Hoshi's POV
Today was a Sunday, so Mariya and I attended our local church, the Eastern Evangelical Methodist Church of Nara City. This church belonged to a Filipino denomination called the Eastern Evangelical Church. The founding of it was almost like a legend: starting in 1914 Philippines, 3 Methodist churches and 2 Baptist churches severed ties with their American mainline planters because of concerns with trending theological liberalism. Now it grew into a small international network of churches.
Back to our church, the interior was like that of an English parish. But there were no baptismal font nor stained glasses of Jesus or the saints. We don't practice infant baptism, our view of communion is symbolic, and our stained glass are instead Japanese bamboo, Philippine sun, and British crosses. The service started at 9 a.m., with singing and a procession with an empty cross and 2 volunteers carrying burning incense sticks going from the entrance to the altar amidst the music from the pipe organ and guitars and a few traditional Japanese instruments. I played the guitar.
After that, this was followed by 2 songs of praise, a prayer before the sermon, sermon about the armor of God, a prayer after the sermon, tithes and offerings at the altar, doxology, one more song, and then prayer after that.
The serviced ended at 12 noon.
But, one afternoon after school, I went home alone. Bokuto went to a manga store to check out some latest manga so he wasn't with me for today. Along the way, I went through an alleyway to shorten my travel time so I would be in the comfort of my home. It was located between a hotel, 1 suburban home, 1 cafe, and 1 small Jewish synagogue. It was lonely and the houses on both sides had made walking through a bit scary and looked risky.
As I walked through with caution, I thought the worse would deteriorate and my situation would be better, but, suddenly, I felt something under my shoes. So, I looked down towards the ground, only to see dark shadow seeping through and under. I panicked and got out of the way, and I turned to my right, only to see a figure manifesting out of the shadows before me. I was scared and was frozen in my position. And then, that figure manifested into someone who has magenta eyes, dark grey hair, and wears medieval-like clothes.
"Hello there," he greeted.
Backing off a bit, I asked back, "W-Who are you?"
It was a casual question, but it is, indeed.
"I was sent by my master to eliminate you," the assassin-like figure responded as he drew out his sword with a brown and dark yellow leather handle.
He pointed the end of its blade at me. "Now, try to fight."
Hearing this, at first, I didn't want to summon Kuro into battle, but he did it anyway then.
Then, Kuro took over me and my right grey eye glowed a bit.
I felt the power flowing to me, as Kuro.
Even our high school uniform had transformed into more formal clothing as well.
I then looked at the figure with seriousness. "Wanna fight me?"
I then get my kunai knife from our bag and, using my mana, transforming it into my father's deadly scythe, before I toss our bag.
This causes the figure to be very surprised.
Although I can't read his mind, I can tell that he was scared.
I then wielded the deadly-looking scythe. "Are you ready?"
Then, the figure snapped out and became serious again. "Yes, I am."
And so, our fight had begun. That figure used his shadow magic to charge at me, and I dodged it with alertness. I then clashed with his sword with my scythe.
"You'll never get rid of me, whoever you are!" I shouted.
"My master wants you dead!" the figure replied back before we disengaged and clashed again.
Then, I noticed one of the blades on one of the figure's hands was about to reach and pierce my right arm, so I just jumped high and swung my scythe, shooting dark aura magic toward him. But the figure blocked it with a shadow-like shield, probably made of magic.
"What the…?" I commented while floating in the air. "Who is he?"
The figure then began shooting balls of shadow-like magic at me, but I dodged them pretty quickly.
I then used my scythe to shoot dark aura magic at him, but he blocked it with the same shadow-like shield.
I was a bit frustrated because I couldn't hit him a single bit.
But then, that ended when a kunai knife burst into the scene, breaking the figure's shield.
I was stunned and looked in the direction where that knife came from, only to see that it was Bokuto who threw it.
"What are you doing, you cosplayer?" he asked the figure while panting, assuming that the figure is a cosplayer.
"What in the…?" I asked in my mind in a bit of disappointment, before descending down back on the ground.
The figure then looked at Bokuto, then at me.
"I'll get you next time," he said to me, before fleeing the scene by dissipating into shadow.
After that, Bokuto asked me, "Are you okay? Who was that guy?"
"Yes, but," I returned, "I had no idea who he was."
Then, Bokuto took a close look at me, seeing my eyes I have. "Wait a minute, are those Hoshi's?"