Love Far Beyond the Ashes

Headless Haato

Matsuri pov: "You probably should go back with Ollie," Fubuki told me, but I didn't want to. I spent so long waiting to be reunited with her, and she wants to take this away from me.

"Look, you tried to leave Ollie all alone, and she went to find you. She must feel awful because you are pushing her away, senpai," Mio said.

"Look, stop bothering me!" I yelled The two of them sighed and left the room.

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound behind me. I was tacked to the ground, hands wrapped around my neck, and began to squeeze. "Ugh!" I gagged. I thrashed around, trying to throw the person off; they were oddly light. I managed to finally shake them off and jumped back, taking a massive breath. "What!?" I suddenly screamed as I looked at my attacker.

"What!?" Fubuki said as she ran back into the room.

"It's Haato's body." I said in shock

The headless body lunged at me, and Fubuki got in front, kicking the body away. "Where is the head?" She asked

"I don't know why it wasn't on her; that's why I screamed!" I yelled

"Well, why is it trying to kill you?" Fubuki asked

"Better question: how the hell is the body moving if she is headless?" I screamed

"What's going on?" Mio asked She peered into the room and saw Haato's body; her neck was now spewing blood. "Yeah, call me when that is gone," she said before leaving the room.

I picked up a katana that was lying around, and I slashed at the body that lunged at me. I cut off the hand from the wrist, and it slid off onto the ground. The body just picked the hand up, pressed the decapitated hand in place, and it sewed itself back together.

"That's creepy...." Fubuki said

"Should I call Mel and Aki?" I asked

Fubuki thought about it. "Only if Haato almost kills us," she said.

"Maybe her head was cut off, and she is controlling her body to try to fight someone, but she went the wrong way!" I suggested

"Well, it looks like the body is homing in and attacking us, so I don't know about that!" Fubuki yelled

"Well, what if someone possessed her body like a poltergeist?" I said

"That is plausible!" Fubuki said

The body ran at me and jumped into the air and went for a drop kick, which I dodged, and when the body landed, I slashed off its leg, saying, "Take that!" I hissed

"She'll just reattach her leg!" Fubuki said

I stabbed the katana through the body, pinning it to the ground.

"That is one way to stop it, but now blood is all over..." Fubuki sighed

"Owwwwww!" Haato screamed

Fubuki looked out her window and saw Haato's head rolling around on the ground outside. We both went to her and picked it up.

"Why did you severely damage my body in a way I can't regenerate?" Haato asked

"Why did you try to choke me out?" I asked

"I was saying hi!" Haato yelled

"Okay, better question: why are you just a head?" Fubuki asked

"I don't know," was all she said.

"You don't know why you are just a head?" I sighed

"Correct," Haato answered.

"Yeah, I doubt that," I said.

"Look, I didn't mean to try to harm you. I'm sorry. Can you please put my head near my body so I can adjust and talk to you properly?" Haato asked

"Fine," Fubuki said.

She threw her head through the window, and it landed next to her body, but it reattached backwards. "Damn it!" She yelled as she stood up. She reached up and twisted her neck back to normal. "That hurts," she said.

"You literally just twisted your head further than a normal person can, and you say that hurts?" I questioned

"You act like I'm not human," Haato said.

"You don't seem like one," Fubuki said.

"Says the fox girl!" Haato said

"That is fair, but Matsuri doesn't think you are human!" Fubuki said

"To be honest, you are some sort of horror creature," I said.

"Well, you can't prove that Haachama is!" Haato yelled

"Who?" we asked.

"Nobody..." She coldly answered

She was acting weird. She definitely is hiding things from us. For example, her neck has a weird scar on it now, and this is an old scar that went all around her neck, so she was decapitated before.

"Stop looking at me like I'm an alien," Haato said.

Fubuki and I reminded ourselves that this is our friend Akai Haato, who disappeared for a while. She was a sweet girl before that would never hurt a fly, but now she seemed different. Her basic demeanor was normal, but nothing else about her really is.

The scar really threw me off. I wondered what happened to her and why she is so drastically different than she was before. Maybe some convoluted and tragic thing happened, but that would be weird and kind of scary.

"Hey Matsuri, what's that behind you?" Haato asked

I looked where she was pointing, but there was nothing there.

"Silly me, I must have just seen a shadow or a bug!" She said

She had a huge grin on her face, one that was just terrifying.

"Call Aki and Mel..." Fubuki said

"I got it," I said.

As I pulled out my phone, I saw Haato's eyes were glued to me; she wasn't blinking whatsoever. I called Aki; she didn't pick up, so I called Mel, and she also didn't pick up.

"Uhhhh, Haato blink!" Fubuki said

"I want to see Mel and Aki." Haato droned

Fubuki walked over and tried to close her eyes manually, but Haato's eyelids wouldn't move.

"You are very hands-on," Haato said.

"You are terrifying!" I shouted

"How so?" She asked

She began to scratch at her arm meticulously, her nails digging into her skin, but her body miraculously stitched itself back together, so no matter what she did to herself, it healed.

All I could think was, this isn't Haato.