Yuki led me up to the top of one of the many black and depressing buildings, waiting patiently for me to catch up to her. For a fox missing a leg, she can run very fast when she wants. I got to the roof, and she sat. I waited for something to happen when nothing did. Yuki stood up and sat down again. I cocked my head at her as she did it one more time. “Do you want me to sit?” I asked.
Yuki yapped.
I shrugged and did as instructed, I guess. Then Yuki closed her eyes and bowed her head. After a moment, she cracked an eye open and looked at me. She yapped angrily at me as though I was supposed to do something.
“Close my eyes and bow my head?” I mumbled to myself, “What does she want from me?”
Yuki huffed and yawned discontentedly. She stood and climbed onto my lap, jumping up to bring her face up to mine. She then pressed her cold, wet nose against the center of my forehead. I felt a small trickle of cold chakra flowing into that point she touched, and I felt the energy flow around a small incorporeal black orb in the center of my forehead.
Then, I understood what she wanted me to do. “You want me to cycle chakra to my sixth core? Why? I can’t hold it there,” I asked, a little confused.
Yuki yapped and looked west. I saw the sun was about to fall below the clouds. So, she wants me to cycle my chakra to my sixth core during the sunset? I wonder why? But I guess I won’t get any answers till I do so. Here goes nothing. I began to cycle my Healing chakra to my forehead, as it was the only core that didn’t feel almost empty. I felt the energy hit the black orb and slowly begin to penetrate it. It felt like filling a cup with saliva through a straw and just as tedious, but I could feel it working, and that’s what mattered.
After what felt like twenty minutes, I felt the slight warmth of the sun hit my face, and I finished filling my sixth core with energy. I opened my eyes and saw the same celestial light roll over the icy plains below, covering the city and the tree above. Blue ethereal trees formed over the icy plains, and the depressing black buildings turned white and blue, reflecting the white light and fracturing it into rainbow-colored light up to the tree above as it turned into the white bark peach tree with the multicolored peaches.
As I reveled in the beauty of it all, my vision began to shimmer a little as the energy in my sixth core seemingly activated, and I saw people floating amongst the buildings. They were from every race, and there looked to be hundreds of millions of them. “Quite the impressive sight, huh?” a young female voice said beside me.
“Yeah, they are,” I agreed without thinking. I paused as I slowly began to register that someone said something to me. Looking to my right, I saw a young woman with long, blond, and black hair wearing a black dress. She, too, watched the spirits far above a small, sad smile on her beautiful face. But that all felt irrelevant to me as the most prominent and shocking thing about her was not her beauty, clothes, familiar red eyes, or any of that. But instead, it was the fact that she was partially transparent!
Surprised, I jumped back and exclaimed, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!!?”
The young woman laughed heartily, doubling over in mirth as she pointed at my face and said, “You should see your face!! HAHAH! Priceless!”
I glowered at her and snapped, “You still haven’t answered my question!”
The young woman straightened and gazed into my eyes as she said, “My name is Kuroikuma. I’m Shirokuma’s little sister. You can call me Kuroi.”
I froze at this revelation and looked to Yuki, but she wasn’t paying attention to me, but rather two white and ice-blue foxes that stood two and a half meters tall and were partially transparent. The two massive foxes nuzzled into Yuki lovingly, and I quickly put two and two together, “Those are your parents, aren’t they, Yuki?”
Yuki turned and yapped happily to me. And the two foxes raised their heads to examine me. They then bowed slightly with their heads and lay down next to their little kit.
“Aww,” Kuroi cooed, “That’s adorable.”
I nodded and sat beside her, “Yeah, it is. I guess she wanted me to meet you or them or something. I don’t know. How is she even able to see them, though?”
Kuroi looked at me quizzically, “You haven’t seen her core yet, have you?” I shook my head, and Kuroi continued, “Give it a look.”
“I don’t think I have enough chakra to do that. It took a lot to fill my sixth core just to see you and them.”
Kuroi nodded and said, “Fine, then I’ll explain. Each monster has a core. But each core will be in a different spot. Take the Mantis you’ve been fighting. You noticed where its core was, right?”
“Yes, it was in its stomach or around there. Wait, how do you know—”
“All-knowing Soul magic fuckery, anyway,” Kuroi cut me off before I could ask my question and continued, “That monster’s core was located where your sacral core would be. Some monsters have cores where their root core would be. Some have one where their heart core would be, and so on. Yuki, and most all foxes, are considered spiritual animals and have cores where their Thirdeye core would be. So they can see spirits and commune with them.”
“Oh,” I said, nodding, “I guess that makes sense. Now about this all-knowing soul magic fuckery?”
“I have a lot of time on my hands and can look up pretty much any information I want to learn. It’s quite handy,” Kuroi said simply, then shifted her position to face me, “Serious talk now. We don’t have much time, and I want to know some things.”
I shifted my position toward her and nodded, “Ask away.”
Kuroi fidgeted with her fingers and asked, “How’s my brother doing? I know he’s in the team with Haze, and when I saw her here with you and nobody else, I began to feel worried. I know he’s alive and what he’s doing, but I don’t know how he’s doing. So … how’s he doing?”
Smiling softly, I said, “He’s doing great. He’s been a good friend to me and the rest of team Fiery Heart. He’s like a big brother to me. A really loud and obnoxious one, but still a good big brother.”
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Kuroi smiled and sighed, “That’s good to hear.”
Nothing was said briefly, and I decided to break the silence, “You know he really misses you.”
Kuroi sniffed as though she was suddenly overcome with emotion, and she nodded, “I know. I miss him too,” She took a deep breath and composed herself quickly.
“What was he like in his past life? Before being reincarnated?” I asked while Kuroi calmed herself.
She chuckled sadly and looked up at the sky of spirits as she collected her emotions. “Oh, where to begin?” she asked herself once she calmed down. “We were born five years apart. When I was born, our mother died giving birth to me. Our dad was a drinker and abusive, especially toward me. He wouldn’t do anything inappropriate, but I definitely had my share of beer bottles shattered over my head and body. Spent more than one night in the hospital because of him. Shiro said that our dad wasn’t always like this. Said that he used to be kinder and gentle. But I never believed him.
“Shiro took care of me the most. He would make me breakfast, do the chores around the house, take me to school … take the beatings for me whenever he could move. When he turned eighteen and graduated high school, he turned our dad into the authorities and took me in. He got us an apartment and worked two jobs to make ends meet while I went to school.
“Once I graduated, I finally convinced him to let me get a job and help with the bills. Shiro agreed, but only on the condition that I go to college. We got a job working together at a restaurant. Shiro worked in the kitchen while I served. He worked almost seventy hours a week while I worked thirty.
“He said he would take care of our money and set up direct deposits for us. Looking at my paystub at the end of the month, I saw I had two-hundred and eighty hours of work while I had only worked one-hundred and twenty. One day, I managed to get my hands on his paystub and saw his paycheck was for one-hundred and twenty hours of work when it should’ve been for two-hundred and eighty hours. Shiro had switched our deposits so I would get the money he worked hard to get.” Kuroi stopped as a tear began to roll down her face. She wiped it away and was about to continue, but her emotions overwhelmed her, and she began to cry.
I reached out to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder, but my hand passed through her body, sending a chill up my arm. I pulled away and said, “He sounded like a fantastic brother.”
Kuroi nodded, composing herself, “He is a fantastic brother. When I confronted him about it, he yelled at me. He said, ‘Shut up and take my damn money!! You’ve got college to go to, remember!!’” Kuroi laughed a little, “I got so mad at him for doing it that I didn’t know what to do, so I stormed off into my room. Got onto my laptop and transferred the extra money from his paycheck into his account so I would only be paid what I worked for. I then began stealing all his paystubs and did that for months.
“Little did I know he took the extra money and opened another checking account labeled Kuroi’s college fund. I only found out when he walked me to the local community college entrance exam and commanded me to go and take the exam. I, of course, did that and passed. Then, I got mad at him for spending his money on my college education, not that I could stop him. He said, ‘I will do anything to make your life a good one. I will sacrifice everything in my life to make sure you live a full and complete life. Now, eat your ramen!’ and dropped a cheap cup of noodles before me.” Kuroi and I laughed at the memory, and once we got our laughter under control, Kuroi sighed contentedly, “He was the kind of brother who would do anything to make his family happy. He was the best brother I could’ve ever wished for, and I am proud to say that.”
“He does sound like a good brother,” I said in agreement. Then a sobering thought crossed my mind, “How did … how did you two die?”
Kuroi’s gaze darkened as she recalled the memory, “I was twenty-three years old. Shiro was twenty-eight. I had just graduated from college with a teaching degree, and we celebrated all night. When we got home, we saw that the door was busted in, and someone was trashing the place. Shiro got pissed and charged in to fight the intruder without a second thought while I called the cops. I heard them arguing, and then I heard them fighting and breaking things. Boom! A loud bang went off in our apartment, and I looked in the room and saw my dad standing over Shiro. A gun in his hand.
“He had gotten out of prison at some point and tracked us down, got a gun, and waited to try and kill us. We were out so long that he broke into our house, thinking we had left. Then we showed up, fought Shiro, and killed him,” Kuroi’s voice began to crack as a new wave of emotion filled her, “I saw the light leave my brother’s eyes, and I dropped helplessly to my knees as my father stepped over his body, put a gun to my head, and … and pull the trigger. Imagine my surprise when my brother and I reincarnated into this world. And I go and get killed by a red-skinned monster within a few months of living here. Leaving my brother all alone.” She broke down into tears again and said, “I’m a terrible sister … aren’t I?”
I slid closer to her and said, “No, no. You’re not a terrible sister. You know Shiro would never consider you a terrible sister, and he would gladly sacrifice everything for you to have a good life again in a heartbeat.”
Yuki yapped happily, joining in on the conversation, clearly agreeing. I looked at her smiling and saw that the sun was about to set over the horizon and felt that my sixth core had almost completely emptied of chakra. “I don’t think we can talk for much longer,” I said sadly.
Kuroi nodded and asked, “Can you give Shiro a message for me?”
“Of course, I’d be happy to deliver your message,” I answered eagerly.
“Tell my brother I love him and am waiting for him to live a long, happy life.”
“Is that all?”
Kuroi thought for a moment and added, “Tell him, ‘Shut up, you damn nerd.’”
I chuckled and nodded, “I’ll deliver the message when I see him next.”
Kuroi nodded and looked toward the sunset, waiting for it to pass below the horizon. Before it did, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Yuki’s parents approach me. The two massive foxes put the tips of their noses together and touched my forehead and chest, just above my heart. Their incorporeal forms sent chills down my spine as they passed through my body slightly, but I could still feel them physically, which was odd.
They then sat and howled to the darkening sky, their howls full of melancholy and what felt like a little joy. Their howls lasted so long that Yuki joined in, and a small peach materialized before me in a flash of golden-orange light. The two foxes stopped howling, and Yuki stopped a few seconds later.
The two foxes then touched the peach with their noses, and it morphed into a small, silver bell that floated into my hands. To my surprise, the two foxes spoke in unison, one male and one female, their voices a faint whisper that echoed in my head, “You may use the bell once to summon us from the afterlife for a brief moment. Please give us names and continue to take good care of our daughter.”
I looked up at the foxes in shock and thought as time quickly began to run out. I pointed to the male fox and said, “You will be Ford,” then I pointed to the female fox, “And your name is Lilly.” Ford and Lilly bowed their heads and dissolved into bright white particles along with every other spirit as the sun dropped below the horizon and two notifications appeared in my vision.
Ding
Title granted
Title: Friend Of Spirits
Spirit Bell: Summon the fox spirits of Ford and Lilly to assist you in your time of need. Ring the bell while channeling chakra into the bell. Duration 1 HR. Requirement: possess the title of Friend Of Spirits. Uses left: 1/1. Warning: Using the bell will destroy the spirits summoned and the Spirit Bell.
Holding the bell tightly to my chest, I looked at the now saddened Yuki and whispered, “Don’t worry, Yuki, I’ll take the best care of you. Now, come here and snuggle up to me.” Yuki yapped and climbed into my lap. I stroked her fluffy white fur and looked into the cloudy night sky.
***
Ding
Blockage 1/7 complete.
Level up.
Monster Tamer Lvl 1. Level up.
Monster Tamer Lvl 1 to Lvl 2.