Part V: Of Many Unearthly Meetings
"But what's surprising is that you can see her." You looked a little confused. "Most people can't see spirits. Wait a minute! Are you a shaman?" You were getting more and more confused by the second. You knew a little about shamans; you'd heard them being mentioned once in History class, but you were almost asleep, so you didn't get much out of it.
"Okay, if I were a shaman, would I be cleaning your room?" you asked after vaguely remembering what little you knew. Lyserg smiled a little, clearly thinking hard about something.
"Probably not… And now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing you at the Shaman Fights, so you must not be one of us."
"Whoa, wait. One of 'us'? What are you talking about? I'm not following this whole 'shaman'-thing you've got going," you said, trying desperately to keep up. Almost as if it were on cue, Ren (who just happened to be walking by the door) caught on to what you were saying and scowled deeply at Lyserg, then marched angrily into the room.
"Lyserg, did you tell her already?" he asked huffily, crossing his arms over his chest. "I thought we weren't going to drag any more people into this kind of thing. She's got no business messing with spirits." Lyserg looked a bit upset with being yelled at.
"She can see spirits, Ren!" Lyserg yelled as if the sky was about to fall. "She found Morphine while she was cleaning in here!" Ren looked slightly surprised, then smirked.
"Is she a shaman?" he asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. For some reason, he seemed to not want to acknowledge the fact that you were sitting right in front of him. Lyserg shook his head.
"No, apparently she can only see them like Manta," he said. Ren twitched slightly.
"So should we show her the other spirits in the house right now, or should she discover them on her own?" Ren asked. It didn't really sound like he wanted and answer, neither did it sound like he was addressing Lyserg. This bothered you a bit.
"I wanna see them now!" you half-yelled. You weren't about to be getting out of the bath one day and all of a sudden be face to face with a dirty old man. Ren sighed, then pulled out a memorial tablet from seemingly nowhere.
"Bason!" he said sternly. Almost instantly, the space between you and Ren was occupied by a giant… Thing. It almost looked like a person, but it was much too big. Then it turned around to face you.
"Um. S-So this is your spirit, R-Ren?" you asked, terrified of this new being but trying to smile nonetheless. Ren nodded.
"His name's Bason." Ren sounded as if he knew you were scared and was trying to be comforting to you, but he didn't really know how.
"H-Hello, Bason," you said, beginning to tremble a little. Bason waved sheepishly. By now you realized that you were facing a ghost. Ghosts were scary, right? And this was a giant ghost. Even more scary! Sensing your fear, Lyserg put a hand on your shoulder, making you squeal in fright.
"It's okay," he said. "He can't hurt you; he's just a ghost, remember?" Ren looked pissed. Now was his time to comfort you, not Lyserg's! Bason was his ghost! So he did what came naturally when he was annoyed or angry…
"HORO!" his voiced echoed throughout the inn. Realizing his mistake, he quickly tried to cover up. "Get in here!" After a few seconds, Horohoro wandered in, and Bason swirled back into his memorial tablet.
"Jeez, Ren," he yawned. "You don't need to yell; I'm right down the hall… Whaddya want?" A snort from Ren followed this remark.
"It seems Katsumi can see spirits," he informed Horo, who looked stunned. "She wants to see Kororo." You were about to protest (you didn't want to see another huge ghost), but a small 'pop' and cloud of smoke originating from above Horo's shoulder prevented you. Expecting another colossal apparition, you drew back slightly.
Instead of a ghost, floated a doll-sized… well… Spirit. She was possibly one of the cutest things you'd ever seen before, and you grew blushy and starry-eyed.
"Ooh! She's so cute!" you cooed as you watched her nestle herself in Horo's hair. Horo grinned and blushed.
"She's a Koropokkur; her name's Kororo," he said proudly.
"Really! That's so cool!" you said excitedly. Horo nodded. "What's a Koropokkur?" The three boys in the room fell down anime style at your question.
"Katsumi, you've got a lot to learn about spirits," Lyserg said with an apologetic smile on his face.
End Part V.