Kudo awoke to Sen shaking his arm. Her hair was messy, she probably just rolled out of bed.
"Come on man, you gotta leave sometime or other," Sen said.
"What time is it?" Kudo asked.
"Three,"
"AM?" Kudo searched the room for a clock
"PM," Sen responded, showing him her phone.
"Man, I really slept good for sleeping up right." Kudo said. Sen had already left the room for the washroom. Kudo sighed. He had nothing to do for the next week. Taking a minute to think of what his life was all about, it was about working for the Sunset Knights. It was about taking out as many Shades as possible so that maybe one day he could stop them from ever coming back. Not being able to do that was weird to say the least.
Kudo got up to explore Sen's house. Mostly the kitchen. The door to the washroom opened, Sen walked up behind him.
"Didn't you hear me? You should leave, go home and see your friends," She said into his ear.
"Haha, I can't do that," Kudo turned to face Sen. He looked down upon her.
"Yeah? You don't really talk about your home life at work, is it because you don't have one?" Sen asked.
"It's not interesting, that's all," Kudo crossed his arms. He turned to leave. He did need to go out. His phone had been destroyed in the fight with the class four, as well he needed new clothes. Kudo for once had a reason to stay out of his home.
"I'll call you sometime tonight, we'll go out for supper," Kudo waved goodbye to Sen.
The streets of downtown Shinjuku were down right dreadful on a Friday afternoon. People rushed to do their tasks, even though work and school were still in session people still found ways to clog up the streets. As the masses passed they offered Kudo looks of wonder, disgust and even anger when he got close enough for them to smell the Shade blood. There was a mall three blocks from Sen's place. He couldn't help but think how nice that must be when something breaks in battle. Priests don't need to replace everything, but a phone like the one Kudo was looking for was no more than an extra. Usually priest kept two phones, switching the one used for work often.
It was the same for clothes. Most priests wore suits, but these suits would often end up like Kudo's current attire, a whole different color than it started. So they tended to be cheap and mass produced. Kudo's personal favorite was Colorwear's brand of stretchy suits. They were perfect for fights, and casual wear. To get around the problem of spending too much money on work related items Kudo made sure that he only bought work related items. He only wore suits and owned one phone, his work burner.
The mall was in sight. He could see all of the attractions and store banners plastered everywhere. The inside was even more grand. The roof was a massive dome, which gave the impression that light could pour through it like water at any time and douse the population of shoppers. But it also insured the the whole building was well lit. There were two floors in the building. Colorwear was on the ground floor, the phone kiosk was at the top. Kudo went into the Colorwear store, choosing his usual fit and trim of suit, but this time he picked up a maroon colored exterior for the coat and pants with a black undershirt, so a Shade's blood wouldn't ruin it upon first contact. Kudo also picked up a pair of pink socks to match his attention grabbing suit.
"DAD!" A girl's voice ripped trough the passive noise of the mall. As Kudo's payment went through he poked his head out to see what was wrong. A girl, who looked to be a teenager was hunched over her father's body. The man lay on the floor, motionless, not even his stomach taking air in. Goo leaked from the back of his head. Kudo knew he had to act after he saw that.
"Get away from him!" Kudo yelled, running towards the girl. If she wouldn't get out of the way then he would make her. The color was quickly draining from the goo that flowed out of the Shade's head. "Your father is a Shade!"
The girl tried to take a few steps back, but her fright mixed with the goo made it extremely hard to run. Kudo got into range as soon as the Shade was about to attack it's former kin. Kudo pushed the Shade to the floor with enough force to crack the flooring. He picked up the girl and used his soul energy charged dash to give her enough distance to run.
"Every one on the ground floor exit right now!" Kudo turned to face the Shade. It's left arm was broken, each of it's hands had claw like growths coming from it's nails. They were made a mix of flesh and bone, with a bit of tough nail barbs also thrown in to make each slash hurt even more. Non ranged mutations were the calling cards of class three Shades.
The father Shade moved with unnatural, jerky movements towards Kudo. There were still people on the ground floor, so Kudo's goal was to keep the class three busy while they escaped. He didn't have a containment capsule so even if he were to destroy the Shade the Aerie inside could just take over another weak soul's body so brute force was out of the cards.
The father Shade was class three meaning that it would try to close the gap no matter what and attack the being with the most soul energy, but class threes normally had a very limited range. A good hit that sent Kudo or the Shade flying into a store could put more people in danger. The Shade slashed clumsily. Kudo grabbed the Shade's wrist and stuck it in the face with a left hook. Its nose folded in on itself.
It didn't take long for the Shade to adapt, due to it's lacking strength the Shade couldn't get its arm free it came up with the idea to use it's barbs to hook onto Kudo's wrist. The barbed underside of it's claws dug into Kudo's arm. Blood oozed from the wound and flowed down the priest's arm until it reached his jacket where it mixed with the maroon to make just another shade of red.