Kira
~
It was hard to place what was going on around me. I had no idea when the world had gone dark, but all too suddenly I was aware of the vast emptiness spreading out on all sides of my being.
My curiosity is quickly replaced by fear at the feeling of being thrust forward rapidly, my numb senses awakening at the feeling of cold liquid embracing my skin and pushing into my lungs. I thrash wildly, fear pulsing through my veins as I cough and claw my way toward what I can only assume is the surface. Swimming was one of the few activities I hadn't bothered much with so I was pretty much at a disadvantage here.
I'd barely begun when the water around me turned warm, a heady feeling of calm sweeping through me as a figure approached me from above. I did my best to squint through the tirade of bubbles spilling from my panicked lips.
Flowy lavender fabric comes into view, billowing all around me while gentle hands reach out to cup my face, tilting it further up to be graced by a kind smile and strangely familiar turquoise eyes.
The stranger was saying something to me but my thoughts were far away, fear of drowning forgotten as I struggled to remember where I'd seen their face before. And just as the realization hit, the world starts to spin furiously, before I can scream in horror, the back of my body connects with the solid form of a wooden surface.
I sputter up saliva and seawater as my craving for air came back in full force. Excited eyes are still staring at me with their owner talking at rapid-fire speed with enthusiasm I'd never known her for.
Not like I'd known her for that long exactly.
"I didn't think it'd actually work, but I'm glad you're here Kira," Hikari's grin split her face in almost half. It was so blinding I had to look away, staring past her to the pink-tinted skies of wherever we were.
A dream? A memory? Something else entirely?
I ruled out the memory theory quickly, from what I'd experienced, the memories only came in the form of instinctual movements. Similar to the tiny voice at the back of one's mind urging them to just go with the flow.
I'd never experienced something this visual. Not to mention, she'd addressed me by my name. If this was a memory, I wouldn't be able to exist in it.
I reached out, my thumb making contact with the corner of her lip where the last time we'd met, had blood spilling forth as she'd taken her last breaths.
I should hate this girl, I should despise her for placing a burden I had no idea of onto my shoulders. For ruining the peaceful world I'd lived in even if it was only an illusion.
Even then, I couldn't stop the blossom of elation in my chest as when she turned pink and watched me in confusion. I don't know what the hell had happened but she was okay and in front of me. With a burst of energy, I pushed myself up and wrapped my arms around her neck, squeezing even tighter when I felt her arms wrap around me too.
"What the hell?!" I screamed into her shoulder as I buried my face into the fabric of her silky robes.
"I'd love to say we should wait for you to calm down so we can explain but I don't think we have that much time."
We?
Almost immediately, a new voice joins in, deep and rich in timber with a hint of displeasure that demanded attention, "This is beautiful and all but we really don't have all day."
"Rui, live a little and quit being a killjoy, I'm having a moment here," Hikari pulls away to glare at the boy seated not too far from where we are on some sort of dock.
The boy, Rui apparently, is seated on a cushion beneath a grandly built pavilion. Wind-chimes of colorful crystals hung down its roof, their melodies flowing with the gentle breeze and its jade stone pillars glistening in the soft pink light of wherever we are.
Across from Rui was another girl, a brazen smile of interest on her face as she watches Hikari pull me toward them. Her spiky red hair, rough and untamed, fell into her eyes, clashing with the deep purple variants of the robes they all seemed to wear. Each style was unique in its design and represented it's wearer with an eerie accuracy.
Beyond the dock and pavilions, I can see a small house and beyond that, a towering mountain with mist clinging to its tops and much smaller pavilions floating either above the waters or in the skies.
"What is this place?" I ask in awe as Hikari and I finally reach the other two.
"The Tethered Pavilions," the unnamed girl answers, "The place where all Keepers of the Seal come after their death."
"Turns out using demon magic attracts a punishment of delayed reincarnation," Rui rolls his eyes in seeming disgust, hands stringing together some colorful beads I'd just noticed before him.
"But since we risked ourselves for the good of the land, we get a nice cozy place to hang out while we wait, a branch of the Spirit plane just for only us," Hikari beams as she falls onto one of the cushions. She points to the guy, "I introduce to you, Yamada Rui, the third Keeper," then to the red-haired girl, "And she's Agawa Shiko, the second."
She chuckles before pointing to herself, eyes meeting mine, "I guess Lucifer and Mammon have said more than enough about me already but I'm Gushiken Hikari, the fourth."
My mind speeds through all the discussions I've had with the demons- Wait a minute?! I try to reach out but neither Lucifer nor Mammon answer my call. The distress on my face must have been evident because Shiko speaks up.
"Not looking too good there sprout," she hums.
Sprout? I push it aside, "I can't reach the Demons."
"Don't worry about that, like I said this sub-plane is only for the spirit of Seal Keepers, and since your body and the Seal aren't here they can't be as well," Hikari explains.
"Hold up! So it's my spirit or soul or whatever that's here right now?"
They all nod.
I crash to the ground, head in my hands, "Are you trying to say I'm dead?!" I screeched unable to keep the panic out of my voice.
Shiko bursts out in raucous laughter and the other two look just as amused but Rui was holding his composure much better.
"Calm down, little girl, we merely summoned you here," He answers.
"Would've gone much easier if that hag inside had helped us instead of moping around as usual," Shiko growls out derisively, shaking her fist at the house in the distance.
"I've told you to stop speaking ill of Kazue-san," Rui tosses back without missing a beat, his bead-making coming to an abrupt stop since we'd started conversing.
"Kazue?" The name rings a bell at the back of my mind, quickly coming to me in the form of one of Lucifer's brief history lessons. The first Keeper.
"Yeah, she's locked herself in her room long before either of us got here," Hikari informed running a tired hand through her short dark locks.
"Imagine dying and waking up to this lonely ass existence," Shiko, slams a hand down on the table, eyes dead set on me, "If it wasn't for the note she left on the door, none of us would probably know what's up."
"Nearly five hundred hundred years now, it's utterly ridiculous," Rui waves dismissively, "But it's up to her what she chooses to do with her time here."
"Staying locked up and feeling oh-so sorry without apologizing must be the best afterlife ever then. Maybe you should try it Rui-chi, I'd do better without having to see you and your lame ass hobbies a few more centuries!"
I kneel awkwardly as I watch, the subtle understanding that they all might not like each other very much had dawned on me, that or the novelty of spending several decades together had worn off. The first guess wouldn't be a stretch though, if they'd all become Keepers the way I did, they'd surely hold some resentment toward the one who did it to them.
I swipe a quick glance at Hikari who had risen slightly to pull apart the other two had managed to grab each other's collars in the span of seconds. I stared, though they all didn't look that much older than me, our discussions so far had driven home the fact I was much younger than I thought.
Alongside the fact this Keeper business was far older than I'd ever hoped to comprehend. I deduced it was nearly five hundred years since Shiko arrived here. Before her, Kazue had also spent some time as the Keeper, but these time gaps were too ridiculously large to be a human feat.
"Does being a Keeper have some sort of expiration date or something?" I ask, halting their squabbling briefly and drawing their attention to myself.
"Nah, you're immortal until you get killed," Shiko replied, settling back on her cushion, picking up one of Rui's beads and flicking it toward his forehead, "It's hard to get killed with crazy healing and regeneration, but it's possible."
"Kazue-san got poisoned while traveling through the demon territory of the Spirit plane," Rui explains, "As for me, a demon that could cause a special plague was running around, I managed to stop her but I got infected with the flesh-eating parasite during the fight. It was a gamble if my regeneration would push through but I couldn't take that risk. Not when news of a new powerful sorcerer had started to go around," he gestures to Hikari, "I held on for a decade or two while searching for a successor, Pure of Heart brats were getting harder to find due to humans pulling further away from magic in general."
"You already know how I died," Hikari chuckles nervously, "Slow regeneration while bleeding out is a sure way to go."
"A pathetic sure way," Shiko cackles.
"She's insufferable because she claims she had the coolest death," the dark-haired girl muttered, "Some cursed arrow struck her chest while she was sealing away some giant army, and wouldn't stop going closer to her heart."
"They weren't just 'giants', they were Gashadokuro, nasty pieces of work from the depths of hell itself," the older snarls.
I sit up, nearly throwing myself across the table, "What did you say you fought?!"
"Gashadokuro," she repeats much slower this time.
A smile breaks across my face, that word, apparently a creature of some sort, was what Yamagata had told me to tell Kuro about. Shiko had fought them and possibly knew how to deal with whatever Nightmare was planning to cook up.
"How do we stop them, Agawa-san?" I ask quickly.
"Why would you need to stop them, I already banished them to some unnamed sub-plane."
"Nightmare plans on bringing them back I think. They're important to his plan in some way and we have to stop him."
The table falls into an eerie silence that has me sweating a little. Had I said something wrong? Was there no way to stop them now?
Shiko lets out a loud, angry curse, slamming a balled-up fist down as she glares daggers into the table's surface.
Hikari breaks the silence by speaking up at last, "That's going to be a problem..."
"Why?!" I exclaim pulling away as she reaches a hand to hold mine.
"Sealing the Gashadokuro, as Agawa's told us many times, took a lot of magic energy, that's why she hadn't been able to sense the arrow-"
"And why I wasn't able to complete the sealing process," Shiko cut Rui off, before anyone can react she swipes her hand in anger, sending Rui's bead set and the tea cups on the table to the floor, "The chump's probably figured it out and he wants to call them back!"
Rui is at her side almost immediately stilling her hand, but his expression isn't anger or annoyance at his work destroyed. It's sympathy, like he could understand her emotions, "Calm down, Agawa."
Hikari turns to me, grabbing my shoulder by taking advantage of my distraction, "The reason we called you here is to tell you that you can't use that kind of power."
My pride kicks in immediately, "I can, I just have to train. I've summoned Lucifer and Mammon and awakened another demon and it's barely been five months!"
"No! You can't use anymore!" Her grip on me tightens almost painfully, her eyes are wild with worry as they stare into mine, "Using anymore will be the end of you!"
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