Spring is Crimson Red || Honkai Impact 3rd

The train

"That was a good talk! And a really useful one too"

"But I have to go before I miss the train"

You said as you placed your wallet in one of the pockets of your dress and got up from the elegant red chair in which you were sitting. You had just finished having an entertaining conversation with Rita about the so-called "Spring Beast". In fact, it had been so much fun that you hadn't even looked at the clock once in all that time, and it was probably very close to the time your train was meant to leave. If you missed it, you would have to sleep that night in a hotel, or worse, on the streets. You didn't have much money on you, so there was a chance that a hotel room would be too expensive even for you right now. Your house was a long way from where Rita lived, so the drive was quite long to get there in the first place, making it impossible for you to walk back in one night. Still, it had been worth it. It allowed you to learn a lot you didn't know about the creature, and also helped give you an idea of ​​what you should probably do in your potential encounter with the animal. Even if you couldn't pinpoint the exact breed yet, it was most likely a wolf of some kind following the description of "two ears permanently low to the sides of the head" and "bright blue eyes and bluish-black fur."

"Understood. Have a safe trip, miss"

"Thank you!"

You ran out of the store so as not to miss the train and greeted Rita as you finally emerged into the desolate streets of the late noon. Few people were out at this hour, let alone on such a lonely side of town as the one you were on. As you walked through the empty streets and saw a person once every blue moon, you started to remember the conversation out of boredom. It was funny to think about how coolly you two would take such a twisted situation, just talking about it over the sweet afternoon tea like it wasn't really anything interesting.
Most people would have gotten sick just from hearing half of the things you talked about on that day, yet it seemed something so mundane for the two of you.
Screams of people being eaten alive while still begging for help coming from the woods, brothers finding the family dog ​​that had been left tied to a post while they were gone completely mutilated and with its guts spilled out, people theorizing that it was actually It may be being the pet of a serial killer because people noticed the presence of a woman who wandered carelessly through the dangerous forest... This woman... Hearing about her made your hopes rise suddenly. Maybe they were linked after all, and maybe, just maybe, not all was lost yet...
Anyway, you were still surprised by the fact that it didn't mind killing in front of people, but still no one really got a good look at it even once in the past weeks. The closest they had gotten so far was the color of his fur and eyes, which might differ from what they claimed anyway due to lighting. Most of them had seen it at night, and nights in the woods aren't necessarily known for being very bright and clear. Its way of killing wasn't really unique, but it was surely aggressive and maybe even a bit clever. It stalked its prey and waited for the right moment to jump on them and bite the skin of their necks, causing them to fall to the ground from the pain and sudden pressure, where it would quickly devour its now wounded prey.
But there was something that caught your attention; it didn't really seem to eat anything other than possibly the skin. That it could still spit without anyone noticing. Why did you think of this? well, it didn't seem to eat the organs. It would throw them violently and bite them to kill its prey, but it had never really been seen eating its prey, only torturing it. You could be wrong on this, but maybe he didn't necessarily kill to eat. That would also explain the speed with which it killed, as it had an extremely higher average number of "victims" only on the last week alone than other predators in their entire lives!
You stopped suddenly. You could have sworn…was the woman really…? You turned back quickly trying to get a better look at the blue haired girl who you had just passed by, but there was nothing but the emptiness of that long, isolated street to be seen. Was it your imagination? Another anomaly caused by the instability of that world? It wouldn't be so weird but… damn it for giving you false hope of finally finding her. Why did they have to enjoy torturing you like this so much? They always did this. They would always show you what you needed to see and then automatically take it away without even caring in the slightlest. Perhaps that was the real "spring beast" here! Playing with its victims like the idiot it really is behind all that enigmatic bullshit it set up for the public to see. Needless to say, it filled you with rage, as it was extremely obvious just by looking at the sfrown that appeared on your face immediately upon realizing she wasn't really there to begin with. You continued your way with frustration and decided to put that behind you for now. But once you were out of there, whoever got you into this mess would pay for everything they had put you through and caused to falsely believe, and it wouldn't be nice to whoever or whatever it was.
Now, now. You shouldn't be so angry tonight. Tomorrow would be a big day for you, so you shouldn't worry too much about the little things that bother you.
Or at least that was what Feng had been telling you all the way to the train station. At times like these, you regret keeping her around. She just couldn't shut up when it came to lecturing you for no reason.