Kamaitachi Chronicles

By: Aviantei

Eleven

"Alright, left, left, and…too slow!"

Rito's arm hooked around my elbow, tipped my balance, and had me sprawling on the floor, arm twisted behind my back. She held the position just long enough for me to smell the sweat ingrained into the floor, then stood up. I pulled myself into a sitting position and rolled my shoulder, feeling the telltale bump of a knot forming right underneath the blade.

"You're not lacking in understanding of moves," Rito said, looking me over. I let my body heat seep out into the cool training mat beneath me. "But you're way too textbook in your reactions. There's a lot of things you can make up for with putting on an extra bit of muscle for your size, but that won't help if you're telegraphing yourself all over the place."

"Yeah, yeah," I said, not able to hold back my grumbling. We'd been practicing for two weeks together, and Rito could still wipe the floor with me in hand to hand combat. It wasn't just her size advantage over me, but the skill I hadn't thought she could have based on her playful disposition. Not a façade, but just another layer she used when necessary. I should've known better since she was in the military.

If Rito ever tried to play up her cheerfulness to throw the enemy off guard, she'd have an even bigger advantage. It had worked on me.

"Well, the only way you're gonna get better at this is by practicing." Rito offered me a hand, and I took it, grateful for the chance to conserve some energy. I wasted enough of it failing to put up an even decent fight against my instructor. Rito stepped back, then went into a starting position. "Go ahead."

I readied my own stance, trying to pick out any obvious weaknesses in Rito's defense. Mustang had led me to believe he'd made a mistake in his firewall and used that to lure me in. If someone told me he'd gotten that technique from Rito, I would've believed them, seeing as I could never get a clean hit that way. Noting that she'd left her side open, I skipped the formalities and made my first strike for her head.

With a twitch of her neck, Rito slipped away from my fist, then readied a counter blow for my stomach. I used my forearms to block, but the force was enough to add another bruise to the purple and blue carpets all over my body. It was the sort of use of her own force that made practice of her momentum over her muscle.

Not that she was lacking in that, either. Our uniforms covered up most officer's muscle structure, but once we'd swapped to workout clothes, Rito just looked so skinny because she didn't have a damn ounce of fat on her.

That toned arm didn't waste a second in snatching my wrist from the latest punch, trying to lock my joint. I went to chop at her elbow, hoping to break her hold. Her other hand intercepted, leaving us in a cross armed grapple. We both aimed a kick at each other's knees, though I managed to hook my foot around her leg first and jerked forward. Rito pitched off balance, and just as I was about to send a knee into her stomach, Rito jerked her arms to my right, where my leg was poised to strike. We both toppled over. Caught off guard, I tried to brace myself; the instigator, Rito released her hold on me enough to switch her position. My elbow crashed into the mat first, then my torso, all with Rito's forearm pressed into the back of my neck.

"Better," she said, "but I'm still not gonna let you play with that scythe until you can knock me down at least once."

I groaned, more than well acquainted with the taste of the plastic that came with it. "I know there's a chance I'll get disarmed, but you could at least let me use it a little."

Rito scuffed her foot across the practice mat. "Now, that wouldn't count as motivation to improve, now would it?" I rolled onto my back, letting myself enjoy the respite of lying on the ground. Rito leaned over me, her short hair swaying. "Roy wasn't kidding that you could face opponents willing to kill in this job. We don't think you're weak; we just want you to be able to protect yourself in any way possible."

"I get it." For all the times she'd told me, I didn't even need my memory to remember. Didn't make it feel any less condescending, though. Of course, that might have been thanks to Mustang's name attached to the sentiment. I tugged on the collar of my shirt to let the heat out. "What am I going to be doing? To be honest, the lack of transparency makes it really hard to stay motivated." I knew my duties as a State Alchemist well enough, but the specific details of being under Mustang's watch weren't included in my initiation paperwork.

Rito peered at me, then plopped down cross legged to the ground. "Ya know, I don't get why Roy's being so stubborn about telling you at least that. I get that you're young, but you've been approved for the job." She hummed a bit, taking off her glasses to chew on the ear piece. "You deserve to know, Caiman, but we're not a standard military unit, you know?"

"Considering my inclusion, I guessed as much." And even besides that, everyone had been in and out on their investigation ever since I'd arrived, but there hadn't been any details in the paper concerning the incidents. "Military presences are often for protection or police work. East City isn't in the line of fire for any nearby countries, so having a combat based State Alchemist positioned here seems strange."

"Two, counting you." Rito poked a matching number of fingers at me, but rolling out of the way would have involved landing on my bruises, and I just wasn't feeling that. "You know we're investigating an assault and murder case. That's the sort of things we get dragged into because we have a combat based State Alchemist."

"Are you telling me double the firepower is gonna lead to double the trouble?"

Rito snickered but sobered up fast. "Well, I really hope not. It's tough enough taking care of a kid with the workload we have now."

Pure shock bolted me upright, my skin peeling away from the mat. "Wait, you have a kid?" Sure, she was older than me, so it wasn't that unusual. But I couldn't imagine trying to raise a child with all the risks of military work, especially a job like this. She and Maes were on a different level. I glanced at her hand, sorting through my memories to figure out if she had a ring or not.

"What, did you expect me to wear my ring while I try to punch you in the face?" She caught my gaze, her smile returning as she reached for the thin chain around her neck. Two rings spilled out from her shirt, one small but beautiful diamond, the other a plain wedding band. "Have a little faith in me, Caiman. I wouldn't want to break them on that hard head of yours."

I simmered, but the surprise of the matter stilled my tongue from producing a retort. "Okay, but, your husband's okay with taking care of your kid?" Not that fathers couldn't do so. My own parents had shared the work of raising me together, for what little time they'd been able to do it for. But you didn't see many families where the wife was the breadwinner.

"Well, we kind of rely on my dad to help out a lot," Rito said, rolling her rings between her fingers. "Jean gets just as busy as I do. But we do have regular family time. You should've heard Maes pestering Roy about giving us more regular breaks so we could raise Jeremy right. Once this case is closed, we're going to take a small trip together…"

"Jean, huh? Wait, you mean Havoc?"

Rito scratched the back of her head. "Did we not mention that?"

"No, you didn't." I rubbed at my temples, the skin still slick with sweat. "Is this some sort of avoidance of an anti-fraternization policy I didn't hear about? Is that why you two have separate last names?" There was an office rumor if I'd ever heard one.

"Nothing like that. As long as it doesn't interfere with office work, relationships are okay. Jean and I were dating before we joined the military anyways." Deciding I didn't want to be subject to all the little details that had lead up to that, I decided to avoid prying more. "But we ended up in the same unit, so we decided it'd be easier to keep our names separate at work instead of hearing 'Havoc, Havoc' everywhere, you know?"

I nodded. Rito stood back up, crossing to her things on the side of the room and rifling around until she found a pocket watch. "Well, I didn't mean to take a break like that, but it's about lunch, so let's—ah, shit. Is that today?"

Quirking a brow at the unusual display of irritation, I forced myself into standing and walking over to her. Sunlight glinted off Rito's glasses, and I opened the window, thankful for the cool breeze. "Sorry, Caiman," Rito said, gathering up her things, "I forgot I needed to cover for Fuery on communications board while he swaps out with Falman today. It's as boring as ever up there, but someone's gotta do it." Realizing she was headed for the door, I tugged on my jacket and snatched up my capsule and watch, trying to keep pace behind her. Rito glanced over her shoulder. "Take the afternoon to yourself. We'll pick this up tomorrow, alright?"

I rushed up to Rito's side, emulating her steady clip. "You say it's boring like you're not making progress."

"That's 'cause we've locked our suspect into a stalemate; they know we're watching them, but we don't have enough concrete evidence to make a move. And of course we want to avoid any more casualties…but it's not like we can lure them out without proper bait. We just don't have anyone among us who fits the profile." Rito nodded to a passing officer but didn't stop to chat like she tended to do en route to training. She was in a focused work mode. Getting information's gonna be easiest or most difficult now.

I worked on fastening up my jacket, trapping what was left of my body heat inside. "What's that profile like?"

Rito glanced at me, her stern look slipping into that of a wry smile. "Nice try, Caiman, but the Lt. Colonel would fry me if I got you involved in this one." She ruffled my hair, then broke ahead of me as we approached the office. "Seriously, go home or do research or something. We'll have this case taken care of in no time, then you won't have a thing to worry about."

Stopping, I pushed my hair back into place as Rito slipped inside, her bright voice audible even as the door shut. I'd just been kicked out of the workplace, which was just as if not more frustrating as being kept out of the case in general.

"When you try to keep me out of it, that pretty much tells me I'm included in the victims profile, you know," I said to myself.

Letting out a huff, I stalked away from the door. I wouldn't be learning anything useful by failing to get into the office.

Trailing Kain, on the other hand, would yield much more effective results.

All my travels meant that I had gotten used to moving around with just what I could carry in my pockets and my suitcase, so I didn't have anything to collect from the office. Tucking myself around the corner of the hallway that didn't lead to the building's entrance, I waited to near frustration until Kain emerged, then followed behind him, acting as casual as possible. When other soldiers would pass, I gave them short greetings and continued on.

Kain took the expected path, heading straight for the entrance and out into the party cloudy afternoon. Officers trailed in and out of the building, mingling in with passerby in the streets. Kain was short, but there wasn't enough of a crowd to lose him in as he walked down the sidewalk. I had expected him to take a car. Was the stakeout location closer than I thought? Whoever the perpetrator was, they had some balls acting so close to a military headquarters.

The number of soldiers dwindled, and I tugged off my jacket in hopes of not sticking out in case Kain glanced behind him. I couldn't do much about the pants, but, unlike Rito, I hadn't brought my own workout clothes along for the sake of getting use to the damn cape attached to my uniform. Kain crossed the street near some office buildings, heading towards a small shopping district. I'd heard Breda mention it was a common place for soldiers to eat since it was so close.

Was Kain going for lunch? My own stomach twisted, empty from all the exercise of the morning. If he did end up eating, I would have to get a good lookout spot across the street—one with a decent meal. The military fare at East City headquarters, while somewhat better than the hotel in Central, was repetitive enough that I was starting to go stir crazy.

Being late afternoon, there were still remnants of the lunch rush, but no restaurant seemed packed to the brim. Colored umbrellas stood over outdoor tables. The few customers brave enough to eat their lunch in the chill had empty plates and steaming mugs before them, relaxing post-meal. I watched Kain, trying to guess where he might stop, but he walked passed every storefront without so much as a glance.

I almost didn't catch the alleyway he turned into, having to recheck my memory to make sure that was what had happened. Not wanting to lose him, I jogged around a chatting couple. Slipping between a bakery and a café, I entered, but trash cans and a few pigeons met me. Kain had already disappeared from sight. Cursing, I sprinted toward the other end of the alley, grinding to a halt at the flash of blue in my peripheral.

Kain stood up from behind the trashcans as I spun around. "Rito said you'd try to do this, but I kind of hoped you'd stay home, Caiman." No wonder he'd taken so long leaving; Rito had been tipping him off.

"I want to help," I said. When you looked at it, my status as a State Alchemist put me at a higher rank then him, but I couldn't bring myself to pull that on him. "Listen, your culprit's after kids like me, right?" Kain winced. My guess had been correct. "Let me be the bait. I can defend myself, and you guys can step in if things get messy. This'll be over in no time."

Kain glanced about, stepping closer to me and keeping his voice low. "Did Rito tell you the victim pool? Mustang's not gonna be happy if she did…"

"Not to brag, but I'm smarter than most people my age." And most ones older, too. I had far more information running around in my memory than some people could even fathom. "I don't know all the details, but I could guess at the way you were all dancing around me. Whatever your victims are, I fit. I don't mind if you use me."

"That's not it at all." Kain sighed, glancing to the alley wall. I adjusted my stance and forced him to keep eye contact. The pigeons cooed on the ground, hopping between trashed leftovers from the café. "The Lt. Colonel knows you'd make a good ruse. But you're not trained enough, so he's playing it safe so we don't have any incidents."

I snorted, squaring my shoulders. Having to negotiate all my own living arrangements as a girl traveling solo had taught me how to not get screwed over: set yourself tall; don't take shit. "And run a stalemate until your suspect gets impatient and goes wild instead." I flicked my still tousled bangs out of the way. "Sounds like a brilliant strategy. I shouldn't have expected less."

Chatter tumbled in from the street, almost covering Kain's voice. "Caiman, I don't want to argue over this with you. We're all really grateful to have someone like you in our unit. We just want that to last as long as possible." His own expression went stern and he straightened up. "Just let us handle this and stay out of the north end of town. We will take care of it."

"North end of town, huh?" Goosebumps pricked at my arms, from the chill and anticipation.

Kain didn't curse, but he did bite his tongue. He shook his head out and strode past me, calling over his shoulder, "I'm going now. Don't follow me again." He stopped at the edge of the alley, giving me one last pleading look. "And, Caiman, please forget what I just said."

I watched him go, shaking out my jacket before slipping it back over my shoulders.

"Sorry, Kain," I mumbled to the pigeons, "forgetting things just isn't in my skillset."

[Author's Notes]

The updating schedule is going to be a little wonky this year, as I'm messing around with different writing priorities for the moment. New chapters of everything will come, yes, but they're going to take time. Good news, though, is that I have some spare updates of this stacked up (and am planning a bit more), so at least this story is finally getting somewhere.

We've got combat training and Ivy being a snoop this chapter, as well as more Mizu and Kain content! Mizu's presence does cause some canon divergences with Jean, but we'll get to how all that works out later on. For now, let's see what sort of trouble Ivy can get herself into! Survey says: a lot.

With how update planning is looking, chapter twelve will be out in March. Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[01.27.2020]