A Short While Earlier
"So... what should we do then?" Shisui asked, crossing his arms.
"That's a good questio—" Hayato began.
"Damn it, man, think of something else!" Shisui interrupted, rubbing his temples.
Hayato nodded, stepping back and slumping onto the wooden bench. Shisui stared down at him, waiting for a spark of inspiration.
"Shisui, I have a much better idea," Hayato said gravely.
Shisui leaned in.
"Let's forget about the bike entirely and just fly back to Japan," Hayato offered naturally.
Shisui clenched his fists, let out a deep, shuddering sigh, and dropped down onto the bench beside him.
"Alright," Hayato said, tapping his chin. "Call the bike's original owner and ask if he has a GPS tracker installed on it."
Shisui nodded, stepping away to dial the owner. After a brief, low conversation, he returned with a confident look. "We have the coordinates. Let's go."
Hayato stood up, dusting off his jacket. "He actually gave you the live location?"
"Yeah," Shisui replied. "I told him I lent the bike to a friend who isn't answering his phone."
Hayato patted Shisui's shoulder with deep sincerity. "Good luck!"
Shisui's brow furrowed.
Hayato turned on his heel to walk away. Shisui reached out, grabbing him by the collar. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Me? Oh, to the buffet table," Hayato said, pointing toward the hall doors.
"Hayato, you're the one who gave the bike away in the first place! The least you can do is come along!"
Hayato paused, giving a nod. "That is a truly fantastic, outstanding point. Let's move."
He took three steps before Shisui stopped him again. "Where are you walking? We need a ride!"
Hayato held up his phone with a faint smirk. "I can handle that."
He dialed a number. The moment the call connected, Hayato dropped his casual Japanese tone, switching flawlessly into refined British English.
Shisui blinked in surprise, quietly clapping his hands at his friend's liquid-smooth accent.
"Yes, I require transport... Excellent, thank you. We are standing along the main roadside," Hayato requested over the receiver before hanging up. "Our ride will be here in a few minutes."
They waited along the dark avenue. A few minutes later, an elderly man rattled up to the curb riding a heavy vintage bicycle.
The old man and Hayato exchanged a look of deep, silent respect—like two old comrades meeting after decades apart. After a quick minute of low conversation, the old man handed over the bike, tipped his hat, and walked away into the night.
Hayato turned around, gesturing to the bicycle. "Alright, jump on."
Shisui glared at him, his face twitching. "We could have ordered a taxi... You made me wait ten minutes for a bicycle?!"
"Nah, you don't understand the significance of this machine," Hayato insisted cheerfully, hopping onto the seat. "Come on, hop on."
Shisui dragged himself onto the back, fuming. "And who on earth was that old man?"
"Oh, him? I met him in an online grand-strategy game," Hayato explained, standing on the pedals. "He was a formidable opponent."
Hayato pushed off, and to Shisui's shock, the bicycle glided across the asphalt with unbelievable smoothness and speed.
"Which way, Shisui?" Hayato called out.
Shisui pulled out his phone, checking the GPS dot. "Wait—hey! You're going the wrong way!"
"What the hell, man?!" Hayato yelled, whipping the bicycle around in a sharp turn.
Pumping his legs with athletic power, Hayato rode like a professional, effortlessly navigating through the city streets and onto the dark highway. In record time, they approached the bridge.
Back in the Present (Near the Bridge)
"To get across to the other side, we need to cross that river," Hayato noted, eyeing the guarded bridge.
"Let's go through the water," Shisui suggested.
Hayato gave a slow nod. A smirk spread across his face as he gripped the handlebars tight. "Shisui... hold on."
"Wait, what are you—"
Before Shisui could finish, Hayato stood on the pedals, accelerating toward the steel bridge. Instead of stopping, he angled the bicycle straight toward a rusted, diagonal steel girder.
The tires gripped the metal frame, launching the bicycle high into the night air! Performing a gravity-defying arc over the churning water, the bicycle slammed down onto the far muddy bank near the ruined village.
They tumbled off the bike. Shisui sat flat on the wet grass, clutching his chest, completely unequipped for the airborne stunt he had just survived.
Hayato stood up, dusting off his sleeves with a smug grin. "How was that?"
CRACK.
Footsteps echoed from the treeline.
"Run!" Hayato yelled, taking off at top speed.
"That's the wrong way!" Shisui screamed after him.
Hayato immediately did a 180-degree pivot, sprinting in the opposite direction. Both of them darted into the crumbling alleys of the ruined village as the footsteps gave chase. Snow was everywhere.
Suddenly, Shisui halted near a stone courtyard. Hayato, looking behind him, slammed directly into Shisui's back.
"Hey, why'd you stop?" Hayato asked, rubbing his nose before looking over Shisui's shoulder.
Before them lay rows of broken stone houses, choked by dead vines and fog.
"This village... it's completely destroyed," Hayato observed, his voice turning serious.
"It looks abandoned... or wiped out entirely," Shisui corrected, stepping carefully across the cracked cobblestones.
"Let's move deeper and find that kid," Shisui said.
Hayato followed, but his eyes caught a strange detail on a nearby collapsed roof. He narrowed his gaze.
"Shisui, I'm going to look around," Hayato said. "If anything happens, just yell. In a dead place like this, sound travels far."
Shisui smirked. "Same goes for you."
They split up, moving through different sectors of the ruined settlement.
Shisui approached a stone dwelling with a shattered window frame. Vaulting cleanly inside, he swept the dark interior with practiced stealth.
This place didn't just decay... it was erased, Shisui thought, observing strange marks along the wooden beams.
His eyes fell upon the stone hearth. Half-buried beneath grey ash was a scorched piece of heavy paper. Curious, Shisui knelt down and picked it up. The edges were blackened and crumbled, but a few lines of typed text remained legible:
...RIMENTAL SUBJECT GROUP...
...Xavier J. (DECEASED)... ...Louis Clay... (TERMINATED)...
The rest of the document was burnt to ash.
Experiments were conducted here...? Shisui's pulse quickened.
"Shisui!" Hayato's voice called out quietly from a nearby structure.
Shisui pocketed the fragment and slipped out through the broken wall toward Hayato's position. He found Hayato kneeling beside a collapsed cellar entrance.
"Look at this," Hayato gestured down into the shadow.
Shisui leaned over, his eyes widening in disgust. "What... what is that?"
Lying in the dirt was a human skeleton—but its bone structure was horribly mutated. The right forearm was composed of a solid, calcified blade of bone, while the left arm dragged on the ground like a bundle of thick, segmented tentacles.
"A mutated skeletal frame," Hayato whispered. "One arm is a blade, the other looks like a cephalopod limb."
"Something is deeply wrong with this place," Shisui said, his voice dropping an octave.
"Why?"
"Before you called me over, I found a burnt document in the fireplace," Shisui explained. "It mentioned 'Experimental Subjects'... "
Hayato stared at the skeleton, the humor completely gone from his expression.
"So... this creature here was one of them."
"That kid who got captured..." Shisui said firmly. "He's involved in something way bigger and darker. We need to fall back."
"No," Hayato countered softly. "They caught him right in front of us, Shisui. If we leave now, he won't survive the night."
"Then, we'll bring back reinforcements." Shisui said.
Hayato opened his mouth to argue—
ROAR!
A guttural, monstrous howl tore through the quiet village.
From the shadows of the collapsed church, a giant, shadow-draped wolf—its fur matted with dark blood, its eyes glowing with unholy red light—vaulted onto the stone wall above them, baring its razor-sharp fangs!