So Seiji wasn't exactly sure what had happened on the fieldtrip. He'd gotten part of an explination, the usual horror stories of hunter attacks and chaos. Giant fire birds raising from the ruin of the four clan's homelands. Something about insanity... All horrible, but not exactly unexpected. What was supposed to have been a straight forward visit and exchange study program had gone to hell in a handbasket, but this was Amaity, and these sort of things always seemed to happen. Why was he still in this school? Oh ya.. Junko was safe, and that was really all that matter, but even as he held her while she drifted off the sleep he had to wonder what else had happened to leave that hopeless, haunted look in her eyes. She'd left something out, he knew she had, but he didn't have the heart to ask about it. He'd hear, in time, either from her or some other member of the student body if it was big enough.

He'd know, in time, and until then he'd be there for her. Whatever she needed. He would be the strong arms that held her while she slept, a shoulder to cry on, and an understanding and sympathetic ear.

It had taken awhile for her to actually fall asleep, but she had finally let go barely twenty minutes ago, and he hadn't dared move since then, despite the growing ache in his shoulder where it was pressed against the wall. He didn't dare do anything to wake her, not when she looked so exhausted, so he had waited, moving only when he was positive she wouldn't rouse. She still weighed next to nothing to him, so it was easy to scoop her up so he could slide the both of them beneith the covers. He ended with her pulled up against his chest, his arm around her stomach, face pressed down against the top of her head so he could breath in the scent of her hair as he let himself drift off as well.

He wasn't asleep more then five minutes before something woke him, though he couldn't say for sure what exactly it had been. Some noise, or maybe just a feeling. It had him groaning into his pillow as he rolled onto his stomach in a bid to reclaim a bit of lost comfort, and that's when he noticed the distinct lack of addictive warmth on his right side. "Junko?" His voice came muffled, face still pressed into the down of the pillow. She didn't answer, and he lifted his head to scan the bedroom, squinting against the light coming in from the main portion of his dorm. What was she doing up?

Crawling out of bed, he pulled on a pair of torn jeans and wandered out into his sitting room, but stopped as he got to the door, a deep frown settling on his face. She wasn't there, and his door was open.

He found her, along with a small knot of their other friends, out on the grounds gathered on the lawns between the dorms. "J, what are you doing? I thought you were tired." Dark fingers came to rest automatically on her shoulder, and he gave her an concerned look before returning the greeting smiles that were being directed up at him from Jove, Shehk, and West.

"I thought I was, but I couldn't sleep?" Junko's voice pulled him back down to her, and her tone was enough to have the ghost boil smiling, chin dipping down so he could lay a kiss on her cheek. It was odd, but as he straightened up thought he might have seen a patch of gray on her neck, but the ever moving lengths of her hair obscured his line of sight before he could be sure. Sure of what? She was fine, physically. They'd already seen to that. So why in Jack's name was he looking for something to worry about?

He put the spot out of his mind, and tried to join in on the conversation he'd apparently walked in on. Recanting stories of their first encounters with the horsemen and that damn island with it's stupid fog. His attention kept wandering between his friends though. Lingering on hands, neck lines, even the corners of pale, glowing blue eyes. The more he looked, the more he thought he saw stretches of graying skin, and what was weirder, they looked to be darkening even before his eyes. "Hey guys, are you all alright?"

"Yes, why wouldn't we be?" There was a thread of humor to Shehk's voice that left the jikininki feeling just a touch silly for his concerns, but the tiny smile that had been about to claim his lips died as he looked up at her. She was staring at him in a most unpleasant manner. In fact, he couldn't recall having ever seen the ghoul with a look like that on her face. It was hunger, and worst, and it made the dark hairs on the back of seiji's neck stand on end.

One pale hand rose, and three other's lifted to join it, all gesturing towards Seiji, and he watched in growing unease as four pairs of eyes bore into him, examined him, and he felt a chill race up the already cool skin along his spine. "What's gotten into you guys, you're all looking a little.." He trailed off, attention resting for a moment on his ghoulfriend as she turned to face him, falling in line with the others. The darkening taint had spread from her neck and up onto her beautiful face, one vivid green eye gone dull.

What the Jack was going on?

The ghost boil backed up automatically as the four of them began to move forward. Both hands coming up as if to ward of blows that hadn't been thrown yet. "This isn't funny guys, cut it out." His voice was raising, and with it his temper, but buried beneith the gruffness was an unmistakable thread of fear.

The insanity, the infection Junko had spoken so briefly about, was that what was happening now?

"Snap out of it!" His shout had little effect other then to stir them on. Cold hands circled around one wrist, and warmer ones joined on the opposite, holding him in place as West and Shehk advanced further, stepping right into him until there was no more then an inch to spare.

The first strike stunned him, and his head whipped around with a light splattering of dark blood flying from the split in his lip. "What the f-!" What ever he'd been about to scream at West cut off as a tendril of black hair wrapped around his throat, and if he hadn't already been dead he'd have been choking, fighting for air. "J-Junko.?!" The words came out strangled, and he stared with wide eyes as she grinned up at him. That same hungry expression painted on her lovely face.

There was no time properly react. The blows, once started, kept coming, and it was all he could do to protect himself from the combined assult of for people he cared about. That were supposed to be his friends, or more. And defending was all he could do. He blocked their fists, their knees and elbows. Everything he could do to keep them from hurting him, without hurting them in turn, and all the while they hissed and yelled at him. "We'll take you home! Jut let go!"

These weren't his friends. Not anymore. Or perhaps not ever. Maybe his friends had never made it back from the island. Maybe these were no more then mindless shells. Whatever they were, they weren't stopping, and Seiji's attempts to sheild himself were growing more and more desperate. He felt the cartalidge of West's nose break beneath the force of his knuckles. The snap of a wrist bone as he flung the Shehk away from him. The more he defended, the harder they fought, and the more obvious it became. They meant to kill him.

Panic was rising up within him, and combined with that desperation.. He snapped, he couldn't help it. He was not going to die on the lawn of his school at the hands of people that were supposed to be his friends. The dark fingers of his left hand lengthened, growing into the wicked claws that he'd previously been plagued with, and when the next body rushed him he drove that hand upward, through the meat of their body, and up under their ribs. It was West, and Seiji could feel his eyes going impossibly wide as he watched his friend cough up blood, staring back at him as if he hadn't a clue what was going on. "********," it wasn't enough. "I'm sorry.." It still wasn't enough, and their wasn't time. Something hit him from behind and he let the wrath demon fall, grabbing for the body that had jumped onto him, claws tearing at his back. His fingers closed around a dainty throat, and he ripped the undead ghoul off of him, bodily throawing her away. He hadn't aimed, but she slammed head first into a wall, and the boil cringed at the sound of her skull connecting.

There was still no time, and the jikininki had no time for the bubble of histeria that was building inside him. He didn't wait for the next person to attack. His claws slashed outward, and he felt the tipsfind purchase, and watched in horror as Jove dropped to his knees, wide little eyes staring up at him in shock. "I'm sorry!" These weren't his friends, not anymore. No matter how much they looked it as they.. He was saving them! He was setting them free! He was-

He staggered forward, barely staying on his feet as he coughed, black blood falling on the grass beneath him from his lips, and the fresh wound through his chest. His hand came up automatically and blood soaked hair coiled around his fingers and wrist, holding him away. "Jun-ko..?" A thick tendril of hair had lanced through him, he watched, broken, as it released his hand and slithered back through. "Why?" He staggered around to face her, looking up from the blood stains on his hands, searching her face for any slim flicker of recognition. "Baby please.." But she only smiled.

The gray was spreading on the bodies of his friends now scatterd around him, just as it was on the ghoul that now faced him. "Baby wake up." It was a hopeless plea. He took a step towards her and that alien grin grew. Hair streamed around, writhing chaotically, though a small portion seemed to be gathering for another step. "Junko," red eyes flicked between her face and the lengthing spear of black hair. "Junko!" That lance shot forward, and the boil screamed.

The sound echoed in the small space of his room, and the boil jerked upright, forced the blankets from his chest, and damn neared choked as overwhelming panic was assulted with a sudden flood of relief. He was still in bed, he'd never gotten up, and his ghoulfriend was still curled up beside him. It was all a dream. No.. All some sick nightmare. It took him a minute or two for his pulse to slow, then stop, and in that time he looked down at the ghoul beside him, fingertips stroking along her cheek. They jerked back though suddenly, and that subdued panic began to build again.

Had that been a bit of gray beside her ear? No.. It couldn't have. Or could it?

Dear Jack, help me.


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