Blue: 002

Suny wasn't very much of a fan of Yuna. Probably since the girl came into my life. Not in the exact same moment I met her. But considering that my partner met her a few hours after I did, it can be said she never liked the hanyou. Especially considering the primacy effect was horrible. Yuna had just brutally murdered the Japanese Mythpool director and although she wasn't on duty for the Japanese branch, Suny clearly didn't see that action favorably. And who would, right?

The point is that Director Tanaka was involved... in fact, he was part of Yakuza. He tried to manipulate and use me in his plan to get the Magatama jewel. However, he didn't know what was coming. I ended up figuring out his plans, mostly because the murder of my boss who had just arrived from the United States and I ended up releasing Yuna who was incarcerated under my care. As the hanyou was never one to take shit home, what happened, happened. The director was beheaded with a bolt kick.

Even so, Suny has no affection for her yet.

Yuna says she's jealous. I don't think so.

I already dated Suny. Well, I don't believe it can be called dating. We kissed once. That's right, exchange of saliva. It was on a trip I won to Japan at the time she was my instructor at Mythpool. Before I even graduated as an agent. We stayed in her apartment for a few days but nothing happened but the kiss.

Nothing of the glorious in-and-out-in-and-out.

I guess a kiss isn't enough to make someone like someone else. At least not with all mental faculties at work. That said, I believe Suny has no feelings for Your Humble Narrator here. Therefore, jealousy is a nonsense option.

But, what if she liked me? Did she have reason to be jealous of the Youkai Slayer?

Well, who wouldn't? The girl appears to be made on a computer. All her beauty was part of her nature. She was naturally gorgeous. Thanks to her youkai ancestry, the Snow Woman, whose beauty was one of her 'powers'. And the hanyou inherited it from her. However, the human part of her had also inherited some beauty, considering it's not possible that at sixteen she had already beaten her own mother, with her supernatural grace.

Wait... this talk is getting a little off track. I beg your pardon, dear reader. Perhaps Your Humble Narrator got a little excited.

What I mean from the beginning is Suny didn't like Yuna very much, for some reason I don't know. But she definitely didn't appreciate the Youkai Slayer. And, I'm just saying that because the disagreement between them two turned the operation a little more difficult.

"What's this brat doing here?"

She started with that. My partner walked into our meeting room, staring at me impatiently while pointing with her hand at the girl on the couch.

"I asked her to help," I replied. "I told you and we talked about it before."

"She was making a mess near the bridge and even then you ask for her help? Don't you see that she's evil?"

"Wait, wait, it wasn't her. It was her clone."

"What?" My partner frowned. "A clone? Seriously? Are you gonna keep lying?"

"It's not a lie, Suny!"

"Listen...!"

"You two are very cute." Yuna's speech abruptly interrupted our argument.

Suny flipped to her and clenched her teeth. A clear gesture of disgust at the Youkai Slayer.

"What's wrong?" Yuna crossed her legs and spread her arms over the back of the couch. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

In response to the girl's cynicism, my partner just glanced away.

"You two," I began, "Let's take care of the operation first. Then you can work your differences out."

"She's just jealous, douchebag. It's nothing more than that…"

"You brat...!"

"Cut it out!" I place myself in front of Suny, who had taken her first step in the murderous intention to behead Yuna. I put my hands on her shoulders, stared deep into her black eyes; "We need her. We saw what that youkai is capable of and we know we aren't enough. You also saw Yuna in action, you know she's on a level beyond ours. She is our Superman."

"I don't like Superman."

"She can be Batman, whatever. It doesn't matter. The thing is, she's our weapon. Hold on for just a few days, maybe less."

My partner slightly lowered her eyes. I felt her shoulders relaxing under my hands.

"Fine. Just a few days. I... just lost my shit. Sorry."

"As for you..." I eyed the hanyou...

"You douchebag, is this coffee here for free?" She had relinquished the sofa's comfort to explore the private cafeteria in my meeting room.

"It's not time for coffee, Yuna."

"If I'm going to sleep here, I need to have coffee." She glanced at us over her shoulder. "I'll make one for you guys too."

"Yuna, it's time to discuss the case, not coffee. And since when do you like coffee?"

"It's a common taste."

"I didn't believe the word common applied to you."

"It doesn't." The girl finished preparing her drink and sat down, placing the cup and her elbows on the counter. "I like to smell it before drinking."

Suny sighed.

"I give in." My partner walked to the coffee maker and started preparing her drink too.

"Okay, the discussion will be at the counter," I said and walked over to it. "Let's decide what our next step will be."

"What do you mean, douchebag? We are not sure if what they want is the Kagami shield. We cannot act based on your theory."

"She's right, as much as it hurts to agree," said Suny, sitting down and placing her cup on the counter. "However, it's our only clue. If Tengu acted out that way against me, it could mean they want one of the Three Treasures. Considering Kusanagi is not around us, Kagami is the remaining option."

"But what could be the reason?" I asked, turning my gaze to Yuna, who was taking her first sip of coffee.

"What?" She asked as lowering the cup.

Suny also eyed the girl.

"Uh, you're not expecting some brilliant deduction from me, right?"

"That's exactly what I expected," I said.

"I don't know much about the shield," She started. "The little I know is it's actually a mirror. A mirror that can repel anything. There's the fact it's a great source of magic, but you can't say what they want the shield for if we don't know the whole group or the group's leader."

"Yes, true." I agreed. "First we need to find out who are those three"

"First, we need to find out if that duplicate of mine is a member. It didn't seem to be a youkai. In fact, her essence smelled like energy. It didn't seem to have a physical body behind that disguise."

"Yeah, it really is a mystery."

That's not the point." Suny lowered her cup, already empty. "We will trace our strategy with what we got. We are gonna find the Kagami and bring it here, where it is safe. If what they really want is the shield, they'll have no choice but to confront us directly."

"And then I'm going to behead them all." Yuna commented with an ice dagger appearing in her hand and suddenly vanishing.

"We'll only kill if it's really necessary," I said.

"Ha... sure..." And the hanyou ignored me.

I turned to Suny.

"Do you happen to have any idea where the Kagami is?"

"I'm just the guardian of one treasure, I don't know where the others are."

"Well..." Yuna brought her hands behind her head, intertwining her fingers. "I know someone. I mean, he was once a person. Now he's just a shinigami."

+++

Iron Brain, an encyclopedia shinigami. His name could be Mr. Wikipedia, but I'm not the one who names people. The god of death in question, who wasn't in a very prestigious position in the national ranking, much less worldwide, had the gift of wisdom. However, it's not as if he were a genius. Technically, his ability was to store a large number of random information in his brain and be able to access it quickly and conveniently. But the god of death didn't know how to use his bunch of knowledge to his advantage, which made him just a memorizing machine.

Even though he was a shinigami, his fighting expertise was practically null. But if questioned about martial arts, Iron Brain could give you theoretical classes on a surreal level, leaving out to you to put the theory into practice.

Yuna said the god of death could only use two percent of his knowledge for himself. He wasn't capable of going any further. Perhaps his body and spirit were much weaker than his mind, like a computer with a lot of storage capacity but little processing power.

It's just there's something that the smaller god was considerably good at. And it was in that kind of business perhaps, the two percent of his capacity was focused on;

On the black market.

The shinigami had a sales spot that apparently was a garage shop and a bar, feet below the Shinjuku station where other shinigamis who walked on the right path showed up from time to time.

"Don't say you're from Mythpool." Pondered the hanyou. "He's afraid you'll find out about his business. Nor do I want my image related to the organization you work for. So, let's keep the basics in a situation like this; you are a friend addicted to Lotus Flower but under treatment, so you won't ask for anything. Is that alright for you, douchebag?"

"I don't know why the Percy Jackson reference, but I can play this role for the mission."

We were having this last-minute conversation as we walked down a long underground corridor erected by wooden beams, but lit by neon lamps alternated in blue and pink.

"Are we getting there yet?" I asked.

"Yes, we are."

"You said that fifteen minutes ago... Oh, a light…"

Lots of feet ahead of us a spark in different shades of purple began to grow and grow as we proceeded step by step.

"Ha, your douchebag, don't be alarmed…"

"Haaaa!" I got scared. As soon as I walked in the death god's sales place, I caught my eye on a grotesque thing especially for non-cockroach fans.

Iron Brain was shaped like a half-humanoid cockroach. A Cockroach Man you might say. With his shelly body and human arms in place of insect legs. The head was too small for the rest of the body and since he was also humanoid, it made everything weirder. It resembles a chimera. It was as if they had cut off the giant cockroach's head and placed a boy's head on the spot. It stood out like a cherry on a chocolate cake.

Even if Yuna had warned me in advance, I'd still have been scared.

The image was shocking at first sight.

After my fearful cry, the hanyou gazed at me over her shoulder, like a mother who just saw her son being rude.

"My bad…"

"Tsc." She bent to look ahead to a counter in the back of the store where the shinigami was behind.

I explored around to scan the surroundings. It was a spacious place, slightly larger than a professional dojo, and much of it was empty. Most of the Death god's sale objects were close to the walls, surrounding them with all sorts of trinkets. There were air vents on the ceiling, as well as some appliances hanging here and there.

"Iron Brain." Yuna approached the counter.

"Yuna Nate." The Death god crossed his arms on the counter. "It's been a while, huh. Did you come to get some more drugs for your boyfriend...?"

"Shh!"

"What?!" There was no way my ears would be unaware of that information. Not that the Youkai Slayer love life interested me, but my curiosity really wanted to know if the girl had already given her first kiss.

In fact, since we've opened this topic.

"I really wanted to ask you something, Yuna."

"Uh… to ask?"

She sobbed and got embarrassed. It was the first time I saw her being defensive with such clarity. Perhaps it was my only opportunity to find out some nasty desire or fetish.

"That's right. To ask."

She swallowed.

"Okay... say it…"

"And I will." I put my elbow on the counter resting my head on my fist while staring at the frozen girl beside me. "On the golf course, Tengu called you daughter-in-law. That means you are involved with his son, right? And if you already knew Tengu, why didn't you tell me when we met at the coffee shop?"

"Yeah... well..." She glanced away. "I didn't know which Tengu you were talking about. I suspected it was him but decided to remain silent until I was sure."

"The funny thing is you didn't tell me even after figuring out."

"Oh, right," She put her hand on her nape. "I might've had a rush of blood to my head and forgot."

"I suppose. And you wouldn't be hiding something, would you?"

"Hiding...?"

"Yuna... you date Tengu's son, don't you?"

"No, no." Who answered was the shinigami. "She doesn't date him. In fact, I was only polite when expressing myself. Yuna and Tetsu had a 'sincere friendship'.

"Wait, did you say Tetsu? The Untouchable Killer?"

"Yeah."

My eyes darted the hanyou as if handled by a sniper. She was blushing. Her skin was hot and her cheeks were red. She was completely embarrassed."

"Yuna... it was just a few kisses, right?"

"N-No... we..." She didn't say it. It seems she didn't know how to express herself. So, she circled around, put her hands together and intertwined her fingers. Then she rubbed them, not too fast and not too slow. The scene was cute, only the case was serious.

"I can't believe it... that arrogant blonde dude won the lottery... Wait, so Tengu is Tetsu's father?"

"Isn't it obvious, douchebag?"

"And you used to come here to buy drugs for him?"

"Yeah, sometimes. He was the one who told me about this place to be honest."

"At AAA only he knew about this place?"

"Yes." Yuna was no longer ashamed. She was joining my reasoning. "Until he told me, only he knew about here."

"And do you know who told him?"

"Oh, I see, douchebag." The hybrid address to the shinigami who was watching us all that time. The girl had suddenly got back to the seriousness her job requires. "Iron Brain, we need to know where the Kagami shield is, the real one. It's an emergency situation."

"Okay, all right..." The shinigami closed his eyes, searching through his vast memory. "I found it. Currently, the real one is in Okinawa with its proper carrier."

"Where exactly?" I asked.

"You want the exact location?"

"Yeah."

"Well... I can't tell for sure... wait a moment..." The Death god bent down and started searching for something under the counter. He rose and as I thought, the shinigami didn't take a shotgun from below it. Iron Brain placed a piece of paper on the counter and with a regular pen wrote down a number on it. It was instructions. The exact location of one of Japan's Three Treasures.

"Are you sure?" Yuna asked.

"Absolutely."

"Great, now…"

The god of death startled. Eyeing between the hanyou and me, Iron Brain sobbed as if a ghost suddenly popped up before his eyes. And in fact, it did.

I looked over my shoulder.

Yuna however, wasted no time on visual checks. When the shinigami was discreetly startled, the Youkai Slayer quickly sniffed the air. She already knew who it was. As my neck twisted to watch, an ice spear was created in the hanyou's hand, she propelled around quickly firing in a surprise strike.

"A little too much, don't you think, daughter-in-law?"

Tengu didn't have time to teletransport but stepped aside, getting away from the sharp icy tip with which Yuna tried to stab him.

The surprise move was useful. She would be in a propitious position thanks to her cold quick action, worthy of a high-profile murderer. However, the youkai wasn't alone.

The ice spear went straight between the pair of youkais. On one side, Tengu, who dodged Yuna's lethal blow, on the other was a woman. A beautiful woman as charming as Yuna or Yuki-onna. Dressed in a brown fur coat and boots of the same color, the woman didn't seem to feel an ounce of heat at all. Not a drop of sweat broke out on her white skin. Her hair was a very light yellow, almost white, with the ends appearing like they'd been dyed with blood. And her eyes were orange, like two miniature suns.

Noticing that woman's presence, Yuna quickly slid backwards creating an icy carpet under her feet. She soon took up her position as a lancer, standing between the youkai and the shinigami.

The hanyou really followed my reasoning. If Tetsu was the only one in AAA who knew about Iron Brain, there was a chance that such information was spreaded by her father, Tengu. Soon, the youkai would also know about that underground trade center, and it'd be a matter of time before he showed up there.

Therefore, two questions were on the table.

If Tengu already knew about the shinigami, why didn't he visit before?

And... who was that woman?

"I heard about you," She began in a noble tone as if she were royalty. "A daughter of Adam fertilized in the uterus of a youkai. There are several out there, but you, the blue-eyed child proved to be somewhat special. They even call you the Youkai Slayer. In fact, how's my son doing?"

"Hmph, so it's really you." Yuna said. "The most powerful youkai alive. The being to be beaten. For a while, I thought you were just a legend but, it's stupid of me not to consider an existence like yours, Kitsune."

At that name, I swallowed.

Next to Tengu, a youkai group member seeking out the Kagami, was nothing more than number one as the most powerful youkai in the files and records of Mythpool. Supernatural cunning in human shape. Also, the supernatural cunning in a fox figure. Deservedly nicknamed as Youkai Queen by the company I work for. And she's the only one of all youkais to be classified as a Level 10 Threat, with the same score as the Hunt Greek goddess, Artemis.

"You didn't answer my question, child."

"It's my thing," Teased the hanyou. "I'm facing something I cannot divert my attention from, so I'm sorry, fox."

"Something you can't ignore, is it?"

"A unique opportunity."

"From your bold gaze, snow's child, it seems you're challenging your natural enemy to combat, am I right?"

"That's right. I'm not afraid."

"I admire your courage."

After these words from Kitsune I expected Yuna to launch herself against the youkai starting the fight, according to the tension in her leg muscles it seemed this was the Youkai Slayer plan of aggression. But she gave up at the last moment. Not that she was hesitant. Yuna wasn't one to hesitate before an enemy. What made her drop her move was the fact her ice spear evaporated in the blink of an eye. It became whitish smoke going up to the air vents.

"Tsc." The hanyou tried to create another weapon, but nothing happened.

The ice couldn't be created.

Not even the environment temperature was dropping, as it used to be.

In fact, it was getting hot there.

"Hmph" Yuna straightened her posture. "It was obvious she would have fire powers but I confess I didn't imagine anything at this level. She's preventing me from turning the oxygen molecules into ice. Cutting the evil in the bud. I can't even coat my own skin with ice. I suppose her powers work the same way as mine."

Elementary manipulation at molecular level. It's not an official term. It's just a nice, big way some Mythpool agents call what some creatures do. And I say creatures, whereas that ability goes beyond supernatural beings like youkai or hanyou. Some angels, gods, and even some shinigami have the same capacity.

That said, you don't need to wonder about it much to understand that Your Humble Narrator was situated in the same space as someone who could incinerate everything around us with just one look. Those orange eyes had a discreet golden glow that could only be seen in a solar deity. And even though knowing how dangerous those eyes were, just like Yuna Nate's, they were dangerously attractive.

They were both like a mermaid's song.

"Do you want me to take him away from here?" Tengu said, probably referring to the Iron Brain.

"No need to," answered Kitsune. "This child must have already noticed she cannot beat me in the current circumstances. Still, she keeps staring at me, prompting the start of hand-to-hand combat. She must be very confident about her proficiency, but that kind of arrogance is the prelude to her failure."

"In a hand-to-hand fight, without the use of powers, I'd take you down. I believe my mastery in several martial arts plus my inhuman physique can beat you, even with your centuries of experience."

"Do you underestimate the power of experience, child? It's disappointing that someone trained by my son…"

In the middle of the Kitsune sentence Yuna smiled, as if she heard a nonsense joke. That smile bothered the youkai, who interrupted her words to formulate the following ones;

"What's so funny?"

"I wasn't trained by Mena. In fact, your son helped me to control my powers but he wasn't the one who trained me, Tengu's son did. It was Tetsu, my tutor at AAA."

"My son...?"

"Even though he's a complete boastful jerk, he was essential in my path to become the Youkai Slayer. And in some way, he also helped me to grow up as a human girl."

Now, the one smiling was Kitsune.

"You're an interesting child. The way you separate your youkai side and the human one. While you're a 'weapon of war" you're also a bearer of peace...

"Pff... " Once again the youkai was interrupted, this time by a laugh abruptly stopped by the hanyou. "Frankly, are you some sort of clown?"

By hearing that, I thought Kitsune would burn in fury with her flames for the disdainful way Yuna said those words. However, the youkai just raised her eyebrows as if she didn't understand the girl's rhetorical question.

"I don't wish for peace," said Yuna. "I really don't want something as boring and monotonous as peace. If something like it exists, it means I'll have to ignore what my mother did to my father. I'll have to ignore what your breed has done to me from the moment I was born. I certainly don't want that. What I want is to smash your heads on the curb. Peace is a prize, and prizes are excuses for conflict. That's my opinion."

"…"

We all got quiet. Perhaps we're processing Yuna Nate's thoughts. It didn't take long for someone to speak up. That person was Kitsune. She stretched out her hand in the girl's way but not as if she were going to cast any spell at her. It's as if she was offering help to lift her up. A friendly gesture. The Youkai's features were lovely at that moment.

The hanyou clearly didn't understand. She raised her eyebrows as she stared at those fingers waiting for some feedback from the Youkai Slayer.

"I want to adopt you, Yuna."

That speech ruined the mood. The girl came back to reality.

"I don't believe you." The hanyou clenched her teeth in fury.

It was the moment of combat. Yuna would go after her natural enemy even not able to use her ice techniques. Even without her mystical uniform that became a spear. Only with fists and legs she intended to handle the Youkai Queen.

Although I'm a big fan of Yuna Nate, I needed to be down to earth and prevent the girl from committing suicide. And at that point part of my abdomen was simply shattered. As if by an absolute will, part of it should no longer exist.

As I collapsed in shock and strengthless due to the thud, I noticed the shinigami owner of the establishment had vanished. Then, my body fell to the ground. My eyes automatically flipped to Yuna. My brain associated her as my only hope in that situation.

"Douchebag!" She propelled in my direction but halfway an unknown force made her fly against the roof and pressed her there.

From the ground up, our eyes met. Those dark blue eyes were still so damn beautiful. Even... even when the inhuman strength split her body in two at the waist making the Youkai Slayer's blood gush over me.

The image was so grotesque...

"Damn you!" My hate-filled eyes pointed to Kitsune and Tengu. "She was just a child! I'm going... Suny!"

What was happening...? Hey, hey, hey…

Finally, I woke up from that delusional.

Instinctively my hand shifted to the left side of my abdomen. It was whole. I was alive.

After my mind finally set apart true from false, my senses began to understand each other and I pondered at the current situation. It was hot, quite hot. A stream of heat came from a spot not far ahead. I lifted my torso and sitting up realized I was no longer at the Death god establishment. Currently, I was in the tunnel leading to the entrance to the trade center.

"Such a migraine," I murmured.

Observing further ahead I easily figured out where that hell heat came from. The flames' orange light consuming the entire store made it very clear what was causing that warm wind. But where was I…

"Yuna!" Trying to stand up I was caught by surprise by my body weakness and fell flat on my face.

"That could have been really cute, you douchebag, but you managed to make everything pathetic."

The voice came from behind me. That rapturous sound frequency came from behind my back and inside my ears. The next moment, this big weight on my shoulders faded away and as I tried to get up with my arms I carefully examined around.

Yuna Nate was standing behind me, and whole.

Hands on her waist, the expression of shame for somebody else, probably to my condition and position at that moment.

The blue eyes. The gray beanie. She was there, her whole being, with no missing piece of her beauty.

"Are you crying?"

Yes, I was. My sweat was running down my eyes. A speck got in my eye. Struggling, I crawled over to Yuna and hugged her on my knees, wrapping my arms around her waist and leaning my head on her belly.

"You douchebag, what are you doing?"

"Lord, it's so soft and real."

"What?! You pedophile tick, stop rubbing your cheek on me, get off!" She grabbed my hair ready to force me away.

"No, wait! You are whole. Let me feel this region just a little while longer. Please... I just need to know if you are for real."

"Uh...you douchebag." The fingers firmly in my hair weakened and soon began to caress my head. "What did she make you see? It was awful, wasn't it?"

I didn't answer. It wasn't like the hanyou was waiting for me to answer. I just pressed my hot, tearful face against that cool, smooth skin, like a frightened child who had a nightmare, running under his mother's wings.

"Relax, douchebag. I will take her down. And her entire breed."