Chapter 9: To catch a criminal part 2

The thought of Minami's already deceased body being burned to ashes seemed to be too much for Daisuke. He rages out of control over what happened to his new friend.

Daisuke: "What did she ever do...TO DESERVE WHAT YOU DID TO HER BODY?!"

After throwing himself towards the man, Daisuke comes crashing into the small building the man was standing on. The building crumbles upon impact and the man had jumped away from the collapsing building. Daisuke becomes shockingly traumatized. Minami's pendant had a slight crack in it.

?: Maniacally laughing "What did she do? Hmm... How about... She refused to do what we said when she was alive! Hahahahahah!"

Daisuke: "STOP SCREWING AROUND!"

Daisuke switched to hand-to-hand combat, throwing punches and kicks but the man responded by blocking them.

Daisuke: "I'LL BEAT YOU TO A PULP!"

?: "Can you really?"

The man grabs Daisuke's arm and elbows him in the chest, knocking him back. He then elbows Daisuke again; this time on the head and knocking Daisuke to the ground face-first.

?: "You're out of your league if you think you can beat me by yourself."

He picks Daisuke up by his hair.

?: "But I see potential in you. How about you join us to replace that idiot who killed himself for nothing?"

Daisuke head-butted him.

?: "Urgh! Why you..!"

He picks up Daisuke by the shirt and mercilessly beats him.

?: "It seems that..." Punch "...you want to die..." Punch "...like that little bitch."

Daisuke looked like he would lose consciousness any minute. He made an effort to pick his head up and smirks.

?: "Wipe that smile off your face punk!"

He punches Daisuke again but this time Daisuke catches his fist.

Daisuke: "I won't forgive you. I want to beat the living shit out of you and your buddies. So until I do, I'LL START WITH YOU!"

Daisuke kicks the man off of him and gets up.

?: "Boy you sure are interesting. Since you want to live SO badly, I'll let you go this one time. But if you ever get in my way again, I'll kill you for sure. My name is Rogue by the way.

Daisuke: "Rogue eh? What's the rush? You have a good opportunity to get rid of me now. Come at me."

Rogue: "Shut up already."

Daisuke: "I said to come!"

Rogue knees Daisuke in the chest.

Rogue: "Didn't I tell you to shut up."

Daisuke: "Now you're mine."

Rogue: "Huh?"

Minami's pendant around Daisuke's neck shines and fixed the scratch that was on it.

Daisuke: "You burned her body to ashes...So I'll burn you next!"

Daisuke grabs, with both hands, the left leg Rogue knee'd him in the chest with. Daisuke's hand glow orange-red in color and then back to normal.

Rogue: "What was that?!" He steps back. All of a sudden, his leg begins to disintegrate to black ash. "M-my leg! What did you do to my leg?!" His other legs begins to dissipate as well. "You..! Answer me! What's going on here?!"

Daisuke looks at his hands. On his hand, a black flame symbol appeared and disappeared.

Daisuke: "What was that?"

Rogue's legs completely vanished. Not even blood was spewed out from his lower body.

Rogue: "I can't stand up..! How am I gonna get away..?"

Daisuke: "You're not." Daisuke slowly walks to Rogue. Rogue gets worried and tries to crawl away with his arms. It's not enough as Daisuke stops him. "That person you burned to ashes...She's my friend." Daisuke's arm is covered in a green aura. "If you want to live, you're going to answer my question. What is it that you guys are after?"

Rogue: "Alright! I'll tell you. We were looking to destroy this world. I was ordered to find some girl's body and burn it."

Daisuke: "Why?"

Rogue: "Because even though she was dead, her body itself posed a serious threat in our plan."

Daisuke: "How so?"

Rogue: "You see, when she was killed in the alleyway, she wasn't "dead" yet. It took our boss up until a few days ago to figure that out because he had made a discovery."

Daisuke: "A discovery?"

Rogue: "Yes. You see, when a person dies, a pendant appears at the same spot of the person's death day later. If no one is able to recover that pendant, it'll disappear signifying the "official" death of that said person."

Daisuke: "Then tell me the purpose of burning Minami's body!"

Rogue: "My boss had a theory. He proposed that if the body of someone whose pendant was found is burned to ashes, the pendant will disappear."

Daisuke: "But why is a dead person's body so much of a threat?"

Rogue: "You'll have to ask my boss about that. I don't know myself why a dead body would pose as a threat."

Daisuke: "Where is he?!"

Rogue: "I don't know! After killing her, we all went into hiding in different cities! We communicated through telepathy with the boss."

Daisuke: "I had heard you were taking peoples' heirlooms?"

Rogue: "I...took them for myself."

Daisuke: "I see. Thanks for the info."

Rogue: "That means I can go free, right?"

Daisuke: "Yeah. You can go." Daisuke slowly walks away. "Or..."

Rogue's eyes shoot widely open. Daisuke snaps his fingers. The disintegration process continued where it left off.

Rogue: "Ah..! AAAAHHHHHHH!"

Daisuke: "Of course I wasn't gonna let you live. For one, you're one of the people that killed my new friend. Plus you might give me away to your buddies. Secondly..." He turns around to face Rogue. "You burned my friend's body to ashes." He turns back around. "I thought I told you I'd never forgive you. So you're gonna get what you deserve. No one will harm my friends while I'm around."

Rogue's body dissipated to black ashes and swept along the wind.

Daisuke: "That's 2 down Minami...Only 5 more left."

(Back at Daisuke's home)

Minami's body stopped fading.

Minami: "Thank you...Daisuke."

To be continued in Chapter 10: Minami's body

"Two down, Five to go...