Sureiyazu

Episode 24: Mizuki's Identity and the Disappeared People

"Akuma!" Kasai yelled, kicking open the door and drawing her katana. "What happened?!"

Akuma focused on breathing. Her windpipes didn't seem to be working - her breath was shallow, her lungs wouldn't fill with air. She felt as if she might die of the shock of nearly being killed, rather than the fact that someone had tried to assassinate her.

Now her entire group was standing around her: Aya, Kasai, Yuri, and Heishi; all with identical looks on their faces.

"It - it was Mizuki!" Akuma choked out, fear still partially paralyzing her tongue. 

"What happened to her?" demanded Aya.

"She - she . . ." Could she really believe what she had just seen? Could Mizuki really . . . ?

"What?" prompted a disturbed-looking Yuri.

Akuma steadied her breathing. "She . . . Mizuki's in the secret organization. The Order."

A collective gasp rang through the group.

"Where'd she go?!" Kasai frantically searched the room, looking for the traitor.

"How do you know?" Aya asked. 

"Just now," Akuma said, "she tried to kill me."

"But she can't have," said Heishi. "I just passed her room and the knife you gave her was outside the door for tomorrow."

"It was a different knife." Akuma stood and paced the room. "It was shorter, and shinier."

"Aha!" Kasai yelled. "Knew there was something about her!"

"Too late, though," muttered Aya. "Too late."

"Can't we just follow her?" Yuri asked innocently. Everyone turned to her. "Just saying."

"She went out that window," Akuma offered before anyone could ask, pointing to the window across the room.

Aya glanced out the window, which was, in fact, open as if someone had just jumped through it. "She's too far away. And besides, she probably -"

But Kasai had already climbed out the window.

"Kasai!" Aya shouted. "Oh, I really hate when she does that!"

The rest of the team followed, running not only to find Mizuki, but at least to catch up with Kasai, whose enhanced speed made her hard to keep up with. Luckily, her bright colored hair and clothes made her easy to spot, even in the darkness of night.

Akuma half wondered whether Kasai knew where Mizuki was going. Were they just running endlessly? Or had Kasai seen her going this way?

Suddenly Kasai stopped running. As Akuma, Aya, Yuri, and Heishi all came to a stop behind her, panting, she just looked at them for a moment before saying bluntly, "I found it."

For a second, Akuma wondered what in Sekai Kasai could possibly mean. But then she saw the castle.

It resembled the Sureiyazu castle in many ways. It had slanting roofs and pale-colored walls. It seemed very vast, created to house very important people. But the Sureiyazu castle had not been built in the middle of a forest, like this one seemed to have been. This castle also seemed to be crumbling before the team's eyes. Vines clung to the sides, and in some places the roof had caved in.

"What is it?" Akuma asked. No one had an answer. The building gave off an eerie feeling, as if something sinister were going on inside its dilapidated walls.

"I think there's a demon in there," said Yuri.

"I think you may be right," Aya agreed.

"Yay!" Yuri's cheerfulness echoed oddly in the darkness. "I love slaying demons in an old creepy castle in a dark forest in the middle of the night! That's not cliche at all!"