No one's POV

After a couple of hours of traveling, the creature gently lands on a roof to a house in a small neighborhood. The creature looks around to see if anything was watching it. Seeing nothing around, it cautiously crawls on the side of the building to a window frame. The creature carefully opens the window and sneaks into a dark room.

Upon landing softly on the wooden floor, the creature's mass slowly unwraps itself as Cody takes control of his body again.

"Thanks, Venom." Cody whispers whilst taking off his coat.

"Of course." Cody throws his coat to the side. "You look like shit."

"Heh." Cody lets out a short chuckle. "When am I not?" He rubs the back of his neck as he walks to the other side of the room.

Cody's partner, Venom, shoots out a black tendril from Cody's back to the window, shutting it close quietly. Cody walks up to a wall and flips the light switch on. A lamp's light illuminates the entire room in light. He turns around and saw his cramped room the way he left it.

Next to the light switch were several boxes piled together that held papers and notebooks to their limits. At the far right corner of the room was his bed, some of the sheets were lying on the floor as the others were thrown on the bed. His pillows were lying on the ground as well. Next to the bed was a small table that held a lamp and a clock. A small worn out journal with a pen in it was shut on the table as well. To Cody's right was a small closet and door that led to the bathroom. And on the entire wall to the left was covered in a large map of Japan. It has sticky notes scattered all over the place with pins stabbed into it at certain locations. The pins held strings on the wall that lead to other pins. In front of them were more papers scattered on the floor.

Cody walks up to his bed and sat on it as he grabs his journal and pen. He puts his pen in his mouth as his hands flips through his book. Several pages were filled with notes and photos taped on. The notes were about different accidents throughout the globe that involved crime scenes similar to the one he had came across a few hours ago. Some of the pages had pictures of the incidents on them too.

After flipping through half of the book, Cody lands on a brand new page. He grabs his pen out of his mouth and began to write down notes on what he saw in the alleyway. He wrote very quickly and messy, almost looking like chicken scratch.

A few minutes passes by before Cody was done writing the details of the scene. He puts the pen back into the book and shuts it close before tossing it onto the small table and accidentally hits the lamp. Another one of Venom's tendrils spawn out of Cody as the lamp was about to hit the ground. The tendril caught the lamp in time and placed it back on the table as Cody got up and walks up to the mapped wall.

"You should be more careful." Venom advises. "Don't want to wake up the kids, do you?"

"Sorry..." Cody says nonchalantly, not paying much attention to his partner. "Tired."

"No shit."

Cody sighs as he grabs a sticky note and a pen off the floor. He scribbled "Thugs robbing a few drunks killed. No survivors." on the note and sticks it on a certain location on the map. He then grabs a pin and string and puts them on the sticky note. He stabs a pin on one end of the string and stretches the other end of the string to a different location on the map. After, he steps back and studied the map.

"His attacks are still random..." Cody mutters. "They're not planned or coordinated at all. It's like he's..."

"Stop worrying about it so much." Venom demands. "You're letting this take control of your life. You don't sleep or eat, something I'm not very fond of, unless you WANT me to eat people. If that's the case-."

"Quiet." Cody sneers. "If I don't find my brother and kill him..."

An old memory from several years ago flashes in Cody's mind. He was standing by a doorway in a dark room. The light coming from outside the door barely illuminates the room. He was frozen in shock and horror as some thing was standing in front of a feminine body lying on the ground. With the light from outside, Cody saw the body on the ground was lying in a puddle of blood.

"M-mother..." Cody mutters in horror, his voice shaking as his body trembles.

The thing heard him and turns around. Cody saw a red and black creature grin with its massive sharp teeth as tendrils move around its body.

"Hehehehe!" The creature lets out a terrifying cackle before lunging at Cody.

Something slimy smacks Cody's face. He snaps out of his thoughts as he heard Venom, this time not in his head.

"That's enough!" A black tendril moves in front of Cody's face. It morphs into Venom's face as he spoke sharply.

"I have almost had it with your one-minded thoughts. If you don't listen to me, you and I will both die. You're on the verge of breaking, something that should've happened a long time ago if I wasn't around. Stop thinking that you're the only one who can stop him."

"But-."

"HE has the same weaknesses as me: Fire and sound. There are plenty of other humans and pro heroes that have those abilities as quirks, especially that pro hero number two. You're acting like you're the only one who can stop him."

"But we're the only ones who know what he's capable of. I-."

"That may be true, but let's not forget that-."

A knock on the door made the two instantly stop arguing. Cody turns his head to the door as Venom goes back inside his host's body. Cody walks up to the door and opens it. He looks down and saw a child in front of him.

The boy rubs his eyes, exhausted, as he mutters. "Dad?" He yawns. "Who were you-?"

"It's nothing important." Cody says quietly. He kneels to the boy's height and gently pats his head. "Sorry for waking you up, kiddo. Go back to bed before your sister notices."

Cody's son nods as Cody walks him to the room next door. His son enters the room as Cody whispers his son a goodnight. He gently closes the door and walks to his room. He locks his door before lying on his bed. Venom turns off the light as Cody rests on his bed, staring at the ceiling with his arms behind his head.

"If we're gone, who'll look after them?" Venom says, referring to Cody's children. "They'll be on their own, living in the streets like rats. They'll-."

"Don't remind me..." Cody mutters. "I won't let that happen."

"Then you should listen to me. Otherwise your pancreas is looking rather tasty..."

Cody didn't say anything after. He picks his phone out of his pocket and began to scroll through his contact list. He soon lands on one with the name of "Nemuri Kayama". He stares at it for a bit, thinking, before putting his phone on the table next to him. He forces himself to stop thinking and try falling asleep, something he's had trouble with for many years.

End...