What Was It?

CHAPTER 23

He returned to the slightly slanted hill - their usual meeting spot, to see Megumi standing there as he stared blankly into space.

The energy flow around remained calm as his mind was but he didn't seem to be meditating either. He simply wasn't using his mind at that moment.

" Where had you been Ren? It's already night time and the time for our training has long since passed... Is that blood I smell?" He asked, slowly turning towards him.

" Hey now, I thought you were drifting off a moment ago, yet somehow, you were able to catch the scent of blood from me." Ren said, slowly walking away, "Just go home, and also, training's over."

Megumi paused for a moment, thinking back at what Ren had just said before slowly taking a step forward. Suddenly, his feet became trapped in place as shadows slowly began crawling up on his body.

He slowly closed his eyes, screeching slightly as he was slowly engulfed by the shadows. He appeared right in front of his room, the number five present at the top of the room entrance.

" He doesn't even say anything and just throws me off like always. Not to talk of the fact that he's been acting weird lately as well ever since we came across that building."

He stood there for a moment, before slowly taking a look at both his palms, realizing that he had lost a very valuable item. He rushed straight towards the window, quickly opening it up before jumping down.

He gritted his teeth, slightly biting down on his lower lip as he ran as fast as he could. He soon arrived at the hillside, looking around to see if he could catch Ren.

Looking around the place, he couldn't find anything. He was sure he had something with him before arriving there in the evening - a folded piece of paper.

He wasn't able to find it no matter how hard he looked, and in the end, he decided to simply give up on searching and return to the house where he had just come from.

As he took a step forward, he felt a gush of wind bellow past him. The night certainly wasn't windy and the ominous presence that came with the wind couldn't be mistaken.

The presence wasn't one he recognized - not demon or human. He didn't know what it was nor did he try to guess, but trying his luck on figuring out what it was wasn't a plan either.

" My curiosity has cost me enough already. I should just... go home." He mumbled, heaving a sigh as he continued forward.

For a brief moment, he stopped, looking back at where he was minutes ago. The feeling that there was someone, something there, watching him lingered in his mind.

Slowly, he held out his right hand, stretching it forward as a bout of external energy began to build up around it, and after a certain point, he fired it.

The blast continued forward until it came in contact with one of the trees. The contact resulted in a large explosion, cutting the tree in half as well as causing great damage to the ones around it.

A short conflict of energies and the sound of a twig breaking resounded soon after. That was when he quickly ran forward, focusing most of his innate energy on his feet so he could move as fast as possible.

He was able to move a bit more quickly than his usual speed, but it didn't change the fact that the thing or person he was chasing was incredibly fast as well.

He stopped after having run far into the woods. There was a cliff just a few meters before him, and there wasn't a sign of the entity he had his eyes on a moment ago.

He quickly turned around, but before he could do so, he heard the resounding sound of a whip against the wind. Something instantly wrapped around his legs, pulling him to the ground and flinging him to the side.

He gasped slightly, trying to regain his balance as his back was slammed against a tree. The attack didn't stop there as he continued to fling around the area.

He managed to get his right hand on the whip, pulling it as hard as he could as he wrapped his left hand around a tree branch.

He felt great pain from all the surfaces he had been flung to and slowly, all that pain was turning into pain. The tree branch snapped and he was pulled down once more.

His head hit hard against the ground, and he felt his gaze blur for a moment, but he still managed to keep his eyes open. He kept his hands tight on the rope, pulling against the rope.

He began to crawl backward, slowly heading toward the edge of the cliff. He continued to tug hard on the whip, trying as hard as possible to break it but all his attempts were still futile.

Instantly, the whip loosened around his legs, causing him to stagger backward. He tried to regain his balance but wasn't able to, just before the whip tied around him once again before pulling him down.

He felt hopeless as he fell head down to the ground, crashing against the sandy beach before collapsing a few moments later.