Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 351. Hats

Danny seemed to have gained a few abs because while Jordan carried him over his shoulder in front of me, he lifted his upper body to stare at me while crying.

"Stop that." I grimaced, not wanting to continue seeing him produce more snot.

"CAN YOU BE ANY MORE UNREFINED!" My grandmother suddenly yelled and threw a pack of tissues at Danny’s face with a deadly force.

When the tissue pack met his face, he struck himself with his hands in an attempt to catch it.

I burst out laughing when my grandmother looked at me viciously.

"Show me your friends, and I’ll tell you who you are."

So I couldn’t even laugh at Danny because his behavior would fall back on me?

"And how fucking unrefined is it to store things in your cleavage?" I asked back, way louder than I intended to.

My grandmother stopped in her tracks before slamming my shin with her stick.

"THIS PIECE OF CLOTHING HAS A BREAST POCKET; DO YOU TAKE ME FOR A COURTESAN?"

"No screaming, Kenny." The commander reminded in an untimely manner.

"I AM NOT SCREAMING; SHE IS SCREAMING!" I raised my hand a bit, still holding on to Henry’s thigh while pointing at the real culprit.

"You are screaming right now." The commander said, and when I turned around, I found him walking while covering the kid’s ears; the tiger also looked at me judgingly.

"I don’t want to be judged by someone named Kitty." I hissed, and the tiger lowered his head a bit.

"Stop mobbing your niece!" The hag turned down her volume and whisper-screamed instead.

I turned and continued to walk, taking deep breaths and trying to find my inner peace.

It’s my fault.

I should have let her lie under her Deer Monster counterpart until eternity.

I got it with the stick again because SHE SOMEHOW REALLY CAN READ MINDS, but I ignored her and brought a bit of distance between us.

At least she had only struck me very accurately and not Henry, because then I would get really angry.

I looked at Danny, who still dangled from Jordan in front of me and was in the midst of cleaning his face, which also had red marks on it from the tissue package and himself.

"What was going on in our world?" I asked him, which was a mistake because he started crying again.

"There are..." Crying.

"So many..." More crying, and I got a déjà vu.

"Rats..." At least this time he used tissues instead of sniffling around.

"Rats?" I asked when his message sank in.

Jordan fell a bit back so that he walked beside me to free my view of Danny while he explained.

"Half a year ago, some things turned up, looking like a mixture of dogs and rats. These things suddenly appeared and are all over the city; there was no communication of their origin, but the government just distributed sticks and manuals on how to kill them." He chuckled.

"Well, not long ago, they suddenly said that it was an unknown animal that came to be through the natural disasters."

"What the fuck? What?" I asked speechlessly.

"Yeah. We think they came out of a portal, and they reproduce unbelievably fast."

"...What do they eat?" I asked, already knowing that I wouldn’t like the answer.

Jordan looked at me appreciatively for directly coming to the main matter.

"Meat, humans and animals alike, so if you don’t eat ’Hats’ or humans, there will be no meat. At least they don’t touch corn or vegetables."

Absolutely fucking fantastic.

"Hound and rat equals ’hats’?" I groaned in distaste at the name.

"Nobody... hic... calls them... hic... that!" Danny explained under hiccups, and Jordan slapped his ass into silence.

And there is another matter.

"If they come from a portal and are counterparts..." A species that is easier to kill than some super big monster; well, let’s be happy that it’s not a super big monster that has invaded our world—but easier to kill, high production rate, and attacks humans because they see them as a food source.

It’s not only a plague; it’s a ticket to introducing the counterpart theory.

"Yes." Jordan nodded solemnly.

"There are already reports online from people that say they killed a rat and got stronger, not to mention the memories they receive."

"Holy shit." I looked ahead and could see Ethan and Jeyjey through the trees; we would soon arrive.

"Are they only in our city?" I turned back to Jordan.

"We don’t know. They built walls around the outskirts, and the information is cut off. The government put another force together, which acts above the military and is responsible for information exchange between cities and countries."

"If that is the case, why did they bring VIPs here to kill their counterparts in such a sloppy manner?" I asked him.

If the military took part in the Lawrence family’s scheme, shouldn’t this operation be guarded and protected at all costs? Even for money-hungry, power-greedy individuals, they must hold this operation in high importance, even if for the wrong reasons?

Omar coughed lightly and came forward.

"Because that wasn’t a military operation but a Lawrence family operation. They did it behind the military and government’s back."

"Well, because of that we found you," Jordan shrugged.

"The staff sergeant snooped in the military files about Henrietta, and Omar snooped in the Lawrence family. We brought everything we found to Ethan, and he found the military warehouse."

"Good job. Thanks, guys." I chuckled and looked at both of them, only to hear Danny starting to whimper again.

"What are you doing now? Are you in the military?" I asked them, and Jordan shook his head before nodding.

"We completed the mandatory military service, and now we help with cleanup and are on call should they ever need more men."

"Cleanup?"

"Rats and rat attacks—sometimes we help with the patrols," Omar said.

"Call them Hats," Jordan nudged Omar.

"Nobody calls them that," Omar chuckled.

"It will establish when one starts."

"And you want to be the one who came up with that after it had been established?" I laughed, and he grinned at me.

I knew it; I could see right through him.

"Someone also started with the high fives; we just don’t know who," Jordan mumbled when we were out of the forest, and Ethan jogged to us.

"Mr. Howard, it is a pleasure to see you!" He also observed me to see if I was all right before he looked at Henry.

"Do we need a doctor when we come home?" He asked.

"Thanks for the hard work, yeah, for Henry and the kid." I motioned to my back and looked at the destroyed tents—two got destroyed, and the rest were splattered with blood.

Corpses—fucking many corpses—lay around, most in military uniforms that looked as if they had been either stabbed or directly ripped apart. It should be the work of the Bone Dragon, which is really interesting because it hadn’t attacked Henry and me in that manner when we stopped it from crossing into our world.

It only attacked for real after it had been bound down and purposefully attacked.

"Kenny!" Jeyjey came closer and looked at me with tears in her eyes.

Seeing her behave as if she had found her long-lost savior, I looked at my grandma.

"What the hell did you do to her?"

"I gave her food and a place to sleep." My grandma squinted her eyes before giving Ethan a glance.

"Should we try it out now?" Ethan got the hint and turned around.

Seeing Jeyjey look at me helplessly, I felt as if she was being forced.

"Leave her alone if she doesn’t want to."

"There has to be another way; I want to stay a bit longer anyway." The commander carrying the child came to my side and also spoke for Jeyjey.

"Miss Jeyjey." Ethan tilted his head and looked at her before Jeyjey nodded soullessly.

"HEY! Didn’t you hear me?" I yelled again.

"SILENCE!" My grandmother rammed her walking stick in the grass and looked at me furiously.

"She tried to sell information after we saved her from the Center!"

"What information?" I asked her and looked back at Jeyjey, who lowered her head.

"About us trying to find you, about the... staff sergeant helping us." My grandmother stared me down while speaking.

"We wanted to kick her out; some wanted to kill her, but we decided to kick her out. Then she pleaded with us and promised to try to open a portal if we let her stay. Now is the time to uphold her word."

Hmmm... I looked at Jeyjey and saw her shudder under my gaze.

It would be better to kill her if she isn’t someone trustworthy and additionally knows too much.

And... if this untrustworthy person had the ability to open portals at will, then it was another very good reason to get rid of her.

However, now with Henrietta brain-damaged, if there was someone else who could close upcoming portals, she would be too precious to kill off.

"Try it." I commanded her, and Jeyjey nodded repeatedly.

"Ready?" Ethan stepped closer and gave her something that looked like a small injection.

Jeyjey gazed at it as if she was looking at poison before ramming it in her thigh and pushing it down, injecting the whole substance in her body.

Ethan leaned back, looked at me, and smiled.

"Top-quality premium DMT."