(Hmm? What's this? Oh! Well then, I suppose I'll begin the tale in Osamu's stead. Hello! It's Shinju Miyakawa speaking! Soon after Kagutsuchi left to live life on her own, Osamu and his wives went back to Hokkaido. However, they did say they intended to make their old house here in the neighborhood their permanent home once they start having children.)
(Obviously, they'll need to be within the vicinity of a hospital, apply for insurance, sign the kids up for school, and all the other parenthood chaos. It's been three months since they left. As for me, I've just been keeping my promise to Osamu. I've been keeping this neighborhood clean and free of trouble. Hah, well, usually, this 'trouble' is often low grade. I've rescued cats, helped the elderly carry in their things, and cleaned up any unsightly messes in this empty little neighborhood of ours.)
The warmth of summer was quickly giving way to the chill of autumn. The leaves of the trees around the neighborhood had all turned golden-yellow. An impenetrable cloak of grey clouds ruled over the skies, bringing chilling breezes with them. Shinju's cat, Mimi, strolled down the street with his tail slinking upwards. He made his way back home, where Shinju waited for him. She opened the door and let him back inside, where'd he'd be safe and warm.
(Osamu wants to keep himself out of trouble so he can focus on his family, and I applaud him for that. We talked over the phone almost every night since he left. In fact, he was telling me about how he and Yoko were planning to conceive their first child.
(Oh, and Kagutsuchi? She doesn't live too far, so we see each other often. She's doing well for herself and works as an artist for the local magazine. People love her comic strips, so she's been considering being a mangaka, or perhaps start commissioning her art. Basically, all is going well.)
Soon after letting Mimi back inside, Shinju put her slippers on and stepped outside to make her rounds across town. When she got downtown, where all the skyscrapers, traffic, and crowded sidewalks were, Shinju saw a little girl in a yellow dress crossing the street at a red light. She immediately sprang into action and pulled the little girl off of the street before she could hit by any cars. The girl's mother picked her up and held her close.
"Oh my god, thank you so much! I'm so sorry for the trouble, she likes to run off by herself!" the mother said.
Shinju smiled. "Oh, no! It's fine, really! You two stay safe, all right?"
"Thank you very much." the mother said, bowing.
"Thank you, Miss!" the little girl sang.
"No problem, little one!" Shinju said.
Shinju continued her walk downtown and saw a crowd of high-school boys in an alleyway making a rather shady transaction. Shinju took cover by the wall and peeked over the corner like a detective on the brink of making a massive drug bust.
(What could it be? Drugs? Are there juvenile drug dealers in my city?!)
Upon closer inspection, Shinju could see the boys were dealing dirty magazines.
(‘Big Tittied Cock Sluts’)
Shinju walked into the alley, standing behind the group of boys for a good minute before they even noticed her. She snatched away one of the magazines from the giggle boys and read it for herself.
"H-hey! Give that back, bitch!" one of the boys roared.
Shinju erupted with laughter.. "'Big, Husky, Muscly Men'?! Hahahaha! Kid, that's so gay!"
"Wait, you had a gay magazine on you? Really?" the second boy recoiled.
"Is it hot?" the third boy asked.
"Ah man, I can't wait to tell all the girls in school that you like dicks!" laughed the fourth boy.
"Shut the hell up! I was just holding it for someone!" the first boy stammered.
"Ewww, the pages are stuck together." Shinju gagged. "Why don't you use a tissue like a normal human being?"
The boy snatched the magazine back and ran away with his crew, their embarrassed shouts and cries disappearing down the street. Shinju couldn't help but laugh to herself. Of all the things that get dealt in alleyways, she never expected she'd ever encounter porn magazine dealers, especially not in the age of the internet.
"Not even worth following." Shinju snickered. "Hehe...he's gonna tell all the girls that kid likes...pfffttthahahaha! Dicks! Hahaha!"
Shinju's phone suddenly vibrated in her poncho pocket. She took it out and checked the name.
"Oh, it's Boss!"
She leaned against the wall as she answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Ah, Shinju." Lucrezia said. "We need to meet. Now. It's about Amatsuki. I have a plan and I'd like you to hear me out."
"Well, all right. I was patrolling around downtown. Where do you want to meet?"
"I hope it's not too much trouble, but we should convene at the bowling alley."
"No trouble at all. I'll be there shortly.
(Truthfully, it is trouble, but Amatsuki is far more important than porn mags. I'm curious to see what Lucrezia's come up with.)
Shinju returned the neighborhood and ventured inside the bowling alley, finding Lucrezia sitting just in front of the row of stained glass. The light from the glass was dulled, since it was cloudy outside. Instead, their multicolored light had turned more into a multicolored shade draping itself over Lucrezia and softly reflecting off of the strewn about bowling balls and shining, wooden floor.
Lucrezia stood up, holding a green bowling ball in her hands. "There you are. I was beginning to worry you were being mugged or something."
"No, but I did come across some porn mag dealers."
"What?"
"...Never mind." Shinju sighed. "So, what's going on with Amatsuki?"
Lucrezia stepped up to the middle lane, the pins already set up. "Take out your phone and check the broadcast on the NHK."
Puzzled, Shinju did as she was told. She tuned into the broadcast and was immediately stunned by what she was seeing. Lucrezia was on T.V., delivering a public statement about Satori on behalf of the Exorcist Program. She stood at a podium armed with over a dozen mics as dizzying camera flashes beamed around her.
"Earlier today, a top official of the Exorcist Program announced that Satori Sentani, former exorcist and arms manufacturing mogul, was killed in an operation she personally led." the announcer explained.
"On top of dealing with the traitor, I've taken measures that will allow the Exorcist Program to legally and temporarily seize Satori's assets left behind in the wake of his death." Lucrezia explained in the broadcast. "We understand that the death of such a powerful and wealthy individual will spark a legal bloodbath over his legacy, as he had no remaining family members. My organization shall act as a third party trustee until further notice."
"Holy shit..." Shinju gasped. "Lucrezia, what the hell were you thinking?! You just made yourself a huge target!"
"I know." Lucrezia said, tossing the bowling ball down the lane and landing a perfect strike. "That was the point. This is how we lure Amatsuki out."
"I...what?" Shinju stammered, baffled.
Lucrezia turned to face her. "What the world doesn't know is that Satori, in fact, does have a living relative, Amatsuki. When Satori and I drafted our plan together, we spent days carefully considering everything that would occur after his death. One thing he anticipated is that his sister would claim his legacy. In fact, to ensure that she had a legal right to it, he wrote his will and left all of his assets to her. However, she was to receive his assets after a holding period in which I would control the assets as a third party trustee. When I said that my organization would control the assets, I was in fact referring to myself."
"What? So...does that mean you're a billionaire now?!"
Lucrezia smiled “Yes. I imagine Amatsuki is fuming over this revelation right about now."
"No kidding! You've basically stolen her brother's legacy." Shinju said.
"Yes, indeed. By doing this, we've cornered her."
"I don't understand. How have we cornered her besides pissing her off and taking what's hers?"
"Oh, come on. Use your noggin a little bit." Lucrezia giggled. "Don't forget. Amatsuki is yakuza. If she had taken control of Satori's legacy, she would've found herself in charge of tens of billions of yen in cash. On top of that, Satori had billions in assets. The corporate buildings for his oil business, his offshore rigs, his arms manufacturing plants and warehouses, she would've inherited all of it. There's no doubt that kind of money would've catapulted her clan to the very top of the yakuza food chain. She and all of her boys would become gods in the yakuza world. All of that has been put on hold."
"I see...so we're using that to lure her out and force a confrontation. There's something I don't get, though." Shinju said. "You announced Satori's death like it was yesterday. He died well over three months ago."
"Yes, that was calculated as well." Lucrezia said. "Of course, we know that Satori died months ago, but waiting three months to announce his death as well as the three month holding period is to our advantage. That was three months that his assets weren't within the holding period. Three months where his legacy was up for grabs without anyone knowing about it. And since his sister didn’t claim it…”
"...You didn't!" Shinju gasped.
“Not only was I the trustee during the holding period, but I also claimed it for myself. So, Satori’s legacy is legally mine now. While there's still billions in total assets, I did take my reward. I liquidized some assets of the European branch of his oil company.
“Of course, because of the large amount being moved, it's being doled out in pieces into an escrow account between myself and the government of Switzerland. I already have about two billion in that account cleared for usage. Originally, I wanted to use half of that to strike a deal with Amatsuki. A billion yen for the return of the skeletal remains Himushi handed her. There's two problems with that, however.”
"It's a huge financial transfer that would garner way too much attention and result in Himushi taking back the remains?" Shinju asked.
"That is one of the reasons, yes." Lucrezia said. "The other is that even if we successfully pull that off, there's two issues remaining. One, the yakuza will most likely kill us all once the deal is made. It's very unlikely they'd just let us off the hook like that. Two, we'd be betraying Satori's last wishes. We need to find a way to pull Amatsuki out of the yakuza and bring her back to normal, civilian life. So, I revised the plan. I had Cyanide leak the information about Satori's death to his source inside her clan."
"Wait, so she knows that Satori had died? Why do that?"
“To buy us just enough time to ensure that her clan was well aware that Satori's legacy would be theirs. Or at least, enough time to assume so.” Lucrezia explained. "They would've already conducted meetings about the legacy, what to do with the money and assets, and how the clan will proceed moving forward. A lot of people, including her superiors, were expecting Amatsuki to receive that legacy. Now, they're realizing they're in trouble.
“This is going to place her under a world of stress to obtain the legacy. Three months also gives enough time for some of the more ambitious members of the yakuza to make their own plans. I suspect that even some of her closest allies will start plotting against her."
“If you die and Amatsuki comes forward as Satori’s relative, she gets the legacy. If she were to die right after that…”
"Yes. They'd descend upon the money like vultures. Amatsuki will be forced to take action now that she's on a time limit, but it'll also put her in danger of being done in by one of her own clan. We'll force a confrontation and then use that opportunity to pull another ruse, this time to trick the yakuza. At the same time, I'll use some of the money I've gained from Satori's assets to purchase the remains off of the forensic anthropologist. We'll have rescued Amatsuki and gotten the skeleton away from both Himushi and the yakuza at the same time."
"Lucrezia..." Shinju began. "You scare me sometimes."
Lucrezia snickered. "I've been pulling tricks and ruses all my life, Shinju. I've gotten pretty good at it now. Let's put our best into this, shall we?"
(It's true. I've known Lucrezia for more than fifteen years, and she's always been this way. She always has a plan and an answer for something. She thinks things through several steps in advance. Well then, I guess this is how we'll handle Amatsuki. Without further ado, let us put the story back into Osamu's hands, shall we?)
In the early evening, Osamu suddenly came home and shut the door in a panic. His breathing was heavy and his body was drenched in sweat. He swept his hand through his thick, curly lion's mane of hair as he slouched to the floor. He wore a white suit a striped tie, unbuttoning the shirt to give his chest breathing space. The faint, evening sun shined through the window next to the front door as he tried to walk, only to lose his balance and be forced to hug the wall.
Tsukiakari came downstairs to greet her husband. "Welcome home, you big, fat, sack of....uhm....are you okay?"
"Gekko? Is that you?" Osamu asked.
"What happened to you?! You look like you ran all the way home or something!" Tsukiakari cried, running over to Osamu.
"I was...drinking with Rei and Aika...and then one of them pulled out these little, colorful patches...Rei told me it would make the alcohol taste better, but then I started seeing all sorts of crazy shit!"
"Hmm? Colorful...patches...haha....hahahaha! Oh my god!" Tsukiakari laughed. "Osamu, did you take LSD? How did you fall for that?"
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"That's not funny, Gekko! You have idea what I saw! There was this giant, solar eclipse above me, following me as I ran home! The world was burning and everyone was getting killed! And then there were harpies! Harpies in tutus! They kept singing, 'Osamu, Osamu, why haven't you read any baby books?'! It was awful! It was pure anarchy!"
"God, you're so stupid. Come with me. I'll wash you off and get you hydrated."
Osamu was still shivering, shaken from his bad trip as they went upstairs and into the bathroom. They both stripped off their clothes and sunk themselves in the hot tub filled with bubbles from their rose-scented bath bomb.
"You know, you get into some crazy situations sometimes." Tsukiakari said, stroking Osamu's hair to calm him.
"Yeah. I'll never take LSD again....hey, Gekko, are Yoko and Izanami still out?"
"Yeah, Yoko should be home soon though. She's not pregnant yet, huh?"
"Well, no, but that's because we haven't done it in the past few days. I've just been really busy."
"Come on, you have three, hot wives all to yourself and you still manage to go days without sex? Why didn't you just tell me?"
Tsukiakari cuddled up to Osamu in the bath, dangling his Male symbol necklace with her fingers. "Osamu, we should never go that long without properly loving each other. Letting work get in the way of family time is a terrible thing, you know? That's not what Yoko or Izanami wanted when they agreed to be here and marry you."
"Yeah, I guess you're right..."
"We've got enough money, so there's not even any need to work so hard. It makes me think something is on your mind."
"Maybe...I'm just feeling kind of empty. I don't know...after being through so much, I guess I got used to it. I almost wanted to get into trouble and have those kinds of adventures."
"Well, there's a difference between a heroic sacrifice and just slowly killing yourself. You just need some time to get used to a peaceful, adult life, you know?"
"Yeah, you're right."
Tsukiakari and Osamu got out of the tub and dried off. They put on some clothes and went back into the master bedroom, where an unexpected surprise was awaiting them. Yoko lied on the bed, naked and covered in whipped cream with a strawberry in her mouth. She ate the strawberry and smiled.
"Oh my, I didn't realize you were home, Osamu. My apologies, it must be shameful to see your wife like this." Yoko teased.
"Os...Osamu...." Tsukiakari stammered.
"Y-yeah?"
Tsukiakari locked eyes with Osamu. "Let's double up on her..."
"Yeah...yeah, that sounds good. All right, Yoko. You're on!"
Meanwhile, back in Kyoto, Shinju returned home after her meeting with Lucrezia. Just when she thought she could rest for the day, she remembered that she had invited Kagutsuchi over for tea. Kagutsuchi arrived that evening, dressed in tight, red jeans and a white, knit sweater and red beanie. Kagutsuchi looked so normal now that the average person wouldn't be able to even tell that she's a goddess.
The two on the couch in the living room, a white, fur rug warming their bare feet as they sipped away at chamomile tea sweetened with honey.
"Ugh, thank you for this tea, Shinju. I really needed it." Kagutsuchi sighed.
"Yeah, no problem. I have a lot of it piled up since I don't have company anymore. Besides for you, of course." Shinju said.
"I'm sorry, I should drop by more often."
Kagutsuchi turned her eyes to the tall, black bookcase beside Shinju's flatscreen television. "If you don't mind my asking, were you reading something earlier?"
"Ah, yes! I was. I've recently developed more of a hunger for Classical Western literature and philosophy. I've been reading Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, mainly all the Greek and Hellenistic philosophers. Specifically, I was reading up on their position on the concept of the human soul and heroic sacrifice..."
"Heh?! They sacrificed heroes?!" Kagutsuchi recoiled, misunderstanding.
Shinju laughed. "My bad, I think the better expression is heroic self-sacrifice. It's the concept of making a decision for the greater good when the stakes are high, and your life is on the line. Socrates make's such a beautiful distinction between that concept and suicide. Suicide is deemed an unlawful act, and a betrayal against god. If the heavens bestow a soul its own body, then we as humans have a duty to live our lives until it pleases god to release us. Kagu, if you had a farm, and on that farm, you had animals such as cows and donkeys, wouldn't you be upset if one of your cows or donkeys drowned themselves?"
"Hmm...yeah, I suppose I would. I would've lost a valuable resource."
"Exactly. It's the same kind of connection between humans and deities. Heroic sacrifice is not the intention to die, but the intention to prioritize the greater good, even it means you might have to die. There is a purpose behind self-sacrifice, born out of selflessness and responsibility. Suicide, in contrast, is an inherently selfish act, no matter the justification."
"I guess I can't argue against that, but...shouldn't we feel more sympathy towards those who have been driven so low that they want to end their lives? I've been there before. Although I couldn't die, was the desire to die selfish? I felt dying would spare anyone else from being cursed because of me. I felt it was the better solution."
"Well, you had the problem of not being able to die. In your case...I believe your heart was acting selflessly, but the solution you came to was selfish. Wouldn't giving up on love have been a heroic-sacrifice?"
Kagutsuchi's eyebrows raised, as that was exactly what she was forced to do, in the end. "I...guess you're right. That way, no one gets hurt, and I wouldn't even die if I could. But still, going through life without love seems like such a heavy burden."
"That's what a true hero is, Kagu. One who carries a heavy burden to protect others. People like Osamu..."
"Yeah, you're right! Speaking of which, how is he?"
"He's doing just fine. He's going to conceive a baby with Yoko soon."
"He's going to be a father?! I have to call him when I get home! That's so wonderful!" Kagutsuchi sang.
Shinju put her hands on top of her head and leaned back on the couch. "Everyone's finding their way, and I'm just sort of...here. Osamu's focusing on family, you've found your passion in drawing...even though I'm 'Heaven's Police Officer', I'm still a human woman. Maybe, some day, I'll want a family of my own."
Mimi jumped on Shinju's lap and curled up into a black ball of fur, purring as both Shinju and Kagu petted him.
"Well, you're a bit of an oddball, but I guess we all are, aren't we? I'm sure the right things will come to you at the right time." Kagutsuchi said.
"I hope you're right, Kagu." Shinju said, smiling.
Later that night, when it was time to leave, Shinju saw Kagutsuchi off at the front door. Shinju waved to the goddess as she walked down the street, guided by the dim street lights along the sidewalk. In the darkness of the street, a lone, black car was parked some distance away from Shinju's house. Inside the car was a man with a shaven head, wearing sunglasses and a black suit. He watched Shinju through a pair of binoculars and had his phone on speaker.
"I've found her. She lives on 246 Umeboshi Avenue. It's a big, orange house with a gate. A visitor just left." the man said. "I can enter the house and deal with her, now."
The voice of another man replied through the phone. "No, wait. The boss just told us she wants to deal with this herself, her way. We'll wait. Pull out and return to base."
"Understood."
The car pulled away from the sidewalk and turned around, leaving the neighborhood. Shinju barely heard the purr of the engine, but did catch an eyeful of the headlights as she stood on her front porch.
"Hmm? That's odd...cars don't usually pass by here all that often, especially not this late..."
While the night was winding down for Shinju and Kagutsuchi, it was only getting started for Lucrezia. Instead of being tucked into her warm, king sized bed, she sat cross-legged and upright in her seat at a dinner table for three, staring down a bowl of aromatic mussels steamed in a garlic butter white wine sauce. The gauze-wrapped fingers of her left hand impatiently tapped upon the mint-green tablecloth that covered her legs and reached down to the dark green and gold trim marble floor. Her emerald-green eye traced its gaze along the curvature of the restaurant's high, vaulted ceilings and synthetic vines hanging overhead.
A quick kick to her knee snapped Lucrezia out of her trance and brought her attention back to her two exorcist associates sitting across from her, their eyes dazzling against their table's three flickering candles.
"Apologies, Theodora." Lucrezia said with a sly smile.
Theodora closed her golden eyes and sat back in her chair, taking a sip of her pinot grigio, her tongue gliding across her raven lips. Her snow-white hair was tied into a neat bun with twin bangs hanging down the sides of her face, curling down towards her collarbones "For a woman with a massive target on her back, you sure are calm."
Sitting next to Theodora was a tall and slender young man with bright, blue eyes and blonde hair that was combed and parted down the middle with a few strands hanging by his cheekbones. His navy blue knit turtleneck matched with the blue gauges in his ears as he ate another spoonful of his tomato basil bisque.
"Lucrezia can take care of herself." he said. "The greater issue here is that you took it upon yourself to confiscate Satori's legacy. Billions of dollars in both cash and assets. We're going to have the Japanese government breathing down our neck with questions because of you. This is starting to look like less of an HVT assassination mission and more like a massive heist."
"How cruel of you to say, Cyrus." Lucrezia snickered. "I'm not surprised the government is crying over spilt milk, but what's done is done. Besides, if I hadn't gotten in the way, that fortune would've ended up right in Amatsuki Sentani's hands, and thus, the yakuza would've found itself in control of a vast oil, manufacturing, and defense empire. Unless...the government had plans to get Amatsuki out of the picture. Theodora, let's say Satori was your brother, just for the sake of argument. You're his only living relative after his passing, but then you pass away before you can claim inheritance. What do you think happens to all that money and the assets you were supposed to be left with?"
Theodora scoffed. "When there's no one left alive to inherit that wealth, it's escheated to the government instead."
"Bingo." Lucrezia said. "The government's reaction is all but a Freudian slip. Am I really the villain here if my little heist saves a citizen from being assassinated by the state?"
"Well...I'll give you that." Theodora conceded. "So, what is it you need from us, if not protection from the yakuza?"
"I can handle Amatsuki and the yakuza myself." Lucrezia replied. "There's a much more pressing issue at hand, though. Himushi and Magatori."
The mood around their table darkened after Lucrezia spoke their names. The air grew heavy as their thoughts turned to two of the Exorcist Program's greatest enemies.
Cyrus leaned forward in his chair. "So it's true? Himushi really teamed up with the likes of Bishamon and Magatori? If she was alive all this time, why didn't she return to the Exorcist Program like you did?"
"Bishamon got to her first." Lucrezia answered. "Who knows what kind of poison he filled her head with? Either way, he managed to flip her allegiance and set her not just against the Exorcist Program, but against the pantheon too. Their objective was to track down Inari Okami and secure her before we did. They probably intended to use her powers to kill me and overthrow Amaterasu. Well, I speak in past tense, but even with Bishamon dead, Himushi and Magatori are still continuing on with their mission."
"Damn them..." Theodora cursed as she rubbed her chin. "Manami is the one in charge of locating Inari, right? I can't believe we have to leave such a crucial task up to one person, but considering the capabilities of Bloodcraft, I guess it is the most effective strategy. The power to control and manipulate people without them ever knowing they're being controlled. If Himushi and Magatori get their hands on that power, we're all done for. Still though, Himushi is smart. She wouldn't make a move for Inari until..."
"Until she killed me, yes." Lucrezia finished. "She'd want to make sure the most capable exorcists are out of the picture so she doesn't lead us right to Inari and risk having her snatched right from under her. The problem is that Himushi knows a direct confrontation with me is risky. Instead of trying to kill me, she's trying to go after a prized possession of mine."
Cyrus's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, you don't mean..."
"Going off of Cyanide's intel, Himushi has already found it. She handed it in to Amatsuki's organization and asked for her men to get to the bottom of it." Lucrezia explained. "For obvious reasons...we can't let that happen."
Theodora and Cyrus exchanged worried glances before returning their focus to Lucrezia. Cyrus cleared his throat and leaned back in his seat, tugging at his turtleneck sweater to get some air to his warming body. "What do you need?"
"I have a plan deal with the yakuza, Amatsuki, and Himushi as well. As things stand, I can only focus on the first two for now." Lucrezia said. "I need your help laying down the groundwork to strike back at Himushi. Cyrus, I'm going to try to get that duffel bag back. If I'm successful, I need you to handle it for me."
"Of course. I'll keep it hidden for you." Cyrus responded.
"Theodora, I need your help laying some bait. Do you still have the Shoku Twins' Stopwatch in your possession?" Lucrezia asked.
"Yes, I do. But...what do you plan on doing with it?" Theodora questioned.
Lucrezia tapped her index finger against her head with a slight smile on her face. "It'll be dangerous getting into a direct confrontation with her since she's Inari's descendant. So instead, I'm going to do what I do best; gamble. In order for this to work, I'll need to trick my allies as well. Please have the stopwatch prepared as soon as you can. I'll let you know where to place it."
"You scare me when you say you're going to gamble..." Theodora sighed. "Okay, I'll do it."
Lucrezia gazed past Theodora and Cyrus and out the front-facing windows of the restaurant. She noticed three black sedans parked across the street from the restaurant. Now that she had thought about it, the cars had been there for the past half hour, but the people inside hadn't come out.
"There's something else I'll need your help with, guys." Lucrezia said, casting her gaze back upon her steamed mussels. "The yakuza works fast when there's billions on the line. Seems they've already come to kill me."
Cyrus and Theodora were careful not to look behind them and tip off their unexpected visitors, but they knew Lucrezia must've seen something past the windows of the restaurant. Both of them kept eating and drinking their wine as if nothing was going on, knowing full well they were being watched.
"Amatsuki's men?" Cyrus asked.
"They could be hers, or they could be men from a different clan." Lucrezia warned, taking a sip from her wine glass. "Theodora? What's the situation?"
"Let me check..." Theodora sighed, closing her golden eyes as she twirled her bangs. She seemed to slip into a meditative state for a full minute, remaining as still as stone and calm as water. An amused smile blossomed on her face after the minute passed. She opened her eyes and took another sip of her wine before relaying what she saw to Cyrus and Lucrezia.
"They're not going to gun you down when you walk out or anything" Theodora said. "They've rigged the restaurant. The guests at tables six, four, and nine were agents of theirs. They snuck explosives into the building and left them hidden beneath the table cloths before they left."
"How troublesome." Cyrus remarked. "How long until they go off?"
"Sixteen seconds." Theodora snickered. "Even if we got up to leave now, we'd still be caught in the blast."
Lucrezia put down her fork, letting out an aggravated groan. "What a messy way to go out. They must have intel about my powers if they're taking this much precaution."
Theodora crossed her legs as she rolled up the sleeve of her black, one-piece dress to unveil the golden watch on her left wrist. "All part of the gamble, I assume?"
"You know me so well, Theo." Lucrezia sang with a smile.
"It's time." Cyrus said. "Theodora?"
"Already on it." Theodora replied.
The men parked outside the restaurant all watched with bated breath. Their flashy, silk suits, perfectly slicked and combed hair, and pins bearing their clan crests all but screamed they were members of Amatsuki's organization. Even men like them would've been hard to spot in an upscale Italian restaurant with a posh dress code. They knew that much when they had their men sit down for dinner and plant the explosives. Not even someone as alert as Lucrezia noticed it before it was too late.
The bombs detonated inside the restaurant with a deafening, thunderous boom. A massive fireball split apart the roof and cracked the building open like it was an egg. Flames spewed forth out of the open roof and continued to flow out of the windows, killing everyone inside. Cars passing by on the road stopped in their tracks, the force of the blast jolting the people inside their vehicles. Horrified screams from onlookers filled the street as people rushed to call the police.
The men inside the second and third cars looked on with glee. It was an easy, smooth assassination job. The young man in the driver's seat of the second black sedan pulled out his radio and pushed the talk button with a sly smile on his face.
"That's that. Let's get out of here before the police show up."
The men in the lead car were supposed to respond to the kill confirmation, but almost thirty seconds of complete silence went by first. The first vehicle stayed parked right where it was and didn't move an inch, either.
"Hey..." the second vehicle's driver groaned. "The bitch is dead, let's get a move on already. We can't just sit here and-"
The young man's chest and stomach suddenly swelled like balloons. He didn't have time to scream for help before a flock of ravenous crows bursted out from his stomach and swarmed the inside of the car. The driver's accomplices in the front and back passenger seats screamed for just a brief moment before the crows stripped the flesh off their bones like a vicious swarm of locusts. The swarm of crows broke through the car windows and took off into the air, alerting the men in the third car.
"That's...Lucrezia's bullshit power! But how?!" the third car's driver screamed.
The driver suddenly noticed his fingernails falling off and his hands wrinkling as though he were rapidly aging. He barged out of the car and fell on his face in the middle of the street as his short, black hair rapidly grew long and gray. His entire body endured a horrifying, rapid aging that made his teeth fall out, his bones brittle, and his organs fail. He was utterly unrecognizable from the man he was just mere seconds ago. All that was left was a decrepit, dried out corpse of a man that looked like he was one-hundred years old.
Lucrezia, Theodora, and Cyrus stepped out of the first vehicle and looked around at the chaos going on around them.
"This is the first time I've experienced your Wheel of Dharma for myself." Lucrezia said to Theodora, whose golden eye shined like stars against the raging fires of the burning restaurant. "What a fine technique."
Theodora stretched her arms towards the air with a proud grin on her face. "It's a good thing you had me with you. What would you have done if I hadn't figured out about the bombs and switched our places with the men in the first vehicle?"
Lucrezia shrugged. "Guess I would've died. Wouldn't be the first time."
Theodora playfully jabbed Cyrus's arm with her shoulder. "Looks like you finally go to use your Instant Century on someone, Cyrus. I didn't think you still had it in you."
"Just because I haven't been in combat for a while doesn't mean I've let my senses dull." Cyrus retorted, turning away from Theodora.
"It's safe to say that you two might be targeted as well." Lucrezia said. "I'll go check on Shinju. You should keep your heads down for now."
"As you wish, Commander." Theodora said with a bow.
The three exorcists dispersed from the scene, leaving their would-be assassins dead and the restaurant in flames. Though she was glad to have escaped death, there was one thing on Lucrezia's mind; Shinju's safety.