It was a certain dash of luck for Kali and Anito to encounter a familiar face in the nick of time, and to think that it was someone whose capabilities far exceeded that of her age, you might just say it now: The monster was kicked out of the restaurant.

Funnily enough, the process of removing fangs is oftentimes tedious and painful. The tiktik was vigorously and freakishly trying to pull one out, but the only thing that pulled through was a massive punch to the gut, and it wasn’t coming from the tiktik’s hands.

“Woah. I felt the air from that punch…” Anito enviously complimented. An unimpressed Kali trekked the path surrounding the chaos to stand beside Anito.

“That’s my cousin Ryu for you.” Kali interrupted, casually watching her punches. The tiktik can’t do much, but she was having so much fun defacing the poor thing to the point where his monstrosity is even more of a monstrosity. I find it too gruesome to describe, it’s a PG-rated story, after all.

“Ryu? Oh, so she’s the punchy girl you told me about!” Anito joyfully realizes. Unbeknownst to him, he’s gradually becoming a fan of hers. “I bet she watches Handy Manny…”

And sure enough, the allegations arrived.

“Wrong Manny, idiot!” Ryu corrected. Somehow, she never stopped punching the tiktik and kept going. It won’t be too long before someone compares her punching addiction to cocaine.

“Woah, she’s decimating him.” Anito innocently described the tiktik’s situation.

“Okay, okay, I think he got the point now, Ryu…” Kali had to barge in a little bit to check on her. Hoping it was just her period acting up, he carefully pulled him out of her imaginary boxing ring, though it felt accurate to say it was like a fraternity’s headquarters more than anything.

“You can stop now; he won’t eat us anymore.” Kali consoled.

“The only thing he’s eating is my fists!” Ryu exclaimed, angrily sucker-punching the air.

“I… don’t think he can do that~” Anito pointed out.

“It’s a metaphor, Anito.” Kali interrupted, holding her tight as he inspected her. “Now, where’s the self-destruct button on this thing…”

“You~ you’re gonna blow her up!?” Anito shrieked with his mouth wide open.

“It’s a metaphor, Anito.” Kali interrupted, still holding her tight as he inspected her.

Ryu reacted to Kali’s repeated response. “Wait, blow up? What is there to metaphorically blow up, exactly?”

There was a little exchange of conversation between their kinship, all the while a weakened tiktik crawled to Anito as his flesh broke loose.

“Hey, you. You’re one of us… Why don’t you give me a hand here?” The tiktik asked condescendingly. His request was received, but Anito’s mercy was absent.

“No.”

“Oh, you got to be kidding me.” The monster was stunned, to say the least, but his body wouldn’t get him anywhere anymore because of the fight.

It took a good few minutes for Ryu to find a tricycle driver who was willing to shove three children and a half-dead monster into their sidecar, let alone find a tricycle driver who was still driving around on a muted night such as this one. The destination wasn’t far, in fact, they only went through a few roads before they arrived at a pointy, red barangay hall. It wasn’t hiding the fact that the governor sponsored the construction; Look to the left and there’s a tarp about that with his insincere face; just the thought of him makes you want to demolish the entire place.

Having just arrived, Ryu kicked the main door open. Kali and Anito held the tiktik’s arms tight to restrict his escape.

“Hey, Aling Myrna! We got him.” Ryu nodded towards the tiktik.

Three peacekeepers inside the building quickly responded to Kali and Anito’s struggles.

“Is that… Dalisay?” One of the peacekeepers asked in shock. His intonations suggested that the captive was a celebrity in the barrio. “He’s the one who killed my mother…”

Or perhaps because he’s the barrio’s most wanted.

To avoid a somber mood from flourishing, Ryu flicked the switch on the conversation.

“The curation facility’s full; the higher-ups told us yesterday to use the barrio’s jail for now.” She said, cracking her knuckles. “Anyway, where’s that stupid secretary?”

“Buying contraceptives.” The same peacekeeper answered much to Ryu’s amusement.

“She’s smart enough to do that?” She lifted her eyebrows, bewildered.

“Surprising, isn’t it? Anyway, follow me. The logbook’s in her office.”

From behind, the rest of the peacekeepers struggled to bring Dalisay to the cell. Anito, acting like a coach, attempted to provide therapeutic advice.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“C~ C'mon mister! Just oblige and you'll be fine!” He said with hands triangulated.

Dalisay agonizingly failed to relegate his rage. “FINE? I turn insane every single night and now that I'm in the hands of… these rascals. WHY WOULD YOU EXPECT ME TO BE IN A GOOD PLACE!?”

He took a deep breath to appear presentable. “Look. I don’t have much time.”

Dalisay’s hand reached for Anito’s ears, but the child replied with a step back.

“Trust me, from one ghoul to another,” Dalisay added with what remained of his sincerity. Anito’s eyes were everywhere as he figured out what to do. He eventually settled by lending the tiktik his sensitive ears.

“I know these people. Once they find out who you are, they’re going for you next. They’re going to go after you if you don't take caution.” Dalisay whispered.

Anito was quick to think something was off. He thought it was a rarity to see silence go against his will.

“If you're not careful, they’ll catch you. They are going to make you suffer. You will end up in the arms of the psychopaths, and they'll make a monster out of~”

Dalisay still had a hundred more words to say, but he was quick to lose his only audience. Anito left his theater rather quickly.

“Anito, wait!” Kali took a glance at Dalisay before heading out.

Anito was sitting on the stairs, petrified, and his legs were shaking uncontrollably. He had lost all manpower to think decisively as his void threw out thousands upon thousands of happy endings.

“Hey, I’m here. Do you wanna talk about it?” Kali carefully asked him.

“You’re… not gonna ask me if I’m… okay?” Anito looked at Kali, his tears failing to fall.

“You obviously aren’t.” He worryingly answered. “If you want to talk about it, just tell me.”

Anito took a little time for himself, gathering what he had spilled. After a little while, he cuddled Kali’s legs. “He just told me what would happen if—”

“So that’s what it was…” Kali realized. “You know, my therapist told me that words undermine reality. If you personally become a part of it, it's gonna be a completely different experience…”

Kali looked up; his eyes focused on the night sky. “What if he was just… telling you his life story?”

Anito never thought about it that way. He pictured what Dalisay told him once more, now from the eyes of the author.

“Then he must’ve gone through so much…” Anito concluded. “Do you think I’ll go through so much, too?”

“You will,” Kali answered, patting his head. Despite his answer, Anito still found in him a sense of reassurance. “But whatever it is, we’ll go through it together. Besides, I don’t wanna see my favorite ghoul sad.”

Anito wiped the tears from his eyes as he slightly chuckled. “Shh, keep your voice down, someone might hear us!”

Unexpectedly, Ryu took a turn for the outdoors. She thought she noticed something erroneous— That of which was Anito’s words.

“Might hear what?” She curiously asked the two boys, simultaneously sliding down the railing.

“Might hear us talking smack about you,” Kali replied with confidence.

“Too bad. Doesn’t work.” She responded, tossing a plastic bag to Kali. “I took a peek at the bag you forgot. You have liver spread; No wonder why Dalisay was gunning for you.” Ryu added, having taken out the can of liver spread from the bag. Anito was drooling profusely, but he was quick to wipe his spit off.

“Anyway… You caused me so much trouble yesterday. The bus liner just said you disappeared and promised to come back with 389 nits—why are you begging for 389 nits, anyway?” Ryu bulldozed out of her mouth.

Anito batted into her inquiry. “Our pocket money got stolen… and now we’re in debt to the bus liner…”

“That’s it? Kali, you should’ve just told Uncle, he can pay you that amount!”

Kali was quick to rebut. “I don’t want to add extra burden to Uncle. He’s already done enough to give us a place to stay…”

“Kuz, he won’t mind extra burden. You’re burden enough that your extra burden isn’t even one percent of that.”

Anito felt bewildering pain for Kali because of that statement. Ryu was quick to notice Anito’s change of face.

“What? That’s a compliment. If he’s ‘burden’, I’m ‘affliction’. YOU DON’T WANT TO MESS WITH ME.”

“Do... girls her age act like that?” Anito shiveringly asked Kali. He responded with quite a straightforward answer.

“They do until they’re 45.”

It was unanimous for them to think that enough chatter was raised, so Ryu took the lead and guided them back home. Their house was nothing endearing to Ryu, but Kali, who had never been there for a long time, reminisced about its prime. What his eyes had seen before him wasn’t its already cracked concrete foundation, the rusty aluminum rooftop, or the house’s poorly aged walls made from Corteza de Majarlika. In pursuit of denial, he saw the beauty of his past.

“It’s just like how I remembered it…” Kali exclaimed.

Ryu didn’t mind his chatter. She kicks the door open, greeted by the voices of their old television. The evening news had just finished airing.

“You two, what do you guys want for dinner?” Ryu inquired, opening their aging fridge.

“Eggs,” Kali responded. Anito was also rather quick to put out his request.

“Oh, can I have my liver spread~”

“Eggs,” Kali responded—again, this time, looking at Anito. He was swift to realize his blunder, so he quickly changed his answer to eggs.

“Okay. Also, the bathroom’s outside. Take a bath, you both stink!” Ryu responded. Of course, their day scent was off the roof, and the sweat they carried when they ran had already dried up. Now that that party was over, Ryu was quick to notice the nitpicks.

“I’ll go first!” Kali made a reservation. He left the house from behind to a shed to where the bathroom was. In the meantime, Ryu had made her preparations; four eggs in a bowl, some salt, and a cup of minced death that Anito was struggling to comprehend what. His nose picked up an abhorrent, hyperallergic stench. Anito was on the brink of puking when he asked Ryu about it.

“Miss Girl, what’s that yellow thing?”

“Minced garlic, to scare the ghouls away.” She answered. “Specifically, half a cup of it.”

“You’re gonna… sprinkle just a tiny bit of that…?” Anito poignantly pointed out. His common sense, however, was thrown out of the window as Ryu looked at him in confusion; Into the bowl of eggs goes all the garlic. Anito was just disgustedly standing there, but Kali unintentionally killed the dead air from outside.

“UH… KUZ, CAN I BORROW SOME OF YOUR CLOTHES?”

A few minutes passed by, and in pink pajamas, Kali was served scrambled eggs. Anito’s plate was filled with nothing but rice, so Kali queried him about it.

“You want eggs, Anito?”

“I don’t have the appetite… I’ll just take the rice and eat outside.”

Ryu was dumbfounded by his decision. “Eat outside? No one does that in the middle of the night, why would you?”

“I’m… not in the mood for arguments,” Anito replied, gunning for the bench on the porch. Kali took a bite out of the egg, and sure enough, it only took a millisecond for him to spit it out.

“Did you just put… minced garlic in scrambled eggs!?”

“It’s to repel ghouls, get used to it. Besides, it would be terrible if we got infiltrated.”

Kali failed to notice what she was implying with her chosen words. She had started cracking the code some time ago; her mind braised in only one thought.

“I can’t afford to lose another person next time. I just need a little hint from your eyes, and I’ll make sure to get rid of you.”