2 Meeting The Paranormal

The Shinonome Lab

Despite those words written in bold on a sign above the traditional Japanese housing unit, the actual interior of it was no different than a regular home.

Meaning there was no lab in the Shinonome Lab. Instead, it just happened to be the home of an impossibly small child inventor.

Like any house, it was fitted and fully furnished. It had three hallways, an entrance, a living room, a laundry room, a bathroom, a kitchen, a patio connected to a changing room, and a single bedroom.

As for how the eight-year-old inventor managed to afford such a unit with seemingly no parents or guardians in sight, even her creation, Mamoru had no idea.

The obvious assumption would be to think that she made a living selling off her inventions. However, the problem with that theory first sprouted when Mamoru brought it up to estimate the monthly funds so he could fulfill his duties.

"Creat— I mean, Hakase… did you sell all your inventions for this house…?" The android innocently asked.

But the little girl's eyes watered up at that.

"How can you even suggest such a thing?! I don't remember raising you to be so cruel!"

Even with his limited emotional capabilities, Mamoru knew any further questioning would result in agitating his creator even further. Considering that fact he didn't even attempt to rebuke her because as far as he could remember, besides creating him she didn't raise him at all.

In the end, he had to accept that the funds magically appearing out of thin air were just a normal occurrence in this household. At the very least by the information implanted in him, Mamoru didn't believe his creator was up to anything shady.

Not to mention that for the past two weeks the little girl hadn't even left the household a single time. Nor had she sat at a computer to do any sort of online work.

But now that money was no longer his concern, there was another thing bugging the android that he didn't bring up with his creator.

And that was the fact that he couldn't fulfill his original purpose at all.

His original duty was to protect his creator from harm, and yet since she never left the house in the first place so no such harm occurred. Occasionally she would somehow injure herself tripping on her comically large lab coat but that was something that could be quickly solved by grabbing the first-aid kit in one of the kitchen cabinets.

As an android, being unable to fulfill his original purpose was simply agony. If his creator wasn't going to leave the house and encounter trouble, then he was going to go outside and eliminate the trouble before it could harm her.

So he made a request to his little creator.

"Cre- I mean, Hakase. I would like some martial arts to be programmed into my operating system." Mamoru held both hands behind his back, staring seriously at his creator who had not realized the milk stains surrounding the edges of her mouth.

"..... Alright!" With a burp she wiped the crumbs from her fingers using the lab coat she wore, she hastily crawled from beneath her coffee table and motioned for Mamoru to sit on the ground beside the obviously outdated computer.

Never doubting his creator's intentions, Mamoru sat with his knees tucked underneath him.

"Eh—? Could you lean a little lower?" She said after spending a few seconds trying to reach his neck but failing.

Mamoru made the appropriate motions without saying a word, tilting slightly forward so she could touch his nape without having to stand on the tips of her bare feet.

*clink*

With the faint sound of a hatch opening, the skin around Mamoru's neck lifted like a vault door. Inside the now visible crevice was a single gaping port that looks like it should be connected to some giant cable.

"Let's see…"

Hakase fumbled around her computer station for a while before withdrawing the appropriate cable from her drawer. She then connected one end to the back of Mamoru's neck, and the other behind the computer.

The blue in Mamoru's iris visibly faded until becoming an empty white color, his head slumping all the way to the ground as if he had been shut off.

*beep*

But the color soon returned as Mamoru heard a loud beep resound in his ears. His creator gently removed the cable from his port before closing it up and smiling gently at him.

"All done!" And without a second to waste, she ran back to the coffee table as if her snacks were going to up and vanish.

"...."

Mamoru in the meantime spent his time processing the information flooding his system. Boxing, Kung Fu, Taekwondo, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, and all sorts of diagrams, images, videos, and descriptions flashed in his eyes within a matter of seconds.

He stared at his palms for a few seconds before clenching them tightly. He then turned to look at the analog clock hanging on the wall.

'6:00 P.M.'

Before making his way to the entrance, Mamoru called out to his creator.

"I'll be back, Hakase… I must procure the items for next week's meals." Speaking coldly and archaic, he left without waiting for a response.

Hakase simply nodded before indulging herself in more sweets. Though in the back of her mind she couldn't help but worry that Mamoru would forget to pay for his items again.

______________________________________________________________________________

"Haa…Haa…Haa!"

The sun vanished along with the orange hue it cast over the small town. In place of it, the moon held the world of night in its silver embrace.

But embraces come in many forms. One popular instance would be the inevitable embrace of death. And at night, in this particular town, it was the beings who skulked in the dark's turn to play on the surface.

"Haa…Haa…Haa!"

The streets were empty, too empty. It wasn't something the boy who lived in the town for the past seventeen years ever noticed before, but after 'that' particular night, it was these inconsistencies that made his skin crawl.

Though none of that mattered now, as what held the boy's thoughts was how he was going to get out of the current predicament he was in.

For the past few days, he noticed inconsistencies in his body, and coincidentally they also sprang since 'that' night.

The night that never happened, at least according to everyone he knew.

"Haa…Haa…Haa!"

At night he felt more invigorated than ever, whether it be his strength, speed, or stamina, every fiber of his being improved under the night sky.

Whereas in the day he felt weak, weaker than before 'that' night ever occurred.

But even with these new bonuses to his physical prowess, he found himself helpless in the current situation.

"Haa…Haa…Haa!"

He was running, running like his life depended on it. And that was because it did.

His short spiky brown hair shimmered with sweat, and his brown eyes slightly closed as the sweat was dripping down and stinging his eyes. But even then he didn't dare stop.

Something was chasing him, something deceivingly human.

After around fifteen minutes, he made it to what could potentially be his final destination.

Except there happened to be something there that he didn't take account of. Or more precisely, in his eyes, someone.

Standing in the park illuminated by fluorescent street lamps was a single figure, in both his hands he held to his sides what appeared to be two plastic bags. He placed both his bags on the nearby water fountain before turning to the source of someone's scream.

"Hey! Hey! Run, get out of here now! A pervert is chasing me!"

Issei's first instinct upon seeing the man who looked only a year older than him was to yell obscenities, as it was his personal policy to talk badly about handsome men as a way to relieve his jealousy over the girls they garnered.

But whether what was happening right now was a nightmare or not didn't matter. That thing was chasing him, no way was he going to allow an innocent bystander to get killed because of his actions.

So he told the riajuu to scram.

"...."

The problem was the boy with black hair and blue eyes simply stood there without an expression on his face.

'I-Is he too shocked to move?!' Issei thought to himself.

But those words managed to stay unexposed as the next action the boy took dumbfounded him.

'I-Is this bastard going to wrestle the pervert?!'

Issei clenched his teeth before running straight toward the boy who had squared his feet and held both his hands up in front of him.

'Fine! If the damn riajuu wants to fight then so be it! I'm not going to run away while he gets the chance to act cool!'

So Issei skidded across the ground until he lined up with the boy, he then held up an inexperienced pose of his own. His knees shook, and his chest expanded and contracted, no matter how one looked at it he was utterly afraid.

But even then he held his ground.

Mamoru simply looked at the boy from the corners of his eyes before turning back to the real threat at hand.

And then, jet-black feathers rained from the sky.