30 / 04 / 2019 - Daito, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
9:00 AM, Sunday. The Apartment. One day later.
"Ughhh—!"
'Hell, this is too heavy…'
A low groan nearly escaped his throat, his face grimacing under the strain, but Akane kept his guard up as he softly lowered a heavy bag from each hand.
Executing extreme balance and motor control, he minimised the sound as much as humanly possible, ensuring not a single clink of gear would attract attention.
Turning his body sideways, Akane took hold of his bedroom door handle and slowly pulled it shut. Then his eyes swept the immediate surroundings as a bead of sweat rolled down his temple.
Standing motionless at the end of the second-floor corridor leading toward the railing, Akane waited.
Even though he had meticulously mapped out his family's morning itinerary and typical routines beforehand, his caution refused to waver.
The window to his left illuminated the hallway, casting a long slant of bright yellow light across the floor, catching the slow drift of floating dust motes.
Opposite his position stood a brown door — his little sister Irina's room — wrapped in the exact same heavy silence as the rest of the corridor.
After scanning the hallway and confirming the coast was clear, he lowered his posture slightly and gripped the heavy bags once more, keeping his eyes and ears strained for the slightest disruption.
With his muscles bulging and his face strained from the dead weight, he braced himself and moved forward in a swift, silent stride.
Desperately forcing his steps to remain noiseless, he bypassed the other doors along the hallway — slipping past his brother Ayato's room on the left and an empty guest room on the right.
Without looking down at the floor, he began his descent, his breath shallow and strained. But the moment he stepped into view of the living room, his eyes widened and his heart gave a sudden, violent jump.
There, sitting on the left side of the large U-shaped sectional sofa, was his aunt.
Her hair was let loose in a casual, unstyled tumble, her pale profile illuminated by the soft ambient light of the room.
From a distance, she possessed a somewhat elegant silhouette — but the cheeky, mischievous grin plastering her face completely shattered any illusion of sophistication.
She looked like a brat who had just caught someone red-handed. Narrowing her eyes at him, she casually curled a single index finger, gesturing for him to come over.
"Tch…"
Clicking his tongue in sheer annoyance at being intercepted so cleanly, Akane felt the initial spike of anxiety melt away, replaced by his usual flat, deadpan demeanour. He dragged the heavy bags along with him as he walked into the living room.
Thud.
He dropped the luggage unceremoniously onto the floor, letting out a long, exhausted sigh. Completely ignoring her smug expression, he slumped onto the opposite side of the sofa.
He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, deliberately avoiding his aunt, who was now smiling brightly with crescent-shaped eyes, her arms crossed triumphantly over her chest.
"Now, now~ first thing's first," she purred, her voice dripping with amusement. "How was your day, Akane-kun…?"
"…"
"…"
"I am perfectly fine, my dear auntie… Thank you for prioritising my well-being," Akane deadpanned.
Silence clearly wasn't an option here. Her expression remained as smooth and unreadable as the surface of a still lake, forcing Akane to be the one to fold first — unconditionally, just as he always did with her.
Her curved eyes narrowed into a faint slit, her long eyelashes trembling slightly as a strange, perceptive glint flashed across her gaze.
She looked down at the dropped black luggage — deceptively small, yet clearly dense with dead weight — before shifting her focus back to Akane, who was currently slumped there in his usual red tracksuit like a completely drained corpse.
Resting her right index finger against her lips, she let out a thoughtful, melodic hum, her eyebrows drawing together as if trying to calculate the contents of the bags.
But before she could probe further, a sudden idea seemed to strike her, and her mischievous smile widened.
"Say, Akane-kun… haven't you wondered why Irina hasn't pestered you once over the past few days…?"
Her smooth, flowing voice drifted across the quiet room, carrying a sharp undertone of genuine curiosity.
Akane's deadpan gaze remained firmly fixed on the opposite wall, his arms lying limply at his sides in a posture of complete resignation.
He had been mentally cycling through a dozen different lies to deflect her questions about the gear, but her sudden mention of his little sister instantly silenced his train of thought, dragging him violently back to reality.
"Why?"
Deciding it was best to just play along — mostly because he had absolutely nothing left to lose against this woman — Akane finally spoke.
He let his eyes wander aimlessly across the living room, still stubbornly refusing to look directly into her increasingly amused gaze.
"Why don't you take a guess then?"
Seeing his wandering gaze and obvious interest, Risha beckoned to him, her head bobbing in sheer excitement.
It seemed that turning her block-of-wood nephew into an actual functioning human being had become her favourite new hobby.
'Woman, you're the one who brought this up, and now I'm the one who has to guess? What kind of logic is that?'
Akane's eyes stopped trailing around the room. The corner of his lips curved downward in a brief, involuntary scowl.
This time, he didn't avoid her gaze, locking his eyes directly onto her twinkling, sky-blue ones.
She was clearly provoking him. Propping her chin on one hand while crossing her other arm over her chest, she practically radiated an aura that dared him to play along with her rhythm.
"Is it because she's actually focusing on her schoolwork for once and taking responsibility for her own actions?" Akane answered plainly.
Honestly, what did this woman want from him? Why was she being this annoying so early in the morning? They had established a perfectly good truce the other day.
Total peace. And now this? If Akane ever found out his aunt was doing all of this just for the pure, unadulterated fun of pushing his buttons, he would probably cough up blood right then and there.
"Nope! Wrong! Well… partially right. Guess again~" Risha waved her hands excitedly like a child who had just won a prize.
'Partially right about what? Her homework or her self-control? If one is right, the other has to be wrong…'
Just as Akane's face morphed into a perplexed, deep-thinking frown, his aunt instantly cut him off.
"Too-too! Time's out!"
Her sudden declaration completely contradicted her telling him to guess again just a second ago.
"The answer is… because. Of. Me! Ding, ding, ding! Now, can you guess the actual reason why?"
"Huhhhhh…"
This and that — Akane let out a long, bone-deep sigh of pure exhaustion. Before he could even begin to execute his plans, this entire verbal boxing match was leaving him utterly spent.
"No. I'm out. I'm not playing this game anymore, nee-chan. You might as well just ground me for the rest of the week."
Slumping back into a posture of total resignation, he closed his eyes, signalling that he was officially done communicating.
He had found a rare moment of peace within himself yesterday after deciding to slow his pace down, and he wasn't about to let her ruin it.
Risha snapped out of her playful trance, her eyes widening slightly as she pulled her posture upright and let out a defeated sigh of her own.
"Ehhh… you're absolutely no fun. Fine, I'll stop! I'll stop!"
Realising she had gotten a bit carried away, she knew a stubborn piece of wood like Akane would completely shut down if she pushed him past his limit.
'First: he folds instantly when there's actually no pressure. Second: because of that, he's more prone to just surrendering entirely.'
Composing herself, her thoughts drifted for a brief moment as she looked at her nephew.
'Speaking of which… what's the deal with his little investigation anyway? According to the Dark Network forums, the most recent topic in Osaka right now is that "Strange Deaths" incident, right?'
Risha was far sharper than she let on. It was a secret she kept — she had already reached LEVEL-3 on the forum.
When you had an absurd amount of corporate money to spare, paying a modest sum to raise your level and access was a trivial matter, just like buying a VIP pass.
By quietly monitoring the underground forums, filtering out the blatant misinformation, and piecing together fragmented intel, she had developed some grasp of the world's current supernatural climate.
No one should ever underestimate her just because of her domestic antics. After all, you don't become the General Director of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise by being a fool.
"Look, the point is, I'm the one holding Irina at bay for you," Risha said, pulling Akane back to reality as she leaned against the soft cushions of the sofa.
Her mischievous smile faded into a knowing grin.
Even though Akane's face remained a deadpan mask, she could tell he was actually listening now. "You remember our conversation from the other day, right?" she whispered.
"The one where you cried pitifully and aggressively flaunted your wealth at me?"
"No —! Not that one!!!" Risha suddenly screamed, jumping on the spot, her cheeks instantly flaring into a deep, embarrassed crimson as she covered her face.
"Then which one?" Akane countered, a strange, calculated glint finally sparking in his eyes as the corner of his mouth curved upward in dry amusement. His logic was airtight.
"We talk at the dinner table every single day. It's not like I have a photographic memory for everything you say. I can't just manifest the exact topic out of thin air."
"Ugh… it's the one about the money, dummy! About being honest with each other! Remember?!"
Exhaling a sharp breath — her face practically radiating steam from the lingering embarrassment of that memory — she heavily emphasised the word "honesty."
"Ohhhh…" Pushing his slumped body upward, Akane crossed his arms, leaning forward with a smug look.
"Then why didn't you just lead with that? Spouting riddles is a massive hassle when you lack the capacity to pull them off, don't you think?"
"Oh~? Is that a hint of sarcasm I hear? Do you want me to cut your monthly allowance?"
Sensing that she was completely losing the upper hand in this verbal skirmish, Risha's eyes flashed with predatory instinct as she instantly seized upon Akane's ultimate vulnerability.
Money. Money was the only language this kid truly understood. If he wanted to act tough, she would just choke out his cash flow.
Akane's smug expression froze in its tracks. His entire face turned to stone, looking like a literal statue.
Realising his critical tactical blunder a second too late, he immediately abandoned his pride, lowering his gaze in absolute, unadulterated submission.
"Forgive me for my insolence and pettiness, dear Auntie — I presume you can continue where you left off?"
"…"
A heavy silence descended upon the living room.
Risha's eye twitched, trying to process whether his sudden shift could even be classified as sincere, while a bead of sweat rolled down Akane's neck as he hastily backpedalled.
"You're only apologising because of the money, aren't you?" Risha muttered, her brow furrowing. "Fine, whatever, I won't pursue it. In short: honesty! Let's stick to the honesty part!"
"Now, how about this? You be completely honest with me right now and tell me what you've been doing this entire week, and in exchange, I'll keep everyone else at bay for you. Deal?"
Risha studied Akane's face as she spoke. Over the past week, he had looked perpetually exhausted, those dark, heavy circles anchoring themselves beneath his eyes.
Even during family meals, he remained almost entirely silent, completely immersed in whatever private world he was parsing through.
Everyone in the house was worried about him. But for Risha, who understood the dangerous nature of the hidden world better now, her primary goal was preventing Akane's little sister, Irina, from getting dragged into the crossfire.
Their brother Ayato was fine — he could handle himself perfectly well, lived life on his own terms, and his frequent outings were remarkably normal compared to his twin.
Akane was the one carrying the real anomalies.
As far as Risha was concerned, it was best if she and Akane bore the brunt of this burden together.
There was absolutely no need for a perceptive girl like Irina to find out about any of it, which was exactly why she wanted to help him by acting as his shield.
'But I don't even know if what I'm doing is actually good for him…'
Staring at his weary profile, her chest tightened. The playful pettiness and childish excitement from a moment ago evaporated instantly.
Just as Akane had noted before, her emotions could flip as violently as a toggle switch when it came to her family.
"Mmmmm. No wonder. Umu, umu… I think I understand," Akane murmured, nodding discreetly as he caught the sudden shift in her expression and the way she faintly bit her lower lip.
Reading between the lines of her offering "help" and demanding "honesty," he could easily piece together her intent.
She didn't want to just passively watch him from the sidelines as an ignorant bystander anymore. She was actively offering to become his accomplice.
"You could have just said so from the start," Akane said.
Though a trace of reluctance still lingered in his voice, it was minimal. If anything, a quiet wave of relief washed over him.
"Eh…?"
Akane's calm response snapped Risha straight out of her deep thoughts, her sky-blue eyes widening in surprise.
"I'll keep the briefing short, since I'm on a bit of a tight schedule right now."
Pushing himself up from the cushions, Akane stood up and walked over to the two bags sitting on the floor.
"Recently, I've managed to uncover a massive chronological clue regarding this investigation," he began, standing squarely between the luggage.
"The anomalies are directly connected to the outbreak of a creature that occurred back in March. I'm sure you still remember that incident vividly, right?"
He reached down to grab the handles. Opposite him, Risha sat completely frozen, her mind struggling to process the sheer weight of the information he was casually dropping.
"Right now, I've established a definitive movement pattern for the entity responsible for these deaths," Akane continued, his voice straining slightly as his muscles bulged, hoisting the two heavy bags off the ground with practised control.
"The entity is actively traversing the prefecture, but it's not moving alone. It's being hunted by a creature originating from that same March event."
Holding the heavy fabric handles securely, he looked back at her and gave a small nod, hoisting one of the bags slightly to display its contents.
Through the unzipped top, she could see rows of advanced, high-tech monitoring equipment and specialised cameras.
"My current hypothesis is still technically weak, which is why I bought these. I'm going to install this monitoring grid across a few specific coordinates to verify if the chaser is still tracking the target."
Akane adjusted his grip on the heavy weight. "That's it for now. If you want the deeper details, we can talk about it later in my room. Since we have a deal, I'll take my leave now."
Without waiting for her to recover, he turned on his heel and walked straight toward the front door. Risha remained entirely paralysed on the sofa, utterly flabbergasted.
No one stopped him as he pushed the door open with ease, stepping out into the hallway toward the apartment elevator.
Left alone in the silent living room, Risha's mind was spinning in a dozen different directions at once.
First, there was the sudden, unexpected weight of his trust. Second, there was the terrifying realisation that his private data matched the high-level LEVEL-3 forum posts she had been tracking on the Dark Network.
By the time she finally snapped out of her daze, her lips parted and she hastily scrambled up from the deep cushions of the sofa to look toward the hallway.
But the heavy front door had already clicked shut.
Realising she was too late to call him back, she let her posture collapse, slumping heavily back onto the sectional.
"Huh…" A faint breath escaped her lips as she stared at the ceiling. "Well, a trust is a trust, and a promise is a promise!"
———
10:00 PM. Akane's Room. 13 Hours Later.
"Mmmm…"
Akane let out a low hum, his crimson-ashen eyes reflecting the glittering, multi-windowed display of his monitor.
The screens cycled through various feeds: pitch-black alleyways, sharp street corners, and direct views of quiet residential blocks.
He had meticulously positioned each angle to capture the natural travel choke-points of the area — a practical habit he had beaten into himself during his days in the First Seas.
He idly toggled from one camera feed to the next. In the lower-left corner of his main display, the feed read #03-01 — the primary camera monitoring the third historical crime scene, part of a sprawling grid he had covertly planted across five separate city sectors.
On screen, the custom software went to work. Dynamic bounding boxes lit up in real time as the automated object-detection system smartly filtered out human passersby, stray cats, and static environment variables.
In this day and age, with Artificial Intelligence having undergone a massive evolutionary leap since the onset of AGI two years prior, technological revolutions were blooming on a near-daily basis.
'Too bad getting unrestricted access to the high-end military models is a pipe dream. The civilian stuff cleared for public use is still so aggressively neutered…'
Still, even for something like this, a personalised model was available on the Dark Network.
Also, gun, tanks, even ballistic missiles were on offer there — as if an entire country had put itself up for sale.
So he purchased a personalised model and bound it to his laptop, which is built on a quantum computational processor, and it ran smoothly.
His mind drifted aimlessly. It had been roughly nine hours since the uptime initialisation of his makeshift monitoring network.
Leaning heavily into his backrest, Akane pushed his desk chair backward, balancing it precariously on its rear legs, tilting back and forth while he crossed his arms in sheer boredom.
The window to his right was tightly shut, the heavy curtains draped halfway across the glass.
Through the gap, he could see the distant, ambient glow of the brightly lit city, punctuated by the occasional stray car or late-night pedestrian cutting through the avenues below.
Inside his room, the atmosphere was perfectly controlled, the air conditioner humming quietly as it maintained a warm, balanced, and thoroughly comfortable temperature.
His eyelids felt half-lidded, a creeping wave of sleepiness pulling at his consciousness.
Strictly speaking, he didn't require a standard sleep cycle anymore; ever since his biological evolution, a mere three to six hours of shut-eye was more than enough to sustain his daily functions.
But the repetitive, gruelling physical and mental labour he had forced himself through over the past few weeks was proving to be a bit too much, even for his enhanced cognitive parameters and augmented body.
"Huhhh…"
A massive yawn escaped him, his eyes growing heavy. Right as his focus began to completely drift —
Ding!
A sharp, high-priority notification audio cue from his personal virtual assistant snapped his brain entirely awake.
Thud!
The front legs of his chair slammed violently back down onto the floor. In a single fluid motion, his hands untangled and flew across the keyboard, his fingers flying across the hotkeys to override the cycling feed. The automated transition stopped instantly.
His eyes froze on the centre panel. His hands slowly loosened their grip on the mechanical keys, hovering just above the board as his breathing levelled out.
His heart rate remained surprisingly flat, his mind instantly shifting into a state of hyper-focused, passive data consumption.
"Caught you…"
The corner of his lips trembled slightly before finally curving upward into a sharp, cold smirk. His crimson eyes gleamed against the glare of the monitor.
Reflected perfectly in the digital feed was a sneaky, distorted silhouette.
You couldn't realistically call it a human being. It looked like a work of violent anatomy — a grotesque, unstable fusion of two completely different templates.
It crept through the absolute darkest shadows of the alleyway, its upper spine heavily hunched beneath a filthy, greenish patient's gown.
Thick patches of coarse grey fur slipped through the torn gaps of the fabric.
Akane watched the display coldly, his thoughts flowing like a rapid river as various logical currents converged into a single, concrete conjecture.
'A human? A hybrid mutation with those deep-tunnel grey rats? A localised experiment? There is an organised handler behind this thing, isn't there?'
"Huh…"
Exhaling a slow, steady breath, he tracked its movement across the screen, deliberately forcing himself not to let reckless conclusions pollute his data pool just yet.
He wanted to see this play out. He needed to map exactly where this monstrosity returned to clear its parameters. And luckily…
"Elecia, hijack the auxiliary municipal cameras in the surrounding grid immediately. Track the unknown variable and label the target as #P2-001."
"Confirmed. Command received," a smooth, digital voice replied.
Instantly, the tracking box locked onto the creature, utilising the overlapping camera angles to zoom in and sharpen the resolution.
The creature's structural features became horrifyingly clear. The hospital gown was caked in grime and filth, and despite the low-light environment, Akane could easily discern large, damp splotches tracking along its flank.
'Wet spots… brownish discolouration? Residual blood weeping from localised tumours?'
Crossing his arms as the automated script took over the tracking pilot, Akane let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Buying those absurdly expensive black-market cameras was definitely the right call, but the real victory was his foresight in setting up extensive proxy access across both private and public infrastructure networks beforehand.
Call him crazy all you wanted, but he was going to grasp this opportunity with both hands. He was thoroughly fascinated by whatever sickness was pulling the strings behind this curtain.
Hours bled away. On screen, the creature continued sniffing the asphalt, tracking along the concrete before finally slinking out of the immediate residential zone.
The camera feeds seamlessly bridged its movement, following its exit.
It was smart. It knew how to manage its visibility, steering clear of major avenues and actively utilising the dark, deserted corridors of the suburbs.
But Akane's routing scripts had already mathematically calculated its trajectory.
2:00 AM.
Akane's eyes remained razor-sharp despite the mounting physical exhaustion.
Finally, after hours of continuous tracking, the creature veered down a narrow, empty corridor between two high-rise concrete slabs and simply vanished from the feed.
A strange glint flashed in Akane's eyes. Despite his software attempting to reconstruct the blind spot inside the alleyway, the creature was entirely gone, as if it had literally dissolved into the void.
But it didn't matter. He already had the exact coordinates he needed.
"Sakai City, huh…?"
The monitor froze, displaying a crystal-clear, satellite-mapped wireframe of the prefecture. A bright, glowing red circle settled squarely over the target district.