Demon in the Snow by Heather Fledderus (cat reading book .TXT) 📖

twisted a ring on his finger, and disappeared.

Nathan stared at the spot where Sora had just been. “Show-off,” Chad muttered darkly.

Hannah's features quickly brightened, “That sounds like a good idea. I could use a milkshake. How about you?”

“From McDonalds? No thanks.”

“No, I meant we should go to this little malt shop I know. It's kinda retro, so it's totally cool. My treat.”

Nathan blinked. “How long is this gonna take?”

“Why? You have better places to be?” Hannah asked, all-too-innocently. She knew he did.

Nathan shot her an annoyed glance as he dug his phone out of his pocket and speed-dialed a number. As it rang, he started to chant quietly, “Please be voice-mail, please be voice-mail.”

An ascending ring-tone answered him. Nate relaxed. “Hey boss.” He coughed once for  effect. “I can't come in to work-” he made a gagging sound, “-today.” Hannah rolled her eyes at his dramatics, but Chad seemed slightly amused. “I'm really sorry, and I promise that I'll work over time on the weekend, no pay.” He hung up and looked at Hannah, “Nope. Completely free.”

He thought he saw Chad smirk, but he soon lost the look, replaced by a stone mask that seemed to fit him perfectly.

Hannah sighed, “Alright. Hold on.” She grabbed him by the shoulder, and suddenly it felt as if the world spun sideways as wind whistled past his ears.

6. Who Knew O'hara?

Colours flashed before Nathan's eyes. Blinking rapidly, the colours morphed into recognizable objects. They were in some sort of restaurant, with high stools, red booths, the works. A jukebox was playing some music somewhere. His ears twitched and he found the source- it was in a corner, and he could read from here the title of the song, “The Devil King Is Bored.”

Sora was already sitting at one of the stools, not even bothering to turn around when they appeared. Hannah casually walked over to join him, hopping up onto a stool. Nate followed her lead, sitting beside her as Chad took the seat on the other side of Sora.

Without even asking, the waitress behind the counter handed them each a milkshake, all of them vanilla. Hannah took a slurp before turning to him, “Okay. So what do you want to know?”

“Everything. You guys killed some sort of huge monster that just appeared out of nowhere, but no one else seemed to have noticed.”

Hannah nodded, “That's because most people don't See demons.”

“What was all that about the Sight-thing?” Nate asked, leaning forward to try to make eye contact with Sora.

Sora didn't look up, but he shrugged, “Exactly that. There's an optical nerve that allows people to see demons, but for most people, another synapse grows big enough to shut it down by the time they're old enough to talk. For some, it stays a little longer- that's actually how kids started to be scared of what might be hiding under their beds or in their closets. But even then, the synapse eventually grew.”

“So that didn't happen for you guys?”

Hannah laughed while Sora smirked, “No. We see because we are demon-slayers, born and bred. Demons, humans, and 'Slayers, all live in different planes of existence. Think of it as a three-tiered pillar. Ko-ha, the top plane, is where we 'Slayers live. Misd is where you humans live, and the demons exist in the realm called Ampoulles. Misd is the middle ground, so most demons, when they leave their realm, end up here. But once in a while, you'll encounter one in Ko-ha. Although, any demon stupid enough to show up there is normally taken care of almost instantaneously.”

“Only 'Slayers are supposed to be able to see demons. That's why it's our job to destroy the demons before they destroy Misd. With Misd out of the way, it would be way to easy for them to launch an attack on Ko-ha,” Chad added.

“I'm not a 'Slayer, though. So how can I see them?”

Hannah shrugged, “Sometimes, when a fetus comes into contact with a demon, some of the demonic energy is absorbed by the unborn baby. That energy grows, and keeps the synapse from expanding too much.”

“So I can see because my mom ran into one of those demons?”

Hannah nodded, “Yeah, probably.”

“So do I get super powers too?”

Sora gave a superior laugh, “No. It just means that you can see them. You would have had to have absorbed an enormous amount of demonic energy in order to get any powers from it.”

Hannah turned to him, “You know what? This makes sense now. Remember how on Thursday the Yukicharo gave us a faulty sensor reading and we came across him? That must mean that the Yukicharo is more sensitive than we initially thought. It wasn't acting flukey or anything.”

“The what?”

Hannah turned back to Nate, “It's the demonic energy-sensing device that every team has- we can't rely on a quick read from HQ, so it's what we use in the field.”

“So what are the demons after?”

“Life energy. Every living thing has it, even plants, so the really weak demons can feed on those. But humans carry a lot of it, so the majority of demons that come here are after people. Some people have more energy than most, 'Slayers most of all. But the strongest demons, like B-class and above, eat other demons, because they carry even more than us Slayers. It's actually how the Yukicharo finds demons, by tracking the life energy concentration of an area.”

“So you guys kill them?”

Chad nodded sagely before reengaging his milkshake. “Yep. We're born to be 'Slayers.”

“So everyone in... Ko-ha, they're all demon-slayers?”

“For the most part, no. But 'Slayers are the only ones who are able to travel between the realms.”

“It doesn't really matter,” Sora interrupted, “Especially not with you. It's not like you'll ever go there. It's impossible for anyone but a 'Slayer to travel to Ko-ha.”

“But you said that demons sometimes appear there.”

“They do, but that's because they have enough power to do so. Humans have diddly squat compared to the demons that show up in Ko-ha.”

The three jumped as a shrill beeping began to reverberate from Hannah's pocket. She dug it out, producing a small hand-held device that looked like a heavy-duty cell-phone.

“Aw crap,” she muttered, squinting at the screen. She turned away from Nathan, hopping off her stool, at the same time as Chad and Sora. “It looks like a G-negative class.” She turned back to Nathan, still studying the screen, “Don't worry about paying, we keep an open tab. We've got to go, bye!”

Chad and Sora grabbed her shoulders and in an instant, they were gone, leaving Nathan alone in the malt shop.

7. Watch And Learn

“You do realize that we're going to have to do something.”

“About what?” Hannah asked innocently while studying the screen, pretending not to know what he was talking about.

“Not what,” Sora corrected automatically, “Who.”

“We can't just pretend that it didn't happen.” Chad continued.

“Why not? What HQ doesn't won't hurt them.”

“Seriously? As a member of one of the main houses, you of all people should know-”

“Don't bring that shit into this,” she snarled. “Don't even start with me. I know all the rules.”

“And yet you want to disobey the rules, bring dishonor to our name?” Sora asked, siding with Chad.

“You shut up. You know I barely belong to our House as it is. Why do we even need to bother with him, huh? He's not going to stop us. He saw one of the uglier ones, and hasn't actually made contact with one, so why would he even try?”

That stopped the other two in their pursuit of questions. Hannah watched the Yukicharo. “So what kind of beast is it this time?” Sora asked.

“Looks like the G-negative snow type.”

“Great, so much for an easy one.”

“Just be happy it wasn't a B-class. I heard that the Genjutsu team ran into one of those.”

“Shit. Who replaced them?”

“That's the problem. There's no other replacements ready yet.”

“Glad it's not near our territory,” Sora muttered.

“Yeah, but our borders just got stretched. We might not even go back for classes this year.”

“Back?” Sora snorted, “We never went to start. This would be our first year.”

“You got accepted?” Chad asked.

Sora glanced up at him and grinned. “Yep.”

Hannah smirked. “Yeah, only a couple hundred applicants to fill the fifty Illusionary seats for this year.”

“Hey!” Sora protested.

Chad smiled. “He probably would have gotten in if there were the usual thousand that apply for any of the other three.”

“At least we all got in the same year.”

“It makes sense. We all have at least some part of an ability born with us.”

“Speak for yourself,” Chad snorted, “They pick Pyros on a completely different level. You should have seen the test we had to take. There were-” he broke off and shot them a suspicious glare, “Never mind.”

Hannah groaned. “We were just about to find out what sort of test potential Pyros have to take.”

“You're sly. How did we get on this subject anyways?”

“Better question,” a voice boomed from above them, “Why are three killer's spawn out late at night?”

“It's only dusk, you moron,” Sora replied without thinking.

The demon drops down to face them. Hannah glanced around quickly. They were in an abandoned part of the suburbs, the apartment buildings condemned for destruction. It wasn't ideal, like their Alley, but it would have to do. She dug the cross out of her pocket, “Shine in the darkest hour,” she uttered, her free hand guiding the shape of the blade that grew at her release.

It gave a throaty chuckle, “Aww, a little one who thinks it's a Caster.” Its eyes peered down at them, out of it's massive head, all six eyes blinked, one after the other, so that it didn't miss a thing. “Where's your boss?”

Hannah made a face that she hoped looked like scorn, “Cresta figured we could take you on on our own.”

Sora grabbed the crest under his shirt, the Piece he used to focus his energy. Chad's hands lit up,  ready for action as the balls of blue energy floated over the palms of his hands. The snow demon chuckled again as snow started to swirl around them all. “So no Summoners, eh? This'll be fun.”

Hannah cursed under her breath as she realized their mistake- they had let him see who could do what. Everyone knew that demons hated fighting the teams specifically because of the Summoners, who could bind the demons to their will and manipulate them against their own kind. Cresta was their team's Summoner, out of action due to a Class D's Invisibility Detachment, making her think she had had