An Inexplicable Phenomena

Jumping from cliff to cliff, the boy made his way through the rocky wilderness. Something was causing the air to freeze and ground to frost, and any demon with that kind of power was worth taking out. Landing on top a fairly high ledge, he stopped and inhaled deeply. As the stale air filled his lungs and played with his short black hair, he made out several figures heading towards the center of the disturbance.

“Demons,” he muttered. “Long time since they dared come this far.” Loosening the sword at his hip, he jumped twenty feet to the next mound of rock, heading this time towards the distant specs, one flying above the piles of rock.

It shouldn’t be that hard to track down the big fish, he thought as he began to quickly cover the ground between them. And I could use a warm-up after all those weaklings that’ve been showing up. Smiling in anticipation, he didn’t notice that the chill was already dissipating and the thin layers of frost melting.

Hikari was sleeping blissfully this morning, as she did everyday for the past sixteen years. And just like every other day, she awoke to sound of her alarm clock’s annoying buzz. Slapping it until she finally hit the off switch, she groggily rolled out of bed and hit the floor. Having at last realized she was no longer sleeping, she wrestled her way out of the cocoon she’d made and shuffled down to breakfast.

At the first landing, her younger brother Miko splashed her with a bucket of hot water. Again, it took Hikari a moment to notice the sting and another to bring her stony glare to meet her brother’s eyes.

“Ma told me too,” he told her. “Can’t blame me for doing what I’m told.”

I can blame you for your interpretation of “wake up your sister” she thought coldly, but being to tired to bother with the twerp, she just shouldered past and growled to keep him from snickering. Sitting at the kitchen table, Hikari poured herself some juice and ate her waffles in silence. Finishing, she put her dishes in the sink while reading a note on the counter from her mom.

“Went to pick up your father at the airport, be back at 3. Love Mom,” she read aloud. Her father had been visiting his parents for nearly a month, and while he hadn’t shared any details with her or her brother, Hikari had a feeling one of her grandparents wasn’t doing too well. Sighing, she put the note on the fridge in case her brother hadn’t read it. Wait, she thought as she started up the stairs, how could mom have told him to wake me up? Smiling as she heard Miko in the shower, she went back down the stairs and complimented herself on having showered the day before as she turned on the hot water.

You will lead us there. Hiakari straightened just as her brother yelped in surprise. The voice was unlike anything she’d ever heard. It was full of evil, an unstoppable one she could do nothing about. Splashing some of the running water on her face, Hikari dismissed the voice as a hallucination and went to get changed. As an after thought, she went back and turned off the water.

Boarding the bus, Hikari saw her friend Sora sitting near the back and went to sit beside her.

“Hey Hikari,” she said as her friend sat down. Noting how messy her hair was, she handed her the comb she was using.

“Thanks. Are you still going out with Kyo this weekend?”

“Nah, the jerk has been forgetting for the last month. Why should I have to keep putting up with someone who doesn’t care about me?” While she outwardly appeared to agree, Hikari was smiling on the inside. She’d been friends with him for years, and eventually his girlfriends too, and knew that this was how he broke up with girls he felt no connection with past friendship. A nice enough guy, but no matter how hard he tried he always ended up forcing girls to dump him. Sometimes he’s a bit too nice she thought as she tried to get a particularly stubborn knot out of her black hair. Giving up, she began to brush the rest of her long hair.

“Have you talked to Yuri lately?” Sora asked, changing the subject quickly. “She apparently has big news she wants to share with us.”

“What, did she buy a bigger truck to go shopping in?”

“Who knows,” Sora ignored the sarcasm. “But it sounds like it might be fun.”

“Especially if it turns out she’s been keeping on firm hold on a certain someone for nearly a month.” Hikari had to duck to avoid her friend’s backpack and quickly get up to move to another seat. While her friends never did enjoy her banter as much as she did, they could accept the occasional jib once in awhile. It was probably why Kyo liked being around her so much, she preferred a well-timed joke to someone complimenting how straight her hair was.

Before she could sit down in an empty seat, she saw the world go up in flames. She heard the screaming of countless people, explosions, and collapsing buildings. The scent of fire was unlike anything she’d smelt before, the smell filled her with dread and intensified when burning flesh reached her nose. Then everything went black and a pair of eyes opened in front of her.

You will let him seal it.

“Hikari! Hikari!”

Starting, Hikari realized everyone on the bus was watching Sora shake her. The driver came up behind her and took Sora’s hands off her. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I think so,” she stammered. “Just a little tired.”

“Well, lie down and take it easy. Your friend here probably made it worse. Just try and relax, and keep from getting sick.” After helping her lie down he went back to the front and started the bus again. Looking concerned, Sora opened a window for her and sat across from her.

The driver was right, Sora’s shoving did more than that dream she thought as they crossed a bridge and into the city. But what is thatvoice? Is it real?

Something suddenly smacked into bus and knocked it on its side, causing it to nearly tumble off the bridge. Amidst the screaming students and flailing limbs, Sora tried to grab Hikari’s feet as she slid up the side of the bus and out the window that Sora had opened. Missing, Hikari plummeted into the river leading out to the harbor.

You will deliver his true heart.

Struggling against the current, Hikari tried to find her way to the surface, but kept doing summersaults. Her lungs began to burn from the lack of oxygen and she knew that she would have to get above the water soon if she wanted to live. Then the water began to slow and feel like Jell-O, allowing Hikari to get her bearings and swim to the surface. Reaching land, she pulled herself out and collapsed, panting.

“That’s…about the…freakiest thing that…has ever…happened,” she managed between breaths. Turning over to lie on her back, she noticed that the sun was higher than it should have been for eight in the morning. And that she was surrounded by mountains. Sitting up, Hikari say that she was in a dusty, desert-type area with the only wetness being the small lake that was washing off the years of dirt from the mountain in it’s center.

“Where…How…” Hikari began, starring in awe at her surroundings.

You will bring the end.

“Well, well, well,” a blue man with wings interrupted the ominous voice in her head. “We certainly did not expect to find a mortal here, now did we?” Hikari nearly fainted when two gibbering creatures burst from the ground and began hopping around the man. When they noticed her, they began to jump more frantically and drool, which sizzled when it hit the ground.

“Now, now,” he laughed kindly. “You can have your fun once I’ve finished determining what she had to do with this odd weather.”

“What did I ever do to deserve this,” she whimpered. Moving fast, she rolled into the water and tried to swim for what looked like a cave under the water. Except she was quickly pulled into the air by her hair.

“Good news boys,” the monster called to the greasy creatures howling below them. “It would appear she is looking forward to hours of torture.”

“Now there’s something you don’t see every day,” he muttered. He watched the winged demon flying around in circles with a girl by the hair and two insane little…things leaping around. “And to think some villagers wouldn’t mind fighting demons.” Sighing, he drew his sword and stalked towards the things. Before confronting the things, he wondered how the girl looked bald.

Hikari wanted nothing more than to scream, but at the fear and speed at which she was being spun, it was she could do just to gulp down air. Which also helped keep the tears from flowing freely. If I ever find the person who brought me here, I’ll rip out his spine and beat him to death with it she thought. Then she realized whoever did this was probably stronger than the maniac twirling her by her hair. Now the tears flowed as freely as she did. Opening her eyes, Hikari say the world spinning around her as she rose. Then gravity took her, and she let out all her frustration and fear in an ear-piercing scream.

“I’ve got you, so just shut up!” an angry, human voice yelled in her ear. “Feh, next time I’ll let you splatter.” Stopping abruptly, she noticed a boy that couldn’t be much older than her had her in his arms. In the seconds it took to land lightly on the ground, she saw great enjoyment in his blue eyes, though it wasn’t likely that it came from holding her. Which he proved by tossing her aside and slicing what looked like a squealing midget with a jutting lower jaw and tightly pulled skin in half. Unable to bring his sword around, the boy gave the second thing a viscous uppercut that broke all it’s teeth and sent the corrosive acid everywhere. Deftly sliding under it, he reversed his grip on the sword and drove the blade through its groin and out its head.

Rolling to his feet, he dodged the first thing, whole once again, and let the other slowly slide of his sword. Pulling itself down the curved blade, the thing plopped to the ground and was promptly roundhouse kicked into a pile of rocks where it made a sickening squishing noise. Grabbing the first thing by the head, the boy turned to the man circling above.

“What’s with the cheap thralls?” he asked, hurling the one squirming in his hand at the man. “Out to slaughter farmers or something?”

Catching his creation, he cradled it as he flew down to the one slowly regenerating at the base of the mountain, flesh piling on itself and reshaping. “The thought had crossed my mind, but there was something more intriguing.”

“Can’t imagine what that could be,” the boy muttered. Turning, he regarded Hikari. “You ok?”

“Wha…yeah. Yeah, I’m all right,” she stuttered, trying to understand what had happened in the last minute.

“Just remember you said it,” he told her, then turned towards the manic missile and punched its face in. “Y’know, I’d love to kill your little pets all day, but I think I’ll just kill you and get it over with. You don’t have a problem with that do you?”

“You are welcome to try,” the winged man teased, beating his wings and taking to the air.

A blast of air shot from the aerial creature, not only sending dust into the flapping clothes and hair of Hikari and the boy, but enlarging the thralls until they were twice his size and large enough to fill the double doors at Hikari’s school. Letting go of the thrall in his hand, the boy jumped back, grabbed Hikari, and jumped up the nearest. Putting her down, he dropped twenty feet back to the ground. Noting the flyer’s location, he rolled to his feet and sprinted towards the nearest golem. Pulling back its left arm, it launched a devastating punch that buried its forearm in the ground as the boy dodged to the right, jumped of its imbedded arm, and slashed at its eyes. Back-flipping to avoid the swatting hands of the temporarily blinded thrall, he ran through its legs, hamstringing one leg, spinning to nearly sever the other, and jumping onto its shoulders to stab through the golem’s skull and into the brain.

Waiting on the collapsing thrall, the boy leapt away from the second’s incoming punch at the last second, adding a hole in the back of its currently maimed counterpart. Before he could touch down, the remaining golem hurled the thrall stuck to his arm at him, throwing him against a mountain. As he tried to push off the regenerating thrall, the second came in delivered a rising elbow-jab to his stomach that lifted him in the air and allowed for a punch that knocked him into the mountain, causing dozens of rocks to tumble down and cover him completely.

“Oh jeez,” Hikari muttered, trying to make herself less visible as she searched for a way to climb down and hide until the two huge thralls and their master left. “How could he let that happen? I’m screwed. I’m dead. There’s no way…” stopping as she saw the blue man beat his wings, she watched him fly between the golems watching over the pile of rubble.

“I am well that aware you are not dead,” he scolded the pile of rocks. “Your aura gives you away easily. So why not come out and let us finish this.” After a moment of waiting with no response, the winged man started to get annoyed. “I could have my thralls simply destroy you while your buried. Personally, I believe I’m being more sporting than I should be.”

Even if he’s not dead, which is extremely unlikely, how is he supposed to dig out of two tons of rock? Hikari thought, peeking over the cliff. I mean, c’mon, sure he’s strong, but no human can survive a hit like that. Though none of them seem that human. What am I doing with these freaks!

Tapping his foot impatiently, the flyer let out a deep sigh. “Very well, my thralls shall crush you. I must admit though, I expected more from one of your reputation. Unless…” in sudden realization, he turned his head so his eyes meet with Hikari’s. “Unless this…female, correct?…could entice you to fight me. It should only be a matter of how she screams that gets you to give me your all.”

Slowly lifting his body, he rose until he could see her perfectly.

“Now the fun begins,” tucking in his wings, he dove straight at Hikari. Finding no way to avoid him, she jumped off the other side, hoping the drop would at the very least make her appear dead so that the monster left. Instead, she landed on top of the boy as he scaled the cliff face, knocking him loose and sending them free falling.

“Oh, well this is just great! Do you intentionally make things difficult, or are you just stupid?” he yelled as he caught her and kicked off the mountain to another where he dropped her and turned to face the man as he hovered in place laughing.

“Bravo!” the man called, clapping his hands and sending the thralls forward. “I commend you for your cleverness, but this is the end of the line. I’m afraid I’ve got other things to do, and can no longer spend my time playing with you.”

“That, or you’re running out of energy to fuel your golems,” Seeing him twitch, the boy continued. “I would imagine that it takes a good deal of strength out of you to control, resurrect, and power those thralls of yours, and it shouldn’t be long before they either start rampaging or try to kill their captor.”

“Heh, you really are clever. Alas, they are my creations, and as such, will never turn on me or die.”

“But they can return to their natural form,” the boy replied smugly.

Growling, the blue man sent out another blast of air. Before they could recover, the thralls leapt up the fifteen feet and swung their arms to hit the prone targets.

“Damn it,” the boy growled, making to escape. Remembering Hikari, he stopped to sling her over his shoulder before narrowly avoiding the double attack that sent the pillar crumbling. “This would be more fun if I didn’t have to worry about you,” he growled at Hikari. Biting back a retort that would have ended with her being trampled by the trailing golems, Hikari kept her mind off her less than heroic rescuer by watching the thralls flank them. At least he doesn’t seem as insane as the other one she sighed inwardly, I wonder if there’s anyone at school that would envy me?

Racing between the mounds of rock, the boy just barely kept ahead of the lumbering thralls that had lost what little remained of the small, gibbering traits they had had earlier, now transformed into pure killing machines. As the two golems continued to ram through anything in their way, Hikari noticed the winged man flying not too far behind them. Why doesn’t he fight with his creations? She wondered, and then suddenly came up with a strategy that could save their lives.

“Hey, if you kill that guy, the thralls won’t be able to function!” The boy stopped so suddenly that their pursuit kept running ahead, not noticing that their query had stopped moving.

He remained silent as he gathered his thoughts, then threw up his hands in exasperation, either not noticing or not caring that he also dropped Hikari. “Did you just figure that out! Why didn’t you use your unbelievable power of perception to tell me this earlier!”

“Well it’s not like you spent much time going after him!” Hikari shot back as she stood up and glared at him.

“I suppose you’ll also tell me that you had everything in control, but I didn’t notice it! I mean…What backwater village did you come from to be this stupid!”

“Shut up! Your yelling is bringing them back!”

“Perfect! Now you can show me how it’s done and kill them all single handedly!” With that, the boy leapt by her and disappeared among the mountains. Oh…damn…Hikari thought as the thralls came to tower over her.

“Um…hi. Well, uh, shouldn’t you be…you know…chasing him? Or something?”

“They respond only to me,” the man told her as he landed in front of her. “After all, they would not make good servants if they did not, now would they?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Hikari tried to sound calm, but she could feel her voice crack and herself stutter. “Uh, shouldn’t you be going after the boy?”

“Boy?” he asked somewhat confused. “Well, I suppose he’s young by our standards, but I do not believe he is a child. Why? It does not seem as though he will be causing us any trouble, so why waste the effort.” With no outward sign other than visibly relaxing, the man allowed the two huge golems to revert to their gibbering forms.

“Well, you did say he was more fun,” she was improvising now, with her only hope lying in the retreat of the three monsters. “So hunting him should be just as much, if not more, fun.”

The man went into a pensive pose as he considered her words. “You speak the truth. It would be quite enjoyable, however,” the stress he put on the final word sent a shiver down Hikari's spine as she realized that she was without hope, and would die a death that would be embarrassing if anyone was around. “I have expended too much energy, and I think I shall continue the hunt tomorrow. Now, since you have served a small part in my amusement today, I think I shall kill you quickly.” Before she could blink, the man had his hand around her neck. Lifting her effortlessly, he slowly began to squeeze.

Hikari tried to pull his hands off, but his grip was stronger than anything she’d felt before. As her vision narrowed, the man reached around to the small of her back with his free hand and produced what she thought was a weapon.

“It’s too bad you did not think to use your dagger,” he mused, twirling it around his fingers. “You could have caught me by surprise.”

“Like this!” a voice seemed to whisper in to Hikari’s ear, though the boy was yelling as loud as he could. She didn’t even feel the pain as the bones in her neck where simultaneously broken.