Kuro POV
The rain never stops in Neo-Kyoto.
It's the kind that feels like acid on your skin. Greasy, thick, and always carrying the stench of blood and electricity. I stood under a busted neon sign blinking No Vacancy—its dying flicker casting sickly light on the body at my feet.
Male. Young. Dead.
Face twisted. Mouth open like he was trying to scream even after his soul left.
I lit a cigarette, letting the flame hover too long over the tip. It was a stupid habit, I know, but the fire helped me think. Helped me ignore the thing inside me that never stopped pulsing.
The Mark burned faintly on my chest. Just under the skin. Always warm. Always watching.
"Victim number four this month," I muttered.
They all looked like this. Mangled. Empty-eyed. Soulless.
I crouched down and touched his forehead with two fingers. Cold. Already stiff. The usual.
Then came the whisper.
"Help… me…"
I didn't flinch.
I'd heard worse.
The memory ripped into me like a live wire. Flash images. Running footsteps. Heavy breathing. Something with red eyes chasing him. A shadow—huge and fast—swallowing the light. Then a claw. Then darkness.
That was it.
I stood up and exhaled slowly. Smoke curled past my lips, fading into the cold air.
"Same as the others," I said to myself. "And no one's listening."
Then came the voice that made my headache worse.
"Whoa—sorry! I didn't think the alley would be this gross. Or smell like… wet metal and something dead."
I didn't turn. I already knew who it was.
The rookie.
"Detective Kuro!" she said, hurrying over. "Lieutenant Mina Hoshino. They assigned me to your team starting tonight."
I sighed. "You're late."
"What? No way—I got here as fast as I could!"
"I've been here for thirty minutes."
"Oh." She paused. "Well… I stopped to get coffee."
Of course she did.
I finally turned to face her. She was young. Maybe twenty-one. Ponytail. Bright eyes. Nervous energy. She looked like someone who still believed rules mattered in a city like this.
"You're not going to last," I muttered.
"Excuse me?"
"Never mind. Stay close."
I crouched again beside the body.
Mina took a step forward, eyes narrowing. "What are you doing?"
"Do me a favor, rookie."
"Yeah?"
"Don't scream."
I pulled my glove off and placed my fingers on the corpse's cold skin. Then I whispered: "Open."
The Mark on my chest blazed red.
Heat surged through my veins like molten lead. The dead man's mouth gaped wider, and from it spilled black smoke—wispy, screaming tendrils—rushing into my hand like they were being sucked back into hell.
Mina gasped behind me. She didn't scream, but her breath caught hard enough to make her knees buckle.
Images slammed into my head.
Same nightmare. Running. The growl. Red eyes. Death.
Then quiet.
I opened my eyes.
The red glow faded from my veins.
He was hunted. Just like the others.
Mina stood frozen behind me. Her eyes were huge.
"You just… what was that?" she breathed.
"The victim's last memory."
"H-How… how did you…?"
I pulled my glove back on and stood up. "I see the dead. And sometimes, they see me."
"What does that even mean?"
"It means this city's rotten. And I'm the only one sick enough to clean it."
Thunder rolled in the distance. Something moved at the end of the alley—too fast, too low to the ground.
I felt it before I saw it.
The Mark burned hotter.
"Get your gun," I said flatly.
Mina stiffened. "What?"
"Now."
She fumbled for her weapon just as the creature stepped into the light.
Seven feet tall. Skin like wet oil. Bones cracked as it moved. Its mouth split open, wide and jagged, showing rows of yellow teeth that looked too sharp for Earth.
"Tell me that's not human," Mina whispered.
"It's not," I said, pulling a short, rune-carved blade from under my coat. "It's a Soul Eater."
The thing snarled.
Then it lunged.
I shoved Mina to the ground and dodged sideways, blade flashing as I slashed its chest. It shrieked, smoke pouring from the wound. Not blood. Just… smoke.
It slashed at me with claws that hissed through the air like razors. I ducked, rolled, then leapt up with another strike to its throat. More smoke. More screams.
Mina fired twice. One bullet grazed its arm. The other missed completely.
"Don't just shoot blindly," I snapped.
"S-Sorry! I've never fought a—whatever that is!"
I spun forward, blade cutting through the thing's chest again. This time it stumbled. Shrieked. Then collapsed into black ash.
Gone.
Mina stood there, eyes wide, gun shaking.
"You okay?" I asked, panting slightly.
"I—I think so…"
She stared at the pile of ash. "What the hell was that thing?"
"A Soul Eater," I said. "They feed on souls marked by death."
Her gaze snapped to me. "You mean… people like you?"
I didn't answer.
Instead, I turned and walked away. She followed, boots sloshing in the puddles.
"You're not going to explain this to me, are you?"
"Nope."
"Detective Kuro, I have the right to know what I just saw."
I stopped.
"You ever hear of the Death God?"
She blinked. "It's a myth."
"No, it's not."
I pulled down the collar of my coat and shirt, revealing the red mark glowing on my skin—a jagged circle of symbols etched into my flesh like fire.
"When I was twelve, I was in a car crash. Everyone else died. I didn't. He found me. Said I was interesting. Gave me this."
Mina took a step back.
"I see memories of the dead," I continued. "Sometimes their last breath. Sometimes their secrets. And sometimes… what killed them."
She stared at me. Pale. Unmoving.
I met her eyes. "Welcome to the South Side, Lieutenant."
That night, she didn't say a word the whole way back.
Later – My Apartment
The city glowed beneath me, neon pinks and violent reds mixing with the black clouds.
I sat on my windowsill, smoking another cigarette, listening to the static hum in my ears.
The Mark on my chest throbbed like a second heartbeat.
I was dying.
Not all at once. Slowly. Piece by piece. Every time I used the Mark, I paid a price. Years shaved off. Sanity slipping.
But someone had to stop them.
The Soul Eaters were growing bolder. Whatever was hunting the marked… it wasn't stopping.
I closed my eyes, head leaned against the wall.
The dead man's whisper echoed again in my skull.
"It's coming…"
Yeah.