So my doc didn't saved sooo i was late i got like 4 chapters done, but no editing on them
My sleep schedule is so shit nowadays without class, plus being tired even tho i didnt do anything
Bro, I don't know why, but I'm so tired like do nothing and sleep all day
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The hotel room was still dark when Morrana opened her eyes.
She did not sit up fast. She did not reach for a weapon. She only looked toward the ceiling and just lay there, looking like a corpse.
The air conditioner clicked. Outside, Kyoto traffic moved faintly through the glass. Somewhere down the hall, a hotel guest laughed too loudly, then hushed themselves, footsteps retreating quickly.
Normal sounds. Still, something felt wrong.
Morrana exhaled slowly and turned her head.
Maeriva was already awake, sitting on the edge of the sofa with her elbows on her knees. Her red hair had been tied back carelessly, and her jacket was half-zipped over her shirt. One boot tapped lightly against the carpet, a restless rhythm she didn't seem aware of.
"You feel it too?" Morrana asked, pushing herself up onto one elbow.
Maeriva didn't look at her right away. She stared at the floor for a second longer, then nodded once. "Yeah."
Seraphina came from the small kitchen area carrying a coffee she had not touched. She paused near the counter, glancing toward the window before stepping closer. She wore a loose sweater over her battle clothes, which almost made her look normal until the light caught the faint sealwork under her collar.
"Something's been moving under the city since around three," Seraphina said, setting the coffee down without drinking it. "Not big enough to trigger wards. Too organized to be random."
Morrana swung her legs off the bed and stood, brushing hair away from her face as she crossed the room.
"Where's Azaria?"
Maeriva jerked her chin toward the bedroom. "With Mom."
That explained why the room was still in one piece.
Morrana walked to the bedroom door and paused, listening again before pushing it open quietly.
Celestia was asleep on the bed, one arm thrown over her eyes, still dressed in half her leather jacket like she had argued with the concept of pajamas and lost interest halfway. One boot hung off the edge of the mattress.
Azaria sat on the carpet beside the bed, back against the wall, flipping a coin over her knuckles. The metal clicked softly with each turn.
She looked up as Morrana entered.
"Morning, corpse princess," Azaria said, catching the coin and rolling it across her fingers again.
Morrana ignored the greeting and stepped closer to the bed, eyes on Celestia. "Anything change?"
Azaria tilted her head, watching Morrana instead of the coin now. "Mom muttered something about pulse-lances, called Zarathos a toaster, then went quiet." She shrugged. "So, you know. Normal family bonding."
Morrana studied Celestia for a few seconds longer.
Her breathing was steady. Not deep enough for real rest, though. Her fingers twitched once against the blanket, then stilled.
Not good.
Not terrible.
Just not good.
"We need to check something," Morrana said, stepping back.
Azaria pushed herself up in one smooth motion, flipping the coin once more before catching it. "Finally. I was getting bored enough to start rearranging the minibar alphabetically."
"You did that already," Maeriva called from the other room.
Azaria smirked as she walked past Morrana. "I said start. I never said finish."
They regrouped in the main room.
Zarathos was waiting near the balcony, one hand resting on the railing as he looked out over Kyoto. His flames were dimmed enough to pass as a very strange biker in the shadows. His skull was hidden under a black hood, though no one in the room would call it convincing.
He didn't turn when they approached.
"Devils," he said.
Maeriva crossed her arms, shifting her weight. "You sure?"
Zarathos tilted his head slightly, as if listening to something far away. "Smells like burnt sugar and bad decisions."
Azaria pointed at him as she leaned against the wall. "That is the most accurate devil description anyone has ever made."
Seraphina stepped closer to the balcony, setting her coffee aside on a nearby table. "It's not just devils. There's machinery mixed into it. Human power grid. Wards disguised as electrical noise." She frowned slightly. "Whoever built it wants it to look boring."
Morrana checked the magazine of a compact pistol that did not fire bullets, sliding it back into place with a quiet click.
"Then we go boring."
Maeriva glanced at her. "Subtle?"
"Subtle."
Azaria groaned, dragging a hand down her face. "I hate subtle. Subtle is just lying with fewer fireworks."
"Good," Morrana said, heading for the door. "Then lie quietly."
They left through service routes instead of vanishing in a burst of power.
Elevator to the forty-second floor. The hum of cables overhead. A staff corridor that smelled faintly of detergent. A stairwell where their footsteps echoed too loudly until they adjusted their pace.
At the delivery exit, a young employee leaned against a stack of crates, smoking. He looked up as the door opened, startled for half a second.
Azaria smiled brightly as she walked past him. "Morning."
He blinked, lowering his cigarette. "Uh. Morning."
Thankfully, there was no panic. No screaming. Small success.
They split two streets later.
Morrana and Maeriva took the train, blending into the crowd with long coats and caps pulled low. Seraphina moved through side roads with a borrowed maintenance badge clipped to her jacket and a tablet tucked under her arm. Zarathos and Azaria disappeared into the alleys, Zarathos muttering something about London that no one asked him to explain.
Kyoto looked normal in daylight.
Students hurried past convenience stores, adjusting backpacks and checking phones. Old women bought vegetables, arguing softly over prices. Tourists stopped at intersections and held up their phones, blocking everyone behind them.
Nothing about the city suggested there might be devils pulling people underground.
That was usually how it went.
Bad things rarely announced themselves.
Morrana stood on a train platform with Maeriva beside her, watching people board. A woman struggled with a stroller, muttering apologies as she maneuvered it through the crowd. A tired office worker leaned against a pillar, staring blankly at his phone. Two high school boys argued quietly about some game, shoving each other lightly.
Maeriva's jaw shifted.
"What?" Morrana asked, glancing at her.
Maeriva didn't answer immediately. She scanned the platform again, eyes narrowing. "Too many missing spaces."
Morrana followed her gaze.
The platform was crowded, but there were gaps. Not obvious ones. Nothing a normal person would notice. But the flow of people had small interruptions. A missing commuter here. A friend group, one person short there.
A girl turned in a slow circle, frowning, then shook her head and walked away like she had forgotten what she was looking for.
Memory smoothing.
Weak but active.
Morrana slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out her phone, typing quickly.
Abductions confirmed. Public masking light. Not clean.
She hit send.
Seraphina replied a few seconds later.
Power reroute in the southern district. Old survey tunnels. Two blocks were blacked out on the city records. Heading there.
Maeriva leaned closer, reading over her shoulder.
"Of course it's tunnels," she muttered.
"It's always tunnels."
"I hate tunnels."
"You hate everything underground."
Maeriva gave her a flat look. "I'm War, not a mole."
The train arrived with a rush of air. They stepped inside, blending into the crowd again.
Two stops later, they got off early and walked.
No rushing. No wings. No armor.
Just two women moving through the city with their hands in their pockets, adjusting their pace to match the people around them.
Morrana preferred it that way.
The entrance was behind a closed recycling depot near a narrow service road. The depot looked unused, but the padlock was new. There were tire marks near the loading bay, recent ones, too heavy for normal trash collection.
Maeriva crouched beside them, running her fingers lightly over the grooves.
"Three trucks," she said, shifting slightly to get a better angle. "Maybe four. Last one had a weight shift leaving."
"People?" Morrana asked, stepping closer.
Maeriva stood, brushing dust from her hands. "Or equipment."
Morrana looked toward the camera above the gate. It was angled wrong. Not broken. Just tilted enough to catch the street while missing the door.
Someone had adjusted it with care.
She tapped her comm.
"Azaria."
Static answered first, then Azaria's voice crackled through. "Please tell me we're allowed to break something."
"Camera loop."
"Boring."
"Azaria."
A pause. Then a sigh. "Fine, fine. Give me ten seconds."
Morrana watched the camera.
It took six.
The little red light blinked twice, then steadied.
Azaria came around the corner with Zarathos behind her, chewing on a convenience store bun. She took another bite as she approached.
Morrana stared at it.
Azaria shrugged mid-chew. "What? I paid."
Zarathos grunted. "She paid with a coin from the Roman Empire."
"It had value," Azaria said, swallowing.
"The cashier cried."
"He was moved by history."
Maeriva rubbed her face. "Can we focus?"
They slipped through the gate.
Inside, the depot smelled like wet cardboard, dust, and cleaning chemicals. Morrana stepped carefully, her boots barely making a sound against the concrete.
Too clean under the dust.
She crouched briefly, brushing her fingers along the floor, then sniffed them.
Someone had sprayed recently.
Trying to cover something.
Seraphina arrived through the side entrance two minutes later, pushing the door open with her shoulder.
She held up her tablet. "There's a lift under the compactor. Power draw every forty minutes." She glanced at Morrana. "Not enough for freight. Enough for bodies."
Maeriva's expression went still.
"Living bodies?"
Seraphina nodded once.
Nobody joked after that.
They moved together toward the compactor, shifting crates aside and prying open a false maintenance panel.
The lift required a badge, a handprint, and a demonic signature.
Azaria crouched by the panel, tools already in her hands. "Give me a second," she muttered, wires sparking faintly as she worked.
Seraphina stepped in beside her, placing her hand over the scanner, murmuring something under her breath as the system flickered.
Zarathos stepped forward last, pressing one burning finger against the panel.
The metal hissed.
The system stopped arguing.
The lift doors slid open.
Warm air rose from below.
Not sulfur. Not blood.
Sweat, Metal, Fear.
Morrana stepped in first. The others followed.
As the lift descended, Maeriva rolled her shoulders once, then again, loosening tension. Morrana noticed, "You good?" she asked quietly.
Maeriva nodded, staring at the numbers ticking down. "Yeah."
"No charging."
"I know."
"No starting a war in a service tunnel."
Maeriva glanced at her, offended. "That was one time."
"Three times."
"Two and a half."
Azaria leaned back against the wall, arms crossed. "I vote for two and a half. The third one had vibes."
Zarathos looked at the display.
"Quiet."
They went quiet. The lift stopped.
The doors opened into a concrete corridor lit by plain industrial lights. Pipes ran overhead, dripping faintly. Security markings had been painted in Japanese, but the grammar was slightly off.
Fake contractor work.
At the far end, two guards stood beside a checkpoint.
Morrana raised two fingers.
Wait.
One guard yawned, stretching his arms. The other checked his phone, scrolling lazily.
Normal.
Careless.
Azaria flicked her coin.
It bounced once along the floor, spinning.
Both guards looked down.
Morrana moved first, stepping forward in a blur of controlled motion. She caught the first guard under the jaw with the heel of her palm and guided him down before his skull hit the wall.
Maeriva grabbed the second by the throat, slamming him lightly against the door.
He tried to draw breath.
Couldn't.
Maeriva leaned close, her voice low. "Sleep."
He slept.
Azaria walked forward, picking up her coin and giving it a kiss. "Teamwork."
Seraphina crouched by the unconscious guard, checking the device clipped under his ear. "Comms are local. No alarm yet."
Zarathos looked down the hall, head tilting slightly.
"People are below us."
Morrana glanced at him. "How many?"
"Enough."
That was not an answer.
It was enough to keep moving.
They passed through the checkpoint and entered the facility properly.
The hall opened into a wider observation area with glass panels overlooking separate rooms.
Morrana stepped up to the first window.
Inside, six humans sat in a chamber with padded walls. No restraints. No visible wounds.
They looked tired.
Confused.
Too quiet.
One woman held her wrist like she had been checking her pulse for hours. A man stared at a door that had no handle. A boy no older than sixteen sat with his back pressed into a corner, knees pulled close.
Maeriva's hand closed slowly at her side.
Azaria's grin was gone.
Seraphina stepped closer to the control panel, her fingers hovering over it. Her face went pale around the mouth.
"They're measuring fear response," she said.
Zarathos stepped closer to the glass. His chains shifted, links scraping softly.
"Not just measuring."
Morrana watched the humans.
A speaker clicked in the chamber.
The lights dimmed slightly.
The boy flinched.
On the panel, a small graph climbed.
Azaria leaned closer, whispering, "Oh, that is nasty."
Maeriva's voice dropped. "We pull them out now."
"No," Morrana said.
Maeriva turned sharply. "No?"
"If we pull them out now, the site locks down," Morrana said, not raising her voice. "We don't know how many chambers there are. We don't know where the machine is. We don't know who's running it."
Maeriva stared at her, breathing heavier now.
Morrana held the look.
"I'm not saying leave them," she added. "I'm saying we do it once. Clean."
Maeriva looked back through the glass. Her fingers flexed twice.
Then she nodded.
"Fine."
Azaria stepped forward, quieter than usual. "I can crash their chamber controls. Make it look like a software hiccup." She glanced at the panel. "Give them light. Maybe air."
Seraphina looked at her. "Can you do it without tipping the system?"
Azaria smiled faintly.
It looked tired.
"Please," she said, kneeling by the panel. "I'm adorable and deeply irritating, not incompetent."
Her fingers moved fast across the controls.
The chamber lights steadied.
The air vents opened slightly.
Inside, the woman holding her wrist looked up.
Morrana turned away from the glass, already moving toward the next corridor.
"Find the core."
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