Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 1019: Strange Survivors

”Lord Grey. Thank goodness.” Her English was fluent. ”I’m Mizuno, an awakened. I’ve been sheltering these people in the storage cellars. We heard the fighting stop, so I brought them out.”

”You did well keeping them alive.” He glanced along the exhausted group. ”Is there anyone still down there?”

”Everyone is here. I have a van beyond the cordon. If your soldiers could let it through, we can get out of your way.”

”You’re not in our way. Let’s have someone look after them first.”

Gold shone around Alexandra’s fingers. The elderly woman drew a deep breath and touched her chest in astonishment, exclaiming to Sonoda in Japanese.

The analyst smiled. ”She says it doesn’t hurt to breathe anymore.”

”I’m glad.” Alexandra squeezed the woman’s hand. ”You can rest here. We’ll bring you something warm.”

”Could they stay together?” Mizuno asked. ”Some of them get frightened when we separate. I’ve arranged a clinic for them.”

”Of course,” Alexandra answered. ”But I’d like to help everyone before they travel. Some of them can barely sit up.”

Sonoda relayed the exchange to the lieutenant. He joined the people on the ramp with his tablet, asking their names and checking them against the district’s missing-person records.

”Fujisawa Toru?” He offered the screen to the man with the wrapped feet.

The photograph showed a delivery driver smiling beneath a company sign. Toru recognized himself, studying the healthy face on the screen before raising his eyes to the officer.

He whispered a question, frightened of the answer.

”His wife reported him missing,” Sonoda explained to Kaiden. ”He’s asking whether she got out.”

The lieutenant checked the entry and answered Toru at once. The man covered his mouth to stifle a sob as Sonoda translated for the family.

”She’s safe. She left a number for anyone who found him.”

Kaiden smiled at him. ”Then let’s call her.”

Toru recognized what the lieutenant was doing when he brought out his phone. He reached for it before the officer had even finished dialing, then drew his arm back and apologized in Japanese.

”It’s alright,” Sonoda reassured him. ”She’ll pick up in a moment.”

As the lieutenant passed Toru the phone, Mizuno accepted a bottle from a relief worker and unscrewed its cap for the elderly woman.

”You should rest too,” Alexandra told her. ”You must be exhausted.”

”I’ll rest once they’re settled.”

”You sound like a certain someone I know,” Kaiden said, looking at his protector.

Alexandra gave him a gorgeous smile, then turned back to Toru as the call connected.

”Toru?”

He bent over the phone, gripping it with both hands, and managed half his own name before his voice broke.

”Toru?!”

Aria slipped her fingers into Kaiden’s bare hand. ”She must have been so worried, Kai...”

He squeezed them. Sonoda translated as Toru’s wife spoke, asking whether he was hurt, where he was, and when she could see him. He nodded to his wife as though she could see him, struggling to speak through his tears.

At least one family would get their good news today.

Alexandra crouched beside Toru. Once Sonoda had reassured his wife that he was receiving treatment, the maid spoke through her.

”May I check your arm while you speak to her?”

Toru nodded to Alexandra and moved the phone to his other hand. She rolled his sleeve above a dirty dressing, spreading restoration beneath it before easing the cloth away.

Punctures covered the inside of his arm. Fresh wounds crossed older scars, all crowded around the veins beneath his skin.

Alexandra’s smile faded. ”What happened to you?”

Sonoda translated, and Toru glanced at Mizuno. His wife was still speaking through the phone.

Mizuno addressed Toru in Japanese, her voice pleasant. ”Fujisawa. Put that down. Don’t touch it again.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Kaiden reached across the space between them and seized Mizuno by the throat.

”Kh-!”

He lifted her off the concrete with one arm. Her shoes kicked empty air, and the woman who had been smiling at his protector clawed at the bare hand beneath her chin.

Through Alice’s shared senses, Kaiden had felt Mizuno force mana into Toru with that command. The man was trying to keep talking to his wife while his own fingers set the phone down against his will.

She was controlling him.

”Lord Grey?!” Sonoda stumbled toward them. ”What are you-? Please, she’s-”

The killing intent pouring out of Kaiden made Sonoda’s knees shake. She braced herself against the loading ramp.

He had been joking with Alexandra a moment ago. Now the frightened analyst could barely make herself step closer to the woman dangling from his fist.

His family moved the instant Mizuno’s feet left the ground. Luna flashed between the captive and the survivors, Stormblade in hand, while Alexandra enclosed the ramp in gold.

Aria’s moonlight formed a crescent beside Kaiden’s shoulder. Alice’s halo flared white above him, and Calypso circled Mizuno with her axe raised, cutting off the open yard.

They knew that look on his face. Whatever his intuition told him, his girls trusted the man and they were ready to act on it.

- DepotWatch: ?????????????????????

- GoldenWard: WHAT JUST HAPPENED???

- SaitamaLocal: Why did he grab her?! She’s with the survivors!

- MoonFeed: Look at his girls. They’re all ready to fight. What did we miss????

”You’re... hurting me!” Mizuno gasped. Her fingers dug into his wrist. ”I helped them! Please!”

Kaiden eased his thumb enough for her to breathe. ”What did you just do to him?”

Toru sat with his arm outstretched toward the phone. His wife kept calling his name, but he could bring his hand no closer to it, however hard he strained.

”He gets... confused.” Mizuno swallowed against Kaiden’s grip. ”I was only telling him-”

”Kai...” Alexandra followed the trembling arm to Toru’s rigid fingers. ”He’s trying to take it. He can’t make his hand move any closer.”

Sonoda knelt beside him. ”What’s wrong with your hand?” Her Japanese drew a rush of words from Toru, and she faced Kaiden in alarm. ”He clearly wants to touch it, but his body won’t let him.”

The lieutenant stared at Mizuno, then hurried the relief workers behind Alexandra’s shield. Sonoda stayed with Toru, holding the phone near his face so he could answer his wife.

”I’ve done nothing wrong!” Mizuno cried. ”Ask them! I kept them alive!”

She turned toward the people on the ramp and spoke in Japanese, her voice cracking under the pressure on her throat.

”Come here. Tell them you want to leave with me!”

Alice’s halo flashed.

The elderly woman lurched upright, spilling water down her coat. Luna caught her before her knees gave out, but the woman continued stumbling toward Mizuno.

”Oh shit.” Realization fully hit the Storm Valkyrie now.

Toru rose beside the old woman. His face twisted with the effort of resisting, and he clung to Alexandra’s sleeve while his legs dragged him toward the edge of the ramp.

He repeated the elderly woman’s words. Other voices joined them, thin and frightened, insisting they wanted to leave while Toru clung to the maid with tears streaming down his face.

Sonoda translated in horror. ”They’re saying they want to go with her...”

”Please,” Toru managed in English. ”Help. Please...”