part 3 :
"Seiji, are you sure this is the right way?"
Yukino asked me with a worried tone. Why shouldn’t she be? Instead of running out, we were racing back into the third floor’s mall interior, and went to the line of shops on the eastern side of the mall.
"Yeah, the place where I want to show you is just over this shop."
I directed my phone's light to a book shop that's right in front of us. The book shop was deserted and in shambles. Magazines and newspapers were scattered around the floor and some of the hard covered books that's on sale had also toppled from its display area.
After passing the shop, we arrived at an empty coffee shop. Needless to say that it were also in shambles. Broken cups and plates with half eaten desserts were scattered around the small round tables. Looks like they were in a big hurry. Can't blame them though, with the black out and all.
A large logo of the coffee shop was attached to the entrance door, a crescent moon with a pack of deer running under it. Hence the name Moon - Bucks, it’s an odd way of naming, don’t you think?
"Is this... the Moon Bucks?"
"Yep, Moon Bucks."
"And what do we need from this coffee shop?"
"Hmm? Yuki, you never been inside the shop?"
"Uh, no, I just heard it from my friends from class. They said that this shop was special or something."
"Oh, I see... Then let me show you what makes this coffee shop so special and how it would help us in this situation."
I let her hand go and reached for the thick glass door decorated with the Moon Bucks logo,
"Ah! Your hand..."
"Huh? Did you say something?"
"Uh, n-no, I didn't say anything..."
Odd, I could've sworn she said something... Oh well.
"Follow me."
I navigated through the dark coffee shop interior and quickly reached a small opening on the corner of the shop. Right in front of me was a red door, decorated with golden stripes on the sides. I open the door, revealing a set of stairs leading down.
"Eh? Stairs?"
"Yep, if you were on the second floor, you would find a small area where this stairs would end. It would also be covered in red carpets and a logo of Moon Bucks on top of it."
"I see. Two entrances, one at the second and one at the third floor... and we could use it to go to the second floor!"
"Exactly."
"But Seiji, how do you know all this?"
"Oh, I worked part-time here before, so I practically knew about the dual entrance."
"..."
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing... I just thought that you're starting to look like a certain butler that I read in a manga... in terms of working part-time almost everywhere..." [5]
A butler? Ah, that reminds me when I had that part-time job on a certain mansion at summer. But enough about that, we need to escape!
“Come on Yuki, and watch your steps.”
I lead the way into the dark stairs, brandishing my flashlight (/phone) to light the way. Yukino grabbed on my hooded jacket and followed behind me.
As we worked our way down, the gears inside my head starts to spin again.
There's something bugging me from the start of that fire alarm.
Judging from the fact that all the sprinklers had been activated at the same time, it should have been a really big fire. But oddly enough, I don't see any smoke coming from the upper floor or the lower floor. I can't even feel any extreme temperature changes to the mall interiors.
Is this some kind of sick joke? If so, this is definitely not funny...
Tch! At any rate, I must get Yukino out of here first.
As we reached the second floor, I quickly took her hand and guided her to exit the room. And right at that moment...
*pan!* a sharp breaking sound echoed through the mall. An eerie blue light suddenly envelops the mall's interior, the fire alarm went silent and the sprinklers stopped dousing the mall's interior.
"What is that sound?"
"I don't know, maybe one of the glass pane got broken? Anyway, looks like the backup generator had finally kicked in."
Though I doubted that fact myself, I need to calm her down a bit. She was on the verge of freaking out, squeezing my hand like she wants to crush it.
Thankfully, the blue light had returned some visibility to my eyes, but it's still a little too dim to see anything clearly.
"Seiji? Where is everybody?"
There's a complete and utter silence in the air, it's as if someone had pushed the giant mute button.
I narrowed my eyes and looked toward the huge stairs to the third floor that was supposed to be packed with panicked people trying to escape.
But, no matter how hard I look, there's not a single soul there.
"What the heck??"
Yukino suddenly pulled my left arm, hugged it tightly and let out a shriveled voice,
"Yuki?"
"S-Se-Seiji, w-wh-what is that!??"
She points to certain area of the hall that's usually used to set a stage. A large shadow slowly moved from behind a pillar and out toward the wide hall area.
I reflexively raised my phone, trying to see the owner of that mysterious shadow better.
"Geh!!??"
An enormous beast came into my sight, with black skin and mane as dark as the night. The sheer body size of that thing was as big as a dump truck, maybe even bigger.
Huge teeth roughly as big as my arm lined perfectly on its huge jaws. Three large scythe-like claws jutted from each of its huge paws. Its body was standing on all fours, giving a monstrous yet majestic look.
I was speechless, that thing is definitely a monster. There no other words to describe it but that.
Two gleaming yellow eyes that's attached to its head stared back at me. Then the lion-like beast lets out an intensely loud roar.
It suddenly stomped on the ceramic floor and moved in an unbelievable speed towards us.
"Dammit!!
I quickly grabbed Yukino's hand and quickly dragged her out of the way.
"Uwah!!??"
I ran as fast as my legs could carry me to the left side of the collision course. And as I gain a slight momentum, I hugged Yukino’s hip and quickly launched my body to the air, in hoping that we managed to dodge the incoming beast completely.
"Uooo!!!"
And right at that moment...
*Crunch!!*
The huge beast's gnashed its teeth about an inch behind me. If I'm late just by a second, we'd be caught between those razor sharp fangs. As the beast flew past us, the extremely huge body had created a gust of wind. Powerful enough that it to knocks both me and Yukino away.
"Gah!!"
"Kyaaahh!??"
Being thrown off track like a paper plane that's suddenly blown to another direction, the only thing I could see was a wall of ceramic tiles around a meter distance in front of me, and the fluttering hair of the Hoshiyume shrine miko.
That's because I was flying in mid air, facing down, and holding Yukino on my arm.
And to avoid Yukino being squashed under me, I used everything I had to spin my body facing up. With this speed, I might just break my back on the landing, but it would be better than the other option.
"Hiiiii~!!"
Yukino curled her body in fright and with strength that I couldn't believe her slender body could have mustered, she tightened her grip to my ribs to the point I started to think that she would break every single bone on my ribcage.
*WHAM!!*
To add to my agony, my body slammed to the cold hard ceramic floor. As the sharp pain shot through my whole body, my consciousness drifted from being awake and passing out for a brief moment.
"Kuh…"
And as I regained my consciousness, the beast lets out another ear piercing roar, probably signaling another charge like earlier.
Dammit!! This is bad!!
I picked up my aching body and pulled every ounce of strength left on my body to move toward Yukino who was lying on the floor not far from me.
"Yuki!! Oi, YUKI!!!"
I shook her body to wake her up. But it's no use, she's out cold.
So I tried to lift her to my arms with a cradling position. But, as I managed to hold her on my arms, I saw the beast's jaws gnawing at me. The monster was within three feet distance from me and Yukino. there is no way I can dodge it this time...
Dammit!! Is this it?
Is this how the life of an ordinary guy, Akuno Seiji, will end? Getting eaten by a giant hulking monster while trying to save a girl?
Heh, so much for being lucky…
*BANG!* a dry gunshot reverberated the hall, followed by an explosion to the beast's right side, veering it off its inteded course and slammed itself to the large pillar on the side.
The floor shook like the mall had just caught in an earthquake.
"Take her and run! The demon won't be lying there for long!"
A voice of a girl echoed at the empty hall, followed by a torrent of footsteps coming towards me.
Her stature was quite small, maybe a little bit shorter than Yukino who was one head short from me.
"Demon?"
Did I heard her wrong? Or did she really said demon? That monstrous thing is a demon??
She stopped right beside me. Her silvery white hair had covered most of her face, so I couldn’t see her face clearly.
She points a silver object on her right hand to the beast.
That long barrel, revolving bullet chamber, and that stainless steel frame... It was a gun, a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum Revolver, with a laser targeting system attached on its barrel.
I know that gun because I have that exact same gun replica in my room.
"Oi! Are you deaf!? I said take her and run!"
Her voice snapped me out of my dazed state.
"Wha-? Oh! R-right! What about you?"
"I’ll be fine,"
The girl twirled her Magnum Revolver like she was a cowgirl marksman on a western movie.
"You should be more worried about the girl on your arms than me."
Yukino was breathing silently like she was just taking a nap, but I could see a small cut on her forehead, dripping with fresh blood.
"Damn…"
"Go, I’ll cover you."
She said again, this time with a cold tone. Her eyes did not leave the big mass of muscles, claws and fangs that were recovering from her surprise attack earlier. The monstrous beast was growling with anger as it regains its grand posture.
"Khh… Please be safe!"
I urged each and every muscle on my body to move, and I ran as fast as I could towards the large stairs to the first floor. I know it’s a cowardly thing to do, leaving a girl fending herself in this situation, but what other options do I have?
At that moment I could hear the silver haired girl said,
"Now then, how would you like another serving of my magic bullets?"
[5] Here she implies a certain butler from a manga series, codename: Combat Butler :P
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