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Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 129

Blake refused to speak to Yang for the following two days. It was more out of embarrassment than anger, and because she was busy trying to find homes for a frankly staggering amount of naughty toys. There wasn't some convenient place one could donate toys to despite Yang's teasing, and Blake would sooner die than be seen carrying it out the building. Ruby refused to having anything to do with them and Jaune commented on his hands reacting poorly with rubber and silicone and releasing noxious fumes.

So, she was stuck with them. About the only relief was that ninety-nine per cent of them were still boxed, so she was able to build a wall at the back of her apartment and hang a sheet off it, sacrificing about a foot of one wall of her apartment and pretending the matter was closed. The larger ones – and goodness knows how she and Yang got them home; anomalous magic, no doubt – had to be dragged down the elevator to a skip around the back.

Blake wore a balaclava while she did that, which probably drew even more attention.

All the while, the anomaly in the book moaned in her head about how she "hadn't tried those ones yet" and how "it was rude to throw someone else's belongings away". Blake ignored all that and sprayed a whole can of air freshener around her room, then tossed her sheets away and bought new ones.

She'd have bought a new apartment as well if she could have gotten away with it.

"You're making a big deal out of nothing," Jaune said, on the third morning, as he finished re-opening his bank account. "Yang managed to keep you from sleeping with anyone. I'd say a few days of embarrassment is a small price to pay."

"We killed people."

"There is that." Jaune scratched his chin. "Well, far be it for me to pass judgment on people's lives but they were asking for it. Quite literally given the self-defence clause in the contract. Sounds like some trafficking ring in all honesty. You probably saved that girl's life."

"I didn't do anything."

"Semantics. No one is even pressing charges."

He was being much too relaxed about all this, Blake felt. Yes, the anomaly hadn't done anything too bad in her body, but that just meant it was biding its time. Lowering their guard. It'd do worse the second time – and there would be a second time. The agreement had been for two nights.

Blake sighed and rubbed her temples. "Tell me we have a job."

"I'm afraid we don't. Ruby is busy at the facility—"

"Why? The Interdimensional Chatroom was destroyed."

"We still have our other anomalies there. Harmless as they are, I think Saphron will have room to raise complaints if she finds we're leaving them alone and unprotected."

"That witch would complain at anything."

"That witch is my sister."

"Doesn't change a damn thing I just said."

Jaune sighed and pushed on. "Regardless, Ruby has work and we don't. You're welcome to head on over to Patch to help her out if you wish. No one will bat an eye at you checking up on the place."

"And deal with Ruby asking what I got up to with her sister? No thanks."

A knock at the door was followed by said sister strolling on in like she owned the place. Three days and the idiot still hadn't gone and told her dad about the suspension. Blake was tempted to go find Taiyang herself and tell him, if only to get Yang out her apartment. The girl didn't cause a mess or make things too hard, but she hogged the shower and left golden hairs everywhere on the couch. And the one time Blake suggested she get a haircut, Yang almost took her head off.

Hair should not take up a third of someone's body mass...

"Yo. You hear the news?" Yang sauntered in and slammed the door shut behind her; she waved a newspaper as if they could absorb the knowledge within via osmosis. "Crazy shit, eh? Good job we whacked those sickos when we did."

"What news?" Blake hissed. "And don't say whacked. You said we didn't even kill them!"

"Yeah, well, the Malachites killed them but same deal. And the police have been looking into them. Grim stuff."

"Grimm?"

"No, the other kind. We thought – the anomaly and me – that it was some creep trying to drug a woman to have his jollies with them, and then that it was a more organised thing after we saw the others." That matched what Jaune had assumed. "But it's so much worse. They were making films with their victims."

Blake grimaced and Jaune set his own paper down, scowling.

"They were abducting women and forcing them to star in videos?" he asked. "Sickening."

"Oh, it's worse than that. They weren't pornographic videos. Or they were, but for a very specific kink." Yang slid a finger across her throat slowly. "The kind where the actress doesn't get to go home after."

Blake's stomach fell. "Snuff?"

"Yeah." Yang collapsed into one of the spare seats. "Sick bastards. I'm glad we stepped in when we did. Police are saying they don't know if they've caught everyone in it, too. Definitely caught the ones that find the women, but others may be at large." Yang set the paper down. "Details are a little sparse."

"Let me check the police records," Jaune said, opening his laptop.

"You can do that...?"

"Sure. We have direct access." He tapped away for a few minutes before apparently finding it and giving a read. "Hm. They tracked the victims back to a premises and raided it. Found bodies of victims and some equipment – including videos – but they noted that key filming equipment was missing, suggesting the people responsible might have tried to save valuable equipment before bailing."

"Ugh. I hope they catch them," Yang said. "Hope they toss them in prison and let the other inmates know what they did."

That'd be a form of justice, Blake supposed. Maybe it wasn't so bad her body had been piloted into taking out those people after all.

"They're investigating the evidence and tyring to find a connection and..." Jaune trailed off. It was ominous enough to have both her and Yang looking over. "We may end up being involved," he said, with a sigh. "An officer who looked into the videos has marked them as potentially anomalous and quarantined them. We could be looking at an anomaly, or a case of anomalous artefact abuse."

"Damn," Yang hissed. "So, what are we gonna do?"

"Blake and I shall investigate. You shall tell your father you've been suspended."

"Aw, come on. This is a huge case!"

"You're not an employee." Jaune pulled on his coat. Blake did the same. "You don't have the authority we do, nor the freedom to walk into a police station and ask to see evidence. I'm sorry but that's the way it is."

/-/

They arrived at the precinct via taxi and flashed their badges at an officer behind the main desk. The over-worked woman waved them on through and handed them two lanyards to wear over their suits so they wouldn't be bothered by anyone else. The station was a hectic mess of desks and officers, some working away on computers, others bustling to and fro. There was a young man, an older teen, with his hands cuffed behind his back, sitting on a stool as an officer went through his ID. Off on the far side, two officers escorted another cuffed person into a closed room where they could conduct an interview.

"Busy place," Blake mumbled. She'd always been somewhat dismissive of the police on account of their record of solving hate crimes against faunus. One of her common insults had been that they were lazy, but now that felt a little wrong. Not that it made things any better. There were still more crimes against faunus that went unsolved than against humans.

"Crime doesn't sleep, I imagine. Especially not in a city as big as this one."

It wasn't long before a weathered and angry-looking woman approached them. "ARC Corp, is it? With me. We talk in private."

The woman took them to an interrogation room, though they were thankfully on the other side of the one-way mirror. "Captain Mira Ash," she said, offering a hand to Jaune, and then to Blake after. "Captain of the VPD. Good to have you here."

Her furious scowl suggested it was not, but Blake was beginning to suspect that was the woman's resting face.

"Jaune Arc. ARC Corp. Your files mentioned a potentially anomalous connection."

"Yes. I assume you've heard the news of the snuff studio."

"Regrettably."

"Yes, well, your day is about to get a lot more regrettable because I need you to watch one of the videos."

Blake sucked in a breath. Jaune hissed. She'd seen death both with the White Fang and with ARC Corp, but it had always been sudden and shocking. Never had it been for something as disgusting as entertainment, and she wasn't sure what she would feel.

"I'll watch it," Jaune said. "Blake doesn't need to."

Shameful as it was, she felt grateful for that. "Are you sure...?" she felt the need to ask.

"There's no point us both sitting through this. I'll be best placed to spot anything anomalous anyway." He sighed and followed Mira Ash. "I'll summarise it for you after."

Blake sat alone in the interrogation room feeling every bit a coward. He'd been the one to offer and yet she somehow felt she should be there, if only to share in the misery. Her feet tapped on the floor for a few minutes, and then she started pacing for several more. The walls were insulated against sound and she could no longer hear the hustle and bustle outside.

It could be a camera, like the one we have in storage, she thought.

Something that took footage and killed the person it did it to. That would make sense, and presumably the market and community for these kinds of sick films was small enough that proof of the anomalous didn't make it far. Even so, they might have to track down said communities. Coda might be able to help.

It would be the right thing to do to expose those people.

Ruin their lives.

It was half an hour later when Jaune returned. He stood firm, but there was a fatigue around his eyes and a tight grimace on his lips. Captain Ash looked little better, her eyes closed as she drew breath through her nose.

"It's anomalous," Jaune said. "Anomalous object by the looks of it. A knife, almost sacrificial in design. They have a name for those, I think."

"Athame," said Ash. "I had to look it up myself," she admitted with a shrug. "Used in magical rituals and the like." The way she said that made her opinion on them clear. "More commonly used by suburban moms cutting weeds as part of witchcraft rituals and wellness treatments, before they go for their daily horoscopes."

"What did it do?" Blake asked.

"When cut across the throat, it seemed to impart some sense of euphoria." Jaune looked uncomfortable as he said it. "I'd almost call it orgasmic bliss. The victim would start rambling of things they see, as if they were peering into the afterlife. They died smiling."

"That was only the one," Mira interrupted. "No point showing you them all but they're not all that pretty. Some scream and cry at what they see, others beg, and a few just weep. It differs every time but it's always there. I suspected drugs at first, but with the blood pouring out there shouldn't be any way of drugs on the blade entering the bloodstream. Nor influencing them in the short time it took them to die."

Blake paled. The thought of watching one video was haunting enough, but this woman had to watch them all. No wonder she looked so constantly pissed off. Blake would be tired of life and the people in it if she had to do that as well.

"The knife – athame – is constant in all of them?" asked Jaune.

"Yes. And it wasn't found at the crime scene. Either of them. It's still out there. That's where you come in, I believe."

"It is. The problem is it's in the possession of human criminals. People tend to be a lot better at staying hidden than anomalies, especially when they know they're being pursued. These people are likely to stop their videos altogether. Let this die down."

Blake tugged on his sleeve. Jaune looked back. "We could talk to Coda," she suggested. "Find the community, backtrack through the buyers to try and find where the videos were first stored on databases."

"Good idea." Jaune nodded to her, then looked back to Mira. "We'll get on the case. Please keep your people out the video files."

"Easily done. But I can't hand over the investigation to you fully. This is a big deal," she said, with a heavy sigh. "Whole city is watching us to make sure we take it seriously. Best I can do is tell everyone you're federal agents on the case as well. They'll stay out your way, but we'll still be running our own case."

"That's fine. Let us know if you find anything."

"Vice versa," she said, shaking Jaune's gloved hand. "As for the bastards behind this. You can take the anomaly, but I want the perpetrators."

"So long as they're not influenced by or anomalous themselves, you can have them."

The deal was struck with a cold nod.

/-/

Coda was only too happy to help them once some money was sent her way. The anomaly was more code than machine and didn't have a body of her own so it was hard to say if she truly understood why the videos were abhorrent. If she did not, she managed to act like she did well enough to sound convincing.

"I'll have something for you soon," she assured Blake. "But I want contact to be between you and I as per usual. I won't deal with your boss."

"I understand." Jaune was fairly friendly with most non-harmful anomalies, but there was history between him and Coda. Not of the romantic kind, either. "Do you think you'll be able to trace the purchases back? They almost certainly used a VPN to protect themselves."

"I'm not a government agency snooping on data. I am data. I can pass through a VPN just fine. It scrambles me – but I can reform. It's not something I can explain to a person like you. You can only imagine the scattering of your constituent parts as a painful thing. I have no nerves, no means of feeling pain, and my strings of code can bring themselves back together." Coda gave up on trying to explain it. "I'll be fine. And there's always at least one person who forgets to turn theirs on or doesn't take security seriously."

"Good to know."

"Do you want a list of the purchasers? The end users?"

Blake considered that. "The ones making the videos are the priority but we'd certainly love to have a list of the rest. We can pass those to the police after."

Ghira had once told her that the best way to deal with criminals on Menagerie was to get rid of the people who needed their services. The whole point of crime was that it paid well, but if you got rid of the market then it suddenly wouldn't pay very well at all. Not to mention that those people with a thirst for it might start thinking of making their own if they removed the dealers and left them without their fix.

"Focus on the studio first. We need to stop them, then grab the rest. We'll pay you a commission for everyone you catch."

"I'll see it done. I've already located the shop page but it's gone dark. They haven't posted any updates since before last week."

"They sell it online!?"

"The videos aren't hosted there. It's little more than a page giving out updates on what's to come. Scant on details, filled with more euphemism than direct words. You could visit it and not realise precisely what it's about." Coda's tone took a turn for the sarcastic. "Though the way they refer to themselves as being `butchers` is a little telling."

Butchers. Blake grimaced. Obviously, they were pretending to be the kind that delivered cuts of steak and ham, but their meat was far worse. At least the bodies had been found. It was such a small comfort, but at least – mercifully – their bodies hadn't been tampered with or turned into food to get rid of them.

"Let me know when you have details. I'm going to do some rounds of nightclubs and make sure they know to look out for spiking."

"There's no need. There have been VPD visits to every bar, club, café and the like in the city with strict instructions to watch out for it. The largest chains have also sent internal emails instructing all bar staff to be on high alert. Additionally, there are several vigilante groups on social media who are planning to visit clubs through the city over the next week and act like victims, to try and lure the perpetrators into their traps. It seems a lot of people are fired up about this."

"Of course they are. This is disgusting."

"No more or less disgusting than every other murder that happens in the city, and yet they never draw this large a crowd."

That was true. There was always something more visceral about these things when sexualisation came into it. Even if both this and another murder were in essence the same crime, this felt twice as bad because someone was getting off to it. Or maybe because someone was profiting from it.

Some jealous ex killing their former partner was a tragedy.

Someone killing another person to profit off them was business – and that somehow made it so much worse in her head. That others would then be jerking to it only made her want to solve the case even more.

"People are illogical at times," she said. "But there's a certain sanctity about life and death for us. You're supposed to be respectful of bodies even when they belong to an enemy in a war."

Supposed to didn't always mean they would be. Blake had seen White Fang soldiers pose with enemy corpses, and she was sure Atlas had the same problems. There would always be bad actors.

"You humans talk about respect but rarely show it – even to one another."

"I know. But ideals exist to be aspired to." Blake trailed off. "And those who would kill other people for entertainment threaten that, so they need to be dealt with. It's honestly a mercy if we arrest them. Exposing them and letting others deal out justice would be much worse."

"Deserved, though."

"True."

/-/

Yang was still trying to get involved when Blake got back and was trying to convince Jaune.

"I could pose as a helpless girl in a club, lure them in—"

"Absolutely not!" Jaune sounded horrified. "What if they succeeded? How am I meant to tell your sister I let you do that? No, no, and no. Besides, they're not going to show their faces only a few days after so many of them got killed. It'll be a miracle if they dare go out anytime in the next month."

"I'm a huntress. There's no real risk. A knife couldn't even pierce skin."

"It might not need to," Blake interrupted, swinging her jacket off. "Have you not considered that it might kill you before it touches you? That it might suck your soul out and devour it the moment you see it?"

Yang hadn't. and it was clear from how she paled.

An anomalous knife did not necessarily need to cut to be lethal. That was what made it anomalous.

"Coda is on the case and looking into things," she told Jaune. Yang looked curious but no one explained it for her. "She's found the site they use as a proxy and is busy trying to find the computer of one of their users. She'll then go back and find where they connected to download material from."

"Great news. Any timeframe?"

"I'm afraid not. But she's offered to get us a list of all the customers for a commission. I thought it worthwhile to cut off the market, lest someone else step in and fill their shoes once we deal with them."

Jaune hummed. Technically, that wasn't their responsibility. Human crimes – even human travesties – were not ARC Corp's wheelhouse. He could claim otherwise, though. Edit the reports so that it seemed imperative they catch these people.

"It'll be worth it," he said. "I've spoken to everyone about this. The other offices are checking their areas to make sure there's no connection, but otherwise this is a textbook case of an anomalous item being abused. Given how small the market is, the risk of this becoming Reality Class is low."

Blake noticed his pale skin. "You're worried about something."

"It's not related to this case."

"What is it?"

Jaune glanced at Yang. It took the blonde a few seconds to get the hint, but she eventually stood and said she was going to go get a bagel from the café next door. Jaune waited for her to leave before speaking.

"It's my father. He's been admitted to hospital."

"Was he injured?"

"He's sick. It's an old injury – anomalous – but it's been eating at him lately." Jaune fidgeted. "He's not sure how much time he has left, and it could be measured in months. Weeks, even. I'm expecting a summons to a meeting to discuss the company's future to come before long."

"You mean on who takes over?"

"We both know who that will be, Blake." Saphron. It would be Saphron. "Father was willing to put up with the Containments Office as long as we played ball, and we have – mostly. Sure, we've broken a lot of rules but we've kept those breaks quiet. No one knows. That was enough for him to leave us be."

"But not Saphron?"

"Not her. She won't try anything while father is still alive but after...?" He licked his lips. "I want to say she'll give us a chance but I'm not sure."

Blake wasn't convinced either. Saphron was not the forgiving sort.

"What are our likely scenarios?"

"Best case scenario, she lets us continue working but under stricter oversight – maybe even direct observation."

"That's the best scenario? That'd mean Timothy would be found and killed!"

"Yes. That's the best. Middle ground is that she closes us down, absorbs us into another office, subordinates us to herself or someone else. Maybe even splits us up so we're less trouble. Dissolves the Containments Office, destroys our anomalies and works us to death."

What a lovely middle-ground that was. "And the worst?" she asked. "Do I even want to know?"

"Purge."

"Ah, of course. Hunt us down and kill us. Of course it would be that." Blake wasn't even surprised. "Freaking hell. What do we do? Can we... I don't know... kill her first? Who would be next in line if she died?"

"I'm not killing her."

"I will."

"You're not killing her either." He rolled his eyes at her. "And the line of succession hardly matters since I'll never be on it, and since no one approves of me. Of us. And let's be honest here, the world does need ARC Corp. We can both hate its methods as much as we like but take it away and anomalies will feast on people."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to roll over and let her kill us, Jaune."

"I'm not asking you to." He settled back in his seat. "And that's not what we'll be doing. We're going to have to put some contingencies in place. Safeguards not only for ourselves but for Ruby and the anomalous community here. ARC Corp is down members after Mountain Glenn, so they can't really afford to spread themselves thin. Especially since both father and Coral will be gone. Both of them were watching over Atlas, and Saphron can't afford to not post anyone there. We might be invaluable, like us or not."

"But she might not care."

"She might not," he admitted, shrugging. "Which is why we prepare for the worst."

Next Chapter: 20th January

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