Hero Chasers

Issue 14 - No Time Like the Present Part 2

"Oii! Twinkle toes! You're not thickening out, are you? Let's go."

"Is something the matter?" Kira asked.

I looked at my phone, putting the pieces together. "I need to do something first."

"What?"

"Follow up on a donation."

****

Thirty minutes before the attack.

"Oh, there you are. Hello again, Dauoi." Izanami whispered, bowing slightly. "I was surprised to hear you call me out here."

Sitting in the booth of the coffee shop, I made sure I was out of sight, nodding. "No, I want to thank you for agreeing on such short notice."

Izanami nodded, placing a pack of cigarettes on the table and gulping down her piping hot tea like it was nothing. I glanced, conflicted, as she flipped open her pack, taking a cigarette. "So, what do you want from me?"

"Oh, umm, well."

Izanami turned her phone around, showing Diego's video. "Did you want me to kill him?"

"Huh? What?"

"Nothing. "Izanami whispered, taking the phone back. "Whatever you need, I can agree on. I still owe you, after all."

"I can pay more; 400 bucks isn't that much?"

Izanami tried smiling, but it came off as really fake. "No, it's been refreshing; I can't remember the last time I tried staying alive... Although I did get hit by a bus on the way here, sorry."

Blinking a few times, I tried rounding my head over that. "Sorry? Look, I was just curious. When you say you can't die?"

"Stabbed, shot, decapitated, crushed, drowned, poisoned, disease and just about anything else. If it can kill you, I'll recover from it." She goes over, making my stomach sink. "If there's a way you want to see me die, I can do it."

Feeling awful, I stood up walking away. "I can't do this to you; you don't deserve this. I'm sorry."

Inzanami grabbed my arm, curious. "Wait... For the longest time now, all I have known is people left and right asking me to die. Some move on after the first kick, and others stick around. It's easy money but no way to live. You're the first to treat me like a person, not a party trick. What do you need?"

"How durable are you?"

Taking a moment to think about it, she sighed. "Well, after dying a couple of hundred times, you gain a resistance to some things."

"I... See." I whisper. "I didn't want to get you involved with this, but I'm afraid Diego is already waiting for me. He will ambush me, and I won't stand a chance without a plan."

"What's the plan?"

"It may be a hunch, but I believe Diego can take over other people's bodies, using them as meat bags to withstand the damage and wither down on others," I explain. "That sort of power is frustrating to battle. It's impossible without knowledge. I will use that against him; when we fight, I need you..."

"You need me to get possessed so you can beat him down without worrying about killing your friends or the innocent. It's not hard to understand. It's noble."

"Hardly; I'm beating you down to keep my conscience clean. Nothing noble about that; I consider you a friend too, Izanami; I'll take as many as possible."

"A friend?" She whispers, taking a moment. Then, "I'll do it!"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I'll fight, so hold nothing back. Give that man a taste of his own medicine."