As the smoke cleared up and he was able to hear the coughing again, Fudo's eyes teared up. He expected to see Aiko, either lying on the ground without moving or in separate parts, as the beast that was holding him told him. To his surprise, it was neither of these. Even the beast looked in shock at what he saw.

"Who... Who are you supposed to be, huh?! ANOTHER NOES TRYING TO PLAY HERO?!"

"TRYING TO?!"

Fudo glanced over his shoulder with wide eyes and looking straight at the beast that wasn't concentrating on him anymore. He could feel how he was about to go for the attack, so as the beast let go of his arm and leg, Fudo immediately spun around and punched him against the forehead. Keeping an eye on the beast that tumbled back once again, Fudo began to slowly move backwards, towards the origin of the coughing.

"Fudo... I... did it. I kept...her safe."

As he was next to him, Fudo got on his knees. With a bright smile and small drops of tears in his eyes, he looked at Isamu. Isamu sat on the ground, his body bent forward, and his arms seemed to be wrapped around something. His entire upper body was exposed, and his back was nearly completely burned. He appeared to still be paralyzed by the fire bullet that was shot at Aiko before. Although he shouldn't be able to move, he slowly opened his arms.

He looked down at the girl he kept his arms around. Tears were flowing from his dead and empty eyes. Yet he still had a smile on his lips, as he knew that he successfully guarded Aiko against the fireball. The blue-haired girl looked up at Isamu's face, which was hanging only a few centimeters above hers, and then over to Fudo, who appeared to be calm and relieved. Yet the aura that he emitted felt pressuring and as if he was about to go on a rampage in seconds.

"He's... not dead. His eyes look empty, but... that's probably from the paralysis. His heart is still beating...the fire didn't get through his skin."

She was calm but still sweating a little as she leaned her ear against Isamu's chest. Looking over to Fudo, she clearly felt that he got calmer, this time for real.

Both of them now looked over to the beast that fired the shot. It didn't move anymore, it didn't even change its position. Slightly bent forward with its left hand covering one eye and the spot that Fudo punched before moving back. The one eye that wasn't covered constantly stared at them but seemed to focus on Aiko as soon as she entered its field of view again.

"He... stopped moving?"

"He? Whatever that thing is, that's not a human! That thing's skin crumbles off like nothing, it has some kind of... second skin underneath, and none of my attacks work! It... it doesn't seem to feel pain or even be damaged at all... we should just run. I can carry you and Isamu just fine!"

Before Fudo could stand up, Aiko grabbed his arm and held him down. Obviously distressed by both, Fudo trying to run and the beast reacting to Fudo's movement.

"I think that he wants us to move first... so keep down. I'm sorry, Fudo, but I have to kill him."

"You want to kill- WAIT, DID YOU START THIS FIGHT?!"

"N-no, I didn't! That man there also is no beast... not technically, at least. He's the same as the ghost that always follows me around. I saw him staring at it! He's able to see them too! I thought he was like me, but then he suddenly attacked me and talked about wanting to kill me and the ghost. He summoned that weird flame out of his hand, and then I knew that he wasn't like me, but rather like the ghost!"

"Aiko, I... I'll believe your ghost stories. I've seen enough to convince myself they exist... for now, but doesn't that mean... that man's already dead? How and most importantly, why do you want to kill him?"

"The man is dead... the ghost isn't. I think that man is just a puppet for the ghost! I mean, he isn't moving right now, right? Probably because the ghost doesn't know what to do now and waits for us to move first, as I said."

Aiko slowly moved out of Isamu's arms while she was still observing the man. The man didn't seem to be listening to any of what they were saying. He only kept staring at the space above her.

"And do you see how he's staring at me?"

"He's not even looking at you... he's looking over you, I think."

"That's where my ghost is, and he's staring directly at it. That's also what he wanted to kill before... you know, as he held the flame above my head and not against it. He'll follow us if we flee, and then the entire orphanage is in danger."

"If we run fast enough? Do you think he can follow us?"

Fudo looked down at Aiko while drops of sweat slightly ran down his face. Aiko didn't know what to do either all she knew was that they had to take down the ghost, man, or whatever it was that stood in front of them.

"He's fast enough to appear as if he's teleporting short distances. It would be a miracle if we'd even get out of the alley. He tried to kill my ghost, so he has to be killable too!"

"How do you know they are the same? Your ghost isn't visible to me, but he is. Even Isamu saw him but didn't see your ghost. What if yours is just...weak, and that's why it's invisible and killable."

"I mean, it never did anything besides following me around. I don't know why exactly he wants to kill it that badly... probably instinct? Maybe the man was really cautious before the ghost took over his body, so now the ghost follows the man and isn't taking any risks either."

Fudo slowly took off his jacket without moving more than necessary, as he saw the ghost as some kind of movement-activated bomb. He stood up while still watching the man and put his jacket over Isamu's shoulders.

"Honestly, I sometimes forget you're just eleven, Aishi. You get Isamu out of the way and watch from a safe distance. I'll do trial and error while you try figuring something out. It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but next to you, I'm just the brawn."

"This is kind of a bad situation for compliments... thank you, I guess? It also wasn't that smart of a statement... but having you go first is a good idea...just tell me quickly, what did you find out about him?"

"He's indestructible. He feels pain and the impact works on his body too, but that grey skin seems to not let anything damage him. When I hit him, it seemed as if I broke his arm, he even dropped me, but just a second after that, he blocked my kick with the same arm."

Suddenly, after Fudo finished his explanation, the previously motionless man started to laugh out loud.

"Of course! There's no Esper that could ever match my fighting strength! I'm the strongest fighter there is!"

"He...only answered after we talked about him... and he let us have our ridiculously long dialogue... what is this, a bad action novel? I thought he'd jump in at least once, goddammit."

"Are you... sad that he didn't attack us, Fufu?"

Fudo looked down at Aiko with a disappointed face and slightly shook his head.

"Kind of disappointed... but not sad. Let's just do this... you're awake now, right? If you listened in to us, then you'll know-"

"I'll die, yes, I listened to you."

Once again, the man quickly stood close enough to Fudo that their noses touched each other.

"But I just got this body, and I'm not ready to give it up yet."

Nearly in the same second and without warning, the man's hand flew forward. Fudo knew he couldn't dodge, so he at least tried to block the punch but was hit before he could act. Sent flying back at high speed, Fudo only stopped as he hit the dumpster at the other end of the alley.

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"Yeah... definitely a beast. I don't know when I last felt this much pain."

Fudo stood up after making a dent in the dumpster. He held his back and chest while his legs were shaking, but he had a wide smirk on his face. He saw that the man, this time, was completely focused on him and not even looking at Aiko anymore.

"That's what happens when someone like you tries to fight someone like me! I have to say, though, you and your other little Noes friend can really take a punch... just sad that this one is almost dead."

The man answered with a big grin before he kicked Isamu and also sent him flying, this time towards the exit of the alley. Still airborne and on his way to exit the alley, he hit something like an invisible wall, as it looked like he bounced off the air.

"...what?"

Aiko looked after Isamu with a worried and confused face as he bounced off the air. She was a little hesitant but started running towards the exit too, in order to catch him before he hit the ground, but was grabbed by the man behind her before she could run.

"Are you surprised, Trigram? This is the same room that you killed me in 3000 years ago, and now this is my revenge! Welcome again, in my lion's cave!"

"I...am eleven? I'm sorry, I think you mistook me-."

"Eh? I'm not talking to you, you brat. Keep your mouth shut if you don't want me to blast your head off. I just want him."

While still holding Aiko, the man reached for something above her head. For both, Fudo, who still leaned against the dumpster while holding his chest, and Isamu, who woke up from his paralysis after he was kicked against the invisible wall, it looked like he was holding nothing but air. Yet, Aiko clearly saw what he grabbed. Aiko saw how he grabbed a red orb that was about as big as an apple.

"And you're not even awake to realize your death. A tragedy, isn't it?"

The hand in which he held the orb started to burn again., but not long enough to actually do any damage to the orb. Before the fire in his hand could really grow, Fudo jumped over to them and hit an empty glass bottle onto the hand that held the orb.

The man quickly took back the hand as the bottle shattered on it, and before he could jump back, Fudo rammed the sharp remainder of the bottle into the man's cheek with the hope of being able to stab him. The bottle shattered once again, but once again, it didn't leave any wounds.

"No way... stabbing is... even more useless?!"

"His skin is immune to stabbing... so only blunt attacks work....wait, where did you even get that bottle?!"

"From that dumpster, it was next to that broken table leg there."

"Table...! That's perfect!"

After hearing that, Aiko immediately ran towards the dumpster that Fudo was thrown against earlier. The man didn't wait and wanted to run after her, but he was stopped as Fudo kicked him in the face.

"Whatever she wants, I won't let you stop her!"

"Do you think I care if you will let me or not? I'll just blast her away again! Your friend is still down as well. This time no one will save her!"

The man raised his arm again as he did earlier. Once again, a flame grew in his hand, but before he could shoot it, Isamu grabbed onto his arm and pulled it down.

"I'm awake, though!"

"How can you move already?! Your survival was a surprise in the first place! You should be down for at least a day!"

"I'm asking myself why, to be honest. Nothing hurts, and I think I'm not even scared of you anymore."

Isamu said with a slight smirk. The man didn't seem to find it as funny as Isamu did, though. His eyes widened in anger, and he clenched his teeth together as he tried lifting his arm. As the man tried to punch Isamu off, the other free arm was grabbed by Fudo.

"You damn Noes dare to touch me like this?! I wanted to show mercy and let you live, but now I'll just take you all down!"

The man yelled out loud while throwing both of them off him. As they let go of his arms, he prepared to shoot a fire bullet at both of them. Yet, before he was able to shoot them, Aiko run up to him from behind and struck the back of his head with the table's leg, which immediately shattered on impact.

"Aiko, your eyes... they glow!"

"I could literally care less about my eyes at the moment!"

Her eyes were glowing bright red as the man started to tumble again. Without hesitating, she pulled the man's belt out of his pants and wrapped it around his neck.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"I don't know if you listened to us before, but I'll kill him! And if we can't get through his skin, then I'll choke him to death!"

Aiko put her foot on the man's back while she started to pull on the belt's ends. What seemed to be working at first started to look less efficient as the man began to resist, and actually still fought back.

He tried to stand up and slowly raised his hand, which still had a flame in it, to burn the belt around his neck, but as Aiko saw it, she tried to pull even harder. The higher the man's hand got, the stronger she tried to pull, until her eyes began to change color.

The bright red shine became a light blue that matched the color of Aiko's hair. Not only the color of her eyes changed, but her expression did as well. Before, she looked distressed and even more scared, but now, she looked focused. Her scared and distressed face became a focused and determined face.

"I'm sorry for whatever you wanted to take revenge for, but I didn't do anything! This is just to protect myself!"

As the man's hand was raised high enough to be on the same height as his chest, Aiko let loose of the belt and instead pulled the hand with the flame in it towards his chest. This time, the flame started to burn through the man's clothes and skin alike.

It didn't take long before the man stopped struggling, as he slowly started to burn up from the inside. His own flame, which Aiko pulled through his chest, set his body on fire from the inside. Only a few seconds later, the man started to slowly dissolve into the air. The flame disappeared already, and all kinds of life also left from the man's body, as more and more holes opened up, and made the man slowly disappear himself.

"Fudo... your little sister... has an active body count now."

"Didn't we all kill him...kinda?"

Both of the boys slowly dropped to the ground as they thought they heard a shattering sound. Aiko still looked at the man's body, which didn't take long to fully disappear. Afterward,s she walked over to the boys and let herself drop face-first onto Fudo without saying a word.

"Yeah yeah, you should calm down now first, Aishi. Isamu, I know this might be a weird time, but the little girl that's burying her face in my belly at the moment is Aiko Shina, that's why I call her Aishi, as a nickname, and Aishi, the boy over there is Isamu Chiba, I didn't hear you thank him for saving your life before."

Aiko slowly raised her hand but let it drop immediately after. Isamu just smiled, a little confused.

"Look, look! I knew it was a spatial barrier! Suddenly the whole alley is different! Someone was keeping this alley hostage!"

"Miyo, please just shut up... I don't need you to tell me whenever you guess something right. You're literally the goddess of knowledge. I know you're not even guessing any...more?"

As the three were sitting down, they heard two female voices coming closer, and it wasn't long until two women were standing right in front of them.