Chapter 16 – Spirit Connection
::The First Shaman King Chapter::
When Garlyle awoke again, he was suddenly aware of a strange feeling, of being completely alone.
He wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was the light rushing of a nearby water source, or the fact that everything was eerily quiet aside from that.
No, it wasn't that.
Before he had even put his finger on it, he called out mentally.
"Ceres?" he asked himself, trying to contact the demon.
There was a long pause.
And there was no response.
"Ceres? Where are you?"
Still, no response.
"Great, I've lost him..." Garlyle sat up, looking around.
He was at a hot springs, lying among stones which were pounding into his back, making him undeniably uncomfortable. He sat up to relieve some of the pressure.
It was a natural springs, that much he was certain of, though there was a dragon-shaped fountain in the centre, built out of solid marble. As he looked around, seeing the wooden fences around him, he swore his eyes caught something in the wood.
Then it was gone.
"I have a feeling I already know where I am... kinda..." Garlyle muttered. "Kuni! Koku!" calling the two by name was one way to get their attention normally, but surprisingly, they didn't come.
"Hmm..." Garlyle sighed. He looked around more, as he stood up, brushing his shorts and bruised legs clear of all the dirt on them.
"Hello? Hello?" Garlyle called out.
Not getting an answer, he walked over to two screen doors and slid one to his side, stepping inside of a small changing area. It was barren.
"Hello?" he called again, stepping further inside, sliding open another door, entering a long hallway with the odd scent of bamboo. Of course, everything was made out of the soft wood here, it seemed.
"There's nobody here..." he muttered, looking around the hallway, picking another random door, and sliding it open.
He became aware suddenly of a strange magical force in the air around him, floating about the room, and it freaked him out. The room was totally bare...
So then why the energy?
Garlyle let one hand fall to his side, palm down, casting a spell under his breath, using the back of his hand to create strokes in the air.
"Symbols, Blur Illusion!"
As he finished, making one final sweep with his hand, the air in the room seemed to ripple.
Faintly, watching him from all corners of the room, were strange shapes that floated about, outlined in a strange misty colour that Garlyle could see.
It was familiar, just like...
"Gh... Ghosts?" he gulped.
One of them, a strange old man with a wrinkly face and a long moustache, floated over to stare at him with creepy eyes.
Garlyle let out a gulp, turned on his heel, kicked off the ground, and ran.
"GAAAH!"
And now that he was aware of the presence of the phantoms, he saw that they were everywhere in the springs. Blindly, he tore through doors, not noticing the contents. At one point he had sworn he had run through a kitchen, but he hadn't paid any attention.
Then suddenly he was outside, under the moonlight, and he was aware of a phantasmal energy unlike anything inside of the creepy house.
Two warriors were fighting, too far away on a long field for Garlyle to see who they were, though they didn't look like they would be too tall. Aside from that, he couldn't tell anything.
Except for their weapons. In the hands of one of the figures was something so minuscule Garlyle swore there wasn't anything there, but there was a flaming red energy flowing around it like flames from a fire.
And the other had an absolutely huge feather upon his back that glowed with a dark purple energy that looked almost familiar...
... Was it the same energy that Kozo had held? No way...
Then the two stopped from their standstill, diving at each other.
He was amazed by what he saw. The two figures were using pure energy to attack each other, making the auras move and shift as they commanded, reacting to their wishes.
The one with the small dagger-like object swung it, and a horizontal blade of energy whipped across the firm grass at high speeds, only to be dodged as the other kicked off the ground, shooting into the air.
Garlyle swore that the strange purple energy was forming wings... no, it was forming wings. Those things, which Garlyle were certain were not at all physically there, were holding him up!
The other, almost as if having expected this, had kicked off the ground, and suddenly everything became clear.
As if having moved closer hadn't told him anything, he suddenly realised who was fighting.
It was him and Taka!
He saw the strange clothes he was in: a tight red silk wrap around his chest and long black pants, and nothing else. His brown hair was much longer, and it wasn't kept in a bandanna anymore, but instead in a ponytail that Garlyle had to admit was quite interesting.
And Taka, apparently his rival, was dressed pretty much the same, except his sash was crimson, and he had no ponytail, instead, his purple hair was all held by goggles that wrapped around the scalp, forcing all the hair upwards.
"What the...?" Garlyle muttered, watching the next move in the fight.
As the new-Garlyle reached the highest point of his leap, suddenly the red energy around him exploded, taking the form of a roaring dragon, and he was diving at Taka.
Taka grabbed the feather from behind him and swept it as hard as he could, and Garlyle felt the winds suddenly pick up, pushing in a huge gust away from it. It was a good thing he had been far away, otherwise he would have gone flying.
Yet this had only stopped the silk-clad Garlyle momentarily, as he came at him again. Instead of attacking head first however, the boy turned around, sweeping out the claw in front of him.
Garlyle saw the long dragon's tail spin about, and as the strange energy hit Taka, the boy went flying.
Suddenly, the energy from his feather flickered out, as he went flying, crashing into the grass.
There was a couple more moments, than the dragon-Garlyle-person seemed to dispel his own power, the dragon disappearing right back into the fang.
Garlyle ran towards him, gulping, not sure what to expect.
They didn't notice him at first. Instead, somebody else did.
"Garlyle!"
He turned, and smiled. There, in a red beret and a long silver blouse and skirt was Kiana, looking quite nice as she was, running from the house he had just come out of.
Then she froze.
"Wait, there are two..." she pointed between the two, finally making the two sparring boys take note.
"Umm..." Garlyle gulped.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?" she cried.
"Gods above..." the new-Garlyle exclaimed, walking over to join his dimension-travelling self. "What the hell?"
"I'm not sure..." Taka muttered, standing on his other side.
"Gaah..." Garlyle sighed. "Alright, if I tell you something really weird, will you promise not to freak out and kill me?"
"Depends how weird" Garlyle spoke it, and the traveller version knew that it was definitely him.
*****
He told them, rather quickly, and had made them understand fairly fast.
And in the process, he had learned a lot.
Wherever he was now, there were people called 'Shamans' who could transform the power of the spirits into actual physical power. Garlyle and Taka were training against each other before something called the 'Shaman Fight'.
When it finally came up again, Garlyle learned what it was. Shaman Fight, apparently, was a huge competition held only every 500 years to determine who became the shaman who would channel the 'Great Spirit', or as some called him, God. It seemed quite... odd... to Garlyle, but he didn't really care.
"You two... but if only one person can..."
"Yeah, at some point we'll have to fight" Taka had responded. "But that doesn't matter."
Garlyle caught the two's glance towards Kiana, who was watching the two intently, almost dreamily, seeming to have forgotten there was a new Garlyle there. But when she did look at him, she had that same crazy look on her face...
He turned to face his alternate self. "Umm..."
"Yeah?"
"You've got more riding on this tournament than the Great Spirit, don't you?"
"How could anything more ride on..."
"Kiana?"
"You know?" the shaman-Garlyle was surprised, and Garlyle knew he had got it.
"Long story" he responded, before they turned back to discussion.
Then Kiana asked him something. "Why are you here, anyway?"
"I... I honestly don't know" Garlyle muttered, looking around, inspecting the three and the area. "I don't think it was my fault I'm here, but I have the feeling there's something I'm supposed to find here."
"Well, unless you know what you're trying to find..." the Shaman- Garlyle shrugged. "Shaman Fight begins in only a week, you know, and we're not about to miss it. Sorry."
"Then I'll come along" Garlyle smiled. "Somehow, no matter where I've travelled, sticking around with myself and my family has usually led to go things..."
"...Are they still alive, back in your world?"
Garlyle was startled by the question that the Shaman-Garlyle asked.
"What?"
"My parents died after my younger brother was born... a Shaman of a rival clan named Kinomi killed him when he was only four... I couldn't protect him, then, and... I barely saved myself..." he sighed, losing himself in memories.
Garlyle felt sorry for the boy. "I know... They're not alive in my world either... My parents were killed by a demon... my brother... my friends... I lost them to the attack of a dangerous mercenary..."
"A demon?" the Shaman perked up, not seeming to catch the rest.
"Yes, a demon dragon, to be more precise" Garlyle grinned.
"Funny, that's the nickname Ceth has received..." the Shaman-Garlyle smiled.
"What? Ceth?" Garlyle's eyes opened wide. "You... You know him?"
"Sure! Come on out, Ceth!" he held the fang over his head, dramatically.
The red light swooped off of it again, before forming into a man wearing tattered rags, but had a fang on a chain wrapped around his neck that was identical to the one the boy was holding up, and he obviously looked as though he would be quite ferocious.
He looked softly down at Garlyle, waved a hello, and smiled. "Hey!"
Garlyle blinked. What? "This is Ceth?"
"Yeah. Problem?"
"Um... But then... With what you told me, a shaman like yourself can only work with one ghost for maximum potential, right?"
"Yes."
"But, then, the dragon...?"
Ceth's form shimmered, and then it became a dragon so immense it nearly filled the room with its spiritual energy. Garlyle felt oddly crushed.
"Umm... alright, I don't doubt it" Garlyle responded. Then something clued in.
"Wait... umm... Garlyle..." he asked his other self, "You've never heard the name 'Ceres', have you?"
"Oh, that's the name of the dragon form" Garlyle responded. "Why?"
Suddenly, it all clued in!
Ceres was Ceth. Ceth is Ceres!
Every piece of the puzzle was making sense now, everything clicking in, and Garlyle couldn't help but wonder if he would confuse Ceres when he got the dragon back...
If he got the dragon back...
But what was it he needed to get back, anyway? Gods only knew!
The answer probably should have been obvious to him, but for now, he knew that he had a job to do. To help his other self however he could.
He hadn't been sent here just for that. That kind of thing just didn't happen!
::The First Shaman King Chapter::
When Garlyle awoke again, he was suddenly aware of a strange feeling, of being completely alone.
He wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was the light rushing of a nearby water source, or the fact that everything was eerily quiet aside from that.
No, it wasn't that.
Before he had even put his finger on it, he called out mentally.
"Ceres?" he asked himself, trying to contact the demon.
There was a long pause.
And there was no response.
"Ceres? Where are you?"
Still, no response.
"Great, I've lost him..." Garlyle sat up, looking around.
He was at a hot springs, lying among stones which were pounding into his back, making him undeniably uncomfortable. He sat up to relieve some of the pressure.
It was a natural springs, that much he was certain of, though there was a dragon-shaped fountain in the centre, built out of solid marble. As he looked around, seeing the wooden fences around him, he swore his eyes caught something in the wood.
Then it was gone.
"I have a feeling I already know where I am... kinda..." Garlyle muttered. "Kuni! Koku!" calling the two by name was one way to get their attention normally, but surprisingly, they didn't come.
"Hmm..." Garlyle sighed. He looked around more, as he stood up, brushing his shorts and bruised legs clear of all the dirt on them.
"Hello? Hello?" Garlyle called out.
Not getting an answer, he walked over to two screen doors and slid one to his side, stepping inside of a small changing area. It was barren.
"Hello?" he called again, stepping further inside, sliding open another door, entering a long hallway with the odd scent of bamboo. Of course, everything was made out of the soft wood here, it seemed.
"There's nobody here..." he muttered, looking around the hallway, picking another random door, and sliding it open.
He became aware suddenly of a strange magical force in the air around him, floating about the room, and it freaked him out. The room was totally bare...
So then why the energy?
Garlyle let one hand fall to his side, palm down, casting a spell under his breath, using the back of his hand to create strokes in the air.
"Symbols, Blur Illusion!"
As he finished, making one final sweep with his hand, the air in the room seemed to ripple.
Faintly, watching him from all corners of the room, were strange shapes that floated about, outlined in a strange misty colour that Garlyle could see.
It was familiar, just like...
"Gh... Ghosts?" he gulped.
One of them, a strange old man with a wrinkly face and a long moustache, floated over to stare at him with creepy eyes.
Garlyle let out a gulp, turned on his heel, kicked off the ground, and ran.
"GAAAH!"
And now that he was aware of the presence of the phantoms, he saw that they were everywhere in the springs. Blindly, he tore through doors, not noticing the contents. At one point he had sworn he had run through a kitchen, but he hadn't paid any attention.
Then suddenly he was outside, under the moonlight, and he was aware of a phantasmal energy unlike anything inside of the creepy house.
Two warriors were fighting, too far away on a long field for Garlyle to see who they were, though they didn't look like they would be too tall. Aside from that, he couldn't tell anything.
Except for their weapons. In the hands of one of the figures was something so minuscule Garlyle swore there wasn't anything there, but there was a flaming red energy flowing around it like flames from a fire.
And the other had an absolutely huge feather upon his back that glowed with a dark purple energy that looked almost familiar...
... Was it the same energy that Kozo had held? No way...
Then the two stopped from their standstill, diving at each other.
He was amazed by what he saw. The two figures were using pure energy to attack each other, making the auras move and shift as they commanded, reacting to their wishes.
The one with the small dagger-like object swung it, and a horizontal blade of energy whipped across the firm grass at high speeds, only to be dodged as the other kicked off the ground, shooting into the air.
Garlyle swore that the strange purple energy was forming wings... no, it was forming wings. Those things, which Garlyle were certain were not at all physically there, were holding him up!
The other, almost as if having expected this, had kicked off the ground, and suddenly everything became clear.
As if having moved closer hadn't told him anything, he suddenly realised who was fighting.
It was him and Taka!
He saw the strange clothes he was in: a tight red silk wrap around his chest and long black pants, and nothing else. His brown hair was much longer, and it wasn't kept in a bandanna anymore, but instead in a ponytail that Garlyle had to admit was quite interesting.
And Taka, apparently his rival, was dressed pretty much the same, except his sash was crimson, and he had no ponytail, instead, his purple hair was all held by goggles that wrapped around the scalp, forcing all the hair upwards.
"What the...?" Garlyle muttered, watching the next move in the fight.
As the new-Garlyle reached the highest point of his leap, suddenly the red energy around him exploded, taking the form of a roaring dragon, and he was diving at Taka.
Taka grabbed the feather from behind him and swept it as hard as he could, and Garlyle felt the winds suddenly pick up, pushing in a huge gust away from it. It was a good thing he had been far away, otherwise he would have gone flying.
Yet this had only stopped the silk-clad Garlyle momentarily, as he came at him again. Instead of attacking head first however, the boy turned around, sweeping out the claw in front of him.
Garlyle saw the long dragon's tail spin about, and as the strange energy hit Taka, the boy went flying.
Suddenly, the energy from his feather flickered out, as he went flying, crashing into the grass.
There was a couple more moments, than the dragon-Garlyle-person seemed to dispel his own power, the dragon disappearing right back into the fang.
Garlyle ran towards him, gulping, not sure what to expect.
They didn't notice him at first. Instead, somebody else did.
"Garlyle!"
He turned, and smiled. There, in a red beret and a long silver blouse and skirt was Kiana, looking quite nice as she was, running from the house he had just come out of.
Then she froze.
"Wait, there are two..." she pointed between the two, finally making the two sparring boys take note.
"Umm..." Garlyle gulped.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?" she cried.
"Gods above..." the new-Garlyle exclaimed, walking over to join his dimension-travelling self. "What the hell?"
"I'm not sure..." Taka muttered, standing on his other side.
"Gaah..." Garlyle sighed. "Alright, if I tell you something really weird, will you promise not to freak out and kill me?"
"Depends how weird" Garlyle spoke it, and the traveller version knew that it was definitely him.
*****
He told them, rather quickly, and had made them understand fairly fast.
And in the process, he had learned a lot.
Wherever he was now, there were people called 'Shamans' who could transform the power of the spirits into actual physical power. Garlyle and Taka were training against each other before something called the 'Shaman Fight'.
When it finally came up again, Garlyle learned what it was. Shaman Fight, apparently, was a huge competition held only every 500 years to determine who became the shaman who would channel the 'Great Spirit', or as some called him, God. It seemed quite... odd... to Garlyle, but he didn't really care.
"You two... but if only one person can..."
"Yeah, at some point we'll have to fight" Taka had responded. "But that doesn't matter."
Garlyle caught the two's glance towards Kiana, who was watching the two intently, almost dreamily, seeming to have forgotten there was a new Garlyle there. But when she did look at him, she had that same crazy look on her face...
He turned to face his alternate self. "Umm..."
"Yeah?"
"You've got more riding on this tournament than the Great Spirit, don't you?"
"How could anything more ride on..."
"Kiana?"
"You know?" the shaman-Garlyle was surprised, and Garlyle knew he had got it.
"Long story" he responded, before they turned back to discussion.
Then Kiana asked him something. "Why are you here, anyway?"
"I... I honestly don't know" Garlyle muttered, looking around, inspecting the three and the area. "I don't think it was my fault I'm here, but I have the feeling there's something I'm supposed to find here."
"Well, unless you know what you're trying to find..." the Shaman- Garlyle shrugged. "Shaman Fight begins in only a week, you know, and we're not about to miss it. Sorry."
"Then I'll come along" Garlyle smiled. "Somehow, no matter where I've travelled, sticking around with myself and my family has usually led to go things..."
"...Are they still alive, back in your world?"
Garlyle was startled by the question that the Shaman-Garlyle asked.
"What?"
"My parents died after my younger brother was born... a Shaman of a rival clan named Kinomi killed him when he was only four... I couldn't protect him, then, and... I barely saved myself..." he sighed, losing himself in memories.
Garlyle felt sorry for the boy. "I know... They're not alive in my world either... My parents were killed by a demon... my brother... my friends... I lost them to the attack of a dangerous mercenary..."
"A demon?" the Shaman perked up, not seeming to catch the rest.
"Yes, a demon dragon, to be more precise" Garlyle grinned.
"Funny, that's the nickname Ceth has received..." the Shaman-Garlyle smiled.
"What? Ceth?" Garlyle's eyes opened wide. "You... You know him?"
"Sure! Come on out, Ceth!" he held the fang over his head, dramatically.
The red light swooped off of it again, before forming into a man wearing tattered rags, but had a fang on a chain wrapped around his neck that was identical to the one the boy was holding up, and he obviously looked as though he would be quite ferocious.
He looked softly down at Garlyle, waved a hello, and smiled. "Hey!"
Garlyle blinked. What? "This is Ceth?"
"Yeah. Problem?"
"Um... But then... With what you told me, a shaman like yourself can only work with one ghost for maximum potential, right?"
"Yes."
"But, then, the dragon...?"
Ceth's form shimmered, and then it became a dragon so immense it nearly filled the room with its spiritual energy. Garlyle felt oddly crushed.
"Umm... alright, I don't doubt it" Garlyle responded. Then something clued in.
"Wait... umm... Garlyle..." he asked his other self, "You've never heard the name 'Ceres', have you?"
"Oh, that's the name of the dragon form" Garlyle responded. "Why?"
Suddenly, it all clued in!
Ceres was Ceth. Ceth is Ceres!
Every piece of the puzzle was making sense now, everything clicking in, and Garlyle couldn't help but wonder if he would confuse Ceres when he got the dragon back...
If he got the dragon back...
But what was it he needed to get back, anyway? Gods only knew!
The answer probably should have been obvious to him, but for now, he knew that he had a job to do. To help his other self however he could.
He hadn't been sent here just for that. That kind of thing just didn't happen!