Accomplice

The address led them to a restaurant, and from the way Koji was talking, he'd scoped it out in advance. 

"When you don't know what you're walking into," he said, "it's important to be cautious." 

"But it seems fine?" Miyori double-checked. 

"No fae connections I could find out about on short notice. Seems like it's quiet inside, but not too quiet—a good place for a rendezvous. Wouldn't work for an ambush, either—too much foot traffic outside for that."

They arrived fifteen minutes early. As they approached the entrance, a human woman caught Miyori's eye and stepped forward. She was blonde, with wide, gray eyes, and Miyori got the vague impression she'd seen her somewhere before. 

"Ogimura-san!" she said. "It's been so long. How are you doing?" 

Miyori blinked. "I'm…good?" she said, and then realized she should probably play along. "How have you been?" 

"I've been well. I was really happy to hear from you. It'll be great to catch up." 

And then she turned. "Koji-kun. Good to see you again." 

Koji gave her a narrow look. "Is it?" 

"Yes, well." She coughed. "Come on, we should see if our table's ready." 

It was, and they sat down—Koji on Miyori's side of the table, the newcomer facing them. 

Once they were inside, she dropped the pretense. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Ogimura-san. I know I didn't give you much to go on." 

Miyori gave up. "I'm sorry, but have we met?" 

The woman grinned. "Only very briefly. I'm Sayaka Nozawa, and I work at city hall. I wanted to talk with you about that report you filed—the vandalism?" 

"Oh." Miyori exchanged a look with Koji. 

"Yes," Sayaka said. "I'm sure you were expecting a contact through…more official channels, but I had my reasons." She shot another look Koji's way. "One of them was that I saw who you came in with, and then he specifically went out of his way to avoid me, so." 

Miyori looked between them. "So you two…" 

"We knew each other when we were younger," Koji said. "But I'd have thought that seeing me would be a reason for you to keep away, Nozawa." 

Sayaka's smile twisted. "Well. Normally it might be. But it turns out Ogimura-san brought up some very…delicate…questions." 

Koji planted an elbow on the table. "So it's a cover-up, is it?" 

Sayaka chuckled. "I forgot how quick you are," she said, sounding surprisingly fond. "It took me too long to figure it out, as always. But yes, basically."

"A cover-up?" Miyori asked, trying to keep up. 

"There are other records that should reflect the problems you reported," Sayaka said. "Should. But those records are all out of date, or redacted, or just missing. And when I reported that, I got…redirected. Rather pointedly." She shook her head. "Eventually, even I can take a hint. And I don't like what that hint is pointing towards." 

"So…you're saying the city officials should have caught on already," Miyori said. "But Iseki's...or the fae, or both...are covering it up, and so when you tried to bring attention to it…." 

Sayaka nodded. "I was told to stop. Indirectly, and then straight up. Which just made me more certain that something was very wrong." She looked at Koji. "I want in." 

"No, you don't," he said, glowering. "You've made it very clear that the work I do is the last thing you'd want to get involved in. Even tangentially." 

"You're doing something about all this," Sayaka said. "Aren't you? It's one thing if it's all…illicit stuff you're doing. But when the law is being warped, like it is now, it doesn't help anyone. Under the circumstances, I need help to make sure that people stay safe. And if you're working on this case already…I'd like to cooperate." 

They stared at each other, and Miyori got the impression that she was becoming a third wheel. 

Finally, Koji sighed. "Well. Normally how this would go would be you'd take a blood oath—Miyori-chan had to. But you're a city official, so you—" 

"Show me the contract and I'll consider it," Sayaka said seriously. "I'd need to check to see if the spell will interact with my oaths to the city, but I'm basically a paper-pusher. There's not much damage I can do and not many formal stipulations in my civil service contract." 

Koji raised his eyebrows. 

"I'm serious about this," Sayaka said, and reached into her bag. She pulled out the folder Miyori had given her and opened it up, revealing that she'd added a number of pages of her own notes. "Now, before our food gets here, let's start getting on the same page." 

Sayaka, Miyori quickly realized, was something of a genius. She'd discovered and cross-indexed evidence of magical damage throughout the city, organized by district and date. If she was correct, Project Wisteria's "Garden" had been spreading for months, starting in the south-east area of the city and then expanding organically outwards towards more populous areas like a tree's roots seeking out the richest soil. 

"The frequency of incidents is increasing," Sayaka added. "And this isn't all the data—just the stuff they didn't hide well enough. At this rate, it's so well-embedded that I don't want to think what they could do with the amount of power they have. If someone is going to stop this, the best time would have been six months ago, and the second-best time is as soon as possible." 

Koji tugged a few sheets to their side of the table and began to flip through them. Miyori went to peer over his shoulder, but was distracted by the smile on his face. 

"You and your paper trails, star student," he said. "Can I get copies of this? Gramps is going to love it. It'll be the first time I've given him paperwork that meets his standards."

Sayaka went pink. "Sure." 

Miyori looked between them, trying to control her expression. She wasn't expecting to see a connection like this between a fae underling and a civil official. Suddenly she had almost as many questions about their history as she did about the conspiracy they were all here to unmask.

"So," Koji said, tapping this list. "We have these incidents. If we can figure out where they originated from, we might get a clue where the heart of this operation is hiding." 

"And if I know which part of the city to focus on," Miyori said, "I might be able to get more information out of the networking maps." 

"We could definitely use more evidence than just this," Sayaka said. "Did you say you're interning with Iseki, Ogimura-san? Really?" 

"Yes," Miyori said. "I got lucky, so I'm trying to take as advantage of it as I can." 

"I see." Sayaka looked calculating. "I wonder if I can help you with that...."