Tenma was very excited about his first mission at Team Bravo, but when they lost contact with Hamano, things started to get rough and he felt his heart jumping up and down in his throat. First mission beginning with being lost in the woods with a dead connection to their pilot. He looked at Tsurugi, sending him an encouraging smile, but in reality he was the one who needed this more than anything. The only positive in their situation that he was with Tsurugi, captain of Team Bravo. Someone, who had more experience and could defend himself if they were attacked. Or so Tenma thought.
It all started as a regular scouting mission, after all, Alpha often used Team Bravo's specialist for such tasks for being their most mobile branch. They had to look around the forest then report any suspicious movement to the headquarters.
To their biggest surprise they'd found a giant mansion in the middle of the forest. It didn't appear on the map or on their radar, so Tsurugi decided they should look around and make sure the place was not used as a base for the cannibals. They shouldn't have done this, not with a team like this, but Tsurugi trusted his teammates and knew they will manage to defend themselves if they happen to hit the jackpot with this mansion.
But the moment he saw the building from the ground he regretted this idea. It wasn't the eerie atmosphere, but something else. He had a bad feeling about this. Of course, Aoi wanted to report this to Alpha, but Tsurugi recommended them to search through the area for clues.
He went to the eastern wing of the building taking, Tenma, the newcomer with him. He didn't know much about the brunette except for being extremely fast and a newbie so his combat skills were not that good yet. From personal experiences Tsurugi would said Tenma was the most perfect person for the "scout" description. Tenma was extremely curious.
He always poked his nose into other people's business and this irritated Tsurugi at first, but he had to admit this feature made Tenma a great ally and someone who helped him keeping the team together by finding out the problems of his subordinates.
Rumours said the boy was there because someone nagged Alpha until he just nodded to the recommendation, but Tsurugi, himself never really cared about such things. His team gained a good addition when Tenma joined. Even if someone from the Alfa team had a role in this, he was extremely thankful to that person.
But he had to stop thinking about the past. They were here in the middle of nowhere, not in a café in Raimon city. He wished he could calm Tenma down somehow but the boy was too nervous to listen to kind words. Well this was his first mission and they already had a serious case on their hand. It was natural to be edgier than normally after all newbies usually get safer and easier tasks at first.
"Stop shaking, this is just scouting." Tsurugi said at last when they made their way through the bushes reaching a small guardhouse. Next to it there were small houses what looked like old kennels, covered with fences from every side. The fences were bent, some of the kennels had their door wide open, but there was one on the far right of the guardhouse what was different from the others. The fence was gnawed out and fresh blood was dripping down from the edges and black animal fur stuck on it. Tsurugi could only hope that the pink flesh pieces existed only in his imagination.
But this started to make Tenma feel uneasy and his instincts told him to run for his life. No matter what kind of animals were kept in these kennels they must've escaped and they still roamed around the house, probably hunting for food. They were injured too and for most animals this means increased aggresivity.
"What kind of animal could bite out pieces from a metal fence?" asked Kyousuke as he bent down to get a better view of their finding. There was no doubt about it. Along with the fur there was rotting flesh hanging from the bloody edges. "This is getting absurd."
"We should go back to the helicopter." said Tenma taking a step back from the empty kennel. It reeked terrible smell and made him nauseous. Smell of death?
"Calm down, Tenma." Tsurugi stood up and looked at him with a small smile. "We will investigate this place and tell Hamano to bring us back home. After that you're good for a lunch with me if you want. You're doing well on your first mission. What could go wrong?"
his praise seemed to make Tenma happier, but the brunette was still uncertain about their situation.
" I don't know Tsurugi. I have a bad feeling about this whole case. And it's starting to get dark too. We should go home for today, don't you think? The house can wait and I would be calmer if we came back in daytime when we don't need flashlights."
Even if he tried convincing Tsurugi and himself about this, Tenma knew it well that people were brutally killed and another accident could happen if they don't hurry with their job. They were S.S.P. members and their job was to protect citizens of Raimon when things got rough.
"We can't do that. Not until we find something that would bring us closer to solving the cannibal murders."
"Let's look around in the guardhouse then." he gulped carefully looking around. Maybe if they find something Tsurugi will let him abort their mission for today to investigate their findings.
He wasn't a coward, but this place got the best of him.
The guardhouse was weird. It looked like a kitchen or some kind of miniature laboratory, but with wooden furniture. On the message board someone left notes about the amount of unknown chemicals they should mix with certain types of food. The list contained various animals from small birds to bigger mammals, sometimes arrows were drawn to a certain chemical indicating that they should add more from that element to their mix.
Tenma looked around the desk and under a pile of calculations he finally found a black notebook. It was full of handwritten entries about various days and the life of the writer.
Febr. 12.
At night we played Poker with Katsumasa, Kenya and Sakuya. Katsumasa was extremely lucky.
I think he's been cheating. What a scumbag. I told them to not invite him.
Febr. 13.
I swear these dogs are getting more aggressive with each meal. I told them to lower the amount of chemicals what speeds up the progenitor in the dogs.
March 20.
Today one of our researchers came in wearing some kind of space suit. He told me to put one on as well. I heard there was an accident in the basement lab.
March 21.
I hate this damn space suit. And they don't let me speak with Miyabino. Researching my ass. he always have time for me.
March 22.
The dogs are getting restless, but you know what? To hell with them. Today I was in a bad mood so I didn't feed them. I wonder if Sakuya did…
March 23.
My skin feels nasty and itchy in this suit. This is the third day in a row I have to wear this and no one tells me a damn thing about the accident. Did it really happen or they're just fucking around?
Tenma looked up from the diary to find Tsurugi with his eyes. he was rummaging around the shelves reading the vignettes on the bottles. Possibly they were the chemicals listed on the bulletin board. Tenma went ahead and continued his readings. Two days were left out for some reason and it seemed the author of the diary got sick. His entries got less frequent and they started to fall apart.
March 25.
I went to the doctor's room because of my back. It itches and it irritates me to hell, but he only gave me a bandage and allowed me to take of this space suit. There was no need to wear it as he said. Weird.
March 28.
I couldn't sleep well tonight. Miyabino is still missing and not even Kunihiko knows what's going on with him. Or he just refuses to tell me. The dogs just won't shut up so today I decided to shoot down one. hehe those scientists did a good job with the progenitor virus, but then why did we even fed the beasts?
March 29.
I wanted to meet hanamura today but on my way out I was stopped by the guards. they told us we cant leave the grounds that's the order
March 30.
my entire bodys burning and feels itchy. a big lump of rotten flesh dropped off when I was scratching my arm. Whats happening to me?
Only a few entries left from the diary but Tenma couldn't collect enough will power to read them. This black notebook was the evidence they needed to get out of there as soon as possible.
"Is everything alright? You seem pale." Tsurugi asked. He looked worried, yet Tenma could only push the diary into his hands. He was still digesting the entries he had read.
"Th-there was some kind of lab and an accident. They started getting sick and then… I don't know. It's not clear what happened after that."
Tsurugi skipped through the pages in a faster way than Tenma, only reading keywords necessary for them. He nodded to himself as the pieces started to fall into their rightful place, but something was still missing. According to the author the kennels had dogs inside, not just one, but around ten or more. He shot down one and from the look of it eat the other one. This still didn't explain what happened to the other dogs. They hadn't found any corpse or signs of animals living in the kennels.
Where did the dogs disappear so suddenly? This whole case seemed to get more and more twisted with every new clue they'd found.
Just as they were about to head back to their teammates a scream shook the area and another one joined. Tsurugi and Tenma could only stand in one place, frozen from the ear piercing scream what suddenly stopped, like when someone pauses a music player. A heavy silence was weighing down upon them.
It was none other than Hamano's voice.
