Chapter Text
“...and that would be all!”
The way your boss claps his hands enthusiastically makes you stop dozing off and jump in your seat. Your sudden movement makes one of your co-workers throw a reproaching look at you, but you don’t even notice it. Your sleepy brain has enough dealing with existential questions such as who you are and where you are as you slowly come back to reality.
A rather gray, boring reality, which was the meeting room of the company where you’ve been working during the past couple of years, and not exactly liking every second of it.
“Thank you everyone for your attention. I know that the meeting ended up being a little longer than intended, but we had a lot to reflect on and I’m sure you’ll all agree that it was very productive!”
You purse your lips to hide a yawn and subtly look at the time on your phone. Your eyes almost pop out of your head. It was 6:30PM when the meeting was supposed to end at 5:00.
“And of course, despite the time, I’m eager to hear all your opinions and suggestions! Oh, Tanaka, my man, I knew you would have something to contribute, as usual.”
You purse your lips again, this time to prevent a snort when Tanaka - the ultimate ass-kisser of the company - starts with the usual compliments to the boss before starting with the questions.
Honestly, you don’t consider yourself someone who likes thinking badly of people, but it was a fact that your boss was an idiot, and that all those employees who laughed at his bad - sometimes sexist - jokes, and saw perfectly normal to work unpaid, overtime hours without protesting were even bigger idiots.
Sadly, it wasn’t as if you could start searching for a more interesting job - or, at the very least, a job that wasn't as damn boring. Just a month ago you had found out that your boyfriend had been cheating on you practically since you two moved to Japan. And now, there you were: in the bustling city of Tokyo, having to pay for an apartment that was already a little expensive for two people, and that soon - very soon - would be unaffordable for you alone if you didn’t start to save ASAP.
So, long story short: you had to hang in there. That company may have been a huge disappointment, to the point that you have often found yourself wondering if leaving everything behind to move to Tokyo had been a good idea. But it was still a good, important company that would look good on your CV, and that offered a pretty decent salary that you definitely needed, so you couldn’t afford to resign now…
…or get fired, you think when your phone suddenly starts to ring loudly, causing everyone in the meeting room to jump startled.
You suppress the urge of cursing when reading your ex's name on your phone screen. Despite you telling him not to call you again and stick to emails, the idiot kept doing that to ask about several things that he had supposedly forgotten in your apartment while moving to his new girl’s house. Shit, you really wanted to block him and move on completely, but you can’t yet, since there were a few things that you still had to close.
“S-Sorry.” You quickly hang up and look towards your boss, finding him looking at you with an unamused expression.
“Miss (y/n), you should know that phones must be turned off in important meetings.”
“I know, I’m sorry. But I was expecting a call that was a little urgent, and since we were supposed to have finished by now–” Wrong choice of words , you realize when your boss looks even less amused, despite the fact that you have talked in the most polite tone. And even if you’d like to continue and defend your posture, you are too tired for it right now. So you give up and pick the easy route by bowing your head. “My apologies. It won’t happen again.”
Your boss chuckles, obviously pleased with your docile behavior.
“It’s okay, Miss (y/n). I’m sure that this kind of meetings may be a little difficult to follow especially if you are a foreigner, so I understand it’s difficult to focus, but don’t worry: you’re doing a half-decent job.”
You clench your jaw when hearing the patronizing words. There are a lot of things that you could tell him that proved that your job was way better than half-decent.
For starters, if it hadn’t been for you, there’s no way they would have managed to present the last project plan in time. You could also tell him that the only reason why you didn’t focus on those meetings was because they were completely useless, and that the only reason why they took so much was because the asshole loved to hear his own voice. Damn, for sure you’d love to tell him that.
But again, you’re too tired today. So you just remain silent, clenching your fists under the table, and hang in there until the meeting finishes - almost a damn hour later.
As usual, the moment you’re outside the building, you don’t waste time in removing your heels and replacing them with the sneakers you always carry in your bag. You also remove your jacket before finally heading home, since the weather was still really warm in the middle of September.
Until a month ago, you always took the subway towards your apartment. However, since starting living alone again, you have decided to save as much as you could, which included renouncing public transport. After all, it was just an hour and fifteen minutes walk. It could be worse.
Normally, you always prefer to pick the more illuminated routes, even if that implies walking more. That night though you really want to arrive home soon. You need to check if your fridge, by some kind of miracle, has decided to work again on its own and get in touch with your land-lady - who hasn't called you back yet despite the multiple messages you have left her.
So, that night you decide to trust Google Maps and follow the shorter detour it was indicating you. In any other country, there was no way that you’d have risked to do that at that hour. In Japan though, you were confident that nothing would happen. You hadn’t experienced any kind of incident such as robbery or stalking or anything like that since moving there, and therefore you didn’t have any kind of apprehension while deviating from the main path to enter the alleys.
Around 15 minutes later, you are cursing non-stop in your mother tongue while walking back and forth with your eyes glued to your phone screen, trying to figure out if you had to go left, go right, or - according the stupid Google Maps - to walk through a damn wall in order to leave that maze of narrow streets.
You have just closed your eyes and taken a deep breath, trying to stop the urge of shouting in frustration, when you hear some whistles, and barks, and loud laughs not very far away. You frown and follow the source of the sound. This one leads you to a dead end, where a group of teenagers are gathered.
At first you think that they are simply playing with a dog, but with the second glance you realize that those idiots are divided between keeping the animal against the ground, and trying to tie him up to do god-knew-what to that poor thing.
Of course, if there had to be a day to face that kind of situation, it had to be the shittiest day of the week so far.
“HEY!” And yep, probably facing a group of four guys alone wasn’t the most clever thing to do, but you shout towards the group without even thinking, drawing their attention away from the animal. “I’m calling the police right now, so you better leave that dog alone, understood?”
You aren’t bluffing. You are really calling the police. But as expected, after exchanging a glance, the taller guy of the group straightens his position while the others laugh.
“Come on, granny, cut us some slack!” The guy says with a mocking tone and smile, starting to walk in your direction, which makes you tense because honestly, you aren’t sure to be able to put up a decent fight. “We’re doing nothing wrong: we’re just having some fun–”
Suddenly, the guy stops violently in his tracks, when a couple of meters remain to reach you.
You frown in alert, initially thinking that the guy is mocking you in some way. However, at that moment the guy’s body starts to tremble; his face gets incredibly red while starting to gasp, as if he was out of air; and suddenly, the guy’s head explodes, the sound similar to a fruit impacting against the ground while blood and flesh splutter in the air.
While the rest of the guys start shouting in terror, after seeing that the beheaded body stays in the same position instead of falling to the ground, you’ve become completely frozen, not knowing how to react, and of course without even noticing that the police have answered your call.
For a brief moment you think that maybe you’re just having a nightmare while falling asleep in that meeting. But then, another guy of the group who has tried to abandon the place as fast as possible after seeing his friend’s inexplicable death, suddenly falls forward onto the ground. He then starts sliding through it as if someone - something - is dragging him, and after being raised in the air a couple of meters over the ground, he starts to be violently shaken and hit between the ground and one of the alley walls.
It’s in one of those movements when the practically inert body of the other guy hits you by passing, making you fall into the ground. The sting that you feel when your knees are scratched convinces you that you aren’t dreaming.
As impossible as it should be, what was happening in that alley was real.
And if you didn’t do something soon, you were going to die.
The moment that thought enters your mind, a new, unidentifiable sound that wasn’t there before joins the hysteric shouts of the guys that are still alive and paralyzed against the dead-end, and the barks of the dog. You raise your face towards it, and for the first time that all that craziness started, you shout. Because suddenly, you can clearly see the culprit of all the chaos that had exploded in that alley.
A…creature? Beast? Demon? You don’t know how the hell to describe it: a grotesque, enormous being that clearly shouldn’t exist in the world was there. Its general shape reminded of a worm, but it also had a human mouth, pointy teeth now covered in blood, and big hands: one was sustaining the beheaded body, keeping it in the air, and the other was still shaking and hitting the second one as if it was a toy, while emitting that sound that sounded kinda similar to a distorted laugh.
Damn. And you thought that the day couldn’t get even shittier.
At that moment, the creature suddenly stops, and even if it doesn't have eyes, it turns its head towards you. You feel your blood run cold while starting to shiver as the creature approaches its face to you, the mouth curving into a smile while licking his pointy teeth.
His nauseating breath has barely reached you when the dog, who hadn’t stopped barking, suddenly lunges at the creature and bites the side of his body, making it screech in a distorted voice that sounded too childish for its size.
The creature finally releases the second corpse, throwing it carelessly towards the scared, remaining friends, and uses its free hand to brusquely slap the dog away, who whimpers while hitting the ground. The creature then approaches the fallen, writhing animal and raises his free hand in a fist, his intention of punching it clear.
“NO!”
You extend your hand towards the fallen dog in an act of reflex, even if you know that it’s impossible that you reach it in time.
However, just when the fist is about to land on the animal, some kind of translucid barrier surrounds him, making the creature’s fist bounce back, as if it had landed in jelly.
As the creature turns again towards you with frustration, you suddenly feel an extreme tiredness invading you. You can’t prevent your body from sliding towards the ground, and neither react when one of the creature’s hands encloses around your middle body.
You don’t have energy to even open your eyes when you’re lifted in the air. Although to be honest, if you’re about to suffer a terrible death, you don’t see the point in watching as it happen. Speaking of which, you’re dealing with this about-to-die situation with a dignity that surprised even yourself. Although probably the fact that you’re between consciousness and unconsciousness had something to do with it.
You’ve just resigned yourself to praying, so that the creature was merciful enough to kill you fast before you can even feel the pain - or that you actually woke up from a really, really vivid nightmare - when the remaining guys stop shouting.
“W-Wait, someone is coming–?”
One of the guys had barely said that when the sound of flesh being sliced invaded the alley, causing the creature to shriek loudly, in clear pain, before brusquely releasing you.
The hard impact that you’re expecting when falling against the ground never arrives.
Instead, you feel someone grabbing you mid-air, before gently lowering you towards the ground. You muster the remaining energy you have to look at the person who has just arrived, and who is now sustaining you in his arms.
You only manage to half-open your eyes to distinguish the profile of a blond man with weird sun-glasses and a stern expression on his face.
“Unfortunately for you, I’m in overtime now.”
Those words, pronounced with a serious - and sexy - voice towards the now bleeding creature, are the last thing you hear before falling unconscious.