Chapter Fourteen

The car dropped me off in the middle of downtown, the neon lights and billboard videos were everywhere, it was a little flashy for my taste, honestly. I like some things about the city, but the mass crowds, mobs, really… they just don’t suit me. Maybe because I’m a swapper? Maybe because it’s just too busy, and it doesn’t fit with my desire to do nothing.

I craned my head back and looked up at the high tower where my target lived and probably worked. ‘I have to hand it to this country, they’re very precise.’ I mused, the exact number of his residence… I briefly considered a dramatic entrance, sprouting wings and shooting up from the ground like a superhero and smashing into the window in the form of an avenging angel.

But that… no. ‘Everybody in this country has a camera. Sooner or later I’d have to explain it, then goodbye vacations to Earth for at least a hundred years.’ I dismissed my melodramatic thought and went about it another way.

There wasn’t much I knew about Yakuza types, but odds are they owned the building he was living in. They’re a pretty efficient organization, all things considered.

That meant… “Alright they’ll have security.” I mumbled, ‘Invisibility is so boring!’ I cursed under my breath when I realized how easy that would be. I began tapping my feet on the curve as thunder rumbled overhead and clouds began to threaten rain, lightning flickered in the sky, it wouldn’t be long before I’d get drenched standing here… ‘Then I’ll have to do laundry… I hate laundry.’

I really wanted to be dramatic and make a point… ‘Fine.’ I rolled my eyes.

I walked through the front of the building, the glass doors, clean and perfect, slid open, and true to my expectations not only was there a slender woman working behind a computer, the elevator controls were not ‘by’ the elevator.

They were on the wall behind her alcove where a very large man in a black suit stood wearing a sword on his hip. ‘Huh, and I thought that was just for the movies… the gun laws here are stricter than I thought.’

Even if I couldn’t do things quite the way I wanted, I could do something else. I was an unusual sight at least, and that curious look that I drew from the pair became cautious. Her hand reached beneath her desk, while the large fellow by the elevator controls squared off to face me.

I pulled out the wallets and watched the two relax.

“Excuse me, I’m so sorry to bother you, but I came to return these. ‘Wait, if nobody catches me… did it really happen?’ I had to wonder. It wasn’t like anybody ever checked… and these guys were scum, nobody would care… and if they were out of the way?

Obviously I couldn’t do anything to the whole building. And that was overkill even in my line of work.

“They were dropped at the Toriyama store in the Shinjai district.” I explained, and the relaxed air was gone as what I said sank home.

“Floor one zero six.” The woman said, and I could swear she looked at me with pity.

“Oh… but um, the addresses on here are-” I fluttered my eyelashes at the pair and put on a nice, innocent voice.

“She said what she said.” The musclehead interrupted.

I put on a pouty face, “Oh… okay, but can’t you…?” I stopped when he hit the elevator control for me and the golden doors slid wide open.

“Alright… I’ll… I’ll go.” I darted my head over my shoulder like I was thinking about leaving, maybe making a run for it, then clutched my purse and scurried through the door.

I’m not a half bad actress if I do say so myself. I smirked and cracked my knuckles as I went up to the very top floor.

I was fairly sure I would have a welcoming party for me, and as I went up, I realized that the die was cast. ‘If I’m defending myself…’

[E’grahcrevo rettahs dna tlem] I cast the spell with my hand behind my back and against the elevator, and an electrical pulse went up and down the building, frying the electronic components just as the elevator came to a halt. I did not envy whoever had to try to fix those later.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

The lights shattered, plunging everything into darkness. With no cameras, no lights, no nothing, I had no reason to fear getting caught.

So… I swapped. My arms thickened and the mana of my body began to expand around my core self, greatly increasing my size, from a human woman slightly over a meter and a half tall, to a nine and a half foot tall creature of the Fletosian wastelands, with razor sharp claws and a gigantic maw that could bite a man in half… it was a good look.

I could hear them shouting, asking for answers… answers I would give them, but that they wouldn’t need.

I let out the roar of the Fletosian warbeast, and shoved my hands through the metal elevators in one clean thrust. Light began to stream in, and screams of alarm went up.

I’m sure they were expecting a small woman that could be intimidated into answers.

But it was my answers that were the intimidation.

I stepped into the room, hard, cracking and shaking the floor as I tore the elevators free and stepped into view. Screams went up, and a shot went off.

‘Alright so a few of them have guns.’ I chuckled and backhanded the nearest of the set, they were stepping back, their guns blazing, the flashes giving brief glimpses of my horror as I stalked toward them one after another. I was in front of the exit. There was no way out.

They were trapped in here with me. The doors were electronic, and there wasn’t even any backup power, I’m sure the lower floors, at least a few down, heard it all, for all the good it would do.

My claws ripped through another, who toppled with a howl.

I will spare you the details.

It wasn’t hard to figure out who the one in charge was, he was the oldest, backing away while the younger ones tried to defend him and themselves. All the while I was wondering… which is more likely to get me caught? Leaving them alive, or dead? That’s what the question came down to… if they were dead, the human authorities might investigate, and I was seen in my normal disguise…

‘Damn it! In your desire to not get wet and to play the Queen of the stage, you made a mistake, Kayobi… if they’re alive, it’ll stay nice and unofficial. Just a warning.’ I told myself, and one by one I picked them up and smashed them against the wall. If they moved or got up, I picked them up, squeezed out a scream, and smashed them there again.

Until there was one old man left with a balding scalp and surprisingly quick hands digging through a desk. He pulled out a handgun and leveled it at my chest with trembling hands.

I stopped as if the desk were a real obstacle. “Shoot me.” I said in a gutteral echoing monster voice that I borrowed from some old movies.

The gun went off. “Again.” I ordered him.

Again he shot, his lips were trembling so much I could see his teeth reflect each flash as his noise of fear became a high pitched whine, and I waited until he emptied the entire clip to no avail.

I held out the wallets and dropped them on the desk between the two of us. He looked down.

“Take them.” I said, and one hand came away from the weapon which… he was still dry firing at me as if a bullet would magically appear.

He then took the wallets and shoved them in his pocket.

‘I forgot to come up with a cool name for myself?! How did I do that?! How do I forget the cool nickname?!’ I cursed myself and just breathed hard and heavy, the hot breath kissed his sweating face, my open maw was like a chasm of doom just waiting to swallow him up.

“Shinjai. Belongs. To the Devil of Shinjai. Never. Come. Again. Or next time, I will paint this room with your blood.” I said, my bright amber eyes gleaming down at him, my grayish blue flesh gave me an almost ghostly look as the lightning outside that began in earnest, flashed and reflected against my body.

He nodded, numb, disbelieving… he was making noises that might have been words, but they didn’t want to come out.

I reached up to his gun and closed my hand over his, each finger was as thick as his whole hand, and a hundred times as strong. I began to tighten my grip, and he yanked his hand away while I crushed the weapon like tissue paper and dropped it on his desk.

“Never.” I warned him one more time.

“N-ever.” He vowed and looked at the heap of battered and broken yakuza.

I could read his face like a book, he was wondering if they were alive.

They were. But they’d be worse for wear and probably need a lot of stitches.

Wings began to emerge from my back, and I went to the wall full of windows and smashed them open, the high, howling winds blew papers around everywhere and rain began to seep into the building, I gave him one more lingering look… and jumped, spreading my wings, I began to fly home, watching his dumbfounded, stupid expression as I began to shrink into the distance.

He was probably already questioning everything about what happened, but he couldn’t very well report it to the police, and the injuries were real. With no record, and nobody willing to talk, it would be a drunken rumor and nothing more… and my little home away from home would be quite peaceful.

I made a mental note, ‘Make sure those bills get paid tomorrow, then I need to contact Celia… I’ll need her help next.’ I thought, and yawned as I realized it was late, and I still needed to eat, then sleep… then get up the following morning and…

‘Oh my… this is going to be a lot… I might need help after all.’ I shivered to think of all the shows that I might miss, but then on the other hand…

‘It’ll be a great day for binge watching.’ I thought with a smile as my place finally came back into view, and the rain began to pour.