Kira

~

Even as the wind blew chilling gusts of cold air past my face, my eyes never left the spot Akio had disappeared through, and my fist clutched at either of my sides. The scroll he'd given in one hand, and the dagger I'd ended Ahlai's life with in the other.

It was a scary thing, this feeling that suddenly held my whole being at his appearance. His warning had yet to leave my hand as well.

'You have till Summer's end.'

In other words, we'd just won a very small battle here, but the war was still far into the future.

'Unless we stop him now,' Lucifer said in my mind.

I nodded.

A rustle of leaves behind me caught my attention, I turned around, ready to attack when instead a slightly smaller body collided with my pain wracked one.

Especially where Ahlai had stabbed my abdomen earlier.

I screamed in pain just as Kuro let out an excited squeal, the force of his hug taking us to the ground.

"You were amazing, Kira!"

"Says the child who took on a yokai army on his own," I teased, I'd expected him to call for my help at some point but I might have greatly underestimated him.

"Troy's blast got rid of all the tough ones, the others were barely an issue," he pouted, still yet to get off me. Everything hurt.

Troy, probably seeing my distress, or having seen enough he was satisfied, walked over and pulled Kuro off by the scruff of his shirt.

"Aw!"

"Shut it, brat, learn to keep your hands to yourself," the blond scolded, shaking him lightly.

I got to my feet, my mood lifting at their appearances. A few scratches here and there but they were more or less okay. I couldn't be more thankful, "Beelzebub?"

"Gone," Kuro responded with a thumbs up.

"Same on my end. We did well here tonight," I couldn't help but say despite the turmoil in my veins. I shouldn't be feeling sorry for Demons, especially the ones that chose to side with Nightmare. They were monsters before their deaths and continued to be after.

'Demons never truly die, Keeper. It may take centuries, but let's meet again...'

But being cursed to reincarnate and live the same torturous existence once over was something I couldn't exactly get behind. I looked down at Hikari's bead bracelet on my wrist, I wondered if she was resting in peace right now.

"Ah, that's right!" Kuro exclaimed earning our attention, he faced me fully, "The dagger that Ahlai used to call the demons-"

"Gone, some Venus flytrap plant sprouted out of the ground and...ate it before sinking back down," my answer was met with confused expressions, Troy's being only slightly less obvious.

"That doesn't sound good," he said.

"It gets worse. Akio's still alive, he showed up to give me this," I held out the scroll and Kuro took it. Starting to unfurl it to study its contents despite the irate expression on his face.

"I should have known, Lady West trained all of us in magic separately, forbidding us to use our powers when we got them until it was the final exam," his eyes went down to the scroll, "Akio used his poison tricks and the shield in his fight but I didn't witness his dark magic ability."

"Rising from the dead should be impossible," Troy cut in.

"There must be some sort of condition," Kuro pointed out.

"He said we have until Summer's end," I said.

"That's what it says here, as well. Most of it is diagrams of some weird disc, he says it's a calendar. There are some calculations here and there and an address to where he says is Nightmare's hideout," Kuro explained.

My eyes widened at that, "We could stage an ambush and..." I trailed off, realizing how dumb I sounded, despite all our training, we'd had difficulty taking out two of who knows how many demons. Not to mention Nightmare was a force on a whole different level. I'd learned a new part of my powers today but would that be enough to stop him?

"Kira," Kuro called softly.

"We can't take him on head-on," I said suddenly, their silence told me they'd been thinking along the same lines I'd been, "Not now at least but in the future, we'll attack before summer's end after we get stronger. We've defeated two of an unknown number of demons. It looks daunting but I know we can face this head-on when the time comes."

Troy sighed, "Vermillion-"

"No! I want you to believe the way I do, that we have a chance, if we give up before we get there, then we're sure to lose, I fixed my determined gaze on both of them, "The future may look uncertain but that doesn't mean it's decided, not until we give it our all. Now, who's with me?!" I pushed out my fist. God, I hope I didn't sound stupid.

Kuro grinned, bumping his without hesitance, "Once I put the pieces together and we know his plan, we'll make sure to end it all. Let's do this!"

I matched his grin, turning to Troy, "Well?"

He closed the distance, gingerly putting his fist to ours with an exasperated look, "You're both insufferable, but we're the last hope this city has."

I turned away from them in the direction of the clearing where we'd met Yamagata-san, "We got revenge for you, Yamagata-san," I whispered under my breath, my shoulders straightening a bit under the invisible weight of the expectations on my shoulders; expectations from others and my self all the same, they'd become a little lighter.

"Don't tell me you still feel bad about that, he tried to kill us for a secret, remember?" Troy said coming to stand at my side.

"I do, but also remember he fought alongside us and helped us escape, I owe him this much."

Kuro nodded, amused, "Come back soon old fox."

Another breeze swept the clearing and the clouds roared loudly. A cold wet drop splashed unto my nose, signaling it was about time we got going.

"What are you going to do about that?" Kuro pointed to the golden dagger in my grasp, quizzical.

I turned it over a bit, I could still feel dregs of Ahlai's powers sloshing around within me.

"Mammon, is there a time limit?" I asked.

'Yeah.'

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"What is it?"

'Don't know, I just got so powerful, it kept growing until I wasn't sure anymore cause I'd throw away powers for others,' he responded with an amused cackle, 'Good times.'

A vein in my brow twitched, "Rub it in a bit more why don't you?" I spat icily.

'Do you really want him to?' Lucifer snickered.

"What did the demons say?" Troy asked.

"There's a time limit and it's slowly creeping on me but I don't think the dagger will vanish," I replied, "We can keep it a trophy you know, our first triumph in our struggles against the forces of Nightmare."

"Sounds sick and twisted. I love it!" Kuro beamed as we took to the skies. The light blue of the rising sun had barely started to peek through once we were back in the city, its golden rays bouncing off the reflective glass and steel of skyscrapers and drizzle-soaked leaves of decorative plants as the vibrant city came to life.

The sight was enough to wash the weariness of lack of sleep from my bones and replace it with a warm airy emotion in my chest, assuring me that today was going to be a good day.

***

Words just couldn't be used to describe the amount of dread flooding through my system as I stared down at my hands, slowly taking back my thoughts from this morning.

"What's wrong with Vermillion?" Troy's voice floated over to where I was crouched on the cold tiled floor. It was so bad I couldn't stand anymore.

I'd expected something of the sort, but never did I think it'd be as bad.

"She failed the test we had last week," Momo answered. Her voice was quiet, barely a whisper, as if she was trying to spare my feelings, "She kept falling asleep halfway through and Jade had trouble keeping her up without the teacher seeing."

"That's no reason to cause a scene by staying in such an undignified position." The blond hissed.

"Just let me drown in my misery," I whined, staring a the big red 'F' on my script. I honestly thought I'd get a few of the answers right. Haru would passively aggressively kill me if he saw this. I could almost imagine his patronizing tone in the upcoming study sessions.

I wasn't dumb by any means but terrible math skills, residual exhaustion from a long night of battling and trauma from watching a friend almost die was sure to mess up someone's game.

I felt a hand at my neck pulling me to my feet, "Get a grip Kira," Jade muttered as I got my balance.

"Impossible, if these test results get turned in, Ms. Tsukahara's going to stop me from playing Volleyball."

"It'll probably also affect your term average," Troy pointed out as if that mattered as much as my first point at the moment.

I waved him off, looking back to my script as I thought of what I could do to make you for it. I walked back to my desk, ignoring Ayaka's chuckling group that had been pointing our way the whole time.

The whole class had been pretty wary about me at the start, but Troy's arrival made it worse for a good amount of the female population. He stuck to me like glue. Maybe because it would make things easier to have each other's backs or partner up to avoid suddenly canceling on our normal classmates.

To others not in our friend group it would definitely seem suspicious but I knew he'd sooner jump down a well than date me.

I wouldn't mind dating anyone at all but when your days were filled with schoolwork, volleyball, and training to defend Tokyo from Yokai and summoner overlords, romance took a backseat pretty quickly.

My current concern was taken by what I could do about this grade to keep it from benching me. I didn't have the burning passion to 'Win Nationals' or 'become the best in the country' like most of the team. I didn't have something to prove or worth fighting for by playing like Sasaki. I just wanted to play because it made me feel normal, it was something I could easily improve at and was within my control most of the time, unlike other aspects of my life.

My relationship with the game at the start had never been healthy but I liked to think I'd improved. I still couldn't go without playing. I had to do something.

"Oi! Were you listening Kira?" Jade was snapping her fingers in front of my face. My attention snapped back to reality.

"Huh?"

"I was talking about how you could ask Miss Saito for a makeup test, she's nice and she'll probably agree if you seem desperate enough," Momo suggested.

I opened my mouth to argue but stopped, there was actually nothing wrong with that plan. I sprung up from my desk, giving her a hug before grabbing Troy's wrist and pulling him towards the class exist.

"Vermillion!" He scowled.

"If you put in some words for me she'll be sure to agree," I huffed as I continued to drag him through the halls to the teacher's office, "You'll use that pretty boy spell that makes everyone agree with you."

"I do nothing of the sort," he scowled deeper, struggling to pull away but I was using my powers.

We burst into the room and I took a second to find where our Math teacher was seated. I spotted Kaito with another teacher and waved, he waved back, although looking a bit confused.

I spotted Miss Saito and made a brisk walk to her desk, She was a smallish lady with ginger-colored hair and thick circular glasses resting on her nose. Her soft brown eyes watched our approach with curiosity.

I raised my script after a quick bow of greeting once we got to her table.

"I looked over your script twice Vermillion-chan, I'm very sure I didn't make a mistake while grading," she said simply, patronizing.

"I want to take a makeup test...please," I blurted.

"I guess I can technically, since you're the only one who failed, but then again... you're the only one in your grade who failed this badly." She stated, brows pulling together as if she was mulling it over.

"I was under a lot of stress that day, not feeling well, you know?" I nudged Troy, "Right?"

He gave me a disapproving look. Not helping.

"Just give me another chance," I pleaded.

"Setting up another test this close to when I'm meant to hand them over is pretty stressful work Vermillion-chan," she sighed, "You did okay I'm the last one-"

"That score was like, a 'C' at best, the middle ground between a 'C' and an 'F' is like a 'D', right? I can't have a 'D' Miss Saito, please," I said waving the stupid script.

'I don't think it works like that,' Troy said simply in my head. I ignored him.

The teacher sighed, seemingly exhausted. I was getting to her, just a little bit more.

"Another chance please, Miss Saito, Kira will do better. I'll see to her myself," a new voice joined us. I turned to see Kaito.

Guess I wouldn't be needing Troy's pretty boy powers after all.

Miss Saito studied us before giving a quick nod, "Hinode-kun is such a nice boy, looking out for everyone."

"It's the least I can do as their president," he smiled sweetly.

She turned to me, "Well have the test during the break period tomorrow, you have the whole of today to brush up, same topics we treated, okay?"

Relief and excitement flooded my veins as I thanked her and turned to leave the room. I'd forgotten about Kaito's presence until he softly tugged on my blazer to stop me from heading down the hallway.

I felt chills.

I turned around carefully, he was looking down at me with mild irritation.

"Mind explaining what I had to help you beg for back there?"

I chuckled nervously.

"Vermillion's always in trouble," Troy threw back as he headed to class, once again, not helping.

***

"So Hinode-senpai's going to bench you if you don't pass the makeup test as well?" Haru asked as he looked over the problems I'd worked on.

"Yup," I responded just as he raised it to show what I'd scored.

Three questions out of seven.

Was first-year math meant to be so complicated? I felt like we were going two years above our age grade.

"You're not that bad Kira, I kind of notice you make guesses when you think you've got the concept down. It affects your process along the way and ends up in wrong answers. Slow down a bit more"

"But if I slow down I start to think too much and freak out, my memory's not the best," I groaned, my head falling to the top of the library table, "If only I knew what the questions would be about."

'You could,' Lucifer drawled in my head.

"What?" I exclaimed raising my head quickly. Those words definitely caught my attention.

Haru jumped in his seat, "I didn't say anything."

"Sorry, my mistake," I gave a nervous smile, "I thought I heard something."

"It's okay, I'm picking out new questions," he beamed, "By the time we're done here, you'll be a genius... hopefully."

"Thanks, Haru," I said watching him turn his attention back to the textbook, 'Lucifer, explain.'

'I was saying there's a way to know your questions beforehand,' he replied.

'Is it done ancient dark magic technique that'll be surprisingly easy to learn?' I asked hopefully.

A breath of laughter seemed to escape him and Mammon was cackling.

'You wish,' the other demon said.

'I was saying you could come here at night and look at the questions she set up before tomorrow.'

'That'll be che-'

'It's not cheating if you just take a look at what you're in for,' Mammon cut me off, 'Think of it as scouting.'

They sort of had a point.

"It's still cheating," I deadpanned but I was honestly thinking about it. I needed this grade, and I needed it badly.

"Did you just say...cheating?"

My eyes widened as my focus turned back to Haru who was staring at me with incredulous grey eyes.

I panicked, letting out an anxious laugh, "Cheating? You must have heard wrong. I said 'sheathing' like swords, I zoned out and was thinking about... samurai swords? Yeah, that's it."

He looked doubtful.

I really had to stop blurting shit out loud.