Zaire couldn't believe what he was reading.
He had downloaded a few e-books as they were cheaper than the paperback versions, and the more he read, the more he realized how little he actually knew.
Even before Akari lifted the veil for Zaire, he had spent over a year investigating supernatural phenomena.
His findings had been mostly circumstantial, but they were enough to paint a clear picture in his head.
Zaire had never been more wrong in his life.
From the fifty vampire factions taking over each state of the USA, to ninja vampires of Japan, and vampires who can live on vodka instead of blood in Russia. Just the vampires alone can pass as a separate field of study…
Feeling mighty overwhelmed, he muttered to himself. "I should take a break."
He raised his wrist and saw it was seven and a half in the evening. That means Akari left exactly two hours ago.
Zaire pulled out his phone, and the moment he opened his lockscreen, Akari's saved contact information came into view.
Are a couple of hours away from each other enough time to call her without sounding needy?
"Ah… maybe I should wait, and think with my brain for a second." Zaire slapped his forehead, shook his head, and opened a new food delivery app.
This one had a completely no-contact delivery system. And, he could buy groceries and other things via the app, too.
He honestly wanted to cook something; no matter how affluent his parents were, restaurant bills stacked up quickly. Speaking of which, Zaire should begin planning to cut costs and search for new revenue streams now that his parents are no longer there to support him.
However, those matters can be dealt with after Akari handles all the bureaucracy of their death, and hopefully gives him their death certificates. In the meantime, Zaire had to prepare for its interment.
Who am I even supposed to call? A funeral director? I've already cremated them. How will I explain that? No, I should start by calling cemeteries. For that, I would have to find a list of nearby cemeteries first. I would also have to compare prices. I would also have to call my cleaning lady, and…
"God, there is so much work to do."
He raised his phone and ordered some pizza. He wanted to cook, he really did, but it looked like, given the time restraints, he would have to eat fast food after all.
The following three hours went by in a blur.
After comparing the prices between three cemeteries, he picked one that looked particularly appealing. Contacting them resulted in an appointment for interment to be made on the day after tomorrow, which was a Sunday.
Zaire also took the time to write two applications for why he hadn't attended the school for a week. He wanted to attach a copy of their death certificates, given that they were an elite school, and he would eventually submit those things anyway, but because he didn't have their certificates yet, he simply wrote the applications.
Finally, he contacted his cleaning lady. After the accident, Zaire had given her six months' salary in advance directly into her bank account and had told her to go on a vacation, and he would call her when the vacation ended.
He never intended to call her back. He intended to die. But plans have changed, Akari had entered the picture, and now it was time to call his cleaning lady back again.
Then, his doorbell rang, and a notification simultaneously came on his phone informing him that his food had arrived at the scheduled time.
It cost him a couple of deliverymen, but finally, Zaire figured out how to get food without causing a catastrophe. As he plated his pizza and began to eat, he took the time to remove things from his phone's recent apps. Eventually, he found himself pausing at the contact information of Akari.
Should I call her now?
He kind of had a couple of reasons to call her. Zaire just didn't know if he should. "Ah, fuck it," he said, and tapped on the green button.
Akari didn't have a caller tune, so he expected the call to ring for thirty seconds. Instead, the call was declined after two rings.
Zaire threw his head back, eyes wide, "Huh?" Immediately, however, a notification comes.
[Akari: Sorry.]
[Akari: Busy right now, and I can't have a guy's voice coming from my phone. Everybody in the family has superhearing.]
[Zaire: Got it.]
He wrote simply, and went back to eating. Akari was busy, and it would be rude to keep her on the phone. Or so he thought, until he received another message.
[Akari: Is there anything you wanted?]
[Akari: Why did you call?]
[Zaire: It's nothing urgent. I was just wondering if you'll be providing my parents' death certificates or if it's something I will have to work on? That, and also, I was thinking, give than the Spirit of Perception is out of the picture, and experimentation is also off the table because, let's be honest, it would just be human experimentation. I would have to theorize and selectively test them.]
For the next five long minutes, she didn't reply. Then, Zaire's phone rang again.
[Akari: I will bring it to your home tomorrow. Secondly, about your whole brainstorming bit, you can spend years doing that, or you can try my idea.]
[Zaire: And, that is?]
[Akari: I will tell you tomorrow. Good night.]
[Zaire: Sure, have a good night.]
Zaire nodded to himself, mildly curious about the mysterious girl's mysterious method, before putting down his phone and finishing his meal.
In the next hour, he washed the dishes for the first time in his life, failed miserably, and did it all over again, again. He downloaded multiple issues of books from A.S. Publications and fell asleep reading one of them.
——————
"Who're you texting, Akari?" One of her brothers asked. Lifting his face from the floor, where he panted and tried to look all macho.
They stood on different corners of their family training room, yet somehow, he could hear the tapping of her thumbs on her phone.
"None of your business, Louis," Akari said, eyes glued to the screen.
Their mother, who stood next to the entrance with an assortment of amenities to help her family train, said, "Now, now, that is no way to talk to your elder brother."
"It's fine, mother," Louis said, with a small insincere smile. "I just want to know because I care, Akari."
Fucking, control freak. Akari thought with a glare towards Louis, which only seemed to widen his smirk.
Louis was two years older than her and twice as annoying.
"You really wanna know, bro?" Akari raised her chin, exchanging a glance with everyone in the room; her entire family, before finally settling on Louis, "I am talking to my boyfriend, who has done things to me that are best left unsaid here in this room."
Louis's mouth opened like a dying fish, eyes wide, and he pointed a shaky finger at her and looked towards their father.
Contrary to his demeanour, his father simply chuckled. While his mother was looking at her daughter in abject shock.
Then, a gust of wind flew by Akari, and suddenly, her second elder brother, Theo, was behind her, looking at her phone.
"Hey!" Akari scowled at him, but he ignored her.
"Don't worry, Mom. She was joking with you." Theodore said, eyes on the screen, "Looks like she is updating her to-do list. Hey, sis, what's 'give certificates'?"
"It's an event where I give a certificate of stupidity to a certain dummy for ruining my joke!" Akari sent a playful jab at Theo.
Their antics made everybody giggle and titter. Including Akari herself, whose laughs were the loudest, but her eyes were flat, still. Her gaze, stone cold.
——————
[Mike: I heard Todd got a promotion.]
[Steve: Todd the baldy or Todd the fraud?]
"Baldy? Baldy?! You're a baldy, you buzz-cut steroid freak. My hair isn't even that thin for a guy in his forties! Not to mention the stress of work and a maidenless life takes a toll on a man, you apathetic bastard!"
A man with a weak chin, slightly hanging cheeks, and a potbelly screamed at one of the thirty-seven computer screens that showed private, unethically obtained information from all over the world.
"And, who the hell came up with Todd the Baldy anyway?! Can't they call me something swell like Ursa's Los Halcones?" Todd paused and gushed in delight, "God~ the cartel comes up with the best names."
Amongst the ranks of cartels, los halcones were the eyes and ears of the organization. Which was pretty accurate to what Todd did for the Ursa.
His Haltija gave him supernaturally enhanced cognitive performance.
From processing everything his senses pick up with hypersensitivity to eidetic memory, he had it all. And, he was the only one that Ursa herself trusted as the eyes and ears of the guild.
So, it went without saying that he deserved better!
Not to mention, before falling head over heels for Ursa, Todd was a quantitative analyst—that job paid more in a month than any of these chumps made in a year!
"And, these bastards call me Baldy…" Todd sniffled, biting and pulling on the handkerchief he used to wipe his nose.
Beep-beep.
Todd wiped his eyes with the back of his hands and focused on a new string of words amongst the countless that flowed through the screens surrounding him. He pulled on the floor with his toes, dragging his rolling chair towards his line of sight.
Someone in this city was buying dozens of A.S. Publication books. That was strange. The deception ward used by A.S. made it hard, but not impossible, for normies to read their work.
However, most of them don't read it after checking one issue simply because of how shitty the stories are. But this guy was buying in the twenties, which is unusual. There is also the fact that…
Unlike someone who would read a multi-issue series in some form of chronological order, even if it's an anthology, this buyer was buying the most recent issues and reading in reverse chronological order.
"Something is not right…" Todd squinted his puffy eyes before a realization dawned on him. "Oh, could this be a retail seller buying in bulk online?"
Todd dragged his mouse to open a couple of assisting software, and soon, he was looking at the buyer's physical address. He tried to directly spy on his computer, but couldn't because the buyer was apparently pretty technologically literate.
"Let's see, the buyer is from an affluent family in a gated community… There is just no way he is buying e-books to print and sell phony copies."
Todd shuffled through his breast pocket and produced a small feature phone. With a serious expression, he called someone, "Dispatch Deville to this address I am forwarding, for a reconnaissance mission. He can directly call me for the specifics," before cutting the call.
That was it. That's where his job ended. He wasn't paid to speculate, he wasn't paid to voice opinions or think. But if he were, he would wager on only two possibilities for this entirely random occurrence.
Either two factions were in a state of cold war, and one of them had managed to sabotage the other's information channels or archives, causing the losing faction to rely on outward sources like the generalized, public but reliable A.S.P.s.
Or…
Someone or something from the history books was walking amongst them.