Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 357: Arc 5, - 51: Chasing Flames
That thought lingered and lingered... Were they too late? The figure wore a midnight blue suit as he walked out with a tall scythe in hand—of which the long, sharp, blade gleamed in the light.
If there was ever a visage of the Reaper any of them would see, this was it. He matched the description Alicia gave. Beyond that was pale, sickly skin and some facial hair.
He stepped out, but glanced up to their direction immediately. He stared down the hallway, locking eyes with all five present... ’Why is he looking right at us...? Can he, see us!?’
"I see we have intruders," his voice started off deep and resonant. However, just as he spoke, his thin lips twisted and curled up into an unsettling grin. "Hahahha!" a much higher pitched, almost hyena-like laugh escaped his lips. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
His bronze-hued eyes were blank as he somehow looked at exactly where they stood. He pulled out a bowler hat and tipped it onto his head whilst he spun his scythe into his other hat and raised his sharp nose up, "Well this is an issue. Bye-bye now."
Turquoise flames licked up his shoes and legs, rolling around him in a vortex before the fires disappeared—the figure vanishing alongside it.
Dagger in hand, Fumeko blinked forward in shadow to the spot where he stood—her invisibility fading alongside it.
"Oh bloody hell! I should’ve taken a photo," Alicia huffed.
"Did he blink away? Or teleport?" Hotaru suggested as she rushed forward.
"Maybe, but we know he went invisible once. It could be an illusion," Jotou drew her sword and parts of her invisible form began to spark.
"Run all around the hallway till you bump every wall; we’ll know if we bump into someone instead," Jotou swished her sword in front of her like a metal detector.
Fumeko, with furrowed brows, looked into the room... Her eyes bubbled to the scene. The scent of fresh blood hit her nose and the image crawled itself into the back of her mind...
"Can’t you throw paint on him or something, that’ll solve your issue," Alicia voiced out.
"Oh wait!" Asobi dispelled the invisibility on everyone and pointed her wand down the hallway. A bright spotlight emitted from the tip of her wand, "Perceptible Glimmer!"
Balls of white light shot out from her wand and sped forward. It whizzed past everyone in its path and through the open door. Like darts hitting a board, the light attached onto an invisible form at the end of the hallway.
The figure seemed to be walking away before it paused and looked down. His entire body, from hat to shoes to scythe, all glimmered in an aura of white light. "Found him!" Asobi called out.
Fumeko twisted her neck around the door and spotted her target. "GET BACK HERE!" shadows swallowed her voice and it jumped forward alongside the brunette’s form that reappeared next to him.
Her dagger was prepared to stab into his leg. However, with a cackle, flames warped around the man and he reappeared around the corner of the hallway. He tilted his head, slowly while watching her...
Fumeko raised her head and looked as he waved with his scythe and ran down into turn and into another hallway. His form was still covered in Asobi’s light and the brunette with a sneer gave chase.
"Meko! You said you wouldn’t pursue!" Hotaru screamed out, but she was already gone. The redhead groaned to the ceiling.
"I’m right behind her, don’t worry," Jotou ran past the wolf-girl and dashed around the corner with her sword sparking and drawn.
"Huh, no chance of catching up to them, is there," Alicia remarked. "Fancy spell to catch a few lurkers I’d bet."
Asobi watched the two go down the hallway, but put on a smile to Alicia, "Thanks. I learned it from a countess."
Hotaru peeked through the door and her hands were immediately coated in glowing blue water before she rushed in...
Meanwhile, the empty quiet halls of Dolpool Academy’s dormitories would echo the sounds of dashing footsteps, shadows and flames.
Down each hall, left, then right, Fumeko chased the individual who would look back—almost like this was a game of tag to him. His invisibility had disappeared, though Asobi’s lights still attached to him, making him a beacon to follow in the dark.
The form cackled and turned another corner before rushing towards some big window at the end of the hall. As Fumeko turned the corner, she saw the man taking a right from the window.
Fumeko blinked forth and threw her dagger down that hallway. The gleaming purple dagger flew through the air and... passed right through his back and went all the way through the other side like thin air.
The blade cut the illusion spell and dissipated the glowing figure into a puff of flame. "What!?" Fumeko paused in the hallway with no other turns or bends...
She quickly turned her head out the window and hoped- Like she thought, the man with the scythe was out the window and running across the grounds of the school with glowing lights attached to him.
With one look, she warped her dagger into her palm and blinked out the window and onto the grass outside the dormitory building.
The man laughed loudly, perhaps even alerting the guards of an issue. It didn’t stop Fumeko from giving chase however and the man seemed to relish the thrill of being prey of the hunt.
Fire of turquoise lit up the grounds. What Fumeko saw, was eight of the same figures, all shining like beacons, running in completely different directions. She had to pause and look everywhere...
All of the figures escaped using blink spells of flame seemingly. The left one? The right one? Which one was the true illusionist!? Her eyes darted around and then focused on the grass... Crumpled grass... Only one left that evidence as it fled.
That figure disappeared into flame and blinked up towards the roof of the school building—Asobi’s light on him, now dimmer. Fumeko blinked up in the same direction and got onto the roof shingles.
Midnight wind howled against her covered ears; her hair drifted to one side. Her eyes were locked onto her target along the top of the roof.
Jotou on the other hand, following the halls had finally made it to the window. She peered down the only other hallway to see nothing. ’Did I seriously lose them?’
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted some speck of light out the window. ’What the...’ She saw multiple of the same man running in different directions till they poofed into flame.
Tilting her head up a tad, she noticed something on the rooftop of the far building. She placed her hands against the glass and squinted. ’Don’t go too far Meko...’
Farther away, guards at the entrance of the school turned towards the school and were shining torchlights of dim yellows. It seemed something alerted them and they were beginning a slow patrol.
The man with the scythe had put some distance between the brunette and himself. She spun her dagger in between her gloved fingers and—"Woosh!" "Woosh!" "Woosh!"—rapidly blinked forward several times.
Asobi’s spell grew dimmer and dimmer, but Fumeko closed the distance within two seconds and- "KH!" The man lurched forward and in flames blinked much further away.
Fumeko’s dagger ate away at the cloth and blood from the man’s back. The gleaming purple poked out of his back as he fled, no longer laughing.
She could not see his expression, nor did she care. She warped the dagger back into her grasp and blinked forward at once. The man felt the dagger exit his spine and he let out a light groan. He was yet to stop in his tracks despite it.
Within flames, he blinked right and left towards the edge, closer and closer. Fumeko followed- "CLANG!" "CLASH!" Two of her strikes struck the roof tiles—her eyes shot towards where he’d appear next and attempt her attack, again and again.
It was no longer a chase. "What? That scythe just for show!?" Fumeko yelled out and struck forward into dissipating flames. As the fire plumed up against her hand and wrist, "AH!" she yanked her entire arm back and dropped her dagger as an impulse.
...
It was merely a couple of seconds, but her heart wanted to escape through her chest, her eyes had widened completely and her shaky breaths painted a whole different picture than the brunette in pursuit just now.
It barely hurt; in fact, it didn’t hurt at all though she felt the fire’s touch. For a moment, she couldn’t gather at all what had just happened or why she was here. But in that frozen moment, she immediately turned her head to the left.
Fighting the sudden urge to cry out, she watched the man spin his scythe at the edge of the roof. He once again put on a wide grin and with his arms wide out, he stepped off and plummeted backwards off the roof.
Something. She needed to do something. Something, something, something! Her eyes noticed something—white, small, thin—on his belt.
Rather than warping the dagger that lied there on the tiles, she reached her hand out and purplish-black shadows swiped that something into her grasp.
Without even inspecting what it was, she blinked- Shadows did not find her form and neither did she disappear. Fumeko shook her head and grunted; she tried to blink forward again.
Fortunately, she blinked forward in shadows and peered down the edge of the building. All she saw, was the fading traces of turquoise flame... "Dammit. Ugh..." No signs of Asobi’s spell anywhere in sight either.
She opened up her hand and in her gloved palm, was a pen of bone-like make—ivory perhaps? She rolled it around; it looked like a basic fountain pen otherwise.
The barrel of the pen itself had a unique texture. She brought it closer to her eyes and noticed the rune-like engravings. Was this the utensil made to carve runes onto the victims? The point of the pen would certainly match-
Before she could examine anything else, the pen became warmer... Her brows furrowed and then the pen grew hot, then hotter.
She tossed it onto the roof before it was too much to bear. The pen started to sizzle from tip to back, bubbling and melting like hot wax onto the tiles.
Fumeko watched and watched... till bits of creamy-silver smoke danced up from the remains of it. She stood silently. The night wind howled it away, drying out the melted pen-puddle.
Her breath grew heavier each second she stared. She clenched her fists and raised her arms, "GAHHHH!!" She stomped on the roof and then twisted her head to the edge of the roof, to where she lost the individual.
She slammed her foot onto the roof a few more times and grabbed her own hair, nearly pulling it out strand by strand. She kicked a loose roof tile and flipped it over, causing it to bounce and slide off the roof.
Finally, she stood still in the cold. All her breath forming clouds into the air as she moaned and groaned. She palmed her own face... and let it go. She veered her head slightly to notice the security guards patrolling far below.
With but a scowl, she warped her dagger back into her hands. Using one side of the roof for partial cover, she walked back towards the dormitories and blinked up the same window with ease...
_
"Meko," Jotou turned around.
Fumeko walked down the hallway with her head down and body closed in. She caught up with the blonde who was walking back, "I didn’t get him," she muttered softly and simply kept walking past.
"Well, that’s okay," Jotou kept pace. "We’re supposed to be covert, remember? If he made a ruckus, it would’ve made a lotta things harder. We gotta be careful if the guards decide to check here."
"Yeah, I guess you’re right," the brunette’s gaze stuck to the floor.
"Detective."
...
Jotou sighed, "It’s not over yet. We still have a victim to check and there could be clues there. We figured it out last time with just that, didn’t we?"
Fumeko pouted to the side... "Yeah," she took a deep breath and held her head a little higher. "Let’s go check this body. There should be other clues."
’I didn’t get a chance to check. So it’s already a body huh?’ Jotou glanced down next to her. The brunette seemed focused, for the moment at least. Choosing to stay silent, they made it back to the dormitory of the victim.
Some water had trickled down the body, but disappeared, only leaving behind some smudged blood on the wrists. There it was again—the same sight.
Long black hair with a few pink streaks. A circular wooden frame where both palms and both feet were hammered in with nails. Blood still trickled sometimes, but the breath was lost.
The teenager’s lifeless body was front and centre of the small dorm room...
