Chapter two: My encounter
of a spirit.
I was as pale as a cloud and as still as a statue. I was scared half to death. My eyes completed adjusting to the light and I finally saw what it was. Some person with a pinkish-purple dress which was metal and fabric mixed to make some sort of armour. I slowly looked up and saw that this is it wasn't it… it was a she. Her long blackish hair down to her waist, swaying from side to side like a hypnotist's watch controlling somebody with its slow movements. She slowly walked closer to me. Not being able to move, all I did was just look at her. She had some sort of sword in her right hand and she pointed it straight at me. I thought I was going to die.
"Get up!" she angrily exclaimed. Her dark tone almost controlled my actions, as I obeyed her command and stood up. As I stood up, her sword followed my movement.
"Did you come here to kill me?" she said. I had no words due to how blatantly scared I was.
"Answer me!" a purple aura surrounded her and felt like, I was lifted almost.
"N-N-No," I said trying to catch my breath. Her face changed from angry to furious. My face flooding with sweat. In a flash, her sword was pressing against my neck. I could feel blood trailing down my neck.
"Liar!" she shouted as she slowly pushed her sword into my neck.
"I'm not lying. I'm trying to find my sister. I can't find her. Please!" I said slowly losing my breath and tears falling down my face.
Nothing happened. Her face was somewhat blank. After a while, blood still trailing down my neck, she moved her sword from my neck and I instantly fell to the floor face first. I sat down with my knees up and my head was down while my hands were covering the cut.
"Sister? What is… a sister?" she said with confusion. I looked up. We both looked at each other. We were both looking into each other's eyes for a while. She looked embarrassed.
"Stop looking at me and answer my question or I will annihilate you!" she shouted and once again putting the sword up to my neck and pressing harder than she did before. I was getting weak every second. I tried my best to say something but I was being suffocated by the power of her and the sword she was wielding.
"I warned you human." She said slowly withdrawing her sword ready to strike. As she finally withdrawn, I closed my eyes knowing what was going to happen next. I heard a scream from her and a quick slash of wind skimmed my ear. I opened my eyes and saw her facing the opposite direction guarding herself with some sort of blue holographic shield she controlled with her hand.
I looked and I saw what appeared to be some flock of mechanical birds, but when I looked closer, I saw that it was the task force called the A.S.T. I don't know what it stands for, but I know that it stops bad things from happening. The A.S.T began to fire at the girl and saw her protecting herself while trembling at the same time. I got up and ran to protect that girl by tackling her to the ground. Blood gushed out my neck like water sprinklers in a garden. We were both on the ground and we both looked at each other with embarrassment. Blood was dripping onto her metal, fabric armour.
"A-A-Are y-you ok?" I said to the girl while she was still protecting us from the fire of the A.S.T. She blushed but looked angry at the same time. Without noticing, she kneed me in the rib and pushed me off her and pointed her sword and said angrily," why did you do that?" I was scared and winded but I didn't want to look blank again or she will certainly kill me.
"I-I-I didn't want you to g-get hurt b-b-because I don't want them to h-hurt you," I said with fear in my voice. I knew that the A.S.T sorts out this type of stuff but, some part of me doesn't want this girl to get hurt. When I said that, she dropped her sword onto the floor and her aura died down. She stared at me like I was a helpless child.
She kneeled down and lifted my chin up and looking at the blood dripping down from my neck. She looked at it then back to me with fear. To me, she was trying to give the impression 'I'm sorry about doing this to you' but she was unable to say it to my face which was still in tears. She held onto my cheek and said, "Stay away so you won't get hurt." She said as she got up and turned around. One of the A.S.T members was right behind her. She had small grey hair and dark green one-piece A.S.T uniform which had armour parts around it. One on her head as an eyepiece, one belt holding weapons and two which was metal armbands for each arm. The wind began to blow around them with the strongest breeze swaying their hair like the sea's strongest waves.
"So, what should I do to you when I kill you?" the A.S.T member said with a serious and strong tone. She said and slowly pulled out a green holographic sword with a long, mediumly thin blade. She pointed the sword at the girl like a samurai. I could see by the girl's posture that she will not back down from this as she picked up her long, wide and sharp sword and just had the blade on the ground.
It turnt silent instantly and both weren't moving and just keeping the position the same. Moments after, the girl in front of me glowed her purple aura like a night light keeping a room lit up throughout the night. The A.S.T soldier charged in the air and swooped down to the girl and strikes at her. The girl blocked the slash and a gust of wind exploded from the impact and threw me further back and I screamed in pain as I hit the hard, concrete ground face first. The girl looked at me and suddenly looked enraged and started to swing her sword as fast as lightning at the A.S.T soldier. The soldier dodged every single one. I was in so much pain, I slowly moved my hand in the air towards the girl and I began to see black and suddenly dropped my hand.
My eyes slowly opened and I couldn't see but I knew that I wasn't on the ground. I was on a bed in a room which was silent. I looked around and I saw a character looking at me. I couldn't make out what it was until I had my eyesight cleared and I realised it was a woman in a lab coat or a long white jacket. She had long grey hair and looked like she was in her early 30's.
"You're awake I see." She said with a quiet and simple tone. I wasn't able to talk because of the after effects of what happened yesterday.
"I see you're in shock, my name is Reine and I work for Ratatoskr. Nice to meet you Shido." This woman said. I regained full consciousness and I was a bit confused.
"W-w-what's Ratatoskr and how do you know my name?" I said in a confused tone. She looked at me almost like I know she is meant to know my name. She got up and opened the door.
"Follow me." She walked slowly out the door. I got up and began walking with not much balance. We entered some sort of front deck of some ship or something. There were workers controlling the front of this so called 'ship' and I heard something to the right of me. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was Kotori. She was sitting on what appeared to be a commander's chair.
"Kotori what are you doing here?! I thought you were dead!" I yelled sadly running up to her and she wrapped her hands around me and we both started crying.
"I thought I lost you, big bro. I'm sorry, please forgive me." She cried out, flooding my jacket in her tears. My tears were also flooding her jacket. Like I said before, I'd be lost without her.
Her hair was soft when I hugged her with care for her. After a few moments, I let go and asked, "Sis, what is this place?" I asked her with a blank face as she looked at me with a smile.
"Well, my big bro, welcome to the Ratatoskr. This is the resistance of spirit activity." I didn't understand what Kotori was on about.
"Ok, so what was the A.S.T doing there yesterday?" Kotori looked at me as I asked her and she smiled like I was stupid.
"Really, bro? The A.S.T stands for Anti Spirit Team. Those people capture and kill spirits and the one they saw yesterday was the spirit called, 'princess'." I didn't know what she meant when she said 'spirit' because I had no idea what is.
"You don't know what a spirit is, do you?" she said disappointingly. I shook my head agreeing to her question. She was not impressed at all because her older brother didn't know what she was talking about.
"Huh. A spirit is a being from a different world, and spatial quakes bring them here for no reason at all," she explained simply
"So, spatial quakes act like some sort of wormhole or a bridge between earth and that so called 'world'?" I asked her with some interest. Agreeing to my question, she nodded with a smile and started typing on a keyboard. In front of the ship, a virtual screen projected a video. A video of that girl I saw where the spatial quake happened.
I remember what happened. The event which occurred yesterday was playing in my head like a tape recorder with each event on it. I saw the part of when I tackled her to the ground to protect her and how our eyes locked to one another. Then I saw when she lifted up my chin. From this angle, I noticed, that she was sad when she looked at me.
"As you can see Shido, this is the recording for what happened yesterday, we analysed it and found out that you managed to make princess feel something for you. It's very weak but we want you to find her again and try to stop her from fighting and destroying the city." Kotori said very seriously. My eyes widened to a certain extent until I shouted, "Are you insane?! You expect me to see that 'thing' again and have her trying to kill me?! Are you insane?!" I was so infuriated at what she suggested in order to stop this spirit called 'princess' from destroying the city. I calmed down as Kotori was about to explain her idea.
"This is what we'll do. We will send you to this area because a spatial quake has happened and princess is there and you got to talk to her. Be friends with her to keep her powers stable. Just don't be scared and act like you wanted to see her. When I turned around, I saw that it was our school. I looked back at Kotori and back at the screen and then I nodded.
"Yeah, I'll do it," I said agreeing to the plan. I got up and realised that the spirit was just standing up and looking on the floor. I placed my hand on my neck and realised it was healed. I don't know how but it was.
"Alright, full speed ahead to the Academy." As soon as Kotori said that, the ship went soaring into the sky. It was an air carrier. It flew across the city. We soon made it to the infernal scene of our school. The fire was spreading around the desolate school and the buildings crumbled like lumps of grainy sand.
The building was isolated and then, I saw her. The spirit. I saw her giant sword on the floor and her bright violet armour standing strong in the destruction.
"Ok, we're here. We need to get you at the entrance of the school, we can't get any closer than that." Kotori protested to me. I nodded my head in agreement as the ship lowered to the ground. It was a good thing I knew what class the girl was in or it would be like running in a maze. We lowered and I ran out of the ship and ran into the school. The moment I stepped into the school, the walls fell apart. I cautiously walked across the corridor and made it to the stairs which lead to the class. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could as I reached the class. I peeked into the room, I saw her looking at the sunset sky. Flames were slowly consuming the room which was smashed until two walls were still up. I slowly and cautiously walked into the class, she slowly looked up higher and she loosened her posture as her fists were no more. I was a couple of feet away from her and all of a sudden, her sword once again made contact with my neck. I lifted my head up slightly so I didn't have to make eye contact.
"Look at me." She furiously said leaving her sword in the same position not moving it at all. I slowly looked down to make eye contact with her and as soon as our eyes met, her mouth opened. She looked so shocked to see me, she almost looked at me like I was a ghost. After a while, she pushed me onto the floor having her sword facing towards me. It reminded me of yesterday. In my mind, the room fell apart and went back to the city and me on the floor in the same position I'm in now.
"Y-y-you. Why did you come here?" she asked angrily shocked. My eyes widened as I got up knowing her sword copied my exact movement. Her face looking angry, I had my hands in level to my head showing that I didn't want to hurt her.
"I'm here to talk to you, just talk and nothing else, ok?" I asked hesitantly. Her faced left anger and turned into what appeared to be a mild, interesting face. Her neck was slightly tilted to the left. The flames died down and there was no more destruction.
"Why do you want to talk to me? You probably want to distract me while the Mecha Mecha squad attacks me from behind. I instantly felt confused because I didn't know what she was talking about.
"Mecha…Mecha squad?" I replied confused with a stupid face on me.
"Those human bird things." She said like I was supposed to know what she was saying, then I realised what she meant.
"You mean the A.S.T? No, I don't know any of them." I replied to her. She suddenly looked interested to what I had to say. She dropped her sword on the floor and she said, "Liar, why would you really want to talk to me?" she said furiously looking at me with anger.
I gave her a small smile and then, she looked at me in embarrassment. She turned her head so I only saw one side of her face. I could the gloss in her red-rose cheeks.
"I wanna know how you came here and what you really are," I told her with a bit of joy in my voice. She looked at me. Her face was blushing in embarrassment. I suddenly heard a swooping sound coming from the blown wall behind the girl. It was A.S.T gunfire. The girl rapidly summoned her blue shield which covered both me and her. She wasn't trembling at all, almost like she didn't notice they were shooting at her. I saw a fleet of A.S.T soldiers far from us in the air. I saw a barrage of bullets soaring into my peripheral vision. Smoke covered us from the gunfire.
"So, what do you want to know exactly about me?" she said in an interested, happy tone. She kept her head straight.
"What exactly are you? I was a bit confused when I saw you the other day," I said joyfully. She looked blank trying to come up with an answer.
"Hmmm… well I am something called a 'spirit' and I come from a world different to this one. I do not know its name but I know that is where I'm from and when I get there, I fall asleep." she replied simply. It was quite nice to talk to her rather than having a blade up to my neck.
"Ok, so it's like you teleport and spatial quakes bring you here?" she nodded and I saw her hair move up and down as she nodded. Besides the gunfire, it was silent. I couldn't think of anything to say but just as I looked up, she asked, "What is a sister? I didn't get an answer from you yesterday." She looked at me happily waiting for an answer.
"Umm... how can I explain it? It is a person who is related to you because you have similar blood which makes us brother or sister. And it is a girl, a brother is a boy." I said making it as simple as possible.
Suddenly, the shield broke and gunfire pierced through the ground. I ran up to the girl and tried to pull her away but she picked up her sword and her aura glowed stronger than before creating a gust of wind sent the A.S.T flying away and retreated. She turned around and her aura left her. She then smiled at me.
"Oh, my name is Shido by the way. What's your name?" I asked with a smile.
She didn't say anything at all. She looked up at me and stepped forward.
"I-I don't have one. Can you give me one?" she looked very serious when she said that. For a second I thought she was joking, but she at me embarrased. I looked up in the air thinking of a name.
"How about Tome?" she looked blank. For a while, I didn't hear anything but the wind. She instantly slashed her sword in the air making a gigantic trail of wind. Her sword was right up to my face. She was enraged.
"Do you think I'm stupid? I want you to think of another name or I'll kill you!" she exclaimed in anger. I quickly went through my head thinking of another name. then I came up with one.
"Oh, how about Tohka? I asked nervously. I thought to my head that she'd kill me but, she looked up at me and lowered her sword.
"T-Tohka. Yeah, I like that." She said with a big smile. I walked up to a blackboard, grabbed a piece of chalk and showed her how to spell it.
"T-o-h-k-a? ok, thanks, Shido!" I used to think that she was a killer, but I was wrong. She protects herself when she needs to. Maybe that's why I saved her yesterday. Maybe this could be a good friendship.
"Soooo… do you want to meet me here tomorrow? Without the spatial quake.?" I asked Tohka with hesitation in my voice. The wind stopped and it was silent. She looked at me blankly like a plain piece of paper.
"Yeah, that will be great, but where do you want to meet?" she said ecstatically.
I looked in the air for a moment and then said," meet me here at 1 o clock in the afternoon." She nodded and she disappeared in a teleporting- like device. I walked outside the school. I looked up to the sky and smiled. Tohka means 10th, the day I met her but she doesn't need to know that.