Shadow Games

  Rafael followed the yellow line, just as the nurse had instructed him. After walking for a few minutes, he managed to find the recovery room where the person he wanted to talk to was. There was only one man in the room, lying on a gurney, watching television with a bored expression on his face. He was covered in bandages, some of them even red, but he looked surprisingly well for the number of injuries he had. Rafael knocked on the door to announce himself, then entered and looked around to make sure no one was watching. He pulled a paper bag out of his backpack; inside were four hamburgers and some fries, still warm. He set them down next to the patient, who didn't hesitate to reach in and start eating without asking.

  "Damn, how the hell did you get this into the hospital?"

  "I was starving, the food they serve here tastes like a damn eraser."

  "Is this the deluxe burger from the signature line? Shit, I owe you one!"

  "Eat more quietly, no one will take your food."

  "I managed to convince the guard not to search me. Turns out he's a fan of good coffee too, so I brought him some from my hometown."

  "Don't worry about it. Honestly, I'm the one who feels like I'm not paying you back properly, just giving you some fast food in return for such a huge favor," Rafael said, placing a soda on the table next to the patient.

  "No, it's nothing-you already paid me before. I just wanted some real food here."

  "........"

  "I imagine you're dying to hear what happened."

  "Don't worry, I won't bore you with details - there's not much to tell."

  "I've checked as thoroughly as I can, from top to bottom, but there's nothing."

  "I found nothing on Lisa."

  "Absolutely nothing-there isn't a single document on the succubus."

  "She's as unknown to Hell as she is to man - not much different from an true alien."

  "Really? ........."

  "Neither the angels nor the demons know where she came from?"

  "Then where did she come from?"

  "The girl is a complete mystery, as if she just appeared out of nowhere during the Dragon War."

  "But didn't THE BOSS choose her specifically to be the Clockmaker?"

  "Yes - he chose her because she was one of the top students at the Alfheim Valkyrie Academy Institute."

  "As far as I know, she never finished her studies there, because after she was chosen, she went straight to Clockmaker training and formation."

  "But even they only have her enrollment record - Lisa herself showed up to study there; there's not a single mention of her parents in any document."

  "And why don't you ask her yourself? Aren't you her father-in-law?"

  "And who do you think asked me to investigate? She doesn't remember anything before her studies either - that's why she asked me to investigate."

  "Damn, now I see why she's worried."

  "She's really worried - going from an angel to a demon without knowing why, beyond her corruption into a fallen angel."

  "She's been living with César and my wife, getting a taste of what it's like to have a family that cares about you."

  "It made her want to uncover the origins she'd ignored for so long."

  "......."

  "She may be a yandere and a sociopath, but she still has enough self-awareness to realize that she's not okay compared to others."

  "I think she's afraid there's something else inside her that's dangerous and unknown, and all she wants to do is protect everyone - even herself."

  “Damn, it’s definitely a complicated situation.” said the man with the bandages.

  “I feel bad for messing it up at the last moment. I thought the extraction point was secure—I didn’t expect that damn Xian Fang to show up at the front, leading that suicide squad.”

  “The bastards attacked with deadly fury. No matter how much we hurt them, they kept pushing forward, their faces still twisted in pain.”

  “It was like they were being forced by magic rather than determination. It was chilling.”

  “They almost managed to capture me. It was a fierce fight, for real.”

  “I only got out of there thanks to DeMarco’s help.”

  “I didn’t expect his help, but thank God he showed up.”

  “Yeah, that’s the DeMarco I know.”

  “He takes his job of helping seriously—a true seal of quality.”

  “......”

  “Well, I think I have to go now. I’m supposed to meet someone at the train station, and it’s pretty important.”

  “We’ll keep in touch. If you need help with anything, don’t hesitate to ask—you know how this works.”

  “Oh yeah, of course. Thank you very much, Mr. Rafael.”

  “No, thank you. You did a good job out there—be proud of that.”

  Rafael stepped out of the medical bay and made his way to the outside of the building. When he reached the street, a car was waiting for him. Without hesitation, he opened the door and got in. The driver immediately took off, making strange turns around the city, passing the same places several times, making U-turns for no apparent reason. It was as if they were lost in a city they knew by heart. On one of these strange loops, the car sped into the underground parking lot of a tall building. Rafael walked from the car to the elevator, inserted a key, and pushed the top button that would take him to the roof. A helicopter was waiting for him for a trip of no more than a few blocks - to another nearby building, where another completely different vehicle was waiting for him: a postal delivery truck, which finally took him to the employee area of the train station. Rafael grabbed his bag and made his way through the maintenance corridors.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  The cautious man reached the central area of the station. There were trips to all parts of the planet that took no more than two hours. However, he bought a ticket to the space station to catch the next vehicle on his journey back to Avesta 7. He carefully boarded the bullet train and walked through the cars and private compartments until he found his friend, the samurai girl, waiting for him in her armor and with her katana, returning his gaze with a nod. The girl was standing next to a couple of suitcases stuffed with all kinds of gadgets, as if she'd been on a shopping spree in a giant shopping mall. Urakaze had obviously enjoyed her trip to Earth to the fullest, although she still had a few bandages from her last fight.

  "No one followed you, right?"

  "Don't worry, everything is going according to plan."

  "I hope those bags over there aren't a maxed out credit card bill," Rafael greeted her.

  "I just bought the essentials, look at this!"

  "New cell phone, old camera, a hand-painted picture from someone selling on the street."

  "I can only call this a massive win."

  "I even got souvenirs from Nasu Yuzen Temple right after that!"

  "How the hell did you get all that through customs? I doubt you have receipts for everything."

  "DeMarco helped me."

  "Okay, that's good."

  "How did it go with the important part?" Rafael asked as he sat down across from the warrior girl.

  "I have to admit, your premonition was frighteningly accurate."

  "I couldn't believe it myself when Adelis and the other girls showed up in the forest we were watching."

  "I ran into them just as they were being cornered by a strange group of ninjas."

  "Is Adelis okay?"

  "Of course! I wouldn't even have the strength to face you if I had failed."

  "Don't worry - your wife Adelis is still safe and sound in the world of the living."

  "It was a wise move to let me handle this."

  "It was a bit nostalgic to visit my hometown again and see how much the place where I fought Tamamo-no-Mae has changed."

  "I still can't believe that there are people out there who are fanatical about old, meaningless legends."

  "Unfortunately, we didn't manage to kill them all, and some got away."

  "DeMarco was right when he called me, so I had to organize everything at the last minute."

  "I'm truly grateful from the bottom of my heart that you were able to help my wife in her moment of great need and with so little preparation."

  "I don't think I'll ever be able to truly repay you for what you've done for me these past few days."

  "Enough, it's weird to see you so emotional - it wasn't that big a deal."

  "Besides, it was fun meeting her and figuring out how to get out of this mess."

  "It really reminded me of the old days, my first battles against Yokai."

  "........."

  "And I managed to overhear something quite interesting as well."

  "At one point, while Adelis was talking to Levia, she mentioned that César finally managed to find the Celestial Forge of Atlantis."

  "Unfortunately, I didn't catch where it was."

  "César found the Forge?"

  "After all this time, he finally did it..."

  "Damn, this is going to make things even more interesting around here."

  "Stella has already mobilized her squadron, and Miguel is standing by with an assault team in case things go wrong."

  "The Celestial Security Section has been on edge for the past few hours."

  A small chime interrupted their conversation, followed by a pre-recorded message from the loudspeaker: "Attention all passengers, the train is about to depart. Please stand clear of the outer doors as they are now closing."

  "Damn, the train's about to leave and Edra still hasn't shown up," Rafael said, checking his watch.

  Suddenly, the door to the room was flung open by a hand, and a moment later, a large fishtail pushed through, revealing the mermaid in her wheelchair, struggling awkwardly to get inside. Rafael, seeing this and remembering why Edra was always the most likely to be late - being a mermaid - stood up and helped her through the door, eventually needing Urakaze's help to get her comfortably seated in the main seat of the train instead of her uncomfortable wheelchair.

  "Thank you, I'm not as good on the surface as the land dwellers."

  "!!!!!!"

  "But that's not the point right now!

  I have really important news!"

  "It seems that someone unauthorized managed to get in and access one of the protected documents about Cesar."

  "This morning they were found out of place in the security box during an inspection."

  "Seriously?" Urakaze said in surprise.

  But Rafael didn't say anything right away. Instead, he stopped and sat back down on the sofa, his hand on his cheek, deep in thought, working through possible motives and suspects. Who had been brave enough to take such a risk? How had they done it, and who had helped them? What did they hope to find in these documents? Clearly, it wasn't an ordinary person - only a true daredevil would be crazy enough to take such a risk and think he could get away with it. Then he remembered what Urakaze had just mentioned: Cesar had stumbled upon the Celestial Forge by sheer accident, while he was busy with something else. Two big coincidences at the same time - two things that would definitely set the CSS in motion. Rafael opened his eyes again with a serious expression.

  "This can only mean one thing, just as we suspected: there really is another faction we're not seeing."

  "I think it's time to go to the others and warn them to be more careful, just as we had planned in case something like this happened."

  "Shit, so what now? Are we in the middle of a spy war or something?" asked the innocent mermaid.

  "More or less. We're still not sure what's going on, but something is definitely going on."

  "Good thing Rafael thought something like this might happen all along."

  "It was just in case. I didn't really expect to find anything."

  "The problem now is to avoid being discovered ourselves - or DeMarco - and to find out who their members might be."

  "Right now they could be a threat to Cesar, or maybe something worse."