Chapter Text
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Uraume had instructed Jiro Awasaka and Haruta Shigemo to randomly move around Suguru Geto’s back and stay separated so that he could not just blindly smack them down. Nothing that the newly appointed detective of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department could do was faster than their trigger fingers however stiff they got. But that was the way of things when the good guy was chasing the bad guys, and Uraume was a pretty successful dealer.
Back in the days when her father, Ryomen Sukuna, was still alive, the family used to run a legit business of antiques. But a couple of years after the old man’s passing, she grasped at new revenues, less legal. Nowadays, the twenty-seven-year-old, tall blondie was transacting in rare animals for rich people. Extremely and very rare animals for very, just as extremely filthy rich people.
Her pretty face and smooth talking had won over enough wallets and opened enough doors, and up until that night, she had successfully delivered, too. Only that her latest business deal seemed to be doomed to go down the drain because of one person, namely Suguru. Now, the said detective, Uraume and her two associates, Jiro and Haruta, were all trapped in a shed in the middle of nowhere.
Still, when the barn door opened in front of him, Suguru did his best to clear his mind and be ready for any opportunity given by the distraction. He watched as Uraume walked in carrying two cages, one in each hand. Trapped behind the rusty bars cowered two creatures, which Suguru recognised to be a làbh-allan and the other, a possible asarna bird, neither of the tiny beasts belonging to this world.
According to the Waren legendarium, the làbh-allan was considered to be a kind of rodent. True enough, the name was also used for a ‘water shrew’ or ‘water vole’ in Scottish Gaelic. But this làbh-allan was larger than a rat, which made him very noxious. Its poisonous abilities were legendary, and it was said to be able to injure cattle over a hundred feet away. On the other hand, the asarna bird had healing powers, could put people to sleep, or could turned them all into stone.
So Suguru could pretty much guess why those two had ended up on the black market yet again. They were small enough to be concealed but powerful enough to cause damage. It had been maybe a couple of years since Geto Suguru had exchanged the ignorance of a normal life for the knowledge of the Warens, thickening their ranks. Officially, Suguru Geto, was a police detective in Tokyo. Unofficially, he was a Waren, part of a secret faction tasked with investigating urban legends—because apparently, those were true—always had been and always would.
But the Warens were not the only ones aware of the mythical creatures roaming around and where to find them. There was an entire network of poachers that were trafficking these critters for exorbitant prices to the highest bidder. Rich people liked their thrills so when one had them all, they wanted even more. It was a dangerous fashion to be able to own a mythical creature, and most used them as weapons, too.
Since none of those poor beasts functioned according to the laws of physics of the earth, or dimension, they eventually withered and died. Which made their owners ask for new ones, thus the demand was high. Since he had started his work as a Waren, Suguru had seen them all, or at least he thought so. Every little creature he had read about as a child, had become reality in his adult life. And now he was risking his life for something that more than half of the world didn’t even know existed.
“Okay, detective!” Uraume said and lifted the two cages higher, “in a couple of minutes I want you to come out with your pretty hands held up really high where we can see them…,” she went on, “or I’ll douse these two lovelies…,” and she lightly swirled around dramatically, “in petrol and guess what I’ll do next?” she giggled.
Grunting, Suguru drew in a deep breath. There was always that kind of Poacher, who preferred to destroy the ‘goods’ before they let a Waren take them—it was a matter of pride.
“Listen Uraume…,” Suguru shouted, “you really want to talk to your boss before you do anything hasty,” he said and checked his gun again. He was still trying to make himself move while trembling with frustration. It was not like he had trouble doing stupid things before, so why did he find it hard now? “Uraume…,” Suguru forced a smile, song-singing his words, “call your boss,” he added.
“How do we know you won’t get rid of us once we deal with the detective?” Suguru heard one of Uraume's guys talk and he recognised Jiro.
“Boys…,” she said, her voice so sweet it made Suguru’s skin crawl, “Do any of you recognise the creatures in this cage?” she asked and Suguru saw Jiro and Haruta shake their heads. “It’s a làbh-allan and an asarna,” she said and both nodded as though they understood, but their expressions said otherwise. Realising she was talking to the walls, Uraume rolled her eyes and looked towards where Suguru was hiding. “Just kill him already, I’ll take care of the rest,” she ordered and seemed that Jiro and Haruta finally understood what they needed to do.
Haruta moved first, but suddenly Uraume threw her hand up to silence them all. She cocked her head to one side and listened. In the silence that followed Suguru could hear it, too; it was an engine. It was not that of a car, but a helicopter, flying over. It drew closer and closer until the sound of the rotors was so loud that Haruta needed to cover his ears.
Uraume gestured sharply to the two who hurried to close the barn doors behind her. Suguru watched her face become calm but still expectant. She looked up towards the source of the sound and Suguru moved from his place. The helicopter hovered and Jiro and Haruta, stepped back towards Uraume as though they were trying to protect her. This was Suguru’s chance, their attention was drawn somewhere else.
He smiled to himself and put the gun away, then inhaled deeply. Then suddenly the noise of the rotors stopped out of the blue. As though realising what had happened, Uraume’s eyes grew wider and she turned to look at where Suguru was hiding. She probably wanted to scream, but a brutal crack, like a giant tree that had broken in two and had fallen made her, Jiro and Haruta flinch. Blinding light spewed through a hole that cracked open in a sidewall of the barn. Dust exploded into the air to hang in a roiling cloud, gleaming in the streetlamp’s light.
Uraume, Jiro and Haruta fell and the barn doors slammed wide from the outside as though an invisible hand had forced them open. The cages Uraume was holding clanked and rolled onto the ground, making the critters inside whine in pain, but Suguru was not done. Bricks fountained up and away in two divergent streams and the doors abruptly ripped off their hinges. They went spinning off through the air as though a hurricane had caught them, then shattered against the barn’s ceiling, raining wood and splinters down on them all.
Then slowly, through the dust, Suguru could see the farmyard outside, still snuggly enveloped in the night. Bricks were still falling down, dust puffing up as they landed, thudding on the path. And having made sure everyone who was still standing was paying attention to the front, Suguru walked up to the three through the clouds of dust. But none of them moved, covered in white dust from head to toe.
Jiro was lying face down and unmoving, but Suguru could see him still breathing while Haruta was splayed on the ground, face up, arms open and head bleeding. Only Uraume grunted annoyed, trying to sit up. Her head was swimming and her ears were ringing from the explosion, while her black biker attire was torn in places now. She felt someone behind her, but before she could turn, her arms were twisted behind her back and cuffed.
She coughed and huffed a dusty lock of her dyed white-blond hair from her eyes, glaring up at Suguru. “What are the charges, detective Geto?” she chuckled. “You cannot arrest me for something that does not exist,” she laughed now, her red lipstick cracking, caked in dust. “What are you going to tell them? That I was trying to sell Chernobyl chickens?” she shrugged. “You got nothing,” she nodded.
Waving his hand in front of his face to clear the air, Suguru breathed in and crouched down next to her. “If I were to officially detain you, yes, that would be an issue,” Suguru nodded and Uraume frowned. “But you’re going to deal with the Warens,” he triumphantly smiled, and Uraume’s scowl turned to reassignment.
“You’re a Waren?” she rolled her eyes and Suguru grinned.
“What?” his nostrils flared, “you say that like it’s a bad thing,” he added and patted her shoulder, making dust puff up from her biker jacket.
“And this?” Uraume looked around the barn. “You did this?”
Nodding, Suguru briefly looked at the ceiling. “Did you like it? We kinda come with superpowers.” he smiled. “Was it a good show? I think I did great,” he nodded, but the engine of a car made both turn their heads.
The car was drawing closer, tyres crunching in the gravel alley. Then the engine cut out and there was a creak and a handbrake was applied. Suguru saw Uraume tense beside him; no modern handbrake sounded like that. There was the sound of a car door opening and then slamming shut.
“That would be my boss,” Suguru announced.
He could see how badly Uraume wanted to run away, but she also felt too tired. Maybe that was too much trouble for two critters, so she decided to stay put and not worsen her situation. After all, Waren trials and sentences were a touch different from the ones in the mortal world.
Two men walked in, both dressed in black and hats on, and Suguru rolled his eyes; Warens, the older generation especially, always had a flair for the dramatic. Still, Suguru stood up, lightly bowing his head when the two men stopped in front of him. The older one, Yoshinobu Gakuganji, was maybe in his late seventies and had a long, wrinkly face as though he had drunk and smoked a bit too much during his golden years. He had a scar right under his right eye and the left corner of his mouth, hung unnaturally—the aftermath of a stroke a couple of years back.
The other one, Suguru had learned when he had joined the Warens, was his son, Masamichi Yaga. Just like Suguru, he was in his forties, a tall man with a muscular frame and tan skin. He had short, spiky, black hair on top with the rest of his head shaved, thick eyebrows and his facial hair consisted of a moustache and goatee combination—similar to his father. He had thin lips and piercing dark eyes hidden behind square-shaped glasses. When they reached Suguru, the two looked around, scrunching their noses and Suguru knew he was in trouble.
“How is it, Geto…,” Yoshinobu suddenly said, but very calmly at that, “that you always end up like this?” he asked.
“Sir…,” Suguru bowed his head again. “In my defence, I was outnumbered,” he pursed his lips a little. “I had to improvise.”
“You’re lucky we’re in the middle of nowhere, Geto,” Yaga quipped, “you have all that it takes to be an excellent Waren, just like your father—,” but as he said those words, Suguru’s smile whipped off his lips and he glared.
“Maybe we should keep the name of the dead out of our mouths,” Suguru said as calmly as possible.
They all remained silent for a few good seconds then Yoshinobu cleared his throat and sighed. “Where are the creatures?” he asked and Suguru instantly turned on his heels, walking away. He hurried and picked the cages up, coming back with them just moments later. The làbh-allan seemed dead though, plonked on its side and not moving.
"Give it here," Yoshinobu said and Suguru handed him the cage.
He watched him open the tiny door and gingerly pick up the critter from inside. He put the cage down while looking at the rat, inspecting it, then suddenly sighed, “It’s dead,” he said and both Suguru and Yaga lowered their eyes.
“Did I kill it?” Suguru asked, his eyes worried.
“No,” the man said.
"Which means that these creatures have been hidden for too long,” Yaga shook his head.
“That’s why we were able to find the Poachers,” Yoshinobu added and threw Uraume a glance. “They got sloppy, in a hurry, trying to sell them off before they expired.”
“What about the bird?” Suguru asked.
“Still hanging,” the older man said. “Find its mate or it will die, too.”
“How do we know that the mate is not back into their world-dimension-thingy?” Suguru frowned.
“Because it would have been dead by now,” Yoshinobu eyed him. “It stays alive only because its mate is somewhere in this city,” he added.
“So now I have to drive around with this bird in my car and see where it will react when it senses its mate?” Suguru grunted.
“We’ll take care of this little fella…,” Yoshinobu continued, ignoring Suguru, “and these three,” he added. “You get going and take the bird with you.”
“We’ll send someone to replace you in a couple of hours,” Yaga assured him. “You’re no robot,” he added and Suguru exhaled in relief.
“Then, sirs…,” Suguru didn’t argue further and just took a deep breath, “I shall go before my batteries run out completely,” he added and cage in his hand, he walked out of the barn, leaving the aftermath of his handiwork to the other two.