Chapter 2: Strange Days...Strange Feelings
By AnimayWriteY0
The next day is coming, and the sun rises up as its shining rays hit the reflective window barrier and hits the couch where Juinchi is sleeping on. The young man lays dormant on his rougher tolerable futon covering his entire head with one of the pillows to keep the bright sun from waking him up. Unfortunately, 5 minutes later his alarm rang a loud chime leaving the oblivious Juinchi jumping off from his futon and unexpectedly landing hard on the clear wooden floor. Juinchi still in a state of disorientation from his consistent clumsiness, rubs his head. "Argh I gotta change that annoying alarm chime soon. Once he got up and took a look at his phone to check the time. He notices that it is 10:00 am, then his usual 8:30 am time, though his work starts at 11:00 am. "Oh wow I overslept!" That never happened to him before, he's always a huge early bird. Being at his 3rd alarm warning is a huge red flag for him. And so, the drowsy Tatagashi proceeded to prepare his upcoming work shift.
He rubs his eyes still feeling beat getting up from the futon couch and stretches. Juinchi goes to the restroom to wash his face to help him stay awake. He looks at himself in the mirror and somewhat notices a few changes, he sees his face slenderer and eyes slightly sharpened. What's more when he combs his hair, he's shocked that it stays completely the same. There was no weight to them, usually whenever he wakes up his hair becomes messy. This is very strange even for him, then he notices something that's missing. "Thats right! I wonder if Hakune is still asleep..." Just when Juinchi turned his attention to his new guest from his room. He walks in and come to realize that she's gone, he looks around every corner of his room, she wasn't there. It takes another 15 minutes which made Juinchi lose his primary objective of preparing himself for his next work shift. So, he let out a deep sigh in a doleful tone but there's nothing he can do about it, he now gets suited in his chef uniform for today's shift.
"I guess she hates being near any human..." Juinchi lets out a sad smile but fully understood where Hakune is coming from. He really can't force her to like him just because of the kindness he did for her. She still holds a huge grudge against humans for the things they did to her. That got his attention though. Miss Fujiko should be aware of the demon prejudice that still occurring from the human world. But for now, time is ticking as he has 20 minutes left before his shift starts. "Well at least she got a place to sleep for the night..." That is something Juinchi can be proud of, not only was he able to help someone out, but he also wants to make sure Fujiko San would have good day once in a while.
As soon as Juinchi gets ready for his day at Inshin Ramen Shop, he glances at his office table and sees what looks like a letter. Juinchi unaware of its presence made a hunch that Hakune wrote the note. And so Juinchi approaches the letter and read out on what it says. Juinchi carefully examines the letter and reads it through Hakune's narrative perspective in his mind.
"If you are reading this letter, which I don't know if you care or not, I like to say thank you for your kindness, bringing me into your home along with serving food was the nicest thing anyone could do for a stranger, I don't know how to express my gratitude for you but with this letter I want you to know that. What you did meant so much to me. You have no idea how bad this made me feel not returning a debt for you, but I rarely don't want you to see me in person until I am ready to properly thank you...I wish that you have a good day and hopefully we may meet again soon...Thank you Tatagashi senpai...
After finishing the letter Juinchi holds on to it with care and slowly sets it back on the desk letting out a single tear from what he had read. He can't help but feel emotional from the letter but this, this is something what he is proud of. Nothing beats a good deed because to Juinchi, when someone is willing to stand up for someone in need. People will be inspired to do the same and that's exactly what he wants for the demons who are willing to co-exist here on Earth. Then he turned back to the letter and read the very last word.
"Heh senpai huh...never have thought that she would call me that...it's quite cute...I-I mean Cool I-I mean ughhh. What the hell were you thinking Juinchi!" He scratches his own hair indignantly after what he said trying to keep it out of his head without remembering "Oh man I should be careful on what I say..." He sighed with a shameful guilty smile and walks out from his apartment and catches his daily bus ride to his preferred destination.
Out from the apartment complex oblivious to Hakune's appearance, she's crouching on a sturdy branch from one of the trees visible to Juinchi's room window. Then she jumps on top of the rooftop quietly and cautiously observe him from afar so that she won't be seen by anyone who may be outside from the surrounding area. Once she couldn't track him anymore after that bus right Hakune sighed and jumps off the room and landed safely on the shared yard. Hakune then waits for him to come back to her abrupt emotional state after hearing Juinchi's blabbering, she fought off the urge to have her cheeks turn red from his remarks to the letter. Little did she know, deep down she kinda appreciates it.
"I-Idiot!…." She took off with a swift leap and dashes without being noticed by many other tenants walking by from the alley way of the suburban homes. She can't help but feel this way but somewhat she seems to feel a slight budge from her face, she stops and touches her cheeks with her left hand and came to a conclusion. She's...smiling?! After all of the things that happened to her from previous encounters before meeting Juinchi, all she ever had from the human world is anguish and pain. But she never had this feeling before from that one human, but it reminds her of how she used to be treated back at home from the Demon World. It's a strange feeling but it actually made Hakune smile in such a long time. Not only that, but she's also somewhat confident about her involvement with Tatagashi San. All she can do now is wait for him hoping her decision is the right one.
Juinchi now at the ramen shop had already gotten used to the slow hours from the usual Monday service. Getting ready to cook up some ramen for his new, regular, and curious customers. For about another few hours going by, most of the customers are served and paid with a decent number of tips due to the deliciousness of the ramen that Juinchi cooked and how well he serves for them. He made sure each and every one of his customers are taken care of with excellent customer service. Being Monday is probably his best days since his customers came here to have a quick meal before they go to work. So then on, Juinchi finishes up his last wave of customers he serves before the clock hits 11:00 pm. After the last customer leaves satisfied, he wraps up by helping his fellow co-workers by cleaning the cooking utensils and bowls after placing them back to the dishwashing room. The majority of his co-workers have finished their assigned tasks and said their goodbyes to their head chef, Juinchi is the only one left in the restaurant every time but he's okay with that since he's a more active person. He'd always wanted to keep the place in tip top form for the morning workers. Once it's time to go he switches the opening sign to closed in front of the entrance door. When Juinchi was about to close the door and proceeds to go home by foot, someone confronts him from behind and shoved him back to the restaurant door.
"Argh...! what was that..." After that big hard push from behind, Juinchi tries to collect his thoughts after being stunned he turns around to see who's responsible for such an arduous force. To his shock, he has been surrounded by three demons with ominous, intimidating, and cynical glares as they laughed with such a repulsive tone.
"Heh...so this is the guy who makes those noodle crap..." The first demon spoke in a cruel sarcastic manner of speaking after he stretches his hand being the one responsible for pushing Juinchi.
"And this guy got the nerve to act such a goodie two shoes to our kind, thinking he is better than us?! This guy is a freakin' joke!" The second demon scoffs and shows more agitation than the other one seeing he is close to ending Juinchi for some reason. Baring his sharpened teeth to show his dominance.
Out of dismay Juinchi knew these demons are the ones who have acted cruelly towards his human customers and other demons who they see as "human mimics" crashing the ramen shop by spilling the food on purpose thinking it doesn't taste as good despite having heard otherwise by more honest demon customers. Juinchi knew he is in a world of hurting when these guys have set their eyes on him giving him nothing but sheer intimidation and brutal dominance. There was nothing that Juinchi can do other than look on at the three completely horrified from what this may transpire. Despite him being able to know self-defense. He knew that there is no way out and is going to get a beating of his life.
"Come on guys lets break him for being an egoistic bastard to think he is better than us at his little shop!" The third demon begins to crack his knuckles preparing to be the first to attack Juinchi.
Though at a risky predicament, Juinchi tries to defuse the situation with reasonable and non-aggressive approach without resorting to verbal and physical altercations. This was his only chance of getting out of this alive, so he tries a persuasive approach hoping it will at least deter them from causing him any harm. "Guys, umm there is no need for this...I mean you came to eat ramen, right? I-I.. am glad I was able to treat you three with such delectable treats, if you'd like I can offer you guys a free meal or two for the week! Just let me be off my way, ok?...I need to get going..so if you'll excuse me..." He tries to go to the path between the first and second demon.
Just before Juinchi tries to do just that, the second demon in the middle of the group kicked him back down causing Juinchi to hit his back directly at the door's hard wooden surface causing him to let out a painful grunt as the three devious trio laugh at his misfortune with their menacing sadistic smiles. These three are surely not going to let Juinchi pass not without a senseless beating.
"Shut up kid! Now it's time for some good ol' fashion slaughter!" The first demon in the middle yelled preparing to land a hard punch on Juinchi's face.
Juinchi feeling helpless and no one there to help him, the young chef has nowhere to go, the middle demon approach him as Juinchi is driven into a panic state. Suddenly, just before the demon reaches for his hair Juinchi struck him with a punch to the stomach with a force that is considerable of a 1-ton anvil. This left the demon completely stunned for a second and stepping back holding his stomach with sheer pain and agony, leaving Juinchi enough time to get up. This however left the demon into an unbridled fury with bloodshot red eyes tracing his full attention to the now confused Juinchi.
"Argghhhh!...grahhhh..." He glared at Juinchi with shock and sheer anger. "You little brat! You're going to pay for causing me pain! Get him boys!" He roared
"I'm going to mess you up!" The second shouted preparing to lash out at Juinchi."
"Now it's curtains for you ! DIEEE!" The third does the same.
The two remaining demons then charges at Juinchi, with nothing to lose Juinchi has no choice but to take them on in order to get away from such a grim situation. The first dashes at the left while the other at the right trying to do an intersect tackle at him but Juinchi in pure instinct jumped away from them being able to go up in the air for 30 feet off the ground and landing on the other side of the street. This caused the two demons to ram at each other in full force. Juinchi while feeling relieved to not be on that receiving is shocked at what he did. "D-Did I do that?!" He momentarily looked at his hands feeling something entirely different, in fact he feels much lighter and stronger like as if some unknown power has been summoned at this time of need. With it he takes advantage of said powers and turn towards the three demons with a bit of confidence.
"You know what guys...I hate to do this, but you are nothing but trouble and it's time to be taught a lesson!" He then revealed his clenched left fist towards them getting ready to challenge them if they don't stop their unnecessary assault.
With Juinchi's warning this enraged the three demons as they get up with pure rage and drive to kill. The three demons then unleashed their true forms. The first resembles a typical demon look. Wings, sharp claws, and reddish color. The second transformed into a form of a hound with long sharp fangs, pointed like fur, and claws the size of knives. The last demon transforming into a golem like beast reaching about 7 feet tall. With their form revealed Juinchi stepped back into a corner again seeing their menacing visage as he trembles in a hint of sweat and fear regretting his call out to them. With the last breath Juinchi exhaled, the three demons simultaneously charged at him without warning.
"A-argghhhhh!" He then jumps again causing the three demons to ram at each other. "Oh, that was close." He swipes his forehead to get rid of the sweat that keeps pouring down his face. Once he stood his ground, one of the demons gets up and look his way in such anger it is surreal to even see someone be THAT angry.
The dog demon gets up first then let out a scary and intense growl. He charges right at Juinchi. "You...little...MAGGOT!" He rushed at him and because of his dog physique he is much faster than the two, the demonic hound tries to bite one of Juinchi's hand, but the fighting chef forces his arm away having the demon hound miss. Juinchi keeps dodging from every lunge the dog demon tries to land to get a bite at him. Frustrated the hound turns his body and swoop his spiky tail right at Juinchi, only for him to once again miss when he lowered himself down with a quick squat. Juinchi manages to step back leaving himself with a firm serious look, causing the dog demon to stare at him with a surprised gaze.
"Okay that is it!" Juinchi yelled who suddenly start to emit a strange blue aura around him which stuns the three of them. "N-No way! He has the same power as!-" Before the dog demon finishes his sentence Juinchi grabbed the demon dog's tail and hurl him around where visible gust of dust and wind catches the circular motion creating a mini tornado. With the added momentum the powered up Juinchi slams him down hard onto the concrete floor leaving a small mini crater, the demonic mongrel let out a yelp and painful cry. It went limp and laid on the tiny crater motionless but not dead.
"What the hell?!" Shocked but still engages against Juinchi, the winged demon curses at Juinchi with the tip of his rage and places his hands together. "Oh, you're going to get it!" The demon then concentrates his palm channeling all his energy into it as a massive amount of energy surrounding the winged demon begins to converge into a small condensed fiery sphere from his hands, leaving a maniacal laugh as he growls and prepared his most powerful attack at him. "Now eat this! You little shit!" He throws it right at Juinchi, but to no avail Juinchi swiftly dodges it without any damage done to him after the attack hits the ground. "N-no way...h-how can he..." The winged creature can't fathom the absurdity of the situation, the human was able to dodge a range attack from point blank and to his shock the human was able to go toe to toe against a fully transformed demon?! Wait then he notices him emitting a somewhat familiar blue aura. "N-No not him too!" That is until his stupor turned to drowsiness as Juinchi in a flash came in front of him and punched the winged demon straight at the stomach that causes him to go down entirely unconscious thus reverting back to his human-like form.
The last demon then watched on in fear as his fellow demon partners have just been defeated by a mere human, he starts to shake immensely to have notice that Juinchi suddenly turned his attention towards the bulking remainder, because of this encounter he turned back to normal and ran off leaving his two companions behind at his mercy. With that, Juinchi took a deep breath and finally goes home with no injury. After arriving home, he took interest at what had happened to himself feeling quite curious on how he can fight off three fully formed demons. A bigger question came into mind. Even for a human, why is it that demons such as the ones he encountered turned their aggression on him like that? Those three were annoying from within the restaurant but they wouldn't go out of their way to attack him before until now. Along with that question, why is it that this occurred after meeting with the mysterious Fujiko San. Now that he thought about it his previous week has been normal but today was completely different, he somehow provoked the three regular demons for some odd reason. Juinchi, though confused decided to take the time to investigate this phenomenon.
"What is going on with me...This doesn't make sense... I-I mean those demons are after all aggressive in the shop but would never lay a hand on a human due to the enforced law of human/demon co-existence...and upon all, why do I have powers that I'm not even aware of until that incident with those three guys." Despite the fact that he hasn't been aware of the blue aura that was emitting around him back at that fight.
Juinchi went out at the back of his apartment and enters his little yard, while being there he sets three concrete blocks on a stool to see if he can harness this power at will. He took his stance in the middle and tries to deliver a punch at the center concrete block. With a concentrated mood and focus Juinchi throws his punch at the middle block with precise aim and delivered the blow.
"Hyah!" With great force to his palm, he throws his fist at the block. To his surprise not only the concrete block has been shattered into millions of pieces so did the ones beside it. Juinchi is flabbergasted by this and even overly amazed on the results of such power. But the question is how he gained this power, he knows that he is not a fighter at heart, so something must have changed him. After the test he then goes back to his home, yet just before he can enter, he senses a presence nearby someone is watching him and because of this he also knows he has the ability to sense, smell, and hear things four times better than his normal self. Juinchi then took a look around and spoke out.
"I know you're out there show yourself! There is no need to hide from me, I won't attack if you aren't!" He stood his ground to be sure nothing is going to ambush him from his sides and back.
Out from the trees shows a familiar face. It's Hakune, after landing from the tree she hung out hours ago took a hard long glance at Juinchi's surprised expression. Juinchi then stands normally in a more relax state and stares at Hakune ready to ask her some question related to his change.
"Oh its just you...hi Fujiko San what are you doing here?" Wondering exactly why she was gone earlier and them came back here, then to what she says next would leave Juinchi questioning himself about this new dilemma.
"Well, I was observing you to see if you are capable of being my guardian...and it seems you are ready…" She stood to him meeting his eyes to hers, Hakune starts to bite her bottom lip with a solemn face as if her life is depending on his decision.
"G-Guardian?…" Juinchi now stunned is now unable to rationalize of what that means to him once Hakune have said that sentence.
To Be Continued...