For a whole minute, I remained completely motionless, staring at the person who was standing there, outside of the building, observing us through the door.
'Subaru...' I whispered, when I found my voice again, and standing up, I made my way towards her slowly; unable to believe my eyes.
My brain was going at a million miles per second; my emotions mixed.
'Subaru,' I breathed when I reached her.
I never thought that I would get the chance to see her ever again in my life.
'Oh Subaru...'
As I lifted my hand to touch her, unexpectedly, she punched me in the gut.
I fell down on all fours on the ground, gasping.
'Shun!' exclaimed Tsunan, who came running up to me and bowing down, he took hold of my shoulders.
We both looked at Subaru, stunned by her action.
Her face was devoid of expression.
Tsunan helped me to my feet. All the members of the organization had joined us outside now.
'Well Shun, how do you like my surprise?' called a familiar male voice at that moment, and I looked at Tadashi instantly, where he was perched on the branch of a tree a small distance away, watching us.
He jumped to the ground, landing on his two feet.
'What does this mean?' I demanded, my eyes shifting from him, to onto Subaru and back again; my throat tightening.
'Isn't it obvious? It's me who ordered Subaru to attack your comrades. And I have to admit that she's very obedient. A perfect little servant,' he said, before he added, in a more sinister tone, 'That night, when you told her to run away, I was waiting for her at the end of the road. All these years, she was nowhere else than in my custody.'
He- He brainwashed her!
At this, my blood made a rapid turn in my body and I saw red.
'Tadashi!' I snarled with rage and activating my Godai Shakujō, I jumped at him and knocked him down, pinning his limbs to the ground with four of the Shakujō. Grabbing the fifth one with my hand, I was about to stab him in the heart with it but, he managed to free his limbs and he kicked me off him.
The blow sent me flying backward and I crashed onto Tsunan, my Godai Shakujō dis-activating on the spot.
As we sat up, we found that Tadashi had picked himself up into a standing position. He was frowning in pain and blood was streaming out of the injuries I had made in his hands and feet, but his mocking smile still clung at his face.
'I find you pretty much of a hypocrite! You claim that you love Subaru and yet, by deciding to come out of prison, haven't you consciously and stupidly put her security in jeopardy!'
I stared at him, my eyes going wide in shock; overwhelmed with guilt.
'Shun, don't listen to him!' exclaimed Master Kagami. 'All that you wanted was to be useful!'
'Well, it's over now!' Tadashi told me, as I got to my feet with Tsunan. 'You're going to go back to prison quietly. If I've waited for so long to impose this on you, it's because I wanted to give you the time to grow attached to these people, such that it makes you suffer like hell to leave them!'
His mocking smile widened.
'That's enough! Leave her alone!' snapped Tsunan, hurling a set of needles at him.
Tadashi skipped them all, his expression becoming angry.
'Subaru,' he called.
Everything happened in a blur.
Without any warning, Subaru dashed at Tsunan and she transpierced him with her unsheathed katana through the abdomen.
Blood splashed on the grass.
The next second, Tsunan's body hit the ground in a loud thud.
'Tsunan,' I cried in horror, getting down onto my knees at his side to cradle his head in my arms; my whole world shaking.
His eyes were closed, his breathing difficult and shallow.
The members of the organization tried to attack Tadashi, but he used Subaru as a shield to prevent them from attempting anything.
'This is a warning! If you don't go back to prison, I'll kill all your little friends one by one,' he told me in a threatening tone, before he was gone with Subaru.
'Tsunan!' I sobbed, and grabbing the latter's left hand, I begged at his juzu bracelet, 'Please, activate yourself! Please! I beg of you!'
But it wouldn't activate.
Tsunan was hardly breathing anymore.
The words of Raitogami echoed in my head at that moment.
"From this day onward, you'll only have to call my name in times of trouble for me to appear."
'Raitogami!' I shouted on top of my voice, desperately, calling for his help.
Faithful to his promise, the Kami appeared in the instant.
'Please! Please, help him!' I pleaded.
Moving up to Tsunan, he took hold of the latter's left hand and forced the power of the juzu bracelet to activation.
***
Hours later…
Shun, Shuko and I have something very precise in common, Ayame Tsuge thought to himself. All three of us have seen one of our dear ones being possessed and committing a massacre. Our lives have been changed dramatically by a demon.
He wondered how Shun must have felt when that little boy who had held out his hand to her, had changed overnight and betrayed her.
Ayame felt a small squeeze in his heart.
*Flashback*
A few months ago...
Tsunan Hitachiin started for the door, following after Kagami Gushiken to leave the prison cell but then, the doctor paused down, deciding to ask the red-haired girl his question.
Opening his mouth for the first time to talk to Shun Shutsuki, he asked her, 'Why did you do this?'
She understood his question immediately.
At first, she seemed a bit surprised by it.
And then, a meek smile appeared on her lips and she replied, 'I'm the elder. It's up to me to protect my younger.'
***
She had said that so easily.
It wasn't recklessness. But as though, it was the most normal thing in the world.
He immediately had the girl under the skin.
Tsunan became conscious of a hand around his at that moment.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
He was in the infirmary of the organization and Shun was sitting on a chair at his bedside, clutching at one of his hand, her face rested on the bed, sobbing quietly.
Lifting his other hand, he patted the back of her head in comfort.
She jerked upright instantly at his touch.
***
'Tsunan!' I exclaimed, anxiously, holding his hand in both of mine now. 'How are you feeling?'
He glanced down at his abdomen.
'Your injury has completely healed without leaving any scar,' Hatsu informed him as he moved closer to us, with Heihachi. 'It's thanks to Raitogami who forced your juzu bracelet to activate. Shun called for his help and he appeared.'
Tsunan looked at me, sitting up.
I lowered my head in shame, setting his hand down on the bed.
'I apologize to you and to everyone else,' I told him, in-between sobs. 'All that has happened is my fault. I would never have thought that Tadashi could take on anyone of you. It's against me that he bears a grudge. I shouldn't stay anywhere close to you anymore. Everyone suffers and die around me.'
'Stop it, Shun!' exclaimed Heihachi, angrily, seizing me by my hand. 'You're not going to do what Tadashi is asking you, are you?! Don't let him do this do to you! You don't have to do what he says!'
'You're not at fault, Shun!' stated Tsunan. 'Tadashi is a monster to kill! Like Kaiken!'
'He's right,' declared Ayame, who walked in the infirmary in that instant, accompanied by Master Kagami and all the other members of the organization. 'We, members of the organization, have for principle never to capitulate in front of the adversary! So, it's out of the question that you cede. You're not going anywhere!'
Everyone seemed to agree with him.
'I'll never be able to forgive myself if something happens to anyone of you!' I said, covering my mouth with my hands to muffle my sobs.
They were lucky that last night when Subaru attacked them, she didn't touch any of their vital points. Tsunan had almost died today.
'You seem to be forgetting that we're monster-hunters!' asserted Shirane, smacking his hand onto the wall beside him. 'Tadashi Honjō took us by surprise, that's all. When he'll come this time, we'll be fully ready to receive him!'
'Also, if you leave, who will save Subaru from the claws of that bloody psychopath, eh?' Hatsu pointed out to me, in a fighting mood.
'Shun Shutsuki, you shouldn't capitulate!' declared Raitogami, who suddenly appeared out of thin air.
He had vanished instantly after Tsunan had healed earlier. It had seemed to me that he was perturbed by something.
'Listen to me!' he said, his tone very serious. 'Tadashi isn't Tadashi anymore.'
Silence fell in the room for one long minute before Hatsu asked, in confusion, 'What do you mean?'
'He is under the full control of the Amatsu Mikaboshi.'
'The Amatsu Mikaboshi?' I asked, having difficulty to understand.
'The Amatsu Mikaboshi, also known as, Ama-no-kagaseo is a god,' he explained. 'He is not a physical god like Amaterasu, but a Dark Force that existed before the Creation. Back then, the universe was only silence and a compressed kind of matter having no shape, where the Amatsu Mikaboshi reigned in complete control and darkness.
'Then came sounds which indicated the movement of particles and the light and the lightest particles rose. However, because the light was faster than the particles, the particles couldn't go higher, and it is in this way that the light became above the universe and the particles remained below, forming the clouds and Heaven- Takamagahara- whilst the remaining particles which could not rise formed a huge and dense mass, called the Earth.'
'Because of this movement of In and Yo, which created the universe as it is and what has been qualified as the active chaos of life and movement- and which would become the gods and humanity- the control of the Amatsu Mikaboshi was shattered. In order to counter its goal of destroying everything by dissolving it back into chaos, whereby its static and controlling power could return, the Kotoamatsukami converged to form a single entity within which they sealed the Amatsu Mikaboshi.'
When Takamagahara was formed, the first three gods that emerged were Amenominakanushi, Taka-mi-musuhi-no-kami and Kami-musuhi-no-kami. Afterward, appeared the two gods Umashi-ashi-kabi-hiyoki-no-kami and Ame-no-toko-tachi-no-kami.
These five gods, being the first gods to come into existence, were known by the collective name of Kotoamatsukami. They appeared in Takamagahara at the time of the creation of the universe, without any procreation, and didn't have a define sex or partner.
The twelve gods that arose after them- these including Izanagi-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto- were collectively called Kamiyonanayo.
'The Amatsu Mikaboshi is trapped and chained in a sarcophagus found in another dimension which is a complete void, prisoner in the body of the Kotoamatsukami in which he is sealed.'
'He is a force of absolute domination that feeds off of human emotions; his residue which is said to still linger in the heart of all beings, is alleged to be the cause of human passions. Demons are born out of the aura that escapes from the sarcophagus and they take physical form in this world. They are connected to the Amatsu Mikaboshi in a slave relationship to its power.'
I recalled an old conversation that I had had once with Tadashi while we were still children. He had told me: "We all come from a one and single entity. It is not a physical being, but rather, a Force."
'Even if demons have free will, if the Amatsu Mikaboshi wishes it, he can take total control over them. It is no different from possession.'
I was shocked to learn this and so, was everyone.
Looking at me directly, then, Raitogami said, 'When I tried to cleanse the demonic imprint on your soul, I perceived the mark of the Amatsu Mikaboshi. Since all demons come from him, it may be considered as normal, but in your case, the mark was very distinct and powerful. It had perturbed me a lot. And a few hours ago, when Tsunan Hitachiin was injured, I perceived the aura that was floating in the air. It confirmed my suspicions. If I hadn't been able to cleanse the imprint on your soul, it was because it's no simple imprint of a demon, like the one on Ayame Tsuge's soul. You have the direct mark of the Amatsu Mikaboshi on you. The aura floating in the air earlier was the very signature of his.'
I stared at the floor, my heart beating so fast that I thought it was going to jump out of my chest.
Tadashi is not himself anymore?! He is under the control of the Amatsu Mikaboshi?! All that happened, and is happening, aren't his doings?! He's not to blame?!
'Since the past six years, somebody has been doing all the necessary to open the door that would free the Amatsu Mikaboshi,' he informed us. 'There's no more doubt that it's Tadashi Honjō; the Amatsu Mikaboshi is using him as his physical agent to do this.'
'What?!' I gasped.
We were all extremely alarmed.
'Tadashi Honjō is going to open the Pandora box on the world, and yet, this is an euphemism. Not only the Earth, but Takamagahara, as well as, the whole creation will get wiped out if he succeeds! This is worse than any apocalypse that humans could have ever imagined.'
'What are the chances that he succeeds?' demanded Master Kagami, urgently.
'All the preparatives are finally done. He only has to open the door. If the other Kami and I are not wrong, he'll do it during the night of the lunar eclipse to come.'
Tomorrow, after midnight, there was going to be a total lunar eclipse that was going to be visible in Japan, when the moon would take a crimson red color.
'If he wants you out of his way, Shun, it's certainly because you are the only person capable of stopping him. The Godai Shakujō is the only weapon that can kill a demon. We, Kami, we don't have the right to kill. We are bound by Izanagi-no-mikoto's promise to support life and birth in the world of the living. It's the most respected of our laws. We can't break this taboo. Shun, everything is in your hand. You've got to stop him to prevent the cataclysm!'
I stared at the Kami, breathlessly, my eyes growing huge. 'You- You want me to kill Tadashi?!'
I began to back away, shaking my head. 'I can't! If Tadashi is not himself anymore, I can't kill him!'
Tadashi is an innocent. He didn't do anything wrong.
'Unfortunately, it is the only solution!' he told me, staring into my eyes and grabbing me by my shoulders to keep me into place. 'There is no known way to remove a demon from under the control of the Amatsu Mikaboshi.'
I stared at him, frantically.
'Think about Tadashi Honjō's feelings for a minute. It is the only way to free him from the Mikaboshi's control. I'm sure that this is what he would want.'
Tadashi…
I couldn't let the Amatsu Mikaboshi do whatever that pleased him, while impersonating Tadashi.
Is this really what you would want, Tadashi? For me to save you even if it meant to put an end to your life?
Pressing my eyes shut, I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded, 'Alright.'
Tsunan took hold of my hand, giving it a small squeeze, while Master Kagami announced on everyone's behalf, 'You won't be alone. We'll be with you.'
My eyes went wide with worry.
'But, you're injured. You shouldn't-'
'We're a family, aren't we?' he cut me off, giving me a smile.
'Yes,' I acknowledged. 'We are.'
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Amatsu Mikaboshi - "August Star of Heaven"
Ama-no-kagaseo - "Brilliant male"
Amaterasu - the sun goddess
Takamagahara - "High Plane of Heaven"
Kamiyonanayo - "Seven Divine Generations"