MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin



[Outskirt of Los Angeles — Deserted Canyons]

The next day, as the sun rose in the high skies and bathed the world in its blazing light. People in some sort of uniform, belonging to a certain organization, could be seen mingling around in the debris of what used to be a mansion. Some of them were taking pictures of what was left of the corpses before they were put in bags in order to be further studied by the forensics department.

"Ugh… I must say, this is really a sight to give you the chills for days."

"First time? Trust me, stay here long enough and you will only yawn while seeing things of this caliber. You'll become desensitized to everything soon enough."

Two middle-aged men were having a bleak chat as they worked their way on taking out a completely blackened and burned hand without worsening the damage done to the severed limb and commented idly.

"Still. I don't know. Should we say good riddance? I heard the dude who stayed in this place was some kind of gangster or something."

"Well…"

The second man was not allowed to finish his words as someone interrupted their chatter from behind, "Good riddance? You do realize those people were killed in cold blood and most likely tortured heavily, right? Whoever did this is a bloody psycho. An irredeemable lunatic. Not someone to be applauded like you ignorant fellows is doing right now…"

The two men immediately straightened their backs and stood on their feet as they saluted the woman who was wearing a pair of long black pants, a suit, as well as black glasses to block the light of the sun and the sight of her eyes.

"Detective Smith…"

The young man shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. I mean this man was living pretty well using dirty money, right? We can say it's some kind of retribution that he received. He paid for his Karma, so to speak."

Smith shook her head at their words, "We are the police, not some crime-fighting vigilantes. We follow law and order. No one should be above that."

"Well… Those dead guys sure seemed to be above that law and order that we upheld, ma'am. At least when they were alive, that is."

"Stop bothering the guys who are supposed to make our job easier, Smith, and come here."

pαndα---noνɐ1,сoМ Smith could only shake her head as she walked carefully to reach the place where her mentor beckoned her to come.

There, she could see a man— a jaded, tired middleman who seemed to simply be tired of life no matter what angle she looked at him from. He was her mentor— Detective Kirishima.

This time he was not smoking as that could just compromise the evidence that was to be collected from this place of horrors. Looking at her mentor, she could see that he just wanted to be done with all of this and just get away from this mess without having anything more to do with it.

'I swear I will never become like him.'

She recognized and respected Kirishima's skills. In the short time the man had been mentoring her, she had learned so much that she would never be able to believe that she would grow so much the first time she had fallen under his lead. She didn't understand how someone so skilled was only a detective and not higher ranked in the system.

But for all his qualities, his one flaw was how jaded he was now. She could see that he was someone who was once as passionate as her but now all his passion had burned out, leaving someone who only worked and did the strict minimum to get his pay and be done with his task.

The police were supposed to be the keeper of justice. They were supposed to enjoy their job and enjoy helping and protecting people while keeping law and order in the area they were delegated to protect.

What she was seeing now was a massacre beyond reason. Even the worst criminal had the right to receive a fair judgment before being sent to prison in order to be rehabilitated into an upstanding member of society. Not mercilessly slaughtered and then buried under the dust and debris of an exploded mansion like this.

"So, what do you make of the situation"

The moment she reached him, Kirishima did not bother with making small talk and asked her opinion about the matter. She knew he was in his mentor role and as such she took her notepad and began giving the elements she had noticed from her recon.

"This seems like a gang war. From the little we gathered, many places were attacked simultaneously and the cause of death found on the bodies ranged from knife wounds to bullets and even blunt force."

Kirishuma nodded to himself, wishing that he could smoke right now. He could barely feel it. This situation was not something people like them should be dealing with.

It was something way above their pay grade or the pay grade of anyone in the LAPD.

He looked at his young and brash protegee, wondering if he should start the induction already. He was still hesitating. In all branches of the Police, it was necessary to have people like him.

Men and women were not really in the supernatural world but were able to perceive it enough to not be affected by the mind alteration effect. Those people were invaluable in the police force and played the role of liaison with the Paranormal department.

He was getting old and Smith had the passion he now lacked and this was why he was hesitating to indict her into the role.

'How long this passion will last when she faces the true horror of this world…'

He sighed, wishing he could just smoke his worries away. Becoming a cop was not a job that could be sustained on passion alone. There will come a moment when you realize that 'Justice' was just a pretty word and that this world was filled with so much injustice that the existence of the word was nothing but a mockery of the highest order.

The situation would just get even worse if she was introduced to the supernatural world.

That was a place of true madness and slaughter. A place where one would be tested beyond the limit of reason alone.

As a cop filled with passion, one would realize that all the passion in the world was useless in front of those beings who possessed the power of the Supernaturals. Even more powerless than what they felt when facing rich entitled people who could buy their way out of prison easily.

Life was unfair and the bad guys generally won. Because they were usually the ones in control of the world.

This was the reality that all cops, supernatural or not, needed to face and adapt to as fast as possible in their lives. Lest it destroys them from the inside.

'Is she ready?'

He looked at the woman who looked more like a straight-A student than a cop and sighed once again.

'Not yet, it seems…'

He has been sighing quite a bit lately and there was nothing he could really do about it, it would seem. He needed to introduce her to the supernatural side of the world one day, he was sure of that. But… He needed to wait for her to be ready… He just needed to wait…

"Let's go. There is not much we can learn from loitering around this place."

He had noticed the trace of cleaning up that could only be done by professionals from the supernatural side.

This whole affair would soon be classified and forgotten in the depths of the files. Like many many others before it.

Such was the fate of most of the crimes in this ill rotten world.

———

Meanwhile, while the police were working on his case, the cause of all the carnage was walking on the streets with a casual air around him.

He would sometimes look at his phone and change roads accordingly.

Finally, after reaching the vicinity of a shop, he stopped and looked up at the sign hanging on the storefront.

"Cat's eye?"

He shrugged at the name of the shop. It wasn't any weirder than "Wild Hunt" now, was it? And he worked there, so yeah, he really didn't have any right to be weirded out by the name. He casually walked and entered the store.

The cafe was mostly deserted, it seemed. It had a certain atmosphere that seemed to put his mind at ease and let him breathe better.

On the side, he could see the barista, an old gentleman with a well-kept silver gray beard and long gray hair kept in a ponytail and wearing what looked like to be a butler attire gently wiping the glasses, cleaning them using the cloth in his hand.

He gave a nod to the man and focused on the very obvious green-haired woman waving at him from a corner.

Medusa or rather Piaget Freud.

It was time to meet the mysterious woman once more.

———

(AN: *30/04/23: Guys, next month I am entering classical in win-win, this means I need 10K to unlock to obtain a banner and be promoted on the front page. I would really appreciate it if you guys could help me reach that goal. This is why, for next month only, as it is my first month of Classical, I will make all the Tiers at 99%. I would really appreciate it if all of you guys subscribed once again next to my story and helped me reach that number. Perhaps even promoting my book to your friends if you think I am good enough. Really thanks for your support during this month. Thanks to your support, I reached more than 5K before leaving newbie Win-Win, which was really helpful.