Domino Effect (Yukio)

5. Heartless

All of a sudden I heard a sharp sound, a familiar one. Everything seemed to change in slow motion.

'Where did it come from? It was the sound of shots being fired, but was it really an exorcist's gun?'

The force of the bullet was enough to stop the demon in it's tracks but I didn't see who fired it. Whoever it was must've been in the woods themselves. Hearing the way the shot echoed, it was a person in the distance who was waiting for it to come this way as if it was all planned.

We stopped running and turned to see the demon had collapsed, making the ground underneath us rumble. I began to hear the voices of people. Stopping to hear more clearly, it was a group who approached. The demon let out one more howl in the sky as it tried to get back up on it's legs only to get hit by another targeted shot without killing it.

Whoever was the sniper, I couldn't see them, but they just saved the two of us without realizing it.

Footsteps were starting to get closer until eventually a few figures started to walk in from behind the trees. Even from this far away I knew immediately who they were, there was no mistaking it... They were all exorcists.

"Great! He's done it again. Just look at this mess!" One of the voices of the approaching group complained.

"He?" I asked myself in a low voice.

Suddenly the huge demon moved and tried to escape, it jumped up to run off in the other direction but a third and final shot rang out and it fell to the ground still, it was finally weak enough to not fight back anymore. Whoever they were wasn't intending to let it die so easily.

"That was pretty close. Are you okay, Ms. Egin?" I asked her.

She just smiled kindly as she nodded.

"I was just surprised is all. I haven't seen a demon like that in a while." She answered.

Running a hand through my hair, I sighed a breath of relief things turned out okay.

She didn't look away from me making me wonder what she was thinking about.

"Yes?" I asked her.

"I just wanted to say, thanks for trusting in me. And most of all, thanks for protecting me earlier!" She said with a big grin on her face.

I couldn't help myself but relax at her words and smile slightly, her mood was contagious. Stretching my arms above me, I scratched the back of my head.

"Yeah, sure. Anytime, Yu- Ah, you're welcome." I finished quickly, crossing my arms across my chest and looking away.

"Wait! I heard that just now!" Yuri said with a slight gasp.

"I said nothing else." I dismissed my slip up with a small wave.

Turning around, I was able to see the exorcists more clearly. I recognized them immediately: Mr. Kaoru Tsubaki, Mr. Igor Neuhaus, and Ms. Ren Asami.

"I know them all, but now that I think about it... That's definitely Neuhaus. But he looks... So different? Not even his eye patch?" I questioned.

The three exorcists all surrounded the weakened demon, moving in to get the job done and over with.

"I don't understand why I always have to be put on a team under that guy." Tsubaki complained. 

Neuhaus was followed by his demon familiar, which explained some of the damage on the demon I noticed earlier.

"Right?! Plus, how do we ALWAYS end up having to clean up his messes?! I'm an exorcist, not part of some kind of a cleaning service!" Asami agreed, lowering her sword to her side. "Provoking this demon to chase it around for "fun" is pretty cruel if you ask me. Making us chase it down before it reached the school was just too much. I'll need a vacation after what he put us through today."