Their New Future | BOOK 2 OF THE ANOMALY SAGA

CHAPTER 30

[Continued]

"Hello?"

"Please give your authentication ID." A female voice spoke on the other line, and that was all they needed to hear to understand.

"I'm sorry?" Ryū scoffed, looking out toward the empty street.

"Your authentication please." The woman repeated. The other call handlers were barely audible in the background, though they could tell us was incredibly busy.

"Who is this?" They acted oblivious. Why now? Why would they blow their cover when they're finally getting somewhere?

"Your. Authentication."

"... Agent No. 0001. Auth Code: NZ.0989. Auth No. 109927489." They took a breath and a high pitched ringing came from the other end, "Ξεχάστε όλα όσα ακούσατε και κάνατε σήμερα. Πήγαινε σπίτι."
(Forget everything you heard and did today. Go home.)

As soon as the words came out of their mouth, they immediately grew to regret it. A series of beeps came from the line, signalling the call got transferred.

"Who are you." They growled as the pressed themself against a doorway, hiding in the shadows as two people walked past, oblivious to their presence.

"It's- Shit! Calamity is down. We need somewhere to hide. I'm desperate here, the GDA can't help us!" Explosions went off as the reception crackled. Ryū bit their bottom lip as they clutched their fist tightly, knuckles going white as they threw their hand back down.

"Little Moon's Café. Busan. After midnight. Destroy your communications, do not contact me." They spat under their breath, ending the call before removing the SIM card and smashing their phone on ground, completely destroying it. They picked up the pieces and made their way back to the dorm.

"I'm back." They announced, removing their outdoor slippers for their fuzzy cow slippers.

"Who was it?" Taehee asked from the kitchen. They were scrubbing the dishes with a disgruntled Soojin, with Daehyun piping in randomly with awfully horrid jokes.

"My boss from the café I used to work at. I have to go fill out some paperwork before I quit." Ryū sighed as they rubbed their temples and picked up their now room-temp iced coffee. They took a sip before pulling a face and handed it to Soojin who audibly protested to cleaning another dish.

"I have to be there at midnight."

Jaebeom looked up with a questionable brow raised.

"The boss didn't say anything. " He said, making the others start listening in if they weren't already.

"Why would he? It's just paperwork." Ryū laughed it off, disappearing into their room and their smile dropped, being replaced with fatigued look. Reaching under their bed, they pulled out their massive black guitar case decorated with rock and heavy metal stickers.

Flipped on his back, they felt around for hidden switch until the case opened, revealing their modded gun. With a grimace, their ran their fingers over the osmium engravings on the barrel, shivering at the cold metal as they took in a deep shaky breath to compose themself.

That deep pit in their stomach was fighting to turn into an urge again. That dark, disgusting urge.

Under the gun, a couple of small plastic boxes sat with labels. 'Os. Bullets.' 'Data Backups' 'Trackers' and 'Osmium Nanotech'. The rest of the hidden case was filled an intense variety of weapons, from throwing knives, tranquillisers, osmium knuckle busters, rope darts and even a crossbow. They fiddled with an osmium coated box which held two holy artefacts.

A karambit knife decorated with red string and a Japanese amulet for protection, and the other was the Kurokawa Family Heirloom, a black-bladed katana with the same accessories. The box had three code locks, just to be safe.

Holy artefacts existed before Daemons had become 'hidden', created by the upper Gods as a form of protection and gifts to the daemons below. Stronger than osmium, they carry pure chaos magic that can immobilise and even exorcise targets. Each artefact has its own abilities, in this case the karambit granting the holder more speed and agility, whilst the katana had the power to summon creatures to fight for the holder as well as an increase in strength. This included the kitsune and other legends in Japanese mythology and history.

"Hyung! We're leaving for practice in an hour!" Zhao called out.

"I'll be right there!" They threw a black bundle of clothes in before picking up their guitar case back on the bed, checking to see if the actual electric guitar was inside. Picking out the exact same phone from under their bed, thew threw their destroyed phone into the garbage bins outside on the way out.

They thought they were done with this life.

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