"—scuse me. Excuse me?"

  The girl jolted out of her thoughts. "Y-Yes?"

  "I was just asking if you had seen anything unusual lately," said the man in front of her.

  They were standing at the door of her house. It was evening. That man… he said his name was Darius! The girl remembered where she was. "I'm sorry, my mind drifted off for a moment. I must be tired."

  "I understand," said Darius. "I'll try to keep this short."

  "Where were we?"

  "You had just told me you and your friends went to Shinjuku?"

  "That's right! After that… I just felt terrible since then. It always felt like there was someone watching me after I came back. Things started going strange. I don't know if this is relevant…"

  "Go on. I'll listen to anything you have to say."

  "Thank you. I began misplacing a lot of things. My books went missing, or I'd find them in places too far from where I left them. My laptop died, the technician said it had fried itself for some reason. A lot of things piled up. It just kept getting worse, and it really got into my head more and more… I started wondering if someone was following me. And just a week ago, a car veered off the road and almost hit me during the rain."

  "How terrible… And how are you feeling now?"

  "I'm actually feeling better. In the middle of my shift a few days ago, I suddenly felt like some big weight had just come off my shoulders. I don't know why, but I found myself thinking maybe things wouldn't be so bad. I've been in a really bad head space for a while, so having those thoughts come to me was a nice surprise. I guess it feels like the worst of it has passed."

  "I'm glad. Ah, before I forget, did anything else strange happen that day?"

  "Hmm… I can't think of anything, no."

  "That's good. Let's hope your gut feeling stays true! Oh, I can't believe I didn't do this earlier." Darius took out his business card and handed it to her. "If anything else happens, don't hesitate to call me, okay? I'll come and investigate."

  "Of course. Thank you, Darius-san."

  "Anytime. Have a good evening, miss."

  Darius waited to hear the lock turn before heading off. The gears turned in his head as he walked down the street.

  The Lynchpin showed signs of wear, and there was an omukade infestation inside. Clearing them out was the Association's responsibility, and he'd already seen to that, but it sounded like the girl's curse had already lifted before he came here. Watanabe's sentry died without reporting back, and he found one omukade already dead when he arrived in the Reverse. Had the Akanaga Family done some work there? Or more likely a Diver, going by the mention of that schoolgirl. Unless she sighted a ghost?

  He was thankful the damage wasn't extensive, but he had plenty of work left to do. He needed Haruka to scour the girl's social media—make sure any information about the Reverse didn't leak. He also had to requisition the mall's security footage and wipe that too. And then he had to figure out the time that the sighting happened, and visit everyone else who could've seen it… And he had a hunt to attend in a few days!

  Darius adjusted his hat with a rueful chuckle. "Guess I ought to be thankful," he muttered to himself. "Better this than another world-ending threat." Then again, he hadn't had his weekly quota of villains yet, so maybe he shouldn't count his eggs so soon.

  He shook his head, chuckling to himself as he went. It was gainful work all the same, but who would've thought the lone-ranging cowboy would end up a sheriff?

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  Darius adjusted his coat, covering the revolver at his hip. Long white coattails billowing in his wake, the gunslinger hastened his pace down the streets of Tokyo, whistling a jaunty tune.

  The Surface and Reverse are land and sea to one another. Youkai, made of mana, will eventually fall ill and expire if they linger in the physical world beyond their limit. Similarly, humans and other physical beings will quickly be overwhelmed by the ambient mana of the Reverse. Mages are those who have opened their internal circuits to conduct the flow of mana and "hold their breath." In this way, mages and youkai can cross the barrier for days at a time, and…

  The pages of Erina's notebook turned, disturbed by the wind as she closed the door. Few people were out in the morning here so far from downtown. Stretching her arms as she stepped outside her apartment, Erina looked around to make sure nobody was watching. Satisfied, she ducked into a side alley and removed the garbage bag covering the tall mirror she'd scavenged. One more look around, and then she dived through to the other side.

  Erina landed in the Reverse. The sky shimmered here, reminding her of the heat haze above an open grill. The sunlight warped as if filtered through an old pane of glass. She paid it no heed and pulled out her phone. "Let's see, is it this way…?"

  As she headed along the empty street into Akira's sector, Erina glanced at the top of her phone's screen. Did reception naturally cross the barrier on its own, or was there some kind of relay? Perhaps those Lynchpins jutting up from the cityscape every few kilometers had something to do with it. It was spotty and Akira warned her not to rely on it, but Erina would much rather commute here than be caught out again.

  Unlike its counterpart, Akira's territory was intact on this side. The buildings looked much the same here as the rest of the city, though Erina noted she rarely saw strangers in the Reverse. Who was keeping all these buildings clean? Then again, most of the shops were also closed or empty. Maybe it was just adopting the physical appearance and nothing else…

  A handful of shady men in suits loitered around the doctor's office on this side, some leaning on the wall and others squatted on the ground. Erina kept her head down and avoided eye contact on her way past even though she could feel their eyes burning holes through her.

  A few weeks had passed since the meeting. The main task Akira gave her was to document and study the laboratory. Even she didn't fully understand everything in it yet, so she was assigned to make sense of how to use every item she could and report back to her patriarch. She didn't like walking past those thugs every day. She recognized some of them from the laboratory. Best not to antagonize her new seniors more.

  "Yo, Erina." She found Akira playing with a knife on the bench where she asked Erina to meet her. "Kept me waiting."

  She bowed her head in apology. "Good morning. What is it today?"

  "Think fast."

  Erina jerked her head back, narrowly avoiding the inverted high kick thrown her way. A deep boom resounded through the air with the force of the strike alone, Erina's hair briefly whipped about in its wake. A spell circle faded to invisibility around her feet.

  "Looks like you've been studying hard." Akira flipped upright. "See what just a little speed enhancement does for you? Every moment matters, even tenths of a second."

  Erina was partly annoyed that Akira just did that, but mostly thankful she didn't do it any earlier. Erina only just got the spell working last night. She repeated, "What is it today?"

  "." Hands behind her head, Akira set off down an alley with Erina in tow. "They've been getting out of hand the last few weeks. I leave it to the grunts most days, but might as well give you some practice. Don't worry, it's an easy job. Look, here's one now!"

  A dog-sized spider skittered down the alley right in front of them.

  One well-placed stomp from Akira, and the spider wasn't skittering anymore.

  Erina almost screamed. As it was, she had to fight to keep her heart from ejecting itself up her throat.

  "Look alive." Akira nudged the body aside with her boot, grinning. "Here comes some more!"

  Erina raised her arm to cast an orb and went straight to the firing squad. Four spiders received sixteen lasers each, blasting off several of their limbs and ripping two in half. Her eyes were wide as dinner plates.

  "What are you, American?" Akira thumped her arm. "Don't go wasting mana for no reason. One headshot is good enough."

  "Right." Erina managed to avoid shaking. "Beginning cleanup."

  They proceeded to sweep the alleys. Any spotted at a distance were shot down by Erina. The ones that lurked behind dumpsters or otherwise snuck up got crushed by Akira. Erina wanted to go home the entire time. Easy, sure. Shaving years off her lifespan, definitely. She didn't like the jerky erratic movements they made. She hated the way they twitched and spasmed after a shot despite Akira reassuring her they were dead. She felt like any one of them could right itself and jump on her back while they walked away.

  "This area looks pretty clear." Akira ducked under a thick web as she turned in a circle. They were standing in an underpass with a road over top. "Erina! Let's head back and—"

  A massive spider's leg pierced clean through Akira's chest from behind. Blood splattered on the floor in front of Erina. Camouflaged in the dark shadows of the underpass and hanging from a thick rope of silk, the shape of a giant spider the size of a bus descended.