“Aww, Aki, don’t tell me you don’t smoke.”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“Not really. It’s just that for such a surly guy, you’re a kid at heart … Hey! Close that window! Come on, your senior officer is cold!”
“You don’t get to lord your authority over me just because you’re a little older.”
“Does that mean you don’t accept me as your partner?”
“That’s exactly what it means.”
“We’re two of a kind, then!”
Aki didn’t respond. The car filled with the crackle of wind, the cold winter air, and a determined silence between the hunters. Cigarette smoke drifted out the window, a long, thin strand trailing into the sky.
“I’ll check in with the guy who called us in,” Himeno said. “Stand at my side and observe.” Aki didn’t answer. That was all she had to say when they got to the scene? Her message was as clear as it was unwelcome—Watch and learn, rookie.
Aki climbed out of the car to see that they’d parked in front of a sprawling apartment complex. The buildings had fallen into disrepair, but the futons draped over the balcony railings and the laundry billowing in the wind showed that the place was still at least partly occupied.
An old man stood at the entrance. “You must be the devil hunters from Public Safety. Thank you for coming all this way.” He handed Himeno a business card identifying himself as the head of the company that owned the complex.
The man escorted the hunters to his office and quickly filled them in. “Several of my tenants were attacked by a fiend this week. It’s discouraged some prospective occupants from moving in and convinced several current residents to move out. If things get any worse, I’m afraid my business won’t be able to sustain itself.”
It obviously pained him to say this. Aki recalled the number of empty windows he’d noticed when they arrived.
“Can you describe when and how the fiend attacks?” Himeno asked with a practiced air.
“Let me see … It comes out at night, starting after dusk. It rings the bell outside an apartment, then attacks when someone answers. That’s happened three times now.”
“Has anyone gotten a look at it?”
“It wears a hood, so no one has a clear description. But everyone agrees it has sharp fangs.”
“Hmm. Certainly sounds fiendish.”
Fiends were human corpses possessed by devils. Their nonhuman quality was frequently betrayed in the face or head. They had the minds of devils, but some retained memories of their hosts’ human lives.
“They also claimed it had a weapon,” the old man continued. “Some kind of small crossbow or bowgun.”
“A crossbow,” Himeno repeated, rubbing her chin and looking at the ground. Slowly she raised her head to meet the man’s eyes. “I’d like to see it for myself. Is there any security footage?”
“I’m afraid we don’t have any cameras, this place being as old as it is.”
“Then how are you so sure of all this? Did the building superintendent see it?”
“No, he isn’t here all the time. He hasn’t seen the creature yet.”
“What kind of eyewitness reports are you basing this information on?” Himeno asked. Aki had the same question.
The man’s response surprised them both. “Reports from the victims. There are three survivors.”
Himeno and Aki exchanged a look.
The first witness they interviewed was a portly middle-aged woman. Despite her girth, her cheeks were gaunt, and she looked ready to collapse at any moment. She entered the office, sank into an uncomfortable office chair, and began her story.
“My name’s Sato. I live in apartment 101. I was attacked five days ago. The doorbell rang just as I was getting dinner ready. I couldn’t see much through the peephole, but it looked like a man in a black hood. He kept his head down. The moment I opened the door, he raised some kind of weapon. Then an arrow came straight at me.” She broke off for a moment to collect herself. “He must have missed me, but I fainted from shock. When I came to, maybe fifteen minutes or so later, I ran to the living room to see if my family was all right …”
There she’d found her elderly mother, her husband, and their two children lying dead with arrows in their chests. That was the last detail she was able to get out before breaking down in tears.
After Mrs. Sato had left the room crying, Himeno leaned back in her chair. “You all right, Aki?”
“All right with what?”
“You look awfully on edge.”
Aki didn’t say anything.
“You can’t get too emotionally invested in the victims. You won’t last.”
“I know that!”
If Himeno thought he felt special sympathy for someone who had lost her entire family in a single devil attack, she had him all wrong. It only reaffirmed his dedication to his job.
I’ll do more than just sit and cry. I’m going to find the devil that took my family away and kill it.
Their next interviewee was a thirty-something man in glasses.
“Name’s Shinohara, apartment 202.” He seemed relaxed and open, but his shoulders were slumped. “The doorbell rang three days ago, right as I was making dinner. My wife went to answer it … You see, I’m the cook in our house. The next thing I heard was a scream from the front hall.” His hands clenched on his knees. “I rushed over to find my wife had collapsed. A guy in a black hoodie was standing over her. It looked like he had fangs growing out of his mouth. Before I could even try to get away, he pointed a little crossbow at me. That was when I passed out.” Mr. Shinohara sipped his tea and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. “I was out for … oh, fifteen minutes, I’d say. Luckily, the arrow he shot at me missed, but when I went over to my wife, I found another arrow buried in her chest.”
The funeral had been yesterday, he added. That was when he finally began to cry. They’d had no children, he sobbed, just a pleasant life together, the two of them.
The man took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. “The super had sent a notice around warning everyone to watch out for a stranger in a hood, but my wife’s been spending so much time at work, she must not have seen it. If I’d gotten there first, seen who it was through the peephole, I’d never have opened the door. It’s my fault. I should have warned her …”
He couldn’t say another word.