8 April 2012
Paranormal agent James Takata of the Talamasca followed his subject undetected, smelling his lupine blood amidst the hundred other scents that flooded the streets of Soho in the rain. The large, coarsely-featured object of his pursuit carried a Chinese menu in his hand, one which Takata's keen eyes discerned bore the name of an establishment called, "Lee Ho Fooks."
Takata followed the hulking man into the restaurant of that name and took a table near him, listening as the brute ordered soup and a plate of beef chow mein. Approaching the man's table as he noisily slurped his soup, Takata threw a newspaper before him folded to reveal a headline.
"A little old lady was mutilated late last night," Takata said. "Would you happen to know anything about that?," he asked.
"I don't know you," replied the man. "I don't LIKE you!," he added, raising his head from the soup bowl to reveal a mouth full of oversized sharp teeth. Rising from the table and now appearing far other than human, the beast swiped at Takata's throat with two enormous clawed hands.
Takata was already moving with preternatural speed, however, executing a four-foot vertical leap at the same time that he drew his katana. The razor-sharp blade slashed across the throat of his assailant as Takata landed nimbly upon his feet. The werewolf's eyes widened briefly as if he was confused before his head toppled from his neck, landing with a bloody "thunk" upon the plate of chow mein.
"Hardly an appetizing sight," muttered Takata as other restaurant patrons bolted from their tables and fled the site in horror. Takata wiped the blade of his katana upon a linen napkin and returned it to its scabbard, pausing then to pick up a filled tea cup from the table of the recently deceased werewolf. He drank deeply of the rich warm brew, savoring its exquisite taste upon his palate. Takata then returned the drained cup to the table and moved out of the establishment, blending quietly into the dark wet night.
As his vulpine tail swished elegantly from side to side as he walked, Takata mused upon the motto of the Talamasca: "We watch, and we are always there..."
Counterweight • Opuss № I