Skinwalker Apocalypse

Jūyō monastery

"Whoops!" Darren let out as he landed rather ungracefully on the other side of the wall where Elle and Nate were already waiting.

Not more than a few seconds later, Johnson also dropped down beside them though noticeably silent even with his huge form.

Nate saw Elle shoot Darren a resentful glare for his landing and for coming with them in the first place.

She usually loved working alone but if she had to work with other people, she would prefer not to work with inexperienced loud people who could not be quiet to save their own lives, literally.

Darren's plane had been used to fly them to Japan for this mission and he had insisted on coming with them, partly as a copilot to avoid more people knowing about their little mission and as an extra pair of hands, it sounded reasonable so no one refused.

Not until they were trying to sneak into the monastery and realized how loud and unsteady the rich guy really was.

Nate almost chuckled from how close Elle looked to snapping at the young man. He was sure that if they weren't on a very delicate mission, she would do just that. And ask him to return back to the plane.

It was too late now anyways.

He instead diverted his gaze to Johnson who rolled out a copy of the hallways of the Jūyō monastery to ensure their next move.

The blueprint of the building we needed to go to was pretty simple enough. It was basically a regular hallway beside a small indoor shrine. That was it!

But it really wasn't. You see, a temple's Honden is sort of like the inner court of any Japanese temple, and that means that only the priests of that temple was allowed to go in there.

Call it the Holies of Holies, if you must.

This means that it is safe from public appraisal, which also means that it is the perfect place for the Jūyō order to keep something hidden... or someone!

What is the Jūyō order, you might ask.

Well, we have all heard mermaids stories growing up. How they are pretty and very beautiful half human, half Pisces creatures.

Some people even believe that they have equally beautiful voices which they use to sing and lure unsuspecting and enthralled fishermen and pirates to jump into the sea to their deaths.

Well, the Japanese mermaids were a little different from the usual. The Japanese mermaids called the -Ningyo- are actually said to be hideous ...well, sort of considering they are said to have some razor sharp teeth and even horns at times. Also, they were basically big fishes with human faces.

Yeah, that didn't sound pretty to Nate.

According to the account of the first ningyo washed offshore, a Shaman had pronounced it a sign of bad luck on the town so, the legend was not a very happy one.

Oh, and the Jūyō monastery was built on the belief of Ningyo, they basically worshipped the human-fish. As a result, the Jūyō monastery has a lot of ningyo statues as well as the remains of two ningyos, from different centuries.

But no, the team was not here for that. What they had come to collect was instead, beneath the level all the aforementioned were displayed.

Yeah, in a secret basement underneath the Honden building. And what they were there for was supposed to be a great asset to their upcoming mission.

Having successfully located the Honden building amongst the splash of infrastructures that made up the temple, Johnson using hand signals, led them in the right direction.

Nate sneaked behind the female thieving expert that went ahead of him, careful not to make a sound and thankfully, Darren did not make too much noise either.

The group made their way as briskly as they could manage to the small building, letting the shadows of the night act as their cover.

When they were beside the building, Elle peeked to take account of the amount of guards guarding the sacred shrine.

"Two guards, we can easily take them, but we have to be fast. Also two people would have to stand in their place while two would go in. Darren and Nate should stay, while Johnson and I go in."

"But what if there are more guards inside, you would need all the help you can get." Darren whines, not wanting to be left behind and not seeing the action.

Elle rolled her eyes, still hanging on to her temper, instead she turned to the other two to explain her reasons. "If you look to your left, eleven 0' clock, you would notice that there is a balcony that directly overlooks the position of the guards,"

Nate and the other men looked in that direction to confirm her words, afterwards, they nodded for her to continue. "No one is there now, but if someone should pass by and notices that there are no guards by the shrine door, they would raise an alarm or at least come check what is going on out, which can't be good for us. We need to be in, out and long gone with our prize before they can realize that something is wrong."

Johnson and Nate nodded in understanding.

"Sure, let's go with your plan" Johnson said and that settled it.

Two guards let out dull groans a minute later before their body went lax, but it was caught before they could hit the ground. The two newly designated guards took their place with their helmet and swords in another two minutes.

However, Johnson and Elle, the remaining duo made their way inside the shrine.

The place was decorated with several varying sized statues of the ningyo, as well as a few typical mermaid statues, all made of varying materials. Some of wood, motar, rocks and even gold.

Elle hitched to perform a mini raid but decided to put it off... for now at least. Till they had what they came for.

The dull sounds of their footwear ricocheted around the empty space as the went for the altar which was supposedly hiding the entrance to the underground section of the building.

With Elle's experience with stealing from the high and mighty, as well as from other thieves aka, members of other mafia, she was quickly able to figure out that the entrance had to be connected to the big large sized ningyo statue on the altar.

Johnson watched in silence as Elle went straight for the statue, he watched her fool around with the horns of the ningyo a bit and with a loud click, a wooden portion of the altar began to lift off the rest of the wood finish.

A/N: I'm really sorry for the late update, my exams are fast approaching and the next two weeks might be a bit tight but the good news is, after exams are holidays, right?

Thanks for reading and please let me know your thoughts.