Vengeance Is Mine!

Kate watched a woman outside of the strip club talking on her cellphone, a cigarette in her other hand. She talked for a few minutes and laughed, nodding, making gestures that were likely a holdover from how she spoke face-to-face. After the call ended, she turned to the door, breathed deeply, steadied her hand on it, then pushed it open.

Kate waited a few minutes, then went inside the same way. The woman was talking excitedly with a few men, so Kate sat down and waited to see if they declined her (they did), then waved her over, asking if they could get a private room. She nodded and smiled, leading Kate over to a nearby hallway.

"You look a little young. You're not one of those students, are you?" she said, opening one of the doors.

"I am, actually." Kate went inside and sat down.

The woman closed the door and started undoing her bra. "Well, *that* explains why you wanted me." She placed her hands on Kate's shoulders, leaning in. "I love it when students come in. I'd tell anybody else who came in with blood stinking in their hair no, but with you, I know you've got a ruggedness, something that still lets you keep your kindness even when you know how to murder. You ever seen the romance section lately? It's all these stories about brutes. But sometimes, maybe, a woman wants somebody who knows how to kill but still keeps something gentle in the eyes."

Split's strands peeled her hands off. "That's very nice, but I'm not a lesbian." said Kate, truthfully. "I actually am the only straight female student."

A little put-out, the woman covered her breasts. "…oh. Well, what are you doing here?"

"My name is Kate. I'm trying to find a certain woman." She showed the picture and the woman gasped. "You know her?"

"I- I do, yeah."

"Jade?"

"Jade? No, that's what she... y'know, went by. Her name was Mei."

This had been written in the notebook, Kate thought. "You worked with her?"

"For a few weeks, yeah. She didn't speak much English, and we mostly worked different shifts, but I knew her name. Then, when she put her two weeks in, she was telling me that she had gotten a job offer from this massage parlor nearby, and... well, and she knew what she would actually be doing. It was going to benefit her, too, she said. Something about modeling. I don't know, I couldn't -- I have too much pride to do something like that, but it wouldn't be much more than what men already try to get us to do here."

"You didn't see her again after that?"

"No. Why?"

"She's dead, most likely. I found her boyfriend dead and two thugs trying to clean the scene empty before I got there." Kate hunched over and rubbed her eyes. "That got me to the modeling agency you mentioned and to a woman who wouldn't talk to me once they saw that picture of her. I don't know where them or their manager is, now, and I've gotten locked out of my goddamn sources. But I know there's another killer still there, because they got scared when they thought the police were investigating. They tried to pack their files when they left, but I managed to grab a cipher for a notebook I had picked up from the murderer's apartment, and I found a stripper's name in it." Kate looked up to her. "Now, you tell me that wherever Mei was working never reported her missing. That's enough for a lead to start burning hot for me. Names. I need something to go on."

"I... t-the owner's come by a few times. I've never met him, but he goes by Pines. T-That's the owner, I think, and I... assume he would be there. But I don't know if -- are you going over there now?"

Kate leaned back and frowned. "…no, not yet. Because you've confirmed something for me -- along with what I said about nobody calling her missing. There was an anklet in the apartment where she must've been murdered. It had broken off in the bedroom. Expensive one, too. When I got to the jeweler who sold it, he said it was the boyfriend who picked it up, and that he considered having it engraved with 'Mei'. Decided against it, unfortunately for me. But I started thinking it was an alias, because I couldn't find any records of anyone matching that name and nobody I found could, either -- she wasn't in any residential records. Nobody reported her missing to the police or news, either, and the only conclusion I came up with was that she didn't have any family here."

"…well, s-she never mentioned any family to me."

"I doubt she would have. She was an illegal immigrant. Most of the time, it isn't somebody crossing a border fence or wall -- it's people with visas who, when the deadline comes for them to go back, they don't. You're the only person I've found who knew her by anything besides Jade.

This is the only time I've investigated anything like this, but I remember there was a case my father investigated that had to do with sex trafficking. If you saw something about Lanacca in the news, four or five years ago, he was the lead detective on it before he retired. And what I remember is that most of the victims were immigrants."

"But even if they are illegal, you can't let Pines get away with it."

"No, you misunderstand me. It's not because they're illegal. I know how they live: they work jobs nobody else would, jobs the people who deport them wouldn't accept themselves, and they live with terrible wages because the same man who hires them can threaten to deport them back to their home country. And the same people who pass the laws to keep them out buy foreign products because they're cheaper.

So I won't let Pines get away, no. And if he is the one responsible, I know what I'll do when I find him. I'll grab his face and I'll tear at it until it's ugly, and when he's writhing on the floor I'll kick him in the gut until he stops breathing. But I will make sure he dies, slowly. Civilian police can't do that to him. And I used to think they would, if they... I'm not sure, now.

But after, there's still however many people work there. I won't have just killed their trafficker, but their employer. If I stay here and try to help them find work, then I'm delaying going back to Urasaria and... and my three-star. If I give them over to the civilian police, most of them would get arrested for prostitution or drug possession. I don't know if they would have, before, but now the public is hungry for results, and the police will want to please them and their own egos. Maybe they won't be deported, but they'll be convicted, and they won't be able to find other employment or a good place to live. Then I'll have put them no better than where they were."

Here Kate slumped, and began to form a plan that involved repeated abuse of her & Samuel's legal immunity, and one they would enact over the next few months.

"Do you know if Pines pays the police anything?"

"I... I don't know, Kate. Do you need to know that?"

Kate frowned. "No, that one was for me. I thought maybe I had made some questionable moves, or assumed more than I should've. Now I see some people have no reason for leaning towards evil." She looked off to the side. "So, how much was this?"

"You don't have to pay. You're a student -- nobody expects you to pay for anything."

Kate checked her pocket, then handed her some cash. "Do you mind staying?"

"I thought you said you were straight."

"I am."

The woman watched Kate's expression, nodded, then sat down beside her. After a dozen seconds or so, she took her heels off, and said: "Well, at least I can rest for a bit." Still they sat in silence. Kate could see her firm breasts unrestrained by any bra, and how her stomach tapered between her thighs, which crested again in the contour of her legs. But that there was no enjoyment, no sexuality to it, made her almost impersonal.

+++

Over the next few days, Kate watched over the massage parlor and got to know Pines: a short, bearded man who often wore baggy clothes. A few of the women working at the parlor were often escorted by one or two men when they went home, yet Kate knew there was no need yet to attempt to question them directly: things would ripen as they needed to. She knew Pines had no fear of being caught: he wore no disguises and was frequently in his office above the parlor, usually staying even after closing. This told Kate certain things about him, for there were two types of criminals who the police posed no threat to: one were those who paid them.

Kate knew the latter and asked to Serena come with her this night. In a nearby alley, a hairhand covered Serena's face and started burrowing.

Kate coughed. "…uh, sorry if... Hope this doesn't make you... uncomfortable."

"Um, it feels weird, but it's fine."

As Kate pulled away and checked Serena's temporary face, she was reminded of her lesbian friend Lanara back in Lanacca, who had disappeared during the events relayed in Arc 2. As Kate had no knowledge as to why, Lanara had become a photograph she carried in her back pocket, one worn over time by sweat & pressure, and one she wished had been in better initial condition.

The massage parlor was a few minutes away; the lobby led to a hall, doors at the left and a second hall to the right. Both paid for their appointment upfront, then were led off to separate rooms by two women. As Kate laid down on the spa bed, she saw a television hanging in the corner of the room. She heard the door open, some talk between a man & the woman, and turned over in time just to catch a stinger to the face; she nearly laughed at how little it hurt, but went with it and fell off of the bed, staggering up to her feet, just in time for him to shove her to the wall: again she let herself go with it.

His hands grabbed her neck and she kicked, writhed, letting her arm stretch out against the wall as she checked that the door was closed. Her breath dimming in to gasps, she pretended to weakly reach for a glass bottle of massage oil, but he grabbed it and smashed it over her head -

- and she loved his expression when it shattered but no wound came out of her; in the next instant -

- six hair-fingers gripped his body and ripped him off of her; she sidestepped as Split slammed him in to the wall with no sound, hair cushioning the noise as it tightened around his torso. His pulp started leaking between Split's fingers, and when he opened his mouth to scream a hair-fist caught his tongue. This covered his face, so Kate thinned Split to better enjoy his expression. She glanced to the door, and a hairhand pressed it locked.

"Normally, I'd show you how hard I can hate, but you've got somebody else trying Miasma and I'm not one to get outdone by her when it comes to violence."

Split's fingers curled under his shoulders. Kate visualized herself ripping the tab off from a soda: Split ripped the top half of him off and discarded both pieces to the side, thin strand of intestine connecting the two halves. She admired her hairhandiwork as she wiped her face, wrung her hair, then stepped back outside. Far across the hall, she saw Serena stepping out with fog cleaning what appeared to be milk off of her clothes.

(You will later learn why.)

Kate walked up to her, glancing to the door she knew led up to the stairs & Pines' office. "Same thing?"

Serena nodded, and whispered: "Um, where was your room?"

"Pines first. Don't need to dissolve the body."

"Oh, I just wanted to see what you did."

Kate smirked as they ran up the stairs, into the hall that led to Pines' office; the door was closed. Cautiously, Kate walked up and kept her hand on her handgun's holster. (Bullets do not strongly harm hosts: she kept it for civilian torture and appearances.) She nodded to Serena, and streams of fog unlocked the door.

Split's hand opened the door and into the room the two swept; Pines had his legs up on his desk, talking to another man who saw them first; before he could gape his mouth a bullet snapped through his brainstem and he fell to the floor, dead. Pines screamed and fell off his chair to the floor, huddling behind his desk and shouting about how he didn't know why students were here & that he wasn't a host. He started begging for his life, and Serena's brow puzzled as she listened to him speak: not that she recognized it in particular, but she recognized its origin. As it had with Kate earlier, it reminded her of a friend she had once when she was younger, and who had despised her once she became a student.

Kate holstered her gun: she already knew it wasn't useful here. "Go ahead, Miasma."

In the next instant, streams of fog flew in to the floor -

- and nothing happened.

Serena frowned. "What the f-"

- the door slammed shut behind them, and they heard a pitched shriek of "APPARITION!" before the next instant -

- and a wail came out of Pines that completely filled the room; the sound staggered them as the volume reverberated, rapidly rising in pitch, shadowing over all other noise as their ears began to bleed; Serena's mouth moved and streams of fog filled their ears with cork-plugs, dulling the noise for now. Cracks formed on the walls and tore holes through the insulation; sound stopping for a second, Pines' desk shattered and the pieces flew towards the two -

- but a swift hairhand threw them back at him -

- but the pieces flew through him like there was nothing there; Split's hairhand went under the back of Serena's shirt and traced 'GHOST'. Serena nodding, the wailing began again; more streams of fog reinforced their plugs as it shredded the outer layers to dust, and ahead, a dozen white will-o-wisps formed around Pines -

- then shot towards them, and as they hit the clouds of dust -

- in to white flames they burst -

- but the next scene was instant. Streams of fog flew in to the clouds of dust and multiplied the cork & the flames; besid Serena, Split's palm waved and sent a gust of white fire towards Pines -

- and into white flames he burst, wailing subsiding as he crouched and cursed; Split's hairfist bashed the door behind Kate & Serena -

- but it instantly repaired; Kate glanced towards Pine as he staggered back against the wall, and noticed his right hand was dipping in to the wall, his body somehow extinguished. As he gave more of himself into the wall, Kate felt a face formed in the wall behind her and hit it with a hairfist that broke it ugly; a wail burst out of it as it retreated -

- and hit the ceiling, detonating Serena's explosives contained within -

- but a sudden hole formed below them; into it fell the women, Serena having corroded it away; they avoided the explosion above as Split grabbed Serena & kept them both hanging from the hole, ready to sweep back up when needed. They were overhanging the lobby now. Kate swung forward and hit the ceiling with 20 hairfingers that burst up like a carpet of spikes in Pines' office above, slashing, ripping at anything that moved in their grips.

"W-Wait." panted Serena, both still hanging from the hole. "Can you form tunnels in your hair?"

Kate looked to her and nodded; two tunnels of hair burrowed in to the ceiling above, and streams of fog filled one with thiodiglycol, the other with hydrochloric acid - as they mixed above -

- instantly they heard a series of feminine hacks & coughs; Serena laughed as she heard them choking on the mustard gas, Kate concerned beside - "-no, don't worry, it's-"

- a dozen will-o-wisps hit the finger attaching them to the hole, and as it traveled down Kate's hair -

- a hairblade went through and severed the connection; Serena & Kate fell and hit the floor face-first, wincing as they pushed themselves up in the lobby. Kate noticed most everyone from earlier had left: mentally she noted she would need to track the women down.

The two stood and turned, stepping back as they looked to the hole where mustard gas was leaking. Split's hairhand wafted it back where it belonged; no sound animated this building. Kate pulled her ear-plugs out to check for wailing, then pressed them back in as they backed near the front entrance, and in the next instant -

- she felt the temperature drop and turned with the speed of anagen to the source -

- to see Pines standing outside & 30ft away; streams of mist flew towards them, and as Split's hairhand wafted -

- icicles formed on its fingers and slashed her face on a close wave, but streams of fog flew to her face -

- but Serena yanked Kate faster than the speed of fog back, rushing back deeper in to the parlor with her & away, temperature dropping further as more mist invaded the building - "-Blackb- felt Blackburn moving -"

- she ducked in to the massage room Kate had been prior and yanked Kate in with her; the good corpse was still there, and Serena kept the door open as she explained: "-I- I felt Blackburn moving on its own, it-"

- more wailing came through the distance, weaker without any surface to reverberate off of. Serena glanced out and saw more mist slithering through the lobby. "I-I can't heal you, since if it still fills-"

"-f-flesh in the wrong spot." Kate winced as Split stitched her wounds, checking up at the mounted television in the corner. "R-Right."

Pines' face appeared on the screen, and in the next instant -

- streams of static burst out of it and shot towards Kate -

" - grab it!" shouted Serena, and her tentacle pricked Kate's scalp as Split's hairhand grabbed the static streams -

- and the insulation it was filled with kept her safe; a second hairhand ripped the TV off from its post and a third bashed it to pieces, shards of screen animating slightly once they hit the ground. Cautiously, Serena dipped her tentacle into Kate's face and her wounds properly filled. No wailing moved these walls again. The shards were still vibrating on the ground, and contained Pines' features.

Glancing out of the room, Kate saw the mist retreating through the front door: it seemed slightly off-center. Something to file for later. "Let's chase, c'mon."

Serena nodded, and the two rushed out across the lobby and out to the sidewalk; Pines was running down the sidewalk to the left and ducking past the corner, and Split's hairhand pulled her & Serena up the building to cut across the roofs, rushing after to keep ahead with their foe below. This continued for a minute, until Kate saw a parking lot across the street that led to a large consumer electronics store; she saw Pines run in to the lot and muttered to Serena as they landed and hit the asphalt rushing.

50ft still separated them as they ran, cars & poles flanking them; Split's hairhand ripped a street lamp out of the ground and threw it at Pines -

- and only the back half of his skull took the blow; his body etheralized and the rest of the projectile sailed through it, still running as Kate muttered to Serena: "Why didn't he use his electricity to catch it?"

Serena frowned. "It's only with his possession?"

Kate smirked. "Yep." She unholstered her gun and knew this by weight: "Serena, you mind reloading this for me?"

"Uh, sure." Serena took the gun as they ran, fiddling with the magazine release. "Um, how do-"

- Kate burst in to laughter - "-Serena, just fill it with a new-"

"-oh, yeah."

Blackburn's tentacle shot through it, refilled it and handed it back to Kate, who laughed again as Pines ran in to the store ahead. The two came up to the electronic doors and they didn't budge; Pines was inside catching his breath in the rows and floor space of electronics, television screens filling the walls.

Serena's tentacle shot through the doors and they shattered; before they swept in to the store, Kate raised her gun and a dozen shots came out of it that broke every television set she saw in that store, and as they rushed inside -

- a low wail came out of Pines again, backing in to another row of electronics & between two shelves, no reverberation as they chased after him and saw him standing 30ft away, and in the next instant -

- a stream of static burst from a shelf at Kate's right and hit her gun -

- shattering it in to pieces and deeply burning her hand; more will-o-wisps flew at her from ahead, and as Split's hair raised -

- the wisps veered and shot at Serena's tentacle -

- disintegrating the tip of it off; she shouted and cursed as she staggered back, no usable fog or piercing tentacle left for now, and as more streams of static came out of the revivifying products on the shelves -

- the next scene was instant. One hairhand grabbed Serena's jacket and the other ripped the spikes out of their shoulders, throwing them in to the static paths -

- and into the spikes went the static -

- and in to Pines' gut went another three spikes in three jets of blood; he grunted as he staggered away, his etherealized arms returning to his corporeal and mortal form -

- just in time for a final spike to shoot through his eye and lodge itself deep in the goo -

" - the gun was my handicap, not your's!" shouted Kate, and in the next instant -

- Pines melted in to the floor and melded again; Kate glanced left to Serena, who was leaning against one of the shelves and shielding her circumcised tentacle.

Kate frowned as she looked down on it. "Well, at least that'll regenerate."

Serena nodded, glancing at the back wall. Only a few television sets had survived. A door to the maintenance hall was up and to the right. Kate stared at the screens, then frowned.

"Maybe he went to the Midnight Channel." muttered Serena, relevantly.

"Eh?"

"Nothing- wait, shit-"

-Kate nodded, and the two rushed to the maintenance hallway -

- which was abeginning to fill the mist; it was narrow with pipes spanning its entire length, and Kate saw Pines' shape emerging from the breaker box 20ft away; Serena's tentacle had regenerated, and as it shot through one of the pipes -

- a hairneedle pricked a hole in the pipe 15ft ahead -

- and out of it came a jet of acid that shot through Pines' stomach and out the other end; another three geysers hit him and they heard nothing but shrieks of agony as a will-o-wisp hit the breaker box and into darkness plunged the hall. Only a faint red covered the shields of mist ahead, beginning to swirl around them; Serena covered her face as her tentacle shot through Kate's hair, and as Split's hand waved again -

- the superheated hand wafted away the winter, and as Pines' face appeared within the mist ahead and rushed towards them -

"-ignore it." muttered Kate, turning around. "The mist turned us around -- I kept a hair impaled in to the floor to check. His possession can move walls, doors around."

Serena turned with her, rushed alongside Kate, and glanced back. "Where is he?"

"Outside -- he's nearly dead and trying to flee, not fight. Acid looked real good." Kate smirked.

Serena smiled as they came up to the exit door; Kate bashed the door open and out to the back swept the two, a low-frequency wail erupting behind -

- just in time to shatter the ceiling -

- which collapsed behind the two with no harm.

Kate glanced left on this narrow strip of asphalt, pipes at their left and a few cars parked to the side. "Well, might've guessed wrong on the injuries."

30ft away, Pines was leaning against the wall with his head inside of it; guts, organs hung from the cavity of his torso. Split's hair pricked the pipe again and another jet of acid came out of it towards Pines -

- but did no damage to his entrails, and in the next instant -

- a wail came back out of the hole Serena's tentacle had made in the pipe -

- and sliced a chunk out of Kate's face in a burst of blood; she shoved Serena out of the way of the second, and as a dozen will-o-wisps burst out of the pipe towards her -

- they hit her face-on and in to white flames she burst; streams of fog flew in to the flames, then were redirected to her brain -

- and did nothing; Serena had used the distraction to thrust her uncircumcised tentacle through the superheated pipe and close up its hole; behind her, Split's flaming hand ripped the superheated section out and threw it straight at Pines -

"-App-"

- the projectile hit him and the skin on his legs melted in to boiling patches of flesh, pus & bones; Serena's tentacle shot through the pipe again, filling it with electricity & magnets -

- and the next scene was instant. An enormous bolt shot out of the pipe and to a car parked behind Pines, yanking it with the strength of a thousand at him -

- but he etherealized; through him flew the car at Serena & Kate -

" - Split!" shouted Kate, one enormous flaming hairhand forming; she caught the car and spun with the momentum, throwing it back towards Pines and hitching her own ride with Split on to it; the car flew through Pines and she dropped off 5ft behind him, then turned just as he corporealized - a hairhand gripped his torso and slammed him in to the asphalt so hard it burst up like a mismatched seesaw -

- and another slam -

- and another, and another, and another; a second hairhand beat the flames off of Kate as she repeatedly smashed Pines' body in to the asphalt, blood, pus, bones cracking and high-pitched wails dying in to gasps of death. Keeping his face preserved for identification, she slammed him once more in to the asphalt, and a final hairhand ripped his heart out and crushed it like pulp.

Serena rushed up to Kate, and streams of fog properly filled her wounds.

Kate crouched down over him. She was covered in her blood and her breath escaped in hot gasps. She was already thinking of how she would track the women down again as her hand checked his pulse, and her head turned to Serena. A frown was tugging at Kate's puzzled brow. Searching higher up, her fingers went under his beard, slowly pulling it off of the adhesive.

Pines was a woman.

[END OF ARC: HAIR VS HAIR]