Cop Craft – Dragnet Mirage Reloaded

Heard of only in legends, their kin has existed since antiquity itself. They absorbed rahtena by sucking human blood; monsters that harnessed the vitality of the dead for sustenance. Although they looked no different than your typical Semanian, they were exceedingly agile, powerful, and cunning creatures.

The woman opened her mouth.

「Ma yagomenas loji namemba……」

Tilarna could not understand a single word. While they resembled the ancient language used by a long-forgotten dynasty in the frontiers of the Farbanian Kingdom, certain aspects were markedly different.

「Ni farpa. Miilenmenduma ganna mobi……」

Whatever she said, Tilarna could tell she was not trying to make friends. Staring fixedly at her, the vampire licked her lips, launching into an attack without warning.

「…………?」

Slowly swaying her bare, white body, she suddenly became fuzzy. The vampire moved at such high speeds that the contours of her body blurred to the sight. For a moment, Tilarna doubted whether she had lost her marbles.

That was not it. Everything else was completely fine. Still, she did not know if her opponent had moved to the right or the left. The shadow of death fell on her back. Where should she go? She did not know. There was no other choice but to gamble her chances here⸺.

「Ghrk!」

Taking a defensive position, Tilarna stretched her body to the right. Immediately following that, the stretcher behind her erupted in raucous clamor as it broke in half. The vampire had struck it with her bare hands. As the metal frame and bolts fell to the floor, they rattled loudly.

In an attempt to restrain her opponent, Tilarna gave a large swing of her Krége.

Drawing an arc in the air, her slash passed right through the enemy, allowing the vampire to close in on her position.

If she let her close the distance, she was done for. Taking a step back, Tilarna aimed at the monster’s face ⸺ still in the form of a vague afterimage, unclear to the sight ⸺ and thrust her Dynange towards her.

It made contact. The shortsword pierced the center of her opponent’s face.

No⸺.

Reverting to her original form, the vampire had taken the full brunt of the shortsword’s thrust. Her lips twisted into a smile, leaking out a sigh as she blasted Tilarna’s fingertips with cold air. Tilarna tried her best to retrieve her shortsword, but to no avail. It was almost as if it was held in place by a vise of some kind.

（Impossible……）

Just like that, the vampire lightly shook her head to the sides, breaking Tilarna’s posture by slamming her onto the wall opposite with all the strength she could muster.

The shortsword fell from her hands. She had received a great shock to her back, rendering her unable to breathe.

The vampire swung her arm. Tilarna blocked the attack using her left hand.

So powerful was the strike that Tilarna thought her arm would be torn to pieces. Her small body crashed into a bunch of filing cabinets, sliding over five feet to the ground. If it were not for her armor, she would most likely have suffered a mortal injury.

The creature did not follow up on her attacks right away. Leisurely crouching down, she proceeded to fling the shortsword away, much like one would a toothpick or a straw. The shortsword flew a hundred-eighty degrees before making a small dent on the floor.

「Damn you……」

Unparalleled strength. Exceptional reaction speed. And possessing a near-immortal body. Even that would be formidable enough, yet she could still cast illusions and the like. There was no hope of winning.

As she thought about what should be done next, Matoba burst into the morgue. No pistol. Unarmed. All he had on him was a red bottle.

「Tilarna!?」

The instant he shouted, the vampire made her move. She aimed to kill Matoba first. Using the same illusion, she rushed headlong towards Matoba.

「Get away, Kei!」

Matoba held his ground. Bewildered at her appearance, and straining his eyes to see, he took out the red bottle ⸺ a fire extinguisher ⸺ from under his armpit, spraying it at the vampire. White extinguishing agent spouted out of the nozzle, fiercely drenching the enemy.

「!」

The woman choked, gasped, and coughed. She had been suddenly sprayed with a copious amount of an unknown chemical. Covering her face as she squatted down, she tried to escape the expanding mist of extinguishing agent.

It was now or never.

Tilarna leaped without hesitation, brandishing the Krége, and hurled it at the vampire. Immediately, the woman’s scream echoed throughout the morgue. Her left arm had been severed, flying in the air before landing on the ground.

I was aiming for her neck. As she clicked her tongue in exasperation, the woman used her remaining hand to put Tilarna in a chokehold.

「Gah……!?」

Even wounded, the vampire had overwhelming grip strength. The part of her armor protecting her collar gave off an unnatural sound as it bent under the pressure. Tilarna could not breathe. All four of her limbs were numb. Starved for blood, the woman’s features lit up as she peered into her face.

A bullet penetrated the side of the vampire’s face. Another hit her neck. Her shoulder. Her arm. Her chest.

Matoba had fired his weapon.

Groaning in anguish, she left Tilarna on the floor to attack Matoba instead. Fresh blood gushed out from the slit on her left arm, leaving the walls and floor covered in a grotesque pattern. Matoba instantly flung the fire extinguisher in the air towards her, stretching his body forward to continue his assault. As several more bullets pierced her, the vampire began to writhe in pain, turning around in the process.

「Fuck!」

Beyond the white smoke, Matoba’s yell could be heard. He shot once again. As the doors to the morgue were flung open with full force, the violent footsteps of the vampire began to get further and further away.

And that was that.

The morgue had returned to its original quiet and lonely atmosphere. The sound of metal resounded as Matoba changed his magazine. As the extinguishing agent was sucked into the ventilation fan, the surroundings began to clear up. Crawling on the ground, the injured Tilarna glanced at the room’s entrance. Holding his automatic pistol, Matoba was examining the situation outside.

「You alive?」

Matoba said.

「Kei……?」

「She ran away. The hell was up with that monster?」

Laying her motionless left arm on the floor, Tilarna sluggishly got up.

「She is a vampire thought extinct in the Semanian world.」

「A vampire? Hmm……」

Shrugging his shoulders, Matoba snorted.

「And here I thought she was just another pervert lying around.」

「Rakebye.」

The vampire’s severed left arm made a sound as it dried up on the floor. Having cut off another arm in the past two days, perhaps this was common for a Semanian knight, or so she thought.

Even without hearing all of what Tilarna had to say, Matoba had a clear understanding of the situation at hand.

Basically⸺.

The mummy in the coffin had come back from the dead, massacring both the lab assistant and the security guard, as well as attempting to do the same to Cecil. She had also engaged in battle with Tilarna inside the morgue, eventually escaping outside. That was about it.

「Even so⸺」

As the forensics team came running straight to the crime scene, crowding around the entrance to the morgue, Matoba lit a cig with his Zippo lighter, saying.

「⸺there’s something wrong about all this. How in the hell did that dried-up body move? I ain’t high, am I? That was a mummy, no matter how you saw it. Her arms and legs were sticks, and her face looked like one of those umeboshi plums.」

「There is an exception to everything.」

Exhausted, Tilarna said. She had removed her armor, applying ice packs to her exposed arm and shoulder. Fighting against such a monster, it was a miracle that she had only been left with bruises.

「What exception? It isn’t a packet of cup noodles, y’know. I can’t come up with a logical explanation as to why she was butt naked the whole time. Or what, is it normal for aliens to come back to life after they die?」

「I said it, did I not? That is not your ordinary Semanian. ‘Tis a Ladé Neven.」

「And that something-Neven is a vampire?」

「In more literal terms, it stands for ‘a creature that walks in the black of night.’ While they appear no different from humans, they are equipped with remarkable physical strength and regenerative capabilities. To retrieve the rahtena necessary for their survival, they make it a habit of attacking people whenever they see fit, sucking their blood in the process. Whenever their prey ran out, the rahtena in their bodies would dry up, leaving them in a vegetative slumber. For several years, or even decades.」

「Which means they aren’t exactly dead, are they?」

「Physically speaking, they are virtually deceased. If I were to run out of rahtena myself, I believe I would die as well. Historical records of the Ladé Neven have been few and far in between. To the extent that I have only heard of them through hearsay and legends. Whatever the case may be, we would have been able to realize that mummy’s true identity had we taken the time to contemplate its origins…… We let those two die.」

Tilarna’s voice was filled with dejection. Under the lights of the patrol car, the pale nape of the blonde cast an impressive shadow on the wall. The clothes underneath her armor consisted of a tank top that revealed the center of her chest, laying bare the skin between her shoulders and back.

「Don’t worry about it. You still ended up saving Cecil.」

Cecil was currently in a nearby hospital. Despite having only sustained scratches, she doubtless was in a state of shock. Leaving aside the disagreeable nature of her attacker, she had witnessed her colleagues being killed in front of her. No matter how much she worked with corpses, there was absolutely no way she could have stayed calm.

In the first place, Matoba was the one who had mistaken the vampire for an ordinary corpse, brought it to the morgue, and exposed those inside to considerable danger. The responsibility lay on him. But blaming himself for that would not make things better. In his position, anyone would have done the same thing.

「Anyways, the problem now is that runaway vampire.」

「Right……」

An emergency response had already been sent out by the police.

Details regarding the vampire’s physical characteristics, strength, severed left arm, and the danger it posed. Patrolling officers were notified not to engage the creature alone. Even if contact was made with the vampire, they were strictly ordered to stand back and pursue it peacefully.

Furthermore, the police had secured a perimeter of radius four kilometers around the morgue, telling the surrounding residents to stay inside their homes and properly lock their doors. The department’s SWAT team was also on standby, prepared to deploy at a moment’s notice the instant the vampire was sighted.

「Still, it will not be possible for you Dorini to capture that vampire.」

「Wonder ‘bout that. My shotgun and your sword seemed to work just fine. SWAT should be able to do something about it.」

Compared to their assault rifles and automatic shotguns, Matoba’s pistol would not even come close in terms of firepower. Besides that, they were drilled on the fundamentals of group tactics, having undergone harsh training to get to their positions.

「They’re well-trained and great shots to boot. I’d bet they’d be a lot more dependable than a useless detective like me.」

「That is not the problem.」

Tilarna replied irritatedly.

「Equipment, training, tactics ⸺ they are hardly important. What is necessary is battle experience and sense. For instance, why did you bring that fire extinguisher to the morgue earlier?」

「Hmm? That was……」

Having been asked a strange question, Matoba furrowed his eyebrows.

The reason he was late in catching up with Tilarna was the fact that he had come across Cecil along the way. 「There’s a monster! Tilarna’s in danger!」, she had told him. She kept prattling on about Tilarna, losing her composure to such an extent. If that’s the case, I’m gonna be up against a tough one down there. So thought Matoba. The gun in his pocket would not be enough. Spotting the extinguisher stuck to the wall on the way down, he had decided to bring it along ‘just in case’.

In the end, it proved a great help in the fight.

「Dunno. Just thought it’d be better that way.」

「That is sense. You might be an unpleasant man but among the bolice warriors of this city, your skills in the field are unparalleled. Science is not important. Instincts are.」

Tilarna turned back with a serious expression, looking straight into Matoba’s eyes.

Though she sported a baby-face, she would sometimes say things beyond her years. Perhaps she had learned much from her master, or maybe this was her experience talking. He did not know.

「You complimenting me here?」

「Fool. I am simply concerned for the safety of the other bolice warriors.」

「Got it.」