The Many Tales of the 2-Souls Ninjas

Chapter 6: The Real Heroes

Akio Hisashi:

Grabbing the kid by the back of his shirt, I lift him. He's shouting and screaming, and his feet are running on wind but he's not going anyway.

"The mask is mine," the little boy shouts. "No! You can't have it! It's mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!"

As the boy goes on and on about how the mask is his and how he won't give it up, I turn to Nemo.

"Hello," I say. "I could use a little help here."

"What do you want me to do," Nemo asks. "I'm a ghost. Remember? My hands go through everything."

Nemo tries to reach for the mask with the dakura tchingu hiding inside it but instead, both his hands go right through the little boy. I try reaching for the mask myself but the little boy slaps my hand away.

"Ouch," I say, shaking my hand.

Thinking what I could do, Emica walks up to me.

"Let me and my hosuto handle this," Emica says. "Just keep holding onto him."

"Go right ahead," I say, pulling back my hand.

Emica Kana:

Dropping down onto one of my knees, making myself face-to-face with the little boy, I turn to Noon.

"Repeat after me," Noon says, kneeling beside me. I nod my head and Noon starts talking.

"Little boy," Noon starts. "Please give up the mask. I know how it looks. It does look very scary and very awesome, but you don't want to be a real monster. Do you? Emica, make him look around. Show him what he did."

I nod my head and step aside.

"Look at what you did," I say.

The little boy, still crying, looks around. He looks around and sees all the black slime everywhere. He also sees the cars that have been overturned, the messy buildings, and Akio and me who are still covered in the slime.

"Begin a scary monster can be fun," Noon says, "But please, don't be a real scary monster."

"But please," I say, looking the little boy in the eyes. "Don't be a real scary monster."

It seems Noon's words are taking effect. The little boy had stopped crying. Slowly, the boy raises his hands up to his head. He takes off the mask and gives it to me.

"I don't want to be a real scary monster," the boy cries. "I just wanted this mask. But I don't want all of this."

"Thank you," I say, taking the monster mask from the boy. "Akio, you can let him down now."

Akio nods and gently puts the boy back on the ground.

"Thank you for giving us the monster mask," Akio says. The boy smiles when Akio thanks him.

With the mask in my hands, I pull it apart, ripping and destroying it. When the mask is destroyed, Akio and I see a large shadow burst out from it. It flies into the air but the second the dakura tchingu sees sunlight, it shakes and burns before disappearing completely.

As the dakura tchingu disappears, all the black slime disappears too. It quickly fades away, the street returning to normal. As Akio and I watch the slime vanish, we hear screaming and turn around. The little boy who gave me the mask is on the ground with his hand on his forehead.

"Ahh," the little boy says, rubbing his eyes. "What happened? Where--Where am I? Where is my mom?"

Before Akio and I can do anything, the little boy starts crying again. He lowers his head and rubs his eyes.