Chapter 4

Haneda Airport, Tokyo, Japan

Tuesday, October 4th, 2050

“Bloody Iceland,” I muttered for what must have been the hundredth time. I could just barely hear myself as we made our way through a sea in humanity in the world’s busiest remaining airport. “And I have to fly again, too.”

“Come on, Magpie,” said Rose, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze. “It isn’t so bad. Look how lovely it is here; we didn’t get to enjoy it the last time we came through.”

She had a point; despite the throngs of people passing through the airport, everything was immaculately clean. I searched the crowd, spotting at least two janitors hard at work. It was also bright, thanks to hundreds of skylights high above. What ought to have been a cave was more welcoming than many parks I’d seen.

“Don’t reinforce his tantrum,” said Yukiko. “You’ll only encourage him.”

“I’m allowed to be a bit cross! You two get to go play on beaches, and I’m off to bloody Iceland for the winter!”

“Iceland has plenty of beaches,” said Yukiko.

“You’re technically correct, but it won’t exactly be swimsuit weather, and you knew da… darn well what I meant!” I’d very nearly slipped in some rough language. Damn wouldn’t have raised any hackles in a prior age, but humans didn’t much like being reminded of anything demonic. I couldn’t say that I blamed them.

As if to compound my miseries, my wheeled luggage hit a gap in the floor, nearly wrenching it from my hands. A red aura surrounded the black case, stabilizing it.

“It’s almost disgusting how good you are with your affinity,” I said.

“You are most welcome,” she replied.

“Anyway, you’re missing the point! Rose, back me up!”

“O-oh, right,” she said. “I’ll send you some pictures of the beach.”

“That isn’t the point…”

“I get it, Soren,” said Yukiko. “You still have your ridiculous fear of heights.”

“I was on the mend until a certain someone’s gravity magic almost sent me plummeting down an elevator shaft!” I retorted.

“Reminding her of the unpleasantness at the Tower isn’t going to earn any points with her,” Rose said.

Yukiko chose to let it drop. “Anyway, I know you’ll be fine. You’ll need to be, with Kowalski around. Somebody needs to keep their head.”

“Where is he, anyway?” I asked, scanning the crowd. I didn’t look too closely; he would have stood out like a sore thumb in the mostly Japanese travelers. “I’d have thought he’d be with us.”

“He was on the ferry off the base before us,” said Yukiko. “A certain someone delayed us.”

“I’m sorry,” said Rose. “I can’t really say what it was about, but it was a good reason, I promise.”

“Of course,” I said. “I’m sure it was.” The Smiths and whatever they were up to, no doubt. Rose was normally a chatterbox, so her relative silence stuck out to me. “You’re sure it’s okay, though? You’re being awfully quiet.”

“You’re the one I’m worried about,” said Rose, smiling weakly up at me. “What will you do without me to look after you?”

That I couldn’t let stand. We had just entered a large shopping area, full of overpriced goods. Owning a shop for trapped travelers was apparently a fine racket.

I came to a halt in front of a convenience store. “Excuse me? Who’s always causing weather events whenever she’s miffed?”

“You’re the one who’s alwayse chasing skirts,” she countered, stopping to face me.

“What about that time you got drunk and nearly blew down a bar?”

“You tried to bring down the… you know what!” she shouted.

I winced. At least she hadn’t gone into specifics, though I felt a few sets of eyes on us. “That’s going to be your trump card forever, isn’t it?”

“You did leave yourself open to it,” said Yukiko, taking a moment to check her watch. “You keep switching sides when it’s convenient.”

“You’ve shown me the error of my ways, Ms. Sato,” I said in a solemn tone and a respectful bow. “Next time I’ll fully commit to the path of evil.”

Rose giggled even as Yukiko looked scandalized. “That isn’t funny.”

“I respectfully disagree,” I said. “Besides, I need to get in my fun while I can. Mr. Maki said he’d be there too, remember? I thought the point of this work study was to learn from new people!”

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“You have to admit, Soren, you do have a… checkered history,” she said. “You can’t blame them for watching you closely.”

I wouldn’t miss Yukiko being right all the damn time, that I knew right away. “It’s not like I’d make the exact same mistakes again.”

“So you admit you would make different mistakes without me!”

“To err is human, Rose,” I said.

The blonde wizard frowned at that before we continued on a ways further. When we got out of the shopping area, the crowds became nearly impenetrable, as everyone was forced through a narrow bottleneck. Really a bad design, and it forced the three of us to stop our chatter.

Rose cried out as we reached a split in the walkway. “Wait, this is where I get off!”

That brought Yukiko and I to a halt, which was a dangerous proposition in the crowded walkway. I wasn’t in any danger, but Yukiko was nearly a foot shorter than me. I lunged over behind her, shielding her from the tide of humanity and more than a few insults. I glanced around, looking for a place for a proper goodbye. I spied a small café nearby. It didn’t look like much, but there was an open table, and that’s all we needed.

After a rough fight against the flow of the seemingly ceaseless throngs of people, we nearly collapsed into our chairs. “I swear, that last twenty feet was more of a workout than we’ve had all week,” I said.

“You’re a fine shield,” said Yukiko. Her expression was placid, but her voice betrayed her shock at the near trampling.

“You’re welcome,” I replied with a knowing nod. To my surprise, I’d jumped right into the thick of it again. Sure, Buddy was much more dangerous, but there was that damned protective instinct again regardless. Some devil I was. Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing I was getting some distance from these girls. They brought out the best in me, and it had become troublesome.

Once we’d secured a tabled at the well-lit eatery, I decided to start the goodbyes. “Rose, Yukiko, it’s been… That is, I’m…”

What could I say? They had seen me at my best and worst, no matter if you applied the human, demonic, or even the Enemy’s standard. I’d had subordinates and peers before, but friends? That was new for me, and we were about to be flung to the ends of the earth. Saving them during the Tower Attack had cost me my trip home, yet it was a relief each time I saw them alive.

“It’s okay,” said Rose, giving my trembling hands a comforting squeeze. “This isn’t goodbye forever, Magpie. Next year, we’ll all be back at Nagoya with new stories to tell.”

“Don’t be so sure of that,” said Yukiko. “After the work study, they might decide to send us to one of the local schools instead of flying us back to Japan. This might be it.”

“I’ll miss your optimism, Ms. Sato,” I snapped, instantly regretting my words. “No, wait. This isn’t the tie for sarcasm. Look, you two are… I don’t have many friends in this world. It’s going to be strange not seeing you two every day.”

Yukiko nodded, checking her watch again. She visibly relaxed when she saw there was time enough to reply. “I have to concur. We had some rough spots early on, but I appreciate that you both gave me another chance.”

“I wasn’t always the best to either of you, either,” said Rose, a deep frown creasing her face. “We’ve moved on, though. I’ll miss you both terribly. I promise, I’ll call you every day, and send pictures!”

I considered making a smart remark about bathing suits and Rose lounging around on the beach, but I decided it wasn’t the time.

Yukiko nodded, reaching into her purse. “If you can; we’ll likely be busy for days on end with the work study. I have a gift for you both, though, in case things get dangerous.”

I nodded, recognizing the little devices that had summoned her when the Holy Brotherhood attacked the Serving Wizard’s House. “These are some of your Finding Devices, right?”

“Correct,” said Yukiko.

“You really need a better name for these,” I said, turning the small, wooden fabricata cubes over in my hand.

“It’s short and descriptive,” said Yukiko with an annoyed huff.

“But it’s so plain! Rose, back me up.”

“Maybe a little bit,” Rose said, looking on at the magical artifact with a complete lack of comprehension. “Should I know what these are?”

“I forgot you weren’t actually there at the Serving Wizard’s House when the Holy Brotherhood attacked,” I said.

“There was that weather wizard who impersonated her, so I see where you could make that mistake,” said Yukiko. “These are trackers I designed. Hiro, Mariko, and Kiyo all have them, and now I want you two to as well. If you run magic through them, the others will light up and point the way to them, at any distance.”

“Magical Resonance is a wonderful thing,” I said, pocketing mine. “Though these must take a lot of time to make; it’s a good thing your inner circle isn’t much larger, or you’d never have time for anything else.”

Yukiko briefly smirked at that. “I cannot say I thought of it that way. Being aloof does have some advantages.” Her expression hardened after another glance at her watch. “It looks like our time is up; my flight to Australia starts boarding in half an hour.” She hopped out of her chair and put a stack of yen bills on the table. It looked like she was a good tipper.

Rose surprised me by rushing in and crushing Yukiko in a friendly embrace. “Even if we get reassigned, don’t be a stranger.”

Yukiko froze a moment at the unexpected gesture before returning it. “Of course not. I just finished breaking you two in.”

I coughed and looked away. Such easy signs of affection were still a shock to me on some level; two devils at such short range would be fighting, coupling, or a mix of the two.

Rose turned to face me. “Soren, the same goes for you.”

“Of course, my dear,” I said, trying to put on a brave face. “You won’t be rid of me so easily.” I was rewarded with an embrace of my own, which I gingerly returned. “You should be careful doing that in public, Ms. Cooper. Somebody might get the wrong idea about us.”

“But you won’t,” she replied.

“At least not that you’ll hear about,” I said, giving her a last squeeze. “Take care of yourself.”

“You too,” she said, releasing me all too soon. She went to leave the café, only to be stopped by the sea of travelers. She checked her own watch, and the color drained from her freckled face. “Oh no, where did that time go? I’m going to be late!”

How to stop a crowd in its place like that? I ran through some plans, but I suspected the Wizard Corps wouldn’t be happy if I started slinging spells at civilians, even inconvenient ones. I decided I should use my words instead, and I knew exactly how to get their attention.

“Give ‘em Hell, Rose!” I shouted the curse at the top of my lungs. If damn had regained its old power to offend, the homeland of the devils was absolutely scandalous.

The travelers in earshot all turned towards me, and if any of them had been wizards, I might have been struck down with a Magic Bolt right then and there. However, the brief pause had bought Rose enough time to slip into the crowd.

Among the offended, though, was one of the café’s employees, who started tearing into me in a mix of Japanese, peppered with misused English insults. Apparently she knew ‘Hell’, but not much else. As she shouted in my ear, I turned to Yukiko. “See? There’s one advantage to not knowing Japanese.”

“I can’t take you anywhere.” Yukiko rolled her eyes as she threw a few more Yen bills on the table. “Take care of yourself, Mr. Marlowe.”

“The same back to you, Ms. Sato. I’ll be in touch.” Without paying the shrieking woman any further mind, I forced my way into the crowd, making my way towards my flight gate.