Yumi stared into the wild eyes of the ghoul with a bear's head. She looked back at Kasumi.
"What do we do?!" she asked frantically.
Kasumi shuddered. She looked around timidly. "There's no way out, the ghost is in front of the door!"
The bear ghoul started marching towards the girls. Kasumi was crouched down, unable to move from fear.
Yumi looked at her. She then scowled at the ghoul. "Kasumi. Run."
Kasumi looked up with wide eyes. "Yumi...what are you talking about?"
Yumi smiled. "Both of us can't die here. You're Kouta's friend. He'd be sad if you were to die to a ghoul. I'll distract it while you make a run for the door. You two are still friends. There must be a reason why he's not here. Now go."
Tears welled up in Kasumi's eyes. "But-"
"Go!!!" Yumi screamed.
As if propelled by some unknown force, Kasumi obeyed. She went around to the left of the ghoul and headed straight for the door. The ghoul turned its head and swiped at her. Yumi immediately ran up to it and pushed its arm, forcing it to miss. Kasumi opened up the door and escaped in tears. The ghoul, angry that its prey got away, made a fist and punched Yumi in her face, sending her to the floor of the rooftop. She was now bleeding from her forehead.
She got up. "At least...Kasumi's safe."
The ghoul wobbled its way towards Yumi. It lifted its right hand, baring the sharp nails on it. Tears started flowing down Yumi's face. She ran at the ghoul with her eyes closed and her hands outstretched, screaming out. She made contact, and the ghoul was knocked off balance. Yumi opened her eyes. There was a hole on the ghoul's right side. It seemed frozen out of shock for a moment. It looked at Yumi and started backing up slowly.
"I-It's...scared?" Yumi said. She didn't understand what was happening. Then the rooftop access door opened.
"Hold it. I didn't expect for all this to happen."
Yumi looked. "R-Rin?! What are y-you doing?!"
Rin stood with Kasumi in a choke-hold. He held his sword to her throat. "I didn't think you two had the courage to think clearly in this sort of situation. But no matter, I'll deal with it myself. I can't allow the both of you to live."
Yumi held her hand out. "Rin!! Calm down! You don't have to do this! Let her go!! Please!!"
Rin smiled. "No, I'm thinking very clearly. You two are a hindrance to Murakami Kouta. You've led him to do some idiotic things. So now, I must rid him of his distractions."
The bear ghoul grew its missing parts back.
Yumi looked at Kasumi, who was frozen in fear. The cold edge of the blade was just barely kissing her neck.
Rin beamed almost evilly. "Miyazaki Yumi. You're an esper. You're coming with me. I'm willing to trade you for this girl's life. If you reject me, I'll kill her right here, right now." He looked at the ghoul. "Capture her."
The ghoul moaned and started walking towards Yumi.
"Do I really have no choice? Is this it? I don't want to be responsible for anyone's death!" Yumi thought. She looked down and didn't move. The ghoul grabbed her with both arms.
Then its head was blown off.
Rin's eyes widened. "What did you do?!" he exclaimed.
The ghoul let go of Yumi, stumbling backwards.
Yumi teared up. "I didn't do anything!!" she cried.
Rin was clearly angry now. "I'm not playing!! I'll really kill her!!"
Yumi reached her hand out. "No!! Don't!!"
Something shot through the air, whizzing past Yumi's face. It pierced the ghoul in the chest, killing it as it fell to the rooftop floor and dispersed.
Rin scowled at Yumi. "You set me up!!" He raised his sword.
Kasumi started crying. "I don't wanna die..."
Yumi ran at Rin. "No!! Don't do it!! Please!!"
Rin swung his sword. "I should've done this from the beginning!!"
He let out a pained yell. The arm holding his sword came off. Blood gushed out violently.
Rin let Kasumi go and fell to his knees, holding his arm, yelling out.
Kasumi ran over to Yumi as they watched him.
Rin slowly got up again. He scanned his surroundings quickly. "There's no other espers around!! It must be one of you two!!" A sword formed out of white mist in his left hand. He ran at the two girls. "Die!!"
They screamed out and fell back. They heard a loud crack, with more sounds of blood gushing.
Rin had stopped moving. He had a gaping hole in his chest. He coughed up blood and fell forward on his face.
Yumi and Kasumi were too shocked to even scream anymore. It was quiet now.
They heard police sirens in the distance. They were coming to the school.
Students began flooding out of the building as Yumi and Kasumi were escorted out by officers. They both were put in the backseat of one of the patrol cars. The rooftop of Iwasaki High became a crime scene. Students were told to go home expect for the teachers, remaining staff, and Yumi and Kasumi. Police tape surrounded the building. Apparently they got an anonymous tip that screams were heard from Iwasaki High's rooftop, so the officers responded fairly quickly.
--
A little less than thirty minutes later, a man in a blue suit was at the Iwasaki High crime scene looking at the bloody mess along with several other officers. His name was Kurihara Takeshi. He was a normal-looking man, black medium length hair, dark brown eyes, slim. But he was one of the top investigators in Tokyo's Police Department, or TPD for short. The TPD was split up into districts, but Takeshi was a special case. He was called for the high-scale cases like this one, no matter where it was.
An officer approached him. "So whaddaya think? Gruesome huh?" he said.
Takeshi had a stern look on his face. "I've never seen anything like it. I can't even grasp what happened here." He walked to the dismembered arm and bent down.
The officer followed. "They say that the killer had a knife of some sort, or maybe a machete."
Takeshi observed the arm. "No, it was cut by something round in shape, see the groove in the bone here?" He pointed at the bone in the cut-off arm. There was a small groove in the bone that looked as if a pencil had shot through it.
The officer bent down with him. "Then, a bullet?"
Takeshi narrowed his eyes. "Then where is it? And bullets don't chop off arms. But this arm was taken off so cleanly, this is almost like surgical precision."
The officer scratched his head. "Well it's a mystery alright, we identified the kid to be a student here, Nomura Rin, but we can't connect him to anybody. His relatives are all either dead or reported missing. He lived alone."
"Suspicious." Takeshi walked over to the corpse. "And this hole...what could've done this?" He looked up at the officer. "Any suspects?"
"There were two girls here found with him, they weren't hurt, other than small signs of mental trauma, but we questioned them and realized that they were the real victims here. They say that this boy was trying to kill them and then was killed by an unknown force that they couldn't see."
Takeshi wrote some things down in his notepad. "Impossible. There's no such thing as an unknown force. Those girls didn't tell you everything." Takeshi started walking back to the door. "Send me the addresses of those two. I'll visit them myself. Justice will be served. I promise that."