Chapter 19

"That's what I thought..." said Elizabeth, "are they... going to be ok? The rest of them…"

"I hope..." Yuji replied, "but right now isn't the time to be worried about others,".

Suddenly, the Akuma showed up in front of them, walking slowly across the halls, a few meters away from the locker they were hiding in.

The Akuma had one normal hand and the other was a sharp blade-like arm. Its height was also ranging about eight feet tall, and a face with one single eye as the other is covered with veins, along with a creepy smile attached to its face.

The Akuma lets out a demonic laugh as it walks past the hallway.

The Akuma saw a dead body of a female office worker, laying down on the floor.

Noticing the body, the Akuma halted for a second, then it began to laugh harder than before, as it walks closer to the dead body.

"What is it going to do?" Elizabeth thought as shivers went down her spine, thinking of what the Akuma was going to do to the female's body.

Yuji and Elizabeth stood silent as an extremely gory scene unfolds right in front of their eyes.

SLASH* SLASH*

Hearing the same gory sounds, they heard earlier, the Akuma repeatedly stabbed the woman's lifeless body, and slashes it from time to time, as it laughed demonically.

"So, this is what it was doing..." Yuji whispered with a scowling face, "it plays with the body of people, despite being dead,".

Elizabeth was shaking with fear, with the look of someone who was about to lose their sanity.

Yuji noticed this and quickly grabbed Elizabeth's head, as he presses her head on his chest, making her look away from the gory scene.

Elizabeth grabbed Yuji's shirt with her shivering hands, as she presses her head harder on his chest.

Hearing the disturbing sounds of flesh cutting and blood splatter, Elizabeth held both of her ears to avoid hearing it.

After a few seconds, the Akuma threw the body outside of the window, the Akuma went outside, following the body.

"Elizabeth..." Yuji whispered, "we need to go, now,".

Elizabeth was shaking, noticing her own nervousness, she slapped herself on the cheeks, "Y... Yeah..." She nodded.

Despite still shaking, she forces herself to move.

Yuji slowly opened the locker.

Yuji and Elizabeth were both stunned for a short moment after seeing the clear picture of what had happened in the area.

"Let's go..." Yuji said in a low voice.

After seeing the area painted with blood splatter, they both went outside of the building on the opposite side of where the Akuma went and headed straight to proceed towards the center of the City.

As they were running, they suddenly saw another Akuma looking in the opposite direction, it was large in size and had extraordinarily large legs.

"What the!?" Yuji said, as he quickly pulled Elizabeth inside a building with an open door.

Yuji and Elizabeth both sat down by the wall, as Yuji slowly closed the door.

"Another high class?" Yuji said.

"We must be really unlucky," said Elizabeth.

"I hope it isn't worse than that..." said Yuji, as his hand started to slightly shiver.

"Worse?" Elizabeth said.

Yuji looked at Elizabeth, "I heard certain archdemons are usually surrounded by high-class Akumas," he said.

Elizabeth was stunned for a short moment, then she looked down.

Elizabeth put her knees together as she wraps it in her arms, "I see..." she said.

"For now, it's better to think of the situation and come up with something," said Yuji as he looked away, he gripped his hand tightly "even though I can't seem to think of anything right now..." he whispered.

"Hey, Yuji..." Elizabeth said, "how do you know about these kinds of things?"

"What do you mean?" Yuji asked as he looked back at Elizabeth.

"You know... our teachers only thought us the different classes of Akumas and how they're supposed to look like," Elizabeth said, "low-class Akumas from D to C are either newly turned Akumas or regularly weak Akumas, though C is just faster than D they both look like a regular person with pale gray flesh, unlike the big ones we've encountered so far,"

"Yeah?" Yuji said, "what's her point?" he thought.

"Yet! earlier in the facility, we all assumed that it was a regular D class Akuma due to its looks," said Elizabeth, "me and Layla thought that it was some sort of test... until we found out it wasn't a low class..."

"Why bring that up..." Yuji said.

"My point is... you tried to stop us earlier before that, which means you knew. How did you know that it wasn't just a low class?" Elizabeth asked.

"I looked at how old the Akuma seemed," said Yuji.

"How...old?" Elizabeth tilted her head, being a little confused.

"It wasn't official, but I heard most Akumas that have been turned for a long time are most likely already a C class or higher," said Yuji, "they thought it might be because most Akumas evolve,".

"See!" Elizabeth pointed at Yuji, "not that I doubt you or anything, but where did you hear those kinds of things? at our level they didn't even teach that kind of things to us, like where to hit the Akumas to stun them," she said in an energetic yet low volume tone.

"She's being a lot more talkative than before..." Yuji thought. "It's a long story, now isn't the time..." he said.

"That's what you said before too..." said Elizabeth, "but right now... isn't this the perfect time?"

Yuji tilted his head in confusion.

"You seemed very anxious, doesn't talking lower your anxiety a bit?" Elizabeth said as she let out a smile.

"Is that what she's been doing!?" Yuji thought, "she noticed I was being anxious, so she started being talkative," he thought as he let out a small smile.

"Your right..." said Yuji, "I guess it is the perfect time... I need to regain my composure..."

"I'm not forcing you or anything am I?" said Elizabeth.

"No, but don't blame me if you get bored," said Yuji.

Elizabeth nodded.

"But I'm going to make it quick," said Yuji.

"Long story short, here in city D I was raised by a female military soldier, who I thought of as my mother, but before that, I was a child in the first year of junior high school in city E,".

"City E!?" Elizabeth said, "The one that was destroyed by an archdemon a few years ago!?"

"Is it hard to believe?" Yuji said with a smile.

"No, in fact, this makes a lot of sense," Elizabeth replied, "please continue,".

"Though, the only thing I remember about that place was the days of the catastrophe," said Yuji.

Elizabeth tilted her head, "days?" she said, "it wasn't a one-day catastrophe?"

Yuji nodded, "I wasn't sure why or how... but I managed to survive," said Yuji, "and at the aftermath of the catastrophe, I was able to survive with this girl the same age as me, we survived by avoiding Akumas and scavenging from places to places, and we continued to do the same for days...weeks...maybe a month?"

"That's..." Elizabeth said, "for a young age that's quite amazing... yet it must have been rough,".

"Yeah..." Yuji replied.

"And the girl who was with you, I'm assuming it's Erina?" said Elizabeth.

"No, it was someone... who I can't remember right now..." said Yuji, "Then... how I got here was..."

As Elizabeth was about to say something, they heard a sudden loud sound, which seemed like something fell.

Yuji suddenly stood up and became very cautious, "that's that for now..." he said, "what was that?"

"Now that I noticed, what building is this?" said Yuji, being very cautious, "this building doesn't have any windows, and it's really dark...if it wasn't for this tiny gap by the door it would have been complete darkness," he thought as he began inspecting the place carefully, "if there's an Akuma around here that we didn't notice, even if it's just a low class one... we'll be in big trouble,".

Yuji was completely focused in the darkness and was looking carefully at anything that might move or might resemble an Akuma.

Suddenly Elizabeth's eyes glowed, as she looked around the room.

"it's ok," Elizabeth said, "there's no Akumas in here.".

"How could you tell?" said Yuji, as he faced Elizabeth.

Elizabeth kept her ability active, making her eyes continuously glowing, "I can see humans organs and their body flow when I active my ability, with it, I know what part to heal first and how much damage a body took, and I just realized earlier...when I pushed the Akuma that was about to get you, I was able to see it's organs as well,".

"It works even in the dark?" Yuji asked.

"Yes, I can see yours very well," Elizabeth said in a cheerful tone.

"That's... kind of embarrassing," said Yuji, "anyways then that noise must have come from behind a wall or something,".

Yuji placed his hands on the wall and searched for a switch that can trigger the lights.

"I think I got it," Yuji said as he landed his hand on a switch.

Yuji flicked the switch and saw the clear image of the area.

"This is..." said Yuji.

"An apartment building?" said Elizabeth.

"Not just any apartment building," said Yuji, "is this... where my apartment is!?"

"So, this is where you live?" said Elizabeth.

"Yeah..." said Yuji, "specifically, it's on the 3rd floor..." Yuji took a look around, "dang... above all that's happening, I didn't notice this place... maybe it was instinct that brought me here,".

"Do you have any amplifiers?" said Elizabeth.

"Huh? wait you don't have anymore!?" Yuji asked.

"No... and I'm not sure how long my current shot will last," said Elizabeth.

Yuji was suddenly reminded of what happened to Elizabeth back at the school. He had two reasons to hurry, that is, the archdemon is on its way, and Elizabeth's condition.

Yuji suddenly remembers the case he was holding earlier before getting hit by the Akuma.

"CRAP!" Yuji said, "I forgot about the case I had earlier, it had more than enough amplifiers in there!"

"it's ok," said Elizabeth, "this will probably last long enough until we make it,".

"We don't know that..." Yuji replied.

"But it's risky to go back now, right?" said Elizabeth.

Yuji was thinking of what to do as he tries to hurry.

"Then let's search the apartments for now," said Yuji, "it might be dangerous, but it's less risky right? I mean the place still has power,".

"Why?" said Elizabeth.

"We need to be prepared when we go out there again," Yuji said, "And also if we find an amplifier syringe, then that's the best outcome we'll get,".

Elizabeth nodded with a smile. And so, they began searching the apartments.

As they were searching, Erina and the others have already run past them, eliminating all Akumas in their way.