Vulpisfoglia

Medical tests have confirmed that no infection is present.

Ingrid, mother of Operator Suzuran, and former core member of Famiglia Venezia—one of the Dodici Famiglie of Siracusa. A veteran assassin who excels in elimination and raid missions, she has separated herself from her famiglia for various reasons. Now works on the Rhodes Island landship as an operator under the codename Vulpisfoglia.

Imaging tests reveal clear, normal outlines of internal organs, and no abnormal shadows have been detected. Originium granules have not been detected in the circulatory system and there is no sign of infection. At this time, this operator is believed to be uninfected.

Operator Vulpisfoglia rarely comes into contact with Originium, but is quite familiar with Oripathy prevention and treatment methods, and has some experience with taking care of Oripathy patients.

Over the last few years while Operator Suzuran has been receiving treatment on Rhodes Island, Ingrid and a Higashinese priest have visited the landship a few times to see her. The priest is always the one asking us how his daughter is doing, in terms of both health and studies, while Ingrid stands at the side, occasionally asking abrupt questions about the landship's defenses and how dangerous the field missions are. This has left HR with a profound, albeit limited, understanding of her, but also given them an easy job when deciding what to write on her record—'Siracusan, famiglia assassin, doesn't seem friendly.'

This time she has come to Rhodes Island on her own, and after she applied to stay on the landship, we began to supplement her files with more information. This went smoothly, and we discovered that 'Ingrid' is an infamous name in Siracusa: As a core member of Famiglia Venezia, she left no less than 27 separate homicide case files in the courts of every region she visited while the famiglia was expanding their territory. At least ten famiglie have offered a bounty for her head, and half of them have yet to expire even today. 'A Vulpo even more ruthless than a wolf', is how she's fearfully described among Siracusan famiglie.

Of course, considering Siracusa's political situation and the identities of those who have died at her hands, her past is not at all incomprehensible, and will not meaningfully affect Rhodes Island. After consulting Dr. Kal'tsit, we approved her application to stay aboard the landship. The final confirmation step also went smoothly, and the operators who went looking for her came back to HR shortly after. According to them, they had brought a large file of sorted information for her, but the other party just nodded to confirm her application, and only mentioned a small request: to erase the 'Venezia' surname from her file. She even gave each HR Operator an exquisite present before she left, and said with a smile: 'As thanks for taking care of Lisa, and also for your hard work collecting those documents.'

Ingrid doesn't seem that unfriendly.

Hey now. Didn't you hear the implied threat underlining her second sentence?

'Don't jump to conclusions. Don't you remember her smile?

Exactly, remember that smile...

As Ingrid spent more and more time on the landship, we got to know each other better. A few interest groups invited her to their gatherings, but were surprised when she gladly accepted, only to miss almost every single one—because she was always late. She missed a few consecutive wine tasting sessions, only languidly arriving at the venue when the event was almost over, and embarrassingly pleading the organizer to extend it by one more hour. We find it truly hard to imagine how she has no sense of time while also somewhat lacking in patience.

She once again surpassed our understanding of her when she began participating in Rhodes Island's combat drills and field missions under the code name 'Vulpisfoglia'. Operators who were with her would nearly always mention feeling a great pressure, not because she was once a Siracusan famiglia assassin, has an unsociable personality, or uses cruel methods, but because her... impressive ability to execute every task with utmost precision left everyone somewhat dumbfounded. She always completes every objective in a mission exactly as stated, and even a placeholder objective accidentally left unrevised as 'I hope the target can be knocked over by an object thrown from up high, right as the new day comes in, for a most satisfactory result' was realized perfectly. Unlike how she acts on the landship, she seemed to have suddenly gained an almost obsessive-compulsive or perfectionist obsession with the finest of details.

The sharp contrast stunned everyone, but someone finally plucked the courage to ask her about this gap in behavior. She simply frowned and said: 'Did you <i>want</i> me to slack off while working?'

I was sorting through the operator's files when I flipped to a Siracusan court case with records of what Ingrid said when she was answering the judge as a defendant. Perhaps it can explain her 'extreme separation of work and life' and her 'OCD' tendencies in battle:

Some die as a warning to others, while some die in a way that cannot be remembered. How should someone undeserving of death die, or someone who <i>should</i> die, go? Your Honor, technical work must always be executed with utmost care.'

I imposed a strict ban on curious operators discussing Operator Suzuran's family composition, until I bumped into Suzuran and Ingrid myself, chatting on the landship bridge, and they stopped to greet me at the same time. They were just so alike in appearance and stature, as if they were carved from the same mold, but their temperaments were like night and day. I confess this was somewhat rude of me, but I honestly couldn't help wondering how a Siracusan assassin and a Higashinese kannushi met and formed ties.

Many stories quickly flashed through my mind, like a tale of a cold killer who, under orders to kill the shrine's master, traveled from Siracusa to Higashi, but her long blade shatters a bugaku mask to reveal the kannushi's clear eyes, stopping them both in their tracks as if entranced. Or another tale, of a gentle kannushi visiting the foot of a mountain for an event, but finding a Siracusan assassin leaning against a maple tree on a corner of his path, who—having fled a bloody battle and made it all the way to a foreign land—was now bleeding out, and the kannushi tenderly crouching down to check on her. By the time I came back to my senses, I realized I had already involuntarily opened my mouth to ask: 'Excuse me...'

Be it as a colleague or an HR operator, my actions were extremely inappropriate, but surprisingly they were not angry at me. On the contrary, Suzuran generously answered my question in a simple manner. She described her father meeting her mother as purely coincidence:

An armed force had infiltrated the area around the shrine where Suzuran's father works, and frequently caused trouble. Her father resolved to confront them alone at their stronghold to protect the innocent masses, and was on his way to the final negotiation. At the foot of the mountain, he passed by a foreign lady with a scar on her right cheek wearing a large coat. When he arrived at their stronghold, the boss was already dead in the snow, and everyone else left had already fled. A week later, the priest had gone into the city in civilian clothes to buy some chikuwa for a certain 'god' he serves, and went to the stall he usually frequented, only to see the same woman from before buying the last two sticks. He politely asked her to sell him one, and the cruel-seeming woman turned around, and gave him a stick with a smile. He bowed and thanked her for the chikuwa stick, as well as for their second meeting... and then everything else happened as it should.

Indeed, a truly normal tale. In fact, the meeting of two people from different countries, backgrounds, and personalities is precious in itself, but the choices and efforts they made afterwards—challenging the shrine taboos, ignoring the famiglia rules, and raising a child both parties have invested unfathomable emotions and expectations in—are far more worthy of respect, and have nothing to do with how strange their initial encounter may have been. I bid the two goodbye, and then Ingrid, who had been silent the whole conversation, smiled and stopped me in my tracks with this:

As I recall, you'll be joining us in our special resistance training drill later this afternoon, yes?

Sender: Fabrizio Venezia (verified as the current don of Siracusa's Famiglia Venezia)

Recipient: Rhodes Island Procurement Department

Content: My granddaughter Lisa has always been undergoing Oripathy treatment with your company, and recently her mother Ingrid has also gone to your company as well, so I hope to sponsor your research on Oripathy diagnosis and treatment in the name of Venezia Trucking Co..

Response: We specifically asked Ingrid about this, and based on her attitude have made the following reply:

Thank you for your interest in Rhodes Island, but we cannot consider your offer due to inaccurate information provided.

Sender: Nuova Volsinii branch office, Penance

Recipient: Rhodes Island Landship

Content: Operator Penance has routinely synchronized with us on mission reports and official correspondence, which included an arrest warrant issued by the Police Department of Nuova Volsnii for Ingrid on the grounds of committing premeditated injury.

Response: We informed Ingrid about this, and surprisingly, unlike the usual famiglia member attitude towards the law, she acknowledged the warrant was real.

I'm not running or looking for a sanctuary, Doctor. Of course, I'm not going back either. There are too many 'laws' on this land, so why care about them all?

...Yes, Siracusan famiglie do not need a valid reason to end someone's life. Or rather, the usual reasons not to, like 'decency' or 'hoping everyone gets a good ending'... often hold no water there, which is why I chose to leave. But I won't take off this suit, because it's comfortable to wear; I won't abandon this blade, because it's easy to wield. It's just that Lisa doesn't need me to worry over her anymore, and her papa can solve his own problems and won't need my help for the time being. So I can indeed afford a short vacation. You're right, an assassin taking a vacation isn't a bad thing. For her, or for everyone else.

Orchid, was that Ingrid just now?

Yes. She wanted to borrow and needle and some thread to repair something on her own.

What was it?

The omamori hanging on her waist. She said it was accidentally punctured in Nuova Volsinii... I suppose it's important to her.

What's inside it? Hehe, I'm just curious...

It's empty.

Empty?

Maybe it had something inside before, and it got lost when it was struck open. Why so surprised? Someone like her surely knows what's important or not. Her hands were clumsy, but she mended it in one go, tied off the thread and got up to leave, stylish as ever.