17 017

"Ah, darn it, bro, the vacation didn't last long at all," whispered a tousled-haired blond boy as he walked alongside his friend.

"Damn right. This past week felt like a blink of an eye," the other boy said.

Both were climbing the stairs to reach the second floor of the school.

"Do you think Shinka has already arrived?" the blond asked.

"He's pretty punctual. He's probably already sitting next to our seats."

Opening the classroom door, both boys were a bit lost seeing most of their classmates, but Shinka wasn't there.

"H-He hasn't arrived, apparently," the blond said, a bit impressed.

"Well, let's sit down and put your backpack in its place so no one sits there."

The boy walked a bit to put the backpack in the spot he and his friend called "the protagonist's seat," located in the corner at the end of the classroom next to a window.

As he put the backpack down, he instinctively looked out the window, and there he was.

"Hey, look, Shinka just entered the school..." He said it with quite a good mood, but stopped speaking before he could finish the sentence.

His friend didn't pay attention and just spoke.

"It's about time. He usually doesn't take longer than us," he whispered and looked at his friend's face.

"T-Tomo, is something wrong?" he innocently asked, seeing his friend's expression.

It seemed like his jaw was about to hit the floor, and his eyes were wide open as he pointed out the window.

Instinctively, Tomo's friend followed where he was pointing, and like him, he was immensely surprised.

Both saw the Shinka they knew, walking and talking with two girls.

"Sh-Shinka can talk to girls without having a heart attack?" Hiro, Tomo's friend, spoke, unable to avoid stuttering.

"More than that, is he talking to two SSS-class beauties?!"

Both of them were pensive.

How was it possible that the Shinka they knew well, being a geek addicted to video games, anime, and a social misfit afraid to talk to girls?

This didn't match their memories of Shinka! Wasn't he insecure in the first place? Now he seemed to be walking with confidence at least.

"Who the hell are those two girls and why do they seem to be Shinka's friends?"

"We've known each other since we were kids, it's impossible that he always had those friends and never told us."

"Now that I think about it, wasn't his sister the only girl he could talk to?" Tomo wondered aloud.

"If you're not comfortable just talking about me out loud, you could post what you're saying on Facebook, you'd have more reach there," a voice came from behind them.

"Shinka!" Tomo was surprised.

"We weren't talking about you, we were talking about the girls who came with you," Hiro looked at him for answers.

"Believe me, it'll be less trouble if you guys stay away from them," Shinka whispered as he sat down in his seat.

"Liar, you just want them for yourself," Hiro said as he sat down too.

As Hiro sat, his eye twitched, he had just realized something very important right now.

He turned a bit to look at his friend Tomo and whispered.

"I-Is it just me or is Shinka now my height?"

Tomo suddenly tensed up and realized.

On the height scale, Hiro was the tallest, 1.67 meters, then there was him at 1.64, and finally Shinka, who should measure around 1.48 or something similar, but now that scale was broken!

Both discreetly looked at Shinka and then back at each other.

"I need to ask him how he grew so much and so fast!" Tomo whispered exhaustedly.

"Calm down, Shinka's family is a bit tall, it's probably genetics, although he was lucky that his genetics started working now. If he keeps this up, he's going to be the tallest guy in the class."

Tomo nodded at Hiro's words.

"Darn it, he's going to be really lucky with the girls. They'll even overlook that his face is average just because he'll be 1.80 meters tall!"

Hiro nodded at his friend's words.

"In this world, two things matter. If you're very handsome, it doesn't matter if you're not very tall, but if you're someone a bit ugly or average, then being tall does matter." It was his externalized thought.

"Your wisdom is great, Hiro-sama..." he whispered.

"All right, guys, take out your notebooks and your biology book and open it to page 13," said an older man entering the classroom.

Both boys sighed.

. . .

"Finally, we're out of that prison," Tomo furrowed his brow.

"No kidding. At least we don't have any homework," said Hiro.

"Yeah, now that I think about it, we could take advantage and do something fun today."

Hiro seemed pensive and thought it was a good idea.

"What about playing Kof?" Tomo suggested, but after saying it, his expression turned dark.

"Forget it, we've already played that game too much... Maybe it would still be fun if Shinka had been playing with us during the holidays."

"Well, we could have avoided overplaying the game, but you're the one who suggested he go to Kuoh."

"I know, but what else was I supposed to do? Shinka might have killed himself out of sadness or something."

"I guess you're right... Although if I were Shinka, I'd celebrate if my sister moved to another city."

"You hate your sister, that's different."

"Never mind, someone without a sister wouldn't understand... Look, there goes Shinka." Tomo pointed.

"Hey Shinka!" Hiro shouted, getting the boy's attention.

"Tomo, Hiro, what's up?"

"Hiro and I were thinking of going to play at my house. How about it, the three of us, Kof, six cans of Coca-Cola, and ramen!" Tomo said enthusiastically.

"Hmm, I'll pass this time, guys. I have some things to do. But next time I'll go." Shinka said, walking away as he waved goodbye.

"And there he goes..."

"He's become a bit more distant lately."

"Yeah, since before the holidays." Both started walking again.

"Do you think he'll ditch us for those two girls?" Hiro asked.

For them, Shinka was always the one who completed their trio of friends. Seeing them being left out was a bit painful.

Tomo looked at Hiro for a few seconds and chuckled.

"If I were Shinka, I'd definitely ditch you for a girl."

"You jerk!" Hiro also chuckled and punched his friend's shoulder.

"Anyway, I guess it'll just be the two of us and Kof."

Hiro frowned at Tomo's words.

"You know, I have a better idea. I recently saw some videos of urban explorers who found a ghost!" Tomo looked at his friend somewhat surprised.

"Are you suggesting we should go urban exploring too?"

Hiro looked at him with a confident gaze, and Tomo put his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"If you were the protagonist of a light novel, you'd definitely have the genius label."

Hiro's eyes sparkled, and he smiled.

"I know."

...

The sun began to disappear on the horizon of Takido, and two young men were walking through the forest.

"Are you sure it's around here?" Tomo asked, somewhat nervous.

"According to Google Maps, it is," Hiro replied, walking confidently.

After crossing a bit more into the forest, they finally arrived at a place.

"Finally," Tomo whispered as he saw where they were.

They were at the entrance of what seemed to be an old abandoned complex in the wooded area of Takido.

"According to the history of this place, it was cursed by a demon and everything started to go wrong here," Hiro whispered, trying to scare Tomo.

"Forget it, even Shinka wouldn't be scared by those words."

"Hm, it would be funny if he were here."

"Imagine we're in a dark room around here and someone screams. I think not only Shinka would be scared."

"Are you saying I'm easy to scare too?" Hiro retorted.

Tomo took a breath to speak, but suddenly a scream interrupted his thoughts.

"AHHHHH!" A sharp scream echoed throughout the complex.

A shiver ran down the bodies of both boys.

"Did y-you hear that?" Tomo asked, concerned.

"Yeah... It sounded like someone was hurting someone else."

The minds of the two boys were in turmoil.

"We should get out of here," Tomo said.

"Forget it, if someone is hurting someone else here, we can't just do nothing."

"Then I'll call the police. We don't have to do anything, if there really is someone here doing weird stuff, then they probably have a weapon or something!" Tomo took out his phone, but his excitement waned when he noticed he had no signal.

"No signal."

"Same here, so we have no other choice, we have to investigate."

"Idiot, that's how horror movies start! I take back what I said about you being a genius."

"Come on, grab a big wooden stick to defend yourself and I'll do the same. If there's some crazy person around here, we'll beat them until they fall."

Tomo nodded and picked up a wooden plank from the ground that could serve, and Hiro did the same.

They both walked slowly towards the source of the scream, where there was a house in better condition than most of the old complex.

They entered slowly, and saw a woman lying on the floor, right in the middle of the doorway frame, her upper body in the same room as them, while her lower half was hidden by the other half of the door frame.

"A woman!" Hiro dropped his wooden plank and ran towards the woman.

"Hiro, don't let your guard down," Tomo whispered as he saw his friend drop his "weapon".

"She might need help," Hiro said, kneeling down to see the woman.

"Hey, are you okay?" The boy briefly inspected the woman.

Suddenly, she began to move, trying to get up from the floor using only her hands.

"Excuse me..." The boy whispered again as he didn't get any responses and tried to help the girl up.

Slowly, the girl lifted her gaze to look at Hiro who was helping her, and there, the boy was petrified.

"AHHH!" Another scream was heard, but this time it belonged to Hiro.

He let go of the girl and ran towards Tomo.

"D-Demon!" Was all he said, and his friend understood.

Both ran out of the house.

BOOM

Behind them, the house collapsed completely, and instinctively both turned to look at the place.

The figure of the woman they had both seen was only her torso, the lower part of the woman was like that of a strange octopus.

"What the hell is that?!" Tomo couldn't help but ask as he ran alongside Hiro.

"I-I don't know!" Both ran in terror.

But suddenly a large rock fell in front of them, and both stopped abruptly.

A red energy beam destroyed the rock and sent both boys flying in opposite directions.

Tomo fell to the ground, but almost instantly got up, and saw his friend.

Somewhat dazed from the blow, Hiro was still on the ground.

Tomo ran to help him, but with horror he saw the red tentacles of the monster chasing them approaching his friend, ready to take him.

Hiro had already regained his consciousness and looked in shock as the tentacles approached him.

'I can't move... Is this how it's all going to end?' Involuntarily, the boy turned his head slightly and saw Tomo running to help him.

'My mouth won't respond, I can't tell him not to come closer! Don't come!' He just wanted to warn his friend, but it was impossible for him.

In a matter of milliseconds, the tentacles were about to take him, just inches from his face.

Tomo looked on in horror.

'I can't reach him, I'm too slow...' His eyes turned red knowing what was coming, he felt as if his spirit was about to leave his body.

"HIROOO!"

He screamed, extending his hand.

WOOSH

A column of white fire extended from his arm to the monster's tentacles.

The distance that Tomo couldn't cover in seconds was covered by the flames in a matter of milliseconds.

The fire stopped the tentacles' advance and made them retreat.

Tomo stood in front of Hiro, his hands aimed at the demon.

"Tomo, do you have superpowers and never told me?" He asked in a moment of respite.

"Stop joking. I didn't even know about this."

The demon looked closely at Tomo, and his eyes gleamed with intense red.

"You're dead," Tomo said, activating his power of white flames again.

Wosh

A small flame flew a few inches from Tomo's hands.

"I think I ran out of powers," he whispered, highly nervous.

Hiro snapped back to himself and quickly got up, grabbing Tomo by his shirt and pulling him.

"Run!"

They both started running again, and just as they were about to reach the exit of the complex and enter the forest—

CRACK

A wooden beam fell on Tomo.

"ACKH" He groaned in pain.

"Tomo!" Hiro immediately began trying to forcefully remove the beam from his friend.

"I-It hurts a lot."

"Come on, Tomo, don't give up, use your fire power to burn this thing!"

"It's useless, I think I have a broken left leg..." He whispered in pain.

"Run, Hiro, go get help."

"No! You saved me, now it's my turn to do the same. Just burn this thing, I'll carry you to a safe place!"

Tomo began to expel small flames, but none were powerful.

"Damn it. I can't."

Hiro turned around and saw the demon nearby, charging an attack in its mouth. He knew that would be highly dangerous, so he extended his arms.

"You probably need to recharge energy... I'll distract the demon with my body, that will give you time to burn that thing and run, even if it's limping..." He whispered in fear.

"Don't do that, it'll be pointless. Just go!"

"I refuse!" Hiro remained in the same position.

"Then we'll die here together..." Tomo whispered, giving up.

A red beam traveled from the demon's mouth to the boys, but before it could hit, Hiro smiled.

"At least Shinka was saved by not coming."

How could they forget their third? Both knew that Shinka would have a tough time if they died, but they were happy to know that a part of them would always rest in the memory of their family and their best friend.

"Talking about me again." A deep voice echoed from the sky and a shield was created in front of both boys.

WOOOSH

A beam of energy three times more powerful struck the demon.

BOOM

The demon was reduced to ashes in seconds.

POCK

The feet of a boy touched the ground gently.

"S-Shinka! Did you kill that thing?!"

Tomo was the first to speak.

"That's right, you don't have to worry about it." With a glance from the boy, a magical circle appeared in front of both boys.

They both felt much better physically. As if their wounds were closing, and for Tomo, as if his leg were healing.

"What is all this? Do you have superpowers too, Shinka?" Hiro innocently asked.

"They're not superpowers, it's magic."

Shinka's eyes lit up blue, leaving both boys stunned.

Shinka inspected Tomo to see why he had such powers.

[Sacred Gear: Flame Shake.]

"Interesting," he whispered.