Chapter 4: Recruitment

Suzu imagined her father in front of her, holding her hand, telling her to take deep breaths. Gather air through her nose. Feel her lungs expand. Exhale slowly through her mouth, letting each breath expel her anxieties.

Panic would not get her anywhere—especially not out of this situation. His soft baritone in her head told her to calm down. Calm down. Everything was going to be okay.

Slowly, her trembling subsided, and the muscles in her chest stopped contracting. Beneath her ribs, her heart still pounded like it demanded her full attention, but she told it that it would be okay. As she looked around the small hospital room, she reassured herself that if ever they caught her, they wouldn’t hold her in such a place. Unless, of course, they wanted her tattoos removed. In that case, she would have woken up with them already half-gone. They wouldn’t even give her the chance to resist.

Feeling better, she patted the bed for her phone. Where was her phone? She had to call her father and tell him what happened.

What had happened?

The sound of the gunshot returned to her, the sound echoing so vividly from her memories that her ears rang. She peered under her flimsy hospital gown and felt all over her body for any injury. None. Did that mean the man didn’t shoot her? Were the bullets intended for Professor Kaede instead?

The door cracked open.

Suzu gasped and pulled the blanket up over her body.

A middle-aged woman in a white coat stepped in with a smile. Suzu tried to place her in her memories. Had she seen her before?

“I wasn’t expecting you to wake up so soon.” She stopped at the foot of the bed with her hands clasped loosely in front of her. “I’m Ana Nishida. And you are?”

She hesitated. “Suzu.”

“I’m sure that comes with a last name.”

“Sakurai.”

“Hello, Suzu Sakurai. How are you feeling?”

Suzu glanced around the room again. This time, she spotted the tiny blinking dot at the far corner—a camera. “Where am I?”

Ana pulled up a chair and swept her skirt aside as she sat. Leaning back, she took her time arranging her white coat and skirt, prolonging the anxious silence between them.

Her calm but unsettling demeanor reminded Suzu of a teacher in a parent conference, pointing out all of her good traits before breaking the bad news to her father.

Your child had pushed someone down the stairs. She had screamed so much that she made another girl cry. She tried to stab her classmate with a freshly sharpened pencil.

“You’re in an infirmary. We brought you here after Professor Kaede attacked you, and you passed out on the road. Do you remember? There was a man with a dog who saved you,” she said.

“No, he…I think he fired a gun. He shot the professor.” Hearing the words aloud hit her differently. She watched Ana’s face but saw no change in her expression. No alarm. Not even a hint of concern. “Where’s the professor? And Mrs Kaede? Did you bring them here, too?” Suzu asked.

Ana’s lips turned down ever so slightly, and she sighed. “I regret to inform you that both of them have passed. The police are conducting an investigation. So far, we believe the professor has been mentally unwell for a time, hence his violent outburst.”

“He was sick, but he wasn’t crazy.”

“Did he attack you with a bread knife?”

Suzu struggled to respond. She had so many things to say in defense of the professor that they tangled on her tongue like hundreds of balled-up threads. Finally, she managed something: “He was not himself.”

“The man who saved you got slashed in the abdomen several times before he subdued the professor. Thankfully, he only needed a couple of stitches.”

Suzu couldn’t picture it. One of her earliest memories of Professor Kaede was of him transferring a tiny snail to a brick fence to avoid getting stepped on.

The one time he caught her pouring salt on a snail, he had cried.

“I need to call my father.” Suzu nodded over and over, reassuring herself. “He has to know that something happened to the professor. I mean, we knew he wouldn’t last long, but…he’s not going to believe it. Oh my god.”

Ana leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. She was close enough that Suzu would see the mild scattering of freckles on her lightly made-up face but not so close that she was invading her privacy. “I know this is a stressful situation, so allow me to help you. First, we can contact your father and let him know you’re alright. We’re currently reaching out to Professor Kaede’s family to inform them of his passing. Would you like us to include your father in the list of people to notify?”

“He’s going to look for me. Can I have my phone, please?”

“I’m sorry, but the police have taken it as it was found on the crime scene. It will be returned to you as soon as possible. In the meantime, you can give me his name, and we’ll call him for you.”

“His name is Shinnosuke Sakurai. He’s a professor at Keio University in Tokyo, teaching Japanese history. What time is it? Dad’s a light sleeper. I’m sure you won’t have trouble contacting him.”

Ana pulled out a pad from the deep pocket of her coat and jotted the information down: “Is he with your mother, or do you want us to contact her separately?”

Suzu opened and closed her mouth. “No.”

“No, we shouldn’t?”

“She’s gone. Just please hurry and contact my father.”

Ana nodded once. “I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll relay this information. Can I fetch you food and something to drink?”

“My clothes.” Instinctively, she pulled the blanket higher up her neck. “How long do I have to stay here? I’m not injured. I can make a statement at the police station or…I don’t know how this works.”

“Calm down. Let’s tackle one thing at a time.”

“Is this the hospital?” She glanced at the camera in the far corner of the room. “It doesn’t…”

Ana waved her hand dismissively. “This is a government-affiliated infirmary. Don’t worry, Suzu. You’re safe here. This was the closest place we could bring you for treatment after the incident.”

“Oh.” She repeated the words in her head, but they didn’t make sense. Was this a public hospital? Was she in isolation because she was a witness to what happened?

Ana smiled at her again and stood. She was about to turn around when she stopped, her expression thoughtful, and turned to face Suzu again. “By the way, I noticed your tattoos.”

Suzu just shrugged.

“There’s no one else who might be concerned for your safety? My ex-husband’s back is covered in tattoos. They usually mean something unless someone else chose them for you,” Ana pressed.

Suzu glanced down at her arms with a pout. “I don’t know what you’re trying to say. They’re just tattoos.”

Ana chuckled. The lightness of her response dissipated the tension between them. “Alright. Give me a few minutes to fetch your food.” On her way out, she pointed to the door to the right. “The restroom is over there if you feel well enough to freshen up.”

Kei hunched low over his knees and squeezed his eyes shut. It had been twenty minutes since he ended the call to his younger brother, and now he and Yoshi were waiting in painful silence.

He had not wanted to involve Yuki, but Yoshi had set him aside to insist. A little more sober now, Yoshi had emphasized how he had never forced Kei to use his connections before. They both knew important people in Ninomae’s headquarters and even higher up in the immediate circle of the Blood Families, but it went against his principles to exploit these connections unless they were forced into a corner.

“And you think we’re in a corner right now?” Kei had asked.

“I wouldn’t feel this way if it were just me,” Yoshi hissed, scowling at Kei from across his desk. “But I have to look out for you kids at the peak of your careers. The entire Ishikawa family is under my wing, for fuck’s sake. I don’t want Niri in this job without her parents. And you”—throwing his hand in Kei’s direction—“I swore to look after you.”

Kei all but rolled his eyes. He hated being reminded of that. His guardianship was not something Kei agreed to, but had to respect for the sake of his deceased superior in Kyoto. That Captain Tanaka had the foresight to plan his transfer to Kanagawa under Yoshi had felt like betrayal at the time, but now he was old enough to be grateful.

If he would be deemed healthy enough to return to Kyoto, it could only be because his time in Kanagawa had helped him recover.

“I heard working in the Blood Families’ household is tough,” Yoshi said to break the tension.

Kei unclasped his fingers and shrugged. Until Yoshi spoke, half of his mind was on the dried blood on his shoes. He had missed a huge splatter on the side. He had no idea if it was his or the professor’s.

“Yuki’s efficient under pressure, and they like that he has a smile stuck to his face like a maniac.”

“Your brother is eerie that way.”

“It’s his default setting. He smiles in his sleep, too. My sister and I bet on it when we were children, and we caught the fucker actually laughing in the middle of the night.”

“You’d think working so closely with the Blood Families would be traumatizing. Which one is he under again? Is it Tsuji?”

“Yuki was promoted a month ago as second assistant to Manager Takeru Sato.”

“He’s helping oversee all five families now? My goodness. I didn’t think he’d rise in the ranks so quickly.”

Kei pointed to his snarling lips. “Like I said, it’s his fucking smile. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it’s a talent in itself.”

Kei’s phone blared in the middle of the desk. Both men jumped on their seats, so startled that all they could do for the first few seconds was stare at it. Finally, Kei reached over to tap the cracked screen repeatedly until he was able to accept the call. He put it on speaker mode.

“Yuki, we’re listening,” he said.

“Takeru implied that the woman is of some interest to the Blood Families. Hence, it would be best if nothing bad happened to her,” Yuki said in one breath, sounding shaken for once in his life. “Hello? Are you there?”

“That’s the problem,” Yoshi whispered to the phone. “She’s already likely traumatized by the incident.”

Kei moved the phone closer to himself so that Yoshi’s saliva wouldn’t splatter on his screen. “Can you be more specific?”

“If Takeru won’t divulge us with the details, it means the matter is personal to the Blood Families. I’m not sure which one since he’s overseeing all five households. Have you asked Akari?”

“Akari’s with us. She’s not familiar with Suzu Sakurai.”

“Well. The Amemiya is the most forgiving of the bunch. I was hoping it would be them.”

Kei was about to ask another question when Yuki made a startled noise. A pause, followed by the whine of a door opening and closing. Two male voices echoed from the other end of the line, but the words were muffled, as though Yuki had pressed the phone to his body to block the microphone.

Yoshi raised his eyebrow at Kei, and he responded in kind.

“Yuki?” Kei called. “Is everything alright?”

A light shuffling noise.

“Yuki?”

“Kei, do us all a favor and recruit her.”

Kei squinted at his phone. It took him a moment to recognize the voice. “Takeru?”

“Who else?”

Yoshi leaned over the desk, his mouth inches above the phone again. “Manager Takeru, this is Yoshi Hagihara. Kei called Yuki at my request.”

“She’s not supernatural. We’re seventy percent sure of that,” Kei interjected. He had no time for pleasantries. He could hear the clock ticking in his ears.

“Give her any job. Just keep her close and take care of her. You’ll anger the wrong people if something were to happen to her,” Takeru said. “Yoshi, see to it that Kei does as he’s told.”

Kei stood and paced the length of the desk. He was trying to keep his cool, but the stress and uncertainty from the past hours had stretched his patience thin. That, and his injuries throbbed despite the painkillers. “With all due respect, but she’s not fit for recruitment. We’ll likely send her to a rehabilitation facility because she’s a witness.”

Yuki laughed nervously in the background. That was enough warning for Kei. Takeru might be professional, but that did not make his short fuse any less chilling. When he spoke next, it had a tone of finality that even Kei could not contest.

“Let her undergo rehabilitation while working an administrative job in your branch. A rehabilitation center in the countryside suggests deep injury to her psyche. That’s what my employers will assume when I report this to them in a couple of hours. But if you can make Suzu Sakurai agree to work with you, then my employers will assume the incident was not as severe,” Takeru said.

“Can you tell us anything at all about her that might be useful?” Yoshi asked.

“That’s why I want her recruited. She might just tell you why the most important people in Japan are fussing over her.” His volume dropped suddenly, and in a softer tone, he added, “Kei, how you handle this information could fast-track you back to Kyoto and make the Blood Families indebted to you.”

Yoshi locked gazes with Kei. “And the alternative?”

“You might want to polish your resumes.”

They said it was PTSD. Kei knew it was just the nature of liminal spaces.

He stepped out of Yoshi’s office and stopped to rub his eyes. Like scales, the image of the bloodied office fell, and he returned to the present, where everything was bleak but alive. In the distance, Hanzo was beating the keyboards with his massive hands while chainsmoking, and Akari was pacing the aisles while hissing orders on her phone.

Cold sweat trickled down Kei’s neck. The oxygen felt thin in the office, but only he seemed to noticed.

As he marched across the rows and rows of cluttered desks, he told himself that he could not do to these people what he did to his old team. This girl may be exactly what he needed to get out of here before it was too late.

Hanzo spotted him as he approached and leapt out of his swivel chair, cigarette still in hand. “The father’s never been listed as married. He’s a professor at some fancy university with no significant accomplishment. There’s nothing suspicious about his profile at all. I’m assuming we’ll get something from the mother if we get her name. Kei, are you listening?”

Kei snatched Hanzo’s cigarette and took a long drag. When he breathed out, he felt like he was floating. Fuck, that felt good.

Anzu barked at him, disapproving of the smell.

Akari noticed him from where she stood beside the water dispenser. “Kei?”

He grabbed a random coat on one of the desks, walked past Akari, and turned the corner to the bridge that would take him to the infirmary. Yoshi’s heavier footsteps trailed behind his, but that, too, did not matter. Yoshi had given his approval, and Kei had the liberty to do this his way.

“What’s happening?” Ana blocked his path once he reached the narrow corridor of recovery rooms. She balanced a tray of food in one hand and a steaming mug of tea in the other. “You can’t go in there.”

“We don’t have time.” Kei stepped around her and entered Suzu’s recovery room, slamming the door shut before Anzu could follow in after him.

Suzu splashed water on her face and gripped the edge of the porcelain sink.

She had inspected every nook and cranny of this bathroom but found no opportunity for escape or anything she might use as a weapon. The exhaust vent was too small, and it had been bolted shut. The toilet lid, too, appeared bolted in place. No mirrors, no tension rods—not even a toilet seat cover she could remove.

The more she analyzed her circumstances, the more things did not make sense. What did a government-affiliated infirmary even mean? When was the police going to question her?

She pressed her knuckles against her forehead and tried to calm her breathing.

Everything felt like a fever dream. Surely, this was a joke. The professor and his wife couldn’t possibly be dead.

Outside, the door opened and slammed shut. Somewhere in the corridor, a dog kept barking.

Suzu smoothed down her hospital gown and padded out of the bathroom. As soon as she saw the hiker from the convenience store, she froze. A hundred thoughts crossed her mind at once, all of them culminating in an icy sting beneath her skin.

This man had saved her.

He also killed the professor.

He eyed her from head to toe as he took a generous pull of his cigarette. Smoke leaked from his nostrils in grey swirls. He extended his free to her. “I’m Kei Kashiki. Senior Recruiter at Ninomae, the company that owns Waiki Mart. We met a couple of hours ago.”

Suzu stared at his hand, and then at his face.

Kei withdrew his hand and walked over to the chair the doctor occupied earlier. Sitting with his legs crossed, he tossed a bundled-up coat on the backrest and motioned for Suzu to return to the bed. “Please take a seat. I’m here to explain what happened to the professor and how we might move forward.”

Suzu glanced at the camera on the wall. So the doctor was lying. How could Waiki Mart own a government-affiliated infirmary? Mrs Kaede did say the franchise was looking for the professor. Were they in debt? Was Suzu about to be held accountable for this debt?

Suzu dragged herself back to the edge of the bed and sat. She positioned herself as close to the wall as possible. Outside, the dog kept barking and clawing at the door. Inside, the cigarette smoke enveloped the room in a light, suffocating haze.

“I understand that you’re in shock, and the professor and his wife were a personal acquaintance. What happened could’ve been avoidable if they simply accepted our help, but they refused to cooperate,” Kei said, his face and voice neutral. Cold, even. “I was there to check on them personally, but I was too late. What I’m about to say next may come off as too fantastical to believe, but there’s no other way to put it. Waiki Mart is one of the businesses owned by Ninomae, my employer. You might be more familiar with our logo.” He produced an ID from his pocket and tossed it to her lap. “You would’ve seen it on—”

“Water supply.” Suzu lifted the ID closer to her face. She had seen this logo everywhere since she transferred to her father’s care. The two-toned waves contained in a circle were so common that they were almost invisible to people now.

“Ninomae is the biggest private waterworks company in Japan. Our water is laced with suppressants to prevent the manifestation of supernatural abilities and, therefore, control supernatural occurrences in the country. This strategy is not a hundred percent foolproof, which is why the Recruitment and Care department exists. I identify people with active supernatural abilities, and we either employ them or assign them to manage a Waiki Mart franchise from which they can get their supply of premium Waiki water. Remember, I bought those from your store?”

Suzu nodded. The bottles available only to yellow card holders. The same ones that littered the professor’s study.

Kei stubbed his cigarette on the metal bedpost. “Yellow card members are active talents like me. The professor had latent talents, which means his supernatural abilities never surfaced because he’s been using suppressants as maintenance for a long time. When identified and recruited, talents can choose whether to nurture their abilities for the company’s use or to keep them latent, and the professor chose the latter. Unfortunately, and for reasons we have yet to identify, the suppressants stopped working for him. He manifested a liminal space—an uncharted supernatural dimension—and possibly got possessed, which was why he killed his wife. When he burst through the convenience store door, I did not know where you were, so I shot him to make sure he didn’t hurt you. I’m sorry.”

Suzu pressed her lips together and made a noise between a grunt and a cough. “No.”

He regarded her for a moment. “No?”

“This must be a prank. I don’t even believe in ghosts, and now you’re telling me—” She flailed her hand in his direction, too vexed to even finish her sentence. “Are you a ghost?”

Kei leaned forward and presented her with the cigarette butt. With a flick of his finger, it went up in the air and down again.

Down.

Down.

And then it stopped.

Suzu scowled at it as it hovered in mid-air, right between their faces. She passed her hand above and below it, but felt nothing material that could be keeping it from falling.

Kei moved his forefinger slightly, and the cigarette toppled to the linoleum next to her feet.

“My talent concerns time,” he said. “I can slow it down like what I just did, and perform other types of manipulations, but with each use, I crack the divide between our dimension and the supernatural. Did you see any ghosts or get any eerie feeling while in the store?”

Suzu picked up the cigarette. She tossed it in the air and watched it fall on the bed, smearing the linen with a streak of black. It really was just an ordinary cigarette. “No, but I…right before I passed out. I saw—” she paused to consider her recollections.”I think I saw shadows with strange eyes. Almost white.”

“Those are simple ghosts. They’re the first to cross over to our dimension from the liminal spaces.” He gestured to her. “Since you don’t believe in ghosts, it’s safe to assume you’ve never seen any until that point?”

“I guess so.”

“That happens when you’re exposed to the cracks between the dimensions. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to detect them except through a sudden drop in temperature and other such signs.” He offered his coat to her. “If you let me, I can prove this to you.”

Suzu took the coat more out of a desire to cover up her tattoos than anything, but she would be lying if she said she wasn’t curious. Everything he said so far—from the water bottles to the silhouettes she saw before she passed out—aligned with his story.

As she slipped her arms through the coat’s sleeves and tied the belt around her waist under his silent scrutiny, she noted that he didn’t seem eager to please or persuade her. His blasé approach was most convincing, as anything else would normally push her to disbelief.

Kei stepped forward to pull the lapels of the coat close over her front and roll up the dangling sleeves until her hands were visible. His proximity and force suggested impatience, so she remained as still as possible until he was done.

“Your dog’s going wild outside,” she muttered.

 “Anzu’s trained to monitor the suppressants in my bloodstream.” Kei’s eyes flickered to hers. “She’s also trained to bite me in the neck should I lose control of my talent. A killer service dog, basically.”

Suzu smiled weakly, unsure of how else to respond to him.

“Ready?” Without waiting for her answer, he grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the room.

The massive black dog pounced at his leg, growling, and Suzu screamed. Kei transferred her to his side, reassuring her safety by wrapping his arm around her shoulders. She was belatedly aware of the people crowding their path, each one of them throwing concerned looks at Kei as they walked.

They spoke all at once, but he ignored their prompting and rushed her to the elevator, where the persistent short-haired woman and her white dog managed to slip in before the doors closed.

Suzu sidled closer to Kei. She clutched the back of his shirt in alarm because the white dog with blue eyes was staring at her as though it might bite her neck off.

“Akari, get Shuto away from my recruit,” Kei said.

The woman tapped her left thigh, and the dog transferred to her side. “She’s not a talent and, therefore, can’t be your recruit.” She glanced at Suzu and then at Kei. “Where are you taking her?”

The arch on top of the elevator stopped at the ground floor. The doors opened to a monochromatic lobby with marble mosaic tiles and gold plaques on the wall.

Kei ushered her past a turnstile and waved aside the security guard on duty. At some point in the rush, her feet slipped off the terrycloth footwear she was given, but she could not tell Kei to stop.

Outside the blue-tinted glass wall, the sky was getting lighter. In a few minutes, the streets would be filled with a steady stream of students and workers.

A blast of cold morning breeze rushed past them as they crossed the threshold, making her shudder. She sank deeper into the coat and let herself be dragged to the empty sidewalk. The rough asphalt forced her on her toes to prevent injury, and she gripped the knot of the belt in place to make sure the coat wouldn’t spring open and expose her.

Cars and cyclists cruised by. The sound of early morning traffic and the light, whistling wind warded off the fog that had consumed her mind earlier.

Suddenly, everything felt real.

“Ninomae has talismans and ancient spells in its immediate vicinity to prevent liminal spaces from manifesting.” He nodded at Akari, who stood a few yards away from them with a frown. “The pretty lady who’s been stalking us is a shaman. She’s here to make sure I don’t fuck this up. Generally, however, this is a safe space to use my powers in case I need to defend this branch.”

“What are you going to do?”

He smiled at her. “You look like a smart girl who needs more than a petty exhibition with a used cigarette to believe everything I told you.”

Without taking his eyes off hers, he stretched his arm forward and unfurled his fingers.

The temperature dropped. Pressure built up in her ears and obscured the noise around her. Wincing, she backed away from him and turned to face the street. She took in the sight in front of her for several seconds, blinked to see if she was imagining things, and whipped her head around.

Everything had stopped. It wasn’t that the pressure had deafened her to the noise. There was none at all. Even the Shaman was not moving. Only the two dogs sniffed the plants on the sidewalk, unaffected by this anomaly.

Suzu tipped her head back to see a sparrow in mid-flight. “How is this real?”

“Suzu Sakurai, Ninomae’s Kanagawa branch seeks to recompense you for your loss and any negative by-product of the incident with Professor Kaede by offering you a job in our office. We’re ready to grant you anything within reason in exchange for your silence and cooperation,” he said.

Suzu paled. She watched him in silence, waiting for him to take back this offer or at least add conditions to it. When he simply stared back at her, she said: “Anything?”

“Within reason.”

Blood rushed to her head. It made her dizzy, but somehow she managed to stay upright. “I want a visa for me and my father. I want to move to another country permanently. I want new identities for us.”

She thought Kei would refuse, but he merely sighed and said: “You can have that after your contract with us ends, but expect there to be stipulations to make that happen.”

“How long will that contract be?”

“Three years at least.”

“Yes,” she said at once. This was the best offer she could hope to get, and she knew it. “I’ll work for you for three years, and then you’ll help me leave Japan.”

Kei raised his hand again.

The noise resumed with the quality of fireworks exploding next to her ears. She bent over her knees, holding her hands to her ears to manage the pain. From her periphery, she saw the three men, Ana, and a teenage girl with a labrador watching them from the building’s threshold.

Kei straightened her up and tilted her head back through her chin. Placing his palms over her ears with his fingers resting at the base of her skull, he began tapping with his index finger.

Suzu heard the tapping, and the more he did it, the more the pain subsided.

“Better?” he asked. He didn’t sound any less cold, but his words seemed kinder somehow.

“Better,” she said.

“Good.” He let go of her head and shook her hand. “Welcome to Ninomae.”