Inside a small cafe the smell of freshly brewed coffee and pastries lingered in the air along with soft sunlight sneaking its way through a lightly shaded window creating a cosy comforting atmosphere as the customers sat down to enjoy their treats.
The soft murmurs of the crowd mixed together to make white noise at one of the tables. An interview was taking place as a well-dressed man sat down with a freshly brewed coffee in front of him.
James Howard, a half-American half-Chinese man who was working as a bodyguard on the night in which the now infamous "shinigami attack" happened,sat down as the questions were asked by his interviewer.
"Now, Mr. Howard, I would like to ask our most requested question by our viewers. What did the shinigami look like ?"
"*sigh* I would really call it that, but okay, well to start off that thing was big, like ridiculously big. I would say it was around 8 ft if not taller.
But that wasn't it's most unusual future it was black… don't look at me like that it's not what I meant I meant more like a shadow the thing was so fucking dark it almost looked 2D It was like trying to fight a paper cut out".
"Well, it clearly wasn't considered that it managed to get through all of Mr.Wu's bodyguards?"
"Yeah, you don't say.." James muttered unconsciously, retching for the badge on top of his head, only to pull his hand back when he touched it with a wince.
"You okay, Mr. Howard?"
"Huh.. Oh yeah, sorry, it's just that my head still hurts sometimes. "
"I'm sorry to hear that. Would you be up to answering just one last question?" James nodded, signalling for the young man to ask.
"I heard that you were the last man standing. Can you tell us what happened to Mr. Wu that night ?".
James frowned as he took a minute to think about his answer before replying "I honestly can't help much on that end the last thing I remember was that thing standing In Front of before everything went dark, from what I have gathered after the fact from the first responders was that Mr.Wu should by all means be dead yet they somehow found his still conscious when they arrived safe and sound he was just in shock that's all"
The interviewer waited after that, hoping that James would continue, but seeing him remain silent, he opted to end the interview as he turned back to the camera.
"Well there, you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the word of the man that looked death in the eye and lived to tell the tale, this was Cao Xiaoli sending you back to the studio."
(Jack's pov)
"Well, apparently, I'm an urban legend now…nice" I chuckled to myself, turning to finish the last bits of my breakfast as advertisements started rolling in.
"I should really do shit like this more often. It was really fun even if it did get a little hairy at the end. "
I really wasn't expecting him to have a heart attack on me all of a sudden. Was my custom really that scary?
Standing up, I pulled out a full sized mirror from my inventory before auto equipping the custom, another one of the simple functions that, if used properly, can be out right broken with the right preparations.
"Well, he definitely wasn't lying when he said I look 2D," looking at myself, currently wearing all black from a blank mask to the trench coat and boots to be more precise vantablack.
The difference is that it absorbs more than 99% of the visible light spectrum that the human eye can see.
The result is something that looks like you cut a hole in reality in the shape of a man, in fact so much of the light is absorbed that it becomes near impossible to measure depth let alone see any futures.
The perfect custom to scare an old man into stopping his search for immortality, maybe even too perfect, if you ask me, considering that I had to jump start the old man's heart in a stunt that would make Dr.Kureha proud.
If this was a Chinese novel, there would have been a lot of unnecessary fights in the jungle as more and more men would be sent in to get the yasha ape before.
But that's just a lot of work for something that could be accomplished in a single night and no casualties too well. I almost had one, but let's just ignore that.
"Besides the steroids ape seems to be handling himself more if anyone needs help, it would probably be those poor idiots that went after him."
I chuckled to myself. I can just imagine the looks on their faces if they come out alive only to find out that the bounty has been removed from the black market.
~~~{meanwhile in the snow mountain forest}~~~
Shao Shoushan and Long Long were watching over the men sitting up the last bits of the trap; meanwhile, Su Qiaolian was all too happy shouting orders around.
Long Long had a smile on his face with a flask of whisky in hand as he watched over the final preparations already thinking about all the fun he was going to have before glancing at Shao Shoushan.
"What's with the frown cheer up, will ya ,we are about to get our biggest payday yet."
"This whole thing isn't sitting well with me something is off about the whole thing, how come we haven't seen it this whole time"
"Relax, we aren't like the idiots from before we have a fucking plan alright and what the hell is a stupid ape going to do against automatic rifles."
"...*sigh* Whatever"
