By the time the ghoul realizes what's happening, it's too late for them. I know Ayane pretty well and I have seen what she can do with only her thin body and the few of exorcism's tool.
Her nice crab-y legs, I mean, her swift legs, dancing around the enemies. Then comes a quick, clean, quiet slice of mercy. She has an enormous potential as the next best Exorcist. That's the case. No prey can escape from her. Well, that's to be expected. I was the one who taught her how.
Thud, thud, thud.
Light yet aggressive footsteps as if someone is riding a floating leaves. She's here!
I give the ghouls a suggestive look. There's no running back now. This soon-to-be best Exorcist has planned everything to take you three down at once.
"You're in my way, Sensei!" That's Ayane shouting.
She's coming straight at us. Her wooden sword is already out in her hand.
I move to give her a clear sight for the head she'd put off.
As if to be thankful, the girl smirks, "This'd only take few seconds."
The ghouls are still on their feet, their brain were late to transmit a response to the muscle. Nothing could've saved them from the river of fate crashing.
"Hic."
∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ?
Except a cute hiccup from their assaulter. To make it worse, her feet looses control for a second and, like a drunken driver, steer her way to the side—at me. I step aside so I can grab her.
"Fuuck!"
But the only thing I can hold in this position is her chest. After a quick debate, I stop my hand midway.
Now she's going to fall.
Pam.
The dust blows away.
What just happened? Give me a second. I'm also trying to connect the dot here. After the hiccup, the girl with bob-cut blond hair had slammed herself on the ground after stepping on my shoe. Well, to put it in a lot of cleaner words, which I'm not really a fan of… I've somehow tripped her over accidentally.
Ayane turns around and looks up at me with her yellow tears in her eyes, "Se—sensei... why didn't you grab me?"
"Unexplainable," You're going to be more mad at me if I did.
Ayane pushes herself up with her white thin arms, and returns a few steps back to pick up her wooden sword... with her mouth biting itself. Her entrance today wasn't that cool like any other day.
Luckily, our stun really… stunned the ghoul, too. They are looking at us curiously. Probably wondering if this is part of our ritual or just a… mistake. I hope they chose the first one, but when Ayane cussed at me for not grabbing her chest didn't help it. Man, she used to call me Oniichan too. Where did that go?
And now all she can ever give me is the glaring and, "Tch, stand back Sensei."
It's the ramen I tell you what.
"Hic."
"Did you have ramen as breakfast again?"
"Hic—tha—that's not important right now."
She catches a glance toward the dead body. I can almost hear the clatter of her teeth and the sound of her grip tightening. Though she looks hard-headed and cold, this girl cares about every life. The more reason she's better than me to handle this situation.
The sword is pulled up toward the three murderers.
Hisses coming between her perfect teeth, "You can try to run from me, but you know a lot more than me than your kind. That ghoul is weaker and slower in the sunlight." Small amounts of sunlight creep into the alleyway. "My advice…" she swings her wooden sword over her shoulder, "Surrendered yourself to the Divine One. I'll make it quick and painless."
The two ghouls turn around, waiting for something from the man-ghoul. Is he their leader? He looks like one, like bosses. A straight posture, nice short haircut, psychically active body, eagle eyes and not to mention he's still smoking right now.
As he wipes his mouth with his sleeve, he laughs. Is he… drooling?
"We can't do much in the sunlight anyway…" He stretches his neck, talking to his minions, "Here is the best place for us to survive fighting."
The teenager tilts his head. "Huh? But you..."
But the man dismisses it with a glare, "Fight, kids."
"Heh, like you said, we're offered no choice anyway," the woman ghoul shakes her head.
Ayane chimes in, "I offer you a painless death by the name of The Divine One and yet you choose the most cruel way to die."
The woman raises her eyebrows. "De-vine one? Man... Fuck that guy."
Ayane's eyebrow twitches.
The other two ghouls step back.
Ayane closes herself with them by one step. "What? You're running?"
"No... why would we? We're still hungry. And there's a lot of food in front of us."
And then they begin their… thing.
Transforming into their proper look.
First, their mouth spreads over their cheek, pulling out their shark teeth into the air. They have nails that are sharper and darker. Arm trembles and pushes itself out as if to make them longer. Their back arches up and widens. And finally, the eyes pop out, revealing the green eyes of mist.
The size of their bodies just increased twofold… and you can guess the result: their clothes are ripped.
Destroying your own clothes… not really necessary, you know? Just pull it out before transforming, idiot. On second thought, we have a female ghoul here, so I think they did the right thing.
"Focus, Sensei," Ayane's strict voice snaps me out, "You have to back me up if anything's gone wrong."
"Like what?"
"Just—hic—watch me."
She readies herself, locking her sight on the steamy ghouls.
Well, as a person who's under restriction from using my ability to fight supernatural, I guess… I'm just going to pull out my phone.
Ayane gives me a doubtful look but I reassure you, the phone nowadays can do almost anything. Like calling the ambulance and police… not that they can aid us or anything but to clean the mess that will unfold.
"Sensei, call the police."
"Already? What if they see you—"
She returns me a glare, "I'm faster. I will clean them just in time."
I shrug. "Then it's okay." I believe her.
We nod at each other and… execute the plan.
Ayane rushes toward the two ghouls with her wooden sword in-full charged to swing.
I do what best I could…
"Hello? I'd like to report about… my finding of a dead body… No, this is not a fake call. Yeah, I do. He was the robber of the convenience store just thirty minutes ago."
On the other side…
The ghoul sees what Ayane is holding… a wooden sword? "It's only a wooden weapon. Break it!"
The bigger ghoul steps forward, pulling out its claw that is evidently a lot sharper than the wooden sword.
But here's the thing: Ayane likes to surprise her prey.
Both sides swing.
Wooden swords are faster.
Ghoul's arm is heavier… harder—
I continue my business, already knowing the result of the clash.
"What? We're on an alleyway… a random one. I don't think I know what's the address is here… You still need one, sigh, okay. That one alleyway with rats on it. Is this helping?"
I return to the scene back.
I heard nothing loud as I expected.
There's no clash.
But a slice.
It's a grave mistake to block her swing.
The ghoul's arm flies off with its black blood sprawling.
Ayane had to step side, making sure there will none to touch her overcoat, leggings or shoes.
"Argggg!" the ghoul shrieks.
But if you're losing a fight, never stop.
And this ghoul just failed.
Ayane takes her chance to swing over its shoulder.
The wooden sword rushes up… carrying the head of a ghoul out of the body.
Thud, it lands on the ground, still in shock.
One down.
"Sir?" the phone calls out to me.
"I'll send you the location by GPS, okay?"
The receptionist told me to wait, but I hung up.
When my eyes take back to the scene, I quickly send them the location.
Because it seems there's a big problem in the battle now.
Ayane… stops fighting.
She's clenching her stomach.
The last ghoul takes the chance and goes behind her.
Raising its arm.
To kill Ayane with it.
"Die!"
The claw rushes down.
Well, I can't just let that hit Ayane. So I take the matter in my own hand. By that I mean, I dash and knock off the attack with my knuckle.
The ghoul flinches, "Since when—"
As if seeing the opportunity, the yellow eyes flashes. Her hand leaves her stomach and clenches her sword once again. Using the millisecond of the ghoul flinching, she swings the sword up.
Swoosh.
A strong sharp wind passes me, beheading the ghoul that couldn't do anything but to see the blurry sword.
Swished.
Two down.
She's puffing while looking at me with questions and then turns away, mumbling about something.
I check her condition, "Are you okay?"
She swats my hand off. "I'm… just fine. Urg!" she clenches her stomach once again.
"Don't look just fine to me."
"It's just…"
Did the ghoul manage to poison her or something?
She continues:
"It's just the ramen."
…
She did had ramen for breakfast.
I can see her face turning to be like a beetroot.
I sigh. "That almost hurt you."
"It wouldn't… thanks for the help, anyway. But we're still busy. There's one more."
"Oh, no. You don't have to worry about that."
"What do you mean?" She glances around the alleyway only to find nothing. Yep, no one's left but us.
"The last one ran away when you were fighting," I explain.
"And you let him be?" She almost sounds hating me for it.
I scratch my head, "Nothing I can do now."
She snorts.
And mumbles, "You could've done something."
I ignore her comment. "And he's a lot sneakier than any ghoul I've ever seen. Almost like he isn't one."
Ayane raises her eyebrow and take a sniff. "You're right. He's not one of those," as she watches the creature painting the ground with their blood.