//File 2.1 - Missy, Domino//

Domino
The spirit cocked its head as Domino addressed it. Clearly it wasn't expecting the elf to speak to it. It shambled forward, its chitinous footsteps jarring against the floor, until it came right in front of Domino. A buzzing issued from its mouth, a high pitched clicking and whirring, and then recognisable sounds came out, "Neeeed youzz ... find thizz ... pain man take we blood take we all blood cut up partz cut cut ... Alien as the moment was, Domino could make out the creature's needs. The next thing it did was to extract something from somewhere within its carapace, which it handed to Domino. It was a human finger. "Find..." The only thing Domino did not understand was, why her.Missy
The crystal's aura nearly made it impossible to trace the blood, as its astral glow was too strong within its radius. However, Missy had the time, and by centering herself and drawing focus, she finally saw the trail leading away from the apartment. Her astral form began to follow. She could see all the living things around her as she traveled back out of the apartment, and some of them could see her as well. More magically signifiant auras were energetic, powerful, dazzling, some ablaze with astral colour, others dark and ghostly and ennervating. One or two of these looked dangerous, and Missy gave them a wide berth. There were also areas opaque to her, and others near which were magical defences and hexes.
Finally Missy drew near to what seemed to end of the line. The blood trail had trickled down, but the object from which it issued was still detectable. It was a small body part, in possession of a spirit, an insect spirit, which was at the moment confronting a elf. Missy could've sworn she recognised the elf's aura. She was ... Domino??

Missy returns to her body. Pondering what she has learned, she sends Domino a message, via the number they used at their last dealings.
Hello Domino, are you in neo-Tokyo? I would like to talk. Missy

Domino's eyes grow wide as she takes the severed digit and then places it in her bag. "Yes, of course, sure. I'll... I'll find the pain man who did this to you. Do you have any idea where he might be?" Her mind is racing and she can barely form coherent thoughts or sentences, but clearly the creature is asking for help rather than attacking, and accommodating seems the wisest course. Then she feels the vibrations from her phone, which thankfully is on silent. "Perfect timing," she thinks to herself, while trying to maintain focus on the strangeness in front of her.

It was strange that the spirit had sought out Domino for this. Surely that was no coincidence. Insects spirits do not randomly manifest unbidden to seek random strangers for aid. Domino was somehow connected; she just didn't understand why just yet. The spirit indicated at the gruesome body part once again, "Find thizz..." were its last words, before the horrifying creature began to metamorphosise before Domino, features transmuting until it ceased to have insectoid features, until a pitiful human male lay collapsed on the floor in his shredded clothes, either dead or close to dying. And all Domino could feel at that moment was the buzz of her commlinked phone.

"Holy shit, holy shit. Ok, ok. Still alive, that's good - at least I am. Oh jeezus." She leans down to check the status of the tattered man. Is he breathing, does he have a pulse? Almost unconsciously, she looks at the commlink and sees 'Message from Missy.' 'That's gonna have to wait a little bit,' she thinks to herself. Whether the man is alive and relatively stable, or no longer among the living, she'll take a picture of his face, then quickly rummage through his pockets to see if he has any ID.

Missy clean up after her ritual astral walk and makes a pot of tea while she waits for Shanto to come home or Domino to answer.

Hosoka Yasu, age 38. The man's commlink was still working, his ID easily retrievable as the first option on the menu. Mitsuhama employee. Low level software engineer. He was clearly headed for the capsule hotel himself, too late to go home after overtime and some late drinking. Now he he needed an actual coffin. The body was a disfigured mess. Whatever contorted shape he shifted into when possessed by the insect spirit was now a grotesque contortion, mutilated in every angle. And the face, the face was a mangled horror. Apart from the commlink she found a credstick, cigarettes, and a freebie lighter from one of the bars. Nothing else. No conceivable reason why he was chosen, apart from being the nearest human body. The insects were amoral and evidently gave no second thought to the corpses they left behind.

Every cautious, this was also the moment when Domino remembered that all capsule hotels had minimally a security camera, just to ensure that there were no shenanigans afoot.

Domino quickly palms the commlink and leaves the body and the rest of the personal effects where they were. She casts a quick glance around the lobby, and with a soft curse to herself, notes the presence of the ubiquitous security cam. "Bloody hell, there's another identity blown. Never even got to enjoy this one." Wasting no time, she gathers her few belongings from the coffin, and heads out into the night. Once outside, she navigates to a relatively dark and secluded spot, pulls a black windbreaker out of her bag and puts it on. She unzips the hood from its pouch and pulls it over her head, hiding the blonde hair, then resumes walking at a quick but normal looking pace. She checks her commlink, intending to search for another place to crash when she sees the message notification from Missy. She hits the voice memo button and says, "Yeah, hey Missy. Some weird stuff going down tonight. Sorry I couldn't respond right away. Are you free?" She hits send, and wonders if maybe she's found a place to crash temporarily after all.

Finally! It was getting boring waiting, and it left her with any control over the situation.
There is a running shusi (she adds the address) let's have dinner and talk

Domino taps in "omw," then navigates to the nearest restroom kiosk. A few minutes later she emerges, looking more the way Missy will recognize her, and heads to the address she provided.

Missy left the apartment largely as it was, and headed back down and out to the street. It had started to rain, not heavy, just enough to slick the ground with reflections of neon and fill the air with the distinct smell of ozone. The street vendors had retreated to the sheltered pavements of the buildings. Even the regular patrol drones that covered the residential districts seemed to avoid the open grey skies. The sushi restaurant, crowded as usual, was as Missy remembered it, at the junction just half a block away. The food was good, the sake wasn't, and the chef didn't seem to care.

Missy knew enough about the cities weather, to bring a good quality umbrella. Sitting at a booth she indulged in the pastime of "observing people". It's remarkable how much you can learn about people if you truly look. She begins when Domino sits down. Just take a look at that couple over there. Her arms are open and she is very animated. She likes him. His feet, on the other hand, are pointing away from her. He wants to be somewhere else.

Finally, she looks at Domino, observes her. Hello, I think I found your blood at Shanto apartment. He works for Mitsuhama Corporate and has gone missing. Or has gotten himself possed, don't know yet.

Domino sits down, a little taken aback by Missy's opening. What would her blood be doing at Missy's boyfriend/ex-boyfriend's apartment? Was there an accusation implicit there?

"Wow, sounds like you had an interesting day too. I don't know anything about Shanto, but I did run into another Mitsuhama employee this evening. He gave me this." She reaches into her bag, pulls out the handkerchief-wrapped bundle, and slides it across the table to Missy. "Of course, he was possessed by an insect spirit at the time."

Missy stiffens at the mention. Insect spirits again? Or the same one?

From the beginning then. Shanto tracked me down in Hong Kong. He was not the man I knew, he was possessed by something calling itself Janus. Could be a reference to the greek many-faced god.
Anyway, when I tried to follow Janus astrally after our meeting, I was stopped by an insect spirit.
That was when I decided to come here to find Shanto and figure out this mess. But find some blood that leads me to you... or perhaps this? Missy opens the bundle and examens the finger, both physically and astrally.

Mind racing, Domino tries to connect the dots of this weird, ever developing situation.

Domino didn't know that much about Missy's life and history, but she knew people. Sure, this Shanto person was Missy's ex, but a connection remained, whether willingly or unwillingly. From what she comprehended of magic in the sixth world, it is possible that relationships between people are never severed. The crystal and the finger were definitely connected, no doubt about that. She saw Missy's clear intention to get to the bottom of this mystery. What Domino didn't know was what her own connection to Shanto was. Wait, that extraction job from years back. The hermetic scientist she was pulling the intel on, it wasn't Renraku as she remembered it, it was MCT. And his name, S Gahan. Drek, it was all coming back to her now. The name was Shanto Gahan.

While Domino ruminated this, she saw Missy go into a trance, as if she wasn't there. Missy saw with her astral sense the thread that joined the crystal with the finger that Domino showed her. Shanto owned that crystal, the aura was clear, and the aura extended to the finger as well. The blood on the crystal was Shanto's. The finger was Shanto's. And they had exactly one clear lead. Mitsuhama Computer Technologies. What Missy didn't know was how Domino was connected to all this.

"Oh drek!" Domino says to herself, and then starts casting suspicious glances around the room looking for danger. "In the belly of the beast."

When I saw "Janus" he had all his fingers. Shanto must have returned home and lost his finger. What is the story with this finger? I need to know as... she sighs and takes old meme pose ..one doesnt just simply walk into Mitsuhama Computer Technologies