Lyss pushed through the crowd at a near run, weaving between pedestrians before slipping her earpiece into place. Her expression had changed completely now—focused, sharp, all trace of casualness gone.
"I got your message," she said under her breath. "Give me the coordinates."
Static crackled for only a second before the voice on the other end answered.
"There's a strong resonance signature near Shinsei," it said. "Close to your position."
Lyss stopped dead in the middle of the foot traffic, one hand rising to press against the earpiece as her eyes swept the district around her.
"You're serious?" she asked, startled despite herself. "It's here?"
"Yes," the voice replied. "But proceed carefully. The resonance profile is unusual. It doesn't register as Ghoul or Malform. It feels… humanoid."
That made her freeze for half a beat.
"What?" she said, more quietly now, trying to make sure she had heard correctly.
The voice repeated itself, calmer this time. "Humanoid. Familiar in structure, but not consistent with a normal human baseline either."
Lyss's brows drew together. "Wait. You're telling me the threat level spiked because of a human presence?" She looked around again, tension settling into her shoulders. "No. That doesn't make sense."
Then everything changed at once.
A scream cut through the district, then another, then several more all at once. The sound spread fast, bouncing between buildings and swallowing the normal noise of the street. People who had been walking calmly a second ago suddenly broke into panic, running in every direction, some shoving past each other just to get away.
Lyss turned immediately, her heart kicking harder as the voice in her earpiece came back, quicker now.
"I've got it," the operator said. "East side of Shinsei, near the raised crossing by the plaza entrance. About thirty meters ahead of you."
Lyss's eyes snapped toward the direction as another wave of pedestrians rushed past her. "Got it," she said, already starting forward again. "Keep tracking."
"We are," the voice replied. "It's moving, but not like a Ghoul. And it's not holding steady like a Malform either. Just be careful."
Lyss moved fast toward the point she'd been given, pushing through the last wave of people fleeing in the opposite direction. Nobody stopped to explain. Nobody even slowed down. They just ran, faces tight with panic, like staying one second longer would get them killed.
Then she saw why.
A man was hanging in the air a few feet off the ground, all skin and bones, legs kicking uselessly while his hands clawed at the wrist crushing his throat. Whoever was holding him up was doing it with one arm, like it took no effort at all. The man couldn't even scream properly anymore. Just broken, strangled sounds.
A laugh rolled through the street.
Deep. Rough. Too relaxed for what was happening.
"Hah… pathetic," the voice said, amused in a way that made Lyss's stomach tighten. "One of you's gotta know where she is."
The person holding the man stepped more fully into view.
He didn't look polished or elegant. He looked like trouble that had learned how to enjoy itself.
His build was thick and hard, the kind of muscle that looked earned through fights, not training. His pale buzzed hair made his face stand out sharper, rougher, and the piercings running along his ears only added to the impression that he belonged in a cell or a back alley, not out in the open under city lights. He wore a black tank top that did nothing to hide the power in his shoulders and arms, and there was something careless about the way he carried himself—like rules, fear, and consequences had all stopped applying to him a long time ago.
But his eyes were the part that didn't fit any ordinary kind of human.
They glowed red. Not softly, not faintly—bright, focused, and wrong, with a narrow flare of light cutting straight out from them. His grin matched it: wide, sharp, and full of the kind of confidence only violent people wore that comfortably.
He looked less like a monster and more like the kind of man who should've been locked away years ago and somehow got out anyway.
And he was smiling while he choked someone to death in the middle of Shinsei.
The man in his grip could barely get the words out.
"I—I don't know who you mean!" he choked, voice breaking as he fought to stay conscious.
The other man didn't believe him for a second. The grin on his face didn't move, but something in his eyes sharpened.
"Don't lie to me," he said, and with his free hand he yanked the front of the man's coat aside hard enough to expose the emblem stitched beneath it. "You're Vanguard. I can see the badge. So don't stand there and tell me you don't know."
But the man really didn't.
There was nothing calculated in his panic, nothing hidden behind it. Just fear, confusion, and the desperate instinct to keep breathing.
"I swear—I don't!" he gasped. "I barely know anyone at the Institute—"
His words collapsed into a pained sound as the grip around his throat tightened. The arm holding him up flexed hard, veins standing out beneath the skin, and the man's eyes started to lose focus, rolling unsteadily as his body weakened in the air.
The answer didn't satisfy him. If anything, it made something in him snap.
His grip tightened again.
There was a sharp, sickening crack.
The Vanguard's body went limp almost instantly, his head falling to one side at an angle no living person could hold. Around them, the last people still in sight broke into full panic, scattering out of the district with screams that bounced between the buildings.
The man stared at the corpse for a second, jaw tense, irritation flashing across his face.
"Worthless," he muttered. "Then you're no use to me."
He took a step forward, still holding the dead man by the neck like the body weighed nothing. Then, with a brutal swing of his arm, he hurled him.
The body tore through the air at terrifying speed.
It slammed into the side of a building with a force that made the impact echo down the street. The wall fractured on contact, glass bursting outward and chunks of concrete breaking loose as the Vanguard's back hit first. His body folded against the surface before dropping through the shower of debris and crashing down in a broken heap below.
Lyss froze when she saw what had happened.
Her eyes widened, hands stiff at her sides as the scene settled in front of her—the broken body, the shattered wall, the man still standing there like nothing about it mattered.
"Lyss, report!" the voice in her earpiece called out. "Are you safe?"
For a moment she didn't answer.
Her chest tightened as the fear set in. She had faced Ghouls before. She had fought Malforms—those twisted, mindless things that only knew how to destroy.
But this wasn't that.
This was a man.
"Lyss! Respond. Are you there?" the voice insisted again.
She swallowed hard, forcing her voice to work.
"Y-Yeah… I'm here," she said, still staring at the figure ahead. "I found the resonance you picked up."
Her words came out quieter now.
"It's not a monster." She paused, trying to process it herself. "It's… a person. A man."
To be continued...