Complaint

Everything Miyori was able to do happened terribly slowly. 

She had to go to school. She had to act normal. She couldn't ask Shizuka too many questions about what she was doing without Shizuka getting bored or suspicious of Miyori's fixation on the topic. 

She still had to get good grades—and if she found herself thinking of Noa and the Kusumotos every time she looked at a magic circle, at least her extra studying was helping her keep up there. 

But then, after school, her time was her own. 

She went with Koji to the police station. To her surprise, he went in with her, and even argued with the receptionist about whether or not they could file a missing person's report. 

In the end, they did file it, but the fact that neither of them was family meant that it was likely no one would give it a second glance. 

Then they went to city hall to talk vandalism. 

Miyori had thought that Koji would come in with her this time, too. But instead, as they stepped inside, he paused. "Try this one out for yourself," he said, turning right back around. 

"What—" 

"I've got something to take care of." And then he was gone. 

Miyori stared after him for a moment, forlorn, and then walked up to the information desk by herself. "I'd like to talk to someone about a vandalism problem." 

She touched the bag on her shoulder. Koji had lent her a camera—a high-quality one, too. They'd gone around taking the best photos they could capture of the symbol around town, and he'd developed them afterward. Then they'd annotated them with information about exactly where they'd been seen. 

"If you want them to start a real paper trail," Koji had said, "then they need evidence. Pictures can be faked, but they're still harder to ignore than hearsay." 

For all he'd mocked the idea of a vandalism complaint at first, he'd seemed to be taking it more seriously than reporting Noa's kidnapping. Given that, Miyori wasn't sure why he'd abandoned her with so little warning. 

"Vandalism?" The little old lady behind the desk frowned up at the directory. "I suppose that's here on the ground floor—windows one to three. Take a number at that machine there, and you'll be called up when they're ready for you."

Miyori did as she was told and waited, wondering absently what Koji was up to. She pulled out a notebook to study after a while, since her study time was really suffering from all these investigations—

"Number twenty-seven, please come to window one." 

Miyori put her book away into her bag and stood, walking over to the window. 

It was a pixie at the desk, to her surprise. He had a specialized chair hooked onto the counter, and all of the stationery at his desk existed in duplicate, small and large. "Hello," he said. "My name is Eguchi. What can I help you with today?" 

It was strange talking to another pixie while in human form; Miyori kept wondering if he could tell, if he was judging her for it. Still, she explained the situation as best she could, laying out the photos and the map she'd prepared showing the extent of the problem. 

"I see," Eguchi said. He wrote something down on his notepad. "Tell me, miss, are you the owner of any of this property? Or related to the owner?" 

Miyori frowned. "There's my uncle's house," she said. "I didn't get a photo before it disappeared, but I've marked it on the map—"

"It disappeared, you say?" He looked quizzical. "So it's not there anymore?" 

"Yes, but he didn't clean it up," Miyori explained. "I think…" She folded her hands together. "I know how this sounds, but I think it's still there. I think someone is using these symbols to tamper with magical infrastructure." 

Eguchi blinked at her. "I…see," he said again. "Do you have any evidence of that?" 

Miyori frowned. "Just what I've seen and heard. The day that sign appeared on my uncle's house, part of it collapsed. And I've seen fluctuations in the flow of power around them, too." 

She couldn't mention Noa's capture—either time—because those were probably less than legal incidents, and Noa wasn't around to corroborate them anyway. So she left it at that. 

"Hmm," Eguchi said. "Well, we'll keep these on record. Unless you want to keep the photos?" 

"No," Miyori said. "No, please take them. Would it be possible to follow up about this if we find out more…?" 

"We?" Eguchi asked. 

"Well…my friends and I are a little curious about it, so…." 

"Miss," Eguchi said, "I really need to warn you to be careful about taking photographs of others' private property, even if you're trying to help. It doesn't look like you trespassed to take any of these photos, but if it were to get to that point, you'd be more likely to get prosecuted than whoever actually did this." 

"I know," Miyori said desperately. "But—" 

"If you'd like to give me your contact information, I can keep it on file with the rest of what you've sent me. But I'm afraid I can't say it's very likely that you'll be contacted about this again." Eguchi shook his head. "If it happens to your legal property, then you'll be able to open a case, but otherwise—" 

"I understand," Miyori said. "I'll add my name to the file." She pulled a page from her notebook and wrote down her name and address. "Thank you anyway." 

As she stood, Eguchi called over his shoulder. "Can I get someone to—ah, Nozawa-san. You didn't have to—"

"Don't worry, I was just passing through," said a woman's voice. "It's no trouble." 

Miyori looked across the desk to see a young human in a city hall uniform taking the file Miyori had prepared out of Eguchi's hands. She opened the file and scanned it briefly before tucking it under her arm. 

Miyori bowed and turned away, but she thought she felt the woman's eyes on her as she went. 

She'd worried as she exited that Koji might have left her behind, but he was standing just out of sight of the large glass doors. "Well?" he said. "How'd it go?" 

Miyori shook her head. "It was a bust, I think. What do you think we should try next?"