Generosity Built on Blood and Tears

The trip to E.T.’s secret lair had one more goal. To prepare for the infiltration of the Yurashi Hotel. A hotel owned by the Seireiji Corporation, the first in Japan to incorporate magic into its amenities. Equipped with a private databank, the hotel powered its magical facilities with the information scraped from the millions of active users on the social media site NO.

The ten-story eyesore adopted the general shape of a tree. Meaningless but elaborate runes carved across the milky white trunk, with artificial vines crawling up from the base. The growth of the concrete was topped with phony foliage composed of dark cyan dendrites that gave off an iridescent glimmer under the sunlight.

This grandiosity brought no comfort to the dead and no nourishment to most of the living. Only paying customers could use the hotel anyway, and the pricing towered multiple dimensions above that of the hotels in the rest of Shinjuku.

This strict rule was abandoned for a day to accommodate a charity event. Any invitee, meaning anyone with a large enough bank account, could get in and enjoy the hotel facilities; they weren’t even obligated to spend a single penny on donations. Funny how rich people were the ones who got the most free stuff.

“Midorikawa Karasuya and Endo Takafumi. Thank you.” Raven smiled at the guard. The camera scanned their faces. A match with the guest list. The fortified steel door slid aside to grant passage. I didn’t know how Raven could still believe that she wasn’t rich after this. Maybe she just stopped caring.

They weren’t in the clear yet. Welcoming them was a security check that felt more solemn than the ones at airports. Their belongings crawled through the conveyor belt under a ring-shaped magical scanner. Nothing abnormal in Raven’s purse. E.T.’s suitcase also didn’t trigger any alarms.

E.T. and Raven walked through a separate frame, but they appeared as blind spots, invisible to the magical sensors. The staff member stared at the blank screen, not knowing how to interpret it. “Is there an issue? We’d like to start enjoying ourselves as soon as possible,” E.T. said with a cocky smile.

The staff didn’t want to be doused with any entitled complaints, and so the couple was allowed to pass. The security measures were meant to appease the rich, not to annoy them.

The dim main lobby confined a night sky to its ceiling. This grant display owed its depth and charm to the magic, a boundless space stretching into a vast darkness; the stone-framed exits leading out of the lobby mimicked ancient portals. Potted bushes sculpted like giant mushrooms marked the contours of the space, glimmering in fluorescent white.

Sparks of light drifted idly here and there. One of them flew towards the latest visitors, and an ethereal, tranquil voice appeared to broadcast straight to Raven’s mind. “Hello, welcome to Yurashi Hotel. I’ll be your fairy guide today. How may I be of assistance?” An up-close look at the magical guide repulsed me, bringing to mind the deaths I had to see in spirit form.

The guide led Raven towards the event hall, while E.T. followed another guide on a tour of the hotel. He told Raven that he would scout the area, but I suspected that he had another plan in mind.

The hotel corridor adopted another theme, frost white quartz supported by wooden pillars. The simplicity was strangely comforting to the eyes, as if one had stumbled into the realm of the divine. The hotel just had to ruin the atmosphere by flaunting famous paintings on the walls, polluting the plain aesthetic with symbols of excess.

Raven didn’t spare any glances at her surroundings, marching right behind the guide straight towards her destination. With the help of the magical shortcuts, it didn’t take long for her to reach the hall.

The doors flipped open automatically, revealing a ballroom in a classical European design. A center chandelier levitated above; even with a singular light source, the entire room was brimming with a warm brightness that wouldn’t overload the eyes. Ceiling-to-floor navy blue curtains left a gap for the windows to a view of a fake countryside.

Raven’s dark gray halter dress blended her right in with the haughty bunch. The top one percent of the one percent gathered to snack and chat, casually idle, awaiting the main event. Some didn’t know what cause they were donating to, because to them, this was merely an occasion for networking. One guest even brought his eight-year-old son. Despite the kid’s age, the gadgets and accessories on him could fund better healthcare for an entire village.

Perhaps my old, straightforward way of calculating lives had to evolve; Raven and E.T. might have a point when they steal from the rich. Of course, the way they did it was still inefficient.

Adopting E.T.’s past strategy, Raven would use the Eight-Hand Mirror to steal bank details. Once the mirror had “seen” something, it could reveal related information through images. So Raven only had to zigzag through the heaps of chatter and subtly capture the reflections of the guests with the mirror.

What a laughable restriction compared to my quasi-omniscience. They could have saved their effort and removed all risks if Raven had begged me to help her. I could have redistributed society’s wealth as easily as cooking a meal.

Raven had covered half of the guests, and she was ready to cross to the other side of the room. “Midorikawa Karasuya-san? Are you by chance Maya-san’s daughter?” A tall man popped seemingly out of nowhere and offered his hand. He rocked a lounge suit and blond hair that was styled into a conspicuous bowl cut.

Raven glanced at the name tag on her dress, realizing how the man knew who she was. She bowed in response. “I am.”

“I knew it! My name is Hasekura Jō. Nice to meet you. I was a friend of your mother. We were all saddened by her passing. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask. Oh, do you need my contact?” He didn’t look dejected that his hand was left hanging. Meanwhile, Raven couldn’t hide her grimace.

“Thank you, but I have to say no. It is nice to meet you. I have to greet other people.” Raven turned around in such a hurry that she neglected to use the mirror on him. And no, she didn’t ‘greet other people,’ but instead, she snuck out of the ballroom.

“Hello, how may I be of assistance?” A fairy guide floated towards Raven.

“Shut up,” Raven swatted the guide away.

She strode aimlessly through the corridors. The guides she passed asked for her destination, but she ignored them all, stubbornly wallowing in her personal crisis. Her steps ramped up into a sprint, until a hand reached out from behind her, forcing a handkerchief over her nose.

Raven struggled briefly, but succumbed to the spell of the anesthesia not long after. I could have helped her break free, but I didn’t.

Because the attacker was Pestilence, acting under my orders to free my spirit from Raven’s body.