Skaiya took the lollypop stick out of her mouth and pouted when she saw that no more candy remained on the tiny chewed-up stick.
Reaching into her pocket and finding nothing, she realized that she had polished off all five of the lollypops Tenkai-sensei had given her. It usually took her five minutes to eat one, so that would mean she’d been waiting here for……

What was wrong?
Her mother never took this long in coming to pick her up.
She had phoned home and no one answered; if something had suddenly came up, her mother would always have Yumiko-san or Zenki-san come. No one had answered when she phoned Yumiko’s house either. Or the charm shop.
Her pre-school teacher had said if her mother hadn’t come in a half-an-hour, she would personally take Skaiya home.

Skaiya looked down at her shoes and dangled her legs back and forth, willing the time to pass faster. However, the impatience of a five-year-old finally won over and she jumped off the bench, gathered her things, and ran out the school doors in a little whirlwind, headed in the direction of her home.

When Zenki finally opened his eyes, he was greeted by a sight he wished he would never have to see again.

The twisted, ginning face of Doushinga smiling down at him.

In the time that Zenki’s brain tried to make sense of why he was seeing images of this hateful nemesis, Doushinga proved that he wasn’t a mere image.

With a flick of his wrist, one of his arms became a cluster of tentacles each spiked with bone spurs. Lifting his arm high into the air and gathering velocity, the demon lashed it down, sideways, and up Zenki’s body in a blur of whippings; sending pieces of his shirt, flesh, and spurts of blood flying.

When Zenki lifted his head again, he could no longer see with both of his eyes.
His left eye was blinded by a pain that challenged the gaping wounds on his chest. Goddamn human body. He spat out the blood that had gathered in his mouth, and a tooth came out along with the mucky, dark red liquid.

“How the hell did you…”
“Rise from the dead? You shouldn’t sound so surprised, Zenki, I mean I was pretty sure that I destroyed your body, too…” As he slithered closer to him, Zenki finally took notice that Doushinga’s body was no longer what it used to be.

His head was mounted on a dark body that seemed to consist of several types of demon body parts. Four muscled arms sprouted from his scaled torso, which lead to a long snake-like tail instead of the powerful legs he used to have. Long spikes Emerged from his head and made their trail along his back, extending all the way until the very tip of his tail, where the spikes collected into a huge spear-like end. In his claws he wielded the deadly double-sided sword that had once brought death upon Zenki’s.

“Jesus. You’re fuckin’ ugly.”

“It’s nice to see you, too. You see, I’ve found a passage to a dimension with demonic powers that far exceed those of our home plane. That was where I gathered my energy and harnessed this new body to replace the one you destroyed.”

Even his voice was a terrible combination of several tones all sounding at the same time.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the cheesy bad-guy speech a million times, so I’m not gonna waste my breath on you, human.”
“Human…?” Immediately, Zenki’s body began to glow.
“Uh-uh-uh… I wouldn’t do that if I were you…”

Doushinga slid aside, and Zenki saw that what was once the shrine living room had somehow turned into a dark cave room, filled with demons too many too count, all similar to those he and Chiaki had been fighting all these months. Zenki was also being held back by two grotesque, slug-like demons both oozing with a disgusting black slime and an extremely unpleasant stench.

In the middle of the room, Chiaki was floating, as if hung by invisible strings; her eyes were dull and vacant, with no expression on her pale face.

“Try anything funny and that perfectly toned skin of hers is gonna be nicely decorated with patches of red.”

So this was what she had been hiding from him.
Doushinga was the one behind everything.
Why hadn’t she told him?!
If she said something he might have had time to prepare himself!
Was she afraid that he was still no match for him?

“As I was saying, I have no intention of wasting my time. The witch had awakened before you and immediately cast an illusion upon this temple… turned it into a fucking maze of tunnels…” Doushinga took Zenki’s jaw in his claws and peered into his bloodied face. “Tell me, Zenki… is there something she’s trying to hide……?”

“… Go fuck yourself.”

His captive laughed. “… I was hoping you’d said that. Aww… does your eye hurt, Zenki?” The demon titled his head to the side, his eyes shining with an evil that made Zenki’s stomach churn, “… I’m sure your priestess would like to know how you feel right about now….”

Before Zenki had a chance to yell or move or do anything, Doushinga lashed out a tentacle, and it made a revolting “Glurch!” as he shot it into Chiaki’s open left eye.
The left side of her face instantly became a mess of crimson as Doushinga pulled his tentacle out with a satisfied grin. Chiaki’s face, however, remained still and emotionless.

“… Oh, don’t think she can’t feel the pain,” Doushinga said, licking the blood off of his appendage. “She can feel, hear, and see everything…. She just can’t do nothing. Don’t feel bad for her, though. She’s got front row seats to witness the end of the world. And the death of her beloved Shikigami. Now… tell me what you know about the last seal.”

As soon as Skaiya reached the top of the endless flight of stairs, she clutched her head and let out a sharp scream as she felt the dark pulsing of demonic energy invade her mind.
It was nothing like she’d ever felt before.
The feeling was painful, and she felt as if she had been cast into a dark room where thousands of frightening eyes was staring at her, and unseen hands grabbed at her.

She fell to her knees and choked out a sob as she whipped her little head from side to side trying to rid herself of the God awful feeling.

Mommy……

She covered her ears and shut her eyes tightly as she began singing loudly, between sobs, a lullaby that Chiaki had always sung to her when she was scared or had a nightmare.

Mommy, help me……!

When she was finally able to calm herself down a bit, she realized that her mother was inside.

Inside that darkness.
Inside that dark room with all the eyes……

“No! I don’t wanna go in there!!” Skaiya cried, refusing to get back on her feet.
 
 

Zenki’s words had only been a simple compliment back then, but now, it was the only thing Skaiya was drawing her courage from.

Mommy needs me…
Mommy needs me to be brave……

Commanding herself to get back onto her feet, Skaiya wiped her face free of tears and faced the shrine entrance once again. The darkness was letting out a silent, eerie laughter, telling her that if she entered she may never come out again.
She shut her eyes tightly, then opened them again.

“I’m as brave as Mommy… Zenki-san said so….”

She whispered in a determined voice. Then, taking small, shaky steps, she slowly stepped into the darkness, and the shadows swallowed her in an instant.