Pursuit
Another dead end. Should I comb through the southern sector next?
I sank into deep thought as the live feed from the drones poured in, painting a real-time picture of the search.
“No suspicious traces to speak of. Perhaps it’s time we pulled out?”
The hired drone operators already looked thoroughly exhausted. They had signed on for the generous pay, but this was unscheduled overtime, and the search had dragged on for a full ten hours. The time difference had forced the operation into the dead of night, only compounding their fatigue.
“Then let’s keep searching for two more hours. I’ll throw in an extra fifty percent on top of the original fee. That enough for you?”
“One-point-five times… Fine. We’ll do it.”
Once the deal was struck, they swapped out the drones whose batteries were dying and sent fresh ones aloft. About ten minutes into the renewed sweep, one of the drones hunting through the empty buildings spotted a faint glimmer of light.
“That…”
“Take us in closer.”
It might have been nothing more than a simple fire, but I wanted every scrap of possible evidence examined.
At my word the mercenaries dropped altitude and steered toward the source of the glow.
One hundred meters… fifty… thirty… twenty…
The closer they drew, the brighter the light grew. Just as they rounded the final corner that stood between them and its origin, the glow flickered once.
What was that…?
A flicker of doubt crossed my mind, yet the drone under the mercenaries’ control swung around that last corner all the same.
The instant whatever lay hidden within filled the camera—
CRACK—!
“W-what the hell just—!”
“Was that an attack? Anything on the feed?”
“Running it back in slow motion!”
In a single heartbeat the signal to the drone cut out, and the comms channel erupted into chaos.
“Should we send the nearby drones in as backup?”
“If we lose more of them here, the cost’ll outweigh the gain…”
Their chatter crackled through my headphones, but all I could see was the final frame burned into my mind before the feed died.
Blonde hair, a lance… and a wing… was it?
Not even a matching pair—just a single tattered wing sprouting from the left side—yet the figure looked for all the world like an angel fallen from the heavens.
It seemed I had just found the person I was looking for.
“The contract ends here.”
“Sir? We only just found something that might actually be a lead. Don’t we need to keep searching? If it’s a matter of price, given Lucifer’s reputation we could go double the original—”
“If you know my name, you should know better than to run your mouth.”
“…Apologies. That was out of line. Deposit the payment through Leviathan.”
“Understood. I hope we have occasion to work together again.”
The moment I declared the job finished, the operators scrambled to recover every drone still in the air and cleared out of the area. The longer they lingered, the greater the chance of drawing official attention; better to vanish first and ask questions later.
“Still… is that sector even hackable…?”
The zone where the woman had been spotted lay roughly four kilometers from the light-blasted district, out on the city’s fringe. Far enough that the explosion’s effects hadn’t reached it, so power still ran—but it was a slum, barren of anything resembling useful electronics. If there had been even a few CCTV cameras I could have pulled the footage, yet the place sat well off the main roads. Hacking alone wouldn’t get me far.
“Well, no rush.”
I would simply wait until an opportunity to make contact presented itself.
Iris sank to the ground, a sharp ache throbbing through her hand.
Not a pursuer…
In her current state she could barely survive a fight against someone with a handgun, let alone anything worse.
But from the sound of it, that was definitely a drone. Someone’s found me. Do I move?
Ordinarily she would have relocated without a second thought. Now, though, the situation was far murkier.
The Judgment she had unleashed not long ago had left her blind.
Loss of sight. Loss of balance. Loss of taste. Impaired judgment. And the sealing of Longinus. I can’t move while carrying every one of these penalties.
Worst of all was the sealing of Longinus.
The Spear of Longinus.
The holy spear she had carried since the moment she fell into this world—the bulk of her combat power rested in that sacred relic. Losing it was, in some ways, more crippling than losing her vision.
Right now I’m weaker than an ordinary adult man. If they find me, it’s over.
All she had left was strength a shade above a normal person’s, a faint physical enhancement, and that irritating half-wing. It had appeared when she used Judgment, and of course it came with an unwanted luminous effect that made her stand out like a beacon.
Still… I have to move.
Staying put only invited the hunters to close in. Better to risk a little and change locations.
With that resolve she folded the wing sprouting from her shoulder blade and stuffed it inside her coat. It was awkward and uncomfortable, but walking the streets with it trailing behind her would draw every eye in the district.
The moment she stepped out of the abandoned building she began stumbling blindly down the back alleys. Naturally she had never walked these streets with her eyes closed; she slammed into walls and sprawled on the ground more times than she could count. Yet that very clumsiness proved a blessing. The alley dwellers simply wrote her off as a slightly dim blind girl and paid her no further mind.
After an aimless trek through the maze of backstreets she finally braced herself against a nearby wall and leaned hard against it.
“Haa… This should be far enough, right?”
She had put a good three kilometers between herself and the building where the drone had spotted her. Hardly a safe distance, but if she stayed quiet in a blind spot even determined pursuers would have trouble flushing her out.
Just as she sank to the ground hoping for a few minutes of rest, the sound of footsteps reached her ears.
Pursuers?
Hard leather soles struck the pavement in a steady, measured rhythm. In a place crawling with the destitute, few people could afford expensive dress shoes. And those who moved in groups while wearing them… only one organization sat high enough in the slum’s underworld to do so.
Behemoth.
Even the larger crime syndicates that could afford tailored suits for every member usually switched to combat boots when they entered the slums. Only Behemoth’s people—who spent so much time meeting high-ranking clients—tolerated the discomfort of formal shoes. It was also proof that they could project overwhelming force without needing to dress for a fight.
“Of all the luck…”
Behemoth ranked among the greatest threats she had ever crossed. They were not lifelong blood enemies the way some other groups were, so they rarely hunted her with personal zeal—but their sheer scale meant even a casual check could outmatch the full-scale assaults of lesser organizations.
They won’t comb the streets looking for me the way the others would, but if I get caught I can’t expect mercy. Still, they probably aren’t after me specifically, so if I just stay put…
“Everyone here?”
A man who sounded like the leader addressed the others in a grave tone. Iris strained to listen.
“I trust you all know why we’ve gathered.”
“…”
“Not long ago, in District US-TK-07, the so-called Pillar of Light incident occurred. We will capture the individual believed to be the ringleader and hand her over to the research team for identification.”
“…”
“According to Intelligence, the perpetrator is a girl estimated to be in her early teens who wields an enormous lance. Photos are attached—check them. Some of you may already know her: she was also responsible for the TK Auction House incident where sales-team members died and every valuable product was stolen.”
“…”
“We split up and begin the hunt in sequence. Capture on sight if possible; if capture proves impossible, lethal force is authorized. Disperse.”
““Yes, sir!””
Dozens of Behemoth villains activated their unique abilities and scattered in every direction at high speed.
Iris yanked her hood lower and bowed her head, trying to melt into the shadows. Most of them dismissed her as just another worthless beggar and strode past—yet her mind was already a storm of panic.
Why…? Why is Behemoth looking for me?
There was no doubt she was the target. An early-teen girl who fought with a lance? Inside US-TK-07, that description fit no one else.
Could it be…
Because Judgment had leveled most of TK-07?
I don’t know exactly where their branch is, but it has to be nearby.
The bulk of Behemoth’s imported and exported goods passed through this district before fanning out across the region. For all she knew, it wasn’t merely a branch—Leviathan’s headquarters itself might sit somewhere close.
Of all the organizations I could have pissed off…!
Regret was useless now. She had made an enemy of Behemoth for good, and escaping this mess took priority.
Keeping her wing tightly folded, she slipped away as quietly as she could. Blind as she was, she couldn’t read the full situation, but one fact remained crystal clear: discovery meant death.
She had taken maybe ten steps when she reached a bend in the alley and started to turn—only for a voice to freeze her in place.
“Hey. You there.”
“Y-yes? Me?”
“That’s right. You blind? Looks like you can’t see a thing…”
The woman’s voice made Iris’s breath catch. One wrong answer and her head could leave her shoulders. Her heart hammered wildly.
“Ah… I-I’ve been blind since I was little.”
“A blind girl surviving these alleys. Impressive.”
“Just the wisdom you pick up living, I guess…”
Please just walk past. Please…
As if answering her silent prayer, the woman pressed a wad of cash into Iris’s hand.
“Twenty dollars. Pure charity—don’t feel obligated.”
“Ah… th-thank you…”
“And a word of advice: get as far from here as you can, and fast. Some troublemaker’s been wrecking every business in these backstreets.”
“Understood. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Off you go, then. Call today a lucky day.”
Iris offered a rough bow of gratitude toward the direction she guessed the woman stood, then turned away and exhaled in relief.
Lucky, all right. Getting out without being recognized…
All that remained was to put TK District behind her as quickly as possible. She started to walk.
Then the woman’s hand settled on her shoulder.
“Hold on a second…”
“W-what is it…?”
“Let me see your face.”
“W-why my face…?”
“I figure I’ve earned the right to remember the face of someone I helped…”
“H-haha… When I was little my father used to beat me, so I’ve got a pretty ugly scar… You wouldn’t want to look…”
“No need to worry. I just want to remember the face of the person I helped, that’s all…”
Iris realized there was nowhere left to retreat. She raised her hands to the coat she had been using as a hood and flung it off in one motion.
Her brilliant golden hair spilled free.
“Huh…?”
The woman’s startled gasp reached her ears. Iris seized the opening, clamped her fingers around the spear hidden in her clothes, and drove it forward.
“Guh…!”
The tip sank into soft flesh—she had found the woman’s abdomen. Even as she staggered, the woman managed to mash the button on her pager. The signal raced out to every Behemoth operative in the area almost instantly.
“The team leader’s down!”
“All units, pursuit mode! Leave the leader to the others—we’re taking that girl!”
Hearing the shouts of the men closing in, Iris broke into the fastest run her ruined body could manage.