The Charon Brotherhood
By Zoram Selrof
Chapter 1: Small affairs
10:04 AM (Japan Time), Saturday February the 1st, 2011…
"… By Merton! Uncle Merton's favorite nephew and the greatest rival ever to Uncle Moran's favorite nephew jumps into the stage to cheer the office up! Its name is… Sam-Merton-Who-Eats-Your-Dreams AKA Superintendent Oda of the Net Police's Cyber CID! Ta-dan!"
"PUAH!"
"Fuck."
"Run for your cappuccinos!"
"YIKES!"
"Enzan – sama: tactical withdrawal, sir?"
"Oh how lovely!"
Superintendent Oda of the Net Police's Cyber CID stepped into the work area to find Ijuuin Enzan coughing and pouring out his coffee: Punk EXE cursed aloud, Meijin let out a groan, Obihiro Shun looked terrified as he whipped around from the chair he'd been sitting at, Blues EXE began to suggest a escape and Hikari Yuuichirou looked up from some schematics while looking annoyed.
"So! Uncle Moran's favorite nephew sent you gentlemen a course-book on how to calculate TV signal loss in common antenna installation by taking into account the cable's own loss per meter, the distances between antenna and plugs plus the pass and derivation losses of the deviator machines?" He laughed.
"NO!" Everyone chorused as one.
"My, my. Then I'll ring him up. And let's hear to their MAGNIFICENT radio plays too by the way. Shall we?"
"NO!"
"My, my. Santa didn't drop by?"
"THAT'S NOT WHAT WE MEAN!"
"My, my. Do we need young Holmes to crack this enigma?"
"NO, SIR!"
"My, my. Maybe we should ring on VHS Man, Burn-Run Man and Needle-Them-All Man?"
"NO, SIR!"
"My, my. In times like these my Uncle Merton would rather…"
Everyone suddenly ran off the room leaving Oda along in the workspace: he blinked several times and formed a broad smile as he headed out and into another office: he turned on what seemed to be a PA system and cleared his throat.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Rejoice! Uncle Merton's favorite nephew has come to save the day! Who do we need to lock behind bars? The elusive mice which have been running loose ever since October, maybe? What do you think, my fellows?"
A chorus of groans, moans, curses, roars, shrieks, hisses and other undecipherable sounds rang out across the building but Oda didn't seem to be surprised at all: his grin grew larger, even.
"Thank you for your collective reply! I shall treat you to Uncle Moran's nephews' radio play soon enough."
Another chorus of sounds rang out as a response and these ones seemed to indicate despair and being fed up with the whole joke: Oda merely switched the microphone off.
"Well! I said we'd be back, by Merton. And we're going to catch these little mice, by Moran. Unless Uncle Moriarty gets in the way…"
He laughed aloud at his own joke…
10:45 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Hum, hum…"
"The Halo tune, eh?"
"Of course. It's cool and catchy. Catch a catching catcher. Gotcha?"
"Heh! Not bad."
"Ah! There you are! Miquel! There's TALK pending! VERY IMPORTANT TALK!"
"Not again… What part of "clichés are silly" you don't get, Tokuzana Joanne – chan? Andy and Kage Miquel are innocent."
"I settle that myself!"
"Jeez."
"Oh come on. Tozukana – san. We thought that…"
"…you'd earned the lesson ever since the summer…"
"I decide that!"
"Oh jeez."
A guy had come out of a room having an armored door and into a corridor of some kind of facility given the metallic compositions of its walls, floor and ceiling only to be confronted by a girl.
"Kage Miquel! Say "yeah" or "no" ALREADY! ANSWER ME OR CHA WILL REGRET IT!"
"Jeez."
"Come on…"
The guy named Kage Miquel appealed as being around a meter and sixty centimeters tall and had a good body frame.
He possessed neatly combed blond hair along with soft facial features: he had an annoyed look to his face by now.
He wore a brown overcoat, a pair of jeans and black knee-tall boots plus a black bandana with a five-pointed golden star set against a black background inside of a silver circle drawn on the center of it: he also had sunglasses on.
His Link PET was colored golden and silver together with the same drawing in the bandana set on it as emblem.
"Tozukana – san! Please! This discussion is pointless!"
"I DECIDE THAT YOU WESKER WANNABE!"
"That's a first."
"Guess so, Andy!"
A Net Navi was standing to Kage Miquel's right and had a look of annoyance and frustration written across his face.
His eyes' irises were a mix of blood red and golden: some silver-colored hair could be seen emerging from beneath his helmet as well.
His whole body with the exception of his forearms and boots was painted in a bright silver color: the boots and forearms, however, had been tinted in a slightly rusted bronze color and a bronze-colored thin vertical stripe ran across his body from the neck to the end of the crotch crossing over his silver-edged chest emblem.
Overall he was about five centimeters taller than his Operator, his total height being around a meter and sixty-something.
"Cha two! Settle the chit-chat elsewhere! This Wesker wannabe is my prey and I'm gonna see to it that… that gal… doesn't beat me to it!"
Tozukana Joanne struck as being close to sixteen years old or maybe seventeen thus being older than Kage.
Her hair was tinted black even though some patches of brown hair could be seen beneath it and her eyes' irises were brown.
She seemed to be wearing a black leather one-piece suit which covered her body starting slightly beneath the shoulders.
She also had a pair of black knee-high plastic boots plus two attached ammunition round-holding compartments.
Her Link PET was colored purple and black and its symbol was the Alphabet "L" character surrounded by a golden edge.
She currently held a PSG-1 sniper rifle on her hands which she was aiming at the ground while confronting Kage: her face looked like she could make a tomato rot from a mere glare at it given her bad mood.
"What do we do, Lily - san? Call Ms. Secretary?"
"Good question, yeah…"
Her Navi, Lily, had a Goth look to her given her use of heels, two metallic loose bracelets in her forearms and a collar with spikes protruding from it around her neck.
Her helmet's forehead had the word "Goth" engraved on it using scarlet red letters and her eyes' irises were also scarlet red: her expression denoted annoyance.
The bodysuit's predominant color was black with some patches of white scattered like stains there and there.
She now looked defeated and annoyed at her Operator's behavior and began to whisper along with Andy.
"Is that red-haired… gal… controlling you or WHAT?"
"Come on! Lily said it: clichés are silly and so is paranoia! Do you want all of our hard work and all to collapse because you're paranoid and our enemies laugh at us saying we're a bunch of quarreling ducks?"
"Huh! That's…"
"How MANY times have we brought that up already?"
"About 845. Ever since August, 2009."
"H-how can cha keep such an exact count?"
"I store them in the "bad public image" tag."
"Yeah. I do that too. It's better to store info by tags so that you can quickly get to what you're looking for." Andy confirmed.
"Que se passe-t-il, là haut?" A voice rang out.
"YIKES! B-Boss!"
"Boss! See! Tozukana – san is back at it."
"Chut!"
"I don't hide secrets."
"Oh please. Tozukana – san. I thought your honorable aunt… No offense intended… Had discussed this with you during the Christmas vacation and that you'd settled the matter."
"I am afraid they don't see to learn the lesson, sir."
"It's obvious, Legato."
"B-but, VP Noir this guy is…!"
"And what if? Is that a crime?"
"Well…"
"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY IT? BEFORE BLURTING OUT ANYTHING DO SOME BACKGROUND RESEARCH! YOU GET ALL OF YOUR RANDOM ACCUSATIONS SHOT BACK BECAUSE THEY'RE RANDOM AND YOU BRING THEM UP WHENEVER YOU FEEL LIKE IT WITHOUT REALIZING THEY'LL BE SHOT DOWN!" Lily seemingly exploded.
"Alright, alright! I'm not deaf!"
"JEEZ!" She fumed.
"Now, now, madames et monsieurs… Let us calm down and talk this like civilized people, shall we?"
"But I insist that…!"
"And where's the proof? The actual, solid and irrefutable evidence? Do you have it? No one will believe you without it."
"B-but, VP Noir…"
"No buts."
The new character named "VP Noir" was a fellow whose height was around the same as Andy's yet there was something peculiar about his persona which stood out.
That "something" happened to be the fact that he was clad in a black European monk's robe with a heavy hood which hid his face: his hands were inside of the long and wide sleeves and the tunic hid his feet as well so only the voice told that he was a male: it was soft.
"Like Noir – sama says…"
"Che! Legato…!"
"Got a problem with me?"
Legato was a third Net Navi present in the scene.
His helmet's main color was blood red as well, yet the inner edges surrounding his thick red shades had a tint of purple to them: a purple band formed on the forehead and circled the whole diameter of it.
Two valley-shaped cavities had been inserted into the sides of it and they ended in golden circles: a "fin" sprouted from the top of the helmet thus giving it a menacing-like look.
Lastly, a wild flock of silver hair came out from behind the helmet and covered all of his body's back.
His main "skin" color was black, yet his upper torso had red blood armor built over it: there were two black shapes drawn over the shoulders having a golden rim and a thin black line spread from the base of the neck to the lower edge of the armor.
An emblem with a black edge was set on the chest: it consisted of white and black halves split by a thunderbolt-shaped line: white was golden and silver was right.
The forearms were colored blood red.
They had two purple-colored parallel formations which originated at the sides of the emblem atop each hand's palm: they spread over the edge of the forearm while forming a pyramid-like shape.
His right forearm currently held a purple-colored Long Sword with a customized hilt.
The central body of the forearm was now colored metallic gray and had two purple circles colored yellow inside: a purplish-colored blade emerged around a cone-shaped purple-colored formation: the blade looked sharp and menacing for some reason or another.
His boots began slightly below the knee and had purple-colored diamond-like shapes which extended as high as the knee: they were colored blood red as well: the soils were colored purple, too.
Overall, he looked like a revamped Blues including his dry face which he put on when nothing impressed him.
"Che! Nope! That guy's smug smile tells it all!" She signaled Kage with her right hand's index finger.
"Excuse me? Smug smile? I don't feel like laughing at this. The situation is pretty serious by now." Kage argued back.
"And I'm sure that the red-haired gal…"
"…is unrelated! Why do you need to see conspiracies everywhere? I have enough with continuing my studies with a cyber tutor and deserving my grades on the exams. 3rd year in middle school isn't easy. At least by now I've got safe communications channels with my former classmates and my life isn't so lonely anymore. And in weekends in come here, to Purgatory, and I can get up-to-date on what's happened along the week. Haven't you been chasing some of those petty mice which have been involved in the serial nation-wide robbery cases?" Kage cut her.
"He's right. Please, Tozukana – san. We don't want to make your honorable aunt get annoyed in purpose, do we?" Noir sighed.
"I won't give up until he confesses!"
"And what would happen if he did?"
"I'd… eh… well…" She trailed off.
"Last time you said you'd inflict physical harm." Lily brought up.
"Define "last time", cha!"
"27 hours 36 minutes 18 seconds ago."
"Yikes!" She was obviously taken aback by the degree of precision.
"Aha-hah!" Noir sounded like he'd seen it coming.
"And I was softening the words, by the way. You can guess what she really said with just using a bit of your imagination." She added.
"Undoubtedly." Andy merely lifted his eyebrows.
"Sure thing." Legato confirmed.
"See? You've become more predictable than the weather." Lily sarcastically told her.
"T-these MEN!" She cursed aloud.
"Do you want us to fetch Ms. Secretary then?"
"Fuck no! Not that cold-blooded… gal… again!" She cursed.
"Then maybe some fresh air up in the deck will help?" Noir lowered his voice and it carried a hint of anger with it plus a double meaning which was pretty obvious.
"…Y-yeah, guess so… Guess… The guy's a single, yeah… And… Well… Yeah, sure… That's… hum… The deck, the deck, yeah…" She gulped and looked nervous.
She strolled past them in a rush without looking back but one could've caught a glimpse of her nervous face: Lily shrugged her shoulders and quickly caught up by her while making long strides.
"Jeez. I haven't even had breakfast yet. I stayed too late yesterday in my co-op Halo: Reach game." Kage grumbled.
"Pretty intense too." Andy admitted.
"Glad to see you can shake off the week's stress…"
"Should we go to the cafeteria?" Legato suggested.
"Sure. Ever since you developed this system for us Net Navis to eat and drink and turn them into energy I can't have enough. And Dark Man is an excellent cook too." Andy grinned.
The four guys headed down the corridor and entered into a square-shaped cafeteria space with about six round tables each having six chairs set around them: there was a counter and the entrance to a kitchen built in the eastern side of the wide room: a row of three portholes in the western wall provided natural illumination plus that of the fluorescent light tubes in the ceiling.
There was one Navi behind the counter apparently busy wiping dishes and glasses with a cloth: Dark Man, former member of the "Dark Four Heavenly Kings": he was humming a tune but stopped when he noticed the four guys.
"VP Noir – dono, Legato – dono, Kage – dono and Andy – dono… Good morning, everyone."
"Morning." They all replied.
"Hi. Guess I'm not the only one who overslept today too."
"Are we missing some conclave?"
"Ah. Suzuki – dono and Akemi – dono too… Welcome."
"The air smells nice. You've prepared some delicatessen today, Mr. Dark Man?"
"It could be named as such."
"Tee, heh, heh. Intriguing, Martha - chan."
"Ain't it, Akemi? By the way… That figure in the kitchen… Is that one of our three "play" fellows, Mr. Burner Man?"
A girl and her Navi had joined the group of four into stepping inside of the cafeteria.
The girl, Suzuki Martha, appealed to be in her late teens and had long brown hair reaching past her shoulders and up until the waist: her eyes' irises were brown too and she had a good profile.
She wore a simple green wool jumper, jeans and white socks plus a pair of teal sneakers.
She also sported the arm-strap for a Link PET colored teal brown and yellow and having the Alphabet "A" character colored golden and set inside of a brownish-edged circle as emblem.
"Yo! Burner Man. Preparing your next "play"?"
"But of course, Miss Akemi."
Akemi, Suzuki's companion Net Navi, on the other hand, appealed to be around a meter and seventy tall whose main body color was teal brown accompanied by greenish irregular stains across her bodysuit.
Her helmet had the drawing of a flower on the forehead and her eyes' irises were green emerald: her face was smooth and slightly attractive when seen from a profile.
Her forearms and boots had three consecutive greenish rings drawn across them: each ring had some small yellowish stains scattered inside of them at random.
Some greenish hair flowed out from behind her helmet and reached until the shoulders.
Overall she looked friendly and like she was a naturalist.
"Ahem, ahem! Ladies and gentlemen! Today's menu: potato tortilla with white beans!" Dark Man proudly announced.
"Six of 'em?" The guy named Burner Man called out with a hint of amusement to his voice.
"Indeed!" Everyone confirmed.
"Sure, Guv'nor!"
Burner Man came out of the kitchen as if to have a look around while having a broad grin on his face.
"Alright! If you hear some noise that's my strong right arm beating those eggs! Do you want it bad mood style?"
"You mean boiling hot? Sure!" Kage grinned.
"Will you please order your drinks?" Dark Man requested as he drew a pad to write them down.
"Water. What 'bout ya, Andy?"
"Water too."
"Apple juice if I may." Noir requested.
"I'll have pineapple juice."
"I'd like an express coffee with hot milk." Suzuki requested.
"I'll have a cappuccino."
"Presto!"
Dark Man quickly got to work while the others picked plastic trays like those in self-service restaurants and placed a piece of baked bead atop it to then bring it to the table around which they sat: Dark Man soon brought the drinks and returned to his post while Burner Man was singing a tune from the kitchen.
"Imagine~! A burning fella~!" He sang.
"A burning fella… Intriguing." Legato grinned.
"Burning in the sense of guilty?" Akemi guessed.
"Guess he wants to get his hands on one of those petty thieves while they're on the middle of it and see their faces." Noir sounded amused and let out a giggle like sound.
"Speaking of those… What have they robbed now?" Kage asked.
"Three days ago, on the evening of Wednesday January the 29th… The place is Hokkaido's Sapporo City… The vault of the NTN Bank." Legato announced with a sigh.
"Whoa. The NTN Bank's vault in Sapporo City…! I had a vague recollection that the thing began in late September with small things like pick-pocketing and forgeries' selling which got a sudden rise… Then in November the thing rose in scale: now cars and bikes were being stolen too and smuggled to Choina… And ever since two weeks ago more or less the pattern has switched to bank vaults and money scams… It's been growing in scale but I didn't think they'd dare to come so far… These guys gotta have a lot of cold blood. I guess." Kage whistled in surprise.
"Sorry to interrupt, fellows. The tortilla." He proudly announced as he placed it on the center of the table and having split it into six portions.
"Ah! Excellent. Itadakimasu~!"
"Bon profit." Dark Man made a little bow.
Everyone picked a slice of the tortilla and ate in silence accompanied by Burner Man's cherry singing.
"Imagine~! A jumping fella on fire~!"
"Oho. Terrific." Legato grinned.
"So! Do we have any idea who is stirring these guys up and making them behave like this? I'm surprised Zero hasn't found anything either considering the scope of our super-computer." Kage asked.
"Well… See: they don't rely in the Cyber World. They've gone back to the old proxies and short phone calls to avoid a complete tracing. They may say "silver glowing" and then they hang up. Total speaking time: 34 seconds!" Noir sounded rather tired by the whole ordeal.
"The police are having trouble with them… Once they catch them it turns out that most of them are grunts obeying some higher ruffian and that higher ruffian ends up showing up as a corpse."
"Classical!"
"The most chilling aspect of that is that their corpses are actually deformed and their skeletons practically crushed… That wasn't a normal human's handiwork: something huge and very strong…" Noir sounded afraid by now.
"Ugh. I guess they censored that."
"Of course! We don't want people to start throwing stones at us saying our Navis did it. Which they couldn't: none of them have enough strength to do that. No… That was like a giant in a fantasy tale…"
"How grim, really. If only we could catch one of them before they're silenced…"
"I'd love to." Legato sighed.
"Say… They always seem to act in a radius of about 30km from a said city or town, right?" Suzuki brought up.
"Yes, that is correct." Noir politely confirmed.
"So maybe they'll pick a large bank's vault in that same radius while using Sapporo City as a starting point or… Say. Have those guys done, say, a car theft… Have they done that more than once in the origin point?" She seemed to be drawing up an idea.
"That is correct too… Oh! I see! So there's a chance that they might try Sapporo City again tonight!" Noir realized.
"Good reasoning. It's at times like these that we miss Joel Agoras and Victor but their college studies absorb a lot of time. Can't be helped: Chemistry isn't something you overcome so easily." Legato sighed and looked slightly resigned.
"True. Well. The NTN bank was the number 1 there so maybe they'll go for the vault of the Nippon Bank next… And if the culprits are the same as in the other day then it's gotta be a pair of well-know vault-robbers the local police have been chasing for a while by now…" Noir muttered as if reflecting aloud.
"A duet, huh?" Akemi grinned.
"Alright. So let's get there ahead of time using our "Dimensional Converter" devices, call the police to be ready to get in, and we go first to scout the terrain. No giant should be able to stand against two Net Navis anyway. And we've got our tranquilizer weapons too." Kage whispered.
"Don't get cocky." Andy warned.
"Don't worry, Mr. Anderson." He grinned at him.
"Good, good. Burner Man will come along as backup… And! By Uncle Moran! We'll unravel this grim affair. This must be brought to a halt already." Noir decided.
"They're about to know the cleverness of Uncle Moran's nephew." Akemi giggled.
"And Uncle Merton will challenge you to a wits battle."
"Over the phone, obviously enough."
"Elemental, my dear Watson." Andy joined the jokes.
"By Moran! They're in for a world of Trouble with capital T."
"By the way, Kage – kun…" Suzuki called out.
"What?"
"Speaking of studies and all, I guess you're doing fine?"
"It isn't easy. But I'm managing. Right, Andy?" He shrugged.
"Sure. When you're not watching MAD videos at Nico Nico then…" Andy snickered.
"Oi! That was supposed to be a secret!" Kage protested.
"Too bad."
"Guilt as charged. As expected." Legato joked.
"Sheesh." Kage sighed.
"Heh, heh! I'm sneaky!"
22:22 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Heh! This vault's no big deal taking into account our sponsor has sabotaged all security interfaces… Now I only gotta pick it and get the gold, coins and notes inside."
A man hiding in the unlit basement of a bank and standing in front of a vault door while carrying a tool-box was muttering aloud while sounding cocky and very confident: he left the tool-box on the ground and began to use a portable flashlight to check on the door's locking mechanism: he opened the tool-box and picked some tools to begin working on it while chuckling under his breath.
"Uncle Moran says this: Game Over."
"Bill? I told ya to stay outside and watch out for the cops, man. Are you silly or what, man?"
"Sorry. But Uncle Moran put Bill to nap with his local anesthesia. In the back of the head."
"What the fuck?"
"Boo."
"YUWA~H! WHO THE HELL!"
"Uncle Moran's envoy… Burner Man!"
"What's with that disguise? You punk rent-a-cop!"
"Punk rent-a-cop? That's a first. And watch this. Strike Burner!"
"YIKES! NO WAY!"
"Yessir. I'm a real Net Navi and you live in the Edo Era."
Burner Man had suddenly shown up behind the man and he'd drawn a burner from which he produced bluish flames which claimed to be hotter than the Sun itself even: the man collapsed on the ground from the fright while Burner Man's grin grew.
"Yo! Kage. Gotcha the got-cha."
"Good rhyme, man. Patent it, man."
Kage stepped out of the unlit entrance while holding a customized Beretta M92F on his right hand: Andy was walking at his left and had drawn a buster-like weapon which he was aiming at the guy.
"Bill was such a poor watch, really. He was reading a porn magazine even and barely paying attention to anything. He didn't hear anything before my judo attack knocked him out. Guess that's one the problems which comes with a feeling of all-powerful." He shrugged.
"W-w-w-w-ho the HELL?"
"Who the hell, ya ask, Will Roulos? Well! Guess ya live either on a cave or spend the whole day drunk. Golden Star."
"What?"
"Guess my deduction is correct. I'm sure most of Japan has heard about our exploits. If the police got more efficient it's thanks to us but I guess you're not catching anything… Oi, Kage. Can you smell the air and tell me if this guy is half-drunk or what?"
"Well, yeah. There's a horrible stench on the air and I guess it's some vile alcoholic drink. Beer, sake… I guess beer because it's a very strong stench and I don't believe sake to be so stanching." He clogged his nose as if to show his disgust.
"Heh! No wonder. And he wanted to open a vault in such a condition too so he's gotta be in a rush or he's heard of the others."
"What others?" Roulos sounded like he wasn't paying attention.
"Sumoda."
"A~H! NO~! THE THING! THE THING! THE THING! IT'S GONNA KILL US, I KNOW IT! BUT IT WAS BETTER TO OBEY ON THE SPOT THAN BE CRUSHED BY THE THING!" He suddenly yelled while looking terrorized.
"A giant?" Kage interrogated.
"N-no… Worse! WORSE! WORSE~!"
"Oi! Calm down! We're here to save your life!" Andy told him.
"I'LL GO TO PRISON, I'LL RETURN THE MONEY! BUT I DON'T WANNA DIE~!" He cried.
"I said calm down!" Andy yelled.
"DON'T BELIEVE ME? LOOK IN MY PHOTO CAMERA: I RECORDED A VIDEO OF THE THING WHEN IT SUMMONED US TO THAT PLACE AND THEN DISAPPEARED AS IF BY MAGIC!" He yelled.
"Guess we should put him to sleep and remain here for the police to pick him up then… Maybe you should watch the entrance just in case this "thing" shows up and tries to get down here." Kage told Burner Man with a sigh.
"Yeah. Guess so." He turned serious.
"THE THING! THE THING! THE THING!"
"Oi! Be quiet!"
"THE THING! THE THING! THE THING! THE DU-SOMETHING MONSTER AND FREAK!"
"Du… What?" Andy frowned.
"THE MONSTER! THE FREAK! IT CAN'T BE REAL BUT THE THING SHOWED US HOW IT'D KILLED SUMODA~! IT'S REAL BUT IT CAN'T BE~! THAT FUCKING FREAK CAN'T BE REAL! NO! THEY'RE COMING! THE THING! THE THING!" He kept on yelling.
"Where's the camera?" Andy asked.
"Try the tool-box." Kage suggested.
Andy searched on it and picked it but frowned as he tried to turn it on: he sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Battery's discharged. And the PETs don't have Micro SD slit."
"Too bad. We'll have to let the police check them out. Oi, Burner Man! Is there anything weird up there?" Kage called out.
"The police cars… They'll be here in about 40 seconds!"
Sure enough, the sound of sirens began to grow louder and Roulos leapt to his feet to then rush past them and up the stairs: the other two followed him into the lobby of the bank just as the police cars parked in front of it and about twenty policemen came in: Roulos lifted his hands as if to prove he wasn't armed and two policemen seized him.
"Close me up! Close me up! Somewhere safe! Somewhere safe! Or the thing will kill me~!" He pleaded.
"Check his camera: it'd seem he's had the bright idea of recording the encounter with the "giant killer"…" Kage told them.
"What! Oh, finally!"
"The thing! The D-thing!" Roulos kept on shrieking.
"Calm down! We're gonna help you." One officer told him.
"THE… thing…"
He suddenly fainted from the stress and the officers had to lift him to place him on the rear seat of the patrol car along with the other man: the patrol car left while another officer picked the camera Andy handed over to him.
"Thanks for your help, as always."
"No, it's nothing. Please take all the credit. We could've missed the target too but luckily it'd seem there's some old-style detective logic left to the world." Kage made a weak chuckle.
"Alright. See you."
"Good. Burner Man! Let's go back to Purgatory."
"Yessir. I'm impatient to see what kind of "giant" we're facing."
"It must be terrific on sight if even a tough guy half-drunk got so hysterical about it…" Andy grimly muttered.
"Guess so!"
23:14 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Impossible."
"What's wrong, Boss?"
"I got the video of the camera sent to one of my gmail accounts and I've had a look at it but this is… Impossible. Really."
"Let's have a look too… Hell!"
"By all the…!"
"No wonder the fella was so hysterical!"
Noir, Legato, Kage, Andy and Burner Man gathered around a MacBook he was using while sitting in one of the closed down cafeteria's table: Noir sounded like he couldn't believe it and when the others began to look they gasped in fear.
"And that thing's real…?" Andy nervously asked.
"Seems to…!"
"…My name is Dullahan. You will rob all of Sapporo City's bank vaults in order from the most important to the most unknown. Take all money: I'm not in need of that. And make sure to leave the doors open so that the police gets to know about this. Understood?"
"Y-yeah, Danna…!"
"W-we'll do it…!"
"Fine. You won't meet me again. Farewell!"
The video displayed something terrific: the speaker named "Dullahan" was about three meters tall and wore a metallic purple armor like the European medieval knights: a torn reddish cape hung from its shoulders as bonus: the armor had yellow and white markings to it yet the most disturbing part was that it was headless: there was a neck but no head and its voice boomed out of nowhere.
"WHAT in the WORLD is GOING ON?" They all gasped.