Half-Sight

01 | disuse

a/n

chapter one! hope you enjoy it :)

with love,

krissy

♙

d i s u s e

"ATTENTION. RESIDENTS OF Tennoji neighborhoods, Osaka, please evacuate. Level four Red Lung quarantine: effective. Attention. Residents of Tennoji..."

I dangle my legs off a bright crimson neon sign overlooking the dark street. Below, men, women, and children armed with fat luggage follow officers toward the distant Osaka tower. It's unsettling to watch, if not how disturbingly strange this is. I've always known Tennoji as a lighthouse in the dark, bustling with life, the walls bright with sleek murals of birds in flight and arching dragons.

Tonight, the lanterns are unlit, the shops are boarded up, and the vibrant displays are colorless.

A lot of men and women have their faces covered. Their bodies are wrapped in thick coats. I recognize telling signs--the broken cough of someone infected. The bloodshot eyes. Hands wrapped tightly together as plumes of sour smoke blow from the medic tower that has replaced Tennoji park.

My hand rises to my ear. "Lin, you see something?" I whisper.

The screen crackles a little. Film dirt slides over my vision, reminding me that the sharp edges are a luxury of my precious contacts. The user interface system built into the accommodation, Lin, scans the crowds below with a quick flash here and there of holographic signs.

"No sign of the target," she reports. "To be fair, the provided drawing is quite...incomprehensive."

I wrinkle my nose and pull my legs up into a crouch. "Well, don't blame me. Whoever put out the bounty for Ren's head doesn't seem to know who he's looking for."

"Alternatively, you could surf the Net. Run search?"

"No, I've checked. He's not there."

Lin's a machine. She has no emotion. But I swear she's teasing me. "Are you positive?"

I roll my eyes. "Yes, Lin. I ran every search I could the minute I saw the bounty notification." Below, a skinny guard emerges from an apartment complex, tugging along a round woman desperate to silence her shrieking child. Uneasiness stirs in my stomach. "Lin, where are they being evacuated to?"

"Commencing search. One moment, please."

"You never take longer," I murmur, rubbing grease off my fingers.

Once settled outside, the screaming child grows quiet, sniffs up her snot, and takes a forgiving rice ball from the guard, whose pale face looks ridden with guilt.

Lin's voice crackles to life.

"Unable to get a read on their destination. Connection is down." Red flashes. "Battery at thirty-percent. Proceeding further is not recommended."

"I'm going in."

"You are proceeding further."

"If the bounty's right and Ren is from Tennoji, he'll be here."

"I don't recommend--"

"Yes, yes, we get it." I grunt as I stand, tucking myself into the shadows of a window awning. "Damn foot's asleep."