“Cowards, all. You will never find safety in this world, no matter where or how far you run. Come three o’clock and wives will set upon their husbands, parents will kill their children. But I shall not rest unless I first draw and quarter that boy and girl with these hands.”
Suiki followed the shadow’s trail with his burning, hateful eyes. “I was sure they had died in the DMZ, but unleashed the shadowmancer just to be sure. And now it shall pay off. Ah, in the basement. Wait there, my darlings. I shall soon arrive.”
From the monitors, Sayaka and Mephisto were already aware of the commotion. Suiki began descending the stairs.
“It seems you have a guest. Some creature called Suiki.”
Sayaka nodded. “This is good news.”
“How is that?”
“If this creature is here, that means Kyoya-san must contend only with one.”
“I find that nothing worth celebrating,” Mephisto said, with obvious displeasure. He waved his right hand.
Descending the stairs, Suiki was pierced by a particle beam weapon embedded in the walls. He calmly reached toward the wall with his tentacles. The wall grew half-transparent, frothed and bubbled, and turned into a sheen of water. The stream of particles stopped like a crimped hose, and Suiki proceeded on his way.
The demon sprite was bombarded in succession by lasers, ultrasonic waves and chemical weapons. He cut all of them off from their sources in a matter of seconds.
“Physical deterrents won’t work here. This living creature doesn’t follow the natural laws of this world. Refurbishing these government offices cost a hundred million. That thing is causing an awful lot of damage.”
“I’ll see to it that you are compensated,” Sayaka responded calmly and apologetically. “Just give me the invoice.”
“You certainly are a resourceful young lady.” Mephisto smiled, though it seemed more the result of restraining outright laughter.
“I try to be.”
“I’ll have my accountants tend to it later. For the time being, we should address the problem at hand.”
“I concur.”
“That fellow is being guided by your shadow. Once being a part of you, it now seeks to unite with you again and so pursues you. Meaning that no matter where you go, it will follow. The only remaining option is to stand and fight.”
“But Kyoya-san is the only one who can defeat them.”
“Ah, yes. A particularly common failing of the female sex is to believe that love conquers all. Which is not to say it does not have its uses.”
“W-what?” Sayaka blushed. “I am not Kyoya-san’s girlfriend!”
“So you say. Come along.”
Mephisto left the operating room. Sayaka followed him. They took the elevator to the second underground level. Mephisto opened the door to the room immediately adjacent to the lobby. The fairly wide space was covered from floor to ceiling with machines and tools. Sayaka recognized some of the computers, translation machines and monitors, but as for the rest she didn’t have the slightest idea what they did or how they worked.
The room was wrapped in a dusky silence. It seemed a most appropriate abode for this black-clad young man. His personal research laboratory.
Mephisto stood in front of a huge machine in the back and picked up what appeared to be a silver gun.
“Completed it just yesterday. A psychic wave gun.”
Sayaka darted up and looked intently at it. “A weapon that can destroy monsters?”
“That was the intent. It has been in the works since I learned about their existence two years ago, our ace in the hole, so to speak. It amplifies the user’s nen and directs it against the enemy.”
Taking note of Sayaka’s disappointed expression, Mephisto smiled and added, “This alone should give you similar capabilities to those of the paranormal commando corps being developed in the outside world, except that this has dual chakra filters, one to absorb spiritual energy and one to project it. You are familiar with the concept of chakra?”
“Yes,” Sayaka nodded. She’d gotten an explanation of the word during lectures about yoga from Master Rai on Earth.
The chakra were dispersed among seven locations on the human body—the crown of the head, brow of the forehead or third eye, the throat, heart, solar plexus, sacrum and the loins or root—portals for absorbing certain kinds of energy. The lower two handled physical energy; the middle three, emotional energy; the chakra in the forehead took in spiritual energy while the chakra in the crown of the head released it.
However, activating the latter two was difficult to impossible for any but the most virtuous of spiritual practitioners. The crown chakra had been from ancient times a symbol of a holy man. Statues of the Buddha represented this chakra with the protruding crown of his head. It was said that holy men could bring about great miracles through the release of the energy from that chakra.
She didn’t understand it, but apparently Mephisto’s gun could capture the energy from those two chakras. Purifying the nen passing through it, and transforming it into a powerful burst of spiritual energy, it could strike down a demon. Like Kyoya’s nenpo.
Mephisto was about to say something when a low growl permeated the room, along with a strobing blue light. The monitors automatically switched to an exterior view—and stopped transmitting. The warnings and flashing lights also stopped. For a moment, darkness ruled. And then retreated.
The door and the walls around it radiated with a wan luster and turned half-transparent, letting in the light from the corridor. The black-hooded Suiki stood in the center of the light like a specter. The miasma of devilish loathing erupted from his entire body and struck at Sayaka, rooting her to the spot.
“I’ve been looking for you and the boy. I came to return the favor for this one eye of mine.”
“No, this man is—” Sayaka stood in front of Mephisto, as if to block the path.
“No? Doesn’t much matter to me. This world will fall into our clutches hereafter. But first I will sacrifice you to our god. You should thank me for the honor.” Suiki cackled. “Alas, there will be no hereafter for you.”
Accordingly, the broad array of equipment and even the hard floor itself—excepting the spot they were standing on—warped and wavered and dissolved. The computers sank into the floor, the desks fused with the machines. The swimming shadows of Demon Realm fishes were visible through the walls. The phantasms slowly closed on Sayaka, cruelly seeking to stab terror deep into the marrow of their mortal enemy.
“I am impressed,” Mephisto mused as he prepared the psychic wave gun. “This is turning out to be a very valuable experience.”
“You do know that every attack so far has proved pointless,” Suiki said contemptuously.
“It’s only an experimental model,” said Mephisto. “But how does it feel?”
A blue-white flash of light lit up Suiki’s form in a blinding glare. With a horrid, hoarse shriek, the demon fell writhing to the floor.
The light faltered and went out.
“Oh, damn,” Mephisto said breezily. “Needs a bit more work.” He handed the weapon to Sayaka.
“But—”
At that moment, Sayaka felt a sharp pain running through her heart, like a razor-sharp blade tearing her asunder. Red stains blossomed on her white blouse.
“Not once, but twice. Such impertinence!” Suiki arose, muttering like a madman.
The psychic wave gun hadn’t quite done the job. He raised the tentacles on his right side. There in their restraining grasp was Sayaka’s shadow. From around its chest dripped drops of blood. As he had fallen, Suiki had punctured the shadow with the tips of his tentacles.
“Wound the body and wound the shadow. Kill the shadow and kill the body. Have you seen it? The demonic power to send a shadow back to where it came from? Boy, now you can watch me rip off her head and tear off her arms!”
The tentacles twinkled and dug into Sayaka’s left shoulder. Sayaka clamped her hand to the same place and screamed.
“Think of the important people in your life,” Mephisto said, keeping Sayaka from falling down. “The less tainted and more resolute the spiritual energy passing through the chakra filter, the greater amount of purified energy it will produce. Unfortunately, an eccentric and perverse chap such as myself is not of much use in this instance. But you can do it. Think—the one person you would die of sorrow if you lost, the one person you love the most.”
Sayaka refused to surrender to the pain as she leveled the gun. The tentacles moved again. Blood showered from her right wrist. The gun fell to the floor.