Bleeding flames through her eyes, Hibiki glared at me as if she had no idea who I was. Frowning a little, she shifted her sight to the other end of the alley opposing us both. Despite not seeing it outright, even I could feel the presence of something inching closer to us.
"Take the girls and leave!" Hibiki commanded, her voice sounding a lot coarser than I remembered.
"Oi, what are you waiting for? Take them and leave!" Mizuki emphasized Hibiki's orders further.
Without another second of delay, I dashed closer to the girls. Getting Mizuki to help, I picked up Sakura while she was left to carry Matsuri. The very next instant while I was still trying to get Sakura out of the way, something blunt hit me in the back of my head. The sharp pain set me flat on the grimy tarmac while Sakura's unconscious body fell alongside me.
"Where the hell do you think you're taking my prey?" Said a voice without a face or form.
"BURN!" Right as I looked up, Hibiki sprayed a burst of flames that went right over my body.
Striking the invisible perpetrator, the fire revealed a masculine form. Burned by the flames, the man ran howling with hurt. Just a few steps in, however, he dropped to the ground and began rolling on the ground to extinguish himself.
"STOP THIS! AGH!" The screams continued for a while as the man struggled with the flames. Yet before it could all be extinguished, Hibiki moved closer to him and looked him right in the eyes with a smile that stretched her lips as far as they could.
"NO! WAIT! PLEASE DON'T-"
"Die you piece of shit," holding her hand over the burning man's invisible body, she sprayed him with a surge of flames until his entire existence turned to sparkling cinder.
Following the man's demise, the looming presence around him disappeared as well.
"Finally our first hunt is over," Ifrit broke the silence between us all. "No time to dally though, those screams are bound to attract people, most of all human authorities. We must leave now."
Despite his warnings, Hibiki stood there by the pile of ashes glaring at the dying flames. It almost felt as if she had no clue about her surroundings since she was so focused on killing that man.
"Did he do this to Sakura and Matsuri?" Picking myself up on my feet, I turned to Ifrit for answers. With a simple nod he confirmed my doubts without uttering another word. "Fuck, we should really just leave then. Hibiki!"
Calling out her name I tried to bring her back to her senses, however, even as I called her a few times, she didn't move an inch from the spot.
"I'll get her back, you two take the girls away," although I didn't trust either of those demons, the people we were rescuing were not that important to me personally so I didn't care much.
Moving closer to Hibiki, I could already hear distant sirens going off around the area. Already knowing the usual petrol route for the cops in the region, I knew we didn't have much time to waste standing there.
"Hibiki, we need to leave," I told her, placing my hand on her shoulder.
"I-I burned him, I killed someone again…I BURNED HIM JUST LIKE THE OTHERS!" The moment she began screaming, self-preservation kicked up at full notch inside me.
"Shut up!" Squeezing my fist tight, I hit her on the back of her head.
The strike placed on her lower neck not only knocked the lights out of her eyes but also must've shattered a few of my fingers.
"Fuck!" Cursing out loud, I powered through the hurt and grabbed HIbiki's body before she hit the ground. The moment I squeezed her shoulder, however, I felt a sharp pain running across my fingers. "God-god dammit!"
Clenching my teeth shut, I pulled Hibiki up in my arms and began carrying her away from the sight of the confrontation. While carrying her away through dark alleys to make sure we weren't spotted, the fact that she did just kill someone finally settled into my head.
'Given Sakura and Matsuri's condition, it's not hard to imagine what the man tried to do.' The torn clothes and washed-up makeup told enough of a story to put that man six feet under. 'Think about that later, how will I explain all this to Saki?'
Hoping she wasn't wasting outside in the corridor, I made my way to the apartment quickly. Sneaking a peek around the apartment's main gates, I made sure she wasn't there as well as anyone else before carrying Hibiki to her apartment.
"Thank god she had the keys on her," taking the apartment key out of her pocket, I punched it into the doorknob before carrying her in.
Surprisingly enough, Ifrit was already waiting inside without a care in the world.
"Where's Matsuri?" I asked him, standing by the door with Hibiki still.
"I dropped her by her house. The rest? She can take care of herself," he replied, not an ounce of empathy in his voice as always.
"You almost make me feel grateful that Mizuki's my partner instead, almost that is," even though both of them were almost just as bad, I'd rather deal with Mizuki who at least pretended to care about us humans.
Taking Hibiki to her bed and laying her down, I decided to ask one last question to Ifrit before leaving for Saki's apartment.
"So you're gonna tell me exactly what happened back there or not?" With a look of utter disinterest, Ifrit gave but a brief response.
"Two girls with torn clothes, a human master paired with a demon that grants invisibility and is invisible himself…Do you really need me to tell you what that man was planning to do to those girls?" Heaving a sigh, I shook my head from side to side.
"No need, men like him deserve to die," taking my leave with those words, I headed upstairs to meet up with Saki.
'Let's hope Mizuki handled this better.'