Chapter 23: Chapter 23

Jin’s POV
   Here he goes again. It’s two days in a row too. He definitely did not sign up for working at weekends. Then again, he can’t just walk away when it’s happening right in front of him. The only good news is that they’re normal creatures this time. Just a large pack of worgs.

   Worgs have the appearance similar to a wolf, but they’re much bigger and more intelligent. In fact, they’re so intelligent they can even speak common language used by humans.

   “Finally! Food!”

   “Human flesh! Good!”

   Yup. Intelligent or no, they’re still simple beasts in the end. Simple beasts as big as a jeep with teeth as long as a human’s forearm.

   Their sudden appearance cause everyone present to go on a mass panic. Well, except the police. It’s chaos everywhere with people running and screaming and getting injured from running into each other, while the worgs can’t wait to sink their teeth into those delicious, delicious human meat.

   “Team 1, 2 and 3, protect the citizens! Team 4 and 5, head to your respective vehicles and get weapons!” someone from the police yells out orders.

   He was answered with simple “Roger!” and “Understood!”, and the subordinates move accordingly. Well, time for Jin to move as well. Or more precisely, his clone will. Jin himself wastes no time in “evacuating” with the other citizens and “head to safety”. Worgs have excellent sense of smell. If he stayed, his real identity might be leaked by them.

   As usual, Jin makes it appear out of nowhere complete with the armor and the double-bladed sword. Naturally, the clone’s appearance didn’t go unnoticed, and the protesters have temporarily forgotten about the huge worgs.

   “It’s Silver Wolf!”

   “Curse you! Give us back our tax money!”

   The worgs, on the other hand, aren’t that impressed to see the armor-clad clone.

   “That human is inside tin suit.”

   “Tin suit difficult to claw or bite through.”

   “Let’s ignore tin human and choose others.”

   Then, the one that’s bigger than the rest of them speaks. Due to his size, he’s probably the leader of the pack.

   “No! He most dangerous! If not careful, he kill us all!” he snarls.

   Upon hearing that, the other worgs glare at Jin’s clone again.

   “Surround him! Overwhelm him with our numbers!” the leader orders.

   The worgs quickly got into positions. Clearly, they had been doing this multiple times. Jin is quite impressed.

   Before he takes them on, though he quickly finds the person who whistled and attracted the worgs here. Ah, there he is. He’s running away from the scene frantically. As if he can run away from Jin.

   “EEEEEEEEEEEK~!”

   The man shrieks loudly as Jin uses his ice magic to freeze him from the neck-down, thus immobilizing him. Now that he’s been caught, Jin focuses on the worgs again.

   With the short few seconds that Jin was distracted by the perpetrator, his clone is already surrounded by the worgs. Jin looks around through the eyes of his clone. The protesters and the regular citizens have already been evacuated. The only ones remaining are the police. He then did a quick count. There are twelve worgs in total. Not that it matter to him.

   Jin makes the clone leap forward and aims a punch towards the leader of the pack. Before him or any of his pack mate could react, the punch has already landed and sent the leader flying. Instead of getting scared by the defeat of their leader, the rest of the pack are still determined to take down the clone. The police officers are already well-equipped and ready to support Jin.

   He makes the clone raises up both its hands.

   “Everyone, let me pause things for a while.” Jin tells everyone here through its mouth.

   As they’re staring at the clone with a dumbfounded expression, Jin makes the clone walk towards the pack leader.

   “As you found out first hand, I’m much stronger than you are. Even if all of you gang up on me, you’re still no match.” Jin tells him bluntly.

   “What of it? We won’t surrender just because you stronger than us!” the pack leader snarls.

   “Look, I’m giving all of you a chance to live for another day. If you’re going to toss it away, you’re much stupider than you look.”

   He narrows his eyes in suspicion.

   “Is this a trap?”

   Jin makes the clone shrug its shoulders. “Believe me, don’t believe me. It’s your choice.”

   As the pack leader was about to answer, Jin hears some loud groans coming from the left side of the clone. He makes it turn its neck to see what’s going on, only to see the pack of worgs shuddering violently.

   “What is going on-ARRRRRGH~!”

   Even the pack leader is starting to act weird. Jin makes the clone activates the Eye of Truth. He can’t see anything through the spell, which means that whatever that’s making them to act like this, it’s not magical in nature, nor it is a curse. Given little time to act, he could only turn them into giant popsicles to delay whatever that’s happening to them. He then makes the clone walk towards the group of police officers.

   “May I know who’s in charge of your team?” he asks them.

   The one at the front takes off his helmet and gas mask. He then salutes at the clone.

   “Captain Yamasaki Masahiro, at your service.” he introduces himself.

   “Greetings, Captain. May I have your men pick up the worgs and have their body examined?”

   “Certainly. I will have it taken care of at once.”

   “Thank you.”

   While Captain Yamasaki is talking on his phone to call for reinforcement, another police officer walks toward Jin’s clone and take off her helmet and gas mask. It’s Sergeant Wakaba.

   “Hello there, sergeant. I couldn’t recognize you when you’re in that get-up.” Jin greets her.

   “Enough about me. Is there a reason why you chose to spare these talking wolves?” she asks him.

   “They’re called worgs. As to why I wanted to spare them, the first reason is since they’re intelligent enough to be more than just raving beasts, I was thinking that they could be of use to you all. Secondly, when they started to act weird, I activated a spell to check their body. I couldn’t find anything, so I needed your help on finding out the cause.” he explains.

   “Finding out the cause aside, what use would they be to us?”

   “Our ancestors managed to tame wolves that eventually got domesticated and evolved to dogs, right? Maybe we can do the same with them. Who knows, maybe it’ll be easier since we can communicate with each other.”

   “I...see.”

   She seems surprised that Jin is actually sparing these worgs. Well, he can’t blame her. He did, after all, talk like a homicidal maniac when they met for the first time.

   “Well, those are just possibilities. We can’t do anything before we could cure them. For now-”

   He looks towards the man whom he froze up a few moments ago. The man notices the clone staring and flinches.

   “Here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll be walking towards you slowly. By the time I reach you, you’d better be spitting out everything you know. How you managed to summon these worgs just by whistling, who sent you, everything. Or else, something terrible might happen to you.” he tells the man.

   After the declaration, Jin slowly moves the clone towards the man.

   “Wait, I don’t remember anything!”

   “Wrong answer.”

   “Okay, maybe I do. But not that much!”

   “Just give me something or your life might be in danger.”

   “I was told to attend this protest and whistle softly!”

   “By whom?”

   “I-I don’t remember!”

   “Well, you better recall fast.”

   “I’m trying! I’m trying but there’s this hole in my memory, and I can’t remember at all!”

   “Well maybe a good thwack to your head might jolt your memory. Just give me a moment. I’ll be there soon.”

   “I told you that I can’t remember!”

   “I think I’ve heard that one before.”

   “Well that’s because it’s true!”

   The man is close to crying…never mind, he’s crying for real now. Not that Jin will be showing him any mercy. Not after he attended this protest.

   “Time’s ticking, you know. Better make the most of it.”

   “But I really can’t remember a thing~!” the man wails.

   When Jin’s clone finally reaches him, the man closes his eyes and awaits his fate.

   “Can you bring him to your place and have him questioned? Maybe get a psychologist to somehow reawaken his memories or something?” Jin asks Sergeant Wakaba.

   “Sure, leave it to us.”

   The man opens his eyes and sobs in relieve. Jin defrosts the man so that the sergeant’s colleagues could take him in. While they’re doing that, Jin scanned him with the Eye of Truth. As he has half expected, he can’t see any hint of mana on the man, nor is he being implanted with a magical item or something. As such, it’s still a mystery that the man managed to call up a pack of worgs by just whistling.

   “We’ll handle things from here. You can go back now.” Sergeant Wakaba tells Jin.

   “Are you sure? There might be some more threats.”

   “Don’t worry about it. We’re not that useless, you know. Don’t worry. I’ll tell you what we found out over the phone.”

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   “Well, you know how to find me if you’re ever in trouble.”

   Since Jin received permission to go home, that’s exactly what he did. He makes his clone disappears, and he rides a bus back to the area near his apartment. Before he goes back to his place, though, he stopped by the supermarket to get ingredients since he’ll be cooking a meal for Nyri once he’s back.

   “Welcome back~.” the lolified elder dragon greets him lazily when he enters the apartment unit.

   “I’m home. Sorry for making you wait. I’ll cook some food for you right away.”

   “Thanks. By the way, you were on the television again.”

   “I take it that nothing good was said.” he predicts drily.

   “Nope. A few channels described your freezing of the protester as “barbaric”.”

   He scoffs at that. “Right. I caught the perpetrator who summoned the worgs, and I’m the barbaric one.”

   Jin starts cooking food for both Nyri and himself while he waits patiently for Sergeant Wakaba’s report.

Chinatsu’s POV
   “Let me ask you again. Who ordered you to call up the worgs? How were you able to do it?”

   “I told you a million times already. I don’t remember. You can lock me up for eternity, and my answer is still the same.”

   Chinatsu sighs. This has been going on for hours, and it’s going absolutely nowhere. Mizusawa Mamoru, the protester her team arrested for calling up the talking wolves Minase called worgs, isn’t cooperating at all. As per Minase’s request, a psychologist is on her way to try and do something about Mizusawa’s missing memories, but Chinatsu isn’t optimistic about it. While leaving Date to deal with Mizusawa, she left the interrogation room and head for the forensic room to check at their progress.

   Morikawa Hitoshi, the head forensic officer, shows her an X-Ray of one of the talking creatures. Chinatsu notices something small next to the worg’s heart.

   “What is that?” she asks him while pointing her index finger at it.

   “That’s what we would like to know. If possible, can you call Silver Wolf over so that he could slightly defrost the ice, thus allowing us to take it out?”

   “Of course. I’ll ask him.”

   Minase picks up almost immediately.

   “Hello?”

   “I’m sorry to bother you again Minase-kun, but can you come over to the Tokyo Police Department and slightly thaw the worgs?”

   “I take it that your team found something inside them.”

   “That’s right, and we can’t take them with the ice getting in the way.”

   “I understand. I’ll head over right now.”

   He arrived in less than two minutes, even though the distance between his new apartment and the police station takes at least an hour to cover even by car. He arrives in his usual get-up of metallic helmet and armor.

   “So, which spot am I supposed to thaw?” he asks.

   “Somewhere around here will do.” Officer Morikawa tells him while pointing at a spot right next to the heart of one of the worgs.

   “Got it.”

   With that part of the flesh thawed, the forensic team gets to work immediately. That said, the process wasn’t easy as the worg’s skin, flesh and bones are extremely tough. They were so difficult to cut through they broke seven bone saws. After what felt like hours, the object inside the worg is finally taken out. It’s a cube the size of a lime. Some sort of strange liquid is oozing from it. Just to be safe, it’s extracted by using a pair of tongs.

   “What is that?” Chinastu asks again curiously.

   “We have no idea. We need to examine thoroughly in order to find out. The same goes for the liquid inside it.”

   “Will it be possible to make a cure after the analysis is complete?” Minase asks.

   “It’s really hard to say. We’ll try our best, though.”

   While the forensic team is getting busy with the cube, Minase asked Chinatsu about Mizusawa.

   “I failed to learn anything while I was questioning him. A psychologist is probably helping him to regain his memory as we speak. Hopefully, she could help us out.” she reports.

   “Did you do any research about his background?”

   “His name is Mizusawa Mamoru, age 32. Unemployed. Currently living with his grandparents at Shinjuku. No prior criminal record.”

   Minase grunts. “Not anymore. What about the places he usually hangs out? They might give us a clue on where he obtained the ability or whatever to call the worgs.”

   “We’ve checked on those places too. Arcades. Comic cafes. Red light districts. Nothing suspicious.”

   “...Red light districts aren’t suspicious?”

   “My point is he didn’t make contact with anyone suspicious while he was there. There is, however, something that I found strange when my colleagues went to ask his grandparents a few questions.”

   “Which is?”

   “It began one month ago. Mizusawa started to sneak out of their house every midnight and goes outside. He never told them where he went, and snapped every time they demanded answers.”

   “Let me guess. He’s conveniently forgotten where he went.”

   “That’s right.”

   “Well color me surprised. I’ve been meaning to ask this: is he really having amnesia, or is he just acting stupid?”

   “Oh, he’s telling the truth all right. People tends to give out tells whenever they’re lying, and he didn’t show any. I would know since I studied psychology during my college years.”

   “And yet he remembers everything else?”

   “That’s the part that bothers me. It’s as if someone removed his memories. And the worst part is, he’s living at a place where security cameras aren’t common, so we can’t find a single footage of him passing by.”

   “Speaking of security cameras, is there any near the PM’s office?”

   “I believe there are. Why do you ask?”

   Minase looks toward the frozen worgs.

   “While I was at Ifezan, my sixth sense was sharpened so much I could tell whenever danger is approaching me. When I was watching the protest, however, I failed to sense the worgs even though they were technically just a few hundred meters away from us. I want to know where they popped up from.”

   “Now that you mention it, it’s indeed a bit suspicious that they could just appear out of nowhere without causing a ruckus. I’ll ask my colleague to investigate at once.”

   “Please do.”

   Minase is still looking at the frozen worgs. Even with his helmet on, Chinatsu could somehow tell that he’s troubled.

   “Is something wrong?” she asks him.

   “We still can’t identify our enemy, but whoever he or she is, I have a feeling that I’m being sized up.”

   “Are you saying that the attack this time was more than a hate attack?”

   “Probably. And it’s not just this time. If my theory is right, the weird bull-horse hybrid was sent to access my combat ability. The wolves with the poison sacs were used to see how fast my brain can act during emergencies. The worgs this time? To determine whether I’m cold-blooded enough to kill creatures that we could communicate with. Whoever the mastermind is, he or she is playing the long game.”

   “So you’re saying that modified creatures will keep on coming your way until they’re able to make something really strong.” Chinatsu mumbles.

   “Yup. That might happen sooner or later, and when it’s perfected, even I’ll have trouble against it. I might even be killed.”

   Chinatsu was stunned. She was not expecting Minase to be pessimistic.

   “Please don’t look so surprised. I’m just being realistic here.” he tells her.

   “Even so, for someone like you to taste defeat…”

   “Sergeant, if it’s one thing I learned during the time I was a Hero at Ifezan, it’s to be extremely cautious. No one is invincible. Not even me. I managed to survive on the sole reason that I never let my strength get over my head.”

   “Don’t worry. We’ll support you as much as we can.” she assures him.

   She felt silly for even thinking that. There’s no way some humans that can’t use magic could help out Minase. Even so, he nods his head.

   “Thank you. I’ll be counting on your help. For now, I guess we need to find out where the mastermind is and crush their base before it’s too late.”

   “It’s much easier to be said than done, though. They could be anywhere. It’s fine if they’re in this planet, but if they’re at Ifezan…”

   “No, we can at least be assured that they won’t be at Ifezan. At least, not the ones who made the creatures.”

   “How can you be sure?”

   “Remember the man I told you about? The one that’s a lot like Bouchard? Well, he made creatures by using a combination of alchemy and magic. I could sense the traces of both from all of his creatures when I activated the Eye of Truth. I couldn’t find similar traces in any of the creatures the mastermind made.”

   “Well, at least that’s something. It might take a long time, but we’ll start searching for the mastermind.”

   “I’m counting on you. That said, we already have a prime suspect, don’t we? If I can just barge in to his place-”

   “Please don’t do that. We have rules and laws against trespassing a place illegally.” Chinatsu interrupts.

   He lets out a frustrated groan. “I hate it when I have to be a good citizen.”

   “I promise you that you can charge in once we have enough evidence that he’s the mastermind. Until then, please stay put.”

   “...I understand.”

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