Chapter 18 – First Battle with a yokai

Hoshi's POV

 The next day, Bokuto, Saki, and I went to school together. We were excited for class. But then, someone bumped into me.

 "Hey, watch it!" Bokuto said to that person.

But that person, a young man with brown hair and black eyes, just scoffed at us and left off.

We thought it was normal, so we just continued walking towards school.

At school, we were on the school rooftop eating lunch when Sha came.

 "Hello there, kids," he greeted with a monotone voice.

We then stopped eating and looked at him.

 "Oh, hey, Sha-sensei."

 "What is it?"

Then, Sha sat next to Bokuto, making us a bit uncomfortable.

 "So, did anyone of you ever encounter a yokai?" he asked us,

To that, the three of us exchanged glances at each other.

 "No."

 "Not at all."

 "But we saw some kind of silhouette near a bus one evening," Saki responded.

 "A silhouette?" Sha raised an eyebrow,

Bokuto then nodded. "Yeah, and it grabbed onto a bus when it moved."

 "I see, that might be a yokai."

 "Like what?" I asked.

 "Must be an Amanojaku," Sha replied.

 "What is that?" the three of us asked back.

 "It's an imp-like yokai that goads people to do bad deeds. Be careful not to fall in its traps."

The three of us then nodded.

With that, Sha stood up. "Well, I'm just checking on you. Go back to class once break time is over."

He then left the rooftop.

Because of that, we started to question his motives.

 Later, after class, the three of us shoved our belongings into our bags and left the school, walking home together. It was a peaceful afternoon, with the sun setting beautifully like a painting.

 "Man, school is so good," I commented happily.

 "Yeah, it was," Bokuto agreed with me.

 "It was tough, but we did it," Saki added.

 We then went to a market street in the city, only to hear a scream. We got alerted and then, we saw some people running to us while screaming.

"What is going on here?" I asked the passing people.

But they didn't answer at all, so we went to what was going on.

Then, we saw the same young man from this morning running towards me while holding a knife.

Upon seeing that, Bokuto and I wielded our weapons, with me turning into Kuro with my activated eye.

 "Die!" the man lunged at us, but we dodged.

Saki managed to get out of the way.

Bokuto then pinned the man down. "Stop it, what is wrong with you?"

But the man resisted back, and Bokuto managed to get out of the way.

I, as Kuro, then charged at the man with my scythe. "Take this!"

But the man dodged it and tried to stab me.

I then managed to dodge it at the last minute, and Bokuto managed to hold him down.

 "What is wrong with you?" I asked the man.

While struggling, the man growled and cursed at me with a lot of profanities.

But, Saki said to us, "Guys, look."

She points at an alleyway, where an imp-like figure is doing some gestures, probably to control the young man.

Seeing that, I remembered Amanoajakus's physical appearance and purpose given by Sha this noon. "That must be it…"

So, I wielded my scythe and lunged at it.

But it dodged quickly while laughing maniacally, mocking me.

Looking at it, I growled. "Damn it!"

 "You'll never get me, human!" it mocked me, before making a rude face on me.

Because of this, I looked at Bokuto, who was still holding and restraining the young man from attacking, and managed to disarm him.

But then, a ball of shadow burst into the scene, hitting the Amanojaku directly. It then fell to the ground with a thud. The three of us looked at where that came from, only to see that it was Sha who fired it.

 "Sensei?" Saki asked.

Sha then approached the scene and towards the Amanojaku. "You little brat…"

He was glaring at it, causing it to get up and run away.

This brings the young man to normal again and doesn't know what happened.