Lakshman looked up at the girl hovering over him. She was glowing in the darkness that covered the rest of his room. He had just captured her when she was crying, caressing his face and hovering him all the time.

He narrowed his eyes at the introduction the girl gave him. She called herself Spectra and stated that she was a ghost. He understood her name part, but was confused about her being a ghost.

“Did you say… you’re a ghost?” he asked to make sure he really did hear it correctly.

Spectra nodded and said “I sure am. Do you doubt me?”

“Uh… It’s nothing to doubt, but… hmm…” Lakshman said and faltered while thinking.

He widened his eyes and thought about something. In an instant, he sat up in bed and this caused Spectra to float out of the way. Then she followed him as he looked at the book underneath the Crystal Clock.

He took a quick glance it and was surprised to see that it was just one-ten in the morning. Even though it was so early, he felt wide awake, but he smiled because he did not sleep in the first place. The reason for him not falling asleep was to catch the person that was keeping him company in the dark which turned out to be the ghost girl.

Concentrating on the book he took from the bed side table, he read the title aloud.

“Encyclopaedia, a Discovery!”

“That’s a strange title,” Spectra commented as he opened the book as she floated to look at it.

He did not think of turning the energy crystals back on to lighten the room as he swept through the pages. It was because of how bright the girl was. The light emitting from her glowing was bright enough to let him look at the book and read its contents properly.

“Ghost, ghost, ghost, ghost… Ah!” he said finally when he finally found the page he was looking for.

He just turned into a page with the title Ghosts on it. He skimmed through the page and skipped a few content that he felt were unnecessary; discovery, history and locations.

“Here we go!” he said and his gaze came to a stop. Then he said “How to react when you meet a ghost?”

He looked through the content and read aloud “When you see a ghost, scream like a little girl and run away as fast as your legs can carry…?”

Lakshman looked at the book with a surprised expression on his face. Then he slammed the book shut and angrily said “What a crap load of rubbish! I can’t do that! It’s embarrassing!”

Seeing him getting angry and hearing such words made Spectra laugh. She clutched her stomach and laughed really hard. He looked up at her with his eyebrows raised.

“What’s so funny?” he asked her curiously.

“Uh… Uh… Embarrassment… That’s quite funny…!” she managed to say while clutching her stomach as she tried to contain her laughter.

“It is! I’m a boy and if I scream like a little girl, it’s… it’s… it’s… d-disgraceful! ”

Finally managing to calm down, Spectra floated around and said “Oh I’m sure you’ll be surprised by how many ‘little girls’ exist inside man.”

Lakshman shook his head and asked “Why would they be afraid of ghosts? I mean, look at me! I’m not afraid!”

Spectra chuckled and said “Let me guess… You never met a ghost besides me, correct?” When he slowly nodded, she smiled widely and said “Ah! That makes sense.”

“So what makes ghosts so scary?”

“Well, you see… Ghosts are… scary!”

In an instant, she rushed at him at high speed and made a scary face. It normally would have made anyone to freak out, but Lakshman kept his cool. In fact, he only blinked in surprise as he stared into her scary face.

“Um… I’m not scared…” he said slowly.

She sighed and hovered as she said “I can see that and you’re not the only one. There are those that are really strong in the heart and rarely weaver at all. You’re not one of those types, but your heart is really strong against surprises, whether good or nasty.”

“I’m not sure. I’ve been surprised many times, but just not at things like these,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders and he put the book away.

Spectra laughed and said “You’re a funny one. In fact, you are the first person whom I ever spoken to while in this room.”

“Really? How come? Don’t you have anyone to talk to?”

She shook her head and said “I never did, not since I died here.”

At those words, Lakshman’s eyes widened in surprise. He slowly pointed around at the room and asked “You don’t mean…?”

She nodded at him and said “That’s right. I died in this very room.”

Lakshman gasped in surprise and sadly said “I’m sorry for your loss…”

Spectra shrugged her shoulders and said “That was over hundred years ago and I’m sure I’m forgotten by now!”

Lakshman looked at her in surprise. Then his eyes narrowed suspiciously and he asked “Don’t tell me… The reason boys don’t attend Astra Academy was… because of you?”

Spectra had been gliding around the room when she suddenly did a ridiculous flip in the air when she heard his words. It looked like he had hit the mark as she quickly recovered before hovering again.

“I-I don’t know what y-you’re talking about! Why would I b-bother scaring boys away?” she asked while looking really nervous.

It was a bad act and it certainly did not work on Lakshman. Looking at her fidgeting with her fingers while floating around nervously, he realised why she had done it. Spectra had spent a long time in this place and all alone so she wanted to play, but the visitors got scared instead.

Because of it, no men dared to enter Astral Academy due to the fear of the ghost haunting the boy’s dormitory. So she got unintentionally got rid of the boys and felt lonely with no one to play with.

Thinking in those lines, Lakshman looked up at Spectra. She was flying around the room while glowing brightly. Seeing her happy expression, he wondered how old she was. Just then, a question popped up in his mind and he asked her about it.

“Why did you die here when this is the boy’s dormitory?”

Spectra stopped gliding around and floated down to look at him. She wore a sad expression on her face as she said “Yes, it is, but I definitely would be here because… I was killed here.”

Lakshman’s eyes widened in shock and he spluttered “Y-Y-You were k-killed?! Wait! That means you were murdered!”

Spectra nodded her head dully and said “That’s right. I was killed in this room a hundred years ago. Authorities tried to investigate the culprit, but it was no good. They could not see me or hear me and, because of that, people though the mansion was haunted whenever I used my powers to try and talk to them.”

“M-Must’ve been awful…” Lakshman said sadly and she nodded her head in agreement.

Silence fell between them and it stretched into minutes. Spectra floated into the air and began to slowly glide around the room. He watched her gliding around smoothly in the air and he smiled.

It was broken when Lakshman, out of curiosity, asked “How were you killed? Do you remember?”

Spectra looked at him with a surprised expression on her face. Then she asked “A-Are you sure you want to listen? Don’t you have school tomorrow?”

Lakshman said “Pft! Screw school! I want to listen to your ghost story!”

Surprised at his desire to hear her story than attend school tomorrow, she smiled and said “You really are a strange one.”

Spectra took a deep breath and began to retell her story in a monologue style.

“A hundred years ago, I was known as Spectra Palamore. I was a Phintex Raja from the Phoenix Clan at that time. Back then, strange occurrences were happening around here at the boy’s dormitory. Boys were disappearing randomly and, out of the blue, suddenly reappear a week later with no memory.”

Lakshman had widened in his eyes in shock as he listened to her continue retelling her story.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“The Phoenix Emperor, Felix Phoron, got worried and ordered a few of the Phintex Rajas to investigate. So we did under his orders and arrived at this academy on a day it was closed. We began our investigation by searching through the entire school. None of my group members found any leads to the problem.”

“Unlike my comrades, I had a special sword; it was a Sacred Spirit!” she said and Lakshman was amazed. She smiled and said “It was a powerful sword which I believe is equally as powerful as the Phoenix Blade.”

“Oh wow…! That’s amazing!”

“It is. So I used my sword and activated it to feel the flow of the twistedness. It’s the darkness that has been corrupted by a force we don’t know or understand,” she explained to him.

Lakshman nodded in understanding. He had faced such a thing before when Felix was being corrupted and the corrupted darkness when the Demon Emperor attacked them.

“So by following the senses, I arrived at this building… alone.”

“Huh?! You came alone?!” Lakshman exclaimed incredulously. When she looked embarrassed, he asked “What were you thinking coming alone like that?”

She shrugged her shoulders and said “I was pretty confident with my fighting skills. On top of that, I had my Sacred Spirit with me to help me out.”

“Unbelievable…” Lakshman said quietly as he shook his head in disbelief.

Spectra coughed and said “A-Anyway…! After coming here, I looked around the building. I admired how beautifully it was constructed and all, but there was nothing more to it. Then I began searching the ground floor and I eventually came to this floor.”

“While going around, I felt a strange aura drifting from this room. So I entered to check it out. It was pretty dark so I used my used Flash Balls to cover the room in light. The room looked just like today, although a bit older due to how it was decorated so long ago.”

Lakshman nodded at her words. He understood since he was not even born a hundred years ago.

“I began using Mind Space to feel the vibrations of the room and felt something nasty. It was indeed twisted darkness emanating from within the room…” she said and hesitated. Then she shrugged her shoulders and said “Well… It was coming from under the bed. So I shifted the bed and, to my surprise, I found a Teleportation Circle etched on the floor.”

“Eh? A Teleportation Magic Circle? Beneath my bed?” Lakshman asked and he looked at his bed.

“It’s not there anymore, but it was there at that time. It had a strange design to it, but it was releasing a dark aura that made me feel cold,” she said and she suddenly shuddered for a moment.

There was silence for a few seconds before Lakshman asked “Then what happened?”

Spectra looked at him and said “Then everything went black.”

“What?”

“I couldn’t see anymore and I couldn’t feel anything. It was a strange feeling as if I was going away, far away from here… The next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground. I thought I had fallen asleep until I noticed my body lying next to me.”

Her expression became dark and her face became serious as she said “My body was brutally stabbed to death. That’s when I realised I was killed and I had been turned into a ghost.”

“N-No way…! To attack from behind… No! To actually kill a woman is… ugh…!” Lakshman said and he was very angry as he punched his bed.

Spectra shrugged her shoulders and said “It couldn’t be helped. My own foolish pride in my strength got me killed. It even caused my Sacred Spirit to blame herself because of that incident.”

“Eh? It blamed itself? Why?” Lakshman asked in a surprised voice.

“She blamed herself in thinking it was her fault that I had died. Blaming herself continuously for not being alert enough, she dung herself deep underground and sealed herself there.”

“Eh?! She’s underground!?” Lakshman exclaimed in shock. When Spectra nodded, he looked at the ground and muttered “That’s basically like digging your way to the bottom of the ground.”

He looked at her and asked “How deep did she dig herself down to?”

Spectra shrugged her shoulders and said “When I used my Zoom Eyes… Eyes that allows the wielder to see further ahead than what you can see through normal eyes,” she explained at seeing Lakshman’s puzzled expression.

When he nodded in understanding, she continue and said “When I zoomed my eyes into the ground, I saw that she was stabbed into a ground that she turned into some sort of home. A sort of temple if you want to call it.”

“Ah!” Lakshman said and he nodded at her.

With that, he finally understood Spectra’s tragic death. He also understood something else that Spectra did not mention.

“Since then, you’ve been trying to find a new master for your Sacred Spirit, right?” he asked and he smiled knowingly.

Spectra raised both of her eyebrows in amazement. Then she chuckled and said “I was. After my death, the incident stopped occurring and boys began to return to Astral Academy. I had hoped to try and get them to listen to me, but I was unable to because of being a ghost. Soon after, boys stopped coming and the dormitory became known as a place haunted by a ghost.”

She looked sad and disappointed at how things turned out to be. Lakshman looked at her without an expression on his face. He knew that ghosts only stay attached to their world so long as they continue to have regrets. Without the desire of revenge, all Spectra regretted was for her sword to seal herself below the ground because of her death.

At that moment, Lakshman suddenly heard the Decisive Player tell him in his mind “Help her out. I’m sure it will please her and make you feel happy as well.”

“You sure? She is a ghost and if she’s trapped here then… she won’t be able to leave the room at all…!”

“So what? You’re the Phoenix Titan! The laws of nature will bend to your will if you try! Go ahead and make her happy so that she can finally pass onto the next realm.”

“If you’re so sure about it, I’m not going to hesitate either!”

Lakshman looked at the sad looking Spectra and said “Don’t worry! I’ll help out!”

“Eh?” Spectra said and she blinked at him in surprise. Then she asked “How do you think you will help? I can’t leave this room at all and you don’t know the kind of person can acquire the Sacred Spirit.”

Lakshman grinned at her and said “Leave it to me! I’ll find way!”

“By how? Guessing?” she asked and he laughed at hearing those words.

Just then, he yawned as he felt drowsy. It looked like the ghost story and talking for so long finally made him feel sleepy. So he decided he will deal with this the next morning after waking up early for his morning training.

“Anyway, I-I-I’ll see you tomorrow m-m-morning, Spectra,” he said while yawning.

“Alright then. I’ll see you in the morning,” she said and she winked at him.

She slowly rose into the air and flew off towards the cupboard. He was surprised to see her pass through the doors and disappear inside. It looked like she had taken residence there which caused Lakshman to chuckle.

Lakshman was just about to sleep when he suddenly remembered something. He sat up and asked “Hey, Spectra?”

Spectra poked her head out and asked “What is it?”

“You still haven’t told me the name of your Sacred Spirit.”

Spectra looked surprised and said “Oh.” Then she smiled and said “She is known as the Sacred Spirit to be as powerful as the Phoenix Blade wielded by the Phoenix Titan. She is known as the Demon Slayer by the name Zemitra Nagety Sekegez Zema Foridos.”