It was January 2nd of 2011 when Inazuma Yaeko was contacted about her first piece of business of the new year. She had come back to her home in Ibaraki for a few days to take care of some other affairs in town, and to take a short wintertide vacation.
The cold season's air seemed to seep through to her very bones, and despite winter actually being her favourite season, that day made her question her own tastes — it was absolutely freezing, and she had not packed as many warm clothes as she should have. Well, hindsight is 20/20 as they say. After closing her house's door, she took out her ringing phone from her jacket's outer right pocket, and answered the call.
「 もしもし、八重子です。」 She answered, with a tired drawl to the dragged syllables, her lips too numb to utter anything more clearly. She had gotten up quite early, at about 6 am, since she could not stand staying in bed for any longer. While waiting for the other to respond, she took off straight to the coffee shop just a couple of streets away. (TL: Yes? Yaeko speaking.)
A low chuckle came from the other side of the line, no doubt the brat was aware of her predicament — sleep deprived, plagued with nonsensical visions, and in dire need of some damn caffeine at ungodly hours in the morning. "Hey there, cuz. Haven't slept much, huh?"
"Shut up, you know I didn't", she retorted with a huff, tone snappy yet with no real heat behind, the situation way too familiar to be out of the ordinary. "What do you want, Vik? Also, why is it you calling me and not your brother?"
He let out an amused huff of his own, shaking his head slightly even if Yaeko could not see it. "Which one? Thomas is busy away on business, just like you, and Niko is already on a call with Junpei and Kurō." Yeah, that certainly checked out. Vik would not have been the one to contact her had any of her other cousins and brothers been available.
Viktor Inazuma-Iordanou, or "Vik" as most of their family affectionately called him, was one of her paternal second cousins, and one of the few she kept regularly in contact with. He, like his older twin brother Thomas, was about 3 years her junior, which was why she got the privilege to call him out like the brat he was at times. Nikolaos —his younger brother by 2 years—, however, was without a doubt her favourite cousin alongside Kai Jun. Honestly, it should be a bit strange to outsiders that she was closer to second cousins than first, but considering how the dynamics of their clans worked, it really was not that much of a mystery.
Traditionally, all Japanese sorcerer clans deal with both mundane and supernatural, so they lead a double-life of sorts. On the mundane side of things, they were old money, owners of a multitude of resort chains, casinos and other social establishments. Meanwhile, in the supernatural world they are a fairly well-known coven, one of the most ancient, and on the bigger side in terms of number of members. They mostly had business in the Eastern side of the globe, due to the majority of them being Eastern sorcerers themselves, but at times their presence would be required in the Western world.
That day seemed to be one of such days. Vik may have called her to let her know she would be required in the States in one of their casinos, but Yaeko felt deep down in her soul that she would be needed for supernatural business too, just not yet, but soon — and her fuzzy visions so early in the morning did nothing but confirm it.
"Things are escalating so there's some huge trouble brimming in the Western world", he finally confessed, heaving a slow sigh, wearily rubbing his frown with his free hand. "In the States, to be precise. It is said that a bunch of baby vampires have just found out about Silas of the Travellers and the immortality cure. I know it is not exactly our jurisdiction, but considering what the problem actually is this time, we have no choice but to oversee how things unravel and involve ourselves if the situation demands it. Your older brother would have gone instead, had he had the time to do so. Unfortunately for everyone, no offence cuz, Minato is the only one that is more powerful than you, but he's overwhelmed by his Heir training, not that he will ever admit it", he tsked with a wry grimace — he knew all too well how stubborn his older cousin and future Clan Head was. Many a time he had trained to the point of deep exhaustion, being too set on not letting anyone get even a whisper about just how much everything was getting to him.
This time sighing in utter exasperation, Yaeko looked up silently praying for patience, wishing wholeheartedly that her gods would be merciful enough. "As if the world didn't have enough problems yet, now the ignorant are after one of the few things that can really disrupt the world's balance." She could not help but groan, tolerance for that kind of stupidities never high, and now ever-thinning. Well, America it is, then.「 I will go。私の兄弟とニコに言ってください。」" (TL: Do let my brothers and Niko know, please.)
"Will do, cuz", he assured her, tone back to being cheerful. With that, he hung up, leaving Yaeko to continue with her morning routine while pondering on what was to come next. The door chimed when she opened it, and she was immediately greeted with the delicious smell of freshly baked goods and recently made coffee. Rows upon rows of delicate-looking pastries could be seen all cross the crystal-covered counter. The moment she got close enough to them, the vendor that was cleaning some supplies looked up and offered her a smile.
"Well, well, well, as I live and breathe! If it isn't the ever-elusive Inazuma princess!" He exclaimed, eyes comically widening and teasingly wiggling his eyebrows, arms open as if presenting in front of a crowd.
She nodded at him in greeting, "Yukimura, it's been a while. Hope you still remember my regular order, because I find myself desperate for caffeine to finally flood my veins."
"Ahh, how I missed that colourful way you express yourself in. Of course I remember it, how could I not?" He jested, and pointed at an unoccupied table. "Come, sit down, I will be done in a wink."
She did as told, looking out of the window, seeing the Sun slowly rising in the sky. The café was still pretty much empty, being Sunday morning and all, but the street was starting to gradually fill with people going gods know where to do who knows what.
At long last, when Yaeko finally had her so-adored mocha latte, a content sigh escaped her lips in-between sips. She took this short while of undisturbed peace to come up with a plan of action for the following days, potentially weeks.
First things first, she would have to finish things up in Japan before taking care of the relatively urgent business in America, considering she had been tasked with checking out a couple of presumably cursed buildings in the Ibaraki area, where she had been staying for the past couple of days. Being sorcerers and having a connection with the divine meant they were the closest to exorcists that the world would ever have.
Secondly, she would have to contact her older brothers to see if they knew anything else of importance regarding Silas and the cure. Sure, she knew the basics, almost every member of the Eastern sorcerer society did, but there were details only Heirs were privy to.
Last but not least, she would have to both brush up her knowledge of body reconstruction and do a bit of recon on the general situation overseas. If her suspicions were proved true, she would have to interfere in her gods' behalf and act as the guiding hand of destiny once more. Why was it that when someone needed a new body, it was always her the gods asked for? Her relatives were also proficient in it, being fellow Inazuma.
Well, it was a bit bothersome, but she would have to endure; for it was her duty, to serve and to guide. At the very least, it would certainly make for an interesting experience.
Within the bounds of their jurisdiction —read: the Japanese Archipelago—, the country is divided in areas by prefecture, and so she arrived wrapped in her brand new trench coat at Ibaraki's 16th Land a few hours after Vik's call. It was now 10 am and still cold, but the sky was clear and the faint breeze that was blowing had died down, so it wasn't too uncomfortable.
The eroded pavement crunched under her black leather boots, the soil still a tad humid due to the heavy rain that had fallen days prior, and a smell of neglected wilderness surrounded the abandoned area. It only took Yaeko about 5 minutes to catch a glimpse of her target location. The barely standing walls that surrounded the property were little more than half-crumbled ruins, the windows were either cracked or torn out of their hinges; an unnerving aura had settled in the area, and now shrouded the building as if it meant to mimic the cold embrace of death — any life that have been there, if at all, had made itself scarce in the last decade, perhaps longer. It felt like an omen. In conclusion, the whole place looked ready to be demolished.
An ordinary human may not have noticed, but Yaeko was not one, so she did — a deep sense of disquiet encompassed now the decayed estate. Where there have been soft chirping sounds just a moment before, only a tense silence remained. She then heard a muted noise coming from behind one of the walls, a series of soft whines and whimpers, as if someone was crying. Suddenly, she felt an unnatural presence behind her back. Lightning fast, two decades of reflex conditioning allowed her to immediately turn around, guard still up, and make a subtle two-finger gesture to her right side as soon as she caught the mass of shapeless smoke that had appeared out of the blue. Her hand glowed with a faint silver halo, before it vanished as if it was a mirage. A disfigured face surfaced and let out a loud shriek before convulsing and falling down in pain.
She watched, facial expression indiscernible and with a detached look on her chestnut brown eyes, as the dark, formless mass disintegrated into violet dust, leaving little to nothing in its wake. When she raised her gaze from watching the spirit disappear on the ground, there was no ominous feeling anymore. The building, or what was left of it, was still very much about to collapse, but the sky above was clear and so was the air around.
That evening, just a couple of minutes after coming back to her apartment after cleansing both cursed locations, she got a message from Minato asking her to call him once she got home. Yaeko started the video call and put it on speaker, and while she waited for her brother to pick it up, she started preparing a cup of delicious red tea, her favourite without a doubt. Not even three ticks later, her brother's face appeared on the screen. He was comfortably wearing a dark sweatshirt, blonde hair a bit tousled, and a drowsy but content grin on his face.
"Hey Eko, how is everything going?"
"Oh well, you know, the usual. Not even during vacation time do I seem to be able to take an actual break. The gods have always loved to keep me busy, regardless of whether it was a working day or not", she ranted, brushing the loose strand of hair that was obscuring her sight from the phone's screen.
A bewildered yet deeply amused laugh rippled from the speakers, so warm it was almost as if he was physically there with her. But he was not. He was abroad, getting used to managing the family business and their branches overseas. It was a bittersweet feeling; she was really happy for him, knowing he found joy in his job and duties, but she could not help but selfishly wish he had more spare time, like they used to when they were kids. Unfortunately, time passes and never regresses.
They kept talking for a while. He told her about her intentions of proposing to Kushina, she caught him up to date with what was going on in the supernatural world. When she asked the question that had turned her mind into its home for the past several hours, he fell silent, contemplating.
"In all honesty, we do know about the Travellers and their affairs way more thoroughly than anybody would think", he mused, tapping his chin with his fingertips, partially lost in thought. He was trying to recall any and all details he had been told regarding the issue. "They were the creators of the Immortality Spell. Or more like, Qetsiyah was the creator of the Immortality Elixir. She originally created it for herself and her beloved, Silas, but then she found out he had planned to elope with her handmaiden, stealing the Elixir in the process so as to spend eternity with his 'one true love', or so he professed." Here Minato flexed his free hand's fingers to sign quotes, rolling his eyes with an expression that clearly conveyed his deplorable opinion on Silas. After all, you do not scorn a woman like that, much less a powerful witch like Qetsiyah. "The point of it all is that when she found out, Qetsiyah faked Amara's death, created an only dose of the cure, petrified Silas with it, and created the Other Side using Amara as its anchor."
"Wait, so there is only one dose?" Incredulity spilled from her voice. "I am walking into a warzone…" Yaeko lamented under her breath, already envisioning the tremendous headache it would cause her. For weeks. "Thanks for the info, ani. If you have any spells that might help me with this insufferable endeavour, please share them with me. I will send Kaito to you."
Once they ended the call, Yaeko sighed, and quietly muttered — 「 海翔、君はここに必要です。」 (TL: Kaito, you are needed here.)
A few seconds after, a series of keen rasps sounded from the other side of the kitchen. It was as if the loyal blue-grey falcon had appeared out of nowhere. Yaeko lightly petted his feathered head, and Kaito preened under her touch. 「 私は君と港兄さんにが会ってほしいです。してください。」 (TL: I want you to meet with Minato, please.)
He cawed in agreement, and she saw him part, knowing he would always have her back.