Warning From An Imaginary Ally
"Your day of reckoning has come, Reina Stacia."
Those words rang in their mind long after the man caught his last breath. A wave of silence ran rampant on the field of flowers, and only the wind and the movement of trees were loud. The sun was setting with the man's life, but he seemed to go faster than it.
If this were a man dying with honor, it would be a truly honorable death to have the sun accompany him to the afterlife. But he was nothing more than a bandit fighting for money.
After having squatted for not more than one minute to gain information about the orchestrator of this ordeal, she stood back up with no answer but a chilling threat. They all stared at the lifeless body on the ground, weighing down on the flowers.
Though he was out to claim their lives, he looked peaceful lying there, like a normal person.
It could be said that 'In death, all men are the same'.
"This is scary," Krai willed himself to state what everyone was probably thinking. "I almost died back there."
But he quickly said something else in the hopes of redirecting the attention and lifting the mood. What the man said was depressing, and it made everyone tense.
A day of reckoning. It's a threat, but it doesn't specify the danger they should expect. Was it death? Or maybe humiliation?
They would only find out when the reckoning comes.
"If you had made a move while he held you hostage, you might have," Reina said.
"Indeed. You have quite a handle on your nerves, young Krai." Marcus added. "I was able to cut him because you stayed still and didn't provoke him."
Although their responses were warm and lighthearted, Reina's attention quickly returned to the matter at hand.
What did the man mean? It is what she was thinking about.
"Hehe... It is thanks to the training you guys put me through that my sword skills and mantle are what they are today."
He said, while holding his sword aloft and admiring it. One could say he did all this in the hopes of not thinking too much about the man's last word. After all, a man's last words carry longer in the heart of man than any other words.
"Let's go back. I'm sure you're all tired."
Reina broke from her long-distance stare and ordered them to pack up and leave.
"Why? What about the mission?" asked Krai in a perplexed voice, sheathing his sword.
"The mission was a trap to kill me... And since it failed, the mission is no longer necessary."
They all looked at the dead man one more time as if studying his intention.
"But why seek to kill you?" Marcus asked.
"We'll find that out when we get back to the mansion."
When Marcus asked that, Reina had already taken a step in the opposite direction from where they were heading.
They followed suit when Reina took the lead. It was her way of asserting that they're returning home.
Tsk! If only those buffoons hadn't shown up, maybe Krai would have been able to make a bond with those spirits. Now they are frightened.
She was angry and frustrated about something other than the threat. Those men had interrupted an important moment in Reina's plan to save Krai, and now she was back to square one.
Where are we supposed to encounter more spirits?
That desire and wish to encounter a spirit would soon come true for Reina, but she won't be happy about it.
"Hmmm?"
Krai stopped in his tracks and looked to his right and then to his left. He did this until his head did a U-turn with its body.
He was perplexed.
The spirits were still around him. They have been around him during battle as well - They have never left his side since they were together.
What puzzled him wasn't that the spirits were still around, but their behavior. They were shivering as if they were feeling extremely cold. Their movements were rapid and ephemeral, leaving small traces of after-images behind, and they made strange, high-pitched sounds as if trying to speak, like they were whispering something to him.
There were about four of them, glowing bright red, blue, green, and yellow.
His sudden stop attracted the attention of Reina and Marcus, who also stopped and looked back at him. They also stared at the five lesser spirits in a state of panic.
The sun had one last peek at the surface before disappearing for the day, so their movements were clear and concerning to the spectators.
Spirits don't just start behaving in a state of panic like they're afraid of something. Even lesser spirits are still considered powerful beings, and it would take a lot for a human to capture one.
"Why are they acting like that?" Asked Reina. Her question was neither filled with concern nor anxiety, just curiosity about their behavior.
"I don't know. They just started acting like this." Said Krai, also with the same tone and expression as Reina.
Not one bit were they cautious of the friendly spirits. In fact, Reina thought they were cute, and Krai played with them without reservation, never thinking they might be dangerous.
She even hoped he would form a contract with one.
They all thought they were not hostile, and so, they let their guard down.
Flower spores and pollen began to fill the surroundings, and their fragrant aroma was flavorful to the nose. It was odd because there was no wind to cause this.
The spirits' shivering and high-pitched sounds became even more rapid and distinct. After a moment, they all shot for the sky. They didn't go to the left or right, but straight up at the sky.
"Hey, wait!"
Krai raised his hand as if he were trying to reach for them. He said Wait as if he could also converse with them. Their light slowly flickered as they went further into the sky, and soon they disappeared.
Krai was confused as to why they were suddenly behaving in that manner and why they flew away all of a sudden. He stood and stared at the sky until they disappeared, but before he could process the situation, he heard a voice saying "Danger," and his focus turned to it.
"..."
He turned to face Sir Marcus, his expression now filled with greater confusion and a hint of anxiety.
"What's the matter, young Krai?"
"Did you... Say something?"
"What do you mean?"
"I heard a man's voice saying 'Danger,' so I thought you said something."
"Hmm?"
A lot of things were happening, and a lot of confusion at that.
I thought Old Man Marcus must have said something, or maybe it's just my imagination, but I'm certain I heard a man's voice saying "Danger." Krai thought.
In the middle of his internal monologue, the voice spoke again, saying the same word, but this time with more urgency in its voice.
"Who are you?!" He shouted that question to a voice he could not identify.
"Krai, what is going on?" Reina's voice was filled with anxiety and curiosity when she asked him.
"A voice... Can't hear someone saying Danger?"
"What are you talking about? There's no one in the vicinity at the moment. Except us."
Reina and Marcus shared glances. Their faces filled with worry, because if there were someone, they would have sensed him; yet, Krai was hearing a voice, and the voice was uttering the word 'danger' of all things.
Just after they were life threatened.
Could this voice be resounding in my head?
This time, when the voice spoke the same word again, an image of a samurai appeared in his head. The samurai was kneeling in the seiza position, wearing a black and light-grey hakama.
(Who are you?) Krai spoke, but he was more like thinking this time.
(Say my name.) The voice said.
(I don't know your name.)
Krai was even more confused. A man in strange clothing, which he did not recognize, was appearing in his mind, and for some reason, he was supposed to know the name of this mysterious person.
Reina approached Krai, where he stood, breaking down the information of the person and the voice in his head to understand their origin and meaning.
"What is up with you?"
Reina placed her left hand on his shoulder and shook him a little to nudge him out of his train of thought. In her eyes, she thought maybe the heat of battle got to him and was now making him delusional.
"Hey! There's no one there." She spoke softly if she was speaking to someone easily agitated by the smallest things.
Krai looked up at Reina since she was a head taller than he was.
Maybe I'm just imagining it. Krai thought. I must be worn out; besides, I've never seen that man before or his clothes.
"Let's go home. I'm sure Mary must be worried."
Reina chuckles at him, and Krai offers what could only be described as a forced laugh under pressure.
He nods while closing his eyes so as not to show that he was still in his head.
**Shing!**
Reina's hand let go of Krai's shoulder.
Something heavy falls to the ground, hitting Krai's feet. It was heavy and had a warm, soft texture.
"Master, you dropped something, and it's pouring out liquid." He said with a disgusted look on his face.
This was before he saw what exactly fell on his feet.
He lifted his right foot from the ground and shook it gently to remove the liquid. But he does it in a disgusted manner.
This was done instinctually, like when a person steps on dog poop.
After one shake, he opened his eyes and looked down. The leg shake stopped instantly upon his seeing an arm on the ground, separate from its body.
He stepped back a bit, his eyes widened, and his pupils twitched in their eye sockets.
He recognized that arm.
"Master... Your arm. Master, it's your arm!" His mouth was slightly open and shivering as if he was about to scream from shock.
"Tch!"
Reina was holding her shoulder, where an arm was supposed to be hanging, but it was not there. A great deal of blood was coming out from the wound, and her hand was not accomplishing anything in stopping the bleeding. It didn't even help reduce the bleeding.
Despite this major wound, she did not cry at all. Not during the moment the hand was severed, and after it was severed. All she did was grimace in pain, and her eyes had that lifeless, dead stare in them. It might be from the blood or from witnessing something she never thought to see.
Like the identity of the person who chopped off her arm.
She held her wound with her functional right hand while she stared ahead, her eyes filled with disbelief. She gritted her teeth, bearing the pain.
Krai just stood with hands in front of Reina, not knowing what to do - how to help. His mouth was open and his eyes frightened.
"You're bleeding." He sounded like he was about to cry. "Please, let me stop the bleeding."
Reina paid him no mind. She only kept her focus on the one who chopped off her arm.
Was this the reckoning the dying man was talking about? If so, then it was a good plan.
