Tatsumi Port Island was relatively chilly in the early spring nights, it was before everything started blooming in earnest and with everything being technically close to the water the wind that tore through carried the chill of the ocean.
Most people stuck close to side streets for this reason.
Not that it really mattered to Faer, who up to this point had been playing stalker.
He wasn't playing on the elementary level of hiding behind corners and hoping no one would see him.
No, Faer sat atop of a building not too far away from the mall plaza. Watching as a young man in a suit walked listlessly around an alleyway. Given the time of night one might assume he was drunk or taking the edge off with something not so recreational.
It was common enough behavior to see in a society that was monoethnic, either that or the Japanese didn't care for drunken behavior so long as they weren't driving.
Though it was weird that the young man chose here to be intoxicated given his proximity to the police station.
Unless he wasn't drunk…
"Alright, load up the sacrifice in the back. We can't afford any more delays."
A voice sounded out from the opposite end, looking towards it revealed two men dressed in Japanese monk clothing… They were a bit far from the shrine to be conducting business.
"Relax Shiki, the humans haven't caught onto us yet."
If nothing else Faer could try to see what else might be going on, it wouldn't do him any favors to get hasty at this stage.
He had his suspicions that this was what he was looking for but he needed to see more before he committed to action.
As the two men in traditional Japanese clothes and conical hats apprehended the "drunk". Stripping the man of his clothing with practiced ease. The man didn't fight off his apprehenders, which further confirmed that this was what he was looking for.
Which meant this man wasn't really drunk, just dead on his feet.
Breaking cover Faer had pushed his body to a full acceleration towards the two men.
With no rifle ammo to use and only a knife to use his means to conduct combat was limited to his magic pool and knife throwing. But for a couple of humans… he shouldn't even need it.
Coming in on the man that was just further out of sight, Faer flipped into a drop kick that made the first man kiss the concrete at speeds that would concuss the first man if not incapacitate him.
Turning on a dime to the other man who was assuming a battle stance that looked to be Aikido, the foreigner launched a full force haymaker towards the ribs of the man.
Faer's feet left the ground as he was flipped into the air, the technique was flawless, hell it was polished enough to be textbook wrist throw it was clear he wasn't dealing with an average opponent.
That was fine, it would be too boring if they were normal..!
It was difficult, but as Faer's feet reached their apex, the teen clenched the arm that was about to let go of his arm and shot one leg around the torso and the other for the neck.
Pivoting midair the Contractor tucked his chin in as their combined weight slammed into the concrete expelling the air from both of their lungs.
No time was wasted, the teen immediately tried to crank the limb he had just gotten hold of.
However, between the surprising dexterity of the monk and durability that he knew no human had business having the monk had rolled out of his hold, leaving Faer grasping at nothing for a moment before he reversed his momentum into a backwards roll.
"See Shiki! I told you the humans were onto us."
The monk that he had just grappled with was already on his feet and merely tilted his head slightly to the side to address his partner.
"Shut up."
The words were simple but were taken seriously by the more cowardly monk who let out an 'eep', before a look of arrogance graced his face.
"Oh now he's mad! You won't stand a chance against Shiki, Human!"
"Tch, I told you to shut up. Now make yourself useful and make sure the sacrifices are secure, this won't take long…"
Looking back to Faer, the monk leveled a glare that sent a chill down his spine.
A feral grin opened up the boys face at the challenge, their battle ground was subpar, but was there really any such thing as the perfect battle ground?
Probably not.
Faer pulled his knife out of his inventory without flourish, merely pulling himself into a stance that he himself had no name for but one he knew he had been trained in his last life.
"I won't hold y'all too long, I just got some questions I want to ask."
They lunged at each other and Faer immediately saw the difference between their abilities. He was far too slow, as his eyes dilated Faer knew that he would need to shift his focus from piercing offense to a biting defense.
Stepping into a throat chop with his guard up, the teen was certain could kill him, he blocked with his knife on the inside of the arm of the monk cutting through his cloth and little else, before dragging the knife edge forward towards the neck.
Before he was even halfway up the bicep he was eating a bitch smack to the face that nearly sent him ass over head into the concrete. He caught himself with hands and kicked the abnormal monk across the jaw with the momentum before he handspringed to his feet.
"W-what, Sh-Shiki, you can't lose! You're invincible."
"Shut up, you damn dirty grease ball!"
It fully took its eyes off of Faer to reprimand the other monk.
"Sukukaja!"
"Suku-wh-"
The Contractor started with slashing at each brachial on the monks neck before slamming his palm into the chin of its jaw, as the bald monk's head recoiled back, he hammered his left hand into the float rib, pushing to go even faster, he hooked the handle of his knife into collar bone of the monk pulled him down with his other hand before slamming his knee into his head.
The monk flew out of the alley into the van that they had arrived in, and Faer released his breath in heavy pants.
"Holy crap, the Human is a badass!"
"Know what… Fuck it." The monk stood up, no worse for wear but definitely pissed off. Before his face was flat and unexpressive, but now it had a look between disgust and anger.
"Human. Eat shit and choke on it."
Rage, like Faer had never known, had devoured him.
It didn't make sense.
It didn't need to.
The fight was on.
His heart beat loudly in his ears as he launched another assault at the demon, but any finesse that he might've held was forgotten for plain brutality.
A double handed clap to the ears, countered by a cold cocked punch to the nose. A leg pick that would've slammed his opponent into the ground foiled by an axel kick to the temple. Approaching with a dempsey roll that was aided by his precariously unstable balance Faer had finally gotten a semblance of a balance as he weaved through the simple and straightforward attacks of the monk.
Hook after hook, Faer worked into a fourth blow before he had been stopped cold by his opponent who had appeared the side of him not too unlike Akihiko did during their spar.
His fist screamed death, if he could see it, he could react to it.
He pivot- was flying into a wall as his vision completely vanished with a flash in his left eye. He didn't feel the pain from it so he had to have more gas in the tank…
Any notion of that thought vacated Faer's head as it rocketed into the wall with a sickening crunch, whether it was brick or his skull, Faer didn't care to find out, as he tried to keep his right eye on the monk who looked even exasperated with him as pushed himself back to his feet.
He was still in this, damn it!
"Psio…"
He- What, food. Air. Guns. Brain. Pain. 1918. A squared plus B squar-
Abruptly Faer started vomiting. Blood? Bile? Food? It didn't matter.
The near unbearable pressure behind his eyes caused his vision to blur and skip; it was a state that switched between light and darkness at blistering speed leaving the illusion of imaginary stars and crackling lightning.
There was an element of pain that wracked his body with oscillating frequencies that scattered his attempts to compose himself, leaving him further discombobulated.
As it started to subside his head for a lack of a better description, felt like it was filled with water, rushing around in an endless attempt to find balance.
Headlights hit Faer's eyes, the Contractor fell to the side, his head throbbing irregularly. As the smell of burning rubber met his nose from the squealing tires he let up another stream of bile weakly out the side of his mouth.
【Due to surviving a brain aneurysm gain +2 End】
【Due to encountering Psychic Energy for the first time gain +1 Mag】
【Due to Brain Compartmentalization gain +2 Int】
【CQB Hand to Hand (Novice) 11/50 - 12/50】
【Perseverance Lvl 10/100 - 11/100】
As the pop-ups flashed in the corner of Faer's vision he was just barely able to get a grip on reality.
The extra Endurance didn't heal him, but it did add more to his essence.
Enough to prevent more damage. Without those timely boons he would have likely passed out at the very least.
「Health」
【33/248】
He might've actually died if he bled anymore, would've died if those monks had stuck around to see if he had survived that.
He felt something drip out his ears.
Looking at the ground though he saw a pale pink mass on the ground that had a bright cherry red syrup around it… wasn't a lot but it was distinctly a separate puddle from his vomit…
A chill ran down his spine, before something else boiled up from within. Anger and spite.
Targeting the mentally unwell was one thing, but now, it was personal.
【Quest gained：Did someone get the liscene plate for what hit me?: Track the van that the Shinto-Revivalists are using. Time Limit: 10 minutes.】
Well that cleared up where they came from.
Fear climbed to his feet unsteadily, and pulled a nifty item from his inventory.
An odd looking prayer bead.
Allegedly upon crushing it would restore his body to peak condition, and after the fight he just had he didn't want to try to get into another fight without being at his best.
When he crushed the bead a sense of nausea he didn't know he was feeling disappeared.
When he got his hands on that Monk- Shiki, he would have to try choking him out instead of fighting him, his durability clearly was above Faer's but the teen would love to see him survive without oxygen.
It was no fix for the exhaustion that he felt in his system, but he recovered enough that chasing a vehicle shouldn't be beyond him.
With the new found frame rate he was working with it was a breeze to jump between walls to get back to the rooftops.
Maybe it was also a bit of a blessing that he never got to use his gun as well since the police wouldn't be coming to investigate the source. But then again it wasn't like he couldn't use his own abilities to catch up.
As he began running alongside the traffic Faer lamented that even with a full recovery it was too tiring to manage to keep pace with the van which was breaking the speed limit since they had apparently noticed he was on their trail.
A left turn, followed by a right leading into a dead end. Or rather he would have to jump across the street.
It didn't matter, with his speed he could easily bounce up the walls of buildings, something like this should easily be within his ability.
Faer got the feeling that if he could see himself from an outside perspective he would look cool.
With a round off flip the Contractor kicked off with renewed speed chasing down the van that was rapidly leaving the boundaries of the peninsula.
Tch.
"Sukukaja!"
A green aura consumed his body as he tried to close in on the gray vehicle from above.
His feet pounded on the roof as he darted across the last building that might be able to give him the angle that he needed to close in on the threat.
"Hyut!"
Grunting as he pushed off the ledge of the roof with incredible speed, Faer closed in on his target.
He was close enough to read the license plate and with his new found brain power he could read it too, it was from some place called Inaba 46-49… The van drove onto the bridge Faer felt confident-
Crash
His vision was abruptly cut off as the sound of steel and polymer giving way screeched in his ears and cut, burned and smashed his flesh. Belatedly, Faer realized he had been hit by a vehicle.
Whether it was through sheer happenstance or because the foreigner hadn't been paying attention, he had darted into the path of a commercial truck.
The impact that occurred between the two, himself and the truck had resulted in incredible damage to the both of them, since he had been moving at greater speeds than the vehicle he had been embedded into the engine block.
He would live though. Given what he survived tonight, what would a little more maiming do to him?
Nothing he wasn't going to do to those damn monks. He just had to get himself out- "Holy shit! Is he dead!? Where did he come from!"
There was blood leaking into his eyes but Faer had bigger fish to fry and no time to get stuck dealing with this.
Sucki- coughing out blood he had to reassess how he was going to go about this.
Holding his breath, Faer carefully pushed himself- "He's still alive!? Holy shit, his skin it's peeling, oh go-" out of the wreckage, he had a sharp pain in his chest but other than that and white hot pain from his ribs being obliterated he was fine.
The sounds of retching hit Faer's ears as he stood on uneasy legs. He looked to see the rest of the damage, he had a small pipe of some sort stabbing through him and he looked more like ground beef than human but if he was standing he would live.
"Fuck."
Looking at the bridge Faer could see that his quarry had gotten away.
The panicking man behind him had tentatively reached out to him, but all things considered Faer wasn't in the mood to assuage anyone's mood.
Least of all a civilian that cost him his target.
All there was to do now was try to rest up for later, either try again or try to track down the van with some of the connections he had made during this hunt.
Conveniently just then the Dark Hour hit.
Faer was in no condition to fight Demons.
He hated running away, but if he was tactical about his movement he would never be put in that position.
…
Pushing into his room with a shaky hand that he didn't realize was pretty much broken Faer collapsed against his door and slid down.
It was a close call, but thankfully UNDIT was able to take over before he got dragged into another fight.
"Fucking hell."
About two weeks ago he had gone to the police station to see if they had any idea about these kidnappings.
Their knowledge on the events was suspect at best. However given that this entire island was basically a fiefdom dedicated to the development of the Kirijo's it wasn't that big of a surprise to Faer.
The situation at hand was viewed and handled with the same emotional drain and professionalism that came with an extended deployment.
Which is to say frustration and rage yet acceptance to the task being brought up.
Faer sympathized, as much as he could without personal experience. It was part of the reason why he told the police to follow up with UNDIT.
And why he told UNDIT that he would handle it.
In theory he had the skill set to handle this.
It only took him about 3 days to figure out that the only people who had been kidnapped had been people unwilling to resist.
And the only people who had been unwilling to resist had been people who didn't seem to be mentally all there, the term coined for this was Apathy Syndrome.
They didn't really do much but stand around in a haze and occasionally mutter some off putting words.
The reason that this hadn't been brought up is because most people likened Apathy Syndrome to being a spiritual disease and everyone who contracted it died and or disappeared.
There was no known cure.
There was no known treatment.
So why bother, once a loved one contracted the disease it was best to let them wander and starve according to the common consensus.
All in all no one would care, Faer concluded.
Between using the CCTV footage at the police station and coordinating the people on the "Apathy Syndrome" list he was eventually able to narrow down the amount of people who had actually been kidnapped versus those who simply are wandering waiting for their end.
Letting himself relax, Faer dug out the medical powder that was the most miraculous thing he had come across so far and applied it to his wounds.
Hissing as his wounds healed leaving faint scarring behind.
He was honestly a bit too tired to keep fighting, at least for tonight. Tomorrow he would try to get back out there, and at the very least he needed to see if the police would let him use their database to figure out who that car belonged to.
【Quest Complete：Did someone get the liscene plate for what hit me?: Track the van that the Shinto-Revivalists are using. Time Limit: 10 minutes.】
【Rewards：Physical Attack Mirror, 1000 Conflict Points】
【Failure: Death, ？？？】
【Quest：Investigate the Shinto-Revivalists. Special Criteria：？？？】
【Rewards: 10000 Conflict Points, ？？？ 】
"Fucking hell," the exhausted teen let his head fall into hands.
It was a lot to unpack.
It seems like this UI which was near useless besides checking his condition and storing his stuff finally had a better use. Too bad that better use was threatening his life, his short life in which all he did was nearly get himself killed.
…
It was no different than what he did before the graphic started doing this.
"Honestly it's threatening me with a good time more than anything else…"
He couldn't help but laugh hysterically as he came to realize that ultimately even with this thing trying to dictate his decisions that nothing would change, their goals were aligned. Maybe they were his to begin with as well.
That didn't explain the Special Criteria mechanic but it would probably be best to consider that to be bonuses, which would obviously change with whatever he was doing.
He also had Conflict Points that he could finally spend…
Summary
【Name: Faer Jaecar】
【Level 6】
『HP: 248/248』
『MP: 43/43』
『Str: 7』
『Agi: 5(8.5)』
『End: ７』
『Int: 6(90fps)』
『Mag: 4』
『Dex: 5』
『Luk: 3』
Conflict Points:1065
Available Stat Points: 11
【Skills】
【Inventory】
【Conflict Store】
He was here to finally get his hands on something that would even the odds. Or at the very least lower his medical expenses.
The conflict store was something Faer was looking forward to using and dreading at the same time since he would likely get his meager savings wiped from just a single purchase.
But things were getting harder and at the rate things were going he was going to get splattered soon. Hell, he couldn't even say sooner rather than later because it only took one stroke of bad luck.
Luck was a shit substitute for skill but even the most skilled craftsman needed a good tool kit to make his best work.
【Z-Target: focus the mind's eye to highlight combatants, increased target tracking. Cost: 700 CP】
【Aero-kinesis: development of wind based abilities, compatible with most systems of magic. Cost 400 CP】
【Renewal 1: grants low-tier regeneration for most minor wounds 3 HP/hour amputated limbs take a minimum 3 week time to regrow reattachment may vary. 600 CP】
【Expanded System Module: gain access to a more complete version of System UI. Cost 500 CP】
【Added Potential (Persona): Gain access to Spiritual Summon based on the closest mythological anagram. (Not recommended due to ID loss) Cost 1000 (-90%)】
Even with most things being out of his price range, the bottom few options he had on this list he could buy would dramatically change how much survivability he could have.
Regeneration was an obvious pick since he would be able to get some serious synergy with Perseverance.
He had been dealt mortal wounds a few times but never something that outright killed him, but with any kind of healing ability that might never happen.
So【Renewal 1】is going to be his go to here hopefully everything else would be easy grabs after his little quest.
After purchasing it the change was… like when the fog clears up but leaves overcast skies.
The healing process was tiring. Point blank, but he could feel his body fixing damage he didn't realize his so called miracle medicine hadn't fixed.
Yawning, a wave… of… exhaust….
≪Adjustment. Finality. Amusement.≫
Officer Kurosawa, who was soon going to be tasked with the responsibilities and duties of a Sergeant, was buried in paperwork and red tape.
It wasn't anything that he hadn't been made aware would happen.
It was the nature of the beast as far as he was aware, the U.N. and Interpol would always be a hair's breadth away from restricting their ability to operate. Citing something or another of being a threat to the international community.
Part of the reason he left the JSDF and just went local was because he was sick of the crap and wanted to be involved in local solutions.
So much for that.
With how sleepy this town was he would've never guessed that it would be the scene of one of the greatest ongoing mysteries of the century.
The cop had half a mind to think that there was a long and protracted shadow war happening.
He knew that something unnatural was happening but he didn't have any recording to consult with to prove that specifically. Just instances that had been covered in enough red tape that he thought he was looking at a butcher's shop.
Last night was better, reports of a burning man on the highway causing accidents before casually walking away, before promptly disappearing.
This had Kirijo written all over it.
Blinking and leaning back from reading the submitted report, the cop couldn't help but still frustrated about his lack of ability as a mundane officer of the law.
"Kurosawa, got that Gaijin asking for you by name again. Should I send him up?"
Sending a look off to the side towards some of the awards he's accumulated in the JSDF and on the Force he let the question hang for a few moments.
"Yeah, go ahead, send him up."
Hopefully this wouldn't be something that he needed to submit a report to the Captain over.
…
"You're sure that this is the license plate you saw?"
He should've known that lamenting today would be a bad idea.
"Positive, check the CCTV if you don't believe me, it should be close to midnight."
A look of begrudging understanding passed onto Kurosawa's face, the man giving his undivided attention to foreign teen.
Or at least he was pretty sure he was dealing with a teenager, somethings just didn't line up with this "Faer." But given that he was given paperwork for a foreign diplomat before his arrival there was little he could do about it.
Giving the boy a side glance, the man let out a deep sigh.
"Before we get into that, your package arrived."
A positively feral grin broke out on the boy's face for an instant before a stone mask of indifference broke out.
The boy's body language relaxed as well.
That was concerning as well.
Kurosawa wasn't sure how he got the greenlight for his package to get shipped out but given that he seemed to have certificates for almost every vocation under the sun, he figured he would let him be so long as he left civilians out of it.
Speaking of civilians…
"Mr. Jaecar, did you happen to get involved with a motor vehicle accident by the bridge last night?"
"Yes, what of it?"
The answer was prompt and with no discernable hitches in his response or changes in tone that the officer could discern.
It was obvious he didn't give a shit.
He already knew about the van chase, because after the truck driver had been inconsolable about a burning man who looked like he stepped out from the gates of hell, the officer knew he ought to see what was going on.
He didn't know how the person in front of him survived that and looked no worse for wear after completing a day at school.
It was strange, disorientating to know that the young dignitary had shrugged off things that would have killed another with a fraction of the damage he had sustained the night prior.
The second coming of Kirijo's group if the police officer had to guess. Or maybe given the amount of clearance the… person in front of him had it'd be more accurate to say he was the American's answer to the strange and unnatural.
Even with how professional their interactions up to this point, sometimes it felt he was staring at something that only pretended to be human, aside from him being a Gaijin.
"It's nothing. I'll just need to see your ID before you use the computer."
It was illegal to search up vehicle information without probable cause and this far down the line normally required a warrant but this boy basically carried all the authority he needed for such casual over reach of the law.
It sickened the officer to be honest.
But if he wanted to with the amount of surveillance access he did have, fabricating an assault charge would be easy.
Still with how sloppy this "investigation" was and the less than natural aspects of what was going on it was best to keep this silent.
Which meant more status quo.