Sector 6: The Warehouses [19:40]
“You ready for this?” Aku asked Arisa who was shifting into Durim. Her skin bubbled and shifted. Arisa winced slightly as she stretched her bones to match Durim’s height. The two were just outside the warehouse lot that was listed as Masahiko’s last known location. After a moment the bubbling faded and her appearance settled to Durim.
Arisa stared at herself in the mirror and replied, her voice still unchanged, “This looks like him right?”
Aku looked at the photo of him and then back at Arisa, “Perfect. Now the voice.”
Arisa sighed and pushed the button on her omni-book, the nerve connection prongs poked her. Using the MRPA database she could put her own voice through a filter of Durim’s voice sample on file, “How’s that?”
Aku gave a thumbs up, “Judging by the amount of guards in this place I’d say Masahiko is definitely up to something-” she stopped, seeing the nervous look spreading over Arisa’s face. After seeing the amount of guards surrounding this place, the right thing to do would have been to report back to MRPA and request a team, but Aku didn’t want to risk spooking them before they got the information she needed. Besides, Arisa’s ability was designed for this kind of mission, and this was the perfect opportunity to show it, “Don’t worry. I’ll be in the shadows the whole time. The moment something dangerous happens I’ll be right there to back you up.”
Arisa let out a nervous breath and tried to relax, “I’ve got this.”
“You got this,” Aku smiled. Why bother to help ‘er? You won’ save ‘er
Arisa turned from Aku and walked into the maze of warehouses. She widened her stance and tried to walk in a way that would match Durim’s appearance. She felt awkward, like a penguin, but consistency is key. While the guards might have been wary of seeing agents, with her disguised as Durim, if they were involved in Free, they wouldn’t try and fight...Arisa hoped. There was no proof that Masahiko was involved with Free at all, but he was most definitely someone working between the lines of the law. An unfriendly face would not be welcomed here.
“Hey!” a large, bald man in a suit was speed walking toward her.
She jolted in surprise but hardened her resolve not to be caught, “Oh finally a person! I’ve been lost in this maze for a while now!” she tried to do that half smirk thing that she had seen Seiji do once.
The man looked at her up and down for a moment, “Who are you??”
She gulped, “Ahhhh-” she rubbed the back of her head annoyed.She doubled down, “Masahiko doesn’t tell his men about me anymore eh? I’m Durim.”
The man startled back, “Durim?” he paused, “You weren’t expected.”
“Ah well- I got into a bit of trouble and need some help….” she stopped herself from directly asking the man for the drugs.
“Follow me.”
She followed the man without question through the maze of warehouses until the made it to a warehouse surrounded with men in suits just like the one she was following, “Wait here,” he said back to her as he continued into the warehouse.
She forced herself to stand still and look as bored as possible. This is OK. I’ve got this, he believes that I’m Durim. Just keep breathing. Just keep acting like Seiji and it will all be OK.
After a few moments the warehouse door opened and from it came a man the omni-book immediately identified as Masahiko, “Oh ho Durim what a surprise this is!!”
She walked toward him as well and laughed nervously, “Well I’m sure you heard what happened...”
Masahiko laughed, “I told you to be more discreet than a nightclub! I heard you had MRPA and STAM on your ass.”
That’s it! He’s definitely involved somehow! He has to be!! “Hindsight is 20/20..”
She heard Aku’s voice inside her head from the nerve connection, “Just go with it for now. Let’s see what information we can get from him before arresting him.”
Sector 7: Residential District [17:12]
Keiko crashed through the window of the lobby, rolling to the ground outside. Ryu had slammed into her and pushed her through the window. There were more burns on her body and small cuts from the glass. Her lungs seized as less and less oxygen moved through her blood. She pushed her body up but noticed too late the string around her wrist. She was hoisted up in the air dangling under a large tree. Ryu ran out to see Hiro holding the string tight from the ground, “Oh Hiro nice!”
Keiko growled, she could almost hear the head nurse and Ojii yelling at her to disengage. How am I supposed to escape without fighting when one of them literally puts me on a leash?
“Give her some juice,” Ryu looked up at her, “-lightly.” he quickly added.
Keiko closed her eyes and took a smooth, deep breath- fighting the urge to cough and choke. She swung her body around and planted her feet firmly on the underside of the branch she und from. Her core was clenched, forcing her breaths to continue to hold her position upside down. She yanked the wire, feeling it cut into her wrist.
Quickly, Hiro tapped his dog tags and sent an electric current through the wire.
Keiko screamed, one leg slipping from it’s position, but quickly made a small air barrier between the wire and the skin on her wrist. She would tire soon. She focused on the air pushing her upside down, the air insulating her, and the air she used to pull the wire- it was exhausting. She feared one more hit from either of them would leave her defenseless.
“What the?!”
She heard Hiro shout from below, but she didn’t waste any time. She pushed off from the tree branch, propelling herself toward the ground yanking the wire with it. Hiro was pulled up to the tree branch. He slammed into it, knocking his glasses from his face. He gripped it tightly trying to regain stability, but he dangled helplessly from the branch.
She slipped from the wire but turned to see Ryu running at her full speed. She felt dizzy, she was tired. But she couldn’t afford to be tackled by him again. Keiko sucked a lung full of air deep in her diaphragm and held it tight. She sent a fierce wind at him to push him back. He braced for the impact and only pushed back a few feet.
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She pushed harder, sending more wind- breaking the windows in the building behind him.
Ryu sunk his heels into the earth but braced.
Keiko screamed and pushed a harsh gust at Ryu, this time pushing him from his defense and throwing him back several hundred yards.
Keiko fell to her knees and coughed desperately, sucking air in her body, but she knew she had no time to rest. Quickly, she pushed herself up and ran through the block of apartments. She was dizzy, the many wounds from Ryu were taking away her oxygen. She slammed a button on the omni-book as she turned the corner and ducked into a building, finally letting her body collapse on the cold floor. She heaved short, sporadic gasps for air trying to retain her consciousness. In her eyes a signal flashed that someone was en route for her and she passed out.
When Ryu finally made it back over to Hiro, he was on the ground staring up at the sky, “Where’d she go?”
Hiro didn’t respond.
Ryu sighed as he looked back at all the glass blown from the building, “She sure did quite the damage...”
A raindrop fell on Hiro’s glasses.
“We should head back before it pours,” Ryu held his hand out to help Hiro up.
Hiro ignored the hand and stood dusting off his pants, “Yeah.”
Sector 6: Just outside the warehouses [19:59]
Kyou and Kenji were walking just along the edge of the warehouse maze. From here they could see over the many containers. Kenji walked ahead of Kyou with his spear over his shoulders, “These patrol missions are so lame!!! Why do we just walk around and...”
Kyou had quickly learned how to ignore Kenji’s ranting. They had been sent to this Sector because these warehouses were suspicious. Activity here had increased over the past few weeks. They were here to figure out if it was human activity or mazoku activity. Kyou saw movement somewhere in the maze of warehouses and pulled out his binoculars from his dog tags to get a better picture. There were many men in suits standing around a particular container. At the entrance there was a copper haired man and a shorter blonde man talking, “Kenji.”
He interrupted Kenji’s continued complaints, “Huh?” he turned and trotted back to where Kyou was, “What?? Did you find something?”
Kyou handed him the binoculars, “That blonde guy. Is he the owner of that club Shou and Seiji sacked?”
Kenji looked through the lenses, “Uhhhhhh….” he handed the binoculars back to Kyou, “They look suspicious enough to ransack the place.”
Kyou looked once more and saw the two men walk into the container, “Alright. Let’s capture some mazoku then.”
In the container Masahiko was opening a box to show Durim, “I can help you out for now but you should probably go to Teddy after this...”
Teddy?? “Yeah I was planning on it….”
“You know how to get in contact with him right?” Masahiko motioned him over to take the box.
No? He shuffled over to take the box, unsure of how to respond, “I just don’t want to get yelled at...” he laughed nervously.
Masahiko bursted into laughter, “Teddy yelling at someone? Now that would be a treat!”
The door to the container slammed open with one of Masahiko’s guards falling to the ground.
“What’s this about?!” Masahiko screamed.
Arisa gasped. She saw Kyou and Kenji rushing for the door and dropped the box of MS. She grabbed Masahiko by the shoulder and pushed him into a pile of boxes.
“What the hell Durim?!”
“Don’t move!” she shouted at him trying to cover him in boxes, “Shut your eyes!” she screamed just as Kyou entered the container and a bright light enveloped the container.
Kyou’s anti mazoku weapon didn’t come out of his dog tags like the other agents. Instead, he wore his weapon on his shoulder and it wrapped around his arm. The shoulder contained the battery that powered the strong light he produced at the end of the hand piece. The light only affected mazoku and would paralyze them in place depending on how long they were directly exposed. “They all cuffed?” he turned to Kenji who had dealt with the men in suits outside.
Kenji gave him a thumbs up before walking into the container, “Well, well, well...” he saw the spilled box of pills, “Quite the supply they’ve got here eh?”
Kyou sighed, “Start cuffing. I already called the retrieval squad.” Kyou walked toward the blonde man. He had been facing away from Kyou’s light but it was still likely he had been at least partially affected.
“KYOU!”
Kyou hesitated at Kenji’s shout and saw a blade come down just in front of him. He faltered back seeing the albino take the space between him and the blonde mazoku.
Immediately she turned and went to strike Kyou again, but Kenji blocked the slash by holding his spear out.
“Where’s that light of yours?!” Kenji barked and he pushed the albino from him.
“Recharging!” Kyou jumped to his feet and regained his composure.
Aku looked nervously at Arisa. Her eyes were closed, so it was likely she would be freed from the paralysis soon. She couldn’t take her through the void while paralyzed since she wouldn’t be able to stop her body from breathing. She gripped down on her sword and faced Kenji; it would be a good opportunity to gauge the new agent. You could go ahead and kill ‘im. It’d be easy fur you. I kno it would be.
She leapt forward at Kenji with simple frontal assault. He moved to block the attack. She jumped into the shadow beneath him and came out from the box’s shadow beside him. He moved in an instant dodging the attack but still came out with a shallow cut on his arm. He grinned widely, “Interesting,”
Aku lunged again this time into her own shadow. Kenji’s eyes focused on all the shadows around him. Aku came up from his shadow leading with a kick to his ankle. He immediately leapt to the air, grabbing her leg and throwing her into the wall, “You’re gonna have to move faster than that!!”
Kyou watched from slightly back. It didn’t seem like Kenji particularly wanted or needed his assistance. His attention was drawn back to the blonde man, his back suddenly began to bubble up and morph.
“What the fuck...” he closed the distance between them carefully, watching in amazement as the man became slightly shorter, his hair longer and darker, the once muscular arms slimming to a more feminine shape. He came to the side of the once man, shocked to see a woman with black hair, still paralyzed in the place of the blonde man. The clothes she had worn were now oversized. “A shapeshifter?” Kyou looked at her carefully. He had never seen or heard of a shape shifting mazoku before. He thought back to how the albino had protected her from being cuffed and wondered if she was perhaps a mazoku agent and not just a mazoku. That would explain the presence of a black agent here as well. The shapeshifter’s eyes suddenly burst open, her body breaking from the paralysis. She screamed, her voice was deep and strange, at seeing Kyou just beside her.
She fell back covering her mouth.
Kyou furrowed his brow bemused.
She slammed her hand on the small watch on her wrist and coughed. She looked over at the albino and Kenji, then back to him, “K-Kyoushirou.”
Her voice was now more fitting to her image, “Oh a mazoku that knows my name...” he glared at her, “Yet I can’t say I’ve seen you before….or have I?”
Shivers went up her spine, but she felt fear sink into her body. I’m scared. I’m scared of Kyoushirou…
“A shapeshifter,” the words seemed coated in poison as they fell from his mouth.
She winced at the attack. She had never heard his voice so venomous before.
He grabbed her arm and rolled her over on the ground, trapping her arms behind her back, “STAM would love to study you I bet.”
On complete instinct, the skin on her hands shifted up to form sharp horns and she sliced up on him before scrambling to her feet.
Kyou cursed, shaking the blood from his hands and glaring at her.
She felt a pain in her chest. She couldn’t look at him, but she saw his blood on her hands. Kyoushirou… her body trembled with fear at him before her, but her heart seized with pain. She had never felt this way before. She had never truly realized how much of an enemy she was to him. He ran at her, the look in his eyes filled with contempt.
She couldn’t move. Her body felt completely frozen. Kyoushirou