Research Subject

Sometime around noon, same day

December 10th, 2050

Various Locations

The wineglass smashed into pieces when Commander Kisaragi threw it across the room, hitting the wall and wasting a rare vintage. He kicked the chair in front of him, then the table, then pulled the tablecloth that held all the plates, glass and cutlery into the floor. The deafening symphony of shattering glass and broken porcelain echoed across Murakami Hall. At least the food wasn’t served yet.

The few members who remained, still clad in their white jackets, albeit slacker and more shameful of it, quivered and flinched at every little sound.

It should’ve been over. The reign of the exalted elite should’ve crumbled as the sun rose to a new era, but the proud sons and daughters of the untainted human race have failed. The sign hanging above the hall, proclaiming the victory of mankind hung embarrassingly in front of the crowd.

Commander Kisaragi breathed heavily as he paced around the room. He fixed his hair in place, then his blazer and tie. He gestured with his index finger and Sayuri was quick to hand him a bottle of water.

The commander drank the whole thing, everyone watching with bated breath. When he was done, he neatly placed the bottle atop the skewed table, sighing contently. He wiped his lips with a handkerchief, then showed an apologetic smile towards the crowd.

“Some of our comrades are in police custody,” the commander said plainly. “They won’t talk, but this puts us at a disadvantage. At the very least the one who bungled Ruby Tennojima’s assassination had been dealt with. Nakayama?”

The middle-aged lieutenant stepped forward from the crowd with a, “sir.”

“Split our forces,” the commander said. “Have our less experienced members cause disturbances across the city. That would keep the police busy for a while. As for the rest of our elite troops… have them stationed around Akihabara.”

“On standby, sir?”

Commander Kisaragi nodded. “Yes. At this point, we may as well see this second challenge. It would make finding his research a bit easier—a small exchange for the sacrifice our comrades made. Tennojima may have turned into one of them near the end of his life, but his findings on the ascension could still prove useful for the future of Tokyo Sky.”

The commander turned his eyes on the people gathered. “But make no mistake, my friends. Regardless of how this goes down, we will rid this world of the exalted before the year ends.”

*

‘You already have a golden medallion, so what does it matter?’

‘It’s called strategy, my dear.’

‘Did you really take the silver medallions from the guests? How did you do it? You didn’t… kill them, did you?’

‘Are you for real? lol That psycho in the dress did it obviously.’

‘typing…’

‘…’

‘typing…’

‘Then how? I’m not telling you anything until you tell me.’

‘I saw Carlos run out of the mansion. I was going to follow him, then I noticed he dropped the medallions while getting to his truck. The idiot. Or maybe he dropped them to delay his pursuer? Who knows lol’

‘Wait, so you were just out there? Why didn’t the killer attack you?’

‘Maybe she didn’t care about the silver medallions? If I knew Carlos had a gold, I might’ve fought the killer for it lmao’

‘Don’t joke about that.’

‘I could still get it, you know. Just tell me the location. Time is running out.’

‘But, Miura…’

‘Relax, it’ll be fine. This is for that sweet, cozy life you always dream about. We’ll be like rich celebrities, just you and me.’

‘typing…’

‘…’

‘Ok, fine.’

Souichiro smiled, then lowered his phone. He sipped the last of his coffee, then waved at the cute girl walking by the street. This game was going far easier than he expected. The silver medallions made good money, but the only prize worth getting was the old man’s research. That thing would sell far more than a few million yen.

Souichiro could just let those fools fight each other for the prize while he swooped in at the last minute. But waiting around would get dull pretty quickly.

He stretched, stood up, then walked out of the café with a yawn. His phone vibrated and when he looked, he saw a link to a map with a pin on it.

“This gives me an excuse to flex my abilities,” Souichiro said to himself, feeling the aether swell down his legs. “Well, time to go to work, I guess.”

Midday

December 10th, 2050

Ninomiya Investigation Agency

“This is where you wish to eat?”

The Ninomiya Investigation Agency, located at the second floor of a beat down office building in northwest Shinjuku, opposite side of the palisades, was the same cluttered mess Rei had left it before his stunt at the Stargaze Hotel.

The chief’s table was stacked with boxes—full of old case files, as well as newspaper ads and coupons, fashion magazines, manga and whatever else they felt like putting there. Even the shelves were disorganized with different sized folders and Airi’s anime figure collection. No matter how many times Rei cleaned the place, the Ninomiyas always found a way to mess it back up.

“There’s nowhere to sit,” Ruby said, carrying a paper bag full of burgers and fries. It looked funny next to her lavish red dress and coat, but Rei insisted. “Where’s your office room?”

Rei pointed to the sofa. Which, admittedly, was not as bad. Just as few of his novels, his laptop and a couple of Airi’s old bear plushies.

“How the hell do you get any clients like this?”

“Ask the chief. I could pull out the folding chairs, but we’re better off going upstairs.”

Ruby reluctantly followed Rei and settled at the small dining room on the third floor. Aside from that and the kitchen, there were three rooms and a bath for all members of the agency.

“Does your boss-ness require plates to eat her burgers?” Rei said, but Ruby already sat down and unpacked one meal for herself. She seemed unbothered by the commoner food, funny enough.

“Did you not say you were famished?” Ruby asked, and he was tempted to sit and mow down next to her. But not before he checked every room.

Rei started with the chief’s room. Dark and unusually clean, but he only slept there when work got late. Nothing’s seemed to be disturbed.

Next was Airi’s. This was tough. Mountains of strewn clothes, plushies and computer parts. She might be sloppy, but her clothes were stylish and expensive. Apparently, her mother doted.

Let’s see… Rei stealthily moved around objects until he found a particular pile next to the bed. Overpriced jeans, brand-name jackets, limited-edition shark hoodie, rare plushie one, two, three, and… huh, interesting. The device he was looking for, shaped like a small tv remote, was left atop the nightstand next to the computer. Which he also checked. It was left on as always, but with the password blocking access, there was no way to check if it’s been tampered with.

Last place was Rei’s own room. No change there. He went over to his closet and grabbed a thick winter coat with fur on the hood. Black, of course.

“Convinced yet?” Ruby said from the dining room. “We didn’t touch anything.”

“I wish you did!” Rei said back. “Could’ve used the free cleaning service…” He placed the coat on his bed, then removed his yellow-plaid hoodie. He clicked on Airi’s tiny device and ran it across the body of the jacket, the arms, the collar—the remote blinked red. Rei inspected the button under the collar and found a transmitter—something that gave off a wireless signal. Judging from the tiny holes, it might have a microphone too.

Figures, Rei thought. What could this mean, though…

He put the plaid jacket back on and layered the fur coat on top of it. He walked back to the dining room looking rather fresh.

“I see you’re fond of the color,” Ruby said, halfway through her burger. “The yellow makes for a nice accent to your emo aesthetic.”

“Excuse me?” Rei exclaimed. “A, black isn’t exclusive to goths. B, black is literally a timeless classic that goes well with every other color. Not that I’d want to hear it from you, red.”

Rei sat down across from Ruby and grabbed the paper bag. There should’ve been five burgers in there, but only two were left. He eyed the eye patched woman, but all he got was a shrug. “You took so long and it was fantastic,” she said, followed by a sip from her soda. “So, why are we really here?”

“Better than roaming around for hours,” Rei replied, unwrapping his meal. “And as you’ve seen, people rarely come for a visit.”

“Uh huh.” Ruby didn’t look convinced, but she seemed more interested in her fourth burger. Rei should’ve licked that one. “How long have you been working here?” she asked.

“Like you didn’t know already,” Rei muttered with a glare. “About seven years ago, give or take. How about you? How long have you been... well, whatever it is you do.”

Ruby smiled. “I work for the Tennojima Research Institute.”

“No surprise there,” Rei said. “Must be nice to have a job prepared for you from the moment you were born.”

Ruby’s smile deepened. “I’m a research subject.”

Rei paused halfway through a bite. A few quick flashes of memory from Daiki’s vision teetered at the edge of his mind, but none of them formed.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Ruby continued, “at least for me. The institute has a lot of exalts they study. Some public knowledge, some not so much.”

Rei lowered his burger. “Which one are you?”

“A bit of both.”

That might explain why she was so powerful. Her control of fire was outstanding if not overwhelming. Rei wondered who would’ve won between her and Ayane.

“How far have you ascended?” He asked, awkwardly continuing his meal. “If I… mfff… remember correctly… that’s one of the things the institute researched, right?”

“Indeed,” Ruby confirmed. “The goal had always been to gain wings and reach final ascension. Every research group around the world, particularly those with ascension circles, are racing to produce the perfect exalt.”

“Huh.” Rei blinked. “And are we winning?”

Ruby found that humorous and laughed. “Nobody knows,” she said. “Currently the strongest exalt we know is from the Amazon Ascension Circle.”

Rei pointed with a potato fry. “The one that can control the weather, right?”

“Yes. Largest pool of aether in recorded history. Her body is almost evenly coated too. And still no wings.”

“You really think it’s true? Growing wings, I mean. Didn’t it happen close to the day of ascension fifty years ago?”

Satoru Hijiyama, a regular salaryman living a normal life with his wife and two kids, was said to be the very first exalt. Many ascended fifty years ago in Tokyo, so nobody could claim it to be true, but Satoru was the first to truly understand how aether worked. In but a few years he could run as fast as anyone, summon all the elements, even take a tank head on. Eventually he grew wings at the top of Asakusa—the highest point back then—and flew off to who knows where. The most common story: Heaven.

“My grandfather thought so,” Ruby said quietly. “Back in his time, Satoru Hijiyama was like some kind of hero. It was long before the world came to grips with its change, long before the institute was established, but even then, it was as if he already knew everything. Many of grandfather’s early research was based off him and his exploits.”

“Interesting,” Rei said. “Did… he actually fly?”

“There were many eyewitness reports, but no actual footage of it. Unlike today, technology wasn’t as commonplace. Keisuke always said progress crawled to a stop when the world lost its moon. People then imagined twenty-fifty looking very different.”

“What, like robots?”

“And flying cars. Maybe even colonizing Mars.”

Rei snorted and finished the rest of his burger. “People back then had dreams,” he said. “People flew on a hunk of metal propelled by rockets and aimed for the stars thirty-one years before the ascension. But look at us now. The land may be rising, but the people are content to stay below.”

Ruby blinked at him in surprise. Her mouth hung open as if she couldn’t believe what she just heard.

“Those… words…” she said, almost in a whisper.

Rei crumpled the wrapper he was holding. Those were Daiki Tennojima’s words. From a conversation he once had with his brother-in-law.

“Sorry,” Rei said. “Mentioning Keisuke reminded me. I should’ve made a note of it in one of the files I sent you.”

“Sounds… inconvenient,” Ruby said. “Occasionally remembering memories not yours.”

“Eh, it’ll pass.” Rei scratched the back of his head, looking away. “Now that you mention it though, I do recall seeing you in Daiki’s memories too. Back when you weren’t so menacing.”

“Menacing? Me?”

“Since the day I met you, you’re either pissed off at something or seducing me with those lips. So, yes.”

“I’m seducing you?”

Rei blinked, then realized what he said. “No, I mean—you smile mischievously at me. A lot. You know what you’re doing!”

Ruby did exactly what he was talking about and smiled. Menacingly. “So, what was I like in the memories of my grandfather?”

“Well, long before you were a hardass and a tease, you were… bright? Innocent? You smiled without looking like you just cooked up a scheme. Honestly, I don’t remember much, but I guess it was before you had that eye patch.”

Clearly at some point, that changed.

Ruby frowned and considered for a while. She took the phone she had sitting on the table and held it close. “There came a point,” she said, as if hesitating, “when I realized there were more research subjects than the ones I saw. Those I worked with became my friends in a way. But they’d always disappear. They’d graduate. Some returned to normal life. Others… I never heard from again.”

“Did you try to find out?”

“I did. But only in earnest about five years ago, around the time grandfather started becoming a recluse and avoided everyone, I was approached by one of the lead researchers—Hidenori’s father, Yoshifumi Matsumoto. He thought I’d be interested in one of their secret projects. As a test subject of course. The fool.”

“What was it?”

“Weapons research. At first, they wanted to see if my flames could be ignited from a distance—like a bomb. Not an unusual thought for an exalt with my abilities. But then they wanted to see if my aether can be extracted and consequentially, replicated. They wanted to see if they can manipulate pure aether, turn it to the element of their choosing, and control it with a device.”

“Were they able to?”

“Officially, no. But I refused to participate in the project, so I wouldn’t know what came of it. Of course, I wasn’t the only exalt they had in line. This eventually led me to digging deeper into the institute.”

“Alone?”

“Hardly. I hired people outside Tennojima’s sphere of influence. This limited how much I could dig, but I did learn of several experiments that would not go well if the public knew. Exalts exploited or even killed. All in the name of science.”

She probably learned of the Eyes project then…

“Was that what led you to discovering Shinozuka?”

Ruby nodded. “Most recently, yes. Shinozuka was expelled by the institute due to a pathetic clash of egos, but I knew his work wouldn’t simply end. After I found him, I pretended to be on his side. ‘A drug that enhanced the powers of an exalt or turn a normal human into one.’ A common enough fantasy. But to my surprise, his research progressed by leaps and bounds after his expulsion. I still haven’t figured out if he had a backer, or if the institute was secretly funding his project, but after seeing the effects of his drug a few times, I knew I couldn’t keep the façade any longer. His clients were generally bad people, but they were still people. And if any of them actually managed to replicate his drug… I had to put a stop to it.”

“And that’s where I came along,” Rei said.

Ruby laughed. “I was expecting you. You were my way out and the key to most of my problems. A gift wrapped in paper with a ribbon on top.”

“You really sure you don’t want to tell me how you know this?”

“Yes.”

Rei sighed. “Well, sorry I couldn’t figure out your grandfather’s secret, then.”

“My odds are still better with you working for me,” Ruby admitted. Her eyes darted down to her phone. She’d been checking it constantly, but something came that gave her pause. Her face paled and her eye widened in shock.

Rei stood up to look. “What’s going on?”

“The police encountered more members of the Anti-Exalt Faction,” Ruby explained. “They’re dealing with them as we speak, but… something else happened to Issei’s group.” She looked up at Rei. “They’ve been attacked.”