70. The Shinigami

{Ritsu}

Against his better judgement, Ritsu reached out his newly formed fingers and brushed them against Naya's cheek. He barely touched her skin before he had to draw his hand back. There was no lingering pain, but smoke did trail from his fingertips.

"This is going to be very complicated," Ritsu whispered as he watched the smoke dissipate in the sandy wind. When he dropped his pale hand and looked down again at Naya's form, he noticed that there were two spots left on her cheek where he had touched her.

He floated closer and got down on both hands so he could crouch over her body. The spots looked like little patches of ice. Against the heat of Naya's skin, the round spots slowly melted into tiny puddles of water.

Ritsu looked at his hand and then again back down at Naya.

He had an idea.

+++

{Naya}

My core no longer burned. The air around me felt light and cloudy as if I was wrapped up in a duvet on one of Mr. Naim's outdoor lawn chairs. I thought I heard pool water sloshing not that far from me.

Ha! I thought. This whole desert mess was just a dream. I must have fallen asleep by the pool. How typical of me.

I peeked open an eye.

"Uri?"

But there was nothing but sun and sand everywhere I looked. I sat up.

Turned out my poolside vibes were all just in my imagination. I wiped the sleep from my eyes.

Then why does it still feel so nice and breezy?

"Mistress?"

I jerked around. Hovering over me was that masked creep. I looked him up and down and realized that he was no longer hovering because he had legs now. And tattoos. Lots of them. Though he was bare from the waist up, from the waist down he was wrapped in some black loose trousers. They sort of reminded me of something a samurai might wear.

The mask was still fashioned after a porcelain, slanted-eyed fox with a Cheshire grin. Long, thick black hair spilled over the djinni's tapered ears. Like before, his skin was a ghostly pale. Only now, artistic tats spiraled across his chest, around his shoulders, and down his arms all the way to his wrists. I saw stylistic depictions of clouds, smoke, dragons, koi fish, and cherry blossoms. I did my best not to gawk at them for too long, lest this djinni had a way of using them to hypnotize his victims.

Looking off in the other direction, I said, "What the hell do you want?"

Out of my periphery I could see the djinni crouching to my level. His body blocked out the desert sun. I felt myself exhale under his shadow. It felt cooler than normal. At least by four or five degrees.

"I know you think I'm lying when I say I'm Ritsu, but if you don't believe me, I ask that you at least trust me."

I snorted. "How do you expect me to trust you if I don't even believe you?"

Even though I couldn't see his face, the masked stranger relaxed his shoulders in what appeared to be a sigh. "You no longer experience pain. In here." He gently tapped his dark-painted fingernails against his sternum.

I staggered to my feet. "So what? Are you about to tell me that you had something to do with that?"

He nodded.

I said, "Dude, you're creepy. One day you're a mask, and the next you look like some villain off of Mortal Kombat. If you want to make yourself useful, you can point me towards the nearest oasis – ones with humans, that is. But if not, I suggest you get moving in another direction because I don't have any money. I don't have any camels. My boyfriend got kidnapped by a sorcerer, who probably killed my monkey demon in the process." I paused to catch a sob.

I looked up to see that this thing was actually trying to reach out and touch my face. I slapped his hand away. The touch was brief, but I couldn't help noticing how shockingly cool his skin felt. The exact opposite of Uri's. Weird.

"Don't touch me. And quit following me."

I got up. I needed to finally ditch this djinni once and for all.

+++

{Ritsu}

Naya took the scarf around her neck and turned it into a hood to protect herself from the elements. Then she backed away slowly, her eyes darting up to the sky every now and then to track the sun. Once she was far away enough, she chose a direction – east.

Towards the ocean, Ritsu realized. He remained where he was on his knees. He needed to think about this before he just took off after her again.

"My cooling effects will wear off eventually," he thought aloud. "She feels fine now, but given time, her fire will be burning her again. She won't have the strength to walk. Sleep will be agonizing for her."

So what can I do?

Naya was getting farther and farther away. Ritsu had to make up his mind fast.

+++

{Naya}

The internal burning had returned. I wanted to curse myself because whoever that creep who made the burning go away the first time around was nowhere in sight.

Great, Naya. You could have bargained with him, you know.

I shook my head. For all I know, that thing could have eaten my monkey.

{Where is he? Where is he?}

Ugh, not this again. My chest burned. I got down on my knees and begged, "Please, Aqua. Not this time. I need to rest."

{Behind us! Behind us!}

"What the hell are you talking about?" I muttered as I half-heartedly glanced over my shoulder. I had no idea how I didn't detect the foul stench before, but now it was slamming me right in the face. Uncontrollable waves of heat rippled through my limbs as I staggered to my feet and put some distance between me and the ghoul.

Thanks to Aqua, my breathing became shallow and it was hard to focus on the ghoul. I had taken down ghouls like this one before, back when Uri was still around. I remembered him telling me that I was strong enough to defeat five of these things on my own. If I could get Aqua to cooperate, that might still be true.

Like an amorphous zombie, the ghoul came limping and oozing my way. Though its gait was uncoordinated, it made long, intentional strides. This monster knew exactly what he wanted.

This probably wasn't the best time to close my eyes, but I did it anyway. I needed to focus and calm myself down. Aqua wasn't listening, but that didn't mean that I couldn't use her. She was going to share her fire whether she wanted to or not. I opened my eyes and remembered everything Zayn had taught me.

The ghoul hissed at the sight of the blue whips trailing from my fingernails. I snapped them once.

"Come and get it."

The ghoul moaned and lumbered forward. I drew my arm back and snapped my wrist, all the while ignoring Aqua's protests. She wanted her fire back. I told her no.

I managed to lasso the fiery threads around the ghoul's unsettling excuse for a neck. He yanked backward, but that only tightened my hold. I choked him like I did the last ghoul I fought. When he was nothing but a pile of slime and steam, I let the fire recede back under my nails.

Aqua was not happy with me. Soon I was back on my knees.

"Wait, Aqua. You saw the ghouls. I had to protect us!"

That's when I heard it. More moaning.

I looked around. "You've got to be shitting me."

Turns out that ghoul that I slayed had some cousins. Just like the ones Uri and I defeated back at the cave, these all came at once. They formed a circle around me.

Aqua was burning me. She wouldn't let me use the whips. I needed Uri here, but he was gone. Ritsu wasn't there either. Cyndr never showed up. There was no way for Zayn to know where I was.

No one was going to help me.

I directed everything that I had inside at that little blue fire that was causing me all of this grief. She bared her teeth at me, but I didn't care. I reached out, grabbed that blue bitch by the hair, and jerked as hard as I could.

+++

{Ritsu}

The dusky evening lit up when Naya activated her fire. Ritsu paused to take in the moment. On her knees with about six or seven ghouls closing in on her, Naya screamed as she rose to her feet and unleashed her inner fire through her hair follicles. Each of her coils and curls became its own individual flame that stretched outward and choked or punctured through the ghouls. Her scream was nothing but agony as her hair extended and punished everything in its path. Ritsu made sure to keep a wide berth.

When Naya could no longer sustain her fire, her hair retreated and returned to its natural state. Ritsu took advantage of this moment. When he reached Naya, he could tell that she was barely coherent.

In a voice so hoarse that it sounded nothing like her, she choked, " . . . Away. From. Me."

Ritsu swung his arm out. "Look around you. More ghouls are coming. You walked right into a graveyard!"

Naya swayed on her feet and tried to get her bearings. She cringed at the sight of more stinking ghouls that wandered in their direction. Desperately, she looked back at Ritsu.

"Nothing," she gasped, "to give."

Ritsu dashed forward and swept Naya off her feet before she could faint. She curled up in his arms and coughed polluted clouds of smoke. Her body was unbelievably hot. Ritsu immediately channeled the energy that he picked up from the dying lifeforms in the sand into an icy film along his skin.

As he darted and dodged the valley of ghouls, he whispered to Naya over the passing wind, "Mistress, don't you ever speak another word about paying me back."

He hugged her closer to his chest.

"It's insulting."