Sector 19: Residential edge of Market [19:47]
“I want that thing out of here!!” the woman nearly spat at Shou as she waved vaguely at the man sitting in the house on the arm chair. He was cackling with laughter, “Shut up you fucking hi-rad!!!” she turned to the man inside as she screamed at him
Shou held back the urge to roll his eyes, “Ma’am, you watched me run the test. My weapons don’t affect him. Your husband is not a mazoku.”
The husband started wheezing with laughter at that statement.
“Shut up you damn monster!! You can’t fool me!” The venom in the woman’s voice made Shou’s skin crawl.
Shou held the small display in his palm and typed: Statement from Wife. “I just have a few questions for you ma’am and then we can all go about our night...”
She nodded at him and took a long drag from her bent cigarette.
“How did you and your husband come to fight this evening?”
She rolled her eyes, “That thing in there threw his bottle at me for no reason and told me to shut up before he sucked my blood,” she raised her eyebrows matter of factly, “Tell me that don’t sound like something a mazoku would say.”
Away from the building, leaning against the STAM transport Seiji had to cover his ear to drown out the noise of the husband cackling, “Yes it’s 19-b7-258,” he responded to the STAM officer on the other side of the line. This kind of report should be handled by the officers, not agents like them, since it is a non-mazoku related incident. Seiji gave out a low whistle in response to what the officer told him, “3rd time this month eh? Put them on a black list. We can't keep wasting time on this report every time they over indulge,” he paused to listen to the officer’s response, “No problem. We will have our report to you in five minutes and then the paperwork is yours to handle.” Seiji waved at Shou to finish up. Luckily, Shou was already saying his goodbyes to the woman and quickly came back over to their transport. Seiji opened the door to his side, “Alright, thank you for your help-” he ended the call with the officer.
No sooner had Shou sat in his seat and closed the door than he let out a long, pained groan.
Seiji joined in on the groan, “This is the 3rd time she reported him to be a mazoku this month.”
“So ridiculous. I can’t believe people actually think the mazoku newsletters from the Green party have facts in them…” Shou shook his head, “Oh, don’t forget to get the time stamps off the security cameras around here.”
Seiji tapped on the center console display and started tapping through the security camera footage. All cameras, personal or otherwise, had to be hard lined into STAM’s system giving them direct access to all cameras within range at their fingertips.
As Seiji tapped through them, Shou pulled up the display from his dog tags changing R2’s status to patrol mode and opted to stay in this sector.
Shou’s eyes caught Seiji stiffen and looked over to see what he had found on the cameras, “Is that...” the screen showed an image from a STAM drone from nearby. All they could make out was a hooded figure, but they recognized that figure immediately.
Seiji barely responded through a tight jaw, “Finally-”
The two of them opened the doors to their transport, jumped out, and ran down the short road toward the market district just ahead.
Sector 19: A Small Market District [19:55]
Keiko, or rather the top agent of the Mazoku Recovery and Protection Agency: 013, walked through the crowded market drawing little attention to herself. She wore a cloak and weaved silently through the crowd. The watch she wore, the omni-book, was the most advanced piece of technology in all of Japan. Disguised as a simple watch it linked her directly with MRPA’s database.
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STAM may have just recently discovered a way to test a human from a mazoku, but MRPA has been able to study the omega cell for years. MRPA has had the ability to identify mazoku for much longer. If a mazoku is in MRPA’s database, they are immediately identified. The omni-book could link directly to Keiko through the nerve connection. Small prongs on the underside of the watch pushed into the skin and allowed Keiko to see the omni-book’s display through her eyes.
The omnibook was routing her through the small market district and turned her off the main street into a side alley. Is this really where he lives? She blinked to expand the map only her eyes could see, this isn’t a residential area…
The walls she past were lined with posters: CHAOSHII LUU - was printed above a serpentine dragon. The picture showed a deep bath that said “wash your stress away”, A Vote for The BRIDGE Party- the rest of the poster was ripped off. STAM Officers Recruiting- the crossed stone crest almost glittered off the page. WANTED! It was hard to hold the corners of her mouth down at that one. The creature drawn on it was a humanoid woman with sharp, demonic-like features, yellow eyes, and half of her entire face covered in sharp scales. The humans spend so much time making the mazoku look scary and threatening that she barely had to hide out in the open. From this picture, hardly anyone would recognize her. “IF SEEN CALL STAM IMMEDIATELY” There was no reward unfortunately. She wondered how much STAM would pay for a “black” agent.
She turned back into the busier street and saw the building she had for Durim’s address. It was a larger building with bright neon lights: PURPLE HAT. The building door had two bodyguards. She knew the two were mazoku as the omnibook put their MRPA files up in her vision. Is this a night club?
She walked up to the door hoping to just walk past the men.
“Ah, ah, ah- ” one of them held his arm out to stop her, “Name?” he looked down at his clipboard.
Keiko rolled her eyes. She wasn’t sure how they would react if she revealed she was MRPA, “I uh- I’m here to see Durim...”
The other man looked at her carefully before exclaiming, “Ah!” he waved his finger at her while speaking to the other guard, “She must be the one boss was talking about.”
The first guard looked at her skeptically and narrowed his eyes at her, “You’re here about Free?”
Free? She figured this was her best shot at being let in. She could figure out what he meant later,“What else would I come here for?”
The guard stared back before nodding, “Boss’ in the VIP lounge with the private customers.”
The second guard held the door open for her. Keiko walked through the door and down the long red carpeted hall toward a velvet door. She could hear dance music coming from the other side of the door. You’ve got to be kidding me.
She pushed open the door, immediately assaulted by the loud music and flashing lights. The room was filled with mostly women- almost all of them showing as human. It was unusual to see mazoku willingly get close to humans like this…unless they were hurting them. On the far side of the room she spotted a sign reading VIP and pushed her way through the mass of dancing women. This is ridiculous for fucks sake.
Keiko huffed once she had pushed through the other side of the room to regain her composure. She bounced on the balls of her feet and then opened the VIP room.
Her eyes shot wide open in surprise at the sight before her. What on earth is going on here?
“Oh a new customer!!!”
It took Keiko a few moments to take in her surroundings. There were people sprawled all over the room, some laying contorted on the ground, some hanging over the furniture, some laid over others. There were bottles everywhere but they were especially piled on the table that separated her from them. On the center couch lay many women, all positioned close to the only mazoku in the room: Durim. He was small in stature, yet the way he grinned at her somehow gave off an aura of strength and power. His eyes, that flipped around the room casually before landing on her, were so pale they nearly looked yellow.
“What’s wrong with them?” Keiko couldn’t stop the words from her mouth. All these humans were definitely alive, but there was something wrong.
Durim shook his head, “Wrong? No, no, no my dear-” he grinned, “Everything is right with them. This is what free looks like.”
Free?
“It will open up your mind to new bounds of pleasure!” he stood from the couch, “It will transport you to a place you could never imagine! You will feel things you can’t even comprehend-”
A drug? Why would a mazoku be selling drugs to humans??
“And since you’re a new customer-” he grinned as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small capsule, “How about a free sample right now?”
Keiko’s eyes widened as she recognized the capsule. She grabbed Durim by the throat and raised him off the ground, taking her hood down at the same time, “You’re giving humans MS?! What are you thinking?!”
The humans that were awake looked shocked, but they seemed unable to move. A few lucky ones screamed and ran, but several seemed unconscious already.
Durim choked and clawed at her hand, “You’re- MRPA!”
Keiko threw him to the ground, “Why are you selling MS to humans?! Are these humans OK? Do you even know what it might do to them?!?”
“Damn elemental-” he held his throat protectively and shot a glare back at her, “It’s useless now isn’t it?! We’re all gonna die the moment we get tested!! Why shouldn’t the humans have a taste?” His voice was laced with malice, “What do I care what happens to a few humans?!”
Keiko slammed her boot into his face pushing him down on the ground again, “You’re a full body mazoku aren’t you Durim?”
He squirmed beneath her, “What do you care?”
“I imagine someone like you takes their MS dose pretty late at night. Maybe say...right around now?”
Durim panicked as he remembered his dosage time was coming up, “No- please-”
“Oh what was that?” she pushed her foot harder into him, “Why would you want something useless?”
He tried to push against her, but it was too late. His body slowly changed from his human disguise to his natural mazoku form. He was covered in snake scales from head to toe, his limbs became reptilian and he hissed at her, “You made your point. Give me a damn pill!”
Keiko rolled her eyes, “You’re under arrest for-”
“That’s our line I think-”
Keiko suddenly froze, she felt the cold metal of a pistol against her head- fuck, not STAM…not these two!
“A black agent like you should be more careful about leaving tracks.”