Ciel was struggling, in truth everything had not gone as he expected. What was meant to be a simple hunt had transformed into a lethal battle for his life. He had made that realization the moment he discovered the source of Simon’s corruption. That strange existence was simply too dire of a foe for him to realistically kill or even successfully ward off.
For that reason he attempted retreating, however his efforts were foiled by his dreadful opponent. And of course, it had been done through a mind attack. There seemed to be no shortage of those recently.
He stood motionless near the corner of the rotting room. His body was twitching slightly, however his balance remained firm and his eyes seemed to be moving rapidly in all directions. Surrounding his body was an illusory, ghastly aura.
Within that aura, faces flashed at times, along with voices. They were voices of different women which had a wide range of strong emotions. Occasionally the sole male voice of Simon could be heard as well. It was as he was in this state that the walking corpse moved.
Its pace was calm, wherever the soles of its feet touched the area’s decay intensified. It had already completely destroyed the shoes Simon had worn. Furthermore, this effect of decay was occurring to its own body.
The more time passed, the more Simon’s corpse appeared dead.
Soon it arrived at Ciel’s location, then it calmly raised its hand and grasped at his jaw. Immediately after, the previous rotting of his body not only started anew but the area where Ciel was directly grasped rapidly decomposed.
The process was so thorough that no blood spilled, nor did he feel pain.
Ciel tried to resist, however there was nothing he could do. He was barely lucid enough to understand that he had been grasped, and the memories flashing through his mind had not ceased nor had the intensity of their flow diminished in any form.
If he failed to do anything, then it would spell the end of his life.
Realizing such, the still calm Ciel resorted to activating his only tool: His Concept Accommodation ability. He was not sure if it would have any effect at all, however right now he had no other choices. If even that failed, then he would try and disrupt the activated ‘Fool’ ability which was preventing the world itself from rejecting him within this time.
What would such an action do?
It was as he was about to surge the little spirituality he possessed that suddenly the rusty alloy door was sent flying forward with a small boom.
For a second, all movement halted. Even of those dismembered body parts which hung on hooks.
“Ugh. Disgusting…”
A woman’s voice then sounded before a young figure with beautiful features stepped inside. She had short brown hair and light blue eyes, along with a slender build. She wore a neatly fitting black suit and possessed a womanly grace to her movements.
She was beautiful. She was also the Inspector Lara Taylor of the NSRA, and an Esper of the Second Stage.
*****
A few minutes prior, upon the bustling neon showered streets of the Rich Valley Area within the southern outskirts. Two figures were walking side by side as they cut through the many pedestrians out to indulge within the nightlife.
The first was a beautiful woman with short brown hair and blue eyes, it was Lara. Currently she was walking straight, however her eyes were not locked on the path ahead, instead they were staring intently at her phone.
Eric, who walked beside her, did not mind this, especially since he had just sent her information which she had to examine. That information being the sudden disappearances of local residences within the Laften street, Ergo Street, Cashen Street, and Ninter Street.
“One hundred thirty three women within the last year huh. Damn police, if they suspected this might be related to the supernatural then why not hand over the case sooner?!”
Lara’s words were both a question and a frustrated complaint. She hated seeing needless deaths, especially when it concerned targeted attacks on women.
Eric gave her a side glance, then shrugged.
“This is not the main district area or even the base layer districts. No witnesses mentioned seeing anything. Everyone within this place is barely holding on so they aren’t the type to care much about what others beside them are doing. Furthermore, these were all single women living alone without any criminal records or previous known enemies. They barely seemed to have any friends either. Considering all of that, then it is not unreasonable to think that they merely became victims of the Red Tiger Gang or simply chose to enter the slums. Statistically, sixty percent of deaths within the outskirts occur within the slums, so it is hard to know when an actual murder occurs which is unrelated to the remaining thirty five percent which die from gang violence.”
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Lara stared at Eric with a strange expression.
“Eric, sometimes I think I like you best when you stay quiet.”
Eric shrugged, then said evenly.
“You asked so I answered in a concise and true to the facts manner.”
“That was what you consider concise?”
Lara retorted, then crossed her arms in disapproval.
“I get it, I do. But this operation striker they are doing wouldn’t even involve us if it wasn't for that unexpected complication. Then what? They would have begun their gang war whilst whatever monster is causing these deaths does as it pleases?”
Eric sighed.
“That is a hypothetical. We are here now are we not? And even if that was not the case, it would get to us eventually wouldn’t it?”
Hearing his calm response, Lara’s head turned sharply at him. She then grumbled.
“Do you hear yourself? You sound so indifferent! Don’t you care about saving lives?!”
Eric sighed.
“Of course I do but don’t be so naive Lara, things like this happen each day. They won’t stop now because I am mad at the system or how efficient it is, and those women won’t come back from the dead either. Being angry at that is a waste of energy. Energy which is better spent preventing this from continuing further.”
Lara opened her mouth to retort, however in the end she just remained silent. She returned her gaze back to her phone’s report after unwrapping her arms.
The two continued on in silence until finally they arrived at their destination.
“This is it… The commonality between all the victims. An affiliation with a small meat shop hosting an old world theme to it.”
Hearing Eric’s words, Lara raised her head away from the phone. Across from them was a two story structure, one in visible contrast to all the surrounding brightly illuminated buildings.
“Meat Harvest huh…”
Even from where they stood, something was already off. Lara’s eyes furrowed.
“Eric…”
“You too?”
Eric did not need to hear what Lara was going to say, he already knew. As espers, they had the ability to enhance their eyesight exponentially, and yet, when they peered into the glass windows they could not see anything.
“Something is definitely wrong here! Obstruction to the eyes of espers proves that the owner is a monster doesn’t it? I mean a regular human would not know how to create a seal.”
Eric shook his head.
“No, this is odd, but it is not enough evidence to label the owner a monster just yet. Perhaps the true culprit is not a monster but a strange aberration. That is a possibility as well.”
Eric’s brows furrowed even deeper.
“This is odd isn’t it? The police officer which assigned this case noted that they had checked this place before but found nothing out of the ordinary. If that is true then why is the anomaly exposing itself today?”
Lara shrugged.
“Does that even matter? We need to take action either way. The question is do we storm in and potentially risk facing an actual monster or do we call for backup? I mean, performing monster exterminations isn’t exactly our expertise, shouldn’t we request that an Enforcer join us?”
Eric contemplated for a moment.
“We should proceed on our own first. The NSRA is already breaking protocol by having Stage Two Espers working in pairs so the fact that they gave us this case without a supervising enforcer means they are expecting a very weak monster.”
Turning to look at Lara, he smiled.
“Let's show them how deadly we are.”
Lara smiled as well, she then nodded.
The two inspectors proceeded forth, but found their entry blocked. No matter how hard they tried, the door refused to open. Eventually, they attempted to enter through the windows, finding resistance even then. The window however, was unable to delay them for long.
It was shattered shortly after by a powerful kick from Eric. The moment it did, both Eric and Lara’s eyes widened. Inside everything seemed like what one expected to find from a shop which modelled itself with the style of the old world.
What made both of them pause however, was the sight behind the glass of the many display counters. There, many pre-made meals rested, all of which were terribly repulsive.
The sides of the pre-made meals appeared normal, unchanged, yet in the places where meats such as tender steaks, grilled chickens, and seasoned pork should have been, were instead disgusting parts of human corpses.
“These are—!”
Lara’s voice was horse and her shock had shifted to unbridled fury. The two inspectors then shifted their head’s upwards. Their eyes could not see past the first floor ceiling, however they could sense an eerie presence.
“That monster is dead for disgracing those women!”
Without hesitation Lara dashed forward. Eric did not stop her, he was just as vexed so he simply followed.
*****
The moment Lara stormed inside the strange, rotten room, her nostrils were assaulted by a terrible smell of decay and death.
“Ugh. Disgusting…”
She muttered before turning her head to the side. As she did her partner finally entered behind her, seemingly agreeing with her earlier words as he donned a frown.
The two inspectors were met with a truly sinister and unexpected sight. It was sinister in that the entire room was rotten whilst having pieces of hanged human parts moving as if alive. It was also unexpected for the fact that an unknown young man was present, currently in the thralls of a horrific walking corpse.
Safe to assume this is sufficient evidence right?
Thinking such, Lara retrieved her gun from its holster, aimed it, then pulled the trigger.
BANG!