Shroud of the midnight hour

Chapter five- Hachirou

The spirit's hanging jaw mangled his growing smile as he sized up the three new men in the clearing. "Hachirou," he grumbled, tipping his head back to laugh gruesomely as his nails lengthened. Blood welled and dripped down their dark length. "To think I would run into you in a place like this. I've spent a long time thinking about all the ways I'd get my revenge on you--- how I'm going to enjoy killing you." He leered, flexing his razor-sharp nails "You're going to regret ever sealing me away, filthy elemental."

"Long time no see," Hachirou, the blindfolded man replied. A slow smile spread on his lips as he glanced to the spirit infesting Tom's body. He wafted the last residues of dazzling light from his face. "Let's see... what was your name again?"

A new kind of silence filled the forest as Hachirou scratched behind his ear obliviously, pretending to think. One of the men behind him clicked his tongue and the other rolled his eyes, folding his arms. It was as if both of them were used to this.
The spirit's smile faltered, a look of disgusted disbelief consuming his twisted features and Marisol watched quietly from her place on the ground.

"Are you sure it was me who sealed you away?" Hachirou asked after a while. "I think I would have remembered you, but then again I do deal with a lot of spirits."

The spirit erupted, screaming foul insults that even made Marisol cringe away.

Hachirou snapped his fingers together, smiling broadly. "No, wait--- I've got it!" His smile dropped an octave, a cruel twist of his lips remaining. "Aki, was it? You're a spirit with dark powers." His smile faded, and Marisol subconsciously held her breath. "Or do you prefer Takeshi's whore?"

Marisol didn't know who Takeshi was, but it was an understatement to say it enraged the spirit.

"You damn brat!" The spirit, Aki, screamed so loud that Marisol flinched. Black energy erupted from around him, bursting into the opening around them.
Marisol briefly remembered the feel of that power bleeding the life for her and gulped in potent disgust. Something wasn't right. She should have been consumed by the darkness, destroyed instantly, yet she survived. And she should feel horrified by it. Instead, she was repulsed by how much pleasure it gave her to tear at the dark manifestation of his power. Just seeing it now caused her pulse to raise, her arms tensing under the remnant feel of its strength. "Mention his name again and I'll make your death painful."

"Oh stop it you tease," Hachirou smiled, barely acknowledging him. He turned to the two men behind him, and the spirit shrieked in outrage. "Xander, Fender--- do you think you could deal with him? I don't think he has long left in that body. I'm going to go heal Marisol."

Marisol shuddered at the sound of her name on his lips, memories of earlier and the note they had left springing to mind. She didn't want this man to come anywhere near her, but she was still lucid enough to appreciate his arrival had saved her life.
She could hardly ignore the raw wound on her shoulder and the pain that blazed there. If he was going to heal her, then she could hardly complain, but was he truly an ally?
Whoever he was, she didn't think he was a spirit. The sheer amount of energy that circulated him was unlike anything she had ever felt before, completely different from inside the pub, but it wasn't corrupt. It didn't feel rotten like Aki's, but something about this man was very different from the others.

The man with brown hair and bright, aqua eyes clicked his tongue. "Are you underestimating us, Hachirou?" He said in his deep voice, his bandaged hands swiftly brandishing the knives at his waist in a flicker of movements. "You'll pay for that later."

"How offensive," The second man said dryly. He blinked his dark, hooded eyes and placed his hands in his pockets.

The spirit lurched, blinking from existence to reappear right behind Hachirou. The speed at which he moved was astronomical. Marisol cried out in warning but her voice was broken, no more than a husk of a gasp.
Hachirou frowned, ducking casually. He didn't bother to turn as the spirit's claws slashed thin air where his head had once been. Then he spun, bringing his knee up into the spirits stomach, and Marisol caught the brief expression of shock on Aki's dark features.
The spirit buckled over in pain at the blow, and Marisol watched in horror as Hachirou grasped his shoulders and glared straight into his blackened eyes from above. "Didn't you hear me? I thought I had made myself quite clear."