Sorry it took so long 
writer's block can really be a pain
well here's chap 3!
Chapter 3
Demon King Detective! Who in the Right Mind Would Do This?!
It’s been a week since Mikane found out Night was a Demon King, he was really shocked at first, but got over it rather quickly. Everything went along smoothly; except for the girls. You see, on Tuesday, the girls were fawning when Ryuuji and Night walked into campus together with Sparky in Night’s arms. I’ll explain.
The morning ritual was the same, but this time I woke up to someone knocking on my porch door. I groaned and got up to see who it was; Ryuuji on the porch, Night flying a few inches above the ground with Sparky in his arms, and Mikane wrapped up in his tail. “What do you want?” I asked when I looked over to my clock. 6:29.
“I don’t know what time you guys wake up, but I still have 50 minutes, so I am going to enjoy it in peace. Now good night.” I said as I rolled over and pulled the blanket over my head.
“Grei.” Ryuuji simply said.
“Okay. Go for it, Sparky.” Night responded as he held out that demonic little sparkplug.
Sparky literally shocked me out of bed, I jolted up and out of it. As I climbed on the edge of the bed and groaned, “Was that really necessary? What?” I asked when I saw Night, Mikane, and even Sparky covering their mouths to prevent themselves from laughing.
That didn’t work, they burst out hysterically. I gave them a questioning look before Ryuuji answered my question, “They are because your hair looks like a… shrub?”
I reached to touch my hair to find it feeling like an afro, “What the hell did you do that for, you damn dog?! You could’ve just bit my leg!”
“If I did, it would be no fun, right Grei?” Sparky responded with a laugh as Night nodded in agreement. Sometimes I have to wonder if these “great friends” of mine have some kind of grudge against me? And how is it possible that my family are such heavy sleepers that they actually slept through this?
“Now that you are awake, get dressed and fix your hair.” Ryuuji said, bringing me out of my thoughts.
“Sorry dude, but if it feels any better, Sparky actually did bite me to wake me up, and I can assure you, it did feel not good.” Mikane consoled, showing me his arm that was fine, except for a large bite mark that either came from a shark or that living bear trap, it was probably painful until Grei healed it. I had to hide me smirk as I went to get my uniform.
After I put on my uniform and actually ate breakfast, I was out the door with the others. I understand how Night and Mikane are on the ground, but I don’t get how Ryuuji got there so quickly, let alone fly without wings; does he levitate or something? As we started walking to school Mikane felt uncomfortable with the silence and asked, “Hey Ryuuji, you’re Night’s guardian, right? So does that mean your families are close?”
Ryuuji thought for a moment before replying, “No not really, our families despise each other.”
“Then why do you two get along so well?” I asked, if their families hated each other, how can they get along?
Before Ryuuji can answer, Night spoke up, “We get along okay, but Ryuuji gets along better with Big Brother, they were almost always together as kids, Ryuuji always wanted to plea-”
“GreiNight!” Ryuuji yelled with a pink-tinted face, making Night and Sparky laugh. Ryuuji cleared his throat and got rid of his blush, “As I was saying, our hatred for the other is mainly due to the fact that we are polar opposites. Aside from that, our kingdoms work together rather well.”
Mikane and I understood that much, but how were they polar opposites? “How are the Vermillion family and the Daggcaster family different?”
Ryuuji seemed to know that we would ask that, “Each royal family has a specialty, Grei’s family is skilled with sound itself, which explains Grei’s interest in music. My family, on the other hand, are skilled with direct physical combat.”
That made both my and Mikane’s eyebrow to rise, Ryuuji didn’t seem like the aggressive type. Ryuuji just laughed, “Here allow me to show you.” He turned to Night, “Grei, Neral is here in the Human World.”
That make Night’s ears twitch and tail come out, it was thrashing the ground, “What!?” He yelled in the most agitated voice I’d ever heard, “Where is he!? Where is that tone-deaf, muscle brained idiot!? That annoying bastard, Nera, he always shows up when I never want him to!!” He said with growl, he actually had Mikane and I hiding behind Ryuuji, who didn’t seem at all surprised, in fact he seemed okay with it. Even without cursing, an angry Night is the scariest thing you can face. And pray every powerful being that you don’t!
“It’s okay, Grei, Nera isn’t here. Ryuuji was just joking.” Sparky said as though nothing was happening.
That made Night calm down and look at Ryuuji with a pout as he retracted his tail, “That’s not nice, Jiji, don’t use me in your examples.”
“I’m not old!” Ryuuji seemed to yell as though that was a conditioned response. “And that is what I meant. As Grei mentioned, most in my family are focused on physical training and exercise, his however are a more laid back and prefer to sing and perform to fighting.”
“Okay, I got that much, but who is Neral, and why did Grei act like that when you mentioned his name?” Mikane asked, and I admit, I was curious as well; Grei hardly ever got upset let alone make a frown.
“Neral is my younger brother, and he is two years older than Grei, meaning around 27. Those two have hated each other as long as they have known the other, they instantly get ready to fight whenever they hear that they are in the same area. Being that their positions as Kings don’t help much either.” Ryuuji sighed.
That made me want to know more, “What do you mean their positions? Even though they are kings, they have their own separate kingdoms, right?”
“Well, I suppose that’s true, but in the Demon World we have 100 Kings, meaning 100 kingdoms; our way of order is that each of the Demon Kings hold a position, each position is determined by the order the kingdom was created, and given the number from 2-100. The kingdom’s number is to stay the same at all times, but it doesn’t represent the king’s strength.
Of course our First King, Demon Lord, decided that each King and member of the royal family have a name to be known as; as such Grei is the 95th Demon King, “King of Time and Death,” and his family is considered as, the “Wielders of Demonic Heavenly Sound,” for the fact that the music they play is enjoyed by the Demon and Angel World alike.
Neral Spearson Daggcaster is the 94th Demon King, known as the “King of Fists,” and my family, “Hands of Blunt Force.”
Mikane and I nodded until we noticed something, “Wait, if that Neral guy is 27 and two years older than Grei, then that means-”
“We’re here!” Night said happily Sparky in his arms.
“Are you sure that you can bring a dog in here? Demon or not, a dog is still a dog.” Mikane said, I actually turned to him in shock, an idiot like him actually made sense, Maybe my tutor sessions with him are finally paying off.
“I’m coming along with Grei whether you like it or not. Besides, Ryuuji said it was fine.” Sparky said in a matter-of-fact manner.
“Now that you mention it, what are you doing here as well, I thought you just came to drop Night and the rest of us off, Ryuuji?” I asked. Why would he come on campus along with us?
“I suppose I didn’t tell you, from here on, I am a student of the University Division of Clear Academy.” Ryuuji answered back.
Night nodded happily, “That’s right, Aunt Sear was fine with it too.”
Not a second later, as soon as we took a step forward, Night’s fan club showed up. The moment they saw him they squealed, “Grei-sama, it’s such an honor to see you so early in the morning!” And this was when they noticed Sparky, “Hmm? Is this your dog? It’s so cute!!”
“Oh, thank you. Her name is Sparkette, but I call her Sparky, it’s cuter, don’t you think?” The girls blushed at what he said, I wouldn’t be surprised, those were his fans.
“I wouldn’t fall for that dog’s cuteness, if I were you ladies. It looks cute, but she’s got one hell of a bite!” Mikane yelled, warning them if Sparky was going to bite them or not, and knowing that she’s as unpredictable as a hurricane; I can’t assure she’s harmless to humans.
The girls, however, didn’t seem to believe Mikane’s warning. “You’re lying Taiga! Grei-sama would never have something that could hurt him! If it really did bite people, he would have put it down!” That made Ryuuji, Night, and Sparky to frown.
Another girl intervened, “Don’t say that! He loves animals and hates killing them, you’re insulting Grei-sama! If you knew anything, you would’ve known that much!”
“What was that?!”
The girls were about to have a fight, Night seemed annoyed, he didn’t want to be nice to them anymore. He brought back that cold mask that he always wore at school when he isn’t around me; before he could say anything, Ryuuji interjected, “It seems that all women fight over frivolous things. It’s such a shame, all it does, is make them age faster and gain silver hair.”
That made the girls snap at him, “WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!!” Strangely enough, Night leered at him with a look that said “What’s wrong with silver hair?” for some reason or another. The girls calmed down immediately when their eyes landed on Ryuuji; they turned heart-shaped.
“Oh, we’re sorry, we didn’t notice you. We apologize for our outburst, umm?”
Night took a step forward with Sparky still in his arms, and pointed at Ryuuji, “He’s Ryuuji Daggcaster. He’s a friend of my brother, he’s attending the University Division now.” He then let’s Sparky jump out of his arms, land on the ground, and growls at the girls; making them jolt back, “And Taiga wasn’t lying, Sparky will bite anyone, but only if they’re bad, if they hit her on the head, she’s playing with them, or she just hates them. I will stop her if she plays too rough, but I won’t if it is for those reasons. You can say Sparky is an adorable guard dog.” Night turned around and started walking, “Let’s go, leaving would be enjoyable right now.”
The girls didn’t seem to get the point and asked, “Wait, you have a brother? Tell us what he’s like! How old is he? What type of girl is he interested in?”
Night stopped, and the girls smiled, thinking he was going to turn around and happily answer their questions. They were dead wrong, his back was still turned to them, and he had an agitated tone in his voice, “I have two brothers, one younger and one older. Now I will say this once, and I don’t intend on repeating myself. I have talked with you ladies, put up with what you said to one of my friends, and had small talk, but don’t overstep your boundaries. What there is to know about my family is my business. Your chatter and comments has annoyed me, I hoped to leave before I could get angry. Now be silent and don’t speak to me. I hope to not see or speak to any of you today.”
He walked around Mikane and I, followed by Sparky and Ryuuji, having the same smile he usually did, “I’m going to go with Ryuuji to meet with someone, I’ll be back by the time class starts. By the way, sorry for the pain you are about to feel. Bye!”
Wait, what did he mean by pain? That question was answered when I heard crying. Mikane and I turned around to see the girls wailing, “Waah! We m-made Grei-sama angry! Now we can’t talk to him! I-I might be fine if I take one last look.” They looked around for Night, but he walked quickly enough and was long gone. They ran right at us. “Grei-sama went that way!”
They right on top of us, stomping on our backs when we couldn’t run away quickly enough. After they left, both Mikane and I had footprints covering our backs. We got up with a groan; I stretched only to hear a loud crack, telling me that I am going to need a chiropractor after this, and hearing the same thing from Mikane’s direction, he grumbled, “Is it me or are those girls heavier than they look? I just hope Grei can fix our backs.” I gave a pained nod in agreement.
After limping to class, Night was sitting in his seat with Sparky on his desk; he seemed to be in a better mood. When Ms. Cult came in, she was quite surprised when she saw something perched on her desk, “Alright class, today we will- dog?” She said when Sparky just sat on her desk, and I’m pretty sure that Night was either fine with it, or he wanted her to do it. “Okay, which one of you brought a green dog to school?”
“Sparky, come here.” Night’s voice said calmly, as Sparky hopped on each desk to reach him. Sparky just barked and gave him a lick on the cheek as Night petted her.
Everyone thought it was cute and turned back to Ms. Cult, whose eyebrow was twitching, “GreiNight, I have two questions for you. One, why do you have your dog with you? You know that you are not supposed to bring your pet to campus.”
“She allowed me to bring Sparky, she said that as long as there is no trouble, it’s fine.” Night said, making everyone wonder who “she” was.
Ms. Cult just sighed, “I should have known. That woman is always up to something. Now here’s the second one, why is your dog green? Don’t tell me you dyed your own dog.”
That made Sparky snarl, and Night just said in a cold voice, “Ms. Cult, that is rude to both Sparky and myself. By saying that, you insulted Sparky’s natural fur color. She can understand you quite well, and if she were able to talk, she would do the same to you as retort. As for myself, I love animals, so I would never do such a thing to an animal or my own pet. So please don’t make accusations like that again.”
Ms. Cult blushed at the eerie silence while the rest of the students were watching this unfold. I suppose it isn’t too surprising; if I were a teacher that got lectured something by her own student, I’d be embarrassed too. Little did I know, that was exactly what she thinking at that moment, “How embarrassing! I can’t believe I actually got a scolding from my student! Not only that, but her nephew! That family always seems to win in verbal arguments. I need to have a talk with our Chairwoman after this.” Ms.Cult just blushed as she coughed, “Yes, I apologize.”
Turning back to the front of the room, she spoke, “As I was about to say before, today you will be doing an internship for the jobs you might desire. You can be in a group of threes in this task, so the three of you will have to be work with both each other and the person you’re going to. After you’ve chosen your group, come to me and I will give a random career. You will also be interning in this random career for one week, so if you choose one your group doesn’t admire, you are free to pick a different one.”
Obviously Mikane, Night, and I became a group, apparently drawing detective. I just sighed and started packing up as Night asked me, “Kain, what is a detective?”
“It is a person that solves mysteries and help fight crime. I personally don’t like this job.”
Mikane thought otherwise about my explanation, “What do you mean? It’s pretty awesome if you ask me, you get to go to tons of different places and experience new things. Good or bad, it’s amazing!”
Night just stood there confused, “Humans are so strange…”
During our walk to the detective agency, Ms. Cult was having a talk with the Chairwoman while a familiar face was having a seat on the couch. “Oh, I didn’t know you had someone in here already, Mrs. Crimson. I’ll come back later.”
That made the Chairwoman grin at her with her dull red hair tied in a bun to sag on the side, but with an evident vein appearing on her forehead, “What was that, Loral? I could have sworn I heard you say something. Care to repeat that?”
That made Ms. Loral Cult gulp in fear, “No-nothing, Lady Crimson!” She really made the wrong move by calling her a “Mrs.”.
At that response, the Chairwoman smiled calmly, which let Loral release a sigh of relief, “That’s better. Never mind Ryuuji, he is a friend of my nephew. What is it you wanted to talk about?”
“Oh that’s right. I wanted to ask you about your nephew, GreiNight Vermillion.”
That made Ms. Crimson curious, “Really now? Well go on ahead.”
“I’m asking if he’s anything like you-a strange creature, I mean. Even that puppy he brought along looked ready to tear me to shreds.”
“That’s strange, Sparky’s really docile and Grei won’t get upset as long as no one says anything about his family.”
Ms. Cult turn pale and gulped, making Ryuuji raise an eyebrow, and Ms. Crimson to smirk, “Judging from that expression, you did just that and my nephew ended up scolding you in front of the whole class; am I correct?”
Ms. Cult nodded, trying not to sulk in the corner of the room, and remembered another thing, “There’s more, why did you want my class to have student internships so soon, and why did you want me to give GreiNight’s group the most dangerous job possible?”
That made Ms. Crimson grin maniacally, “Loral, that is my business and I know they will be fine. Now if you have any other questions of that sort, I think I just might enroll Grei’s brothers to your other classes; I did enroll him in your class in the first place.”
That made a chill, so cold it burned, run up her spine. It felt like Ms. Cult’s tan brown hair that was in a tight bun singed at the ends. One Vermillion was bad enough; don’t get the wrong idea, GreiNight was a wonderful student, he just has the uncanny ability to detect flaws. That is not really something a teacher is grateful about. Ms. Cult just nodded, “Yes Lady Crimson.”
After Ms. Cult left through the door, Ryuuji asked, “Why didn’t you just tell her the truth?”
“It would be more confusing to a human like her.”
Ryuuji just made a grunt in affirmation, “That’s true, even Grei’s friends don’t know about it. Grei’s hunger.”
Ms. Crimson stood up from her desk she’d been sitting it this whole time, and walked over to the other side of the room, looking out the window. “For now, we’ll see. Ryuuji, I’m sure you know what to do.”
“Right.”
While they spoke, Ms. Cult was deep in thought, “Why did I ask that? Lady Crimson is the only one that’s not human, but Grei is her nephew too, so I can’t be certain. Why is my life so difficult?” And sighed while she ran a hand through her evenly cut bangs, Ms. Cult’s life seems to have been very strenuous, but she’ll explain some other time.
Night, Mikane, Sparky, and I made it to Kagemiya’s Detective Agency without a problem. As soon as we set foot inside, Sparky almost got stepped on by a man in a suit that was running by; until Night picked her up the second before. We were about to ask what was going on, but a female voice yelling interrupted, “Yakeru, you rash idiot! Get back here!!” The woman ran very quickly on her stiletto heels; that is, until she tripped and fell face first.
Mikane and I ran to help her while Night just held onto Sparky and stared out the door; as though looking after a foreboding shadow. As Mikane kneeled down and asked if the woman was alright. Getting a closer look at her, she had light auburn colored hair, darkly tanned skin, slanted grayish green eyes and wore a pair of glasses- probably not like mines, and a reddish pink pantsuit. The woman, in my opinion, looked rather old, but I’m keeping that to myself, I noticed her shift slightly and holding her nose while she glared and grumbled, “Damn Yakero, his stupid actions always end up getting me injured while he ends up scot-free…” She seemed like she was about to continue until she noticed that we were staring at her; even Night was confused when he decided to walk up to us and heard this rant. She turned red and gave an awkward laugh, “Ah-ah sorry, I think I just went off into a rant, huh? Well, my name is Suzu Tetragami; I am in charge of Kagemiya Detective Agency. Is there anything I can help you three with?”
Night and Mikane stayed silent-really now that droopy Cathead’s quiet, making me the one to answer, “We’re the students from Clear Academy for the internship, I am Kain Nurosawa, the cat-eyed guy is Taiga Mikane, and the one with red eyes is GreiNight Vermillion; he’s fine with either Grei or Night. And the little green monster in Night’s arms is his dog Sparkette, or Sparky for short. I hope you take care of us for the week.”
The woman, now known as Suzu, put a hand on cheek and thought for a moment before she realized whatever she was pondering, “Oh that’s right, so you three are the interns! Sorry, we already had a mentor assigned to you, but something came up and he ran out to do a case on his own.”
Night spoke with an angered pout while Sparky gave an annoyed bark, “He almost stepped on Sparky. (And I would let her bite his leg off for that).” That last part was unheard by Suzu, but Mikane and I heard it loud and clear; and the source came from the pins. Apparently a function on it would be communication. Really, with stuff like this, why does Night always have to make it a surprise?
Mikane and I flinched and looked at each other before looking back at Night; seemed tempted to bring his tail out, who knew what would happen if someone were to see. Thankfully, Mikane, noticing this, stopped him, “Calm down, Grei! He didn’t step on your evil little mo- I-I mean very scary, yet adorable, dog so it’s fine!” Turning back to Suzu with a smile, he tried to keep the mood up, “So, Tetragami-san, is there anything something for us to do until our mentor shows up?”
Suzu seemed to be laughing at the sight before her; how none of us noticed, I’ll never know. She responded with, “Don’t worry, the idiot always runs out without getting everything he needs, wait thirty minutes and he’ll be rushing back.” She hands us each pagers, “Here, these are old fashioned, but they come in handy every once in a while; that and we’re on a budget,” She muttered the last part to herself, “I’ll get my hands on your mentor and tell you when he’s here. In the meantime, why don’t you go downtown and buy something to eat, it seems like two of you are hungry.” Suzu pointed at Mikane, whose stomach growled as if on cue; the other person though, maybe Sparky? I can’t say Night, considering I’ve never seen him eat before. She laughed while Mikane turned a little pink before waving us off and left.
That left us here, standing in front of the reception counter, looking at each other and giving questioning glances. Mikane had enough of the silence and promptly dragged Night and I out of the building, “Okay I’m starving, let’s go buy a burger or something? We have thirty minutes, and I could use a soda right about now!”
That made Night, who was walking just fine while I was struggling to keep up ask, “What is a soda and a burger? Are those human food?”
That made both Mikane and I to turn at him in shock and said, “YOU’VE NEVER EATEN HUMAN FOOD BEFORE?!” At the same time before turning back at each other.
“Wait, why are you surprised, Nurosawa? You’re with Grei almost all the time, haven’t you ever seen him eat anything?” Mikane asked me after he grabbed me by the shoulder in a whisper. Honestly, I’ve never seen him eat a single thing for as long as I’ve known Night.
“No never. Whenever he’s with me, Night doesn’t seem hungry. He’s seen me eat plenty of times, but he didn’t ask me anything at those moments.” I thought back, he really doesn’t ask me about too much; now that I think about it.
“Well then let’s show Grei, I’m sure he’ll like it!” Mikane whispered cheerfully as we broke up our private discussion, and turned back to Night, who was staring in confusion, while Sparky seemed to have heard the entire thing. Mikane and I could feel the threatening electricity in the air; a painful chill went up and down our spines, but Mikane; even though he was sweat-dropping from the electricity surrounding Night, spoke eagerly and grabbed Night’s arm and started pulling him, “Come on, Night! We’ll show you what a soda and burger are; it’ll be our treat!”
Night didn’t seem to understand what that meant but went along with it, “Okay, it wouldn’t do any harm to try human food, right Sparky?”
The demonic green canine nodded, “It does, but are you sure that is a good idea, Grei? You don’t even eat de-” Sparky was cut off as Night covered her mouth with one hand.
He looked down at her with strange glance, “Sparkette…” was all Mikane and I could hear before Night started to whisper something in her ear. When he was done, he let her down; Sparky seemed to have a maniacal grin on her face, (although I don’t know how that is possible for a dog.) and electricity was flying around her; that was a bad sign. That I know.
We looked back and forth between Night, who was smiling calmly, and Sparky who was grinning madly, either one were terrifying in a way. Mikane and I turned our eyes back to Night when he spoke, “Well let’s go, Taiga, Kain. I want to give it a try.”
Mikane nodded dumbly as I regained my composure, we were ready to head out, but we both noticed one thing; that demon dog was still letting out sparks. “Uhh, sure thing Grei, but why is Sparky looking like she’s ready to eat us?” Judging by the quiver in Mikane’s voice, he knew what the answer to that question will be, and it’s the same one I’m thinking of right now.
Instead of Night answering Mikane’s question, Sparky spoke for him, “It would be boring for me, so you two will be showing us the way; while you’re running from me!”
Both us turned a little pale at her enthusiasm, and brought our attention to Night when he spoke, “Sparky wants you two to run fast and get us there; or else she’ll shock Taiga and bite Kain. I’m sure you know how painful it is, but this time she’s switch it around.” I could tell he was hiding a giggle in his voice.
Mikane and I faced each other, thinking of the excruciating pain, and rapidly headed towards the door, as we ran, Sparky barked out in an excited voice-probably to keep from other people overhearing her talk; Night translated for her, “She says, “you two have a three second head start. You better keep running if you don’t want to get hurt. Grei will be counting down of course.” Okay, Taiga and Kain, let’s go. 1…” As soon as he started counting, we were out the door. “2…” Down the block. “3, here we go, Sparky.” And they were right behind Mikane and I in a flash! We ran as though hell were on our asses, which isn’t too far off considering Sparky jumped and bit my arm while she singed and lit fire to the edge of Mikane’s jacket, at this moment, I’m sure Mikane and I were thinking the same thing, “How the hell does Nurosawa/Mikane put up with this?! It FREAKING HURTS!!!”
By the time the three of us plus Sparky made it to the burger joint, Mikane and I were crawling through the door and to the cash register with Night walking without a hair out of place and Sparky in his arms along her tail wagging; I’m telling you, that damn dog had too much fun! When Mikane was climbing to order the food while I just slumped against the counter, I’m sure the girl in front of the register was sweat dropping just like the other customers that were staring at us. “A-ah, wel-welcome to Takahoshi’s, is there anything you would like?” The girl stammered-considering the sight in front of her, it’s not that surprising. Two guys, sweating like crazy and exhausted, crawling all the way to the register with a handsome guy walking right behind them with not a drop of sweat on his brow.
“We’ll… take everything on the menu… and the three Sprites… the largest… size you have…” Mikane panted out before losing his grip on the table and falling beside me on the floor. Everyone was still staring at us, but fortunately no one was panicking.
“Y-yes, it’s coming right up, that’ll be 1,270 yen please.” Mikane didn’t have the strength to hand the girl the money so he gave it to Night who paid. “Thank you, please wait at a table until your order arrives.” When Night bent down and started to drag us by the back of our collars, the cashier asked worriedly, “Sir, are you sure your friends okay? They look like they’re dead.”
Night just turned around and smiled when he said, “My friends are fine miss, they’re just tired after the run we had, I’m sure they’ll be back to normal as soon as they get something in their stomachs. Thank you for your concern, it’s really sweet of you.” I knew that Night was being nice, but even exhausted as I was, I could see that girl blushing from what he had said to this nameless girl; I could actually feel a little pang of jealousy, and looking over at Mikane’s glare at that girl as well, he didn’t seem to appreciate it either.
By the time Night dragged Mikane and I to an empty table, we regained a bit of energy from that run, and we still had twenty minutes to wait until our mentor came back. Night didn’t pay much attention to wait was going on as he played with Sparky, but in the background Mikane and I could hear people whispering, “Hey, aren’t those Clear Academy uniforms?” “What’s a bunch of rich kids doing here?” “Who knows, but the one with the glasses looks like a nerd, don’t you think?” “Yeah you’re right, but maybe he’s cool and handsome behind the glasses, you know like in manga!” “You read way too much of that stuff.” “Hey what about that one over there, the one sitting next to him, he looks like he could be in every sport you can imagine.” “Look at the other one though, he’s so cute!” “Which one?” “The one with blackish blue hair, he’s the one playing with a green dog.” “You’re right, he’s so handsome! Do you think he’s a foreign prince?” “He must be!” “Clear Academy must be hiding tons of cute people in there.” “I want to go there!” “There must be a sea of babes in that school!”
Every single one of their poor excuse for whispering was getting on my nerves, “How dare they just assume things?! Just because Clear Academy is a prestigious school, it doesn’t mean it’s for rich people! If it were, there would be no way that I would have been able to enroll in the first place.” As those thoughts past through my head, I gritted my teeth.
Mikane noticed and gave me pat on back, “Calm down dude, they don’t know what they’re saying, besides why should we care about what they think anyway. It’s our life, right?” I looked at him in shock, this must be the end of the world-Mikane made sense twice in one day. “What’s with that look? I’m not that stupid you know, Nurosawa. I can say something smart every once in a while, can’t I?”
“Once in a few years, yes, but twice in one day; Night, is the apocalypse on its way?” I said jokingly after I snapped out of it.
Surprisingly that made Mikane more shocked than I was, “Okay, who are you and what have you done with the real Nurosawa? He normally acts like he has a stick up his butt. Oh I know, Sparky, maybe you zapped him a bit too hard while we were running.”
That made me smack him in the head, “You idiot, you were the one getting zapped!”
“Hahaha!” Mikane and I turned to Night who laughed at the whole scene, “You two really are good friends!” Seeing Night laugh always made me smile, I suppose Mikane thought the same thing; seeing a gentle grin on his face, but looking around to see the other customers blushing and give Night heated glares seemed to make my mood sour.
“Umm… here are your orders…” Said a voice that sounded just like the one from the counter. Turning our attention, it was indeed the same girl. “Sorry for the wait.” She said as she struggled to hold the large pile of food Mikane ordered.
Mikane gently took the food and placed it on the table, to not be rude, “Thank you, but you could have told us our order was ready, we would’ve been fine with carrying the food to our table.”
“That’s right, it would be a bother to ask someone to do that for us.” I continued in a polite tone. It’d be rude to have someone do that for us, we’re not royalty. Well, not counting Night.
“We appreciate your help, we’ll be sure to give you a tip if you like.” Night said kindly.
“N-no, it’s fine, if there’s anything else you’d like, just ask!” She nearly yelled with her face tinted red before she ran into the kitchen.
Night was confused at what he witnessed, “Did I say the wrong thing? Humans tip a person that works in a place like this, right?”
Mikane and I laughed, and Mikane answered, “No no, you did it right, it just seems you got yourself another member for that fan club of your’s.”
Night just gave a nod in response. Mikane gave us and Sparky a random burger in the pile as he took one for himself as well. He also handed Night a cup of Sprite as he got one for himself, and I did the same, “Well, give it a try, Grei. You might like it.”
“Wait, Grei, let me try first.” Sparky said, putting a paw on Night’s leg. He complied and opened the lid to pour a small amount on his cupped hand and brought down to Sparky. She took a quick lick and was fine; she gave a tentative lick and keeled over, “Ack! Sour!” She fell over on the seat.
Mikane looked like he was trying to restrain himself from laughing, “Ah, what happened to Sparky?”
Night just looked down at her before reaching for a napkin to wipe his hand, “Sparky hates sour things. This always happens when she eats something like that.” He looked at the straw that was placed in the cup, and took a sip. He beamed, “Wow it’s not sour, it’s sweet.”
Mikane and I chuckled at Night’s childlike reaction to his first experience in something new, and laughed as Sparky groaned, “It’s obvious it would taste sweet to you Grei, I have superior taste buds, why humans like this stuff is beyond me.”
Everyone finished that pile of food pretty quickly; it was mostly devoured by Sparky and Mikane, they looked like they were fighting over it. Fortunately for me, Sparky didn’t feel like another marathon-more like a death race, so we just walked back to the detective agency, but as we made our way through the door, a man’s yelling resounded from the walls, “What do you mean I’m a mentor?! I’m on a case, there’s no way I can be one!! Can’t someone else do it?!”
Then Suzu’s voice resounded in an equally loud yell, “Well it’s your fault for running out on me when I was just explaining the situation. Consider it your punishment!!”
“I am not doing it!”
“You will do even if I have to handcuff you four together!” We heard metal clinking and rustling as we walked to the source of the voices. I’m not sure if Mikane noticed, but every once in a while, Night flinched as Sparky licked him comfortingly. Night probably wouldn’t want me to ask about it, so I just ignored it and continued forward.
I gave a knock on the door of an office; which seemed to be where the voices we emanating from. “Tetragami-san, we’re here.” I said and the three of us entered when she let us. We saw a guy, the same one that nearly stepped on Sparky, tied up to a chair. Sweat dropping, but ignoring it and turned to Suzu, “Is he our mentor?” I asked.
Mikane and Night took a look at him and glanced at each other before laughing, Mikane spoke, “This guy seems kinda… What’s the word?”
“Pathetic?” Night answered.
“Yeah that’s the word!”
“Hey! I’m right here, you brats! I can still hear you!” The man yell, twisting about in the noose.
Suzu was laughing loudly, hearing this, everyone turned their attention to her, “I was right, those three are a good match for you, Yakero.”
“They are not! And untie me!!” As soon as Suzu got over her laughing fit, she followed suit and unbound the knot.
As he got out from the noose and stood up; straightening his clothes, he introduced himself, “Guess I have no choice, I’m Yakero Kagemiya. I handle the serious crime and murder here. I’m forced to be your mentor for the week, and I’m sure neither of us wants to get in each other’s way. You guys introduce yourself.”
As usual for inaugurations, I started off, “I am Kain Nurosawa, I myself don’t have a reason to be here, but the experience could be useful.” I stated in a calm fashion.
Next was Mikane, “Yo, name’s Taiga Mikane, I’m not as stiff like Nurosawa, I actually think this is a good career to pick.” Of course he said it without forgetting to place a grin on his face.
Finally Night was up next, but he seemed to have that cold look on his face again; he must’ve either been bored or annoyed, “My name is GreiNight Vermillion, and I don’t like you for two reasons:
1. You sound and act like a person I can’t stand
2. You almost stepped on Sparky when you ran out the door.”
Seems like Night hasn’t forgiven this guy yet. Yakero seemed confused, “Who’s Sparky?”
Mikane warned him, “That’s Grei’s dog, and I can guarantee that she’s got a hell of a bite!” Sparky growled at Mikane which had him using me as a shield, “Come on, you had a race already, don’t tell me you want to use us as a chew-toy!?”
“Sparky stay, you can play later.” Night said as he patted her head.
We heard a groan and turned to Yakero; who was the source, “Just great, I have to work with a nerd, a jock, and a sissy with a green dog. How am I supposed to catch the culprit with these guys?” This made Mikane and I trying to hold back Sparky while Night was fuming.
Suzu responded to that with a cheerful tone, “Well why not have them act as bait? The guy seems to be after teenage girls, right; so it should be no problem.”
That upbeat voice of Suzu’s seemed more frightening than her yelling; it was as though declaring that if we didn’t accept that option, something terrifying would happen. Obviously, Yakero noticed this too, and nodded furiously. Suzu continued talking after a victorious smile was placed upon her face, “Here are your disguises and wigs. Go change and we’ll actualize our plan.”
Cross-dressing, just what I needed. Not. I swear that if people hear about this-or worst, my sister, I think I might have to find another place to live in; perhaps Alaska? “Grrr… How do girls wear this stuff?!” My train of thought turned to Mikane as I heard him struggling with his disguise while we were changing in the men’s locker room. Honestly, how did these people happen to have our exact sizes, yet not think of something simple?
The disguises for Mikane and I were a pair of plaid skirts with grey spandex shorts, with a pinkish purple button-up blouse that had flowers embroidered along the seams, and magenta jackets that had a pair of black gloves, wigs that matched our hair, but was slightly longer than our own were, and 2 inch heels to finish it off; all in itself, it looked simple enough to wear, but women seemed to enjoy wearing difficult clothes. What made it worse was that we also had to wear fake breasts.
After Mikane and I struggled with our outfits, we both noticed they were a little heavy, my back ached a bit, “Is it me or are these clothes heavy to you, Nurosawa?”
I nodded sorely and remembered that Night wasn’t changing along with us, “Speaking of which, where is Night? He isn’t here.”
“You’re right. You don’t think Grei ditched us, do you?” Mikane said in a horrified cry, “There’s no way I’m going anywhere stuck like this when Grei’s hiding somewhere!”
Before he could rush to the door, it opened and a familiar feminine voice asked, “What doing mean by me hiding, Taiga?” There at the door was Night; or more accurately Dusk, in his female form along with Sparky following behind her.
Mikane, however, didn’t know that she was Night, stuttered, “D-Dusk?! What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t come to school today?”
Night just blinked and giggled, “I suppose Kain didn’t tell you, it’s me Grei.”
That Mikane choke on his own saliva, “Wha?! Grei?! So is that your disguise too, or did you…?” Mikane couldn’t ask and stopped mid-sentence.
In Night’s place I answered for him, “Night can change his body to look like a girl’s, I have no idea why he does it, but I won’t ask.”
Night nodded happily as she agreed, taking a closer look, her outfit was completely different from Mikane and I. She wore a blue skin tight sleeveless turtle-neck shirt that had a tiny skull and cross bone with heart shaped eyes on the right side of it, and a rhombus shaped hole that showed her real breasts, a black mini-skirt that looked like it was made of leather, a small pink jacket with a pair of angel wings designed on the back that couldn’t be zipped completely so was below her bosom, a pair of white knee high boots and crimson red fingerless gloves. To complete the look, her hair was in pigtails, she still had that her collar around her neck, but instead of wearing her usual angel wing earrings, she wore a pair of silver crystal earrings that were shaped like her tail.
Her outfit looked intimidating, but Night seemed to make it look… Gothic Lolita, I think the style was. She made it cute with those big blue eyes and light blond hair with red ends she had. “Night looks really cute… I wonder how he would look like if he wore that outfit without changing forms?...!!” As soon I realized what I thought and how long I’ve been looking at her, I turned away with a blush; as I did, I noticed that Mikane did the same thing. I suppressed a growl that tried to crawl out my throat.
When I looked back, Night seemed to be fiddling with her clothes, “Is something wrong, Night?”
Night shook her head, “No, I’m fine.”
Mikane popped a question out of nowhere, “How come your disguise is different, Grei? Is that what they gave you?”
Night shook his head in response, “No, I didn’t get to see what it looked like. I thought that if I was going to pretend to be a girl; that I should turn into one. That’s why I couldn’t change here because you two would act weird, that’s what Sparky said, anyway. Before I could check, Meino and Kako took it and said, “Ick, what disgusting clothes…” “Not to mention, an ugly looking wig.” “Don’t worry, Grei! We’ll give you something better!!” And this happened, those two showed up out of nowhere and this.”
“Who are Meino and Kako?” Mikane asked again.
This time Sparky answered, “Meino’s full name is Meinokure Zizor Ayera, 68th Demon King; known as Hell’s Scissors. And Kako’s full name is Kaseko Sumi Noge, 69th Demon King, alias- Evil Cloak. Those two are actually cousins, but they always stick together. Meino’s kingdom is best known for their beauty; things like your human make-up and hair styling and all that, while Kako’s best with fashion; basically things like clothes and accessories. News spreads around quickly in the Demon World, so I guess they decided to show up and make Grei their doll. Although, I thought they called you Gr-”
Sparky flinched when she noticed Night tapped her heel on the floor, “Say that nickname and I’ll make sure you get groomed by Meino. He said that he has been wanting to give your fur a try.” I could swear that the temperature in the room rose by a few degrees.
“Sorry Grei! I didn’t mean to!” Sparky whined while she pawed on Night’s boot. The whole thing made Mikane and I sweat drop, and thought the same thing, “So that’s how he can get Sparky to listen to Night. I’m glad I haven’t met Meino.”
To change the atmosphere, I started walking over to the door, “Let’s go, I think we spent enough in here. Someone might think we’re trying to run away.”
“In these outfits, who could blame us?” Mikane stated as he gave his jacket a tug, and suddenly gave a smirk, “It’s amazing you’re willing to walk out of here, Nurosawa. You’re so brave! …That or you’re fine with doing this?”
I froze where I stood and turned around slowly, before I threw the closest thing in my surroundings at him as powerfully as I could. Which in Mikane’s misfortune-was Sparky. She was surprised and went into her true form in mid-air; making the large demonic canine land on Mikane’s stomach; knocking him over. He groaned as he sat back up while Sparky growled at me, I scoffed as I turned away from them, “You deserved that, Mikane, you know we don’t have a choice; if we did, I would never even look at this stuff. Sorry about that, Sparky, you just happened to be the closest thing next to me.” I took a step forward and held my hand at the doorknob, “Let’s go Night, Sparky can use Mikane as a cushion if she wanted.”
Night just glanced confusingly back and forth from the door and our fallen friend, and sighed as she followed me, muttering, “Ryuuji better not be spying on me using his plants…” I had no clue on what Night meant by that, but I thought it’d be best for me to ignore it for the time being.
As soon as Mikane, Night, and I walked back into Suzu’s office… “Aww~ they’re so cute! You wouldn’t think these kids were guys, don’t you agree?”
“…”
“You’re so red! Hahahaha~”
“Shut up!”
“Oh calm down, Yakero, I was just kidding.”
“Hey you… Grei-something, what’s with your disguise, I thought there wasn’t supposed to be stuff like that.”
“These are what I found.”
“… Okay then. What about those? Those look too detailed to be fake!”
“You can feel them if you want to see, Mr. Yakero?”
“Wh-wha?!”
“You try that, and I’ll gouge your eyes with your hands!”
“Nurosawa, they’ve been at this for about ten minutes, aren’t we supposed to be going over our plan or something?” This had happened. Apparently, it was a sight for the three of us in these. As we walked down the hall, people were staring at us, or correctly-at Night. As soon as we entered the room, Suzu and Yakero recognized Mikane and I, but Night, who they thought was just a girl passing by. It wasn’t till Night told them, that this happened; Suzu teased Yakero about his reddening face, and Night decided to just play along. To sum it up, this was starting to get annoying.
I grunted as I turned to Mikane, “Mikane, do something will you?” Mikane didn’t quite understand what I meant, but walked over to a closed window and proceeded to a take a glove off his hand.
Mikane drug his nails down along the window to produce a keening screech. (How he could do that with short, dull nails was a mystery to me) Night somehow notice beforehand and covered his ears while Suzu and Yakero stopped what they were doing to. As soon as they covered their ears, Mikane stopped, and Yakero attempted to yell at him, “What was that for you brat?!”
I cleared my throat and that promptly brought everyone’s attention to me, “Mikane only did that so we could start our plan. I don’t intend on wearing this horrid thing for nothing.”
That seemed to make Yakero regain his composure as Suzu made her way back to her desk. As she sat, she immediately became serious as she spoke, “Okay, with all the fun out of the way, let’s get started, shall we?”
Everyone nodded as she continued, “Our culprit is a 34 year old man, has a large bulky build, short brown beard and messy gray-black hair. This person has targeted and murdered ten adolescent girls and three adult women; incidentally though, with those three, notes stating “These were wrong” had been found near or on the body. That being said, it is obvious that his aims are only towards teenagers; which is why Nurosawa-kun, Mikane-kun, and Vermillion-kun will wear those disguises to lead him into our trap. The plans are simple; we’ll have you wander around downtown for a while until he spots one of you three.”
“There’s a problem in that plan though.” Yakeru interjected, “That guy has a pocket-sized transceiver that disrupts the signals in our radios. That’s one of the reasons why we always gave up that idea.”
Suzu looked down disappointed until Night stated, “That’s okay, we have our own method of communication.”
Suzu graced a curios look upon her face, “Really, what would that be?”
“That’s a secret.”
Just as how the plan decided, Mikane, Night, and I split up into groups; Mikane and Night in a group, and Yakeru and I in another. Basically, this was a dull task and embarrassing task to walk around in drag. (I suppose I shouldn’t complain, Night looked like the other Demon Kings put make-up on him.)
“This is going nowhere, huh Nurosawa?” Mikane asked using the pin while he and Night were on the other side of town. Apparently, a feature on these pins that Night gave us, were capable of communication; no matter the location. All you had to do was talk or think, and it would go through to another person that had this pin. It’s amazing how advanced the Demon World was, considering they had no idea what computers and cellphones were.
“Yes it is, but this something we can’t back out on. Keep looking.” I told Mikane with a groan.
“Hey, kid.” A voice from behind me called out. I turned around to face Yakero and gave a questioning hum. “Can I ask you something?”
This was a surprise, from this whole situation, he hadn’t asked Night, Mikane, or myself anything; what would it be that he’d be curious about? I gave a single nod, “Sure what do you want to know?”
There was a pause before he asked, “I’m wondering how you and those two became friends; it just seems like you would be the type to be friends with quiet people, from what I saw, they seem rowdy.”
That made me think, why was I friends with Mikane and Night? That thought was pushed aside, “It doesn’t matter, those guys are still my friends; no matter what they do.”
“I’m not sure myself about how I became friends with them, but I guess the past isn’t really what matters.”
I know what I said was vague, but it wasn’t like I would just tell someone I just met about myself. Oh well, I suppose it’s time I ask something. “Aside from myself, I’m wondering about your position. You have the same name as the agency; which means that it is owned by your family, and with that being the case, shouldn’t you be in charge instead of Tetragami-san?”
I’d expect Yakero to yell his reason, but he just turned away before speaking, “I have my reasons. My grandfather was actually the last person in my family to be in charge; my dad was killed on a job when it was his turn, so my grandfather had no choice. He lived ten or thirteen years after that before he died of old age. I couldn’t be in charge in that time, so Suzu had to. Even while the geezer was getting sick, he didn’t let me take his position.”
Yakeru paused as though those events were passing through his eyes; I kept silent and waited for him to continue, “I hated him. I thought that my grandfather looked down on me. He actually made an agreement with Suzu before he died; it was all in the will. “My grandson’s childhood friend will take over in my stead. I will not allow my foolish and rambunctious grandson die in that agency before he is ready to hold everything on his shoulders without suffering.” Those were his exact words on that, it was his last wish so I’ll grant it.”
He then suddenly turned to me with an enthusiastic grin, “That’s why I’ll make myself better than Suzu, and take my turn in the family business. Besides, I hate getting things handed to me on a silver platter, so I’ll get that position the old-fashioned way!”
That made me chuckle; that intensity for his goal is just like how Mikane and Night always acted, “Well, you have my support for that someday.” But his refusal to take his grandfather’s place; I wonder about Night, even if he had an easy life as a Demon Prince, did he take use heredity to obtain his position?
I was brought out of my thought when Night’s voice was heard from the pin, “Is something wrong, Kain?”
I stuttered, “Night couldn’t have heard my thoughts, right?” “Did you hear any of my conversation?”
“What conversation?”
I let out a breath of relief, so Night didn’t hear what I thought about him; I’m disappointed considering I can’t at that question. “It’s nothing, Night. Aside from that, have either you or Mikane found the criminal?”
“…..” That moment of silence had me worried, before I could open my mouth to ask, he answered with a single sentence, “The culprit is in your area, he will shoot Yakero in three minutes.”
My initial response was shock; did he have the ability to see the future?! But now wasn’t the time to think about that, “Where was he shot and where was the location?”
There was another moment of silence; as though he didn’t want to answer me, before he spoke again, “I’m not sure of the location, but it will be in an alley way of some sort. He will be shot in the heart. The culprit will stand in front of you two, holding a gun.” There was a pause again, and I heard him whisper something barely audible, “You’ll get hurt too….”
Before I could ask what Night just said meant; I was called over by Yakero, “Hey kid, what are you up to on your own here?” I had nearly that while I was talking with Night, I wandered away for privacy.
I turned around and before I could answer, he spoke, “Whatever, that has nothing to do with this task. We will search the alleyways next; there might be a good chance of finding him.” I froze when Yakero brought forth the word “alleyway”; there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that the criminal would indeed be hiding in the alley, but if Night was right, Yakero would get killed.
I had to figure out a way to make Yakero search a different area, “Are there any other places where we haven’t looked around yet?”
“No there isn’t we cleared every single other area.” He said in an upset tone before turning around and striding ahead. “The last places are the alleyways, now are you just going to stand there in drag, or are you coming?” I could practically hear a smirk coming from his tone.
I scowled before following behind him muttering, “Just exactly whose fault is that?”
“I believe that question would go to Suzu.”
“Shut up.”
In every alley that we searched, the culprit was not spotted, but that didn’t keep me from being on edge. Three minutes already passed and we were in the alley. As I stood I know I’m just waiting for something to happen. “Hey kid, you alright?”
That took me away from my thoughts when I heard Yakero’s voice from behind me. “Nothing, just something on my mind is all.” I answered mentally adding “Your death is tugging what it is.” Of course I couldn’t say that out loud. I get the feeling he’d think I was crazy or something; not that I would deny at this point of my life.
I didn’t notice myself walking ahead slowly, until Yakero was walking up to my right. Right then, a strange feeling came over me, I saw something odd right before my eyes; Yakero and myself. We were walking out of the alley and behind the corner of a building, stood the criminal with a gun in hand and shot the detective right in the chest and falling to the ground in shock. That mortifying sight stayed glued to eyes for what seemed like eternal seconds before it faded as soon as it came. I gasped as I realized my surroundings; back in the alley, and we were close to the exit.
That scene was too real to be a hallucination, and it was as Night said. Looking at the currently alive Yakero I thought, “There has to be away to keep that from happening! But how can I?” Then there was something that occurred to me; where the shot landed on his chest! It was a few inches below his, meaning that it would possibly hit me in the head if I blocked with my body-and I doubt Night could heal a dead person- but if I raised an arm high enough, then I might be able to save him (I just hope Night can heal bullet wounds too).
The brisk walk to the exit was pretty quick and I could see the grasping the holster and getting ready to shoot. I knew I had no time to push him away so I did the next best thing; warn him. “When the criminal shoots, forget about me and go after him. Be careful for his gun.” I warned in a hushed whisper.
“What?” He asked and I wasn’t surprised when Yakero had a confused tone I his voice.
It didn’t matter though. I had already run out of time, just as I saw earlier, the criminal jumped out from where he raised his gun and fired without warning. Everything went into slow-motion as the bullet was released, but that didn’t matter though, I only had one chance to block that bullet and there is little room for error. I immediately brought my arm to that location where I knew the bullet would land.
I groaned and gritted my teeth to keep from screaming as the bullet pierced through the disguise’s sleeve and past skin of the back of my upper left arm. The pain was so immense that it pushed me onto Yakero as blood flowed out from the wound. The older detective caught me and gently sat me down to the ground as I grasped my injury. “Kid, are you okay?!” Yakero asked in a concerned voice while I heard something fall.
Both Yakero and I turned to the now unarmed criminal, who’d dropped the fired weapon and frowned before stating, “Dammit, I hit the girl instead of that guy. I’m screwed!” And took off past the building he hid.
Yakero seemed to hesitate as he looked in between me and the direction where the criminal went. As kind as the consideration was; that guy had to be sent to jail. I looked up at him and asked, “Why are you still here? I said to go after that guy, don’t worry about me! Just go before he gets away!”
“Bu-but…! …Alright, just don’t die on me, kid.” Yakero stated before running off. I suppose as soon as he was out of sight, I fainted from blood loss as everything faded to black.
“Hey!” I heard a voice awaken me as someone shook me, I could tell that whoever it was avoided touching my injury.
I groaned as I opened my eyes to blurrily see a figure with spiked hair. As my sight was refocused, I realized it Mikane that was calling out. I had trouble sitting up with only one arm to use, fortunately Mikane noticed and helped me. I saw that his hair had a recognizable cat ear shape on the sides of his head, and putting a hand on my face, I became conscious of the fact that I wasn’t wearing my glasses. “I guess they fell somewhere.” I muttered before realizing one thing, turning to Mikane, “Mikane, what are you doing here, and where is Night?”
“I don’t know.” Mikane answered, “I lost him a while ago. We caught a lot of people, but they weren’t the one we were looking for; thankfully Grei knocked every one of them that he actually sat on a pile of them when we waited for Suzu or the police. Surprisingly, a few of them were criminals, I couldn’t say it’s a good thing that Grei of all people is the bait; really, you’ve got to pity the fools.”
That ramble made close to no sense to me and I gave him a blank stare, “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Oh right. Grei told me to come here because I had to be here and wait while Sparky comes back with something. He was pretty vague about the details and flew off.” Mikane then looked at the bullet wound, “I’m guessing this is what he meant, but I wonder why he didn’t come to heal you directly, Nurosawa?”
“You’re right, Mikane. Knowing Night though, he should’ve been ready for this and whatever he told Sparky to bring should help me out with this bullet; I’m sure that a doctor won’t be able to help since I can’t even lift my left finger.”
“Let’s hope so. I just wonder what Grei is up to right now?”
Meanwhile with the criminal, he had ran as far as he could from the man he’d missed and stopped at a parking ground about seven blocks away, “I …got… away… There’s no way he’ll catch up to me.” The sweating murderer panted. What he didn’t notice was, with the cover of darkness, a winged person hovered over him; waiting to hunt their prey.
Grei wrapped tail and threw the man to the ground as he landed; to the criminal, it felt like he was being strangled by something, “Wh-what are you doing?” He gasped out to Grei.
Grei, still being in his female form, spoke in an icy calm voice, “You are a man that kills teenage girls; exactly high school level. Purpose is to avenge your daughter that committed suicide after being bullied by other girls around her age for years. You have already accomplished that by killing those girls, yet have not felt satisfied and continued. That is what is told from your memories.”
Yakero had made it to the scene when he heard what Grei had said. Yakero wanted to interrupt, but something warned him to either watch or leave at once. He knew he couldn’t leave so he just stayed in the sidelines and viewed what was before him. “H-how do you-!” The criminal yelled as he panicked and tried to back away from Grei.
“You have an evil and dark soul; you deserve a painful death of which you’ve given to the innocent.” Grei said as he made his way to the fallen criminal, “You should have stop before it before one attacking any random female high school student. Think of how your daughter would feel.”
“My… daughter…?”
“That’s right, she only wanted you to be happy.” Grei held out his gloved hand, and whispered so that only the criminal could hear, “Take my hand, and I will show you your daughter’s happiest memories, greatest wishes, and the moment before she died.”
The man hesitantly reached out and placed his hand on Grei’s palm, while doing so, time seemed to stop around the criminal as he witnessed he times he shared with his only daughter, while that happened, Grei muttered, “Allow me to cure you of your tainted soul and have it as my meal.”
Yakero could only widen his eyes and fall to the ground as the boy’s blond hair turned back to his original black color, his eyes become his normal crimson red, and the disguise became a dark red tuxedo, but that wasn’t what threw him for a loop, what did was the dark wings and white angel wings that sprouted from his back and had a tail. He trembled as he watched a blackish blob float upward from the criminal’s body and Grei swallowed it whole.
When it was over, Grei walked away from the collapsed criminal and towards Yakero, Grei’s red eyes seemed like eyes of a predator as he almost completely faded into the surrounding darkness, Yakero shut his eyes when Grei was in front of him. “Are you okay Yakero?” That made him look up to a hand that Grei held out to him.
Yakero nodded and accepted the help, he looked over at the criminal they had spent the whole day searching for, “What did you do to him? He’s still breathing, so he is unconscious correct?”
Grei nodded, “I just took the evil portion of his soul; it’s very poisonous but that what I need to eat to survive. He is only exhausted from what he saw.”
“What did he see?”
“His daughter. Her death was the start of all this.”
“That’s all?! I know you’re hiding something from me, I know what I saw, what are you?!” Yakero yelled at Grei, he was aggravated from only getting answers that didn’t explain much else.
Before Yakero could grab Grei’s shirt a smooth white wing intercepted, as Yakero backed away Grei followed the large wing as it came back to his very familiar owner. “Do not touch what you do not understand, human. Try to lay so much as a strand of hair on Grei, and I will not hold back my sword.” The figure spoke in a deep voice, yet similar to Grei’s, his face was unrecognizable in the darkness; what was only able to be seen was bright blond hair and white wings and tail.
Yakero was terrified and felt as though this person was going to keep his word, Grei looked up to the figure and spoke in a cheerful and slightly scolding tone, “Big Brother it’s nice to see you again, but you know you’ll get in trouble if the other angels heard you killed another human. This time I won’t bring them back to life and just let you get in trouble like Aunt Sear said to.”
The figure turned calm when he heard Grei’s voice, “Yes it has been Grei, I would’ve visited you and Kei, but I couldn’t find you for a year. Even Ryuuji didn’t know where you were and he is supposed to watch over you. I hadn’t had new until recently so I decided to come as soon as I could.”
“I told Kei, but if I told you that I would be coming here, you would visit as much as you could. You’re really busy, so it’d be unfair if you took me as your first priority over your role.”
“You know family is more important.”
“Yes. Sorry Big Brother.”
“Good that’s my little brother.” The figure said as he patted Grei’s head.
“Um…. Anyone mind explain to me who you two are?” Yakero asked and brought attention to him. Grei and the taller figure looked at each other and nodded.
“Before we tell you, do you swear to keep our identity a secret?” Grei asked seriously. Yakero nodded. The figure narrowed his eyes even though it wasn’t noticed by Yakero.
“I am SeiNight LightsWing Vermillion, the first son of the Vermillion family, I am an angel. That all you need to know.” The figure said nothing more.
“I am his little brother, GreiNight HellsWing Vermillion, second son of the Vermillion family, I’m the 95th Demon King. That’s all I’ll say.” Grei said as he hung on Sei’s arm.
Yakero couldn’t grasp what was going on; these two… weren’t human…? “You’re joking right? There’s no way you’re what you say you are, things like demons and angels don’t exist.”
The figure known as Sei just spoke before he left, “Believe whatever you like; it is none of my concern. However if you speak this to anyone, I won’t hesitate to hurt you.” And disappeared.
“Big Brother isn’t kidding, you know. He’s really scary when he’s mad even scarier than Kei.” Grei said as he transformed back into his female form wearing the disguise again.
“Kei?”
“My little brother.” Grei said, fully disguised again.
Yakero watched as Grei headed back over the still unconscious criminal, and asked, “Hey kid?”
“Yes?”
“Those friends of your’s, do they know about this?”
Grei was silent for a moment, “About my position, yes. About my constitution, my diet, not in the least. It is best for them not to know. When they do, well I suppose I’ll decide; I’m fine even if they leave me because of it.” Grei said with a smile.
Yakero couldn’t help but let his gut feeling tell him that this smile was fake, “Ki-”
“GGGYYAAAAHHHHH!!!!! IT BBBBUUUURRRNNNSSS!!!!!!” Resounded throughout the air.
Yakero and Grei were silent for a few seconds and Yakero asked, “What the hell was that?”
Grei sighed, “Don’t tell me, Ryuuji added human rubbing alcohol into the salve.”
If you are wondering about that yell, that was me. Let’s just say it spoke for itself. When Sparky met up with Mikane and I, she was in her true form pulling a shrub. “Uh… Sparky? How is that going to help Nurosawa?” Mikane asked in an even more confused voice.
Sparky placed the shrub on the ground and turned back to her puppy form, “Ryuuji can make a special salve, but he’s too far away, so he used this thing to keep an eye on Grei.” She turned to the shrub and yelled, “Hey Ryuuji, I know you can hear me, give us the salve so we can fix Pillowhead’s arm. I don’t feel like waiting around here with tomcat either.”
There was silence before Ryuuji’s voice was heard, “I was wondering how long you and Grei noticed me.”
“A plant’s talking?!” Mikane yelled out of surprise, while my eyes widened.
Sparky just sighed, “How are you still surprised? You have a talking dog in front of you too.”
“Right, sorry about that.”
The plant suddenly bloomed and from it was a small green jar, “Here, this should heal the bullet wound. It will dissolve the bullet and restore the nerves in the wound if damaged. Quick warning though-” Mikane didn’t listen as he opened the salve and began to rub it on my wound. It stung. “It’s gonna burn.”
Tears of pains quickly welled up in my eyes as I screamed as loud as I could, “GGGYYAAAAHHHHH!!!!! IT BBBBUUUURRRNNNSSS!!!!!!”
“I swear I am going to punch you for this Mikane!”
After that pain, Sparky, Mikane, and I met up with Suzu, Yakero, and Night, who were taking away the criminal. Strangely though, he seemed compliant and didn’t fight back. The night was over, we went home after changing and slept the whole night.
“Grei, Kain, and Taiga; the chairwoman would like to see you.” Ms. Cult told us shortly after class started. We walked silently to the office and Night opened the door.
“Hello Aunt Sear.” Night said surprising both Mikane and I. This woman with dull red hair tied in a bun with coal black eyes was his aunt?!
The chairwoman smiled, “Hello Grei. You two as well.”
“Is there a reason you called us, Ms. Crimson?” I asked, knowing Mikane stayed silent.
“Yes there is.” The chairwoman answered, “I thought that I would meet my nephew’s friends. Grei, how was that meal you had last night?” She suddenly asked, confusing Mikane and I.
Mikane and I stared at Night as he answered, “It was delicious. I had quite a few souls.”
“That’s good.” She smiled.
“Grei, what are you talking about?” Mikane asked a reasonable question. I wondered the same thing.
“Grei needs to eat evil souls to live.” Ryuuji’s voice spoke suddenly from the couch. How long has he been there?
“What do you mean by that? He ate the same food as us and was fine.” I stated remember the hamburger and soda we had yesterday.
“He can eat those types of foods-even taste it-but he gets no nutrients from it. Therefore Grei, eats the souls of living creatures to survive; just the evil portion of the soul. I believe you saw how that criminal acted.”
“Ryuuji, I think that is enough for now.” Ms. Crimson stopped him from saying anymore. “Essentially, this internship help Grei earn a meal.”
This was barely understandable, but I doubt I would get any more than this. “How long until Grei has to eat again?”
“I can last a while without eating, so it’s fine.” Night said with a smile. Mikane looked like he wanted to say something, but held himself back. I did the same and didn’t press on the topic.
Instead Mikane asked a different question, “Ms. Crimson, what are you?”
Ms. Crimson smiled, “What a nice question, Taiga Mikane. I’m an angel. A fire angel to be exact.”
Well, that explained for the hair and eyes, but I was still curious about something else, “Ryuuji, how did you speak through that plant yesterday?”
“I’m a forest dragon man, so I control plants fairly well. I used them to keep an eye on Grei; that is, until he came here last year.”
Mikane barely listened to that question and asked Night, “Hey Grei, why do you turn into a girl sometimes? It doesn’t make much sense.”
Grei had a questioned face and thought for a moment, “Because it’s fun?”
Mikane sweat dropped a bit, “Okay… I have no idea what to say to that.”
I sighed, I thought I would find out the reason as to why he transformed into a girl as well, but this was something I hadn’t expected. “Night is such an enigma; he has so many twists and turns about him.” I thought. This was probably just the start before something really happens. I can’t say I’m thrilled about that.
