Struggle for your life (II)

Fortune seemed to be on their side as the duo made it to the end of the long corridor without encountering any more monsters along the way. As it was, they had barely recovered from the fight with the minotaur previously, and while only small cuts and bruises were left unhealed, they were still drained.

  The closer they got to the end, the louder the sound of fighting, as well as the yelling got. Finally, in just a few seconds, they burst through the door and into a balcony. The mplace still resembled Japanese traditional architecture but it also held elements that shouldn't have been possible in real life.

 In the middle of the room on a small floating platform, sat a being shrouded in darkness and the vilest energy Rikuo had ever felt. He regarded the monster cautiously, ready for a fight in case it decided to attack. Yet, the youkai(?), onryo(?) did not make a move to acknowledge them. Seemingly content with watching as Shuuji and Officer Kunichi fought for their lives.

  Still, the blonde did not lower his guard. The battle under their feet continued as gunshot after gunshot rang through the room. That reminded him- 

 In one quick motion, Rikuo grabbed the policeman beside him by the waist and jumped from the balcony, yelling.

"SHUU!!!!"

 "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"

The ground closed up to them fast and the exorcist in training channeled a bit of reiki into his legs to help them land safely. Asahi Miwatoshi felt the air leave his lungs as they landed right in the middle of the swarm of onryo that filled the room, sending the corrupted youkai back with a small burst of reiki.

 After making sure the officer was up and about, Rikuo glanced around themselves to see the stunned looking Shuuji staring at them in disbelief. 

"Really dude?"

"Haha, yeah…" the blonde laughed sheepishly. 

 Shuuji shook his head before focusing back on their current crisis. The youkai that had been knocked away by the purity of his blonde friend's reiki were getting back up and he wanted to leave this damned territory alive, thank you very much.

"Get Ruhia out and instruct her to channel reiki for Officer Asahi. It'll help him kill the onryo." 

"Alright."

The golden mockingbird, materialized at his side like a wisps of smoke before it flew over and landed on Asahi's shoulder, who quickly took a note from Kunichi's book and started to shoot at the monsters. He was pleasantly surprised when the monsters actually died.

 Soon enough, every one of them engaged into battle. With four of them together, the swarms of onryo rapidly decreased in number, compared to before. Yet they were still surrounded by many more and exhaustion drew near.

 "So, any idea how we are supposed to get out of here?" Kunichi asked, panting as he aimed for another onryo. But his gun didn't shoot, indicating that he had run out of bullets. The man didn't let that stop him from defending himself.

 With Jor assisting him by still channeling reiki into his gun, Kunichi swung at the bear shaped youkai before him, bashing it with the back of his handgun several times until it died. 

 Rikuo punched away fish faced one that got close to him, ignoring the violent display of takedown that the round detective used. The man was pretty terrifying, he would give him that. 

"I have no idea. We know which way we came from but not where the exit is." He heard Officer Asahi tell Kunichi.

 Shuuji who had been fighting back to back with him stabbed another onryo in the eye with his reiki channeled daggers, provided the answer rather nonchalantly while he went after another one..

"We can get out once the domain's main source of youki is destroyed. In this case probably that thing up there." 

Rikuo grimaced.

"I don't suppose we can take care of that thing on our own?"

"Heh, not even a chance. Good to know all those lessons stuck with you, blondie." 

 They shared a grin when they heard Kunichi snort and Asahi coughed, his shoulders shaking. The invisible tension that ran between them lowered slightly. It did not disappear completely however, as only a fool would lower their guard while stuck in the middle of a place as dangerous as Meidou Territory.

 So absorbed in their fight, none of them noticed when the onryo lowered itself from the platform it sat, having grown bored of just watching. They decided to have a little fun with the insignificant little humans until the opponent worthy of them arrived.

  Rikuo cursed silently and jumped out of the way of another attack. The scissor handed onryo he was currently facing was rather annoying and made it harder for him to get close without getting hurt. To top it all off, his head rang with the niggling feeling that something was about to happen so he was too wary of approaching the damned scissor hands either way.

  "Officer Asahi can you-" he turned around to speak to the officer. Only to pause as horrifying realization sunk in. Turquoise eyes widened and the teen reached out-

"OFFICER ASAHI LOOK OUT!!!!!!" He screamed a moment too late.

What happened was a blur for all of them. One moment, the damned youkai appeared behind the brunette man then before they could even blink, said policeman was slumped against the wall with a large crater behind him.

 Ruhia shrieked loudly in alarm, flying overhead circling them. Officer Kunichi was beside his fallen partner in a flash. The onryo around them scattered as soon as the yokai before them opened its mouth.

Its lips stretched far too wide, sharp yet yellowed teeth peaked from behind then.

 "HkE..hKe...KHe Khe Khe!!!!"

 'Its laughing….' Rikuo realized, staring at it silently, terrified out of his mind. 'Its pleased that it hurt Officer Asahi!!' He thought a touch too hysterically. 

 Around them, the remaining swarm retreated to the various hallways of the territory. Their movement was hasty yet careful to not alert the terrifying monster that joined the battle.

  They may have followed after it when it opened the Meido Territory but they never better than to get in its way. They were unlike the foolish humans in that regard. They knew how to pick their battle.

 Rikuo trembled as he stood in front of the fallen officer protectively. Cold sweat covered his body and fear gripped his heart. He glanced to the side to see Shuuji crouched down on the ground in a stance unfamiliar to the blonde muttering something.

  Behind them, Ruhia landed on top of Asahi Miwatoshi and seemed to have started healing the man as the blonde felt a small drain of his reiki being used by the bird. So that was taken care of, at least. 'Thank the gods for small blessings.'

Grimacing at the still laughing creature, Rikuo addressed his partner.

"H-He-Hey… What-" he swallowed. "What are we gonna do?" The dark haired boy stopped his muttering to glance at him.

"We'll have to hold on until Teacher arrives. No matter how pure your reiki is, you still have a small pool and I'm already starting to run dry…" Shuuji frowned.

"R-right… So on the mark of three?"

"Yes. Three."

"Two."

"One!"

 "REIJUTSU #34 BURNING CHAINS!"

Red condenced ball of reiki shot of Shuuji's open palm. It wrapped around the surprised onryo in a form of scalding hot chains. Additionally it also bought enough time for Rikuo to engage the youkai and shall at it with his dagger. 

 However he was still blocked by the spirit who broke out of the bindings quite easily. It grabbed Rikuo's wrist and flipped him over, sending him crashing into the floor. Shuuji ran then slid forward to avoid the outstretched swipe of the onryo's arm. 

 The dark haired boy reinforced his legs with little amount of reiki then tripped the onryo in one swift motion, causing it to falter but it didn't do enough. Shuuji coughed as the youkai's foot made contact with his face and he was kicked out of the way.

   He wheezed for breath before he quicklt stood up and the two teens engaged their enemy again. They could not fall here.

  The drain on Rikuo's reiki lessened and two other people joined the battle once again.

  Ruhia and Jor both wrapped around the police officers, assisting them in firing off condenced reiki instead of bullets.

 " You kids okay!!??"

"Officer Asahi you're okay!!"

 Rikuo shouted in relief, jumping out of the way of a punch directed at him.  It caused panting Shuuji to scream "FOCUS!!"

  The addition to the fight, obviously did not go unnoticed by the youkai but it did not do much to acknowledge them other than dodging the bullets, besides the teens doing their best to keep it busy.

 Still, they all quickly realized one thing.

"This damn bastard is playing with us!" Kunichi growled as he shot off yet another one off the glowing balls.

 Asahi Miwatoshi hummed slightly in agreement. He watched for an opening to shoot without hurting either of the kids. 

  Shuuji attacked the onryo from the front onlt to be sent towards the wall in a rather nasty strike. It left Rikuo to plunge towards the onryo leaving him blind to the attack coming from-

 Before he knew it, Miwatoshi's legs carried him towards the kid and he reached out to pull the blonde away from the fight. His hand grabbed the kid's right as the onryo's legs make contact with him.

And Rikuo's world exploded.