Part 3

She sensed Sebastian’s spirit rising inside her, growling, expanding against her chest. He was a memory with the heft of a black hole. His bright light erupted and hijacked Hiroshi’s body beneath her, and they writhed in lovers’ agony, together while apart, their light mingled like crests of waves falling into one another, two rivers becoming one. With her hands around Hiroshi’s throat she moaned for more and Hiroshi’s fear worked against his body, so she squeezed his throat to keep the blood flowing while Hiroshi suffocated.

“Give me your strength, my love,” she whispered with her eyes closed. “More. Please. More. More,” she screamed in ecstasy, and claws came out fast, long and sharp, and with the final crest of lightning, their bodies rose into the air, and there they hung suspended in a bright, white electric current that torched the office, and then they dropped to the floor. Her hands let go and the claws retracted. When she opened her eyes, she lay atop a scorched headless corpse.

Koji Sato sat at his desk in his large corner office. Akari sat in a low armchair in the corner of the office’s library. Not quite invisible but certainly unnoticed by the company treasurer. She leafed through The Book of Five Rings. Her black hair was slowly turning crimson. With the police officer’s hat cocked back, she gnawed at a lollipop, her lips smacked, and a drool of blood and sugar dripped on the uniform again.

Koji looked in her direction. She looked straight at him. Seeing nothing, he continued his work.

“‘Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye,’” she read and giggled.

“Who’s there?” Koji jumped from the chair scanning the room. She slowly raised from the armchair and only then he recognized the figure.

“Ms. Jinno. What is the meaning of this? Know your post,” he reprimanded her.

Crouched like a tigress and eyes upon him, she strolled slowly but firmly toward him.

“You are so special, aren’t you? With your suit and an office on the upper floor. A true company man. Only this far from the biggest job.” Her thumb and index finger indicated a distance so short there was nearly no space between them. With one eye closed, she looked at him through that narrow space. “I can close it for you,” she whispered, and her hand came down with a loud bang on his desk. He jumped.

“Get the hell out or I have you committed to the attic, you mad woman,” he cried out disdainfully.

She grabbed and twisted his arm. He yelped and his back bent. She threw him into his chair.

“Listen,” her hypnotizing growl filled the room. Koji froze. “I have worked here for five years, and I know everything about this place.” The truth was that she had sleepwalked through most of her life at Borei. But her blood-charged brain had rewired her human synapses to a beastly degree, and the new connections now gave her access to her entire mind. She remembered every moment of her life, from the first flutter of her heart in her mother’s womb to the present, every memory and all information she ever saw, heard, or read was now accessible at all times, like a vast film of her life.

She hacked Koji’s laptop and started typing. She turned the computer over to him.

“Here is the list of things I want you to do today and what time to do them. Do not ask questions. Start now.”

Koji looked at the list and pushed away the laptop.

“Absolutely not. This will destroy Borei.”

“No, it won’t. You’re up to your ears in debt, and the margin call is coming. Playing the debtors and telling them it’s much worse will bait them into selling ASAP. They’ll try to dump the Borei debt, the price will crash, and when it does, I’ll swoop in and buy. I’ll game the stock trades to generate enough to buy it all.”

“With what money.”

“My money.”

“What do you have? A few million yen?”

“Yes.”