PART 3 - Half-Apparition-Half-Human
Gasp! Natsuki was jerked from her hospital bed as she suddenly opened her eyes, shocking everyone in the ward.
“Natsuki-chan! Are you alright?” One of her friends, Izumi, asked out of concern. She helped Natsuki rest calmly on her bed again. Meanwhile, Natsuki’s parents fidgeted restlessly, thinking that something was wrong with her for the earlier jerking. But seeing that she was now okay-ish, their faces lit up as the creases of worry vanished instantly.
Natsuki’s father, Mr Kurako, was the doctor at the hosptal. Scanning the report he was clutching in his hand, he said, “Natsuki, your injuries wasn’t *that* serious. You’ll have to rest for three weeks.”
“Yes, dad,” Natsuki replied obediently. Then, the visitors went home, as it was evening already.
But, something was bugging her. Memories of the “god” were certainly NOT forgotten, and seeing that she had vanished into thin air, there was the only plausible answer that came to her--
Was it all a dream?
She sighed. Thinking that it was all just a dream, she shut her eyelids, starting to drift into a fitful sleep...
CRASH! The ward windows were smashed into smithereens, producing an ear-deafening sound that shook Natsuki, as if preventing her from sleeping. And there, leaping through the hole in the window and into the ward was--
“Nope, it wasn’t a dream!” Rinne corrected Natsuki, her feet touching the floor. And her bright, yellow cat-like eyes were staring deep into Natsuki’s soul, making an almost electric atmosphere.
“I came to tell you this--”
“It wasn’t a dream?!! IT’S REALLY REAL----?!!”
“C-Calm down! I’ll explain *everything* to you first!”
Natsuki finally cooled down after much persuasion. Rinne heaved a sigh of relief and started explaining the things from top to toe.
“First of all, this afternoon, in that truck collision, I mentioned that you were in your spirit form, right?”
“Mhmm.”
“Did you notice a tail or something sticking out from your rear?”
“... No, but I felt a tingling sensation in me... Something like that.”
“Ah, that explains it!” A light bulb lit in Rinne’s mind. “There is actually a tail that is connected to you when you’re in your spirit form!”
“...Really?!” Natsuki exclaimed, her eyes wide open. Although she was told to stay in bed, she made an impromptu decision anyway. Jumping off from bed, she wanted to get closer to Rinne to see if she was really a god.
But then...!!
A second body of Natsuki seemed to appear out of her main body! It was translucent at first, but it gradually became opaque -- Her spirit form! A dark pink long tail protruded out awkwardly from behind.
“It... It... IT CAN’T BE!!!!!” She shrieked, crouching down and covering her whole face. Her whole face went lobster-red! “And how did I even become a spirit form without my will anyway?!”
Rinne narrowed her eyes, searching her brain for a logical explanation. Alas, it was futile. “I have no idea what’s happening right now, but it seems you’ve become a half-apparition-half-human.”
“What do you mean by that?!”
“Apparitions are evil spirits that attack humans. But, right now, you’re a half-apparition-half-human, which means you’re not exactly harmful. And your tail. That’s your lifeline; if it gets broken, you’ll die for real.”
“Yeah, okay, but at this rate I will accidentally keep leaving my body, and my main body will be off sleeping while my friends wonder what happened to me!”
Rinne furrowed her eyebrows, trying to think of what to say next. She assured, “That... I’ll definitely find a solution!” Then she opened her palm, showing five fingers to Natsuki. “Give me this.”
“Five hundred... Thousand... Yen?!” Natsuki exclaimed, jumping to her feet. “No way--”
“Bakaa! What do you usually give to gods? 5-yen coins, duh!”
“...Oh.”
Natsuki scrambled for her wallet and fished out a small 5-yen coin. She handed it to the god.
Rinne smirked with satisfaction. As she tossed up the coin in the air, she said, “Your wish has been heard loud and clear! Leave it to the God of Wishes, Rinne-sama!” And with that, she caught the coin and threw it in her “coin bank” which was shaped like a huge dark green beer bottle.
“Oh, and your name must be Kurako Natsuki-san,” Rinne said.
“How did you know?” Natsuki raised her eyebrow.
“Gods know everything.”
“.... Anyway, you can call me Natsuki.”
Just then, Rinne sensed something evil looming -- an apparition! She moved her feet, then stopped short -- I don’t have a regalia! It’s dangerous if I go now. Nevertheless, annihilating apparitions is a god’s job, right? Without Natsuki knowing, she teleported out of the ward and went on the hunt for apparitions!
“Ah-- I guess she has to leave now,” Natsuki muttered under her breath. She went back to her main body. Hoping that Rinne would solve her problem, she slipped into dreamland...
Meanwhile, Rinne leaped from building to building. The moonlight that shone through the blanket of darkness allowed her to make out the concrete jungle that surrounded her. It was tough work finding apparitions -- sometimes the “navigation system” has a bug. Is there wi-fi in the spiritual world anyway?
A feline’s melancholic meow caught her attention.
“Hime-sama!! I was looking for you! Where have you been?!” Rinne cried, leaping down from the rooftop and cuddling the cuddly cat. Its fur were pristine white and silky, and both of them started to become playful with each other. But still, it’s meowing spoke of fear and terror.
It hit Rinne that Hime-sama was in hot pursuit by a apparition!
No comments:
Post a Comment