Chapter 61 - Arthur CunninghamHollow Night“Come on!”

  Closing my grip on the newcomer’s colr, I morphed into my beast form and leapt back down the street, where Rusuban, Shirogetsu, and Kozuki were currently positioned. They were all looking behind me, at the sheer monstrosity that had once been Daisuke, as it marched unevenly toward us.

  I nded with a heavy thud in front of the trio, but they saw right through me. I put the newcomer, Nakamura, down onto the concrete floor gently. Only then did I notice that he hadn’t moved or stirred once since he witnessed the monster’s harrowing form.

  Perhaps it was only in that moment, as I gnced down at his face, that I realized just how deep a mess we’d gotten into. To say that Nakamura’s eyes were vacant would be an understatement, and to be honest, not entirely accurate. It’s more like they were haunted. Frozen wide open, pupils dited like bck holes, staring straight past me, past the night, into something far darker. Something within.

  “It’s already taken root.”

  The voice was a far cry from the once princely and almost disinterested lilt I knew him for—Rusuban, folded over on his hands and knees, looking down at the ground and his features spyed with panic. I was currently sure of one thing, and one thing only:

  This was all his fault.

  But, I couldn’t ignore the unease gnawing at the edges of his words.

  Nakamura’s breath hitched, and his eyes twitched, just barely—then again. His lips trembled, mouthing words too faint to catch, too garbled to make sense. And suddenly, I understood. I’d caught glimpses of this before.

  “He’s in some kind of hallucination…” I noted aloud, more to myself than anyone else.

  Miharu’s head nodded grimly in my peripherals, her gaze not leaving the towering, monstrous figure of Daisuke in the distance.

  “He required thine gaze ‘ere now…” she whispered, her voice taut and tense with fear. “But now, by mere presence alone, he doth reveal thy most dreaded fears, and maketh thee endure them.”

  I looked back at Nakamura and felt the bile rise in my throat. His expression had contorted—half in terror, half in a strange, twisted kind of disbelief, as if his mind couldn’t quite fathom what it was showing him. His body remained locked in pce, but his eyes... they darted wildly, as if trying to escape the horrors dancing before them.

  “No,” Nakamura rasped, his voice so low it was almost a hiss. His fingers twitched against the pavement, cwing at the air, gripping nothing. His breathing grew more bored with each second.

  “I won’t...I won’t—!”

  His chest heaved, and he looked like he was about to snap. Whatever nightmare Daisuke had thrust him into was devouring him alive.

  “Bloody hell,” I whispered, feeling my heart pound against my ribs. I knew I had to pull him out of it, but how? How do you break someone free from the chains of their own mind?

  "Nakamura!" I snapped, grabbing his shoulders, shaking him gently at first, then harder when I didn’t get a reaction. "Listen to me! Whatever you’re seeing, it’s not real! Daisuke—he’s warping your mind! You’ve got to push it out!"

  He didn’t hear me. Didn’t even flinch.

  His breath quickened, and suddenly, his hands flew up to his head, gripping his hair so tight I thought he might tear it out.

  “I-I can’t... no... no, please... not again!” he cried, his voice splintering into a broken sob.

  The fear was overwhelming him, swallowing him whole. His mind was trapped in that loop—whatever nightmare Daisuke had made him live, it was bleeding into the real world, warping his perception.

  I had to get through to him. Fast.

  I gnced back at Rusuban and Miharu, who looked just as helpless as I felt. I didn’t have time to wait for them to come up with something. Daisuke’s influence was spreading too fast, and Nakamura’s panic was escating.

  “Nakamura!” I shouted again, this time louder, more forceful. “Damn it, snap out of it! We don’t have time for this!”

  But his eyes were gssed over, no longer seeing me—just the monsters of his mind.

  There was no reasoning with him like this. I had no choice.

  My hands balled into fists, and promptly erupted into fme.

  “Nakamura, forgive me!” I cried, but there was no time left to hesitate.

  With fire still coating my paws, I brought them only inches away from Nakamura’s face. No reaction, so I moved them closer. Closer. Then, it was only for a moment, though I saw it clear as day. There was a spark of sobriety, his physical body detecting the unpleasant heat and attempting to get him to move away.

  But I needed more.

  “You can feel that, can’t you, Nakamura?!” I yelled in an attempt to reassure myself I was doing the right thing. “Wake up!”

  I brought my hands even closer, causing his face to scrunch up and sweat with displeasure. I must have been less than 45 centimetres away from making contact with his nose.

  Come on! You can do this!

  Nakamura suddenly gasped for air and swatted my arms away just as I was about to do the unthinkable. For a moment I was surprised, and shocked, at how close I was to actually following through, but decided to focus my attention on matters at hand instead.

  “My apologies,” I muttered remorsefully as Nakamura sputtered like an aged engine over the tarmac.

  But in the pockets of silence, I could hear Daisuke still moving, and much closer than before.

  At this distance, I could feel the first contact of a terrifying force attempting to burrow into my mind, to crack it open and py out the darkest fears that y within.

  “What…was that?” Nakamura coughed after a few seconds. “No, what- what is that?”

  “It used to be Daisuke,” I opted for the fastest possible expnation. “But something inside him must have snapped. He’s lost control of his power, and…and now he’s become some kind of monstrosity.”

  I released my form and extended a hand down to him. He watched me with bemusement, before dropping his hand in mine.

  “…So you’re some kind of fire werewolf butler.” He sighed, hints of exasperated ughter tempting the notes of his voice. “This is a dream, all right.”

  I found it hard to resist a smile when the absurdity of it all was stated so pinly – even in a dire situation like this. I began to understand why this boy was so well-liked across the student body.

  “You were hallucinating there, weren’t you?” I pressed, getting back on topic. There were slight trembles in the floor growing beneath us now, so there really was no time left. “ What did you see?”

  Nakamura grimaced.

  “…It was bad. It was like I was given a front-row seat to a py starring all of my worst fears.” He eventually managed. “Some of them went deeper than I thought possible, things I didn’t even know I was afraid of until they happened right in my face. I thought it would never end.”

  He grit his teeth as if reliving the illusions all over again, and immediately my heart swelled with empathy for the boy. From what I hear, he was rather close to Furusawa, and now he’d been snatched away and brought here against his will too.

  Unlike the rest of us, however, he didn’t have two night’s worth of experience and heartbreak to prepare him for the nightmares he’d have to face here. Recklessness aside, I sensed a great courage from this boy. I only hoped there was enough to share.

  “…So, how do we stop him?” Nakamura asked. The tremors had grown even stronger now.

  I opened my mouth to reply when another had beat me to the punch.

  “Don’t you understand, you fool?!” Rusuban cried. He’d risen to his feet at some point, likely too quickly, almost colpsing from exhaustion and having to hold onto a nearby streetlight.

  “There is no stopping that! H-He’s going to keep coming after me – us, until – “

  Perhaps, in another lifetime, I’d have allowed that to slip. But not this one. Rusuban didn’t get any more free passes from me.

  “What do you mean, he’s going to keep coming after you, Rusuban?” I pounced. “Why should he have any reason to come after you in particur?”

  All eyes shifted onto Rusuban then, and he took a step back, as though he was almost being blown over by a gust.

  “…I – I don’t – “

  I closed the distance between us, my anger fring hotter by the second.

  “What did you do, Rusuban?! What on earth did you do to him?” My voice thundered around the desote street. “You’ve doomed us all, haven’t you?! We’re all paying for your mistake!”

  I was only a few steps away from him now, my arm raised, when a blur of red swept in front of me like a breeze. Kozuki looked up at me resolutely, her arm stretched out straight across my chest. She didn’t say a word, but didn’t have to. Her message was clear.

  I grunted, just about managing to keep my anger from triggering my transformation involuntarily. “What’s stopping us from leaving you to your just desserts, deceiver?!”

  “Arthur.”

  A cold, gentle sensation rested on my left shoulder, and instantly I felt the rage begin to dissipate. I couldn’t remember the st time Mizuko called me by my first name.

  “…Kozuki will die if we do.”

  Her words hit me like a sledgehammer. My anger crumbled under the weight of that single sentence. I clenched my jaw, torn. Kozuki... I couldn’t let her die. But Rusuban—he was maniputing her, using her as a shield, and I knew it. And yet...

  Then came a light tap on my shoulder. My body tensed reflexively, thinking it was Mizuko again, but when I turned, it was Nakamura. His face had gone deathly pale, his mouth slightly open, trembling, as though he wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words.

  “Nakamura?” I asked, frowning. “What is—”

  His eyes weren’t looking at me. They were looking past me.

  I followed his gaze, my body slowly turning to face the horror he’d seen first.

  Daisuke.

  He was there. Right there. At some point—either through some twisted illusion or maybe something far worse—he had silently appeared, towering over us like a silent specter. His presence was suffocating, his monstrous form still as stone, unmoving, but brimming with power.

  My breath caught in my throat. How hadn’t I noticed? How had any of us not seen him until now? The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, the temperature plummeting around us. The air felt heavy, thick, as though the very fabric of reality was bending under his influence.

  His eyes—those hollow, burning pits—locked onto me for a brief moment, but only long enough to make sure I knew I was beneath his notice. Then, as if to confirm what I already feared, Daisuke’s jagged, twisted finger slowly rose and pointed.

  Not at me. Not at Kozuki, Mizuko, or Nakamura.

  At Rusuban.

  No words. No growl. Just a single, deliberate gesture.

  Daisuke’s intention was crystal clear. He wanted Rusuban. Only Rusuban.

  I felt the cold sweat drip down the back of my neck. Every muscle in my body screamed for me to move, to fight, to do something, but the sheer force of Daisuke’s presence pinned me in pce like a helpless animal caught in the jaws of a predator. The others were no better off—frozen, eyes wide with horror.

  “…Cunningham,” Nakamura whispered, his voice barely audible. His body trembled like a leaf in the wind, and I could see the fear in his eyes, the realization that we were standing on the edge of something far worse than death.

  Daisuke’s finger remained fixed on Rusuban. He didn’t move. He didn’t need to..

  Rusuban took a shaky step back, his breath quickening.

  "I-I didn’t... I never meant for—" His voice cracked, raw with panic. But whatever excuse he was about to make died in his throat.

  Daisuke, still silent, took one slow step forward.

  It was enough to send a ripple of terror through all of us.

  “Kozuki!” I whispered urgently, my hands curling into fists again, though the fire had died out. "Get behind me."

  But Kozuki didn’t move. She just stood there, staring at Daisuke with wide eyes, as though caught in a trance. She wasn’t scared. No, it was worse than that.

  It looked like she was waiting patiently for something..

  “Kozuki!” I was practically yelling now. What on earth was she thinking?

  She didn’t respond. Her body trembled slightly, her gaze unwavering. I saw it then —a faint blue glow beginning to outline her form. My heart dropped.

  Before I could shout, Kozuki’s body blurred into motion, a fsh of brilliant blue, her sword drawn and sweeping through the air like a comet. Her bde sliced through Daisuke’s outstretched arm just as his monstrous hand was inches from grabbing Rusuban.

  Cng!

  The metallic ring of her sword against the hardened flesh of Daisuke's limb echoed across the street. Sparks flew. Daisuke staggered back, a low, guttural growl rumbling from his chest as he recoiled from the blow.

  “NO!”

  Our death warrant had just been signed.

  Daisuke’s once eerily still form began to tremble, his body reacting to the sudden attack. The air around us thickened with his growing rage, and for the first time, his gaze left Rusuban and settled squarely on Kozuki.

  Mizuko’s voice was strained. “She... she struck first...”

  As Miharu nded, trembling, she took a sharp breath, her face pale and eyes wide with fear. I was as if she’d just realized what she’d done.

  Her mouth stuttered open, perhaps to say something, but a sharp burst of hysterical ughter cut her off.

  Kinoko, of all people, had begun to cackle, doubling over in manic glee as if the situation were some kind of sick joke.

  “Y-You lot,” he wheezed between bouts of ughter. “You’ve gone and done it now, haven’t you! Hahaha! You’ve dragged yourselves into this! You’re protecting me—ha!—you’re protecting me! And now, none of you are getting out of this alive!”

  “Silence!” I roared, grabbing Kinoko by the colr and yanking him toward me. “Do you want to die, you lunatic?!”

  But Kinoko’s grin never faltered, even as I held him mere inches from my face.

  “You won’t hurt me,” he said, his voice unnervingly calm. “You can’t. You won’t risk Kozuki's life, and now you’re stuck pying this game, risking everyone’s lives, because you won’t let her die.”

  His words stung more than they should have, because they were the truth. I gred into his eyes, my fists trembling with the desire to break every bone in his smug little face, but my hands loosened, and I shoved him aside with a grunt.

  Daisuke’s growl grew louder, more bestial. The temperature around us dropped even further, and a sharp crack split the air as his cwed feet stomped into the concrete, sending tremors through the ground.

  I turned back toward Kozuki, who had her bde raised slightly unsteadily but poised for another strike. It seemed she’d accepted her role and intended to follow it through to the end.

  Nakamura had risen to his feet, still shaking, his eyes darting between Daisuke and the rest of us. Mizuko, too, had readied herself, though I could see the fear written all over her face.

  Daisuke was no longer human. I had to remember that more than anything. He was a force of nature now, and Kozuki’s attack had unleashed something feral within him.

  His form was shifting, growing more monstrous with each second that passed. His eyes—those hollow, empty eyes—seemed to glow with a dangerous light, and his jagged teeth gleamed in the cold moonlight.

  “We don’t have a choice,” I muttered, my voice barely audible over the mounting roar of Daisuke’s fury. “If we don’t stop him here...”

  Mizuko’s cold hand rested on my shoulder again. “It’s up to us,” she said quietly, her gaze steady.

  “We’ll hold the line together. Until the very end.”

  I nodded, steeling myself for what was to come. My cws ignited in a bze of fire as I summoned every ounce of strength I had left. Nakamura readied his stance beside me, his gauntlet fists crackling with energy. Mizuko brought forth the remnants of her own EXS, the air around her plummeting in temperature.

  “Daisuke!” I shouted, my voice cutting through the noise. “If you’re still in there, if you can hear me—”

  But the monstrous figure before me didn’t respond. His eyes flickered briefly, a hint of something human, something familiar, but it was gone as quickly as it came. All that remained was the beast, and he was no longer holding back.

  Daisuke’s hand shot forward, faster than I’d ever seen, aiming for Kozuki once more.

  “Kozuki!” I called out, but she was already moving, her blue glow fring as she twisted away from the strike with impossible speed. Her sword fshed again, striking Daisuke’s arm, quickly followed by another ssh with a glowing white bde she seemingly pulled from thin air.

  But this time, he didn’t stagger. He took the blow without so much as flinching, his movements now more deliberate, more deadly.

  I grit my teeth, feeling the weight of the moment crash down on me. There was no turning back now.

  It was us against him.

  And if we couldn’t find a way to end this, none of us were walking away.