Koga Ran
New Aoyoma, Abandoned Shop
Night
"Of course."
A blunt, unworried answer that you were starting to think was typical of your partner.
The beast above you rampaging for one reason or another, you recognize the danger of staying here any longer, and sprint across the room for the second entrance, looking behind you every once in awhile in order to ensure that Kimiko hadn't gone and collapsed from the strain behind you. The door, once you reached it, proved to be locked, so it was with a raised foot and a small cry that you kicked it, the rusted metal door bursting from the hinges with only a single kick.
It's a good thing too.
For the instant you escape onto the outside staircase-
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!!!"
A fist of black miasma crashes against the basement floor behind you as the creature screams again, the sheer force behind the blow letting loose a sound like an explosion, concrete fragments shooting past the both of you as you darted up the stairs. While you were unsure if the beast had attacked because it could sense your movement, or simply because it was in it's nature to destroy things, you took advantage of the fact that it was a dense enough spiritual being that it's body was able to get stuck in the physical wreckage, and kept running away from the building and the dark colossus even as it let loose another impossible, tyrannous roar.
A-Class Spirits, when taking this sort of form, didn't tend to be very agile.
They were bringers of destruction, existences that attacked the lives and world of others directly, and as the thing finally shook itself from the wreckage and came after you, eyes the size of your body peering at you in the darkness, it became clear that this was a truth for this creature as well.
??? AGI revealed as E
If all you wanted to do was keep away from it, then it should be possible with just your body alone, however, it's form was so large that, no matter how far you ran, you were almost completely positive it would always be able to keep you in it's line of sight. Still, for now you kept going, wanting to put as much distance between your group and it as you possibly could, silently thanking the fact that the streets were empty for the most part, void of life, with only the occasional wrecked car to obstruct your frantic pace. Eventually, the roars of the creature lessen, and the feeling of it's hostile intent leaves your body, but two glimmering spheres in the distance, as well as the fact that Kimiko's fastest pace had slowly become a walk, only served to highlight that the struggle had not been avoided.
"Don't look at me like that... This is nothing..."
It was a lie.
Even if she hadn't been a naturally bad liar, you who had experienced the same thing, could tell that it was affecting her.
Carrying her would be the same thing as both of you carrying the stone, and if she couldn't keep up the pace, and you were unwilling to leave her behind, the thing would probably catch up to the both of you here.
Around you, there was just more of the same, empty buildings, empty cars, black fog... And...
"Hey... You two are alive... Right?"
The voice of a young woman whose presence you hadn't been able to feel until just now comes from behind you.
Whirling around once-
You see someone, younger than the both of you, staring at you in a vaguely curious manner.
"You don't want to come this way... Some of the people back there turned into monsters..."
Stating that rather disturbing piece of information as if it was just a depressing fact of life she had to accept, the girl grew silent for a moment before continuing, her eyes widening ever so slightly as her gaze landed on Kimiko.
"...Is she alright? Are you guys running from something?"
Now that you could see her, you got the feeling that she was someone "abnormal," like Kimiko and yourself, but at the same time, her innocent concern also seemed pretty genuine...