Suu spoke up, albeit quietly, and said, “I don’t think I can go…”

Both Fumi and Hideki looked at her.  Fumi’s sharply painted brows furrowed, and she snapped, “And why not?!”

Suu flinched from her barbed question, and murmured, “I’m still needed here…”

“Are you out of your mind?” Fumi asked.

“Class rep, don’t yell at her,” Hideki said, reaching out to touch Fumi’s shoulder, before Fumi quickly shrugged it off.

“I have every right to yell!” Fumi said, “We risked our lives to come in here to find her, and she’s more concerned about demons who abuse her than she is her own rescuers!”

Suu began to sniffle again, bowing her head and wiping her eyes.  Fumi was furious, but hearing Suu’s pathetic sobs, she couldn’t bring herself to keep shouting at her.  Fumi crossed her arms, and said, “We’re getting out of here.”

“I guess there’s only one answer,” Hideki said, resting his black katana on his shoulder.

“What’s that?” Fumi asked as she glanced at him.

“If the demons are keeping her here, then we’re just going to have to kill every last one of them,” he replied with a smirk, as his shadow grew behind him.  The amorphous figure arched over him, bringing its own katana to bare.

Unimpressed by the supernatural display, Fumi simply glared at Hideki, and said, “You’re an idiot.”

Though not confident in the decision making skills of either of her partners, Fumi continued to travel with Hideki and Suu.  Luckily, the old-fashioned buildings were built practically on top of each other, with gaps between roofs narrow enough for them to easily hop across, letting them travel for some distance before they were forced to climb down to the streets below.

“Do we even know where we’re going?” Fumi asked.

“Well, I figure if we start running into more demons, we’re going the right way,” said Hideki, looking around cautiously as they walked.

Fumi glared at the back of Hideki’s head for a moment, before she looked at Suu and asked, “Do you have any suggestions?  Any idea where we should be going?”

Suu bit her lip nervously.  She glanced at Fumi, then back to the road as she walked, before saying quietly, “I think… I think maybe… um… further up a hill, there’s an old inn…”

“An inn?” Fumi asked, arching a thin brow.

“Yes, like… an old-fashioned inn,” said Suu, fidgeting faintly.

“What does an inn have to do with anything?” Fumi asked.

“It’s a direction,” said Hideki.

After what felt like an hour of walking, they could see an old fashioned ‘ryokan’ style inn up the road.  It was less damaged than many of the other buildings they’d passed, surely because of its elevated position on the hill.  As they neared the building, Fumi noticed a wooden plaque hanging by the door, that read ‘Onishi’.

“Onishi-kun, is this your family’s property?” Fumi asked.

Suu began to softly sob again, wiping at her eyes with the backs of her hands.

“Well, it’s where she said to go, so we’re going to see what there is to see here,” said Hideki, as he approached the front doors.

“D-Don’t go…” Suu whispered.

Hideki slid open the door, and his eyes widened at the sight.

The floor of the main room had sunken and fallen away, leaving nothing but a mud pit in its place.  Laying in the center of the pit was a strange pig-like creature, a mixture of a woman and a massive fat sow, draped in an open, tattered kimono.  Countless demons scraped and clawed at one another to suckle at the sow’s teats like greedy piglets, leaving her covered in scratches, but she did nothing to push them away.   The sow-like woman lifted her head, her round face resembling Suu’s, but with the snout of a pig.

“Wh-What the hell is that?!” Hideki asked, taking a step back.

“Suu, there you are… buhiii...” the sow squealed, “You left everyone when they needed you…”

Hideki bristled, gripping his sword tightly.

“It looks almost like Onishi-kun,” Fumi said, “What is that monster?”

“I am Suu,” the sow said, “I’m Suu in her truest form…”

Suu cried harder, sinking to her knees next to Fumi.

“You’re nothing like Suu-chan,” Hideki snarled, stepping through the doorway, standing on the precarious ledge of the broken floor before it fell away into mud.  He held his katana up to bare, as his shadow formed over him.

“I’m the best part of Suu, her unending selflessness, buhhiih!” the sow squealed, “And when Suu dies, I’m going to be in control.   I’ll make sure Suu gives and gives and gives of herself until she falls apart.”

Several of the small, childlike blue demons let go of the sow, turning to hiss and snarl at Hideki, before they lept off of her and began to crawl up the muddy wall of the pit toward him, while other hungry demons fought for their abandoned places.  Not content to wait on them, Hideki stepped off the edge, sliding down the mud and slashing at demons as they lunged for him.

“You’re not going to lay a finger on her!” Hideki barked as he ran his blade through another small demon, making little progress as he cut his way toward the sow.

Suu wailed uncontrollably, sobbing into her hands.  Fumi looked down at her crying.

The sow squealed loudly, the shrill cry of a pig, before saying, “It’s what would make Suu happy!  People only like her when she does nice things for them.”

Fumi watched her crying classmate with a melancholy gaze, and asked, “Is that what you actually believe?”

Suu’s crying calmed a bit, and she lifted her head, looking up at Fumi.

Fumi smoothed down her skirt as she knelt beside Suu, watching her bloodshot eyes, and asked her, “Do you actually believe the things that pig is saying?   Is this… Is this what you think you’re like?  Do you really think that people only like you when you’re doing nice things for them?”

Falling quiet, Suu looked down at her skinned up knees, and whispered, “They only have lunch with me because I cook yummy things for them, or loan them… nn… give them… money…”

“If that’s true, then they don’t truly care about you,” whispered Fumi.

Suu began to sob again into her hands.

Hideki cut through the demons that assaulted him from every angle, slowly trudging through the mud, sunken up to his knees.  Even with the shadow cutting through demons alongside him, it seemed like their numbers never diminished.

“Do you see that?” Fumi asked, looking down into the mud, “Do you see Sorato-kun down there, fighting right now?”

Suu lifted her face from her hands, squinting through her bleary eyes.

“That’s someone who cares,” said Fumi, “He barely knows you, you’ve never given him anything, but he risked his life to come in here after you.   He was dead-set on doing something he knew was foolish, for a chance at finding you.  Right now, he’s fighting life and limb to try to get you out of here.  That’s what a friend is… and I can guarantee you, when all of this is over, he won’t expect anything from you, either.”

Suu stared at Hideki, watching him cut through his attackers, beginning to slow from exhaustion, but never stopping. There were cuts on his arms, and a cut on his cheek, but he paid no attention to the bleeding wounds.

“I never actually introduced myself to you, since we’re desk neighbors and all,” he had said, “You know I’m Sorato Hideki, but you’re…?”

He grinned and said, “You don’t have to apologize.   I’ve been kind of standoffish myself.”

“You’re not shy about talking with me,” Hideki said, smirking.

“Sorato-kun…” Suu whispered.

“Do you really believe what that pig is saying?” Fumi asked softly, “Do you still believe it now?”

Suu began to cry again, sobbing harder, bowing her head.  Fumi sighed, and shook her head.  But then, Suu threw her head back, and she screamed out loudly, wailing toward the sky.

“Onishi-kun?!” Fumi asked, shocked.

As Suu desperately screamed, a light shone from her ears.  A ring of light curved behind the shell of her ear, before bright white shapes like the wings of doves began to emerge, fanning out behind her.  White swirls of light coiled over her ears and wove up over the crown of her head, forming into earphones, as feathers began to blow back from around her.

Hideki paused as the demons began to screech and back away from him.  He and his shadow both looked back over his shoulder, and he squinted, nearly blinded by the light that shone from Suu.

Behind Suu, a swirl of white feathers came together in a glowing light, before finally taking form.  As the light began to fade, a woman was floating in place over Suu, draped in white scarves and wrappings.  She wore a crown of wildflowers, and vines wove through her pale green hair.  Her eyes were closed, but her lips were smiling softly.

“What is this…?” Fumi asked, staring at awe at the beautiful woman.

“Shamhat…” Suu whispered, slowly opening her eyes.

The glowing figure stepped off of the ledge, and slowly began to float down toward the mud, though her bare feet never actually touched the ground.

“G-Get away! Buhiihh!” the sow squealed, moving for the first time, flailing in the mud to try to push herself away.

Hideki, too, stared in awe as the glowing maiden, ‘Shamhat’ as Suu called her, drifted down through the air toward the squealing sow.  Her bare feet moved in the air as if gently stepping down an invisible staircase, floating ethereally past Hideki.  Though she never looked his way, or even opened her eyes, one of her scarves drifted from around her body, and it floated around Hideki protectively.  He watched the sheer fabric lay across his arms, and brush against his cheek, before his wounds began to tingle and heal, glowing with a faint light.

“Incredible,” Hideki whispered, before he turned his eyes back to Shamhat.

Slowly, Shamhat extended her soft hands, to touch the squealing monster’s pig-like face, cradling it, before the light began to overtake them.  She lowered her head, pressing her forehead to that of the sow, as if in meditative prayer.  Though her touch seemed gentle, the creature that had taken Suu's face seemed powerless in her struggle to get away.   That warm light that had so gently closed Hideki’s wounds, was now searing into the evil beast’s flesh, and the sow let out a screech as the light fully consumed her.  The light filled the inside of the ryokan before shining out of every door and window, sweeping down the streets and pushing the fog back blocks away.