The city hummed with life, the buzz of traffic filling the air as carnivores and herbivores went about their daily lives, sharing space yet never fully at ease. Legoshi and Louis moved purposefully through the crowded streets, their contrasting figures drawing glances from passersby. The wolf's lanky, slightly disheveled appearance stood in stark contrast to the stag's sharp, tailored suit, a visual reminder of how different their worlds were—and how those worlds had collided time and again.

Their destination was a nondescript municipal building, the home of the city's traffic monitoring system. Louis had pulled some strings to get them access to footage from a street corner near one of the attacks.

"You're sure this will help?" Louis asked, his voice cutting through the ambient noise.

Legoshi nodded, his ears twitching. "I don't know, but it's worth a shot. Anything's better than nothing."

The two entered the building, greeted by a sleepy-eyed otter sitting at the reception desk. After a brief exchange and flashing of credentials, they were led to a small, dimly lit room with monitors lining the walls.

"Here," said the technician, a jittery meerkat, as he queued up the footage. "This is from three nights ago, right where you said the attack happened."

The video played on the central monitor. It was a relatively quiet night, the streetlights casting pools of pale light onto the pavement. A few figures passed by—mostly herbivores, their steps hurried.

"There," Legoshi said, his eyes narrowing. He pointed to a figure stepping into the frame.

The technician froze the footage, rewound it slightly, then played it again at half-speed.

The figure was indistinct, shrouded in a dark hoodie. They moved with a strange fluidity, almost too smooth for a normal gait. Then, without warning, their body seemed to flicker—like a glitch in the video feed. For a split second, they vanished, only to reappear a few steps forward.

"What the hell?" Louis murmured, leaning closer.

The meerkat scratched his head nervously. "That's... not a camera issue. The feed's clean. Whatever that is, it's happening in real life."

The footage continued. The figure moved closer to the edge of the frame, and just before disappearing entirely, they turned their head slightly. A brief glimpse of their face—or what should have been their face—came into view.

Legoshi inhaled sharply. Where there should have been eyes, there were only dark, hollow voids.

"Pause it," Louis ordered.

The image froze. They stared at the grainy still. The figure's features were just blurry enough to evade identification, but those hollow eyes were unmistakable.

"This… doesn't make any sense," Legoshi said, his tail flicking nervously.

"Nothing about this attack makes sense," Louis replied, his tone sharper. "An assailant who can disappear? Eyes like that? It's not normal. It's not natural."

The meerkat shifted uncomfortably. "If I were you, I'd keep this quiet. Stuff like this tends to attract... attention."

Legoshi exchanged a glance with Louis. The wolf's instincts told him there was more to this attacker than met the eye—something beyond biology, something he couldn't explain.

Louis folded his arms, his gaze hard. "We need answers. We'll take this footage to Gouhin. He might know something."

The meerkat hesitated, then nodded, quickly copying the footage onto a drive and handing it to Louis. "Be careful," he said, his voice low.

As they stepped out of the building, the tension between them was palpable.

That..thing...whatever it was, had to be stopped.

The dimly lit alley leading to Gouhin's clinic smelled of antiseptic and blood, an uneasy mixture that set Louis's nerves on edge. It was deep in the backstreets of the Black Market—an area he had once vowed never to set foot in again. And yet, here he was, following Legoshi down a path he had long abandoned.

The wolf walked with an ease that irritated Louis. "I'm telling you, he's not as bad as you think," Legoshi assured him.

Louis scoffed. "He's an underground doctor who treats carnivores addicted to eating herbivores. Excuse me if I'm not eager to shake his hand."

Legoshi didn't reply, just stopped in front of a reinforced metal door and knocked. A moment later, it slid open slightly, revealing a pair of sharp panda eyes.

Gouhin eyed Legoshi first. "You again?" Then his gaze shifted to Louis, who stood stiffly behind him, eyes wary. "And you brought a friend. That's new."

Legoshi scratched his cheek awkwardly.

Louis shot him a glare. "Charming."

Gouhin grunted and opened the door fully, stepping aside. "Get in before someone sees you."

The inside of the clinic was as messy as Louis had expected—rows of medicine bottles, surgical tools, and reinforced restraints for patients who didn't know how to control themselves.

Louis stepped in carefully, then noticed Gouhin's gaze drop to his leg. The panda's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Huh. New model."

Louis blinked, momentarily thrown off balance. "Excuse me?"

Gouhin gestured to his prosthetic. "The weight distribution's different from the last one. Looks smoother, too—less stiffness in the joint."

Louis's posture stiffened. The new model had improved balance algorithms—he had been one of the first to test it. "How do you know that?"

Gouhin smirked and sat down. "Let's just say I keep up with the latest in bio-mechanical advancements."

Legoshi, oblivious to Louis's unease, set the flash drive on the table. "We found something weird. We need your opinion."

Gouhin took the drive and plugged it into an old monitor. The footage flickered to life, replaying the eerie sight of the shadowy figure flickering in and out of view. The room fell silent as they watched the being move unnaturally, those hollow eyes sending a shiver down even Legoshi's spine.

Gouhin exhaled, leaning back in his chair. "That's not something you see every day."

Legoshi tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

Gouhin replayed the section where the figure seemed to vanish for a split second. "I've seen predators try to move like ghosts, but this? This is something else. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was some kind of mimetic camouflage."

Louis frowned. "You're saying this thing is some kind of tech?"

"Possibly." Gouhin rewound the footage again, freezing the frame where the figure flickered. "Some military RD groups have been playing with optical camouflage—materials that bend light, make a person seem invisible. It's experimental, but it exists."

Louis crossed his arms. "That technology isn't public knowledge."

Gouhin smirked. "Neither is your prosthetic. But here we are."

Louis stiffened again. He didn't like how easily Gouhin seemed to know things—things even the general public hadn't caught wind of.

Legoshi's ears twitched. "But what if it's not technology? What if it's something else?"

Gouhin turned to him. "What are you suggesting?"

Legoshi hesitated, then finally voiced what had been nagging at him since he saw the footage. "What if it's biological? Some kind of evolutionary trait?"

Louis scoffed. "You think this thing evolved to phase in and out of sight?"

Legoshi frowned. "Why not? We've seen unique abilities in different species. Chameleons change color. Owls fly silently. Who's to say there isn't something out there that can camouflage in a way we don't understand yet?"

Gouhin rubbed his chin, considering. "It's possible. But whether it's tech or biology, we need more information." He turned to Louis. "You've got connections, right? Any chance you can dig into this kind of research?"

Louis exhaled sharply. "I can try. But if this is cutting-edge, it's not going to be easy to find out who has it—or who might have stolen it."

Gouhin nodded. "Then start there."

Legoshi glanced at the frozen image on the screen, unease curling in his stomach. Whether it was a beast with unnatural abilities or something more sinister, they had stumbled onto something far bigger than they had anticipated.

And something told him they weren't the only ones interested.