“Open up please!”

The intercom through YF’s apartment rang with the voice of a man he did not recognize, followed by multiple presses to the doorbell and pounding on his door.

“That’s not Sagawa…”

The property manager should’ve been the only person with access to the comms, confusing YF as to what was happening. YF held his head to try to ease his splitting headache as he tried to recall the events of the previous night. But when some of the memories started coming back, he instinctively shut them out, smiling widely as he did so.

“Maybe better not to remember.”

YF looked to the right and noticed that Erika was not there, of course; he then reached to his nightstand for his receiver, which was also not there. YF pulled the covers over to see if his receiver was underneath, but it was not there either. Nor was it on Erika’s night stand. He got up and walked to the living room, where the receiver was sitting on the sofa in front of the TV – in the spot that Erika usually sat in.

“Open up please!” the intercom reminded him of his visitors’ presence.

YF quickly grabbed his receiver from the couch and jogged to the front door, turning on the hall facing camera. Standing in front of his door was a man in thick ballistic armor with the insignia of a rose painted on his shoulder. His long rifle remained strapped to his back. Another man wearing a trench coat was the one pounding on YF’s door.

“Who are you?” YF demanded.

“Please open the door. We are authorized to search the premises.”

“Only Sentinels are authorized to search anything out here,” said YF.

“We assisted the Sentinels in bringing the culprits of the bombing to justice.”

“What…?”

“Show me your village permit,” said YF.

The man held up what looked like a legitimate permit stamped by the Itsugo Governmental Office. YF wondered how much this group – whatever it was – paid to get it. He activated the door and it slid open.

“Yes?” asked YF.

“Mr. Sakai Yasufumi. We are looking for the daughter of Hayashi Tohei,” said the man in the coat, holding up a picture of Reina on his receiver.

YF tried to look confused. “How do you know my name?”

“As I said. We are authorized to search the premises.”

“Are you sectarian?” asked YF.

The man’s face contorted in anger. “We do not associate with such animals.”

YF took a moment to examine the two men. Between the very expensive looking armor and the fine clothes of the trench coat man – finer than that of even the clothes Ward Detectives Shoda and Higashi had worn – YF started to piece together who these people were. Paramilitary groups working for or outright owned by the elite were more common in the capital or far off conflict zones but they seldom came to a place like Itsugo. There just wasn’t any reason for them to be there. But Reina was a pureblood, her family likely very rich, and the only explanation for paying piles of DTKs to search a low income housing unit was that these men were somehow linked to her father. Still, it didn’t hurt to be cautious.

“Do you know Hayashi-sama?” asked the man.

“That’s an honorific you don’t hear often…this guy talks like he came out of a history book.”

“Which Hayashi-sama?”

The man’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t have time to play games young man. You know which one I’m talking about.”

YF figured they would have the resources to find out the truth about that, so there was no point in lying. “I mean my wife is friends with her,” said YF.

“And where is your wife?”

“We had a fight. She’s staying somewhere else.”

The man smirked in a way YF really did not like, as if he mentally associated – and expected – domestic instability among commoners. “And where is that?”

“I don’t know,” said YF. And he was glad he didn’t.

“What is her name?”

“Uh…” YF started to panic.

“Sir. Your wife’s name,” the man repeated.

YF then remembered that no scanner would pick her up now. “Ueno Erika.”

“And have you had any recent association with Hayashi-sama?”

YF pointed out into the hall in random directions. “She lives here…so…” He saw the man cringe at the words “lives here”.

YF continued. “I see her in passing sometimes. My wife usually goes to her place.” Now that he said it out loud, he wondered why he never found that weird.

The man took a look around YF’s apartment. “Uh huh.”

“I heard the upper floors had an incident. My wife was saying something happened to Hayashi-san. She seemed pretty upset about it,” said YF.

“And she didn’t say more?”

YF sighed loudly on purpose. “Like I said, we had an altercation so I don’t really want to talk about my wife right now.” The words rang truer than he would’ve liked. “So if you’re done, could you please let me go about my business?”

“Huh.” The man pocketed his receiver. “Certainly, have a good day.”

“And what’s your name?” asked YF.

“I don’t have to answer that question,” said the man as he walked off with the armored mercenary.

YF shut the door and made his way slowly to the couch, plopping down on his side. He then pulled out his receiver which was bombarded with notifications from mainly three senders: Honda, Fujii, and Eiji. The ones from Honda were a series of escalating threats inquiring as to his whereabouts followed by how she had and will continue to pressure Kuroda to fire him. There was one message from Kuroda that in light of the Sentinel Station bombing as well as appeals from Kaneshiro the maintenance man and Fujii, nothing would happen to YF if he returned as soon as possible. All the messages from Fujii were trying to reassure him that she was proceeding with the camera audit as planned, that YF should rest, and that she would appease Honda somehow. There was no mention in Fujii’s messages about Erika or Reina.

“Good. Smart woman,” he thought.

The messages from Eiji were much more interesting, all of them dealing with the Nojuku and Nishida incidents and how he had been dispatched to pursue the mysterious rider who eventually got away. There was a gap where Eiji had stopped sending messages, ending finally with one that simply read “Come to Nishida when you get a moment.”

YF groaned and tossed the receiver back to Erika’s side of the couch, waving his hand in front of the TV to turn it on.

“Blue Rose forces attacked Nojuku-Yonchome early yesterday in response to the bombing of Itsugo’s Sentinel Station as well as a residential building. What you are about to see can be disturbing for some viewers. Discretion is advised.”

“Blue Rose…?”

The news program switched to a recorded feed of three massive floating mobile batteries parked at the edge of Itsugo firing artillery shells into the Nojuku-Yonchome compound he and Erika had infiltrated. From the sky, multiple heavy transports dropped armored mercenaries into the sectarian compound. The sound of machine gun fire came shortly after. YF sat on the edge of his seat. He quickly recognized that the drop troopers were wearing the same armor as the man who had showed up at his door. But he had heard the name Blue Rose once before then, and he could not place exactly when that was. YF raised the volume to the TV.

“Locals of both Nojuku and Itsugo celebrated the retaliatory measures, many hoping that Blue Rose and The Kirga would go a step further to end the Sects and their reign of terror…”

YF rolled his eyes. “The locals don’t think The Kirga is going to do shit.”

He caught himself thinking what Erika would’ve said out loud had they watched the news together. YF then tried to drown out thoughts of her sitting on the couch next to him with the image of her feeding on the sectarian working girl – he could not and would not forget what he felt when he saw that. When the news program switched to some daytime drama, YF noted that it had not mentioned anything about Reina, which spooked him as the visit that morning proved that’s what the events of Yonchome were really about. YF held his head in his hands. What started as an operation to save his wife’s friend had spiraled into an overwhelming set of events. At the very least, two district governments, one Ward government, one sect, and a paramilitary group that could somehow afford artillery batteries were involved in the mess. And all of the events seemed to center around an individual that was living in the home of his colleague along with his wife.

“What have we gotten ourselves into…”

His first thought was that they should just hand Reina over to the Blue Rose. If they were really her father’s men out to rescue her from Double Phoenix Sect, what was the harm in giving her up? It wasn’t like her father was going to kill her. But something seemed off about the two men that showed up at his door, and if anything, he did not want to give people like Mr. Trench Coat what they wanted. Even had Mr. Trench Coat been pleasant though, the whole organization seemed suspicious. YF’s receiver buzzed.

“Hey man. Can you come out to Nishida?” a text from Eiji read.

YF looked once at the TV drama that was still playing, then back at his receiver. He swiped for Honda and Fujii and sent out a group text. “I’m taking three days off. Tell Kuroda. Be back after.”

***

“Duuuuuuddeeee,” said Eiji upon meeting YF at the station.

“What?” asked YF.

“Come on. We need to talk. Now.”

YF tried to keep calm and exaggerate his grogginess as he followed Eiji to the Udon shop they usually ate at.

“Hold on,” said Eiji as they entered. “After the food.”

The two of them walked through the line, picking their bowl size, getting the noodles with broth, and slapping in chunks of vegetable kake and tempura before paying at the end. Eiji paid for both bowls as usual – not that it was very expensive to do so. They brought the bowls to their table.

“Sorry for the late response man. I had a few hard ones,” said YF.

Eiji grinned. “I can tell.” He looked around twice before looking at YF again. “I heard you were at the club last night.”

YF grabbed his chopsticks. “The club? Like dancing? You know I don’t da—”

“No no not that club. The club.”

“What are you talking about?” YF pinched a bunch of noodles with his chopsticks and slurped them in one mouthful.

“The gentlemen’s club.”

YF swallowed, then paused. “Did—”

“Nah, Reika’s solid,” said Eiji.

It took him a second to realize he was referring to Lydia by her real name.

“Then?” asked YF.

“Kirara told me.”

YF almost choked on a piece of tempura. “Eiji…you’re texting strippers right before your wedding?”

“You’re one to talk! Look who went to the titty bar last night!”

YF heard chuckles from the table nearest to them where two women were seated.

Eiji lowered his voice to a whisper. “And she said you had a new squeeze.”

YF narrowed his eyes. “And how would she know that? Not like she’s seen Erika before.”

YF crossed his arms. “Cut the shit YF. She said you were with a woman. And if you brought Erika to a place like that, you’d get served the next day.”

“There’s a thought,” YF mumbled.

Eiji looked more serious. “So what’s going on? Are you two okay?”

“We had a fight. Big one. I don’t know where she is.”

“So you go to the club right after? Don’t you usually talk something like that out?”

YF waved his chopsticks horizontally. “Nah, it's worse than usual. Way worse. I don’t think we can talk this one out.”

“I’m surprised man. Didn’t take you for the type.”

“She was an old high school friend. Just talked a bit, that’s all.”

“Is she hot? Kirara didn’t mention anything about the way she looked.”

Now YF felt genuinely defensive. “It’s not like that dude. We caught up, talked about the future, parted ways.” YF found himself smiling involuntarily.

Eiji grinned widely. “Ahhh-haha! A bit more than a chat eh?” He slapped YF on the shoulder hard a few times.

YF shrugged his hand off. “No no. Really. It wasn’t anything,” he said, waving his chopsticks again.

“So you didn’t—”

YF’s smile fell into a complete frown. “No,” he said firmly, slurping more noodles. “It’s not important and I don’t think we click anyway. Tell me about the Ward chase thing.”

Eiji fished around his bowl for a chunk of kake and ate it. “Man…” he grinned widely. “We get some chases every now and then but nothing like that.”

“What was different about it?”

“Well for starters the guy had illegal law enforcement exclusive mods.”

“What sort of mods?” asked YF nonchalantly.

“Thrusters in the hover system, ballistic windshield…can sectarians even get those?”

“I don’t know man,” said YF, slurping up more noodles. He slowed down his pace of eating, grabbing his forehead with his free hand and acting groggy to mask any signal that he had any clue about what happened.

“Don’t you guys chase sectarians all the time?” asked Eiji.

“Yeah...we do,” YF replied.

“So you can’t remember if they have bottom thrusters and ballistic windshields? Rumor has it this guy’s thrusters were stronger than a patrol bike’s. Apparently he out boosted one of our guys.”

YF dropped the noodles he had pinched. “He what now?”

“Boosted so high our guy’s bike gave out and went back down.”

YF thought about the moto cop who had shot his windshield. Of course he knew that his modifications were better than the Ward Police bikes, but he didn’t expect such a detail to be brought up so soon.

“That even possible? Where’s a guy get boosters like that?” asked YF.

“You tell me! It was crazy!”

YF stirred his noodles with his chopsticks some more before picking out a bunch more and slurping them. “But yeah your question. I’m not sure about boosters, but sectarian vehicles definitely have bolt-proof everything and armored plating. We usually surround the unarmored ones and make deals to return their guys in exchange for a ceasefire or something. Armored cars we just throw trackers on. They know this so they don’t usually fire on us.”

“Maybe we should recruit some district Sentinels to the Ward Office in case the sects push further eastward. Seems you have more experience in chases than we do.”

“Hey,” said YF, raising his eyebrows and shrugging his shoulders dramatically. “Could always give me a slot in the academy. Then I can come over and help with your chases and finally move up.”

“And work under Uraga?”

YF scoffed. “Nah, immediate transfer.” He put down his chopsticks and picked up the bowl with both hands, drinking from the edge.