No one foresaw what happened. Maybe it would be more accurate to say, no one realized what was going on until it was too late. By the time they even thought to intervene, the body was already hitting the ground.
Year 20XX, July 27th, The Meidou Domain takeover has been successfully completed.
Out of the 9 people that entered, only 8 walked out on their own two feet.
….
"Hey stupid students! Am I late?"
Irina questioned, jumping over what was left of the wall after she sent it flying.
"Teacher!~"
The teens exclaimed, their voice alive with hope for the first time after they started fighting. If their teacher was here then they just might-
No! They will definitely get out with their lives alongside the victory of conquering the domain.
After all, Irina Rostavich was strong. There was no doubt about it in their minds.
Glancing down at the injured kids and the two police officers, one of whom laid unconscious, the brunette woman whistled.
"Sup- Whoa!"
She nimbly landed to the side after dodging from the cackling onryo. Debris once again flew everywhere as the attack meant for Irina landed on the floor instead.
Onryo cackled in delight and lunged for the woman again.
"Tch!"
Pulling out Darwishi, she blocked the youkai's attack rather easily. Its sharp, claw-like hands clashed with the tri-pointed blade, drawing sparks.
"Shuu! Riku! Take care of the officer! I'll handle this one!" She ordered before moving to draw the battle away from the wounded.
"Roger!!!"
The two boys quickly scrambled to work while Kunichi supported Rikuo from the side so the kid wouldn't collapse. During the events of earlier, they had recovered little bits of their reiki. Having their lwa close didn't hurt them in that case either.
"Shuu, What do I-?" The blonde asked.
"Focus on recovering your reiki, I can handle healing officer Asahi." Shuuji answered without looking up from assessing the fallen policeman's wounds. Rikuo nodded.
"Alright…"
Offering his teammate a small smile, the blue eyed teen turned to the half of his soul that now curled around his neck.
"Jor, can you…?"
$Yeah, sure~ Just don't over do it, idiot~$
"Thanks…"
$...$
The snake lwa flicked his tongue in annoyance before it got to work. Within seconds, both the owner and the familiar were glowing poisonous green. And Shuuji began.
Kunichi and Rikuo watched in silent awe as the 15 years old slowly mended the brunette officer back into shape.
"You people are ridiculous…" the round officer grumbled, unable to look away from the scene before him.
Right in front of his eyes, the broken and bloody form of one Asahi Miwatoshi slowly mended. Wherever Shuuji's hand hovered, a trail of poisonous green glow followed alongside a perfectly clean skin without any wound in sight.
Bit by bit, the brunette detective recovered color. Kunichi was not sure of how much time passed but in what seemed like no time at all, the other man was back to peak health.
"Haa…"
Shuuji sighed,the green glow fading as the teen finished. The ravenette leaned down, exhausted.
"I'm done. His life is out of danger now." He mumbled. Officer Kunichi nodded gratefully.
"Thank you. But why isn't he waking up?"
The teen shrugged.
"He's exhausted, don't worry though. He'll wake up in a few minutes."
Kunichi accepted the answer without much reaction and focused on tending to his partner. Rikuo, on the other hand, focused on the fight between their teacher and the onryo now that Asahi was out of danger.
Shuuji glanced up at his blond teammage, who stayed silent. Sighing, he allowed himself to collapse into the ground.
"How is it going?" He asked loudly, snapping the other teen from his own thoughts. It would have been adorable in any other circumstances, the way his partner actually jumped in surprise but now wasn't the time for that.
"I- h-huh?"
"Is Teacher winning?"
Rikuo made a humming sort of noise before answering him, his eyes dull.
"I'm not sure…"
Shuuji snorted.
"Not sure? Is she playing with it?"
"Maybe… Hey Shuu?"
"Yeah?"
"Youkai and Onryo use youki right?"
"Well yeah, since Reiki is poisonous to them." Rikuo hummed once again. The dark haired teen sighed, pushing himself into a sitting position.
"Why are you asking anyway?"
"No reason, really." Turquoise eyes gleamed strangely as they continued to bore holes into the fighting figures up ahead.
"No reason, at all."
…
Irina frowned as she ducked under another punch and delivered a counter strike of her own using Darwishi. The holy weapon lashed out against the corrupted youki of the onryo, white blades cutting through its defense easily.
'This is way too easy…' the brunette woman thought, pushing against the maniacally laughing creature. 'Something feels off…'
While she was strong, excluding a select few in their world. Irina knew that her students were nothing to scoff at either. An onryo of this level shouldn't have given them that much trouble, unless the damned thing used some way to drain their reiki.
Irina glanced at her students and the two police officers through the side of her vision. Shuuji had an enormous reiki pool of high enough purity. Rikuo's reiki on the other hand, though small in quantity, was high in quality. Even with protecting the two officers, they shouldn't have been this drained…
'From behind.'
Moving quickly, she easily caught the leg aimed at her head and used it to throw her opponent over her shoulder. The onryo shrieked as it hit the ground, hard enough to create a sizable crater.
The brunette woman waved her hand, deep in thought. Now that she took her time, she noticed her Reiki slowly weakening. The weaklings she just fought shouldn't have the power to waste her Reiki which meant that something was wrong. Very wrong.
"Tch…" Irina grumbled and sat down in a meditative position. She had to figure out whatever was happening with her reiki quickly.
"Darwishi, spirit form." She mumbled, her eyes already closed, not even paying attention to the onryo dashing at her.
The tri-bladed sword made a growling sound before a magnificent black lion pounced upon the rogue youkai, guarding his mistress fiercely.
Distractions out of the way, the owner of the said lion focused inwardly into herself. Diving deeper than the surface level of her mind and deep into her soul.
Inside the never ending world of darkness, a single red ball burned as bright as the sun. Around it little specks of flames danced in a round, some of them glowing scarlet and others fading shade of light red.
And tethered to the fading flames were dark blue strings that flowed to somewhere outside the boundary of Irina's being. She made a sound of displeasure, moving to touch the string then forcing it to show her where it began.
Images flashed by the brunette's mind and her eyes snapped open, flashing like the fire that burnt inside her.
"Oh you little bastard." She growled.
The onryo had been using their reiki to feed the Territory it created. That was why it formed around Shuuji and Officer Kunichi. That was why it allowed them an entry so easily. It was such a clever little scheme that almost cost her her students had she been late by even a few seconds.
By arriving in the central room when she did, Irina had saved her students from being drained to death because the Meido Territory attached itself to her instead of her kids.
Silently, the exorcist woman stood back up. She recalled the lion back into her hands and swung with all her might. She had to end this fight as soon as she could if they wanted to survive.
Darwishi collided with the onryo's arm due to its attempt at protecting itself and cut through with a burst of reiki. The severed arm flew a few feet away from them and landed with a 'plop', discarded as unnecessary.
"KHIREEEEH!!!!!!!"
The corrupt spirit shrieked in alarm, backing away from the mad woman. Its laughter stopped with the realization that Irina had figured out its plot. Said woman, didn't give it a chance to recover and swung her blade again at the onryo, forcing it to keep dodging unless it wanted to die.
Up against the relentless attacks of Irina, the youkai flailed, eyes moving all over for anything to use against her. It shrieked again at the deep gash inflicted against its side and was about to jump away from the exorcist when its eyes fell on the prone form of the man it beat earlier as well as the other 3 people around him.
Dark eyes gleaming, it used what was left of its youkai to summon a basic illusion and moved towards the unconscious man. Letting out a loud cackle.
Rikuo's eyes widened, alarmed; he only had the time to shout for the others before he threw himself into the noticeably weaker spirit.
"RUN!"
Shuuji quickly scrambled to get out of the way, managing to pull Officer Asahi with him just as the onryo and Rikuo crashed into the wall.
"RIKU!!" He cried out, coughing away the dust that rose to see the blonde teen wrestling with the hissing youkai.
However the blond teen didn't hear him, too busy trying to force the rogue spirit down. He wasn't successful as the onryo growled and rose into the air with him clinging to its back.
"RIKUO! LET GO! I'LL CATCH YOU"
He heard Irina shout as his mind flew over the possibilities of what would happen to him if he failed to defeat the being that was desperately trying to shake him off.
'Either way, I'll die…' the teen decided. His mind flashing back to the scene he saw in that brief dream-like state.
"HEY! WHAT IF I OVERLOAD YOUKAI WITH REIKI!?"
The people watching them froze when they heard the boy. Shuuji however realized what the other boy was implying rather quickly.
"RIKU DON'T!!!!"
"Shuuji wha-" however the brunette teacher was interrupted by her other student screaming.
"TOO LATE!!!"
The onryo began to bloat as a blue glow engulfed the entirety of it alongside the boy on its back. Ruhia chirped in alarm and the world of one Tsujimura Rikuo went-
"BOOM!!!"