We drove for about 90 seconds. I deduced based on directions taken that they indeed were taking me to the crematorium. At some moment my hands were tied with a zipper.

I was taken out of the truck and led on my two somewhere with a bag over my head that was stuck to my face because of all the blood.

Two people checked my possessions and took everything aside from clothes and the well-hidden notebook. They grabbed me by my arms and led me somewhere into the crematorium. Despite the bag and all the smell of blood inside I could feel the stench of the crematorium getting stronger.

When the bag was removed I was already sitting on a chair in a concrete room. Now all I needed was to not get myself killed. Even if someone would send help it would be too late for me.

The men who led me here left. In front of me, a few meters away was a massive circle, as if from a satanic ritual. It was glowing blue and in it was a kid around 15 years old lying dead in funeral garbs. This was not something I was expecting to see.

“So where are you from George?” A voice rang behind me. It was a white man speaking American English, maybe in his early twenties with gray hair to his neck, he had some skin condition as his cheeks and temples were covered in scales. He didn’t give me time to respond and got closer to maybe 20 centimeters from my face. I saw his eyes, big green glowing Irises with vertical pupils.

I fell from the chair from this jumpscare and froze looking at him.

“What the hell of a freak are you?” I thought to myself. There was some satanic shit happening here. I have heard some people doing surgeries to look ridiculous but he was clearly overdoing it.

“Are you from Templars?” he looked for my reaction intensely “Maybe Zion or Esoteric Order?” He tilted his head.

“Don’t tell me you are from Stormbringers, nah, that’s not likely.” he continued.

I was still silent… What the fuck was he talking about!? Templars and esoteric orders… This made no sense. Are these new names of gangs in Tokyo? Was he referring Mossad when he mentioned Zion?

My head hurt a lot from getting hit by the truck, and the pain was slowly seeping in as adrenaline was going down.

“Excuse me, I don't understand you.” I decided against standing up as I felt my legs didn’t listen to me.

“You fought against Stormbringers in Tingal without knowing whom you were fighting?” he had his brow raised.

“Who the hell are these Stormbringers?” I questioned myself. Was I already dead? Was my brain hallucinating due to my heart no longer supplying oxygen to it?

His coat buzzed, and he took out a phone, it was my phone.

“Someone wrote you to run with all capital letters, mister George, what should I respond?”

“I don’t know.” It was probably Josh, he probably read through the evidence and assessed the danger lever better than I did. Why is this man so sure my phone wasn’t recording?

“Aren’t you afraid that the phone might be recording?” I asked him bluntly.

“Of course not, there are microphone jammers all around the facility. Their humming is extremely annoying.” he smiled with a slight condensation. I heard no humming, but I understood what he was talking about. “I quickly looked at your background George. I believe I even read your articles on Tingal’s war a couple of times, so I'll ask again. Why are you here?” A snake crawled out of his suit towards his neck.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” my internal screaming filled my mind as I started to lose my composure. Nothing made sense. Satanic rituals behind hidden walls in a crematorium, Templars and Esoteric orders, snakes crawling out of the clothes, and a freak who made his pupils vertical and grafted snake skin with some surgery. I can try to take this guy by surprise, but there are armed men outside.

“I saw your photo with a gun in Tingal. You instantly earned my respect. So how did you get here?” The freak was extremely calm and pressed on. He was definitely a madman.

“I was investigating missing people, and they led me here.” I decided not to test a madman's patience making him ask for the fourth time. I was slowly removing the zipper tying my hands behind my back.

“Oh, and did you notice the two things that united them?” He asked with a grin. It was a rhetorical question.

“They all were hit by a truck, sent here for cremation without waiting in line, and sacrificed in a ritual?” I replied with a question.

“Sacrificed? No! We don’t kill people here, we send them to a better world. The answer to my question is that they were like you. They all tried to commit suicide, just like you did today.” He looked deep into me. He wasn’t threatening me, he was stating that my coming here was akin to suicide, and he was going to ‘send me to a better world’.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

He went towards my back and he probably saw the half-removed zipper. The next moment my hands were free as he cut the zipper with something. He moved around the room and took out a small notebook from his inner pocket.

“Huh?” I thought to myself. “Well, this guy is sure of himself that I am no danger to him. Most likely to be close quarter trained.” I assessed.

“Aki Kurosagi, whom you can see sleeping in the portal circle took twenty sleeping pills and got himself into a coma half a year ago, three days ago he was stabbed by a drug addict stealing cash from a shop. Misaki Arashi - after her grandfather died she felt so lonely and oppressed by her own family that she tried to shoot herself with her grandfather's rifle, but her family’s butler was able to take away the gun mere seconds before she blew her brains out. I can continue, but I believe you can the pattern.”

Portal Circle? Suicide? What the fuck was he talking about? I got captured by a cult, a very strange cult. I was controlling my breathing so as not to fall into a panic attack completely.

“I never tried to commit suicide!” I told him standing up on my feet. I probably should try to fight, it's always better to die fighting than to be sacrificed.

“Even now you are trying to throw your life away. Like in Tingal doing war journalism or here, investigating something that reeks of powers outside of your comprehension. Are you looking for a nice hill to die on? ” When I was about to pounce at him I realized that my body was paralyzed. When did he manage to poison me? I asked myself. My body barely listened to me. I looked down and saw a snake biting my now immobilized leg.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked him as my voice became slightly hysterical. Everything happening left my comprehension.

“Oh, me. I am Ryu, the real owner of “Ryūnosuke Press And Entertainment” and a Dragon. But don’t worry, I don’t eat humans. I even don’t kill them!”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I shouted at him, and as I did the door from which I came from opened, with a man aiming his gun at me.

Ryu raised his hand with a halt signal and the security man closed the door from the outside.

“It’s in the name. I am a dragon in Japanese “Ryu”, I have an assistant; “Suke”, who is keeping my business operations afloat. But I guess that wasn’t what you were asking.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t feel my presence?” He asked me with one of his brows raised.

“The only thing I feel is the poison spreading through my body,” I replied in a neutral tone.

“Oh, so you are a zero, that explains it. Well, that’s an uncommon sight and not a good one.” He looked with pity at me. “I even feel bad for what I am about to do.” He took out a handgun from a holster and pushed it towards my stomach.

Now the panic attack finally hit me, I was unable to move, left in a room with some freak calling himself a dragon with a poisonous snake as a pet. And that maniac was about to shoot me. I started hyperventilating and my heartbeat was clearly audible as my heart was about to leave my chest.

He didn’t pull the trigger on me though. He stuffed the gun behind my belt.

“Huh?”... with what was this man planning to frame me?

“What should I write to your friend so he won’t worry? You don’t want to put your friends in danger right?” He smiled at me with a smile that looked eerily genuine. He was very close, and at that moment as he stared at me I saw starry night in his eyes, and stars were moving and shining, getting brighter and brighter as the glowing circle was increasing its brightness as if in unison. As I looked at them my panic quickly left me leaving me weak and burned out, most likely poison was also relaxing my nervous system. I was about to collapse ahead, but he held me in place.

“Write that I struck a deal, and now work for you. To not investigate and wipe, Add 007 at the end. That's something the other side will understand.” I didn’t want Josh, Tom, and Erika to get into this.

Ryu typed something down with one hand and I saw that his fingers now looked different. Covered in scales with nails now looking like claws. Like dragon’s claws. My mind stopped trying to comprehend what was happening.

“I got caught but we struck a deal. I was mistaken about the situation, but won’t be able to return for quite some time. Do not investigate. Wipe, 007.” He spoke out words out loud as he typed. I nodded slightly. Paralysis already reached my neck.

“So, where did I slip up?” I asked him.

“Oh, that! You did it twice.” He squashed my phone in his hands like it was a piece of cardboard. “Someone entered an old mansion, but we initially assumed it was a thief so haven’t responded. When within the next few days someone was seen near three houses we oversaw. We dispatched our people to the remaining houses of the heroes, but you came straight here instead! That were some good disguises you had! We figured out the events were connected and rang an alarm when you went through all the overworkers’ homes.” Ryu’s voice was joyful as if he was playing a game.

I chuckled at my situation, I was too reckless. Ryu continued.

“Oh, and there are radars and cameras all around the facility, so we noticed your drone a few minutes ago. Sad that we will have to abandon this nice place. It was a pain to install all the hidden cameras around the district. We are not some sloppy intelligence agencies after all.” We looked at me checking if I had anything else to ask. He was very considerate as a murderer.

“Thank you for the explanation. But why trucks?” I asked him. He was insane, calling people whom he sacrificed heroes. But I wanted to know why he mainly used trucks. Considering what he said and what I knew there were no chances I was leaving this place alive, so I was about to become a ‘hero’ too.

He grabbed me by the neck and lifted me up. He was smaller than me but did that without any visible strain.

“I just love Isekai manga. Goodbye George, it was nice to talk to you, but the time is up!” He smiled at me without any hostility.

“It was nice talking with you too, Ryu.” I didn’t know why I responded that way, but for some reason, it felt the right way.

“See you!” He threw me into the satanic circle with ease as if I was as light as a pillow. When I fell to the ground, the strange symbols lit up and blinded me, and it all went dark.