18. Capture or Kill
Its a good night for an ambush.
In the shadow of a low wall, I hide with Katsumi beside me. The night is dark, with no moon and few streetlights in this residential neighborhood of the city. Houses crowd us in on all sides, barely any room for two people to walk between them. The streets themselves are narrow, and what little trees there are hang over the roads with long, drooping branches. The whole place is claustrophobic, with no room to maneuver. It sets me on edge.
I'm already on edge anyway. Money has been tight the whole month. While I'm not in danger of starving—I live with my parents and Mayumi helps—I hate being a burden. The people I love have their own bills, their own problems, without having to worry about me. More than that though, I hate the feeling of reliance. I'm a grown woman, and want to feel like it.
Can't do that without money though. So I need this payout. I've gone too long without one. The anticipation of it gnaws at me, making my fingers twitch. I'm ready to go, summon my sword and leap at our newest target.
I glance upward at the roof across the street, where the dark blob of my girlfriend lies in wait, patient and unmoving. A quirked smile pulls at my lips. I'm supposed to be the calm one in this relationship. Maybe she's rubbing off on me.
I chance a peak over the wall. The house we're staking out sits dark and quiet, with one open window. Our lure. We got the tip from the owner. A personal call from someone fed up with a demon harassing them at night. A breath-eater. Nasty things; they like to sneak in through open windows.
This moment has been in motion for days, our moves well planned. When we get the signal, our trap will close tight. Even if it manages to wriggle out, my favorite techie has a backup plan. Speaking of, I double-check the earpiece Chie gave me. Our girl is smart—too smart for her own good even—but her tech tends to be cobbled together. I'm not going to risk it. Not tonight.
"Haruki, when do you think it's gonna show up?" Katsumi whispers in my ear.
I shrug and give her my response just as quiet.
"These types are easy to spook. They only come when they're sure its going to be safe."
Her brow scrunches up. "They aren't dangerous?"
"Oh they are. They've been known to kill people, it's just slow. They feed over several nights, with the victim becoming sicker and sicker. After about a week they die."
Breath-eaters have plagued residential neighborhoods like this one for decades. Bagging them is less flashy, so they don't get the attention that more dangerous demons get. That's led them to getting overlooked in the massive residential sprawl that the city has grown into over the past century.
Her face contorts into a fearful grimace, so I continue. "But they aren't fighters. It sees us it'll run so-"
An sparking arrow flies past our hideout, followed by an inhuman screech.
So much for the signal.
I leap from our hideout into the middle of the narrow one-way, sword in hand. Already our mark is fleeing from a house window, an arrow in it's back. Its a dark, human-like thing. With tattered clothing like a robe, but I catch it's face as it lands onto the road. A long, lolling, purple tongue hangs from it's mouth and all-black eyes stare at me.
Another arrow flies, it flees down the street and through a passage between two houses.
"Chie!" I call behind me, "Plan B!"
"On it!"
I catch a glimpse of Hotaru starting her scooter, Chie sitting behind her, before I turn and give chase.
Above our heads comes the whirling buzz of a drone. Chie, our eye in the sky, begins to call out directions over our earpieces, keeping us on the demon's trail. Katsumi she directs around, while Mayumi leaps from close rooftop to close rooftop.
Me, the real threat, I just chase the damn thing.
Its a maze, this place. I hop fences, cut through yards and alleys, huffing all the while. It's no wonder nobody bothers with the breath-eaters out here, chasing just one of these things down is ridiculous!
I'm hopping out into another one-way, the demon in my line-of-sight, when Katsumi flies from another alleyway. Her sword scores a hit at it's side. Yes!
Another screech echoes as it darts in another direction. Chie's calling out more directions. She directs me down a side-street while she sends Katsumi another way again. Three arrows fly in a wide arc, forcing the thing to switch tracks through a yard or else be an easy target for Mayumi.
Chie's strategy is clear to see in action, and her cleverness makes me smile. I chase the thing, Mayumi harasses and slows it, and Katsumi uses her superior speed to hit it from the side. Its near foolproof. Katsumi isn't very strong, but a cut is a cut. Even now I can see it slowing. With two wounds, its leaving a trail of black blood in its wake. I grin, pick up speed. My prey is close, and I can smell victory. Its been too long without one, I'm ecstatic, already planning our celebration. We can-
A dark blur launches at the demon and it goes down in the middle of the street.
I halt, sword at the ready.
It tries to rise but something is wrapped around its legs. Bolas. It struggles to its feet, but before it can barely make a hop, a person steps out from behind a house. A dark silhouette with a face lit only by the glow of a cigarette. The person fires some kind of weapon, and a net flies at our mark, wrapping it in a net. The demon struggles, screeches, but its no help. It can only lay there and wriggle.
"What the fuck?" I exclaim.
As if on command, the lights of a vehicle click on, blinding me. I hear the sound of car doors slamming shut, and I shield my eyes with a hand. When my eyes adjust—barely—I catch four other men hauling the thing to what look like the back of a van.
The man with the net-gun has his back to me.
"Hey!" I shout, pointing my sword, "That one's ours!"
He turns, looking at me out of the corner of his eye, cigarette limply hanging out of his mouth. Now that I can see him clearly, he looks like a complete sleaze. Dark hair piled with so much hair gel the stylized swoop above his head is practically a helmet, paired with a patchy beard and greasy face. His only saving grace is he's young. But when his youth leaves him, he'll be one disgusting bastard.
"Its it now?" he taunts, with a tilt to his head.
"Haruki!" Katsumi calls, coming to my side, "What's going on?"
With the girl's arrival, he turns to us fully now. His eyes run up and down Katsumi's body in a way that immediately sets me on edge. I step in front of her, holding my sword low. A corner of his lip rises into a smirk, brows raised at my motion.
"Got outfoxed, is what happened, doll." He sets the net-gun down on the hood of the van, takes a drag of his cigarette, and exhales. The cloud is hazy in the vehicle's headlights. "Grabbing these things is such a fucking pain in my ass, so, you know what I said? I said, how bout we find a pack of D-Rank nobodies to spook these things outa their little hidey-holes. Call in a little false tip and boom. Sit and wait."
The other corner of his lip turns up into a grin. Pleased with himself.
My gut churns. I recognize what this man is, and I don't hide my disgust.
"Muhōmono." I spit the word at his feet.
He huffs a laugh.
"Yeah? Can ya blame me? Pay for a capture is triple the kill rate." He puffs smoke in my direction, and my nose wrinkles. "Its just good business."
I can hear the rest of the girls approaching from behind, still a distance away. I step closer, our bodies separated only by my sword which nearly touches his feet.
"So… let me get this straight," I bite out. "You set us up, and now you want us to walk with no payout?"
He steps into my space. I nearly gag from the amount of cheap cologne the human trashcan is wearing. Still, I smirk when I notice I'm a couple centimeters taller than he is.
"Yeah," he says with a raise of his brows. "I'd take ya out, you know, as compensation but…" He glances down my body in clear judgment. "Don't think ya my type."
My lips pull back, teeth showing. The rest of the girls appear at our side.
He takes a step back, a twist to his lips now, his gaze passing over the rest of them. "The fuuuck is this? Local knitting club meetup?"
"Haruki," Chie says coldly, "What is this?"
"They're taking our kill," I bite out.
"Like fuck they are!" Mayumi growls.
"Whaaat? Ya gonna fight us for it?" he says with a grin, hands raised at his sides
"It's not out of the question," I say.
He chuckles, and with a sneer, snaps his fingers. The rest of his goon squad pile out of the van, lining up on either side of him. Unlike their leader, all of his cronies are the neanderthal type. Big and stocky.
"See," he says, pointing to his friends with two fingers. "All of us here, C-Ranks. And you?" Another chuckle. "We picked y'all out specifically. Know why? Cause ya losers. Three Ds and and F. 'cept the spell caster, which by the way," He turns to Hotaru. "What're you doin' with these losers? Come over to the better payin' side. I'd take care a ya, doll."
I can hear the disgust in Hotaru's voice.
"I doubt it."
He shrugs, as if he couldn't give two shits what her answer was. "Suit ya'self, doll." His beady dark eyes return to me. "So, what's it gonna be? I could use a good fight."
As if on cue, all his croneys summon their weapons. All glow a silver-white. I see two spears, a swordsman, and and archer. Greaseball in the middle wields a comically oversized pistol. I'm already plotting my moves, hit greaseball, then the archer…
I feel a hand on my sword arm. I look over my shoulder. Chie, her lips a tight line, gives me the smallest nod. Just once.
I look back to greaseball.
"Guess it's your lucky day," I say to him.
He smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "I'm sure." He flicks his hand over his shoulder, and the goon squad packs it up, going back to the van. "Now get ya little dyke parade out the road. I'm tryin'a go home."
I stay where I am, staring him down, half tempted to stand here a little longer, but Mayumi takes my arm and pulls me to the side. We watch the van trudge down the little one way in silence.
It isn't till the van is out of sight, that Mayumi yells, "FUCK!"
I wince, but agree. I would probably have done the same had I not been rooted to the spot, watching the now dark street. We were so close. So close and then our sure victory was stolen right out of our fingers. Worse, we were used. Used by scum like them.
“Who were those guys?” Katsumi asks. Her face is marred by a frown, though she doesn’t appear to be shaken or anything. She's definitely more confident. The only good news from this whole debacle.
"Bottom of the barrel scum that are everything wrong with the Hunter's Guild!" Mayumi declares in her seething rage. Mine is much more quiet, but with the same source .
Chie thankfully jumps in to explain what I seem unable to right now.
"They're hunters who sell demons, instead of killing them. It's illegal. Very illegal."
"Why would they do that?" Katsumi asks with that cute scrunch to her brow. "I mean… three times the standard rate is really good, but… I don't know if I would go to jail for it."
"Because they can get away with it," I finally say. Her questioning eye turns to me. "A lot of big players buy demons. Corps, politicians… It's illegal, but nobody enforces it."
"As long as they don't get too blatant with it," Chie adds.
I nod. "Or if a big player needs someone to take a fall. Someone starts looking too closely, the public gets to scared, some unlucky bastard becomes the sacrifice they parade in front of the media. All-clear, all safe-"
"Go back to being obedient little worker ants," Mayumi grumbles.
"That doesn’t make sense though," Katsumi says, watching Mayumi warily as she paces back and forth, fury radiating off her. "What can they even use demons for?"
Hotaru finally speaks up, voice small.
"Set them loose where you want to create terror and chaos, or you can bind a demon with magic to make it subservient to your will. It's complicated and dangerous, but… it's become more popular. I've had to decline requests to 'work with' a few corporations a month ever since I made my spellcaster status public through the Guild."
"Sounds like you would get a lot from that," Katsumi says.
Hotaru frowns, holding her limbs in close. Still, her chin is high
"Oh, they would pay me more than you could dream, but I'll never do it. What they do is evil. Magic is for protecting people from demons, not turning those monsters back on them!"
Katsumi nods.
"I can't believe they got the better of us," I growl. To Chie I ask, "Where did you even get this tip?"
"I got an email to my official Guild account. They weren't asking for money up front like the usual scams, so I thought it was fine."
"Ugh!" Mayumi whirls on her, "This is why we don't bother with that shit! We get our tips from the source, or we find them in the street! That's how we've always done it!"
"Well it obviously wasn't working!" Chie snaps back. Even then, her arms are crossed, shoulders around her ears. She's never liked being yelled at.
I intervene, placing a hand on Mayumi's upper arm and squeezing gently. "This won't lead anywhere we like. We got played. And…" I glance at Chie, "We won't let it happen again."
Mayumi's mouth twitches, like she wants to say more, but she then only nods—short and quick. Chie is still huddled into herself, embarrassment on her face. She planned this whole thing, start to finish, and it ended like this.
"We should go," Hotaru says, looking around. Its then I realize we're standing in front of someone's home, in the middle of the night. Next to the front door, in a low bush that is so small a rug could cover it, a pink plastic flamingo stares at me with bright lifeless eyes.
I suppress a shudder at the sheer vacant joy in those eyes.
"Yeah," I say, "Lets."
■ ■ ■
I could've done without this! I wanna be home already.
Sadly my flat is on the other side of the city, so it took forever and several subway stops to return. Thankfully I'm almost there. One empty crosswalk with a clear 'don't walk' symbol the only thing between me and my futon — okay maybe the stairs up to my floor too, but whatever.
Keeping my eyes open is a struggle. The street is empty, but given how tired I am, I'm gonna overlook a random car.
A shiver.
Yeah, not doing that again.
I'm good.
I'll wait.
Tonight was super disappointing. We had a plan and everything. We were doing so well, until those assholes showed up.
I did recognize their leader. One of pretty boy's friends. Typical, who else but a scummy rich-boy would do such a thing? My skin is crawling just thinking of him. Glad I'm basically incognito as a fake shrine maiden.
The light is still red.
I want to be home already.
“Katsumi?”
I know that voice, drawn out and seriously confused as it is.
I turn to find Yukio staring at me, his eyebrows raised.
Oh. NO!
No, no, no, no, please no!
Please ignore me, I’m not here!
Look somewhere else!
Of course I had to run into him. That's the problem when you live so close to your work, you might run into people you know from there. Like there is one route to the nearest subway station. I had to come across someone eventually. Why didn't I think about this sooner?
I could've avoided all this!
Going forward it would be wiser to take a bike or something to the other station when I crossdress—just to make sure.
What should I do??? This is bad!
Also why is he still staring like that, doesn’t he know that's totally rude?
His eyes narrow.
I need to do something!
Say something!
“Eeeh…”
“It’s really you isn’t it?”
I press my eyes shut, “Yes it’s me.”
“What the fuck!? Why do you sound so cute?”
I jump.
Oh, fuck, habit!
Abort!
Abort!
Abort—need to clear my clear head.
Talk normal!
“Ah… I…” WHY AM I STILL SO HIGH?!
This can’t be happing, why is it suddenly so hard to talk normal?
I need to get my act together!
Yukio is looking at me like Tarō did that time I told him why he should become a demon-hunter. Close your mouth my guy it’s not that unbelievable.
“Youcantrainyourvoice.”
WUAH! I still totally sounded like a girl! What the fuck is wrong with me?! I’ve completely lost it, haven’t I?
“You can? Cool. So you crossdress?”
“Yeaaah… ?”
Yay! ⋆˚✿˖°
That almost sounded as if it came from a guy. Emphasis on almost.
“You do part-time at a cafe? I heard the pay isn’t shabby for that, not that it’s something I ever considered. Don’t think I can pull it off.”
He chuckles at his own words, with his hand awkwardly rubbing his neck.
I look away.
“No, it’s… a… hobby. But I’m thinking of dropping it.”
I glance back. He scrunches his face at that.
"Why? You seem pretty good at it. You make for a really cute girl.”
『 ! ! ! ERROR ! ! ! 』
『 CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE 』
『 … 』
HU?!
What?
“Because… because… because well it’s not something you should do… or enjoy."
I’m a guy. I’m not supposed to love any of this.
I shouldn't want to wear girly clothes. Not my role.
My fingers dig into the fabric of my skirt. I feel the band of the bra around my chest with very breath. This is so stupid. Why couldn’t I’ve been born a girl then none of this would be an issue.
I want to be home.
Alone.
I don't want this.
Yukio makes a dismissive gesture and comments, “Screw that! If that’s your jam, then why stop? If you like it, do it.”
Eh!?
I tilt my head.
This is getting more surreal by the second.
He actually means that, doesn’t he?
Why would you say that Yukio?
How can you… ?
Keeping my gaze off him just to be sure, I mumble, “I guess you have a point.”
Maybe he is right. Why should I let myself be dissuaded, just because I get scared sometimes? Because of some weird feelings?
“Course I have. You know stuff about girls. I know stuff about life.”
He grins, indicating that he trying to make a joke.
(ー_ー )
I give a dry, “Sure you do. You're soooo wise."
That's why I had to teach you basic etiquette last week.
Hey, I finally sounded like a guy.
The moment holds with us just standing there at the crosswalk, neither one of us really knowing what to do. It’s the first time I can get a somewhat calm look at him. He has his hands stuffed in his pockets and appears as relaxed as ever. I’m the one making a fool out of myself.
He flashes a smile.
Okay maybe it's a little bit awkward.
Something…
No.
“Uhm… I’m on my way home, had a long night, you know?”
Girl voice again.
I’m the worst.
“Same. See ya.”
"Bye."
I walk away, which means I’m also walking down the road, in the wrong direction, but whatever that was, I’m done with it. I need to get away—far away preferably. Maybe start a new life—in a different city, not like literally. No interest in another truck encounter.
One was enough.