For Sale to the Highest Bidder

Three months since appearing

Inspector Aozuka took the files from the local judge with mixed emotions as he confirmed the signed warrant. It had taken a few weeks of shuffling electronic evidence, rewriting some old case files, and bribing a few complicit fellow officers who reported under him to arrange a convincing case that this "Akiko Ishitobi" was in fact "Akiko Michizane", the daughter of a mid-level member of the Inagawa-kai Yakuza family. He went on to explain... that is, forge a story that she was caught up in a faction war between rival gangs and she was the only witness to the gruesome crime. It was urgent that she be returned to Chou City immediately and placed into protective care before her assailants returned to finish the job, the warrant explained. He read it over one last time with perverse pride... it was pretty well written... he almost believed it himself. To be honest, I'm basically counting on our cultural tendency for complicity to authority to make this work.

Once he got back to his office, he closed the glass door and sat for a moment, staring at the file. He was sorely tempted to dispose of it, and report back to the Station Chief that he had been unable to arrange the detention warrant, but he knew that would be signing his own professional, not to mention personal death warrant. What you're about to do... you could be sentencing an innocent girl to death, he told himself with deep regret. Despite it all, he still had a sense of conscience and duty. Up until now, his tasks had been mostly minor; the occasional leaked tidbit of information on a sensitive case, or holding up the progress on a conviction that would eventually get made anyway, just a few days later than expected. This was far more egregious than anything he had been asked to do. His handler promised that, once the girl had been handed off to the intelligence officers in-country, his job would be over and he could just walk away. The Station Chief even promised that he would be rewarded with an extra bonus to his regular payments, properly laundered of course, lest it show up in some National Tax Agency* record revealing a long history of illicit monies to his accounts.

* Japanese equivalent to the Internal Revenue Service

No... he sighed... I've come too far to back out now... he muttered to himself with shame. In his heart, he had to just hope that the file he had received from the Station Chief claiming that this girl had connections to the underworld were legitimate and that he was still doing his duty on removing a threat to the orderly society by committing this act. To that end, he headed to the front desk Sergeant, letting him know that he was going to be out for the rest of the day for a personal matter, but that he could be reached by pager if needed. He called his wife to let her know he might be late coming home tonight and to have dinner with the children without him. The drive to Fujikawa was a little over an hour round trip, but given all that could go wrong, he had no idea if he would even make it back that night.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Mitsuha sighed as the law firm's associate dropped several stacks of heavy books onto her desk, one right after the other with a smile, proclaiming "Constitutional law... Criminal Procedure law... Administrative law... Labor law... International... make sure to have a draft ready for review for the associates' seminar next week." She groaned inwardly as she returned the smile; not wanting to show any weakness. It should have been a time for celebration; she had managed to pass the Japanese Bar on her first try; an achievement that deserved accolades at the minimum*. And yet, as the saying goes, the learning never stopped. Once that was done, she would be required to spend a year as an intern, supervised by the Legal Research and Training Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan, which was a colorful way of saying she was going to get saddled with the grunt minutia that supported any sophisticated legal presentation. Only after successfully completing that would she be allowed to wear the coveted lapel pin of a balance surrounded by a sunflower and declared a 弁護士**

* Post 2006 reforms, the Japanese Bar exam has a pass-rate of ~20% and is considered one of the most difficult in the world
** Bengoshi / Attorney at law

Staring at the imposing tower of books, Mitsuha knew it was going to be another long night. Just keep telling yourself, you wanted this, she sighed. She was seated in a shared work space in the Atsumi & Sakai law firm; a very prestigious practice that she had managed to impress during the interview process with her acumen, high academic marks, and published student essays, along with a few glowing recommendations from her professors. By any account, she was well on her way to making for a successful life.

A successful life... she thought. Once again, Mitsuha's mind drifted on the idea about this life... whether this life... or that other life... was the real thing. Every now and then, she had tried 'world-jumping' in her mind, but nothing happened. Her memories about her family's tragedy still remained a raw open wound, and yet... there they were. They were there that night at that apartment party. Tsuyoshi-oniichan and Micchan had taken a trip with her to Hawaii during their third year, the same time he graduated and accepted a job as an Information Technology Specialist for NEC Corporation. Her parents were with her every step of the way while she endured the grueling preparation for the Japanese Bar Exam, then were there to celebrate when her name was on the posted scores of passed applicants. Was that tragic memory some kind of... mistake? It seemed impossible... and yet...

The only things that kept Mitsuha from finally accepting this 'life', aside from the memory were the inconsistencies. Every now and then, she thought she saw these flashes... odd inconsistencies or happenings that didn't seem to make sense, but would then disappear when she tried to look again. Ordinary objects and people around her would abruptly trigger a memory or experience she thought came from the Zegleus Kingdom, only to dissipate when she tried to focus on it.

A loud argument abruptly brought Mitsuha out of her reverie; she quickly gathered her notes and tried to reorient herself. Just out in the hallway, she saw a pair of blond-haired ladies who she assumed were foreign clients arguing passionately with one of the partners who handled international refugee legal affairs. The distraction caused her to drop the book she was working on, spilling the rest of the stack onto the floor. "Che..." she muttered, and got down to the floor and started to awkwardly pick them up. Halfway through her task, she noticed someone standing next to her table. "Um... sorry, can I help you?"

"Actually, I think I'm here to help you," the older lady offered. She stood a half-foot taller than Mitsuha, and looked roughly in her late 20s, though that was mostly due to healthy living and good genetics, as she was actually nearly 40. "Mayumi Hongo, I'm your designated mentor."

"Oh, sorry about this," Mitusha apologized as she stood up and bowed, doing her best to maintain her composure and dignity. They actually assigned a partner! Most of the other lower candidates got assigned associates... someone with a lot of seniority must have thought very highly of me! "Happy to meet you."

"Likewise," Hongo replied. "I've heard good things about your potential. I hope you'll do well with our firm."

Outside, the argument began to get heated, which began to get distracting. "What's going on?" Mitsuha asked.

"Our firm is helping to negotiate a settlement dispute with a diplomatic crisis," Hongo explained. "Ms. Miller and Ms. Schmidt are representing a foreign group of displaced refugees." As the two clients turned around to face her, Mitsuha felt the floor fall out under her as the familiarity of their faces instantly triggered another response.

"I'm Sabine, and this is my associate Colette," Ms. Miller introduced herself. "I hope your firm can help us," as she stared at Mitsuha in a way that unnerved her.

Mitsuha went pale as no words would come to her, other than to weakly excuse herself to catch her breath. Not again... This... can't be happening again...!

____________________________________________________________________________________

Sergeant Kobayashi fumed as his precinct Inspector called him into the office. He had fully expected this meeting at some point, with the time and resources he was taking up on this murder case, but once the meeting started, his mood darkened even more when he was introduced to another policeman, Inspector Aozuka from the nearby Chou City.

"What do you mean you're taking me off the Ishitobi assassination case?" Kobayashi defended. He almost wanted to use stronger language, but knew better when talking to superior officers. "I've spent a great deal of effort putting together the evidence into build a case on this crime."

"And you did a perfectly fine job," the local Inspector assured Kobayashi. "However, Inspector Aozuka has brought new evidence to our attention that requires that we arrange the victim and this case to be transferred to their precinct."

"Transfer?" Kobayashi echoed incredulously. "The victim's in a coma! She's literally in Intensive Care and can't be moved without jeopardizing her life!"

"I'm afraid that can't be helped," Inspector Aozuka insisted. "We have a case being built against a very high level Wakagashira* in the Inagawa-kai family. The girl you think is Akiko Ishitobi is actually Akiko Michizane, who happens to be the daughter of one of our target's rivals. Since she's survived the attack, we feel it's near certain that her attackers will try again and we need to have her moved to protective custody immediately."

* First lieutenant

"Then put police protection around the hospital!" Kobayashi retorted. "If this Michizane-san is so important to your case, moving her could end her life just as quickly as an assault team could."

"Since when has the Sergeant become an expert at medical diagnosis?" Aozuka asked disdainfully.

Kobayashi bristled at the accusation. "I'm more than certain that the doctors at Fujikawa Hospital will have something to say about it."

"I have a court order that says she's coming with me," Aozuka pressed. "If it takes some medical arrangements, then that's fine, but she is coming."

____________________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Sato read over the latest set of results on the computer as one of the interns pulled a set of mixed fluids from the centrifuge as it came to a stop. As he did so, he couldn't help but notice that everyone in the room was wearing strict layers of protection, similar to dealing with a Level 3 disease. To tell the truth, they didn't know if this toxin could be aerosolized or not, but no one wanted to take that chance.

The past few weeks had been an ongoing series of hurdles that had to be overcome, but it was beginning to look like he was making progress, thanks largely in part to Nishimura's initial work on isolating the compound and analysis of its effects on the biological cells. This was the damnedest thing I ever saw... once in the cells, it almost acted like a disease in how it nested into the biology and seemed to spread its contamination to neighboring cells. He shuddered to think of what would happen if this substance did ever escape to a wider set of victims.

"How are things looking?" Nishimura asked as he entered the room.

"I think we're making some progress on these last few passes. Take a look at this," Sato remarked, as he pulled up a report on the computer. "This compound actually has multiple stages of attack when it enters an organic host. I believe that, based on what you hypothesized it coming from a plant, there's a living component to the compound that was actually used in the poisoning. The fluid you've extracted was the toxic component only; I think we'll find the biologic component in the girl's cellular structure."

"A multi-vector attack toxin... have we ever seen anything like that before?" Nishimura pondered.

"Biologic attacks cause toxins to be produced as a side effect quite a number of times," Sato pointed out. "If this is an otherworldly organic compound, then why wouldn't it be possible the reverse happens?"

"Then both would have to be solved, and almost at the same time," Nishimura concluded, with Sato nodding in agreement. "Countering the toxin in the blood does no good, if the contaminated cells continue to produce more of the toxin, and curing the cells won't do any good, if there remains a high level of toxin in the blood to reinfect them." He didn't mention that their patient had an ace-in-the-hole in the form of a healing ability, which was both the only reason she was likely still alive, and their most likely chance on healing her now. Unfortunately, he also knew that meant whatever cures they managed to come up with to heal her might end up being of limited use to anyone else who didn't have a healing power, but he would have to cross that bridge when he came to it.

Just then, Dr. Minatsuki came into the lab with a look of urgency. "Doctors, I just got a call from Sergeant Kobayashi, regarding the legal matters surrounding this case. I'm afraid things might have just been taken out of our hands."

____________________________________________________________________________________

Yuta Ishii cringed a little as he watched the meeting between the doctors and police taking place in one of the conference rooms in Fujikawa Hospital. During his time as an intern at Otsuki Hospital, he had suffered through the expected hard work his field demanded. What made the work bearable was being assigned to Dr. Nishimura, who had always been among the most even-tempered of men, even when faced with multiple crises. The older man had always been patient with his students and willing to spend the time to show them what they did right and wrong and how it could affect them down the road. To his recollection, he never lost his temper, at least not in public. Until today.

"You cannot be serious!" Nishimura nearly shouted at Inspector Aozuka. "Even the Akihabara killer* is being given basic medical care until his sentence is carried out!"

* Tomohiro Kato, convicted of killing 7, wounding 11 at an Akihabara shopping quarter, sentenced to death on 3/24/2011, hanged 7/26/2022.

For his part, Aozuka assumed the role of the calm cool official, merely doing his duties. The last thing he needed was to give away that he was, in fact, following the agenda of a foreign power. "That's a completely unrelated matter, involving a closed case. This incident involves an active investigation, and it requires that she be released to my custody immediately, per this judge ordered warrant."

Dr. Minatsuki looked at Sergeant Kobayashi icily. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

Kobayashi glared at Aozuka. "No, I did not. I want this crime solved as much as any that I've ever seen before, but I want it done the right way, and with the patient's basic rights respected."

"I don't know the details of the case you're investigating Inspector," Sato added. "But your judge needs to be made aware of a much larger issue at play. This patient in particular has been dosed with what we believe to be a compound outside our normal biosphere, in direct violation to any isolation protocols. So far, we've contained her and prevented any chance that the toxin goes further than one patient. But if you take her out into the open environment, you risk exposing other people to this compound."

"Th-that can't be helped," Aozuka pushed back. "The judge's order is clear."

Even that didn't sway him? Nishimura wondered with disbelief. If we had told him that she was infected with an airborne hemorrhagic fever, would he still be so damned cavalier with this judge's order? And who was this... judge? What madness was this that a court order would ignore even a high-risk medical hazard?

"If this case is so important, then it would be more prudent to keep her here," Sato offered. "We've made some significant breakthroughs these past few weeks on developing an anti-serum to the toxin that's in her system. Another few weeks... perhaps a month tops, and we might have the toxin under control." That was a gamble, he knew, but he wanted to see where this Inspector would go with this idea.

"I have my orders to bring her in, one way or another," Aozuka asserted with authority.

Everyone else in the room thought the same thing... who's orders? Aozuka, perhaps realizing his slip, immediately corrected. "Have her ready for transport in the morning. I'll be back with the necessary personnel and transport to facilitate transfer of the prisoner."

____________________________________________________________________________________

Michiko kept a careful watch on the bar floor, with an eye out for her employee's performances, and customer interactions as soft modern jazz played in the background. Since taking over her family's business, now renamed 'Micchan's' with an expanded menu of appetizers and sweets to complement a revamped lineup of alcoholic beverages, business had since expanded under her guidance, along with three additional locations around Tokyo. Among the night's customers, she noticed her childhood friend Mitsuha, nursing her Pisco Sour, while partially hiding behind a stack of books.

Walking up to her friend's table, she looked to see what Mitsuha was doing. "That's your third drink," she observed, noting the book titled 'Refugee Immigration Law'. "Something bugging you at work?"

"Oh... it's just busy-body work," Mitsuha brushed it off, then tried to change the subject. "Why so much staff here in the middle of the week?"

"We're taking advantage of the slow period to train up for a soft open for our next location," Michiko declared. "My business partners are wanting to expand out past Tokyo... maybe Yokohama as our next market." She slid Mitsuha a slice of honey millefeuille.

Mitsuha took a bite. "This is a new one... where'd you come up with this?"

"My contribution to French/Japanese fusion," Michiko explained. "I took a Castella* and layered it with puff pastry layers, then adjusted the chocolate lace on top to better match with honey instead of normal sugar."

* Japanese honey flavored sponge cake

Mitsuha finished the cake with her third bite. "So how long before we start to see 'Micchan cakes' in every grocery store?" she suggested lightly.

Michiko folded her arms with a reluctant look. "Never, if I have my say, although my investors are pushing for that. I had a hard enough time wrapping my head around having my recipes being mass produced in restaurants by other people with me not being there to watch. Do you have any idea what it takes to keep cakes and pies shelf stable for three to four weeks in retail packaging? The idea that I'm going to symbolically hand someone a pastry loaded with propionic acid and benzoate and tell them it's something I made is more than I could bear."

Mitsuha shook her head and smiled. "You are such a snob. We both ate food just like that growing up and we turned out just fine."

"Yeah, but we weren't staking our names on those preserved snacks either," Michiko countered. "Just because some nameless, faceless corporation wants to feed people chemically processed food, that doesn't make me a food snob."

"You won't even eat pizza out of a box without complaining about the crust not being properly proofed," Mitsuha almost laughed.

"W-well, most of them aren't," Michiko defended as her face flushed slightly red.

Mitsuha finished her drink and decided to let Micchan off easy... she was so easy to tweak all these years. Of the two of them, Micchan always was the more open between them. Mitsuha had always felt a need to be absolutely sure about everything she did and was the more guarded between them. Micchan tended to fly by the seat of her pants, and open to new experiences and meeting new people. Growing up as kids, Micchan was the more popular with the boys, with Mitsuha often getting treated more like "the last one on the playground", especially when getting picked for sports in elementary and junior high, eventually getting mostly ignored by the boys in high school. Rooming together in college had allowed both girls to build upon the better traits of the other; Mitsuha had started to open up to new people, even forming a relationship or two with some classmates, while Micchan learned to be more cautious and careful with being too open with total strangers.

"Nakamura-san, here's the nightly report," an older man came, interrupting Mitsuha's reverie. She turned to take a look at the bar manager and froze at the man's face in recognition.

Cl-Claus Von Bozes...?! Mitsuha almost gasped. His face was almost a match for... for... Her mind drifted again, recalling the kindly Count that had taken her in when she first arrived in Zegleus... or had he...? The man gave Mitsuha a glance as he handed Michiko the tablet, then in an almost subliminal moment, seemed to show his disappointment in her, sending a chill down her spine.

"Thank you Boujou-san," Michiko said, taking the electronic ledger. "How did the new staff trainees look tonight?"

"Front-of-house looks ready for the new location. Some of the back-of-house got lost in the weeds, which concerns me, considering that even with this light crowd how they're going to handle a weekend night."

Michiko looked at Mitsuha, who had turned pale as a sheet. "Are you OK?"

Mitsuha turned back to Michiko. "I... I'm not sure... I..." she stuttered, then turned back to the restaurant manager. His appearance now looked completely different; just another normal young Japanese salaryman that she saw in every building in the city.

"Do I need to have a taxi called?" Boujou asked with concern.

"No, I'll take care of it," Michiko assured, with a worried look for Mitsuha. "Go ahead and take the rest of the night off, I'll close up."

Boujou nodded and took his leave. Once he was gone, Michiko asked, "What was that about?"

Mitsuha sat quiet for a few minutes as the music played around the club and her drink ice cubes slowly melted. "Have you ever thought about... how our lives turned out?" she asked softly. "The choices that we made? The ones we may have left behind to be here?"

Michiko looked at Mitsuha strangely. "Left behind? I'm not sure I understand what you mean... I'd say we turned out great. You're on your way to becoming an attorney, I've taken over my family business. At your current pace, I wouldn't be surprised if you make partner before you're 35, and I'll be opening up locations in Europe and America. Isn't this what we both wanted out of life?"

"I guess, but... " Mitsuha trailed off, then looked directly at Michiko. "What if I told you... that there was a choice at one point in our lives... where we could have taken another route... where we would have been directly responsible for saving the lives of hundreds... maybe thousands of lives... improved the quality of life for entire nations. But that the cost for that greatness would be the lives of your family, and any hope for a normal peaceful life... would you choose a life of service and solitude, surrounded by a grateful nation... or would you choose a peaceful life of personal success... with your family and closest friends by your side?"

Michiko looked at Mitsuha with thoughtfulness. In another circumstance, she might have made a snarky comment about having too much to drink, but the seriousness in Mitsuha's eyes belied that. "Wow... you've really thought about this, haven't you? You mean, the good of the many vs the good of the few?"

Mitsuha finished the last of her drink. "Yeah, something like that. If you had to make a choice like that, which would you choose?"

Michiko blew out a sigh of indecisiveness. "I don't know... it'd be one thing to sacrifice your own life for the greater good... but you're talking about a situation where it's your family who dies, even though you end up living alone. I guess... I'd want to know... what my family thought about it, if I had the chance."

____________________________________________________________________________________

Inspector Aozuka nursed his drink in the Ao Dining Bar as the tall blond man sat on the stool next to him. He emptied his drink and glanced at the stranger, who he had been told to expect. "This is very dangerous to meet like this."

Boris grunted and ordered a local beer. "Perhaps. But I thought it was necessary to make sure we had a plan in place after you have the package with you."

The package... such a cold way to refer to another human being, Aozuka fumed before he corrected himself. Then again, I'm hardly one to talk; I'm selling out my country for money, he remembered. "Your handler said there would be a cargo ship waiting for you in Yokohama. It's a Russian flag ship, so you'll have some of your people onboard to provide support. The vessel will be shipping Japanese cars to Russia. It's a regularly scheduled run, so adding one more cargo container shouldn't arouse any suspicions. As for getting you there, we've arranged a cargo truck that the three of you can drive. It's a three-hour drive, so allow yourselves some room for error. The ship that's been arranged for you will leave in four days, on this dock and time. Miss that rendezvous, and there won't be another for quite a while."

Boris nodded and took the envelope of paper. So far, this mission had gone on virtually without so much as a single hiccup; he and his two partners had spent the past few weeks pretending to sightsee the surrounding mountains that Japan was famous for. Truthfully, he found the past few weeks boring... if I wanted to see a bunch of cold snowy mountains, I'd just go to Siberia! Nevertheless, it was beginning to look like this was really going to work in their favor. He knew though not to relax his guard; it was right when everything was going right was when things could still go completely wrong. Still, he looked forward to when they would finally return to Russia in triumph with the girl who had so humiliated his team, and by extension, his nation under their control. He had thoughts on how their scientists would go through her body piece-by-piece, until they discovered the secret of trans-dimensional travel and take that other world for the benefit of the Motherland, lifeforce restrictions be damned.