Black Stained Winter: Chapter 3 - "Two Demons, Two Men"

The Great Green Park spreads several blocks. Its enormous size inadvertently cuts several main roads and force people to get around it. To compensate with this, roads that connect each sides of the park were made. Those who need to get to the other side of the park can simply utilize the roads and go through the park either by foot or in a vehicle. A lot of people thus cross the park in daily basis.

One such man is still walking inside the park tonight. His bright red jacket is in contrast with the dark surrounding. A pink scarf is stylishly circling his neck, keeping it warm. His legs are covered by blue denim and his foot by brown boots. His tidily brushed back black hair is shining from the moonlight. On his mouth between his lips is dangling a piece of wood, a toothpick.

This guy visits the park almost every day; either just crossing it or enjoying the atmosphere of the park. His uncanny sense of fashion make him easily stands out in the crowd, especially because he always wear that eye-catching pink scarf everyday regardless of the weather. The homeless man refer to him as 'Mr. Dandy' because his fashion sense.

Just like every night, Mr. Dandy is still walking in the Great Green Park. His hands find refuge from cold inside his jacket's side pocket. He is on his way back home after bought and ate his favorite pork dumpling. The Great Green Park lies between his place and the store that sells it. Tonight is not the first time he went to such length only for a pork dumpling.

A winter breeze blows, sending cold air all around. Mr. Dandy stops in his steps. No, not because the breeze affecting him and make him feel cold. No, he is stopping because he noticed something unusual, something that not supposed to be here.

*Sniff* *Sniff*

Mr. Dandy raised his nose and trying to catch the scent that was brought by the passing wind. Between the usual scent of grass, leaves, flowers, and woods, mixed in a scent that shouldn't be here. It's a scent that Mr. Dandy hasn't encounter for years. The source of the scent is something not from this world, something that out of place. The source of the scent is...

"...A demon."

His expression changes. That is understandable. Demon is not supposed to be in this world. And although there are different kinds of demons out there, Mr. Dandy knows that most of the demons that visit earth realm don't have good intent with them. Innocent people might get hurt. And if the demon rampaging, it would make a huge chaos.

Mr. Dandy rushes to the direction of the scent. His speed is amazing, it is not something you see every day. He's like a bullet that moves very fast but at the same time able to avoid the trees that are scattered on his path. With only slight movement, he manages to move enough to barely avoid the trees. His movement is fluid; flowing. It's as if he is a leaf in a river avoiding stones and rocks gracefully.

His long pink scarf is flailing behind him, creating a pink blur on Mr. Dandy's track. As he running to the source of the demonic scent, he reaches into his bright scarf. A moment later, he pulls out a long emerald stick decorated by engraving with a sharp end on one side. It's a spear. That's right, Mr. Dandy just pulled out one long spear from a thin piece of cloth. He spins the spear and then holds it with his right hand behind his back parallel to his spine.

It's not even a minute passes when Mr. Dandy reaches an open area. What welcomes him is a scene that's out of this world. A huge four legged beast stands in the field. its head is looking down at a little fox girl who's writhing in pain under one of its big paws. A black miasma is flowing out slowly from all part of the beast's body.

The situation looks grim. It's likely that beast is intended to devour the pink haired girl. There's a homeless guy near them with a scary looking expression in his face. It seems that man is worried about the little fox girl and his face says that he want to kill the beast. 'He can't help her.'

Mr. Dandy spins and ready his spear. He knows he can handle the beast; he can feel it. What he doesn't know is whether he will do it in time before that fox girl get killed or not. He grits his teeth from the thought of not being able to save the life before him. The spear in his right hand is gripped tightly. He's ready to strike. But the distance between Mr. Dandy and the beast becomes a big obstacle. What he need to do is focusing all his power to his legs and kicks the ground with all his might to accelerate forward in high speed.

*DASH*

No, that's not Mr. Dandy dashing. His previously serious face looks surprised. Before he's able to dash forward, the homeless man dashed with high speed towards the beast. His face is furious. One can see anger is glowing inside his eyes.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

Accompanied by a scream, that homeless man lands a hard uppercut into the beast's jaw. The beast's head sways upward from the strong punch. Before it can recover from the attack, that man continue to barrage the beast with insanely fast punches and kicks.

Within seconds, the beast fall to the ground. Mr. Dandy slows down and stops on the side of the beast. He looked at the beast demon for a while before he kneels and place his palm on the demons furry body.

"...It's still alive."

The demon body still excreting black miasma. Looking at that thick black smoke, Mr. Dandy has a bad feeling. He doesn't know what that is, but his guts telling him that it is something that's not nice. At the very least he need to try to avoid it if he can.

"*Cough* *Cough*"

"Are you okay, Tama?"

"Hn,  my chest a little hurt but I think I'm fine, Mister Hobo."

Mr. Dandy stands and turns to this odd couples; A man who's strong enough to beat one 3 meters demon bare handed and a little female fox spirit who shouldn't be in Earthrealm.

"Her ribcage may be broken. You should check on that."

"Hm? Oh, Mr. Dandy! I see that you intended to help her. I give you my thanks for the thought."

"Wait. Mr. Dandy? Is that what you call me?"

"Well, we never introduced before. That's what we called you all this time after all. Ah, you can call me the Hobo."

"Sigh, really? The Hobo? Don't you have, I don't know, a much better name?"

The Hobo answers it with a shrug.

"Well, anyway, stop calling me Mr. Dandy. My name is-"

*CRASH**CRACK*

Before Mr. Dandy finished saying his name, a loud cracking sound comes from the dense tree curtains. Everybody is watching the way the sounds come when one big tree falls down as something fly through it. The 'something' that broke the tree is a long haired girl. Rather than 'fly', 'thrown' is perhaps more accurate seeing her condition.

She's laying unconscious on the ground. Her left arm is bend in unnatural way with row of holes on it like a bite mark. Blood flow down from her head. The most horrible part is a huge gaping wounds on his chest. The flesh is cut open wide one can almost see her ribs. Blood gushing from the wound to her now ruined clothes, dyeing it red. Her breath is heavy and irregular. Not long after that girl landed on the ground, a huge scythe falls down with its blade sticks on the ground near the girl.

Another beast demon lunges out from the trees. Its body also excreting thick black fog just like the unconscious one. As soon as it sees its friend laying unconscious, it roars loud.

"Khu, another one? What the hell is happening here?"

The Hobo is about to dashing to the new enemy, but Mr. Dandy hold him back.

"Stay here."

"Wait, what?!"

He throws away the tooth pick he was biting and just like that Mr. Dandy rushing in high speed toward the four legged demon beast. His hand is gripping the spear tightly, ready to strike. The beast also rushing forward growling. In almost an instant, both are already in melee range. The beast open its big jaws and attempts to bite Mr. Dandy. The bite is fast, yet Mr. Dandy is faster. He dodges by leaping high forward to the sky.

The beast quickly turns to Mr. Dandy who's now high above behind the beast. Accompanied with a roar, it jumps high to Mr. Dandy. With his emerald green spear on his right hand, Mr. Dandy raises his spear high and then launch it downward to the demon beast from near point blank distance with full power.

The spear traverse while surrounded by bright greenish waves of energy spiraling out. It hits the beast right on the head and dragging it down with enormous speed, leaving a beautiful spiraling green traces on its trail. In under a second, the spear with the beast lands on the ground with a loud boom, cracking the earth. The beast sprawls motionless on the ground with a spear piercing through its head.

Mr. Dandy falls down safely with his scarf flailing above him. He reaches to his red jacket's pocket and pulls out a small container full of toothpicks. With a single hand motion, a toothpick emerge from one open end. Mr. Dandy then bites it and pulls it out fully from the container before returning the container back into his pocket.

"That was awesome Mr. Dandy!"
"Go, Mr. Dandy!"
"Mr. Dandy is as dandy as his name!"

The homeless men are in awe with Mr. Dandy feat and start to come out from their hiding while cheering him.

"Like I said, my name is-"

Before he completed his sentences, loud caws are coming from above. Up above a huge group of crows shrouding the sky and descending to the park. Their numbers are so great that the moonlight is hidden by them. This is obviously something that's not natural. Everyone there is stunned by the scene before them. They are speechless. Even those two men who were able to take care of the demons single-handedly are silent.

The group of crows then divides into two groups; each heading to the beast's bodies. They land on the bodies and, with loud caws, start to pecking on them fiercely. The demon that still alive is awaken, yet it can do nothing but growling in fear and pain. The crows keep pecking on them and tearing them apart.

"...Mister," Tama hides behind The Hobo and grips his winter coat tightly. The Hobo and Mr. Dandy are petrified by the horrid scene presented to them. Never in their live they see something as grisly as this.

Suddenly a big crow lands near them. Its eyes are flaming red. It looks at Mr. Dandy and The Hobo before opening its beak. But, it's not a caw or croak that come out from its beak; It's human language.

"Thanks to you two, the demons can be brought down without any chaos."

"Hey! What are you?!" The Hobo voice's a little cracking since the scene is so bizarre.

"That's not a concern of you. What I can tell you is this will not be the last time we meet."

The Big Crow turns to Mr. Dandy, "Something is coming and the power of both of you will be needed."

"What do you mean?" Mr. Dandy asks.

"Soon you'll understand. As for now, my work here is done. No one will ever find those two demons."

As it says that, all the crows fly off to the night sky, leaving nothing but bloodstains. The demons are gone, eaten away fiercely by the crows. This will prevents ordinary people to find them and make a fuss of it.

After being distracted by the group of crows taking off, they all just realize that the Big Crow is already gone. Presumably leaving with the crows.

"Well... That was weird." The Hobo looks up to the sky while patting Tama's head.

Mr. Dandy isn't giving any comment and instead walks to his spear which still covered with blood. He plucks it out from the ground and swings it hard side way to get rid of the demonic blood. Then, he thrusts it into the bright pink scarf. But, instead of ripping the scarf, the spear slowly disappear as if it is eaten by the scarf. And just like that, now the spear is nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Mister! Where's the spear gone to?" Tama ran and looked at Mr. Dandy in excitement. She seem curious about the disappearing spear.

Mr. Dandy only replies with pats on Tama's head before walks to the bleeding girl. He kneels down on her side and checking her condition. The wounds are pretty bad. It's amazing that she's still alive with all those wounds.

Then, suddenly Mr. Dandy's expression changes slightly as if realizing something.

"How's that girl? We need to bring her to hospital quickly."

Ignoring The Hobo's suggestion, Mr. Dandy approaches the big scythe.

"Hospital can't do anything to her."

He takes the scythe and, just like his emerald spear, he puts the silver scythe inside his scarf and disappear while walking back towards the girl. Mr. Dandy then lift the girl up carefully and hold her steady laying in his hands.

"What do you mean? And what the hell do you want to do to her."

"Don't worry. I'll take care of her."

"What? Hey, wait! HEY!"

With the girl unconscious on his hands, Mr. Dandy ignoring the homeless men and leave the park into the night.