A Certain Scientific Shadow Crafter

Chapter 15: Night Blue Starless Sky

«Guys, do you hear me? It's an emergency!»

«Kuroko! Where are you?! Why didn't you immediately share your position?» Mikoto asked nervous.

«Don't worry, Onee-sama. I haven't met Siren Head but... an injured and in a fugue state person. She couldn't manage to recover yet, so she couldn't tell me what happened but I suppose it's a new victim. I already called an ambulance. I'll make sure she gets safely brought to the hospital before keep going on the researches.» Kuroko reported then she hung up.

Meanwhile, Fran kept scouring his zone using the signals received by the shadows; he checked various alleys in few minutes but a particular one caught his attention. At the district's border, there was a narrow road where no shadows were going in or out since a long time; it was an uncrowded area, but it was worth a try.

From the outside of the road, everything seemed quiet but, as soon as Fran embarked on the path, he heard someone screaming in the distance.

«It's time! There may be someone under attack there!» Fran quickly ran to help the victim, but what he saw went beyond his imagination.

On the first side, a boy in agony and screaming on the ground, injured, and on the other side, in front of him, a Siren Head taller than the one he knew about from the video Saten showed them earlier, but there was more. Its body was made of metal, not wood, and its hands were actual sharp bolt cutters.

«T-this can't be possible... this is not the same... I need to be focused now, there's no time to worry!» Fran tried to put aside his doubts and fear and, using a long but thin shadow centipede, he pulled the injured boy away from the danger and brought him in a safer spot, as far as possible from the monster; he quickly turned his transmitter on and called the rest of the group. «Guys, I-» But he didn't even have the time to open his mouth, something slimy and elastic hit his pin and made it fall to the ground, breaking it; from the monster's speakers, it could be seen a frightening twisted teethed mouth from which a very long and drool covered tongue was coming out. After destroying the transmitter, the tongue went back for more and started strangling Fran, but he was strong enough to prevent himself from choking and fighting the tongue back. «Damn it... this was really an unexpected turn! If I had my reflexes on, I could have easily stopped the attack with a shadow... a mouth inside the speakers and a ranged attacking tongue... who could even imagine something like this?! Whatever... I'll crush you with my centipedes!» Fran ordered to his own shadow to become a centipede to bite and cut away the tongue of the monster, but the shadow insect got slammed away by a powerful slap from the creepy creature; Fran tried again several times but Siren Head always managed to parry the hits.

«Tsk... I have no time to waste... I have to save that bo-»

«AAAH! The monster! It's still here! Help me! I can't move my leg!» the injured guy yelled as he was slowly dragging himself away with his arms only.

«What?! He is okay now? He was under the effect of the Siren Head's laments, but not anymore... does this mean... is it changing its target?!» Fran couldn't realize this in time when he saw the monster's mouths wide opening towards his direction.

«You've never been anyone priority... you'll never be...» these were the first robotic words Fran heard in his mind; the boy started sweating and losing strength, resulting in having more difficulties in resisting to the tongue's strangling around his throat.

« Worthless. Meaningless. Superfluous.» Those three words became an haunting and painful refrain inside of Fran's head and his consciousness was turning more and more weaker as the volume kept rising.