Do You Believe In Ghost?

*Huff huff*

Damn that Eve! How dare she leave me like that all by myself, and after she caused me to do something so stupid!

“Seriously, the nerve of her. Then again, I was stupid to go along with her plan.”

“I’m glad you understand that!”

I jumped upon hearing a voice from right next to me, wait, that was Eve’s voice! Let me turn around and-What the hell, no one’s here!

“Looks like someone has no idea what’s going on!”

I keep hearing Eve’s voice, but where is she-

*Whistle*

I felt air touch the back of my neck, immediately I ran over to the tree close by and started trembling. Dear god, is there a ghost close by! While I was panicking, I began hearing snickering. That’s when my tormentor decided to stop.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist. You should be able to perceive me now.”

Perceive? More importantly, just as I thought the perpetrator is Eve. Where the heck is-Why did a chill just move down my spine. For some odd reason, my body got hit by the weirdest feeling. It was like something appeared that wasn’t there before, what’s more this feeling was coming from behind me. I turned slowly, only to see eve hanging from the tree I was hiding near. See was upside down and eating one of the tree’s apples, the little troll decided to wave at me with a smirk. Me being pissed at this point made a decision, as a believer of gender equality, I punched her in the face.

“OW, HEY WHAT WAS-WAHHHH*CRASH*!”

Eve’s legs lost their bearings after the hit and she ended up falling headfirst to the ground, sorry spider but this damsel offers you no kisses today. I folded my arms as Eve began rubbing the bump on her head with teary eyes. She then looked at me like a sad puppy.

“*Sniff* Owwey! You’re so mean Thomas, and to hit a lady no less! From now on you’ll be Bully Boy Tom!”

“YOU STARTED IT SLAVE DRIVER EVE!”

“Hmph! Well you do make a fair point, that said what did you learn from that just now.”

What the heck does she mean, what was I supposed to learn from that. I stared at Eve and that’s when it happened. Eve was standing right in front of me and yet for some reason I couldn’t sense her. I could hear her or feel her presence, I could only see her. Eve gave a light smile as she explained.

“There was a reason the bat training was so difficult, I was training your mana perception.”

“Mana perception, as in my ability to sense mana?”

“Yes, as mentioned before mana is connected to one’s life energy. If you lower your mana signature enough, you can lower how others perceive you. Almost like how you wouldn’t notice an ant crawling near you until you felt it, or a fly until it buzzed in your ear. You could see me, but your body had to temper itself in order to perceive me.”

So that’s what the training was for, and how she managed to prank me just now. Wait, in that case, that would mean…

“So you used this stealth ability of yours to abandon me in front of that manor!”

“In all honesty, I used the ability but I was standing there the whole time. When you began running I had to run after you.”

“...Oh.”

I apologized for the trouble, as a response Eve broke a branch off the tree and hit me with it. The result of this was me staggering back and falling onto my rear, as I started to get back on my feet I noticed something. The tree had a familiar carving in it, it was a heart with J&C carved into it.

“Wait a minute, you got to be kidding me!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I ran all the way back to the school!”

The tree I used to protect myself was the “Lover’s Tree”, it was one of the seven wonders of the school. Besides the heart I spotted at the top, there were hearts covering other places on the tree. Still carving hearts onto a tree is a bit old when you think about it, I guess love has to bloom somehow. While I was gawking at the tree, Eve was focused on something else. When I called out to her, Eve responded with a question.

“Tom, what is that place?”

“Oh that’s the old school house.”

Eve was looking at the old school house, or rather the old silver seal academy. The school was abandoned forty years ago, but it felt like a shame to demolish the building so they kept it around. The old academy building is another one of the school's seven wonders, apparently the building is haunted. I wonder why Eve is so intrigued by it?

“Do you feel what I feel?”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember your training Thomas, sharpen your perception.”

Why do I need to do that? Before I could question Eve, she gave me a serious look. I’ve never seen her look so concerned before, what’s going on? I decided to follow her advice and raise my perception, since I have no idea what I’m doing I decided to use the anime we’ve watched lately as a base. I closed my eyes and began utilizing my other senses, by doing this-

*Ba-bump*

I immediately broke into a sweat, why did a wave of dread just wash over me. What’s going on! Before I had a panic attack, Eve jabbed her thumb into my rib lightly. Thank god she did, I was about to lose myself there. What the heck is-

“What the hell is that!?!”

The old school house was covered in a thick black mist, it almost looked like the dark mist Eve can conjure up. Eve finally broke her serious facade and grinned at the old school house.

“What a beautiful bundle of dark mana, it makes me want to reach out and grab it!”

“Dark mana, why would the old academy be covered in dark mana!”

Eve looked at me after I asked the question, then gave me a puzzled look while she responded.

“Well it’s obvious there’d be that much dark mana, after all that building is a ghost den.”