Hey! Sorry for posting this chapter so late, but my beta-reader was busy, and we changed, and I was busy too (still am) but it IS here! I want to thank my new beat-redaer for her work!
Thank you to everyone who followed and favorited this story!
FANFICTION
HAIKYUU! SUPERHERO AU : THE RISE OF HEROES
CHAPTER XI : Jaws
"No man can win every battle, but no man should fall without a struggle."
– Peter Parker
The night of the meteor…
Hoshiumi Kourai whistled while he finished cutting the various fish and squids that would feed the sharks. He put all the food into the different plastic boxes with the animals' names written on it.
"Hey, I'm hungry, wanna go get something to eat?" His colleague, Watanabe, asked.
"Nah, I'm fine. I need to feed the sharks anyway," he answered, pointing at all the plastic boxes.
"Okay! I'll take a turn preparing the food for the octopuses then."
He left and Hoshiumi finished his preparations while listening to music. He put all the boxes on a big tray, and he brought it to the sharks' hole. As an animal caretaker of the Shinagawa Aquarium, he could see the animals from above as they swam without a care in the world. He loved watching the fishes, the mantas, the dolphins or sharks living without even realizing they were stuck into a giant glass bowl. It was peaceful. All these sea animals swimming in this dream painted blue. It was his favourite part of the job, watching them swim like this.
He took the grabber stick they were using to feed the sharks, who were trained to react to certain signs and panels plunged into the water.
He had already fed three sharks when he felt a light tremble all around him and the lights flickered. Taking off his headphones, he looked up and around. One of his kouhai, Miura, was filing papers in a corner of the room but he hadn't seemed to notice anything. Hoshiumi shrugged and took more fish with the grabber stick when the water splashed. He narrowed his eyes, watching the water.
The sharks and fish were agitated for no reason. He put everything down and took his talkie-walkie out to contact his colleague.
"Hey, Watanabe? There's something weird happening in the sharks' hole. Do you mind coming over?" He asked.
Only static answered him, and he frowned.
"Oi, Watanabe? Can you hear me?" He asked.
There was no answer on the other side of the line.
Suddenly, the animals in the sharks' hole grew even more frantic. The fish and sharks were jumping out of the water and falling back into it.
"What's going on?" Miura asked from afar.
"I don't know, I've never seen them act like that!"
The sounds were starting to be too loud for comfort, echoing painfully into the big room. Hoshiumi leaned forward, observing closely. The fish and shark weren't attacking each other, but they were swimming in such a panic that they kept hitting each other. Some fish were floating at the surface, killed by the frenetic movement of their tankmates.
"What the…"
The lights flickered again and the building vibrated. The balance on the metallic bridges and pathways seemed fragile and Hoshiumi quickly backed away. Fish started jumping out of the water and onto the floor.
"Quick! Throw them back into the water!" He ordered to his young colleague, who was as stunned as he was.
They started grabbing the fish that were spasming on the floor, throwing them back into the water as more and more of them tried to escape.
"WATCH OUT!" Hoshiumi shouted, pushing his colleague out of the way when a shark jumped out of the water.
They both fell and moved back as they saw the shark thrashing on the ground, opening and closing his powerful jaws. But he hadn't jumped far onto the ground and he eventually slid back into the water.
"What's going on?!"
"I don't know!"
Hoshiumi wasn't sure what to do until the animals calmed down. The lights kept flickering and the ceiling groaned, as if under immense pressure. Even when there were typhoons, there had never been such a thing, so what was happening?!
"Watch out!" Miura cried out, suddenly pushing him away.
Ceiling lights suddenly fell down right where Hoshiumi and Miura had been standing a moment ago. Everything seemed to calm down after that, despite the agitation from the animals.
Just as Hoshiumi turned to thank Miura for saving his life, a violent and sudden earthquake hit the building. Hoshiumi gasped, falling against the metallic railing that didn't hold up. He fell into the water.
"Hoshiumi-senpai!" Miura shouted when he saw him disappear into the water.
Hoshiumi swam, frightened. He immediately started swimming upwards just as he felt some sort of powerful wave through the water. It made him gasp and water filled his lungs. He moved his arms, panicking. A great white shark swam straight at him, opening his jaws wide. The sharp teeth were the last thing Kourai saw, then nothing.
Nowadays…
Tooru was whistling as he walked down the stairs leading into the Karasuno bar. There were a few customers, two he knew and saluted as he sat at the counter where Ukai joined him.
"Someone's in a very good mood," he commented with a teasing glint in his eyes.
"Mmm~! I am in a good mood~! I'll take the usual, please." Oikawa answered with a satisfied smile.
As Ukai prepared the Fashionable Manhattan, he continued speaking with a knowing look on his face.
"You've been in a good mood very often lately. Is it because of the lovely lady from the other day? Hanae-chan?"
"I have met her a few times, indeed." He answered, tilting up his chin, almost proudly.
"Only a few times? And you're already this infatuated with her?" Ukai asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Eh! It's not just silly attraction, and we are taking our sweet time discovering each other!"
"Oh, so you're serious about this relationship?"
Tooru flinched, the reaction barely perceptible, just as the cocktail was presented to him. His friend was staring at him, waiting for the answer, genuinely curious.
"It's… a strong friendship, but not a relationship like you might think. But… I am serious. As serious as I can be…" He answered in a hushed voice, stirring the drink's little umbrella absentmindedly.
"Great for you, then! I'm glad you're finally opening up and getting attached to someone. It's about time you get settled, old boy!"
"Oi! Who do you call old?!" He exclaimed, getting offended, "I am only thirty years old, with many, many, youthful years still ahead of me!"
"Well, isn't Iwaizumi about–"
Ukai's voice stopped when he remembered that Iwaizumi's fiancée had been gone for three months now…
Oikawa knew what he had been about to say and took a first, bitter sip of his drink. He tried to hide his wince, but it didn't escape the bartender.
"The first sip of alcohol is always the most bitter." He said, "Like most things in life…"
"Y'know what I like most about your bar, Keishin-san? We get free and inspirational lessons. You'd make a great life coach."
"It's not free, it's included in the tips, which you never leave, by the way." Ukai remarked, "And I thought you liked my bar because you get access to an extended network of information. Which reminds me…"
He grabbed two big envelops from under his counter and gave it to the private investigator, who quickly opened the first one.
"It's the information that you had asked me for. And… I got that one too."
He pushed forward the second envelop and, curious, Tooru took it.
"It's a request, all the information about the client are on the page, but he'd prefer to remain anonymous for now."
The name he read wasn't new to the private investigator. It was a man with a shady business but he mostly knew him for having a fascination about aliens. Tooru had actually tried to get in touch with the man before to try and find out what he knew about aliens, but it was almost impossible. It was a golden chance!
Then, he took out the grainy photographs that were in the envelope and his eyes widened. It was very bad quality, but he could see a humanoid figure coming out of the water, with the top of his body strangely shaped, like a giant fish or– a shark!
Tooru looked back at the paper, the client asking him to track this creature so he could have it captured. Of course, he'd want this creature, it looked like an alien! Tooru himself wanted to meet and know more about this alien– but he remembered the world they were now living in. An alien, or a superhuman?
"You can tell him I'm taking this job," he told Ukai who nodded absentmindedly.
At the Miyagi Police Station…
Akane arrived late, which was unusual enough that everyone glanced at her curiously.
"Sorry for being late." She said, quickly setting up her desk.
Tetsurou's eyes were burning into her back, knowing perfectly well why she was late to work. He was willing to bet that Semi Eita had been late too. He quickly averted his eyes, and focused on his report.
"Hey, Akane," Yakkun spoke up, "Sao sent us up some weird things from that body found in the alley. She wants us to figure out where it came from."
She raised an eyebrow as he gave her a plastic sample bag. Its contents made her blink.
"No need for that, it's just a shark tooth. It must have fallen off a necklace or something." She answered sarcastically, sending it back to the young man, who didn't look amused.
"Which is what we are also capable of deducing, but that tooth was found in the body." Yakkun continued.
She frowned at him and he continued:
"The body had a wide wound all over his torso, like he had been eaten, y'know? We had initially thought it was some wild beast like that lion that was captured by Nite Owl but then, she found these two teeth during the autopsy."
Kuroo had looked up when he heard Lev mentioned. The werelion had been adopted by Nite Owl at this point. No one else knew that the huge lion could turn into a man and was actually a pretty chill and joyful guy, if not with some missing neurons.
Could it be another were-animal attacking people?
"Hey," he called, attracting their attention at once, "What sort of teeth is that?"
Yaku threw the sample packet to their head scientist and Kuroo examined the two teeth. They looked like normal shark teeth…
"Could you get me the file from that murder?" Kuroo asked.
"Why are you interested in these?" Akane asked, frowning suspiciously.
Kuroo startled, trying to hide why he would be interested in that case–
"J-just… um… because, uh…"
"It could be another superhuman," Yaku suggested, then he turned towards Kuroo. "That's what you're thinking too, right?"
"U-uh, yeah…"
Akane still stared at Tetsurou, as if she could see right through his lies.
"…You've been looking into a lot of random files recently, Kuroo. Most of them linked to possible or confirmed superhumans. Are you hiding something from us?"
He froze and felt his body heat up under the weight of her reddish-brown gaze. He was desperately trying to find a good excuse, but he could only grasp smoke.
Akane saw right through him and understood that he was hiding something. She tightened her lips, worried about whatever mess he had gotten himself into.
"Kuroo is incapable of hiding anything from us, he's a terrible liar!" Yaku exclaimed with a laugh.
Kuroo paled and Akane sent him an unimpressed look, as if telling him "yeah, and he is lying right now, dumbass" but he continued, unfazed by her sharp eyes.
"He's probably just very worried about all these superhumans and the threat they pose to society. I've been looking into a lot of weird files too, just to know what to expect."
Yaku turned towards Tetsurou who reacted a second too late for Akane's taste.
"Y-yeah! T-that's exactly what's happening! I'm freaking out a little a-and, y'know… as head scientist of this lab… of a Police Station involved directly with the Shiratorizawa Special Force… I need to know as much as possible about these… superhumans…"
Akane didn't seem convinced, but Tetsurou threw the sample bag back to them and quickly went back to work.
"Might be some accessory that got into the mess of flesh during the attack, but better safe than sorry. You should check and try to find whatever you can about these teeth." He said, unable to look at her.
She discreetly clicked her tongue and started her day of work.
At lunch, the three friends, joined by Kai, went to the cafeteria of the Police Station, where most of their colleagues were eating. They sat down to a table and started eating the food they had brought with them, or in Yaku and Kai's cases, what their lovely wives had made for them. They talked enthusiastically about some investigation that neither Kuroo nor Akane knew about so they ended up glancing at each other and then focusing on their bento boxes to avoid staring for too long.
"Ah! Semi-san!" Yaku suddenly called, "Won't you join us for lunch?" He addressed this to the group of men from the Shiratorizawa Special Force.
Akane looked up and shared a smile with Semi while Kuroo brought his water bottle to his lips to distract himself. Semi was the only one on the SSF with some scientific background, which was why he was the link between Kuroo's lab research and whatever the SSF would need from them… and the reason why he was so close with Akane, and pretty much everyone else on the scientist team.
"Thank you, I didn't even notice you there." He answered as Semi, Goshiki, and Shirabu sat down slowly.
They looked exhausted, with dark bags under their eyes and they didn't seem hungry. They were yawing more than eating.
"You three look like you need a good cup of coffee," Kai commented.
"Or ten," Shirabu grumbled, glaring at his plate of food.
"We spent all of yesterday and last night on the field, we just came back," Goshiki answered. "The others are still wrapping up…"
Kuroo looked between Semi and Akane, realizing that they hadn't spent the night together. He hated the relief that hit him like a train.
"O-oh, you were out… all night? All of Shiratorizawa?" He said, his voice sounding unnatural, but no one seemed to catch on it.
"Yeah, General Washijou wants us to be more effective…"
"More effective? What does he mean exactly by that?" Akane asked, frowning lightly.
Semi hesitated, as if he had realised that he had said something he shouldn't have. He opened his lips to answer just as someone wearing Shiratorizawa's purple colours came directly to them.
"Captain Semi! Captain Shirabu! First lieutenant Goshiki! The Major General Ushijima is asking for you, another mission!"
"Now?"
"Yes, sir!"
"These damn superhumans won't even let us get a proper lunch…" Shirabu mumbled, all three getting up to obey the orders.
"As soon as order isback, we'll have a tranquil life," Goshiki said, staying positive no matter what.
Shirabu didn't seem convinced. They looked down at the trays of food they were about to throw away.
"If I had known, I would have taken something we can bring with us…" Goshiki said, frowning at the idea of wasting food, and he was famished.
Kuroo looked down at his well wrapped onigiri…
"Here, take those… I'm not really hungry," he said, passing them the food.
"Wha- really?!" Goshiki exclaimed.
"Yeah, you need it more than me," he answered with a smile.
"Thank you very much, Kuroo-san!"
Shirabu and Semi nodded to him with grateful smiles as they followed the young man for their next mission.
"I thought you didn't like them?" Yaku asked, raising a curious eyebrow.
"…I don't, but they're just doing their jobs… like us, I guess." He answered with a shrug, "And I really don't feel hungry… I think I'll go back to the lab and see if the analyses are done."
Before they could answer, Kuroo stood up, grabbing what was left of his lunch and leaving the cafeteria. As expected he found the analyses he had started earlier done. He started reading the results, but was distracted by a beeping sound coming from Akane's desk, no matter how he tried to focus on his own work.
He glanced over his shoulder and, seeing no one around, walked to her desk. It was the results of the shark tooth analysis. It was identified as a shark DNA… but there was also some human DNA. It could be the victim's. Kuroo leaned forward, typing some formulas to get to the part of the DNA he knew carried the superhuman gene.
He wasn't even surprised to realise that this shark tooth did belong to a superhuman.
A were-shark, then? He thought to himself.
"What are you doing at my desk?"
He jumped, letting out a strangled scream, and whipped around to see Akane glaring at him, arms crossed over her chest.
"I-I heard the beeping sound from the results, and I thought I'd check it out… Shark and human DNA." He answered with a shrug, playing it cool.
She was too curious about it to reconsider Kuroo's intentions as he walked back to his desk. She blinked when she noticed something unexpected in the DNA that made her open and close her mouth. Then she started going into older files with the DNA samples from acknowledged superhumans.
She was about to call Kuroo over, to share what she might have found something about the superhumans and how to track them, but she stopped herself. He had been looking right at this specific gene as if he knew what to look for. He was hiding something about the superhumans and that meteor, that was certain… but how was he involved?
She was about to print what she had found out to bring to Semi's team of scientists but, once again, she stopped herself. She liked him, he was a genuinely nice guy who enjoyed his work, and admired his colleagues. But she wasn't a fool and knew that the Shiratorizawa Special Force was also hiding something from the rest of the Police Station – and the rest of the world.
Instead, she stood up and grabbed a couple of files that were laying around and went to the floor below. The Shiratorizawa grounds were mostly empty and the few soldiers who were there didn't have a high enough rank to stop her. In the main lab, there were only two scientists brought here by the army. She couldn't enter without permission because a door pass was required but when they recognized her, they let her in. The red dot turned green and she pushed the glass-window door open.
"I'm bringing some files Semi-san had asked me the other day," she lied.
"Oh, thanks, we were waiting for those."
As the scientist checked the files, she glanced over his shoulder at his computer. She wasn't surprised he was doing some DNA tests… and the genes he was checking were the same she had found through Kuroo's snooping.
She turned back towards the scientist as he thanked her for the files. Then, she headed back to her usual lab, her head full of thoughts and theories.
Kuroo and the Shiratorizawa Special Force all knew how to recognize and find superhumans. They weren't connected in any way. If the SSF's interest could be explained because they had to catch the dangerous superhumans, what was Kuroo doing?
Meanwhile, Oikawa Tooru was slowly but surely gathering information on the alien, or superhuman. After asking around and gaining access to video recordings, he managed to find a series of sightings and bodies found in very bad state, especially because of a prolonged time spent in water. It had started a couple of weeks after the meteor night – which was a clue towards the possibility of a superhuman. At first, the sightings had focused around the Tokyo special wards of Shingawa and Ota, then it had spread in all directions. It went all the way to the special ward of Minato in the North, the cities of Kawasaki and Yokohama in the South, and now all the way to Funabashi and Chiba in the East. There was one more sighting at the other side of the Bay of Tokyo, at Sodegaura, and three missing people who, coincidentally had been working at the docks around the date they went missing. The bodies were essentially found in the water, in a bad state of decomposition, with parts of their bodies missing, cut off by some boat thrusters… or eaten.
Tooru spread a map out on a table and observed all the pins he had added: blue for the various sightings, and red for the bodies that might be linked to that superhuman.
A knock at the door made him look up and he wasn't surprised to see Iwaizumi come in, carrying some groceries.
"I saw the light and I figured you'd be home," he explained, approaching his friend and glancing curiously at the map, "New job?"
"Yeah, an alien sighting."
"Alien?" He repeated, unconvinced.
"Or superhuman, whatever you prefer. My theory is that superhumans are aliens who came here to invade us during that meteor night, and they are slowly but surely kidnapping people to study or use for experiments. Or maybe they are potential hosts for…"
His voice trailed off and he swallowed hard when he saw Iwaizumi's face darkening at the mention of the missing people.
"For their global invasion… or something…" He finished awkwardly.
Iwaizumi put down the bag of groceries and picked up a random file, grimacing at the pictures of the half eaten, mostly decomposed body.
"That alien of yours would have done that?"
"Most of the victims live or work near the water and I believe this alien is part-shark thanks to the pictures and videos of the few sightings. Also because two bodies out of the thirteen that were found so far were found with shark teeth in them. No analysis was made by the scientific team so I asked them if they could dig it up, but I haven't had any news yet. And as you can see with the blue pins, that alien is moving around very quickly, and I can't figure out where he's hiding or where he'll be next."
"Shark teeth, you say?" Iwaizumi repeated, remembering a conversation he had had with Sao about a half-eaten body that had been found in an alley the previous day, "Has there been any sighting or corpses in the cities?"
Oikawa blinked, surprised by this question.
"Only one sighting, two weeks ago near the Zoshiki Station on the Kenkyu line," he answered, pointing at the blue pin, "The corpses have all been near or in the water, so I haven't looked into the cities' murders much. Why? Do you know something?"
"Someone was found yesterday, part of his body eaten or destroyed by an unknown weapon. No sighting whatsoever but we found two shark teeth in his body. Akane and Yakkun ran some tests and found shark and human DNA."
"Shark and human DNA? Mixed together? Do you think this is how superhumans are made? Maybe the aliens are using animal DNA and mixing it with ours to turn humans into… these superhumans!" Oikawa theorized, suddenly encouraged.
"Not all superhumans have animal features though. Look at Nite Owl, even if he calls himself that… he's just a guy with super strength and whatnot." Iwaizumi commented.
"Right… but maybe it's animal strength, like a gorilla's, that– I'll try to find answers to my theories later! Right now, I need to look into the police files! Maybe there were bodies that I didn't connect to this investigation because they weren't found in water!"
He turned hopefully towards his friend. Iwaizumi sighed deeply, knowing very well what he wanted. As a police officer, he had access to most files. So he moved to his friend's computer and logged in like he often did for Oikawa's job. They usually asked permission from Daichi, but on a few occasions when people were in danger, they kept quiet until afterwards (and Daichi scolded them but let it go, because it might save people).
"These are all bodies that were found in the area of Tokyo and the Tokyo Bay that had a part of their bodies destroyed, with massive blood loss or missing limbs." Iwaizumi said.
There were a lot more dots on the virtual map than Oikawa would have liked to see Most of them probably had nothing to do with the superhuman, which meant regular people were just that terrible. He wasn't surprised, but it never ceased to hurt him to know so many atrocities were committed.
"The sightings only started after the meteor night, so can you change the settings for that?" Oikawa asked.
"I'm also taking away all the solved cases," Iwaizumi said.
He typed on the computer, and once he refreshed the search parameters, the screen uploaded again, showing only a dozen or so dots. Curiously, Iwaizumi typed "shark" to see if there was any mention of such things – half of these cases had had one or several shark teeth found near the body or crime scene.
"Oi oi… that thing really is moving a lot… How are you going to catch it? Should you even take such a risk if he can do this much damage? Look at these bodies…" Iwaizumi said, worried for his friend who had gotten himself into a very dangerous case – especially if it was a superhuman.
Oikawa didn't answer and took the computer, bringing it near the map laid out over his table. Iwaizumi followed him curiously as he traced circles around all the other cases that might be linked to his alien. They were all gathered in the neighbouring area between the Tama river and the heart of Minato special district.
"Your eyes are shining, it means you figured something out, huh?" Iwaizumi said after a glance at his friend.
"Don't tell me you don't see it, Iwa-chan?" Oikawa said in a slightly mocking voice.
He pouted and looked closer.
"Oi… you said this superhuman was related to sharks?" He asked, frowning.
"And the Shinagawa Aquarium is right in the middle." Oikawa finished with a proud smile.
He circled the Shinagawa Aquarium, already planning his visit there the following morning.
"All of the sightings were two or three days apart, the last one was two days ago near the Museum of Maritime Science. I'll go visit the Shinagawa Aquarium to see if there's something I could learn there…"
"…Be careful, okay? You don't know what to expect," Iwaizumi said.
"Quite the contrary, I know there's an alien sharing the DNA of a human and of a shark who likes eating people, he might appear there and I need to catch him."
"How are you going to do that?"
"Easy, like I'd catch any fish," Oikawa answered with a shrug, "I just need to attract him with a juicy bait."
Instead of explaining any further his plan, Oikawa turned around to make a phone call. Iwaizumi didn't like this in the slightest, but he knew his friend was too stubborn to listen to him.
The following day, Tooru drove to the Shinagawa Aquarium and with his pass as Private Investigator, he was allowed to go into the otherwise restricted areas of the aquarium. One of the aquarists, Watanabe, gave him a tour, explaining how they cared for each and every animal, especially the sharks. Tooru hadn't given any detail on his investigation, he had simply said that he was looking up on some accidents relating sharks.
"Did anything happen the night of the meteor, or around that time?" He finally asked while they were standing above the sharks' hole, watching the animals live their lives peacefully.
Watanabe's expression darkened at once, his body tensing. Tooru immediately knew something had happened.
"That night… yeah… the aquarium… wasn't too close to the meteor but we were hit pretty badly by the shockwaves. The animals were especially disturbed."
"I've heard that many animals panicked for hours during that night, indeed," Tooru answered, nodding seriously.
"…One of our guys… Hoshiumi Kourai…"
His voice broke a little and he blinked away tears.
"He fell into the water, right there," he said, pointing at where a new shining barrier was now standing, "Right into the sharks' hole… Any other time, the sharks wouldn't have touched him because they're fed but… we don't know what happened. Maybe because they were in such panic, they… attacked."
Tooru swallowed hard, feeling his blood run cold.
"You mean… he was… killed by the sharks? He was…"
"Eaten, yeah… Most of him anyway… I couldn't handle fishing out what was left of him…" He admitted, lowering his head.
"Was… I'm sorry for your loss. Did anything else happen after that?"
"No, not that I can think of," Watanabe answered before hesitating, "Except… well… It's not about Hoshiumi or the sharks but… he's probably just in shock."
"What? What happened?" Tooru asked, trying not to sound too eager.
"Miura Kouhei… he's… he was there that night and saw everything. Around… two weeks after that awful meteor night, he stopped showing up at work. We checked on him but he's just incapable of getting over it… No surprise after what he saw that night. I have nightmares just from…"
His voice broke and he avoided looking directly at the sharks' hole.
"It was a carnage. And I only saw it afterwards… I didn't–"
Noticing him breaking down at the memory, Tooru put a hand on his shoulder.
"It's fine. I understand. Do you think you could give me the address where this Miura Kouhei lives?"
Watanabe was surprised by the question, but he nodded.
A few hours later, Tooru was knocking at Miura Kouhei's door. Though the interior was hidden by pulled curtains and there was a huge accumulation of mail he knew Miura Kouhei was still living here after asking a neighbour.
There was no answer, so he knocked again and saw a movement from behind the curtain.
"Miura-san? Are you here?" He asked, loud enough to be heard.
After a few more long seconds, he finally heard a clicking sound and slowly, the door opened just a crack. Miura Kouhei, pale and scared, looked at him from the little opening.
"W-who are you…?" He asked in a low voice.
"My name is Oikawa Tooru, I'm a private investigator." He introduced himself, showing him the card, "I only want to ask you a few questions."
"It's… about that monster, isn't it…?"
Tooru frowned lightly, tilting his head on a side.
"A monster? What monster?" He asked, even though he had an idea of what he was referring to.
Miura breathed heavily, glancing around nervously. Finally, Tooru smiled, as reassuring as he could, putting his charm to work.
"Don't worry, you're safe with me. You don't risk anything."
"…You'll try to stop it… right?"
"If you tell me what you know and what's going on, I'll try my best, yes," he answered with a smile.
The young aquarist hesitated but finally opened the door completely to let him in. He made some tea despite the sorry state his apartment was in and Tooru found some local news articles spread over the main table – all concerned recent murders or disappearances.
"I didn't think a private investigator would be the one… I would have expected Nite Owl or the police…" Miura said hesitantly.
"Ah, hopefully Nite Owl and his team are onto this too. I'm working with the police, but for this case I was hired by an independent person who wishes to remain anonymous."
He paused, looking carefully at every expression going over the man's face as he continued:
"Can you tell me what happened the night of the meteor? I know the vague story behind your senpai, Hoshiumi Kourai's death…"
"He… he saved me that night, y'know? He's… he was a good senpai and he really… he just… it all happened so fast…" He said in a breath, "He fell into the water and the sharks were all so panicked they… they attacked him. I saw the water turning red… then…"
Kouhei was staring at the water, boiling from the panicked movements of the fish from the sharks' hole. He was waiting for Hoshiumi-senpai to come back and swim to the edge of the water. Kouhei saw the water turning red and gasped, running toward the emergency first-aid kit and grabbing his walkie-talkie with shaking hands.
"Watanabe-san! Watanabe-san, can you hear me?! We need help at the sharks' hole! Hoshiumi-senpai is… Hoshiumi-senpai is–"
Only static answered him just as a figure emerged from the water, gasping for air.
"Hoshiumi-senpai!" Kouhei shouted, running to the edge of the water.
He was covered in blood and despite his panic, Hoshiumi swam quickly to the edge of the water. He reached a bloody hand out just as Kouhei saw the shark fin right behind. It was getting closer. He grabbed his senpai's hand and pulled just before Hoshiumi shouted and was pulled back by the shark. The blood and water made his hand slippery and when Kouhei accidentally let him go, Hoshiumi fell back into the water. More blood spilled, mixing with the water.
"KOUHEI!" He shouted, holding onto the railing. He cried out in pain as his limbs were torn off.
Kouhei ran back to him just as, with one last gasp, he was dragged under the water, leaving bloody fingerprints on the ground.
"NO! Hoshiumi-senpai!" He shouted.
He watched, helpless, as the water boiled, turning red. He was waiting for his senpai to come back to the surface of the water but…
He ran into a nearby room and grabbed a tranquilizer gun that was used only in extreme emergencies, such as a shark attacking an aquarist. He went to the edge of the water and prepared to stop the shark, but everything was a cloudy red.
"Hoshiumi-senpai!" He called once again.
The animals were still thrashing into the water. But by the time they calmed down and some of their colleagues arrived, it was too late… The water was red from blood and what was left of Hoshiumi Kourai was floating with the dead fish. Kouhei was kneeling in bloody water, holding onto the weapon with shaky hands.
"I… I let him die… I didn't do anything… I panicked and I– if I had acted… he wouldn't be…"
Miura Kouhei's voice broke and he lowered his head, sobbing into his hands. Tooru watched him, unable to even imagine the scene he had watched, his senpai and friend torn apart by the animals they were supposed to care for.
"A-and then… I thought he was really dead but…!"
"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Tooru asked, frowning.
The aquarist looked up, eyes wide and teary.
"He came back… it… I don't know… two weeks after his death… I was… I was still working that night because we were short-handed on staff. That's when… it came out of the water…"
"It? What was it?"
"I don't know… it was monstrous… It stood on two legs and it had arms, but the rest of the body was… it was like a mix between shark and… a human… and the head… The head was– it looked like Hoshiumi-san but…"
He looked up at Tooru.
"I ran away… and I never went back…"
"But you saw the articles in the newspaper…" Tooru concluded, glancing once again at what he had gathered.
"H-Hoshiumi-senpai would… he would never hurt anyone… It can't be him! Right? It has to be the monster that took his appearance, but it's not Hoshiumi-senpai!"
"Why did you lock yourself up? Why didn't you warn the police or the Shiratorizawa Special Force? They are in charge of cases like these," Tooru continued.
"B-because… it came after me… I haven't… I'm too scared… Even if it's not something Hoshiumi-senpai would do… it looked like him and he… what would they do to him? Before I ran away and when it came here to see me… it looked at me and I… it was in pain, it was scared… I couldn't–"
He lowered his head again shaking.
Tooru thought back on all the missing people, probably superhumans… Where had they ended up? Where did the Shiratorizawa Special Force take them?
He thanked Kouhei for everything, promising his best to find and help Hoshiumi, or whatever humanity was left of him at least… As expected the superhuman-alien he was dealing with was enough of a shark to be dangerous, and enough of a human to be even more so. Sharks rarely attacked humans and only did so by accident or because of global warming, but he doubted that this superhuman was capable of remembering the human side of him. Or he wouldn't be killing so much, at least from what he had heard of Hoshiumi Kourai, he was a nice enough guy to not have murderous-intent.
Leaning against his car, Tooru watched the Tokyo Bay as the sun was setting, turning everything into shades of orange and gold. It was beautiful, and yet, held so much danger.
Sighing, he pulled out his phone and called the person he knew he could ask for help in catching this superhuman. After a few rings, he answered.
"Yeah?" Tsukishima Kei asked, sounding annoyed – or nervous?
"Kei-chan, I am currently tracking a superhuman, half-shark and half-human, who has already killed many people. He stays around the Shinagawa Aquarium. I think I'll need help from Nite Owl and Little Giant to catch him without risking my life."
"Stop calling me that. That's all you ever call for…"
"That's rude, I also share all the information I gather on the missing people so you can help your brother."
"…I suppose it's not a surprise you know that I know Nite Owl."
"Of course I know. 'The Moon' knows our hero pretty well, after all, and you're both night owls active under the moonlight, aren't you?"
"Don't try to sound poetic. As for the information you owe me about my brother, they're pretty scarce."
"Hey! It's not my fault they are guarding their secrets so well! You aren't finding out much either!"
"Tch…"
There was a short pause before Tsukishima talked again:
"I'm calling Nite Owl."
And before Tooru could thank him, the phone call was ended. He straightened up and went to the back of his car, opening it up to a collection of weapons. He eyed them over, before choosing one that would best help him capture a shark-human super alien.
There was one thing that didn't make sense in this story: according to Miura-san, Hoshiumi's shark-self had come out from the same sharks' hole where he had been eaten. And yet, no one at the Aquarium mentioned the appearance or disappearance of any shark, or human, or shark-human. Either they were hiding it, which wouldn't make sense because then, why would they have told him so much about the meteor night? Or they hadn't noticed anything. If that was the case, and with the series of murders being concentrated in the same area, it meant that Hoshiumi had never disappeared from the caretakers' aquarium. He was still there, in the sharks' hole, waiting for hunger to push him to escape and go hunt for another victim.
Once again thanks to his private investigator pass, he went into the Aquarium, after closing hours this time. He took the usual tour that any visitor would take and looked up at the sharks' hole. Seeing all these animals swimming peacefully made it difficult to imagine any of them attacking and eating a human…
Hands in his pockets, he observed closely every animal he saw, though they completely ignored his presence, not troubling themselves with what was on the other side of the glass.
As he walked away, Tooru didn't notice that one of the sharks had turned his sharp eyes and followed him with his gaze.
Tooru investigated around a little, finding out that there was no camera in the aquarium except in the halls where the public was going to see the animals, and special cameras in the water that gave up-close views of the various creatures. He had wished to watch whatever recording there was for the night of the meteor, or any night following from the sharks' hole. He did find something interesting though: there were some forgotten cameras outside to keep an eye on the entries and exits. The alien figure of Hoshiumi had appeared several times on those, even though he was mostly hidden. They recorded the shark man three times, then the fourth time Hoshiumi suddenly stopped in his tracks. He looked up, a frightening intelligence shining in his dark eyes, and a few minutes later he managed to climb over the fence and reach for the camera. He didn't break it, just turned it away so it wouldn't record him anymore. There was no more recording after that, probably because he was out of view.
So, he is intelligent enough to erase clues about himself, Tooru concluded as he pulled out a map of the aquarium. He found the exit that the camera was monitoring and noticed it was going straight into the Tokyo Bay.
Tooru then went to that exit, looking for clues but there was nothing in the perimeter. He put the camera back in its former place, then set down his trap, hoping that it wouldn't be noticed or wouldn't catch the wrong person – or superhuman. But no one seemed to go around here as it led to nothing except the Tokyo Bay.
Just then, his phone vibrated in his pocket. It was an unknown number. Frowning, he answered anyway.
"Yes?"
"Oikawa Tooru-san?" A quiet voice asked over the phone.
"Yes, who is this?"
There was a short pause, then the person over the phone continued:
"Nite Owl has arrived near the Shinagawa Aquarium, he wants to know more about the were-shark superhuman you're dealing with."
"Oh. Well, that was fast. Kei-chan is more effective than I would have thought… I'm joining him right away!"
The person on the phone ended the call and as Tooru walked to the entrance of the Shinagawa Aquarium. He tried calling it again but the phone number didn't exist.
They know how to erase any trace of themselves, he concluded.
It wasn't hard to find Nite Owl considering his vehicle was in plain sight in the front of the aquarium and he was leaning against it casually.
"I would have expected you to aim for more discretion," Oikawa remarked, pointing at the man who shrugged.
"People know who I am by now, there's no point in hiding what I do when wearing my hero costume!"
"Where is Little Giant?" He asked, looking around but seeing no orange-clad hero.
"Someone needs to patrol the rest of Tokyo and where most of the trouble usually happens. He's got BB-5 to back him up."
"BB-5?" Oikawa repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"Our tech expert, you had him on the phone a little while ago I assume?" He answered, stepping away from his Nite Bike, "So, what's this about a were-shark?"
"I might as well tell you everything. Come on in."
The workers of the aquarium stared in a mix of awe, incredulity and fear as the private investigator who had decided to investigate their workplace came back in, accompanied by Nite Owl himself. Neither Oikawa nor the hero even blinked at their starstruck gazes. As they walked towards the sharks' hole, the private investigator explained everything he had found so far.
"That sounds like an awful way to become a superhuman, devoured by a shark… urk," Nite Owl commented, leaning towards the thick glass to observe the sharks and fish swimming.
Oikawa glanced at him curiously, wondering if he could ask the question that was burning his lips… And he decided that he had nothing to lose, and only knowledge to gain, perhaps even more proof for his superhuman-are-alien-theory.
"So… you weren't… devoured by… anything?"
"Oh no! I don't really know what happened, I just got really sick and then… I was super strong." He answered easily.
"Are you sure you weren't devoured? By something strange, not of this world? You don't have any memories? What about injections of some sort? Or perhaps–"
Nite Owl turned towards him, frowning lightly, confused by his questions. Oikawa shut up, but stared back. Then the hero shrugged.
"I don't know what happened that night. My friend's theory is that when that meteor fell down, it liberated some sort of toxin that mutated my DNA, and all superhumans'. He can't tell if that toxin was just some sort of radioactive wave, biological particles, or something else…"
His voice trailed off and he blinked, then leaned forward once again towards the glass of the sharks' hole.
"If this guy was being devoured by a shark the moment these waves of toxin hit the area of the aquarium then, maybe that's why it affected him in such a way? His DNA was in the shark's stomach and it affected both the shark and the human, turning them into…this. I don't think he's a were-shark, he acts completely differently from Lev who was just confused and scared–"
"Lev?" Oikawa repeated.
"Ah, uh, our werelion, long story."
"I know about the werelion you captured, I didn't think you had tamed him though."
Nite Owl turned sharp eyes towards him, startling the private investigator.
"We didn't. He's not an animal. He's a superhuman like me, like this Hoshiumi-san. Most superhumans can be dangerous, some are bad, some are good. We were all born human and even after becoming this, we're still no different from the rest of you."
"…And yet you make the difference between humans and superhumans." He answered, shoulders tense.
"Because you are the ones setting us apart! Why do you think so many people are disappearing? They're all superhumans being captured because they're deemed dangerous! So far, most of the 'villains' I've dealt with were just scared and didn't know how to control their powers…"
Oikawa thought deeply about this. He had had his doubts that the people disappearing, including Kiku-chan, were superhumans but… Nite Owl was confirming this? Did it mean he had proof? Why had Kei-chan not told him any of this?
"Are you certain of what you're saying? Do you have any proof that the people disappearing are superhumans?"
Nite Owl flinched, and turned gravely towards the young man.
"I don't. But it's the only way it'd make sense, isn't it? Tsukki told me one of your friends disappeared and that it's part of the reason why you're in contact."
"…Yeah, a friend of mine… who happens to also be my best friend's fiancée. I need to find her… or at least find out what happened to her…"
Nite Owl glanced at him, then he took a deep breath.
"Well, it won't happen right here and right now, unless our fish-friend knows the truth behind that meteor fall and everything that happened ever since. What we need to do is stop Hoshiumi from killing any more people."
He lifted up his left arm and started typing on a screen that was on his forearm. Oikawa stared in awe, feeling like he was in a superhero movie.
"Is it some super-advanced alien technology?"
"No? Just BB-5's latest invention? We're not aliens, y'know?"
"Are you certain? Because this looks just like…"
His voice trailed off when Nite Owl looked back at the sharks' hole. The glasses, incorporated in his helmet to protect his eyes and work as a screen for him, darkened slightly. The sharks' hole was scanned and analysed by BB-5's technology. Nite Owl could see the shape of every fish and shark in the water, and their body heat signature. They all had around the same body temperature, similar to that of the water – except one. There was one shark, bigger than the others that was swimming in circles and had a body temperature much higher than any of his companions. Even higher than a normal human.
"That big shark at the back of the tank," Nite Owl said, pointing at him, "His body temperature isn't right, too high for a fish or human. And look at his movements."
In the midst of all the animals swimming he was easily going undetected, but once he was pointed out, he did appear strange. He was continuously swimming in circles in the exact same area, far away enough to be mostly hidden from view from the public on the other side of the shark hole's glass and from the animal curators watching from above. His movements were agile, fast and erratic. And mostly, at every turn, he made sure to look at Nite Owl and Oikawa Tooru.
"He's looking at us," he remarked.
"Yep. I think he knows who we are and what we're doing." Nite Owl answered without a blink.
"That's creepy."
Suddenly, the shark, or rather, Hoshiumi, changed his swimming direction. Instead of swimming in circles like he had done until now, he charged right at them, his dark eyes full of intelligence.
"Uuum… he's coming towards us…" Oikawa added, stepping back.
"It's fine. He can't do anything to us with the glass there." Nite Owl answered with a shrug.
"He's not slowing down though and–"
The two men startled when the shark didn't stop and crashed right into the thick glass. He was pushed back and they stared at him as he turned away, accelerated and charged again. He ran into the glass again, and the third time around the glass cracked lightly. At every impact, the crack kept spreading further and further through the centimetres of glass, despite what they would have expected from a secured aquarium.
"Is this… supposed to happen?" Oikawa asked, taking a step backwards.
"It should be thick and solid enough to not–"
BAM!
The crack extended further. Nite Owl stepped back as well.
"Um…"
"The water pressure is going to be too much if it keeps cracking like that–"
"He must have a lot of strength if he can break through it–"
BAM! Crack!
"Could we analyse him later, Nite Owl?!" Oikawa exclaimed just as an alarm started sounding, red lights flashing.
A thin spurt of water erupted from the crack. The whole thing would break after a few more hits. Nite Owl opened his mouth to answer just as Hoshiumi hit the glass once again – this time it cracked enough that more water burst from the aquarium. The other fish and sharks were swimming in a panic while Hoshiumi kept his dark eyes on the two of them, determined to get to them and using the shortest way for that.
"We should probably run," Nite Owl said.
He turned around but Oikawa was already running full speed towards the exit. He started following him just as they heard a thunderous sound behind them. They didn't have to look over their shoulders to know that the thick glass had broken. Water started flooding the narrow hall. In less than two seconds, Oikawa and Nite Owl's legs were engulfed by water and they fell down as the water level rose. The water pushed them against the walls.
Nite Owl emerged from the water, struggling to stay grounded while he was surrounded by panicked sea animals. The level wasn't enough for most of the smaller sharks who were fighting to stay underwater. Thankfully, the water had flooded the entire hall and wouldn't drown them as it kept spreading further and further.
"Oikawa!" Nite Owl shouted when he realised the man wasn't in sight.
"I'm here!" He exclaimed.
The hero turned around, seeing the man pressed against the exit door, trying to push them open.
"It's stuck! I can't open the doors!" He exclaimed, starting to walk slowly, painfully, through the water to join Nite Owl, "Where is Hoshiumi?!"
Nite Owl looked around but even though they could see through the water, there was no sign of the superhuman. With the flooding and accident from the sharks' hole the lights had all gone out, there was only the red emergency light flashing with a deafening alarm. The panicked sharks made it even worse in the water, splashing everywhere to breathe and survive.
Suddenly, people came running from the other side of the hall, wearing high waterproof boots:
"What happened?!"
"Get out of here! Stay away!" Nite Owl ordered, not wanting to risk another civilian's life when a shark superhuman was hiding in these waters.
But even from far away, he saw the two animal caretakers' faces turning pale. One of them pointed, and when Nite Owl followed his gaze, he gasped. He saw a shark fin swimming straight towards Oikawa, who didn't notice anything.
"Oikawa! Watch out!" He shouted.
The private investigator looked back at the hero just before he was dragged under the water.
"OIKAWA!"
He saw the water, a translucid red from the emergency light, go cloudy and dark. Nite Owl tried to hurry but even with his super strength and super speed, he wasn't made to go in water – he could barely advance at all even when Oikawa emerged from the water with a scream. He was covered in blood and before anything could be done, another figure emerged. Taller even than Oikawa, in a humanoid shape, Hoshiumi let out a shriek that on the other hand, wasn't human.
Nite Owl shivered when he saw Hoshiumi, his body and face turned into a monstrous chimera between human and shark. The left part of his face was covered in thick blood and he screamed continuously in pain, covering his head with his hands. Nite Owl finally noticed that Oikawa had been holding something in his hand, probably the weapon he had used against the shark. He dropped it and collapsed in the water with a painful gasp.
"Hold on! I'm coming, Oikawa!" Nite Owl shouted, his heart beating fast from the physical effort and in desperation to reach the man before he was devoured.
Thankfully, Hoshiumi had no intention of finishing him at the moment. Having no trouble at all in the water despite his human legs, he stepped away until he fell against the wall. Still breathing rapidly and whining in pain, he leaned against it, then broke through the exit door that had been blocked before.
Water suddenly recessed and Nite Owl almost fell over. He grabbed Oikawa's arm and fell to his knees just as the water spread further, taking the animals with it.
The private investigator was breathing hard, eyes closed tightly as he shakily grabbed his leg. His pants were a deep red and the wound around his right knee kept gushing out blood. But between the water, the blood and the clothes, Nite Owl had no idea how badly injured he was.
"My leg…! My leg!" Oikawa whined, teeth clenching as he held desperately onto the hero.
Just then the two animal caretakers of the aquarium arrived now that the water level was reasonable. They were panicked, but they immediately assessed the man's injury.
"Carry him out of the water and call the hospital! Get him out of this building and with a doctor as soon as possible!" Nite Owl ordered, standing up, "I'm going after this superhuman! Order the evacuation of the entire building! Where does this exit door lead?!" He asked, pointing at where the shark superhuman had gone.
"I-it leads to the restaurant, the shop and the seaside terrace!"
The red emergency lights were still flashing, turning the space into a bloody ocean. The alarm was still ringing, deafening everyone in the building, especially when a recorded voiced message was added to it.
"All employees are requested to leave the building as soon as possible, using the exits as instructed in article 7.13 of the Employee Manual."
There was a pause filled by the alarm before it repeated the same message, over and over again:
"All employees are requested to leave the building as soon as possible, using the exits as instructed in article 7.13 of the Employee Manual. All employees are requested to leave the building as soon as possible, using the exits as instructed in…"
It continued as annoying background noise while Nite Owl ran through an open-air road, past the Seagull shop and into the Aquarium's restaurant. He followed the drops of blood on the ground and talked to BB-5 in the same time.
"BB-5! Hack into the aquarium system and try to get some control here! The alarm and lights are driving me crazy! Try to get me some visual with the surveillance cameras!"
"I'm doing my best," the tech expert answered.
Nite Owl arrived into the Dolphin restaurant, switching from almost complete darkness to a blinding red. He stopped, turning all around but he couldn't see any sign of blood anymore.
"All employees are requested to leave the building as soon as possible, using the exits as instructed in article 7.13 of the Employee Manual. All employees are requested to leave the…"
The tables, chairs and other furniture were disturbing his sense of orientation because of the way he could see them in red flashes. The little dolphins hanging from the ceilings were making shapes that kept startling him.
He was certain Hoshiumi had run into here, but he had used the space and lights to his advantage. Even if he he'd mostly worked with terrestrial animals and mostly birds of prey, Nite Owl knew that sharks could see very well in dark or muddy waters. They could hear sounds humans didn't and had an extremely keen olfactory sense. Those would be mostly advantageous in the water, but right now, he was a human. But how much of his sharks' senses were maintained when he was turning into a man? If he kept any of these senses, Nite Owl was at a clear disadvantage with his sight and his hearing impaired by the aquarium's alarm.
"All employees are requested to leave–"
Nite Owl felt something surging at him from behind. He turned around just as Hoshiumi closed his powerful jaws around his left forearm. The hero grunted, feeling the sharp teeth digging deep through his costume, through flesh and the bone. He couldn't even imagine the pain Oikawa was in right now. Using his shield in his right arm, he hit the left side of Hoshiumi's head, which was already injured. The wereshark stepped away, grunting in pain as Nite Owl retracted in a defensive position, his left arm shaking from pain.
Hoshiumi had a mostly human body, which seemed covered in a thick and glistening grey skin – like a shark's. starting from the shoulders, instead of a neck and a distinctive head, it was turning into a shark head with clear human features that made him look so strange: his entire face and nose were elongated resembling a shark or fish, his mouth was wide and full of shark teeth, but his eyes were human. They were glinting in fury.
Hoshiumi didn't wait for Nite Owl to be ready to attack him. He surged forward, faster than a human should be – as swift as a shark in water, even though he was standing on two legs. He opened his mouth so wide it seemed impossible, but it also meant that he was making himself blind to where he was going. Nite Owl bent down and used his shield once again to hit him from under the jaw. The were-shark almost fell backwards but quickly got back on his feet, glaring at the hero. Without wasting a minute, Nite Owl grabbed a flash bomb that he threw on the ground with closed eyes.
He heard the hissing scream of Hoshiumi as he got blinded. When the light faded, Nite Owl saw him stumbling away, hitting tables and chairs, falling over while covering his eyes. His left arm was too injured to be able to do anything with it, so he strapped his shield against it, gritting his teeth in pain but at least he'd be protected. Going against that shark with his one good arm bare was risky, but he'd have more power and more chances to finish the fight – right now, while he was completely blinded, was the right opportunity.
Nite Owl ran towards Hoshiumi, standing up with a low growl of pain, and punched him right in the head. Hoshiumi almost fell over, letting out a loud gasp. A left kick pushed the were-shark back into tables that broke, but that didn't keep him down at all. Nite Owl noticed his right eye was still closed, but when he went for a punch, Hoshiumi caught his fist with his left, slimy hand, and punched him with his right arm. The hero's head whipped to the side, a little wobbly after such a strong hit, and the shark tried to bite off his head. He jumped away, weakly hitting Hoshiumi with the top of his shield, but it was enough to avoid the powerful jaws just in time. Pain shot through his left arm, making him gasp and grit his teeth. Nite Owl used his right leg to kick him in the chest, forcing the were-shark backwards once again, stumbling into the shards of wooden tables. Another side kick from his left leg made Hoshiumi lose his balance, and a right punch immediately following that almost made him fall down to his knees. Nite Owl jumped into the air, twisted around and used the momentum to kick him with his right leg. The were-shark flew into the air from the force of the kick, crashing into tables as he rolled and slid about ten meters.
The hero stopped, watching the were-shark carefully. The red lights were still flashing, the continuous alarm and message deafening.
"All employees are requested to leave the building as soon as possible, using the exits as instructed in article 7.13 of the Employee Manual. All employees are requested to leave the building as soon as possible, using the exits as instructed in article 7.13 of the Employee Manual. All employees…"
Hoshiumi was still moving a little but didn't seem like he could stand up this time. Nite Owl took handcuffs from his tool belt and moved toward the moaning were-shark. He put down his shield, his left arm shaky, to pull the superhuman's two arms back and put the handcuffs on.
Hoshiumi had stopped moving, turning his head to observe Nite Owl, his human eyes unblinking and making him uncomfortable.
"…You've killed people… we had to stop you…"
Nite Owl stood up and tried to use the interface on his forearm, but it was damaged from the bite. So, he tapped on the microphone on the side of his helmet.
"BB-5? Can you receive me? I've got Hoshiumi in handcuffs. Ask Kuroo, Akaashi or Tsukki if they can come and pick him up."
"Not Shiratorizawa?"
"No… I don't trust them unless it's with filthy criminals."
"Didn't he kill plenty of people already?"
"…I think… Hoshiumi can be reasoned with." Nite Owl said, voice tight with hope.
"…Got it."
Because of the alarm, Nite Owl didn't notice Hoshiumi moving, the shreds of wood falling from his movements. His shoulders and arms twisted and trembled, and slowly, he started to morph his upper body back into a shark. The handcuffs slipped off easily, just as Nite Owl turned around. He instinctively lifted up his arms, the were-shark standing up and shifting his arms back into human ones. His left side was bleeding because of a chair foot that had pierced his skin. Hoshiumi grabbed the metal lump, clenching his jaws as he lightly pulled at it but the pain stopped him.
"…Who…" he said in a raspy, unhuman voice, "Did that…"
His words were barely audible, and hard to understand because of the alarm and message on repeat. He clenched his hand around the metal, making his wound bleed even more, but he didn't seem to care. His eyes were filled with rage, fear and disgust.
"Me… monster… who… did that…" He continued, struggling to pronounce words with his jaws.
Nite Owl opened and closed his lips, before relaxing his shoulders.
"I… I don't know yet… but I'm like you, and I'm looking for a solution. We… we can get help. I'm sure of it!"
Hoshiumi stared at him, his eyes changing from a blood-lust red, to a painful blue – but it was an effect of the flashing light. Or so Nite Owl hoped.
"We can find a solution, maybe even turn back to normal!" Nite Owl exclaimed hopefully.
Hoshiumi tried to say something else but the hero couldn't understand. He stepped closer but the shark immediately backed away, growling like a cornered animal.
"I don't want to hurt you! unless I have to defend myself!" Nite Owl quickly said, lifting up his hands, "I want to help you, I promise! But you need to trust me!"
"…Don't… hurt?" Hoshiumi asked in his raspy voice, waving his free hand towards the hero.
"I won't hurt you, I promise," he said.
"…Hungry… I…"
"I'm hungry all the time too, it's okay! We'll find food and you won't have to kill anyone!"
"Don't hurt…?"
"I won't hurt you, I promise," he repeated with a smile, relief slowly hitting him.
Hoshiumi hesitated for a long time, but he finally took a step towards Nite Owl. He lowered his arms, happy about this unexpected turn of events. As he had half expected, Hoshiumi was, like most superhumans, just scared and hungry. He wanted to understand what had happened to him. Nite Owl would try to save him.
The were-shark was suddenly hit by a dart that Nite Owl recognized at once: a tranquilizer! Hoshiumi cried out and almost fell over again, immediately trying to rip off the tranquiliser dart.
Nite Owl whipped around and saw a young man he had never met, frightened and shaking even though he had just shot the were-shark.
"You killed all these people! I should have done that months ago!" Miura shouted, tears rolling down his cheeks.
"You idiot!" Nite Owl hissed.
Hoshiumi had thrown the dart away and ripped the metal bar from his chest. Blood dripped all over, but he started running through what was left of the restaurant. Nite Owl tried to stop him but the were-shark was faster. He ran straight towards the wide bay window.
"NO!"
Hoshiumi ran straight into it, on purpose or not, Nite Owl couldn't tell. Under the strength of the were-shark, it broke into pieces and the superhuman fell down. They heard a big splash of water and Nite Owl ran to the edge of what was left of the bay window. He looked into the dark water but he couldn't see any sign of–
A shape leapt out of the water, and big, sharp teeth were the first things Nite Owl saw. He stepped away from Hoshiumi, who had turned back into a full-sized shark, but by doing so, the hero lost his footing and fell into the water. It wasn't very deep, but it still allowed the shark to go back into the water. Nite Owl saw Hoshiumi swim swiftly away then turning around to get more momentum. He opened his jaws wide just as Nite Owl tried to avoid him – but he wasn't made to be in water. He closed his eyes, ready for the impact or for his head to be bitten off, whichever would come first. Hoshiumi's jaws snapped just before his nose.
The shark twisted in pain and Nite Owl saw another dart sink into his back. Touching the ground of the artificial pond, he kicked up so he could try to escape the water and the superhuman's jaws while he was distracted by the tranquilizer dart.
Nite Owl took in air with a gasp when he emerged from the water, then he immediately swam and reached for the edge of the restaurant floor. He started lifting himself up with Miura's help, who grabbed him and pulled as fast as possible out of the water.
Behind them, Hoshiumi emerged as well, in human form, screaming out for air. He started to shift into a shark, but the tranquilizer was started to kick in.
When Miura lifted up his tranquilizer gun once again, scared of the superhuman, Nite Owl grabbed his weapon.
"No! Sharks need to swim to breathe! He received two doses already, he won't stay conscious and he'll die, either as human or shark! We need to help him!"
"But he's a monster! He devoured innocent people! And it's my fault for not ending him that night, for not helping him when he needed me!" Miura screamed.
Before they could think of another solution, Hoshiumi started thrashing. He was mostly shark, but trying to revert to human in order to breathe, desperate to stay conscious. Letting out a scream of vengeful pain, he tried to reach the restaurant as well.
"Watch out!"
Nite Owl grabbed Miura and pulled him away, both of them escaping the possible attack from the were-shark.
Suddenly blue lightning illuminated the surface of the artificial lake. Hoshiumi, still half in the water, shouted was he was electrocuted. His body arched, thrashed and convulsed for as long as electricity ran through the water. Then it stopped. And Hoshiumi's anguish, and life, ended as well.
Body human, expression almost peaceful, he was suspended in mid-air for a short moment… then slowly fell backwards into the water.
The smell of burning wood, fish and human mixed together, creating something that was both strange and unpleasant.
Nite Owl and Miura, who had been lucky to not in contact with any drop of water when electricity had hit the surface of the artificial lake, slowly stood up. Nite Owl hesitantly approached the lake, but there was no more electricity to put him in danger. He watched Hoshiumi's body floating in the water, his agony over.
The hero looked up and swallowed hard. Oikawa, leg bandaged and standing with the help of several men – animal caretakers from the aquarium, some police officers and even doctors who had come after the emergency call – still held his arm up. He was shaking and pale, probably from pain of even moving, but he had shot an electrical wave from a Taser into the water.
Miura, shaking and crying on the floor, watched as Nite Owl calmly turned around, grabbed his shield and then left. No one saw him again that night. While the police, then the Shiratorizawa Special Force (who had heard about it after a call from a local police officer) investigated everything, Hoshiumi's body was collected from the water. Oikawa was brought to the hospital and was operated on. His doctor fully intended to give him the scolding of a lifetime when he woke, for even thinking of standing up after getting his leg bitten by a shark.
"So, nothing left for us to do here except try to cover up as much of it as possible," Semi mumbled as the body of the superhuman was taken away.
"Send his body to the CRS anyway, they might find out something during the autopsy." Ushijima answered.
Semi frowned, staring at his friend and leader.
"But the Centre isn't equipped for autopsies, even with all their laboratories…"
"We can't bring this corpse to the Miyagi Police Station, and we haven't had any case of a superhuman dying before we caught it. We have no choice but send it to the CRS. Create a team of medical examiners, we might have a situation like this one again."
Semi was in charge of handling most of the exchanges between the Centre of Research for Superhumans and the military team – he had only gone there twice and now that he thought about it… They weren't sending him as many data as he would have expected. He had been too busy with the Miyagi Police Station and the other missions to notice earlier but…
He watched Ushijima walk away. He was Washijou's subordinate – Washijou who wasn't satisfied with the Shiratorizawa Special Force's current results.
Why would Ushijima mention superhumans dying, while implying that they had met such a fate after they had been caught?
But even if suspicion and doubts were gnawing at his heart, Semi obeyed the orders.
A few days later, at the JCHO Tokyo Takanawa Hospital…
Oikawa Tooru woke up calmly, the pain almost completely gone – or maybe it was the painkillers that were too effective.
He didn't remember anything after ending Hoshiumi's life; he had finally fallen unconscious from blood loss and the sheer pain in his leg. He had been driven to the hospital and operated on. His next memory was waking up and getting scolded by his surgeon for the sheer foolishness of his actions. Police had interrogated him – they'd send their reports to the Shiratorizawa Special Force, they wouldn't even bother coming to see him directly, after all. Then, it had been Iwaizumi's scolding, even less pleasant than the doctor's. Hanae-chan had called, promising to visit as soon as possible.
And…
Last night, he had received an unexpected visit from a bird of prey.
Oikawa had been dozing off when he woke up, startled. Nite Owl stood in his hospital room, staring down at him with the moon behind him. A window was open, letting fresh air in. The private investigator tried to sit up, winced when pain shot through his leg, and settled for a half-sitting position.
"A-are you here to kill me?" He asked in a hushed voice.
"What? No!" Nite Owl exclaimed, making a face at the strange accusation, "Why would I come to kill you?"
"Your sudden appearance in my hospital room in the middle of the night, in such a suspicious situation, would make anyone think that – did you come through the window? We're on the third floor of the building! How did you even make it up there?!"
"I have my ways," he answered with a shrug before stepping forward and glancing at the injured leg, hidden under the white sheets.
Without the moon giving him an eerie and dangerous look from the back, he looked less like he was here to murder Oikawa – but he still wasn't completely reassured.
"How… what…" He asked, pointing at the leg.
"Ah… Lucky, the doctor said. No broken bone, but it'll take a little bit of time for the muscles and tissues to get fixed and I'll have an ugly scar… I'll be able to walk again eventually…" Oikawa said, head landing against the pillow as he stared up at the hospital ceiling.
The car headlights from the street made the room light up in occasional flashes. It drove him insane.
He turned a tired gaze towards Nite Owl, who kept his lips thin.
"…But?" He encouraged, knowing there was more than "lucky" to his wound.
"ACL injury. The ligament was completely torn, probably from the pressure and the way Hoshiumi twisted my leg. Or so the doctor says."
He took a deep, heavy breath, trying to sit up again.
"I'll be able to walk and run, it'll just take a lot of time to fix it. It could be worse I guess."
"I guess…"
"You're not here just to enquire on my well-being, though. You want to know why I decided to come back and kill Hoshiumi, isn't it?" Oikawa said in a low voice that was almost as raspy as Hoshiumi's had been.
Nite Owl didn't answer, just stared at him.
"I wanted to help and everyone tried to keep me away from the aquarium. When we heard a crashing sound through the restaurant's bay window, we saw Hoshiumi and you falling into it. I didn't know Miura-san had shot tranquilizers at him. I just saw that he was about to go back into the restaurant to end you… I took my Taser gun and aimed for the water. I only wanted to help…"
His voice broke and he looked away. His expression was stern and his eyes unflinching.
"You don't feel guilty at all." Nite Owl remarked, narrowing his eyes at the private investigator.
He looked up at the hero, mouth twisting into a grin.
"I can't afford guilt. I'm not a hero like you. I had a job, which was to investigate on a supposed 'alien' and try to capture it alive. It was a murderer who put you and others in danger. I did what I needed to do to ensure people's safety in case he escaped you."
"But even if he had become a superhuman, he–"
"Don't be mistaken, Nite Owl, I didn't kill him because he was a superhuman. I did it because he had become a murderer, a danger for everyone. If he had been a regular human, I would have made the exact same decision." Oikawa said in a cold and resolute voice.
Nite Owl stared at him, golden eyes shining in the night and clenched his fists. It was obvious for Oikawa that he was feeling terribly guilty about Hoshiumi's death, despite his crimes. But it was all the more obvious that Nite Owl understood his choice and wouldn't hurt Oikawa for making it.
Oikawa Tooru never held any regrets in his heart, especially not because of the path he had chosen to follow.
Nite Owl stopped clenching his fists and his shoulders relaxed, even though his eyes were still as sharp.
"Thank you, for saving my life twice… but I won't let anyone else die, human or superhuman." He said in a firm voice.
"That's admirable of you, which is why you're the hero, and not me." Oikawa answered with a shrug.
"I suppose."
Nite Owl turned around, about to jump out the window, but he turned around at the last moment:
"By the way, I am going to seriously dig into what really happened the night and why we… why it happened." He said, his eyes shining like a predator's, "And… I don't expect you to feel any regrets for your decision of killing Hoshiumi… it might have been the best option at that moment… but he hadn't wanted to become a killer. He was scared, hungry and confused. He didn't choose to be a monster."
The golden eyes looked right into Oikawa's, his message clear. Hoshiumi hadn't chosen to become a monster, but the one who had pulled the final trigger might have. Oikawa let out a bitter chuckle.
"Don't you dare give me that look, Nite Owl… Committing monstrous acts is part of being human. I don't mind being a monster in your eyes if I saved people by killing Hoshiumi the other night."
"…I wish you a smooth recovery, Oikawa." Nite Owl said in a sharp voice.
He hopped out the window, grabbing a rope and let himself slide down to the ground.
Tooru let out a heavy sigh, lifting up his arm to cover his eyes. He couldn't handle seeing the lights of the cars driving by. It reminded him too much of the flashing red light from that night. All that blood. The light of the electricity running through the water. That hideous smell.
Oikawa Tooru never held any regrets in his heart, but guilt was one of his most familiar demons.
Tooru stared at the landscape he could see from his hospital room: the sky and the nearby grey buildings. The night was falling, and he couldn't wait to see tomorrow's sunrise. He was expecting more nightmares and not much sleep.
A knock at the door had him look up. His heart missed a beat when he saw Minami Hanae. She carried a big bouquet of flowers, probably bugged with some microphone, and smiled sadly.
"H-how are you doing…?" She asked gently, putting down the flowers.
"Beside the fact that I fought and killed a shark-superhuman-mutant and almost lost my leg? I'm fit as a fiddle!" He said with a smile.
She looked around, and after some hesitation, sat down.
"So… so… how is your leg…?" She said slowly, as if saying a wrong word might injure him all over again.
"…I'll be able to walk after some recovery time."
"That's great!" She exclaimed with so much relief in her eyes, it was hard not to believe her with his whole heart.
Tooru looked away, lips tight. Tension filled the air and she must have felt it because she became silent and still, observing him closely.
"Can I tell you the story of the only time I fell in love?" He suddenly spoke up.
Hanae looked up, opening and closing her lips, surprised by his change of subject.
"O-of course…"
He took a deep breath, then started his tale, giving just enough details that would make her react.
"I've always been fascinated with space and aliens. Back when I was still living near Sendai, I often went off in some nights to watch the stars. One night, I was still in high school, a girl my age ran into me. She was crying and yet, the most beautiful woman I had ever met."
He paused, seeing the way Hanae's eyes shone, her face stern and her hands unmoving in her lap.
"For some reason, we sat down and talked, for hours and hours until the morning light came. She told me her family had raised generations and generations of soldiers and spies working for Japan. Her cousin was destined to become some high-ranked leader and she would become a ruthless spy. If she could survive the test they had prepared for her."
He paused again. She wasn't breathing anymore, trembling slightly.
"She had been unable to sleep and wanted to run away. She told me her dream was to study literature, not become a weapon for her family to use as they pleased. I never saw her again after that night, but that one night was enough for me to fall in love with her… or the idea of her. Or whatever idea of her had bloomed after so many years. Her name was Sasaki Shiori."
Tooru turned his chocolate eyes towards Minami Hanae who stared back, cold and unflinching.
"I know Sasaki Shiori survived that test and became the spy and weapon her family had raised, because she's been spying on me for weeks now. So tell me, what are you…"
He paused, chuckled, then corrected his sentence with a satisfied smile and knowing glint in his eyes:
"What is the Shiratorizawa Special Force trying to find out from me?"
Thank you for reading this chapter!
The next mini-arc will be focused on Bokuto, and his past will come back.
Yours Truly,
May