Meanwhile, the drunken man was finally released. Still shaken, he stumbled backward while staring at them.
"Y-You people…" he muttered weakly. "You're not cops… are you?"
Lisa glanced at him from the corner of her eye. Calm. Unbothered. Then a faint crooked smile appeared on her face.
"Close enough."
"What do you mean? Do we seriously look like police officers to you, sir?" the man with the futuristic mechanical gloves replied.
"Stop screwing around! Who the hell are you people?! And what the hell was that thing?!"
"It's okay, don't worry. You don't need to remember anything either," Nimi said. "Panji, restrain him."
"Roger."
*Grab!
Just as the drunken man finally relaxed, he was suddenly apprehended for the second time.
This time, they restrained him much more tightly.
"What?! Let me go!!"
Nimi casually typed something into a strange camera-like device before approaching him with a faint smile.
"Hm… Let's see. You were returning home from a night of drinking. On the way back, you got too drunk and passed out on the street."
The man blinked repeatedly, struggling to process her words.
"When you woke up, you couldn't remember anything and felt confused. Alright, that should be enough for you, sir."
"What are you even talking about?! What are you doing?!"
"Relax," Nimi said with a playful smirk. "You won't even remember this nightmare."
"W-What do you mean?! Stay away from me!"
The commotion seemed to irritate Lisa.
She adjusted her weapon, removed her hat, and casually walked toward him.
Then, without warning-
*SLAP!
"Wh-Why did you slap me?!"
"You." Lisa grabbed his collar tightly. "Drunk idiot. Panicking like crazy just because you saw a ghost. Be grateful you didn't get possessed."
"…Huh?"
Finally, she released him.
"You'd be better off worrying about work tomorrow instead of obsessing over what happened tonight."
The man stared at her blankly.
For some reason, getting scolded by her felt strangely similar to being lectured by an exhausted parent.
"Okay, sir. Now look at the camera and don't forget to smile."
As Nimi raised the strange camera, the man noticed something beneath the streetlights.
A logo stitched onto their uniforms.
His eyes widened. It was the same logo printed on the wine bottle he had been drinking earlier.
"Wait… why do you guys have-"
*FLASH!
A burst of white light swallowed everything.
* * *
Late into the night, the mysterious squad tasked with handling supernatural entities remained at the scene.
Five more people arrived wearing scrub suits and gas masks, moving through the alley as they cleaned up the aftermath. They looked less like official responders and more like a rogue medical team operating outside the law.
"Mission accomplished. Let's head back to base," Lisa said, placing her hat back on.
With the area secured, the team finally relaxed.
"Nimi, can you write my report for today? I feel like collapsing the moment we get back."
Panji. He still wore the same suspicious mechanical gloves from earlier.
Nimi immediately frowned.
"No way. Why should I write someone else's report?"
"Well, I was just asking in case you were free."
"Even if I were free, I still wouldn't write your report, Mr. Panji."
"Seriously, don't call me 'sir.' I'm only a few years older than you!" he replied. "Even our team leader is the oldest here, yet you still call her 'miss.'"
That single sentence instantly made the atmosphere heavier.
Nimi slowly turned toward Lisa.
Silence.
The dangerous kind.
But fortunately, Lisa let out a tired groan and rubbed her face with one hand.
"…Forget it."
Nimi quietly sighed in relief before looking back at Panji.
"Panji, let me tell you something. Discussing a woman's age is unethical."
"Okay-okay, sorry."
"Jeez~ anyway, where's Udin?"
There was still one member left unaccounted for: Udin.
Among the four of them, he was the one responsible for carrying the extractor device shaped like a spray can.
After looking around, they finally found him sitting against a wall, completely focused on a game running on his phone.
"Udin! What are you doing? Let's go home already," Nimi called out.
"Hold on. The game's daily reset is about to happen. I need to log in now so I don't miss it."
"Ugh… haven't you been online all day?"
"Nope. Besides, we haven't had a break since morning," Udin replied casually.
Lisa watched their exchange with a faint smile before finally speaking up.
"Alright. Let's head back to base so you guys can finally rest."
"Roger that!"
The team immediately began packing up and cleaning the area one last time, making sure no evidence remained behind.
Oddly enough, they didn't seem concerned about the roadside surveillance camera nearby. Instead, the four of them casually waved at it. Lisa even made a small hand signal toward the camera, indicating they were leaving the scene.
But just as they were about to walk away, Nimi's detector blinked.
The atmosphere changed instantly. All four of them froze and immediately shifted into combat-ready stances.
"Leader!" Panji exclaimed.
"I know…"
Something was watching them from within the fog.
Roughly twenty meters away, a figure stood casually atop an electrical cable without losing balance.
Black mist coiled around its body. A barong mask concealed its face. As the fog shifted direction, the figure slowly became clearer.
Lisa narrowed her eyes.
"Hm. So you're watching us again."
"Leader, what should we do?" Panji asked cautiously.
"Leave him alone. According to HQ, he's not dangerous."
*Whoosh—
The dark aura surrounding the figure thickened. Then it swallowed him whole. In an instant, he vanished into the night.
Nimi's detector stopped blinking. Only then did the team lower their guard again.
"Ugh. That freak again," Udin muttered while glaring at the now-empty cable.
Lisa clicked her tongue.
"They're poison to this world. People with abilities beyond reason. The ones who call themselves espers."
Panji still looked uneasy.
"It's spying on us again. And HQ still lets them roam free?"
"We're not allowed to interfere," she replied coldly. "Orders are orders. No matter how irritating they are, we can't touch them."
The conversation faded after that.
Only Nimi remained silent.
To be honest, the word esper frightened her far more than any ghost ever could.
If given a choice, she would rather face the most horrifying astral entity imaginable than encounter one of those people again.
"Okay everyone, let's forget about it and go back to base!" Lisa shouted.
All of their movements were being closely monitored through the city's CCTV network.
Behind a wall of surveillance monitors, a young man sat casually in his chair while observing the entire operation unfold.
His relaxed expression barely changed as he watched the four Hunters alongside the strange medical personnel cleaning up the scene.
"Once again, the guy with the barong mask showed up…" he muttered to himself.
A faint grin appeared on his face.
"Interesting."
His fingers moved across the keyboard with practiced ease.
On several monitors, the footage showing the actual incident suddenly disappeared.
In its place appeared completely ordinary street recordings, as if nothing unusual had happened there at all. Even the chaos from earlier had been seamlessly erased from the CCTV feed.
* * *
The birds slowly began chirping to one another as dawn approached. The sky was still dark, though faint traces of morning had already started creeping into the city.
Julius woke up in a slightly ruined mood. The reason was simple: He had woken up twenty minutes before his alarm.
Even if it technically meant waking up early, being forced awake before the exact time he had planned still felt deeply irritating to him.
"This again…"
Honestly, he was still sleepy.
"Ah, whatever. Might as well get up."
Hearing the birds outside reminded him of his usual morning routine. Checking social media. Reading the news. Looking through whatever nonsense people were currently obsessing over online.
Then,
*Knock! Knock!
A loud pounding suddenly came from the front door.
Julius frowned immediately. The shop wasn't even open yet and no normal customer would come this early in the morning.
"That was loud."
His expression sharpened.
Without hesitation, he grabbed a kitchen knife nearby and slowly approached the entrance. Pajamas or not, he was prepared in case something dangerous was waiting outside.
*KNOCK!
"Just a minute."
Carefully, he opened the door. Someone stood there.
The man looked just as exhausted and disoriented.
For a few seconds, both of them simply stared at each other in complete confusion, their half-asleep brains struggling to process the situation.
"Um… excuse me, who are you?" Julius finally asked.
"Can I borrow a blanket?"
"Huh?"
"I… got drunk last night and…" The stranger rubbed his face tiredly. "I don't remember much after that. Next thing I knew, I woke up sleeping in front of this place."
Julius blinked slowly.
At this point, he genuinely couldn't tell whether he was still dreaming or not.
What he didn't know yet…
was that this wouldn't be the last strange guest to appear at his door.
* * * *