Chapter 2 / The Differentiation Formula, Part 4

Later in the afternoon, Ikaruga noticed she received a text message from her brother.

Apparently, he wanted to meet her in their living room. That in itself was a rarity, but she didn't think much of it. Usually whenever her brother would need to talk to her about something, it would always be in passing, as if it was something that popped in while they were already together. He always phrased it in a "while you're already here" type of sentence. Otherwise, Murasame tended to work on things by himself, regardless of how difficult it might be, but that was another matter altogether. Ikaruga knew her brother was a prideful person with a bit of an ego, whether it might have been misplaced or not, so despite how casual she might appear around him, she was careful to step around any landmines that might make things a little awkward.

It wouldn't be a big deal if she did though. At this point in their sibling relationship, they were comfortable enough to look past small squabbles like that, but for Ikaruga, this was merely a matter of respect for him in age. There might have been people to say otherwise since she was technically the next head of the Houou Clan instead of Murasame, but she did have other reasons for keeping that respect.

Once she was finished with her classes, she headed to the appointed location back home.

"Brother? You wanted to see me?"

She knocked on the door gently, beckoning for her brother. There wasn't a specific time that Murasame provided in the text message, but she had assumed that they would meet after she was back from the university campus. It wouldn't be like him to skip out on a meeting, whether personal or business, so she knocked again with the assumption that he was so occupied that he didn't hear her.

"Brother?"

The door opened with the second knock.

"Ah, Miss Ikaruga! Hello! Erhm, sorry, I meant just Ikaruga." Isayuki sheepishly laughed as he peered out the door. "It really feels like I should be referring to you with some honorifics."

Ikaruga smiled softly. "I already said that it is not necessary." She promptly made a little bow. "And greetings to you as well, Isayuki."

"Mister Murasame said he was waiting for you, but he looks a little distracted at the moment." Isayuki opened the door fully for Ikaruga. "Take a look for yourself."

When Ikaruga stepped in, she noticed that her brother was practically glued to his laptop. Murasame sometimes worked outside of his usual hours to help support their clients and partners, but he would never take that work back home with him. Nevertheless, he was just as focused as he would be when doing any kind of work, so Ikaruga couldn't fathom what this was all about.

Something told her she was about to find out.

"Mister Murasame! Ikaruga is here!"

Murasame was seated on a sectional sofa with his laptop placed on the table in front, so Ikaruga took her seat on the adjacent portion that stuck outwards towards the large television screen. She noticed a children's cartoon was playing in the background with a low volume, but upon seeing Isayuki's attention gravitate over to it, she quickly understood why it was there.

"Give me a second," Murasame uttered. He didn't look over to his sister, but he acknowledged her presence quickly. "I'm finishing a few things here."

Even if she disliked it, which she didn't, Murasame was difficult to speak to when he was focused like this. She had heard the term "locked in" quite a few times with her friends and there was likely no better example than her own brother when it came to labeling it to someone.

"Mister Murasame has been like this since we got home from his workplace," Isayuki explained wryly. "I'm not sure I understand why this is happening, but if it's Mister Murasame, I'm sure it's going to be super important."

"It must have been quiet the entire time," Ikaruga responded.

Isayuki scratched his head. "It was a bit boring before if I have to be honest. Mister Murasame told me what I should do when you arrived, but that was about an hour ago, so I was left waiting. Mister Murasame noticed me being restless, so he put on a television show for me."

"My brother has been treating you well, hasn't he?"

Even though their manor had television screens scattered around, Ikaruga never really watched anything off the television growing up. Her previous family didn't have one and once she was adopted into the main family, most of her time was spent learning to be a shinobi, studying for school and spending time with her friends. She gave the cartoon a closer look now that she had the opportunity.

"Alright, I'm finished."

Twenty minutes later, Murasame glanced up from his screen to see both his sister and his assistant with their undivided attention on a little penguin who wanted to fly like the other birds, but he kept running into roadblocks. They were watching the climax of the episode where the penguin was able to gather materials with the help of his friends to make a machine to fly. It was obvious that they were more interested in the aesthetics rather than the actual message of the story, but Murasame couldn't fault them for losing themselves to the commercial nature of cartoon shows.

"Sister? I'm all finished here."

Ikaruga snapped out of it the moment Murasame called out for her.

"Ahem." She cleared her throat and her mind, trying to reposition herself. "You wanted to talk to me about something, Brother? I hope it is nothing too serious."

"I wouldn't consider it to be too serious, no."

Knowing Murasame, it could have still meant either or, so Ikaruga kept an open mind. He had a tendency to both overdramatize a situation or downplay a problem.

"Do you have anything to do for the rest of the day?"

Ikaruga answered truthfully. "I was planning to study for a bit before the sun sets. Afterwards, I was going to do a checkup on the traps we have around the manor. I am on that duty for the month."

"Were you going to do that tonight?" Murasame clicked his tongue. "Damn, then forget I asked you for anything. I don't want to take time from someone who doesn't have any left to spare."

"No, I don't mind. I would at least like to hear you out."

Murasame bit his lips, wondering if he should indulge his sister in her request. He didn't want to pressure her into slicing a piece of her time for him nor did he want to waste his breath on a matter that appeared to already have its set conclusion in place. He glanced back at Ikaruga who responded with an earnest expression. No matter how he spun it, it was difficult to turn down his sister's request, especially when it was a simple matter of speaking his mind.

"Fine."

Murasame sighed. He turned his laptop's monitor towards Ikaruga.

"I was compiling information about that facility you found us in yesterday. Or rather, I was compiling as much as I could find. The strange thing is that on the surface, it's almost as if that facility doesn't exist. It should be merely a stray piece of land, covered in trees and greenery. No records ever indicate that a building was erected there, much less a whole underground facility."

Ikaruga pulled Murasame's laptop closer to her. Her brother was working on a comprehensive document on that facility. There were many things that Murasame had to know, especially with work, so he made a habit of making documents for him to refer to in the future. It made things easier for himself as well as anyone who would need the document for their own reference.

However, Murasame's research here was rather suspect. It was not able to pin down exact pieces of information, merely ideas that could be rejected. If anything, Ikaruga probably understood less about the identity of that facility the more she read Murasame's document, but there was a burning question that sprung out while she slowly made her way through.

"Why are you looking into this facility in the first place?"

"Can't I be curious?"

"You should be leaving this matter to the shinobi council," Ikaruga chided. "This is a situation that involves yōma. As such, any involvement will be extremely dangerous, regardless of person."

"And what about it?" Murasame scoffed. "Does that mean I do nothing while whoever was behind this mischief gets away with their mayhem?"

"Tell me the truth," Ikaruga groaned. "What is your real reason for investigating this facility?"

Murasame grumbled under his breath. Although he spoke in truths so far, it wasn't wrong to say that he didn't explain the main reason as to why he was interested in the facility. It was inevitable that he would have to come clean, so he wasn't sure why he played this charade to begin with. Out of everyone in this world, Ikaruga might have been the one to understand his habits the most.

Ikaruga didn't know about the masked man in particular, nor did she know why the yōma was there to begin with. For all she knew, a yōma suddenly appeared there and she took it down. Of course, she knew about the hospital attack and that someone from that incident took Murasame away.

"The objective of the ones behind the hospital incident was the kid. I wasn't even one of the main objectives, just something that so happened to be convenient for them to snag. Whoever they were, they just wanted the kid back and they brought him over to one of their abandoned facilities for the time being in the process of transferring him to another place."

Murasame kicked back against the sofa and crossed his legs.

"Retrieving the kid is still an objective of theirs, so that means they'll be back eventually. When that moment comes, I need to know as much as I can about them if I'm going to give them what they deserve for messing with me!"

"I trust that you've already alerted the detective about this as well, right?"

Murasame bit his lips and turned his head away.

"Brother… You've already alerted the detective about this, right?"

"I-I don't think it's as simple as you think it will be."

"If you know they are going to return, is it not important that the proper powers know about it, especially when we know that yōma are involved?"

Murasame scoffed. "Look, this isn't a matter of what happened or didn't happen. If I had an easier way to figure this thing out, I would have done so already. Now, can you stop asking a million questions and let me say what you wanted me to say?"

Ikaruga held her lips. Although she was concerned about all of the decisions Murasame made, she took a deep breath before continuing anything else. If this was anyone else, she might have doubted any movements going forward, but because she knew this was Murasame, she decided to see where this went.

Not because she was curious, not because she was skeptical.

It was because she held respect for him.

"I'm going to return to the facility tonight."

A little less respect now, but she was being positive.

"I was going to ask you if you could serve as a bodyguard, just in case anything happens, but you don't have the time for that. I highly doubt anything is going to jump out at me anyways."

"I disagree. I think taking precaution is a good idea."

"I don't want to be the reason why my sister is skipping on her studies."

"Then how about this?" Ikaruga gestured. "If I help you out tonight, then I'll leave the routine checkup of the manor's traps to you. It would take a few hours to get through everything, so I anticipate that it'll take up the same amount of time."

Murasame scratched his head. He really had no other reason to turn her down anymore.

"You're always like this, aren't you?" he growled.

Ikaruga giggled. "I do what I can to help."

Murasame silently packed up his laptop. He called out to Isayuki and handed it over, telling him to simply put it back on his desk. Isayuki's eyes kept themselves glued onto the television screen until he stepped out, letting Murasame to turn it off, but that was also one of the topics he wanted to consider.

"It's probably not a good idea to bring the kid along," Murasame pondered aloud. "We would be handing him back on a silver platter if someone does decide to return there at the same time as us. Unfortunately, I don't think leaving him alone is much of a good idea either."

"I think if it's an option between the two," Ikaruga suggested, "I believe bringing Isayuki alone would be the better choice. There isn't anyone in the manor that is equipped with the means to protect people. If I must be blunt, we are the only ones that can fight."

"Here's hoping nothing happens then," Murasame sighed.

-/SK-EV/-

For shinobis, it was sometimes faster to travel on foot. The added benefit to that was there was no clear indication that the shinobi would be moving around compared to using a vehicle, as the latter was far too big and loud to quietly get from place to place. The majority of the time, the Houou Family would use their limousine for appearance's sake, but for times when things are done under the veil, it was more convenient to move around without it.

"Oh god, I'm already tired."

Murasame gasped for air as they arrived at the facility's entrance. While he hadn't been drenched in sweat, it was obvious that Murasame hadn't moved such a long distance on his two feet in a while. Ikaruga would remember how in her training at Hanzo Academy; this type of distance was a warm-up.

Ikaruga looked over to Isayuki.

"We're coming back here? Are you sure this is a good idea?"

He was no worse for wear. It was like the concept of tiredness was nonexistent for him.

"What am I saying? If Mister Murasame wants to do it, who am I to say otherwise?"

Originally, they were going to arrive by vehicle for Isayuki's sake. As he didn't know what a shinobi was, it made sense that he couldn't possibly do what a shinobi could do, but when Murasame mentioned the task for Isayuki, he was all down for it. It surprised Ikaruga that Isayuki was able to keep up with them as well as he did. It merely made Ikaruga wonder who exactly Isayuki was before his amnesia, but if what Murasame said was true, this facility might hold some clues for that.

"Give me a second…" Murasame groaned. "Still catching my breath…"

"Did the traveling tire you out, Mister Murasame?"

"N-Nonsense," Murasame bluffed. "I was, uh, doing a lot of mental thinking on the way here. As you might not know, it takes a lot of energy to collect as many thoughts as I have."

"Oh! So then, that's why I wasn't tired! I wasn't really thinking about anything on the way over."

Ikaruga turned her head away, extremely tempted to correct Isayuki, but there wasn't any real point to it, especially if Murasame was trying to put on a brave face. If anything, Murasame tended to tell these lies for himself to believe in in order to keep up. After getting it out of her system, Ikaruga glanced back once Murasame was able to recollect himself.

"Are you ready, Brother?"

"Of course I am. What kind of question is that?"

Murasame remembered the path downwards to the room where the yōma had spawned, but there were countless other branches of hallways that could be explored. Other than some of the footprints within the floor-settled dust that they made yesterday while leaving, nothing else looked changed. Murasame had to wonder how much preparation must have gone into setting this facility up as a temporary site and if it didn't amount to much, he was worried that he might not get anything out of this.

"The lights are still on," Ikaruga pointed out. "Whoever owns this facility must still be actively paying for its electricity. If it were abandoned, it doesn't make sense for them to keep the lights on."

"It saves us from playing a horror game with flashlights and all," Murasame sarcastically responded. "Seriously. Now that I've gotten a better look at this place, this is just downright creepy."

"Y-Yeah, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's scared." Isayuki shivered as he stuck close to Ikaruga and Murasame. He was constantly looking back and forth. "Was this really the place we were brought to yesterday? I don't remember any of this."

"Hey! Who said I was scared!? I said it was creepy; that's all!"

"My bad, Mister Murasame! I'm sorry for assuming!"

At the very least, Murasame didn't need to worry about Isayuki wandering off by himself. It allowed him to focus more on investigating the facility.

Murasame grimaced as he looked up towards one of the lights.

"Moving back to the lights, whoever is keeping this place running must have some serious strings to be pulling if they're able to direct some power over to an unmarked building."

"Either that or they're wealthy enough to construct their own power grid somewhere else," Ikaruga suggested. "Though, I suppose if they were able to build a giant underground facility in secret, as well as maintain it for seemingly no profit, it should be assumed that they're wealthy."

"Wealthy, huh?"

Murasame thought back to what the masked man mentioned.

"I guess having lots of money counts as having considerable influence."

Ikaruga glanced into one of the passing rooms. It was reminiscent of a lab environment with equipment sufficient enough to support research. She wanted to take a closer look, but it was evident that there wouldn't be much gained out of it. It looked far too generic as if any uniqueness was erased from the setting. Ikaruga wasn't sure what exactly it was that her brother was looking for, but she wanted to help as much as she could. She saw her brother giving the other rooms a few glances as well.

"Find anything of interest yet?"

"I wish it would be that easy."

Murasame had been rummaging through a few cabinets and drawers, but there was nothing of interest. He kept shaking his head to himself as they kept checking room after room. Isayuki did his best to help out as much as he could as well, but most of his time was spent stuck to Murasame's side.

Ikaruga sighed. "They did a pretty good job on wiping this place of information."

"Assholes," Murasame scowled. "There has to be something that was left unturned or at the very least, it'll point us in a decent direction."

They were checking the different hallways and rooms for about half an hour before Murasame started getting annoyed at the same results. Granted, he knew he should have anticipated such an outcome, but he didn't expect a waste of his time. He should have thought about this more logically before blindly jumping into each room expecting something different.

"There's two places that I think we should check above anything else. If these places don't provide any results, we can consider this mission a failure and leave."

The first location had been the original location in which Isayuki was being held.

"This was where that scary monster appeared all of a sudden," Isayuki commented. "That weird guy with the mask held up this strange object and it shortly showed up."

"I never did ask about how the yōma showed up in the facility," Ikaruga responded, glancing at the damages to the floor caused by that demonic monster. Even Isayuki's dried-up blood had still been where she had originally found him. "So this yōma was summoned here?"

"Yeah, and then the thing was acting like its pet, following orders from the weird guy."

"That's surely one way of putting it…"

Ikaruga could only reminisce back to the incident in Kyoto where yōma had been summoned to the city left and right. Although the mastermind behind the incident had been killed during the events, as confirmed by a friend who saw it for herself, they never did understand how he was able to control them. Nevertheless, it wasn't important for Ikaruga at the time, so she didn't bother to think much of it.

She gave a glance at the shattered test tube.

"Could the two situations possibly be linked? It seems unlikely that the ability to control yōma would stem from two different points of origin."

As she was pondering, Murasame silently walked up to the main spotlight of the area. He wasn't too surprised that most of the equipment was left here. The test tube that contained Isayuki was still there along with the shards of glass scattered on the ground while the control panel he had smashed in defiance was still there, broken in pieces. There was no point in bringing it back.

He knelt down and opened the circuitry to see if there was anything he could salvage from his brutish attack. He knew he was strong, but if he had to be painfully honest, he wasn't that strong. While the external components were completely wrecked, the actual data inside of the control panel might have been intact within the internal pieces. If found, he would have been able to extract the information out and reformat it into something he could actually read.

"Shit. You've got to be kidding me."

Murasame swore under his breath as he discovered that the components were missing.

"Did this guy really return at some point to take the information away?"

It shouldn't have been likely that this would happen. In his perspective, it might have been an extremely risky move since the masked man likely knew this area was going to be secured by police. It would have been even worse if Murasame had relayed everything to the shinobi council in which this place would be further under extreme surveillance. This opponent was someone that considered options, so there was no way that he didn't consider that and blindly returned here.

Unless it wasn't a blind return…

"Well, that adds to my theory then. It's a blessing in disguise, I guess."

"It looks like you finally found something, Brother."

Ikaruga walked up to Murasame as he shook his head in response.

"I didn't find anything, but that was exactly what provided me with some further evidence. Do you know about that saying? A good businessman knows what they can do with what they have, but a better businessman knows what they can do with what they don't have."

Ikaruga deadpanned. "Frankly, I've never heard anyone say that before."

"Fine," Murasame resigned. "I made it up just now, but you've probably heard of something similar before, right!?"

"That aside…"

Ikaruga relayed her thoughts from her brief exchange with Isayuki. Murasame glanced over to check on him, seeing that he was simply sitting down on a flat part of the control panel with his legs kicking back and forth. His eyes narrowed, as if what Ikaruga had said really sunk in for him.

"That simply reinforces my desire to find that second location in this facility."

Murasame continued speaking as he checked the empty control panel once more.

"That man, Dōgen… Did you know what his objective was?"

"I heard that Dōgen wanted to sell the yōma as weapons originally, but once he tasted their power, he shifted his focus into taking that power for himself. I wouldn't know the extent of the details, but I can always ask my friend at Hebijo Academy if she could find out more about it. Apparently, Dōgen—"

"—was an investor and benefactor of Hebijo Academy," Murasame unexpectedly finished for Ikaruga. It surprised her, but he had only known because of the old reports he read last night. "Don't belittle me and think I'm not prepared, Sister. I looked into him myself already."

More importantly for Murasame, this information lined up with what the masked man had mentioned about the prior director of this facility. From now onwards, it was a valid assumption to make that Dōgen Daishi was this director that died a year ago, ceasing operations of this branch. However, there was something that interested him about Ikaruga's explanation.

"You said he changed his mind about what he was going to do with the yōma?"

"That's correct. They say power can corrupt someone, but considering what he was originally planning, I think he had been corrupted plenty already."

"Oh, I don't care about that part."

At some point, it would appear that the director's thoughts drifted away from what the organization had been planning. It wouldn't make Murasame surprised if Dōgen had been planning to move away from this whole operation to start his own, but considering how that would have been a drastic move, Dōgen must have needed to move along in secret apart from the organization before exploding onto the scene in Kyoto.

"This only proves more that we need to check the second location."

There were bound to be secrets that even the masked man wasn't aware of. If there were to be any, it would have to be somewhere in the director's room, but it might take time to discover where that might be. The facility might appear big, but there could only be so much surface area to cover when it comes down to a research facility. If it was too big, it would risk inefficiency in construction cost and considering how the different branches were focused on a single category, it would be fair to assume that there hadn't been that many avenues to process at a single time when it came to "domination".

"This might be it."

At the end of a hallway, a set of double doors rested. It looked different than all the other doors they were presented so far, setting aside all of the large-scale experimental rooms.

Murasame reached out to open it up to find that it looked exactly like a regular office, albeit rather empty. The desk, chairs, bookshelves and other normal furniture pieces had been left there until they would wither away, but there was evidently nothing here that would provide information to them.

"There are other rooms that we haven't checked yet," Ikaruga reminded Murasame. "We shouldn't leave any stone left unturned if we are to properly investigate this facility."

"Dōgen was a shinobi himself, right?" Murasame asked rhetorically. "If that's the case, there has to be a hidden room somewhere and if we can't find anything here, this investigation is as good as done."

"I suppose there is a sense in that. Very well, we shall look."

Murasame gestured to Isayuki. "You need to help out as well."

"Uhm, I'll try my best, Mister Murasame!

As Ikaruga and Isayuki searched the area, Murasame shuffled through his memory for the types of hidden entrances used by shinobis. Typical ones came in the form of ropes, books, and statues, but the room had been completely cleared of any decorations or accessories that could be used inconspicuously. Even though some of the traps in their manor used those basic approaches to activation, Murasame had to believe that a director of this organization couldn't have been so daft to use such simple shinobi mechanisms. The only reason the Houou Family kept those mechanisms in the manor was because of tradition; since those traps were used by their ancestors well, they would be enough to serve them, but that hadn't been the thing he should have been thinking about now.

Before Dōgen's death, Murasame would hear his name pop in from time to time, but not because he wanted to pay attention to him. He never did anything noteworthy or special, probably because all of his real efforts were dedicated to things beneath the public's sight, but he had to be extremely good at making money if he was still able to keep his company in the green even after pouring money into hidden avenues. One of the more relevant things he heard about Dōgen's company was that they had deep connections to the construction industry. There was a time a few years ago when that company started expanding dramatically and thus, it was creating new buildings for their workspace. That was likely the reason why this building still had electricity; the company must have been simply paying whatever bills that Dōgen left behind after his death.

"Then the key might be something that's built right into this building," Murasame pondered aloud. "That would lower the risk of someone discovering it accidentally if they were to—"

"—Whoops."

Isayuki tripped and caught himself against a wall. His hands pressed forwards, but the panels underneath started sinking in. Isayuki quickly stepped away, afraid he was breaking something before mechanisms started to rumble behind that wall. Slowly and surely, the walls started to part from each other, revealing a staircase downwards into darkness.

Isayuki darted his head back to Murasame and Ikaruga.

"Was I supposed to do that…?"

Murasame paused for a moment to take in what he had just witnessed. He then decided it was for the best that he should stop thinking too much about it. Nothing about Isayuki made sense in the first place, so why should he have started here?

"... Yeah. Good job."

"Oh, wow! Mister Murasame praised me!"

Ikaruga approached the stairwell to inspect it. She noticed how much dustier it was compared to the other sections of the facility, meaning that whoever took all the equipment from this building, they failed to discover this staircase. Like her brother guessed, if there was anything that was left in this facility, it had to be here.

"I'll head in first. Keep your guard up, Brother."

"I already knew that," Murasame scoffed. "We don't know what might be down there."

The siblings descended carefully with Isayuki following behind without a sense of danger or urgency. It hadn't been too deep, so it didn't take too long for the group to find themselves in an isolated room. There were a couple of books leftover on the shelf which prompted Ikaruga to look into it immediately, but Murasame's attention gravitated towards the computer at the far end.

Murasame sat down and started to access the computer. He was worried that there might have been a password, but he was surprised that there wasn't any security on it. It looked like an oversight, but if Dōgen never thought anyone would gain access to this room without his knowledge, he might have been arrogant enough to believe that he didn't need a password on it.

All Murasame did for now was find out where all reports and documents were. He had brought along a USB stick in case he did find something, so he stuck it inside of the computer and started transferring all of the readable data. It was probably dangerous to be absorbing all of this information in enemy territory, so he would do it when he was back home, but there was still something that interested him. Since the data transfer didn't lock him out of the files, Murasame clicked on the journal entries.

"Achoo!"

Ikaruga lowered the book, seeing Isayuki wiping his nose against his hand. She handed him some pocket tissue papers, the type that would be distributed on the streets as advertisements.

"Th-Thanks, Ikaruga."

"It is no problem."

"Did you find anything interesting?"

"Most of these books are legends and mythology concerning yōma. This must have been another avenue of research that was being done. I'm not sure if that was what my brother was looking for, but it's certainly a good place to start if he can see how they're pulling off these experiments."

Ikaruga was sure that he would eventually tell her what he was thinking about concerning this whole debacle. She glanced over to see her brother engrossed in the screen, scrolling through words at Murasame's usual reading pace, which was to say extremely fast.

"What even is a yōma?" Isayuki asked, tilting his head. "I know it was that monster that showed up before Mister Murasame and I, but I don't understand it. There's this strange feeling everytime I hear the word like I'm supposed to know what it means, but nothing comes about when I try to remember."

"You… think you should know what it is?"

Ikaruga crossed her arm as she pondered.

She agreed with Isayuki in that it was strange. Now that Isayuki mentioned it, he was completely oblivious to the term "shinobi", but he hadn't questioned what "yōma" was. That being said, Isayuki did apparently have ties to the organization that owned this facility, so it hadn't been completely out of the question. She was simply curious as to how one could hear of yōma, but did not know the implicit connecting term of shinobi. It would usually be the other way around.

"It's a dangerous monster that can come in all shapes and sizes, but the thing that brings them all together is their blind taste for senseless destruction and bloodshed. They're not to be taken lightly."

"It's cool that Mister Murasame was able to face off against one, right?"

"It's at least brave, that's for sure."

Isayuki glanced at the bookshelf, blinking ever so slowly. "Yōma, huh? I really feel like I should be knowing more about this, but I can't remember."

"Take your time, Isayuki. There's no need to rush when you're—"

A shiver came down her spine. She interrupted herself as her hand instinctively reached for Hien. Her head snapped over to the staircase, the only way one could enter and leave. Her grip tightened as the shiver faded away, ignoring her body's numbing guard and proactively pulling it back up.

Isayuki tilted his head in confusion as Murasame glanced over his shoulder.

"Is there something wrong, Ikaruga?" Isayuki asked.

Ikaruga bit her lips as she loosened her stance. "No, it's fine. It must be my imagination."

She squinted her eyes in scrutiny, wondering if she really did feel someone's presence nearby.

"No, it's not fine." Murasame grabbed the USB stick and yanked it out before tossing it in his pocket. "If you can't trust your own judgment, then I guess I'll have to be the one to do it. You sensed something nearby, so that should be our sign to leave."

"Are you sure, Brother?"

"That's my final word."

Murasame wasn't interested in messing about and finding out. He knew his sister's senses were keen, so if there was something that triggered her autopilot detection, there must have been an unwanted visitor. If they didn't want to show themselves after Ikaruga silently called them out, then that was an invitation for them to get out as soon as possible.

"Keep your guard up, kid." Murasame started leaving with Ikaruga in the front. "If our little stalker decides to come out and play, we need to be prepared."

"I like playing though."

"Not the kind that our stalker wants to do."

Following the closest path out of the facility, Ikaruga constantly kept her guard up as they moved slowly and decisively. The worst thing to do was to panic and make themselves an easier target, but Ikaruga was surprised that no moves were made on them. They managed to leave the facility without so much of a problem as the moon was starting to rise up to the sky.

"I'm sorry, Brother. It probably was my imagination."

"It's fine. I got what I needed."

They started making their way back home where Murasame was planning on staying up the entire night to study the information that he had just received. A smirk slowly climbed onto his face.

"This will show them not to mess with me…"

-/SK-EV/-

"To think Dōgen had this little study tucked away…"

A figure in the shadows stepped into the room, giving everything a quick glance. Her quiet and reserved tone clashed with the exasperation in her words.

"How troublesome that his carelessness is going to compromise the operation."

She sighed. She was thinking about attacking the intruders in order to stop them from taking what wasn't theirs, but the moment she realized the identity of that woman, she was forced to back off. Out of all places, she didn't think she would meet an elite shinobi. The thought of it grinded her nerves, but she held off from showing it, despite being the only one in the room.

"And that thing… Did the leader really just leave that thing in the enemy's hands? I can never tell what he's thinking behind that stupid mask of his."

In her hand, there was a briefcase. She opened it up to pull out a lighter, but it hadn't been a normal one. She pressed the button to ignite a large flame, as if it was like magic, and she tossed it into the room. Everything was catching on fire, from the furniture, the books, and the computer. All the information in here disappeared in an instant as she turned around to leave.

"I'll need to report this to Milady, but first…"

She walked back up the stairs.

"I need to make a little visit to the Houou Family."