"AKIO..." Shiva shouted.
When he moved the drink can at my face, I quickly jumped to the side to avoid it.
Surviving it, gunfire went straight at the ambulance and destroyed it.
"What?"
It's very strange since earlier I couldn't move my neck, even though there was nothing on my neck, so I couldn't even turn to look at Shiva and the others.
This is quite strange for me, especially when suddenly the Astral creature is beside me and attacks me. I didn't expect it to exist. How could I, I didn't realize that the person beside me was an Astral Being disguised as a human, even though I had been there for a long time. And again, why did he come out of that hospital and suddenly appear beside me?
While thinking that, I turned around and saw the ambulance was already on fire from their gunfire, some people had been aiming at the ambulance since I was there, and I saw blood under the car, on the ground to be exact.
"That… is that monster dead?"
"Akio, are you okay?"
Hearing Shiva's voice behind me, I tried to turn around but couldn't because I couldn't move my neck. Therefore, I tried to turn 180° to see Shiva who was behind me.
"Ah. I am fine."
Even though I managed to survive this, I'm still confused about the Astral Being. Though I thought he would be my first friend in place here, it turns out he is an Astral Being disguised as a human. He looks like a normal human, I was fooled by him.
In fact, to what extent does that creature possess power? Why does he easily imitate humans and even communicate with humans? The creature is dangerous and a threat to my survival.
If I let my guard down like this, then I would be easy to kill by that creature. After all, I have to be more vigilant to overcome this world.
"Quick, give him a hand!" A woman screamed continuously shooting at the ambulance, and I can only see her from here.
After a while, suddenly people in medical clothes came with a box, and it made me have to take a few steps back because I was afraid that the creature would come back undercover again and try to kill me.
"Akio, why did you back off?"
Although Shiva looks normal, but not with me. I have to be able to be alert in all conditions as a result of that. There are no second chances for me, so I should be able to survive with what I know.
My current state can be said that I am not calm. It's the first time I'm like this, even though I've always been calm in any condition, including when there's a snake in front of me.
Shiva held my hand and stopped me back.
"Akio, calm down, I'm here."
It seems, Shiva knows that my condition is not calm at the moment. But even so, my thoughts continued to be haunted by the shadow of that Astral Being, as the creature smiled broadly in front of my face.
"Y-Yeah, I-I-I-I-I'm always so calm. Hehehe..."
"No, you're not calm at the moment."
"Quickly give him a coolant shot! His neck has started to petrify."
Hearing the voice from the medical team, I immediately grabbed my neck and felt my neck hard as a rock.
"What is this?"
This is the reason why I can't turn my head. My neck hardens, even though I haven't done anything since, just sat there and let the guy blow my neck...
"Wait! What is the cause of my neck like this, it's because of his actions?" I just realized that, and I was immediately shocked. "…T-T-T-T-That's scary. Damn, my neck will be like this forever."
Shiva suddenly pulled my hand and immediately pushed me towards the medical team instantly.
"Quick, give him the antidote!" Shiva said.
"Eh?" I was surprised to see someone pointing a gun at me.
And after a few moments, that person shot me with his gun and made a wave into my neck.
Even though I could feel the waves coming in it felt like a needle going through my skin, I still kept my eyes closed and wished I could live.
After a while, I didn't feel the wave anymore and opened my eyes again.
"Already completed." The man immediately put the gun into the box.
What that person did brought my neck back to normal, and now I can happily look back.
"Thankfully, I thought my neck would continue like this, but it doesn't. The gun made my neck normal again, even though I was already scared of it."
The gun can emit a wave, it looks like the technology here is already advanced, very different from my village where the people still live traditionally. That's why I want to occasionally see this city and want to see the development of technology here.
Because I need money to get here and the distance of this city from my village is quite far, so I gave up my intention to come here. After all, I'm just an ordinary person who just continues to work non-stop to earn money and my necessities.
Shiva since childhood has had wealth from her family, while I was born as a person who is always grateful even though I come from a poor family. So, I can't possibly be like the one who went to this city 2 years ago. Even so, I am always grateful for what I have now.
I turned around and saw Shiva smiling at me.
"Thank God, you're doing well, Akio."
However, as Shiva smiled at me, I suddenly saw a black shadow appear behind Shiva. And after a while, I saw the creature appear behind Shiva and prepare to attack with his drink can.
"Akio-kun… die!"
Realizing that, I immediately pulled Shiva's hand down and made Shiva and I squat down.
"Kyaaahhh…" Shiva suddenly shouted when she saw something in front of her.
To turn off what Shiva saw, I looked back and saw a head behind me. And as it turned out, that head was the head of that person, the one who healed my neck.
When I looked at the creature, I saw the drink can return to his hand and was preparing to throw the drink can at me.
Since I knew the position, I immediately took the head and stood up.
"I'm sorry about this, even though you already healed me. Rest in peace."
When the creature threw the drink can, I also immediately threw this head in the same direction as the drink can.
And BOOM, the drink can and the head collided with each other and made a lot of blood splashed on the ground, and the blood that came out and some parts of the head also hit Shiva's uniform and also her hair. Quickly, I immediately took Shiva away from here though.
However, that didn't stop the drink can, even though it had collided with the person's head, it was still aiming at me.
BANG! BANG! BANG! Gunshots rang out beside me and shot the drink can and the creature it was.
After I turned around and got behind the crowd shooting at the creature, I saw the ambulance again, which wasn't on fire anymore. And what I saw were 2 bodies whose condition had been charred due to the burning of the ambulance.
"Hey..."
But I remembered something there, that when I was being treated in the ambulance, I was treated by two people in there, 1 woman and 1 man who turned out to be Astral Beings in disguise.
A woman who had the same uniform as Shiva and wore the "Captain" crest on her arm turned to us.
"Shiva, are you okay?"
The woman is a woman who has long straight black hair and a beautiful face but looks indifferent.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Captain."
"Be careful, we're fighting an Astral S-rank." She suddenly turned to me, "hey you!"
"Yes?"
"How many times did you get hit by the weapon?"
Hearing her voice being so emotional, I asked in a slightly nervous tone.
"W-Weapon?"
"I mean, drink cans."
"O-Oh…" I thought for a moment thinking about the number of cans that hit my head. "Are cans of food included?"
"No, don't joke about this!"
"No, that's not what I meant. I also got this can of food in my head from my uncle."
"Oh, I see. But what we're talking about is drink cans, not food cans."
Wow, she's so fierce.
"In that case, the drink can only hit me twice."
"Good." She turned to the side, "the Astral can only move twice. So, the Astral would have no way of escaping this time. Hurry up and kill the Astral." She walked over to her friends, then raised her rifle and aimed at the Astral.
I who heard her say that could only be silent and confused. What she said earlier to her friends, I didn't understand at all.
"That creature can move around by marking the place using its drink can," Shiva said
"Is that so?"
"When I just went inside, suddenly the captain looked panicked when she saw that the creature wasn't there and she immediately went out. And when we came out, we saw that the creature had disguised itself as someone and was beside you. Possibly, when the captain and the others shot at it, it moved to your place and immediately disguised itself as that person."
Shiva explained what happened, and it made me understand all this. And I came to know that the 2 charred bodies were those who took care of me when I got out of the hospital. They were killed by that creature without me even realizing it.
If I continue like this, careless, then I'll be easy to kill.
"But the person who disguised himself as the creature was the one who helped me. He was a good person, but I did bad things to him. I haven't sincerely apologized to him," Shiva said, looking at the ambulance.
Hearing Shiva's sad voice, I immediately thought for a moment.
What I thought was a story where that person once told about meeting Shiva 2 years ago and running the operation together. If the story was true, why was the creature able to remember all of that person's memories? Could it be that when he disguised himself as that person, the creature will get his memory too?
"Hey, Shiva-chan."
"Why?"
"If that creature becomes a person, that creature also gets its memories?"
"Yes. Don't you remember when that thing turned into Uncle Gio?"
I tried to remember what Shiva said, and found that the creature had said the same thing as Uncle Gio had told me.
"Yeah, I remember."
"Because the creature uses a person's soul, it can become that person and disguise himself as himself. But some creatures are not disguised and only wear their true form. And when the creature gets the human soul, the brain from the human memory will be immediately remembered by the creature. Plus, if the creature continues to live in evolving as a human, it has its intelligence. If left unchecked, it will become as it is today, an intelligent Astral Being and become the most difficult Astral Being to kill like that Astral Being, Astral Sakata."
What Shiva told me was so clear, I understand now that Astral Beings should not be taken lightly. No wonder that humans are overwhelmed by these Astral Beings, it turns out that Astral Beings are very difficult to beat if they have evolved and gained intelligence to become humans.
If this continues, then...
CLEK!
Suddenly the sound of snapping fingers sounded in my ears and startled me.
"Is that creature still alive?" I turned towards the plume of smoke there, right where they were shooting, and there I saw a black shadow.
And after a while, a lot of Astral Beings appeared there.
"Hurry up and kill them! If left unchecked, they will enter the city!" With a little panic seeing the Astral Beings, the black-haired woman screamed and ordered her friends to shoot at the creatures quickly.
Shiva immediately approached her friends and shot them there.
And I... I turned back and saw another creature was there and saw the village chief was in the front row.
"Akio-kun, let's have a party."