Chapter 1

It was going to be sore waking up next morning.

Tanaka waved goodbye to his colleagues as he stumbled out of the bar. He spilled some sake on his cream business suit as he swaggered around the narrow and serene streets of Kamakura town. He leaned against a brick wall as he slid towards the end of the block, making his way to the entrance of an even smaller and barely illuminated alley.

"God-damn Tayami, thinks he so fucking great, bet he's ploughing my wife right now." Tanaka murmured as he swayed between the two sides of the small corridor. The ground felt wet, like it had rained for hours. But there was no rain forecast for today, nor was there any hint of precipitation outside the alley. It was also beginning to smell quite foul, as if an animal or a small rodent had died and been left to rot. Whatever, Tanaka was too drunk and eager to get home to worry about such trivial things.

Then a crunching noise could be heard ahead. The noise echoed through the narrow walls and bounced over to Tanaka's position, gnawing away at his eardrums. As he ventured deeper into the darkness the noise seemed to get louder and crisper in tone. Even when he tried to cover his ears the sound was nauseating.

"Ahhhh! What the hell? SHUT UP!" Tanaka smashed his bottle against the wall and panted heavily. It must have worked because the noise had ceased. Two red lights flashed ahead. Tanaka was intrigued by the small red lanterns and swaggered on forward, like a moth attracted to a flame. He still grasped the jagged neck of the bottle as he inched closer towards this intoxicating light.

The lights soon dimmed and appeared close together and level with each other. They were rubies in the decrepit alley. Tanaka wanted to grab the ruby and hold it in his arms. But he felt something swipe at his hand. The colour of ruby soon oozed out of his right hand.

"What the..." Tanaka was cut off by a loud sound, almost a cross between a hiss and a growl. He staggered backwards and swung his glass weapon in front of him. "Come on ya' creep, I won't let you take my money without a good old fight." He almost brought up his last eight drinks as he finished that sentence. Lurching forward he saw what looked like a bare foot slid out of the pitch black. Though quite inebriated Tanaka had enough wits about him to pull out his phone and shine the bright display screen on the thug, using his makeshift spotlight to reveal the thug.

However it wasn't a thug. It was only a small girl, maybe only 4 or 5 years old with short messy hair. The torch attacked the girls eyes with sheer brightness, making the red orbs in her eyes glimmer like small red suns.

There wasn't anything particularly odd about this girl, she might have run away from home recently. That would explain her tattered clothes which resembled something akin to a potato bag. She was dirty as well, mud had mixed with food and human waste. There was also a tinge of crimson around the edge of her mouth.

"What's the matter with you little girl?" Tanaka lowered himself so he could be level with the rather vague looking child. She kept muttering something faint from her tiny mouth.

"Chi...Chi...Chi...Chi...Chi..."

Tanaka tilted his head in confusion. "What the hell is wrong is you? Are you autistic or something?" And as he reverted back to his drunkard mood he pushed the poor girl aside and carried on into the dark abyss.

Until he kicked something hard on the ground. The rotten smell had reached unbearable levels now. Tanaka had to cover his mouth with his glass hand as he shone his phone light onto the source of the stench. Tanaka kept his mouth covered as he retched over his hand. He would have screamed if his mouth had not been clogged with vomit.

The stench had not come from a dead rat or animal, but a human. The body was missing its head and it's organs had appeared to have been carved out of it's open ribs, spread out like an eagles wings.

Tanaka fell backwards into a puddle. He stared at his hand which was now covered in blood.

"Chi...Chi...Chi...Chi...Chi" The girl's voice was faint but eerily frightening as if she was calling out a chant.

"Oh my god! This can't be happening!" The drunk man whined. The slapping footsteps of the girl had returned. He swirled around and shone the light on the girls face, which had now contorted into something far from human. Tanaka would only catch a brief glimpse of the arched fangs and dagger claws before life entered a permanent shade of darkness.

…

MEANWHILE

Kurama slammed his fist on the steel table. One of his test subjects had managed to escape the maximum security research facility. He had lost a lot of staff to this escapee but perhaps what was more tragic was the loss of his loyal secretary Kisaragi. He caught his tears of anguish with the valley of his knuckles.

"I won't forgive you for this...I swear when I find you...I'll end your sad little life." He grit his teeth and sunk his head into his arms.

After a few hours of self-loathing Kurama heard a knock at the door. "Go away...I am not interested in any affairs right now." The knocking – well the thud – came again. "I said not now!" The loud thud continued until Kurama rose from his chair and wrenched open the door.

"I'm not in the mood for-" Kurama noticed one of his fellow aides was slouched forward. When Kurama stepped out of the doorway the man collapsed forward as if death had stuck him at that instant.

"Isobi what are you doing?" Kurama was annoyed rather than shocked at his fellow coworker's condition. After seeing so many gruesome deaths, he was probably not open for practical jokes. He nudged the man's side with his foot. When he rolled over he revealed crimson eyes. Kurama jumped back as the man lunged with his hands aimed for his supervisor's neck.

"Isobi...What have you done to yourself? I demand you release me now!" Kurama struggled to breath as his glasses became foggy with the man's animalistic panting. Kurama felt around his pocket and produced a small handgun. He pressed it against Isobi's chest and fired. The strange man flew across the room and landed awkwardly against the back wall. Kurama caught his breath and wiped his glasses. When his vision cleared he discovered a line of blood had slashed it's way across the ceiling and dripped into the ground, indicating the bloody extent of his point black range shot.

As Kurama was about to return the gun to it's holster the man slowly sat up, revealing the sinister face of someone possessed.

"Im-possible!" Kurama aimed his gun at the man he could no longer identify as Isobi. He was now a monster, just like the monsters he had to study at this research facility. Isobi snarled at his superior revealing a set of ravenous fangs. Just as he was about to clamp his jaws on Kurama he fired another bullet into his stomach. The man only staggered slightly but he continued his advance. Another round and another, seemingly useless in stopping this menace until.

BANG. Kurama managed to pierce a hole straight through the man's forehead. The beast jerked his head for a moment until he slumped forward, thick tarry blood spilling out of the cavity in his skull.

Kurama dropped his weapon and slid to the floor, staring in awe at his dead colleague, his murdered colleague.

Whatever that thing was, it was not Isobi, something had taken him over...