"Everybody, get up!!"
"I slept in the bathroom all night, and nobody cared!!"
Power's voice suddenly rang out before six in the morning.
Power kicked open the door to Meng Fan's room. "Now I'm angry!!"
"What time is it? I wasn't done with my lovely dream." Meng Fan lifted his head slightly to glance at her, then dropped it back onto the pillow.
"How can you still be in the mood to sleep? Get up and cook for me, or you'll never hear the end of it."
"Go next door and find Aki Hayakawa. He's in charge of cooking. Neither of us knows how," Meng Fan muttered with his eyes closed.
With a target in mind, Power slammed the door shut.
Then came the sound of her kicking open Aki Hayakawa's door next door.
Her alarm-like yelling jolted Aki Hayakawa awake.
Once he woke up, the two inevitably got into a shouting match.
But soon, pots and pans began clattering in the kitchen.
It seemed Aki Hayakawa had given in.
"Aki, you're up early cooking." Himeno's voice rang out in the living room. She sounded lively, clearly having been awake for some time.
"It's all thanks to that wonderful roommate you brought over, demanding I cook first thing in the morning," Aki Hayakawa said helplessly through a yawn.
He reached into the fridge and took out five eggs.
He planned to make a few egg-based dishes for breakfast.
"I don't eat vegetables, only meat. You'd better make me some beef this early in the morning."
"Power, this isn't the wilderness. You can't hunt down whatever you feel like eating. From now on, Aki decides what we eat." Himeno stood up for Aki, laying down the rules beforehand so he wouldn't be overworked later.
After all, Power had lived deep in the forest, surviving by hunting.
Now that she was in the city, she naturally had trouble adjusting.
"I don't care. I want meat."
"If you keep making a fuss, I'll tell Miss Makima."
At the mention of reporting her to Makima, her bravado faltered.
Power, normally brash and afraid of nothing, instantly backed down.
"Fine, eggs will do. Give me plenty."
With that, she sat down on a chair and crossed her legs.
"Aki, if there's nothing else, I'll head out."
"Why don't you stay for breakfast before you go, Himeno?"
"No, I left work early yesterday, and I still have some paperwork on the rookies to finish."
Just as Himeno finished speaking, the phone in her pocket suddenly rang.
Her expression froze as she answered, then she called out to Aki, "Aki, we've got a case."
Aki Hayakawa understood immediately. He quickly put down the pan and turned off the gas stove.
"Rookies, get up. We've got a case."
Himeno hurried into Meng Fan's room and called out, making sure to yank the blanket off both of them.
The sudden chill jolted them awake.
"Can't even get a decent sleep this early in the morning. I'm already starting to hate this job."
Meng Fan sat up with his hair looking like a bird's nest.
Denji merely yawned and quickly woke up.
"Didn't Denji say you don't sleep?"
"I really can't sleep, but I can go into other people's dreams for fun. Big stars, rich heiresses, that sort of thing. I can be the leading man in their dreams."
"I was just about to get to the good part with Tahara Satomi when you interrupted me."
"Let's handle the case first. Your dreams can wait until we get back."
"What kind of case has everyone rushing around this early?"
Meng Fan hadn't taken off his clothes the night before.
He jumped straight out of bed.
"A passerby coming off a night shift called the police. He was going to get breakfast, but he found two collapsed skeletons inside the breakfast shop."
"Collapsed skeletons!!"
The three who had seen that sight firsthand were naturally familiar with it.
The mystery they hadn't solved yesterday had surfaced again this morning.
"Then we should go take a look," Meng Fan said.
"So I don't get to eat again, right?"
Seeing that the cook was already ready to leave, Power, who had been sitting and waiting for breakfast, made sure to complain.
"Power, here's your chance to prove yourself. If you do well, I'll let you stay on Aki's team."
"Fine. There'd better be a devil there for me to take my anger out on." Power clenched her fists, swearing to make the devil that had ruined breakfast pay.
Soon, the five of them drove to their destination.
The crime scene had already been cordoned off.
Two police officers stood guard on either side.
Since it was early morning, there were hardly any bystanders around.
As the group approached and got out of the car, they drew the officers' attention.
One sharp-eyed officer immediately hurried over. "You're finally here. Any later, and I was afraid something would come charging out of there."
"Did you go inside and look?" Himeno asked.
"Yes, yes. It nearly scared me to death. If it weren't my job, I'd have run away ages ago."
"You're pretty honest," Meng Fan teased, then ducked under the police tape and headed inside.
The others followed Meng Fan into the crime scene.
Only Himeno stayed behind to talk to the officer.
"Be careful. There might be a devil inside," the other officer warned them from behind. "I thought I heard something moving in there."
"A devil? I've been itching for a devil to kill. Once it's dead, hurry up and let me go home for breakfast."
The moment Power heard there was a devil, she grew excited.
She was the first to run into the shop.
"Devil, come out and die!" Power shouted, standing inside with her hands on her hips.
She completely ignored the two bodies lying in the shop.
"The bodies are like the ones from before. The heads are intact, but everything else has been eaten clean."
"This time, the necks weren't left behind," Denji said.
Drip!!
Just then, the sound of water dripping into a sink suddenly came from the kitchen.
Drip, drip!!
The dripping grew faster.
"Someone there?"
"Coward, get out here!" Power quickly slit her wrist. Blood flew from the wound, instantly forming a blood axe.
Power charged into the kitchen with the blood axe.
The kitchen was spattered with blood.
Five shriveled bodies lay face down.
The sink was filled with blood.
An unidentified creature was hunched over the sink, steadily drinking the blood inside.
Power's intrusion startled the dark figure in the kitchen.
Whoosh!!!
The dark figure turned, knocked Power flying, and darted out of the kitchen.
In the blink of an eye, it had run outside.
Naturally, the others inside weren't about to let it escape.
When they chased it out of the shop, they found it waiting.
A devil with a mosquito's head, a human body covered in spikes, and a swollen belly stood before them.
"One look at its head tells you it's a Mosquito Devil. We should've brought some insecticide," Meng Fan joked, not taking the Mosquito Devil seriously at all.
Beside him, Aki Hayakawa quickly shaped one hand into the sign of a fox.
A gigantic fox head swiftly emerged.
But the Mosquito Devil was astonishingly fast.
It spread the wings on its back and took off on the spot.
Even with her swift appearance, the Fox Devil only managed to bite off half the Mosquito Devil's body.
As the Mosquito Devil flew into the air, the missing half of its body rapidly regenerated.
Then it swooped down toward them.
Its spear-like mouth pierced Denji's body in the next instant.
It drove Denji backward and pinned him to a wall.
"Aaah!!"
Denji screamed, feeling the blood steadily draining from his body.
"Not good! This devil can suck someone dry in seconds!!"
Before you continue