The Divine Blood answered the call and this ti instead of seeping out of his body, it started to form out of thin air, forming the body... starting from the legs.
Short, petite... the proportions of a girl who looked roughly 14or 15 years old, rendered in the smooth matte black of the Divine Blood at rest.
He looked at it.
The body stood exactly where he had called it. Arms at its sides, head level, the entire surface still and quiet as an object. Because that was what it was — an object, just a shape and an empty container.
The consciousness that should have followed the form out into the physical world had not moved. It sat in the Soul Space the sa way it always sat, chained and still, the blue energy of it entirely separate from the black shell standing in his office.
He sat back in his chair and looked at the empty Nina-shaped shell standing in front of his desk and said nothing for a long mont.
’The body cos out. The consciousness doesn’t follow. I am able to mix them inside the Soul Space easily — the blue energy enters the form without resistance. But the mont I try to bring it out, the connection breaks at the threshold. As if the Soul Space has a boundary that the consciousness cannot cross while it’s still technically imprisoned there.’
He folded his hands.
’The chains. I freed the chains inside the Soul Space for the experint. But maybe the chains aren’t a structure — they’re a condition. The Soul Space itself is the prison. I can move the consciousness inside it freely. I cannot move it out of it because out of it is out of the condition of its imprisonnt, and the system doesn’t release on a wish alone. There has to be sothing else. Sothing Crucial that I am missing.’
He recalled the Divine Blood. The shell dissolved back into his palm without resistance, the black liquid reabsorbing cleanly.
He had tried this several tis now. Each ti the body ca... but the consciousness didn’t follow.
The missing piece was not in the technique. The technique worked perfectly. The missing piece was sowhere in the rules of what his Soul Space was and what was required to actually release a soul from it rather than just moving it around within it.
He had no idea what that requirent was.
He picked up his pen and made a note. Then crossed it out because it said the sa thing the previous notes said.
Then his phone rang.
He looked at it... and found an unknown number.
He picked up.
"Sir." Shiro’s voice ca from the other side. "I’m at Nina’s school. I’ve explained the situation twice. She understands that you sent . She says—" A brief pause. "She says she was told not to follow strangers, and she is going to wait."
Ishiki closed his eyes, controlling his laughter.
"She is standing at the gate," Shiro continued. "She has been standing at the gate and is not going anywhere."
Ishiki opened his eyes.
"Give her the phone," he said.
A shuffle and then a sweet, childish voice ca through.
"...Hello?"
"Hello, little kiddo," Ishiki said.
"Dad!" The wariness evaporated imdiately. "There is a weird guy here who says you sent him."
"He’s not a weird guy," Ishiki almost burst out laughing. "He’s my assistant. He works for ."
"He looks weird," Nina said, with complete confidence.
In the background, faintly, Ishiki heard what was likely Shiro crying that he was not weird in anyways.
"He’s going to bring you ho," Ishiki answered in a deep voice.
A brief pause. "Can I trust him?"
"Yes," Ishiki said. "You can trust him."
Another pause.
"Are you sure," she said.
"Nina."
"Okay, okay." Then, suspiciously quickly: "You said he works for you?"
"Yes."
"So he has to do what you say?"
Ishiki looked at the ceiling. "Uh... yes, I guess."
"And if you told him to buy sothing, he would have to do it?"
There it was.
He heard it coming the sa way you heard a car turning onto your street before it was visible.
"I’m going to let you get anything you want," Ishiki replied with a faint smile.
Silence on the line.
Then: "...Really?"
"Really,"
"Anything?"
"Within budget," Ishiki imdiately added.
A small sound on the other end that was very close to a laugh that she was suppressing because she had decided to maintain her negotiating position. "Okay," she said, in the tone of soone granting a concession. "I will go with the weird guy."
"He’s not weird," Ishiki chuckled a little.
"He has a very serious face," she said.
"That’s just his face."
In the background, another faint sound from Shiro’s direction that may or may not have been a cough.
"Nina," Ishiki coughed too and said seriously. "Go with Shiro. I’ll be ho before you get back."
A pause.
"Promise?"
"Promise," he said.
"Okay. Bye, Dad."
"Bye, kiddo."
The line went quiet.
He put the phone down and burst out laughing. So ti later, he stared at the wall in front of him and realized that all his tension had dissolved.
He worked through the special report he had asked Shiro to make, with the red editing pen, moving from section to section.
He removed... every ntion of the na Ishiki. There were two ntions of Nina in the early sections which were removed as well.
The description of the entity’s behavior, threat profile, physical capacity, all of that stayed. He added a threat classification line at the bottom of the entity description section.
Entity Classification: Rate 4 Danger.
Recomnded Response: Eliminate at sight. Do not engage without minimum two Adept-tier field operatives. Do not attempt containnt.
He looked at it then signed it with the Kashima Ryou signature and date, printed a new set with the previous information gone, sealed the docunt envelope, and sent it up through the internal routing system to the senior field coordinator and the Ward 9 threat assessnt desk.
Then he took the original report and burned it with the purple flas of Sorrow’s Edge.
Done.
He stretched his arms above his head and stood up. He picked up his jacket from the back of the chair, put it on and walked out.
The corridor, the elevator, the lobby. He nodded to Miura on the way past and pushed out. It was late afternoon, almost 3 pm and was going to be evening soon.
The street was filled with noise, cool air and the ordinary movent of children going ho after school.
He reached the staff bay and found that his car was gone.
He stood in the empty parking space for a mont.
’Holy cow! ’
He had told Shiro to take Nina ho and that bastard took hi car away without even asking.
He stood in the empty space and sighed, he didn’t need a car to go ho anyways. He turned around and activated the skill he had received so ti earlier.
He activated [Spatial Jump] and took a step forward.
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