Between Veil and Fire, Part I

The briefing room buzzed with quiet tension. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead, casting sterile light over the table where Ryunosuke sat beside Aiko, arms crossed, trying not to look out of place in a room filled with trained killers.

Aiko tapped her stylus on the tablet in front of her, chewing the inside of her cheek. Around the table were seven people—six men, one woman—each dressed in varying shades of black and gray, all armed, all silent.

The air reeked of protocol and distrust.

The door slid open.

Mayu stepped in.

The room shifted.

She wasn't the Mayu that Ryunosuke remembered from the Family—no heavy coat, no clan colors, no hint of rebellion in her eyes. She moved with a terrifying calm, dressed in a matte-black field uniform with soft-armor webbing and a suppressed sidearm holstered tight against her thigh.

One of the agents muttered under his breath. "They sent her back?"

Aiko looked up, startled. "You're early."

"Early means I survived," Mayu replied simply. "And I was approved for field command two hours ago."

She walked straight to the head of the table and placed a black envelope on the surface. "Assignment authorization. Level Five. Signed by Handler Mirai."

The woman agent sitting closest picked it up, opened it, and went pale. "You're lead on this?"

Mayu nodded.

The tension in the room deepened.

Ryunosuke raised an eyebrow. "You passed."

"I didn't just pass." She looked him straight in the eye. "They gave me a name."

Aiko narrowed her eyes. "Your assignment?"

Mayu turned to the table, voice level. "An artifact. Buried deep inside a private estate linked to Kanda. The file doesn't call it a weapon, but it's flagged as pre-modern, pre-national, and non-terrestrial."

The agents around the table shared looks. The word "non-terrestrial" hit like a suppressed shot in the chest.

Mayu tapped the console.

A holo-map flickered to life, showing a mountain compound—multiple structures above ground, and a vast subterranean level below.

"This mission is sanctioned, but deniable. Eight-person infiltration. No external support. I'll lead the breach team." She turned toward the far end of the table. "Aiko, you're ops and comms."

Aiko gave a stiff nod, clearly not used to being a support element.

Then Mayu turned to Ryunosuke.

"And I want him," she said.

The room went still.

Ryunosuke blinked. "Me?"

"You've survived things that don't make sense. You've seen what I've seen—and more. I need that insight when we get inside."

One of the agents scoffed. "He's not even PSIA. He's a kid."

"He's not your concern," Mayu snapped, eyes sharp. "He's mine."

Aiko glanced at Ryunosuke, her jaw tight. "You're really sure about this?"

Mayu didn't waver. "He's part of this. Whether any of you like it or not."

Ryunosuke leaned forward slowly, voice calm but certain.

"If there's something buried in that place that shouldn't be in this world… Then I need to see it for myself."

No one spoke for several long seconds.

Then Aiko turned off the holo-map.

"Then we'd better get planning," she said flatly.

The holo-map reappeared with a flick of Aiko's wrist, illuminating the table in eerie blue light. The mountain compound stretched out in three tiers—above ground, administrative and ceremonial buildings; mid-level, an armory and barracks; and deep beneath, a large rectangular sector marked only as SUB-TIER 3 – RESTRICTED.

"This estate used to be a private retreat for Diet members back in the late 80s," Aiko began, stepping up beside the projection. "Kanda took it over six years ago through shell companies. It's technically registered to a defunct tourism agency that only files tax reports in numbers that spell out kanji for ghost."

Ryunosuke arched an eyebrow. "That's… oddly specific."

"Welcome to the club," one of the agents muttered.

Aiko continued. "Satellite scans are blocked by active signal jamming. Only thing that pings are the surface-level drone patrols, motion sensors, and thermal tripwires. But last week, one of our satellites picked up a burst of unexplained radiation—only lasted three seconds, but it came from here." She pointed to Sub-Tier 3. "Since then, power readings in that section have spiked. Whatever they're housing, it's active."

Mayu stepped in. "The artifact is likely being stored in a chamber beneath the compound. The structure wasn't on any official blueprint. It was built in secret—possibly before the rest of the compound. Our goal is to breach, locate, and extract the object. No kill orders unless engaged."

The room shifted again as she said object instead of weapon.

One of the older agents grunted. "You want us to recover an unknown… thing… from a blacksite owned by a paranoid politician during a manhunt-level media blackout. This sounds less like retrieval and more like suicide."

"Not if we move clean," Mayu said. "This is a ghost op. In at 0200, out before the shift rotation at 0340. No alarms. No signals. No trails."

"And the boy?" a female agent asked, nodding toward Ryunosuke. "What exactly is his role?"

Aiko opened a secondary file on the display: a layout of encrypted access points and ancient language glyphs found in Kanda's digital archives.

"He's not recon," she said. "He's the key."

Mayu nodded. "He's seen symbols like these before. He's heard names that don't exist in human history books. And if something unnatural happens during the extraction—" her eyes narrowed— "we'll need someone who doesn't flinch."

Ryunosuke looked around the table.

They all stared at him like he didn't belong.

He didn't disagree.

But he stood anyway.

"I'm not here because I'm qualified," he said quietly. "I'm here because I've already seen what happens when no one asks questions."

Silence.

Then Aiko killed the holo.

"We drop in two nights," she said. "Gear up. Rest up."

Mayu looked at Ryunosuke as the agents filtered out.

She didn't say thank you.

Just:

"Don't make me regret this."

Ryunosuke nodded once. "I'll do my best then."

For a second—just a second—she smirked.

Then she was gone.

The last agent filtered out of the room, leaving Ryunosuke standing alone near the projection table as the holomap dimmed to nothing. The walls returned to sterile gray, the buzz of the overhead fluorescents rising again in the absence of purpose.

Aiko remained by the console, arms folded, her face caught somewhere between exhaustion and irritation.

"She's serious," she muttered.

Ryunosuke sat down slowly, fingers lacing in front of him. "You mean about me being involved?"

Aiko nodded. "She trusts you. I don't know if that makes her reckless or intuitive."

Before Ryunosuke could answer, the door creaked back open.

Agent #4—Tanaka, the tall, silent type with the tactical gloves still on—stepped back into the room, followed by another: Agent Kirishima, shorter, wide-shouldered, chewing on a piece of gum.

Kirishima didn't bother with tact.

"I don't know what Mayu is thinking, but you're out of your depth, kid," he said flatly, stepping close. "This isn't a ghost hunt or some metaphysical scavenger story. This is an op. You don't even have field time."

Ryunosuke looked up at him, calm. "That why you're sweating already?"

Kirishima's jaw flexed. "You think Mayu pulled you in because you're some kind of chosen one? No. You're a variable. A civilian. A liability."

Tanaka remained quiet but stepped beside him, a silent wall of disapproval.

Aiko moved between them before the tension could thicken further. "Stand down. Both of you."

Kirishima smirked but didn't move. "You want him with us? Fine. But don't expect anyone to cover him when things go sideways."

Ryunosuke stood, slowly, leveling his gaze with Tanaka's—calm but unflinching.

"I'm not asking you to trust me," he said. "Just don't be surprised when it gets weird."

Tanaka stared him down for a long beat, then turned and walked out without a word.

Kirishima lingered a second longer, gum still grinding between his teeth.

"You'd better be worth the bullet I'll have to spend pulling your ass out," he muttered before following Tanaka.

Silence returned.

Aiko exhaled.

"You know they're not wrong," she said, softly now.

"I know," Ryunosuke replied.

He moved toward the window, where the reflection of the dim room painted him in shadow. "But I've been between worlds for a bit now. This isn't about being ready."

He turned back to her.

"It's about doing something before no one can."

Aiko stared at him a moment longer.

Then she nodded once, reluctantly.

"Then go get some rest; you'll need it."