Shadowmoon

Since it was lunchtime, there was no one in the indoor basketball court. Usually, the students preferred to play outdoors during lunch hours as there would be more people for them to show off to. As such, the indoor basketball court was usually empty.

Juin picked up the mop and bucket from the janitor room before filing them with water and detergent. He then proceeded to clean the floor in a serious manner. The last time he forgot to clean it before basketball practice, the captain of the female basketball team had growled at him, causing Juin to have nightmares for days.

Today was the practice day for the male basketball team. He did not want to deal with the 6-foot-2-inch-tall captain of the male basketball team, who had an even worse temper than his female counterpart.

Meanwhile, Max sat at the bleachers while helping him clean the basketballs.

"Seriously, Juin, you need to stand up against those idiots," Max said as she threw a clean ball into a basket before picking up another.

"It's not as easy as it seems," Juin said as he ran from one end to another, dragging the mop with him. "Even if they stop bothering me at school, they would bother me when I'm out of school. And let's face it, it's not like I'm big enough to stop them from pushing me around."

"But if you keep letting them push you around like this, you won't have much of a school life," Max protested.

"It's not like I have one even without those a-holes around," Juin replied with a sigh. He then shook his head to get rid of his negative thoughts and continued to mop the floor diligently.

"Juin..." Max sighed. She did not know what to say to cheer him up. Juin was normal before, but when they started high school, his body seemed to stop growing, and his self-esteem seemed to drop a lot because of it as well. He started to treat everything as normal, even being bullied, and she could not help him with it.

"You know, she's right. You aren't going to have much life like this…" a voice came from over one of the doors.

Juin and Max both turned toward the voice and saw Luca Rockefeller. In a split second, Juin saw the same purplish distorted air around Luca Rockefeller again.

"But it's not like you would have one after this," Luca sneered as his eyes narrowed upon Juin. He had confirmed that this was the only Juin that went on the field trip, and he had interrogated Patrick and John again later, and both boys told him about how Juin subdued them with his aura yesterday.

Luca knew that the aura was not something that a normal human could create, which meant that Juin had something on him that was either demonic or that he was the demon himself… But since Luca's Scrutinizing Gaze did not show anything about Juin, this could mean another thing--demonic possession.

Demonic possession was something that a Scrutinizing Gaze could not see through. At least, not the one that Luca was capable of using.

Either way, Luca had more to gain than lose if he attacked Juin. He took a step forward while cracking his whip--Shadowmoon--once, creating a ripple that spread out across the basketball court, causing Max's slightly longer than shoulder-length hair to move around, with some even getting into her eyes.

"Arh…" Max groaned as she tried to get her hair out of her eyes, wondering where the gust of wind came from since all the windows and doors were closed.

"The whip," Juin thought as he gulped. His short black hair moving slightly in the wind caused by the ripple. Knowing that Lucifer was disinterested in helping him, Juin had to do something himself. He slowly moved backward from Luca before turning around and ran to Max. Taking her hand, he dragged her toward the nearest door.

Snap!

Juin glanced back as he ran toward the door, and he saw Luca Rockefeller's hand in midair, in a position as if he had just snapped his fingers. He increased his pace and tried to open the door, but no matter how he turned the knob, he could not open the door. "Damn it!" Juin cursed.

"What's wrong?" Max asked as she looked between Juin and Luca, wondering what was everything about. Even if Luca was a little weird, there was no reason for Juin to be this afraid. Furthermore, the guy had not done anything yet!

Juin put himself in front of Max as he watched Luca walk toward them. When the guy was about 10 meters away, Juin stuttered, "W-what do you want?"

"The sword and the book, Juin," Luca said with a smile as he cracked his whip another time, this time sending another wave of wind toward them. The difference was that, this time, the wind was extremely active.

It was not just a ripple like earlier. The wind seemed to have taken an invisible solid-like state, and it hit Juin in the side, causing him to fly for 10 meters before falling down in the middle of the basketball court.

"Argh!!!" Juin yelled as he held his left shoulder while rolling a little on the floor. He had never felt this kind of pain before, and it was horrible. When he tried to move it, the pain was so bad that tears were rolling out from the corners of his eyes.

"Juin!" Max yelled in horror when she heard the loud crack from when Juin fell onto the floor. She could not understand what had just happened. One moment Juin was in front of him, then the next, he went flying in the air before landing. All she heard was a sound, like the sound of sharp wind.

She then glared at Luca, wondering if he had something to do with this. However, it was impossible. Luca merely moved his hand, and he did not even get near to Juin. How could he have hurt Juin? Max ran past him, hoping to get to Juin.

However, when she was 2 meters away from Juin, she felt something being wrapped around her neck before she was lifted up in the air. Terrified, her hands went to claw at whatever was around her neck, but she could not get rid of it.

"J-juin…" she cried out as she tried to reach for him. Her legs were kicking in the air as she struggled to take in the fresh air.

When Juin saw her body being lifted up in the middle of the air, his eyes went wide as he yelled in a panic, "MAXINE!"

At that moment, he had forgotten about the pain that he was in as he stared at the purple distorted air around Max's throat. "The whip…" he muttered under his breath. When he glared at Luca, he saw that the teenager was still smiling as he slowly walked to stand under Max.

"Let her go, you b*stard!" Juin yelled as he forced himself to get up, holding his dislocated left arm. Like an angered bull, he ran toward Luca, stupidly hoping that he could somehow hurt the guy. And like a bull in Spanish bullfights, Luca easily stepped aside and tripped Juin down.

"Argh!" Juin groaned out in pain when he fell. The sharp pain that ran through his body from his left shoulder was unbearable.

"Give me what I want and I'll make sure that she lives…"

Juin looked at him as he lay on his chest on the floor. Blood was trickling down from the corners of his lips, having accidentally bitten his cheek badly when he fell. Even so, he could care less about it as he looked up at Luca angrily; his fear of the guy was gone. "I don't have anything you want! Let her go! She can't breathe! How are you going to tell the school if you killed us?!"

He looked at Max, who was turning blue as she struggled to breathe, as anger and frustration over his own inability to protect the people he cared for over and over again welled up in his heart.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about it. The Order would deal with it," Luca said nonchalantly as he made a pulling motion with his hand. He did have a thought that everything might be a mistake, but he could care less. He would rather kill two innocent people than letting a demon escape. Besides, these were just humans. Weak humans who served no purpose to him.

At that point, Juin saw that the purple, distorted air moved a little and there was an obvious dent on Max's throat now compared to earlier. His body started to tremble as he hit the floor with his right fist.

"Max…" Juin called out her name. "I'm sorry…"

Luca kept mentioning the sword and the book. Juin would have given both of them, and his everything else, to the guy. But the problem was, he had no idea where those things were at.

Clenching his teeth, Juin glared at Luca, who was still looking at him with that infuriating smile. Even though he might regret this in the future, he knew that he would definitely regret it if anything were to happen to Max.

With his right fist clenched, Juin glared at Luca as he mumbled under his breath, "Lucifer, I accept your conditions."

Without anyone noticing, a soft blood-red glow appeared on Juin's right fist as Juin spat out the words that Lucifer wanted to hear.

"I will sign the contract."