Between Veil and Fire, Part II

The balcony overlooked a narrow stretch of forest just beyond the PSIA safehouse. The trees swayed softly under the wind, shadows bending beneath moonlight and motion-activated floodlights perched discreetly above the perimeter fence.

Ryunosuke stepped outside, the cold hitting him like clarity. His breath fogged the air as he leaned on the railing, listening to the static rustle of leaves and distant cicadas.

He didn't need to turn to know Mayu was already out there.

She stood in the far corner, half in shadow, arms folded tightly across her chest. No tactical gear now—just a PSIA thermal hoodie and fatigue pants, her hair pulled back and still damp from a recent shower.

"You really stirred them up," she said without looking at him.

Ryunosuke gave a quiet huff. "Didn't mean to. Just existing seems to do the trick."

A faint smirk tugged at the edge of her lips.

She turned toward him slowly, stepping into the low amber light spilling from the door behind them.

"They don't trust you."

"I noticed."

She looked at him for a moment, eyes scanning—assessing. But not with suspicion.

With something closer to familiarity.

"I didn't pull you into this just to spite them," she said. "I saw what you did back at the safehouse in Osaka. The way you stared down that room of elders. The look in your eyes…"

She hesitated.

"You reminded me of your father."

Ryunosuke's expression softened.

"I didn't know him. Not really," he said. "But like I said, that doesn't stop me from loving him. I think… he didn't want me anywhere near this kind of life."

"Then why are you here?"

He glanced down at the dark earth below.

"Because I'm leaving after all of this... I don't know how long it'll take, but... there's a lot. I don't think my father's death was an accident. I really do believe that he was killed by either Kanda or Victor..."

Mayu nodded once, slow.

Then she surprised him—stepping closer, voice lower.

"There's something I didn't say in the briefing. During my evaluation... I saw something. A flash. Not a hallucination. Not fear."

He looked up.

"What did you see?"

She met his eyes.

"A burning field. A silver tree. And a woman standing in it like she belonged there."

Ryunosuke's heart skipped.

"You think it was real?"

Mayu didn't blink.

"I think whatever's waiting in that compound is bigger than any of us. And I think you're the only one who won't run when it shows itself."

The wind picked up between them.

She looked away first.

"I'm not good at trusting people, Ryunosuke. But I trust you."

He nodded quietly.

Then, with a faint smile: "Well… at least you didn't say you liked me. That would've been scarier."

Mayu snorted.

"You're still a pain in the ass."

She walked past him, back toward the door.

But before stepping inside, she stopped.

"Gear call in six hours. Try not to die before then."

He gave her a lazy salute. "No promises."

The door clicked shut behind her.

Ryunosuke looked back out at the trees, the stars hidden behind clouds.

Something old was calling them forward.

An uneasy alliance of two people from different worlds...

The stars were long gone by the time Ryunosuke stepped back inside.

The air had changed—no longer thick with doubt or rivalry, but with sharp, clinical focus. The safehouse had become a staging ground.

Gear cases lay open across every available surface. Covert armor, suppressed rifles, wire-thin earpieces, climbing hooks, light dampeners, encrypted data slates, and neutral-tagged body cameras—none of it flashy, but all of it deadly.

The eight agents were already suiting up.

Kirishima muttered instructions over the rustle of velcro and nylon. Tanaka ran checks on weapons with mechanical efficiency. The others moved like ghosts, silent and precise.

Ryunosuke hovered at the edge of the room.

Aiko waved him over to a steel folding table she'd converted into a makeshift tech station. A soft blue light glowed from a slim data tablet she pushed toward him.

"This is your kit," she said. "Minimal. Custom-coded relay patch. Silent ping to my rig, full channel encryption. I'll be your comm anchor—don't talk unless prompted, and don't trigger it unless something is seriously wrong."

He picked up the earpiece, turning it in his fingers. "No weapons?"

"No. You're not here to fight," Aiko said flatly. "You're here to see."

She reached into a side pouch and pulled out a small black pouch. Inside—three square tiles, each covered in thin, layered etchings.

Ryunosuke furrowed his brow. "What are these?"

"Old-world signal anchors. Call them talismans if you want. They're based on the symbols we pulled from the archive Mayu recovered. Think of them like filters—if the artifact does anything reality-bending, these might keep your brain from turning into soup."

"…Awesome," Ryunosuke muttered, pocketing them gently.

From across the room, Mayu approached in full tactical gear, sidearm strapped down, short blade along her lower back, headset clipped in and live.

"You'll move with me," she said. "You don't speak unless I say so. You don't deviate from the route. And if something starts glowing, run."

Ryunosuke lifted a brow. "What if I start glowing?"

She hesitated.

"…Then I run."

They exchanged a flicker of a smile before she turned away, signaling the team.

"Final check," Kirishima barked. "We drop in 0400. Night camo only. Stay on mute until command window opens. Anyone breaks formation—don't expect recovery."

Tanaka clipped the last round into his sidearm. "Window is ninety minutes. After that, the compound goes hot."

Aiko moved back to her console, eyes locked on the scrolling feed of drones and schematics.

Ryunosuke pulled on his gloves and checked the relay one more time.

He didn't belong in this room.

But he was here anyway.

And the deeper truth?

Part of him felt like he was supposed to be.

The night swallowed them whole.

The PSIA transport van crawled up the narrow, unlit mountain road in total silence, headlights off, tires crunching gravel in deliberate rhythm. Inside, eight agents sat in black silence—faces covered, weapons checked twice over, hearts slowed to operational calm.

Ryunosuke sat across from Mayu, his gloved hands resting on his knees. He could feel the weight of his relay patch against his chest, the soft click of the encrypted talismans tucked into his jacket. No one spoke.

They didn't need to.

Aiko's voice cracked through their earpieces, steady and crisp.

"You're 2.1 kilometers out. Winds at seven knots northwest. No visible drones. EM signature steady. We are green across the board."

The rear doors opened to a curtain of cold mountain air.

Kirishima dropped first, followed by Tanaka and the breach team. Mayu motioned to Ryunosuke, and they slipped out into the brush, boots sinking into damp forest floor. The van shut behind them and drove off without sound, disappearing down the slope like a phantom.

The treeline ahead was dense, but through the gaps, Ryunosuke could see it—Kanda's compound.

It loomed across the next ridge, layered in matte concrete and tall perimeter walls, spotlights rotating in wide, predictable arcs. The central structure rose like a tomb: square, brutalist, nearly windowless.

Aiko's voice returned.

"Marking route. Thermal pockets between motion sensors. You'll have six-second gaps to cross."

HUDs pinged with live updates. Mayu nodded once.

"Stack up."

They moved like water, following the ridge line down and then cutting across at an angle that would mask them from the patrol drones' predicted sweep.

Ryunosuke moved where Mayu told him—her hand on his back once when he misstepped on a root, steadying him without a word. He felt his heart pounding harder the closer they got to the outer wall. The sense of presence was thick now—wrong, even before they reached anything man-made.

Something was humming beneath the ground.

He could feel it in the soles of his boots.

The group dropped prone behind the final ridge, just before the drop into the outer perimeter. The fence buzzed faintly with heat-sensing wires and motion alarms.

"Entry vector confirmed," Aiko whispered through the comm. "Breach in four minutes. Cutter team, prep charges. Ryunosuke, stay low."

He crouched behind a boulder, eyes scanning the forest edge.

Then he saw it—down in the clearing beyond the wall.

A strange shimmer. Like a ripple in the air.

It was gone a second later.

He didn't say anything.

He just breathed in—slow, measured.

And waited.

Mayu crouched beside him, eyes locked ahead. "We get in. We find it. We leave."

Ryunosuke nodded once.

"Let's finish this."