“Suu-chan, protect them,” Hideki said as he gripped his katana in both hands, staring down the silhouette that grew from Shadow Kazuo’s back.

“Y-Yes!” Suu replied, as she and Shamhat moved back toward Fumi and Kazuo, though Suu never took her eyes off of the growing creature.

From the depths of the blackness, a figure rose up, shrouded in coils of smoke and layers of dark robes.  A cloaked arm slowly lifted up, drawing a curved blade that glinted in the dim lights of the room.  Unlike Hideki and Legion, this curved sword was not a katana, but its exaggerated curve resembled a scimitar.

‘This is bad,’ Hideki thought, tense as he watched the blade lifted up.

Suddenly, the blade swung down, and it pierced the chest of Kazuo’s ‘shadow’.  The chained figure’s eyes widened, and he looked down at the blade slid through his chest, as black blood began to pour from his mouth.

“Wh-What?” Suu asked, cupping her hands over her agape mouth.

From the smoke, a figure formed.  The length of cloth wrapped around his head and draped loosely cast a shadow over his face, and his long beard hung down over his robes.  A single thin, boney arm, skin sagging like that of an old man, held the scimitar buried into Kazuo’s shadow.  He drew the blade back out, and in one smooth motion, he beheaded the fake.

Suu screamed and covered her eyes, looking away as the body tumbled to the ground, and its head thudded off of the table, knocking over beer bottles.

“Takahashi-kun…” Fumi whispered as she stared at the shadow, “What is that…?”

“Hassan-e-Sabbah,” whispered Kazuo. When Fumi turned to look at him, he looked back at her with as much a look of bewilderment as hers.  He looked down at the floor and muttered, “I’ve never heard that name in my life, but… it’s his…”

From the black blood pouring across the floor, more of the small, dark blue demons with yellow eyes began to crawl out.

“They're still coming?!” Hideki shouted, bringing his katana to bare, before beginning to cut though the creatures that scrambled toward him.  If his katana were his only defense, he’d have been overrun almost immediately, but Legion moved in ghostly afterimages, its multitudinous limbs stabbing and slashing through each of the little demons.

Shamhat looped a scarf under Suu, lifting her up on it like a swing, while a second swath of fabric knocked the hissing creatures away from them.  Suu looked down at the demons that came crawling back toward them, and said, “They’re not showing any sign of slowing down…”

Fumi watched as Hideki and Suu fought on.  She felt helpless.

‘They’re going to be overrun eventually,’ she thought, ‘They can’t keep this upforever.’

She only barely heard a sound from the closet, but she looked back to see Kazuo, still cradling the body of his younger sister.

“I don’t want to be like this,” whispered Kazuo, “I don’t want to be like this, Mimiru…”

Though his words were too quiet for Hideki and Suu to hear over the sounds of combat, it seemed as though Hassan-e-Sabbah heard them.  He lifted his head slightly, before raising his black-blood-soaked scimitar up in the air.  He twirled the blade above his cloaked head, before slashing downward, swirling the blade around his body.  The blade sliced through the small demons, while the sheer force of the wind blew Hideki, Legion, Suu, and Shamhat all to the floor.

Hideki had to shut his eyes to shield himself from the wind, and he was blinded as Legion covered him with the amorphous mass of his dark body.  By the time Legion finally uncovered him, Hideki could see that not only were the little blue demons gone, but the entirety of the apartment was as well. The blast blew away the walls and ceiling, and the piles of garbage, leaving nothing but the floor and the apartments below.

“What the hell,” whispered Hideki as he slowly sat up.  Looking around him, he could see nothing but rubble and settling dust.  Even the heavy fog of the world was blown back, leaving a temporarily unimpeded view of the dull blue sky.

Suu, too, slowly sat up from under Shamhat’s cover.  She looked around worriedly, before her eyes located Fumi and Kazuo.

Fumi knelt on the ground near Kazuo, while Hassan-e-Sabbah seemed to stand guard over him, floating behind him from his shadow, much the same way Legion and Shamhat seemed to remain at Hideki and Suu’s backs.  Over the top of Kazuo’s head and ears were a pair of earphones that had not been there before, made of black leather with silver spike studs sticking out.  Kazuo still held the little girl’s body in his arms, but wisps like fog began to float gently away from her as she dissipated. Kazuo was quiet as tears slipped down his cheeks.

“Takahashi-kun?” Fumi asked softly.

“All my dad saw was another man’s child, and all my mom saw was a mistake,” he whispered, “But I saw such an amazing person.  Such a caring girl.  She was my little sister and she was perfect.”

The image of the girl began to fade, blearily drifting up into her air.  Kazuo lifted his arms to hold her up toward the sky she vanished into, as his shackles fell from his arms and the chains crumbled from his body.  He shut his eyes for a moment as she disappeared, before he let out a painful scream, and began to sob, curling up with his forehead on the ground.

Though Hideki, Suu, and Fumi kept their distance for a time, eventually, Kazuo slowly pushed himself to sit up.  He dried his face with the backs of his arms, before looking around and asking with puffy eyes and a wry smirk, “So what brings you freaks here?”

Fumi’s brow furrowed sharply as she glared at Kazuo.

“Umm…” muttered Suu, rubbing the back of her head.

“You’ve been missing from school for days,” said Hideki, “We got worried, and we heard from that weird friend of yours that you might’ve called one of the haunted payphones.”

“Yeah I kinda screwed that one up, didn’t I?” asked Kazuo as he slowly stood, dusting off his knees, “I heard a rumor that said you could talk to someone you missed.  I was feeling all sentimental because the the anniversary of Mimiru’s passing came along, so I threw common sense out the door and gave it a shot.  What I don’t get is how any of you knew how to come looking for me… or what those things are.”

As Kazuo gestured toward Legion and Shamhat, Hideki and Suu looked at each other, both unsure of how to explain it.

“You’re not the first person who’s fallen into this trap,” said Fumi, “Finding a way in and out safely was little more than a fluke.  As for those ‘things’, I don’t think I need to remind you that you have one too, and you seemed to know its name.”

Kazuo glared at her, before saying, “I’m not exactly thrilled.  I already felt like I was going crazy with all of the horrible things that ‘other’ me was saying, so suddenly knowing who this assassin guy is, doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“Whatever they are, they’re here to protect us,” Suu said with a small smile.

“They represent some sort of connection,” said Hideki, “How I wound up with Legion is probably too confusing to get into right now, but Suu-chan came upon Shamhat when she wound up conquering her own demons… I’m guessing it’s the same thing for you and Hassan?”

“What about you, then?” Kazuo asked as he looked at Fumi, “Why are you the only one going stag?”

Fumi crossed her arms and said, “I don’t call haunted phone lines on a whim.”

“Good for you,” grumbled Kazuo, before looking to Hideki again, “So how do we get out of here, since you’re all so much more experienced with this?”

“The same way we got in,” Hideki said with a smirk.

Though Kazuo seemed weak, he wasn’t as gaunt and unhealthy looking as his shadow had appeared.  He declined any help in descending the washed-out stairs, and the four of them approached a bank of pink payphones across the street from the half-demolished apartment building.

“This wasn’t here before, was it?” Kazuo asked.

“Funny how things like that work,” said Hideki.

The four of them stood abreast at the phones, before picking up the receivers.  They heard the ringing begin, and the world began to blur and fade.

Soon they were on the sidewalk outside of the FamilyMart, feeling as though they had been ‘dropped’ back into their bodies again.  Suu wavered slightly, while Hideki and Fumi stood solidly.  Kazuo immediately hit the ground.