Chapter 1023: Helping the Investigation
Chapter 1023: Helping the Investigation
"You’re too innocent." Luna searched her phone. It didn’t take more than a few seconds for the Storm Valkyrie to find depraved forum posts of women raving about what just happened and how they felt a new kink awaken in them.
"..." Alexandra was speechless.
Sonoda led the family upstairs to a meeting room, where Yunohana waited beside a table covered in photographs from the depot. The Gates councilor stood with an investigator in a dark suit, both studying Mizuno’s registry photograph.
"Lord Grey. Ladies." Yunohana bowed to the arriving family. "Thank you for coming. Please, sit wherever you are comfortable."
Aria took the chair beside Kaiden and rested her hand on his arm. Across the table, Alexandra was already looking through the cellar photographs with Nyx.
The investigator introduced herself through Sonoda and asked permission to record their accounts. Kaiden agreed, and Alice’s halo dipped toward the photograph of Mizuno.
"Do you know who she is?" he asked.
"Her identification matches the registry," Sonoda translated. "Mizuno is her real surname. She is registered as a human awakened and worked for a freight company in this district. They’re contacting her employer."
"Human," Luna repeated, staring at the photograph. "Did nobody notice something being off?"
"She managed to hide her fangs from us until she attacked," Aria said.
"Kai sensed something was off within seconds, though," Luna pointed out.
Kaiden remembered the pleasant woman unscrewing a water bottle for someone she had been bleeding in a cellar.
"And the registration might have been correct when they made it. Do we know whether she was born like this or turned?"
"We don’t know, my lord," Sonoda translated. "A human woman like Mizuno exists. Whether this is her or someone who looks like her can’t be known for certain with her body having disintegrated."
Alexandra looked up from the photographs. "Then could the people she bit become like her?"
"The doctors are watching for changes in their bodies and mana," Sonoda assured her. "They have found blood loss, undernourishment, and repeated injuries, but no signs of that transformation."
"Please let me know if they need help."
The investigator made a note of Alexandra’s offer before asking about the bite.
"My lord..." Sonoda looked at Kaiden. "When you began drinking her blood, were you using Gluttony?"
"Yes. She was taking blood and mana from me. I used Gluttony to take them back, then kept going."
"And she couldn’t stop you?"
"She tried pulling the blood back. I could feel her fighting me through the wound."
"How did you overcome that resistance?" Sonoda translated the investigator’s next question.
"I was stronger."
The Gates councilor let out a breath and sat back in his chair. "You overpowered a vampire at feeding."
Sonoda translated the words, her gaze returning to Kaiden with open admiration.
Yunohana studied the man sitting beside her with fresh wonder. He sat with Aria holding his arm, ready to explain what he had done while her colleagues struggled to believe it.
"When Big Brother drained her, she couldn’t keep controlling the patients either," Alice chimed from above his head. "I felt her mana release them."
The investigator looked up from her notes.
"And the magic that killed her?"
Kaiden rested his forearms on the table. "I couldn’t feel it inside her while I was draining her. Alice only noticed it when it started."
"It reached her from somewhere else." The halo’s edges flared white. "I couldn’t follow it back or tell how far it traveled."
Bastet set her cup down untouched. "Whoever it was also took her remains. I tried to contain them, and they were pulled out of my fire."
The Gates councilor studied her, then asked Sonoda a question.
"He would like to know whether that means the caster is stronger than you, Lady Bastet."
The felinid’s ears angled back.
"It means they were prepared and I wasn’t. I would need to know what they used before telling you more."
"And Mizuno was already drained when it hit her," Kaiden added.
Nyx leaned forward. "But they knew to hit her then. Could they feel what was happening to her, or were they watching the same broadcast as everyone else?"
"The feed would have told them she was captured," Kaiden said. "But whoever could reach her with that spell should also have a way to monitor her. Doesn’t make sense to rely on your enemy live streaming for you to know its time to activate it."
"Until we understand how that spell works, I would prefer to keep our search teams off the broadcast," Yunohana said.
The Gates councilor agreed. Beside him, Sonoda showed Kaiden a photograph of a white van parked beyond the cordon.
"The soldiers found the vehicle. Collection containers matching those in the cellar were inside. They are checking the registration and the route it took into the area."
The investigator tapped the photograph of the empty pens. Through Sonoda, she explained that the patients were being asked who else they remembered seeing there.
"The other garrisons are also being notified," the analyst continued. "They’ll check for similar wounds, captive groups, or signs of blood collection. We need to know whether this was the only site."
Kaiden looked down at the rows of chairs in the photograph.
"I’d like to hear what they find."
"We’ll keep you in the loop."
...
When the investigator finished taking their accounts, Yunohana invited the family to have tea while the Circle worked through the new leads.
She led them down the corridor to a private sitting room overlooking Tokyo. An attendant brought fresh towels and a tea service, and Kaiden sank onto a sofa with Aria beside him as the door closed.
Yunohana took the chair opposite him while Luna dropped beside Nyx on the other sofa.
"That’s a lot of ’we don’t know yet,’" the gremlin grumbled.
"Hard to investigate when your target disintegrates into dust, bestie."
Alexandra sat at the other end of Kaiden’s sofa and wiped her hands with a fresh towel. He touched his protector’s shoulder. "How are you holding up?"
She gave him a tired smile. "Tired, mentally and physically... But I’m okay. What about you?"
"Just had a filling meal." Kaiden patted his stomach. "I’m feeling pretty good, actually. I’m considering sucking the blood of more monsters like this."
"...Please reconsider." Alexandra’s expression turned as dry as possible. "My heart won’t be able to take it if I have to worry about you drinking poison all the time."
"I’d notice it and stop drinking."
"..."
"Give it up, Lexi~" Nyx purred. "Kai won’t suck blood all the time anyhow. I bet it being a pretty girl helped his appetite."
"Eh?" the blonde’s eyes widened.
"What ’eh’?" Luna chuckled. "You think he’ll suck off a werewolf too?"
"Language," Aria chided. "And Kai would absolutely repeat this on a filthy, hairy, male werewolf. He didn’t do it just because she was a pretty vampire girl. Right, Kai?"
Kaiden suddenly felt a pair of silver eyes land on him with immense pressure emanating from them.
"Kai. Why are you silent? It’s an easy question."
His phone vibrated as Yunohana poured the tea. Kaiden glanced down at the name and answered the video call immediately.
"Hi, Mom."
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