Segawa
Kagami did as he was told.
His hand closed over the Tamei girl's wrist, warm and unhurried, and her raised palm lowered. The geometry folded in on itself, light spiraling inward until there was nothing left but smoke.
The girl's whole body went slack. Not unconscious — not yet — but something in her had let go. Like she'd been holding a weight she couldn't carry anymore and someone had finally taken it.
"Disengage, Mori."
The heat vanished. The air stopped shimmering.
"Understood."
Mori's smile didn't fade, but her hands dropped to her sides. Controlled. The kind of obedience that came from choosing to obey, not having to.
The Tamei girl tried to turn toward Kagami. Made it halfway before her knees buckled. He caught her without looking down, held her like she weighed nothing. His face stayed blank, the way it always did when he was working.
Her arm hung wrong. Black chitin where skin should be, veins still pulsing faint green. More paperwork.
"Take her to the infirmary," Segawa said. "Now."
"Hai."
Kagami turned and walked. His eyes caught Shizuka once as he passed, still seated on a chunk of rubble, still sipping from her tea like she was watching weather.
They held each other's gaze. Neither blinked.
Then Kagami looked away. Kept walking. The Tamei girl's head lolled against his shoulder, unconscious or close to it.
Segawa watched them go. Then he turned back to the damage.
Half the arena was cratered. Mori's work, not the girl's. The observation window had blown inward, the deck buckled, people thrown back into the corridor. Smoke still curled from a dozen points of structural failure.
"Look at this fucking mess." He turned to Mori. "I told you to assess her, not break her apart. This wasn't a test. It was an incident."
She dusted debris off her shoulder. "Apologies. She was more fun than expected."
He cursed under his breath, looking at Shizuka now. "You were supposed to contain and probe. Not let Mori break a damn investment."
"She wanted a go at it," Shizuka said after sipping more tea. "Mio-san didn't object." She half-shrugged. "Besides, it was educational."
Segawa tuned out her half-assed defense. "And now I need to explain to the Director why Sublevel Three looks like a warzone." He jerked his head at the crater. "Report. Both of you. Now."
"Of course, Segawa-san."
The slightest annoyance crossed Mori's face. She bowed once, then followed after Kagami's soundless footsteps. Kept her distance. Smart.
He reached for his cigarettes. Remembered he'd left the lighter upstairs. Let his hand drop.
A sound. Small. Wet.
He turned his head.
The little girl was still on the floor. Collapsed where she'd been standing when the geometry lit off. Sobbing now, face pressed into the concrete.
"Onee-san. Onee-saan."
Segawa stared at her. The sister. He'd read the file. Eleven years old. Civilian. No Integration. No mark.
She'd followed that ridiculous knight all the way here. Through a burning building. Through evacuating crowds. Down into sub-levels where Grade A contractors threw around attacks that buckled concrete.
"Girl." He nudged a chunk of concrete aside with his shoe. "Can you stand?"
She kept sobbing.
"I asked if you can stand."
She looked up. Eyes red. Face streaked with tears and dust.
"Where did they take her?"
"Infirmary. She'll live."
"I want to see her."
"This area is restricted." Segawa didn't move toward her. "Dangerous. You could have died."
"I don't care."
"You should."
"I don't."
She was standing now. Shaky. Looking at him with her sister's stubbornness.
Segawa considered his options. There weren't many.
He could have security drag the girl out. He could have her sedated and sent back upstairs with a nondisclosure packet and a false memory signed off by Legal.
He could have done what the file suggested and treated her like leverage. Something you keep in a drawer until you need it.
He looked at her again. The way she stood. The way she said I don't like it was a vow. Same spine as her sister.
And, worse, she'd already seen too much. Easier to walk her out himself than explain to Legal why a civilian got lost in the sub-levels.
"Name," Segawa said, though he already knew.
The girl swallowed. Her chin lifted like she hated that her voice shook. "Tamei... Nana."
He exhaled through his nose. A calculation finishing.
"Nana." He let the name sit for a moment. "Listen carefully. Your sister is alive. She is not being punished. She is being treated."
Nana's fists tightened. "Then why won't you let me see her?"
"Because you are a civilian standing inside a training facility designed to withstand Grade A output." He glanced at the crater again. "And it barely did. If you want to see her, you do it the way that keeps you breathing."
Nana's eyes moved to the ruin. To the scorch-black concrete. To the frost still smoking at the edges. Her jaw tightened, but she didn't cry again.
"Tell me where she is."
Segawa nodded once, like she'd passed something. There was no point preventing the inevitable. At least now he could call off the surveillance over their apartment. Less paperwork.
"Infirmary. Sublevel One." He took off his badge lanyard and held it out. Not to give, just to show. The seal caught the emergency light. "You take the elevator up. You do not leave the marked route. You do not speak to anyone you don't have to. You do not wander. If you do, they will stop you, and I will not be there to argue."
Nana stared at the badge like it was a knife.
"You're coming," she said.
"I'm not your chauffeur." Then he saw her eyes water again. The one thing he didn't have a protocol for. "Fine. Move."
Nana's shoulders sagged a fraction.
Segawa turned his head without raising his voice. "Clean-up team. Now. Seal this ring. No one touches the crater until I say. And get me a casualty count that isn't a lie."
"Yes, sir," someone answered immediately. Too quickly.
He looked back at Nana. "One more thing."
"What."
"If you ever follow her again into a restricted zone," Segawa said, "you will die. Not maybe. Not 'it could happen.' You will. And she will blame herself. Understand?"
Nana's mouth worked. Her eyes went wet again, furious about it.
"Yeah," she whispered. "I understand."
Segawa held her gaze until she looked away first.
"Good," he said.
He started walking.
Nana followed half a step behind him. At the end of the corridor, she stiffened. Glanced over her shoulder at something Segawa didn't need to look back to know was there.
The temperature had dropped three degrees since Mori left.
Shizuka was still watching.
Segawa kept walking. After a moment, the girl did too.
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