14 1.11 — Plans of Rest

Ryouichi hated this place. It stank no matter how much you drowned the place in an air freshener. It creaked no matter where you sat on the sofa. And, the walls looked like they would fall down and become dust any moment now if anyone even dared to sneeze loudly.

‘Seriously, is that the best Ash could get for us?’ Ryouichi wondered.

Ashraf was, after all, one of the most important members of their 4th coven. Infact, he was considered to be the next-in-line to becoming their vice-captain…after 2 other people but still, important enough.

It was hard to believe he held no sway over the administration coven to give them a better base location.

Then again, Ryouichi knew the sort of man his boyfriend was. He'd be okay with living in a pit as long as it wasn't an obstacle in their path to completing their mission.

Ryouichi was not like that. Sure, he cared about the mission too. But not at the expense of his own comfort.

“It’s just temporary. There was a little mix-up in the admin coven and hence...this,” he said, lifting his arms and gesturing to the apartment. “I’ve lodged the complaint and they should remedy that within a few days. Unless, ofcourse, we complete the mission before then.”

Rei scoffed, “Yeah, like that’ll happen.” She slipped down even further in her plastic seat such that now her bottom wasn’t even on the chair. Ryouichi could almost hear their elder brother scolding her to sit straight.

Usually Ryouichi hated to agree with Rei, and he rarely did agree with her, but he was with her on that one. Let alone finishing their mission, they weren’t even sure what their mission was exactly.

Remedy the increased corruption activity in the area.

Those were the official words said to them before pushing them out of the Aatmahal and into this shitty town.

What they failed to mention was the unwillingness of that corruption to stay down.

Ryou, his sister and Ash have been fighting Rakshas for days now, from morning till night. They must have killed about fifteen Rakshas already in the past week.

Sixteen if you counted the Akkorokamui.

Though…that was a strange one.

He was the first possessed they had encountered since coming here. Possessed weren’t strange occurrences by themselves, but the timing of it…it really made Ryou wonder as to what exactly was happening here.

“Whoever’s behind this, we will catch him and kill him, be it a Rakshas or an Asur, don’t worry about that,” Ash said, who sat on the sofa as if none of the grimy stains on it bothered him even a little. Ofcourse, he couldn’t see the stains—he was blind after all—but Ryouichi was sure that the smell must be really grating on him.

Not that Ashraf would have ever admitted it. Small as the group was, he was still their leader. Ryouichi knew that Ashraf simply didn’t want to let the morale down.

‘Well, I can’t take it’. The smell was giving him a headache. ‘Might as well check up on the human’, Ryouichi thought as he got up and started to make his way towards the small room.

“Ah, about that, Ryo, don’t bother. The human isn’t there anymore,” Ash said. As amazing of a person Ashraf was, his uncanny sense of hearing still creeped out Ryouichi. Didn’t mean that he loved him any less.

“He’s not? Where is he?” Rei said, sitting straight up—with a lot of effort too.

“I don’t know,” Ash shrugged, “Home, I guess. He walked into this room, eavesdropped for a few minutes and escaped from that window in the backroom when you,” he pointed at Ryouichi, “got up to start pacing. You should have heard his heartbeat,” he said, chuckling.

“Ash, hon,” Ryo began to ask the question with gritted teeth, trying not to lash out, “why didn’t you say anything?”

“Eh, it’s fine,” Ashraf said, waving his palm to dismiss the thought. He relaxed on the sofa and laid down on it, his arm under the head for support—the armrests were not exactly...comfortable.

“No, no, it-it’s not,” Ryo said, “We don’t know who he is or what. What we do know is that he could be a target.”

“I don’t really sense any Rakshas around here and he’s actually not that far away,” he pulled out a rectangular card from his pocket that had a picture and some letters on it, it looked like some ID card. “Rei read the address for me when we got him here. Plus, even if we don’t reach him on time, I’m guessing at some desperate moment the Ruh will come to his rescue…well, I hope they do.”

“You hope?!” Ryo pinched his nose bridge, hoping the headache would go away. For an experienced and a very capable man, Ashraf was surprisingly a much laid back person. Almost an oddity in their coven that preached about being diligent and following the law. Maybe this was why he wasn’t immediately in the succession of becoming their coven’s vice-president.

Sure he upheld the law as much as anyone in the coven, just...not in a conventional way. One could easily mistake him as someone from the 2nd coven.

“Well yeah, all we can do is hope. We’re been on soul extraction and cleaning duty for a week now, not to mention the two other Rakshas we’ve faced today excluding the possessed one. Low levelled Rakshas, sure, but still...I’m just a little tired.” Ashraf said, unravelling his blindfold to reveal clear eyes.

“Are we sure about their levels, though?” Rei asked, her back now straight against the chair.

“Akkorokamui are usually low-levelled so—” Ryo began but got interrupted by Rei.

“Yes, I know, which is why it’s strange that it even managed to possess someone. Don’t you think so?”

Ryouichi had no answer for that.

Yes, it was indeed strange for low levelled Rakshas to possess anybody, much less a human body.

Which begs the question of how could that be possible then?

“Well, isn’t that why we’re here?” Ash said, dismissing the discussion for a later time. “All we knew before coming here was that increased signs of Rakshas were seen in this location and—”

“And at the same time, now we see possession by a Rakshas who shouldn’t be capable of it in the first place,” Ryou added.

“Exactly,” Ash smirked, the man loved the mystery, “Coincidence?”

“I…I don’t know,” Rei huffed before lazing in her chair once again. “First and foremost, I suppose, we need to find out who that ‘he’ is. And for the sake of our lives, I really hope it’s not an Asur.”

Ash shrugged.

It would be a difficult question to answer as any answer would contradict everything they knew about Rakshas up until now.

A thought that ran a chill down Ryo’s spine.

“Point being, let’s relax for now and just do our job with patience,” Ash said, his arms crossed under his head, ready to sleep on that half-eaten couch. “And don’t worry about the human’s protection, I’ve made plans for that,” Ashraf said, stretching his neck a bit back to look at Ryouichi and winking at him—not that Ashraf could really see him but he was always aware of other’s presence. Of his presence. It was kind of sweet. “Oh yes that reminds me, Rei,” He switched his gaze towards Reizumi, “you’ll be on a break tomorrow.”

“Me? Why?” Reizumi asked.

‘Ah, a break, I could use one right now,’ Ryouichi thought.

“A little special mission for you,” was all Ashraf said, “Now come on, let’s try to sleep, rest and heal our bodies.”

And with that, not even a second later, Ashraf’s snoring echoed in the empty hall. He sure slept fast.

He looked so cute.

Peaceful.

Safe.

The memory of Ashraf getting stabbed by that monster was still etched in Ryouichi’s mind. He knew their work was filled with such dangers, and while they had a capable healer like Reizumi in their team, he still couldn’t shake away his fears to see the people he’s close with to just die someday because he wasn’t fast enough.

Wasn’t capable enough.

Walking up to Ashraf, Ryouichi unfurled the blanket and laid it over Ashraf. Kissing his forehead and wishing him a goodnight, Ryouichi went with Reizumi in the other room.

It had been a long day and Ryo knew that they were not going to get any shorter.

Rest and heal.

That’s all he could do.

For now.

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