Previously on TLA: Having exhausted all leads Shadow Cards and with no current recourse, Crow is on a quest to find a god capable of rescuing Robert Pearson from the Underworld. His studies are frequently hampered by a nuisance caller who refuses to give up.
While the first hundred stabbings produced no reaction (bar a lesson in how to hold the mystical 'Tender Hands' blade properly), Musume's next attack sent Phantom into an uncontrollable rage which ended with her escape and Jaden injured.
Things had been tense since movie night at the penthouse. Although Akiza had eventually managed to recount the incident in detail, she was unable to explain what had produced such a reaction. Maybe it was because Musume had finally used the Yawarakai-Te in a backhand grip, as the blacksmith had originally intended for the mystical weapon. Whatever the reason, Phantom had flung Jaden across the room and left in a screaming fit. Luckily, their guest had displayed such minor abrasions that Luna had patched him up with Akiza barely operating in a supervisory role. Opinions were divided on where the responsibility lay. Crow felt that it had always been a matter of time until Phantom snapped. Jack remained impartial and reserved judgment. Being a victim of the fallout, Jaden may have felt biased in his blame until Luna agreed that there was no obvious reason for his injuries. Worst was Akiza - she unashamedly scolded Musume for her part until the younger redhead was practically blubbering apologies. In hindsight, that may have been a mistake.
For the next few days, she stalked around the city trying to protect every member of her family any time they set foot outdoors. This had presented a few minor issues; nobody was particularly eager to be escorted by an increasingly unbalanced maniac with a sword, said maniac was operating at a ratio of one maniac to six targets, and everyone was still holding the maniac mostly responsible but nobody wanted to mention it because, you know, she had a sword and wasn't sleeping.
Eventually, drastic steps were taken: "Get. Some. Rest!" Physically tackling her in a blanket, Akiza forced the other redhead onto the worn couch at Poppo Time and pinned her down.
"No!" Flailing her legs, Musume tried vainly to sit up.
"Yes." Akiza pushed her kicking legs against one end of the sofa and then forced her head onto a cushion at the other. "Yubel and Regulus are at the penthouse, Crow knows how to make himself invisible, and Jack can take care of himself." Being a pacifist was often mistaken for letting people walk all over you. Just because he wasn't violent didn't mean that Jack had forgotten the art of crippling his attackers. "I even asked Din to walk me to work and do you think I'm more worried about me or the city?" Although Din was allowed out in public, it was a lot like day drinking - not technically illegal but the cops tended to get extra cautious and people stayed away. "You've been awake for days. Have a nap and I'll see you for dinner."
"But," Musume protested.
"No buts except yours on that couch!" She barked. "There's plenty of food if you get hungry and I'll be angry if you don't get a few hours shut-eye. Or do I have to call Crow and have him sing you a lullaby?" Akiza offered sarcastically.
"I'm not a child!" She tried to flare up only for her intimidating glare to be broken by stifling a yawn.
"Act like one and I'll treat you like one." Akiza took advantage of her shock to straighten the blanket. "Now, get some sleep and I'll be back this evening." She gently patted the flaming redhead and ignored the sullen glare following her down the stairs.
Din was waiting outside with a cardboard coffee carrier filled with cups and straws, and adorned with a nonviolent smile. "Flabby cow." He greeted her no less caustically in public than at work.
"I'm only going to ask you once and I don't want any of your bullshit this early," She pulled the door shut and glared down at him. "Are any of those for me?"
Din looked at her expression and then down at his plethora of cups. "I'll get you a coffee." He frisbeed the empty cartoons down the alleyway to collide with a closed dumpster before scampering back across the square.
Akiza walked over to pick up the scattered remains and properly disposed of them with a weary sigh. "For once, I'd appreciate it if my problems tried working around my schedule instead of showing up at the worst possible time."
"Whazzat?" Din knuckled over with a fresh tray.
"Din." She smiled congenially. "If none of those are for me, I'm going to walk across the square, tell the officers stationed to watch Poppo Time that you're responsible for that incident at the docks where all their friends got attacked, and then go and get myself a latte while you deal with the remaining half of the police force by yourself."
Wouldn't you know it, it turned out that he'd bought her a selection to pick from. Akiza slurped with one hand and sent a text with the other as she began the long, bloody slog that her commute would become. Behind her, the darkness in the alleyway began to sing a gentle melody.
Clench fist. Punch down. Resist urge to swear. Give up. Realise that this is still the library. Catch swear in muffled groan. Sit up. "Morning." Said the figure across the table dryly. "Get a good nap in?"
"How long was I out?" Jack struggled to find his centre as the pain throbbed through his hand. Hearing his phone buzz across a thick book had made instinctively pushed him to turn off his alarm clock back in Poppo Time. A hefty thump usually dealt with the despised machine but all it had done here was hurt his fist.
A familiar scent tugged at his instincts and he glanced right at the approaching vision. "About five hours." Coffee. Meditation be damned, Jack was dangerously close to volunteering murder unless he got some caffeine in his system. "Hanging in there?"
"Much better now." He took the cup and removed the lid. "Aw, you remembered." Six shots of espresso in a cup - exactly what his doctors kept trying to warn him away from. "Let me guess," Calmer now that he had processed reality, he even managed to offer a smile. "You hit paydirt while I was asleep and I'm even more forever in your debt?" Ordinarily, anyone would be racing to take his photo and sell it to the highest bidders. Realising the effect he could have on the public, the once and future world champion was incognito in a look which Crow had long ago dubbed 'Hippie Jack'. (As this was before Jack had started anger management, he had let his fists finish the rest of that conversation.) It had the added advantage of making him look more at home amidst the stacks of books piled the length of the library table.
"Not even close." Carly took her seat beside Jack and passed over a list of progress the group had made while he was asleep - all four words of it. "Hori thought she had something for a minute but it was the Raiden v Nozi case again. We're still looking but it looks like another dead end."
"Hang on," He blew across the top of the coffee until both lungs were empty. Then, like a hideous landfish, he inhaled the sludge in a series of shuddering gulps. "What can I do to help?"
"Besides keeping up the coffee?" Many of the nerds Carly was pressing into service barely acknowledged the world outside their little corners of expertise. As far as standing was concerned, he was barely an intern. "Go through these." Without looking up from their reading, surprisingly resilient spindly arms pushed over a stack of books with a combined height of Jack's torso.
With humility came a measure of clarity - Jack had no idea where to begin helping Yusei fend off the ICC. Sure, he had money to hire lawyers but the best ones available were already on the case. Disprove the existence of AI? He could barely synch his social media accounts. Carly had lent him a sympathetic ear and mentioned a couple of her old contacts who were experts on digging up dirt. Two autographs later, they had called in any number of favours to create a virtual hoard of geeks and misfits all aiming to be first to find a viable defence against the charges. Jack and his team were searching for any mentions of sentience, computers, culpability, AI, international law, legal exemption, or loopholes relating to any of the above items. Of course, the vast majority of the advanced stuff was available online which was the counterintuitive reason that they had descended upon the libraries of New Domino - legal cases were built on precedent after precedent and they could twist one of those foundations to work for Yusei instead of against him. First prize for finding even the tiniest possibility of help was twelve hours, complete access to Jack Atlas with full disclosure, and his card footing the bill for the day. Second prize was a coffee morning and accompanying interview. Jack didn't respect third place since Crow had taken it so there was no third prize.
"Of course." He pulled down the thick tome and glared the text out of being blurry. At least he wasn't having to skirt around Crow today. They were rotating through various libraries and it was unlikely his brother would choose the same one as him again.
"Good." Jack watched incredulously as Rathie stood up and simply walked away.
"Sorry," Hori seemed permanently hunched from her twelve hours going over the books. "Us mere mortals have day jobs to get to. You go through this lot and let us know where the next meet-up is." In shock, Jack watched the rest of the exhausted cohort mutter vague excuses and shuffle off into the bleary light of day.
"Can you believe them?" He huffed to one side. "Carly?" Either the answers of the universe were inscribed on the back cover of an old science journal or… Jack carefully removed her glasses and was nearly fooled by the dark rings beneath into thinking he hadn't. While he'd been getting a pleasant nap in, Carly had continued to power through the rest of the night. Very well then. Tucking her carefully against his side, Jack pulled her book across and opened it before him. A minute later, he opened his notebook to the cheatsheet Carly had put together to explain what the terms he should be looking for meant in real words.
Did he love Yusei like a brother and hate him as a rival? Of course. But did either emotion reach the extent that he was willing to peel through another series of extremely detailed books on computers or legal matters? Eeeeeh.
"Friends left you to clear up, have they?" A smiling old man dragging a squeaky cart carefully tucked in a few awol chairs as he crept along the row. "Say," Squeaky Wheels slowed to a piercing halt as he peered over the table. "You look familiar." Damn, a librarian with a social life. Well, there was always one.
And then Jack made a decision he would regret for the rest of the day. "It's the glasses." He lied. "Take 'em off and suddenly everyone swears they've seen me somewhere - must be their brains filling in the blanks." Lying wasn't the part he regretted, it was reaching down and picking up Carly's lenses.
"Ah, I see it now." He smiled understandingly before continuing to make polite conversation. "What are you and your friends up to then? Studying for exams?" Wheeling the cart down the far side of the table, the librarian had a faintly pitying tone of voice.
"Something like that." In the privacy of his head, Jack was screaming as his vision blurred in six different ways. Whatever prescription Carly had on her glasses was outside the realms of normal science. Wearing the frames might be enough to keep his face hidden a while longer but he could feel reverse blindness setting in. Any longer and he would pierce through the veil between worlds to see the life he could have led.
"Obviously, we discourage people from sleeping in the library." Stacking a few of the discarded texts onto a shelf, the older man could tell Jack had been a frequent patron of the coffee shop downstairs by the number of stacked coffee cups around him. "Nothing we can do if readers want to rest their eyes for a minute. I remember how stressful exams can be. Did you say something?"
Coughing again, Jack nudged his companion until she grunted and settled back into heavy breathing. "Clearing my throat. You were saying?" If Carly started snoring, there was no way they'd be allowed to stay in the library.
"Must be all the dust." Said the librarian in a way which underscored how little dust he would allow to accumulate under his watch. "They're pretty old books you're working with. Law student, are ya?"
"Only if I don't drop one of these boulders on my head and kill myself." He was only partly sarcastic. Each book was thick enough to be used in heavy-duty construction and could present itself as a significant weapon in an emergency. "My professor thought it might be fun to set the class loose on that A.I. case Yusei Fudo's got on. Don't suppose you have any tips?" He said hopefully. "Best team gets to drop an assignment from the rest of the course."
"Let's see here," The wizened figure took a look at the stacks of books. "Have you tried… no, there she is. But what about, aha." He ran through the stacks with an increasingly unsettled gaze. "Well, I think you've got enough to be getting on with." Squeaky Wheels tried to smile but it was obvious that his vaunted experiences as a librarian had just been outdone by a group continuing a man wearing a propellor on his hat.
Having the purveyor of knowledge get overwhelmed by the pile of textbooks was every indication that Jack was nearly done with this particular library. Was it worth it to potentially help Yusei? Yes but not enough to avoid any possible distraction.
Grabbing his phone, he flipped it open to check the message that had originally woken him up. "Well, that's… certainly a message." He gritted his teeth to resist swearing as he scrolled to his contacts list. "Crow?" He gently straightened Carly against his chest as his brother launched a customary insult/greeting crossover. "You get a text from Akiza as well?"
"Yeah." The ginger sounded about as thrilled as Jack felt. It was a brief message: 'Be home for dinner, beware that guests are coming, behave around them' sort of deal. Thin on details though. "Who do you want to bet on: Crazy Pants or Psycho Face?"
"Neither." He replied firmly. "You just want to take my money." Whoever he bet on, Crow would claim that name belonged to the other party and Jack had learned that trick the hard way. Only took eight tries.
"Why, I would never, hang on, getting another call."
There was a brief moment as he took the phone away to examine the screen. And swipe away. All good again. "Where were we? Something about giving me all your money?"
"Who was it?" That was the problem with Jack - once he knew the trick, it was incredibly difficult to catch him out the same way again.
"Spam caller." True, but not in the way his brother would think. "I'll see you for dinner and entertainment. Dibs on that bit of pipe by the workbench closest to the ramp." Crow cut the call before Jack could try and refute the claim. No matter if it were Crazy Pants or Psycho Face, he would feel a lot calmer with some heavy metal around. "Hope your studies are going better than mine." He muttered hopelessly. Whatever crisis Jack was facing had to have more material available than he was dealing with. It seemed that the advent of the industrial revolution had marked the closing chapters of mysticism in the world and, even in the third new library in as many days, he was only encountering more retellings of the same few dozen stories.
A sinister hush fell across his surroundings as a menacing figure walked up opposite him. "You have been ignoring your phone." With those innocuous words, the number of people who could intimidate Crow with their voice alone ticked up to seven. Brothers, mother, that terrifying Izinski temper Akiza had passed down to Musume and now,
"We're in a library." Survival instincts were screaming at him to run while intellect failed to place a specific reason why. By all accounts, the smartly dressed older gentleman was as refined as royalty. If his hair had been a few shades darker grey, he might have been able to pass for Senator Izinski. Except for that bow tie. "It's rude to keep taking phone calls in here."
"Then you are claiming to have been here continuously for the past week?" Pulling out a seat across the table, a manicured hand drew one of the books and began an elegant pursuit of the information. "Because you don't smell nearly bad enough for that to be true." Add to that a lack of stubble, a fresh shirt and a lack of bags under the eyes, Crow showed no sign of self-imposed homelessness. It didn't take a hunter of this calibre to make the same assessment.
"I've been busy." Taking back the book, he scribbled down another few notes from the inscriptions inside. "What do you want?"
"As I said," Folding both hands highlighted how massive fists they could form. "You have not been answering your phone." Thunder rumbled in his expression yet it remained perfectly pleasant. That overwhelming feeling of danger continued to flood out with no clear signs of why. "Though it seemed your handset was perfectly capable of operation a minute ago."
"Did she really send you on an international trip because I didn't pick up her call?" Sherry LeBlanc may have been many things but frivolous wasn't one of them. It would have been far easier to hire someone local instead of sending Elsworth around the world to check up on him.
"The young lady is not aware that I am here." That line was enough to make Crow's throat run dry. Either Elsworth was paving grounds for Sherry's plausible deniability or it was genuine and he was free to act as a wildcard. "What happens on my holiday is my business. At my lady's insistence, of course."
Putting a lid on his fear, Crow turned back to his books. If death was coming, he'd bank on getting pulled to the Netherworld and working on an escape from the inside. "There's a great noodle bar two blocks over. Nice place, tucked down an alley." Quick, cheap, surprisingly tasty and Crow didn't look too close in case he found something to ruin the perfect snack bar near his temple of information. "I'd recommend it if you're heading to the museums. If you want the shopping district,"
A meaty hand covered the angel angle he had been examining and cut the words short. "You haven't been answering your phone." Maybe ageing eyes had been replaced with cybernetic implants because Crow could feel his scalp starting to cook. "Why?"
Gritting his teeth, Crow weighed his options. Maybe he could evade Elsworth long enough by using the books as weapons to get outside where local terrain would play to his advantage and he could escape. Of course, then he'd be banned from the library and they'd probably spread the word to their colleagues in other branches. "How much do you know about Robert Pearson?"
"I am familiar with his case." Glancing down at the books, he made the connection. "Ah. I see."
"Then you'll forgive me for not picking up every crank call that comes my way." Turning back to his research, he didn't care how the insult went down. Elsworth knew as well as he did that most of Sherry's communiques ended up simply wasting his time. "It's not as if there's a manual lying around."
"Have you ever wondered how I came to work in the LeBlanc household?" That imposing fist grabbed Crow's book and crumpled it like wet tissue. Which wouldn't have been imposing had it not been a thick hardback. "Dr LeBlanc and I served together for four years in the Légion étrangère." Slipping into French, the revelation explained a lot about the imposing figure. The French Foreign Legion was one of the most effective fighting forces on the planet. "When I received a medical discharge, he invited me to join his family. I enjoyed the routine, the call to perform for my friend... mon frère."
"Medical discharge?" If he had an underlying health condition, it was possible that Crow could take advantage while running for his life. Those primitive instincts were still telling him his life was in constant danger.
Carefully reaching down to his stomach, Elsworth undid two of the buttons. "Gutshot. Three bullets." Gnarled whorls and overlapping lines testified to the wounds and surgeries which followed. "I still managed to eliminate the remaining enemy combatants and drag Dr LeBlanc to safety before stopping." Okay. Not the sudden weakness that Crow had been hoping for.
"That girl is as close to a daughter as I will ever have." Crow tried to slip away from the table only for the huge piece of furniture to slowly grind closer to him with no sign of effort. "I have immeasurable pride in how she has turned out. Nothing has ever managed to stand in her way. Which I why I strongly recommend you pick up your phone next time she calls." Evidence of taking three bullets and scars which indicated shrapnel had also been involved suggested that Elsworth's idea of recommending action was the same as in the army – it was a polite order with immeasurable pain as the other option.
"Got it." He pointedly ignored his phone as it began to vibrate again. "Anything else?"
"Yes," Elsworth knew the roles they each played: Crow was the renegade maverick, he was the loyal supporter, and Sherry was the unstoppable force of nature with limited patience and a lifetime of learning to bury the evidence. "She likes hydrangeas but always has trouble with getting enough fertiliser." At once charming and deeply, deeply threatening.
"Excuse me," In a fit of moral insight, Crow realised that maybe he hadn't been quite bad enough to reach the circles of damnation Pearson was stuck in. "I have to send a text." Carefully shifting out of his seat, he pulled his mobile out as he rounded the corner, where he proceeded to run as fast as his legs could carry him.
The tranquil silence of Poppo Time's afternoon was broken by the roar of a savage beast. "Ah-whaaaaaa-uh-guh." Musume cracked both corners of her jaw as she stretched limbs in all directions. "Ohshit!" She fumbled for purchase while helplessly tumbling to the floor where she took a deep breath in through her nose. "Ow." At least it had only been the handle jabbing her in the side and not the business end of the Tender Hands.
"Is there murder happening up there?" Comedy lies in timing and there was probably a good out there who made sure Jack arrived at the same time Musume finished her nap. "Can I send Crow up?"
"Coward." His brother sneered while taking the lead. "Doing pushups or bench-pressing the planet?"
"I've not been awake long enough to think that's funny." That distinctive scowl graced her face as she clambered upright. Hoshi chose that moment to scoot out from under the couch and grapple with her ankle in a battle of titans.
"Mmm, you say that," Crow dropped his bag on the floor with an audible thud as she removed feline from foot. "But nobody can look that angry unless they're trying not to laugh." Damnit, he was right. It had been pretty funny.
"There's got to be a joke about your sex life in there somewhere." Hippie Jack may not have thrown hands but he had straight up murdered his brother with that line as he dumped a substantially heavier sack of books besides Crow's.
"Compensating for something?" He responded coolly. A glance down failed to provide additional ammunition since the edges of the bag had flopped down over the covers.
"You two figure out who has the bigger 'brain' while I roll through the shower." The only reason Musume couldn't smell the testosterone was because she was finally noticing her own stench. Trying to be a full-time protector had left her little room for smaller tasks.
The pair regarded each other warily. They had both been busy on their respective projects and had not had much of a chance to talk. "What are you working on?" Crow tried for casual but, inside, he was seething with curiosity. He habitually tried to shake any tails which meant Jack had been in the library by choice and that was more concerning than being followed there.
After a long moment of silence, Jack walked over to the kettle and spoke to it instead of his brother. "Trying to find a reasonable defence for Yusei's computer case." He spoke carelessly, like he'd been asked to pick up more shampoo on the way home.
"Why? He's already got more lawyers than we've had tournaments." Crow was flabbergasted - Jack was about the last man on the planet to willingly dive into any problem that couldn't be solved in five minutes. Trawling over hundreds of years of fine print was the polar opposite of his traditional work ethic.
"Because he's the only real competition around and I'll never let him live it down if I save his arse." Jack shrugged.
"Moving past Yusei's arse," Crow tried to focus on the idea of Jack being altruistic - what drugs had caused it and where could he get some?
"What's this about Yusei's arse?" Nobody could sound that enthusiastic without being a reporter, a stalker, or his partner. "Evening boys."
"Rhaaa!" Screeched the hawk perched on her shoulder.
"Vella says hi." Akiza duly translated, watching Hoshi unnaturally hop up onto the kitchen table for a closer look at the hunting bird. Besides spreading her majestic wings in an impressive display, Vella pretended not to notice the attention.
"Jack," Crow spoke in a low monotone. "Don't make any sudden moves or loud noises - anything that could set her off."
"Who are you talking about?" Jack inched backwards at a glacial speed. "Akiza or the bird?"
"Very funny." She scowled. "Vella needs to get used to longer flights now that her wing is nearly healed and Din got himself 'indisposed'. Got a few funny looks on the way back but it was still quieter than my journey there." At the rate of incident pay she was getting, Akiza could probably afford to retire by the end of the next year. "Dare I ask why Musume needs a shower?" Vella burbled in her ear and she gently walked the bird over to depart through a window.
"Lazybones was still asleep when we got here." A look of panic crossed Akiza's face at Jack's words. "What?"
"She slept all day?" She seemed distracted by something in the alley before she shut the window again.
"In my defence," Musume stuck her head out with a hand still towelling hair. "You told me to get some sleep and I'm feeling a lot better." The door shut briefly as she pulled on a fresh shirt. She must have been more tired than she'd admitted because the old one wasn't even torn this time. "Got Crow's text. What's up?" Unlike the original message Akiza had sent out that morning, Crow's version had simply read 'Get decent, Akiza grumpy'.
"Yes," Akiza mused. "I suppose now's as good a time as any." The kettle in the background clicked and she snapped around.
"Too much coffee?" Said the hypocrite, picking up on her stress. "Or are you going to tell us what's going on?" Jack could narrow it down to one of five problems; Crazy Pants, Psycho Face, Yliaster, Signer stuff, or Din. Never before had he been routing so hard for the faceless organization to be involved.
"Phantom came to see me this morning." Crow did the smug face, Musume did the angry face, Akiza did the worried face. Jack didn't have any emotional investment in the situation and simply started making himself enough coffee to get through the coming ordeal. "She requested a meeting to talk everything out."
"Good," Musume snarled as she tucked her sword through a belt loop. "We can settle this right here and now." Hoshi rolled off the kitchen table and scampered downstairs.
"In case it all goes sideways; Crow," She turned to the ginger with a weary scowl. "I want you to know that I'm blaming you for her always picking the absolute worst choice of words." Behind her, the vantablack armour silently ascended the staircase with a kitten on one shoulder and a cracked smile beneath the visor.
The one day of the year I can ask this: please, leave a r-eve-view.