Rin Nakamura is more like her mother than she thinks. She enjoys tearing down the proud and powerful, and there is no one who deserves tearing down like the very goddess she descended from. They say that the children of Nemesis, even when unclaimed...
As night enveloped the world outside the bus, casting everything into shadow, Rin stirred from her slumber, her senses slowly returning to her as she blinked away the remnants of sleep. The lights within the bus had been reduced to a dim barely-there glow, the occasional running lights casting eerie shadows down the narrow aisle.
Feeling something brush against her leg, Rin's eyes snapped open, her heart pounding in her chest as she froze in place. She glanced down, her breath catching in her throat as she realized that she was tucked snugly under Luke's chin, his arm draped protectively around her shoulders. His cheek rested against the crown of her head, his breath warm against her skin. He was sound asleep.
For a moment, she was too stunned to move, too overwhelmed by their unexpected closeness. She could feel the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her cheek, an oddly comforting echo, but before she could dwell on it she felt something brush against her leg once more, a shiver of fear coursing through her veins. Her muscles tensed, her eyes scanning the faintly lit interior of the bus for any sign of danger.
And then it happened again—a soft, insistent coiling sensation around her leg, making her flinch in surprise. Jolting awake, Rin inadvertently nudged Luke, who grumbled something incoherent in his sleep but remained blissfully unaware of the disturbance.
Heart thundering in her chest, she tried to extricate herself from the brunette boy's embrace without waking him, but as she shifted in her seat, her movements clumsy and awkward, the thing around her leg tightened, wrapping around her ankle like a vice.
Then the true horror came when it uncoiled itself, and Rin could finally make out what it was. With a sickening realization, she saw the menacing tip of the creature's tail, long and thin like an elongated scorpion's appendage, emerging from the narrow gap between the seats in front of them. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she watched in terror, her breath catching in her throat as the tail reared back.
"Luke, wake up! Move!" she hissed urgently, her voice a trembling whisper as she shook him roughly, but Luke only grumbled in response, his movements sluggish and disoriented from sleep.
"Well, geez, I'm sorry for trying to make your sleep comfortable," he muttered, his tone tinged with annoyance. "Too bad you can't return the favour. I know you're mad at me, but you can't just tell me to move. Where am I supposed to go?"
Rin scowled, her frustration mounting as she watched the thing in front of them, its tip poised to strike at any moment. With a surge of adrenaline, she shoved Luke off his seat, sending him crashing into the aisle with a startled yelp. His eyes flew open in indignation, his protests cut short as, in the same instant, the scorpion tail came slamming down into his vacated seat, right where his head had been moments before.
