You will know it soon, Yuki

What does he mean by that? She doesn't really get what people are thinking especially him. She feels like she is in those scenes in anime where the protagonist has a normal life not until meeting someone that will turn that protagonist's life upside down.

Yuki is resting her scythe at the plain grass. She's at the backyard of her school. It is not that maintained so there are portions where the grass is tall and thick. It is also slippery at times and rumours said that there are snakes here. But Yuki hasn't seen one so she doesn't mind.

From the backyard, a large tree and few dozens of small growing plants in each temporary pot can be seen. The plants are sowed by the elementary students and some sections in junior high. It is located near the old wire railings behind the school. Beyond that railings is not the school property.  While the large tree is located at the side leading to the empty and well-maintained landscape beside the building. That is where the students usually do the Physical Activities.

So what is she doing here? She's simply waiting for Shou. He said she should stay here until he comes back. She doesn't know where he is going but she still obediently followed him.

She's staring at a space until she noticed the tall grass are swaying a bit as if there is something unknown coming towards her. One thing immediately comes into her mind. A snake.

And she's right. There's a snake crawling towards her. Yuki put her fighting stance. It is large and very long like a python. Despite of its heavy weight, it can move fast! Does she need to run away?

So she did! She is running away while looking back at the snake. It is chasing her! Yuki panicked. Where is she going? Snakes can climb so it's useless to go somewhere high. Her body feels blue and stopped running away. She holds her scythe tightly, planning to confront it. She will kill it.

She just then noticed the color of its eyes. It is red. Does a snake have red eyes? It is possible. Maybe.

Here it comes. She is just going to slice it using her scythe. She's just going to kill it. It's only a snake. A snake that is chasing her. But a sudden question comes into her mind. How is she going to attack something that is on the ground? She usually train to attack something with a normal height she can cut. And even taller. But how about a snake with few inches thick? Thinking a way to attack the snake puts her into an awkward position.

But then in the middle of her thoughts, the snake momentarily stops crawling and hissed. They have at least of a meter distance. What is it doing? It brings her confusion.

When suddenly the snake leap towards her! It caught her off guard! A lot of curses comes into her mind. It is so large that it could blocked almost all of her eyesight! Out of reflex, she added her another hand on her scythe and slice it into two!

However it doesn't end there. It's body is still in motion towards her direction. So she do all her best to turn her body to side and used her feet to move away. She even almost tripped!

She watched the snake's body to fall down on the ground and she can feel her loud heartbeat. It is still hissing but it is not moving. However, its head is coincidentally landed towards Yuki. It is as if the snake is looking at her. She feels terrified of what it is going to do.  So she backed away to the side where its head is not directed at her while her attentive eyes are on the snake.

Slowly, its hissing are getting quiet. Is it already dead?

"Yuki!!!"

That sudden voice made her body involuntarily and temporarily shaken. Her back is almost facing at the direction where she thinks Shou is coming. She couldn't let herself move. What happened is traumatizing her. What if the snake suddenly attack her? She remembered the last demon that covered almost all her whole eyesight when it attempted to attack her. Her palm is getting sweaty as she holds her scythe tightly.

She can hear the footsteps of Shou getting louder. He's here. So she glanced at Shou's direction and saw his face covered with sweat. And put her attention back to the snake.

She's shocked. It disappeared. Where did it go? She turned and looked around. The snake cannot be seen!

"Faster!" She immediately faced Shou who's confronting the guy wearing casual clothes while an unusual figure is behind it. It has a body and eyes of a snake. She can't help the thought coming to her mind that the snake awhile ago and the demon manipulating Gian are somehow connected to each other!

The picture of the snake that could be just behind her and attack her anytime, is lingering in Yuki's mind. She is scared but she ignored it as she heard the firing bullets of Shou towards Gian.

The demon and Gian are avoiding it Shou's attack but it is obvious on its face that they are having difficulty. She run passed Shou and towards the enemy. She jumped on the air while Shou is smoothly firing bullets without her getting hit.

Stuck in a dillema between avoiding the attack of Shou or Yuki, the enemy cannot moved.

"Now!"

As if her body heard the permission its waiting, Yuki slashed the enemy easily and few bullets pierced into its body as what is predicted. Then, she landed and mainted her fighting stance.

The voice of the demon just then can be heard. Because the demon right now doesn't unusually speak. What Yuki always fight is demons who speak and talk with malice. She finds it weird. But maybe just like humans, they have different personalities.

Slowly, the demon turned into ashes and Gian collapses on the ground. A black liquid are dripping down from the point of Yuki's blade. Maybe it is the blood of a demon.

She is amazed. She did it. She didn't failed this time. It gave her a sense of relief and at the same time, the feeling of slashing and killing a demon lingers onto her hand. It is satisfying.

She froze upon her thoughts. Satisfying?

Did she hear herself right? What satisfaction could be there when killing something dangerous? She's just relieved of not failing. She always fail on what she does and disappoint Shou. But this is different. Shou trained her. And her body feels lighter than usual. Her reflex are getting better. Just a bit. There is improvement and it is showing.

That's right. That's all there is to it.

"He is just unconscious and will wake up soon." He said and went beside me. "Lets go." She stared at his classmate's body before walking away. "Okay."

He followed. "You know, the more despair humans are, the more vulnerable they are in becoming an illegal contractor." So Gian is in despair to the point of getting manipulated? Even Rica. Yuki is not stupid of not thinking the possibility that they also have problems. But she wonders what are they going through. Perhaps family problems.

"Demons take advantage of that." They are still holding their weapons and took a turn. There are still students on the ground, practicing various dance steps. "Oh."

They went to the restroom of their own gender. Then, she witnessed how the weapon disappeared the moment she entered in one of the cubicle. Could she now control how to make her weapons appear and disappear? Because for the first time, she saw it disappear into thin air.

She opened the door and saw few girls on the sink, fixing theirselves. She made it out of the restroom and saw Shou leaning on the wall.

They just looked at each other and looked away as if they got no connection between them. And they parted their ways. This is their plan. They are going home separately. Yuki is going to take her bicycle while Shou is going to walk on the way home. So that the school will not be able to found out they are living together. However she knows that people can always just follow them. But she hopes that no one will would.

The next day, three male students were killed by two gunshots on the head while one was cut. Their plan is simple but so far, it is undeafeated. Shou will cover for Yuki who is taking the offense. The battle ended with demons screaming and turning into ashes. While the students collapses on the ground at the same time.

The extermination is done successfully today. They do the same routine of going home. However, as they walk to take a turn on the corner leading to the empty ground where students usually practice. Shou stopped and turned around. Yuki noticed that since she is just beside him and looked at where his eyesight landed.

There is nothing. What is he possibly looking at?

Suddenly, she remembered the snake.

~'Nothing or disappeared?' ends~
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