Chapter Four: In which people hate Mihashi

Abe took a deep breath of the air surrounding him. Once he had gotten past the alley with his teammates in tow the world around him shifted and shimmered. He had heard Nishihiro say once that where there is special distortion the area around the tear in space would look like that.

But back to the new place he was. The air was drenched in an odor of brimstone and honey, and strangely Abe found it normal. The sky was blood red and there was a crescent moon in the sky that looked like an evil grin from the sky to the earth.

'Where am I?' Abe asked himself as he let go of his fri- Er I mean teammates. They're his teammates, not friends dammit!

While I was going on my tangent about friends Abe remembered that his teammates had been acting… more abnormal than usual due to some kind of spell. Abe checked on his pitcher first, or course.

"Mihashi, are you can you hear me?" He asked simply. The pitcher nodded violently and was about to raise his head when Abe remembered what the note had told him about unrecognized mortals. He had recognized the pitcher, but he didn't want to take his chances on

"Mihashi don't look at me!"

Mihashi's head went back down facing the ground. "I-is Abe-kun mad at me?"

'Shit, he thinks I'm mad!' Abe scolded himself. "No, it's just that if you look at me or at anything other than the ground you'll… turn into stone."

Mihashi peeped and took Abe's hand again. Obviously he expected to be led around for the time being. 'Great now to the others.'

After explaining the situation to everyone else the five began walking (with Abe leading) towards a city.

"Are we there yet?" Tajima complained. They only had been walking for a minute or so, but he was already bored.

"No, now stop asking!" Hanai demanded. He had it hardest averting his eyes from everything around them since he was so tall.

"Isn't anyone else wondering why Sakaeguchi is still high?" Izumi whispered though the one in question was right in front of him. Sakaeguchi was still acting as he had while they were in the second part of the alley. Luckily his dancing had been replaced with rhyming and random cackling.

"Twist betwixt in-between, the Veil, few mortals have seen." He cackled. Before anyone could comment the group suddenly stopped.

"Hey, why'd we stop?" Tajima demanded. He was answered by a voice not familiar to him.

"Mortals, what business do you have beyond the Veil?" the female voice boomed.

"I'm here to find out how I became a vampire." Abe said simply. "Who are you?"

The female voice replied swiftly with disdain, "I am Mikail, assistant to the Patron of our realm. I was sent here to retrieve the Halfling and get rid of the mortals."

The four humans shivered at the though of being gotten rid of by some creature they couldn't even see.

"You're lying," Abe grunted. "I can tell that your master told you to find me, but he didn't say anything about my…group"

Silence, as cliché as it may seem, was deafening.

"Good work Halfling," Mikail spat finally. "But leave your pets in their world."

"Pets?!?" Tajima shouted. He stormed over to where he heard Mikail's voice. "I'm nobody's pet!"

"He's right you know," Abe chuckled. "They aren't my pets, so I would like it if you 'recognized' them or whatever now."

The tension in the air was so strong if anyone moved everything would have snapped like a rubber band. Finally Mikail sighed.

"I recognize four humans and give them permission to be in our realm." She growled as if it pained her to do so. Slowly they all let their heads rise to see a small cat-girl with six trolls as backup.

"Holy crap you're huge!" Tajima exclaimed to one of them. Mihashi trembled behind Abe as Mikail made her way over the short expanse dividing them. She had bright and determined orange eyes and ears that never seemed to relax. She was a stunning figure and appeared to be about sixteen, yet with mystical beings it's always hard to tell their ages.

"My master needs to see y-" she paused when she was a foot away. Her claw stretched out and pointed to Mihashi. "Why did you bring that here?!?"

Mihashi squeaked behind Abe and hoped that he wouldn't be killed. Mikail seemed so mad that she would do it.

"I-I-I'm sorry…" Mihashi started to whisper. Mikail pushed Abe out of the way and pounced on the simpering pitcher. She was about to slash when Abe caught her paw.

"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded in a voice that was beyond his normal range of rage.

"He is dangerous to us, my master would allow the others in, but he must be destroyed!" Mikail gasped. Abe's grip was breaking her wrist.

"Why?"

"He," Mikail explained standing slowly. "is Anathema*. Inside of him is the way to destroy us all."

Yes, another Cliffhanger, but aren't you completely intrigued? Don't you want to press a certain green button and leave what you think on it? Do it, you know you want to…

*Anathema; noun: Object of loathing, somebody or something that is greatly disliked or detested and is therefore shunned