April 15, 2008
"I don't know, Misaki," Kanami sighed as she pulled two bottles of water out of the cooler and handed one to Misaki. "Bald, Filipino, and kinda beefy isn't much of a description to go on." She dropped her voice, even though there was no one in the store besides the clerk, who was several aisles away. "Specters can't tell the nationality of a person, not without an actual photo of the suspect for reference. And how the hell do you explain to a doll what beefy means?"
Misaki looked longingly at the shrimp tempura bento in the case, but just the thought of the taste of the greasy batter turned her stomach. She picked up an onigiri one instead. "I know; but that's all we have right now."
"Well, I put out an alert on his star, so we'll know right away when he uses his power. Eunice and Gustav are on the search detail; the others would need a digital photo for their face recognition software. Maybe we'll get lucky and his star will activate when one of them happens to be nearby and they'll see him."
"If that's the case, they won't see him."
Kanami sighed again. "Right. Invisibility. This one's going to be a real bastard to catch, isn't he."
The two women made their way to the register to pay. As Kanami fished around in her wallet for some loose change, Misaki let her gaze roam over the shelves of magazines below the counter. She spotted the housekeeping magazine that Neela had been reading in her cell. A new issue was out; Misaki wondered idly if the contractor actually liked that publication, or if it was simply the only one the guards would bring her. Then the tabloid next to it caught her eye. The main headline read, Help! I've Fallen in Love with a Contractor! Inside: the lurid details will shock you!
"Misaki, what's wrong?" Kanami asked in concern.
"Nothing," Misaki said hurriedly, but her friend had already seen what she was looking at.
"Oh. Ignore it; that magazine is garbage, everyone knows that."
"I know," Misaki said. But she had never told Kanami about those photos. If that man wanted to discredit her, a ridiculous story in a sensationalist publication might be enough, with those photos.
She had to know. She handed her water and bento to Kanami and pulled the magazine off the shelf to flip through the pages, heart pounding.
"Well?" Kanami asked as Misaki scanned the story.
There were photos, a lot of them - but none of either Hei or herself. In fact, the supposed contractor didn't even look human. She squinted, trying to tell if the green skin was makeup or just liberties with photoshop. "Garbage," she said at last, and replaced the magazine on the shelf with a sigh of relief.
"I told you. Come on, where do you want to eat?"
Misaki handed her cash over to the clerk. "There's a park down the street; we can sit there."
The small park was really more of a playground than anything else: there were swings, a slide, a merry-go-round, and even a couple of those springy rocking horses that Misaki had never seen the appeal of at all. But there was a nice wide wooden bench encircling a tall oak tree; the oak was just beginning to leaf out, a verdant green against the slate-gray sky.
"Cute place," Kanami commented as they settled down to eat. "Not too far from your apartment building - are you going to bring the little turtle to play here?"
Misaki shrugged. She'd taken to stopping by this park whenever she needed to get away from headquarters and think, even though it was closer to home than the office; but she couldn't remember ever seeing any actual children playing in it. It was hard to imagine coming here with a child of her own. Then again, it was still hard to imagine doing anything with a child of her own.
"I'm going over to my parents' for dinner tonight," Kanami said. "Mom said you were welcome to come - she's making lasagna. And Julia's on a school trip, so the level of teenage drama in the house will be exactly zero."
Misaki laughed. "I haven't seen Julia in years." Her most recent memory of Kanami's younger sister was of a little girl in pigtails, too shy to even say hello to her sister's friends. "She's not that bad, is she?"
"Well, Mom says that I was worse, but I don't see how that's possible. I never slammed the door so hard that Mom's china plates fell off the shelf and shattered into a million pieces."
"Oh god, your mom loves those plates!"
Kanami grinned. "Yup - poor girl spent a whole month without her phone after that. So how about it - lasagna?"
Misaki bit her lip. Mama Ishizaki's lasagna was practically world famous, but… "I can't; I have to work."
"Misaki…"
"It's not something I can put off - after we release that contractor from prison this afternoon, I need to make sure that she gets settled in her new apartment. She doesn't speak Japanese at all, so I can't just leave her hanging."
Kanami's eyebrows rose. "This is the one you want Astronomics' eyes on?"
"Yes. Well, not her, exactly. I've done my best to keep the release quiet, but if the Syndicate has found out about it, I'm worried that they'll send HG-139 to terminate her before she has a chance to tell us anything. My team has been watching the place around the clock for the past two days, and no one matching that description has been anywhere near it. But a transfer is always the most risky stage of an operation; I want to make sure she's safe."
"Well, the only way he'll sneak up on you is if he activates his power - and if he does, we'll know it."
Misaki nodded. "That's what I'm counting on."
"You said you're getting her an apartment - are you hiring her, like a consultant?"
"Yeah, something like that. And if things go well, we might be able to make her a permanent member of the team."
"That would be fantastic progress to show those idiots at the press office. If it was dinner at my place, I'd say bring her along - but I'm not sure how my parents would react to a contractor house guest. Well, Mom would probably feed her until she burst, and Dad wouldn't be interested at all unless she could talk baseball with him. But still."
Misaki smiled. "I've only spoken with her once, so I don't have a good handle on her personality. I don't think she's dangerous, but it's always best to err on the side of caution with contractors. When -" she began, but a loud chime from Kanami's phone interrupted her.
Kanami pulled her phone out of her pocket and glanced at the screen; then her expression broke into a warm smile.
"Sekine?" Misaki asked knowingly.
Her friend turned slightly pink, still smiling, and nodded. "She asked if I want to catch a movie tonight. Maybe I'll head over to Mom and Dad's tomorrow for leftovers, instead."
"Have they met her yet?"
"Not yet. It's still early, you know?"
"I guess. It's been what - two months? You've dated and dumped a lot of people of much less time than that," Misaki pointed out.
"Yeah." Kanami hesitated, poking at her bean sprouts. "It's just…I've never brought home a girlfriend before. And Mom's Catholic. Well, lapsed Catholic, but still Catholic."
"I can't imagine Laura objecting to anyone that you really liked."
Kanami shrugged. "Me either, but - I don't know. I'm not ready yet."
"Well, I'd say that if you care about Sekine as much as you seem to, you should introduce them earlier rather than later." She took a swig of water. "But then, I hid the existence of my secret lover from my dad until I was already pregnant, so I'm not sure how much my advice is actually worth."
Her friend laughed. "Misaki, you know your advice means everything to me. But Hana hasn't passed the Misaki test yet, so how can I bring her home to my parents?"
"Kanami, you don't need me to -"
"I trust your judgment," Kanami broke in with a wave of her hand. "It's just been impossible so far to find a time when all three of us can get together, what with Hana's schedule at the ER and your new workload. But I really want you two to meet each other; then I'll figure out what do about Mom and Dad."
"I did meet her, at the Gate Relief Fund party."
"Mm hm. And Li was there, and you were one hundred percent focused on him; don't say you weren't."
Misaki had no argument against that. She'd thought about that night a lot recently. If she had been paying any attention at all, she would have known that she was pregnant by then, or at least suspected. She could have told Hei, and they could have discussed it, together. Then maybe they wouldn't have fought, and he wouldn't have left. Maybe.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you," Kanami said suddenly. "It looks like he's gotten out of Hong Kong alright."
"He has?" Misaki sat up a little bit straighter. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure that his star is no longer positioned over the island as of this morning, and I'm sure that over the course of the last two nights Hong Kong saw a lot of activity surrounding that star. Half a dozen others fell, and so far none of the other active stars have left the city. So, it looks like he's gotten away. Yin too."
"Thank god," Misaki breathed. "I was so worried. That nurse told me to keep my stress levels low to protect the - the baby, but how can I, when I know what he's up against every single day?"
Kanami cast her a sympathetic look. "Are you sure you want me to keep updating you?"
"Yes; it would be worse not knowing."
Kanami nodded. "Well, it's up to you." She checked her watch. "I need to get to back to the lab; I want to make sure I'm there to direct the specters myself in case HG-139 does show up. Want to do leftovers with me tomorrow?"
Misaki hesitated. "I'll see what my schedule ends up looking like."
"Alright; but I'm going to keep asking until you eventually say yes. You can't isolate yourself, especially if - well, if your dad ends up going to prison. You don't have to do this alone." She leaned over and pressed Misaki into a warm hug. Misaki was getting a lot of those, lately.
"Thanks. I know."
Kanami left the park, heading to the metro line that would take her back across town to the observatory; but Misaki stayed. She still had a few minutes to kill before she needed to leave for the prison - for hopefully the last time - to pick up Neela. She may as well spend them here as anywhere.
A chilly wind was kicking up; Misaki buttoned up her raincoat and watched as the swings on the swing set began to slowly drift back and forth, as if an invisible hand was pushing them, the chains creaking quietly. She shivered; it reminded her of another chilly day on a different playground.
It had been fall then, not spring - the trees surrounding the park next door to their apartment building were covered in bright orange and red leaves. Misaki had always loved the swing the best, especially when her father was there to push her as high as it would go. That Saturday, he had to go into the office, so it was just Misaki and her mother in the park. Yasuko had been feeling tired lately, too tired to push, so Misaki pumped her legs and swung herself up, up, up until the chains were nearly parallel with the ground. She laughed at the cold wind on her face, imagining that she was soaring through the sky, like a bird that didn't need wings.
"Mom, look!" she shouted, draping her head backwards to watch the ground rush past upside-down.
"Oh Misaki, don't, you'll get your hair full of dirt," Yasuko admonished, but she was smiling where she stood next to the metal post, watching her daughter.
A flock of ducks passed by low overhead; Misaki watched them drift into a lazy v-formation. From the top of her arc, they looked almost close enough to touch. "Want to see how far I can jump?"
When Yasuko didn't answer, Misaki turned - and saw her mother sitting on the ground, one hand pressed against her belly and the other clutching the post of the swing set.
"Mom?" Misaki dug her heels into the ground and skidded to a halt amid a cloud of dust. Heart pounding in sudden fear, she leapt off the swing and dashed to her mother's side. "Mom, are you okay?"
Yasuko brushed her long hair away from her ashen face. "I'm fine, sweetie - just a stomachache."
"Should I go call Dad?" Misaki had never seen her mother looking so ill before, and it scared her. Her father would know what to do; he always did. There must be a phone in one of the stores across the street, or maybe she could run back to their apartment.
"No, I don't want to worry him - I just need to sit for a while. Don't worry honey, I'm fine." She pulled Misaki close and kissed her cheek in reassurance. "Why don't you show me how far you can jump, hm, my little daredevil?"
She smiled, but it looked pained and only made Misaki more afraid. "Actually, I'm kind of tired of swinging," Misaki said. "Maybe we could go home and make some hot chocolate instead?"
"That sounds good too."
They sat together on the ground for a few minutes, until Yasuko could stand again. The cold wind no longer felt exhilarating; Misaki started to shiver as she watched the dead leaves blowing across the empty playground.
A sudden rustling snapped Misaki back to the present. The sound came again, to her right. She glanced over, her hand automatically going for her weapon only to run into her buttoned-up coat. But before she could panic and curse her carelessness, she saw that it was just a cat. A black cat, slinking across the gravel and underneath the slide. Misaki stared; it had a frayed red collar, and what could be a metal clip in its ear.
She stood cautiously and - just to be safe - unbuttoned her coat as she approached the slide.
"Mao?"
The cat tucked itself into the shadows and growled, low and menacing. Misaki took a step closer; the cat hissed and crouched into a defensive posture. It could be an act - he didn't know that she remembered meeting him, after all - but there was an unmistakably feral edge to his behavior, and she had glimpsed an outline of ribs when he'd stalked out of sight. This might have been the body that the contractor had possessed, but it didn't seem as if he was inhabiting it any longer.
"Sorry," Misaki told the cat, unexpectedly disappointed. "I thought you were someone I knew." She turned, and left the park.