AN: I usually put these at the end, but I'm making a specific exception for this particular chapter. Mostly because this particular chapter is very, VERY overdue. I said I was taking a short break between volumes, but one thing turned into another, life got in the way, and it's been far too long since I posted the last chapter to just slap this one up without any explanation. In truth, I had the least amount of ideas going into this volume in particular. Writer's block and a lack of motivation to write this volume in particular delayed the writing process even further, and the pace at which I wound up writing this volume was appallingly slow.
However, I will assure you that I have a lot, and I mean A LOT more ideas for my next volume, so after I upload the entirety of Volume 2, I'll really only be taking a short break before uploading Volume 3 (honest this time). Anyway, without further ado, here's the long-overdue prologue to Volume 2. Since this one is naturally a bit shorter, I'll be posting Chapter 1 tomorrow, after which I will return to a weekly posting schedule much like the first volume (which means Fridays this time). Enjoy, and remember, reviews are always appreciated!
Disclaimer: To Aru Majutsu no Index and all associated characters, settings, and concepts are all the intellectual property of Kazuma Kamachi and ASCII Media Works, and I claim no ownership.
Any similarities to real life persons or situations is purely coincidental. This is a purely fictitious work.
_Volume 2_
Prologue
Darkness
New_FANGS.
"Hey! You brats! Get back here!"
The sound of panting and pounding footsteps echoed through the dark alleyways of District 7 as an unfamiliar woman chased after a couple of thuggish-looking delinquents.
The woman, who looked to be in her thirties, was dressed in very iconic attire for the citizens of Academy City. It would be hard to mistake the dark blue combat suit and the bulletproof vest she wore over it for anything other than one of their uniforms, but the unmistakable emblem across her chest would leave no room for doubt.
This woman was an officer of Anti-Skill.
"I said get back here! Don't you know what 'under arrest' means!?"
The woman knew she was doing little more than wasting her breath on two hopeless, petty criminals, but she was so irreconcilably pissed that she had to chase them down in the first place that she couldn't help but yell at them. It took every ounce of her being to keep her from destroying any air of professionalism she had left and shouting obscenities at them through the city's backstreets.
"SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!" the woman cursed mentally, "I can't believe this shit! First the higher-ups work us half to death investigating that shitty parking garage incident, and the first night I'm back on regular patrol, I run into two damn brats who make me chase them through the whole damn city!"
As the two thuggish oafs before her lumbered their way through the labyrinthine network of alleys and walkways that seemed to make up an entirely different world in the bowels of a bright and clean city, they made their way to a chain-link fence with a hole large enough to squeeze through one at a time.
On the other side of the fence was an antiquated building that had clearly been abandoned years ago. It was probably a remnant of the many projects Academy City had started and subsequently abandoned, now little more than a husk standing in wait for someone to either purchase and revitalize it or demolish it completely.
From her extensive knowledge of the area that was a prerequisite for her job, the Anti-Skill officer recalled that the building had been something of a small refinery designed to produce high tech alloys and substances for the city's research. However, once the city decided to group all the production facilities in District 17, the refinery was deemed unnecessary and abandoned. At the same time, it meant that the entire building was windowless and built with the purpose of housing large, automated machinery. There wouldn't be many places for the two to hide once they entered.
Still, it wasn't like the Anti-Skill officer expected either of the thuggish rejects to know about the building in the first place. Even if by some happenstance they did know about the internal layout of the structure, she didn't really expect them to care too much. Her suspicions were more or less confirmed when the two petty criminals slithered through the gap in the fence and disappeared into the darkness of the open entryway.
"Tch," the woman scoffed, staring up at the barrier in front of her. She glared at the fence in a mixture of frustration and deep thought, as though contemplating whether squeezing through the fence just to nab the two delinquents was even remotely worth it.
In the end, the Anti-Skill officer let out an exasperated sigh and squeezed clumsily through the small hole in chain-link fence. As she passed through, part of her sleeve pressed up against a jagged edge of one of the broken wires, ripping through her uniform and scratching across her arm painfully.
The woman cursed and looked down, noticing a rather shallow cut that ran just deep enough to draw blood poking through the tear in the arm of her bodysuit. Still, she had come this far, and she was already late for the end of her patrol. If she showed up back at the station empty-handed, she was worried her boss would think she was slacking off instead of doing her job properly.
"Damn those brats," she mumbled under her breath, a look of irritation clear as day on her face, "If they think they're getting off easy after this-"
The woman stopped talking abruptly when one of the delinquents came barreling out of the abandoned building in a blind panic. Running at full speed and without looking, he slammed right into the Anti-Skill officer he had been running from.
No, it didn't seem accidental. The boy who had been running away from her like a petty criminal moments before was now attempting to cling to her like a kid clinging to his mother.
After all he had put her through, the Anti-Skill officer was not about to take that standing down.
"Get the hell off me!" She yelled, grabbing the delinquent and pinning him to the ground in one swift motion.
Instead of struggling to escape, the delinquent on the ground began looking towards the entrance way of the building with a terrified expression.
"T-there… there's s-something in there!"
The Anti-Skill officer sighed and looked over at the entrance way of the building before turning her attention back to the delinquent pinned to the ground.
"Yeah right. I know how this works. You run out, convince me to investigate the building, then your cheeky friend pops out from just behind the entrance way and-"
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
The terrified scream came from somewhere within the building, and while the Anti-Skill officer was unfamiliar with the two delinquents she had chased down, it was not entirely out of the realm of possibility that the scream had in fact been the other escapee.
It occurred to the woman that there very well might be something in the building after all.
At this thought, the woman gulped audibly.
"Alright you! Stay put!"
The Anti-Skill officer grabbed the delinquent's arms and handcuffed them behind his back before standing up. The delinquent, who was so keen on escaping moments earlier, merely nodded and sat up in the dirt, a worried look plastered across his face.
The woman took a few tentative steps towards the building, reaching for her flashlight as she approached the dark entrance way of the building. The windowless structure of the building meant that, even for abandoned buildings go, this particular building was almost pitch black inside. As she pointed her flashlight into the sea of darkness, she caught sight of what looked like a completely empty abandoned factory. Taking no chances, she approached the entrance way from an angle and pressed her back up against the outside right edge of the entrance way.
Ensuring that the inside left edge of the entrance way was clear of any would-be delinquent ambushes, the woman moved across to the left in order to check the right side. Only after had she ensured both sides were clear did she bother entering the old refinery at all.
Because the building had been shut down so early in its development, the ground floor was entirely devoid of the large machines necessary for refining. This made it incredibly easy for the Anti-Skill officer to scan back and forth through the entire building, looking for the second delinquent, as well as anything else that might be lurking in the shadows. As she swung her flashlight back and forth, using the beam of light to cut through the darkness that surrounded her, she caught something out of the corner of her eyes.
Swinging her whole body around to face it, she shined her light on a large, antique wooden box with intricate silver adornments and a very distinct shape.
"A… A coffin!?"
The woman gulped once more and began taking slow, cautious steps towards the intricate coffin. The rest of the abandoned building was empty. There was simply nowhere else to hide in the entire refinery outside of the box before her.
"This better not be some damn prank," the woman yelled angrily, though she was sure she was too far into the building to be heard by the delinquent outside. Perhaps she had intended to unnerve the second delinquent under the assumption he was lying in the coffin in wait, ready to jump out the second she got close.
As the woman got closer and closer to the coffin, she noticed something rather odd. The lid of the coffin appeared to be hinged and attached directly to the box, but instead of resting flush in a fully closed position, the lid of the coffin was slightly ajar. There didn't appear to be anything holding the lid up, at least from the outside, meaning that there was probably someone inside peeking out.
The Anti-Skill officer frowned to herself and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"Very funny. You know if you had come quietly you'd have probably gotten off light."
The woman made her way directly before the coffin and grabbed the lid, throwing it open and looking into it with mild irritation.
Her expression immediately changed to one of shock as she laid eyes on the cloudy-eyed corpse of the second delinquent she had been chasing around the city. His body was deformed, shriveled up and wrinkled as though something had sucked all the moisture from his body. His face was frozen in an expression of pure terror, and his wrists were bruised as though he had been forcibly restrained.
Her hand immediately shot up to her mouth as she suppressed a loud gasp, and she recalled the utter terror of the handcuffed delinquent outside.
"What the hell!? What did this?"
The woman's hand immediately shot to her radio as she turned around to evacuate the abandoned building. If whatever it was that was in here had the power to drain the fluids out of someone with some sort of ability, she would need backup.
"Hello!? Mitoshi-san? This is Iwako! I've discovered the scene of a potential homicide while patrolling, Possible Esper involved! Requesting immediate backup! I'm at-"
Before the woman, Iwako, could report her position, a hand emerged from the shadows and grasped her arm tightly, squeezing her wrist so hard she was forced to drop the radio on the ground.
A bare foot stepped out of the shadows and crushed the device beneath it with seemingly inhuman strength. Iwako managed to turn herself around, moving her other arm to shine light in the face of her captor. Instead, the figure's other arm shot forwards and snatched her other arm, almost crushing her wrist with their strength and forcing her to relinquish her grip on the flashlight. As it fell to the ground, the stream of light cut across the figure standing before her and she caught the briefest of glimpses of the thing restraining her.
The masculine figure was covered in extensive injuries, from facial lacerations to huge bruises running across his bare chest. Broken skin and deep cuts peppered his body with dark red streaks, and what remained of his clothes was torn and tattered.
His eyes were sharp and his irises were an inhuman red, giving the figure a fiercely menacing glare. As the light passed over him and fell to the ground, it seemed that his eyes were the one thing that refused to disappear. It was as if they were glowing on their own as opposed to glinting in the light filtering in through the entryway.
"It's not very nice to go through people's stuff," the man replied. His voice was every bit as rough and menacing as he looked, but there was a strange underlying tone of something the woman couldn't quite place. In spite of the situation, there was something calming about his words.
The man leaned in closer to her and brought his mouth near her ear, making her shiver with the feeling of his breath brushing past the side of her neck.
"Sorry for my appearance. My injuries are taking longer to heal than I anticipated."
Iwako could do nothing but listen as he whispered into her ears. Her heart was racing furiously in her chest, but there was little she could do against this guy without a proper weapon. With her restrained like this, he had the upper hand.
She felt him lean back and watched as his ominous red eyes scanned her from top to bottom. After he had looked her over, as if inspecting a statue or a piece of artwork, he leaned in again and turned her arm until the torn part of her sleeve was facing him. He then leaned in and ran his tongue across the wound, licking up some of her blood.
"Yes. You're exactly what I've been waiting for. You'll do nicely."
Iwako froze up in terror at his words, a feeling of disgust rising up in the pit of her stomach.
Feeling her tense up, the man let out another raspy chuckle.
"Oh no. My intentions for you are not so impure, I assure you."
There was that strange underlying tone again. It was as though something in the man's voice made Iwako want to trust him despite her mind screaming at her that she shouldn't.
"I'm going to let go of your arms now. Don't try to run."
Iwako nodded almost absentmindedly, barely even processing what it was he had just said. Her whole body was tense, as though she were prepared to escape, but as man released her arms she found herself frozen in place. Without resisting, the woman stood there as the man raised his arms and grabbed the collar of her Anti-Skill uniform.
"Tch… this vest is in the way. I'm going to remove it."
Before Iwako knew what was happening, the man had forcibly ripped the bulletproof vest off of her, tearing effortlessly through the reinforced straps holding it to her body. Swiftly after, he had managed to unzip a considerable portion of her bodysuit. However, instead of her breasts, he was moving her uniform to get an unimpeded view of her now-exposed neck.
As the man moved to lean in closer and closer to her bare neck, he opened his mouth and white teeth caught the faint light filtering in through the doorway behind her. Two incredibly sharp fangs glinted in the moonlight as he closed in, and his eyes were filled with an inhuman hunger that chilled Iwako to the bone.
She knew she should run. Every fiber of her being was screaming at her body to run. Yet for some reason, all she could do was stand there silently as she felt the man's fangs sink into the her neck as the world around her faded into complete darkness.
To Be Continued...