Kairi's little stick was hardly managing to block the shadow's raking claws, and it snapped in half from just trying. Kairi was almost knocked back by the force, but she somehow managed to stay on her feet after she stumbled back a bit. Her face was red with fear and exertion from all the running and swinging that she had to do trying to fight the creature, and she still had not even managed a solid hit, but she refused to give up, against her better judgment.
The monster stopped and stared at her again, twitching neurotically, and Kairi took the chance to wave her broken stick at it in an attempt to fight. "Take that! And that! An—"
Her attacks did nothing but possibly annoy the monster, or maybe it just wasn't noticing at all. It returned to the shadows and started sliding around aimlessly again.
"I won't let you get away!" Kairi yelled, jumping and trying to stomp it down.
Before she could hit the ground, familiar arms wrapped around her and caught her.
"I guess Braig was telling the truth for once in his life," Isa said, clearly exasperated.
"Isa-I'm-sorry-and-also-there's-a-monster-and-I-have-to-fight-it—" Kairi rushed out in a single breath.
"Be quiet. Do you have any idea how hard it was finding you?"
"Look out, under you!"
Isa stumbled forward just as the monster resurfaced right under him. He regained his footing and turned around to stare at the thing that had tripped him up. "What the…"
"You have to let me go! I can fight it!" Kairi said. "I'll protect you!"
"We don't have time for this… We're leaving," Isa said, running away with Kairi in his arms.
"But Isa!" Isa ignored her and focused on running from the shadow that was sliding on the ground and giving chase. Kairi frowned and pouted, dropping her stick and crossing her arms, but she almost immediately softened and that turned into sadness rather than stubbornness.
Lea sat down and leaned against the cool brick wall, biting into a sea-salt ice cream bar and sighing. "She's stubborn, I'll give her that," he muttered to himself, staring up at the rosy sky. "How long are we expected to keep this up?! It'd be just my luck that I'd been running all around town and Isa already found her forever ago!"
The sky was as serene as ever, and the sound of running water was helping him calm down a bit. This part of town smelled like flowers, too, so he got rather comfortable. Now that he thought about it, he bet Isa really did have it done. Isa was always bragging about how he knew how to get stuff done. Lea could probably afford to take a break. He finished his ice cream and lay back, closed his eyes and stretched.
Then, the calming sound of running water was becoming replaced by the sound of screaming in the distance, which was becoming less distant by the second. He opened his eyes irritably, and, like flash across his vision, Lea saw a shade of blue that he'd seen plenty of times before dash past him in a blur, and a high-pitched voice call "Lea!"
The blue blur stopped and turned to look at Lea. Isa glared for a second, then rolled his eyes. "Taking a break, Lea?"
Lea was going to respond with, "Oh, you found her!" but Isa caught sight of something and jumped back, keeping his eyes trained on a shadow. The shadow rose up and Lea practically leapt back in fright. "Wha –what the heck is that thing!" he yelled instead, picking up his Frisbees and throwing one of them at the monster, managing to hit it. It was hard to tell if the hit did any real damage, but it certainly made the thing stop and look at Lea.
Isa put down Kairi and let out a huff, grateful for the chance to finally stop running. "I can't run toting her around. Do something about this thing."
"I'd love to hear some ideas then, because I don't even know what this thing is!" Lea said, but he listened to Isa nonetheless, retrieving his other Frisbee and using them as melee weapons against the monster. The twitchy little thing drew back for a moment, but then it scratched its claws at Lea, knocking a Frisbee out of his hand and raking Lea's skin. Lea pulled his hand back and shook it, cursing under his breath.
"Lea! You're hurt!" Kairi said.
"Are you okay?" Isa asked, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Just take Kairi and get back to her house. I'll handle this."
"Are you serious? You don't even have a weapon! I can handle this, you take care of Kairi and get out of here!"
"No!" Kairi ran out in front of them and stood between Lea and Isa and the shadow monster. "I won't let you hurt my babysitters!"
The monster lunged out to attack Kairi, but suddenly a bullet hit it and the monster faded away into darkness.
The trio could do little more than stare for a bit, but Isa was the first one to snap out of it and look to see where it had come from.
"Heh, well, well, well, if it isn't our little princess and her escorts!" their savior said, twirling his gun with a cocky grin. He was joined by a dark man with a focused stare, dressed in a white lab coat. "Wet yourself yet, Sherlock?"