Chapter 6
I sighed... even though Mia had wanted me to find out more about the girl, those were definitely other circumstances. The little girl was still laughing at me.
Kaizi rubbed his hands. "Thanks for telling me." he looked at the little girl, who nodded and grinned, then walked away into the night. He jumped up and grabbed the windowsill again, pulling himself up and knocking on the window. Mia was fast asleep and he slammed his fist against the window harder and harder until Mia suddenly shot out of her bed, raising both fists.
"Of course... she doesn't see my face, only me pounding against the window..." Kaizi sighed, letting go off the knocking and pulling himself up again to make his face visible. Through the window he saw Mia had a shocked look on her eyes, and then she came to open the window.
"What the heck are you doing here, in the middle of the night?!"
"Help me... in..."
Mia grabbed his left hand and pulled him into the room as they both fell on the ground, and Kaizi started blabbering words out as Mia suddenly pressed her hand on his mouth.
"Slowly. One after another. You just woke me up, damn it... this better be important..."
Mia rubbed her head and looked at Kaizi with sleeping eyes.
"I saw the girl again."
Mia's eyes opened an inch further. "Mhm? And the victims die on foggy nights. What's the problem now, why did you wake me up?"
"The girl took me to you."
Those words almost had the impact of thunder on Mia. Nobody said a word, there was only dead silence as Mia's eyes slowly widened.
"... a-are you... sure..?" she muttered.
"She directed me to you..." Kaizi looked at her, desperation in his eyes.
Mia grabbed her hair with both of her hands and gritted her teeth.
"I can't believe this... man, it's too much for my head to grasp now..." she sighed.
Both of them sat there silently.
Mia slowly raised her head. "I'm not going to let anyone kill me." she said.
Kaizi looked at her and sensed her strong determination. "I'm with you. I won't let anyone kill you..."
Both of them looked at the ground, thinking about what they could do now. "For all we know, it happens on foggy nights. That's a huge advantage... we know when it's going to happen." Mia stated.
After about five more minutes of dead silence, Mia got up. "I'm going to hit the sack. It makes no sense to think about it when I can't change it anyway. And tomorrow I'll be ready."
Kaizi looked at Mia and realized she was a lot stronger than him. "I'm going to leave now. And Mia... I'm not going to let you die."
"Kaizi... thank you."
Kaizi opened the window and jumped out on the ground, slowly preparing a plan in his head.
The next morning...
Kaizi waited for Judy to leave the house. Roy was already gone from home and Kaizi started act one of his plan. Instead of going to school, he was going to look for a place around town where he could hide... and then there was a certain something he wanted to get from home. He started with searching the house...
Evening...
"Mia, I think this is for you!" someone yelled.
Mia was sitting in her room, looking at the battle knife in her hands. She had bought it today... and she hoped she wouldn't have to use it. Sighing, she put the knife in her pocket and got up towards the door, where Kaizi stood with a huge bag over his shoulder. "Are you ready for the sleepover?" Kaizi said and Mia looked surprised. Kaizi quickly started to wink over and over with one eye until she realized it was just an excuse to get her out for the night. This was his plan?
"Yeah. Dad, I'm leaving now. Byebye."
"Huh? Oh, you're staying at Amagi's. Okay. Bye, sweetie!"
"Bye, dad."
It was slowly getting dark and the fog had already set in as they took off towards Samegawa River.
"What's your plan, Kaizi?"
"To take you out of home. I brought some warm clothes and something to eat. If nobody knows where you are, nobody can murder you."
Mia shivered as she heard the word "murder", but slowly took her knife out of the pocket and showed it to Kaizi. "I'm not letting myself go undefended... but I tried to push the whole incident away all day, not thinking about it. Why weren't you at school today? Scared of the rain?"
"I was preparing."
They soon arrived at Samegawa river, where they sat down and just stared at the water for about fifteen minutes. Slowly, Mia whispered, "Kaizi... thanks a lot."
"What for?"
"For being here with me. I don't think many would."
"Actually, this is the first time someone's here with my victim." A third voice said and Kaizi jumped up to try and hear where the voice came from.
"Oh, don't freak out like that, little boy. I'm aiming for the girl."
Mia took out her pocket knife and wanted to run somewhere, but Kaizi raised his right hand, blocking her way. "It's no use if we don't know where he is. The fog is too thick." he whispered.
"Exactly." the murderer replied. What the hell was he? Suddenly Kaizi saw him and gulped. This was not what he had expected.
The murderer looked like an army general, he had spiky, blonde hair, wore a green muscle-shirt and army pants. "Hehe, you thought I wouldn't find you? Your friend's spirit pulses so heavily, almost every sentinent one could feel that."
What the hell is he talking about?!
Mia took her decision and ran up towards him, the battle knife in her hands, ready to fight for her life. The murderer just smiled at let her attack as she rammed her knife directly in his heart.
And nothing happened.
"Huh...? No!"
The murderer grabbed her throat and started to move her body up. Kaizi came running in and took the battle knife out of his heart - No blood?! - and tried to get it into his eyes, which seemed to work, since the murderer let her go and hit Kaizi's face straight with his fist. He was flung away and fell face-down on the ground.
"Kaizi! No! Ugh-"
The murderer had grabbed her again.
"Why... Why do you want to kill me?!"
"I'm not going to kill you. But your soul seems very tasty to me tonight."
Mia could only gaze at how yellow strings came out of his body, connecting behind her and slowly moving through her. The feeling didn't even hurt her...
And Kaizi saw a white shape being pushed out of Mia's body. Immediately he reached his hand into his pocket, sent a prayer to heaven (though it would be already too late if he missed) and aimed Roy's pistol which he had searched for all day at the murderer, shooting him right in the head.
Apparently it was not pain, but shock that disassembled the strings from his body and his hand dropped Mia. Kaizi came running up, holding the pistol straight aimed at the murderer and catching Mia with his left arm.
"Don't move, or I'll shoot you!" he yelled.
"You did already. Can't you see I'm not hurt?"
Mia's half-conscious body pressed out a few words.
"Leave... leave me here... run..."
"Stop saying that bullshit! I'm not letting you die here."
The murderer took a step and Kaizi shot three bullets right into his head.
"Oh, this hurt. Not."
The bullets were pushed out of his head again as his skin connected again. What the hell was that thing?
"Kai...zi...leave..."
Mia couldn't even hold her eyes open anymore and drifted off into thought...
"It's okay... if my life ends... after all, I was just a leech..."
"Oh, prepare for a last dialogue! Those are always so interesting." the murderer said.
"I... Matt, Yukiko... they are great people... and I'm not... all I do is dream about how I can defend them, and try to befriend them, so I can leech off them and live better with the fact that there's nothing special about me..."
"Mia. That's not true."
"Yukiko... is a beautiful girl... a smart girl... and she isn't able to defend myself... and I live through her for more than half of my life..."
Suddenly something yellow shot out of Mia, blue strings connected it to her, blue, pulsing strings, and they disappeared as the silhouette shot towards the murderer. Kaizi could feel that the body in his arms had become limp, but all he could see was the thing that had come out of Mia.
It was a woman in a yellow overall and high, black battle boots. Her hair was a bit longer than Mia's, and looked a bit more messy, but that was probably because of the wind it experienced with that fast movement. At the hip area there were steel plates arranged as if it was a skirt - probably to defend the legs. She held a double-bladed spear that almost looked like a stick with blades at both ends. The tips were wind shaped.
"That's why your soul was pulsing like that..." the murderer muttered.
"Too bad it's the second last thing that's gonna shoot through your head."
The yellow silhouette disappeared and appeared behind the murderer, jumping up and flying down at him with the spear. The murderer started to breathe heavily, raising his arms in self-defense, but the spear just shot through the arms, and through the head under the arms, sticking into the ground. There was no blood, no wounds, but a murderer who slowly disassembled into blue, shining stardust.
"Your soul shall be reborn innocent." the woman who came out of Mia ordered as the last bit of stardust flew up to the sky. Kaizi just looked at it, his pistol hand trembling and dropping the gun.
"I am a shadow. The true self." she said. Kaizi was staring at her and realized she had Mia's face.
She smiled at him. "Thank you for saving me, Kaizi."
Kaizi's voice was trembling. "No... problem, Mia. But..."
"Oh, and lower your hand a bit, where you grab me is ridiculous, man."
"Eh...sorry..."
She came walking up to Kaizi and he realized she was a bit smaller than him - just like Mia. She walked straight into Mia's body as her eyes opened.
"But... thank you for catching me. Else I would have a terrible headache now..."
Kaizi's eyes were almost filling with tears. "What the hell, Mia?! What happened just now?! Do you realize it?!"
"I don't know. But I know that I faced myself... and then I suddenly was outside of my body, just like that. Maybe I can do it again! Whoosh."
The yellow silhouette appeared again as Mia's body fell to the ground - he caught it again, looking at Mia's other self. "I have kind of a feeling this is my soul."
"What you said... 'I am a shadow. The true self.' What do you mean...?"
"It just came out of me. I... I have to sleep now."
Mia returned into her body and released herself from Kaizi's grip, opening Kaizi's bag.
I had a terrible headache... all I wanted to do was to go sleep, right here and right now. I had brought two sleepings bags...
>>Ask her to stay with him under the bridge tonight - Path of Courage
>>Bring her home - Path of Friendship