SEPTEMBER 4TH

Director Inoue sighed as she made her way out the double doors of the complex. This was supposed to be a day trip to Los Eternos for public relations purposes, but now her test subject has escaped, and her subordinate is now stranded because he decided to go chase after him.

She headed down the solitary road in an jeep that clashed with her more refined appearance, with a fake license plate. The law doesn’t care about what mages do to each-other, but that’s still something an enemy could use to keep tabs on her.

The first matter of business was retrieving her subordinate. He had already committed to assist her for the duration of the trip, so it was just a matter of finding him. As soon as she pulled into town, she asked Alex for his location and drove straight to the park he described. Hikari saw him sitting on a bench near the front. He looked disheveled and exhausted, but was otherwise fine.

“You look well for someone who faced off against a mid-tier mage and an infamous vampire.” She teased.

“Yeah, I uh… We’ll, they didn’t want anything from me, so here I am.” He didn’t want to admit he couldn’t follow through with any assassination attempt, or talk about the conversations he had with either of them. And he especially didn’t want to talk about Sinclair.

“You had no business doing any of that, you know.” Hikari stepped closer to him, and Alex tensed up instinctively. “You disappeared without a trace, alone, with your only communication being a handful of texts. And you couldn’t even succeed in your self-imposed mission.”

Alex turned pale and started sweating as he locked eyes with his superior. “Hey, I still learned a bunch of stuff! I confirmed Teach is still with the vampire. And, uh… I got their address.”

Hikari’s expression didn’t change as she kept approaching. She slowly and visibly raised her hand, and…

She placed her hand on Alex’s head, smirked, and ruffled his hair, resisting the urge to scratch behind the extra set of ears on his head. “We’ve lost too many talented mages lately. Don’t do anything that moronic again unless I order you to, okay?”

Alex immediately exhaled and relaxed his body. “Will do, boss.”

Hikari shook her head. “Well, now that you’re here, you can help me over the next few days. Just follow my lead and do as I say, okay? And no more hitching rides from garbage trucks, or our enemies.”

She still didn’t understand why The Stray went to all of the trouble to bring him out here. But if Charlotte is just another bleeding heart, then the next few days may be easier than she thought.

It was a long day before last light finally rolled around. A mage had to learn to adapt to an irregular sleep schedule, but that didn’t make having to spend daylight hours asleep any less of a drag. Hikari insisted that he must be in peak condition, ‘just in case’.

The duo was there early, but immediately noticed they weren’t the first ones there. Both of them could feel a pair of eyes glaring at them from a lonely corner of the room, and while Alex was trying to get a good look at sulking white-haired woman, his attention was quickly diverted to the two men at the opposite sides of the circular amphitheater. 

One looked like he didn’t plan on paying attention, and had his feet propped on the seat in front of him. The other one was shuffling through some papers last minute. That was The Patriarch, but he seemed so 

“This is Alex, the researcher I told you about. Don’t mind him, he’s just eccentric.” Hikari turned her attention to James while gesturing broadly to her partner in an attempt to pre-empt any questions about his unusual appearance.

James nodded, clearly unconcerned with what he’s seeing. “Good. We may need an extra pair of hands if things get out of control.”

Wait, why would things get out of control? Alex was on edge as the room filled up over the next ten minutes. Hikari was up front, directly in front of him, waiting politely, though she was also sizing up anyone who walked in. By the top of the hour, the room was about half full.

“Thank you,” James spoke up first. The acoustics of the room made every whisper clear, but the incubus’s voice was particularly bold right now.

“I’ll get right to business. I had hoped I’d have some news on the killer, but there aren’t any updates.” James crossed his arms while his eyes darted around the room. Most the attendees were on edge, but there were a handful that were bored out of their minds.

“Cool, thanks for wasting our time.” That long-haired man who was here early spoke up.

“Thank you, Ray. As I was saying…” James continued with a bit of sternness in his voice. “Our enemies on the outside aren’t taking a break either. I can try to keep relations civil with the natural world, but I can’t do much if there are immortals within my inner circle actively working against me.”

The room was in an uproar as everyone understood the implication. Everyone glared at each-other with accusatory looks. Hikari got a few looks, but those looked more expectant than accusatory.

“We’ve found documents going back at least two years that are completely falsified. Reports of feds in the city that were never here, false alarms that the natural guard would be deployed…” James crossed his legs and picked up a Manila folder that had been sitting in the empty seat. “We’ll never get back the lives lost because of these false leads.”

A few members grumbled disapprovingly, and the woman hiding in a corner silently stiffened up and slinked further into the shadows. After a moment, a woman stood up and glared at James. “And you’re just going to accuse everyone in the room?”

“Actually, Priscilla, I’m not accusing the entire room of anything. Just you.” James handed the envelope to one of his peers before gracefully rising to his feet, grabbing his cane all the while. “You can whine all you want while you’re awaiting trial.”

The woman was almost foaming at the mouth with anger, maneuvering over the seats in front of her. Her eyes were fixed on James, but she was moving towards someone else; a scrawny and meek woman a few seats from her. Everyone was frozen in shock as she grabbed the woman an held a knife to her neck.

“If you don’t want to see this woman’s throat be sliced open, you will forget this business and let me leave.” She made her way towards the door, passing Hikari. As she drew closer, Hikari rose to her feet, and stepped back. Alex was also on his feet, ready to strike back.

“Alex, you heard her. Please step aside and let this lady through.” Hikari held an arm out to block his path, and Alex grumbled as he complied.

“I knew I could count on you being completely spineless.” Priscilla gloated as she made her way past, hostage still in hand. She didn’t notice that as she was passing, Hikari was moving silently behind her. Before Priscilla had a chance to notice, Hikari had deftly swiped the knife from her opponent’s hand.

“Such a weak grip. I’ve seen trainees who were more competent at handling a weapon.” Hikari didn’t let the woman react, instead tossing the knife to the ground as she pulled Priscilla close to her. “I felt that tinge of magic on the handle. Couldn’t tell what it was supposed to do. You must be a shit mage, no wonder you turned traitor.”

At this point, one of her peers might have tried to stop their heart or put them to sleep, but her toolset was a bit more well rounded than that. Hikari was still going to augment her strength so she could easily push her opponent to the ground, but as she stepped on the sneering woman, she came up with a much better idea.

Hikari withdrew a small noisemaker and flipped the tiny ‘on’ switch. The rest of the auditorium started hearing a quiet but grating buzzing noise. The woman beneath her, however, heard a short burst of unbearably loud noise, and then nothing. She could still feel the vibrations of the noise, but she barely noticed as she was grasping her ears in pain. As she felt her heart beat out of control, she hyperventilated as she looked up in fear towards the small mage. 

The last thing Priscilla saw was Hikari smirking over her body, and then suddenly, nothing.

Hikari stepped off of the body, and kneeled down to close its eyes before turning back to the crowd. They were murmuring amongst herself, but Hikari couldn’t make out what they were saying; Such a feat was hard to control without some sound leakage, and she was right next to the entire ordeal. But she’d heal, and it would be a long time before anyone forgot what they saw today.

Hikari started making her way back to her seat. Alex sat next to her and discreetly held out a hand. She took it, and quickly noticed her hearing return to her. “That should solve the problem. Anything else?”

“With our prime suspect dead, no..” James had mixed feelings about what he saw. He understood why she felt that such a show was necessary, but it was done without a proper trial or hearing. “Everyone’s dismissed. But if you two want to stick around, that would be great.”

Hikari understood what he really meant and stood by. Alex stayed by her side, and James looked at his underling and quickly texted her for the sake of discretion. Arabella read it, nodded, and made her way towards the body. With that, James could focus his attention on his guests.

“Look, I understand what you were trying to do, but this was the wrong place to try to prove yourself.” James crossed his arms and shook his head.

“Your people wanted justice, did they not?” Hikari stayed composed as she defended herself. Alex was silent, but clearly had a hard time agreeing with her.

“They wanted a show. They’re afraid, they need the spectacle of one of their enemies being brought to justice, not euthanized minutes after becoming a suspect.” James paced around her as he explained. 

“So your main concern is appearances and theatrics?” Hikari was trying not to sound like she was mocking him, but she couldn’t help it.

“The truth matters little to people. They need to feel like the world is a just place, even if it isn’t. If your brother had understood that instead of instilling his own paranoia into everyone he meets, he’d still be with us today.”

“No wonder the church keeps calling you a demon.” Hikari kept a lighthearted tone, but she was inwardly seething. Her brother deserved far more than the nonstop insults he’s gotten since his death, but she had been taught that standing up for him would make it appear that she agreed with him.

“You can think on that later. For now, I wanted to ask if you were serious about offering me assistance with the assassinations.” James knew she wouldn’t decline after a showing like that.

“I am a woman of my word.” Hikari smiled inscrutably. “What do you need?”

“Your underling.” James finally got to the point. “We’re down a mage, and a gifted healer could make a world of difference..”

Hikari was relieved that she wasn’t asked to stay personally, but was expecting Alex to start whining. “I’m in! I can go, right Boss?”

Hikari shook her head and her smile turned to a more sincere one. “He absolutely needs the field experience. Just get him back to me in one piece, okay?”

After that agreement, the group spent a few more minutes talking to one-another about the logistics of the agreement before parting ways. With Hikari gone, James briefly turned to Alex.

“By the way, I heard that someone with a dufflebag and a second set of ears was loitering in the park this morning. Mind explaining what that’s about?”