Chapter Nine

We kick the steel door down and look around for anyone or anything suspicious. Kotake gets on stage. He's as drunk as hell since he can't even walk in a straight line.

"Hey there, everyone. Have you heard of Burrito the legendary ninja?" he asks like a sloth.

"He's pathetic," I say and start to giggle.

"Stop laughing. We have to return to the task at hand," he says.

Kotake starts to sing like a dying pigeon, "WeeeEEEEeee are fighting dreamERS!"

Everyone starts to laugh. He's humiliating himself on stage!

I feel the same presence from earlier.

"Shit! We might be too late!" I shout.

I transform back into my female form. A large scythe flies in the air like a boomerang and hits the stage lights. The lights fall onto the stage with a large "Boom!" Women scream as men beg for mercy. The sadistic gods leave the theater like nothing ever happens, and the children cry for their parents. Everyone runs in different directions. It's complete chaos. A man emerges from the blade of the scythe. He turns around. The mystery man is wearing a creepy, mad-looking, white mask with a twisted smile on it. He has the same terrible haircut as the guy from earlier. His twisted figure perfectly fits with the formal outfit he's wearing.

"I should've known. He was in front of the theater earlier," I say. "I thought he wouldn't be that dangerous, but he did look a bit shady."

"Die, you pests. This world doesn't deserve such beauty and kindness," says the mysterious man. "The only one that does is me, Hirano!"

He pulls his scythe out of the wall that's right behind the fallen lights. The madman falls back and disappears.

"He used teleportation magic! We better find him ASAP!" Shoki shouts.

"Why don't you use your analysis magic?" I ask.

"Something's blocking me from using it!" he answers.

"Why's everyone yelling?" Sakurako screams.

We all pause and blankly stare at her.

"When did you get here?" we ask.

"Forget about me. We need to chase down whoever caused those lights to fall!" she shouts urgently.

"How do you know someone was behind this?" I ask out of suspicion. "You weren't there when that happened."

"Um… I just assumed some sort of terrorist was behind this because of how everyone was screaming their heads off and how unnaturally damaged the supports are," she points out.

"Why are you even suspicious of her, Kensei? Out of everyone here, you're the most suspicious," Shoki says with a serious face.

"Shut up! We need to go find that stupid terrorist!" I shout.

I start to hear a quiet sound. It sounds like something is ticking down. Something bad is about to happen just like a movie.

"Does anyone else hear something?" I ask.

"Yeah. It sounds like someone won't shut up," he jokes around.

I do a little karate chop on his head and say, "I'm serious here. It sounds like a bomb is somewhere hidden in this freaking building! This ticking noise is something to take seriously, man!"

"Okay. Sorry. Just trying to brighten up the mood. There's nothing the great Shoki can't do!" he replies.

"You haven't changed at all, Dork," I say with a smile.

He quickly creates several screens made out of light magic. Each screen is a different size. His eyes scan through all of them lightning fast.

"Found it. I even found the culprit behind Kotatsu's murder," he says.

"Um… I'm still alive," says the old man.

"Shush! The dead are not supposed to speak!" I say.

"Do any of you know how to use teleportation magic?" Shoki asks.

We all shake our heads.

"The closest I can do is use magic to open up portals to other realms, but I can't use any magic to bring us to a different location in the same realm," I say.

"Of course you're useless," he says.

"Says the person that can't do shit," I say in response.

"Stop arguing like three-year-olds, you two. We're just wasting time here," says Sakurako.

"Fine. I'm going to head over to wherever this creep is," I say.

"I'll follow you since you don't know where he could be. Sakurako and Argus, take care of the bomb," Shoki orders.

Argus gives Shoki a bright thumbs up and Sakurako does the same. We all part ways to hunt down the dangers we must face.

"Hey! What about me? Does anyone care at all?" Kotatsu asks purely out of sadness and loneliness.

Shoki and I hop from one roof to another like a ninja. The dark sky with stars scattered like sprinkles makes it more difficult than it already is to find him. There's busy traffic below us. Both roads and sidewalks are packed with humanoid civilians. The street lights give off an eerie vibe and the large advertisements show perfect models showing off skincare products. There's an awful lot of lights in each building, which are all towers.

"Just how far did he get?" I whine. "We've been doing this for twenty minutes now."

"We should be close now. This guy is moving at an incredible pace," he answers.

"I shouldn't have used up all of my energy in the Celestial Realm," I say.

"Sucks to be you, Dumbass. I'm smart enough to NOT head into a battle that totally could've been avoided," he brags.

"Don't talk down to me. I was just so bored since we had an hour of nothing," I complain.

He ignores me. My blood starts to boil.

"I freaking hate you!" I angrily yell.

He suddenly stops, and I crash into his back. Shoki has a shocked look on his face. I start to hear moaning coming from whatever is in front of us. I look over Shoki's shoulder. There's a large pile of greyish-purple goo with thousands of faces on it. The moaning sounds so dreadful and full of despair.

"Where did he go?" Shoki asks himself.

"What's up with that sludge? That's disgusting," I say and plug my nose. "It smells like cow shit."

"No. It smells way worse than that," says Shoki.

"Join us," the sludge says and reaches out to us. "Heaven awaits."

"Hell no! Why the hell will I join a huge ball of slime?" I scream out of disgust.

A lady in a fancy yukata and parasol walks in the air. She has her long, golden blonde hair tied up using a red hair stick. Every step she takes looks like she's not walking on air, but on water covered in cherry blossom petals. She descends slowly and elegantly onto the roof and next to that ball of sludge.

"Mother," says the slime.

She smiles and says, "How's my little one doing? You seem bigger than the last time I saw you."

"Gross," both Shoki and I say in unison.

She takes her eyes off of the sludge and looks at us. The lady licks her lips.

"Hey, there you two. You seem very displeased about my child. Let me fix you up," she says. "The great lord gives kindness to all. You shall feel the same kindness he has given to us."

"No," we both reply. "You and your little ball of shit/crap should just die in hell."

"Oh my. What horrible language! Oh well, you shall join us soon," she giggles.

The throwup-green sludge lunges towards us. I shove Shoki in front of me.

"You handle this. That thing is too gross for my swords to touch!" I say. "I'll handle that psycho that created one hell of an abomination."

"Dude! I never agreed to take care of this sludge by myself!" he shouts.

"Good luck," I say and pull out one of my swords.

I rush towards the lady and strike. She blocks my attack using her index finger. The lady did not look my way at all.

"Just how powerful is this lady?" I ask myself.

"Oh my. What horrible manners. You'll join us soon either way," she says. "I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Flora, the one that shall shape you up into a perfect being."

I hop back to keep my distance from this twisted woman. She starts to laugh and uses her magic to create tiny balls of sludge to shoot at me. I dodge the attack. The ball of sludge lands onto the concrete floor and starts eating away the concrete.

"Seems like my babies are hungry," she says with a smile.

"Ew. You're gross," I say out of disgust.

She gives the coldest glare I have ever seen.

"How dare you talk like that about my babies!" she screams out of rage.

She holds her parasol in front of herself and starts spinning it at an intense speed. Balls of yucky sludge shoot out of it like a gatling gun. I dodge most of them by running along the edge of the roof and deflect the rest using my super, awesome, beautiful, black sword.

"Die, you son of a bitch!" she shouts atrociously.

I can hear the bloodlust in her voice. It's emanating from every action she has done. Breathing, blinking, moving, all of it! Everything shows that she has the intention to kill me.

"I refuse to die by the hands of some lady like you!" I say. "I'd rather die by the hands of a hot, sexy, kind man."

She retracts her parasol and rushes straight towards me. She attempts to strike me, but I parry the attack.

"You've got one nice umbrella," I say. "I'm surprised it could withstand my Sword of Wrath."

She continues to glare at me silently. I stare at her cold eyes and pull out another sword to split her head open without having my eyes leave hers. Red blood runs down her neck and stains her elegant, white yukata. Her bloody corpse falls onto the ground. I turn my head to check on Shoki. He continues to fight against those slimes. I notice something's off since usually when the master dies, whatever they summon either dies or returns to where they originally came from before the pact.

"Something's wrong here!" I shout at Shoki.

"Yeah! Something is wrong here! Little Miss Demon won't help her own teammates at all!" he screams angrily at me while fending off the pile of sludge.

I start to hear footsteps behind me. I quickly turn back around to face the corpse. It's gone. The corpse has disappeared from the spot I left it at.

"Hello there, Sweetheart," says the walking corpse behind me. "Come with me to heaven. The lord will be overjoyed to see you."

She licks my ear. I quickly create distance between Flora and me by using my wings to fly into the air. I face her, a walking corpse of an insane woman.

"Who's this lord that you speak of?" I ask.

"The most handsome man in the universe, the demon lord," she says.

There's no way she can work under the demon lord especially when I AM the demon lord. I know my servants well, so I know for sure she is not a servant of mine.

"My lord will bring justice to this world! He'll treasure us forever!" she screams like a maniac.

A brown crust starts to grow on her skin. All of her blood veins become visible and start to turn brown. Flora's legs explode and turn into the roots of a plant. They dig into the rock-hard cement. She reaches for the sky with a mad smile, and her arms also explode however they turned into tree branches. Her torso and head become no more, and blossoms start to bloom on the branches. The sludge disappears into nothingness.

"What the hell is going on?" I ask myself. "Why in the world did she turn into a sakura tree? How was a mortal able to come back to life?"

"Where did that sakura tree come from?" Shoki asks.

"That woman's body turned into this tree," I answer.

A bird flies close to the tree and suddenly falls onto the ground.

"Are there people in these buildings?" I ask Shoki.

"Yeah, you idiot! Why in the world would three, tall, empty buildings right next to each other?" he answers like it's common knowledge.

"Well, shit. We might be a little too late to save them," I say.

"What are you talking about?" he asks.

"This thing tree seems to work like a vampire," I point out. "Look at this bird."

I toss him the corpse of the bird. It's all dried up and has no wounds.

"W-What is this?" he asks out of shock.

"That's the result of this tree. We better check the building to see if there are any survivors," I say. "We wouldn't want people to die by the hands of a stupid tree."

"That's true. Who in the world would want to brag about dying from a tree?" he agrees.

We both hop off of the roofs of these tall buildings and split into groups of one to search for any survivors. I look at the reception desk upfront and see two people that are entangled in some roots that belong to that damn sakura tree. I examine the roots of the plant along with the corpses. The corpses are dry out. There are no signs of any souls or liquids in these bodies. These roots have black veins just like these bodies. I notice something that's missing from those bodies. Organs. The organs that are supposed to be found in humanoid species are gone!

"One elf and human," I note to myself. "They're both males. "Their hair is discolored, and their skin is all wrinkled and cracked. Seems they haven't died that long ago since these roots came from that tree, and the computers in front of them show recent activity."

I grab a seat and scan through the documents on the computers. There are criminal files and files that show who came through here. This place is most likely a police station. I scan through the data of the criminal files in a folder with no name. I notice they all have something in common. All of the victims have some sort of tree growing out of the back of their neck. Their corpses are all dried out just like these corpses behind me.

"Something doesn't add up here," I say to myself. "How does no one know about these cases?"

I get up from the chair and continue to search the building for some clues or survivors. There's not even one soul in this building. There's just corpses everywhere along with those stupid roots. I climb down the stairs and leave the building. Shoki stands on the sidewalk with his flashy phone.

"Sup," he says.

He pauses and stares at my face.

"You okay?" he asks. "You have the same expressionless face as you did when you were in that lab."

"I'm fine," I say. "There's just one thing I want to confirm."

"What would this thing be?" he asks with a curious tone.

"It has something to do with Sakurako," I answer. "She seems suspicious since day one.��

BOOM! We look around to see what's going on. A strong gust of wind swept through us like a violent river. I stand in place with a straight face. Shards from the explosion cut my skin, but I can't feel the pain from these wounds. Shoki creates a barrier to shield himself. I watch him struggle to protect himself from the explosion.

"Looks like a bit of my magic has returned," I say to myself.

I tie my long, silver hair back using a hair tie since it's getting in my way, and I seal a portion of my mana into my magical earring that can recreate itself after being destroyed. I look over at Shoki and see him in an exhausted state. There's heavy dark circles under each eye. He looks like a drunk panda. I bite down on my lips to keep myself from laughing. Shoki stares at my weird face.

"Don't you dare do it. I know what you're going to say," he says with a serious look.

"You look like a stupid, drunk panda," I laugh my ass off.

"I'm going to kill you once I regain my energy," he says angrily.

I bend over and look at his dreaded face.

"Try me," I say with a playful smile and flick his forehead.

He falls flat onto the ground face-first. I move out of the way the moment he starts to fall and stare at his body that's on the floor. I give him a nice, big grin and pull out a fat Sharpie. Slowly pulling the cap off, I doodle on his punchable face without waking this "poor boy" up.

"Good night, Sleepy head," I whisper in his ear and walk away. "I should probably check what the goofballs are doing."