Vampire Kisses

97: Kokichi

The puzzle seemed to have a 1 to 3 gear ratio...making it so if I moved the biggest gear I would only have to move it once...but it would use all my strength because the gears are heavy metal gears. Making them very hard to turn. I put my hand to my chin...but if I move the smallest one then I would have to move it three times to be able to get the door open. What a pain. I thought before I heard Shuichi and Anaki yell from behind me.

"Kurai?!" Shuichi yelled, making me turn around to face both of them before I would face the puzzle. He was standing there and the first thing I noticed was his blue eyes. They didn't have the faint pink in them that I had noticed the last time I had seen him. His clothes were torn like he was just getting away from someone who was chasing him. But who could have been chasing him? He was chasing us...well more specifically me.

"Shuichi, Kokichi, and-- don't think I know your name Miss...but now isn't the time for this. I came here to..." He was breathing fairly hard so he was barely able to get his words out of his mouth. "Warn you," He finally finished. I could tell Shuichi was getting defensive of me because his hands were harnessing red fire... Its best to tell him about Kurai's eyes and how he isn't possessed any more.

"Explain yourself!" Shuichi yelled, enraged showing me how he wouldn't give up on protecting me. This made my cheeks heat up a bit before I shook my head. Now is not the time to get flustered by Shuichi's words. I need to go over and calm him down.

"Shu, baby, it's okay" I whispered as I quickly moved over to him. Before he could say anything I used my wind to extinguish the fire on his hand before taking it in my own. He relaxed a bit at this but I could tell he was still confused.

"Shuichi, last time me and Kurai saw one another in the mindscape, I was able to see that his eyes had a faint bright pink in them...which shows us that he was possessed. But now his eyes are purely blue which means that he is back to his normal state." I said to him, making Kurai smile a bit. He took a few steps toward us, but still kept his distance. Which is something I respect because he understands that we aren't all buddy buddy because we found out that he wasn't possessed.

"Okay now that you all understand what Veronica did to me...I need to warn you about Cathy." He said before some tears came to his eyes. Does something about Cathy make him sad? Oh wait, what happened to him is similar to what he did to me to make me not love Shuichi as I do now. So maybe the same thing happened to him and he was silently suffering as he was trapped in his own body watching Cathy suffer because of him.

"She took Cathy from me...she made Cathy believe that I don't love her more than anything...but this isn't what we need to get into now" He paused wiping his tears out of his eyes. "I love Cathy more than anything or anyone...and I need to thank Kokichi for bringing me back." He smiled at me. I flinched a bit at his words...what does he mean by that?

"I did what?" I asked slowly, making him laugh a bit. "Sorry I should have started with that."

"When you were trapped under the poison I put into your arm in the mindscape, and when Syn showed you all those memories that helped bring you out of the trance...it helped me to see and remember all the memories I had with Cathy. Making me remember how I messed up terribly and needed to come back to make things right." He looked grateful and it made me feel a little bit better about the situation. Sure he spelled me and my brain would always hold that against him in the back of my mind...but overall he isn't a bad guy.

"I do apologize about that...but know I'm here to help. And we need to get Cathy from under the spell she is placed under." He said quietly as the wind behind us became more apparent. This shrine is Syn's shrine so maybe it's kind of like a hint telling the one who wants to enter that they need to solve a wind puzzle to do so.

"Cathy is spelled to? But by who?" Anaki asked. This made me proud of her because she hasn't been here for the full time to know about everything Kurai did or even all the ways Cathy has helped us. "I don't know...all I know is it must be the same person...or thing that has been making Veronica. Because a couple of days ago...I found out that Veronica died 20 years ago." He looked down at his hands making Shuichi gasp a bit.

"Veronica is a dead vampire?" He asked as his hand shook against my own. I gave him a comforting squeeze that made him calm down a bit. "Yes...she lived to the day she turned 580...because the town found out why she was the most famous actor who never seemed to age...so they killed her with a metal stake to the heart." He paused for a moment holding his hand up to show he wasn't done.

"I can tell you more later...but I need you all to help me save Cathy." He said looking over to the door. "Okay, but if you come with us, you have to promise not to do anything to bring harm to Kokichi or Shuichi...or I will come after you," Anaki said with a dark stare.

"Okay, I understand why you all wouldn't want to trust me...I honestly wouldn't want to trust me after what I have done under the spell...but I need to help Cathy because she is all that matters to me." I looked over at him before I moved with Shuichi over to the door.

"Syn," I called out making my wind powers come to my hands. Okay...I just need to move the gears...wait I have an idea. I put the wind that was surrounding my hands onto both of the gears. The large one as well as the smaller one. If I move them both at once it should get it started which will make it easier to move them.

"It's working!" Anaki called out as I used my powers on both the gears at once which made the gears start turning as the door started opening. "Koki, you got this," Shuichi said, moving his hand to rub my shoulders. This felt really nice because when I use my wind or my powers in general it makes my whole body tense up. With the knowledge that he and Anaki were by my side, it made me feel stronger. I was able to pull the door open revealing the inside of the shrine.

There was another crystal in the middle on a pedestal...and before any of us could move I saw the door closing behind all of us as the rest of them made it into the shrine. What? The door didn't close on the last one so why--

I need to keep you safe...so as the air elemental I can close the door to keep you all safe here. This way Cathy--Undi won't be able to hurt you all.

"Okay, you want to keep us safe. Thank you, Syn, but who the hell is Undi?" I asked before taking a moment to process things. "Who is he talking about?" Kurai asked, making Shuichi sigh a bit. But I didn't focus on them because I needed to focus.

Undi is the Water elemental...and he is angry with Hess. That's why he destroyed her Shrine so all the history with her element would be lost.

But how would that even...what did Hess do to make this elemental so angry with her?

She was with me. Hess and I being together made Undi very jealous...and now he must be trying to get me back just as he did before all those years ago.

So this is a jealous elemental trying to get with you because they wanted to be with you in the first place?

Yes. I apologize for making Shuichi and Hess in danger because of-

This isn't your fault and it will never be your fault. This Undi is an ass and just another person we need to take care of.

Thank you for this.

"Shuichi," I called out to him after I came back into the present. He was over talking to Kurai and seemed to be getting a little more calm talking to him. "Yes, Koki?" He asked, making me smile a bit at the nickname.

"Cathy is being possessed by Undi...also known as the water elemental," I said, making him gasp a bit. "So another elemental is getting involved? Don't they have a person attached to them?" He asked me as I put my hand to my chin. Does this elemental have a person they are bonded to?

-Here is the next part! Kurai has finally broken free from Veronica's grasp. Thank god--*laughs awkwardly* anyway, thank you all so much for reading!-

-SK-