A brief story of a one-sided friendship, part 4

Shin dashed forward, slashing wildly at the attacking tentacle. His blow, enhanced with a part of Tetsu's strength, cut it into two—but the severed piece kept flying at Shin.

Moving independently from the main body, the glob of disgusting yellow slime curled around Shin's neck, trying to reach up and cover his face.

Twin shouts of alarm came at the same time:

"Kugutsu-san!"

"Boss!"

"Ugh!" Shin pulled the slime off himself, ignoring the way it singed his fingers and threw it at the wall. "Fuck!"

When he turned his eyes to the fight, he saw Tetsu looking back at him. Even though she had no visible eyes, he could sense her intense gaze. Beneath it was a well of emotions so deep and dark that Shin couldn't see anything but the enduring rage on the surface.

"H-how… how dare you…" Tetsu grit out, turning towards the slime. "Mindless, worthless creature… There's no excuse for what you just did! I will batter you into oblivion!"

Toad lifted its front paws, about to slam them at Tetsu, but she was faster. With a burst of speed, the demoness slammed her pipe at the paws in quick succession, turning them into splashes of slime.

"Take this! And this! This! This!" she shouted, turning the slime toad into a puddle bit by bit.

The fire demon threw a couple of more fireballs from the side, and when they did as much damage as the previous ones, backed off. Its fur bristled as it got closer and closer to Murai, almost as if to hide behind him.

Murai just curled on himself and closed his eyes.

It was good that their help was not needed anymore. Shin did his best to wipe the slime off his skin and just watched Tetsu work.

The brutality of her blows was extremely satisfying. In a few more minutes, like Shin predicted, the slime stopped trying to attack and flowed back.

Tetsu bashed it anyway. This time, her pipe only splattered some slime on the floor and broke a ceramic tile with a deafening crash. The sound must've carried through half the school.

"Enough, Tetsu!" Shin called out. "We won! The danger is over for the next few hours, at least. No need to alarm everyone in the building."

Tetsu paused in her actions, but her mouth was still downturned angrily.

"Boss, I can't just let a thing that wounded us go…" she trailed off as the rest of the slime escaped down drains it originally came from. "That wretched thing."

She lowered her pipe and turned to Murai and his demon. "Those wretched things. So useless! You just stood there while my partner was wounded!" Tetsu pointed the pipe at them accusingly. "I will make you pay for this. Your flesh, blood and souls will be our compensation."

"W-what the hell you are talking about, d-deranged creature?!" Murai shouted, backing away from her. His demon, still hiding behind his back, hissed with similar sentiment. "K-Kugutsu-san, control it!"

Shin took a deep breath, inhaled the remaining stench of the slime monster—a mix of piss, shit and something much worse—and almost choked. He tried again, but this time through his mouth.

He clenched the knife tighter in his hand. Murai was close. Both he and his demon were too focused on the obvious danger—Tetsu—to pay attention to Shin…

Ready or not, he won't get a better opportunity.

Shin turned and drove his knife into Murai's torso.

The man in a boy's body screamed in tandem with his demon, turning to Shin with a look of confusion and hurt in his eyes.

It shook Shin's core—it really did. If there was more left from Shin's shriveled, scarred heart, he could've teared up.

Instead, he reflexively showed this feeling deep inside his soul, where it could be buried together with the rest of them. Then, Shin felt only empty.

The next instant, Tetsu was there. She dropped her pipe to grab both Murai and his demon by the throats with her claws.

"Ahhhhh," she sighed almost dreamily. There wasn't a sign of her previous anger anymore. "My friend, you are so good to me. A sloppy blow, but without a hint of hesitation in the strike. The worm will bleed out in a minute, thanks to it alone."

Shin pressed his lips together. "Just eat them before Murai dies. His demon is incapacitated by now, but if Murai dies before he's captured, he might try to escape, too."

"Of course! Don't worry, partner." Tetsu grinned at Shin. "This is a terrible place for a prolonged meal, anyway… The stench! I wish we could carry them somewhere cleaner."

Shin shook his head. "Not through school."

"Yes… But don't be sad. Slow or fast, you will be eaten anyway. Your pathetic little souls will become a part of something greater," Tetsu cooed at her victims. "Isn't this what humans pursue all the time themselves?"

Her victims didn't reply, mostly because they couldn't breathe. Still, Tetsu laughed and tore into their flesh.

Piece by piece, their entire essence became hers.

Shin watched. Blood gave a special shine to Tetsu's lips, which he refused to think about. She moaned with relish at the taste of Murai's heart and tongue, and Shin felt her enjoyment almost like his own.

Maybe if their souls were just a bit closer, if they spent more time joined by a Contract, Shin would be able to see others the same way Tetsu did.

See them as food.

This time, she ate much faster, as promised. In fifteen minutes, the most important parts of the corpses were gone. The leftover bits stayed on the floor, arranged into neatly sorted piles (for reason Shin couldn't understand), and Shin was sure that the toilet slime would clean the mess after they left.

And Tetsu felt stronger again. The evidence of her health was on Shin himself—his first-degree-burns had healed while she ate.

When Tetsu returned inside Shin's body, the only traces of his fight were a few splatters of blood on his uniform and the smell on him.

Standing in a hallway, Shin sniffed himself and cringed.

'Ugh. Maybe there's a shower I can use in the gym.'