37.ii The Divine Cave of Three Stars

~ Anari ~

Anari pulled up a historical log of all Next Dimension hires. That, at least, qualified as public knowledge within the company. A quick search revealed that Sun Surina had never held a position under the company name. Anari tried to locate temporary hires or individual contractors. That was a bit nested, but the information was there. She did a manual search this time. Nothing came up for Surina, nor anything under her idol name, Sailor Sun.

Still, Anari was on edge. During her search, she had brushed by a series of disorganized files. It caught her attention only because everything around it followed a similar, stacked structure. This uneven group label had receipts in it. And one of these file receipts, Anari learned after pulling up the time stamps and folder info, had been removed.

A simple glamour purchase history had once been there, but now it wasn’t.

This shouldn’t have been anything to worry about. The inconsistency in the log had a simple explanation. Someone probably wanted to make space for some other important data. So they started to clean out the stuff that didn’t matter. Like old purchases.

Anari stared at the gap in the log. For a long time she studied it, wondering why a sweep of past receipts would look this way. Everything was organized by dates, so wouldn’t that affect what got deleted when? Why had this receipt been plucked so deliberately from the middle of the pack? As if everything else belonged and that was the one thing that needed to go?

Anari tentatively investigated a little more, wondering if there was any kind of trace left by the missing file. Based on the receipts that came before and after the gap, Anari could assume that the purchase was for Sun Bai specifically, but was not initiated by him. He never did his own shopping. The other receipts had been entered by different assistants and coordinators for minor events. There were too many to guess which one oversaw the purchase of the missing file. But then!

There. Anari found a trace. Against the grainy black screen, the evidence blinked back at her in lime green font.

[deletion detected.]

Anari highlighted the affected area and entered a command.

[operation history?]

She was answered with a serial number. Her heart chased its way up her throat as she ran a search and waited for a name to pop up.

Instead of a name, she got a position – stylist – and a confirmation that their status was terminated quite some time ago.

Anari leaned back in her chair, taking the time to breathe and assess the new information. Whoever had moved this file was once Bai’s personal stylist. They no longer worked for Next Dimension, Inc. And it wasn’t clear why they left or were let go.

What was odd was that there was no other information on them. Certain things needed to stay private, sure, but name and spirit type should have been in the description at the very least. Anari thought back, trying to remember if she had heard any gossip about some drama between Bai and one of his stylists. Nothing was coming to mind.

Something in her gut told her that it was time to leave. Anari still wasn’t sure if Surina was off the table, but she had new questions that plagued her. Plus it would be safer for her to look for answers away from headquarters for the time being. Tracking down this nameless stylist… that was something she could work towards.

But first she had to get this tournament job out of the way.

On her way to the elevator, Pang the owl asked, “Planning to come by the mixer this evening? It’s going to be up in one of the atriums this time.”

The spider stopped. This was the first she was hearing about a mixer. Had Bai organized this one himself? Pang was kind enough to give Anari the details. Apparently the party had been rushed. All current residents were invited. The thing was meant to be casual, but Sun Bai was going to be there, so there was definitely pressure to show up.

Anari welcomed this new thing to agonize over as she walked off the elevator onto the central spoke that connected all of the major departments. Should she be worried that Bai hadn’t invited her to this function?

That’s when Sun Bai himself suddenly came into view. He coolly stepped off one of the moving escalators and approached Anari. First he apologized for the late notice. Then he asked if she could spare time in her schedule to attend the mixer.

Anari reminded Bai that whenever she spent more than one night at HQ, it usually meant she had nothing going on with her schedule.

“Bai, is something up?” Anari fired before he could take off again.

Bai’s lime green frames caught the bright, indoor light as he dipped his chin slightly. The angle of the lenses shielded his eyes in a way that left Anari a tad unsettled.

“There’s a theory I need to test tonight. It’s probably nothing, but…” he adjusted his frames, disrupting the glare and leaving only that lime green sheen over an otherwise even expression. “I need to clear the air before we leave for the Sevenfold Peach.”

That was all Anari got. But it was all she needed to spark her assumptions. Bai was having suspicions about something going on inside his company. And he needed to gather as many employees in one place in order to drag those suspicions into the light.

As soon as Bai left her to get ready, Anari practically flew to the nearest exit.

She had to know. Was it…?

The spider spirit broke free of the paper space, where it floated in a quiet stone garden somewhere in the Snake Province.

And yes. It was just as she feared.

There was a full moon in the morning sky.

Meaning Sun Bai’s psychic energies would be at their strongest.