21. Black-Hearts

Finally, Erma recomposed her body, first her forearms, then her hands. It felt as if she was completing a puzzle. After sending a glare at the fleeing gangsters, she glowered at the fallen ones and barked:

“Don’t even move a muscle, you idiots!”

Her lively eyes finally fixed on me.

“Straw Head! So it was true, after all! I was sure I had recognized your voice. I’m so happy to see you! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m happy to see you too!”

“Where’s that damned Lei?”

“He ran away.”

“That coward.” She took a deep breath to calm her anger. “He’s always driving me crazy.”

I glanced at Ray. Some light bulbs had blown up with Erma’s arrival, but he managed to retrieve his flashlight from the thief and switch it on before losing his calm to the darkness.

“Is that… for real?” he panted.

“You mean her power, right? I was surprised too. Erma… did you level up or something? That was just amazing!”

She looked flattered.

“I always had this power. Look.”

Her fist flew towards a column, banged into it, left a crack, then came back to its owner like a boomerang.

I was bewildered. If she’d always had that power then… did that mean she had kept her true skills from the Cheetahs? Why?

The gangsters that had no time to flee were all keeping their heads down, some groaning with pain, others looking at the crack in the column as astonished as I was.

“It… doesn’t hurt?”

“It doesn’t! I use a body hardening method. My fists transform into unstoppable punches.”

Awesome. She definitely could fend for herself with such a power.

Only after glancing around at the fallen gangsters, Erma noticed Ray and held out her hand towards him. I hurriedly stepped between them saying:

“Wait, Ray is a friend of mine!”

“Oh, I guessed as much, I was just going to ask who he was…” Was she, really? Instead of sending her punch flying at him, she just waved with a warm smile. “Hi. Nice to meet you, Ray.”

“Er… Nice to meet you,” Ray bowed more deeply than I expected. “And… thanks for saving us.”

“Yeah, thanks a lot, Erma, you’re so strong!” I said in admiration. “That Lei was so strong too, but you made him run away just like that. You even scared me a bit there.”

“A bit? Hwara-hwara-hwara! You were scared stiff, you mean! I saw your face just now. Anyway, let’s go somewhere else. It’s busy around here.”

“Ah, right. Wait a moment. I think this one still has my phone and wallet,” I said.

Luckily, Jonnie, the merfolk, was among Erma’s victims. He had been hit in the legs and was groaning in pain as he was staring at Erma in disbelief.

“You…” he stammered.

“My things, Jonnie,” I said, holding out my hand with a smile. “Thanks.”

After I took back my belongings, I heard the teenager Ryu whisper, appalled:

“So Erma is actually… Lei’s sister?”

The merfolk cursed under his breath and murmured:

“I’m so screwed…”

Well, he would have been in a bad spot if he had kidnapped his boss’ little sis for real, that’s for sure. If she was really his sister, that is.

I hurried to the exit with Erma and Ray, saying cheerfully:

“I’m glad you’re doing well, Lil Witch! I was wondering what happened to you when you stopped answering my texts.”

“Oh, that… Sorry, my big sis broke my phone and I lost all my contacts. I genuinely hate her. But, say, is it true that you came here thinking I was kidnapped?”

“About that… Remember that merfolk I used my power on last spring? The one that had my phone just now. A certain Jonnie, apparently. He wanted to take revenge, and he used a picture of you crying to convince me.”

“A picture of me crying?!” She spun around, clenching her fists. “That jerk! I’m gonna punch him good for making fake pictures of me!”

“Stop, stop, let’s forget him!” I snorted, grabbing her gently. “The picture wasn’t fake. He told me afterwards it was taken during an Idol contest or something like that.”

Erma blushed, then kept walking to the exit with a moan:

“Aaaah… That one. Don’t look at me like that! I didn’t want to go. It’s my big sis Sally’s fault again. Last month she made me go to that Idol contest saying that she would stop bothering me if I won. I was so embarrassed!”

“…? Well, I would be too. But that means your big sis thinks highly of your looks. I’m sure she meant well—”

“She harasses me! Ever since she came back from Starland, Sally has been on my back, telling me how I should behave, how I should dress, and even how I should speak. She also wants to choose my friends. She’s a nightmare!”

“… That sounds awful.”

I thought how lucky I was to have Azritz as my big sis. As we walked away from the building, into a neighboring street, I scanned our surroundings.

“Straw Head? Don’t worry. Lei won’t come to bother us anymore. He’s annoying, but he’s not crazy.”

“No… I mean, Zeeta came along with us. I’m just wondering where he is.”

“Zeeta? Seriously?! Mm… I don’t see him either.”

Could it be he had run into trouble? I was just switching my phone, when Ray said, looking at his own cellphone:

“He’s okay. He went to ask for help.”

“…?! He did? Did you tell him—”

“Yeah. He’s on his way.”

If he had intended to ask for help then… Whose could that be? The Hidden Hall from the DA perhaps? But how would he obtain their favor? I felt bad imagining how much Zeeta had probably panicked when I had been led to the second floor of the building, out of his power’s reach. I was not especially self-centered but… I knew him well. He would have sold his soul to the Devil to save me. Thank goodness it seemed Erma had made it in time.

“So you two kept in touch, that’s good to hear!” Erma said cheerfully. “Is he doing well? Last I heard of him he went into the DA.”

“Yeah… He’s doing fine.”

“Did you as well…?”

“No way. I don’t have the looks of a gangster, anyway.”

“You do, though.”

“Do I?” I grinned.

Erma stopped and pointed at some stairs that led to a basement.

“This way. It’s my personal hideout.”

Her personal hideout? We went down the staircase to a metallic door, she turned the key in the lock, then switched on the lights as we entered. I stopped dead. The large room we entered was covered with drawn colored circles everywhere, walls, ceiling, and ground. They were… bullseyes? They were covered with cracks. What the…?

“Comfy, sound-proofed, and perfect for training!” Erma declared, making a complete turnaround. “I made this place mine when I first arrived at this city. Do you like it?”

“That’s…”

The only space without bullseyes seemed to be at the back of the room: there, there was a sofa, a game console, a big closet, a fridge, and numerous posters on the wall showing pop and rock music bands. Some of them were music bands I had personally recommended to her.

“Come in, come in, and sit down! I’ll get you some drinks. I have cans of soda and fruit juice. Here. Help yourself!”

Typing in my cell, I quickly informed Zeeta of our location and confirmed that everything was fine as I sat on the sofa with Ray. Erma took off her coat and switched on a small heater. I wondered if she did so because she knew I was very sensitive to cold. That is, when I was alive… As I remembered that, I glanced at the soda I had just accepted. How could I just forget I had died? I guess that recalling the past had made me forget the present. Anyway, there were some urgent questions to clear up.

“Erma…”

I fell silent as she curled up in her armchair. She was wearing a long, white skirt, a ginger brown pullover, and shimmering red earrings. Did I ever see her dressed up like that? Never. Was it her sister Sally’s doing? Also, the Lil Witch had grown bigger, though she still was way smaller than me, but guess she was almost the same height as Ray. So many changes in only four months… Somehow, seeing that she still wore her funny pigtails was a relief.

“What is it, Straw Head? You’ve been staring at me for a while, you know?”

“Oh, yeah? Heh. Sorry. I was just inspiring myself.”

“… Are you saying I am still your muse?”

“Of course you are! You gave a title to our album, remember?”

“I did more than that! Is it selling well?”

“Let’s see…” I counted with my fingers. “Just as I thought: I can’t count the sold copies with one hand.”

“But you can count them with two hands, can’t you?” she laughed. She took a long sip of her orange juice.

It felt so strange to be with Ray and Erma at the same time… I took a deep breath.

“Erma… Is Lei really your big bro?”

“… He is.”

“So he’s a gangster.”

“More like, he’s an idiot who only knows how to improve his fighting skills. I told you: my family is full of idiots.”

Ray grimaced.

“Your family…” Erma and I looked at him, surprised, as he paused. He cleared his throat. “Could it be you’re a Sunclaw?”

Erma’s face darkened, but she nodded.

“That’s right.”

“I knew it,” Ray sighed. “It’s been so many years since I have seen Lei that it’s a miracle I recognized him.”

“Hah? You know my brother?”

“When I was a kid, I used to go to some high-class parties, and the Sunclaw were almost always the hosts.”

I looked at them both, lost.

“Hold on a sec, Ray. High-class parties?”

“The Sunclaw is a very wealthy and powerful family,” Ray explained. “They are the owners of the water-train stations of the Big Triangle Stream, and I heard they own many residences and Crystal fuel factories across the Farskyer Peninsula. They also are big sponsors of the Nyomin. Your friend,” he waved at Erma, “is a daughter of that family.”

My mind went blank. The… What? Erma was… what?

“Straw Head.”

My eyes turned to Erma as she added with a voice strangely lifeless:

“My true name is Linah Sunclaw. I am the seventh and youngest child of the Sunclaw. Last year, I ran away from my crazy family, though I couldn’t really run away, but my dad let me do as I pleased for a year, since there was a status quo between the Dark Alliance and the Unholy League. Plus, my siblings weren’t fighting as fiercely as they are now to get Father to acknowledge them as the family heir. They are all big idiots. Though my big sis Sally is the real problem here. She’s a wart.” She paused. “I guess you’re surprised. Sorry to have kept all of that from you but… it’s not that I wanted to lie to you guys, it’s just that I ran away precisely not to be treated like… a filthy rich princess. No gang out there would have dared to accept me if they had known who I really was. That’s why I hid my identity and my true power.”

My mind slowly processed her words. Erma’s true name was Linah. That was for me the biggest news.

“I see… Then… Why is your brother in a gang too? Did he run away too?”

My question caught her a bit by surprise.

“Lei? No. He’s not really in a gang.”

“But those Black-Hearts were calling him boss.”

“That’s because… my dad’s the leader of the Black-Hearts.”

“…!!” A sponsor of the Nyomin was the leader of one of the most important gangs of our city’s Underworld? I was more and more confused. “I don’t get it all, Erma, but… Since the Black-Hearts are from the Unholy League, and the Dark Alliance is keeping the Old Docks’ shopping center under control since that day… Could it be you ran away from the Cheetahs because you came across the DA?”

Erma’s shoulders slumped slightly. She sat a bit more formally.

“I… didn’t run away. I had to come back to my family, that’s all. It wasn’t because of the DA. Also, I lost all my contacts because of Sally, I told you.”

That was a lame excuse. She knew where I lived, she knew I studied at Harvard High, still, she didn’t try to meet me again. As soon as I realized I was looking at her a bit skeptically, I said with haste:

“Sorry, I’m not blaming you or anything. I ran away too, after all. I wanted to change my life.”

“… What do you mean?”

“I died…” Ray jerked up beside me. “I mean, I almost died on that day, in July. I ended up at the hospital, and my big sis was worried sick… Part of me just wanted to forget it all.”

“Forget it all,” Erma, or rather Linah, echoed. “Even the Cheetahs?”

“Even the Cheetahs.” There was a silence before I confessed: “But that part of me just went away when I met Zeeta again. I just can’t forget. It’s impossible to forget. Especially Zeeta and you, Lil Witch. So… I’m sorry I ran away.”

Linah swallowed and averted her eyes as she muttered:

“Mm. Sorry I ran away too.”

I heard her slurp thoughtfully the last drops of her orange juice, and I smiled happily.

“That slurping… it brings back so many good memories.”

“Oi!” Linah bolted. “You do it too.”

“I don’t.”

“Why aren’t you drinking your soda? Don’t you like it?”

“Aah… I’m not thirsty, actually.”

“But you still opened it.”

“Sorry.”

“Give it to me.”

“Sure.”

She took a sip of my soda and slouched back in her armchair.

“Anyway, I can’t believe you didn’t react more than that. You surely already heard about the Sunclaw.”

“I did. Ray talked about them just now.”

“…! You’re amazing, Straw Head. Do you even read the news sometimes?”

“I’m not into boring stuff. I’m a bad student, you know, so I’ve spent those last months studying like crazy. And I’ve got two grades over forty points. Ray helped me with maths.”

“Your friend did?”

“Yep. He’s first place at Harvard High. He’s a genius.”

“Oh?” Erma’s eyes fastened on Ray with interest as the “genius” shoot me a reproachful look.

“I’m no genius, Armen.”

“You just don’t know it,” I grinned as I threw a friendly arm over his neck. “As you see, Erma, we’re childhood friends, but really, really good friends.”

“Oh… so it’s that kind of relationship?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not!” Ray snorted, pushing me away as I laughed.

“By the way, Erma, he’s a super good gamer too.”

“Eeeh… Ray, was it? Are you a musician too?”

“Er… No,” Ray said glancing at me suddenly thoughtful. “Actually, Armen, I’m a bit puzzled. What was that about an album? Since when are you a musician?”

“What? He doesn’t know?” Erma snorted. “Is he really your friend, Straw Head?”

“Aah… He is, he is. I trust him with my life.” Even literally, it was true, since, apparently, an undead couldn’t live without a master. I gave Ray an embarrassed smile. “I… never told you, did I? I’m a violinist. I began learning how to play with an old violin the former keeper had left behind at our lighthouse. I almost forgot about it, but last year… Well, Zeeta’s a guitarist. The Cheetahs gifted me a violin, and I began playing music with him. I enjoy it a lot.”

Ray was surprised to discover that new facet of me. I rubbed my neck, not knowing what to add. Erma’s eyes were staring at us intently with a glint of amusement.

“By the way, Armen,” she said, breaking the silence. “I was thinking, now that you know who I am, if you don’t really mind my identity, then, perhaps…”

She hesitated. I raised an eyebrow, curious.

“I don’t mind who your family is. The Lil Witch is the Lil Witch. So?”

A smile played her lips, then she coughed slightly.

“Well, my family is throwing a Christmas Party the day before Christmas Eve. I… don’t really have any friends to invite so… How about I invite you two to the party?”

I frowned, stood up, and got around her armchair. She raised her eyes, surprised; I lowered mines. I leaned my elbows on the back of the seat, confessing:

“You just said something that hurt me a lot, Lil Witch.”

“Th-The hell are you talking about? I only invited you to a party. Well, if you don’t wanna go, then don’t, I don’t c—”

“Friends,” I cut her off. “You don’t have any? Don’t make me laugh. Then what am I?”

Erma widened her eyes then brusquely averted them.

“Mph. Birdbrain-dummy-fool.”

“Eeeh?! Why?!”

“It means, ‘of course you’re a friend’, moron.”

“…”

“Wh-What—Aaaaah! Let go of my pigtails!”

“But I missed them!”

“How old are you?!” She raised her fist. “Want me to try my power on your face?”

I let go of her pigtails with an innocent smile. At the same instant, the door was kicked open and someone shouted:

“STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER!”

We all froze. I just caught a glimpse of a gorgeous woman in a turquoise dress before seeing her long red hair stretch and fly in Ray’s direction. Before our astonished eyes, it went around his neck and pulled.

What the…?! Something burst inside me.

“RAY!”

I rushed at him, but another hairlock was stretching in my direction. I thought of stopping it with my telekinesis, but then I wouldn’t be able to avert my eyes from it. I just ignored it.

“Sally, stop it already!” Erma shrieked.

The hairlock was just some centimeters away from me when Erma sent her fist straight to her sister’s face. Despite blocking the attack with her hair, Sally wavered. I was saved, but Ray had been dragged meters away from me as the hairlock had shrunk with the impact and… he was hurting even more, struggling to breathe.

“Let him go!” I screamed as I kept running.

I finally reached him, gripped the red hairlock, and bit it. I didn’t have a knife. My teeth were sort of sharp, but could I really cut it like that?

Sally let out a scream of pain.

“You bastard!”

So her weird hair was sensitive to pain. That was good news. I bit even harder as an army of hairlocks went flying in my direction all at once.

“STOP IT, SALLY, OR I WON’T EVER FORGIVE YOU!”

Erma had stepped between Sally and us. The hairlocks stopped just in time, then turned back to their original size. But Sally still hadn’t let go of Ray. I didn’t know what to do. Should I leave it to Erma and hope she would come to an agreement with that crazy sister of hers? Should I keep biting? Go get something sharper to save Ray? Or try surprise-attacking Sally? I was panicked. Despite not being alive, my hands were shaking. Ray couldn’t breathe. Black tears welled up in my eyes.

“R-Ray…”

Why did he have to come along? Why did I let him? For the Holy Gods’ sake, why?!

After sending another flying punch, Erma yelled coldly:

“Sally! Let him go at once! I’ll hate you if you don’t!”

Sally snorted.

“I’m just protecting you from the garbage you picked up on the streets, Linah. Forget those ‘Cheetahs’. Don’t you realize they’re just taking advantage of you? You played around enough: start acting more like a Sunclaw!”

As Linah was finally preparing herself to earnestly fight her own sister, a loud and desperate scream came out of my throat:

“LET! HIM! GO!”

The eyes I turned to Sally were clouded with madness and fury.

She finally let go… or did she? The red hairlock was turning black as it lost consistency and recovered its original size. Despite the room being well-lit, I saw with my very own eyes a sea of pitch-black shadows growing around us… Around us? No: around Ray. He was turning dark too. If it hadn’t been for his clothes, I think I wouldn’t have been able to see him anymore as he was as black as the darkness surrounding him. He collapsed. In an instant, I was by his side, turning him face-up. Did he fall unconscious? He was wheezing.

“What?” Sally said, puzzled. “What the…? Wha…?”

I heard a squish, followed by a dreadful scream, then a sound of choking. Shaking, I looked up. I shouldn’t have. It was the creepiest scene I had ever seen.

The shadows had spread to Sally’s and Erma’s bodies and were now forcing their way through their mouths, somehow killing the sound of their screams. Or were the two sisters just too scared to even yell? In any case, I totally didn’t know what those shadows could do but what I did know was that they were coming from Ray. The fact was there: Ray was a power-holder. Did he just undergo a quirk because of the fear of dying? But why was he attacking Erma too? Did he lose control? Well, he was unconscious, so it wasn’t that surprising, but then, why weren’t the shadows attacking me? And more importantly… what should I do to stop that madness?

I shook Ray, trying to wake him up, even screamed at him, but it didn’t work. I called out to Erma, but she seemed as if she couldn’t hear me. Now, the two sisters weren’t even struggling and just stood where they were, doing nothing, like a pair of zombies. Holy crap. What kind of crazy power was that?

The room was now almost completely covered with deep, liquid-like darkness.

I took out my cellphone and contacted Zeeta:

‘Armen, 23:45: u here?’

Fortunately, the response came right away:

‘Zeeta, 23:45: yo, what’s up?’

It took me some seconds to understand what his casual tone meant: he suspected that the one behind my cellphone wasn’t me. Also, there was the possibility that Zeeta had been caught and that the one behind his cellphone wasn’t him. But solving that problem was easy:

‘Armen, 23:45: Fluffyfluffybear’

‘Zeeta, 23:45: Magicpopcorn.’

‘23:45: Just got where you told me. A guy’s watching the door. Can’t enter. WTH going on?’

‘Armen, 23:46: Calling u will be faster.’

I waited for his answer. Each second was a living hell. Then, Zeeta called.

“Zeeta!” I panted. “I don’t know what to do! A crazy medusa attacked Ray, Erma tried to help us, but then Ray blacked out, everything got dark and… I don’t know how to stop him, Zeeta! He doesn’t wake up… If Erma and her sister die because of this—”

« Hold your horses! Don’t panic. Are you telling me Ray underwent a quirk? »

“S-Seems so. But, Zeeta, if Ray deactivates his power now, the crazy medusa will kill us for sure. But, if he doesn’t deactivate it, I don’t know what will happen to Erma—”

« Calm down! Just answer my questions. Is that crazy medusa you talk about the red-haired woman I just saw enter the basement? »

“Yes…”

« I knew it. It must be the Red Viper. She’s got a Hero diploma, and she’s damn strong. I’ve heard about her. She knocked out many members of the Hidden Hall back in the day, and she was just a teenager. Did she really got defeated by Ray? »

“Y-Yeah. She’s standing there without moving, like a zombie.”

« … Okay. Listen, Armen. There’s only one guy guarding the entrance, probably that medusa’s bodyguard. He looks strong. I’m gonna lure him away from the door. You take Ray and scram when I beep you. Got it? »

I gulped. Was there another way? My panicked mind wasn’t working well right now.

“What are you planning to do?”

« Heh. Trust me, Straw Head. When you’re out, turn to the right and run. »

Zeeta hung up. I looked at my battery. 22%. Well. It should last enough.

I rushed at Ray, grabbed him from the armpits, and dragged him to the door. It somehow was shut. Did the medusa close it upon entering, so as to muffle our screams?

Looks like her plan has backfired.

The medusa’s red hair had turned completely black. As I passed by her, I glared at her glassy eyes.

“Who’s the real trash?” I muttered.

At any rate, we were screwed. The Black-Hearts' leader was the father of these two. What would he do to someone who had messed not only with one of his daughters but two of them? And in such a horrible way…

If I remembered correctly, the staircase outside had about eight steps. Would I be able to carry Ray upstairs and make an escape? Ray was shorter than me and was thin, if not skinny, but still…

No. I could do it. I was far from being as strong as Louise, but I couldn’t feel any pain either. I should just carry him in a way he would lay on me without falling. I would save Ray, even if it broke all my bones.

Would Zeeta’s plan to distract the medusa’s bodyguard work out?

As I placed Ray on my back, I turned my head to the two sisters and said:

“Erma… Your sister sure is a pain in the ass. When we get out… I hope you’ll be fine.”

Was she able to hear me? No idea. But I kind of felt I had to tell her something. Finally, my cell buzzed. It was Zeeta.

Time to get the hell out of there.