In a three stars hotel with hotel rooms for duo's…
"And what are your thoughts on the city?"
The man sat with his arms over the backrest of the chair, listening to the complains of his roommate.
"If you are going to joke about my observations today, then I hope that my toxicity will kill you," she reacted as she turns to the next page of the book that he had given to her. She didn't like the fact that it was a guide with simple phrases, tourist attractions and sightseeing places.
"I am fully aware that all of your observations are drenched in a toxic corrosive fluid, let's say that it is hydrochloric acid, piercing through almost every optimistic point of view. But let's citate the facts, how was it outside?"
"It's awful."
The man, who hid his face behind a gas mask even indoors, was sighing and turned his head towards her. He had explained earlier that the air of Europe was somewhat cleaner than the air in Asia or the United States, but in his opinion, it was still filthy.
"I mean the surroundings, not your brother Seiji-sama."
The mask man, was Shingen Kishitani, one of the main researchers of the supernatural at Nebula. There are a lot of rumours around the company that they experimented with the other-worldly and Shingen, was proud to declare that these rumours were true, they really researched the supernatural.
For the lady in the room, the comment felt extremely harsh, but she admitted that she spoke of her younger brother. It was really a pain to see him together with another girl, who lived by the name of Mika Harima.
"Why do we need to have two instead of three rooms in this hotel? And why is it necessary that I am stuck with a freak like you?", she questioned with an almost infinite sharp tongue
"That's because Nebula knows that I am married and that you are madly in love," he said to her, where after he realised that he has chosen a wrong word in his answer.
"Or is being obsessive a better description for your state of mind? I am open to feedback."
"Shut up already!", she commanded and turned to the bath room with the priority to calm down.
People know what love can do to a person, but they are really underestimating the toxicity of incest, which was the case with her. She, as Namie Yagiri - the former head of their family's company's lab and the secretary of a certain info broker, who was in Shinjuku, next to Ikebukuro – has fallen in love with Seiji Yagiri, her younger brother.
Due to that, she marked Mika Harima as her archnemesis. With that in mind, the best option was to place Namie together with Shingen. If they put Mika and Namie together for the nights, then it would be very likely that only one of them survives the night. Of course, you could let the Yagiri duo sleep together, though, Seiji refused to sleep with her. Even with him as the most reasonable person, people considered the group as insane, due to his obsession and undying love for a clear cut-off head.
I have been here before; it's reminding me of that werewolf investigation that I led here.
With his feet on an iron cube he brought with him and a laptop on his upper legs, he opened the news site of his home town Ikebukuro. He also tried to contact his own son, but it seemed that he was busy with his job as an underground black doctor.
It seems that people have been kidnapped over there. They all disappeared when they were searching for The Black Rider, also known as The Headless Rider, so people are accusing him of kidnapping these seekers. I don't think that she would ever do that, she has adopted too many human values to be considered evil.
He heard water streaming from the bath room, small fractions of damp were coming out of all the little openings around the door.
So, she is taking a shower. I wish I had the courage, like my own son, to simply open the door.
He organized the things that he had done today, which was something different from what he normally did. Today, he had observed just normal people and animals, for as far as he could find them. It was something that would shake his daily routine and let him rest from his work on the extra-ordinary.
His feet were resting on the metal box, who was a special delivery to Nebula's lab over in the United States, Las Vegas. The content a clean cut-off head, perfectly preserved in a liquid. Normally, such a head would be cold in the time span of a half hour, but this head was warm, like if it was almost living as a complete human being.
Sometimes, there is just one person or head causing all the problems in the city. At least, it's quiet over here.
"A little question, why isn't your wife with you? It would guarantee my own private hotel room."
The door was still closed, however, Shingen hid the cubic box under his bed. Seiji wasn't the only one obsessed with the head. In fact, all Kishitani's companions were eager to get it earlier than the others and each had their own twisted and disturbed reason for it.
"She's ahead of us to start the prepping work for the research," he answered. The sound of falling water was over, she could open the door every second now.
"Secondly, she gets seasick extremely fast, even at the beach, she could be becoming ill from the salty air. I have already given advise to her, but she refuses to put the mask on at the beach."
"I would do the same, a woman's beauty is her face, she wants to show it to the public," he got an explanation from Yagiri, who came out of the bath room with a towel wrapped around her hair. She walked to her bed, that she separated from his, she doesn't want to share the bed sheet with a man like him, because there was only one man for her.
"That is-"
Shingen weighted the words on his head and decided to change a few words here and there.
"-not always correct. Some would argue that a person's beauty lies in their personality, others will claim that they're liking people due to curves or origin. There isn't any scientific proof that the head is their main feature."
She sighed by the familiar examples that he'd given her. She tried to change the topic of the conversation and succeed due to the object on Shingen's bed.
"What's that antique pocket watch from Indonesia doing on your bed?", she asked with the voice of a smart secretary, which reminded her of her previous work.
"I guess ticking, but if you want a clear answer; it's an order of an acquaintance that I am going to meet tomorrow at a bar," he said without any specifications.
"So that explains our stop in Jakarta."
"Yes, it does, he is a rather interesting dealer; not only in his appearance, but also in an ability of him. People will call it an extra-ordinary one."
Kishitani laid on his bed, looking to the ceiling. He had changed his outfit to his pyjama, still wearing the gas mask.
"Is that not the same as supernatural? Because, we are slowly getting used to switch from extra-ordinary to supernatural," she questioned him with a cold voice. In the whole small talk, her tone hasn't changed and it will never be.
"Nope, their definitions in my research field aren't the same. They differ only on a few parts, though. I want to share my thoughts about it with you, but I confess that I am not sure if you would understand it."
If you even can't tell the difference between the normal and the abnormal, then I won't tell you the varied degrees of the abnormal.
She winked with her eyes, taking the time to settle the reply. With an enormous amount of envy, she stated the next sentence:
"You're are even weirder than that perverted son of yours. It's utterly disgusting."
"Well, we are back at our talk about the city atmosphere. So, let's citate the facts, how was it outside?"
At the film set...
"And action!"
The puppets head got slammed against the wall of concrete, who was fulfilling his purpose. The serial killer gave the lifeless body a careful examination, to check if it was really dead.
He dragged the corpse of the dummy to the chair to dump it there on the chair without respect.
They told me to act intimidating, hopefully this is enough.
"Cut! That was great, good work!"
The scene got lighted and Matt as the director was complimenting Uthan for his first performance.
"However, let's try to make it even more realistic with next recordings of this scene. If you could hold that vibe around you for all the scenes, then it would look astonishing threatening."
It's not that I am confident with my role, though. I will try it without feeling uncomfortable about it.
The man behind the director's chair had a huge smile on his face and began to clap like a young unexperienced child.
"Impressive, maybe I am going to consider to set up a contract for you. Your strength is really an amazing feature that will come handy later," he complimented with a slightly higher pitch than normal and looked to Parterico for confirmation.
"Matt, I think the fighting scene are going to be better than you can imagine," he said to his friend in the director chair.
The original idea was to make the fighting scenes look real, but with Uthan as a police man, they could make the fights a complete reality.
"Clearly, just this scene a few times over and two extra scenes with him as the main actor for the sneak preview. After that, he can practise together with Ruri, trying to improvise moves for their shared action scenes."
One of the staff members gave Uthan a water bottle. With sweat on his forehead and the first successful shot behind him, he started to drank eagerly from it.
This is harder than I thought. These actors need some more respect, especially the minor ones.
They had to adjust the durability of the fabricated skulls multiple times. He had crushed the first two with ease and so, he was already covered with fake blood. They said that he needed to smash the skull with full force, but he was already restraining him and it was still too much.
The fifth try was the first normal shot and now they were going to take a few more shots with small adjustments to his acting.
They really pay attention to the smallest things; he is passionate about this project.
The last scene was for the trailer was his second victim, who was going to be drowned in the fountain in his own backyard.
"Keep the next time in your mind, how would you drown someone?", Parterico opposed this question to him.
I don't know if I want to imagine over these kinds of actions, I don't want to be thinking like a monster.
"Three, two, one and action!"
The scene was divided between a part with a real actor and a dummy. Uthan and the other actor were first having a fake fight, so he punched him almost in the face, holding his fist back on the last centimetre. Even when he was a cop, Max proposed to make only the fights between him and Ruri real. It appeared that miss Hijiribe approved of the real deal.
After the fake punch in the belly and the following knee kick, the script stated that his opponent was too weak to take a few extra hits and the serial killer would take him to the fountain, ready to be drown.
"Cut! We will repeat this scene a couple of times. Try to hold less back, it is looking very reserved right now, just a little bit more rudeness." Parterico's instructions were clear to both actors and the scene was repeated two times more. After the extra recordings, Uthan will perform the drowning scene with the dummy, who was called Hendrick by the staff members.
It appeared to be a joke from Matt himself, the dummies were giving a lifeless vibe and by giving them a name, they would be somewhat more alive to Matt.
With Hendrick 'weakened' in Uthan's hand, he would perform the drowning scene. From the place where he stood, he dragged the body towards the fountain and put the head under the water.
"Cut!"
This time it was Max who interrupted the scene. He used the right commands, which he had learned from Matt, however, the following hand gestures were unclear to Uthan and the rest of the crew.
"Keep your right hand with you. What you just did, is clearly coming from your training at the Police Academy. It's too visible and it has not the right intention," he explained and mimicked the what Uthan have done.
The right hand was leaning on the edge of the fountain for stability, while his left hand was touching the full head of the dummy. Max pointed also to his feet, who were standing firm on the ground.
I would never notice that by myself, it is just what I have learned at the academy, it was almost going autonomous.
"Okay, I will pay attention to it, thanks."
Uthan's words didn't sound convinced and he seemed to be unsure about it.
With Hendrick wet from the performance, they switched him with one of his identical twins, who was called Barry.
He knew that he wasn't completely in his role with the first shot, it was disturbing to him to think about topics like murder and drowning, like if it was normal.
Well, it seemed that I don't have a choice here, I must act with a mindset of a monster to be one. Not that I am happy with it, but I don't want to disappoint them with my terrible acting.
This time he putted hit focus on the way how to drown a person, how a monster would do it.
I got always a despise about movies with monsters in it, I don't want to relate myself to these abominations, these dangerous beings. And now, I am must think like one of them. In this film, I need to be one of them, I need to act as these monstrous creatures.
"Fabulous, hold this in combination with your impression of the character!", Matt shouted.
Astonished and afraid, Uthan looked to the director, who was suddenly enthusiastic about his performance.
"Can you explain why?", he asked politely.
The reply was Matt pointing to Uthan himself, which let him to examining himself.
His legs weren't standing firm on the ground, they stood in a more energic and relaxed position, which made it look like he enjoyed what he was doing. He left the right hand loose against his own body, there was almost no muscles at work in his whole right arm. The left hand was touching Barry's head, how it was supposed to. However, it shocked Uthan with how less he touched the skin the of the dummy. They were connected only by Uthan's finger tips, resembling the strength in his hand, resembling a brutal force, the power of the reckless murder, the brutality of a real monster.
"!"
There spawned a shock through his whole body and he bounced back a little, withdrawing his hand from his fictional victim. He realised, how real and natural the pose felt to him, how familiar it was to him.
Wait, no way that this is true. Am I really turning into a monster?
"Nicely done, that's perfect, you deserve a break and take your time for it," Max complimented him, but his praising didn't come over at Uthan, who was already running towards the bath room.
What the fuck was I doing over there at the fountain?
He was standing before one of the toilets, while he pukes his whole breakfast out. It was only the idea of becoming a monster that made him sick, his stomach and other inner organs were working perfect without any defect.
Why have I accepted this job, why didn't I for-see the whole judgement about me, about me as a monster?
With his stomach completely empty, he took a glass of water at the sink in the bath room to wash the sour taste of his puke.
Forget this, I am not going further with this film, I am going to leave. I don't want to be turning into a real monster, especially at this moment where I can rebuild myself, casting away the monster part of myself.
While Uthan was holding the conversation with himself inside his head, another self-proclaimed monster opened the door of the bath room.
"Isn't it magical?", a calm and monotone voice commented on the whole situation.
"Are you crazy? Why would it feel magical? It's-"
Uthan shouted with complete frustration, his thoughts broke free from his self-centred conversation with himself, only to be interrupted by the calming voice of Yuuhei Hanejima.
"To be a whole different person," Hanejima proceeded with his insight.
"Sorry for the interrupting, it was very rude of me. However, what I wanted to say, is that you can free yourself when you are acting, you could do things that you normally won't do in real life."
The natural calm voice of him, did his work on Uthan, who was calmed down a bit, at least at the outside.
"To be completely different, being someone else. Your personality and your past aren't holding you back anymore. In my roles as an actor, I can do things that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. I can express emotions and feelings, it gives me freedom over my soul, escaping from myself," he tried to explained it with admiration, but he failed it, due to being himself at the moment.
"Do you want to say that- ", Uthan questioned and got immediately interrupted for the second time.
"That you aren't playing as yourself? Yeah, you're correct about that."
Uthan looked himself in the mirror and saw still the terrifying skull face that he natural wore. For the first time he had accidently captured himself with his own black eyes, staring into an infinite space of black matter.
I didn't recognize this of myself, my eyes are really calming me down. It's just a serene emptiness, a beautiful void of nothing.
"Thanks for your thoughts about, I really appreciate it," he thanked and showed his first sign of gracefulness towards another person, who was not a family member.
Being constantly negative reviewed by others had blurred his own perspective to the wrong ideal of the world, the view of black-and-white, where his own family were the only ones who were white. He never got the chance to see the bright side of the world, it was his own pessimistic thoughts that coloured the world to one big lump of depressed blackness.
Have I always seen only the negative side of things?
Hanejima watched the whole realisation with his typical bland face, because he had still something to say.
"You can practise with Ruri-san in the improvised fighting dojo over at the other warehouse. It's my time to be free again."
He left the bath room and Uthan who took another glass of water was agreeing with him.
My horrific face brought me in contact with Ruri Hijiribe, a well-known make-up artist. Without my face, I didn't have the possibility to meet her and now am I finding myself in a friendly fight against her.
I am lucky this time.
That night, near to the local police office...
"Do you know a safe place for tonight?", Astrid asked the girl for a suggestion.
The teenager clearly did not and look depressed towards her.
Just leave me alone, I don't want to give you more trouble.
She wanted to run away from the lady, by that same lady won't let Denise go and ensured that with the grip of her left hand, which was extremely firm.
She couldn't escape without drawing the attention to herself, she was stuck onto her for now.
Why? I must solve my own problems.
The lights on the streets were giving a melancholic vibe, while the city became gloomier in his entirety.
Astrid's face beamed a different impression, then before. Denise had seen Astrid's seductive side and thought that it was her only trait, so she was surprised when Astrid awaked and had all her make-up removed from her skin. Denise recognized some of the vibe that Astrid was giving and categorized it in the same box as the face of her own mother, who got a different emotion to it.
I can see it on her face, this is all my fault. She's desperate and nervous, all because of me. However, I want to give her rest, but she won't stand still.
Her thoughts switched to the place where Astrid brought her to a build with clear and direct white light, where everyone was working in the same formal uniform of blue and white.
She's is giving me to the police?
Her impression become frightened, these people were dealing with the dark side of the city and criminals, she knew that from tv, but what she had done herself?
Nothing.
It was the answer which she knew was true.
I don't want a rescuer, that isn't what I deserve.
Her scared expression sucked all the attention to her, together with that mother figure next to hear. Due to being your whole life average, being suddenly in the spotlights was nerve racking to her.
"She needs protection, the Rotters are searching for her," Astrid explained as if it was necessary to hear.
The unexperienced receptionist didn't know how to respond and with the knowledge that he had, he fell back on the procedure of the police.
"Do you have any evidence to suggest that she is directly in danger? The Rotters aren't supposed to be kidnappers," he asked with a calm and serious voice. Every reasonable person know that you can't state something without backing it up with proof.
Astrid's hand went to her hand bag and the police man assumed that she was picking the evidence for the statement. Maybe she had photo's or recordings of calls between gang members. And in fact, she grabbed towards a piece of metal, where a telephone was made of.
Her hand appeared swiftly outside the back with a blinking object and reached in under a second the chin of the police man.
"If you don't want to protect this innocent girl, that's fine, then I will kill her by myself in front of your whole corps to let them see how miserable you are, Graftak!", she shouted full out and loudly.
The blade moved a bit towards the throat of the man in duty, who didn't predict such radical behaviour and as a result, his primal instinct took over with the flight-response by taking a step back.
With the notion of the receptionist's decision to withdraw himself, the lady switched from target as she quickly moved behind the teenager. With the fluency of a professional, she switched from the blunt side of the knife to the sharp and lethal side of the weapon and held it at the throat of the overwhelmed girl. The cop noticed the trick and realised that she wasn't threatening him for real as she he had hold the blunt of the blade against him, which resulted in the deadly edge for the girl in question.
"Calm down, calm down! What in god's name is going on here?"
He couldn't stop himself of expressing his fearful thought in public. His vision was locked in on the lady, but he failed to notice the emotion that she showed. The eyes of the lady were wet, humid from the desperate tears she formed.
What is she doing, I've have just met her two days ago and she has already betrayed me. What have I done to her to upset her?
Denise's pupils started to widen. In this harsh reality, she already knew the answer to her own question, an answer that only she could think of.
Nothing, that's it.
She held her breath in, due to the situation at hand, but also due to the realization of the thing she feared the most. Her thoughts were falling in a deep, dark and depressed put.
This is all my damn own fault.
The simple conclusion got twisted, squeezed and distorted by her own brain in an inch of a second.
I am worthless here.
As a response, she didn't fight back at the murderous lady as it was the only thing she could ever do in her entire life: nothing.
But life itself wasn't finished with her, when she felt how she got freed from the sharp edge of the knife that her abductor held.
She witnessed how a few police man brought the radicalized lady to the ground, while she herself was escorted to private and closed off room in the office.
What was her reason to don't let me go or kill me right at the time when she had the opportunity?
Like everyone else at the police office, Denise couldn't get a grasp a glance of the crazy lady's eyes, who displayed from all the emotions that a human being possessed, a set that contradicted her whole action. Through the tears that she shed, her eyes were bright and filled with joy.
Back to afternoon, at the improvised fighting dojo at the film set...
"It's not discrimination, however, don't go full out on her. She is a lady and you treat them with gracefulness and respect."
I will do the same, if he doesn't know it, I must hold back.
Sandshelt was instructing Uthan in how to respect and treat a woman, even in a fight. He stood at the side line of the judo mats, which covered the floor of the improvised dojo. The whole dojo was shielded of by wood and Japanese pieces of decoration were scattered over the walls. The place itself had a distant quality to it, it felt as a place over in Japan instead of the reality, who stated that it was in the rainy city of Rotterdam. Part of the reason for the foreign feel about the room, was the fact that the temperature was raised by the few heaters who were working to hold the warmth in the dojo.
Uthan was dressed in a judogi and only nodded to Max's long list of etiquettes of how to treat a lady. With only the formal judo outfit, people would realise how slender Uthan actually was. His posture would suit people more from over two meters, instead with his own length of one eighty-five.
His opponent for today's practise was Ruri Hijiribe, who wore the same uniform as himself. Her skin wasn't as other-worldly as Uthan's, but it was still considered foreign for Japan, it appeared almost Scandinavian to the majority of Japan.
She as the opponent, didn't know if he would survive her strength at full power, which falls under the category of super natural strength.
They wanted action and because he's from the police academy, they thought that he could handle physical contact well enough to do it for real. He wasn't frightened by the idea of a real fight, so it should be alright.
She could imagine what Uthan was thinking of her. What could he expect from a Japanese actress like herself, did she have learned judo, karate or any other discipline of martial arts? Did she agreed with the proposal for a real physical fight or did she just say nothing about it and accept the idea?
Both sides started with the tradition of bowing before they started the fights.
At least, he knows how it works, it wasn't a reaction or an imitation of mine movement.
"(...)"
The two opponents hesitated to take the first move, they have never seen each other fight and were acquaintance for just a couple of days.
After the silence, Ruri proceeded first by moving forwards, which indicated for Uthan that she had some basic training. It was her idea to take him to ground and she almost achieved her first goal in this slow-building fight, when she grabbed his hands to push him backwards. However, Uthan recovered his pose in the last second and was now holding her arms.
So, he's aware of the basics too.
She evaded his left foot, who wanted to take her down by tackling her and as a response of how much she knew about martial arts, she took his right arm to throw him on the ground over her right shoulder.
In the short panicking time span after his feet were of the ground, his instinct took it over to land with both of his feet on the mats.
He's much more flexible than he seems to be, that was an immense reflex that he pulled off.
She took her hands off from him to recover and moved her face towards him. What she encountered was a small, but clearly visible smile on his face and his next attack, which was the same grab attack of herself at the beginning of this match.
Hijiribe grabbed his arms with a firm grip and held his grab attack back with ease. When Uthan was holding her arms too, she could feel the muscles in his arm, who were almost relaxed.
He's really holding back, because I can feel the muscles and they have much strength left. He's in a relaxed state, like myself. Could that mean that-
Before she could finish her observation of Uthan, a voice interrupted the fight with a respectable amount of enthusiasm.
"I never thought that Miss Hijiribe would be that well trained. I will give you both the thumbs up."
It was Uthan's partner from the police office, Gerard Bronsma, who made the comment.
"You seemed to be equally skilled, that's how respect works. Give the best that you can, go to your limits, both of you!" he shouted with a smile. Sandshelt wanted to comment on it, bult unfortunate, Gerard got disturbed by the ring-tone of his mobile device and took the call.
"With Gerard, how is it going?" he spoke and walked away from the dojo to a quieter place, where he could proceed with his chat over the phone.
Ruri got reminded of her true identity and turned her head politely to Max for a gentle request.
"Is it okay if you stay outside the dojo and to let everyone-except for Kasuka-kun- know, that they can't enter the dojo? I want some a bit more privacy."
Her voice was still as calm as always, but it got a hint of seriousness in it.
"Of course, if it does let you concentrate better, then why not. I will look for Matt to tell him of your request."
Does he still know of that photo, during that ritual?
She didn't wonder for long and turned her focus towards Uthan, with a small moment of peace they bow to each other again, now in sync.
She was confident enough to assume he could withstand her normal attacks at normal strength. This time she would strengthen herself, bit by bit until she won, to see how far Uthan could go.
She moved first this time and immediately took a step back, when Uthan fell for her scam. She grabbed him at the belly to work him to the ground, but she felt the resistance from his side.
She let him loose to follow up with a sideway kick, only to notice how he blocked it with his arms in the typical boxer's defence pose, it didn't pull him back, not even a bit.
He's adapting too, when I put more strength and power on him, he reacts by doing the same thing.
For an ordinary fight, the attacks were going to look a bit extreme, but for a film, this would be probably the right amount of action for a fight.
Uthan began to attack more reckless, while slowly revealing a childish smile on his face. It seems that he slowly forgot his training at the police academy. Ruri underestimated his right kick and got pushed a bit back, she could withstand if she gave a bit more. She blocked his upper-cut with the power to lift twenty kilograms as their power scaling began to pass the boundaries of mundane mortals.
He hasn't still noticed it, it seems that-
Her thought was cancelled for a second, due to Uthan's desire to end this fight by throwing her to the ground. He broke her defence and grabbed her arms to throw her to the side. With the few seconds after the throw, when Ruri was in the air, his joy of the fight was completely gone. He saw the raw power that he used and was overwhelmed by how far she flew, where after she landed skilfully on her feet, almost like a ninja.
She didn't know what would happen next and concentrated on Uthan, whose eyes were staring forwards with no focus, without purpose.
It seems he has finally realized that his strength isn't human, he seems completely confused.
Hijiribe's assumptions were true, as Uthan was shocked and stunned by his discovery, wondering what he really was.