ACROSS THE RIVER

Vel Mnemonic swallowed as they looked up at the J Edgar Hoover building, that seemed to loom over them. The street traffic passed by them in a flood of people, occasionally a tourist would bump shoulders with them, but otherwise most of them ignored Vel.

They knew that eventually they would have to go in, to their new job, but some great cosmic force held them in place, held their neck craned to just look at it.

After that night, the night that changed everything, Vel was quickly removed from the dorms of Richmond Jujutsu High. Their parents and school had gotten an excuse, one that Vel did not know the wording of as it was written up by Mr. Yi, and they were shortly thereafter moved to an online charter school to keep up appearances. The FBI work would be a side job for them, in theory.

And today was their first day on the job, after a week of settling in and crying in various parts of their new apartment. Their body felt cold, and they could see stains on their pants when they wiped their hands on them. Mr. Coleman said that they didn't need to change anything to fit dresscode, but they still felt the urge to cover their head or dye it back to black.

What if they find some misunderstanding on their record, and have to arrest them? What if they didn't actually mean to hire them, and were just being nice?

They felt Felix begin to stir in their bag, the motors in his limbs whirring. That noise was enough to spur them into moving into the building. Any longer, and people would start to ask questions…

Thankfully, Mr. Yi had informed the staff of their technique, so when Felix inevitably flagged the metal detectors Vel was able to explain without getting detained.

"So," the receptionist continued, sitting down afterward. "You're Vel Mnemonic from… the Sorcery Department?"

"Yes'm," Vel nodded. They felt eyes suddenly on their back, as if all the other agents in the room turned to face them on a dime.

The receptionist's eyebrows furrowed, and her mouth grew tight. For a moment, Vel had a hysterical thought that they were about to get laughed out of the building, but instead, she gestured to her right with a brown, lithe hand.

"Their office is on the fifteenth floor, elevator's right there."

"Thank you, ma'am," Vel said with a smile, before walking. "Have a great day."

They heard muttering amongst the other agents, almost uncharacteristic of how much older they all seemed to be… It reminded Vel of back at the school. Oh god, is it going to be just like back there? Full of gossiping immature kids and pointless, inane drama? Vel ran a hand down their face, before clicking the 'UP' button on the elevator.

The elevator itself was completely empty when they got in, and Vel found themselves focusing back on the agents. It was hard not to feel intimidated by them, Mr. Coleman was a special grade, and the one woman, Ms. Chaoren had a similar, almost overwhelming aura to her. The others, while slightly weaker, still were intimidating… Ms. Lee in particular was built like a goddamn tank, muscles strong and firm almost like a bodybuilder's. She could probably pick them up and throw them a foot away... Was Vel supposed to live up to that example too…? They looked down at their reedy limbs, then rubbed the base of their neck with their index finger.

Suddenly, about halfway up the elevator chimed once, and the door opened. Walking in was a tall, imposing older woman dressed in the typical agent uniform, wearing her suitjacket like a cape, her brown hair cropped into a bob. Vel watched with their eyes wide as she walked into the elevator car, standing right beside them. They quickly scuttled to the side, offering as much room as needed as the woman quickly tightened her tie.

For a moment, she was silent, before she spoke in a loud, firm voice.

"It seems every year the Bureau hires younger and younger," she said with a sigh, glancing over at Vel, who stood up stock straight. "Tell me, child, what department are you from?"

"T-The sorcery department, ma'am."

The woman laughed, almost more like a bark than anything human, lips pulling back to expose uniform, perfectly white teeth. A brown hand rubbed at their eyes for a moment.

"Sorcerey, oh dear," she said, clicking her tongue a few times. "So, what did you do to get in this time?"

What did Vel do? Was the department like… a punishment for agents who misbehaved? Their eyebrows furrowed as they ran their hand through their hair. Maybe they should lie about why they got hired…

Instead, Vel decided to be honest, an image of them in cuffs flashing being lead out of the building in their mind right after the previous thought.

"I… I was the only survivor of a sorcerer mission," Vel said softly, looking over at the buttons by the door. 'Five' was lit up. "It was determined that I would be a better fit for the department rather than to go back, as I have intel that could compromise our mission, ma'am."

The woman glanced over at them once again, before quickly looking away. Her hand rubs at her mouth for a second.

"My condolences," she said simply.

The elevator was silent once more. Then, Vel heard their bag unzip and looked down to see Felix pushing himself out of the duffel bag. The round little chicken-robot stared up at Vel, brown beady eyes glimmering up at them.

"Gyah?!" Vel exclaimed, trying their best to move their upper body to grab Felix as he darted away. "Felix, I told you not to get out…!"

The woman looked down at the robot, who was now circling her legs, clutching her right ankle. Her eyes were wide, and darted between Vel and the robot.

"I'm so sorry," Vel stammered, fidgeting with their hands. "I, uh, can't control him very well yet. Not like his brothers…"

"Brothers?" The woman asked, tilting her head slightly. "You've made more?"

"Yeah. It's part of my cursed technique…! I can conduct electricity, specifically when it comes to electronics. Which means I can control them! So, like, Felix… that's his name by the way, Felix can operate just on my cursed energy, not on batteries or anything like that."

The woman's eyebrows raised, and her lip jutted out slightly.

"So, these robots of yours are completely self-sufficent when you use this… cursed energy?"

"Yes'm."

She rubbed her mouth again, looking down at Felix, who was now toddling around the floor, head swiveling. Before the woman could ask them anything more, the elevator chimed, and the doors opened to the fifteenth floor.

"Uh, this is my stop," Vel said, gathering Felix into their arms and walking out the door. "Have a nice day, ma'am."

"May we meet again, child," the woman responded, her eyes narrowing slightly before the door shut.

That was strange, Vel thought to themselves as Felix walked ahead of them. Who was that lady? They shook their head once, trying to free themselves from the image in their mind.

The office itself was a small converted breakroom that Vel missed on the first walk around the floor. In fact, Felix was the one to lead them to it, making a low pipping noise and standing in front of the threshold, looking up at his creator. So, red-faced and clutching their bag, Vel walked in.

The other agents, their superiors Vel reminded themselves, seemed busy at their computers. Mr. Yi was nowhere to be seen, maybe he was out or Vel passed him on the way up to the office. If they strained their ears, they could hear Ms. Lee singing to herself.

"I can get no, sat-is-fact-ion, I can get no, sat-is-fact-ion…"

"Uh, excuse me…" Vel called out, and all four whipped their heads up to look at them. Ms. Lee leaned back in her chair, a half-formed smirk on her face. Her hair was up, thrown into a rather loose ponytail that seemed to be seconds away from falling down.

"Well, hello there Vel," she said, drumming her hand on the arm of her chair. "Didn't know you were coming in today."

"I thought Haoyu told you," Mr. Coleman replied, rubbing his chin. "Vel has settled in their apartment, and their schooling has been set up, so this is their first week."

Ms. Lee made a low 'ah' noise, and nodded their head once. Mr. Coleman gestured to an empty desk across from Mr. Zhang's, and Vel and Felix slowly walked over there.

"Woah," Ms. Chaoren said suddenly, and Vel heard the sound of wheels swiveling to face them. "What's up with this little guy?"

She pointed to Felix, who walked up to her, wings on his hips.

"That's Felix," Vel said, a smile slowly tugging a the corner of their lips. "I made him using my cursed technique."

Vel found themselves explaining their cursed technique for the second time in about five minutes. Out of all four, Ms. Chaoren seemed the most interested, a thumb rubbing against her bottom lip.

"I uh, actually explained this to someone in the elevator car up," Vel said, rubbing the back of their head. "About him."

"Who?" Mr. Zhang asked with his lip curled, crossing his legs as they rested against his desk.

"A woman… older. Hair in a brown bob, suit jacket on her shoulders… Very imposing…"

Instantly, the four agents sat up stock still, and Mr. Zhang took his legs off of the desk so fast the mouse flung to the floor with them, landing with a clatter.

"Mrs. Nakamura?!" Ms. Lee exclaimed, her eyes wide. "You met that sexy bitch!? She's in the building?!"

"Uh, yeah," Vel said, sitting rather primly and watching the others shoot looks at eachother, eyebrows furrowed. "Why?"

"She's the assistant director of the CIA!" Ms. Chaoren exclaimed.

"She's so scary…" Mr. Zhang said, rubbing his face. "You don't even know the half of it… The first time she ran into me she yelled at me for fifteen minutes…"

"Hey, don't you think she's kinda hot, though?" Ms. Lee said, turning to Vel, who furrowed their brows and shook their head.

"That's odd," Vel replied, rubbing their mouth. "Mrs. Nakamura was pretty cordial with me, if a little cold…"

"She's tough on those three because they're special cases," Mr. Coleman replied, resting his head in one of his big hands.

"'Special cases'?" Vel repeated, looking over at the other agents, who looked away, bodies stiff. Ms. Lee crossed her arms, and rubbed her pink cheeks. "What do you mean?"

"Are you going to tell them?" Mr. Coleman looked over nonchalantly at Ms. Chaoren, whose gaze was firmly on the grey carpet. "Or am I? You three can't run from this forever, you know."

"Well, Vel, we are… We're ex-cons," Ms. Chaoren explained, still looking at the floor.

"Ex-cons!?" Vel exclaimed, and even Felix jumped back, slinking back to them. "What-what did you do?!"

"Stole art and jewlery," Mr. Zhang replied, adjusting his glasses.

"Ms. Chaoren, Ms. Lee and Mr. Zhang here were arrested on fourteen federal counts of grand larceny, breaking and entering and fraud," Mr. Coleman continued, not looking up from his computer as he typed. "They used their cursed technique to commit these crimes, so they fell under our jurisdiction. As a part of their plea deal, they are employed with us in exchange for their sentence being commuted and their record being wiped."

"So, that's why she asked me what I did to join this department," Vel replied, tapping the side of their face. It also explained why everyone else in the lobby was staring at them like they had five heads and had a gun on them…

"We… don't have the best reputation because of that," Ms. Lee replied, biting her thumbnail. "I know that all the other agents have heard rumors about our crimes… So just get ready for that. Sorry."

Looking back over at the three, it wasn't surprising in hindsight. Despite how unserious they acted, the three had this imposing, almost terrifying aura around them. And Ms. Lee and Ms. Chaoren were definitely muscular enough to look the part of a hardened criminal…

"Also, our crime spree is done!" Ms. Chaoren exclaimed, waving her hands in front of her. "We've seen the light. You don't have to worry about us anymore."

"Jaewon did steal a gun from the last mission though," Mr. Zhang said, and Ms. Lee turned to glare at him.

"Shuddup! That's different and you know it."

"Enough you two," Mr. Coleman said, looking up from his screen. The two agents quietly returned to their computers, grumbling to themselves. "Vel, just start working on your report of last mission for now, okay?"

"First day and the new kid gets report duty," Ms. Chaoren sighed, shaking her head. "How cruel of you, James."

"I have to do it too, just so you know. No one's special here."

"I am!" Jaewon exclaimed, resting her head on her hand and smiling up angelically. "I'm very-"

The door slammed open, and everyone in the room straightened up before Mr. Yi rushed in. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses like all the other times that Vel had met with him, and his posture was straight and tight as he walked in long strides to the front of the room.

"Welcome back to our den of depravity, Haoyu," Ms. Lee said, leaning back in her chair. "How was the outside world?"

"Not important," he replied, his jaw tight. "Counter-terrorism sent us intel."

He slammed a USB stick against the desk, and instantly, half the room rushed over to the main computer in the front.

authors notes:

title is from MIROH by stray kids

the song jaewon is singing to herself is '(i can get no) satisfaction' by the rolling stones

holidays kicking my ass so forgive me for going biweekly all december lol