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Well, it had come to this. Dara finally had the opportunity to attack someone with her metal powers, without serious consequence. Her parents always warned her, this was after the fifth failed exorcism with the monks mind you, that if she used her powers for harm that it would lead to her downfall, and she'd turn into a devil.

Of course, she then turned around and used those powers to steal, but then they did end up being right… Whatever.

'Evans' made a gesture with his hand, almost a 'come here' gesture, and Dara felt the spike in cursed energy before the shikigami appeared. It seemed to poof into existence, preempted by a flash of blue fire. She barely had a second to prepare to dodge before the tendril shot out again, curling around the door in an attempt to grab onto someone or something.

"Jesus!" Mikael shouted, as he fell to the ground, rolling away from the tentacle. He fired two shots at 'Evans' but judging by the high 'ping!' sound, it ricocheted off of something metallic.

Dara stood back, biting the corner of her mouth. She'd probably be able to whup this guy good, maybe, perhaps. A little bit of her was still uncertain and nervous about being away from her friends and superiors, but she fought it back. What did Haoyu lecture her about before this…? Right. No deaths, minimal property damage, do not use her technique on the computer. Got it.

Closing her eyes, Dara felt the pellets melt, shift, and flow through the gaps in her fingers, becoming solid once more. When her eyes opened again, the pellets had formed into a mini-harpoon, glinting in the midday sunlight.

"W-What is…?" Anne said, her eyes wide as Dara gripped the harpoon tight. "How did you?"

"You," Dara replied with a smirk, crouching down. "Are about to witness a master at work."

She thrusted her arm forward until she felt the distinctive tender feeling of the harpoon piercing into the shikigami's flesh, purple blood gushing from its wound. It shrieked, pulling back when she yanked the harpoon from it, darting into the apartment.

Dara twirled the spear into her hands, before walking slowly into the room, glass and concrete crunching underneath her feet. She stared at the shikigami, a black, inky squid, its tendrils wrapped around his couch as it shrunk away from her, almost deflating. Then, she looked over at 'Evans', who was still smiling at her as he took a couple of steps back, his eyes unmoving, almost like a dead fish's. The fucking computer's still blasting that goddamn annoying sermon, and now Dara could make out some babbling about the 'end times', things about change. Whatever it was, it seemed to make this dude even more on edge, hands jittery.

Shikigami users… Haoyu had lectured her about them…

"There's a certain trick to facing them," he had told her after one sparring match, as Dara cleaned the blood from her face. "Most of them are shit in close combat. Jaewon's the exception obviously, but what they want is distance between you and them."

"I see," he said, tilting his head. "I see, I see."

Whatever he 'saw', Dara frankly didn't give a fuck. Probably more religious babble. Maybe to him, with the imaginary anti-reality glasses that seemed to cloud his very vision, she was some evil he needed to vanquish.

"Do you want to know something?" He continued.

"No," Anne shouted from the foyer, and Dara instinctively fell to the ground as the agent fired two rounds.

Both grazed his right shoulder, and 'Evans' reeled back, hand clutching it. His grin dropped for a moment, before slithering back onto his face. Dara got up, but didn't move forward just yet.

Patience.

"Let me fucking continue, you goddamn whore!" He shouted, the grin still plastered on his face. "My cursed technique allows me to-"

Dara rushed forward, and before 'Evans' could properly react, slammed her knee into his gut. He coughed and spluttered, and Dara threw him to the floor. Her elbow jutted between his chin and neck as he squirmed, trying to get out of her grasp. If he had any physical skill, it had long since atrophied, judging by his toothpick arms and inability to get free from a pretty loose submission hold.

"Sandara!" Mikael shouted, and Dara glanced up to see the squid shikigami crawling up from the couch.

It rushed forward, but before it could make contact with her, Dara rose to her feet gripping her firearm and the harpoon. She flung the harpoon forward, before firing two shots right after it. The bullets twist and extend in the air, slamming into the squid as smaller, brass harpoons. The three spears pinned the shikigami to the wall, and it could only let out a choked squeal as it melted into a purple slime.

"Aw," Dara huffed, crossing her arms after holstering her gun once more. "I wanted squid kee mao."

'Evans' stared back at her, red in the face from the fight and the grin long since wiped off. His greasy hair somehow looked more disheveled. The two agents quickly rushed in, cuffing him before he could run. As Mikael read him his Miranda rights, Dara quickly busied herself with pulling out the spears from the wall. Quickly, she melted them back down into three pellets, stuffing them in her jacket.

"You," 'Evans' called out, his eyes wide. "You've made a terrible mistake."

"Huh?" Dara said, turning to face him, eyebrow raised and lip curled. "What?"

A grin, wild and animalistic, grew on his face now.

"They're watching you. He's watching you now. You can't be allowed to live. They'll come after you, after all your curse user friends, until your stain is removed. So the new world can be born…"

Dara looked down at him, before crossing her arms. Whatever threat he's crowing about can't be worse than what would happen if Haoyu found out she didn't get this dude processed and in fed jail soon. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought.

"Whatever man," she scoffed, shrugging. "Keep threatening me all you want, you're the one going into the slammer for forty years."

Eventually, the three head out, making room for the police and forensics to rush in after them, muttering in the weird code all cops seemed to use. Maybe she should learn it at this point, and figure out what they say after cases like this. The two feds probably knew, they looked like they'd been working this joint for decades.

"So, that was fun, wasn't it?" Dara said, resting her hands on her hips as they walked down the stairway. "Not what you expected, hm?"

"No," Anne huffed, holding onto one of 'Evans' arms to restrain him. "It's work, work isn't fun. Especially when it involves someone trying to kill others. My only satisfaction is keeping my countrymen safe."

"Lame," she grumbled. What a hard-ass. You'd expect people like her to go a little insane with their experiences.

"Still, I can't believe all this," Mikael said, looking wide-eyed. "You can just… do that?"

"Yeah, always have been able to do that shit with metal," Dara said, puffing out her chest for dramatic effect. "Since I was five."

"And… you can see all of those things normally? Without glasses?"

"Yep."

"That sounds… miserable," Anne said, unholstering her gun as they walked toward one of the police cruisers. "I feel like this is stuff you just shouldn't see. Like looking behind the curtain at a play."

"Mmm, yeah it sucks balls actually," Dara said, pinky finger in her ear. "Well, I barely know about that world. But as you can see with our friend here, they are pretty picky for who-"

"捌."

Dara felt something warm splash onto her face and neck, her left eye closing tight. She whipped her head around at the sound, searching for the person who spoke. It was a high voice, probably one belonging to a teenager. But, the only thing she could see was a figure wearing a hoodie booking it in the distance. How could that be…? The voice sounded like it was right there. And…

She looked over to see 'Evans' decapitated head rolling towards her feet. His expression was blank as if he had been cut down without knowing or feeling it. Her ears ring, and she instinctively jumped back into Anne's arms, almost like she was a little girl again. Distantly, as if in a dream, she heard his lifeless body fall against the pavement, and the rush of footsteps over to them.

Oh, was Dara's only thought, Haoyu's gonna fucking flay me.

"So, that's what happened."

Jaewon and Ryan stared back at Dara from their desks in the office, eyes wide and mouths open. In contrast, James seemed rather unnaturally stoic, while Haoyu sat with a hand over his mouth, looking up at her through his eyebrows. He didn't seem mad…

"Jayce Evans was killed by another sorcerer before you could book and interrogate him?" James said, fingers tapping against the arm of his chair. "Is that what you're saying?"

"Yeah, I think so," Dara said, crossing her arms. "I mean, he gave that whole speech about how me and all my 'curse user' friends would be hunted down to clean the 'new world' or whatever."

She sighed, rubbing her face.

"It's possible that the two had some sort of suicide clause, or the other one just didn't want him to go to trial at all costs…"

There was a pause, and Dara scrunched up her face. She wrung her hands in front of her, ready for anything.

"I… I'm really sorry sir," she muttered through grit teeth. "I won't let anything like this happen again."

"Sandara," Haoyu said, hand dropping from his mouth. "There's no need for that. If that sorcerer snuck up on you, they snuck up on you. You just have to learn from it."

Her shoulders droop. He's not pissed, thank god.

"Dara, shouldn't we be more worried about how this dude was like, 'oh I'm gonna kill all of you'?" Ryan exclaimed, adjusting his glasses. "That attack was both to make sure he didn't squeal, but to show you that they could kill you faster than you could even blink!"

"Calm down, Ryan," James said, holding a hand out in front of him. "We don't know anything yet."

James looked over to Dara, hands in his lap. His stoic look was really starting to freak her out. It was like getting asked about something serious by a teacher.

"Dara, could you try pronouncing the phrase you heard before Mr. Evans was decapitated?"

She tried her best. Ha-chi. The pronunciation was all wrong, but it was as close as she could manage.

"Mm, sounds familiar," he replied, rubbing his chin. "I'll research it this week."

"So, now what?" Dara asked, sitting down in her office chair.

Haoyu swiveled around, a smirk on his face. Somehow, seeing him smile was worse than the serious, almost grim expression on James' face.

"Well, since you listened to my instructions we still have Mr. Evans' computer," Haoyu said, resting his head on his steepled hands. "A gold star for you for listening. That means we have emails, internet history, and all sorts of data to comb through. That'll be headed mainly by the Counter-Terrorism department."

Haoyu looked over at all four of them for a moment.

"It's not like we're exactly qualified for that kind of work."

"I am!" Ryan shouted before Haoyu waved him off.

"So, until we get another call…"

Haoyu shrugged, a grin on his face. Dara felt her stomach plummet, and her blood run cold.

"I guess it's just writing reports for you!"

"No, but I just got done doing that!" Dara exclaimed, head falling against the office chair. "Come on, Haoyu, please can I have one break? I don't wanna write about how much ammunition I discharged… Plus if that guy missed, he would've decapitated me!"

"Sorry Dara, we all have to do it," Haoyu said, looking not at all sorry. "Plus, I want to hear about how you jumped into Anne's arms. That was funny."

"It wasn't at the time!" Dara insisted before Jaewon rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on," she said, smiling as she rubbed her shoulder in a circular pattern. "I'll get us takeout, we can make a night of it."

Dara crossed her arms, but sighed, rubbing her head.

"Fine…"

chapter title is from la chíqui by arca