Beta Ch.1 "Prologue (4)"
Heavy puffs of oxygen escaped out of the girl's mouth as she ran into the dark alleyway. Grasping her bleeding shoulder, she glanced back constantly in fear as she ran deeper into the darkness.
Her pace stopped abruptly all at once, an invisible force knocking her off her feet and slammed her body hard against a brick wall. The girl's body ached in intense pain, her vision blurred as she was on the verge of losing consciousness.
Blood ran down from her scalp, slightly smearing the front ends of her short icy blue hair. Before she could lift herself from the ground, an enormous being towered over her, thoroughly watching her movements with glaring red eyes and bearing razor-sharp fangs.
The girl's high school uniform was ripped by slash marks and drenched in her own sweat and blood. Her body trembled in both fear and exhaustion, catching whatever breath she could take in. Yet every breath felt hoarse and empty, death looming over her fast beating heart.
Despite the fear and pain coursing through her body, no tears whelmed up in her beautiful icy blue eyes. There was a small flame of retaliation burning in her heart. She refused to accept death, yet her body had no power to fight back.
Whatever it was, she held onto that feeling tight as her life flashed before her eyes...
"Ah!"
A loud shriek resonated within the room as she fell face first to the carpet floor, a loud thud following soon after. She groaned in pain as she rose to her feet, sadden that she once again rolled off her bedside.
"Ow, I really need to stop falling out of bed..." the girl muttered to herself as rubbed her forehead to calm the unpleasant ringing in her head.
Her icy eyes then expanded in shock upon seeing the surface of her bed. From the cover to the pillow, the entire bed was soaking wet as if someone threw a bucket of water on it overnight. However, the girl's body and clothing were completely dry.
"No... not this crap again!"
A few minutes later, the girl quickly exited her room. She then walked quietly to the washer in the middle of the hallway and shoved the soaked items into the washer that sat next to the dryer.
The girl sighed and banged her head against the wall, though softly so she wouldn't wake her family up. She had blue shoulder length hair, navy blue eyes to match, wore plain blue pajamas due to it being nighttime, and was fourteen years old.
"For the love of... this is the fifth time this has happened! If he saw me here, he'll never let it go..." she muttered softly to herself in anger.
She sneakily returned to her room, tiptoeing and glancing around to make sure no one followed her. Once she approached her room, she slowly opened the door and entered. As soon as she closed the door, turning around to return to bed, a small shriek of shock escaped her lips by what she saw.
A boy around her age with blue spiky hair and navy blue eyes was staring at her, a sly smirk on his round face and wearing plain white pajamas.
"So... you wet the bed again?" the boy chuckled lightly, trying to control his laughter.
"Be quiet! I didn't wet the bed!" her cheeks brighten red in embarrassment.
He shrugged. "Whatever you say... but, sometimes I feel like the older brother."
"Hey, I'm the older sister here! And as your older sister I demand you not to tell a soul about what happened!" she pointed a demanding finger.
"Um, by a few seconds... Anyway, I wasn't going to tell anyone. Besides, a more interesting story would be how you always stare at that guy in class for hours. Sometimes, you stare in such a trance not even the teacher can wake you..."
Using the opportunity of surprise, the girl grabbed her brother and forced him into a sleeper submission hold, though lightly so she wouldn't hurt him seriously.
"Shut up, I don't need relationship advice from a Otaku!" she barked.
"Hey, I'm not an Otaku! I just love anime! Can't a boy love anime anymore in this cruel world without being accused of being an Otaku?!" he struggled to break free, but to no avail.
"Then, why do you have posters of anime girls and those hent..."
"How do you know about my secret collection?!" he stopped her mid sentence.
"It isn't hard, you idiot! You put the order of your DVDs by age rating! It's not a secret to anybody. Even Mom could find them. You're luckily she doesn't know or your ass would be in trouble."
"As your younger brother, I demanded you not to tell a soul about this!"
"How dare you steal my line, you little..."
Suddenly, the two siblings were struck on their heads by a rolled up newspaper. The attacker was their mother. She had long red hair tied into a bun and red eyes. Of course, she had a scowling face on since she had just woken up from the ruckus.
"Asa and Grant Mikami... It is five o'clock in the freaking morning. Keep it down." their mother angrily ordered while tapping the newspaper in her hand, readying to strike again if necessary.
"Sorry, Mom..." the twins apologized.
"Besides... that's a poor submission hold. You need to put your right arm more into it." the mother explained to her daughter.
"You mean like this?" she placed more force into her hold.
"Ow! Hey, that's hurts!" he cried in pain.
"That's my girl! I taught you well!" the mother proudly said while giving a thumb ups.
"Mom, this is not what you should teach your children!"
In the morning, Asa poured herself a glass of water, drinking it slowly as she savored the cold, refreshing taste in her mouth. She stopped suddenly when she felt a presence behind her. She slowly looked back to see what it was, but the only thing there was air.
She decided to ignore it and readied to take another sip from the glass. When she lifted the glass to drink the water, the water didn't move to her lips. Confused, she looked at the glass and was surprised to see the water inside had frozen suddenly.
No... not this crap again! she shouted in rage inwardly. Why does this keep happening without my knowledge or input?! This is just stupid!
"Hey, Asa. Why are you holding a glass of ice?" her brother asked as he walked into the kitchen.
"Nothing, Grant." she sighed and placed the frozen glass in the sink. "Nothing..."
This wasn't the first time the abnormality had appeared to her, if the bed wetting incident wasn't clear enough. She wasn't aware as to why they occurred, but she found it strange that her body wasn't affected by the strange freezing abnormalities.
At school, Asa's brother slept in class. Annoyed by his snoring and lack of focus, the teacher threw a piece of chalk at the sleeping student who slumped forward at the right moment to dodge the flying projectile and instead met the head of the unlucky student sitting behind him.
"Grant Mikami, wake up!" the short male teacher yelled.
"Huh? What? Why are you yelling?" he slowly woke up and rubbed his eyes in exhaustion.
"Grant, this is the last day of school and you sleep in my class? Do you even have a conscience?" the teacher glared with a menacing look.
"Sure I do. And it told me to sleep." the student responded brazenly, causing the students to laugh and the teacher to grit his teeth in anger.
"Oh, I know what you're up to." he waved an accusing finger. He had enough of his misbehavior obviously if the vein on his bald head wasn't of indication. "You're trying to get the last laugh before the bell rings. But, I saw this coming, Mikami! I'll have the last..."
The bell rang, silencing the raging teacher and ending the class period. The students instantly ran out of the room, leaving the teacher in the room alone. He dropped to his knees, depressed that he didn't get his chance to have revenge.
"I... have failed..." he shed a single tear.
At the entrance of the school building, Grant collected his shoes from his locker and began to put them on. As he was tying his shoelaces, he looked up and noticed his sister talking to two girls.
He thought to himself of how odd his sister was; talking to herself as if someone was there, sometimes carried a glass of ice in her hand, etc. He just found her odd.
Asa delivered a knifehand strike at Grant on his head, drifting him out of his thoughts.
"Hey, Grant. It's time to go." his twin said.
"You didn't have to hit me, amazon woman." he said with irritation in his voice.
"Well, you were just sitting here spacing out like an idiot. Now come on."
"Fine..." Grant gave up the argument and finished tying his shoes.
"Bye, Asa! See you next year!" the first girl said.
"Bye, Asa! Bye, Grant!" the second girl said.
The two girls waved goodbye to them as they left. The twins waved back. Grant, in particular, was happy they acknowledged him and smirked to himself. His proud smirk stopped when he noticed Asa glaring at him as if he did something wrong.
"What's with you?!" he asked.
"Nothing, let's go, Mr. Otaku." she pouted.
He was obviously agitated by her insult. "Forget it! I'm walking home alone!" he shouted as he quickly walked ahead.
"Hey, Grant! Wait for me!" she ran after him.
A few minutes later far off from the school, two men wielding weapons looked around the area. The first guy wielded a sword on his left side while the second had a sniper rifle strapped on his back. Asa looked at the them in confusion as they ran around like beheaded chickens.
"Dammit, it's not here! Where could it be?!" the first guy shouted.
"Dude, we have to go back and contact Commander Reida!" the second guy announced.
"Are you crazy?! She'll kill us for not finding the Mons! Plus we lost our cloaks as well, she'll go on a rampage!"
"We have no choice! Some ghosts are nearby and might be eaten if we don't move on! Find the Senmu and hurry!"
"Man, today is not my day!"
They ran off into the forest behind them. Grant stopped and noticed her watching them. He, himself, didn't see them... or rather he couldn't. To him it looked like his sister was just staring at the forest.
"What weird guys... must be street performers or something." she said to herself.
"Asa, what are you looking at?" he asked.
"Nothing, let's keep moving." she decided to ignore it and walked forward. Her next problem was simple, she can see ghosts. Not only see them, but interact and touch them as well.
Continuing their long journey home, Asa noticed a young ghost girl around the age of ten crying next to a tree. She instantly shivered in fear due her fear of them and stopped walking.
"What's wrong with you now?" her brother asked, halting his own movement as well.
"Um... I think I see a lost cat over there. I'll be back." she lied and slowly walked to the ghost girl.
"You're awful at lying you know." he grumbled to himself.
Asa walked up to the ghost girl and bent down to her knees. She wanted to look the girl in the eyes. The spirit seemed like a semi transparent little girl with long white hair. She wore a hospital gown with bloody mark on her left side. Asa thought she must have died during surgery or something.
"Hey, what's wrong?" she calmly asked the ghost girl.
"Mommy... mommy..." the ghost girl wept to herself, not noticing her.
"Ah, you miss your mommy? That's so sad."
"Mommy... mommy..." she didn't seem to hear her.
"Hey, why don't we find your..."
The ghost girl continued to chant the same words over and over. Asa sighed and decided to give up trying to get her attention. Hoping she would pass away, she rose to her feet and readied to return to her waiting brother. She then stopped upon hearing a growling sound from close by. She quickly snapped her neck back to see where it was coming from. It reminded her of that of a tiger's, but she knew it was impossible.
"Alright, I had enough. What's going on? You've been acting weird all day." Grant finally asked and walked up to her.
From the tree behind the ghost girl, a large tiger-like monster came out and slowly approached Asa. She stared in shock and slowly stepped away from the monster. The monster had smooth yellow fur, dark red eyes, and (of course) vicious claws and fangs that looked like it could cut a person in half with ease.
"W... What is that..." she frightfully asked herself, hoping someone would answer or she was just imagining its existence.
"Asa! What's up with..." he grabbed his sister's right hand. Suddenly, her was able to see the monster with his own eyes and stared in shock as well. "What the hell is that thing?!"
After a second, she knew it was real and that they needed to escape. "I don't know... but, let's get out of here..."
"Mommy!" the ghost girl suddenly screamed, as if remembering a horrible nightmare. Hearing the ghost girl's scream, the monster roared and pounced after the twins. Asa grabbed her brother's arm and fled to the side, hoping to evade it. The tiger monster swung its right claw at them, but missed and slashed nothing but air. After landing on all fours again, it readied to charge, but slipped and collided to the ground on its back.
"Thank god that thing is clumsy!" Grant commented.
"Let's hope it continues to be!" Asa stated.
The twins ran into an empty alleyway nearby. Halfway through, Grant heard something and looked up, noticing the monster running along the walls as if it required little effort to do so. It leaped off the wall and pull its right claw back, preparing to claw at its prey.
Grant noticed a scattered beer bottle on the ground and threw it at the monster, hitting it in its face and shattering the bottle into pieces as some of the shards drove deep into its face. It roared in pain and attempted to remove the shards with its paws, rolling around in rage.
"Come on!" Asa rushed forward, forcing Grant to pick up his own speed.
The twins departed out of the alleyway, reaching a riverbank. They slid down the grassy hillside, slightly dirting the back of their clothes, and hoped to hide from the beast by lying down on their backs. Much to their dismay, the monster leaped over the hillside, landing on the other side of the river.
It then turned around quickly and fired spikes from its fur at them. They immediately ducked, evading the spikes. It readied to charge at them, but stopped as soon as it approached the water's edge of the lake separating the two sides. It growled at them viciously, mad that it couldn't reach its prey.
"That thing is afraid of water... alright, we can use this to our advantage." a small glimpse of hope reached Grant's face.
"Right, you run right while I run to the left." Asa ordered, much to his surprise.
"Are you crazy?! We have to stay together!" he argued.
"I think that thing is following me so go and get some help! I'll distract it!" she didn't bother to argue back.
"No way in hell am I leaving you with that thing!"
"Grant, do you have your phone with you?" she abruptly changed the topic.
"Yeah, but its low on battery." he reluctantly answered.
She sighed, but dealt with the circumstances at hand. "Fine, then I'll call you when I manage to lose it. You'll tell whoever is nearby that's where I am."
"Who exactly am I supposed to get? No one can see that thing expect for us!" he argued further.
"I don't know, just get someone like a police officer! Say some guy is trying is kidnap me or something! Just go!"
He thought to himself. He knew he and Asa couldn't run forever, plus he was the only one able to leave since the monster was only after her.
"Fine, I'll go! But, don't do anything stupid! Call me in case of emergency, you hear me?!" Despite his thoughts, Grant ran to the right section of the hill.
As he left, he looked back and noticed the monster was no longer there. Asa left to the opposite direction, with the monster following her nonetheless. "Did... it disappear?" he asked himself.
Asa opened her eyes, noticing the monster kept its threatening gaze on her. She couldn't believe this day would be the day she'd die.
"So... is this how it's going to end? What a crappy ending. I didn't even get a full chapter. I'm sorry, Grant. Mom. This is going to be the last time I'm going to be seeing you..." she said her goodbyes aloud.
The tiger monster raised its claw, reading to attack, but stopped when it was hit by a shoe from behind. It turned around, glaring at who the shoe belonged to... Grant.
"Hey, you ugly fur ball... if you want my sister, you're going to have to kill me first!" he yelled and prepared to throw his other shoe.
"G... Grant?! What are you doing here?!" Asa asked, shocked to see her brother. "Grant hit it? Can he see it?" she thought to herself.
"What the hell am I doing?! I can't even see the damn thing! I'm going to die! And the worst part is that I can't even tell where it is! Oh, just great!" he ranted in his mind. "I knew you couldn't handle this thing by yourself, so I came rushing back over here!" he attempted to act brave, despite his knees shaking.
Accepting his reasoning, she asked, "I see... did you bring help?" For a few seconds, Grant was silent. A vein appeared on Asa's forehead in response. "You idiot! Why did you come back without any help?! What's the point of coming here?!"
"Hey, I just saved your ass! If I wasn't here, you'll probably be dead!"
"Idiot, it doesn't matter! Now you're just risking yourself!"
"You're my sister, I can't just leave you! Even if I did come back with help, you would've been dead! You telling me to leave was like telling me to run home while you die and get eaten by this monster! Like hell I was just going to do that! We are both going to get out of this alive, you hear me?! Even if I have to protect you with my own body, I won't let you die! Now, you can otherwise sit back or help me fight this monster until the police arrives!" Grant shouted.
Asa was mesmerized by his speech. She was also surprised how brave he was fighting an opponent he couldn't even see. "Grant, I didn't know you..." she then remembered what he said. "Wait a minute. Police?! Are you freaking kidding me?! You only made the situation even worse, you dumbass!" she yelled.
"You were the one who told me to get the police!"
"I meant just a police officer, not... do you know how many more people's lives you endangered?!"
"Oh, and what is your brilliant plan?! Get slashed up until your clothes are completely gone?!" he remembered the monster. "Hold on, what's the monster doing?! We've been arguing for awhile!"
"It's..." she looked at the monster, noticing it was sleeping in a curled position like a cat. She was a bit dumbfounded upon seeing it after it attacked her so wildly. "Sleeping?"
It was Grant's turn to be dumbfounded. "What? Why would it be..."
"Who cares?! Let's just get out of here before it wakes up!" She tiptoed to her brother and the two siblings sneakily ran away. The monster yawned and slowly woke up. It then noticed Asa was gone and quickly turned around, noticing her and Grant leaving. Feeling its glare, the twins stopped dead in their tracks.
"Crap, it woke up! Quick, let's begin arguing again so it can..." Grant was about to finish his sentence before Asa stopped him.
"Hold on, I think its doing something!" Asa noticed. The monster grew in size, about three times, and roared. Its loud roar was enough to make the ground tremble. "Oh, my... it just got bigger!"
"What?! You gotta be..." she grabbed her brother's hand. He noticed it, his mouth hanged open in shock. "We're so dead..."
The monster fired a small, but fiery fireball from its mouth. Asa stepped in front of her brother, preparing to take the blast.
"Asa!" he shouted. She closed her eyes, waiting for the fireball to hit her. Suddenly, a wide ice shield appeared in front of her, preventing the fireball from meeting its predetermined target and dying into smoke. She opened her eyes, staring in shock of the shield's sudden appearance.
"What... is this?" Asa asked herself.
Quickly changing its tactics, the monster charged at them and readied to slash at them with its claws. In a quick second, it was suddenly sliced completely in half. The twins stared in shock as its remains began to fade from existence. Behind the decaying monster was a man wielding a sword with three holes on its blade. The man was barely visible to them due to the ice shield blocking their view, but they were able to tell he wore a purple outfit, a yellow ring on his left hand, and what seemed like a helmet on his head. The man instantly disappeared as soon as the shield shattered, turning into small icy particles and then slowly evaporated upon hitting the ground. The twins dropped to their knees in exhaustion.
"What the hell just happened?" Grant asked despite knowing Asa couldn't answer.
"I... don't know... But I think we were just saved." she said. She looked at her hands, noticing small patches of ice on them. Oddly, they didn't feel cold to her and they slowly evaporated a few seconds afterwards. "But... what did I just do?"
An hour later, the two guys from before approached the ghost girl. She stared at them oddly.
"Um... can I help you?" the ghost girl asked.
"This... is the Senmu, right?" the first guy asked the second.
"I think so, but her Time Lock is completely fine." he noticed.
Feeling a presence behind them, they turned around and noticed a woman glaring at them. The beautiful, young woman had short green hair and purple eyes. She wore a black cloak with the number 2 on the back, a red blouse, and black pants. She also wore glasses, which made her look like a secretary.
"C... Commander Reida Yao!" the first guy bowed before her.
"W... We're sorry for calling you!" the second did the same and apologized for the both of them.
"You idiots called me into the Human World for absolutely nothing. You better prepare for your punishment when we get back to the North Soul Tower. Now take the ghost and let's go." Reida ordered.
"Yes, ma'am!" The two guys left with the ghost girl. Reida sensed something and looked into the sky.
"I sense two unusual energy patterns. The Mons was destroyed a few miles off from here. One of them wasn't human and the other was... a spirit? Is there another Shinigami here... or is this something different entirely?" she thought to herself.
A few minutes later, Asa and Grant entered their home, tired and exhausted from having to run from a monster and walking home shortly afterwards. As soon as they entered the living room, their mother, who was ironing clothes, stopped to greet her children, but immediately opened her mouth in complete shock. "My lord! What happened to you two?! Asa, your clothes are ruined!" she asked, agape mostly by her daughter's appearance.
The twins looked at each other and then back at their mother. They didn't know what to say or if she would believe what they would tell her. In truth, even if they could have explained it, it wouldn't make sense to them either. "We don't know." they answered at the same time.
"You don't know?! I refuse to let you two take another step until you tell me something!" she demanded an explanation.
"Grant has a secret hentai collection in his room." Asa told.
"Asa wet the bed again." Grant told.
"Nevermind, just go to your rooms. I'm sure it's nothing." their mother gave up.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading the first chapter of Beta! Please excuse my amateurish writing as I am still learning! Anyway, leave a review of what you thought!