A Game of Cat and Cat

by Zantetsuken Reverse

When supernatural crime strikes, as a wielder of magic powers, it's your responsibility to fight. If you're an endgame protagonist, a few criminals should be easy, right? Except your powers aren't exactly legal, and the cops are after you. And you're not the only endgame protagonist out there... A tale of cops, crooks, and everyone in between.

18. Chapter 18: The Trio's Tale

This was written first out of the three chapters because it's the root cause of the other two.

The killer first appeared all the way back in the second chapter, when Naoki was walking back from his encounter with Aoi. I'm telling you this now because they wouldn't recognize each other if they met again.

And ^_^ on Ao3 did notice!

Cats Flee Before the Mouse: The Trio's Tale

"If the law denies you the right to exist, hang the judge."

-Kazuya Kawamoto

(8:04 p.m.)

"Your breath doesn't fog when you talk."

Wow, his eyes are good.

You can do better, said the Peeping Eye soul, a tad petulantly.

Oh, right, said Soma, and he switched over. He blinked to let his eyes adjust, and the dark alleyway blossomed to life.

To call the girl thin and pale would be correct, but not accurate. Thin and pale insinuates a romantic Gothic heroine of sorts, the kind that wears doll-like, frilly black dresses, with just enough tuberculosis to show a striking complexion while her languid form reclines in bed.

This girl looked like she had enough tuberculosis to have worms crawling beneath her skin. Her bony form suggested that she subsisted on a diet of floor scraps; hell, she probably fought the dog for scraps and lost. Romantic poets might compare fair skin to moonlight or snow; the best comparison Soma could make was ash. Instead of the complexion of a noblewoman, she had the pallor of a corpse.

Now, in the real world, Soma might have taken this as a sign that she was severely ill and starving. Even her breath not condensing might be a symptom of… hypothermia or something (tis not, sire, Bifrons whispered helpfully). Soma might have pitied her, if the Peeping Eye soul didn't allow him to detect (but not see through) illusions. And something about those eyes didn't seem real…

Undead.

She cursed, then laughed. "Two weeks," she said, her voice dropping at least two octaves. "Two weeks, five days, and eight hours I've been sitting in this dump. You're the first person to even question why I'm here."

Arachne, Black Panther, get ready.

Aye!

"And why is that?" said Soma, preparing to cast.

Her eyes, false as they were, gleamed. "Isn't it obvious? I'm the murderer."

That was all Soma needed. With the speed of the Black Panther, he dashed towards the killer, weaving around her at the last second, the wake of his tremendous speed knocking her to the ground. Before she could recover, he reversed direction, cancelling his momentum and giving him just enough time to aim a sticky net of spider silk at center mass—

"Halt."

Soma's body froze midthrow. The sticky net veered to the left, harmlessly splattering against the alley wall and throwing tiny strands of watery silk all over the killer. At the far end of the alley, Mina and Kazuya lay on the ground, face up in what looked like awkward yoga stretches—

Almost as if someone right in front of them accelerated from zero to Mach One in half a second, said the Amalric Sniper.

Whoops.

"What the?!" Mina shouted. "Why can't I move?!"

"Paralysis spell," said Kazuya with grudging respect.

Tombstone, swap! Soma shouted.

I NULLIFY PETRIFICATION, NOT PARALYSIS, Tombstone responded, but swapped anyways. The alleyway dimmed, but Soma still couldn't move.

Ectoplasm!

CuRseS onLY, the ghost muttered, but obeyed. Still nothing.

Poison Worm! Killer Doll! Archdemon! Anyone!

…please…

Mina took a deep breath and started shakily chanting a healing spell.

"Don't waste your breath," said the killer, her voice much lower and deeper than Soma would have ever expected from even a boy her age. "You can't use magic when paralyzed." She regarded her cobweb-ridden clothes with disdain, and then strode towards Mina and Kazuya—

Soma's blood turned to ice, then fire. "Don't you dare—" Soma growled.

The killer knelt at Mina's toppled form. "I know you're probably terrified right now, miss, but what it's worth, you were never in any danger from me," she said. "I kill people who try to rob helpless little girls in dark alleyways, not teenagers in need of a hiding spot." She glanced back at Soma. "Not even vigilantes looking for the local murderer."

Mina stared back at her in absolute shock and horror. "I was alone with you," she managed. "You… you could have…"

The killer nodded sadly (as if she had any right to—). "I could have killed you if I wanted to," she said softly. "Just thought it might help to know that I wouldn't." She stood up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go."

The killer vanished into the frozen night, leaving naught but the splash of water in her wake. Even that faded, until they were alone under the cold winter sky—

Your young lady is hyperventilating, said the Waiter Skeleton.

What?

True to his words, one of them was breathing much more heavily than the others. "Mina, are you okay?!" said Soma. Words failed him, because—

He wasn't there, he was too far away, he couldn't hear what had happened to her until it was—

"Breathe, Mina," said Kazuya, in a soft, deep voice that carried all the way to Soma.

Mina swore. She swore again, hurling profanity after profanity at the rain and the clouds and the stars beyond, until her voice cracked hoarse, and the alleyway was once again filled with deep, stable breathing.

"Are you okay?" said Kazuya.

"It's moments like these that swearing was made for," said Mina, her voice still cracked. "Yes, I'm… better."

"But are you okay?"

Mina shot him a glare. "Kazuya, we have more important things to do than talk about my feelings," she snapped. "We need to catch the killer before she gets away; I can whine and cry later!"

Kazuya took a deep breath, and exhaled. "All right, but let me say one last thing. It is not uncommon to experience belated terror after danger has passed. She may have told you that she wouldn't have hurt you, and maybe she was telling the truth, but that doesn't change the fact that you were alone with someone who could have killed you. You have every reason to be upset."

Mina paused. "…You know, that would have been incredibly condescending if that wasn't exactly what I was feeling."

"I get that a lot," said Kazuya. He paused. "Well, I got that a lot."

Mina took a deep breath. "All right, strategy time," she said authoritatively, probably more firmly than she felt. "Do either of you know how long it takes for paralysis to wear off?"

Minutes, said Kali.

"Minutes," said Soma.

"Minutes," said Kazuya.

"Good," said Mina. "We'll be out of here in no time. Soma, you had night vision on, right? Did you notice anything important?"

"Yeah," said Soma. "Let's see… I'm pretty sure she was undead. Besides the breath thing, she had an illusion covering her eyes."

"You can see through illusions?" said Kazuya.

"What do illusions have to do with the undead?" said Mina at the same time.

Soma took in a deep breath. "Kazuya, the answer to your question is shorter, so I'm answering it first. No, I can't see through illusions, but I can tell when they're there. As for yours, Mina…"

Soma broke off. While he could picture the killer in his head, the words he shaped around her image tasted foul in his mouth. Tiny, pale, starving… he felt like a bully just thinking it. "All right, the illusions weren't what tipped me off, just what tipped me over. It's just hard to say what did."

"Could you give us a general description?" said Mina.

Soma sighed. "No, not that kind of hard, just… uncomfortable to say. I…" He gave Kazuya a wary glance and took a deep breath. "All right, I know that this sounds like I'm accusing her of being a monster just for being poor, starving, and severely ill, but I've seen more undead than I have famines. I've never seen a living person as pale as her, but I've seen plenty of vampires. I'm not saying no living person would—"

"Soma," interrupted Kazuya. "Do you know one of the worst things about the zombie apocalypse that nobody anticipated?"

"…I don't think it's possible for either of us to answer that question," said Mina.

"Wait, I thought you had a demon apocalypse," said Soma.

"And a zombie apocalypse," said Kazuya. "One kind of led into the other. There was also the robot apocalypse, but Aoi and I shut that one down quick. The nuclear apocalypse turned out to not be as bad as we thought; I mean, yeah, huge swathes of the world glassed, but any nuclear war where radiation doesn't kill off humanity is a plus in my book. And I think they were trying to start the Biblical Apocalypse…? Not sure how they would have initiated the Rapture, or maybe it already happened and nobody—"

"Kazuya," said Mina.

"Right, zombies," said Kazuya. "The problem is that recent undead look a lot like living humans, and everyone knows that. Sometimes you get people who stop and try to help what looks like a sick, injured person, only for them to try and bite you; hell, that's happened to me once or twice. But I think it's worse when it's the other way around. People still get sick in the apocalypse, and you'd be surprised how much blood you can lose before you start to get woozy. So every now and then, you see a corpse lurching towards you, and you panic and open fire, but when you inspect the body you find there's no rot or—"

A sudden chill seized Soma's spine, plunging his vision into the single, half-rotted eyeball of a Zombie Soldier.

Having his arm chopped off by a possessed suit of armor should have been the worst part of his day. That was just pain, something he never imagined he'd miss.

Crawling through the sewers, well, that was an infection for later, but at least nothing was trying to kill him right away.

No, the worst part was seeing his squadmates scream and flee at his approach, not even bothering to waste ammo, abandoning him to the tender mercies of the undead…

"Are you okay?" said Mina. "You just… zoned out for a moment."

"I'm fine," said Soma.

"If you say so," said Mina dubiously.

Kazuya cleared his throat. "My point is that it is neither morally wrong nor foolish to mistake sick or injured people for undead, or vice versa. Sometimes it's a warning sign, and sometimes it's a coincidence. Just tell us what you saw."

"Skin the color of ash. Sunken eyes. Ribs sticking out." And all the little signs that this growing girl hadn't had enough to eat for many, many years… "Don't forget the illusion. I wouldn't be surprised if she were hiding red eyes."

"You think she's a vampire?" said Mina.

"What other undead can keep their form without rotting?" said Soma.

"Bodyconians," said Kazuya.

"What?"

"They're a kind of zombie," said Kazuya. "Don't ask why they're called that; I've never heard any stories about them. Besides those, I think liches can stop themselves from rotting, but they don't usually bother. Depending on how broadly you define undead, preta. But they're more ghosts than undead… I mean, if they're the reincarnations of sinners, are they really ghosts? Then there's also—"

"We get it, you know demons," said Mina flatly.

"I like showing off," said Kazuya haughtily.

"Anyways," said Soma before the conversation could derail any further. "Are there any demons that look like a recent corpse?"

"Or ones that possesses corpses?" added Mina. "I've heard stories of imps doing that."

"Vetala do that, too…wait." Kazuya paused. "You said that she had an illusion on her eyes, right?"

Soma tried to nod, failed, and then resorted to simply saying, "Yes."

"And just her eyes? She didn't try to cover up any of the things you noticed?"

…What?

There might have been something on one of her arms, the Peeping Eye added helpfully.

"Eyes only," said Soma. He'd have to confirm the arm thing for himself later. "You don't believe me?"

"No, it's… if you were a vampire and you could cast illusions on yourself, wouldn't you try to hide everything?" said Kazuya. "Bloodless skin, red eyes, fangs—"

"Huh," said Soma. "I don't remember seeing fangs."

Do you look for teeth when listening to people? a Ghost Dancer retorted.

Good point. Still seems like something I'd notice.

"You know what I mean. What's the point of a glamour if you neglect the obvious?"

"You didn't notice," said Soma. Mina didn't notice the other night, he decided not to say. "And I only noticed because I have night vision. What's the point of a glamour if the dark does half the work for you?"

"Then why hide the eyes? It's not like people would notice, not in candlelight."

"I don't know, they reflect better in light?"

"I think you're missing the easy answer," said Mina.

"Which is?" said Kazuya.

"However suspicious she looks now, her eyes are even worse," said Mina. "Maybe they glow, they're not there, or they're… they're made of fire or something. The night can cover up her skin and bones, but her eyes are a dead giveaway."

"Huh," said Soma. "That makes sense. Conserving her magic and all."

"I guess…," said Kazuya, trailing off.

"You don't believe me?" said Mina.

"No, it's a reasonable answer, but I'm not sure it's the right one," said Kazuya.

"Then what do you think it is?" said Mina coldly.

Kazuya was silent.

"Well?"

"…I don't have one," admitted Kazuya.

"Then—"

"You know what?" interrupted Soma. "Let's just leave it at that. Kazuya, you brought up a good question, the answer to which we can only speculate upon. Mina, you have a single answer. It's plausible, I believe it, and it's our only good answer, but we can't know for sure if it's right. Not believing your answer isn't the same as saying you're wrong; it's leaving the door open to other possibilities we might not be considering."

"…And you call me condescending?" said Kazuya.

"Eh, he's been like this since we were kids," said Mina.

"Hey."

"Anyways, other undead she could be other than vampire," said Mina. "You mentioned… Vetala, were they?"

Kazuya nodded. "They're spirits that possess corpses."

"And what are their weaknesses?"

"Fire and ice."

"Undead tend to be weak to fire," said Mina.

"That, and holy magic," said Soma.

"So no matter what, she'll probably be weak to either," said Kazuya.

"Seems that way," said Mina.

"And without more evidence, we can't narrow down the field any further."

"Unfortunately, yes," sighed Mina. "Even if we had more time to debate, which we do not, I don't think we can reason our way out of this."

Soma sighed. "I guess not."

"So!" said Mina sharply. "What's our next move?"

"Chase after her," said Kazuya. "I'll call Marchosias. But since she can carry at most—"

"Wait," said Mina. "I think this is a trap. She wants us to follow her."

There was a pause.

"All right, maybe not a trap, but I still think it's a trick," said Mina. "If I were her and a bunch of strangers found where I slept, I'd move camp as fast as I could. Step one would be to get us away from it."

"Ah," said Soma. "I think I get what you mean. She's trying to lure us away from her camp so she can swoop in, gather her stuff, and run away?"

"Exactly," said Mina. She paused. "…Did you ever have to do anything like that, Kazuya?"

"Rarely," said Kazuya. "Most attackers craved food, not violence. If we abandoned our camp, they would steal our supplies and leave."

"Oh," said Mina. "I… I guess—never mi—"

"That said, she cares more about her stuff than we do, and we care more about her than her stuff," said Kazuya. "She can't afford to lose her bedroll, not on a night like this, but we're fortunate enough to not need to care. Capturing a murderer is more important to us than nicking her tent."

There was a pause.

"So…" Mina began.

"Yes, you may be right, and my experiences are not always applicable," said Kazuya. He sighed. "There's… look, I was never good at talking to people. There's no good way of saying this, and I know I'd be pissed off if someone told me this, but… don't let my experience intimidate you. Just because I've been through more doesn't always mean I know better."

Wow, that is condescending as hell. "…That was never going to be a problem for me," said Soma coldly.

"Good," said Kazuya.

"…That helped me, though," said Mina. "…Thank you."

"Even better," said Kazuya. He sighed. "All that said, I still think only one of us should chase her. Safest to hedge our bets and all."

"Given how she knocked out all three of us at once, I don't think it's a good idea to split up," said Mina.

Kazuya smirked. "You forget that I am a demon summoner," he said. "I'm never alone."

"That's even worse!" said Mina, aghast. "The Agency's looking for you; what's the point of finding the real killer if you get caught along with her?!"

"All that means is that I can't have any big or flashy demons out," said Kazuya flatly. "Not all of them are gigantic canines."

"…If you say so," conceded Mina.

"Wait," said Soma. "How are you tracking her?"

"With a demon," said Kazuya. "Probably Samael; he can be the size of a normal snake if he wants, and even if the rain's washed the scent away—"

"That's… I can see at least five logistical problems with that," said Soma. "You're going to send them after her and follow, right?"

"Exactly."

"That's the thing," said Soma. "Sure, your demon can hide, but how do you expect to see your demon if nobody else can? And how closely are you following, if you're not riding?"

"Do you have any better ideas?" said Kazuya icily.

"I'll do it myself," said Soma. "I told you I have spells that can enhance my senses, right?"

"Can you do better than Samael?"

"Maybe not, but one person tracking works better than a demon tracking and another following," said Soma. "Stealth aside, there's a delay when giving commands, line of sight issues, and that's not even getting into how you'll signal each other from a distance. And then—"

"I get the idea," said Kazuya brusquely. "You'd be better at chasing her than me."

"No, just that chasing her now is—"

"I'm coming with you."

Soma paused. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You're not leaving me out of this," said Kazuya. "If she really is behind everything, I need to see that for myself. Something about her didn't sit right."

Soma would have argued back, if he hadn't also barged into Celia's castle despite all evidence that Yoko, Julius, and Alucard could handle things (Besides, Stepdaddy's a lot more stubborn than even you, Lilim remarked). "…Fine. I'll carry you. Just don't do anything stupid."

"So what, you're going to leave me behind?" said Mina.

"You can come too if you want," said Soma.

"No, I think someone should watch out in case she comes back," said Mina.

"But you just—"

Then it clicked.

You're not just afraid of being left behind. You're afraid of holding us back.

Soma looked at Kazuya, who didn't seem to share his revelation. I know what you can't say, Mina. You don't want to be the one to complain, not in front of him. You're the only one who's never been in a real fight; what if the killer comes back?

She didn't have any problems killing my comrades at the castle gates, grumbled a Zombie.

Well, yeah, but she had a gun, said Soma.

Guns require skill, retorted a Zombie Soldier.

You're not wrong, but Sergeant Hammer's Live-Fire Shooting Gallery of the Undead might not prepare her for an unarmed tussle with a magical serial killer, said Soma. She knows that. But she won't admit it, not in front of us.

Sergeant Hammer's what? Agni repeated.

Mina and Hammer got bored waiting in front of the castle entrance, so Hammer taught her how to shoot, explained an Axe Armor.

They made a banner and everything, said a Bomb Armor.

So she doesn't think she can handle the killer if she comes back, but doesn't want to say that without sounding weak, Soma deduced. And I can't say it without sounding belittling. What's a more tactful way of putting this…?

"Mina's an archer, and we're in a narrow space," said Soma. "Maybe we should rethink our lineup."

"…Good point," said Kazuya. "I can have one of my demons look after you."

"How is that any different from the tracker demon?" said Soma.

"This demon can hide themselves, and preferably you," said Kazuya. "Is that all right with you?"

"…Yes," said Mina.

"In that case, let me think," said Kazuya. "A demon that can hide and protect you…The Ars Goetia are difficult to handle even if you're the summoner, so they're out. Cerberus, I even trusted him with my kids, but not the best at lying low. Definitely not the Jack Bros. Maybe Susano'o? No, he's rather—"

"Wait, back up," said Mina. "Did you just say Lord Susano'o?"

"…I didn't say Lord Susano'o, but yes," said Kazuya.

"But you're a demon summoner," said Mina, aghast. "Does… does this mean that…" She trailed off.

"That Susano'o is a demon?" said Kazuya. "No. Well, I've heard an interesting theological argument that can simplify to yes, but the answer to the question I think you're asking is no." He took a deep breath. "I'll admit that took me by surprise, too. The Demon Summoning Program isn't restricted to what most people would call demons. I can't tell if this was intentional, or just an oversight; Stephen says it's because daemon is an old word for supernatural beings in general, but I think he's just covering his ass…then again, 'Supernatural Creature Summoning Program' doesn't have the same ring to it…"

"Kazuya?" said Soma.

"Right," said Kazuya. "The program doesn't check for species. All it does is confirm that the… entity agreed to the binding, and as far as I can tell, the only requirement for consent is sentience. Sapience? Whatever the word, I've seen the program work on gods, fae, nature spirits, elementals, and even ghosts. Not animals or robots, though. Guess they don't pass the sapience check."

"…And what about humans?" said Mina warily.

"…Stephen promised to patch that one out one day," said Kazuya, quietly rather than coldly.

Soma figured that it wouldn't be a good idea to ask further, and Mina seemed to take the hint, too.

"There's also the Gaian school of thought, which can be summed up as 'one man's god is another man's demon,'" Kazuya continued. "But that's more like, 'are gods and demons fundamentally the same,' not, 'what can the Demon Summoning Program do,' and I'm a few credits short of a Theological Philosophy minor."

"Is that even a real thing?" said Soma.

"It doesn't matter," said Kazuya. "The point is that most of the gods I've contracted tend to be—"

"And how exactly did you make a contract with a god?" said Mina. Soma could detect an edge to her voice.

Mina's a miko from a family of priests, he realized. She's been tending to the shrine all her life, with just a bit of magic to show for it; how would she feel knowing that someone like Kazuya can order them about?

"I just… go into shrines and ask," said Kazuya. "Usually at night, when nobody's around. Most of them ignore me, some try to smite me, but a few join up. There's not a lot I can offer, after all."

"And they listen to you?" said Mina, her tone aggressively level, although Soma could not tell which emotions she flattened.

"Only if my goals align with theirs," said Kazuya. "Susano'o told me to only call if I can give him a good fight. And yes, he can refuse if I violate our agreement. While I can theoretically order my demons to do anything, if they don't like it, they can find loopholes in my words. The last time I summoned Fleurety, I asked for a bowl of jambalaya. He gave me a bowl constructed from frozen jambalaya."

"Huh," said Soma. "And here I thought you just didn't want to wait for your soup to melt."

"And that was only when he was mildly annoyed with me," continued Kazuya. "If I really pissed him off, there's lots of malicious yet valid ways to fulfill this order. He can't directly hurt me, so poisoning's out, but he can make it inedible. Too much salt, too much spice, adding ingredients that are edible or even tasty on their own but don't go well together, like… sugar. Or milk."

"Yeah, sugar and milk definitely do not go with rice," said Mina.

"Rice pudding is delicious," Soma grumbled back.

"You have no sense of taste," Mina declared dramatically. This was just another inside joke between them.

Although he had been raised in Japan, Soma had never acquired the common Japanese aversion to rice pudding. It was his father's fault, really; he'd worked out that the best way to stop his coworkers from stealing his lunch was to make lunch that nobody else would eat, which meant (among other things) a pot of rice pudding every week he lived in Japan. Alas, he couldn't stop his own son from sneaking sweet spoonfuls right out of the pot.

Soma had done the same with his other roommates, making foods that he knew they wouldn't like. Daisuke had stolen his leftovers all the time, but Kazuya and Naoki were generally respectful.

Kazuya shuddered. "Rice pudding tastes like headache."

"Could you really afford to be picky?" said Soma.

"I can still have preferences," said Kazuya primly. "Besides, even if I don't like it, there's someone out there who does. You've heard how house fae take payment in milk, right?"

"I guess there's no point in eating dessert you don't like…," said Mina.

"Anyways, the jambalaya thing was only when I asked for something inconsequential," said Kazuya. "More than once, I've had demons outright obstruct me in battle if I picked a side they didn't like." [1]

"I see," said Mina, somewhat mollified at the idea of divine obstinance.

"Isn't Susano'o famous for rescuing maidens?" said Soma.

"While true, I'm worried that he'll attack anyone he deems a threat to your safety, even if we consider them an ally," said Kazuya. He sighed. "That's the problem, really. There's not much overlap between demons who are stealthy, demons who can protect others, and demons I trust to do as I say in my absence…" He trailed off. "Wait. There might be some."

"What kind?" asked Mina.

"How do you feel about succubi?"

"…I've never met any," said Mina delicately.

"It's kind of messed up how they keep disguising themselves as people I know before attacking me," said Soma.

Hey, protested a Succubus.

"But do you have any objection to them on principle?" said Kazuya.

"Not particularly," said Mina. "Why a succubus, though?"

"They can cast illusions, but more importantly, they'll listen to you," said Kazuya.

"And your other demons won't?" asked Soma.

"It's not that they won't, it's…" Kazuya paused. "The contract I have with them is different. See, the succubi unionized."

"…Good for them, I guess?" said Mina.

"Don't ask me for all the details, because I forgot," said Kazuya. "The point is that the method of summoning succubi might work better for you than a normal summoning."

"How so?"

"Let's see, how do I say this?" said Kazuya, and paused. "When I make a contract with the Demon Summoning Program, I can use the demon's services as many times as I want, until I either die or otherwise terminate the contract. The union doesn't allow that anymore. If I need a succubus or incubus, I have to go through a representative and hire one for a single job."

"…Okay, is this hell, or technical support?" said Soma.

"I mean, tech support is kind of like hell," said Mina.

"The union then assigns a limited, single-use contract with rigid terms set at the start," continued Kazuya. "Normally, the whole process is just a bother, but this might be exactly what we need."

"And how is that different from just summoning a demon and telling them to listen to me?" asked Mina.

"Because I wouldn't be the only customer," said Kazuya. "They'll be working with you."

"I… still don't see the distinction," said Mina.

"I think I do," said Soma. "All your demons, you had to ask them to join, right? And they did because they liked you."

"'Like' is a bit of a strong word," said Kazuya.

"Respect, then," said Soma.

"Acceptable."

"You have your demons' respect," said Soma. "Mina doesn't. They signed up to follow you, not some random mortal their master happens to like. Just because they're under contract to obey her doesn't mean they'll like it."

"And this contract is different because they'd be going into this knowing that I'd be the one giving the orders," said Mina.

"Exactly," said Kazuya. "Do you accept?"

"…I have one more question," said Mina. "How likely is it that someone will find out that I made a contract with a demon?"

"As far as I can tell, not likely," said Kazuya. "You can probably guess that most clients of the Succubus Union try to keep their association… discreet."

"I can guess," said Soma. Although that does beg the question of—

Drop it, muttered a Succubus. He had contracts with everyone. We're not special.

"Anything else?" asked Mina.

"I can't think of anything," said Soma.

"I've said everything I had to," said Kazuya.

There was an awkward pause.

"…Wow, this paralysis is taking a while to wear off," said Mina. "Is this normal?"

"Sometimes," said Kazuya. "Once, I refused to give a magical jar containing a demon lord to my sort-of ex-wife and she hit everyone with a stun spell. I had to limp back to…" He cut off. "It was not a pleasant time." [2]

The pause this time was even more awkward.

"So, uh," said Mina. "It's raining pretty hard."

"Yup," said Soma.

"I heard it's supposed to be warm on Tuesday," said Kazuya.

"Warm, or just warmer?" asked Soma.

"It depends on what you think is warm," said Kazuya.

"Do you consider it warm?" asked Soma.

"No."

There was another awkward pause.

"Should we keep our phones on silent for this, or would that be a bad idea?" said Mina.

"Which do you think is worse?" said Kazuya. "A text going off when you're hiding, or not knowing something when you should?"

"Or maybe we could try to remember to check our texts when we're not doing anything," said Soma.

"That works," said Mina.

Silence.

"So… do you like anime?" asked Soma.

"Yes," said Kazuya.

"What's your favorite?"

There was a long pause.

"All right, what's one you like?"

"Cyborg 009."

"That's an old one."

"It's about as old to me as my anime is to you," said Kazuya.

"Actually, I was wondering about that," said Mina. "We speak as if you traveled forwards in time, but you still… well, the Kazuya from before still has a legal identity, and it follows that your parents had to be born later so you could be born later, as well as your grandparents, which leads us down a whole rabbit hole of changes…"

"Your point?"

"We're talking alternate timelines, not time travel, and who knows how far back the timeline diverged?" said Mina. "How do we know that the shows you've watched and the books you've read are the same as ours? Even if your timeline has Dragon Ball, does everything happen the same way?"

There was a pause, but this one more thoughtful than awkward.

"That's… a good question," said Kazuya. "But it's also been decades since I've read anything but the eighth volume of Dragon Ball, so if I notice anything different, how do I know if it's actually different or if I just misremembered?"

"Huh," said Mina. "That's… distressing."

"Well, there's only one thing to do," said Soma.

"Have a Dragon Ball marathon party and take notes?" said Mina.

"And snacks," said Soma.

"…I forgot how easy it is to watch television now," said Kazuya.

"I would think that the filler episodes would change more than the manga, since they'd be written by more than one person," said Mina.

"What about the movies?" said Soma.

"Would every movie have been made?" said Kazuya.

"How many do you remember?" asked Mina.

"I remember watching a few, but at least I'd remember what happened," said Kazuya. "Although at that point, we might as well just look up the episode summaries."

"But then you'd miss out on all the details," said Mina.

"In that case, there's got to be something else we can look at, something with smaller but still discrete packets of information…" Kazuya paused. "How many Pokémon were introduced in the first Pokémon games?"

"150, not counting Mew, Ho-oh, or Togepi," said Mina.

"Why would you count Ho-oh and Togepi?" asked Soma.

"They appeared in the anime long before they were playable," said Mina. "If we count Mew, who appeared in the movie, we count them."

"Yeah, but at least Mew appeared in lore," said Soma. "Ho-oh and Togepi might as well been—"

"It was the same for me," said Kazuya. He sighed, but this time wistfully. "There was a time when I could name every single Pokémon. I may not be able to recite them all in numerical order anymore, but I can still tell which ones would be unfamiliar."

"You like Pokémon?" said Soma, surprised.

"Doesn't everyone?" said Kazuya.

"Yeah, but… you're like a real-life Pokémon trainer," said Soma. "Don't you ever… you know, doesn't it ever annoy you that it's unrealistic?"

"Soma, if I got annoyed every time a story inaccurately portrayed my field of expertise, I couldn't watch any movie with a computer in it," said Kazuya.

"It would be like yelling at Ace Attorney for not following proper court procedures," said Mina.

"Or complaining about how everything in medical dramas have to be so… dramatic," settled Soma.

"What's your favorite Pokémon, anyways?" asked Mina.

Kazuya paused. "…Too many to even consider."

"All right, if you could have any six Pokémon on your team, what would you want?"

"As pets?" said Kazuya. "Because I'd go straight for Legendaries if this were for battle."

"Yeah, pets."

"Well, I always thought that Vulpix was the cutest Pokémon—"

Paralysis wore off. Without the binding magic to lock their limbs in place, the three of them collapsed to the ground, getting mud all over their clothes.

"Pth," Mina spat mud into the ground.

Kazuya was the first to get to his feet. "Let's wrap this up," he said, taking out his phone and dialing.

"I thought you said you couldn't summon on a phone," said Mina.

"The easiest way to contact them is by phone," said Kazuya. "They etch their numbers into bathroom stalls across the world."

"Why?"

"Quiet, she's here." Kazuya coughed. "Hi, Deirdre, it's Kazuya… how are you? …Great. Is there anyone available with cloaking or illusion abilities? I need someone to protect a girl… No, they're not out for blood yet… But I would also prefer if they could charm, bind, or otherwise restrain… Oh, You have someone? Great. When can I—"

Something splashed behind Soma. He whirled around and drew his sword—

"Hi, I'm Edi—whoa!"

A redheaded woman in a cocktail dress was standing several feet behind them. Soma might have mistaken her for an ordinary woman with very high cold tolerance, if she weren't completely dry in the now pouring rain. "Jumpy, aren't you?"

"Sorry," said Soma. "You startled me."

"Decapitation is extra," she said crossly. She turned to Kazuya. "So you're the infamous Kazuya. I'm Edith."

"Hello," said Kazuya.

"And a cosigner!" said Edith. "What's your name, little squid?"

"…I'm Mina."

Edith laughed. "Don't worry, I don't bite. Not unless you pay extra. Professional pride, you know."

"Can you turn her invisible, and if so, for how long?" asked Kazuya.

Edith smiled. "Right to the point, are—"

"Just answer the question."

"You're no fun."

"I don't have to be."

Edith sighed. "Yes, I can turn her invisible indefinitely. And before you ask, I can also cast the Shibaboo stunning spell with a reasonable degree of accuracy."

"Good," said Kazuya.

"Can we still see each other if we're invisible?" said Mina.

"Yes," said Edith.

"And the usual rules apply," said Kazuya.

"Right here," said Edith. A sheet of paper appeared in her hands. "If you'd just read and sign here…"

"My phone has a flashlight," said Kazuya.

After reading it, Kazuya, Edith, and Mina each signed the paper.

"And my payment?" said Edith.

"Just a sec… here." Kazuya fiddled with his arm computer, and a pile of coins appeared in the air above it. He caught them and handed them to Edith. "Transport fee and two hours in advance. If we go undertime, keep the rest."

"Thank you."

"All set?" asked Kazuya.

"Don't forget, phones on silent," said Soma, taking out his phone.

Mina took out her phone, and Kazuya fiddled with his.

"Got it," said Mina.

"Done," said Kazuya.

Mina turned towards Edith. "Make us both invisible, please."

Edith nodded, and they faded from view. Only a faint shimmer in the air, visible only to Soma (with the Peeping Eye), revealed their positions.

Soma crouched. "Get on my shoulders, Kazuya. We're going."

X

(8:29 pm)

Soma leapt through the drizzling night, Kazuya clinging to his back like Santa's bag of presents. Although he was soaring through the air like the ninjas of his childhood dreams, he felt more like a lost taxi driver relying on a spotty GPS than a legendary silent assassin; since he couldn't track the killer himself, Erinyes had to whisper directions into his ear.

Take a left at that drainpipe… she whispered, no, not that one, the one next to the flowerpot…

My dude? Werewolf called within him.

Yes?

Couldn't you have just beat up the thugs who were chasing you and asked them for information?

…Damnit, you're right.

Go underneath the fifth fire escape on your right… Erinyes said, and Soma followed.

No, he isn't, said the Werejaguar.

Hey!

With all due respect, sir, you couldn't, a Zombie Soldier barked. You don't have the guts to kill humans. You're only strong enough to fight five people at once, not keep them at bay while protecting your friends.

Stepdaddy can fight, said Lilim petulantly.

Kazuya would have killed them, and that would be on your conscience, said Kali.

Stop, called Erinyes. She's right ahead of us.

Erinyes's directions had led them to the roof access enclosure of a low, flat rooftop littered with slick puddles of ice. The killer herself was lying between a steaming array of heating units, raindrops dripping off her ashen face like the first thaw of spring. She didn't seem to have noticed them yet.

Kazuya leaned in, his breath warm on Soma's ear. "Stay here," he whispered. "Hide. If she tries to run past me, grab her."

Part of Soma wanted to snap back that he wasn't in charge, but his pride wasn't worth losing their quarry. "Got it."

Kazuya dropped down to the rooftop, a thin sheet of ice cracking beneath his boots. The killer perked up at the sound.

"Couldn't keep well enough away, could you?" The killer got to her feet. "How did you find me, anyways?"

"I have my ways," said Kazuya, walking closer.

A long knife slipped into her hand. "Come any closer and I'll have your eyeballs for a snack."

Oh no. Soma put his hand to his sword, preparing to stop Kazuya from screwing this up again—

No, stop.

Lilim?

Watch him, said Lilim. Stepdaddy's terrible at talking to humans, but…

There's no one better at negotiating with demons, Quetzalcoatl finished firmly.

Kazuya stopped.

"What do you want with me?" growled the killer.

"To talk."

"What's there to talk about?" said the killer bitterly. "Do you really think I'm going to stop just because you asked?"

"Yes."

The killer barked a hard laugh. "You're not the first person to try. What are you going to do, guilt me? Tell me that my parents would be disappointed?"

"If you're as irredeemable as you claim, then why did you spare us?" said Kazuya in that same level voice he used when locking up his emotions.

The killer said nothing.

"You had us at your mercy," Kazuya continued. "You could have slipped a knife between our shoulderblades, slit our throats, stole our wallets. Instead, you not only ran, you stopped to reassure our friend that she was safe from you." Kazuya took one step forward. "You said it yourself; you only kill people who rob helpless little girls in alleyways." He took another. "Why?"

The killer glared. "Why do I need to justify myself to you?"

"You're awfully defensive for someone who claims not to care."

She scowled. "And you think this makes me more likely to talk?"

"You're already talking, aren't you?"

For a tense moment, there was nothing between them but rain and glares.

"…Fine." She sat back down. "What do you want to know? Why I killed him? Or why I spared you?"

"You can't spare someone without a reason to kill them, now can you?" said Kazuya, hands on his hips. "I walk past people every day without killing them; would you call that sparing them?"

The killer snorted. "All right, then. Ask yourself this. Why decapitation?"

"When done properly, decapitation is a good, quick death, or so I've heard," said Kazuya. "But you absconded with just the head, leaving the body behind. My guess is that you only wanted what was inside."

"And what use have I for a human head?"

"Skull. Eyes. Nerves. Brain."

"And what manner of monster eats human brains?"

Oh.

Oh…

You were close, though, said the Waiter Skeleton soothingly.

That still doesn't explain why she hasn't started rotting yet, said Arachne.

We've been having a rough winter. Cold is a preservative. It's not rocket science, said a Frozen Shade.

Rocket science accounts for thermodynamics, protested a Zombie Soldier.

"Most demons prefer human brains to the rest of the body," said Kazuya smoothly. "Unless they have a recorded preference, such as vampires drinking blood or the kitsune's fascination with livers, if a demon pack with a clear hierarchy is given a corpse, the leader takes the brains."

The killer whistled. "We have an expert here," she said, genuinely impressed.

"But you're looking for something that can pass for human in the dark, something characterized by a desire for brains," said Kazuya. "Anyone who's seen movies would know what you are. Zombie."

The killer grinned. "Now you know what I am. An abomination that preys on the living to sustain its false life. A—"

"You're not a monster."

"…What."

"Oh, you're a demon; I can't contest that," said Kazuya. "But that doesn't make you a monster. You killed a man so you could live. I understand that."

"You—you understand?!" roared the killer, but neither anger nor volume could drown out that note of pain in her voice. "I ate his brains!"

"You didn't eat ours." Kazuya stepped forward, until he and the killer were within striking distance of each other. "Do you enjoy it? Or do you need it?"

"What difference does it make?" growled the killer, too defensively to hide the answer.

"Difference enough," said Kazuya. He spread his arm back. "It's worth the life of a girl who, when running for her life, stumbled into your alleyway. It's worth the life of a boy who took your confession and attacked. It's worth my life."

"…All you're saying is that it's better to kill bad people than good," said the killer bitterly. "If you really cared, you'd tell me to stop killing people."

Kazuya shook his head. "Asking you to stop is the same as asking you to die. It's not wrong to want to live."

That seemed to get a reaction. For the first time that night, the girl had no bile to spit. Instead, tears welled up in her eyes. "So what is it you want from me?" she said. "Are you trying to talk me into turning myself over to the… police?" She stumbled over the word as if it was… well, not quite foreign, but one of those vocabulary words you have to learn for a test but can't figure out how to use in the real world, like acquiesce or sanctimonious (all right, Soma knew how to use sanctimonious in a sentence, but that was just because his cousin tried to learn English from Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and kept singing the Pirate King song at him until he got the pronunciation exactly right). "Let me go, knowing that you'll be responsible for the next death? Or are you going to volunteer your own brains?"

"In a manner of speaking," said Kazuya. He sighed. "Looks like I'm not getting amnesty any time soon."

"What?"

Kazuya stretched out his hand. "I can help you. Do you know what Magnetite is?"

"It's what demons need to live, and why demons eat humans."

Kazuya nodded. "I can give you as much Magnetite as you need, all without killing anyone. But in exchange, I will require your—"

"Stop!" Soma cried, startling the girl. He leapt from the top of the nub and landed softly onto one of the heaters. He glared at Kazuya from atop his plastic perch. "This is slavery and you know it. I don't care that her heart's stopped beating; she's human."

Kazuya, to his credit, looked chastened. "I…" he looked back at the girl. "He's right. Forgive me, I should not have—"

A tiny cold hand grabbed Soma's. He looked down at a pair of innocent-looking brown eyes above a desperate, wild grin. "I appreciate the sentiment; I really do," said the girl, tugging him down. "But right now, this is exactly what I need." She turned back to Kazuya. "So you're a demon summoner. Makes sense; not many people have the guts to keep negotiating after being attacked."

"I suppose this disappoints you," said Kazuya, head hung low.

"Not at all," said the girl, grin widening. "Give me 1000 yen."

"Done," said Kazuya automatically, handing her a pair of 500-yen coins.

The girl shivered. "No wonder they asked for so much."

Kazuya blinked. "You would sell yourself into slavery?"

"I could do worse than a master who tries to talk a killer down," said the girl. "Give me 1000 Macca."

"Done."

She closed her eyes. "Now I know how that feels. Your loss is worth more than my gain."

Soma stared at her in horror. "Don't you realize what you're doing?!" said Soma. "This is your freedom!"

The girl gently swatted his arms away. "Perhaps I could have made myself clearer," she said firmly. "This isn't the first time I sold my life. I've promised worse before, and delivered each time. There's no need to guard my innocence. I stopped being human a long time ago."

Leave her, Soma, said Stolas. If we could consent, so can she.

"…All right." Soma stepped back.

She turned back towards Kazuya. "Let me drain your energy. Almost all of it. Health and magic."

"Done."

The girl gestured at Kazuya with two fingers, and a jet of multicolored light jumped from Kazuya's chest to hers. Kazuya fell to his knees, twitching and grunting as if trying with all his might not to scream.

The girl hugged her chest and shuddered with relief. "I'm satisfied," she said. "If you'll have me, I'm yours. I am of the Undead race. My name is—"

Boss, look behind you!

A roar of surging water met Soma's eardrums, drowning out all sound.

X

(8:31 pm)

Still invisible, Mina took a closer look at the murderer's belongings. The lean-to was clumsily constructed from a tarp and metal pipes, with several layers of cardboard acting as a floor. What she had taken for a sleeping bag was in fact a jumble of blankets, towels, and rags, most thin enough to shine a light through.

No signed confession, no incriminating evidence. Only a plastic bag with a half-eaten can of cold oden, scavenged bottles full of water, and a handful of candles…

The knot of terror in Mina's stomach did not uncurl, but a second, smaller knot of fascinated pity began to twist next to it.

"What happened to you?" said Mina quietly.

"See anything interesting?" said Edith.

Mina shook her head. "Nothing pertaining to the crime," she said. "I'm not a detective."

"Neither am I," admitted Edith. "Why are you going through someone's tent, anyways?"

"Murder investigation."

"Someone killed the human who lived here?"

"No, she's the murderer. She ran off, but I think she's going to come back for her stuff."

"And that's where I come in?" said Edith.

Mina nodded. "If she comes back, we're going to restrain her."

"If."

"…Yup." Mina leaned against the alley wall. "All we can do is wait."

Should I take out my yumi? No, the humidity would ruin it.

There was a pause.

"So why do you have a phone number?" asked Mina.

Edith shrugged. "It helps us get in touch with clients."

"And what does that have to do with the union?"

"Oh, right, the union," said Edith. "A couple of years… decades… no, time's weird between worlds. A while back, we got a new king. Used to be human, fell in love with the princess, so he became an incubus to be with her. Long story short, he helped us unionize."

"The king helped you unionize?" said Mina. "That seems… contradictory."

Edith shrugged. "I won't bore you with the details, but one of our conditions was that summoners can't hold contracts with individual succubi or incubi. Instead, summoners have to go through the union, which dispatches us in turn."

"Kazuya told me about that," said Mina. "How does that help?"

Edith sighed. "Sometimes, you get a client who only wants a certain escort, and that's fine. But demon summoners are different. They almost never care who they get, only what we can do for them. It's always curse, fight, or fodder with them." She stretched. "There's nothing wrong with that; a job's a job. The problem is that most summoner contracts require us to work exclusively for them, so our workloads get…" Edith scowled, "inconsistent."

"And by that you mean…?"

"Once Etienne had to give nightmares to his client's brother-in-law for months while the rest of the department had nothing to do but hold an office golf tournament," Edith continued. "Then you had Amanda, whose summoner wanted to fodder her for fusion, but the Minister wouldn't let them until he was sure the summoner was strong enough to handle the result, so she just sat at her desk and waited while—" Edith cut off.

"While—?"

"Quiet!" hissed Edith.

Mina knew better than to protest that she couldn't hear anything. She flattened herself against the wall, pulling her coat collar over her mouth to muffle her breathing.

Two figures approached from around a bend, both holding flashlights.

"…Almost half an hour since you sensed him," said a male voice. "He's probably long gone."

"What can we do, stop?" snapped another voice, female this time.

"And actually finish our patrol on time?" said the male voice.

"This is our patrol," said the female voice. "We're out looking for trouble, wherever it goes. What, do we not investigate if it's too far from our route?"

"Yeah, yeah," grumbled the male voice. "Ooh, look, Dragon! It's a whole lot of nothing!"

Dragon stopped. "I wouldn't call that nothing, Cowboy." Dragon shined her light on the wall. "Rather thick spiderweb design, wouldn't you say?"

Indeed, it was the same wall where Soma had thrown the sticky spider net.

"…Shit, you're right," said Cowboy. "Kind of looks like graffiti, doesn't it?"

"Mud splatter lines are angled, all facing the same direction," said Dragon. "Sort of what you'd get if you drove a motorcycle through a puddle."

That'd be Soma blasting through puddles with the Black Panther, Mina recalled. Didn't he splash the wall with mud and then he threw the net? Why did it stencil like that?

The spiderweb probably clung to the mud that was already there, and when it faded, the mud dropped off.

"What kind of idiot would drive a motorcycle through a crooked alley?" said Cowboy.

"Nobody, idiot," said Dragon. "I meant it looks like something came through fast enough to spray water on the walls, like a motorcycle."

"And since there's no sign of anyone crashing, it's probably magic," said Cowboy. "You said he used his powers twice, right? Maybe the spiderweb was one, and this was the other."

"Probably," said Dragon. "Not saying it couldn't have been someone else, but it would explain the two pulses."

"Which only brings up the question of what he was doing, why he was doing it, and where he went."

The two Agents stared at the wall.

"…Yeah, I got nothing," said Cowboy.

"Me neither," sighed Dragon.

"And you can't sense when he's just running around," said Cowboy.

"Nope," sighed Dragon. "Only when he's casting."

"Even when he's blatantly using magical speed and strength to run away."

"Yup. Can't feel passive magical effects."

"That's stupid," said Cowboy. "What's the difference?"

Dragon went on to explain how her powers worked, but Mina wasn't paying attention. She can sense when Soma uses his powers?

Her blood turned cold. How many times has Soma used his powers since she last saw him? I have to warn him.

But the agents were still there; would they notice if she texted on her phone?

Edith pointed to the two Agents and made a throat slitting gesture. Mina frantically shook her head.

Her heart beating faster and louder than ever, Mina plastered her unmoving form against the wall and waited.

X

(8:41 pm)

A frozen wave of white swept across the rooftop, arcing like the crescent moon. Soma leapt over the wave—

Flame Demon!

On it—

And responded with a barrage of fireballs. Soma wasn't even aiming; better to keep your opponent pressured than for them to pressure you.

The white wave whipped back like a snake, coiling around a young man standing on a nearby rooftop.

Thank you for giving away your location. Soma drew his sword—

"Put your hands up!" shouted the man; while his tone was certainly authoritative, the voice was clearly not that much older than Soma's. "This is the police! Get away from that girl!"

Oh no.

No, you idiot! Lilim snapped. We've been over this! If they catch you, you're going straight to jail!

Keep attacking. Don't give him time to think. Buy myself time to plan. Soma fired off another wave of fireballs, bright but slow enough to dodge or extinguish.

With a wide sweep of his arm, the cop doused the flames, and brought his other arm back—

"Freeze."

The cop stopped mid-swing, and the arc of ice collapsed.

"Forgot about me, did you?" said the killer, arms wrapped around Kazuya, who was slumped in her lap. "Mind giving me a hand with my new master? I don't think he took the ice well. Nice jump, though."

Oh. Right.

"Is he okay?" said Soma.

"He has a pulse, and his chest is warmer than my hand, but that's not saying much," said the girl. She glanced around. "We should move. Can you carry him?"

Soma dropped down. "You have a hideout?" he whispered as he lifted Kazuya into a proper fireman's carry (as instructed by a Zombie Soldier).

"Do I look like I have a hideout?"

"No, but I'm still asking."

The killer sighed. "I don't. Back there was all I had."

Soma looked around. "How fast are you?"

"I can still run," said the killer.

"How good are you at running across rooftops?"

She gave him a cockeyed glance. "I can run, or I can climb rooftops. Not both."

"All right then," sighed Soma. "Might be faster if I carry both of you."

She added a raised eyebrow to her cockeyed glance. "You sure you can—"

A flash of light met the side of Soma's eyes. His head snapped towards the source.

A young woman was kneeling on a nearby fire escape, disposable camera in hand. With a click, a second flash met his eyes, leaving a searing afterimage.

Soma yelped.

"Peony, run!" shouted the police officer.

Before the glow faded from his eyes, Soma dashed towards the photographer with the speed of the Black Panther. He landed hard on the metal floor, denting it in the process. "Hand it—"

The agent took three things from him in rapid succession: a blinding photograph, his dignity, and the opportunity to knee him hard in the groin.

Soma crumpled to the ground, moaning.

She's getting away! Bomb Armor cried.

No she isn't, Soma snapped. Zephyr?

On it.

Time stopped, allowing Soma to limp over to her unmoving form and snatch the camera from her hands. After a moment's reflection, he rummaged through her other possessions in case she had a second camera anywhere. She didn't, except for…

Should I take her phone? Soma asked.

Half of his souls screamed some variant on, Yes, you idiot! The other half said the same thing, but more politely.

It's… it's kind of mean, said Soma. It's her phone; it's how you—

For God's sake, you need her to not have it more than she needs it! Amalric Sniper snapped.

Better destroy it, in case it has a tracker, said a Zombie Soldier.

You make a good point, Soma conceded. Bone Pillar?

Aye.

Aye.

In a flash, the smartphone was reduced to a bubbling puddle of plastic and metal.

Five, four, three…

Soma leapt back to the killer. The timestop faded halfway.

"…I stand corrected," said the girl. "Might have been faster to put him down first, but wow. Search and rescue's got to love you."

Soma shifted his weight, and realized that Kazuya had never left his shoulder.

"Grab on," said Soma. "We're getting out of here."

"Where?"

"Not telling you our destination in front of the cops."

"No, I mean, where am I grabbing you?"

"…Try a bear hug?"

X

(8:42 pm)

At last, the agents' attention had slipped far enough away from the wall for Mina to duck and huddle her phone beneath her (invisible) jacket. With cold, wet fingers, she managed to text Bec areful the ageny can sensew hen oyu use your powers

Behind her, the agents were fighting again, this time over the killer's tent.

Then she added, Apparrently they can only sensew when you use a soul not hwen you nhave one equipped so dontl weorry aboutj passive eofffects

She clicked off her phone. The two agents had stopped arguing; now all she had to do was wait for them to finish what they were doing and leave—

"It's from Peony," said Dragon. "She found something."

"Where?" asked Cowboy.

"She sent the location in the group chat; check your phone," said Dragon. "They've probably already engaged, so we'd better hurry."

Oh no. Mina leaned towards Edith. "Can you stun both of them at the same time?" she whispered.

"Of course."

Mina pointed to the agents. "Stun them."

Edith flapped her wings, and both Agents froze.

"What the—"

"Who's there?!"

"How long can we stall them?" Mina whispered to Edith.

"In theory, I can keep casting the spell as soon as it wears off," said Edith.

"And in practice?"

"They'll probably attack as soon as they're free," said Edith.

"So only until the spell wears off," said Mina. "And how long will that last?"

"No idea."

"Could you give an estimate?"

"Maybe five minutes?"

"And you can fly?"

"Yes."

"Steal their phones, and leave them on that fire escape," ordered Mina, pointing to a nearby rooftop. "Make sure the flight path is within their line of sight. That way, they'll waste time climbing."

"Got it." Edith strutted towards Cowboy and Dragon, invisible, and plucked their phones out of their hands. Much to their (rather vocal) dismay, she leapt into the air, waving them around.

"Done," said Edith. "Now what?"

There, Soma. I did what I could. The rest is up to you. "Now we run and hide," said Mina.

X

(9:06 pm)

She weighed almost nothing.

Mere minutes ago, the bundle dangling from Soma's shoulders was a threat, a danger to everyone around her. Now, it was as if he was seeing her for the first time. No longer did he scan for hidden weapons or potential threats; instead, he took in her bony frame, her fragile arms…

She was tiny.

But she's killed before, with no signs of remorse, another part of his head added. Just because Kazuya forgave her doesn't mean you should. So why are you helping her?

I…

You could hand her over to the police, and Kazuya would just have to live with that. The investigation will stop, and you can all walk free. Isn't that better for everyone in the long run?

I…

What's more important to you, your friend or some stranger who you know is guilty?

I…

Soma looked down at the bundle clinging to him. Because I'm not so strong that I can look a child in the eye and tell her she needs to die.

Good. You have an answer.

Soma paused to look around. See anything, guys?

You're good, said a Werewolf.

Soma dropped into an alleyway. "I think we're in the clear," he said. "Let go, and I'll put him down."

The girl dutifully detached herself from Soma's chest, allowing Soma to carefully dislodge Kazuya from his shoulders.

"You'd better keep huddling him," said the girl.

"Why?"

"You like him, don't you?" she said.

"Well, he's a good friend, but I wouldn't say we're—"

"Hypothermia, idiot! If you don't want him to freeze, share your body heat!"

Oh. Right. Soma awkwardly propped Kazuya into his chest, draping Kazuya's arms over his shoulders. "What about you?"

"If you hadn't already noticed, I'm not exactly a net exporter of body heat," she said, shivering in her soaked clothes.

"Not what I was asking," said Soma. "Aren't you cold?"

"I'll be fine," she insisted.

Ukobach?

Soma tapped the air, and a small flame appeared.

The girl edged towards the heat, shivering. "Thank you… damnit, I never got your name."

"I'm… wait, no, not now," said Soma. "I know I'm being paranoid, but if you call my real name and the cops hear, it won't end well. If you need to call me something, call me… Seth. Seth Treasonson."

She cocked her head. "That sounds like a made-up name if I've ever heard one. What's the story behind that?"

"Ever played D&D?"

She stared at him blankly. "Is that a… video game?"

"It's a tabletop RPG."

"I've played RPGs."

"It's… how do I explain this…" Soma paused and organized his thoughts. "It's a bunch of people around a table playing pretend, but with math and rules and a plot. I played the role of Seth Treasonson, reluctant cleric of the dark god Cyric."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you afraid of accidentally invoking the real dark gods?"

Oh, great, she's one of them. "Dungeons and Dragons is a make-believe game where we pretend to be make-believe people who may or may not worship make-believe gods," said Soma in the exaggeratedly patient tone reserved for baby cousins (and apparently, tiny serial killers). "It is not Satanic in any way, shape, or form."

What about all those warlocks who pretend to sell their souls to Asmodeus? Lilim supplied.

…All right, fine, D&D is a little bit Satanic.

"All gods are make-believe," said the girl, brusquely rather than firmly, as if imparting a universal truth*.

*[That is, with a little less fervor than a teacher writing down the answers to yesterday's algebra homework. Just because they're True and Real and Absolute doesn't mean they have to be interesting.]

"But you just said—" Soma stopped himself. "We can argue about the theological implications of dressing up in a bathrobe and casting spells with twenty-sided dice later. The point is that Seth Treasonson isn't my name, but it's familiar enough that I'll respond to it if you call. Do you have anything like that?"

"Something I'd respond to, but doesn't sound like my real name…" said the girl, tugging at her chin. "I'm guessing that you're not going to call me Master even if I asked."

"Definitely not."

"How about Elena?" said the girl.

"Elena works," said Soma. "Is there a story behind that?"

'Elena' shrugged. "I had a CD player growing up, but the only CD I had was my dad's Beatles mixtape. Didn't know English, but did my best to sing along."

"Ah," said Soma. "Eleanor Rigby?"

"Yes, that's the one," said Eleanor.

"I remember singing Yellow Submarine a lot when I was little," said Soma.

"Never heard of that one," said Eleanor. "Do you have a recording?"

"I can show you one later," said Soma. Then he remembered that the Japanese language was not big on certain syllables. "Wait, you can say Seth, right?"

"Seth Treasonson," she said, nailing the -th sound.

"Good," said Soma. "And now, all we need to do is…" He cut off.

"Is?"

Soma slumped against the alley wall. "…I have no idea what to do next."

"Get my new master to a bed, sleep the night, and—"

"Not just that," said Soma. "I… the whole reason we came out here tonight was to find you."

"And now I'm here," she said dryly.

"And what now?" said Soma. We were supposed to frame her, and now—

"That's not important right now," said Eleanor.

"No, it's—"

Eleanor grabbed Soma's shoulder and shook it vigorously. "Like I said, that's not important. Right here, right now, all we need to care about is food, safety, and warmth. Whatever it is you're worrying about won't matter if we don't get those soon."

Soma removed her hand from his shoulder. "Look, I—"

What?

Something didn't feel right about that hand. Almost as if it was missing something…

Soma looked down at her arm. Indeed, the Peeping Eye was right about the illusion; it was covered in the telltale fake-looking soap opera effect.

"Nice illusion, huh?" said Eleanor.

"Trying to figure out what it's covering," said Soma.

"It's there for a reason."

"I suppose so—" Then it clicked.

He only felt four fingernails.

The tip of her left pinky was missing.

A wave of sympathy blossomed across Soma's chest. A mutilated left pinky, sliced cleanly at the first notch, could only mean one thing. Yubitsume. How the Yakuza apologize.

"I… I'm sorry."

"About what?"

"Your pinky."

Eleanor flinched, then shook her head. "Don't. You know what this means, don't you?"

"It means that you pissed off your boss so much that—"

"It's an apology," said Eleanor flatly. "I did this to myself."

"But—"

"Don't. I could have walked away if I wanted, and I didn't. That's all I'm going to say about it."

"…All right," said Soma. For now.

"Good," said Eleanor, the tension in her stance vanishing. "Let's talk objectives. First, safety. Are you in any pain, or are there any medical issues that I need to know about?"

"No."

"And my new master here… okay, this is getting kind of awkward," said Eleanor. "Does he have a name?"

"Not now," said Soma. "Let's just call him… John. John Johnson."

"John John John Son?" repeated Eleanor.

"Yeah, no need for a surname. John."

"All right," said Eleanor. "John here isn't in any immediate danger. All he needs is a warm bed, and if possible, a meal when he wakes up."

"…Are you okay?"

Eleanor sighed. "I'll be fine."

"Are you su—"

"Seth. I cannot die. No matter how hard I bleed, no matter how much pain I suffer, I will be fine. You will never have to worry about me."

…I detect some unresolved issues.

And that doesn't match up with my experience with zombies…

"You're awfully… sturdy for a zombie," he said.

She shrugged. "What can I say? Built different."

And why would anyone build a zombie that way? Not like—

Soma's mind flashed through decades upon decades of research on raising the dead. The zombies he had resurrected fought were usually shock troops, a random soul shoved into a random corpse animated with a pittance of magic. Investing more magic into a zombie would make them stronger and more durable, but if you were strong enough to create a super-zombie, you were strong enough to create a baker's dozen of normal zombies, which could usually get the job done twice as well in half the time.

A necromancer would either create someone like her only if they really wanted to bring someone back… or as an experiment to discard.

Wait, why didn't Dracula at least try to bring his wife back? Soma realized. Wouldn't that, like, solve everything at once?

Stolas cleared their throat. True resurrection is only possible if relatively recent, and with the consent of the soul. As I have heard, at the time of Lady Elizabeth's death, Lord Dracula had little experience regarding the dark arts. And Lady Lisa departed this vale of tears under rather… distressing circumstances, to say the least, and I would not be surprised if she chose to enter the afterlife without looking back.

Dracula is bound to this world by more than just his own anger and despair, said Kali gravely. I can say no more.

"Do you have a house?" said the killer.

"I live in a dorm," said Soma.

"Can I stay there?"

"Might be cramped…" Soma paused. "Wait, no. Not since my last roommate left. You can take his bed." It's not like Naoki can complain. What's he going to say? 'No, don't give a bed to the homeless child.'

"How far away are we?"

"It's part of the university, and I did walk here…"

"Can we make a run for it the whole way?"

Soma ran some calculations. "I have enough stamina, but I'm not sure if I can dodge the cops." Not while protecting both of you. "Was there anything important in your tent?"

"Do you have a spare toothbrush?"

"I can buy you a new one."

"Then no."

"We're all set, then," said Soma. "Better go tell M—my other friend what we're doing."

Soma took out his phone to text Mina—

And saw her texts. His eyes fell upon the hovering ball of fire he conjured for warmth.

…Oh no.

"I screwed up," said Soma, carefully laying Kazuya on the ground and getting to his feet. "It looks like they can track when I use magic."

Eleanor's eyes widened. "Then we need to run."

Soma shook his head. "I'll draw them away," he said. "Get to the university; I'll meet you there."

He hopped onto a dumpster, then double-jumped onto a slanted rooftop. From there, he spotted a distant chimney, and he was off.

X

(9:19 pm)

Mina and Edith ran through the night, ducking in and out of buildings, until Mina was panting against a vending machine.

She checked her phone. No messages yet.

If the killer returns to her tent, the Agency can catch her, she said to herself. And if they don't, more pressure on her, so Soma and Kazuya can capture her.

"What to do, what to do…" Mina said to herself.

Try to stall the other agents? No, might not be a good idea. Even if I could identify them, they might not be taken by surprise this time. Besides, they're looking for the killer, too; why hobble them? And that's not even getting into Yoko…

"It looks like the best thing to do here is to go home," said Mina. She sighed. For all her talk of investigating and being useful, she didn't really do much, did she? All she did was stumble upon useful information and pass it on to the people who were actually out doing things.

Baby steps, Mina, baby steps. Better to only be a little useful while staying out of enemy hands than to get captured trying to do what you can't.

I'll never get stronger by playing it safe.

But I also won't get stronger if I get caught right away.

"How?" said Edith. "It's not like you can board a bus when you're invisible."

"…I guess we'll walk."

X

(9:21 pm)

"'Get to the university'," grumbled Eleanor, dragging a large sheet of cardboard from some shop's recycling. "And does he realize that John's fifty pounds heavier than me? No, of course not. Stupid tall people…"

Seth had carefully laid John flat on a dry patch of ground, obviously not knowing that the ground was one of the worst places to put a sleeping person.

"The ground's a heat sink, idiot," muttered Eleanor. "First rule of sleeping on the ground: don't. Spread out a cloth or something."

Rolling John onto the cardboard wasn't difficult, although his nice clothes were now covered in mud. Still a problem for later; he'd have a washing machine, wouldn't he?

Speaking of which, those clothes would have to go. Wet clothes sapped body heat and were often worse than no clothes at all, something which Eleanor was unfortunate enough to know firsthand.

"Let's see… jacket's soaked, so's this shirt, but the undershirt… is also soaked."

Eleanor shoved a spindly arm into John's right jacket pocket and pulled out a bundle of shirts. This was one of Eleanor's favorite party tricks, and there were two ways to perform it: the hard way was secret and probably involved stuffing shirts down your sleeves while distracting the mark, while the easy way was to intimately understand the fundamental nature of reality and learn how to shape its delicate fabric in accordance with your will (at least, Eleanor only had the patience to learn the second way, and therefore concluded that it was the easy way).

Put more simply, it was a pocket dimension spell based on the one Stephen included on the Demon Summoning Program, one tweaked and modified with more than a few prayers and a nonzero amount of duct tape.

Peeling the clothes off a wet body was sticky, unpleasant work, but John seemed to breathe better once he was bundled into a cocoon of dry shirts.

"Can't even manage Dia like this, let alone Recarm," Eleanor muttered. "But he's stable. Unconscious, but stable. Let's see… where's open around here?"

Eleanor tugged on the box like a sledge. Heavy, but manageable. Moving him to a warm place was a priority, and the nearest place was probably the—

A man in a long coat swept past the alley mouth. Eleanor froze. In the dark, human eyes detected danger by movement; scrambling to hide your silhouette would simply attract attention. Just sit still, and he'd pass…

The stranger looked around, staring into the shadows and pushing aside small hiding spots.

No. He's looking for something. For me.

Eleanor looked back at John. This isn't going to look good. Alone with a half-dead man who can't vouch for me. All he'll see is… is…

Eleanor's shoulders relaxed. A little girl, all alone in the middle of the night.

Bursting into the frigid night, Eleanor cried, "Help! Uncle, please help!"

X

(9:41 pm)

Soma slipped through the night like a wraith, leaping from rooftop to rooftop without pause or hesitation. This time, he needed no guide; the only direction he needed was 'away'.

You should probably tell Mina to return to the dorm, said Stolas.

Oh, right, said Soma. He dropped into a niche between rooftops and took out his phone.

We have the killer, Soma began, then stopped. He deleted that line.

Kazuya recruited the killer

Okay so a funny thing happened

Quick question, guys, Soma called. How do I break this to her?

A Zombie Soldier sighed. Rule of thumb when dealing with women. If you have to tell them something upsetting, say it in person. Or if you can't, call. Just don't text. You wouldn't break up with a girl through texts, would you?

I believe this qualifies as an emergency, said Soma.

Even so, once you send this message, you'll be unable to respond for what might be hours, said a Valkyrie. Dropping a bombshell and then going on radio silence will only worry her. Just tell her what she needs to know now.

Who am I to decide what she needs to know?

Don't think of it as withholding information, said Agni. You will tell her everything, and soon. But you can't explain everything now. And it's not because she can't handle the truth; it's because something this heavy requires all of you to sit down and discuss it, and you can't do that until you're all safe.

Good point, Soma conceded. We're done here, he sent to the group chat. Head back to home base; I'm going to distract them until you're both safe. Text me when you get there.

Soma turned his ringer back on.

Black Panther? We're going for a ride.

YAHOOO!

X

(10:18 pm)

Mina missed being able to walk around alone at night. The village of Hakuba (long story behind that) [3] was one of those places where everybody knew each other. Admittedly, it was safe because everyone would know if you committed a crime, not because country people were so nice that they'd never even think of hurting anyone, but it was safe nonetheless. Mina had only heard of one person being attacked there; even then, someone intervened right away.

When she first moved away to college in the big city, it was as if every female relative was pulling her aside and urging her to be careful. Don't walk around at night; if you must, stick to well-lit places. Never leave your drink unattended; if you leave and come back, order a new one. If you must go partying, go with friends. If someone is staring at you too much, it's not just your imagination; get out of there. And Mina listened; nothing had happened to her yet, so she assumed it was good advice. Of course, this advice was to prevent situations that were uncommon to begin with, so there was still the possibility that she'd be fine if she'd flouted their words, but she listened all the same.

That didn't stop her from missing the night sky in winter. There was something about a cold winter night that made her surroundings that much more beautiful; maybe it was the chill, the hurry to get home and warm your bones, that somehow strengthened the urge to stop and look at what was around you.

At times like this, she wondered if her ancestors did the same. Did they also stop in the middle of their nightly errands to watch the stars? Did they also shiver in the bitter cold, shunning the hearth to marvel at the moonlight breaking through the clouds? Did the sight of the shadowy trees over the horizon smite their hearts and bring tears of joy to their eyes?

Of course, some things were different for Mina. There were no stars in the city, but the reflected glow of electric lights was a wonder of its own. Trees were replaced with line after line of concrete buildings; Mina often stared at the rooms beyond unshaded windows and wondered about the lives of the people inside.

"Little squid?" said Edith.

"Just a bit longer."

The rain continued to fall.

X

(10:56 pm)

I see we have ourselves a tail.

Two tails, in fact. They stayed at ground level while Soma stood on the roof of a small warehouse, but they were right next to a well-lit park, so they could all see each other with little difficulty. One was blonde, and the other had spiky hair; neither carried visible weapons. Then again, neither did the other two Agents back there.

As if on cue, the one with spikes launched a fireball at him with a cry of, "It's over!"

Soma dodged with ease.

The agent launched a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth, all evaded. See, the problem here is that you're aiming for where I am, not where I'm going to be.

"Watch and learn, idiot," said the blonde one, and she began to glow. A humanoid silhouette appeared above her.

The hell is that?!

Above you, warned a Valkyrie, and Soma dove to the right to avoid what turned out to be a large rock.

Okay, so what was that?!

That was her Persona, said Stolas.

And what's a Persona? Soma rolled to dodge a bunch of other rocks, some of which were aimed in the path he was expected to dodge.

There was a long discussion between souls that Soma was too distracted to follow.

Stands, said the Zombie Soldier. She's using her Stand power.

Seriously?! Soma yelped. Jojo is real?!

Not quite, but as we are pressed for time, referring to them as Stands would suffice, said Decarabia.

She looks strong, Erinys added. I wouldn't fight her directly.

Wasn't planning on it, replied Soma. Zephyr?

Zephyr barely dignified him with a nod, but Soma felt his time magic at his fingertips.

Soma grinned. Time to play.

X

(11:29 pm)

Kazuya's tongue was numb, and the room was too bright. Something hot was sitting on his chest. He groaned.

"Hey, you're finally awake."

Kazuya opened his eyes, which were greeted by his new minion. Well, mostly by blinding light, but his new minion's shadow was hovering somewhere in the corner.

"Call me Eleanor," she whispered. "How are you feeling, John?"

"M… nt Jn…"

"And I'm not Eleanor," she whispered back. "It's what your friend told me to call you, so go with it. Don't say my real name out loud."

Kazuya blinked, and let his eyes adjust. Besides Eleanor's face, all he could see was blank white ceiling, broken only by panels of florescent lights. "Wher'r we?" he mumbled. His arms and legs were wrapped in thick, heavy cloth. "Why c't I m'vve?"

"Haruhata Hospital waiting room," said Eleanor. "And… well, after that freezing water spell hit you, you got soaked. I was afraid you'd get hypothermia, so I took off your clothes and wrapped you in whatever I had."

Kazuya accepted this. There was no such thing as modesty in a medical emergency.

"Wy're we 'ere?" asked Kazuya. "Whr's 'ma?"

"Your friend had to leave in a hurry," explained Eleanor. "Then someone found us, thought you needed medical assistance, and got us a ride. That's his coat on top; the rest are mine."

"Why'd'd 'e go?" Kazuya mumbled.

"If you're asking about the guy who helped us, he said had to do something; didn't stop to explain what or why, but hey, who are we to complain? As for your friend…" Eleanor leaned in closer. "The Agency's after us," she whispered. "Your friend said something about how they could track his magic. Said he'd draw them away so we could escape. Do you think he can evade them on his own, or should we go help him?"

"'et me fink," said Kazuya. Right now, I can't walk, let alone fight. Summoning in this condition is possible, if I tap into my stock of Magnetite crystals, but not ideal. "What c'n you do?"

"In this condition? Not much," admitted Eleanor. "Besides, most of my magic is either inaccessible or some variant on 'blow thing up.' Not exactly useful for sneaking."

"…lushun."

"What?"

"Illu…illu-shun."

"Oh, illusion?" said Eleanor.

Kazuya nodded.

"Not very good at those, I'll admit. I can only change little things, like color."

Drat.

Soma is fast, strong, and is always pulling new powers out of his ass. He'll be fine on his own.

"Lt 'im go," said Kazuya. "'e'll be fine."

"Seth said to go to the university," said Eleanor. "You think you're up to the journey?"

"…Sth?"

"Oh, right," said Eleanor. "Your friend told me to call him Seth Treasonson until we knew the cops couldn't hear us."

Yeah, if Aoi had come up with an alias all those years ago, maybe things wouldn't have turned out so bad.

In her defense, who would have thought that some idiot would try to arrest literally every Aoi in Tokyo?

"…water," said Kazuya. "W'rm water."

Eleanor fetched him a paper cup, and gently poured the contents into his mouth. It was just the right temperature; hot enough down his throat to warm his body, but cool enough that it didn't burn.

"More." She fetched him another one.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

"Much," he said.

"What's 8 times 7?"

"What?"

"Gotta make sure you're thinking right," said Eleanor.

"Ah. Like… concussion test?" said Kazuya.

"Yeah, pretty much," said Eleanor.

"56."

"What's 16 times 19?"

19 is one, 38 is two, 76 is four, 152 is eight, and sixteen is "304."

"When is your birthday?"

"I'll be nineteen on October 30th."

"What was the last meal you ate?"

Kazuya paused. "Pork belly and garlic rice bowl."

"That sounds delicious."

"Not enough garlic."

She held up a finger. "Watch my finger." She moved it around in a zigzag pattern. "Okay, you seem to be fine."

"More water."

Eleanor fetched him another cup. "Good, you're shivering," she said. "You have a plan?"

"Let me think." Kazuya paused. "Best that the Agency doesn't have a record of this visit. Did they check me in yet?"

Eleanor shrugged. "Yes, but since you didn't have ID, I put you down as Jun Takagi. Figured it would be harder to look up than just Taro Yamada*."

* [The Japanese version of John Doe].

"I get Jun, but why Takagi?"

"I had Die Hard on the mind."

Would it be suspicious if I left? Or would the Agency be able to find me if I stayed?

"Did they take any identifying information?" asked Kazuya. "Height, weight, blood type?"

Eleanor shook her head. "They didn't have time to measure anything, but they asked me about your medical history. I said your blood type was O just in case you needed a transfusion, and I didn't know if you had any preexisting conditions, so I said you didn't. Do you?"

"No."

"Good," said Eleanor.

Then something struck Kazuya as odd. "Why am I in the waiting room instead of a hospital bed?" he said. "Wouldn't they put me straight into a bed instead of here?"

Eleanor shrugged. "All the beds are either full or reserved. Something about an apartment fire? They were in a hurry, so they chucked a heated blanket at my head and told me to wait here."

"If the hospital's busy, we can probably vanish," said Kazuya. "Or would it be better to check ourselves out? Another cup, by the way."

"I can get tea or coffee instead of water, if you wanted."

"No," said Kazuya. "Nothing with caffeine. Not if there's a risk of hypothermia."

"Plain hot water it is, then."

Eleanor came back with hot water for Kazuya and a cup of green tea for herself. "Feel any warmer?" she said, giving him the cup.

"A bit," said Kazuya. "This is undignified, though. Untie me."

Eleanor looked around. "…You're in your underwear under all those clothes."

"So's everyone," said Kazuya.

"Fine, but let me look for somewhere more private," said Eleanor. "Not sure if you can tell, but there's other people around."

"There should be a place where patients change into hospital gowns," said Kazuya. "Take me there."

"…I'm not going to wander with you on my back," said Eleanor. "I'll look, then come back for you."

Eleanor left, leaving Kazuya to think.

Do I need further medical care?

Perhaps. But does that 'perhaps' outweigh the need to avoid the Agency? No.

…Wait. Was there something wrong with that interaction just now? Something's off…

Eleanor came back with another cup of water. "Found them."

Kazuya's train of thought derailed as he drank the water. "Take me there."

After unplugging the electric blanket, Eleanor struggled to hoist Kazuya into a fireman's carry, but she managed. She staggered through the halls, but from what Kazuya could tell, nobody cared. The only one who acknowledged them in any way was a baggy-eyed doctor holding a large paper cup who yelled at them for not getting out of her way fast enough.

At last, Eleanor laid him down in a booth. "You sure you'll be warm enough?" she said.

"I'm warmer than I was when you took off my clothes earlier," said Kazuya. "Take them off."

"…If you say so."

Eleanor unwrapped layer after layer, until Kazuya could slide his arms out. "I can do the rest myself, thank you," he said.

"Okay," said Eleanor. "Just as a head's up, I'm pretty sure the only thing that can fit you is this longcoat." She held out the first thing she removed, a brown duster about as tall as she was. "It's from the guy who called us the ride. The rest are mine, and… well, I wasn't exactly expecting to grow into them."

"Where did you get all this, anyways?" asked Kazuya.

Eleanor picked a jacket from the ground, slid her hand into the pocket, and withdrew a second jacket. "Pocket dimension magic," she explained, sliding a pair of pants into the pocket. "As long as it qualifies as a pocket or a bag, I can access the dimension."

"Ah. Banned from any malls lately?"

"Haven't been to any." She pulled out a bundle of stained clothes. "You can borrow these. I scrounged them, so they aren't as nice as the ones I bought, but they should fit better. Don't ask why I have them."

Borrow, not take. Even when they sold themselves, a demon's belongings stayed theirs. That was why if Kazuya bought a Jack Frost's loyalty with pocket change and two Life Stones, he didn't expect anything back; why so many Fallen demons were said to command legions of demons, and yet Kazuya never saw any of them; why he couldn't borrow Odin's spear or Sarutahiko's sword. A contract bought labor, not lives.

Kazuya cocked his head. "If you have so many clothes, why were you sleeping in your school uniform? Wouldn't this be warmer?" he said, holding up a black, fur-lined longcoat.

Eleanor looked around. "…It might be better to show you." She gathered the bundle of clothes from the floor and exited the booth.

Kazuya wriggled his way out of the rest of the tangle, put on as many stained shirts and tights as could fit, and topped it off with the longcoat. He stretched, cracked his back, then left with the bundle of clothes in his arms.

Eleanor soon emerged from another booth wearing a bright red plaid jacket and pale blue camo-print pants, but this eye-watering combination wasn't the first thing Kazuya noticed.

"…A changing room isn't the best place for a haircut," said Kazuya, handing her the bundle. "We could have used the bathroom if you needed a mirror."

"I didn't cut my hair," said Eleanor, accepting the clothes and shoving them into the jacket pocket. "It's a wig." She pulled a hairy black mass from her pocket and dropped it in Kazuya's hands.

Indeed it was.

"I'm a boy, by the way," said Eleanor, fluffing his real hair. "But crossdressing was already a hobby, and I figured the best way to find people I wouldn't mind killing was to see who thinks they can get away with attacking a helpless little girl." He paused. "Not your friend, though. He's fine. Can't blame him for restraining a murderer."

"And nobody found your act suspicious?"

Eleanor sighed. "You were the only one to say it, but lots of people ignored me. Not sure if they thought I was bait for a mugging, or if they just didn't want to bother with me."

"That still doesn't explain why you were wearing a school uniform to bed," said Kazuya.

"Better to go to bed as a girl, just in case someone stumbles on your tent," said Eleanor. "It worked, didn't it?"

"I get that, but why the uniform specifically?"

Eleanor shrugged. "That's just the most normal piece of girl's clothing I own. Like, what would you think if you found me wearing this?" He held up a long red cheongsam. "Bit too fancy for an alley rat, wouldn't you think?"

"It does look like you're playing dress-up with your mother's clothes," admitted Kazuya. "Isn't it itchy, though, sleeping with the wig?"

"It's warm, waterproof, and surprisingly comfortable," said Eleanor. "Better than a hat. Feel how soft it is."

Indeed it was. Kazuya wasn't exactly a connoisseur of high fashion, but even he could tell that this was of good quality. Each thread was smooth to the touch, and…

Wait. He'd felt that texture before "Is this made from dragon hair?"

Eleanor whistled. "Impressive."

Kazuya sniffed the wig. A fresh rain over the first leaves of spring. "The hair and whiskers of a Long," he declared. "An excellent magic booster, or so I've heard, and supposed to bring luck, although it's difficult to rigorously test that."

"You really are an expert, aren't you?"

"Not a bad demon to make clothes from," Kazuya continued. "Lots of rich idiots want clothes made from the most dangerous demon they could find, but just because you can make snakeskin boots from Samael's hide doesn't mean you should. Most of the time, you're paying for cloth or leather that nobody knows how to clean properly."

"Wait, someone tried that?"

Kazuya nodded. "But I got paid up front, and who am I to complain about rich people wasting their money on me?"

"True, true."

"Where did you get this, anyways?" said Kazuya.

"I didn't steal it, if that's what you're asking," said Eleanor sharply.

"No, where did the wigmaker get the hair of a Long to begin with?" said Kazuya. "Demons aren't exactly common around here."

"How did you kill Samael for a bounty?" retorted Eleanor.

"It's a long story."

"So's mine," said Eleanor. "I'll explain when we're in a safer place."

Right. Kazuya almost forgot about that. "The Agency is looking for us, but they lack a means to track us," he said. "It should not be difficult to remain hidden from their sight."

"I guess," said Eleanor. "I mean, we're basically already in disguise, aren't we? Your tall friend took most of the attention, and now he's gone. I no longer look like a girl, and you're… well, you're wearing different clothes," he finished lamely. He cocked his head. "Still, though. Should we check out, or just vanish? Which do you think would be less suspicious?"

Kazuya paused. "We shouldn't just leave," he said. "Even if the staff wouldn't notice if we left now, they'd still have a record of Jun Takagi entering but not leaving. An open file is easier to notice than a closed one."

"What are you going to tell them?" said Eleanor.

Kazuya looked around. "You said they're busy because of a fire, right? I'll say I'm worried they won't get to me until after they're done, and I'll be better off at home."

Eleanor shook her head. "That makes it sound like you're accusing them of neglect. How about you say that you don't want to burden them if they're already overworked?"

"That works," said Kazuya. "Do you know which way to the front desk?"

Eleanor pointed down the hallway.

"They should have a bus timetable there, too," said Kazuya. A familiar feeling erupted. "But first, I need to pee."

X

(11:48 pm)

Mina crashed into bed. She'd done all she had to; she'd texted the others she'd arrived at home base, turned her phone's ringer back on, grubbed some leftovers, and took a half-hour bath that was more scrubbing than soaking. Her roommates were currently out, doing whatever they did.

She checked her phone again.

"Are you satisfied with my service?" asked Edith.

"Yes, very much so," said Mina. "Thank you."

"Here is my bill," said Edith, handing a piece of paper to Mina. "We've been out for a little more than three hours, so that's past the advance."

"Put it on Kazuya's tab," said Mina.

Edith shook her head. "We can't extend credit. Company policy, you know; we had too many summoners die before paying their debts. We only accept payment either up front or upon completion of the contract." She paused. "Although I suppose we'd still be fine if we got paid in the middle, but that's never happened."

Mina read the bill. That's pocket change. I can… wait. "…What's that h symbol?"

Edith stared. "…Right. That's the symbol for Macca. I guess most people in this world don't use it, do they?"

"I've never heard of it," said Mina. "What's the exchange rate to yen?"

Edith shook her head. "When you can travel through space and time, most currencies are volatile. Macca's stable because it's practical; it's crystalized energy, in coin form."

"…Is that how economics works?" said Mina.

Edith shrugged. "No idea."

"Me neither," said Mina.

Edith cocked her head. "How about this?" she said. "We wait until he comes back, and then he pays. If he dies, the debt's forgiven. Normally, it would fall to you, the cosigner, but we've already established that you can't pay."

Mina cocked her head. "You get paid by the hour," she commented.

"While true, it's not like you have any other options." Edith saw Mina's expression, and sighed. "…Fine. Half price, if you don't have any further orders."

"Does 'sit still and don't cause trouble' qualify as an order?"

"Only if 'sit still' is meant literally."

"Then that works," said Mina. "If you'd like, you can read my books."

"Thank you," said Edith, pulling a random copy of Choo Choo Chums Centennially from the stack.

Edith cant leaves unjtil shys paaid, Mina texted. Youlll havet o pay whennn yuo get here becausene I donnt have maka.

That done, Mina pulled the covers over her head, and drifted off to sleep.

X

(12:02 am)

It turned out the buses stopped running about an hour ago.

"Well, that's annoying," said Kazuya, checking his phone. He saw Mina's text, and responded, Is fine I woulndt expect u 2 pay 4 ur protection it was my idea & I offered. "Looks like we're going to have to walk. Want anything from the vending machine before we go?"

There was no response. Kazuya turned around, and saw Eleanor drinking a can of red bean soup. "I see you found it already," he said.

Eleanor didn't say anything.

"Are you listening?" said Kazuya. "Eleanor? Eleanor?"

Eleanor was deep in his soup.

Kazuya sighed, and said Eleanor's real name, the one he gave when they made the contract. That jolted him.

"Sorry, I wasn't listening," he said. "It's just… really good. Not used to that."

"…You want another one?"

"Please."

X

(1:23 am)

It was only after Soma had successfully lured the two Agents to the railway overpass halfway across the city did he realize the flaw in his plan.

They haven't called for backup, he said. I was trying to distract all of the Agency, but I'm really just messing around with just these two.

How would you handle being chased by Yoko? Bomb Armor retorted.

Good point.

Regardless, you have fulfilled your purpose, said Kali. You have drawn attention from your friends, and created a false path for the guards to follow. There is no need to persist in these games.

Right on cue, he spotted two agents climbing up the trail stairs, panting. One slumped against the fence, and his partner followed suit.

Looks like they're exhausted. Just a straight shot back to campus, and then I can go to bed.

Soma leapt from the overpass to the train tracks far below. A cry of dismay left the spiky-haired Agent's lips, but the blonde Agent simply dove after him.

Oh n—

She'll be fine, said Buer. An Earth elemental Persona user can't be hurt by the ground in any way.

That's… convenient.

Soma hit the ground milliseconds before she did, but that didn't matter.

"All right, no more messing around!" snapped the blonde Agent. Her Persona rose behind her, crackling with energy.

Run! Decarabia screamed. If that hits you, you'll die!

Come on, I've been—

A full quarter of his souls yelled back, Don't argue, just run!

Soma took the hint, and sped away with the Black Panther.

"Foamy Lover!"

A circle of pale pink light appeared on the ground in front of him; on instinct, Soma leapt. But not fast enough; the sound of rising bubbles was his only warning before his ankle erupted in sheer agony.

Soma screamed a wordless, primal note of pure suffering. The spell may have taken the form of pretty pink bubbles, but in the half second his ankle was trapped in the foam, his whole foot felt as if it was smashed by a giant's boulder and then dipped in a searing pool of holy fire.

He completed his arc and fell hard to the ground, which was thankfully free of bubbles.

"My… my leg…" Soma whimpered. He tried to stand up, but every nerve in his foot screamed at him to stop.

The air hummed with energy again. Oh f—

"Foamy—"

"Dragon!"

The spiky-haired Agent popped his head from the overpass. "Dragon! It's an emergency! We need to go!"

"Not now, Cowboy! I—"

"For God's sake, every second we spend arguing about this is a second someone might die!" cried Cowboy. "It's that much of an emergency!"

Dragon glared at Soma, and for the last time summoned her Persona. A hurricane of dirt descended upon Soma's crawling form, trapping everything except his head.

Then she ran away, leaving Soma alone.

Huh. Wonder what that was all about.

Soma squirmed, but the dirt was as solid as concrete.

Bat Company, if you will?

The mass of bats chirped in response, enabling Soma to transform into a fluffy white bat—

I would advise against that, said Stolas. As you may recall from Lady Mina's warning, a Persona user can sense when you use magic. Should you transform into a bat now, she will know.

I see, said Soma. But she can't tell when I use passive magical effects, right?

That is correct, replied Stolas.

Treant? Soma called. I'm going to need your help.

Treant responded with a rustle of leaves, replacing the Peeping Eye, and Soma's vision dimmed to almost total blackness. Soma felt his foot swell, the first sign of recovery. His coffin of earth had just enough give for him to breathe, so he presumed it would be safe to let his foot heal inside.

And now, we wait.

Soma paused. So… anyone want to distract me from this agonizing pain with their life story?

X

(1:31 am)

Navigation was a lot like programing something in a hurry. You hacked together a quick and lazy route back to a problem you had already solved, then hoped for the best. It wasn't fast, and stopping for half an hour to plot out a proper route would save lots of time in the long run, but sometimes you didn't have the patience to do the one thing that would get you home faster.

Currently, Kazuya was using a radio tower as a landmark, one he knew was close to the university. Generations of students had referred to it as the Drunk Compass, and followed it in hopes of arriving home. Kazuya wondered if there was a metaphor there, or if it was related to that time the Messians took over Tokyo Tower.

Suddenly, Eleanor tugged at Kazuya's arm.

"What is it?"

"Yakuza," Eleanor whispered. "Don't stop walking. Don't look around."

Kazuya kept his eyes facing forward. There were indeed several men in his peripheral vision; maybe not immediately identifiable as Yakuza, but then again, he wasn't the one who lived on the streets. One glanced at him, but Kazuya staggered as if drunk, and the Yakuza looked away, muttering about how terrible it was that he was burdening his little brother by making him guide him home.

"Coast's clear," Eleanor whispered back, and Kazuya straightened his gait.

"You ever kill Yakuza?" asked Kazuya.

"Yes," said Eleanor. "Oh wait, you mean here? No. Worst thing these guys ever did to me was threaten to kill me if I told the police about the guy they stabbed to death in my alley. You could tell they didn't mean it, though. One gave me candy." He sighed. "It's a shame, though. They take care of their own corpses. I could have avoided all this attention if I had just bit the bullet…"

"Then you'd have the Yakuza after you instead of the police," said Kazuya.

"True, true." Eleanor paused. "I wonder how your friends are doing."

X

(1:34 am)

Mina hugged her pillow as she dreamed about roosters prosecuting a table-shaped rug for avultury, which was like adultery but with vultures.

X

(1:35 am)

…And then the Spanish Inquisition showed up, continued the Witch.

I was not expecting that, said Soma. I'm sorry. That must have been horrible.

Oh, no, they got my case thrown out of court on lack of evidence, said the Witch.

They didn't believe in witches? Soma asked, incredulous.

The Witch gave a mental equivalent of a shrug. They did, but they believed in due process more. If I remember correctly, the inquisitor in charge said that he couldn't deny that witches and demons were real, but he could deny evidence that was either inadmissible in court or outright contradictory. Kept telling people that if you had to accuse someone else to avoid prosecution, everyone's going to make up stories. Even said that if the Devil was involved in any of this, it was to poison the minds of good Christians into burning one another.

Oh, wow.

Of course, due process was torture, so don't get too happy about it, said the Witch. [4] There's not much to say after that. I left town, kept going east, and then Dracula picked me up. She sighed. Speaking of leaving, I believe that our Persona user has been gone long enough.

Soma looked around, and up. Nobody's here? Are you absolutely certain nobody is watching?

Well, there's never accounting for those enlightened, extradimensional beings who always seem to know past, present, and future simultaneously, said Erinyes.

We are free from all save the eyes of God, said the Amalric Sniper confidently.

X

Meanwhile, the eyes of God were firmly fixed upon an English-language copy of Varney the Vampire. Both pairs, in fact.

The pair of eyes attached to the hands holding the book (well, the pair of eyes set in the head joined to the neck that sprung from the torso from which extended a pair of arms attached to the hands holding the book) narrowed. "Why does the subtitle for the third chapter say that Sir Francis Varney offered assistance, but he isn't even mentioned in the text itself?"

"It may be a mistake," said the owner of the other pair of eyes, who was reading over his partner's shoulder.

"Wouldn't the editor have caught it?"

"Perhaps the original editor did not notice, and in future editions the text was preserved in its entirely, errors and all."

"…This feels like a metaphor somehow." He looked up. "…So what exactly is Mr. Marchdale's job, anyways? It feels like the original audience would know from context, but we're just left in the dark. Is he just a really competent butler?"

X

Soma transformed into a tiny, fluffy white bat. He crawled through the Soma-shaped cavity in the dirt, until he emerged through the neck hole. He shifted back into a human, clutching his foot. It had mostly healed, but he was afraid to even look at it, and there was no question of putting his weight on it.

So he turned back into a bat and flew towards what he thought was campus. It wasn't much faster than walking, but it was at least faster than limping.

You'll still have to walk, remarked Agni. Can't be a bat too close to campus. Hell, you shouldn't make a beeline for it, either; I'm pretty sure they can sense that, too.

Soma sighed. Annoyingly circuitous route it is, then.

X

(2:57 am)

By the time Kazuya got back to the dorm, Naoki was asleep.

Am back, Kazuya texted the group. Come home when u can

"This is where I live," whispered Kazuya. "My roommate's sleeping, so be quiet. There's food in the fridge. Take whatever you want from the middle shelf, but be warned, most of the cooked food has been where my mouth was." Eleanor had already drank his fill from the water fountain.

"Is there anywhere I can take a bath?" said Eleanor.

"Don't worry about getting the furniture dirty; I can always clean up later."

"I appreciate the sentiment, but I haven't felt clean in ages."

Kazuya pointed to the showers. "It's on the left." He passed Eleanor his toiletries and extra towel. "Do you need to borrow any clean pajamas?"

"I'm fully stocked," said Eleanor.

"I'll heat some soup for when you're done," said Kazuya. "I don't have class tomorrow, so… why are you looking at me like that?"

Eleanor looked away. "I… sorry, it's just been so long since a total stranger's done so much for me," said Eleanor.

Kazuya shrugged. "I've always had a soft spot for kids."

"I'm… really not that much younger than you," said Eleanor.

Kazuya stared back at the boy who was around the same age as his grandchildren. "You're not."

"But—"

"It's a long story, and it can wait until tomorrow," said Kazuya. "You can take Daisuke's bed; he's been gone for a while, and I don't expect him back tonight."

Eleanor simply nodded, and headed towards the bathroom.

X

(3:05 am)

Soma drooped against the wall of a 24-hour convenience store. A boxed lunch of steamed squid, stewed greens, and rice perched on his lap as he sipped a bottle of aloe juice; next to him was a pair of newly unwrapped crutches, along with a box of red bean mochi and an empty, crumpled can of milk coffee.

His phone buzzed. Soma unlocked it and saw Kazuya's text. "About time," he muttered.

His foot still hadn't healed enough to walk on, so he'd flown to the nearest convenience store in hopes of finding a crutch. Then he realized that even without the broken foot, he was about ready to fall asleep, so he'd taken a can of coffee. And then he figured that while he was drinking, he should eat something too, and bought a meal. And after that, why not a snack?

If the clerk thought there was anything unusual about a tall, vaguely foreign boy limping into her shop and making a large purchase, she was polite enough to not show it, although Soma was sure that come morning, he'd be a story to tell her friends and family.

Soma yawned. He opened the pack of mochi and bit into the first, licking out the red bean paste. I really am lucky, aren't I? I get hurt, so I go to a store and buy a pair of crutches, then comfort myself with treats. Then I can go back to my warm bed and sleep in all day, and I won't have to worry about work or school.

…You still have to walk, said a Valkyrie.

True, true.

But yeah, I get that, said a Zombie Soldier. So much you take for granted until it's gone. Real showers. Walking into town whenever you want. Good coffee. Yelling back at people who shout in your face.

Soma sighed, and took another bite of mochi. He wouldn't be getting home any faster, but at this point, he didn't care.

X

(3:23 am)

The avultury case had been disclosed, and the ping-pong table had been disassembled. Alas, the jewel had been blamed for the dark curse of spaghetti, which had broken the rain, as well as the sweat of man's brow. Worse still, the proliferation of personalized 'I am unavailable' voice messages on cell phones allowed karmic punishment to spread beyond than the intended recipient.

Some of Mina's dreams were prophetic. This one was not.

X

(4:01 am)

Kazuya soaked alone in the bath. Eleanor had finished his, and was currently in his room eating (drinking?) pumpkin soup, leaving Kazuya alone with his thoughts.

He had done it again. He adopted another child.

He'd gone into this thinking he'd be recruiting just another demon, and… well, you couldn't be a demon summoner without being at least a little okay with the idea of owning a person, and he'd contracted childlike demons before, but…

Kazuya buried his face in his hands.

He couldn't take care of another human being. Not now. The last time this happened, he had a breadwinner wife and a house. Now, he was a full-time student living in a rented dorm. He could lend out Daisuke's empty bed, supply him with Magnetite, and provide three meals a day, but he didn't have the time for anything else. And how would he break this to his mother? It was hard enough for her to know that her only son was gone forever, and—

Breathe, Kazuya. How would things be if you didn't do this?

Then Eleanor would be living on the streets, killing because he didn't have any other choice, until the Agency caught him. Much worse than Kazuya being inconvenienced.

Kazuya leaned back. No such thing as the right or wrong choice. Perfection is an illusion born from willful ignorance. The question was not what was right, but what he could live with.

Besides, it wasn't as if Eleanor was a literal child. Kazuya knew what continuous childhood malnutrition did to a body, and he could tell that Eleanor was somewhere in his middle teens. Still young, and still not an adult, but it wasn't as if he would need (or appreciate) coddling. He could look after himself; he had looked after himself.

Intrusive thoughts pushed aside, Kazuya continued to soak.

X

(5:57 am)

Soma pushed open the door to his dorm room. Kicking off his slippers and tossing his bloodied shoes onto the rack, he threw himself onto his desk chair and collapsed, too tired to wash up and enter his bed.

There was a noise from Daisuke's bunk, and a boy Soma didn't recognize emerged from the blankets. "What the hell happened to your foot?"

"…Who are you and what are you doing in my room?"

"…Right," said the boy. "It's me, Eleanor. I'm a boy; you just met me when I was disguised as a girl."

Soma cocked his head. This was indeed the same person he'd rescued, but he couldn't think of him as an Eleanor anymore. It wasn't just that Eleanor was a girl's name; there was something about his face, something that nagged at Soma's memories…

Soma had seen him before.

Have I?

There was a general shaking of heads from his souls.

Is… is this like Leon? Soma called. Do you know who he is, but you just don't want to tell me?

No, this is nothing like Leon, burbled Decarabia. I do not recognize him.

Soma stared, but saw naught but a void where a name should have been. Earlier, he'd tried to fill the void with an alias, but now the false face had come off, the false name with it.

"Aren't the streets more dangerous if people think you're a girl?" said Soma.

"Dangerous for whom?" said the boy, grinning.

"…Ah," said Soma. "I remember now. You said you only kill the kind of person who'd rob helpless little girls in an alleyway, didn't you?"

The boy shrugged. "I don't have any problems killing the kind of people who'd rob helpless little boys, but people tend to buy the innocent little girl act better. But that's not important right now. What the hell happened to your foot?"

Naoki groaned in his sleep. Soma made a 'be quiet' motion to the kid.

Kazuya moaned, then sat up from his bunk. "You're back," he said, squinting.

"I am."

"Shut the door; you're letting in the light."

"Can't walk right now. You do it."

Kazuya blinked, then looked down. "How the hell did you walk here on that?"

"Crutches," said Soma, pointing to them.

Kazuya slid down from his bed and examined Soma's foot. "How did this happen?" he said… gently?

"One of the agents got me," explained Soma. "It was some kind of spell; earth and light magic. It was a weird one, though."

"I see," said Kazuya. "That explains why it looks like one of Cerberus's chew—"

"Stop," shuddered Soma. "I… I really don't want to know."

"…I understand," said Kazuya. He pulled one of his pillows from his bed (why did he have five of them?) and slid it underneath Soma's foot. "I'm going to elevate, okay?"

"…Okay."

Kazuya hefted Soma's foot onto his desk. "Did you try to heal it?" he asked.

"Yes."

"It healed wrong," said Kazuya. "I might have to break it again."

Soma winced. "Does it look… really bad?" Soma said lamely. "Like, they might have amputated if we lived a couple hundred years ago?"

"…You told me not to answer."

"That's a yes," Soma sighed. "How about I get Mina to heal me?"

"You sure?" said Kazuya.

"You think she'd be mad about waking—"

"No, are you sure she can handle that?" said Kazuya.

"Positive," said Soma. "Once, I got shocked by this weird doll thing and couldn't feel anything on my left side. It took her maybe an hour to fix me up."

Kazuya gaped. "…That's… that's incredible."

"Is it?" said Soma. "I don't have much of a basis for comparison."

"It absolutely is," the boy piped up. "Nerve damage is the worst. Neurons are so small and delicate, and they're the devil's own work to calibrate." He cocked his head. "Can you feel your foot at all?"

"I feel nothing but pain."

"Good."

"How is that good?"

"You can still feel." The boy slid down from the bunk and examined Soma's foot. "Yeah, this shouldn't wait. It'll just get harder to heal. I hate to wake anyone up at this hour, but your friend should understand."

"…Fine," said Soma. "I'll call her." He took out his phone and dialed.

After a few moments, Mina picked up. She did not sound happy. "What do you want, Soma?"

"Hi Mina," said Soma. "We, uh…" He eyed the boy, and remembered that the last time they saw each other, she was on the verge of a panic attack. "Crap, how do I say this?"

"Ask her if she has hydrogen peroxide," said Kazuya, staring at his pillow, which was starting to stain a deep—

Nope nope don't look at it.

"Yes, I do. Did you seriously call me at… six in the morning just because you wanted peroxide? What the hell do you need it for?"

Soma passed the phone to Kazuya.

"The same reason you have it," said Kazuya. There was a pause. "No, not that. Didn't… your mother must have shown you how to use it. It's for that." Kazuya sighed. "Hydrogen peroxide is an effective way of cleaning blood out of most types of cloth… Take it from me, it does."

Soma coughed, then leaned closer to the receiver. "This is cool and all, but look," he began. My leg's about to fall off and I really need your help and— "We've got jelly doughnuts with corn syrup and whipped cream in the basement, and you'd better get them while they're fresh."

"Edith might like some, too," added Kazuya.

"…Be right there," said Mina.

"Bring something to eat, too," said Soma. "We… you'll see." It might take a while.

"Don't forget my jacket!" Kazuya called right before she hung up.

"Why didn't you tell her your leg needed healing?" asked the boy.

"I panicked," said Soma.

Kazuya stood up. "Get on my shoulder, Soma."

X

(6:21 am)

Soma waited for Mina outside the basement door, lying on a pair of folding chairs Kazuya had lugged for him. Before long, Mina showed up, Edith in tow. "Hi."

"Hi yourself," muttered Mina. "Couldn't this have waited until—" Her eyes fell upon Soma's foot, and she covered her mouth in horror. "What happened?"

"Had a bad run-in with an Agent," said Soma. "Can… can you help?"

"Absolutely," said Mina, and she knelt, chanting a healing spell.

Mina's healing magic always felt pleasant; it was as if his foot was cooling in the shade after a hot summer day. And very specifically that; it wasn't enough to say his foot was chilling, or even dipped into refreshing water, it was cooling in shade. It was hard to describe to people who hadn't experienced it, but if you had, you couldn't mistake the sensation for anything else.

"Done," said Mina.

"Thank you," said Soma.

She looked around. "Where's Kazuya? I didn't have peroxide, but I do have baking soda."

Soma sighed. "Okay, this is… damn. It's kind of hard to say, but…"

Mina paused to let him finish.

"Something happened, and we had to tell you in person," babbled Soma. "Sorry we couldn't tell you that over the phone, but it was a lot to say and we couldn't just drop hints and expect you to wait…"

"And now I'm here," said Mina. "Bite the bullet, Soma. What happened?"

Soma took a deep breath. "Kazuya… kind of recruited the killer."

Mina goggled at him. "He did what?"

"It's… okay, he went on about this whole thing where he said that he's just as much of a victim as everyone else is—killer's a boy in disguise, by the way—and how he's basically being forced to choose between killing people or dying, and that he can see that he's at least trying not to kill good people." Soma said this all in one breath, and took a second one. "So he recruited him."

Mina sorted out the pronouns in that run-on. "You're telling me that Kazuya felt sorry for the killer, so he decided not to turn him in?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Her hands are shaking, said Kali.

"And where is he?"

"Through there," said Soma, pointed at the door.

Mina sidled past Soma and slammed open the basement door. Inside, Kazuya and the boy were sitting on the couch; the boy was eating soup, and Kazuya was drinking tea.

"Kazuya."

Kazuya looked up. "Soma's all right?"

Mina responded with a glare. "Do you realize what you just did?"

"…You're going to have to be more specific," said Kazuya.

"You're harboring a murderer!" shouted Mina.

Kazuya gently put down his cup of tea on the coffee table. "I took the killer off the streets, preventing him from killing anyone else, and without anyone else having to suffer," he responded levelly. He sighed. "Look, I get it. It's technically slavery, but he—"

"That's not it," said Mina. "We're impeding an active investigation, Kazuya. We have the killer right here. Do you understand exactly how much danger you're putting us all in?"

The chill in the air snapped at Soma's exposed skin. Kazuya glared back. "Are you so selfish that you'd abandon a child in his time of need? Are you going to give up on what's right just so you can do what's easy?"

Mina slammed on the table, rattling the mug and splashing milky liquid everywhere. "I let you go because you asked! I lied to people who trusted me! Now you force me to hide someone else?!"

Soma flinched. Mina… didn't get mad. Oh, she got miffed, annoyed, and frustrated like everyone else, but he'd never seen her mad.

When Kazuya spoke, he did not shout. His voice was clear, crisp, and cold as ice. "Is that what this is all about?" he said. "You fear the consequences?"

"Can you even see the consequences?!"

"Can you?" said Kazuya, his voice not rising a single decibel. "Do you think I spared him on a whim? Do you think I don't know the price of mercy?"

Mina's hands were balled into fists, and Kazuya's weight was shifting to his feet; neither appeared armed, but that ceramic cup of steaming tea was in arm's length for both and could be a weapon if hurled—

"All right, let's not do anything hasty," said Soma, dashing between them. "Both of you have a point. And neither of you are attacking what the other is defending."

Both Mina and Kazuya turned towards Soma.

"Just because you'll be—"

"Soma, stay out of—"

"I will not," said Soma. "If you still hate each other after this, fine. But I'm not letting you tear each other apart."

For the merest moment, Soma saw dread flicker in Kazuya's eyes. Then he sat down, his mask of stone asserting itself. "…Proceed."

"This had better be good," muttered Mina.

Soma took a deep breath. "Let's make sure we all know where we're coming from," he began. "Mina, if I understand you correctly, you're upset because Kazuya made a decision that could backfire on all of us, without even asking if you were okay with it. Is that true?"

Mina nodded. "That's it."

"And I stand—"

"Let me finish, Kazuya," said Soma. "If I understand you correctly, you think you made the right decision, selflessly taking in a homeless child, and that Mina getting angry about that is selfish. Is that true?"

Kazuya nodded. "More or less."

"I'm not—"

"Let me finish, Mina," said Soma. "Neither of you are wrong. But you're so fixated on why you're right that you don't stop to see why they're right, too." He took another deep breath. "So stop and listen. Your points are not mutually exclusive. Explain them." He took out a coin. "Call it. Heads or tails?"

"No, you go first," said Kazuya.

"Give… give me a second," said Mina. She left the room, and Soma heard the hum of the water fountain.

Soma turned to the boy. "You haven't said anything in a while."

The boy looked down. "You're figuring out your own thing. Best I can do is stay out of it."

"We're fighting over you," said Soma.

"Are you?" said the boy.

"…I know you want me to say no, but I can't spare the brain cells to figure out what you mean, so I'll pretend you didn't say that."

The boy shrugged. "That's fair."

Mina reentered the room, her face dripping. She took a deep breath. "I'm not going to say that what you did was wrong," she began. "That's the bravest thing you can do, putting your life at risk for another. But our lives are not yours to risk." She turned away, her voice bitter. "If we're caught harboring a murderer, I lose everything. I lose my family, I lose my job prospects, I lose my future. But you'll be fine. You can ride away on your demons; leave all your problems behind. I can't." She looked back at Kazuya. "Do you see that? Do you feel the weight of our lives in your hands?"

Kazuya said nothing.

"Kazuya?" said Soma.

"I…" Kazuya shook his head. "I need a moment to put my thoughts in order."

"Go ahead," said Mina.

Kazuya took a sip of tea. "Let me start with this," he said. "I stand by my decision. If given the chance, I'd do it all again." He put the cup down. "But I am sorry, Mina. I'm sorry that I hurt you without even noticing. I forgot I'm not the only one I need to worry about."

"That's… that's not really an apology," said Soma.

"No, it's fine," said Mina, head lowered. "I should be the one apologizing. This isn't an argument. You made the right decision, and I'm just venting."

"I accept your apology," said Kazuya. His gaze flickered towards the boy. "But I'm not the only one who needs to hear it."

Mina turned to face the boy. "I'm… pardon me, but have we met?"

The boy shrank.

"…Ah," said Soma. "This is… I said the killer was a boy disguised as a girl, right?"

Mina's face turned red. She bowed her head. "I—I'm sorry," she said. "This whole time, I've been spitting in your face."

He stared back. "You're apologizing?" he said. "To me?"

"Of course," said Mina, head still lowered. "You're the one who's had to suffer through it all. It's only a problem for me if we get caught; what right do I have to complain?"

The boy flinched. When he spoke, it was in the smallest voice Soma had ever heard from him. "…What makes you think I'm worth it?"

"What?" said Mina.

"What makes you think I'm worth any of this?" he said quietly. "You know I'm a murderer. I may look like a child, but I've just been dead a long time. You barely knew what I could do for you when you scouted me. Why am I worth protecting?"

"I…" Soma stopped. No. I'm Dracula's reincarnation, not Dracula himself. His crimes are not mine. This isn't the same at all.

"Like you said, it's your future at risk," said the boy. "I'll be fine on my own. You won't. Whose life is worth more?"

Mina froze. "How… how can you think so little of your own life?"

The boy smiled mirthlessly. "You ask that of a dead man?"

"I…"

"Yes. I do."

But it was not Mina who responded, but Kazuya. "You're not as bad of a person as you think you are."

The boy stared at him, then barked a harsh laugh. "You don't know what I've done."

"Maybe not, but you're still capable of regret," said Kazuya.

"And that makes it all better?" he said bitterly. "Tears alone won't wash away my sins."

"Tears won't, but deeds will."

The boy cocked his head. "…You're projecting, aren't you?"

"And you're deflecting," said Kazuya.

"Is that it, then?" said the boy, his flash of anger unable to hide the wariness in his voice. "Am I your second chance? Your way of forgiving yourself?"

"I'm not so desperate for forgiveness that I can't see the person I'm helping."

"And do you know me?" said the boy. "Can you see me?"

"Only you can know who you are," said Kazuya. "But I know who I am, and I'm not so fragile that I'd burden a child with my redemption."

That seemed to end the boy's objections. "…All right," he said, sitting back down. "I'm stuck with you anyways, master." His tone was sarcastic, but there was no bite to it.

"That said, now I want to know what you can do," said Kazuya, opening up his arm computer. "Let's take a look at… huh."

"…What did you see?" said the boy warily.

"I'm not sure you can call me master just yet," said Kazuya. "Your name isn't in the computer. Looks like we never made a contract after all." He shrugged. "I guess that explains why you kept contradicting me."

The boy blinked. "I… I think I know what went wrong. You just have to say your name and race, right? I… I lied to you."

"I didn't think that was your real name," said Kazuya, arms crossed. "Not a very creative alias."

"No, I gave you the right name, I just didn't give you the right race," said the boy. He took a deep breath. "I'm actually… no, if we're going to do this, we might as well do it right." He closed his eyes and slashed the air across them with his left hand, dissolving the illusion.

The tip of his left pinky finger vanished, yes, but that was not the only change. Thick green lines inked themselves across his left arm, twisting and breaking into an elaborate pattern of knots and whirls. When he opened his eyes, they were the color of molten gold.

Inside Soma's mind, Valkyrie made a strangled choking noise.

"I, Nanashi of the Godly race, belong to you now."

TO BE CONTINUED!

You can probably guess that I've been wanting to include Nanashi for a while. Remember, the Nanashi we saw in the Halloween chapter isn't the one we see here; that one made all the Anarchy choices but went for Bonds out of spite. This Nanashi is the opposite.

Nanashi having tattoos post-Anarchy isn't a mistake. He gave himself new ones, as a reminder of what he did. These aren't the same pattern as the ones Dagda gave him, but they're the same color.

Why does Lisa's attack almost kill Soma in one hit? It's how I balance the strengths of the endgame protagonists. Since Soma's game expects him to dodge, he's fast but not tanky; he also has insane stamina from platforming, so Lisa's plan to wear him down wouldn't work. Compared to him, Lisa hits and takes hits like a tank. Combat in Innocent Sin isn't completely devoid of strategy, but the winner is usually who hits harder; hell, it predates the Press Turn system, so evasion and accuracy barely matter for her.

That said, if Soma fought back, Lisa wouldn't leave unscathed. She's tankier than him, but he can throw a lot at her.

[1] Kazuya on orders: This is my new explanation for why you can't summon Lawful demons if you're Chaotic and vice versa in SMT1 and 2. It's not that the program won't let you do it; the demon will just find as many ways as possible to let you down, so there's no point in summoning anymore.

[2] Kazuya's magical jar story: In SMT1, you can only defeat Belial by stealing his Glancing Jar and sealing him inside. After you seal him, Lilith shows up and asks for the jar. If you refuse, she'll hit you with a stun spell and take it anyways (that happened to me).

[3] The village of Hakuba: An official source put Soma's home as the village of Hakuba in Nagano. Turns out it's a real place. From what I've seen, it's beautiful; full of mountains and forest.

[4] The Witch's story: Yup, this is real! The Spanish Inquisition was after heretics, not witches, and to them, heretics were mostly backsliding converts, people who tried to read and interpret the Bible without being ordained (like the Waldensians), or Protestants. That's not to say that the Spanish Inquisition never executed witches, only that this was their general stance.

If you want to learn more, look up Alonso de Salazar Frias. He did a lot more to prove the innocence of accused witches than I could fit; it's fascinating. What I find interesting is that he (and mostly everyone else) was operating under the assumption that witches, demons, and the Devil were real; this wasn't 'witches aren't real, therefore this trial is a sham,' but 'witches are real, but the rules of a trial still apply.'

For those of you who care, everything Nanashi wore was cobbled from armor from the game. You can approximate a sailor fuku if you pair a sailor shirt with a skirt from Ginza; I did it all the time. Specifically, it was the White Marine shirt with the Dark Goth skirt and wig, without applying the eyepatch or makeup (I asked a friend who cosplays, and the twin tails are probably fixed into the wig). Nanashi then changed into the Red Punk jacket and the Military Blue pants. The black longcoat Kazuya mentioned was the Blue Agent (not to be mistaken with Julius's brown duster), and the red cheongsam was the Crimson Warclothes.

Fun fact: if you check the flavor text for the thermometer, it says Nanashi's temperature is 35.3 C/95.5 F. It's very low for a human, just above hypothermia, but his breath would still fog. Call that artistic license.

Seth Treasonson, Soma's D&D character, is one of mine. Most of my characters are named after crimes, hence, Treasonson. I gave him the first name Seth partially because I like the name, and partially as a reference to Szeth-son-son-Vallano from The Stormlight Archive.

Seth was a mail clerk who moved to a small town. When asked about his job, he said he did 'clerical work', which most people took to mean that he was a cleric. Not wanting to disappoint anyone, he flipped to a random page in a book of gods and said he was a cleric of that god. Unfortunately, he chose Cyric, god of murder, treachery, and pulling the plug from unsuspecting coma patients. Fearing the consequences of backing out, this mild-mannered clerk donned a bathrobe as his cassock, took a shower curtain rod as his staff, and became the easiest OC to cosplay I have ever created.

Omake 1: Gullible

(I have made this bed and now I will lie in it.)

Chihaya Mifune gaped. "I… I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I'll take five," repeated the boy walking his husky.

"That's… you only need to buy one Holy Stone to avert disaster," she said.

He shrugged. "I only need to buy one Holy Stone to avert this disaster. I'd be surprised if there was only one disaster in my future; after all, I plan to live a good long life. And if I don't… well, that's what the Holy Stone is for, isn't it?"

Chihaya's hand trembled. On one hand, one step closer to getting out of debt. On the other… "There's no need," she said quickly. "Its power recharges in moonlight, every three days. You only need one!"

"A rechargable Holy Stone? Even better."

The tension in her shoulders released.

"Just three, then."

Chihaya shook her head. "These… these are holy items!" she said. "You can't expect to purchase—" She cut herself off.

The boy sighed. "Look, this is not the first time I bought shady merchandise from someone with self-proclaimed supernatural powers, and this will not be the last. Hell, I've bought stuff from actual cults!" (Chihaya flinched, but he didn't seem to notice.) "But your powers, they're the real thing. How else would you have known?"

Chihaya looked down at the cards again. They weren't necessary, strictly speaking, but they got her in the right frame of mind to See. He will survive fire, then water, but the earth itself will consume him. Twice he shall weather betrayal by those he thought closest to him, and twice he shall outlive the love of his life.

Also he will eat chicken for dinner tonight.

"…All right," she said, presenting him with the rock salt crystals. "Here you are."

"Much appreciated."

Where did he get all this money?

Chihaya relaxed. If a student like could afford to dump over a quarter million yen on a whim, he was probably loaded. And… it wasn't right for a high school to be that rich, was it? If he's going to spend this much money on somebody, it might as well be her.

Earlier…

"…And should you break this promise, and try to scam, attack, or otherwise do or cause harm to me or my mother, the Erinyes shall rend your soul asunder and drag it to the Underworld," said Kazuya, idly flipping the thug's switchblade. "Do you understand?"

The thug whimpered in response.

Samael hissed.

"Yes! Yes! I understand!" shrieked the thug. "I'll do it! I promise!"

"Good," said Kazuya, signaling for Samael to let go of the thug's ribs. "Now… I believe you can buy my forgiveness with, say… all the money in this room."

Lastly

Everything after this point is me rambling about lore, so there's no omake after here. Normally, I'd leave this conversation in-universe, but nobody here knows this.

I used to think that Nanashi would only be a god in the universe he rules. When I first started writing this chapter, Nanashi was genuinely of the Undead race, and his eyes were brown rather than gold. Anarchy makes a big deal about Nanashi forsaking his humanity for divinity, so I had thought he'd lose his Observation (mankind's power to turn belief into reality) upon apotheosis. And since godhood is derived from Observation, he'd only be a god if people believe in him. He's safe in his universe because the Creator God doesn't need believers (after all, there's nobody to worship you before you create the world), but he's only God in his universe. Outside of it, he's an anonymous zombie.

That changed after I played SMT5. After learning the lore, I concluded that Nanashi never lost his Observation. He'll remain a god as long as he believes in himself (and follows his dreams!).

So what does SMT5 have to do with Nanashi? Well, first I had a theory that Knowledge and Observation are the same thing. And since the game establishes that there are gods with Knowledge (Nahobino), I realized Observation and divinity are not mutually exclusive.

Keep in mind that this is a theory for my fic, not an absolute statement on the cosmology of Megaten. I'm assuming that the rules given in SMT5 apply everywhere. Also, at the time of this writing, Vengeance has not yet come out.

Why do I think Knowledge and Observation the same thing?

In both games, Knowledge and Observation are why demons want human souls, so I wondered if they were the same. Then I realized that if it's true, it explains how YHVH demonized the gods.

SMT5 says that YHVH stole Knowledge from the gods, turning them into demons, but not what Knowledge does. Apocalypse explains what Observation is and that YHVH used it to demonize the gods, but not how. If they're the same, the pieces fit surprisingly well.

I think SMT5 describes two separate but sequential events: "YHVH stole Knowledge from the gods," and then "YHVH turned the gods into demons." Losing Knowledge alone didn't turn the gods into demons; a god without Knowledge isn't automatically a demon, and a demon with Knowledge isn't automatically a god. But when YHVH declared all gods save him were demons, only he had Knowledge, so none could contradict him. Only after Lucifer granted Knowledge to humans could the fallen gods regain their divinity.

Vengeance seems to confirm that Knowledge and Observation are the same. In his promotional clip, Dagda says that much like in his home world, Knowledge restrains gods and humans; he says as much of Observation in Apocalypse.

On the other hand, Stephen says that the Axiom purposefully gave humans Observation. My out is that it only applies to Apocalypse.

Where did Nanashi get Life?

It's Dagda's. I say Dagda revived Nanashi by granting him a sliver of his own Life. That's why only Nanashi is undead, and why only he has Dagda's green eyes. Dagda gave him the rest of his Life before he vanished on Anarchy.

I had once considered that Nanashi was born with Dagda's Knowledge, and Dagda gave him just enough Life to not trigger the Condemnation. But Dagda seems like he'd avoid his Knowledge-bearer out of spite (granted, if it turns out Nanashi had Dagda's Knowledge, I would accept 'Dagda genuinely did not care.')

Why is Nanashi of the Godly race rather than the Nahobino?

Nanashi isn't a Nahobino. A Nahobino is strictly a fusion between separated Life and Knowledge; his Knowledge and Dagda's Life don't match. We know that not all beings with Life and Knowledge are Nahobino because of Fionn mac Cumhaill, who says the Salmon of Knowledge gave him power comparable to that of a Nahobino rather than making him one.

(At the time of this writing, it seems like Vengeance is setting up V-kun to fuse with Tsukuyomi, and the status bar still calls them Nahobino. But Tsukuyomi and Susano'o are triplets and Aogami's body was based on Tsukuyomi's, so they might be close enough.)

Muddying the issue is how Dagda says Nanashi cannot become a god until YHVH is dead. It sounds like he wants to break the Condemnation so Nanashi can become a Nahobino, but you could also read this as 'YHVH enforces the criteria for divinity, so you must kill him first.'

There's nothing stopping Nanashi from becoming a Nahobino. He just doesn't want to; he already considers himself whole.

Side Notes:

The statement 'Nahobino are the true forms of the gods' gets confusing when applied to gods who were never Nahobino, or Nahobino who aren't gods (like Abdiel). I think the real meaning is closer to, 'the (demonized) gods who were once Nahobino consider that their true form;' Nanashi was never a Nahobino, so he doesn't consider that his true form.

Lucifer is an aspect of YHVH, so YHVH's Knowledge counts as his Knowledge, and he still qualifies as a Nahobino after consuming it.

How could Nanashi become the Creator God if he isn't a Nahobino?

SMT5 says that only Nahobino can become Creator God, but Apocalypse calls that into question. Since Nahobino weren't canon yet, either Nanashi became one before the final cutscene through means entirely opaque to the player, or he was already qualified to be God.

I say the only requirement to become Creator God is Life and Knowledge; it's just that as far as anyone in SMT5 (willing to give V-kun a straight answer) knows, the Creator must be a Nahobino because only they were qualified the last time the Throne changed hands.

Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, would know enough about the nature of reality to know that it's possible to crown a non-Nahobino, and so would Dagda, a god of wisdom. Although Zeus tries to fuse with V-kun in his bid for the Throne, he's desperate and only guessing it'll work (unless Demeter is right, and V-kun's Knowledge is close enough to his and Ba'al's).

It really seems like Krishna was working around problems presented by other games. He made the new universe inside the old one to avoid the Vortex World, made his own Throne because he couldn't enter the Temple of Eternity, and fused with a human (Flynn) who didn't have his Knowledge to get around the Condemnation.

TL;DR

Knowledge and Observation are the same thing.

Nanashi retains his Knowledge/Observation even as a god, so he'll remain divine even if no human believes in him. But he's still not a Nahobino.

Life and Knowledge are the only requirements to become Creator God. Nanashi got his Life from Dagda.

(Fun fact: This section used to be over twenty pages long since I went overboard listing all the implications. Now it's four.)