“I must ask you to stay out of this room,” said Mr. Kanbayashi. “The machinery is quite expensive.” Quickly, he urged the group on.
They continued down the long hallway until they abruptly emerged into an open space, the size of a gymnasium, beneath a high, vaulted ceiling. This, Mr. Kanbayashi told them, was the recreation room. Near the entrance was a bar area with tables where guests could drink and chat. Farther along, the group could make out a pool table, a ping-pong table, and a dartboard, among other amusements. Hugging one wall was a lavish, illuminated stage.
“Well done!” said Power. “You built a stage for my grand deduction!”
“No, no,” said Mr. Kanbayashi, waving her aside. “That’s for musical concerts, banquet entertainment, that sort of thing. The entire room is soundproofed so the noise doesn’t bother the other guests, no matter how boisterous it gets in here.”
Meanwhile, Denji had finally found something that interested him. “Is that a pool table? You owe me a game, Power!”
Power sniffed, annoyed at being dismissed so casually. “What a child you are! Excited by the prospect of smacking balls together.”
“I’ll bet you’ve never even played pool.”
“Of course I have!”
“Liar!”
“Would I lie? I was the undefeated champion in a professional pool tournament!”
“Not even! There’s no way that’s true!”
“Pipe down, you two!” Kenzo shouted, a blue vein bulging on his forehead. “Some of us are here to hunt devils!”
One of the other hunters patted him on the shoulder. “Take it easy, Ken. Don’t forget we’re not just getting the base pay this time. There’s an incentive for bringing in results. Think of it this way—a couple of useless louts will just make our share bigger.”
“You’ve got a point.” Kenzo turned with a snort to examine the recreation room. “What’s on the far side over there?”
“Ah, that area’s still being refurbished …”
The group followed Mr. Kanbayashi across the recreation room and into the unfinished area. A dark, narrow passageway stretched beyond the doorway. A few yards in, it turned a corner, then another. The group stuck close to the wall, feeling their way along. The long hallway zigged and zagged. It was like a maze, except that there was only one way to go. The lighting was inconsistent at best, and the air felt thick and stagnant.
“The hell is this place?” Kenzo asked.
Mr. Kanbayashi shook his head. “I’m not sure myself. Perhaps someone was trying to build a play space. The villa has gone through several owners, and the original blueprints no longer exist.”
Eventually they reached the end of the hall, but all they found was an emergency exit. They made their way back to the recreation room, where Mr. Kanbayashi gave each group a key to a guest room and said he would be back the next day to see how things were going. The clack of the front door closing signaled the hunters to begin their work. Any sense of leisure was gone; the focus and tension were suddenly palpable. The sixteen devil hunters were ready to take on the mystery of the disappearances.
“Ga ha ha! So it begins!” Power assured herself that this would be a simple case. When she applied her genius intellect to the problem, it would be solved in moments.
She could spare a few minutes to shoot some pool first.
“Listen up, everyone!” Kenzo raised his hands to get the group’s attention. He’d been a devil hunter for seven years and considered himself a consummate professional. He’d survived some tough scrapes. As seriously as he took his work, he wasn’t above thinking that a big team job was a chance to further burnish his reputation. “I’ve got an idea. Since we don’t know who or what we’re dealing with, why not work together?”
“Work together?” asked one of the other hunters, crossing his arms suspiciously.
“That’s right,” said Kenzo. “These disappearances sound like the work of a devil, but we don’t know where it’s hiding. That’s problem number one.”
“Sure we do. It’s somewhere in this inn!”
“Exactly. One wing for guest rooms, one wing for staff. Big rec room. And that weird-ass hallway that goes out to the back of the building. Floor plan’s simple enough, but that’s a lot of area to comb. That ain’t all, though.” The assembled hunters followed Kenzo’s finger as he pointed toward the nearest wall. “We can’t be sure it isn’t out there. Plenty of devils make dens in the wilderness and hit a place from outside.”
“Gotta admit, you’ve got a point,” the other hunter said. Amongst the group, there were nods of affirmation.
“That’s why we need to cooperate. It’s a waste of energy to scatter and search the place one by one. I say we split into teams and cover assigned areas. We’ll keep in touch and gradually expand our search radius. Everyone pulls their weight, of course. This rec room will make a great base for—”
Kenzo was interrupted by a yell from the pool table. “I saw that, Power! You moved the ball!”
“Sore loser! You think I’d cheat?”
“You better believe I think that!”
“Hey, you kids!” Kenzo shouted, louder than he meant to. He’d worked with devil hunters of all stripes and learned to get along with most, but these two were beyond him. They didn’t demonstrate even basic courtesy, they had no sense of cooperation, for some reason the girl was wearing a stupid top hat, and now they were goofing off and shooting pool in the middle of an extermination job.
Denji and Power didn’t even put down their cues as they turned to address the distraction.
“What is it, Gramps?” Denji asked.
“You’re a noisy one, Gramps,” Power added.
“I told you, I’m nobody’s Gramps! Get over here and listen to what I have to say, both of you. This is important!”
Denji and Power exchanged a look. Denji grinned and said, “Nah, we’re good.”
“Excuse me?”
“I promised Ms. Makima I’d get results. That doesn’t mean playing nice and splitting the work with randos. I’m trying to make a living for myself here!”
“Correct!” said Power. “Anyhow, no need to worry. The great Detective Magician will solve this case. You peasants have no part to play in my drama!”
“I don’t understand a word either of you is saying,” Kenzo growled. He stopped short. “Just a sec. Did you say Makima? As in the Chief Cabinet Secretary’s personal devil hunter? Are you guys Public Safety?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Denji said offhandedly. His response sent a noisy murmur through the assembled group.
The hunters of Public Safety’s Special Division were an elite force on the front lines against the devils. Civilian hunters held them in something close to reverence. They were said to exterminate devils others could barely touch.
“What’s Public Safety doing here?” Kenzo hissed.
A hunter beside him said, “You flunked out before you got to Public Safety, didn’t you?”
“Shaddup!” Kenzo snapped. “I’ll put my skills against theirs any day.” Privately, he winced. He’d taken the hiring exam for Public Safety once and had washed out.
The other man put his hands up and backed away when he saw Kenzo grip the hilt of his katana. “Hey, my bad, man. But the kid’s got a point. There are incentives on this job, and that pits us against each other. Team up with the wrong person and your life could be over.”
“But … wait …”
Kenzo’s attempts to keep the hunters unified came to nothing. They started to head off in every direction. As he stood, thunderstruck, the shouts of the two pool players rang out behind him.
“That’s the end! I declare this game over!”
“Hey, I was about to sink that ball!”
“I’ve got a case to solve. No more time for games!”
“Screw that! You knew you were about to lose! This counts as my win, got it?”
“Sure, I’ll let the baby have his balls! Don’t cry, baby!”
“Who’s crying here?”
Kenzo’s fists clenched. “How could these jackasses be in Public Safety?” he demanded of no one in particular.
He looked up, struck by a thought. Were they in Public Safety? Would a crack organization want anything to do with these ignorant, troublemaking youngsters? He didn’t believe it. There had to be some other explanation for their ridiculous presence.
Maybe I’ll keep an eye on them for a while, Kenzo decided. Observation. That would be his watchword.
“All right!” Power declared, her hands on her hips. “Enough relaxation. Down to business, assistant!”
“Stop calling me that! And I need a break after that game.” With an exasperated shrug, Denji flopped down on a sofa near the bar.
“What a useless sidekick.” From her pocket, Power took the magnifying glass she’d made Aki buy her along with the hat. She strode to the wall and pointed the glass at it. Observation is the door to the truth. That was Detective Magician’s catchphrase.
“Something up with the wall?” Kenzo asked as Power squinted at the whitewash.
As far as Power knew, there wasn’t. It had just been the first thing in front of her. But she wasn’t about to let the audience know that. She turned to Kenzo with a cryptic gaze. “I can smell it. The smell of mystery!”
“The smell of mystery?” Kenzo gave the wall an experimental sniff. “Can’t say I do. You think it’s something only you can sense?”
“Indeed! Some clues reveal themselves only to the greatest of detectives.” Magnifying glass still in hand, Power headed toward the hallway that led to the front door. She knelt and examined the red carpet, picking at the fuzz. Why? Why not?