“Paul-san…?”

Paul glanced over to the other bed; Inari was sitting up partly, propped up on one elbow, looking still half asleep and bewildered, her dark hair falling across her face. Paul glanced at Noneum, who was panting, but looking less feral than she had a moment ago.

“Paul-san… why is there a girl tied up in your bed… and where are we? This is not the shrine.”

Paul frowned.

“What’s the last thing you remember Inari?”

“We were preparing to see the Emperor… I...there’s bits of... but it’s like a dream?!”

“Ah… ok. I’ll explain in a minute or two. Let me see to Nonemu first.”

“No name? Is she a hunter?”

“Quite the opposite. Hang on a minute or two please. Nonemu, are you with us now?”

“Yes… thank you. But I don’t ever want to do that again! By all the gods, that hurt!”

Paul shrugged.

“Well, yeah. I stuck a rather large needle into your heart, and then pumped you full of magically charged blood.”

“It still feels like my veins are on fire, and there’s ants running around under my skin. If I wasn’t tied up I’d be scratching myself to ribbons.”

“Ah… hmm.. maybe you got a bit too much power? I’ll untie you now you’re lucid and you can get a shower, that should ground the excess and make you feel better.”

“Good idea… I feel weird, like my heart is pounding.”

Paul frowned, a sudden thought occurring to him. He placed two fingers on Nonemu’s neck, feeling for a pulse.

“Hey, no point checking my heart rate Holmes-san, I don’t have one.”

“Actually, yes you do. A little fast, but definitely there.”

“Whaaa…?”

Paul started to untie Nonemu who was staring at him incredulously.

“I think we accidentally jump started your heart. I take it you don’t normally have one?”

“NO! Although…now that I think, I heard that long ago there was supposedly a secret technique that could make a vampire appear to be human for a time…. but no-one knows how.”

“Figures. Without enough mana and the right sort of iron to act as a carrier, it wouldn’t work. I doubt anyone’s had the right stuff to try that trick anytime this century, or the last possibly.”

Paul untied the last knot and Nonemu stretched, and then scratched vigorously. She frowned at the damage to her clothing. Paul looked apologetic.

“Sorry, my mistake. I should’ve asked you to take your top off first. Didn’t want to punch through several layers of clothing, there would be too much risk of the needle carrying cloth fragments with it.”

“Wouldn’t have, it’s a stab proof vest. Is there a change of clothing in those bags?”

“There is, help yourself. Stuff in your size is in the purple bag”

Nonemu nodded, and got to her feet, she peered in the purple bag, and took that through to the bathroom. Paul went and sat next to the confused looking Inari.

“Paul-san... who is that woman?”

“I don’t know her real name. I just came up with the nickname for her, but she’s part of the Emperor’s personal protection detail. She’s a shinobi and a vampire.”

“Why is she here…?”

“The hunters caught up with us at the Palace, the emperor leant her to us for protection. How much do you recall?”

Inari frowned, concentrating.

“I… sort of recall much of the meeting with the emperor, although it’s all a bit dream-like. The concert I remember too, I created a pearl each for Katsu and Kiko… and... Suzue?”

“That’s right. You said you thought Suzue was the great-grand-daughter, or great-great-grand-daughter of the God of storms? Either way, she was slinging lightning around like Thor on a good day, last I saw. We left via the Torii gate.”

Inari nodded slowly.

“Now that you say it, I remember, at least as far as the gate. So, where are we?”

“We came out at the Arayayama shirne near Mt Fuji. Currently, we’re at the Hotel Kaneyamaen. It has a hot spring baths that I think are probably magically charged, which I thought we might find useful. Thing is, we skipped a couple of days and came out in the middle of the afternoon… and vampires and sunlight do not mix.”

“Ohhh… so you were trying to heal No Name?”

“Nonemu, and yes.. although there was a couple of wrinkles there. Normally she has a handler to control her when she feeds. Do not even get me started on what I think of that… but she’s never learnt self-control as a result. The shot of mana-charged blood directly into her heart was just to snap her out of an instinctual fugue state. I think maybe I’ll try something else next time. Anyway, all that aside, how are you?”

“Feeling a bit jumbled, like a suitcase someone packed in a hurry.”

“Hm, figures. That wasn’t an orderly transformation. One minute goddess, next human, and collapsing from exhaustion on top of it. I suppose things would get jumbled a bit. You think you can eat something now? You’ve been asleep all day. I can ring for room service.”

Nonemu stuck her head around the bathroom door, Paul wasn’t surprised to see that her face was healed and scar free, given the mana overdose.

“Did I hear you mention room service? Could you order something for me too, I’m starving! And it’s been years since I ate real food. I might as well enjoy it while I can!”

“Ok then...what do you fancy?”

“Curry! Ah.. please..”

Inari nodded.

“Curry for me too… and chocolate parfait for dessert.”

“Oh! Good idea, me too!”

Paul laughed, shaking his head.

“Ok, well I can see you two have at least something in common. Two curries and chocolate parfaits it is. I think I’ll order something too. I’ve been busy while you two rested after all.”

Nonemu called out from the bathroom.

“Thank you for your efforts Holmes-san! Good choices on the clothes!”

Paul laughed.

“You’re welcome! Ah, Inari, I’ve got some for you too. Hope you like them. Picking for Nonemu was easy, black, and enveloping, yours required a bit more thought.”

Paul put two of the bags on the bed next to Inari, and phoned down to room service while she investigated the contents.

The man delivering gave Paul a rather dirty look… but then, Inari was just finishing getting dressed and Nonemu was in a bathrobe and towelling her hair dry. Paul figured he thought he’d either engaged a couple of prostitutes, or that he and his ‘fiancée’ had a rather.. odd .. relationship with her ‘sister’. Paul had taken two adjoining rooms, one for himself and one for Inari and Nonemu.

Luckily Paul had remembered to kick the ropes under the bed as room service knocked on the door.. otherwise he was pretty sure they would’ve been politely asked to leave.

Inari didn’t help by flirting with him outrageously… and Nonemu… and the porter.

Paul ended up glaring at her afterwards.

“Will you please stop doing that! The idea is to keep a low profile!”

Inari shook her head.

“He won’t remember what you looked like Paul and of the three of us, you’re the most distinctive. Also, would not laying low be what the hunters would expect us to do? Instead of acting like crazy horny teenagers?”

Paul raised a forefinger, about to argue, and stopped.

“Ok. I concede you have a point… but tone it down a bit. I don’t want us to get thrown out.”

The three of them ate in silence, more or less. Nonemu kept making small noises of enjoyment, not that Paul or Inari minded. Turning her temporarily human again was an unexpected side-effect, but apparently a welcome one.

Inari watched Paul as he ate… he picked at his food, clearly thinking about something as he frowned, staring off into the distance.

“A penny for them...”

“Huh?”

“Is that not the right English phrase? A penny for your thoughts?”

“Oh! Yeah, it is.” Paul grinned at her.

He had a way of looking at things, people in particular, Inari thought, as if they were the most important thing in world and deserved his complete attention. Just looking at him, looking at her that way, caused an odd sensation in her chest. Like butterflies taking wing.

Paul shook his head, smiling, as he looked down.

“Ah, although I’m not sure I don’t owe you some change. I wasn’t thinking of much really. Just that running from those clowns just doesn’t sit right with me...”

Nonemu spoke up.

“Are you thinking of doing something, Holmes-san?”

“Something, yes… not sure what. I mean, most of my prior knowledge involves ways to run away or avoid trouble. Truth is, I can’t figure out what to do, without knowing more about them. I don’t even know what they call themselves. I think I should’ve picked that guy’s pocket when they came calling at the temple, it’s their department policy that they carry I.D saying who they really are and what department they work for. Which is idiotic for a secret organisation.”

Nonemu paused in eating her curry.

“They said that?”

Paul looked at her.

“Yes. Why? Does that ring a bell.”

“Sort of… it means they’re part of the police. Only they do that.”

“Hm… well that helps. Figures though, he said their organisation was founded as part of the Meiji Restoration to eradicate any non-progressive elements. Or words to that effect. If I recall correctly, one of the first things that got done after the rebellion was a complete over-haul of the Tokyo police force, since the former samurai of the old force formed the core of the rebel army.”

Paul frowned, thinking for a moment.

“Inari… the Seven Great Lords, those that knew about yokai and administered disputes between them and humans. Which was the last one to go?”

“Oh...I don’t remember his name, but he was of the Tokugawa clan… who ruled Edo, which became Tokyo. Oh, I see where you’re going!”

“Right, so it wouldn’t be impossible for some of his men to retain that knowledge about yokai, and become at first the Tokyo police, where they passed down the knowledge and eventually wound up as this organisation. Also, since Tokyo sits on top of three seismic plates, it has a higher than national average of mana. Which means more yokai living there, in theory anyway.”

Nonemu shook her head.

“There’s not that many actually. A few small enclaves, and a number of gangs. But less than most cities.”

“And nobody ever wondered why? Yeesh...”

Nonemu shrugged.

“I suppose no-one cared. Yokai are yokai, they’re hard to understand. I guess they thought maybe they had a reason but no-one knew what.”

Paul snorted, but refrained from commenting.

“Ok, so the hunters are probably based in Tokyo, and part of the police force. That narrows it down. If we had a name, that would help.”

Nonemu paused her fork halfway to her lips. Paul raised an eyebrow at her.

“Ah… something I overheard. Some years ago there was a series of killings. It was thought a yokai was involved. There was some gossip, that a special unit was brought in. We were told to stay in the barracks until the matter was resolved. I heard, although I cannot confirm, that the unit came from Division three, ‘the Special Security Division’ of the Security Bureau. Except that Division supposedly doesn’t exist.”

Paul nodded, slowly.

“Hmm… makes sense that’s where they’d bury it though. Ok. I think maybe I need to contact someone I know, call in a favour. I’ll use the other room to work. The person I need to talk is a bit… wary, around strangers.”

Paul picked up his plate, pulled a new notebook computer out of the shopping bag, and headed though the door to the adjoining room.

It took Paul a few moments to configure the notebook, downloading to a flash drive and then running a custom version of tor as well as a number of other programs, under a separate operating system called TAILS. It took about an hour emailing back and forth, to finally track down a contact for the person he needed to talk to, an old friend from days gone by.

Finally he cleared the last hand-shake for the video call, and the screen filled with a rather pixelated image of a farmhouse kitchen, somewhere, where it was early morning judging by the angle of the sunlight. Paul’s old friend Eli sat down in front of the camera, his face considerably clearer than the background, and addressed him in Hebrew.

“Boker tov! Paul you old rascal! Long time...”

“Shalom Eli, good to see you too. I see retirement is suiting you, judging by your waistline.”

Eli chuckled.

“You’re looking good too… I was thinking to myself just yesterday, you can tell that Paul has retired back home, because nothing has exploded and there’s no tales of ‘someone’ doing something outrageous some place utterly ridiculous for a westerner to be.”

“Funny… I was thinking the same thing, about someone else.”

Eli laughed, shaking his head.

“Ah, we were young and foolish back then.”

“As opposed to being old fools now?”

“True, true.. so what can this old fool do for you my friend… because I somehow doubt you called just to catch up on old times.”

Paul grinned somewhat ruefully.

“How’s Rebecca, Eli?”

“Oh ho! Now I know you want something! You only ever bring up the fact you introduced us when you need something.”

Paul nodded, and then sighed.

“Truth is, you’re right Eli. I need to call in a favour.”

Eli looked at him, his expression suddenly serious.

“Paul, my old friend… I owe you my Rebecca’s life. For you, anything.”

“Hopefully, this won’t be anything too difficult. I’m hoping you’re not too retired Eli. I need some information on a group of people who’ve been causing me trouble.”

“I’m listening, you know I can have some of our finest on their way to you by lunch at the latest. Where are you by the way? I heard a rumour you were in Japan.”

Paul chuckled.

“I take it you’re not that retired then...”

Eli shrugged.

“Eh.. I was bored, Rebecca kept complaining I was underfoot... you know how it is...”

Paul smiled, but didn’t comment.

“So… this group. They’re apparently Division three, or the ‘Special Security Division’ of the Security Bureau of the Tokyo metropolitan police force.”

“A police force? Paul, are you slowing down in your old age?”

“It’s a cover, for what I’m not sure. But they’re not ordinary police. I need whatever information you can get on them for me Eli. Anything, no matter how weird it seems. There is something.. hinky.. about them.”

“For old times sake then… Hmm.. you remember the Hilton drop box?”

“I do, how long will it take you?”

“An hour or two, probably. Are you sure you don’t want me to send you someone? Rebecca’s sister’s cousin is a fine young man, although he could do with a little seasoning... but he’s an excellent agent...”

“I don’t need a rookie tagging along Eli, that never ends well… you remember Elwad?”

Eli shuddered.

“Don’t remind me, my hip still hurts whenever it rains… which thankfully isn’t very often for me now. Still… I could talk to Taia, you remember her?”

“Taia? Little Taia?! She’s in the family business now?”

“She’s not so little now… a fine woman, with a wife of her own just recently. She’s quite the professional nowadays.”

Paul thought about it, and sighed, shaking his head.

“No… tempting, but no. This one is... not my usual caper. There’s stuff involved that, once someone knows about it, it will change them. I don’t want to risk it.”

Eli didn’t say anything for a moment, looking at Paul…

“Paul, my old friend. You look happier than I have seen you in a long while, so I know it cannot be anything too bad. But what has my favourite, ‘not a secret agent’ gotten involved in?”

“Eli... I can’t tell you. Although nowadays, it’s more ‘not a priest’. But it won’t stay a secret for much longer. Keep watching the news. You’ll know. But I can promise you this is probably the maddest thing I’ve gotten involved in. Ever.”

Eli’s eyebrows tried to stage a counter-offensive against his receding hairline, charging across the no-man’s land of his high forehead.

“Paul, Paul… Should I warn my old friends at work that something is going on in Japan?”

“Hm. I leave that up to you Eli. I have stuff to take care of, keep in touch Eli. Shalom.”

“Shalom, Paul.. and may God go with you.”

“Oh, that she does Eli, that she does.”

Paul was still chuckling at the confused expression on Eli’s face as he logged out, automatically deleting and overwriting the flash drive, before doing a hard factory reset just to be on the safe side. Eli was a good friend, despite working for an unnamed and highly clandestine branch of Israel’s intelligence service, but Paul very much doubted he was ready to learn about yokai and so on. He was the sort of Jew who was ‘holidays and weddings observant’.. and for the most part agnostic about things supernatural.

When Paul went back through to the other room, Inari was stretched out on the bed, and Nonemu was sitting on the floor between the two beds, watching something on the room’s TV.

Coming further into the room, he could see that it was one of the news channels. He opened his mouth to ask, when the screen filled with a picture of the Tokyo Dome.

Inari hit mute as soon as she saw Paul.

“Paul-san, we may have a problem. They’re saying it was a terrorist attack, that someone sprayed LDS...”

Nonemu corrected her “LSD.”

“Yes, so, they said someone sprayed something in air that caused people to hallucinate. They’re saying Suzue was hurt in the attack, and is in hospital.”

Paul raised an eyebrow…

“That is a very lame cover story… hang on.”

He opened the notebook computer and as soon as it booted up, he went to the band’s website… which came up with a ‘404 site not found’ message. Irritated, he jumped onto a random fan site, and found video after video of the events, plus numerous messages to effect that ‘It’s all real!!!!’ and similar sentiments.

“Yeah.. just as I thought. Not fooling anyone. They might as well be trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun. I’m a bit worried about Suzue, but she seemed like a capable young girl. Let’s see… ah yeah, half a dozen groups already saying it’s a government conspiracy and talking about jail-breaking her out of hospital. Hm... one minute.”

Paul worked for a moment, then sat back with a grin..

“There, our speculation on the Hunters posted. Let’s see what that smokes out. Oh, I got in touch with a friend who works for a security agency, he’s also looking into who these guys are for me. We should have more intel soon. Oh.. here we go.. someone’s read the post and commented. Someone else says they spotted her being taken to police headquarters, annnd yup, they’re now organising a jailbreak. Problem solved, looks like half an hour from now they’ll have every Baby Metal fan in Tokyo knocking on their door. Possibly rather forcefully.”

Inari was looking at Paul with an expression that looked rather suspiciously like awe…

“Paul… did you just recruit an army of people…in five minutes... from your hotel room, to go and rescue Suzue!”

“Yeah, I guess I did. Isn’t the internet wonderful? Truth be told, it wasn’t so much recruit though, as point them in the right direction. They were ready to go bust heads already. Of course, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll meet her on her way out, as they’re heading in… if she hasn’t already left by now.”

Nonemu shook her head.

“Holmes-san… I am glad you are on our side.”

“You mean, you’re on my side. Hmm.. anyway. This hotel has a hot-spring bathhouse, I think I’ll go see what it’s like. I’d hazard a guess it’s probably high in mana charge which should help you two. But I think we should check out of the hotel tomorrow and move on… staying too long in one place might be a bad idea.”

Nonemu nodded her agreement.

Inari grinned at Paul.

“It’s been a while, I wonder if they have mixed bathing here?”

“I very much doubt it Inari… and don’t try getting around it either.”

“Awww….”

“Save it for when we get to Kyoto, remember it’s been two days longer for Kiko. Not knowing what happened to us, or if you’re even still alive..”

“Oh! Oh the poor dear… can I call her Paul, please, just to let her know we’re alright!”

Paul shook his head.

“Better not. You’d be putting both yourself and her in more danger. Besides, I already sent an email via a secure route. So she already knows now you’re alive and well, and what roughly happened.”

“Did you tell her I miss her? And that she is to stay safe?”

Paul smiled.

“That I did Inari… because I knew you’d say that.”

Inari beamed at him.

“You’re the best Herald!”