Chapter 8:

Ace, Wall, Homework? Demon Devour?

♤CE OF SP♤DES


Club members of the art club are dismissed after having to work over time. The president of the club stays behind as she tidies up. She leaves the club room and closes the door as the lights start to flicker. The girl walks down the hall as she feels as if she is being watched. The girl stops and turns to look back and saw no one. She calms down her breath as she turns and saw her home room teacher standing in front of her. The girl is startled then she giggles after. “Mr Matsushita you startled me”. The girl looks straight into Matsushita’s eyes as she saw they were all black. The girl gasp as she was about to scream Matsushita grabs her by the neck as the lights went off. The lights turns back on and Matsushita has disappeared.


One of the girls in the club forgot her phone in the club room she tells the others to wait for her. The girl quickly runs back into the school as she goes to the club and finds her phone. The girl wonders why the room is not locked. She rushes out and looks for the president as she walks down she sees someone on the floor and rushes to her aid. The girl turns the girl laying on the floor as she saw her all white and pale and her eyes all white. The girl screams.


A week later Ace Scott and the other students are gathered at the assembly hall after a long and weary speech. The student are divided into three battalions each with a different color silhouette on the Gakuran and different color ties for girls Red, Green and Blue. The students exit the assembly hall as each battalion goes to a different building block in the school. Ace walks down the hall as he runs into Takeda. “Hey Ace what’s up” says Takeda as he gives Ace a warm greeting. 


Ace closes his eyes, puts one hand in his pocket and points himself with his thumb with the other hand “Guess who Just became a full fledged Hunter” says Ace as he brags. Takeda laughs and gives Ace a ‘There There’ shoulder pat “Slow down Champ I want to introduce you to some people you might like”


Takeda takes Ace to the student council room as he opens the door and looks across the room he only finds two people. Nishina Nishimura playing mobile games. Aoi Koharu, blue haired girl with round glasses reading a book. “So where’s everyone” asks Takeda. “Mizuhara is at the library and Nagatomi went off to buy snacks” replies Nishimura while playing on her phone. “I see... well now that we are here... Ace I want to introduce you to...” before Takeda could finish his sentence Nishimura quickly interjects “Oh hey Ace”.


Takeda sighs “I guess you two have met before so right here is Aoi Koharu she...” Ace looks at Aoi as Aoi does the same. Aoi diverts her eye away from Ace. Ace takes a good look at her. “Wait I remember you” Ace shouts. Aoi pouts while looking away “I don’t think you do” says Aoi as she slowly hides herself with a book. 


“You’re that blue haired hot chick that walk in on me and Nishimura while we were doing our thing”


“Excuse me” Nishimura replies as she quickly stands up and looks at Ace. Aoi’s face turns red as she place the book on her face and replies “I don’t know what you’re talking about”. Takeda confused and can not catch up to what is going on he looks at Ace and Nishimura as they continue to argue. Satori Nagatomi walks in smiling “Hello everyone”. Ace and Nishimura draws their attention to Satori. Satori smiles awkwardly while holding snacks “Did I come at the wrong time”.


Everyone settles down as the tension calms while snacking on the snacks Satori bought. Ace looks at Aoi as Aoi looks away. “Hey Takeda... are you and Aoi related by any chance?” Ace asks out of curiosity. “Yes... she’s the only family I have” Takeda replies. Ace stays silent for a short while as Ace about to pop out another question Mr Keichiro Watanabe opens the door. 


“Oh Ace the guy I was just looking for”

“Something wrong Mr Keichiro”

“You could say so... I see Nishimura is here too”


Nishimura quickly stands up “Yes I am” She replies to Watanabe’s statement. Ace looks at Nishimura and see her face all red. Ace and Nishimura summoned to Watanabe’s office. Ace and Kaneko are given their first assignment with Nishimura as their mentor. Watanabe stands up and runs them through their assignment. 


“Reports have came through about a certain High school that is suspected to have Demon activities... they say they had found three students dead this week, with their sight taken away from them. So you three will pretend to be transfer students there. Find the demon and send it back to where it came from. Good luck on your assignment”


Ace, Kaneko and Nishimura are dropped off at Sakura High school after being briefed about their assignment as the school bell rings. They go to their separate classes that was assigned for them. Ace after introducing himself he takes a seat and starts to looks around the class. The girl sitting next to Ace introduces herself to him.


“Hey I’m Suzuki, If you’re struggling with anything you can ask me okay”

“Ah... yes nice to meet you Suzuki”


The bell rings for lunch as everyone exists the class. Ace being the last one to leave class the teacher stops him. 


“Ace right?”

“Yes Sir?”

“Please call me Matsushita”

“Oh yes Mr Matsushita”

“I take it you’re new here but education comes first to making friends okay. Please don’t disrupt my class again”
“I won’t, I promise”


Ace leaves for lunch after being scolded by his teacher. He meets up with Neko and Nishimura for lunch as they discuses their progress so far. With Ace having nothing found yet. Neko and Nishimura have already looked into the teachers and the staff members of the school and found nothing. “Wait already” Ace is surprised to how fast Nishimura and Neko have gathered information. “Did you find anything” asks Nishimura. Ace shies away having zero leads he brags about his new friend. “I only made a new friend she’s definitely the nicest chick I’ve ever seen”. Neko and Nishimura sighs to how helpless Ace is.


“Wow What’s this mysterious girls name” Nishimura asks as she rests her chin on her palm. Ace closes his eyes and opens his mouth out came the name ‘Suzuki’ as Neko and Nishimura stands up from the table. “What?” says Neko and Nishimura in Unison. Ace flinches and looks at the both of them. “Eh... I said...” Nishimura interject before Ace could finish his sentence. “We heard you”.


“You know her?”

“She’s the girl that found her club member dead on the floor”


“After that everyone here at school has looked at her like some sort of freak saying she was the murderer” Neko says as she joins the conversation. “I see and how did you guys find out” Ace replies. Nishimura and Neko closes their eyes and folds their arms as they brag. “When you’re a girl news travels fast”. Ace cringes and looks at the both of them.


“So how are we going to find our Demon” Ace asks out of curiosity. Nishimura replies “Since we know that you’ll screw up we’ll give you this” she takes out a paper and writes on it and gives it to Ace. Nishimura tells Ace to read it only when he is in class as the bell rings.


Ace sits quietly in class as he opens the note Nishimura gave to him. Ace looks at it carefully as Mr Matsushita writes on the board. Nishimura and Neko stand outside the door as they wait for Ace to read the note. “Christos?” (translated in Greek Christ) 


Mr Matsushita’s eyes turns all black as the chalk breaks, he looks at Ace with the corner of his eye. Nishimura spies with her little eyes a Demon pretending to be a teacher. Now that Nishimura and Neko know who their target is they go back to class and waste the rest of the school day as students.


After School Ace waits for Nishimura and Neko at the gate. Ace scopes Suzuki as he stops to talk to her. Nishimura and Neko interfere as they wrap themselves around Ace’s arms. Suzuki seems jealous she looks at Neko and Nishimura, she smiles awkwardly, bows and leaves in a hurry. “Hey what was that for” Ace asks. “Don’t get too attached we’ll be leaving soon” Nishimura replies. “Come on we have to come back here tonight I already miss not having homework” says Neko as they all leave.


Later in the evening Ace, Neko and Nishimura prepare themselves as they gear up for what they have to face. “So how do we know his here at this hour” Ace asks out of curiosity. “Matsushita is an A level staff member at this school. He takes overtime to work not only that devour young school girls souls or whatever he does to them”. Nishimura answers Ace’s question. “Ace I think your girlfriend is in the wrong place at the wrong time” Neko says as she sees someone in the school building and points to the direction.


“What do you mean I don’t have a girlfriend” says Ace as he looks at where Neko is pointing. He sees Suzuki in Matsushita’s class through the window as the lights turn off. The lights turn on and Suzuki has disappeared. “SUZUKI!” Ace blindly rushes towards the building. Nishimura tries to stop him but is too late. Ace walks cautiously in the building as light’s starts to flicker. He draws His hand gun as he hears an unsettling noise. Ace follows the noise as he sees an illumination of light in the school library made by the moon. Ace slowly walks closer to the door he walks inside pointing the gun ready to lock on his target. He sees two shadows then suddenly Ace finds himself inside the library standing behind Matsushita.


He sees Suzuki knocked out, laying on the floor. He puts his finger on the trigger. “ACE!” Nishimura shouts as she enters the library Matsushita looks back as Ace takes three shots and misses. Matsushita jumps out of the window and goes up to the second floor as Suzuki slowly regains conciousness.


“You scared him off I almost had him”

“That’s a good thing”

“What”

“You ran off before I could say anything The real Matsushita is still in there we have to exorcise the demon out of him but first we have to catch him with a Devil’s trap”

“How when his that quick”

“Just do what I say”


Ace walks down the dark hall to Matsushita’s class accompanied by Suzuki with the moons light as the only light they have. Ace flashes back to what Nishimura said to him. He thinks that its not a good idea to use Suzuki as bait even though its the only way they might catch Matsushita. Suzuki looks frightened as Ace looks at her. Ace and Suzuki hear a sound of what my seem to be a table being pushed around. Suzuki warps herself around Ace’s arm scared for her life. With her boobs squeezing on to Ace’s arm, Ace feels uncomfortably comfortable with the situation as it seems to be one of the camp activities ‘Test of courage’ as Ace thinks to himself. He sees a shadow beyond the dark hall. Ace stops walking “Stay behind me” he says as he pushes Suzuki behind him.


Ace aims his gun at the shadow as it disappears. He feels there is something behind him. Ace pushes Suzuki aside as he takes a shot. Matsushita moves his head side ways as he kicks Ace’s gun away. Ace quickly draws out his knife as Matsushita kicks Ace away. Matsushita appears in front of Suzuki as she turns and runs into Matsushita’s class. Ace rushes to Matsushita ready to thrust his knife, Matsushita parries Ace’s hand held knife and punches him through the wall of his class. Ace slowly picks up the knife as he is kicked back to the wall.


“Ace” Suzuki shouts as she looks at Ace. Ace’s body paining from being punched through the wall. He sits up straight against the wall as he reaches for his knife once more. Matsushita picks it up as he looks at Ace. Matsushita raises the knife as Ace smiles. Matsushita tries to stab Ace the knife can not reach as if there is a barrier in in front of him. Matsushita looks up at the ceiling and sees that he is under a Devil’s trap. Nishimura opens the door as she takes a shot at Matsushita’s hand held knife. The knife falls on the floor as Ace places a talisman on Matsushita’s forehead.


Matsushita falls on his knees as he looks dead into Ace’s eyes. “Zagan will not be pleased”. Ace takes his knife and cuts the talisman as the ground cracks and red light protrudes out of it. Matsushita looks up and opens his mouth. The dark murk leaves his body and falls inside the cracks and closes. The lights turns back on. Ace slowly falls back on the ground and takes a deep breath. 


“Man this was a freaking pain”

“It was easy”

“Have you ever been punched through the wall”

“No but you have”


Matsushita regains conciousness as Neko bandages his hand. “You okay... what is your name” asks Neko. “I...I’m Yamashita Tatsuyo... Where am I” Matsushita or rather Yamashita asks as he is still confused after being missing for 4 months. Suzuki all confused she looks at them and asks “Who are you guy’s” Ace, Nishimura and Neko looks at Suzuki. “I’ll handle this” Neko walks to Suzuki and karate chops Suzuki unconscious. “Ace do you know where she lives” Neko asks as she carries Suzuki on her back. “Ah... Yes”. Spades clean up crew arrives as they take Suzuki back home and fix any damages and mess that happened to the school. Ace Nishimura and Neko return to spades as their mission is a success.


The next day Sakura high school got a letter of Matsushita’s retirement and Suzuki’s memories of Yesterday erased.