Over a week had passed since that one evening and Tsuki hadn’t reappeared yet, much to Haru’s pleasure. At the time, Tsuki insisted on giving Haru a crash course on training with essence but left Haru to his own devices afterwards.

“Cleansers all have their own weapon that they channel essence through. It can be pretty much anything as long as it passes as a weapon. The quality is a factor, but more important is the emotional attachment since that helps with the flow of essence. You have anything like that?”

To that, Haru had decided on the metal baseball bat from when he played in middle school. It was stowed away in his closet rather than in the attic since Haru honestly did feel attachment towards it, battered as it was. After that, he was made to do practice swings in the backward not unlike during his practice days, but with the added twist of trying to send essence through the bat.

“Your essence is converted to fire, which is quite rare from what I know. If you learn to channel it properly, the bat should heat up from the conversion. At that point, you should be able to hit Shades with it. They’re intangible otherwise.” He explained.

Haru just decided to go with the flow to avoid pointless bickering. Plus, he was still curious about the world of Cleansers and Shades that Tsuki was a part of, but he only explained things a little at a time. At any rate, he only planned to train enough to keep those smoky Shades off of him and go back to his everyday life as soon as possible.

A wave of relief washed over him when he saw his dad’s car pulling back into the driveway.

“Looks like dad and my brother are home. I don’t want to explain what’s going on here so why don’t he call it quits for today?” Haru suggested as naturally as he could. In the end, he didn’t make any progress with the training. He hit nothing but air for nearly an hour and the bat wasn’t the least bit warm.

“Guess there’s no choice. But make sure to continue training on your own, for your own safety. I’ve got my own job to do so I can’t supervise you all the time, but I’ll check in once in a few. Here.” Tsuki tossed something towards Haru, who caught it with his free hand. As expected, it was another wooden bell.

“If it starts ringing for no reason, watch your surrounding and move carefully. Don’t go near any Shades you may see. If it breaks for whatever reason I’ll try to come rescue you, but I can’t make any promises.” Without a word of farewell, Tsuki leaped over the fence surrounding the house with inhuman agility and melted into the night.

Haru later told the rest of his family that he got a craving for baseball again to justify his regular swinging practice, but he wasn’t sure how well that’d last considering he wasn’t part of a team anymore. And if he didn’t have to worry about Shades attacking him, there’d be no reason to train in the first place.

Still, things had gone back to their usual routine with the main source of stress being the upcoming midterms. Natsumi seemed especially stressed with the prospect, devoting the free time she normally spent running or hanging out with friends to her studies, despite it not being her strong suit.

“Since dad died last year it’s just me and my mom, and she really wants me to do well so I can take care of myself in the future.” Natsumi spoke about her family situation to Haru every now and then, though he knew how sensitive it was. While he wasn’t privy of the details, Natsumi’s dad worked as an officer and was apparently the unfortunate victim of gang violence over a year ago that ultimately took his life. Haru was one of Natsumi’s friends that helped support her doing the rough period following that and was a big reason why the two of them are so close now. But the stress she and her mom were dealing with was plain to see, and Natsumi herself had admitted once that the main reason for her being into running now was to get her mind off everything.

But the sight of her turning down offers to spend time with her friends and studying so intently in the school library at the end of each day was still something Haru couldn’t get used to and he silently hoped that she’d go back to her usual self once the tests were over.

Except, on the Friday before the week the tests were due to begin, Haru could have sworn he saw her hiding her face in her hands while rushing towards the girl’s restroom. Since he couldn’t enter to check on her himself, he asked a nearby female classmate if she could do it since she was also on the track team.

“I’m worried that the stress is really getting to her. Would you mind checking if she’s okay? I think she’s crying in there.”

The girl nodded with understanding.

“I know what you mean. There aren’t any club activities the week before midterms, but Natsumi’s seriously not been her usual self. I get that she has to take care of a bunch of stuff now, but I don’t see much point if she can’t even smile. I’ll have a chat with her.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Haru waited a short distance away as the girl entered the restroom. He didn’t plan to approach the two girls, but he at least wanted to see if Natsumi was better after talking with one of her friends. But his optimism didn’t prepare him for the angry shouting coming from the restroom a few seconds later.

“Don’t pretend to understand what I’ve been going through! You’ve never had any crap to deal with your entire life you hypocrite! You hardly even study but still do well! Butt out!”

A moment later, Natsumi burst out of the restroom and stormed out towards the school’s back entrance, presumably to find a solitary spot to vent. While Haru was frozen with shock, the girl from before gingerly approached him.

“Umm…I think I made things worse. Sorry…” she apologized.

“This isn’t anyone’s fault. She just needs some time alone now.” Haru reassured her, but inside him, he felt a strong sense of unease. He had never seen Natsumi blow up like that before and while he hoped that she’d calm down on her own, he felt that he had to see for himself.

Bidding farewell to the girl, Haru snuck around the school and quickly heard the sounds of sobbing coming from one of the trees in the courtyard.

“Stupid mom. Doesn’t know how to move on and dumping it all on me. She knows I’m not that smart but thinks that’s an excuse to work harder. But I can’t do it. Why don’t they get that? The teachers are stupid too. They don’t want to get involved with any family issues so all they do is tell me to work hard since that’s what dad would have wanted. They don’t know a thing. They should all just…”

“Natsumi? You okay?” Haru cut in. He didn’t hear everything Natsumi was mumbling, but he could sense how much pressure she was feeling. She jumped up with a start and faced Haru. Her eyes were red and puffed up.

“Haru…how long were you…?”

“I just got here.” Haru responded automatically as he pulled out a tissue pack from his bag. “Here, wipe yourself up.” But Natsumi shook her head and took a step backwards.

“You’re nice, Haru. But you can’t understand the things people go through. You’ll see how unfair the world is someday, then maybe, you’ll understand.”

“Stop saying silly things. You’re under a lot of stress, I get that. But running away from everyone that wants to help you won’t make things better. Come on, take a tissue and we can work something out. We could get a weekend study group together with some of our classmates.” Haru tried to reassure her with as calm a voice as he could muster.

“I can’t waste my time with that. I need to work hard on my own because in the future, I need to take care of myself. If I rely on others, I’ll end up like my mom that can’t do anything when they’re gone. I don’t want that…I don’t want to be like her.”

Haru wasn’t sure what to say. Her issues were even deeper than he imagined. If he could only calm her down enough so she can consider other options, then maybe she would listen. Haru took several steps closer to Natsumi, resolved to force the tissues into her hand if necessary, when he heard the sound of a bell ringing from his backpack.

“Natsumi!” he called out, but Natsumi had crouched down and covered her ears.

“GO AWAY!” she shouted, and as she did, an explosion of black smoke erupted from her body and quickly congealed into a black mass.

Haru jumped back, his mind racing. He knew he was supposed to run away from Shades if he saw one, but he couldn’t just leave Natsumi like this. But Tsuki wasn’t around and he couldn’t fight the thing on his own, he didn’t even have his bat with him. He had the bell, but that wasn’t enough to take the Shade out. His only choice was to use it to call Tsuki, then hold off until he arrived. Haru grit his teeth and pulled the bell out of his backpack. Even if he had to take a few hits, he wasn’t about to let that thing hurt Natsumi. He clenched the bell firmly in his hand and lobbed it as the Shade started making its way towards him.

As it burst, Haru could have sworn he saw something like a glass pane appear in midair. The explosion only hit an extension of the Shade instead of the massive main body, but even that seemed to be repelled by the pane acting as a barrier between it and Haru. Without having time to think about the odd barrier, Haru quickly drew his measuring ruler from his backpack. Calling it a weapon would be a stretch, but he’s held onto it long enough to have something of an emotional attachment, so maybe sending essence through it would be possible.

As the odd barrier faded, a smoky tentacle reached out once more, and Haru steeled his resolve and smacked it with the ruler. To his surprise, the smoke rebounded off of it, he had managed to properly send his essence through it at least. Haru continued stepping backwards, avoiding the large tendrils while smacking away smaller ones with his ruler, but the Shade, larger and denser than either of the ones he saw thus far, was soon bearing down on him.

In desperation, Haru faced the two sparkling dots that resembled eyes and brought down his ruler on it with everything he had. And then, another pane-another barrier-appeared between the ruler and the Shade. It was smaller than the last one, but it pushed the Shade back, if only momentarily. But Haru’s ruler had snapped in two from the impact. If the Shade charged again, Haru would have no choice but to run and hope for the best.

But before the Shade could move again, the earth shook as a beam of light came down from the sky and impaled the Shade from above, digging into the ground. As Haru looked in awe, he realized that the beam was actually a spear that had pierced cleanly through the center of the smoky mass and was buried halfway into the ground.

There was a long hiss as the smoke dispersed, slowly vanishing into the air without a trace. As the last of it faded, a man that looked to be in his thirties, appeared in the corner of Haru’s eyes and walked towards the weapon.

Pulling it out easily with one hand, he spun it around so it pointed towards the heavens before turning to Haru.

“So you’re the Shade bait my subordinate is interested in? Nice to meetcha. I’m the leader of the 5th Division. Call me Tetsu.”