Chapter 55: The Cob?ea Chronicles

  “The Prime Minister has reiterated his robust condemnation of the terrorist attack at Yokohama Highland Hospital and has pledged an unwavering commitment to apprehending those behind the attacks.” The news anchor's voice was crisp and mechanical, bearing the faint, clipped tinge of a Japanese accent that softened the hard consonants. Behind her, footage cycled on repeat: police cordons, body bags being loaded into ambulances and weeping next-of-kin. “Despite extensive efforts, there have been minimal leads in the ongoing investigation into the largest act of terror...”

  Lady Meng turned off the news stream and leaned back in her chair. Its unoiled joints creaked loudly as she rocked in it. “Until the trail goes cold and they give up,” she thought aloud hoarsely as she massaged her temples with trembling fingers, pressing hard against the pulse that had been hammering there for nine days straight.

  A weighty sigh left Lady Meng’s chest. She let her shoulders droop for the first time in ages. A month’s worth of poise was let out in another sigh so heavy that she could feel the walls of her lungs touch. Her eyes burned with the gritty sensation of too little sleep, and when she blinked, it took conscious effort to open them again.

  Two weeks of being subject to the onslaught of questions from the Community of Inquiry, chaired by the Elders, with Felix recused from the proceedings for obvious reasons, were meant to break their stories. They picked apart every detail, trawling through timelines and cross-referencing testimonies, ready to pounce on the first inconsistency.

  But Felix, defying her expectations, had kept his story straight. She only needed to feed him the script once, and he stuck to it perfectly. He was also smart enough to use his position to muscle the students away from interrogation and be their mouthpiece. The current story was that the students had happened to be in the area and got caught up in the chaos. As for the golden light, Dante’s Shift, Felix lied that a talisman he used to limit the area affected when he used his Shift had kicked in late. After all, talismans were prone to user error, a convenient scapegoat no one could definitively disprove.

  Their stories aligned so well that there was no need for memory extraction, which was fortunately enshrined as a last resort. The Elders could not reach a unanimous decision to use it on them.

  At least he's finally leading with his heart and head.

  Lady Meng was still turning the thought over in her mind when movement caught her eye—a butterfly with violet wings slipping through the open window. It circled the room once before gently landing on her head, nestling beside her hairpin as if it had always belonged there. “Hey,” she said, dropping the formalities.

  “How are you feeling?” First Lady Meng’s voice formed gently in Lady Meng’s mind, warm with concern.

  “Fine.” Lady Meng cleared her throat. “Fanghua and I have managed to change the narrative, subduing public discourse that has anything along the lines of magic and sorcery”

  “I have seen the news.” First Lady Meng said. “But are you sure that your strategy is… effective?"

  Lady Meng pinched the gap between her brows. “Are you suggesting that we not do that?”

  “Of course not. The two of you are doing a wonderful job. I have no qualms about that.” A pause, as if her grand-aunt were choosing her words carefully. “But you should be well aware that it would take a very long time before the conversations around this so-called terror attack die down. I must caution against wearing yourself down.”

  Lady Meng clenched her jaw. “I made a mother forget about the loss of her child, even going as far as making her forget that she ever conceived one. At the behest of a son, I erased his existence from his father’s memories,” she said slowly. “I appreciate your concern, but this web is mine to spin. I’ll see it through to the end.”

  “Very well,” First Lady Meng said. “I shall leave you to rest. However, I still preserve the right to interfere should I feel that things are not up to standard.”

  “You would find my commitment to standards far greater than yours,” Lady Meng said with finality before she snatched the butterfly from her hairpin, crushing it in her palm.

  There were some things she had left out: Michio Mikami and Shougo Makishima. The two detectives who knew of their existence.

  But she had calmly written them out after flipping out on Felix when he told her about them. There was no need to implicate the innocent.

  Lady Meng rested her forehead on the table and was about to treat herself to a well-deserved nap when someone started to knock on her door enthusiastically. She practically lifted her head and mooed like a dying cow.

  “Cooome… iiin…”

  Fanghua came prancing into her office, beaming from ear to ear. Her energy had to be prised from the clutches of the God Hands. There was no way she could still have that much energy after pulling so many all-nighters. She had even squeezed in time to write, edit and publish the headline that Felix had burned to ash the moment it crossed his desk. Lady Meng could still see it even when she closed her eyes.

  VENERATED ELDER FELIX LEE INCINERATES! HUNDREDS DEAD IN YOKOHAMA INFERNO

  Lady Meng rubbed her temples, already feeling the beginnings of another headache. “What do you want, Fanghua?”

  “My dues.”

  “What?”

  Her sister blinked slowly at her with a sweet smile on her face. “My dues,” she repeated.

  “I’m not in charge of paying out your salary. Takahashi is. Go drop the crab a visit.”

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  “You promised me that you would let me have unfettered access to the new Aberrant for all the extra hours I put in.”

  “I don’t remember saying unfettered access. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

  “You didn’t,” Fanghua said. “But I thought about it and remembered that you haven’t made up for stealing William Whispersmith and ratting me out for it.”

  Not William Whispersmith! Lady Meng rolled her eyes at her sister’s childishness for digging up the past. William Whispersmith was an Imbued notebook that her sister had made. It could turn petty rumours written in its pages into truth. She could still remember the pictures of Fanghua’s crush plastered on the moleskin cover.

  As for its fate, Lady Meng hoped that it was buried deep in a landfill in Singapore. As for why there was no William Whispersmith the Second, First Lady Meng made her swear never to use her powers to tarnish their reputation and cheapen their legacy.

  “So what will it be?” Fanghua asked, rocking on the back of her heels.

  “Unfettered access, yes. Without me, no.” Lady Meng narrowed her eyes slightly.

  “Spoilsport.”

  "Then the deal's off." Lady Meng crossed her arms. “The boy has been here for less than a year and has been through too much. The last thing he needs is to be reminded of what he abandoned just to be here, and might I add, this life was given to him against his will.”

  “Fine, fine.” Fanghua raised her arms in mock surrender. “Have it your way.”

  “Is the Cob?ea Chronicles lacking readers?”

  “It could use more. Besides, I need something else to keep those numbers up. The last time I had a good readership was when I wrote about Felix’s rumoured date! Ooh, and the suit-themed photoshoot when he graced the front cover!” Fanghua giggled like a teenage girl who had found a stash of male pinup posters. “Riled up many of my lady readers… Hehe.”

  Whatever it takes to shut her up, Lady Meng thought as she got up from her seat. “Let’s go.”

  ***

  “I thought you said he was in his room!” whined Fanghua as she followed along like a lost puppy.

  “He has legs,” Lady Meng said through gritted teeth as she marched on. “He can go anywhere he wants.”

  While Fanghua grumbled, Lady Meng thought about where Ace could have gone. She recalled Leonhart excitedly declaring that she was going to rebuild Gauss and decided to drop by her lab. The door opened to loud chattering. Jude was sitting on the floor, surrounded by heaps of papers. Overhead, numerous sketches were pegged on clotheslines with their ends nailed to opposing walls. Jude hunched over as she studied the contents of one of the sheets, holding it close to her eyes.

  “This had to be after Future Gadget Iteration 0.1A!” Leonhart said as she peered over Jude’s shoulder. “I think I added the mini food storage box before I added a vacuum feature.”

  “No… The pencil pressure and strokes are different. There might be an intermediate version before your handwriting magically became neater,” Jude said. “But to be fair, you were nine and everything about you could have been ten times more volatile than you are now.”

  “Girls.” Lady Meng cleared her throat. The girls finally looked up to greet her. “Are we disturbing you?”

  “Nope!” Jude said.

  Lady Meng quickly picked up the uncharacteristic pitch in Jude’s voice. “Jude, aren’t you supposed to be in Taiwan?” she asked.

  “She ran away! She ran away!” sang Leonhart.

  “My mum let me come back!” Jude fired back.

  “Did her dad send you to find her?” Leonhart looked at Fanghua with eyes that glittered with admiration as she ignored Jude’s retort. “You’re good at finding people, after all.”

  “I’m good at finding people, but not when someone asks me to.” Fanghua rubbed her hands just like a fly does with its front legs. “I’m here for your Aberrant friend.”

  “Oh, you mean Ace?” Leonhart asked.

  “Where is he?” Fanghua asked with a toothy grin.

  “He’s resting with Kazuya in my room,” Leonhart huffed and crossed her arms. “Boys! They can hardly stay up when you need them to!”

  Lady Meng was about to thank Leonhart, but Fanghua seized her wrist and dragged her out of the lab. “Oh, so you do know how to navigate the Sanctum,” she remarked as Fanghua turned the corner to Leonhart’s room.

  “I only retain information that is useful for my case!” Fanghua declared.

  The door to Leonhart’s room was slightly ajar. To Lady Meng’s surprise, Felix opened the door for them. The twinkle in his eyes fizzled out when he saw Fanghua with her. “They are asleep,” he whispered as he opened the door further to reveal Ace and Kazuya sleeping on a couch. Ace’s armoured arm was draped around Kazuya’s shoulder as the latter leaned on him. On their laps were files filled with sketches similar to those Lady Meng saw in the lab.

  “I… agreed to let Fanghua interview Ace,” Lady Meng replied with a twinge of guilt.

  “Can it wait?” Felix asked.

  “Oh, nonono! Absolutely not!” Fanghua’s radiant voice rang through the room. Ace stirred at the commotion. Lady Meng sighed and ran a hand down her face.

  Fanghua muscled her way past Felix and greeted a groggy Ace, who had to raise his eyebrows to keep his eyes open. She pelted questions on Ace, questions that went unanswered as she answered them herself. “You do have the looks of an Aberrant! That white patch in your hair! Is it a birthmark? And that arm…”

  Ace let out a peep of surprise as Fanghua lifted his armoured arm. “What is this novelty?” she gushed.

  “I… Uhm! Please don’t do that!” Ace snapped his arm away but was careful enough not to startle Kazuya, who was sleeping like a log.

  “Excuse my sister.” Lady Meng placed herself between Fanghua and Ace. “Ace, Fanghua. Fanghua, Ace. She would like to find out more about you for a newsletter.”

  “Oh.” Ace’s initial confusion dissolved into understanding. “Sorry about that, I thought you were…”

  Please don’t apologise to my sister. Lady Meng shot Ace an awkward smile, but he was a bit too dense to understand her signals.

  “Fanghua, please bring this elsewhere,” Felix said, much to Lady Meng’s relief.

  “Okay!” Fanghua already had her grubby hands on Ace. She pulled him to his feet and dragged him with her. “I’ll drop you an email about the upcoming photoshoot! Maybe you can bring your students along too!”

  When Fanghua was out of earshot, Felix asked, “Do you want me to handle this?”

  Lady Meng took one look at Felix and instantly made up her mind. She punched the side of Felix’s arm lightly. “I’ll be fine. Worry about yourself for once.”

  Lady Meng hastened her footsteps, ready to catch up with her sister, but something made her pause. Her feet slowed to a stop. For some reason—instinct, perhaps, or the faint sound of movement behind her—she decided to look back.

  A soft smile tugged at her lips as she watched Felix carefully drape a blanket over Kazuya. His large hands, so often wielded for destruction, tucked the edges with surprising tenderness.

  Felix had not forgotten what he had to learn when he took in Leonhart. And perhaps he never would.

  But it was a pity that the chronicles would never record him holding that light. They could never be compelled to do so.