Page 19 of Light Leech

“As you demand.”

A black aura pulsed around my arm, giving it a muscular and clawed shell, though the black light was quick to fade. I almost reprimanded Zhu for the weak display, but he was not wrong to be weary. My trust had been stretched thin and was already torn by multiple people.

As with all the worst matters in my life, this was bound to repeat.

“Zeg!” Denji exclaimed.

“It’s usually more vibrant.” Naoma said.

“And something like that came out of your therapist?”

“A therapist used something similar.”

“Do you think the enemy figured out how to hone Gui?” Abbas asked.

“Are you sure this is the enemy?“ Akna asked.

“Gongtide or not, I don’t like it.” Ralia said.

“Any luck?” I asked.

“There’s been obvious tampering,” she replied.

“Do you see seams?”

“Not at all. The opposite, actually. This shac is as beige and vanilla as you go. There’s no reason someone like him would go for you and before you ask, I’m not settling on the ‘possessed’ theory. Gui need a specific device to hold them, as far as I understand.”

“That’s true.”

“So Bhate Denji finally understands something?”

He chuckled. “I’m more on the tech side than the doctrine. If you want to know the deep doctrinal lore, you’ll have to go back to Bhate Tenma.”

“Hold up,” Ralia said. “I’ma try… yes, we’ve got a little opening right about… he–”

A shriek brought our hands to our ears. The sound was a vile callback to the visions of my never-child’s gory explosion. I opened an eye, seeing the others tremble and join in the scream as the neurospace hardware shook and bounced off of the desk.

Ralia had collapsed to the floor. Her eyes flashed with dark blue light.

Zhu, help.

I felt his presence cover my ears. The shriek continued, but it was bearable, like walking on hot sand instead of coals.

A familiar black aura, the tainted opposite of Zhu’s Essence, leaked from the hardware’s cracks like rising smoke. The rising body conglomerated into a wretched form, a fetal image of the therapist’s ghost with tentacles stretching out like thin needles. Before they could reach us, a white flash emanated from Naoma as her serpent extended to devour the ghoul before it could grow.

Silence rang loud. Everyone had winced and cowered, but I saw their eyes wide as Naoma’s serpent fed.

“The zeg was that?” Boyband stood with malaise, scratching his mess of hair and blinking bloodshot eyes.

Naoma glared at him.

“Yeah, I saw what you did. That screech was loud enough for me to feel it in my bones.”

“Why didn’t you shock him harder?” Akna asked.

Kuni stepped towards Boyband.

“Kuni don’t,” I said. The kid looked up at me. “It’s fine. At least for now.” Kuni and I shared a smile.