Roxas0702

It’s the year 2073, and everything has changed. New high-tech dominates almost all aspects of life. However, this has a dark side: unethical human experiments.
  17-year-old Akira Cruz, the genius nephew of the president of the Philippines, was in the middle of grieving for his late best friend when he stumbled upon an abandoned orphan boy in the mountains while on a hike with his younger sister. That boy is Hachi Shimizu, a half-zombie, half-vampire who was disposed of by an evil organization known as the Kara Tech, which was notorious for its brutal and unethical experiments.
  Together, the two boys team up with a detective named Toshi Kawasaki, a half-Japanese, half-British who specializes in the supernatural and also considers the murder case of Akira’s best friend open despite the police closing it due to a lack of evidence. The three of them believed that Kara Tech was somehow connected to the disappearances of various children in and around the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. As they go and solve cases, their friendship blossoms, especially when two people,  Riho Yoshihara, Akira's childhood, biracial friend, and Htet Kawa, a half-Japanese, half-Burmese junior detective from Yokohama, come along in their various missions, both involving the supernatural and the overworld. Will they stop the organization from committing more heinous crimes before it’s too late?

Warning: the photo used for the book cover is NOT mine! Credits go to the original owner!!!

My Best Friend is a Hybrid

A bit later, Akira, Hachi, and Htet found some traces of the four missing travelers' clothes, and some traces from their backpacks. "Huh? Those are from their clothes, right?" Hachi asked upon examining the pieces of clues.

Furthermore, the three of them found some claw cuts on trunks of some of the nearby trees.

"Are those Yamauba had any claws, too?" Akira asked.

And then, the three detectives found a trail of unusually strange footprints on the grass and dirt off the hiking trail.

So, the three young detectives followed the trail until, they went deeper and deeper in the forest and finally, to the front of the caves of the Yamauba. There the three found four people, two men and two women, unconscious in the front of the caves. The three saw that the clothes and backpacks of those 4 people matched closely with the traces they had found earlier. Also, they found some makeshift and primitive-style cooking equipment as well, indicating that those yokai would use them to cook the four humans alive as food for them. Akira and Hachi were shocked to see that, and they and Htet tried to get closer to the caves, but an invisible, magical barrier prevented them from entering the Yamauba caves' premises.

"Huh? What?" Akira was taken aback, before touching the invisible barrier.

"Is there a barrier here?" Hachi asked.

"This is worse than I thought," Htet responded back.

Akira and Hachi then looked at him.

"Recently, some of the Yamauba had evolved into witches and started utilizing magic to protect themselves and attack their prey more effectively," Htet replied while being horrified at the Yamuba's evolution.

Though they were shocked at that fact, Akira and Hachi got that and understood that.

The three of them heard and saw the Yamauba coming back with some leaves and other herbs, so they fled and hid somewhere behind the trees. As the Yamauba entered their cave home through the magical and invisible barrier, Akira, Hachi, and Htet began to devise a plan to rescue the four helpless souls.

Chapter 42 – Yamauba