The Beginning (2)

     He finishes eating and by that time, the bell rings again. So, he gets up and says-

“Alright! I’ll do it too!” and he heads for his classroom.

     He knew which class he was going to be since there were spirits roaming around and he asked them for directions. When he reaches his classroom, he sees some Americans walking up the stairs. He ignores them and enters his class.

“Oh… Cursed boy is here!” says one of the boys and everyone’s attention is turned to Akihiko. He then sees Ayame sitting in a corner and reading something while Mitsuru was talking to some other people in the classroom.

     He takes the empty seat at the furthest end of the classroom and just stares at his desk. He sees a weird insect like spirit. He tries to push it off the table but was not able to. While he was trying to flick the insect like thing from his table, the others looked at him with disgust.

‘What is this thing? A cicada?’ he says while flicking the insect off the table.

     After a few more flicks, the insect starts to turn blue in colour and when it completely turned blue, it exploded and a plant-like monster came out of it.

It was strong enough for everyone to see. Every single student panicked, screamed and few even cried on seeing that thing.

“The hell…? Says Akihiko while looking at the flower-like carnivore plant drool on him.

“I have to bathe again… This stinks.” He says calmly.

“Oye! Akihiko-san! Move! You’ll die!”

“Die? Are you sane? It’s just a flower.” He says while the flower gets ready to devour him.

     He then says-

“Pei… Assist me please.” And the white spirit Pei comes in front of him.

“Can you please help me negotiate with this flower?” he says and the white spirit moves up and down. The flower sees Pei and they start to converse.

    After a minute, Pei touches Akihiko’s head and he understands what the flower said to Pei.

“I see. I see.”

“OYE! Akihiko-san! What did it say?” asks one of the girls who was crying in the class.

“Ah. About that, I think you all should escape while you have the-.” And the flower eats Akihiko’s head.

     There is dead silence in the class now and Ayame gets up on seeing him being eaten alive and shouts-

“Akki!!!” and she charges towards the flower with a very sharp drawing knife.

     Suddenly the door opens and few men in black come rushing inside. They evacuate everyone out while holding back Ayame from attacking the flower.

“This cr*p is here again… Everyone. Please get the hell out of this school right now. The other classes have already been evacuated.” Says the man with blond hair in Hawaiian clothing while pointing at the exit.

     The flower tries to escape from the windows but the blond man launches a missile at the flower.

“No! Wait! Akki is still there!” says Ayame while struggling to get to Akihiko while the men in black held her arms tightly.

“That won’t kill it…”

“Listen to me here… You dammed son of a bi*ch.” Says Ayame while looking at the blonde-haired guy.

“The boy is already dead. It’ll be pointless for you to go near him.”

“What about his funeral? The body?”

“Milady… Tell me something. Would you prefer saving someone else’s life over yours?”

     What he says shocks Ayame and she stops struggling.

“That’s what I thought.” He says and the flower who was half destroyed jumps out of the window.

“CR*P! Just uses them now.” Says the blonde-haired man and the men in black stick some kind of seal on the root of the flower.

    The flower stops moving and becomes invisible to everyone else. The reason to it becoming invisible to everyone else was that it had been contained.

     The blonde-haired person while holding a bottle with a miniature version of the flower says-

“You’re lucky I decided to use this. Otherwise that boy’s remaining body would’ve turned to dust.” He says and leaves.

    After they left, Ayame rushes to Akihiko’s half-eaten body and with a frustrated face with tears rolling down her cheeks she says-

“Just so you know I have never spited you ever in my life. So no need to think that I was having other thoughts.” And her emotions go haywire.

“Ah, I’m dead.” Says Akihiko in his astral form (spirit form).

“It looks like I underestimated that plant… Trying to breed with human kids so it could give birth to the queen, what an idiot.” Then he sees Ayame crying.

“W-W-W-WHAT? WHY IS SHE CRYING?” and then he sees his half-eaten body.

“Can't she see me….? Oye~! Ame! Why can’t she see me though? Weird.” He says and calls Pei.

     Pei does not come forth and so he decides to roam around the school and see how everything was going on.

“Come to think about it… Tomorrow is the event. And I’m dead.”

“Yeah. Which means you can never ever go back to your original lifestyle ever again and live in this form in fear of monsters that lurk here.”

“Shut up! I know what’s going to ha-.” And when he looks around, he sees an unknown man that he had never before seen in his school.

“Before you ask me any questions… Let me tell you that you will have a chance to be revived.”

“I can revive? Doesn’t that sound very simple?”

“I’m someone who has the authority to do so. I know you can which is why I’ve appeared here.”

“And, how can I? Please do enlighten me.”

“Your pet Pei seems to be willing enough to give away his life to save yours.”

“Pei is not my pet. He’s my friend.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter to me, pet or friend… Now, choose whether you will accept his life or not. It’s all up to you. I’ll give you time to think but not too long, otherwise it will not be good for me since I’m not supposed to be working overtime.”

“Alright…? I guess. I’ll need a bit to consider it.”

“Wait, are you saying you don’t want be alive?” asks the strange man with confusion.

“I mean… All I can do is play games.”

“But you won’t be able to pass on.”

“And also… Wait, why?”

“That’s why you should always ask if you have any doubts… You won’t be able to pass on since you have regrets and they can’t be carried over to your next life.”

     The strange man starts to walk in the direction of his classroom and Akihiko floats and follows him. While walking the man continues-

“Your… friend. Pei. He used to be a human soul. At least from the records that’s what it says.”

“Pei, a human? So how did he turn out like that?”

“He was a former-human. His soul was hunted down by the various Yokai in the spirit realm where we are right now.”

“So they fed on his soul?”

“Listen here… In this realm, the soul is the body, and after you die you won’t have a second chance at living like a coma.”

“Alright! I get it. Stop getting pissed off… So, where is Pei?”

“Oh, about him… He has already passed on to his next life.”

“Then what about me?”

“You will obviously be getting revived.”

“Without consent?”

     The man stops after reaching the classroom and says out of frustration-

“Why do you need consent to save someone’s life? Another spirit gave its life for yours and you need consent?”

“I need consent since he was my friend. I wouldn’t give even a rat’s a** if it was some stranger who knew me but I never knew about them.”

“You’re weird but reasonable to negotiate with,” he says and opens the door. Ayame who was crying loudly in there looks at the man and says, “Now, who the hell are you?”

“Pardon me. But I cannot reveal my identity.”

“Then why come here?” she says while sniffing.

“Oye! Why can she see you and not me?”

“So girl… Would you like to see a magic trick?”

“Shut up… At a time like this? Can’t you see that someone has died here?”

     The man ignores her, walks to Akihiko’s half-eaten body, and puts a huge cloth over it covering it completely.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” She says while trying to take the cloth off.

    The strange man pushes her aside and says-

“Just shut up and see.”

    Ayame gets even more depressed and she sits there while covering her eyes. She then says-

“You’re not a spirit?”

“No. Of course not. I’m a human with flesh and bones.”

“That’s disgusting. What you said just now… Anyways. ANSWER MY QUESTION GODDAMMIT!”

‘Can you hear me now, you squirt?’

“Oh yes, I can.”

‘You’ll be diving into your body again.’

“You think I can?”

‘I’ll punch you for real.’

“Alright… I’ll do it. But how?”

‘Just dive in.’

“…ok.” Says Akihiko and dives into his body behind the huge cloth.

     The strange man laughs and says some words under his breath and after he finished saying them, he calls out to Ayame and says-

“Girl! I’m done.”

“With what?” says Ayame while sobbing.

“Ta-da!” he says while removing the cloth off Akihiko’s body.

     After the cloth is removed, she sees that Akihiko’s half-eaten body has been restored and he looks completely normal. As soon as the cloth is removed, Akihiko falls down unconscious. Ayame out of shock and happiness runs to him and places his head on her lap.

“I’m so glad…,” she says while she smiled and tears rolled down her eyes.

“Thank you for your co-operation. I’ll see you next time”, says the strange man and when Ayame tries to stop him he disappears.