Chapter 24: Chapter. 24: Surprising Reality

The fickle ball of fire quivered under the assault of the gray mist. Its brilliance dimmed as it threatened to extinguish under the air of death any second.

“Haa…”

My hand relaxed and muscles let go of the tension. The mist vanished like the wind, the trembling ball of fire soon returned to normalcy. Floating without any care in the world. I frowned. How long had I been doing this?! And moreover…

I turned to look at Ash who seemed to happily tap away at her phone. It was much the same type of enjoyment that I saw her get from her laptop.

“Don’t you have any suggestions?” I grumbled at her. The wisp floated there, unmoving and uncaring.

Ash looked up to me in surprise. “What kind of suggestions can I even give you?”

“General advice, anything.” She was too distracted with the phone! I needed help!

Ash pressed the lock button and pondered. “Hm, have you ever trained your death aura thing before?”

I paused. “No…” To be honest, I rarely trained, if at all, and even then, it wasn’t this. Just scythe combat… I wasn't keen on fighting other denizens of the Underworld for no reason.

“That’s your issue then.” Ash nodded. “You don’t understand what your aura exactly does, so you can’t do anything with it. Which is why the monster from that one time had gone less than swimmingly.”

“I guess…” I awkwardly scratched my head. A quick peek at the unmoving ball of fire that was the wisp got me thinking. What did my aura exactly do? I turned back to Ash to ask more things, but she was back on her phone. Talk about cold.

◇ ◇ ◇

The wisp illuminated its bleak surroundings of gray shadows. Unmoving and resilient to everything that was going around it. Hmmm…

So far my aura had responded to the intent to kill it, and the intent to spare it. Though perhaps it was a bit different. What was the aura actually? It dominated the soul? Others could control anything made of organic, or any type of structural part of a living being. Then, what was the soul?

Did it give life? I didn’t think so. But it was certainly essential. Could a soul be taken out before death? Also no… It was simply part of what made some living beings function. Though at the same time, denizens of the Underworld lacked it. At least from my understanding.

I couldn’t quite… kill it.

“Ash, with your…” It was a sensitive topic. “With your abilities, how did you kill those ghouls? I doubt you simply desired for them to die.”

Ash glanced back at me. “Of course I cannot command them to just die, as neat as that would be.” She gave me a shrug. “I command the things I have control over in order for them to die. Example, what do you need to do for a person to die?”

I paused over the question. “Em… Feed them to hounds?” I tilted my head to come up with something else. “Cut them down?”

“No,” Ash scoffed. “You just remove their heart, make it stop functioning.”

“Oh.” That made sense.

“You’re supposed to find something like that with your death aura.” She turned back to her phone and I was once again left alone with the wisp.

◇ ◇ ◇

A bridge and a connection. Almost in the same position, yet impossibly distant. I could feel it. It was like a string, tough as the net of a spider from the depths. Impossibly sharp, impossibly resilient. My aura enveloped the wisp whose flames had paused mid air, frozen in space.

My body trembled. The aura was a medium to sense and touch the soul… An impossibly cold hand touched my shoulder, making me shiver in place. The aura vanished in an instant and the wisp returned to normalcy.

“It’s time to go.” Ash said as she turned around.

“I almost have it!” I hurriedly told her. I didn't want to leave just yet.

Just a few more attempts and it was all going to be done. I was drenched in sweat and my energy was nonexistent. But I was almost there. Just a few more attempts.

Ash shook her head. "You're clearly exhausted, and the day has ended. Don't be stubborn." With that said she began walking away from me.

She shook her head and began walking. "If you insist on being stubborn, I'll just leave you here."

“Ah.” She was going to leave me here… I didn’t want to be left. “Wait!” I called after her but got no response.

A tired sigh left me, and I began walking after Ash. It didn’t take long before I walked to her side. The sun was beginning to set once again, and the sky was becoming a dreamy dark blue that soon was going to become an abyssal black. The wind howled through the empty trains and gravel flew by.

Ash gave me a look as we walked. “So, when did you decide to change clothes?”

I looked down, and I still wore the same old outfit from before. It was a white sleeveless top and jeans. I looked quite informal, but it was comfortable.

“Well, I got tired of wearing the same clothes, I guess?”

Ash nodded. “They look good on you.”

I paused hearing the unusual remark from her. “Thank you…”

We walked in silence as I pondered about my situation for a few minutes. The aura thing was at the back of my mind since it was about done. But, things had really changed a bit too much. First I worried about whether people liked death or not, then about wanting to make them happier, and now… I shuffled with the badge in my pocket. I was a so-called Abyssal Hunter?

It was a bit too… weird? Then again. I needed to be a better version of myself, because of what I wanted. My eyes landed on Ash. I wanted to help her too. And current me, possibly, wasn't up to the challenge, sadly. Though something occurred to me…

“Ash,” I called her attention. “Haven’t you been warmer lately?” Brighter. Happier. It was hard to describe the emotion I felt.

“Warmer?” She looked at me in confusion.

“Like…” My hand played with the badge in my pocket as I tried to find the right words. “Friendlier?”

Ash pondered. “Perhaps?” But soon after, she just shrugged. “I don’t mind it that much. I simply…” She trailed off before groaning. “I guess I consider you my friend or something?”

“Friend?”

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She looked away. “Yeah… friend…”

She considered me her friend? I didn’t really know how to react, but I was certainly surprised. I didn’t really know what I considered Ash. She was my roommate, and my… partner? I didn’t really know if that was the right word. But I had to at least return the sentiment.

“Then…” I thought for a second before smiling. “You’re my best friend!” I beamed.

Ash paused. “I think I am good, thanks…” She said so indifferently.

“Hey!” I was shocked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

On the way to the hotel, Ash didn’t elaborate on her statement, which made me a bit upset. She was just a onesie wearing weirdo anyway… I didn’t need her clarification to feel better.

◇ ◇ ◇

It was the next day and it was mostly uneventful. We were back at the railway yard. As I learned its name later.

I was close… Very close. The thread quivered under my power. I couldn’t see it. But I could definitely feel its connection inside the wisp. It was there, helping it exist. I just had to touch it. Slowly caress it and make it loose. My mist enveloped the wisp, trying to change it. Or rather, hold. The thread to its… soul?

I paused and the wisp came back to life from stasis. Extending my senses once again, I barely felt the thread, it was there. Just thin… And almost nonexistent. Now that I didn’t focus on it as my life depended on it, I realized that it was truly small. Yet it was so brilliant up close.

“Wisps have souls?” I asked Ash, unsure about my discovery.

“Dunno,” she shrugged. “Not a Reaper.”

“Thanks…”

So wisps had souls too? Wouldn’t that also mean that other denizens of the Underworld had souls too? But, there was no Elysium… No cycle for them. It was… Odd. The wisp floated, and it made me think. Did everything have a soul? That⁠— well I never really got told what had or didn’t have a soul…

It was just more like knowing the fact that beings of the realms could pass on, but us natives couldn’t. I just assumed that⁠— Well I had assumed that, that meant not having a soul. The wisp was still emotionless as ever, the soul was… I couldn’t really see it. I couldn’t even explicitly feel it.

I could feel its connection but… I held onto it with my aura using my intrinsic magic. The flames of the wisp paused in space, placed into stasis once again. I couldn’t really feel the soul itself. I examined it. It was a lot easier to use my aura on the thread than it was to try to kill it by forcing it into it.

A few minutes passed and I couldn’t really figure out where the soul exactly was. It just went inward. Into space itself, yet it didn’t seem to have an end in sight. I let go of the thread, and the wisp⁠— the flame disappeared into the air and its existence ceased to be.

I paused in shock. It died?

Clapping entered my ears. Turning around, I found Ash who carried a pleased smile in her neon pink onesie.

“Nice, you’ve figured it out.” She nodded pleased. “Let’s get going, I want to grab some snacks before meeting Sullivan.”

I looked at her rather weirdly. I kind of wanted to see her soul… She was from one of the royal bloodlines just like me. As I thought about it, I shook my head. If the wisp had frozen in place, then it must feel awful. Just like she had done so to me.

I followed Ash as once again, we left the place.

“I seem to be able to target souls individually, couldn’t you just do it individually back then?”

Ash shook her head. “My ability works differently. I detect anything that meets a criteria in a certain range and get to modify it. But it's closer to a circle, or donut?” She pensively put her hand on her chin. “Anyway if it's right next to me I can choose to ignore it, but it still goes all around me.”

“That sounds weird.” And it sounded a bit annoying.

“Yes, it fucking sucks.” She agreed instantly. “It’s pretty strong, but meh. In the Underworld it’s useful, but here.” Ash lazily gestured at the surrounding grass and trains. “It’s quite pointless unless you do black market things.”

“Black market?” I asked, remembering she had mentioned the rugs. “Where can I find it?”

Ash sighed. “It’s just a term for illegal activity and its dealings, you know. The police officers that arrest the bad guys, or those that do illegal things?”

I frowned. “So the carpets I wanted are illegal?”

Ash took a brief second to consider before replying. “Some probably are.”

On the ride towards our apartment I couldn’t help but feel somewhat dissatisfied. I wanted to own fluffy carpets, but it was apparently illegal. I didn’t think having a carpet could get me arrested, but the world was full of surprises.

Soon, we found ourselves in the supermarket near the apartment. I sighed waiting for Ash to pick her chips and cookies, and soda… She carried a lot. I myself grabbed some chocolate cookies and called it a day. I still wanted the carpets…

A few minutes after, we met with Mr. Sullivan, who was already outside the apartment complex. He stood pacing around next to a blue car. Though his mood seemed rather bad. It was just about to be the appointed time.

“Oh, you both are here. We should get going.” He said with a small hint of hurry in his voice, as he gestured towards the car, that I assumed was his.

Ash simply nodded and entered it, but I was confused. “Why are we rushing?”

“Because the news reporters could show up at any time.” He answered as he entered the driver’s seat.

“Oh…” Well I didn’t know what that meant. But I still sat on the backseat along with Ash.

He started the metal beast with a twist of his arm, and the engine roared to life as lights lit up on the driver’s side. And soon we left the place.

Mr. Sullivan let out a sigh of relief. “They keep trying to interview me and at the same time, they really want to talk with the both of you.”

“Annoying.” Ash commented as she looked at her phone.

“Why?” I wasn’t really following.

“They just want information,” Ash said. Sensing my impending question, she elaborated. “They want to make money by telling what happened to absolutely everyone and spin the facts to make it more interesting if necessary.”

Mr. Sullivan gravely nodded in agreement. I still didn’t really know what was so bad about them…

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