Sector 1: In front of STAM [23:00]
“Are we going to have to do more of these patrol missions?” Kenji whined as they walked through the front doors to the STAM building.
“Shut it-” Kyou barked at him with a clenched jaw as they were suddenly surrounded by cameras and media crews.
“Rank 1 Container!”
“Kawamiya Kyoushirou- would you care to make a statement about your new partner?”
“Are you concerned about having a partner from Sector 21?”
“Many are saying that STAM is accepting bribes from the Light Party- care to comment?”
Kyoushirou smiled stiffly and dropped a hand on Kenji’s shoulder, “As Rank 1 I can assure you that there is no one more suited to being my disposer than Reikokuna Kenji. Lanse’s decision to add him to the Ranks was based on his ability and his passion to work for STAM,” he nudged Kenji forward slightly,”Now if you’ll excuse us-” he pushed Kenji through the crowd to the security desk. He kept his hand on Kenji’s shoulder until they were out of the media’s sight inside the elevator.
“What was that?” Kenji smirked, “I’m the best fit for your-”
“We can’t allow the media to find the smallest flaw with our unit,” Kyou interrupted, “We agents need to be spotless in order to operate the way we do,” he shot a glare at Kenji, “If I had it my way you would still be in that poisoned sector you come from.”
The doors opened and Kyou stepped out first, “I’ll show you your room,”
Kenji scoffed and followed him. The way he saw it, this sector was the poisoned one.
“The other ranks all share rooms-” Kyou waved at the doors as they walked past them, “Shou and Seiji are there, Hiro and Ryu are there.”
“We have to share a room?” Kenji groaned.
“The privilege of Rank 1. We get our own rooms,” he pointed to the door at the very end of the hall, “That’s mine- and this,” he opened the door next to his room, “is yours. Your dog tags are your keys. Just tap them on the sensor.”
Kenji nodded, “Is that it? Are we done?”
Kyou turned to walk back to the elevator, “Patrol was our only mission. Now we are on call in case there is an emergency. Do whatever you want.”
“Where are you going?!” Kenji called after him.
Sector 27: MRPA HQ- Medical Wing [23:00]
Keiko was laying face down on the bench while the Head Nurse tended to the wound in her calf. She was a young looking girl thanks to her mazoku ability, but Keiko wasn’t sure how old she was. She had to be at least as old as Hong- which didn’t actually clear things up at all.
“You idiot!” the head nurse poked around forcefully on the open wound, constantly soaking up the still pouring blood, “How many times do I have to tell you not to engage the agents?” she turned and grabbed a syringe from her desk, “Do you realize how much blood you’ve lost from this little cut?!”
Keiko groaned, “I couldn’t avoid this one...” she winced at the shot the Head Nurse gave her.
“And the paralysis! How many times have you come back here with your limbs useless?! Ojii taught you better than this...” she poked at Keiko’s still numb arm.
Keiko bit her tongue at the mention of Ojii. She knew exactly how her teacher would scold her for lingering even a moment too long in the field, “I know.”
The head nurse sighed angrily and took a small tube, “This is the part that hurts-”
Keiko held the corner of the bench with her only functioning hand and clenched her jaw tight.
“Here we go...” the head nurse squeezed a clear liquid from the tube into the wound and pushed it closed with her fingers.
Keiko’s eyes squeezed shut as the pain started. It felt like her flesh was burning and like something was pushing into her leg. She forced herself to stay still.
The nurse held the cut closed for a few seconds before releasing her leg. The once open wound now held closed. She took another cream from the shelf and rubbed it over the cut, “All right. It’s going to hurt for the next 4 hours but you won’t lose any more blood. Walking is going to be painful until it’s healed...” she stood, went to the cabinet, and started looking through unmarked bottles.
Keiko pushed herself up from the bench with her one arm and sat up, feeling dizzy.
“Here,” she handed Keiko a bottle, “Drink this.”
Keiko nodded, she had this particular drink many times to replenish her lost blood quickly.
“The paralysis will just have to wear off on its own. The medical team has been tied up with this MS problem and haven’t filled the order for the paralysis serum yet.”
Keiko nodded as she handed the empty bottle back to the head nurse, “Is that all?”
“013!!!” Arisa suddenly rushed into the room.
“00,” Keiko sat up straighter and tried to hide her paralyzed arm, “How was your mission?”
Arisa looked at the wounds and worried, “You ran into Seiji and Shoutarou didn’t you??”
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Keiko turned to the head nurse, “Thanks,” she pushed off the bench gingerly applying pressure to her hurt leg, “Let’s get something to eat.”
Arisa tried to hold arm out to help Keiko, but Keiko shrugged her away, “I’m fine come on.”
They walked a short distance to the common area. Here many of the MRPA workers and agents took their breaks, ate some food, or prepared for missions.The two grabbed drinks and snacks. Keiko told Arisa about her mission.
“To humans?!” she exclaimed but then immediately lowered her voice, “Why was he giving them to humans???”
Keiko shrugged, “Seemed like something he was making money off of, the humans were in some kind of euphoric state.”
“MS can do that to humans?”
Keiko sipped on her cup of coffee, “I sent the report into Hong already so I’m sure the medical team will look into it...”
Arisa nodded, “What about Durim?”
She shook her head, “He ran off. I don’t know where he went.”
“I don’t get it,” Arisa’s face was scrunched, “If MS isn’t being given out to mazoku anymore...and Durim was a full bodied mazoku, why would he sell the last of his supply?”
“I don’t get it either. It seemed to be a bigger operation than just his supply. There were at least 25 humans in that VIP lounge who had taken it and he didn’t seem to be trying to ration...”
Arisa hummed as she thought, “Where would he be getting more MS in a crisis like this?”
Keiko shrugged again, “We can only speculate right now...” she suddenly realized that Aku wasn’t there, “What happened to 014?”
Arisa took a sip from her hot chocolate, “She ran off when we got back to MRPA. I wasted a lot of time on the mission because of the omnibook map,” she decided not to tell Keiko how rushed Aku had seemed. She was sure Aku had a good reason for leaving like that, “Maybe she had a training to rush to.”
“You didn’t use the nerve connection again? I keep telling you how important it is..”Keiko looked through the nerve connection display to find Aku on the map, “She’s not hooked into the system...”
Arisa sighed, “I know-” her phone pinged at her and she pulled it out, “Oh it’s 014. She said she would meet us at the epsilon gate,”
“Do you have any work to do at the nursery?” Keiko asked as she finished her coffee.
“Nope. Do you have training?”
Keiko shook her head, “Hong’s got the trainees on independent work until the MS crisis blows over. Wanna turn in early for once?”
Arisa grinned, “Yes please!”
“All right,” she stood carefully, “Maybe 014 is already there waiting.”
The Epsilon Gate
While MS was a powerful tool for mazoku to live alongside humans, it could not completely change a person’s appearance. This task involved a much larger machine housed deep within MRPA’s research and development team. For Arisa to be able to attend Tenno Academy, Keiko and Aku needed the help of the epsilon gate to pull off their new human disguises.
The Epsilon gate was a large blue lit, black machine in the shape of a Torii gate.
“Ah 013 you’re just in time. 014 was just about to go through!” A white coat from the control system waved at her.
“014?” Arisa asked.
“I thought you two might have left without me already!” Aku waved at them from the far side of the room.
The white coat waved at Aku and there was suddenly a dense mist in the gate. Aku walked through and when she came out she was Ume Akumako, the normal blonde haired human.
“013 you can go next!” the white coat called and Keiko walked over to the gate.
“014 do you have a mirror?” Arisa asked.
“Of course.” she handed her one and Arisa started to shift herself into her human disguise, “Did you deliver the supply OK?”
Arisa nodded while paying close attention to her eyes, “Ms.Mary was there and took them from me.”
Aku’s eyes narrowed slightly, “ I see.”
Keiko, once again with shorter pink hair and softer features, walked up to them, “We ready to go back to the apartment?”
Sector 1: STAM HQ [ 4 September 2121 00:13]
Kyou was leaning against the wall staring into the living room of his childhood home. He was watching over the younger version of himself laying on the floor as he drew a picture. Occasionally, older Kyou would look over at the large push chair that rocked slightly. The chair was turned away but Kyou knew his father sat there. You always sat like that. Never bothered to even look at me. Never cared what I was drawing or what I was interested in. His fist clenched, you only ever wanted me to learn to fight mazoku…
Young Kyou pushed his body up to his feet and admired his drawing. It was a family portrait of himself and his father. Older Kyou knew that he had also drawn his mother and sister, but of course the paper was turned away and he couldn’t see it.
Older Kyou sighed and turned away from the living room. I remember how this goes. Father will rip off the side of the picture with Mom and Koko and yell at me to forget about them…
Older Kyou took a few steps down the hall, he didn’t want to see that sight. He could hear the footsteps of his younger self going over to the chair.
There was a loud gasping inhale, “Ohhhh Kyou !”
Older Kyou’s whole body froze, Mom? He turned around and felt the world around him shudder. No- don’t wake up! Not yet!
“You did such a good job drawing Koko and I,”
Suddenly the hallway was vertical and he was crawling up the plank floors to reach the room he was once in.
“We will have to find a nice frame to put this in!”
Mom!!!
He finally crested the top of the floor and poked his head back into the room. “Mom!!!” he shouted.
Young Kyou stood beside the chair and older Kyou could see his mothers hand patting him on the head.
“Koko!!!” he clawed at the ground but the world shook around him again.
Suddenly his father stood above him.
“Forget about them!” he father shouted down to him.
“KOKO!!!!!!” Kyou clawed into the ground as hard as he could.
“Forget!!” his father’s foot slammed down on his hand and Kyou fell back.
Kyou jumped from his bed and fell to the floor covered in a cold sweat, “Koko!!” he called out and clenched his fist. His body shook with anger as he buried his face into the ground. Slowly the shakes changed and he bit back the tears in his eyes. It was just a dream. Just a fantasy….Koko and mom never even had the chance to meet each other…
Sector 1: The Girls’ Apartment [ 01:35]
Arisa couldn’t sleep. She was sitting at the dining table doing research in the MRPA database and online. She had been thinking about what Keiko told her with Durim selling MS to humans under the street name Free. Something didn’t add up. How could Durim be selling MS while also having enough for himself into a crisis like this?
First she read Durim’s file and quickly decided there was no way he could have come up with this plan alone. He wasn’t smart enough to discover something so profitable like this. That’s when she scoured the MRPA database for mazoku’s with any kind of warrant out for their criminal behavior. Unfortunately that turned up with over 300 mazoku. She turned to the internet, searching for stories that matched even a vague description of what Keiko had seen at the VIP lounge. She narrowed down her suspect list to 10 mazoku that could have contact with the sectors those stories took place in.
But she could go further. She could narrow it down further.