𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬 // 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐤𝐨𝐤𝐮

Chapter 3 • Kanshiiki Encounter

"Akutagawa!!"

Atsushi watched in fear as the glass behind Akutagawa shattered, revealing a kanshiiki about to jump on Akutagawa.

Akutagawa turned his head toward the sound and immediately activated Rashomon, but not early enough.

He fell backwards, pushing the desk over, struggling to keep the kanshiiki in the cloth-like bonds as the creature kept thrashing.

Just as Akutagawa was about to stab the creature, Atsushi shouted from a few meters away.

"Akutagawa, no! What if they're someone we know?! We can't kill them!" Atsushi shrieked.

"Well what would you rather have?! Two kanshiikis? A dead teammate? Or a death of a monster who we have no identification of??" Akutagawa shouted back as he fought the monster, who was starting to loosen the bonds.

Atsushi's next words got caught in his throat. Akutagawa.. Akutagawa was right. There's a large possibility that it was someone they didn't know at all, and even if they did know the kanshiiki, it's not like the monster would remember them. Once turned kanshiiki, the person became ruthless and blood-thirsty, forgetting all connections to the human world and becoming enveloped in the desire for chaos.

The best they could do while they still didn't have the cure was let the poor soul rest.

Atsushi nodded grimly and signaled for Akutagawa to continue.

Akutagawa smirked and wrapped Rashomon even tighter around the kanshiiki, then produced more spikes out of his back and stabbed them through the kanshiiki's body.

The kanshiiki roared and coughed out blood. Soon enough, it stopped thrashing, its body ceasing all movement.

Akutagawa stood up and threw the kanshiiki aside. He brushed the glass shards off of his coat and walked over to Atsushi.

His eyes dark and greedy, he placed a hand on the weretiger's shoulder and mumbled "You know what's going to happen next, right?"

Atsushi nodded, already predicting this scenario ever since the kanshiiki showed up.

The thing about kanshiiki...

Is that they always travelled in groups.

They soon heard a chorus of growls and snarls, all from different directions.

The two moved to the center of the office and put their backs against each other, ready to fight.

Suddenly, claws started to appear through the hole that the first kanshiiki has created. The others were climbing through.

They then heard glass cracking as the kanshiiki started slowly breaking the other windows.

Somehow, the kanshiiki had found their way from the cafe to the office, and the distorted faces of the creatures started appearing behind the doorframe of the entrance of the office.

"Jinko." Akutagawa said in a low voice.

"I know." Atsushi replied, somehow understanding what Akutagawa was about to do.

As soon as it seemed that all the kanshiiki had entered the room, Akutagawa summoned Rashomon and used it to encase the office, sealing off all the windows and doors.

Atsushi immediately used this opportunity to his advantage, using his weretiger speed to rebound off the bonds as he slashed at the kanshiiki, bounding all over the room, using the springy bonds of Rashomon to propel him.

When kanshiiki would get close to Akutagawa, he would just duck his head and trust that Atsushi had gotten to the kanshiiki. This strategy seemed to work, as soon, the floor was littered with the corpses of about 20 kanshiiki.

Atsushi finally planted his feet on the floor, deactivating his gift, as well as Akutagawa, who retracted the black bonds and let the light filter in through the windows once again.

The weretiger breathed heavily, his legs feeling like they were burning from all the jumping.

Suddenly, Akutagawa let out several violent coughs. He had used Rashomon to the point where it took a physical toll on him.

Akutagawa fell on his knees as he continued to cough. He coughed into his hand, revealing blood coming out of his mouth.

Atsushi ignored his fatigue and stumbled over to Akutagawa, unconsciously going over to check on him, even though he wasn't really sure how to help.

Akutagawa turned away and held his hand out, signaling that he needed no help.

After slightly recovering from his coughing fit, Akutagawa stood up weakly, soon followed by Atsushi.

"Ne, Jinko. Can we go somewhere? I need to clear my head." Akutagawa asked.

"Well there's clearly nobody here so why not." Atsushi shrugged.

It was silent once again as the two walked out of the office, the only sound heard being Akutagawa's coat brushing the ground and their light footsteps.

Atsushi hoped that they wouldn't encounter anymore kanshiiki, as he wasn't sure if either of them had the energy to fight the monsters.

The weretiger knew that Akutagawa wasn't taking him to some place to kill him, or to lure him to his death, or anything like that. Akutagawa needed Atsushi as much as Atsushi needed him.

But, where was Akutagawa taking them?

A/N
heylooo sorry for the wait :3
i kinda forgot about this bc of school but we're on break so here's the new chapter
it's almost spooky dayyyy!!
the next chapter might take a bit longer since i haven't started it yet so i'm sry 😅
anyways as usual if you enjoyed i'd appreciate if it you voted!