Watashitachi wa Mirai no Honk
Dr. Mayfair's office was in a brick building in New York, close to the park. It was a nice building with stained glass and an iron fence, and it was visible across the park. With each passing step, Umi got a little more nervous. Umi was a ball of nerves and caffeine. It'd been months since she'd been in the field.
Mary read the dossier as they jostled through the crowd in the chilled air, her voice thick with incredulity as she got further and further down the page. "There have been reports of temporal irregularities throughout New York City, starting in April of 2015. Most recorded observations have been near Broadway, and several complaints have been made regarding the shows and show times," Mary snorted, "In one incident, a soprano showed up two hours late with no recollection of where she had been. The incidents have decreased in intensity and regularity as time has gone on. It is believed an event triggered this rather than any natural occurrence happening. Please locate the trigger before anyone else can access this information."
Umi sipped at her coffee. It tasted like bitterness condensed into a small 16-oz container. Somewhere, a girl was playing an electric piano. Umi's nose twitched. "Do you have an issue, Agent Farell?"
She didn't respond for a few moments, and only the gentle melody of the piano answered for a moment. "It's very odd that they sent us and not someone with more scientific background on this," Mary's attention suddenly became very focused on her flawless red nails, "Maybe they just need the firepower. I don't know. I've seen the hard data and I still have trouble believing this, to be honest. It just doesn't seem possible."
A memory flashed in Umi's mind: a moment that couldn't have- shouldn't have been, with shaking hands and whispers in the alley, two voices that could not possibly exist at once, an impossible conversation- "We'll see."
Umi followed Mary down the street, ignoring the girl singing at her piano, no matter how beautiful the song.
/
Dr. Mayfair was not in, they were told. A rumpled woman with bags under her eyes had answered the door, stepping back warily as Mary and Umi ungraciously barged in the building. Another grad student, Umi thought. She put down her coffee on a whirling machine and reached for the gun under her blazer. "Shall I do this the easy way or the hard way?"
The student looked at Umi, hand reaching for a weapon, with her cold dead eyes and shrugged.
Mary gave her a look. "Umi, you haven't even tried the easy way yet."
"Come again?"
"We can leave a message for her. We can ask if this nice young lady knows the information we're looking for. We just need the address, yes?"
The student sat down at her desk and began rummaging through papers and vials of green liquid. She was quite apathetic to the potential of a gun under a strange woman's coat. "Naw. I've seen you before. Dr. Mayfair has a restraining order against you. I better call…"
Umi's fingers itched at the weapon, not quite out of its holster.
There was a sudden ringing. Umi jumped. Almost glibly, as if Umi wasn't about to threaten someone with physical violence, Mary picked up her phone with her best professional voice. "Yes? Yes, we're working on it. Okay. Okay. Yes. We'll be there as soon as possible," She hung up, "Umi, our timeline has been moved forward. We have to wrap this up. Kid, I'll pay you $1000 if you give me that information."
Leaning back on the swivel chair, the student shook her head. "That doesn't even pay my rent for this month."
Mary sighed. "$5000."
"I know who you're looking for." The student was looking them in the eyes now. As if she had already seen death and thought of them as inconsequential fleas that only brought death seconds faster when the world itself was tipping into hell. "I know why you're looking for her. Pony up, I got loans to pay off. $70,000."
To Umi's surprise, Mary laughed and started looking through her purse. "Alright, kid. Is a check alright? You're blowing my budget here." For the first time, the student gaped at them with wide eyes, unbelieving. Mary winked at her. "You should come work for us, kid, okay? Here's my card."
/
The target was in Ohio. They'd flown from New York to a small airport, but it was still a two hour drive to the tiny little roadside stop in the middle of nowhere.
Ohio was never a state Umi had paid particular attention to. Three Salty Birds had travelled through it once or twice, but Umi had spent more time navigating the roads than looking at the scenery. Now that there was nothing to do but look at Ohio scenery, Umi was developing a newfound appreciation for states that weren't Ohio. There was corn. It was flat. Sometimes there were small drab buildings at the side of the road. She had never especially cared about corn one way or another, but after half an hour of a corn hallway, she did not feel the need to eat it any time soon.
She and Mary didn't talk. Or rather, Mary had made a few probing questions and Umi had turned on the rented car's radio.
Really, she missed Japan. Akihabara. Bright lights and crowded streets and food she'd grown up with and trees she knew the names of. It'd been over a year since she'd been home. Could she ask Kotori to just pick up and go? After they'd made a life here?
No, Umi thought, you had a mission and dragged Kotori along for the ride. This wasn't her decision from the beginning. Honoka wanting to go on tour just made a good cover. Nails dug into her palm. Of course Kotori would do anything for Honoka. Go anywhere for her.
Not that she could say anything ever again. Ask for anything. Not after what she'd done with enough alcohol in her system.
Gas stations began to mingle with the fields. Afternoon blended into evening. The sky dulled to a cold blue and Umi felt a chill in her bones. "So the target is a person?"
"Yeah."
Mary lit a cigarette. "Do you know who?"
Dead corn suddenly became very interesting to Umi. The way it wilted in the chill of the closing darkness. She studied it, with her nose pressing against the nice rented car window. She could write a song, she thought, about the way the corn contrasted against the unsaturated dusk.
Mary turned down the radio to a hum. "Umi?"
"Yes?"
"Do you know who the target is?"
Umi had seen her, really truly seen her, just once.
Last year. It was in New York. Their last gig. They didn't know that at the time. She'd known about the girl. She'd known how Honoka had become increasingly more mysterious, and had been meeting with someone at bars and parks when Honoka thought Kotori and Umi weren't looking. Kotori had thought Honoka had met someone, and Umi did too at first. (Kotori said they couldn't blame Honoka, for wanting someone she didn't have to lie about. But Honoka was always going to have to lie about her.)
Umi had never thought the girl would be the one she'd been looking for all along. That the girl was a part of the answer to the problem. How naïve she was, to think her bosses hadn't been aware of the situation all along.
"Does it matter?"
"If there is relevant information that you've been withholding, yes."
"I hardly believe it myself."
Ash of the cigarette blew out the window into the cold grey twilight. Mary was washed out under the moonlight "I'm going to need a drink when I'm done with this case… we're almost there, want an energy bar or something? There's snacks in my purse."
Umi scoffed. "Sugary stuff like that will make you fat."
Mary made direct eye contact with Umi as she pulled out an energy bar, broke the wrapper with her teeth, and ate the bar in two bites.
They turned off at a lonely exit. Cauliflower Junction, the road sign said. The road got noticeably narrower and bumpier as the bare trees crowded around them. Run down houses with glaring blue windows grew up from the underbrush of dead bushes and small farms.
"Is this it?" Umi watched as a group of deer passed the car over cracked pavement. Their eyes glowed in the darkness. Judging. As if they knew what Umi and Mary were doing was going to go against nature.
"I could be wrong. Got a Cauliflower Junction in every state."
They sat in silence again, as the car crept forward with only the GPS spitting directions. There was nothing to see. Main street on a Sunday night. Dark buildings, empty gas stations, parking lots with broken trucks. Only a single flashing green light in the center of town gave any true indication of life. Even the solitary McDonald's lights were dimmed out (except for the lower case "d.") The GPS directed them to a road off main street, with only a farmer supply store and apartments. "Your destination is on the left. You have arrived."
"Well," Mary opened her door, "Let's go."
"Mary. Hey," Her stomach was fluttering, her mouth was dry, "What are we going to do when we find her?"
"I'd prefer if you didn't start off waving your gun at her."
"No, but… are we taking her into custody? Arresting her?"
"I think that depends entirely what she has to say and what the director says when you get him up to date. C'mon," Mary walked around the car and opened the door for Umi, "You've been waiting a long time for this, haven't you?"
Umi was shaking as they walked across the uneven sidewalk, past the tractor supply store to the single apartment in the back. Everything she had done had come to this. Lying to Kotori, lying to Honoka, getting into bed with Eli… was this worth it? The door plaque read 909. They stood in front of it. Music was blasting out of a brightly-lit window and there was a faint smell of something cooking. There was singing inside. Umi looked at Mary, pleading. Mary just looked right back at her.
With trembling hands, Umi rapped her still-hurting fist on the door.
"Coming!" A familiar yet not familiar voice called out.
Umi wasn't ready for the door to open.
The woman was in her late twenties, at least. Taller than Umi, taller than Mary. She had long copper hair with a slight wave to it, kept under a black beanie. Bright blue eyes, same smile she'd always had. "Hello, I wasn't expecting you until-" She started, seeing Umi. Her expression fell into genuine sadness, eyes weighted with a wisdom Umi had never noticed before. A knife cut through Umi; despite the coldness she told herself she'd built, that it was all Honoka's fault, that she needed to come in with guns blazing. Her heart hurt. "Oh Umi. It's been awhile, hasn't it?"
"Honoka, I…."
"I guess you better come inside, huh?"
AN: apologies to any readers of mine that live in ohio