Beast Soul

"Hah… and he's gone," Noah's doppelganger said as he stared at the empty space in front of him and let out a heavy sigh.

Noah had just yelled out to let him go and vanished right in front of his eyes. In the end, he couldn't explain anything to Noah.

"Well, to be fair, it wasn't like there was all that much to tell him.." Noah's doppelganger murmured softly in an attempt to comfort himself.

"I wonder why all of this is so complicated," The doppelganger said as he tilted his head up and looked at the bright light that was shining down from above.

"Oh well," The doppelganger ke tout a short chuckle as a faint smile appeared on his face. "He'll have to come to terms with it sooner or later."

----------------

"Are you sure there's no other way?" Commissioner Walter Bridge leaned forward onto the driver's seat and asked his chauffeur, who helplessly shrugged his shoulders in response. "I don't know what to say, Mr. Bridge." He replied with a nervous smile. "This is the only way to get to the police station. I'm afraid you'd end up meeting them sooner or later."

Commissioner Bridge squinted his eyes. He had an annoyed expression on his face as he turned to look through the front window of his car. The Commissioner's vehicle was parked a few metres away from the front of the precinct, where one could see a crowd of reporters swarming around, desperately searching for someone to interview. 

"Oh heavens!" The Commissioner whispered softly with a frustrated tone as he pulled out his handkerchief and rubbed it all over his face which was completely covered in sweat. "The last thing I want to deal with are those blood sucking parasites.."

Commissioner Bridge groaned for a few more seconds. 

"Wish me luck, Benny!" The Commissioner said to his chauffeur, Benny, as he opened the door and walked out into the street, and Benny yelled back, "Good luck, sir!"

"Commissioner Bridge! Commissioner Bridge!" The swarm of media reporters, who saw the Commissioner walking towards them, immediately turned their attention towards him and rushed in his direction, surrounding him within seconds. 

"What? What do you people want to know?!" Commissioner Bridge said with a dissatisfied face, and one of the reporters asked, "Are there any new leads concerning the death of the Mayor's son, Commissioner Bridge?"

"Alright, first of all, the kid is missing, not dead! Make sure you get that right!" The Commissioner said with a frustrated expression. He certainly wasn't fond of the reporters. He still remembered his senior telling him that he'd get used to it, but it's been twenty five years since then, and he still gets frustrated every time he sees a reporter. "And secondly, this is a very important and delicate case for our department, and we're looking into it as carefully as possible. We'll update the public if we have anything important to report, but for now, I have to ask every single one of you to be patient."

"Are you sure that your department is capable of handling such a difficult case, Commissioner Bridge?" Another question came straight at him as soon as he finished speaking. This one sounded like the speaker wanted to get a reaction out of him as quickly as possible. 

'F*cking idiots! The least you could do is to make the questions a bit more subtle. It's going to take more than that to get me angry,' Although that was what the Commissioner wanted to say, in reality, he was fuming with anger. Luckily, he calmed down within a few seconds and spoke with an indifferent expression. "I am extremely proud of the talented detectives in my department. I am confident that they're skilled enough to take on this case. I know that it's tiring and you're all impatient, but I trust my people, and I know that they'll bring about the desired results."

"Commissioner Bridge! Do you have any information about the earthquake in the Marley market district, a place which was known for having absolutely no record of earthquakes until now?" Another question came at him, and Commissioner Bridge raised his eyebrows.

'I thought I had told them to sweep the Marley market incident under the rug for now.' Commissioner Bridge wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the question he received. 'Where on earth are these reporters getting their information from?'

"Uh, no. I'm afraid it was just a normal earthquake. And besides, it's not something that's related to our department." Commissioner Bridge shrugged his shoulders and continued, "That's all I have time to answer. Now, if you'll excuse me.."

He waved his hands and entered the precinct, leaving the group of reporters behind.

"Commissioner," Said Inspector Garry MacDonald, who saw him enter. "How'd you get through those vampires? Surely you didn't use a cross? I thought you weren't catholic…"

"Given how crazy the whole town is getting these days, I'm considering becoming a catholic.." Commissioner Bridge shook his head as he walked forward, with Inspector MacDonald following him close behind. "Because I'm pretty sure the devil is the only one who could come up with these horrible scenarios."

The two men walked through the main hall of the police department, and headed through the small corridor which led them towards the door to the basement, where the forensic medical examiner's room was located.

"So, how's the body?" The Commissioner asked quietly, and Inspector MacDonald gave a bitter and helpless smile in response. 

"Is it that bad?" The Commissioner raised his eyebrows, intrigued by the response. He was now extremely curious.

The two men stepped into the Medical examiner's office, and the figure of Doctor Hernandez came into view. He was standing next to Chief Medical Examiner Koichiro Sekino, and the two were staring at the dead body in front of them. 

"What in the world…" The Commissioner couldn't believe what he was seeing. The stomach of the dead body had been ripped open, and spread out from inside of it were multiple snake-like creatures. They seemed to be connected to the insides of the corpse, as though they were living inside of this person all this time.

"It's something else, huh.." Inspector MacDonald said as he scratched his chin, and Commissioner Bridge slowly nodded his head, his eyes still fixated on the corpse in front of him. 

"No one has informed the Mayor yet, right?" Commissioner Bridge raised his head and looked at the two doctors, who both nodded their heads in unison. 

"I thought we'd ask you first, Commissioner." Doctor Sekino said, and the Commissioner pressed his glasses back onto his nose. "Very good."

He then leaned back and let out a sigh. "Examine it as much as possible. Find out everything you can from the corpse. I want a detailed report submitted on my table tomorrow morning." He paused for a second before glancing at the dead body and said, "We'll keep this a secret for now. I'm sure the Mayor wouldn't want to see his son like this. Not right now, at least."

----------------

'Damn it!' He snapped his fingers in frustration and gritted his teeth. 'That doppelganger of mine… He's making my head hurt.' He couldn't even tell if what he remembers was what he really experienced.

'Alright Noah, calm down,' Noah said to himself. 'I shouldn't think about things I have no clue about. It'll only end up driving me mad.' His eyes then moved to Gerald, and then shifted to Harold, Alphonso and then Max, carefully scanning each and every one of them.

'Well, well, well…' Noah raised eyebrows. It seemed as though he had come to an interesting realization. 'I guess I have to thank my doppelganger for this information..'

"You four!" Noah yelled out, and the group of boys flinched in surprise.

"Shit!" Harold accidentally blurted out before immediately covering his mouth with his hands. 

"Wh- What?" Gerald, although nervous, decided to answer Noah's call. He was afraid that he would get angry if they didn't respond, which might not be the mood they'd want a transforming monster-man to be in. 

"If I remember correctly, you all had your faces covered by those flower creatures, right?" Noah asked, his hand on his chin and his eyebrows raised up.

"Uh, yes?" Gerald, who was confused by the man's question, replied almost a second later. He didn't know why the man was asking about the flower monsters.

'Could the flower monster be a rival monster race to his people?' Harold couldn't help but think. 

"Well, I guess it can't be helped now," Noah scratched his head as he took a step towards them, and the group of young boys immediately became nervous.

'I knew it! We're going to get killed!' Alphonso couldn't help but imagine the worst case scenario, and his legs began trembling.

"You all," Noah, who had no idea what these boys were thinking about, opened his mouth to speak, and the group turned their attention to him. "All similar to me now."

"…... I'm sorry, what?"