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Chapter 18 - Childhood - 17

"What the actual fuck is that?"

Now fully within his range, Isshun's first instinct was to put it six feet under. But the moment he properly saw the outline of the thing's body, he froze.

'…Is that a goddamn skinwalker?'

Its hind legs were far longer than its front ones, the proportions warped and wrong, and its face was vaguely human, just enough to be unsettling.

Its stomach was grotesquely deformed, antlers jutting straight through its torso as black blood oozed from the wounds.

And yet, the thing didn't even seem to register the pain. Its face was locked into a permanent expression of agony, like someone was slowly tearing its soul out.

Its arms looked like what bat limbs might be without wings, ending in claws reminiscent of oversized ant pincers.

As it ran, a human face began to form in its stomach, frozen in an expression of sheer terror.

Its jaw hung open, revealing a circular ring of teeth like a leech's—interspersed with jagged, insect-like fangs that clearly didn't belong or fit, seeing as blood was oozing out them as well.

It let out a constant, low groan that sounded eerily like, "help… help…," its glassy eyes and oversized ears twitching every so often.

'What happened to MHA?' Isshun thought grimly. 'Did I somehow get transmigrated into the SCP world while I wasn't looking?!'

He frowned, staring at what looked like a textbook example of something you'd put in a horror movie.

"What's what?" Nejire asked, noticing Isshun's expression shift from confusion to outright disgust. She followed his line of sight, which showed nothing.

"And—hey! No cursing!" she added a beat later.

Isshun ignored her.

'No way in hell I'm letting a kid see that.'

Not even considering himself when he made that decision, Isshun immediately changed his plan from waiting for the search party to come back to give him time to ignore the headache.

With a thought, the Hado family and his own were teleported directly in front of them.

"Go faster—Shun-kun?" Kako started, only to stop short when the scenery abruptly changed.

The moment Hypercognition registered Isshun standing in front of him, Genzai promptly dropped to the ground, exhausted.

Some may think that it's not very Parent-like of him to immediately rely on a child in a life-threatening situation, but Isshun was an outlier.

"Genzai, what are you doing—Nejire?!" Mitsuru blurted out, confusion replacing his concern as he spotted his daughter.

"Hi, Dad!" Nejire waved cheerfully.

Mitsuru waved back without thinking, still holding onto his mother, Tomoe, with his other hand.

"…Hi?" he said, then froze. "Wait—what about the thing that was chasing us?! Father—"

"I'm right here," Genji said calmly.

Though disoriented, he glanced down at the tracker in his hand while his daughter-in-law—far more physically capable than him—kept a steady grip on his other arm.

Deciding to ask the questions later, the current issue was with that monster chasing them through the forest.

"Did it… stop chasing us?" Genji asked.

He frowned at the tracker. The red dot representing the creature jittered unnaturally, lurching forward, then snapping back.

Showing that dot to the rest of the adults, some of the more quickwitted ones, Shiori and Mitsuru and Isshun's parents, looked at Isshun.

For Genzai and Kako, it was rather obvious who was the culprit behind that 'glitching' while for Shiori and Mitsuru, it obviously wasn't Nejire, and if the others could, they would have done that already.

Isshun met their gazes and gave a small nod.

'Yeah. Me.' he gestured with his eyebrow.

"…Why aren't you, uh… you know?" Kako asked hesitantly, subtly pointing downward.

She didn't know about Isshun's 'dismantling' aspect, so her only idea of dealing with such creatures was his original method, putting them six feet under.

"Well…" Isshun tried—and failed—to mime 'this looks like an experiment' with vague gestures. He gave up.

Instead, he glanced at Mitsuru… then at Nejire.

Nejire still hadn't let go of Isshun's hand, nor did it even look like it was about to happen anytime soon.

Mitsuru immediately looked at Nejire in confusion, then looked at the two hands that were intertwined, forced down a fond smile, and put on an angry expression.

"Hado Nejire."

The sudden shift in tone sent a chill straight down Nejire's spine.

"...Yes?"

"What exactly are you doing out here?" Kako added, catching on immediately. "In the woods. Without adult supervision."

"…Didn't you say Shun-chan counted as supervision…?" Nejire tried weakly.

With that being the only counter argument she had, she subtly looked away from her parents, looking towards Isshun for assistance.

Isshun was already looking the other way.

'...Traitor!'

Nejire puffed out her cheeks.

"Hado Nejire," her mother called, thoroughly amused. "Come over here. You're getting a talking-to."

This wasn't the time—or place—for punishment, and Isshun clearly wanted Nejire out of the discussion anyway. Shiori gently grabbed a defeated Nejire and guided her a short distance away.

Nejire attempted to appeal to Isshun's emotional side with puppy eyes on the way, but her head was turned back by Shiori before Isshun could even turn around.

'Darn it! I'm totally dragging Shun-chan everywhere when we get home so he's always exhausted!' Nejire sulked internally.

Now that Nejire was out of the picture, Isshun thought it was appropriate to give a three line summary.

"I can teleport."

To explain to the Hado Family.

"The thing chasing you isn't human—but there's still a person inside it."

Why he didn't immediately put it six feet under.

"And it looks like some kind of experiment that escaped."

Why Nejire wasn't included.

Perfect.

"…How bad can it be?" Genji asked. Tomoe nodded uncertainly.

"...Pretty bad." Isshun tried to explain what it looked like, but gave up after a few seconds. He looked towards Kako and Genzai, who each gave a nod.

He teleported the creature into the air, then teleported it back into the air just before gravity could take effect.

All five adults stared at the hovering abomination.

Disgust. Fear. Horror.

Like father, like son—Genzai's reaction was immediate and heartfelt.

"What the fuck is that?"

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A/N: I have obtained the comment's advice about not having point a to b chaps, and i have noted it, sorry about that.

Chaps a lil short cause i wrote it before the flight and needed something fast.

Also, 4k Powerstones!

Thats crazy! So there'll be 2 extra chaps this saturday! Since we hit the 'harder' goal ima make it a lil harder.

--<>--

2200PS - Not Complete

4500PS - Not Unlocked

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