Chapter 53: Uninvited Houseguest

Mio

They waved goodbye to Ivory, who wasn’t pleased about being left alone again. Her wailing gave it away.

Mio grabbed a seed on her way out. Just enough Reservoir for one.

The door clicked shut behind them.

Bureau quarters. Same bed. Same walls. Same Nana, now in cat pajamas.

Same Ivory.

The caretaker stood between them, purple eyes blinking against the fluorescent light.

“Eh?”

She looked at the door. Then at Mio. Then at the ceiling, which was very much not made of bone.

“Mio-san.”

“Yeah?”

“Why am I here?”

Mio looked at the Marrow Key in her palm. Still warm.

“I think you’re tethered to this.”

“To the key?”

“To me.”

Ivory’s face cycled through confusion, then horror. Then her eyes went wet.

“I’m… outside?”

Her voice cracked on the last word.

And now she was standing in a Bureau dormitory that smelled like industrial cleaner and instant rice.

Mio ran a hand through her hair. The Bureau wouldn’t be thrilled about a primordial entity wandering their halls. She could already picture Segawa’s face, the cigarette twitching between his fingers—

“I have already cast an ability that hides my presence!” Ivory announced, chest puffed with pride. “No one can detect me!”

“How does it work?”

“It runs on my appetite!”

On cue, Ivory’s stomach growled. Loud enough to echo.

The pride drained from her face.

“Ah.”

“So if you get hungry…”

“The concealment fades, yes.” She pressed both hands to her stomach. “I haven’t eaten in… a very long time.”

Mio took a breath. Then another.

Then she picked up the room phone and dialed the cafeteria.

While they waited, Nana claimed the corner of the bed, working a comb through her damp hair. She hadn’t said much since they came back. Every few seconds her eyes drifted to Mio, then away.

The constipated look. She was holding something back.

Mio let it sit. Whatever Nana needed to say, she’d say it when she was ready.

Ivory, meanwhile, had discovered the television.

“Mio-san.”

“What.”

“This box has people inside it.”

“It’s a TV.”

“They’re very small.”

“They’re not actually—” Mio stopped herself. “Sure. Small people.”

Ivory pressed the power button. The screen went dark.

She pressed it again. Light.

Dark.

Light.

Dark. Light. Dark. Light. Darklight darklight darklight—

“Ivory.”

“Yes?”

“Pick a channel and stick with it.”

The caretaker’s lower lip trembled. “But there are so many…”

Nana sighed, abandoning her comb. “Here. Give me that.” She snatched the remote and started flipping. “Korean drama. You’ll like it. Hot guys.”

“What is Korean?”

“It’s a country.”

“O’ Great Devourer never mentioned countries.” Ivory tilted her head at the screen. “Only thresholds.”

Mio sat on the couch and counted the minutes.

The knock came fourteen minutes later. Ivory’s head whipped toward the door.

“I’ll get it!”

Mio grabbed her by the collar before she made it two steps.

“You’re invisible, remember?”

“Oh!” Ivory covered her mouth. “Right. The concealment. I forgot.”

“How did you survive 256 years?”

“I didn’t have doors to answer!”

Fair point.

Mio crossed to the entrance and pulled the food cart inside with her right hand. The obsidian arm moved like it had always been hers—smoother, even. Less effort than before.

Standard Bureau fare—rice, miso, grilled fish, vegetables that looked apologetic about existing. Three portions. She’d ordered extra without thinking about it.

Ivory stared at the spread like it was a religious experience.

“Mio-san.”

“Eat.”

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Rice. Start with rice.”

The first bite made Ivory’s eyes roll back. The second made her moan. By the third she was crying.

Mio glanced at Nana, expecting her to be weirded out.

Nana wasn’t.

What kind of K-dramas has she been watching?

“This is the best meal I’ve ever had.”

“It’s cafeteria food.”

“I know.”

Nana had migrated to the floor in front of the TV, K-drama forgotten, watching Ivory inhale fish like she’d never seen protein before.

“She’s worse than you, Onee-san.”

“I don’t eat like that.”

“You ate like that yesterday.”

“That was different.”

“How?”

Mio didn’t have an answer.

Ivory finished the fish and moved to the vegetables. She held up a limp piece of spinach, studying it with reverence.

“O’ Great Devourer would appreciate this.”

“Cafeteria spinach?”

“Sustenance freely given. She values that.” Ivory popped it in her mouth. Her face contorted. “O’ Great Devourer would despise the texture.”

Mio watched Ivory scrape the last grains of rice from the bowl. “I’m surprised you’re so skinny for how much you eat.”

Nana snorted. “You’re one to talk.”

She laughed—actually laughed—and flopped back into the couch. Ivory followed, sinking into the cushions with a satisfied groan. Two girls who looked about the same age, one eleven and one two hundred fifty-six, both defeated by Bureau cafeteria food.

The hunger stayed quiet. Reservoir stable. Nothing to complain about.

Late afternoon light slanted through the window blinds.

“Mio.” Nana’s voice came from the couch, casual. “How many people have you killed?”

Mio blinked. “None…?”

“You have. You killed—” Nana counted on her fingers. “One, two, three people.”

The cathedral. Her party.

Mio sighed. “If you count that, yes.”

“So how many total?!”

“Only three.”

Nana seemed disappointed, as if Mio should have had more.

Where is this coming from?

The constipated look flickered across her sister’s face again. There and gone.

Mio let it sit.

She pulled the incursion seed from her pocket. Small, dark, warm. It pulsed against her palm like a second heartbeat.

Nested. Scales with user level. Repeatable.

Her first private incursion. No Bureau handlers. No partners watching her back. Just her and whatever spawned inside.

“I’m going to test this.”

Nana looked up from the screen. “Now?”

“Better to know how it works before I need it.”

“Can I come?”

“No.”

“But—”

“Nana.” Mio crouched in front of her sister. “I need you to stay here. Keep an eye on our guest.”

Ivory perked up. “Guest? I’m a guest?”

“Can you pull me out if something goes wrong?”

Ivory tilted her head. “Through the tether? Probably? It goes both ways. I think.” She didn’t sound confident.

“You think?”

“It’s been 256 years, Mio-san. I’ve never had a tether before.”

Good enough.

“Please don’t open the door for anyone.” Mio glanced at the caretaker. “Or I’ll send you back to the Marrow.”

Ivory’s face went pale. Paler. “You just said you didn’t know how the tether worked!”

“Guess we’ll find out.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Nana rolled her eyes but nodded. “Fine. Go punch things. We’ll be here.”

The two of them turned back to the K-drama. Ivory was already asking questions about the love triangle.

Mio squeezed the seed.

[Incursion Seed: Nested]

Would you like to activate?

She stepped away from the couch, into the empty space near the window.

Yes.

The seed crumbled to ash in her palm. Where there had been nothing, a door now stood—bone-white frame, darkness beyond.

And Mio stepped through.

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