older man asked politely, bursting with sarcasm.

 

“Sheesh, you don’t like ‘old man’, you don’t like ‘kid’. You could just tell us your age and be done with it” Sagara replied sighing, yet laughing inside.

 

“A professional likes to keep his secrets” the man whose age was unknown replied, walking to the table.

 

“I thought that was women?” the young man pointed out as a fist landed on the top of his head, before grabbing him and shaking him side to side.

 

“And aren’t we all professionals anyway, I mean we all get paid for this” Kage pointed out from the other side of the room “We are getting paid this time aren’t we?” he asked suspiciously.

 

“All the more reasons to keep secrets,” Mr. Ishida started “We’re considered mercenaries by some. One day we might find ourselves facing one another. In this world where nothing is stable, your long time ally might become your worst enemy, especially with you lot, seeing as there are so many rivalries in the group” he turned to face Kage, a calm smile on his face. “People like us need to keep our secrets, in battle, they can be the difference between a win and death. In life, they’re the one thing that stop us from being manipulated. Do you understand now boy?” he stared into the boys’ eyes, with a serene look on his face. (god this is sounding gay) Kage stood up quickly and saluted his elder.

 

“Yes sir” he shouted with eagerness, “Thank you very much sir.”

 

“Good” Mr. Ishida turned back around “Now, back to that plan thingy” he said as he went back to the table where the plans were.

 

“Hold it.” Yamato shouted, sticking his open hand out in front of his boss “You may be able to fool Kage, but not the rest of us.”

 

“What…what are you talking about?” His boss asked, a worried grin on his face.

 

“We are getting paid this time, right?” He repeated Kage’s line, this time demanding an answer, tapping his foot loudly. Mr. Ishida looked around, to see everyone staring at him expectantly.

 

“Now, come on boys,” he waited for a few seconds to see if this was enough to convince them. He realized it wasn’t as Sagara dropped the spoon into the ice cream bowl before making to stand up, “you know I’ve always paid you guys your fair share. We’re all equal partners in this. Everybody does what he or she can and it’s all important. Certainly you see that?”

 

“I knew it,” the boy interrupted “it’s that guy from before isn’t it, the collector moron who’s trying to restart the planets economy crap?” Yamato brought his hand back down before turning to leave the shop.

 

“Wait Yamato” the older man begged. Yamato turned around and stopped him again.

 

“Some punks tried to break into my base the other day” Yamato shouted out unexpectedly, with a hint of annoyance, “ there isn’t much there except some weapons and some tools, but they still tried to take all the food. When I got back and chased them out, I found that they had found what that my share of what that guy had given me. They found it so valuable that they had just thrown it around the room and stole the briefcase instead. I mean, if a bunch of morons don’t want it, how the hell is it ever going to convince the entire world that it wants to be used.”

 

“Now now Yamato” Mr. Ishida took a step back in response to the boys frustration.

 

“Just what the hell is a dollar anyway?” He screamed “and what the hell does a thousand of them get me?”

 

“Mr. Ishida” Sagara said sternly, appearing behind Yamato to pull his shoulder back. Yamato outburst stopped instantly as he calmed down to let his senior talk “Is it true that this job is from the guy who gave us the job before last?” The old man sighed once more.

 

“Yes, yes it is.”

 

“And does he intend to pay us with this paper once again?” he asked calmly.

 

“Yes, yes that is what he intends to do” Ishida grumbled as he put his head down.

 

“Then, you can either tell him to change it so that 50% of the pay is food and supplies and 50% is this money stuff, or we can go throw you into the meat grinder right now?” he waited for his teacher to weigh up the pros and cons of each option. When he started talking again it was clear that there was only one pro to the latter option and it had something to do with getting out of this conversation.

 

“Fine, fine I’ll tell him,” he said, holding his head while sighing, “but can we just get on again with the job description. For now, I’ll make sure you get food this time, Yamato?” he said, indicating the boys’ seat.

 

“I don’t want any dollars,” he said grumpily, sitting back down “just food, and some new blankets”

 

“Fine, fine whatever, just sit,” Mr. Ishida said, forcing the purple haired boy down onto the seat by his shoulders.

 

**********************************************************

 

“Yes miss, the toilet is that way. It’s okay to use it” The short, fat, moustached man replied, as he cleaned the surface of the bar with a rag clearly dirtier than the bar itself.

 

“That’s not what I asked, I said do you have a room for the night,” the young girl repeated herself fpr the third time. The man had already turned away though.

 

“Hey Luigi” the man shouted into the room behind the counter, ignoring the young woman in front of him, “have you finished dinner for those two yet” The girl turned around to see two people, currently in a passionate embrace at the back of the room, around them all the tables were currently empty as everyone, or at least their wives and womenfolk tried to keep well away from the smell they were producing.

 

“Not yet bro” a reply came from the door frame “the fire’s simply not hot enough”

 

“Well theirs’ is” his brother retorted “hurry up, the sooner they eat, the sooner they stop”. The young girl found herself staring at the scene everyone else was trying so hard to blank out.

 

“They seem so at ease. Merged with another like that, all the worlds pains must simply go away.”

 

“Yeah, I just said, down the passage, can’t miss it, has a big word on it, says ‘toilet’” the plump Italian stereotype pizza-maker replied, ignoring her comments completely. The girl looked to where he pointed, she didn’t need the toilet, she needed a room. It was cold, even inside this place; she wished she had someone to be with like that. She even found it tempting to sit near them, just so she could get warm off their own heat.

 

“Oha Luigi, whata are you doing in there?” the older brother shouted as he went through the doorframe. The room beyond appeared to be outside the building and she could guess that the fire was going out due to the heavy wind there was out there. She saw several people take this moment to rush outside themselves, to avoid trading for their meals or simply to get out because their meal was suppose to be there the day before last. The girl considered leaving too, but she knew this was the only place she could stay that was to some extent secure. She had found one place already, and it responded by falling down around her, as some kids started playing with the foundations of the building. This was the only real tavern she could afford, mainly because they did not use electricity.

 

“What am I going to do?” she said expecting no answer from anything. Her eyes blinked a few times as she leaned across the side, she felt like she could just stay here for as long as possible. The people probably wouldn’t notice her even after closing time, but she would not mind a comfortable bed of some sort. She looked around the now half empty restaurant for some place where she might be able to sleep decently for the night. The only places that looked reasonable were the floor and the padded seating that the couple were currently playing each other’s violins on. She sighed to herself and hid her head in her arms. Something seemed terribly wrong with all of existence and no matter where she went it always seemed wrong, both the places she was at and her being there. It did not seem right that there was a tavern with only one guest room and a kitchen that was actually outside. It did not seem right that people could just sit in a restaurant and start fondling each other indecently and nobody would do anything to stop them.  It did not seem right that horribly mutated children now roamed the streets looking for snails to throw through windows. It did not seem right that these children were then hunted down, beaten and killed. Not for their actions, but for what they were.

 

The whole world was crazy, nobody would deny it anymore, but to her, the whole world had always been this crazy. According to her old parents, it had been like it ever since a strange event happened which knocked the whole world out of place. Nobody truly knew what it was that had caused the events to happen. Some had said it was a giant earthquake, some said that two world powers went to war with each other, and the weapons they used knocked communications out of place and caused animals to mutate with humans. Some had even said that a god and a devil drew forth armies to battle each other and fought on earth, only to find that earth was not the best place for them to be due to scientific reasons and both sides were horribly destroyed, also causing damage to earth. She did not know what had happened, but then it was clear from all the stories that she had heard that no one else truly knew either. She figured that people could have first hand witnessed the events that caused the world to be like it was, and because so many people had different accounts as to what happened, even these people were convinced that they were wrong in what they had saw.

 

“Not that it matters,” she mumbled to herself, “even if people did know the truth, it wouldn’t change anything.” The blond haired girl looked around the room once more pointlessly, nothing had changed in the last minute and she felt a strange urge to get away from the public area and to somewhere private. The place seemed oddly suffocating for some reason. If she was able to get a room then she would have no problem, she could probably trade some things that she had got out of the dumpster seeing how she had no money. All she had to do was get the man’s attention and have him give her the key that was hanging from the wall behind the bar. The man did not seem to be able to listen to her properly for some reason. He had answered her question three times so far, and each time it had nothing to do with what she was asking, it was possible he was retarded, or perhaps she was and he was just trying to be friendly about it.

 

She began to wonder if she could get away with just taking the key. The Italian man who ran the place seem to be stuck out back with his brother trying to restart the fire to cook the pizza to serve to those customers that had just left the building with no intention of ever coming back. Maybe she could take the keys, run to the room, open it and quickly return them before he noticed. If she was able to remain quiet in the room that night, she could probably sleep on the bed there the whole night with no problem. Taking one last glance around the room, she decided that it would not hurt to try. Everybody in the room seemed to be minding their own, or those they were connected too, business. She stood up and tried to inconspicuously walk around the side of the bar, thus making herself more suspicious. No one seemed to have noticed.

 

Behind the bar, she could see many drinking glasses, all stocked up against each other, so as to remove one would mean to remove them all, thus breaking each and every one of them. She pondered to herself why they had done such a stupid thing.  She stopped and squeaked to herself when she also saw a large shotgun sitting underneath the bar. Judging from where the man was standing earlier, it would have only taken him a few seconds to pull it out and push the bullets into her face. She shook slightly and found her body pushing her forwards, wishing to get the key as soon as possible. Making a louder noise than she should, she reached where the key to the spare room was hanging and took it off its hook. She looked around once more, to see no one looking at her in any way. Somehow, this caused her to start shaking even more. She slowly stepped back, realising she was only half way through her plan, and wondered if getting noticed would result in the man using the gun to apply it’s makeup to her face.

 

“I’lla said I’ll get some matches,” the tavern owner shouted back to his brother as he re-entered the room, “stupid cunt. Can’t light a fire, cavemen are smarter than you.” He whispered when he was behind his brother’s back. The girl felt her skull hit the skin on the top of her head as he appeared out of nowhere in front of her. Watching the man, she almost broke out into a run when she saw him kneel down and look into the shelf where the shotgun was currently resting. Her teeth began to chatter slightly when she wondered if she should get on her knees and beg for her life. The man stood up and walked towards her, an annoyed look on his face.

 

“Excuse me, my dear,” he said casually as he tried to get past the girl in front of him. Surprised, she instinctively moved to the side to allow him to squeeze past her. He walked past and seemed to forget about her, opening a few drawers and looking through them until he pulled out a box of matches as well as a piece of stone and a knife. The girl almost screamed when she saw him turned round to face her, the tip of the blade pointing at her stomach.

 

“Excuse me, my dear,” he said once again as he walked around her, without looking back. As he moved away from her, the girl saw him glancing at where the key was hanging before she appropriated it. Again she felt a small drop of fear as he tried to put two and two together with the facts laid out in front of him and a small answer book to the side. He left the room.

 

“Hey Luigi, have you seen the guest room key?” the man shouted to his younger brother. That was all it took for the young girl, she turned around and proceeded to run out of the building. The wind howled behind her as she did, as if it had discovered her crime and set out to chase her. Out on the old road, there were few people, and even fewer buildings that were not broken in someway. She ran for about two minutes, passed a youth with a giant horn on the middle of his forehead standing by a barrel with a fire in it. She stopped after about five more feet, already seriously out of breath, as she did the boy left the fire and ran into the alleyway’s darkness. Exhausted, she dropped down into an alleyway, behind a bin that would act as her wind block for the night, she rested her head up against the wall behind her and wondered why she had just done what she had done. She would wake up the next day, the guest room key still in her hand.

 

“The next town?” Yamato shouted to the others as dust blew into his face, “We better be getting a lot of food.” The abandoned jeep they were currently riding in was a small symbol of pride for Sagara. In the area where he had lived most of his life, this was one of the many features that had always been there. It had been stripped clean of it’s seats, mirrors and windows, as well as any other parts one of the many gangs of the city could yank out of it or pointlessly break. It was not until he stumbled upon a giant room filled with many small books that he found it was even called a jeep. It apparently belonged to some army before it was lost and the book had a full, comprehensive diagram on how the vehicle should work. It took him many months to find junk pieces to put it back together with, but as he drove down the large desert in it, it all seemed worth it just to hear the engine roar.

 

“I’m just hoping we can find some kind of fuel there, at the way we’re going we may have to walk some of the way there.” The older boy shouted back to his friend; as he listened to him complain about the mission.

 

“Heh, that may be better than this,” Yamato commented as he unconsciously put his hand in front of his eyes to shield them from the onslaught of sand that was currently attacking them. Whilst he may have fixed up the engine and all parts needed to make the jeep move forward, Sagara had found it impossible to find a piece of glass to replace the shattered windscreen that was there previously. He had no reason to complain though, since he was wearing goggles, his friend beside him however was not. “Man, this is annoying,” Yamato continued to complain. Having enough, he got up and turned around, facing the other passengers in the back seat. “You two okay?” he asked them, still shouting over the roar of the winds and the engine.

 

“Yes fine thank you,” Kage replied politely, his hands currently glued to whatever he could hold on to, to prevent him unexpectedly flying out of the strange machine that they were currently in.

 

“How’s Kaze?” Yamato asked Kage, behind him, he felt sand slowly building up on the back of his head and drop down beneath his shirt.

 

“He’s sleeping,” Kage replied yawning slightly, he spat out the jeep as some sand entered his mouth, “it is late you know.”

 

“He can sleep when he’s… well, you know”

 

“When he’s inside? Only half the time, the rest he just waits for an opportunity to burst out.” The older brother shifted around where he was sitting, it was hardly been a comfortable ride and it had been a long ride now for over two hours. Yamato turned to the other passenger, the pale boy with black hair, he was currently looking the other way, and up towards the bright, full moon.

 

“Yo, Shariku, you doing okay?” he asked grinning, knowing he would not get any proper reply. The girl known as Shariku turned her head slightly, her left eye glancing at the nuisance on the front seat, before looking back to the stars. “Sheesh it’s so boring” the boy sighed as he turned back round to face the sand coming head on into his face. He grunted in annoyance as more dust swam into his eyes.

 

“If you’re bored,” Sagara said as his friend wiped his eyes clean, “you could go over the mission plan, think of any good way we could go about it.” He looked at the gas meter. They would only be driving for another twenty minutes the way it was going.

 

“What is there to go over? It’s too standard, we should have charged extra for the mission being too stereotypical, especially since we have to take a three hour drive to get there.”

 

“I wouldn’t say it’s that stereotypical,” Sagara said, wondering when his friend would stop moaning. It was a common custom of Yamato’s to whine and moan as much as possible about something, and then have the time of his life when he actually got round to doing it.

 

“Oh come on, I mean we sneak in, take the special treasure and leave. The only thing that could make it any more stereotypical is if we set off an alarm that had no excuse being there, have to fight a ton of foot soldiers that all look the same except for different colour shirts to imply different strengths and then we’ll fight a big boss at the,”

 

“What in the name of my aunt’s left buttock are you talking about?” Sagara said loudly, stopping his friend in mid sentence, “a big boss? The least we may have to fight is a couple of security guards. There may be a small chance that one or two of them have mutations. There’s little to no chance that there’ll be any demons there and if there is they’ll be one at the most.”

 

“That’s exactly what I just said,” Yamato stressed loudly to his friend. From behind, a hand appeared on his shoulder, Kage’s head moved between the two of them a few moments later.

 

“I don’t think they’ll be any mutations there,” the oldest of them said, “from what we were told, this place does not tend to favour any such people.”

 

“Let’s just hope that they can’t detect hidden mutations. If they have electricity pumping all over the place, they might have the technology to do so,” Sagara said sternly.

 

“I doubt it,” Yamato said, “not that the city is anything to go by, but I doubt anyone anywhere on the entire planet has the ability to make any sort of advances. Electricity’s rare as it is. We must be the only gang back home that has any left.”

 

“And we just keep on wasting the stuff,” Kage said, sighing heavily as he thought about Mr. Ishida’s electronic metal shutters, “people don’t seem to like having too much of a good thing for very long. They seem to want to waste it as soon as possible.”

 

“I doubt it’s that Kage,” Sagara replied, “in the city, people’s life expectancies tend to be very short. People just figure they should do stuff while they can.”

 

“But we waste stuff Sagara,” Kage said slightly upset, “life in the city isn’t that dangerous, it’s mainly just people protecting their turf. It’s like they use it as an excuse to waste what they have.”

 

“Possibly,” Sagara said quietly, it went unheard by the two next to him as the wind blew it away, “but maybe this mission will help things, I mean we have to steal their power core or something according to the report Mr. Ishida gave us. Apparently it supplies unlimited energy to the surrounding towns and villages. If we can get hold of it, maybe the collector guy plans to use it to make a more permanent power supply for the city, that’s his style.”

 

“Or maybe he’ll just keep it to himself, he’s also the type of guy that’ll do that.” Yamato said, stretching to keep himself awake, “hey do you think what we’re doing is right. I mean, the town’s suppose to be peaceful and content and all that. Don’t you think we’ll ruin things if we take away their power supply?”

 

“I doubt they’re peaceful, if they don’t like people with mutations. I mean, we tend to crop up everywhere, unless they forced all of them out.”

 

“That’s a point Yamato” Kage said to his friend in the passenger seat, “what are you going to do about your hair. Doesn’t it make you look conspicuous.” Yamato looked up at his hair, a pointless act since he could not see it anyway.

 

“You’re right, I guess it is kinda purple,” he said before pulling his bag out from beneath his seat. Back in the city, there was a range of mutations. Many people would horribly malformed, having extra limbs or horns. These people suffered the most physical pain, since any demon mutation would constantly sizzle and burn, reacting to the oxygen that covered the planet ever since the creation of water. Other people with mutations did not show any outside signs at all, but they often had strange abilities. In many ways this was just as worse as the physical pains of the other people with mutations, since it often meant isolation from others to prevent anyone finding out about their secrets. Yamato was in the middle of the two groups. Looking almost completely normal, Yamato had no strange special ability to breathe fire or the like, and his physical mutation was nothing more than the hair on his head being a different colour. Even so, in some places, it would be enough to get him beaten out onto the streets.

 

As he finished rummaging through his bag, he brought out a small piece of nylon cloth before putting the bag back under his seat. Placing the cloth on his lap, he proceeded to fold it a few times.

 

“A bandana?” Kage asked, slightly amused.

 

“I thought it would be best,” Yamato explained, “if I just had a hat of some kind, it might get pulled or blown off by something. However, if I pull this tight enough,” he said as he wrapped it around his head and proceeded to tighten it, “then there’s less chance of it coming off” As he finished, he turned around to show it to his friend. “What do you think?” Kage started to bite his lower lip for all he was worth.

 

“It looks good,” he said before bursting out into laughter a few seconds later. Sagara contributed his own laughter as he looked away and continued driving.

 

“What?” Yamato asked, “What?”

 

I am having a dream. At least it seems like a dream. Maybe this is the reality and the person sleeping in the alleyway is just a dream. Maybe they are both dreams and the true reality is somewhere far away, out of my reach. Maybe I sent me here to remain trapped in my dreams because I did not want to be in reality anymore, or maybe reality did not want me. It is hard to tell.

 

In the dream I am standing on top of a giant building. It is about as tall as the power plant in my main dream. Surrounding me are many other buildings, some are slightly smaller and some are even taller than this one. They are all quite impressive. In the distance I see creatures, thousands of them, all falling out of the sky. Some look like they have wings but even so they are falling. It is too far away. It is hard to tell.

 

From below there are even more creatures. These look darker than the others in the sky, but that could be just because they are too far away. These creatures are screaming. Even though I cannot hear them, I know they are screaming. I wonder what it could be that would make them scream like that, what pain they must be going through for the thousands of them to echo their agony across the land. But they are too far away. I cannot see them properly. It is hard to tell.

 

I want to look closer. I walk forward hoping to get a better look, hoping to understand what they are going through. I walk off the edge of the building. The view in front of me leaves my sight to be replaced with that of another building, moving up into the air very fast. On the building there are many windows. I try to look through them, trying to see if I could look out the other side, hoping to get a better view of the creatures in the distance. I see nothing.

 

As one of the windows pass me, I see a girl. She can’t see me, even though she looks directly at me. She has short black hair. She goes by me too fast for me to see anything else. I wonder where she intends to go in that building. I wonder if she even knows the building is moving, going high up into the sky. To her it may look like I am falling. To her it may look like the world is falling from beneath the building as it continues to go up into the air.

 

I realise I am still standing off the building and I turn around to get back on it before I fall. The roof has gone and now the building I was standing on is also flying off into the sky. A thought strikes me and I look down. The ground is also flying up into the sky and I can see it coming up towards me.  I wonder if I am falling but decide that I cannot be because I feel no wind. It is more likely that the ground is rising up into the sky and is not taking me with it.

 

I come to meet the ground and it ignores me. It rises on through me and continues going up. I look up and I can still see the buildings. I look down and the buildings are still there, still rising up into the air. I look to the left and see another building, rising into the sky. I look to the right and see a forth building. I begin to question whether or not I am outside or inside a building and I wonder when I had entered it.

 

As one of the windows past me, I see a boy. He looks at me and the building stops moving. He has light brown hair and two holes where his eye should be. We stare at each other for hours. Then the boy smiles and I start to fall upward. I begin to twist and turn as my body flies up. This time I feel the wind flying through the air, cutting my skin.

 

I begin to bleed as I see the ground. This time I am coming back to it.  I see my blood falling upwards towards the ground. Or is my blood rising into the sky? Or is the ground falling towards my blood? Or is my blood rising up to meet the roof? I am too disorientated. I am beginning to wonder if this is all a dream or if I will die when I hit the ground. Someone once told me they had scientifically proven that if you dream about falling and hit the ground, you will actually die. The boy in the window has disappeared. I wonder when he went. Everything is so confusing. It is too hard to tell.

 

Either the ground or me hit the other, hard. For a second I see my blood covering the both of us.

 

I wake up.

 

I find myself sweating despite being cold. Around me is the dream of the dark alley where I fell asleep earlier. It was how I left it before I went to that other dream. I cannot remember the other dream now. It hardly matters. It takes me a few seconds to realise there is a man in front of me, leaning on the other side of the wall. He does not look at me but he appears scared of something. I notice he is bleeding. I notice he is holding his stomach tightly. I notice his blood is on me. I wonder if that was the blood that was in my dream.

 

The man is speaking to someone. He is begging for them to stop. To my right is a woman that I have only just noticed. She has short ginger hair and make up. She seems very pretty. She is holding a small knife. It has blood on it. I wonder if it is his blood. She shouts at him to leave her alone. She calls him a freak. He raises his arm up and asks her to stop and she screams, swinging the blade in his direction. He recoils back, the blade missing him quite easily. As he turns towards me, I see the other side of his face. There is a horn, sticking out of his forehead. It’s a dark brown and reminds me of a piece of wood more than anything else, a small vapour trail comes out of it and if I listen carefully, a sizzling noise.

 

Neither of them has noticed me yet, but I am not surprised. People tend to be too wrapped up in their own business to notice me. Even my parents started to ignore me after a while. They do a lot of important work apparently, although they never told me what it was. I guess it is too late now to want to know. I wonder if they are playing games now in my old room. Playing pool where my bed used to be and darts where my clock once stood.

 

The woman screams again and she is no longer holding the knife. She has left it in the man’s chest and he starts screaming for God, whoever that is. She calls him a freak again; she seems even more scared than he is. She runs off, leaving just the two of us in the alleyway. We both sit there for a minute, not saying anything. Then, he tries to stand up. I find myself unsure whether or not to tell him not to move and to help treat his wound or whether I should just leave the alley and leave the freak to his death. One of these guys attacked my brother once. It caused him to stop leaving the apartment more and more. That is why my parents turned my room into a games room.

 

But this freak probably wasn’t the freak that attacked my brother. This freak hasn’t done anything to me except get blood on me. I am wearing dark clothes anyway. It seems wrong to leave him here alone to suffer his fate. Yet would it not be even worse to nurse him back to help and allow him to continue living in this dream? This dream that I find myself constantly wanting to wake up from, but find I cannot.

 

The horned man doesn’t give me any more time to think it over. He stands up and begins to walk away. Hugging the wall as he disappears into the darker areas of the alley. As his blood starts to drip off my chin, he has already gone, the only sign that he was even here being the woman’s knife that he left on the ground.

 

I wonder what happened between them, not what caused the woman to try and kill him, but more how they met. Freaks and normal people don’t tend to meet up much in this place. In fact there are very few freaks here at all. That was the first one I had seen in a while that wasn’t on television. Occasionally you find them being chased across the street by brave villagers trying their best to get rid of them. The only way people usually dare try to handle them is in groups, since you never know what they are likely to do next.

 

It made me wonder if he tried to attack her. It seems the most likely answer. She must have been walking along, intending to get home when he jumps out and tried to do something to her. He probably was the one that originally had the knife, although he could have used his horn to threaten her as well. Something must have happened and she got the knife off of him. Or maybe she carried the knife around with her, in case something like this happened. I realise it is pointless to wonder about stuff like this.

 

My ears are cold, although my face is slightly warmer than the rest of my body. I wonder if I should go back to sleep. It’ll be morning in this dream soon. Not that time means anything when you have no reason to exist. Further in the alley I hear something fall with a thud and in the distance I can hear something roaring. Other than that, the world appears to have stopped making sounds. I yawn, it is the only movement I have made since waking up and I begin to wonder why a person needs to move at all. I snuggle up into my jacket and begin to fall back asleep.

 

In the distance, the roaring noise begins to stop, but I am dreaming again by then.

 

In my dream, I am being chased down an alleyway.

 

“Everybody out,” Sagara shouted as the jeep finally gave up on them and insisted that they go on without it for the sake of the mission. Despite wanting to get off ever since they got on, Kage and Yamato grumbled and whined as they expressed their dislike for having to move. About a mile in front of them stood the town that they intended to go to. It seemed highly out of place and stood out in the desert landscape where they were. Although, according to Mr. Ishida, it was in fact the desert that was out of place and the green landscape of the small town was the true nature of the surrounding nature.

 

“We’re walking then?” asked Yamato, holding his bandana on his head as the wind increased in intensity, as if to make up for the fact that they weren’t driving through it anymore.

 

“Looks like it,” confirmed Sagara, “it’s only about a mile or so away. We should be there before you know it.”

 

“What about this thing?” Kage asked, looking towards their exhausted vehicle. The jeep seemed almost annoyed at what it had been called for a second, as it made a loud grunting and clanging noise before the ignition gave out.

 

“It should be fine here for now.” Sagara stated, yawning and stretching as he pulled himself out of the machine, “if anyone finds it, they’ll assume it’s just another wreck.” The jeep unexpectedly made one final splutter of exhaust fumes at this. The others, not willing to risk having the thing explode around them, quickly got out and away from it.

 

“Where do you think we should head first?” asked Kage as he stared towards the utopia in the distance. It shined and swayed in the haze of the heated desert, implying it to be nothing more than a mirage.

 

“Well the town in the distance is the obvious place I guess,” Sagara wondered out loud, “that’s where the power plant is too. We should scout around for information, see if we can find anything out about the security of the place, or what the power supply looks like.”

 

“How do we even know that’s where they store the power source?” queried Yamato as they began the long trudge towards the small town, “I mean, we do know nothing about this power source, all we have is that picture.”

 

“The picture the old man gave us looks a lot like that thing up there, he also said it looks a lot like the power plants they had back when he was younger. It’s all we have to go on, so hopefully it’ll be enough for now before we can decide what we’re doing.” Sagara looked further in the distance towards the town as they walked quietly to it. The place seemed gigantic compared to the small buildings below it. He thought they should be more careful where they put large curved towers like that. The way it looked implied it might fall down and crush the entire town without any real warning. It was hard to make out, considering the distance, how high it truly was, but he figured it must be taller than the skyscraper the Demon dogz lived in back in the city. He got a strange image in his head for a moment where he discovered that the entire town was in fact really small, enough for Kaze to crush with his feet, but it just looked big because of the distance. He imagined that the town had not always been that small though and in fact it had been shrunk from an evil demon wizard. When they entered the town, they too were shrunk and he met up with the former princess of the town who was a real tomboy but was still quite cute and…. He began to question how long he had been up to think of irrelevant crap like he had just done. He yawned slightly as he turned off his mind and let his legs continue walking.

 

An hour later, Sagara woke up to find himself on an empty road in the middle of the night. Surrounding the road was set of neat houses with nice sets of nature in front of them growing nicely surrounded by little white fences. The houses themselves were small, but not as small as he had just dreamt about and he was finding himself a little disappointed. It seemed unusual for nighttime, and a little cold as well. Back home, he was used to the parties and riots and gang wars starting around now, guessing it was about eleven o’clock, and the entire city would be noisy for about the next seven hours. Here, it was the total opposite, empty, it was as if everyone had decided they had important things to do the next morning and so promptly went to sleep. He wouldn’t be surprised if Kaze started shouting in a few minutes before the pure silence drove him more insane. He stopped as he realized where his line of thought had taken him.

 

“Kaze? Where is everybody?” he spun round to check behind him and instantly found gravity taunting him. Around the bottom of his legs he found a tight piece of fabric that he usually referred to as his trousers. He fell to his knees, whom immediately tried to blitzkrieg the concrete below as they slammed into it. Unfortunately, the defences of the concrete were more than they could handle and they sustained minor grazes. As the temporary disorientation disappeared, Sagara looked up to find a small child looking out him, currently laughing as if someone had threatened his family with torture. To his side, Yamato looked on, a mild amusement on his face.

 

“You fucker Kaze,” Sagara complained as he turned over to look at his knees. A nice pool of blood sat on each knee where skin used to be, he touched it and gasped at the sore feeling he received.

 

“Sorry man,” said Kaze, taken aback slightly from Sagara’s words, “but it was too tempting, you were just standing there, staring off into space.”

 

“I was sleeping,” Sagara shouted back at him as he stood up, pulling his trousers back into the upright position.

 

“You don’t sleep whilst walking, it’s dangerous” replied Yamato, “for us, more than anyone”

 

“How else am I going to pass the time?” he asked rhetorically as he began to look around. The houses and sets of nature were still there and in the distances the curved power plant was hovering above them. The distance to it still seemed quite far. Behind him still stood Kaze and Yamato, Shariku was also present, although currently looking off down another road, where someone was walking by, looking at them suspiciously.

 

“So what now?” Yamato asked, waiting for instructions, “we’re in the town, but it seems no ones here.”

 

“Yeah, not even the tomboy princess.” Sagara said absent mindedly as he tried to get a bearing on where they were. It seemed pointless to start anything now. This town seemed to have the unusual idea of sleeping while it was dark. He then realized that although it was dark, it was incredibly light in some areas. Looking around he noticed that the entire town seemed to be lit up this way. The light was coming out of the tall concrete posts that were scattered along the sides of the road. It lit the place up magnificently; the only light that they had in the city at night were usually a few fires, since no one ever wanted to waste electricity. In fact they rarely used lights like this at all, even though the city was covered in them. Kaze noticed where his friend was looking and joined him at staring at the lights.

 

“It’s almost beautiful isn’t it?” Kage said. Sagara wouldn’t have gone that far, but it was definitely something to stare at in appreciation. They both looked over the electronic town for a few seconds before Kaze’s brain realized something. “Hold on, what tomboy princess?”

 

“What?” said Sagara in shock, “it’s nothing, just something I was”

 

“Hey guys,” Yamato interrupted, Sagara and Kaze turned to face him, breaking from the art scene, “it appears we have ze companie of an English playwright acting out the part of justice.”

 

“Do stop doing that,” Sagara asked politely as a lion would ask an antelope to enter it’s mouth.  In front of them now, a man wearing a black suit and a black curved protective hat walked towards them. In his hand he held a black stick and was swinging it around on a small handle. The man looked threatening and yet harmless at the same time. His tall, bulky demeanour was contrasted by his goofy moustache and friendly smile. As he reached the small gang of boys, Sagara watched as Shariku tensed up and took a slight step back. Before he could step in to intervene, Yamato got there first and place his hand on the boy’s shoulder, replacing any potential fight with smart negotiations.

 

“And what are you boys doing out so late?” the man asked them, with both suspicion and courtesy in his voice.

 

“And what’s it to you, punk?” Kaze said mockingly as he began to step forward. Behind him, Sagara applied pressure to the boy’s shoulder and made him calm down in a way that would prevent him talking for at least twenty minutes. Before the man could say anything, Yamato stepped forward.

 

“Ignore him, he’s weird.” The boy with the bandana said reassuringly. The man looked on confused as Kaze struggled in silent pain at Sagara’s hand grip, “We’re just out late”

 

“And what are you doing out so late,” the man repeated, but his courtesy seemed to have disappeared, “curfew started four hours ago.” Yamato froze slightly at this but quickly recovered as he realized he was right that this man did appear to be some law enforcing type. He tried to make up a story in his head and decided that the truth might just work.

 

“Sorry sir, we were just heading into town when our jeep broke down?” he began to explain.

 

“A jeep?” the man said confused, “what are you talking about, there’s no jeeps anymore. I’m surprised kids like you even know about jeeps.”

 

“Well, it’s Tommy’s jeep over there” he said, indicating Sagara. “We come from a few hundred miles away from here, about three cities over, but it broke down a mile away from here. So now we’re looking for a place to stay the night, I’m guessing it’s not too safe in that desert.”

 

“Desert is pretty fine I guess,” the man said, all hostility in his voice gone due to Yamato’s polite attitude, “what you wanna look out for is any of the freaks in a city nearby. They hardly ever go out of their nest, but they’re still pretty dangerous.”

 

“Freaks?” said Yamato, acting confused, “you mean the demons and mutants?”

 

“Whatever you want to call them sir” the enforcer said politely before turning around, as if thinking, “there aren’t that many places where you can stay the night here. Most have their own houses around here.”

 

“What about hotels and motels” Yamato asked.

 

“Well I suppose Marko and Luigi’s tavern would be your best bet, but they’ll only have one room.” The man started to think this over in his head as the others stared on at the two of them.

 

“Is it a popular place or something, we may not have enough supplies for something like that.”

 

“No no, it’s not popular. It’s just they only have one room.” The enforcer seemed unaffected by what he had just said as he continued thinking it over. “I got it, why don’t you come over to the station and you can spend the night in the cells?”

 

“What?” Yamato said in astonishment at this polite request to be imprisoned, for a second he thought that maybe the polite enforcer had some way of knowing what he was. He took a step back and looked over to Shariku, who still seemed ready to start the intended fight from earlier.

 

“Ack, I don’t mean it like that,” the man said reassuringly waving his hands in front of him to indicate peace. “What I mean is is that’s probably the best we can do for you at the moment. There’s hardly any crime here and the cells are always practically empty. I’m only Sheriff really out of a formality.”

 

“Sheriff?” Yamato said, even more concerned than previously.

 

“Yeah, I’m the one who looks after this place, makes sure that no one gets into any trouble. The cells may sound bad but I can assure you they’ll be the safest place in the entire area, not that anything bad’s going to happen anyway,” the man began to laugh to himself loudly at this, and Yamato figured he should probably run now. Instead, Sagara grabbed his shoulder and made them all huddle up.

 

“Nice work Yamato, make friends with the insane law enforcer.” Sagara said sarcastically, “What are we going to do then?”

 

“Well, his offer doesn’t sound so bad, we just have to hope he isn’t secretly evil” Yamato said, “if anything, it’s a perfect excuse to blend in with the locals, we could probably find out plenty of information about the target as well.”

 

“I dunno, I mean,” Sagara stopped in mid sentence as he went over the situation in his head. It didn’t seem right to accept the help of someone you had plans to steal from later, since it would cause a high chance of them being to be friends and later decide not to complete the mission. However it may also be the best chance they have to start doing something productive about the mission.

 

“Look man, this guy seems to be the area’s local do-gooder. We can probably trust him to help us to an extent if we follow nicely. Saying that, we can probably also trust to an extent that he’ll see us suspicious if we ask for help and then refuse it when given. It’ll be better to just go along for now. If anything gets out of hand, we always have Shariku.”

 

Sagara looked at the quiet boy at this. He was currently not in the little huddle and still looking around the town ahead of him, mainly towards the stars that he enjoyed gazing at. The town’s enforcer gazed with him. “We are only using him if we have to,” Sagara sternly stated, “and even then, the only chance we should take is at the end of the mission when we need to escape or something.”

 

“I know, I know,” Yamato tried to reassure his comrade, “I’m just saying, we’re in no real danger accepting the offer. Hell, I mean, we’re practically the strongest people in this entire area. What do you think Kaze?” he asked to the smaller boy. As he turned to him he saw the lanky boy drooling slightly as a neat wave of pure agony slowly rolled over him from Sagara’s still applied neck grip. “Never mind,” he said, turning back round to the Sheriff of the town, who was now standing right in front of him.

 

“Have you boys decided yet what you want to do?” the bulky man asked, now no longer looking at the stars, “I don’t see why y’all have to discuss it, I can assure you it’ll be the only place you could spend the night here, ‘less you wanna be sleeping on the sidewalk.”

 

“Sorry sir, my friend is just a little paranoid.” Yamato apologised expertly, “we’ve been awake for quite a long while now, and I think it’s starting to get to us.”

 

“Then we better get you to a place where you can rest as soon as possible.” The man said kindly, turning around and walking back down the street “follow me.”

 

Each of the boys did so, trailing behind the man in an orderly fashion. Shariku would follow a few seconds later, silent as ever.

 

Day 2

 

It was morning, as Sagara liked to call it, although the hundreds of clocks all over town would disagree with him, and the boy walked through the town alone with an air of curiosity about him. All around him, people got on with daily business very different with business back home in the city. Back home, the relatively overweight man carrying the box full of food bought from the local bakery would currently be lying unconscious in his own fluids slowly drowning after being attacked by one of the many street gangs or drifters. Here, the man had smiled at Sagara, wished him a good day, laughed when the boy yawned and handed him a muffin that he didn’t want paying for, before getting back to what he was doing whilst whistling a positive tune. For the expert thief, who wasn’t that used to dealing with people he didn’t know in a polite manner, the situation was completely alien to him. Sagara wasn’t like Yamato when it came down to things like this, he couldn’t just roll with the friendly punch that had just been thrown in his direction and talked to it nicely. After the man had left, he had stood there for another ten minutes staring mostly in shock, before an old woman had come by and commented on how nice it must be to be young and do nothing. He couldn’t reply properly to this one at all, and just muttered something before quickly walking across the street.

 

It was seriously uncomfortable for the young man. In situations like that previously the old woman would have probably spat acid onto the unconscious muffin man, but here, it was probably that type of thinking that would have seriously shocked the residents of this place was he to tell them of such things. He shook his head to take his mind off the subject, and continuing to scout around for anything of interest. He was amazed at how beautiful this place seemed in the daytime. Everything was clean for a start, there were smells in the air that he had never smelt before, the spongy smell coming from the bakery he had just passed, the blissful fragrance from the small flowers that practically lined the happy roads of bliss that went in every direction and the smell of the smooth, velvet chocolate coming from the muffin he was currently biting into and savouring. It was again a stark contrast to back home. The only real smells there were those of disease and fumes in the air that seemed to exist wherever they went and practically nothing was clean, the closest thing being when some bored youth had rubbed his fingers against the grime of a wall in order to make some bemused doodle.

 

He found himself going off task again and tried to focus on work. A place was needed to set up camp, as well as some kind of side job in case they needed to stay here for a longer period of time than currently intended. It was in their interests to stay as long as possible, since this not only allowed them to be integrated better into the society around them making them less suspicious, but also because the collector man was to pay them based on how many days they had had wasted taking time out to work for him. The mysterious client expected the work to be complete in about two weeks and so they intended to make it take around three, because of complications as Yamato always so delicately put it. They could have probably pushed it to a month, but that would probably cause a bad business reputation. Finding a place to stay seemed to be a main problem though. They definitely needed a place to keep separate from everyone else so they could come up with ideas when collecting information and the Sheriff’s cells, where it turned out the man also slept during the night, would not be the best of options.

 

Behind him, a large chime echoed across the square that he was currently strolling through, breaking his line of thought. He looked up, following the sound with his left ear. From what he could tell, the sound came from a structure that he had first saw when he had left the Sheriff’s place of residence that morning. After it’s initial noise, which he noticed had got everyone’s attention for three seconds before they continued with what they were doing, the building fell silent again and went back to being another stereotypical background construction. It occurred to Sagara that the building seemed to have absolutely no reason for being annoying like that and breaking him from recent musings. He decided to head in its direction. He figured it would be a more public building of sorts if it were making a noise like that, since no one could live with something that loud that close, and a public building might hold some information about what he currently required. As he continued to walk, his mind slowly got back into the plan, but it left it just as quick when he found the surrounding enemy landscape too distracting and decided to just wander and admire in the meantime.

 

Twenty minutes later, he reached his intended destination and was once more amazed at what he saw. He had seen many tall buildings in his life, he lived at the top floor of one many times taller than this one, but even so there was nothing quite so unique as what he saw in front of him right now. Before the thief stood a tall white building, shaped like none he had ever seen before, it was as long as it was tall, but it’s tallness came from it’s large spire which ascended into the sky, signified by a small piece of metal on the top, as if someone had created it to try and reach the very stars themselves. Underneath the pointy tower was a picture, which looked to be made from none other than glass. It was many different colours and seemed to shine brightly in the sun. Unfortunately, Sagara could not figure out what it was suppose to mean. It felt like it was meant to be a grand picture, signifying important events. However, the only thing to be seen was a rainbow of colours assaulting every pore of the irises of his eyes.

 

Now that he looked in a way proper, in a way that only he could, the building didn’t looked very impressive at all. If it wasn’t for it’s height and the fact that it had made a very effective, distraction, he figured he would have completely missed it from a distance. It just looked different, that’s all. He sighed and turned around, not even caring to look into the structure to see it’s true purpose. As he did so, he noticed the building flicker in the corner of his eye. He turned quickly, out of reflex, and looked at the greyish wall of the building. Now that he focused on it, he could see that the gritty wall of the church was a mixed of white and grey. It wouldn’t be all that special, if not for a moment ago, he could have sworn that the entire portion of the wall he had been near was entirely grey and, like a child trying to trick his friend, began changing colour whenever he looked away only to stop when he looked back.

 

“Is it the sun?” he asked himself as he examined the wall by touching it slightly. The wall was cold and as hard as anyone would expect it to be. This particular side of the building was in the shade and so it couldn’t be explained by the fury of the sun, nor were there any windows on the building next to it that could reflect any light. Slightly amused at the near trivial event, the boy began to walk along the edge of the building to examine it some more. Every so often he would turn around, and found that an identical wall with different colours had replaced the wall he had just trailed his hand along. He began to speculate what it could all possibly mean and whether or not he should continue looking. Before he could decide what to do though, he felt something pinch at the back pocket of his trousers. Suspecting Kaze, he grasped onto the hand without looking and pulled it in front of him, bringing not a small, lean boy, but a short, blond haired girl. The girl squeaked in surprise as Sagara regarded her in equal disbelief. His shock turned to a small grin as he realized that here was something that he could deal with in a way he knew how.

 

“Hello,” he said coyly, thrusting his eyes up to meet hers as he pushed her against the wall, “what we got here then. I was beginning to assume there was no crime in this town. Is this a special occasion or do they just hide it really well from visitors?” The girl said nothing at this, looking to the ground instead to keep away from his dominating gaze. Both teenagers stood in that position for a few moments as Sagara waited for the girl to make some sort of excuse or apology. She did nothing, choosing to continue to look away, waiting for the man in front of her to loose interest. Instead, he grinned even more and began to push her further up the wall.

 

“Oi oi oi, what do you think you’re doing girl?” he asked mockingly, “you think I’ll disappear if you look away long enough or something. I’m not going anywhere until I at least get an apology” In order to further his point, he dropped the girl without warning, grabbing her leg so that she landed with force, causing her to whimper some more. Both waited again for the other to do something, the girl seeming to have no intentions to contribute to the conversation. The fact that the girl hadn’t said a word began to concern the boy standing above her. Could she not speak? Or was she so scared of the situation that she was petrified to say a word, less she condemn herself even more. She was pretty, he thought surprisingly for a second, although judging by the state of her clothes it seems that she had gone into pick pocketing because she needed to, rather than had to. That alone struck him as strange, in a town where a complete stranger could get given food without even asking. Her hair looked ruffled and out of place, judging by the direction it was slanting in, he guessed that she had slept in an alley with the wind to her right, which also implied that she was homeless. Her face wasn’t dirty though, and still actually shone a bit from the make up that she had lightly dabbed on about three days ago, meaning she had either just become homeless, or had some very strange priorities.

 

“I….i…” the girl stuttered, finally taking a breath to speak. Her voice was ragged and croaked, as if she had not used it for a long time. She muttered something else, but Sagara totally missed it. He sighed loudly to himself, implying more of a groan as he realized that nothing was going to be gained from what he was doing. The boy lifted his foot from the wall against the side of her face. He then offered her a hand and waited for her to take it, grabbing hers when she finally brought it within reach and hoisting the girl up to her legs.

 

“Come on, get out of here,” he said unemotionally looking away as he began to regret his previous actions. He barely heard her as she stood up and looked at him for a few seconds, before running down the back alley of the church and out of sight. He was amazed at how quiet she had been, it was almost like she wasn’t even there. He was beginning to wish she hadn’t been as he reflected on his own actions from less than a few seconds ago. The girl was clearly not expecting to be caught, and yet also clearly someone that had never pick pocketed before, or at least never been caught, but wouldn’t that mean she would have an air of confidence. The more experienced girls back home would often attack someone if they caught them with their hand in the person’s pocket.

 

“Never mind,” he said, sighing once more to himself, “no harm, no reason to kill, and I would be a hypocrite if I got too angry about it.” He stretched slightly, in order to help him move on, and began to get back to what he was doing. He left the alleyway in the opposite direction from the girl, intending to find a place to stay. As he walked away, the wall slowly blended in with itself, becoming a pure white.

 

I begin to puff and pant as I run from the man I met in the alleyway. Why he let me go did not concern me, but more why he made me stay for such a long time. It felt like an endless eternity as he stared at me whilst I averted my gaze and I began to realize that no one had looked at me like that for a long time. Why did he even look at me? How did he even notice me? I had barely touched him when he had already seen me, I shouldn’t have tried to steal from someone who was all alone in an alleyway. It should be commonsense for most people, but I thought it would not have mattered to me, since most tend not to notice me anyway. But that boy did see me, and the way he looked at me. I had never seen such fierce and gentle eyes before. I stop as I realize that made no sense, even though that was the only way to best describe his eyes.

 

I am still panting from my exhaustive run, and I realize that I am in an alleyway on the edges of town before the northern desert. As I gaze across the lone and level sands, I am reminded of my dream. My parents, if they can be truly called that anymore, once told me that beyond the desert lies a great city, with large buildings, called towers and skyscrapers. I had never seen this city, but I have not left this town since I was a child, and it cannot be seen even from the tallest building or closest viewpoint. Even so, I imagine that this city is where I had my dream, since I remember seeing the desert there too.

 

“Oi oi oi what do you think you are doing girl?” His words come back to me. They seem significant somehow, even though I know it is a common question. I am not sure, but I think it is the only time anyone has ever asked it to me. I think hard and speculate whether or not it was the first time anyone had ever asked me a question or not. Surely someone must have done at least once. I know I do not talk to people much, and people do not talk to me at all, but it must have happened once. I sniff slightly, as I become overcome with worry about this question I am asking myself, of which I cannot truly provide an answer. Someone must have asked me, but I cannot recall a single time, ever.

 

“What do I think I am doing?” I ask myself aloud, amazed at how easy it is for me to speak when I know no one is listening. I was trying to take some money out of his pocket. I did not know if any was there. Money is still rare in the twelve towns, but practically everyone accepts it now. I was hungry, and it would have been easier to get something to eat if I did have money. I didn’t have any at first, but I got some earlier off another man, who was too busy with a large box that he had got from the bakery and when I saw him talking with this boy, I thought perhaps the boy also carried money with him.

 

I could not help but think of the boy again. He was tall and had brown hair with fierce and gentle eyes. I could not remember their colour however. I had the impression that I had met him before, or at least passed by him and stopped to stare. Maybe we had passed each other in town before, since anyone rarely visits. He didn’t look like he was from the town though. He was muscular, and yet still somewhat thin. Most in town are either slightly overweight, really thin or incredibly bulky, depending on what type of work they do. So, I don’t think he was from the town, since I would have probably remembered or heard of someone like him, not that anyone would tell me.

 

A noise emanates from my stomach and I feel the pains of having not eating recently. I reach into my pockets at the few round pieces of grey metal I am holding. I overheard my mother once telling my brother and I that the pieces of metal used to be called coins and had distinctive markings on them, but that had changed since this new type of coin was made and to me they had always been smooth and flat. I am also holding a key, but I am ignoring it for the time being. The coins I am holding now, would not be enough to get me any food from any of the nearby shops, nothing of a suitable standard and I should not be wasting it on snacks.

 

I stand back up, not realizing that I had sat down earlier and take one last look back at the desert before heading back into the town again. It might be possible to get something with the money I do have. Even if I can’t, I might get away with giving them the money I have even when it is not enough. I hope so, since I am now more hungry than I have ever been in my entire life.

 

As I reach the main street where all the shops stand, I glance nervously as I hope I do not see the boy I met earlier again. Although I find I wouldn’t mind meeting him again, and having him ask me questions. Maybe next time, I will actually say something.

 

“Yo, I’m back.”  Sagara shouted as he entered the door of the sheriff’s jail block. He was greeted by a sound that implied the building was empty and figured that Yamato and Kaze had gone out. As he walked through the building and looked around, he waved a hand to Shariku, who responded with a glance. The dark haired boy was currently looking at a painting that was on the wall. It depicted a four-legged creature with white fur and a glossy mane. It had a large body with a strange head and it looked like he could probably ride on it like he would his jeep. On top of it’s strange head, which dipped down from it’s neck making it appear a bit dumb looking, was a spike or horn of some sort, which seemed to curl around itself. The creature would have appeared beautiful to the eyes of an observer, majestic even, were it not currently painted in a perspective so that it was falling to it’s eminent doom. The creature appeared to have no way to fly and its position implied that it was flailing its legs helplessly in hope that it soon would have. Despite this, it was quite a nice painting.

 

He left his ally to continuing staring at the artwork. He had probably been at it for some time now and would probably only stop to die or be mortally wounded in some way. Sagara turned the corner to find the ‘sheriff’ of the town sleeping on his chair. His legs were on a table and he was slowly rocking back and forth in time to his own snoring. It seemed the entire building had nothing to do that day. As the boy accidentally stamped his foot on the floor several times, the older man tipped fully back on his rocking chair, banging his head on the wall and waking up. He looked round with a start to check if there were any enemies of the town lurking round and calmed down when he saw Sagara looking over him.

 

“Ooh sorry lad, must have dozed off there for a while,” the enforcer apologised as he stood up to greet his new tenet, “did ya have any look at finding your way round town?” Sagara observed the man for a few seconds, confused at something for a moment.

 

“It’s quite a nice area,” the boy replied, “and the people here are polite and generous,” he pulled out a folded, circular piece of paper with dark stains on it, “look, I got given a muffin,” he said in a squeaky voice.

 

“Ah, I sees you’ve met Mr. Edison. He makes far too many muffins each day. He ends up going around town and giving them to people.” The Sheriff ended his sentence with a laugh, whilst indicating a bin for the boy to throw the litter away in. Sagara looked at it confused for a moment, before understanding what the man meant.

 

“I guess you can afford to waste stuff,” the boy commented as he deposited his waste, “especially when you have electricity pumping everywhere.”

 

“Ah, that’s sort of true,” the man responded, as he found his hat on the floor and put it on, “but we try to keep it all clean still, we reuse what we can and donate what we no longer need so nothing really goes to waste.”

 

“I see.”

 

“I take it you don’t have electricity where you’re from then?”

 

“How could you tell?” the boy asked rhetorically. The older man missed this and answered anyway.

 

“From your tone, you sound a little jealous.” The Sheriff pointed out, although he didn’t need to, “I can’t say I blame you though. We have a pretty good life compared to others around us. Plenty of power, plenty of food, no freaks or demons to bother us. We can live our lives in peace and prosperity. It’s quite the perfect area.” He began to laugh at this, as he was prone to do at a moment’s notice. Sagara grinned with him as the man’s last words stuck in his head.

 

“Perfect, yes,” he muttered quietly under his breath, “it’s almost too perfect.”

 

“’ey boy, I just had me a thought.” The Sheriff said, still laughing, as he put his heavy arm round the boy’s shoulder, “why don’t you and your friends stay in town for a while. I likes you all, so I’m sure everyone else would.”

 

“Stay here?” Sagara repeated, not expecting the offer.

 

“You said you were only passing through last night,” the older man continued, “but I’m sure after what you’ve seen today. You’re probably quite tempted to stay and enjoy it.”

 

“Well, I’m not sure we should,” Sagara began.

 

“Now don’t give me that boy, there’s no need to be too polite.” The man interrupted, “You probably would have stayed quiet and never asked if you weren’t given the invitation. You would have probably felt you was imposing on us all or something.”

 

“Well…”

 

“Well nothing, my friend.” He said, changing his accent to that of a fine gentlemen,  “You may stay here as long as you like. Though, four boys like you are probably gonna wanna find your own place. There’s bound to be a few places going cheap if you have something good to trade. And then once you have a place to stay, you can just sit back and enjoy your time.” The accent had changed back seconds later, as if they was someone inside him pressing buttons.

 

“Well…” Sagara said again, hating the fact that he couldn’t get a word in edgeways.

 

“Well it sounds good to me,” said Yamato as he appeared from around the corner, “this town had to be the most beauti…. no, most wondrous town I have ever witnessed. It would be an honour for us to stay here sir.” Behind him, Kaze appeared to smile and look happy about the offer as well, although he could smile and look happy about the deaths of thousands of innocent, cute monkeys. So it wasn’t much to go by.

 

“Well, your friends agree, what say you boy,” Sagara shot a glance at his allies as they grinned back at him. It still didn’t feel right; they were being deceptively nice to someone who later their actions would completely turn upside down, part of their plan was to completely ruin this lifestyle. It seemed okay when he didn’t know the people he was stealing from. To smile and manipulate them in this way was just fundamentally wrong. But in this situation, did they have a choice?

 

“I’m in,” he sighed, to be responded with a fake cheer from the three surrounding him, “but we’re not going to annoy anyone you guys. We’re gonna get our own places and get our own jobs.”

 

“Oh, but of course,” Kaze said, sarcastically bowing to Sagara’s command as the two continued to laugh.

 

“Well, if you’re looking for jobs,” the local sheriff said, “the ol’ power plant is always looking for people. You don’t have to be skilled or anything to apply for work there. You just sign up, and anyway you go.”

 

“I couldn’t have thought of anything better myself,” Yamato said, “I’d love to know how that place works, wouldn’t you mate?” Even Sagara had to grin at this particular turn of fate.

 

“Well, it’s settled,” the Sheriff said loudly, “let’s go down there right now and get the five of you, I mean, four of you” the bulky man stopped in mid sentence and looked around, he could have sworn he just seen another much taller boy, standing there behind the smaller one like a guardian, but then his attention was then taken by the boy still staring at the picture, rather oblivious to the entire conversation, “What about him?” the sheriff asked, knowing now there was no point to trying to engage Shariku in conversation.

 

“He’ll be fine,” Yamato reassured “won’t you Jimmy?” the dark haired boy didn’t move to this at all, he still seemed engrossed in the painting.

 

“Are you sure?” the Sheriff asked uncertainly as he looked at the dark haired boy. He wasn’t sure what was up with the boy, but his gut told him he seemed suspicious. All of this time, it felt like he had been a stalker to the others, following them until a point where they became so used to him, that he could strike in a flash and they would be none the wiser, and yet, they were clearly aware of him, almost like they were observing him at all times.

 

“No worries,” Yamato said calmly, “he’s quiet, but he rarely means any harm. He’s a good friend.” Shariku shuffled slightly at this comment.

 

“Well if you’re sure,” the man said.

 

*******************************************

 

The job application process was a lot easier than we expected it to be. The way we were treated so nicely it was as if we had been accepted for the job before the jeep had even broken down. Despite this, there were a few minor problems. The major one being when the slim, bald man at the desk handed us pens and asked them to fill in our details on these sheets of paper. I could read and write just fine and Yamato could to an extent, but the markings on the paper in front of us made little sense, being clearly a different writing system than the one Mr. Ishida had taught us. The sheriff, who had accompanied us, just laughed as he took the papers off us and began to draw upon them a combination of different circles and lines. According to him, these were our names.

 

Of course, they weren’t actually our names. For the sake of caution we had given each other new names to call each other while in this new area. This wouldn’t have normally mattered to me, but our names were relatively unique to the city, everyone living there had been named from words from some strange dead tongue, even people who had different names at birth had theirs changed. It was the mark of the city, and if anyone in the town had recognised this connection, it would undoubtedly cause trouble for both the overall plan and ourselves.

 

Another trouble has happened for Kage, but we are stuck with it for the time being since we are now all unable to mention it in the slightest. It had been originally planned for Kage to be on the outside during the day-to-day activities, since he was more trustworthy than his younger brother and less likely to call us by our proper names. Kaze’s mouth runs far faster than my jeep ever will and he could just as easily state we were all thieves, as he would do that little bounce of his. However, bad timing with the sheriff meeting us last night meant that Kaze now has to be the one to stay out at all times. It has not heavily affected our plan but it has placed us all at great risk. The worse part is that Kaze seems to know this, his grin has been etched higher than usual and he has already slurred our names more than once. Yamato doesn’t seem concerned, but I see Kage, standing over his little brother, fuming in frustration.

 

“That’s your form done Tommy,” the sheriff said, handing me the final piece of the three sheets that would allow me to work at the plant. He was a kind man really, although the rest of the town would probably say average. But, during all this time, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that the reason he was staying so close to us was to watch us, to make sure we weren’t suspicious in some ways. I should probably stop thinking about it as my paranoia could cause him to start being paranoid. I laughed to myself slightly at this. In these situations, even the most pathetic joke could spark me.

 

“Thank you sir,” I said, taking the sheet of paper off him. Glancing at it, it made less sense when it did earlier. The only difference now is that it has blue ink all over it. It was truly difficult to tell if it was his handwriting, or that he did not know the language either, and just didn’t want to admit it. “Ah, come to think of it sir, you haven’t told me your name yet.”

 

He took a few moments to look at me, as if I had just asked him when do the bears drop from the ceiling. From his eyes, I could tell the question had truly baffled him. “John,” he replied slowly, as if confirming it himself, “but it’s best to just call me sheriff, everyone else does.”

 

“Very well,” said Yamato, or Billy during this period of time, jumping in, “sheriff. When do we start?”

 

“Or rather, what do we actually do, besides earn supplies?” Kaze asked. For the sake of the time being, he was being referred to as Paul, mainly because Mr. Ishida couldn’t think of another name ending in ‘y’.

 

“Oh, you won’t be earning supplies,” the sheriff said, rising up from his chair to tower above them, “you’ll be earning…cash.”

 

“What?” it didn’t matter who said this line, it was what everyone was thinking.

 

“What’s cash?” asked Kaze, eliminating him from the above sentence.

 

“I figured you wouldn’t have heard of it.” The sheriff said, fishing into his pocket to retrieve something. If it was cash, whatever it was, it seemed it was going to be small “it’s pretty new around here as well, but it’s what we use for basic trade. Here it is, the latest thing….cash”

 

On the top of the man’s hand, which was dirty as it is, seemed to be a small crumpled up piece of green paper. It was torn at various edges and looked like it couldn’t achieve anything, let alone be used for basic trade. The three boys stared in confusion, the looks on their faces giving the impression that the man had just pulled out a dead gerbil. Yamato shuddered as he came to realise what it was.

 

“Money,” he said blankly, as his eyes tried to turn themselves around and force themselves into his brain, mainly to end his suffering, “they’re going to give us money.”

 

“What?” the sheriff said, confused “you have heard of it then?”

 

“Er, it’s kind of new in our town as well, we never heard of it being called cash though.” Sagara explained, “does…everyone in town use this.”

 

“Yeah, pretty much, people still use basic trade and bartering. But this is slowly coming through. People seem to prefer it for some reason.”

 

“How could anyone prefer bits of green paper with numbers on them to food and drink,” Yamato asked glumly, as he felt the source of supplies disappear from his grasp, due to thousands and thousands of green, paper cuts.

 

“It’ll be fine,” Sagara said, “just as long as we get paid enough to eat and rent somewhere.”

 

“Ah, that will not be a problem,” the thin, bald man interrupted from where he had been quite on his chair. “The plant will provide you with rooms. Luckily, since you’re a group of four it will work out fine. We will assign you two, two bed rooms. I assume that’ll be satisfactory.”

 

“Huh? But there’s five of us,” Kaze began to say, before his foot reported it was under attack from a strange flat object, made of plastic, and probably coming from Yamato’s foot. The sheriff flinched at this comment. There was something he couldn’t put his mind on, “four then, sheesh. I wanted an extra room.”

 

The bald creature on the chair opened the drawer to the side of him and fished out two pieces of metal with plastic connected to them. Placing them on the table, he slid them over to the boys. Sagara caught both as he began to explain.

 

“Those are your keys, hopefully you have heard of them before. They will let you open your doors,”

 

“We know that,” interrupted Sagara, feeling as he was speaking to a child, instead of being treated like one.

 

“Very well, do not lose them under any condition. They are very, very old. Even before the disasters and we do not have spares. We haven’t even found the technology to make keys in the first place yet.”

 

“No,” said Sagara, admiring the key slightly, yet feeling it was like a dark herald of some kind. “we don’t have them at all when we come from.”

 

“Really sir,” the man said in confusion, “may I ask how you keep things your own then?” Sagara observed the man as he pondered the questions for a moment, then just smiled.

 

“I guess you could say we’re not that petty. Everything was free in our town, and everyone respected that.” It was true to an extent, which allowed Sagara to smile truthfully. There may have been basic trade in the city, but everything belonged to everybody and most were willing to help others out in some way, unless they were fighting each other. Then they traded blows instead, which worked out equally as well, although not to the person on the receiving end.

 

“I would not say it is petty to have your own space sir,” the bald man claimed, “it is merely a wish to have a place to call your own.”

 

“To you, that may sound reasonable, but to me it is downright greedy.” Sagara replied, still grinning slightly. “Now then, point us in the direction of our rooms if you would.” As they began to walk off down the corridor, Sagara cursed himself. Not only had he changed perspectives without meaning to, but he had also gotten use to betraying his own feelings. H was joining in and joking with these people. Why did it seem so easy?

 

Detective Story

Chapter 1: Waking up- Time unknown

 

I woke up, to hear the humming of a great animal around me. My knee jerk reaction was simply to grab the alarm clock and rip it from the wire that allowed it to make its usual static sound. However, as I fumbled to grab it this time, I felt nothing but a textured plastic surface where a smooth, wooden one should be. Lifting my head up to investigate this, the sounds of the wailing stopped and, shaking my head out of the world it had been in just a few moments ago, found myself staring at the steering wheel of my old Mazda. I sat up, dazed, before I remember what had happened but a few hours ago.

 

It had been a simple trip, one without any activity except the incessant honking of a man behind me who insisted I was going too slowly, when I was in fact breaking the speed limit. I had been driving all day and most of the previous night, with no real stop except for a gas station about fifty miles back, and was just considering going to sleep as the sun went down around six o’clock, when a small explosion was to prevent me for getting any rest for the next hour.

 

The small explosion had been one of my tires popping. It had woke me up from my daze and caused me to skid to one side. Luckily, the road was empty at that point and I was able to expertly take control of the vehicle and dump it on the side of the road.

 

A quick look revealed nothing of any interest except that which was already obvious. The tire had blown, something that I had guessed was going to happen in the nearby future after the front left one also went a few days prior. Unfortunately, the tires bursting a few days before one another caused a problem for a traveler like myself in the fact that I simply no longer had a spare to fix it and that I knew nobody nearby to help me with my problem. I inquired upon others as they passed me, but simply responded with various looks that implied they just couldn’t be arsed to stop.

 

I couldn’t remember anything after that, and so it becomes obvious that I must have passed out in the driver’s seat of my precious vehicle. She was old and I was so acquainted with her that I had even named her Sandy, after this girl, who had not so much got away as ran. Even though I knew it was about time to replace her, I could never bring myself to do so. Besides, I have very little money nowadays and probably couldn’t afford anything better anyway. Such was the life of a road warrior, as I had jokingly called myself, even though I was about fifteen years too old and far too many hairs bald. Still, it was a dream I had intended to fulfill since I was a teenager and with the problems I had been suffering in my life the past few years, keeping away from it all was just as good an excuse as any.

 

Snapping myself back to attention, I stifle a small yawn and stretch my arms, despite the confines of my vehicle. I reach for the glove compartment and pull out a standard thermos mug, which I hope to god is still full of warm coffee. I would hate to have to kill the next passer by just because I was thirsty. The liquid brown was indeed warm, and I had no problem in waking myself up quickly. As I finished up, I pulled myself out of my dear car and locked it, intending to walk down the road to the building that I could remember seeing about five miles back. The image was still blurry from my dream state but, considering the location, I figured it to be a gas station or diner of some sort. I set off at a mild pace.

 

I was quickly surprised to discover it to be much closer than I had remembered, and it was only around five hundred or so meters before I had come to an open entrance of sorts. It was a gate of regal design and clearly implied that whoever was to be found at the end of the stone pebble road was probably very rich and could afford to build somewhere in his own style. This type of locale seemed more along the lines of a place in Britain rather than America, and I became anxious as to who I might meet.

 

Reaching the gate, I observed a sign on the wall. It was a simple, metal plaque but had clearly been shined up to look as splendid as possible. It said on it:

 

Dr. Bruce Kent PhD

Gentleman’s house

Please ring buzzer for access

 

I found myself laughing slightly at the strangely chosen name of the place. The place sounded like it was named after a sort of sarcastic joke. Without waiting, I pushed down on the buzzer for a moment, slightly worried that I might be calling too late. I was unaware of the current time, as my watch had decided to stop on me whilst I was asleep, but judging by the night sky, it had to be around eight or nine.

 

There was no answer for a few moments and I was worried that they may have turned off the intercom for the night, but just as I went to press it again, the speaker made a shuffling noise and I leaned closer to expect a voice. As it came, it said simply ‘come on in please sir. We’re expecting you.’ As the speaker turned itself off, I froze in bewilderment, unsure as to what mistake must have been made. Were they expecting someone else? Was this an automatic message? Or had they simply seen my car a few miles back through one of the windows? The last one seemed unlikely, as there was no house currently in sight. The thick trees and everglades seemed to cover the entire estate and all that could be seen besides was the small pebble lane that appeared to go half a mile down, out of sight.

 

I shrugged my shoulders as I decided what to do. It would seem pointless to press the buzzer again, as explaining the situation is made much more difficult when you cannot see who you are talking too, so I opted to head up the pebbled path. Something I began to regret to do immediately in the darkness. There were many shuffling sounds in the bushes. I assured myself they were probably small animals that roamed the grounds, but this wasn’t exactly enough for my nerves that were almost pushed to their limits when a small hedgehog came dashing out and ran across my path. I laughed at myself for my own foolish behavior and quickly stepped ahead, intending to reach my destination before something a lot bigger came out. The place was strangely misty too, as if the region was trying to hide something.

 

I came out from under the trees and walked upon a wooden bridge, big and sturdy enough to allow cars to pass over it. Walking over, I saw a small toy boat in the river with a small wooden concept of the grim reaper floating along it. The little model had been caught up in some marshes and couldn’t get any further along. I mused myself on it, thinking that even though it was a nice river ornament it had the wrong figure cast upon the boat.

 

Turning, I finally caught a glance the place that would hopefully provide me with some assistance on this night. The place was absolutely huge and resembled a manor of sorts. However, it again looked like it belonged in England more than it did in whatever state I had passed through today. The place was large, but built disproportionately so that it looked tall and thin. From here I couldn’t see how far along it was, but I assumed it must have been around sixty meters based on how the roof had been built. The walls were of brickwork that looked more Victorian than any modern day mansion and the roof had somehow maintain a stale look, showing much age when there should have been none to show. The place had clearly been custom made by whoever owned it. It boasted the feeling of old but betrayed small signs that it was newly made. The double-glazed windows were a big giveaway, as the window holes hadn’t been adjusted from anything prior, suggesting that they came at the same time the house did.

 

As I stepped off the bridge and headed for the many steps that led to the front entrance, I became aware of a man standing by the door. He was dressed respectively, wearing a formal suit but without a tie and the top button undone. He was wearing mainly beige, with a white shirt and black shoes. It seemed a strange mix of various styles. I had assumed him to be the owner, but I was to be quite surprised at what happened next.

 

“Hello.” He called to me in an American accent. Despite the country we were in it still surprised me. I was expecting a British accent with the surrounding scenery, he raised my hand to shake it as he introduced himself. “I am Samuel Puckson. Please to meet you. Feel free to call me Sam.”

 

“Samuel Puckson?” I said in confusion, ignoring his earlier command. “I thought the place belonged to a Dr. Kent?” He smiled at me, as if waiting to explain my confusion away for me.

 

“Ah, but it does.” He replied, almost jumping for joy for some reason. “I am but a guest as well, however, while I guess your reason for being here is about car troubles. Mine is of a far more sinister note.” I ignored his last sentence again as I focused upon what he had said before.

 

“How the fuck did you know I had car troubles?” I asked him in pure astonishment. I was half expecting a joke answer on his uncanny ability to read my mind, or to just admit that he guessed. The answer was far more refreshing.

 

“It is simple mate.” He stated, waving a finger at me. “Your appearance tells me all I need to know.” He pointed a finger to my creased, brown coat and my eyes followed. “First of all, your coat is ruffled. You’ve been snoozing at the wheel. Probably been driving far too late and dozed off before your head fell on the steering wheel, causing this little bump which you’ve probably not even noticed yet.” He turned his accusing finger to my head, which I could only guessed sported a small bruise of some kind. “Followed on from this, your breath has a distinct smell of coffee. Kind of stupid to be drinking coffee whilst driving, which either means you want to crash, or you’ve just woken up and had some morning java….just late at night.” He continued.

 

“Next, we have some small stains on the edge of your coats collar.” His fingers moved in turn to point out both of my arms, which had but a tiny trace of black on them. “Oil, I’ll bet. Not too much, enough to say that you don’t have major car troubles, but enough to say that you’ve just used some tools. Based on your thin but lean nature,” he said the last bit as if he was pulling away an insult, “as well as your clothes, I would say you are not an engineer of any sort. So it makes sense that you are only amatuerly fixing your car, so I would wager that you have blown a tire and are without a spare.” As he finished, I looked upon him with the face one would reserve for an angel were to show up in your bedroom one day and offer you life insurance.

 

“That’s amazing.” I stated, in deep admiration. “That’s fucking amazing. You’re like a detective. You just looked at me and figured out…”

 

“I must correct you there mister.” He said, pulling something out of his breast pocket. He displayed it to me for a split second, revealing a brass badge and an ID card. “I am a detective.” I looked on for several seconds, my expression not changing, before I replied with a simple ‘oh’. He laughed at this.

 

“I am not surprised you did not notice. I am not exactly dressed in my normal uniform.” He took this moment to knock on the door loudly. “I am, what you English would say, a plain clothes policemen. As to your unasked question as to why I am here tonight. It is for, as I said, a sinister reason. One in which, many questions are to be asked, and precious few will probably be answered. Regardless though, I will have the answers we desire at the end of this night. If you want, you may aid me. You might find it educational and I might find it amusing. But an innocent bystander who saw nothing is often a thousand times more effective in these situations than one who saw everything. You are clearly an innocent bystander in this whole ordeal and you have clearly no part in this except being at the wrong place at the wrong time.” He laughing almost mockingly as he said this, ”What do you say? Would you aid me on this endeavor.”

 

I looked at him for a moment, still unsure as to how to act, let alone respond. A part of me told myself, to turn one hundred and eighty degrees and run, regardless of the fact that it led straight for the river, to pull myself up and back into the real world. But the other half, as other halves always do, was too curious to let me go anywhere. It wanted to join up with this wizard of observation and track through a quest with unseen and untold peril and to do battle with whatever the fuck was going on. I found myself about to agree when Sam interrupted me.

 

“Ah, hush now. I hear the maid approaching. I ask that you do not inform them of your troubles for now. I will help you in all due time, but to tell them may cause them to handle your problem quickly and belt you out soon afterwards. If you are to assist me, it is best that you now say nothing.”

 

I did as he said, not because I wanted to come along or that I was unsure as to whether or yet I wanted to help him, but more because I felt that whatever incident had occurred was grievous to an extent that my troubles may seem trivial in comparison. I reassured myself that he was a man of the law and he would help me out in due course.

 

The door opened after what seemed an eternity and revealed an incredibly beautiful young lady. Her face was as small as it was cute and she was dressed in a very arousing maid’s outfit. Inside, I was sort of shocked that she was dressed in such an outfit, clearly as the result of a sick fetish of the owner of the manor. Outside however, I couldn’t help but stare for a moment, admiring how it fit her perfectly. She was pale and clearly concerned with something else to mind properly. She looked up timidly at the detective and asked him quietly to come in.

 

We both did so, and took a moment to marvel at the exquisite inside. The owner was clearly a fan of the colour black to say the least. The place didn’t look gothic, in fact it looked just as Victorian as the outside was. However, everywhere where I expected a mahogany wood finish, it had been painted one of the various shades of black. It gave the place an eerie feel, one similar to being in a doctor’s waiting room while you know something very suspicious is going on in the office. It looked normal but was practically screaming that there was something wrong, somewhere in this place. As well as something else, something familiar.

 

We were interrupted again by the entry of another person, who quickly dismissed the maid. It was clear by his actions that he had not wished her to answer the door, clearly due to the shocking way she was dressed but, for some reason, she had been too fast for him. He approached us, almost shyly. His demeanor appeared grand. He was dressed up like a true English gentleman, up to the point that he had a top hat upon his head that appeared so natural being there, that he had clearly forgotten to take it off. He also had a small eyepiece over his left pupil and a long white moustache. Despite this, he was clearly only thirty and brown hair could be seen under the black headpiece. It implied that he had dyed one or the other and it appeared to be the moustache.

 

“Hey.” He replied to our presence, indicating an American accent, that didn’t suit well with his Victorian appearance. “You must be the policemen we called?” He was asking me this clearly because I was dressed better than Samuel was, but as my new ally stepped forwards and held up his badge, the man turned to him.

 

“Yes, I’m afraid I am the detective you speak of.” He commented as he let the man inspect his badge. He took great interest in doing so, but it felt that he was doing it merely to make it look like he cared. He then lifted his the arm in which he held his bag and indicated in my direction. “This is my assistant.”

 

“Oh I see.” The man said laughing, before extending his arm and wishing to ignore his little error. “I’m Bruce Kent. I own Gentleman’s House. Sorry to have bothered you so late at night Inspector, but…” he seemed to stutter a bit, not sure what to say, “Well, it’s all necessary I guess.”

 

“Quite alright Bruce.” Sam replied, surprisingly formal for a first meeting as he shook back. “I’m afraid only we could come though. The department had quite a few calls tonight. It’s always the same, we get nothing for ages and then enough to stack us all up for the entire night.”

 

“Ah I see yes.” Dr. Bruce replied, for I could only assume this to be the man who name was on the plaque. “Well, come on in then. We’ll sit you down and we’ll go over the whole damn event.”

 

We moved into what could only be described as a drawing room. It felt the same as a place where the guests would crowd during a murder mystery game. Once again, this entire room was painted black at just about every opportunity it could find, from the doors to the cupboards and even any wooden parts to the furniture. The chairs were surprisingly green though and a glass coffee table contrasted just about the entire square mile that the manor’s area took up.

 

Inside the room were four people, all situated at different parts of the room. The first was a woman of around twenty-five years of age. She was blond hair and black skinned, which gave no doubts that she wasn’t a natural. She was dressed conservatively in a black business suit wearing glasses. She also had her hair pulled up at the moment, even so it was still long. She was currently scribbling away in a small notebook, but stopped when we entered the room and quickly hid it away.

 

Across from her was a man of around the same age. He had clearly been dressed up earlier, but now looked even looser than my new detective friend. He had pitch black hair and a tattoo of a dragon going down his neck, although I could only see the tail at this point, it was clearly Chinese. He was very muscular, but at the same time sported a large stomach. The man was asleep at the moment, probably sleeping off a meal I could still smell slightly. Whatever events had transpired clearly hadn’t affected him enough to keep him awake. He turned over as I looked at him, almost like he was hiding himself.

 

The third occupant of the room was standing by the window looking out. He glanced my way as we entered and showed me that he had green eyes and a full head of red hair. He had no blemishes on his face and would have maybe been considered handsome by the ladies were it not for his spectacularly large ears. They were well rounded and yet pointy at the top. Though they shouldn’t have been, they were clearly his most prominent feature. The man looked clearly concerned with the forth member of the room.

 

The forth member of the room was a complete contrast to the second member. He had bright blond hair and was rake thin. He appeared unusually pale and even his hair seemed unnaturally white. At this point he was wide-awake and had clearly been crying for some time. Even though he was probably crying at whatever event had happened earlier, it was clear that he was the nervous type anyway and he plainly jumped out of fright as we entered the room.

 

It had taken me but a moment to take in all their first impressions. It had been quite a habit I had picked up as a child and it seemed it might help me now if I was going to be the detective assistant in whatever was going on. I already had a clear feel for what was about to happen. It just appeared strange that they all had different expressions.

 

“Minna-sama.” The doctor called out unexpectedly in what appeared to be a foreign language, catching the attention of everybody who wasn’t asleep. They all turned fully at this point, to face us new arrivals. “The detective has shown up.” No one said a word to this poorly phrased greeting. It was understandable, considering the situation, whatever it was. It still felt like the doctor expected everyone to stand up and introduce him or herself.

 

“If you would like to take a seat sir.” He said politely, indicating a free sofa. We both fell upon it and I was quick to recognize my own fatigue as I did so. The noise seemed to stir the second occupant of the room, and he roused himself enough to stay focused on what was going on. As the strange doctor sat down himself, on a very large single seater, he kept his eyes fixated on the two of us, clearly as unsure as the rest of us as to what was to happen next. It was myself that took the next step, I leaned forward a little and looked hard at him.

 

“Excuse me?” I said simply, distracting his attention to whatever he was stuck on.

 

“Yes?” He replied simply enough.

 

“Something bad has happened, hasn’t it?” The man looked shocked and horrified at what I had said, he didn’t seem too offended, but it had clearly knocked him for a loop.

 

“You do know why you are here, don’t you?” He asked in total seriousness, unsure as to any other reason we were here. I quickly turned to my new companion and waited for him to answer, especially since I did have another reason to be here, and I found my own curiosity threatening to sallow me up in these events. The detective responded tactfully.

 

“We were informed of a disturbance at the manor. There were also a few problems with the line. Maybe you can tell us what’s gone on.” At this, we saw the blond haired man, who had previously been mourning something unknown, look up towards us, with a look of either pure fear or just as much hatred on his face.

 

“What’s gone on?” He almost screamed, if it hadn’t come out as a quiet rattle. “There’s been a murder, that’s what’s gone on. Mr. Mackingdale is dead.” The news threw us both back for a second. Even though, since entering, the entire house had been blaring out loudly to tell us that something along these lines had happened, it was only now confirmed. The urge to run away came strongly again as it occurred to me that maybe this was a bit too much of a task to aid in. the detective recovered a bit quicker than I did, and resumed a calm, almost not bothered look about the situation. In fact, he even smiled a little bit.

 

“Well, perhaps you better tell me what has happened then.” The inspector instructed. The wearied image of the man in front of us stuttered for a few moments, before collapsing upon himself completely. For a moment it looked like nothing was going to happen, and we would all be trapped in this awkward moment forever, but then the woman who had previously been scribbling away at her notes turned to us and motioned for us to listen.

 

“Perhaps it would be best if I explained for now.” She stated. “I have been here since pretty much the beginning. I can give you a step by step account of what has happened.” She showed her notes to us and for such a small pad it seemed quite comprehensive. Samuel smiled.

 

“Ah, I see you have been quite observant during all of this.” He pointed out as he grabbed her notes and started flicking through them. After a moment, she looked annoyed and just as quickly snatched them back. She kept a huge smile on her face, and it was clear that it was genuine.

 

“I know, it’s going to make a great story.” She said excitingly. The man who had broken down turned to her as if it was his line and became quickly angry.

 

“A story?” He shouted at her. “That’s all you care about. My boss….my mentor is dead. You were friends with him too, you know. How could you…” At this, the detective quickly took control, not wishing to escalate the situation into any arguments.

 

“Now now sir. We’ll d this by the book.” He stood up to help push the man back into his seat before turning back to the woman as he sat down. “I’ll listen to your account first. However, I just want a general account of tonights events. Then I’ll talk to each of you separately. That way, as you should know from any cop shows you may watch, you won’t change your stories or whatever.” He took a deep breath before pulling out his own notepad and pen from an inside pocket. Wetting the pen with his tongue, he waited for the attractive lady to start. “Now gorgeous. If you would, please tell me what’s happened.”

 

4 hours previously- 8:30

 

“I would prefer it if you didn’t refer to me like that again mister. I warn you that as a reporter I don’t like any cops in general. The only reason I’m talking to you now is because your help is unfortunately necessary. I only hope that I can prevent you from making a complete mess of things.”

 

To this comment, my newfound boss seemed delighted at what he had heard. He let a large smile appear on his face and appeared to wish to laugh. I could not blame him, as this man was clearly much smarter than any policeman I had met before, and seemed active and full of energy. He was someone I wish I could be more like. He said nothing back to the woman, although I disliked her superior tone from the start and would not have blamed him if he had gotten angry. After a short moment, she continued with her explanation.

 

“I suppose,” she began, “that it would be best to explain as to why we are all here. Although I cannot account for Bruce…I mean Dr. Kent’s own personal tastes about how he has designed this manor. The majority of us are here as a result of a competition of sorts. The competition was started by Mr. Roger Mackingdale, who is the one who has been killed tonight.”

 

“Roger Mackingdale?” Samuel muttered to himself, “that’s that famous author, right?”

 

“Yes,” the reporter said back, “It would be kinda weird if you didn’t know him. The man writes horror novels, focusing mainly in small events involving a few isolated people. He’s had success worldwide and has even had a few of his bestsellers turned into movies.”

 

“It would be clear to say then,” the detective inquired, “that for him to die in such a setting as this would probably not only be very suspicious but also an excellent press opportunity?” The woman looked back at him sternly, with no humor to return to him.

 

“It’s pretty obvious that there should be suspicion, Mr. Detective, as the man has been decapitated by an axe.”

 

“Holy fuck!” I said, surprised myself as the words came out of my mouth. Everybody who hadn’t been paying total attention quickly looked back to me. The story went on as I held my head in shame.

 

“Let me start from the beginning, and I reckon it’s best you don’t say anything until I have finished this time. Mr. Mackingdale was currently, how you say, between books like one would be between jobs, and was looking for inspiration as to what to write his next book about. His last book had been about a case where a young man murders his own father but then proceeds to forget the incident and try and find the killer, believing it not to be himself. It was said to be of such ridiculously high quality that he argued he didn’t have any more ideas left. Regardless his bosses argued for him to write another book, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find any inspiration to do so.”

 

“It was then when he came up with the idea for this competition. It was simple enough, but he got Dr. Kent here to agree to let him and some prizewinners stay over in this old mansion for a few nights, with the intents that the general spookiness of it would result in some inspiration. He got three prizewinners, two of which are here tonight. Mr. Evans here on the couch and Mr. Sterling by the window there.” She quickly indicated the man who had been sleeping and the ginger haired man. I wondered quickly for a moment that the other man might have been.

 

“The third man was a Mr. Jeremy, or ‘Jez’ as he insists on being called, Watkins. A teenager who has already had some success in the world of writing despite his age. Anyway, the winners had been decided, and the date was set for tonight. It was a weird idea, to say the least, but I think he invited some random people that he didn’t know it order to add some randomness to the whole affair. You know, people he had never met before and their take on the situation. Rather than write something new, he could write something that actually happened, and then just spice it up a bit. As a small personal favor to myself, I got Mr. Mackingdale to invite me along as well, in order to get an exclusive for the new book that he might be writing.”

 

“We all arrived at around six. I showed up first, shortly followed by Mr. Evans. Next Mr. Mackingdale showed up with his assistant Malcolm here.” She quickly indicated the nervous man next to her, who had been freaking out for some time now, since the beginning of this story. When we were all here, Dr. Kent, the owner showed up with his daughter, Alicia, to greet us. He was generally finding the whole event very amusing. Dr. Kent here isn’t a big fan of horror genre, but just thought the whole thing of trying to find something scary at this place funny. To try and keep things civilized, he invited us all to dinner at around half past. All the servants that he had at this place were here by then, preparing and cleaning. By the time dinner had been served there was only Emma left, who stayed around to clean up afterwards. He dismissed the rest, ‘in order to make the whole thing spooky’.”

 

“I see he succeeded more than he could possibly imagine.” Samuel said as he lay back into the couch with his eyes closed. I couldn’t’ exactly blame him for his relaxed attitude, this particular couch seemed to make all worries slip away.

 

“Yes well, dinner was probably where it had all started to go wrong. We had sat down at around half past six like I said, but it took another ten minutes before the food actually arrived. We just chatted amongst ourselves and got to know each other better a bit. Everything was going fine at this point, except at the time I guess Jeremy was being very quiet. He hadn’t said much and seemed to have something on his mind. We paid no attention to it at first, as you would. It wasn’t until the main course had arrived and Roger was talking about little bits and ideas he could use when he all of a sudden made a point to check if Jez was listening. Now, as I told you detective, Jez has had a previous book published about a year ago. However, like Mr. Mackingdale, he hasn’t published another since. He simply doesn’t really intend to, but Mr. Mackingdale, it seems, took it on as a personal quest, to help provide the boy with some inspiration as well.”

 

“This attempt…wasn’t exactly appreciated by Jez, who earlier had stated that he hadn’t even entered the competition, claiming that his mother had apparently done it for him. As Mr. Mackingdale finally made it clear to us all that he had in fact fixed the competition so that Jez would come to the mansion. That was when the kid lost it. It was mainly a mix of how the old man should ‘mind he own business’ and how it was his life and he should be the one to choose. To this, well, Mr. Mackingdale got angry in reply. It turns out he had really, really enjoyed reading Jez’s book, and became gutted when he heard that the boy wasn’t writing anything new. He got really emotional and started claiming that this whole trip was specifically for the boy to help him in his work and that he was being so ungrateful. Jez didn’t seem to care about this, and in my opinion was in fact being rather selfish, despite all that the man had done for him, even going so far as to pay for this whole trip and give him inspiration for his new book.”

 

“The arguing got worse between them, and the rest of us had no choice but to sit and watch. Even our host, Dr. Kent, found himself sitting down submissively as these two went about their insults. The maid stopped coming in after one time when Jez swung his hand at her, when she tried to serve him more food and it was clear that the whole thing had been a bad idea. The whole ordeal must have lasted until ten past seven, when Jez finally just stormed out of the room.”

 

“Clearly insulted, Mr. Mackingdale made it a point to try and continue the meal, and even though we tried to leave, he insisted and practically forced us to stay sitting down and finish our deserts. It would have been about half past again when we finally got out. The whole thing taking up too much of our time.”

 

“Afterwards, we all got on with separate things. I’m not sure what the others were thinking as we all split up. I understand that Mr. Evans went exploring and Mr. Sterling found himself hanging out with Ms. Kent, much to his own horror.” She grinned slightly at this point, and behind us I could tell that Mr. Sterling had squirmed a bit. “I myself had gone to contact my office to give a report. I basically told them that there didn’t seem like there was going to that much of a story unfortunately.”

 

“I would be proven wrong about twenty minutes later, when we all heard a scream coming from down below. It didn’t strike me as strange that the place didn’t have a basement, but what was quite amazing that we found out it had three basements. The scream was from the furthest one down and from what Dr. Kent said at the time, it was clearly his daughter Alicia who had the banshee’s wail that traveled across the entire manor. I dropped the phone on the spot and ran in the direction, where I met up with Dr. Kent and Malcolm.”

 

“It didn’t take too long to get to the third basement. Despite how far down it is, there is a separate entrance from the outside that let’s you go straight to the bottom basement, as well as stairs on the inside that connect all three floors.”

 

“Simply enough, we rushed down there, meeting Mr. Evans on the way down. When we arrived, I was shocked at what we had seen. There, in the midst of the basement, which was full of wine, lay Mr. Mackingdale in two pieces. It was clear that he had been decapitated in some manner, for there was the second half of his head just a few meters away, and it was clear to anyone that it had rolled slightly, regardless that it had been chopped off at the mouth. Jez was there as well, kneeling by the dead man, with his hands covered in blood and an evil scowl on his face. As we entered the room, he saw us and immediately made an attempt to retreat by running at us. Mr. Evans here, however, was able to quickly grab him and lay some whoop ass on him, knocking the bastard out.”

 

“However, he wasn’t the only other person down there. Alicia was as well, for she had gone down there for unknown reasons and apparently walked in on the whole gruesome thing. I don’t think she saw anything in particular, for the time in which she screamed and in which we got down there was very short and that filthy fucker had already been quick enough to hide the weapon that he had used to chop Mr. Mackingdale head clean off, save for his jaw bone.”

 

“You should probably move on, girl.” The detective quickly responded. “I think you’re making everybody feel ill.” This was true, and I myself found myself feeling far too queasy at this.

 

“Well, that’s pretty much near where everything finishes I guess. Emma, the maid, took Alicia to her room, where she’s been in a state of shock ever since and Mr. Evans and Dr. Kent threw Jez up in the room that had been assigned to him for that night, where they bolted the window and locked the door. The moron has the nerve to deny the whole thing even from the moment we found him with blood stained hands and an aggressive nature, as well as the immediate desire to run away. It is obvious that the boy is guilty detective, but knowing you lot and your need for evidence, you probably won’t find any real clues as to what happened here except for our eyewitness testimonials.”

 

“Well, let us hope that will be enough then.” The detective stated, as he held up his hand to make her stop talking. The room was pitched into silence for a few minutes as we all sat around and observed the detective’s expression. He was obviously through a line of thought where he was putting everything together and seeing if there were any important facts that were clearly being missed. After a moment, he became aware of us all staring at him and blushed slightly, which surprised me a great deal after seeing his casual attitude earlier. He clapped his hands and stood up, facing the owner.

 

“I would like you to prepare a room if you will with three chairs and a table.” He asked politely, confusing the doctor before turning to face us all. “Here’s what I am going to do now I have a basic picture of what’s been going on. I will go down and look at the crime scene now. I hope none of you have touched anything?” He cast an accusing look at all of them to which nobody really replied, indicating that no one had. “Good. After I have looked at that, I wish to question you all individually and get statements from everybody. That includes the three who are not here at the moment. I understand that the maid has stayed behind.”

 

“Yes she has.” Replied Dr. Kent. “She actually lives here with us, but she probably wouldn’t be able to say anything. Her quarters are in a whole other wing of the place. She didn’t even hear the screams at the time.”

 

“Well, her being separate may actually give more information than anybody who saw everything may be able to give.” The detective said dryly, as he looked to stare off into space for a moment. “What about the girl, your daughter?”

 

“Erm….” Dr. Kent stuttered poorly for a moment, “well, I’m not sure if she would be up to talking. I’ll see how she is.”

 

“You do that. It is not vital I speak to her now, but she is the main witness.” Samuel pointed out as the strangely shy doctor began to walk out of the room. I could see by the glance on his face that he was pleased to be getting out. It was hard to tell if the whole event was a serious matter, or nothing more than an inconvenience to him. As we began to leave to follow him, the detective quickly stopped before the woman who had just told us the events of the night.

 

“One more thing, actually two,” he began, “is there anyone else here that we are not aware of that might have seen anything?”

 

“Not that I am aware of,” she replied after a moment’s thought, “myself, Dr. Kent, his daughter, Malcolm, Mr. Evans, Mr. Sterling and the maid are the only ones that should be here. It’s best you ask the maid if anything, another servant might have stayed behind to keep her company that we might not know about.”

 

“Thank you for your help.” He said as he began to leave the room.

 

“And the other thing?” She blurted out, quickly stopping him in his tracks.

 

“What? Oh yes. Could I ask none of you to leave the manor area tonight? I know it should be obvious not to, if an emergency comes up for you. Make sure to check with me first.”

 

The occupants of the room made various responses to show that they agreed to this. From their grunts I could tell that they were annoyed at the prospect of having to spend a night in a place where a murder had taken place. Thinking logically, the majority of them probably didn’t actually have places to go. From what I had heard, since they were all competition winners, they could have come from halfway across the world. Even so, there wasn’t any place around here for miles, the closest piece of civilization that existed was the gas station about five miles down.

 

As we moved on o wherever the owner of the manor was going to situate us, I felt a small throbbing on my forehead. As it hit a beat that only a teenager could appreciate, the owner started to make small talk to us. Neither of us said anything special in response, as he was asking about what we thought of the place. The headache quickly subsided and I put it down to what was happening today catching up to me already.

 

Down one small flight of stairs and back up again and we were at our destination. With it’s freezers and ovens scattered around in a pattern only the staff could understand, I figured it to be the main kitchen. Dr. Kent quickly walked ahead of us and started clearly stuff off of a large table, before pulling up two chairs on either side of the table.

 

“I figure this would be the best place for you sir. All the other tables we have in this place are probably too big for you to interview anybody in the manner I see you do on the TV. There also won’t be that many distractions, through that door,” He said, indicating to a wooden frame to the north, “is a corridor that leads to the dining room. The door on the opposite side of the room leads to the freezer area and then there’s just the door we came though that’s by it. The stairs that lead to it are relatively creaky, so no one should be able to sneak up on you.”

 

“Thank you,” the detective said in reply, “this should do fine. Give me a moment to prepare a few things, then I’ll go down and inspect the body.” To this, the owner of the mansion became visibly stricken for a moment.

 

“You…you want to go down there…and check the body?” He asked. It became clear to me now that although the man acted casual, the murder of Mr. Mackingdale had scared him to a degree. He seemed to be rather heroically, holding in his own nerve, probably for the sake of the guests around him. “Yes…very well.” He finally replied, after he took control of his own gut again.

 

“Thank you once more. Sorry for putting you through all this trouble, but I feel it’s better to get the statements and examine the scene as soon as possible. It would take to long to get down to the village and do all this, seeing where we are.”

 

“No no not at all,” the doctor stuttered over. “It is we who are causing you the trouble sir, calling you all this way. Despite what Mrs. Brown says, I appreciate you being here. It provides a sort of order, to the whole thing, if you understand me.”

 

“I do,” the detective replied, with a growing pain in his face, “now if you’ll excuse me.” He left his last words to hang, giving the impression to Dr. Kent that he should leave. He quickly said his goodbyes and left. After the older man left, Samuel walked over to a chair that had been left by an oven and moved it closer to the table, before ushering me into it, then he fell down onto a chair by it and rudely rested his feet upon the table, bringing both hands up to his chin. He stayed in this position for a few moments, before finally turning to face me.

 

“What do you think of the whole situation then, my new found friend?”

 

I stared back at him for a flash, I had been thinking of a few things of my own, probably very similar to his own.

 

“Well, I would say it isn’t my place to make comments about such things…” I began to say slyly, as I hadn’t made that much of an idea in my head yet. He grunted in annoyance to this and looked away from me for a moment before turning back.  

 

“Let’s just say it is, shall we? Completely off the record, what do you think of this whole incident?” I shuffled nervously as he forced the question and made myself look like I was thinking when my mind was in fact a complete blank.

 

“Well, I would say the answer was obvious,” I finally fumbled together, “the evidence seems to go against this boy, but then it is only what she has said so far. For all we know, she is the murderer.” To this, the detective slammed his hands on the table and showed me a large smile upon his face.

 

“Exactly the right answer, my dear compadre.” He said excitedly. “As a detective, one must always remember the necessity to know everything before thinking anything. It may be natural to make little theories up based on the incomplete evidence and they can help, but at the same time, we must make sure that we do not tend to make theories into facts, and in fact make theories from facts.”

 

This brain twister confused me for a moment and it clearly showed by the look of amusement that the detective gave me. He laughed loudly and stood up again.

 

“In other words, we need more information. Come, my dear Jacob. Let us go find where information rests, for I cannot make my case without leather and before I get my leather, I need to skin the cow. Let us go check out the body of poor Mr. Mackingdale.”

 

He quickly left the door at this point and I followed somewhat blindly. My head began to pulse again slightly and I shook it off. This time I put it down to the very badly timed metaphor of skinning a dead cow, which we were now just a few minutes away from doing so.

 

We didn’t get to see much of the manor as we went to investigate the body. After joining up with him again, Doctor Kent immediately led us back outside the building and around the back. As we moved around the side of the house, I was somewhat surprised to see it had darkened quite noticeably, up to the point where the good doctor now carried around a flashlight to help lead us.

 

Something else that struck me as odd was how the entire estate must have been completely invisible to the outside world, except perhaps by air. I could understand a man’s desire for seclusion, but this seemed a bit much. A ten-foot high line of bushes surrounded the area where we walked, and further kept the outside world at bay with outgrowths and even barbed wire at the top. I could only imagine what may lie on the other side, but a constant warning stated how no employee should make any attempt to cross the natural fence at any time.

 

We didn’t get to see the back of the manor as the entrance to the basement was just before it and I could see nothing further in the darkness. I found myself wishing to go further, but felt it would show a clear lack of priorities. Dr. Kent slowly lifted up the two large doors that fell into the basement area, before flicking on a switch that illuminated the whole area. I was extremely grateful that we could see as we walked down, for I knew one wrong step could lead to disaster to any one of us, and perhaps more if the person at the back fell first.

 

After a full minute and a half of walking downwards, we finally reached the wine cellar. It was strangely large for a sub, sub basement, consisting of several rooms all connecting through narrow corridors. With a guide, we were lucky enough not to have to face the prospect of getting lost in this dank, dark maze.

 

Yet another surprising thing that caught me as odd was the complete lack of wine that was in the wine cellar. There were many cabinets designed to hold them as well as racks and barrels and yet not a single drop of the liquid crimson could be seen. The barrels were open and empty and judging by the dust, there was no wine here in the first place, or at least not for a long time.

 

This didn’t seem to matter to our host, and he quickly led us to the location of the dead body. As we approached, an almost visible stench permuted the air and I instinctively went to grab my mouth and nose to try and hide them from the awful smell. On the floor there lay what must have been the body of this Mr. Mackingdale, to whom I have never heard of personally until this night. He lay there in a white shirt that had the top two buttons undone and black trousers and same colour socks. I could only assume it was a white shirt however, as it had been dyed red with the liquid that surrounded the corpse.

 

“Fuck!” I found the words leaving my body again, and both of the other men glanced towards me for a moment before looking back. Samuel crouched down to explore a little more as to what the body looked like. It was unfortunately hard to say what the man looked like, for the same reason as to why it was unfortunately easy to say that he was dead. His body, right up until the lower half of his mouth was about three feet away from the rest of his head. A clean slice separated both parts from the life that they had just a short while ago. He was an old man, about a few years older than myself, with a black, receding hairline and brown eyes that had been ripped wide open.  We stared on for a moment, as we waited for the detective to do whatever it was he wished to do. He seemed to wait just as long as us, before turning around and observing the surrounding area.

 

There was nothing visible from what I could see, this area was just as similar as the other rooms we had past through already. It was gloomy and had a feeling of oldness that was further exhibited by the fact that no one cleaned in this place. It was amazing alone that it had lighting, although one exposed light bulb had already died. The only thing too special about the place was that it seemed to house the only bottle of wine in the whole place. It was behind a locked glass cabinet and was obviously special for some reason, for it shone in whatever light would refract against its bare surface. There were no labels on it and even the bottle was of an oddly unique design, which alone suggested that it was probably worth something. Other than this, there was nothing at all special about the room.

 

“Where’s the weapon?” Samuel asked without warning, clearly spooking the manor owner. He took a second to recompose himself before answering.

 

“We’re not sure. Little blighter must have hidden it.” I noted that whatever had hit him was probably heavy, as it had left a large mark on the rock below, indicating clearly where it had been struck..

 

“I see,” he said, only listening partly as he began looking over the body again. “And how did he get down here again?”

 

The owner thought about this for a moment before he answered. “Well, I’m not sure. I assume from the second basement. There’s a stairway separate from the one we came down from that connects the second basement to the third. When we rushed down, we came from outside and the light there wasn’t even on. Also, Mr. Sterling said he saw Alicia come down here through the second basement.”

 

“I see.” He replied once again, as he slowly turned over the corpse. The two of us looked a little worried as we watched, but he allowed it to drop gently back to where it was, before examining the floor underneath. “How dirty would you say it is down here Mr. Kent?”

 

The doctor looked on for a minute, not expecting such a question. He looked towards the floor, as if trying to figure an answer out from that, before clearly just guessing.

 

“Well I would say very. I rarely use this area, so I don’t have any of the cleaners look over it. When I was told of everybody coming, I had them clean the first basement up, in case they wanted to look over it, but left the other two. I suppose I should have known people would.”

 

“Well, I would say that it’s not too relevant for the moment. You said everybody had been down here didn’t you?”

 

“Er, yes, except for Mr. Sterling and Emma. We all would have been down here in the past few hours.”

 

“It doesn’t matter then.” The detective replied with a down tone in his voice. “I was hoping to check shoes to see who had been down here, but never mind.” He stood up again, and stretched a little. “There seems nothing too special here. What’s that over there?” He pointed to the glass cabinet where the single bottle of wine sat.

 

“Oh that.” The doctor replied with an inappropriately cheerful grin. “It’s nothing, just a secure investment thing. I borrow some money to a friend and he gives me this stupidly expensive bottle of wine in exchange. When he pays me back, he’ll get his bottle back.”

 

“I see,” the detective replied, clearly not except for the obvious fact that it was expensive. “Not very secure, is it?” He said, walking over to the glass cabinet.

 

“Actually sir, it is hooked up to the alarm system so if you wouldn’t touch it…”

 

“Very well.” The detective said, losing interest almost instantly. “I think I am done here. The dead haven’t done a very good job of telling their tales this night. Forensics can take care of the rest.”

 

“Ah well,” the doctor replied. “What can you expect? ‘The dead tell no tales’ after all. Is that not the saying?”

 

“Is it?” The detective replied, almost moodily, “I often find it to be the opposite. At least the dead tend to tell the truth, but no matter. Let us proceed back to the kitchen where we will conduct our interviews. I hope you wouldn’t mind if we talk to the young boy whom you said did this first?”

 

“I figured as much. Question the suspects before the witnesses and all that…” The owner said as he began to walk in the direction we had come.

 

“Actually, I figured I would do it the opposite way round, since the rest of you are more suspect than he is.” As he said, this, I felt both our mouths drop at the news. It was hard to tell if the man before us became angry or confused at this.

 

“You think…that this boy is innocent.” The thirty something man stuttered. “We saw him by the body with his hands covered in blood. May I ask what else you need?”

 

“A lot more, it seems.” The detective cockily replied, before turning away from him. “May I ask that we go through the second basement on the way up. There is something I wish to check.” The doctor forced himself to calm down and compiled to the request, quickly going ahead of us to open us the trapdoor leading down here. When he was out of earshot, the detective turned to me and asked.

 

“What do you think he looks like?” I looked back, confused for a moment.

 

“How do you mean?”

 

“His expression. Would you say he looked shocked, or calm?” At this strange request I found myself looking down to try and figure out the look in the dead man’s face. I instantly regretted it and had to hold back my own oral excretions at the sight of him. After another moment, I was able to look on, even so, it was near impossible due the way he had been separated from the rest of his body to tell his expression. His eyes were wide open, as I had already noted earlier, but I wasn’t that much of an expert to know whether or not that happened before or after the beheading. Overall, his face did look loose, but it was so loose that it was hanging off in a disgusting manner and I had to pulled myself away quickly before I did release anything from my mouth. My detective friend seemed to find this amusing. “No matter then. It’s hard for me to tell as well. Come on, we’ll head to the kitchen and perform the interviews.” Wiping my mouth instinctively, even though there was nothing there, I began to follow slightly behind when a thought struck me.

 

“Am I allowed to be there when you interview people?”

 

“Not really.” He replied. “But as long as you don’t say anything, it’ll be fine.” As pressing an issue as it was, the man did not seem that concerned. I was positive that I remember hearing a law about it, but I suppose that if no one knows, then there’s no problem.

 

Interview One: Jeremy ‘Jez” Watkins: 8:48

 

If anything, I was more than shocked at the boy’s age. He must have been around sixteen years of age and around five foot four when he wasn’t slouching. He had black hair with strange blue wisps coming out of it and various fashion accessories sticking out of his face. He looked quite horrible, and clearly not pleased with having to be here. Despite his appearance, he didn’t feel threatening. Quite the opposite in fact and, by the looks of things, he had been crying earlier, for his cheeks were still raw. He sniffed slightly as the detective held the seat out for him and fell down into it. Samuel slowly walked round the table to fall back into his own seat. As he did so, he got a clear look at the boy, and I assume he was reading his features for some kind of sign of falseness in the boy’s eyes, to see if the crying had been forced or genuine.  After a moment, the detective leaned followed and rested both elbows on the table and asked in a calm, almost sympathetic voice.

 

“So, do you want to tell me what happened?”

 

“I didn’t do it.” The boy screamed, letting go of the water in his eyes, as if the detective’s words broke a dam that was hidden behind them. Samuel looked disgruntled at this and shook his hand at the boy.

 

“Yes, well that isn’t the question I asked you is it? Tell me what happened, preferably without the futile denying. It doesn’t exactly help.” The boy’s expression seemed almost to clear for a second, it was clear he wasn’t expecting a retort of this kind. Even so, it wasn’t enough to shake him out of his reverie. He sniffed loudly again, and began to scratch the back of his head.

 

“What’s the point?” He whimpered. “You won’t believe me.”

 

“Well, tell me what happened and we’ll find out if that’s true or not. Now I know this whole event is very upsetting but it won’t help to prove your innocence.”

 

“Innocence?” The boy spat out, almost engulfing us in his fury. “What innocence? What does innocence matter when everyone sees you next to a corpse? Even I don’t believe I’m innocent when I look at it from a rational view. I’m sitting by Mr. Mackingdale, my hands on his dead body, covered in blood, the heart that once beat so fiercely, now quieter than the pin. Then everyone rushes in and…”

 

“Actually,” the detective interrupted. “I would like you to start from the beginning. You can talk in that strange poetic tone if you want, but could you start with why you were here in the first place and the situations that led to this event?” I wouldn’t have been surprised if the young youth hit him at this point. For a policeman in a serious interview setting, Samuel was being very sarcastic. The boy seemed to make himself calm down for a moment, he took a deep breath and scratched the back of his head again before starting.

 

“If anything,” he said, looking the detective in the eye, “I am not sure why I came here myself. It was mainly a mix of not knowing what to do in my life at the moment and a pack of lies.” The detective shuffled in his chair, which I took to mean that he was a little confused.

 

“Explain.” He commanded lightly. The youth grunted and hid his face in his hands, rubbing them as he did so before looking back.

 

“You see, they probably told you upstairs but, a while ago, I wrote a book and it got released. At the time, there was a huge fuss over me and people thought I was great and I got a whole bunch of cash for writing it. The book was about a girl whose brother gets lost in a forest and she has to go find him, but she gets trapped in the forest and there’s a whole bunch of ghosts. I just wrote it for fun at the time, but my mom found it and got it published. I found the whole thing annoying, but it got me a ton of money like I said, so I was happy.”

 

“Anyway, after the fuss was over I just spent time hanging out with my mates, going to night clubs and gigs, just generally having fun. It was going good and I suppose it still is going good, if it weren’t for the publishing faggots that keep calling me. You see, at the time, I didn’t intend to write any more books. It was a one off thing for me. But everyone apparently loved it and wanted me to write a sequel, but I didn’t wanna and I haven’t.”

 

“But for some fucking stupid reason, everyone has taken this to mean I’m suffering from writer’s block, so they’re just waiting patiently and constantly ringing me, it was getting really annoying. The only ones who were badgering me were me mates.”

 

“Then a few days ago, I was just resting up from another hangover when my mom came in all excited like. She admitted she had entered me in for this competition, and that I had won. I got really annoyed at this, since I didn’t want to write another stupid book and flipped off at her. In the end, I stormed on up here just to shut her up and get away from her for a few days. When we got here I…”

 

“Can I stop you there?” The detective said loudly, to distract the boy out of his monologue. “I’m going to go ahead and assume that everything from the all arriving in your vehicles , looking around a little, followed by dinner is all true?” The boy thought at this for a moment.

 

“Er yeah, I guess so…”

 

“Good, then you can skip that part. Just move up until the argument with Mr. Mackingdale.”

 

“Oh god, that was so stupid when I think of it now. I mean, I had an argument with Roger Mackingdale, one of my favorite writers ever, do a favor to me, someone he had never met, just because he liked my book. It was just stupid.”

 

“Go on.”

 

“It wasn’t so much an argument as a rant. I just started cussing him and calling him a fag for what he had done. I mean, he was intruding in my life about something I never wanted to fucking do again. I mean, why don’t they just make a movie out of it if it’s so god damn good?”

 

“Then he got angry at me and went on saying I was ungrateful and shit and I’m like so, don’t stick your nose in next time, the stupid pig. I then just left and went to the room that girl had showed me earlier for me to stay in and stayed on the bed, intending to go home in the morning.”

 

“I assume you stayed there for a while?” The detective asked again. The boy simply nodded this time and waited for the man to quickly scribble down some notes. He reread it quickly and made a loud breath before looking at the boy again. “And so where were you when the murder occurred.”

 

“Well you see, I spent a long time in my room, just thinking things over. I reflected on everything you know, and I started to realize what an ass I was being. Just thinking about it still gets me angry, but at the same time, the guy held this entire adventure just for me, and I spat in his face. I eventually decided to apologize to him, so I went to find him.”

 

“And you headed for the basement?”

 

“Well not at first. You see, I didn’t know where it was. So I went looking for somebody to tell me. It was weird and I didn’t know anybody here so I wasn’t sure what to do. I ended up meeting with these cute girls who were a few years younger than me…hey that’s a point, how is they?”

 

“Who?” The detective asked, breaking out of his listening mode.

 

“The girls I was with. I didn’t see one of them at dinner, but I think they were both the daughters of the guy that owns this place.”

 

“Oh, the daughter and the maid. The daughter’s in shock I’m afraid. I haven’t seen her yet, but I’m told she’s resting in her room and apparently unable to speak.”

 

“Oh, but what about the little girl?”

 

“Little girl?”

 

“Yeah, she was way too young to be the maid.”

 

“I haven’t been told of a little girl, perhaps she was one of the daughters friends.”

 

“Oh…that’s weird, they could both tell you I’m innocent. They were with me when I found his body.”

 

“You found his body. So you weren’t there when he was killed?”

 

“No, like I said, I met these two girls and the older one said she had heard he went down to the third basement. The little girl said nothing and I think she was shy. We went down there anyway and saw the guy just lying there on the floor. I rushed over to him to see if he was okay, but…well it was quite clear that he was fucking dead weren’t it. One of the girls then screamed when she saw the body, I think it was the older one. As I get to him I see this guy disappearing into the shadows.”

 

“Another man was down there with you?”

 

“Yeah, I saw him just walking away. I didn’t get a good look at him but I chased him, however, he just disappeared. I came back to check the dead fucker and that’s when everyone ran in on me. When I saw them, I knew what it would look like and tried to get away, but they caught me and threw me in that room, locked it up and left me until you came. That’s about it all.”

 

“I see.” The detective mused as he went over his notes one last time. “Thank you, you may go now.”

 

“What, I can just leave?” The boy looked as shocked as I probably was, but then the Samuel realized what he had said and quickly correctly.

 

“Oh, clearly you can’t leave, mainly because you don’t have anywhere nearby to stay. Just rest up in your room. The other guests are probably going to be insistence you get locked up in there in the meantime, so you might as well just sit in there patiently.” The boy continued looking shocked before being overcome with annoyance. Resigning himself to his fate, he stood up, said thank you pointlessly and quickly left, slamming the door behind him. As he did, there was a small fuss outside the door as the boy shouted to insist he was heading back to his room. Samuel quickly scribbled down a few more notes before turning to me.

 

“Nice boy I thought.” The man said as he rearranged his chair to face me. “What did you think?”

 

“Well, I probably shouldn’t’ say.” I replied. “I don’ really like goths. We had a few back home and they were far too loud at night.”

 

“Well, cast your petty biases out of the window and tell me what you think to his view of events.” I answered quickly this time, as compared to my last, being quiet all this time had allowed me to make my own set of notes about the situation.

 

“Well, it seems to me to be a pack of poorly constructed lies coupled with a sob story. He claims people are forcing him along a certain path whereas he wants to follow his childhood. His story goes along the reporter’s lines but cuts off to make it look like he’s a victim here. Then there’s the convenient forgiveness that he never got time to grant, a reliance on a witness that he pretends not to know the condition about, another witness that probably doesn’t exist as well as a mysterious stranger that, no doubt, he blames everything on.”

 

“Yes, I can understand why he says that even in his eyes he appears guilty. He is not though. Despite the evidence he gives against himself.” I looked on astonished at this claim. The answer seemed obvious to me.

 

“How on earth can you say that?” I asked him, truly wishing to know. “All the answers are stacked up against him.”

 

“And yet all the standing questions remain to cast doubt. For example, where is the murder weapon? The man was decapitated, you cannot do that without a large, sharp object. Yet we saw no axe nor no blade of any kind.”

 

“Well, maybe he hid it.” I stated clearly. The mansion was huge, to store it somewhere quickly seemed an obvious answer.

 

“So, if we look at it logically from your point of view.” Samuel started. “Mr. Watkins came down into the third basement to find Mr. Mackingdale. He decapitated Mr. Mackingdale and then went to hide the axe. After this, he came back and dipped his hands in the man’s blood.” He left the sentence hanging and grinned at me slightly, which showed sarcasm that I wasn’t entirely expecting from an American. The statement made me think of another question as my retort.

 

“What makes you think it was an axe? It could have just as easily been a sword.” I expected to have finally made him trip, but he just smiled back to me.

 

“Simple, the mark in the ground. It’s unlikely it could have been a sword, since the blow was heavy and a sword would have probably shattered. Also there was one clear blow, a blade of any other sort would have had to hack, but a axe would go through it like firewood.”

 

“I see.” More surprised at my own stupidity than anything else.

 

“However it opens up another question. Why was Mr. Mackingdale lying on the ground when he got killed?’

 

“What makes you think he was lying on the ground?” I asked confused.

 

“There was a clear axe on the ground by the axe strike, as I just said. To have a head removed in such a manner would require the man to be laying horizontally on the floor before the axe struck.”

 

“That’s a good point.” I replied, amazed at how simple it should have been to notice the fact. “Perhaps he was knocked out first.”

 

“No, I saw no other wounds. He was clearly doing it of his own free will. Bah, no matter. We will get ahead of ourselves at this rate. The boy’s story only provides us a few facts. He is innocent, since the way he spoke shows his innocence. Concise about the details after he reflected on them but when he has no chance to he speaks fast. It indicates that he was worriedly telling the truth and was upset about the situation.”

 

I looked on worryingly at this assumption. To me, it didn’t seem enough, to cast him off as innocent. I always thought myself good when able to tell if someone is telling the truth and, although I couldn’t directly find any contradiction, the way he told his story, to me, said it all. However, the detective seemed convinced that the boy was not guilty. Although the man had done a brilliant job earlier of being able to guess why I had came to the mansion, I was beginning to have my doubts on how good a detective he was. As if he was reading my mind, he began to laugh again.

 

“Do not worry my friend. It will all become clear in time. All we do is wait for the contradictions in people’s storylines. The boy may appear guilty for the moment, but I ask you to keep in mind a logical view as you put together your assumptions and realize how stupid the whole thing would be if he was guilty. For now, let us file it away and get the next person to ask silly little questions at. I believe Ms. Kent should be next, if that is possible.”

 

Interview 2: Dr. Kent: 9:12

 

Unfortunately, it was not possible for the girl to speak yet, and she had been placed in bed while she overcame the shock of, if Mr. Watkins was to be believed, seeing the dead body of the writer. Instead, the girl’s father had come to see us instead. He sat down on the chair writhing nervously as he did so. The detective looked at him bewildered.

 

“What’s up, my friend?” He asked concerned. “You look like the world will implode if you don’t speak.” The man stuttered to himself for a moment, before taking off his hat and playing with it. The man finally looked hard at the detective before mumbling.

 

“Do you believe in ghosts detective?” The detective sat back in shock at this strange question, something that the doctor immediately picked up on and went to sound up. “I’m sorry, it was a stupid question. You probably have many questions to ask my guests tonight and don’t have time to waste with me.” He went to leave the room, but Samuel called out to the man before he could.

 

“I can honestly say that I don’t know.” He replied to the previous question, causing the man to stop in his tracks. “As a detective, I pride myself on keeping things logical and most men of logic would probably say that ghosts don’t exist. However, in my view, there isn’t enough proof to say either way. Ghosts may exist, but they just as clearly may not. It is currently not my place to say.” The owner of the house looked on unsure, the detective began to smile lightly. “If you like,” he stated, “you may tell me what you seem so desperate to. It may actually help convince me one way or another.”

The doctor paused for a second and looked like he was going to continue to leave for a moment. He paused in step one last time and rushed back to the chair. He leaned across the table and looked at the detective head on.

 

“I think I may have just seen a ghost.” He said simply, a tremble in his voice as he did so.

 

“I figured you were going to say that.” The detective replied sarcastically, but still with a manner of politeness to him. “Tell me as much as you feel you should.”

 

“Well, it was in my daughter’s room. We had taken her up there to rest while she got over her shock. It was just a few minutes ago while you were interviewing that boy. It was just her and me in the room. I was sitting besides the bed where she lay, when I noticed a third person in the room. A young girl, just standing in the middle of the room doing nothing, but the thing is,” the man seemed to break down for a second as he forced the words out, “she had the same expression as poor Alicia did.” The man tried to say more, but his voice became heavy with the anguish this event had obviously caused him. Despite his pain, the detective seemed unaware of it and asked.

 

“Then what happened?” The man’s fear seemed to hold for a moment as he looked back at the man on the other side of the table.

 

“Well…er…I can’t say.” He eventually replied. “Linda came into the room then, and I just left straight with her. I took a glance back and the girl was still there, except her head had moved, with that same horrifying expression on it, looking directly at me.”

 

“Calm down.” The detective ordered sternly, as if annoyed at the man’s pain. At this, the doctor tried to hold in his sobbing but broke down again a second later. The detective sighed and looked at me with despair.

 

“I can’t have my host being in this state.” He complained. “I’ll lose my focus. How about you recite your version of events tonight. It’ll probably help you calm down.” The professional on the other side of the table made himself breath heavily for a few moments.

 

“Yes…yes I suppose that would help, and I have to give my statement anyway. Okay…yes. Where shall I begin?”

 

“Well,” the detective said, “I suppose it would be fruitless to ask you to recite the dinner event. Just tell me what you were doing at the time of the murder, starting from sometime after your little dinner.”

 

“Hhhmmm okay…yes.” The doctor began, still a little jittery. “Well, I suppose after the dinner, me and Mr. Mackingdale went over to the drawing room. He still seemed a bit upset about the whole event with the boy, but was generally keeping his calm in order not to upset anybody. We sat down, with some cigars, which I remember him saying he had never had one before. You could tell too, since he was coughing up a stir. Anyway, he began talking about the ideas he was getting for his new book from the place.  He was talking about the lobby and the dining hall and the seclusion of the place and how the only thing that was really needed was some, even more isolated place, in which something terrible might happen. I found it all amusing at the time, since it didn’t even occur to me that something like this was only an hour away from happening. He spoke about how the whole dark imagery may have to be ignored, since that may make the story a bit too corny, and he had somehow gotten it into his head that he was going to involve a horse somehow. One that would never be seen. The way he was talking about it all, I would never guess that he was a horror writer, the way he joked about it. I just guess that was his way of thinking out his stories… Sorry. Am I going a little off?”

 

“I suppose,” the detective replied, “but I suppose it would be rude to the dead man if I made you stop.”

 

“I’ll move on anyway, shall I? We kept on talking, I spoke about the history of the manor for a short while. Well to be honest, there is no real history as the place is but a four decades old. The only history it may have is it’s other owners, and the strange tastes that they had, that you can still see around you now. But I thought it would be good to humor him. He seemed to buy it, as I can be quite crafty when it comes to telling such stories. After this, he asked if he could wander around by himself, as he wanted to look around to see if he could find anything particularly ‘spooky’. I suggested to him the first basement. It was only a joke at the time, as the first basement is nothing more than an oversized broom cupboard for the cleaning staff. Even so, he seemed eager to head in that direction.”

 

“I suppose for a writer of his caliber,” the detective interjected, “a scene as innocent as that is more effective as a horror scene. Or maybe he figured out by the way you said it, that there was more than one mysterious basement.”

 

“Perhaps.” The doctor agreed, with a worrying tone as it began to dawn upon him how much he was related to the man’s death. “That’s it, I’m afraid, although you’ve helped my nerves somewhat. After he left, I ended up speaking to Malcolm until we heard my daughter screaming. We rushed down there and found that ungrateful jackass, kneeling in the dead man’s blood. I just can’t believe some young people nowadays. You think he would be sophisticated, having written a novel, but he was just as bad as any common thug.”

 

“Well, your common thug is often just an innocent in the crossfire. To be honest with you doctor, it is often people of your status that do the real crimes in this society.” The doctor looked clearly offended by this, it was almost like it was an accusation. Realizing what he had said, Samuel quickly took it back. “Never mind, is that all you have to tell me?” The doctor cooled down slightly, his emotions seemingly canceling each other out, he shook his head for a split second before quickly pointing his finger up to the sky.

 

“Oh, one more thing. Before he left, the cigar had really killed him off it seemed, as he was practically having a fit. The man excused himself to go to the bathroom, for a glass of water I guess. I guess it’s nothing all in all, it’s just that would be the last time I would see him.” The man reflected on this for a moment, before the detective waved him back to his reality.

 

“Sorry, but can I just confirm something?’ He asked curiously. “Did you actually know Mr. Mackingdale before tonight?” The doctor stuttered again for a moment.

 

“Not directly no.” the man answered. “I am more associated with his assistant, Malcolm, whose father was a patient of mine for some years. Yes, he came to me, asking about this little excursion that the writer wanted to do. There didn’t seem to be any harm to it, so I agreed. If only I had known.” The man fell into his own mind for a moment. Samuel let him this time, as he quickly wrote down the rest of his notes.

 

“Thank you sir, you can go now.” The detective said emotionless, baring giving the man a glance in such a way that the doctor wasn’t quite sure if he meant him or not, despite being the only person in the room beside myself.

 

“Is that it?” The doctor asked, standing up slightly.

 

“Yes, you may go.” The detective repeated, clearly annoyed.

 

“Do you want me to bring someone else in?” The doctor asked again, trying to maintain a certain level of usefulness.

 

“You can do. It doesn’t matter who.” The detective stated, as he started writing more notes. “Oh, just not Ms. Trask. I’ve pretty much had her statement at the beginning. Also, give me a few minutes before you do. I need to confer with myself.”

 

“Very well.” The doctor ushered to leave and held himself back as he reached the door. “Oh, and it’s Mrs. Trask. She’s married.”

 

The detective didn’t respond to this, as he was still writing. He didn’t seem to care much either as the man left. We sat in silence for a few moments, the air having more conversations with itself than we were with each other. The man’s story didn’t seem that pointful to me, and I found it a shame that it wasn’t as complex as the boy’s from earlier. The earlier story st my mind ablaze with thought as I tried to figure out the inconsistencies in the boy’s story. It was easier when you know who’s the guilty party.

 

“I suspect,” the detective said, drawing my attention, like a fly to a light, “that this story is actually one of the more important ones.”

 

“How so?” I asked him.

 

“If we believe what he was saying to be true, then he was the last to see the poor man before he met his end. I would not be surprised if but the most minor of events mentioned just now was not a clue of some sort.”

 

“The only thing I can think of is how the conversation was what probably resulted in him exploring the basement area.” I pointed out, ‘almost too obviously’ I thought to myself. “He probably went to the first basement, then, because he had been told of it being referred to as ‘first’ and not ‘only’ basement, he figured there was a second one, and went down further to actually find a third. Maybe it is possible that while down there, he stepped into something he should have and was then killed for it. Or maybe the killer followed him down there.”

 

“With the amount of evidence we have,” the detective said sternly, stopping in mid investigative rant, “it is just as likely, that he tripped and conveniently sliced off his own head. There are no clues yet as to somebody else even being down there, or even being followed. If it wasn’t impossible for him to do so, I would even be considering suicide at this moment.” I went quiet at this minor scolding, and the detective sighed. “Something you should learn, that every detective must always keep to remembering. One should not twist facts and create imagination to suit your own little theories. One must always keep the facts and twist the theories whilst completely ignoring the imagination. Otherwise, you will solve nothing.” He said this last sentence with a venomous sting that rendered me apologetic.

 

“Sorry.” I murmured like a spoilt kid. Upon doing so, he mood seemed to immediately change, and he just laughed it off.

 

“You have nothing at all to be sorry about my friend.” He continued to laugh, “You are the innocent here, completely free of any crime, except maybe the crime of ignorance, but one shouldn’t be punished for that.”

 

“I guess.” I replied, my reactions incapable of properly reacting to the changing emotions that were swaying over the room. They decided to remain still and play dead for the time being, while the detective finished scribbling his notes, waiting for the next interviewee.

 

Interview Three: Malcolm

 

The only important part about this interview really is that he is the first of the three killers accused ofr the murder. He tells his story nervously at first, but after the detective mentions that the owner told him that he was with him, he becomes a little more confident

 

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