Chapter XIX: Operation Wildfire pt. 1 (1/2)

Morning, at an abandoned warehouse in Minato City, a special ward in Tokyo, and adjacent to the warehouse a figure above a building stood menacingly. (The situation has changed. Eliminating the danger from its source is the best course of action. Originally, I never intended to leave Takahashi-san to be so vulnerable. Currently, she's attending school but the time is ripe to seize this moment.)

There I am, hunting down the would-be kidnappers of my client, (According to the information I siphoned from them, and the intel provided to me by Heinz this is but one of many hideouts of the Dojima-Kai, the second largest yakuza family in Japan. And to the information both provided to me, their regional chief/local boss –the Shateigashira – is Kujo Arata, he's my main target. Find him, extract information from him, go in, go out, and don't be seen like it's always been. All while causing maximum damage as much as possible.)

"Darkness guide me." I donned my mask, cracked my neck, then dove in. Not surprising their hideout is crawling with members. I spotted two of the Dojima-Kai hanging out inside of the warehouse, chatting with one another, "I wonder where big bro and the others went?" said one of the members, "Beats me, they went up and disappeared outta thin air!" and the other one cautiously said, "You don't think, something happened to them, right?" and the other one shrugged in an unsure manner, "Maybe, I mean fuckin' four of their groups, gone. Gone, I tell ya!" "Yeah, come to think of it, they were after that Takahashi chick or somethin'?" he shrugged, "Hell if I fuckin' know, the boss has been real quiet for some reason." Then pulled out a cigarette and placed it in his mouth, "The Oyabun and the Underboss ain't gonna be happy about this." The member patted his pants looking for something but nowhere to be found, "Ah shit, my lighter." As he was looking for his lighter without looking up, he asked, "Hey, bro ya gotta lighter?" "Bro, ya got a lighter?" no answer, agitated he yelled, "What, you fuckin' deaf or some...! thing...?"

And when he glanced up, he saw that he disappeared out of thin air causing him to drop his cigarette on the ground, "W-What the...? O-Oi?! This ain't funny, where are you?!" then I appeared behind him, grabbed his mouth, covering his muffled screams as I held the top of his head and began to extract information from him, (Nothing on Kujo Arata's location. These are but lowly grunts after all. But... here's something useful... Their Big Brother: Fukuda Ino.) As I was exploring the depths of his mind, I saw the image of Fukuda Ino and learned of his last location, then subsequently saw the horrendous things this man did against the innocent that made me sick to my stomach... Then I grabbed hold of both sides of his head and granted him a swift and painless release. (Good riddance... Now, to erase the evidence.) I then opened my palm and concentrated a small bit of Psionic Energy as I used it as a base to transform it into a golf ball-size of pure Void Energy and flicked it to the fresh corpse of the Yakuza Members and began to ignite their clothes in quickly engulfed and devoured their bodies in a pitch-black flame and swiftly the body was reduced to nothingness – not even ash, bone, leather or cloth remained on him. (Singularity: Void Flame.) Then proceeded to 'purge' the warehouse of the rest of its inhabitants.

As I quickly disappeared from the scene and continued my hunt for Kujo Arata. As I exited the warehouse, I found myself in the disgusting alleyway at the back of the building. There, like a diamond in the rough was the "gift" Shiroyama-San gave me to aid me in her protection. At first, I didn't understand what kind of gift it was, but one thing was sure, it certainly beat using my feet to get from A to B.

There I bear witness to a polished and gorgeously glossy black-and-red, custom-made hybrid-engine motorcycle. Shiroyama-san gave me a very descriptive note about this motorcycle. The sports bike itself has a sleek, curvaceous, aggressive, and aerodynamic design, it's fully modernized and outfitted with the Organization's latest tech, combining beauty, speed, and functionality. Shiroyama Industries is but one of many contractors and manufacturers of the Organization's special equipment and hardware. And now it belongs to me. "Shiroyama prototype Mk. 15 model 'Miss Y'."

I got on the motorcycle, wore my dark-tinted glossy-black helmet, placed the key in, turned and fired up the engine, and got the Void out of there.

The feeling of the air pressure pressing against me, the wind flapping my coat, the mufflers burning with its powerful engine roaring through the street as I formulated a plan in my head, (First stop: Kabukichō.) I then shifted this bike's gears to its sixth and final gear and raced through the streets, and on Kabukichō, the red-light district in Shinjuku, inside one of the private bars, in their special private areas, a sleazy man with an unkempt appearance in his early 30's wearing a cheap suit has both of his arms strewn out on two human bar girls wearing skimpy outfits as they were entertaining him.

"Man, two beauties on each of my arms. Life doesn't get any better than this!" he leaned closer to the table in front of him as he drank from the freshly poured glass of whiskey, "Who-Hoo! Damn, that hits the spot!"

And laughed proudly, then suddenly one of the girls on his left leaned her head on his shoulder slowly becoming limp, and placed her head deeper into his shoulder, "Oh, what's up? Ya ladies can't get enough of me?" and noticed that they weren't flirting with him and realized they were unconscious, and soon the other one as well, "O-Oi, what's wrong? Oi!"

And he beckoned to the tall man wearing a bartender's suit that was tending to his drinks, "H-Hey, what's wrong with these girls?" the bartender didn't turn his back but did answer his question, "Forgive them, dear customer. They had a long night before they began to service you." And Fukuda Ino narrowed his eyes cautiously, "Wait... I've been here thousands of times; I've never seen you before."

Sensing danger, he instinctively drew his pistol on his side, but the bartender reacted with lightning-fast reflexes and as if he appeared in front of him, kicked the gun out of his hand as the firearm landed onto the bartender's left hand, "W-What the fuck!? W-Who the hell are you?!" and tried to yell for help, "Oi, anyone! Help! Help me!" I gestured silence to him. "Shh... Don't even bother."

Fukuda Ino held his hands up as I aimed the firearm close to his temples, "W-What the hell do you want from me?" and I replied, "Why, it's simple: Your boss. Where is he? Where is his current location? After all, you are his second-in-command." As Fukuda Ino panted heavily and with an expression full of rage he growled, "You think you could fuck with us? The Dojima-Kai!? We will find your loved ones and those who're close to you, rape 'em and rip their fucking tongues out!" and I flipped the safety on the gun, "Last chance." and he bravely said, "I will never abandon nor will I sell out my brothers...!" and I scoffed at his declaration, "How admirable. Now, will you still say the same after I reveal this to you?" and I made a finger-gun gesture with my other hand and "shot" something to his forehead as I transmitted all the horrific comments from his "brothers" from previously siphoned information, they were full of mockery, insult, and envy at him, "Good god, that fucker doesn't deserve that position." And continued, "Oh fuck, what an arrogant son of a bitch, hopefully, he slips up and kills himself." "That motherfucker just leeched his way to the top!" "For the Family my ass! He gets to cozy up to hot chicks while we're on the ground getting dirty for him!"

"What...? N-No... No! I-It can't be! Lies! Lies!" and held his temples with extreme stress, his eyes flaring up and suddenly filled with tears and began streaming down, "NONONONONONO! IT'S NOT TRUE! LIES! LIES! LIES!" then I seized the opportunity to extract the information I needed from him. There during the extraction process he groaned in pain, "Grah...! Ahh! Wahhh!" but ignoring his cries I've finally found it.

"Hmm... There it is." (Location of Kujo Arata, obtained.) Then I used his handgun and shot him multiple times, two in the head, four on his body, and used my Psionic Ability to dispose of his body and his weapon and walked away.

(Kujo Arata... Even an animal has more worth than you...)

Then in a certain office, a relatively young familiar face was seen as one was fuming with anger and confusion on a wooden desk. "What the hell's going on!? Why isn't Ino-kun answering?! And the other warehouses are dead!" "How the hell am I supposed to tell this to the Arata-san?!" he began to mutter, "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck... FUCK!"

And two others are with him in the office and one of them tried to calm him down, "B-Big bro, there must be a logical explanation. Big bro Ino, must've gotten drunk again!" the older man barked in anger, "At the worst fucking possible time!? We still haven't learned as to where the fuck our boys went to those days ago, including yesterday!"

Then he saw the expressions of his two underlings turned to great confusion and fear, their eyes lit up and they held their breath as he heard the cocking and clinking off the safety of a gun.

And a deep and menacing modulated voice said, "Kujo Arata? The Shateigashira of the Sumiyoshi-Kai?" The voice quaked, "H-He ain't here..." (Tsk. How unfortunate he's not present. This is... if I recall correctly, his third-in-command: Itto Kenji.)

Kenji's breathing shook and his body trembled with fear as sweat began to form on his forehead, "W-Who are you? Who the fuck sent you...!?"

Slowly he raised his hands to show he was carrying no weapon, but his two underlings were about to reach for their pistols and the figure behind Kenji spoke in fluent Japanese, "So much as a finger on those guns will the floors and ceiling run red." And Kenji barked, "How...?! How did you know of this place? And how did you bypass all my brothers?" and the figure refused to elaborate on their identity or their purpose.

Then placed his left hand on the top of the head of Itto Kenji and began to extract the necessary information from his mind, "Agh... Ack...! Agh! Ahhhh!" the two just watched their superior being hurt by whatever this... thing is doing to him and stood frozen in fear.

(Information extracted.) After he finished extracting the information from him, he aimed his gun at the side of his head, "N-No...! P-Please! I-I won't do it again! I... I'll quit! I'll quit the family! I'll give you money, s-s-sound good?!" and the figure scoffed, "No." and pulled the trigger, causing the .50 caliber bullet to blow a hole on his head, killing him instantly "Big bro-!" "You fucking bastard!" which caused the two underlings to pull out their guns by the time they aimed, the Reaper melted in the darkness and the only thing Ito Kenji's underlings saw was a bright flash of red light and the Reaper reappeared behind them and muttered, "No witnesses..."

Then a long molten line appeared on the center of each of their body then another line appeared, and another, then another, one by one it began to appear all over their bodies, (Blade of Xecharius, 1st form: Thousand-Cuts...) and began to split apart, not even a split-second passed he turned them to a thousand pieces and began to combust and turned to ash. As for Ito's body, his body became like the others: he removed the evidence.

He channeled power into his hands and flicked it on his corpse and he began to smolder and burn with blackened flames just as the others before him. His clothes, skin, muscle, blood, and bone disintegrated and left no evidence, not even a scorch mark to know where he was formerly.

And the Reaper, summoned the power of Darkness as Black Mists surrounded his body, and his clothes blended with the shadows, before being engulfed and disappearing from the scene undetected.

And the scene shifted as the Reaper was now racing through the Tokyo streets he began to process and dissect the information that he gained, (One thing leads to another, and Itto knew somewhat, he was in on it. Hmph, was anyway. He knew what his boss's plan is, he knew what they were going to do to Takahashi-san... this is valuable information but zero signs of who leaked it to them, I only have more questions than answers... It only has to come from that man: Kujo Arata.) and added, (Now, thanks to Ino and Itto, I now have compiled a series of detailed and mental notes of Kujo's behaviors, schedule, time and the usual place to where he goes.)

Then the scene shifted back to Yue's school, there she was about to eat lunch with Akari but saw the dark clouds now covering the sky, "Man, it's gotten dark all of a sudden." And Akari looked up and agreed, "Yikes. You're right, hopefully, it won't ruin our plans after school."

Now as the Reaper is now on top of a skyscraper overlooking the city, the clouds above him once turned the beautiful blue sky to a depressing grey as the first globule of rain first dropped on his hood, the Reaper held out his palm and saw a water drop fell to his gloved hand then one, then two and, slowly the drizzle of droplets intensified to a consistent shower, now wetting the parched and dry roads of the Tokyo roadways, streets, and the city-wide scenery.

"Rain... nature's blessing." And looking at the time, "12 noon... Hopefully, Ivanna made lunch for the girls already." (I know, I'll bring home some food with me for the girls to enjoy.) Then after saying that he promptly shook his head to snap out of it, (Wait... why did I think that?) he breathed deeply, (No... Keep your head in the game. Right now, I shouldn't think about it and focus, I must focus on my mission.) As he removed his mask, closed his eyes then once more he took a deep breath before sighing, and felt the cold yet soothing sensation of the falling raindrops on his face, "Siegfried..." in his mind, he remembered a girl's voice calling out his name and for the briefest moment, his usual cold expression turned to a painful wince as he gripped his forehead momentarily, then shook his head, and redonned his mask. (But I'll bring them some snacks for them to enjoy.)

And on the highway a certain car from a certain someone was zipping through the road headed towards Shibuya, the car is a black sedan, and its wipers were moving back and forth to clear the windshield from the rain, the engine hummed as it traveled on the highway. Its passengers wore a variety of suit styles, and on the left side of the car's passenger rear sat a familiar and deplorable old man with a seething look of frustration slapped onto his face, "Fuck. Fuck. FUCK! Why isn't he answering!?"

He growled in anger as he gripped a flip-phone, "Itto's not answering...! and so is Ino as well! Shit... Shit. SHIT!" (How the fuck am I supposed to tell this to the boss? Many of his members just went up in smoke! My second-in-command isn't responding and my personal assistant is radio silent as well! What the hell's going on!) he added, (I thought it was gonna be a quick and easy abduction-and-ransom. Over 20, fucking 20 from the men I sent to kidnap her are gone! It's his fault! It's all because of that bastard who leaked me the info...!) and yelled to his driver, "Drive to the warehouse to where Ito is! I'll see for myself what the actual hell is going on here!"

Then back to where the Reaper is, it was now raining heavily, as the patter of rain deafened his ears as it was the only thing he could hear, but beyond the sound of rainfall, a metallic sound of clinking is also heard as the Reaper is repeatedly tossing a miniature object into the air by flipping it with his thumb before catching it and repeating the action, over and over and when he flipped it one last time, he examined it by squeezing it between his index and thumb for it was no coin rather a bullet from Phobos, a .50cal AE, as he took a deep breath, and cupped it with his hand and infused it with Psionic Energy to the bullet, then glanced at the nearby highway in front of him, (Right around there, I suppose...?) and felt the wind direction and began to align his hand for the perfect shot.

Once more, he flipped the bullet one last time and as the bullet was spinning vertically in the air and is about to fall into his hand, he prepared his hand for a flick and in slow-motion with all of the strength that he could muster in his suppressed state he flicked the bullet causing the bullet to be launched with physics-defying speed. Even causing a miniaturized sonic boom as the bullet traveled at quadruple the speed of sound.

Then a certain black sedan with reinforced glass came into view, before the bullet came into contact with the bulletproof glass, as everything happened in slow-motion the driver and his side passenger, unbeknownst to them while cruising the highway the bullet punched through the glass like it was nothing all while retaining its kinetic energy hitting the passenger first on the head killing him instantly then nailing driver on the neck, to Kujo Arata and his men it all happened in a split-second and before he knew it they were already crashing and rolling in the highway.

The driver of the car died instantly and loosened the steering wheel which caused it to go right and hit the roadside barrier, thereby causing the car to spin out of control and roll over in a violent and graphic display of continuous rolling and tumbling.

Luckily no one outside of the car crash was dragged into any danger, but it did cause damage to public works, and surprise, surprise, all but Kujo Arata survived the crash as the car now rolled over, with damages, dents, and shattered glass of the vehicle.

When Kujo retained his senses, the smell of leaking fuel wafted into his nostril, which meant only one thing: the car is set to explode any minute now. "Oh fuck... fuck... fuck... What the... hell happened...?" He saw the faces of his men now mangled and broken and bodies from the crash, "Shit. Shit. Shit... Shit...!" he unfastened his seatbelt causing him to drop on the roof of the rolled-over car, he couldn't feel his legs but he began to crawl towards the window and tried to punch the reinforced glass which still held strong after the crash. "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on! Not like this! Not like this!"

After the futile attempts of hitting the glass window, he thought to himself, (Shit. This is it. I'm a dead man.) Then began to laugh with induced insanity, "Why is this happening!? HAHAHA! This is all because of that man! And that fatherless bitch!" amidst the sounds of crackling fire and rain, he heard the ear-wrenching sound of steel being pulled apart then suddenly... *BANG* The passenger door was ripped open and what Kujo Arata saw was no guardian angel. No... rather, it was the angel of death here, to claim his soul.

The hooded angel wore a stomach-churning mask that resembled a skull, its left eye glowed a menacing and sinister red, and wore a black and red coat, and with its one hand, it picked up Kujo Arata by the neck and pulled him out of the car wreckage and pinned him to its side.

"Kujo Arata...?" Asked the Angel of Death, Kujo daren't speak back for he was too shocked at what he was witnessing as his voice quaked and quivered with fear, and his breathing shook with panic and dread. And managed to say only this, "P-Please... Spare me...!"

He loosened his grip on his neck with his right hand, then switched to grip his mouth and Kujo felt like his head was in a vise grip. There the Reaper began to siphon every piece of information he has about Yue, who gave him the information, who leaked it to him, his associates, and his intentions. "Ack! Agh! Aghhh!"

"Extraction complete." Then with his left hand, he pulled out Deimos and aimed the gun at his head and without hesitation pulled the trigger, finishing off the Shateigashira.

He dropped Kujo Arata's corpse before blood could've dripped on his uniform. Then on his victim's lifeless body, he noticed a large 24-carat gold ring on his finger with a large ruby inlaid on it, "Spoils of the Hunt." And took it from him.

And realized that if he left the body of a high-value target on the ground here, might draw suspicion from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and rival clans. So, he decided to erase the evidence of Kujo's killing and removed the license plate. Once more he channeled power on his hand and tossed the small dark flame on his body. Like his minions before him, dark flames engulfed his body for not even a few seconds, and his body was soon reduced to nothingness. But decided to leave the rest of Kujo's deceased men as is, as this is of course "an accident" on the Tokyo Highway.

The Reaper got on his bike, revved the engines, and quickly left the scene before authorities arrived as he made the considerable distance, soon the vehicle exploded violently.

While racing on the highway, he's begun to process the information he siphoned from Kujo, (I see... it all makes sense now... All the dots that I couldn't connect before. All the unrelated things that were somehow unconnected are connecting now. The information was leaked directly to him and didn't tell any of his associates or his brothers of this information. They only wanted to kidnap her for ransom. That was their intent. But at the same time why? Why would there be someone out to kill her? This is but a piece to a much, much larger puzzle. The one who leaked the information to Kujo used a codename, hid their face, and never met Kujo directly... That codename, "Piero"? It means clown in Japanese. This "Piero" is the one who gave him the leaked information. But who and where did Piero have this sensitive information? Who gave it to him? How frustrating.)

And saw a figure within Kujo's memories who hand-delivered that leaked info in a brown and sealed envelope, (With him gone, that should lessen my headaches... for now at least... and the assassin who was out for her head wasn't hired by these fools...) and realized. (No... this was a ploy; a ploy to distract me!) And then as he stopped at a red light, then that's when he realized, "Scheisse..." And when the light turned green, he raced ahead.

As he was racing through the roadway, he contacted his familiar via telepathy, (Caligo... Caligo!) (Yes milord?!) and continued, (Before you ask, yes, the Mistress is safe, Milord. I have been keeping surveillance since morning. As per your arrangement, Mr. Shiroyama has his men secretly patrolling and keeping watch on her neighborhood as I spotted them as well during my surveillance. And if she were in any real danger, I would've reported to you immediately.)

(I see... good... That's good.) And the Reaper chastised him, (And it's not 'Mistress', Caligo. She's... an acquaintance. Our relationship is purely professional.) and Caligo chuckled, (Oh but of course, Milord but those three that are currently under your care are your Mistresses are they not? Future wives, perhaps?) and Siegfried kept quiet, (...) (Ahem! F-Forgive me, milord. I shall keep my beak shut; I will alert thee if I have spotted something strange.) and grunted in reply (Please do.) and cut the connection with him and thought, (I've obtained a clue to a much larger mystery. I can't rest yet; I have to keep in close proximity to Takahashi-san. Should anything ever happen to her.)

And added, (My work is done, I'll inform Shiroyama-san to call off his men. I'll assume the duty of "tutor" once more when tomorrow comes. But I'm not done yet the next thing left to do is to safeguard Takahashi-san during their shopping. Where was it again? Ah, I remember now: Shinjuku.) and revved his engines and away he went as quickly as he can.

*End of Chapter*

Current information bestowed for the public, provided by the Knights of Nights.

Subject: Societal Integration of Monster Species / Integration of Local Police Force/Law Enforcement

"The Dual-Police System has caused an irritable amount of controversy with the primary reason that the Knights of Night undermine the sovereignty and capability of a nation, being unable to uphold its own laws. With this line of thinking, it was proposed in a UN Summit, six months ago that local law enforcement within nations that gave foreign monsters citizenship should integrate and welcome our interspecies friends for inclusivity and diversity. Naturally, the native-born monsters are already given citizenship in the first year when they were revealed. So why not include them to uphold the law and support the Monster/Human Bill that was passed in recent times?

However, there are some pushbacks to this idea, the primary reason being, Humans are simply not yet ready for full interspecies integration, for racial and interspecies tensions makes it difficult for the process to follow through. The process does not take overnight and requires years if not more for full societal interspecies integration not just law enforcement. And slowly but surely integrate them into certain kinds of businesses and work environments. Until a remedy has been proposed and executed the Dual-Police System and monster-exclusive businesses/work is still locked in place."