Chapter 27

Elsewhere…

Tanso just arrived.

He froze at the sight before him. In fact… it was terrible.

"Thank goodness you came!" he turned to a zoo official, Tanso and him met by accident. In fact, it was a date he was on with his wife at the time and the zookeeper got into some trouble with a tiger. Tanso was near by as the tiger was about to turn on the human. That is, until Tanso appeared from behind the cage.

His eyes locked with that of the beast, a silent showdown occurred that forced the tiger to retreat. When the zookeeper saw him, he was amazed by his ability. Tanso had opened up more and more to this human who loved animals as much as him.

What really bonded them was the fact that one of the animals, a lama of all things here had died, and it was the keeper's favorite one.

Tanso turned it before his eyes, but was rather amazed that despite it's new and more… unsavory appearance, the human didn't care! He was thrilled to have his friend back. However it was kept out of the zoo, Tanso personally takes care of it and allows the familiar to visit.

"I don't know what happened, they were all fine before I left yesterday night, we got footage of someone in the zoo, but it doesn't look like they did anything… do you want to see the footage?"

Tanso nodded.

The zookeeper paused oddly as he noticed two young men who came with him, they looked remarkably alike him. "Who are your friends?"

He smiled and signed 'My sons'

He did learn sign language just in case, however, not even this human understood.

"We're his kids!"

"I'm Tetsu!" called one.

"Calder" said the other.

Granted, his wife named them, they have been all over the world no doubt and have knowledge of unique names.

"Hi! I'm Maru!" said the zookeeper. But he paused oddly. "Are they going to be… okay by themselves?" he asked.

Tanso gave thumbs up. He turned to his sons and made a go around motion with his hands. His sons understood, they are going to follow their noses and pick up whatever they can. Already though, Tanso could smell curse energy.

They reached the security block, for a few minutes they went over the footage, there was movement from a human figure, however. There wasn't anything that could give them something solid to go off of. No image of their face, clothing or anything like that. "It was a clear night, we should have a perfect shot!" Maru protested.

Tanso agreed.

He took a pen and paper and asked to see the dead animals.

Maru nodded and brought him to the vet area.

#

All over the ground were dead animals. They laid the bodies outside since there was no room inside for them. They are about to call to have them removed soon enough, much to Maru's dismay.

Tanso however…

He approached a fallen brown bear. He placed his hand on it and swore, he felt something drop out of his palm, like the maggots he use to make. But, this felt different.

The bear hasn't been dead for too long, and yet, whatever Tanso put into it, began to fill the creature until… it's eyes blinked.

Tanso even stepped back, stunned to this. After all, normally his familiars bare a maggot like appearance. But this bear… was whole. The only difference was the eyes that remained blood red.

The creature looked about, but turned to Tanso, lowering its body, prostrating before him!

"Is… is that bear alive again?! It's a miracle!" Maru stated.

"Father? You can make a perfect revival?" asked Calder.

"Indeed, it's whole, but it also wasn't dead for very long to allow decay to occur…" said Tetsu.

Tanso turned to his sons and pointed to the fallen. They smiled and nodded. "Of course we can father, we are YOUR sons after all!" laughed Calder.

They went around and revived the animals.

His sons were just like him, all appeared whole but bore blood red eyes. However a little jujutsu was used to cover that up. They appeared normal, as if they never died.

Maru was in tears to this. "Thank goodness… I felt so terrible when I came in to all this death… Tanso… boys… thanks you!"

Tanso smiled and nodded, but, he turned to the animals that have been resurrected. He focused on the bear he brought back.

'Do you remember what happened?'

The bear nodded.

'A sorcerer came in, it attacked us with its power, but made it appear that we died of natural causes' the bear explained. 'We tried to call for help, but we were silenced'

He nodded to the creature.

"Apparently someone broke in and poisoned the animals." Stated Calder to Maru. "No doubt they were looking to gain something, attention. But whose and why?"

Tanso slapped his chest. He does this to get everyone's attention.

When they looked to him, Tanso hooked his thumb to himself. This was to get HIS attention.

"Dad? You think someone is calling you out?" Tetsu asked.

He nodded. Who else would know of his love of animals? Not to mention, to go this far to draw him out? Using curse energy for that matter… They KNOW he would respond to something as serious as this, but the question remains, who?

"Since the animals look like how they should, you can probably put them back to their cages, if anything, it may lure the culprit again, since he believes he has killed them, right?" Calder asked.

Maru nodded. "It's a good thing I called for you first…" he said with a sigh. "I'll erase the tapes for now, but…" he paused, Maru was worried that this sorcerer will return to finish what he started.

Tanso smiled to Maru and turned to his sons. He gave but a nod as Tetsu announced. "We're spending the night here to keep an eye on everything. Rest assured, we are going to catch this guy."

Calder nodded. "A life needs to be respected, not take for granted!"

Tanso smiled proudly to his sons, but he also took out his cellphone.

"We'll call mom and let her know, she prefers a call over a text message anyways." Tetsu stated.