Limited Time

Two souls still fixed ahead. Nothing for more than five hundred meters. Anymore would be pushing the limit. Trap or no, it was time to act. It just had to be worth it. It would be worth it. This would be how they would save them. It had to be.

Yori stamped his foot down with a percussive impact as he sprinted forward, completely leaving Miho behind. It was a speed that he hadn’t shown her before. He hit the door and squeezed tightly, turning it until it broke the lock. Any sort of magical alarms had to be going off by now. The heightened beats of their hearts grew.

He snapped around the hall quickly, seeking the stairs. From his pocket, he fingered the ring as he ran for the steps. A swift toss to the ceiling, and the gravity flipped. Yori already leapt as the change happened, turning in time with the new floor. The whole flight was skipped.

Reaching down, he pocketed the ring tool once more and gripped the corner to flip around the hall. The two sorcerers were hustling. His foot landed straight in the man’s face. Yori bound off him and slapped a sealing talisman on the next one before sealing the first.

Secured.

Thirteen seconds.

Keep moving.

The hall ended in a room with a door ajar. Exhaling, Yori entered the room, hearing Miho trying to catch up. There were file cabinets, a computer and several shelves. Nothing that screamed illicit activities. But they wouldn’t proudly display criminality.

Miho finally arrived just as he was making his way over to the desk. “Ye’ve been holdin’ back.”

“Couldn’t exactly waste time. PC’s locked…” He dug through his pocket, trying to find the magic tool he needed. “See if they were bad with their paperwork. Don’t know what I’ll find on the computer, if it is even connected to a network.” Focusing back on the PC tower, he affixed the leather-wrapped metal slate.

The magic tool snapped to the case like a magnet. He drew his finger from the tool, creating a cross of mana. Soft blue lines quickly traced over, finishing a complex array. On the monitor, several black windows appeared in rapid succession before the lock screen vanished. The desktop showed only a few icons, which judging by the naming were for accounting.

Yori knew he couldn’t waste the time scanning through budgets and numbers, even if it might have been evidence. They needed a location. Flipping through the directory didn’t give anything either. “No. No. No. C’mon. Give me something…” Search after search didn’t show anything promising. Most of it looked related to the business below rather than anything criminal. Which, honestly, wasn’t that surprising. Everything was tied to a single piece of circumstantial evidence.

Ninety seconds.

He ground his teeth as Ryota came to mind again. The mages counted on him. Yori leaned in, needing to find anything even remotely indicative of wrongdoing. With the email also proving as fruitless as everything else, he pounded his palm to his forehead, hoping for any sort of thought. “Think. Something overlooked…”

“I’m just finding files and forms. Nothing else. Not even trash.”

“Trash! Maybe…” He clicked on the recycle bin. It was empty, but he dug a little deeper, remembering there was a recovery for recently deleted files. A few more clicks and several files appeared. Most looked unimportant, except for one. Another click and the restored document opened. “Auction…August 29th…11pm.”

It was just orders for the guard routes and requests for security. They kept everything indirect without any specifics. The Lotus were careful, but thankfully, their help wasn't. He snapped a copy of the document with his phone and stood up. “We should get going. They’re going to be arriving soon.”

Miho nodded to them, and they left the room in search of the roof. The ground floor might have already been open, but it was a choke point. He didn’t want to risk engaging sorcerers there.

Another broken lock, and they reached the roof. There were two squads of sorcerers that he could hear coming. The exactly controlled breathing and tight grouping were too obvious. “Gotta go now. Hurry!” Yori pushed his body to leap across the street and land on the opposite building. A tuck and roll brought him to a safe stop.

He looked back, seeing Miho following, although at a slower pace. It was going to be tight. If they weren’t as well-trained, they could slip away without much extra work. The roof had an escape, but visibility was a risk. Over the side and on foot might work, blend into the crowds and disappear. Staying and hiding, but Miho couldn’t control her body. They would be spotted just like in the storehouse.

Yori turned back, hearing her land. He offered a hand to her. No words, he just looked with the hope that she would trust him. They fought a lot and bickered endlessly. She was frustrating and troublesome, arrogant and cocksure, but they were a team.

Thankfully, she didn’t protest him. He pulled out the small orb he used before and guided her to the side. A slap to the wall, and he lifted Miho with ease. She thankfully didn’t resist. With his right hand on the tool and his left holding Miho close, they descended quickly down the wall. He did everything to calm his body to a still. They were looking for two. If they could only sense one, perhaps it’d throw them off. Mana enhancements could be more easily detected, even running through the body.

On the ground, he could hear a slightly elevated beat from Miho. Her face remained stoic, but the tension still got to her. Hopefully, it would be enough. He put the tool away, and they hurried along to the street. So late, there weren't many using it, but hiding amongst the innocents should disguise them somewhat.

They were still nearby. Only one group, the other might have gone to look into the building. Easier to deal with, but still a risk. They broke into the sidewalk, seeing the street even more empty than he wished. There was only one person, and they were walking away. He ground his teeth. Nothing to disappear into. The squad still approached.

“Think we’re going to need to deal with our tail. They’re two hundred meters out, five o’clock high. Fast and no flash.”

“I can handle that.”

“One fifty…” He thumbed around his pockets for the tools he wanted. Once it became all too obvious, he separated from Miho. They were close and divided. No avoiding a fight. He closed his eye, focusing on the slight changes.

Yori dodged at the last moment as a lightning-infused fist came past his cheek. A low profile as well, they were smart. He struck them with his knee just as he had to jump away from the second. The squad split into pairs. ‘Damn, I felt that didn’t do much… Going to need more…’

Two sorcerers definitely were more trouble than the trio he took down the night before. But they couldn’t stall for long. Yori flipped the gravity ring out, letting him get a free run-up to the two sorcerers from an undefendable angle. A fully empowered flying kick spun one sorcerer out over the street.

The second, he had to dodge and weave around strikes. The thunder from their charges set his hair on end. There was speed behind the blows; he barely avoided a direct hit. Yori breathed and focused, finding an opening to strike with his palm. It was just for a moment, but he transferred some of his mana over.

He saw the effect almost immediately as the sorcerer’s balance wavered. It was subtle, but enough that he could flip the man over his shoulder.

Yori spotted one of Miho’s targets coming up behind her. He darted over, bringing out his stun glove to quickly take out the sorcerer. There was a glare from her as she spun around. She rolled over Yori’s back to land a knee to incapacitate the man he had kicked.

He flashed a small smirk and snapped out his wrist to grab three senbon in his hand. A quick throw struck at physical and mana pressure points of the sorcerer, completely making him lose control. Waves of sickness overwhelmed them.

Not to be outdone, a bit of glow came from Miho. “Claws of the Mad Bear!” Her nails elongated, and her hand bulked up. The normally loose-fitting hakama tightened a little as her now powerful legs bound forward to land a quaking punch in the gut of the last sorcerer.

Squad eliminated. “Couldn’t finish the job without a spell, eh?”

“Quiet and fast, I believe was ye desire.”

“Right. Let’s not be here any longer.” Together, they ran, completely losing their tails, before backtracking to his car. They had a solid clue, at least.

Hope still held.