Akira jumped down to get a good look at Shiro. He was aware of his uncanny regeneration ability, and wanted to make sure he was dead for good.
"Was that all it took? You agents are sure disappointing. You were about to come here with that girl right? I'll make sure to kill her too."
Remembering how Yukiko died, Shiro forced himself awake.
Suddenly, Shiro woke up and grabbed Akira by the leg. His regeneration had slowed down tremendously but he was still moving.
"I WON'T LET YOU GUYS KILL HER TOO! I'LL NEVER LET YOU TOUCH HER AGAIN!"
Akira kicked him in the forehead, which push him back into the fountain.
"Adam was right, you really are immortal. I can't put you down, but I guess I can trap you in a place you will never leave."
The giant serpent from before returned to devour Shiro. It's insides were acidic, so it would prevent Shiro from fully regenerating.
Just before it could devour him, a blue flash sprinted by and carried Shiro away. It landed on top of the schools roof.
Shiro was about to pass out, but before he did, he could see the face of Arashi.
"You idiot. We let you go out alone and now your in this condition. How the hell are you even still alive?"
Akira saw Arashi and shouted him,
"WHO HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?"
He directed his serpent to directly attack him, but Arashi instantly avoided it while using his Ninjutsu.
Seeing the clones everywhere start to approach him, Akira summoned a swarm of Spirit locusts from his shadow. They all completely showered Arashi, which let Akira breathe a sigh of relief.
"This swarm of locusts devours everything. If I keep them outside of my shadow for too long, then they could end up wiping out a city."
A kunai knife suddenly flew out from that swarm, and made contact with Akira's neck.
But luckily for him, he instinctively activated his outer enhancement, which caused the knife to bounce off.
"What the hell?"
Attached to the knife, was a paper bomb which ignited and exploded right in front of him.
The swarm of locusts immediately returned to Akira to save their master, while Arashi jumped away from them. His left hand which he used to throw the knife was completely injured. The sleave was torn, revealing hideous insect bite wounds which leaked blood.
"Those locusts are dangerous! They easily tore through my outer enhancement.. I can't protect Shiro and fight this guy at the same time, I need to get out of here!"
Once the dust cloud from the paper bomb explosion cleared away, it had been revealed that the shield spirit blocked the attack. But on the other side of that shield, half of Akira's body had taken the brunt of the attack leaving him with minor burn wounds.
"Damn, that Ninja is tricky. I won't let him get away!"
He extended out his hand, and was prepared to release another swarm of locusts, but he felt a tremendous pain in his head. Arashi noticed this, and took the opportunity to quickly escape.
"SHIRO! I WON'T EVER LET YOU REST EASY! IT'S BECAUSE YOU, THAT MY MOTHER IS DEAD! EVERYTIME YOUR WITH A LOVED ONE FROM NOW ON, KNOW THAT I'LL KILL THEM!"
10:00 pm August 3rd 2018
Shiro woke up in a futon mat. When he arose, he was shocked to see Hoshiko asleep next to him with a wet towel and a bucket of water.
He tucked her in before leaving for the main hall.
Once he arrived relatively quickly, he was met with Kotsuki, Enji, Arashi and some new people. The top on Arashi's ninja Gi was hanging down, and his left arm was in a bandage.
"Ah! So your finally awake?", Kotsuki asked.
Shiro just nodded as he was still feeling very hazy. He took a seat at the table along with everyone else.
Enji concerningly asked, "Are you okay? When you got here, you were a bloody mess."
His body had completely healed since then, however he was still feeling quite exhausted.
Suddenly he remmbered his confrontation with Akira, as well as the bloody nightmare which was the school.
"I failed to understand how much that boy was suffering, and now so many people have died! If I wasn't so weak, then Arashi's arm wouldn't have gotten injured saving me!"
As Shiro vented out his frustrations with himself, Enji gave him a good slap. This jolted him back to his senses.
"What's done is done. Quit acting like a child. If you feel bad, then do better next time. The only thing you can do to make it back up to him, is to keep protecting that girl."
Shiro was too disappointed in himself to argue back.
"Either way, we still got something out of this. The both of you should tell us about the kid you guys fought. By the looks of things, they could be the most dangerous threat in this whole mess."
Kai and Arashi told them everything they knew about Akira. From where the two met in that park, too how quickly he had grown as a psychic.
"Adam and Asclepius? Those are the names which Weatherman mentioned in his report?", Enji pointed out.
Adam... it was a name familiar to Kai. He knew a boy with that same name in Heiwa city. He possessed a strange aura, and he was also familiar with psychic power, so the possibility of them being the same sprung up in his mind.
"So from what we've seen thus far, this Asclepius guy has been creating powerful artificial psychics all across Japan? Akira seems to have gotten his psychic powers from him, and they are currently working together with Adam in a group called Eclipse."
Kotsuki added,
"Akira's power sounds very dangerous. The ability to control spirits without turning them into Shikigami is very frightning indeed. Usually a normal person can only controll 1 Shikigami before they reach their limit. But from the looks of it, this Akira fellow might have no limit."
Arashi suddenly remmbered something strange in his confrontation against Akira. He saw him suffer from a painful headache, and even recalled his psychic power fluctuating when he uses outer enhancement.
"Although his ability sounds powerfull on the surface, it's proberbly extremely draining for him to use. The second he reinforced his body, his control over the Spirits weakened greatly. He could've easily caught up to us. And then there is that headache."
One of the new unfamiliar guys at the table suddenly voiced their opinion. He had a massive afro, and his skin was stupidly pale. His face looked stupid, despite the scar which he had.
"From what it sounds like, this 'Akira' guys ability may have skipped the proccess to obtaining a Shikigami, and instead directly dominated it. But if he dosen't devote all his psychic power to those Spirits, then he'll lose controll of them."
Shiro curisouly asked who this guy was. He had never seen him around the temple, up until today. Kotsuki was kind enough to answer his question.
"Your probably not acquainted with these guys yet since they just arrived. This man is Mr. Repent. He's the leader of a famous band of Psychic's called the phantom troupe. They specialize in ritual music that amplifies the effects of psychic power. They will be helping Kotsuki with the seal, so you guys should get along with them."
Shiro stood up, as he noticed something seriously wrong in all of this.
"Aren't they here too early? I thought we still had a week left??"
Everyone in the room went quiet. It was obvious that he was opposed to the sealing, but Kotsuki would be the one to break the news to him.
"I've moved the rituals date down to the 5th of August."