Chasing The Unseen

Despite the very minor inconvenience of Eiji’s group’s omelet ALMOST burning to a crisp, the practical of the Home Ec ended without any further incidents, and it wasn’t long before a day of classes was nearing its end.

As the final school bell rang, signaling the students’ vindication Eiji got up promptly to leave the classroom as per usual.

“Hey, you.”

However, it seemed Hatsue had different plans.

With an utterly unamused look, Eiji turned on his heel.

“What?”

“Here.” Hatsue abruptly dropped a packed bento box in his hands. “It’s the omelet we made at the practical and before you ask, it was Marika’s idea. We know you live alone, and only God knows what the hell you eat considering your culinary abilities so…”

Eying the bento resting on his palms for a second, Eiji seemed to ponder on whether or not to accept.

“Thanks, but I—“

“No buts!” Hatsue cut him off, a cocky smirk on her face. “When people gift you something, you express your gratitude, nod, and accept it.”

With a final look at the meal at hand, Eiji finally nodded and turned towards the door.

“Sure. Thanks.”

“Sheesh, that was easier than expected…” Hatsue smiled at herself, before Marika popped up behind her, waving an arm towards the figure of the young man disappearing down the hallway.

“See you tomorrow, Kanzaki-kun!”

With a slight wave at his back, Eiji gave his reply.

Unbeknownst to him, it appeared Eiji had made yet another friend.

Still, Eiji was in a predicament as to what he’d do with the omelet at hand. After Hifumi passed, he couldn’t really bring himself to eat anything that resembled her specialty dish, so that meant he really couldn’t eat it, despite his rare goodwill to do so.

As his phone pinged for the umpteenth time today, and knowing already who that notification bell was rung by, Eiji decided on something internally.

Maybe Naomi could eat it. And he could satiate his curiosity and guilt by visiting the underclassman he had left to burn herself out while he was at it too.

Before he would make his way to her apartment though, a quick trip to the convenience store was most important.

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

“That will be 1,100 yen!” The elegant and pretty cashier smiled at Eiji, as she placed his items inside a transparent plastic bag for him.

“Here.”

After the young man payed the amount he was due, he left the small establishment, It wasn’t the first time he had shopped at such a faraway convenience store in contrast to other, more close by options, yet it still was quite rare he did so.

The reason?

Clack

That convenience store was the sole seller of that one energy drink Eiji had a sudden craving for.

The fizziness and fruity scent of a canned drink danced in the air as Eiji flicked the lid of his drink open.

As he walked down towards Naomi’s home, he took a quick sip and ordered Meh to appear at once.

“Meh.”

“Yes, Eiji-dono?”

“You sure you didn’t catch anything earlier?”

“No, Eiji-dono, Meh most certainly didn’t!”

“Haah…” With a sigh, Eiji thought back to how he and his Shikigami both seemed to miss the moment the specter, and culprit of the malevolence, struck against that girl once again.

Although the damage done to her, wasn’t great, it was still of major significance to an exorcist. Heck, tripping over and hurting your ankle during some light jogging surely wasn’t that major at all, yet the amount of slight inconveniences that increased both in quantity and damage every day was really concerning.

Most specters turned more powerful the more negative emotions they created and absorbed, and if Eiji was right on his guess as regards to what type it was, then it certainly couldn’t be left alone for any longer.

Yet how was one supposed to catch something that wouldn’t appear? Even a sigil or talisman couldn’t do the trick this time…

“Eiji-dono!!!” Meh cried, snapping Eiji out of his trance.

“Wha—“

Right as Eiji was dragged out of his train of thoughts abruptly, three men in black ran past him in breakneck speeds.

“Woah!”

One of them even seemed to bump against Eiji as he whizzed past him, causing Eiji to momentarily stagger and the canned drink he was holding so dearly to fall to the ground with a clanking sound.

“…”

With a soft, yet enraged exhale Eiji gazed at the figures of them still running down the road.

“Wait!! My bag!!!”

At the cry of a distressed woman appearing by his side however, the young man couldn’t help but avert his attention towards it.

As he turned though, he realized something.

“Oh?”

The distressed girl was none other than the emerald-eyed upperclassman constantly finding herself in perilous situations.

With a leg bound by gauges, she clutched her fists above her thighs concealed by her tight black leggings. She appeared to be in quite the sporty attire. Perhaps she was heading to dance class?

Shaking that idle thought away, Eiji spoke in his usual, flat manner.

“Hold these.”

“Eh?”

Without any other kind of warning, the young man dumped his shopping bags at the underclassman before him, and turned back down to the thugs who had stolen, as it appeared, her duffel bag.

And as if that weren’t enough, they had caused him to knock over his favorite energy drink to boot.

Eiji really couldn’t let them get away.

With a strong thrust of his foot to kick off the ground, Eiji dashed down the road which the thugs had paved.

Taking a sudden turn to the right through an alley, and retracing their steps, it wasn’t long before Eiji spotted their fleeting figures down another road.

With even more strength pumped to his legs in order to not waste any more of a second than he needed to, the exorcist ran and ran. It wasn’t often that he did so, but when he did, he was really, really fast.

Soon, the thugs, were an arm’s reach away.

“Woah! How the hell did he catch up?!”

“Run faster damn— Woaaah!”

Even before the thug closest to Eiji could finish his sentence though, Eiji’s arm reached out and grabbed the back of his collar, as he ultimately thrashed him to the ground like a weightless ragdoll.

“Oye! He got Yamada!” The thug up front said, as he turned around briefly, only to be tackled by Eiji not a second later.

Instead of slowing down however, the young exorcist used his speed to catch up to the last of the culprits, with a long, rugby-like tackle.

“The fuck?!” The man, who it so happened to have the girl’s bag in his possession too, looked up at the young man holding him down.

“Shut up.” Eiji spat, and punched him out cold at once.

“Hi-Hideyoshi! Oye! What are you—“ And just as another one of the thugs who had regained his footing approached the young man rising from the floor, the said person delivered a swift knee to his stomach.

And naturally, he didn’t need more than that to stay down.

“O-oye…” Baffled and almost terrified, the last of the three who was incidentally dragged to the ground first, shakily raised his arms in a fighting stance, approaching slowly.

“You.” Eiji said, as he retrieved the bag from the ground, and stepped forward. “…Better watch who you ran into next time.”

“Wha—“

Bang

An uppercut to the stomach, followed up by a right hook to the jaw did the job in for good. All three thugs were kissing the floor in no time flat as Eiji walked back the way he came. No doubt he was attracting quite the attention from the onlookers, and there was even less of a doubt of them calling the cops. Incidentally, Eiji definitely didn’t want to have any run in with them if it could be avoided. For more reasons than just the one.

Thankfully for him, he didn’t have to walk all the way back since the distressed upperclassman had covered half the distance herself, as she visibly limped on one leg slightly.

At the sight of him, and with a closer inspection, the girl stuttered slightly.

“Y-you were the one at school when—“

Not one to have the best of manners though, Eiji cut her off.

“Here.” He voiced, as he walked up to her as casually as a mailman and presented her, her own athletic duffle bag.

“O-oh…” His upperclassman exclaimed, taking ahold of it with both arms. It took her a while to address him again, as she looked him over a good amount of times.

“What?”

“Sorry… I was just wondering, how did you catch up to those men?” She voiced, looking almost too curious. “And… what happened to them, if I may ask?”

“Why do you need to know that? They stole from you, didn’t they?” Eiji crossed his arms, as he posed quite the valid point.

“I suppose, I just don’t see why they would steal a gym bag of all things…” The girl slumped her shoulders slightly before continuing. “Yet again it’s not like anything that happens to me anymore even makes sense…”

Although she had muttered that last bit under her breath, it didn’t escape Eiji’s hearing capacity.

Deciding it was best he didn’t address it, the young man stretched out his arm.

“Uhm?”

“My bags.”

“Oh!” The girl’s face instantly lit up with realization before gingerly handing over the goods Eiji had entrusted her with at the spur of the moment.

“Here… And thank you.” Shortly after the exchange, and with a sincere, and deep bow, the emerald-eyed young lady voiced. “I didn’t expect someone to help… So really, thank you.”

“No need to thank me.” Eiji sighed. “You can’t go anywhere with a leg like that, though.”

“Oh, you… noticed?” The girl asked, as she looked over to her injured foot.

“’Course. You were limping like a zombie, after all.”

“Like a—“ The girl’s face lit up red momentarily, before she cleared her throat. “Did I really? Well thanks for pointing it out...”

“Again, no need to thank me.” Eiji said, as he offered a simple nod, and turned to leave.

“Uhm, wait!”

It appeared however that the girl wasn’t quite done yet.

“Can I have your name?” With a fist clasped over her chest, she almost edged closer as she asked. “…We seem to bump into each other quite often so…”

“Kanzaki Eiji.” Although, flatly, Eiji did turn around to give his reply, as if acknowledging her.

“Kanzaki…” She muttered slightly, before nodding to herself. “I’m Takenaka Honoka.” With another brief bow, the girl too, introduced herself.

The unnamed, unfortunate upperclassman, now had a name. Takenaka Honoka. Yet Eiji seemed nowhere near close enough to unraveling her mystery just yet.