Death's Hunt

Chapter 17

Once the third event was cleared, Chiyoko and I joined Anga and Vlagor at the clearing. Things seemed to have gone well, possibly a little too well. Both their bags were bursting to the brim. I was worried that they had not stuck to our plan and had gone to the city. When I asked them about it, they insisted that nothing had happened, but I didn’t believe them considering their previous track records. Knowing that it would be useless to continue prying, I just took them at their word and directed my attention to the scoreboard. We were in first place with Sheri’s team a very close second and the blue team dead last.
“I honestly didn’t think it would actually come down to this,” I said under my breath.
“You can say that again. I was sure we were going to knock that imposter’s teeth in the first round!” Anga growled in frustration.
“You do know that just because she has a business like yours does not make her an imposter,” Vlagor said.
“I was the first to have the food business idea!!”
I rolled my eyes at Anga’s poor reasoning. “You realize we are only in this mess because you decided to make that bet,” I reminded her.
“All right! I’ll admit that I was not thinking when I said what I said.”
“Clearly.”
“Oh! Shut up! But… we made it to the finals.” I opened my mouth to retort, but I then realized that for once she was actually right. This time her reasoning was appropriate. What is this thing doing to her?  “Not so tough now!” Anga laughed. Never mind she’s still the same.
“I do not believe that the expression you used was the right one in this situation,” Vlagor commented.
“Whatever you say, Caveman.”
“Cro-Magnon! I was a Cro-Magnon! Caveman is much too generic.” I rubbed my eyes at the situation unfolding in front of me. Because of his origins, Vlagor had yet to figure out that calling someone a caveman was an insult.
“Chiyoko, can you help me out here?” But when I looked at where she had been, I noticed that she wasn’t standing there anymore. “Hum… Vlagor? Anga? Have any of you seen Chiyoko?”
“Yes, she’s right over…” Anga began but when she turned to face where we had last seen Chiyoko, she quickly realized what I had meant and exclaimed, “Where is she?”
“Vlagor, please tell me you know where Chiyoko went,” I pleaded.
Vlagor shook his head.
“What? Why would she run off? Every other time she did this, it was because we had been arguing with each other and caused her distress. But these types of talks have never caused her to run away before. This doesn’t make sense,” I thought to myself.
“Well, she was there just a few minutes ago, so she must be around here somewhere,” Anga blurted out. “Of all the times for her to leave, it had to be now!”
“She’s just a kid, Anga. Don’t take it out on her,” I growled.
“But why did she have to choose NOW of all times?”
“Listen Anga, we still have a decent amount of time to find her before the final event. Vlagor, you and I are going to go look for Chiyoko. Anga, you stay here and find out what the final challenge is. If everyone is gone when Alger announces it, he might just award the victory to Sheri.”
“Fine!” she sighed in frustration unable to argue with my logic.
“All right Vlagor, come on.”
As the two of us ran off into the dead forest, we left swirling mist behind us, that being the only sign to show that we had been there to begin with. We frantically searched, but we still couldn’t find any sign of Chiyoko.
“It’s strange to see her wander off without any explanation,” Vlagor noted.
“You’re right Vlagor. There’s something that doesn’t seem quite right about this situation.”
“Oi! Tiny deaths!” a thunderous voice boomed as one of the trees came crashing down behind us. We turned around and saw Urgaz standing there. “What does Tiny deaths think they are doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” I quickly snapped back.
“I go look for Sheri. You see her?”
“Sheri is missing too?” I thought. “No, she can’t be missing. She must be hiding.”
“No, we have not seen her,” Vlagor stated. I then saw he was about to ask  Urgaz if he had seen Chiyoko, but I quickly pinched his arm to warn him not to say anything.
“All right. I go look elsewhere,” the hulking giant bluntly stated before stumping away, knocking trees down as he went. Once he was out of hearing range, Vlagor looked at me in confusion.
“Why did you pinch me?” he wondered.
“The last thing we need is Sheri knowing we can’t find Chiyoko. And if she finds this out, she will use it as a reason to disqualify us,” I explained.
“But Urgaz told us that he couldn’t find Sheri.”
“Call it whatever you want, but I have a feeling that Sheri didn’t just disappear into thin air.”
“Do you care to elaborate, my friend?”
“Two deaths missing just before the final match… this doesn’t make any sense. My instinct tells me that once we find one, we will find the other. Vlagor? Can you do something for me?”
“Da.”
“Keep an eye on Urgaz. I don’t want him to figure out what we are doing. If he spots you, just tell him you are going back to the main area.”
“But what if he asks about you?”
“Just say, I went for a walk, okay?”
Vlagor nodded his head and ran off in Urgaz’s direction. “I will not let you down my friend!” he bellowed as his silhouette shrank.
Once he was gone, I continued looking for Chiyoko and Sheri. Taking flight, I searched over the forest. Soon after, I heard some voices. I quickly flew toward a ravine, listening intently. Echoes bounced off steep rocky walls that were twisting and turning like a labyrinth. The occasional choke stone jammed between the two cliffs forced me to ascend or descend as I worked at pinpointing the source of the voices. The deeper I went, the more distinct the voices became. I suddenly recognized them as those of Chiyoko and Sheri. “What are they doing together? Anga isn’t going to be happy when she finds out about this.” I quietly perched myself on a stone pillar and began eavesdropping on their conversation.
“Enough! You little brat! You listen to me. I tried asking nicely, but now you’re pushing me to my limits!” Sheri screamed in frustration.
“I don’t care! I’m not doing it!” Chiyoko retorted.
“I’ve waited decades for a chance to be rid of Anga, and I am not going to lose now! So either you don’t show up willingly, or I’ll make you!” Sheri threatened the young death.
“Getting rid of me won’t do anything! Kakrix, Vlagor and Anga will still beat you!”
“Oh no, they won’t. Without a full team, they’ll be disqualified, making me the victor.”
“You don’t care about anyone but yourself!”
I was surprised to hear Chiyoko shouting back. I never thought this quiet little death had it in her. By now, Sheri looked furious.
“You want to know something? I AM TIRED OF BEING IN SECOND PLACE! So what if I’m selfish? That’s just who I am. That’s who I was in life and that’s who I am NOW! The same way your friend will always be a killer.” Sheri furiously ranted.
“We’re only doing it as a job,” Chiyoko’s voice began to crack as I saw tears well up in her eyes.
“Oh no. Kakrix is different. He was killing way before he died.”
“ENOUGH!” I shouted as I flew down and tackled Sheri before she could continue.
“Oh, finally showing yourself,” she mocked.
“Leave Chiyoko alone, Sheri.” But Sheri just laughed at my demand.
“You know what’s funny? We were just talking about you.” She forcefully grabbed my trench coat before throwing me off her. I opened my wings to slow my descent.
“Chiyoko doesn’t need this. If you want to fight someone, you do it with me!”
“Oh! That’s rich, coming from the death who used to always pick on the little guys.”
“I should never have told you that!!”
“Yes, I guess you shouldn’t have… mainly, because I was about to tell your tiny little student who you really are.”
“What… what is she talking about?” Chiyoko asked in confusion.
“Chiyoko. Leave. You don’t want to see this,” I sternly told her.
“Kakrix, please…” Chiyoko pleaded.
“CHIYOKO! GO!” I yelled
“NO!!!” she screamed back at me. The shock waves caused rubbles around us to fall. “I want you to tell me the truth!” By now, she was crying incredibly hard while looking very determined. I looked at her worriedly.
“Go on… Tell her!” Sheri sneered.
“You, shut up and leave!” I roared.
“Why don’t you make me?”
“Then that’s what I’ll do!” I spread my wings and rushed her, grabbing Sheri by the collar before throwing her into the cliff face. Using every last one of her arms, she quickly scuttled out of the ravine before looking back at me and running away. “Anga’s right. She really is nothing but a…” My words were interrupted when Chiyoko spoke.
“Kakrix. Tell me.” Once I saw her in the state she was in – scared, sad, angry – I knew I had to tell her. I sighed before sitting down, my back to the ridge.
“I killed Sheri, okay? I was only collecting her soul. She was restless. I brought her here to become a new death. That is it.”
“I want your past. Your whole past,” Chiyoko insisted.
Finally, I sighed in defeat. “The only reason Sheri knows about my past is because I told her. The only reason I told her was so I could get her to stop freaking out. I need you to sit down.”
Chiyoko did as I asked. “Now tell me,” she demanded.