The Phantom Groom System

Chapter 11: A Dark Night, and a Monster

Danny waited well into the night. The two cops never came home.

He slipped inside anyway, checked the room, checked the courtyard. Nothing worth taking.

Figured guys like that either carried their cash on them or stashed it somewhere smarter than their own house.

Damn it. Rotten luck.

The cold night wind cut through, and Danny tightened his collar, muttering a curse.

Guess those two were out carousing somewhere and wouldn't be back tonight. If he couldn't settle this with them now, tomorrow would only get messier.

Not like he could go door to door checking every brothel and tavern in the South Side for two beat cops.

Better to head back.

He abandoned his post and started walking.

The streets along the way were unnervingly quiet.

Danny frowned and stopped, listening.

The South Side wasn't Blackwood Alley it had actual night watchmen making rounds, ringing bells to mark the hour. With his current senses, he should've been able to pick up the sound from anywhere in the district.

He'd heard nothing. Not a single bell since he'd left.

Something's wrong.

His ear twitched, and he spun toward a side alley.

Soft footsteps grew clearer, and a tall shape stepped out of the shadows.

The clouds broke overhead, moonlight spilling down.

The figure spotted him and froze mid-step, letting out a sharp gasp.

"Oh"

A soft, silky voice. Female.

Danny stayed calm, already taking in her features. Eighteen, maybe nineteen. Tall, slender not curvy like Gloria, but with a delicate prettiness Gloria didn't have.

"What... are you doing out here in the middle of the night?" she asked, voice low, feet already inching backward.

Fair question. What was she doing out here alone at this hour?

Danny said nothing, shook his head, and kept walking toward Blackwood Alley.

Watching him go, she hesitated glanced behind her then bit her lip and jogged to catch up.

"Hey wait!"

She fell into step beside him. "You're heading to Blackwood Alley? Mind if I tag along? I'm a little nervous walking alone."

Danny glanced sideways. "If you're scared, why'd you leave the house this late in the first place?"

She paused, then said quietly, "You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

Seeing his indifference, something sharp flickered behind her eyes before she answered. "There's a monster loose in the city. Every cop and officer in town is out west hunting it right now."

"I was visiting family on the West Side today and got caught in the middle of it. Figured it was safer to just walk home in the dark than stay put."

"Half of West Side cleared out tonight, same as me."

Danny stopped in his tracks. "A monster?"

The old memories were full of ghost stories and superstition, but this was the first time he'd heard anything about a real monster.

"Mm-hmm." She nodded, dead serious. "They're saying it's a fox spirit, strong as an External Force fighter. Been gutting people, eating what's inside. Terrifying stuff."

Danny studied her the words said terrifying, but her body wasn't shaking, her breathing was steady as still water. He let out a quiet sigh.

"Your family's in Blackwood Alley?"

"Yeah. I don't get out much, my family doesn't really let me..." She glanced around vaguely. "Oh I'm Vivian. Vivian Hart. And you?"

"Danny Reyes."

They walked on together, chatting idly. Gradually the houses thinned out, edging toward the quiet border between the South Side and Blackwood Alley.

Aren't you going to make your move already?

Danny glanced at her sideways.

In his equipment slots, the Iron Bone Method and the bone knife pulsed faintly his body primed and ready.

A woman wandering alone near Blackwood Alley at this hour was suspicious enough on its own. What was more suspicious was how completely at ease she seemed around a total stranger.

Sure, with a Charm stat of 69, most women probably fell for this body on sight. But the details didn't add up.

Danny wasn't exactly a jeweler, but he could tell the clothes and jewelry she wore weren't the kind an ordinary family could afford.

My family's in Blackwood Alley. I don't get out much.

Please.

In Blackwood Alley, even the strays had to fight for scraps, and women worked just as hard as the men. Nobody who didn't work survived long.

And more importantly this Vivian Hart had no footprint whatsoever in the old memories. The previous Danny had been enough of a womanizer to know every half-decent-looking girl in the whole alley by name.

There was no way he wouldn't have recognized her.

Danny's suspicion sharpened. That "monster loose in the city" story was probably true after all. That would explain why Rick and Lyle never made it home tonight.

But if the monster was supposedly out west...

Heh. Guessing it was standing right next to him.

Something almost like excitement stirred in him. Since equipping the Iron Bone Method, he hadn't found a single opponent worth the effort.

A monster, huh?

Wonder how many punches it could take.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, a flash of crimson light lit up beside him.

Vivian looked down at the beaded bracelet glowing on her left wrist, then slowly raised her eyes to Danny.

The soft, innocent expression was gone. What replaced it was cold, and lethal.

"Just as I thought. You're"

Before she could finish, her face went sheet-white with alarm, and she threw both hands up in front of her.

Bam.

A muffled impact Danny stood there, fist still extended from the punch he'd just thrown, faintly surprised.

For all her slight frame, Vivian had taken the hit and held her ground.

That kind of physical resilience...

Confirmed.

She lifted her head and looked at Danny, certainty settling over her features.

The handsome man in front of her was exactly the fox spirit her Demon Slayer division had been sent to hunt down tonight.

With a flick of her wrist, a slim, flexible blade slid free from her hip.

"Monster"

Before she could finish the line "Die, you monster!" Danny's fist was already crashing back into her, heavy and unrelenting.

What threw her off wasn't the punch.

It was the words Danny shouted back at the exact same moment.

"Die, you monster!"