How I Was Murdered By a Monster King (How I Was Murdered By a Fox Monster Book 2)

by Unknown

  "Then I guess you've left me with no choice,” said Nina’s brother with a sigh. “I will have to use, this!" He shouted and pulled a black cell phone out from his pocket.

  "You should just surrender now if you're already calling for back up!" Yelled Taisei.

  "Back up? What makes you think I’m calling for back up?" Said Arashi with a crazy grin and he began laughing. "This isn't even my phone, its yours."

  Taisei instantly dropped the paper charm. He dove his hands into his pockets and frantically searched for his phone, but it was already sitting in Arashi's sinister hands.

  “My phone!!” Cried Taisei. "How did you get that?”

  “Taisei, Taisei,” said Nina’s brother. “A great exorcist never unveils his best tricks.”

  “I saw it fall out of your pocket!” Souta called out. He was the only one of us who could physically help Taisei, but instead he just sat there and watched us all suffer.

  “Taisei, have you ever seen what happens to a phone if you use a fire charm on it,” said Nina’s brother. "Let's find out."

  “Don’t give in, he won’t really do it!” Yelled Nina. “My brother secretly loves technology just as much as you do!”

  “Never...give..up,” I said.

  For a moment it looked like Taisei wasn’t going to fall for his bluff, until Nina’s brother pulled a charm out from his pocket and held it under Taisei’s phone. Arashi began to chant and the paper caught fire.

  “Just think Taisei,” said Nina’s brother as he slowly lowered Taisei’s phone closer and closer to the flame. “Just think about how many months of saving your allowance it will take to replace this, and it looks like you only just started a new contract. I can see that you haven’t even removed the plastic cover around the scre-”

  “Stop it! Stop it! I’ll do anything!” Yelled Taisei. He dropped his weapon to the ground and held his hands up to surrender.

  “What!" Yelled Nina as she still struggled with the chain around her ankles. "You dragged us all into this, and now you’re just giving up over a phone!”

  “It’s not just a phone!” Taisei yelled back. “It’s my only link to the outside world!”

  Arashi tossed him his phone and Taisei hugged it to his chest like a newborn child.

  After that Arashi let Nina out of her chain, and gave me some bitter tasting medicine which allowed me to move. I thought losing was enough humiliation, but he made us all kneel in the living room and sign declarations of surrender.

  I didn’t think that there was any way Taisei would sign it too, but apparently Taisei’s mom is super scary when she's angry, so he reluctantly put pen to paper. My hand was still paralysed from Arashi’s anti-monster gas, so my signature looked like it had been written by a four-year-old.

  If that wasn’t twisted enough, he then made us chant our conditions of surrender like some strange cult.

  “We will stop addressing our superior as Nina’s brother, I actually have a name,” said Arashi as he paced back and forth before us in the living room.

  “We will stop addressing our superior as Nina’s brother, he actually has a name,” we all chanted back.

  “You will obey your superior without question,” said Nina’s brother. “You will complete all your homework and assignments as soon as you get home from school, and you will study for at least one hour every evening.”

  “We will obey our superior without question, we will comp-” we began to chant before Taisei’s anguished cry cut us off.

  “Noo! I can’t take this shit anymore! This is too much!” Cried Taisei as he stood up to leave, but Mana grabbed his T-shirt and pulled him back down.

  “Why are Mana, Kurumi, and I even here?" Complained Itsuki as he glared at Taisei from across the room. "We didn’t do anything.”

  “You guys are supposed to be a team,” said Nina’s brother. “If one of you breaks the rules, you will all be punished together. That’s the way of the exorcist organization.”

  “No it’s not, you just made that up!” Complained Nina.

  “It might not be a rule now,” said Arashi. “But it will be when I, Arashi Ueda, am the leader of the exorcist organization!”

  He then put his hands on his hips and began laughing like a maniac.

  “It’s too late,” sighed Nina. “All the power has already gone to his head.”

  “Come back soon Akito,” cried Souta as a single tear fell down his cheek.

  After about an hour of strange chanting (and forcing us to do our homework) Nina's brother finally let us go.

  I looked up the so called Raccoon King that everyone was talking about. He was apparently a new threat so I couldn’t find him in the library, but I searched the organization's secret database on the net, and found a blog by a teenage exorcist who watched him massacre a training group. It was pretty terrifying. The Raccoon King was apparently taking over territories and targeting exorcists in an attempt to become the king of all monsters. Even other monsters didn’t stand much of a chance, and he would readily dispose of anything that stood in his way. I sat there for at least an hour biting my nails out of anxiety. But if that wasn’t bad enough, I also came across a bunch of other terrifying Obake that I’d never heard about before. I’d wasted most of my time worrying about the fox monster without any idea that there were dozens of monsters equally terrifying or worse.

  “What about this guy?” I asked Souta as I shoved the laptop in his face. “He sneaks into children’s homes and eats them in their sleep. Sometimes he even targets teenagers.”

  “What are you worried about?” Asked Souta as he battered my arm away so that he could have personal space. “Daisuke aren’t you an Obake as well?”

  “The key word is used to be. Now I’m just like a regular human!”

  “Yeah, but,” he stuttered. “Maybe you were buddies with these dangerous monsters or something?”

  “They’re all locked in an eternal struggle to see who will be the ultimate king of monsters. I highly doubt we used to be friends,” I scrolled down the page on the computer. “Aww, this guy here likes to skin people alive and roast them on a BBQ,” I moaned. “And he was last sighted two hundred miles from here.”

  “Don’t worry, if worst comes to worst Akito can just undo the seals on your back like last time,” said Souta with a smile.

  “Akito’s gone,” I said.

  Everyone thought I was being paranoid, but they said the same thing about the fox monster and look how that turned out. Maybe I had an extra sense for when Obake were waiting around the corner. My exorcist friends refused to take my fears seriously because I used to be an Obake over ten years ago, but what they refused to accept is that I’m a pretty nice guy, so what if I was just an innocent peace loving kitten monster who couldn’t stand a chance against a bloodthirsty maniac.

  “You shouldn’t worry so much Daisuke,” said Souta with a strained smile. “My mother told me that half the organization has gone to help Akito. That commander Watanabe guy thinks it’s the best chance to blow up that Raccoon King for good. He should be millions of itty bitty pieces by tonight if we're lucky.”

  Chapter 17

  Unfortunately the Raccoon King must have found out that half the organization was coming for him because he never showed up at the East Branch. Instead he just sent some of his raccoon minions to attack the place. The exorcist organization sent half their members to defend the shrine, so they managed to crush the monsters in under an hour. We knew all about it because Raisei emailed the photos to Taisei.

  “What is this shit?” Asked Taisei. He stared at his phone with his eyes wide in horror and his hands began to shake.

  I looked over his shoulder to see a newspaper photo of Raisei grinning while standing over a beaten up raccoon monster. The newspaper’s name, The Exorcist Times, was printed in large black letters above the photo.

  “He’s in the exorcist times!” Exclaimed Taisei.

  “That doesn’t sound right,” said Mana. She snatched the phone from her
brother and examined the screen. “There’s no such thing as the exorcist times, he’s obviously just used some app on his phone.”

  “Is that Shiki in the background?” I said while pointing to the man behind Raisei. Shiki Moriyama was Taisei’s idol, and he looked like he was in the middle of a dramatic battle with a raccoon monster.

  “Damn you Raisei,” said Taisei as he angrily shook his fist. I was relieved that my new exorcist friends had survived, but the Raccoon King was still at large, so Akito couldn’t return. The East Branch exorcists didn’t have a new teacher (and Toni wasn’t allowed to be left unattended) so Akito was ordered to babysit until they could find a replacement. Everything seemed to be going well, and our teacher kept sending us long reassuring messages saying that everything would be fine and he would soon return. He also said that we couldn’t continue sitting around headquarters “guarding the place,” so he asked Arashi to send us back to school. And being Nina’s brother he had us lined up at the gate on time every day that week.

  It was okay at first, but after a week of doing our exorcist duties and spending all day at school, it began to take its toll on my friends and I. Souta lost his usual cheerfulness, Kiyori looked like a zombie, and despite her excessive makeup I was beginning to see bags underneath Kurumi’s eyes. We tried holding a strike at headquarters, but Arashi just shoved our contracts in our faces, and gave a long speech about how we were going to get the best grades out of all the junior exorcists. Therefore making him look like a great teacher. Taisei was the only one who had the guts to email the organization to complain, but they just called Arashi to congratulate him on doing a fantastic job.

  “Is this what it feels like to be a regular student?” Moaned Nina. She sadly stared up at our school building one morning as we lethargically trudged towards it.

  “This is ridiculous,” yawned Taisei. “How can he expect us to be at school so early when we do patrol at night, right Kiyori?”

  Kiyori didn’t reply. We all turned to see that he'd collapsed in the school garden and was taking a nap.

  “Don’t move Taisei,” said Mana as she rested her head on Taisei’s arm and closed her eyes.

  “I don’t see what the problem is, I feel fine,” said Itsuki.

  “ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN!” Exclaimed Taisei.

  I rubbed my eyes. I wasn’t human and even I felt drained. If I was a monster, then I had no idea how Itsuki could function on such little sleep. Maybe he was the closest living thing to a super exorcist.

  “Screw this shit,” said Kurumi and she turned to leave.

  “Hey! Where are you going?” Asked Nina.

  “Shopping,” said Kurumi.

  “You can’t do that. He’ll tell your parents,” I said. I was only there because I was terrified by the thought of my angry sister.

  “How does it matter,” said Kurumi. “They don’t care,” and with that she turned and left.

  “Hey! You just can’t do that! We’re supposed to be a team!” Nina yelled after her, but Kurumi shunned her and kept walking.

  “Aww, now we’re all going to be in trouble,” moaned Souta.

  “Come on, let’s all just go to class,” said Taisei and he began shaking Mana awake. “That guy probably won’t say anything anyway. He always seems to let Kurumi do whatever she wants.”

  I followed my friends into the school building, and then headed to my classroom behind Itsuki and Mana.

  After attending school like an ordinary student for almost a week, I had really gotten to know my classmates. I’d even started remembering some of their names and hobbies.

  “Morning Daisuke,” said one guy near the door to the room. He was the tallest guy in my class, and over the past week I’d discovered that he was on the basketball team, and was going out with a girl who went to another school.

  “Morning Seina,” I greeted back.

  “My name is Tomoya,” he corrected.

  “Sorry Tomoko!” I called back. "Morning Keira," I said as I walked past my friend and took a seat at my desk.

  "Morning Daisuke," replied Keira.

  I had a feeling that something was a little out of the ordinary. I turned around to see that a girl was sitting on Keira’s desk before him, and they were even holding hands. I couldn't believe that Keira had gotten himself a girlfriend without telling me!

  "And then I said, no I ordered the small size," said Keira in what looked like the punch line of a joke. The girl before him burst out laughing.

  "Wow, you're so funny," she laughed dramatically, but it sounded like she was acting.

  I had a feeling that I'd seen his new girlfriend somewhere before. Her short blonde hair looked familiar and the sound of her voice made me feel uneasy. After a minute of staring I finally realized that she was the crazy girl who confessed to me in the school garden.

  It had been a few weeks since that terrible day, and just thinking about it made me shudder. She still often tried to greet me in the hall, and even attempted to apologise, but I tried my best to avoid her in case she exploded again.

  I thought she may have given up and moved on, but she kept glancing over her shoulder to see what I was doing. It was obviously just her new scheme to make me jealous, and I couldn't believe that she was using Keira. My poor innocent friend looked like he had no idea! I had no choice but to save him before it was too late.

  I got out of my seat and walked over to Keira's desk. I also tried my best not to acknowledge the crazy girl, but she began smiling like a maniac.

  “Hey, Keira can I talk to you for a moment?” I asked.

  “Yeah sure,” he replied.

  “Outside,” I said while gesturing towards the hallway.

  "I suppose," said Keira. He anxiously stood up and followed me out of the classroom.

  “Hey, I don’t know how to break it to you man," I said while nervously shifting my weight from one foot to the other. I didn't want to upset Keira but someone had to do it. "But I think this girl might be using you to get revenge on me for turning her down.”

  “No, not Tina," said Keira. His mouth dropped open in horror and I could see the denial written all over his face. "Just this morning she said that we are fated to be together, I think she may be the one.”

  “But didn’t you say that you have a thing for Mandy?” I asked.

  “Who’s Mandy?” Asked Tina as she peered her head around the door to see what we were doing.

  "Nothing Honeybunch," Keira called out over his shoulder. “Shhhh,” he hissed at me. “Can’t you see that I have a girlfriend now?”

  "Honeybunch? Since when did you start calling girls Honeybunch?" I whispered so that Tina couldn’t hear.

  "It's what all the third years do!” Keira whispered back. “And I can call her whatever I like. You're obviously just jealous that I have a girlfriend and you don't.”

  “No I’m not!” I protested. But I was actually a little jealous. I never expected a geeky guy like Keira to ever get a girlfriend. I had always pictured him as one of the single guys at Mana and I’s wedding.

  We weren’t the only ones in the hallway talking about our love lives. I could see another two guys from a different class standing outside my classroom door. They were hesitantly peering in at the girls inside.

  “What do you think about the chicks in this class?” Asked one guy. I had never spoken to him before so I didn’t know his name.

  “That girl at the back has an awesome rack,” said the second guy. “But other than her I can’t see anyone worth dating.”

  “Mana Shinya used to be kind of cute,” said the first guy. “But now she has that creepy scar on her face. I know it was because she was attacked by some rabid animal, but I don't think I can do a chick who has something like that. It's just unnerving you know.”

  “Right!” Said the second guy. “Anna Watanabe said that she saw it when they were changing for gym class, and her face was hell messed up.”

  “Like, maybe I would date her if there were no other girls at school.�
�

  “But, it'd still feel like you were dating the Bride of Frankenstein right?”

  Mana was one of my closest friends, so I thought they'd gone too far. I turned to tell them to quit it, but that was when I saw Mana emerge from the bathroom behind them. She looked shaken and tears were emerging from her eyes. Mana wiped them away and quickly tried to walk away without anyone noticing, but from the look on her face there was no denying that she heard everything.

  “Mana!” I called out to her.

  Maybe yelling out her name wasn't a great idea, because the two guys in front of me suddenly spun around and saw her too.

  “Shit dude!" Said the first guy. "She was right behind you the whole time!”

  “How was I supposed to know!” Said his friend. “She just crept up behind me like a ghost. Her long fringe even makes her look like something out of a horror movie.”

  “Great going man,” said the first guy as he punched his friend in the shoulder. “Now Itsuki is going to have it out for you!”

  I wanted to tell Mana that there was nothing to worry about. To me she still looked cute and I would happily beat up those guys for her, but Mana suddenly dashed down the hall and towards the main door.

  “Mana!” I yelled out and ran after her, but she raced out of the school building. This may have been a sign to leave her alone, but to me it looked like a cry for help. I recalled what Kurumi said about Mana being self-conscious about her scar. She still used plaster to cover the right side of her face, and she'd even started growing her fringe long in an attempt to hide it too. It was obviously still upsetting her and I wanted to do anything I could to help.

  "Mana wait, stop! Don’t you remember that Nina’s bro banned us from skipping class!" I called out.

  I chased her out of the school and down the street towards the bus stop. There was a bus already there which was about to leave, and Mana quickly jumped on to escape from me.