Chapter 10

S.R.C.

The floor beneath Haru rumbled as a drove of people in matching uniforms galloped up the stairs while carrying supplies and black luggage into the large room. These people weren’t wearing masks like the soldiers, nor were they wearing armor. Their uniforms appear like long silver coats that reach down above their ankles. Black buttons ran down the middle with patches on their left breast. Each person had different design patches on their uniform. It presumably represented their ranks. However, the detail that stood out was the stripe pattern on the right side of the uniform. Three stripes from their shoulders ran halfway down their livery, but different people had different colors on their suits. Blue, white, and red. Those are the ones Haru noticed.

The ones with blue stripes set up makeshift tables to place their computers and gear on from the luggage they brought. They spent their time writing down information and passing around documents. They paid no mind to the dead man, unlike the ones in white stripes, who all converged around the corpse. They pulled out the same technology Haru remembered seeing from the Yokocho. Lastly, only a few people had red stripes. They gathered inside the room where Ryu was being kept.

The clicking sounds of keyboards typing and the humming of paper printing filled the once-silent building as large lamps shined onto the corpse. Haru observed from his dark corner as the empty room filled up with strangers, turning the floor into a research center.

Haru was still watched over by two soldiers, who kept a hold on their weapons while the rest had relaxed their guns and stood guard. One of them noticed that Haru was still bleeding from his neck and coughing up blood.

“Hey!” He called out to somebody in the room. “We need an ‘S.N.’ medic here!” In a few minutes, a man carrying a medic bag stopped by. He had red stripes on his uniform.

“Hey, sorry! That other guy’s arm was in terrible shape, and …. Wow! Your neck looks terrible! I got just the thing.”

He dug into his bag and brought out a bottle filled with red pills. He twisted the cap open and pulled out two of them, told Haru to open his mouth, and carefully placed them on his tongue.

“With the injury in your neck, swallowing this will hurt a bit, but everything will quickly get better.”

The pills felt like it was dragging knives down Haru’s throat, but it didn’t take long for the drugs to take effect. Haru’s whole body grew numb, and his head began to sway, but the pain slowly disappeared. These are painkillers, just like the Werewolf blood, but without the high.

Next, the medic pulled out an ointment tube, squeezed a golf ball-sized lump in his hand, and rubbed it together before reaching out to Haru’s wounded neck, covering it in the cream.

Even though the painkillers were strong, the ointment stung dreadfully on his open wound. Steam sizzled from his neck, and the balm began to harden. The man held it in place for a full minute before peeling it off. The pain was gone entirely, and his wound closed.

“Ok then, you are all set,” The man said as he placed his stuff back into his sack. “I need to return to help your friend. If you need anything, call out to me.”

“Yes, sir,” Haru hastily responded as he rubbed his neck, happy to be able to speak properly.

After the man left, Haru watched as more people entered the floor. The soldiers were still standing by as more people in uniforms with blue stripes filled the space. More white stripes surrounded the dead man.

Haru was baffled at what he witnessed. These people didn’t look like they were the cops of some sort of governmental agency. He knew from what Ryu told him that the knowledge of Supernaturals was mostly a secret, but was surprised to see so many people converge at a place where a Vampire and a Werewolf had just fought. Until he made a realization.

Maybe these people helped maintain that secrecy.

It was only a guess, however.

With lights filling the room, Haru noticed that the soldier’s armor and uniform also had stripes. Theirs were brown.

“Good work, men!” A rugged voice echoes throughout the floor. “Your work is all finished! Rendezvous back at the base!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” The soldiers responded as they left one by one, except for the two watching Haru; they still hadn’t put down their guns since they began supervising him.

One of the exiting soldiers walked past the overwhelmed Haru.

“You’re the new guy, right?” The man asked. “You probably have no idea who we are and what we are doing.”

Haru was agitated. Soldiers with guns, people with research equipment, and others examining a dead body. He had no idea what any of this meant for him. He didn’t feel excited, nor did he feel relieved. He felt as if this problem was much bigger than he had imagined.

“What is the SRC?” He asked.

“S.R.C. is an acronym for Supernatural Regulatory Corps,” The man replied. “Our job is to ensure you ‘Supernaturals’ remain a secret to the general public. In other words, your life is in our hands now, and if you disobey …. “ He pointed to the dead man. “You’re going to end up like him.”

Haru was right with his guess but didn’t take the subtle threat too well. It only added to his discomfort. Were these people on his side? Are they preparing to take Haru away? There was no guessing about what could possibly happen next.

“Welcome to the family, kid.” The soldier said as he walked away.

The heavy thuds of a pair of boots shook the floor as it approached the grim scene. It came from a massive man with multiple weapons strapped around his body and a cigar sticking from his mouth. He was holding a sniper at his waist as multiple pistols dangled from his armor, which had a golden star patch on its left breast, the only one in the room with a patch of the sort. His face was rugged with a 5 o’clock shave doused in smoke from his cigar. Haru was surprised to see that this man wasn’t Japanese but American.

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He glanced down at the dead man at chuckled at a job well done before focusing his gaze on Haru. He stepped his way over and took in one giant puff from his cigar before speaking as smoke oozed from his mouth.

“So, You’re the newbie I’ve heard so much about! We were supposed to apprehend you shortly after you turned Vampire, and now here you are. Two birds with one stone, am I right?! But I should introduce myself first.”

This was the same voice that called out to the soldiers before. So deep, so rugged. It was a voice that demanded attention. It gave Haru goosebumps.

“My name is Bret Guzmann! I’m the superintendent of the M.A.T. division here in district E-26.”

The man spoke in flawless Japanese, but Haru didn’t understand a single word of what he had just said.

‘Superintendent? M.A.T.? District E-26? What in the world does that all mean?’

Bret let out a raucous laugh. “Everything I said went right over your head, didn’t it? Don’t worry; once they give you your orientation, you’ll understand everything about us and the S.R.C.” He sucked one puff of smoke before turning to the dead man on the ground.

“Impressed? We used this building as bait for this beast by using a special aroma that we spread all over the top floor of this complex. It’s great for alluring Werewolves to wherever we need them,” Bret said haughtily.

“Kid, what’s your name? And I want your full name.”

Haru straightened up at the sudden question. “Oh! My n-name is Ha-Haru Takama sir!” He said nervously.

Bret bent down to look closely at Haru’s face as he tried to keep himself as still as possible. His smokey breath filled Haru’s nose, but he didn’t flinch or waiver.

“You look familiar; I can’t quite put my finger on it.” He stood back up. “One final thing, if you ever give the S.R.C. any trouble, gunning you down won’t be too difficult.”

The sudden threat spooked Haru, who remained still. The man walked off with his heavy boots shaking the ground with every step.

The medic that healed Haru prior, and a woman with blue stripes writing in a notebook exited the room Ryu was kept in. They were too far away to hear their conversation, but they would occasionally glimpse up toward Haru, hinting that their exchange was about him. The woman left the conversation and eyed down Haru before approaching him.

“Hello, I’m from the Intelligence, Information, and Interrogation division. Or you could say ‘Triple I’ for short. I have several questions for you,’ she brought up her notepad with her pen. “How would you describe the Werewolf?”

Haru glanced back at the corpse. It was being slipped into a body bag by the people in white stripes.

“He, uh, was very furry,” Haru answered, sounding unsure about himself. The woman dug deep into her notepad.

‘Was that an acceptable answer?’ Haru thought to himself. ‘Ok, no pressure. This will be easy.’

“Where did you find it at the beginning of the night?”

“Somewhere in the Okutama Mountains,” Haru quickly replied.

She wrote more in her book. Haru was relieved that he had passed again. The men with guns and the previous threats made him incredibly nervous. The woman cleared her throat and asked another question.

“When you first became a Vampire, did you experience any memory loss?”

Haru gulped as he dashed his eyes to the two men on both sides, all with their full attention on him. This question wasn’t about the wolf but about him, which made him uneasy.

“Yes. I had some memory loss,” Haru answered firmly.

She wrote again in her notepad before slamming it shut and placing it on a nearby table.

“Alright, just one final thing,” She motioned to the two armed soldiers, who quickly raised their weapons and pointed them at Haru, who stumbled back.

“Why?! W-what did I do? Please don’t kill m-m-me!”

The woman reached into her uniform between the buttons and pulled out latex gloves.

“Don’t worry. These men are here for my protection.”

She snapped the gloves on both hands, reached back in her uniform, and pulled out a small flashlight. She grabbed Haru’s face and kept his left eyelids open as she shined the light on them. Then did the same to the right eye.

Once finished, she removed her gloves ….. Just to reach back in her suit to pull out new ones. After snapping those gloves on, she gave Haru a demand.

“Say ahhhh,”

Haru opened his mouth as she reached in and started to rub his teeth. The latex rubbing on his tooth was bothersome and irritating. Haru felt a tiny urge to chomp down on her hand, but he resisted knowing about the two soldiers with guns next to him.

Once finished, she reached into her suit once again to pull out an empty syringe and swiftly pricked Haru’s arm as the capsule slowly filled with blood. The needle was surprisingly painless; Haru didn’t even notice at first.

“Hold still,” she said after she had already jabbed Haru.

Once complete, she yanked the needle out and grabbed her notepad to write a few notes.

“Thank you,” she said as she walked off.

The armed men relaxed their weapons, and Haru breathed a sigh of relief. The room started to empty. The corpse had already been removed along with every white-striped uniform. Only a few blue stripes remained.

“Ryu, you idiot!”

A woman’s yelling came from down the hallway where Ryu was being kept. A girl was scolding him from outside the room.

She was different; she was the only one without a uniform. She wore a red casual dress with a flower pattern on it. Her hair was a bright red, and it flowed long and down. She stuck out like a sore thumb. Haru never noticed her pass by.

She turned to Haru with an extensive and bright smile as she galloped toward him.

“Hello!” She beamed out. She pranced around like a giddy schoolgirl, excited about meeting the boy. “You must be Haru!” It almost sounded like she was singing as she spoke.

“Uhhh, y-yes.” Haru stuttered.

She was beautiful. Her eyes sparkled, and her makeup was perfect. And her aroma! Her perfume delighted Haru’s nose so much that he began to blush. She giggled before responding.

“I’m glad to have finally met you!”

“Excuse me, ma’am,” the same medic from before said before whispering into the girl’s ear. Afterward, he walked past Haru as the girl stood by, still with a joyful expression on her face.

“Uh, w-what’s your name?” Haru asked. The girl responded with a giggle.

‘We’ll get to know each other more after you wake up!

…….

…….

Huh?

A sharp prick of a needle stabbed into Haru’s neck from behind as he quickly blacked out.