Ascendency

"You reinstated her?!" A bark from the comm so loud it nearly fries the speaker. "She's not ready!"

Shinji offers an apologetic smile as a woman walking by fumbles to keep ahold of her data pad, startled by the noise. She hurries away, others giving him a wide berth as if there were a force field around him. "Kazumasa, I couldn't deny her forever. You didn't see how badly she wanted this. She cried when Ryo gave the official ID back to her. She cried."

Silence on the other end except for a creak as if someone had leaned back in a chair.

"Keeping her off the task force for this long was a mistake and you know it. It's a part of who she is just like you being a doctor is part of who you are. It's in her blood, Kazu."

" I know." Kazumasa sighs heavily, voice a sullen tone. "I just want what's best for her."

"You know you can't protect her forever." A pause as he gathers his thoughts. "We screwed up, Kazumasa. There were hints at what he was planning with the others and we ignored them because we didn't want to think he would actually do it. Because of our failure... She got hurt. She's stronger than you know even after what happened between them."

A dull knock from the other end and a tentative 'Doctor Koharu?' signals their time is up. "I have to go. Hiroto's having trouble with a patient. Look just... Watch out for her okay? She may be strong, but there are some things she's still not over. I'll talk to you later."

Shinji slouches against the railing on the upper level of the atrium, hazel eyes fixed on the people coming and going. Far below he can see Haven enter cautiously, a smile blooming as she steps inside and takes in the surroundings she'd been away from for so long. It slips, faltering into a frown as she glances down at her comm- no doubt an unexpected message. A shift next to him draws his attention away and he jumps upon seeing Ryo waiting nearby.

"You're almost as bad as Haven." He grumbles, "I swear the two of you are ghosts."

Ryo merely shrugs offering a 'I think we're more cat like' in response.

"Hn."

"So what's the agenda for the day? Are we going to start looking for more people?" He peers over the railing, following Shinji's gaze and spotting Haven heading for the stairs- unmistakeable with her pastel hair. "She... uh, looks pretty good in uniform, doesn't she?"

Shinji fixes him with a steady glare, knowing where the line of thought is going. "Don't even."

"I'm just saying!" Ryo protests, waving his hands in a no gesture. "She's cute but yeah, I'm pretty sure Kazumasa would strangle me if I asked her out." A curious glance at Shjnji. "You could probably get away with it though."

Shinji doesn't reply, his gaze once more fixing on Haven who's attempting to navigate the crowded stairs without much luck.

"Shinji?"

"It should be up to her." When Ryo only stares, Shinji continues. "I don't want to push her. Besides... I'm not- I wouldn't be good for her. She needs someone different. Not outside of the task force, necessarily, but someone who's more upbeat. Not doom and gloom."

Ryo studies him with a low whistle, idly pushing his dark hair back from his face. "So you really do like her."

"Don't bring it up around her, okay? Give me hell for it if you want, just don't... Don't mention it when she's around."

"Nah, I'd never." He throws an arm around Shinji's shoulders. “Let’s go rescue Haven from the crowd? She doesn’t look like she’s having much luck over there. Poor thing.”

As the duo make their way down the stairs and to Haven they can hear her mumbling as she frowns down at her comm.

“Really, Kazumasa? You’re going to give me the silent treatment now?” She grumbles, shaking her head and abandoning her comm. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” Ryo calls cheerfuly, flashing a bright smile. “You look good today.”

She smiles back, following behind as Shinji points to a nearby meeting room. With the three of them away from the noise of the crowd he links his data pad to the holo-projector across the room. A few moments later eight files are on display on the far wall. Six men and two women all with words across them in bold letters. The bottom row shows three files with the words “approved”, with Shinji, Ryo, and Haven’s pictures matched to the files with their names on them.

“As you can see, the task force currently consists of the three of us. In this state we can get things done, but not as efficiently as we could with more people. There are five more potential recruits shown here,” Shinji points to the top row consisting of five files. “I figure we can each take a file on our own, and work in teams of two on the others. I’ll let the two of you pick first.”

Ryo studies the screen, hands smoothing back his dark hair- something he does often when he’s thinking. Haven is similar, fiddling with the end of her of her braid as her eyes flick over the various files.

“I’ll take Nishimura.” She says finally, the first of the two to break the silence in the room. “Could you send the file to my data pad? It’ll make to easier to locate him if I have the information handy.” There’s a brief pause as she studies the screen again. “I’ll take Ishikawa as well if someone wants to work with me?”

“I’ll do it.” Ryo says quickly, covering his response with a smooth wave. “They call the guy ‘the bloodhound’, I’m sure he’ll come in handy. As for my own case… I’ll take Shiroyama. Rich guys are a pain to deal with, but one of us has to. Might as well be me.”

Shinji nods, sending the information on the files they claimed to each of them. “That leaves… Hara & Kiryuu. I’ll take the Kiryuu file on my own. Haven, would you work with me on the Hara file? You know the medical district better than I do.”

“Of course, Shinji.”

“Then it’s settled. I’ll start doing research on Kiryuu since she’s rumored to be difficult to track. The two of you can decide if you want to take on Ishikawa now or work on your separate files. Keep me updated and we’ll meet again in a week.”

As he hurries off, Haven stands, emerald gaze resting on Ryo who’s studying the Ishikawa file with an intense gaze. The corner of her mouth twitches into a half smile and she reaches out with a gentle hand to smooth down a section of Ryo’s hair. He doesn’t move as she fixes it, used to the sibling-like affection, as she adjusts the strands that stuck out from his messing with it earlier. “Every time you do that you end up with an aspiring mad scientist hair style.” She laughs, resting a hand on the table upon deeming his hair acceptable again.

“Good thing I have you to fix it for me.” He grins, tugging on her braid as it slides over her shoulder. “You ever going to cut your hair?”

“I don’t know,” she muses, hand idly running over strands that reach the middle of her back. “I’ve always kept it long. Maybe I’ll cut it someday.”

He leans back in the chair, eyeing the data pad in front of him again as he speaks. “Do you mind if we wait on the Ishikawa file? I want to get the Shiroyama file knocked out as soon as possible.”

If Haven is startled by his request, she doesn’t show it, instead smiling and offering an ‘Of course. Just let me know when you want to start that one. In the meantime, I’ll work on the Nishimura file’. As she exits through the same door Shinji took, Ryo pulls up his message system, clicking a contact labeled only as “BH” and typing out a quick message. He hits send and exits the room as well, hoping he’ll have reply before the current file is closed.

---

Across the city, Kazumasa is having just as much luck as his sister. Which is to say, none at all. He studies the mess of his once pristine clinic with tired eyes, watching as a man storms out and shoves Doctor Ogata out of the way, nearly bouncing the poor man off the doorframe.

“What happened in here?” Hiroto asks with wide eyes, scanning the trashed examination room with an expression of horror and dismay. “It looks a whirlwind went through.”

“That,” Kazumasa says, righting the tray that had been knocked over and then gathering all the- thankfully- still sealed tools scattered about the room. “would be Mr. Kurosawa. Apparently, he thinks I’m the cause of his trouble with his wife. You’ve met her.”

Hiroto stills for a moment, thinking back on the numerous people who’ve been in an out of the clinic until Mrs. Kurosawa comes to mind. “Oh! The one who had an allergic reaction to the jewelry!”

“That’s the one. Mr. Kurosawa seems to think I’ve hatched some sort of plan to swindle him out of his money, though how I would get money out of him buying expensive jewelry for his wife is beyond me.”

The buzzer outside the clinic sounds signaling a new arrival and Kazumasa utters a sigh of defeat, abandoning the examination room in it’s mostly righted state. Hiroto scurries away, offering his own examination room to Kazumasa in the meantime and staying behind to continue the clean up. Leaving the younger doctor behind, he exits the room and into the corridor where a woman stands with her arms crossed in what appears to be annoyance.

“Excuse me,” she says, voice sweet but firm. “Are you Doctor Koharu?”

“Yes.”

“You’re needed at this address.” She hands him a piece of paper, topaz eyes rolling in slight annoyance as he protests.

“I don’t usually do house calls.”

“He said you’d say that.” She shakes her head, long red hair swinging around her shoulders with the movement. “Look, Aki said I needed to bring the paper to you and tell you to get there. He’s calling in the favor you owe him.”


Kazumasa looks down at the piece of paper with interest, glancing around carefully though no one else is present. “Is it one of the syndicate? Or one of his employees?”

“Neither. It’s a patron and he said you should hurry.” With that she saunters to the doors and out of the clinic, gone by the time he lets Hiroto know he’s leaving for a while and gets out the door. He studies the empty street with dismay, wanting to ask for more information about what he’s gotten himself into and resigns himself to the fact that like many other things, he’ll just have to see.

The trip takes him half an hour and he’s soaked by the time he arrives in the lower district, having chosen to walk and having left his umbrella behind. He descends the stairs to the underground, grateful to be out of the rain and weaves in and out of the crowd, scanning the familiar neon signs for the one written down in smudged ink. He finds it quickly, the neon letters reading ‘CHIMERICAL’ in purple standing out from the others. Kazumasa can’t help but shake his head, remembering the reasoning behind the name.

“Why chimerical?”

“Because, here they can have whatever they want as long as they follow the rules. There are only three: you respect those who work here, you get consent, and you acknowledge that what happens here exists only as long as you remain here. Once you leave, what ever fanciful relationship you have? Is over. That’s why I named the place ‘chimerical’.”

He offers a tight smile to the burly guard at the door and raises the black doctor’s bag he carries. They let him pass without comment and he enters the club, wincing at the pounding music and lights assaulting his senses.

“Excuse me,” He yells over the music blaring from the speakers, waving over a woman in the process of gathering drinks from the bar. “I’m Doctor Koharu. Can you tell me where I can find Aki?”

She points to the hall opposite the bar and he heads that way, pushing through a door marked ‘service hall’ without a second thought and following the pained sounds down and around the corner. A man is sprawled on the ground, one eye already blackened and the other following suit, no doubt a result of his crooked- most likely broken- nose. Another stands across the hall, wiping blood from his knuckles with a white rag and exhaling smoke out into the air.

“Now, I called in a friend to patch you up. If you’re lucky, he won’t turn you in to security.” He stuffs the rag into his pocket as Kazumasa approaches. “This is your first and only warning. You broke my rules, so you paid the price. If you set foot in my club again, you won’t be breathing the next time you leave. Oh, and if you even look at the girls on the way out, I’ll personally hunt you down. You don’t look at them, speak to them, or harass them in any way. Got it?”

Speech finished, he steps aside to let Kazumasa handle things and disappears down the hall to find one of the other bouncers. By the time he’s returned, the man’s nose has been reset and tended to and given instructions on how to deal with the swelling and bruising along with a warning to heed the owner’s words. The bouncer hauls the rule-breaker away, careful not to wound him any further but still hustling him out of the building at a hurried pace.

“Is there any one else that needs medical attention? Aki?”

The man in question regards him curiously, blowing another stream of smoke off to the side. “No, the girl’s fine. Shaken up, but fine. I wasn’t sure you’d show up.”

“I owe you favors. You call, I show up.” He shrugs, meeting the other man’s gaze. “It’s the least I can do. If it weren’t for you… Things would be a lot more difficult.”

Aki pauses, cigarette held between his teeth as he reaches into his other pocket, pulling out a small sealed plastic case with a tiny metal chip enclosed inside. He passes it to Kazumasa who accepts it with some surprise, not expecting to be given anything in return for his assistance.

“She’s part of the dogs again, right?”

“Don’t call them that.”

“The task force.” He corrects as he starts down the hall, Kazumasa in tow. “Isn’t it about time for a replacement? Or does she not use them anymore?”

“No,” He says softly, tucking the case into his coat pocket. “She still uses them. Thanks, Aki. I’ll tell Haven you said ‘hello’.”