Chapter 11. Fiend

"Tell me how I can save her"

"I'm only going to say it once so you have to believe anything I say even though it's gonna sound stupid"

"I'm all ears"

"You pick up fast. If you look in the mirror you're gonna notice that something is different about you" Tokita said "Masaki get me a mirror or something"

"You can be so demanding"

"Hayaku"

{'Hayaku' in Japanese means 'hurry' or 'hurry up'}

Masaki went and came back a few minutes later. He noticed that the tension in the air was gone by the time he got back to the hall. He gave the mirror to Tokita raised it in front of Kenji at once. The difference wasn't hard to notice actually.

"What the hell did you do to me?!" Kenji shouted "Why is my hair white"

"You should be happy that you are still alive"

"The hell are you saying?"

"Now listen and listen good 'cuz we don't have much time"

"Tch. Talk"

"Your white hair is as a result of a ritual I just performed on you. You needed something to be able to save her and I've given you that so now you are going to intrude her mind for you to help her"

"What exactly is going on?And what do you mean by ritual? Did you make me a part of some occultic group"

"I wouldn't say that"

"She is plagued by what you would call a fiend. A type which attacks the heart and the mind. I heard you're the one she's in love with so you're the only one who can save her"

"How and why did this thing attack her?"

"I heard you two were having a lot of issues recently, gosh teenagers. I can't explain everything right now but when you get back I will explain"

"This all sounds like some kind of joke"

"That's rich coming from you. If I told just anyone about the kind of strength you possessed do you think they'd believe me. Muscle density of eight, higher than what any human could achieve"

"How did you know? Did she talk you?"

"That's not important right now. It's time for you to set off. Here are the basic instructions. You only fight anything that doesn't look human and you pull her out of whatever hideous state she's in. For you to be able to exit her mind you might have to fight and defeat the fiend in her"

"Now fighting is more of my style"

"The fiend will try to use her memories of you to slowly destroy her mind until she finally breaks and when she does it will consume her soul that's why you have to hurry" Tokita explained "That's all I'll tell you, now get going"

"Get going? How?"

"Chika please"

A woman with a stoic face wearing a yukata appeared out of thin air in front of Kenji and she held his head.

"What are you doing?"

"Hayaku hayaku, or she'll die. Stop resisting" Chika told him.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Give in already"

"What the hell?"

While she held on to his head she remained calm while Kenji was tense and it was really pissing him off. He held her wrist and he crushed it almost immediately with one little squeeze. She backed off and held her wrist which had been victimized. She scoffed as she looked at it and looked at him again. He had a horrified look on his face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to"

"Don't worry" Tokita said "She's fine"

Just like he said Kenji saw her hand straighten out, stretch a bit and in the blink of an eye it was back to normal.

"What the...?"

Chika grabbed his forehead again and this time Kenji didn't try to resist her. He felt lighter all of a sudden and he started to lose consciousness. "Bring me the girl"

Masaki carried Sakura to her and she took hold of Sakura's forehead too. A gentle white light emerged from both hands and Kenji went unconscious.

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Kenji opened his eyes but it was like they were still completely shut. He was in a very dark place and couldn't find his way around which made things really difficult for him

'Where am I?' he thought.

After walking around in the dark for a while he saw a very tiny light that looked like it was very far away. It was so tiny that he almost missed it. Following normal logic he started moving toward the light as fast as he could. He should have been able to get there really fast and easily but it was taking forever and he was feeling tired. The light was getting closer, sure, but something was off about him. It was only after a while that he noticed he wasn't running as fast as he normally would and for the first time in his life he was feeling tired. "What the hell? What happened to all my strength?"

He jumped several times but he wasn't able to go any higher than three feet. This wasn't good for him at all but he had no choice but to continue moving forward.

'I'll save her no matter what'

When he finally got to the light source he discovered a door which was left open.

'I'm supposed to go in right?' Kenji thought 'This is so not cool, I don't even understand what's going on. Wait for me Sakura, I'm almost there's

Kenji walked through the door and the sight put a smile on his face. He was so relieved to see Sakura sitting in a room that was lit by a single bright fire.

"Sakura, thank goodness, I found you"

Sakura turned her head and when she saw him she started to cry.

"No no no no, don't cry" Kenji said and wemt to her. He pulled into an embrace and tried to shooosh her.

"You're okay now, it's okay. Don't cry, don't cry, I'm here now. I've forgotten about everything that you said before. Let's just get you out of here"

As Sakura cried into his shirt she said something inaudible.

"Did you say something?"

She raised her hard and looked at him "You shouldn't have come here"

"What?"

"You shouldn't have come here!" She was very loud this time around.

There both heard a loud voice, one that sounded like that of a man but it sounded weird. Kenji wasn't afraid and he instinctively knew that what was coming wasn't human. There were very loud footsteps which drew closer by the second.

"We have to get out of here right now. Can you run?" Kenji whispered.

"Yes" Sakura replied.

"That's good, we're gonna run on my count"

"Ok"

The footsteps are already very close and tension was building up. "Let's move away from the door" Kenji suggested. He wasn't feeling as strong as he normally would so he decided to avoid any problems he could. Both of them moved away from the door and the footsteps finally stopped close to them. Kenji covered Sakura's mouth with his hand so she wouldn't make an sound because she was really terrified.

Instead of going to the room the footsteps started coming toward them.

'What the hell?, Does it know where we are? This is bad, this is bad , this is really bad' Millions of thoughts went through Kenji's head in that time and he could only think up one solution to the problem on ground. "Sakura run!"

**********

"...for you to be able to exit her mind you might have to fight and defeat the fiend..."

**********

'I'm gonna have to fight this thing. It's not a matter of escaping anymore. It's trapped us in a part of her mind where we can't escape without defeating it'. His eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness and he could see somethings even if they weren't clear

'This is good enough for me'

The first sight had Kenji's courage humbled. He knew it wasn't human but what the fuck was this before him. It has the look of a sperm whale with eyes all over it's body and some hands and legs. Plus, it was huge.

"You're kidding me right?"

It looked mad despite its inhumane appearance. Sakura on the other hand just sat on the ground and stared.

'I swore that I'll save her no matter what'. Kenji thought. He raised his head and looked at the fiend "So give me your best shot you monkey!!!"