Daphne was about to straight-up murder somebody, Rin could tell. They'd made their way to the Hiroshima field office on Honshu Monday morning and had already dealt with a failed engine on the ferry, train delays during rush hour, and the hotel Mephisto had arranged for them losing their reservation. So when the receptionist at the field office politely refused to let them in, Daphne's face turned the color of uncooked beef.

"Excuse me?" she growled, her teeth clenched.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I can't just let in anyone who asks," the receptionist replied. Shakily, he raised a hand to adjust his glasses as he swallowed. "Security."

"I am not asking to be let in," Daphne replied, swinging her backpack down and digging around in the front pocket until she found her ID badge and slapped it on the counter. "I am ordering you."

Hesitant, the receptionist picked up Daphne's badge and opened it. She didn't pull rank often, but when she did, she really did. After Morpheus, Daphne had reentered the Knights of the True Cross and subsequently earned herself all sorts of titles and clearance. She was technically a member of both the Japan and United States branches as a Senior Exorcist First Class, but the Army had issued her status as an honorary major, so the Japan Branch had matched it with some kind of complicated honorary sub-Knight deal Rin didn't entirely understand. Mephisto had laughed for days though when he'd found out that Daphne now outranked Rin by a longshot.

The receptionist's face went pale. He sputtered for a moment, then said, "Just one second, ma'am—erm, sir—uh, Major. Wait here, please." The poor kid dashed down the hall to his left. Daphne let out a frustrated breath.

Rin reached a hand over to massage her shoulder. "We'll get in," he said.

Daphne shook her head and leaned over the counter to stretch. "We don't even know what we're looking for here."

"No, but this way we'll get to talk to somebody in the brass, I bet," he laughed, imagining the conversation the receptionist was probably having with the higher-ups right then.

"We should have brought our uniforms."

"Hey, stop it." He reached after Daphne again, this time pulling her to his side. "We're doing just fine."

She gave him a flat look. "We found the bodies of nine murdered Hiroshima field office agents on our anniversary trip and all we know is that Mephisto didn't like some paperwork. That sound 'just fine' to you?"

Rin opened his mouth, but he didn't get to respond, since the receptionist came back with an important-looking woman in a uniform. She smiled at each of them in turn, folding her hands behind her back. The receptionist looked at Rin.

"If I could see your ID badge as well, sir…?"

"There's no need," the fancy woman said. "This is Rin Okumura."

If the receptionist had gone pale at Daphne, he went double pale at Rin. Everybody in the Order knew Rin's name, it was kind of common knowledge what with him being the son of Satan and all, but not everybody knew what he looked like. The kid's mouth fell open as the woman gestured down the hallway.

"Please, come in. We can speak in my office."

"Thank you," Daphne grumbled. She grabbed her ID off the counter and followed as the lady started down the hallway. Rin glanced at the receptionist to give him a sympathetic smile, but it was completely lost on the guy. Just as Rin started to chuckle, a slight sensation tickled the back of his mind.

Whatever he had felt on Miyajima, he could feel it here, too.

"Have a seat."

Daphne took a place in one of the chairs in front of the desk in the office as the woman had indicated. It was several seconds before Rin even entered the room, a strange expression on his face that he exchanged with Daphne before sitting beside her. The woman folded her hands together and laid them across her desk. A name plate that said Hatsue Akiyama was displayed on the front.

"What can I do for you?" she asked. "It isn't very often we get visitors from the Tokyo offices demanding entry."

Daphne removed the folder containing the autopsy reports from her backpack and set it on the desk in front of Akiyama. "The bodies of nine of your exorcists were discovered on Mount Misen late Friday morning."

Akiyama had started to open the file to look, but the news caught her off-guard, so she started and stared at Daphne instead. "Why am I just hearing about this now?"

"Mr. Okumura and I were the ones who found them," Daphne replied. "The Tokyo offices claimed jurisdiction."

She would never tell this woman the real reason—that exorcists from every other regional office had been brought out because Mephisto had given them reason to suspect the Hiroshima office was compromised. Daphne had no way to know yet how high or how deep that compromise extended. Akiyama's surprise at the news, however, seemed genuine.

"My god…" she whispered, glancing through the files. "You found them?"

Rin nodded. "In a clearing on the mountain's north face. The investigation is still ongoing, but your cooperation would be appreciated." He smiled that gentle smile similar to Yukio's sad one. It was an expression that almost always assured whoever was on the receiving end would do what he wanted them to.

"Yes, of course. Of course. This is terrible…"

"If you could please notify their families," Daphne added.

Akiyama kept nodding. "Yes. Yes, I will do that."

"Thank you. We'll put you in touch with someone from the investigation team to give you a full briefing. In the meantime, would you allow Mr. Okumura and me to take a look at your file room?"

"Yes, right this way," Akiyama whispered.

Absently, the woman stood up. Her eyes were still flicking over the information in the files. Daphne was sympathetic. She knew what it felt like to lose people under your command.

Akiyama took Rin and Daphne deeper into the Hiroshima office, showed them to a room with an endless labyrinth of drawers and shelves with boxes and folders. There was a table in the corner. The lights flickered like they were connected to a faulty generator. Before she left she gave them a brief description of what was filed where, then shut the door behind her.

"What do you think?" Rin asked.

"She's definitely upset about the news," Daphne replied, going to the shelves where the exorcism reports were supposed to be and taking a box down. "Her emotion is genuine enough."

"So we can trust her?"
Daphne hauled the box up onto the table. "I didn't say that."

Rin nodded. He was quiet for a moment while Daphne lifted the lid off the box and started looking through the files inside, then said, "That negative demonic energy is here, too. It's faint, but I felt it."

"The same one from Miyajima?"

"Yeah. But different somehow."

"Keep an eye out for it," Daphne said. "In the meantime, help me with these boxes…"

They spent several hours combing through the files, finding nothing. Akiyama returned every so often to check on them, and eventually started sending the nervous receptionist in her place. That was how Rin got them sandwiches and drinks and a fan to keep the room cool. The guy was too nervous to say no. Five o'clock rolled around and they hadn't made much progress, but looking at report after report had helped Daphne to form a pattern of them in her mind, so when she opened a file and glanced over it, and found it didn't fit, she knew it instantly.

The receptionist knocked on the door. "Um, Mr. Okumura? Major Okumura? We're all ready to lock up out here…"

"Thank you," Rin called. "We're on our way."

Daphne stood, her eyes fixed on the file. Another second's survey and she found the abnormality. The DAMAGES section—like the others Mephisto had sent their way—contained only a single word:

None.