“We’re taking you in,” said the agent with the laser gun, in the tone of voice that normally demanded unquestioned obedience.
“Idiot. Guards or jailers? When did hassling people become your job?”
The agent answered the quip by burying the butt of the gun in his stomach. Kyoya grimaced. He scowled at the agent. “I will remember that.”
“This way, Rama-san.” The first man indicated a limousine stopped along the side of the road.
“But he is—”
“Don’t worry about it!” a shrill voice called out.
Sayaka and the men stopped and looked at the car. The voice seemed to be coming from the vehicle.
“Wait here.”
The agent drew the laser gun back out of the holster and ran over to the car. Confirming that there was nobody inside, he circled around the chassis.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” he muttered to himself.
“Oh, quite out of the ordinary,” the car answered.
The startled agent reached out and touched the car. A moment later, his body melted into the body of the car.
Sayaka just stood there, dumbfounded. Then almost on autopilot, aimed her laser ring and pressed the trigger. The air hummed. The car turned into a lump of viscous slime affixed to the road.
Sayaka turned to the remaining agents. Kyoya stood there smacking his lips, Asura resting on his shoulder. The agents were gone.
“I helped myself,” Kyoya said, pulling something white and long from between his lips. “Yeah, guys are definitely more to my liking. You just can’t eat one.”
He spit something out of his mouth. It landed next to Sayaka’s feet. She swallowed the scream rising in her throat.
It was a human rib.
Her fear motivated action. The laser ring hummed again. Kyoya turned into another glob of slime spreading out on the sidewalk.
“Splendid!” the shrill voice said. “I really wanted to go on a date. But I guess that’s out of the question. Too bad. We’ll have to come as we are.”
Sayaka whirled around and directed the beam of light against the rock wall on the right, the source of the voice.
“Waste of effort. Waste of effort.”
The ground beneath her feet chuckled. Sayaka shrieked and sprang away, pressing her skirt between her legs as she ran. The loathsome thought of eyes growing out of the sidewalk and peering up at her propelled her on.
When the hospital came into view, she almost broke down and cried. She flew inside, giving the receptionist in the lobby quite a start. But her face nevertheless was like that of an angel.
The lobby was crowded with people. Gasping for breath, Sayaka sank into a nearby sofa.
“Welcome back,” said the sofa.
A moment later, the lobby was vacant. Sayaka stared at the countless number of slimy blobs on the floor. The walls wavered.
“What’s wrong? Run away.”
Urged on by the voice, Sayaka surrendered to pure instinct and ran out of the hospital. Upon reaching the sidewalk, the building collapsed. The debris struck the trees along the road and they dissolved too.
Sayaka fled in a blind panic.
“Surprised?” The wind caressed her ears. “Take a right at the next corner. An even bigger surprise awaits.”
She recognized the street. She tried going straight, but her feet insisted on turning right, according to the command.
The hospital was standing there.
“Understand?” the voice boasted. “This isn’t the neighborhood you know, but one of my duplicates. The same way I did so long ago, making a meal of the people and animals who wandered in unawares. Syria, Palestine—they were all verdant fields once. Until I consumed them.”
Sayaka could think of nothing to say in reply.
“I bring you along nicely, and this city aside, the rest of the country was promised me. It has been so long since I’ve enjoyed a truly filling meal. Let’s go, then.”
“I’m afraid not,” said a familiar voice.
A man dressed in black stood nonchalantly at the gate of the pretend hospital. In the face of his beauty, even the sunlight seemed to dim a little.
“Doctor Mephisto!”
The hems of his black cape fluttered eerily, as if in response to Sayaka’s exclamation.
“What a surprise.” The voice swirled around him. “These surroundings are sealed and yet this human being just shows up. How did you get in?”
“Doctor,” Sayaka cried out. “What are you doing here?”
“I got a phone call from Izayoi-kun, along with his lost shadow, and followed it. As for being able to enter this place, being Doctor Mephisto is reason enough.”
“I do not care for what you say.” The voice brimmed with emotion. “But I’ve taken a liking to your type. Long ago, nothing made for a more delicious repast than priests and sorcerers.”
“Ogdora,” Mephisto said, almost as an afterthought.
“You know me?”
The wind howled and then stopped. Even Sayaka could sense the inescapable chain of murderous intent strung between the two.
“During our phone call, I asked Izayoi-kun about your accomplices. Curing someone like you is outside my field of experience, but I am aware of the treatment.”
Mephisto’s right hand reached out from the folds of his cape. Resting on the white palm was a small brown bottle. The cap was off. “I synthesized it in a hurry, so it might not prove as effective as advertised. The Magician Phlora’s miracle drug.”
A thunderous roar shook the air. The ground beneath Mephisto’s feet caved in. The same fate as the agent who’d touched the car awaited him. But he wasn’t swept in. He stood in the air. He hadn’t been standing on firm ground all along.
For this was Doctor Mephisto — the Demon Physician.
“You shouldn’t be surprised. Sorcerers were adept at levitation in your time. Supposedly it was even used as a salutation. I’ve read your hand well. What is your next move?”
“This!”
The buildings all around them tumbled down and avalanched toward Mephisto. Still in midair, the avalanche turned into a blob of slime. Mephisto drew an arc with his right hand. The spray of purple liquid didn’t rain to the ground. Rather, it clung to an empty space. With a shout, it gave rise to a strange phenomenon.
The peculiar sight emerged inside the dripping air.
This “neighborhood” created by Ogdora must be an illusion projected on his incorporeal body. Phlora’s drug scalded and dissolved it.
The earth warped. The sky crumbled. In a flash, that liquefied other world began to corrode. Sayaka was suddenly standing on a completely different—and yet quite familiar—street.
The huge magical manor soared above her head. Adjacent to the Park Hyatt Hotel was the DMZ and Shinjuku’s Chuo Park. To the left was Twelfth Street and the old capital city center.
A dozen feet ahead, a wry smile rose to Mephisto’s face.
“Doctor!”
Sayaka ran up to him. The placid mask of his almost wax-like face softened a bit. He asked, “Are you all right?”
She nodded.
“Then let’s go.”
“Yes, let’s.”
The two set off together.
“Wait!”
A woman’s voice stopped them in their tracks.