Shudders

Chapter 44 - The Wolf

     Since they had left the house, (Y/N) has been taking pictures of everything they come across.

    The plants, the sky, buildings and shops, everything. She's above ground, might as well capture the world's beauty for memories. She took some photos of the demons as well when they weren't looking and even managed to capture the tense atmosphere between Ki and Akai.

    She's noticed the dirty looks they sent to one another. They wouldn't even discuss plans together anymore like before. Akai was usually responsible for finding what streets to take and making sure they avoided any trouble. Ki on the other hand, came up with places to go and searched the insides of buildings for anything useful or determining if it was good enough to stay in. That's how their partnership worked.

    But now it's like they're just doing whatever. They barely conversed and seemed like they were doing their own thing. Akai never left to search the streets and Ki didn't bother looking into the buildings.

    They just stood close to her. It was like they didn't trust leaving (Y/N) alone with the other.

    Luckily for them, after Akai explained to Yama about the island and which direction it was in, he instantly knew about it. Apparently, he's visited the island before and there is a group of demons inhabiting the place. The demons are small and not that threatening, so it would be easy to take them out. But Yama seemed really persistent about going there. He mainly spoke about it to Akai saying that it was a perfect place to claim and that he's been eyeing it for a couple of weeks now. When Akai questioned him why he hadn't taken it already, Yama simply stated "It'll be easier with more manpower."

    As they walked, (Y/N) was messing around with the camera filters. She pointed the camera at her demons and turned on the thermal setting. Akai had a normal body temperature, just a bit more hot while Ki was a mixture of blues and purples. He had some warmth in his chest that was completely surrounded by the coldness.

    She tried capturing Yama next but he was too far down the street for the thermal to pick up correctly. She zoomed in to see him lift himself up into the air and onto the caved in roof of a building. He shouldn't have to be doing the work of two but her demons were too stubborn to actually be useful. The girl wasn't allowed to stray too far away from them, even a few inches. She walked behind them but Akai had his tail wrapped around the sleeve of her backpack like a leash, keeping her from moving away too far.

'Do they really think I'm going to run off? In the middle of a demon infested city?' She deadpanned.

    Suddenly, a trash can was pushed over onto the street that caused the two demons to halt.

    Ki held an arm out in front of (Y/N), ready to grab her just in case a demon was around. Akai stalked over to the trash can, shifting his arm in the process to form a sharp spike. He crouched behind a car, hearing some shuffling noise inside the overturned can. It sounded like whatever it is was busy rummaging through the trash. It whined several times while a small squeaky sound jumped all around the can in a rush.

    Akai narrowed his eyes and quickly darted from the car to the trash can. (Y/N) couldn't see due to the car being in the way but from Akai's expression, he didn't seem too alarmed. "It's just a wolf." He called.

'A wolf?' (Y/N) thought as the large animal ran from behind the car with the corpse of a rabbit in its jaws. Its fur was a mixture of browns and dark grey with piercing grey eyes. It growled at Akai before seeing Ki and growling even more. It knew what they were and got defensive.

    Its grey eyes finally settled on the only human and stopped its snarling, staring at her curiously. She didn't smell like a threat at all. It whined and wanted to get closer to her to investigate but Ki hissed at the animal when it took a step too close. The wolf growled back before running off down an alley with its meal, disappearing from sight.

    (Y/N) tried capturing a picture of it but was left with a dark brown blur.

    That was the first time she's ever saw a wolf. Too bad she didn't have her camera ready beforehand.

    Ki looked at where the animal disappeared, confused. "Wolves shouldn't be this far into the city."

    Akai shrugged, going to push the car that blocked their path out of the way. "They come this far but not often. Too many demons as is for them to deal with."

     He successfully pushed the car onto the sidewalk and caught sight of something on the ground. He squinted his eyes at it and saw that it looked like a leather strip with a piece of metal on it. "The fuck..."

    Ki took (Y/N)'s hand and brought her over to where Akai was. She noticed the piece of leather in his hands and saw that a small metal circle was hanging from it. It looked like something you'll find in a pet store but very poorly made. "Is that a collar?"

"A what?" He asked. She took it from him and examined it and indeed it was.

     There were strands of brown fur that matched the wolf's sticking to it. The metal circle had the name 'Spike' engraved very detail like. Was the wolf somebody's pet? "This came from the wolf. It has its fur."

"How do you even tame a wolf?" Akai muttered as him and Ki started walking again, Ki still holding onto (Y/N)'s hand. She wiggled her hand out of his and used it to take a picture of the collar, finding it interesting. She remembers when Angel told her about how Axel and his team found a demon that ran with a pack of dogs.

    She doesn't know if the demon was human-like or not, but maybe that wolf was one of those dogs? It does explain the collar.