[Satori Effect] The Great Hanshin Earthquake

Lucrezia awoke to the sound of birdsong, curled up on Shinju's living room rug. She didn't even remember falling asleep after what happened the previous night. She sat up and realized she had used one of Shinju's black ponchos as a blanket.

Shinju's scent still lingered within the thick, fuzzy fabric of the poncho. Lucrezia shivered as she buried her tear-soaked face in the poncho. Just for a moment, it felt as though she was really hugging Shinju. For a moment, Lucrezia was happy again.

It soon sank in that Shinju was taken by Amatsuki, and in a badly wounded state. Though she had succeeded in setting up a scenario to force Amatsuki's hand, she never even imagined it would cost her her greatest confidant. Every second Shinju was gone left a burning hole in Lucrezia's heart. The guilt tightened her chest and unsettled her stomach.

She whipped out her cellphone and called Osamu, hanging her head in shame. To her surprise, Osamu answered after only one ring.

"Hello?" Osamu said.

"It's me..." Lucrezia said, her voice breaking momentarily.

"Oh, hey Lucrezia! How's it hanging?"

Lucrezia took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I called you. For some reason, I felt like hearing your voice would help me."

"...What's wrong, Lucrezia?"

"Osamu...Shinju was taken last night. The woman I warned you about, Amatsuki, she struck first."

"Taken?! Is she okay?!"

"I think so. She was alive when they took her from here, and Amatsuki vowed she wouldn't hurt her. I don't know how trustworthy a yakuza vow actually is, though."

"Oh my god..." Osamu gasped, his breaths short and panicked. "What...what do we do?"

"I had a plan going into this. It worked for the most part. Amatsuki and I are going to face off in two days. We both set conditions for that to happen, and Shinju's safe release was one of them. I just wanted you to know. You and Shinju have gotten along so well, after all."

"Lucrezia, are you sure you're okay?" Osamu asked. "You sound...hurt."

"...We all have friends and companions. We entrust our secrets to them, our rarely seen sides of anguish or even malice. We share triumphs and sorrows with them that no one else knows about. Shinju is one of the only people left on this earth that actually knows me. She's seen what a horrible person I am, and yet, she has always stayed by my side. I've asked countless sacrifices of her, and she's always stepped up to make them. My heart was shattered long ago, Osamu, but she's one of the few pieces of it left. If I lose her..."

"You have to give Shinju more credit, Lucrezia."

Lucrezia's eyes widened as Osamu's words snapped her out of her sorrow.

"I haven't known her nearly as long as you, but even I can see that she's one tough woman. People like her aren't the way they are because of coincidence. I can only guess how much pain she had to endure to become the justice-loving guardian she is today. I'm sure she's survived worse than this, and I'm sure she has the utmost faith that her friends won't let anything happen to her."

Lucrezia wiped her tears with her bandaged hands. "I understand now why she likes you so much. I was right to call you. Thank you, Osamu."

"No problem, Lucrezia. Do you need us to do anything? Shinju is our friend, too. I'm sure the girls will want to help."

"I don't want to involve you in the fight. It's my responsibility. Truth be told, I'm doing this for Satori."

"Satori?"

"You know that Satori and I planned the entire hostage situation, but we also planned for everything that would happen after his death. We thought as far ahead as we possibly could." Lucrezia explained. "He knew that his sister would inherit all of his wealth and fortune. He didn't want her to have all of that money."

"Why not? Wouldn't he want his sister to be taken care of?"

"Of course he did, but the amount of money involved would only serve to threaten her safety. She's yakuza, Osamu. Can you imagine how many people around her are planning to take that money from her, even if it means killing her? I spared Satori a slow death. We all worked to save Kagutsuchi from both her own curse and the exorcists. Amatsuki is my final obligation to him. Somehow, I have to save her."

"Can't we just tell her that? I mean...it's her brother's final wish."

"She wouldn't believe me anyway. Besides, the yakuza wouldn't just let her leave. This is the best way of doing things."

"Is there anything we can do to help?"

"No, Osamu."

"Yes there is. Stop trying to do everything by yourself. We're your friends too, you know."

Lucrezia smiled and released a massive sigh of relief. "Osamu...besides for Shinju, you're the best person I know."

Osamu was left speechless. He wanted to say thanks, but his lips wouldn't move. Only then did he begin to grasp the immense pressure Lucrezia must've been under the whole time, having to meticulously plan all of these elaborate scenarios and strategies, always having to consider what the next step is. He understood her a little better now, and that was all he needed to be inspired to lend his aid.

"Let me handle the fight itself. I may need you to come back to Kyoto." Lucrezia said.

"You don't want Gekko or Izanami?" Osamu asked, puzzled.

"No, it needs to be a third party and it can't be a goddess. If I show up with Izanami, they might just kill Shinju. It needs to be you. On the night we face off, they're supposed to release Shinju from custody. I'll hand her off to you, and it'll be your job to keep her safe. And don't worry, I'll pay for your flight and anything else you need."

"Okay, I can do that. It's two days from now, right? I can make a late night flight back to Kyoto tonight."

"Thank you." Lucrezia sighed as she stood up. "I'll see you in the morning, then."

"Count on it."

Lucrezia hung up and immediately felt the weight being lifted from her shoulders. All of the fear and anxiety was gone, and all it took was a dose of Osamu's unyielding determination. It was both infectious and exhilarating. Most of all, it was incredibly overwhelming to know that she had another true friend in Osamu.

A tough fight lied ahead of her. Two days remained until her fight with Amatsuki. She was going to use that time to prepare herself mentally and make any last-minute preparations needed. Failure was not in option, not in getting Shinju back and not in fulfilling her final obligation to Satori.

Lucrezia balled her hands into fists as her thoughts turned to the skeletal remains. "Is this how strong your hatred is, Himushi?"

The morning brought forth a downpour of rain and wispy fog upon Kyoto. The scent of rain-soaked tree bark and soil permeated throughout the bamboo groves of Arashiyama. A dilapidated, old shrine lied tucked away in a quiet resting place beneath a canopy of trees raining golden and red leaves.

Moss blemished the stone lanterns and cracked statues of Bishamon, while weeds sprung up from the cracks in the stone tile walkways of the shrine. Crows took shelter from the downpour beneath the faded, red torii gate at the shrine entrance, resting upon the impossibly thick bundle of shimenawa rope.

Himushi sat upon the front steps of the dilapidated pagoda, one leg crossed and the other resting on the ground. Her unbound, brown hair fluttered in the cold breeze as she watched the rain batter the land around her. Magatori stepped out from the pagoda, noticing Himushi's black robes with golden moth patterns. He stayed beneath the protective roof of the pagoda, his raven hair tied back into a ponytail.

"You going to tell me what that was all about?" Magatori asked, receiving no answer. "The silent treatment, huh?"

"If you were in my position, you would've done the exact same thing." Himushi said, her voice as gentle as a moth.

"I have no idea what you're hoping to find out from that skeleton. I'm especially dumbfounded that you would seek help from a gang of criminals. A mistake like that could put us both at risk."

"...I knew Lucrezia, way back when I was still with the exorcists." Himushi began. "She was our squad leader and the commander of the Kyoto Division. She possessed a confidence that got us through all kinds of messy situations. She was a planner, a strategic thinker, and a fierce fighter. I looked up to her..."

"I had no idea you knew each other."

"She wasn't there the night we were sent to kill you. If she was, you'd probably be six feet under and I wouldn't even be here. Funny how that turned out, isn't it?"

Magatori stepped closer, leaning against the wooden support beam by the front steps. "Your own commander wasn't there?"

"She went back to Kobe to visit her mother, right before our operation. Most exorcists are completely cut off from the rest of their family, but in the last four years before our fight with you, she was making frequent trips back to Kobe. I asked about it several times, but I tried not to pry too hard. I didn't want to say something that might hurt her or cause a rift between us. She'd just smile and say that her mother was having a hard time adjusting to normal life after retiring from exorcism. She wanted to be there for her."

Himushi chuckled softly. "I didn't learn until the night before the fight that she had been lying the whole time. Cyanide told me the truth, probably because we all thought we were gonna die fighting you. Lucrezia was diagnosed with stage two emphysema. As you can probably guess, her prognosis was anything but hopeful. She had two or three years at best. She went back to Kobe to be with her mother because she knew she was dying. But then...she ended up dying anyway. At least, that's what I thought for the longest time."

"Of emphysema?" Magatori asked.

"No. The Great Hanshin earthquake. I saw pictures of the disaster. It was awful. It was a magnitude 6.9. It crushed a ton of buildings and ruptured gas lines. Disaster response teams and civilians had to work together to try and get all of the bodies out from beneath the rubble. There are thousands of people that still haven't been found. If you count them among the confirmed dead, the death toll surpassed 6,400 people."

"It was that serious, huh?"

"I haven't seen her since she made that final trip to Kobe in 1995. The program registry always listed her as missing, since they never found the body. I'm sure Cyanide and the others all held a memorial service for her and left flowers at her shrine. Even after Bishamon saved me, I still held out hope that she was alive, somewhere. So, put yourself in my shoes, Magatori."

Himushi turned her head, staring Magatori in his eyes. "What would you do if, after all these years, you find out your friend is still alive? And then...what would you do if you discovered human remains where her mother's house used to be?"

"All right. I understand a bit better now. I'm sorry." Magatori lamented. "So, you think that skeleton belongs to her mom? Maybe Lucrezia couldn't save her after the quake. I mean, who could've after a 6.9?"

"You're mistaken. As was I, at first." Himushi said. "The skeleton doesn't belong to Lucrezia's mother. Her mother was 166 centimeters tall. When assembled, the remains we found are closer to Lucrezia's height at the time."

Magatori immediately tensed up. He stood up straight and got his back off of the support beam.

"Now you understand why I requested to have the remains identified." Himushi said. "I can't say anything for certain without a hard DNA match, but we have three possibilities before us. One, we've stumbled upon someone else's remains entirely and this whole thing is a misunderstanding. Two, Lucrezia faked her death, and since she's still alive, also faked her emphysema diagnosis. Or three, that skeleton belongs to Lucrezia, which would be impossible because she's clearly alive. I don't understand what the hell is going on here. That's why I need answers. Getting those remains identified will settle all of this."

"I see...so that's why you butchered their forensics guy."

Magatori turned his head towards the opened pagoda door, looking back at the mangled, bruised, and brutalized corpse of a middle-aged man lying on the floor inside, his hands tied behind his back. His face was so swollen he was unrecognizable. He lied face on his side in a pool of his own congealed blood, his naked body black and blue from head to toe. Several of his teeth and nearly all of his fingernails and toenails were strewn about the floor.

Himushi had made a mess of the poor man.

"Amatsuki had the remains moved to Hokkaido." Himushi growled. "That crafty little bitch must've figured something out. We need to get those remains and get the answer out of her, immediately."

"I'll go with you, but...we can't keep doing this like this. It draws too much attention."

"I don't care." Himushi said, a glint of rage in her hazel eyes. "Somehow, Lucrezia cheated death. I need to know how."

Amatsuki had successfully deceived Himushi. She was already on her onboard her private jet, making the return flight to Kyoto. She leaned back in her brown, leather seat with the duffle bag of bones resting by her feet. That skeleton had been the source of infinite questions for everyone involved, but now it would serve as a ticket to Amatsuki's revenge.