[Kitsuna POV]
Stacy's office looked like paperwork had tried to start a rebellion and only half lost.
Folders covered one side of her desk. Loose reports sat in leaning piles near the map wall. Three cups stood near the window, two empty and one probably forgotten. A stack of sealed messages had been shoved under a cracked paperweight shaped like a dragon head. The floor near the left bookcase had more files on it than books inside the shelf.
That made more sense.
Stacy sat behind it like she had earlier that same day. Her hair was tied back, but not neatly. Her eyes looked tired. Just as tired, if not more tired than they had looked that morning.
Brenda stood beside me, straight and formal.
I stood with the artifact wrapped in fresh cloth and held in my hands.
Stacy's eyes moved from Brenda to me, then to the box.
"Report," Stacy said.
No greeting. No asking if we were fine. No soft mother voice.
Brenda stepped forward. "Nine Tail Squad retrieved the artifact from the lower ruin chamber. Artifact is currently secured with Captain Kitsuna."
Stacy nodded once. "Continue."
"Federation first squad made contact inside the ruins. Estimated thirty soldiers total. Two confirmed dead inside the artifact chamber. More casualties outside during the counter-ambush. Several were healed and returned to fighting condition before the second engagement."
Stacy's eyes sharpened slightly. "Well, having a healer in their first squad is a bit new, but not unheard of," Mom said, relaxed.
"Yes, ma'am. Fast enough to return shoulder and limb wounds to function within minutes."
"Hmm, better than I thought."
Brenda kept her voice even. "The first squad withdrew from the chamber after taking losses. We determined the main exit was compromised and used an upper route located by Rin. From there, we exited above their ambush position. I ordered Chinada and Sirone to provide overwatch while the rest of the squad attacked from the side."
Stacy wrote something down on the edge of a report that already had writing on it.
I stared at the paper.
That poor thing was never going to survive.
Brenda continued. "The first ambush collapsed quickly. We killed their field healer, signal carrier, and several command elements near the rear. Before we could finish clearing the first unit, a second Federation unit arrived from the trees."
"Strength?" Stacy asked.
"Around fifty fresh soldiers."
Stacy stopped writing.
Only for half a second.
That was enough.
"Composition?"
"Better trained than the first unit. They had shield teams, riflemen, charm throwers, and four high-ranking or specialized units present."
"List them."
Brenda nodded. "First, a field captain with a white stripe on his helmet. He commanded the second unit and kept them from breaking when Black Ops struck their rear. He used hand signals, baited pursuit, and tried to form retreat routes."
Stacy wrote again.
"Second, a heavy shield-breaker. Large soldier with an impact tool carrying blue runes. Pressured Brit and Rin and forced them to work with Sarian and Toma to bring him down."
"Dead?"
"Yes, ma'am. Disabled by combined squad action and finished by Black Ops."
"Third?"
"Anti-sniper and spotter specialist. Dull grey armor, half-mask, lens gear. He marked Chinada and Sirone's positions and forced them off the upper ruin. Eliminated by Chinada and Sirone together."
Stacy's mouth moved just slightly.
"Fourth?"
"Artifact handler or relic retrieval specialist. Not fully confirmed, as Captain Kitsuna killed him before we could identify his exact role," Brenda said. "He carried a brass device that reacted to the artifact and attempted to pull it toward him."
Stacy looked at me.
I sighed. "Yeah, he was a little rat letting his squad die before he took any action."
Brenda did not look away from Stacy. "Captain Kitsuna eliminated him before he could take control of the artifact. Black Ops destroyed the device afterward."
Stacy's pen stopped again.
This time longer.
"The device reacted to the artifact?"
"Yes," Brenda said. "Captain Kitsuna reported the artifact pulling against the straps."
Stacy looked at me. "How strongly?"
"Not strong enough."
"Kitsuna."
I clicked my tongue. "Enough that if someone weaker had been carrying it, it might have ripped loose or dragged them off balance."
Brenda went on. "Black Ops arrived after the second unit fully committed. They hit the Federation rear, cut off retreat routes, removed charm support, and helped neutralize the heavy shield-breaker and field captain. They ended the fight quickly once the enemy command structure was broken."
"Casualties?"
"No squad fatalities. Minor injuries only. Rin had a side cut. Sarian had a shoulder wound. Toma had a minor head wound. Others were bruised or lightly burned. All functional."
"Federation?"
"High. Exact count pending Black Ops casualty packets. Both committed units neutralized. Some wounded were likely taken for questioning by Black Ops."
Stacy nodded once. "Kitsuna's involvement."
Brenda's shoulders tightened, just a little.
"Captain Kitsuna interfered twice," Brenda said.
I looked at her. "Interfered is a harsh word."
"It is the correct word."
"Rude."
Stacy's eyes flicked to me. "Let her finish."
Brenda continued. "First, inside the ruin chamber. I was preparing a cautious floor approach to the pedestal. Captain Kitsuna judged we did not have enough time before Federation contact reached the chamber. She used Apricot's cord to retrieve the artifact from a distance and ordered us to prepare for close contact."
Stacy looked at her. "Did she take command?"
Brenda paused.
"No. She interrupted my plan, but she did not take full command of the squad. I resumed command immediately after artifact retrieval."
Stacy wrote it down. "Second interference?"
"The second unit forced close combat around the artifact. Captain Kitsuna entered the fight to prevent the artifact from being surrounded or taken. She engaged multiple enemy soldiers directly, blocked shots aimed at some of the squad, and killed the relic specialist."
"Did that stabilize the field?"
"Yes, ma'am," Brenda said. "Without her, we would have needed to split the squad to protect the artifact. That would have made the second unit's numbers more dangerous."
Stacy leaned back slightly. Her chair creaked under her.
The room stayed quiet except for paper shifting somewhere near the window.
Stacy looked at me.
I stared back.
"What?" I asked.
"You were told to observe."
"I interfered when the decision would have caused someone to die for no good reason."
"Kitsuna."
"What? I did not take over the fight once Black Ops arrived. I went back to watching Brenda work."
"Squad performance?" Stacy asked.
Brenda answered without needing time. "Good under pressure. Not perfect. Rin still overextends when she sees an opening, but Brit controlled her well. Chinada adapted after the anti-sniper forced her off the upper ruin. Sirone supported both healing and rifle work. Toma and Sarian's terrain control stopped the second unit from splitting us apart. Apricot and Nekro's disruption prevented clean flanks. Mia and Ava identified traps, shooters, and charm placements. Olivia disabled multiple enemy charms and kept her device functioning under pressure."
"And your command?"
Brenda went still.
"I was too slow inside the chamber. I was correct to be cautious, but not correct to keep building a full plan when the Federation was minutes away. Outside the ruin, command was cleaner. The squad stayed together and did not break into separate fights."
Stacy watched her for a few seconds.
Then she nodded.
"Written report by morning. Include the timing failure in the chamber, the counter-ambush from the upper route, and the second unit's four specialists."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Send a copy to Veila. Keep artifact details limited to command classification."
"Yes, ma'am."
Brenda saluted.
Then she looked at me for half a second.
I gave her a small nod.
She left without another word.
The door shut behind her. The moment the door closed, I felt the pressure in the room disappear immediately.
The air lost the formal edge. Commander Stacy stepped back from the table, and the woman who had basically adopted the biggest headache in the country looked at me.
I crossed my arms.
"As formal reports go, that was less painful than expected."
Stacy rubbed her forehead. "That is because Brenda is competent."
"She is also very serious."
"She has to be. After all, her captain is you."
"She needs to learn to be more relaxed."
"She likely knows that now."
"She looked like she wanted to bite me when I said she was taking too long."
"You did say it in the middle of a mission."
"It was true."
Stacy's tired eyes softened by half a degree. "And you wonder why people call you difficult."
"I don't wonder. I know."
Grinning at me, she looked at the artifact in my hands.
"Put it on the table."
I looked at the battlefield of paperwork on her desk.
"Where?"
"The coffee table."
Behind me, near the wall with the older maps, was the coffee table Stacy used when she did not want a meeting to feel like an interrogation. It did not work on me. It was still a table in her office, and tables in command offices always had traps on them.
I carried it to the coffee table and set it down.
The box made a soft sound against the wood.
Stacy came around the desk and joined me. She looked more tired up close. There were faint lines under her eyes, and one ink mark along the side of her thumb. She had probably been writing reports until her hand tried to quit.
Mother or commander, she looked like she needed sleep more than another ancient problem.
I sat on the couch without asking.
Stacy sat in the chair across from me.
For a few seconds, both of us looked at the box.
"So," I said. "Do you actually know what it is, or are we both pretending?"
"I know enough to open it."
"That is not comforting."
She reached into one of the inner pockets of her coat and pulled out a thin silver tool.
I leaned back. "You had a key."
"I had a suspected interface tool."
"That is a key, Mother."
"It is not that simple."
"It never is when it comes to you smart people."
Stacy ignored that and placed the silver tool along one side of the artifact. It did not fit into a lock. There was no lock. The tool just lay against the dark tea-colored surface like it belonged there.
Nothing happened.
I stared at it.
"Well. Very impressive."
The box clicked.
The office stopped.
Not went quiet.
Stopped.
The papers near Stacy's desk froze mid-shift where a draft had been sliding off the pile. Steam from one of the cups hung in the air without moving. The sunlight through the window stopped crawling across the floor. Somewhere outside the door, a shadow sat still under the gap like someone had paused the world.
I slowly looked at Stacy.
She looked at me.
I pointed at the room. "Did you just stop time in your office?"
"Only around the room."
"That is not better."
"The field should be localized."
"Still not better."
Stacy looked at the artifact, and for once, she did not look fully certain.
That was not comforting either.
The box unfolded.
Four seams appeared where there had been none. The top split into flat sections and opened outward. Inside was not empty, but it was hard to say what it held. Thin rings of dark metal curved around a hollow center. Small marks moved along the inside walls, slow and pale, like they were being written by something I could not see.
I leaned closer.
Stacy lifted one hand. "Do not touch the inner frame."
"I was not planning to touch the time box."
"Good."
"What the fuck is it?"
"A time-lock key," she said. "Or part of one."
"Part of one?"
"I suspected containment technology. This confirms it, but not completely."
I looked at the frozen steam, then back at her. "Containment technology that stops time."
"Within a limited field, yes."
"Radius?"
"Based on old records, possibly up to three hundred meters if fully active."
I stared at her.
She continued before I could curse properly. "But the center is different. Anyone within roughly two meters of the anchor point is included in the active space, not frozen by it. That is why we can move."
"So if I was standing across the room?"
"You would likely be frozen."
"That is a disgusting sentence."
"Yes."
"And Federation wanted this because?"
"Because freezing a small space is already dangerous. Freezing a larger one is worse. A field like this could preserve something, hide something, trap people, protect a chamber, or open a room that only exists inside a locked time state."
I looked at the box again.
It sat open, quiet and smug.
"Not a weapon by itself."
"No," Stacy said. "More like a key, anchor, or containment device. But anything that controls time can become a weapon if someone has enough imagination and poor morals."
"Wonderful."
The marks inside the box shifted.
The field pressed against my ears.
I clicked my tongue. "It doesn't feel nice."
"I know."
"No, I mean I hate it more than normal ancient objects."
"I know that too."
The box pulsed once.
Inside the two-meter space around the coffee table, Stacy and I sat with a time-lock key between us like this was a normal family visit.
I looked at her. "You knew enough to open it, but you still sent us in without telling us."
"I knew you guys would be able to handle it."
"That is a thin line."
"It is how commanders live."
"Sounds fucking annoying."
"It is."
For a second, she looked older than she normally did.
Then she pulled the silver tool away.
The box clicked again.
Time resumed.
The steam rose.
The paper near the desk finally slid off the pile and scattered across the floor.
A voice outside the door finished a word that had started before time stopped.
I stared at the fallen paper.
I pointed at it. "Close it."
"Not yet."
"Mom."
"We need to secure it somewhere Federation cannot trace."
"Vault."
"Too obvious."
"Black Ops."
"They were already seen at the site."
"Veila."
"She knows enough."
I stared at her.
"Uh, no way."
Stacy looked at me.
"You know I shouldn't use storage," I repeated.
"Kitsuna."
"No. I know that voice. That is the voice you use before volunteering my organs for something."
"I am not volunteering your organs."
"Feels close."
"You have dimensional storage."
"And broken mana veins."
"Damaged. Not broken."
"Do not grammar my injuries."
Stacy sat back slightly. "You did not use mana during the mission."
I narrowed my eyes. "That is not permission to spend it now."
"No. It means you have not strained them further today."
"That is very nice for my veins, but they still hate me."
"I know."
"Then why are you looking at me like that?"
"Because the artifact already settled near you. It stopped radiating on the way back, correct?"
I did not answer.
Her face said she did not need me to.
"You can hide it the best. Only I will know where it is."
I looked down at the open box.
The rings inside had stopped moving now that time had resumed, but they still looked wrong. Patient. That was the word. It looked patient.
I hated patient problems.
"You want me to store it."
"Yes."
"In my dimensional storage."
"Yes."
"With my injured mana veins."
"Yes."
"Mother of the year."
Stacy's face softened. "I would not ask if there was a safer option."
I stood and rolled my sleeve up, already expecting this to hurt like a bitch.
Stacy stood too.
"You do not need to prove anything."
I looked at her. "I didn't use any mana for the mission, so this much won't kill me."
Her eyes narrowed.
She heard the lie inside the joke.
I put my hand near the artifact.
Fire spread under my skin, deep enough that my fingers locked around the table edge. It ran through my forearm first, then into the damaged lines under my shoulder. My mana veins lit up like someone had dragged heated wire through them.
I clenched my teeth.
The box shifted toward my hand.
I used my storage skill, and the artifact resisted.
Of course it did.
"Stupid box," I hissed.
The box rose half a finger from the table, then stopped for a second before it vanished.
The backlash hit like a fist through my arm and into my chest.
I grabbed the table with both hands. Wood cracked under my fingers. My mana veins burned from wrist to shoulder, then down my side, sharp enough that I could feel every damaged line separately.
"Let your healing take it slowly," she said.
I glared at the floor. "Do not start healer talk."
"I am not a healer."
"Then do not sound like one."
The pain slowly pulled back. Not gone. Not even close. But less sharp. Less like my veins were trying to crawl out and complain to management.
The artifact was in my dimensional storage.
I could feel it there.
"Do not use storage again unless you must."
She looked at the empty coffee table.
The table had a crack across one corner from where I had grabbed it.
I pointed at it. "That was already there."
"No, it was not."
"It was, I swear."
She sighed.
A tired, real sigh.
I sat down on the couch before my legs could betray me again. Stacy sat across from me, not behind the desk. That mattered. I hated that it mattered.
"So," I said, "officially?"
"Officially, the artifact is secured under command authority."
"And unofficially?"
"You are carrying it until I find a safer method."
"I hate this family."
"That is fair."
"Also this country."
"Also fair."
"And ancient boxes."
"That makes two of us."
I leaned back carefully and stared at the messy office. Papers on the desk. Reports on the floor. Maps on the wall. Stacy looked tired. I felt like someone had lit my veins on fire and then charged rent for the privilege.