Void • Memoria [1]

14. Crashing Down

Strike Memoria ( Hiro's Point of View Part 3 )

"There's no point in hiding if they know about guardians," Ryuji said, looking down at me.

I just stared at the others closely from afar. I was glad they couldn't see me in the dark shade of the forest.

Ryuji began walking ahead of me.

"Where are you going?"

"I wanna see what kinda demon it was." He said calmly. I followed after him, although I knew Yuki was hiding the same secret, to some degree. I couldn't help but feel awkward walking toward everyone with Ryuji completely visible.

He wasn't necessarily the kindest-looking guy, and his appearance wasn't something you'd normally see in Japan. He had long ginger hair tied in a mixture of a ponytail and braids, and the sides of his head were shaved leaving his hair in a rugged pattern.

He's about 187 cm, maybe taller. He's like a mountain in both height and muscle. His facial features are rigid, he has neatly trimmed facial hair and two tattooed volumes of Nordic tunes running down his face, one almost fully covered by his eyepatch.

"Is everyone ok?" I decided to call out so Ryuji's sudden presence wouldn't shake them up more than they already seemed to be.

Isao's head perked up when he heard my voice and quickly turned to face me. "Hiro! Bro, we just saw a demon and these two people killed it. They came out of nowhere, you should've seen it,"

He pointed to the two guardians and Nyoko standing over the demon's body.

When Isao realized Ryuji standing next to me he looked confused, almost uneasy. "Who's that guy?"

"I'm this kid's guardian. Ryuji. Nice to finally speak to you all." Ryuji lifted his hand to give a lazy wave to them all.

"And, meet the fellow guardians, of course," Ryuji added as if nervous he offended the other two.

"What's going on?" Keiko asked, walking over to me to stay as far as possible from the demon's corpse.

She looked as if she was crying, her voice was dry and her eyes puffy.

Isao was gently holding Natsumi and they both stood up carefully together to make sure Natsumi had proper balance.

"Your tarot reading didn't mention anything like this." She said loudly, her words directed at Isao. She glanced up at Ryuji and held onto me for safety.

"Isao?" Keiko called out when Isao didn't respond to her.

Isao's brow furrowed as if he was frustrated with himself.

"He lied," Ryuji said bluntly, he was now squatting down and examining the corpse.

He snapped off one of the demon's orange horns with ease and looked inside it before tossing it to me.

"Why?" Yuki asked, looking over at Isao. Her tone was serious and cautious.

The inside of the horn was nearly hollow, it felt almost weak and brittle.

An Imp. A low-level demon race that is known for being weak. Ryuji told me they're usually humans who committed crimes and were sentenced or chose to go to hell because of those crimes.

The race is usually looked down upon by other demons because of the severity of their crimes.

If they were to send a demon, why an Imp?

They know how strong Ryuji is, did they really send this low leveled of a demon? Couldn't they afford any one higher ranking?

"Isao. Why, why did you lie?" Yuki asked again, louder this time. She took a step towards him, her fists clenching as if she was beginning to suspect he put us in danger.