Possession 11: Friend or Foe?

                 Tenshi hid out behind the school in an area between the wall of Kakidashi High and the chain-link fence that encircled it. Gym class… no way can I do gym class today… He groaned and prodded at the cheek Izumi had hit him on. Already the pain was fading. Rei’s healing abilities came in handy.

                The priestess stood next to him. “I don’t see why you want to skip this class,” she said. “Think of it as more training. You need to be in better shape if you want to destroy demons on your own.”

                “I never wanted to in the first place, remember?” Tenshi sighed. “Besides… you have your own body you can fight with. Leave mine alone…”

                “Oh, that reminds me! We need to practice possessions. Build up your spiritual endurance so I can inhabit your body for a longer time. I don’t want to leave you by yourself in the middle of a battle.” Rei smiled. “Of course, perhaps you can handle it. You handled Izumi fairly well this morning.”

                “I thought he was gonna pummel me,” Tenshi grumbled.

                “But you still stood up to him. I’m proud of you, Tenshi.”

                He wasn’t sure why, but somehow that made him feel a bit better. “Thanks…” Tenshi smiled then sighed. “I’m still skipping gym… I ache all over from your ‘training’.”

                “I’m not that bad,” Rei pouted.

                “No, you’re worse.”

                Rei let out a sigh of resignation. “I’m only trying to help. You’re in decent shape, but you have little sense of balance, mediocre strength and no gymnastic ability. I can only do what your body lets me do.  And right now… that isn’t much.”

                Tenshi groaned. “But still…”

                “You’re the only one who can fight, Tenshi. Are you going to let these demons kill your friends and family? Or even possess them? Or worse?”

                Tenshi bit his lip and looked at the ground. That was a cheap shot… “Alright, fine.” With a groan, He began to stand when a shadow fell over him. He glanced over to see who it was.

                Izumi. He loomed over Tenshi, smirking.

                Tenshi blinked. “Er… Izumi…. Um…” He scrambled to his feet and took a step back. “Hey listen… about this morning…AHH!” He ducked as a fist swung by above him. “Wait a sec!” Tenshi stumbled backwards, narrowly missing a kick.

                Izumi grinned and followed after him, swinging another fist around. Tenshi snapped up his arm to block just as Izumi swung his other hand around. Tenshi blocked this as well but couldn’t retaliate as a kick caught him in his side. He fell back.

                “Hey! Maybe we can talk this over!” Tenshi yelped as Izumi leapt forward, bringing his leg around in mid air. Tenshi quickly sidestepped but as soon Izumi landed, the bully had spun and caught Tenshi in the chest with another kick. The boy was pushed backwards into a fence post, where he slumped to the ground.

                Rei seemed shaken. “Tenshi! I think something’s wrong with him!”

                “Yeah! He’s really pissed off!” Tenshi scrambled to his feet as Izumi charged him. Diving out of the way, he narrowly avoided the other boy’s punch. The blow slammed into the fence post and bent it into a sideways V.

                Tenshi stared.

                Rei stared.

                “Oh yeah,” Tenshi murmured. “He’s really pissed off.”

                “That’s a demon,” Rei hissed. “Either possessing him or taking the form of his body!”

                The creature who looked like Izumi grinned. “Take your pick, priestess!” He suddenly lurched forward, fists swinging, at Tenshi.

                Tenshi’s eyes widened as he backed up. First one blow, then the next. Block, block. A kick! Tenshi flipped his hands down and pushed the leg down then quickly ducked to the side as an arm swung above his head.

                “Rei!” He yelled. “I could use some help!”

                Rei hovered around the two fighters, frustrated. “I can’t do anything! He’s not giving me the chance to possess you!” Rei bit her lip. Looks like you’re on your own for this one…

                Tenshi reeled as a blow caught him in the jaw. Izumi followed it up with a knee to his opponent’s side. This was followed up by a backhand to Tenshi’s face, sending him out from behind the school…

                “Tenshi!” Rei called in alarm, following after him.

                …And straight into a teacher.

                The older man let out a gasp as the air was knocked out of his lungs. He took several steps back, grabbing Tenshi by his shoulders. “Be careful young man! What the devil were you doing back there?”

                The brown-haired boy blinked at the teacher and pulled himself away. “Huh? Er…who, me?”

                “Yes you! You’re the only here. Who else would I mean?”

                Startled, Tenshi turned around. Izumi was gone. He shot a quick glance at Rei but the priestess was just as surprised as he was.

                “I didn’t see him go,” She murmured.

Tenshi turned back to face the teacher. “What was I doing? I was…um… erm…”

Stepping around Tenshi, the older man glanced up and down the space between the fence and the school. “It sounded like there was a fight going on back here…” His eyes settled on the bent fence post and he frowned.

“Er… well…”

“I came here to investigate,” Rei said to Tenshi. “Tell him that.”

“I… well… came here… to investigate,” he stammered.

The teacher turned and glared at him. “Hn… I see… Where are you supposed to be anyways?” He eyed the shorts and t-shirt Tenshi was wearing.

“Oh! Um, Gym, sir.”

“Then what are you doing still standing here? Get back to class!”

“Yes sir!” Tenshi turned on his heel and stumbled off towards the field as fast as he could, given that his aches all over were now doubled.

Rei drifted along next to him. “I wonder where he came from,” she asked out loud. “First Ukyo, now Izumi…”

“That wasn’t Izumi,” Tenshi grumbled. “That… thing… hit a lot harder than Izumi ever could.”

“Right. But why did it look like Izumi?”

Hn, Tenshi thought. Looks like I’m back in the middle of things again…Why can’t anyone just leave me alone? He sighed in resignation. “Great… looks like I really do have to go to gym….

Finally… I can relax for a while…Tenshi slipped out of his school shoes and moved immediately to the couch. Now that school was over and he was home, he planned on lounging in front of the TV for a while. Once on the living room, he collapsed onto the soft cushions of the sofa.

Rei drifted over. “Don’t rest for too long. We need to train.”

Tenshi groaned. “Come on, give me a break for one day!”

“I can’t, Tenshi. That Izumi demon could have killed you.”

“And so could the Hell Hounds. We handled them, didn’t we?”

Rei sighed. “I handled them. And only because I was able to revert to my own body.”

The teenager rubbed his temples. “Alright, fine, we’ll train. But right now, I want a break… it’s been too long of a day.” Tenshi settled himself comfortably on the couch and was about to drift off to sleep when the phone rang. Groaning, Tenshi managed to pull himself up and reached for the cordless handset. He lifted it and turned it on. “Hello?”

“Hey, Tenshi. I need you to head down to the baseball diamond.”

Tenshi frowned. “Kai? Is that you?”

Rei floated over. “What does he want?”

“Yeah,” the voice on the phone responded. “Listen, meet me at the diamond. It’s really important.”

“Don’t you have work today?” Tenshi asked.

“I had to call off. Just meet me at the diamond, okay?” A click was heard as the caller’s phone hung up.

Tenshi frowned. “That’s odd… Kai doesn’t normally blow off work. I wonder why he wanted me to head over to the baseball field…” He set his phone down and got up to change his clothes.

Rei bit her lip as she floated after him. Maybe I’m just getting paranoid… It’s probably nothing, after all.

Tenshi paused and looked back over his shoulder at the priestess. “Do you mind? “

“Mind what?”

“I’m going to go change.”

“So?”

“…Alone, please.”

Rei blinked and coughed. “Oh… right.”

Tenshi had his hands tucked into the pockets of his blue jacket as he walked down the street, clad in jeans and a simple white t-shirt. Rei drifted along after him, wearing a similar outfit. As they walked, Tenshi wondered why Kai would want to skip his job to meet in such an out of the way place. The diamond was past the school, meaning it took Tenshi nearly an hour to walk there.

Tenshi pushed the gate open and walked onto the field, glancing around for any signs of his friend. “Guess we got here before him…”

Rei gently touched down onto the earth and walked beside the brown-haired boy. “Maybe. I’m getting a bad feeling about this… Like something isn’t right.”

“Relax,” Tenshi murmured, standing in the center of the field. He didn’t want to admit it, but he felt nervous too. It was odd for Kai to call him to a place like this.

“Glad you could make it.”

Tenshi spun on his heel then let out a startled yelp. Kai stood a few feet behind him, an amused look in his eyes and a smirk on his lips. Tenshi gripped his chest and took a few breaths. “Geeze Kai, don’t do that! You scared me half to death!”

Rei narrowed her eyes. “He wasn’t there a second ago, Tenshi. There’s no place he could have hidden himself…”

Kai chuckled. “Well. Looks like one of you is catching on.” Before Tenshi could react, the blonde boy had spun and brought one foot across Tenshi’s face. The teenager spun and stumbled, nearly falling to the ground.

“What the hell was that?” Tenshi cried out in alarm.

“Watch out!” Rei shouted.

Kai was already next to Tenshi. He brought one fist up into the boy’s chin, catching him off guard and sending him sprawling to the ground. Advancing on his opponent, Kai raised his fist and hurtled it at Tenshi’s chest. Tenshi quickly rolled out of the way, leaving the fist to slam into the ground, embedding it in the dirt up to the elbow.

Brown eyes widened in alarm as Tenshi scrambled to his feet. “You’re not Kai,” he stated dumbly.

Rei kicked off the ground and into the air, taking up a position behind Tenshi. “It’s a demon,” she growled.

The creature masquerading as Kai smirked as it forcefully drew its arm out of the ground. “Well, it looks like one of you has some brains. Looks like the Kodamabatsu aren’t as dense as I’ve heard it to be.”

Rei glared at the demon. “You were the one that attacked us earlier as Izumi, aren’t you?”

“That’s right. I’m just testing your abilities; that’s all.” It laughed, eerily reminding Tenshi of his best friend. “But I’m done playing with Saishi. Let’s see what you can do, priestess.”

Rei moved next to Tenshi and glanced at him. Tenshi spit out some blood. “Yeah… alright. I don’t want this to go on.”

The priestess nodded as she changed into a smoky haze, entering Tenshi’s body through the mouth. As she did so, the necklace Tobias the Spiritualist gave them began to glow from beneath the boy’s shirt. Tenshi? Rei called mentally, once she finished her possession.

Yeah… I’m here, I think…

Are you okay?

I… I think so… I’m not in the Astral Plane… but…but I can only see blurs…

That must mean that Tobias’ necklace works, then. Good… one less problem to worry about. Rei shifted her attention to her opponent but found a fist about to slam into her face.

Rei threw up an arm to knock it aside, quickly reaching up and grabbing it with her other hand. Sweeping the arm she blocked with downward, she grabbed the demon’s wrist and turned, shifting her weight downward and towards her attacker. Thrusting her shoulder up into its chest, she pulled hard on the captured arm and flipped the pseudo-Kai over her.

Instead of falling flat on his back, the demon landed in a crouch. He swung around quicker than Rei could respond and caught her jaw with a vicious kick. Her head snapped around as she spun, stumbling away and falling to one knee.

What’s happening? Tenshi’s thought-like voice said in Rei’s mind.

I just got kicked, alright? Let me concentrate!

The priestess got to her feet and jumped out of the way as a punch slashed through the air where she once stood. The demon used its shift in balance to send a spinning side-kick at her. Rei pulled back to avoid the hit and the demon landed on it stomach before flipping back to its feet, hardly missing a beat.

Rei took advantage of the momentary opportunity to move forward, swinging Tenshi’s leg around just as the demon got up. The blond-haired creature smirked and grabbed her leg, spinning and tossing the priestess through the air to land in a heap twenty feet away.

Are we winning? Tenshi asked.

Rei didn’t respond as she climbed to her feet. It’s fast, she thought to herself. Already, the demon was almost upon her. It leapt into the air and brought its leg around. The priestess ducked to the side and swung a fist towards the base of the creature’s neck.

Its speed was so fast that Rei didn’t even see it turn until it had grabbed hold of her arm. Before she knew it, the Kai-imposter’s knee was planted in Tenshi’s stomach. Rei let out a strangled gasp and crumpled to the ground at the demon’s feet.

“That was too easy,” it laughed. “Almost pathetic, really.”

Rei stared into the ground. I… I lost…

Rei? Tell me what’s happening!

“Too bad. But there must have been something that allowed you to beat Ukyo. I’m curious. I’ll give you a few days to try and prepare yourself. You better watch Saishi’s shadow, priestess. Next time he’ll never see what hit him.” Its voice vanished as Kai was suddenly replaced with a blackbird. It let out a caw and took to the sky.

Rei! What’s going on already?

Rei dragged herself to her feet, clutching her stomach. She raised her eyes and glared after the bird as it flew off. It left… but it’ll be back.

Did we win?

No…Rei thought to herself.  But next time, we better… or else I won’t be the only spirit around here…