Chapter 11 - Look Who is Taking Care of Who Now

Nine days later, Kasumi sleeps in her bed, clearly in distress and having a nightmare.

"W-Why...Please just stop…" Kasumi mumbles fearfully.

Her father's voice echoes in her head, causing her to be fearful and angry.

"You're fucking weak, Kasumi." His voice booms. "One of these days, I'll come for you and your weak ass brother."

"Please…" Kasumi mumbles.

"Come here, Kasumi." Hirata's tone changes.

Tears start building in her eyes. And she starts stirring in her bed.

"I said come here!"

Kasumi shoots her eyes open and sits up crying and pressing her hands to her head.

"No! No no no no no no no no…"

Kasumi lays back down on her bed and curls up into a ball and continues to cry. Sato stands outside of her room getting ready to knock, but he stops himself.

***

"What the hell am I supposed to do to help her out?" Sato asks Yoshiro.

"Sometimes, you have to leave her alone." Yoshiro explains. "Let her work things out a little bit and give her room to breathe and think. I know it doesn't seem like it, but that's a good start and will help in the long run."

***

Sato looks down at the ground and walks back to his room.

***

Ex walks through the very empty police station. Ex and Chief Shusuke are the only people there. Ex goes to Shusuke's office and walks in.

"Sir," Ex says.

"What's your progress on the case so far, Takahashi?"

"Yeah. Turns out, I might need more time on this case than I thought."

Shusuke shifts his eyes from his paperwork to look at Ex and then back down at his paperwork.

"Why?"

"I may have a lead. I need to do deeper research and I need to observe longer."

"That's fine with me. But when I need you in another case I would like for you to be on the one I give you over this one."

"Copy that."

"I would like to hear the lead that you have."

"It's not a strong lead yet. I would like to wait until it is."

"You're the expert here."

Ex nods slightly before leaving the Chief's office.

***

Sato follows the sidewalk, unclear of where he's going.

"Sato!" A familiar voice chimes from behind. Yoshiro clings to Sato, throwing him off-guard.

"Yoshiro." Sato chuckles. "Hey."

"It's a really nice day today."

"Yeah it sure is."

"How are you doing?"

"I'm doing alright. Hey, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"I think Kasumi may like someone. What do I do?"

"Oh? Uhm...how does she act around said person?"

"She says she hates him. More than anything. But, I've never seen her care so much about something or someone for that matter."

"She could also genuinely hate this person."

"I don't know."

"How does said person act around Kasumi?"

"Well...they claim to hate her too. I just don't think they really hate each other."

"What makes you think that?"

"I mean, if they truly hated each other, they could just stop."

"Hanging out?"

"Yeah sure."

"If she likes this guy, things will play out on its own."

"You're right."

"Although, if you have the chance, teasing them could be fun."

"Yoshiro and Sato both smirk at each other."

"You've got a point."

"I have something important to ask you."

"Uhm...can it wait until after this errand I've gotta run? I'm very busy today."

"Sure. It can wait. Is everything ok?"

"Yeah I just gotta get a few things."

"Ok sure thing. Wanna meet up sometime next week? I'm booked for the rest of the week."

"Yes."

"Alright cool. I'll leave you be. Love you."

"Love you, too."

Yoshiro plants a quick kiss on Sato's cheek before taking off.

Sato walks through the woods to Ex's cabin with arrows in his arms. When he gets there, Ex has his arms crossed while Kasumi is on the ground doing push-ups.

"What'd she do now?" Sato smirks.

"Pissed me off." Ex replies.

Sato chuckles a little bit, earning a dirty look from Kasumi.

"You still have 15 left to go."

"Yeah I know." Kasumi replies, heavily strained.

Kasumi does a push up.

"Dickhead." Kasumi mutters under her breath.

"Don't make it worse, smartass." Ex warns.

Sato goes inside the cabin and places his new arrows with the rest of the arrows. Sato goes and sits on the steps and watches Kasumi finish.

"Last one." Ex says, annoyed.

"I can count."

Kasumi does her last push up and then falls weakly to the ground.

"What'd she do to piss you off? I'm kinda curious." Sato asks, amused by the situation.

"I'm glad that you're amused." Kasumi smirks. "It turns out, he's a very sensitive guy."

"That's not important. Anyway, I called you here to be able to talk to both of you." Ex says.

"About what?" Sato asks.

"About a better tactic when fighting these things."

Kasumi weakly stands up. Ex, Sato and Kasumi both go inside the cabin. Ex goes near the sink to pour himself a drink and Kasumi angrily follows. Sato watches in amusement.

"Seriously, you can lighten up at least a little bit." Kasumi says to Ex.

"I'm as lightened as I need to be." Ex replies.

"Right. When was the last time you genuinely smiled?"

"Kasumi, let me ask, when's the last time you genuinely smiled?" Kasumi shuts up and Ex turns around to face her. "I could care less what you do after we're done."

"Who knows how long this could actually take." Kasumi says. "I understand that I need to learn things and that my job is very important, but I don't have to work myself to the bone second after second."

"Apparently you don't understand the fact that the fate of the entire world rests in the palm of your hands alone."

"I understand that completely." Kasumi clenches her fists. "But you-"

Sato walks away and snickers to himself.

"What are you laughing at?" Kasumi angrily asks.

"Nothing." Sato chuckles. "Let's just talk about the tactic if you guys are willing to stop arguing for a second."

Kasumi focuses back on Ex.

"What's the tactic you wanted to talk about?" Kasumi asks coldly.

"Until Kasumi gains full control of her power, she's not much use. Nothing more than dead weight."

"Ouch." Sato says.

"You're seriously gonna call me dead weight?!" Kasumi yells, pissed off. "After all the training I've done?!"

"Which means that it'll mainly be up to Sato and myself." Ex says, ignoring Kasumi.

"Do I even need to go with you?"

"As of right now, you are a fail-safe. You are only to use your power if it's the last option we have left. Do you understand?"

"Tch." Kasumi crosses her arms.

"Do you understand?" Ex says impatiently.

"Whatever you say, know-it-all."

"Sato, based on what happened with the other creature we fought, you are the only one that can see their weaknesses. You are also the only one that can locate these things."

"Right."

'The weakness of the last creature was its heart. But we have no idea if every creature is like that."

Sato's head starts hurting. He focuses his hearing and hears footsteps.

"Wait…" Sato says.

"What is it?" Kasumi asks.

"I think one of them found us."

"How close?" Ex asks.

"I-I can't tell."

There's a brief silence before the sound of glass shattering alarms everyone. A giant hand reaches in and grabs Kasumi.

"What the hell? Let me go!"

Kasumi struggles in the grip of the monster but can't seem to get herself free.

"Dammit!" Ex shouts to himself, frustrated.

Sato grabs his bow that sat in the corner of the cabin and grabs his new arrows. Both him and Ex run outside to see a large and sloppy creature. It has gaping holes for eyes and a mouth that is brutally stiched into a smile.

"Holy shit! This thing is fucking creepy." Sato remarks.

Kasumi struggles even more before the creature inches Kasumi closer to its mouth.

"It doesn't have any eyes!" Sato adds.

"That's fine. I'll just have to go in without any help." Ex says to himself.

"I'm sorrryyyyyyy... boss says I have you take youuu in orderrrr to liveeee." The creature's words are slurred and low.

"What?" Kasumi asks herself.

Just then, Kasumi sees a bright green light zoom right in front of her. Afterwards, blood gushes out of a line that seems to have been cut straight across its face. Kasumi looks to her left to see Ex with his weapon drawn and eyes trained. Ex zooms straight towards the arm that Kasumi is gripped in and slices it right off, causing Kasumi and the arm attached to fall to the ground. Kasumi hits the ground hard, causing pain in her back.

"Kasumi, get back!" Sato orders.

Kasumi stands up but doesn't move. She stays where she is in case Ex needs help. Ex moves quicker than the speed of light, slicing at its legs and then cutting its head off, causing even more blood to splatter everywhere. Kasumi now steps back next to Sato knowing that Ex has it under control.

"Woah." Kasumi says, out of breath.

The creature's dark and sluggish body falls limp to the ground. Ex, who is covered in blood, lands on the ground and walks calmly back to Kasumi and Sato. Ex puts the sword away and observes the blood that covers his arm.

"Disgusting." Ex retorts.

"I don't think it's dead." Sato says.

"What gives you that idea?" Kasumi asks.

"That!"

The creature stands back up, putting itself back together. It ends up being more disfigured than before.

"I'm sorryyyyyy."

"Fuck!" Ex shouts.

The creature snatches Ex off the ground and begins squeezing. It squeezes him so hard that his bones start breaking. Kasumi begins to step forward, but Sato pushes her back.

"Sato stop! Just let me take care of it!"

"You don't have control of your power." Sato tells her. "You can kill all of us easily. What happened last time was a lucky fluke. Let us handle this." Sato dodges the creature's hand and loads an arrow. If I can just get a clear shot of the heart…

"Agh...son of a bitch…." Ex feels the strength drain from his body.

Kasumi takes steps back, scared she might do something. He's right. It was just a lucky fluke. What if I actually ended up killing them by accident?

The creature swings at Sato, but Sato slides under the hand and quickly stabilizes himself. He draws the bow but the creature swings at him again. Sato looks over at Ex quickly to realize that he's almost dead. I have to act quickly. Sato dodges the hand yet again and jumps mid-air. Sato shoots the arrow and it misses the heart. Sato's eyes widen in disbelief. The creature swings at Sato again, but this time, hitting him. Sato tumbles on the ground.

Dammit...I have to do something… Ex thinks out of distress.

Kasumi falls back on the ground, unable to do anything.

"If you do anything, you risk their lives as well as anyone's nearby." Kanai warns.

"But they're both almost dead…"

"That doesn't matter."

"No...it does matter."

Ex fights through the pain. He grits his teeth and tenses every muscle in his body. "I'm not...going down that easily."

Ex uses everything he has and breaks through the hand that he was clenched in. Even though Ex is broken and weak, he pushes through the pain one last time and runs with his sword building in his hands. Ex stabs the sword brutally straight through the heart of the beast. The creature falls to the ground, this time for good.

"He...killed it." Kasumi says, surprised.

"You see? They don't need you." Kanai tells her.

Kasumi brushes off Kanai's comment and runs over to Sato who is seriously hurt. Kasumi looks over at Ex who is struggling to keep himself standing.

"Well that's not good." Ex says.

"Damnit...uhhh." Kasumi stutters. Kasumi looks back down at Sato who is still breathing but just passed out. "I'll be back for you."

Kasumi rushes to help Ex. As soon as she gets there, he falls to the ground, but she catches him before he can do so. She struggles to keep him off the ground, but somehow succeeds in doing so. She brings him inside the cabin and lays him in front of the fireplace then goes back to Sato to help him out. When she begins to lift him off the ground, he groans in pain.

"I know it hurts, but I'm going to have to move you." Kasumi says delicately.

Sato doesn't reply but groans even more when Kasumi somehow manages to get him off the ground. She drags him as best she can to the cabin and lays him next to Ex.

"Look who's taking care of who now." Kasumi says, out of breath.

***

Sato wakes up. Sato looks to his left to see Ex still passed out, but hears something moving around inside of Ex.

"What the-"

"I'm guessing that his body goes to sleep when recovering from something this critical." Kasumi explains. "It's fixing itself."

"But I think he'll be fine."

"Yeah. As much as I hate him, I have to say, he is one tough bastard."

"And so are you." Sato tries to stand but ultimately regrets it so he lays back down. "So what happened?"

"Ex defeated the creature on his own. It looked like something snapped in him."

"Great."

"When he wakes up, I have some theories to share."

"Just tell them to me now. We don't know how long he's going to be like that."

Just after Sato said that, Ex stirs a little bit before opening his eyes. "Jesus fuck. I'm never doing that again."

"Ex. Are you awake?" Kasumi asks.

"Sure."

"We all know that these creatures are coming after me right?"

"Yeah."

"And they already know the location of the cabin, which is bad. They're learning where we are and if they find out where we live, we're done with."

"We need to relocate." Ex states.

"Exactly."

"My house is well hidden. We can use that for now." Ex suggests.

"Alright."

"Assuming these creatures won't stop at anything to get you, you need to be extremely cautious." Ex warns.

"Yeah I know." Kasumi says.

"We don't even know how many of them there are or where they are even coming from." Sato says.

"Until then, we have to keep doing what we're doing." Ex says.

"Exactly."

Ex sits up, pushing through the pain and stands. He stumbles through the kitchen and looks for his scotch.

"It's over here." Kasumi tells him.

Kasumi pours Ex a glass and hands it to him. He drinks it all and sets it down by the sink where it was before.

"There's a chance this will never end." Ex tells her.

Kasumi looks down at the ground sadly. "I know. The thought has crossed my mind more than once."

"You have to be prepared to sacrifice a normal life if you're ever expecting to pull through this."

"I know."

Sato tries his best to stand and then walks over to where Kasumi and Ex are.

"So what do we do now?" Sato asks.

"Carry on normally." Ex says. "That's all we can do right now."

Ex pours a glass of scotch for both himself and Sato while Kasumi stares down sadly at the ground.

I'm not normal...and I never will be. Kasumi thinks.