Mako City Business Park Incident 1

Jeremiah tapped his earpiece. “Penelope, what’s the situation?”

“An attack. We’re predicting multiple casualties, though the numbers are largely unconfirmed,” Penelope replied. “It’s a hostile anomaly, possibly Class F to Class D; reports are a bit shaky right now since the higher-ups are still deciding on its danger level. Witness reports said people saw a creature covered in blood walking on four legs.”

“Neat.”

Jeremiah paid the taxi driver, said thanks, and dragged himself out of the car. Like following protocol, he looked from left to right and crossed the street the moment he was convinced that no sane driver would willingly crash into him.

What welcomed him was the dreadful night view of the Mako City business park, a beautiful clump of tall buildings all reaching toward the sky like starved trees in a forest competing for sunlight. The air tasted of ramen, booze, and matcha buns, giving him a much-needed break, especially with the droning sound of a nearby train and the sirens of an incoming fleet of ambulances.

Jeremiah kept his head low as he marched forward, straightening his coat and tie and confirming that his issued katana and pistol were with him. There were too many onlookers, as expected, but all of them were behind the line of police tape. Good.

They already had a team keeping the crowd in order, especially the ones trying to take selfies with the guards. Another team was directing the traffic. Some were also on standby, their trembling hands resting on the hilt of their katanas or the grip of their guns.

They were the face of WACU—the World Anomaly Containment Unit—as much as he was as an Investigator. Their job was to contain anomalies and eliminate those that posed a threat to humanity. If they failed to set up a perimeter to separate the civilians from the anomaly itself, then they might as well pack their bags and go home. Because if they didn’t, there would be nothing to stop a rampaging anomaly from tearing through a crowd of terrorized civilians for a light snack.

“Any word of people missing or left behind during the evacuation?”

“None,” Penelope replied, sounding a bit more confident. “Well . . . there was, but the team on-site managed to deal with them on their own—wait, there’s a woman who left her dog in her condo unit; she never got the chance to fetch it.”

“Nah, fuck that dog.”

Penelope chuckled. “Knew you’d say that.”

“When did she make the report?”

“Roughly forty-five minutes to an hour after the initial call—about fifteen minutes after the team on-site declared that all rescue operations were done successfully.”

“They didn’t wait?”

“The OIC made the call as soon as all the senior citizens and those with disability issues were evacuated from the premises.”

“And there’s the problem.” Jeremiah sighed before smiling to salute some of the policemen who managed to get his attention. “But I can’t argue with that. I’ll just get at it as usual and hope that the anomaly leaves the poor dog alone. If anything happens, you tell them I made the call.”

“Noted.”

“Is there anything else I need to know?”

“None—oh, and also . . . We just got clearance for you to use Yatagarasu. Good luck, Jeremiah.”

“Thanks, Penelope. Extend my thanks to the team. They did well.”

Jeremiah picked up the pace. He kept his respectful smile as he saluted more personnel, especially when two jogged to meet him halfway so they could part the crowd and ease his movement beyond the line. There he drew his katana, surrendered the sheathe to his team, and went on his way.

The sound of the crowd faded and died a few minutes later, leaving Jeremiah to bask in the unnerving muck of silence in the air. He drew a long, slow breath as he firmed his grasp around his weapon.

The grass barely moved with the wind. The trees followed suit but refused to make so much as a creak. Following protocol, all lights within the vicinity were kept on; it was helpful, but it made it seem like the park itself was an anomaly. Everything around him remained bright. Alive. The signs were blinking. There was a basic animatronic of a fat pig urging people to go inside the restaurant. It was as if the humans here had been deleted, leaving only the smell of their blood to linger.

And like some unknown obsession, there was an itch on his neck that made him want to focus more on the deeper areas where the light could not reach. It demanded more and more of his focus; it was as though he truly believed that there was always something in the shadows, waiting.

Or maybe it was hiding in plain sight. Jeremiah let his eyes wander as he approached the fountain sitting at the dead center of this business park. The area itself was wide enough; it was supposed to be a generous walkway or at least a place where tourists could gather and be on their way. There were a number of trees surrounding the fountain, each large enough to provide cover for a humanoid creature. If he was going to get attacked, it would be here.

But nothing happened so far.

Jeremiah extended his right hand.

“Oh, mighty Yatagarasu. I ask, please hear my prayer. Devour my left eye. Let it sustain you as you spread your wings and guide me upon the path I wish to take.”

The roar of a great bell resounded from a distance. Jeremiah blinked and most of what he could see on his left was gone, like it had never existed. And as the air continued to hum, a sickly yellowish line drew itself upon the sky and opened, revealing itself to be an enormous eye spanning the entirety of the business park.

Tapping into the eye allowed him to gaze upon the area from a bird’s-eye view. And thanks to the fact that everyone had kept the lights on, it became very easy for him to notice a bit of movement on the rooftops of the nearby buildings. The creature was making its way toward him. It was a bit slower than he expected. No, it was being cautious.

Releasing Yatagarasu’s presence might have been a bad idea, after all. But maybe not. It regained its courage. It jumped from one ledge to the next and then ran down the building, gaining more and more momentum until—

Jeremiah turned and weaved through a claw aimed to rip his throat. The anomaly threw itself like a missile and bounced off an adjacent building before aiming for him again.

Its sneak attack was well-placed, but it failed. And as it struggled to regain its balance, Jeremiah planted his feet and swung at its right leg, painfully aware as the edge of his katana cut through flesh and bone. Its foul blood sprayed, the arc staining the ground.

It stumbled backward, gritting its near-jagged teeth to stifle a scream. There could be a lot of things running through its mind. It might be thinking how could he be so strong for a human. It could be asking why its sneak attack failed. It could also be that it was starting to blame him. He liked to count on the last one the most.

Jeremiah took a few more steps, like clockwork, and whipped his katana to cut off its head. The anomaly hardened its blood and sacrificed its left arm to divert his attack, letting it cut through its left eye instead. And instead of using that opportunity to follow through and sink its claws into his chest, it chose to run, carrying its dismembered arm in its mouth.

Jeremiah let out a puff of breath and sat on the edge of the fountain. “Penelope, you there?”

“You need any help?”

“Made contact with an anomaly. We’re dealing with a Class F Vampire Servant. It’s a girl in her late teens or early twenties. Lean build, about 158 to 160 centimetres in height. Pale skin. Short black hair to her shoulders. She was wearing very minimal clothing, just a pink oversized shirt and her underwear. For any identifiable features, she has a mole on her neck, near her collarbone; could be a tattoo, I don’t know. Please share this information with the rest of the team.”

“Doing that right now.”

Jeremiah glanced at the trail of blood on the ground and tapped into the eye in the sky. The Vampire Servant seemed to have reattached its arm, using it to weave through trees and buildings alike as it made a beeline toward a condominium. It leapt on the final stretch, breaking and entering through a glass window on the ninth floor.

“Also, can you pull up some data for the Horizons Condominium? Cross-reference their list of tenants with ours of high-risk individuals making illegal contact with anomalies.”

“Will do. What are you gonna do now? Do you need backup?”

“Yes, but not here. I need you to spread our team to cover more ground in a way that they have a line of sight in most of the alleyways around the area. Have them go in groups of three,” Jeremiah said. “As for me, I'm going to pay its little lair a visit and hope that its Progenitor is there, waiting.”