Takezo bowed slightly. “Saito-sama. This is Peter O’Connor, a Lucielle Legal operative who came in through the other side of the portal. The one I reported about.”

  Saito nodded and walked a bit closer to me. “Can you walk?”

  “I think so.” I slid off the bed. My knees held, my stance steady. “Yeah, I’m good. Elshiko put me together perfectly.”

  “Yes,” Elshiko added. “Perfectly. As I always do. So, how about you give me Takezo to play with for the night as a reward?”

  “That’s not how this works,” Takezo cut it off. “Harlot.”

  “Anyways,” Saito said in a matter-of-fact way, offering no space for a discussion. “Takezo, Peter, and I need you two to come with me to the roof to greet our new guest. Elshiko, arrange a dinner for four somewhere high-budget, somewhere you would like.”

  Her eyes sparked up. She clapped her hands in front of herself and bounced a little on the balls of her feet. “Where would I like? That’s the first time. May I attend as well?”

  “Not officially. But our guest is a woman with tastes very similar to yours.”

  “No one has tastes like her,” Takezo butted in. “Not even other succubi.”

  “Yap yap yap.” Elshiko waved it off. “I’ll take care of it.” She skipped out of the room, sliding her hand along Takezo’s shoulder as she passed him.

  Saito motioned us to follow, and we headed out as well. Finally, no cuffs, and no wounds. No weapons either, but they were surely going to return them to me. Not like I was going to need them now, anyway.

  We passed the sterile hallways into an elevator, which had way too many floor buttons. Now that I had a clear head, I realized there were easily a hundred and twenty floors in this building. Far too many, given the Empire State Building has about a hundred.

  We arrived at the absolute top.

  The elevator beeped, the door opened, and wind slammed into us.

  Saito led us out. “Watch your step.”

  He didn’t have to say that twice. The roof was absolutely massive, with three helipads on one side and a runway on the other. Various lights shone everywhere I looked, and the one helicopter that filled a helipad looked like it came out of a Sci-Fi movie.

  Since the roof had no walls, barely even any rails, the wind blew freely over the roof, almost knocking me off my feet.

  Around us spread an endless sea of buildings, even the tallest ones looking noticeably smaller than where we were. Yet as far as I knew, the tallest building in Tokyo was the Tokyo Sky Tree, which was just a tower, and I could see it as being smaller from here.

  How were they hiding a skyscraper in the middle of a city?

  Well, that was most likely far above my clearance, so I'd better not attract attention to not knowing it.

  A sonic boom echoed from above, and in a direct line from above descended Isabella’s custom F-35. When I first saw the plane, like a week ago, I questioned my sanity.

  Now, I wondered what the max speed of the jet was, because it was about six and a half thousand miles from Philadelphia to Tokyo, and she was here in a bit over an hour, so that was like… way too damn fast.

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  The jet landed, the cockpit opened, and Isabella jumped out. She wore exactly the same outfit as always, a black suit with a white shirt, a large cross amulet in place of a tie, and a broken chain around her waist. She just wore different heels.

  She marched straight to us. After she scanned me with a quick glance, she walked straight to Saito, her unreasonably long hair flapping in the wind like a war banner. “So,” she snapped, voice so sharp it cut straight through the noise. “Is this going to be cordial, or an absolute massacre?”

  That froze me in place. I knew Isabella had a high position in our corporation, but this sounded like she felt free to threaten what was supposed to be a different corporation of a similar power. The opening of give me what I want or you will die trying to stop me from taking it suggested a very different power relationship though.

  Takezo did not move. But Saito bowed, deeper this time. “It is my pleasure to welcome you to Yamato Syndicate’s headquarters, Lady Isabella. I believe cooperation to be of utmost interest to both of our organizations, and thus would like to extend the offer of a partnership.”

  And they folded in an instant. Then again, by what I saw behind the portal, Tokyo was about to get destroyed in about a month and a half, and everyone else was going to be fine. The broken ship in the sky strongly implied the demons didn’t spread at all. The portals also all led to future Tokyo, so it all fit.

  Isabella cocked her head. “That sounds nice, but your grunt doesn’t deem me important enough to spare even a simple bow. You aren’t lying to me, are you, Saito?”

  Saito pierced Takezo with a murderous glare. Reluctantly, Takezo slightly bowed.

  Isabella smirked. “Lower.”

  Takezo drew a sharp breath, but lowered his bow further. “I am in full agreement with Saito-san’s statement.”

  “You say that now that I called you out. Didn’t look like it at all at first. But I’m sure you can prove your words by bowing lower. I’ll tell you when you’re low enough.”

  Takezo bowed lower. Isabella said nothing, so he descended on one knee to reach lower. Silence. Eventually, he got down on the second knee, very reluctantly deepening his bow all the way until his forehead touched the floor in front of the tips of her shoes.

  A vicious smirk spread over Isabella’s face. “That seems about right. My corporation has about eighteen billion dollars invested in local real estate, so we do have a common interest in not wanting the city to be razed to the ground.”

  Right. Of course. Real estate investment returns. That was the main problem with an apocalyptic demon invasion. I stared at her with wide eyes, not believing my ears.

  But Saito slightly relaxed, visibly pleased with the answer. Takezo started rising from the ground.

  Isabella pinned him with a glare. “Did I allow you to rise?”

  Takezo shot a glance at Saito, but he only slightly shook his head.

  Takezo’s face hardened even further. He lowered his forehead back to the floor.

  Isabella nodded with approval.

  Saito cleared his throat. “Then let us retreat to a dinner, and plan our next move.”

  “But of course.” Isabella stepped towards the elevator as if she ran the whole place. “I allow your grunt to be my servant for the evening.”

  Saito joined Isabella. “He will be delighted to fulfill that role to perfection.”

  I offered Takezo a hand to help him up, and he took it, letting me drag him up. He straightened. “I need to apologize to Saito for complaining about him.”

  We joined our superiors in the elevator.

  The doors closed, and Isabella spared me a side glance. “Why are you the only one drenched in blood?”

  “I was the only one behind the portal,” I answered, cheeks catching red. I knew this tone of hers. She had a great time humiliating Saito and Takezo, and she wasn’t nearly done having fun. Except that I was the only possible victim left. “Had a big fight with demons.”

  “What demons? The dogs, the lowest level ones? Did they nearly kill you, again? It’s getting pathetic.”

  I reddened further. “It was the vultures, and I killed over a dozen of them.”

  “Ah, the vultures, the second lowest level of demons. How unexpected.” She clicked her tongue. “Then again, we are in the perfect place to get you a maid outfit. You would clearly be more useful as a house pet.”

  Saito and Takezo did their best looking sideways, acting as if they weren’t locked in the elevator with us.

  Ugh, why did she have to do this in front of them? I turned as red as possible, lost for words. What could I even say to that? Wait... I did have something. “I found a dome that the demons use to repair their main ship. It’s badly damaged, so they almost surely haven’t made it anywhere further than Tokyo. There’s also no hint of there being more invasion points than this one.”

  “Almost surely is just a more flowery way of saying that you’ve got no damn clue.”

  That didn’t sound nearly as sharp as usual though. She spoke casually, which meant she liked what she heard.

  The elevator took us to the garages, where Saito guided us to his car, a black sedan version of Mazda, and drove us out.