Akuru and Kanae woke up at the same time dawn broke.
The window let the morning in uninterrupted. Both of them arose without a huff of protest. They slipped out of the small inn and into the awakening market they drifted. They found a place to eat food without pomp or ceremony, getting nothing fancy, just something to fill themselves for the day onwards.
Right after they headed straight for the scrapyard again, trying to see if the change in time could help them figure out some other clue.
As they got near, the sound of a fully functioning metal scrap yard in action hit them. The clang of metal striking at a steady rhythm, while men did their best to shout above the constant clatter. A diesel engine, louder than anything Akuru had ever heard, throbbed like a distant alarm. Lines of workers guided trolleys, hefted iron plates, and moved in a practiced choreography.
An efficient symphony.
From the office door near the front of the yard, they heard a raised voice, someone throwing out orders without pause. A hint of agitation could be heard in the almost gruff voice. Akuru and Kanae looked over at each other in confusion, not sure if they should go in now or give it a minute. They eventually decided to bite the bullet and knocked. The conversation inside paused before they heard someone reply with an enter. Akuru opened the door and Kanae followed in.
In the office, a man in a dark business suit stood with a worker to his side in stained overalls. The man in the suit wore a hat despite the heat, and his tie was loosened. He looked professional and casual at the same time, the entire outfit looking more comical then anything else. As they approached, he looked over and stepped forward with a question already on the tip of his tongue. For a second, his face registered curiosity as he looked at the swords on their waists, then recognition, then something like relief brightened it.
"You two!" he called, as if spotting them were the best thing that had happened to him that morning. He strode toward them, hand extended, words tumbling before he could stop himself.
"Thank God. I- well. Are you from- No wait. Are you the people I asked help from? I've never seen real-life samurai!" he laughed a nervous, high sound, "I don't mean to be forward, but seeing a uniform like that, forgive me, I got excited. Call me Matsunaga, the owner of this yard. Really, this is splendid timing. People like you mean action! You know what I mean, right?"
The worker at his side's face looked blank and absent towards the ramblings from his boss. He listened with the fatigued patience of someone who had heard the same speech more than he ever wanted to. Kanae had to finally step up to stop him, her tone of voice patient.
"Yes we're samurai, we're here to help," she said cleanly, "We need a sweep of the yard to spot anything that could cause the disturbances that you reported. We won't stay long. We'll report back once we're done."
Matsunaga blinked as his tangent was interrupted. He stammered, then bowed quickly with a warm sheepishness.
"Oh! yes! Of course. That was very unprofessional of me; my apologies. I get carried away. This is important work and…" he shouted back over his shoulder. "Yoshida! Come here!"
The worker who looked like he wished he could be anywhere else looked over in utter despair. Matsunaga waved him over and, once he stood before the three, the owner gave an order with brisk efficiency, a complete switch from the attitude he had towards them.
"You'll show them around," the boss said, "Show them the piles, steer clear of the press, and don't let them near the furnace. Remember, safety first."
Yoshida gave a small nod and reached for a cap; his face remained set in bored acceptance. He guided them out the office and around the yard, leading with his hand, naming things with a half-hearted effort.
"That's the baler over there," he called as they passed the long press that reduced sheet to sheaf, "Keep clear when it's running." he pointed at a large hammer, "That's the crusher; we use that to reduce scrap into ingots for easier hauling. If you hear three short whistles, that's a stop signal. Don't cross the marked lines walkways, see?" He tapped a line painted in white.
Akuru and Kanae played their parts to perfection. They watched and asked casual questions, giving nothing away that would suggest they had already been in the yard before. They kept their voices light, but their eyes were always on the move. Comparing everything to what they could remember from last night. Under the sunlight, the yard lay itself bare to them.
The three of them circled deeper into the piles. Machinery hissed, and a crane swung a load over their heads. They made sure they stayed a good distance from moving parts and from men handling molten scrap on a small foundry. When Yoshida stopped sometimes to point something out, his tone was always perfunctory; he mentioned the average daily workday, the weight of a recent delivery, even had to time to quickly guide a pair of apprentices learning to mend a conveyor belt. He wasn't interested in mysteries; his concerns were pragmatic.
They slowly wandered over to the fence, Akuru and Kanae had been slowly leading Yoshida under the disguise of conversations to the opening they had been at last night.
Both of them looked over at the fence when they had reached close enough to visibly see it, and then looked over to each other. The fence hadn't moved or changed one bit since last night. Both of them realized that whatever had made the hole must not have come since they had left.
"There's a hole there, in the fence right there," Kanae said, testing Yoshida to see if they could glean any more info about it.
Yoshida glanced over to the hole squinting his eyes, struggling to see what exactly they were looking at. He eventually shrugged, thinking they must have seen something.
"Fences rust over, and then heavy wind and rain move the wire. It leads to damaged fences. This place has plenty of wind and rust to keep it busy," He scratched the back of his neck as if that was explanation enough.
Akuru looked at the worker. The man's answer was easy and casual. Clearly this spot in the fence wasn't some long time issue if he just moved on without issue. Still, the way the loops had been crudely reformed, there was no way that could have been done by some weather. And under both moonlight and sunlight, the fence didn't look like it had a speck of rust, at least near the hole. He let the thought sit in his mind and kept his face gentle.
"I see. We'd like to explore a bit more," he said, "We don't want to miss anything."
Yoshida didn't mind, so they moved away from the fence. Yoshida led them with the same mellow strut as before. They were heading in the general area where Akuru had walked through yesterday. It seemed like they were moving closer and closer to the spiral they had saw yesterday, but he wasn't confident
What they saw as they reached an opening was a big machine, a tracked compactor with a flattened face used to compress and sort. It sat facing the direction Akuru had approached from the night before. They were at the place Kanae had found the spiral yesterday. They couldn't see it from where they stood, Akuru wanted to see Yoshida's reaction to the spiral so he continued to move forwards the other two followed behind him without pause. As they were moving past, he looked inside the loader's arm; its bucket bore fresh scrapes of metal and dirt.
They finally reached the place where Kanae and he had stood yesterday.
The spiral was not there.
For a breath, Akuru simply stared. Metal lay flattened, everything smoothed under the weight of steel. The whole pile had been kneaded by something blunt and strong. Not a single piece of evidence left of what they had seen last night.
Kanae's mouth made a soft sound without her even knowing it, "They moved it."
Yoshida looked confused before he shrugged again, "Moved? Sort of. We compact the piles when they spread out. Rain and wind sometimes spreads the scrap, when that happens they take more room than expected. Keeping it tidy keeps the yard efficient," He continued without pause, as he looked over to us, "We run the compactor twice a week if it's been windy. With more deliveries, we do it more often."
Akuru felt his hands wanting to run over the metal surface. He forced himself to keep his hands by his side.
"Have you been running it more recently?" he asked, controlling the tone so it sounded like simple curiosity.
Yoshida's expression moved to contemplation. He considered it, and then answered in the same casual voice he had used to reply to everything.
"Yeah. More often this week than normal. We moved a couple of the big stacks yesterday afternoon and then some more this morning. Not usually anything to worry about, just paperwork and dirty hands."
As Yoshida was explaining the process, the boss had found them walking and overheard the explanation. He came rushing over, excited to share a more detailed version of what they did. And how exactly it had been his genius that had set it all up. He talked without pause, and Akuru had to look at Kanae with reluctance.
Kanae interrupted him once again, gently but with enough firmness to carve a note of urgency back into the conversation.
"That's fine, but right now we need to know when and who operated the machine for this pile specifically. Was the compactor running during the morning?"
The boss blinked, standing still like a man who looked shell shocked. He stammered and then, with a briskness that felt like an apology, he called, "Yoshida, give them the schedule. Find out who ran the compactor this morning, check the logs."
He apologized to the two of them as Yoshida went to check, this time going on about how he would get lost in conversations without ever realizing it. Kanae held a hint of frustration on her face, the first time Akuru had seen that expression on her; clearly, Matsunaga didn't realize what he was doing. Thankfully, both of them were saved by Yoshida's arrival back.
Yoshida scratched the nape of his neck as he recited what he saw on the clipboard in his hand.
"This morning's compactor operator was Saito. He signed it off right here, two hours ago. It was probably one of the first things he did this morning."
Akuru listened and held himself calm. Most likely the machine had erased signs of whatever had been there this morning. He doubted the demon or whatever had caused it had appeared between the time they had left and the metal yard opened up. It also wasn't that unlikely that Saito had just pushed the metal together from where he had stood last night and hadn't seen the spiral. Unfortunately their biggest piece of evidence was lost beneath the steel teeth of the machine.
"You said you compacted the piles more than usual this week?" Kanae asked Yoshida, softer now.
"Yeah," he repeated, looking a little uncomfortable at the repeated query, "We had to compress more often to make space," he looked at them as if that cleared something up and then scratched his forearm, "Nothing weird, I swear."
Akuru let a slow breath move through him and let his gaze pass the compactor toward other piles. He had also noticed something else on the way back that he had kept with him up till now. The pipes that he had seen last night were still sticking out from the piles. And they were all aligned with where the spiral had been, every single one pointing in the same direction. It was obvious now that he had a look at them under sunlight instead of at night. If he remembered correctly they were in the same orientation last night as well.
"Tell me about those pipes," he said casually now near the office.
Yoshida glanced over his shoulder to follow the line of sight and then shrugged, "Those? People bring in everything. Faulty plumbing, collapsed frames, junk from old factories. The pipes come in a hundred of different shapes. They're usually straight enough, but they get bent with the loaders when we shift them. When you compress a pile, a dozen pipes might spring and twist so it looks like a mess. Nothing special there either."
Akuru watched the worker's face. It was plain and unknowing, the kind of face that accepted the world as it presented itself and then made an answer that fit. He wasn't wrong to think that way. In any other world, everything he had explained today would make sense and would be valid reasons for everything they saw.
Unfortunately, they lived in a world with demons. This was the norm in Akuru's life, so he knew that all of these reasons had another hand behind them. Yoshida could never have figured it out since he remained ignorant to demons existence.
Akuru vowed to himself that he would keep that ignorance intact. For ignorance is bliss.
They thanked Yoshida and walked back towards the gate. Matsunaga bustled out with them; his excitement had not cooled down one bit, even now.
"Please come back later," he said, "I'll have some of my men bring you tea next time, we can discuss everything for far longer," he lilted the last words like a promise.
They both quickly thanked him, doing their best to keep their faces straight.
They exited the yard, and the sun took hold of them. The yard noise gently receded to the gentle hum from the city. They found a bench by the riverside where the water ran clear. Sparkling the sun back gently like jewels.
Akuru settled down, his shoulder blades easing against the bench. Kanae sat beside him, following his example and easing into the bench. A return that night would be necessary, but for now, they could rest.
Akuru reminded himself that before he forgot, he should explain why he had asked about the pipes.
"Last night I walked through the piles and had noticed the pipes," he said after a moment, "Today I finally realized why they looked so odd, under the sun it's really obvious that they all point to where the spiral had been."
She looked at him then with that quickness he'd come to rely on; her pupils sharpened like a blade, a grasp of understanding shone behind them, "Point to the spiral?"
"From both sides, in multiple different piles," he explained, "They weren't random. They're all aligned in the same direction."
Kanae's mouth pressed, thoughtful.
"Even if they had been crushed and bent like Yoshida said, for every single one to be aligned towards the spiral… it suggests an external force."
Akuru let out a breath.
"Exactly. Either the piles were moved to point there, or whatever worked in that place influenced the metal and made them lie that way."
She smiled gently, a hint of pride shone through her pale violet eyes, "Good eye."
A small pause passed between them before she spoke up once again.
"I'm sure you picked up on it too, but as Yoshida said, they've compacted more often this week," Kanae said, "The more we learn, the more I think it's a demon that's only been active for a short while."
Akuru nodded in agreement, "It does seem that way."
They continued to speak quietly, enumerating the puzzle points without excess gossip. No one came near the bench to disturb them; the river let them in its hush.
"Tonight," Kanae said finally, and there was no question in her tone, "We find out tonight."
Akuru closed his eyes for a few seconds.
"We'll go back," he agreed. "Hopefully, this time we find whatever it is in the act."
Kanae's gaze held steady, "And if it returns?"
"We stop it," he said. The words were simple and without flourish.
Kanae opened her mouth to speak out, but decided against it. Akuru didn't comment on her odd action. He was sure she would speak up later if she really wanted to.
They left the riverside with the city's midday heat backing away under noon's busy legs. The day slowly wound by in front of their eyes. They prepared, getting ready for what was to come.
They would return that night.