It took a ridiculously specific set of search terms and filters to bring Akiyama's research up on the Knights of the True Cross's online database, but Rin managed to find an article.
"Sweet hell, finally."
Daphne looked up from the reading she was doing on the other side of the table. Nobody had gotten around to deconstructing the little makeshift office they'd set up for themselves in the file room, so they'd decided to occupy it again. Better to be close if something happened, though at this point what that would be was beyond even guessing. Daphne had been reviewing reports from the exorcists who had been assigned to take over the murder investigation.
"Did you find them?"
"One of them," Rin replied. Daphne got up to come look over his shoulder. "It's super old. Published twelve years ago."
"That tracks with her reassignment out here."
Rin clicked on the link. A PDF of the document opened on his computer screen, the title DEMON-HUMAN CONNECTIONS: CREATING ARTIFICIAL TAMERS in bold font across the top of the first page. Rin scanned over the abstract.
"Jesus…"
The experiments had used a bunch of different methods to try binding the familiars of established Tamers to new exorcists. Even the brief details in the abstract were unsettling—using fatal verses to bring the demons to the brink of death before reattaching the bond, fusing demons together to attempt to summon them simultaneously, creating seals and storing demons within them. Apparently most of the methods had resulted in a good portion of the familiars dying permanently, unable to be re-summoned by their Tamers. The results of the study overall were inconclusive.
"It's brutal, but it doesn't seem like enough to get her kicked out to the Hiroshima office," Daphne said, straightening after reading the abstract as well. "Whatever her next experiment was, she must have pushed too far and screwed up. Mephisto undoubtedly scrubbed the record, whatever it was."
Rin nodded. They'd be hard-pressed to get information out of him. At least fifty percent of the satisfaction he got out of playing puppet master came from watching his players scramble around in the dark. It didn't matter how helpful the knowledge he possessed might have been, he kept his lips sealed. He could have told them plenty of times what it was Akiyama had done, but he hadn't, which meant he wouldn't, and they were on their own.
"I should read the rest of this," Rin said, though the thought of it made his skin crawl. "Just so we're not fuzzy on any of the details."
"I'm nearly finished with these reports," Daphne replied.
"Anything new?"
"No, but the team working the investigation now has been putting together more detailed profiles of the exorcists who were murdered." She reached over and spread nine folders out on the desk. "That's all I have left."
Daphne flopped into her chair and pulled the nearest file up to the edge of the desk. She opened it, glancing lazily over the information. Rin hunkered down to read some seriously disturbed experimentation shit, but halfway through the second paragraph of the introduction, Daphne sat up. Her hand snapped out and snatched up the next closest file, which she read rapidly, then the next. After glancing at the next one, she sorted all nine into three piles of three and looked up at Rin.
"Tamers, scientists, Arias," she said, touching each of the piles in turn.
"What?"
"Of the nine exorcists killed on that mountain, three were Tamers, three were Arias, and three were scientists—researchers. In fields adjacent to Akiyama's."
"No way." Rin sat up and pulled the pile Daphne had said was for scientist toward him. He flipped open the folder on top and sure enough, the guy was a field researcher specializing in the discovery of new fatal verses. The next one had her hands elbow-deep in studying the evocations Tamers used to summon familiars. The third focused on searching out new kinds of demons. "What are the chances of that?"
"Slim," Daphne replied. "Field offices this small don't typically have a budget to house research in the first place."
"Do you think she continued her experiments after getting moved out here?"
"If she did, it would have been secret. That article was the only one you could pull up under her name, right?"
"Yeah," Rin said, but plunked out another search right then just to be certain. "She probably had a hard time getting anything published if Mephisto scrubbed her record." He typed in the name of one of the other scientists—the dead ones. The engine pulled up a few hits, new articles published recently, but none in the guy's field of expertise. "Huh." He tried the other two and got the same result. "That's weird."
"We should check out their lab," Daphne suggested.
"I don't think they'd be dumb enough to leave the body of a decomposing demon familiar just lying around, Daph."
She rolled her eyes. "They were dumb enough to get themselves killed."
"Valid."
"Regardless, we need to investigate. Tomorrow, probably, while most everyone is out of the office."
"Don't you want to rest?"
"No, I want to go home. I hate this city. It gives me the creeps."
She glanced away, as if out a window, but they were in a file room in the center of an office building. The thought hadn't ever occurred to Rin before that Daphne might have found Hiroshima uncomfortable. To him, it was just the train stop they had to get off at to get to Miyajima. But it was more than that. It was a city that had been destroyed by the country Daphne came from, and not only that, but the military she had served in.
"Crazy how much the world can change in such a short amount of time," Rin said.
Daphne raised an eyebrow at him.
"World War II was, what? Like seventy years ago? That's not that long. And now I'm married to an American." He smiled, and she shook her head but smiled back.
"Crazy," she said.
"Let's investigate the lab tomorrow, then," he added. "I'm sure our receptionist friend will be more than happy to let us in."
"To the office, maybe," Daphne replied. "We should probably break into the lab." She shrugged. "Secrecy and all."
Rin grinned. "Oh, definitely."