The Spider and The Fly (Tokyo Babylon, Seishirou/Subaru)

They call him to the village of Sumiya after the fifth death. The police have no evidence and no leads, but the locals have been murmuring of something supernatural transpiring. They’d been vocal enough for a priest to be called, and then that priest had called Subaru’s grandmother.

He arrived with a minimal amount of pomp. Hokuto hadn’t been able to join him, which meant he’d been able to leave the more flamboyant costumes behind.

He had a text from Seishirou, almost the exact minute he got off the train. How goes the trip?

He smiles at the phone and slips it back into his pocket to answer later. Instead, he extends his hand to the police officer that greets him as he steps off the train. “Sumeragi Subaru?”

“Yes.” He shakes the man’s hand. His gloves today are plain black leather.

“This way.” The man leads him to a police car and then an apartment building. He rambles details of the case as they drive. His voice sounds shaken but his hands are steady on the wheel. He’s out of his depths and disturbed, but then most people would be when faced with corpses strung upside down in their homes with their innards eaten.

Subaru has seen worse.