Acidic Ally

The sun shone down on him, the rays being so hot that he kept scratching himself. It was weird. It felt like a needle prickled in various spots on his skin.

“This is getting annoying,” he muttered before looking back at his bike and wiping his sweat off.

Moments ago, Sa-iq had tried to ride his bike. However, his brakes had suddenly locked, and he’d spun in a circle. If he hadn’t instinctively output DER, he would’ve hit his back and possibly broken it.

He crouched down towards the brakes again, trying to find whatever caused the lock. As his fingers got dirty with oil, it got harder for him to see. A shadow fell over the bike, with patches of circular lights piercing through the shadow. He looked behind him and up, seeing a boy around his age with afro-styled hair.

"Sami?" questioned Sa-iq. The person kept looking down at him.

"Sa-iq! I didn't think I'd see you already!" he said.

"Y-yeah! Me too…." Sa-iq stared at Sami.

“Gee I remember his name but can’t remember who he was exactly,” thought Sa-iq.

Sami noticed Sa-iq's eyes narrow in thought and lightly chuckled.

"Ah, you remember Sam? He was the one who introduced you to me," said Sami.

"Ohhhh yeah I remember you now. So, Sami, what brought you back? You moved into the inner city, right?" he said.

"Oh well my parents decided to move back here, the big city life didn't suit us much. Anyways if you want, I can help you with your bike,” responded Sami.

“Nah, I like fixing things myself, then I get people to rely on me. Heh,” he said, looking back at Sami and smiling.

"Oh well, see you at school then!" said Sami as he began walking off into the distance.

“I could’ve sworn he had a missing tooth,” thought Sami.

***

As Sa-iq made his way towards the school cafeteria, his phone began to vibrate. Glancing at the screen, he noticed it was the same notification he had received the day before.

Z-rank demon located 500m away from your location.

"500 meters? That's practically in the school, but it's fine I guess, it's a Z-rank after all," spoke Sa-iq to himself.

"Sara's still in her class, I’ll take the demon on myself, I can't wait for her class to finish, or it might start to attack people," he thought before he rushed over towards it.

Sa-iq hurried through the corridor, his school uniform choking him from how tight the collar was. He ran past the laundry room, freezing in place when a certain sensation hit him. He slowly walked towards the laundry room, putting his finger in his collar to widen it up a little.

Slowly, he pushed the door open, his eyes scanning through the room.

“There you are,” he whispered.

A male demon was ravaging through a pile of black and white school uniforms.

“I thought demons wore red ribbons around them, why’s this one pink?” he thought.

Sa-iq let a small smile out.

"EXPLODE!" he shouted before manipulating the wires inside the room, causing a small explosion in the room. The explosion was large enough to start the fire alarm and push Sa-iq to the side.

"Hmphf, I never expected puny Dermines to roam the school, especially not one who looks as young as you," spoke the demon, patting dust off its shoulder.

He lunged at Sa-iq. Sa-iq barely managed to deflect the blow. The force of the blow left Sa-iq's arm shaking, giving the demon an opportunity to put Sa-iq in a chokehold. Sa-iq's sword bounced on the floor while he held on to the demon's arms. The demon lifted him with ease.

"How far has the agency fallen? Or no, they've always been like this, it's just my first time experiencing something humans would consider immoral," said the demon.

Gasping, Sa-iq activated a small electric explosion around him to force the demon away. The demon stumbled and took several steps back.

A smile spread from ear to ear, the demon's eyes razor sharp on Sa-iq.

"You must be some kind of young talent. What's your name? It'll be nice going back to this moment," said the demon.

"Sa-iq Shawkat. You don't need to tell me yours, you'll only turn into a memory that I'd look back at once I'm done," Sa-iq said while panting for air.

The demon chuckled slightly.

"Bermuda, Rob Bermuda is my name. I like your confidence but someone with a body as small and fragile as yours won’t do shit to me," said the demon while waving his arms in the air.

Sa-iq stared back at Rob, his face still scrunched in anger.

“Oh yeah? I’ll show you what a small guy can do!” he said.

Rob rushed towards Sa-iq, sending a barrage of punches his way. Sa-iq struggled to keep up, each blow forcing him to react instinctively.

Sa-iq found a lucky opening, ready to strike Rob in the face with a hint of electricity. However just before he could draw his fists back, both of his hands were cuffed together by rubber.

Before he could react, Rob sent a punch right into Sa-iq's stomach, flinging Sa-iq off to the wall and creating a miniature crater.

"His ability's rubber? So that’s how he was uninjured from my attack? Damn it!" thought Sa-iq to himself, a small amount of blood flowing down his chin.

"You'll be tasty, and the power I'd gain from consuming you excites me!" said Rob.

Sa-iq lay in the crater, his limbs stinging like hell and his pride wounded.

He couldn’t force his legs to support his weight. All he could do was watch as drool dripped down from the demon's mouth.

“Y-you haven’t had a meal in a while huh?” he said, failing to hide his stutter.

“Her wind powers would work well against rubber,” he thought. However, his train of thought suddenly broke as he saw an arrow pierce straight through the demon. It pushed the demon away, and both of them turned towards a 3rd party.

The demon frowned at the figure. He held a bow twice his size while wearing an afro.

“What the hell is wrong with this school,” muttered the demon, veins on his arms popping.

"Sami?" murmured Sa-iq.

"Sorry for not telling you earlier Sa-iq, I wanted to tell you when we had a proper conversation," Sami said as he rushed toward Sa-iq, quickly unwrapping his arm.

"Are you alright? If you're injured, then we should go back and call for backup," said Sami.

Sa-iq paused, considering it for a brief moment. His eyes caught a sudden movement behind Sami.

“WATCH OUT!”

He swung his arm, summoning his sword and almost hitting the demon. Rob quickly blocked it with his nails. Rob backed up.

"No, let's get rid of him right here, right now. I don't know why but I feel refreshed! As if I was never injured," said Sa-iq while panting.

The demon, now fully recovered, glanced at the two friends standing side by side.

"I don't know who you think you are, but you'd need to do more to defeat me!" Rob declared.

Sa-iq wiped the blood off his nose and fixed his eyes on Rob.

"Let's go, Sami," said Sa-iq, and Sami nodded in response.

Without hesitation, Sa-iq rushed towards the demon. He relied solely on martial arts and his own sword.

Meanwhile, Sami leapt high up into the air, shooting an arrow, barely missing.

As Sa-iq closed the distance, he and the demon started trading blows again. Rob started feeling the pressure, as he simultaneously had to dodge Sami's incoming arrows.

Sa-iq drew his arm back, ready for a sucker punch. In the heat of the moment, Rob turned his face into rubber, allowing Sa-iq to land the punch, only for Sa-iq's right hand to become circled with Rob’s transformed rubber face. Sa-iq stood in shock. Meanwhile Rob didn’t hesitate and turned his arm into rubber, creating a rubber band around Sa-iq's neck.

Sa-iq let out a miniature gasp.

"M-my DER?!?!" he thought in a daze.

***

While LER can be produced anywhere on the body, DER is only produced in the brain. This means when you put any kind of thread infused with DER on the back of someone's neck, you block their DER circulation, effectively turning them into a normal human.

***

Rob shoved Sa-iq aside and charged directly towards Sami. Sami's teeth chattered.

Snapping back to his senses, Sami raised his bow and aimed it at the demon, the string resting on his index finger.

"Sa-iq duck! You don't want to get hit by this one!" he shouted before releasing his arrow. The arrow, coated in a green liquid, hit the demon right in the head, killing it on impact.

Sa-iq stood back up, still rubbing his fingers on the rubber around his neck and let out a sigh of relief.

Sami walked towards Sa-iq to get the rubber off while the demon's body thudded to the ground.

"Sami, go place the body somewhere else, if it explodes the Agency will just start nagging us for not taking care of it," said Sa-iq.

"We won't need to do that, Rob will disappear by himself," said Sami with a smug face.

Sa-iq looked over and noticed Rob's body slowly "burning" away.

"Wha- how?" Sa-iq asked.

"Well, my ability is “acid”, or it isn't exactly acid, but it works similarly, that's what I like to believe. It’s a green liquid that eats or burns anything it lands on, the only way to stop it is to cut the body part off, say you get my acid on your arm, cut it off to stop yourself from being deleted from this world," responded Sami.

"But isn't that really dangerous? Like can't you eat through the whole earth or something?" Sa-iq asked.

"Nah, non-living things aren't affected by Dermine ability unless they're infused with both DER and LER, only living beings are affected by one type of energy when they contain the other inside of them. If I wanted to eat the entire earth, I'd need to cover the entire globe in DER, and I'm definitely not able to do that," Sami replied.

"So how did you get in? I thought only people over the age of 18 were allowed to become agents," asked Sa-iq.

"I should be asking the same!” Sami chuckled a little.

“But anyways apparently, I was “special.” I don't get what they meant by that though, I'm only Z-rank after all.”

“Meh,” muttered Sa-iq.

"Oh yeah, by the way, Sa-iq, how does this ranking system work? I'm confused, because do I really have to surpass 25 other ranks to reach A-rank?"

"No dude, the ranking system is a little weird. It follows a normal S-F ranking system. But then it drops straight down to Z. I’m F-rank, so I’m only one rank above you."

"Ahhh that's how it works," Sami replied while scratching his head and laughing.