"...Captain wake up!" The shrill scream of a woman is not how I expected to wake up. In fact, after my computer decided to become an IED and send molten shrapnel into my face I didn't expect to wake up at all. My blurry eyes cracked open after an ungodly amount of effort, they felt heavier than a window nailed shut. Pain lanced through my entire body as I looked at the sobbing figure with blurry eyes. She must be an EMT—but why is she crying?

"...It's going...ghk...urgh!" I tried to reassure her and myself but I began to choke, blood filling my lungs. If I didn't do something about this I was going to drown in blood. The woman seemed to panic even worse as she began sobbing like a child. I needed to calm her down so I can get her help. Why is she acting so scared, shouldn't a paramedic be used to this? A sinking feeling welled up in the pit of my gut, maybe I was worse off than I thought. It hadn't fully connected in my head that I was dying, my attempts to get her to help were the futile last struggles I'd make. The thought sent shudders through my already cooling body.

"Captain please don't die!" She wailed as she lay over the right side of my chest. Why is she calling me Captain?

The other half of my torso was a mess of blood, bone, and torn flesh. The feeling of the cool night air on my punctured and exposed lung was a terrifying experience as I felt like a hundred prickling needles were stabbing my flesh. I felt cold, my exposed heart pumping slower and slower as my vision began to darken in the corners. The feeling of fear growing at the edge of my sanity grew as I felt death whisper in my ear. Why can I see the night sky, shouldn't I be in my apartment, did the roof collapse? Those thoughts lingered in the corner of my mind as the searing pain in my body grew.

"Put…something…here." My right hand pinned underneath the woman's flat chest crawled past the frills of her clothes and pointed toward the gaping wound in my torsos side. I hoped she would understand me and apply something like a towel to stop the bleeding, my words were jumbled by the blood leaking from my lips and the lack of oxygen to my brain. She wasn't wearing an EMT uniform, my blurry eyes finally noticed, the strangeness of the situation slowly donning on me. Was she one of my neighbors, I never really talked to them so I couldn't tell. I had never heard a girl this young though outside of my door, her voice sounded no older than a high school girl.

The girl furiously nodded, salty tears dripping down on my face as her shaky hands pressed against the edge of the bloody hole in my side. A faint white glow grew from her hands and my eye watched on in fascination as this glowing hazy vapor poured inside of my wound.

The white light was like a warm blanket being pressed against my wounds. The effect was almost instant as the pain dulled and although still noticeable the black splotches growing in the corner of my vision faded. My heart began beating with a steadier rhythm, less and less of my lifeblood leaking away as the fog covering me acted as a tourniquet.

"I-I can stop the bleeding but I don't know if I can get the blood out of your lungs!" I stared at her with wide eyes, my vision clearing for the first time to reveal just who was helping me. Long locks of curly blond hair cascaded around her face like a veil. Amethyst eyes…yes, real purple eyes gazed back at me with unshed tears brimming in the corners. Her cute button nose sniffled as snot dripped down to her upper lip, the pouty pink things were twisted in a grimace. Hiccuping sobs racked her body, as her hands continued to apply more of the stuff to my wounds.

"Thank…you," I mumbled, my head still felt fuzzy and the speed of my thoughts was like molasses. Delirious, I was delirious and this was all a drea—

"Hehehehehehe~how precious!" A sickening feeling grew in the pit of my stomach at the grating laughter filling the air. The girl's hands pressing against me tightened, and her dazzling purple eyes narrowed at the voice. From my position lying on the floor, I was unable to see who it was who was laughing, but from the blond-headed girl's reaction, I knew it couldn't be good.

"Captain, can you maintain hold of my geist real quick? I need to kill an annoying gnat." Her last words were ground out behind gritted teeth, her body rising as she stood from her kneeling position. I couldn't even comprehend what the hell she was saying, her body glowing as a golden haze roiled off of her in rippling waves. She looked like a Super Saiyan is all my fuzzy brain could come up with, and when she flashed away breaking the asphalt under her feet I only realized how screwed I was. The magic ki bullshit she had placed on my wound was flickering like a dying candle, if I didn't do something about it I would die bleeding out.

"Wait…did she…say…ghk…geist!" It couldn't be…there is no way! Before I could even begin to comprehend my crumbling sanity, the sound of metal ringing in the air hit my ears. My eyes widened as I looked up at the figures looming over me.

The blond-haired girl…no, Charlotte Kraus wielded her rapier. The silver gleam of the blade under the pale moonlight looked just like the cover art featuring her, the blade was bending under the weight of it. The creature had long arms like an orangutan, black claws the size of steak knives grew from its fingers. Sparks flickered in the air as the creature's nails dragged across the metal blade, the basket hilt of her rapier was the only thing that prevented her fingers from getting cut off.

"Is he your lover~?" A disgustingly long purple tongue lolled out of the creatures skeletal jaw. It's face was like the skull of a deer, glowing red orbs filling the hollow sockets where it's eyes should've been. This was a phantom, a creature born from the sins of humanity, and a fictional race of the series [Exorcist High]. It was the very same manga I had just given my scathing review to, my speculation veering off into the realm of web novel tropes as I grew suspicious of my PC blowing up in my face.

"N-no we're definitely not lovers!" I spit up blood, my mind only now realizing I had no idea how to control geist. Charlotte's eyes widened at the sight, her blushing face turning deathly pale.

"Hehehehehe~it looks like he can't control his geist, my ectoplasm is already eating away at his [Subtle Body]. What're you going to do, save him and die or save yourself and let him bleed out?" The snickering creature asked as Charlotte looked between me and the ugly Phantom.

Despite the pain, I gave her a smile. It was an ugly thing, blood staining my teeth. The grimace of pain making my lips quirk made me look constipated more than anything. My pale face and scared eyes gazed up at her with the fakest expression of confidence I could muster, I looked really pathetic.

"Don't…worry…ghk…I've got this." I in fact didn't have it, the body I was in didn't hold any residual muscle memory on how to use geist nor was I some shadowy cultivator in my last life. Logan Davis was a cashier at a local convenience store eeking by a living on ramen and TV dinners, none of my life experience would help me here. The fake bravado I displayed was a way to give Charlotte a chance. I was as good as dead, but maybe she could make it. In the manga, she was saved by a passing exorcist so maybe if she focuses on escaping she can live.

I really must be dying, the wheezing sound of my laughter filled the air as my lungs rattled. I of all people having such a selfless attitude was entirely foreign, it must be a near-death experience bringing out a change in me I guess.

"D-don't you dare…" A low growl came from behind Charlotte's pretty pink lips, my eyes growing hazy from the loss of blood tried desperately to focus on her face. Before I could speak she raised her finger toward the snickering Phantom, a golden orb of light forming on the tip of her finger. The thing grew larger and larger until it was the size of a basketball, the monster taking a step back from the power radiating off of it in rhythmic waves.

"[Rising Sun]!" The Golden Ball crashed into the phantoms gut with the force of a meteor sending it flying. The creature screamed as the sizzling hiss of its flesh filled the air, but Charlotte ignored all of that. Once again she fell on her knees before resting her palms against my wound. The white glow returned and my fading consciousness returned, the stabbing pain in my chest now a dull ache.

"Run…away…" I gurgled, my eyes narrowing at the girl. Why couldn't she understand that I was sacrificing myself for her sake? The thought of me dying in vain was almost as terrifying as dying itself. What would it accomplish other than being the most pointless second chance in history, the being that sent me laughing at my misery? If by some miracle we made it out of this I was going to spank her ass for being an idiot.

"I won't!" She yelled, tears streaming down her cheeks leaving salty wet streaks behind. The Phantom had gotten up, the damage no where near enough to kill it. The only way to kill them is to either exhaust their ectoplasm reserves or destroy their [Sin Node], an invisible organ near their mouth. Her attack hadn't accomplished any either of those two requirements and that is why the looming monstrosity was fast approaching us.

"I'm going to kill you, you stupid bitch!" The hateful roar it let out as it spoke filled the air. Charlotte would have no time to react, her focus entirely drawn to me. I grimaced, we were both going to die.

"Captain, I'm going to give you my geist, use it to kill him." Charlotte spoke with the same surety one would use to say that the sun would rise again in the morning. Her confidence in Garridan was unwavering just like her loyalty to him. The feeling of warm air drifting inside my body told me she wasn't bluffing, and when it traveled from my chest up through my neck and into my eyes she gave me a sliver of a chance of doing something.

"Prop…me…up." I had no clue if this would work, did following the instructions of a manga databook that I pirated really have a chance of saving us? Her knees shuffled as she got behind my head, her slender arms gently lifting me by my armpits. My sweat slicked hair pressed into her flat chest, the girl squirming at the sensation.

Illusions are the realm of dark-aether users, and the ease at which Charlotte's geist moved around my eyes compared to the languid pace the energy set flowing toward them meant that this body had a natural affinity for it. All I had to do was imagine the desired effect, 'project' it through a visual meditation, and signal for her to release the geist toward the Phantom. She's acting as a remote control for me considering my own lacking geist control.

"When…ghrk…I tell you to close your eyes release the geist directly from my eyes and into his." She nodded at my words, the Phantom was only a 10 yards out and closing in fast. With our limited abilities, we needed to see the white or in this case the red of the monster's eyes.

The creatures claws sent sparks skittering across the asphalt of the dark alleyway as it dragged its knuckles like a chimpanzee. A large inhuman grin spread across its face, the slimy purple tongue the Phantom sported was blowing with the wind as it picked up its pace. I was afraid, the sense of scale adding to the fear as the creature towered at over tvelve feet tall in just it's hunched form. God, why did you put me through this?

"Close your eyes." I groaned the words out as I held back the wretching cough in my throat just enough for her to channel the geist outward. At that moment my imagination was made manifest, a reflection of my own emerald eyes glowing in the Phantom's. His world was about to become very dark, and I would be immobile too.

***

(Monkey Phantom POV):

"H-huh where am I!?' The first thing he noticed was that he couldn't speak. The second was that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't move from his position lying down. The third thing he realized was the thing sitting on his chest. Phantoms as entirely spiritual beings had no need to breathe and yet for the first time, he found himself struggling for air. The thing on his chest though, had other plans.

"Ed...ward?" The creature asked with a voice born from a pain too deep for the human mind to comprehend. Milky white eyes peered into his very soul from behind long brown hair. The creature was a dog, and yet not. A demonic contradiction that threatened to fray the sanity of any man who knew the truth of it's existence. And that thing born from a terrible nightmare sat on his chest, his paralyzed form unable to buck it off of him.

"Play... onii-chan..." Closer.

"Onii-chan..." it's maw crept closer.

"...onii-chan..." it narrowly brushed up against his ear, the creature's hair cascading on the Phantom's face.

"...play?" it's tongue entered his ear as the man screamed, and yet no sound left his lips. For he had no mouth, no body, and no soul. The phantom died trapped in an illusion.

***

Charlotte blew her the tip of her finger like a smoking gun, a charred gaping hole where her beam of light pierced through the creatures open mouth remained on the rapidly decaying phantom, it's body now little more than dust. I laid my head back against the girls modest chest trying to catch my breath. Note to self don't make an illusion like that again. Even if I was in control that… thing it scares me.

"Captain, are you okay?" I couldn't prevent the grimace from my face, no I'm not okay! My eyes looked up at her, my mind only now registering her strange fashion. She wore a frilly violet and black Gothic Lolita dress just like in the manga, and boy did it check off all the right boxes.

"Yeaaaaaah~I'm totally fine." My wheezing voice didn't let the sarcasm land like I wanted it to. The shaking body and grimacing face I made in response to the mind breaking pain probably didn't help. "But we need to go." With a swipe of her hand, the geist field surrounding us popped like a bubble and with it came the noise of a busy city. The breeze picked up again and the foul smell of garbage reemerged as I found myself wrinkling my nose.

Charlotte walked closer to me before grabbing the hem of my cloak, the image on the back of mine displaying the skull and crossbones of the Exorcist Corp. A white haze surrounded us as she channeled her geist, the haze of energy roiled to life as we broke into particles of light. Next stop Crossroads, home of the Exorcist Corp.