5 Chapter 5: Those Who Protect Me

"And that's when I slugged the guy."

"Really?"

"Yeah! He really thought that I was about to let him take my taffy apple! Who does he think he is? No one takes Matoi's food!"

Touya laughed as Matoi started shadow boxing, acting out the aforementioned fight. "I'm guessing you won..."

"Hell yeah! When I disarmed him, he was damn near harmless!"

"Wait-disarmed?"

"What?"

"He had a gun!?"

"Yup, and I still won!" Matoi started laughing as if nothing were wrong with what he just said.

"You need to be more careful man..."

"You're worrying about nothing dude. Don't you remember when I dodged that shotgun blast? At point blank range?"

Touya laughed as he took a deep breath, "You're right...you're definitely some sort of superhuman freak."

"So. Did anything cool happen to you today?" He slouched on the stairs of his porch, "And please make it interesting today!"

"You know what? I actually have something neat to tell you. I got a job."

"Ay! That's what's up!"

"And that's not even the end of it. I got pranked too."

"What kind of prank was it?!" Matoi sat up as if he were being drawn in.

"It was...dark to say the least." He immediately regretted mentioning that so called prank, since it was truly difficult to see it as anything but cruel. His blood boiled at the thought of Red and Cain, but he took a deep breath to relax.

"That's it?"

"Yup."

Matoi stood up and jumped down the rest of the stairs, "Touya...you need to get better at storytelling."

"What?"

"I was actually interested for a second, but you cut to the chase too fast! Now there's no buildup!"

"Why should I care about telling stories?"

"Cuz. You'll have to catch Tineka up on everything when she wakes up. Right?"

He smiled before standing up, "You're right about that one. Big facts."

"Let's go to the store. I'm thirsty!" Matoi started walking down the street in the direction of the corner store.

"I could go for a Gatorade too."

They both walked until they reached the intersection. Luckily, the light was red, so they both stepped into the street.

CRASH!

Touya fell over as he heard the loud impact reverberate through his ears. He was shaken to the core as he looked up to see Matoi standing perfectly still. "What the hell was that!?"

"A car!"

Touya stood up to see a black Toyota in front of Matoi, whose hand was smashed into the front hood of the car.

The car door opened, and a dude with tanned skin and spiky green hair got out of the car. He had on a black tank top, and his arms were covered with tattoos. He looked like trouble, but Touya didn't want to be judgemental.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" He walked into Matoi's face raring for a fight.

"I stopped your car, you could've killed somebody you jackass."

Touya looked back and forth as fear began to set in. This wasn't gonna end well at all.

"What the fuck?!" The dude looked back at his car and noticed how the hood was caved in, "You fucked up my car!"

"I only used my hand. It isn't my fault your car is too weak."

Touya walked over to Matoi and grabbed his shoulder, "C'mon Matoi. Let's just go to the store."

"No. This guy seems to have a problem with us!" He turned back to face the crazy driver, "Maybe you should've paid attention to the lights!"

"You better chill out bitch!" He dug into his pants and pulled out a gun, "Okay?!"

That was it, Touya's fear multiplied. Someone was definitely going to get hurt if he didn't defuse the situation. "Matoi let's just go."

"Touya, I'm not scared of some weak ass hand gun!"

"This is an AK boy! You better listen to your friend!"

"Make me." Matoi smiled as the dude aimed straight for his head and pulled the trigger.

As soon as the gunshot went off, a flash of light nearly blinded Touya. Another crash was heard right after. When he came back to his senses, he saw the dude knocked out on top of his car. His jaw was definitely broken, or at least fractured, and he wasn't moving anytime soon.

"I tried to stop it. I knew you weren't gonna go easy on him." Touya shook his head and laughed as he walked into the corner store.

"Well. It looks like he should've been the one heeding your warnings. I thought you were worried about my safety for a second there!" Matoi walked into the store with a huge smile on his face.

-

"I ain't thinkin' bout you! I ain't sorry!"

Touya shook his head and laughed as Namika sang along with the song. "You need help."

"This is my song!" She continued to move her right hand in sync with the song, while her left hand controlled the steering wheel of the car.

He didn't have enough time to worry about her careless driving. Her high spirit consumed him, as it always has. No matter how he felt, seeing Namika upbeat and happy made him just as happy. Besides, she had the driver's license in the relationship, so she knew better than he did.

"I can actually drive around today since we closed early! Aren't you glad babe?"

"No. I wanted you to stay at work all night..." He grinned as the sarcastic tone carried his words.

"Of course you'd say that. I mean, it's not like you walked up to the movie theater to keep me company." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

"Wait! I need to show you something." He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out his ID. He waited for her to reach a red light, and handed it to her.

"Official Spirit Exorcist..."

Touya felt his heart sink when he heard her read it aloud. He forgot that the ID straight up said the job title. He wanted to keep the whole spiritual stuff to himself, he just found out about it.

"Wait. So you're one of those therapists?"

"Huh?"

"You know. The therapists that deal with those people who think they are possessed by demons and stuff."

"Y..yeah. You could say that."

"Well...I'm proud of you, Peachy." She was about to hug him, but the green light came on, forcing her to direct her attention to the road. "When do you start?"

"Tomorrow."

"Really? That's good. Do you know what time you have to be there?"

He didn't really ask anyone for a time, but he didn't think he needed to be there at a specific time. "I can go whenever I want."

"Lucky...you don't have to get up in the morning like me!"

He laughed before he lowered the window on his side of the car, "If it makes you feel any better, I'll be leaving out when you do."

"Why?"

"I don't know. You won't have to feel alone on your way to work...we can drive all the way to your job, and I'll walk the rest of the way." The car went silent after he said those words. Even the music stopped as the song had just finished.

"Aw...aren't you sweet? I wanna hug you so bad right now!"

He laughed and looked out of the window. They've been dating for five years, but he still blushed at her compliments. He did love them though. "It pays good too, so I might be able to buy all of the things off of my list in no time."

"How much do you get paid?"

"It varies between each case, but I can earn up to a hundred thousand per case."

"What the-are you serious!? Where did you find this job?"

"I ran into someone at Game Stop."

"Crazy...I might quit my job and come work there too."

They both shared a laugh as they turned the corner onto the street where Touya's house was located.

"You don't mind that I'm going outside today, do you?"

"Of course not. Just make sure that you don't stay out too late, you still have work to-nevermind, it's Saturday." He turned back to face her, "Just watch your drinking...and don't smoke either. It's been two months since you stopped." He smiled and rubbed Namika's shoulder.

"Man...it seems like it's been longer." She shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind, "But I want those two months to turn into two years."

"That's the spirit, but don't dwell on it too much. I still want you to have fun."

"Alrighty...I will." They kissed one more time before Touya got out of the car.

When Namika held his face, it was as if she didn't want to let go. He stared at her through the lowered window, and her eyes looked...sad. "Namika, you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah! I'm good." She shook her head again.

He knew that that was a lie. She was so happy a minute ago, maybe the conversation on smoking was too heavy? He didn't want to leave her alone on the car ride now. "Ok...don't forget to have fun. And call me when you get to Kamiya's house."

"Okay..."

Touya watched as Namika rolled up the windows. The spunky, upbeat woman was no longer in the car. In the car sat a sad, lonely girl. He waited patiently for her to pull off, but it never happened. She just sat in the car.

Namika turned up the music to its maximum volume and smiled at Touya. The bass of the music shook the street, due to her newly installed speakers. In an instant, she was back to normal. This wasn't a mask, she was actually happy again.

"Bye bye!"

"Oh-See you later! Call Kamiya on your way there to keep yourself occupied! "

She waved goodbye at him and pulled off. He shook his head and laughed out loud.

"What in the hell was I worried about? She's fine."

-

Touya was currently sitting in his bedroom recounting the events of the day. His time of reflection was cut short by the appearance of the small spirit, Kieran.

"Good evening Touya."

"Hi."

"You're supposed to say "good evening" back as a response."

He glanced at Kieran before turning back to face the wall, "I need to talk to you about some things."

"I'm all ears..." Kieran hopped onto the nightstand, awaiting Touya's barrage of questions.

"First, why do you want to have my body? What's in it for you?"

Kieran came to a halt and looked straight at the young man, "Well...if I'm being honest...It's nothing too outlandish. I just love seeing life through a human body."

"Really?"

"Yes. Then there's the fact that you were depressed, something about that spoke out to me."

Touya watched as Kieran laid down on the stand. Even though he was a projection, he could see just how genuine he was. "I see. I guess fate brought us together." Touya stood up as a sense of doubt washed over him, "Wait, were you in an embryo form right before you met me?"

"No, of course not. I've been around for centuries."

"Oh. Well, why do you hate exorcists?"

"I don't hate them. I was just afraid that they were going to kill me...it's an instinctual fear. You should have it too. We have no idea what they could be doing behind our backs...humans are a deceiving species."

"Says the cat. By the way, are you a boy or a girl?"

"I'm a boy."

Touya fell back onto the bed and took a deep breath, "Alright. But I do agree with you on the whole instinctual fear thing. Especially after that prank. Those guys are evil!"

"So. What are your plans for tomorrow?"

"I'm going on my first mission. Is that alright with you?"

"No need to be rude, and yes. I'm fine with that. Our power is actually the best case scenario for you. You've been a chill guy your entire life, so you have a lot of chi in your body."

"So it's dependent on how calm you are?"

"Yes. Chi is the manifestation of true zen and inner peace. You have tons of it."

"Ok. Goodnight. I'm tired." Touya got under the cover and closed his eyes, attempting to fall asleep.

"How dare you? I was in the middle of educating you-" He growled as he noticed that the young man was already asleep. "Silly human..."