Sung Wei watched as the recently hanged man was laid on a stretcher and hauled off to the coroner. “Why the coroner?” While it was of course procedure to bring the body to the morgue, going directly to the coroner’s table was odd. Sung Wei stood near the doors. He didn’t need to be here. He could go back to the office. “I could go home.” The Inspector opened the door into the side of The Bureau and followed the path of the body to the coroner’s table.
“Inspector?” Asked the man already pulling back the skin from the recently deceased man’s chest.
“What are you doing?”
“One minute Inspector.”
Sung Wei reluctantly waited as the coroner started sawing at the corpse’s ribs.
“Removing the heart.” Came the reply as the sternum was removed.
“Why?”
The coroner looked up as Sung Wei and shrugged. “It’s my job.”
“How long has this been your job ?” The question came out a little more forcefully than intended.
“Uh, since I started working here. Is everything ok?”
Sung Wei shook his head as he backed toward the door. “Where do the hearts go from here?”
“I don’t know.” Came the expected response of the coroner. Sung Wei was already out the door and marching down the hallway. Aides and lower ranked civil servants quickly jumping out of his way.
“Where do the hearts go?” Sung Wei demanded, letting the door to his boss’ office practically slam shut.
The Akumajin looked up from his paperwork, an annoyed grimace on his face. “Mr. Tomokazu?”
“Where do the hearts go?”
“That is none of your business.” Came the even reply.
“I spent months examining corpses with missing hearts! IT IS MY BUSINESS!”
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The department head watched a red faced Sung Wei gesticulate wildly in a seemingly random direction. “You were ordered not to pursue the demon. An order that you broke. Mr. Tomokazu, I should be holding you personally responsible for the deaths of seven individuals, the injuries of many others, and a truly staggering amount of damages to the city, but I’m not. The hearts are none of your DAMN BUSINESS! Do I make myself clear?”
Sung Wei took an involuntary step back. He hardened his expression and bowed. “Yes Puno.”
“Good. Now, I have a lot of work left cleaning your mess up. Take a vacation, Tomokazu. I don’t want to see your face for the next thirty days.”
“Uh… But…”
“That’s an order !”
Sung Wei bowed again. “Yes Puno. Thank you Puno.”
Sung Wei backed out of the office and gently closed the door. Several others seemingly jumped back to work when he glared at them. It took an entire two minutes to hand off his work and hang up his coat. The cool autumn air brought an aura of finality to his sentence. Was it really a punishment though? When was the last time he had taken a vacation? Four years ago? This didn’t have to be a bad thing. He could…
Sung Wei’s heart dropped into the pit of his stomach when their eyes met. The people walking between them seemed to blur as all his focus was directed toward the attractive, Oni-Kai woman. Her disturbing pale eye instantly identifying her as Illiesku. Her smug smirk cut into him like a dagger.
“No.”
The demoness smiled, a sickly sweet facsimile of honest joy. “Oh yes.”
“The High Magus told me that demons killed here were banished for a hundred years.”
Illiesku nodded. “The High Magus would be right.”
“Then why?”
“Not technically a demon. It’s complicated and I don’t remember much of it.”
Sung Wei let the silence build. The people passing between the two unable to fathom the panic he was trying to hold down. “Why are you here?”
She pointed at the ground. “Here? As in this particular spot? Pettiness. I really just want to rub it in. The whole time you thought you were heading me off. Watching my movements. Preparing to dismantle my plans. Calling for help. Hmph. You were following the path I had laid out for you.”
Sung Wei held his face impassive, but his stomach was sinking into the lower recess of his abdomen. The demon gave him a devilish grin and turned away.
“Wait.” Sung Wei said, surprising himself more than the demoness. “The girls, let them go?”
Illiesku stood there for a long moment as if considering it. “I’ll let them go, in exchange…” She stretched out her arm towards him. “I get you. Do we have a deal?”
The crowds passed. The autumn air carried the colorful dead leaves on its cool breezes. The city moved on, oblivious to this single exchange and likely thousands others. Sung Wei turned his back on the demoness. “No.”
“Pity.”