Hurt

I was still processing the implications of Shion's words when a familiar voice cut through the darkness.

"RYOUUU! LOOK AT WHAT I CAUGHT!"

Akane emerged from the shadows, dragging what appeared to be... well, a very dead whale slug. Its massive body was split open like an overripe fruit, and Akane was covered in silvery slime from head to toe. She didn't seem to mind at all, her tail wagging proudly as she presented her kill.

"Ryou, you missed the fun part! It tried to eat Tanaka, so I just... sort of... ripped it apart!" She spread her arms wide for emphasis, flinging slug slime everywhere.

Mental note: Never, ever make Akane angry.

Then her nose twitched, and her expression shifted instantly. Her eyes narrowed as they fixed on Shion.

"Why are you two all the way out here?" Akane growled.

"We were just making small talk." Shion's voice was back to its perfect, measured tone, all traces of her earlier embarrassment gone.

"In the deepest part of the Woods? Where no one could hear anything? And why is Ryou's tie loose?"

I glanced down. Oh right, from when Shion had tried to... yeah.

I probably should intervene before this gets out of hand. Then again, explaining that Shion tried to seduce me thinking I was a male vampire would probably make everything more awkward. I settled for a blank stare while my brain searched for a reasonable excuse.

Unfortunately, my silence only seemed to make things worse.

"You! What did you do to Ryou?" Akane snarled, dropping the mangled whale slug corpse. "She's just standing there all weird!"

"Now, wait a moment-" Shion started, but Akane was already lunging forward, fangs bared.

With lightning-quick reflexes, Shion shot out a strand of web that caught Akane mid-leap, leaving her dangling and thrashing like an angry puppy in a net.

"Let me go so I can rip you to shreds!" Akane snarled, though the effect was somewhat diminished by how she was swinging back and forth.

Shion pinched the bridge of her nose. "Would you please calm down? I haven't done anything to your precious mate."

"Liar! I can smell-"

"I'm a jorōgumo," Shion cut in flatly. "I literally can't eat Ryou."

"That's not an excuse!" Akane thrashed harder in the web. "You could have... could have... done other stuff!"

"Um." My contribution to the conversation was met with both of them staring at me. "Could we maybe... not?"

"See? She's barely forming words! What did you do to her?!"

"I didn't-"

Something wet and cold dripped onto my hand, interrupting whatever Shion was about to say.

I stared at the silvery substance. "Please tell me this isn't what I think it is."

Another drop landed on my shoulder. Then my head.

Both of them followed my gaze upward. Above us, at least a dozen whale slugs were lazily crawling across the tree branches, leaving thick trails of silver slime in their wake. One particularly large slug was directly over Akane's head, its body slowly starting to slip.

Akane's eyes widened as she spotted the massive slug above her. "Spider woman, let me down! NOW!"

"My name is Shion, and maybe if you asked nicely-"

SPLAT!

The whale slug dropped directly onto Akane's head, its gelatinous body beginning to envelope her face. 

Shion, to her credit, managed to maintain her composure for about three seconds before bursting into very unladylike snorts of laughter.

Meanwhile, Akane's shadow started to writhe beneath her. The shadows began to rise... and promptly slipped in the puddle of slug slime, flopping uselessly like wet noodles. Another attempt resulted in the shadow tendrils getting tangled in Shion's web, creating a bizarre-looking cat's cradle.

"Should we..."

"Oh no," Shion wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. "This is far too entertaining to-"

PLOP.

A second whale slug landed on Shion’s head. She shot out silk to pull it away, but the strands stuck to the slime, creating a tangled mess. The more she struggled, the worse it got, until she was a silk-wrapped present topped with a very unhappy whale slug bow.

Suddenly, something more concerning pulled my attention away from Akane and Shion's matching slug accessories. The whale slugs that had fallen were moving towards me. I took a step back, my shoes making a wet squishing sound.

Wait a minute... that smell...

Looking down, I realized I was standing in a patch of what appeared to be crushed Dokkans - spiky, purple fruits that looked like durian's angrier cousin. And according to the Nebou's herb textbook I'd memorized earlier (because I’m a nerd, okay?), these things had no effect on most creatures. But for slugs? They might as well be top-shelf tequila.

"Oh." I watched as another whale slug started sliding sideways along its branch. "They're drunk."

Akane's slug accessory abandoned her next. It attempted to do a barrel roll towards the Dokkans but completely missed, crashing straight into a nearby tree with a wet SPLAT.

I glanced between my two trapped classmates, trying to decide who needed help first. The decision was made for me when one particularly enthusiastic whale slug started nudging Shion's cocooned form. Despite her protests, it managed to get underneath her and began sliding away with surprising speed, taking her along for the ride.

"MMmmPHH!" Shion's eyes widened in alarm as she disappeared into the underbrush.

Sorry Shion. But hey, you're a jorōgumo - maybe you can just eat them? Wait… do spiders even eat slugs? Is that a thing? I shook off that thought and turned back to Akane. Okay, slug’s gone. Now what about the slime? My mind raced through my mental catalog of herbs. Whale slugs were basically oversized garden slugs, so their slime should react similarly...

I pulled a small vial from my pocket - dried yarrow mixed with salt. It was meant for preserving other herbs, but it should work here. I sprinkled it over and around her, and the slime immediately began to dissolve.

As the slime dissolved, I expected Akane's usual smug grin or some teasing comment about how I'd saved her. Yet all I saw were her pupils reduced to black pinpricks, swallowed by a sea of burning gold.

"A...kane?" 

Her shadows, no longer hindered by the slime, shot up and tore through Shion's web like wet paper. The temperature seemed to drop several degrees as darkness spread outward like ink in water.

"Akane, wait-"

Before I could finish my warning, Akane had already launched herself at the nearest whale slug. Her shadows formed into sharp spears that pierced through the creature's gelatinous body. The slug made a pitiful gurgling sound before exploding into silvery chunks.

"Akane, stop! They're not a threat! They're just drunk on Dokkans!" I shouted, but she was already moving to her next target. 

This wasn't the playful wolf girl who'd been teasing me all day. This was a predator - a black wolf of the Akatomi family.

Two more slugs burst into chunks of slime as her shadows tore through them. The remaining slugs, despite their drunken state, began trying to escape in panic.

In desperation, I did probably the stupidest thing possible - I grabbed Akane from behind and dragged her behind a large tree. She thrashed against me, snarling, her shadows lashing out wildly.

It wasn’t until I tried to let go that I realized something was wrong. My arms wouldn’t budge. A sticky, cold sensation clung to our skin - slug slime. But right now, that was the least of my worries.

"Akane, you need to-"

A sharp pain cut through my arm as one of her shadow tendrils sliced across it. The metallic scent of blood hit the air, and suddenly everything stopped. 

The feral light in Akane's eyes dimmed as they fixed on my bleeding arm. 

"I... I hurt you." 

"It's just a scratch," I said, trying to keep my voice steady despite the stinging pain.

Akane reached out hesitantly toward my injured arm. I flinched back before I could stop myself. The moment I did it, I wished I could take it back.

Her hand froze mid-air, and something in her eyes shattered. 

"You're scared of me."

"I'm not," I said. But my heart betrayed me, beating faster against my ribcage - a sound I knew she could hear perfectly.

"Don't lie to me, Ryou." 

Her ears flattened against her head, and I could feel her trembling against me.

"I hurt you. Just like they said I would."

I opened my mouth to protest, to say something - anything - that would make this better. But before I could form the words, her shadows suddenly surged up, slicing through the slug slime that bound us together.

For a brief moment, our eyes met. Hers were filled with tears that refused to fall. Then she turned and bolted, disappearing into the shadows between the trees.