Parasite

The city of Venice.

The rooftop of the I Frari Church, near the Rio del Frari canal.

Jack and Yaku are standing on top of the church, watching over the stunning Italian sunset as the long day finally ends. Jack leaned forward with his black uniform blowing against the vast expanse of the city, he looked down at his new boots, his new pants, his new shinny green pin indicating his Fourth Class Sorcerer Status.

Yaku looked at the oblivious Jack. His green pin and black uniform also blowing in the wind. he lowered his head to the roof tiles, listening for any movement inside the church.

Jack pulled out the monster tracker and noticed a red blinking blip.

"It says it's in this church?" (Jack)

"It's definitely inside. I hear footsteps." (Yaku)

Jack looked over the edge of the church. He looked at the street next to the canal. The long green streak of slime leading right inside.

"The green smile leads inside. Your right... So it should be an open and shut case." (Jack)

Yaku picked up a small brown briefcase from the tile. Jack sat down on the tip of the pointed church. He hung his legs over the edge.

"We can't be one hundred percent. There were two sorcerers on the scene before us, they could still be alive." (Yaku)

"True. True. Their lives are the most important." (Jack)

"Well... Not exactly. They were part of the Magic Force, they were prepared to die for the mission. If their lives are a hindrance to us, then they are no better than dead." (Yaku)

Jack turned halfway around, his legs still hanging over the edge. He looked at Yaku's sour eyes, his look of pain, like every decision had to be made, and every decision had a sacrifice.

"But lives are lives." (Jack)

Yaku stepped up.

"Not if the choice leads to more destruction. To more deaths." (Yaku)

Jack shook his head. He shook his head harder, trying to dizzy himself. He looked back out over the city. The world a fuzzy mirror of itself. He pondered a question.

"Venice is an island, right? How would a monster even get here?" (Jack)

Yaku walked to the other end of the church roof. He looked at the surrounding area, for any suspicious behavior. He walked back over to Jack.

"We're working with a Parasitic Monster. These types of monsters hide in people. So to even get to Venice it either had to hide on an unsuspecting human or... Or it's sentient enough to take control of a human and communicate." (Yaku)

"Sentient monsters who can communicate with humans...? I've never..." (Jack)

Jack reflected on his past encounters with monstrous monsters of all different shapes and sizes.

"I've never seen one before? Or... Well I've never really stopped to talk to them. " (Jack)

"They do exist. And they are beyond understanding... This case that we're on. This mission. It's to test that. To see if we can deal with something out of the ordinary." (Yaku)

"And that's our job? To kill abnormality?" (Jack)

"That's why we were put on the Special Magic Squad." (Yaku)

---

The wind blew Yaku's medium-length black hair across his face, his brown eyes glistening in the dimming sun, his stern serious face across a dark shadow.

The two sorcerers stood at the front door of the church building. Yaku held out his old brown briefcase. He laid it across the stone steps leading in. He unhooked the hinges and revealed a golden knife. A breathing knife. A beating knife. A living knife.

"Here's the plan. You're going to go in through the front. Distract the target. And when things start to get hairy I'll jump in. Can you do this on your own?" (Yaku)

"Yup." (Jack)

Jack looked down at the Yaku's beautiful knife. With it's engraved edges, its brown hue of rusted wood, its flowing feathered hilt, with a sharp curved tip.

Golden shine.

Yaku pulled it from its case. He held it up to the setting sun.

Jack pondered another question.

"Is your magic related to do that dagger?" (Jack)

Yaku sat down on one of the steps. He held his knife close to his chest.

"Yes, I create weapons from monsters. The stronger the monster, the stronger the weapon." (Yaku)

The brown brick outside wall, the staring bystanders passing by. All staring at the slightly attractive Yaku. Jack walked up the steps to the two large wooden doors of the church.

Yaku pointed the blade at Jack.

"Jack my name is Yaku Tanoki. Good luck." (Yaku)

Jack smiled.

"Oh and my dagger. It was made from a Class-B Monster. Its name is Hermes." (Yaku)

---

Jack entered the church.

A dark misty feeling floated in the air.

The empty congregation seats from row to row. The elevated stage in the far back, blood across the walls, a single candlelight shine on the preacher's podium in the center.

A dark figure.

He stepped in closer. A puddle of blood across the floor. Jack stood still. He took off his black gloves and placed them firmly in his pockets.

He looked at the blood.

Drip... Drip... Drip...

The dark figure stepped from the podium. It dropped to the lower level of the room. It moved like a puppet on strings, a walking lifeless corpse.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Oh it's... Its backup. Hahahahahah! Who... Who's squad are you... You guys... In..." (Robert)

Jack's face turned sour. Disgusted. Disgusted. Disgusted. He looked disgusted by the sight of this sorcerer. His body covered in dry blood, his face-

"What did you do to him?!" (Jack)

"What did I do to him? Him? Him? Him? Who? Me me me?" (Robert)

Robert stepped forward scratching the back of his neck. His neck. Neck.

The soft candlelight flickered across his face.

Jack saw it!

The deep black crevasses across his face, his neck, his eyes... Like a hollowed husk, no soul inside...

He stepped into the narrow hallway between the rows of congregation seats.

The soft nightly glow of the city shined through the stained glass windows. A spotlight on Jack. He stood still, waiting for the monster to approach him, to attack him first.

"If you still have life left inside of you. Then I don't want to kill you..." (Jack)

"Me! Me!" (Robert)

The lifeless Robert began to sweat profusely. He scratched harder. His skin pealing at each tear, each scratch, scratch, scratch.

"Of course... Of course." (Robert)

Step, step, step.

Robert's face almost tore off, his skin bleeding to the touch. Jack began to walk forward.

The clicking and clacking of his hard boots against the warm pooling blood. Robert awkwardly tripped and fell over himself, he fixed himself upright. His arm's lax in front of him. He stopped at the pool of blood in the center of the room. Jack stopped four feet infront.

Drip... Drip... Drip...

They stood face to face. Robert's hollowed black eyes. Jack's glowing green eyes.

"My fellow... I wanted... To tell you... That I... Loved... You!" (Robert)

Robert put on a creepy smile.

Jack felt a distant memory shiver across his body. That same type of face, that same type of expression.

His brother.

Instant.

He punched Robert across the face. Hitting him hard to the ground, slamming him with all his strength into the puddle of blood.

Splash!

Jack stepped back.

Robert stood up instantly. He looked at Jack standing across from him. He walked forward again. Jack readied himself to punch. He readied himself to attack.

But the memories kept flooding in.

His brother.

He tried to control the tension.

Robert grabbed Jack by the neck. He pulled him up to the sky with inhuman strength.

Tension! Tenosion!

Jack controlled his thoughts. But the anger kept spilling out. Spilling like red viscus gush across an empty bathtub. Splashing back and forth. A carpet on either side. Stained red.

Jack kicked hard into Robert's stomach. Hit hit hit. He kept hitting. But none of his attacks could make Robert budge. It was like he couldn't feel pain. Like he was a- A corpse.

"My... My fellow Sorcerer!" (Robert)

"Your not human!" (Jack)

Jack placed both hands on Robert's head.

"Yang!" (Jack)

Black.

The black orb was summoned in the air. Robert twitched up. He grabbed Jack by the throat throwing him across the church, across the rows of chairs, spinning, crashing.

He slid hitting all the chairs to the side, making a line of empty space in between until he slammed into the wall stopping the momentum.

"Your pretty strong for a dead person." (Jack)

Jack clenched his fist. The black orb smacked Robert on the head. Jack sat back up with his hand hovered high in the sky.

He controlled the black orb. Moving it back and forth, around and around. Hitting Robert back and forth.

Each hit he would release a little more of the stored up energy he kept inside. Each hit releasing the same amount as a small punch. Over and over and over again. It spun around Robert. Leg, head, back, chest, stomach, feet. Every inch of him was getting pummeled. Again again again again. Hit hit hit hit! Over and over and over!

Jack slowly stood up with his right hand slamming back and forth, up and down, around and around.

Robert flicked his head around and around. Chasing the ball like an amused cat trying to catch a laser dot. Like a toy to play with instead of a force to deal with.

"It's not being effected?" (Jack)

Jack stopped the movements of the ball. He brought it back to him.

"I'm gonna have to use my second ability." (Jack)

Robert stood perfectly still. It's hollowed eyes looking at the black ball. Wanting the black ball.

It started to mindlessly stumbled forward. Pushing past the broken rows of seats and sharp pieces of wood.

It reached Jack. It's hand reaching out for the orb.

"Yin!" (Jack)

White.

He summoned the white orb tossing it high into the sky.

Robert swung hard with his bleeding nub of a hand, with his fingers hanging by a thread. Jack dodged back, taking a few gracefully steps away, keeping his distance.

The monster chased him.

Step after step. Step after step.

Jack held the black orb just a few feet away from Robert at all times, taunting him with it.

"Yin and Yang. Everything has an equal and or opposite reaction..." (Jack)

Jack dodged around the church, evading every attack, making sure the monster Dolo's was always a few feet behind.

"My power has a certain trick to it, when someone sees my magic at first they think it's just absorption, but it's really something much simpler..." (Jack)

Robert swiped at Jack.

He ducked.

"It's in the name. Yin and Yang. Equal and opposite reaction. Everything that I take I must give. And I have two abilities for that. My first ability Yang is to absorb attacks and release them with Yin. While my other magic ability is to gather all the force, magic, and energy in one space in a two minute time period. Then after the two minutes are up... I can release all that force... Into one attack." (Jack)

The steps, the broken seats, the attacks, punches, talking. Every force, movement, everything was absorbed into Yang. Everything.

Jack grabbed the black orb.

The two minutes were up.

All the force in one strike.

---

Yaku sat outside the church. He sat with his golden glistening dagger between his fingers.

The night's veil fell upon the city.

He heard the sounds of slamming and fighting inside the church.

"He's probably got it. No need for me to step in." (Yaku)

The sounds slowly turned into aggressively light punches. One after the other. Nonstop.

Yaku stood up to the window intrigued by what could be going on inside. He saw Jack slamming his hand hard against the air, as a black orb propelled itself around Robert, hitting him on all sides.

"What is he doing? Is he beating it? I think... He's got it?" (Yaku)

A voice in the darkness behind. Red eyes in the shadows of light.

"Does he?" (Mysterious Voice)

A man in a trench coat, his arms wrapped in white bloody bandages. Yaku turned around quickly. The man was gone.

"What was-" (Yaku)

A small purple ball rolled up to his feet.

"Wha-" (Yaku)

The ball started to expand. Pink meaty flesh turned into blobs of disgusting goop.

"Shit! A monster! (Yaku)

He stepped back with an instant reaction time. He threw his curved knife Hermes into the air. He crossed his arms and fingers into the shape of an X.

"Hermes Bolt!" (Yaku)

Hermes flew across the air, yellow lighting shining from its curved tip. It flung around Yaku, spinning insanely fast until it penetrated the purple fleshy ball.

The blob sat flopped, Yaku's dagger sticking into it. Red puss began to form, expand, it didn't stop. Flesh growing, expanding, blowing up. Hands, fingers, feet, nipples, tounges, tails, legs, hair, the monster started turning into other creatures, morphing into a blob of disgusting mutated animals and humans.

"This is...! Shit!" (Yaku)

An eye appeared in the flesh. A huge red eye that stared at him between the flaps of bleeding gunk and goo.

Yaku crossed his arms again. He looked at the small blade in the ever expanding monster blob.

"Hermes Shock!" (Yaku)

An electric lighting attack surged across the monster's fleshy body through Hermes. It began to screech and scream. Wiggling in all directions. Expanding faster.

"This is bad! It's withstanding my magic? I need a different weapon more suited for mutant type monster!" (Yaku)

---

Blood flowed from Robert's soulless eyes, his body stood with a gaping hole in his chest, his legs still standing, his arm still stretched out.

Jack unsummoned his orbs. He looked out at the mess he made. The guts and gore across the entirety of the church.

"I hope the cleaning guys can clean this up? " (Jack)

The sounds of wiggling and screeching. Jack quickly looked over Robert's shoulder.

He saw a small worm-like monster with green goopy arms and a small wiggly tail trying its best to escape from the fight.

Jack walked across the rumble of destroyed seats. He walked up to the wiggling slimy green monster trying to escape. He squished it under his boot. Right into the pool of blood.

"That was easy I didn't even need-" (Jack)

Drip... Drip... Drip...

He looked up at the ceiling. The dark mist above. The darkness above. Blood dripping from above.

"Your..." (Jack)

He saw a body crashed mangled across the beams. A woman with her arms torn and ripped apart, her chest blown open, blood dripping from her eyes.

Jack looked back at the little green monster. He looked at Robert.

"Wait! Could the little green monster really do that? No- That's... That was something else." (Jack)

Jack stood in silence. He looked down sat for a quick moment before realizing that there was nothing he could do. That he had done as much as he could have-

Yaku jumped through the stained glass window. Shards of glass blowing out in all directions. He rolled into the debris of broken chairs and seats. He looked up at Jack who stood covered in blood.

"Call the Magic Force, now!" (Yaku)

The walls of the church slowly bent back. The windows throughout the whole building exploded outward by the pressure.

"I tried to stop it but it keeps growing. We'll have to retreat and call for backup!" (Yaku)

"What is it?" (Jack)

He looked at the wall that slowly crumbled. He looked out the window. He saw a grotesque monster, human and animal, and all types of horrific body parts littered about its pink flesh.

The two of them immediately texted the building. They stood twenty feet away from the ever-growing monster as it morphed into a hundred shapes, from inside out, from left to right. A blob of gore and death.

It slowly rolled across the street. Growing bigger and bigger. Never stopping, never slowing.

Innocent bystanders started to run and scream.

"We have to do something." (Jack)

Jack gracefully stepped up. He held out his white and black orbs.

"Come at me!" (Jack)

He ran at the monster, its massive single eye following him as he ran around in circles, trying to stop it in any way he could.

Yaku stood still, his Hermes dagger in hand.