Jin’s personal office felt like a junkyard; mechanical pieces were strewn about with slicks of oil and other substances littering the work bench. His welding tools were still smoldering, tufts of smoke lingering around a thick length of cabling. The oddest attraction, however, was the chair in the center of the room with cables hanging out of the headrest and connecting to some whirring machine in the corner. The chair was peppered in copper spots, especially at the armrests where most of the surgical tools(?) were.

“Pardon the mess. I am unused to living guests entering my station. Please do not touch anything while you are here.” Jin stated, rummaging through the hordes of debris in search of something.

“Why would you think someone would be listening to our conversation? And why would this place offer any protection?” Foreigner asked, looking around the room in bewilderment.

“Because my Meister has not been present for some time now and if word got around that the Meister of this workshop went missing, no doubt the local Syndicates or our employers would cut ties with this establishment.” Jin replied as he pulled out a small golden pick with a faint bluish glow. “As for your second question, much like an audio file, this room can be edited to omit such sounds from reaching beyond that curtain. If someone were to come into the store, they would hear my welding equipment instead of our conversation.”

“Is there technology that can even do something like that?” Foxtail asked.

“This is nothing compared to the Singularities if that is what you’re getting at. No, this is a brainchild originated between me and my muse, Iris. You are familiar with them as Peepers, correct?” Jin looked to Foxtail.

“But Peepers hasn’t left the warehouse in ages? How did he come here…” Foxtail trailed off before gasping and furrowing her brows. “That little shit’s been shifting around instead of keeping lookout. When I get back to him-”

“Consider this job free of charge, courtesy of your friend. He was an invaluable effort in developing the function of this room and I would like the debt of his assistance to no longer burden me.” Jin cut in, gesturing for Foreigner to lay down on the chair. Foreigner complied, motioning towards the chair and chewing on the information that’d been laid out so far.

“You mentioned that this Meister has been missing for some time now? Did you not take it up with the authorities,” Foreigner asked Jin before turning over to Foxtail, “Wait, do we even have authorities in this godforsaken city?” Foxtail grumbled something under her breath before shaking her head.

“Er, no. No authorities. If you want something done, you typically hire an Office to send some Fixers and fix the problem.” Foxtail answered.

“And indeed I did. I went to the investigatory Turned Stone Office and asked them to look into the situation but alas, they did not have any leads the last time we talked. But enough about my Meister. You came here to resolve a problem, no?” Jin looked to Foreigner who was now resting his head on the headrest of the chair, face tilted upward towards a bright overhanging light.

“Yeah. Peepers mentioned something about a brand on the back of my neck. He said you’d be able to know its origin and its intent with the tools you have available.” Foreigner turned over to Jin, leaned over, and circled the brand with his index finger. Jin pulled out a tool from the armchair as well as a pair of glasses with a light attached to one of the arms and inspected the mark.

“Oh.” Jin remarked.

“Oh?” Foreigner was worried. He could feel the cold steel of a tool press up against his skin before being pulled away.

“Well without having to do an invasive procedure, I can safely give you some good news. I am familiar with this technology as the Meister and I have dealt in these brands before. This is a kind of mental lock from J Corp. The bad news is that not only has this lock been modified, it looks like its partitioned sections of your memory away from you.”

“I-is that even something possible? How can some company keep me from accessing my own mind!”

“Anything is possible when you have the power of a Singularity running your technology, sadly. That unknowable power can be used for even this.”

“But you can fix it, right? If you’ve worked on these mental locks before with your Meister?”

“Well, these mental locks are quite tricky. I have the tools to brute force an opening, but opening too much of your memories will leave your mind dissonant. Too much dissonance and your mind will be broken. That’s even assuming I open up the partitions in the proper order; if I open your mind up in the wrong order, the locks will rebound and kill you to guard that information from ever leaking out. Even in death, mind you.” Foreigner was distraught. What could have compelled an individual or a set of individuals to lock him out of his own mind? And why separate him from his family? If they wanted the information secure with no loose ends, why didn’t they just kill him off outright?

“Is there nothing you can do, then?” Foreigner looked to Jin for answers. Jin's face was as blank as ever.

“With my current skill set, I can unlock a sliver of your mind without tampering with the locks. Essentially I would give you access to the ‘keyhole’ and have you unlock a memory with this.” Jin waved the golden pick around. “It's a delicate procedure that I will need you restrained for as the process is agonizing. It’s crystallizing a core memory of your past from the liquid jumble the lock has left it in, but I’m sure you’d be willing to go through the process if it meant having access to a defining core memory of yours. Anything more would require a Meister in this field to deal with and unlike myself, the Meister would likely charge a hefty fee to unlock such fine craftsmanship here.”

“Then how about this; Foreigner and I can look for this Meister, do some sleuthing of our own and get him indebted to us. He unlocks Foreigners memories, you get your Meister back, and we’re all hunky-dory.” Foxtail perked up, looking to Jin for a reply.

“I will perform this procedure on Mr. Foreigner. He will be incapacitated for an hour or more. If you wish to get the Meister indebted to you by finding him, I’d suggest talking to the Fixers at the Turned Stone Office for more information. Although my faith in you both is much lower than the faith I have with the investigatory office, if you want to commit yourself to this mission then do so. I stand to gain from any outcome.” With that final comment, Jin turned over to Foreigner and strapped him to the chair. “Good luck, Mr. Foreigner. Hopefully you find something worthwhile.”

Foreigner felt a sudden sharp pain on his temple before sinking into darkness.