DtB: It Only Gets Worse

"Syndicate’s got specific orders, Yin. You can’t be sending your Specter in there," Huang instructs from his seat opposite Hei.

"So it’s true then? That Dolls are unable to enter the Gate?" questions Mao from Yin’s lap.

"Don’t know if it is. I’m just grateful that there’s at least one place I don’t have to worry about some freak creeper spying on me," offers Huang.

Though Huang does not visit her in the days that Hei is gone, his instructions remain fresh in Yin’s mind. Mao is the one to give her needless reminders whenever he stops by to check on her. Yet Yin remains only to sit in her tobacco shop play  middleman with goods and information for unassuming smokers and the Syndicate.

It is what Yin has always done when she is not on a mission since arriving in Tokyo. She does not understand why Huang was so adamant and Mao so insistent.

One evening she sends out her Specter—it is not unusual for her to do so when not a mission—and passes virtually unseen across the expanse of Tokyo. She takes care to scout the familiar areas: the team’s usual meeting spot for anything out of the ordinary, anything that would need to be reported; the place around her shop for she is under orders to keep such a pivotal position safeguarded; Huang’s lodgings, though she has known that the Syndicate sees him as the most expendable;  and Hei’s apartment. The last of these spurs her to traverse towards the Gate.

She has never sent her Specter into the Gate before and she has no need nor order to do otherwise. Observation. That is all she does. Then a brilliance of something lights the sky just beyond the high, thick walls surrounding the Gate.

Yin knows she is to only observe. She knows she is not suppose to traverse into the Gate. Still, she reaches out to a source of water that is closer to the light.

Pain.

It is the first thing she registers as her Specter looms from a pot filled with stagnant water within the Gate. At first it pricks at the corners of her mind only to inject molten heat into her skull. It spreads quickly through the rest of her skeletal system, then pulses with each beat of her heart through her veins. Were she capable of it, Yin would have screamed, thrown herself to the ground, and convulsed with every heartbeat until her consciousness gave out on her.

But Yin is a Doll, so she remains seated with her hand submerged in the water of her full sink.

And the pain that assaults her amplifies as she sends her Specter farther into the Gate, even after the light that has called her this far has faded.

Then she finds herself staring out from a puddle of water by Hei’s side. He appears unharmed, though he is out cold as he lies slumped in a concrete hole. The meteor core is clutched in Hei’s hand that lies closest to her.

Hei soon awakens and sees her, even calls her by name.

How does he know it is her? She does not let the question linger as she lets her Specter blink back and forth from the puddle beside Hei and to another a little farther away, closer to the wall.

Yin shows the way out of the high concrete walls and Hei follows without question.

The day after is another day without a mission for Yin.

Except it is not Mao who visits her, but Hei.

A piece of candy and a vocal acclamation of gratitude.

How does he know it was her?

The question never reaches her lips, instead Yin unwraps the offered candy and places it on her tongue.

It is sweet, but it makes her teeth ache.