*****
Hisao
*****
Following Mirai's instructions over the phone, I made my way through the streets, running as fast as I could towards Omoyo. The sky was completely black, the white street lights were disorienting, and the electric power poles had a buzz that made goosebumps break out on my arms.
Ignoring all that, I raced towards her house and was just a few feet away when Mirai told me that Omoyo wasn't there anymore. He told me to continue down the road and then make a few turns. I didn't hesitate and did exactly as he asked.
"When you finally find Omoyo," he said, "don't hesitate. Just punch and make it reach."
I wasn't sure what he meant by that, but I made sure to memorize his words while running. As I turned another corner, I felt a tingling sensation go down my spine. It turned my legs to jelly and I stopped for just a brief second.
"What are you doing?" Mirai said. "You're almost there! Hurry up! The Piper's got her trapped! Homura's going to die at this rate!"
I let out a grunt, pushed through my jelly leg syndrome and started running again.
Despite how far I've run, that was the only time I stopped. I did feel a little tired and slightly out of breath, but that was it. Now, I know something like that is weird, but I was so focused on reaching Omoyo, I never noticed.
And then I saw them. I saw Omoyo on the ground, pinned down by what looked like the stuff my Psy-Armor was made of. And I saw a man in a motorcycle helmet standing over her with a long pipe raised over his head. Any idiot could tell what was happening at a glance. I certainly did, and something in me snapped.
"OMOYO!"
I screamed out Omoyo's name and threw a punch out, even though I was like several feet too far away. But from my fist, psychic energy that made up my Psy-Armor stretched out towards the man with the pipe and slammed against his visor. He stumbled backwards and the blurry stuff around Omoyo disappeared.
Although freed from the man's psychic grip, Omoyo laid on the ground, staring ahead dumbstruck. I ran up to her and pulled her to her feet, shouting, "What are you waiting for? Run!"
Omoyo looked at me with somewhat hazy eyes, but that haze quickly cleared when she saw something behind me.
"Look out!" she cried.
I reacted by pushing her away and turned around as some kind of blur ball, which was really a ball of psychic energy, hit me in the face and exploded in a loud bang. It startled me and made me fall down, but I was otherwise okay. I had my Psy-Armor on after all.
"Oota!" I could hear Omoyo call out to me over the ringing in my ears. I turned around, held my hand up to her and said, "I'm okay!"
My attention returned to the man with the pipe when I heard a slightly muffled voice speak.
"I actually felt that one, you damn punk!" he said. "My back's definitely going to be sore in the morning after that little tumble. I'll pay you back ten times, no, a hundred times for that!"
I glared at him, and I think he glared back. His visor was cracked, but it didn't break completely, so I couldn't see his face. After straightening back up, I asked him, "Are you the Piper?"
"Well this is a surprise," he said. "I didn't think you could still talk after taking that bomb to the face. You're one tough cookie."
He tapped the pipe against his shoulder.
"That's right," he said. "I'm the guy that's on the news almost every day, the so-called Piper. I wish those media guys picked a better name. It makes it sound like I'm some villain from an overseas fairy tale. But, I suppose it's also fitting in a way. That other Piper's a mass murderer too, after all."
"For a guy with a sick hobby, you sure know a lot," I said. I had no idea what other Piper he could have been talking about and I didn't care.
"Well, thank you," the Piper said.
"Why?" I asked. I couldn’t help but ask. "Why did you kill all those people? And why are you attacking my friend?"
"Friend?" The Piper sounded surprised. "Just friend? You two aren't dating?"
"Answer me!" I shouted. That jovial attitude of his was getting on my nerves.
"Why? Why? Why?" he said. "That's all you people ever ask me. You're asking me why I kill people? Why I went after your girl here? Even though it should be obvious? Well, I don't mind telling since it's not everyday you meet one of your own people."
"Your own people?" I went.
"Yeah," the Piper said. "Don't tell me you didn't notice."
He held up his hand and a ball of wavy blur appeared above his palm.
"We're both power users," he said. That took me by surprise, but I was able to keep a straight face thanks to the adrenaline pumping through my nerves being in the presence of a real-life killer. "But anyway, why do I kill, you ask? Because it's FUN of course! Seeing people cry and writhe in agony. I can't get enough of it! It's just so entertaining!"
"Y-you think it's fun to hurt people?" I said. Both my voice and my hands shook. But it wasn't from fear. It was from anger. "You make them suffer because it's entertaining? PEOPLE AREN'T DISPOSABLE TOYS YOU CAN BREAK FOR FUN, YOU DAMN SICKO!"
I couldn't take this guy's nonsense. I stood straight back up and pulled my wood sword out of its fabric wrapping. With nowhere to put the cloth, I just dropped it on the ground and held my sword up with two hands in front of me, determined to turn the guy black and blue until he repented. The Piper, however, wasn't afraid in the least by my sword and just laughed.
"Oh?" he said, bending forward. "It looks like you know a bit of Kendo. That's nice. That's really nice. I used to practice it myself when I was your age. I was pretty good at it too."
"JUST SHUT UP!" I screamed. "I don't want to hear anymore out your mouth, you garbage heap!"
The Piper just still laughed. He was having the time of his life.
"I like my prey crying and sniffling like babies, but this works too," he said. "It's fresh! Okay, tough guy! Let's you and me have a good, clean match. What do you say?"
There were a lot of words that I would use for this match, and "good" and "clean" were not any of them.
Omoyo grabbed my arm.
"Don't, Oota," she said, staring at me with pleading eyes. She had always given me the impression of a tough girl who wasn’t afraid to brawl if she needed to, so it really shook me to my core to see her so afraid.
My own fury disappeared as a result and I remembered what I was here for. I was here to save Omoyo and keep her safe. Everything else could come after that. Because of that, I decided to run instead of staying to fight.
I grabbed Omoyo’s hand and together, we ran away.
Admittedly, I had another reason to run. Having cooled my head off and lost my adrenaline, there was nothing to stop my normal flight response from kicking in.
“Hey, hey, hey,” went the Piper. “You’re running away? What happened to all that fire from earlier?”
I ignored him and kept running with Omoyo in tow.
*****
Omoyo
*****
As soon as I touched Oota’s arm, I felt the fiery rage in him subside. But a huge amount of fear took its place and we started running without a word. We didn’t get far before running into a wall of psychic energy blocking our way. Oota tried slamming his shoulder against the wall as hard as he could to break it, but he just bounced off of it. Behind us, we could hear the Piper cackle.
“Too bad,” he sang. “You’re not getting away that easily.”
He slowly approached us, letting the end of his pipe drag across the floor. The almost musical scraping echoed a little against the concrete walls that surrounded us.
Oota and I slowly retreated from the sick monster until our backs touched the wall of psychic energy blocking the way. When we did, Oota moved to stand between me and the Piper. I could feel Oota’s fear escalate and see his knees shaking. I was shaking too from the Piper’s murderous intent assaulting my psychic senses.
“Come on,” said the Piper. “Come at me! If not, then I’ll come at YOU!”
He ran towards us. Oota moved to counter, but the Piper swerved around him and went straight towards me.
“No!” I heard Oota cry out.
I tried to move out of the way, but the Piper was too fast. He was in front of me before I knew it and swung his pipe down on my head. I didn’t even have time to close my eyes.
I thought that this would be the end of me, that I was going to die. I expected an explosion of pain to my forehead, but instead there was nothing. No pain, no stars, no black nothingness. The pipe had stopped just a centimeter from my nose, followed by what sounded like a gong. I noticed that the top section of the pipe over my face had watery waves rippling around it. Oota must have cast his Psy-Armor on me.
“Tch!” The Piper clicked his tongue. He swiftly backed away and turned around to face Oota. "Looks like I'll have to deal with you first, after all! And that's fine by me!"
Giving up on me, the Piper went after Oota next. The rippling waves disappeared and I could see clearly as Oota raised his sword to block the Piper’s pipe.
After that attack failed, the Piper pulled back and then struck again three times. His moves were fast. Even if I had been in my right mind and had a sword like Oota’s, I probably would not be able to block them all. And yet, even though he was way worse at the sword than me, Oota was able to swiftly deflect all of the Piper’s attacks. And he did it in elegant form. This could only be possible because of his Psy-Armor responding to his thoughts and instincts.
Oota tried to strike back with a thrust forward. But the Piper stepped aside and dodged. As Oota brushed past him, the Piper held his hand out and gathered psychic energy into the shape of a ball. An explosion from the ball launched it at Oota and hit him in the face before exploding with a loud, startling bang. The Piper launched missile after missile at Oota, all the while screaming, “HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
And then he stopped. After taking a few deep breaths, he laughed. It started out as a short chuckle. But then it exploded into an uncontrollable cackle.
“You really are tough for such a wimpy-looking kid,” he said. “Even after all that, you’re still standing!”
Oota said nothing. He just held his sword in front of him and glared at the Piper while confidence in him began to rise.
Confidence must have risen in Oota because he felt nothing from the attacks. His armor had completely protected him from any damage, which meant that nothing the Piper did could hurt him.
But unaware of this, the Piper continued to laugh in childish glee. “This better not be all you got,” he said, “because I’m having the time of my life right now! Let’s you and me dance all night long!”
He raised his hand to attack again, but then someone behind him screamed and Toshiro appeared, tackling the Piper to the ground. His appearance was completely unexpected and took us all by surprise. He erased the Piper’s bloodthirst, completely overcoming it with his own hellish rage. And in its own way, Toshiro’s rage was just as frightening as the Piper’s disturbing enjoyment.
Toshiro yanked the Piper’s helmet off and viciously pummeled his face. His punches were so ferocious that his hand ended up dyed red in the Piper’s blood. He was like a rabid animal who was tearing apart his prey just for the sake of it. I was horrified to see Toshiro like that and screamed at him to stop, warm tears rolling down my cheeks.
“Stop, Toshi!” I yelled. “Please just stop!”
Toshiro didn’t seem to hear me.
"Oota, stop him!" I begged. But Oota stood paralyzed. He was surprised by Toshiro's appearance and became full of uncertainty and hesitation.
It looked like Toshiro was going to kill the Piper, but then an invisible force slammed against Toshiro’s shoulder and pushed him off of the Piper. Both Oota and I cried out Toshiro’s name and raced to his side, but fortunately, except for a bad scrape to his right elbow, he was fine. I was a bit relieved, but that relief was short-lived when I was suddenly overcome with a familiar, chilling and nauseating sensation.
Looking up, I saw a man coming towards us, wearing black clothes and a motorcycle helmet. He held a long pipe and had it resting on his shoulders.
“TWO Pipers!?” Oota cried out. “There are TWO!?”
This second Piper ignored us and walked over to the first Piper, looking down at him. He let out a low whistle.
“They sure did a number on you, huh?” he said.
The first Piper spoke up, but with his bloody nose and missing teeth, what came out was babbling that no one could understand.
Sighing, the second Piper said, “I suppose it falls on me to clean up after you. Just sit tight for a bit.”
I was also stunned. I didn’t think that there would be two such monsters. And they clearly knew each other.
“Figures,” I heard Toshiro mutter. I glanced his way and watched him glare at the two murderers. “That explains it. It makes sense that there’d be two of ‘em.”
The second Piper turned his head towards us next, and the hunger for murder I sensed from him suddenly intensified and made my knees buckled.
“Sorry,” he said, “but I’m going to have to make this quick. It’ll be dawn any moment, and I can’t risk any early risers stumbling into this. It’s too bad, really. I would have liked to take my time and savor the fun.”
As he chuckled wickedly, he tossed the pipe aside and showed what he had been holding behind his back with his other hand. It was my kitchen knife, the one that I accidentally dropped during my struggle with the first Piper.
Oota quickly moved in front of me and Toshiro and raised his hands. He created a wall of psychic energy between him and the second Piper.
Irritation surfaced from the second Piper and he lowered the knife, clicking his tongue.
“Can’t even enjoy a knifing,” he grumbled. But then he turned to his partner and the murderous hunger flared up again. "Or not."
I could tell what he was thinking of doing next and it made my stomach clench.
This guy, I thought, he wants to kill so badly, it doesn't matter who. This guy, and that guy too, they really are monsters.
“Don’t look, Oota!” I screamed.
The first Piper looked up at the second as a few strands of his long hair fell over his eyes, which had a glaze over them from the beating he took.
“Whad are you . . . ?”
The second Piper held the knife up and then plunged down towards his partner. But before the knife point could reach the first Piper’s belly, the second Piper froze. His partner gaped at him with wide eyes and his mouth hung open. And then the second Piper flew from one side of the street to the other, and slammed against the wall before flying to the middle of the road where he stayed floating.
Slowly, a short figure walked out of the shadows and into the light. She wore a frilly cream-colored blouse and a long plaid skirt, and had her hand stretched out in front of her. It was Aika.
