Chapter Text
Moonlight spilled over the landscape, painting the shoreline and the gentle ripple of waves in the bay in silvery grey. Footsteps crunched through sand and shale, punctuating the rhythmic hiss of the waves. A breathless laugh echoed off the wet rocks at the shoreline.
"Slow down, Aderyn! What's the hurry?"
The goat Thiren turned at the sound of her name. Wide brown eyes blinked at the woman she had been guiding down the slope of the beach with maybe a little too much enthusiasm.
"Sorry, Perdix," she replied sheepishly. "I was just... excited."
Perdix, thankfully, seemed more amused than out of breath. Her fingers briefly gave Aderyn's a gentle squeeze.
"I know this is your favourite spot to stargaze," she said, "but the night is still young. We've got enough time to be careful."
"Right... " Aderyn nodded agreeably. "Wait, watch your step here."
As surefooted as any other member of her tribe, she scrambled over a lichen-encrusted rock and then helped her companion down. Hardly any slips were made in the process.
A thousand stars glittered above them as they slowly progressed towards the shore, occasional laughter and murmured words marking their path. Even the moon appeared brighter tonight, the iridescence of the great Hollow on the moon a little more vibrant. Finally, they stood on the edge of where the sea met slippery black stone and let the waves dance at their feet.
Perdix broke the moment of silence with a sigh heavy with wonder. "I've never been this close to the sea before. Hard to, what with living in the Outer Ring and all. It's... beautiful."
Aderyn smiled sweetly. "It is. Although I think it has some competition tonight."
"What— you can't just say things like that!" It was apparently Perdix's turn to lose her cool. "You... "
Her heart skipped a beat as she caught a glimpse of something long, pale, and twisted lying in the shallows a few feet away. Waves skipped over its irregular surface, collapsing into miniature whorls and white foam. Something was unsettlingly familiar about it...
"Is that a—" she began faintly, just as Aderyn turned to take a look too.
A terrified, piercing scream shattered the stillness of the night like glass as the Thiren laid eyes on the thing in the water. Seized by instinct, she grabbed for Perdix's arm and fled back up the shore, heedless of the way her grip was hard enough to bruise — not that her partner was presently concerned about that either.
The only thing on their minds was getting to safety, away from the human corpse floating languidly in the seawater.
Tsukishiro Yanagi smoothed down her cuffs for the third time in five minutes, resisting the urge to nibble at her gloves. A brisk wind blew past, sending strands of fine hair flying every which way.
It had rained last night, and the sky was choked with persistent dark clouds. Wisps of fog billowed down the street like wandering ghosts, bringing the smell of petrichor with them in waves. The sensible long coat that Yanagi was wearing protected her from the worst of the chill air, but the gloomy atmosphere left her with a feeling of unease.
Admittedly, the cordon of black and yellow police tape encircling the civilian residence in front of her did nothing to lift her mood.
The quick rap of familiar footsteps approaching her position made Yanagi look up. She could pick out the sound of those steps from half a block away, but her keenness of hearing was easily matched by the sheer speed of the approach. By the time she'd calmly raised her head, Hoshimi Miyabi had already come to a halt at her side, scattering fog and dried leaves alike in all directions.
"Good morning, Chief."
"Sorry I'm late, Yanagi," Chief Miyabi replied, her voice perfectly composed and even, as if she hadn't just been sprinting down the street at speeds near incomprehensible to the mortal eye.
"I was held up at home," she continued. "My father insisted that my state of dress was not suitable for the weather."
And indeed, the thick navy scarf wound around Miyabi's neck stood out from her otherwise standard work attire. It was slightly askew after her abrupt method of travel, but remained firmly in place — clearly secured with care by someone well aware of his daughter's eccentricities.
Yanagi smiled wryly at that, thinking about Soukaku and her own blasé attitude to the cold.
"You look very striking, Chief. I dare say we could make a second line of seasonal merchandise based on this look."
The fox Thiren's ears drooped slightly, although her facial expression did not change. Based on prior data collected, Yanagi knew this was Miyabi's equivalent of a reluctant pout. They'd only just finished modelling the first line of Section Six merchandise on orders from the higher ups, and getting Chief and Soukaku to sit still long enough had been a task akin to herding cats. Or foxes, as it were.
"Don't tease me, Yanagi," Miyabi said with a petulant note in her voice, and Yanagi realised that she had actually been doing that. Who knew she'd one day be comfortable enough with her boss — let alone a Void Hunter — to gently rib her about her sense of fashion.
"All right," Yanagi agreed with no small amount of amusement. "It would be best not to enter the cordon as we could contaminate evidence, but the street has been closed off by the N.E.P.D so it should be safe to discuss the case here—"
She paused as Chief Miyabi abruptly turned around to peer into the fog rolling down the road.
"... Chief? Is something the matter?" Yanagi asked, immediately on alert. She couldn't hear anything amiss, but she knew better than to dismiss the keen senses of a Thiren with many more years of experience with enhanced hearing.
"Hmm?" Miyabi faced her again, though one ear swivelled to keep monitoring whatever had caught her interest. "Not at all. The winds are simply blowing in unexpected directions today."
Her voice was entirely serene, although that didn't necessarily correlate to a lack of trouble. Unsurprisingly, this did not reassure Yanagi, especially when she finally heard the sound of heavy footsteps begin to approach. Trespassers?
"This is a restricted zone," Yanagi announced, just loudly enough for her voice to carry without alarming too many people. "Identify yourself!"
There was no way she'd start a fight in a residential area, but hopefully the grip she had on her naginata would deter any untoward business. Not to mention the presence of a Void Hunter.
The footsteps halted briefly, before continuing on in a lighter, near-silent pattern. Yanagi sighed and shifted her hand to her hip instead. She recognised that sound.
A familiar figure slipped through the fog to join them, yellow eyes glinting like improbably mischievous lamps.
"As expected of my teammates~" Asaba Harumasa said playfully. "Nothing gets past them. Good morning Chief, Tsukishiro."
"Harumasa," Miyabi acknowledged with an approving nod.
"Aren't you meant to still be on medical leave?" Yanagi inquired dryly. "I expected to have to drag you back to work when the time came."
"Well~ I thought it was a shame that you had all been deprived of my wonderful presence for so long, and when I got that email, I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to grace you with my incomparable charm and wit." He punctuated that bold declaration with a wink.
... It was far too early for this headache.
Miyabi cocked her head. "There was an email?"
Yanagi sighed for an entirely different reason this time.
"Chief..."
Harumasa patted her shoulder in a commiserating manner. She gave up.
"Let's just get down to business."
Any levity in the air faded as she opened the folder that had been tucked into the crook of her arm.
"As you know, we've been brought in on this case by PubSec at the request of Officer Zhu Yuan." Miyabi nodded intently, expression serious in a blink.
"This is the latest in a series of abductions within the Janus Quarter, all of seemingly unrelated civilians. The victim's name is Yona — male, twenty seven years old, one recorded minor offence for possession of controlled substances. According to security camera footage, he returned home two days ago at three a.m following his usual shift at a bar on Eleventh Street. At approximately four thirty a.m, the camera was destroyed by two individuals wearing dark clothes and face masks. From there on out, we only have broad strokes of information."
Yanagi gestured at the house behind them. "The point of entry appears to have been a window at ground level. One of the locks was snapped open with some kind of heavy-duty tool. The inside of the building bears signs of disturbance, but not enough to suggest a fight."
"Did they drug the victim?" Harumasa was quick on the uptake, as usual.
She nodded. "That seems the most likely option, yes. A few neighbours reported hearing sounds of a vehicle during that timeframe, but we have no visual confirmation. There are no other operating cameras in this area, apparently."
"Eleventh Street's not a TOPs asset," Harumasa scoffed. "It's beneath our illustrious Mayor's notice too, no doubt."
Yanagi raised a pointed eyebrow at him, though he pretended not to notice. He was usually more subtle about his distaste for political figures — although in fairness, the Hygieia Hollow fiasco had only been approximately a month ago. They were all still a little sore over that.
"And all the victims... are random?" Miyabi wondered aloud.
"Out of the nine people reported missing over the past three months, age groups, gender, economic status, and criminal history varied quite broadly. Mr. Yona would be the tenth such victim and apparently continues the trend of unpredictability," Yanagi confirmed, dispensing all the supplementary information she'd managed to acquire on short notice this morning.
"However... the use of tools indicates a certain level of planning — that, in conjunction with the destruction of the camera and unusual time of arrival make it plausible that this was a targeted attack. This is just my personal opinion, of course," she finished.
"I trust your opinion, Yanagi," said Miyabi without hesitation; like it was an immutable, unassailable truth. Yanagi would never get used to that. Her cheeks warmed a little.
"Makes sense," Harumasa contributed with a shrug. "But actually catching the criminals will depend on whether they've left any other clues at the crime scene. Or on our colleagues at PubSec being competent. Maybe ninth time's the charm?"
Chief frowned, a quick downward slash of her mouth.
"A case with not many leads," she mused, "though not something out of Public Security's reach either. But Zhu Yuan would not have called us if this was a standard situation." One of her ears flicked in thought. "Could the victim's trail have led to Hollow Zero?"
The faint glow emanating from Tailless's blade brightened a fraction at the prospect of a hunt.
Before Yanagi could explain, someone behind them made the sort of delicate cough used to politely attract attention.
"Ahem... Not exactly."
The three of them turned with practiced coordination. Standing there was a familiar PubSec officer, the bright red streaks in her hair and her boldly coloured uniform standing out against the fog.
Even without enhanced senses, it was easy to deduce that she had just walked down from the direction of the house, past the police tape.
"It's good to see you as always, Zhu Yuan," Miyabi said, her ears flattening sideways for a moment. Her eyes crinkled slightly at the corners in the way they did when she was genuinely pleased with something.
Officer Zhu Yuan, for her part, smiled warmly. "Miyabi! Miss Tsukishiro and Mr. Asaba! You all look well. Thank you for coming by on short notice."
Harumasa flashed her a charming grin, as if he hadn't just been making snide remarks about PubSec within earshot.
"You look well too, Officer Zhu Yuan." Yanagi returned the pleasantry. "Although I believe we should be thanking you instead. Few people in N.E.P.S would voluntarily call in H.S.O."
"How did you escape your house without warm clothes, Zhu Yuan?" Miyabi interjected abruptly.
The officer in question laughed. "Mom was sleeping in when I left for work, and Dad was busy with the newspaper. Besides, my uniform is warm enough on its own."
"... Mine is as well." Chief was definitely sulking now.
It was Yanagi's turn to clear her throat. She was getting far too used to corralling easily-distracted individuals. To her credit, at least Zhu Yuan looked sheepish. Miyabi seemed innocently oblivious, like a wild animal that didn't understand why it had been rebuked for chewing on the carpet. Harumasa — to her annoyance — was just visibly amused.
"My sincerest apologies, Miss Tsukishiro. Thank you again for coming all this way," Zhu Yuan said. "To answer your previous question, Miyabi, it's because our crime analysts have finally identified a pattern in these abduction cases — one that links every victim in the past month."
She paused, unease creeping into her expression.
"All of the victims had consumed or come into contact with the street drug, Incense," she finally admitted, and the words felt like a right hook to the jaw. "The connection is Hygieia Hollow."