10 The ___ Saves the Day

Juuto felt himself sliding across the ground with Rame from that explosion. What was going on? This wasn't what normal earthquakes caused, at least not so sudden like this. The explosion that just rang across this room, it had to be from a bomb, right? Was this some sort of terrorist attack?

Disorientated, his ears ringing, he looked around the restaurant. The crowd of people were panicking as they escaped from the tables he told them to hide under.

"Are you okay?" He asked, which sounded like yelling for her. Juuto's ears were still ringing, but there was no time for him to rest. Not in a situation like this.

"I'm fine." She told him, as he got back onto his feet. With one pull, he also brought her back up as well. As soon as he got his senses back, he scanned the room for two people. One being Asaga, the other being Sunae.

The first target was an easy find. Unlike him and Rame, he stood strong against the explosion, being much more prepared and further away. It seemed that another flame came out, but not as an explosion. It almost looked as though it was being controlled by someone else. He couldn't believe his eyes, and he felt powerless as it came towards some people within the crowd.

That was when he was further awestruck from the action that Asaga took. With a swift motion of his arms, he pulled out the broth of the soup everyone was eating out of their bowls. Using it as water, he put out the flame careening towards people.

"Did he just…" Juuto was near speechless from what he just witnessed from that man. However, it wasn't the time to be standing still. A woman's scream caught his attention. It was Sunae. She was laying near the table they were all sitting at. She had gotten some rubble over her foot, keeping the woman from moving.

He moved quick on his feet, running to her as fast as possible to get her dislodged. It wasn't easy, but thanks to the adrenaline, he was able to get her free from what was crushing her leg. Just in time as well, as the section of roof had started to collapse over them. Her foot was to hurt to get up in time, so in a desperate bid. Juuto picked her up and jumped them out of the way from being crushed.

"Are ya okay?" Asaga dashed on over, with Rame not to far either. "You were nearly made into pancakes right there."

"I'm fine." He answered.

"My foot's seen better days, but I'm okay too." Sunae did her best to get back onto her feet, but she had a clear limp.

"You'll need getting out of here." He said, as both him and Asaga put each of her arms over their shoulders. As they were about to make the trek out of here, Juuto came to a dreadful realization. He looked around the room as people were quickly running out of the building. Someone was missing…

Mikuto.

"My friend, he must still be in the kitchen." He said, handing his half of the lady to Rame. "I gotta go help."

"Are you crazy?" She wasn't a big fan of him throwing himself into danger. It was one thing if Asaga did it, at least he had some level of magic. But Juuto was just a plain old human, and she had little power to help him. "There's no way anyone could've survived that explosion."

"It didn't come from the kitchen." He might not have been a believer until now. But when he saw Asaga pull out that trick, he was certain that it was the cause of some type of magic. At least he was hoping that he wasn't going to be wrong on this gamble. "Just help her out, I promise I'll be out before you know it."

"Juuto…" Those were the only words out of her mouth before he put a finger to it.

"Don't worry. Your boss isn't going to die that easily." He put on a fake smile, as he turned to run into the kitchen.

Doing as they asked of him, the two of them helped escort the woman out of this nearly collapsed building. It was rough going, and the unstable ground almost made it so that they couldn't make their escape. But working together, Rame and Asaga were able to lead her out of this entire mess.

"Thanks so much to you both." Sunae gave her gratitude as they set her down at the sidewalk to rest her foot. "But Juuto..."

"Don't worry miss." Asaga had on some false bravado to attempt to keep their spirits from falling too low. "Like he said, there's no way he'd go out that easily."

"Right…" Rame's voice was shaking. Even though she wanted to believe that, she wasn't all that certain if that would be the end result. He was only human after all.

She put a hand over her chest. What was this feeling she had right now? Her heart was beating out of control, as if she was afraid… Well, that was the truth. But she didn't understand why she was feeling this way. The girl had been through countless battles, nearly been killed numerous times. Yet despite being mostly safe at this point, she was scared… Because he wasn't.

Then, something else started to fill her body. It wasn't her own emotion, but she felt like something was coming to her. Wait a second, she was familiar with this energy flowing into her body. It was her magic. It had been a while since she had this sensation, but there was no mistaking it. Her magic was returning to her body.

"What?" She looked around to see what was causing this. There didn't seem to be anything obvious to contribute it. Unless… It was coming from the suffering of these humans. Yes, that had to be it.

She had heard stories about it on Enatis. That there were some humans that didn't have traditional elemental magic, but instead had access to light and dark magic. Instead of using magical energy within their bodies, they harnessed strength with their emotions instead. Was it because of her demon soul, mixed with this new human body that allowed her to take their emotions?

Her eyes began to glow a deep bright red as she felt her power come to a peak once more. It didn't go unnoticed as Asaga took one good look at her. With it, he realized that the demon lord he feared had finally made her return. The two looked each other in the eye, then she put one hand up towards him.

"Wait! Don't ya dare…"

***

Things were starting to get rather dicey for Juuto as he did the opposite of what everyone else was doing. That being to run into the danger, instead of away. However, he was willing to do just that to try and save Mikuto's life.

The smoke was starting to fill up the room. He knew that there was little time to be wasting as he got inside the kitchen. "Mikuto?!" He yelled out his friend's name. A part inside of him thought for a moment that Rame might've been right. That his friend was already a goner by the time the first explosion occurred. Then he shook his head to forget the thought. He just had to hope that wasn't the case. "Mikuto?!"

Again, he yelled out while trying to scan the floor to see if the man was knocked out. There didn't seem to be any sign of him, dead or alive. Where did he go? Did he miss him getting out of here like everyone else and was an idiot for running in here?

"Juuto?" Then, he heard a muffled voice. "Is that you?"

"Mikuto, where are you?" Maybe he ended up trapped under some rumble, but that ended up being far from the case as his friend opened up the door to the freezer.

"I hid in here as soon as the ground started shaking." He answered, as he beckoned him inside. His happy-go-lucky demeanor was a contrast to Juuto's fear as she was searching for the man. Odd, since this was his restaurant that was crumbling at the moment. "This thing's state-of-the-art. Even if the building burns and falls, this will still be standing."

"You idiot." Juuto's response to that reasoning was a good bonking on the head. "Come on, isn't there a backdoor to this place?" There was, so he pulled his friend by the arm and ran them off to the nearest exit. Finally this terrible situation was going to be put behind them, and they can start to work on repairing the very much expensive damage.

That's what Juuto was hoping. And things rarely were going his way today.

He opened the door to their freedom, and what greeted him was a figure shrouded under a cloak, obscuring their face. "Who's this?" Mikuto asked. They wouldn't get a proper answer, but whoever this was apparently had powers similar to the ones Juuto witnessed from Asaga. The two of them felt blown back by what seemed to be nothing. Now they were back into the kitchen as the unknown person walked in as if there was no danger present.

"Interesting, I never thought you would be the one to be here." The voice was of a young man's, that was all he could make of it to try and identify the person. "Did my plan not work?"

"Hey look man." Mikuto had no idea on what was going on, but he attempted to make a plea to protect their lives. "The money's in the register, so just go and take whatever you want." Despite the begging, cash was far from the goal for this person.

"Shame, it looks like I'll just have to finish you off. Perhaps that might give me what I'm searching for." He made a motion to hit them both with the killing blow. Defenseless, Juuto believed this to be the end, and closed his eyes, saying a little prayer.

Fire began to engulf the man's hand, as he aimed it towards the two. They were about to be killed, but something stopped him. He looked around the area that they were standing in. It was as if time stopped. The fires stopped moving, the falling rubble stayed in the air, defying gravity.

As he took in the change, or lack thereof, of the environment, a blob of broth sprang out and covered over the figure's hand. He yelled out in pain from the heat, using his magic to blast it all outward.

Sure, magical fire created by himself couldn't hurt him. But boiling soup that's been recently cooked on the stove certain can. "Just in the nick of time." Their savior, Asaga arrived, and he wasn't alone either.

Standing next to him was Rame. Though she looked completely different than Juuto was used to. She had this reddish illumination around her, and those eyes were glowing brightly. Not to mention that parts of her body had changed. Horns were protruding from her head, and a thin tail with a spade ending followed behind her. Her crimson hair had an aura of a glow around it.

"Rame?" He was almost speechless from this change from her. It turned out the new co-worker that he had gotten, was no mere ordinary girl. Something in her had somehow changed.

Whatever it was, a showdown was about to go down in this very kitchen.