Behind the Mask

Mako stomped on the ground and her tail puffed out. She barely moved and a wall of fire rushed to the foe. The black clad woman tanked the attack and stepped forward. Her suit sizzled but she seemed unbothered by it.

“Run, run!” Mamoru shouted, Yamiko and Mako took off, and he remained at the back of the trio. The woman sprinted after, and she was fast. He slashed a strike in the air, and she batted it away. A fireball had the same result.

She is after me. She can sense where I am. Hikari said like a bucket of cold water had poured over her head.

“Are you sure?”

Yes, you can save the others if you pick a different path.

Mamoru didn’t like how much it seemed she had given up, but he agreed with the idea. The purple-haired and fox-eared girls were much further ahead due to Mamoru slowing to try and attack, so it was a simple matter to dart down a side path in the trees. Sure enough, the pursuer followed.

Mamoru ran with all his might, as stray branches and plants scratched and tore through skin and clothes without care. Yamiko shouted from somewhere in the distance, but he didn’t plan to stop. Silent as the pursuer was in her approach, her mere presence threatened to reach out and choke him if he slowed for even a second.

Trees gave way to rocks and Mamoru instinctively leapt as the ground gave way to a cliff. An angry river roared below, but he had enough speed to make it to the other side. He pushed off a large rock and charged alongside the opposite side of the cliff. From behind the rock sounded like it exploded, and the aura of the pursuer continued without a break. For his part, he was beginning to feel too tired to keep running, only fueled by adrenaline at this point.

The narrow section of the canyon began to part and soon would have been impossible to clear by even a top athlete.

He continued to run when one of the main hiking paths returned, and with it a sturdy looking wooden bridge to cross again. It gave Mamoru an idea. He just needed enough force and a fantastic amount of luck with his timing.

This seems like a reckless plan.

He turned sharply onto the bridge, and the silent pursuer chased after. The high school boy wasted no time, he slashed the center of the bridge with the purest mix of magic and skill he could manage, using the wind to speed up his blade, and fire to ignite the bridge, then leapt over the damage in order to do the same to the next section.

The bridge collapsed with loud thuds into the rushing river below.

By the time he reached the end, his strength gave out and landed on his stomach. A hand tightly clenched his ankle, squeezing it so hard he screamed in pain. Though the only parts of the bridge that remained were burning husks, she had managed to clear it all the same.

Mamoru slashed at her head with his sword, to which the woman jerked back to attempt to the avoid the blow. She didn’t have enough space to avoid completely, her mask took a gash and fell off her head, and both Mamoru and the princess gasped in unison.

Hikari stared back at them from under the mask, or at least a face of hers. It was expressionless, with a nasty scar running from under her left eye to her chin. A small tattoo with ‘001’ was marked on the other side of her chin. Her snow-white hair was cut short, hanging just to the tips of her ear.

The most disturbing thing of all, was her eyes. Mamoru could tell at once the girl was Hikari, but the princess was not the one in control, her eyes didn’t carry any sense of something living—it had been the same with Mae.

In his hesitation to make another blow, his opponent grabbed his other leg and squeezed hard enough for something to crack. He cried again and swiped his blade out of reflex. She avoided the slash again but was beginning to pull herself up over the cliffside.

“Young master!” Mako yelled from the distance. Both girls, Mako charging in front and Yamiko—clearly out of breath—behind, ran to them. Before the puppet Hikari could react, Mako kicked her square in the face. The blow was enough to knock the opponent off the cliff. She tried to drag Mamoru with her, but Mako pulled him free. The pursuer silently plunged into the river below and was swept away by the current.

Mamoru gasped for air and looked back over the edge. Yamiko finally caught up and tried her best to catch her breath with him.

“How?” Mamoru managed once he had enough air. Mako pointed at the fox mark on his palm.

“She, like can tell where you are as part of the contract. Works both ways even. Pretty standard for yokai.”

Mamoru nodded like he understood all the magic talk and turned to the ghostly Hikari. She said nothing but seemed to tremble. Had he been able to touch her, he might have put a hand on her shoulder, but that was impossible with her physical body being washed away.

She said nothing even when they returned to the camp.