Shigo, a Realm of Spirits

   Before she even walked through the gate, she spotted the white fuzzy thing again. It sat right by the front door of the main building, looking away from her, towards the forest. Now was her chance to get a closer look at it. Stepping ever so lightly on her tip toes, she made her way over to it, careful not to step on anything that might give her away. Slowly like a ninja. She got closer and closer, until finally she was close enough. She reached her hand out to touch it—

And her hand went right through it.

She fell to the ground with a large thud. The concrete was cold. The white fuzzy thing turned. It came down to her level, trying to help her up, although it couldn’t actually support her. It asked her, “Are you okay?”

“I… yeah. I’m fine.” She readjusted her glasses and went to the window the straighten her hair. That’s when she almost screamed from surprise.

“Is everything alright?” It asked.

“My… my hair. It’s blue.”

Right now, as she looked in her own reflection, she saw a high schooler with blue hair like the sky. This wasn’t her natural hair color. She was naturally black haired, and though she hadn’t actually remembered to brush it this morning, she was…. Relatively certain it was dark then. When did this happen? Her uniform was weird too. It was black instead of brown: she could see it clearly now in this light.

“Right. You don’t know. Your hair changed when you passed through the border.”

“The border?”

It bobbed its head -nodding affirmatively. “The border of Shigo. This is where spirits and magic reside.”

Shigo, huh? Hao Hao didn’t know what that word meant. Perhaps it didn’t mean anything and was just a name.

It asked, “So, you’re really okay? That was bad fall.”

“I’m okay.”

It nodded and smiled. “Welcome.” It said.

It was then as she looked at the white fuzzy thing that she saw it had a hat. A ring of sorts floating just above its head. How was that possible?

“What are you?” She asked.

“I’m a spirit!”

“A… spirit? You mean… like a ghost?” Her mind went wild with assumptions at the thought. She asked with fear, “Are you haunting me?”

“No! I’m not like a scary ghost. I’m your personal spirit. Put in other terms, it might be accurate to call me an angel.”

Hao Hao blinked twice at it. Rubbing the air from her glasses as the density of the fog increased. What a strange place. She wasn’t sure what time it was, but she was fairly certain the sun should have come out by now. Trees loomed over her and the school; tall and almost foreboding. She assumed they must be blocking the light.

“My name is Shui.” Shui, pronounced shway, meant rain in her home tongue. The spirit, Shui, asked, “What is your name?”

“Oh, um… I’m… Hao Hao.” The words were barely feasible over her whisper. Even so, Shui nodded affirmatively, bobbing up and down with a happy smile.

“Welcome Hao Hao. Would you like help finding anything? I know the school quite well.”

“Well, I should, um, probably get to the home room.”

“Home room it is. Follow me!” Shui said. Despite the excited tone in its voice, it spoke rather quietly. Gently even. Hao Hao appreciated that as someone that is easily startled by noise and excitement.

Inside the school building were dark halls painted in blue fire light. It was empty and cold, but very beautiful. Hao Hao was enchanted by it. She didn’t know before today that flames could burn blue. The school looked halfway deserted from here. No one came through the halls but her and Shui. Assumingly, classes had started. She was late.

She walked slowly, with the apprehension of a bunny walking towards a room full of snakes and predators. She was sure of it. Just beyond the doors to classes, there were a dozen students at least in each. This school was much smaller than her other one, but it would have the same sort of kids. Rowdy teenagers she wanted no contact with at all.

Shui said nothing about how slow she was walking. Eventually, they came down a long hall with wooden shelving. Cubbies to place her things in. Shui showed her to hers, which had her name printed on it. Hao Hao asked, “Should I bring anything?”

“Nothing is required. Bring whatever you’re comfortable with!”

“Okay.”

She put her backpack away and then proceeded with Shui to the door at the end of the hall. It stopped and looked at her. “We’re here. Right through this door.” Hao Hao hesitated. Shui said, “Feeling nervous?”

Hao Hao dropped her head and stared down at the floor. Too scared to admit it so close to the door. If the students beyond it heard her, they’d bully her and she’d never live it down. It would be no different than her other school. She would be the outcast that everyone in the room looked at and then she wouldn’t go anymore, and her parents would berate her for getting bad grades, and—

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Shui bobbled down to her line of sight, and she saw the tears falling from her eyes fall on its fuzzy cloth face.

“But… what if…”

Shui shook its head. “Please, try not to worry. This place is different than other places.”

“It is?”

“Yes. I think you’ll like it quite much. If you need a minute, there’s a bathroom right around the corner.”

With such a comforting and smiling spirit beside her, she found her tears stopping already. She brushed them away. “No, its okay. I’m okay.”

It nodded. Watching try to make herself presentable, and her fussing over herself threatened to make her panic all over again. She stared down at the floor, and Shui came to her sight. It said, “Breathe in. With me, now.”

She did as it said. Once in, hold, then out. Three more times. It explained, “Expel the stress. Do you feel better now.”

She nodded. With a refreshed sense of calm, Hao Hao finally opened the door.

There were five rows of desks, and only two columns, making ten desks total. This place really was different than other schools. Standard size was thirty-eight, and her old school seated a whole fifty. Such a small amount made her calm down even further. It felt manageable. The space was big enough that she wouldn’t (shouldn’t) have to worry about bumping into someone when school ended.

Shui bobbled up above eye level. Floating around, it told her, “This one on the front row is open, but so is this back one. Choose whichever one of the two you like.”

She didn’t have to think hard. Hao Hao nodded and went straight for the back one. Shui bobbled down and handed her (how was it holding anything? It didn’t have hands…) a sticker of a flower. Shui explained, “Stick this on the side of your desk, just to let other people know it’s yours.”

Hao Hao did that, and then looked at the other desks. All but the front one Shui had mentioned before had stickers. None of the rest of them had a flower though. The desk on her right had a music note, and on her left, a paintbrush. In front of her was a desk with a ruler for the sticker. How strange.

And then she looked around at the empty seats around her. She wasn’t used to being the first person to class. She asked, “Where is everyone?”

“Jim just called for them to come to the home room. I’m sure they’ll be in shortly.”

Hao Hao nodded. She sat down and waited. As voices approached the classroom, Shui said, “Oh, there’s one thing you should know.”

“What is it?”

“Most people can’t see their spirits, so… I’ll try to not bother you too much once people come in.”

How strange. If most people can’t see them, then why could she see Shui? The door opened and the spirit disappeared. She’d have to ask it later.

Two people walked in. A girl and a man. That surprised Hao Hao; her old school separated classes by gender. They wore the same uniforms as her. Black with striped ties. The man had pants and dress shoes instead of a dress and Mary Jane shoes, of course.

He had blonde hair and dark skin. Thin glasses that made him look professional and made Hao Hao all the more self-conscious about hers. He said, “Oh, look. A new student.” He stared at her a moment, then turned away. Not another word spoken.

“Don’t be rude!” The girl said. She had long brown hair, curly at the ends, tied to the back of her head with a white bow. Bright green eyes that looked like emeralds were staring into her. She gave off an air authority too; she approached Hao Hao and said, “My name is Emily. What is your name?”

“Oh, me? I’m… um…” she mumbled it.

“What now? Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

Hao Hao tried to say it, but it could just barely come out beyond a whisper.

“There’s no reason to waste time.” The man said sternly as he went to write things on the chalkboard.

Emily gave him a stern stare that he didn’t see. She turned back to Hao Hao and said, “Well, welcome to the school. I hope you have a pleasant time here.”

Hao Hao said nothing back. Emily turned to the man and they started talking about the curriculum. Wait, were they the teachers? No, that couldn’t be. They were both too young.

“How many more do you think will come?” Emily glanced around at the other desks. Hao Hao pretended to busy herself with notes so that she didn’t make eye contact with her.

“I don’t know.”

“It can only be one more at most, surely. We only have ten chairs back here. Although I do suppose there are other classrooms. What do you think Daichi?”

“Honestly, I do not care an inch as long as we can keep this class ours in order.”

“I suppose your right.” But the girl kept a worried expression with furrowed brows. The whole thing seemed to bother her greatly. Hao Hao almost felt guilty for being there.

Soon other students arrived. It appeared Hao Hao wasn’t the only one with colored hair. There was a girl with orange hair, a girl with long flowing blue hair and a boy with bright white hair that hung over one eye. One girl had long black pigtails and cat ears and a cat tail; a costume, surely, but Hao Hao would be surprised if that fit the dress code. Many of them were staring at her too. It made her self-conscious as she lowered further into her seat, wishing that she could magically disappear into it.

The other girls whispered, but Hao Hao could hear them.

“Is she new?”

“Must be.”

“What do you think she’s like?”

“Looks like she’s shy to me.”

The seats were filled one by one, until all but two desks were filled. The far right one and the far left one in the front column. Hao Hao wondered who they were. She wondered if they were shy like her, someone that could relate to her anxiety maybe.

Jim walked into the classroom. He said, “Thanks for coming.” He said, looking over the seats until his eyes landed on one of the empty ones. He asked, “Where’s Mae?”

They all shrugged.

Jim scratched his head. “Guess I’ll look for her after. For now, let’s make introductions.”

“Again.” The boy next to her mumbled. The one with white hair.

“You have something to say, Kirai?”

“No.” He said and looked away. Staring at the wall. Hao Hao was just happy he wasn’t staring at her.

Jim scratched the top of his hood. He said, “Alright, how about we have Hao Hao introduce herself, and then everyone else can just meet her normally?” He asked it like a question. No one answered.

“Hao Hao?”

She looked up as her name was said, but with everyone else turning their head to her, she dropped her gaze again. Wishing them all to look away.

“Right, okay. I’ll introduce you.” He waved his hand and said, “If you didn’t already hear, that’s Hao Hao everyone. She’s new to the country as well as the school, so if you could keep different languages and dialects to a minimum, I’d appreciate it.”

Hao Hao kept her head down. She didn’t want to know if people were still looking at her, she hoped that someone would speak and steal the attention away. Please, someone. Anyone.

Daichi stood, “We have important things to do Jim. If that’s all, I’d like to get started on geography.”

“What do we even need geography for…” Kirai mumbled.

“For our learning.” He said, firmly. Kirai didn’t move from his staring contest with the wall as Daichi stepped forward.

Jim put his hand on Daichi and shook his head. Daichi scoffed and went up to the chalkboard. So…. Him and Emily were the teachers? Was this a self-teaching school of sorts? Hao Hao had never heard of such a thing, but she was new. Maybe this was normal.

“Alright. You kids have fun. No fighting.” Jim said, and he left the room.

As Daichi started the geography lesson, Hao Hao looked up. No one was looking at her, but few people were actually looking at the lesson either. Some were reading, others were writing (to her surprise, Kirai among them) and a couple of the girls were actually talking.

“I can’t believe it. She has blue hair; that’s my thing.” The girl with dark skin and dark blue hair said. Whispering as quietly as she could, but she was literally just two seats down. The girl with orange hair merely shrugged. Daichi gave them a stern stare that told them to stop. Eyes rolled. He said nothing more about it, resuming his lecture about the American states.

There were still whispers. Hao Hao kept quiet, trying not to focus on them but feeling overwhelmed by the thought that people were still looking at and talking about her.

Shui bobbled beside her. Hao Hao kept quiet, remembering that no one else can see the spirit, but she did ask it in a hushed whisper, “What?”

“Want to see something cool?”

Hao Hao, having already gotten too distracted to actually follow the lesson, nodded her head. In a single blink the room went dark. Darker than before, and she saw several spirits floating around the room, staying alongside the other students. Most of them much like Shui. White fuzzy balls with tails. She pinched her side, but she didn’t wake up from a dream.. This was real. Glowing spirits surrounded them. Looking about the room, it was obvious that no one else saw them. For just a moment, her anxiety melted away.

“Only you can see them. It’s a magical ability of yours.”

“It is?”

Shui nodded. Hao Hao took a closer look at them; they weren’t exactly like Shui. None of the rest of them had a ring floating above their head. Some held things like books or paintbrushes. One wore glasses just like Daichi’s and another had cat ears.

“So…. These spirits all belong to someone specific?” Hao Hao asked.

“Yes! Just like how I’m specifically your spirit.”

Spirits. Not like ghosts, more like angels. Hao Hao wasn’t sure how an ability like this could be helpful exactly, but she had to admit as she looked around that it made the room very pretty. Balls of light in the darkness. Bobbing up and down like buoys in the ocean.