The Real Heroes

Akio Hisashi:

Grabbing the kid by the back of his shirt, I lift him. He's shouting and screaming, and his feet are running on wind but he's not going anyway.

"The mask is mine," the little boy shouts. "No! You can't have it! It's mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!"

As the boy goes on and on about how the mask is his and how he won't give it up, I turn to Nemo.

"Hello," I say. "I could use a little help here."

"What do you want me to do," Nemo asks. "I'm a ghost. Remember? My hands go through everything."

Nemo tries to reach for the mask with the dakura tchingu hiding inside it but instead, both his hands go right through the little boy. I try reaching for the mask myself but the little boy slaps my hand away.

"Ouch," I say, shaking my hand.

Thinking what I could do, Emica walks up to me.

"Let me and my hosuto handle this," Emica says. "Just keep holding onto him."

"Go right ahead," I say, pulling back my hand.

Emica Kana:

Dropping down onto one of my knees, making myself face-to-face with the little boy, I turn to Noon.

"Repeat after me," Noon says, kneeling beside me. I nod my head and Noon starts talking.

"Little boy," Noon starts. "Please give up the mask. I know how it looks. It does look very scary and very awesome, but you don't want to be a real monster. Do you? Emica, make him look around. Show him what he did."

I nod my head and step aside.

"Look at what you did," I say.

The little boy, still crying, looks around. He looks around and sees all the black slime everywhere. He also sees the cars that have been overturned, the messy buildings, and Akio and me who are still covered in the slime.

"Begin a scary monster can be fun," Noon says, "But please, don't be a real scary monster."

"But please," I say, looking the little boy in the eyes. "Don't be a real scary monster."

It seems Noon's words are taking effect. The little boy had stopped crying. Slowly, the boy raises his hands up to his head. He takes off the mask and gives it to me.

"I don't want to be a real scary monster," the boy cries. "I just wanted this mask. But I don't want all of this."

"Thank you," I say, taking the monster mask from the boy. "Akio, you can let him down now."

Akio nods and gently puts the boy back on the ground.

"Thank you for giving us the monster mask," Akio says. The boy smiles when Akio thanks him.

With the mask in my hands, I pull it apart, ripping and destroying it. When the mask is destroyed, Akio and I see a large shadow burst out from it. It flies into the air but the second the dakura tchingu sees sunlight, it shakes and burns before disappearing completely.

As the dakura tchingu disappears, all the black slime disappears too. It quickly fades away, the street returning to normal. As Akio and I watch the slime vanish, we hear screaming and turn around. The little boy who gave me the mask is on the ground with his hand on his forehead.

"Ahh," the little boy says, rubbing his eyes. "What happened? Where--Where am I? Where is my mom?"

Before Akio and I can do anything, the little boy starts crying again. He lowers his head and rubs his eyes.

"Uhh, Noon," I whisper, "I could use a little help here! Please!"

"You can't do anything," Noon answers, "But I can. I have an idea. Just follow plan."

Noon tells me her plan and I nod my head. Dropping down to my knee again, I place my hand on the little boy's shoulder.

The boy looks at me with tear-filled eyes.

"I have to go now," I say, repeating what Noon is saying to me, "But don't worry. My friend will be coming to help you. Just wait here. Okay?"

"Okay," the boy says.

Standing up now, I turn to Akio.

"Time to go," I say.

"What about him," Akio asks.

"Don't worry. My hosuto had a plan. Trust her. And me."

With that said, I place my fist against the palm of my hand. Akio seeing this, smiles and places his fist against the palm of his hand. We bow before turning around and disappearing from sights.

The second we're out of sights, hidden between two buildings, I pull out the ruby rose from my pockets.

"A beautiful red rose closes," I chant, my jumpsuit and weapons disappearing and turning into a jacket, a shirt, and a pair of pants. My hairs turn from black to brown, and I switch places with Noon.

"Come on," Noon says, pocketing the ruby rose. "Let's go help that little boy."

Nemo Farid:

"The noble dragon sleeps," Akio chants. As Akio chants the magical phase, his green ninja jumpsuit vanishes. His mask, belt, pouches, and swords all disappear, and are replace by my jacket and pants. Switching places with Akio, now back in my body, I feel a sharp pain and let out a cry.

"Ouch," I scream, rubbing my arm. "Ohhh, I hate that part."

Rolling my shoulders and stretching out, I breath through my nose before walking out from behind a building. Heading back to where Akio and Emica left the little boy, I'm surprise to see Noon there too.

"Noon?"

"Nemo," Noons says. She gets up from her knees and faces me. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm.....here.....to....help him!"

"Really?"

"Yes," I say with a nod. "I...heard him crying and rushed over here. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm.....uhhh....here to....help him too! Yeah! Totally! Yes! Come on, little man. Let's go find your mother."

The little boy is still crying but not as much as before. He smiles as he takes both my and Noon's hands. I smile when I see this and look at Noon. Noon, however, isn't looking at me. She's coughing loudly while looking to the side.

"Man," I think, "Noon need to see a doctor about that cold."

It doesn't take long for Noon and me to find the little boy's mother. We find her in the park, searching for her son. The second the mother and her son see each other, they run into each other's arm and embrace each other.

"Ahh," Noon says, "This is like something out of a movie."

I laugh when I hear this.

"Yeah. I guess that make us the hero."

As I say this, I look at Noon and Noon looks at me. Looking at Noon, I feel something in my throat and look away. Coughing to clear my throat, I look back at Noon.

"I should really get back to my friends."

"Yeah," Noon says, stepping back. "I have Chinese lessons and a photoshoot and something else. I have to go! I guess I'll see you at school."

"Yeah! Totally! Yes!"

I turn around and run to find Oscar and Clarie. I search the park and then the nearby streets. It takes a while but finally, I find the two walking back.

"Hey Oscar," I say, waving at the two. "Hey Clair--Ouch!"

Even before saying hello, Claire slaps me on my arm, and I feel my nerves shoot up in flames.

"Why? What was that for?"

"Where were you," Claire screams. "Oscar and I have been searching for you this whole time! I called you non-stop!"

"Ohhh," I say. I quickly reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. Turning on the screen, the first thing I see are 20 miss calls from Claire. "Claire. I am so sorry about that, but you know, giant monster! I had to hide and keep quiet!"

Claire seems a little less anger than before, but steam is still shooting out of her nose.

"Yeah," Oscar says, stepping forth. "We called you. You didn't answer. Suck. Nemo! Check this out!"

Bringing up his phone, Oscar shows me a video of Doro Monsuta as he pulled himself around.

"Oscar, you were filming? I can't believe that!"

"You can't believe me," Oscar repeats. "Seriously? Nemo, I have footage of an actual monster. A actual slime monster! Oh man! The things I can do with this footage! We don't even know your mask anymore! No offense."

"That's wonderful," Akio says from beside me. "In case you forgotten, Emica destroyed it."

I nod my head at Akio before facing Oscar again.

"None taken," I answer.

"Come on," Oscar says, nudging his head. "I have all the monster footage I need but I still nee some shot of you and Claire! Let's go! I want to be editing by tonight!"

As Oscar runs back to the park, I turn to Claire.

"You coming," I ask.

Claire sighs without any steam. She smiles as she follows me and Oscar to the park.

Noon Encarnacion:

"Sorry I couldn't find any help," I say, apologizing to my driver as he opens the door for me. The driver puts up his hand and shakes his head. He then smiles, nods his head, and closes the door. Getting back into the driver's seat, he starts up the limo and drives me home.

"Well," Emica says, sitting across from me. "You did find help."

"Yeah," I whisper, "But I think it would be better if my driver didn't know about the 'help' I found. Thanks though."

"Don't mention it. I am sorry about your driver. He seems mad."

"Oh, don't worry about that. My driver always looks like that. I think he's just happy I'm safe."

"He hides it well," Emica says with a laugh.

"Yeah," I say, passing the park on the way back to my mother's house. As we pass the park, I see Nemo and Claire and cross my arms.

"Don't worry," Emica says, patting my shoulder with her invisible hand. "You'll get him one day."

As Emica says this, I think back to Nemo and I look at each other in the park. I can't be sure, but I think I might have seen him go red a little.

"One day," I think, laying back and smiling. "That one day might be closer than I expected."

Don' Yokuna Yokubo:

Slamming my magical staff against the ground, I grind my teeth as the purple circle turns to dust.

"Akio Hisashi," I start, "Emica Kana. You two got lucky, but one day, your luck, and your hosuto, will run out! And when it does, then I will claim your souls, regain my full power, and bring back my ancient world! Doro Monsuta was nothing more than a small taste of my dark magic."