The dream was always the same.
Akito came to in a field he'd never been in, but somehow felt at home in. Poppies brushed against his cheeks as he shook off his pleasant grogginess. He sat up slowly, brushing his hair back into place with his hand and doing his best to investigate his surroundings. Flowers, of all types - poppies, thyme, and violets, from what he could tell, but he had no idea where he got that information - as far as the eye could see, fading into a backdrop of pitch black. He had no idea the time of day, or even the time of year, and beyond the soft glow that seemed to emanate from the flowers themselves, Akito couldn't even find a source of light.
The blonde stood slowly, his limbs creaking from what felt like an eternity of sleep. He knew he wasn't alone in the field, but a quick glance in all directions showed no one within sight. Akito opened his mouth to question whatever he felt was there, but nothing came out. A small frown tugged at his soft features, and he tried to speak again. This time, however, his thoughts were drowned out by a tumultuous clap of thunder. Whipping his head in the direction of the noise, Akito was met with a wall of gray clouds rolling in on the horizon. They growled ominously, flashing with an anger that was thousands of years old.
akito had never been afraid of storms, he even liked them as a child. But something about this storm unsettled the blonde to his very core. It felt threatening - not just dangerous, but as though it was impeding on his land, invading his home. He felt challenged, which he knew was unlike him, but he tried to stand his ground. Whatever this storm brought would not prevail!
Lightning struck the ground yards away from him, demolishing his poppies and violets, which burned an anger in the blonde's stomach that he wasn't used to. The anger was only calmed by an icy hand pressed reassuringly to his shoulder, causing him to shiver. Despite the cold, it was a welcome presence. But Akito never got to see who it was.
A second hand covered his eyes, and suddenly the blonde was helplessly tired. The thunder got louder, closer, crashing impossibly close to Akito but so long as his eyes were covered, he didn't care.
Louder, closer. Louder, dangerously close.
Akito awoke with his face pressed uncomfortably to his forearms, hunched forward onto his coffee table. A quiet groan escaped him as he sat up, his bones creaking a little just like in his dream. The credits of Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de aru played in the background as the blonde tried to come to his senses. He wasn't used to sleeping that heavily, especially lurched over on his coffee table like that. He wasn't super invested in the series, but he'd still have to download the episode later.
At least he was off tomorrow.
It was a full moon that night, and Akito knew had his work cut out for him. Two long months of this dark hour business had left the teen a little strung out. Keeping up appearances was taking it out of him. He'd regretfully quit his Kendo glass in order to keep up with student council, theater club, and his studies on top of his new pass time. His counselor, Mr. Keisuke Rintarou, had assured him his college transcripts would be well taken care of the work he'd been doing.
Mr. Keisuke was a kind, but serious man, who had all bug begged with Akito to help him with his mission to stop the shadows. The blonde trusted him, and honestly underestimated the severity of the situation when he agreed to help. That had been before the mysterious "murders" had reached the media. Akito learned quick how utterly terrifying the shadows were - a few broken bones and a few tightly woven lies to his teachers an classmates proved that.
He'd be lying if he said he didn't love the idea being a hero though.
The credits of his show cut out and Akito turned off the tv. He stretched as he stood fro his spot on the floor and did his best to collect himself. The evening, he'd been told, was supposedly going to be the worst one yet, and he knew he wasn't prepared. Nonetheless, he pulled his hoodie on over his school uniform, and made sure to zip it up. He wasn't a fan of the cold. The final touches were his holder, which he secured to his belt, and an ear piece attached to a radio he used to stay in contact with the counselor while he was out. It all felt very official, and the blonde loved it.
Moments later, Akito stepped onto the side walk in front of his dorm, hugging his hoodie closer to his lean body. Keisuke chimed in his ear, a warning tone in his fuzzy voice: "My sources are telling me that there's been a lot of activity at Tenjin-sama's shrine, a few blocks from the dorms."
Akito hummed. "That's a little disrespectful of these shadows, isn't it?"
"Morino-san, please don't take this lightly. The shadows tonight are going to be more powerful than anything you've faced so far."
He rolled his eyes quietly. "Please, Counselor. Akito is fine. And I understand. If things get hairy, I'll get out of there."
The man seemed to agree with his sentiment, and continued his analysis. "Please be wary of humans, try not to destroy anything. You know that rules, Mo-... Akito-san."
That earned a wolfish smile from Akito. He nodded to himself as if the Counselor could see him, and started in the direction of the shrine. It was dedicated to the god Tenjin, a lot of students prayed there for better test grades, so there was almost always someone in the park. Akito wasn't a very religious person, but he was respectful of the people who were, and wasn't a fan of shadows hanging around a place of worship. They created areas negative energy, which was only one of their many effects on the parts of the world that didn't even know they exist.
He was a block away from the shrine when midnight came. An almost non-existence pulse tore through the city for a split second. In the blink of an eye, the entire city was covered in a green caste, the puddles littering street from the wet weather reflecting red like blood. The moon hung high in the sky, sharing the same shade of yellow as the eyes of a black cat. Even after two months of doing this, Akito had a hard time adjusting to the abrupt change. After a deep breath, he continued his trek to the park, but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
He was at the gates of the shrine before he saw anything. The shadow slinking across the path would have gone unnoticed if not for the fact that'd he'd had practice. Akito reached for his evoker, keeping it at the ready as he stepped over the threshold onto the cobblestone of the shrine. It was dark, and there were no streetlights to go by. Usually, he didn't have to look for shadows, they'd go after him as soon as he was close enough, so the quiet rattle of leaves and absolutely nothing else made the blonde nervous.
He was almost all the way to the shrine before he realized there was another person in the park with him. The idea took a moment to process - there was another human there with him, standing at the shrine, minding his own business. Before he could make a proper plan, Akito rushed up to the stranger and grabbed him by his shoulder. Fawny brown hair and eyes registered with Akito almost immediately - they belonged to his classmate, Yukimura Matsuhita. Everyone had talked about the "kid that was raised by the monks" when he joined their class. But He didn't have time to catch up.
"You gotta get out of here right now!" Akito told the teen immediately, turning on his heal, ready to lead his classmate to safety.
A formless black mass slinked onto the cobblestone between them and the gates. It was massive compared to any shadow Akito had fought before, easily the size of a car. It didn't have a shape, moving like a liquid, and it's only distinguishable features were six arms jutting out from it's back. Each hand held a sword save for the one in the middle, which held a blue mask. The shadow turned it's mask towards them with a flick of it's wrist, staring at Akito for a long moment.
The blonde's hand was white around his evoker, trembling slightly at the sight of his new foe as the shadow seemingly waited for him to make a move. Finally, it dropped a sword to the ground, dragging it painfully across the cobblestone, almost as if to taunt them. It rose the sword once more, holding it towards Akito and Yuki, and moved, slowly in their direction.
Akito didn't hesitate to use his evoker, knowing that hesitation had cost him a broken arm the first time he fought shadows. Easily, with determination, the blonde rose his evoker to the side of his head and pulled the trigger. The sound of glass shattering filled his head and the air around him, prompting the blonde to shut his eyes and think through the white noise. Icy blue shards of himself scattered from where the bullet wound would be on the opposite side of his head, circling for an eternity around them. The air around them became frigid as the shards converged between the teens and the shadow. Without warning, a black pair of wings broke through the shards, spreading protectively in front of Akito and his friend. A human figure, pale and limp beneath the wings that seemed to burrow into it's core as apposed to being a part of it, hung in the space between them and the shadow. The figure made no noise, and merely waited for Akito's command.
"Hypnos, use dark spot!"
The creature lurched forward fluidly, rearing one of it's impossibly dark wings back in a slashing movement. It connected with the shadow, emitting a heavy, unnatural sounding metallic sound as a the shadow recoiled.
Usually, Akito would stay and dispose of the shadow, more than aware of the damage they can cause if left alone. But he had to take care of Yuki, he was far more important at that moment. Without another word, he turned and took Yuki's hand in his own, tugging him towards the gates of the shrine. Hypnos dissipated behind them as they fled, but Akito still hoped they'd get enough of a head start to get Yuki to safety before the shadow regrouped.
"Y-Yukimura-san, right?" Akito glanced back, but kept his pace. "We have to get you away from that thing, ok? Just stay close."
They barely made it to the end of the block before Akito could sense the shadow nearing them. He didn't know how it could be so fast, but just as they approached the next break the road, the shadow headed them off. The shadow flooded into the streets, much quicker this time around, and immediately charged at them. Out of instinct, Akito pushed Yuki back behind him, and armed himself with his evoker once more.
Hypnos appeared and threw himself at the shadow in one swift motion, one of it's clawed wings digging viciously into the shadows amorphous skin. Without warning, the shadow reared an armed hand back, driving it's sword through one of Hypnos' wings. Akito stifled a pained noise, clutching at his corresponding shoulder. It barely slowed him down however, and the blonde came back as quickly as possible. "Hypnos, b-bufula!" The cement beneath the shadow froze over in the blink of an eye, Hypnos raising his hand in the direction of the shadow. The grating sound of ice on ice cried out as a series of pillar rose beneath the shadow, freezing whatever they touched and maiming a few of the shadow's arms.
Akito glanced back at Yuki. "Yukimura-san, run!" he snapped, hoping his usually calm voice wouldn't betray him.