//File 2.1 - Missy, Domino//

It was a long journey that Missy and Helios had taken from Hongkong to Japan. Avoiding air travel, they had elected to sail to the port town of Makurazaki, to throw off any pursuers who might still be on Missy’s tail. Missy could not afford to take the chance: somehow someone had sent a spirit to make contact with her, tracing her whereabouts in Hongkong from her link with Shanto, her ex-lover, who worked in corporate headquarters of MCT in Tokyo. The journey was difficult, given that neither of them had any ability in shipcraft, and worse, as they neared Japan, both Missy and Helios was increasingly beset by dreams of a personal nature. On arrival, Helios declared that he had to return to Kumamoto to look for his former teacher, whereas Missy was further plagued by vivid dreams of Shanto together with another person, a beautiful, almost androgynous Eurasian elf.

The trip from Makurazaki to neo-Tokyo was much less inconvenient. The shinkansen, or bullet train, brought Missy to Tokyo’s central station within a day. Alighting from the train, Missy knew what she had to do: she could head to Mitsuhama Corporate Technologies, risking being recognised as a former employee, or she could look up where Shanto lived, assuming he still stayed at the same apartment. What Missy didn’t know was how the elf in her dreams was connected to this entire mystery.

'Johnny Hariwood' saunters confidently out of the office of a local booking agent, a serene smile across his face, and a credstick with enough nuyen to cruise for a couple of weeks in his pocket. The agent was still watching the demo trid of 'Ghost Tribe Bang!' that he had just scheduled to play a few local venues later in the month. Johnny sent a silent thank you to his friend Wheezer who cgi'd that little masterpiece as he wended his way back into the neon streets of Neo-Tokyo. He walks to the subway, takes a train, swtiches to another, then doubles back, and finally takes another to a stop a few districts away.

He makes his way to public a restroom kiosk, slots the credstick and steps inside. A few minutes later, a blonde elf with close cropped spiky hair and numerous facial piercings steps from the kiosk. She wears a loose fitting white dress shirt, unbuttoned more than halfway down, and untucked. Her jeans are stylish and fashionably distressed, and the bling on her black patent synth-leather loafers glints, reflecting the lights on the street around her. The shoes and the briefcase, now worn as a shoulder bag, are the only visible things that remain of Johnny, and she'll ditch those at the coffin hotel before she goes back out to enjoy the nightlife tonight.

As befitted her shifting identity and her slew of fake SINs she possessed for every conceivable purpose, Domino did not stay for more than a few days at a hotel, and certainly never at one of the larger establishments. No one asked questions nor conducted thorough ID checks at the various love hotels and coffin hotels, discretion and anonymity were key.

She made in past the the glittering towers of Shibuya's trendy streets, past the numerous rows of rain-slicked watering holes and street dealers, down the greyer thoroughfares of the washed-out sarariman makeshift stalls and eateries, and finally up an alley of at least five coffin hotels. Hers was the furthest. An automated door let her in from the registration details on her commlink, and opened into a narrow but well-lit corridor, with rows of booths on either side of each wall. The shower facilities were right at the back, but her unit was halfway down the left wall, and she always picked the highest booth if she could help it. Her commlink keycode popped the booth door open.

And that was when things became strange. The lights flickered and dimmed, and there was a smell, a tang of something stale. The main door had automatically swung shut after Domino had entered, but now she saw a figure through the glass door, an apparition that entered through the glass itself, towards her!

Missy got her self a coffin hotel to set up base, then then it off to Shanto's apartment. Dressed in a tight black suit and a synth-leather duster she is watching the apartment complex while eating at a street noodle shot.

As she eats she examines the areas astral environment. Is there anything of interest that stands out, then she has to deal with it before trying to get access to Shanto's apartment

Missy was familiar with Shanto's apartment. Even in the suburbs of neo-Tokyo, residential apartments were small affairs. Tall, narrow buildings with units stacked on top of each other like modular bricks, slate grey, featureless and windowless cubes. Missy was a block away, along the side street with shops and services, with a clear sight of the apartment. There was one main entrance into a lift lobby, and probably a service entrance in the rear for deliveries. Shanto lived on the 17th floor.

The astral showed nothing untoward. Before her were people going about their business, appearing to Missy as beings of light in a sea of dark grey outlined buildings and objects. She saw nothing that caught his attention. She was on the lookout for the presence of spirits, as she was already mentally prepared for it, but if there were any nearby, they did not concern themselves with the apartment he was astrally viewing. This was true even as she approached the apartment to enter it. She tried an old passcode at the entrance. The door unlocked. Shanto hadn't changed the code.

Missy takes the elevator up to the 17th floor. If Shanto is home she will confront him, if he is not, she would wait for him. Perferently from inside the apartment.

Domino casts a frantic glance about the lobby, looking for another way out. In her mind, she runs through all of her most recent cons, trying to think of who might have had the resources and been pissed off enough to send a shaman or an adept of some kind after her. Since she's been in Japan, all her marks have been strictly small time, so that didn't seem likely - unless one of them was connected to somebody with a lot more clout and deeper pockets. She had done some dirty work in Moscow and Astana for one of the 'Mafiya' families, maybe someone was still butthurt about that?

Then a chill ran up her spine. Several years back, she was a bit player in a job that went south, badly south, when she was back in Seattle. It was an extraction job, some kind of scientist or research tech. She was only involved in some of the preliminary document forging and intel schmoozing, but when the job went down she heard that all the runners but one got slagged. The one who made it out, Smelly Vic, went to ground and had pretty much disappeared as far as she knew. What if they found him and he talked and mentioned her name? Renraku - the target of the extraction worked for Renraku. And here she was, knee deep in the belly of the beast.

Missy

The old keycode for the door still worked as well. Clearly Shanto never thought to change the locks after their relationship ended. Missy entered the apartment, and a familiar sense enveloped her. She had spent time here before, one particular vacation she stayed for two whole weeks, snuggled up with Shanto and his cat for company. Neither Shanto nor the pet were in. The apartment looked lived in, things lay as they ordinarily would: the bed, although made, appeared slept in. The tiny kitchenette still contained necessities, as did the fridge. On closer inspection, it seemed that Shanto was not simply out at work. The few unwashed dishes in the sink, the uncleared trash bin, the small pile of dirty laundry, all indicated that he might not have been in for a couple of days.
Next, Missy looked through his personal effects. While she didn't have access to the cyber terminal on his desk, an ornate wooden box which looked out of place amongst the other paraphenalia, faintly radiating of magic. Her astral sense certainly showed this to be the most significant object in the room.Domino

It didn't hit Domino when the apparition was outside the door, but the foul stench immediately assaulted her nostrils the moment it stepped through. She was familiar enough with insect spirits. nasty things which she often left to others to tangle with. This one evidently emerged from an unfortunate saraiman, the tattered shreds of his wageslave suit and tie ripped but still hanging onto the obscene body. Instead of hands were scansorial forelegs, instead of a human face were the eyes and antennae of what looked like a gigantic louse of some sort. The soul of the poor human was absent, replaced by the singular behaviour of an insect mind.
The bug spirit was clearly here for Domino, and began to approach her in its strange gait. Oddly, it did not charge nor attack her. Yet.

What do you do?

Domino backs slowly away from the creature, hands raised to show she's not hostile. Meanwhile her mind races, considering possible escape routes, anything familiar about the sarariman (good lord, its not the booking agent, is it?).

"Bozhe moi! Ok, ok, ok, there insect spirit. Hi, how's your day going? Maybe there's something I can help you with?" She's going to try to buy some time to figure out her next move by (hopefully) stalling it a moment a maybe learning something about its motives.

Missy will start by examen the ornate wooden box.
When her curiosity is satisfied, she will clean up a bit. Then wait for him

DominoMissy
The wooden box had a simple latch, which Missy opened. Inside sat a purple crystal, which Missy recognised to be a meditation crystal. Such crystals often contain some magical essence within, radiating a calming or healing energy when used while sleeping, or deep in meditative focus. This one in particular projected a strong aura which Missy picked up even when it was inside the box. However, the crystal was stained on one side with a reddish colour. When Missy switched to her astral sight, she could see the glow of the crystal, marred by a streak right in the middle. She recognised the streak to be connected to life energy. The reddish stain was blood, and there was possibly an astral trail leading away from it.

In a perfect world, Missy would sit-in the gloom and Santho would arrive, and they could have a dramatic scene. Real-life is nothing like the flicks. She takes a shower and prepares for a ritualized astral walk. She has an astral trail to follow, and no lodge to call base. She is going to do the best she can, knowing that there are insect spirits involved in this affair.
Sitting in a circle of salt, skyclad (that's naked for the regulars) she sends her spirit out to follow the astral blood trail

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

"Fingerprint recognition? Do they still do that?" As horrible as the thought might be, better than a retina scan for the victim, Domino thinks to herself.

It seemed obvious that Missy needed to find out what Shanto was working on at MCT. She had visited his office before, but that was together with him on a project they had collaborated on, something to do with writing arcane programming code. It couldn't have been a coincidence that Domino's dead software engineer also hailed from MCT.

Fortuitiously, Domino had his commlink. In the sixth world, a person's commlink was their entire identity. Sometimes implanted, at other times still handheld, it provided access to the Matrix, contained one's SIN; in combination with fingerprint or voice recognition, retinal scan, or more recently beta wave detection for those constantly jacked into their augmented or virtual reality worlds.

Missy's search of Shanto's apartment had not been as fruitful as she hoped. She had hoped to catch him and speak with him, so that she could verify his involvement in this mystery. Instead the only lead she discovered through her magic led her to Domino. Shanto's blood was on the crystal, which meant the finger was his. Missy had no way of investigating his office, but perhaps the commlink in Domino's possession could be used to pick up the trail from the software engineer's lab instead.

"All roads lead back to MCT, it seems. Whatever it is they're doing, or at least someone there - the 'Pain Man' - is riling the insect spirits. Maybe someone knows something about all this that would help?" She looks thoughtful for a moment. "We do have the deadman's commlink, we should be able to track down his home and maybe scope it out for some more intel. Perhaps there's someone Shanto knows that might have some insight? A co-worker, a friend..." She let's that last question hang in the air, not knowing what Missy's connection to Shanto is (or was) at the moment, and how much she knows about her former-ish paramour's personal life.

While they sat there talking through their options, considering which leads to follow, the dead man's commlink flashed. Domino had left it on the table when she was showing it to Missy, and a message appeared. 2300, same place. 400ny. Wherever this man's appointment was supposed to take place, 11pm was just twenty minutes away.

Domino grabs the commlink and starts searching through the its data - previous GPS info, map searches, any other communications coming from the same source.

Frustratingly, Domino found little on the commlink that indicated where the man's rendevous might be. She saw two or three similar messages with earlier dates, but all they contained were timings and nuyen costs, but no location.

Missy sat there racking her brains at Domino's prompting questions. She didn't know much about Shanto's current lifestyle, but she did remember a favourite drinking hole which he used to frequent after work with his colleagues. If the dead man Domino had met was indeed Shanto's colleague of some sort, perhaps the bar might still be a regular hangout for them. It was a longshot, but it seemed like the only lead they had at the moment.

"I remember Kamebara, a bar in Shinjuku Shanto and many of his MCT chummers used to hang out. Maybe they still do. Do you want to go check it out? I think I'll return to his apartment to see if he might return If I find anything else I'll call you straightaway." A quick check showed that Kamebara was pretty easy to get to, only two stops away on the metro and a short walk.

"It's a start, thanks." Domino gathers herself and rises from the chair. Just before she leaves, she turns and says, "It's good to see you again, Missy. I'm sorry about the circumstances. I hope your friend is ok." With a nod, she strolls from their meeting place and considers who would be the best person to rub shoulders with corporate types.

Domino easily found herself in Shinjuku's Kogane Gai, or Golden Street. In the mega-arcology of neo-Tokyo, it was possible to get lost in the endless streets of Shinjuku's entertainment district. Blocks after blocks of bars, entertainment centres, casinos, legal drug dens, brothels and all other manner of leisure to cater to every whim and fancy could be found in the area; in fact, there were some establishments so deep inside it was nigh impossible to find them twice. Savvy locals knew their way around, but even visitors and tourists did not find it difficult to navigate some of the most popular and frenetic zones. Domino herself had been here a number of times in her short span in Tokyo, and knew at least one or two club owners well. She hadn't been to Kamebara though, but the augmented reality display from her commlink's GPS pointed the way, although it was annoying how ads, deals, and coupons kept popping up on her display every other second as she made her way to the bar.

Missy had collected some possession she had left in the apartment. Shanto's apartment was now her base of operation while she searched for her friend.

Missy radiated power, confidence, and determination, as she walked down Shinjuku Shanto. Her red hair hangs loose emphasizing her non-japanese status, but the silk kimono she is wearing, carries all the hallmarks of a traditional Japanese mage. She is very recognizable, both for Domino and as a force to be reconded with, should any punk see a weak girl in a foreign land.

Entering the bar she hopes to recognize some of the bar staff, but then again, it has been 18 months since she and Shanto last visited the establishment.

On her way to the Kamebara, Domino uses her commlink to locate a public restroom kiosk. She finds an unmarked credstick, slots it, goes inside and then begins to rummage through her messenger bag. She reassembles the outfit from the identity she was wearing when the insect spirit showed up, but matches it this time with long black black hair. She takes an wide toothed comb from her pouch, activates a setting on it, and gently draws it through the bottom 25 or so cm, activating the nanotech and creating tasteful ringlets. Then she removes the straps from the messenger bag, replaces the fastener with a branded buckle, completing its transformation into a briefcase. Finally, sorting through her array of persona documents, she selects Annie Miyoshi, and updates the information to show that she's a low-mid level Nikkei Amerikaijin marketing specialist who works for Trans Pacific Express, a shipping company that does a lot of work with Mitsuhama. Satisfied for the moment, she presses on to her destination.

The slick facade of Kamebara immediately signaled it to be a hangout of corp scions and their wage slave retainers, with a good mix of wannabes media types thrown for good measure. The entrance was a fancy holographic revolving door which made it seem as if there was an attractive greeter standing there at any one time to welcome you. Two overstyled rigger valets stood in front, to take over the sleek cars that pulled up, discharging their occupants, each one in a suit razor-tailored to fit. A pair of bouncers also flanked the doors, motionless; they knew who to let in, and no one who wasn't supposed to be there even dared approach them.

Working this level of the corporate world is a little outside Domino's comfort zone - she generally prefers dealing with mid to low-level types and certainly not so far into their turf. As she surveys the scene she tries to calculate her best approach. She walks over to the bouncers at the door, holding her briefcase in front of her with two hands and trying to look both awkwardly demure and yet confident in the way that foreigners can be when they don't know the local protocols. She looks up at the bouncers, then blushes a little and says, "Um, hello. I'm here to meet Shanto-san from Mitsuhama Corporation. He's expecting me." Anticipating that they might check her bag, Domino stowed everything but a skimpy negligee and some silk cords in the secret compartment of her satchel.

One of the bouncers eyed the woman in front of them, Domino wasn't someone they recognised, although she looked the part of someone who could conceivably be part of the clientele. Neither of them saw the need to shoo her away nor intimidate her, but their aloof Japanese reserve meant that they had nothing to say to Domino, nor did they let her in.

They did however, easily allow another swaggering carbon copy of a corp director enter with his two buddies; they had just alighted behind her.

While the two bouncers didn't say anything to her at all, Domino knew from experience what they were motivated by, and watching them greet the new arrival with unobstrusive deference and politely directing them through the door. They feared being taken to task for allowing the wrong persons in, and not recognising the right persons to let through. They needed, no they wanted a chance to be given a less menial duty, door bouncer being pretty low on the totem pole of security detail.

"Ugh," Domino thinks to herself. "Looks like I need to be an arm ornament to get in." She begins scanning the approaching patrons for a suitable mark - a middle-aged man, well-dressed, looks like he's used to being treated with deference.