Chapter 2: Unexpected Visitor

"What?" the aqua haired girl finally cried out after a few moments of stunned silence. "But…but…everyone says that you disappeared! And now you're a ghost? Does that mean that you're dead?" "Nope." The voice replied, the air around Michiru moving when it's invisible owner shrugged. "Well…I did disappear. But I'm still in the house." "Huh?" Michiru replied, intelligently. Haruka let out a sigh. "You see…my worst enemy, the Wizard Valieri, banned me into a so-called Spirit Ring during one of our countless fights. Now my body is stuck in there, but my spirit can leave the ring…though I have to stay close to it, if I move too far away, it starts to hurt." "And so you have to stay in the house?" Michiru asked. "Yes. Maybe, if you can find the ring…" she then started. Michiru shrugged. "Easy. Just tell me where it is." Haruka let out a sigh. "I can't! If I do, my spirit will go straight to Nirvana. Valieri made sure that I can't tell anyone." Michiru groaned and covered her eyes with one hand. "Does that mean that I have to search through the whole house?" "Afraid so." Haruka replied. Michiru let out another, much louder groan, and stood up. "Fine then. I'll start searching right now…and you can't even give me any hints or something?" "Nope." Came the reply. Michiru sighed and started her search.

Three hours later, the aqua haired girl let out a frustrated sigh and fell down on the next best piece of furniture – which appeared to be pretty old and instable. The chair gave in underneath her, and she landed on her bed while Haruka laughed her head off. "This is not funny. Do you want to get out of that ring or not?" Michiru spoke, anger in her voice. Slowly, she got used to her invisible houseguest, but the fact that Haruka seemed to make fun of her 24/7 still bothered her. Haruka stopped laughing and apologized: "Sorry. I forgot to tell you that this chair is more than one hundred years old…" She chuckled again. "Oh, so your forgot, huh? I'd more likely say that you didn't tell me on purpose." Michiru accused the magician. Haruka stayed silent, and the aqua haired girl began to think that she was gone – when suddenly a huge flaming pillar shot down from the roof and burned the floor, only one centimeter from Michirus toes. "Gah!" the aqua haired girl cried out, sliding backwards. "Are you crazy?" she then yelled, waving her fist threateningly. Again, there was no reaction from Haruka; this time, not even the flaming pillar came. "Haruka?" Michiru asked after a few minutes of dead silence. "You still here?" Again, no answer. Now, Michiru was beginning to worry. She walked out of the room and just opened her mouth to call out the magician's name again when all of a sudden a loud shattering noise came from the ground floor. Scared, Michiru moved down the stairs and into the kitchen from where the noise had come from – only to find herself looking at an elderly grey-haired man who was busy with breaking her pots and jugs. "Hey!" the aqua haired girl cried out in anger. "Who are you? And why are you breaking my things?!" The man simply ignored her, grabbed the next jug and threw it to the ground, staring at the sad remains of it for a while. "Stop that!" Michiru now cried out, hurrying over to the guy and reaching out to grab him. As soon as her skin came into contact with the man's hand, something that felt like a small bolt of lightning hit her, and she got thrown backwards until the wall stopped her not all too gentle. "Ouch…" The aqua haired girl groaned, holding her aching back while she came to her feet again. "Leave me alone, young one!" the old man now barked at her, his eyes full of anger. "Where is my ring?" "Huh?" Michiru replied, blinking as if she had no clue what the man was talking about. "What ring? I don't have any rings!" "The Spirit Ring! It was somewhere here in the kitchen, but now it's gone, so where is it?" Michiru pretended to think about it, already concentrating to have her revenge on the guy. "I really don't… Piro!" The last word suddenly set the man's long beard on fire, and he yelped, hitting down on the burning hair with both hands until the fire had died. "Why you little…" He growled, raising his hand where a bright blue ball of energy formed. Before Michiru could react, he threw the ball towards her, and the aqua haired girl already prepared for a flash of pain. "Protectus!" Haruka's voice suddenly came, and the ball hit an unseen barrier before it ricocheted back and towards the old magician, who ducked in shock. The ball hit the wall (A/N: That rhymed! *LOL*) and vanished, leaving a black burnt circle behind. "Tenoh!" the old man cried out as soon as he had recovered from his gone-wrong spell. "Why can you still do magic? You are caught in the ring!" Haruka laughed, and suddenly, the magician's beard caught fire again. "Seems like you made a mistake when you locked me in, Valieri." The wizard replied while Valieri tried to put the fire out, though with no avail. Finally he came up with the great idea to use water, and after a short spell, a small black cloud formed over his head and started to rain down on his burning beard. "Very creative." Haruka remarked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Tell me where the ring is!" the old magician now yelled at Michiru, already forming another ball of energy between his hands. Michiru poked her tongue out at him and replied: "Save your energy, you can't hit me! I'm still behind the barrier!" Valieri grumbled when he realized that his opponent was right, and the ball vanished again. "I suggest you leave now." Haruka's voice came again, startling both Michiru and Valieri. "Before your beard catches fire again." Valieri mumbled something unintelligible and vanished in a cloud of blue smoke while Michiru looked into the direction where she expected Haruka. "Thanks for saving me." She softly spoke, smiling. "Don't mention it. Now, can you search on?" Haruka asked in return, and Michiru sighed before she started her search again.