Chapter 12: Culture Shock
As he watched his demonic allies attack the enemy Pixies – his own Pixie attacking her own kind with cries of glee and heard their screams of pain and agony, Naoki was forced to admit that he'd run out of excuses.
When he'd been attacked by the disembodied skulls and burned corpses in Amala, Naoki had dealt with it by thinking they were already dead, therefore he couldn't kill them again. When he'd battled the Pretas in the hospital, he'd dealt with it by thinking they were merely monsters, incapable of feeling pain. When the horde of Hua Pos, Shikigami and Pretas attacked them later, he'd dealt with it by thinking that he'd simply run away from them and thus hadn't harmed them. When the Pretas and Zhens had attacked them outside, Naoki had dealt with it by prioritising Chiaki's safety over a few measly demons.
But now - as he watched the Pixie punching and kicking her own kind, as he watched his own hands spinning through the air, watched his feet going up and down and stomping on Pixies as they fell to the ground,, heard their screams of pain and agony . . .
All he could think was the same question, over and over.
What am I doing!
It had been total pandemonium – his team, completely drained of magic, were forced to fight it out in hand to hand combat, resulting in the most dirty, feral battle he'd had yet. The two fairies fought like street fighters, punching and kicking and grappling with intent to not maim but kill. The Preta bit into fairies and consumed them while they were still alive, leaving body parts strewn across the ground. Kodama acted like a battering ram, flying through the air and charging into Pixies at top speed, sending them tumbling along the ground. Bill O Wisp ran at Pixies with his mouth wide open, crushing limbs within his teeth.
Only Shiki didn't participate in the slaughter – he was sitting atop Naoki's head, using his own body to shield the team from the incoming bolts of electricity, sending those same bolts back at the enemy until the ground was littered with smoking corpses.
Not true combat, but a brawl. A massacre. They were just Pixies – children! – too small to cause any real damage, posing little threat to them without their electricity. His demonic side thrilled to the song of battle that rushed through his veins, but the human part of him rebelled violently with every broken bone he inflicted and every scream of pain he heard.
I'm killing children! Demonic children yes, but children! Eight year old children! WHY! Why am I doing this! No. No, I can't do this! I can't!
"ENOUGH!"
In the middle of battle – in mid punch, actually, he threw his hands to his sides. He grabbed his demon side in a vice lock and pushed it out of the way, ignored the desire to keep fighting and hurting and killing and shouted.
"STOP THIS! I won't fight any more!" He declared to the world.
The other demons on his team stared at him as though he'd gone completely insane, but did not waste the time to reprimand him, simply increased their own efforts to protect him from his own stupidity..
In another world, an overly idealistic one, this action would have resulted in an immediate cease fire and probably a long night at the nearest bar where they'd settle their differences over alcohol. However, this was reality: A land of demons and demonic rules where human emotions and ideals did not apply.
"Kill him! Kill him! Don't let him get to the King and Queen!" they screeched and pressed their attack, ripping open wounds, biting at his flesh like a pack of rabid dogs.
Underneath a pile of pixies his resolve tried to remain strong. "I don't want to get to your King and Queen! I just want to go to the spring! PLEASE! This is all just a misunderstanding!"
"For Oberon! For Titania!" The Pixies yelled.
They continued to come at him and he wrestled with himself, his will to remain true to himself and his will to survive clashing within him. He held onto his human side with a brutish tenacity, held himself back.
The opposing Pixies did not see an appeal for peace, only an idiot of an adversary that had foolishly exposed his weak points, a walking Magatsuhi factory that was just asking to be felled and plundered.
Suddenly the tide of battle turned – without Naoki protecting him, the Shikigami on his head was being exposed to hand to hand combat as well. In a matter of seconds, the paper demon was being torn to pieces and the immunity to electricity was fading as well.
"Shiki!" Naoki yelled in panic, grabbing the scraps of paper and shielding him from further harm, but this only made things much, much worse. Without their electric immunity, the Preta and Bill O Wisp were easy targets, only taking a couple of lightning bolts before they dropped, screeching. Desperately, Naoki turned his back on the melee and ran for them to shield them from harm as well.
Behind him, the Pixie on his side began to curse loudly. "Oh blast it all, not again! Screw this, no amount of Magatsuhi is worse this mess!"
Hua Po caught her before she could fly off. "Oh no you don't, Fairy! You're in this until the bitter –" Her stern words were cut off by a small barrage of lightning bolts that forced her to release her grip of the Pixie and fall to the ground, until Naoki lunged a final time and caught them too.
Underneath a swarm of Pixies, Naoki cringed and cowered as he realized what he had done. I've screwed up. AGAIN. They're all dead. They're all dead because of ME and my own stupidity! I tried to make things better but instead I've made things worse!
I'm so useless.
He looked up, took a death breath and screamed, voicing his frustrations on the situation with a string of obscenities.
A second later he was staring at the sky in stunned disbelief – along with the swearing, he had unleashed a blast of freezing ice from his mouth. He was so shocked that he came close to falling flat on his face and squashing the demons underneath him.
WHAT THE HELL!
Beneath him, the one Pixie on his side glared up at him from when he'd jumped on top of her. "Hey! Watch where you're – " her voice trailed off when she realized where the ice came from.. "But. . . but that's not. . . that's impossible!"
In stunned disbelief he snapped his mouth shut at the blast of ice dissipated, but when he opened his mouth again it came back. It shouldn't have been possible but it was happening anyway. He was spewing ice out of his mouth just like a dragon breathing fire.
There was no time to wonder about this stunning development. He'd figure everything out as soon as it was safe. Right now, he had to make up for his mistake and save his friends. He went berserk, pushed the Pixies covering his body off and flung his fists through the air, blowing ice at the Pixies that managed to get out of the way, sending Pixie-cles falling to the ground, which he then punted at the other Pixies like soccer balls. As he fought, he realized that something else had happened. With a single glance, he could now tell the type of demon he was facing, its weak points, its different abilities, its strengths. . .for example, Naoki could see right now that these Pixie demons were much weaker than him and they could resist lightning. They had no such resistances against ice.
When the battle ended, Naoki was barely able to blow out air, let alone ice, and his eyes ached terribly, even the one he could still see clearly out of. Mist blew out of his nostrils and mouth every time he panted. He was covered in wounds, his markings gone to red, while the rest of him was black with the blood both the enemy and himself. Around him, his exhausted allies staggered to their feet, whimpering in pain and sighing as they realized they lacked the ability to heal themselves. But the battle was over and they were victorious.
Naoki didn't care. He turned to his demons, intent on taking them to the healing spring as quickly as possible, but the words died in his throat when he realized what they were doing. His allies had erupted into delighted cheers of victory, closely followed by them swarming to the fallen demons. Naoki stared in surprise, but then his blood ran cold as he realized that they were eating the fallen Pixies.
Eating them. Perhaps to devour their Magatsuhi in a more practical manner. And what was worse than this was that Naoki himself momentarily found himself with an insatiable urge to do the exact same.
The enormous reality of what he'd done hit him like a thousand tons of bricks, forcing him to his knees with a whimper and a strangled sob as he stared down at his bloody hands.
Pixie glanced at him as he crashed, sighed in impatience. "What, again?"
Oh god. What have I become!
For a long time he simply sat there, swaying slightly in his mental torment, his head bowed as he struggled to comprehend what he had done and why he had done it. More than that however, was the undeniable fact staring at him in the face:
I'm on my own The world has ended and it doesn't matter whether it's a revelation from God or a curse of the Devil. Hikawa called upon a divine light, but instead devastation has ensued, with chaos crawling out of the depths of the oceans and rising from a black abyss. God has abandoned me – there is nothing but death in this world. Death, upon death upon death.
Who can I pray to in this god forsaken place? There are only devils and demons here.
Tears began to fall from his eyes and despite everything he couldn't help but smirk slightly in his depression.
Huh. So Devils can cry after all.
He didn't know how long he stay there, as he had no way of keeping time. But when he finally lifted his head, he saw his demonic allies still feasting on the dead Pixies, cheering and laughing.
"Wooh yeah!" Pixie cheered, doing somersaults in midair with a wide grin on her face, blood dripping down her front. "Great Party!"
Hua Po shared in the cheering. "No kidding! This is totally awesome!"
"EAT! EAT!" The Preta stuffed its face as fast as it could, shovelling up Pixie corpses as fast as it could.
"Maagatsuhi!" Kodama added, looking up from his own snack. "Look, look! They crunch when you bite them!" He showed off this discovery by biting down on a Pixie's arms and listening to the crunch it made as the bones were broken.
"I know!" Pixie laughed. "Isn't it cool?"
"Yeesss. . ." Bill O the Wisp chortled. "Much. . . fun!"
Shiki snorted, an amputated Pixie leg sticking out of his mouth. "Don't hog all the Magatsuhi for yourself – Naoki was the one who did most of the work!" He turned to the half human boy still curled up on the ground. "Are you sure you're not going to join in, Naoki?"
"Oh, forget about him!" Pixie scoffed in between scoffing on her meal. "Look at the guy – he's too busy going into a foetal position to eat!"
"How. . . "
"Hmm?" Pixie looked up from her meal. "You say something, Pervert?"
Naoki looked back at her from his position against the wall. "How. . .how could you do it?" He asked her through dry lips. "How could you kill them?"
". . .Huh?" Pixie was confused. "Oh! You mean the Pixies back there! You want to learn my super secret killing techniques?" she chortled to the other demons. "You see that? He likes my style!
"Fairy. . ." Shiki sighed. "I don't think that's what he meant."
Naoki spoke again, still trying to raise his voice but too tired to shout. "You. . . . you slaughtered them like they were nothing. Why? Why did you do it?"
Pixie turned to him and shrugged. "It was fun. And they were in our way."
Naoki gasped. "But they were Pixies!"
"So what? I'm a Pixie. What's your problem? Are you racist or something?"
"Your own kind! You killed your own kind!"
Pixie still didn't understand. "Yeah, I did. And now I'm eating my own kind. Now, if you don't have anything useful to say, then shut up and let me finish my meal!"
"You . .. you. . . " He trembled in his fury and his outrage, unable to believe that anybody could be so evil. In this world, he had struggled to find something to cling to – with his faith destroyed, his friends missing and his beloved teacher nowhere to be found, he had unconsciously gone to the next best thing – his demonic allies. As demons went, they'd been relatively friendly, so he'd defended them, tried to befriend them. But it wasn't working.
"What's he going on about?" Kodama asked Hua Po behind them as they eavesdropped on the conversation.
Hua Po shrugged her shoulders. "Not a clue. Something stupid, probably. You got any ideas, Shiki?"
Shikigami nodded. "He's suffering culture shock. Don't worry, he'll get over it soon."
Eventually, the demons finished their meal, a meal Naoki didn't partake in, spending the entire time on the ground. However, when the demons got up to head to the spring, they found Naoki trotting behind them, his eyes glassy. It was though he was in some sort of trance.
A trance that he snapped out of quite violently when a demon appeared from out of nowhere. He quite literally froze in mid step, stared at the demon in stunned disbelief for a few seconds. . .
Then yelped and shot his hand up to his face. MY EYES! MY EYES!
"Yo, pretty girls!" The demon greeted the two fairies, completely ignoring the male members of the party.
Hua Po's eyes glittered. "Hehehehe, he called me pretty."
"No he didn't!" Pixie retorted. "He was calling ME pretty! "
"Awww, don't fight over me!" the demon told them. "Don't worry ladies, there's enough of me to go around."
"Yes, we can see that!" Pixie giggled.. "We're headed for the healing spring. Care. .. " she winked seductively. "Care to join us?"
Naoki found himself unable to speak, instead tried to communicate telepathically to the demon. Don't join us don't join us don't join us don't join us. . .
Stunningly enough, it worked as the demon finally noticed the males in the party. "Oooh, you've already got company, huh? Ha, sorry – I've already washed myself. . .thoroughly. But man, you guys are in for a treat! The chick who presides over it? Oh MAAAN She is HOT!"
He waved goodbye and vanished off to somewhere. The two fairies sighed blissfully, their eyes sparkling. Their good mood was swiftly snapped by the sight of Naoki back on the ground, his good hand covering both eyes, his face beet red.
"Oh for crying out. . . " Pixie snarled. "What is it NOW?"
"Is something wrong, Naoki?" Shikigami asked him.
Nervously, Naoki opened his eye. "Is he gone?"
"Incubus? Yeah, he just left," Pixie answered him. "Why, what's the matter? Feeling . .. inadequate?"
Naoki waved his hands around like a windmill as he struggled to tell her the trouble. "No, no! It's just that, well. . . " It's just that his PENIS is taller than the rest of him and he's naked in front of a group of children . . . "I'm just glad that I'm not going to be in a healing spring. . .with him. At the same time."
"Ah," Pixie understood, or at least thought she did.
"I don't understand," Kodama spoke. "What's the problem?"
Bill O Wisp gave him a headbutt. "Gruah. . . not. . .now. . . wait. . until . . .older."
The problems only increased further when they finally arrived at the spring. Naoki had took one look at the healer who had claimed the spring and freaked right out.
"You know. . ." Hua Po whispered to Pixie suddenly. "For the legendary Hito-Shura, that Naoki guy sure acts weird"
Pixie glanced at Naoki as he crouched down on the ground, his hand cover his eyes as he turned his back to them, his face as red as his markings. "Tell me about it."
"Is this culture shock again?" Kodama asked Shikigami.
The paper demon nodded. "Afraid so."
To the demons, turning red and curling into a ball was a very odd behaviour to perform, although they were starting to become used to seeing it.
To Naoki, turning red and curling into a ball was a perfectly reasonable response to seeing a pretty and voluptuous lady who was also completely naked.
First that Incubus Demon, and now THIS! This truly is a land of complete depravity!
Behind him, the demons were arguing about something.
Pixie spoke. "So, what do you think?"
Shiki thought for a moment. ". . .no."
"Not even with the Hito-Shura?" Hua Po sounded disappointed.
"If he agreed. . ." Shiki thought for another moment. "Then perhaps. But I don't think he will agree."
"Bah. Fine, whatever." Pixie turned back to face the healer. "Alright, we'll pay your stupid fee!"
She, very reluctantly, handed over the money – a single coin with 1 written on it. It was a special discount due to their ally being the Hito Shura, but it was still, in Pixie's opinion, highway robbery.
"Thank you for the payment," The healer smiled graciously at the girl who scowled back. "The spring is now available to use. Please use it one at at a –"
"COABUNGA"! Kodama shouted, flying into the air and diving headfirst into the spring as though it were a swimming pool.
"Idiot!" Hua Po yelled. "The spring's only a meter deep!"
"It's okay!" Kodama yelled as he resurfaced from a splash fifty times larger than it should have been. "The spring healed my broken neck!" He splashed about, giggling. "Come on in, Hua! The water's fine!"
"Oh, fine! I can make a better splash than you! BUNGIE!" She flew high into the air, then dove – straight into the Preta's wide open mouth.
"Want eat!" The Preta said jubilantly.
". .. oops."
The healing spring quickly became a frenzied free for all as all of the demons leaped in simultaneously, fully clothed, much to the outrage of the healer. As they entered the water, their wounds instantly closed, their magic powers instantly replenished – even their clothes were instantly repaired. Oh, and they got pretty clean whilst they were at it. Hua Po, Pixie and Kodama got into a splashing war, Preta nearly choked on all the water, Bill floated contentedly along with Shikigami, and Naoki . . .
He was sitting away from the spring, taking no part in the water. Shikigami took a glance in Naoki's direction and sighed, having guessed at the problem. It was stupid, yes, but he still understood, because he'd experienced something very similar . .. so long ago. Although humans and demons were alike in many ways, they differed drastically in others. The paper demon became perilously close to losing himself in the memories of millennia past, but Pixie pulled him out of it at the last question by firing a question at Naoki that caused Shiki to look up in surprise.
"Oh, right I almost forgot. Hey, Pervert, what's the deal with that Magatama of yours?"
"What – this?" Naoki grabbed his horn self consciously. "You only noticed it now? It's always been there." Well, since I was turned into a demon.
"I know that! I want to know what type it is!"
"Oh. Uh. . ." he wracked his brain for a moment. "I think. . .Ms. Takao said something about it being a Marogoreh. Err, whatever that is."
"Well, the cow obviously lied," Pixie said flippantly.
It was probably meant as an offhanded remark, but Naoki took it as an insult. He stood up, turned around, glared. "Do NOT say that again," he hissed.
Well, well. The Pervert's got a girlfriend. Pixie filed this information for later blackmail as she looked him up and down in irritation. "Oh, don't cause a scene. I only meant that it shouldn't be able to give you the ability to breathe ice out of your nose."
The other demons stopped their splashing and glanced over at Naoki in surprise. "He can breath ice?"
Kodama blinked. "But I thought the Maro. . . Marogor. . . I thought it only gave you physical attacks."
"It does," Shiki nodded. "Are you sure you saw correctly, Fairy?
"OF course I did! I'm not blind or stupid, like some people. . ." she pointed at Naoki. "I know what I saw. He opened his mouth, blue stuff came out and the demons it hit turned into demonicicles.. No doubt about it – it was an Ice Breath spell to me."
"Listen," Hua Po said suddenly after thinking for a moment "He ate Forneus' Magatsuhi, and Forneus is – err, was – a user of ice based spells. Do you think that maybe .. . "
They began to whisper to each other, resulting in Naoki only catching fragments of the conversation.
"Well it is THAT Magatama. . ."
"So he really IS the . . . "
"You remember what HE said. . ."
"We have to . . ."
What are they talking about? Naoki wondered.
Finally, Pixie shrugged, turned to Naoki and splashed at him. "Congratulations, Pervert," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You're no longer useless in a battle!"
Naoki didn't know whether to be overjoyed by this news or not. I'm now able to perform sorcery and witchcraft. Hooray. My foster family would be so proud.
Not.
"Ha! Says the demon who didn't lift a finger against the Zhens!" Hua Po mocked.
Pixie snorted. "At least I'm not sitting by the spring like a hypocirite!" She shouted at the aforementioned idiot. "What, the water's not good enough for you?"
"No. .. " Naoki paused for a moment. "I just don't feel like going in." There was just something. . . awkward about sharing a healing spring with a pair of prepubescent girls. Even if they WERE demons and fully clothed. It was just wrong.
"Huh. Well, suit yourself!" She splashed some water at him, then went back to swimming.
"Stop that, Fairy," Shikigami grumbled. "Let me talk to him."
The paper demon came out of the water and went over to sit by his shoulder. "Naoki," He said. "Hold onto my tail, I will guide you to the water. You may keep your eyes closed if you wish."
Naoki glanced up and turned to Shiki, stunned. "You'd. . . you'd do that?"
Shiki nodded. "I shall."
The rest of the demons stared in stunned disbelief at the near farcical situation – Naoki got up, his eyes shut – one eye shut deliberately, the other forced shut by dried blood - and gripped Shikigami's tail with his hand. The paper demon nodded to him, them carefully led Naoki over to the water.
"Watch your step," he warned as they neared the edge.
Naoki nodded and slowly climbed into the water, his eyes still closed.
"You are facing away from her now," Shiki told him. "You can open your eyes."
Naoki opened his eyes nervously, found himself facing away from his demonic allies. More importantly, however, the healer was nowhere to be seen.
Thank goodness for that.
Naoki sighed at his own ineptitude. "Thanks Shiki. I'm sorry about. . .about that."
"Great," Pixie snorted. "Now he's apologizing AND thanking us in the same sentence."
"Don't worry about it," Shiki replied. "I understand."
"Good," Hua Po muttered. "At least somebody does."
The water felt good on Naoki's body as he finally got around to rubbing the blood off his face. It was already healing him as well, turning his red markings back to blue. He continued to face away from the others, washing himself as fast as he could so that he could get back out.
Pixie was mystified by Naoki's actions. "Just WHAT was that all about? What ARE you doing, Pervert?"
Shiki answered for him. "He's washing his face, in case you didn't notice. You tend to do that when you're in a spring." He turned to examine Pixie closer. "Why do you keep calling him that, anyway?"
The Pixie smiled. "Simple. Because he hates being called that." She stretched out in the pool. "Well guys, I'm clean. Hurry up, slowpokes, so we can get going again!"
Hua Po raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? I thought you said you were going to go see Oberon and Titania and join in on their wild orgies," She paused for a moment to watch Naoki fall over and land on his side, splashing and making a strange squealing noise. "You've been whinging about your stupid party ever since we thawed you out."
"Yeah well, that what I was PLANNING on," Pixie sighed, "but a certain demon absolutely sucks at being an escort so we got here too late. So now he's going to be my bodyguard to make up for it!"
Naoki blinked. "I am?"
The other demons blinked. "He Is?"
The Preta gurgled something that may have been his usual "Want Eat" but it was rendered incomprehensible by the fact the purple demon was underwater at the time.
"You mean to tell me that we'll have to put up with you for even longer?" Shiki whinged.
Pixie glared. "Yeah. What about it?"
"Simple. We don't like you," Hua Po told her bluntly. "We brought you here in the hope of being rid of you as fast as demonly possible."
"No, we don't like you!" Kodama parroted.
Pixie scoffed. "That's no way to treat the person who was nice enough to pay for healing for you weaklings! The only reason the lot of you are not dead is solely because of ME!"
"SAY WHAT?" Hua Po growled. "You didn't help us! You just sat on your arse and slept! You're the one who's WEAK!"
"Oh, yeah, cherry skin?" Pixie growled back. "
"Want -" the Preta began, but was quickly silenced by Bill O Wisp. "Gruahh.. . quiet," the skull warned him. "They. . .mad.. . we not. . .get . . .involved. . ."
This proved to be good advice. Hua Po leaped out of the water, sending splashes everywhere, as she flew across the spring and grabbed her brown haired counterpart by the neck. "How dare you!"
The other demons quickly got out of the way as the two fairies began to trade insults. The insults quickly changed to glares, then magical spells, then finally a full blown out battle. Alarmed by the shouting, Naoki stopped washing his face and looked up. Before his startled eyes, he saw the two demon fairies beating the tar out of each other, each strangling and drowning and just plain trying to murder the other.
"Kill her! Kill her!" Kodama cheered, barracking for Hua Po.
Naoki's face paled. "H-hey. . .Stop that!"
Both demons ignored him. Naoki took a single, hesitating step forward. That step quickly turned first into a trot, then finally into a full blown run as he waded through the spring, then grabbed each fairy by the waist and physically separated them.
"Stop that!" He yelled again.
'The hell are you doing, Pervert!" Pixie yelled as she flailed, the wounds from several bites and scratches already closing up. "LET GO!" She bit Naoki on the wrist in an attempt to make him drop her.
It didn't work. The water had healed him completely the moment he'd got in, splashing water on to his injured arm and making it usable again, but he didn't care about this miracle. All he knew was that the two demons were hurting each other and he didn't like it and he refused to let the two demons go, even when they began turning their magical powers upon him.
"OUT! OUT!" The healer began yelling. "This is a sacred spring, not a swimming pool! Everybody out!" Before Naoki knew what was happening, his vision began to swim. . .
Then he was suddenly back outside the spring, in the same area as the Pixie corpses, still holding the two fairies, one in each hand.
"Wha – what happened?" he said, looking around in surprise.
"We were teleported out, " Shikigami sighed. "For bad behaviour."
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Pixie yelled at Naoki as she struggled in his grip.
"I've had it with you!" Hua Po yelled back at her from the other hand. "You sit on your arse all the time, you mock us at every opportunity, you -"
"STOP IT!" Naoki roared, angry now, the Magatama in his head springing to life and calling for blood. He slammed his hands together, sending both fairies crashing into each other. They fell from his hands with fractured skulls and bleeding faces. "STOP FIGHTING I SAID!"
Almost instantly he was regretting his actions. "I – I'm sorry, I didn't mean to –"
His faced paled as he realized what had happened, the two fairies staring up at him in disbelief. He took a step back, shaking, unable to lookat them. He spun around, his back to the two fairies as Kodama came running to the older Jirae.
Finally, Naoki spoke again, but his voice was flat. "I'm going back to Shibuya – I think I remember the way. "
He was answered only by silence. Naoki sighed inwardly as he began walking.
What was I thinking, trying to make friends out of DEMONS?
I'm out of my freaking mind.