Adventure of Absolute the hellhound boy 1

Rain stripes the bar's front windows, turning neon signs into smeared color. Absolute sits beneath a flickering television, scanning tired faces and listening for anything that might lead to Ray.

Behind the counter, a broad-shouldered middle-aged woman watches him polish a glass. Her silver-streaked black hair is tied back, and a green work shirt bears a small brass nameplate.

A man at the far end lowers his newspaper. He is a lean older adult with a weathered face, a tan jacket, and one finger tapping anxiously beside his untouched coffee.

The television mutters through a breaking-news segment while the room settles into watchful silence. Mara waits with the glass in her hand, and the man with the newspaper keeps his eyes, his close-cropped gray hair and dark skin visible above the newspaper on Absolute.

Absolute leaves payment beside the untouched coffee and rises from the booth. Rain hisses against the windows as he turns toward the bar's exit.

Mara sets down her glass and glances toward the door, then back to the coins. The television's blue light catches the brass nameplate on her shirt.

The man folds his newspaper enough to reveal a grainy photograph beneath the headline. A familiar name is visible in the caption before he covers it again.

The door chime rings as Absolute steps into the wet neon. Behind him, the bar resumes its low murmur, and the rain swallows the sound of the closing door.

Absolute follows the rain-slick avenue toward the old freight underpass. Beneath a dead streetlamp, an adult wolf woman, lean and russet-furred, with a narrow muzzle and amber eyes, in a soaked gray hoodie and red scarf stands boxed in by two men in dark jackets; one, a stocky adult man with a shaved head and stubbled jaw, grips her open wallet.

The wolf woman's ears flatten, and her clawed hand stays raised while the second man, a lanky adult man with curly black hair and a thin cheek scar, plants himself between her and the street. Passing cars throw silver light across their tense faces.

The first man stuffs the wallet into his jacket and reaches toward the phone. The underpass looms beyond them, its police tape snapping in the wind.

Absolute steps between the wolf woman and the two robbers. His sword flashes once, slicing cleanly through a narrow roadside tree; the upper trunk drops into the wet weeds.

The stocky man releases the wallet. His partner backs toward the underpass, eyes fixed on the severed tree and the blade, while the police tape snaps overhead.

The two street robbers retreat into the rain, leaving the wallet on the pavement. The wolf woman retrieves it, then keeps a cautious distance from Absolute beneath the dead streetlamp.