Akuma

Chapter 2

 The yellow streaks of light had leaked through the thin curtains within the room, and long shadows had been cast across the wooden floorboards. Mellow flames licked at the edges of their sophisticated holders of metal swirls, sustained on the brick walls with long, iron nails. Sync stretched open his eyes, recognizing the place as his mind swam, trying to piece together the events of the previous night. What had happened? How did he get there? The boy didn't have answers for his countless questions. He had lain across the low burgundy couch, nuzzling into the denim fabric as a lanky figure appeared in the doorway.

"Micah?" Sync hauled himself into seating position, head throbbing at the shift. He'd felt stiff for some reason, and had then realized that his wrist was bandaged.

"Hey," The figure lit a cigarette, a puff of smoke curling upwards as he brought it to his lips. "A funky person brought you in last night. Apparently you got clawed by the Venomous Fox, and blacked out on a pile of crates..."

Sync shrugged.

"Shit happens. One of your associates?" The boy asked, tilting his head to one side.

"Nope. Looked about your age, thought it might've been one of your friends." The man took another puff of his cigarette. "But whoever it was, they wore an aviator cap with green goggles pulled over their eyes and turned down the tip I offered. Weren't very talkative at all either." 

"What," Sync muttered in dismay. "Surely you aren't implying that a normal person had somehow managed to find this place without first getting lost as hell..." His gaze wandered around the room, picturing the numerous flights of stairs, corridors, twists and turns that existed beyond the brown and red brick walls.

"Valid point; I've been thinking about that," Micah responded. "In any case, it might have well been an advanced mutt, but we'll never be sure since they never once revealed their name nor face." 

"So I hunt it and kill it?" Sync blinked, caressing his bandaged hand.

"Nah. You go home before your parents call the police with a case of a missing person."

Screw that, it's not like anyone would be troubled at all by my absence... I can easily locate a person like that on my own, can I not? The boy grit his teeth, clicking shut the wooden door behind him.

~

"Damnit," Runa cursed under her breath. Kaede looked up from the book he was looking through. 

They were cramped up in a little office that Kaede's parents had used at one time, but since moving to a different part of the district, they'd left it empty. Living on his own, Kaede's tiny apartment wasn't the ideal place to do the work that he was immersed in. With permission from his parents, he'd been using the little office space for almost two years. Runa had joined up with him eight months back.

Her reasoning to getting into hunting down the supernatural was the same as his. Both had lost something precious to them. Her's was probably a greater loss than himself. Runa's entire family, gone in a single night. She never shared the details, and Kaede never asked. He was fairly sure he didn't want to know. For Kaede, the reason was his little brother. A few years younger than him, he'd died one night three years ago on their way home from school.

Ever since, Kaede had been searching for the killer. His parents were settled that it was a random gunman, a simple crime that the police failed to catch the culprit for. However, Kaede knew better. He'd seen the deformity that had snatched his brother from the darkness. The screams still echoed in his mind every so often. Slowly shaking his head, he pulled himself out of his revere and put the book down.

"What is it?"

"I keep telling you we need actual people who do this kind of stuff, Kaede. I can't do this."