The man, or whatever it was in front of you made a weird sound again and you felt the hair on your arms raise as it took another step forward.
"Alright. Gentlemen, why don't we just go our separate ways. I don't know what you guys are doing in our lands, without human forms – because there is no way you guys think those faces look anything like ours – but I need to leave, now. And you're currently making me feel as if you don't intend to let me do that." You took a quick peak behind you and your blood went cold as you realized the others had gotten closer, one of them rattling his nails with a horrendous sound against the concrete wall.
"What..." You turned your hand at the word. One of them was leaning on a turned off lamp post, his hand furiously scratching at his arms. A goosebumps spread over your skin as you spotted the open flesh on it. "What does looking like you means ?" It finally said. And its voice was nothing like you had imagined. Like it had come out the very pit of his stomach, a sound so freaky you wished you could forget it the next second.
"What do you mean ?" You asked anyway, the sweat on your forehead sliding down your skin before you wiped it away.
"You all look different, just like –" It made a weird sound and took a step forward. "us. You eat and shit, like us. You kill, you betray, your hearts are made of the same hatred ours are. So what does –"
The very breath left your chest as you felt his breath only an arm form your face. How had he moved so fast ? You had not seen anything. "What does looking like you, humans--" he kept going. "means, girl ?"
"I-- I think I may have, somehow, offended you..."
He let out a sort of hiccup, of or a burp you had no idea, the sound being weird as hell. "Offended ?" His shoulders began to move and he threw his head backward with force before letting out a sort of mad laugh, frenzied and horrific. You could not help but reach for your knife. "Do you hear her, brothers. She doesn't want to offend us. How interesting."
You did not want to hear any more. Not only was he giving you the creeps but the more you waited for him to talk, the more they were surrounding you, leaving no escape route.
You tightened your fingers on your knife, taking it out of the pouch, eager to slash his face, or his already bruised arm but you never even landed your hit as his fingers seized your wrist with a cracking sound and you did not have time to wonder if it had come from you or him. You tried to shake him away before he pushed you against the wall with such brutal force it emptied your lungs of any air left in them.
"Fuck." You breathed, any knowledge of fighting strangely having left your body.
"What should I do with you ?" He snickered. "Pretty, polite human gir--" he never finished his sentence as he stopped, his cold breath on your face a haunting feeling prickling your skin. "What is..." He hummed the air around you, coming closer and the feeling of his body against yours sent shivers all the way down to your stomach. Disgust and fear fighting for dominance in your body. "What are you ? Why do you smell like that ?"
You pushed him away only allowing him even closer and you let out a pained sound as his tongue brushed the skin of your neck. His tongue was rough and hot as it trailed over your skin.
"Let go of me you fucking monster." You cursed, finally freeing your arm from his grip, you threw your elbow in his face and he took a few steps back. You looked around noticing the others had not moved an inch. "This is gonna go very ugly if you don't let me leave you fucking bastards. Let me tell you you found the wrong person to mess with tonight." you raised the knife at your shoulders level, ready to strike back and fight your way through them. You doubted you could fight back against a group of demons.
"What is this weird feeling..." The one who had spoken asked as if for himself. "Brothers. I don't think we can kill her yet. She smells..." He raised his head and horror lurched through you. "She smells amazing !!!" He yelled, his voice distorted by the excitement in it.
You wiped some sweat on your eyes, not quite believing your own eyes. "What ?" He giggled. "Have you never seen a Yokai ? This – girl – is what we truly look like." He said as he opened his arms now bent in an unsightly way. His face distorted and looking as if it was melting. "Brothers." He commanded. "I want her alive." And as he said that he palmed the place between his legs and you held back the urge to vomit in the back of our throat, averting your eyes from the weird bulge there. "She's mine." He said as he propelled himself toward you.
There was a time where it whould have made you laugh if anyone had told you you could physically smell fear on your skin. And yet today, despite all the military training engraved in your body from your life 6 years ago, you could not help but freeze for a moment at the sight of the demons—no Yokais he had called them—dart toward you from everywhere around you.
You silently cursed yourself for being so inattentive but it gave one of them the time to catch your arm, gripping it so hard you let out a surprised cry of pain as you noticed his sharp nails piercing your skin. You pushed him with you right heel, taking a step backward. There was no way you could fight back that many at the same time. You needed to run away. But there was no escape route, you quickly noted.
"Fuck it." You muttered.
You launched your whole body at one of them, surprised when he barely moved under your weight. "What the hell are you supposed to be ??" You grunted as you planted your knees against his sides, shuddering at the sight of his distorted face up close. He let out an awful screech as you violently put the knife at the base of his neck, blood sputtering.
You pushed on your knees as his body fell back and you rolled behind him, quickly jumping back on your feet. There was a silence around you and they all seemed to freeze for a second, seemingly realizing you were not going to be taken easily.
The one you had cut, made a gurgling sound on the floor before slumping. Good, your thought. Meant they could be killed.
There was a weird sound again and you spotted the one that had spoken before, he still had his upturned arms opened, his distorted face moving with the sound. "You have a very...." He groaned. "Specific way of fighting. Just like those humans they send in our camps when we make... too much noise..."
You stood still on your extended feet, your eyes focusing on the creatures around you. "What about it ?"
He paused. "Not much." He snorted, or at least it sounded like that and then he groaned again. At the sound, all the others moved at the same pace, launching themselves at you.
Your back was now empty but you could not afford to just run on your feet with your back open to them. Who knew how fast they could run.
You needed to hold back your gound. Grunting, you avoided a punch that should have knocked you off your feet and dived down to swipe the legs of one of them. All the years of training finally allowing you to fight with a bit more assurance, you held back as much as you could, avoiding, striking back.
But you were humans, and if humans had something they all shared, it was weaknesses. And you were beginning to grow tired. Your legs were starting to shake and you had stopped counting the number of times they had managed to slice you with their horrendously sharp nails.
You averted a punch thrown to your face only to feel claws open your chest, all the way from the bottom of your neck to the center of your stomach. You stopped dead in your tracks, taking a few steps back, staggering.
"Probably should have taken a few more days off..." You complained, feeling the blood wetting your thin t shirt.
You still held up your knife, wondering if you could have time to take out your gun, or even aim right.
You waited for them to attack again. But nothing happened and you shoved down the intense fear threatening to make you fall down on your knees.
The one who had scratched you was sniffing his claws when he suddenly stopped to look at you – if that could be considered a look since he did not have any eyes – before running back to the one capable of talking who snatched his arm away, tearing the flesh apart.
Dread pooled in your belly at the shocking vision. It was like watching a gruesome movie, only you were part of the cast and you were probably seconds away from being the stupid girl that dies at the beginning of it.
Your heart sunk in the pit of your belly as you clutched the hem of your top, feeling the wetness intesifies. You were loosing blood, a lot. The pain was not the worst, it was the drowsiness that would come soon.
The creature now had taken out its long disgusting tongue as he licked the part of the arm he had taken out of the other who just waited by his side. And he hummed, intensly before letting out some sort of satisfied laugh. "I knew it. Brothers." He let out a frenzied laugh. "Let us rejoice. We have found it. His weakness."
"What the fuck are you talking about ? I am a second from busting that stupid head of yours." You threatened, now holding the weapon in front of you, aiming at him.
He snickered. "Do you have any idea of the smell you carry, girl ?"
"I don't. And I don't care."
He did not say anything and a sudden move made you look away. The one you had killed first was slightly convulsing and you frowned at the sight of his belly expanding.
There was a quiet mutter around you and you watched the others get closer to the one on the floor as they slowly – and you you thought you were going to empty the inside of your stomach right this instant – dislocated their own body parts, and their face became even more distorted as if melting on themselves and you watched with horror as they all fell on each other, seemingly turning into something bigger and uglier.
Legs shaking, you aimed at it then back at the one left alone at the back, not knowing which monster to shoot first. Would a bullet even stop, whatever this was ?
A giant head, with withered hair on top of it and arms attached to where ears should have been, was now standing on some sort of skin tail. There a thundering silence as you took in the size of it – the top of its head reaching the blinking lamp post above it – before it opened a huge, unique eyes, and its mouth, full of pointy teeth, opened and stretched before it let out a ghastly growl and there was a tight tremor of pure terror that coiled its way from the back of your neck to the very bottom of your feet.
And that's when you knew. You were going to die there. Maybe you had deserved it. Played with life too much. Had been too confident in your skills. Had thought the things you had done in your past would be forgotten by the heavens. But no. This was it. This thing was going to rip you apart.
You still held the gun but but you hated yourself for the frosty fear that was rooting your feet to the ground, not allowing you to run from one of the worst thing you had ever seen before.
You took a breath that went nowhere as you held its hollow stare and you fired.
You fired, again, and again, until, your finger hurt from pulling the trigger. And the thing never made a single move, not even a noise at it took every bullet left in the gun.
The one at the back snickered and it struck a nerve in you, putting you out of the almost psychotic state you were in – you swallowed, your breath short and ragged. You looked at the yokai still on his two feet and noticed his attitude, he was waiting for you to dare run, you were sure of it – as sure as you were that if you turned your back to that thing it would take it a couple of second to cover whatever distance you could try to put behind you and it.
You took a long breath, panic flaring in your belly. You had no choice but to run away and he was expecting it. You could only pray he was not expecting which way.
You gasped as you clenched your thighs, propelling yourself forward right toward the monster who growled, mounted on his tiny arms. Wincing, you held your breath, before throwing your whole body under its-- you discovered as you slid under it-- slippery body and ended right behind it.
Not waiting for it or the other to have time to realize you had done the opposite of what they were expecting. You took off, running as fast as you could, heart on the verge of exploding.
You risked a look behind and adrenaline flooded through you as you realized the thing had already started coming for you. The wound on your stomach was making your escape even harder than it should be and you realized you had no idea where you were.
You guessed you had gone further into Hashibetsu and your heart missed a beat at the idea. These part of the neighborhood were even worse than where you lived, even for you. You silently cursed, still going further into the poorly lit streets.
Panic flared in your blood and you stopped for a bare second realizing there was no sound anymore. Silence had replaced the sleazy sound of the yokai crawling behind you. All senses on the alert, you took a second to catch your breath before spotting something in front of you, just under the dim light of a neon, a figure was standing.
You frowned, the exhaustion making it difficult to be sure of what you were looking at. "Hum, excuse me ?"
The figure seemed startled, and slowly turned its head at you. You let out a stiffing breath as you managed to see a normal feminine face. "You probably should not stay there. There is something..."
She took a step toward you, revealing long thin legs, wearing heels that rattled on the ground as she moved closer. "Something ?" She repeated. And the air on your arms raised at the feminine voice. "Do you need help miss ? You seem... unwell..." She added, still walking toward you.
And you could not help the triggering sensation that prickled your skin. But was it the exhaustion or the uneasy feeling that none of this was real—you let her get close, realizing how pretty she was. Red lipstick and huge lashes. She caught your arm so fast, you could not help the cry that came out of your mouth. "Did I surprise you ? I'm sorry." She said, her voice so silky it felt like hearing a melody. "Oh... you're bleeding." She said, noticing the blood on your shirt as she placed her hand on the wound.
"What are you-" You started. "Hey !" You backed away, eyes widening as you watched her lick her fingers.
"I'm sorry." She apologized again. "I could not help myself. You smell so good. You smell like..."
"Back the fuck away from me." You said, walking around her, not without looking behind you. Where was that fucking monstrosity. "Are you a yokai ?" She smiled with all her teeth and you knew you did not have to ask more. "I'm not looking for troubles. I just want to go home. I won't hurt you if you let me go."
"Who said I want to hurt you ?" She giggled, and she almost sounded like a child. "Only the bravest of us would dare touch something he has marked."
She opened her mouth again before a screech interrupted the silence. She raised her eyebrows as she looked around her. "This one though. It will try to hurt you. Their kind hold a particular grudge against him."
"Who the fuck is HIM." You snapped but the screech shrilled again, followed by the sound of trash cans being thrown against the walls, or exploding, you had no idea.
You did not try to pay any more attention to the woman who only took a step back, silently blinking at you and you spotted something hairy and long behind her slowly swinging and you wondered if blood loss was now giving you hallucinations.
Grunting you began to move away from the sound further into the dimly lit streets, blood thumping at your ears. You must have had a shit load of karma to be meeting so many fucking monsters in a night when you had barely seen any in years.
Gripping at your stomach slowly emptying the blood in your body, you shuddered at the sound behind you. It was getting closer. Silence stretched for a moment before, the gigantic head appeared at the corner, a couple minute behind you and cold dread settled into your bones.
Urging the last bit of strength left in your body, you tried to run but your legs were too weak, your body was hurting. And the thing was getting closer, the sound of its disgusting body on the ground, making your skin prickle with fear.
And you felt it again, the certainty, the utter inevitability that you were going to die tonight. And you thought about everything you had done—wrong for the most part, what you still needed to do, you thought about your mom, Amane, Naomi, wondering what they were doing at this moment, unaware of what was going to happen to you.
And the hideous fear that settled in your body must have been actually fueling your body because you suddenly stumbled in a busy sort of street, colored lights blinding you. Noises, cars driving around you and you barely avoided a car, almost didn't understand the voice cursing at you.
You looked around you, heart thumping so hard in your chest it felt like it would come out any time now. You tried to breathe but no air was coming in and you knew it was because fear had made you tighten you jaw so hard you could not even open your mouth.
You looked around, the cars not even driving slower around you, trying to understand where you were when suddenly a vehicle barely stopped in front of you, and you stumbled on the hood of the black modern car. Your bloody hands leaving lines on it.
You looked up, your heart freezing in your chest.
Your eyes barely noticing the driver pointing at you and probably cursing – your stare lifted to the slim eyes of the man sitting at the back of the car. And there was a tight tremor in your stomach as if it had known – known what ?
He opened the door of the car, his long legs extending before he got up and walked towards you and you didn't even let him utter a word before planting a finger on his chest.
"YOU." You snapped. And you hated how you could not seem to catch your breath or speak with the confidence and anger you wanted to express. The fear turning in pure distress. "This is all your fucking fault !! Ever since that time, my life has been a mess ! And it is YOUR fault."
He did not answer, his eyes following your finger on his now stained shirt – he then lifted his gaze to yours and the anger you felt doubled at the sight of his chiseled nose and his cold eyes looking at you as if you were a rock on its road.
"I felt your fear." He said at last and his voice coated the very back of your mind as he spoke. You took a step back, afraid to even smell what you remembered he had smelled last time. Afraid of how it would make you feel.
"What are you talking about ?" You retorted.
"What have you done ?" He said and you weren't sure he was talking about the blood on your body or something else.
"I have done nothing. As I've said--" And there was a piercing scream, a woman's then several before you could say anything.
Both of you turned your head toward where you had come from and you realized you had come out from a street leading directly to the freeway. Which did not seem to slightly trouble the man standing in front of you as his stare drifted over the colossal monster that looked even more frightening than you had guessed in the dark.
You could not help the step you took back, shielding your body with his, you hated how weak you were now. You should not have needed him. None of this would have happened without him, you repeated in your own mind as he slowly extended his feet, facing the gruesome creature.
The yokai took a step forward the now still road, the people having ran away at the sight of the creature.
The thing seemingly looked like it noticed you before spotting who was in front of you and you swore you saw the shivers slid along its body as it let out a disgusting growl.
The man still had not said a word and you tried to take a look at his face, wondering if he was going to change too. You could not believe you were almost excited to see it there was going to be some sort of fight.
The yokai scratched the ground nervously as if it did not know what to do and you suddenly wondered who this man was to be able to make this thing born from a nightmare rethink its choices.
The tall blond man sighed and crossed his arms on his chest, the rest of his body so still you wondered if he was even breathing. "How were you even able to have a yokai chase after you ?"
"Are you for real ?" You spat, mimicking his attitude. "I did not do anything. It just decided I was-- I don't know smelling good or something." You paused for a moment. "As a matter of fact, it said I smelled like someone. That other woman said it too. She said I was marked."
There was a slight tremor along his shoulders but he did not look back.
There was an alarm in the distance and you recognized the sound of the military, which usually intervened in those cases. It had not happened much ever since the Pact had been made and the demons had been contained either in their world or in the city they had been left with on the outskirts of the human lands.
"Chancellor." A voice said behind and you looked back recognizing the young man with the black band aid across his nose who quickly nodded at you. "We need to go. It would be better if you weren't seen here."
The tall man hummed and turned back without so much a look at you.
"Hey ! What the f--" You followed behind him. "What about this fucking monster. Aren't you going to do something about it ?"
"It won't dare follow me." He answered as he sat back in the car.
"You have to be kidding me." You snapped. "It's following ME. You're the reason it's following me. Do something."
He did not answer, only leveling his cold stare at you and you hated how your skin stung as he brushed his eyes over your body.
"Chancellor." The man said again.
You looked back, the creature was still watching from the street, drool now coming out of it mouth and you mentally gagged.
"You know what." You turned on your feet toward the car. "Fuck it." you grunted as you took a step in the inside of the car, extending your leg over the man who did not make a slight move to help you.
He did not try to stop you either and you realized your hunch had been right as you settled in the seat holding your arms against your wound.
"You could have just told me to get in." You muttered.
"You've showed me enough to know you'd rather think you made the decision yourself."
You tried to say something back, snap at him, tell him something mean, but exhaustion had taken too much of you on you and you chose to focus on breathing and not loosing consciousness as the car started, the sound of the sirens at the back getting louder and closer.
You took a look back at the street where the creature was no longer standing then back at the man sitting with his legs crossed and noticed his hard stare on his own chest, staring at the spot of blood you had left. You snickered and turned your eyes away, pondering on how the young man had called him and trying to figure out why it somehow rung a bell in the very back of your mind – you let your eyes wandering on the streets scrolling past as the car drove you. And you realized you had not even asked where you were going.
You decided to blame it on your weariness and not the stinging drowsy feeling that had settled in your bones the moment you had met his stare earlier.
***