An obscure entity from Mongolian/Buryat folklore, the muu shuwuu is the ghost of a young girl that had transmogrified into a bird demon either from a violent death or due to the father hiding a piece of flint in her hand, luring in lone men by appearing as a beautiful woman before attacking in their true form. It became well-known for appearing in the Shin Megami Tensei game series where its name is written as "moh shuvuu", with in-game lore stating that it breaks its victim's head with its beak to devour their brain.

“Time to test you rookies on your knowledge on the creatures of the night, and today’s test topic is me!”

“You? What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Roderick asked as Xiaoye pulled a whiteboard up in front of him, Amirah and the other rookies, which includes the half-elf Yeo who has recovered from his leg injuries and a young dhampir.

“It means you’re to guess her three sizes. The top-most one is in the nineties rang-”

Chen Weijin never got to finish his sentence as Xiaoye wheeled her chair around and literally kicked him over the desks, with the sergeant landing face-first on the other side while the other officers laughed at his expense.

“It’s way below ninety, you breast-obsessed roaster! Damn it, Tom Ang from the front desk have terabytes of JAVs and yet he never showed any lewdness like you!”

“Yeah, I always thought Tom here would get into trouble for being a former porn addict, then he gets suspended and relegated to desk duty for breaking the jaw of a rapist. You should have broken more than his fucking jaw, though,” Corporal Rahman commented while a bespectacled Chinese corporal standing next to him facepalmed in embarrassment.

“That’s why you should not judge a person by their past or their habits. Tom and his cousin Ethan may be perverts, but they’ve got a murderous hatred for sex offenders. Now, back to the topic! Tonight, we’re talking about cambions. Roderick, you’ve been with me the most, so let’s see how much you know about my kind! What is a cambion’s speciality?” Xiaoye asked as she pointed a finger at her rookie.

“Er… The Black Arts?”

“And how to we obtain our Black Arts?”

“Er… Cambions discover their elements at a young age, then their demon parents teaches them some of their abilities which cambions then integrate their elements with to create their own unique powers?”

“Good, you’ve been studying. Now, for the other five, what kind of elements do cambions possess?”

“Cambions have an ‘aggressive’ element used for combat, and a ‘passive’ element used for non-combat. For example, Sergeant Di’s aggressive element is ‘Dust’ which she can manipulate into deadly dust storms and her passive element is ‘Sight’ which lets her see things the normal eye cannot,” Amirah answered.

“Ha, You’ve been studying too. And observing me in action, eh?”

“And some cambions possess elements that are exclusive to them only?” one of the rookies suggested.

“You’re right. In fact, I am the only cambion out of the existing, registered two-hundred and ten to possess the power to create and manipulate dust, which means my aggressive element is considered unique. Next question, can cambions enter places of worship?”

“No, because of their unholy nature. A cambion, however, can enter a place of worship if their reason for being there is considered righteous by the gods, right?”

“Good answer, Amirah, but there’s more.”

“They can enter if the grounds are no longer hallowed,” Yeo chimed in.

“And also if they were forced to enter against their will, as their human halves will protect them,” another rookie added.

Xiaoye was grinning from ear to ear as she turned to her colleagues.

“This is the most educated batch of rookies we ever had. Few people knew anything about cambions when they first entered the Shades,” she commented.

“I may have told them that they need to study the creatures of the night that can be found in Singapore and Malaysia because there’s a chance they will have to deal with them,” Leong admitted.

“So, Jason, did you know any of this?” Farhan, the resident were-tiger of the Shades, asked his fellow inspector who was observing the study session.

“To be honest, no. I spent the last four years dealing with normal criminals, regardless of species,” the new transfer admitted when AC Bradley burst out from his office.

“Sorry, everyone, I know tonight’s supposed to be study session for the rookies, but I’m afraid we have to cut it short and continue tomorrow. I need all hands on deck, we have an SRE.”

Everyone was on their feet immediately.

“What happened, sir?” Weijin asked.

“Sierra-3-3 just reported an attack by an unidentified therianthrope. Sounds like they drove it off, but there are two victims. One dead, one still alive. Sierra-3-4 and 3-12 are currently en route to their location, but if we’re going on a hunt, I need everyone. Inspectors Narayanan and Farhan, with me. Everyone else get into a vehicle and move out.”

Within minutes, several police vehicles with green siren lights instead of the regular red-and-blue were making a beeline for Carpenter Street. Drivers immediately pulled to the side of the road to let them pass, because every Singaporean knows that several Shades going the same direction means an SRE was being announced, and for the entire station to show up means it’s either a state of emergency about to be declared or the target in question is a therianthrope.

“I can hear AC Bradley calling officers from the other two shifts to assist. It’s this bad when a therianthrope’s involved?” Roderick asked as Xiaoye overtook the other vehicles in their hatchback.

“Aye. Singapore has a mixed collection of local and foreign creatures of the night, but therianthropes are considered the most dangerous here due to the size of the country. Do you know why unlike most countries, all therianthropes need to register themselves in order to live in Singapore?”

“Because Singapore is too small to afford a massacre?”

“Correct. One therianthrope on a rampage can kill even vampires and cambions with ease. I’ve seen it happen before my eyes back in Cuper, Scotland, in the year 2026 if I recall correctly. Culprit was a recently-bitten werebear that lost control of his feral nature. Thirty-eight dead in five days, including seven vampires, two therianthropes and one cambion.”

“Shit, I had no idea they’re that dangerous. I mean, vampires are freakishly powerful and a werebear killed seven of them by itself?”

“And that was considered light. My old man said the worse one was the Beast of Gévaudan in mid- eighteenth century France. Five hundred dead and forty-nine crippled in a span of three years. Load silver rounds, this therianthrope’s to be killed on sight,” Xiaoye replied, to which Roderick removed the regular magazine from his pistol and replaced with the one containing silver bullets.

Sergeant Mickey Ajibade was waiting by the southern entrance of the back alleys exiting to Carpenter Street when the convoy arrived. Roderick watch Xiaoye load slugs containing silver into a police-issue shotgun which she then passed to him before AC Bradley motioned for them both to come with him and the inspectors as they approached Ajibade after having the officers spread out in groups of six to hunt down the rogue therianthrope. And as if the situation was not serious enough, senior Shades were also seen handing silver ammunition to regular police officers that had responded to the scene.

“Are you all right, Ajibade?”

“Yes, sir. Surviving witness is safely in our vehicle. Is that the new inspector you were talking about?”

“Right, you weren’t around when he made his debut. Inspector Jason Narayanan, meet Sergeant Mickey Ajibade,” AC Bradley introduced Jason to Ajibade.

“Good to meet you, sergeant. You patrol on your own?”

“No, sir. No cop in Singapore patrols on their own. My partner’s actually standing right next to you.”

“Next to me?”

Roderick, Jason and Farhan turned to their right and involuntarily flinched at the sight of a Chinese corporal with a short taper-cut who seemed to have suddenly appeared out of thin air.

“Don’t sneak up on us like that, corporal!” Jason snapped at the newcomer, to which the latter responded by nodding, his face devoid of any emotions.

“He wasn’t sneaking up on you, actually. He’s been standing there all the time,” Xiaoye said as she tried her best not to laugh at the others’ reactions.

“What do you mean?”

“My partner’s an Accursed known as a Nobody. Nobodies have a supernatural lack of presence, making them completely undetectable until they touch or speak to you, or if you have deep-rooted memories of them,” Ajibade explained.

“So, what you’re saying is, I have to know him well enough to not get surprised by him?”

“Yes, sir. That’s exactly what I meant. By the way, his name’s Lucas Heng, if you need a head’s start on getting used to him,” Ajibade replied in a nonchalant manner as he carefully loaded silver-tipped rounds into a sniper rifle.

“And the surviving witness? Can we speak to them?”

“Well, sure, but she’s still in a bit of a shock, though. Oh, and be careful, she’s not exactly what she appears to be.”

Xiaoye and Roderick felt their jaws drop the moment Ajibade opened the door of his patrol vehicle’s backseat.

“You?” they both uttered at the same time as they pointed at the moh shuvuu sitting within, with the latter shirking away.

“You know this birdie girl?” Ajibade asked.

“Yeah, she tried to crack my head open a while back,” Roderick replied.

“I was hungry!” the moh shuvuu protested as she clutched her ragdoll and pouted.

“And I took you to a reformative centre to get a new diet!” Xiaoye chided.

“It’s boring there! Except this doll. She’s my best friend now.”

“Hey, Xiaoye, you mentioned she’s older than you… Why’s she behaving like a brat?” Roderick asked his sergeant which triggered the moh shuvuu.

“Don’t call me ‘brat’, you tomato head! I’m at least five times older than you!”

“Tomato head? What the hell, my hair’s not even red!”

“Tomato! Tomato! Lucky I never ate your brains, I might become stupid like you!”

“Why, you insolent pigeon-headed geebag, stop acting the maggot right now!”

“Great, his Irish blood’s finally boiling up,” Xiaoye remarked, causing Ajibade to chuckle.

“Sarge, do something to zip her lips!” the constable begged as he continued to get insulted by the moh shuvuu.

“Er, you know what, I’ll let you blokes handle this. I’m not good with brats, talking to them is pure murder for me,” the cambion quickly replied as she went to join Jason and Farhan who were currently inspecting the corpse that was further down the back alleys, leaving Roderick and Ajibade to deal with the moh shuvuu.

“She says it like that, but Xiaoye loves kids the most,” Ajibade commented.

“Really? I mean, she’s gentle most of the time, but doesn’t really look like a kid’s person to me,” Roderick replied.

“More like she doesn’t want people to see her softest side. She’s got a reputation to keep. Damn woman ended a vampire riot two years ago by ripping off the instigator’s head the moment she arrived on the scene. We spent ten minutes trying to fend off the violent ones and she settles the problem in five seconds.”

“Well, I doubt I’m getting a word out of this brat. How about you help me get a statement out of her?”

“Because you’re dealing with a grown-up who’s stuck with the personality and the mind of a child. She just saw something traumatizing, and being mean is how she’s coping with it.”

“Gah! Stop that!” Roderick yelped as he turned to see Lucas standing on his left.

“Stop what?”

“Appearing and disappearing!”

“I can’t do that. I’m a Nobody, not a mage.”

“He’s been standing beside you the whole time, Roderick. You need to let your memory of him take root if you don’t want to get surprised by him all the time,” Ajibade said as he tried his best not to laugh at Roderick’s shocked expression.

“How did you get used to it, Sergeant Ajibade?”

“I don’t know, but four months after partnering with him for the first time, I finally remember to get coffee for him during our breaks. After that, I became aware of his presence all the time. Besides me, the others unaffected by his lack of presence are AC Bradley, Xiaoye, Tom Ang from the front desk and the lock-up officers.”

“Sounds like a lot of work…”

“I’ll help you talk to Inna here,” Lucas offered, completely pokerfaced as he got into the backseat with the moh shuvuu.

“Inna?”

“Her name. I asked.”

Roderick could not help but find Lucas Heng cold and unfeeling. The others did mention that he was something called an Accursed and that he was a ‘Nobody’ type of Accursed. Yet despite his lack of emotions, the moh shuvuu, or Inna as she claimed her name to be, appeared comfortable talking to him though there was a look of fear on her face.

“Sorry, Inna, but please tell me again what the killer look like.”

The moh shuvuu bit her lips, then took a few breaths before finally answering.

“He looked like a wolf, but I don’t know… He didn’t feel like a werewolf at all. Messy hair, red eyes, no tail but still feels wolfish to me.”

“Any smell or voice?”

“Doggy smell, and- I mean, I- He has a weird accent. H-He pronounced the word ‘lies’ as ‘loils’ or ‘loys’, as in the word alloy. Something like that.”

“Not trying to sound racist, but that sounds like an Australian accent,” Roderick commented.

“Yeah, maybe, but let’s not jump to conclusion,” Ajibade said when Xiaoye returned.

“Got anything from that birdie girl?” she asked.

“A vague description of the killer. Fifty-fifty chance he might be Australian based on accent. What about you, Xiaoye?”

“Victim’s being identified at the moment. It’s all messed up. Unlucky bastard got ripped into pieces. Dogs picked up a trail but it ended by a road. Based on tire marks on the asphalt, killer had a motor ready to flee. Not exactly therianthrope behaviour. Either way, Inspector Narayanan’s decided that this murder will be Grey Team’s first case.”

“Huh, that new inspector’s pretty on, eh? He’s not even finished assembling the new Grey Team and he’s already taking on the case.”

“Mister Hero volunteered himself and his rookie. Main team’s complete, now just waiting for volunteers to be auxiliary.”

“Well, good luck with that.”

“We have another problem, though. Witness protection.”

Roderick, Ajibade and Lucas turned to stare at Xiaoye.

“What do you mean by that?” Roderick asked, to which Xiaoye grimaced.

“The moh shuvuu’s a witness, she can’t haunt this area until the case is closed and I can’t take her to the reformative centre since she can get targeted there. Which means one of us has to shelter her during the course of the investigation.”

The cambion now stared at her three male colleagues with a wry smile on her face.

“So, who wants to be the babysitter?”