The rain spattered upon the cobblestone, mixed with the liquids seeping from the bodies, carelessly strewn everywhere. Screams pierced the atmosphere, followed by heavy-footed sprints in all directions. Moments later, the screams were drowned out by a merciless howl. Coarse, bristling fur, the coat of an animal. A flash of grey, and it was gone.

"Octopus!" Cheshire demanded to the cook behind the counter. "Octopus for breakfast!"

"Ah…are you sure?" he asked, his utensils at the ready.

"Octopus and fish eggs!" Cheshire retorted, crouched behind the counter, his eyes peeking above the marble.

"How about cereal?" Alice asked from behind, patting her pet's head. "You can't have fish for breakfast."

"Of course I can! It's my belly!" Cheshire argued, but a bowl of cereal had already been produced for him. "Hmph…"

"Come on, Cheshire. You can have fish later. Trust me, I'd have meat for breakfast if I could," Alice giggled, taking her friends hand and leading him to the table. Upon its bench were the only other friends of the duo; Allen, Lavi, Lenalee, Kanda, and Krory.

"Good morning!" they all called in unison as Alice and Cheshire sat down. Except for Kanda, of course.

"Morning! I read a story in the newspaper earlier. Something's going on in one of the neighboring townships," Alice mumbled around her cereal.

"Like what? A zombie apocalypse?" Lavi responded hopefully. It had been over 2 weeks since they had all been fenced in by the massive glacier that had blocked their exit of the Dark Order, and Lavi still seemed a little odd. Then again, that's Lavi for you.

"No, silly. There's no such thing as zombies," Lenalee giggled, plucking grapes from her plate. "What did the newspapers say, Alice?"

"Well, apparently, there's some kind of creature running around the nearby towns. Only a few people have gotten a good look at it, and they can't even describe what they saw," Alice reported, deflecting the bits of cereal Cheshire was flicking at her.

"Could it be an Akuma?" Allen asked, his plate taller than all the others. "Or an innocence fragment?"

"Well, innocence never reflects inconveniently on any humans, and this thing is killing people, so I don't think so…" Alice contemplated, tapping her chin.

"It's a fish!" Cheshire exclaimed, clearly not listening to the conversation at all.

"No, Cheshire, I don't think it's a…fish," Alice sighed, finishing her cereal.

"Best thing would be to exterminate it," Kanda mumbled from his side of the table. All he had on his breakfast plate was a single slice of bread. Nothing on it, too.

"Kanda, you're gonna get all skinny! What lady wants a skeleton?" Lavi chortled to himself, gesturing to Kanda's plate.

"Better than a plump imbecile," Kanda retorted, picking up his plate and carrying it to the trash.

"What'd you call me?" Lavi screeched, rocketing from the table after his rival.

"Anyways, do you think Komui will send someone to investigate?" Lenalee wondered, poking crescent-shaped holes in her apple with her long nails.

"Well, if it's killing people, then it must be stopped." Alice picked up her plate and Cheshire's, finishing the conversation. Just as she had finished disposing of their breakfast, an announcement rattled through the speakers of the cafeteria.

"Attention Exorcist division 4! Report to Head Office!" the speakers screeched. Recently, in light of recent events, Komui had devised divisions of Exorcists. Division 4 consisted of Alice, Cheshire, Allen and Kanda.

"Speak of the devil!" Alice sighed. "Well, best head up there now."

"Devil!" Cheshire exclaimed. He was still learning new words from when he had become partly human, so he would blurt out any word he didn't know, with hopes of an explanation. Morphing into his cat form, he clawed his way up Alice's sleeve, and onto her shoulder. His ears lightly bobbing as she walked, the pair made their way to Komui's office.

As the group entered the cluttered, messy office, they found Komui in his office chair, turned away from the group, chattering quite noisily on his telephone.

"I said Dark Order! Not Dark Hoarder! How hard is it to get a simple address?" Komui wailed into the phone. He seemed completely oblivious to the Exorcists he had recently called to his office. "Get it right next time!" And with that, he slammed his phone into its cradle. Straightening his beret, and brushing the stray hairs from his face, he turned at last to the Exorcists.

"Ah! You finally made it! Sorry about that, I was just…sorting out my dry-cleaning. ANYWAYS, as I'm sure you've all heard, there's been quite a commotion in the nearby townships," Komui stated, rifling through the drawers in his desk and the papers at his feet. "Let's see, where…jeez, it's gotta be- AH! Here it is~!" he sang, slapping a stack of papers onto his desk.

"So…what exactly has been going o-" Allen attempted conversation, but was denied by the wave of Komui's hand.

"I'm getting to it, Allen, m'dear, so be patient," Komui barked, brushing the papers on his desk in every which way, trying to find a specific one. "Ha! This is the one!" he exclaimed, holding the paper up in victory.

"So…what exactly is the matter?" Alice asked, fighting with Cheshire to keep him out of the hood on her Exorcist uniform. He always liked to curl up in it, even though Alice hated the cat hair that would get in it.

"Well, as I'm sure you've all heard, there's a creature running around. We can't follow its exact movements, but what we do know is that it moves incredibly fast. It can move from one town to another in a single night." Komui took of his beret, gently setting it on the table. Running stressed fingers through his messy hair, he continued. "We've been able to deduce that it attacks a village once every 3 days, so it's intelligent enough to have a limit."

"So, it's a person?" Allen asked, bracing himself to be cut off again.

"Or something just as smart as one. It hasn't broken its schedule in 9 days, so it must be a pattern. Every 3 days, this…thing…attacks a village. He's moving in one direction, so we can easily predict what's to be attacked next. So far, we've recorded that he only attacks grown men. An estimated 25 deaths have been recorded."

"25…that's way too many!" Alice gasped, Cheshire curiously peeking his head from her hood at the sound.

"Nya?" Cheshire mewed, pawing at her face in concern.

"According to all of our Finders' readings, the next township to be attacked will be Chesterdam, tomorrow night. I want to catch this thing immediately, and discern what it is. If it's an Akuma, Innocence, or even a Noah, it doesn't matter. Just stop it," Komui finished, seemingly exhausted at his own explanation.

"Well then, we should probably set out soon. It's a 6 hour ride by train, and it would be best to scope out the village to guess what will be attacked first," Allen suggested, getting nods from his friends.

They all exited the room, ready to stop whatever phenomenon was occurring.

"C'mon, Cheshire, help me pack! Don't just sit there!" Alice ordered. Cheshire had been perched upon her bed for the past 10 minutes, motionless. He had returned to his human form, so the expression of worry was clear upon his face.

"Nmmmrmm…I don't wanna go…" Cheshire murmured, picking at the lace on her pillow.

"What do you mean? It'll be fine! It's probably just some kind of Akuma," Alice murmured, patting his cheek. "Are you scared?"

"No…it's just…it feels weird," Cheshire muttered back, putting his hand over his master's.

"What feels weird? It'll be okay! It's just an animal, or something. I'm sure it'll be fine." Alice continued stuffing a night's worth of clothes into her suitcase.

"Hrm…" Cheshire muttered. Even his master's words of encouragement couldn't shake the feeling of something truly morbid and sinister awaiting him.