"that said, we've had a dozen missing persons reported recently"
The officer said, as if trying for the last time to disade the small group of hunters
"yea, that and the sudden lack of animals"
One muttered under his breath from somwhere in the back of the RV while he made himself a coffee
"dont worry officer, we'll be armed"
The leader of the small group said as he glanced back at one of his team who sheepishly grineed at him, pretending not to hear the comment, the officer leaned into the window and looked into the back of the meduim sized RV. Trying to look at the different animal skins decorating the interior through the darkness and small haze of smoke being gently puffed out by an individual who had not spoken a word to the officer, who seemed unaware of the unease he gave the officer, wether by his bulk being seemingly too big for his cloths, buldging through his tank top and torn army camo pants or his facial features being hidden by his large safari-style hat decorated with various animal teeth of varying sizes. Except for when the cigar he was smoking breifly gave off a dark, weak, sickly yellow light revealing those beedy eyes that seemed inhuman. The officer felt a chill travel down his spine as he locked eyes breifly.
"well, mister Ichiro. Good luck on your hunting trip"
The officer said with a slight tip of his hat, adding with a sly grin
"and tell you what, i'll even let you off this speeding ticket with a warning if you tell me where your heading. I might come visit when i get off shift. Belive it or not, i hunt a little game myself"
Before Ichiro could reply, a small boy, who looked no older then 20, suddenly sprang up and with a big grin on his face
"another fellow hunter. what kind of game do you hunt?"
The boy supprised him with his sudden apearance. Apearing like a ghost from the darkness of the vehichle. the boy had short messy blond hair with an eyepatch resting in his hair and a near perfect face except for a big claw marked mass of scar tissue on the left side of his face. The middle claw in the scar went straight over the boys left eyelid. The officer was about to ask the boy how his eye could have survived whatever happened, but thought it rude and said nothing. The boy promptly noticed the officer staring at him and said
"bear. Not a big one, but big enough, gave me a real good slap, next thing i know these guys have to rush in and save me, yet they still say it was a succsesful hunt"
though what struck the officer as off was the way the boys left eye had a near unnatural shine to it, whereas the other was normal. And he seemed to be wearing just an open jacket, but appearantly went to extreme lengths to cover his left arm from sight as he had a leather sleeve covering the entirety of his arms length. He even had gloves on. And then he noticed the strange small metal disk in the left side of the boys head hidden just under his hair as he cassually brushed it away from his ear. The boy noticed the breif expresion of alarm.
"uh, this is nothing, just a...fashion accessory...you know, like an ear ring"
The officer knew there were some strange things going on in tokyo, but even sticking peices of metal into your head seemed a bit strange, still, kids did strange things, and this boy certaintly seemed strange. Still, apart from the scar, he seemed healthy. And the others at the station knew these guys as they usually bring meat for the officers from some of their hunts as one of them was a former cop or somthing, he didnt really know, but he was told they were freindly, and except for the quiet, muscle bound giant in the back, that seemed true enough. All wearing happy grins seeming no different from any other person. Except for the tell-tale jingle of metal traps gently clinging against one another somwhere in the darkness of the RV.
"so where you boys from anyway?"
"tokyo, well, me and the youngin' here anway-"
The boy gave him a thumbs-up
"- the rest of the party are from different parts of the globe, we got one from china, one from australia, one from america, one from germany, one from texas. We got our own little YMCA going on"
Before the officer could reply, Ichiro quickly added
"uh...english joke, just in case you were wondering"
The officer just nodded and said nothing, a strange bunch indeed. Ichiro glanced breifly back at the darkness that concealed his freinds form the officers sight then grined back at the officer and ruffled the boys hair who didnt seem to mind, in fact, he seemed almost like a cat enjoying a pat from its master. A disturbing thought that the officer tried to push from his mind. No, they seemed decent, the boy seemed to be happy, and despite the few strange things; the scar, the metal, the unnatural shine to his left eye, he seemed to be there of his own free will. Still, never hurt to be sure, there WERE some sick people in the world. Some real sick people; predator didnt seem a good word to describe them. But these people didnt seem anything like that. still
"do you boys mind if i have a quick look around in your vehichle? No real reason, just curosity i supp-"
"and of course to check our weapons are not overly loud and dangerous"
Ichiro said, practically inviting the officer into their RV. Whatever the reason for his freindliness, the officer accepted the lifeline and took it. He didnt want to offend them after all. But he DID want to check out the van, his curosity getting the better of him
Moving over to the door, the officer couldnt help but notice that the van seemed a little different to most. It had thick metal bars on the windows, possibly to prevent animals from getting inside he assumed. Yet what struck him as odd were the CCTV cameras on the outside of the RV covering all possible angles.
The door opened and the officer hesitated for a moment, the darkness seeming to swallowing the light that emmited from his squad car. But he just shrugged it off as a late night of hard work, perhaps he really would try and join them on their hunt, a little time for himself with some freindly people seemed as good a way to unwind as any.
"come on in"
Just as he entered, Ichio planted a firm hand on his chest and stopped him dead the sudden movemnt seemed agressive to the officer, and instinctivly reached for his nightstick.
"oop. Hold on, ill just hit the light"
The officer was momentairly blinded as the unexpectedly bright light shone out like a small weak sun
"good god man. Do you have that bright enough?"
The officer laughed as he entered the vehichle, looking around and getting a good look at the interior at last
"belive it or not, saftey precausion, we make it bright as it is, so if somones lost in the woods or somthing, theres no way they'll miss us"
Ichio said with a shrug, The officer thought for a moment and liked the way he thinked. After all, what kind of potential threat would care for their fellow man like that. Still, the way they seemed so welcomimg of him seemed almost a bit unsetteling. Probably just used to drunk drivers or overstressed worksers getting angry at him when he pulled them over.
There were seven people in total, the boy, Ichiro, the big bulky man who still didint say a word, and he now noticed had what he assumed were chinse words tattooed onto his tree trunk-sized forams. A man who seemed to have fallen asleep reading some kind of biology book. Two men who were in the proccess of cleaning a rifle and a double barrel shotgun. There were a few people also sleeping further in the back of the RV on some rather spartan looking beds. A few graoned and covered their heads with their pillows.
"sorry lads, just an inspection, wont take too long"
Ichio said as he aproached his sleeping companions, reaching down and opening a drawer at the beds base which contained pistols and handguns of various sizes. The ammount of weaponry in the RV that he'd seen in the few seconds he'd enterd was impressive, but also seemed a bit...much
The officer was so focused on the large variety of weapons he'd seen that he didnt see Ichio trying to hand him a particularly dangerous looking revolver
"this here is my favourite tool of the game: compensator"
The officer felt a small ping of jelousy when he thought about his small, weak looking sidearm compared to this weapon.
"its his favourite all right. He's very proud of it. When we find somthing big, or when we dont need stealth anymore. Half the damned forest will know"
The boy said with a chuckle
Glancing breifly at the boy, he looked back at the weapons being presented to him, then quickly spun his head back in the boys direction. He was presenting the officer a very fancy looking bow and a rather lethal looking arrow
"this is mine, sir. Mosquito"
He said with notible pride as he handed the bow and arrow to the bewildered cop, any more weapons and this could probably be classified a small armoury, he wasnt looking forward to the paperwork if he DID find even one thing amiss
The bow in question seemed very taut. A bit too on the heavy side for the officers liking, he couldnt imagine using this to hunt somthing when most use rifles. He himself couldnt imagine managing to really kill anything with it. Then he noticed the various notches, twelve notchs to be precise.
"so you boys ever have any freindly fire incedences? With your own party or others?"
The officer asked nonchalantly. Perhaps he could just come join them when they went hunting, they certaintly had enough guns to go around. And it had been a while.
"none so far. Officer. If you did come by at a later date-"
Ichio said as he opened a small fridge and revealed its contents. Alot of alchohole of various kinds and a few frozen snacks.
"-we'll have a mini barbeque"
The officer sighed, great. Alchohol
"alchoholic beverages, sir i'd like to run a quick breath te-"
"sure"
Ichio was being VERY cooperative. Apart from the shady bulk still silently sitting by himself in a corner near the table of his sleeping compatriot, everything else seemed fine. Well, except for maybe the boy, but then again. He was always told not to judge people.
As the officer went back to his squad car to retreive the neccessary equipment for the breath test, he thought with a smile
Yea, i think i deserve a break. And these guys seem nice
Then he heard the sound of frantic communication comming from his radio.
"we've got another missing person reported in, roughly same area as last time, foul play suspected, any units near Sotaba, please check out the area. We'll be sending in more units to conduct a more thorough search ASAP"
Great. And if i recall correctly, thats not far from where i am
At the sound of footsteps, the officer turned to see Ichio with his same happy, nearly goofy grin. Then his expresion changed instantly upon seeing the officers face.
"somthing wrong, sir?"
"nah, nothing, just a bit of confusion is all, i'll have to go check it out. So where did you say you boys were going again?"
With any luck, ill be done with this in no time and then we can go hunt some game. It'll feel good to be out with some boys in the woods again, when NOT looking for suspected foul play
"well, we've been in tokyo for a while, so we figure we'd head on a bit of tour. Get back into basics, Hang out here, hunt some game there, ya know?"
The officer had a bad feeling about this. He had a feeling he wouldnt like his answer. Please dont say anywere near sotaba. People had been disapearing all over the wooded hills in that area for the past few weeks. He rubbed his head to try and calm the dull ache growing in his head.
"so where are you heading now?"
"a village called Sotaba, we're hunting some game in the woods around the village. And to let little Yasahiro maybe attend school there for a bit...uh is somthing wrong officer?"
Ichio asked in genuine confusion as the officers face darkened
"i'm afraid i'm going to have to ask you boys to NOT go hunting game in the area for a little while? Please? I'm-i'm sorry for asking, i KNOW this is irritating and i apreaciate how nice you've be-"
"sure"
Ichio chuckled a bit at the shocked expresion on the officers face
"its nothing to worry about, we still need to get Yasahiro settled into school remember?"
Well, maybe i wont be so unlucky after all. Maybe i'll even be able to enjoy some relaxtion time there once i knock off work
The officer though with a small flare of hope. Meanwhile in the RV, the boy Yasahiro turned off the lights and felt the familar feeling of pins and needles in his head. He had a baaad feeling about somthing. But wasent sure what. Well, maybe it would get better once he got to this new village: Sotaba
Meanwhile, near the base of one of the thickly wooded mountains surrounding the small village of Sotaba, a man rises from a painful sleep in a groggy state, pain and confusion only allowing him a few moments of clarity. He was looking up at the sky, it was starting to get dark, the sky had turned a twilight hue as the sun began to set, he was moving. He was being dragged. Every movment seemed to send agony into his temple. He felt he had no energy left and his whole body ached. But forrced himself to look down as far as he could to see what was dragging him through the woods. With very little light reaching the forest floor he couldnt see very well. And with his vision blurry and growing darker, it was impossible to see what the person...no...thing...was
An impossibly tall, lithe, black creature, that seemed; from his perspective, to be as tall as the trees. He could only just make out some shapes, a strange elongated head, at least he thought it was a head. He saw teeth that seemed to shine silver in what little light there was. He felt the vice like grip that the thing had on his leg as it draged him, and as he lay back, too hurt to do much else, he noticed another shape next to him, he looked over and saw another body. This one was unmistakibly human. Just before embracing the darkness of unconciousness to escape the pain, he saw a tail trailing between him and the other body: seemmingly doubled his own length. And he finally noticed the low, almost silent, threatining noise that the thing was emiiting. A quiet hiss, like some kind of giant mutant snake-like beast. And then the darkness overcame him and the pain fadded.
