Foreclosure of a Dream

“Hasumi-san, is a specter!” Naomi exclaimed, almost unwilling to accept the reality of their situation.

“What gave it away, exorcist? Tell me.” The woman across the two teenagers glared. “I thought my performance was flawless.”

“Everything, really. Why were you the only that never slept on the train? Why did you keep insisting nothing like that had ever happened to you? Why did you run away, after that man had called YOU a demon?” Eiji said, stuffing his other hand in his pocket. “Why did my Shikigami not appear? Why’s there a full moon, now? That was supposed to be last week. And finally why did the man know the name of the station, without us telling him?”

“You scum…” Hasumi gritted her teeth.

“That is because you are the specter, the puppet master, and this is not the real world. This is another realm. Your domain.” Eiji finally smirked, causing Naomi to shake her head in pure disbelief.

“Senpai! You knew all that and didn’t say anything to me?”

“Why would I? You’d only blow the lid on it…”

“Jeez…”

Interrupting them, the specter before them cried out in hysterical laughter. “Hahahah!”

“You’re the first exorcist to come this far!”

“The first to come this far..?”

“So that spirit back there…” Eiji muttered, looking back in the tunnel.

“Yes. He was devoured, not long before you came in fact.” Hasumi run her tongue along her lips as her tone was momentarily coated in satisfaction.

Naomi shuddered, “Why would you do this, Hasumi-san?!”

“Why, you say? The question is WHY I had to suffer that day!”

“Suffer? You?” Naomi muttered, taking a cautious step back as Hasumi roared.

“On my way to Hachioji, on a train just like this, I was shot to death, all those years ago.” The woman’s eyes widened with malice as she spoke. “A shooter entered the cart I was, and shot 4 people before he was apprehended. But of course, nobody helped me in time…”

Eiji looked on as Hasumi’s breathing steadily started growing out of control.

“Nobody… Nobody…” She exhaled sharply, “So why should I let anyone ever reach THEIR destination ever again? Why should I let them LIVE?!” The specter hissed, its voice growing hoarser, twisted and deformed.

“Just because you were killed doesn’t mean you should take it all out on the innocent. They were once just like you.” Eiji reasoned, not stepping back at the sign of her face contorted in rage, and her body slowly transforming into a hideous monstrosity.

“None of them helped me! None of them would! They just left me to die! Just like… Just like you two when I ran away!” As Hasumi screamed, her body convulsed as it transformed, growing bigger and longer with each new word coated in rage.

“That’s why you will die too!!!”

With those words acting as further fuel to the fire burning within her, the specter finally grew into a gigantic, worm-like monster with rows of razor-sharp teeth, and the color and shape of the train it once occupied.

“Senpai, I think we need to run!” Naomi called, clutching her friend’s arm in panic. Fear was very clearly creeping into her heart. And who could blame her, after all? Against such a humongous and terrifying opponent, what could they possibly hope to accomplish? Her upperclassman too, wasn’t the first exorcist it had encountered and was about devour. There was nothing they could do…

“Pull yourself together.” Eiji spoke firmly, clenching his fists. Not a single sign of weakness made its way onto his expression as he braced himself for another battle of life and death. “Stay close and wait. It will soon be over!”

With yet another reassuring attempt, Eiji glared at his opponent, and triggered his power into motion.

With his fingers brought before his face, and with a soft exhale, his eyes turned crimson once more, just like the lightning particles gathering around them in a matter of seconds.

As their foe‘s gigantic body took to the skies, stretching out like a skyscraper far above, Eiji’s lips parted in a smirk. It seemed as though time had stopped for everything around Naomi as she gazed upon the scene.

She had a peculiar premonition. A strange feeling. Suddenly, her sense of fear was long gone.

As long as Eiji, her upperclassman, was around, everything would be turn out to be just fine.

As the specter gathered all its weight and prepared to strike, Eiji and Naomi braced for impact.

With a twist of its long body, the monster worm swung its head at the ground like a hammer, where the two teenagers stood.

Eiji however, raised an arm before the blow, causing its head to repel against a red shield-like dome, which shattered upon impact and sent ripples of lighting through the ground. The flashlight flew from Eiji’s hand as him and Naomi staggered back.

The creature didn’t relent in the slightest, as it attacked once more, forcing them to jump out of the way and slither against the dirt-riddled road at their feet.

“Into the tunnel, now!” Eiji commanded, as they took off back into whence they came, just in time to evade another devastating attack.

As Naomi tried to calm her beating heart, Eiji stood tall between her and the entrance.

“What now, senpai?”

“We…” Eiji muttered, pulling his arm back, his fingers outstretched. “Wait.”

Just as if on cue, the murderous worm before them roared in a fit of rage, as it stuck its head through the opening of the tunnel and attempted to crawl through.

Like a hunter waiting on the prowl, Eiji’s outstretched arm shot forward, and a beam of lighting crackled violently as it erupted from his fingertips, making its way straight into its opponent’s wide open mouth.

With an unearthly shriek, the worm convulsed under the influence of the electricity within it and drew back from the opening at once.

“Did we… do it?” Naomi said, looking back in disbelief.

“No… not yet.” Eiji replied briefly, before making his way out the tunnel in pursuit of the wounded specter.

This time however, and with their roles turned on their heads, the prowling spirit landed a surprise attack of its own against the exorcist.

In one fell swoop, its head dropped from above and coiled against Eiji’s body in a swift motion, gulping him down in one go as it ascended back into the skies in full length.

“EIJI-SENPAI!” With an ear-numbing cry, Naomi dashed out the tunnel herself, in a fit of confusion and worry. As she left the safety of the manhole behind, her eyes gazed upon the monster moving its body about in the air, as if it was cackling to itself about such an overwhelming victory.

Eiji though, was nowhere to be found.

Was her upperclassman really…

Naomi shuddered at the thought.

He couldn’t have… there was no way.

Just as that thought surfaced through her mind, the monster before her stopped moving.

“Eh?”

Visibly shrinking, almost cowering, it’s body emitted a bright red glow. A glow that only grew stronger by the second, just like the pained cries of the specter.

In but a few moments, the specters’ body coursed with a red wave of energy throughout, before it was completely overwhelmed.

Bang.

With a loud and heavy sound, the specter’s body erupted into a red splatter of energy and the surrounding area was coated in a bright white light.

…

“Mhhh…” Naomi stirred, as a flash of light flitted across her resting eyelids.

“What is going on?”

“I have no clue…”

Upon opening her eyes, the girl was greeted by two male officers in full uniform, shining their flashlights on hers and other passenger’s faces.

“Where… are we?” Naomi voiced, looking around, completely puzzled.

“Uh… Hachioji.” One of the officers replied, yet without letting go of his extremely puzzled expression.

“Hachi…oji?” Naomi sat up, and looked around the cart with a start. Next to her, there was a young man that laid asleep, just like the rest of the passengers.

It was Eiji.

“Senpai!!” Naomi called out, her chest overspilling with a great sense of relief.

Just like the rest of the people on the train, the young man stirred slightly.

“Huh…?” He uttered, staring at the almost tear-stricken face before him.

“Senpai! You’re alive!!!” Tackling him into a bear hug as soon as he woke up, Eiji blinked profoundly a couple times.

“What the hell? Get off me…”

“Senpai! You’re as alive and mean as ever!” Naomi said chuckling to herself, as all the sleeping passengers sat up from their seats in pure puzzlement too.

“Yes. Officer Machida here. The passengers seem to be awake.” As the people in the train seemed to regain their senses, the officers in the cart reported back through their radios.

Looking around, Eiji realized their train had stopped at yet another station. Yet this time, this particular place was brimming with people. Police cars, flashing lights, and a few confused passengers talking either on the phone or with the officers and train attendants.

“We did it, senpai! We did it!” Naomi beamed with joy, as she repeated over and over again.

Despite the fact her clinging to him like a pest made Eiji clearly uncomfortable, he ultimately decided to let it slide for now.

The incident had indeed been resolved, as it seemed.

At 1 AM, that night, while a single train was due to arrive at the Hachioji train station, a peculiar event occurred. Instead of that same one scheduled train, another one arrived with it. Said train was full of the passengers that had mysteriously disappeared the day before, as well as the bullet train itself.

Despite the sheer peculiarity of such an incident, the officers that were called at the scene by the train attendants, were able to file the case of the missing train as resolved.

When questioned, all the passengers as well as the drivers of each train respectfully, described the incident as some sort of lapse in their memory, as they mysteriously woke up at the Hachioji train station right after departing from Shina.

Friends, and family were relieved to hear the news, and almost all of them dropped their charges on—

<*><><*><><*><><*>

“Haaah… we really saved all those people, didn’t we?” Naomi smiled, as she drew in a big, content breath of the fresh early morning air.

“We?” Eiji muttered, before Meh popped up out of thin air.

“It is a pity Meh missed all that. Meh feels left out.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Meh-chan! I’ll narrate that story for you as many times as you like!” Naomi beamed.

“While Meh does appreciate it, it doesn’t change the fact he wasn’t there to help his master…”

“There was nothing you could have done. We were within a dream world of sorts.” Eiji replied, trying to console his Shikigami for what seems like the first time in forever. Perhaps, the experience of not having him around softened his feelings towards him a bit?

“If Eiji-dono believes so, then Meh shall not argue further!”

“Oh, that reminds me, senpai!” Naomi cocked her head in question.

“….What now?”

“Isn’t it kinda unfair how you do all that to save everyone and never get recognition in return?” Naomi spoke lowly, betraying a hint of disappointment. “You’re almost like a superhero! But nobody ever knows what you go through!”

“I just do what an exorcist is supposed to. Nothing more, nothing less.” Eiji simply replied, as the two of them kept on walking towards the school.

“…Nobody ever knows the shit one goes through on the daily.” The young man finally shrugged.

“How about we make it official? Like a superhero thing? We can find you a cool name and a tight fitted costume and boom!”

“Hell nah…”

“Eh? Why not? I can be your sidekick and I can also make a manga of it! We’ll be swimming in cash in no time!”

As the two of them stepped right past the gate of their school, with Naomi chatting animatedly, and Eiji just going along with it, a certain mob forming before them halted their advances.

“Well, well… Look who finally decided to show up!” A very familiar face walked through the parting mob, sporting a pompadour and a cocky grin.

“Kanzaki!”

“Haah…” Eiji couldn’t help but sigh. “Not today, Ishida…”

Indeed, that was Ishida, Eiji’s self-proclaimed rival. Although it seemed he had quite the knack for bad timing.

“Ah-re? Is this a friend of yours, senpai?” Naomi inquired, looking in between the two of them.

“Does it look like we’re friends?”

“Then your rival perhaps?”

“How did you even come to that conclusion?” Eiji sighed, before Mitsuaki the delinquent stepped forward once more.

“Kanzaki today is—“

Just as the young man was about to declare the usual duel, his momentum froze upon the face of Eiji’s new party member.

“Who is this… beautiful creature beside you?!” the dumbfounded delinquent declared passionately.

“Eh?”

“Who?”

“I think he is referring to Mizuno Naomi, Eiji-dono.” Meh tried to clarify.

“Me? Nah, no way!” Naomi scoffed. “Besides, I’m already senpai’s—“

“Come at me, Kanzaki! I will free this lady from your slimy grasp and—“

With a beautifully aimed punch to the gut, Mitsuaki was driven to his knees in an instant, as Eiji simply walked past him.

“Agh….”

“The bell’s about to ring…” The young man grumbled.

“Oopsie daisy…” After stepping over the writhing Mitsuaki, Naomi followed her upperclassman through the school doors, leaving Mitsuaki’s mob slack-jawed yet again.

“So senpai, do you want to come see me practice today?”

“I have wo—“

“Ah-re, what was that?”

“Nah, never mind…”