I'll need a vacuum.

64

The ride back in the car gave me a chance to breathe. It was the first time that one of my missions went off without a hitch even though it had everything to fail. I was still surprised that there hadn't been an explosion or a shooting. With my luck and my curse, it was a possibility but fortunately for us, we were spared. Kento interrupted my thoughts.

"You did something earlier, right ? Your face is different, more masculine... How ?"

I had forgotten. Too obsessed with the sequence of events, I no longer remembered that I had modified my face with my power without explaining to him beforehand that I was capable of it... the poor man must have panicked internally when he saw me like that but his professionalism had allowed him to keep his cool. I answered his question :

" I told myself that I had to intervene, but my voice risked betraying me... and then I remembered that my power allowed me to modify what I wanted ! So I managed it, and there you have it ! Wait, I'll change back now."

And no sooner said than done. Nanami turned his head again and I was back to my normal appearance.

"I sure prefer you like this."

We arrived at the apartment late, tired. The day had been long and full of emotions, even if it had gone well, and I quickly fell asleep in his arms.

I resumed my research with the new elements the next day, trying to find the accountant's contact to locate him and then interview him. Unfortunately, I couldn't watch the café he went to and risk being recognized by my ex if they hung out together, so I let Nanami handle that part. He transferred this mission to an exorcist assistant from the school whom I had already met but whose name I had forgotten. We continued to think about my ex's reasons for killing me. If he was a crook or a scammer, then he had lied to my company and pretended to be the project manager of another company that didn't exist ! Which explained why I couldn't find anything by his name on the internet. The new question being, why ? What was he trying to achieve by coming to my laboratory, to work with my colleagues and me ? Our project was nothing revolutionary or dangerous, it was only research and development of specific medical equipment for future surgeries and organ transplantation, quite specific but not worth doing an investigation or an attempted industrial espionage ! And above all, what were the curses doing in this story ? This was the most complicated part for me to understand, I couldn't connect these two elements, although he proved to me through his words that there was indeed a link.

Shoko called in the meantime, to give us the results of her research on my genealogy. I left the phone on speaker so we could both enjoy it.

"Hey how are you ? I have news about your lineage, darling ! Your paternal family is descended from a small, not very powerful family of exorcists, but at least we have the beginnings of a connection here ! The problem is that the degree of kinship is too distant to justify the existence of your power. And there doesn't seem to be any data on any curse on their side."

I sighed, annoyed:

"So it's my mother's side, right ? I suspected it!"

Shoko took her time before answering me.

"To be honest, I do not know. There is no data on the maternal side and that intrigues me quite a bit. We used the contacts we had in neighboring countries to see, even if practically all the exorcists in the world are concentrated in Japan, just in case, but nothing. I don't like it, I feel like something is wrong and things are being hidden from us."

"Who could do that ?"

" I don't know... Sometimes exorcist clans keep information secret and it happens that entire sections of our history are erased because of infighting or other absurdities. Maybe that's why I can't find anything about your mother ?"