Chapter 16: A new Age of Hunting

“So you're saying there's a spirit within the school?” asked Kaiji

“Yes! I'm not sure where though, it seems to be moving all around the place” responded aurora

“but it's hovering over the second floor of the building. You'll have to investigate while not drawing attention to yourself.”

“how am I supposed to not draw attention to myself waving around a giant sword??” he said

“I'll leave the parlor tricks to you buddy” she said

Kaiji rolled his eyes at the lack of help from the seemingly useless goddess, then he came up with an idea, but it was an awkward one. He ended up shoving part of the sword in his pants and having the other part hidden under his shirt. He walked awkwardly along the sides of the halls hoping no one would see the bulge in his pants.

Then he saw it. At least part of it, a huge manta ray with glowing carvings flew right through the walls like they weren't even there.

“What the hell is that?”

“it's a leach phantom! It feeds off negative emotions of those it comes in contact with”

“But why is it in the school? And why is it so big?” asked Kaiji

“if must have been feeding off the student's test performance anxiety for months”

“How come I couldn't see it before?”

“Only those that have been awakened can see certain spirits, and even then, certain phantoms can only be seen once you're told about them.”

“and why didn't you tell me about this sooner?”

“it was a non-threat, it only recently started gaining power at an alarming rate.”

“It must be because midterms are coming up, people are already hosting cram sessions at study hall.” Kaiji said

“That must be it! as your first mission as spirit hunter, you must take out this energy-sucking spirit manta before gets too powerful”

“Alright!” Kaiji unbuttons his pants to whip out his sword

“Kaiji! what are you doing?!”

“stop! it's not like that!” he said defensively

By the time he took out his sword, the manta had already flown out of the building.

“Damn, it's so big, how do I even touch it if it can go through walls?”

When he saw the manta flying around in the courtyard, that's when he got the idea.

He rushed up the stairs and got up to the roof of the school. The doors were usually unlocked as students went up there all the time to eat their lunch, but luckily there was no one there.

“Are you sure about this? Are you ready?” asked Aurora

“as ready as I'll ever be…”

he charged headlong towards the edge of the roof, leaping over the protective fencing as he dropped down three stories onto the phantom manta. Stabbing his sword into its back. It fell from the sky and slammed into the ground. It struggled to try and shake Kaiji off but with a flick of the wrist, he twisted his sword and pulled it out with an arching motion slicing the manta open like a watermelon. It then disintegrated as its spiritual energy went back to those it belonged to. The thing about leach phantoms is they cultivate the emotions that make them stronger. If you're suffering from anxiety, the leach will make you more anxious to an irrational degree. Negative emotions linger in the air and overtime in condenses and manifest themselves into creatures that need to be eliminated by those spiritually attuned.

“That was incredible, Kaiji! You took it out like it was nothing!”

“Yeah, and falling from that height almost didn't hurt at all” he said, desperately trying to hide the fact that his legs were quivering from the impact.

“I'm starting to think you've got a knack for this spirit boy!” she said

...

Kaiji thought back to those days, the good ol’ days as he called it. back when things were lighthearted. Before everything went to shit. Before he jeopardized his soul and contaminated his aura. How he longed to turn back the clock. And relive those days one more time.

Chapter 16: A New Age of Hunting

Six months later…

Kaiji, true to his word, had stopped fighting spirits. He’d lost weight as he was barely eating. and lost muscle as he stopped training. For some reason, the apocalypse never came. Life just kept on chugging along as usual. But he wasn't paying attention to phantom sightings so he had no idea what was going on with the corps. He stopped going to school as he fell into a deep emotional rut. His parents didn't mind, they knew what had happened, and they only wanted to support him as best they could, but love could only yield so much…

He let his hair grow out and it reached all the way to his shoulders. The bags under his eyes signaled that he barely got any sleep. As the nightmares would keep him up every night. He had visions of him losing control and hurting his teammates. His powers had surpassed his ability to wield them and he was an unpredictable wild card. And anomaly in the spirit world. wielding both spirit power and demon power. Strength from heaven, as well as from hell.

Aurora tried to help him, give him one of her signature pep talks, but he was convinced that he was a menace to the world, and the best thing he could do is cut himself off from spirit world. So he did. He used a spell in one of the books Aurora gave him to suppress his spiritual awareness. Try as she might, Kaiji could no longer hear her. So she left. She stopped trying.

The world kept on spinning but Kaiji was stuck in place. Reminiscing, reliving, remembering all the good times he had, before the field trip. He kept obsessing about how happy he was that night, and how all of it was ruined by those fucking demons. A seed of hate that was planted when he found out the truth about his parents, blossomed into malicious contemptuous hate when he saw what they did to Alice. And that hate only made the demon powers in him stronger. There was no stopping it. Every day he stayed in this state only made matters worse.

He had cast himself from society, his friends knew nothing of him. They knew where to find him, but they knew he wouldn't receive them. He secluded himself to stop himself from causing any more harm. Becoming a recluse.

Then, his parents received a phone call.

“Kaiji, you might want to take this.” His father said

Kaiji was reluctant but nonetheless, he picked up the phone. It was Alice. “Hey, I need to talk to you, please come. It's important.” then she hung up

He couldn't believe what he heard. He hadn't heard from Alice since that night where they had that fight. He knew she wouldn't go back on her word over something trivial. So against his better judgment, he got dressed and went to her house. The doors were carved with spiritual blessings warding spirits from being able to enter the house. The perimeter of the house was lined with salt and bowls of rice that turned black when a spirit was nearby. They weren't leaving anything up to chance anymore. He walked up to the door and knocked three times.

“Oh, you're here!” said the chief when he saw it was Kaiji “it's been a while hasn't it, my boy? Come! Alice is in the back garden.”

Back when he was helping out around the house, when he and Alice were on speaking terms, he had spent a lot of time with Alice in the training room during physical therapy. It had two sliding glass doors that opened up to the garden where they could sit and rest after a hard day's work. Those were the moments when he would feel less guilty as they were usually filled with laughter and smiles. And the satisfaction from a good workout. He remembered her small frame and how she looked with her prosthetic leg.

When he walked into the room this time he hardly recognized her. Her hair was long and wild, her arms were cut and swollen from the muscle, and her leg, the flesh and bone one, was nothing but muscle. In the six months, while he had done nothing but lose muscle, Alice had done nothing but try to gain as much as she could.

She was using a special crutch that changed shapes for whatever purpose she needed. Holding herself with one arm, keeping her balance using her crotch and her good leg, she sliced up a giant demonic-looking fish with the blade of the other. When she saw him. She took a deep breath. Before she said anything else she wanted to make things clear

“don't think I've changed my mind, this doesn't change anything.” She swapped out the blade with the normal function and combed her hair out of her face.

“but this is too important to not at least bring you in the loop.”

Kaiji sat down on the edge of the porch like he would back in the day.

“I knew it had to be something like that. you said you needed me, what did you mean by that.”

she put her crutches aside as she sat next to him.

“the apocalypse hasn't happened, and the status quo has mostly been maintained by Natsu Fuyu and Kairi. Which leads us to suspect that either everything didn't go as planned for our wicked phantom friends, or they’re biding their time waiting for the right opportunity.”

She looked at the sugar cane trees across the yard and remembered how they would play around with the dried stubs like they were bou staffs. She couldn't believe the disheveled shut-in could be the same person from back then.

“My father bought a building in the middle of town and he's going to convert it into a spirit hunter training center. Despite spirit spikes being more or less what they were before, more and more people are noticing the spirits. And that's where the training center comes in. And I wouldn't be calling you if you weren't one of the best fighters we had. Aki is taking part, everyone is going to do their part including me. So, what will you do?”

He heard his friend asking for help, and his heart went out to her, but he just wasn't in the state of mind to be offering help to anyone. he thought.

“I don't think so, let me think about it.”

“Fine, take a week to think about it. then let me know when you've made your decision.” She crossed her arms. “you know your way out”

Kaiji picked himself off the ground and walked out. What good could he do? it was his fault all this was happening to begin with. He told himself.

When he got home he was greeted by his mother who saw him leave for Alice's house

“What happened? what did she say?”

“I don't want to talk about it…”

“I know you haven't seen her in some time now, how was it?”

“I said I don't want to talk about it'' he snapped at his mother. But as soon as the words came out of his mouth, he felt disgusted with himself as a waft of shame washed over him.

“mom… I'm sorry, I don't mean to-”

“it's okay, Kaiji, these things happen. I know you have a lot on your mind.”

What was wrong with him? He asked himself. If he can't control his temper, how could he possibly hope to help them out? No, he wouldn't do it. it was best for him to stay as far away from everyone as possible.

“She was asking him for help,” said Ryohei to Himiko later that evening. “something about a training center the chief was setting up in the middle of town. They need teachers”

“Well this is a great opportunity, he doesn't have to fight, he just has to teach others how to. Surely that could get him out of the slump he's in” she said

“It doesn't seem like he wants to do that. He lost so much confidence in himself when Alice got hurt. It's like he's a completely different person” he said

“We have to help him out of this in whatever way we can.” Said Aurora sitting with them in the middle of their dining room

“You know what that means” she said

“right,” they both said in unison

...

“Hey buddy, long time no see. Oh man, you look awful, is that you? or is your body rotting somewhere in the rafters?” said Ben as he walked into the room

“Ben? What are you doing here?”

“your parents asked me to come by… so I'm guessing you're not gonna help out with the training center?”

“you guessed right.”

“figures… What happened to you man? you stopped going to school, you won't pick up your calls, you've really let go of yourself.”

“gee got any other world-shattering revelations?”

“I'm serious, man! I'm worried about you!” he got on his knees and sat beside him

“you can't just throw your life away, you sit here all day like nothing matters anymore”

“nothing does matter”

“don't say that! I'm here, you're my friend and I'm not gonna let you waste away in here” he grabbed him by the arm “get dressed, were going out”

“I don't wanna go out”

“you don't have a choice, I'm your guest and you have to do what I say”

“You’re not my guest, you're my parents guest”

“stop talking and put this on!” He held out Kaiji's signature red jacket he would always wear in the winter.

“But it's summer” said Kaiji

Ben proceeded to parade Kaiji all around town, stopping by the arcade, getting food at the diner, and even watching a movie. After the movie was done and they had walked out Kaiji looked at Ben and said “Alright, can I go home now?”

“Man, why are you being like this? It's like you don't even care.”

“I don't.”

“stop saying that, I know you do! you're just beating yourself up because of what happened, but news flash, you're the only one who won't let it go.”

Kaiji looked at the ground as he said “that's because no one else has to live with the fact that everything was their fault.”

“That's not true! where do you keep getting that?”

“because I was supposed to be by Alice's side to protect her and when Kairi pulled me away to talk I left her vulnerable.”

“Well if you really want to play the blame game then it's Kairi who's at fault here.”

“what?” Kaiji said

“Think about it, if she didn't pull you out of the crowd you wouldn't have left her side, if it's anyone's fault, it's Kairi's!”

Kaiji couldn't believe what he was hearing.

“don't be ridiculous! it wasn't her fault! She had her reasons!”

“So did you! That phantom got us both! She couldn't have known what her actions would bring and neither could you!”

“It wasn't her job to protect Alice!”

“oh my god get over yourself! She received the same training as you! she was absolutely supposed to protect Alice AS WELL AS you!”

the shouting match they were having was now drawing the attention of the passing crowd

“none of that matters!”

“Oh yeah? why not?”

“because I can't control Kairi's actions, but I can control mine, and if I had done better…”

Kaiji stumbled in his words as he trailed off never finishing his sentence

“yeah well… you didn't… now it's time to move on”

“I cant” Kaiji said as he looked down at the ground

Ben saw his friend in pain, he was in a fragile state of mind. He actually couldn't do it. It was too much for him to handle. So he decided to lay off for now.

“fine… whatever. I tried, but it seems like nothing I say is going to help. Goodnight Kaiji” and he left him there as the summer rain began to fall.

...

When Kaiji came home his father was at his door waiting for him. He signaled to follow him to the zen garden. So he did

He sat him down.

“Talk to me boy, I want to help but I can't help unless you talk to me.”

Kaiji sat there looking over at the rock and the combed sand surrounding the bamboo fountain.

He didn't feel like fighting anymore, especially not with his dad, so he did as he asked.

“I can't forget what happened, Dad. People keep asking me to let it go and move on, but I can't. I can't let myself forget it. I won't let myself forget it. I just wish things were different. I wish things could have turned out better” his emotions were getting the better of him and he covered his face in his hand to cry.

His father looked at the sorry state of his boy, it's like he’d forgotten everything he’s ever said to him.

“How did it get like this? Where did it go wrong? Could I have done something to change the course of events? You can spend the rest of your days wasting away trying to find the answers to those questions. But you never will, Kaiji.” his father finally said

“It's none of your concern what could have been. Which is why you need to focus on what you have to do now.”

Kaiji heard the words of his father wholeheartedly

“Yeah… I know you’re right… but… I don't think I can.”

“it's not a matter of thinking you can, son, it's a matter of trying.” he said

“you think I haven't tried?” he raised his voice

“I know you haven't!” His father matched his tone of voice

“sitting in your room moping all day, is that what you call trying?”

Kaiji was taken aback by his fathers words.

His father stood up fed up with his sons nonsense

“This isn’t like you, this ISN’T you. You’re better than this! But you don't want to hear anything otherwise! You want to be in pain because you think you deserve it. like that will ever make up for what happened to Alice. But giving up on life won't undo what happened. And it's time you realize that”

Kaiji was speechless. He'd never thought of it like that. it was true, he was torturing himself for what happened. and he knew doing so wouldn't bring back the pain he had inadvertently caused.

“you're right. I'll try…”

his father let out a sigh of relief

“good. That's the least I can expect. And don't worry, it doesn't have to be overnight. These things take time”

Kaiji looked up at his dad with tears in his eyes

“thanks dad” he said with a smile

Ryohei hadn't seen his son smile in months. His words had gotten through to him. he was so moved he started tearing up.

Kaiji had taken his first step forward, for the first time in months.

In the six months since the beginning of the end, the residents of Kyokai have continued on as if nothing happened. It's only been a select few that have started reporting ghost sightings, dark shadows polluting the air, and buildings rebuilding themselves seemingly out of magic after a phantom demolished it. Society's cognition was that protective mantle that kept it from harm. People didn't expect to see ghosts, so they didn't, buildings don't just get demolished by thin air, so they weren't. These ideas made the phantom weaker and the city indestructible. But the more people woke up to the threat, the less the city rebuilt itself and the stronger the phantoms became.

In the past six months Kairi has taken on more and more responsibility in regards to the corps, she has become a crucial member of the group now that Aki was gone.

He grew so furious and frustrated with what happened to Alice, frustrated with his own shortcomings. He decided he needed a break, so he took on painting, but he wasn't happy with that, then he took pottery, but he wasn't happy with that either, he realized he was just an unhappy guy in general and the only thing that made him happy was fighting. So when Alice approached him about coming back he wasted no time saying yes. When he heard “join the fight- '' He cut her off entirely, he wasn't even aware she was talking about a fighting school. He was just foaming at the mouth to get some action but his pride got in the way, and he jumped at the chance at doing it upon his sister's request.

“well you know, I thought I would retire, but if you guys really need my help, I guess I'll have to reconsider.”

Alice saw right through his façade but she wasn't about to inform him of his little assumption, he’ll just have to find out the hard way.

“alright, 8 o’clock, don't be late.” She said shrugging her shoulders

Aki was fired up, he spent the whole night training in anticipation.

...

“Hey Leo, have you seen this flyer?” said Mia

“I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kinda in the middle of something” said Leo

“Okay fine I'll read it to you. it says ‘new facility opening in midtown, food contractors needed for the catering of 1000 students”

“what? gimme that” he said as he wrenched it from her with his flour-covered hands.

He continued to read and reread until he was convinced this wasn't a joke.

“downtown? That's where all the schools are! That's where all the money is!”

“I KNOW!” she said

They both cheered as they finally found their big break. They made enough to sustain them with the current location, but it was so far out in the boonies that most of the customers had to walk 30 minutes discouraging them from going as often. And all the places in downtown have either been booked or were prohibitively expensive. But this was the perfect opportunity to set up shop in an untapped market.

They both stopped cheering and stood there silently as they realized all the work that needed to be done.

“you need to hire more waitresses” he said

“you need to hire more Chefs” she said

“no Chef is as good as me!”

“You can't do it all by yourself Leo! You're gonna need a team”

“I'll have to train them up to snuff”

“I wouldn't expect anything less”

They both gave each other a nod in solidarity as they continued with their work but now in the back of their minds, they were making all the mental calculations on what they needed to do to pull this off.

At first, he wouldn't hire anyone that didn't have experience with Italian cuisine, but given that he was the only Italian place in town, and he's been working alone since he got the joint, no one would be able to meet his criteria, he held the first round of interviews in the back of the kitchen, Mai stood beside him as he sat in a pose reminiscent of an 80s gangster with his legs spread, arms crossed and chin up looking down his nose at the interviewee. But as the first willing applicant came and went, Mai had to convince Leo to lower his standards.

“If we're gonna pull this off, you're gonna have to loosen up.”

So he did.

Up in the mountains, Ben had been helping out Haru in his spare time with phantom science experiments, research, and the development of new cures for different ailments. He also helped with her herb and bonsai garden. They were becoming closer as time went on. They were kindred spirits.

Fuyu and Natsu were thrust into the mentorial role so they had to get more serious. But that was impossible for them to keep up all the time, they still ended up having their shenanigans every once in a while.

The wheels were set in motion. All that was missing was Kaiji, what was he going to do?

“Kaiji, you have another visitor” his father said

“Hey Kaiji, long time no see right?”

he turned as saw the last person he was expecting to show up at his door. It was Kairi

She walked over and sat beside him.

“Your parents tell me you've not left the house In ages.”

Kaiji stayed silent

“you know, while you've been gone, I've gotten a lot stronger, one would say even stronger than you.”

Kaiji still didn't say anything

“Kaiji…” she grabbed on his sleeve

“please talk to me”

Kaiji looked down at his sleeve and remembered that night. His face started wrinkling up as he started crying.

“I just can't Kairi, I'm scared of hurting someone. Those powers, they changed me. I'm worried that somethings gonna happen and I'm gonna kill someone, that I'm not gonna be able to stop it and-”

but before he could finish Kairi opened her palm and slapped the boys so hard the slap echoes throughout the house. The smack was so intense her hair fell to cover her face

“snap out of it Kaiji! you haven't done anything to hurt anyone, you've always dove headlong into trouble. You've always been the most courageous of us all. But do you really think so little of you that you won't be able to control it?”

Kaiji sat in awe at Kairi's outburst

“This was never about you, it's about Alice. You feel guilty. And you know what? so do I!”

He was confused by what she was saying. She combed her hair back behind her ears as she explained.

“Ben talked to you the other day, I assume he’s told you? everything that happened, if it was anyone's fault it was mine.”

“no Kairi-”

“let me finish.” She cut him off. “It doesn't matter if it's true or not, I believe it. I spend days wracking myself with the guilt. But then I realized something, what good does that do anyone? How am I gonna make up for my failure by sitting around being sad about it? So I made a vow that I would use this experience to never let it happen again. To anyone! I got to work, I joined back with the corps and I've been doing everything in my power to make them stronger than ever. In fact, It was my idea to establish a training center in midtown. I felt if we were going to defend Kyokai, we needed bodies, strong well-trained bodies. You can keep yourself in place, or you can accept it and move forward and use the experience for the greater good.”

it sounded like something Aurora would say.

“and that's all I came to say. You can do whatever you want. But I couldn't sleep at night knowing I didn't do all I could to help you move forward.”

Kairi stood up and was about to leave when she realized she forgot something

“oh, I almost forgot, Aki wanted me to give you this”

She handed him an envelope with the words “to Kaiji” written on it.

Kaiji took it from her hand, and she left.

He was scared to open it. The last time he saw Aki, they didn't have the most pleasant of conversations. But nonetheless, he opened it and started reading

“Hey kid,

I heard you're still beating yourself up about what happened, I don't blame you, we all did. But in your case, I think I played my role in scaring you off. I blamed you for everything that went wrong, but that's just it, blame. Alice got hurt real bad but she very well could have died. I want to apologize for what I said, all that I said…

You aren't to blame for this any more than I am. You shouldn't be feeling sorry for yourself, I was wrong. It wasn't your fault. I put all my frustrations and failures of protecting my sister and projected them onto you. and that wasn't fair to you.

I just wanted to say…

I'm sorry…”

Kaiji was overwhelmed by emotions. It made him think in ways he hasn't in a long time. It made him think about his own actions over the last six months. And he realized he did wrong by someone who truly cared about him.

“AURORA!” he yelled out

but nothing happened, no beam of light, no shock wave, nothing. “I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I'm in no position to be calling you out. I cut you off when you were just trying to help. But I didn't want to hear it. I'm sorry Aurora, I hope you can forgive me”

The room was silent. Then a voice broke out.

“you silly boy, you need to go easier on yourself”

Kaiji's eyes widened as he recognized the voice from behind him, he turned around and was shocked to find her sitting at his desk with her legs crossed and leaning her head on her arm.

“Aurora?! What are you doing here? When did you get here? there was no light no fanfare…”

“I never left, silly.”

“what?”

“When you put that spell on yourself I knew things were seriously messed up inside you for you to do something so childish. So I delegated the work in spirit world to my subordinates. I've been here watching you the whole time. Guiding those that would help you get back on track. I talked with your parents, Kairi and Ben. But to be honest I didn't really have to do much, because they were already itching to talk to you anyway. I just served as that extra push.”

“I had no idea”

“Kaiji, I care about you, you're not just my spirit detective, you're my friend. I'm not gonna sit back and let you waste away in sorrow. And if I couldn't talk to you, I'd find those who could.”

Kaiji sat in silence as he reflected on all everyone was saying to him

“there's so much good you should be doing out there, but your not gonna be able to do it from in here. So what are you gonna do?”

Kaiji looked at Aurora with his eyes wide open. She was right, what was he gonna do?

...

“category 5 phantom at your six” said Fuyu

Natsu turned and saw as a reaper was just about to slice his head off with a scythe

“oh man, that was close, I almost thought it was Kairi coming to confess her love to me”

“in your dreams hot head” said Kairi

“at least you think I'm hot” he said

Kairi responded with nothing but a groan.

They've been fighting in the courthouse for an hour as the phantoms just keep coming. All the corruption had bread so much, there seemed to be no end in sight.

“This is gonna take forever!” said Kairi

“got room for one more?” a voice spoke through the walkie-talkie

The group was somewhat confused until one of the spirits slammed down in front of them with a sword on its back… it was Kaiji! The group's faces lit up as they saw the return of their fallen comrade. Kairi could finally rest. knowing Kaiji was back to his old self was a weight off her shoulders.

Back in action with a smile on his face. He heard the words of his friends and family and made a vow to help out as best he could. He still had his grievances, but who doesn't? He figured that was just something he was gonna have to deal with from now on. Although the darkness in his heart and the demon power still flowed through him. He wouldn't let that get in the way of him helping his friends. He would be a part of the training center, he would continue to fight phantoms, and he would continue to grow as he got ready for his señor year.

-fin-