[Satori Effect] What a Hero Ought to Be

The following night, Shinju returned to her home after a particularly long day serving justice around Kyoto. Shinju kicked off her boots when she got back in, surprised the Mimi didn't come to greet her like he usually did.

"Odd. Maybe it's because it's late. Mimi? You awake, love?"

Shinju turned on the lights in the kitchen and laid eyes on Mimi's butchered body. It was on the cutting board and sliced up like he was a piece of fruit. Mimi's blood was fresh, still dripping from the cutting board down to the tiled floor. Noticing the blood hadn't even congealed yet, Shinju knew there was someone in the house.

A scream suddenly blared from behind her. She turned around and saw a young, silver-haired woman lunger at her with a white tanto, the tip of the blade piercing her stomach. Shinju managed to stop the entire blade from impaling her by pushing against her assassin's arms. The two wrestled for control of the tanto, slamming against the stainless steel fridge. Losing her balance, Shinju fell to the floor with the girl on top of her, trying to drive the blade through her throat.

"Get the fuck off of me!" Shinju screamed.

The girl punched Shinju in her nose to stun her, then stabbed the blade through her right shoulder. Shinju's agonized scream echoed through the house until the silver-haired girl wrapped her hand around her throat and squeezed hard enough to silence her.

"You fucking people!" said the girl. "You kill my brother and now you're stealing from my family?!"

She socked Shinju in her face, drawing blood from her nose. "You're going to tell me where she is! Where's Lucrezia?!"

Shinju shook her head as tears ran down her face, refusing to sell out her superior. The girl punched her again and again until Shinju's eyes rolled back into her head, her nose and mouth covered in blood. Drops of Shinju's blood stained the silver-haired girl's white dress shirt beneath her red blazer jacket.

Shinju also noticed the silk, brown tie around the girl's neck, and the pin stuck to the breast of the blazer. The pin bore the name 'Sentani', indicating her affiliation with the yakuza family. Judging from her head of long, silver hair, Shinju could only guess that the woman killing her was Satori's sister, Amatsuki.

"He sold his soul to you fucking exorcists to make that money, and now you're going to steal it from the only family he had left?!"

Shinju turned her head to the right, prompting the girl to do the same. Lucrezia stood in the living room holding a plastic convenience store bag, pointing her black feather at Amatsuki. Amatsuki used the knife in Shinju's shoulder to pull her off of the floor. She held Shinju in front of her like a meat shield, making any attack on Lucrezia's part extremely risky.

"Well, look at that. She came to me." Amatsuki said.

"Lucrezia, get out of here!" Shinju urged.

"Shut the fuck up!" Amatsuki screamed, twisting the knife in her shoulder.

"You must be Amatsuki Sentani. You look a lot like Satori and another old friend of mine." Lucrezia said.

"You were expecting me here, weren't you?" Amatsuki asked.

"Truth be told, I noticed you had a car parked outside of her house yesterday." Lucrezia explained. "I got some cookies so I'd have an excuse to visit her and make sure she was safe. I wasn't expecting you to move so fast, though. You must really be desperate for that inheritance."

"You're going to return my brother's legacy to me. All of it."

"Or what? You kill Shinju? You do that, and I'll kill you where you stand. Then all of your so-called pals will take Satori's legacy for themselves as if you never even existed."

"The hell are you on about?" Amatsuki growled.

"Don't play dumb. That money is as much a target on your head as it is mine." Lucrezia said. "They're probably plotting how they can take that shit from you right now."

"...You planned all of this. What do you want?" Amatsuki asked.

Lucrezia briefly gazed at Shinju's shoulder, taking note of the blood she was losing. It looked agonizing, but she wasn't in any danger of bleeding to death. Amatsuki was careful to inflict as much pain on her without threatening her life. If Lucrezia hadn't shown up when she did, it was very possible Amatsuki would've taken Shinju somewhere else and had her questioned there.

"A few months back, a woman named Himushi gave your people a duffle bag containing skeletal remains. I want those remains." Lucrezia demanded.

"We get handed remains all the time. People hire us to clean up their messes." Amatsuki said.

"Then allow me to be specific." Lucrezia hissed. "I'm looking for the skeletal remains of a teenaged girl that died during the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995. The woman who hired you did so not to get rid of the remains, but to identify them."

"You want me to betray a client?" Amatsuki asked. "What's some random girl's skeleton matter to you, anyway?"

Lucrezia smiled. "We all have skeletons in our closets, don't we? So, why don't we make a deal? The only way you're getting Satori's legacy is if I die or forfeit it to you. The money and assets will then be transferred to you, since there'd be no trusted third party remaining to hold onto them. I'm willing to agree to a time and place of your choosing so we can settle this, but only on the condition that you return the skeleton to my associate. Oh, and please, let her go."

"You steal from me and now you want to make a deal?" Amatsuki laughed. "I have a better idea. I can just kill you both right here and now, and have the money transferred to me anyway."

"I really wouldn't try that if I were you. Satori had a whole army of shikome at his disposal, and we still killed them all. You'd never be able to kill us both. One on one, though? You might have a chance." Lucrezia said.

"I'm supposed to believe you'd agree to a death match?" Amatsuki scoffed. "I'll accept, if you let me take this girl here as insurance."

"You fucking cunt!" Shinju screamed

Amatsuki twisted the blade in Shinju's shoulder harder, turning her words of defiance into growls of pain. "We'll meet three days from now in this very neighborhood, at midnight. I'll bring her with me. I'll release her to you, and I'll have the skeleton you want. After that, you and I are going to settle this."

Just as I figured. Lucrezia thought. She wants to handle this as quickly and quietly as possible. She doesn't want the exorcists, police, or even other yakuza clans involved. She's minimizing her risk of being betrayed for the money. So she is under pressure.

"...Fine." Lucrezia sighed.

Shinju's heart sank to her stomach. She couldn't believe what was happening.

"Shinju, I'm sorry." Lucrezia lamented. An ominous glint illuminated her eyes as she stared daggers at Amatsuki. "Amatsuki, Shinju is a dear friend of mine. If any of you touch a hair on her head...I'll bury your entire clan, and I'll murder their families too."

Lucrezia neither flinched nor blinked when she made her declaration. Amatsuki knew a true exorcist would never involve the innocent, but she considered the unpredictability of this being a very personal situation for Lucrezia, now that Shinju's life was involved. She looked long and hard into Lucrezia's eyes, seeing the gaze of a murderer within them. Being in the yakuza, she knew all too well what a true murderer's eyes looked like.

"You have my word we'll do her no harm." Amatsuki said. "We'll treat her for her wounds, too. As long as you follow through on your end in good faith, Shinju will be just fine."

Amatsuki removed the tanto from Shinju's shoulder, tossing the bloodied blade in the kitchen sink. At the same time, Lucrezia lowered her black feather. Their standoff was over, for now.

"Shinju, don't worry. Everything is going to be okay." Lucrezia said.

Shinju nodded. "I know, boss..."

"Three days from now, midnight, in this neighborhood. Don't forget." Amatsuki said.

"Same to you." Lucrezia hissed.

With their deal made, Amatsuki left the house with the wounded and battered Shinju in tow. Lucrezia stood in the living room with her fists balled tightly and her eyes filled with tears. The guilt felt like it would last forever. Yet again, Lucrezia had launched a plan that put those closest to her in danger.

"Be strong, Shinju..." Lucrezia cried. "Just be strong."

Amatsuki marched back towards the two black cars parked at the dark end of the street. She shoved the wounded Shinju in the back seat of one, and then entered the backseat of another. Her driver looked at her through his rear-view mirror, noticing the bloodstains all over her suit.

"Take me to the airport. I'm going to make an emergency flight to Hokkaido."

The driver nodded. "Very well, ma'am."