17 A Breathing Window
As the night gradually quiets down as the clock ticked past midnight, people on the streets were getting lesser, somewhat empty.
The merry district started to slow down and become quiet, but not for the abandoned house at the corner of the residential area.
"Kurata-san, can you help me to clear up the living room, I need some space." said Akira.
"Oh... okay." Kurata answered with a puzzled expression.
Akira reacted very calm even after Kamakura, Kurata's partner, was taken away after Mako.
Kurata was planning to pull out his gun and search the house from top to bottom but Akira's gaze and determined look stopped him.
Both of them headed to the living room.
All the furniture from the previous tenant were kept as they were in the living room. After the tragedy happened, the house was abandoned after cleaning up. Even after the property company reclaimed it, it was hard to resell such a 'high profile' house.
Akira moved the tea table in the middle aside and then helped Kurata on pushing the sofas to the wall.
Right after some space was cleared up in the middle of the living room, Akira squatted down, took a piece of chalk out from his pouch and started drawing on the wooden floor.
"Uh… What are you doing?" Kurata looked at Akira as he draw circle after circle on the floor.
"I'm bringing the fight to them." Akira replied merrilly without even looking at Kurata.
"Aren't we supposed to go find them? Your partner and mine are taken by some... Yoma, and you are drawing circles here? Shouldn't you go call for backup? Or ask your grandfather to come over?" Agitated by the fact that his partner was taken by the supernatural, his emotions started to fluctuate, plus the mysterious reaction from Akira and his helplessness at the situation, he started to raise his volume, his anxiety got the best of him."
Akira continued drawing as he expand.
Kurata breathed heavily, he couldn't hold back his urge anymore and grabbed Akira by the shoulder, "Look at me! I want answers! What exactly is happening now!?"
Kurata pulled Akira up and glared at him, his eyes were rounded and his breath was hurried.
Akira went blank for a second before he widened his mouth, he said, "Don't worry, Kurata-san. I got this under control. Don't be nervous, remember what I told you and you will be all good. Now, let me finish this formation and we are good to go."
Kurata was stunned by Akira's calm words, his confidence was emanating strongly through the words. Kurata let go of Akira and let him finish drawing the formation on the floor.
Kurata forced himself to calm down by sucking in a deep breath, he has to cast away the anxiety from his mind, otherwise it would exacerbate the already desperate situation, plus decisions clouded by emotions would never go well, especially for a police officer on a case.
Few minutes later, Akira stood up and put his hands around his waist.
"Done." Akira grabbed his Bladestaff and lowered the sharp edge down to his left hand. Before he did anything, he looked at the still puzzled Kurata and said, "Kurata-san, remember what I told you."
"I remember." Kurata replaced his puzzled gaze with a determined one as he replied.
Akira nodded, he then cut his finger with the sharp edge and dropped several drops of blood on the formation.
"Life that once walked the realm of men, I hereby command thee to reveal yourself; amass to the unseen flame, emerge from the shadow with thy true self."
After several quick hand gestures from Akira, the formation on the floor ignited in a pale white flame.
It was dim and weak but it emanated a soft ripple outwards, blanketing the whole living room in and instant.
"A...fire?" Kurata was shocked by what he saw.
"Yes, this is a simple formation that can attract the dead. The theory is like a moth gets attracted to light, but it only effective against the weaker Yoma, and if it's misused, it might attract trouble more than providing a shortcut to the solution." Akira gave a thumbs up to Kurata. "Now all we have to do is wait."
The wait wasn't too long but it felt like ages for Kurata. He kept tapping his foot anxiously while waiting for something to happen and on the other hand, Akira crossed his arms and waited quietly.
Several minutes later, an obvious drop in temperature sent chills down both their spines.
"Here it comes." Akira held his Bladestaff tight as he entered his battle stance, even Kurata put his hand around his gun despite knowing that physical attack couldn't harm the supernatural.
The dimmed white flame on the formation gradually grew weaker, eventually extinguished by the cold. White energy particles then diffused into the air, shedding a dimmer light in the living room.
The atmosphere in the living room suddenly got heavy, breaths that came out from Akira and Kurata's mouth started to turn white.
The air gradually turned quiet, to the point that all they could hear was their own breathing and heartbeats.
Suddenly—Fooosh!
A chair floated and flew towards Akira.
Smash!
With a quick swing forward with his Bladestaff, the chair was cut into pieces.
Before Akira could catch a breath, a second chair came flying at him, but he managed to fend it off with a quick twirl, smashing the second chair into the wall.
"There you are." Akira said with sharp determination as he landed his gaze at the entrance of the living room.
Shocked by the sudden attack, Kurata traced Akira's line of sight.
He saw a female figure with long messy hair and a long white dress, her skin was pale as ice and one of her hands was holding a pair of scissors; behind her messy hair, her eyes were glowing red.
The moment Kurata got a clear glimpse of the Yoma, chills ran down his spine, causing him to shudder. It was his decades of experience in the force that kept him standing, but he couldn't help but keep sweating. "T-T-This... is…"
"This is our culprit and judging by the looks of it, I'd say she isn't here to talk." Akira twirled his Bladestaff and pointed the sharp end at the Yoma.
A heavy growl, similar to a leopard came from under her hair.
The sofa pushed to the wall began to vibrate before it floated up.
Screeeeeeh!
A sharp shriek sent the sofa flying towards Akira.
Akira did a forward roll, dodging the flying sofa in the nick of time. He used the momentum and lunged forward using his Bladestaff, thrusting it straight to the Yoma's head.
Bamn!
Clink!
Right after the heavy crashing thud from the sofa impacting the wall, a sharp clink followed.
The sharp end of Akira's Bladestaff precisely hit the body of the scissors
The pair of grudgeful eyes glowed heavier behind those messy hair, it gazed into Akira, attempting to frighten him but what the Yoma saw was an unusual smile.
"Hoho, putting up a fight I see? How about this?" With a twist of his wrist, the sharp end of his Bladestaff lit up with his spiritual energy. "Light Bolt!"
White spiritual energy flowed along the ring of his Bladestaff and fired off the tip like a gun, though it missed its target.
The Yoma reacted quickly by tilting her head sideways, all the bolt of energy did was grazed her face. It left a cut mark on her face and the wound started to burn.
Shreeeeeeeik!
She shrieked in pain, she disengaged and fled towards the corridor outside the living room.
"You are not running away this time!" Akira chased after the fleeing Yoma like a bolt of lightning.
Several seconds later, Kurata finally came back to his senses and reacted to the situation. His fists curled up tightly and chased after the two.
The moment he stepped out of the living room, he saw Akira thrusting his Bladestaff in a flurry, pushing the Yoma back.
Despite the quick thrusting, the Yoma was able to fend of the initial wave of Akira's attack but she slowly lost in terms of defense, her scissors was unable to keep up with Akira's speed, hence granting Akira the upper hand. The furious thrusts left many wounds on her, cutting locks of her hair and pieces of her white dress.
Akira successfully pushed the Yoma into a corner and when she tried to phase through the wall, he fired another Light Bolt at the escape route, sealing her attempt to escape.
Akira paused his furious thrusting right after he got the Yoma cornered.
Badly damaged, the Yoma could no longer resist Akira's attacks, she knew she'd perish at the next strike, but other than a low growl, she was unusually calm.
"This is the end!" Akira charged his Bladestaff and thrusted straight at the Yoma's head.
She dodged it, her head tilted left in the nick of time, suffering only a graze wound on her pale face. Her mouth widened into an eerie grin, her red eyes glimmered.
Akira spotted the unusual reaction, his instincts told him something went wrong.
The tip of his Bladestaff hit the wall behind, producing a low clunk.
A hand suddenly emerged from the Yoma's chest and extended towards Akira in an instant.
The only thing in between Akira and the Yoma was just his Bladestaff, the hand that emerged abruptly from the Yoma's chest easily touched Akira on his.
Purple malevolence rippled from the hand upon touching Akira's chest.
Shocked by the sudden attack, Akira widened his eyes as he faltered back, he managed to see the owner of the hand phased through the white Yoma's chest and stood beside her.
White long messy hair with a pitch black dress and eyes, this black Yoma was slightly taller and shared heavy resemblance with the white one, minus the scissors.
Akira fell on the floor, his body grew tired and eyelids heavier, he knew things had gone south yet he managed to muster enough strength to turn his head around to Kurata.
Kurata standing at the other end of the corridor saw all that with his own eyes, it shocked him and he wasn't able to react properly. The supernatural wasn't an unfamiliar topic to him but seeing it this close and firsthand was something that he couldn't digest all of a sudden.
He was stunned as the fight went on and only regained his senses when he picked up Akira's gaze. He saw Akira's lips moving but couldn't hear a word.
Akira fell unconscious after a meaningful gaze, there was also a faint smile on his face.
Stupefied, Kurata widened his eyes at Akira, he wanted to go over to help him up but he saw the Yoma, now two instead of one, looking at him with black and red grudgeful gazes.
His hand started to shake, his leg frozen on the spot, sweat poured down his forehead and he forced his mind to come up with a solution.
The white Yoma with the scissors grinned wider, the edge of her lips almost reached her earlobes on both ends; the black Yoma remained expressionless.
Think, think! Think! THINK KEISUKE! YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!
His thoughts rang like fire alarm in his head.
The white Yoma raised her scissors at Kurata and slowly floated over with low growls coming from her widely grinned mouth.
Danger was a few meters away from Kurata yet his mind was still shuffling through the information for a solution.
Amid the panicking state, Kurata finally thought of a solution out of this desperate situation, he remembered what Akira told him before all this even started.
'Here, take this capsule with you. In case anything goes wrong, break it and it might save you and your partner.'
Back when all of them were still preparing for the assignment, Akira passed Kurata and Kamakura a capsule encased in plastic each.
He didn't tell the two of them what would the capsule do when broken though, and now Kurata was about to find out for himself.
He quickly grabbed the capsule in his inner coat pocket and tossed it into his mouth, even with the transparent plastic packaging.
He bit it as hard as he could.
Upon crushing the capsule through the plastic pack with his teeth, a wave of energy burst out from his mouth.
The wave of energy felt very refreshing and when it travelled outward, it shocked the white Yoma together with the black one behind her.
Kurata, with the torn plastic pack in his mouth felt extremely energetic, but other than that, nothing really changed, the wave of energy didn't even inflict any damage on the Yoma other than startling them for a bit.
"What in the hell…Damn it!"
Kurata spat the plastic out and reached out for his gun, he didn't know what he just did but it didn't seem to effectively stop the Yoma from attacking him. He reverted back to what he knows, even though deep down he knew guns could never damage the supernatural.
Right when he pointed his gun at the Yoma, the white Yoma swung her scissors at Kurata, disarming the gun before he could even fire it.
The Yoma raised her scissors high and ready to stab Kurata in the eye.
Kurata was utterly horrified, he didn't know whether he was afraid of the deadly scissors or the eerie looks on the Yoma's face.
The scissors was then swung down—
"Light Bolt!"
A sharp light energy bolt fired out like a bullet and shot the scissors off the Yoma's hand in the nick of time.
Kurata's widened eyes frozen in shock.
Was that the light energy bolt that Akira fired earlier?
Wasn't he knocked out by the black Yoma a moment ago? How was he able to fire the light energy bolt to disarm the white Yoma?
Kurata was frozen on the spot by the things he couldn't understand.
Startled by the sudden attack, the white Yoma turned to the origin where the Light Bolt was fired.
"Hello, it's me again."
She saw Akira stood beside her sister, acting all casual as he pointed the Bladestaff at her.
The black Yoma beside Akira was shocked either.
How did Akira get back up? When did it happen? Didn't she put him to sleep?
Puzzled by all the questions, the black Yoma raised her hands and touched Akira on the head once more, hoping that she could put him back to sleep, but…
"Can you please don't touch me like that, it feels a little ticklish, and your little hypnosis won't work anymore." Akira, annoyed by the touch on his head, looked at the black Yoma with a troubled look. He grabbed the black Yoma's hand, twisted it and swung her into the ground.
Bam!
After slamming the black Yoma's head on the ground, Akira looked back at the white one.
Without her scissors with her, she raised both her hands with sharp nails, careened through the corridor as she shrieked, attempting to strangle Akira by the neck.
Akira curled his lips in a faint grin. He too charged forward with his Bladestaff.
The tip of the Bladestaff clashed with the sharp nails, producing a heavy clink.
A sharp shriek sounded followed by a second clink.
The white Yoma tried to claw her way through Akira's flurry thrusts of his Bladestaff, but she couldn't, the thrusts from the Bladestaff overwhelmed her in an instant.
Several exchange later, Akira managed to deflect both her sharp nails and stabbed her by the shoulder.
A heavy painful wail came from the white Yoma, Akira seized the chance and vaulted her over his head, swinging her back towards the black Yoma behind him.
A heavy thud accompanied the white Yoma as she slid towards the black one.
The black Yoma had regained her conscious from the fall and managed to receive her sister.
Two pairs of grudgeful eyes stared at Akira as he hopped backwards to Kurata.
"Kurata-san, how are you doing?" Akira stood in a defensive stance in front of Kurata as he checked on him.
"I-I'm somehow fine… What is that? What just happened, what is that capsule?" Kurata fired a barrage of questions at Akira, hoping to get answers to clear his confusion.
"One question at a time, Kurata-san. The capsule that you've broken is a kind of spiritual medicine that can wake people up from sleep instantly." said Akira.
"How did you know…"
"I'm an exorcist after all. Time to end this assignment."
Akira actually got the hint from Reira back at the station.
Reira sad that she felt sleepy before she was knocked out, and when she woke up, things were already in a hot pile of mess.
Akira deduced that the Yoma that they were dealing with might have some hypnosis ability, so during the preparation, he asked Samuro to help him prepare some awakening capsule.
The awakening capsule was no ordinary capsule, though it wasn't anything stellar in the supernatural world either. Its function was to keep people awake for a long period of time during assignments but the side effect was that the accumulated tiredness throughout the duration would be twice as exhausting after the effect wore off.
Akira wasn't sure about the Yoma's ability at first, but after Mako got abducted, his speculations were verified, hence he kept reminding Kurata and Kamakura to remember what he told him.
Akira's plan was to lure out the second Yoma, the sister of the white one, and in order to do that, he has to use himself as bait. Therefore, he placed his bet on Kurata to 'wake' him up.
White spiritual energy enveloped Akira as he switched his defensive stance into an offensive one.
The white Yoma stood up and growled grudgefully at Akira. Despite one of her shoulder was injured, she was not ready to give up.
With one hand up, she shook off her sister's hand and charged forward at Akira.
Her shriek was irritating to the ear but it was stopped when Akira's lightning fast thrust pushed her hand aside and stabbed her other shoulder.
"Light Bolt!"
White spiritual energy shone and flowed along the Bladestaff, it punctured a hole in the white Yoma's shoulder, sending her flying backwards.
The white Yoma flew back into her sister's arms, but before the black Yoma could do anything, Akira jumped up and aimed his Bladestaff at both of them.
"Amaterasu Descend - Ethereal Shot!"
The ring and the edge of the Bladestaff glowed in green, the charged up spiritual energy was ready to perforate its target but…
The black Yoma turned around and covered her sister, exposing her back to the shot.
She hugged her sister tight while she anticipated her end to arrive for both of them, yet what she got was a loud and sharp splashing noise, not at her, but at the wall in front of her.
Bam!
Stunned for a second later, she tilted her head upward, looking at the wall.
Green energy particles floated in the air, she felt even more confused than relieved.
Why did the shot miss? It wasn't a mistake, but a choice.
She looked down at her sister, her sister was weak, probably on the verge of fading away.
She then turned around, she saw Akira standing behind her with his Bladestaff held behind him.
"Why?" she asked in her distorted voice, somewhat sharp to the ears.
"Because of what you did, not abducting my partner or the officer, but what you did to your sister." Akira said casually. He added, "I know who you are, and your sister. You are the Hara sisters right? Reika and Reiko?"
Reika, the elder sister in the black dress and white hair, widened her pupil-less eyes, she didn't answer verbally but the gaze gave Akira confirmation.
Reiko, the younger sister who wielded the scissors and wore the white dress, growled weakly in her sister's arms, she seemed to be more hostile than her sister.
Akira knew it was the pair of sisters when he saw the younger one. Even though Yoma were spirits corrupted by malevolence, some traits of the spirits still remained, such as spirits tends to linger around the place where they were killed or had a strong memory.
Plus the scissors that Reiko wielded, it was a dead giveaway. Kamakura did mention the father was killed by a pair of scissors.
"I'm sorry for what you have been through. It must be tough for you and your sister. I might not know how it feels, but I know it sucks to feel helpless. The fact that you protected your sister just now proves that you are not all that bad, you just wanted to protect your sister." Akira squatted to Reika's eye level.
Reika's gloomy presence started to fade, Akira's words seemed to have moved her.
No explanations about the tragedy was needed anymore, those were in the past. Her pupil-less eyes started to get teary, she looked down, several drops of glistening tears fell on her sister's white dress.
"Thank you." Reika said with a wobbly distorted voice.
Akira responded with a quiet smile.
There was no reason for him to send the sisters away via the extreme method, if he could resolve it with a milder way, he'd take.
"Both of you can't stay here anymore. Let me help you." said Akira.
Reika knew they would have to go eventually, so there was no surprise when she heard it.
With slight hesitation, she looked down at her sister Reiko.
Reiko was less hostile compared to earlier, but she was still in a weak state. She caught her sister's meaningful gaze, she didn't have anything to say, she had always believed in her sister regardless of the choice because she was always there to protect her, from her abusive father to any kind of external danger.
Reiko curled up into Reika's arms, a timid pupil-less gaze was last seen before she buried her face into the black dress.
Reika looked relieved, she understood her sister even without any verbal communication.
She looked back up at Akira, nodded.
Akira's smile widened, he said, "Well then, are you ready?" White spiritual energy started to glow around his hands.
"Before we go, I have something to tell you." Reika suddenly spoke before Akira purified them. "We aren't avoiding responsibility but… we are forced to abduct and kill the other girls—your partner is still fine. There is someone more powerful than us who forced us to do this, he said if we didn't follow his orders, he'd do something bad to my sister. I had to comply in order to protect her."
The sudden revelation was heard even by Kurata, he was shocked and stunned behind Akira but Akira was calm as usual.
"Finally the answer I've been waiting for, can you spare a little more details about who this person… or Yoma is?" said Akira.
