Akira glared at Aina in disbelief. She didn’t even resemble a human being, anymore. The sclera of her eyes became as black as death as if he was staring into a starless night sky. Her pupils turned slit, and her smile stretched, literally, from ear to ear. But that wasn’t even the worst.

Akira slowly stepped back. In her hand, Aina was clutching a double-edged knife in a reversed grip. The crescent-shaped steel blades pointed downwards, the cutting-edge facing Akira. Just looking at the jet-black weapon, mentally cut through his skin. The blades had to be, at least, fifteen inches long. On the handle, she had fit her fingers into four finger loops equipped with razor-sharp spikes.

Icy tendrils of anxiety clawed at Akira’s chest when she moved the blade in front of her mouth. She stuck out her sharp, elongated tongue, gliding it across the cutting edge with a sense of elation. Dark blood swirled its way down, dribbling, vanishing into the ground.

Akira couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation, but in spite of everything, this was Aina, their classmate and their friend. His friend.

“Aina, don’t,” he managed to say. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

The outstretched smile never vanished from her lips. Her glowing eyes were blank, boring into his very soul. She didn’t react. It almost seemed like she didn’t even recognize neither him, nor Kazuya, nor Rini. But it wasn’t just them. It was as if she had forgotten herself, as well.

“Have you gone insane?” Kazuya sneered beside him. “She’s holding a weapon in her hand, threatening to kill us, and you’re worried about her?!”

Akira turned his face towards Kazuya. “Why shouldn’t I be? This is Aina. Of course, I’m concerned.”

“That’s not Aina.” Rini was still staring at her with widened eyes like she was watching a nightmare become reality. “S-she didn’t look a-anything like this!”

Akira narrowed his eyes and swung his head back around. Then, he realized he never should’ve taken his eyes off of her. Not even for a split second.

His eyes could barely follow her sharp movements, when she leaped at him, sending him sprawling on the ground. Akira bumped his head against something so solid, his vision multiplied for a second. A heavy weight on top of him glued his body to the ground. Through his blurry vision, he saw Aina. Her eyes gleamed with amusement as she stared him down. Saliva hung from her open mouth, swinging and tapering, as it neared Akira’s face. She raised the weapon over her head.

That was the end. He was going to die.

Before he knew it, the blade-point was barely an inch away from his eyes. He was convinced that it would’ve pierced through his eyes and plugged them out of his skull, had it not been for what followed.

Rini’s short legs came into his hazy vision, as she snapped her foot straight and kicked Aina under her chin. Aina’s mouth snapped shut. She winced, as her upper body plunged backward.

Akira sat still, gaping at Rini. Was he going insane? Or had he just witnessed her managing to land a blow?

He dismissed the thoughts in his mind. What was he thinking in a situation like this? Either way, Rini had given him an opportunity.

Still, in a lying position, he jerked his knees to his chest and shot them out, kicking Aina in the gut, with a strength he didn't know he had. She whirled off of him, softly bumping against the ground.

Akira stood up, stumbling several times, as he broke into a run, Kazuya and Rini already feet ahead of him. His body dragged him down as if he was carrying a hundred pounds of unnecessary baggage on his back. But he never stopped running. He never considered looking back. He couldn’t. If he did, he would die. At the hands of Aina, nonetheless.

He didn’t know where they were going, but still, he groped his way through the ocean of trees, trying to make out the way through the thick darkness. This whole forest was as black as an empty hole. At least, earlier, he was able to see something, if just a bit. Then, why did it seem so different now?

Of course.

“The flashlight!” Akira yelled, gasping for air. His legs were starting to give in, but his will forced him forward. “I dropped it when Aina attacked me!”

Rini and Kazuya never stopped moving, either. A deafening silence washed over them, as they ran for their lives.

“We’ll just have to manage without it for now.” Kazuya panted.

He was right. But still, at the pace they were running, Akira wouldn’t even want to imagine what would happen if they fell down a hill or crashed into a tree. But they didn’t have a choice. Anything would be better than to be chopped into pieces by Aina’s double-bladed weapon.

Just run, he told himself. Don’t think about anything else.

The second after, a hissing sound crept into his ears. “Psst.”

Akira halted dead in his tracks, as he gazed to his left, where the sound had come from. The woody stems of the shrubs rattled and swayed back and forth for a moment. Akira blinked. Was it real, or was his mind just playing tricks on him?

“Did you guys hear that?” he asked Kazuya and Rini, who had already ceased running, upon realizing Akira's concern.

They shared a look for a second, before they, simultaneously, shook their heads.

“W-we should leave,” Rini said. “Before Aina catches up to us.”

Then, the same sound arose from the bushes again. “Psst.”

They all froze up.

Rini quivered, slowly stepping back from the sound. “What are we waiting for? Let's g-go, already!”

“Why?” Kazuya asked. “What we really should be doing is fighting back. Especially you, Rini. You sure kick hard for someone being so scared all the time.”

“No!” Rini whined, curling her hands into fists. “I don’t want to fight the d-demon!”

Akira opened his mouth to respond but recoiled, when a raspy voice scratched against his ears.

“For the last time, I am not the demon!” the voice hissed in an irked manner. “Now, get over here in this instant!”

Akira could determine where the voice came from, but he couldn’t see a thing. Not that he had to. They all recognized this raspy voice – the man they met earlier.

Akira decided to trust his ears and took a pace in the direction of the voice behind the mass of bushes. The man was peculiar, but even he deserved to be given the benefit of the doubt. And perhaps he could even help them, somehow. Aina had turned against them, they had lost the only flashlight they had, and multiple of their classmates were presumed dead. Long story short, they were up a creek. And even if there was less than a one percent chance that the middle-aged man could help them, Akira would leap at it.

Kazuya narrowed his eyes in mistrust, but he still followed Akira, as he neared the voice. Rini, upon realizing she would end up all alone if she didn’t follow along, was on their tails in a matter of seconds.

Akira’s squinted his eyes, when the sharp rays of the flashlight, the man was holding, blinded him as if he was staring directly at the sun. He placed his hand above his eyes.

“This way,” the man whispered, as he took the lead.

They lumbered amongst the towering trees for a while. Akira counted the seconds passing by. It almost seemed like forever until they reached a narrow cave in the middle of the forest, formed by the weathering of rocks. The opening was uneven, jagged, ivy eating its way around it.

The man stepped forward and ushered the three of them inside. Akira hesitated, but soon realized, he didn’t have to. There was a reason he had decided to follow him in the first place, after all.

The cave ground was damp, and the icy sensation seeped through his clothes, as he sat down beside the man. Sea-green colored moss had grown scantily on the muddy cave walls, and the corners of the cave were coated in spider-webs.

“I owe you one, Rini,” Akira said in a low voice, as the adrenaline rush and panic gradually exited his body. He suddenly felt thousand times more fatigued than previously. “It’s weird to admit it, but you actually saved my life. Thanks.”

Rini lowered her gaze, a faint red painting her cheeks. “I-I just panicked, so, it’s nothing.”

Akira smiled thinly, even though everything that had happened tonight felt like an eternal nightmare. He didn’t know if he should feel relieved or regret. Relieved, that somehow, he hadn’t been stabbed to death. Regret, that he hadn’t been able to get through to Aina.

Akira’s gaze drifted between the man, Kazuya and Rini, and then he stared out of the cave opening into the distance. The leaves swirled, and the trees bent in the sharp wind. The more the stared, the more the anxiety filled him from within. He caught a glimpse of a glowing pair of eyes glaring at him outside the opening. Then, he blinked, and it was gone.

Akira shook his head. “By the way,” he said, “what happened to Aina? Why did she want to kill us?”

The cave was engulfed in silence as if everything on earth had died, from humans to plants.

Rini fidgeted, her eyes sparkling from the thick layer of tears coating them. “Her face was so terrifying,” she croaked after a while. “And she appeared out of the blue, at the same time as the tombstones. But, I guess, that makes sense.”

Akira listened with bated breath when Rini gave life to his worst nightmare: “She has to be the demon.”

“Then, why didn’t they appear the moment we walked into the forest with her?” Akira asked, his stern voice faintly echoing in the cave.

The three of them dropped their heads, their eyes glued to the ground. Akira drew in a shaky breath, as he wrung his hands continuously, counting the seconds as they passed. But to him, it didn’t seem like they passed at all.

The man cast fixed glances at the three of them. “What of the requests?” he asked.

They all lifted their heads simultaneously. Akira raised his eyebrows in bewilderment. Then, he breathed out. Of course. The requests. He had forgotten all about it.

“We received none,” Kazuya answered on behalf of Akira and Rini.

The man gave out a long, but steady sigh. “In that case, the answer is clear. She is not the demon.” He squinted his eyes and reflected. “At all events, not the original one.”

Akira forgot to breathe, merely for a second. The instant he thought Aina wasn’t whatever she had become, the blossoming hope inside him dried out and turned to dust. Who was he fooling, anyway? There was no way Aina was the person they knew before.

And that was his fault.

“How can you tell she’s not the real demon?” Rini asked.

The man slowly met her gaze and cleared his throat. “Just as the young lad presently asserted, assuming that she was the demon, the tombstones would materialize the moment you entered the forest accompanying her. Furthermore, the original demon addresses its requests the instant it approaches its victims. However, the fact that she did not do this, as well as her features seemingly became comparable to a demon's, as you just explained, points towards her being a reincarnated demon. The indication of this is, that the original demon chose to convert his girl into an additional demon.”

Akira’s heart sank in his chest. The words of the man clung to his head, and continuously pounded against his brain, like a hammer, but he understood naught. Aina had become a pawn to the demon of the forest? Just the thought of it, made him want to puke.

“Then, why did the tombstones appear at the same time as her?!” Rini asked frantically, with a shaky voice. “It doesn't make sense!”

“It was presumably a coincidence. Only the real demon is capable of generating the tombstones.” The man glared into the distance as if he strived to see past the horizon. “Granted that you have witnessed the personalized tombstones, signifies you were near the original demon at the time. The demon will reveal itself soon enough.”

Akira’s heart jumped in his chest. He nervously bit his lower lip, as he attempted to take in all this information. Aina had become a reincarnated demon. The real demon was the one who had created their tombstones and would soon show up. All of that meant only one thing.

Death.

“How do you know all this, old geezer?” This time Kazuya asked. “Or should I say, how do you think you know it?”

The man gave Kazuya a black look and his features darkened. “For the reason that I stated before, I have been trapped in this forest for twenty years. I have had sufficient opportunities to investigate and create theories.”

That made sense. But then Akira remembered, that it didn't.

“Wait a second,” he said. “That claim doesn’t hold up. You couldn’t have possibly been here for so long. There’s no way your flashlight could work for twenty years, remember?”

The man gently closed his eyes and a soft smile formed on his parched lips. “You are certainly correct.” He dipped his head in acknowledgment. “I am impressed by your ability to notice every particular detail.”

“Then, how do you expect us to believe you?” Akira asked, knitting his eyebrows together.

The man leaned comfortably back, the cave wall supporting his spine. “I do not. Though it may seem strange, this flashlight does not belong to me. I spotted it in the forest merely minutes before bumping into you three. The flashlight I owned ceased working several years ago.”

Akira narrowed his eyes. Something wasn’t adding up. There was a large crack in this man's story, and Akira was going to unravel all his secrets before choosing to fully trust him.

“Then, let me ask you this,” Akira said. “How is it possible that you’ve been stuck here for twenty years, without bumping into the demon?”

The man slowly drifted his gaze away from Akira's. Instead, a deep frown adorned his skin, as he stared into the ground. He clutched the flashlight in his hand so tightly, his knuckles turned white.

“And earlier, you said you watched as the demon ate your friends,” Akira continued. “If you've seen the demon, it means, you've also seen your tombstone. Isn't that right?”

“And that means, you've also received the demon's requests,” Kazuya added.

The man sighed deeply, sweat trickling down his forehead. “I suppose I cannot conceal my secret, anymore. You are correct. I know everything I have told you because I encountered the demon and did not die.” He pressed his lips together and raised the inner portion of his eyebrows. “Rather, I fulfilled the demon's three requests.”

Akira gaped at the man. He should've suspected that, but the thought hadn't even crossed his mind. Now when he thought back, Yasuhiro had mentioned one would able to walk free if they fulfilled the requests.

“Then it shouldn’t be that difficult to grant its requests!” Hope glittered in Rini’s eyes, like twinkling stars. “I guess, we overestimated them. Maybe we have a chance to survive just by granting them!”

“No!” The man was quick to disapprove. “You must leave the forest, while you can. Do not rely on fulfilling the requests.”

Akira didn't understand a thing. Rini made a valid point, so why did he oppose her suggestion? If the demon was going to show itself anyway, wouldn't their best bet be to grant its requests and survive?

“I do not recommend it,” the man continued before Akira had the opportunity to ask. “Just like you, my comrades and I were confronted by the demon simultaneously. I was the first individual, to fulfill the first two requests we received. However, the last request was to watch every second, as the demon devoured my friends before my eyes. Even to this day, I wish I had refused and met my demise rather than fulfilling that request.”

His declaration was met with a piercing silence. Akira shared a look with Kazuya and Rini. If this happened to any of them, would they be ready to stab each other in the back just to stay alive? He didn't know.

He didn't even want to know.

“That's so horrible,” Rini said faintly.

Akira lifted his head and met the man's gaze. It was, indeed, horrible, but they didn't have much time. “Mister, do you know anything about the demon? Something that could help us identify it right away?”

“I do not know,” he admitted. “It was strangely murk that night. I only recall the demon’s eyes, its petrifying smile and hearing its callous female voice.”

Akira frowned, a line between his eyebrows adorning his skin. That answer wasn’t much to go on. Simply, that the demon was, most likely, a female. But even that, didn’t make sense, assuming that demons didn’t have a gender.

“In any case,” the man went on to say, “you must be cautious and evaluate thoroughly before you decide to fulfill a request.”

Akira nodded, though he hoped it would never come to that. “But before deciding anything, we need a plan,” he said. That much was obvious. The problem was coming up with one.

Silence lingered between the four. Then, they all froze like ice, when a sharp voice crept into their ears, not too far away. It was Aina.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” she said faintly. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” She repeated it over and over, like a dysfunctional robot.

Akira’s heart wrenched in his chest. He wanted to run out and scream at her, that he was right here. But he knew that it would merely result in his death. Aina wasn’t Aina anymore.

She was a demon.

“I will distract the reincarnated demon,” the man whispered. “Thus, you will have the opportunity to exit the forest. You must go forthwith before the demon emerges.”

“No way!” Rini rejected the idea immediately. “Aina has a weapon. She could kill you!”

The man chuckled, his raspy voice resonating in the cave, like a ghostly twin. “I encountered the original demon and survived. This is nothing.”

“Are you sure?” Akira asked, his eyebrows raised in concern. “Will you be fine?”

He cast a reassuring glance at Akira in response. Then, he rose on his feet, steadily like a stone. The other three did the same.

Akira wanted to say something, but he simply couldn't select the correct words to proceed. What could he even say?

He didn't get to ponder for long when the man handed over the flashlight in his hand. “Take this. You need it more than I do.”

Akira hesitated for a second. The flashlight appeared almost identical to the flashlights Class Rep handed out to the class before entering the forest, much like his own. Could it be a coincidence?

He exhaled deeply. That didn’t matter, right now. Instead of speculating, he stretched out his arm, silently accepting the offering. “What’s your name?” he asked.

The man raised his eyebrows in surprise. Then, his features softened. For a second, Akira caught a glimpse of tears coating his eyes, as he said: “Daisuke.”

Akira's eyes softened. “Thank you, Daisuke. For everything.”

Daisuke didn’t respond. He only nodded determinedly, his lips forming into a faint smile. Before they knew it, he was already gone, endangering his life to save them. Suddenly, the cave seemed so empty, even as his friends stood beside him.

How ironic, Akira thought to himself. If only he had told us the whole story from the beginning, we would've trusted him.

Akira’s eyes hardened with resolve, like uncrushable steel. He cast a firm glance at his two friends and nodded.

“I have a plan.”