Kazuya Kamado's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The construction company called at midnight. Something had broken through the lot surface from below. Kazuya drove across the city with his windows down, watching for smoke or fire that never appeared. When he arrived, the crew's floodlights lit up a hole in the pavement where the foundation trench should have been. A massive creature stood in the crater, fur matted with dirt and concrete dust. Its claws were each the size of a car, and it turned toward the lights with a low rumble that Kazuya felt in his chest. The foreman was already on his phone with someone, probably the police. Kazuya stepped past the safety tape and raised his hand. His palm flickered orange for half a second, then went dark. The creature sniffed the air, swung its head toward him, and settled back on its haunches. It didn't attack. It just sat there in the hole it had made, blocking the foundation that should have been poured tomorrow. The foreman ended his call and walked over, clipboard in hand. Construction was suspended until the site was cleared. No timeline on when that might be. Kazuya stood at the edge of the crater and watched the creature scratch at the exposed earth where the old community center's foundation still remained buried. It wasn't destroying anything. It was digging for something specific, something that had been underground for ten years.