Tatsumi froze where he stood and watched as the saliva slowly traveled down the sharp end of the double edged weapon, his previously calm hands shook as did his body, this really was too soon.
The sound of the saliva falling to the ground echoed throughout the entire store, and he felt Mai's grip on his arm tighten, while he and her both slowly turned their eyes to the roof, and he couldn't help but wince when her grown nails began digging into his skin after both of them laid eyes on the Akugami at the same time.
Both of them slowly began stepping deeper into the store, responding to the dreadful sound of its heavy breathing, and hoping with all their will that it would leave, Mai was none the wiser of the actual danger of this particular beast, but Tatsumi was practically sweating buckets as the creature extended its legs and silently lowered itself to the ground.
There standing before them was this fierce looking beast, it didn't resemble the ones they'd seen before, but it was definitely an Akugami, it was significantly smaller than the first ones in mass, in fact it was designed like an insect, with a thorax distinctively resembling that of a wasp's, it had four small pitch black eyes sunken in its lizard shaped skull, each one three inches from the other with the two at the otmost front of its face and slightly larger than the other two like a spider's, and its mouth was decorated with an a horrific array of teeth that could make Goliath fish swim away in fear, and it's jaws stretched far passed the small holes in the side of its head like the mouth of a snake, what's more it's legs were tall, each one was at least two metres in length that ended with six inches of razor sharp claws.
Then there were the two bat-like wings neatly folded on it's back.
It really was a terrible sight seeing one of these so soon after he'd been reincarnated, of all the three types of Akugami ever knew, he feared these ones most, in the hundredth of a second that he observed the frightening appearance of the tall slim six-legged Akugami, None of the prior details were his main concern.
No, it wasn't those at all; the reason he became terrified and wide-eyed was because its entire body was covered in the same shell that the big one they had faced in the store had on it's head, designed like an insect their exoskeleton was almost unbreakable by normal means and it had taken armour piercing weaponry or force greater than the dexterity of their exo-skeleton to kill them. What terrified him the most about the Wasp Akugami was their ability to become smarter overtime.
"Mai…." Tatsumi whispered, as he watched the beast keenly, a single misstep and it would be over in a flash, not only were they extremely silent when they moved, but they were almost always aggressive, and their speed was three times that of the normal Akugami, it definitely was terrible luck to meet even one of these creature's without being armed to the teeth.
His mind raced across several quick scenarios as it stood there staring at them and snarling like a wolf with rabies, but no matter what he thought of it seemed to end in his mind with him getting sliced and then eaten alive. The Akugami took a slightly lower tone in its growl and Tatsumi raised his katana at it in reaction, he had never faced one of these ones alone, it was always hide and never come out when it came to them, what's worse he had witnessed on multiple occasions where people had tried defending against a single one and had lose dozens of lives, it definitely was not worth the trouble to even think of facing one of them. Oddly though after Tatsumi raised the katana, the snarls the Akugami emitted got louder, and the sudden clatter of it's teeth sent chills down his already rattled spine.
"...Mai, I'm gonna draw it's attention, when you get the chance, run back to the van, and lock the doors behind you and don't look back.. got it?" He whispered to her pulling her behind himself to centre the monster's vision on himself, after meeting her now, and given how she had died peacefully, he didn't think he could handle seeing her mauled to death, he made a conscious decision to try and save her no matter what.
It's tail slowly swerved from left to right as it took a rather unusually cautious and somewhat curious step toward them, he heard Mai's breathing increase in pauses as if she was about to start with her hysteria again, that was bad, if either of them made a single outburst it would be the end of them.
"...Mai." He warned her calmly, taking a step back and slowly pushing her to the side of the aisle while keeping the creature's vision locked on his katana.
"I....I can't, move." She whimpered stiffening like a log on his back, after the Akugami began getting louder.
The tension between them rapidly began to rise when the Akugami took another step forward and Tatsumi could not move because of Mai pressing against his back, and then its snarling stopped and the Akugami suddenly lunged at them, grabbing at Tatsumi with its tall claws and missing after he purposefully fell backwards while simultaneously pushing Mai to the side and swinging the katana at the beast's head
“Just as I thought!” Tatsumi reeled in mental regret as the katana merely collided with its armoured body and sent bright sparks flying.
Dodging its claws again as it made another attempt at tearing across his body Tatsumi rolled to the opposite side from Mai and swung at it again to draw its attention and hopefully do of even a little damage, but getting the same result as the first time he barely had time to dodge again when it began lunging at him madly, and he was by some miracle able to keep escaping the deadly attacks with nothing but a flesh wound each time, several cuts on his arm were burning through intense pain and strain, he had only gotten three hours of rest in the van and now this, all after he had fought earlier. "Damnit!!" Tatsumi snapped loudly feeling the sting of his newest cut as the Akugami managed to get one through his defences and dodges and onto his torso, painfully close to his neck.
"Get the hell outta here!" He shouted at Mai, who had been standing and watching as he struggled for his life since the moment she got back up after he had pushed her down, in his small moment attention lapse the crazy beast swiftly attacked him again, and this time he wasn't fast enough to dive beneath the claws or try and counter with his katana, resulting in his back hitting the wall mid-dodge and one of its claws Instantly piercing his shoulder, he could tell it had gone straight through by the sudden pain he pelt on his back.
Tatsumi's eyes bulged and he opened his mouth in an attempt at embracing this intense agony in a scream, but he couldn't even utter a sound, it hurt, it was too much for his already full mind to process, and he began losing grip on the katana in his hand as his muscles relaxed and his hands fell to his sides, he tried gritting his teeth and holding his breath breath don't work, it was a suddenly helpless case.
“Maybe... maybe I'd be better off dead after all.” He whispered to himself in his head as a dead cold feeling washed across his body, and seeing the four black orbs staring into the depths of his soul as the Akugami opened its terrifying mouth to devour his head first as per their behaviour he gave in.
“There's nobody here to save me this time, I'm done for.” He looked away from the jaws of death approaching, closing his eyes to try and block out the cold in his shoulder.
"Are you sure you want to die here?"
Hearing a voice Tatsumi's eyes shot back open, immediately he wanted to ask out loud, but that was definitely in his head, and further more he couldn't, but his mouth was clasped tightly with gritted teeth; the pain was making thinking impossible.
"If you die, Tatsumi, then Yukiyo dies too, Mai will die too, Teru will die as well, all of the people you promised you'd save will die without you, are you able to accept that?" He heard the girl's raspy voice again, was he hallucinating in his last moments of a second life? He couldn't tell. "Fight back..."
"Who-"
"Fight back you coward, do not give up on your second chance of life!" Tatsumi heard a roar in his head as if something; some kind of beast had arisen from its slumber.
Before he could process or realize what was going on his grip on the katana fastened and he was already halfway through swiftly driving the blade through one of the creature's eyes with a cry of rage, shocked from the sudden movement after dropping its guard to feast the Akugami retracted its claw shrieking, and made an instant bite at his face, which je dodged by sliding down to his ass and rolling out of the way after one of its feet almost impaled him again.
"Now, run!" The voice in his head commanded him, and like an obedient ant to the driver he immediately obeyed and scampered to his feet.
Ignoring the obvious questions he should have been asking at the moment and prioritizing his life above knowledge, Tatsumi ran to the end of the store gripping onto the bag he'd been carrying and diving down on pure instinct just a fraction of a second before the Akugami crashed in the broken door above him.
"Keep going!"
This new order drives him into jumping over the monster before it got back up, crashing outside and looking forward, toward the direction of the van, but horrified, Tatsumi froze with his jaw hitting the ground; the van was gone. "No... they, left me?" Tatsumi questioned aloud before looking back at the Akugami at the doorway.
Without having much of a choice in that big open space, he turned around completely, facing the Akugami, ignoring the terrible condition he was in and standing his ground, he had no chance of escaping on foot, how could he have been so wrong? Why did they suddenly leave? Tatsumi wanted to ask as he ground his teeth, but he couldn't find an answer within himself, he had reincarnated into his younger self, but everything was different... it was all wrong in some way or another.
The creature shattered the rest of the glass door out of agitation, failing to groom its eye and then stepping into the afternoon sun with glistening three eyed gaze filled with anger, in response Tatsumi began taking deep breaths as he looked at it.
“How'd it come to this, It's all happening so fast that I can't think clearly anymore, I have lived through hell, and I died a terrible death, and now in my blessed second chance I've been cursed to die an even worse death... why me?” Tatsumi questioned the skies. “I was as normal as a delinquent could get, and a pretty chill guy, then this happened, and now, I'm fighting flesh-hungry demons from hell twice over... this is all just too much!”
He clenched his jaws, drowning out all distractions, and weakly raised the katana, taking several breaths before a warm flow of refreshed energy captured his whole body putting his mind at peace, it felt as though he was fighting alongside an army against this one beast, he took a breath, gathering whatever strength he believed he had left. "If I die here, I'm making sure you go down with me" He mumbled at the monster.
As the muted warm afternoon breeze brushed passed him, he found a smile on his face, even at a time like that, he couldn't help but find nature as distracting as ever, and then he began to tense as the creature began roaring.
*Wham!*
Out of nowhere the van came and slapped the Akugami sending it crashing across the station and catching ablaze along with the power generator on the fence in sparks of electricity and fire.
The creature shrieked loudly jumping out of the fire and running around before disappearing into the thick forestry behind the station... just like that, death had been averted, and Tatsumi was left there staring on in utter dumbfounded shock.
"Tatsumi!" Yukiyo yelled jumping out of the van, sliding across the hood and catching him before he hit the pavement as all his energy suddenly faded leaving him sapped for the lack of a better word.
"I thought you were gone." He said with a cough, feeling his wounds burn like fire under his skin.
“That's right,” he thought, “Yukiyo always comes back.”
"Hush up, you're hurt." she began mothering him, helping him to the door before running into the store behind Mai who had wasted no time in going back.
"This is bad, they can't fight those things alone, what if there were more?" He conversed with himself before looking in the back at Teru and smiling. "Teru... You're awake." Tatsumi grinned to him surprised, by the looks of it, Yukiyo had already patched him up.
"You're one tough guy." He says with a smile, seeing his gaze fixed on the store.
Teru only smiled in return.
"Damn those monsters" Tatsumi hissed after trying to lift his hand and wincing when pain rocked his whole body, he was right to be upset of course, if even a simple Akugami attacked them now he'd be of little to no use at all.
One of the back doors swunh open and he instantly forgot about the pain grasping at the katana before pausing when a calm hand rested on his.
"Relax, it's me." Mai said seriously, fixing her glasses and laying down all sorts of food. "Here." she smilesd at him sweetly handing him a bottle of water and a bar of chocolate, causing him to dumbly stare at her choice of food, seconds pass before he could think of ways to process where she got her senses from.
"Mai.... I'm not entirely sure you understand what you just did." He chimes in monotone
"What?"
"This, isn't even a snack, all I've eaten in two days is a piece of sandwich." Tatsumi begins to complain ungratefully, devouring the bar and picking up a lap full of other food and emptying them his pit of a stomach then looking back up at the girl, who had a disappointed look on her face.
"Do you really think you should be eating everything in a single sitting like that?" She asked with a sigh.
"These are all snacks, what about non perishables and canned food?" Yukiyo asked afteer returning and emptying a bag-full of canned food in the trunk area behind the back seats and running back into the store.
"Now there's food." Tatsumi looked at Mai accusingly. "We don't want a bunch of noisy plastic wrappers with us at all times, that's dangerous."
"Here." Mai says to him, ignoring his instructions and turning him around to face her outside of the car, and then without another word she began wiping the blood from his wounds with a sanitised roll before continuing on to disinfect all his visible wounds after taking his shirt off without so much as a word of warning.
"You know first aid..." Tatsumi looked at her hands as they reminded him of the many times she had helped him in his previous life.
"My, father was a doctor." she replied sadly while breaking down in sobbs, Tatsumi looked up at her eyes and was impressed as she never let a tear fall. "He remembered seeing the hospital burning in the distant when they were escaping the business district, it was a safe guess that it was another hot spot for Akugami.
"I honestly don't know what to tell you Mai, I'm sorry-" I began consoling her as she carefully wrapped his wounds before smiling at him.
"Tatsumi, you misunderstand, I'm sad that he's gone, surely I am, and I'm even more troubled that I don't want to go and look for him, but I'm not gonna let that weigh me down anymore than it already has, everyone has dead people now, I'm not the only one, your parents are missing, and so are Yukiyo's and Teru's parents..."
"Yeah, you're right." Tatsumi replied shaken.
This girl's tougher than she behaves for sure.
After spending what felt like an hour emptying the store of its products, they finally get back, and thus, they begin our journey out of Salt Springs their former home, but before long, Tatsumi tells them that they need to stop before nightfall, the Akugami were more active and aggressive when nigh time came.
"Over there." Teru spoke hoarsely indicating a motel on the roadside, it was right in plain sight, but it was still better than sleeping in the van where anything could simply look through the window at them.
" It looks deserted." Yukiyo commented seeing cars toppled over and claw marks all over the place with blood on the walls to boot. "Is it really a good idea to stop here?" She asked.
"We don't have much of a choice, it's gonna get dark soon." Mai said in a slight whisper, poking her head between Tatsumi and Yukiyo who in the front while she stayed with Teru in the back, having slowed to a stop after crawling along the road for several minutes and looking at the building, thet all exit the van with food, water and the steering wheel.
Yes, the steering wheel, It was Tatsumi's idea, and he was pretty adamant that they not leave it behind, he wouldn't tell them that he had lost a few vehicles that way after living through the apocalypse before getting reincarnated.
"Can't risk losing our escape vehicle if the slim chance of someone passing by actually happens." Was the explanation he had provided them instead.
They entered a room at random, placing the two mattresses on the floor and placing the bed frame against the window along with the dresser and a table, whilst the door was locked and blocked with everything else.
The night settled in, and total silence reigned once again, so silent you could hear your own breath without listening.
No insects singing, no night birds, nothing.
Just a dead silence as they all slowly ate from cans with plastic spoons, making sure not to make a sound.
"Tatsumi..." He heard the raspy voice of a girl echoing in reverb through his head, and opening his eyes he looked around half frightened, everyone was fast asleep, it was that voice again... that voice from the store.
"Who, said that?" He asked whispering, but his answer came with his consciousness collapsing before he found himself in a great field of short grey grass from one endless end to the other with nothing else in sight.
"Hey there." The same voice sounds from behind him, and spinning on his guard he grabs hold of his katana, ready to strike, but hesitates only a second later.
There she was; a short red eyed girl in a worn out blouse and a black knee length sailor skirt, she looked like she'd been awake for days with bags under her eyes, her hair was wild and uncombed, and darker than any black he'd ever laid eyes on, darkness was all he could see when looking at it, and her skin was pale and close to the colour of a corpse, what was even more bizarre about this three foot tall girl were her elf like ears that pointed outward and were in his guess at least four inches taller than any ear he'd ever seen, and her eyes; bright glowing crimson with slim black pulsating vertical slits for pupils.
"...What the hell?" Tatsumi asked loudly. "Where the heck am I, how'd I get here, Wh-"
" One at a time." She interrupted him frowning and then sitting on the grass and smiling after her frown.
"Did I die?" Tatsumi asked, feeling no kind of sensation around himself, he couldn't even feel his own body.
"No, you are not dead." She replied.
"Where am i then?"
"It is hard to explain this to a mortal, and I expect you to be a little shocked, naturally..."
"Mortal?" He asked, becoming afraid of whatever else came from this girls mouth, he wasn't one to simply believe people talking, but just by looking at this child he could tell that she was nothing near human. "Hey... just where exactly am I?" Tatsumi repeated the question after she gestured for him to sit as well.
"Right now, your body's in a trance in the physical, while your soul is here, this is one of the billions of rips in the spiritual timeless dimensions you humans call limbo" She replied much to his shock indeed.
Quickly, he jumped up from his sitting position wide eyed and disbelieving. "You expect me to believe that!?" He yelled at the girl.
"Yea, I actually do, I want you to believe everything I say"
Her half closed tired eyes remained unchanged as she sighed and stood, walking over to him, and fearing the worst he tried backing away but to no use he found himself unable to move anymore.
Her slim malnourished frame vanished from his sight and reappeared in his fore-vision, inches away from his face causing him to release a loud yelp
"I summoned you here Tatsumi, you do not have any control of this reality so chill. " she hissed in his ear before backing off and looking him dead into his eyes with a dark grin.
Staring into her glowing scarlet eyes a sudden and uncontrollable fear washed over his body and his breath hitched before leaving his nostrils with each exhale he tried to release.
"Relax Tatsumi, I am not gonna hurt you." She laughed at him floating away and sitting cross-legged in the middle of the air.
At that point there was no denying it any longer, she was definitely not human.
"What are you, Are you some kind of ghost?" He asked after a long pause and staring.
She broke down in hysterical laughter for several minutes, holding her stomach and hitting her leg dramatically before she could control herself again.
"Ghost... no, I am not a ghost, my dear Tatsumi." She said before she broke down laughing like a crazy person again.
"Then what are you?" Tatsumi asked seriously, failing to see the slightest bit of humour in his words at all, watching as she controlled herself and then giggled childishly, spinning on one leg before stopping and looking up at him.
"I, am a Demon."
Aksara