“Thank you!” Mimi shouted, sweat glistening from her face as she raised her hand and then placed a V sign over her eyes, smiling to the audience. The crowd erupted.

“We hope to see you at our next show!” Mari followed. “Our merch store is located at the corner booth for those of you interested in getting our limited-time clothing designs as well as our latest album chips.” She pointed behind the crowd at line of merch booths from various bands, indicating their band’s booth as the one in the far right. The line was already getting crowded.

“Scarlet Wings, Scarlet Wings, Scarlet Wings!” the crowd chanted as the three ladies began to exit stage left.

Cassy chimed in to the crowd before she walked out of view, “And for all my personal fans, I’m keeping my eyes on you.” She placed two fingers near her irises and then gestured those fingers out at the crowd in the back with the yellow glow-sticks. “I know all you lovebirds are hooking up just to spite me and it’s disgusting.”

“We love you Cassy! Ahhhh!”, screamed one of the couples. The audience members started laughing. Even stone-faced Cassy couldn’t help but smile at that.

The figurative curtains closed and the members of the Scarlet Wings breathed a collective sigh of relief backstage. Mimi’s shoulders relaxed, while Mari and Cassy were both stretching, adrenaline still pumping through their veins.

“Great job out there, ladies”, the assistant manager said, handing them towels, holding a clipboard in the other hand. Paris was a shy boy, but was extremely reliable with scheduling tours, meetups, and other responsibilities when the manager was off drinking with her friends.

“Thanks darling”, Mari said, patting him on his head. He blushed, hiding his head behind his clipboard. She liked teasing him.

“Um, no problem, Mari”, he said nervously, but then cleared his throat. “I have your meet-and-greets scheduled in a few hours at the arena building within the center of the pavilion. High fives, group photos, some souvenirs should all be included. Don’t forget to keep your Q&A sessions to under 30 minutes.”

“Got it”, Mimi said.

“Also, unrelated, but there’s a young woman who’s outside asking for the Valkyries”, Paris said.

“Valkyries?” Mari said, raising an eyebrow. “Not the Scarlet Wings?” The trio eyed one another before Mimi spoke up, “We’re not expecting anyone. Are you sure it isn’t a fan?” Mimi asked.

“I don’t think so. She says she’s a songbird, whatever that meant. Said one of you would know what that means.”

Mimi looked bemused, but only for a second. She placed the straps of her guitar around her shoulder, pushing the guitar slightly behind her. A non-verbal command locked the guitar in place on her back, handle facing up.

Mimi began marching towards the exit, feet quickening with each step. Cassy and Mari had mixed expressions, Mari with a serious look, and Cassy with a bored one.

“You have any idea what it might be?” Mari asked.

Cassy just shrugged. Mari sighed and the pair began walking after Mimi.

“Wait”, Paris called. “The manager’s expecting you back at the studio in about an hour or so.”

“Tell her we’ll be late. She’s probably drinking with her buddies anyways.” Mari said nonchalantly, smiling at Paris. “She can wait”.

The pair caught up to Mimi, and Cassy whispered to her, “Reeks of hunter business.”

Mimi nodded but kept her eyes forward.

“Even Ecreville, huh?” Mari commented. “I just want to go back to my crib and sleep.”

Mimi pushed open the double-doors and walked out into the lot. A young woman was standing there, looking around nervously. Nothing stood out about her, and she didn’t appear to rock any festival merchandise or clothing.

The woman looked up at Mimi, eyes widening.

“You’re M-Mimi Rainsong. My boyfriend listens to all your tracks. I-”, she paused, looking at the emblem patch on Mimi’s shoulder. A black silhouette of a bird designed in the shape of a musical note, with three stray feathers jutting out from its tail, sat on a patch embroidered onto Mimi’s blouse. She looked to the other two, who also had similar patches on.

Mimi only gave her a comforting smile, hoping to disarm her tension.

“I’m- I’m Sara. One of Reina’s songbirds. I was s-supposed to contact her if I saw anything unusual in Ecreville, but I-I was with my boyfriend today and couldn’t f-find a good time to talk to her.” She looked around again, as if expecting someone to show up. “A-Anyways, once I was able to reach her, she told me to go to the Psyhi and find the group performing at this stage right now. I didn’t realize that you – ”

“It’s not what you’re thinking”, Mimi said, cutting Sara off. “I’m not a songbird, not exactly.” Mimi couldn’t exactly tell her that she was Reina’s boss. Most of Reina Igala’s songbirds were just eager civilians who take up local requests posted within various sections of particular districts. Not all hunter board requests involved killing. Most citizens, especially those with no direct affiliation with the major Clans, or who are averse to violence, are nonetheless encouraged, or rather forced under current social norms, to take up some types of smaller miscellaneous requests posted on hunter boards to help reduce criminal activity running rampant throughout Neo-Kamakura. Once their obligations are fulfilled and they complete their contract, the requestor, through the hunter boards, releases them from further duty to the city. Then the citizens can live the rest of their lives in peace and obscurity, making these kinds of requests very enticing.

This woman, Sara, nodded nervously in response. She made Mimi think about Reina. Reina’s been getting pretty active lately with evolving her surveillance methods.

Reina’s requests in particular have always been fairly easy. Her signatories, called songbirds, are given a one-year contract to act as the eyes and ears for Reina and report any unusual activity to her based on a list of identifiers which Reina specifies, and sometimes on a case-by-case basis whenever nuanced hunter matters crop up. Each list is catered to a specific district, compiled in accordance with Reina’s vast knowledge of the customs and lifestyles of each of those districts. These local “requests” are then completed upon the provision of three notable reports to Reina, directly or indirectly, or upon the expiration of their one-year contract. Only when either condition is met are the signatories finally released from their duty.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

It also doesn’t hurt that her requests are semi-private, inaccessible by any registered member whose IDs matched those from the Clan of Tributes or other hunter Divisions. Although Mimi was the one who posited the idea of creating the Songbirds, she would never have imagined Reina taking it this far, with such consideration towards each side of the political landscape. It was quite an impressive feat. She’ll have to remember to bump up Reina’s salary later.

Still, what she’s doing does pose some risk, Mimi theorized.

Unaffiliated hunters of the Clan of Venerers may catch wind of what Reina was trying to establish with these jobs. Rumors might spread and indirectly perk the ears of Division hunters regarding the Valkyries’ attempt to usurp the Auditors’ influence and their city-wide information network, or worse.

But, Mimi thought, the triviality of these requests have, thus far, been written off as worthless in most hunter’s eyes. If the Auditors’ who approve hunter requests and execute hunter law, approved to make such requests semi-private, it was safe to say they didn’t suspect a thing at this moment in time.

And so, Reina, under the supervision of Mimi, had managed to subvert all suspicion and convention, and utilized her vast knowledge of communication and social ecology to amass one of the largest, if not the largest, spy networks in all of Neo-Kamakura.

And all of it leads back to this moment.

Mimi’s bandmates looked at each other, eyes pushing the other to speak. Mimi’s having one of her airhead moments again, their eyes seemed to say.

“So what’s the word, friend?” Cassy chimed in, breaking the silence. “You got something for us?” Cassy looked at the nervous woman, devoid of tact as Cassy usually was.

“Um yes”, Sara said. Her voice seemed to steady a bit. “I was with my boyfriend a few blocks down from here and I spotted two men who matched the descriptions of one of the Divisions’ Shogun and Daimyo.”

“A Shogun and a Daimyo? Here?” Mari inquired, taken aback. “Do you have a name? What did they look like?”

“I can’t recall their names exactly, but there were two of them, and I recognized the skinnier one. He was tall, and dressed in a coat and had some armor underneath. He looked like one of the men who showed up on the news recently – the one that killed the previous Shogun of the Revenant’s Balance and took over as their leader.”

Everyone had heard about the news, which took the city by storm. Rarely had a Shogun or Daimyo ever been killed in city conflicts, and by non-Division members no less. The last time this happened was in the Fringe, where an internal conflict between members of the Vipers led to a bloody war of succession which forced the Auditors and each district to intervene and disband the remnants of the Division there. A Daimyo was said to have died in conflict that day. Initially, his death was written off as an unfortunate loss in battle against Standard Grade Enthipid swarms, due to multiple slices on his corpse by Enthipid claws. However, evidence later isolated his actual cause of death as asphyxiation. The culprits, hunters of the same team, were marked that day by the Auditors and placed on the hunter boards. None of the marked hunters lived to see the week’s end, and the rest of that Division retired from the public circle indefinitely.

And so, when the Trepidor brothers first arrived on the scene, many hunters and civilians became suspicious and fearful of another major conflict like that. Mimi in particular looked into this matter and found almost nothing on the brothers, and that was what scared her the most. It implied a heavily guarded secret, and all she knew was that the brothers had some tie to the Lucens Mundi underground black market – the largest black market, known colloquially as the Night Market, since the area was never short of activity. An image of her friend Alyx traced her mind.

I hope she’s okay, Mimi thought. Sara jumped back, taken aback by the coldness which now touched Mimi’s face. She seemed to notice Mimi’s piercing gaze and began to shift nervously.

Mimi seemed to realize and collected herself, smiling again, “I’m sorry. I tend to get lost in thought. Anyways, did you see where these two men were headed?”

“Um, I only know that they were heading west, towards the business district. I think it was the one with the restaurants and giant warehouse, although I steered cleared of them with my boyfriend as soon as I saw them. I didn’t get a good look. They looked so…”

Sara shuddered, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t do more. I told Reina about it the moment I saw them, and she told me to tell you what I knew.”

Mimi replied, “It’s fine. You gave us more than enough info here. Talk with Reina again tomorrow. I’ll let her know to update your board status by tonight.”

Sara’s eyes gleamed, and an eagerness rose into her voice, as if she wasn’t just sulking a moment ago, “Oh, thank you, Ms. Rainsong. To all of you. I’m really glad I could do my part for the city. Thank you.” She bowed twice, keeping her head down the second time. “My boyfriend and I are definitely going to listen to your new album later. He’s super excited for it.”

Mimi put her hand on her shoulder, “I appreciate that. You did well. And I’m always happy to hear someone enjoys our music.”

Sara’s eyes shone with grateful fervor. Mimi continued, “Now dear, keep off the streets for tonight, and get back home safely, okay?” Mimi’s voice had a calming tone, almost hypnotic.

Sara looked up, locking into Mimi’s deep green eyes, before nodding her head. “Ok”, she agreed. “I will do as you say, Ms. Rainsong.” She turned around slowly and walked away from the venue, pace rhythmic and deliberate.

The trio looked at her as her figure receded in the distance.

“It couldn’t be, right?” Cassy said, somewhat skeptical.

“I mean, there’s not a lot of people who match their appearances. A hit maybe?” Mari added.

“Nobody’s fool enough to mark a Daimyo, let alone a Shogun”, Cassy interjected. “But at the same time, I can’t think off another reason why two of the top brass of any Division would set foot on neutral ground.”

“You’re one to talk”, Cassy said, eyeing Mimi slyly. Mimi ignored her jest. They went through the proper border procedures, and they agreed not to seek out hunter business while in the city – but nobody said anything about hunter business coming to them.

“We would have been informed if any Division members crossed the district borders. Since that didn’t happen, they either bypassed security somehow, or Sara was lying earlier. However, I don’t think she was lying. The frequency of her voice just didn’t give me that impression.” Mimi said.

“So, it’s settled then”, Cassy remarked. A tension began to seep into the air as the trio contemplated in a momentary silence.

“The Trepidor brothers are here in Ecreville.” Mimi said at last.

“I haven’t seen any public requests out for them yet”, Mari said.

Mimi added, “And Reina never brought up any unusual activity on the private channels either.”

“Personal request maybe?” Cassy chimed in.

Mimi pondered over that, but could only say, “Maybe”. Then Mimi gestured to the other two. “Either way, we need to scout out the business district. Have Reina send a few songbirds into the area later, Cassy.”

“Will do”, Cassy replied, giving a half-hearted salute.

“And Mari, I need you to work with Reina. You should be able to hack into the hunter database at a surface level. Don’t try to break in too deep. We don’t want to alert the Auditors. However, scan through the personal requests and find any that have been directed towards Ecreville or Lucens Mundi recently.” Mimi ordered.

“Lucens Mundi?” Mari asked, confused. “Why there?” And then it dawned on her.

“I think you know. Other than us, the Night Market is the only place where we can find people who might know about Cadmi’s true affiliation. Whatever this is, it may be more dangerous than we expect. Be careful, both of you.”

“The contract is sealed” both said, bowing. A maxim of encouragement, to keep to the promises made and received.

Cassy zipped through the streets and off towards the business district. Her movement blurred under the night sky, at speeds no normal human could reach. On the other hand, Mari crouched down, prepping herself, before launching herself dozens of feet in the air and onto the top of a nearby building. She hopped from one rooftop to another until both ladies were out of sight.

A holographic magenta visor began wrapping in an arc around Mimi’s eyes, each end tapering off near the ear cups of her headphones.

And I have something I have to confirm for myself…Mimi thought, walking east, towards the Ecreville security border.