Memory Reaper's Ascension - Chapter 232: Investigation (II)

Chapter 232: Investigation (II)

As Ishiki walked in the first thing he saw was a man in his sixties, he was restocking the display case with precise attention.

His hands worked almost mechanically, having been doing this for years they had developed the relevant muscle memory. The man had broad shoulders and thick hands.

The man looked up as Ishiki took a few steps further in and straightened. “Association?” he asked kindly.

“Field operative, Kashima Ryou.” Ishiki showed the ID. “Follow-up on last night. You’re the owner?”

“Saito,” The man wiped his hands on his apron and raised it for a hand shake. “Forty-two years on this street and never had a Dusk Event directly outside my front door before last night.” He said it without drama. “Tea?”

“Thank you,” Ishiki said, as he shook the man’s hand. “I would much prefer coffee.”

Saito nodded and moved to the small counter at the back of the shop where a two-burner unit and a kettle lived in the corner, and Ishiki sat on the stool at the counter’s edge and looked around while the kettle heated.

The shop was clean and organized.

“Before the Xenons appeared,” Ishiki asked brazenly. “Anything unusual on the street or the surrounding area? Like did you hear something? Changes in the air?”

Saito thought for a while and then his eyes lit up as he remembered something. “I heard a very shrill sound… that was after the Xenons had materialized. It was like there were pins in my head. And also the lights became dimmer, but that might as well be a Hallucination.”

“It makes Sense…” Ishiki reassured the guy.

“It didn’t last long. Maybe four or five seconds. But while it was happening I couldn’t focus on anything else. That sound filled my whole head.” He paused. “My wife was in the back. She came out covering her ears as well.”

Ishiki nodded slowly and saw the man set a cup down in front of Ishiki and poured from a small filter press that had clearly seen years of use.

Ishiki picked up his coffee and took a sip.

It was good. Better than he expected from a meat shop counter.

He drank and thought.

The shrill sound was not a standard Dusk Event signature. Dusk Events did cause a sudden burst of Synth Energy in the surrounding areas, resulting in a pressure change, sometimes a low vibration and occasionally a visual distortion at the spawn point.

None of that produced sound.

That was something else.

Specifically, it was the kind of something else that happened when a higher-order entity was present and exerting influence.

’A Superior Xenon?’ he thought, and then immediately shook his head. ’No. A superior Xenon doesn’t have enough mind to control other Xenons.’

He set the cup down.

’A Tainted Demon or maybe even an Eclipsed Demon.’

An Eclipsed demon was the progression next to the Tainted demons. A Tainted demon who participates in his Second trial and completes it, advances to the next tier of Synth Reactor.

Eclipsed Demons were on the same level and Adept Humans.

There had been only one hundred and thirty two confirmed Eclipsed Demon sightings in the last sixty years. Globally.

’And I’m sitting in a meat shop in Ward 9 drinking very good coffee and thinking one of them was standing on this street last night. That’s a very positive thinking somehow.’ Ishiki gave a self deprecating laugh.

Shiro came in twenty-two minutes later.

He stepped through the propped door with his folder under one arm and the expression of someone who had spent twenty-two minutes collecting information efficiently and was ready to present it.

He glanced at the coffee and then at Saito.

“I’ll have what he’s having,” he said, with easy politeness.

Saito — apparently the kind of shop owner who respected directness — nodded and moved to the filter press without comment.

Shiro set the folder on the counter and opened it.

“Seven witnesses across four neighboring businesses and two residences above the commercial block,” he said. “All seven reported the same thing. A shrill sound — their descriptions varied in precision but were consistent in character. Two of them said it felt like it was coming from inside their own skulls. One woman described it as the sound a television used to make when it was on but not tuned, but much worse.” He tapped the page. “Duration estimates ranged from three seconds to eight.”

“Anything about the lights,” Ishiki said.

“Five of the seven reported dimming. The two who didn’t were in interior rooms without windows.” Shiro accepted his coffee from Saito with a brief nod of thanks.

“Good.”

Ishiki was quiet for a moment. ’Things are much easier with a helper around. Sigh… why did it take them three years to send one.’

He finished his coffee.

“Thank you, Saito-san,” he said, setting the cup down with care. “You’ve been straightforwardly helpful and the coffee was genuinely excellent.”

Saito accepted this with the slight nod. “Come back when it’s not an investigation. I’ll charge you for it next time.”

Ishiki stood and looked out through the front window at the street.

The repair crew was finishing up outside. The last section of new composite had been laid and the workers were gathering the remaining debris into a dump truck.

He activated Ghost Blade.

Not for any specific reason. It had become a habit over the years — the way some people tapped a pocket to check for their keys, Ishiki extended his perception when he was in an unknown space.

His perception extended out in a sphere of 500 meter large area and he could see everything within like picture played in his mind. Using [Ghost Blade] in streets was not an easy thing because how many people and things there were.

Everything seemed fine and he was about to release it.

Then suddenly a rock piece moved.

It was half-buried in the rubble near where the repair crew was loading debris — a grey-brown shape, fist-sized and unremarkable.

It moved another three centimeters to the left.

Away from the debris!

Ishiki’s eyes opened.

He was through the door before Saito and Shiro noticed him.

The rock had sensed him as well.

Four small, green limbs erupted from its underside. They found the composite surface and pushed, and the rock ran.