Katsumi Katsuragi, Katsumi Katsuragi, where were you?

After hours of digging through Smith's binders, I finally found a mention of her - and, of course, it was in the last one I checked. My excitement grew as I flipped through the "Persons of Interest" section of Influences on Interspecies Policymaking. I felt like I was uncovering the secrets that made this world different from mine. It was both exciting and intriguing.

Then I finally reached her section.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the image. It was a fuzzy photo, taken from a far distance, in what looked like a desert. A few figures were marching into a military compound with weathered wooden spike walls and rough-looking men carrying rifles I couldn't recognize. That wasn't too much of a surprise; I wasn't a gun enthusiast, and besides, they were so out of focus that the only way I could tell they were guns was from the way they were being held.

What drew my attention, however, were the figures that the photographer had been focusing on. One of the figures stood out above everyone else—he was at least ten meters tall, and four horns the size of my head crowned him, making it evident that he was a gigantes. Although I couldn't make out his face, his thick, braided hair cascaded down to his hips, decorated with jewels and rings in a captivating pattern. All in all, he looked like someone you didn't want to Fuck with.

Resting on his shoulder was what at first appeared to be a young girl, but upon closer inspection, I noticed that she had only one eye - a telltale sign that she was a backbeard, one of the monoeye subspecies. From what I understood, they had a variety of special abilities that other moneyes lacked, from hypnotism to shooting laser beams.

If I'd put two and two together, it would have been clear that the two liminals were a team. Together, the Gigantes' formidable strength and the backbeard's offensive capabilities would make them almost unstoppable if they were well-coordinated. Even without much coordination, they could probably come out on top in any fight.

The rest of the entourage consisted of two gruff-looking men - one white, one black - and a woman who had a unique air about her that hinted at a possible personal connection with Smith.

She looked almost identical to Smith, so much so that if it weren't for her attire, I would have thought they were the same person. They had the same confident strut, but the woman in the picture had a particular something that I couldn't quite put my finger on. The photo wasn't of the best quality, but it was enough to give me a face to the name.

Then, upon reading her profile, which was sparse but still enough to make me regret my decision to do so, I began to suspect that Katsumi Katsuragi might be Smith's mother or at least an older sister.

Katsumi Katsuragi was a notorious criminal, aged forty-five at the time of her death in 2005. Despite her heinous crimes, most of the public was unaware of her existence due to her exploitation of liminals. Her list of atrocities was vast and included slave trafficking, piracy, mass killings, raiding of hidden liminal enclaves, extortion, and even biological warfare. It was a shocking reminder of the depths of depravity one could reach.

Almost every instance involved Liminals, and Katsuragi was the leading threat to revealing their existence to the world before it was deemed fit. It was astonishing that they had managed to keep this all hidden, considering the horrifying extent of her crimes. She had created an extensive liminal slave trade network that was even larger than the ones based in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia as I read through the distasteful details of Katsuragi's operations, which were run under the organization known as "Enkidu," my fingers began to tremble in shock. The name of this organization was a reference to a creation of the gods that had rebelled against them and slain one of their most powerful beasts. How audacious of them to choose such an arrogant name! Not surprisingly, their emblem was a bull with a halo bound in chains.

What truly astonished me was how many liminals were able to be captured in the first place. Most of their species had immense strength, and I doubted any of them would feel threatened by humans. So, how was Katsuragi able to enslave them? It then dawned on me that the backbeard had the power of hypnosis... but I wondered whether she had other liminals at her disposal, using her powers to subjugate many of them. Why would any liminal be willing to betray their kind cruelly and be responsible for so many subjugations?

"Damn it," I cursed, pressing my palms against my eyes, not wanting to believe what I saw. But I kept going. It was no different from one human exploiting another.

Shit was getting real as I read on about Katsumi Katsuragi and "Enkidu" and the horrific crimes they had committed. I was surprised by how casual the profile was about it like it was just a line or two in a high school history textbook. It was so much more than that. It made me wonder why did Katsumi Katsuragi do this? How was she not stopped sooner? How did the world not realize what was happening right under their noses? All these questions raced through my mind as I tried to comprehend the magnitude of what had been done. Then, when I was about to slam the binder shut in frustration, the story was finally concluding.

The crackdown was finally underway as the human and liminal governments worked together, slowly but surely shutting down Enkidu's operations. The details provided were maddeningly few. I wanted to learn more about the liberation of a thousand lamias, the story of an elite, six-man, joint human-liminal team that raided every Enkidu base on Africa's west coast, and more.

But it all came to a head at the last remaining stronghold of Enkidu - a little port town in the southeasternmost point of Thailand called Roanapur. Katsuragi was desperate to keep her industry afloat and was taking advantage of the lax police presence in the area. Unfortunately for her, the local gangs and mafias did not take kindly to the intrusion and quickly took action to put an end to Enkidu's operations.

Little did they know that the resulting shitshow - involving a firefight that burned down a quarter of the town and a rampaging gigantes - would attract the attention of those hunting Katsuragi. Thai news stations, which usually avoided Roanapur like the plague, couldn't help but buzz around the destruction. To the horror of those that wanted to keep the world of liminals under wraps, they caught the Gigantes, as well as a wide assortment of other species, on tape.

The authorities decided to take drastic action, and bombs began to drop. There was little information on the aftermath; the Thai media was suppressed, and only a tiny fraction of the locals survived. None of Enkidu had. Katsumi Katsuragi's corpse was found in the rubble beside her disturbingly stoic teenage daughter.

"Jesus..." I breathed, desperately trying to keep my boiling rage in check. I knew that the incident had led to the decision by human and liminal governments that maintaining the masquerade was no longer an option for a multitude of reasons. But, at that moment, I didn't care. "Fuck!" I screamed, slamming my fist down on the binder. Pain jolted up my arm, but I ignored it entirely.

I took deep, steadying breaths, pinching the bridge of my nose to ground myself. Just breathe, man. Keep... breathing.

I felt sick. My mind was filled with terrible images of Miia, Cerea, Rachnera, Mero, Papi, and Suu. I hated what I was imagining. Not much more time, and they could've...

But that wasn't the case. I had to stay focused on what I'd learned and use it to fuel me, the same way Smith or Kuroko Katsuragi had. I knew my following conversation with her was going to be interesting.

Until then, though... I wanted a drink to take the edge off.

To be continued!