Erina asked, "What brought you here, Akira?"

  "Isn't it my job to look after who's under my wing?" Akira rolled her shoulders. "Looks like someone has plenty of energy if she can be up and about. I came here to say… good work, and thanks."

  Erina gave her a blank look.

  "Those tsuchinoko you rounded up." Akira grinned as she slammed the briefcase on the table and opened it. Stacks upon stacks of cash greeted the eye. "These are your cut. All yours now."

  How many hundred thousand yen…? Erina couldn't even count it all.

  "On the flip side of the world, the black market is a huge money maker. Youkai body parts got all sorts of uses from drugs to rituals to plain eating, and the rarer, the better. Tsuchinoko are closer to cryptids than they are youkai. They don't breed either, so any part of them is worth at least its weight in gold. Guess I owe Goukei too for causing all those outbreaks, but he doesn't need to know that." Akira kicked off her boots and put her feet up on the couch. "Point is, don't feel bad. 'Specially after a fight like that—where's the shame in needing time to rest up?"

  It was true. Erina could stand and walk and talk, but most every part of her still throbbed with pain. "Thank you."

  Akira searched through her pockets for her cigarette pack and was just in the middle of pulling one out when she caught Erina staring. "What? No good?"

  Erina hesitated. It wasn't her place to tell what Akira what she could and couldn't do.

  "Look, just forget about the whole hierarchy thing for a second," said Akira. "Right now, it's just you and me. So be honest with me, would you?"

  "Smoking… I would prefer it if you didn't," said Erina quietly.

  "No sweat off my back." Akira let it fall back into the pack and relaxed with her hands behind her head. "I got some good news for you too."

  Erina looked at her inquisitively.

  "See, everybody's gotta contribute around these parts. No place for freeloaders in the family, after all. Most grunts get sent on collection runs. Some of them have to deal with youkai, and it gets real messy—a lot of debtors pack firepower for when we come knocking." Akira grinned at her. "But since you're so important to lab research, you get to dodge a whole lotta bullets. Don't worry. You're off feral duty for the foreseeable future. No more fights. You've been good to me, and I can't stand to stay in someone's debt. From here on out, all you gotta worry about is the lab—nice, safe, and cozy."

  "Thank you, Akira." Erina knew she had to be pulling some strings behind the scenes to make things happen. "I appreciate you going through the effort."

  "Effort? Oh, I'm not doing anything," lied Akira. "Things just happened to line up nicely for you."

  The crack of a cold beer opening filled the air.

  "…Akira," said Erina flatly. "Did you put beer in my fridge? I can't drink."

  "Didn't ask you to," she shrugged, taking a sip. "It's for me."

  Erina let the topic drop. "What happened to Orochi?"

  "Fast asleep," said Akira. "Put it away nice and tidy-like."

  "What are you going to do with it?"

  "Don't go worrying your pretty li'l head, I'm keeping it in wraps. I'm sure even if I let it out, there ain't nothin' I could do to make the freak listen to me. Still, even without waking it up, there's plenty of value to squeeze out of it. Fangs, blood, scales, could be anything, used for anything. There's always uses, always a market—and something this old? Age and fame mean massive amounts of faith behind it, and that means ancient power. The kind you can only get from a beast whose name goes down in legend for all eternity."

  "Where is it?"

  "Down in the lab! Your docs came in handy."

  "I see." Something else occurred to Erina. "What do you want from the laboratory? You've asked me to document and tour you through it, but not much else. To use it like this?"

  Akira paused as she decided how to answer that.

  "I don't know how versed you are," she began, "but magic systems are pretty surface-level. You use these catalysts, they do that. You draw your spell circle this way, that happens. That sort of thing. Practical stuff. As for the nitty-gritty of how it all works… well, if we understood it perfectly, it wouldn't be magic anymore, would it? And there's the rub: the existence of magic hinges on it being impossible to observe. That puts it at pretty sharp odds with technology—the stuff humans designed with their knowledge of the universe's workings."

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Erina made small noises and nodded along, listening intently.

  "That's what makes the lab so special. Modern infrastructure that runs off ancient power and incorporates spell systems into computer systems. Most of the tech we've taken out can't be explained by modern science. A lab filled with gadgets straight out of a hundred years into the future just popped into Shinjuku overnight… and you came out of it."

  "I see." Erina was starting to get the picture. As the only known person capable of using the lab's resources, she was as valuable as the entirety of the laboratory. But then, what would that mean for her after Akira had everything she wanted from the lab? Not that she could ever ask a question like that. "Then, what do you want?" A faint frown crossed her face. "To sell its technology?"

  "Well." Akira had a dry smirk on. "Even if I gave a plain straight yes, it'd probably take weeks to even get a production division set up. I'm not exactly auctioning artifacts like these out to whoever forks over the fattest stack of cash."

  "I see," said Erina. "If others come to understand it, they will manufacture imitation products to compete. Is that correct?"

  "More importantly, I gotta know what I'm working with here. Once I got that, I can pin down what we do with it. You got some real promising tech in there—the kinda thing that can revolutionize the world. That's another reason I had to contract you in the first place."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Bring you into my family. There's two other big ones in the clan, Yoshizawa and Kiyori, and you can bet your ass they'd be crawling all over the lab in seconds if you gave 'em a whiff of a chance at it. We aren't all in it for the love of the game. Money, power, fame, and the strength 'n will to take what you want, and to hell with anyone else—that's what our path means to most of us these days."

  "Do you mean you… wanted to protect me from them?"

  "Is that what I mean?" Akira didn't answer her properly.

  A connection formed in Erina's mind. "When you told Takeuchi-san to stay out of the game, were you also…?"

  Akira took a long, slow swig of her beer. She didn't seem interested in answering any more questions at the moment. Erina accepted it and finished her meal.

  Akira invited her out shopping to get her muscles working again. Sore as she was, Erina didn't see what else to do with her day, so she accepted. She was getting tired of staying in her dingy apartment all day, anyway. As they walked down the street, Erina spotted a group of Akira's thugs coming the other way. They stopped and bowed their heads as Akira passed. Trailing behind her patriarch, Erina didn't expect them to then look at her and nod.

  What? What did that mean? Did they expect something from her? Erina wasn't sure what else to do but nod back and try not to look nervous.

  Weirdly enough, that seemed to satisfy them. Erina quickened her pace to walk at Akira's side.

  "Word's had time to go around," said Akira without prompting. "There's a bit of street cred to your name now."

  "I-I see." They walked for a few more minutes before Erina spoke up again. "Um, Akira." She glanced around to make sure nobody was in earshot and then mumbled, "How do I… quit?"

  Akira blew out a breath. "If I could, I'd let you walk today. Problem is we don't call it an oath for nothing. You remember the part about laying down your life for the family? You're supposed to mean it."

  Erina gulped.

  "Sure, I don't mind you leaving. But breaking your contract is serious business that'll get a whole lotta people pissed off… or you've pissed someone off so much you get expelled. Neither is pretty."

  "Then, is there no way?"

  "There are some. People cut ties, book it to another country, and pray we never find them. The family could dissolve. You could hand in your resignation with a mountain of money as apology, but don't expect that to fly for years. If something goes down, you could get scapegoated, tossed in the can, and probably come out with enough respect to hang up your coat. Might still cost you a finger or two."

  "I see," said Erina. None of those sounded like very appealing prospectives. "You can't simply… let me go?"

  "Fat chance." Akira gave her a hard look. "Here's the thing: whatever I do, I'm doing in the lens of the other bosses. Everyone's watching, always. One slip, one moment of weakness, one vulnerability—that's the same as showing your belly to rabid wolves. Think about it from my side of the deal. You get sworn in and I let you free a couple months later? Soft. Soft as a marshmallow. Who would respect me then? Why shouldn't everyone walk all over me? And even more than that, with your lab and all the money it's worth… you walk, and I promise the other families won't be nice about getting their hands on it. Blackmail, abduction, torture, murder, whatever it takes. The best way I can think to keep everyone else off your back is to watch it myself."

  "I… I see…"

  "Look." Akira eased up and offered an easy grin. "I know you've been off to a rough start, but it's not so bad as you think. The more you climb, the messier a shithole you step in, but being rank and file isn't all awful all the time. Like I said, I get it. No more front line fighting for you! It's not where you belong. So long as you're under me, you'll…"

  Golden eyes returned forward. Her voice and her smile both melted away.

  "Run," muttered Akira. Her footsteps came to a stop.

  "What?" said Erina.

  "You heard me," hissed Akira. "Run. Now."

  Two tall foreign men were headed down the sidewalk towards them. They stood out from the crowd like a sore thumb. One was a Caucasian man wearing a dark vest. He had brown eyes and a friendly disposition—definitely far nicer than his companion. His massive long white coat billowed behind him as he walked, leather boots clacking on the pavement. He wore a large white hat, three-pointed and all sharp angles. Erina couldn't decide whether he looked cool or like he was trying too hard to look cool.

  The other had grayish silver hair, tan brown skin, and sharp red eyes with a professional pinstripe suit of muted dark green. His stride was stiff and fast, with long steps reminiscent of a trained march. Definitely not just a salaryman. Everything about him screamed business, if not something more unsavory.

  More importantly, the man in the white coat?

  Erina couldn't think of anyone else it could be.

  That man was the one she had to avoid at all costs.

  The First Equalizer.

  The Hero of Light.

  Darius Lohrs.