Encounter with Raven Guild

Just then, I detected another influx of mana from the other direction.

The Raven Guild—another top-tier guild—were closing in on the park.

‘I can’t afford to be spotted here’.

Determined to keep my powers secret for now, and solve the warp gates on my own terms, I absorbed Virgilia back into the clock pendant, and made a narrow escape back to my parents' home.

The Lake still has some drowning souls left, which had escaped from Virgilia’s grasp.

I will leave those for the guild mages to handle.

I arrive back home to find my family confused, and in a frenzy.

‘Oops... I totally forgot about this.’

My father had been stuck inside a locked cupboard, not knowing why he was there or where his phone went, since he was talking on it before time froze.

Hikaru is tucked under the sofa, like a teddy bear.

I think he thought we were playing a game of hide and seek, so he complied with me and didn't come outside the sofa till the game was over.

I hid him in the restroom but he had changed his hiding spot to make it hard for me to find him.

Makes sense. Games with an obvious and absolute victory over your opponents wouldn’t be enjoyable to play.

At least, that’s what I think Hikaru might’ve felt.

“Why did you close the kitchen door from the outside?! Hikaru!! Akira!! Dear!! Open the door!!”

My mother was banging the door.

Probably, she would want to question me where her kitchen knife had disappeared as well.

“This is an odd family…” remarks Virgilia.

“Mom, please calm down!”

I had put everyone in a ‘safe place’ just in case something bad happens while I’m not present with them.

There’s nothing like being ‘too safe’ when I already know what was supposed to happen here if I didn’t come home.

It would be ironic if I had gone out to save other people while my own family gets shredded apart in my absence.

I had to keep them away from the demons at all cost.

I managed to improvise an explanation for my behaviour, to put everyone at ease.

Back at Tama Lake.

Hawk, an A-rank ‘Assassin’ class mage of the Raven Guild, discovers the kitchen knife from the lake bed.

“What in the world… Is this…?”

The knife is now imbued with demonic mana, which had twisted its shape into something sinister and otherworldly. It doesn’t represent something that used to chop onions.

“Hey, you would want to take a closer look at this...” Hawk calls for other guild members to his discovery.

“Where did you find this? This is awful...”

Everyone was careful to not touch the alien, deformed object. They gasped at the site of it.

The Raven Guild packaged the ‘kitchen knife’ for research by the Magic Guild Association (MGA).

There can’t be any forensic studies, or finger-print tracing in the traditional sense.

It was washed up in the lake and was already deformed beyond recognition.

But, the flow of mana around the deformed object can be studied to form a pattern.

This ‘mana pattern’ can be traced back to any demon or mage who has a close match.

"A powerful demon must be lurking out there.."

"That can't be possible."

"There must be a demon out here, concealing its presence as a human. There's no other explanation for it!"

"Why would a demon kill its own kind??"

"I don't think a demon would spare its own kind. We don't even know if it's capable of thinking like we do..."

"That's..."

The Raven Guild settled on the theory that some demon must be out there, killing its own kind.

Akio Tsukishiro, father of Akira, had noticed that his son was lying about the warp gate and how he also 'hid' from the demons inside the home like everyone else.

Akio takes out the SIM card, switches off his phone which had the emergency alarm open.

Going outside for a walk as an excuse to see what was happening in the neighborhood, Akio throws his switched off phone, far into the sky.

Anyone tracing back to question Akira who had sounded the alarm, would now have to spend time locating the phone.

After a while, Akio arrives on the scene at the Sayama Natural Park.

"Civilians are not allowed. Please go home."

"Public Task Force Detective, Akio Tsukishiro. Make way." Akio shows his ID to the police officer who were guarding the park.

"I'm sorry, Sir! Please go ahead!" The police officer saluted immediately.

"Brief me on the situation here, newbie." Akio signals to drop the formalities, since he was in his civilian clothes.

He walks inside the park, followed closely by the police officer.

"The area hasn't been cleared of all evidence by the Raven Guild members, Sir! But, the general word has it that this sudden warp gate was handled by a powerful demon who killed its own kind for unknown reasons!"

"Please, drop the sir, will you?"

"I'm sorry, Sir!!"

Akio sighed.

Spotting a tent near the lake, Akio asks permission to enter.

"Oh! Detective Akio.. Please come in." greeted the Raven Guild leader, Velvet Don, a middle-aged man of fair complexion with transparent goggles over his black hair.

"This is still in our jurisdiction. When are you going to clear?"

"Please give us a moment of time. I think we have found something that might be of interest to you, Detective." replied Velvet Don, who took out the evidence box and placed it on the table inside the make-shift tent.

"What is that?"

"That.. You have to tell us." replied Velvet Don.

Akio was a patient man who wouldn't be easily shaken by provocative questioning.

Akio knew that there was no way that Velvet Don could've found out the truth.

'Trying to test me for a reaction, huh.. sly bastard.' Akio thought to himself and sighed again.

"Please, take a look."

Velvet Don opened the evidence box, which is protected by anti-mana insulator machinery, the deformed object was neatly packed inside.

Akio knew it. That's the missing kitchen knife.

"Interesting."

"Indeed, isn't it? We have never seen an artifact like this before, detective. Uh, how could I put it... It's strangely demonic and human in some ways, don't you think?"

"I can't say for sure, but I have a feeling that you might be on the right track."

"Yes, thank you. I'm honored to be recognized by you." Velvet Don replied and closed the evidence box. "We'll clear the area and submit the case report by tomorrow morning, let us stay here and investigate for the moment."

"Suit yourself." Akio replied back and left the tent, escorted out by the newbie police officer who kept making small talk until Akio got home.