Nagoya, Japan

Wednesday, August 17th, 2020

“Are we supposed to be here?” asked Rei as we slid into Headmaster Tachibana’s lab. The cluttered space was almost ominous, lit only by a few beams of light shining through the blinds and the magical glow of some half-assembled fabricata on the bench.

I rolled my eyes. “My d- Ms. Yamaguchi, you want to be a Holy Sister, right?”

“Absolutely!” She was surprisingly muscular; the way she gripped my hand almost hurt.

“Then don’t worry about doing what you’re supposed to. Worry about getting caught.”

Rei’s serious face wore frowns well. “What if the Headmaster shows up?”

“I’ve seen to that,” I replied. I decided to keep that close to my chest; Rei could already implicate Maggie and I, but there was no reason to reveal more of us if I could avoid it.

*********

When I visited her after class was out for the day, Mrs. Perera had been more than happy to help.

“I’ll bring that tub of lard over for dinner with me and my husband.” The wizened old woman had cackled after I had finished explaining the plan. “The way Mr. Perera babbles on, Yosuke won’t be out of there while the sun’s up.”

“Splendid. And you aren’t to breathe a word of this to Maggie.”

She leaned forward, her wrinkled lip curling back. “Oh? Can I ask why?”

“We have different opinions on the timetable for our attack. She wants to take her time, while I think we have a great chance to use the War Games to our advantage. I want to make sure that everything is ready to go when she sees reason.”

She cackled again, a mischievous gleam in her eye. “I’m glad somebody around here has some urgency! I’d like to actually live to see the Brotherhood rise again.”

“What are you talking about, ma’am? You’ll outlive us all.”

“You’re a shameless flatterer,” she said, nudging my stomach with her cane.

“And you still like it,” I replied. I felt a brief pressure on my ass. “Is that really the best use of your time affinity?”

“It’s my favorite,” she said. “Now go on, I’ll buy you the time you need. It’s my specialty.”

*********

“What are we looking for, exactly?” asked Rei. She seemed nervous, and I supposed I couldn’t blame her. She had struck me as an inflexible thinker. It would take time to get her used to breaking rules.

“We’re after the Headmaster’s notes about his Peace Bond Mk. II,” I replied as I scanned a shelf covered in binders. “Specifically, we want an older version.”

“Where are they?” She seemed overwhelmed, not quite sure where to start looking.

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t need your help, now would I?” Not that she was my first choice, but she was all I had. I took Rei by the shoulder and pointed her towards a pile of papers. “Start there. And here.” I handed her a piece of chalk. “Make sure you make some mark on the table at the corners of the pile.”

“What’s this for?” she asked, taking it gingerly.

“It’s so he doesn’t think anything is out of place when we’re done.”

She peered up at me. “Won’t he notice the chalk lines?”

“Fast chalk. It will vanish when the right spell is cast on it. It’s an old demonic formula that we’ve reverse engineered.”

More accurately, they were a gift from Dante. He had a surprisingly complete collection of demonic tools from Fera, and he had smuggled me a few of them in a care package from “Granny Hattie.” Having some actual resources to pull on was a pleasant change of pace.

She looked on the piece of enchanted chalk with a newfound admiration. “Devils are clever, I have to give them that,” she said, before going to work.

That we were, though not in the way she thought. I had an ulterior motive in bringing Ms. Yamaguchi along. I wanted her fingerprints spread around the lab. It was a bit of an insurance policy in case Maggie caught wind of my scheming and I needed leverage. I merely had to whisper a few words in the right ear and Rei would be caught, which would be dangerous for Maggie.

I struck paydirt. After a bit of poking around, I stumbled across the notes from late July, showing the fabricata circuitry for the transmitter and receivers. The notes in red ink made it clear that this design was too sensitive, and liable to freeze the wearer in place, as Kiyo and I had learned during our tests. I snapped a few photos, making sure I could read them clearly on my phone. They were soon joined by the images of the newest model. I could never have designed the complex fabricata myself, but even I could spot differences.

Like many tinkerers, Headmaster Tachibana seemed loath to toss out anything. Where a carpenter would have a box of scrap wood, he had a drawer full of discarded fabricata pieces. The Peace Bond was built on a modular structure where he could swap pieces in and out, and he had been through even more iterations than I had imagined.

I compared the thick cards of wood and metal circuitry with the image on my phone, being careful that I put each back where I found them, until I was sure I had a match. Human miniaturization never failed to astound me; I was able to fit the patch in my pocket, though it was a big snug. A blank piece of wood took its place at the bottom of the stack. I had never seen him do anything with the drawer except throw junk fabricata into it, so I was confident my theft would go unnoticed.

“Alright, my d-… future sister, that’s everything.” There was no response except the shuffling of papers. I had been so caught up in my search that I hadn’t noticed she was still reading the pile of papers. “Rei?” She was utterly engrossed in her reading, and only a violent shake to the shoulder brought her out of it.

“Ack! You scared me!”

“I’m glad I didn’t put you on lookout duty. What was so bloody interesting in there?”

“Oh, uh… do you really want to know?” She looked away, a blush forming on her cheeks.

“I’m not in the habit of…” I trailed off as I caught sight of the notes. “Disciplinary action due to fraternization and being absent without leave, Kiyo Jones to be transferred to…”

I felt my own face burn as I aligned the stack of papers up with her chalk lines. “Yes, I think that’s quite enough of that. Kreiteluv.” The runes spun around my fingers, evaporating the chalk without a trace. “Is there a reason you kept on reading?”

“I wasn’t sure if he would mix his notes together?”

“You can look me in the eye, Rei,” I groused.

“Can I? I see you flirting with Mariko and Kiyo all the time, but I didn’t realize you had taken it that far. Every night for months?”

“You’ll find we Holy Brothers aren’t all talk,” I said. I’ll admit, I enjoyed making her uncomfortable, as oddly haughty as she could be at times.

A loud creak filled the lab as the door inched open. I’m surprised I didn’t hear Rose coming from a mile away, the way she was chattering away on the phone.

“Yes, mum, I’m ready for my exam. Yes, really. I’m going to a study session once I take care of an errand. Look, I’m not like I was in Iceland! I know better now! I can be responsi…” Her green eyes widened as she noticed Rei and I. “Sorry, I need to go.”

“Rose, how lovely to see you,” I said, pasting a smile on my face. “What brings you here tonight?”

Rose relaxed when she saw how comfortable I was. Acting like you belong is always the best way to allay suspicions. “I wasn’t able to get in here and unload my excess magic earlier,” she said.

“Unload your magic?” asked Rei.

Rose walked over and struggled to pick up one of the heavy batteries. I hopped in and gave her a hand, lugging it over to one of the workbenches. “Thank you, Magpie. Rei, my magic reserves are a bit too high. I don’t even have a use for most of that energy, and it likes to bubble up occasionally, so I’ve been donating some to the Headmaster for his projects.”

Rei nodded. “Oh, so that’s why the random storms stopped. I wondered.”

Rose shot her a sour look. “Yes, there’s a reason I haven’t told everybody about it. How are you two doing tonight?”

“Oh, splendidly,” I said. “Rei, did you find that tool Ms. Edwards asked us to fetch her?”

“Huh?”

My grin only wavered slightly. I’d have to tell Maggie she had no talent for improvisation. “It was a fabricata wand.” I spotted a half-carved stick out of the corner of my eye. “She said it was going to be a redwood, about as long as my forearm. It’s something special they’ve been working on together.”

Rei was useless, but I could always count on Rose. She pointed right at it. “You mean that one right there?”

I turned, trying to look a bit clueless. “Hm? Oh, yes, there it is. Thank you, we’ve been at it for ten minutes.”

Rose chuckled. “I swear, what would you do without me?”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out. Come along, Ms. Yamaguchi. We wouldn’t want to keep her waiting.” Before she could object, I put a firm hand in the center of her back, forcing her forward. “Later, my dear.”

“Oh, are you coming to Mariko’s study session tonight?” asked Rose. “That’s where I’m going next.”

“Unfortunately, I…” I trailed off. Was that such a bad idea? I had what I came for. Swapping out a panel on the Peace Bond would change the protective barrier into an instant trap. And how many more nights would I have with them? What could it hurt?

Me, I realized. It could hurt me. I was planning to do something awful to them all. A little emotional distance could only help.

“Sorry, I’ll have to take a raincheck. I’m helping Ms. Edwards out with a special project.”

Rose’s face fell, but she nodded. “Don’t take too many. We all need to pass if we’re going to be in class together next year.”

“Of course.” In a strange moment, I reflexively bowed to her. It’s funny how much you can acclimate without realizing it; I really had gone native, and not just those damnable feelings of guilt.

I felt a little less awkward when she returned the gesture. She grabbed the leads of the battery and began chanting the spell. Our mission accomplished, Rei and I set off.

I was in a fantastic mood. I had another piece in place for my schemes, and Rose was none the wiser. All I had to do was figure out a way to make sure the loose-lipped Rei didn’t mention anything to Maggie and I was home free. She did not seem to pick up on many basic social cues, which would make her simultaneously easier and harder to manipulate.

I was so deep in thought that I ran into Paul near the ground floor elevators. Literally. Maybe I wasn’t one to talk about situational awareness after all.