Chapter 17: Cat and Mouse A week has passed since Noelle regained her past life memories of Mist Elmbarn. Since then she has become a lot more cautious and careful about what to do in life. If any human being found out about Noelle's true identity, she will die and become Mist Elmbarn, thus never seeing her family and friends on Earth, that is, until death finally claims them. Another thing for Noelle to watch out for: She sometimes gives off an aura that makes her noticeable to her nemesis and rival, Doll Grethe. The former Valkyrie and her allies are now on the hunt for both Mist Elmbarn and Prince Amirani. Only time will tell when they shall meet each other face to face. Around the various school grounds of Kowloon, Matthias, Leif and Doll were distributing these hypnotic DVDs to schools, ranging from typical public schools to K-12 schools. The DVDs were disguised as educational videos, so schools all over Kowloon would accept them. So far, the schools have taken the bait. However, when the trio finally reached Kwan Yin K-12, Doll picked up on that familiar aura. A wicked grin formed on Dolls face, as she noticed the presence of her enemy. “Ah yes! She's here! This is where Mist Elmbarn goes to school when she is her human alter ego. I just know it! I can smell it!” “Are you sure about this Doll?” Matthias asked. “Of course!” Doll exclaimed. “I'm never wrong when it comes to sensing auras of my enemies.” Matthias pulls out his cell phone and starts to call someone hired by the trio to do a job for them. He dialed the number and puts the phone up to his ear. “Come on! Please, pick up! This is important business.” After the phone rang five times, Matthias was greeted with a gruff sounding male voice. “Ummm...hello? This is Roy Ng with the Hong Kong Society of Cryptozoology. How may I help you.” “Roy, this is Matthias Durer. My assistants and I hired you to tranquilize a dangerous monster that has been sighted in Hong Kong recently.” “Is this the Amirani demon creature you guys keep talking about?” Roy asked on the other line. “Yes! That demon creature.” Matthias replied sternly. “I think we found out where he is.” “And where's that Matthias?” “In the Kwan Yin K-12 school. Remember Mr. Ng, tranquilize only the monster. Don't tranquilize his mate, Mist Elmbarn. We will deal with her ourselves.” “Okay, I'll be there ASAP!” Roy Ng exclaimed. “Later! Be careful!” “You too. Bye.” Matthias said as he hung up the phone. The trio was optimistic about their catch of the day, reading to quench their thirst for vengeance. --- Meanwhile, in the Kwan Yin K-12 school, Noelle got done with her math class and is making her way to her world literature and folklore class. “Finally, math class is over. Now, to my favorite class!” Noelle made it on time to class. Mrs. Yip was sitting at her desk, looking relieved to see that Noelle was on time making it to class. Next to Mrs. Yip, there was a TV turned on above her and a box of DVDs next to her. “I'm glad you made it on time Miss Wong. Now, take your seat.” “Mrs. Yip, I have a question to ask...” Noelle wondered, putting a finger on her lower lip. “What is it you need Miss Wong?” Mrs. Yip asked, looking a little curious. “What are those DVDs doing there?” Noelle wondered. “The people who I bought the DVDs from say they are educational videos.” Mrs. Yip replied. “They are said to be so educational, that they'll enhance your intelligence even further.” “Uh...okay.” Noelle said, feeling a little fishy about what her teacher told her. Then Noelle brushed those uneasy feelings away and took her seat in the back of the class. Yoshiko looks over at Noelle and groans. “My god shrimp, you are so nosy.” “I'm not in the mood Yoshiko.” Noelle said back coldly as she looks over at the TV above the chalkboard. “Okay class! I have a bunch of educational DVDs to show you today.” Mrs. Yip announced to her class. She pulls out the first DVD, and said, “This first DVD is labeled Adventures in Greek Mythology.” Mrs. Yip turns on the DVD player and inserts the DVD inside the player. She pressed play and is given a bland DVD screen that had the movie title on. She presses play and to everyone's surprise, the DVD had nothing at all to do with Greek Mythology. Instead, it was a bootleg DVD of a kid's cartoon called Our Tiny Monkeys. On the TV screen, the title screen read “Our Tiny Monkeys: Cutie's Play“ a group of huge eyed, super colorful cartoon monkeys appeared to be having a party. One monkey, the one opening the gifts, has blue hair, big purple eyes that almost took up her face, and aqua blue skin. The blue monkey wore a white halter top with a blue bell on it. She also wore an annoying grin on her face as she opened the first present given to her by a pink winged monkey with purple hair, yellow skin and a frilly pink blouse with a red treasure chest on it. “Here Bluebell, here is a present I got just for you.” The yellow skin monkey said in a sickeningly sweet high pitched voice. “Oh boy! Oh boy! I can't wait! Tee hee hee.” Bluebell giggled like an air head. “You are awesome Posha.” As Bluebell opened to present, she was presented with a cute, yet creepy looking monkey doll with bright orange hair tied in pigtails, a purple shirt and eggshell white skin. The doll wore a creepy grin on her face. But Bluebell seemed unfazed by the doll's creepiness as she took the doll out of the box. “YAY! It's always what I wanted. Angelica dolls are popular here in Ape-a-Lot.” Bluebell looked at the back of the dolls head and pressed a button. The doll started to sing a really cutesy song. “Love love! Happy happy! Love love! Happy happy!” --- Everyone in the classroom, including the teacher, were hypnotized by the DVD. Pink light rays shoot into everyone's eyes, reducing them to mindless, drooling puppets. Everyone started to chant in an emotionless, monotone voice, chanting, “Love love love! Happy happy happy!” Just as Noelle transformed into Mist Elmbarn, she found herself hypnotized by the DVDs and stood there, chanting like an blithering idiot like everyone else in the class. --- In the halls of the K-12 school, Amirani took on human form, and started to dash through the hallways, trying everything he could to avoid school security guards. Amirani heard the news from Lilith, after she was done spying on Doll, Matthias and Leif back at the Marco Polo Inn. She told him that the trio were planning to make bewitched DVDs and hypnotize the whole school with them. Then, they would end up hunting down both him and Mist, while everyone else was distracted from all the drama going on. “Mist, hang in there! I'm coming!” Amirani thought to himself as he dashed as fast as he could. While dashing to his destination, he heard loud, obnoxious music and singing playing in every classroom, from Elementary school classes to High School classes. “Sing a song of love, sing a song of fun....!” The music blared as Amirani peaked his head into classrooms, searching for Noelle. Inside every classroom, every single student was hypnotized, as well as acting really mindless and obnoxious. “Fun can't come Undone. Let's all have fun!” Amirani shuttered at the obnoxious cartoon monkeys and their sickeningly cute sounding voices. He then stumbled onto Mrs. Yip's classroom, and peaked his head inside. To his shock, he noticed that Noelle has turned back into Mist, right in front of all the hypnotized students and teachers. He transforms into his avian devil form and glides right up to Mist, grabbing onto her right hand. “Come on Mist. Let's get out of here.” Amirani said in alarm as he pulled on her right arm to make her get up. “It's a trap! Let's go.” “Mmm Ha ha ha ha! Monkey plots.” Mist said as she drooled all over her black and cyan armor. “I watch it for the yummy sexy plots....Mwa ha ha ha.” “No! Not you too!?” Amirani screeched in shock. “Must stay here...I want me some monkeyssss! Heh heh heh!” Mist said with a huge, dumb grin on her face. Amirani takes out a bag full of smelling salts from his cauldron, and opens up the bag. He then takes a handful of the smelling salts, and blows it right into Mist's face. As the salt hits Mist, she finally is snapped out of her trance caused by the bewitched DVDs. Mist looks up at Amirani and asked, “Hey, what's going on? What's happened?” “We have to get out of here!” Amirani cried out to her. “This is all a trap set up for us! Come on.” “Really?” Mist gasped as she looked at Amirani in shock. She got herself up off from the desk and pulls out her polaris spear. “Who is hunting us down, and why?” “There's no time to explain.” Amirani replied as he took Mist's right hand. “Come, let's get out of here!” Mist grabbed onto Amirani's hand and started to dash out of the classroom. As the couple fled the classroom, Yoshiko just stared at the TV screen, being unaware of what is taking place at this moment. “Love love, Happy happy...More monkeys....more monkeys!” --- When Amirani and Mist left Mrs. Yip's classroom, they were greeted by a young succubus woman. The succubus was a shapely maiden with long pink hair that flowed down to her wrists when untied, magenta eyes, two black wings on her back and wore an outfit consisting of a red and white sleeveless Lolita kimono dress adorned with a huge pink bow, black lace fingerless gloves, black lace stockings and red Mary Jane shoes. “Why hello there Lilith.” Mist greeted. “What brings you here?” “I've come to help you guys out.” Lilith replied in a peppy tone of voice. “Why thanks Lilith!” Amirani sighed in relief. “You are a life saver.” Then, Lilith heard someone walking down the hallways. “Quick, hide! I'll go distract everyone while you two escape, okay?” “Okay!” Amirani and Mist said as they ducked out into the boy's restroom. In the hallway, Lilith transformed into a bat and started to flutter around, looking for those who are trying to hunt down Amirani and Mist. Lo and behold, there was Doll Grethe talking to a couple of male and female members of the HK Society of Cryptozoology. “Great, the plan is working!” Doll Grethe exclaimed to the two members. “They should be around here somewhere. I....” Right there, Lilith interrupted Doll Grethe and started to fly around, nipping and biting the humans she was accompanying. She flew much too fast for them to catch, let alone smack away with a swat of a hand. “Come on you filthy apes! Can you handle a piece of me? Mwa ha ha ha!” “The bloody hell?” Doll and the two members screeched as they were being assaulted by Lilith in her bat form. “No one told me this school is (ye-ouch!) haunted!” “I think we have yet another new story on our hands Miss Grethe.” The male member grumbled, as he was getting tired of Lilith biting him and the others. As Lilith chased away Doll Grethe and some of the Cryptozoology crew, Amirani and Mist left the boy's restroom and made their way through the hallways of the K-12 school. Mist knew every short cut this school had to offer, since she went here since her childhood in this current life. So Mist pointed out every short cut, while Amirani followed behind her. “Wow Mist, you sure do know your way around this place.” Amirani whispered to Mist as quietly as he could, so no one can hear them. “Indeed.” Mist said quietly. “When I'm my alter-ego Noelle Wong, I've been going to this school since Kindergarten.” Finally, Amirani and Mist made their way to the exit door just nearby one of the school lunchrooms. They dash for the exit, swing the door open, and leave outside school grounds. --- However, Mist and Amirani were not safe from danger yet. Outside the school, hidden in the bushes nearby the parking lot, Leif stood there outside with Roy Ng, armed with a tranquilizer gun. They hid in the bushes, waiting for their prey to show up. “Ah yes! Finally, we made it!” Amirani cheered as he and Mist were walking around outside of school grounds. “Ummm...I think this might be too soon to celebrate Ran.” Mist said, feeling really uneasy. “I have a gut feeling that we're being stalked.” In the bushes, Roy Ng loaded his gun with a tranquilizer dark, trying to get the gun aligned with his target. “Ah yes! Yes!” “What are you waiting for?” Leif whispered impatiently. “It's now or never!” --- While Mist and Amirani wandered around outside, looking for a safe place, Mist started to feel even more uneasy, as she heard a clicking noise in the distance. “You hear that Ran?” “Hear what?” Amirani pondered as he started to search around his surrourndings. Then, in the distance, Mist saw Roy Ng pointing a tranquilizer gun at Amirani. Mist felt horrified, but she had to help our Amirani, since they were both equally being hunted. “Amirani! Watch out!” There, Roy shot the tranquilizer dart. The dart whizzed and flew through the air at full speed, going on a one way path to its target. Both Roy and Leif started to look hopeful. “Yes...Yes! Bingo!” But their relief turned to shock, as the dart did not hit Amirani, but instead, hit Mist Elmbarn in the right shoulder blade. The dart stung the Valkyrie and pierced through the cerulean sleeve of her outfit and into her flesh. “Ouch....shit.” Amirani looked horrified as he saw Mist get hit with the dart that was originally meant for him. “Mist? MIST?!” “Son of a bitch!” Roy shouted in disappointment. “Way to go dumb ass.” Leif chided in frustration as he smacked Roy on the back of his head. Mist pulls the tranquilizer dart out of her shoulder as she started to brandish her Polaris spear with a fierce expression on her face. “Okay, what jerk ass hit me with a dart. Come on, answer me!” Now Leif and Roy started to panic big time as Mist was planning to challenge them to a fight. Roy goes over to the dart case and was mortified to see that he forgot to pack extra darts. “Shit!” “Now what?” Leif snarled in rage. “That tranquilizer...” Roy cried in frustration. “It was my only one. I swear..I had some....” Leif then interrupts Roy and grabs the man by the collar of his shirt and shrieked, “You bloody retard! How the hell can you forget something like this...especially at something as crucial as capturing Amirani!” “I'm sorry...I'm sorry.” Roy pled. But his only response was Leif shoving him down to the ground in rage. “Stop begging!” Leif shrieked as he stood over Roy with an enraged look on his face. “Sorry isn't going to being in Amirani for us. Meanwhile, while Mist looked for the attackers, she started to feel a wave of drowsiness overcome her. “Come on guys...come out...(yawn)...” “Mist. NO!” Amirani cried out as he ran up to Mist and held onto her. “You're not in the condition to fight back.” “Mmmm...suppose you're right darling...(yawn)...” Mist yawned. “Wow, I see a bunch of spots, and such pretty rainbow colors...everywhere....(yawn) (snooze)” There, the tranquilizer took effect on Mist, making her pass out in exhaustion. Amirani's concern turned to bitter anger as now he was out for blood. He gently puts Mist down on the ground and started to scream in anger. “Okay, you bloody bastards, COME OUT NOW! OR ELSE I'LL.....” “Oh shit!” Leif screeched out loud as he threw Roy to the wolves and out in the open, where a furious Amirani stood. “Sorry Charlie, but I gotta get outta here. Bye bye!” As Leif ran off, Roy started to scream obscenities at Leif. “Leif, you fucking coward! COME BACK HERE AND...” But it was too late. Leif took off in his motorcycle, leaving Roy helpless against the furious demon. Amirani started to kick and trample Roy with his hooves, then the devil started to scratch up the man something fierce with his talon like fingernails. He scratched so hard, that blood was seeping out of the wounds. Roy tried to leave, but Amirani was much stronger than the mere human man. Amirani now picked up Roy and slammed him up against a tree outside the school grounds. The devil pinned the bloody and battered man up against the tree, and held onto the collar of his shirt. “What did you think you were doing you filthy ape?” Amirani snarled in rage, complete with fiery rage burning in his eyes. “You were stalking us the whole time, huh?” “I was just following orders. (cough) (cough)” Roy gagged as he started to spit blood out of his mouth. “I didn't want to take this job, but they offered me a lot of money, so....” “Who are these people who hired you?” Amirani growled impatiently. Roy just stood there, giving Amirani the silent treatment. This made the devil prince even more angry, as he now picked up Roy by the shirt and shoved against the tree once more. “Come on, ANSWER ME, YOU PIECE OF SHIIIIIT!” “Okay okay...I'll talk...I'LL TALK! Just don't hurt me anymore (sniff).” Roy wailed out loud. “Okay, that's a deal.” Amirani said as he tried to calm himself down. “Tell me, who are these people.” “They were three people, a couple men and a woman.” Roy whimpered in pain. He was desperate to get on the demon's good side now, since his battered body couldn't take anymore beatings. “The men are named Leif Skovgaard and Matthias Durer, and the woman's name is Doll Grethe. Can I please go now? I have a wife and children to take care of.” “Very well...you may go.” Amirani said as he lets go of Roy and watches the human run off. When Amirani came to get Mist, he noticed a huge raccoon dog standing next to her. However, this was no ordinary raccoon dog, for he was an obake yokai of the tanuki clan. The yokai started to speak to Amirani, and asked, “Ran? Noelle? What's going on?” “Yukio?” Amirani asked, feeling even more bemused at the whole situation. “Are you surprised Ran? My family and I aren't human either.” Yukio said back, putting his left paw on the back of his head. “So you two have nothing to hide from us.” Amirani wiped the sweat off his forehead and sighed in relief. “Ah, thank goodness...well...anyways...” “What is it Ran?” Yukio asked in concern as Amirani carried the sedated Mist into his arms. “What happened to Noelle here?” “Ummm....it's a long story.” Amirani stuttered nervously. “Where are the rest of your family?” “Oh, that red eyed bat flying around the school is helping them snap out of their trance those cursed DVDs were causing.” Yukio replied as he looked over at Mist and Amirani. Amirani now started to dig through Noelle's hand bag she takes to school with her and finds her cellphone inside. He pulls out her cellphone and hands it over to Yukio. “Hey, what's this Ran?” “I want you to call Noelle's dad, and after that, I want you to take him over to your house.” Amirani commanded as Yukio took the cellphone from the demon's grasp. “Noelle's father is not safe at this moment. I want you and your family to take him to a safe place.” “Yes sir!” Yukio said as he saluted Amirani farewell. Amirani holds Mist in his arms, and flies off to Gen Dei, where Mist will run into some familiar friendly faces that she's hasn't seen in seventeen years of her life as Noelle Wong.