[3rd POV]
The incident of a crazy man jumping off a building and landing on the road soon became known. He was covered head to toe in blood. The police were the first to arrive on the scene but after figuring out that devil elements were involved, they called the Public Safety Commission who dispatched a squad captain to the scene immediately.
But contrary to their expectation, they were not greeted with a fight nor a devil. The unknown man decided to follow their arrest. The Devil Hunters took the man to the hospital due to all the blood on his body.
There, the man made no ruckus and simply allowed himself to do as they liked. That gave ample time for the Public Safety Commission to do research on the subject.
Around two hours after the man appeared, they had enough information at hand to get a vivid picture of what really took place.
...
"Here, the files you requested," said Hiroshi Kurabane, a devil hunter working under the small squad led by Captain Yamada Kentaro.
They were in the Tokyo hospital, standing just outside the ward where the unknown man was treated. The captain took the files and read everything with a stoic face. But his eyes widened when he got to certain lines.
"Jin Nakahara, 16 years old. His records ended when he was 12 years old. But his single mother never filed any missing reports," Captain Yamada read the file aloud.
There was a short silence in the white hospital corridor. The captain looked up from the files with quizical eyes.
"The arrest for the mother is underway. But it's likely that she sold her own son when he was 12 years old," Hiroshi said.
"Damn," Captain Yamada cursed out loud, "Sick people like that piss me off so much,"
"The Akamura-Kai got a hold of him somehow. They are a small time yakuza that has been living under the radar because their main source of income was not by illegal means, but by opening three restaurants in Tokyo over the last three years." Hiroshi said, and he took a long pause.
Captain Yamada eyed him and raised an eyebrow when he saw his subordinate turning green and almost gagging.
"Their restaurant's name is Utsuro's Plate. You know them too, Captain," Hiroshi said. "The squad went out to celebrate there when we completed our first major assignment."
"Yes, I remember their splendid pork dishes," Captain Yamada said, his mouth watering just thinking about the food there. It was expensive but so worth it.
"Indeed, they are known for their speciality in pork dishes, Captain. But they never had contact with any meat distributor companies or local pig farms," Hiroshi said with a deep and hard gulp.
"???"
"And we have confirmed the subject to be a devil hybrid. The fox devil had confirmed him to be the Pig Devil."
"Wait, devil hybrids are real? I thought they were just rumours?"
"Yes, they are," Hiroshi answered, "But I think you are overlooking the main issue here, Captain."
"...."
"...."
Captain Yamada's face paled in horror, and he felt bile coming up his throat. He closed his mouth, flinching forward with a gag when he finally got the implication of that.
"The toilet is that way," Hiroshi pointed, having already vomited earlier.
The captain dropped his files and made a beeline for the toilet. When he got there, he emptied everything in his stomach. And even after that, he contineud gagging again and again for a long time.
When he returned, his eyes were hollow. The news alone was not something the soft-hearted could take. After the disgust of eating and enjoying the meat of a fellow human was over, he couldn't help but think solemnly about the twisted fate the kid had been dealt.
"How is the headquarters dealing with this?" Captain Yamada asked when he returned to the threshold of the ward.
"They don't want the news to spread. They've already sent a cease order to all their restaurants and are dealing with the yakuza members as we speak," Hiroshi said.
"And since the subject has been identified as a devil hybrid, Lady Makima is going to take over the case. We just need to protect and keep an eye on the subject while she arrives," Hiroshi said.
"Good job," the captain said and released a long sigh, "I don't think I can ever eat pork again."
"The same goes for me," Hiroshi said.
"I wonder whose twisted idea this was anyway. And how did they run a whole resturant with the meat of a single hybrid? I thought that was impossible," the captain asked.
"Indeed, a hybrid's flesh disintegrates or turns to ash after being separated from the main body. It can not be used to farm organs either, although many have tried, since devil hybrids are completely different from ordinary humans. But something about the Pig Devil's ability made it so that the flesh can be sold and eaten like normal meat,"
"This world is so fucked up," the captain said, and he peeked inside the ward to see the 16-year-old in question, who was getting examined by the doctors.
"Imagine, being treated like livestock for four years. It's incredible that he remained sane," he commented.
"I don't think sane is the right word here, but yes, he is still a conscious individual. I assumed the Yakauza members thought the same thing, so they let their guard down and became careless. Which is the reason why he was able to fianlly break out of their grasp,"
The two Devil Hunters waited until the doctors were finished with their checkup. They made small talk, desperately trying to keep their mind from thinking too deep on the subject.
After the doctors came out, the two Devil hunters entered the ward and head towards the young man.
"Jin Nakahara, that is you, right?" the captain asked while throwing the files towards him.
The young man was sitting on the hospital bed with a stoic face. It was not a face that surpressed emotions either, he just looked dead inside and outside. He looked like a living corpse.
It was clear that whatever he went through took a toll on him.
"Can you talk?" the captain asked.
Jin only tilted his head in wonder. That was the only reply they got from him.
They released a sigh and rubbed their foreheads. It was difficult just standing in front of the young man. His gaze alone made them feel guilty and disgusted. How would you feel when you stand before someone whose flesh you had consumed?
"Yes," Jin responded long after it was expected, "I can talk."
"O-Okay. Good," the captain nudged at his subordinate, who quickly took out a note and a pen. Then the interrogation began.
"Do you remember what happened to you?" he asked.
"Yes, vividly," Jin answered before quickly asking his own question, "Where am I?"
They were taken aback, but found no reason not to answer. They could go back and forth, each party taking their time to answer their own question.
"You're in Tokyo, Japan," the captain answered. "What can you tell me about what they did to you?"
"Not much. They put me in a room, cut me apart every day and only ever took down my blindfold to feed me blood," he said, "Who are you?"
"We are Devil Hunters from the Public Safety Commission. I am Captain Yamada and this is my subordinate Hiroshi," he answered.
"What's a devil hunter?" Jin asked again.
"As the name suggests, we work for the government and hunt down devils," he said, "My turn. Can you identify who held you captive all this time?"
"No, the pain was too much. I couldn't even think until recently," Jin answered, "What are devils exactly?"
The two devil hunters shared a look. The previous questions were already weird, but now they couldn't ignore it. Perhaps the subject had lost his past memories and only remebered his time in the torture room. It was understandable to be honest. They didn't know how someone tortured like that for years would come out as.
Hiroshi wrote his observations down in his notes.
"Devils are creatures from hell that came to our world. Each devil came from the fears of humanity; they are basically fear-given form. And the stronger the fear, the stronger the devil. A tomato devil exist, but due to the lack of fear of tomato, it is not a powerful devil. On the contrary, the Gun Devil is a powerful entity becuase people fear guns," he explained.
Jin took a long pause before nodding once.
"Do you remember your family or what happened to you?" the captain asked.
"No. I have nothing. My memory only extends to when I was in the room, getting chopped up piece by piece," Jin answered.
"That's weird. You would think your mind would erase the bad memories instead, due to the trauma, not the ones you had before," Hirosho commented from the side, "Perhaps your whole memory is lost, but you remember the things after you became a hybrid."
Jin finally showed a reaction. His eyes widen, "A hybrid...?"
"Yes. A hybrid is a fusion between a devil and a human, something which I didn't know was real until you appeared. And you are the Pig Devil hybrid. It's why you can heal and why your captors kept you alive all these years," the captain said, earning a look from his subordinate.
That was information better kept hidden from the subject until deiced otherwise. But his captain was alwasy honest and straightforward.
"How did you escape?"
This time, Jin did not respond immediately. Instead, he stared at the empty space for a long time, looking deep in thought.
But then his shoulders sag, his eyes went from the devil hunters to looking at the ground.
"They were trying to move me....I escaped from their hold and jumped out of the window," Jin said.
That made sense to the devil hunters. It would also explain why he was clothed when they first found him. You wouldn't put cloth on the meat you kept butchering. But if they were moving him, it made sense they would give him clothes in the meantime.
But Jin did not ask any more questions this time. He simply went silent and stared at the ground. You could almsot feel his despair while looking at his form.
"What happened just now?" the captain asked, finally thinking to himeslf that he shouldn't have told him that he was a hybrid.
"Nothing really," Jin answered, and then chuckled a humourless sound.
He lifted his head and stared at the ceiling.
"For a moment, I thought I escaped hell," Jin said.
"But I realised...I didn't," he closed his eyes.
"I'm still in hell,"
The devil hunters shared a confused look.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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