"Roads are not just built to get to point B, they are also built so you can enjoy the ride." -Misaki Elledan
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Not too long after, we were on a train to our way to ‘Silver Streams’ the capital of our province ‘Phoenix.’ We still used our private train again to get there so we wouldn’t be disturbed by any other people, Kasai doesn’t like having this special treatment, so she was against the idea, but I managed to convince her, by allowing her to rest on my shoulder until we arrive, of course I had to allow Shizuka too, or she would have started throwing a tantrum, and surprisingly they both got very sleepy even though they just slept, so here I am in a train that’s going to take three hours to reach the capital and my two shoulders that are about to go numb… but I’m not going to lie to myself… this feels pretty nice… I… I wish we could be like this… all three of us, forever…
I closed my eyes and fell asleep. A couple of minutes later, I woke up floating on the train looking at our bodies sleep.
“W-What?” There was a fine blue string attacked from my body to my soul, I was guessing that was my life string which prevented my soul from drifting away from my body.
“R-Rukito?” I heard Shizuka’s voice echoing in my head, I heard someone call my name from behind me, so I turned back. I swear I’m not crazy, but I saw Kasai’s and Shizuka’s spirits right behind me.
“Shizuka? Kasai?” I asked myself very confused. “What the hell is going on?”
“Rukito?” I heard Kasai question herself.
“Wait, did you just talk, Kasai?” Asked Shizuka. Apparently, she also heard her this time.
“We are in a spiritual world; body limitations aren’t transferred over to our souls.”
“Yes, but It’s still surprising to hear your voice! Right Rukito?!” She looked towards me to see if I had a reaction of surprise, but I completely forgot that Shizuka didn’t know about the telepathy.
“Huh? Oh!”
“Wait, you aren’t surprised?!”
“O-Oh, well. You see,” Briefly after, we heard a voice saying,
“Welcome to my astral realm!”
“Huh?” A strange man appeared in front of us.
“This is my singularity called ‘Astral Realm’” We looked around and saw many spirits besides us looking at our way.
“R-Rukito! Who are they?!” Said Shizuka with a shaky voice holding my arm. I forgot that Shizuka is afraid of spirits since after all, she is a believer of ghosts, so her room is full of charms too. Shortly after, Kasai said,
“I’ve heard of this before, our souls are disconnected from our bodies, and whatever happens here is actually happening in real life; this is not a dream.”
“How did we get here?”
“Since you will never be able to go back into your bodies, allow me to explain.”
“What?!”
“My spiritual singularity is called ‘Astral Realm’ I can make anyone who I touch start getting very sleepy and then, they are able to access into my astral realm; they can only leave if I allow them to.”
“But we haven’t touched you!”
“Rukito…” Said Shizuka. “I think he’s the ‘drunk’ man who bumped into us before arriving at the station.
“What?!” I looked closely, and I realized it.
“You’re right!”
“But what are you planning to do here? You can’t hurt us in a spiritual world.” Said Kasai.
“That’s true, but my partner is also on the train with us.”
“What?!” Another man walked inside our train cabin with a knife, he looked homeless.
“He will kill all three of you and take you to our boss so he can replenish his magic powers.” As soon as he said that we all realized he was from black tombstone, I rushed towards the man and tried to grab his arm, but my hand went right through him.
“Dammit! Spirit Daisho!” But nothing happened. The man laughed and said,
“Singularities don’t work in my realm little boy!” Shizuka looked at me and asked,
“W-What are we going to do?” The other man was getting closer and closer to us to kill us, but suddenly someone else also walks into our cabin.
“Hey, you! I noticed you are homeless and had a knife, so I just came in here to make sure you don’t do anything drastic with it! I know that life can suck and everything, but you just have to find a woman that-” Yes, that was my master Hachimura.
“Who are you?!” Asked the homeless man.
“Wait, aren’t the people that are sleeping there from the Aizawa family?!”
“Y-You know them?!”
“Oh, I see what’s going on…” Yes! Luckily my master was also on this train with us. “You want to kill Rukito out of envy because he actually found two amazing and good-looking girls!” I sighed… what a way to put this situation into place.
“Rukito isn’t that your master?” Asked Shizuka.
“Y-yeah…”
“I can see that you’re not a fighter, so please just leave without any-” The homeless man rushed at him, he instantly pierced him through the left ventricle of the heart where the bomb was; he managed to deactivate it before it blew up. “Dammit… YOU IDIOT! I WARNED YOU!” The man dropped to the ground, bleeding.
“DAMMIT!” He took a moment and sighed, he walked up to us and shook us. “Rukito, Shizuka, Kasai, Wake up.” We instantly got pulled back into our bodies and woke up.
“Master… thank you.”
“Huh?”
“We were in a state of astral projection, we saw everything that happened….”
“Oh…” Kasai looked at him and sighed.
“Is this his first kill?” Kasai asked me using telepathy.
“I think it is…” I got up and said, “This is your first kill. Right master?”
“Unfortunately…” I patted him on the back and said,
“It was either your or him, you made the best choice.”
“Yeah…” But out of nowhere, I look back at the body, and it was gone.
“Wait, WHAT?!”
“Huh?” I pointed at the body, and everyone looked.
“He’s gone!”
“That’s right, we never saw his singularity!” I heard Kasai telling me.
“Yes, it must have something to do with his singularity.”
“Wait where’s Shizuka?!” I looked back and saw her still sleeping. “Oh…” I shook her, and she woke up shivering.
“AAAAA!!!” She yelled. “Where are the ghost?! Are they gone?!”
“Y-Yes Shizuka…”
“Oh! Thank god! I was about to get a heart attack!” She started breathing quickly.
“Most importantly, the body just disappeared.”
“What?!” She exclaimed confused.
“Yes. Black tombstone is being very careful not letting bodies or men behind that can be checked on.” I said.
“Yeah, their boss is definitely not dumb, that’s for sure.” Said, my master. He took a deep breath and continued by adding, “At least we didn’t have to dispose of the body.”
“Rukito, he might still be alive, let’s not let our guards down.”
“Yes I know, Kasai.”
A couple of minutes passed waiting to see if anything was going to happen, but it seemed clear. I turned to my master and said,
“So Hachimura, I thought this train was private. Only people of the Aizawa family are allowed in here, how did you and the other person get on board?”
“Well the Aizawa family lets me use this train since we’ve known each other for quite some time, so that wasn’t that big of a problem, I just didn’t expect you guys to be on the train at this time.”
“And where are you going?”
“Silver Stream. I’m going back with my fiancé for a while.”
“Aww, really?” Said Shizuka.
“She lives in Silver Steam?”
“Not really… Actually… I’m going to the port so I can go to the cloud elf continent.”
“Wait… SHE’S A CLOUD ELF?!”
“Y-yeah! And a special one too.”
“What do you mean, special?”
“I’ve said too much!”
“Actually, we’re heading to the cloud elf continent too!”
“Wait, really? What brings you there?” We took a while to explain everything, but afterward, he said,
“Oh wow, I hope you can find a cure for her curse.”
“Yeah, and I hope we can also convince the king to come back from his dumb vacation.”
“That too.”
“Hey Rukito, can I talk to you and Kasai for a moment?” Said Shizuka.
“Oh, sure!” We walked off.
“Sooo… you weren’t surprised when Kasai was talking, that leads me to believe you have heard her voice before.” I wasn’t going to lie, I think that it was time to tell her that I’ve been able to hear what Kasai wants to say to me for a while now. She also probably might help me understand how is this happening because it can get really annoying.
“I have… but probably not as you think.” I explained to Shizuka that Kasai and I have been able to communicate telepathically for a quite some time.
“How come you didn’t tell me about this?!”
“Sorry, I just wanted to figure out why first.”
“Tsk, whatever…” Suddenly we heard the train driver say on the speakers,
“We’ll be arriving at Silver Stream in about an hour.”
“Well, let’s get ready.” Said Shizuka while walking away.
Around 55 minutes later, the train stops out of nowhere. It was quite the harsh stop, we all slowly got up and asked ourselves,
“What happened?!” Soon, we hear the train speakers.
“Silver Stream has stopped every train to enter the city.” The current railroads are electrically powered, without electricity running through the railings, the train can’t move. This electricity flow is controlled by the central station which is located inside of Silver Stream.
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“Huh?!” We were all puzzled.
“A… A massacre has happened in the city.”
“Wait, WHAT?!” I got up and looked out the window. Silver Stream was visible. “Oh no…” I ran to the front of the locomotive, where the driver was, to ask him, “Do you know anything else?”
“N-No, the only thing that I was told was that a numerous amount of people were killed in an instant by someone yet unknown by the police.”
“Crap… that’s where Sachi lives…” But, depending on the number of people that were killed is highly unlikely that Sachi got caught up into it. The city is not that small. “Do you know if it happened near an Inn or some sort?”
“No, I’m sorry, that’s all I’ve been told.” But yet again, taken in mind that Sachi has a singularity means that she can be a big target for a black tombstone.
“Did they stop the electricity?"
“Yes, even if we still wanted to approach, we wouldn’t be able to.”
“Alright… When the electricity is back, you can go back.”
“What do you mean?”
“Tamashi, right?”
“Yes?”
“We’ll go walking, don’t worry about us.”
“Mr. Rukito, are you sure?”
“Yeah, tell my parents that everything is fine if they ask.”
“If you say so.” Silver Stream was three miles ahead, we had to go through a short tunnel and a small forest before we were at the entrance. I walked back to my group and explained everything that happened.
“A massacre? Isn’t it quite dangerous to go then?” Said Shizuka.
“Well, Sachi lives there. I showed her around the place before, so I know. I have to make sure she is ok.”
“Rukito, I appreciate your concern for others, but let’s not be selfish; Think about the danger Shizuka could be in.” Said Kasai.
“Yeah…”
“Hachimura, you, and I know how to handle ourselves moderately. But Shizuka is not a fighter.”
“Then…”
“Hm?”
“Master, could you use your singularity on Shizuka?”
“Oh, for sure!”
“W-Wait why me?” I didn’t want to tell her straight up that she is weak, so I just got closer to her ear and whispered.
“Because you’re very important to me.” Which wasn’t a lie, but I didn’t want to give her reason number two. She blushed like I expected and shushed.
“Alright, let’s make our way there.” It should take us about 45 minutes to get there. With all our luggage it wasn’t going to be comfortable walking that much. We got out of the train and started making our way towards the tunnel, the city’s skyscrapers were visible, and we realized that it was quite the walk.
“I hate walking.” Said Shizuka.
“We barely just started and you’re already whining,” I answered back.
“Not my fault I prefer to read books inside my room!”
“It kinda is…”
“I don’t really mind it; usually when I go out, there are many beautiful girls to admire, that’s actually how I met my fiancé!” Said, my prideful master.
“Aww, that’s sweet.” Said Shizuka.
“It wasn’t that sweet at all actually! I bumped into her because I was looking at another girl, I fell on top of her with my leg between hers, and my hand on her chest. It looked like one of those cliché animes on tv!”
“Hahaha, really?”
“Yeah, but instead of slapping me and calling me a pervert like I was expecting, she apologized and suggested on getting some coffee for making the inconvenience up!”
“Aww, she is a keeper.”
“Yup, she is!” It’s kind of scary the fact that Shizuka (The biggest anti-perverted I’ve ever met) getting along with my master…
“Well on my side, I was locked inside a cage most of my life, but I don’t have a problem walking.” Told me, Kasai.
“Oh yeah, how come?”
“I usually went for short jogs in the morning when I was in the orphanage, it was a good way to keep my mind off my past.”
“Uhm, say. Kasai.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think if we coincidentally got placed in the same orphanage you would have still talked to me? Or did we just got together out of luck?”
“Hmm, hard to say. I think at least I would have been interested in you since you’re pretty handsome.”
“Aww come on, you know I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Yes I know, but there’s something different between you and every other guy Rukito.”
“Hmm?”
“I don’t mean it physically, or emotional. You’re an amazing person and all, I’m sure Shizuka can tell you more about how amazing you are in an emotional perspective, but I had this soothing feeling that I’ve already known you before. I felt like I could entrust you my heart and I know you would have taken care of it; the first time I met you I had that feeling.”
“Really? I felt the same too.” I doubted that she had the same feeling, but apparently, she did.
“I knew that I had nothing to fear with you, even though I still had my trauma and didn’t want to get touched by anyone, you helped me get rid of it. You fixed my broken spirit, and for that, I’m really thankful.”
“I…” I had no idea how to answer that.
“And I think that’s also part of the reason you basically made me fall in love with you. You reached into my heart and healed every traumas, insecurities, worries, and remorse I had away.”
“…” I was pleased with that answer, even though I had nothing to answer to that.
“It has gotten pretty quiet, are you two talking?” Said Shizuka looking back at us.
“Talking?” Asked my master.
“Yes, they have telepathy with each other apparently.”
“What?!”
“Mhm, that was my same reaction.”
“N-No! It’s just-”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” She sighed and added, “Times like these, I wish cars weren’t banned.”
“Or you know, just get out of your room for once in a while.”
“Oh, shut up!” I chuckled. We arrived at the entrance of the tunnel, it wasn’t too long, so the exit was visible, but it was quite a bit dark.
“Here comes the fun part.” Said, my master.
“That’s a way to put it,” I replied. We entered the tunnel, but Kasai seemed to have stayed outside.
“Hmm?” We turned back. “Kasai! What’s wrong?!”
“What’s gotten into her?” Said Shizuka.
“I’ll go talk to her.” I walked back to her and asked,
“You ok?”
“Y-Yeah! I-I’m ok!”
“What’s wrong?” I got closer to her and held her shoulders. She looked down and said,
“I… I’m a bit afraid of the dark. But just a tiny bit!” I chuckled and said,
“It’s alright, we all were when we were kids.”
“Don’t laugh at me!” She blushed. I gazed into her eyes and said,
“I get it, it reminds you of your past doesn’t it?”
“H-How-”
“It’s understandable Kasai, but trust me, it’s going to be fine.” I’m guessing she never had somebody to tell her that there is no monster under the bed.
“Here,” I held her hand tightly. “You can hold my hand if you want if you really get scared squeeze it tightly ok?” She blushed even more.
“S-Stop treating me like a little girl!”
“Ah, I see.” I let go of her hand.
“No! No! No! I was just kidding!” She grabbed my hand again. I started chuckling.
“Come on, we have a far road ahead.” She puffed her cheeks while walking and looked away.
“I wish I could kiss you right now.” I chuckled and replied,
“Well, I can already feel Shizuka’s death stare from here; it’s like her green eyes of jealousy shine even brighter the closer we get. If we kiss in front of her, don’t bother calling the ambulance because I’ll be dead before it even gets here.”
“Can’t wait till we get married you know…”
“Yeah, I know. But, patience is a virtue.”
“I’m not a very patient person…”
“Then do it for me.”
“Alright… I’ll try my best.”
“What’s wrong?” Asked Shizuka with a menacing tone while looking at our hands.
“She is just a bit afraid of the dark, so I’m just helping her with it.”
“Ah… alright.”
“I see that under that tough skin of yours, you still are a soft little girl huh?” I told Kasai.
“N-No! That’s not true, Rukito!”
“You’re right, your skin is soft as a feather.”
“Y-You know I didn’t mean that! And I said that’s not true!”
“Well, really? Then how come under all that teasing and playfulness, when it comes to ‘get down to business’ you get very embarrassed and anxious?”
“SHUT UP! It’s not like you have tried to do it….”
“Oh Kasai, you would probably faint from nervousness.”
“Ok, you’re going too far! W-w…we should stop this conversation right here!”
“See how it feels?!” I was also trying to take her mind off the darkness with our little conversation, so this little chat helped out more than one way.
“Thankfully, no one can see me blushing from your embarrassing words!…”
“Oooh-how the mighty have fallen, my little succubus! The big and tenacious lioness turned into a house kitty-cat.” She giggled, took a deep breath and said,
“I love you so much. It’s pleasing feeling love after 17 years of your life.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“Huh?! You’re supposed to say the same back to me!”
“Listen, girl, in this world, there is no such thing as an equivalent exchange.”
“What do you mean?”
“You got scammed.”
“W-What?”
“Right… you don’t know what being scammed means… this joke is pointless now.”
“I-I’m so confused.”
“Bottom line, I love you so much too, Kasai.” She gave me a wholesome, genuine smile and kept walking. This smile is what I live to see… I don’t want to see her with her emotionless-broken expression ever again.
That whole chat took us most of the way through the tunnel, I’m pretty sure she even forgot that we are even in a tunnel, to begin with.
“Ha! It’s so dark!” She said while squeezing my hand tighter. Yup, there it is.
You know…she genuinely is someone special to me. The difference between Kasai and Shizuka for me it’s something out of first impression in my opinion, while Kasai’s first impression might not have been the best one, when I first met Shizuka and started hanging out with her I was feeling of her more as a big sister that teaches me stuff I don’t know considering how smart she is. Arriving at my new household, thinking that I will finally have a sibling, but soon later realized that Shizuka liked me, I wasn’t sure what love was like before I met Kasai, so I thought that maybe I fell in love with Shizuka and almost asked her out on a date to try it out.
Consequently, Kasai enter my life, my stomach felt weird the first time I met her, and my heart was racing, so much that every time I touched her, it felt like it was going to explode. I knew that I didn’t need a date to be in love with her because I already was… it was almost as if I already knew her before. And when I saw her childhood through her memories, I realized that she needed more help than anyone else, she was the one that I wanted to be happy with for the rest of my life, she was the one I wanted to see smile the most, because she has also suffered the same, if not, way more than I ever did. And of course, I still am and will always feel this way for her.
We reached the end of the tunnel. We had a look at the city from afar, it was still a little more to walk, but we should arrive there in a couple minutes.
“Kasai, you’ve never been here, right?” I said out loud.
“No, this is my first time actually.”
“Oh, makes sense.”
“Well, I always come here to do some shopping for my stuff so not for me.” Said Shizuka.
“I don’t live around here, but it is a nice city after all.” Said Hachimura.
“Well, since we are talking about Silver Stream, I think it should work from here…” Said Shizuka.
“What?” She stopped to kneel down and touch the ground.
“What are you doing?”
“Wisdom-World.” Ancient writing started appearing around her, they all circled up, and a book appeared in the center of the circle.
“That is so cool,” I commented.
“W-What is that?” Said, my master.
“Wisdom-World is her materialistic singularity, it allows her to know everything about a place, a race, a spell, or an object.”
“Wow, that’s useful.” The book’s title was ‘Silver Stream.’
“I’m surprised you haven’t tried this before in this city.”
“It calls too much attention.” We kept walking towards the city while Shizuka read the book.
“So apparently it was named Silver Stream because thousands of years ago, the river in the city was abundant with silver.”
“Huh, that’s interesting,” I said.
“Yes, and the people thought of it as a sign and gift of the gods to make a town here.”
“You know, I never really got into religion, you mind explaining a bit of it? I’m sure Kasai also wants to know.”
“Not really, but I’m a bit curious.” My master looked at us and said,
“I can explain! After all my fiancé is super religious counting the fact that she is a cloud elf.”
“Oh, alright. Save me some time.” Said Shizuka.
“So there’s a bible for it of course, but I’ll try to summarize it.”
“I might consider getting one,” I said.
“I actually have many back at home.” Said Shizuka.
“Oh, ok.”
“There are many religions, but the most followed one is ‘Yinarus’”
“I’ve heard of it before.” Said Kasai
“Its history goes that there was once this lonely omnipotent divine deity that wanted to have something to look after, so it created the universe filled with stars and planets as a playground for its 7 children.”
“Oh wow, what a playground,” I commented.
“Its original plan was to look after them, but it decided once they were of age, to give each one of them a unique power that will help shape the universe.”
“What were the names of all of them?”
“The divine being’s name is unknown, but every child has their names written in the bible.”
“Which are?”
“From oldest to youngest… ‘Tempus Deus,’ was the first deity to be created, she was said to be feminine, as she was supposed to be given an aspect of the divine god, so there are some speculations that the divine god had feminine looks, she was given the power of creating and control time. But she was nicknamed ‘Lira’ from her younger siblings.”
“Oh, that’s very interesting,” I commented.
“The second child was ‘Spatium Deus’ being the second deity to be created, he is said to be masculine, as the divine deity wanted to make a counterpart look to her. The divine deity noticed that everything needs its own balance, so basically, in poor men’s words, the male was created to balance the universe out. He was nicknamed, ‘Ginga’ from his siblings.”
“Oh wow, but what was his power?”
“He created more space and controlled it too. He was also able to control gravity.”
“Oh so basically time and space?”
“Yes. The next 5 children the deity created were males, as she started taking a liking to them. The next one was ‘Energïa Deus’ third and hyperactive son of the great deity. He was nicknamed ‘Zeus’ by his siblings, and he was given the power to create and control energy.”
“Are they like…. Angels or something?”
“I’ll get to that in a moment.”
“Oh alright.”
“‘Elementum Deus’ joined the big picture, and he was said to be a bit crazy, also a male, and he was nicknamed ‘Bakuretsu’ which means explosion since he had quite the explosive personality. He controlled every element in today’s periodic table, and maybe even more unknown to humans.”
“That’s quite… powerful.”
“Aren’t they all?” Said Shizuka.
“Actually not one of them, but I’ll get to him in a second.”
“Oh right, I forgot about him.” Said Shizuka.
“Next up, ‘Solis Deus.’ Given the ability to create suns and manipulate fires. Nicknamed ‘Luminos.’ He was the prideful son of the great deity, also masculine.”
“This is so overwhelming.”
“You have no idea what my fiancé put me through to listen to all of this…”
“Oh lord.”
“The last male, being ‘Luna Deus.’ He was the little kid of the family, and he could make moons, he was nicknamed ‘Yoru’ by his siblings.”
“Ah, so he is the one not as powerful?”
“Yes. The last child was feminine, the great deity decided to ultimately make a female. She was named, ‘Natura Deus’ she was nicknamed ‘Greenterra.’
“Wait isn’t that our continent name?”
“Yes, we named it after the goddess that made us this beautiful planet. Most people call her ‘Mother Nature.’ So yes, she is capable of making places capable of life. She is also capable of creating new animals and races, but she wasn’t capable of making other deities.”
“Incredible, those are the seven children?”
“Yeah, but it’s not over. They all worked together with Greenterra to make angels, which are not divine beings, they were just made so the seven siblings could also have people to look on to. Though they indeed contain immense power, it’s nowhere close to the seven siblings.”
“So that’s how they were made…”
“On the opposite end, Greenterra soon was told by the great deity that the universe cannot live unbalanced, so she decided to also make devils. Evil, and opposite from the angels, they were more into taking rather than giving.”
“Oh, I see. What was the religion called again?”
“Yinarus.”
“How can people know all of these things though?”
“Lira started writing all about this in a book, given to the angels to remember. But the book is said to be modified by the devils and angels so some things may not be true.”
“Oh, that’s understandable,” I said
“A very interesting story to say the least.” Said Kasai.
“My parents don’t believe in such things though.” Said Shizuka
“Yeah, it’s not like they never talked about it with us.”
After all that talk, we finally arrived at Silver Stream. The city seemed pretty peaceful for being a massacre in there.
“Well, here we are.” There were guards at the gate preventing people from coming in.
“How do we get through them?” Asked Shizuka. My master snickered and said, I got this. He walked towards them and showed him his identification.
“They are with me.”
“Alright, you may come in.”
“Oh that’s right, he’s in the military after all.” He walked back to us and said,
“Easy peasy, now let us proceed.” We walked through the city, there were a lot of people walking around and minding their own business doing their daily routine.
“Are you sure there was a massacre here?”
“Hmm… where did you say you wanted to go Rukito?”
“Oh, right! Follow me.” We walked towards Sachi’s inn. It was a 10-minute walk from there so even more walking!
“Ok, now I’m starting to see less and fewer people…” We arrived, and the whole block was wiped out, not a single household or shop in sight for the complete block. The police were all over the place with dead bodies every 10 steps you walked.
“W-What!…” Shizuka looked Shocked, I don’t think she has ever seen a dead body after all.
“A dozen may have been an understatement…”