Prologue – Night Watch

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/A-C Files/

/Project Left Eye/

/Project Right Arm/

- /List of Incidents/

-[New York Incident]

-[Hong Kong Incident]

-[New Delhi Incident]

- = [Tokyo Incident] =

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Transmission# 8. Designation: Nil

Xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xx Tokyo City, Japan. Xxxxxxx - AWOL

XX: N/a

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx: N/a

Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx: Green

2200 hrs Xxxxx 20, 20xx

Tokyo was quiet again, tonight. Few souls were wandering the streets, instead opting to stay inside and away from the night time tumultuous rain. Few cars were out too, splashing along the shallow canals that used to be roads. It also meant that the city's ghouls were going hungry.

Kei couldn't blame the people for staying in. He and his mates were doing the exact same; lazing inside, listening to the downpour while watching glazed over at recorded horse racing footage or reading an exciting, ravishing comic. The heating was on, full blast, as expected, and Kei's friends draped themselves around his apartment, either slumped on the couch or siting against the radiator. It was as if the room was populated by cats, drowsy and stuffed for the day.

It was bliss, as best as bliss could get without the struggle of life, but they were content. Kei, Haru and Len were lucky as far as ghouls got. They feasted regularly and had never been caught, or suspected, by the CCG. They lead lives as normal humans, as store clerks, office workers or couriers and drew little attention to themselves as possible. Whatever went on in the world of Ghouls didn't concern them, as mixing with that crowd proved fatal.

Haru turned a page of his manga and looked up. "Hey, when do you think Amaro is coming back? It's been almost," he looked at his watch, "50 minutes since he left for that package. Do you think he's alright?"

Len grunted and sighed as he lifted himself off the cushions, his large frame blocking some of the light coming in through the window. "He's fine, Haru, stop worrying," he rumbled, swinging his legs off the armrest. "If anything happened to him, he'd have called. Now get back to reading your thing."

"But that's the thing, he hasn't called us, and the post office is just around the corner. It usually takes 10 minutes to go and come back, not 50. What if something happened to him? We should help him." He threw his manga to the side and rested his arms on his knees. His eyes lit up and he froze. "Wait. What if he found someone to eat?"

Len sighed again. "Haru, for God's sake, he hasn't found anyone to eat. Have you seen what's out there? Rain, and people don't like rain. That means no one is out there." He muted the chatter coming from the TV and turned to Haru. "Look, I know how hungry you are. We all are hungry and have been for weeks. Once the rain stops, we'll go out and see if there's anyone for us. Amaro should be back by then, too. He probably just got caught up with some work friends."

"I hope you're right, Len," Haru sighed, picking his manga back up. Len returned to watching his horse racing. Kei looked back at the table he sat at and the cards that lay still on its surface. A game of poker, just like they had played in College. Kei had an ace and a queen, but he didn't dare check Amaro's cards. It would be bad manners given the state he's in. Ever since his friend had arrived at his place, Amaro had acted erratic and paranoid, with bags under his eyes like he hadn't slept for days. He made mention, by accident, that he thought something had followed him for the past week and he spent every waking and sleeping moment watching doors and windows. Kei and Len suspected he just had the jitters and tried to assure him that he was just hallucinating but Haru had taken it differently and grown concerned for him. There was little he could do, since if the stalker was a Dove, then things would turn south for the group.

It was concerning how long he'd been gone. The night was growing old and time was running short. The others would have to return to their own homes before the local curfew started and Amaru would be left unfound, if he didn't message them. Haru's concern was growing on Kei and itched at the back of his mind. He bit his lip and stood up.

"Len, Haru, get your coats. We're going out."

The two of them looked at him with mixed expressions. Puzzlement from Len and surprise from Haru. Len watched him walk to the hallway while Haru jumped up, throwing his comic to the side.

"You mean we're-" Haru began, before Kei cut him off. He swung his coat over his shoulders.

"That's right Haru, we're going Amaro fishing and we won't stop until we find him." He turned to Len and pointed to the door. "You coming?"

"Ha, in this rain? You must be crazy," he exclaimed, shaking his head. He laughed and held his head, before taking one long sigh, the last he'd ever take. "Well, if you're this concerned about him, then there's nothing to it. I'll help, but only if you pass me my coat."

"Done," Kei said, throwing the coat off the hook. They were set and ready to go. All they needed now was to find their friend.

The rain was worse than it had sounded from inside Kei's apartment, the rhythmic pitter patter replaced with regret and heavy clothing. Within seconds of stepping out from the shelter, the group was soaked to the bone and already deciding to turn back. Only Len's iron will, along with his sudden position change, prevented them from abandoning the mission. In radiance (or rather, lack of it) they strode to victory, joking and insulting each other and their mothers as they headed for the post office. It was only after more than a minute of walking through the rain and even Len was regretting going outside, cursing the other two for influencing his decisions.

"I swear, this is the last time you two will manipulate me into doing things for you," he yelled, shouting above the rain. "The last time, I swear!"

"But you said that last time, when we got you to pick that police officer up," Haru shouted back.

"That was different. That time he was harassing you, so I had to make him back down."

"Yeah, but that only made it worse for you, didn't it?" Kei interjected, nudging him. "It was only thanks to Amaro that you got off scot free. You should be more grateful."

"Ah, whatever. But this is the last time, like I said."

"You mean, like that time you helped me look for my lost phone?" Haru suggested.

"Or that time you stopped and helped an old lady get her cat out of a tree because she'd give 10,000 yen?" Kei added.

"Or how about that time where you kissed a dol-"

"Alright, I get it," Len roared, his voice supressed only by the crashing rain. "I've said it a lot, okay. Just stop bringing up all those other times, it's embarrassing me."

The two of them apologised to Len and the three laughed off the incident. They turned a corner and a man, dressed in a yellow raincoat, knocked into Haru with a force that almost sent him to his rear. Kei caught him and helped him up, while Len shouted at him and got him to stop.

"Hey, you okay, Haru?" Kei asked, checking him for any injuries.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He turned away from Kei and toward the stranger. "Hey you! Yeah, I'm talking to you! Do you think you can get away with something like that?"

He approached the man and got close to his obscured face as possible. It was difficult to see his face in this light, in fact, as his hood perfectly shrouded his face in shadow. Kei walked up to Len, who was watching Haru yell at the stranger with every insult he knew.

"What a prick, right? Who does that to someone?" He gave Len a thin smile with eager eyes, but the black man was concentrated on the man in the raincoat. His eyes were fixated on him and concern, mixed with fear, entered his aura. Kei looked to the stranger and tried picking up his scent. He couldn't find one, except for a lingering taste of Amaro's blood. He swallowed hard.

"I can't smell his scent," he whispered to Len. His friend nodded.

"Me neither. It's almost like he doesn't have flesh. And whatever happened to Amaro, he must have had a hand in it." He breathed deeply, his eyes wide with horror and confusion. The stranger looked nothing like an investigator, had no evidence of a kugane with him. Kei felt his bones begin to shake not from the cold, but from fear. Len nudged him. "Is… Is he wearing heels?"

Then, from the long sleeve of the raincoat, a large, round object fell out, splashing onto the pavement. Haru stopped his insulting and looked at the object, as did Len and Kei. On the floor, was Amaro's head, severed from his body and frozen in an expression of fear. Haru was too slow to react and failed to evade the swinging blade from the other sleeve as it lopped his head off. His head fell to meet the same fate as Amaro's.

"Kei, run," Len yelled, revealing his ape armed Kugane. "Go, I'll hold him off!"

Kei dashed in the opposite direction, just as his friend said and splashed down the street. He wasn't fast enough to escape the sound of a blade slicing through the air and heavy, meaty objects making loud splashes accompanied by cries of pain. He ran and focussed on where he ran to, seeking to get away from the murderous stranger. He tripped, stumbled and fell face first onto the ground. He picked himself up, unsure if rainwater or tears were in his eyes. He hoped he had lost that man.

He hadn't. Standing behind him, sword and severed, black arm in hand, was the stranger-, no monster that had killed his friends. He knelt, baffled at the fact his friends had fallen so quickly. They were ghouls! All of them were ghouls, they were supposed to be unkillable by normal means. They were meant to prey on humans, not the other way around. That sword the stranger had shouldn't even be able to harm them. And yet it did. Kei didn't bother speculating if it was a new type of weapon, he just scrambled backwards.

The stranger laughed a metallic, electronic rasp that echoed through the street, cutting above the rain. He strode closer, heels clanking with a metallic ring, stepping with a cat-like precision. He threw the arm on the ground and spoke.

"Here kid, I have a proposition for you: I'll give you 3 seconds to run, and if you can escape me, I'll let you go. Deal?" he asked, in perfect Japanese but with an underlying foreign accent. Kei couldn't discern where it was, nor did he care. He had an opportunity to escape, so why waste it? He jumped up and ran away, dashing down the next alley he found.

He didn't stop until he was deep into the passage, gasping for air. He wondered what the hell was going on and why that thing was after him. He'd done nothing to get on the radar, so why was this happening? At least he was safe.

A clang sounded down the alley and caught his attention. He raised his head in the sound's direction and found a straight, single-edged sword thrust into the concrete, sparking with electrical energy. The ruffling of clothes and feet meeting the floor sounded behind, freezing him stiff. He had lost.

"That was fun, kid, really fun," said the thing, "but not fun enough. I was expecting a better welcome party for coming here."

Without listening to what the thing had to say, Kei dashed down alley further, faster than he hoped that thing could run. He heard the sound of steel feet hit the ground behind him, the whirring of motors through the air. A fence rapidly approached him, but he leapt over it in a single bound. He looked back through the fence, hoping he'd escaped. He hadn't.

The thing jumped over the fence higher than Kei had, landing in a spot that trapped the ghoul. He rose from his crouch, swinging his sword to the ready. Kei swallowed hard.

"I'll kill you!" He jumped forward, revealing his Kugane, a spear like tendril covered in barbs. He swung a fist at the thing, missed, thrust with his kugane before round house kicking the thing in its side, throwing it into a wall and cracking the bricks.

As expected, the thing got up unscathed, brushing pebbles off its raincoat. However, its hood had fallen back, revealing an onyx visor stretching from the widow's peak to jaw, topped off by long, swept up hair. Kei blinked in surprise at the sudden sight.

Without speaking, the thing's blade flashed, swinging up and lopping off Kei's Kugane. He didn't notice at first, not until he spotted his limb lying on the floor and seeping blood into the water. Then the pain struck and sent him reeling grasping at the severed end. The thing's blade flashed again, chopping off an arm and forcing Kei to his knees. He looked up at the black visor as it approached, grimacing desperately.

"I would say don't take it personally, kid, but in reality, this was always personal," it said, a sneer present in its voice. "Your kind has done enough to deserve retribution like this, even if it isn't authorised."

Through the pain, Kei spat on the thing's foot. "Fuck you!" he said defiantly. The thing wiggled its foot and lifted its chin.

"At least that part of you is human," it said, before severing Kei's head off with a single hand. His body fell to the floor, unable to operate anymore as the thing sheathed its sword.

The night would prove to be silent, as usual, until the morning, as when the bodies were found, fear would be struck across both the human and ghoul communities and mystery would be rife through the country.