Naoya’s footsteps echoed through the empty streets of Mikage-Cho, accompanied only by the sound of his classmates running alongside him as they darted between the deserted city blocks of this strange new form that reality had taken. They hadn’t run into anyone else since leaving the hospital, and honestly Naoya wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. Seeing the usually vibrant streets of the city so empty was eerie and disconcerting, but Naoya wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the idea of running into more zombies either. It was a hard balance to strike, to be sure. Ideally, they’d make it back to the school without any incident or trouble at all.
Of course, nothing was ever quite ideal, was it?
“Hey, you think there’s-“ Masao didn’t manage to finish his sentence before his foot caught on the curb of the next block, tripping him up and sending his axe sprawling ahead of him as he fell with a yelp. “AH!”
“Be more careful.” Nanjo didn’t miss a beat, shaking his head disapprovingly as Masao groaned in pain. “You only fell, don’t be dramatic.”
“I scrapped my knee man, that hurts!” Masao rubbed his knee as he sat up, shaking his head. “I guess Mr. Fancypants doesn’t… doesn’t… uh…”
“Masao?” Naoya frowned, watching as Masao’s eyes widened at the sight of something just down the road. “What is it?”
“Say, do you uh…” Masao pointed, identifying a small pack of… well, honestly, the only word for them was demons approaching from down the street, their bodies dripping with strange black viscera as they gnashed their teeth and growled at the boys. “Do you think they’re friendly?”
“Proooobably not?” Brown scratched his head as Masao scrambled to his feet, everyone’s hands going for their weapons as they turned to face the demons. “Should we ask?”
“No. They’re-“ Naoya was interrupted by a roar as one of the demons unhinged its jaw, a deathly shriek echoing through the empty city and sending a chill right down his spine. “-definitely not friendly.”
“Ah well, nothing we can’t handle.” Brown tapped his spear casually against his leg, only to pause as more demons emerged from the shadows ahead of them as if called by the roar. “Oh. sh*t.”
“Guys, if we die.” Masao gulped in a breath of air, evidently trying to stay calm. “I just want you all to know, I always hated Nanjo the most.”
“We know that, you fool.” Kei sneered, his grip on his sword only tightening. “Not that we’re going to die. Hold steady, there’s still too much to do.”
As much as Naoya wanted to agree with him, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of doubt at Kei’s words. Zombies were one thing, but those freaks coming toward them now were demons. They’d barely gotten out of the hospital alive, hell, some of them hadn’t. Yamaoka’s death might have lit a fire in Kei’s heart, but it didn’t do much to assuage Naoya’s own fears.
He'd fight anyways, of course, but even with Seimen Kongou whispering reassurances into his soul, he didn’t like their odds. Not one bit.
That is of course, until a shadow passed over the four of them, and the sound of a jet engine snapped through the air like gunfire; a roaring report destined straight for the horde of enemies ahead of them.
“𝒯𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒽𝑜!”
There was a flash of silver and a shower of sparks as a huge metal… thing slammed into the first wave of demons, their shadowy bodies disintegrating on contact as another roar filled the air. Naoya’s jaw barely had time to drop before the thing sprung into motion once again, large silver wings flaring above it as metal flashed and the second wave of demons was turned into a fine black mist. In a moment, what had seemed like an insurmountable horde was reduced to little more than goop, replaced by a large metal beast and the sound of high-tilted laughter filling the air.
“Aha!” A flash of what could only be described as brilliant purple hair tilted upwards, an inexplicable ponytail flipping through the sky as the beast straightened itself upwards and spread its metal wings wider. “That was 𝑒𝓍𝒽𝒾𝓁𝑒𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔, I just must do this again!”
“The hell…” Masao’s axe fell from his hands once more as he reached up to his face, rubbing his eyes as if trying to disappear the sight of the big metal creature from in front of him. “You’re… you’re all seeing that too, right? I’m not crazy?”
“Man, if you’re crazy…” Brown’s eyes were like saucers, wide and uncomprehending. “Then maybe we all gotta head for the loony bin instead…”
“Hm?” The beast finally seemed to notice the four of them, turning and appraising them with a pair of wide yellow eyes. A spark flashed within them, a smile spreading over what must have been its face as it turned to face them with its whole body. “Ah, hello there 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈!”
“Friends?” Naoya blinked as the creature approached them at speed, failing to hide his flinch as it stopped just short of the four of them. Looking at it better now, the creature seemed to resemble some strange combination of an angel, a bird, and a bunch of sleek, shiny metal. An array of tubes and implements stuck out of its body in even patterns, accentuated by grooves of metal and its large imposing wings. On its head, it had a smaller pair of wings that seemed to frame its face. Which, looking at it now, didn’t it look a lot like… “…Eriko?!”
“Yes, 𝒾𝓃𝒹𝑒𝑒𝒹! It is I, your friend Eriko Kirishima!” The creature, no, Eriko seemed to puff up at the recognition, her head tilting back as her whole body rumbled faintly with the sound of a jet engine. “It’s very good to see you, 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈. I see you’ve remained small and 𝒻𝓁𝑒𝓈𝒽𝓎! My utmost 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝒹𝑜𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓈!”
“F-fleshy?” Masao blinked, poking his own cheek for a moment before shaking his head. “N-nevermind, what happened to you? You’re so… big!”
“Ah yes, well!” Eriko smiled widely, showing off rows of sharp metallic teeth as she did. “It seems as if this strange 𝓋𝑒𝒾𝓁 has unlocked my truest 𝓅𝑜𝓉𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝒶𝓁! The moment it began, I found myself 𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓃𝓈𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓂𝑒𝒹 into this 𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓋𝒾𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎 you see before you! It’s quite the 𝑔𝓁𝑜𝓌𝓊𝓅, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yeah man…” Brown continued to stare slack jawed at the girl as she basked under the attention, his lips struggling to form the words that came to mind. “Crazy…”
“Pull yourself together.” Kei scoffed at the other boy, rolling his eyes before turning back to Eriko. “You came from the school, right? What’s the situation there?”
“Straight to 𝒷𝓊𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈, aren’t you Nanjo?” Eriko tittered happily, tilting her head from side to side. “See, that’s why I always 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊. Our fair St. Hermelin is in a bit of a 𝓅𝒶𝓃𝒾𝒸 as of now. There are others who didn’t handle their 𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓃𝓈𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓂𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 quite so handily as I have. It’s caused quite the 𝓊𝓅𝓇𝑜𝒶𝓇, you see.”
“Another reason we need to hurry back.” Naoya hesitated for a moment, his eyes flickering to the girl’s large metallic wings. “You wouldn’t happen to be able to carry us back there, would you?”
“Oh no, of course not.” Eriko shook her head emphatically, her smile softening with the gesture. “You see, I can fly only at the speed of 𝓋𝒾𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎, and with how 𝒻𝓁𝑒𝓈𝒽𝓎 you all are, you would likely be 𝒷𝓁𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎!”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” Masao sighed, tilting his head and closing his eyes. “Maaaaannn…”
“Worry not, 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈!” Eriko tilted backwards, the faint sound of a jet engine growing louder as her eyes sparkled. “Even as you remain 𝓌𝑜𝑒𝒻𝓊𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹, I shall watch for you from the 𝓈𝓀𝒾𝑒𝓈! You won’t need to worry about any 𝒷𝑒𝒶𝓈𝓉𝒾𝑒𝓈 between here and our fair St. Hermelin, that is my 𝓋𝑜𝓌!”
“Thanks, Eriko.” Naoya nodded, surprised by how quickly he was accepting the fact that one of his classmates had turned into a giant metal angel bird thing. To be fair to him though, that was only about the third weirdest thing that had happened today. “Stay safe, alright?”
“Oh, you 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹𝓃'𝓉 worry.” Eriko winked, a grin back on her face as her wings tucked into a takeoff position. “As I said, before you flies the 𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓋𝒾𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎 herself!”
And with that, the engine within her let loose a roar, and Eriko shot into the sky above like a rocket, vanishing over the edge of one of Mikage-Cho’s many buildings and leaving the four schoolmates to do little more than stand dumbfounded.
“Well then.” Kei cleared his throat, gesturing for the others to move as they began to make their way to the school once again. “We should hurry.”
“Yeah. Damn…” Brown stared at the empty patch of sky where the girl had vanished, a faint whistle escaping from his lips. “What a woman.”
The only response Naoya had to that, was to smack the boy upside the head.
“Ow!”
