A Meeting
So, since CLAMP hasn't been included in the quest canon (yet), I've decided to write an omake, one specifically based around the manga Tokyo Babylon and taking place shortly after its epilogue.
I hope you enjoy this.
Director Samui could swear her coffee was looking at her weirdly.
It didn't have eyes, she knew this, but it still felt like it was watching her.
Focus.
Focus.
She shook her head a little, hoping to clear her mind. There was just so much work.
The raid on the Night Market had only been two weeks ago and there was still so much to fix from it; everything from arranging medical care to assuring security for the merchants.
And now the Senshi had found a major base of Cendrillon's, which was both wonderful, as they'd either be capturing her or thoroughly wrecking her operations come Monday, and also was something she wished her own agents had done themselves; the Senshi seemed to double in influence and power every week.
Well, the base being found was a good thing; the attacks would stop ! There'd be more time for dealing with Ongoro ! The Diet would be much less likely to suddenly cancel MCAT's funding.
Oh, and there was Fudo Kazanari to placate at every turn.
Fuck him, honestly.
Ten minutes later, the paperwork wasn't finished, but she'd splashed some water on her face, drunk the coffee that had not been staring at her, and felt ready to take on the world as she dialed in the number.
The Sumeragi clan, based in Kyoto and known for churning out talented onmyouji, were one of the very, very few magical organizations in Japan that were not entirely under the control of the Imperial Ministry, for reasons vague and ranging from latent loyalty to the "mainstream" Imperial line, to supposedly preparing for a prophesied apocalypse completely unrelated to the Dawn of Fire.
And whatever the rumors said, a contact at the Ise Shrine had passed along a message to the former clan Head, who had arranged a meeting over the phone about hiring some members of the clan as consultants and other miscellaneous things.
It was a pity, though, that the current leader of the clan, despite seemingly living in Tokyo, had been thoroughly unfindable so far.
Lady Sumeragi proved to be quite courteous; they discussed consultants, teaching classes, the possibility of the Clan helping out with their exorcism research, and Samui felt reasonably sure she wouldn't sell every bit of information she got to Onogoro.
-" Thank you for your assistance, Lady Sumeragi. MCAT is grateful for your help."
There was a very, very long pause.
The panicked, extremely irrational thought of Lady Sumeragi having had a sudden stroke tried to worm its way through Samui's head, only to be thankfully set upon by the slightly saner parts of her brain, who reminded her that being worried about things all the time wouldn't fix them.
-"It saddens me to say so, but few of the Sumeragi Clan live or operate near Tokyo, and it would take weeks for schedules to be rearranged. The 13th clan head, however, while occupied by a number of confidential projects, lives in Shinjuku: I'm sending you his address via fax. I've talked to him already, but it would be best if you were to send some of your agents to espouse the good that can be done by working with you."
-"Well, alright"
She grabbed the fax, told Azumi to take Sho to go meet the guy and then went back to purchasing materials for the special ammo they'd need for the raid.
Azumi wished, a little bit, that she hadn't been sent on this mission. She'd gotten too used to the air conditioning in the apartments and the MCAT building; she'd lived through far worse summers in Kagoshima.
She wanted to kick herself in the head for that thought. First, she messes up who knows how many phone calls, then she spends her time blustering through the job interviews, and now she's thinking about ditching work because of the heat.
You don't get anything in this world if you don't work hard for it.
-"So, I had this weird dream last night. I think it was about a box or something, but I can't remember most of it, and I was hoping to bounce ideas off you so I could remember more."
Sho was smiling at her softly, and she was pretty sure he'd still be smiling once she failed to answer the question correctly.
-"Oh, a box, don't trip on your words, don't go "um", do you remember if it had anything in it ? Maybe something special, like jewelry or a present or something ? Or the box had some decorations on it, if it's the only thing about your dream you remember it must have stood out to you."
Sho blinked.
-"Well, now that you've mentioned it, there was paper ? With stuff written on it and it was all different things but actually all the papers in the box put all together formed a unified idea and you know that reminds me of the literary classes I took in high school where you see how a phrase can mean a lot of things beyond the surface level and there was this great text we studied-"
Allmother, what was she supposed to say ? She didn't understand anything he was saying, and it was basic stuff, his words implied, the stuff every high school graduate kn-
Wait. The Allmother was there now, she'd forgotten about it, and she'd just used her name in a swear. This was bad, bad, she'd have to bring her a gift basket to make up for it and no it wouldn't be enough, it was a gift basket and the Allmother was a goddess, mother of all Youkai, and more importantly a very important ally to MCAT and oh god why did she have to ruin everything she was so-
-"We're here."
Oh no, they'd somehow gotten into the building and climbed up the stairs and were now in front of the door and she'd been too distracted to notice any of that.
She did her best to compose herself as Sho ran the doorbell. Don't panic, don't panic…
The Sumeragi head wasn't what she had expected.
She'd been expecting someone stiff and serious, maybe with glasses, and he kind of was like that, except he was also really, really cute, and his eyes were…
She knew it was rude not to look people in the eye, but in this case, she definitely didn't want to.
-"Who are you ?"
A smile on her face, she faced him in a manner she hoped was friendly and open: "We're
from MCAT, your grandmother said she talked to you about it on the phone. I'm Secretary Kogoerukaze and this is Liaison Daitoku !"
He just stared at her.
-"I'm sorry. I have several personal projects currently ongoing on top of my regular work, and I don't think I'll be of much help anyway. I can't work with you."
Huh ?
-"Well, it's a shame; we could really use someone like you. Can't you at least hear us out a bit ? Things might be better than you think they are."
Without a word, he gestured at them to enter.
The living room wasn't much, really.
There was a coffee table, a sofa, two armchairs and pale patches where there used to be pictures.
She took the sofa, Sho sat on one of the armchairs and the Sumeragi head on the other.
-"So, what are the benefits of working with MCAT ? First, there's full medical and dental insurance, as well as a cushy pension, and also there's-"
She talked and talked and talked, and his expression barely changed through the whole thing.
Uhh, the heat was so bad; she felt like she was going to be sick.
-"To be honest, we really need more professional talent concerning exorcism, there's this ritual the Senshi used that several temples's worth of Buddhist monks haven't been able to replicate and-"
Maybe it was the heat, maybe the fact she'd been talking for fifteen minutes straight without a drink of water, but for a second her headache twinged worse than ever and her stomach churned and she nearly retched but they didn't notice that, right ?
Oh. His expression had changed.
He now looked worringly concerned.
-"Mr. Daitoku, Ms. Kogoerukaze, I'm afraid I've been a terrible host. I had some kakigori in the fridge, but even though I knew you were coming, I forgot to prepare it. Please allow me to rectify my mistake. If you wish to use the bathroom during the meantime, it's at the end of the hallway on the left."
She wanted to hide under a rock. A nice, cool rock where nobody would be able to find her and see her shame.
-"It's okay, Azumi. Splashing some cold water on your face won't hurt."
Well, if Sho was saying it and seemed to think it wasn't rude…
She got up perhaps a tad fast and walked as fast as she could, but didn't run because that would be unladylike.
Finally, fresh water, a drink, I'll no longer feel like a boiled lobster, she thought as she triumphantly oprened the bathroom door.
Oops. Wrong room.
The bedroom was nearly as sparse and empty as the living-room: bed, cupboard, full-length mirror with its glass lying shattered on the ground.
The shards had been sitting there for awhile, covered in dust as they were, and bits of color glinted in the few pieces that still lay in the frame.
She hadn't seen it when she first came in, lining the wall as it did, but there was a desk, covered in papers and bottles of ink and at least three maps of Tokyo with angry red scratchings on them.
It was the only thing so far in this house that had felt alive.
in the middle of the desk, there was a rashinban, newly made. In the middle of it was…
That couldn't be right. The pink things in the jar looked all the world like cherry blossoms, but they reminded her of the glass bowl which had been brought in last week, one which had been used by an Ongoro mage to store the blood of youkai for spell components.
The pink things felt worse, somehow.
He probably had a good reason for having that, right ? Maybe it was just a plant he'd cursed or something.
Or he was secretly a serial killer and his grandmother had sent them into a trap because she hated MCAT or something.
Well, she wasn't going to fall for that.
She picked it up, gingerly looked at it and then heard a crash coming from somewhere else in the house followed by rapid footsteps.
The Sumeragi head, wide-eyed, looked at her through the door.
-"I'm sorry, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
-"Wait, she said as he opened the door, what the hell is that thing ?"
-"Oh, you need to give that back, I need it."
-"Uh, no. I have no idea what you're doing with that thing but it doesn't look good, and it's literally my job to take care of things like that." Well, she was technically part of the PR department but he didn't need to know that.
-"Sho, tell him we need to pass that thing through safety regulations at the very least."
-"Yes, we do need to do that."
`-"I was using it as part of a divining ritual. Do you really need to take it?"
Well, it wasn't really her job, but she was still a member of MCAT and MCAT does things like that, so it should be alright."
-"You're really sure ?"
-"YES."
He sighed, closing his eyes.
-"Just be careful."
He shut the door on her and Sho.
-"Well, we need to bring this back to MCAT. I'll also tell the Director how the interview went", Azumi said as they got on the train home.
Tell the Director how things went, tell the Director how things went…
Hadn't she completely failed at her actual mission ?
She felt like she was shriveling up just thinking about it. She couldn't go to MCAT or to the home she shared with the other clan members
-"Hey, Sho, do you know a good hotel nearby ? Don't tremble voice, don't tremble. "It's kinda urgent."
-"Why ?"
-"I can't go home, I just failed at something big, and look, it's bad. I've disappointed Director Samui."
Sho was about to say that Director Samui probably wouldn't mind all that, but he felt Azumi wouldn't believe him.
-"You don't need a hotel: I have a spare bed at my place that I use for camping, and there's udon I made yesterday that I can't finish before it goes bad, so really you'll be the one doing me a favor. And I've been buying ingredients for spellcraft so we can do the anlysis at home !"
She seemed slightly mollified by that, and brightened up when she saw the air conditioning.
While he was preparing the ingredients for the scrying spell they would do on the jar, he saw her switch on the air conditioner, then lie down on the rug in front of it before checking that nobody saw her. That made him smile.
-"So, I poured the vervain and briar ashes in the spring water, and you have the circle thing, right ?"
-"Technically it's an engraved piece of bone, but yes."
The circle thing was put at the bottom of the bowl, a pinch of the petals from the jar was added, and Azumi muttered a longish incantation which set the water to bubbling.
And then the water changed to a red, slightly sticky-looking substance, which they recognized immediately.
-"Okay, we definitely need to talk to that guy."
Azumi had argued half heartedly about accompanying him, but the air felt like hot tar and she'd decided to stay home in the end in case the jar turned out to be a demon-summoning portal or something.
At least he didn't have to climb up a bunch of stairs, because the Sumeragi head seemed to be making a quick beeline towards the train station.
-"Hey, you ! I really need to talk to you right now !"
-"I'm on my way to a job in Ginza."
-"I have a few questions, and you really can't just get up and leave right now because if I'm getting my head bitten off by a demon, I'm blaming it on you."
He sighed.
-"Fine."
-"What was that thing Icewind picked up ? I ran it through a scrying ritual and those things turned the water into blood."
-"I picked them up at Ueno Park, if you have to know. They're not cursed, but there's a chance that you might get killed if you really did do a divination on them. You should probably give them to your boss and also change flats. And maybe spend a few days at your workplace if they have decent wards and security. Also, take this."
He handed Sho two ornately inked ofuda.
-"What the hell were you using that for ?"
, -"A tracking spell. It probably wouldn't have worked anyway."
For what ?
-"So, I gather you're not going to be working with MCAT."
-"I've told you, I don't think I'll be of much help."
They stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds.
Then, he said:
-"Why do you think people hurt others ?"
Sho blinked.
-"What ?"
-"Nothing. It's nothing. Just something someone said…"
-"Who ?" To be honest, Sumeragi didn't seem like the most sociable of people.
-"It was a little girl."
-"A girl ?"
-"She's gone now. She said that maybe, just maybe, everyone who did bad things were just lonely. Even those that treated others as extensions of themselves, so that they would feel no pain in hurting them."
Sho thought of the raid on the Night Market, of the slaves that MCAT rescued more of every day, of the youma for whom humans were cattle.
-"That may be true for some, but others, even most… They don't care at all. They crush people under their feet and think nothing of it."
-"I suppose you are correct"
His voice was soft and resigned.
-"I'm sorry for bothering you.
I think I'll have to go now if I don't want to be late."
-"So, what do you think was that guy's deal ? I thought using the entrails of animals went out of fashion a couple of centuries ago." Sho yawned as they walked into MCAT headquarters the next morning.
-"I don't know, we should give the jar to Doctor Sakurai before we go to talk to him again, and that last bit's probably not our job anyway.
The pair stopped.
There, sitting on the bench next to Director Samui's office, was the man they had met yesterday.
-"I'm glad you're alright."
Edit: I've changed bits of Subaru's caracterisation, as I made him act vastly more jerkish than he ever does in canon, and Sho's been changed from Agent to Liaison because that's not what people who aren't in the field are called. Azumi's last name has been changed from Icewind to Kogoerukaze thanks to advice from Discord.
