Strike Memoria ( Hiro's Point of View Part 3 )

"There's no point in hiding if they know about guardians," Ryuji said, looking down at me.

I just stared at the others closely from afar. I was glad they couldn't see me in the dark shade of the forest.

Ryuji began walking ahead of me.

"Where are you going?"

"I wanna see what kinda demon it was." He said calmly. I followed after him, although I knew Yuki was hiding the same secret, to some degree. I couldn't help but feel awkward walking toward everyone with Ryuji completely visible.

He wasn't necessarily the kindest-looking guy, and his appearance wasn't something you'd normally see in Japan. He had long ginger hair tied in a mixture of a ponytail and braids, and the sides of his head were shaved leaving his hair in a rugged pattern.

He's about 187 cm, maybe taller. He's like a mountain in both height and muscle. His facial features are rigid, he has neatly trimmed facial hair and two tattooed volumes of Nordic tunes running down his face, one almost fully covered by his eyepatch.

"Is everyone ok?" I decided to call out so Ryuji's sudden presence wouldn't shake them up more than they already seemed to be.

Isao's head perked up when he heard my voice and quickly turned to face me. "Hiro! Bro, we just saw a demon and these two people killed it. They came out of nowhere, you should've seen it,"

He pointed to the two guardians and Nyoko standing over the demon's body.

When Isao realized Ryuji standing next to me he looked confused, almost uneasy. "Who's that guy?"

"I'm this kid's guardian. Ryuji. Nice to finally speak to you all." Ryuji lifted his hand to give a lazy wave to them all.

"And, meet the fellow guardians, of course," Ryuji added as if nervous he offended the other two.

"What's going on?" Keiko asked, walking over to me to stay as far as possible from the demon's corpse.

She looked as if she was crying, her voice was dry and her eyes puffy.

Isao was gently holding Natsumi and they both stood up carefully together to make sure Natsumi had proper balance.

"Your tarot reading didn't mention anything like this." She said loudly, her words directed at Isao. She glanced up at Ryuji and held onto me for safety.

"Isao?" Keiko called out when Isao didn't respond to her.

Isao's brow furrowed as if he was frustrated with himself.

"He lied," Ryuji said bluntly, he was now squatting down and examining the corpse.

He snapped off one of the demon's orange horns with ease and looked inside it before tossing it to me.

"Why?" Yuki asked, looking over at Isao. Her tone was serious and cautious.

The inside of the horn was nearly hollow, it felt almost weak and brittle.

An Imp. A low-level demon race that is known for being weak. Ryuji told me they're usually humans who committed crimes and were sentenced or chose to go to hell because of those crimes.

The race is usually looked down upon by other demons because of the severity of their crimes.

If they were to send a demon, why an Imp?

They know how strong Ryuji is, did they really send this low leveled of demon? Couldn't they afford anyone higher ranking?

"Isao. Why, why did you lie?" Yuki asked again, louder this time. She took a step towards him, her fists clenching as if she was beginning to suspect he put us in danger.

"He wanted to protect you all, he meant no harm. He didn't think this was the warning the cards told him." One of the guardians spoke as if to protect him. I'd assume for many reasons that he was Isao's guardian.

"I'm sorry." Isao started, "I thought if I said what the cards said then everyone would just get paranoid and offensive to each other. I didn't want that."

"It's ok guys, let's just move on." I attempted to stop any tension before it could start, walking closer to the space between them in case the heightened situation caused Yuki to be aggressive.

"What's on your mind?" I heard Ryuji ask, He was holding out a handkerchief to the only girl guardian among the three who was attempting to wipe the blood on her sword onto the grass.

"Thank you." She said softly, taking it and wiping her blade clean.

"No problem. You can keep it if you don't like blood, I don't care for it." He smiled softly at her.

She repeated herself, "Thank you."

"What's your name?" He asked it was obvious he wanted a conversation with the other guardians. For years now he was only ever able to speak to me and my mom after all.

"Kurai."

"Not much of a talker, huh?"

"Not to strangers I just met, no." She said and stood up, studying him with a side eye.

Her eyes are pink. The color of playful, social, and nurturing guardians. But her behavior didn't give that off.

"What about you, what's your name?" Ryuji asked looking at Isao's guardian.

"My apologies, I would've properly introduced myself earlier but I lack a name." He explained, looking over at Isao as if to ask to be named.

"Oh, so you two are just meeting now huh?" Ryuji asked.

"Indeed. Sir Arisu, may I have my name for this current life?"

"Huh? Why me?" Isao asked confused, Natsumi still held onto him as if she was scared to leave his side.

"I am your guardian, after all, all witches must give their guardians a new name for their life in servitude. It's a sign of leaving our old life officially behind."

"My Guardian?"

Ryuji looked at Isao's guardian with visible disgust. He always hated the idea of guardians existing to serve, he never saw himself or others as mere bodyguards and he always talked about how the stuck-up guardians he met before he was assigned to me irritated him.

Ryuji believed Guardians and witches should be equal in caring for each other, to pick up where the other can't.

"Indeed." The unnamed man said he seemed to be in his 40's with short dirty blonde hair and sunken cheeks.

"Uhm..." Isao thought deeply for a good few minutes.

"Cooper?" He said nervously.

"Very well, thank you." His guardian now named Cooper said with a small smile.

Isao just gave him an awkward thumbs-up, knowing Isao, the name came from a video game or anime he liked years ago. Though I can't put my finger on what.

"Do demons have different internal anatomy?" Seina asked.

"Whoa, whoa. Careful kid." Ryuji said, grabbing her hand to not allow her to touch the demon's face.

"You gotta be careful with demons of Gluttony. Nine outta ten times they got acidic saliva, you don't want that on your hand." He explained.

"How can you tell what it is?" Seina asked curiously.

"See the horn? Its color shows what ring of hell it's from, meaning what kind of demon it is. Color, number, and size, all matter. Orange is for Gluttony, then you have blue for lust, purple for pride, red for wrath, green for envy, yellow for greed, and finally light blue for sloth. If you encounter a demon with black or purple horns, run. Those are the two less likely to be won in a fight. Got it?"

Seina listened closely to him and nodded.

"What's black mean?" She asked.

"Black is from the lowest layer, they're split into many categories lead by Abaddon, Lucifer, and Choronzon."

"How do you know all of this?" Kurai asked.

"It's good to know anything that can be a possible threat. Did your god not teach you basic demonology?"

"Not much, no. She deemed it as useless." Ryuji looked at her confused.

"I see." Was all he could say, finding himself at a loss for words.

"Ok, ok. I'm gonna just say it, alright? One. Why are we all here but Den? Two why did a demon suddenly show up? And Three, why is everyone so damn calm about all of this??" Keiko nearly yelled.

"Den," Isao said quickly, grabbing his phone out of his pocket and calling her quickly.

Everyone stayed silent to let him hear her when she picked up.

But all that was heard was a cutesy melody coming from in the forest.

Den's ringtone.