That Left a Mark

Midoriko periodically looked out the rear window of the taxi for any cars that seemed like they were following. It was only once they had left Suita and crossed the Yodo River into the urban core of Osaka that she finally felt like she could afford to be less vigilant.

The taxi dropped them off at an unassuming mid-rise apartment building in a nice area. As she dug through her wallet for money to pay the cab fare, there was a knock at the driver’s window, startling Midoriko.

It was Enishi Ryouma. He wore a black suit along with his seasonally inappropriate choice of black leather gloves. His odd habit of wearing gloves, Midoriko had learned, was a way for him to hide his curse from others. Suits were apparently a personal preference.

Midoriko pulled a sleeping Itoko out of the car while he paid for the cab fare. The poor thing had cried herself to sleep on the way there, horrified by what she had done to the Russian.

“Is she…?” Ryouma asked, looking at Itoko’s tear-streaked cheeks.

“She’s fine,” Midoriko said curtly. She repositioned Itoko in her arms. “She’s just sleeping.”

There were no other words between them as Ryouma led the way to the apartment. Midoriko could only silently seethe, waiting for the right moment to unload her anger onto him.

Riding the elevator together and seeing him punch in the door lock code to the unit was somehow more surreal to Midoriko than the portals he could open up at will. She had half expected him to knock on a door and send them back to Gunma.

Instead, the apartment was a clean, modern two-bedroom unit. It was fully furnished, yet it looked completely sterile and unlived-in, like a show model.

He showed Midoriko to a bedroom, where they tucked the exhausted Itoko into bed as normal parents might do for their beloved young daughter. It just made the situation feel all the more twisted to Midoriko as she closed the door behind her.

SLAP–!

Ryouma rubbed his now-reddening cheek where Midoriko had struck. His surprise quickly turned into amusement.

“That’s a strange way of thanking someone.”

“How could you do that to her?!” Midoriko hissed, trembling with rage. “How could you ask a child to put herself in harm’s way?!”

“You’re bleeding…” he said, reaching for Midoriko’s forehead. She slapped his hand away.

Midoriko put her fingers to her forehead, wiping off some almost dried blood. She turned and stomped toward the living room. “Where’s your first-aid kit?”

“How did it happen?” he asked, following her.

“That Russian sorcerer had a gun…” she mumbled, opening and closing cabinets in her search. Realizing how it sounded, Midoriko quickly offered further explanation. “Oh! But he didn’t shoot it at all. Just tried to bash our heads in with it!”

She heard him suck in air through his teeth from behind her.

“If it…If it weren’t for her, I don’t know what would have happened…” Midoriko said, trying to hold back angry tears. She turned around to face Ryouma again. “Why did you ask her to protect me? Why did you ask her to do that?”

Ryouma’s expression had softened. He strode past Midoriko and produced a first-aid kit from a hall cabinet.

“She told me you gave her a new name.”

“Huh? When did she tell you that? How did she tell you that?”

“Yesterday,” he said, placing the kit on the kitchen counter. Ryouma reached into the neck hole of his shirt and pulled out the jade magatama necklace that matched Itoko’s. “And with this.”

Looking closely, Midoriko realized it had an unusual sparkle to it. She realized that Itoko’s also had the same subtle sparkle that she’d written off as a feature of the stone. Midoriko reached her hand out to touch it unconsciously.

“Don’t do that,” Ryouma said, pulling it out of her reach. He tucked it back into his shirt. “They’re enchanted so that she and I can communicate with them. It works like a walkie-talkie.”

“So she was…?”

“In constant contact with me.” He removed his gloves, then opened the first-aid kit. Ryouma took out a disinfectant wipe and began gently dabbing it against the cut on Midoriko’s forehead.

“Ah!” She winced from the sting of the alcohol.

“She told me someone was bothering you two, so I instructed her to use her powers if he tried anything.”

Midoriko bit her lip. Maybe it all could have been avoided if she’d just taken the child’s concerns seriously from the beginning.

Ryouma put down the disinfectant wipe and sighed. He brought his hand to her face, placing his thumb on her forehead where the cut was.

Midoriko flinched. “W-what are you doing?”

“I want to try something,” he mumbled as he gently wiped his thumb over the cut. Furrowing his brows, he clicked his tongue. “Tch…I don’t know why I thought that would work…”

Was he trying to use magic to heal the cut?

Ryouma applied a butterfly bandage to her forehead before wiping off his hands. After he put his gloves back on, he headed for the front door.

“Where are you going?” Midoriko called out to him as he put his shoes back on.

“What’s your address again?” he asked, pulling out his phone.

Midoriko swallowed hard and recited the address to him while he entered it into his phone. She knew why he was going there, but couldn’t bring herself to ask what he planned to do.

He knocked on the front door and opened it to the same alley near her apartment where he’d originally sent Midoriko and Itoko on the day they’d started living together. Ryouma looked back at Midoriko one last time before stepping through the doorway.

“B-be careful! He’s still alive!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon.” He wore a frightening smile as he closed the door.

***

When he arrived at her apartment, it was quiet, like nothing had even happened.

Good. Looks like none of the neighbors called the police. That was one less thing for Ryouma to worry about, at least.

Her front door was closed, but left unlocked in her rush to escape. As Ryouma stepped into the entryway, he was greeted by Ivan’s listless body splayed between the kitchen floor and the main room.

Aside from him, it didn’t appear that there had been much of a struggle. That was also one less thing for Ryouma to have to clean up after.

“You know, it’s basic etiquette in this country to remove your shoes indoors,” Ryouma scolded in Russian while stepping out of his black leather wingtip shoes. He walked across the small kitchen to where the revolver had landed on the floor.

“Though, I suppose if you were trying to catch someone by surprise…” he continued, picking up the gun. “It wouldn’t really make sense to leave your shoes by the door, would it?”

Ryouma opened the cylinder. Empty…

He snapped it closed and walked over to Ivan. Crouching down next to him, Ryouma put the barrel against the limp man’s head. “You didn’t even load this. What were you planning to do with it?”

Ryouma pulled the trigger. Click Click Click. But there was no reaction from Ivan.

He waved his hand in front of Ivan’s face. The man’s eyes were open, but they were completely glazed over.

I thought she said he was still alive?

Furrowing his brow, Ryouma pressed two fingers to Ivan’s neck. There was a pulse, but it was faint.

“Tsk, tsk. What a shame. She left you as a vegetable.” He shook his head solemnly. “And here I was hoping to have a conversation with you.”

Ryouma poked Ivan’s face with the gun. “Blink once if you recognize me.”

Ivan just stared at the ceiling with his glassy eyes.

“Hmm…I suppose you don’t,” he mused. “I’m not Zapad Brodny right now. I’m someone else.”

Ryouma put the gun back in its holster, then searched Ivan’s body. In his pockets, he found Midoriko’s ID card and a house key he could only assume also belonged to her.

“I was wondering how you found her so quickly…” he said, clicking his tongue. Ryouma tossed them aside and stood up.

In the main living area, he started pushing aside furniture to clear space in the center of the room. After pulling up a fluffy rug from the floor, Ryouma dragged Ivan into the room.

“You know, you left a mark on her face…” he said, digging his heel into the man’s crotch. “I was going to pay you back tenfold for it, but what’s the point if you can’t feel it?”

Ivan’s body remained limp, but his breathing became more labored. Ryouma cocked his head to the side and smiled.

“Oh. So you can hear me. Good.” Kneeling, he dug one of his knees into Ivan’s chest. “I want you to know that this is what happens when you touch my things. Maybe that makes me hypocritical, but I was an only child–I never learned how to properly share.”

Ryouma pressed his hand on Ivan’s neck.

“To be honest, I really dislike using my hands like this. But with the state you’re in, I can’t exactly do things my normal way.”

He covered Ivan’s nose and mouth with the other hand.

“I bet you never imagined you’d go out like this, huh? All of you sorcerers think you’re invincible just because you were born with a little power.”

Ryouma’s fingers felt for Ivan’s pulse as he squeezed his neck. It was the only indication he’d have that he’d finished him off.

“But you can rest easy, Ivan, because the rest of the Grigoryev Bratva will be joining you in Hell soon.”

Once his pulse had completely faded, Ryouma finally let go. He pulled a stick of chalk from his pants pocket and began drawing a door around Ivan’s lifeless body.

“I wonder if I should send him with a note…” he mused as he drew a circle within the rectangle.

Ryouma went to Midoriko’s desk for a pen and paper. When he opened the drawer, he spotted the kīla.

So that’s where it went! He couldn’t help but admire her sneakiness as he tucked it into his breast pocket.

On a blank sheet of paper, Ryouma scrawled a simple message in Russian with a green crayon.

Я тебе покажу, где раки зимуют…‘I’ll show you where crayfish hibernate.’

He crumpled up and stuffed it inside Ivan’s mouth. Then, crouching outside the outline of the door, Ryouma knocked twice.

The floor opened up like a trap door, dropping Ivan’s body at its destination in Russia before snapping shut once more.

With that taken care of, he dusted the chalk outline off the floor. As he started moving furniture back into place, Ryouma hummed the Russian folk song, Korobeniki, to himself.