Erina looked around as they walked. The shops were open and the lights were on, but now that she looked closer, the signs weren't written in Japanese… or any language, for that matter. They were just a bunch of squiggles that resembled a language. Was that a bicycle shop? But all the bikes seemed to be fused together, and none of them quite looked like a functional bike…

  She slowed down as they passed through the center of the mall. Where there was normally a fixture of trees under a skylight, there instead stood a huge black spire. Tall, winding, and craggy, it spiraled up in a rough jagged outline, stretching far, far into the sky. It seemed to be covered in black plating of some kind. Erina could see it coming off in places. Glimpses of bright sharp brass peeked out from underneath.

  Erina looked up, and up, and up. This thing had to be as tall as any of the skyscrapers.

  "Oh, that?" Akira came back to the girl that had stopped walking. "That's a Lynchpin."

  "Lynchpin?"

  There was a pause. Erina could feel the tug of war between Akira's urge to snark and the need to actually explain.

  "People don't exactly believe in myths these days, do they?" began Akira. "Faith's got power. When people gather, praying to a god, cowering in fear of monsters in the night… that faith coalesces and takes form. That's what you'd call kami and youkai. Living concepts. But when people stopped believing, and that faith dries up, what happens to those things made of it?"

  "They would disappear, wouldn't they?"

  "Yeah, if nothing was around to stop it. Say, by parting the world into physical and spiritual halves?" Akira jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at the spire. "That's what that thing does. Holds up the barrier that keeps the idea of a Surface and Reverse in place."

  Erina hastily took a few steps away from it.

  "Easy, now!" Akira laughed and clapped her on the back. "It's not gonna hurt you."

  "Still…" Erina felt like something that important wasn't something to play around with.

  Akira turned and gave the Lynchpin a good kick. The plating rattled with a gonging sound. Erina covering her ears didn't stop them from ringing.

  "Notice how no one's guarding it?" said Akira. "Sturdier than they look, and they're all over Japan. Even if I smashed this thing to pieces, one or two falling won't cause the end of the world. Anyway, that's not what we're here for."

  Erina spared the Lynchpin one more lingering look, and then followed Akira.

  She led her back to the bubble tea cafe she pointed out earlier, but stopped just shy of rounding the corner. Akira motioned for Erina to peek. It took sometime for the crowd of souls to clear, but she saw it. Where the barista stood, there was instead a glowing soul—and something else on top of it.

  Actually, wrapped around it was more accurate. There was a massive black centipede entwined around the hazy figure, its body relaxing and contracting in rhythmic waves. Erina pegged it as somewhere around a good dozen feet long, if not more. Bright orange legs skittered from place to place, digging into the soul as they looked for better purchase. The centipede completely enveloped where the barista's head would have been, burying it in a tangle of black and orange. It made Erina's skin crawl just to imagine anyone's body tangled up under that.

  "Pop quiz," said Akira. "Know what that is?"

  Erina racked her brain for the fitting name. "…Omukade?"

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  "Bingo."

  A man-eating youkai resembling a giant centipede, said to grow large enough to span mountains, with venom that would leave a dragon in convulsions. Erina asked, "What is it doing?"

  "What does it look like it's doing?" said Akira. "Eating. It'll take some time, but having a youkai latched onto you is like a curse. Makes you a magnet for misfortune. If you're lucky, your tragedies just keep on piling up, and then—oh, who knows? Hit by a car? Tripped onto the subway line? Miscount your medication and down twenty at once?"

  Erina frowned. She repeated, "If you're lucky?"

  "When you're unlucky, you live long enough to become a body with its soul eaten."

  Erina looked again the omukade. She had a bad feeling about where this was going, and by the way Akira was looking at her, Erina felt she was exactly right.

  "Me?" said Erina.

  "Let's see it." Akira grinned. "Don't worry about collateral. You won't hit the others."

  Erina pursed her lips. It was an easy shot, but from what she remembered, a key point of the omukade was its sturdy exoskeleton. Nothing could pierce it, save for its one weakness—human saliva, which was toxic to them. Simple enough, but how was Erina going to do that? Spit on it? She couldn't exactly put her saliva in a laser bolt.

  She motioned and the constructed spear appeared in her hands. Erina really wished Akira would stop staring as she let a dollop of saliva dribble onto the spear tip. Ears tinged red, Erina spun the spear over in hand, the spell circles formed before her, and the spear ramped up to rocketing speeds as she threw it through the array of seals.

  A thunderous clap, a burst of light, and the branches of lightning burst every which way as her spear struck true. A high-pitched, rapid noise filled the air, like mandibles gnashing together.

  And the omukade slammed down right in front of Erina, launched so hard by the impact that it had bounced off the wall and rebounded all the way here—writhing, twisting, juices flying from its wound, but very much alive and angry!

  The monstrous centipede righted itself and Erina yelped. Her legs betrayed her, one foot tripping over the other as the omukade lunged—

  One hard stomp came down and its head splattered on the floor, cracks emanating across the floor and Erina's blazer flecked with bright purple blood. Akira ground her boot into the floor as the centipede writhed under it. Green-black fluid mixed with the blood in a viscous ooze, and the omukade stopped moving.

  "Not the best reactions." Akira wiped her boot on the floor. "Might wanna work on that before it kills you."

  "S-Sorry." Erina got up and looked at the dead centipede. It was so gross… "Is this fine?"

  "Whatcha mean?"

  "It can't be killed without saliva…"

  "Hah?" Akira raised an eyebrow at her. "This look un-killed to you?"

  The centipede's head was a pile of mashed bits in a small crater on the floor, in a puddle of purplish blood and burning green-black venom. Okay, that did look killed. But how? Maybe it was just the difference between using a knife or a hammer on a sheet of armor? Or what about that venom?

  "Shinjuku's a hotbed of supernatural activity ever since it got blasted to shit," said Akira. "Feral youkai crawling out the woodwork all the time. Real pain in the ass. This'll be part of the job for you from now on, so best to get your feet wet while I've got time to show you the ropes."

  "Oh. I see. Um, thank you, Akira."

  "Yeah, and you've also got some homework to—" Akira stopped, and an expression of intense focus took over her face.

  Erina tensed up. "Akira?"

  Akira whirled and flung a knife straight into the rafters. Erina heard the beat of flapping wings, and a bird took flight as the knife clattered against the roof. The second knife, thrown right after the first, intercepted the bird and sunk cleanly into its chest.

  Erina jumped as the bird crashed down in front of them. But where she expected to see blood, she saw… light? As it flapped and spun futilely, Erina identified it as a falcon, albeit with eyes of pure glowing white, bleeding glimmers of light in place of blood. Its struggles diminished as its power left it, and then the falcon fell still. Its body collapsed into pure light energy, and faded to nothing.

  "Tch." Akira spun a third knife in hand before returning it to its holster on her thigh. "Government drones. Stupid fuckers. Erina, if you see a bird in the Reverse, it's not a real bird. Kill 'em on sight."

  "I-I see…"

  "Where was I? Yeah. Homework. Look into brushing up your reflexes. They're okay for a human, but that doesn't cut it in our world. And while you're at it, visit that lab again and figure out what you can for me. 'S all I wanted you for today."

  Erina felt relief wash over her. That was all she had in mind to do for the rest of the day anyway. "Yes, sir."

  "Oh, and Erina?" Akira glanced over, her door back to the Surface already in hand. "Didn't do half bad today. Be seeing ya."

  And then she slammed herself to the other side.

  Erina blew out a breath. She needed a minute to unwind after all that. It wasn't until then that a thought occurred to her. Akira didn't send her out of the Reverse.

  Erina grimaced and looked around for a mirror. Well, here was hoping she didn't bisect herself…