Memory Reaper's Ascension - Chapter 244: Ruling out

Chapter 244: Ruling out

Shiro came back at half past six.

By then, Ishiki had gone through the Ward 7 files twice and the map on his desk was a mess of ink — circles around the northern wall segment, numbers by the Dusk Event locations, small crosses where the responsible officers were now dead or listed as currently in scenario.

“There were thirteen Dusk Events within five kilometres of that section,” he said, as soon as Shiro stepped inside. “Four written off as false Synth fluctuations or no Xenons found. Almost everyone attached to them either died in unrelated incidents or vanished into Scenarios and never came back. Two Tainted sightings in the same area, and one report of a demon with a black arm.”

Shiro closed the door behind him.

“That’s him,” Shiro said, he didn’t knew the name… but he knew who was being talked about.

“Yes,” Ishiki confirmed.

Shiro crossed to the desk and looked down at the map. “Someone is doing something very carefully there,” he said. “And making sure anyone who gets close enough either dies or leaves the board?”

He was quiet for a moment and then added. “How are the Xenons even able to do that? Are they capable of following orders?”

“Indeed…” Ishiki made the statement, even though he knew that it would feel weird. “Xenons do have a some basic instincts and a resemblance to animal mind.”

“What?” Shiro was clearly shocked. And it showed clearly how much the information was being restricted by the government.

“Yes, Xenons do listen to their superiors… that is Tainted demons or Eclipsed Demons.”

Ishiki knew of this because he had witnessed these things in the scenario… and the scenario, there was no need to say a special one for some reason.

Well… the first one and the third one were special as well. There was no news on the groups that had went before and after them.

“So we need to ground watch it at ground level.” Ishiki added.

“Outside the walls?” Shiro asked and saw Ishiki nod once.

They both knew what that meant.

“All right,” Shiro said. “We need a plan.”

He sat down opposite Ishiki again, this time without the notebook. “First, we get you a permit. Second, we decide what we’re pretending to look for, and what we’re actually looking for. Third, we decide whether we go out or just you.”

“I am not leaving you in here to guess based on wall logs while I walk into someone else’s game alone,” Ishiki said.

“You walked into a drainage channel with a Tainted body-shift demon alone,” Shiro said mildly. “So your standards are improving.”

“That’s because you didn’t exist in my life at that time,” Ishiki said. “Now you do. Congratulations. You get to share the bad decisions.”

A brief breath from Shiro that was very close to a laugh. “Noted,” he said.

His expression shifted back into the work-focus. “Permits,” he said. “Ground-level access requires a specified purpose. We can’t write possible secret operation.”

“No,” Ishiki agreed to the notion.

“We can write investigation of repeated Synth anomalies and Dusk Event misclassifications along Sector C-4, with potential structural risk to wall integrity,” Shiro said. “That will get attention without inviting everyone to scream about Eclipsed demons.”

“Have you done this before?” Ishiki asked… rather impressed.

“I’ve processed applications,” Shiro repeddled. “Not my own. But the wall desks like concrete language. Structural risk and pattern of misclassification are concrete.”

“And we call it a routine check, and not a crisis.”

“If we call it a crisis, they’ll send a squad and we’ll get buried in command structure,” Shiro shrugged. “If we call it routine, they’ll give us a window and assume it’s nothing until we prove otherwise.”

“Window is enough,”

Shiro nodded slowly. “Purpose, cover story, presence,” he said, almost to himself. “What are we pretending to look for?”

“Evidence of a Tainted demon, uh trying to i don’t know, do something,” Ishiki said. “Which is true.”

“And what are we actually looking for,” Shiro asked, frowning.

“Where that bastard is putting his hands,” Ishiki said. “And what he wants with that section.”

Shiro sat with that.

He looked at Ishiki for a long, quiet moment.

“Why now,” he said. Not challenging. Just asking the question that had been in the air since the drainage channel. “You’ve known he exists. You’ve had hints before. Why decide to go at him directly now?”

Ishiki leaned back in his chair.

“He used the wall last time,” he said. “He used it to keep me in and others out. That was Scenario geography, not this one, but the way he thinks doesn’t change. He moves pieces until people have nowhere to stand except where he wants them.”

He paused.

“And,” he added, more quietly, “my scenario timer is running. If I’m going to be dragged out of this ward into a Scenario again, I want to know what he’s building here before that happens. I’m not leaving Nina sitting under a wall he’s been playing with for a year without knowing why.”

Shiro absorbed that in silence and left to draft the permit.

Ishiki signed it an hour later — the clean Association form with Shiro’s precise language in the justification section: Observed pattern of Synth energy anomalies and Dusk Event misclassifications along Wall Sector C-4 (Ward 7/8 perimeter). Requesting limited ground-level access under standard patrol classification for on-site verification of potential structural or hostile activity.

After finishing the day’s work… Ishiki went home.

The rest of the day passed in the shape it usually did when no immediate disaster was happening: he helped Nina do a few homework, listened to her very detailed and deeply biased account of a group project at school, bought vegetables, made dinner.

She did not bring up her mother again. She did, however, bring up Shiro’s book twice and explain in great detail why the man and the tree on the cover were obviously important.

Before going to sleep he patter her head… tomorrow is Sunday. So, she would be home all day.

“Uh, so I will be out by the time you wake up… hmm, you know how to order food so get whatever you like to eat.”

He paused, thinking something and then added quietly. “I might be late at night as well, I will try to come back soon though. If you want anything you can call the association and they would send someone.”

He pointed at the sticker tucked under the calendar, it had a whole contact book.

“Okay,” she nodded. “You will come back though, right? You are not going in a scenario?”

“Obviously,” Ishiki scowled. “I am just going for some work outside the walls. Its not dangerous.”

Nina said nothing to that, she simply nodded and went to her room.

Ishiki too went to his room and slept soundly.

The permit was approved overnight.

Shiro sent him a single-line message at 4:12 AM. Confirming that they he was ready to set out.

By five-thirty, Ishiki had woken up, completed his daily necessities and had already set out.

Then he drove to the gate at the intersection of Ward 8 and 7.