Chignash, Part 2

Yoshiro, Tenko, and Sayaka were all running deeper into the cave, hearing the sounds of the battle from outside shortly after they had arrived through the portal to Halargia. As they got closer to the piles of dead magical beasts partway through the cave, Tenko remarked, “It smells fucking terrible in here! What happened?!”

“I don’t know,” Yoshiro replied to her. “But it can’t be anything good!”

Sayaka then began to slow down, feeling herself get sick from how pungent the stench of death was, especially as they came within sight of the dead magical beasts. “Agh… Ugh…”

Tenko and Yoshiro immediately stopped as they saw the many magical beast bodies strewn about the cave, shocked at the brutality that had been shown. As with Ruka, they also knew based on the horrible smell of decomposing flesh, the state of the bodies, and how dry the blood looked that these beasts had been dead for at least a few days. “We didn’t kill these ones,” Yoshiro remarked. “Chignash must have…”

Tenko asked him, “Do you really think it’s him in this cave?”

“What’s a Chigna-?” Before Sayaka could finish her sentence, she coughed up a small amount of vomit and then puked onto the floor of the cave.

Yoshiro walked over to her and held her hair back as she puked a second time, asking her, “Miyamura-senpai, do you need to stay back?”

“Agh… I… Uh…” She then wiped her mouth with her gloved right hand and took a few deep breaths. “Oh my God… Whatever did this is monstrous. What is this Chignash thing you guys keep talking about?”

“Chignash is a magical beast of legend,” Yoshiro replied to her. “It’s said he looks like a lion with horns and wings. He all has the intelligence of a human, and he can talk. He can even wield a sword if he stands up on his hind legs. It’s said he’s been around for many decades, and every time the Agency thinks he’s dead, he pops up a few years later.”

“That sounds terrifying,” Sayaka replied. “Is he a Class One?”

“No. He’s a class all on his own. There is no other known magical beast like him.”

They all then heard shouting from afar, with Tenko saying to the others, “We gotta hurry! It sounds like they’re in trouble!”

“Get up,” Yoshiro then said to Sayaka as he helped her up. “Come on! We can’t stop now!” All three then began to run towards the battle ahead, not knowing what to expect when they got there.

…

Back at the battle, Hana slowly got up from the ground, weakened by the attack from Chignash. As she did, she told the mighty beast, “I destroyed the last of your sword.”

“Hah,” he defiantly replied as he got back down on four legs. “I don’t need that sword anyway. I can just kill you all the old-fashioned way.”

As he charged at Hana, both Ruka and Kumiko ran out to block him, with Kumiko managing to swing her sledgehammer and hit his head, stopping him briefly. However, it was not brief enough, and he soon stepped back to charge at them again, prompting Hana to grab both Ruka and Kumiko by the shoulders and pull them away at the last second before Chignash crashed head-first into the wall of the cave. He turned towards them and began to run at them, prompting Ruka to pick up Hana’s sword and strike him in the head, hitting one of his horns and putting a small crack in it. However, the same blow also damaged Hana’s sword, prompting her to yell out, “Oh shit!”

Meanwhile, Yoko attended to both of the injured magical huntresses who had initially been with Hana, both of whom were first-years at Samejima High School. She looked out at the battle before her and sighed as one of the girls, who had a ponytail, asked Yoko, “Is Miyashita-senpai alright? What’s going on out there?” She had broken her left arm and her left foot during the battle, rendering her unable to fight any longer.

“Yeah,” said the magical huntsman, who had short brown hair. “Is everyone okay?” He had a broken nose, several missing teeth, and severe bruising to her back and his abdomen as well as multiple broken fingers on his right hand.

“They’re fighting Chignash right now,” Yoko told both of them. “We’re gonna get you guys out of here as soon as we can.”

“I don’t think you can win against that thing,” said the girl's boyfriend. “That monster is beyond any other magical beast that’s out there. Hell, is it even a magical beast?”

“I don’t want to die,” said the girl with the ponytail, who was clearly fearful of what would happen if the Fox Knights lost their battle and began to cry. “Please, Fujimori-senpai, don’t let me die. I can’t die like this. Not now. Please.”

“Calm down,” Yoko tried to tell her. “It won’t help if you panic.”

“Calm down?! How the fuck am I supposed to calm down in a place like this?!”

Yoko ordered, “Quiet! Panicking isn’t gonna help, okay?! We just have to trust Hana.”

Hana then shouted at Yoko, “Fujimori-senpai, use your crossbow! If you got an explosive bolt, hit him with i-“ She was then cut off from shouting instructions at Yoko when Chignash threw her against a wall again.

“Fuck,” Yoko remarked before quickly placing an explosive bolt into her crossbow and aiming it at Chignash’s back. When she fired, the bolt struck him and immediately produced a deafening blast that caused everyone to get down and Chignash to yell in severe pain as the wound from the small explosion bled profusely. He then placed his right hand on the wound to begin to heal it with the healing dust the palms of his hands generated. Yoko looked up as Chignash turned around, clearly angry at her, and said to herself, “Oh shit…”

Chignash exclaimed in a fit of rage as he punched the wall of the cave with left fist, “How dare you interrupt our fight! Because of your stupid mistake, I’ll devour all three of you!”

The first-year girl with the ponytail screamed in desperation as Chignash marched towards them, “MOM! MOM, HELP ME! MOMMY!” Her cries for her mother and her wails of fear sent chills down the spines of everyone else present.

Meanwhile, the boyfriend used his uninjured hand to reach into his pocket and pull out rosary beads, indicating that he was in fact a Christian. He began to chant a prayer to himself silently in accented Latin as Chignash got closer to him. “Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum…”

Hana shouted as she got up, grabbed her sword from Ruka, and charged at Chignash from behind, “STOP IT!” She then slashed across his right hand, but in the process, she also broke her sword. In severe pain, Chignash turned around and smacked Hana with his left hand, sending her to the ground.

As he was about to then grab her again, intending on ending her participation in the battle once and for all, he noticed that a necklace had spilled out of her magical huntress uniform and become visible, and on this necklace was the same pitch black onyx stone she had been given in 2023, which he took great interest in. “Wait,” he said to himself as he stopped himself from attacking her. “She… She possesses a Calling Stone…” He was in pure disbelief at the amulet that Hana had carried with her that day. “How can a young woman like her have such an object? How did she come into possession of it?”

As Ruka looked on, taking several deep breaths, she said to herself, “Chignash stopped… But why?”

Chignash then turned around and looked at Ruka and Kumiko. “I see your friend has a Calling Stone. That means I must end this duel of our’s prematurely. It’s truly amazing that I’ve found a group of girls who are able to actually wound me, and I hope our paths cross once again in the future so we can settle this once and for all. However, I will leave you with this warning.”

Kumiko asked him, “Which one of us?”

“All of you,” Chignash clarified. “One day, a great tragedy will befall you all, and it will be at the hands of someone you all hold dear. Beware of the storm when the time comes. Now, I must go. I’ll leave my portal open for you all to leave, but know that next time, I will not be as merciful.” He then looked forwards towards the entrance of the cave, preparing to make his exit.

Kumiko readied her sledgehammer, but Ruka stopped her, telling her, “Let him go.”

“But-“

“Let him go,” she again told her. “He’s letting us go, and I don’t wanna piss him off by not returning the favor. We’re not in a position to fight back any longer as it is.” She thought to herself, “His warning was cryptic as Hell. Who among all of us do we hold dear? Whoever it is, will they really bring misfortune upon us?”

Just as Yoshiro, Tenko, and Sayaka were about to arrive at the battle, Chignash ran past them, with Yoshiro just barely missing getting trampled by the mighty beast before a strong wind followed, blowing out all of the torches that Chignash had placed inside the cave. As they all looked away due to the dust he had kicked up from leaving, Chignash exited the cave at a fast speed before extending his wings out fully and flying into the air, his wounds having mostly healed by this point. As he glided across the night sky of Halargia, he thought to himself, “Of all people, why would Miyashita Hana be chosen to wield such an item?”

…

Back in the real world, an Agency Cleanup Crew as well as two ambulances were standing by outside as the Fox Knights emerged from it, all of them tired from the battle and from how late it was. Yoshiro helped Hana on his shoulder, Yoko and Kumiko helped carry out the girl with the ponytail, and Tenko helped her boyfriend. Ruka meanwhile stumbled out of the portal last, clearly drained of energy. An Agency Cleanup Crew member asked her, “Do you need medical attention, Kishio-san?”

“Fuck it,” she replied. “I can get checked out.” As the Cleanup Crew member helped her over to a black van to get checked out, she told him, “By the way, there’s a body in there too.”

“There is?”

“We found out the source of the screaming after Chignash left,” Ruka explained. “He had apparently killed a young woman when he emerged from the portal and then took her into his cave. We found her partially-eaten body after he left us.”

“Damn,” he remarked. He then told another Cleanup Crew member, “Hey, get a few guys to go into that portal. There’s a dead body in the cave.”

Yoshiro meanwhile helped Hana onto a stretcher. “Here you go, Hana-senpai.”

“Thanks,” she said to him. “Ugh… I never thought I’d get to fight a beast like him in my lifetime, but here we are…” She then coughed several times, revealing a small amount of blood on her arm when she covered her mouth. “I’m already feeling the pain now. It didn’t hurt when I was fighting him, but now the adrenaline is wearing off.”

“Take it easy for a while,” Yoshiro told her. “You’ve worked hard enough as it is.”

“I still need to achieve my dreams, though. That, of course, will require some sacrifices to be made at some point.”

“I know, but you can relax once in a while, Hana-senpai.”

A firefighter-paramedic then walked over, asking Yoshiro, “Is your friend okay?”

“I’m not dying at least,” Hana then clarified for him. “But I should probably get checked out. I took a Hell of a beating in there, and so did my one friend Kishio Ruka.” She then pointed to where Ruka was sitting near the black van owned by the Agency. “If she isn’t already getting taken care of by the Agency, go to her as well.”

…

April 13, 2026

“Man, what a crazy fucking weekend that was, huh?”

Sayaka turned to Kumiko as the two hung out together during lunch break on the roof of the school and replied, “Yeah, you can say that again.” She then sighed and said to her, “I still feel bad for that one woman’s family, though. I found out she was walking home from working overtime when Chignash took her into the portal and then killed her in the cave.”

“She must have been so terrified when that happened…” Kumiko then looked out at the sky, looking through the fence set up around the roof to prevent people from falling or jumping off. “The cover story for the two first-years is a car accident.”

“Unsurprisingly,” Sayaka noted. “That’s kinda common with the Agency.”

“Miyashita-san and Ruka-chan got it easy. They didn’t break anything somehow and they only have to take it easy for about a week. Those other two are gonna be out for at least two months with how badly they got messed up by Chignash.”

“We all got so lucky with that. It’s a miracle no one else died aside from that woman. Kishio-san told me the stories about what Chignash normally does when he comes around after everything got settled following the battle, and they usually end with a lot more death and suffering than this past Saturday.”

“I still can’t believe he actually appeared in Yokosuka of all places.” Kumiko then closed up her now-empty bento box and stood up. “Like… You hear about shit like this and you never expect it to happen so close to home, but here we are. It’s some crazy shit, man.”

“It’s a mad world out there,” Sayaka added before the two of them fell silent, just looking out at the skyline of Yokosuka before them.

To break the silence, Kumiko asked Sayaka, “So, um… On another note, do you wanna go see a movie tomorrow? There’s this really cool film about Douglas MacArthur that I wanna watch.” She was somewhat nervous as she asked Sayaka the question, expecting a rejection from her.

“What time?”

“Uh… 7:30 PM?”

“I should be able to do that,” Sayaka replied.

“Oh, okay…” Kumiko then pulled out her phone and typed a note on it to remind herself to meet up with Sayaka tomorrow. “I’ll, uh… What time do you want to meet up, and where?”

“Where do you wanna see the movie?”

“The movie theater down the road from the school.”

“How about… 6:45 PM?”

“Yeah,” Kumiko nodded. “That can work.”

“I didn’t know you were into history, actually. I’ve known you for how long at this point?”

“About two and a half years, almost three.” Kumiko shrugged. “I wouldn’t say I’m a huge history nerd. I just like it a bit, that’s all.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” Sayaka then got up and walked to the entrance back down to the building from the roof.

When the roof access door shut, Kumiko broke out into a grin and chuckled, happy with herself. “Yes… I got that out of the way, and she said yes, too.” She was excited to see a movie with Sayaka and essentially make it a date, something she had wanted to do with her for a while by this point.

However, her celebration was interrupted when Sayaka suddenly opened the door to the roof again and asked her from afar, “Wait a second, is this a date?”

Kumiko’s smile immediately faltered as she turned around and tried to deny, “Uh, well, I… No, it’s not. I swear!”

Sayaka laughed and replied to her with a smile, “Murata-senpai, it’s fine.”

“Huh?”

“I told you this already,” Sayaka then explained to her. “I’m gay, remember?”

“Yeah, but… That doesn’t mean anything…”

Sayaka sighed and walked back over to Kumiko, causing the latter to blush as she got close to her. “Murata Kumiko, I’m a lesbian, and what are lesbians into?”

“Other girls…”

“And what are you?”

“A trans gi-“

Interrupting her, Sayaka again asked her, “What are you, Murata-senpai?”

Realizing what she was getting at, she simplified her answer with, “A girl…”

“Exactly. Now, that doesn’t mean anything’s gonna happen between us, but I’m not gonna say no just because you’re transgender, Murata-senpai. Now, answer me. Is this a date or not? Don’t lie.”

Kumiko finally sighed and admitted, “Okay, yes, it’s a date.”

“There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” She then walked away from her once more, telling her before she opened the door to the roof access, “And again, I’ll see you at 6:45 PM tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah…” Once Sayaka was again gone, Kumiko took a deep breath and said to herself, “Man, I gotta stop worrying so much, especially when it’s my friends.”

…

April 14, 2026

As Sayaka and Kumiko walked out of the movie theater around 10:15 PM, they chatted to each other about what they had just seen. “I loved every minute of it,” Kumiko told her date. “Some minor things got changed for the movie, but most of it was pretty accurate, actually. I especially loved the scene where MacArthur took a photo next to the Showa Emperor.”

“Murata-senpai,” Sayaka commented to her. “I, uh… I don’t think you’re just a little bit into history. I think you’re very into it.”

Kumiko admitted, “Okay, I guess I am pretty into it, but hey, the American occupation was an important part of Japanese history. You can’t ignore it.”

As they stood outside the movie theater, Sayaka heard the door behind her open again. When she turned around to see who it was, she was met with two familiar faces. “Wait a minute. Fujimori-senpai?”

Kumiko also turned around upon hearing Yoko’s last name mentioned. “Wait, what’s going o-?” Her jaw then dropped when she saw who Yoko was with.

Yoko saw them and awkwardly waved. “Oh, uh, hi…” With her was none other than Goro Yamanaka. “I didn’t know you two were here, too?”

Sayaka asked her, “Uh… What brings you here with Yamanaka-senpai…?”

“We just got out of a movie,” Goro replied. “We saw this new bank heist movie that just came out.”

“So, um,” Kumiko then asked, feeling the awkwardness in the air. “When did… This… Become a thing?”

“Oh, you mean us? This is our first date.” Goro then held hands with Yoko. “I’d say it’s going pretty good so far.”

Yoko then asked her two friends, “Um… What did you guys see?”

“We saw that new movie about Douglas MacArthur,” Sayaka replied. “Murata-senpai is really into history, so she wanted to go see it.”

“Ah,” Goro replied. “Well, we gotta get going.” He then looked at Kumiko and asked her, “Have you been working out a lot recently, Murata?”

Kumiko replied out of confusion, “Yeah?”

“I can see it.”

As Goro and Yoko walked away, both Kumiko and Sayaka looked at each other in disbelief as to why Yoko was going out with him. “Holy shit,” Sayaka remarked to Kumiko with a whisper, shocked enough to swear, which was a bit unusual for her. “How did she do that? Why would she do that?”

“She’s had her eye on him for a while,” Kumiko explained in a whisper as well. “I never expected him to say yes for… Reasons.”

“Like?”

“Well, I’ve noticed that a lot of the girls he’s been with had, uh… Bigger assets than Yoko does. Admittedly, she’s not the most gifted in the chest area.”

“I knew that. She’s the smallest among everyone in the Fox Knights aside from you.”

“And I don’t really count myself for obvious reasons,” Kumiko remarked with a chuckle. “Also, a lot of the girls he dates are in lower grades. This is the first girl he’s dated from the same grade as him since two years ago.”

“I just hope she knows what she’s getting herself into,” Sayaka said out of worry for Yoko. “I’ve heard the stories about how fast he goes through girls.”

“Yeah. Perhaps things will be different this time, but I’m not holding my breath.” Kumiko then sighed, still wondering what Yoko saw in him that nobody else in the Fox Knights did. “I just don’t get it. I don’t think I ever will. Ruka-chan hates the fuck out of him, and I can see why. Even Miyashita-san doesn’t like him. Arikawa-kun and a lot of boys in the lower grades also don’t like him for stealing their potential girlfriends away from them, but at the same time, they often admit that he’s a pretty smooth talker.”

“I wonder if Kishio-san and Miyashita-san know about this.”

“Me too. They’d probably try to warn Fujimori-san about why dating him’s a bad idea, but they can’t really force her to get out of it. She’s her own person, after all. All we can do is offer our advice and our help if she needs it. It’s up to her to heed it or ask for it.”

…

April 15, 2026

“No fucking way,” Ruka remarked over the phone with Kumiko as she sat in her apartment and cooked herself dinner, her phone on speaker mode next to her on the counter. “You gotta be joking.”

“I wish I was,” she replied to her as she sat in her bedroom. “Fujimori-san and Yamanaka-kun are dating.”

“I still can’t believe she actually likes him like that. I also can’t believe he even said yes.” She then chopped up some vegetables on a cutting board. “I hope she knows what she’s getting herself into.”

“Me too.”

“I hate to say it since it’s Yoko-senpai, but based on what Yamanaka does, he’ll probably work his magic and bang her in another week or two before dumping her for some girl with much bigger tits who's not in the same grade as him. I’ve seen this shit play out too many times, Kumiko-kun.”

“I’m afraid he’ll hurt her,” Kumiko expressed, clearly worried about Yoko. “She’ll be so hurt if he does break her heart.”

“I’ll be there to help out if that happens.” Ruka then poured the chopped up vegetables into a bowl. “So, on another note, how was your little movie date with Sayaka?”

“It went pretty good, actually. The movie was really good, too, which helped out. Miyamura-san isn’t super into history, but even she had a good time.”

“Glad to hear that. You know, I was wondering how that would go after I heard from Sayaka that you asked her out.”

“Honestly, I was pretty worried since she’s full-blown gay and not bi. You never know since some lesbians aren’t into trans women, especially ones who haven’t gotten any surgery ‘down there’ like me.”

“And did she mind?”

“Nope,” Kumiko beamed with joy. “Not at all. By the way…” She then took a deep breath and asked her, “Can you keep this a secret from the others?”

“What’s up?”

“I, uh… I actually really, really like Miyamura-san…” Kumiko blushed as she admitted how she truly felt about Sayaka to Ruka. “She… Well, ever since you trained us together back in junior high school, I haven’t been able to keep my eyes off of her. I think about he and how she’s doing a lot, Ruka-chan, and…”

“Go on. Say it.”

“It’s gonna sound really corny and shit, but… I think I’m in love with her, Ruka.” Kumiko could feel her heart skip a beat from just telling somebody else about how she truly felt about Sayaka. “I don’t know if she feels the same way, but I’ve felt this way about her for at least a year or longer.”

“It’s fine,” Ruka assured her.

“Are you sure? I know it’s just the first date and all, but-“

“Kumiko-kun,” Ruka then interrupted her with. “How you feel about her is okay. I believe you when you say you love Sayaka. I know you wouldn’t lie about something like this.”

“I mean… Have you ever been in love with someone, Ruka-chan?”

“Me?” Ruka giggled in response. “I don’t really think so. I haven’t really had time to do that between fighting magical beasts, living alone, and school. Maybe one day, I’ll find a boy and my heart will tell me he’s the one. Who knows? Maybe I’ve already met them and I have no idea.” Both she and Kumiko laughed in response to her remark. “But anyway, I hope you and Sayaka work out. I’d love to see you two together.”

“Thank you, Ruka-chan. By the way… How have you been doing since the battle with Chignash?”

“My body isn’t so sore anymore,” Ruka replied as she then began to chop up some meat on the cutting board. “I only had to miss Monday, so that wasn’t so bad. You saw Hana today, right?”

“Yeah. She told me she was still a bit sore, but she was glad to be back in school today.”

“Same here. She took a bit more of a beating than I did, so she’ll probably be sore until the end of the week.”