Heero looked at the woman lying unconscious at his feet in distaste.
"You are lucky I am not allowed to hurt the likes of you." He said, expression cold.
He took out a handkerchief from the back pockets of his pants and wiped the blood off of his sword and himself. Then, he sheathed it back and walk out of the building silently.
Another witness added to the list. He was getting bad at his job. Either that, or they were getting good at escaping him. He had to train himself up again. It was too close a shave before it could have did its seventh kill and after that, it could have been near impossible to catch it.
Creatures he hunts were called 'Oni'. These were monsters that feast on human blood. In daytime, they live like any other human being under their uncanny human disguise. They look, eat, talk, live and breathe like any other human being. When there is a full moon, they evolve back to their usual self to make seven kills in order to attain immortality of their kind to live as a creature of the dark for the rest of their lives, preying on unsuspecting humans every night. Otherwise, on other nights, they stay in their human form.
Death tolls in cities plagued by Onis were high.
Hunters of the Onis were becoming fewer. Some had fell victims to these creatures during their hunts. Others had allowed these creatures to make their seventh kill and in turn, killed by its stronger form.
It was inevitable.
"Was it a clean kill?" The young man leant on the car parked outside of the building.
Heero looked at the speaker.
"Quatre." He greeted. Stopping in his direction, he spoke up again, "One unconscious witness at the ground floor. The creature's in the lift at the eighth floor."
"So it was not. The clean up team will be here soon. I can take the witness in my car. You are done for today. Need a ride home?"
"No. I'll walk."
"Ok then, see you in the afternoon's debriefing."
Heero waved, back towards Quatre as he walked up the streets.
Those creatures would not quit now that their leader was gone. Today was just the second night of the full moon. The hunt was only beginning.
Like animals, Onis have pack leaders. Heero was assigned to kill off this pack in this part of the city. It was a mistake to kill the leader first. They were a bunch of fiercely loyal night creatures. They would die for their leader. Now, its pack members would be infuriated. They would be hunting in groups tomorrow, for more victims, and he was sure he would be the first one on the list. For cold blooded revenge.
He had to catch some sleep if he had to fight them all off the next night.
.ooooo.
Heero woke up with a start. Getting home was a fuzzy memory. He vaguely remembered taking a shower before sleeping. That was a comfort. He had not wanted any of the monster's blood on his bed sheet.
Groggily, he made it into the bathroom.
Changing into his uniform, he grabbed his wallet and keys off the table and went out of the house.
The route to the office was full of obstacles; construction roadblocks, traffic jams, drunk driver and reckless cyclists. He made it to the office in one piece, five minutes late. All thanks to his habit of leaving the house early.
He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of an empty room with Inspector Une tapping her pen impatiently very front of the meeting table.
"Inspector." He saluted.
Une nodded back and sighed, "Quatre had a late night talking to the witness and counseling her. So he will be late. The rest are, as usual, fashionably late."
Heero gave her an apologetic smile and sat down two seats apart from her right.
"Heero." Une spoke, "I heard last night's hunt was less than pleasant. What exactly happened?"
Heero snapped his head up at her. He gave some thoughts to last night's event before replying.
"It managed to shake me off its trail for a while before capturing him. One human fell victim to its attack while I lost him."
"And the previous five made it almost seven yesterday?"
It was rhetorical but Heero nodded anyway.
"Well, six is a better number than many more if it succeeded in its evolution." Une directed a sympathetic look at Heero, "It would have been worse."
That was Une's best effort at comforting so far. Heero nodded, not knowing what to say to that.
"Inspector!" The latecomer at the door greeted.
"Lieutenant Wufei. How pleasant of you to join us at this time."
Wufei huffed indignantly but he apologized anyway, "I am sorry, there had been some mixed up in the office below and a particular 'someone' was barging into the office with uniform, no visitor badge. They wanted someone with a certain authority to speak to him so I got called. However, it turned out that this person..."
Wufei stepped aside to reveal a man of age, at most twenty, dressed in leather jacket and pants, smiling gleefully at the both of them in the room.
"...Was supposed to be in the meeting with us today, instead of being 'human-barricaded', as he described, out of the building."
"Hi Inspector Une, err... " He looked at Heero, visibly stumped.
"Sergeant Yuy." Wufei helpfully prompted at his side.
"Oh, Sergeant Yuy!"
Both of them moved to the opposite of Heero and sat down. It was then, both Une and Heero gaped at the length of the braid that trailed after the new person.
The person sheepishly smiled at the both of them, cradling his hair in a protective mode.
"You are Lieutenant Duo Maxwell, right? The one the office at the west sent over to us to join our meeting today." Une asked.
Duo stood up and proffered his right hand at Une.
"Sorry I forgot to introduce myself. That's right, it's me, Lieutenant Duo Maxwell at your service."
Une took his hand and shook it with a firm hold. Duo winced slightly at the pressure. Though, it did escape Une's eyes that she had too strong a grip on him, but it amused Wufei and Heero to no end that Duo was struggling to retain his smile as his right hand continued to suffer abuse.
Finally, when it was relieved of its torture, Duo held it endearingly with his left hand under the table. Wufei flashed a knowing smile in Heero's direction. Heero replied with a smirk.
Someone knocked at the door and opened it.
"Oh, so sorry I am late!" It was Quatre. "I had no idea the thing with the witness took such a long time."
He was barely catching his breath as he sat in between Une and Heero. He looked about the room and paused at the direction of Duo.
"This is?"
"He's..." Before Une got to finish, Duo interrupted.
"Lieutenant Duo Maxwell! Just transferred from the office in the west district to this area to help out in the case. And you?" He grinned from ear to ear but no hand was offered. It seemed that he had learnt his lessons.
Quatre smiled, "Sergeant Quatre R. Winner. The 'clean-up' officer for the case."
If Une was unhappy about the interruption, she did not say a thing. Instead, she kicked off the meeting.
"We'll start the meeting. Is Sally going to be attending the meeting, Wufei?"
"She is busy at the forensics department. Seems like something new came up with one of its victim."
"Did it turn into one of its kind?" Duo asked, voice brimming with curiosity.
"I hope not." Quatre looked decidedly pale.
"I checked all the corpses. They were perfectly dead." Heero chipped in.
"Gross. You did that?" Duo made a disgusted face at Heero, which Heero blatantly ignored.
"It's part of the job description." Quatre grinned at Duo.
"Oh gosh, that must be the funniest thing I heard since morning!" Duo laughed at Quatre who was beaming at a successful joke.
"Ahem," Une cleared her throat loudly. Duo immediately forced his laughter down. "What happened Wufei?"
"One of the corpses was scratched before his blood ran dry, we suspect he could have caught the mutation before he died, so they are keeping a close on his corpse."
"That wouldn't be necessary." Heero said, "He was drained dry of any blood that could have caught the mutation, just contact his family and get over and done with."
"How would you know?" Duo looked at Heero who looked pointedly back. After a pregnant pause between them, Duo shuddered and changed his mind. "On second thoughts, I don't really want to know."
"Ok Yuy, I will inform Sally Po that." Wufei knew better than to doubt Heero. After all...
"So six victims accounted with death by accident, their families will be contacted. One of it was successfully killed. That's all for the debriefing. Any questions?" Une asked the four of them. All four shook their heads.
"We can go right into tonight's mission briefing then." Quatre supplied.
"So, what's gonna happen tonight?" Duo rubbed his hands together excitedly.
Heero raised an eyebrow at Duo who just stopped his antics to smiled and shrugged in reply.
"About today, our intelligence told us there are still seven of them out there. I am not sure if all of them will evolve to make their attack during full moon this month but it's better if we prepare for the five of them. Any suggestions? Sergeant Yuy?" Une looked at Heero expectantly.
"That will be adequate. I will be out in the head of the hunt. The others will just be in charge of protecting citizens. Quatre will clean up after I give the all clear signal, all as usual."
"Heero,"
Heero frowned. He did not like it when Une called him by his name. Usually, a favor was attached to it.
"There will be a slight change in plans tonight. Duo will be your immediate backup. He is experienced in these hunts. He and his partner did hunts in their districts." Une looked at him pleadingly.
"I don't need backups," especially not tonight. Heero left that part unsaid. Tonight would be dangerous. There will be more than the five their intelligence picked up and all of them will be targeting him. Another person will only serve to burden him.
Heero looked up at Duo expecting him to be angry. Only that Duo looked slightly hurt. His eyes widened slightly in surprise. Wufei rubbed his head on his palm resignedly. He expected that from Heero. Ever since Heero arrived in their district, Wufei's hunter's position had been reduced to office work. He held no grudge. The 24 stitches scar on his back serve a painful reminder as to why Heero requested him to be off the field.
He had been backup for Heero on his first mission since his transfer. But there had been a huge trouble when all of those monsters turn to target at Wufei instead of evading capture. Wufei was rendered useless by the time Heero got to him. Single-handedly, Heero killed all of them. The sight was horrible. Parts of bodies decorated the asphalt, blood splattered everywhere in dark puddles and Heero stood in the middle of it all, soaked in their blood, unharmed.
In his half conscious state, he had been persuaded by Heero to drink something before he was sent to the special ops' A. and E. He was immediately disinfected and stitched up, miraculous freed from mutation under a month's watch. That was when Wufei truly learnt of Heero. And he never interfered otherwise from then on. The scar on his back painfully reminded him of his place when Heero requested him off the field as soon as he recovered. Heero had been on the job alone ever since.
"It's different this time round, Heero. Seven in one hunt is far from the numbers you have been dealing with. We can't lose you while they are on a mad rampage. Take Duo with you. He's good at what he's doing, you know. He was highly recommended by the ups." Une pleaded.
"I won't be a burden. I know you are good. And that somehow you are immune to their mutation. I am not but I don't bleed easily in a fight. At most, I won't turn up until you call for me." Duo added.
"Heero, please. It would be a nice change to not make me worried for once." Quatre pleaded along.
Heero sighed. Wufei smirked. He had caved in. All thanks to Quatre's guilt trip.
"Only when I call." He said.
"I promise. Cross my heart." Duo beamed at Heero for all he's worth.
Heero sighed inwardly. Hopefully tonight, there would, at most, be twelve of them; he could handle nine, at least.