After school, Hideki grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side of the hall. "Hey, you really need to talk to Shunsuke," he told me seriously. This was the first time I had seen him so serious.
"Noted," I responded and tried to brush passed him, but he stepped in front of me.
"I'm serious. He feels badly about the fight," he said.
"Then he should be telling me that, not you," I said, sighing to myself. "But, I was planning on apologizing to him anyway. So, you don't need to worry about that."
"Ok," he said as he moved to side, letting me pass. "See you tomorrow," he called.
I waved over my shoulder as I exited the school. I didn't see Shunsuke anywhere. What? Was he that upset at me that he had gone on ahead without me? I was going to wring his neck. He wasn't supposed to go anywhere without first informing me. Groaning, I ran to the soccer fields, wondering if he was there.
It was void of Shunsuke, only a few athletes were on the fields. One of my teammates spotted me and ran up to me. "Hey, you want to play a game with us?" she asked, a smile on her lips.
I was about to say yes when I heard the whistle go off. Shunsuke was in trouble. I sensed something. It smelled like an upper level demon. It smelled like Lanzar, one of the demons that had been after me for awhile. I had thought I had shook him off my trail, but apparently he had caught it again.
"Sorry," I apologized to Shana. "But, I have to go!" I took off at a dead sprint back home. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that this was not going to end well.
I found Lanzar holding Shunsuke down on the ground, sucking his essence. I took out my sword and slashed at the demon. He must have heard me coming because he dodged my sword, leaving Shunsuke on the ground. I stepped in front of Shunsuke protectively. Shunsuke didn't look so good. Too much essence had been taken at once. Blood was dripping from his mouth.
"Shunsuke," I dropped to my knees, seeing him in so much pain caused a pang in the pit of my stomach. I could help him, I knew what to do. But, before I could do anything, Lanzar lashed out with a shadow whip, which wrapped around my ankle and yanked my foot out from under me, causing me to fall onto my hands and knees.
I had to take care of Lanzar before I could help Shunsuke. Grabbing my sword, I stood up and sliced at his chest, but he grabbed my sword between the palm of his hands. Using his leg, he kicked me in the shin, tripping me. I fell onto my back; he grabbed my sword out of my hands and held it up to my neck.
"It has been far too long," Lanzar said in his deep, calm, monotonous voice. "I had thought I would never find you, but," he chuckled to himself, "I heard about your little mission here in the human world." He amiled to himself. "You did good to cover your tracks."
I used my legs to throw him over my head. I didn't want him to say any more and get Shunsuke curious. The less he knew the better. I used my mind abilities to remove the sword from his hand, but as I went in with my dagger, he moved the sword so it stabbed me in the stomach.
I was only being held up because he was holding me up. Otherwise, I would have fallen to my knees. The pain was excruciating, and my body was going into shock. He took out the sword and threw it to the side. He came over and was leaning over me, straddling me.
"I've learned a few tricks since the last time we met. I'm resistent to your little mind abilities. Did I forget to mention that earlier?" he smirked down at me, leaning in to whisper into my ear. "You can't escape Him." My eyes widened in fear. I had to escape him. I had to.
Suddenly, I heard a little gurgling noise, and blood splattered onto my face. I looked over Lanzar's shoulder to see Shunsuke standing there, holding the discarded sword, now red from the demon's blood. He threw it to the side, dropping to his knees. He was still weak from losing so much essence.
I hardly had any energy to move, but I needed to help Shunsuke. Clutching my stomach, I kept the essence from flowing out of me at such a rapid speed. I used all of strength to remove the dead body from on top of me. I crawled over to Shunsuke.
"Are you ok?" he asked me.
I nodded. "I'll be fine. We need to get you some essence. It'll make you feel better."
"No, you need it more than I do," he shook his head.
I grabbed his mouth with my hand. "No. I need you to listen to me. You need to just suck out my essence. But, since you can't do it the way I do it, you need to have the essence spilled into you. Because I have an injury, this makes it easier."
He was resistant, but I was forceful and moved so that my essence spilled into his mouth, and he had no choice but to absorb it all. Once he had had enough and the color was returning to his face, I fell onto my back onto the ground. He sat up and leaned over me.
"What do we do for you? Suck out my essence," he said, ready to lean down and place his mouth over mine.
I put my finger against his lips. "No, if I suck out your essence, it would only further weaken you. You aren't stable enough yet. I need someone else's essence."
"But, who else can we ask?" he asked me, a little bit of panic coating his words.
I shook my head. "Someone you trust that will keep this a secret, apparently. Or, just go find some random homeless person. No matter what they say, people will think they're crazy."
That got a chuckle out of him, but worry was still clear on his face. I was starting to drift in and out of consciousness. I wasn't even aware that Shunsuke had left me. Finally, I succumbed to the darkness that beckoned me.
