Hisako's hair was still damp from her post-sparring shower when she stepped into the briefing room.
The shift in atmosphere from the bright, cavernous gym to the small, dark office was jarring. The walls were an unpainted white, which took on a dank gray hue in the dimmed lights, and the room featured multiple desks before a projector screen.
Vice Captain Fujioka stood before the screen in his haori-and-samue outfit. His eyes were distant and unfocused. The screen lit him with a baleful white light, making him look washed-out and ashen.
Amajiki led Hisako deeper into the room, then gestured for her to sit down next to another Doorkeeper. It took her a moment of glancing at them from the corner of her eye to realize it was Serizawa.
In the shuffling silence of the room, Hisako did her best to quietly greet the familiar face. She elbowed him gently, then beamed him a smile when he looked over in surprise.
"How are you?" Serizawa whispered excitedly.
"Good, good! Amajiki-san forgot to tell me I'd passed until just a bit ago, so I'm very happy still," she laughed quietly.
Serizawa smiled and nodded. "I'm glad. You're all healed up?"
Hisako nodded. Before she could tell him about all the doctors and nurses and their abilities, the slides changed, painting the room a new color with a broken-up map of Chubu.
The room immediately quieted. The shuffling and shifting stopped. All eyes were on Fujioka up front, who'd come back to life suddenly–gentle smile and all.
"Good evening, everyone."
Everyone greeted Fujioka back. Serizawa and Hisako hurried to join them.
"Before we get into assignments, I want to remind everyone to read the daily reports issued by Intelligence. They're still indicating that Trapdoorings and rogue Awakened will be encountered more often, particularly in certain sectors in Chubu. Please be careful and diligent, everyone, and trust your gut. If you sense danger, keep yourself safe."
The screen shifted to different sectors of Chubu. Patrols were composed of pairs and denoted by two ID photos and a sector cut of Chubu. As their faces appeared onscreen, the Doorkeepers left, receiving "good luck"s and "stay safe"s as they did.
After all the other patrols had left, the screen changed to an image of a woman with short, dark hair and a scar across the corner of her lip, exposing a bit of gum on the bottom. She looked battle-tested and tough as nails, with a piercing look to the dark eyes in her ID photo.
Kumagai, Akiko.
Listed beside her photo, instead of another ID photo, were Hisako and Serizawa's names. The sector depicted was a city only a few stops away from Hisako's.
The light clicked on, and Fujioka and Kumagai started to approach their desk. Amajiki, still standing behind them, nodded in greeting as they did.
Hisako couldn't help but notice that they were the only ones left. Rao, Sasaki, and Yasuda weren't there.
"Are the others in a different group?" Hisako asked quietly.
"Oh," Serizawa whispered, eyes sliding to Amajiki.
"Ah," Amajiki said guiltily. "I suppose I forgot to tell you that, too; the others didn't pass the exam. Only you two did."
"What–"
Hisako cut herself off as Fujioka and Kumagai arrived.
Kumagai was dressed similarly to Nanae, with a black three-quarter sleeve undershirt, athletic pants, and combat boots. They stood when she arrived and bowed to greet her.
"Kumagai-san," Fujioka said. "This is Serizawa-san and Mochizuki-san. Because of the increased activity, you'll be accompanied by two rookies instead of one."
Kumagai nodded. "I look forward to seeing what you two can do."
"Before you prepare for patrol, we'll have a quick briefing on Trapdoorings and rogue Awakened," Fujioka said, leaning against the desk before theirs. "As it sounds, Trapdoorings are events where an individual is tricked or forced into either their own door or another person's door. It's an element of combat used by some Doorkeepers, but against civilians, it's attempted murder.
"Unfortunately, a significant number of Awakened not affiliated with the Doorkeepers are violent offenders and have increasingly attacked civilians in this manner, to the point that it's likely that in your patrol phase of training, you will encounter a Trapdooring.
"In the event of a Trapdooring, you are to report the event for the Enforcement Division to act on. You will not be involved in any combat situations. This stage of your training is solely to acclimate you to Doorkeeper duties. Should you become involved in combat, you are to fight to escape."
"What if someone needs help?" Serizawa asked. "And nobody else can help them in time?"
"Then you'll help them. Once they are safe, ensure your own safety," Fujioka replied. "As a Doorkeeper, you are being given the power to keep others safe from harm at all costs."
"All costs?" Hisako echoed quietly.
"Trapdooring is murder," Kumagai said. "These people kill for a living, or worse, they kill for fun. They will not hesitate to cut you down to reach the civilian behind you, so you will not hesitate to cut them down to save others. Understood?"
Hisako nodded. She thought of Kohaku and imagined someone trying to murder them by throwing them into that violent world of shambling Doorwalkers. Kohaku and Hisako had been lucky that Amajiki was already investigating their door. What about all those individuals maliciously Trapdoored only to die without rescue?
Though she knew she was no expert in person-to-person combat, she could clear a door. That would make a difference to those people.
She gritted her teeth. "Understood."
Serizawa nodded after a moment. "Of course."
"One day, you will feel the same way," Amajiki said softly. "When you have seen what we have, you will know it is the only acceptable taking of a life–to protect others."
"Yes." Fujioka nodded grimly. "Trapdoorings come in two forms: the luring of someone into a door willingly, which can take the form of coercion or manipulation; and the forcible shoving into a door, which will be a violent action. The former may be harder to notice, but when a door is involved, it should immediately become clear."
She and Serizawa nodded along, processing the information.
"If you suspect a Trapdooring, report it. Better safe than sorry," Fujioka said. "The same for a rogue Awakened. If you think someone is Awakened but they're not a Doorkeeper, you can inform someone. We have a database of rogue Awakened that we can check your description of them against."
"There's no database of all Awakened?" Hisako asked.
"We're not here to police Awakened," Kumagai said. "We only keep track of our own, of course, and those who have committed crimes."
The two new Doorkeepers nodded.
Hisako respected that. People content with living normal lives despite their abilities didn't need to be involved in all the chaos. It was a choice.
"Is everything understood?" Fujioka asked.
They nodded again.
"Yes, sir," Serizawa said.
Fujioka paused, then nodded. "Amajiki-san, let's leave them to brief with Kumagai-san."
The two senior Doorkeepers left, and Kumagai strayed briefly to turn the lights back off, then made her way to the front of the room. The map of her section was still up.
"This is my patrol sector. I run it every night with a few days off a month, so I'm the one who knows it best," she explained.
"I'm somewhat familiar with this city," Serizawa offered. "This is where I did my shopping when I worked at an office building."
"Good. Having home ground, whether it's your door or your city, is always an advantage," Kumagai said. "You will both become as familiar with this sector as I am by the end of your patrol training with me.
"We'll begin with the big picture, and then I will teach you the details while we run the route."
Kumagai's route started in the heart of the city known as "Pacchi" to its inhabitants. Maybe it was the pulsing neon lights that earned it its name, but Kumagai suggested it had some Italian meaning behind it.
Either way, the heart of the city blinked and breathed with lights and life. Students meandered home through clogged streets in clots and gangs, salarymen staggered about, and everyone else shuffled through their nighttime rituals. The moon was a sliver in the sky, and clouds circled overhead, limiting its light.
A far cry from Strömberg's door, Hisako couldn't help but think.
Kumagai seemed to know everything about the city and the people. As they passed alleys of small restaurants and rows of apartments, she greeted people, and they greeted her back with familiarity.
"They're okay with seeing you patrol every night without knowing what you're doing?" Serizawa asked.
Kumagai shrugged. "They become something like friends after a while. If you are friendly and polite, they'll eventually accept you."
"How long have you been patrolling this sector, Kumagai-san?" Hisako asked.
"Since I became a Doorkeeper eight years ago," Kumagai explained. She regarded them for a moment. "I was around your age when I became a Doorkeeper, Mochizuki-san. It was a different time for Awakened, and I would wander around town on my own."
"So things are really changing quite a bit, aren't they?" Hisako asked. "From the top to the bottom."
Kumagai blinked. "Ah. So Amajiki-san has spoken with you about the Medical Division, hasn't he?" She smiled like a fox might when cornering prey.
"A bit," Hisako admitted. "I understand that it's complicated on the… the bureaucratic side of the Doorkeepers right now."
"Yes, and it's a horrible time for it, but we generally agree here in Chubu that it's better now than never."
She sounded annoyed by it, but not against it. Hisako hesitated, then spoke.
"Would you be able to tell us a bit about it? Just enough that we can be in the know?"
Kumagai thought for a moment, eyes absently tracking their surroundings. "Captains are currently the ones who decide things. Captains, unfortunately, have tended to be, in the past, members of the traditionalist clans that formed the Doorkeepers.
"A significant number of Doorkeepers want a democratic system in which the members of the divisions affected may vote to make decisions. This, of course, would leave captains on the same level as everyone else in bureaucratic decisions, and that would remove a lot of power from the traditional families."
"May I ask what position you take on this?" Serizawa asked.
"I'm not from a clan. I joined the Doorkeepers when I Awakened," Kumagai said. "I'm… not too invested in the politics. I'm simply here to serve the people of my sector, but I know better than to sit by and let others make decisions that involve me without paying any attention. I may not have an issue with how the clans control the Doorkeepers now, but giving the power to the people will one day save us. I believe that."
Hisako nodded. "Is there a reason this has happened now, of all times?"
"The previous Medical Division captain's passing. She was the last main member of a small but important clan. She carried a healing technique that was integral in the earliest days of the Doorkeepers, back when they were just a vigilante book club.
"Anyway, she was quite important, and her death essentially marked the end of an entire clan. It destabilized the status quo up high, and it made everyone realize that consolidating power and knowledge in the families would eventually fail us."
Kumagai gestured to her own lip, to where the thin scar on Hisako's lip was.
"You have scars and aches. Those would not exist if Lady Seki were still around." She touched her own scar gently. "As for my scars, Lady Seki offered to heal this, but I opted not to. It was a gift from my door–my heart. She was kind; she understood my answer, and many other keepers' desires."
"She sounds very nice," Serizawa said softly. "Was she old?"
Kumagai chewed on her lip. "Lady Seki was not old, no. She was forty-six when she passed, but she was rather sickly. You could mistake her for a ghost, truly." Her brows scrunched, and her face tightened. "We're not entirely sure of the cause of her death. She was simply found dead in her family's private estate. She was very private, and her security was only that of her clan and their personal guard. None of them could explain her sudden passing. She simply… left in her sleep."
"Peacefully, then?" Serizawa asked, voice soft and comforting.
He was a far better people-person than Hisako, she was realizing. Hisako struggled to find the right words to offer condolences to the hardened warrior mentoring them, but Serizawa had found them instantly.
"Peacefully?" She echoed Serizawa's words with darkening eyes. "No. I believe not. I don't believe in coincidences. Her death immediately preceding such an uptick in rogue activity? It's too perfect for them."
"You think it was murder? In her own home, surrounded by her own people?" Hisako asked, voice rising with surprise.
"The death of the chief medical officer is a gift too sweet not to give yourself before starting a war," Kumagai replied.