The sky had barely cleared when Ivan finished his discharge paperwork and walked out of the hospital.
First thing he did was call Tamiya. Then he headed straight to a café to collect the rest of the materials from her. With these, he figured his fusion progress could hit ninety percent.
"You're trying to merge with parasites, aren't you? How's that experiment going?"
Ivan flipped through the documents, already catching onto a few clues.
"Don't pry into things you shouldn't know," Ryoko Tamiya said coldly, her eyes locked onto him. "Or I can't guarantee I won't kill you myself."
"Getting feisty, aren't you? Alright, alright. When the time comes, I'll see it with my own eyes."
Ivan grabbed the documents and stood to leave.
"School resumes in a month," she added.
"Got it."
Over the next month, Ivan showed up all over Tokyo, hitting one famous food spot after another.
Maybe the incident with Mr. A had scared them, but cases like the previous dismemberment killings dropped off hard.
Of course, Ivan didn't buy that for a second.
They hadn't stopped killing. They'd just gotten smarter about it. Fewer witnesses, quieter locations.
"Shinichi, over here."
At a maid café, Ivan sat by the window, waving him over.
"Why the hell did you call me to a place like this?" Shinichi looked around, clearly out of his depth. First time in a maid café.
"Heard the coffee's good, so I came to try it. Relax, I'm not telling Satomi."
Ivan waved off the maids nearby, sending them away. No need for outsiders to hear what they were about to discuss.
"So, no trouble with Tamiya at school lately?"
He took a sip of coffee and looked at Shinichi.
Shinichi sat across from him, frowning. "Yesterday, I was about to confront her. But she left. Before that, she said something… weird."
"She thinks all life on Earth follows some kind of command. Like flies know how to flap their wings, spiders know how to spin webs…"
Shinichi's expression darkened.
"And when she took over a human brain, she received a command too."
Ivan leaned back slightly. "Let me guess."
Shinichi's voice dropped.
"To wipe out humanity. Completely."
Shinichi leaned back in his chair, eyes locked on Ivan. "Did you receive that command too?"
Ivan took a sip of his coffee and shook his head. "No idea what she's talking about. That 'command' sounds more like instinct. Killing or eating humans is just built into them from birth."
"Instinct…" Shinichi fell into thought.
"So basically, like a lion hunting an antelope. Except parasites hunt humans."
"Yeah, that's how it looks." Ivan nodded.
But Shinichi still couldn't wrap his head around it. If that were true, parasites should've existed since the beginning of humanity, not suddenly show up out of nowhere like this.
"Then why did they suddenly appear?"
"No clue. Maybe we'll find out someday."
Ivan wasn't interested in digging deeper. It was pointless. The way he saw it, parasites showing up felt like the planet itself pulling the strings. And even if that were true, what then? Humans weren't going to suddenly stop wrecking the environment just because something started hunting them.
"By the way, are your parents still at home?"
The question caught Shinichi off guard. "Why are you asking about them?"
Ivan remembered how it went in the original story. Shinichi's parents went on a trip, got attacked by a parasite, and his mother ended up dead… worse, the parasite even took over her body.
"Just thinking of dropping by your place."
"They left for a trip yesterday. Won't be back for a while."
"Already?" Ivan blurted out before he could stop himself.
"…What?" Shinichi frowned. Ivan was acting weird today.
Ivan felt a headache coming on. He hadn't expected to be this late. For all he knew, Shinichi's mother might already be dead.
"You know what these parasites are like, and you still let them go? This is the worst time to be traveling. Those things love picking people off in remote places."
His words hit hard, dragging Shinichi's buried anxiety right back up.
The truth was, he hadn't stopped his parents because he couldn't come up with a reasonable excuse. If he exposed Migi, there was a chance Migi would kill them. At the end of the day, it was still a parasite, no different from Ryoko Tamiya or Mr. A.
"…They should be fine. Lately, the killings have almost stopped."
Shinichi could only cling to that.
"Where did they go?"
Ivan leaned forward slightly, still hoping there was something he could do.
"They didn't tell me before they left."
Shinichi shook his head.
Ivan set his coffee down and let out a cold laugh. "You're really gambling with your parents' lives? If they get killed, can you handle that? Or do you just not care?"
That landed like a curse.
Shinichi shot to his feet, knocking over the coffee on the table. The hot liquid splashed all over his clothes, drawing everyone's attention.
But as the unease inside him grew stronger, he looked down at his right hand.
"…You're right. As long as parasites are still out there, traveling isn't a smart choice."
The burn from the coffee seemed to snap him awake.
"Some things… you can't avoid forever."
He pulled out his phone, scrolled to his mother's contact, and hit call.
Beep… beep…
After more than ten seconds, the call finally connected.
Hearing his mother's familiar voice, Shinichi's whole body tensed. His voice shook with emotion.
"Ask them where they are," Ivan said from the side.
"Tell me your location, now!"
Shinichi's tone turned urgent.
"There's no time to explain. I'll tell you everything when you get back."
It didn't take long before he got the answer.
"They're at Mount Takao. It's about an hour from here."
The moment he hung up, Shinichi was already moving.
"Shinichi, no human should know about my existence."
Migi slid out from his palm.
"Shut up! Say one more word and I'll cut you off myself."
Shinichi grabbed a small knife from the table and pressed it against his right arm.
Migi could tell he wasn't bluffing this time.
"Are your parents really that important? Humans are such strange creatures."
"How the hell would a parasite understand human emotions? You're just a bunch of things that feel nothing!"
Shinichi didn't even bother changing out of his coffee-soaked clothes. He ran out to the street and flagged down a taxi.
"Mount Takao. Hurry."
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69