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The sound of her footsteps was the only thing Emiko could hear. The sky was already painted an orange glow, and she would have thought it's beautiful if not for the lack of sounds around her. Although Roppongi was usually crowded, the neighbourhood she was currently in was located on the outskirts of it, and most of the buildings here were either old buildings or residential homes. Her shift at the bakery just ended, along with the increase of popularity of the bakery she worked in, there were more cakes she had to bake.

'It's a miracle how my arms have not fallen off already' she mused. Emiko quickened her footsteps, she'd rather be home by night and sleep already. Besides, she didn't particularly want to encounter those creatures from the abandoned building a few blocks from her apartment complex. That place never failed to make her uncomfortable, especially with the creatures she could see roaming around inside.

Just when she turned the corner to the street that houses the haunted building, Emiko spotted two men loitering in front of the building, one with black hair and another with white hair. They were dressed in all black in the summertime, and the white-haired man even had a blindfold on. 'Drug dealers?' Just as she thought that the blindfolded man turned his head a little in her direction and even lifted the side of his lips in a half-smirk. Her eyes narrowed and with her head down, Emiko again quickened her footsteps in order to pass them as quickly as possible.

Both men seemed to ignore her so far, which suited her just fine. Thus, she continued walking until she was almost upon them when suddenly a sound of a glass breaking above her broke her trance.

All three sets of eyes instinctively looked up, and all of them noticed the curse jumping in the air along with the glass shards surrounding it. 'Kill it…' something whispered in her mind. Her body felt like it was being pulled tautly, and she could feel the sudden chill travelling down her spine in the split second it happened.

And just as quickly as it came, there were two sharp poles stabbed through the creature's chest and the dense atmosphere that always coated the building disappeared along with the creature's wail leaving only silence in its wake.

"Are you okay ma'am?"

The one with the black hair asked, he was already in front of her and looked on, a slight frown marred his face. He was young, she noted, probably around high school age and he must have been really athletic too, considering she didn't even notice him moving in front of her. Granted she was a bit distracted but still. She must have looked on for too long because the boy began to fidget a bit.

"Ma'am?"

"Huh? Oh, yes I'm okay."

"Are you sure you are okay? Were any of the glass hitting you?"

"No, I'm fine. Thank you. Did any of the glass hit you?"

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

"I see... Well then, excuse me.."

Emiko bowed a little to the boy and her eyes strayed to the blindfolded man for a moment. Although she couldn't see his eyes, she got this feeling that he was able to see her somehow. Her grasp on her bag strap tightened, determined to get away from these strange men and the incident she just witnessed.

"Wait."

Her feet halted, and something urged her to turn around and listen to what the blindfolded man had to say "...What?"

"You can see it can't you?"

"See what?"

"Oh, you know.. It~" the man then made a gesture quoting his words in the air with a stupid grin on his face

"Can I see a weird man in a blindfold? Yes"

"Ouch! That hurts my feelings"

"You are wasting my time." irritation seeped through her words, although her mind was jumbled with questions she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to 'who are these people, how did they make those creatures disappear? where were they all this time?'

"Hey hey, that's rude. I don't even know your name yet, lady~" the man took a few steps towards her, stopping a little too close to her personal space from what was socially acceptable and loomed over her.

Emiko puts her palm up and gives a light shove to the man's chest just to get him off from her space. But either she put too much force in it or the man was just really shit on his balance because he stumbled a few steps behind before he regained his footing. Both his and his companion's face held a stupefied look as if they couldn't believe what just happened earlier. This day couldn't get any weirder than it is, and before they both recovered from their shock, Emiko was about to turn her heels and speed walk her way out from there when a familiar voice called her.

"Emiko-san!"

"Daiki!?"

The kid rushed to her and wrapped his arms around her waist as soon as he could reach her. And to his credit, Emiko didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around his shoulder in a comforting manner. "What are you doing here? Did you just come out of that building?" Daiki didn't answer and just silently tightened his hold on her. Sensing his distress, Emiko crouched down to his level and momentarily ignored the presence of four individuals now staring at her in favour of comforting the child.

"Hey, it's okay.. can you tell me what happened?" Emiko tried to keep her voice warm, it wouldn't do to set the boy off, especially with these people around. Daiki seemed to consider her for a moment before hesitantly telling her the whole story, starting from his curiosity about the building he had seen from a youtube video until the monster he encountered in the building and how the two people behind them saved him from the monsters. Which she noted dressed in the same manner as the boy with spiky hair earlier.

Throughout the whole story, Emiko tried to keep her expression calm, but she must have failed because, at the end of his story, Daiki already had his head hanging low and seemed to be on the verge of tears already.

"Are you mad at me..?"

Emiko exhaled, her tense shoulder eased a little "No, just promise me you won't be coming to these kinds of places again in the future okay?"

Daiki nodded, his face brightened considerably. Emiko ruffled his hair and stood up once more. Her eyes noticed the faint purplish aura emitted from the small wound on Daiki's neck and she discreetly swiped her palm on it, causing the aura to disappear completely while turning to face the two new faces in the back.

"Thank you so much for protecting Daiki." Emiko bowed low and Daiki followed suit with an added wave in the end. "Thank you!"

Both students flushed but both of them accepted the gratitude by awkwardly waving their hands and mumbled a "Your welcome" and some other phrases she couldn't quite catch. Not wanting to stand around longer, Emiko bid them goodbye and was just about to walk off with Daiki when she felt a calloused hand grab her wrist.

"Can I have your number? I would like to know when little Daiki arrived safely at his house" the blindfolded man said, completely disregarding her personal space, again. And just straight up shoved his face as close as possible to her

Emiko narrowed her eyes, this time glared right at his blindfolded eyes "No."

"At least let me give you my number then" the man doesn't skip a beat and his hold on her wrist never falters. Not too tight to hurt her, but tight enough she couldn't easily break free.

When Emiko didn't answer, he slipped a piece of paper into her palm, which she was tempted to just crumble right then and there

"Trust me. You never know, you might need me someday. Emiko-chan" wanting to just leave as quickly as possible, Emiko grasp the paper he gave her and reluctantly tucked it into her pocket. "Fine. Will you let us go now?" She replied, clearly annoyed at the blatant disregard of proper honorifics for a stranger.

"Sure sure, be careful on your way home, ne~" He said, backing up a few steps and waved at her with a large grin on his face.

"Tsk. Let's go Daiki." And with one last glare at the absurdly tall man, Emiko led Daiki home. Unaware of what fate has in store for her.

The local police force has decided that the cause of spontaneous combustion in one of the bakery shops in Roppongi that led to several victims was fully an unfortunate coincidence. There were no signs of a terrorist attack or serial killer present at the crime scene. They are now focused on the counselling program for affected parties in the incident. More information about this news will be presented after the commercial break.

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