Mob Sorcery 5 - Ch22

“When you put it like that, it feels like a kitchen sink was thrown at me,” Vince said. “And should a clan guardian really be responding to something like this?”

The Miura twin placed his hands behind his head and leaned backward. “’Something like this?’ You mean one of the biggest public hits since we took out the former Lionetti patriarch?”

Pola bared her teeth at him, and the twin had the good grace to wince.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to offend.” He bowed his head to her, and she blinked at him in surprise. “But if you want a clear sign that a war is kicking off, enforcers warring publicly is a big one. Sure, the Yakuza have cops hanging around down south, but they’re not doing anything. If the conglomerates think they’re allowed to start feuding in plain sight, they’ll go for bigger targets next. Every executive with a modicum of power will either flee, hunker down, or start traveling with an army of bodyguards.”

Frowning, Vince thought about Alessia’s usual accompaniment. Lucia was easily her best bodyguard, but might be a match for Fia at best. While Pola had proven she could take on multiple four-tails, how many other Lionetti enforcers stood a chance against the corporate elite?

A hit squad this strong might wipe out Alessia. If public assassinations was in the cards, Alessia needed either him or Nina by her side at all times.

“That look in your eyes tells me you get it,” the twin said. “Like I said, I didn’t bring up the old Lionetti patriarch for shits and giggles.”

Vince spun and hooked a finger at the Lionetti capo leading Pola’s protection detail. She staggered up, confused. Pola scowled at him.

“I’m the sottocapo,” she whined.

“Then give the orders,” he told her. “Alessia needs to up her protection, right now. Have Fia contact Nina and tell her to haul ass to wherever Alessia is. We’ll work out our schedules later. Until now, we’ve assumed I’m the one in danger. That’s short-sighted.”

“Right.” Pola nodded several times, then repeated his orders to the capo. “If Fia bitches, tell her to call me. Got it? And I’ll call her once I’m free anyway.”

“Sure thing, sottocapo. I’ll need to call in new cars anyway,” the bodyguard said, before ducking off to make a call.

The SUVs had been trashed. Hard to say what by, given the sheer number of spells and explosions.

“Forgive me for being unfamiliar with arrangements, but who covers the expenses for such destruction?” Kiho asked, staring out over the many craters, ruined storefronts, and destroyed vehicles. “The insurers have to claim it back from someone to make a profit.”

“They sue anyone they can prove is at fault, and that they care to,” the Miura twin began to explain, before his eyes bulged at her. “Onee-san, what are you doing here?”

Kiho gave him a withering look. “We spoke the other day. Don’t pretend this is your first time seeing me. And you should be careful how you address a clanless fox in public.”

“I’m a clan guardian and I’ll call you what I want. And that’s not my point,” the twin spluttered. “Your focus is out. Are you an idiot? You’re not a registered enforcer. The rest of us have some protection from the law, but you’re just a civilian.”

“Do you think I’m the sort to stand by and let someone I care about be attacked in front of my eyes?” Kiho raised an eyebrow.

“Of course not.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Vince looked between the two. “I figured you knew each other, but this feels more… familial.”

Kiho shrugged.

The twin grinned at him. “Kiho’s from one of the elite warrior clans of Japan’s Tohoku region. The Miura’s are Kantou’s greatest warrior clan. To prevent stagnation, we trained with each other. Same reason Goro went to Kyoto to train as a purifier under the Fujiwaras. My brother and I met Kiho on our first real hunt.”

“I was hardly your senior then, let alone now,” Kiho said softly. “We both had four tails. I’m only thirty years older than you, and you’ve overtaken me.”

“Yeah, but I’m still not about to pick a fight with you. I still don’t know what you did to Anzu at Hakodate, but it must have been one hell of a blow to the head.”

Vince and Kiho gave the twin a strange look, but he shrugged them off.

For some reason, the seven-tail fox stroked his chin while eying Kiho. “I always figured once we came to America that you’d find us. Instead, you fell in with that Yakuza sorcerer. Didn’t take him to be your type.”

“You can quit your dreaming, Hyuga.” Kiho’s eyes turned into slits. “I’m happily married. Unless you’d like me to introduce you to Kazuo.”

“No thanks,” Hyuga said quickly, raising his hands. “I heard he beat an earth elemental in a boxing match. I can do that, but he’s supposed to be human. I’m not fighting a modern Musashi or Benkei over an old flame.”

“How weak,” Daji whispered in Vince’s ear. “Are you going to give up? A man should dream big.”

As a lewd image of Kiho appeared in his mind, Vince pushed Daji’s mental presence aside. Stop. It’s not happening.

“Hmm. I suppose I’ll leave it alone if you’re not interested,” the Chinese fox said. “At least find out if the Miuras have a beautiful daughter, though.”

Vince was beginning to think Daji’s interest in getting him to sleep with lots of women wasn’t a ploy to escape her egg. She cackled with laughter in response to his thought.

“Tengu, do you know anything about what happened here?” Hyuga asked Kiyoko. He eyed her with a mix of wariness and superiority.

Vince narrowed his eyes and cut in before Kiyoko could answer. “Her name is Kiyoko.”

The seven-tail blinked in surprise. “I, uh, know that. She’s also an intelligence agent of Knightsgate, and a damn old one. For all I know, she knew Benkei in person.”

“I did not,” Kiyoko said. She’d calmed down after the end of the battle and her katana had vanished. “At the time Benkei lived, tengu were regarded as evil. We did not join Knightsgate until the Taira toppled the rotting Fujiwara shogunate in the Genpei War of the 12th century.”

“You’re eight-hundred years old?” Pola’s jaw dropped. “But you look so pretty. And modern. And—”

“Spirits like the tengu take over new bodies when they die,” Kiho interrupted. “Kiyoko is both a millennium old, and likely less than a century. Their host body and mind has some influence on their behavior, depending on the spirit. Tengu tend to be less… violent in their possession, and thus change the most over time. More primal spirits less so.”

Kiyoko wouldn’t meet Vince’s gaze even as she flicked her straight black hair. Once again, he found her beauty captivating. She looked like a Japanese model, wearing multiple layers of complicated but modern fashion and short hair trimmed to have perfect blunt ends.

After hearing Kiho’s explanation, Vince wondered if the tengu’s appearance came from her host. She’d been insistent on how this was her first time leaving Japan in this “vessel.”

The Miura twin, Hyuga, coughed. “Not to interrupt a moment, but I do need information. Knightsgate isn’t exactly welcome in our territory, but I’m not going to needlessly pick a fight with an agent I’d consider trustworthy. Not with everything else happening.”

Kiyoko nodded. “My current orders do not concern Houou. Unfortunately, while I became aware of Yakuza arriving in Aulfair by ship, it was only recently. I am uncertain if these foxes are them.”

They looked around at the wreckage and torn apart corpses. Hamelin’s reanimation magic had ensured they’d torn the foxes to pieces, preventing identification.

“Uncertain?” Pola asked, tilting her head to one side. Her tail followed. “They wore pins, the suits, and were foxes. Do we need anything else?”

Kiho lightly chopped Pola on the head. “Need we remind you of a recent false flag attack on Vince?”

Pola’s eyes widened. “Oh. Oh! So they could be from Houou?”

Hyuga’s expression darkened. “That would be the worst possible scenario. Not just for financial reasons, but because it means another clan effectively started the civil war early.”

Kiyoko remained expressionless, but Vince swore he saw concern flicker in her eyes. “The foxes wore illusions, despite their masks and voice changing magic. I am doubtful they were truly Yakuza. It is impossible to confirm, however. I do not possess a photographic list of every fox in Japan even for those faces I did see under the masks.”

Facing such an overt attempt to hide their true identities, Vince tried to piece together what clues he’d seen or heard.

And the big one stared him right in the face. Namely, the corpses of the hit-squad.

“The arrogant leader of the hit-squad mentioned a million dollars,” he said. “That’s the same amount the Golden Path put on my head.”

The others stared at him. Then Hyuga ran a palm down his face while chuckling, and Kiyoko sighed.

“We can interrogate the survivor when she awakens,” Kiyoko said, glancing at the horsegirl surrounded by foxes and Lionetti wolfgirls.

Hyuga pursed his lips. “If you were anyone else, with any other reputation, I’d tell you where to jump. But so long as you share whatever she tells you with me—and directly to me or my brother—then I’ll let you take her. That goes for the Lionettis as well.” He shot Pola a sharp look.

“We keep our word,” Pola hissed.

“I know.” For some reason, Hyuga’s tone was almost sad.

Kiyoko looked at Vince, and he took a second to realize she wanted him to agree.

“Deal,” Vince said. “It’s safest to assume this was a false flag. I don’t think we benefit from blowing it open publicly, though.”

“Absolutely not. I’ll talk to the old man and—”

Something crashed down nearby, and everybody jumped. Barriers snapped up and foci crackled with magic.

Gaby stood up from the crater she’d made and brushed herself off. She blinked at everyone.

“Uh, I’m back.” She waved at them. “Hamelin got away.”

“Fuck’s sake, Gaby,” Pola whined. “You’re as bad as Nina.”

“Compliment taken.” The unicorn strode over to join the group, but continued to shift nervously beside Vince.

He’d expected some angry outbursts or an explanation. Instead, she stood beside him, almost demurely.

Before Hyuga or anyone else grew suspicious, Vince took charge again. “I’d prefer if Houou—or whatever clan inside it is responsible—doesn’t take another swing at me for a while. Are you sure the slow police response is normal?”

“As you probably guessed the other day, we enjoy a… cushy relationship with the cops.” Hyuga half-smiled. “Keeping REAT at bay is part of it. But we’ll double-check anyway. Does this interfere with your plans?”

Vince hesitated. “Yes, and no. Mostly because I don’t think I can ask for your help with something big.”

Hyuga’s eyes narrowed. As did Kiho’s.

“I have a feeling I know what that something big is,” Hyuga said slowly. “Does it involve a lot of tails?”

“It’s the sort of thing any warrior would jump at fighting,” Gaby said, jumping in like a nervous ball of energy. Her fists rose up and she threw a few mock punches. “I can’t imagine passing up the opportunity.”

“I’ve helped put away some nasty things in soul eggs before,” the Miura twin said, and Gaby froze. “You lose that enthusiasm the first time you see your friends torn apart by the obscene power of a demigod that sees reality in the same way a child views a videogame. With that said…”

Vince followed Hyuga’s gaze, and saw it rest on Goro.

“You bring up danger and suggest sending the clan heir into it?” Kiho asked, voice low and full of danger. It was the voice of a mother.

“We’re the Miuras, the greatest warrior clan of mystic foxes in the world,” Hyuga said gruffly. “He needs experience. Friends. Comrades. This place…” He swung an arm around him, as if gesturing to Aulfair itself. “He’s been robbed of the upbringing he needs. Amaterasu knows that a good fight might be the best thing to temper him.”

Kiho bit her lip and looked away.

“I take it I can’t just ask Goro,” Vince said.

“Hell no.” Hyuga shook his head. “Sounds like I’ve read you right. I’ll ask the old man. He’ll mull it over. Probably take a while. If he’s interested, you’ll get a call and get to convince him.”

Vince nodded.

Their business concluded, Hyuga gave Vince and Pola a bow of his head and winked at Kiho. Then he strode over to the many enforcers milling about and began barking orders in Japanese.

“Um…” Gaby began to say.

“Let’s talk when the SUVs get here,” Vince said, shooting her a serious look. “I assume it can wait?”

“Yeah.”

That meant Hamelin wasn’t tied up in the middle of the park.

They waited several more minutes before a convoy of black SUVs pulled up. By then, a small group of police officers had arrived to form a cordon alongside the suited Houou enforcers. Truly a symbiotic relationship. The corporate overlord and their police lackeys.

“Has anyone told you that you think too much,” Daji said abruptly, as if annoyed by his internal commentary.

No, because I’ve never had a mind parasite, he said drily. Shall I find a way to mentally replay children’s Youtube videos? If my commentary is too much for you, those might be more your speed.

“You’re getting spicy.” Her tails thwapped him in the head.

The SUVs pulled up outside the cordon, due in large part to the devastation wrought on the road itself. Lionetti enforcers waved them over.

“This is where we separate,” Kiho said.

Vince frowned at her. “We never caught up.”

“This was intended to be a casual chat.” She smiled at him and her ears lowered on both sides of her head. “I wanted to hear how you and Ally were doing despite recent issues, particularly with your house hunt. As it is, I got to see for myself the issues you face. Even if the Yakuza weren’t involved in this hit, I find the assurances given to Kazuo even more hollow.”

Her gaze turned distant and Pola opened her mouth, eyes bright.

Vince cut her off. “You’re not thinking of registering as an enforcer, are you?”

Kiho giggled and covered her mouth with one hand. “Hardly. Anzu Inaba would kill me within the hour if I did so. As a civilian, it’s illegal to attack me, and Kazuo would easily be able to respond in force to any harm done to me. If I register as an enforcer, I’d relinquish that protection.” She grimaced. “More than anything else, I don’t wish to return to this life. If there’s one thing I may ask of you?”

He remained silent. A significant part of him worried about what she might request.

Her eyes caught his serious expression and she patted his cheek. “Don’t worry. You can continue to endanger yourself. As Hyuga said, it’s part of your growth. Ally would be upset if she found out I tried to pressure you to retire to a boring life, too. No, my request is simple.” Her gaze met his and hardened. “Keep Ally away from combat.”

“Done,” he said without hesitation.

But he couldn’t deny a shudder ran down his spine thanks to her glare.

He, Pola, and Gaby slid inside the SUV the Lionetti enforcers directed them to. Surprisingly, Kiyoko joined them inside. Her wings furled up tightly beside her body, compressing to a fraction of their full size while still extending forward to let her sit in a chair.

Unlike the vehicle they’d come in, this one was one of the models with a pocket dimension inside. The rear of the SUV somehow squeezed in six seats, each of which was the size of a good business class airplane seat. Or so Vince assumed. The only times he’d flown, he’d been in cattle class on a domestic flight. Each seat contained its own entertainment system, headphones, and the cabin had a telephone.

The real reason the Lionettis had sent out this exemplar of excess was the armor and protective enchantments, however. The doors were as thick as his body and the entire SUV thrummed with magic. Alessia had said these were built with the equivalent of meister-tier barriers. Meaning even Vince’s dragon would need some time to blast it apart.

“Jesus fucking Christ, I thought I got used to excess on the trips with the Unicorn Knights,” Gaby said with wide eyes as she settled in. “This thing makes Norah’s Aston Martin look like a cheap hatchback.”

“We have more than one,” Pola said, sticking her chest out as she settled in and poured some sparkling water. No alcohol for her, it seemed.

“I’d hope so,” Gaby said. She looked between Pola and Vince. “Didn’t realize I’d be getting in on money when I fell for you. Feels a bit, uh…” She scratched the side of her head.

He reached over and flicked her upper arm. “Don’t be stupid. I’m not dumb enough to think you’d risk tying yourself to me forever over cash. You’re immortal. If I’ve learned one thing from Quintus’s endless spiels about the rise and fall of Rome, it’s that material possessions matter a lot less than we think.”

“Do I count as material?” Pola asked, tilting her head. “Because I have a body.”

“Relationships fall in the spiritual category,” Kiyoko said. “Long after the body decays and the soul perishes, our memories of those we spent time with lingers. Even the lifespan of a butterfly can hold great meaning to an immortal. Even Daji would say as much, I believe.”

Pola and Gaby gave Kiyoko compassionate looks, while Vince frowned.

The fox inside his head refused to respond to Kiyoko’s taunting. But Kiyoko bringing her up had made him realize something.

“I used Daji’s black flames briefly during the fight,” he admitted. “I don’t think anyone noticed, but…”

“There would have been significantly more turmoil if it had been spotted,” Kiyoko said. “But you must be more careful. Kiho Masuda was never in any danger from Juliet Forest. Not only is she a vastly more capable warrior, but her teleportation ability as a six-tail fox prevented Juliet from seriously harming her with her meister-tier spells. The assassins would have needed a dedicated plan to contain Kiho to harm her, and were only prepared for you.”

“I noticed,” he said. “That mage pulled out something big. A virtuoso spell, I think.”

“Really?” Pola’s ear shot up.

“Hard to say.” Gaby rubbed her chin. “It looked complex enough to be one. Manipulating raw magic like that? Juliet used a spell in the same category at the end, and it was way smaller despite being meister-tier. But the sorcerer cast it in a few minutes. I’m used to the academic folks taking ten business days to light a candle, let alone a virtuoso-tier spell that would require dedicated practice and training.”

“If he was a registered enforcer, it meant he expected to use it in combat,” Vince said. “Hyuga said the sorcerer could be tracked by his spell. While we can’t touch him without breaking some serious rules, it will be smart to find out who he is and what he’s capable of.”

“For the future.” Kiyoko nodded.

Finally, Vince turned to look at Gaby. She squirmed and stared into the beer she’d poured from the minifridge.

“Something happened between you and Hamelin,” he said.

Gaby’s eyes fell on Kiyoko.

“You can trust Kiyoko,” Vince said.

“Can we?” Gaby said, frowning. “I’ll believe you, but what happens when Knightsgate decides they want to get rid of you, V? What if that hit had been from the Yakuza?”

Kiyoko’s wings fluttered ever so slightly and she stared at the unicorn with her crystal blue eyes. The two women said nothing for several seconds.

“I do not allow others to make choices for me,” Kiyoko said. “While I remain a loyal agent of Knightsgate, that does not mean I am a pawn with no will of my own. Absent evidence of Vince committing some great evil he has hidden from me—beyond merely concealing the soul egg the Inaba Twins gave him—I will not harm him. The tengu warred against Knightsgate once before, and I will do so again for my pride and independence should I ever need to do so.”

Gaby’s eyebrows shot up and she whistled.

“I think I know why Mei thought she could convince you to join her,” Vince said.

Kiyoko’s cheeks flushed and she looked out the window. Was she pouting?

“Anyway, Gaby?” he asked, choosing to leave the adorable tengu alone.

“Yeah, something happened.” Gaby sighed. “I caught Hamelin and she flew into a hurried explanation. Rat seemed keen to avoid getting her limbs torn off again… Or, uh, whatever you did to her.” She shot him an odd look. “I don’t know what you did to her at Lionetti Tower, but I’ve never seen or heard of her being this bad. She usually bounces back within a few months, good as new, if still a living corpse. The mousegirl looked like an actual living corpse, not a metaphorical one.”

Vince grimaced. “That sounds unpleasant.”

“She looked it,” Gaby said. “Anyway, she told me that she sent me the cryptic warning recently. Got dragged into this mess and couldn’t easily get out. That big shit is going down etcetera. Real motormouth stuff.”

“And you left her alone for that?” Pola snarled.

“No, I left her alone because if I tried to capture her, she’d teleport away.” Gaby mimed an explosion with her hands. “She has a magic tool embedded in her body with teleport magic. Activates when she dies or is seriously hurt. It’s how she avoids being captured and thrown into a furnace until she’s nothing but ash. Although she mentioned once she has a contingency even for that.”

“A phylactery, also known as a soul reliquary,” Kiyoko said abruptly. “For the necromancer to survive the loss of her actual body, no other method save such a reliquary is viable. She is significantly more accomplished than I expected.”

Vince and Pola frowned in confusion, while Gaby nodded.

“Figures. She always got cagey whenever I pressed her over it, but phylacteries are basically soul eggs, except created by the owner of the soul,” Gaby said. “Lots of evil connotations, like necromancy in general.”

“How does this reliquary help her survive death?” Vince asked.

“The same way a soul egg does,” Gaby explained. “At least in theory. The soul egg contains the being’s soul, essence, and other good stuff. Sometimes, the trapped being escapes wholesale. Other times, it corrupts someone and creates a… copy of sorts by possessing them. When the copy dies, the soul egg isn’t harmed. Soul reliquaries are like the reverse. The necromancer places a copy of their being inside it, plus spells that are supposed to activate it when necessary. So, necromancer dies and they either come back or a minion resurrects them.”

Something about this explanation tickled Vince’s mind. “This sounds similar to how soul shards have been described. When spirits or gods place shards of themselves inside mortals so they can possess them.”

“It is the same magic,” Kiyoko said. “Necromancers did not invent the method themselves, and soul eggs were not devised in isolation. Theoretically, a necromancer’s resurrection method could operate like a spirit and involve placing their reliquary inside a human.”

As if predicting where his thoughts were going, Daji piped up, “I can tell you that the magic lurking within you isn’t alive or sentient in any way. It’s not going to possess you. It’s difficult to tell its purpose, but if it’s a soul reliquary, it’s an odd one. Humans are so fragile and your upbringing would almost guarantee its loss.”

So the mystery of the thing inside him remained exactly that. Wagner had suggested the shard of power inside him might have been a phylactery once, so Vince didn’t entirely dismiss it.

“You couldn’t seriously attack Hamelin, but did she offer anything serious?” he asked Gaby.

The unicorn nodded. “She told me to find her in the usual place. Unless she was bullshitting me to scare me off, that means she’s living in the same place as usual. There’s a decrepit government building up north, in Elfland. While I don’t think we should hang around and see the attractions, we should pay her a visit sooner rather than later.”

“It might be a trap,” Pola said.

“We’ll go in prepared,” Vince agreed. “Not today, though.”

Their conversation dwindled into idle chitchat as the convoy trundled across Albion. Kiyoko kept to herself, while Gaby and Pola talked about school, of all things. Gaby wanted to know what it was like attending school as a mafia princess, while Pola dug into what sounded like an old dream of attending the unicorn academy.

Evidently, a lot of young girls hoped they’d mysteriously grow a unicorn horn and attend the academy. Vince suspected that might have been the background of one of the girls on the cartoon Gaby mentioned.

Lionetti Tower loomed over them soon enough, complete with squads of enforcers patrolling it. A bodyguard peeked inside the windows to make sure nothing had gone wrong, before the convoy went underground.

Vince knew he’d be in for yet another long series of debriefings. He also needed to talk about the houses with Nina and Nicki at some point.

More than anything else, he wanted a chance to relax. Opportunities to do that were few and far between, even without attempts on his life. He’d take what he got before he had to jet off to deal with the growing tide of problems threatening him and the Lionettis.