Kaleidoscope: The Fox And The Butterfly

7- Vivid Moon

Whispers and murmurs of citizens and knights echo through an alleyway where Ren, Kao, and Sion stand. As the buzz of flies annoys their ears, their eyes lock onto the purple-bloodied corpse of a certain tentacled alien, his tentacles and spider-like legs mangled and twisted with his organs spilling out from his abdomen like vomit that is filled to the brim with green beads of beans.

Though earthlings might not find the sight as disturbing as his own kind would, the putrid smell still lingers as a reminder that death is the same for all kinds of races.

As both his coworkers sniffle and pinch their nose, Ren folds his ears back and closes his eyes, murmuring with a bitter tone, "Poor guy..."

The sky is now yellow with no clouds. As the petrifying wind blows the putrid smell, its sunlight shines onto the corpse of Vaj as if to pick his soul up to heaven.

"Rest well, Vaj," Ren clenches his hands together as he brings them to his lips.

Eyeing him with open, curious eyes, Kao asks Ren, "Hey, you know this alien?"

Releasing his hands, Ren grabs his waist as he tilts his head, "Yeah, I met him when I first came here... A nice guy, really. Sad to see him like this..."

"Do you know anyone who would do this to him? It could be significant to the case," Sion butts in with a cold tone. As he waits for his answer, he kneels beside the corpse, squinting his eyes at it.

"Hmm... I don't know... But someone said that he's a college professor. I don't know if that's gonna be helpful information though..." He pauses as he grabs his chin, "And they said that he's rich too. So maybe some kind of robbery that went too far?"

"And who is this... 'Someone'?" Sion adds.

"Just a cashier in a convenience store that he happens to be a regular in."

After he hums to Ren's remarks, Sion's chitinous fingers move to slightly adjust the alien's mangles of tentacles, revealing behind them a big claw mark on his abdomen, perhaps the cause of his opened stomach.

Wiping his fingers on his collar, Sion glances at the alien's head that is his bundle of tentacles. He moves to adjust them once again, sharpening his eyes when he sees a big chunk of the corpse's neck is gone as if torn away.

"Well, I assume this is a predation case. These claw marks, in combination with a bite-looking wound. Whatever the killer is, they seem to have mauled the victim to death. But this bite wound... I don't know what could've caused it. We need someone who's expert at predation cases to confirm it."

"Oh I know some stuff about that! Let me see!" Kao joins, kneeling beside him

"Eh? Don't bite wounds from animalias look all the same?" Ren questions.

"They have slight differences actually. For example, a wound from a werewolf bite might have two or more deeper stabs due to how their teeth are shaped. A wound from my kind, the merpeople, will have perfectly symmetrical cuts cuz of our shark-like teeth. And also-"

"Kao. Shut up and do your job," Sion cuts.

"Eheh... Sorry."

Ren purses his lips as he squints his eyes, "Ugh... I don't think I can deal with that kind of stuff. Too squeamish."

"Well, In that case, you should check if there's any witnesses or security cameras around here," Sion suggests.

Opening his eyes, Ren steps toward the entrance of the narrow alleyway where the other knights of different branches question the people and vice versa.

"Hey what happened?"

"Did someone get killed?"

"Are there dead bodies in there?"