The Psyche Diver Trilogy: Demon Hunters (15 page)

“We didn’t expect you to be quite so...talented. Our mistake,” Enoh said. Two men appeared at the alley’s entrance. Fuminari assumed they had cars nearby; these were probably the drivers coming to check what was going on. Tsushima muttered something inaudible to them. Fuminari prepared to attack, but Enoh’s voice rang down from above his head.

“Hold your ground.” His voice dripped with threat. For the first time Fuminari felt an unconcealed bloodlust emanate from the old man’s body. “We’re done for tonight. If you attempt to stop us, I will not hold back.”

“Fine.” Fuminari’s jaw was clenched tight. “I’m not fond of the cops myself.” The men made quick work of cleaning up; they took the dead body and the unconscious men with them, leaving only Enoh and Fuminari in the alley. The black spider-like shape still clung to the wall, but the murderous aura had gone. A black shadow floated down landing at Fuminari’s feet. It was the black robe Enoh had been wearing. The man himself was nowhere to be seen.

Eight

Vertigo: A Trap

1

A room at a high-rise Shinjuku hotel.

Light from the city bled through open curtains. The lights were off, but the bright cityscape cast the room in dim phosphorescence. The soft glow was just right for a man and woman to engage in intercourse.

A pale woman lay naked, convulsing on the bed, sheets cast aside. She was in her mid-20’s and her body was pleasantly curved. A man’s face was buried between her widely parted legs; his tongue swept over her hot, swollen bud as her head rocked back and forth. Every now and then she put a finger to her mouth and moaned sweetly. The powerful muscles of the man’s tanned back flexed in response to his movements, like stones colliding under his skin.

“Hey,” the woman sat up, grabbing her breasts in bliss, “let me play with yours.” She reached down and ruffled her slender fingers through the man’s hair, all the time sliding her crotch into him. The man grunted. Kumon Hosuke looked up at her; his eyes were charming, still only half-serious. He had enjoyed playing with her, but now he realized the woman was fully turned on. A look of awkwardness crossed his eyes. “Come on, my turn.”

She turned Hosuke so that he faced upward. She took his shaft, bent back over his stomach, in both hands. It was hard as rock. Even with both hands wrapped around it, the tip still stuck out. She let out a groan of appreciation and rubbed her cheeks lovingly into it, wetted the tip with her tongue, and took it into her mouth. After a few moments she looked up impatiently and brought herself up to sit on him. She guided the tip of his cock toward her wet opening.

“Mmm.” She used her hips and arms to build momentum, stirring Hosuke’s erection inside her. She ground her swollen clitoris into him, pinching with her fingers, moaning sweetly as she sunk deeper toward him. She began to gyrate fiercely as she planted both hands on Hosuke’s broad chest, nails digging into his skin. He scooped her breasts and began to massage them.

“I hope it feels okay,” Hosuke said. The woman replied by violently nodding her head. “Just make sure you enjoy yourself.”

Hosuke looked up, there was something adolescent, almost childlike in his expression. He sat up and teased one of her nipples into his mouth, rolling his tongue over it. As he squeezed her breasts, the woman’s long, dark hair brushed softly against his arms. Somehow it was the caress of her hair that felt real, more so than the sensation between his legs. Fuminari pulled his mouth away and sidled the back of his thumbs into her moist nipples. He closed his eyes as images from earlier that day flashed through his mind:

The green thread that Kagawa had passed him inside the other man’s mind had been a segment of visual memory; as soon as he ate it he knew that the image was a true representation, almost perfectly real, but it had been abnormal to the extreme. He had seen great herds of men and women through the darkness, entwined in orgy. The picture showed signs of deformation here and there, but he was seeing something that had clearly occurred in reality. Kagawa had done well to protect it from the clutches of the man’s self. But the memory had been abnormally powerful too.

Rising among the crowd had been a cross with a woman hanging from it; she had been crucified upside down. Her head had been hacked off.

Where could the man have witnessed such a thing? The scene was bizarre. Hosuke could have dug for more information if he had the luxury of time, but the accident forced a stop. Somebody had broken into the power room and destroyed the generator mid-dive. Backup systems were designed to come online in the case of a regular power outage, but they had been destroyed together with the power room. The result was a break down of the synchronization between the three minds. The recipient did not make it, simply dying from shock.

It would have felt like suddenly being invaded by a foreign body. Stab wounds often end up killing their victim for reasons other than blood loss or the wound itself. In a surprising number of cases, the cause of death is identified as shock--the shock of having something thrust into their body. People can die from sudden exposure to icy water, and the mind is the same. The effect is equivalent to someone in mid-surgery coming to with no anesthetic.

The man’s instinct had transformed from a baby into a demonic creature, shifting from protection to attack; it had been the man’s final struggle. Hosuke and Kagawa had survived while the man died, but Kagawa would never work as a Diver again. He had been inside the man’s mind for too long, and the power shutdown had taken its own, sizable toll.

Hosuke had finished his report just a day before. He had precious little to work with, but managed to put something useful together nonetheless. The rest was up to the technicians and their computers. Hosuke did not expect them to uncover any significant leads.
Still, there’s a fair amount of clinically interesting stuff in there.

The woman let out a high-pitched moan and leaned into him as the inner-walls of her vagina contracted powerfully.
Ah, missed the boat.
Hosuke grinned sardonically, scratching at his head.

“Not yet, right?” The woman’s breath was labored; the muscles on her back clenched tight. Shivers ran through her body twice, three times.

“Nope.” Hosuke shook his head, impressed with her candidness.

“What do you think of my body?” she asked. “You don’t like it?”

“I do,” Hosuke murmured.

“Mmm!” the woman moaned again. Hosuke’s still hard cock had twitched inside her. A look of pleasant surprise crossed her features; the movement must have been significant.

“See?” Hosuke broke into an impudent grin. His white teeth flashed like those of a wild beast. The woman rubbed her breasts into his chest and began to gyrate her hips again, rubbing her crotch into him.

“I want you to come with me this time.” Her voice pitched high before she could finish the sentence.

“Uh, sure.” Hosuke nodded as she picked up speed. The woman was already beginning to feel that she could be open with this man, even though they had only met earlier that evening. He was not handsome per se, but he had a charm that made him easy to be around. Biku had organized the visit. After Shimizu had taken Hosuke to his hotel room he had come back with her in tow.

It was, in a sense, contractual that he sleep with the girl. Biku seemed to have a number of girls at his disposal like Yuko and the girl with him now. Biku had said that he was unable to get in touch with Yuko, so he sent this girl around in her place.

Hosuke came inside her. A short while later, the phone started to ring. He reached out and picked up the receiver while she lay still on top of him. It was an external call.

“Mr. Kumon?” It was a deep male voice, one that Hosuke recognized. “I wonder if you remember me, we met a few days ago in the mountains.” It was Iba. He had half expected it. Like Biku, Iba had brought his own offer when they met that night.

2

“I remember you, scum,” Hosuke said.

“We’ve been looking all over. I finally tracked you down,” said Iba.

“How did you find me here?”

“You finished your contract with the other party?”

“Two days ago.”

“Then I’d like to ask you to consider a job with us.”

“First, answer my question then we can talk, alright?”

“Question?”

“Like I said, how the hell did you find out I was here?”

Iba fell silent, a moment later he spoke again, “We scrubbed the known locations of Psyche Converters.”

“Ah.”

“As I’m sure you’re aware, there are only a few models even here in Japan. That is especially true for the more advanced ones.”

“Uh huh.”

“We got wind that one of the more advanced models had been rented out, room and all, so we looked into it further and there you were.”

“That information was supposed to be confidential.”

“We have some useful connections, of course.”

“And I’m sure you don’t hold back from using threats either.”

“Indeed,” Iba said brazenly.

“Well, I guess your skills qualify you,” Hosuke mumbled.

“Humbled, I’m sure,” Iba said with only the slightest change in tone. “If I may continue with our offer.”

“Spit it out then.”

“Would you be willing to work for us?”

“Well my friend,” Hosuke said brightly, “that depends on the money.”

“Yes.”

“How much will you pay?”

“How much would you take us on for?”

“Depends on the job description.”

“It’s a bit detailed for the phone.”

“I see.”

“We’re in the lobby. If it isn’t too much trouble, could we just come to your room?”

Hosuke brushed his thick fingers through the hair of the woman still lying on top of him. “I’m a little preoccupied right now.”

“A little fun?”

“Just finished, you know?”

“Perhaps we should try again tomorrow?”

“No, it’s fine. Give me 30 minutes then come up,” Hosuke said, replacing the receiver.

3

Iba entered the room with another man in tow.

He was dressed in a pair of new navy-blue trousers and a short sleeve pinstripe shirt. His hair had been neatly combed; he even had a tie. If it was not for the look in his eyes, he could have been an insurance salesman, but no amount of smiling could help conceal that scent or the daggers in his eyes; they were cold, like a reptile about to pounce on its prey. The other man wore a light summer suit and carried himself in the same way as Iba. Iba scanned the room, smiling self-consciously for a brief moment.

“I’d half expected you to arrive with a suitcase,” Hosuke said. He sat on the bed, still naked from the waist up. He wore a pair of faded jeans. He had nudged a window open to clear the smell of sex from the room; a warm breeze flowed in. The outside air felt good.

“I find the less we stand out the better, especially in places like this.” Iba sat himself on one of the chairs. He glanced to his companion and made some kind of gesture. “If you don’t mind.”

The man walked over to the bathroom and swung the door open, peering cautiously inside.

“Relax, there’s no-one here. I sent the girl home.”

Iba turned the chair to face Hosuke, while the other man came back and stood behind him. Hosuke watched the two of them, silently amused.

“There’s something I’d like to ask before we commence with today’s main business,” Iba said.

“Go ahead.”

“Could you tell us what it was you were doing for the others?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“I only ask because of what happened in the mountains. It left us...interested about exactly what it was they wanted of you. Either way, you appear to have finished earlier than expected.”

“Yes, there was an accident.”

“Accident?”

“Someone snuck into the power room, blew the generators.”

“Well well.”

“Now you’re here, I can’t help but feel like your people were responsible.”

“I assure you, that is not the case.”

“Well, whatever. It’s done now.”

“Could you tell us what the job was?”

“I already told you, no. Let’s hear your proposal.” Hosuke drew his legs up so that he sat cross-legged on the bed. The two men glared at each other.

“We want you to dive into something
,
” Iba offered.

“Some
thing
?”

“That’s right.”

“Not a person?”

“Indeed,” Iba left it at that.

“And?”

“Until we’re convinced you’re safe, I can’t go into any more detail. We can, however, go into significant detail in regard to your compensation.”

“Safe huh? A dead body’s the safest, the least likely to talk, no?” One side of Hosuke’s thick mouth meandered into a grin. Iba’s definition of safe would first be to bring him under their control then dispose of him once he finished the contract; with that knowledge they were free to offer all the money he demanded.

“We’re not going stay friendly if you try to kill me after the job,” Hosuke added with an air of innocence, neither fully joking nor serious.

“The thought would never cross our minds.”

“Fine, you guys just have that look and I’m not fond of complications. Tell me what the job is.”

“I don’t have the authority to tell you.”

“But it’s clear enough that you
know
.” Iba kept his mouth shut. He gave Hosuke a faint, chilling grin. The expression mirrored the sharpness of his dagger-like eyes.

“You’re a good negotiator. I have to be careful to keep quiet, wouldn’t want to say anything without realizing it.”

“Hm.” Hosuke scratched his head.

“We’ve been under pressure recently; if you were to refuse our offer then--”

“Then you’d resort to force to get what you wanted.”

Iba smiled wryly. “Mr. Kumon, it appears that you prefer things to be as direct as possible.”

“I guess so.”

“Then please accept my apologies for having to rush you.” Iba raised a hand, gesturing to the man behind him. The man pulled out a gun. There was a silencer mounted to the barrel; it would reduce the force by half, but in a small room like this the weapon would be deadly enough. He leveled it at Hosuke. His aim was steady, no hint of hesitation, fingers poised and ready to pull the trigger if necessary; the man obviously had experience with guns, unlike the punks Iba had back in the mountains. It seemed that Iba’s partners had been bumped up a grade after the death of the last two.