Things Left Buried

The safe house in Osaka was little more than a rented apartment above a quiet bookstore, the kind of place no one looked twice at. It smelled of old paper and dust, the air thick with the weight of unspoken things.

Jessica sat at the window, fingers curled loosely around a cup of tea that had gone cold. She hadn’t spoken much since the heist.

Leanna and Olivia watched her carefully from the other side of the room. They weren’t interrogating her—not yet. But she could feel the concern radiating off them.

Jessica exhaled, breaking the silence. “One of them knew me.”

Olivia straightened. “What?”

Jessica didn’t turn from the window. “In the vault. One of the intruders. He looked at me like he knew me.” She hesitated. “Then he said, ‘You were never supposed to wake up.’”

Leanna crossed her arms. “Jess… why didn’t you say something?”

Jessica turned, finally meeting their eyes. “Yuki was with us.”

The weight of those words settled between them.

Olivia leaned forward. “You don’t trust her.”

Jessica shook her head. “I don’t know what she is to us yet. But I do know she was close to Ryan.” A pause. “And I don’t think she knows who I am. But if she does…”

Leanna exhaled slowly. “Then she’s playing a long game.”

Silence. The unease in the room thickened.

Jessica set down the untouched tea. “There’s something else.”

She pulled her phone from her pocket, scrolling through a photo she had taken before they left Kyoto—a grainy image of the parchment the old monk had given her. She turned the screen toward them.

“The shrine,” she said. “I think it’s where the second mask was taken.”

Olivia frowned, taking the phone from Jessica’s hands. “This writing… it’s not just language. It’s format. Structure. Like a ledger or ritual catalog.”

Leanna leaned in. “What is it?”

Olivia’s voice was quiet but certain. “This isn’t just a location. It’s a record.”

Jessica’s stomach tightened. “A record of what?”

Olivia hesitated. “Of something that was hidden. Something that shouldn’t be found.”

---

The room became a hive of quiet activity. Olivia pulled up old archives, cross-referencing names and locations, tracing back rumors and whispers buried in forgotten history.

Yuki was out, making contact with one of her old informants, giving Jessica the space she needed to speak freely.

Leanna stood behind Olivia, watching the screen. “You think this is Vanguard?”

Olivia shook her head. “No. It’s older.” She scrolled through an aged document, the edges faded from time. “Look at this. A military survey from 1948. The same location. But the report ends in a single redacted page.”

Jessica’s pulse quickened. “What were they looking for?”

Olivia tapped the screen. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”

Jessica exhaled, her mind turning. The masks weren’t just artifacts. They were part of something buried, something erased. And now, someone wanted to unearth it.

---

By the time Yuki returned, the decision had already been made.

Jessica met her at the door, her expression unreadable. “We’re heading back to Kyoto.”

Yuki arched a brow. “That fast?”

Jessica nodded. “The shrine is the key.”

Yuki studied her for a long moment, then simply said, “Then I’ll get us transport.”

Jessica turned back to Leanna and Olivia. The three of them exchanged a look—one that didn’t need words.

They would watch Yuki. They would move carefully. And they would find out what was waiting for them in the mountains.