Chapter 322

By late afternoon, the festival grounds had been emptied of civilians and turned into something closer to a crime scene.

The damaged stalls were being cleared away, wounded adventurers had already been transferred to treatment facilities, and every captured monster was either back inside reinforced containment or dead.

Ganesha Familia members now guarded every entrance to the western holding area while Guild officials moved between the cages recording damage and taking statements.

Rayleigh remained beside the seven opened cages with Shakti and Ardi.

The damaged lock he had taken earlier was lying on a worktable beside six others, and the pattern was obvious once they were placed together.

None had been forced.

Shakti folded her arms while Rayleigh examined the final mechanism.

"The emergency seals worked exactly as designed once we activated them, and none of the cages opened after that. Whoever caused the breach did it manually before the alarm was raised."

Rayleigh turned the lock over and inspected the internal teeth.

There were no scratches from improvised tools and no bent pins from someone trying to force the mechanism.

"They had a proper key."

"Or a copy."

Ardi placed the security records on the table.

"There were only four master rings. Shakti had one, Akari had another, the transport supervisor carried the third, and the fourth stayed sealed inside the administration office. We've already checked all four. None went missing."

Rayleigh looked toward her. "Then someone copied one before today."

"That was my conclusion too."

Shakti's expression had become colder with every new piece of information.

An escaped monster was an accident Ganesha Familia could accept responsibility for.

Seven deliberately opened cages in the middle of a crowded festival were something entirely different.

"The question is how they got close enough to use it," she said. "Every person allowed inside this section had a badge issued by my Familia. We recorded names when they entered and checked them again when they left."

Rayleigh picked up the roster.

"Then somebody on this list isn't who they claimed to be."

Ardi leaned over his shoulder while he read through the names.

Most belonged to Ganesha Familia members he recognized or Guild workers whose assignments could be verified immediately.

The temporary laborers were more interesting, although even they had been sponsored by established shops and Familias supplying the festival.

One name had been marked in red.

Klem Vardo — maintenance assistant, Western Section.

Rayleigh tapped it.

"This one?"

Shakti nodded. "The workshop listed as his sponsor says they have never employed anyone by that name. The badge itself was real, which means someone submitted the paperwork weeks ago and got the identity approved normally."

"So whoever planned this didn't wake up this morning and decide releasing monsters sounded entertaining."

"No. They prepared."

Ardi's usual warmth had disappeared completely. "We still don't know whether Klem Vardo is the saboteur or just another stolen identity, but he never checked out of the festival grounds. If he escaped during the evacuation, nobody saw him leave."

Rayleigh returned the roster to the table.

"Any of the unconscious guards awake yet?"

"One."

They moved immediately.

...

Akari was sitting upright in one of the temporary treatment rooms when they entered.

The experienced Ganesha adventurer looked furious rather than injured, which Rayleigh considered a promising sign.

A healer had already cleared her of serious damage, and the only visible wound was a dark bruise along the side of her neck.

She tried to stand when Shakti entered.

Shakti stopped her with one look.

"You were unconscious less than an hour ago. Sit down and give us the report."

Akari obeyed, although not happily.

"I was checking the western storage rooms because the Silverback transfer was running behind schedule. Four guards were supposed to be stationed outside the secondary containment hall, but when I reached them, all four were already on the floor."

"What happened after that?" Rayleigh asked.

"I went inside because I thought someone had attacked them. I saw one maintenance worker near the cage controls and told him to get away from the locks. He turned around, apologized, and said one of the handlers had sent him to repair a jammed release."

Akari touched the bruise on her neck.

"I knew immediately that was wrong. Nobody repairs those mechanisms while monsters are inside the cages. I reached for my weapon, but something hit me from behind before I could draw."

Rayleigh stepped closer and examined the bruise.

"Blunt strike?"

"No. I barely felt the impact. My arms went numb first, then my legs stopped responding."

That sounded more interesting.

Rayleigh placed two fingers lightly against the bruised area and sent a small amount of Kaidō through the damaged tissue.

Akari stiffened.

"There."

Rayleigh felt it too.

A tiny foreign object remained beneath the skin.

He used Kaidō to push it outward until a short black needle emerged from the bruise. Ardi caught it with a cloth before it could fall.

The needle was barely longer than a fingernail.

Shakti stared at it. "Poison?"

"Probably some kind of paralytic. Don't touch the tip."

Rayleigh withdrew his hand after confirming nothing else remained in the wound.

Akari flexed her fingers as the lingering numbness eased. "That explains why I couldn't move. I thought I'd been hit with some kind of Magic."

Rayleigh looked toward the needle again.

It was too small and precise for a desperate saboteur improvising on the day of the festival.

Whoever had planned the breach possessed proper equipment, forged credentials, copied keys, and enough information about the security schedule to strike when several senior adventurers were occupied elsewhere.

Shakti clearly reached the same conclusion.

"Describe the maintenance worker."

Akari closed her eyes for a moment. "Human male. Maybe twenty-five. Brown hair, average height, no obvious weapons except a tool pouch. He kept his head down, so I didn't get a good look at his face until I confronted him."

She opened her eyes again.

"There was one thing."

Rayleigh waited.

"When he raised his hands to pretend he was surrendering, his left sleeve moved. I saw a burn scar around his wrist."

Ardi's expression changed.

"What kind of scar?"

"A circle with three lines through it. I only saw it for a second, but it looked deliberate."

The room fell quiet.

Rayleigh had seen marks like that before.

Not exactly the same symbol, but close enough.

During the Great Feud, several Evilus factions had branded members who belonged to particular cells or patron gods.

Many of those markings had been burned away after the war, either by survivors trying to hide or by people who had abandoned the organization entirely.

Shakti noticed his reaction.

"You recognize it."

"Maybe. I need to see the man before I say anything definite."

Akari immediately tried to stand again. "Then let me come with you."

Shakti placed one hand against her shoulder and pushed her gently back onto the bed.

"You were poisoned, and you are staying here until the healer releases you. If this man survived several years after the Great Feud without being identified, running after him while half-numb would be stupid."

Akari looked ready to argue until Ardi gave her an unusually serious look as well.

That ended it.

Rayleigh left with the two sisters.

...

They found the first real trail in the western storage building.

Most of the structure had been searched already, but Rayleigh approached it differently. Rather than checking rooms one by one, he stopped inside the entrance and let his spiritual perception spread through the building.

Dozens of Reiraku appeared within his awareness.

Most belonged to Ganesha Familia members and Guild investigators.

One thread was moving away from them.

Fast.

Rayleigh turned toward the rear wall.

"Someone's running."

Shakti immediately issued orders through her communication crystal while Rayleigh disappeared with Shunpo.

The moving Reiraku passed through the back of the building and entered a narrow service alley.

Rayleigh crossed two rooms in a blur, reached the rear exit, and saw a man in festival maintenance clothes sprinting toward the next intersection.

The man looked over his shoulder.

Their eyes met.

He reached into his coat.

Rayleigh raised a finger.

"Bakudō #1: Sai!"

The fugitive's arms locked behind his back before he could draw whatever he had been reaching for.

His momentum carried him forward, and he hit the ground shoulder-first.

Rayleigh landed several meters away.

"That was easier than expected."

The man rolled onto his side.

Then he smiled.

Rayleigh's expression changed.

"Move!"

He used Shunpo to reach the fugitive just as the man's coat exploded.

The blast tore through the alley, throwing stone fragments and flame across both walls.

Rayleigh caught the man's body by the collar and dragged him clear before the fire reached whatever second device was strapped beneath his clothing.

Ardi and Shakti arrived as smoke poured into the street.

Ardi stared at the scorched wall.

"He tried to blow himself up?"

"Not very successfully."

Rayleigh dropped the unconscious man onto the ground and tore open the remains of his coat.

Several small metal cylinders had been strapped around his waist.

One had detonated, but the others had failed after Rayleigh dragged him out of the blast before the chain reaction completed.

Shakti crouched beside the devices without touching them.

"I haven't seen these in years."

Rayleigh had.

Cheap casings. Simple triggers. Enough explosive compound to turn a narrow alley into a grave.

"Evilus used similar suicide equipment during the Great Feud."

Ardi looked down at the prisoner.

His left sleeve had burned away in the explosion.

A circular scar crossed by three dark lines was visible around his wrist.

That settled the question.

Shakti's jaw tightened.

"Take him alive."

Rayleigh checked the man's breathing. "He already is."

Two Ganesha adventurers reached them with restraints, but before they could lift the prisoner, Rayleigh sensed two more unfamiliar Reiraku approaching from the roofs.

"Down!"

He grabbed Ardi by the shoulder and pulled her aside as three throwing knives struck the stones where she had been standing.

Two black-clad figures dropped from the building above.

Neither attempted to rescue the prisoner.

They went directly for his throat.

Rayleigh drew Ruri'iro Kujaku.

"Bloom in a frenzy, Ruri'iro Kujaku!"

Lapis-colored vines burst from the blade and crossed the alley before either attacker could land.

One vine wrapped around the first man's arm and ripped his knife away, while three more caught his chest and legs and slammed him against the wall.

The second attacker cut through the first thin vine that reached him and tried to leap over the rest.

Ardi was waiting beneath him.

She drew Nejibana in one smooth motion and struck him across the stomach with the sealed blade, knocking the air from his lungs before he could escape.

He hit the ground, rolled, and immediately tried to bite down on something hidden inside his mouth.

Rayleigh saw the movement.

A vine snapped around the man's jaw.

His teeth stopped centimeters apart.

Rayleigh crouched beside him and removed a small black capsule from beneath his tongue.

"Poison?"

Shakti asked.

"Probably. They came prepared to die."

The first captive continued struggling against Ruri'iro Kujaku until the vines tightened enough to make breathing difficult.

Rayleigh deliberately kept the Zanpakutō from draining either man's spiritual power; he wanted prisoners, not corpses.

Shakti looked toward the unconscious saboteur they had originally caught.

"They weren't trying to save him."

"No. They were cleaning up."

Ardi's expression hardened as she understood the implication.

Someone had expected the saboteur might be captured and had stationed people nearby specifically to kill him before he could talk.

This was far more organized than a handful of nostalgic Evilus survivors deciding to cause trouble.