Canticle: Code Caligula

Chapter 35: Wishes of an Ant, Part 2

Superintendent Larsa stood in between the building's doorframe as four armed riot officers followed behind. The red-haired woman adjusted her tortoise shell sunglasses, pushing them up the bridge of her petite nose.

Looking down at the unconscious mortician on the floor, her face tightened into a scowl.

"We have an intruder somewhere with us," she whispered to the other men.

With a hand gesture from Larsa, two officers moved past her while the other two remained by her side as bodyguards. The superintendent sauntered over towards the unmoving round body on the floor. The mortician was on his back, still asleep and drooling slightly.

"Your nation thanks you for your sacrifice," Larsa crooned, placing her fingers on the man's chest.

Within the mortician's body, a small purple outline in the shape of a cube materialized around his pumping heart. The box was unseen to anyone else looking on, but after decades of implementation Larsa could easily visualize her Tamashi Genkai at work.

After a mere moment, the air pressure within the cube intensified by a thousand: crushing the man's vital organ into a pulp. Larsa stood back up, her hands unsullied. The mortician was dead, but he looked the same as ever. A heart attack would be the agreed upon cause of death, unless one happened to perform an autopsy on the corpse. With what she had planned, such a possibility would never come to pass.

Naraka meanwhile had pushed Sierro's corpse back into the cooler, reducing the likelihood of a search within the morgue itself. He knew that they were coming and his pursuers were only a hallway's distance from his current location. After he no longer sensed the life force of the mortician in the lobby, he steeled himself for the reality that now awaited him.

Currently, the door to the morgue was closed and locked, courtesy of Naraka's quick thinking. Now he was sealed in a room with no windows and no exits.

—I can't let them discover me here. I could kill them all, but it could also be traced back to me...

Naraka sighed, resigning himself to holding his ground for the time being.

The purple-haired demon walked over to the wall beside the door; positioned so that he'd be obscured once it opened.

—It's been a while since I was forced into using my Tamashi Genkai. Kudos, Superintendent.

Forming a mudra sign with his hands, Naraka exhaled as his Tamashi Genkai activated. If someone had been observing him straight-on, it would appear that Naraka's body slowly seemed to warp and bend away. His body thinned out into nothingness, similar to how a person's reflection seemingly vanishes within a well-angled mirror.

With a silent jostle, the doorknob turned slightly before being met by resistance from the lock. There was a deafening silence as the officers readied from the other side. In a thunderous crash, the door was forced from its position as one of the men kicked it down. Clinging on by a single hinge, the door hung loosely as the two men in tactical gear slowly walked inside.

They were equipped with shotguns, each with a small flashlight on the side of the barrel. Naraka stood absolutely still, not even flinching as the obliterated door dangled to his left. He could see the men slightly from his peripheral vision as the narrow beams of light from their guns darted around methodically.

—Yomi Special Assault Units... I wasn't under the impression this was a raid.

All his ability had done was bend the space around his body like a cylinder; making him appear invisible to the naked eye. However, the illusion's integrity was in jeopardy of being discovered. From certain angles the effect was rendered obvious. Aware of this flaw, he silenced his breathing and masked his Tamashiryoku.