Neo-Kamakura

What is this?, Auditor Joen Malik thought, looking at the string of static which crossed its way through one of the holo-screens in front of him. He was sitting inside a cuboid office, adjacent to numerous other Auditors working tirelessly around the clock to manage and organize the flow of hunter information which passed to and fro from the local hunter boards. A small fern sat next to his desk, propped up on a small shelf – it was a gift from an old friend in Vitadale and had brought in some nature to this otherwise dreary place.

The static discrepancy he witnessed appeared to originate from a private channel, which he didn’t have authorization to access. However, nothing said he couldn’t trace its origin. It said “Clan of Tributes, outgoing call, reception hall”.

The areas around Joen’s eyes, his arms, and legs, were “tattooed” with a type of Johrei infused marking which heightened his sense of perception. His was the weakest form of an Augmentor, searing granulated Enthipid parts into his body – rather than grafting - for the purpose of allowing him to rife through his routine paperwork and general hunter board obligations without error.

He scratched his head looking at the screen, thinking about what this could mean. Whenever one of the hunter channel servers gets forcibly rebooted, shut down, or faces a power outage, static lines usually appeared on the Auditor’s side, though such actions usually required troubleshooting reports to the Auditors themselves from backup channels. It was a rare that this type of event happened, and even rarer to see it unreported as the server farms in the city are one of the few places that aren’t short of personnel or replacement parts. These types of issues were usually fleeting and resolved within minutes, and if not, the Auditors send specialized technicians to go and check the matter out. None of that happened here.

He leaned back now, staring at the vaulted ceiling above. The ceiling’s bluish glow permeated throughout the room, although the lighting was dim, which created a sense of melancholy tranquility. It was an intentional design since keeping the lights active while the Auditors were at work would only do more harm than good as their increased visual perception can’t tolerate bright lighting conditions for long periods of time.

What many hunters don’t realize, and what the Auditors have been taking advantage of for the past few decades, was that perception-based armor not only honed one’s senses, it also allowed one to process sensory-based information at a much more efficient pace than the average person could. This allowed the average Auditor to conduct administrative duties with a low margin of error. And though it provided no defensive or combat capabilities, as Augmented armors typically do, Joen’s makeshift tattoo “armor” application was a subtle nod to the ingenuity of the city council’s researchers and technicians which not only minimizes the Voices of Madness, but also opens the door to new ways to imbue armor as Augmentors.

Joen, a senior Auditor at one of the district-level Auditor stations at Lucens Mundi, was aware that the actual technology of this unique armor variant derived from one created by an Onyx Technician in the past, long deceased and erased from public memory, but no upper-management Auditor with any common sense mentions it because of the Onyx Technicians’ affiliations with the criminal underground. Lower-level Auditors are unaware of the group as anything but a nuisance who exist only to squander city resources and it was his job to keep it that way. Not everyone is to be trusted with information, especially one as potentially damaging to the Auditors’ reputation as this.

Their jobs depended on changing with the times. These tattoos also allowed Auditors to manage resources. By using the parts of the same Enthipid and granulating it into particles, multiple Auditors could receive the perception-boost granted by the metal. However, the effect itself gets weaker as more and more people receive the perception-effect from the same set of Bastion metal, making it more impractical the larger the team gets. Some have tried wearing perception-armor sets from a different Enthipid on top of their Augmentor tattoo armor to counteract this, but the results produced were…well it was safe to say those risky individuals will never be functioning members of society again. Though compatibility issues never arose when it came to grafting, it was strange that it would do so in this niche circumstance.

In spite of its drawbacks, having teams of Augmented Auditors has been a blessing when monitoring thousands of bounties, reports, hunter channels, and the like, especially with the shortage in manpower recently due to recent furloughs and the increase in hunter applications. Without his enhanced senses, who knows if he could have kept up with the daily demand. And it is precisely because of this perception-boost that he noticed this static discrepancy in one of the private hunter channels.

Was this an error? Perhaps this was a troubleshooting issue after all. Maybe the Clan of Tributes didn’t notice it? Why do I have to deal with these mundane matters?

In times like this, were the Auditors allowed to bypass protocol and attempt to access the line that they themselves granted to the Clan after the Second Agreement? The city did give them the private channel as recompense for limiting the Clan’s overall influence in the city through checks and balances and deferment to the unified district council’s decision. Perhaps it was better to inform the Clan of Tributes instead.

As he racked his brains to think of the next course of action, another Auditor next door peered over his office wall.

“What’s got you worked up Joen?”, a younger man, clean-shaven, asked. His tattoos were of a different design than Joen’s, resembling a serpentine creature of some kind. Aesthetics were unnecessary for work, but this younger man, Pater, had been honest in his work and had, on more than one occasion, helped him out with technical issues like this.

“I’ve been noticing a static discrepancy in the system recently on one of the Clan of Tributes’ private lines. I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the server, or what? Can you come check this out for me?” Joen asked.

“That’s unusual”, Pater said. “You’d think they’d report this to you by now. Maybe no one’s there at the moment.”

“But I’m calling the reception hall. There can’t be a lack of personnel there to not have noticed this,” Joen clarified.

Pater walked around, coffee still in hand, and set down the cup at Joen’s coaster before connecting his headset to the system to listen in. He thumbed one of the menu options on the holo-screen, and a red mark appeared, indicating the channel has been set into “restricted mode”.

“I was taught in the manual that if the lines ever have any trouble, and no one is there to report about it, that we have temporary leave to block the lines and access it ourselves to confirm whether there are any audio artifacts that may be indication of a larger problem with the server farms. After all, these server farms are Johrei powered, so the presence of static discrepancies should be taken with much more seriousness and caution than older technology that still run with electricity.”

“You know better than most when it comes to these things”, Joen mentioned. “I think I’m getting a little too old to understand these updates in technology”.

“It’s just part of my job description. Plus, my direct supervisor hasn’t been giving me a lot of work to do recently, so I study up on things like this.” Joen nodded in approval.

Pater began listening in carefully to the line, adjusting the virtual knob on the holo-screen to isolate the frequency. The graph in front of him began showing signs of activity, which Joen found odd. Didn’t he just restrict access to the channel?

“No problems here”, Pater said, dryer tone than usual. “The static discrepancy you’re hearing is just a byproduct from one of the monthly troubleshooting tests handled by the city engineers. Nothing that concerns us at the moment.”

Joen thought, They did that for the old server farms that were powered by electricity, but for Johrei lines like this, was that still a thing?

However, Joen put it out of his mind. Pater knew better than he when it came to these matters, and he wrote up his troubleshooting report for the day, chalking this matter up as resolved.

Maybe my age is catching up with me, but I find myself caring less and less about this job each day, Joen thought. After this, he was definitely going to visit the spa for some much-needed relaxation.

*******

“Wow, that was impressive”, Caz said, looking at Reina’s screen. “Why the Clan of Tributes?”

“Well, I hate their guts”, Reina said. “Plus, I need a guinea pig to redirect the attention of the Auditors should they ever get suspicious. This would’ve normally been harder than it was, but luckily, I have Mimi here to help me.”

Mimi looked somewhat exhausted.

“You okay?” Caz asked.

Mimi put one finger up, asking him to wait, her other hand on her knee. She panted for a moment before standing up, stretching her back.

“Yeah, I’m okay now”, she said.

“Sonic influence, right?” Caz inquired. Mimi nodded. Maybe she was showed too many of her cards to the Blackbirds, but right now she just wanted some water.

“Yeah”, she said, still out of breath. “That’s one of the abilities my core gives me as a Supplementor. But usually, I don’t get this tired unless an Inner was involved. It would appear there are Inners within the Auditor’s circle and its much harder for me to impart influence over Inners than it is for normal non-enhanced individuals. But the plus side is that once I overcome that barrier, the influence itself is much stronger than it would be against Outers. Whoever was at the receiving end of my call should theoretically forget about this whole conversation once they snap out of their stupor.”

“I remember your subordinate saying that you couldn’t affect Inners to that degree. That it would only feel like ‘subconscious’ influence” Caz said. “Now I’m hearing you’re basically able to mind-control Inners.”

“Oops,” Mimi said, knocking her hand on her head. She tried to puppy-dog eye Caz, but unable to tell his expression behind his veil, she dropped the act. “We didn’t fully trust you guys then. I…ordered my subordinates to spread misinformation as a contingency to people I don’t know too well, in order to prevent the leaking of Valkyrie secrets and to misguide any potential adversaries who may stumble across our intel. Don’t take it too personally as I only worked with you initially because Alyx vouched for you but…we’re friends now. Plus, I’ve seen how you and the rest of your crew interact, and I’ve concluded that the Blackbirds are good people, even if you are a bit disorganized.”

Caz crossed his arms, as if unconvinced.

“I’m sorry” Mimi began, “I – wait. Why am I apologizing? I owe you nothing.” She pouted.

Caz laughed. It was a hearty laugh, full of mirth. “I’m just messing with you. I know that hunters keep things close to the chest. You never wondered why I never said anything about my own abilities?”

Mimi started at him, surprised she never thought about that. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t think of what to say. But she was glad he was being up front with her.

“Anyways, you’ve been a great help Mimi. You too Reina,” Caz said, nodding towards Reina, who only raised her hand, eyes glued to her holo-screen.

Mimi still hasn’t fully recovered the wind from her sails from the call, and her sweat glistened under the room’s lighting, but she put up two victory signs, smiling brightly. Caz chuckled.

“Alright then”, he said. “Reina, now that Mimi’s done with her part. You good if we head out?”

“Yes, sir,” she responded. “I just needed the private channel. Now we should be able to contact each other without being overheard by third-parties. Good hunting out there, Blackbird.”

Caz nodded, heading for the door. Mimi followed, walking briskly beside him with a hop in her steps. “Keep in touch, Reina,” she said, winking. She looked at Caz. “So, Caz, where do you want to go first?”