Chapter Text
02:57, Kesennuma Port
Police sirens echoed through the old harbor. Flickering streetlights cast eerie shadows over the decrepit ships, while driving rain hammered their rusted hulls. The wind set the carcasses of the moored cargo ships groaning, some of them half-swallowed, rising from the black water like stranded giants. Stacked shipping containers formed a maze of dark corridors, and a man plunged into it.
In a narrow alley, breathing hard, he risked a glance back toward the avenue, his heartbeat pounding in his ears, before slipping to the far end, hoping to disappear into the shadows of the harbor. Out of breath, he dropped down behind a pile of metal crates, curling up in the darkness. In his frantic escape, he had lost his bag—the one holding the few meager pieces of jewelry and the handful of cash he had stolen.
The sirens slowly receded, and the thief allowed himself a sigh of relief.
As he tried to get back on his feet, his foot struck something.
A brief chime, almost delicate—entirely out of place amid the roar of the storm. He looked down. In the puddle spreading at his feet, among the gravel and debris of the dock, something glimmered faintly. A small glass container, cylindrical and barely larger than his thumb. He didn't have time to figure out what it was.
The glass gave way beneath his weight with an almost imperceptible crack.
What spilled out looked like nothing he could name. Not smoke, not liquid—something in between, an almost oily black, spreading through the puddle with deliberate slowness, as though it were searching for something.
As though it already knew what it was searching for.
It found him.
Before the thief could react, the thing lunged and slipped into his open mouth. An icy cold flooded through him, every inch of his body drawing tight as it worked its way inside, snaking through his veins, choking off his scream before he could let it out. His vision blurred as his pupils dilated. His body convulsed uncontrollably. Cold sweat trickled down his face as he clawed at his throat, desperately trying to regain control.
And then, all at once, it stopped.
The rain seemed to slow, and his heartbeat steadied. Slowly, he lowered his hands, catching his breath. Something inside him had changed. A wild, insatiable urge was awakening, rumbling deep in his gut.
He felt his muscles swell with newfound strength. Dark scales bristled across his skin, his clothes tearing under the pressure. When he raised his head, four glowing red pupils shone in the darkness, viscous drool dripping from a mouth now lined with razor-sharp fangs. His fingers, now tipped with claws, twitched with the urge to tear apart anything that stood in his way.
Voices and footsteps drew closer, and the creature slowly turned its head. Police officers, flashlights in hand, scanned the dock.
"Hey, you! Hands in the air!" one of them shouted.
The trembling beam of his flashlight swept across the darkness before stopping abruptly on the silhouette. The harsh light revealed the horror: a grotesque musculature sheathed in dark scales, and two pairs of terrible eyes fixed on the intruders without blinking. A deathly silence fell over the alley, broken only by the short, terrified breaths of the two men, whose hands began to tremble on the triggers of their weapons.
The thing let out a guttural growl that made the ground of the harbor shudder. It crouched low, slowly, before hurling itself at them with impossible speed. It slammed the first officer against the wall in a spray of blood, then turned toward the remaining policeman.
The creature slowly tilted its head to the side, an almost amused clicking escaping its dripping fangs. It watched him for a moment, perfectly still, its gaze fixed on the man's buckling legs as he stumbled backward.
The officer bolted for the vehicle, his hands slipping on the door handle before he finally managed to throw himself inside, desperately trying to start the engine. But the wheels seemed rooted to the ground.
The thing approached the car with terrifying calm. It slipped its claws beneath the chassis and, with an almost lazy motion, lifted the vehicle into the air before hurling it away.
The car crashed into the surveillance camera's pole with a deafening impact, shattering the last witness to this nightmarish scene.