Tokyo Demons Book 1: Chapter 6

It was five in the morning. Granted, Ayase had slept for 20-odd hours the night before, and adrenaline was keeping her brain running overtime, but it was still five in the morning.

This mission was far outside of her comfort zone. Her secret was spreading and she was being forced to use it by people she barely knew–which filled her body with a sick wave of panic that threatened to send her into meltdown.

But besides all that. From a logistical standpoint, she was seriously struggling. Ayase had never tried to send bugs to be her eyes elsewhere. She hadn’t even thought of that until Nick had trapped one of her bugs in a jar. And now here she was, sending several of them with a classmate whose life depended on her being able to spy through her bugs both well and subtly. If she screwed up, Kiyoshi would be left to the mercy of Core…or, if she screwed up badly enough, he would be at their mercy when they knew he’d tried to spy on them.

Ayase concentrated harder than she ever had in her life.

The first job was simple. Of the three bugs she’d sent with Kiyoshi, one of them flew off him before he entered the car. She sent the bug to investigate the vehicle, passing Nick whatever details she could make out through her fuzzy compound eyes. She got most of the license plate information and the make of the car itself. Then she planted that bug at the base of the car antenna, positioning it so she could see the route as they drove it. Her view from that angle was limited and she couldn’t make out most street signs in the pre-dawn darkness, but it was a decent way to follow wherever Core took Kiyoshi.

The other job was much harder. Keeping two bugs hidden on Kiyoshi while listening and watching to what happened in the car while she paid attention to the directions with the bug outside…she could only split her attention so many ways. It took everything she had just to move the bugs separately. She’d always controlled her bugs as a units, or groups of units–not as tiny individuals with complicated tasks.

“They’re blindfolding him,” she said quickly, the skin of her forehead pulled tight. “The car’s taking a left…they’re telling him to relax, that he’s in good hands. He can have everything he’s ever wanted as long he cooperates with the group.”

She heard Nick grunt over the scratching of his pencil. “Right,” he muttered. “Like this is a career.”

“They took another left…I don’t know what street it is, but there’s a Mister Donut on the corner and a gas station across from it. There’s a subway stop up ahead. Stoplight. They’re asking if he contacted his family. Kiyoshi said his uncle wasn’t home when he called him. Did you leave a message? No, he didn’t. One of the men looks angry, but the other one says it’s okay. Green light, they’re going straight. They’re asking about…his sister?” Ayase frowned, trying to translate the words she picked up through her vibrating antennae. “Kiyoshi says he didn’t…I didn’t catch that. They’re saying it doesn’t matter, they can tie up any loose ends he forgot. Taking left at an office building, Kiyoshi’s asking about Mai, they’re saying–”

“I need more on the office building,” Nick interrupted.

Ayase squeezed her eyes shut tighter. “It has a red sign, across the street from another office building…they’re turning right at a convenience store, going straight, passing a family restaurant on the left. Shoot, I missed…something about Mai not remembering anything, she’ll have a normal life? Gas station on the left, entering the highway.”

The pencil scratched across paper. “I need a tape recorder for you,” Nick said absently. “If you can’t focus on everything, just stick with the directions. We need a decent idea of where they’re going.”

Ayase swallowed. She adjusted all of her attention to the bug outside the car, though guilt weighed like a stone inside her stomach. They were still talking to Kiyoshi, and he was blurting scared answers in the back of her mind. But she had to ignore it. She focused on the highway signs.

The car didn’t arrive at its destination for a good thirty minutes. Ayase described the tall office building as they rumbled into the garage. It looked like a normal building, but little flashing lights implied that they were passing through security checkpoints. They drove into a small, isolated garage with locking doors within the greater garage. They pulled Kiyoshi out and searched him again; they’d searched him quickly in the car, but this was obviously more thorough. They patted him down, used a wand that detected metal, used some other device that they ran over his body. Ayase scooted her bugs into the folds of Kiyoshi’s clothes so they wouldn’t stand out during the pat-down. Satisfied, they returned the pocket change that had set off the metal detector.

“He’s clean.” Someone took his arm and they led him, still blindfolded, through a door that they unlocked with a keycard. They took an elevator up eleven flights. They walked through a hallway, past rooms that looked like offices, and eventually unlocked a completely empty, windowless room. Ayase had one of her two remaining insects jump off him as they pushed Kiyoshi inside. She flew the “outside” bug into a corner of the hall ceiling; no one seemed to notice. The other insect stayed buried near Kiyoshi’s neck.

They finally removed the blindfold. Someone brought a plastic bag and emptied the contents on the floor of the room: two bottles of water, two convenience store sandwiches, and a plastic bucket.

“Someone will check on you in a few hours, Honda,” one of the men said gruffly. “If you need to piss, use the bucket. Don’t give us trouble and everything will be fine. You’re on probation–if you pass, you’ll get a proper room and can start requesting things. But if you try anything funny…”

One of the men snorted. “Like the bitch before you,” he snapped. “We had to kick her ass. But be a good boy and we won’t hurt you.”

Nick asked Ayase to clarify when she relayed the last part. “There was a girl before him?” he asked. “Are they talking about Mai? Or did they kidnap someone else?”

But the captors were done talking. They slammed the door shut behind Kiyoshi, locking him in darkness. Ayase saw, from the bug outside, that one man agreed to keep watch. He dragged a chair from an office to sit outside Kiyoshi’s room. He pulled a cigarette from his jacket pocket, lit up, and leaned back as he took a drag.

Inside the room, Ayase’s insect eyes adjusted to the dark. Kiyoshi sniffed as he carefully stuck a few fingers into his mouth; Ayase guessed he was checking the pills. Then he walked to the back wall, turned, and slid down to sit on the floor. He hugged his legs to his chest.

“Ayase?” he whispered.

Ayase paused. “He said my name,” she told Nick.

Nick hissed something under his breath. “Don’t let him do that,” he snapped. “They’re probably monitoring him. We don’t want them hearing anything about you or even thinking he has a wire.”

Ayase nodded. She sent the one remaining insect to buzz under Kiyoshi’s left ear–their agreed sign for “bad idea.” He shivered and gripped his earlobe when she brushed it. She silently apologized…maybe it would draw less attention if she could avoid tickling him.

Kiyoshi pursed his lips together and stared at his knees. After a few minutes of silence, he shifted his legs under him so he could lift himself onto his knees. He pressed his palms together in front of him and lowered his head.

“Mom?” he whispered.

Ayase waited, not sure what to make of that. Kiyoshi closed his eyes.

“Mom? If you’re really a ghost, and you’re really watching over me…” He swallowed. “Please help me get through this. And please let Mai forget all this, and live a normal life like they said. And…” He faltered. “Th-thank you. For looking after me.”

He found a way to communicate with us.

A lick of hope strengthened Ayase’s resolve. Kiyoshi was pulling himself together. Ayase relayed the action, and she heard Nick grunt his approval.

“Good,” he muttered. “Then there is a brain under all that hair.”

Ayase grimaced. Her dislike of Nick deepened.

Kiyoshi lowered himself to the floor and curled into a sleeping position. He let out a long breath and closed his eyes. Ayase, after checking with Nick, flew out from Kiyoshi’s clothes and rested innocently on the floor near him. She was just an insect. No one would suspect an insect.

“Can you get a good view of the door where you are?” Nick asked.

Ayase nodded, her eyes still shut. “Not much is happening outside,” she added. “The guard got a magazine.”

“Then forget the guard for now. Move the bug in the hallway–I want you to check out the interior of the building if you can. Tell me anything you see that might identify the place. And let me know about patrols and security.”

“Right.”

Ayase sent the hallway bug away from the guard, turning a corner into a more comfortably empty hall. Back in the garage, her third insect settled into its place on the car, ready to wait out the hours in shut-up darkness.

She felt something touch her. Her attention shifted back to Kiyoshi. She could see, through her blurry compound gaze, that he was watching her through heavy-lidded eyes. His arm lay between them and his fingers gently, carefully, stroked her chitinous back.

Something warm spread through her chest. She decided not to relay the moment to Nick.

****************

Jo wanted to move fast. A few minutes after the car with Kiyoshi drove away, he muttered his intentions to Nick and slipped out of the room. Half the dorm was awake because of Byakko’s lot party, so he drew no attention as he joined the crowd outside. He took a breath.

The other dorm, the dorm he wanted, was a few hundred meters away. It sat in its own adjacent lot, its parking area undisturbed. A few glowing windows lit up the quiet darkness. Next to the chaos of the freshman lot, it seemed like a black hole of sinister solitude.

Jo swallowed.

Do it, his mind ordered. Do it, Jo.

He didn’t want to go. Every survival instinct in his body screamed at him to flee. He knew Core could still have people lurking in the darkness. To his dismay, there was no student traffic between that dorm and his own. He’d be waltzing in there alone. A walking, vulnerable target.

But he didn’t have a choice. He closed his eyes.

“You’re a good guy!”

Jo didn’t agree. But maybe, for a few minutes, he could pretend it were true.

He pushed his way through the Byakko crowd, ignoring the hoots and laughter. When he stepped onto the sidewalk that separated the two dorm lots, he forced down the panic that rose up in his heart. He walked to the other dorm as naturally as possible. His heartbeat thundered with every passing step.

He reached the dorm entrance. He’d been planning to pick the lock, but a doorstop had been wedged between the doors to keep them from locking when they closed. The defensive part of Jo’s mind argued that students did that all the time if they lost their keys or were meeting up. The rest of Jo’s mind drowned out that part with deafening alarm bells. He reached a shaking hand toward the door, half expecting it to explode.

He had to manually push every muscle in his body forward. He cleared the door, then the entryway. With his senses slowed by fear, he stepped into the student lounge like he was walking through a wall of water.

She was there. The petite jock he’d seen on Friday, wearing the same clothes she’d had on then, was curled on a communal couch and sleeping deeply. Her clothes and hair were messy, but she seemed unhurt.

Jo’s eyes darted around; from what he could tell, the room was empty. He walked quickly to the couch and dropped to his knees beside her.

“Hey.” He shook her by the shoulder. “Are you okay? Can you wake up?”

The girl stirred. She blearily opened her eyes and coughed in Jo’s face; he smelled rotting breath, but no alcohol or smoke. She moaned and gripped her head.

“Wh-what?” she breathed. “Where am I? What happened?”

“You’re in the north dorm. Are you hurt?”

The girl moaned again and blinked her eyes. She settled a surprisingly lucid gaze on Jo.

She frowned. “Who are you?” she asked.

Jo shook his head. “It’s not important. Can you tell me what happened?”

“Uh…jeez.” She awkwardly rubbed the back of her hand over her mouth. “I went to that party at Chitose’s place. I think I drank too much…I don’t remember it that well. Then I went back with…Haruna? I was really sick and slept most of the day. And then…” She checked her watch. “Is it still Saturday?”

Jo dwelled on that a moment. This didn’t sound right. Kiyoshi had said he’d seen video of Mai, tied up in a room somewhere.

“You’re…Mai Endou,” Jo said carefully. “Right?”

She pushed herself to a sitting position and pulled back from him. “Yeah,” she replied, just as carefully. “Have we met?”

Jo’s mind raced. His eyes trailed over her, which made her close her knees defensively. He landed on her forearms. The room was dark, but he made out very slight, red abrasions and small patches of missing hair around her wrists.

It had happened.

“I’m…a friend of a friend,” he said quickly. “Mitsuko-senpai said your roommate’s worried about you. And it’s technically Sunday.”

The distrust on Mai’s face melted away. “Oh,” she said in realization. “Right. I guess I didn’t tell her I was gonna be out…but it’s not like I planned it.” She grimaced. “Yikes, I guess slept the entire day away.”

“So you think you were…with a friend? Haruka?”

“Haruna,” Mai corrected as she slid her feet to the floor. “I think she helped me to her place when I got drunk. But I don’t remember it well.” She averted her eyes sheepishly. “I guess I had too much.”

“And she dropped you off here?”

“I don’t know. Probably?” Mai gripped her head, a vaguely sick feeling registering on her face. “I think I just slept a lot. And had…nightmares.”

Jo didn’t know what else to say. He moved out of the way as Mai shakily stood. She fished through her pocket for her keys.

“What floor are you on?”

“Third,” she answered absently.

“I’ll help you up the stairs.”

She frowned at him. “I’m okay.”

“You just said you got fucked up this weekend. It’s okay–I promised Mitsuko I’d get you home if I found you.”

Mai sighed.

Jo accompanied Mai up the stairs. She was a little shaky, but seemed unhurt. When she got to her room and unlocked the door, Jo heard blurted surprised from the other side of the wood.

“Hi,” Mai whispered as she slid into the room.

A girl with tousled hair sat up in bed. “Mai?” she exclaimed with a yawn. “Where the heck were you yesterday?”

Mai bowed her head politely at Jo and closed the door behind her.

Jo stood in the hallway a moment. He had to force himself to unclench his jaw and shoulders.

The coast is clear. He repeated the line like a mantra, over and over in his head. It’s okay. You’re okay. She’s okay.

But it wasn’t true, obviously. Things weren’t okay. But they weren’t…worse. He just needed to try and work through his new information.

Jo left the dorm and headed back toward his own. The empty space between the two lots didn’t seem as intimidating when he was walking away from the quiet. Before he even stepped into the crowd, he spotted Seiya within it. His orange hair was like a beacon–leading to harmless, comforting noise.

He grinned at Jo when he approached. “Hey!” he cried, slapping Jo on the shoulder. “Pretty good crowd, huh? This what you wanted?”

Jo let out a breath. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Thank you, Seiya.”

Seiya paused, clearly surprised at the expression on Jo’s face. Then he smiled again and lit up a cigarette.

“Don’t worry, Jo,” Seiya assured him around the stick. “Byakko looks after its own.” He turned and pointed to the teenager Jo had seen leading cheers from a car roof. “See? Even Ban came. That’s how serious we take our reputation.”

Ban…

Jo searched his memory. Ban was the current leader of Byakko, wasn’t he? The brother of the old leader, Takeshi? Jo tried to memorize a few details–Ban was dressed in a traditionally punky style, with bleached hair and an earring. He was probably 18 or 19, although it was hard to tell in the limited light.

Jo focused back on Seiya. “Can I borrow your cell?” he asked.

Seiya yawned and fished through his back pocket. “Sure,” he replied as he handed it over. “When you’re done, I think I’m gonna bail. I’m pretty tired and we made our noise.”

Jo removed Touya’s business card from his chained wallet; he flipped it over. It had become his makeshift address book. He looked up to make sure Seiya’s attention was elsewhere before pushing open the phone and dialing one of the numbers he’d scratched down.

It rang twice. “Yeah?” asked a very careful voice.

“It’s Jo.”

“Jo. Make it quick–I’m writing down Ayase’s directions.”

Jo lowered his voice. “She’s fine. I brought her to her room and it didn’t look like anyone was watching us. She…she doesn’t remember what happened.”

“What?” Nick barked.

“She thinks she passed out at a friend’s house after getting drunk. She was vague about it, but she seemed convinced that’s all that happened. But I saw marks on her–she was definitely tied up at some point.”

There was a moment of silence; Jo vaguely heard Ayase’s voice in the background. “Exit 22,” Nick recited suddenly. “I’m listening, Ayase. Jo, was Mai lying to you?”

“No–I’m sure she wasn’t.” Jo glanced over at Seiya again; Seiya was muttering to himself and sorting through a handful of change. Jo kept his voice quiet.

“But this isn’t just a gap in her memory, okay? She thinks something else happened. Like a…”

“A false memory,” Nick finished. “And Kiyoshi couldn’t remember key parts of his kidnapping, right? So we’re looking at gaps and false memories.” He cursed. “So Core has at least one psychic on their payroll.”

Jo stopped. Psychic?

“Gotta go,” Nick said before Jo could ask. The phone call cut out abruptly.

Jo closed the cell phone and stared at it for a second. Despite Nick assuring him that the “vampire” he’d seen was just a goth with filed-down teeth, Jo had still seen Ayase turn into bugs. And heard about a group of megalomaniacs who controlled a drug that made superhumans. Nick making a casual reference to psychics was just icing on the insanity cake.

Jo let out a breath. He was suddenly very tired–the hour had caught up to him and his adrenaline was depleted. His usual, practiced defense mechanisms kicked in to guide him home.

He handed the phone back to Seiya. “Can I ask another favor?” Jo asked tiredly.

Seiya blew smoke and dropped his cigarette to the blacktop. “What?” he asked as he ground out the stick with his heel.

“Can I crash at your place for a few days? You live with your parents, right?”

Seiya winced. “Our place is really tiny,” he warned. “And my mom’s really nosy. She’ll give you the third-degree at breakfast.”

Breakfast. The word, accompanied with the mental image of some kind of family unit eating, was so comforting that Jo wanted to cry. He rubbed his sinuses and swallowed the lump in his throat.

“I’ll be a perfect gentleman. And I’m happy to do the dishes.”

Seiya gave a lopsided smile. “Kiss-up,” he teased.

****************

A door slammed somewhere. Ayase jolted awake, her fragmented consciousness filling her with panic. The majority of her, in human form, jammed up to a sitting position against the headboard behind her.

Where was she? What was she doing?

After a few seconds, she recognized the bed she was in–it was the same one she’d woken up in last time. She was back in the church? She remembered Nick calling them a cab once things settled down with Kiyoshi…had she fallen asleep in the taxi?

Kiyoshi.

Ayase squeezed shut her eyes and tried to regain her bearings. Kiyoshi was still locked in that room, asleep on the floor. His food and the bucket were untouched, making her think no one had come to check on him yet. In the garage, nothing had changed, either.

But now there were new people in the hallway. She quickly flew her hall insect closer, trying to make out their conversation.

“…Has he been giving you any trouble?”

“No. He’s scared out of his mind.”

“Good.” One of the new visitors, a woman, let out a breath. “We’re still having issues with the other girl. Beating and sedating her for those first few injections was a bad idea–her heart rate went all over the place after the Pitch hit her bloodstream. We’re monitoring her now to see if we did any permanent damage. She was showing signs of cardiac instability this morning, but she might’ve been faking it.”

Another man grunted. “Why don’t we just dump her? She seems like way more trouble than she’s worth.”

“Junior insists that we keep her. And it’s true that we could use a better informations specialist.” She slid her hands into the pockets of her lab coat. “But no problems with this Honda kid yet?”

“Nope. Not even a struggle.”

The woman frowned.

“What?” The man crossed his arms. “Is that suspicious?”

Ayase’s heart started to pound. She opened one human eye; she was still alone in the room with no one to relay information to. She wanted to scream.

The woman said something. Ayase shut her eye.

“…move him to the room. Let him sleep in a real bed.” The woman waved her hand. “If he’s cooperative, reward him for it. We want him to STAY cooperative. We should be done monitoring the girl in a few hours; we’ll give him his first dose then.”

The men nodded. Inside the room, Ayase quickly flew her bug back under Kiyoshi’s collar. A few seconds later, the men unlocked the room and stomped inside.

“Rise and shine, Honda.”

Kiyoshi jerked awake. One of the men dragged him to his feet; he stumbled to stay standing.

“Huh?” he blurted.

“Relax,” the man assured him. “You’re getting a bed.” One of the other men collected Kiyoshi’s uneaten food as Kiyoshi was marched down the hallway. Ayase’s hallway bug flew into the elevator right behind them.

One of the men seemed to notice her. He looked directly at her.

Ayase’s heart seized in her chest.

…Then he looked back down. He muttered something about “idiots leaving the windows open and letting in bugs.”

Ayase swallowed hard. You’re just an insect, she reminded herself. No one suspects you.

She noticed Kiyoshi squirm nervously and glance at the man. But the man’s attention had returned to the task at hand; he shoved Kiyoshi out onto a new floor. Ayase barely noticed the floor number before zipping out of the elevator just in time.

Ayase tried to calm herself as she followed the men down a hallway with lush carpeting and dim lights. They opened up a door at the end and shoved Kiyoshi inside.

“Get some sleep while you can,” one of them ordered. “And eat the food–we want you in good shape for this afternoon. There’s a bathroom attached to the room if you need it.”

They slammed the door and locked it. The men discussed who would take the first watch as Ayase hid her bug in a ceiling lamp.

She awkwardly switched back to the bug in the room with Kiyoshi. She crawled up his neck and he yelped.

Ayase gritted her teeth. Focus! she ordered herself. She flew off Kiyoshi and landed on the bed, where he could see her.

He looked around. The room they were in was a sparsely furnished apartment, windowless but otherwise reasonably inviting. It had a tiny, bathless bathroom with its own door, left ajar. One of the men had thrown the convenience store food on the neatly made bed.

Kiyoshi frowned and picked up a sandwich. “I kinda wanna sleep,” he mumbled, both to himself and to Ayase. “But I am hungry…”

She flew up and buzzed under his right ear. Knowing that she was trying to communicate the message “good idea,” Kiyoshi visibly relaxed. He sat down on the bed and unwrapped the sandwich.

Ayase allowed herself a few moments of rest. She opened her human eyes and saw that, still, no one was with her. Frustration bubbled up in her until she noticed a thin black box resting on a table beside the bed. There was a note under it; she slid it free.

Ayase-kun, the note read. Please record whatever you see. Nick and Sachi are sleeping but will help you when you need them. I’m in the church and will check in with you soon.

Ayase picked up the small black box. It was a tape recorder, she realized as she examined it. It only had a few buttons, but the one with the red dot was clearly the one she needed. She pushed the button down and quickly recounted the developments with Kiyoshi.

When she was done, she shifted back to the bugs. Kiyoshi was lying on the bed now, fading back into sleep. She took a position beside his pillow. One of the men was standing guard outside, but there was nothing more for her to explore out there–the hallway had no turns, and every door was closed. She noted the number of Kiyoshi’s room and then stayed tucked in the ceiling lamp.

She returned to her human consciousness and let out a long breath. She sat there a moment, her mind spinning, and tried to swallow down the panic that filled her throat.

She opened her eyes. There were voices outside…on the other side of her door. She looked up.

“…”

She couldn’t make out the words. She swung her legs over her bed and got to her feet.

It sounded like Daniel–his voice had a tendency to crack into high notes, she’d noticed. She shuffled to the door and opened it a few centimeters.

Daniel was indeed standing in the hallway outside. He spoke quietly to a pair of newcomers. The new person to Daniel’s left made Ayase’s stomach unconsciously clench.

It was the dark-skinned man with green eyes. The one she’d seen from her time in the glass jar. Now that she could take him in with her human eyes, she noticed new details: his heavy features, his thick eyebrows, a silver chain disappearing under the collar of his buttoned shirt. He was short compared to Daniel and was noticeably stocky. She couldn’t guess his age…older than she was, but younger than Daniel.

Beside him stood a Japanese woman who also looked familiar–was she one of the two Ayase had seen from the jar? She seemed a little older than the dark-skinned man, and the expression on her face was simultaneously serious and flustered. She had oddly pretty features, despite the frazzled nature of her hair. An unseasonably thick coat and scarf were draped over her arm.

“…monitoring him now,” Daniel finished, letting out a breath. “There’s not much else we can do, I’m afraid.”

The woman frowned nervously. “What was his name again?” she asked. “I think I heard you wrong.”

“Kiyoshi Honda, I think it was. Unless…wait.” Daniel paused. “Am I getting that mixed up now that I’m seeing you? I’m sorry, I haven’t slept much…” Daniel fished through a bag hanging off his arm and eventually pulled free with a Fukuhashi passbook. He handed it to the woman.

She flipped the book open to the enclosed ID. She went very pale.

“Kiyoshi Honda,” she breathed. “No, you were right.”

Daniel blinked at her. “Emi?” he asked as he quickly touched her arm. “Are you all right?”

She said nothing. She just stared at the passbook, her lips tight and quivering.

Green eyes suddenly flicked toward Ayase. She shrunk behind the door as the dark-skinned man turned to her.

“Miss,” he called evenly in slow, careful Japanese. “You are awake now?”

Daniel whipped his head around immediately; it took a few more seconds for the woman to tear her eyes from the passbook. Daniel ran over to Ayase, opening the door as she released it.

“Ayase-kun!” he exclaimed. “Are you all right? Have you seen anything new?!”

Ayase swallowed. She stared at the newcomers, still too paranoid to open up to strangers immediately. “Who are they?” she murmured.

Daniel opened the door wider, giving Ayase nothing to hide behind. “They’re with the church,” he explained. “They’re here to help us. You can trust them.”

Ayase furrowed her eyebrows. “Your…friends?” she clarified.

“Yes. I wanted them here earlier, but Emi was on an assignment in Hokkaido. Zayd just picked her up from the airport.” Daniel took Ayase’s arm and gently led her out of the room. “Are you okay? Has anything changed with Kiyoshi?”

Ayase licked dry lips. “They moved him to a room with a bed,” she said. “He shouldn’t get the injection for a few more hours. He’s sleeping now.” She gestured behind her. “I recorded everything I heard on the tape recorder.”

Relief loosened the creases in Daniel’s face. He gave a small smile. “Excellent,” he said, clapping her on the shoulder. “Excellent work, Ayase-kun.”

Ayase rolled her gaze back to the strangers. The woman bowed quickly; the dark-skinned man nodded his head once and held a hand over his chest in some foreign greeting.

“Emi-san?” Ayase recited. “And…” She couldn’t remember the other one.

“Zayd,” the man completed. “You must be Ayase-san. The woman with the power of insects.”

Ayase hesitated. Noticing the look on her face, Daniel eagerly nudged Ayase toward Zayd.

“Zayd is a lot like you,” he offered. “He has a supernatural ability that falls outside the realm of psychics. Until we met you, he had the most baffling power I’d ever seen.”

Ayase waited. Zayd glanced at Daniel, then focused his green gaze on Ayase. His quiet eyes bore into her.

“Are you anxious?” he asked in his slow Japanese. “Because of everything that’s happening?”

Ayase swallowed. “Of course I am,” she mumbled. She wanted to look away, but something compelled her to keep up with his gaze.

“And the captive boy does not need monitoring for a few hours?”

Ayase shook her head.

Zayd stared.

Ayase froze.

And then she felt the nervous ropes in her chest loosen, like invisible fingers pulled them apart. Her heartbeat slowed, her energy drained, and her legs turned to jelly. She felt…drugged, almost. Sedated. She struggled to breathe as Zayd’s eyelids drooped.

Almost in sync, Emi and Daniel crashed to the floor.

Zayd turned quickly to Emi. Daniel, giving a hoarse chuckle, struggled to his feet by Ayase’s side.

“Easy,” Daniel called to Zayd. “We haven’t really slept.” Daniel turned drooping eyes to Ayase. “Are you okay?”

Ayase tried to think through the sudden fog in her mind. She wanted to defend against whatever had come over her, but…she couldn’t. She physically couldn’t. It took all her effort just to keep her eyes open. She swayed on her feet; Daniel grabbed her, as much to steady her as to steady himself.

“Wh…what’s happening to me?” Ayase breathed.

Daniel gripped her shoulder. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “He’s only trying to help you. You’re okay.”

Ayase opened her mouth, but the words died in her throat. Her eyes rolled back in her head and succumbed to her suddenly leaden eyelids.

Kiyoshi.

She split into her three bugs one final time. There were no changes, the guard flipped through his magazine, and Kiyoshi slept soundly. His hot breath washed over her wings, pushing the last bit of resolve from her body.

The world turned black as she fell into nothing.

 

“…Ayase? Ayase, can you hear me?”

Ayase’s eyelids slowly lifted. A thin film covered her vision; there were two identical heads leaning over her. She blinked her eyes, trying to clear them.

…Huh?

The two hazy faces leaning over her merged into one. Ayase took a deep breath and focused her eyes.

It was Sachi. He looked a little different–the spikes in his hair were flattened awkwardly, like he’d slept on them and not seen a mirror since. He squinted down at her and gently shook her shoulder.

“Ayase, are you okay?” He shook her again. “Ayase?”

Ayase tried to speak, but it came out as a croak. He released her suddenly, as if noticing her awake for the first time.

“Oh. Uh…sorry.” Sachi slid an arm under her shoulders and helped her into a sitting position. Ayase covered her mouth, struggling to think.

“What…happened?” she breathed. “Did I faint?”

Sachi frowned. “I’m not sure, exactly. Daniel-san said his friend was trying to help you get some sleep. It’s been–”

Ayase froze. She cut Sachi off with a hand and squeezed shut her eyes.

…Nothing had changed at the Core building. Kiyoshi was sleeping soundly, and the guard outside his door was reading a newspaper.

Ayase let out the breath she’s unwittingly held. She rubbed her eyes and tried to slow her pounding heart.

“How long was I out?” she mumbled.

“Two hours. They wanted me to wake you to check on Kiyoshi…is that what you were just doing?”

Ayase shifted against the headboard. “He’s fine. Still asleep.” She rubbed a stiff shoulder; had she slept on it wrong, or had she fallen on it earlier?

The ghostly image of those green eyes resurfaced in her mind. Ayase tried to piece together her last thoughts before passing out. That man, “Zayd,” had a strange ability. He hadn’t touched her, but…he’d done something. Something. It was like he’d sucked the energy right out of her. And what else? Ayase gripped her forehead and tried to think. Daniel had fallen over, and so had that other woman…

“Are you okay?”

Ayase shook her head, willing Sachi to stay quiet. She felt strangely helpless, knowing she’d fainted for no reason. She wanted to remember. She wanted to know if she’d tried to resist. She was doing everything she could to be in four places at once, but now she was being crowded by strangers who kept tripping up her plans. She had to watch Kiyoshi. She was the only one who could watch Kiyoshi. And yet the man with the green eyes had pulled the rug out from under her…

Ayase shuddered. She felt…violated. Like a doctor had drugged her without her knowledge.

Sachi frowned. “I don’t know what they did to you,” he said quietly. “But I think they were trying to help.”

Ayase muttered a curse under her breath. “They didn’t help,” she said thinly. “And they’d better not try it again.”

Sachi slumped back in the chair at her bedside. He rubbed his eyes for a few seconds, blinking them rapidly.

“I’m sorry, Ayase. I wish I was with you, but we were…sorta sleeping in shifts. Daniel’s asleep out now and Nick’s in charge.” He reached out to gently pat her hand; he missed the first time and just patted her blanket. “But I’m up now, okay? I’ll help you record or whatever else you need. And I’ll…” He trailed off for a second, as if he didn’t know how to phrase what came next. “I’ll…I won’t let them use any powers on you, okay?”

Ayase sighed. She pulled her hands into her lap, a gentle deterrent to Sachi using his power.

He seemed to take the hint. He cleared his throat and stood.

“But if you want, um, space? I can give you that, too.” He rubbed his eyes again. “I’m kinda hungry. I can get us something to eat, if you’re interested.”

Ayase paused. Was she imagining things, or he was avoiding her gaze? And he kept rubbing his eyes like there was something stuck in them.

“I guess,” she said at last. “Did…did something happen to you, Sachi?”

To her surprise, Sachi gave a nervous laugh. He rubbed one bloodshot eye with a fist.

“No. I just haven’t slept much, y’know? But none of us have.” He blinked a few more times. “I’ll get us something from the kitchen. Just call if something changes with Kiyoshi.”

Ayase slowly nodded. Sachi walked quickly to the door, opened it, and then tripped on his way out.

She heard another nervous laugh as he regained his footing in the hallway. “Be right back!” he called, his voice fading as he left.

Ayase furrowed her brow. Something was…off about him. Considering how stable Sachi had been through the past few days, she found his change weirdly upsetting. Was he hiding something from her? Had something else happened while she’d been unconscious?

The possibilities dizzied her. She tried to force down her discomfort as she pushed her legs over the bed. If something was really wrong, Sachi would tell her, right? She trusted him, didn’t she? Or…at least she trusted him more than anyone else at this point, right?

Ayase swallowed. Rather than honestly answering that question, she left the room. She wanted to get away from that bed.

The church wasn’t big, so there was only one real hall that branched off into two. She heard some fumbling from the kitchen–if that was Sachi in there, he was dropping things–and saw one room at the end of the hall with its door ajar. She made out Nick’s broad back and heard him speaking in a foreign language that sounded like English. He moved out of her vision; a moment later, she heard more English, but in a much quieter voice.

Zayd.

Ayase’s stomach dropped. She took the hallway that led away from all that.

Her hall ended in a door that led to the body of the church. Ayase found herself wondering if anyone was out there. Had Daniel closed the church? Did churches ever close? It was almost lunchtime, so there was a chance there were visitors. She tentatively pushed the door.

To her dismay, someone was out there. A lone figure, not much taller than she was, and dressed in a familiar school uniform–including the jacket, despite the warm weather. He stood in front of the altar and stared up at the cross, his hands deep in his pockets and a sick look on his face.

Ayase blinked. The boy twitched; his eyes flew to her.

It was Kadoyuki. Ayase stared at him for a minute, completely lost on what to say.

Kadoyuki opened his mouth, then quickly closed it. He averted his gaze and squirmed nervously.

“H-hello,” he finally said, like it was a giant accomplishment.

Ayase bit her lip. “Hello,” she replied, and it was almost as awkward. She cursed inwardly.

What’s he doing here? she wondered.

This felt so…loaded. Kadoyuki had seen her turn into the swarm and was hiding an ability of his own. The few times they’d met, he appeared and disappeared seemingly at random. Ayase had constantly put aside her questions about him because she had no choice. Kadoyuki was never around. Or if he was, he would suddenly leave, taking his mysteries with him into the night.

It was surreal, really. Ayase stared at the boy before her. If she blinked, would he vanish again?

He’s seen you naked.

The horrible reminder from her subconscious hit her like a battering ram. She didn’t want to care, considering everything else, but she still felt the color drain from her face. And it also reminded her that Daniel and Nick had seen her naked. The thought of Nick especially made Ayase’s skin crawl.

Kadoyuki coughed and cleared his throat. There was a rasp to it, like his voice was hoarse.

“Is…is Sachi here, Watanabe-san?”

Ayase snapped back to attention. She pushed down the humiliation she felt creeping up on her.

“Y-yeah,” she answered quickly. “Uh, are you here to see him? Should I get him?”

Kadoyuki’s mouth sunk, his already pale complexion making him look like a dead fish. He dug into one pocket as he blinked heavily.

Ayase walked closer. Seeing Kadoyuki in a time of quiet, in proper light, brought out how disheveled he looked. His uniform was dirty, his straw-like hair was uncombed. He was starting to resemble a genuine vagrant.

Kadoyuki finally pulled a long, maroon-colored object from his pocket. It looked like a hard leather case. He held it out to her, his eyes dropping to the floor.

Ayase frowned. She accepted the case and creaked it open on its hinges.

A pair of eyeglasses rested inside.

“I got them from his roommate,” Kadoyuki mumbled. “Could you make sure he gets them?”

Ayase paused. “Sachi?” she clarified.

Kadoyuki nodded.

Ayase stared at the glasses. “They’re his?” she asked, still confused. She’d never seen Sachi wear glasses before.

An up-beat, tinkling song suddenly started in Kadoyuki’s pocket. It sounded electronic, like music from a video game.

The blood drained from his face. A familiar look of terror swept over his features.

Ayase watched in surprise as Kadoyuki whipped away from her. Without a word, he dug into his pocket and half-ran toward the exit.

As he pushed through the door, he pulled out a cell phone and flipped it open. The music stopped as he held the phone to his ear.

“Yeah?” he blurted. The door swung shut behind him.

A ringtone. Ayase felt a little stupid for not realizing that. There was something familiar about that song, like she’d heard it on TV.

Ayase swallowed. As usual, Kadoyuki left her feeling more confused than when he’d walked in.

“Ayase?”

Ayase turned. Sachi had pushed open the door and poked his head around it. He squinted at her.

“Were you talking to someone out here?” he asked.

Ayase held up the glasses case. “Kadoyuki,” she explained. “He brought you these.”

Sachi blinked. “Kado? He was here?” He squinted at the glasses case. “Brought me what?”

Ayase walked over to him. To spare them both some fumbling, she took the glasses out and handed them to Sachi directly.

Relief flooded Sachi’s face. He coughed out a nervous chuckle and slid the glasses on.

When he looked down at her, a new clarity filled the gaze behind the glass. He smiled. The awkwardness of their last conversation vanished, along with the ghostly tension.

“I don’t know how Kado knew,” Sachi said with a small sigh. “Maybe it’s his power. But honestly, I don’t care–I’m just glad he did know.”

“You’ve never worn glasses before.”

“I usually wear contacts. But we’ve been holed up here, and I had to take them out eventually…it’s not like I can run out to a convenience store for contact solution right now.” He rubbed the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly. “And to be honest, I’m pretty blind without them.”

Ayase furrowed her brow. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Sachi shrugged and looked away. “I didn’t want to complain when we have more important things to worry about.”

“But you made me worry!”

Sachi froze. He stared down at her, eyes wide.

Ayase let out an angry breath. She looked away.

“You were acting weird,” she muttered. “If you don’t tell me it’s something stupid, then I assume it’s something horrible.” She threw up her hands, frustrated. “This is the craziest week of my life. You could be possessed by a monster for all I know.”

Sachi opened his mouth, then closed it again. “Sorry,” he said quietly.

“It’s fine, just…tell me if something’s wrong, okay?” Ayase nervously tugged her skirt down. “You’re pretty much the only person I trust right now. I don’t think I could handle all this without you.”

Sachi was silent for a moment. Then, to Ayase’s surprise, he turned red.

Sachi looked away quickly, his feet shuffling on the floor. “Sorry,” he repeated, his voice taking on a weird tone. “I’ll…I’ll be honest with you.”

Ayase felt his weird discomfort bleed into her. She turned away, suddenly wishing she hadn’t said anything.

A door opened somewhere. It took Ayase a second to realize it was at the Core building. She shut her eyes.

There was a group of people walking down the hallway, the woman in the lab coat at their lead. She gave quick orders to the men around her; Ayase couldn’t make out all the words, but she heard “sick bay” and “injection.”

Ayase’s stomach dropped. She reached out blindly with her human hand until it closed on Sachi’s arm.

“Get Nick,” she said quickly. “I think they’re coming for Kiyoshi.”

Ayase’s insect sprang to life inside Kiyoshi’s room. He was still asleep, so she flew over to buzz directly in his ear. He slapped at her instinctually; slight pain bloomed in her wings. But he groggily woke up and turned his head.

“Huh?”

Ayase flew to the nape of Kiyoshi’s neck. She buzzed up his hairline, batting her wings furiously against the skin and hair.

Kiyoshi froze. He clearly recognized the signal.

He mumbled something–maybe a curse, maybe a prayer–in a voice that cracked slightly. He pushed himself to a sitting position on the bed and pushed a finger in his mouth.

He paused. “M-mom?” he pleaded weakly. “Please watch over me.”

Ayase buzzed under his right ear. Confirmation.

Kiyoshi closed his eyes and fiddled with his tooth.

The members of Core burst through his door only moments later. Two men dragged him off the bed as the woman in the lab coat told Kiyoshi to remain calm.

Ayase’s heart thundered as she dove under Kiyoshi’s collar. She watched from other eyes in the hallway as Kiyoshi was marched back to the elevator.

“Talk to us, Ayase.”

Ayase opened a human eye. Nick was pulling her back to the kitchen–she was tripping, unable to focus enough on her limbs. He half carried her to a chair and held the tape recorder to her mouth. He leveled his hazel eyes on her, one big hand closing on her shoulder.

She shut her eye. Zayd stood behind Nick, and she was pretty sure Sachi held her hand, but she blocked it all out.

“They’re putting him on an elevator. He took the pill. Basement…he’s a little unsteady on his feet. They’re telling him to wake up.”

“He’s probably getting high on the antagonist,” she heard Nick say. “But I warned him about that. They’ll just think he’s scared.”

Ayase squeezed her eyes shut tighter. She described the long, cold hallway and the medical area that looked like an operating room. They made Kiyoshi lie on a gurney and hooked him up to several monitors. When they strapped him down, he started to cry.

The woman in the lab coat patted Kiyoshi on the head. “Don’t be scared,” she said with odd gentleness. “You’re safer if we can keep you still.”

Kiyoshi looked away and sobbed quietly. The woman squinted at the monitors.

“Heartrate’s a little low,” she murmured.

“Is that a problem?” someone else asked.

“No. I just expected it to be up when he’s this stressed.” She tied a piece of elastic around Kiyoshi’s arm, just under the elbow. She pulled on a pair of latex gloves, slapped the skin of his forearm a few times, and rubbed the area with gauze.

“Can you make a fist for me, Honda?”

Kiyoshi just cried. The woman gently tilted Kiyoshi’s face toward her. He tried to pull away.

“I…I’m scared of needles,” he blurted.

The woman let out a breath. “Then you don’t have to look,” she said quietly. “But please make a fist.”

Kiyoshi shakily complied. The woman pierced him with a small plastic contraption and taped it down against his skin. One of the men assisted her in setting up an IV.

Another man placed a briefcase on one of the counters. Ayase strained her insect eyes to see a pair of handcuffs connecting the man’s wrist and the briefcase. He unlocked the case and revealed a small metal box, resting alone inside. He handed it to the woman.

She fiddled with the case. “Maybe it’s a combination lock,” Ayase speculated aloud. The woman in the lab coat pulled a single, tiny vial from the case, almost too tiny for Ayase to see. She filled a syringe with the solution.

“Stay calm,” the woman murmured as she slowly injected it into the contraption in Kiyoshi’s arm. She looked up at the monitors.

For a few moments, nothing changed. And then…

Kiyoshi arched against the table. He gasped as the fast, high-pitched beeps of monitors filled the room.

Kiyoshi’s mouth gaped open and closed, like a fish struggling for air. The woman leaned her ear closer to his mouth.

“…What’s he saying?” one of the men asked.

She brushed it off with a hand. “Crying for his mama,” she said coolly.

Ayase’s lips fumbled over the words as she repeated them. She felt something sting in her human eyes, something thick clog her human throat.

Someone gently rubbed her shoulders. Watching Kiyoshi strapped on that gurney with no one to comfort him made those fingers feel like fire. She shuddered and shrugged them off.

The beeping of the monitors began to slow down. Kiyoshi’s body went limp as he breathed slowly, on the woman’s command.

“In,” she directed. “Out. Nice and slow…good.” She nodded at the monitors, satisfied. “He’s going to be fine. Much easier than the last one.”

One of the men opened a cellphone. Another one collected the now-empty cases. The woman smiled wanly at Kiyoshi as she peeled off her gloves.

“Welcome to Core,” she said simply. “And welcome to a new life, Kiyoshi Honda. The teenage dead-eye.”

Ayase stopped. When she recited the last part, Nick ordered her to repeat it.

“Dead-eye?” she heard Sachi say from somewhere. “Wait…like in archery?”

The woman in the lab coat tossed her gloves into a yellow bin. “Just you wait,” she told Kiyoshi, her voice betraying her pleasure. “You’re going to be the best sniper money can’t buy.”

Proceed to Chapter 6, page 4–>