Scaly Hides
The situation is so bad that they are legit sealing mages from their own powers. Most of the Mages in Upper and Lower Changye have decided to hide from the plague, buying cryo-pods. The poorer ones who can't afford the cryo-pods went to find seedy motels with an air-conditioner, full of supplies they bought to weather this plague.
On the streets, the people who were chromed barely cared. Sure, there are some who'd just started flaying their own skin in the middle of the street like it is the itchiest thing. But even that Demi-Plague was unable to stop the flow of people. You do not work, you do not eat.
Lockdowns don't work in Changye. There is just no way for people to stop working to buy the meat they want today. That is how you live in Changye, either you work or starve. So what if there is a plague? If they lose their job, then they might as well die.
Currently, I am in Upper Changye, sitting on a couch, watching the sanitized streets. Kei was with Sato, trying to analyze the demi-plague while I got assigned to the Redmond Mages as an adjutant.
"Well, nothing new either."
Cindy takes the plug connected to her neck. She walks towards the couch, bare breasts out in the open, and with only her black v-string panty on. She takes my smoking pipe, and then lit it with a lighter, somewhat struggling to do so.
"It's a pain in the butt to do this manually."
I look at the pipe as it then lights up. Cindy observes the smoking pipe, then takes a long drag, pushing it towards me. She finds that funny, but I do not.
"Bad habit."
"You're in my home. Deal with it."
I am in her home. I was supposed to be working, but instead I had been doing something else. Well, in some way, I can consider this as another way of keeping a corpo-mage like her entertained. She has been feeling down after sealing her powers to escape the flaying, so she has to make do with this. Most of the Redmond Mages have retreated to their sanctuaries, some opted to hide in their condos as well. Victoria's already a high-ranking mage so her place has been set up to filter any impure energies.
"Guess you're in this room until all this goes away."
"How are you unaffected?"
"I have my ways."
She looks at me like she still wants to pry some things out of me. I grabbed the smoking pipe from her fingers, and took a long drag as well. I noticed the lipstick staining the mouth of the smoking pipe and handed it back.
Cindy looks like she has something to say, but decided to leave it alone. Focusing her eyes on the window, down the view where the sanitized and clean streets are somewhat bare compared to the Lower Changye.
"Heard of the Scaly Hides?"
"Scaly Hides?"
"There's a new ritual going on in the lanes. See, there's a new 'method' to hide from the flaying. You take a Scaly Hide and then you wear it, then the plague itself will be blinded by it."
"Does it work?"
"It is a rumor. But there's enough rumor going on that the Lanes have decided it might be possible. Demi-humans are immune to the flaying and they believe wearing one can be used as camouflage."
"Lots of dead mutants then."
"Yup. Mutants with scaly hides are being captured and flayed off their hides. They might as well be affected by the plague if this continues."
"What about the mutants with furs?"
"Not as much. The scaly hides are even subhuman so most of the Lanes think it's far more convenient to take them down. Of course, the Greenscales are already gathering arms, protecting their fellows."
She takes the smoking pipe from my mouth and takes a very long drag out of it and sits cross-legged on the couch, a bit far away now. Out of reach for me to take the smoking pipe away.
"No one in the OB went to take a look?"
"They always take a look. But you know how it is with them. If they don't have the face of a human, then they'd barely care about it."
It is a sad truth. Even Kei, who I think is decent, was the kind who'd watch Mutants riots, who enjoys watching them beat up each other until they are bleeding on the ground with their guts sprawled out. Personally, as long as you are not some 12-demi follower. I don't give a shit what you do and what you think. Do I have some revulsion against the mutants? Maybe. They are different from us and because they are different that I would sometimes cringe my face if they come too close. But I am also the kind of bastard who was fine seeing a beautiful woman with animal features or wasn't that hideous to look at. Just look human. That was all.
"I guess the plague is everyone's problem now."
"Any ideas on what the solution for this is?"
"How should I know?"
She leans back on the couch. Her eyes observing me while she's neatly biting the tip of the smoking pipe.
"You are so full of shit."
"Kinda rude."
She stares at me.
"A masked man, a masked man,
The mirror shows him lies,
He learned to deaden down his soul
Behind his desperate eyes."
I tilt my head. I wonder if there are words of power on that, but her powers were sealed. There's no activation. So it's just a poem?
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Fade, you have an idea what this plague is, right?"
I look at her. She's not backing down and was keeping her eyes on me. Cindy did not reach her rank of high-mage by being pretty alone. I know what this woman is capable of. I am actually glad she's not being all Mage-like with me.
But she is not wrong. I have a feeling why this is fucking familiar plague.
"The Pale Magus should have flayed them already."
"It only means that Demi lives… doesn't it?"
"That's your guess?"
"They already call it a Demi-plague. What explanation is there?"
"True."
I lean back and then turn my attention to the window. If a Demi is back, then the Pale Magus has truly killed them.
"So, you're stepping out?"
"I still have my abilities, Fade. I'll be in cyberspace if I cannot act like a mage."
I stood up and grabbed the smoking pipe from her and took a long drag.
"Good luck then."
I am at the Midway Nexus, waiting for the lift to go down. There are not many Mages roaming around, but I could tell those who got chromed are still wandering around, doing their work. Their realskin was not flesh after all. So why would they care about that? The door opens and a bit later than normal, Boss Kei walks inside the lift, takes a good look at me, then leans on her teleforce cane and stands next to me.
"Can't believe I'm paying you to fuck around a high-mage."
She swings her teleforce cane and taps a part of my neck where a lipstick stain remained. Looking at me with eyes half-closed.
"So you two are together or something?"
"No?"
"Tsk. Akun… I thought you were a decent person."
"It is complicated, Ma'am. I think you have interacted with her long enough. You should know?"
She raises a brow at me, then watches as the lift starts to move back to Lower Changye. Thumbing her kinetic belt as she leans on the railing, hands crossed now.
"Assistant… you sometimes overestimate me. The fuck do you mean by I know her? I don't know anything about her other than you know her, she's a Redmond Mage and you two are in some vague relationship? If I had all the answers in the world, then do you think I'd be following around Sato? Hearing their yapping all day, coping that this ain't a demi when we all damn know by now that it is a fucking demi. We already call it a demi-plague because it is literally the same happening, but on a greater scale."
"Wow… stress much?"
"Fuck off," she searches her breast pocket, found nothing, then takes my smoking pipe, poured it some tobacco, then wiped the tip before taking a very long drag.
"Tastes like you and her. Bleh."
"You people should get your own pipe. Mai can hook you up with some good ones."
"I'll continue with cigarettes after this."
I sighed. I focused my attention on the announcements. Most of it was the same ad—hell, full of products. Kei takes a look at the product, scoffs, and then takes another drag of the smoking pipe. Eventually, the lift arrives at the base. I got out with Kei, then slowly made our way in the streets, passing through loud and quiet blocks until we reached the office, guarded by 7S who were hanging around with Aidan's crew. Once they saw us, they greeted us rather tiredly. Kei asked a few questions until she was satisfied, handed over my smoking pipe, searched her drawer and then took a long drag of her cigarette. The brand of cigarette she smokes lately is heavy. The kind of cigarette that practically announces she doesn't give a fuck about her lungs anymore.
I grabbed a pot, took it with me, and then poured coffee for me and the Boss. She takes the coffee, typing on her keyboard. She is looking at our site and from the looks of it, there was nothing worth looking at other than a few repeated anomalies she couldn't be bothered about.
"Stop blocking my light, A."
She glares, then changes to a website where it is just the usual tabloid news about Demi-Plague and surprisingly there is news about how the Greenscales are fighting back, which is making the mutant-haters try to attack them as well. It is a complete shitshow.
But it is a shitshow you'd expect in Changye. No one gave a fuck when there were Twelve Demis. This was how Changye operated. You expect more from Changye and it will punch you in the face for it.
"A Demi… Akun, what do you think we should do?"
"I dunno. You're the Boss here."
"I want some opinion, Assistant. So assist me. Form an opinion and then offer it."
"I think we should stay the fuck away from shit that's not our lane. We're Anomalists, Ma'am. We don't do what Graded Agents do."
It is fucking ridiculous really. I understand that this office is under the Shichinin no Ken, but do we really have to get involved in this? Sure, we can have relations with the Redmond Mages, but it is just ridiculous how involved we have become, to the point of worrying about how to fucking cure a plague made possibly by a monster whose every existence can just make it happen!
She blinks at me, then she looks so irritated, crossing her arms, mulling about my words before sighing, like she's already gone through that thought, but didn't want to entertain until I just said it.
"True. It is a ridiculous request. We're stepping on their toes and all of that, but how do we go about this? Do we just say we can't fuck with another strong creature like this and say bye?"
"I think that the OB would act, Ma'am."
"Why so?"
"Because if a Demi is alive… then you know that guy would move too."
She blinks once and twice, then holds her head as if she's in great pain. Then she steadies herself, lighting her cigarette again and taking a long painful drag of it.
"The Pale Magus… no way that creature's going to attack… right?"
"No. It is likely that it will attack because the existence of a Demi is something the Pale Magus needs to slay. They cannot tolerate each other. If there's a fact we know about the Pale Magus… it is this. It cannot stand the existence of a single Demi."
Kei leans back, then stares at the ceiling.
"Kei's office failed this request."
She has decided.