Isamu quickly pulled Fudo back behind the corner as he saw what was going on in front of them. Fudo, who was about to step in as soon as he saw the man in the suit, looked at Isamu with a face that literally screamed out impatience.

"What are you doing!? I have to step in!"

"Are you stupid?! keep your voice down, or he'll hear us! Didn't you see his hand? That man was carrying a literal fireball in his hand!"

"And? I know this trick too! I'll just have him throw the ball at me and dodge. I'll have him knocked out before he can light a new match, or whatever he used to make this ball."

"You're literally saying you want someone to throw fire at you. Didn't you say that she's able to see ghosts? Maybe this has something to do with that!"

Fudo started to grab Isamu by the collar and pushed him against the wall while coming near to his face. He was sweating a little, and his right leg was shaking impatiently. Yet his face was just impatient as he didn't seem to have any anger directed towards him.

"See, it's ok if you believe in this stuff too... but right there, someone with a burning hand is threatening a person that's like a little sister to me. I will definitely not sit still just because there might be the ghost of a pyromaniac in that guy."

"...Ok, if she is really that important to you then... then I'll help you at least. If you can't stop 'em, join 'em...or something like that. What did you plan to do?"

"Thank you, Isa! I didn't plan shit, by the way... I'll run in and beat that guy up, and when he's distracted, you'll take Aishi and run away. I'll follow you as soon as I'm free!"

"W-wait, you just want to jump in without a-"

Not letting Isamu finish his sentence, Fudo ran straight for the man in the suit. The man changed his way of holding the little girl. Instead of holding her up on her clothing, he was pressing her against the wall by her neck. The flame in his hand grew bigger since they saw it the first time and wasn't directed at Aishi anymore. He held the flame a little above her head and slowly moved it closer to the wall. Both of them were silent, the man in the suit because he appeared to be concentrating on something, and Aishi didn't seem to be able to make any sounds. She tried to struggle and break free by shaking her head and pulling on the hand that was on her neck, but the man didn't pay attention to her in any way. None of it was working and he only stared at the wall above the girl's head.

"HEY BUNSEN BURNER, LOOK OUT!"

The man didn't seem to be surprised about the boy's sudden call, or rather, he looked like he didn't care about the boy at all. He only glanced over to the side, from where the call came from, just to see a foot that was flying towards his face at high speed. As he widened his eyes in surprise, he also tried to dodge but was hit on the forehead faster than he could react.

"Fufu! I... I didn't know you were around here..."

"You can tell me the story why you're so far in all alone later, but for now, run! Further out of the alley around that corner is a friend of mine. He'll take care of you until I finish this guy."

"Fufu, you can't do anything against him! He's the same as the ghosts-"

"I SAID RUN!"

Aishi flinched with a face that looked way more scared of Fudo than of the man in the suit. She looked around between the man that was still tumbling and holding his forehead and the exit of the alley, where she was supposed to go. She hesitated but ran towards the exit after a few seconds of thinking.

"You... you don't smell like esper... are you... are you a Noes?! A Noes... a dirty Noes dares to touch... and even injure me?! Who do you think you are?!"

The man suddenly stood right in front of Fudo, he still held his forehead with one hand, but with the other hand, he grabbed his jaw and started to squeeze it.

"Your skin is... hard...maybe you aren't a Noes... I should probably kill you too... after I killed the little Trigram!"

With just one hand, the man lifted Fudo up by his jaw and held him away from himself. Lifting the other hand from his forehead, he revealed a big grey spot below his skin, which seemed to crumble off the area that Fudo kicked against. The same hand began to burn again, just that this time the fireball was smaller, as it didn't cover the man's whole hand as the last one did.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Wait, what are you doing?!"

The same second that the fireball was at its full size, which was about half the man's palm, it shot after the little girl that was fleeing the scene. A thick smoke cloud appeared following the sound of an explosion and a scream of pain as the fireball hit its target.

"AIKO!"

With a scream as loud as that even the man flinched, Fudo punched the elbow of the arm the man was holding him up with, with his own elbow from above, and kicked the man's upper arm with his knee from below. The man didn't scream or do anything else to show that he was in pain. Still, he did drop Fudo and even dropped on his knees himself while holding his apparently broken arm. While the man dropped, Fudo landed on his feet and immediately spun around with his leg stretched out, slamming his heel into the man's jaw. Not a second after he set both feet back on the ground, he started running towards the smoke.

"AIKO! AIKO, ANSWER ME! ARE YOU OK?!"

Before he could get anywhere near the slowly fading smoke, the man grabbed Fudo by his arm. As he tried to kick him as a reflex, his foot was blocked by the other arm, which was supposed to be broken.

"It was a weak fire bullet~. It's there to wound and paralyze its targets so they'll die a slow but painless death! Your little Aishi or Aiko or whatever will maybe still be alive... but are you ok... with her just being a severed head~? She was so young, so she may lose a few of her body parts...Are you ok to just have a head.? She can be a little trophy for you! You can also have the other remains... Well, that is if there are any~!"

The boy didn't know what to say anymore. He stood on one leg while his other leg was being held by the man that looked at him with bright red, almost burning eyes. Across his face, from the left side of his forehead down to the right side of his jaw, there was a grey line.

"W...what...are you?"

Fudo looked at the man in disbelieve, as the skin around the line was crumbling off like the crumbs of bread, revealing the grey color beneath it. It almost looked like a second layer of skin, thicker and grey-colored skin. The man's teeth in the area of the line also changed, making them appear way sharper than usual human teeth, yet all the teeth outside the line were still normal human teeth. It was as if the human appearance was just a disguise, and the real person was underneath the human skin.

"Get off me, whatever you are!"

He tried to move, yet his right arm and his left leg were held by the man. His face changed emotions way faster than in any other situation. He didn't know if he should be scared of the being that was disguising itself as a human or if he should worry about Aiko, who still was in the smoke. If she really was paralyzed by the fireball, then she should've been breathing in nothing but smoke for the last thirty seconds... if she even was still breathing.

The beast that was holding him wasn't doing anything, it was as if he was waiting for either a response from Fudo, or the smoke to clear up. To both their surprise, the first thing they heard wasn't coming from one of them, but it was coughing coming from inside the smoke. It didn't sound like it was Aiko, it wasn't as high as her voice, and it wasn't even a female voice to begin with.

Both of their looks were directed towards the smoke and both of them were looks of shock. But as the beast looked at the smoke with veins in his eyes and clenched teeth, Fudo looked at it with a face of newfound hope. He didn't smile brightly, but neither was his face as warped in anger as that of the beast.

"AIKO! AIKO ARE YOU OKAY?!"

Clenching to his hope that it wasn't just a random person that noticed the smoke, Fudo yelled out for his friend, but yet again, he didn't receive any answer. As the smoke, after a minute, finally cleared up enough for things to become visible again, both of their eyes widened, and Fudo nearly began to cry out of relief.