by Unknown
I reached out and took one from the case. The paint flaked off in my hands, but I tried to turn the metal like the man had in my memories.
“No, stop, stop!” Cried Nina as she tried to rip it out of my hands. “You don’t even know what that one is supposed to do. You’re going to blow your arm off!”
I knew that it was a good idea to stop and listen, but I ignored her and continued turning the metal disk. It was suddenly like I had been using it my entire life. The metal made a soft clicking noise, and Nina jumped back away from me, but there was no explosion.
“Here, I set it,” I said and tossed it to Nina who hesitantly balanced it on her fingers like it was on fire.
“It’s an anti-monster weapon,” I said. “So it might come in handy later.”
“Hey?” How did you know that?” Asked Nina in awe and she handed it back to me.
The truth was too difficult for even me to explain. “I read it in a book,” I said.
Chapter 20
Kiyori, Nina and I dashed through the forest behind headquarters to find the others. It was too difficult to tell where they had gone, and I could only hope that Nina was leading us in the right direction. The sun and trees reminded me of my dream, and every time we cleared a hill I couldn't help but fear that we would find my friends' remains scattered across the forest. Stray branches and twigs scratched my face, but they didn’t bother me at all. All I cared about was getting to the others before Ratmuncher did.
“Hey Daisuke slow down, we can’t keep up!” Called Nina from behind me. I wanted to run and leave them, but I instead listened to her request and ran slower. I could get there faster without them, but I needed Nina to show me the way, and Kiyori’s strength as back up too. But it wasn’t just that. My intuition told me that I needed Kiyori and Nina. It would be unwise to leave them behind.
“Have you reached them yet!” I called out to Nina. I got her to keep trying to dial her brother just in case they walked into an area with a signal.
“I’m trying,” said Nina. “But I’m just not getting through. We’re too far away from the telecommunications tower. I can't get a signal out here.”
I gritted my teeth and continued running. They had to be out there somewhere. Usually it took hours before we accidently stumbled into any monsters, so there was a large chance that my friends were still circling the forest.
“Taisei! Mana! Nina’s bro!” I shouted out as loudly as possible.
“What are you doing,” said Kiyori as he shoved my shoulder. “You don’t actually want any monsters to know we’re here do you?”
“What other choice do we have!” I said and rubbed my shoulder. I may have been a monster, but Kiyori was still large and strong enough to make it hurt.
"We've been running for ages," muttered Kiyori. He stopped to catch his breath. "This is pointless," he huffed. "There's no way that we'll ever find them like this. This has to be the stupidest idea ever."
"Don't say that!" I said. "I'm sure they're out here somewhere, we just have to keep looking!"
"But this is it Daisuke!" Said Nina as she indicated to the forest before us. "This is the dead zone that I was talking about. We've been running around it for the last ten minutes, but there's still no sign of them anywhere."
"Seriously!" I cried. I stared at the forest around me. We had come so far and yet it didn’t look any different. I quickly climbed the largest rock that I could find and scanned the forest for any sign of my friends, but I could see and hear nothing.
"Taisei! Mana! Nina's bro!" I yelled at the top of my lungs in the hope that I would get a reply.
"I told you to cut it out already!" Said Kiyori as he picked up a twig and threw it in my direction. “Exorcists don’t go screaming out their position to every monster within a ten kilometer radius, even you should know that!”
"Can you quit it already!” I protested. “At least I’m trying my best here.”
“I can't believe that I missed my favorite show to come out here," said Kiyori. He sighed and sat down on a rock. "This is a complete waste of a weekend. Let's just go back."
“No, we have to keep going,” I said. "I'm sure that if we keep searching around here we'll find them eventually."
“Kiyori has a point Daisuke,” said Nina while nervously looking at her phone. “We can't see them anywhere and I can’t even connect to the internet out here. The best thing to do is to go back and try to contact them from headquarters. They might already be there waiting for us.”
Go back to headquarters?
I could understand Nina's logic but I couldn't turn and leave. Every time I thought of Ratmuncher I was hit with a tidal wave of fear, and I could only relax once we had searched every inch of the forest.
“Daisuke,” said Nina when she noticed how terrified I looked. “You’ve fought my brother before, he’s stronger than the rest of us combined. I’m sure he can beat this guy by himself. You just need to have a little more faith in him."
I tried to picture Nina's brother in a fight against Ratmuncher, but all I could imagine was the crazy monster shoving his claws through Arashi's stomach before the young exorcist could pull one of his sneaky moves. Even if Arashi was sly enough to beat the monster, it didn't mean that he could protect all my friends. Mana was already distraught enough about having just one scar.
"He might not seem like it, but my brother is pretty smart," said Nina. "He's been working in the field for years, and he wouldn't have taken everyone to find the monster if he didn't think they could handle it."
"But that was different," I protested. "That was before I remembered!"
I didn’t feel like I'd said anything wrong, but Kiyori and Nina suddenly fell silent and I quickly realised my mistake.
"Remembered? What do you mean you remembered?” Asked Nina.
I had already been caught out so there was no point lying to them any further. I thought that if I explained my dream they would finally understand my need to find the others as soon as possible.
"I had this dream today," I said. I didn't have the courage to face them so I turned away and looked towards a tree instead. "In the dream, that guy Ratmuncher was there, but he was different from the book. He was stronger, scarier, he attacked an exorcist base and killed twenty exorcists and it didn't even faze him."
"But it was just a dream Daisuke," said Nina. "You-”
"But it was different from a regular dream!" I interrupted. "It felt so real. It's hard to describe in words, but I could feel the heat from the sun, the breeze on my face. The smell, it was so terrible. I’m sure that it was one of my past memories."
"Daisuke..," I heard Nina whisper.
"And where were you in this dream Daisuke?" Asked Kiyori.
"I was," I paused while trying to think of what to say. It was hard for me to explain why I'd been there. Why would someone as terrible as Ratmuncher ever want to be my friend?
"Just as I thought," said Kiyori and he crossed his arms.
“Ku-,” said Nina but he cut her off.
"You know as well as I do Nina that he was probably helping this monster kill everyone," said Kiyori.
“No I wasn't, that’s ridiculous,” I said.
"Really?" Said Kiyori as he began to pace around me. "But isn't that what you are, an Obake? And everyone knows that Obake eat people. Maybe Itsuki was right all along, maybe you're just luring us out here so that you can kill us yourself?”
“Why!" I said. "Why would I do that!"
“I don’t know,” said Kiyori. “You tell me, you’re the monster here.”
“How many times do I have to tell you people that I’m not an Obake anymore!” I yelled back.
There was an explosion behind me. For a moment I thought I may have done it using my latent monster powers. Kiyori was staring behind me with his mouth open in shock. I spun around to see black smoke rising from a hill close to us.
“That might be my brother,” said Nina. “They might have gotten into a fight already.”
&
nbsp; “We have to go now!” I yelled and ran towards the smoke, but Nina reached out and grabbed my wrist to stop me from leaving.
“Wait! We just can’t run in there without thinking,” she said.
"But it might be Ratmuncher!" I cried. "We have to help them before it's too late!"
“But it’s too risky," said Nina.
“Are you kidding,” I said. “That’s your brother out there, and Taisei. Aren’t you supposed to be in love with him or something? How can you just leave them to die?”
“I didn’t mean that!” Said Nina. “I’m just saying that we should go back and call for help. I mean, there’s no signal out here, and it might be better to go back and request back up than to take him alone,” she said nervously. "We’re not exactly the strongest exorcists in the organization, how are we supposed to stand a chance against a guy like that?”
It was true that compared to the others, Nina, Kiyori and I were probably some of the weakest members at headquarters, but it didn't mean that things always had to be that way. I could see potential in them.
"Nina," I said as I pulled her fingers off my wrist. "You have a lot of spiritual power but you lack confidence and you're easily distracted, you need to believe in yourself and focus. Kiyori, you're the biggest strongest guy in our group but you're lazy."
"Hey," said Kiyori.
"What I meant to say is that if you work harder you can probably be a great exorcist like Akito," I said. "I know that we don't look like much, but together with the others I believe that we can take down this Ratmuncher guy before he harms anyone else."
"And how are you planning to do that Mr. Super Exorcist?" Asked Kiyori.
I looked towards the bag of barrier charms that Nina was carrying over her shoulder and I suddenly saw a way to defeat Ratmuncher.
"I have a plan," I said.
Chapter 21
We found our friends in a clearing behind the hill. Fortunately it wasn’t the bloodshed I’d feared, but it still wasn’t pretty. Many of the surrounding trees had been flattered or burnt by the explosion, and my friends were barely surviving. They were surrounded by strange human like raccoon monsters. The monster's faces were painted white, and I had a strange feeling that I'd seen them somewhere before. There were twenty of them hungrily watching my friends, and there were even more struggling and twitching on the ground like they'd been hit by Arashi's anti-monster gas.
Nina's brother (who was supposedly unbeatable) lay defeated and passed out on the ground. Beside him lay a bleeding Taisei who was wounded in the stomach. Souta was beside him trying his best to stop the bleeding with a medical kit, as Kurumi held a paper charm between two fingers and chanted a barrier charm over the four of them.
“How does it look Souta?” Asked Taisei weakly as he gripped Souta’s hand. “Is it bad?”
“Ahhhhh, errrrr, hmmmmmm,” said Souta whose panicked expression was doing a terrible job at hiding the truth and consoling Taisei. “If you stop bleeding you might live.”
“Noooooo! I can’t die now!” Cried Taisei. “I have so much to live for! I still haven’t reached one thousand followers!”
Souta hushed him and returned to trying to save Taisei’s life as the raccoon monsters laughed around them.
Itsuki and Mana were the only ones trapped outside of Kurumi’s barrier. Itsuki looked like he was trying his best to fend off the remaining raccoon monsters alone, while Mana sat on the ground shaking and staring at the monsters in terror. I thought she may have been injured, but she appeared completely unharmed.
"Come on Mana!" Yelled Itsuki as he sent a lightning charm towards a bunch of raccoon monsters who were ferociously racing towards them. "You need to get away now!"
It was her perfect chance to run, but Mana did not respond.
“Mana!” Itsuki cried out to her.
“There’s nothing we can do,” said Mana quietly. “We can’t win.”
“Don’t say that!” Itsuki yelled back.
Itsuki's lightning ball managed to hit five of the raccoon monsters who cried out in pain while being electrocuted, but one monster skillfully dodged to the left and narrowly missed his attack. The raccoon lunged towards Itsuki, but my fellow exorcist was too busy reasoning with Mana to defend himself. Luckily for Itsuki, my foot made contact with the raccoon monster's face before it could rip Itsuki to shreds. The monster went flying into a tree which split into two from the impact.
I didn’t expect someone like Itsuki to show me much gratitude for saving his life, but I hoped for more than his blunt “It’s you!”
“Really?” I replied. “Is that all you have to say to the guy who just saved your arse?”
Kiyori and Nina dashed out from the bushes behind me.
“Taisei!” Cried Nina and she tried to rush to his side, but it was impossible to reach him with Kurumi’s barrier in the way. Exorcist barriers only repeled Obake, but exorcists also had traces of monster blood in their veins so it was impossible for us to pass through. All she could do was stand on the outside and watch him suffer.
I crouched down next to Mana and attempted to console her. “Mana, are you okay? Did they hurt you?" I asked, and I put my hands on her shoulders.
“Y..Y..You shouldn’t have come,” said a petrified Mana. “Now he’s just going to kill you as well.”
“Kill us?” I asked. “Who’s going to kill us?”
Mana opened her mouth but no words came out. She nervously raised her shaking hand and gestured to the trees above us.
I looked upwards to where she was pointing, but the sun was too dazzling to see anything. I raised my hand to shield my eyes from the sun’s glare and that’s when I saw him.
It was as though Raisei's picture had come to life. The monster was dressed in various animal furs, and a white mask which looked like an animal skull covered the top half of his face. Various feathers were poking out from his mask to make it look like a lion's mane. Only his feet were bare, and he used them to balance perfectly upon the high tree branch. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he was watching his minions attack my friends with bemused interest like he was too good to do it himself.
“The R..R..Raccoon King?” Said Nina from behind me. “How? How can he be here?”
“Can’t you see,” I said. Suddenly it all made sense. “This must have been his plan all along. He probably made the organization concentrate their forces in one place and then snuck around.”
“But that’s impossible!" Said Nina.
The Raccoon king began to laugh and it echoed throughout the clearing. His minions also stopped to watch him like they were staring up at a god.
“You exorcists are like cockroaches!” Boomed the Raccoon King’s voice throughout the forest. “You crush one and more come scrambling out of the woodwork. But you are all more than welcome to come fight the next great monster king. I will take great pleasure in dismembering you all one limb at a time!”
“What the hell,” I heard Kiyori mutter under his breath.
His words were my thoughts exactly. The moment the Raccoon King opened his mouth I recognised him instantly. There was no way that I could possibly forget the voice of the ex-human monster, who joyfully came begging to join us, before we shoved him to the ground and took pleasure in hearing him scream.
Ratmuncher was the Raccoon King.
He had stuck to his word and transformed himself into a monster king, and I was the only one who knew why.
"How did they find you guys?" I called out to Itsuki.
"How should I know!” Snapped Itsuki. “I can only guess that they were watching us since we entered the forest, and then snuck up from behind and launched an attack. Kurumi had one simple barrier charm with her just in case, but this idiot," he said while pointing to Arashi. "Thought that he could take them on his own and then brag about it to his bosses."
Nina looked over at her brother’s passed out body. “You’re so embarrassing,” I heard her mutter.
I looked up at the Raccoon King and
nervously bit my lip. I knew that I should have told the others what I knew straight away, but I couldn't bring myself to explain my connection to the monster which was trying to kill us. Somewhere under that mask was the face of a dictator that I had helped create many years ago. Maybe appearing in the shopping mall had been his own twisted way of checking us out.
Luckily for me there was no more time for mulling over my past because seven of the surrounding raccoon Obake dashed towards us at once. Their claws fully extended and their fangs showing like they intended to rip us apart.
There was no way that we could run with the other’s immobilized, so Itsuki, Kiyori, Nina and I formed a circle around Mana and tried our best to defend ourselves from their attacks. Nina's training looked like it paid off because she was hitting more monsters with her arrows compared to before.
"Souta,” called Itsuki over his shoulder as he sent a large lightning charm towards the monsters. “How does Taisei look?”
Souta didn’t reply and just glanced at us grimly.
“Is that all you have to say!” Cried Taisei and he began to thrash on the ground. Souta held down his shoulder and tried to keep him still.
“You have to stop moving,” said Souta. “You’re only going to bleed faster if you start panicking!”
Taisei then tried his best to calm himself, but I could see tears running down his face. Kurumi was doing a perfect job at continuously chanting the barrier charm, but I could see her watching Taisei with concern.
"Taisei," said Nina as she turned away from the monsters and looked towards the barrier.
“Stop looking at Taisei and hit the monsters!” I yelled at her. I knew that it sounded rude but I wanted to beat them as quickly as possible. We had to clear a path in time to escape before the Raccoon King suddenly decided to come down and start fighting us himself.
"What about your plan?" Asked Nina.