A friend of your father

A young man runs scared in an alley of shops that had long been abandoned because of a fire several years ago. Behind him, several thugs were seen chasing him with various sharp weapons.

"Stop! Do you think you could run away."

The young man suddenly turned into a small alley. Dead end. Yes, it turns out to be a dead end alley. The young man slowly slowed down and stopped. The thugs smiled triumphantly.

"Hehehehe… where are you going to run away?"

"You've been cornered, now surrender!"

"Hand over that thing!"

The young man was still standing with his back to the thugs. For a moment, a faint smile appeared on his face.

"What if I refuse?" The young man said.

"Bastard! Are you looking for death, huh?"

The young man turned around slowly. His mouth smirked.

"We'll see who's looking to die here…"

"Beat him!"

A burly thug with a lion's head tattoo on his left arm shouted an order. Looks like he's the leader.

"Attaaack…"

All the thugs shouted while swinging the weapons they carried. The young man smiled broadly, his eyes opened wide. His hands clenched.

Suddenly from all over his body grew gray fur. His eyes turned blood red. His mouth was showing fangs and his snout grows forward like a wolf. His body remained human-shaped, only much more stocky and hairy. The fingernails and toes are tapered. Yep, in an instant the young man turned into a werewolf.

The thugs' sharp weapons hit his body but only left an effect like a twig scratching. Realizing something was wrong with the young man, the thugs decided to back off and run away. But unfortunately, the werewolf had no intention of letting go of its prey. All the thugs were massacred miserably.

—-00—-

In a simple small house, a well-built young man with a height of 183 cm is having breakfast with special fried rice with fried eggs on it at the dinner table. Beside him sat a woman in her 50s.

"Eat slowly, son..."

The young man replied briefly, "Yes mom..."

"Yuri, you know… since your father died last year, our finances started to run low. Your father's savings ran out last month. There's also little money left over from selling the car, only enough to eat until the end of this month. Maybe I should just look for a job."

Yuri stopped eating, his throat felt so hard to swallow food. Since his father mysteriously died last year, he was forced to drop out of college. He has tried to apply for jobs in many companies but was rejected because he only has a high school diploma. All the companies turned him down. In those nine months he had not even made a dime. He doesn't want his mother, who is often sick, to work hard to support her family.

"Not needed, mom, just let Yuri do the work. Until now, there haven't been any calls for work yet. Yuri is planning to look for a job this afternoon. Any work is okay. The most important thing is, it will be paid immediately. You aren't allowed to be too tired. Just pray for me, mom…"

His mother smiled with tears in her eyes, "I'm sorry, son, I should have replaced your father's position as the backbone of the family, but you know that my illness cannot allow me to do so."

Yuri remembered how his father panicked when his mother was unconscious for a whole month just because she was too tired to take care of the backyard garden. The doctor didn't know what disease his mother had, because everything looked normal.

Yuri's father is a biologist. His specialty is genetic engineering. Lastly, before he died, his research focused on normalizing mutants. Several studies have shown that gene mutations can be cured. Now the research has been halted because of the death of Yuri's father.

—-00—--

Not far away from the house there was a man with a black suit walking briskly. He looks confused looking at the screen of his smartphone. He is looking for an address using a map application. Then he asked an old woman who was watering a plant in front of her house.

"Excuse me ma'am, do you know where this address is?"

He asks the woman while showing her a note.

"Oh, it's Mr Asada's home. You see the white house near that tree? It's his house. But he died last year. Why do you want to go there? Is he your working partner?"

"No, ma'am. We were just friends. We were at the same university. Thank you for your help." He lying so that the woman didn't ask more questions.

"You are welcome."

The man walked to the house immediately. He knocked on the door hoping for an answer. Then Yuri opened the door and the man asked, "Is it Asada's house?"

"Yes. May I help you sir?"

"Then you must be Yuri? Oh I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Williams, your father's friend. We worked together on a project four years ago. I came here for something. I want to borrow your father's notebook. Someone needs a cure."

"I'm sorry sir. My father passed away last year. And I don't know the notebook you mean. Maybe you should ask someone at his office or laboratory."

"So tell me what your ability is, Yuri?"

"What do you mean? I don't know what you are talking about."

"Wait… you don't know yet? Didn't your father tell you?"

"Telling what? You make me confused, Mr. Williams."

"Sigh… It looks like he hid something from you. Hmmm … where should I begin? Do you know that there are mutants that live among us?"

"Yeah, I know. I was watching on TV back then."

"And you don't know that you're one of them?"

"Hahaha that was funny. I know myself better. I am just a normal person. You must be mistaken."

"No, I'm not joking. Listen, I don't have much time here. Someone needs a cure. She's suffering now. I need the book your father wrote to cure her. He wrote all the cures we found four years ago in it."

"Like I said, I don't know which book you are talking about. If you want, you may search for it yourself in his workshop."

"Okay then. But I need you to help me too."

"But Sir, I have to go to find a job. You know without Dad here I would work for a living."

"Forget about the money. I have a good deal for you later. This is my debit card. You could use it for now. But you should help me find the book as fast as possible."

"But…"

"No but, Yuri. Her life depends on us. You can count this as first job."

"Okay then. As you said."

Both of them walking to a small building where Asada do the work when he off working.