Controversial?

Deep beneath the Earth's embrace– kilometers beneath Tokyo is the ICMG's sprawling research and development complex. The base of operations alone is at least the size of Tokyo. 90% of the space is made up of geothermal generators running day and night to manage the power upkeep of this place. Thick cables transmit and focus energy into a singular skyscraper sized laboratory. Its floors are made up partially out of reinforced metal and filled with the sweat and blood of hundreds of I-C's analyzing, cataloging, and documenting data. Day and night, they slave away, trying to unlock the secrets of magic.

"The Commision is thinking of facing out the word 'Jutsu.' It's not wrong but only us Japanese use it." The Lady of Tokyo reviews the data one of her I-C's has offered up to her. "'Spell' is technically the proper scientific term."

"Yes, ma'am."

「Kirika Namatame」- Ambitious I-C

The Lady of Tokyo sighs and mutters something under her breath. Something about how a certain someone would have known better. Kirika murmurs an apology.

"Still, your dissertation on Transmutation shows promising results."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"..." The Lady of Tokyo cradles her fingers and slumps deeper into her throne.

"..." The I-C fidgets in place. "U-um…"

"What do you want?"

"...Ah? Eh?" Kirika points at herself. "Me?"

"You want something, don't you? That's why you haven't removed yourself from my sight yet. So what is it?"

"I… uh…"

"How much longer do you intend to waste my time?" The Lady of Tokyo waves her hand, a mechanical arm descends from the ceiling to push Kirika forwards. "What do you want?"

Kirika kneels down at The Lady of Tokyo's feet. "My most highest Lady, I have done nothing but serve you for the past thirty years I have been under your care. I have never asked for anything above my station. I have never questioned your orders. I was one of the first prototypes for your second-stage ascension project. My only request is to serve you as I always have and to bask in your presence for just a moment longer."

The Lady of Tokyo's eyes hide behind her reflective glasses. If Kirika misspoke, it does not show on her face in the slightest. "..."

"I… I know I can never replace Alexi–"

"Indeed. You cannot." The Lady of Tokyo pinches her nose bridge. "Leave me."

"Wait."

"Impudent wretch." The Lady of Tokyo gestures with her fingers sluggishly. Copying her movements, a mechanical arm descends from the ceiling and slams into Kirika's side, pinning her to the wall. A squeak is all that comes out of her mouth, her tongue frozen in a mixture of admiration and fear. "Choose your next words very carefully. They may be your last."

"I-it's Ozawa, ma'am. The yakuza, they're gone."

"..."

"As… as you know, Ozawa hosts a Spirit Realm Gate. If we capture it, it's entirely possible that we may finally have enough prana to uncover the key to fourth-stage ascension."

"..."

"Ma'am?"

The Lady of Tokyo lowers her arm, the mechanical limb follows suit. Kirika falls forwards onto the ground with a resounding clang.

"Get to the point faster next time."

"O-of course, ma'am."

"I entrust this operation to you…" She snaps her fingers. "What was your name again?"

"Kirika."

"Kirika." The Lady of Tokyo nods to herself. "If you are half as loyal or half as honored to serve me as you say, do not fail."

Let's see. The Lady of Tokyo is unlikely to mastermind this operation herself so the onus falls onto her uncreative subordinates. It's likely for them to employ brute force as their first move. More than likely, she intends to unleash an army of I-C's on the city. It'll be difficult to wrest control once she's taken over so the obvious answer is to gain control of the city first. But how? My I-C's are already stretched thin. And unlike the Lady of Tokyo, I don't have the luxury of just making more without appropriate funding. Damn the ICMG and their favoritism.

The Lady of Osaka tosses the question in her mind over and over as she eats her steak. It's cooked blue rare, leaving it nice and bloody, just the way she likes it. She has a vinyl on a record player blasting some American 1950's rock that fills her whole apartment. For all of her status and acclaim, the paycheck of an ICMG Major isn't actually all that much. At least, not as much as she thinks it should be.

She's about to eat some more steak when a rat scampers across her floor. Disgusting. It's not the disease or the parasites or the general unsightliness of a rat that disgusts her, rather she is simply disgusted by the weakness of its soul. Animal souls are naturally much weaker than a human's but this rat's is weak even for an animal. She weaves the mana in her body into an invisible channel that she attaches to the rat. All it takes is the smallest inkling of her will to overpower the rat's mind. It turns into an extension of herself– nothing more than a puppet. She has the rat crawl up onto her kitchen counter and drown itself in her sink. The sheer overwhelming instinct to survive spurs the rat's will to fight back as hard as it can but The Lady of Osaka holds it down. A minute passes before the rat's corpse floats back to the surface.

Then it suddenly hits her. She has to double check but she just remembered something about that city, Ozawa. Checking her drawers, she eventually finds the dossier for Ozawa City confirming that yes, the yakuza have a particularly strong presence in the area. Surely they can't all be gone. Perfect. She's found out how she's going to beat The Lady of Tokyo to the punch.

She motions with her hand, as she does, what look like wisps of ethereal smoke dance between her fingers, minor grief spirits bent to her bidding. She raises her hand to her mouth and blows, scattering them into the wind. They slither away into the distance, finding their way to Ozawa.

"Fetch me their souls."

It's been a full week since Shosuko disappeared and yet, Oka can't get the image of her back turned towards her out of her mind. Whenever she closes her eyes to sleep, she's taken back to that black day. She sits up in bed and walks to the kitchen.

Oka takes a swig directly from a bottle of scotch as she whispers to herself. "It's not my fault."

So then why? Why does it hurt so? Why only now?

She didn't do anything different. She was just serving her family. That's all that happened. There was no sin involved. And if there was, it surely is Kiara's, not her own. She did the objectively correct thing, right? Debts are meant to be repaid. So then why?

She clenches her fist.

So then why did Shosuko look at her like she was someone else?

No. There's nothing to forgive. She has no sin, after all. She washes her hands in the sink and sighs.

"Oka?" Daisuko leans on the doorway. "What are you doing up this late?"

"Nothing, nothing." Oka wipes her wet hand on her forehead. She feels feverish. "Go back to bed. I will too in a bit."

"Are you still thinking about Shosuko?"

"Yeah…"

"Did it really get to you that much?"

"Yeah…"

"Listen, Oka." Daisuko walks over to where Oka is standing and pours herself a glass of scotch. "We've done some pretty awful things in the past. We hurt people. We killed people. It's just a fact of life that we did those things. All we can do is own up to it, and embrace the freedom that comes from it."

"But we didn't do anything wrong. We were just doing what we thought was right. We were just kids, we didn't know any better."

Daisuko looks at the floor as she clinks her fingernails on her glass. Silently, she downs the rest of her drink, places the glass in the sink, and walks away.

She takes a step on the staircase leading to their house's second floor. Daisuko doesn't blame Shosuko for disappearing. It's about time one of her sins caught up to her. She takes another step. Anyone would react that way coming face-to-face with their parents' killers. She takes another step, rising through the staircase towards the second floor.

Undoubtedly, what she did was wrong. She can't justify it as self-defense. She can't even say it wasn't premeditated. It wasn't just a killing. It was murder. And murder is bad. That's the most basic of basics. Every human being knows that. But she's done much worse things. Of all the sins to catch up to her, this is the one?

"How ridiculous."

Her sins roll off her back like rain. How can someone like her ever be forgiven? The simple answer? She can't.

"Ah whatever." She tries her best to laugh it off. There's no point beating herself up over it. Especially if others will do it for her happily. She pushes open the door to her room. Her girlfriend's lying in their bed. She opens her eyes half way.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Go back to bed. I need to be alone for a bit." Daisuko plants a kiss on her cheek before tucking her in. Once her body relaxes back into slumber, Daisuko takes a seat in her armchair where her mind once again begins to wander. It trods on memories, cherry-picking out the most unpleasant ones for Daisuko to relive. If there is a hell, this must be close to what it's like. A collage of sins plastered together in an almost incoherent mess. Every time Daisuko feels herself start to slip into sleep, a scream echoes from within the deepest recesses of her mind and jolts her awake.

"Real funny, brain." She raps her knuckles on her skull a few times, as if to get it to behave. It takes her a few more hours but eventually she does feel the comfortingly cold fingers of sleep wrap around her neck and pull her under.

Imagine yourself diving into a deep, blue ocean.

Daisuko feels a cloying pressure around her body. It pushes against her with gentle force.

You feel the cool water envelop your body. Starting from the very top of your head, down to your neck, then onto your tense shoulders, slipping down your arms, creeping down over your chest, into your belly, then sliding down your legs all the way to the soles of your feet.

Daisuko sinks deeper and deeper into the ocean. Her breath comes out as little jellyfish-shaped bubbles that float to the distant surface.

Let yourself sink deeper and deeper into the endless blue, the water around you getting darker and darker.

Daisuko feels the lazy ocean currents carry her body towards the bottom of the deepest trench.

Let the coldness wrap itself around you.

The last of Daisuko's breath leaves her mouth and lets herself drown. At last, she comes to a halt on a bed of silt at the very bottom of the ocean, where no light reaches her.