The parasite snapped his head back and out came a chunk of flesh. The officer was standing still from the pain, but his body pulsed as blood spewed from his neck. He fell to the ground when it let go.
The other officer snapped out of shock and pulled out a baton and took a swing. The parasite's face was smacked to the side. He continued to hit him. The surrounding officers also chopped at his back with batons. The killer's face returned to center and was no longer knocked back by the hits.
The officer panicked and didn't care if the baton would hit his head and kill him. He swung overhead with full force. The killer batted his strike away with two arms to his side and grabbed his head while his baton was knocked back.
It pulled his face in and started chewing it. When its teeth pulled back, his face skin stretched off along with it. The trio pulled out their guns in horror.
"Wait! Don't!" Hiromichi called out.
The officers didn't hear anything as they unloaded. Bullets flew everywhere. Some hitting chairs, tables, computers, and the wall. An officer's head jerked back and hit the floor. There was a bullet hole in between his eyes where blood poured out. The other officers had ducked behind the tables in time.
The killer staggered back with holes in his arms, legs and torso. Yet he stood, undulating as he bled. The officers had run out of bullets as they used a 5-round double-action revolver and shot out of panic. Combine that with firing unreservedly, the recoil threw their aim off and they only hit by sheer luck and close distances.
He gave a blood curdling scream and charged at the trio with his arms raised. The surrounding officers didn't shoot as they feared making the same mistake as earlier.
Bang!
The killer tumbled perpendicular to the direction he was running in as his head popped. He wasn't moving anymore. Everyone looked to who had daringly fired his gun. Rookie Officer Arata held his gun in the air. Smoke clearly rising upwards from the muzzle.
"Secure that man and tend to the wounded! Call the ambulance now!" Sergeant Mitsunobu shouted from beside Arata.
Everyone moved into action. The trio slowly approached the killer with guns pointed after having reloaded. They kicked him to make sure he was dead. They inspected a bullet hole on his temple. They were surprised by the accuracy of the shot. Officer Arata had saved their lives and their respect for him grew.
Mitsunobu was also surprised by that shot. He had seen Arata hit bullseye at moving targets when he was watching him but to put that into live practice and make a head shot was incredible. He was given a recommendation by an old friend in the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) who was an ex-commander of the special forces group. Mitsunobu didn't understand why Arata had switched careers despite his skill level.
Arata holstered his gun. The sergeant looked at the officers who tended to the bodies. After feeling for a neck pulse, an officer shook his head to the sergeant.
"Sergeant! An attack? What's going on here?" Chief inspector Katsunori demanded an answer.
"I'm not too sure myself. I've just arrived when that man was attacking those three."
"Give me a status report."
"Three casualties. No one else is wounded." Replied Mitsunobu.
"The culprit?"
"Chief, he's dead." Hibine called across the room.
"You three. What's going on here?" The chief called them over.
"He was brought in by Kazuyuki and Iwao…" Hibine's voice trailed off.
"He refused to move so Iwao only raised his voice. Then… he lashed out." Denji took over.
Katsunori was frustrated by the fact that three people died in a room full of cops.
"What was he brought in for? Who is he?"
Everyone looked around. No one spoke. Both officers who brought him in were dead, so no one knew who he was.
"Why didn't you guys use your batons? Why did you guys shoot him!"
"We did. It didn't do anything."
"What do you MEAN it did nothing? All of you could have just tackled him."
"He was freakishly strong! He must have been on steroids."
Katsunori wasn't convinced. Even if one were on steroids, the man was clearly slim. There's no way he would have overpowered the whole precinct.
"I saw it. He had bullet wounds all over, but he was still standing. He ran for those three, so I shot him in the head." Arata butted in.
"You couldn't have shot him in the leg?"
"He was already shot in the leg, twice. Not to mention everywhere else."
Katsunori was about to explode.
"Chief, a few of their colleagues died in front of them, it must have been very difficult for them." Mitsunobu said trying to calm Katsunori.
"I want this man ID'd and find out what drugs he was on." The chief ordered.
"It could have been bath salts…"
Everyone turned to look at Hiromichi who stood behind the circle.
"Bath salts? Since when that made people bulletproof?" Katsunori retorted.
"Ple-please take a look at this Chief." Hiromichi said nervously as their respective positions were too far apart.
"This happened in Miami. The man was walking around a festival naked and got hit by a taxi. He jumped on top of the taxi and beat the people inside. It took 15 officers on the scene to subdue him. As he was being tasered, he yelled at them to shoot him. They took him to a hospital afterwards." Hiromichi paraphrased what he read.
People on bath salts were usually physically or chemically restrained for six to eight hours. Hiromichi also read out another similar case in which the intoxicated man ripped off his shirt because one of the symptoms of this drug were high body temperatures.
The man attacked a homeless man and gnawed at his face. The officer repeatedly shouted to get off him. The man growled back and kept eating his face. It took four shots to kill him but by then three quarters of the victim's face was ripped off. There was blood everywhere and only the victim's goatee was left behind.