Chapter 19

"Are you sure this is the lady he will attack next? What if we are wrong and he goes after somebody else." Mark asked nervously to Kaz as the stalked some random lady from the shadows.

"Yes, at least I think so, most of the victims have all came from the same workplace, there were only a few women left in that place after all of the murders now, so it can only be her or two other girls. We just have to wait it out until he comes after her." Kaz replied in a cold tone.

"B-But wont that mean that if he doesn't come for her first, two other people might die?" Mark asked.

"Y-Yes, it does." Kaz stammered as he realized his error and lack of foresight.

"Shit, it does! What do we do?" Kaz asked, but obviously he was mostly asking himself that question.

"Why don't we split up? We can cover more ground that way, and it would lower the chance of us missing him." Mark suggested after seeing Kaz's distress.

"Hmm, that might be a good idea. I just don't know if plot armor would allow it without one of getting killed or injured. Okay, how about this, we will both tail one girl, and if you see the murderer go in for the kill, you raise you Ki as high as you can so that I can sense it, then you can try to fight him, but if he really is a lot stronger then you, escape immediately, preferably with the girl." Kaz said as he came up with his plan.

"Also, are you confident in your stealth abilities? Because we need to keep to the shadows as much as possible and hide our presence, if he really is stronger then us, being able to get the drop on him will be a huge factor in determining whether we win or not. Also, we don't want to freak out the girls by making them think we are stalking them." Kaz explained.

"B-But isn't that what we are doing?" Mark asked as he gestured to the girl in her house making dinner, the one that they had been "Stalking" for the last hour.

"No! Well, yes, but its not the same! We have to protect her from getting blown up, I doubt she would mind." Kaz got a little nervous as he realized that what they are doing right now could be considered stalking.

"Well okay then, I just hope you are right. But yes, I think I am pretty good at being sneaky, I just have to hide in alleys and stuff right? That's easy!" Mark said as he smirked and thumped his hand on his chest like a gorilla.

"Okay then, this is location of the other possible victim. As for the last girl, I guess we will just need to hope that she gets lucky and isn't the killers first pick." Kaz said and handed Mark a piece of paper with the other girls location on it.

"Also, if you get caught by the police, and they think you are the murderer, try to hide your face to the best of your ability and run away. We cant afford to be held up by things like going to jail right now. Don't worry, if you use your Ki and the breathing technique I taught you, you should be much faster then their cars." Kaz added before Mark could leave.

"Uh, yeah, Ill do that." Mark laughed hesitantly, not really wanting to have to run away from the cops.

"Good, now don't forget, raise your Ki if you see the murderer so I can come and help, we still don't know how strong he is." Kaz reminded Mark again just as he turned the corner.

"I know!" Mark called back as he walked away, but in his mind, he got a little scared for himself, realizing that he might get into a fight that he couldn't win and he wouldn't be able to call for help if he needed it because he didn't know how to use Ki.

"Alright then, now we just have to wait." Kaz said to himself as he stared at the girl through her window, letting his mind wander as he wondered what the murderer might look like.

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Mark sat on the top of a building looking down at the house in front of him, then back to the paper in his hands.

"Yeah, this looks like the place." Mark said to himself as he climbed down and crossed the street to the house. He looked around for a place to hide, and found that the women had some bushes in her back yard, just below her bedroom window. He immediately climbed inside them, making sure to move the branches and leaves around to cover himself. Luckily it was almost dark out and he moved, so nobody had seen him.

Mark slowly peaked up through the bunch and into the window, only to see the women sitting on her bed reading.

'Okay then, while I wait for the murderer to, hopefully not show up, maybe I should try to use this Ki thing Kaz keeps talking about.' Mark thought as he sat back down and got into a lotus position.

'Lets see, maybe I should try using that breathing technique that Kaz taught me. Alright then, how did it go? Oh yeah, like this.' Mark calmed his mind and started breathing according to the Wim Hof Method.

'Kaz said that beginners should only do three rounds, but I think I am strong enough to go further. Lets go for nine, no, ten!' He started breathing intensely, but he made sure to do it quietly

He sat there for about ten minutes, getting through the first three rounds, when he noticed that this wasn't as hard as Kaz had made it out to be. 'Maybe he was just weaker when he first started? No, I think I might just be that talented!' He showed a prideful look on his face as he thought that.

Another twenty minutes passed and he was now on round seven. The sun was setting and it was starting to get cold, but Mark didn't even notice as he seemed to be in some sort of trance like state. He didn't really know how to describe the feeling he had going through his body at the moment, all he knew was that he loved it. He felt extra pumped and confident, even thinking that he might be able to take on that supposedly strong murderer by himself.

'Yeah, of course I can, why wouldn't I be able to? He is probably just some weakling with explosives, I think Kaz was just being paranoid! I cant wait to fight him and show him the wrath of my dojo!' Mark thought arrogantly, but he quickly refocused his mind on his breathing as he noticed that the feeling faded a little whenever he lost his concentration.

A final thirty minutes passed and Mark finally reached the tenth round, but by now he was starting to experience some difficulty. However it wasn't to bad as he was able to push through, hoping to prove to Kaz that he was no beginner just because he didn't know how to use Ki. Though he was hoping to change that.

Just as he was about to finish the tenth round, he started to feel something in his stomach, some sort of pulling feeling. 'What is that?' He thought and tried to touch it, but was interrupted by the sound of evil theme music. He looked up, only to see a shadowy figure leap over the fence nearby and into the yard. Despite Marks great eyesight, it was still extremely difficult to make out the features of the figure.

'Is that the murderer? Finally, he is here, and it really is a he! Now to show him the full strength of the Satan dojo!' Mark thought as he took a leaf out of his curly hair and went to stand up, however he stopped as the figure suddenly appeared right in front of the window, right above him.

'What the hell? Did he just teleport? How did he do that?' Mark though as he got a little more nervous and decided not to stand up.

Luckily the man didn't notice him and opened the window, climbing inside.

'Oh no! He is about to kill her! I have to stop him' Mark thought and was about to get up, but stopped himself as he remembered how the killer just teleported, and can also blow him up. He hesitated as his hands started to shake a little.

'I-I'll die! I-I cant go out there! If I go out there right now he will kill me!' Mark thought as he started shaking even more.

He heard the women scream.

"W-W-Who a-are you?!" Mark heard her yell from inside as he heard a bunch of thumping, probably her dropping her book and trying to run away.

He didn't hear a reply from the man however, just more of the women's shuffling around, she was probably on the ground right now, trying to get away.

'Damn it! What do I do?! I cant just go out there! Ill die! I'm just a kid! She is an adult! She has already lived for a long time! Why should I give up my life for her?' Mark started thinking as his face paled a little and he broke out in cold sweat.

"HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP" He heard the women scream from inside.

He didn't move, he instead just sat there, staring at his shaky hands. He heard his own voice from earlier in his head as he sat there, he remembered how he was doing this to bring honor to his master who had died recently. He then remembered how Kaz had offered to join him without hesitation, despite knowing that they were going to fight a murderer and could very well die.

'NO! Get these thoughts out of your head Mark! I cant run in there right now, he will kill me!' Mark started to panic and lost control of his breathing.

He heard the women scream again, then he remembered the lack of hesitation Kaz had shown when he drop kicked that pervert earlier today, despite her looking to be a lot stronger then them both.

He clenched his fist, took a deep breath, and with an expression of fear, stood up and jumped through the window into the room.

"Y-You! You a-are the m-m-muderer! I am h-here to fight y-you! Now leave her here and c-come and face me!" Mark yelled between stutters, obviously scared out of his mind.

Looking around the room, Mark noticed that there were books everywhere, it seemed that the women had put up a fight, and that's why she had made it so long.

The women looked up at him, and her face seemed to brighten a little. She was just in front of the shadowy figure, and seemed to have forgotten about him after she saw Mark enter the room.

"Thank yo-" She was about say, but was cut off when the killer put his hand on her and she exploded.

Mark just stood there in shock, staring at the blood that now covered his body. He slowly raised his hands, which were now shaking so violently that he could barely control them.

"N-No." He said in despair as he looked up at the somehow perfectly clean man, who was just staring at him, He still couldn't see what the man looked like, but he could see that the man was tall and had purple eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.

The man looked at him for a second, and Mark was about to prepare himself to fight, but was surprised when the man simply vanished from that spot and left the room. Mark looked around, but couldn't find him anywhere.

Realizing that the threat had fled, Mark's body relaxed a little, and this caused all of the emotions he was feeling to show themselves all at once as tears formed in his eyes and he started crying.