Komo-Doubutsu

Chapter 12: The Incarnate - Part 2

By: Midori Ushi Law

With one huge flap of his wings, Illuminus glided vertically down the thirty-story building. While descending, he looked back towards the top edge of the building, where he left the girl. There was no sign of her watching him. He shook his head and returned his view to the paved street below. His eyes cracked open in surprise. Ray was on the ground aiming her quill-filled wrists at him; her eyes filled with confident anger again.

Illuminus spread his wings horizontally to lessen the speed of his descent, but as soon as he did, Ray shot small quills into the air. The man closed his wings, making them vanish. He tucked his knees into his chest, dodging the fired projectiles and landing feet-first on the street. He stood face to face with her. "You and I are the same," he murmured. "We both were the friends of people who were weaker than us; yet fought with more resolve than we. Now tell me, how did you get down here so fast?"

Lightning cracked across the sky. "I made my quills extend as far as they could, and covered my entire body with them. Then, I altered their density to something soft yet firm to cushion my drop. I knew your wings would slow your fall down enough to surprise you," Ray answered maliciously.

The man charged at her, swinging his 3-foot claws diagonally at her left shoulder. Ray stood completely still, firing four quills from her relaxed forearms faster than his attack. Illuminus quickly summoned his wings and projected himself upward. He flew eastward towards a smaller building ten blocks away. Ray saw large letters on the building reading 'Hospital 48'.

"Oh no," the young woman spontaneously uttered. She immediately kicked off her sneakers, tied their strings together, and threw them around her neck. I have to save him!

Chapter 12: The Incarnate - Part 2

While standing, she lifted her right leg. Quills protruded from the width of her heel.

When he reached the hospital, Illuminus decreased his attitude, to the 3rd floor windows. He flew to one in particular and jabbed his claws through the glass.

Suddenly, he felt intense pressure around his neck. Ray had him in a headlock from behind. Ray's voice screeched in his ear, "You're not going kill my friend!"

Quills quickly extended from her body, piercing Illuminus in the neck, wings, shoulders, and back. The man's dim eyes closed,and his wings and claws vanished abruptly. The two fell back-first toward the pavement. The teenager made more quills extend from the rear areas of her body, reducing their density. Their landing was cushioned as Ray described earlier.

Their fall was in an alley on the west-side of the hospital. Ray retracted her bloody quills from Illuminus and pushed him off of her. His unconscious, impaled body clumped onto the ground. She slowly stood. She was out of breath, but the young woman put her shoes back on. She let out a short laugh. Ray won.

The young woman looked horrible. Her clothes were punctured and dirty. Her hair was unevenly frizzy. Her joints were sore from all the events which happened over the course of the day. Still, there was a final task Ray needed to do; pay for Lipagron's instant recovery.

Leaving the lifeless man in the alley, Ray walked through the sliding doors of the hospital. Upon first sight of her, a youthful man sitting at the front desk jumped out of his seat, grabbed a nearby wheelchair, and quickly brought it over to her. Ray simply held up her hand to shoulder-height and shook her head. "I'm here to see someone admitted earlier today," she explained gruffly. "and pay for his health to be restored."

After giving the hospital reception clerk Lipagron's name, he directed her to his room on the second floor. Ray walked out the stale elevator and walked towards room 207.