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The light from the television was lighting up the walls behind Dakota while he sat on the couch that was poor pieced back together and duct taped very vigorously. The lights were off and Kōkishin was sound asleep on the recliner that was positioned next to the couch. Dakota was still in disbelief thinking about the ghost monster that came up through the floor. It resembled a human body but was drowned out by a black and purplish miasma that seemed to be emanating from its body. Something that freaked him out the most was the fact that Kōkishin had transformed into some battle-ready monster feline. Even though these terms were the only ones Dakota could think up for the moment to reference them by, the terms he came up with only temporarily could describe the reality behind what happened. 485Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVCQTP5sdJ6
He didn’t know if keeping the light off was a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe having the lights off would signal to some monster they weren’t home. Dakota only could think in logical rationalities. Applying logical rationalities to the ethereal beings he’s only known to exist for one day now, didn’t seem very logical to him. Dakota never feared the monsters under his bed because he simply didn’t believe in them, and that seemed to be the most logical conclusion to him his whole life. But now to know that even though he was never scared of them, the monsters in fact didn’t just exist, they most likely were under his bed his whole life and he just never noticed them. Some would even argue that though he didn’t believe, and since the darkness was real, he found a way to co-exist with the darkness and the monsters within in by simply not believing in them. Creating a sort of symbiotic relation ship with the ethereal. He never bothered any of the creatures he never knew about and they never bothered him in return.485Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4q5UcgXwDz
There were so many more questions he wanted to ask Kōkishin, but she didn’t seem to be waking up after the attack she unleashed on the apparition she had just fought. Dakota was under the impression that if she were to fall unconscious, she wouldn’t be able to manifest herself and return to his body. That wasn’t the case. She was quietly asleep with her hands folded over her chest. She always described herself as manifesting herself but for a manifestation he could touch her skin, and she felt warm. She seemed very alive to Dakota and more like a human than an ethereal being. Even after everything she gorged herself on, he could still hear her stomach aching as if she hadn’t eaten at all. Now that he had his house clean again and all the trash removed Kōkishin had left, he decided to cook something for himself and Kōkishin. Maybe cooking something very aromatic would wake her up since he noticed she was obsessed with food. Going to school today was not going to happen since it was nearly three in the morning and he hasn’t gone to bed. Also, since the bizarre events he had gone through he decided that warranted a day off to recover.
On the coffee table, Dakota had gathered an array of tools and weapons he believed to be effective against ghosts. There was a container of iodized salt, different length pipes made of different materials and various other objects he believed to be useful against the ethereal. He even had a few cloves of garlic present just incase a vampire were to appear. He wasn’t sure in what jurisdiction of ethereal the monsters he would be dealing with were from or even existed, but he wanted to be prepared.
While he stood in the kitchen and prepared a real meal that he believed would knock Kōkishin’s socks off, if she had been wearing any, an unknown man stood outside in the grass of his neighbors yard staring at him through his kitchen window. Dakota was unaware of his onlooker while he continued to cook and prepare the food. The man had a paper talisman in one of his hands and as he chanted some words in Latin, the paper talisman burnt up in a green flame and its ashes were lost to the wind. The man smiled as he said quietly, “Let’s see you beat this one kid.”
The lights flickered in the kitchen for a second and Dakota was overcome with an ominous presence. He slowly turned around and saw another apparition, very similar to the last one except he could see this one’s skin through the purple and black miasma. It was a light grey leatherlike skin. It stood there by the recliner Kōkishin was sleeping on looking down at her with its alien like black eyes. Eyes so black it looked like you were going to be sucked into space and stranded there if you looked into them for too long. It resembled in a way, the stereotypical green or grey alien Martian but at the same time it seemed lankier and more vicious looking. It quickly looked up at Dakota and said with a high-pitched raspy voice, “Hey kid, what ever you’re cooking in there doesn’t smell as good as whatever is laying here sleeping!”
Dakota was petrified by the sound of its voice. Was horrified him was the fact the monster’s mouth wasn’t on his face. It was position on the back of its head toward the lower neck. When it talked, its whole head seemed to be bobbing back and forwards as its neck mouth opened and closed. While raising the butcher knife in his hand at the creature Dakota tried to say something but only gibberish came out.
The creature begged, “Oh please-please-please could I trouble you for a bite? Maybe just a thigh or an arm would do ya know? She is the most exquisite creature I have ever seen. In all my existence I’ve never smelled anything like it. I’m dying to know what it tastes like!” While the creature was talking a second mouth opened where a human’s stomach would be, and hundreds of small tentacles emerged and began to wrap around Kōkishin’s body.
Underneath Dakotas feet felt like a well of gravity had swelled up and then launched him across the room. Without realizing he had moved his body he was standing in front of the creature and severed every tentacle attaching itself to Kōkishin. Before his swing had ended, Dakota spun one of his legs backwards into a kick and sent the apparition flying down the hallway and tumbling through the walls. Dakota quickly pulled the tentacles that were severed from the other end, off Kōkishin and threw them to the floor as they dissolved in a puff of black and purplish smoke.
The creature got back to its feet and said, “What the hell kid? I thought you were just a human trying to enjoy eating an ethereal being! If you’re trying to fight me—” He stopped speaking as his body began to morph and two more arms came out of the mouth on the back of its neck and became blades all the way down to its fingers. “Then I’ll just have to devour you both!” The creature leapt down the hallway toward Dakota and lunged both its arm blades forward in attempt to slice at Dakotas head. When the creature was mere inches from his head, Dakota grabbed both the blade arms within an instant and tore them off. The severed arms began to disintegrate into purple and black smoke and vanished before hitting the ground. The creature cried out in pain as the stumps of its two blade arms retracted back inside its mouth.
“What are you kid? I’ve never seen nothing like you neither.”
Dakotas arm started to morph into a skinner, purplish, slightly longer arm where his fingers where sharp as daggers who Kōkishin’s were earlier when she fought the first apparition. Dakota said, “I don’t know what you are, but you are destroying my house and you are going to pay.” A flood of confidence and rage swept over Dakota as he jumped toward the creature and drop kicked it through his bedroom wall. Before the creature could get up, Dakota had already appeared above it and stomped on both its normal looking arms pinning it down. The creature looked up into Dakotas eyes and noticed his entire eyes were black with a small white dot in its center.
With the morphed hand, he reached down and tore apart of the creature’s torso off and began eating it as he said, “I’m just dying for a taste ya know?” Dakotas voice was becoming more demonic sounding with every bite as the creature wailed out in pain. Dakota tore another piece of the monster off as it started to disintegrate into purplish blackish smoke.
The creature called out, “Stop! Please don’t eat me kid!” Dakota ignored his cries and continued to devour him until the rest of his body had disappeared into smoke. Dakota was still hunched over the spot where he had devoured the creature when he noticed Kōkishin looking through the hole in the wall at him horrified. Dakota suddenly un-morphed and returned to his normal self. His head was spinning in confusion. He noticed Kōkishin and asked as if he was dazed, “What… just happened.”
Kōkishin replied nervously as she said, “You… you just devoured a demon.”
A smiled crossed the onlookers face outside as he began to walk off and say to himself, “Now that was interesting. The human boy ate the demon summon.” The man kept on walking away and mumbling to himself as he walked off and out of sight.
“I ate that thing?” Dakota asked in shock.
“You ate him until there was nothing left, and he was definitely a demon. Ethereal creatures puff out of existence and the purplish black smoke is what we call a creature’s miasma. It’s the remaining tainted energy the creature had as it died and once its body has vanished it dissipates back into the living things around it. Since it’s tainted energy your whole house needs to be cleansed and even us. If you would have exercised it, the cursed energy would have been sealed away in a talisman.” Kōkishin had a concerned look on her face still after explaining everything.
Dakota said, “Not only did I not know that I don’t even remember fighting that thing let alone devouring it.” Dakota looked around the room and noticed the house had been torn apart once again, but not in a way duct tape could fix it this time. “This place is a disaster.” He looked at Kōkishin with a smile and asked, “You like couldn’t just wave your hand and restore everything with your godliness, right?”
With a huff Kōkishin crossed her arms and said, “That’s a crude thing to assume of me! If you had a brain you would have concluded that if I could have done something like that, I would have rebuilt my shrine and not have needed you.”
Dakota suddenly jumped to his feet and ran into the kitchen. The pot of water he was boiling was nearly empty and the bottom of the pot was starting to glow red hot. He quickly removed the pot of the stove and placed it in the sink with running water while he shut off the stove top. After a long sigh Dakota glanced into the living room and saw that the hole in the wall was patched up with duct tape in a tight neat pattern and that all the damaged parts of the walls were duct taped as well. All the debris had been swept into a neat pile. While Dakota was still glancing around the room, Kōkishin was standing next to him with her hands on her hips observing the room with him.
After gazing around a bit Kōkishin said, “I may not be able to magically restore inanimate objects to their fixed positions, but I’m really fast and can at least use your bonding strips to temporarily cover the broke parts.
Dakota asked, “You did all that while I was in here for like two seconds?”
Kōkishin asked sourly, “Are you doubting me?” She pointed over to the duct taped hole and said, “The proof is right there human.”
Dakota filled the pot of water back up and put it back on the stove and said, “Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m even awake right now. I could be dead right now and this is my death trip still in motion. I don’t know if I have even come to terms with everything that has happened. I feel like were moving at lightning speed and I’m just riding the wave while you are leading the way.”
Kōkishin grew angry and suddenly bit Dakotas arm as hard as she could.
Dakota cried out, “What the hell was that for?!”
Kōkishin kicked Dakota in his shins while saying angerly, “This is real life Dakota. Snap out of this delusion where your sleeping or in hell because this is real. This is very real. This is the realest it’s ever been for me. I was about to stop existing and you were about to die, and we saved each other. It probably feels unreal because we are the newest addition to each other’s lives and maybe we were both supposed to die and that would have been the end of our stories. But since we saved each other we get to live in a new light for a little longer! Well for me much longer than you since you’re a human.” She stopped for a moment and thought about something then said, “Or at least I think you’re still human. You did eat that demon though.” She thought a little hard for a second and started to yell, “And don’t forget we are still connected so if you eat things like that more frequently that’s going to start effecting me too! Since we’ve been bonded, I’ve already noticed I have to eat like a human to keep my endurance up.” Kōkishin glanced at all the food that was being prepared and starting to drool.
Dakota said, “That’s probably the reason why you can eat as much as ten people at once.” Dakota stopped for a moment and asked, “How do we know more of those things aren’t going to come back?”
Kōkishin replied with a question, “You didn’t see all the talismans I put up when I patched the holes up?”
Dakota glanced back into the living room and saw hundreds of card-like talismans with writing on them stuck to the walls everywhere. “How did I not notice those before?” he asked himself out loud.
Out of curiosity Kōkishin asked, “What exactly are you making? It smells so good. So much better smelling than what I made earlier.”
Dakota interrupted and said, “That’s because you were just opening random things and mixing them together. Food needs to be crafted with love and care. It’s like a math equation with many different ways to get to the answer and you have to find the one that’s right for you.”
Kōkishin looked at him as if everything he said went right over her head even though she was listening tentatively. Her tail was swinging back and forth at his words but the look on her face was as if she was a drift lost in space. She suddenly said, “I don’t understand any of that! Just shut up and feed me you goon. Fighting that creature drained the little energy I had, and you at least got to eat something, even if it was a demon you still ate.”
The events of the fight replayed in Dakotas head as he thought to himself. Shouldn’t he be freaking out right now? Even if he won the fight, he didn’t remember doing it, and to top it off he devoured a demon. Was it ok for humans to just eat a demon without cooking it first? A battle went down in his house and calling the cops was totally out of the question. No body would believe him. He couldn’t even file an insurance claim because what would he tell them? That two demonic specters came in through the floor and wrecked the place?
Kōkishin pulled on Dakotas arm to break him out of his trance and said, “Just so you know, things like that are going to happen more often now that were bonded. Since I don’t have the protection of a shrine, and I’m bonded to a human, all sorts of demonic entities and corrupted souls are going to be drawn to us. So, we are going to need to protect each other.” She stopped nervously for a moment and continued on, “If you die, I die. If I were to die first…nothing should happen to you and you will go back to normal. So, if you ever want to get rid of me there’s a way.”
Dakota said, “Why would I do that? Look, I’m not going to kill you, and I’m not going to get rid of you. You saved my life. And I won’t let myself die so you aren’t going anywhere. Don’t get all dark and gloomy. It’s not a good look on you. How could I even kill a god anyway? That sounds like an impossible thing for a human to achieve.”
Kōkishin’s face grew red and she shouted, “Just don’t eat me okay? I didn’t even think humans could eat demons or ethereal beings. So, I’m off the menu!”
“Okay, I promise to never eat you. Not like I’d want to anyway. You look just like a human and that would pretty much be like cannibalism. What you’re about to eat is a tradition miso ramen with steak cutlets. Once anyone eats this, you’ll never want to eat an ethereal being again!” Dakota continued cooking while saying, “Where also going to watch a bunch of history channel shows and documentaries. You need to get caught up with the times and stop calling televisions and tablets magical astral projecting stones.”
Kōkishin looked confused and said, “Most of those words you used I don’t know but it all sounds fun so I’m in.”
After putting noodles in the boiling water Dakota said, “You’re probably going to need to go over the whole soul bonding thing and everything that’s happened so far also because I’m not sure if I’ve fully grasped the reality of everything yet.”
Kōkishin smiled and said, “I’ll try stupid. But honestly how it works was explained to me a very long time ago, but another deity and I didn’t fully understand it then.”
Dakota quickly went into the living room and flipped the television to a history channel and let it play in the background while he finished preparing and cooking their meal.
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Way off, deep in the woods on the outskirts of the city, was a hidden shrine tucked away behind some large cherry blossom trees. The onlooker from earlier who summoned the demons on Dakota and Kōkishin, was sitting on the wooden steps outside the shrine while a man in a white ceremonial looking robe was lighting candles near the windows. The onlooker continued saying, “The cat girl took out the first one like it was nothing and then not only did the kid defeat the second one, he totally ate the thing until there was nothin left but miasma.”
The man in the robe asked quietly, “And then? Did anything happen after he ate it?”
The other man replied, “Nope. He totally just went back to normal. Since I was on the way back from a mission and felt their presence, I only had a couple talismans on me. Once they were used up, I headed back here to tell you.”
The man in the robe stood there a moment curiously thinking and then said, “Probably just a fluke. They were probably just some low-level sorcerers experimenting around with weak spells. Most likely nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t know man. I never felt anything like it. It was like a sick tangled mess of opposite spirit energies. Really gave me the creeps.” The onlooker wrapped his arms around himself and shivered at the thought of Dakota eating the demon summon.
The robed man said, “If you think it’s going to become a problem then keep an eye on them. But for the most part don’t dwell on it too long. We have bigger matters at hand that are slowly becoming a problem.”
The man sitting on the steps stood up and stretched for a moment. He took out a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and said, “You want one of these?”
The robed man said, “Evan you know I don’t smoke.”
Evan replied, “It’s not like it’s gonna kill ya. I always wondered if someone like you could get addicted to these things.”
The robed man said disgustedly, “Those things were created by humans and are a wretched monstrosity. The amount of wishes I hear daily about needing to save all these people dying of cancer from those things is outrageous. That’s not even something I can grant. If only humans understood how everything truly worked, they wouldn’t wish for such selfish things.”
Evan smiled and said, “I totally agree with ya gramps but unfortunately this is just the way it is. Most of the planet wants to kill each other over trivial things like power and money and here we are saving people from the darkness. And I don’t even get paid to do it. Most of the time the people we save think I’m a monster too.”
The other man said, “As long as you’re saving souls than what they think doesn’t matter. The balance needs to be upheld between the living and the dead or we will suffer another cataclysm. And due to lack of support from humans, I don’t know if I could fight off a cataclysm this time. People sure do believe in some weird stuff these days.”
Evan cut in and said, “Well gramps I’d love to stay and chat, but I haven’t heard from the others lately so I’m going to make my rounds and collect the latest intel. If you need me give me a holler on the device I gave you. My number is the only one in it.” He started walking off in the woods when he heard the other man say something behind him.”
The robed man was shouting to him, “I hate that thing! Whatever it is it burns my hands when I hold it.”
Evan shouted back in reply, “Then use a cloth when you hold it. I don’t know how it really works for you guys. You’re smart so you’ll figure it out.” Evan waved his hand high as he disappeared behind some bushes.
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