The world stood still as the sky above turned pitch black.
Erika took a cautious step closer to Akira, her eyes wide. "A-Akira… what's happening?"
Haruna trembled behind her, barely able to speak. "T-The sky… it's black…"
"This is a full-scale isolation barrier, a really big one at that", Akira thought, scanning the horizon with narrowed eyes.
Then he saw them.
Figures moving through the shadowy mist just outside the treeline, hulking, fur-covered monsters that stood on two legs, with sharp claws and Teeth. Eyes glowing faintly with a red hue.
Werewolves.
Lots of them.
Akira raised his hand to cast a teleportation spell, a purple magic circle formed beneath their feet, glowing for a brief second before cracking apart and shattering like glass. The spell collapsed instantly, dispelled by the barrier's interference.
"No teleportation," he muttered grimly. "We're boxed in."
Iori stood in front of them without hesitation and spoke. "Akira, take the girls and run. I'll hold them off."
Akira's eyes widened. "What? No, that's stupid! You never split up in this kind of situation! From all the movies I watched, it always ends badly!"
But Iori didn't smile. His tone was serious. "I'm not joking. I need to go all out, and they'll only hold me back. You're faster. Stealthier. Get them out of here, go back home, and call your parents."
Akira knew he could easily blast the werewolves apart with his magic, but protecting everyone if they all attacked at once would be another matter. There were simply too many of them. And with the isolation barrier in place, he couldn't even call his parents for help. He realized he was probably walking straight into a trap, but he had no choice but to follow Iori's words.
"Fine," Akira said, biting his lip in frustration.
With a quick motion, he lifted Haruna into a princess carry.
"Eh?!" she squeaked, her face instantly going bright red.
"Sorry. No time, just hang on tight," Akira muttered quickly, placing a hand on his own chest. "Veil of Silence."
A shimmer of air surrounded them as they vanished from sight.
"Erika, stay close to me," Akira said. "Don't let go."
Erika nodded, running lightly beside him as they slipped through the darkness, invisible to their enemies.
Behind them, Iori turned to face the incoming horde. Dozens of werewolves emerged into the open, eyes gleaming like coals.
"Well," Iori said, rolling his shoulders, "Come on, mutts. Let's see if you're worth my time."
As the battle cry of the first werewolf split the air, Iori's calm blue eyes started to glow blood red.
Akira ran with Haruna in his arms, Erika close behind. She wasn't as fast as him, so he had to slow down to keep her within the range of his magic. At this point, He really wished he had fixed his hoverboard and other artifacts. All of them were broken from his daily training with his mother, and he never had the time to repair them. He hadn't expected to face such a dangerous situation so soon, but now he was the only one who could protect them, and he would protect them.
"It's okay," he whispered. "We'll be safe soon. Just hold on."
Erika nodded firmly, though her eyes flicked to Haruna, who was clinging to Akira with her face hidden in his shoulder.
"This barrier… It's too big. Did the werewolves do this alone?" Akira thought, navigating the shadowy streets. "Someone planned this. They made their move just as my parents were out of town".
He glanced down at Haruna, whose breathing was uneven from fear.
"I didn't want it to come to this." His parents were usually laid-back, but they had one absolute rule: if an ordinary person ever saw him use magic, he had to erase their memories for their own safety. He recalled Erika's decision in the anime, when she erased an entire year of Haruna's memories to protect her secret. He had originally resolved to avoid that future, but now he faced the same choice himself.
"Seriously? Just as I made my decision to avoid that future, this happens," Akira thought in frustration, "Forget it. Maybe… if it's just one day. Just today's memory, I can erase it and nothing else. If anyone says otherwise, I'll just have to convince them."
Akira could just erase today's memory of Haruna to keep the secret, but the thought of erasing someone's memories left a bitter taste in his mouth. As a reincarnated person, memories were important to Akira. He never wanted to lose them. For Akira, memories are what make a person who he is, and losing his memories meant losing himself. But the situation left him no choice.
Akira fixed his eyes on the barrier's edge as it drew near. He wanted nothing more than to call his parents the moment he crossed it, but there was no time to stop. There could be other enemies waiting, and first, he needed to reach his house.
Just as he stepped outside, another barrier pulsed into existence.
The invisible spell cloaking him shattered in an instant.
Akira skidded to a halt. "Oh…"
He tried to recast the spell, but nothing happened.
"This barrier… It's absorbing magic! It's a trap!"
Just then, dozens of werewolves stepped from the shadows, blocking his path in front of them, their number was even more than the group Iori was facing.
And then, one of them stepped forward.
It towered above the others, its fur a mottled ash grey. A long scar split its chest, and its eyes burned with aged malice and cold intelligence.
"Well, well," the giant werewolf growled in a low, gravelly voice. "We finally meet, brat."
It raised a clawed finger and pointed straight at him.
"Today is the day you die."