“Sakai-san?”

YF opened his eyes and saw that he was standing on the balcony of somebody else’s apartment. Outside the balcony, where he should have been able to see a town below, there was nothing but calm, still water. Reina stood next to him wearing a long red halter dress matched by ruby earrings. Her hand held a glass of wine from the very bottom; her left wrist was ringed by golden bracelets while her right was bare. She looked down and kicked the heels that were placed between them with her bare feet. “Hate walking in these things.”

“What...is this?” asked YF.

“It won’t be long, Sakai-san. Just wanted to make sure you’re okay.” She took a sip from her glass.

“Where’s Erika?”

“Where do you think?” Reina crossed her left arm across her torso and used the back of her wrist to support her right elbow as she did before. She looked him up and down, her long eyelashes glistening in the moonlight.. “She’s lucky.”

“Is Erika safe?”

“Erika knows what she’s doing, so I’m sure she is.” Reina took another sip. “Though I think she came close to losing her ability to think a second there.”

YF’s eyes narrowed. “Who...is Erika to you...exactly?”

“Hmmmm.” Reina tapped her fang on the inside of the glass a few times as she rotated her shoulders idly. “While I’ve enjoyed this exchange, it was really just to make sure you’re in one piece.” She released her left hand and reached out to YF, the bracelets swishing as she did. She then touched and tapped all five of her fingernails on his chest. “Matches my dress don’t they? I did it after our little meeting.” She frowned, her eyes growing sad. “Make sure she doesn’t come after me. It won’t be worth it.” Reina looked up from her nails to YF’s eyes. “I mean it.”

The balcony, room walls, and the image of Reina herself started to fade into the air like sand being blown into the wind.

“Where’s Erika!” YF demanded.

“I mean it…” he could hear her fading voice.

“Where’s Erika!”

“I mean it…”

“Erika!”

“I’m here!”

YF awakened to see Erika with tears of joy in her eyes, clasping his hand. To the side, Honda and Fujii were standing near the bed, the former with her iconic scowl, and the latter smiling with tears of her own.

Honda rolled her eyes. “For crying out loud the doctor said all he had was dehydration. He’s fine. When you two young people are done refilling the Tagawa River, we can get back to work.”

“Where...are...we going to work…?” asked YF slowly.

“Is that how you talk to a senior!” Honda snapped.

“Ma’am,” said YF.

“As you can imagine Mr. Sakai, there was no footage of the bombers either, not even from the cameras near the forest. As luck would have it, Fujii did a few tests on the real drone and left it on a bench within the parade grounds. That failed to catch anything as well, so your system is seriously compromised.”

“So…” YF started.

“So what I’m saying, Sakai, is that we need to do this audit now more than ever. And fast. I can spare you the task of getting all the backup files in Nishida. You don’t have those codes anyway. If the bastards that did this target us on the way, they’ll get either my boot or my bullet in their ass. But when we return, you’d better be super glued to a seat in The Antelope. Do I make myself clear Sentinel?”

“Yes ma’am. Thank you ma’am.”

“Good.” Honda turned and flashed a smile to Erika. “Ms. Ueno, I hope you have a pleasant day.”

Erika remained seated and raised her chin instead of bowing, glaring. “Don’t worry, I will.”

Honda smirked. “Your wife’s made of steel. Maybe she should be the Sentinel.”

“My husband can do whatever he wants.”

YF held up his hands. “Erika...Ms. Honda. I think...I think this’ll all be all right. Let’s just be on with our business.”

Honda exited without bowing and Fujii bowed at ninety degrees before following behind Honda.

“Fucking bitch,” said Erika.

“I know that’s what it looks like, but she’s a good person, really.”

“I don’t care.”

YF wanted to follow up with something about how Erika was going to make the next few weeks for him very difficult. But he had been with her long enough to know what would happen if he picked Honda’s side over hers. “You’re right, she’s a fucking bitch,” he said.

“Now ignore her and get as much rest as you need. Unfortunately, I have to do something.”

“Work?”

Erika shook her head. “No. I can’t say yet, but I will tell you soon.”

YF frowned. “Is this...about Reina?”

Erika flinched. “How…”

“Just a hunch.”

Erika squeezed YF’s hand, hesitating for a moment. “The...the barrier to the top five floors was bombed at the same time the Sentinel Station was. Nothing happened to anyone up there except…”

“Someone wanted to hurt Reina?”

Erika nodded. “There were signs of a violent struggle in her apartment and she’s not there. Nothing in her house was taken either.”

YF sat up in the bed, the IV drip stand sliding along the ground as he moved his arm. “So you know where she is?”

“I…”

“You’re going to go to the sectarians.”

“No,” said Erika firmly, shaking her head. “I’m going alone.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, you can’t go alone.”

“I can, and I will,” she said. “There...there may have been a few close calls that you weren’t aware about.”

“What do you mean by close calls?”

“We’ll talk about it soon. I’ll tell you everything.”

“I’m going with you,” said YF, swinging his legs over to the side of the bed. “Honda and Fujii won’t be back for a while. You’ll get her back by then, right?”

Erika shook her head. “I can’t guarantee that, and I will not put you in danger.”

“I thought you just got done saying I can do whatever I want.”

Erika bit her lip, thinking through something in her head. “How discretely can you move a drone?”

“Well enough.”

“Then I need you to post yourself where I tell you and communicate what I tell you.”

“Are we going directly with our car?”

“No.”

***

YF held onto Erika for dear life while she sped through the evening rush hour traffic, splitting lanes and riding on the shoulders to reach the western outskirts of Itsugo. On multiple occasions, he was so close to the trees on the side of the road that if he extended his arm out halfway he would hit them. YF knew that she knew how to ride the bike, but he had never ridden pillion, and thus did not realize her riding style was so different from her driving one.

“You always ride like this?” he yelled into the sunshield that now served as his helmet.

“You don’t have to talk so loud, we’re connected by radio.” Erika dodged another car only to get honked at. “But no, I don’t, we’re just a bit short on time.”

When they reached the outskirts of town the amount of cars quickly diminished. Erika continued at the same pace but mostly in the middle of the lane until they passed where they had run into the sectarians.

Half an hour later, Erika rode into a deep highway tunnel and then stopped in the middle, parking on the shoulder. She placed her thumb and index finger together, blowing out two different pitches as a whistle. There was silence for a few minutes. "Give it a second."

"Ueno?"

Erika and YF turned to see a scruffy older man in a one piece maintenance uniform.

"It's me," said Erika.

The old man smiled widely. "You haven’t changed a bit."

"Tanaka," said Erika. "I need you to do the favor."

"What's the favor?" asked YF.

"Ueno...are you sure?" asked Tanaka.

Erika nodded.

"Are you going to tell me what this favor is?" asked YF.

"It's the only way to save Reina," said Erika. "Without me dying."

YF grimaced. Erika continued to look at him, waiting for him to respond.

"Do it," said YF.

"Please come this way," said Tanaka.

The three of them entered a previously hidden hatch in the tunnel with Tanaka sealing the door afterward. They then proceeded through a dark hallway, taking multiple twists and turns and walking for what seemed like an eternity before emerging in a dimly lit room with a surgical bed in the middle. Upon entering, Erika removed her jacket and pulled her shirt up over her head. She then started working the clip to her bra. Between the table and Erika’s actions, YF started to piece together what was happening.

“Is this…”

“Yes,” said Tanaka with a grim face. He turned to Erika. “Ueno, you are not going to feel well after this. You will need multiple days of recovery—”

“I don’t have time for that,” she said after removing the rest of her clothes. “Start the operation. Now.”

Erika jogged to the surgical table and laid belly down with her head in the face rest and her hands firmly clasped on two handles to the side. “Do wound curing and give me a bottle of fever pills after, I’ll be fine.”

“Ueno…”

“Do it.”

Tanaka walked over to a terminal on the side of the room and began to type multiple commands into it. YF turned to the display projected against the wall, indicating a template for a full body mark with multiple points of ID scans. A whirring sound echoed through the room as half a dozen robotic arms with long thin needles descended from the ceiling toward Erika. When the pattern marking started, Erika flinched slightly, causing the robotic arms to stop. They then started up again once she was still. For the next five hours, Tanaka would stop the machines, manually inspecting the progress with a hand scanner and making adjustments before activating them again. YF could see that the machines were marking a giant phoenix with an elaborate red, green, blue, and black color scheme across her back, with feather designs filling the rest of her body.

At the very end of the process after both the back and front of Erika’s body were fully marked, a robotic arm that had not been there previously descended toward her as she laid face up. The arm had a large, shackle-like claw that retracted and then gripped her left wrist. Tanaka stopped the machine and walked up to Erika, who was now bleeding from multiple points on her body, holding a small hand towel in his hands. He placed the towel in her right hand. “You’re sure about this.”

“Too late now,” said Erika before rolling up the towel using the side of the bed and placing it in her mouth.

The robotic arm made a whirring sound before letting out multiple drilling noises, causing a stream of blood to flow down Erika’s wrist.

“Gggggggggaaaahhh!!!”

“Hey!” YF shouted as he rushed past the terminal.

Tanaka used his arm to block YF before he reached Erika. “Wait.”

A light from within the claw that held Erika’s wrist shone brightly, which seemed to slow down the bleeding from her wrist. It then released its grip, rising up a few shaku from the bed.

“The curing…” said Erika weakly.

“I can only cure parts of the mark. The rest will have to heal naturally,” said Tanaka.

“Then...do the parts...you can,” said Erika.

Tanaka went back to the terminal to raise the claw arm completely. The other robotic arms that had marked her retracted their needles and brought out modules with bright purple lights. They then went about sealing parts of the mark on her body. When the front was finished, Erika rolled onto her back for the machines to repeat the process there. At the end, the same arms sprayed her down with sanitizing fluid, blood mixed with clear liquid flowing into the drain at the center of the room.

Tanaka inhaled and exhaled deeply. “Ready for the test?”

Erika nodded weakly, holding her wrist up.

A light from the ceiling made its way slowly from one end to the other, beeping a few times when it passed over Erika.

YF held his breath.

“Multiple point identification scan complete. Ikeda Kanoe detected.”