Collaboration

Noa had talked a big game with Kusumoto, but the truth was, he barely knew how to get started finding the information he needed.
The day after he'd made that deal, he'd sat down in Miyori's closet, pulled out his history notebook, flipped it over, and started writing down what he knew. 

It really wasn't very much. 

His best lead, at this point, was Miyori. He didn't like that she was going into the jaws of Iseki on her own, but he liked his own chances of getting in there legitimately even less at this point. 

Other than Miyori, he had a little money, a little bit of knowledge, and a lot of time on his hands. While he waited on updates on the first, he planned how to use the others as best he could. 

One thing he could do, and did, was wander. He took a train to a tourist office and grabbed one of their complimentary maps. Then he got to know the neighborhood very well, scanning the streets and back alleys as systematically as he could, looking for the symbol from before.

Sometimes he found it, and marked it on the map as accurately as he could. 

Most of the time, though, the only result he got was people looking at him funny for examining their buildings too closely. Unfortunately, it was would-be cat burglar behavior, so he spent more time than he would like working on trying not to look suspicious. 

But he started to find symbols in the strangest corners. Usually it was near magical infrastructure, but sometimes it wasn't—he found them engraved on the edges of flowerbeds and even, occasionally, carved into trees or scrawled on a leaf of a shrub. 

Often it was just that one, central symbol, but sometimes there were additions and variations in the design. Sometimes they were just drawn in in marker; others were made of that strange metallic material again. Once he saw one high up on a stone wall that looked like it might have been drawn in blood, though he couldn't be positive.  

Most of all, they were nearly always unobtrusive, and Noa was sure there were more that he was missing. If there was a pattern to where they were drawn, he couldn't quite figure it out. Still, he marked down what he could, taking notes on different appearances and how they behaved. 

Because they did behave differently. Some seemed drawn to him, or him to them, tugging at him when he got close. Others seemed to have no such effect—or even felt like they were pushing him away, though he thought he might be imagining that. 

By the time Miyori came back from her first day, he'd gathered an odd hodge-podge of data, scribbles that looked more like a madman's conspiracy theory than he was comfortable with. 

When Miyori explained what she'd learned, though, he ended up with more questions than answers. 

She knelt down beside him at the tiny table—the room was a little cramped for two, but she stayed human-sized—and pulled out her own notebook, drawing without speaking for several minutes. Noa tried to peek over her shoulder without getting in her way. 

The first thing she showed him when she was done was a sketch of a shape that he recognized. "That's a map of the city." 

"Yes," she said. "Shimada-sensei—the head of the program I'm in—he was drawing on it. I tried to remember as many key points as I could, but I'm not sure if there's actually anything there or if he just gave us random examples." 

Noa pulled out his own map to cross-reference. Miyori ripped out her page and started drawing again. "They haven't told us what the whole 'networking' thing is about yet, not really, but I have a guess. I think they're going to ask us to go around drawing more of these symbols all over town. Something about harvesting 'energy,' only I think what they mean by that is sapping magic they think nobody's using." 

Noa frowned at the map, trying to guess where Miyori's roughly drawn nodes might fall. "That makes sense. You think it's to gather magic?" 

"Yes." Miyori shrugged. "They don't want to come out and say they're doing it, but that's the impression I got. They gave us this test about magic, only there were all these non-traditional parts. And then the program lead, Murasaki Iseki, said—Noa-kun?" 

Noa had jumped, but was already shaking his head. "No, sorry," he said. "Got to be a coincidence. Probably. I hope. Keep going." 

Miyori frowned at him, but continued. "She said that she wanted to make the city 'bloom,' whatever that meant. Lots of flower metaphors. And then Shimada-sensei was talking about 'energy,' but these symbols are basically about latching on to the existing magic networks and taking it out, gathering it for…whatever they want to do with it." 

"So they're...harvesting magic," Noa said. "By stealing it in bits and pieces from everyone. That's probably how they ran the fireworks show, isn't it? Drawing magic from the workers. And this garden or whatever...if it's all connected, maybe that's how they were getting rid of the trash." 

He explained what he'd seen behind the scenes of the festival to Miyori, whose eyebrows raised higher and higher. 

"So it's not just buildings," she breathed when he was done. "That's why they keep going on about 'energy.' They're taking it directly from living things—including people." 

"Blood magic," Noa said grimly. "Yeah. I think your theory's right. The question is—can we prove it?" 

Miyori paused, fixing him with a look. "Who would we be proving it to?" 

Noa swallowed. "I did promise you I'd explain some things, didn't I? It's only fair, I guess. But you might regret learning some of this." 

"I already know things I probably shouldn't." Miyori gestured at her notes on the table. "I'm involved. I appreciate that you've been trying to keep me safe till now, Noa-kun, but if I'm going to keep doing this, I'd really like an explanation." 

Noa nodded. "That's fair." 

He considered asking her not to get mad at him, but his childhood experiences with his mother had taught him that strategies like that rarely did much. 

Besides, given what he'd learned of the nature of his curse, it didn't really feel like as big a deal as it once had. And he was fairly sure that she wasn't going to kick him out at this point—even though he was planning to broker information with the fae. 

They were up against something bigger now.