The injuries I sustained in our last desperate battle against the patriarch of House Tsukimura might never completely heal, even with the benefit of Misaki's healing magic. I was getting better but I still tired a lot more quickly than I used to. After I'd healed enough to endure it, I spent three long, grueling months in physical therapy. Less than a week after I stopped needing the cane every time I walked, Mama insisted I get a gym membership and make use of it.
Well, I did the first part, but the other half not so much. At least, not as much as my mother would prefer. Since she paid for it, she was able to track how often I actually went. I made a point to try and remember to go at least three times a week, which generally stopped her from making harassment calls.
I turned off the shower and stepped out to towel off quickly. In truth, I didn't like going to the gym, and not because it made me feel inadequate or anything like that. I had no great emotional struggles with my loss of physical capability; shit just happened, and the shit that had happened wasn't much of a loss compared to what I'd gained. My reluctance was as simple as the reluctance people have to touching a hot pan.
It just hurt a lot.
Misaki was already dressed when I came back into the bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed fiddling with her phone. I opened my own side of the closet and grabbed the first pair of jeans I could get my hands on, one of the several pairs my sister bought me as a birthday gift.
Oh yes, I was officially thirty now. The big three-oh. I didn't actually feel any different than I did when I was twenty-nine, so I don't really understand what the big deal was. Thirty was still a kid these days with life expectancies rising as medical tech only got better and better. Not that I needed a reminder, considering how I was engaged to someone more than twenty times my age. That always sounded a little wild when I thought about it.
The jeans went on my body, along with a plain heather gray scoop-neck top. I wouldn't be winning any awards for style, sure, but it was comfortable, and there was that nagging feeling in the back of my mind…
“How does your leg feel?” Misaki asked.
“It hurts.”
I sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled on a pair of socks and my favorite lace-up boots, a battered black leather pair that were so well broken-in that they were practically molded to my feet. The leather was scuffed and marred and softer than butter.
“Karin, you should take some—”
“I'll bring them with me,” I cut her off. She was referring to the painkillers that sat on the nightstand next to my side of the bed. I wasn't the stubborn type who refused to take medication when necessary, but I wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of taking even moderately strong painkillers and then trying to drive during lunch-hour traffic.
Misaki gave me a dubious look. “I can drive, you know.”
“Not legally, you can't.”
“Oh, come on, we're not going to get stopped by the police,” Misaki complained. “Don't be the stubborn type who refuses to take medication when necessary, love. If you're in pain, take one.”
I rolled my eyes theatrically and sighed. “Fine, fine.” I picked up the pill bottle and opened it, dropping one into my hands. The little white oval was remarkable in its ability to both soothe the pain and make me feel like my head was stuck in a giant fucking wad of cotton.
I downed the pill with a sip from the half-f glass of water on the nightstand. It'd take a few minutes before the effects would kick in. I slipped on my jacket, grabbed my phone, pass and purse before turning back to Misaki.
“We ready to go?”
“Yes. We should get moving.” She stood up and pulled her own jacket on, shoving her phone into the pocket. “It'll take more than an hour just to get there with the sort of traffic we can expect.”
stillness
Misaki was right, of course. The drive to the secure office was uneventful, if long, much of the time spent waiting for traffic to move or being stuck behind red lights. Wisely, she chose to avoid the freeway and took to the surface streets. We could both see how badly jammed up things were on the aerial structures high above.
The painkillers were really starting to work now. The dull, throbbing ache had receded and was replaced by a numbness that I wasn't a fan of, but at least my head felt clear enough that my thinking wasn't appreciably slowed down.
I sipped at a milk coffee and flicked ashes out the window of my new car. I finally managed to get rid of that old ethanol-burner, unfortunately only for the worst possible trade-in value, but my soaring bank account balance made it easy enough to buy a brand-new fuel cell car outright.
Misaki turned down a narrow side street that would take us to the secure office. Star rarely had us meet at an AEGIS outpost like this one. It spoke ominously about what she might have to tell us. Usually if we had to meet face-to-face we'd do it in a public place, generally chosen at random. That she wanted us to meet her here…
“I suspect we're about to get real busy,” I muttered.
The car stopped and Misaki engaged the parking brake. I opened the passenger side door and stepped out, a faint smile curving my lips as Misaki stepped out of the car as well, her ears and tail clearly visible. It hadn't escaped my notice that she'd been hiding them more and more infrequently as time went on, only opting to cloak them with her magic when we were in highly public places.
The two of us walked to the door leading to the lobby of the AEGIS outpost. This was one of many secure outposts the organization maintained in the area. They never stayed in the same location for very long; this one had only been here for a few months and would be moved again soon. Unlike the branch office where we had our first meeting with Star, this place was much smaller and meant only for secure meetings between operatives.
I tapped my passkey against the auto-lock and heard a triple beep as the security system disengaged. I was never told, of course, but I suspected that there was a lot more to the verification than the simple tap of my ID.
The door opened and we walked inside. The outpost wasn't much to look at. Inside was a small lobby with a reception desk and four heavy opaque glass doors. Instead of an actual receptionist/guard, a touchscreen kiosk was perched on the desk. From the display I could see that there were only four conference rooms in this outpost and only one of them was in use, tagged with Star's op ID number.
I tapped on the icon and waited while the corresponding door opened. Misaki and I walked inside and the door shut automatically behind us. Our boss sat at the end of the conference table. She was dressed in her usual dark blue skirt suit and heels, her hair done up in a stylishly messy bun pinned with purple lacquered needles. As usual, Star was the perfect picture of understated elegance.
“Karin, Misaki, it's good to see you two again.”
I forced a smile. “Hello, Star. Looking very snazzy, as usual.”
“I'm sorry for calling you in on such short notice. The timing of Misaki's message only made this meeting all the more urgent. Please, sit down, the both of you, and we'll get started.”
Misaki and I both sat down, glancing at each other expectantly. We hadn't seen Star look this harried since the final stages of the Tsukimura operation. Something big was
definitely
going down.
“Take a look at this.” Star tapped a few commands into a hidden keypad on the conference table and a section of the wall behind her became a high-definition display. Images flashed on the screen and my eyes widened in shock. There were a dozen digital images of three different corpses, all of which appeared to have been killed in the messiest possible way.
“These were taken last night by one of our observers,” Star explained. “Three of our operatives killed in the space of two hours. The local police are operating on the assumption that there's a brutal killer roaming the streets, but we've been trying to keep the media quiet about this, at least for now.”
I frowned and studied the images. According to Star, they were official AEGIS operatives, so they weren't likely to be anyone I actually knew. As an indie, I wasn't really supposed to have any contact with the agency's front-line hunters unless it was for a mission.
“They weren't killed by a specter,” Misaki observed.
“We know that.” Star tapped a few keys and highlighted a computer-enhanced visual of one of the corpses. The extent and placement of the injuries was puzzling. Specters usually killed as cleanly as they could, using miasma to wither the soul and destroy the mind without damaging the body this much.
I frowned. “They look like they were mauled to death, but no animal could do that kind of damage short of a really big grizzly, or maybe a lion or tiger. Last time I checked, there weren't any of those roaming around major metropolitan areas.”
“We don't know what killed our people,” Star admitted, “but I'm getting reports from Control that suggest it's happening all over the world. Something or someone is making it their mission to murder our people.”
“Are they exclusively targeting front-line hunters?” Misaki asked.
“Several external collaborators in the northwest haven't checked in. We're trying to make contact with them; I'm not privy to more information than that. I'm sure Control will let me know if it's deemed necessary.”
I tapped my fingernails on the composite tabletop. “What about spirit hunters who aren't affiliated with AEGIS? Have they been targeted as well?”
“Our observers have reported that nearly all of the most influential arcane houses in the United States have completely closed ranks. It looks like
something
has them rattled enough to bring all their strongest members home.”
“Something like losing control of their pet specters?” I guessed.
Star nodded primly. “Very good. I've reviewed several case reports that match the experience you had with the wayward Achelar summoner. The number of general incidents have been starting to decline over the past few months. Perhaps now we know why.”
“Why, but not how,” I added.
“The two occurrences are almost certainly related.” Star frowned and tapped on her console again, bringing up a list of all the incident reports where other spirit hunters reported disappearing specters. None of the actual encounter data was listed, but the sheer number of reports troubled me.
“So we've got disappearing specters and… what, some new kind of monster replacing them? Something powerful enough to slaughter three AEGIS operatives with impunity?”
Star shook her head. “I doubt that. These unknowns are acting against the interests of AEGIS as well as all major arcane houses still operating today. If it was the work of human summoners, we would have undoubtedly found a link by now.”
“Well, whoever or whatever is doing this,” I ventured, “I think we should assume they're targeting anyone who packs a lot of magical firepower—spirit hunters and mages. The question we need to be asking at this point is for what purpose.”
Misaki's ears flicked slightly and I knew something had occurred to her. I glanced over at my fiancee and gave her a look, silently prodding her to take the initiative and lay it out on the table, regardless of how hypothetical it might be.
“Was there any miasmic ash found at the scene?”
“None that we could detect,” Star told her.
I pointed toward the strange mauling-like wounds. “If they weren't killed by a specter or by a human, then what the fuck killed these people?”
“We don't know,” Star admitted. “Something we've never seen before, something new and damned powerful. The information we're getting from our sources inside the police department suggest that whatever killed them left absolutely no traces behind.”
“What?” My eyes widened in shock. “No hair? No fibers? Nothing at all? That shouldn't be possible.”
“Such a feat would be possible for a specter, but we already know that isn't the case.”
“So we've got some kind of killer new monster out there that is extremely dangerous and leaves nothing behind when it kills, and that monster is after any human with any inkling of involvement with magical matters, but specifically spirit hunters.”
“Yes.”
“And we don't know who is controlling them or why.” I rubbed my temples, feeling the headache from the day before try to sneak back into my skull. “Can't we just get some nice
normal
cases of some corporate asshole using his specters to try and make his fat bank account even fatter?”
Star ignored my complaints. “We need to find out as much as we can about this, preferably before even more of our people are struck down.”
“You're putting us on the case.” It wasn't a question.
“I am. Before you object, Misaki, I know.” She offered Misaki a sympathetic look. “I know that Karin is still recovering from the injuries she sustained during the Tsukimura operation. Under ordinary circumstances I wouldn't be giving you two this assignment.”
I gave Star a dirty look. “I'm hearing a 'but' in there.”
“I wanted to keep the two of you on analysis duties for the time being, but I don't think that's possible any longer. As you already noticed, whatever we're dealing with is specifically targeting mages and spirit hunters.”
“Which means these things will eventually come after me whether I'm investigating or not,” I finished for her. “Star, do you
ever
tire of using us as bait?”
Star's cheeks flushed slightly and she looked away. “That wasn't my decision, but I take responsibility for it nonetheless. This is simply a matter of prudence; the mysterious killer or killers will eventually come after you. Wouldn't it be better to get to them first and maintain the advantage?”
“I'm not sure they haven't
already
gotten to me first.” I glanced over at Misaki and she nodded.
Our boss's expression darkened. “Explain.”
“The reason Misaki sent a message to you in the first place,” I explained. Her tail curled around her thigh and she began to stroke the fur nervously. “Last night I had a dream that Misaki believes was a sending from a very powerful mage.”
Our boss's expression became even more grim as I went over the details, making certain to leave absolutely nothing out, at least as far as I could remember. When I was finished, Star looked more anxious than I'd ever seen her.
“This is troubling. You think it may be related to these other occurrences?”
“The timing's pretty convenient, don't you think?” I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. “Yesterday we watched a specter vanish right in front of us. Last night, three AEGIS people get torn apart by something big and scary. Then I get a psychic telephone call from a weird person who claims killing Isao Tsukimura inadvertently weakened the astral boundary.”
Star tapped the keys on the tabletop and the display behind her shut down. “I'm officially assigning you two the case. I don't think this is the time to concern ourselves about jurisdictional posturing, and Control instructed me to assign the two of you specifically.”
That was not exactly unexpected, but unnerving to hear. AEGIS was usually very strict about the division of labor and who was assigned what sort of cases. It wasn't like I expected Star to deal with us dishonestly, at least insofar as her orders allowed.
Well, she
did
use us as bait for the Tsukimura operation. It didn't bother me as much as I guess it should have. I think a lot of it was due to how much I actually liked Star, but more than that it was just how it was to work for the government dealing with national-security type issues. Maybe not quite as glamorous as dealing with the heads of nuclear-armed nation-states, but it was much the same. You spent most of your time not knowing what the fuck was going on while still being expected to produce results.
“All right, we accept the case,” I said after a moment of silence. It's not that I really had much of a choice. I could have told her exactly how bad I was still messed up and she'd very likely do everything in her power to assign it to someone else, but if Control wanted us on the case, there was nothing she could do about it.
Besides, it was a very interesting puzzle, and I loved puzzles. Unfortunately, Misaki's expression—and the way her ears laid flat and back against her hair—told me that she wasn't quite as intrigued as I was.
“Karin,” she said in a warning tone.
“I know, love. Star knows. We don't have much of a choice. Her bosses aren't going to let us off the hook and it'll just waste her time to even try.”
Misaki didn't respond to that. The silence, coupled with the fact that she wasn't moving her tail at all meant she was not in a good mood. I expected this, but there wasn't a whole lot we could do about it.
“Couldn't you at least assign us the case as of tomorrow?” Misaki pleaded, affecting a look so sad and forlorn that would have melted anyone's heart. Our handler, despite her elegant and cool-as-ice demeanor, was in no way immune to Misaki's skillful emotional manipulation.
“I really don't think we have the luxury of time, but… okay. You win, Misaki. You'll be officially on the case as of 1100 tomorrow. Make sure the two of you get as much rest and relaxation in as you can tonight; I have a feeling things aren't going to stay peaceful for very much longer.”