January 4th, 2044
08:27 AM
Central Ward
Horizon District
Senior Inspector Asahi Takeyoshi
The early morning rays managed to finally poke through the cloud cover, adding some meager illumination to the dismal day. Red and white lights flashed from the roofs of emergency vehicles and illuminated the falling rain. Ambulances, fire trucks, and patrol cars wrapped around the block, bringing up holographic black and white barriers erected around the broken building to prevent the approach of passersby.
The small army of EMTs, firemen, and peace officers were divided into two groups: one dressed in the black and white of the Bureau, the other in the white and red of the city’s own first responders. To Takeyoshi’s eye, there was always a friction when the two competing groups met, either caused by a question of jurisdiction or of methods, but serving the people of Yo?gai-shima immediately in front of them seemed to distract them from their endless rivalry.
A shot of adrenaline had brought Takeyoshi back to consciousness, the needle in his heart reawakening his Exigency. The Bureau’s veteran EMT’s scarcely reacted to Takeyoshi’s sudden revival, but he must have scared the life out of the bystanders that had gathered around the fallen building. He was battered and bruised, his throat slit, a bloody stump in place of his left hand, with another man’s severed arm impaling his lower back. To an ordinary person, it must have seemed as though Takeyoshi had come back from the dead. But he couldn’t do that. Not like the other man that had been here.
The other Inspectors that had arrived on the scene had departed before Takeyoshi had even woken up, ostensibly to begin their search for the man who’d fled moments before their arrival. Takeyoshi had no idea how any sane person with a functioning pair of eyes could miss a faceless nude man covered in wounds walking the streets, yet somehow, Takeyoshi didn’t have much confidence that his comrades would succeed where he had failed.
Takeyoshi sat on the hood of his car, the polished black finish now marred by a layer of concrete dust that had been blown through the burst roof of the apartment building. Even as the countless evacuated residents of the fallen building huddled beneath temporary shelters erected to protect them from the howling wind and icy rain, the Inspector watched from across the street, sitting exposed to the storm. He figured he deserved it, somehow. What’s more, the downpour kept him awake.
“Takeyoshi-san, are you still listening?” a voice buzzed over his Omen.
Or maybe not.
“I’m here,” the Inspector flinched as he started awake. He rubbed a hand over his face as water ran down across his features.
“I’m not sure you understand the gravity of the situation, Inspector,” the man on the other end of the call sounded intense and stern, which was a stark contrast to the three-dimensional image that hovered over the device clasped in the Inspector’s right hand. The head of the Bureau was a portly man with a thin mop of dark brown hair atop a round red face. Always to be seen sucking on a piece of candy, Director Gozen hardly appeared as a man to be feared and Takeyoshi could only imagine the older man was calling on every bit of presence he could muster.
“I understand it better than you do, Director. I lived it,” Takeyoshi bit back, his exhaustion bleeding into his temper. He looked down at his left hand, newly grown. The skin of the new limb was still pale compared to the darker skin on the rest of his arm, the two shades divided by raw red tissue across the wrist. There were small hard nubs near the base of his fingertips; small, underdeveloped fingernails that were still growing in. He absentmindedly flexed his fingers, still feeling the pins and needles of fresh nerve endings.
The surge of foreign adrenaline had spiked Takeyoshi’s Exigency, giving him a high of energy he’d been unable to summon for months. It hastened his healing, giving him the strength to stand and move about on his own, but the surge of energy had soon waned. He’d spent the remainder of his Positive Energy accelerating the healing of his internal organs, but after that, he was spent. As such, he was left with a pair of black pages in his mind with only a sliver of white at the top of the lefthand page.
“Be careful with that tone, Inspector,” the Director warned, fruitlessly. “Your actions endangered the lives of over four dozen people and nearly brought down an entire building. Do you have any idea how that reflects on our entire organization?”
“Heaven forbid I put the interests of the populace ahead of our reputation, Director,” Takeyoshi bitterly answered, not meeting the Director’s eyes, but instead looking across the street at the people his actions had left homeless.
“No, Inspector,” a second voice intruded on the call, sounding strong and youthful. The Director’s personal toady and right-hand man, Chief Inspector Kajima. Kajima was everything that Gozen wasn’t: powerful, charismatic, with an air of aloof disinterest that scarcely veiled a sinister persona beneath. The light of the Omen shifted as Kajima spoke, now rendering the face of a man with handsome features marred by a scar that travelled down the left side of his face and a head of short, neatly pomaded black hair with streaks of gold.
“You put your interests ahead of the safety of everyone around you, defied orders, and nearly caused a massacre on your desperate crusade to apprehend a man that is, at most, a threat to one or two people a year.”
“We both know that man is—” Takeyoshi caught himself, not wanting to say the words aloud. Not in public. “He’s a threat to everyone and everything,” he finished, carefully.
“If your report is right,” the Chief Inspector observed. “Then, yes. Extreme measures were called for. But that still doesn’t justify your choice of actions, Inspector. As soon as you were made aware of that man’s location, you should have followed protocol and contacted HQ so that we could sound an evacuation order and mobilize the other patrols.”
“If we’d sounded an evacuation order then he’d have slipped away,” Takeyoshi slapped his knee in frustration with his left hand and immediately flinched, letting out a hiss of pain.
“And that’s exactly what this has all really been about,” the Chief’s mocking smile was stomach turning, even rendered by the light of the Omen. “You have to be the one to catch him. You have to be the hero.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Takeyoshi shook his head.
“We all know it’s personal,” Kajima egged him on.
“I did my duty,” Takeyoshi protested, his raised voice carrying across the street.
“No, you chased a vendetta, Inspector Asahi,” the Chief countered. “A building full of innocent people nearly died for the sake of that grudge this morning.”
“I saved those people,” Takeyoshi answered in a small voice, nearly a whisper, feeling his throat tighten.
“They wouldn’t have been in danger if you had followed protocol,” Director Gozen summarized, a great deal more gently than his underling.
“He’d already killed someone before I got there.”
“But it’s not his MO to go on killing sprees,” Kajima interjected. “Not according to your reports, anyway.”
“You’ve no idea how this is going to look in front of the Cabinet, Inspector,” Gozen breathed out a long sigh, but his bluff was easily called.
“Don’t try and play me,” Takeyoshi rubbed his tired eyes. “What could the PM and all his cronies do? Draft an angry letter?”
“Take this seriously, Asahi-san,” Gozen warned, once more trying to sound imposing. “The Bureau is under the scrutiny of the Japanese people at all times. We have to hold ourselves to account for what happens, if nothing else. The days when the Bureau could operate as a law unto itself are coming to an end, sooner rather than later.”
“Well, if you’re that hell-bent on appeasing the Cabinet, then go ahead, serve me up,” Takeyoshi snapped. “What are you going to do? Fire me? Suspend me? Bring me up on charges?”
“Inspector, please,’ Gozen gave a disappointed sigh in his fatherly way.
“You can’t,” Takeyoshi scoffed. “We both know that.”
“Even so,” Kajima interrupted. “We can’t just let things stay as they are.”
“And what exactly are you going to do about it?” Takeyoshi challenged.
“You’re off the case,” the Director told him, and Takeyoshi finally realized he’d pushed too far.
“What?” was all Takeyoshi’s mind could think to ask, despite the clarity of what had been said.
“Another Inspector will handle things from here on,” the Director informed him, a warning tone in his voice. “Honestly, you should have been replaced when Inspector Natsume died, but—”
“Don’t bring her into this,” Takeyoshi hung his head, his objection a whisper.
“You convinced me that you were still the right man for the job,” the Director took a deep breath, in a way that told Takeyoshi that he was on the receiving end of Gozen’s most disappointed look. "It seems I was wrong.”
“Who are you going to get to do this if not me?” Takeyoshi protested as thunder rumbled in the skies above. “Who else has what it takes to get the job done?”
“That’s none of your concern,” the Director warned him. “Trust that I’ll hand this case over to someone I have full confidence in.”
“So, what am I supposed to do?” Takeyoshi gestured aimlessly with his left hand, sending jolts of pain up his arm.
“The Chief Inspector will decide your new duties,” the Director answered.
Takeyoshi felt his stomach sink and a frown form across his face.
“Oh, don’t look so put out,” the Chief assured Takeyoshi as his face reappeared in the projection from his Omen, a wide smile splitting his handsome features. “I’m not punishing you, yet. Just reassigning you.”
“To what?” Takeyoshi demanded.
“Mentor duty,” from the sound of his voice, the Chief must have thought he’d delivered an excellent punchline.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Takeyoshi closed his eyes and lifted his face skyward, hoping the rain would wash away his exhaustion. It didn’t help. If anything, he felt even more defeated.
“This black mark notwithstanding,” the Director spoke more gently. “You’ve an excellent record with the Bureau. Think of it as an opportunity to pass your expertise onto the next generation.”
“And an opportunity to keep tabs on me,” Takeyoshi reasoned, silently.
“He’s a good kid,” the Chief explained. “A little thick in the head, but he’s got the spirit. You’ll like him, I think.”
“I’m sure,” was the best sarcastic rejoinder Takeyoshi could muster. He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh, trying to process everything that had happened in the last two hours. “When do I start?” he asked at last.
“Twenty minutes ago,” a mirthful tone crept into the Chief’s voice. “You were supposed to meet him at the briefing this morning, but your ‘off-the-clock’ activities made that impossible.”
“This morning, huh?” Takeyoshi scoffed, derisively. “Sounds like you were planning on removing me from this case either way.”
“Don’t be so conspiracy minded,” the Chief admonished in a way that told Takeyoshi he was right. “It was all up to chance. You just got lucky, that’s all.”
“Where is he?” the Inspector demanded, eager for this conversation to come to an end.
“He’s in Horizon, so he’s not far, although. . .” the Chief paused, his smile deepening. “It looks like your patrol ran into a Casualty. You might want to hurry. The odds aren’t in his favor.”
“Why didn’t you say—!?” Takeyoshi nearly began shouting into the Omen as a mixture of anger and panic shot through him. It seemed as though he had a little adrenaline left after all. He forced his mouth shut, making irritated grunts through his clenched teeth as he hammered the Omen’s surface with his numb left index finger. The call ended and the glowing display vanished into nothing.
“Ink,” he growled the word as he stalked around to the right side of the vehicle, opening the driver side door.
“Should I drive?” the AI asked as it started the car, the engine rumbling like the thunder outside.
“Yes. Sirens on. Don’t stop for anything,” Takeyoshi answered as he threw himself into his seat.
“Understood,” the AI guided the vehicle onto the street, leaving behind the shattered apartment building as Takeyoshi’s brief burst of energy failed him. He leaned back in his seat, struggling to keep his eyes open.
“I don’t know who you are, kid, but try and stay alive.”
January 4th, 2044
08:34 AM
Central Ward
Horizon District
Deputy Inspector Atarashi Shin
Shin clung to the side of the fire engine as the funeral procession barreled down the road, four jet black vehicles with red and white lights flashing in sync with blaring sirens. The two patrol cars led the way as the fire truck and the ambulance followed behind. The Casualty bounced across the road. Each time it touched the ground, the rainwater that flooded the streets gathered and pooled beneath its feet before it landed and erupted into a column, carrying the Human Calamity back into the air. The occasional personal car entering the road quickly pulled aside upon seeing the oncoming emergency vehicles. It was either that, or the sight of the deformed man with a second mouth growing out of his head flying through the air that convinced them to stop.
The chase headed further east, moving away from the city center and toward the Sin District, a place of glitz and glamor, its gaudy buildings thoroughly unlike the spires of Central. As the city raced by, the buildings seemed to close in, becoming more tightly packed and taller, making it appear as though walls were hemming the hunters and their prey in. The Casualty at first seemed to move erratically, but after the first few leaps, it straightened its path, heading directly away from its pursuers.
Was it fear? Shin wondered what thoughts still ran through the homeless man’s mind. Perhaps he was running blind, but perhaps he was running toward something. But what draw could the Sin District have for him? Shin, watching as the plaid-shirted homeless man flung himself through the air, considered what lay beyond Yo?gai-shima’s pleasure center. The Harbor. The man’s waders certainly made him look the part of a fisherman. If Shin was right, perhaps instinct was driving the Casualty to head to the closest thing to home.
Suddenly, a bus pulled onto the roadway a hundred feet ahead of the funeral procession, putting itself right into the path of the oncoming Casualty. The mass transit vehicle had a light green color across its roof, front, and back, with a harsh, angular shape and narrow tinted windows with octagonal patterns across its surface. Its sides were dominated by holographic billboards, playing through a cycle of advertisements for various movies and television shows. The driver, whether a flesh and blood human being or an AI, seemed to hesitate, pausing halfway around the turn for just a moment. Whatever the reason, that momentary mistake made the situation a thousand times more complex.
The Casualty landed atop the bus, coming down on the middle of the roof, denting it inward. Impact resistant glass windows refused to shatter, but they still cracked, the crunching sound accompanied by the shrieks of screaming passengers. Naturally, the driver tried to hit the brakes as the parade of Bureau vehicles swarmed toward it, but the bus refused to stop. A wave of water swirled around the wheels, and it seemed to carry the vehicle forward. The sound of people moving around in the bus’s cabin seemed to get the Casualty’s attention, and it began stomping on the roof, deforming the metal, or hacking at the chassis with its clawed arms, sending chunks of shrapnel into the street.
“Kanagawa, Torii,” Shin tapped his earpiece as he spoke. “Try and see if you can scare the Casualty off the bus. Come up on its right side and lean on the horn.”
“Understood,” Torii acknowledged.
Shin watched from his vantage on the side of the firetruck as the peace officer gave the patrol car some gas, following Shin’s directions. Torii, in the driver’s seat, turned on the searchlight, swiveling the light to shine in the creature’s face.
“Attention, this is the Human Calamity Response Bureau,” Torii called out over the car’s built-in loudspeaker. “Get off the bus!”
“Yeah, that’s going to work,” Kanagawa’s voice could be heard dimly over Shin’s Omen.
“What are we supposed to do, write him a ticket?” Shin heard Torii say.
In response to the light shining in his face, the Casualty flung up its webbed hands over its eyes, gargling in response. A knot formed in Shin’s chest as the creature raised its arms higher and streams of water began racing across the street, pooling beneath Kanagawa and Torii’s patrol vehicle. Once more, the Omen flashed a red warning glow in the corner of Shin’s eye.
“Move!” Shin yelled into the Omen, but his warning came too late.
A geyser formed beneath the patrol car and the vehicle flipped. It became a projectile, flipping end over end as its sirens and lights still blared. The fire truck and the rest of the procession swerved to avoid the car as it was violently tossed down the street. Shin stared backward down the road, watching as the patrol car came to a rest on its side in the middle of the street, its windows shattered, and doors ripped off.
“Aratama,” Shin heard himself call out to the ambulance driver. “Double back and take care of the patrol car.”
“Understood,” the black and white ambulance pulled away, leaving just the second patrol car and the firetruck.
“Forecaster,” Shin made another call.
“Go ahead, Deputy Inspector,” Kodera answered, his voice tight and focused.
“We’re in pursuit of the Casualty. It’s heading east toward Sin Ward,” Shin reported, his voice sounding faraway. “The Casualty has engaged the funeral procession and-and it—”
“Get it together, Inspector!” Kodera didn’t mince words.
“We lost a patrol car!” Shin forced the words out. “I’m having the ambulance stay behind to administer medical aid. I need more backup routed to my position.”
“Understood,” the Forecaster responded. “I’ll try and reroute one of the Sin Ward patrols to your location, but chances are your mentor will make it there before anyone else.”
“How long is he going to take?” Shin demanded.
“Three minutes, according to the GPS,” the Forecaster reported.
“That’s too long,” Shin muttered in a low voice, but not so low the person on the other end of the line couldn’t hear it.
“You are not to engage, Deputy. Drop back to a safe distance,” Kodera reminded him.
“I would, but it’s commandeered a bus,” Shin reported.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“It what?”
“I need to get it off the bus and moving on its own again,” the Deputy Inspector watched the Casualty, looking back in his direction, still perched on the moving vehicle. “I can’t let it put the passengers in danger.”
“Understood, Inspector,” Kodera answered. “I’ll update your mentor on the situation.”
“Takamoto, I need you to get closer,” Shin looked in the window at the fireman.
“Are you nuts?” the big man looked at Shin, his eyes wide in fear and shock.
“Trust me,” Shin insisted. “I’m putting an end to this. Once I engage the Casualty, pull back to a safe distance until I call you.”
Takamoto sighed and stared out the windshield at the Casualty still perched on the edge of the bus, glaring at them through the pouring rain. He set his jaw and shook his head, but he didn’t slow down. Instead, he hit the gas.
“I’m gonna haunt you for this, Shin,” Takamoto glared at him from his side eye as the truck sped forward.
“You aren’t going to die!” Shin assured him, but the big man didn’t seem convinced.
As the firetruck closed the distance to the bus, still surfing forward on a column of water, the Casualty gargled and hissed. It tilted its head back, letting water fill its toothy extra maw. Shin felt the knot form in the right side of his chest again, this time it was so tight it actually pained him. The creature lurched forward, swinging its head around toward the fire truck, but this time, Shin was faster.
“Move!” Shin shouted, not certain at whom, and Takamoto twisted the steering wheel. The truck swung to the left, letting it run over the sidewalk as the Casualty spat the water from its mouth. The rain gushed forth in a high-velocity stream like a water jet, and it raked the street, effortlessly gouging through the concrete. The second patrol car ahead of the fire truck swerved too late to avoid getting hit. The water stream sliced through the right side of the engine block as it tried to evade the attack, blowing the front tire as well. The firetruck had to veer around the second patrol car as it swerved off the road. Shin watched as the damaged car mounted the sidewalk on the lefthand side of the street, the officers inside seemingly safe.
Shin gritted his teeth and reached up, grabbing hold of the roof of the fire truck, pulling himself on top. The firetruck raced forward, closing the distance between itself and the bus. The creature slowly raised its arms again and the rainfall began to flow in reverse, arcing back up into the sky. Shin felt the anticipatory knot tighten again, and even Takamoto seemed to realize what was about to happen.
“I’m going to haunt you, Shin!” the big man swore again from the cabin below him. “You hear me?”
“No one’s going to die,” Shin told himself. “I won’t let that happen!”
Shin reminded himself of a dark night, where he saw flames dancing in the streets as streams of smoke and embers wafted into the sky. He felt an anxiety run through him as adrenaline began to pump in his blood. The fight or flight reflex kicked in and Shin chose fight. He leapt off the roof of the truck, the vehicle shaking beneath his powerful legs. His lunge carried him over the remaining distance between the two vehicles, flying through the slowly ascending rain as though it were a curtain of water.
“I’ll use you this time,” Shin remembered the advice from his Omen and decided to heed it, though he didn’t dare openly acknowledge it. He’d never hear the end of it if he did.
As he leapt through the air, Shin laid his right hand on his hip, taking hold of the piece of nanometal still attached there and he pulled it free. He flicked his wrist and the nanometal Omen in his hand responded. Orange lights flowed across the black metal and the shape of the Omen shifted in his hand. The metal rippled and flowed into the shape of a five-foot long claymore. The blade and handle were thin and angular with a neon orange light flowing through the hilt, across the guard and up the center of the blade.
Shin wrapped both hands around the hilt of the blade and raised it over his head, intending to bring it down on the Casualty’s head as he landed. The Casualty slipped back across the rooftop without taking a step, instead manipulating the water beneath its toes to flow across the bus and dodge the attack. Shin hit the roof in a crouch, his sword gouging through the vehicle’s metal roof. Water splashed across Shin’s shoulders as the rainfall returned to normal.
“You finally made a good decision,” the fragment of the Omen in Shin’s left ear congratulated him as he pulled the blade free from the bus’s chassis. “Try not to screw things up this time.”
“I won’t,” Shin swore, though his words were lost amidst the howling wind and rain.
The Inspector lunged forward, and the Casualty lashed out with its right claw of bony fingers and bloody cartilage. Holding the sword in both hands, Shin tilted his sword down to his right and then swept it upward and to the left, bringing the blade up in an intercepting arc. The impossibly thin and hard metal of Shin’s Omen produced a blade that could shear through any material made by man and the mutated hands of the Casualty proved themselves no better.
The black sword carved through the twisted talons without resistance, eliciting a guttural shriek from the Casualty. The creature stepped backward reflexively as the severed fingers of its right hand rolled across the top of the bus. It narrowly avoided a lethal overhead strike from Shin, though the tip of the sword still carved through the Casualty’s body from collar to navel.
The beast stumbled backward gurgling and croaking in pain, leaving a trail of crimson to mix with the rain falling on the bus top. The creature’s innards pushed at the wound, threatening to spill out into the open. However, new flesh and muscle squeezed the split skin, pressing the Casualty’s organs back in. The sickening sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones met Shin’s ears as fresh talons burst from its right hand, replacing its wounded digits. In less than ten seconds, the Casualty’s bleeding had stopped, and it lunged forward with renewed vigor.
The Casualty had no talent for fighting and no sense of strategy. Instead, it simply lashed out with viciousness, sweeping its bladed arms at Shin with increasing speed. Shin traded blows with the beast and each stroke he parried caused the bus to shake so badly, he feared it would topple over. The two combatants danced over the surface of the bus, water spraying into the air from their fast, powerful movements. The drops seemed to float around them, cascading down as they reflected the lights of the sirens, the glow of the bus’s illuminated billboard and the shining lights of the buildings to either side of them.
Shin felt his confidence start to waver as his blade met the Casualty’s talon with mounting ineffectiveness. The sharpness of his Omen suddenly seemed blunted. Each time Shin exchanged blows with his opponent, he felt a strange sensation. There was an itch in his brain and the feeling of his hair standing on end. Never mind the way the rain and water did as the Casualty asked, something else was happening. Something impossible.
The Casualty lunged, crossing its two arms like a grotesque pair of scissors, trying to take off his head. Shin drove his sword in between the two opposing limbs, and the ebony blade sunk maybe an inch into the flesh of the creature’s forearms but no further. The two figures remained deadlocked for a moment, pressing their strength against each other, causing the bus to groan beneath them.
“Mind telling me what’s going on?” Shin grunted aloud as he held off the Casualty.
“What’s that?” the Omen in Shin’s ear buzzed, sounding as though it had been distracted by something.
“Why can’t you cut this guy?” Shin demanded as the Casualty tried to maneuver to its shark-mouth around the black blade to bite at his face.
“Oh that?” the Omen mocked, sounding as though it was rolling a pair of digital eyes. “I thought you knew. He’s surrounding his arms in Negative Karma to make them harder to cut. I’m good but even a molecular blade can’t overcome causality. It’s probably an instinctual defense mechanism.” The earpiece Shin was wearing sent a beam into Shin’s eye, projecting information directly onto his iris. In the HUD displayed by the Omen, he saw the Casualty’s arms engulfed in swarming black particles.
“Okay, so what do I do about it?” Shin asked.
“Well, the most rudimentary approach would be to reinforce your attacks with Positive Karma to counter whatever he’s doing,” the Omen answered.
“I must have missed that in basic training,” Shin grunted. “How’s that work again?”
“No idea,” the AI chuckled. “You’re the Inspector here, aren’t you?”
“The wonders of modern technology,” Shin growled under his breath.
“Hey, I just give you the facts,” the Omen answered, nonchalantly. “I’m not here to tell you how to do your job. Though, if this old guy’s doing it, it can’t be that hard. Try thinking happy thoughts and see if that helps.”
“There’s a factory reset waiting for you when this is over,” Shin’s voice was an angry hiss.
“Just try it!” the Omen challenged.
Unable to get around the blade, the Casualty lifted its head back, filling its mouth with water, and Shin quickly realized what it was trying to do. Before the creature could unleash its water cutter to break the dead lock, Shin let another surge of adrenaline push him forward. A full body shove sent the Casualty staggering backward, the water in its mouth spraying outward in a pitiful stream before it could gain strength.
In an almost human way, the creature windmilled its arms as it tried to regain its balance. Guided by his Omen, Shin launched his attack, sweeping his blade around the black particles that protected the creature’s arms. A lightning-fast slash from his sword, and the Casualty’s right arm was taken off at the shoulder. Blood spurted as the limb sailed off in an arc, bouncing off the roof and falling into the street.
“Oh, that’s cheating!” the AI voiced its disapproval in Shin’s ear, but he ignored it. He pressed forward, intent on seizing his advantage before the creature could heal. Even as he stepped forward and raised his blade, Shin felt goosebumps spread across his skin, followed by a cold shiver. Something was about to happen.
Gargling and clicking in rage, the Casualty gestured toward Shin’s feet with its remaining arm and water flowed upward. The geyser that appeared underfoot was too hastily summoned to match the power the creature had used to propel itself, but it was enough to send Shin toppling end over end toward the back of the bus. He tried to control his trajectory, desperately hoping to avoid falling into the street, and he was lucky enough to feel his feet land back on the bus’s roof. Even so, Shin was still sent skidding backward toward the edge and, on instinct, he drove the tip of the sword into the top of the bus to steady himself. The blade sheared through the aluminum chassis with ease as Shin put his weight on it, eliciting yells from the commuters within the bus.
“Hmmm,” the Omen mused with disinterest in Shin’s ear. “If you end up killing a passenger, would you be charged with criminal negligence or manslaughter?”
“Shut up!” Shin snapped, already kicking himself as he pulled the blade free, thankful there wasn’t any blood coming out with it. “I know what I’m doing!”
“Do you?” the AI wondered.
Whipping its head back, the Casualty filled its toothy second maw with rainwater and Shin knew what was coming next. The creature spat a jet of water, the stream exceeding the speed of sound as it raced through the air toward the Inspector. Shin held his sword in both hands, using the flat of his blade to deflect the water. The force of the stream pushed Shin backward, inch by inch, towards the edge of the bus and the street below. Unable to maintain a continuous stream, the Casualty was forced to briefly pause its assault, allowing Shin to take a step forward before it renewed its attack.
Changing strategies, the Casualty began shooting shorter bursts of water from its mouth, no less dangerous than before. Shin weaved through the supersonic water bullets, which looked no more threatening than a thrown fastball from his perspective. The Casualty retreated further, operating on primal reflex, though its escape was cut off when it reached the front of the bus. Seeing Shin rushing forward, the Casualty was forced to change strategies once again.
Water flowed up the sides of the bus as the Casualty pulled the wave of rainwater up from under the vehicle’s wheels, and the vehicle rocked from side to side as the tires hit the road again. The brakes squealed as the vehicle finally slowed to a stop, shaking the people trapped inside the bus with violent force. Pulling on every last drop of water that clung to the bus, the Casualty used it to form a wall of liquid ten feet high between itself and Shin. A moment after the creature vanished behind its hydro-barricade, the wave of water shot forward, seemingly intent on washing Shin from the bus’s roof.
Though the height and speed of the oncoming wave would seem intimidating to an ordinary human, but to Shin, he was unconcerned. As it bore down on him, he idly considered leaping over it, but he decided against it. He would go through it. That suited him better.
A downward sweep of his sword split the curtain of water as though it were cloth. The force of his blow sent ripples through the wave of water, creating an opening to allow Shin to thrust himself through. Shin advanced on the Casualty, hefting his blade as he stepped past its last line of defense. With nowhere left to run, the Casualty finally turned its back and leapt off the immobile vehicle, shaking the entire bus with the force of its exit. Shin wasted no time in following, making a mental note to be a good deal gentler than the Human Calamity when jumping off the bus.
“Finally,” Shin thought as he watched the Casualty descend into the midst of the rain-slicked street. “It’s time to end this.”
The Casualty landed some thirty feet away from the front end of the bus, sending up a wave of water and broken asphalt as it cratered the street. The creature turned, its second mouth burbling and croaking while what remained of its human face contorted and stretched in silent agony. It was impossible to truly see any emotion on the creature such as it was, but somehow, Shin sensed that the Casualty was done running.
Dropping down in front of the bus, keeping himself between the Casualty and the passengers, he dared to take his eyes off the Human Calamity for a moment to look back at the vehicle. The driver had crouched down behind the wheel, but he cautiously peeked his head up to peer out the front window while other passengers crowded around his seat to watch what was happening in the street. Shin raised his sword into the air, sweeping it back and forth to get their attention.
“Get down!” Shin ordered, making a downward gesture with his left hand.
A shiver ran through Shin’s body, followed by a pulsing in the conspicuous spot on Shin’s chest, and he immediately turned to look back at the Casualty. Water pooled around the Casualty’s feet, filling the small depression in the concrete beneath it. Streams that ran across the cement reversed their courses and trickled upward from the street and into the sky. Shin felt an invisible pull on his clothes, hair and skin for a brief second, watching as the water that soaked his entire body was pulled away, stretching into liquid ribbons illuminated by the headlights of the bus behind him.
A pool of water hovered above the street like a shimmering curtain as it reflected the lights of the nearby buildings. Soft ripples danced across the effervescent crystal curtain of water as the rain fell into it, creating a prismatic display that extended up and down the street, hovering twenty feet in the air. Shin didn’t know what the Casualty intended, but he had no intention of finding out.
For a brief moment, the world below the curtain of water was dry. Instinct made Shin reach for his Crisis, knowing that now was his moment. With a flick of his wrist, Shin turned the Omen back into its compact form and replaced it on his left hip. He laid his right hand on the grip of his pistol while he held up his left hand in front of his face, curling his fingers into a fist.
He called on memories of heat, crushing pressure, and thunder that could rupture eardrums. Small black particles gathered around Shin’s hand, slowly becoming a fiery orange as they swirled around his fingers. He thrust his hand outward toward the Casualty, and the black powder flew forward through the dry air, blossoming into an all-consuming cloud that whipped around the Casualty. Confused and bestial, the Casualty swept its bony claws through the haze of black powder, accomplishing nothing more than making the dark particles glow like embers as its arm passed through the smokescreen. As he watched the silhouette of the Casualty desperately attack the black shroud on feral instinct, Shin couldn’t stop himself from feeling one last moment of sympathy.
“I’m sorry,” Shin apologized, knowing that the Casualty likely couldn’t hear him, or even understand him if it could. “Being trapped in that room, unable to escape as you slowly drowned; I can’t imagine what that was like. If I’d been smarter, or faster, or taken things a little more seriously, I don’t know but, maybe I could have saved you. I know it’s too late, but . . . I’m sorry.”
Shin drew his pistol and fired. The bullet seemed to move in slow motion to Shin’s eyes, taking an eternity to hit its target. The hot lead met the course black powder, and the friction ignited it. The bullet and the Casualty disappeared in a flash of orange-white light with a roar that challenged the intensity of the thunder from the storm above. The heat of the explosion evaporated the curtain of water, creating a wave of scalding steam. The blast wave flowed over Shin and nearly bowled him over before it blew out the windows on the bus.
Shin watched the old man burn, having transformed into a grisly human torch from the heat of the blast. The creature burbled pitifully as it swept its arm against its blackened skin, trying to put out the flames. Eerie half-human wails reverberated up and down the street, mixing with the sound of human voices and car engines.
The doors of the bus opened with a groan and its passengers filed out into the street, either heedless of the danger or desperate to get away. Despite the obvious peril, the human proclivity to gape at what wasn’t understood overruled any survival instinct. In moments, Shin found a crowd of onlookers forming behind him, mouths agape with wide, fearful eyes as they pointed and whispered about the burning figure dancing in the street.
“Get back!” Shin shouted over the crowd, holding his hands up to get their attention. “The area is still dangerous. I need all of you to evacuate to a safe distance.”
Lightning flashed somewhere in the sky above and Shin’s last few words were drowned out by a clap of thunder as the rain began to fall again. One of the commuters, a woman in a blue raincoat, pointed over Shin’s shoulder. He turned, an invisible fist squeezing his chest.
“He’s a bad match up for you,” Kodera’s words echoed in Shin’s ears as the Casualty shed its seared flesh amidst the renewed downpour. Screams filled the street, and the huddled passengers broke away as a gurgling mass of scorched flesh rose from the ground.
Blackened skin peeled away, once more revealing pulsing pink flesh. The old man’s face had been blown off by the explosive blast, leaving nothing more than two empty eye sockets in the neck of the toothy malformed mouth that was rapidly regrowing. There was next to nothing of the homeless man left: his clothes, skin, hair, arms, and genitals had been burned away and were replaced by the rapidly growing flesh of the monster that grown out of him.
Reaching for his Omen, the sound of groaning metal caught Shin’s ears from behind. He turned around as the screaming of the passengers reached a tenor pitch. A small geyser of water lifted up underneath the bus, causing it to begin toppling to its left. As it threatened to crush the passengers beneath it, Shin darted forward. He called on his Exigency, using the surge of adrenaline to lunge forward and catch hold of the toppling vehicle. He braced himself against the ten-ton hunk of metal, preventing it from crushing the commuters caught in its shadow.
“Go!” Shin grunted at the crowd as he fought to hold back the machine. He felt spent somehow. Shaken. The same strength he had moments before was failing him now and the bus was slowly threatening to crush him. The bus’s metal chassis bent inward from the pressure of the geyser trying to push it over and the Human Calamity holding it back.
As Shin stood trapped, the Casualty began a second assault. Rain poured down with renewed vigor and the storm drains in the street overflowed, the water rising up to Shin’s ankles as the road flooded. The mutilated figure of the old man disappeared behind a wall of rainwater, which rose thirty feet high into the air. The water swirled, whipping into an above ground whirlpool. The turbulent waves grew with each passing second as more and more rain was soaked up from the ground or pulled down from the sky, causing the water-vortex to swell and grow. As it stretched outward, the whirlpool began to shred the walls of the buildings on either side of the street, even as it began to tear through the concrete below it. Streetlights along the street were picked up by the current and torn to pieces before being flung in all directions as shrapnel.
All Shin could do was stare at the oncoming wall of water as it bore down on him. The bus was being pulled into the maelstrom and the panicking passengers fleeing into the street wouldn’t get far before they were drawn in, too. They had seconds; Shin realized. He had seconds. But he didn’t know what to do, except blame himself.
“Is this my fault?” Shin struggled to hold the vehicle as the whirlpool bore down on him.
As if in answer, there was a distant rumbling in the back of Shin’s mind. A steadily growing noise that defied the sound of the whirlpool, and the storm, and the screams that echoed up and down the street. Something mechanical and violent. The roar of an engine.
Shin looked to his right, back down the street, and watched as a black muscle car sped in his direction. The vehicle shed dust and mud from its sable finish as it raced forward, like a snake shedding outgrown skin. With surgical precision, the machine weaved around Takamoto’s firetruck and through the scattering commuters without slowing. Shin watched in awe as the beautiful machine swept by, and, for a moment, it seemed to Shin that the car changed. Its wide black body sharpened and, with no better way to describe it, the whole machine seemed to shift into a blade.
The car-knife plunged itself into the whirlpool without slowing and water erupted in all directions, blood mixed in with the downpour. The geyser attempting to topple the bus lost all its force, causing the vehicle to rock backward to the ground, allowing Shin to step away. All the noise seemed to be cut out, the roaring of the water and the screaming of helpless citizens both, except for the sound of the rain falling as normal once again and the soft but boisterous purring of an engine. Shin felt a wave of water flow across the street up to his knees as the vortex lost its shape and flooded across the ground.
The black car had halted in the middle of the street, having returned to its proper form. A mixture of grey mud, water, and blood smeared its windows even as steam and exhaust rumbled out from the machine as though it was a panting, hungry predator. A bloody smear swept along the street behind the car, though it was rapidly being washed away. Small bits of flesh and broken bones were stuck in the treads of the car, larger fragments strewn around the street from the impact.
As he stared at the vehicle, a shape moving across the street caught Shin’s eyes and he turned to look at it. In a moment of distant awe, he realized it was what was left of the Casualty. Its legs and lower half had been torn off, leaving its entrails and organs to dangle out of its body. Despite this, and all the other wounds Shin had inflicted, the Casualty still struggled to survive. It gargled and moaned in agony as it hooked the bony claws of its left hand into the street in a desperate attempt to drag itself to safety.
The driver side door of the Bureau owned vehicle opened, and a man stepped out, looking no better than the pile of meat shuffling along the street. He moved in a slow slouch, heading toward Shin, his hands in his pockets and shoulders hunched. He was half a hand shorter than Shin with a head of dark brown hair that badly needed a run in with a comb and a squarish, scruffy chin. He had a pair of deep-set dark eyes over his flat nose that stood out from his face thanks to a combination of bloodshot sclera, and heavy bags beneath his eyelids. Perhaps the ghastliest thing about him was the thin red line across the his throat, which looked as though someone had tried to slit it. Beneath a neon-green jacket, he wore the Bureau’s black uniform jacket and pants, but his white dress shirt had traces of dried blood clinging to it.
“Senior Inspector Asahi Takeyoshi,” the man murmured his greeting as he rubbed a painful spot on the back of his neck, his voice a hoarse whisper. “It’s good to meet you. I’ll be your mentor from today forward.”
“Uhhh,” was all Shin could manage. The small man seemed completely oblivious to the way he appeared, leaving Shin to simply gape at him.
“You can forgo the honorifics, in my case,” the Inspector went on. “You’ll find I’m not much for social niceties myself and being called ‘senpai’ makes me feel old. The way I see it, we’re two parts of one team from now on. You’re here to learn from me, but I still need you to think for yourself and make your own decisions. That’s what being an Inspector entails, Deputy or not.”
“Yes, Asahi-san,” Shin answered, still overwhelmed by the surreal shift in his circumstances.
“Takeyoshi,” his mentor corrected him, covering his mouth with the back of an oddly colored left hand as he yawned. “Do you mind?”
“What?” Shin asked and the older man nodded down toward the ground. Shin followed his eyes and watched in disbelief as the Casualty continued to crawl away, slowly healing from its wounds.
“The threat of a Human Calamity is not ended until complete brain death. Every care must be taken to ensure the destruction of the human brain beyond all capacity to function before the threat posed is considered dealt with.” –Human Calamity Response Bureau Standard Operating Procedures, Section 5, Subsection-C, Paragraph 10: “Elimination and Corpse Disposal.”
Once more, Shin recited the words of the Bureau SOP in his mind, reminding himself of what he needed to do. He advanced on the bisected creature, each step feeling unsteady. That drained, empty feeling persisted even as he reached down for his Omen, his hands suddenly shaking. He used his sleeve to wipe sweat away from his brow, trying to resist the fatigue.
“You know what?” Takeyoshi suddenly stepped past Shin, patting the younger man on the arm as he went by. “I might as well earn my paycheck for today. Just relax.”
Inspector Takeyoshi slouched toward the dismembered monster, looking as though he was in no rush. As soon as he came within striking distance, the legless monster whipped itself around and lashed at him with its newly grown right arm. The Inspector moved with a sudden burst of speed, stomping a foot down on its elbow, pinning its arm to the ground and shattering its bones with one movement.
Takeyoshi fished around his pockets, a frown forming on his face before he finally pulled out a single, black pen. He reluctantly flicked the lid off, revealing it to be an ink pen with a burnished golden tip. As he held it, the pen changed. The golden tip grew outward, forming itself into a long thin blade, like a stiletto, while the black stem shifted itself into a proper handle. With a practiced flick of his wrist, the Inspector sent the pen-knife through the air, and it effortlessly lodged itself in the skull of the Casualty. The unrecognizable monster seized in pain, then flopped forward into the street and stopped moving.
“It’s best not to think of them as people,” Takeyoshi spoke, and it took Shin a moment to realize he was being addressed. “Once a person becomes a Casualty and the order comes down, it becomes our responsibility to cross their names off the list. Sentiment’s only going to get you killed. Consider that your first lesson.”
“I—,” was all Shin managed to say.
“Good,” Takeyoshi seemed to take it as an acknowledgment. Still standing over the monster’s corpse, he stooped down to retrieve his writing utensil. Bracing his left hand on the back of the Casualty’s neck, he used his right hand to pull the pen free with a wet, disgusting shlorp. Red blood ran down the pen and the Inspector considered it with a dejected sigh. He glanced back at Shin again, lightly shaking the object pinched between his forefinger and thumb.
“This was my favorite pen, you know?”
