Chương 13: The Matcha Ice Cream Is Not a Bribe

The night shift began right on time at 11: 00 PM at MinouseMart. The pace was entirely distinct from what occurred during the daytime chaos; the aisles were quieter, the atmosphere stranger, for the people who entered the convenience store around midnight came in a desperate state, and on unlucky nights, their state of desperation was accompanied by drunkenness. Soren began restocking the energy drinks, as a premonition that something would go wrong that night swirled in his mind.

The coolness coming from inside the fridge hit him in the face, allowing him to pause his mental calculations, as that restocking became a kind of therapy—or rather, a therapeutic restocking, if anyone has ever heard of such a term. Ding-ding. She walked past the magazines, past the coffee machine, then past all the reasons why a government official might enter a convenience store at 11: 10 PM, and finally, stopped in front of the energy drinks, right next to Soren.

"Good evening, Mr. Vonesdar." Director Tanaka marked her presence in high heels and dark-lensed glasses, probably to disguise the poor dark circles her face bore. Now her suit was different, no longer as formal as the one she wore during the morning, yet still of high-end tailoring. Behind the Director, accompanying her, was a younger man—Hayashi, the enthusiastic subordinate. He was small, about 1. 63 meters tall, making it difficult for him to stand out in a setting where the Director of the WID was present.

Wearing an unbranded polo shirt and casual pants that went well with any type of clothing, he held a tablet against his forearm, openly showing the expression of someone who desperately wanted to run tests. Soren pulled his face out of the fridge and looked sideways at him, and then at the Director with a look of astonishment. It can't be.

"Director, has it been..." He looked at the clock at the back of the store.

"... 13 hours and 12 minutes?"

"Mr. Vonesdar, I said this was consultative; I don't recall telling you it would be infrequent." Her shrewdness implied she had probably been tied to the government since her childhood. Soren closed the fridge door and then opened the ice cream freezer. That freezer was already so old that the cold air escaped through the dried-out rubber seals; that air carried a smell of cardboard packaging and refrigerated plastic.

He stuck his head inside the freezer, and beneath the vanilla ice creams, he found one with a matcha flavor. When he checked the expiration date, he was quite lucky, as there were still five days left before it expired.

"Here, Director, the matcha flavor is one of the best we have in the store." She stared intently at the ice cream for a few seconds, then returned her gaze to Soren, where she failed to find any sort of reaction, and focused once more on the ice cream. That offering hovered in the air between them as if it were a peace treaty.

"Is this a bribe, Mr. Vonesdar?"

"No, it's just an ice cream," Soren answered her with all the calmness in the world. At that moment, the three of them were looking at that ice cream. After some reflection, Director Tanaka accepted the ice cream, with an expression suggesting she was archiving that moment in a category that did not yet exist in the WID's protocols. Following that, the three of them walked to the store counter. Hayashi followed her faithfully, but his eyes had another target: the boy in the apron who had closed a fissure in 2.

2 seconds. He couldn't resist; he immediately tried to prepare something on his tablet, and the device emitted a not-very-friendly beep. Soren looked at that equipment and told him:"That equipment isn't going to work."

"Forget it, the boy is persistent," Tanaka said.

"You know how kids are; they always have hope, which often comes disguised as stubbornness. It is simply a definition of madness." The Director looked the analyst in the eyes.

"Don't worry, Mr. Vonesdar, our assistant has in his hands one of the best softwares in Japan. It is safe." Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Yes," Soren replied.

"But perhaps the definition..."

"The definition of science, is that what you meant to say?" the young analyst replied with a slightly crazy smile.

"No, the definition of insanity. For me, that is the best definition." Tanaka took a folder from her bag and placed it on the counter—a physical folder, with the WID symbol in the middle. Tanaka didn't seem to trust digital records all that much.

"There was a new incident. A Class C fissure appeared in the Shinjuku district." She pushed the folder closer to Soren.

"Look at this. The fissure was closed before the WID intervention teams arrived." She opened another tab in the folder.

"Here are some photographs of the site; when they got there, they were perplexed, unable to figure out who had closed it. Then, when they approached and analyzed it, they noticed that the signature suggested an unusual methodology." Soren's hands stopped over the boxes of chewing gum that were to the left of the counter. And he immediately asked her:"Unusual in what sense?"

"That is what we need you to tell us, Mr. Vonesdar," she said even more seriously.

"Consider this your first consulting job." The Director flipped through the folder and stopped at the section containing more photographs of the fissure's location. Soren looked at the photographs and noticed that the rupture had disappeared entirely, but the traces remained there; it was a perfect circle of burned concrete. The glass was crystallized in patterns that did not correspond to any known technique among the various adventurer teams of the WID.

"Director, this wasn't closed by an ordinary team of adventurers."

"We already know that, Mr. Vonesdar."

"It also wasn't closed by anyone from the Moon Dragon Guild." The Director exhaled to the side, and in a harsher tone said, "We know that too." That was when the drops of ice cream began to drip onto the floor, forming a small puddle next to her polished shoes. Soren focused all his attention on the images; with utmost precision, he began to read those patterns. The crystallization indicated extreme heat, followed by instantaneous cooling, as if the fissure had been cauterized.

The burn marks radiated outward in spirals, which meant a rotational force, which meant...

"Someone used an ancient sealing technique." He lifted one of the photographs to observe the relief of the crystallization patterns.

"This is Pre-System; this technique was developed a good 500 or 600 years ago. The spiral suggests an Eastern methodology, probably derived from Chinese cultivation practices, but adapted to Japanese geography." The Director listened to him with full attention, and that was when Hayashi's tablet beeped again with that sound that was already becoming quite irritating.

"But how do you know all this?" asked the Director, her eyes wide open.

"Wait, are you saying you've seen this kind of technique before?"

"I've seen some similar techniques, Director." Soren placed the photographs back in the folder and pushed it over to her. It was time to lay his cards on the table, disregarding whether the young analyst was prepared to hear this kind of conversation:"Whoever did this is a fairly powerful entity. These techniques are worthy of beings who had specialized training and developed magical methods that are no longer practiced in this world, taught and acquired by max-level archmages.

Director, whoever performed this technique clearly wanted to be noticed."

"Are you talking about extraterrestrials, like UFOs and black holes?" asked the analyst, already with 75% paranoia and 25% enthusiasm.

"No, kid, I'm talking about worse." Hayashi couldn't hide the drops of sweat running down his forehead.

"Wait, but how can you be so sure of that, Mr. Vonesdar?" asked Tanaka.

"Because for someone who closes a fissure cleanly, it's quite easy to hide their tracks." He pointed at the folder.

"This is a statement of assertion; someone is announcing themselves in Tokyo." The Director took a deep breath, while Hayashi wiped away the sweat falling onto the tablet, continuing to stare at the screen waiting for a result, or even another beep to notify him of something—it could even be the beep for the device's low battery.

The orchestra of noises from the machines and refrigerators in the store sounded softly through the store's aisles, and outside, a car drove by and honked at someone who was running wildly across the street. Tanaka raised her head and looked at Soren.

"Can you find him?" asked Tanaka.

"I probably can, Director."

"And will you do it?" Soren reflected on her question, because it ended up being just another complication; it felt like another rope trying to pull him into a world he had tried to leave behind, another step away from banality and closer to what he had once been. But someone using Pre-System techniques in Tokyo? This was highly suspicious.

It wasn't mere curiosity that arose in Soren; this signal was a statement, a sort of lighthouse with its beam moving across a rough sea—possibly a trap, but a trap you can see ceases to be a trap, and becomes an invitation.

"Consultative," he said at last.

"We never discussed anything operational."

"Of course, Mr. Vonesdar, you are right about that." Soren sighed and looked at the ramen shelf.

"I will investigate, but I don't promise you anything." Tanaka nodded. She lacked the strength to say thank you, unable to break through all her authoritarian posture.

"That is all I ask of you." The Director grabbed her bag and signaled Hayashi to follow. By that moment, her shoes were already carrying splatters of viscous drops. The younger analyst seemed to want to stay in the store to ask some sort of annoying questions and insist that his measurement device was producing some result, he just needed more time. However, with no results so far, he obeyed the Director as was always customary. Right by the door, Tanaka stopped.

She still held the matcha ice cream in her hand—perhaps forgotten, perhaps saved to eat at her leisure outside. She turned back around.

"Mr. Vonesdar,""Yes, Director."

"Was the seasonal infusion really good? Or were you just being nice this morning?"

"Director, it was actually really good." Outside, a black car was waiting for them, and subsequently, the Director and the analyst disappeared.