Chapter 33: Something’s Wrong
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“Hey, slow down!” Fukuna yelled at her as she got forcibly dragged back into the forest by a girl she held disdain for. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Come on, don’t tell me you’re so dumb you can’t tell what’s happened.” She let go as they stopped for a moment to catch their breaths. Amasa was certain that she had to be the work of a demon, and since Fukuna was the only other person aware of the truth. There was no other choice but to bring her along for safety.

“I don’t know why you jumped to that conclusion.” She replied, but did somewhat agree to it as well. “Then again, unless…”

“Unless what?” She was not a fan of that thinking look Fukuna was giving her. “Do you have any ideas?”

“I knew we shouldn’t have trusted that Ida girl.” She finally responded, giving a strange answer. “Come on, think about it. She just randomly appears to be friends with him when neither of us saw what happened? I bet she must’ve put him under some spell.”

“Can you please try being a little more serious?” Amasa rolled her eyes from the suggestion. They had at least known of her existence well before he came to Earth. There was no possible way that Chisa was some demon lying in wait to trap him. Though a part of her did wish that were true. At least then it would… No, she needed to stop feeling so threatened by these girls. She had be constantly adamant about not feeling anything romantic with Tahiko.

“Whatever, but since you just pulled us into the forest without a plan, how are we supposed to find them?” That was a good question, one that Amasa did have an answer to.

“It’s simple, we just retrace our steps.” They would go back through all the spooky jump scares and ask them if they had seen Tahiko. Since they were going backwards, and given the pair were missing, then everyone they’d see would likely answer no to that question. Therefore, the moment they found someone who did see him and her, they would have a point where they disappeared. “From there, we can at least narrow down our search.”

“Ahh, that’s smart.” Quickly, Fukuna got on board with the plan and then it was her turn to excitedly run past the girl. Now Amasa was chasing her as they went about asking each member of staff if they had seen the pair come by. So far, there hadn’t been any luck as they went about halfway through the course.

“Wow, they really didn’t make it far.” Said Amasa. Now the girl was getting real worried about their health, given the amount of time that danger apparently struck them. “I hope they’re all right.”

“Yeah, they better be.” Fukuna replied, more upset about her feet getting tired from all this hiking. “And I swear, if that girl is actually a demon. I’m going to give her a knuckle sandwich.” She cracked her knuckles as a show of threat. Even though Amasa didn’t feel the slightest bit of killing intent coming from her body. However, something else would come by which would cause her body to feel cold.

“Wait.” She stopped them, squatting down to see what was on a tree they were passing by. It was blood. They had seen this on their way through the forest, but of course they and likely all other students thought it was just something put there as part of the exhibit. But what if it wasn’t? Perhaps this was Tahiko’s blood?

“That’s not good.” Fukuna knew right away from seeing this what it could possibly mean. The pair immediately looked around to see if there was any more blood strewn about. Sure enough, there appeared to be a trail moving off course of their designated path. Clearly something bad had happened here and they began to rush into that direction in the hopes of finding Tahiko still alive.

As they ran, the couple saw more droplets of blood leading them somewhere. Apparently what had happened caused a lot of damage given how much there was. This was getting to be a real problem now. Also, were Chisa not some demon like Fukuna suggested, then she’d also be in real danger. This could even be an injury sustained by her instead.

Soon enough, they got their answer as the two girls ran into a bit of a clearing. There, they finally found the person they were looking for. Tahiko, standing battered while under his arm was Chisa. She was scared out of her wits in fear when they came along.

“Tahiko!” Amasa cried out first. “Are you-”

“Be quiet!” He yelled back at her. “There’s a demon about.”

***

It would be important to know what exactly caused them to be in the situation they were in. And that moment started when he stopped with Chisa. “I… Want to tell you the truth about me.”

“You do?” Chisa stood in shock hearing that he’d be willing to expose his apparent secret. “You really don’t have to do that for someone like me. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“Because I wish to know you better.” He replied. “And, if I cannot be myself with you, then I know you could never truly be yourself with me. And that’s what I want most from you.” Her heart felt a heavy pounding upon hearing his desire. This boy really wanted to get closer with her. If so, then perhaps she could afford to open up her heart.

“Okay… If that’s what you want. I’ll accept whatever you tell me without making fun of you.”

“Well, I’m not worried about you making fun of me.” He was more concerned with if she’d even want to continue to hang around him. After all, someone as timid as her would likely not want to deal with the dangers that he could bring about. Plus, even if she didn’t like the news, then he could trust she would never let loose his secret. “You see… The truth is that I’m-”

However, before he was able to tell her who he was, the boy was interrupted by a strike to his back. It burned hot as his shirt became singed from the blast.

“What was that!?” Chisa was in shock over what she just witnessed. Something apparently hit him, but it looked a lot more real than all the cheap stuff their staff had thrown at them so far. Not to mention it looked like it really hurt him as well.

“Watch out!” He yelled. Immediately he knew exactly what that attack was without seeing it. After all, as a knight who had combated demons most of his life, he had taken more than his fair share of magical blasts from them. So he knew what a dark magic attack felt like. Quickly, he wrapped his arms around her and dodged to the left to avoid the next attack, protecting her, but also taking another grazing hit.

“What’s going on?” She asked, as he carried her along the dark forest, off the path that their teachers had told them to stay. While he knew that the path would lead to escape, Tahiko knew that he couldn’t just lead whatever demon this was to other innocent lives. So while he hated taking her along and risking Chisa’s life, it was either that or risking the lives of all his classmates. “This looks like it’s going too far.”

“It’s gone too far all right.” He responded. “I’m sorry, but this was the secret I was hiding from you.” While the boy would’ve preferred to have told her during more peaceful times, now he was left with no other option but to do it now. “The truth is, I am not of your world. But instead, I’m a knight from another world who has faced demons.”

“What!?” She was in disbelief. Most of her didn’t want to believe that this kindhearted boy would be someone who had to fight for a living. Someone who had to kill to survive against monsters she didn’t even know existed. Yet not matter what, there was no denying what was before her eyes as he took another hit protecting her body.

“Ahh!” He yelled out in pain. While under normal circumstances, he’d be able to dodge these attacks, the boy wasn’t on his own. Not only was Chisa weighing him down, and therefore slowing him down. His mind also defaulted to ensuring none of these attacks hit her, which was ingrained into his mind when being taught to protect the royal family.

Thus, he ended up being badly hurt, spilling his blood along the ground as he ran through the forest. Visibility was poor, and his senses couldn’t tell where the demon was between all the other sources of energy in here. Everything in this forest had an intent to cause fear, but it was challenging to find the one with the intent to kill.

Finally, the boy lead them into a clearing in the woods. This gave him some visibility away from tree and thanks to the remaining sunlight left up in the sky. If his senses couldn’t help him, then his sight would. Standing in the middle of this field did appear to make them easy targets, but judging from the trees, he knew that he’d be able to spot the demon as it moved up to attack them once more.

Then, when he heard rustling of leaves, he quickly turned to see what he believed to be the demon. However, it wasn’t as his other two friends had made their arrival.

And that is where Tahiko and his small group of friends now found themselves in. The four were in a desperate struggle to survive against an unknown monster.

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