On one of the tallest buildings in Kuoh Town, Gasper stood at the edge, his raincoat fluttering in the wind.
Below, a sea of umbrellas moved through the rain as students made their way home.
He had his umbrella open as well, keeping Shirou dry on his shoulder.
'Okay… so I'm out here, but what's the best way to find a stray? I mean, they don't exactly come with a sign that says, "I'm right here, please come get me.".'
Thinking for a bit, an idea struck him. 'I could try using bats… but I've never done long distance before… eh worth a try.'
He lifted his right hand. 'Well, the book on vampires said it comes naturally, but it depends on the purity of a vampire's blood, which in turn affects their power. I wonder… would that also apply to the darkness and bats vampires naturally use as well?'
Three of his fingers were covered in darkness.
FLAP!
Those three fingers became three separate bats, and through their eyes, he could see himself.
Then Gasper shook them off his hand, and they flew off to carry out their task of finding strays.
Seeing them fly away, Gasper looked down at the street below and noticed the students who had been there were gone.
'Well, as they search around, I might as well get some training in.' He closed his eyes and stepped off the building, letting gravity take hold.
And then he opened his eyes once more.
(20 minutes earlier)
"Please come again." A male voice said from the inside of the manga store.
The manga shop's doors opened, and a boy in a middle school uniform stepped out. His brown hair fell into a ridiculous double-tail style at the back, Anyone with even a shred of common sense would probably tell him to get a haircut.. immediately. His hazel-brown eyes looked directly at the street.
The boy's face lit up with an excited grin. "Man, I want to read now!", he sighed, watching the rain fall. 'But it just had to start raining as soon as I left for school… well, at least I didn't forget to bring my umbrella today.'
He turned from the rain to grab his umbrella from the rack outside the manga shop… and froze. "Huh?!" The umbrella was gone.
"Don't tell me someone actually stole it!"
Then he just… stopped. The boy, on the verge of tears, stared down the empty rack as the rain dripped down, letting reality sink in.
"Maybe the rain'll just stop… eventually." he muttered.
And with that, he waited a couple of minutes, watching the rain only get heavier. "Ah, screw it!" he shouted, shoving the manga into his bag. Clutching the bag tightly, he sprinted into the downpour, dodging puddles as he made a beeline for home.
After a minute or so of running, his legs were burning and he was drenched. He tried to make it to the crosswalk in time, but the light changed just as he arrived.
HONK!
He skidded to a stop on the sidewalk.
WHOOSH!
Cars roared past, spraying water everywhere, and he had no choice but to stand there and watch them streak by.
"Damn it…" he muttered, feeling every drop of rain hit his back. And then, out of nowhere…
It all stopped.
The noise of the cars vanished.
The raindrops no longer fell on him.
Even the footsteps of anyone nearby were gone.
'What the-' before he could finish that thought,
Slosh!
He heard someone stepping on water…
Slosh!
And that made sense, it was raining after all
Slosh!
but the thing was, the sound…It wasn't coming from the ground.
He slowly tilted his head upward and saw a scene he thought only possible in anime and manga. Everything, even the cars that had been moving less than a minute ago, was stopped mid-motion, like everything in his vicinity had decided to play the mannequin game.
Even the people on the street opposite him were frozen mid-step.
Every water droplet in the sky, as far as he could tell, was suspended in midair. But that wasn't all.
"I-Is… that a PERSON?!"
Above the buildings, in the frozen rain, there was someone. A figure in a dark blue raincoat, holding an open umbrella above his head, wearing a white mask with a rainbow along the bottom. A white cat perched calmly on their shoulder.
Their feet pressed down on golden, glowing raindrops, and then… they moved. One foot lifted, hovered, and stepped onto another droplet.
Slosh!
For the first time in his life, Issei Hyoudou was completely at a loss for words.
Slosh! Slosh! Slosh!
He just stood there, drenched, water dripping from his hair and clothes. As soon as the drops left him, they too seemed to freeze in midair. His jaw dropped as his eyes tracked every step. All he could do was stare at this surreal figure gliding across the suspended rain like some mystical being straight out of a fairy tale.
And then he heard the figure speak.
"Ummmmm… hey Shirou, I know I said we'd get sushi, buuuuuut… I lowkey want some burgers, soooo-"
Before he could finish, the white cat moved with lightning speed and threw a haymaker straight into the eye hole of the mask.
But before it could fully connect, the figure tilted his head, the mask shifting with the cat's paw. The blow slid harmlessly to the side, revealing half of his face, more importantly, his eye. It was red, but somehow… a golden hexagon shimmered within it.
Seeing he missed, Shirou went for another strike.
"Damn! Okay, okay, I get it! We'll go for sushi, jeez!"
But then, out of nowhere, the man's face went serious. His gaze shifted to the other side of town, and immediately… everything started moving again.
Issei, hearing the sounds of the city returning, looked down instinctively, confused. Then he looked back up… and the figure was gone.
Leaving issei there wondering if what he saw was even real.
*****
Flap
Crunch!
Gasper landed lightly on the forest floor, a single leaf crumpling beneath his boot. Three small shadows rushed toward him and melted into his hand, restoring his three fingers to normal.
Without a word, he started walking deeper into the woods, rain softly landing on his rain coat.
As he made his way up the road, he saw three people approaching, running straight toward him.
He kept walking, eyes fixed ahead, as they drew closer. Eventually, he caught the expressions on their faces.
'They're terrified… did they stumble upon the stray before I got here?'
Two of them ran past him, but as the third was about to do the same, Gasper's hand shot out and grabbed him by the raincoat.
"WHA- LET ME GO!" the boy shouted, struggling as Gasper got a good look at his face when he turned to face him.
Not wasting a second, Gasper asked, "Have you seen anything… strange that way, by chance?"
He tilted his head, motioning toward the path ahead. The boy's face went pale.
"If you're thinking about going down that path, DON'T! Just leave and pretend you never saw me here!"
Hearing that, Gasper let him go. What the boy said only confirmed his suspicions.
The boy, now free, ran like his life depended on it.
Gasper picked up his pace.
'No way those three nobodies could have escaped a stray. Even if it was the weakest low-class devil, they would have still died. Unless… maybe they distracted it with something.'
He soon reached some rundown torii gates and passed beneath them, the wooden stairs creaking softly under his weight.
'Well… it's not like it matters anyway.'
At the end of the path stood a dilapidated temple, its roof sagging and moss covering much of the stone steps.
Expecting it to be in the last place his bat had seen it, Gasper started walking up the stairs toward the main building.
Then, cutting through the trees to his left, he heard footsteps, fast, urgent, closing in.
RUSTLE!
"AHH!"
A boy with short blond hair burst from the foliage, he had cuts all over his body and sweat plastered on his forehead.
Then his gaze met Gasper's eyes,
Then his eyes widened in terror.
"GET OUT THE WA-"
←–TO BE CONTINUED—