It was defective, clearly. If only he could buy another one, then he’d be set.

Taro was squatted down on his haunches behind Mari, trying to figure out why his was the only broken one. Okay, fuck that, he was hiding behind Mari, trying his hardest not to appear that he was cowering behind a blind girl by letting the compass mold and shift between his hands. Damn it, the thing was disgusting. He felt the weight of Akito’s knife in his pocket. What was he supposed to do with the damn thing? Throw it at the beast? After his bricked shot with his book bag, he doubted he’d do much more than possible embed a blade in one of his peer’s backs. Try to gut the monster like he was some thug? The one fight Taro had been in was when he was seven. 

It had been over an action figure (a doll, really). Taro had started it. He had wanted to doll, and the other kid wouldn’t give it to him. Stupid, selfish kid shit. So he pushed the kid; the kid proceeded to beat the shit out of him. He still remembered the embarrassment he felt, worse than the pain, as he cowered in the fetal position as a girl two years younger than him kicked his ass. The girl’s parent stopped her, and recognizing him as Mori’s heir actually made the girl apologize and give him the doll. [i]Lame, right?[/i]

[color=DarkGray]“We won’t let anything happen to you- no matter what! So just keep trying- even if it seems impossible! Don’t stop until you get the hang of it!”[/color]


The boy’s words ran again through his head. Taro didn’t get it, really. It made no sense at all why Akito was so certain that the others would protect him; he hadn’t really done anything for the rest. Sure, he had tried to take command when they had all come to, but even then it had mostly been in jest. When they actually needed a leader, he had fallen short while, he guessed fittingly enough, the shortest one in the bunch had stood tall. 

He watched Nao through moist eyes—[i]Fuck me, why are you still crying[/i]—as she fought, relentless and unyielding even as the monster retaliated against her. Akito, despite being unconscious for the first half, had managed to get his compass to work so he could help the girl out. First try. Just like Izuki, Mari, Yuumei, and Nira, who continued to offer their support and strike out against the monster. The monster lashed out at everybody except him. He heard the cries of his peers and his stomach tightened. Even the monster knew that he wasn’t worth getting attacked as he hid behind Mari like a goddamn coward.

He felt a warmth shift through his body as Mari cried out, [color=00a99d][b]”Healing Wave!”[/b][/color] 

The tight pain in his forehead from when he had first awoken flat on his face relaxed and fade away. He had been healed, too, even though he was nothing but deadweight. Taro gritted his teeth and wiped his face dry. He couldn’t abide by this, hiding and crying like a bitch while his new friends struggled to keep some asshole like him safe. It was time to roll-up some newspaper and discipline this bad doggy. He fished Akito’s knife out of his pocket, flipping the small blade out and holding it with a reverse grip because he had seen one too many movies.  


He thought about the girl on the playground. When his father had found out about what he had done, the man sent Taro over to her house with a raw hide to apologize and return the toy. There was probably a lesson hidden there about not abusing his family’s name to get the things he wanted so he didn’t become just another asshole trust fund baby, but in Taro’s child mind he picked up on the slightly more obvious one: don’t pick on girls. They’d end up kicking your ass, and nobody would feel bad for you because you had been a little piece of shit. He knew that Nao, Izuki, and the others could handle this demon pup without him—they had been doing it so far—but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t offer his hand anyway. He had his pride after all.

[color=8dc73f]“No matter what, I won’t let anything happen to you guys,”[/color] he said under his breath, echoing Akito’s words. 

[center][i]I am thou…
...thou art I…
...from the sea of thine soul, I emerge…[/i][/center]

He stepped out from behind Mari, the compass in his hand spinning wildly. He relaxed his grip and let it take control as the golden goo shifted and warped in his palm. The material wrapped around his wrist and hardened. The needle stopped and pointed due North at the three-headed dog. A smile flashed upon Taro’s face. He had stopped crying.
  
[center][i]...the greatest slayer of monsters and tamer of beasts, the only mortal man worthy of ascending to Olympus, I am…[/i][/center]


[color=8dc73f]“Bellerophon! Let’s put this fucker down in a Single Shot,”[/color] he said.

He heard the cry of a horse and felt his hair and jacket whip forward as something shot by overhead lightning fast. A flash of light reflecting off of metal was all he could make out as something pierced through the vines after Nao and Izuki’s attacks. He could hear the beating of wings and the clomping of hooves from behind the monster, his persona coming into view as it rose back into the air above the beast. The armored rider on the pure white, winged horse gave a disparaging look down on the monster as black goo dripped from his spear and then it faded away, returning to Taro to prepare for another attack. 

[color=8dc73f]“Sorry it took so long. I was a little busy, uh, crying like a baby,”[/color] said Taro with a laugh, stepping up to the front. His voice shaked. He was still scared, but he wasn’t going to give up on the others. [color=8dc73f]“Okay, okay, okay. We got this, no sweat right? It's just some stupid three-headed nightmare dog that can breathe fire. No biggie."[/color]