Yukasa looked up at the small glass red and green colored bowl that served as the overhead lighting in his room. It was off right now, the only light in the room was coming from the glowing red numbers of his alarm clock that read 1:24 and the strips of moonlight that speared through his blinds and onto his bed. He had gone to bed like an hour ago and was almost asleep then he caught a glimpse of his father's picture. He wondered what his father would think of the life he was leading now. He was sixteen so it wasn't like his father could be upset with any massive life decisions, most of those had been decided by his mother. It was the way he carried himself and the way he acted that made him worry about his father's opinion. His father had been known around this town as a trouble maker with a heart of gold. The kind of guy that would fight over just about anything assuming that he was trying to help someone. His dad had been a bastard child with a violent streak that needed to prove to the world that he deserved to live in it just as much as the next guy. Yukasa himself shunned away from violence. He didn't have anything to prove to the world, like his father had. Yukasa thought back to the times when he was a child and he and his father had played games. There were a lot of games and they were all very strange. Demons and detectives had the weirdest twist because sometimes Yukasa (the detective) and his dad (the demon) would team up and go after someone else (usually his mother) human or demon. In a game modeled after cops and robbers it had a strange moral ambiguousness to it. It was like his father wanted him to see things in more than black and white. So he wondered if because his life was so normal, so on track, it would shame his father who used to say "Don't let the world tell you what you are or what you have to be."
But what if he and the world agreed? And Did he actually agree or was this just the easiest way?
The Yukasa knew something was wrong the moment Bayton walked into 's class room. The way she shuffled instead of her usually assertive walk, the constant look away when he tried to make eye contact, but of course the biggest give away was when she told him after class.
"I'm moving back to America," she said. Yukasa knew that his friend was an exchange student that her family actually lived in America, it was the way he'd been able to get a tour of the New York police department, but he'd never considered that she could ever go back.
"Why?" he asked his voice quiet and stunned.
"It's not like I really want to. My family just wants me to come home."
"When are you leaving?" he saw her eyes get glassy with tears.
"Tomorrow?" she said with a labored voice.
"WHAT! You haven't even finished school! You're only a few months away from graduation!"
"Look they wanted me to move when the school year started, but I convinced them to let me stay," she said. She looked over to the window, Yukasa noticed that her hair was already up in a bun.
"Are you leaving right after school?" he asked. She raised her eyebrows. "You already have your hair up. You only do it that way after Kendo because it gets the hair out of your face, and you prefer to have it that way. So you're not going to Kendo."
Bayton smiled, and said through slight sobs "You're gonna be a great detective Yukasa."
He got up out of his chair and hugged Bayton. He pressed her closer to him with a squeeze.
"It's fine I get it," he let go of her and grabbed her shoulders. "Just expect calls every day ok?" he continued even though it was hard to speak passed the knot in his throat. "I want all the details on New York! I want to be just like a local before I even show up!" He could feel the wetness of tears on his cheeks.
She jumped at him and hugged him.
He looked around and noticed that most of the students were gone, and the three that weren't were staring at them.
"I have to run now…" she said. "Got a flight to catch after all." Then she turned to walk out of the room. The usual sashay in her step gone and replaced with an almost military like straight forward stride.
"Wait so this is-?" he said when she got just passed the door.
"Goodbye," she said without turning around and then she walked away.
Suddenly the wait of what had just happened fell onto Yukasa's shoulders. He fell more than sat into the seat behind him. He barely felt the hard plastic chair connect with his ass even though it had to have some serious force behind it. He couldn't help but rethinking off all the fun he and Bayton had over the years. When they were little she and he were basically attached at the hip and even took names together. The other kids tried to tease him for the naps as well as him just being a general nerd, but Bayton would fight them off with a smile. When his dad had died, she had started playing Demons and Detectives with him, though in her version the demons were always the bad guys. She'd been his friend all his life, so he wondered what it would be like to try and live without her.
"Are you going to be okay Yukasa?" asked. He was suddenly right in front of Yukasa.
Yukasa smiled slightly. "Let me get back to you on that," he said. Yukasa collected his thing as left the room.
"If you need anything, just let me know," he said at the doorframe.
"It's not like she's dead. I'll see her again I'm sure," Yukasa said as he slid his computer into the back of his laptop and zipped up his bag. Dr. Minamino turned to face Yukasa.
"America is a faraway place Yukasa, remember that," he said his deep green eyes looking particularly blank. Then he walked out.
"Great pep talk," Yukasa said as he left the room and turned off the lights.
The academic bowl practice that day did nothing but boost Ted's already enormously large ego. The final score was 20 to 0, and Yukasa couldn't give less of a shit. He left academic bowl early, he'd told the coach he wasn't feeling well. It was mostly true, that day he'd figured out his best friend was leaving him forever which wasn't known to boost morale.
As he walked down the hall, he realized how quiet the halls of Sarayashiki Junior High when you don't have anyone to talk to. He pulled his phone out, put in his headphones, and started his music. The first song that came on was a mostly instrumental British pop tune. Bayton was the one that had told him about the artist. He skipped the song.
"I never liked Celeste anyway," he thought as he opened the back door. "Shit."
Outside leaning against the chain-link fence were three tall, scraggily looking teenagers, with creepy smiles and cigarettes. All Yukasa wanted at that moment was for them not to say anything to him. He just wanted to go home, eat a lot, and sleep a lot. He didn't think that was too much to ask.
"Hey, kid," the tallest and scraggliest one said.
Apparently it was a lot. He just kept walking not making eye contact with them and he began bobbing his head up and down to pretend as if he hadn't heard them.
The shortest one, who was still a little taller than Yukasa, walked over, blocked Yukasa's path and yelled, "Hey, the boss wants to talk to you Yukasa!"
"Oh shit," he thought, as he removed his head phones. "They know my name, probably got it from the posted test scores and either want to use me to cheat or bully me like really classy people."
"Look guys, I'm having a really bad day could we reschedule this for Monday? If you want my 'help' on a test or something that's a great time," he did air quotes with his help.
"We don't need your help with anything," the boss said.
"Oh than you want to kick me while I'm down huh? Then let's just get it over with. Just say something and I'll just start acting offended and hurt. I would recommend Yu-suck-a. It's quiet popular, a pun, and is still slightly offensive."
The boss got off the fence and laughed. "Wow, this kid's got jokes!" He walked over to stand in front of Yukasa. "I was expecting a lot threats like your dumbass daddy!"
"Insulting the dead father, haven't seen that one in a while, but I always like to see the classics come back in style. Can I go now or do you need me to cry first? I don't do a lot of tears but the emotion is really there."
The boss reared back and kicked Yukasa in the stomach. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of Yukasa and sent him flying back three to four feet. His back pack took most of the force as he fell to the ground, and his head snapped backward and managed to hit both the ground and the pack at the same time. He inhaled deeply and tried to roll over, but the pain in his stomach made him stay the way he was resembling a turtle on its back.
Yukasa heard the shortest one dying of laughter. "You knocked him right on his ass boss!"
"'Course I did!" the voice of the boss answered. "What did I tell you guys? Easiest assassination we'll ever have to do! No spirit energy, mad respect from the legion, and even a nice juicy human soul!"
The third kid got off the fence and stretched his wings tearing out of his shirt.
"Wings?" Yukasa screamed in his mind. Yukasa took off his back pack and forced himself to sit up. He almost wished he hadn't. The shortest one had turned a deep blue, his eyes now looked like a reptiles, but the most notable change was the long reptilian tail that encircled his legs. The boss had gone with a deep blood red, opted for the same eyes, and four inch horns.
"What are you?" Yukasa asked struggling to speak.
The boss turned to look at Yukasa and laughed again. "I guess you've never seen a demon before! Well lemme give you a crash course: Demons come in all shapes and sizes and can eat human souls. It's gone out of fashion since your father's damned friends made it illegal, but this trio right here happens to work for the best guy in town who agrees that humans are a delicacy… and I'm so fucking famished!"