Chapter 15:

Everyone in town heard about the night where 11 soldiers had been killed by the hands of the monster. The minister refused to talk to the police and simply locked himself inside his home cowering in fear. The police couldn't just leave the town alone so they continued guarding the town at night. There had been 2 more cases this week where 5 men and 2 women were terribly injured. People started throwing rocks at the police station for not protecting the town. Their reputation finally....went down the drain. The people were in fear and were panicking . But the person who was hurting the most, was the criminal's daughter, Haruno Yume.

It was the last day before the weekend and Akira finally found out Haruno's dad, Dr. Asano Yume's hideout.

" Haruno, I think I found your dad's location." Akira straightened his glasses.

" Wha-- how?? Where??, let's bust in immediately." Haruno picked up her weapon and got ready. Akira looked at her dark bags under her eyes. She probably couldn't sleep at night knowing her father was destroying the town.

" Hold your horses. I just made an assumption."

" What assumption??"

" Well yesterday I looked over the map of our town.....and found out that we had a large drainage system and I thought--"

" That's itt!! That's it!!" Haruno grabbed Akira's hand and jumped up and down like a kid.

" Woah woah woah" Went Akira whose glasses flew.

" What do we do then? Do we go now and check?" Haruno picked up the weapon once more with determined eyes.

" She looks dangerous with those eyes. " Akira picked his glasses and wipe them,

" Hard to say this, but without Sugawara san we wont be able to do much."

Haruno's shoulders slumped and all her tension went away.

" But we can do a little scouting." Akira rose his eyebrows twice with a smug face.

Haruno smiled cheerfully once again.

" I'm worried about this girl's mental state." Akira made an exhausted face.

" I'm gonna bring Cyclone with me." Haruno looked at her weapon which looked like a backpack. A big pipe was connected to a bag and the bag contained the large batteries. It was pretty much portable and a bit heavy.

They both set out for the drainage canals. It was near a local river. The canal was large enough for at least three people to fit in. Fortunately there were two.

"Akira San!! It really stinks!!" Haruno whined.

"Keep quiet!! We're in an enemy territory."

Akira took out a folded map from his pocket and looked at the places where he marked with a red marker.

" What's those markings for?" Haruno asked.

" I marked these because there's a lot space and there's a possibility that your dad may be here."

Both of them headed cautiously down the canal and wandered for a long time. The sewage water made it very difficult for walking. Rats scuttled away from them and Haruno felt shivers travelling up her spine. They reached an open area and Akira signaled to stop and hide. Akira took out a mirror and checked the area. It was empty and there wasn't anything much. Just lots of sludge and pipes. After thoroughly checking the area, they moved onto another one. There wasn't much visibility so Akira took out a flash light.

" What's with his pocket? Is he some kinda Doraemon in secret?" Haruno thought.

Half an hour passed and they still had no luck. They had wandered very deep inside the sewage.

" I think I was wrong about your dad being here.... Maybe somewhere else?" Akira scratched his head.

" No I'm sure he's here. My dad always liked being in the dark. This place is perfect for dad. He used to turn off the bedroom lights when mom scolded him."

" He probably just wanted to escape from your mom" Akira said it in his head.

" Hmm.... Well we have at least 8 more open spaces to check. It won't be bad if we checked a few more."

" What's the time?"

Akira pulled out his phone and a blue litmus paper fell (it's a confirmatory paper that allows you to distinguish between acid and base). It fell into the water and turned red.

" Akira san!! Akira san!!" Haruno shook him and made him look at the litmus paper.

" Wait wait I'll tell the time so stop shaking me."

" Who cares about the time now!!! Look at the water!!"

" You were the one who asked!"

Akira looked at the litmus paper which was now floating away.

" Hmm.....seems like we just can't leave this place alone..."

" Why'd you even bring a litmus paper with you?"

" Dunno? It was there in my pocket from the start?"

" What all do you have in the first place?"

Akira put his hands in his pockets and removed a sandwich, a power bank, a lighter, cycle keys, some more litmus paper, knives, a small device that looked like an earphone and a tape.

Akira looked at all the stuff and wondered if he really was the one who put all this stuff in his pocket.

" Wow" Haruno was amazed.

" Let's go check the remaining areas"

They found an area after a while. There was an office chair and a table set up. There were a bunch of acids in big flasks and containers. And beside them were computers that had wires connected to the wall.

" This must be why the sewage water was acidic...."

They slowly walked and saw a bunch of machines and three large capsules. Akira went to the table and opened one of it's drawers. There were a bunch of books and theory papers. Among them were military reports and albums. He picked it up and opened it. There were photos of Haruno's dad in his early days. His arms were around soldiers who were laughing joyfully. He went through all the photos and found nothing wrong with them. Then something caught his eye, it was a soldier training manual book. The first page had a photo of one of the soldiers in the album. The contents read

" Sakamoto Ryo, Age: 29

Abilities: Swift movement with a large body, has killed five lieutenant level soldiers barehanded."

Haruno came next to him and started reading too. Akira then suddenly widened his eyes while reading.

" Test report

Day 1: Body pains detected.

Day 5: Slight transformation, teeth dropping off (signs of new teeth) nails growing faster. Grey fur growing from body.

Day 17: Growth spurt has increased at a very high rate. Has grown more than 200 cm.

Day 36: Transformation successful. Subject's body is now 78% stronger than a normal human."

Akira looked at the wolf man's photo and dropped the documents from shock and then there was a loud sound from behind. Akira looked back.

" Oh my god...."

There were two men in the capsule. They had oxygen masks on them and their voices were muffled. One man's eyes were red in color and the other had feathers growing out of his face. They both banged the capsule window from inside.

" Shit.... Who are they??" Akira asked Haruno. But Haruno didn't reply. Akira looked back and Haruno started hyperventilating.

AWOOOOOOOOOO.....

They heard a wolf's howl and knew that it was all over for them.