Enid had let Miko have the window seat. They were sitting in first class. Enid had decided when she started this journey to rekindle her humanity to spare no expense in enjoying herself. She’d spent the better part of two thousand years living like a monk who’d taken a vow of poverty. She had money, lots of it, the amount of gold she’d collected over the years was enough to make a millionaire thirty times over. So, when she was traveling, or staying at a hotel, she lived like a queen.

“I had no idea you were this rich, Melanie-chan. Your apartment is so small, and you live so frugally.”

“Well, you don’t get rich by spending money.”

Miko giggled and took a bite from her meal.

“Do you always fly first class?”

“Yes, I don’t spend much money when I’m at school so when I am going on vacation, I treat myself.”

Enid glanced up as the stewardess passed. Enid returned her smile. This was the third flight they’d run into each other on. Enid had gone with the teenage look today instead of her power suit. Miko wasn’t dressed to impress and would have given it away anyway.

“Can we see Mount Fuji from the plane?”

“No, we’d have to be going further west. I’m sure we’ll see it when we go to the hot springs.”

“Where are we staying?”

“I have a presidential suite reserved for the week.”

Miko eyes went wide.

“That is too much.”

“It probably is.”

Enid smiled and leaned back in her chair. The flight was a short one, and when they landed, Enid was surprised to see Yasu there to greet her. He smiled.

“Cousin! Please come with me, I have the car waiting.”

“Sato-san, this is Isogai-san.”

Yasu gave a small bow.

“I am pleased to meet you Isogai-san.”

Miko returned the small bow.

“It is a pleasure to meet you Sato-san.”

Yasu lead them to his black Mercedes and opened the back door for the girls. He sat in the driver’s seat and began driving them to their hotel.

“Father said to make myself available if you need rides while you’re in town.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful, I still have no idea how to get around this city. I will need a ride to see Taichi.”

Yasu looked green at the mention of the oni’s name.

“I will be happy to do that. When will you be going?”

“Well, I was going to get our stuff dropped at the hotel and while Miko-chan is getting comfortable I was going to get it out of the way.”

Yasu pulled into the hotel and stopped by the front doors.

“I’ll wait here.”

Enid nodded. She went in with Miko and went to the front desk. The woman at the desk looked at the two girls. She spoke in English.

“How can we help you?”

“My name is Melanie Stuart. I have a suite that has been prepaid for the week.”

She looked skeptical at the statement. Then looked at her computer. And her eyes went wide.

“Oh, I’m sorry ma’am, here is your room keys, if you need anything please do not hesitate to ask.”

Enid passed a key to Miko and spoke in Japanese.

“Miko-chan, go upstairs and get comfortable, I’ll be back in an hour or two then we can go to dinner.”

Miko took the key and nodded. She looked like she was trying not to rush, so she ended up power walking to the elevator. Enid could tell by the look in her eyes she was very excited to be at such a posh hotel. Enid turned back to the desk clerk speaking Japanese.

“Thank you, could you have some chocolates sent up for her? She is very excited to be here, and I want to make it a stay to remember.”

“Of course, Stuart-san, thank you for choosing our hotel.”

Enid went back out to Yasu and got in the car.

“How have you been?”

“Business has been good here; Father’s been doing better since the last time you were here. He earned a lot of respect by brokering the deal.”

“I’m glad he has profited from it. So far, I have not had to do any work. Which is good because school is really hard.”

“So why are you going to see the oni?”

“When I spoke to him last, I asked him for some information. He apparently found something useful, but wouldn’t tell anyone but me, and he wouldn’t talk over the phone.”

“I don’t think he can be trusted.”

“I know he can’t be trusted, but he has contacts I do not, so I will have to live with not trusting him.”

“You know you can just turn your back on all this and go to school like a normal girl, right?”

“Where’s the fun in that? Though I admit I could live without the smell.”

Yasu laughed.

“I am serious, why get involved with all this?”

Enid sighed.

“I have a responsibility to the world. I ran away from it for a long time. People suffered. So, I’ve decided to accept my duty.”

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

“You’re right.”

“Spiderman!”

“Who?”

Yasu shook his head and laughed.

“For a Gaijin you don’t really know much about Gaijin stuff, do you?”

Enid shook her head. Yasu pulled up in front of the bath house.

“Are you coming?”

“I’m going to stay here, keep an eye on the car, bad area of town.”

Enid smirked and nodded. She went into the bathhouse and ignored the old Chinese woman at the front desk and walked towards the back. She saw Taichi’s bodyguard who saw her coming and stepped out of her way quickly, opening the door for her. The humidity and smell hit her like a wall.

“This better be worth my time oni.”

Taichi was soaking in the murky pool at the back of the room. He smiled when he saw her showing two rows of razor-sharp teeth.

“Demon hunter. You finally arrive.”

He stood and walked out of the pool; Enid looked away.

“Cover that up, whatever it is.”

He laughed and she heard him pulling a towel around himself. He sat down and lit a cigar.

“I have some info for you, you were looking for the faceless vampire. I found him.”

“And what is this information going to cost me?”

“It was expensive to track him down, had to grease a few palms, lost a man.”

“Just give me a price.”

“Well, I don’t need money at the moment but what I do need is your unique set of skills.”

“Who do you want dead?”

“You don’t beat around the bush.”

“Well, if you don’t want money, and you need my unique set of skills, then you want someone dead.”

“True, true, there’s a man who stole something he shouldn’t have. I need him dead, and the specimen retrieved.”

“I don’t do humans, only monsters.”

“Well, he is a monster; He stole a rare strain of a virus form a bio-research lab. Could be used as a bio-weapon, he wants to sell it on the open market.”

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“Why me? I’m sure there are dozens of people who could do this for you.”

“He has two hell hounds and a werewolf guarding the specimen. Along with his other treasures.”

“So, are these actual hell hounds, from hell, or the kind vampires make?”

“I thought there was only one kind. Here this will help.”

He put his cigar in his mouth and held it with his teeth while pulled out a case. He placed it on the table and opened it. Flourishing with is hand. Enid quirked an eyebrow. She was familiar enough with guns, she’d had enough shot at her in the last few centuries. This one was in pieces and probably something for long range. Enid didn’t know much about guns, just that they shot bullets they were annoying and basically useless against her.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?”

“Kill the thief.”

“I don’t do guns, they’re useless.”

“Useless?”

“The stuff I kill either needs to be burned, pushed into sunlight, beheaded or in very rare instances needs to have their soul eaten.”

“So, you don’t use guns?”

“No, I have no idea how to use a gun.”

“You’re Yakuza and you don’t know how to use a gun?”

“I think I’ve seen maybe five guns in the entire time I’ve been with the Yakuza. They don’t use them much either. They draw attention. How dangerous is this virus?”

“Ever heard of pandora’s box?”

“Yes.”

“That dangerous, the scientists called the lab they were working on it in, pandora’s box.”

“It wasn’t a box; It was a jar.”

“You act like you were there.”

“I knew someone who was.”

He puffed on his cigar. Scratching the scales on the back of his head.

“Anyway, you take care of this problem for my client, and I will consider us even and give you the location of the faceless vampire.”

“Fine. Where is the specimen, and where is the thief?”

“Lady at the front will have a file. Do be careful with the specimen there is no vaccine and it’s deadly.”

“Ya, ya, got it. You better not be fucking with me, I will literally suck your soul out of your nose if you are.”

“Hey, I’m good for it.”

Enid started to head towards the front of the bathhouse. As she went through the door of Taichi’s personal bath she called out with a playful note to her voice.

“No one in Tokyo believes that.”

Enid stopped by the front desk and the lady there passed her a plain manilla envelope. She sighed and shook her head when she saw Yasu.

“Didn’t go well?”

“It’s complicated. He wants me to do a job first.”

“What kind of job?”

“The kind where someone dies, or a lot of people die.”

“You need some back up?”

“While I appreciate the offer, No I will be fine. Probably would have been easier with the gun.”

“Gun?”

“He tried to give me a gun that was in pieces, I don’t even know how to use one let alone assemble one. Crazy fishbrain.”

“A sniper rifle?”

“Whatever that is.”

“It’s for shooting people far away.”

“It doesn’t matter I don’t do guns.”

“You should, they have their uses.”

Enid sighed and collapsed back into the seat tossing the folder to the side. And rode silently for a few minutes then she sat up.

“Actually, I could use help.”

“What do you need?”

Enid reached into her bag and pulled out a several thousand American dollars.

“I need a motorcycle, something fast enough to do something stupid on, black if possible.”

“Are you sure? Those aren’t safe for…”

“I’m sure I need to be able to get around fast and I can’t exactly fly.”

Yasu laughed.

If only you knew.

“Hopefully Miko is tired out and I can do this tonight. How fast can you get the bike?”

Yasu did a quick count of the money.

“With this much? An hour or two.”

“If you can get it in two hours, you can have the change.”

“Done. But don’t you want to do some investigation first? Find out what you’re up against?”

“Why? It won’t change anything; I don’t do surgical. I kick down doors.”

“Okay, I’ll get you the bike.”

Yasu pulled up to the front of the hotel.

“Drop the keys at the front desk. I’ll see you soon. And if something blows up, it wasn’t me.”

Yasu laughed nervously and pulled away. Enid went up to her suite. Miko was sprawled out on the couch eating chocolate but scrambled to look more proper when she noticed Enid.

“You ate all the chocolates!”

“I umm.”

“I’m teasing you, I got them for you. You aren’t going to have any room for supper.”

“How did your meeting go?”

“It could have gone better, thanks for asking. I hope you don’t mind but I’m tired tonight, so I might go to bed early.”

“I am tired as well. And full, maybe we can do supper tomorrow night.”

“Let’s do that.”

Enid took the time to have a shower then laid in her bed and pretended to fall asleep. Waiting for Miko to start snoring lightly. She got up and went into the main room of the suite and started looking over the information she had been provided. Two buildings, one was an Aurelius Corporation building.

Mother’s name, weird.

The other building was a residential one. The man lived in the penthouse. She looked at the picture. He was a gaijin. She read the file provided, south African. She perused the sheets of paper. There was also a photo of a yellow box with a biohazard symbol on it and instructions for safe handling. She glanced down at her digital timex. She’d bought it at Miko’s instance so she could set alarms.

Ten pm, bike should be here.

She pulled dug through the interdimensional pack and pulled out the Atlantean body suit. And the motorcycle helmet she’d acquired when she stole the motorcycle in Naha. She pulled them on. She flexed in the black body suit. She felt it hum for a few seconds and could see small pinpoints of blue light at various points on it. Marianna had told her that the suit absorbed incoming kinetic energy, though she’d described it differently, but now that Enid had been taking high school science and was in science club she had a far better understanding of physics and proper terminology. Basically the suit would nullify physical energy, perhaps even reflect energy that made contact with it to a certain point where the batteries were empty and it had to recharge, which it did from ambient magical energy. Enid hit herself in the chest and found she couldn’t make contact with the suit’s material when she did it with force. She shrugged and pulled on her trench coat.

She rode the elevator down and got a strange look from a couple that happened to get on a few floors below her. She ignored them and focused on the task at hand. Once the elevator reached the main floor she went to the front desk. It was a man this time. She put her helmet on the front desk.

“Hi, were there any packages dropped off for me, Melanie Stuart, presidential suite.”

He bowed slightly.

“Ah yes, here you go.”

Enid took the offered keys and walked out of the hotel. She saw the bike almost immediately. And whistled to herself. Yasu had outdone himself. It was a sleek black racing motorcycle that looked fast enough to something stupid on.

Almost sad I can’t take this home. Still miss Noctis, but this will do.

She pulled her helmet on and started the bike up. It roared to life, and she sped off into the streets of Tokyo. There was something about the devices these humans had come up with. Sure, she could move faster without them but there was a certain skill and balance to high-speed motorcycle riding. Enid was starting to understand Eyre’s fascination with fast cars and breaking speed limits. Altering time made everything slow but a vampire. This was just real speed. She grinned under the tinted visor of her helmet and gunned the engine. The motorcycle was very responsive. And if she was doing this during the day there is no way she’d go this fast. Supernatural reflexes made it fun.

Enough fun.

Enid pulled off the expressway and coasted to a stop in front of the high-rise apartment building the file had indicated the arms dealer lived at. She pulled Bloodseeker out of her pack and strapped it to her waist. She could feel its eagerness.

“You’re going to drink tonight old friend.”

She walked through the front doors and a security guard rushed out from a desk. She did a spinning back kick hitting him full in the chest. He went down gasping for breath.

“You’ll be alright I didn’t hit you hard enough to do permanent damage. Elevator keys.”

She made a give me motion with her hand. The security guard gasped for breath. His shaking hands had some difficulty pulling the keys off his belt, but he put them in her hand. She pulled his belt out and wrapped it around his wrists tying him up. And pat him on the head. She went to the elevator and used the key to unlock the penthouse and rode the elevator up. It opened with a ding.

The penthouse had a lot of windows. She could identify several valuable pieces with her first glance. The owner obviously prided himself on showing off his wealth.

Nice place.

She saw a bigger man, gaijin coming walking out of a hallway. He was strapped, having two guns in a conceal holster. He didn’t have a jacket on. He was eating a sandwich and talking with his mouth full.

“Wasn’t expecting…”

Enid didn’t let him finish she hit him with an uppercut he went down hard. She heard bone break. She pulled the guns out of their holsters and threw them in her pack. She checked his pulse. He was unconscious but his jaw was dislocated. But his pulse was strong.

Ouch. Oops too hard.

She went back to the elevator and locked them both in place. She pushed further into the apartment. She pulled her helmet off and put it in her pack. Leaning on the wall she could hear the someone talking. Accent was south African.

“Aw, that is terrible. You suck!”

Enid peaked around the corner. It was another large man with his back to the door he was watching a soccer game. Enid slipped in behind him and wrapped her arm around his neck putting him in a chokehold his legs twitched as he tried to pull out of the hold but Enid at night, no mortal stood a chance. He eventually passed out she took his guns out and dropped them in her pack as well. She gently laid him on the ground.

She made her way further into the penthouse. She heard a woman laughing and signed. She pulled the helmet out of her bag and put it back on. Enid pushed the bedroom door she found her target with two Japanese ladies all three were nude. The women screamed he reached for a gun and shot Enid. The bullet ricocheted off the field her suit was generating and hit one of the ladies.

Fuck.

She altered time and was kneeling on top of the target pinning him down. She glanced at the one who had been hit. Was only her shoulder. She’d live. She punched him in the face throwing the gun out the window and into the pool. She looked at the woman to the right.

“Get her out of her and get her help. This is Yakuza business. You were never here. Go, now.”

The man was unconscious from the punch. Enid pulled her helmet off after the two ladies left. She poured some of the cold champagne on his face. Slapping his cheek.

“Wakey, wakey.”

He shifted walking up and immediately started holding his nose his voice sounded very nasally. She did actually break his nose.

“You broke my nose you crazy bitch.”

Enid punched him again.

“I am many things, but crazy is not one of them.”

“Okay, okay, what do you want?”

“You stole something that you really shouldn’t have. The owners want you dead. I’m ambivalent on the situation. And would prefer no one dies. But my sword is thirsty. And I haven’t fed it in a year or so. You see my dilemma. Your kind of an asshole, you shot at me, then you called me crazy. So, I’ll tell you what make it worth my while to let you live.”

“I have money, how much do you want?”

“No, I don’t need money. I know what I do need though, my employer’s property back. I understand you have it stored in a vault at an Aurelius Corporation building. Being guarded by a werewolf and two hell hounds. Now if you can tell me how to retrieve said property without killing the werewolf, I would be inclined to possibly let you live. My family and the werewolves we have an agreement, we don’t hunt each other. He might actually do some damage before I take him down, so best if I can just release him from whatever geas you’ve got him under.”

He spit blood at Enid.

“Fuck you, you crazy bitch. You can’t kill me you need me to open the vault.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“Retinal scanner.”

He laughed. Enid laughed. His eyes when wide when she laughed. She stood up and swept Bloodseeker through his neck. Removing his head. She picked up the head and looked him in the eyes.

“Silly human, I just need your head then.”

She wrapped it in plastic bags and put it in her pack. She stabbed blood seeker into his body letting it take its fill. Then threw the body in the pool. She ran to the edge of the building and jumped off slowing her decent with her flight and landing on the pavement of a back alley below. She hopped on her motorcycle and started on the way to Aurelius corporation. She sped off past police cars that were heading in the direction of the building.

Gunshot must have tipped them off.

She revved the engine and peeled out once around the corner. She wasted no time putting distance between the crime scene and herself. Aurelius’s Japanese headquarters wasn’t far though. She walked inside. The security guard who was also a gaijin looked up at her. She pulled off her helmet and gave him a smile. He looked unimpressed.

“Palm please.”

He pointed to a pole with the indent of a hand. She put her hand in and she felt a prick on her finger.

“Hey what was that.”

The guard blinked at his computer screen and tapped some keeps and took a closer look.

“I’m sorry ma’am, I didn’t know who you were. Please go inside. An assistant will be here immediately.”

Enid went inside and waited. A Japanese woman came out of door she bowed deeply.

“Ms. Aurelius.”

Enid’s eyes went wide, her name was technically Enid Aurelius. She hadn’t used it in thousands of years.

“I apologize we had not expected someone so important. Had we forewarning we would have prepared. A thousand apologies.”

“I have never been in one of your buildings before.”

“You are one of our oldest account owners. Your account indicates you are to receive VIP treatment. I once again apologize for our lack of preparedness.”

“It is alright, I need to check a vault.”

“Of course, this way.”

The woman led Enid to an elevator that went down several floors. And led her to a room. With a solid steel door.

“Could I get some privacy?”

“Yes of course ma’am.”

Enid glanced around. No cameras. Once the lady had left Enid pulled the head out of the bag and put the eye in front of the scanner. The door opened and screens on the walls indicated her fastest route to the vault. She got to the vault and put the eye in front of the scanner there. The door slid open. Inside were like several treasures thought lost in World War 2, among other things. She spotted the bio-hazard container and started walking towards it when she heard a sound like stone cracking and gravel falling. She spun around to look towards the sound and two hell hound statues and a werewolf in wolf-human form had come to life and were lunging at her. She managed to avoid the hell hounds, but the statue had her by the neck and was crushing her. She dropped the head and struggled to pull the vice like stone fingers from her throat.

That’s embarrassing, I even knew they were there.

She felt the hell hounds chewing on her suit’s legs. The suit was keeping them from doing any actual damage for now. But she could tell the power wouldn’t last long. She could sense it was draining quickly. She pulled Bloodseeker out and with some wrangling sliced it up cutting off the werewolf statue’s arms. The statue regrew the arms and lunged at her again she tripped saving her from being grappled again but the hounds were on top of her. She punched the closest one three times and it crumbled to chucks of stone. That was enough for her to scramble away from the other by diving through the werewolf’s feet.

Sword’s useless need to smash them.

She grabbed an expensive looking gold statue of a sphynx and bashed the hell hound twisting the golden art piece but destroying the hound. The werewolf used the distraction to take a gouge out of her back. She cried out, the wound burned, and his claws tore through her armor. She whirled around with using the golden statue like a club delivering a two handed blow. The stone crumbled to rocky debris. She looked at the statue. It was unrecognizable. She tossed it aside and grabbed the bio-hazard box. She glanced around the vault. Scanning for anything portable enough to take. She noticed books on a shelf. She scanned the list of titles. She pulled several volumes and put them in her pack. And pulled out a replacement trench coat tossing her torn one in, along with Bloodseeker. She walked back out of the vault doing her best to conceal her discomfort the wound on her back was bad. But she couldn’t deal with it now. The woman met her as she left the vaults.

“Is everything ma’am?”

“Fine, it’s just been a long night.”

Enid let herself be led out of the building and went to her bike. The ride to the hotel was painful. Every shift in her weight and turn sent shooting pains through her whole back. She hobbled back to her room. Thankfully the hotel was deserted by three am and she didn’t run into anyone on her way to the room.

She stumbled into the room holding her side and rushed to the washroom tossing her coat on the ground it had blood on it and she could see it oozing out of the tears in the suit. She looked in the mirror. The stone wolf’s claws had gouged the flesh of her side, but her back was fine. She could see pieces of the stone claw embedded on the wound. Her flesh was trying to heal but could not eject the debris which were fighting to dig deeper into her flesh.

She dug through her pack and pulled out a pair of pliers. She reached down and grabbed the first piece of debris. She took a deep breath and yanked. She cried out when she pulled the first piece of stone from it and dropped it in the sink. She was breathing heavily, even though she had no need to breath. She pulled out the next piece and cried out again. She heard a gasp. Miko was standing at the threshold of the bathroom eyes wide.

“It’s not what it looks like.”

“Melanie-chan what happened?”

“Long story? I promise I will explain but can you help me get these pieces of stone out? They are digging deeper, and they are going to kill me.”

“We should call an ambulance; You need a doctor.”

“Please Miko, if you are my friend at all just help me get the fragments out.”

Miko bit her lip her eyes darting to the room phone and Enid’s pleading face. She took a deep breath and walked over to Enid.

“What do you need me to do Melanie-chan?”

“Use these pliers, pull the pieces out. You need to hurry before the get too deep and we can’t find them.”

Enid offered up the pair of blood covered needle nose pliers. Miko took them gingerly. They were grease covered; A bit rusty.

“This doesn’t seem sanitary or healthy.”

“I’ll be fine; Just get the shards out.”

Miko gingerly reached in with the pliers grabbing another piece of stone and yanked hard. Enid could feel it ripping flesh away with it. She cried out again. The pain was unlike anything she’d gone through save childbirth.

“God damn it, what the hell is that stuff?”

“I don’t know Melanie-chan.”

Miko paused, the pliers were around the second to last piece of stone.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t get a doctor?”

“Just get them out. Don’t worry about hurting me, it’s better then dying.”

Miko grabbed the shard and pulled, Enid doubled over in pain. Miko grabbed the last and yanked Enid screamed falling to the floor clutching her side. The pieces of stone were twitching in the sink bouncing trying to get out. Enid pulled herself up with the counter. Miko jumped back from them. Enid grabbed them one at a time with the pliers and crushed them to dust and rinsed them down the sink. She gasped for breath a few times and her wound sealed itself up as if she’d never been hurt.

“Holy shit, that was nasty. Don’t let the stone werewolf get its claws in you. Lesson learned.”

Miko watched everything with wide eyes.

“I guess you want an explanation.”

Miko nodded still looking a bit lost. Enid glanced down at the blood covered biohazard container.