Practice Makes A Demon Perfect

"Concentrate harder!"

"I'm trying!"

"No you NOT!"

"You don't know how it feels to fall from fifteen feet chandelier every once in a while," Jake started to massage his ankle, which was swollen red as he landed in a bad shape while grinning his teeth.

"Use your amulets!" Ying insisted.

"I can't!" Jake grunted, "Not without him."

"Who said?"

"Uh, he did."

"Let the chicken try to be a cock without me," Bill's amulet seemed to boom in his thoughts. He couldn't understand why, among all other amulets, only this guy, sorry, demon, could respond to him within conversational distance.

"You know I hear you, right?" Ying scolded him, "Keep MUM!" then she turned to Jake as Bill silenced, "You! Again!"

"Oh, come on," Jake again started towards the first floor to jump to his death. Ying was too hard a teacher. But a loud bang from a book shelf seemed to save him for a while.

"What's that?" he asked.

"I'll see to it," Ying started to walk towards the source. Seems her English improved a bit staying with Jake.

She took out a book from the top left corner, not really an old one, but judging from it's cover, Jake figured out that it would be a very hard and heavy one.

She took a turn and suddenly Jake saw a man panting on the floor. She seemed to know him, because she put down her book and helped him to stand, "Oh, you…I almost hit you!"

"Ying!" the man was between 40 and 50. He seemed very much afraid, "I tried to come as soon as you called me, but certain circumstances, well…prevented me."

"What?" Ying asked him, "Someone chasing you?"

"YES!" he was really frightened, "She haunts me in my sleeps! Anyway, I came to seek help at our Academy. But they told me to convey you a message. Well, it was actually for Hans, but as you are staying at his home, the duty befalls you," he gave her a piece of stone, "I think you'll know what to do with it."

"Yes, I do," She took it, "But the thing I called you here for…"

"Yes, I have the book!" he said, "But this is not a safe place! I will talk to you later!"

Then he stood up and ran out of the room, just like he came.

"Whew!" Jake sighed, "Poor guy seems to be totally out of his mind!"

Ying touched the stone that he gave her and closed her eyes for some seconds. Jake could see her eyeballs moving under her lids. Then she opened her eyes after a while, "I get it. We have a mission."

"Wait!" Jake demanded, "I won't go until you clear some of my questions!"

She waited and looked at him, "What questions?"

"I have my doubts, A person can't be transformed into a demon all out of nowhere, right?" he showed logic, "It was only possible that her father Mephisto, himself is a demon that's why she is hereditarily a half demon. And if that is it, it would be very tough to return her to a human."

"That's why we are up to the challenge, right?" she said.

"Another thing, how did you know that he made a deal with someone who traded that Book with this guy we just met?"

"That's because, Murphy was student of Occult with me and Hans. HE told us he had some stuff from Mephisto himself."

"Oh, crap!" Jake exclaimed, "That's some pretty strong stuff. Anyway, what did you see when you touched the stone?"

"Well, it's power I always had," she said, "I could see glimpses of past, present and future when I touch some stuff. Anyway, you go and get ready. We got this mission."

Jake went to his room, thinking what type of mission she had for them. He opened his wardrobe, looking at a set of jackets. He wasn't this fashionable always. But Ying couldn't withstand old rags. So, she took him to the mall and bought off half the supermarket. Do exorcists really earn that much? But, from the look of her errands, he had no doubt that she was pretty rich.

The place they were going to, how will it be? He wondered, while choosing a cap, will they be older folks, or younger kids? He couldn't decide. Then he just closed his eyes and put one on, and left the room.

 When he came out of his room, he couldn't see Ying anywhere, "Great, always lecturing me about punctuality, and now she's late herself."

He ran over the stairs, jumping and crossing two to three steps at once. On the first floor, he was about to knock on her door, but a conversation caught his attention. Who was she talking to?

He looked through her door's edge, but couldn't see anything. He looked around and saw a ventilator about 11 feet high up the ground. He quickly brought a chair, stood on it and jumped up grabbing the edge and touching the chair with his toes.

He could see and hear her this time, she was talking over her phone, "So you are saying that it is impossible?"

A moment of silence, then she said again, "But why, Hans himself told that it might be possible, that demon also said so…"

Another moment of silence, "So, we have no way to kill her?"

"KILL her?" Jake thought, "What does she mean?"

"You know I can't do it," Ying said, "You know why."

Damn, what the hell is she blabbering? Suddenly the chair on his he was standing rattled and he lost his balance. Ying looked at the ventilator and he let go off that edge.

But he didn't fall. At first, he couldn't understand what was happening. Then he saw that he grabbed the amulet of Ketesh by reflex and thus been morphed into air. Luckily, Ying came out of the room at once and looked around. But she couldn't find anyone. Jake didn't take risk and flew away from there.

Morphing back from air to human wasn't that easy as it was his second time, but he could do it after a few trials. As soon as he set foot on the ground floor, Ying rushed over there, "Oh, you're here!"

"Why?" Jake pretended like he didn't see anything, "Where else should I be?"

"Nowhere," Ying sighed, "Come. We should hurry."

"Where are we going?" Jake asked," To meet some old champs?"

Ying looked at him suspiciously, "What was that?"

"Huh?" Jake understood that he was messing up, "Nothing, just a hunch!"