DON'T Lick Tha—!

Lachlan froze, staring into an oozing face for an eternity of a half-second, pinned by burning demon eyes.

And snapped back into half-yuurei form faster than the whiplash could catch up with him as it lunged, swiping at him with dark oozing claws. He shoved back on Ariake, the other bumping into him and cursing. "Back! Back back— Dammit—!"

The floorboards abruptly shattered above his head.

He had a half-second to instinctively shield himself before something yanked him up by the scruff of his neck and light and chaos crashed into him. Shouts and screams, people scrambling back as a black blur shot up into him and he thudded into a thin mat.

He gritted his teeth as he caught slashing claws on his arm, icy shock jolting straight up his spine at the brief burning tingle. What the hell—? Shouldn't be able to feel that, some part of his brain protested even as he shoved it back and threw a solid punch between its eyes. "What the hell just happened! Where the hell are we?!"

"Watch out!"

He ducked, avoiding a slash that left deep gouges in the wall next to his head, teeth that seriously needed dental care snapping at him. Not having any of that! A gunshot followed it, one of the—tattoos? Yakuza?—scrambling away from the chaos holding a pistol. "Damn!"

"Don't let it grab you!" Eden snapped, the bear leaping forward as a dragon bowled into the crowd. "It—"

"I know!" He ducked to the side, hissing as the akuma sliced the air a breath from his nose, and batted back at it like a cornered cat to keep it the hell away. "And I don't feel like feeding a demon—hff!—or becoming its puppet today!"

Gathering itself up, pulsing its throat like a frog, the akuma twisted and gurgled a black stream of goop at Eden, the bear leaping back with a snarled curse. Inky tendrils shot at Lachlan at the same time, no way to dodge, and he braced himself—

Only for a hawk-man to dive in and dig a sharp beak into the thing's spine, yanking it away. "Why didn't you sense it, gaijin?!"

Save my life and insult me too. He dove out of the corner, a bullet nipping past his ear. "Did you? Little busy to be regretting things right now!"

A tail whipped at him, and he saw the akuma throw its assailant off a half second before he lost sight of it all thanks to crashing through the wall. Skidding and rolling across the floor, he hit a couch with a thump, the crash of glass shattering and angry screams ringing in his ears.

Augh. He hacked out something he couldn't really call a word, let alone a curse, kicking back up onto his feet in time to see a fancy yakuza coldly shoot an entire chamber into the akaname's chest, doing nothing but scattering black ooze. Damn— He stumbled through his own self-made door just as a bear-man slammed into the demon, the two of them crashing through a slatted window.

Leaving him to meet the eyes of the man with a snake tattoo biting up under his jaw and all the icy fury of a pissed-off yakuza clan leader piercing his soul. For just a second, he froze, the gun turning on him, an odd chill lifting the hairs on the back of his neck.

"Gaijin!"

Dammit. Diving out of the way, a spark and a flash of light whizzing past, he dove after Ariake through the splintered hole. Leaping out just as the rogue yokai tore itself free and jumped like a frog, he shot across the grass.

And chomped on its ankle.

Its shriek rang in his ears as he switched forms to yell without using his mouth, "Takanashi!"

Except instead of summoning a hawk, a dragon swooped along and chomped into it, snatching the akaname up and him along with it.

Dark-grey and orange scales flashed through his vision. Leaves and concrete and tiles whirled around him as he switched back to half-human, clinging for dear life on a flight with no return ticket. Oh hell—

The dragon snapped like a whip. He found himself abruptly flung free with a neck-tearing jolt, kaleidoscope streaks of city flying past him. In the corner of his eye a flicker of black rocketed away like a shot from a cannon.

Green. Lachlan twisted on pure instinct, crashing through sticks and leaves, his hands snatching at a branch and swinging him half-blindly into a stand of bushes.

Crashlanding spectacularly in a sea of not-so-soft green, he ploughed in a tumbling roll through it all and burst through onto mossy rocks spitting out bits of twig. Heugh. The disgusting taste of bathroom mould still clung to his teeth, too.

"Blegh." Scrubbing furiously at his mouth with the back of his hand, he didn't notice the yokai around him until he stumbled through a frantic cloud of wispy lights. All twisted into terrified expressions, they brushed past him like ghosts screaming senselessly, with faces he—

He nearly jerked back, jarred by a half-glimpse of people he could almost swear he'd seen once in a different time and place altogether, and then they were gone.

Leaving behind a real demon leaping at him instead.

"Shite—" He twisted away, growling under his breath, and punched the blasted thing across the clearing into a bench.

An occupied bench, he belatedly realised as a woman screamed and scrambled away, running for a path leading off through twisted vines. And unlike the yakuza, she didn't have a gun.

The akuma leapt after her, because of course it did.

"Kore! I'm your sparring partner!"

It ignored him, bounding off on all fours with a too-big mouth dripping black slime, faster than a human could run. Faster than he could catch up with it before it snapped at the lady, who barely managed to dodge and send it browsing on a vegetarian diet instead.

He crashed into it an instant later, pinning it to the tunnel wall with fangs through its neck.

Not that it noticed.

A grunt exploded past his lips as it kicked straight into his stomach, flinging him off, black gunk ripping away with him. It didn't hurt, but the burning tingle choked his breath in his lungs for a second as he stumbled back against the other side. A second enough for it to clamp down on the arm he threw up to fend it off.

And that one hurt.

He cried out as the tingle snapped electric ropes around his arm and burned up to his shoulder, desperately flinging it against the vines, smashing it into the twisted trunks. "Get off—! I said we weren't doing this today goddammit—"

Something cracked, but the blimmin' thing just bit down harder.

"Hrghk!" He sank sharp teeth into its face instead of his own tongue, tearing at it, trying to rip the damned thing off. Dig it out with his teeth and claws and anything he possibly could because the mindless static would rather he gnaw off his own limb than feel cold agony sear up through his bones, and damn but it hurt too much to think clearly even if he had the mind to disagree, his vision blurring as he snarled like an animal—

"Lockie."

His breath froze in his lungs. A fairy pendant twinkled in the sun.

And shattered into glittering shards under a spurt of oily black.

He lurched back, panting, abruptly free of the screeching akaname and gripping his arm like it was about to fall off. What— what the hell— A smile haunted his vision, one he couldn't quite blink away, that belonged to a face fuzzed with time— that he shouldn't have seen—

"What the hell just happened," he croaked to a disappearing bear, a grey blur already gone in pursuit of fading wails.

Eyes glowing blue—had he noticed that before?—glared back at him, an edge to them that he couldn't parse right now. "It grabs onto you, and you are dead or possessed. You said you knew this," Eden said, in Angaelic, which Lachlan must've... accidentally used.

"It wasn't— that wasn't what I..." he said to an empty tunnel, because Eden had already left. "I did know that."

That wasn't what I was asking.

He squeezed his arm briefly, letting out a shaky breath and a raspy curse in a language his mother wouldn't have understood, forcing his limbs to move. Yokai could take on the faces of the dead, sometimes. Maybe it was more of an onryu than an akuma. Couldn't tell. Wasn't like he was an expert.

"Nách mór an diabhal thú," he muttered in a language she would have understood as he forced himself back into a run, bursting out into chaos reigning across a torn-up pebble garden.

And the little devil itself outmanoeuvring every last one of them.

Mostly thanks to everyone getting in each other's way. The horned lad he presumed was Drake actively shoved Eden off his path to try and slice the akaname from the air, the thing just glooping around his impressive set of claws and spitting in Ariake's face when it landed.

He hissed between his teeth and joined the fray, calling out in Angaelic over Ariake's shout, "Hey, aren't we supposed to be a team, here?"

"I would've killed it by now if you didn't keep getting in my way," Drake snarled.

He would've done a double-take, but he was a little taken up tackling the akaname away from the hawk, the one who was usually the most ornery of their little group sputtering and falling to his knees. Snarling through a mouthful of slippery demon, Lachlan ground his teeth tighter as it bucked and twisted and flailed at him, screeching— no, screaming—

Wait—

Ice flooded his veins. Spilling around his mouth, golden hair tangled in his teeth, the biting tang of blood running across his tongue, her scent sharp with terror.

No—

Lachlan jerked back faster than he could think, his stomach lurching. The akaname—it was an akaname again—scrambled away, leaping at Ariake too quick for him to correct his mistake. Trying to shove his shaking limbs into order, he couldn't do more than snatch after it with clawless fingers. Laughably too far to even touch it as it jumped and latched on.

Ariake screamed, and Lachlan winced, cursing himself out. Yanking his yuurei into place despite the sick twist that tried to push its way up his throat, he shoved himself to his feet just as Drake got there—

"Get it off me! Get it off!" Ariake lurched around in a panic, clawing at the ooze sinking into his back, and flung his hand out wildly, a wave of grime shooting at the dragon and slamming him back.

Lachlan ducked, barely avoiding the bowling ball, Eden shouting something behind him. "This is not good," he huffed between clenched teeth, trying to dart in only for a shaking hand to snap out and attempt to ooze him, too. "Ariake!"

"Get it— get it—" The kid convulsed with something between a sob and a retch, hurling black all over the stones.

Lachlan leapt back, feeling a little sick, himself. "That's disgusting."

"Help me, damn you!" Ariake practically screamed at him.

"Stop flailing and I will," he snapped back, throwing a glance over his shoulder at Drake peeling himself off a flattened Eden. "You'll be fine, it takes a while for it to stick. Just hold on."

"Oi!" He yelled back at the other two, eyes that reminded him of when he'd first run into Drake snapping over, and Eden scowling at him. "Eden, distract, I'll hold 'im down. And you— finish it off!"

"What?"

"No time to argue!"

At least Eden moved despite his protests. Watching him barrel towards Ariake and juke away at the last moment, Lachlan tensed for the opening— and....

There!

In a flash, he leapt, catching Ariake's shoulder and pinning the panicking teen to the ground. His screeching might've made his ears bleed if they could right then, but Lachlan held firm, curling his lip as the akuma attached to the lad vibrated and tried to turn a twisted face that barely resembled anything on him.

"H-help me... Lockie...."

"You keep them out of this," he rumbled, risking a glance over his shoulder. "Now, Dra—!"

Claws hissed past his nose and squelched into the ooze, tearing it free with a savage flick.

Ariake howled a curse beneath him, and he barely had time to flinch before the monster practically blew apart in a spray of ichor and grime. Its wail shrieked like a dying balloon, dragging claws over the chalkboard of his spine until it trailed into a whisper and cut out.

He took in a careful breath, peering out from under his arm to see Drake somewhere between a grin and a sneering grimace as he flexed his ooze-covered hand, akaname nowhere in sight.

Well, that was it, then. Exhaling, he moved back from Ariake's limp, huffing body, and stood, flicking off a jiggling bit of ooze. "And may hell's seventeen devils go after you," he muttered in Gaelic, taking stock of their team. Eden giving him a funny look over there, Drake covered in gunk, Ariake... all accounted for, and none the worse for wear. Mostly.

The same couldn't be said for the park, but they hadn't made too much of a mess.

He smiled, dusting off his hands. "Well, that didn't go too badly."