Mayumi slept quietly, Mephisto’s recommended meditations and medications having done their magic.
Setsura was pondering what to do next. The parlay for Azusa would take place tomorrow night. Thinking about it coolly, the exchange was hardly an equal one.
Mayumi was the “seal” who held the fate of not only this city, but perhaps the whole world in her hand. Azusa was nothing more than a whirlwind that blew in uninvited.
But that didn’t mean he could just leave her to die at the side of the road. Gento Roran had ended her brother’s life as well. They made for a pitiful pair.
On top of that, a new enemy had stepped onto the stage. When Baldy, the yakuza capo, met his end, that toad made its appearance. Setsura didn’t lose much sleep when it came to the syndicates. There were plenty of ways to skin those cats.
The problem was that toad.
The toad glared up at them with venomous eyes as Asai met his demise. Then the toad enlarged, expanded and blew up like a balloon.
There was no telling who made the first move, but a sickly green line shot between Setsura and Mephisto. Behind them, one of the nurses screamed, covered her face with her hands and fell to the floor. In a flash, her body turned into gray-white ectoplasm and dissolved away. This was strong poison.
Without a sound, Asai and the chair he was sitting on split apart.
“Whoa,” Mephisto said softly.
Dodging Setsura’s attack, the mottled dark green creature jumped—with the strength of a kangaroo—through the air.
Setsura’s right hand and Mephisto’s ring flashed together. This time the toad split in two while in midair and splattered to the floor, its guts flying out in a cloud of white steam. The same fate as the nurse. This creature was made of ectoplasm too.
“My, my, my. It’s been two hundred years since I last faced such a dreadful duo.”
The men in question whirled around to face the door. Until they heard the voice, they’d had no inkling that she was there. She was barely three feet tall, was wearing a black satin dress, and was almost as thin as her cane.
The blue eyes in her wrinkled face, looking like taffy drawn out and folded over, shone with an eerie light. The long silver hair falling to her waist shook with anger and laughter. Here was an old woman of an undeterminable age.
“Galeen Nuvenberg,” Setsura Aki said.
“Setsura Aki and Doctor Mephisto. Or rather, the best P.I. and the best physician in Shinjuku. The pleasure is all mine.”
The old woman smiled, flashing her yellow teeth. Though she was standing behind the thick glass door, her words rang out clearly.
“You think doing away with that underling wraps everything up in a nice bow? Let me pick up where he left off. Setsura Aki, if you don’t want the syndicates dogging your every move, it’s time to hand over Mayumi, that girl you saved. Leave her care and treatment to me.”
“Sorry, but she’s already got a primary care physician,” Setsura calmly replied. “From all the rumors I’ve heard about you, I figured our paths would cross eventually. I didn’t think you would so perfectly fit the stereotype though. How many men have met their maker at your hands?”
The old woman laughed without making a sound. “What are you trying to say, boy? I’ve heard plenty about you too, but I hardly imagined a man so wet behind the ears.”
“What would you do with the young woman once you got your hands on her?” Mephisto asked.
“The syndicates have got their blood up. To start with, they’re out for revenge on Setsura for busting up the Death Match. But then there’s the reason why he’d do such a thing in the first place. And the cause comes back to that girl. Knowing they’d be kicking that nest of hornets, Setsura Aki and Gento Roran went in to snatch her anyway. She must be hiding some pretty dark secrets. So one of their errand boys comes to see me. But I’d been looking into this Gento Roran chap already.”
“Then what will you do next?” Setsura asked.
Mephisto glanced at him, somewhat taken aback. The Demon Physician knew that this Setsura was no longer Setsura.
“Do you wish to settle things with me right now?”
“In which case,” Mephisto added, “I would have no choice but to back him up.”
The old woman froze for a second, before the smile returned to her face. “Let’s call it a day, shall we? A woman of my long years is hardly able to take on the two of you at the drop of a hat. I’ll settle for something else instead.”
She took a step backwards. And was swallowed up in the darkness.
Setsura touched his forehead. It was damp with sweat from the tension of the exchange.
“That’s a first,” Mephisto said, referring to Setsura’s sweaty brow, and touching his own with apparent alarm.
Setsura turned on his heel and headed for the elevators. Mephisto followed without asking where he was going.
It took them less than two minutes to reach Mayumi’s room. Everything was in its proper place—except for the patient. The sheets were still warm. She must have been there until only a few minutes before. A draft blew through the open window.
She hadn’t faded through the walls or dissolved into a mist. Mayumi had escaped the hospital from the window. On the seventh floor. The two of them had to believe that Mayumi was the “something else” the old woman, Galeen Nuvenberg, had “settled for.”
“Hmm,” mused Mephisto. “This leaves me all the more interested in that exchange planned for tomorrow.”
As per his usual, he hit that particular rhetorical nail right on the head.