Chapter 10 - Team Rena 1st Demon Mission


“Hey Sasshi…”

“Who…..was that girl….” Sasshi remained dozing off.

“Sasshi?”

“….”

“SASSHI!” Somebody slammed onto the table, startling her. Sasshi looked up to be met up with Rena’s face.

“Stop your daydreaming. Akane’s calling for us.” Rena ordered.

“Oh.. Ok…” Sasshi stood up and walked into Akane’s office along with her team members.

“Listen here closely, the six of you… This will be your first mission as a team. This mission is completely different than any missions ever given out. You’ll be dealing with demons this time. One mistake and you will lose your life. Since Captain Nezumi will be following the six of you in your mission, you must protect her at all cost.” Akane warned.

“Got it.” As the leader of this team, Rena nodded.

“So, what’s the mission?” Jurina asked.

“I’ve got news that there had been disappearance cases going on somewhere in the forest in the far side of the country. Somewhere over here…” Akane pointed at a map.

“Wait… Disappearance cases?” Yuki frowned.

“Yes. There had been a lot of cases of people disappearing once they entered into this specific forest.. Well… Something like a Bermuda Triangle. That’s why the forest had been closed off for a week now..” Akane explained.

“That’s a little creepy…” Rena said.

“Well, maybe they were kidnapped by someone and used as slaves…” Sasshi said suddenly.

“Of course you would think that having slaves is nice, you have millions of them.. But this case is different, though.. This may not be a kidnapping case. They just….disappear…and never seen again.” Akane explained.

“Alright, now it’s creeping me out as well..” Sasshi replied.

“So…. Basically, our mission is to find what actually happened? Easy…” Gakuran smiled.

“It’s not as easy as you think, Gakuran.. I have news that the one who is responsible for these disappearance cases is a demon. A powerful one, that is.. Remember the photo of the demon I showed to everyone last week? Well, that’s the target. The one that beheaded two of our eilte hunters. Do not underestimate him. It is said that after he devours someone, he will gain the ability of that specific being.” Akane said.

“D-Devour?” Mayu swallowed her saliva.

“As I said before, you will be dealing with demons this time. Don’t be surprised. He might be the most powerful thing you’ve ever fought.” Akane replied.

“You know, actually I’m feeling a little scared…” Sasshi fakely smiled.

“Oh, come on, Sasshi… You’re so powerful.. What are you afraid of?” Rena put her arms over Sasshi’s shoulders.

“Emm… Rena?” Jurina sounded out all of a sudden.

“Yes, Jurina?”

“Your hands…” Jurina pointed at Rena’s arms which was hung over Sasshi’s shoulders.

“Oh…” Rena removed her arm immediately.

“So, when do we start?” Chokoku sounded.

“Well, you can start now, actually.” Akane said.

“Sure.. The faster we finish this mission, the less people will be sold.” Jurina said.

“Let’s go! We have some demon to kick!” Rena shouted to her team.

“Emm… You guys wait outside for me awhile. I have something to talk to Akane about..” Sasshi sounded.

“Alright.. Make it fast, ok? We plan to end this fast.” Rena said as her team walked outside to wait.

“That’s weird, Sasshi… What was it that you want to talk to me about?” Akane asked.

“Do you happen to know Furukawa Airi?” Sasshi’s sudden question shocked Akane badly.

“”H-How did you know about her?”

“Remember that day when we went to AKB Island and did the test of courage? Yea… That was where I saw the tombstone…”

“Err… How far did you stray off actually? Her tombstone was way off the trail..”

Sasshi rolled her eyes. “You should know I have no sense of direction. But still, the topic isn’t about me now, Akane…”

“Yes, I know her. She was the ex-Vice President of this organization.”

“Was she your lover or something?” Sasshi asked.

“Yes, she was.. I loved her… And she loved me..”

“So, how did she die, actually?”

“She was stabbed in the chest.”

“When did she die?”

“About 3 years ago..”

“Hmm…. What a coincidence…” Sasshi smiled.

“What are you talking about?”

“I just so happened to have a zombie in my collection named Furukawa Airi.. A wound on the chest. Dead, also 3 years ago…”

“Y-You what??” Akane’s eyes opened wide.

“Do you want to meet her?” Sasshi asked.

“I…..do….” Akane answered in a soft tone.

Sasshi nodded her head. “Alright. I too think you deserve to meet her.”

Sasshi engulfed her arm with a green aura and placed it onto the ground before channeling it into the ground. At this time, an arm burst out from the ground, shocking Akane.  The zombie then slowly crawled out from the ground and greeted Sasshi. Akane took a closer look at the zombie and saw a very familiar face of a girl. She had a wound on the chest.  Akane’s eyes started getting teary. “Airin? Is that you?”

Akane tried to walk closer to her. “Airin, is that you?”

She tilted her head and groaned back at Akane.

“What’s wrong with her, Sasshi? She doesn’t seem to recognize me…”

“You’re right, Akane… She doesn’t recognize you. I’ve kept her memories in my Memory Orb.” Sasshi explained.

“Give her back her memories, Sasshi! There’s so many things I want to ask her!” Akane shouted.

“I’m sorry to tell you this, Akane, but I can’t allow that to happen.. Zombies must never be allowed to retain their memories..  Sometimes…there are some memories that should be left forgotten. Just be happy that I allow you to even meet her.”

Akane then nodded her head in understanding. “I get it… Thanks, Sasshi..”

Akane walked up to Airin and hugged her. Tears started spilling from her eyes. “I missed you a lot, Airin.. I’m sorry that I couldn’t find your murderer. But I promise you, I will find the murderer. Still, you look really peaceful, Airin.. It makes me really happy..”

Akane then separated herself from Airin and noticed a tear dripping from Airin’s eye. Even as a normal zombie without emotions or memories, it seemed like Airin heard every single one of Akane’s statement.

“Emm… Sasshi?” Akane wiped her tears and sounded.

“Yes?”

“I know this is a selfish request, but I want Airin to be released from the life of a zombie…”

Sasshi smiled and nodded. “Request accepted.”

Sasshi again engulfed her hand in green aura and placed it on Airin’s head. A green aura is seen escaping from Airin’s body and back into Sasshi’s arm. After that, the ground beneath Airin slowly break open, sinking Airin slowly and finally back into the ground.

“She’s back where she’s supposed to be.” Sasshi smiled.

“Thank you, Sasshi..”

Sasshi then shrugged her shoulders. “You’re welcome… I have millions of soldiers. Losing one doesn’t change anything.”

Sasshi inhaled hard. “Well, I better get going now. They’re waiting for me outside..”

Sasshi walked outside and greeted her team members. “Sorry for being late, guys……………..”

“Err….. Guys?”

Nobody was outside. Everyone left.

Sasshi’s mouth opened wide. “I..…don’t……believe it…. I’m being left alone all over again…”



In the forest at the far side of the country

“Emm.. Are you sure it’s nice just leaving Sasshi alone again?” Jurina asked.

“I told her to make it fast. We waited for half an hour and she still haven’t appeared, so we might as well just make our move first.” Rena answered.

“Wait.. Does she know how to get here? She seemed to be direction blind.” Yuki asked.

“Don’t worry about that, guys… She has extreme good luck after all. She will be able to find her way here soon…….or maybe not..” Rena answered.

“Hey.. Are you sure we’re in the right place? It’s completely empty here.” Chokoku looked around to see nothing suspicious.

“That’s weird....” Mayu frowned suddenly.

“What’s wrong?” Gakuran questioned.

Mayu kneeled down on a knee and picked up a weird looking leaf before examining it. “This is really weird…”

“Speak up, Mayu.. What’s wrong?” Rena nodded her head.

“This leaf doesn’t belong from this area… In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this species of leaf before. It doesn’t exist… ” Mayu frowned.

“Are you sure about this, Nezumi-sama?” Yuki asked.

“Yuki… I know every single species of leaf in the world, and none of them looked anything like this…” Mayu showed the weird looking leaf to Yuki.

“What are you talking about right now?” Gakuran asked.

“So, what are you trying to imply?” Jurina asked.

“What Akane said may be right… This place may be similar to the Bermuda Triangle. There must be an entrance to a world we have never seen before somewhere in this forest.” Mayu answered seriously.

Everyone literally swallowed their salivas from the thought of it.

“But whatever it is, nobody came out alive. Take a look at this.” Yuki pointed at a pond of blood nearby.

Rena grabbed onto Jurina’s arm as she was quite afraid. Jurina who noticed Rena getting scared, put her arms around her and smiled warmly. “You don’t have to be scared, Rena-chan… I’m here to protect you.”

Rena replied with a smile and a nod.

“So, how do we find the entrance to our destination?”

“Since the forest is so wide, we have no choice but to separate and look for it. Any suspicious or weird occurrence, just scream out loud.” Mayu said.

“Got it.” Everyone answered simultaneously.

“We’ll go in pairs just in case. Going alone is too risky.” Mayu proposed.

“I’ll go search the west area with Chokoku..” Gakuran said.

“We’ll search north, then.” Yuki said to Mayu.

“We’ll search the east area.” Jurina held onto Rena’s hand.

“Jurina? I kinda feel a little scared though… Not sure why, but I have a bad feeling..” Rena gripped onto Jurina’s hand hardly.

“As I said before, Rena-chan.. You don’t have to worry. I will protect you..” Jurina gripped back onto Rena’s hand, assuring her.

After a few moments of walking, both Rena and Jurina felt a sudden gust of strong, cold wind blowing towards their direction, causing both of them to flinch and close their eyes for a little while. Once they opened their eyes, they were literally shocked at their surroundings. It is like they were brought to a completely different place. It still looks like the forest, but the only thing is that, it was night time.

“The sky……suddenly became dark..” Both of them looked up into the sky to notice that it was in fact dark.

“It was still day time a few seconds ago…” Rena started to feel shivers down her spine.

“What…..is this place….” Jurina looked around and noticed that the forest was completely covered with fog.



“We have to inform them…” Rena turned around to notice that there was no doorway or anything. Just the same dark, foggy forest. They didn’t know how they got into this place at all. It was during that time when the cold wind blowing that they were suddenly transported into this place.

“There’s no way out, Rena-chan… There is only entering this place.. No escaping. As long as the demon residing this area is still alive, we will be trapped in this dimension forever. We have to quickly find the demon and kill it if we want to escape. But without the help from the others, we might have a little trouble, though..” Jurina explained.

“Jurina… This is the first time I actually see you being very reliable in a dark forest… Usually, you would freak out.” Rena asked.

“That’s because something else is bothering me in this forest, Rena-chan… Bothering me so much that I can literally discard my fear for dark and scary places like this…”

“W-What do you mean, Jurina?” Rena tightened her grip onto Jurina’s arm.

“This forest reeks of demon energy and…….” Jurina stuttered.

“And what, Jurina?????” Rena was literally scared.

Jurina then looked at Rena. “Corpses… Thousands of them..”

Rena’s eyes widened in shock at the sight of the ground they were standing on. The grasses were literally painted in blood. Jurina then walked towards a nearby tree to find out that the leaves on the tree were the ones that Mayu found earlier on. “This is definitely the place..”

“There’s only one demon I know of that is this vicious…” Jurina summoned her scythe all of a sudden, startling Rena.

“What’s wrong, Jurina? Why did you summon your scythe all of a sudden?” Rena asked, gripping onto Jurina’s arm.

Without a moment of hesitation, Jurina turned her body and swinged her scythe towards Rena, causing her to leap backwards to dodge it. “Jurina, what are you doing!?”

Jurina then coldly pointed her scythe towards Rena. “Nice try… I’d credit you with this. You almost tricked me completely.”

“What are you talking about, Jurina? Don’t you know me?? I’m Rena! Why did you attack me!?”

“If you were the REAL Rena-chan, I sure wouldn't have tried to attack you,................demon.”



Chapter 10 - Team Rena 1st Demon Mission
END


Next Chapter : Chapter 11 - Doom