"I cornered you because you've been acting off lately."
Jin'en looked down at her.
They were too close like this, close enough for him to smell her scent, along with a faint lingering trace of gunsmoke she had picked up while wandering around the back mountain earlier.
"Off how?" he said.
"You're taking on Big Sis's jobs." Broken Rainbow tilted her head, her white hair slipping off her shoulder and brushing the front of his trench coat. "But you're handling them too smoothly. That target at the docks three days ago-you staked him out for two nights, and it only took you one second to act. Mother gave you seven points. Big Sis only got four her first time."
"You even know the scores."
"I saw through the crack in the door when Unica delivered the files," Broken Rainbow said matter-of-factly, without a trace of embarrassment. "I have good eyes."
Jin'en said nothing.
Broken Rainbow leaned a little closer.
Her forehead almost touched Jin'en's chin, and the upward tilt of her face made her green eyes look especially large.
Usually, when she smiled, her pointed canines showed, making her look like a cat stealing fish. But now the curve of her lips had drawn in, hiding those two teeth.
"You're paying off Big Sis's debt for her," she said, her voice dropping. "You think that now she's gone, Red Letter is short a blade, and you have to fill in."
"That's not what I'm thinking."
"Yes, it is." Broken Rainbow tapped the wall lightly with a finger. "You've been like this ever since you chased after her that night. Whether you're sending money or taking jobs, you're filling the holes Big Sis left behind."
Jin'en looked at her.
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
Broken Rainbow blinked her green eyes.
"Mother is assigning you a job tomorrow," she said. "The same kind Big Sis used to take-kill the target, leave no traces, and get out unscathed. This job was supposed to be hers, but she left, so Mother told me to go with you."
"You're coming with me?"
"Yeah." Broken Rainbow took her hand off the wall and stepped back half a pace.
The distance gave Jin'en a little room to breathe.
"If Red Letter's two blades are going out together, this isn't a simple job." Broken Rainbow slipped her hands back into her pockets. "Mother rarely sent Big Sis and me to do the same thing. The last time was two years ago. We killed three people."
"Who's the target?"
"Don't know. Mother just said to come to the study tonight. She'll give us the file." Broken Rainbow turned and glanced toward Porsette.
Porsette was still standing inside the chain circle, both wooden sticks planted on the ground, her knees slightly bent. Her stance was a little steadier than before.
She saw Broken Rainbow and Jin'en talking in the corner and watched quietly with her gilded eyes, asking nothing.
"That Little Red Riding Hood," Broken Rainbow said suddenly.
"What about her?"
"I watched for a while when you were teaching her stance training." Broken Rainbow tilted her head, white hair falling from her shoulder. "Her stance is exactly like Big Sis's when she first started training."
Jin'en said nothing.
"She's forcing it, holding herself in place through sheer willpower. Three months of standing like that will ruin her knees." Broken Rainbow took two steps toward the training ground's exit, then turned her head to look at him. "You'd better teach her how to relax her knees. Otherwise, by the time she finishes training, she won't even be able to stand."
She left.
Her bare feet made very little sound on the iron sand, as though she were stepping on water.
Jin'en stood against the wall for a while.
He looked up toward Porsette.
Porsette was still inside the circle, bracing the two wooden sticks against the ground, her calves trembling slightly.
She had probably been standing for almost seven minutes.
"Rest," Jin'en said.
Porsette relaxed her knees in relief and almost dropped onto her backside.
She used the sticks to straighten up, turned her gilded eyes toward Jin'en, and asked between breaths, "What did Big Sis say just now?"
"She said your stance was wrong."
Porsette looked down at her legs.
Her knees were locked tight, and her toes had curled into a ball inside her socks.
"Then how should I stand?"
"I'll teach you next time." Jin'en walked over, took the two wooden sticks from her hands, and returned them to the odds-and-ends basket. "Let's eat first."
That evening.
Jin'en spent about half an hour in the study.
Inanna sat in an armchair. Her wound had not fully healed, and her left ribs were still wrapped in bandages, but her complexion was a little better than a few days earlier. She placed a file envelope on the desk and tapped it with her pointer.
"Read it yourself."
Jin'en opened the envelope.
Inside were a photograph and two sheets densely covered in handwriting-Inanna's handwriting.
The photograph showed a middle-aged man.
Gray hair, a round face, and a finely tailored dark suit. He stood on the deck of a yacht.
Hethereau City's harbor filled the background. The weather had been fine that day, and the glare off the sea was dazzling.
"His name is Hermann Voss." Inanna's voice came from the armchair, unhurried. "He deals in anomaly smuggling, specializing in unregistered anomaly items. He has an inside contact at the Bureau, and he's planted someone in Red Letter too."
"Playing both sides?"
"Worse than that." Inanna turned a page of the document in her hands without looking at Jin'en. "Last month, he sold three of Red Letter's smuggling routes to the Bureau. Two in Miguel District, one at the Bridge District docks. Six of our people were arrested."
Jin'en turned the photograph over and looked.
An address was written on the back: the top floor of a building in New Hethereau District.
"This man has something in his possession." Inanna closed the document in her hands and looked at Jin'en with her red eyes. "An anomaly item, code name 'Return to Zero.' Its effects are unknown, but it has something to do with space."
Jin'en's fingers paused.
"Something to do with space?"
"Yes." Inanna's gaze lingered briefly on his right cuff. "A page was torn out of the auction catalog you brought back. That item was pictured on it. I had someone investigate. Herman was the last person to handle it."
Jin'en closed the file and put it on the desk.
"Broken Rainbow will go with you," Inanna said.
"She told me."
"Good, then you know." Inanna rested her pointer on the armrest and lightly tapped its end with her fingers. "I want you two to do this job together. Broken Rainbow will create chaos. You'll make the kill.
"The target has twelve guards around him, at least three of them ability users."
"What abilities?"
"One can manipulate small objects, one has physical enhancement, and the third-" Inanna paused. "A sensory type. They can sniff out ability fluctuations. So you can't use Spatial Folding to approach right at the start."
Jin'en understood.
A sensory-type ability user would detect spatial anomalies within a certain range.
If Jin'en folded straight over, the other person would notice in advance.
"Broken Rainbow's Eye of Bewilderment can interfere with perception," he said.
"Correct." Inanna's lips curved faintly. "Her illusions can briefly disable a sensory type. But the window only lasts a few seconds. You have to act within those few seconds."
"Any problems?"
Jin'en said, "None."
Inanna stared at him for two seconds, then picked up the pointer from the armrest and pointed toward the door.
"Go get ready. Broken Rainbow is waiting in the side corridor."
When Jin'en reached the study door, Inanna's voice came from behind him, neither loud nor soft.
"Jin'en."
He stopped.
"That sensory type beside Herman..." Inanna paused. "Her name is Mili. You fought her in Bridge District three years ago."
Jin'en rested his hand on the doorframe without turning around.
"You lost control that time." Inanna's voice was level. "You reduced half an alley to fragments. Mili was the only survivor."
Jin'en left the study.
The corridor was dim, with only half the wall lamps lit. Their warm yellow light cast long shadows across the floor.
He walked a few steps and stopped at the entrance to the side corridor.
Broken Rainbow was waiting for him against the wall.
Her white hair hung loose, unbraided. She had changed into a clean pair of cargo pants, the legs rolled up to mid-calf.
The scarlet katana was tucked behind her waist, its scabbard giving off a dark sheen in the dim light.
She clutched a braided cord, winding it absently around her fingers. When she saw Jin'en, she stuffed it back into her pocket.
"Read the file?"
"Yeah."
"That sensory type." Broken Rainbow tilted her head at him, her green eyes a little too bright. "Mother told you?"
"She did."
"Can you handle it?"
Jin'en looked at her.
Broken Rainbow's lips curled up, showing her pointed canines. Her smile was the same as usual, but Jin'en noticed that her fingers were gripping the braided cord inside her pocket, very tightly.
"Why are you asking?"
"Because of what happened that time." Broken Rainbow straightened away from the wall, walked over to Jin'en, and looked up at him. "After you came back from Bridge District, you didn't leave your room for three days. Big Sis brought you two meals. You didn't eat a bite."
Jin'en fell silent for a beat.
He did not remember those days very well.
Bridge District was hazy in his memory-gray alleys, shattered walls, and a woman lying at the edge of the rubble, covered in blood, but with her eyes open, watching him.
"I don't remember."
"You do," Broken Rainbow said, her tone serious for once. "You just don't want to."
The side corridor was quiet for a few seconds.
From the distant main corridor came the sound of Unica pushing a file cart, its wheels making the wooden floor creak before slowly fading away.
"Let's go," Jin'en said.
"Yeah."
The two of them left through the hidden door in the side corridor.
A gravel path behind the mansion led down the mountain to the road at its foot. Jin'en walked ahead, with Broken Rainbow half a step behind on his right.
The mountainside was colder at night than during the day.
Wind swept up from below, carrying the atmosphere of Hethereau City's lights.
Broken Rainbow's white hair blew forward in strands, brushing Jin'en's trench coat sleeve.
"Your hair." Jin'en glanced sideways.
"What about it?"
"It's in my way."
"Then walk faster." Broken Rainbow showed no intention of gathering her hair. Instead, she deliberately moved closer, her white hair brushing his elbow.
Jin'en quickened his pace.
Broken Rainbow kept up, her bare feet landing silently on the gravel path.
A black car was parked at the foot of the mountain.
The key was in a hidden compartment beside the driver's seat, the tank was full, and the destination had already been set in the navigation system.
Jin'en got into the driver's seat. Broken Rainbow opened the passenger door and climbed in, drawing the sword from behind her waist and laying it across her knees.
The sword was too long. Across her legs, it nearly pressed against the door.
Broken Rainbow stood it upright beside the seat. The end of the scabbard struck the carpet with a dull thud.
"Can you put the sword in the back?" Jin'en fastened his seat belt.
"No." Broken Rainbow hugged it closer. "This is my sword."
"Does your sword have a name?"
"Life Binder." Broken Rainbow glanced down at the scabbard and ran a finger over it. "Mother gave it to me. The blade's base color is scarlet. It won't wash off."
Jin'en started the car.
The engine sounded deep in the night, and streetlights swept across the windshield one after another.
Once the car reached the highway, Broken Rainbow reclined her seat a little and curled up in it, the sword resting beside her leg.
She turned to look out the window. Streetlight flashed across her face, turning her white hair shades of gray that alternated between light and dark.
"Drive faster," she said.
"I'm already going fast."
"Faster."
Jin'en glanced at the speedometer.
The needle had just passed one hundred and twenty.
"What exactly are you trying to do?"
Broken Rainbow turned away from the window, her green eyes strikingly bright in the dark car.
"I want to finish early," she said, her voice quieter than usual. "I don't like going on jobs at night."
"Why?"
"It's too quiet at night." Broken Rainbow picked up the sword from beside her seat and laid it across her knees, running her fingers back and forth along the scabbard's patterns. "When it's quiet, the things in the illusions become especially clear."
Jin'en's hands remained still on the steering wheel.
"What can you see in your illusions?"
"Lots of things." Broken Rainbow turned back to the window. There were fewer streetlights now, and the guardrails on either side of the highway looked like parallel silver lines in the headlights. "Sometimes Big Sis. Sometimes Mother. Sometimes you."
Jin'en eased his foot off the accelerator.
"Me?"
"Yeah." Broken Rainbow's tone was flat, completely unlike her usual smiling manner. "You're standing in a very long corridor. Both sides are full of broken mirrors. When you walk forward, the you in the mirrors steps back. When you stop, the you in the mirrors stops too."
"Then what?"
"Then there's a door at the end of the corridor. You push it open, and I'm behind it." Broken Rainbow turned to look at him, the light in her green eyes faint, as though veiled in mist. "But it's different every time. Sometimes I'm smiling. Sometimes I'm crying. And once-"
She stopped.
"What?"
"Once, you didn't open the door." Broken Rainbow's voice was so quiet the engine nearly drowned it out. "You stood outside it and looked for a long time. Then you turned and left."
Silence lingered in the car for a long time.
There was only the sound of tires against the road and the occasional honk from far away.
The skyline of the New Hethereau District appeared beyond the windshield, the outlines of its towers traced white by lights, like a row of upright gravestones.
Jin'en turned off the highway and drove onto a quiet backstreet.
Herman's office building stood at the end of the street, a thirty-story building with a glass curtain wall. His private club occupied the top floor.
Jin'en parked in a dark alley two streets away.
After he cut the engine, they sat motionless in the dark.
Broken Rainbow held her blade against her chest, her fingers slowly stroking the scabbard as though soothing something.
"That perception-type with him." Broken Rainbow spoke in a very low voice. "Mili. I looked into her."
Jin'en looked at her.
"Her ability detects ability fluctuations, with a radius of about twenty meters. Within that range, she can 'smell' the residual energy given off by any ability user. Spatial fluctuations are the most obvious, because spatial abilities change the 'structure' of the surrounding environment."
"So?"
"So you can't use rifts anywhere within her perception range." Broken Rainbow held the blade upright, resting its scabbard on her knees. "But my Eye of Bewilderment can create illusions. If I make Mili 'see' a false source of ability fluctuations, she'll focus her attention in that direction."
"Can you do that?"
"Yes." The corners of Broken Rainbow's mouth lifted, revealing a canine tooth. "But you'll have to act within a few seconds.
My illusions can only last five seconds at most against a perception-type. Any longer, and she'll notice."
"Five seconds is enough."
"Are you sure?" Broken Rainbow tilted her head at him. "You have to enter the building, get past twelve guards, find Herman, strike, and get out. Is five seconds enough?"
Jin'en looked at her.
"Just follow me in."
Broken Rainbow blinked twice.
Then she smiled.
This time, it was a real smile, her canine teeth showing and her eyes curving into two crescents.
"All right." She lifted the blade off her knees and opened the car door. "Your call."
Herman's private club was on the building's top floor, the thirtieth.
Entering through the back door required passing through three security checks. The first two were ordinary metal detectors; the third was an ability fluctuation scanner.
Broken Rainbow led the way.
After reaching the back entrance, she did not go straight in. Instead, she crouched at a corner of the fire escape, pulled her right hand from her pocket, and spread her fingers, her palm facing the back entrance.
Jin'en stood half a step behind her, his right hand resting over the fishing rod inside his trench coat.
Broken Rainbow curled her fingers slightly.
Jin'en saw a faint silver speck rise from her fingertips and drift toward the back entrance.
The speck was tiny, smaller than a grain of rice, wobbling in the night breeze like a lost firefly.
When it drifted above the back entrance, Broken Rainbow curled her fingers again.
The speck dispersed.
"Let's go," she said.
Jin'en followed her.
They entered the fire escape one after the other.
The security camera beside the door tilted, its lens turning toward the wall as though something had nudged it aside.
Broken Rainbow did not look back, but her white hair swung as she turned, brushing the back of Jin'en's hand.
They climbed the stairs to the tenth floor, then crossed the tenth-floor corridor and entered the elevator lobby.
Broken Rainbow pressed the elevator button. As they waited, she leaned against the wall and tilted her head to glance at Jin'en.
"Nervous?"
"No."
"Your right hand is moving." Broken Rainbow's gaze fell on his right hand.
Jin'en's hand rested outside his trench coat pocket, his fingers curling slightly.
Jin'en slipped his hand back into his pocket.
"You talk too much."
"I always talk too much," Broken Rainbow said matter-of-factly. The elevator arrived.
The instant the doors opened, she drew the blade from behind her waist, holding the scabbard in one hand with her thumb against the guard.
The elevator was empty.
They stepped inside, and Broken Rainbow pressed the button for the top floor.
As the elevator rose, Broken Rainbow leaned against its wall, holding the blade upright before her.
The end of the scabbard rested against the elevator floor, making a dull scraping sound.
"Stay behind me in a moment," she said, her voice particularly clear in the elevator's enclosed space. "I'll cast an illusion as soon as I go in. Mili reacts fastest, so I'll make her 'see' a false signal first. The others will fall into brief confusion."
"How long?"
"Three seconds. Maybe less."
The elevator stopped.
When the doors opened, a dark wooden door stood at the end of the corridor, its frame inlaid with carved copper ornamentation.
Two bodyguards in black suits stood outside it, bulges at their waists.
Broken Rainbow did not hesitate.
Her right hand was already raised as she stepped out of the elevator.
Her fingers spread, her palm facing the two bodyguards.
The bodyguards' expressions barely changed, but their gazes shifted together toward the far end of the corridor to their left, as though something there had caught their attention.
Broken Rainbow walked forward at an unhurried pace, her bare feet making almost no sound against the marble floor.
Jin'en followed half a step behind her, drawing the fishing rod from inside his trench coat.
The door was unlocked.
Broken Rainbow pushed it open with her elbow and slipped sideways inside.
The club was quieter than Jin'en had imagined.
The corridor was wide, with large oil paintings hanging on the walls and a dark red carpet that sank half an inch underfoot.
Twelve guards were stationed at different points along the corridor.
Broken Rainbow walked past them. Each time she passed someone, their gaze briefly shifted away, as though something had nudged it aside.
Her left hand hung at her side, her fingers moving gently. With each movement, a guard fell into a brief daze.
Jin'en followed her.
He did not use rifts.
Spatial Folding was too dangerous. There was an ability user in this building who could sense spatial fluctuations, and Jin'en was not sure how long Broken Rainbow's illusions could keep her suppressed.
At the end of the corridor stood a pair of wooden doors, warm yellow light spilling through the gap.
Broken Rainbow paused at the doors.
"Inside," she said, her voice so low it was almost nothing but a movement of her lips.
Jin'en nodded once.
Broken Rainbow drew the blade from behind her waist, the sound of it leaving its scabbard very faint.
The instant she pushed the doors open, Jin'en felt the "structure" of the air change.
In the club's main lounge, Herman sat in a broad leather armchair, with half a glass of red wine and a stack of documents on the low table before him.
A woman in a gray suit stood beside him, short-haired, bespectacled, and thin.
Mili raised her head the instant the doors were pushed open.
Broken Rainbow's right hand was already raised.
Her fingers spread, her palm facing Mili, the light in her green eyes flashing for an instant in the dimness.
Mili's gaze shifted.
Only half a second.
Half a second later, Jin'en's right hand moved.
His Spatial Perception spread out in an extremely short time-target coordinates: three meters behind Mili, the position of Herman's chair.
Silver markings lit up beneath his cuff. He opened no rift, using only folding.
Jin'en vanished from the doorway and appeared directly behind Herman's chair.
Mili's gaze swung back less than half a second later.
Her pupils contracted sharply, her lips parting-Jin'en did not know what she wanted to shout, but he gave her no chance.
The tip of the fishing rod extended from between his fingers. Space split along the rod into an extremely fine rift, thinner than a strand of hair, stretching from Jin'en's fingertips to the back of Mili's neck.
Jin'en flicked his wrist.
The rift closed.
Mili's body stiffened for an instant, her knees bending slightly, but she did not fall.
Her physical enhancement should have already been active.
Jin'en's fishhook had only briefly robbed her of the ability to move.
One second.
Jin'en turned to face Herman.
The gray-haired middle-aged man had already sprung from his armchair. The chair tipped backward, and the wineglass fell onto the carpet, the red wine soaking into the red pile without leaving anything visible.
"Who-"
Jin'en raised his right hand.
Silver markings lit up on his wrist, and a rift half a foot wide opened before his palm, its silver edges shimmering with flecks of light.
The edge of the rift lay less than an inch behind Herman's neck.
Herman's mouth was open, but no sound came out.
His gaze passed over Jin'en's shoulder toward the doorway.
Jin'en did not turn.
But a very faint sound reached his ears through the air: Broken Rainbow's footsteps, her bare feet treading on the dark red carpet.
"That perception-type." Broken Rainbow's voice came from behind him, very level. "I've suppressed her. Do it."
Jin'en's right hand did not move.
The rift remained open before his palm, the silver patterns on the inside of his wrist shining brighter than they ever had during training.
Sweat began to bead on Herman's forehead.
His lips trembled, but he could not get a single word out.
Jin'en remembered Inanna's words.
"When you kill, you can't stop."
He stared at Herman's face.
The gray-haired middle-aged man looked somewhat older than in his photograph, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deeper, the lines of his mouth sagging downward, as though he had not smiled in a long time.
Two years ago in the Bridge District, when Jin'en lost control, Mili had been the only survivor.
He remembered the shattered walls in the alley, remembered the dust drifting through the air, remembered that woman lying at the edge of the rubble, covered in blood but with her eyes open.
He no longer remembered how he had felt then.
"What are you waiting for?" Broken Rainbow's voice came from behind him, lower than before.