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“Tommy are you alright?”
There was two thoughts that flew through Tommy’s head. The first
‘I wish I hadn’t seen that.’
And the second
‘We have to get out of here.’
Whatever it was, sitting on top of one of the building a bit further away from them, over top the dojo, light purple tentacles with a stark white mask, just barely hidden over the building.
It became very clear to Tommy that Darnold and his classmate could not see it. He had to stay calm, act natural. This had to have been what ruined the windows over on this side of the building, away from everything else.
“You know what I just remembered!” Tommy turned, grabbing Darnold’s arm, as well as Darnold’s classmate, and Tommy desperately wished he could remember her name, and starting to drag them away from the creature. “There’s this show I wanna watch, it’s gonna start soon!”
“Hey, woah, Tommy!” Darnold shifted a bit, trying to tug his arm carefully out of Tommy’s grip, but still keeping pace. They had to get away from here, now. “What’s the rush?”
“It’s gonna start any minute now, I don’t wanna miss it.” He looked back, just once to see if it was still there but-
It was gone.
Tommy stopped, staring towards the spot it had been moments before, and it gave Darnold the opportunity to pull his arm free.
“How about this? You go on ahead, and I’ll catch up with you! I gotta change anyways!” He was already moving back towards the dojo, back towards where the creature had been moments before.
“What? Darnold!” No, no, it was still around it had to be-
“I’ll be right there, I promise!” He called over his shoulder, and Tommy’s heart dropped, going to call out again to him
There was something behind him. Tommy didn’t move, feeling it’s presence hovering above him. Slowly, he turned his head to look over his shoulder, up towards the being.
“So... you can see me, can’t you?” It asked, voice seeming to slightly echo itself, and Tommy wished he hadn’t seen it.
“Tommy? Are you okay?” the other person asked, and Tommy didn’t answer. “What are you looking at?”
“Run.”
“What?”
“You have to run. Now.”
She looked confused, and Tommy didn’t move his eyes from the creature, didn’t let it get out of his sight again. It didn’t matter.
“I won’t let you get away.” The thing said, and Tommy saw the bumps on it’s masked head move and grow, turning purple seconds before they were shot towards them, shattering the remaining windows and raining down around him.
“Not again!” The other karate student sighed, more annoyed by this than anything else. “Are you al-” And she was cut off, as one of the strange bullets hit her in the shoulder, causing her to fall. Tommy’s eyes widened, and he let the creature out of his sight to get to her side.
“Are you alright?” He knelt down next to her prone body, watching as something green started from the spot where it hit her shoulder, light, before darkening as it spread out across her back and arm.
She sat up with a soft groan of pain, one hand coming up to clutch at her arm, right near the spot she had been hit. “Jeez... don’t know what just hit me, but it doesn’t hurt that bad!” She stood, and Tommy followed, knowing it wasn’t blood, but knowing she wouldn’t understand what he meant. “I promise I’m fine!”
Her arm shot out, grabbing Tommy’s wrist and twisting his arm. He jerked slightly in her grasp eyes wide, and she stared towards her arm as well. “Wh... let go, ow-”
“I-I can’t!” Her arm was moving on it’s own, no way she was doing it herself, as she tried to pry her hand off with her other hand.
Tommy knew, his eyes flicking up to the monster. “What did you do?” He asked, already knowing he looked just a bit crazy. That didn’t matter, he had to fix it, he had to.
The creature laughed. “I just used a bit of my powers. I don’t like violence after all. That’s why I use these seeds on my forehead.” The aforementioned seeds, the bumps covering it’s masked head bulged at the words. “To take control. Make you humans fight among yourselves.”
“But... why?” He didn’t understand, but it didn’t matter. It seemed like people came out of nowhere, covered in various places in the strange green from the seeds, fear hidden in their eyes from an assailant they couldn’t see, losing control over themselves for no reason understandable to them.
They were almost like zombies, surrounding the two of them, his wrist still caught in her grip even as she tried to fight it.
Just as they went to lunge, there was a commotion, causing the near mindless group to turn, as Darnold returned just in time. “What in the world?”
“Darnold!”
“Hey Tommy. That, that thing over there, I should’ve noticed it.” Tommy blinked, realizing he knew, that he could see the monster.
“You can...”
“Not really, not properly. It’s like a heatwave.” Darnold moved over, managing to wrench Tommy’s arm free from the class mate, who stumbled a few steps away, trying to stop her own arm from attacking them again. “But I’m gonna assume it’s clear to you?”
“Ye-” He couldn’t finish the sentence.
In moments, the thing had gotten Darnold in the shoulder, near the same spot as before, and Tommy jerked back, eyes wide. What could he do? He didn’t have anything here, not a single advantage.
The thing landed next to them, and Tommy felt frozen, unable to stop it from taunting them. “Soon you’ll be mine to manipulate to my will-”
“Shut up.” Darnold muttered, struggling to sit up as he did, hand coming to his shoulder. The creature’s eyes went wide.
“What?”
“I said shut up. No one wants to hear it.” He managed to stand, a little wobbly on his feet, and Tommy reached out to grab him, pull him away, but felt the others, however many there were left that Darnold hadn’t gotten to, drag him back, holding his arms away.
“Don’t you realize the position you’re in? You’ll have no control over your body soon enough.” One of the tentacles came up, caressing the side of Darnold’s face. “You have no power-”
And Darnold turned his head, biting down.
The creature screamed horribly. “Let go of me!” And Darnold didn’t, glaring up at the creature with it’s limb in his teeth, clenching his jaw as if trying to tear part of it off.
“You’re not worth controlling.” It screamed, and Tommy’s stomach dropped, as Darnold was pelted by hundreds of those seeds, until he fell limp, finally letting go of the creature and falling.
Tommy managed to break free from the others around him, the mindless zombies of people he knew, sending them crashing down, and ran up to him as he fell, eyes wide. “Darnold!”
The hair pins on the sides of his head went up in a blinding flash, disappearing from his hair as the wind picked up around him, putting himself between Darnold and the creature. Darnold was still shaking, resisting the control that the creature was trying to put over him, and Tommy stared towards it, eyes hard.
“You picked.... the wrong person to hurt.”
“Just what exactly are you?” It cried. “What are those things?”
Tommy blinked, finally noticing what the creature had, six little figures flying in circles around him, the cause of the wind with their speed.
“Come on. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice us until now?”
“I’m sure he knew we existed. After all, when you think about, haven’t we always been the ones closest to you?”
The creatures began to slow, circling closer to him, slowly revealing their human like forms, hidden inside almost bug like exoskeletons.
“Hello Tommy!” One spoke, and he turned a quick circle to follow it, eyes wide.
“Hello...” He mumbled on impulse, and they seemed to laugh.
There was one, hovering in front of his face, that tried to begin to talk, but a second slipped through, kicking her aside. Tommy blinked, eyes wide as he followed the little tussle before they stilled.
“All you need to know is we can help.” A third said, and Tommy looked towards them, nodding slightly. “Call on us, and we’ll be able to help you out of messes like this.”
They separated into three uneven groups, one with three, one with two, and the final separated from the group further.
The three spoke first. “We can help you reject any spirit attacks!” “To do so, you have to use the Kotodama!”
“Koto-” He didn’t get to finish, as the creature landed, and the one on it’s own settled on his shoulder.
“It’s coming.”
“What are you doing mumbling to yourself?” It called, and Tommy realized that this time, he had the advantage. It couldn’t see these six little figures. “Tell me!” The things on its’ forehead bulged again, and Tommy took a small step back.
“Stay calm! All you have to do is say the kotodama and they’ll form a shield, to protect you!” Tommy nodded slightly, the one on his shoulder holding on tightly. “Repeat after me. Santen Kesshun, I reject.”
Tommy did as they asked, and the three shifted, just as the creature fired it’s strange seeds once more. Tommy flinched back, eyes closing as he expected to be hit, only to hear them bounce off of something.
His eyes opened to reveal a large orange shield, stretched between three points, three of the figures, and the creature behind it stared.
“What is this...”
“We can reject what is inside the shield.” the one on his shoulder moved, rejoining a second one, hovering around Darnold’s head. “We can reverse the damage done.”
The shield hovering over him, Tommy moved over to Darnold’s side carefully, as the creature raged on the other side.
“Soten Kishun...” This one came easy, as the two shifted to be less human again. “I reject.”
More and oval between the, settling over Darnold, the damage done slowly beginning to fade away from him, as he began to relax and calm. Tommy let out a breathe, eyes darting to the final one, hovering near his head.
“And you-”
“I can get rid of it. I reject everyone on both sides of the shield, effectively cutting the enemy in half.” Tommy moved back, eyes darting to creature on the other side of the first shield, angry, but no longer firing it’s seeds towards the shield, obviously beginning to understand it couldn’t get through.
“Koten Zanshun... I reject.” And it flew past the shield, nearly too fast for Tommy to see, and just enough for the creature’s eyes to grow wide at the understanding of it’s fate, before the center of it’s mask was pierced, and an orange shield grew though it, the creature being severed into two and melting into nothingness.
As it did, Tommy suddenly found himself dizzy, before collapsing to the ground next to Darnold, eyes slipping shut.
The six gathered around his still form. “Tommy!”
“Oops.”
“All six of us might have been too much at first!”
“Probably.”
“Well, he did really well for the first time using all of us!”
“We’ll be here when he wakes at least.”
And the little hair pin snowflakes fell to the ground, landing next to his head with a soft tink, the little figures no where to be seen.