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Katsuya had lost count of how long he had been hiding behind the pile of rocks and cracked asphalt. The water escaping from the uprooted pipes had turned what was left of the street into a quagmire. Under the hood of the sweatshirt, his narrowed eyes could barely be seen. Katsuya pulled the collar of his white T-shirt up to cover his nose, trying to shield himself from the dust that made it hard to breathe. Try as he might, it was impossible to take another step.
The flashes of Hanazawa-san's power were like lightning in the middle of a storm. Katsuya had followed his movements but any attempt to break through the barrier surrounding the dark figure at the epicenter of that hurricane seemed impossible.
They were monsters.
The mere thought of it turned his stomach. Katsuya had spent years trying to convince himself that he wasn't a monster because of powers he had never wanted to have. Taka had almost made him forget how that word had haunted him since he was but a child. They weren't monsters. They... they weren't...
But there in front of him was the proof.
With so much destruction around them, what else could they be? Katsuya closed his eyes, his palms pressing his eyelids shut tightly. He felt his whole body tremble. He had been nothing more than fooling himself. They were nothing more than monsters that should never have seen the light of day. Nightmares born to bring chaos and devastation. He had been deluded to believe they could be something else.
“You're going to come in handy!”
Katsuya barely had time to realize what was happening when the evil spirit that had been helping Kageyama-san appeared barely an inch from his nose.
“And now let me in.”
Katsuya's powers reacted an instant, shutting him off as the spirit tried to get even closer.
“Knock-knock, anyone home?” The spirit with the red dimples in what looked like his cheeks insisted.
Katsuya's dumbfounded face in that instant had to be a reflection of how little his head seemed to be working. In the midst of it all, the idea of that green slime waiting for him to let himself be possessed was no more absurd than the force of nature that the stunted and somewhat anti-social man that was Kageyama-san had become.
“'We're not going to be able to get to the kid alone. We have to wake him up no matter what if we want to have a chance of stopping Shigeo.” The spirit tapped him on the forehead like someone knocking on a door. “So, what?”
“You mean Taka?” Katsuya still took a second to react. The confirmation of his worst fears chilled his blood.
His eyes turned to the mass of black energy rising like a column of hurricane wind. Taka was at the epicenter of that madness.
“What do you gain by helping me get to him?” Katsuya frowned as he looked back at the spirit.
Everything had started to go wrong the day that spirit had appeared in their lives. Katsuya didn't quite believe that his only intention was to help but he also didn't know what other options he had. Hanazawa's power and the other esper that had appeared there with him had barely managed to scratch the surface of the barrier surrounding Kageyama-san completely.
“Surviving seems like a good plan.” The spirit replied, his tone beginning to sound exasperated.
Katsuya looked at him for one last moment before agreeing with a nod. He just hoped he wouldn't regret it when it was all over.