The Crooked Silhouette

Chapter 21: The Exposure

A huge explosion erupted when Hebi was uplifting Michael in the air. Barachiel could barely turn his head to see what generated such blast until it shook the ground beneath them. The three of them ogled at the sight.

Tsuya, the so-called terrifying Spirit, was blacked out in a Human's grasp. Bloodied and flattened, Tsuya did not seem wrestling. Perhaps he was already beaten to pulp when The Human carried him out of the place they were from. His chest was not even waving as he breathed. It was already doubtful if he was still alive, judging from the physical wound he bore.

The Human skimmed the whole lobby while grinning really widely. Or it could be that he was actually mocking at everyone there. His sight landed at Hebi. Hebi turned expressionless, then he dropped Michael from his grip. Barachiel focused on the one victoriously struck massive damages on Tsuya.

"You... Tatsu?"

From glaring at Hebi, Tatsu shifted abruptly at Barachiel. Instantly a mystifying horror agitated him, along with an uncanny sensation he unexpectedly endured just from glancing at Tatsu.

No way.

Human should not have power or ability on The Dimension! Only The Human was less mighty there. Unless...

"Tsuya! What have you done to him?" Barachiel frenziedly yelped. Despite not being able to even get up off the floor, he still could cry which indirectly demonstrated his remaining brawn.

Certainly there would be no answer from Tsuya. He could not. Barachiel hissed in disapproval. Tsuya must have done something absurd that the vulnerable Tatsu could thrash him.

"Oho."

A single trademark as a gap was just adequate to enable Tatsu transported from the upper corridor to the lobby – right at Hebi's side. Hebi could not cover his stun as Tatsu jeered at him.

"How- you!"

"What's with me?"

The right hand threw Tsuya towards Barachiel and Michael, while the left hand strangled Hebi. Just like he observed how Hebi did to Michael as he turned up, he reshowed the act and added on chortles.

"You look so different compared to him," Tatsu pointed at Tsuya meters from them, "Oho, you are not a Human."

"What's with me not being a Human?"

Tatsu sniggered right at Hebi's ears, conveying quivering vibe at The Ophiuchus till the latter flinched. He shoved Tatsu at least from his arm reach, however Tatsu did not budge as much – as if his feet were cemented on the floor. Hebi decided to leap away instead.

"Why is everyone afraid of Tsuya?" Tatsu asked, anonymously to whom. He tilted his head on one side, broadened one of his eyes, and arched his body backward. His teetering pace dragged him closer to Hebi, totally ignoring Hebi's sweating face. "Why is everyone averting him? I wonder," His countenance was facing to the wall, but his eyes were concentrating wholly on Hebi, "why, eh?"

"Don't ask me. I'm disregarded as well," Hebi tried to sternly push away Tatsu's head.

Even though Tatsu had wobbly legs, his head never budged as Hebi tried pushing it away. The neck stayed stiff and Tatsu's strained eyes glaring right into his was the scariest of all.

"Then, who should I ask?"

Out of the blue, a hard spank swept Hebi off his sight. He literally slapped Hebi on the cheek, yet the impact was atrocious. Hebi crashed through pillars, shattering the fundamental architecture of the building, and smashed in the wall. It was impracticable for a normal Human to survive that, however currently Tatsu has discovered the one he sought attention from was not one, hence a sense of doing more and more hit him.

"Oho, it seems grieving," he said while, still with his swaying legs, strode towards the panting Hebi, "But it isn't to you. Right?"

The only thing disjoined their forehead was their own noses. Tatsu really loved provoking Hebi, believably in order to force him spilling the tea as he did not know how he could be there.

"Answer me, Zodiac." Tatsu snapped his fingers at Hebi's forehead. The latter groaned distressingly. "Why is everyone avoiding Tsuya? Why did you want to split him from me? He is my only friend!"

Yagi, Hikari, Mizugame and Shishi have finally arrived at the lobby, most of them gasping for fresh air because they were running quickly to get into the building of The Angels' Valley. Its distance from the entrance was stupidly far. Only Yagi stayed quite composed and less tired compared to the other three.

"Who- is that?"

Hikari trailed to the direction Yagi was referring to. He gaped in disbelief to see how Tatsu has transformed to a very disgustful creature. He looked nothing like a boogieman or vampire, but the blood splatters and torn holes on his physical remarked them he has had huge incident with Tsuya.

"It must be Tsuya who has done it!" Mizugame clenched his teeth.

He scanned around just to find Tsuya lying flat somewhere on one of the corners, with Barachiel and Michael surrounding him. His attire substantiated his battle with Tatsu beforehand, and as the result, he lost severely to The Human. Barachiel was tending him while Michael guarded them both.

Mizugame could not really mask his astonishment.

"Let me get them," Shishi without hesitant offered himself to go to Barachiel, Michael, and Tsuya. "Don't worry. I will be safe. The Angels are there. Plus, Tsuya has fainted."

"Don't let your guard down, Shishi," Yagi advised him earnestly.

After a nod, Shishi half ran to the corner. Yagi gestured a hand sign at Hikari to allow The Human following Shishi instead of standing around them. "You might get hurt," came as an excuse.

Hikari could feel how concerned Yagi and Mizugame were towards him, especially after they have seen Tatsu in such state. What has gotten into him minutes after Tsuya has kidnapped him? To top that, Tsuya has already weakened and they doubted Tsuya was alive.

Yagi, Mizugame and Hikari who faltered to walk away, fixated at the brawl between Tatsu and Hebi. Sensing danger discharged by The Human, Hebi risked his life by launching first. All of his attempts were shut by Tatsu's insensately fast response. He even counterattacked, however he unpleasantly missed.

Or he actually missed on purpose.

Hebi swung his leg over Tatsu's head. Tatsu could not evade it as Hebi swiftly dug his dangling foot onto Tatsu's shoulder. The impact drove Tatsu to fall, with head landing first. Hikari never thought Tatsu possessed such flexibility as he watched how Tatsu – instead of floor kissing – swirled and flipped his whole body, saving himself from a humiliating accident.

"Gyahahahahahahaha!"

The guffaw chilled everyone out. Forget Tsuya – This Human was far more frightening than The Spirit! Even Barachiel and Michael turned mute as they watched Tatsu flailing his arms while laughing out loud. He was a madman!

"Tatsu!"

Hikari's loud cry surprisingly halted Tatsu from acting bizarrely. Despite Tatsu's losing sanity, he still responded to Hikari's summon.

"Please stop this. Just what are you doing?"

Tatsu's fangs vanished behind his lips. His wide grin gradually faded whilst his bulging eyeballs shifted at the freaked Hikari. Who would not get scared if the enemy instantly aimed at you? Well, Tsuya was originally the enemy, but there must be something happened between them.

"Oho, another Human," Tatsu's lips parted, exposing his teeth and gum, "You know me as Tatsu, huh? So that means you also know Tsuya, right?"

Tatsu immediately changed his course towards Hikari. Yagi and Mizugame blocked his view as he sent off death glare to Hikari. No matter how kind hearted Tatsu was before this, they must stay alerted, especially when Tatsu has become this mischievous.

"If you don't know who Tsuya is, that means you want to separate us too."

One second was all Tatsu required to moor right before Hikari's eyes. He has surpassed Yagi and Mizugame without touching any of them even a tap. Yagi and Mizugame were only turning around to figure out the whole occurrence when Tatsu has already choked Hikari and hoisted him up in the air.

"Let him go, Tatsu!" Mizugame shrieked. He lifted his one hand at his eye level, forging a vase and directed to towards Tatsu.

The place was inconvenient to Mizugame because he could barely see any water source there. He contemplated as his vase was meaningless if there was no water for him to manipulate. He gulped as he realized there was only one thing he could employ into the vase.

It was his last resort. He ought to rescue Hikari.

Mizugame was still scheming when Yagi has already pounced on Tatsu, forced him to subconsciously release Hikari from the painful grip. Hikari panted since Tatsu really tried to kill him just by sheer strength he owned out of nowhere.

"Tatsu, please calm down. This is Hikari, your friend. We The Zodiacs brought you and your friends here. We were gathering you guys back so that you could return to The Earth as a group of five, without leaving any of you. Do you forget that?"

One of Tatsu's brows and eyes curled upward in confusion, while another one boggling out in excitement. His face entangled whatever emotion he should portray upon Yagi's reminder.

"Oho, that means there are more Humans here?"

His bright smile caused huge qualm to Yagi. Reckoning from the tone, he wavered Tatsu was actually thrilled of it. He might do the same as he did to Hikari.

"You came here to save your friends and yourself," Yagi added, "They are Hikari, Kei, Takeru, and the still in-search Koichi. The five of you are best friends."

It took just a second to switch Tatsu's cheerfulness to sullen grunt. "You forgot Tsuya!"

Tatsu's discontentment kindled his flame of rage. He let a really prevailing punch right at Yagi's diaphragm, tackling the bigger to fall first. Yagi did groan in pain, yet he was able to stand on his feet back and countered Tatsu. It was just like the battle between Hebi and him earlier – his attack missed but he manageably evaded every of Yagi's.

Indeed he was doing it on purpose.

"You sure are forgetting me, I must say," Hebi had no choice but to interfere. He should get the attention as an enemy The Angels should be afraid of, not at Tatsu. He did not know who Tatsu and Tsuya were, therefore he was not aware of the situation which led the fright. "I'm the opponent here!"

Tatsu subconsciously turned to Hebi, eyes glaring ghostly along with an intimidating jeer. "Oho, I just realized who you are – I mean, who you were." He lifted up Hebi's chin with his one index finger. "You are Koichi, right?"

Yagi and Mizugame instantly turned to the puzzled Hikari. Hikari shook his head vigorously, denying the proclamation made by Tatsu. "That's not Koichi. Koichi seems much kinder than that!"

"Kikikikikiki," Tatsu giggled at Hikari's innocence, "For your information, this creature has been pretending as Koichi all these while. He actually came to The Earth and immediately attracted to me because I could create an inexistent friend. My imagination friend," he raised his finger from Hebi's chin to point towards Tsuya, "named Tsuya, a derivative of my real name Tatsuya."

Hebi has always known Tsuya never lived since day one, however Tatsu could make him real. They befriended and got along very well despite the fact that one of them was an invisible party. Hebi saw that and tried to be close to Tatsu too as he misunderstood Tatsu might possess sixth sense.

Basically, Tatsu did not have it. Tsuya was the result of his tremendous ingenuity. Tsuya was only his silhouette, yet he was only visible to Tatsu because Tatsu was the one creating him. Tatsu could not see Hebi, but Hebi could see Tsuya. It was because Hebi was a creature from an imaginary world, and Tsuya has subconsciously booked a place as a Dimensional. They were already residents of The Dimension.

"And what happened to Tsuya that he ended up here?" Tatsu intrigued a Q&A in the middle of his storytelling. "I killed him."

Hikari gaped in disbelief. Too much astound he received in this short period, and he was unsure what mimic he should show to portray his jumbling emotion.

"I had a mental disorder. I saw many things, I heard voices. My parents disliked my disease, and it peaked when I caused Takeru's big brother to get involved in a fatal accident." His eyes skimmed over the lobby and corridors to find out if Takeru was around. Takeru did not because Tsuya has hold him in captivation. "In conclusion, my parents sent me to therapy sessions – I've forgotten how many times I've met the doctor, bawling my eyes and shouting my throat out, just to get rid of my disease. My recovery meant I could not see Tsuya, which indirectly told he has passed away from The Earth."

Tatsu's revelation explained basically 1001 questions The Zodiacs were contemplating to inquire. So that was why Tsuya came there as a Spirit, and at the same time, Tatsu was still alive on The Earth.

"This Zodiac," Tatsu caught Hebi on the collar, "was epically wicked. He was jealous that Tsuya and I could befriend each other. He was a loner, and kind of pitiful that he had to appear as a Human just to be with me. I believe The Demon granted his wish and as a token of gratitude, he wanted to attack The Angels all by himself." He laughed to annoy Hebi, "Too bad, Koichi. Thanks to Tsuya's eagerness to meet me, I am here – in front of you – to kill you for good."