Chapter Text
David’s foot pressed on the gas pedal as he sped after the winged monster. He was going as fast as he could under the circumstances, but the Chiropteran he had been chasing was nearing the plane that was about to take off.
“Shit,” he muttered. “It’s gonna jump onto it. Dammit to hell.”
“Just leave it,” Saya's voice came from the backseat, heavy with pain and fatigue, but confident enough. David crashed the jeep through the boom gate and onto the airfield. Behind him, Saya tied her right hand to the metal frame with her neckerchief, bracing herself between the roll bars, katana gleaming in her free hand. “Get closer!” she demanded.
“Don’t make it sound so easy,” David replied gruffly, but he was completely focused, driving at full throttle. Saya stood behind him, her eyes unblinking, facing forward. If this Chiropteran were allowed to latch onto the plane and escape, there was no telling how many lives would be lost.
The jeep was catching up, but soon, the aircraft would be picking up speed. Before that, the Chiropteran would lower its altitude to latch onto one of the engines under the plane’s right wing. Then, if their jeep was underneath it, Saya would just be close enough to reach it - It had to be timed correctly.
The plane began to speed up. The Chiropteran swooped in low, and in that moment, Saya let out a shout, and struck at its wing with all her might.
A gash across the monster’s chest caused it to sputter and flip in the air! It recovered briefly, and might still have escaped, but it was now too low to the ground.It crashed and skidded across the pavement of the runway. The airplane began to take off, and the jeep swerved to a stop. David let out a sigh. They had made it.
He sat there for a moment, the engine still running, before he noticed that Saya had gotten out of the jeep. She staggered on foot, clutching her right shoulder which David now saw clearly; was bleeding badly. “Saya, where are you going? You cannot leave.”
She ignored him, continuing to walk. “Saya!”
Saya approached the monster, and from David’s perspective, she looked completely unguarded. She looked down at it, almost as if she pitied it, and extended her hand, allowing the blood to drip from her wound, into the creature’s mouth, as though allowing it a last meal. He knew very little about the girl he had been working with for so long, and yet, he did know that Saya’s blood was like a strong liquor to these creatures. He had no idea what he was seeing.
A final, faint gurgling could be heard escaping the monster’s chest, and Saya stood there for a moment, before her knees began to wobble. She did not fall, and controlled her descent to the ground with grace, but it was still more exposure than David cared to see in such an irreplaceable asset. He cursed, and tore himself from the seat, but not before grabbing a crowbar that was on the jeep’s floor.
Saya’s uniform was now soaking up the blood pooled beneath the dying thing where they met on the pavement. She was way too close to its jaws for comfort. David marched over to her, grabbed her arm and hauled her upright, moved her behind him, and brought the crowbar down on the monster’s skull. “Don’t pull reckless stunts like that in front of me,” he snapped at her .
“It was already dead,” she said impassively.
He turned toward her sharply. “Get in the jeep.” She didn’t argue. As she passed him, he noticed the full extent of her wound. “You need medical attention asap.”
She didn’t answer that either. She got into the passenger seat, tilted her head back against the seat, and closed her eyes. As David got into the driver’s seat, he took it as a small relief that she was too beat to give him any more lip. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have guessed that she was sleeping.
They drove in silence. David kept one hand on the wheel, the other tapping tension into the steering column. The roads between the airfield and there were mostly deserted at this hour, and it was a short distance between the airfield and it, within the American colony, so it was only a few minutes before they arrived.
The jeep rumbled through the boom gates, past a guard who straightened the moment he saw David behind the wheel. The compound lights cast long, sterile shadows on the concrete. David pulled into the lot beside the admin building and cut the engine. He turned to Saya and saw her eyes open slightly, as if the cease of the jeep’s motion had woken her from her light sleep. “Medical’s in the back,” he said gruffly. “Tell them I sent you.” Saya gave him a tired look, before exiting the car, still clutching her shoulder.
He watched her limp through the rear entrance until she disappeared behind the door. Then he exhaled, scrubbed his hand down his face, and climbed out.
Inside, the fluorescent light hummed too loud. The front desk officer nodded with recognition, already rising. “Mr. Burton-”
David waved her off. “Radio,” he said flatly. “Secure channel three.”
He crossed the room to the comms set, flicked the dials with practiced hands, and keyed the mic. Static hissed, then steadied.
“I hear ya,” Louis’ voice cracked on the other end.
“It’s me.” David began immediately. “Saya and I are at the office.” David turned, glanced at the hallway Saya had disappeared down. “And the witness? The school nurse who was with Saya when it happened?”
“We got her,” Louis said, the helicopter blades in the background still faintly audible over the phone. “There is no need to worry.”
David let out a sigh of relief.
“Are all things okay on your end?” Louis asked
“Yeah, we’re fine. Saya cleaned up pretty nicely.”
“Yeah, about that,” Louis said, a tinge of contrition in his pause. ”Yesterday, I finally got the chance to verify what happened at the train station.”
“We already know what happened, Louis”
“Yeah, but I just needed to confirm it for myself to be sure… I owe you and Saya an apology. I was wrong about the guy…”
“You’re inexperienced,” David said with a sigh. “It happened to me the first time I saw a dead Chiropteran. You’ll get used to those disgusting little buggers.”
“Yeah, I get that but-”
“Louis, I got my hands full at the moment. Can it wait?”
“Ye-”
David hung shut off the radio without another word. He moved through the office like a man underwater, ordered the paperwork be brought to him, sighed what he needed to sign, skimmed the reports left on his desk, initiated where required, and made several notes of who to call from the airbase, the home office, and the office of paranormal affairs in the morning.
The smell of smoke, blood, and burning fuel from the long and violent night still clung to his suit. Finally, his pen stilled. He leaned back. Let the chair groan beneath him. Just for a second. Just until the spinning in his head stopped. He closed his eyes.
***
The ring of a desk phone startled David awake.
He blinked, neck stiff, mouth dry. Pale morning light filtered in through the narrow, dust-streaked windows. Somewhere, someone was talking. It took him a moment to realize it was the front desk secretary, a slim woman, early forties, tired eyes and a voice like gravel over ice. “Mr. Burton.”
He grunted and straightened.
“There’s… a woman here,” she said, headset still crooked over one ear. “She came asking for Saya.”
David froze. “Who?”
“She didn’t give a name. Just walked up, asked for her directly. Then walked past.”
“What?” he barked, already on his feet. “You let her in?”
“Thats the job of the guards posted at the front gate, and she moved like she belonged here, so I assumed that she did.”
David didn’t wait for more. “Where is she now?”
“The clinic wing, she-” He was already moving before she finished. It wasn’t a long distance from one end of the building to the other, and It didn’t take long for him to arrive at the entrance of the examination room. The door was open ajar. David entered, and the bright light and white tiles burned the last of the sleep from his retinas.
Saya sat on the edge of the examining table, still wearing the same bloody clothes she had worn the night before (doubtless having refused to remove her clothes for the doctor). Her expression was calm, more at ease than he’d seen in weeks.
Across from her sat another young woman, whom David recognized by her facial structure, as being either Chinese or Korean.
An oriental in a casual western dress, she was very small, even more petite than Saya was. Her black hair was tied back in a single braid, and in the fluorescent light, David couldn’t tell whether her eyes were brown or green. It went without saying, she was remarkably pretty.
The two of them were speaking softly. Mandarin. David had no idea that Saya spoke Mandarin, and he reminded himself that Saya was a lot older than her appearance led one to believe. Although the way she spoke with this girl, who did not appear much older than she was… There was a familiarity that David had never heard Saya speak with before, even though their voices were both too soft to catch more than a word or two.
David stepped forward, eyes hard. “Saya,” he asked calmly. “Who is this woman?”
Slowly, the woman turned to face him, and their eyes met. There was a depth in them, and after having worked with Saya for so long, something that was familiar to David.
His eyes widened, and his throat went dry as the possibility dawned on him… but that was impossible… Saya was the last of her kind.
Saya slid off the table. Her feet touched the floor like falling leaves. “I need some air,” she said simply, gliding past him without a glance.
David held up a hand as if to stop her, but let it fall, and let her pass.
The other woman was already with her, walking beside her like they’d never been apart.
They left the room together.
The door clicked shut.
David stood frozen, blood buzzing in his ears. The attending physician gave him an apologetic look, as if to say, “I don’t know who she was either.”
The two women left the office, and headed towards the Tama river.
“We could have spoken in the office, Saya,” Lei said gently. “In your current condition-”
“I don't care,” Saya huffed (though the creeping fatigue in her voice was indeed noticeable) “I wouldn’t be able to talk to you in front of them. ”
“That's what we need to talk about,” Lei replied with gentle seriousness, “The man called ‘David’ and the people he works with. How much does he know? How much do they know?”
Saya sighed. She did not answer right away as she and Lei came to a bench overlooking the riverbank, and Saya sat down exhausted.
“I don't know how much they know,” Saya admitted, “but David doesn't seem to know much. He believes that I'm one of the originals- no… he believes I'm the only original.”
A small smile crept onto Lei’s face. “So you've allowed him to think that you are me. ”
“For convenience’s sake,” Saya sighed. “Working with Dave helps me find the Chiropteran, but knowing you, you wouldn't want the hassle of him ordering you around, even though you are the last original.”
“That is true,” Lei said as she sat down next to her. “I would prefer my independence for the ‘thing’ that I have to do.”
Saya looked up at her mentor with a tired gaze. She didn't press.
“That school uniform does look cute on you though,” Lei said, changing her tune. “You look like you would fit right in as a high school girl.”
Saya rolled her eyes. “It was only so I could blend in while investigating the school area. But is that all you wanted to say, Lei-sensei?”
The autumn wind blew past them, sending ripples across the surface of the river.
“Not really,” Lei said. “Afterall, we’ve known each other for over two decades now. I just wanted to see you again, before I went back to find Zhi Zhen.”
“Have you made any progress in finding her?” Saya asked.
“None, sadly.” There was a melancholy in Lei’s voice.
A silence passed between them in the chilly morning air. And yet, both of them were too preoccupied with their own thoughts to notice the cold. “Sensei,” Saya began, almost as if confessing. “I broke my sword again last night.”
“But you have a new one now, don’t you?” Lei said, noticing the case that concealed Saya’s new Katana.
“You’ve had Cui Cao all your life,” Saya said with a hint of regret in her tone, “and he’s never broken. If I had a sword like him…”
“Forget even thinking about it. You and I come from a completely different time and place, and yet you still mastered Shénwu's techniques. You have no idea how rare that is for someone like you to accomplish. I’m sorry I couldn’t find one of our swords to give you though.”
Saya looked down at the Katana. She had only received it last night. The blade didn’t speak to her the way Cui Cao did for Lei. It didn’t guide her… it didn’t even have a name.
“It's fine… Lei sensei.” Another cool breeze blew past them, and a few leaves were scattered along the water of the Tama river. “Thank you for coming. It was good to see you again.”
“The feeling is mutual,” Lei said.
It was November 1st, 1966, at the American Yokota air base in Japan.