The healer's quarters are always quiet at this point of time. The sound of latex stretching as she takes her gloves off is the only thing that accompanies Anthea, as well as Lysandra's even breaths. Her hands are clean, but Anthea can't help but still feel the blood. Meanwhile Lysandra is next to her, sleeping, as she should be. Anthea's eyes traces along the multitude of wounds, drawn from shrapnel, stitching close before her eyes, tanned skin smoothing shut. She's never seen a new scar on her, not since they met. Nothing leaves a mark- nothing leaves anything permanent, but it wasn't always like this. She let her eyes glide towards what marrs her skin, and bile rises in her throat.

For most agents, scars came from fights. For their life, or others.

Hers came from cruelty.

"Healer's note: Esmeray has successfully regenerated her arm- and the severed limb has been retrieved and properly destroyed. As the combat had taken place at dawn, however, her regenerative abilities will not return untill the next 24 hours pass, and therefore she has not recovered from her injuries. It is advised that Esmeray refrain from recklessness in the near future, as the drawbacks to her restorative abilities have been observed to be growing increasingly severe in the last few years.

From the explosions, Esmeray has sustained extensive first and second degree burns on her back, alleviated due to her affinity with electricity, a fire-aligned element. And due to overuse of Script, she is currently anemic, and have been advised to refrain form preforming any Script related magic for the next 24 hours before her 'reset' kicks in. Therefore Esmeray's scheduled patrol the next 48 hours will be replaced by agent Elias Lee and Puppeteer."

Exempt from healers' note from Esmeray's Saitama Mission Report, case GD Kanto 124, by Anthea Edgarson, 2XXX-05-16

'Tomorrow' comes several days too late- in fact, a week, actually, when Ryota had realised that in his shock, he'd forgotten about a photoshoot scheduled for the day after, Sunday saw a family dinner and neither could find time the rest of the week, taking into account that the interhigh preliminaries were drawing close, they just never managed to speak in detail again until then. Time passed by in a much quicker manner than he was expecting, however, when one is busy, so it wasn't too long before he'd found himself in the stadium, watching Seirin's first match unfold.

Ryota glanced around the stadium, third time since he's arrived now. He's not seeing the person they're supposed to be meeting with anywhere yet, he's even spotted Midorimacchi by now, and the woman is nowhere to be seen they've finally decided on a time just midway through the week, when Lysandra-san called the Kise household with a charmingly sweet demeanour and deceptively ordinary pretences- Ryota had rushed down the stairs to witness the strange sight that is his mother chattering into the phone about groceries and their adorable, basketball obsessed children, before taking the reciever only to realise she had not been talking to another housewife, but in fact a magical secret agent. The woman had then presented him with several suitable time and places, where they are now ultimately set to meet up in front of the stadium after Kurokocchi's match, where she would presumably pick them up to a more suitable location for conversation.

She had called again this morning to confirm his availability, and once Ryota had gotten over his sleepiness as well as managed to suppress his questions regarding the suspicious background noise of vaguely, something burning, Lysandra-san had presented Ryota with a sincere apology. Work had been hecktic, she'd explained in a rueful tone, and had claimed that she'd likely arrive around midway through the match instead of before. Ryota wasn't exactly annoyed, but whatever he was feeling about the delay didn't last long. As shortly after his father started watching watching the morning news.

Ryota did not know whether or not he should be concerned when the reports spoke of a small forest fire in Saitama, as well as 4 consecutive gas leaks, 2 explosions, 1 allegedly loose rabid bear from a zoo and a sudden freak storm. His parents comment on the unrest in that part of town lightly, ultimately calking it up to bad luck, meanwhile Ryota stared at the news reporters and the footages with a vague feeling he is going to call dreaded anticipation, blankly recalling the sound of fire in the background of their conversation just earlier.

He'd also found some of his own time, to research a little deeper into SSRA. Who knows, they have an official website, fully searchable via google, of all things- the website in turn answered absolutely no questions of his, the contents sleekly professional and sophisticated and devoid of anything meaningful. Half its language contained acronyms, with absolutely nowhere giving any hint as to what those acronyms mean half the time. He has so many questions.

Drawing himself out of his thoughts, Ryota shakes off the questions, and turns his attention back towards the court. Jitsuzen's tactic isn't one that's uncommon among schools this year, physical advantages tends to take up a bit more weight in Basketball than they usually do in most other sports, so recruiting someone with that talent to an extent which is not seen in the area is almost smart. It's dirty, and the kind of thing that would make Kurokocchi mad, but Ryota is honestly not particularly worried, however. It'd take much more than one extra-long-limbed amateur to get past Kurokocchi, much less Kurokocchi with a light working with him. That guy is not winning, after picking up Kurokocchi like this. Which is unfair, not even he got to pick up Kurokocchi.

In his boredom, Ryota turns his attention towards Kagamicchi instead, observing his play. He seems to have learned something new since the last time, watching the teen going one-on-one with the foreign exchange shows that- his defence got better- or rather he's going for a different approach, it seems. Ever since the first shot, the guy hasn't gotten a single shot in since. It didn't take long for Seirin to start taking the initiative, and for Kurokocchi's play to start getting involved.

Ryota is able to confirm his suspicions on what he felt before soon enough, too. After Kurokocchi stepped out in the second quarter, leaving Kagamicchi the only one to pressure down the exchange student, it starts to show. The teen's jumps didn't falter, and in turn increased in height throughout the game. It's not enough to be overwhelming, but for now, it makes a difference- and he's only just starting to grow. He catches Kurokocchi, staring intently at the redhead. Ryota recalls what he's said before, and tries to look away- Kurokocchi catches his eyes, however, and Ryota gives him an acknowledging wave, leading to some of his teammates to notice his presence as well. Kagamicchi's eyes lit up with a competitive fire swiftly after, and Ryota sweat dropped as the game renewed with a vigour alight via spite.

And after Kurokocchi gets subbed in the last five minuets, further widening the point gap, Seirin takes the win with Kagamicchi blacking the foreign exchange's shot. Ryota smiles, and it feels like a grimace he has the potential to become terrifying. And for all the anticipation he has, wanting to play against the duo again, he almost dreads it just as much.

Tetsuya brought his cup to his mouth, looking over the rim. Mafuyu-san watched his wife from where he sat by the window, meanwhile Hotaru-san, after the earlier outburst, just looked tired, and is now leaning against one of the many armchairs of the library, sipping at her mug of tea. Sasaki is rebelliously perched on an arm of one of the chairs- judging by how no one else is reacting, this is likely common occurrence.

"You said you weren't following Tetsuya, but his stalkers, plural." Her mug clinked against the table as Hotaru-san set it down, she looked up, meeting the fox's eyes, voice still hoarse. It drew everyone's attention, Mafuyu-san glancing from where he perched and Tetsuya looking up, lowering his cup, both curious and vaguely expectant.

"Yeah," Sasaki's reply is vaguely disinterested and indifferent as he pulled out a smoking pipe from his robe, something that his aunt gave a disapproving look in response, and thus was swiftly given up with a sigh. He reaches forwards to set the pipe onto the table, eyes lowered in thoughts, "it was early April, I think? A little after I woke. Ran into the kid in a burger place with your magic smeared all over him," he tilted his head in his direction, looking vaguely displeased- Tetsuya noted, "so I followed the little bugger, and low and behold, five whole stalkers." The fox deadpanned it like it wasn't even vaguely surprising or alarming, while Tetsuya frowned, the information sending a jolt of something through him. The fox retreated his form from the table, crossing his legs. "They don't look like Azuma's specifically, more the elders' work. So I scared him home, then got rid of them. Tossed them into Tokyo bay."

The nonchalance is starting to bother him a little, "you drowned them?" Tetsuya asked, incredulity manifesting as a sort of vague deadpan, Sasaki glanced his way, unimpressed.

"If just tossing them into the bay drowns them then they fully deserve that death." Sasaki-san replied, flat eared and flat faced, Tetsuya came up with a vague mental image of the man grabbing several faceless men by the scuff of their necks and tossing them into the ocean, drawing some degree of humour from it. Meanwhile, the fox turned towards his guardians, sounding vaguely exasperated, "why am I getting the feeling that this boy is terribly uninformed?" He asked. His aunt averted her eyes with a cough, meanwhile, Mafuyu-san sighed. Sensing their discomfort, Tetsuya felt the need to defend them.

"I've learned a bit," he protested. He would actually consider himself quite well informed about magic- on the technical front, at least. The apartment's library is open to him almost at all times, and he's spent quite a bit of his day offs just soaking in the knowledge in those pages, and his guardians have never really shied from talking about ghosts, or just about all the branches of magic he's been interested in, which admittedly, wasn't much. Moreover, outside of the fox right in front of him, Tetsuya has hardly ran into any further problems with the paranormal, being able to handle those situations suitably by now. The occasional whisp nolonger bothers him- if nothing, they're honestly more of an annoyance than anything else.

A depressing annoyance. Most of the time.

The fox glanced at him almost pityingly, "I don't doubt Hotaru's taught you about ghosts," he said dryly, his ears flicking in some sort of emotion Tetsuya can't recognise, "she's not that bad. I'm talking about the society as a whole. How much do you know about the deep shit you're in?"

Tetsuya frowned, "is this about the Nanakasa? And my grandma?" He asked, meanwhile, his aunt looked away, a little grimace on her face. The fox looked straight towards him, and Tetsuya shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny, still not too comfortable around someone he viewed as a threat up until an hour or so ago. "I know they want me as heir." He provided.

The fox's vaguely encouraging expression instantly fell into a flat look, "they don't want you as heir any more than they want you dead," he deadpanned, and Tetsuya straightened in alarm, "judging by Hotaru's bad track record of being politically illiterate, I'll let this one slide. But Mafu-kun," he shifted to give a stare across the room towards the man, "you really should know better about that shit hole."

"I should," his uncle said tersely, looking both solemn and vaguely exasperated, "I thought of my father too highly."

The fox facepalmed.

"Azuma isn't stupid, he's probably the one that wants the brat alive and as heir, he just don't want you to have him." He drawled, and Tetsuya was growing more and more confused with each word from his mouth, while simultaneously feeling as if he'd learned something incredibly important, "did you forgot that you do have cousins? From what I've gathered, the Elders' council all automatically collectively veto any decision you make even if it's something like a free sake party no poisoning guaranteed. The young ones will listen to you, yes, but right now, none of them are in any position to make any choices." He made a vague, dramatic gesture of something, rolling his eyes. "If the elders make sure you don't get heirs, then they get the line. And even outside of that, the Nanakasa are not the only ones gunning after him. The old Tatsuake's, Sanjo Azuma might've made the Nanakasa valuable to the Karasuma again, but he hadn't made it irreplaceable."

"Kei, maybe later," Hotaru-san interrupted, looking a little hesitant, she turned towards Tetsuya, facing him properly, "I'm, not very good at explaining things," she admitted, glancing away for a moment, "so, do you have any thing you want to ask? We can start from there."

Anything he wanted to ask? Tetsuya looked around the room, he felt a little like that meme of a cat in space right now. He had questions, he thought, but what were they? What was he supposed to ask? Before he could speak, however, the fox chipped in.

"Basically," he drawled, an uncaring attitude in his voice, "you now have assassins on your tail. And someone needs to protect your ass, or you need to learn how to. But kick the latter one out of the park, because you're not going to be able to defend yourself against that lot in a week. Much less a day."

He smiled, and it was all teeth. And Tetsuya got the uncanny feeling that he might be seeing the fox a lot more often from now on.

He was right.

He said he didn't loose sleep before the match, but to be honest, Taiga didn't get much shut eye just not because of the match. Going to the first match in the preliminaries would be considered a milestone, but comparing to the excitement of playing against the generation of miracles, it was a less impressive. He may take every match seriously- but he wouldn't be losing sleep over it. If he did, he'd be enough of a chronic insomniac that he'd be dead. So no, he didn't lose sleep over the match. He lost sleep over a phone call.

His dad's call, specifically.

He hadn't expected anything, since the third time he'd attempted to convince his father to give him permission to be told about his mother's case. Taiga is stubborn and persistent if nothing, but even he knows better than to keep bringing up something so deeply traumatic over something like this. Getting the truth doesn't equal closure- and he doesn't need the truth, he just thought it might help. So when his father opened the conversation with an apology, Taiga fell silent.

You were right, you do deserve the truth, I was so afraid I forgot that it wouldn't be fair to you. No matter how horrible it truely is.

He'd expected many things from his dad, this is not one of them. He sounded tired, like he hadn't slept, and deeply remorseful. His voice is cracked and hoarse, and... weary, would be the right word. He doesn't recall much of the rest of the conversation, having rushed off to shift through his sports magazines for Kuroko's aunt's business card. It almost took him hours to find it, and by the time he did, it was too late to call. The night ended up with him going back and forth between trying to sleep, staring at the card, then finally violently slamming it onto the living room table before finally getting some sleep. And Taiga didn't bother looking at the time, but it must've been at least 3 am by then. He really didn't get much shut eye.

The match have improved his mood and focus, but needless to day he wasn't all too pleased when in the middle of packing up, 'Otou-san' walked over like he was about to say something meaningful only to insult them to their faces like a kid before ended up getting dragged off by his team. It wasn't long before the team were done changing and gathered outside the arena, which is also when he noticed Kuroko, at some point, wasn't with them anymore.

"Where's Kuroko?" He straightens, picking up his duffle bag. Hearing him, Captain and Couch started looking around for the teen as well. He would've thought with him so insistent on wearing that weird jacket of his it means he'd be easier to spot, but no. (it has so many belts it stands out like a sore thumb. They're even neon striped, how do they not notice someone with a neon striped jacket?) It seems not noticing Kuroko is just a law of nature itself.

"Ah, he's trying to leave."

They all turn their attention towards the direction which Izuki-senpai was pointing towards, catching the teen in the middle of walking away in a slow manner that almost looks like he's trying to be discreet. He startles when they all stare, and seems to mataphorically wilt under their gaze. "Kuroko," Taiga states, almost deadpan, "why are you sneaking off?"

And it is at that moment an annoyingly familiar voice starts shouting.

"Kurokocchi!" Taiga didn't even need to look behind him to know who's doing all this shouting, but he does so, anyways, with increasing annoyance as the mop of blond hair just proves what little left of his hope of it not being Kise false. Judging by the tone of the exclamations from his teammates, they're not all that pleased about it either when the teen model barges through them and pulls Kuroko into a sideways hug, the latter just limply allowing him to do so without protest with a deadpan look on his face.

The blond then starts yapping about something Taiga doesn't bother to pay half a mind to, once Kuroko squirmed out of that hug. "Oi," he grips onto Kise's shoulder, stopping the teen mid-rant and half pulling him away from his teammate, "what are you doing here?"

"Lysandra-san invited me!" Kise almost looks like he's proud of that, for some reason, he didn't explain any further or for what, and just turned back towards Kuroko, "where is she, by the way? I thought she's going to arrive early to watch your match or something, but I didn't see her at all throughout the game."

"She has work, which is why she said she's meeting us after the match."

"But it's like, lunch time, who gets off at lunch time?"

"Her shift started yesterday."

"Oh, that's, that's a long time." There's a pause, and even Taiga is taken aback by that, how long has she been working then? Is that even legal? But Kise then turns back towards them with a closed-eye smile. "Congratulations on winning your first match, by the way, Seirin!" His smile drops into something more challenging。 "There's still a lot more to go. Don't loose before I get to play you."

Oh, he's on. Taiga narrows his eyes, "we won't." He bares his teeth.

"I look forwards to it." Kise grins in return, his tone turning light again. The tension seems to dissipate, before the loud growl of an engine cuts through the air and all of them (except Kuroko) startle. A black motorcycle makes a sharp turn into the parking lot as they turn towards the source of the noise, it screeches to a stop, and a woman with a petite build steps off the side. Recalling Kise's words, Taiga has a guess, and it is confirmed when the woman pulls the helmet off and tosses her hair free.

Okay. When Kise said something about Mrs Lysandra meeting with them after the match, Taiga was thinking more along the lines of the woman arriving in a car, or the subway just next to the sports centre. Not pulling up in a Harley. She's the least aunt-like person Taiga has ever met but then again, there's Alex, and she's not that far off either. Discounting the height, of course.

Mrs Lysandra aproaches them under some wide eyes and others' dropped jaws with her helmet tucked beneath her arm, walking up towards her nephew and coach with a pleasant smile on her face. She greets them, just as a few of his teammates walks up to gush about something, probably the Harley, but it is only when she tucks her hair back to reply that Taiga spots a plaster on her face, parts of it a rusted colour. There's an inch long cut along the side of her jaw as well, stitched up and uneven, uncomfortably stretching with every word she speaks.

Right, SSRA agents are known to take care of high profile cases. Taiga glances around for any more exposed wounds, but the woman is completely covered head to toe with a turtleneck, pants tucked into her boots and even gloves. He doesn't recall the presence of scars, but now he's starting to doubt his memory. Or the woman is just wrapped head to toe like a burrito every time they met. It's only when Kise walks past him that Taiga belatedly realises that she's is about to leave, so he winds around the blonde to reach her. "Mrs Lysandra," he calls out, in English. It does what he expects and catches the woman's attention instantly, she turns towards him, still smiling, "about what you talked about last time."

"Oh!" She blinks, a quick glance around before motioning him off to the side, Kise gives them a curious look, but Taiga just ignores him, "you spoke with your guardian?" She asks, her tone seems a little gentler, for a lack of a better word.

"Yes, my dad." Taiga nods, "he gave permission."

Mrs Lysandra stares back at him for a few moments, "...and," she says slowly, "did he sign a parental consent form?"

Form? What form? Taiga blinks, and realises that usually these sort of thing requires paperwork. "Right," he says, awkward. "Where do I get it?"

Her shoulders slacken- when did they tense up? "Oh," there's something like relief in her voice, "just, ask him to write a letter and sign it. If he's overseas just have him sign a pdf and email that to me. You still have my card, right?" Taiga nods, "I won't be the one doing the debriefing, work has been busy. But I'll send it to someone who does that." She pauses, something strange passes through her expression as her eyes dart up to look over his shoulder, Taiga glances behind him. Nothing. "If you want to talk to anyone after that, though. I'll... I'll see if I have time."

She leaves then, a pleasant smile back on her face as she waves goodbye and catches back up to Kuroko and Kise.

She still wouldn't stop glancing behind him.

(Lysandra remembers that day. Not to the detail she did, back when she was younger, but she's seen and known enough to be able to fill in the blanks. She can't recall how the stench of blood and rot wafted, or what the squelch of flesh and breaking bones sounded like then. But those noises have taken residence in her life, a haunting presence in every corner she's about to turn. It was something 11 years old Lysandra couldn't even fathom. But to her, it's a possibility to be consider.

The visage is hard to forget. Though. A beak, half covered in viscera, and half in flesh. How deep or how much, she can't recall. How tall was it? It seemed so... big. She had felt so small then. It'd almost seemed to have taken up most of their living room. Emancipated, long limps and empty eyes.

Red on white dominated that particular part of her memories. The white of the carpet, of her cousin's face, when he turned around, and shoving, pushing, screamed for her to run.

'Find Kei, find him- run, Hotaru, run-'

She was a coward then, or so she thought. She was a child. And so, she ran. She ran faster than she ever did, crying all the while. Sobs and pants wreaked her, all the way until she reached the cafe, all the way until she runs into Kei's arms, clinging. She explained through her tears, and it didn't take much for him to understand, and for them to return. But the ghoul was gone then.

And so was what was left of her father, and half of her cousin.

Her fault.)

Ryota watches as Lysandra-san walks back in their direction, waving goodbye to Kagami with a pleasant, but false smile mile on her face. Ryota sees that smile in modelling often enough, he can tell. Her eyes are lingering somewhere close to the redhead, but not quite on him, and the closer she is to them, something in her eyes seems to waver, and her smile drops.

"I hate ghouls." She murmurs in English, something like exhaustion in her voice. It seems to alleviate almost instantly, however, as she turns back to face them, smiling, fake again. "Sorry for the wait, Tetsuya, Kise-kun," She nods towards him, "we'll be headed to a place near by, it's private, so we can talk there."

Ryota brightens a little, he's been waiting for answers. He follows the woman next to Kurokocchi, who doesn't seem to know where they're going either. They make their way into what looks like a relatively new shopping centre, and takes them through the fire escape hallway to the back elevato. She pressed for the 6th floor, a small plaque that says limited access next to it. It leads to a small front desk to what looks like a gray themed office, and a set of opaque, automatic glass doors. The man at the desk exchange a few words with Lysandra-san, before he gives them a nod and the woman motions for them to follow.

The opaque glass slides open, and Ryota's jaw drops. He takes a few steps past Lysandra-san, observing the room- no, the space behind the doors with awe.

There's a city. There is a city in front of them right now, and they're standing on a street- platform? One that extends along what Ryota now identified as the side of a- building? Cave? Various shops lined one side while an opaque glass railing runs along the other, barring off he walks closer to it, gripping the edge and peeks over its a steep drop down- and beneath are lines and lines of the exact same structure. Like streets- but built vertically along the side of a surface. Ryota looks up again, wide-eyed at the open space in front of them. This is a cave- he now realises. A city built in a cave. And the city-

Something rumbles, and Ryota watches with wide eyes as one section of the city just- turns. Like a Rubik's cube- and the people keep walking on the surfaces. He belatedly realises that faintly, he can see people walking on walls. Parts of the city shift again, revealing more behind itself. A little in the distance, a building that looks almost like overlapping golden cubes stand, multiple highways and bridges running into its side.

"That's where I work." Lysandra-san's voice snap him out of his awe, he turns towards the woman, wide-eyed, Kurokocchi is next to her, looking similarly awed by the sight. "Pyrite. It's SSRA's headquarters for the Kantou region. And this is Dōten, it's... a magical city connected to the Kantou region. And see that?" She nods upwards, and Ryota's eyes follows her gesture upwards, where rows and rows more of the platform-streets follow- as well as what seems to be the sky-

Wait, no. Not the sky. Ryota's eyes widen. What looks like an ocean is suspended above them, around a 60 stories above. Light seeps through it, and the silhouette of what looks like a whale pass through.

"Is that going to fall on us?" Ryota asks faintly, meaning the whale.

"What? No. It's false water." The woman shakes her head, "that's Taverene. It's connected to Orion that's, where I'm from. And above that is Brecheliant, for London." Ryota's eyes widen, and looks up again- but th only thing he could see was the faint, multicoloured light seeping through, as well as what seems to be a school of fish. "New York is right under us."

"So, you can just, visit? Any time you want?" Kurokocchi asks, peeking downwards. The only thing beneath them seems to be the ground, too dim to make out anything at all. "I can't see it."

"New York's part of town is mostly in tunnels. But their tunnels are connected to other barriers, so they have plenty of sunlight down there." Ryota looks down again, incredulous. "Space works differently in magic. If this is anywhere else it would be more confusing- this is manually stabilised, and we call them Barriers." She huffs, smiling, "but yes, I can visit whenever I want. It would take registration, but I'm SSRA, so depending on the situation, its quick," her eyes squint in amusement, "welcome to the Vertical Crossroad."

Tetsuya has been to Dōten before. But he's never seen it like this. He can't stop glancing out towards the city as Hotaru-san leads them down the street. Last time he was here, all he's seen was the interior to a building- probably the golden one, which Hotaru-san works at. It's impressive, and he's seen some of the gravity-defying structure in play, but its nothing like the scale of this. He thinks he's seen a person ro maybe two fly past, now.

Also, he thought it was only the uniform before, but the fashion sense of the people here seems rather striking, as well. Haori raincoats seems to be a thing- which he swiftly realised why when a whale peeked its blow hole out of the upside down surface of the water, the spray resulting in what almost feels like a light rain. He's not sure if its the case for the upper levels, though.

Hotaru-san leads them to small, comfortable cafe, tucked away in a small corner just half a street down where they entered. She greets the owner with enough familiarity that Tetsuya knows they must know eachother personally. The owner, a lady with cherry blossoms in her hair and a youthful face, leads them to a private desk. "It's the same for you as always then, Lysandra-chan?" The older woman smiles, and only then does Tetsuya spot the twin, slender cat's tails waving behind her back. A Nekomata. At his aunt's nod, she turns towards him and Kise-kun, setting a menu down. "And you little ones can look through the menu in the meanwhile, let me know when you're ready to order."

Kise-kun doesn't seem to spot the tails, too occupied with the ways the woman had levitated them the menus. "You alright?" Hotaru-san asks him as she shrugs off her jacket, tilting her head in concern, "I probably should have chosen some place else, but, I though a more... direct show case would be easier to understand."

(Her entire left upper arm is covered in bandages, Tetsuya notes, and he can see the ends of a luridly coloured bruise peeking out from beneath her sleeve. A stitch line the back of her other forearm, and there's redness on the skin peeking out beneath her plasters, too red to be normal.)

"Magic is real," Kise-kun just murmurs, "it's really real."

Tetsuya shares a look with Hotaru-san, "I had a similar reaction when I found out," she says sympathetically, "but then again, I was 10, so, my reaction was more along the lines of excitement. But," she shakes her head, and the mood of the room seems to fall somber, and Kise-kun schools his expression into something more serious, focusing on the conversation at hand, "sorry you got dragged into this, and, sorry about Kei." The woman sighs. "He's... well," she glance at the sliding door, "I can't say he means well, or that he isn't a bad person objectively. But I can say that he's someone I trust and consider family. Even though it likely doesn't mean much to you, I'm hoping that it would ease your concerns a little."

"I do want to know what's going on," Kise-kun says, "but mostly because Kurokocchi's involved. And from what it sounds like, he's in trouble. Right?" Hotaru-san hesitates, and Tetsuya stares at his friend, "I don't want to leave him alone this time."

Something squeezes in his heart, it doesn't show on Tetsuya's face, but Kise-kun probably can tell anyways. Hotaru-san looks touched, and her eyes squint like they always do when she really smiles. "You' remind me of someone like this," she says, something wistful in her eyes, "he's a good friend- You're a good friend. I don't know what happened before, and that's between you guys, so I wouldn't pry. But... at least in my books, you're a good boy."

The wording is awkward, but she sounds very genuine, and Kise-kun brightens like a golden retriever under the sincere praise. It would be oddly fitting if Hotaru-san decides to ruffle his hair at this moment, but she doesn't. So Tetsuya does it instead, repeating the words. "You're a good boy." He says, half teasingly. Kise-kun catches on then, and whines.

"Kurokocchi"

(Hotaru-san laughs, she cuts off with a half wince, half grimace however and opts to smile instead.)

It doesn't take long for his aunt's order to arrive, and the nekomata woman enters to set down a plate of traditional okashi, as well as a mug of hot tea. She smiles at them as Kise-kun and himself placed their orders, and with his aunt's advice, Kise-kun opts to leave the more serious questions till after their food arrives and they wouldn't be interrupted. "You said you found out about magic when you were ten?" The blond asks, and Hotaru-san looks up over her mug. "How did that happen?"

"Ah," she lowers her drink, "I picked Kei out of a river when he was injured, so he owned me a life debt," a pause, and something in her tone starts to sound off, "he spoke and asked me what I wanted in return, so I half coerced him into teaching me, so hey, that makes you the second person Kei revealed the Sorcery Society to." Whatever it was vanishes, and she smiles up towards Kise-kun, cheerful again. "Not a lot of people get that. But, sorry about him regardless. He doesn't have a lot of human common sense."

"He's 4 tailed, so he's, 400? The myth says its a 100 years for a tail. But if you saved him when he was ten then he can't be that powerful." Kise-kun muses, and Tetsuya looks up. He's not particularly into Japanese Mythology, but he'll admit that he's interested. How could he not? "Do you know any 9 tailed foxes?"

"Oh, Kei is. 9 tailed." Hotaru-san states, matter-of-fact-ly. Like they hadn't all seen the Kitsune's 4 tails last week. "He's just so old he stopped getting more powerful and went the opposite direction. Remember how the Sessho seki broke in half a while back?" Tetsuya does indeed remember, it was on the news, and some of his peers then joked about it for a while, worrying that the Kitsune sealed in it got out. Wait. "Kei did that. He broke her out because he couldn't be bothered to get groceries."

What. Tetsuya shared a wide-eyed look with Kise-kun. He had thought the fox was probably not someone he can mess with, but now he sees that there's a very good reason why his grandmother was so deathly afraid of him. Someone knocks at the door, and it is then that they belatedly realise the nekomata is at the door again, holding their orders in hand. She sets down their food and silently leaves. Hotaru-san stares after her a little longer than what seems appropriate, frowning, but before any of them can comment on it, she turns back towards them.

"About what is going on with Tetsuya," she looks over in his direction, as if asking for permission, so he nods, "Haruka used to belong to a large and influential family- the Nanakasa."

She goes over the situation briefly, not lingering too long on the politics or details outside of what is currently happening. And Kise-kun listens with so much concentration that the only other time Tetsuya has seen him this focused would be on court. She skipped over the fact she can't have children, too, but Tetsuya can hardly blame her for that.

"What happens if Kurokocchi gets taken in by his granddad, then?" Kise-kun frowns, "you don't seem to like him much at all."

"Azuma value power." Hotaru-san's answer is quiet as she absentmindedly stirred her drink. "...Mafuyu used to have two older brothers, too. Natsuhiko-san died when Azuma signed him up for a suicide mission to appease some higher ups." Kise-kun paled, and Tetsuya's head snapped up to stare at his aunt. He's never heard about this. "And because he kicked Akiichi-san out of the house and refused to support his needs, he was forced to take on more work independently- some that wasn't screened properly. It ended with..." she shakes her head, "sorry. It's not something I like to talk about. He kicked Mafuyu out of the house after that, too, just because he wouldn't stop visiting Akiichi-san. But, in short, I'm not letting him be responsible for any children, ever again."

"That's why mom left," Tetsuya murmurs.

"Most parts, yes." Hotaru-san confirms, her voice is gentle, but she just sounds tired. "Tetsuyo was also a part of it, since he wasn't a sorcerer, Azuma didn't like him much. Haruka likely didn't want to bring him into magic either."

"So magic has to be inherited? Or something like that?"

"What? No," Hotaru-san shakes her head at Kise-kun's question, "magic isn't inherited. In fact with enough practice anyone can use it. There are certain inborn factors, which determines the kind of magic you can most comfortably use," she reaches out with a hand, and electricity gathers between her fingers, crackling, Kise-kun's eyes widen in awe, "but most of it is up to enviroment. The more magic there is where you grow up, the more powerful you become. Most families are powerful because they have been practicing magic for centries, and their name itself has gained power, as well as most who live there. It's about emotional connection." She taps a finger on the table, dragging it across to make a point. "The name Nanakasa is associated with power, which is why most Nanakasa are powerful. With the fact that they all grow up in the family home, which is in Dōten, which is soaked in magical power, of course they'd be powerful."

"For example, I was born a 'Thornfield'," she shifts her finger, and out of nowhere, throned vines begin to wrap around her wrist, "my father's side of the family has a small wine yard in Scotland. So making that association makes it so that I can use these. It's one of my first spells, actually. But now that I'm a Nanakasa- it doesn't mean I just get access to their reservoir." The vines disappear with a flick of her wrist. "But, it does make it easier for me to preform more powerful spells. By the time I got the name, I didn't need it anymore, but its useful."

"So I can learn magic too?" Kise-kun's voice turn hopeful- excited, even. Oh no. Tetsuya glances towards his aunt, who just smiles wryly, nodding. "Cool. But, why is Kurokocchi's grandpa so against Haruka-baa-san marrying Tetsuyo-san?"

"Just because magic is proven to not be inherited doesn't stop people from believing in it." Hotaru-san's voice dips into something like disdain. "Azuma would be one of them."

A tense silence falls over the room. A lot of information has been shared today, some which Tetsuya didn't even know before. "Wait," Kise-kun's voice breaks him away from his thoughts, "you said Haruka-baa-san didn't want to bring Tetsuyo-san into magic?" Hotaru-san nods. "Why?"

Ah, Tetsuya thought. And he knows what's coming. His aunt purses her lips, and averts her eyes.

"It's not fun, you know." She says quietly, "to see how people died. And, how many of them do so so painfully- I'm sure a lot of ple know. But knowing and seeing for yourself the way they look- the way their memories and minds look after what happened to them- it's different. It's difficult." She looks up, and Tetsuya meets her eyes.

He doesn't know what posessed him, but without realising, he opens his mouth, "there's one near Seirin who wouldn't stop crying since last week," he murmurs out loud, "he had..." He had a noose around his neck. He doesn't say- but judging by the look on Hotaru-san's face, she already knows.

"There's a lot of things you don't see every day, you know," she says quietly, "people can smile, act and hide their feelings and suffering, ghosts... Can't."

Kise-kun's face falls at that, like something had resonated.

Tetsuya hates that he both does and doesn't know why.

The rest of their time at Sakura's cafe is short lived, the mood having been throughly soiled by the topic of conversation. Lysandra doesn't mind much, of course, those are all things you need to know before getting into magic. She did made sure to give Kise-kun one of those basic clearance cards- they're like those cards for organ donors where you write your name on it it proves the holder as someone who is in-the-know. It doesn't do much outside of letting them be able to silently tell their peers who are secretly sorcerers that they're cleared, thus the basic clearance.

Not just anyone can sign it and go, of course- the card is only in effect after a magic user charges it, Tetsuya did it for him- his control over his magic is a lot steadier than before- and his output is gradually increasing. It's not particularly surprising since one's magical reservoir isn't set until their late 20s, but showing improvement so quickly is rare. He's only been with them for 3 months, after all. But it was fun to see the look on Kise-kun's face when Tetsuya's hand started glowing. She recalls those earlier days when she first started. Her beginning was... atypical, to say the least, but it wasn't all bad either. She even misses some part of it, sometimes.

Anthea came over shortly after to pick up Tetsuya- here to take him to test out his Sight again- as well as Echo or any other possible talents that might've manifested. It's better to know and prepare accordingly. Kei is tailing them, just a little ways away, looking out for any stray Nanakasa mercenaries and Tetsuya knows he's following this time. He's known this entire week, though both still aren't comfortable around eachother. Kise-kun left with them so that Anthea can take him to a way out closest to his home. As for herself...

Lysandra stirs her lukewarm tea as the door to the compartment slides open. Sakura walks in, a pleasant smile on her face. It turns her stomach to see it, but she doesn't let it show on her face. '"t's been a while, Sakura-san." She greets. The 'woman' smiles back prettily, and bows in greeting.

"I heard you were talking about Sasaki-sama earlier." She says, her tone is starting to get sickly sweet, not even nothing to hide now that he can tell she's busted him. "Ah, how long has it been? A year since I last saw him? Is it true that he's back?"

Lysandra closes her eyes. "It's been five." Her tone is even at first, but the cat's surely smiling face in her mind wouldn't go away, and it's starting piss her off. "Drop it." Her tone finally falls, cold. She sets her now empty mug down. "Shin, I can tell its you."

A beat of silence, and Lysandra lifts her gaze towards 'Sakura', who still smiles prettily for a moment before she raises a brow, then like a layer of mist falling away, her form drops. Dark brown hair falls apart to reveal white streaked with dirt brown, the flowers vanish, and twin tails appear behind his back. Shin tilts his head, and hums. "You couldn't tell at first." He states, almost like a challenge, "that's a win in my books. Anyways, so the old fart is back." He hums, and the tray in his hand vanishes, "shame, I was hoping he'd be gone for another century."

"You say that like you don't know." Lysandra clicks her tongue, the calico doesn't respond. "You have his name- you knew before I did that he got out. And don't you have better things to do than terrorise my nephew and his friend?" Lysandra leans back in her seat, crossing her arms. She couldn't tell exactly when the tree spirit was replaced she only noticed something off when he bought in Kise-kun and Tetsuya's orders.

It's why she checked the food without them noticing. Poison or spiking foods isn't exactly like him, but she'd still like to be safe. She may have no personal vendetta against Shin himself, but she'd never approve of what he did to Kei. Judging by his track record, the Mannenzakura spirit is likely fine. Physically. At least. The calico meanwhile rolls his eyes, and crossed his arms.

"I didn't do anything to her, you know I wouldn't," he approaches the table, tapping the surface lightly with his claws. "I planted her for a reason. Also." His voice lowers, and distorts. "Don't call her that."

"Why? It's her name." Lysandra says evenly, even though she knows full well why Shin would refuse to use the name. Any sympathy she had left for the nekomata 25 years ago have fully died out. She understood both sides, at first- though Shin stealing Kei's other name and leaving him to rot is a bit too much in her opinion. If she hadn't found Kei back then, he would've died. But Kei has long since gotten over his grudge- and grief. But has Shin?

"It's not hers to have." Shin snaps, and Lysandra closes her eyes. She's not surprised. The calico has proven to be vengeful to a fault, so long as he feels as though he is owed something. But the 'Sakura' that is Kei's elder sister and Shin's mentor is dead. And just because the one he planted in her image doesn't fit his own of who the woman was, doesn't give him the right to rid her of the name she chooses. "Sakura is dead." He spits.

"You certainly don't act like it, then." Lysandra says evenly. She knows he would be mad, but at this point, anything on the topic would. She stopped caring a while ago. And Shin does seethe, glaring at her for a few moments before he shifts to look away, like a child- and changes the subject.

"You know, your kid saw my tails the moment he walked through the doors." His voice is even now. Lysandra glances up, so he's been Sakura since the moment they arrived. And Tetsuya noticed? That's... before she could contemplate further, Shin cuts in. "Is that why the Edgarson girl was here as well? Keep an eye on the kid. The Nanakasa's grubby hands can get lots of places." The corner of his mouth ticks up, and almost mockingly, he continues. "Or maybe have the bastard keep an eye on him, best if he sticks right next to the kid. But too bad, he ruined that for himself, didn't he?"

This again. Lysandra closes her eyes. "Kei messed up," she states, "I'm not going to make excuses for him, and he's going to have to apologise."

"My, him? Facing his mistakes? Never thought I'd see the day." Shin snorts.

That's enough. Lysandra grit her teeth, and the magic around her thickens. "Save that for yourself, Shin." She says, her voice pressed low. Her magic is leaking- and static dance near the ends of her hair, out of control. The fight last night have left it more active than he'd like, it seems. "It's been a thousand years- and twenty, since Kei changed. Grow up."

The cat doesn't respond for a moment, and instead reaches out as if to feel for her magic- thick and dense in the air. She's glad Tetsuya isn't here, at this intensity he'd probably pass out. It wouldn't be all that comfortable for Kise-kun either- or anyone at all. But to Shin? The cat simply let his hand fall, and stares right back at her.

"They weren't lying when they said your had a crazy reservoir, it's to be expected of course, you grew up around him and Shinsha," he notes, the beginnings of a smile on his face. "But this? This is hardly human anymore."

"Get to the point. Do you have anything to say outside of insults?" Lysandra snaps, and her magic leaks a bit more- Shin shakes his head disapprovingly, clicking his tongue.

"Careful with that," her murmurs, still smiling. She's starting to hate that smile even more. "Wouldn't want to kill your poor nephew too, would you?"

Lysandra's eyes widen. He dare-

"What?" Shin speaks like he's laughing. "You know how poisonous your presence is, you've only just used it, too. You're using it right now."

"Shin," Lysandra starts, the beginnings of a snarl on the tip of her tongue. But he cuts her off.

"Maybe you should tell the kid how his mother really died," his eyes squints into crescents, and Lysandra knows what he's going to say, and she hates it, and she hates that she's falling for it, "you were there, and with how much of a martyr you are there's no way you didn't try. And if you did, and she didn't survive, then there's only one possible way she died," he grins, and it's all teeth, "your blood didn't take, did it?"

The sound the follows was loud enough she's sure the whole cafe heard. Blue light has grabbed hold of the calico, slamming him down against the floor with enough force that Lysandra can feel his bones crushing beneath her magic. The blue vanishes as she marches forwards. Then Lysandra bends down, picking the yokai up by the neck, and reaches far enough up that he'd dangle off his feet.

She wants him to hurt for saying that.

"Get to the point." Lysandra growls. "Or shut up. Preferably forever."

Shin laughs through a lungful of blood.

"What I'm saying is that," he grins, and it is red on white. "At then end of the day, medicine and poison aren't really all that different. Is it?"

What a waste of her fucking time.

His words linger in the room. And Lysandra's arm is starting to shake- not from exhaustion, but fury. Her grip tightens, and closes around nothing- she looks up, and the cat is gone. Her hand drops then, and following fury, the exhaustion hits. Lysandra steps backwards, and falls into the seats, wincing as she realises that she'd busted her stitches.

Well. To Pyrite it is.

Saitama Mission Report, case GD Kanto 124

Summary of Events

With Puppeteer's assistance, Hyoshin and I were able to utilise Zephyr (asset GD 02) as bait to lure out the two of the three identified ghouls. Due to the proximity to the residential area and the nature of ghouls we accessed the best course of action to split up. Hyoshin will state in his report his duty. My work was to track down the remaining ghoul within the city.

It was discovered outside the sealed district, and currently we suspect it has managed to leave through the pipes. With Puppeteer and Zephyr's assistance I was able to force it to return within the evacuated zone without witnesses or casualties through sacrificing one of my arms as bait.

The ghoul was extremely violent, and on the verge of conversion into a Wendigo. We were unable to subdue it for long enough to properly destroy its core. However in the process, the ghoul have damaged a gas pipeline, thus after sealing the area with a reversed dome shield, we were able to utilise the leaked gas to ignite two consecutive explosions, one to stun, other to burn its core. Injuries were sustained, but there are no casualties.

The ghouls Hyoshin subdued were identified as artificial, before destroyed.

Esmeray