Disclaimer: See previous chapters

Chap. 20

-"The earthquake had reached 4.5 on the Richter scale, following an unusual stream of earthquakes that have rippled throughout the world as of late, leaving many wondering if another one will strike and if so, when?"-

-"In other news, an outbreak of zoanthropes has occurred in Okinowa around the time of the earthquake. Police officers arrived on the scene in time to subdue the rampage, but this will undoubtedly cause high officials to take more aggressive actions. Now for the weather…"-

Yugo sighed behind his desk as he tuned out the news report on TV. Things were getting bad out there and were getting worse. He had tried everything in his power to try to simmer down whatever it was that were causing zoanthrope to go berserk, but the problem seemed far beyond him. Even Gado was having trouble keeping the UN in peace about the zoanthropes and he could only hold them at bay for so long. People were getting scared and Yugo knew all to well that fear can soon lead to misguided anger and further problems. Gado suggested that there must have been a connection between the earthquake and the attacks and Yugo wasn't surprised. All the events that had occurred lately couldn't have been a coincidence. They just had to find out how.

Beep, beep. Beep, beep.

Yugo reached down to his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Flipping it open, he placed it beside his head.

"Hello?"

"Yugo."

"Long? What's up?"

"I might have found some information. Come down to the South Town library at once."

"A library? I always figured you were a nerd, Long." Yugo joked.

"Just come." Long sighed.

Uriko skipped down the streets on her way to meet with up with Kenji. School was out for the day because of the earthquake, so she had a lot of time today. It had taken lot for her to decide to go back after what happened the night before. She was nervous, but in a good way. Something…happened that night. Just like at the dance when she was with Kenji. Uriko smiled, remembering the tingling sensation she felt. But while she felt this way, she was still nervous. It was like she didn't quite know what to do around him anymore. It was just…weird.

And why did she say that she loved him?

Arff, arff!

The light bark almost caused her to jump (she is a cat zoanthrope after all) and she wheeled her head around to see the source. Looking into an alley across the street, she saw the little white fox that was at the school before. Only now, it seemed to be running away. And Uriko soon saw why. Causing behind it was a weird-looking man, wearing a vacation shirt and having pointed hair. Uriko recognized him instantly, with sharp anger and disgust.

'Busuzima!'

The gangly mad scientist chased after the fox into the alley with Uriko watching. She thought that guy should have been gone a long time ago. And now he was chasing that fox. He's probably going to use it in one of his sick experiments. Her fists balled up. 'Well, I'm not going to allow it.' She dashed into the alley and soon found that Busuzima had cornered the fox against the building walls. The fox barked loudly at him, but he simply closed it.

"I'm going to have a lot of fun with you, Nine-Tails." he giggled. "I have a lot of plans for you.

Uriko stepped out from the side, having heard enough, "Hey you big jerk. Leave it alone!"

Busuzima turned around and faced the young girl, "Oh it's you. I don't have time to play with you kitten. This creature here…" he pointed to the white fox, "Will be a better test experiment that you'll ever be."

Uriko snarled, "I don't think so. You leave that fox alone, right now!"

"Oh, who's going to stop me? You?" Busuzima taunted. Uriko's eyes flashed with anger and she charged swiftly. Busuzima was caught flat-sided by her kick and smashed back against the wall. The scientist shook his head and fumed.

"Oh, is that how it's going to be!" he raged. Even as he spoke, Uriko could see the scales forming on his skin and his size beginning to increase. Uriko fell into fighting stance, her own eyes turning into thin slits and her ears perking up. But suddenly, the fox dashes out of the alley and into the streets. Busuzima stopped in his change and ran after it, brushing past Uriko in the process.

"Come back here! No!!!"

Uriko's change reversed as well, giving a look of confusion to the mad scientist. 'What is he thinking? And why does he want that fox?' She remembered the name he had called it. Nine-Tails. Appropriate, but strange. She suddenly blinked. 'Oh my gosh! I was supposed to have gotten to Kenji's house by now.' Momentarily forgetting what just happened, she dashed out of the ally and toward Kenji's house.

Yugo exited his car and strode over to the library. The building didn't seem to suffer much from the earthquake, although there seemed to have been some light structural damage. Walking up to the doorway, he entered inside and his vision was soon filled with shelves and stacks of books from wall to wall and in between. Standing by one of the reference desks was Long, holding what seemed to be an old weathered book.

"Hey Long." Yugo called out. However, Long raised a finger to his lips, telling him to keep it down. Yugo blinked after remembering that he was still in a library and moved over to him.

"You know, you look like you should work here." Yugo joked.

"What makes you think I don't?" Long was satisfied by the surprised look on Yugo's face and before the wolf zoanthrope could comment back, Long continued, "Now on to the business at hand."

He moved over to on of the desks and sat down. Fuming to himself at being silenced like that, Yugo sat down as well. Long opened the book and began to explain.

"During my search, I thought about looking for any information that might be similar to this or maybe even related." He looked down at the book before him. "This is all I found."

"An old book?"

"This book was written some centuries ago by a monk who proclaimed the rise of the oni and the destruction of the world."

"Oni? You mean demons?" Yugo proclaimed in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? Those stories of myths and legends if anything."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not." He opened the book and began flipping through the pages, "The oni in this are described as monsters shaped like giant animals that took on human forms."

This caught Yugo's attention, "Zoanthropes?"

"I don't know. It's possible."

Zoanthropes in the past? That was a mighty big pill to swallow. Brushing that aside for the moment, "But what does that have to do with what's going on now?"

Long was silent for a moment as he flipped through the pages. He then stop and rotated the book around to show Yugo. "This here." It was an old page, showing a picture of a flaming mural drawing with black cracks in it. On it were several monster images, all that resembled animal/humans. In the center was a massive black dragon that was roaring upward and sprouting flames.

"It speaks of a time of destruction when the great dragon arose from the depths of the underworld and brought chaos and terror upon the world. His presence was signal by great earthquakes and terrible battles with the oni."

Yugo studied the image. The creatures on them were definitely zoanthropes. But he wasn't sure, with the dragon standing in the center. As far as he knew, there wasn't anything even remotely resembling a creature like that.

"There are similarities, true." he said finally. "I don't know. It sounds a little too far-fetched to me."

Long adjusted his glasses, "My thoughts exactly. Until I turned to a previous page which spoke of another legend about the source of all oni's powers."

Turning the page, Yugo gasped in shock. It was a single image, but it was one he knew all too well.

"That's…the Tabula!"

The librarian hushed Yugo and he was silent. Long turned back to the earlier page, "I believe that zoanthropes exited in ancient times before today. I also believe that whatever happened in the past is going to be unleashed today. The Tabula was just one thing. I think this may be another and vastly bigger." Showing him the image again, he pointed to one of the oni/zoanthropes. Its form was indiscernible, but in its chest was the Tabula sign. "The same symbol is here too, so I think whatever happened with the Tabula incident is involved as well."

Yugo nodded, now believing the possibility of what Long was saying, "Well, it's a start. But where do we go from here?"

"I don't know. I haven't completely finished looking through this or the related texts." He looked up at Yugo. "It would help if I had an extra pair of eyes to look through them."

"Oh…oh great…" Yugo sighed.

Saori's restaurant…

Shin exited the restaurant, waving goodbye to Saori inside. Saori had been quite surprised that Shin showed up at all. Due to the earthquake, she didn't expect anyone to show up or at least show up late in the day. She was going to close when he had arrived, again, much to her surprise. They had been working alone for hours, catering to the few customers that came in. When work ended, Saori promised him a bonus in his pay for his hard work. Shin gratefully accepted the gift and went on his way back home. She decided to close early today, so the sun was just beginning to set.

Shin strode back home, with a light step in his stride. Without school for the day, he had time to rest and spend with Rei. Even though he suggested they do a little extra credit homework to pass the time, they mostly just talked with each other. It had been a while since they had spent some time together and it seemed to lift both their spirits. Yet not one of them thought to mention about that moment the night before. Largely because he was greatly confused about it. He didn't know what it was he felt, but he knew she had caused it.

"Oh why are guys so dense? It's so obvious."

'What was Nagi talking about?' he thought. Perhaps he really was that dense. Or perhaps he didn't want to see what was so obviously in front of him. He was getting ready to cross the street when he paused. A frown came over his brow and he looked upward at the building. There was a brush of wind, but that only caused him to frown more. Moving his back against one of the building, his raised his fingers upward and disappeared in a brush of wind. When he materialized, he was on top of one of the rooftops, with his eyes glaring out into the open. He was just able to make out a gray blur that had vanished from a nearby rooftop and followed suit. The two blur dashed across the next three rooftops until finally, Shin materialized ahead of it. The gray blur stopped before him, revealing what he had thought.

"Kohryu!"