Chapter One: The Fiery Lion (Part 3)

For some reason, when I finally opened up my eyes after how many hours had passed, I found myself still seated on this kitty boy's airbike, and not waking up on my too-small bed as I had hoped.

"B*TCH, I SAID WAKE THE F*CK UP. YOU'RE MAKING MY MANE DIRTY WITH YOUR GODDAMN SALIVA."

"..."

Of course, the one who woke me up was not even my adorable little bro, but this teenager who could fill his swear jar in a span of a day. I swore that was the largest amount of profanities I had ever heard while waking up.

"...How long have I been sleeping?" When I mumbled that question, I was expecting the answer to be somewhat between 2 hours to a whole night.

"Finally awake, huh?! It's been only 10 minutes and you been sleeping like you were f*cking dead!"

"10 MINUTES? Ugh... Please, just kill me..."

So my head fell back onto this kitty's canyon-wide shoulder, hoping again that I would wake up when all of this had already ended.

"HEY, I SAID WAKE UP?!"

"No way..."

"WHAT KIND OF AN ADULT ARE YOU, FALLING ASLEEP AT 8 IN THE EVENING???"

"You're not working in an office. Easy of you to ask..." said the me who was always tired. I yawned as I moved my body closer to his back so that my head could rest on his fluffy 'mane' a bit better. Despite of him being so rough to me, this boy had got a super warm body that I felt like hugging him like a plushie, if only I could do that while still being handcuffed. Ah... So warm...

"Zzz..."

"HEY YOU?!"

Oh-- I fell asleep again, didn't I?

"We're going to the HQ! The Hunters' HQ! At least get excited, will you?!" Hmm... The HQ?

As I repeated that word in my mind, some questions did arise such as 'What's in the HQ?' 'Am I going to be experimented on in there?' 'So it's going to be me and the Hunters, not just me and you...? Oh, how I'm grateful.' There wasn't the slightest bit of excitement in my mind nor on my face.

"I see... I'm so excited getting my ass toast by the Hunters in a few hours..." At that point, I wasn't even concerned about my own well-being anymore. Actually, I could die any minute from falling off this bike since this kitty boy didn't seem to care shite about speeding, and he kept accelerating and accelerating. The speed was at 150 mph already. Every speck of light from the downtown buildings seemed to become rays of light. The scenery looked almost as if it came straight out of some long-exposure photo.

It made me... so sleepy.

"You're some real dramatic b*tch, aren't you...? Let me tell you something: no one's gonna beat the sh*t out of you unless you're a demon. They might even parade you across the HQ, who knows? You're their long-awaited Avatar of some blah blah blah angel, after all."

"Umm... Uh-huh... I see..." My eyes weren't even open during that sentence. But judging from Leo's voice, he himself was excited at the thought, so it would be a good thing to let the boy think that I was still listening.

Strangely, minutes after that, I still found myself listening to him talking and talking nonstop. At some point, I heard him saying something like "My airbike is the coolest around here, you know? Its force barrier was customized to act like both a shield and a weapon depending on the situation. Now it's functioning as a shield so it can protect you from falling if you're stupid enough to let yourself lean sideward or even backward while sleeping soundly."

"Uh-huh... That's cool..."

"And when can it be used as a weapon, you guess?"

"I... don't really know." Why are you playing 20 questions with me? Suddenly I had this thought coming up in my mind.

"Of course, you don't. You don't fight demons for a living~ When we find some filthy demons flying in our way like those pricks over there, then we should press this button and activate its weapon mode, sending force waves to kick their asses."

"I see..." I swore I was so sleepy, the world around me looked totally blurry just like that time before I got my LASIK surgery. When Leo pointed his finger at whatever demons flying in the air over there, my eyes could not make out a thing. Guess I should just let myself venture into the dreamland already.

...

"HOLD UP. DID YOU JUST SAY 'DEMONS OVER THERE'?"

Unfortunately, on second thought, I did have to open my eyes really wide and take a look at whatever the frick was in our way. The sight of some strange creatures that seemed to have only a flaming skull as their bodies flying toward us made me almost choke on air. Clearly, those were no nocturnal birds.

"Well, they don't look like China Town's lanterns, do they? Don't worry, man. They are just the low-ranked ones. Not even close to the word 'Danger'."

As Leo said that, suddenly one of the flaming skulls decided to go over its own speed limit. It successfully evaded the force waves and was able to reach us in the blink of an eye, so it crashed right into the airbike's barrier, making an ear-splitting explosive noise and shaking the whole bike... as well as my heart. The vehicle staggered so badly, that it felt like we just laid ourselves on the floor. But... there was no floor. We were at least 600 feet above the ground.

"EXCUSE ME??? 'NOT EVEN CLOSE TO THE WORD DANGER'???" I couldn't help but yell this kitty's own words into his ears with the loudest voice possible, hoping he would reevaluate the situation. But to my own woes, this time he didn't even seem to flinch. Even worse... he was laughing.

"Seriously? This feels dangerous to you? Those wisps are one of the lowest of demons! Did you get any scratches? 'Tis not even a scratch!" The mad lad said all of that with a laugh and then he accelerated the bike even more. So we were going at 180 mph while also zigzagging from left to right, causing the wisps to crash into each others trying to chase us. At that moment, the explosive sounds became so deafening, I could feel my eardrums vibrating and my soul screaming for mercy.

"Leo, please... Have mercy... No more..." Before I realized it, tiny drops of tears were running down my face as I was pleading for His Majesty, King Leo, to spare me the suffering. I couldn't take it anymore...

"B*tch, for real, how the f*ck you survived this long being like this--"

Seconds after that, when I saw some wisps starting to form some kind of a wall formation as tall as 10 feet in front of us, at a distance of no more than 5 feet away, and it seemed that our airbike couldn't possibly move vertically to evade it in such a short amount of time, I thought I heard my pessimistic mind whispering something like 'We dead. We dead. We dead.' for how many times I couldn't even count. This was it. This was the end.

"God, do I really have to die like this...? Then who will pay for my little bro's tuition fee...? He still has 2 years left in uni... I haven't even bought life insurance... My death's gonna be in vain..."

"..."

Somehow, Leo had become so quiet during my moment of prayer... No, not just him. Everything got so quiet I started to hear myself mumbling and ranting. Even the rumbling sound of the engine faded into silence. The only sounds left were the sound of wind and the wisps growling.

...

Hold on. If there was no sound of an engine, could it be that--

"Adel Ozwald, I swear you're the most hopeless motherf*cker I've ever met in my entire f*cking life..."

I found myself staring blankly at the airbike's unlit dashboard and dials, which was a telltale sign that Leo had turned off the engine. So many questions bubbled up in my mind, I couldn't allow myself to have any more thought... unless I wanted to go crazy right then and there.

"Have you ever sky-dived, Adel? I assure you this will be the smoothest skydiving session ever. Not only we will get to shake these motherf*ckers off, our feet would also be back on the ground so fast."

"..."

Apparently, I was at a loss for words.

"Is your shrimpy ass ready? When I turn off the magnetic field~"

"Just get it over with, man..."

That must have sounded like I was on the edge of getting executed. But as I said, I couldn't allow myself to think any more thought or think before I speak...

Or I would go crazy at that moment we both freefell from the sky.

Under the sound of gusty wind and the wisps crashing into the fiery wall made of their own fellows, I could hear Leo yelling excitedly like a kid going on an insane roller coaster drive, while the only sound I myself could make was this 'AAAAAAAAAA' screaming noise in my head. And my face felt completely blank, rid of all emotions.

Hence, I had made up my mind that no matter how scary the demons could be, Hunters would always be scarier than demons, or at least it was just Leo... Guess I might change my mind if I got to survive long enough to meet other Hunters.