Chapter 2

Keisuke groaned. The Oracle was dead! Just when she held all the answers to his questions, the demon snatched her life away from him. Keisuke gritted his teeth. There was no time for tears. There were demons infiltrating all corners of the village. How would they escape?

Natsumi put a hand on Keisuke’s shoulder. Her expression smoothed itself over into a more professional mask. She was a top shinigami after all, Keisuke supposed that she had to keep her head cool in desperate situations. “Toshirou will be in front of you, cutting a path through the wolves and demons. I will be behind you to attack any demons that attack from behind. But listen very carefully. You keep on running and follow Toshirou. Don’t look back.”

“What was that….that thing?” Keisuke said, visualizing the little Oracle getting her head bitten off by the monstrosity that reached in through the palatial shrine and started to transform before their very eyes. Black leather wings started to sprout from its back as the titan behemoth demon’s eyes glowed with an infernal rage that harbored contemptible hatred for any soul that crossed its path. While the demon started to transform with various insignia and mysterious runes being etched upon its body and whirling around it like a miniature planet, probably absorbing the Oracle’s powers within itself.

“Don’t look back!” Natsumi said, as she wielded her own scythe and leapt forward to slash at the demon’s throat. Keisuke only caught a glimpse of her fight, before Tosirhou grabbed his arm and urged him onward.

Keisuke wanted to help, though upon hearing the demon’s malevolent roar, his knees quivered and trembled and Keisuke ran out of there with Toshirou. He cursed his cowardice, leaving a pretty girl alone against that monster. If he were more of a man, he would protect her! But what could he do? He high tailed it out of there with Toshirou, who carved a path ahead as the wolves from the forest snapped and snarled at their throats. If there was a God, Keisuke couldn’t rely on Him now. He needed to see what was in front of him, which was Toshirou. Toshirou, the shinigami that saved his life from the wolves, and Natsumi, the lovely shinigami girl that he might never see again. What was up with all these events? Why couldn’t he get a moments peace of rest? His is limbs sagged from gravity, and his foosteps only seemed heavier with each stride he took.

One of the wolves leapt towards Keisuke. The wolf narrowly missed his throat, biting him on the shoulder. Keisuke cried out, and suddenly a numbing pain spread and flowered throughout his body.

“Oh shit,’ Toshirou said as his eyes widened as he slashed the wolf down. “Don’t tell me that you’re poisoned from it’s saliva.”

“What kind of Wolves are these?” Keisuke said as he put a hand to his shoulder, kneeling down on the ground while Toshirou hovered over him, blocking the wolves with his scythe and body. Toshirou grunted with a wolf sank its teeth into his arm and another wolf forcibly tried to remove the scythe from his hand though Toshirou wouldn’t let go.

“That doesn’t matter. Right now I’m going to do something desperate,” Toshirou murmured as he muttered an incantation. “With this, you should regen and purge the poison from your body.”

“Do it,” Keisuke said through gritted teeth, nearly going blind from the pain. “Please.”

“Don’t be afraid,” Toshirou said, before he slashed at Keisuke’s throat.

He didn’t feel any pain whatsoever, though he collapsed completely on the ground. The wolves drew closer. Then, all of a sudden, a bonfire of energy erupted from Keisuke’s body. The poison started to seep out of his body, like Toshirou promised, and Keisuke felt stronger, sharper, more aware. He didn’t know what Toshirou said, but he could see each individual blade and dew drop on the gray green grass and hear the murmur and heartbeat of the wolves all around him pulsing in a cacophonous chorus.

“We’re gambling all our lives on this. Keisuke, I hope my trust in you isn’t misplaced!”

“I’m going to save Natsumi from that thing!” Keisuke shouted as he tried to make his way through a horde of wolves back to the palatial shrine where Natsumi was fighting the demon that took the Oracle’s soul.

“Oh hell!” Toshirou groaned. “Keisuke, I heal you to suicide and make that thing even stronger!”

“She’s your sister, isn’t she?” Keisuke shouted, and Toshirou started to protest.

“I care about her! Don’t you think that it hurts me to see her fight against something way stronger than her as her older brother?!”

“Everyone is going to get out of this alive,” Keisuke said with gritted teeth. “No more sacrifices, No more death. We need all three of us together if we hope to fight against that thing, and I’m not going to let Natsumi-san throw her life away because of me!”

With that, Keisuke charged forth and made his way to the shrine, where Natsumi lay prone, unconscious. She was bleeding, though it seemed the creature that ate the Oracle was wounded pretty badly as well. However, the demon’s wounds regenerated as heat sizzled from its healing skin and it’s slavering jaws opened wider. However, when Keisuke entered the shrine, the demon’s slavering jaws swung towards him and it snarled. If Keisuke hadn’t arrived at that moment, surely Natsumi would’ve been eaten on the spot. Keisuke, without even thinking, punched the humanoid demon in the gut, and it’s roar of pain resounded througout the crumbling palatial shrine, causing the roof to collapse on top of it while Keisuke made it out of there with Natsumi in his arms.

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“You fool…” Natsumi groaned. “You offer both of us up instead of just me to that thing? You’re going to make this thing impossible to beat, you know.”

“You saved me,” Keisuke said. “So now I’m returning the favor. You didn’t abandon me when it would’ve been easier to let me die, so I’m not going to give up on you either!”

Hecould run so much more swiftly now that he was a shinigami rather than a human soul. Toshirou waited for them outside, most of the wolves slaughtered, though a few still lingered nearby.

“Sis!” Toshirou said, while Natsumi held up a hand.

“Toshirou..why’d you let him come back?” Natsumi said in a stern tone. “And you know that you’re breaking the conduct of shinigami by doing what you did—”

“That doesn’t matter,” Toshirou said. “We need to make our way to the next Sanctuary. Let’s just pray to God that that place still isn’t infested with demons either.”

“The Capitol has the strongest fortifications of spiritual spells and runes that protect it from demon influence,” Natsumi said. “But I’m only a liability. Why won’t you leave me behind?”

“Shut up!” Keisuke shouted. “You guys may be fine with using one another as sacrificial pawns, but I’ve got a will to survive! Survive, you told me to survive, didn’t you? Do it for yourself, too!”

Natsumi bowed her head, her cheeks flushed. Keisuke softened, and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Look, what’s in the past is in the past. Let’s move forward to the future together. With two top shinigami on my side, I have a better chance of surviving. I can’t just let someone throw their life away like that. Life is precious, no matter who it is.”

“I see,” Natsumi said in a small voice, before she straightened. “Well, we need to find another way to another Sasnctuary before more demons find us. We’ll lead the way, but it’ll be a long journey.”

Keisuke nodded. He understood that things wouldn’t be easy like that. Toshirou and Natsumi murmured to one another while Keisuke lingered behind, looked at teh carcasses of wolves left in the forest and Sanctuary where that horrid beast took the Oracle’s soul and continued it’s rampage.

Natsumi turned to Keisuke, before she nodded her head towards him. “I’m grateful…for what you did. For the first time, I actually felt in fear of my life.”

“I’m guessing that Death Gods aren’t used to being on the recieving end of having their souls reaped,” Kesiuke noted.

Natsumi shook her head. “You don’t know how shinigami are made, do you?’

Keisuke cocked his head to the side.

“That is for later, however,” Natsumi said as she struggled to walk on her brother’s shoulder. She winced. “We had to abandon the village. All our friends, the people that we protected, the innocent souls that were just being healed from their past traumas…are all gone. And it’s all because I failed to protect teh Oracle.”

Keisuke bowed his head. He felt a heavy silence lingering between all of them as teh death of the Oracle lingered fresh over their minds. They didn’t know what to do about the creature that killed the Oracle and erupted into a rampage across a village where they helped rehabilitate souls. Furthermore, Toshirou probably broke the law while using a Desperado situation to save Keisuke, so the shinigami might consider Natsumi and Toshirou to be rogues, or probably use them as scapeoats that were responsible for the birth of a demon that had an Oracle’s soul. Keisuke didn’t know why all this was happening, but he felt that he needed to do something to fix this world. He couldn’t just abandon people who helped him. He was afraid, for certain. He was still trembling and quaking from the trauma from earlier. He didn’t know what his next plan was. But somehow, he would find a way to survive. That was the most important part.

“Just survive,” Keisuke muttered to himself, before Toshirou shook his head and Natsumi looked forlorn.

“What are we going to do without our Oracle?” Natsumi said. “We were the overseers of that particular village, and it’s our fault that the demon has become so strong. We can’t let it get to the other villages.”

“It seems to be following Keisuke though, right?” Toshirou said with a nod. “It really wants him for some reason, which probably explains why it ignored you Natsumi. It was too busy on the trail for Keisuke’s blood that it ignored you.”

“There’s another thing too,” Keisuke muttered, before Natsumi and Toshirou looked towards him in wonderment.

“What is it, Keisuke?” Natsumi asked gently.

“I believe that thing is afraid of something in me,” Keisuke said. “But I don’t know what. Does it have to do with my powers?”

“We’re not sure what kind of powers you have,” Toshirou said. “Besides my shinigami powers being inside of you, there is also that dormant power within you that hasn’t awakened yet after you came through the Lake of Sorrow. But one thing’s for sure—we need to haul you out of here and find you to another sanctuary. Hopefully other shinigami will be able to band together and fight against that thing.”

“But the thing is,” Natsumi said. “Why were the demons drawn to the Lake of Sorrow? They seemed to be called through Keisuke.”

“We don’t know,” Toshirou noted, before he said. “Now’s not the time to worry about it though. We have to trek through the forest and through another several miles through the Jungle in order to find another Sanctuary.”

“Is everything…going to be all right?” Keisuke worried, while Natsumi and Toshirou looked at him.

“Well, this is all a lot to take in,” Toshirou said slowly. “But I think that everything will work out in the end. That’s what I have faith in, anyway. The Oracle foresaw everything that would happen—and you would play a key role in this world’s salvation.”

“I don’t feel like much of anything, though,” Keisuke muttered, before Natsumi put a cool hand against his head.

“Don’t fret about it,” Natsumi said kindly. “We need to make our journey one step at a time, right? All while avoiding that demon. We need to gather our resources and strength. And train you in your powers by having another Oracle awaken your slumbering abilities.”

“Okay,” Keisuke said as he trekked through the humid jungle which smelled of animal scents and green foliage that snaked with vines and leaves underfoot. HIs feet crunched into the dirt and Keisuke wondered whether the wildlife preserved in this Sanctuary would be safe from the demons. It would probably be overrun by the demonic wolves that he saw earlier, and that demon that he saw that ate the Oracel’s soul.

“That demon,” Toshirou went onto explain. “Became a champion of it’s species. It’s very rare for it to occur, but when a demon devours the soul of something really powerful, it evolves into an entity that is near god-like and lords over the other demons and underlings beneath it. It will probably maintain intelligence that is enough to manipulate hordes of demons and rally them together against the shinigami. There is a mastermind behind the demons, I’m sure, but we’re not sure who…but not to worry about that for now. We need to get you somewhere safe. And I imagine you need a warm bed and something warm to eat.”

“I’m starved,” Keisuke muttered as he pressed a hand to his stomach.

“Let’s get moving,” Natsumi said as she put a hand on Keisuike’s shoudler and started shuffling him along. Keisuke looked back one final time, before he began to make the trek towards the Capitol.