[Awakening – Part 2]
As the clock approached six in the evening, the school seemed like a different place. The exterior lights had been turned on, colorful lanterns hung between the corridors, and rows of paper flags marked the paths leading to the central courtyard. The cultural festival was finally beginning, and the school pulsed with an energy different from the quiet routine of classes. Parents, relatives, and visitors walked among the booths set up by the students. The aroma of freshly prepared food mixed with the sound of lively conversations, laughter, and music coming from the main stage.
In a corner of the courtyard, first-year students were selling skewers and traditional sweets. Further along, a small line formed in front of a game booth where visitors tested their aim by throwing rings and small balls at colorful targets. Children laughed, adults chatted, teachers supervised everything with satisfied expressions. For a few hours, the school ceased to be just a place of study and transformed into something very close to a small community fair.
It was in this environment that the Tosaka family arrived shortly after six. Mr. Tosaka had to park a few streets away due to the crowd and walked with the others to the school gate. As soon as they passed through the entrance, Shizuka practically dashed into the courtyard, her eyes shining as she turned her head from side to side, trying to absorb everything at once.
"Wow!" she exclaimed, holding her mother's hand for a moment before pointing in several directions at the same time. "There's food over there! And games! And… look at that!"
The colorful lanterns reflected in the girl's eyes, and she seemed unable to stay still. Mrs. Tosaka chuckled softly while trying to keep up with her daughter's pace, simultaneously greeting some familiar parents who had also arrived at the festival. Mr. Tosaka exchanged a few words with a colleague whose daughter attended the school, commenting on the size of the event this year and how the organization seemed to have surpassed that of previous years.
Ushio, in turn, quickly recognized some third-year classmates near one of the booths. A small group chatted animatedly while observing the courtyard's activity. As soon as they saw him, they waved naturally, and Ushio approached to exchange a few quick words.
"Representative of the class also here to enjoy the festival?" one of them joked.
Ushio smiled lightly.
"Someone needs to check if the first- and second-year students are keeping order."
"Of course, of course," the colleague replied, letting out a light laugh.
Meanwhile, Shizuka again tugged at her mother's arm.
"Can we see the stage first? Ushio-nii-san said there will be performances!"
"Yes, let's," her mother replied, guiding her daughter through the booths and the crowd.
The music coming from the main stage grew louder as they approached. Some classes were already organizing instruments while a small group practiced dance steps in a corner of the stage. The festival was just beginning, and the atmosphere promised a long and lively night.
Not far from there, at one of the precision game booths, Takeda desperately tried to land a small ball on a row of metal cans stacked on a table. His first throw went far off. The second too. On the third, the ball bounced off the table's edge and fell to the ground.
"This is impossible!" he complained, raising his hands.
Shoto watched the scene, arms crossed, with a calmness that was at least provocatively teasing.
"Statistically speaking, you just have terrible aim."
"Shut up, Shoto!"
Himiko stood beside them, leaning against the side of the booth, but her gaze wandered through the crowd as if searching for someone.
"Don't you think it's strange he hasn't arrived yet?" she commented.
Takeda shrugged.
"Li's always late."
Even so, Himiko pulled her phone from her pocket and checked the screen. No new messages. She typed quickly and sent one.
"Hey, Li. You're not going to log out of the festival too, right?"
It was a joke about the previous night, when he had abruptly abandoned an online game. Still, after sending the message, she looked up again at the crowd, as if expecting to see him appear somewhere in the courtyard.
Li's phone vibrated, wherever he was. The screen lit up briefly upon receiving the message. The device lay on the ground with a broken display, a few meters from the fallen bicycle. There, the atmosphere was completely different. The street remained shrouded in a strange, heavy silence, as if that part of the city had been ripped from the real world and isolated within an invisible bubble. In the center of the deserted street, Li lay on the ground, his body contorting as pain pierced his head.
His fingers gripped his own hair, and his screams echoed in the void as disconnected images invaded his mind. Flames. Swords. Distant voices.
A war that seemed impossible… and at the same time terrifyingly real. The men in black had halted their movements for a moment when that roar echoed, and seconds later the ground trembled.
The small corner bakery simply exploded outward, as if something gigantic had forced its way through the walls. Bricks flew, windowpanes shattered, pieces of wood were hurled across the street as a monstrous creature emerged from the ruined building. Its body was grotesque, a colossal spider supported by eight long, jointed legs that tore through the asphalt with every touch.
But what was atop that body was even worse. A woman's face, elderly. Pale. Dead. The features were almost human but distorted by eyes too deep and black, and an irregular mouth full of sharp teeth that opened in a piercing scream. The creature was over three meters tall.
A demon.
The men in black did not panic, but surprise was visible in their posture.
"A level six… here?" one of them muttered.
The leader narrowed his eyes.
"Take the target. The others with me."
One of the agents ran to Li, lifted the unconscious boy, and placed him over his shoulders while he still moaned in a trance. Within the boy's mind, fragments of another era continued to emerge, memories that did not seem his own. The man began to move away quickly. But the demon noticed. Its grotesque head turned toward them, and the creature let out another roar, a sound loaded with primitive hatred.
Its target was clearly the boy, and it would not let him be taken. So it began to advance. But the remaining four agents were already in motion. Each took from their pocket a small rectangular strip covered with inscriptions. As soon as they activated the seals using Ether, they exploded into small clouds of white smoke, materializing heavy metal chains in their hands.
With synchronized movements, they hurled the chains at the creature. Two wrapped around the front legs. Two around the hind legs. The weight of the anchors attached to the chains pulled the demon violently downward. The creature was dragged across the asphalt with a heavy thud, raising a curtain of dust.
The fifth agent continued running with Li on his shoulders.
"Boss," he spoke into the communicator, "a level six demon just manifested north—"
He didn't finish the sentence. Something appeared before him. A brutal impact hit his stomach. The kick was so violent that the air was knocked from his lungs as blood escaped his mouth. His body was thrown back and he fell hard onto the asphalt.
The assailant advanced to grab Li but had to jump back the instant a short blade cut through the air and embedded itself in the ground exactly where he had stood a second before. Li never touched the ground. Someone caught him. A figure appeared and supported him before he could fall. The mysterious woman.
She placed the boy on her shoulders with ease, keeping her eyes fixed on the figure now perched on the nearby rooftop.
"What are you doing here?" she asked coldly.
She removed the mask. Her blue eyes glimmered with irritation.
"You are outside your jurisdiction. Members of another clan do not perform tasks in foreign territory… unless it's for purge purposes."
On the roof, the man in the dark blue suit observed everything with almost irritating calm. His spiky purple hair swayed slightly in the wind as he smiled as if the whole situation were just a curious game.
"I think you forgot one detail," he replied, crouching on the edge of the roof. "When there is a suspicion of an emitter… the rules change."
His gaze slid to Li.
"And this boy… is clearly one. And as you can see yourself…" he added calmly, "…demons can sense it."
A few meters away, the four men in black continued restraining the demon, trying to immobilize it to reach its core and destroy it. The creature resisted violently, but the perimeter had already been established. The perimeter, as they called it, was a manifestation of Ether, the type of field used by the so-called Collectors to distort a specific area and deal with supernatural phenomena without the ordinary world noticing. That's why there was no one on the street. No sound. No reaction from the surrounding houses. It was as if that part of the city had been disconnected from the rest of the world.
"You and I are executives," continued the man on the roof. "We have to enforce the rules."
His gaze returned to Li.
"This boy is clearly an emitter. Kill him now, and I'll leave. Unless you want to turn this into a bigger problem."
The woman slightly narrowed her eyes.
"Was it you?"
"Hm?"
"The demon."
The man did not answer. It was not a confirmation. But it was also not a denial. She furrowed her brow. It was impossible… but too coincidental. A member of a rival clan appeared precisely in that area, where the emitter lived, and at the same moment a level six demon emerged. It could be just a purge mission. But something there was deeply wrong.