As Wise desperately raced to recover from the shock, more details of the scene that lay before him dripped into his barely conscious mind.
Yanagi was swapping almost seamlessly between the two cellphones in her hands and the landline she had dragged over from a nearby desk.
Harumasa was carefully examining readouts from several small machines attached to various parts of the chief, no doubt a makeshift setup using medical equipment meant to help deal with his own condition.
Soukaku had pushed onwards and knelt down next to Miyabi, dressing wounds as she found them and redressing bandages that had already been soaked through. Between injuries she placed her hands on Miyabi's forehead and neck like an impromptu ice pack.
Soukaku's movement stirred Harumasa, who finally noticed the additional presence in the room. He turned and smiled in his usual carefree manner.
"Ah, manager, you're here! Although I'm not seeing the cute nurse uniform I specifically asked Yanagi to request. A shame, I always thought you'd really pull off the look." Harumasa joked cheerily, though there was no use for it.
His jovial and breezy nature had already shown itself for what it was in the weeks since the Bringer incident. No longer did it hold power to cast a veil over Wise's perception, now it simply betrayed the true worry that gripped Harumasa, squeezing tighter with each methodical beep of the machines on his lap. What Wise had previously found a little tactless and crass had become an endearing needle straight to his heart. Asaba Harumasa was not a superficial man, it was that he simply did not care to distress those around him.
It must have shown on Wise's face, because the facade slipped quickly.
"Yanagi is busy as ever, so I suppose I get to explain for now." He peeked over his shoulder at the overloaded woman. Alongside the three phones, she had opened up a laptop and was furiously typing emails to who-knew-where. It would be a comical scene, if not for the context.
Harumasa straightened up. He shuffled some of the equipment and first-aid debris from his immediate surroundings, then patted the freshly cleared area for Wise to sit on.
"The chief was supposed to be off-duty, something about an event her father was holding. It was her first scheduled time off in 5 months, so we all just kind of silently agreed that no matter what happened at work, we'd leave her out of it so that she could rest for once."
A device beeped unpleasantly on Harumasa's lap. He checked its screen, tapped a few buttons in quick succession, and produced a small spray bottle from somewhere amongst the debris around him. Leaning carefully over, he gently went about spraying her twice; once above her heart, and once on her throat. Soukaku watched as he did so, then on his signal lifted the chief slowly onto her side. Harumasa gave Wise a quick look before sliding her shirt up a short ways and spraying the base of her spine.
Every inch of the room became awash with the nauseatingly sharp tinge of sterile chemicals mixed with an unsettling trace of something rancid and biological, like an operating theatre scrubbed within an inch of its life by a passionate germaphobe experiencing its first emergency of the day. Corruption suppression tools were not a common part of Wise's proxy work, but he had caught hints of them on returning teams that stopped by Random Play. He had thought it was bad enough then, but experiencing it at full strength now made him quietly resolve to work harder at getting teams out before their use was necessitated.
Harumasa continued as Soukaku laid the chief back down with incredible care.
"Well, two days into her leave, her father called Yanagi to ask when Miyabi's work would be wrapping up. Apparently on her first day off she'd called her father to tell him that something had come up last minute but she'd be home in time for his event, and that was the last he heard from her."
A weary sigh drifted in from the corner. Yanagi stood, at last having reached the end of her engagements, and sauntered over to the pair. She looked exhausted.
"Wise, thank you for coming. Where are you up to, Asaba?"
"Ms Tsukishiro, wait a second!" Wise interrupted before Harumasa could dive back in. Unzipping a jacket pocket, he reached in and retrieved a fresh wrapped red bean bun and handed it over, to Yanagi's surprise.
"I figured since you let Soukaku ask for snacks on such an important letter then you might secretly be in need of some too." He explained. She unwrapped it like it held the future of New Eridu. For a moment Wise could swear it looked like she might burst into tears.
"Hey wait a second, where's my snack?" Harumasa pouted. Wise turned his pockets inside out guiltily.
"Sorry Harumasa, I'll uh… take you out to hotpot next week?" He offered. Harumasa sighed dramatically, as if to emphasise that he didn't really think it mattered.
"Well, I suppose that works for me. Anyway, I just told Wise that Miyabi's father called you to ask about her work."
"Right, obviously this was news to us as for all we knew she'd been with him the whole time. I started examining recent reports to find anything that seemed like it might fit, and I found it. A companion hollow had opened up on the morning of the chief's first day off, and when I cross-checked it with the route she would most likely take to her father's, it ended up only being a few streets away."
Wise involuntarily scowled. Not a scowl of disdain or disappointment, but of pained understanding, like watching a waiter drop a plate or a child let go of a balloon. Sometimes unfortunate things happen, and all you can do is look onward at the headlight rapidly approaching.
"I see you've come to the same conclusion as we did. Knowing the chief, there's no way she wouldn't help out. So, we headed over to the hollow, hoping to send her on her way while we took over without too much fuss."
Yanagi hesitated before she spoke again. Yanagi never hesitated. Even Harumasa looked a little surprised.
"That was… three days ago. When we arrived, there was no sign of her anywhere, nor were the HIA or NEPS aware of her presence. We searched the hollow as much as we could, but we found no trace of her until the hollow collapsed and we could locate her signal. By that point she was already, well…"
Yanagi looked wistfully at Miyabi's unconscious form. By now Soukaku had treated all of her visible wounds, bandaging in layers of gauze thicker than a thumb-width. Harumasa's devices ticked and beeped steadily.
"She was in a hollow for 5 days straight?!" Wise enquired fearfully. He could see no signs of overt corruption, but while he knew Miyabi's aptitude was extraordinarily high, that much time under the pressure of the etheric atmosphere would wreak havoc on anybody.
He didn't know when he'd stood up, nor when his fists had clenched so tightly. Harumasa placed a supporting hand on Wise's arm.
"Don't worry! She has no serious corruption symptoms, and none of her injuries are life-threatening. As for why she's unconscious… we're not too sure, honestly, but she's safe enough right now."
Even through the wave of relief flowing through Wise, fragments of concern sank their barbed hooks into his mind and fought against the riptide. The pressure relieved at least enough to unfurl his hands before his nails bit further into his palms. Tentative, he breathed out a shallow sigh.
"Ms Tsukishiro, your letter said you needed help from us. Anything you might ask, consider the request accepted free of charge." Wise stated, aiming for confident and assertive but all too aware his footing was shaky at best.
"Are you sure you don't wanna hear what it is first? Who knows, we could be about to ask you to take over all of my duties so that I can look after the chief full time." Harumasa joked. Or tried to. It was clear that his heart simply wasn't in it.
"Actually, that's not too far off the mark. We were hoping that you would agree to house the chief while she recovers." Yanagi said, as though it were the most obvious conclusion.
Wise blinked. And blinked again. Despite his hopes, a third blink did not make things any clearer.
"You want us to… house Ms Hoshimi? I'm not sure I'm following."
"Well, our primary concern is that it doesn't become public knowledge that Miyabi is in this state. If the people of New Eridu found out that one of our strongest defenders was this injured, people would start to panic about whether the hollow disaster is becoming too dangerous and lose hope. That immediately rules out any hospitals. Obviously we considered her father's estate, but there are too many staff on site posing a risk. We picked you both for several reasons. Firstly, being a popular video store all types of people might enter and leave frequently, including ourselves as known regulars, without raising suspicions. Alongside the private lot behind the store allowing for discrete access, this means that aid can be brought in as required."
Wise nodded along. It was true, they had many customers from all walks of life and from all across the city, and being able to bring both Miyabi and any equipment in through the back would be far easier than through the streets.
"Secondly, the chief needs to be forced to rest and recuperate, or she will just go right back to running into hollows whether she's working or not. You both care about her, so we have faith in your abilities to keep an eye on her both with regards to her condition and getting her to stay put."
This was also true. Both Wise and Belle knew first aid and basic medical care, often helping agents patch themselves up both inside and outside of hollows. The Cunning Hares arrived on their doorstep for minor medical help on a not infrequent basis. Wise wasn't sure that even he and Belle combined would have anywhere near the strength needed to keep the chief in place for long if she decided otherwise though.
"Finally, and most importantly, is trust. As simple as it sounds, all of this hinges on the plan being undertaken by somebody that we trust implicitly, and that brought the two of you to mind even before the strategic utility of Random Play. Though she might not say it outright, Miyabi trusts you as much as she trusts us, perhaps even a little more. Oh but don't tell her I said that."
Yanagi seemed a little bashful at this last outburst, like she'd let slip some great secret. Whatever it was seemed to comfortably pass Wise by.
Wise thought back to just after the Bringer incident, how he had taken the leap of faith by entrusting the details of the siblings' past to Miyabi. Despite his confident show in front of Belle he had no idea how she might have reacted, not fully discounting the possibility that they might suddenly find themselves at the very top of the New Eridu most wanted list.
Instead she had listened patiently, her face softening as he recounted the loss of their mother figure, and the rush of complex emotions Wise had felt when she proclaimed them under her protection was something he had yet to remove from its carefully packed box to untangle. No judgements, no faux sympathy, no immediate calling of the rest of Section 6, just the announcement that Wise would now be their proxy.
Her proxy.
It required no further thought. She had protected them, and now they would protect her no matter what.
"I understand. We'll do everything that we can." Wise affirmed.
Yanagi smiled gratefully, and Soukaku looked across at him for the first time since she had begun worrying over Miyabi's wounds, grinning her usual wide, goofy grin.
"Alright then, let's get this done. Nurse Wise; the gurney please, if you would." Harumasa pointed around the corner towards the office's meeting room.
Following his finger, Wise realised how much his concern for Miyabi had blinkered him to the state of the office. Not 10 feet to his right stood a thin, lightweight gurney. Atop it lay Miyabi's usual uniform jacket, and on top of that lay her sword, thankfully still tightly locked into its sheath.
The rest of the office was a disaster. Several maps of city blocks had been strewn about, each one scored with a rainbow of markers until they were barely recognisable. Dozens of sheets had been taped to walls and scrawled on, rudimentary and looping shapes flowed into one another nonsensically alongside blocks of illegible handwriting so dense they would make a novelist weep. The large board where the members of Section 6 had once kept track of hollow activity across the city had been hastily wiped of its contents, the numerous reports and photos lying crumpled on the ground like autumnal leaves. In their place were hundreds of roughly cut sections of the city map, pinned into irregular groupings along abstract lines like an expressionist nightmare. Folders upon folders upon folders were scattered haphazardly on floors and stacked on desks, their contents a flurry of ink-stained memos and approximated math.
It was clear that the remaining members of Section 6 had made dozens of blind excursions into the hollow instead of waiting, beholden to the laboriously slow putter of government information gathering. For the first time he thought about just how drained the team must be. The swollen, heavy bags under Yanagi's eyes, the unnerving rasp and wheeze of Harumasa's breathing, the numerous deep blue clouds of bruises and welts across Soukaku's sky coloured skin, all seeming to fade into his view now that his nerves had settled and anxiety flattened.
It took all four of them to carefully lift and place Miyabi comfortably onto the gurney. The plan of egress was simple enough; Wise would leave the building to fetch the van and bring it to the side of the building usually reserved for picking up tactical units on emergency call outs. The guard overseeing the lot had been given strict no-questions-asked instructions to allow Wise through, and true to his word opened the barriers with barely a look at Wise. Yanagi would hold her planned all-hands meeting to remove any possible spectators from elsewhere in the building, making a show of handing over several key work areas to other sections under the guise of Section 6's faux suspension for their recklessness in the companion hollow in order to cover up for the chief's absence. During the meeting, Harumasa and Soukaku would use the emergency lifts to bring Miyabi down to Wise and settle her into the back of the van, before heading back to meet Yanagi and signal the end of the meeting.
Wise's drive back to Random Play was fraught with panic and paranoia that every stop or passing car might reveal his cargo, all the while attempting to explain the situation to Belle over the phone while he heard Fairy still recounting her list of improvements in the background. Thankfully Sixth Street was quiet as Wise pulled into the tiny alleyway and through to the store's parking lot.
The afternoon became a whirlwind of activity. The rest of Section 6 had dripped in one by one, usually bringing some small piece of medical equipment or, in Yanagi's case, a trusted doctor. The question of where to set Miyabi up was a short lived one; Belle had immediately suggested Wise's bedroom.
"It's much cleaner and tidier in there, all the better for a recovering person right?" Came the excuse, though she couldn't hide a smirk that Wise didn't quite understand.
The doctor had happily taken command once the decision was made, calmly passing out orders and instructions as he examined the still unconscious chief. By the evening, Wise's room looked like a rather deluxe private hospital suite. Between the monitoring equipment, batches of medical supplies, and innumerable clean white sheets, it was tough to notice that it had been a bedroom in the first place.
"Alright, I guess we should head back and finish dealing with the fallout at HAND" Yanagi sighed, standing up with all the enthusiasm of a rather old and damp bit of lettuce. "You have all of our contacts, the doctors notes and instructions, enough supplies, is there anything else we can do?"
"Oh no, absolutely no way are you going anywhere!" Belle retorted indignantly. She had been eyeing up their guests all afternoon, concern written plainly across her face as she watched them struggle to keep up any longer.
"You guys are a mess! Yanagi you look like your eyes are about to evaporate from lack of sleep. One more trip up those stairs and Harumasa might genuinely throw up a lung. And poor Soukaku hasn't eaten a thing since she got here!"
As if she had only just realised it herself, Soukaku's stomach growled so intensely that Wise wondered if Miyabi might just wake up thinking an ethereal were in the room. Soukaku looked mortified. Or ravenous. Probably both.
"Exactly! Thank you Soukaku. You're gonna sit down, we're gonna order a bunch of noodles from General Chop, and you're staying here for the night. And NO COMPLAINTS!"
Belle cast a stern glare back at Yanagi, who quickly thought better of the words about to spill from her lips.
"A-at least let us pay for the noodles…" Yanagi mumbled, intent on breaking the fierce eye contact.
Wise watched Belle while she made a show of deep contemplation, and conceded.
"We accept your terms. Now what does everybody want?"
Several hours and more than a dozen bowls of noodles later, Belle snorted awake, bleary eyes casting hazy visions that unfogged with every blink. The hours of sitting on Wise's couch watching movies and happily chatting seemed to have been just what their friends needed, evidenced by the heavy breathing and gentle snores from the couch beside her. Yanagi's glasses hung lazily from her slumped head while Soukaku curled tightly into a ball against her lap like a needy housecat. Harumasa looked as though every muscle fibre in his body had ceased to work, his form dead set on melding into the cushions.
A sharp sprig of anxiety coursed through her chest when she did not see Wise nearby. The explosion of signals from her brain urgently requesting that her limbs reawaken were stifled the millisecond she heard a gentle groan from behind her. It was something he did in his sleep when he was worried, she wasn't even sure he knew about it. As glacially fast as her still-stirring muscles would allow, she turned her head to find him.
There, slumped against his own bed, Wise snoozed fitfully. His head lay atop crossed arms next to Miyabi, just as still and inert as she had been all day. He mumbled again, shuffling just enough for Belle to get a good glimpse of something she was certainly not supposed to catch.
She grabbed a nearby cushion, placed it against Harumasa's leg, and laid her head onto it, smiling smugly as she seared the image of Wise's fingers softly interlaced with Miyabi's own into her memory for use in later teasing.