Legacies of light

-Break-

Every day since Suzuka told us her name, we have come to visit her. The twinstars have tightened their defences around the area of her house, but as long as we sneak past them, it is no issue.

Whenever we arrive, Suzuka is filled with joy to be with us, so much so that I felt that she was overbearing but still, that smile is too genuine for me to complain, so I bear with it.

We spend all our time from morning till night playing. We draw, we build snow sculptures, we even fight though Suzuka tends to beat our asses at all of these things, which has stroked my competitive spirit quite a bit. So instead of making sure she has been having a fun time, I have been trying to crush her with all my heart though it turns out life isn’t going my way.

One day I lost so completely at everything I fell to the ground on my hands and knees in defeat with tears falling down my eyes. Seeing this, Suzuka said to me.

“Sorry about this Orb I’ll let you win the next one.”

“That won’t make me happy,” I say, even more, depressed than before.

Cyrus walks up to Suzuka and says, “Don’t worry about him, he lost, so as the victory, step on his corpse and take what is rightfully yours now.”

Cyrus really does say some scary stuff at times. Spurred on by Cyrus’s words, she steps on my head and says, “You’re where you belong, on the ground, like a loser.”

After she does this, I curl into a ball and say, “I don’t want to play with you two anymore.”

“Shaking my body, they say, “Orb, please don’t do this.”

“I am s-s-s-sorry.”

Turning my head back, I ask them, “Really?”

“Yes,” they both say in unison.

“Then let me touch your tails right now.”

So, both of them present their tails to me, and I take my fill of rubbing them. Cyrus’s tail is dynamic and hard, almost like a sword and whenever I touch it, he twitches, while Suzuka’s is like a fluffy cloud which can completely envelop me. After feeling both of them I say, “I like Suzuka’s better, and lay my head on it.”

Suzuka has a smug face of victory, while Cyrus looks shocked. “A-A-Are you sure you don’t want to try again?”

“I’m sure. Now what was that you said about losers being stepped on.” Cyrus sits beside us dejectedly at this moment.

While feeling up Suzuka’s tail, I remember something then. I asked her, “Why do your tails grow back randomly without your knowledge?”

“Oh, you see, when I take in people’s thoughts and emotions, I also take in some of their spiritual energy, and when I accidentally take in too much, my body tries to automatically store it in my legacy without my consent which causes my tails to grow back.”

“Wouldn’t that mean you can constantly refill on spirit energy whenever you run out?”

“As long as I can hear people’s thoughts and emotions, I can.”

Isn’t she just a perpetual motion engine of spirit energy? That’s rather dangerous information to know. “Well, you can always have these tails whenever you want. Their so nice to be in.”

“Enjoy. My friends can touch them all they want.”

“You hear that, Cyrus. Stop pouting and come over here and get your fill of this softness.”

Walking over, Cyrus drops his head on her tail as well. When he does, his body relaxes as her tail envelops him.

As we all lay there staring into the night, I say, “Did you two ever want to be anything when you grew up,” after I say this, they both go silent, then Suzuka says.

“I have never told anyone this, not even my parents, but I always wanted to be a shrine maiden.”

I let out a little laugh hearing this.

“What funny about that Orb.”

“Nothing. I just found it funny, but why do you want to be one?”

“It is just whenever I see one while walking through the city, I thought they were so pretty, their clothes, their hair, how they presented themselves.”

“Well, at the very least, you don’t have to worry about being pretty.”

Smugly she says, “Thank you. Now tell me what you wanted to do.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Come on, tell me.”

“Not a chance.”

With tears in her eyes, she says, “But isn’t this what friends do, and you promised to be my friend.”

As her sadness increases, I say, “OK, I will tell you but don’t laugh. I wanted to be a doctor.”

“Why?”

“Because aren’t doctors so cool? There are so many things that can kill a person, and doctors have the power to stop those things. Doctors will always be needed no matter what era, isn’t that cool.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

I say to Cyrus, “What did you want to be.”

“Well, like all dragons, I wanted to be a warrior and plead complete loyal to the dragon god.”

“Why.”

“When all dragons are young, we are taught there is no greater joy or pleasure in life than placing your everything to the dragon god. You shouldn’t eat, sleep or think if it isn’t directly about how to please the dragon god and his family.”

Hearing this, I sigh and say, “Cyrus, you have been brainwashed.”

Putting his hand on his ears, he suddenly starts saying, “LALALALALA.”

“What are you doing, Cyrus.”

“That’s what they thought us to do if anyone speaks ill about the dragon god. We either do that or kill them.”

“My god.”

“Oh, Orb, have you started to serve the dragon god.”

“NO. Listen to me, Cyrus, you know that thing I said about thinking for yourselves.”

“Y-Y-Yes.”

“It applies here, so if you trust me, you will forget everything they taught you.”

“But Orb.”

“Cyrus, I don’t want to hear any buts. Please trust me.”

Pouting he says, “Ok, I will.”

I swear he will do anything someone tells him. Though I am not doing any better, I need him to stop following others’ orders, including mine, so that her can think for himself.

Suzuka starts laughing at us as we talk. “Hey, I don’t see what’s so funny. This is serious.”

“I know, but I am sorry; it just makes me laugh. It reminds me of how my parents used to scold me.”

“You were probably scolded all the time due to your bad behaviour.”

“I was a perfect child I would have you know. I always did what I was told and went to bed immediately. I also cleaned up after myself whenever I made a mess like an adult.”

“Yes, yes, very adult.”

“I don’t like that tone.”

“Whatever,” I say, cuddling up to her tail more and more.

After sitting there for a while, I say to Suzuka, “It has gotten quite late. I think it is about time me and Cyrus go.”

“But you guys usually stay longer.”

“I know, but we’re leaving Seirei tomorrow. So, we need to get somethings done before we go and have a good night's sleep.”

Pausing for a moment, Suzuka says, “I guess you would need that.”

Getting up close to her face, I say, “Make sure you get a good night’s sleep tomorrow as well. You’re going to need it. Pulling Cyrus away, I say, “Before we leave tomorrow, we will come and visit you, so be ready. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Φ Seeing both of them walk away, I sit down and think to myself. I have had some much fun over this last week. I made two friends, and I got to hang out and eat with them daily. So many things I wanted to do I have done, and this tight feeling in my chest was more wondrous than ever before.

I got to hear stories about things I will never see or touch, and of all the friends Orb and Cyrus have, though I didn’t really like those stories. But still, I have truly been living a dream for this last week, one that I have to wake from soon, but that’s ok since I am content that I finally am happy to be here.

But I suddenly feel horrible, worse than I ever did before. It is much worse than when I feel everyone’s emotions and hears their thoughts. I feel like I am about to die. What the hell is going on? Why am I feeling this? I think to myself. Though I know the reason, I can never allow myself to say it out loud, because after all the good fortune a cursed person like me just received, I shouldn’t say something so selfish.

Still, this feeling persisted more and more until I couldn’t get it in, so getting up on my own two feet, I ran as fast as I could away from my house, and I screamed something that made me feel sick. “I DO NOT WANT YOU GUYS TO LEAVE ME. PLEASE STAY HERE FOREVER. I DON’T WANT TO BE ALONE; FORGET ABOUT ALL YOUR OTHER FRIENDS AND STAY HERE WITH ME. I CAN’T DEAL WITH BEING ALONE AGAIN!”

I cry as I run as far as I can. I am utterly disgusted with myself. Their friends are dying, yet this is all I can think about. I run so long and far that I cover most of the forest. I even run past the encirclement to the back of the forest for the first time in my life. After I stop due to exhaustion. I sit down and say to myself. “Go get some sleep, you have to give Orb and Cyrus a good send-off tomorrow. So, get your smiling face as good as possible ok, Suzuka.”

But after I finished saying that, the land mass I was standing collapsed and brought me down. I could cushion my fall with my tail, but looking down, I saw something I never thought I would.

-Break-

Φ “This is the shop,” Cyrus says to me

Walking inside the shop where Cyrus placed the order for our medicine, I see a somewhat beaten-up old man and a woman standing beside him. I hand them a receipt for the order we placed, and the woman says “You’re the people whom my old man scammed out of all that money. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry. It was my mistake not teaching Cyrus the proper value of money, so it isn’t your fault.”

“Well, your medicine is ready, so how do you want it delivered?”

“We will just carry it.”

“But it is quite a lot.”

“Don’t worry; Cyrus here will be able to handle it.”

“Well, if you say so.”

As she back all the medicine into a big bag for Cyrus to carry, the woman hands us a book and says, “Here you can have this for all the money we took from you. I think it is more than enough to pay you back.”

“What is this?”

“It’s a soul book a lost item. If you charge it up with spirit energy and then use your legacy on it, you can find out lots of things about your legacy. The way you make this book has been lost for ages, so that is a super rare collector’s item. Though it takes a lot of spirit energy.”

“Are you sure you want to give us this.”

“People without legacies have no use for such things, and the more you know about your legacy the better.”

“Thank you very much.”

As we walk out of the store, I will have to ask Suzuka to charge this for us. But then I heard someone scream. Then looking around, I see loads of people looking up into the sky, where I see a moving black cloud.

Cyrus says to me, “That’s s-s-spirit energy.”

I am unable to see pure spiritual energy. The only way I could see this is if it’s as dense as a spirit.

Φ While walking through the city, people are giving me death stares and screaming at me to get away, but I don’t care. After what I saw, I needed answers, or my head will split open.

After I walked around for a while, I saw a woman who had been in this village since I was young. So, I walk up to her, but a few twinstars come up behind me and say, “What are you doing here? Go back to the forest now, or we will remove you.”

I knock them out with my tails, then continue my walk to the woman as she moves away. I grab her and hold her down, and one of her kids with her says, “Get away from my mom,” but I send him flying into one of the buildings with my tail.

“Hey woman, I have a question for you.”

“Get away from me, you monster. Do you know what you just did to my son?”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LISTEN! Earlier I happen to come upon something that I need answers about, and you will help me.”

“Leave me alone; you filth-covered cursed piece of trash.”

Looking up at the sky, I say, “I came across my parent’s grave a bit earlier. I had always wondered what had happened to them. I thought for sure they had run away, but they were dead. I was in disbelief at first, so I dug up the bodies to check, and they had their wedding rings in the same place.

But you see, that was also very strange to me. My parents were both healthy individuals, and my father wouldn’t have lost to any minus that I could beat, so I only had one thought process: someone murdered them. So right now, lady, tell me the truth.”

“I know nothing. Please spare me.”

“Don’t worry. If you tell me, I will find out for myself.” So, I read her mind and found out what I wanted. Moving back from her, I am in utter shock. Looking around, I say, “You people, all you people together, ganged up on my parents, even the twinstars. They were the best people on this earth, and you killed them. What have my family or I ever done to you people? YOUR ALL TRASH FILTH SCUM. I HATE YOU ALL.” As I say this, I fall to the ground in tears.

Φ As the little demon girl cries in front of me, I try to grab my children and get away, but I see some ungodly black spirit energy flows around her and five of her tails disappear, and from the mist a spirit appears.

“You foolish humans, all the hate you have propagated for the last fourteen years for this child, and all the hate this child has for you has finally taken form. Now on the name that I inherited from this child’s strongest foe, I, Otakemaru, will kill you all.”

This heavenly but demonic spirit strikes my family and I when it finishes speaking.