A middle aged man was sitting on a chair, eating miso ramen. The restaurant he was eating at was not far away from his home, so after his guard shift, he thought he'd stop by and have dinner here in this cheap ramen shop.
The wooden entrance and exit doors showed signs of being eaten by termites, houseflies were flying and infecting the food. The tables and chairs were dusty and old, one might even fall if they didn't pay attention on the chair they were sitting on.
The walls had major cracks, plumbing was also pretty bad so there were some spots where customers could see water leaking from the old gray walls. Bulbs constantly kept flickering and the ceiling fans were noisy. Tiles were also broken, so walking barefoot might cut one's feet due to the sharp broken tile pieces.
The kitchen of the shop dining area was joint, and was clearly visible to the customers. The kitchen wasn't spacious, barely large enough for a couple of unqualified chefs to cook ramen with their not so hygienic hands.
A narrow dining area with such 'luxuries' was certainly not a rarity, especially in the locality where this restaurant was located. This place was in the seventy third sector of the outskirts zone of Klington city.
Here everything could be bought for cheap but without any guarantee for quality and legitimacy of the products. Living here was an ordeal. Yet half of the Klington's population resided in these one hundred and twenty three sectors of the outskirt zone.
Even though the outskirts were equivalent to hell and nobody enjoyed living here but everyone had their own reasons to live here. Majority of outskirt residents were refugees from economically and politically unstable nations. Living in outskirts of Jerenberg was far better than the cities and towns of their own countries.
Although the living conditions of the outskirts were no better than their own country but at least it offered them safety, stable lives and jobs.
The outskirts of Klington was the most suitable residence for these people as the opportunities for laborious and menial jobs were endless. Crime rate in the outskirts was more than the central and normal residency zones, but still it wasn't worse than the homeland of these refugees.
The government didn't bother itself much with the outskirts, well at least in most of the sectors. Some sectors were famous for being criminal hubs, crimes like human and drug trafficking was common in these sectors, bloody conflicts between different communities and gang wars. Due to this, these sectors had earned themselves a bad reputation and had heavy security deployment by the government.
And sector seventy three of the outskirts zone was one of these sectors. The situation here was bad but manageable, that's why the poor middle aged man named Keisei Hussey, who worked as a day-shift guard in a housing society of the normal residency zone of Klington allowed himself to live here.
Well this sector was also one of the cheapest sectors and safest among the 'not so safe' sectors.
'When I get a raise, I'll shift to sector sixty as the rooms there are only a little more expensive than this sector and it's far safer there.'
As Keisei was gobbling up his miso ramen, he saw the wooden door being opened by a weak push. He saw a little boy...well a teenager to be precise, walking in the restaurant. The boy looked around the age of eighteen with a lean physique. He was wearing a black woollen jacket and trousers. He was around a hundred and sixty five centimeters tall. That boy looked quite feminine except for his trimmed sideburns.
He had ivory skin, onyx hair and scarlet eyes, he looked frail and hungry. As if he hadn't eaten anything for a whole week. He looked around furtively and then he spotted Keisei, who was the only one sitting in the narrow dining area.
It was a strange experience for Keisei to look at his wrinkled scarlet eyes, they seemed scarlet but Keisei felt something crimson like glowing in his almost lifeless scarlet eyes. They were creepy yet attractive, he looked frail yet strong. His presence was eerie and everything about him made Keisei feel that he wasn't looking at something humane.
The boy carefully studied the surroundings with his scarlet eyes, after studying them for a while he looked back at Keisei and asked as he started walking towards where Keisei was sitting.
"May I sit beside you?"
Keisei frowned, the boy was speaking Mizuhana language which was coincidentally Keisei's first language. Keisei grew suspicious of the boy, with a deep frown Keisei asked coldly.
"Who are you? What business do you have with me?"
The boy stopped and shrugged as he introduced himself.
"I'm Cyril Coleman. I wanted to hire you as a security guard of my father's mansion."
Keisei shook his head in irritation as he asked:
"How do you know me? Why do you specifically want to hire me?"
Cyril chuckled softly as he started walking towards Keisei and took a seat beside him and answered:
"I'm sure you have a lot of things to ask. All of your questions are answered in this document, read it to find out."
Keisei observed Cyril with a dubious expression, Cyril took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed him. Keisei stared at him, the boy...he looked normal now. Nothing about him was wrong now except he looked very starved and pale. Cyril offered him a genuine and kind smile as he prompted Keisei to unfold the piece of paper.
'Maybe I should offer him some water.'
Keisei forced out a smile and asked Cyril tentatively.
"Should I pour some water for you in a glass?"
Cyril shook his head slightly and said with a voice laced in gratitude.
"No need to do that, but I appreciate your offer."
Keisei nodded and then unfolded the piece of paper given to him by Cyril. As he was halfway through the contents of it, he suddenly felt a harrowing pain in his body. He had never experienced such intense pain in his whole life, it was so intense that he let out a deafening scream. As he shouted in pain and agony trying to desperately move his body, Cyril snorted and grabbed Keisei's head from back and smashed it on the cheap wooden dining table.
Cyril did that with such a tremendous force that the table broke into several pieces. Keisei died as his head got brutally smashed on the table. His face looked like a bloody mess while his corpse laid on the floor. Cyril looked at the corpse somberly as he turned around to glance at the only cook who was working here tonight.
It was a woman in her mid-twenties, she had long silver hair with purple eyes and a graceful slender figure. She removed her apron swiftly and took out a revolver and pointed at Cyril. An expression of fear and surprise was subtly visible on her countenance. Her alerted stance while holding a revolver, which was surely loaded, looked awfully similar to Cyril.
'A standard military stance but it lacks some intricacies.'
As the woman stayed silent for a few moments and snapped out herself out of fear and surprise, she warned coldly with a deep scowl.
" 'Shadow devourer' identified. Hands up, or I'll shoot!"
Cyril glanced at her and then at his shadow who was almost done with devouring Keisei's shadow. He raised his hands and cackled.
"Wow! Are you perhaps a military personnel masquerading as a ramen cook to watch the gang movements in this sector?"
The woman gritted her teeth and shot a bullet at Cyril's knee but the bullet didn't even leave a scratch on his knee, seeing this her eyes widened in horror but she regained her composure in the next moment and narrowed her eyes as she said:
"Don't utter a single word, or I'll shoot your head next time."
Cyril smirked and asked as his shadow finished consuming Keisei's shadow.
"Do you really believe that is going to harm me?"
The woman was confused for a second but her eyes widened in terror as she noticed a layer of crimson energy wrapped around Cyril's body. She wanted to scream but she managed to overcome her fear and shot a bullet aimed at Cyril's head.
However, the bullet just fell down after colliding with the veil of crimson energy. After seeing this, her brave facade broke completely and she turned around to run but before she could Cyril quickly maneuvered himself just behind her and knocked her out by a right hand fist chop on her neck.
As she fainted...Cyril's shadow merged with her shadow and started to consume it.
'Crimson membrane is really a useful technique, don't you agree?'
A voice echoed in Cyril's head as he was devouring his prey. Cyril looked at his hands which were emitting a layer of crimson energy and then his own voice echoed in his head as he replied to that voice.
'Indeed, it seems I've caught another prey with the help of this underrated ability.'