Breathe

The figure staring at Amora just stood there, not moving and not saying anything else. Amora stared, wide-eyed and afraid. His glowing eyes only made things worse. As soon as she saw his purple eyes, she felt the purest fear, and all for one man she had never met.

Was it because there was another man in here with her? Or was it his eyes? Amora couldn't tell where her fears were coming from, but no matter what she was planning to run, only to slip on nothing and fall to the floor.

She closed her eyes and when she opened them in pain, she could see the man now standing over her. Smiling widely and holding what looked to be a newly made sword.

"I can't believe you slipped. Are you alright?" He begins laughing. Amora said nothing and backed away, tears dripping from her eyes, fearing she had gone insane, something about the man... reminded Amora of something... something Leon had said, but she couldn't place her finger on it...

"Are you afraid? What for?" The man asked, walking after her. Amora kept breathing heavily and trying to crawl backward while keeping her eyes focused on him. She couldn't even say a single word. Nothing was coming out, nothing at all.

"Don't be afraid. I'm here to... help you." The man said, almost mockingly.

"I-I-I don't... p-please... g-go a-aw-away." Amora managed to say, holding her breath afterward. The man continued after her, still smiling. He reached his hand down to her and his eyes seemed to become a light purple color instead of glowing now.

"Are you alright?" The boy asked. Amora stood up without his help, feeling the fear vanish.

"I'm Tasaku. Yes I am from Japan." The boy said.

"I'm... Amora Akermota." Amora said, finally able to tell her last name as Akermota and not Kuroki.

"I already knew your name, remember? I said it earlier. I've seen you around somewhere." The boy mentioned. "Perhaps from school or something."

Amora didn't remember the boy, and quickly dismissed his answer.

"No... maybe we met in the cities at some point, I did talk to a lot of people that day. Especially since someone leaked that Leon and Reyon found me, and I was their daughter." Amora said, slightly happy for the fame, but wishing that she wouldn't be followed by strangers, especially with a killer lurking around somewhere.

"I heard about that. I want to meet Leon and Reyon if that's okay with you." The boy said so casually, not caring if he was being a bit rude or not by wanting to go straight to her house.

"I don't see why not... let's go then." Amora said, walking in front of him, but rarely taking her eyes away from him.

Anyone could be the killer in Amora's mind. She knew that this boy's arrival was strange, he came into the burnt abandoned church. How would he get there, unless he walked all the way to Leon's house?

"It's just this way." Amora said, pointing at the house in the distance. Aya could be seen looking in her direction and tilting her head in confusion, soon running up to Amora.

"Who is that?" She asked, pointing, which was a bit rude.

"He said his name is Tasaku, I found him when I went inside the old church. I just wanted to go back and see something, and he had snuck up on me." Amora explained, walking past Aya, waiting for her to enter the house with her.

Once inside, Leon and Reyon were immediately suspicious.

"How do you keep finding people around your age Amora?" Leon asked, inspecting Tasaku.

He took Tasaku's blade, which Tasaku let him, as to be fair and to not scare them if he walked away with it.

"Don't worry, I can't stay, I'm needed at home soon, but I just wanted to meet you both! I'm fans! I thought I saw you guys around here, but I didn't want to just show up and ask for an autograph!" He exclaimed, laughing wildly. "Anyway, there is two more people I wanted to meet, is Cody and Tavan here?" He asked, to which Leon and Reyon lowered their heads.

"Tavan is at home, and Cody was killed by someone we were investigating, that's all we can tell you." Leon said, as Reyon nodded.

"What?! Killed?! Are they near here?!" He said, looking paranoid as he looked around quickly.

"No, no. If he showed up, we could overpower him with Reyon and I." Leon said, not bragging for once while he said something like that.

"Right... but still... how could someone kill Cody?" Tasaku said miserably. "I really wanted to talk to him and everything... I was a fan of his as well, he had a huge corporation and everything. Hexagon Corporation." He said, still sad.

"We will find the person responsible for his death sooner or later, and they will face justice as we punch them a new one!" Leon yelled, tightening his grip on the counter he was near, obviously pissed off.

"I see... let's move on, it's best if we don't bring back old memories." Tasaku said, bowing and saying, "Gomenasai."

Amora knew what Gomenasai meant, as she had heard Shirley try to speak Japanese before. It meant sorry, or I'm sorry, but she knew that Leon and Reyon may have not known what it meant, so saying it in English would have been simpler.

Cole entered the room and stared at Tasaku, Tasaku stared back and Cole thought the boy were familiar. "Hey." Cole said, walking up the boy and shaking his hand.

"Hello. I'm Tasaku." The boy announced. To which Cole responded with his own name.

They had a brief silence as the boy just stared at Cole, inspecting him and finally looking away. Leon and Reyon had left the room and Tasaku began telling Amora about something.

"There's a competition going on soon, I heard Shirley would be there." He said, smiling. "It's about using your elements and stuff. You should join too, maybe we can win?" Tasaku suggested.

Amora didn't want to, but realized it may be beneficial for her to learn how to use her elements better and have some more fun.

"Sure, when is it?" Amora asked, almost being interrupted by the boy.

"Tomorrow at 11:00 AM." He said, smiling and walking to the couch to sit down.

***

The rest of the day, Amora trained using her elements, using fire and then air, thinking of the possibilities, like blowing someone away and then shocking them, or lighting someone on fire and then using air to put them out when they are down. The possibilities were seemingly endless.

Tasaku checked in on Amora many times, watching her train, which was a little awkward.

He never showed his elements when he trained, going off somewhere to do it. Amora didn't dare follow him either, she didn't know him too much, and he could be dangerous when being alone with him.

***

"We'd better quit for today, you can practice in the morning. I won't, I need to conserve my energy for the battles we will be in." He announced to her as they entered the house.

Amora wondered why Shirley hadn't told her she was going to the competition. Perhaps she was mad at Amora, as she had thought before. It only made sense and Amora didn't blame Shirley at all. She wished she could talk to her, but Shirley wasn't reading any of her messages or answering any of her calls. It seemed as if Shirley was missing. As if the world stopped around Amora.

***

Amora finally fell asleep and Tasaku entered her room. He leaned over her and smelled her hair. He then stepped back and smiled creepily. Tasaku exited the room after looking at her phone's notifications. Amora's messages finally went through to Shirley's phone and an audible ping could be heard from Tasaku's pocket.

He had Shirley's phone.