"Right!" Yohan exclaimed with excitement. He was happy with how things had gone just now, he got to sit next to Sakuya, the morning so far had been going well, nothing seemed to be going wrong today. School days had always been a drag before, but now Yohan had Sakuya there to make it all better for him. Well, for a brief time he did anyway. Now he was on his own, and that brought a gripping fear into his heart. Could he survive without his friends or family here to support him? He decided to walk off on his own, only to find a familiar face staring at him from outside. His eyes widened as he quickly headed outside to stare face to face with the familiar person before him!
"Hello, Yohan." Ricky stated with a cool attitude, the calm tone coming from his voice made it sound like nothing had happened to him. He held a cigarette in his hand as he brought it up to his mouth before pulling it away and releasing a puff of smoke. Ricky looked about as normal as his pictures lead him to believe, no demon influences, none of the Djinn's strings, he seemed pretty normal compared to what Yohan had saw! As Yohan stood in shock at seeing Ricky alive and well before him, Ricky looked up at him with a cocky smile on his face.
"What's wrong? You look shocked right now, as if something was wrong." Static flashed briefly across Yohan's vision, changing his view of Ricky to seeing his corpse before returning to the normal Ricky.
"How are you... Here?" Yohan had trouble getting his words across fully. The static and seeing Ricky's dead body there had shaken him up. He had tried so hard to put away the image of Ricky's body, especially after he had to put it outside himself, but one reminder sent in a rush of the same emotions as before. He was close to having a panic attack over just the sight of it, yet here Ricky continued to sit, unphased by Yohan's disturbed form before him. Yohan could see it in his eyes, see it on his face. That smug, cocky attitude that had been given off of his character just from what he had seen before. Ricky had always assumed himself the top dog over everyone, that no one was superior to him. Could this have transferred with Ricky even after death, if this was Ricky to begin with?
"You called me here." Ricky stated, rising up to his feet slowly. Despite the intimidation Ricky's slow movements caused within Yohan, Ricky simply walked past him and looked up at the beautiful morning sky.
"Nice day today. No rain, no clouds, just a perfect blue sky with the sun shining down on you. Of course, you only see green now, don't you?" Ricky's tone made it sound like he was playing around something with Yohan. Yohan had a growing fear of what that was, but didn't want to confirm it for Ricky.
"I can tell you are tense. You can't hide that from me." Ricky turned to look over his shoulder at Yohan, giving a dangerous smirk.
"You haven't been asking the right questions, Yohan. You haven't taken the time to properly address the things that should of been given attention to. Now, I'm going to show you why that is a problem." As Yohan felt frozen to the spot he currently stood on, Ricky pulls out of his chest a strange looking orb. Yohan felt a cold sweat beginning to rush through his body as he sees Ricky slowly reaching his right hand down on the top of the orb.
"Sienna and Frederick. That's the names of the two people, eh?" Ricky looked over at Yohan with a cold smirk.
"Let's make this fun." Ricky's hand sinks down into the orb, the orb's color changing to yellow as Ricky's eyes glow red for a moment before he quickly pulls his hand out and the orb slowly begins to fade away.
"I've just sent a piece of myself to halt both of their progress. With any luck, one of them will give in and turn into a demon pretty soon." Ricky couldn't help but chuckle as he stretches his arms up.
"You seem confused, allow me to sum it up without actually explaining anything useful to you. I have total control over this connection power you have with them. If they should happen to die or turn into a demon, I consider that a win. They aren't going to be able to run away now, no matter how far they run, I'll still be able to screw with them." Ricky suddenly appears in front of Yohan and grabs him by the throat, pulling him down a little to glare him down right in his eyes.
"I want to make one thing clear between the two of us. As long as I'm here, I will be calling the shots from now on." Ricky's eyes glow red again briefly as he smirks.
"If I tell you to bark, you bark. If I tell you to go steal someone's money, you steal the money. If I tell you to shoot someone in the head, well." Ricky let go of Yohan, only to pull out a pistol and push it up to Yohan's head, not even looking at Yohan as Ricky's mouth morphed into an unsettling, twisted version of a human's smirk.
"You shoot them in the god damn head!" Ricky pulls the trigger, shooting Yohan right through his skull and causing him to collapse to the ground. Ricky faded away, his job done as birds flew past the area Yohan had been standing in. Yohan didn't know whether he was alive or dead for a moment, but after a second, he sits up and sucks in a large amount of air before coughing and putting a hand up to his throat. He checked his forehead as soon as he could, nothing out of the ordinary. It had been an illusion perhaps? No, something felt wrong here. Ricky was dead, yet Ricky had just appeared before him seeming to be inside his head now. The most likely answer was that Yohan had somehow manifested a new inner demon in response to Ricky's dead. If that was the case, Yohan felt like the gates of hell had just opened up before him and he had been the unlucky guest to be invited inside.
Ricky did not reappear before Yohan, there was nothing wrong with Yohan as of the moment. That was a scary thought, to know Ricky not only held some control over him, but over the others as well. He had been trying to avoid digging further into all of this since Ricky had died, he thought that was it. That it would be over with the death of one person and that he could live a normal life knowing magic just existed. Reality had come in and slapped him, telling him that it had only just begun. He felt like he was missing a piece of the puzzle here, why did it feel like Ricky had won despite him dying? Why was there now an inner demon of Ricky messing with him, why was there now doubts about himself? He felt like hitting something just out of the anger and confusion that flooded through his body right now. Yohan had to calm his breathing down before he could think again, classes would be starting up again soon. He had only a few minutes to himself at best, he had lost track of time when Ricky had appeared before him. As he looked around, he noticed a group of people near the school. That's when Yohan spotted one of them and immediately knew who it was. Yohan's old bully: Chase.
It would be an understatement to say that Chase had been the main reason Yohan had fallen into depression in the first place. For ten years, Chase had done nothing but try to ruin Yohan's life and it almost had worked. When Chase had learned Yohan's parents had died, Chase had spread a rumor that Yohan was the reason they had died and even convinced other kids to believe that Yohan was out for blood. Chase had always gone out of his way to beat up Yohan whenever he saw him before, the beatings only growing more violent as they got older. Yohan had refused to ever fight back, only getting back up despite whatever Chase had thrown at him. The verbal abuse Chase had played with him was all intentionally to screw with him, always spreading unhealthy rumors about Yohan to make him look all the more like a freak. This summer, Chase had been quiet, Yohan had not heard a single thing about him since middle school had ended for the both of them. Yet now Yohan saw him sitting calmly, smoking a cigarette with his group of friends, all of them appearing to be skipping school while sitting right outside of it.
Chase had not noticed Yohan, he didn't seem to care about Yohan right now. Yohan observed them as Chase motioned for one of his friends to get out the phone, motioning for him to call someone. Chase continued to smoke, he had been smoking for about five years now. He was a heavy smoker, going through about five to seven cigarettes in just half a day. He had earned quite the reputation throughout Timberland over the years, leading people to term the phrase that "If you smoke cigarettes or start doing drugs, you'll end up becoming Chased down by them for the rest of your life." A lame pun, to be sure, but an effective one given Chase looked about as intimidating as people advertised smoking and drugs to be. Chase had gotten into plenty of trouble and fights, probably the most terrifying wound he got and always showed off was the scar that ran down the left side of his face. The way Chase had "fixed" up his scar, he made it look like his skin had split open and had remained that way ever since. Even his left eye looked inhumane, always half closed to either give an impression that Chase just didn't care, or that Chase was always really angry.
Yohan felt scared watching Chase and his friends, he didn't really have time to waste on them. Yet something struck Yohan off about Chase today, something that he felt all too well when he had first met Sakuya. Or when he first met Ricky just before they started to fight. Could it be that Chase had gotten The Black somehow?! Yohan wanted to believe it wasn't true, yet he could feel it clear as daylight coming from all of Chase's group. Yohan knew others would be feeling this too, had others in Timberland always gotten a hold of The Black somehow? It didn't matter, Yohan knew if he took the first action it would be the death of him. Chase had made a hobby of practicing with guns, they say he started taking up firearms to start outright shooting people he just didn't like. If Chase had killed anyone, he had never let it reach the public ears. Maybe it was better to just leave them alone, but just when he thought of leaving, that's when one of Chaser's friends spotted him. He had been careless, and now it was going to cost him! Chaser looked over towards Yohan and motioned for him to come over. Aw, crap!
Upon walking over to Chase and his friends, Yohan could faintly smell something disgusting coming from them all. It could of been anything, so Yohan felt it was better not to assume and let his assumptions remain just that. As Chase's eyes glared over towards Yohan, immediately it was like the years had caught up with the both of them. Chase closed his eyes for a moment as he pulled his cigarette over to his mouth, pulling it away to blow out a puff of smoke before slamming it down onto the table before him and wiping the cigarette out roughly. Chase rose up to a frightening height of six feet, eight inches. He towered over Yohan, which sent a shiver down Yohan's back as he could now see in full detail the scary man known as Chase before him. Chase's skin came off as ash pale, with his greasy hair scattered about on his head. His jeans had some tearings in them, while his jacket looked torn and tired out. What could be seen of his t-shirt was stained, with what Yohan didn't want to know though. Chase remained unmoving on the spot, making Yohan think he had randomly passed out before Chase suddenly coughed into his arm, making Yohan jump at the surprise before Chase turned back to him.
"So it's the Yo-bang. That is yer name, r'ght?" Chase mumbled out, causing Yohan to give him a confused look of sorts.
"It's, uh, Yohan.""I knew that. I was just messing with you, Yo-ham." Chase cleared his throat a few times before continuing.
"So, uh, you's was lis'ening to us?" Chase asked with a shady look in his gaze. Yohan hesitated before answering.
"Yeah, I heard you guys." Yohan's response caused Chase to growl out lowly. His friends started to back up, but it was too late as Chase reached over and grabbed one his friends by the collar and slammed them face first into the desk right on the cigarette. Tossing him aside, the others only watched in horror as Chase took a moment to look around before looking back at Yohan.
"You is gon'a do me a fav, kay?" Chase started explaining to Yohan.
"You 'eard no'hing. You even so much as whi'per one urd 'ere todah, you gon'a git a whooping." It was hard for Yohan to fully make out what Chase was saying, something seemed incredibly off about Chase than what Yohan could remember. Chase had gone through such dramatic changes during this one summer alone, but he figured it was years that built up to the current state he was in now.
"I don like it when peeple rat'le on meh. They git them'elves in trible. You 'alk away now, kay?" Chase started to move to sit back down, but was stopped as he heard Yohan shout at him.
"No!" The tension could be felt as his friends only continued to back up further away from Chase. Chase's unmoving form again made Yohan think he had randomly passed out, until Chase looked over at him and wheezed out the most awkward pauses in-between laughs he had ever heard. Yohan suddenly felt one of Chase's hands gripping his collar and his body being lifted up, the sky becoming present to his view before his back was slammed right into the table, causing it to shatter underneath him as Yohan felt his eyes roll into the back of his head from the sudden pain that jolted through him right now. Chase's bad breath had become apparent for a moment as Chase let go of him and reached into his jacket's pockets, pulling brass knuckles over both his hands before taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly with a little wheeze coming out.
"Dis ain't no kiddie gluve I wear. You gon'a git it." Chase swung down at Yohan without another second to waste, Yohan barely just moving himself out of the way as he felt the ground shake a little just from Chase's fist hitting the ground. That's when Yohan felt something heavy hit him in his gut, causing him to collapse to a knee. He dodged Chase's strike, how did Chase still hit him without touching him?! He couldn't get much time to think as Chase came stomping in towards him and made a swing for his head, Yohan moving to the right to avoid Chase's arm as it swung through the air. Yohan felt a heavy impact hit his head as he stumbled backwards, Chase glancing over at him and clutching his fists tightly as he turned to fully face Yohan before giving him a pretty awful looking grin.
"I nevah miss." Chase's word struck him as odd, could it relate to his ability somehow?
Once again he had little time to think as Chase charges in and sends in a flurry of punches this time, Yohan managing to dodge them at first when he started to feel the heavy impacts striking his body in rapid blows. Chase took the opportunity to start slugging in some hits of his own on Yohan, the impacts soon going away as Chase just started to strike away on Yohan. Blood soon began to spray across the area as Yohan was beaten up pretty badly in several places now. Yet he refused to use his sound ability on Chase, he wasn't going to do that for this. Chase took advantage of Yohan's weakened state to grab hold of his leg and pull him out from under his feet, then throwing him roughly into one of the school's wall as Yohan felt himself black out for a moment from the impact. Yohan's body limply fell to the ground, Chase's wheezy laugh could still be heard faintly as he took the time to examine his fists. Chase slowly came walking over towards Yohan as Yohan regained his vision, trying to push himself back up but it wasn't good enough. His body wouldn't correctly respond to him as Chase stopped in front of him and slowly pulling back his right fist, ready to strike Yohan a mighty blow to the face.
But Yohan wouldn't let that happen, focusing momentarily on his arms as he struck his left fist into Chase's right fist, Chase's brass knuckle shattering into pieces as Chase's eyes widen. Chase then struck out with his left fist, only for Yohan to respond with his right, Chase's brass knuckle shattering again as this time, pieces of something graze pass Chase's arm and make small cuts on it. Chase's eyes widened as he looked at his arm in surprise, turning over to Yohan to notice his left arm had changed. He seemed to have grown some white scales, but the white scales now held some faint blue tattoo like design to them. As Chase recklessly charges in, Yohan strikes in a hard uppercut to Chase with his left arm, shattering the scales on it as they go flying and stab themselves lightly into various parts of Chase's body. Chase gave a mighty wail in pain, the scales shattering and breaking off from Chase's body shortly after as a loud snap had come off to Chase's friends when Yohan had landed the uppercut. Blood dripped from Chase's broken lower jaw, the intimidating giant falling to his knees and holding his face as he could only give off muffled wails for the moment. Yohan felt himself growing more exhausted suddenly, collapsing to his knees as he could only breath heavily.
Before Yohan could push himself back up to his feet, Chase suddenly threw debris of the table at him with full force, causing Yohan to get smacked in the face by some of them and the rest slamming past his body as he felt himself getting thrown onto his back. Blood ran down the right side of his face, causing him to close his right eye as he slowly pushed himself to sit up while looking over at Chase. Even if Chase could talk properly right now, he seemed way too emotional right now to even care about speaking. Chase rose back up to his feet and glared down at Yohan, despite the pain Chase must of been receiving, he still was able to move properly. Yohan had to force himself to quickly get back up to his feet, only for Chase to start pounding into his body with more strength than before! Yohan was surprised by how much stronger Chase seemed now that he was backed into a corner, even more so by how Chase was still able to focus on where to slug into Yohan in order to make him feel the most pain. All those years of practice on him must of really helped when Chase kicked into berserk mode!
With a final slug to the face, Yohan was sent stumbling back into the wall and slide down it a bloody mess. Chase couldn't proceed to finish off Yohan for the moment, having stopped as the pain must of started to kick back in hard and force Chase to remain frozen to the spot. Yohan took the time to muster up the last of his strength to stand up to his feet, his entire body shaking as he could see blood dripping down from his body practically all over. He focused as much of his power as he could into his right arm, his right arm beginning to shake fiercely as he tightened his hand into a fist before pulling it back. Chase let out a low menacing growl before charging forward at Yohan, with Yohan being quick enough to step in and throw a weak punch right into Chase's right shoulder, but that one hit was all he needed. Chase's pupils turned tiny as he felt something building up before a loud sound practically exploded from his right shoulder. Chase let out a high pitched scream as his right arm was painfully snapped out of place, Chase being sent flying back and slamming painfully into the ground while Yohan was sent flying back into the wall for a third time.
As the loud booming sound went off, most windows within the school suddenly shattered, causing a lot of people to notice something strange was going on. Most people were now beginning to panic and wonder what was going on, the loud boom had sounded close to being like someone had just set off some kind of weapon. Yohan barely kept himself conscious as he saw Chase not moving from where he lay. Chase's friends had long since abandoned the scene in order to avoid getting into trouble with him. Some friends he managed to pick up. As Yohan barely to pick himself up, trying to move in order to go and warn someone about what had happened, Chase had been quick to the draw and gotten a knife out, swinging it across the air before letting it fall and stab into the ground beside him, collapsing and passing out properly. A cut suddenly forms itself on Yohan's chest, causing some blood to come out due to how quick it suddenly formed. Yohan felt his body go numb completely and he fell down flat onto the ground, passing out along with Chase as now everyone who had started to watch would freak out and think both of them had just died!
