The last of the little devils let out a loud Screeeaaah! as they fell to the ground after getting slash with my sword. They disappeared in a light and it was only me and Shiro left. I felt like sitting down to catch my breath but I had to focus on the reason why I am here.
“Masato. . .” Shiro broke the silence and moved to get closer to but stop himself with a strained expression. “Shiro, what’s going on? Is all of this happening because of you?” I tried to keep my voice gentle and move closer to him but Shiro's face grew pale and back away from me quickly.
“N-No! This Book did this, all by itself!” Shiro was trembling and he looked really pale and scared. I wanted to comfort him but Salomon's voice stopped me. “Master, the locator updated during the battle! I seem to be getting a Summoner reading from that guy with the dark hair.” Looking at the App on my phone for a quick second to confirm what he is saying I did see a new Summoner reading from the area I was in.
“Shiro? You are a Summoner too?” A small frown appeared on my face but Shiro quickly shook his head with a frustrated expression on his face. “I’m sick of repeating myself! I’m not this Summoner thing everyone keeps going on about!” I flinch at Shiro shouting but I put a hand under my chin thinking deeply.
“But that Sacred Artifact. . . Also what about those demons that were calling you Master. . .?” I heard Salomon made a noise of approval from next to me agreeing with what I just said. “You have the App running, these familiars are obviously looking to you, and your power is clearly out of control! You can’t ignore the evidence! Excuses won’t get you out of this.” I looked at Salomon out of the corner of my eye wondering why he is trying to make Shiro seem like a bad guy.
Shiro was processing what I just told him shaking his head lightly in shock. “Lies! It’s not true! How. . . did things end up like this?! From the moment I registered for this damn App. . . it all started falling apart. . .” Shiro's head was looking at the ground with his fist clenched tightly at his side and I walked over to him slowly then put my hand on his shoulder comfortably.
“Can you tell me what happened? I need to know what I could do to help you.” My hand still on his shoulder I kept my voice soft and even so he knew I was on his side. ‘This is getting so out of hand but I need to know what I am dealing with so I can help him.’ I tried not to let a sigh slip out my mouth and waited until Shiro was ready to talk.
After a few minutes of silence Shiro lifted his head up and started to speak. “It started last night. . . Right after I met you, Masato. I had some business to take care of, so I received special permission to leave the school premises. I headed to the convenience store off-campus. That was when my phone suddenly lit up on its own. On the display was a registration screen and terms of use. . . As soon as I registered. . . this Book started to glow. The glow disappeared pretty quickly, but it must have drawn attention to me. I soon found myself mixed up with some punks from another school. . . They called themselves rookies hunters.” Hearing “Rookies Hunters” I thought about the group of students who I was fighting with before.
“Rookie Hunters?! Are they friends of those guys from earlier?” Shiro didn’t pay attention to my mumbles of surprise and continued on with his story. “They were going on about a load of mumbo jumbo I couldn’t fathom, like guilds and affiliations. . . Then, just as I was trying to make my escape. . . These things showed up.” Shiro gestures to the little devils that were still around him. “I didn’t intend to hurt anybody. . . but it was over before I knew what was going on. . . These things just started ripping one of the guys to pieces. His whole arm just thudded to the floor. I watched his blood spray everywhere. It was chaos after that. Everyone was panicking and running over each other to get away. First the Book, then the demons. . . Then those poor, blood-soaked students. . . I freaked out and fled the scene. . . but I couldn’t get the sight of that bloodbath out of my head. . . I’d hoped everything would go back to normal once I got home and closed the App. I told myself it was all just a. . . bad dream.” I could hear Shiro voice crack but I couldn’t see if he was crying or not so I just kept rubbing his shoulder in a soothing way.
“I turned my phone off and went to bed believing it was a nightmare and nothing more. . . But you heard what was said during homeroom! That a kid from another school was murdered!” Shiro was trembling badly and I didn’t know what to do to calm him down. “That murder. . .” It does make sense why he was so weird during homeroom but this seems a bit wrong.
Before I could talk about the doubt in my heart Shiro quickly shook my hand on his shoulder off and backed away from me. “No. . . It wasn’t me! Those things did it of their own accord! But now they won’t leave me alone! Every waking moment. . . Them and this damn Book! Those punks and their friends are looking for me all over Shinjuku now. Sometimes they find me, and that’s when. . . these things just start going for them. I can’t take it anymore! That severed arm, the rivers of blood. . .” Shiro looked at me straight in my eyes and I could see tears forming in his eyes. I try to move toward him but he just moves back whenever I try to get close.
“Masato, you’re one of them, aren’t you? You came for me too. . .” I felt my chest tighten when Shiro looked at me with distrust not caring that more little devils were summoned out of his book. “Eeek! Not more of them! We have to do something! There’ll be no end to this, Master. They’re on a rampage and probably half-mad! There’s no reasoning with them! Don’t forget these things are familiars! Spurred on by their Master’s defensive instincts, they’re ready to tear us to shreds! L-Let’s hightail it out of here! What do you say?!” I ignored Salomon and kept looking at Shiro who was looking so sad and scared right now.
“There’s no place for me in this world anymore. . .” Shiro broke eye contact with me and looked down. The little devils surrounding him tried to comfort Shiro but he wasn’t reacting to them. “Master. . . Scared. . . Do not. . . Fear. . . We destroy. . . enemies! Destroy! Graaar. . . Grr. . . Please. . . Smile. . .” Shiro was shaking despite the little devils trying to cheer him up.
“There’s nowhere left. . . for me to go! Ahhhh!” Shiro turned around quickly and ran away leaving me behind with his little devils. “Oh no! Master, he bolted on us! And now his familiars are coming for us! There are too many of them! We can’t possibly chase him with this many on us! Hurry and put some distance between us and the enemy first!” Despite urging me to back up I couldn’t help but try to go after Shiro.
“Shiro! Please wait!” I tried to follow him but the little devils left behind started to close in on me. Biting my lip I quickly summoned my sword and tried to end the battle quickly so I could follow after Shiro.
