Nat’s POV:
At my dorm, there was an empty space, and my cat mewed before making herself at home on a cat bed that seemed strangely familiar. Taking a sniff of the aroma in the room, I let out a soft gasp. It smelled like pumpkins and cinnamon, like my room. I looked at my bed, which had the same plain bedsheets, with a corner desk with a picture of: a small girl and her family, a slightly older girl with a snow leopard cub, and a picture of her with three boys and and an old man. I sighed a little, picking up a picture of Shiro and I when I was about ten years old.
“Um, Nat-san?” A few knocks of the door shook me from my thoughts. “I-It’s almost time for the mission.” A meek voice claimed, and I nodded before setting the picture back on the wall of the desk, tidying up my desk before starting for the door. I peeked my head out and smiled a little at Konkemaru, the person at the door.
“T-thank you for getting me.” I bow to him, and smile. He smiles back, and starts to lead me towards the rest of them, and I start to stretch, looking at them. I go towards Rin, and smile faintly. “So I have to exorcise this demon that’s in the boys’ bathroom alone. Alright.” I nod, and try to smile.
I hear rustles, and start to walk into the bathroom, slowly and awkwardly passing the urinals. Sure, I’d seen them before, babysitting and other jobs assured that, but I never really got used to it. I knocked on each stall, and found the fourth stall locked. I knocked on it gently, then frowned before stepping back, hearing a raspy voice.
You seem like good prey, a good girl who has no one to help, and a good looking one, too. A long sigh of frustration and disgust is released from my mouth as I start to step back, knowing most of the rules of ghosts; most have the ability to go through walls and can grab you if you weren’t careful. I look straight at the stall door, then focus, turning my head to the crack, wincing as the ghost jerked himself to be shown at a good view there.
“Sir? May I ask you something?” I ask softly, and the door starts to turn from red to clear, and the door bursts open, slamming into my face. I’ve received many doors to the face, thank you, but a boys’ bathroom one was a new one.
Oops, the voice cackled, and I took a step back, rubbing my head while keeping one eye open as best as I could. My brow throbbed and my cheeks were flaring a bright red with embarrassment; I knew that I was supposed to be weak as a ‘lone girl’ who was just a mere schoolgirl, but this much… this much was slightly insulting.
“What’re you talking about? I rode horses and they trampled me since I was little. You barely scratched me.” I chuckle breezily as I try to act casual, and blow some hair from my face. I look to see the mass of blackness and what looked like tentacles that sprouted from the bloody man, and I looked at him. “Why are you so mad? It’s sad, really. If you’re going to be a man, you have to get over the fact of the events that occurred and then you can go up to Heaven, with-”
You don’t know shit, girl. I take my anger out on people like you. C’mere, now. It hisses with boldness, and I only look at him before stepping forward before holding out my arms. If my body was what it wanted, then he would be deeply disappointed.
“Why don’t you take a hug? You seem like you need it. Whenever you try to talk or to see someone, they’ll get scared of your appearance, and run away. That’s why you want affections from us women, and that means...that...stuff…” I trail off as I knew people were watching, and look back at him.
Seeing that my arms were open, he takes the opportunity, slowly and cautiously went into them. “It’s okay. You’ll find love soon. I promise.” I state softly, and he looks at me. I tried not to feel his tendrils of darkness slither around my waist. Even though I feel the tendril crawl under and up the back of my shirt, I only let my fingers gently curl into fists on his glob of blackness.
Can you-can you be it? Can you be my love? He pleads, and his tendril snakes up my shirt and stops in between my shoulders. I shiver and squirm, but keep calm and shake my head. I glance over his shoulder, noticing a bleached tuft of hair that was sandwiched by brunette. I look back to the man, and sigh softly, shaking my head.
“Sorry, but I can’t. It wouldn’t work out anyways. But we’ll be best friends when you go to Heaven.” I smile slightly; even if he were to go to heaven, who knew when I would-if I could?
You-you believe I can go to heaven? He starts surprised, and I nod my head, smiling.
“Of course. Everyone has good in them that they can show.” I smile, and he starts to crumble into dust and shadows. I let go of him, so I take a step back, dusting myself off with a calmer look as I let the tension in between my shoulders drop. I was such a hypocrite.
Remember that promise… He states with a smile, and I smile back.
“I won’t.” I smile and wave. I turn to see them with confused looks, and I smile a little. “I guess that I didn’t need to use my sword.” I murmur, embarrassed. My cat jumps from Konkemaru’s arms into mine, and I smile and kiss her head.
“That was incredible!” Rin exclaims, shaking my shoulders, making me laugh nervously. Seeing the big grin on his face, it reminded me of when we were younger. I was glad that he was able to smile the same now; I never thought he could ever since Shiro. That was a stupid assumption, considering that we went separate ways for a year.
“Thank you.” I smile shyly, and look at Yukio and the others. “D-did I do any good?” I ask softly. I turn to the woman with reddish golden hair, and she nodded. The obvious relief in her posture showed that I was in the clear, and so I just wiped some sweat from my brow, Rubbing at my chest, the cool metal of a golden locket scratched against the skin of my chest, where my heart beat leisurely.
“You’re a very smooth talker.” She chuckles lightly. “So I see you want to become a Knight and…”
“And Tamer.” I state softly, pointing to the snow leopard cub who huffs lightly. The cub hated being ignored; she was like my opposite. If she wasn’t as well trained as I got her to be, we would’ve failed at many of the other jobs we had done together.
“Interesting.” She murmurs, and nods twice before Yukio smiles a little at me.
“It’s been a while since we’ve last seen each other, Onee-” He was cut off by a sheepish smile, his reputation snagging in his sentence, so he quickly ends with a meek “-Nat,” before looking at the ground, a feeling of self-consciousness obvious in his expression. Noticing this, along with the confusion swarming the other classmates, Rin grinned and pounced on me from behind, wrapping his arms loosely around my shoulders, his chin rested on my shoulder.
“Nat is my Onee-chan!” Rin half-explains, making the others even more confused.
“Baka!” I smile and gently nudge him away. “G-Gomen. What he means, is that I was raised by the same family as Rin and Okumura-san.” I smile a little. “S-so we’re more like foster siblings.” I grin a little, liking that alias. It was better than my other one. That one, I’d wish many would forget. Rin chuckles, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.
“Potato, potata. Still the same thing. So you’re still my Onee-chan.” He smiles cheekily, and I can’t help but smile back.
“A-alright…” I smile. I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I turn to look at Bon. My cheeks flush and I smile a little.
“You’re good with your…Tamer skills.” He smiles faintly and I smile back sweetly.
“Thank you, I wish I’d see everyone else’s skills, but that’d be hopefully for a different time. Well, goodnight!” I call, bowing quickly before turning on my heel and jogging towards the other two girls.
