Always: Chapter 02

"Corralled"

The train ride into the city was a long one, so darkness had fallen by the time the pair made it to the antique shop. "Pretty nice place," Genkai muttered at the shop windows. The pieces of jewelry and furniture inside looked old, authentic, and expensive. A second story that lacked windows made the shop appear like a looming shadow. "Only old yuppies like me shop here, I'll bet."

Yusuke shot her a look that said 'Shut up, grandma, before my client hears you and drops me like a hot potato!', but he didn't say anything aloud as he pushed open the store doors. A bell rang above them, and Genkai found herself assaulted by the scents of the past. Dust, wood, furniture polish, and books with musty pages made the place seem like the grave of a long forgotten era that even Genkai had trouble remembering. She glanced about, taking in the shelves filled with old kitsch and vases and boxes and statuettes, but she did not make a show of her interest, exuding a professionalism that Yusuke, with his lanky strut and greased up hair, could not match. Dust made the overhead lights appear to shine through an aged fog; the shadows cast all objects into vague obscurity.

The shop owner sat on a tall stool behind a wooden counter with a built in glass case (polished watches and jewelry and old pipes shone like gems beneath the clear surface), and he was up and out of his seat as soon as he caught sight of Yusuke's green jacket. "Thank God you're here," he said, rounding the desk like a bullet flying from a gun. His voice sounded muffled; the soft surfaces in the shop did little to aid echoes. The shop owner was much younger than Genkai had anticipated, cutting a rather cute figure with his blonde hair and big brown eyes. Not as tall as Yusuke, though... He stopped dead in his tracks to stare at Genkai, and she noticed in a purely clinical way that he wore jeans, sneakers, an apron, and a button-down shirt as a sort of casual yet stately uniform.

"Is this your expert?" the shopkeep asked Yusuke. He regarded Genkai with a conflicted duo of emotions: respect for the elderly on the one hand and skepticism of her abilities on the other.

"Yup," said Yusuke, jerking a thumb down at his short companion. "Her name's Genkai; 'grandma' will do, too. Genkai, this is Kenji. He owns this place."

"Hmph," said Genkai. She eyed the young man with a dead-fish stare, seeing just how much passive-aggressive pressure he could take before she spoke with her normally acidic speech. "Family business, I take it."

"Yes." Kenji's eyes flickered between teacher and apprentice, back and forth like a buzzing fly. His hands twisted the hem of his apron nervously, leaving behind stains of sweat and grime. "My father started this place and I picked it up after I graduated college."

"Any enemies?" Genkai asked, and Kenji's face paled. Yusuke, meanwhile, tried not to look bored at the proceedings and peeved by Genkai's straightforward interrogation.

"No," Kenji sputtered. The bags beneath his eyes looked like smudges of soot set against his pale skin.

"Any competitors who might want to hurt you?"

"No!"

Genkai walked right up to him, and despite her height the glare she gave Kenji made a bead of sweat trickle down his temple. "Now you listen and you listen good," she said, voice resonating like a hiss in the shadowy shop. "The thing you found in the alley was a spell. It killed that rat but it was probably meant for you, and if you aren't straight with me I won't be able to protect you from it next time. You'll end up like that rat, and I don't think you want that, now do you, Kenji?"

Kenji shook his head, eyes wild and face growing more desperate by the second, and he looked to Yusuke for help for a pitiable glance of utter confusion. Yusuke only shrugged.

"Old lady's got a point," he said, and he grinned in a way meant to calm his client down.

Genkai's eyes blazed in triumph. "Now, answer me again," she said to Kenji. "Do you have any enemies who might want to see you dead?"

If shiftiness could talk, Kenji would have been screaming, or at the very least crying like a small child who wanted his mother. Silence hing heavy on the air as he looked between Genkai and Yusuke with defeat rising in his expression.

"No one wants me dead," he said at last, voice trembling like a leaf in a gale, "at least, I don't think they want me dead."

Genkai smirked. "There, that wasn't so difficult now was it?"

"Who are they, Kenji?" Yusuke asked. His expression had hardened; the fact that Kenji had lied to him wasn't sitting so well with the detective.

The shop owner, instead of immediately telling them, moved to the front door and flipped the 'open' sign around so that the shop appeared to be closed. He locked the door with a key he kept in the back pocket of his jeans and turned off the outside lights, and he pulled the door's and the display window's blinds closed to hide the shop's interior from the public eye.

"I got a shipment of antiques from overseas in about two months ago," he said quietly, brown eyes bordering on panic. "A competitor from Tokyo has been sending me offers for them all, but they haven't been near what I think I can sell them for so I've refused every time."

"Do you have a name?" Yusuke asked.

"The buyer calls himself 'Yamada,' but I don't know if that's his real name. But two days before I found the rat in the alley, he sent a man over to speak to me in person."

"Did he come in here?" Genkai asked.

"I didn't know he was their man until he came up to the counter."

"Dammit," Genkai swore.

"Is that bad, grandma?" Yusuke asked.

"It means he got a good look at this store's security and layout. Now it's easy for him to sneak around and set up a spell."

Kenji looked like he was about to vomit as he rounded the counter and sat down on his stool. "So you think they're trying to kill me to get to the antiques?" he asked. "That's just wrong! The antiques aren't even that valuable!"

"I'll be the judge of that," Genkai said. Bet the damned idiot can't tell a Monet when he sees one. That would explain a lot of this. "Can you take us to the items in question?"

"They're in the attic," Kenji said, and just as he finished getting off the stool a loud banging noise made Genkai, Yusuke, and Kenji all jump. Three heads swiveled toward the back of the shop as another banging noise, and then another, floated sharply over the still air. But then an even odder noise followed: an animalistic wail vibrating with pain and fear that made Genkai's skin crawl and heart race.

"Let me take a wild guess," Genkai said in a desert-dry voice. "That came from the alley, didn't it?"

"Sh-should we go see?" Kenji said, and with disgust Genkai thought she detected a trace of tears in his wide eyes.

"Lead the way, Yusuke," Genkai snapped.

"Letting me do all the dirty work," the ex detective grumbled, but he forged ahead through rows of dusty jewelery and bookcases toward the back of the shop and, summarily, a tall wooden door marked with a glowing red exit sign. The door, however, was locked, and just as they neared it the doorknob jiggled as if someone was trying to get inside. Another bang made the door shake in its frame.

"Well, don't just stand there, idiot," Genkai snapped at Kenji, who was busy trying not to collapse behind her. "Unlock the damn door!"

At the sound of her voice the noises and the banging and the shaking... stopped. The shrieks, however, picked up in volume, rising to impossible heights like a choir of demons or tortured angels.

"R-right," Kenji choked out. He took his keyring from his pocket and fumbled for the right key for several agonizing seconds. The door popped open with a foreboding creak once he disengaged the lock, and then the trio cautiously stepped out into the warm night air.

The source of the yowling became apparent within a second: a cat—orange with brindled brown stripes on its arched back—scrambled to free itself from within a circle drawn with white chalk, and it screamed every time it reared up on its hind legs to ineffectually bat at an invisible wall with unsheathed claws. One of the claws snapped off from the force of its efforts with a spray of bright blood.

"Not again," Kenji moaned, leaning against the door frame for support. The bauble around the cat's neck jingled like a tinny funeral bell, punctuating the sound of its screams like an ironic back up band, and the scent of the herbs within the bauble filled the air with sickening pungency.

"It's a cat this time," Yusuke said, stating the obvious in a voice more suited for snappy comebacks.

"They've upped the power of the spell by using a bigger sacrifice," Genkai said as she approached the frightened animal. The poor beast's fur, just as with the rat Yusuke had earlier described, grayed before her eyes and fell out in patches; the animals teeth dropped to the ground with a burst of blood and yellow saliva, but Genkai didn't even blink in surprise. She was in her serious mode, and nothing could faze her once she had centered herself on a certain task.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Genkai smirked. To be in the field again was absolutely ambrosial, no matter whose neck was on the line.

"What do we do?" Kenji said from the doorway, composure supposedly regained, and Genkai opened her mouth to answer. However, she never got to say a word because from above them came the sound of a crash and a horrendous thump.

"The attic?" Genkai surmised. Another thump and an even bigger crash—breaking china or pottery, as far as Genkai could tell—thundered through the air.

Kenji paled, color draining from his face in a wave. "Yes. The things that Yamada is interested in are up there!"

"What do we do?" Yusuke murmured, coming toward Genkai to rest his hand on her shoulder. The cat, before them, curled in on itself and writhed, pained and terrified by its inexplicable confinement. Its skin dried up and crackled as they watched, and its eyes crusted over with a yellow film.

"We go check it out," Genkai said, and she headed back for the shop door with sure steps.

"Why do I feel like we're being corralled?" Yusuke griped, and the cat's voice tapered off into low, agonized growls. The animal breathed in one last shuddering breath and fell still, drained of its youth an vitality before their eyes.