Dimension Fracture

by Corinn Heathers

  “What's this? You actually want to be a part of this family now?”

  I rolled my eyes. Two out of three wasn't bad, I suppose. “Of course not. I was just stopping by to raid my sister's booze supply.”

  Mama's sidelong gaze softened and she smiled widely. I stood up and obligingly allowed her to scoop me up in a hug that was surprisingly gentle. Usually Mama was the type to give rib-cracking bear hugs, but she knew very well that I wasn't in peak physical condition anymore.

  “It's good to see you, Mama,” I said, my voice growing thick with emotion. My eyes started to sting just a little, and my mother gave me one of her patented Mom Looks as her infallible Mom Senses detected what was about to happen.

  “You're never going to stop being a crybaby, are you?”

  I sniffled and giggled simultaneously. “Hasn't happened yet in the past twenty years, so I doubt it.”

  “If you wanted to surprise me with your random visit, you should have parked your car somewhere I wouldn't have seen it,” Mama told me as she sat down at the table. She took hold of the pitcher of watermelon soju cocktail and poured herself a glass, much to Misaki's obvious dismay.

  “Oh, calm down, little fox,” my mother snapped, rolling her eyes exasperatedly. “I made this earlier and I can always make more. I'll even teach you how, if you want.”

  “O-okay.” Misaki sipped self-consciously at her drink. Her expression brightened again as Nicole appeared, her hair still damp, dressed in a loose-fitting brown yukata that Mama probably brought from the Takeda house. Even beneath the relatively shapeless garment I could see the swell of her pregnant belly.

  “Am I invited to this party, too?”

  I held my beer bottle up in salute. “Of course, the more the merrier. Sit down next to your lovely wife and let's have ourselves a proper family visit.”

  Nicole pulled a chair out across from Misaki and sat between So-yi and Mama, a glass of ice water in her hands. Of course she'd be abstaining from the alcohol, what with the pregnancy and all. I also noticed the ashtray my sister usually sat out for me was absent, again for Nicole's sake. Even though modern cigarettes were not much worse for you than a cup of coffee, the acrid smell of smoke was sure to nauseate a pregnant woman. I curbed my usual urge for a smoke by taking another sip from my drink.

  “So, what brings my least favorite daughter to visit out of the blue like this? Usually it takes me days of nagging to get you to come down to see us.”

  I gave my mother a look that defied description. “Star put us on a new case and it's going to be an ugly one. I doubt Misaki or I will have time to breathe, much less do normal-people things like spend time with family. So we thought it'd be a good idea to come visit before the investigation officially started.”

  “How is she doing these days?” Mama asked. “Such an elegant young lady.”

  “I don't know. We don't exactly socialize—or have any contact outside of work, really. Cell structure, compartmentalization, need-to-know basis, that sort of thing. And before you ask, no, I can't tell you anything about the case.”

  My mother chuckled. “I know, dear, don't start that shit with me.”

  “How's the little one coming along?” I asked Nicole, trying to simultaneously steer the conversation away from classified things which I couldn't talk about, and also attempt to defuse my mother's snark-bomb.

  “Quite aggressively,” Nicole replied, her expression calm and easy. For years my sister's wife and I didn't get along, but ever since Misaki revealed her true form, both Nicole and I pretty much decided it was time for a peace treaty. Our interactions over the past six months had been nothing short of pleasant in comparison.

  Misaki turned to Nicole. “Is it a boy or a girl?”

  “We told the doctors we didn't want to decide our baby's gender before they're old enough to tell us themselves,” So-yi explained, her tone gentle. My sister was infinitely patient with Misaki's occasional blunders regarding social and cultural issues, especially those regarding gender identity and gender roles. Six centuries of patriarchal programming wasn't so easily overwritten, after all.

  Misaki nodded. “Oh. That makes sense, since they were wrong about you.”

  She adapted quickly, though.

  “I can't believe how… big… it's gotten,” Misaki continued. “The last time I was here with Karin, there was barely even a bump and now—”

  “I can't believe it either.” Nicole's lips curved into a purely maternal smile as she rubbed her own swollen belly. “We're going to have a very big, very healthy baby. The doctors aren't wavering on the due date, either: the fourth of December.”

  I felt a not-so-pleasant chill. “That's Dad's birthday.”

  “Yeah,” So-yi murmured. Our eyes met; my sister's expression was unreadable and I wasn't even going to try and decipher how I felt about that. We both had a lot of conflicting emotions about our deceased father and that's putting it mildly.

  Our mother saved us both. “Karin dear, how about we discuss the wedding plans? You and the little fox have been engaged for over half a year now, but every time I try to talk about it you dodge the question.”

  “Mama, I told you already, we just want to have a small ceremony with just the family. It doesn't have to be anywhere special. We could even have it here, at So-yi's house.” I blushed faintly as I glanced at my sister. “Um, I mean, if that's okay with you.”

  “But this is your wedding, dear.” Mama finished her glass of soju cocktail and poured another; between my mother and Misaki, the pitcher was almost empty. “This is supposed to be the most special day for you and Misaki. If you're worried about the expense—”

  “Mama, no, I'm not worried about money,” I interrupted, trying to keep my voice calm and level. I sighed and looked at Misaki, silently pleading for help, but she gave me a look that told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to just get over my embarrassment and stop avoiding the question.

  “If money isn't the issue, why are you so insistent on having such a sparse ceremony?”

  “B-because I don't want Misaki to have to hide her ears and tail,” I blurted, avoiding the eyes of everyone at the table. I was acutely aware of two things: one, my cheeks were hot and flushed and two, Misaki had scooted closer to me and was now curling protectively around me.

  My mother glared at me. “If that's what the issue was, why didn't you just tell me that to begin with?”

  “Because she's an idiot sometimes,” Misaki answered without missing a beat, eliciting a gale of laughter from both my mother and sister. I opened my mouth to object, but it was no use. She was right, I was being an idiot and I could have ended this silly debate with Mama months ago if I'd just told her.

  “I don't want to look at our wedding pictures in twenty years and not be able to see my wife for who she really is,” I continued, not really caring that I was probably going to start crying. Mama was right, too. I really was just a big crybaby, no matter if I was twelve years old or thirty years old.

  Misaki leaned over and kissed me lightly, wiping the moisture from my eyes.

  “T-thanks, love,” I managed. I sniffled and let out a deep breath, trying to get my runaway emotions back under control. Fighting specters was generally easier than trying to stop the tears when they wanted to come.

  “Well, even if you want to have an intimate, family-only ceremony, there are still things to plan and prepare for,” Mama informed me as she sipped away at her cocktail. I could smell the pungent scent of distilled liquor in the air; she must've mixed the drink at a one-to-one ratio. No surprises there.

  My sister nodded in agreement. “What will you two wear for the ceremony?”

  “I hadn't actually thought about that. I mean, you got to use Mama's wedding dress, and Nicole had one from her family… but Misaki doesn't have a family.” I could see the eyes narrowing dangerously all around me and quickly corrected my poor choice of words. “Um, I mean, she doesn't have any family outside of us…”

  My mother roll
ed her eyes. “I'd advise you to close your mouth before more idiocy tumbles out, dear. Why don't you just let me take care of it? Let me have some enjoyment doing motherly tasks, other than just popping you out and then cleaning up your various messes for the past three decades.”

  I turned to my wife-to-be. “What do you think, love?”

  “If Yoshiko wants to do it, I think she should. It's very important that family be involved in these sorts of things.”

  “Okay, Mama, you win. We'll all work on this together, okay?” My gaze softened as I looked at my mother, my sister and my sister-in-law one after the other. I felt nothing but love and acceptance from all around me. My family always had its issues, some of them big enough that I recall honestly worrying if we'd even stay together, but finally we'd reached a point where those just didn't matter any longer.

  “I think it would be wonderful to have the wedding here, big sis.” My sister placed her hand on Nicole's and squeezed it lightly. “We could have the ceremony here, with just the five of us.”

  “Five and a half,” Nicole put in, patting her very round midsection. “Unless you two plan to get hitched next month, we'll have a little extra to account for.”

  “N-no, I think it'll be in January.” I blushed as I felt Misaki stir against me, her ears laying flat and forward as she knew very well what I was about to say. “It'd be nice to have it on the first year anniversary of the day we met.”

  “The day you saved my life,” Misaki corrected, “and gave me more than I'd ever dreamed possible. There simply isn't a way to properly express just how much I love you, Karin.”

  “Oh, I can give you a few suggestions…” I trailed off, whispering in her nearest ear so that no one else in the room could hear. Misaki blushed fiercely and her ears stood straight up, her tail curling tightly against her back.

  So-yi laughed. “Oh, my. Get a room, you two!”

  “I'll handle that,” Mama offered. “I don't want the two of you driving back to Seattle after all that alcohol. You're staying the night and that's final.”

  “But we have to be at the site at 1100—”

  “I don't care. You are not driving tonight, Karin dear. I'll wake the both of you up early; I usually get up around six these days. You can take a bath tonight and get up when I do. We'll have coffee together and you'll be on your way.”

  It was no use arguing with her when she was like this. “Okay, Mama.”

  “That's a good girl. Misaki, do you mind helping me with prepping the guest room? My two daughters from hell can probably manage preparing dinner.”

  Nicole stood up. “Oh, I can help also—”

  “Oh, no you don't, young lady.” My mother stopped Nicole in her tracks. “You shouldn't be doing anything strenuous with that baby due in six weeks. Go sit down in the living room and one of those useless girls will make you some hot ginger tea.”

  Mama grabbed Misaki by the hand and dragged her away, my unfortunate fiancee's tail curling down and tucking between her legs. Nicole couldn't keep a smile off her face as she eased herself into the living room area and slowly sank into the couch in front of the TV.

  I glanced at So-yi and shrugged. “Guess we're on dinner duty.”

  “Looks that way,” my sister agreed. “How the hell does she always manage to make me feel like I'm a kid again?”

  I shivered. “Magic. Scary, evil Mama magic.”

  the storm

  I wasn't surprised when it started to rain again. The torrential downpour pummeled the tarps sheltering So-yi's perfectly-maintained vegetable garden, the wind whipping underneath and jerking the plastic sheets hard against their moorings.

  Alone on the back porch, I lit a cigarette and stared out into the rain. It was coming down so hard and in such large droplets that even the strongest gusts of wind couldn't change the angle. I blew out a plume of smoke and silently watched the falling rain. I suppose it was something of a blessing that no physical evidence had been left at the scenes of the murders with a wash-out like this.

  “Karin?”

  I didn't bother turning; actually, I felt her presence before she even spoke. The mana bond that sustained Misaki and fed back into my body to keep my injuries on the mend had other effects. Whenever Misaki was near, I could feel her as if she were a part of me.

  Which was true, after all.

  “I'm going to come in as soon as I'm done with this.” I leaned back against the bench built into the porch, the throbbing pain in my left leg and lower back starting to intensify. The change in pressure caused by the storm sure wasn't doing me any favors.

  Misaki walked across the wooden slats and sat down next to me on the bench. Her hair was very slightly damp and she'd braided it tightly, a precaution against her impressively dense mane tangling in her sleep. The brown yukata she wore was identical to the ones we'd worn at the Takeda family home.

  “You need to get to sleep if you want to be fresh and ready for work.”

  “I know.”

  “That means you should stop staring out into the rain and come to bed, love,” Misaki explained in a helpful tone. Ordinarily I would have given her a mock-indignant glare and engaged in some playful teasing, but something stopped me.

  “I know,” I repeated, my voice sounding odd in my own ears. I closed my eyes and felt her take my hand in hers. Gentle warmth seemed to flow from Misaki's hands into my own, but I still felt cold. An involuntary shiver ran through me.

  “You're afraid to go to sleep.”

  I opened my eyes and turned to see Misaki's own eyes wide and worried, her ears drooping just slightly to either side of her head. The regular swish of her tail slowed and stopped.

  “Anxious,” I corrected. “I just… I get the feeling that weird mage isn't done with me. I don't know how I know, I just know. It's… not pleasant.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The way they looked at me—I mean, I couldn't see their eyes or face or expression or anything like that, but I just got the feeling that I was being… fixated on. Like they were staring at me with an endless, infinite hunger in their eyes.”

  “That's… uncomfortable,” Misaki murmured.

  “To put it lightly.” I nodded and snuggled up closer to her, leaning my head on her shoulder. She and I were very close in height, so either one of us could easily lean on the other.

  “Yeah.”

  Misaki put her arm around my shoulder and drew me closer. “We'll trust your instincts on this. If the dark mage contacts you again, I can use that to our advantage.”

  “I knew you were going to say that.”

  “I can enact a continuous invocation before you go to sleep. If you experience another sending, the invocation will allow me to track them. We'll know where the spell originated, and with that, be able to find the spell's caster.”

  I puffed on my smoke and let out a long, slow breath. Predictably, the anxiety was starting to recede. I was the sort of person who always felt most anxious when she didn't know what to do; having a game plan helped my state of mind immeasurably.

  “You think it's related to the case?”

  Misaki nodded down at me. “I do. The timing is too convenient, as you already pointed out to Star.”

  I sat up, pulling out from under Misaki's embrace as I took a few final puffs off my dwindling cigarette before stubbing it out in the ashtray.

  “If you're right—and you usually are—then this could give us our first major lead on the case. Come on, I'll go get ready for bed and you can do whatever weird magicky stuff you need to do.”

  Misaki giggled and gave me a dirty look. “Weird magicky stuff, huh? I'll have you know, love, that my 'weird magicky stuff' was the only thing that kept you from being confined to a wheelchair for the rest of your life. You really should be more thankful, you know.”

  “I'm not likely to forget any time soon.” My thoughtful expression softened as I gazed on my soon-to-be wife. “I love you, Misaki, and I am very thankful for everything you do and every
thing you are.”

  “Y-you say the sweetest things,” she managed, her cheeks stained a bright crimson.

  “I try my best.”

  I walked back through the open sliding glass door and headed for the guest bathroom. Unlike the Takeda house, my sister's home was Western-designed through and through and thus unfortunately did not have a real bath. I would be unfortunately faced with the supremely unsatisfying choice between a bath so shallow it barely reached the tops of my thighs or a shower.

  Considering how late it was, I decided on the shower. I stripped down quickly and stepped into the stall. So-yi's house had obviously been built at least thirty years ago, because all the bathroom fixtures were manual. It took me a few seconds to realize that there was no control panel with temperature and pressure selectors.

  I stood out of the way of the cascade of water from the shower head, waiting until it warmed up—another thing I wasn't used to doing, but something I remembered from when we were kids. Once the water wasn't so cold I'd turn into an ice cube, I stepped under the flow and washed up quickly. Lingering in the shower wasn't a luxury I could afford.

  When I emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, rubbing my hair with a towel, Misaki had already begun preparations. She sat silently in the center of the guest room, her legs crossed in the lotus position, her eyes closed. The focus necessary to perform such an invocation was not insignificant; I knew she was meditating to draw herself inward, sharpen her mind to a razor's edge.

  Making sure to be as quiet as possible, I climbed into bed, tossing the towel aside. The guest room in So-yi's house was spacious but largely empty except for a dresser, a coat rack and a queen-size bed that was roughly similar to the one Misaki and I shared at home. The mattress was a bit too soft, but it was only for one night.

  I didn't anticipate getting much sleep, anyway. If the visions came again, the unknown mage's casting would wake me. I drew the covers up over me, feeling more than a little disappointed that I'd be sleeping alone tonight. Misaki had no choice but to remain awake and in a meditative state for the entire night in order to flush out our quarry.