Chapter 73: We Are All Part of the Orphanage

In the deep night, the empty streets lay silent.

A black sedan pulled over. Fang Cheng stepped out, gear clinking—standard Countermeasures Department intern equipment: bulletproof vest, night vision goggles, comms system, stun gun. All procured by Kanzaki Rin these past two days. Pricey but well-fitted.

His forged intern ID looked legit enough to fool anyone. That wealthy lady sure knew how to game the system. For a mere intern, she moved mountains. How? Beats him.

Kanzaki Rin emerged too, matching gear in place. Her fingers danced across the tablet’s surface. The car’s trunk yawned open, releasing micro-drones that melted into the darkness.

The new sedan—sturdy, expensive—replaced the one wrecked during their Heishi Youto clash. Fang Cheng’s jaw tightened. Here he was, still grinding for financial freedom, while she tossed cash around like confetti. Never mind how her face crumpled with each purchase.

Both orphans. Why her loaded, him broke?

Life’s a rigged game.

Takeda Masumi had spilled it recently—Rin’s parents died young. Suddenly “Rin-chan” rolled off his tongue easier. Orphans should stick together, right? Less squabbling, more sharing. Especially cash.

“Move.” Rin scanned the tablet’s feed, long legs eating up pavement as she veered into an alley.

Fang Cheng trailed, eyes mapping her silhouette. Conclusion: same childbearing-hips league as Asaka Akihime.

Rin spun, glare sharp. “Quit dawdling.”

She thrust the tablet at him. Target docs glowed—spear-wielding toad monster. Giant Toad, per Japan’s backwoods legends. Mimics weapon use, chameleon-camouflaged, ambush predator.

Fang Cheng swallowed a ribbit-pun. Law-abiding citizens conserve bullets.

Fourth-floor slums sprawled around them—maze-like, surveillance gaps everywhere. Crime’s playground, monster magnet. Not Mexico City bad, but disappearances? Tuesday stuff.

Monsters? Pfft. Drug lords did more damage—poisoning streets, rotting communities. But humans fear the “other” more. Profit-driven thugs get passes; freaky toads? Nightmare fuel.

The tablet blinked. Drones had eyes on target—one unlucky amphibian.

Fang Cheng handed the tablet back. Kanzaki Rin silently stored it away as both instinctively softened their footsteps.

Near the target location, Kanzaki Rin gestured to Fang Cheng.

He nodded and mouthed soundlessly: *What?*

She suppressed a sigh. Their teamwork remained hopeless.

Mimicking his method, she carefully repeated her message through exaggerated lip movements: *Flank from both sides.*

Fang Cheng squinted as if pretending to comprehend, then snatched the tablet. He scribbled something and shoved it back at her.

Kanzaki Rin glanced down to find an obscene doujin-style sketch labeled *Flanking maneuver?*

Her eye twitched. Yes, flanking was correct—but why pair it with *that* illustration?

*You’re not a vampire,* she fumed inwardly, *just a pervert.*

Swallowing her irritation, she summoned a drone-generated 3D map on the tablet and jabbed two coordinates. “Flank. Both. Sides.”

Fang Cheng flashed a thumbs-up and vanished into the shadows.

Kanzaki Rin massaged her temples. This partnership required serious tacit understanding training before it got them killed.

She reached her assigned alley entrance. The crunch of bone echoed from within.

Stun gun drawn, she advanced with a drone floating overhead.

A gutted young man lay twitching in the filth—likely yakuza. His chest still heaved. Bloodshot eyes locked onto her, pleading.

Kanzaki Rin aimed past the dying man at his tormentor: a middle-aged male hunched over crimson-slicked hands.

Her target glanced up, initial alarm fading to a leer when he spotted her intern badge.

“Solo, little girl?” He wiped gore on his trousers. “Run home. This monster eats brave kids.”

She remembered the Countermeasures Department’s internal documents—case 43-B, intern disemboweled mid-retreat.

Her stun gun crackled.

He lunged sideways as electricity scorched a water pipe. Sparks illuminated his retreat down the alley.

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Kanzaki Rin pursued, blue arcs fencing his escape routes.

The monster suddenly pivoted, claws slashing toward her throat—

A scarlet crystal spear shrieked through the darkness.

It punched through the attacker’s gut, pinning him to the brickwork like a butterfly specimen.