The hotel was built in modern style, but the building was old and the white paint on the walls became gray with time. All the windows were covered with dark curtains from the inside, making it look like the building was staring at the street with a dozen square eyes.
Shin chewed on his lip uneasily and glanced around. 'Anyone following us, Tetsu?'
At the moment, she literally was the eyes at the back of his head, peeking out from his neck. 'There's a guy who just sits in the blue parked car and watches us. If we get five meters away from him, I will kill him, partner. He shouldn't have stared at us for so long.'
The car Tetsu mentioned must've belonged to the team who stalked the journalist.
'Not yet,' Shin said.
She huffed just like all the other times he told her that, but didn't protest.
Pretending that he didn't notice the observer, Shin went inside the hotel. He already knew the room he needed. The receptionist smiled at him weirdly, but didn't prevent Shin from going up.
Fourth floor, room 44.
Although Tetsu could unlock the door, Shin knocked on it first. When there was no answer, he knocked louder.
"Is there anyone inside?" he asked loudly. "I'm not an enemy!"
There was still no answer. Suspecting that the journalist had escaped from the cultists' observers, Shin commanded Tetsu to unlock the door.
On the other side was a small bedroom with a kitchenette on the side and a bathroom door on the other. There were no signs of a person's presence—even the bed was made.
Frowning, Shin stepped inside and turned on the light.
Did he come to the wrong room? Maybe he should ask the receptionist, after all.
"AAAAAAA!" someone shouted from above.
Shin looked up in shock.
From the ceiling descended a demon. It looked like a blend of a snake and a human, with a flat nose, round eyes, a hood of skin and a pair of long fangs in its wide open mouth. Instead of scales, smooth green feathers covered its skin.
Next to the gracefully attacking demon, a screaming man was falling like a sack of panicking potatoes.
This was an ambush!
Acting on reflex, Shin stumbled away from the demon. The warning from the scream gave him just enough time to dodge the first swipe of the demon's claws.
It landed on the coils of the long tail that served instead of its legs and prepared to attack again—but Tetsu emerged from Shin to stand between them. She was bristling with spikes again.
The auras of demons exuded an equal pressure. Their powers were approximately the same—each had two Verses.
"AAA—ouch!"
The man belonging to the serpent demon fell on the bed and quickly sat up. He pointed his finger at Shin, but then opened his mouth in shock at the sight of Tetsu.
"A demon! Iashkawa-san, t-that's another demon!"
The serpentine demon slouched a little. "Yesss, who else it could be? I wonder how it got here," it replied with a slight lisp. Quieter, it added, "First you ruin my ambush, now you state the obvious... Maybe the demon realm was better than being stuck with a Contractor like you."
Iashkawa didn't attack, but didn't relax, either, just watching Tetsu. She watched him back, ready to attack but waiting for Shin's command.
Shin calmed down his fluttering heart with a deep inhale and turned to the man on the bed. The journalist.
"I'm not an enemy. I was summoned to this world, just like you."
The man blinked, and some of his fear left his face. He stood up. "Really? Wait, prove it! Prove that you don't work with the men who want me dead!"
"My boss doesn't need to prove himself!" Tetsu protested. "I should be enough proof!"
"I'm sure those men could summon a demon if they wanted to," the journalist said stubbornly.
"My real name is Kugutsu Shin. It was 9th December 2023 in the real world when I was summoned," Shin said. "I guess that everybody else was summoned around the same time. And they all read at least one horror story of the same author."
"A horror story? What strange criteria to pick people for an experiment. Although, I guess, it's thematic…" the journalist muttered.
"An experiment?"
"Of course! I heard that spiel about 'another world' too, but that's just stupid. Other worlds don't exist! This is just a cover story for the government experiment we are in! The 'demons', as they call themselves, are likely results of some biological experiments or aliens… Well, they stick to their story, so I couldn't get an explanation from this one," the journalist pointed at Iashkawa, "but that's just common sense."
Iashkawa rolled its eyes, gave one last look at Tetsu and slithered back to its Contractor. The man was so invested in his speech that barely noticed the demon's return to his body.
Tetsu returned to Shin, too.
Shin wondered if the journalist believed these wild conspiracy theories before everything, or the transmigration just drove him insane.
"Either way, I'm in the same boat as you. We should work together to survive—that's why I came here for you," Shin said. "What's your name? Or should I call you as the body you own right now?"
"The body?" the journalist looked at himself, then at Shin. "Oh, right. Mihara Kuri, nice to meet you. Almost nice… Sorry for trying to ambush you! I really thought you were sent by those people."
He didn't look wary anymore, instead smiling at Shin with relief.
Shin nodded. "I was very surprised when you fell off the ceiling. What kind of power was that?"
"Iashkawa can turn itself and me intangible for a short while, so we hid in the room a floor above and waited. But I didn't expect him to throw me down too!" Mihara explained. "So you want to help me get away from those people? I think they are cultists or something."
"Yes. But you will have to follow me, Mihara-san and Iashkawa-san."