Suddenly, a girl's shout came from around the corner ahead of them. Shinichi thought the voice sounded familiar, so he hurried over and peeked around the bend.
He caught Shimada Hideo grabbing Kana Kimishima by the wrist, dragging her off somewhere.
"Let go! Let me go!"
Kana kept struggling, but she couldn't break free no matter how hard she tried.
Kana was cute as hell, with fluffy pink earmuffs on her head. She had this weird ability to sense parasites. That was how she'd met Shinichi before. She mistook the feeling for sensing the red string of fate, so she decided Shinichi was her destined guy.
That's why she'd been waiting at the school gate for him after class.
Except she got the wrong person and latched onto Shimada Hideo instead. Shimada noticed something was off about her and was trying to pull her to a quiet spot to question her properly when Shinichi showed up.
"Almost forgot about you," Ivan muttered, eyes lighting up.
Kana's ability reminded him of Migi's "same-kind detection" talent. Too bad that one had a fatal flaw, so he'd scrapped it. From what he remembered, Kana's version had none of those problems.
"What the hell are you doing? Let her go," Shinichi snapped.
The second Shinichi appeared, Shimada released her wrist. Kana yanked herself free and ran straight to Shinichi.
Shimada turned to face him. "It's nothing. I just wanted to ask her a few questions. She's got ...sharp senses."
His casual attitude pissed Shinichi off. If Shimada really wanted to blend into human society, he shouldn't be dragging girls away by force. "If you ever hurt anyone close to me, I'll kill you first."
Shimada just smirked. "How scary." Then he turned and walked away.
"I already told you I don't want to fight you guys head-on," he called back as he left.
"Guy's definitely not staying quiet for long," Ivan said, shaking his head.
Then came the awkward part.
Right as Kana started talking to Shinichi, Satomi Murano happened to walk by.
When Satomi appeared, Kana deliberately raised her voice. "Shinichi, thank you so much for today. Can you walk me to the station later? I'm scared that guy might come after me again. His eyes were so creepy."
She even wrapped her hand around Shinichi's arm while saying it.
Of course Satomi saw the whole thing.
The instant love-triangle drama made Ivan grin like a smug asshole, clearly enjoying the show.
Satomi froze on the spot for a few seconds when she saw how close the two of them were. In the end she didn't say a word. She just lowered her head and walked faster, but Ivan still caught the disappointment in her eyes and the tears starting to form.
Watching her hurry away, Ivan nudged Shinichi. "Oi, you still have time to go explain. I don't wanna see a girl crying because of you."
Shinichi glanced at Kana beside him, then made his choice without hesitation. "Then I'll leave her to you. Please take her to the station."
He took off running after Satomi.
"Disappointed?" Ivan asked, standing next to Kana. "He didn't pick you."
Kana dropped the fake smile and stared at the ground, staying quiet.
"Come on, I'll walk you to the station," Ivan said.
He checked the fusion progress on his panel. 92%. A shame, really. Would've been perfect if he'd met Kana a few days later. Now he couldn't analyze her even if he wanted to.
The two of them walked along the side of the road in awkward silence until Ivan finally broke it.
"You can sense Shinichi's presence, can't you? Is that why you like him?"
"How do you know that?!" Kana whipped her head toward him, shocked.
Ivan ignored her question and kept talking. "Your ability is pretty special. Normally humans shouldn't have anything like it. But when a population gets big enough, freaks like you always pop up."
"Today you probably felt that same weird sensation from that guy too, right? That means your ability doesn't just lock onto Shinichi. And this perception of yours is dangerous. Pretty much everyone you can sense is the same kind of threat as the one earlier."
Kana's gut told her Ivan was right about everything.
But she still tried to argue. "Yeah, I got the wrong person, but Shinichi showed up right away, didn't he? And if everyone I sense is dangerous, does that mean Shinichi is dangerous too?"
Alright. Ivan got it now. This girl was a full of love-on: brain-off case.
Talking to someone like her was exhausting as fuck.
"Whatever. I've said what I needed to say. Here's my number. Call me if anything happens." Ivan rattled off his phone number. He didn't want her getting killed before he could get his hands on her ability.
All the way to the station, Kana kept giving him curious looks. "Why do you know so much? Did Shinichi tell you?"
Ivan watched her walk into the station and still didn't answer. It wasn't that he was trying to act mysterious. He just didn't know how to explain without launching into a ten-minute lecture. Waste of time.
He'd rather spend that time sitting in a good restaurant.
...
Meanwhile, late at night in Tachikawa Yuko's room, a sketch stood on an easel. The drawing was of Shimada Hideo.
Staring at the portrait, Yuko kept replaying what Ivan had said earlier that day.
"Is Hideo really that kind of guy? Ivan probably wouldn't lie… but still…"
She picked up an eraser and started rubbing out half of Shimada's face. Right before she wiped it completely, her hand stopped.
"I should ask him directly."
She was still debating whether to go find Shimada Hideo and ask him directly when, at that exact moment, Shimada had already swapped his face for a handsome celebrity one and was prowling the streets, hunting for tonight's meal.
...
It didn't take him long to pick a target.
A healthy-looking woman.
"Nice developed female. Skin has good luster too."
Once he chose her, he walked right up and started chatting her up. The girl had no idea that her next decision was about to sign her own death warrant.
When they reached a quiet, out-of-the-way spot, she opened her mouth to say something. A tentacle shot out and punched straight through her body, lifting her into the air.
Thick red blood ran down her fingertips and splattered onto the ground, blooming into ugly flowers of death.
____
Alright, he'll be back in The Boys' world after 10 chapters! Ah, no need to panic. I'll start mass releases from today, with a 4-3-3 combo a day, so we'll reach The Boys the day after tomorrow.