Chapter 14: Lunch break

“Two burgers please, and ten packs of ketchup.”

“Ten packs? Would you like some fries with that, mister?”

“No, just that.”

“Ah..um, okay then. Would you like to eat here or take away?”

“Take away would be fine.”

“Right, please wait a minute.”

He was probably used to it. Every time he went to buy food, he got the same looks from people. Maybe because of his strikingly tall figure, or his unique hairs, or just because of the weird order. Whatever it was, he didn't mind them. He knew how to cast aside others’ judgments. Even though he came from a noble family among the secret society, he didn't want to be treat like one. He chose the path he wanted, and left the peaceful and luxury life to join this organization.

I don’t want to sit here and enjoy life while others are suffering.

I don’t want the power which only serve the well-being of the minority.

I want to protect people.

That was what he said to his father when he was told to inherit the family’s business. Even the family’s magical weapon making art couldn't appeal him one bit. Having learnt the history of the society, he had thought that human was just pitiful creatures struggling in the fight against nature. However, after years studying and training, he came to realize that human was far more capable than just struggling. He admired the 1^st generation who had invented weapons to fight Nohigu, then 7^th generation for capturing one of them; the 15^th generation would never be forgotten in the memory of the society with their effort to protect the mankind. Therefore, he decided to cast aside his name, the noble name of the 23^rd generation’s Gerahdine family, to become a soul hunter. He was banished for straying from the code of the family. But as long as he could serve the good of humanity, he didn't mind.

“Here’s your order mister. Two take-away burgers and ten packs of ketchup. Please enjoy your meals.” The cashier said with a smile.

“Thanks.” He took the food and walked away.

He thought he would be happy since he was doing what he wanted, but he couldn't see any sights of joy in his work. He even earned his name in the organization and admiration from the society as the number two of the hunters, but all of that just made him question himself more and more.

“Ray! Over here.”

His partner’s small build made him hard to see in a crowd. Luckily, Ray’s height helped him a lot in these situations.

“Here you go, burger and ketch up, as always.” He handed the bag to his partner.

“Thanks.” He tore the ketchup packs and enjoyed his meal.

“So, any news?” Ray asked, chewing his burger.

“Not much, the enemy did well on hiding themselves.  However, some magic traces remained in the southern direction. It would be a matter of time.” He tossed the wrapping paper aside, started to eat his burger.

“I see.”  Ray gave out a sigh.

“What is it?” His partner asked.

“Isn't it called irony? When I first join the Elements, I swore that I would fight to protect human, regardless they are magus or the rest. But it turned out to be in my effort to serve, I ended up breaking my own code and killing more people than I had imagined.” He stared at his lunch.

“And your point is?” The man sitting next to him continued eating his favorite ketchup.

Ray closed his eyes for a second, as if to let the words he spoke just now sink into the conversation.

“Nothing, just thinking out loud.” He took a bite from his burger.

“Yeah, it’s better be.” The partner didn't look at him, yet he paid attention to every words he said.

Unlike Ray, who came to the organization for his passion and reasons, Zaire’s path was totally in haze. Even though he was acknowledged as the strongest hunter by the organization and the society, very few ever heard of the name Zaire before he took down his first target, with his own hands. The people in the society only knew him as the first from the rest to be accepted by the organization. They could only guess about his past, about the hardship he had been through to possess such unseen power, enough to fight a magus without magic. He was thankful for the Elements to take him in and raise him to be the top. If Ray joined for the sake of protecting human, Zaire would do whatever it took to protect the organization. They were different, yet they were assigned as partner.

“Do you know why do we start to hunt the soul-bearer?” Zaire asked.

“Hmph, If I remembered correctly, it was the society’s 1^st generation to figure out the existence of Nohigu and how dangerous they are to human. Therefore, they decided to started to fight for-” Ray explanation was interrupted by Zaire.

“Blah blah blah. I didn't ask about the history, I ask why do us start to do this work.”

“Isn't that obvious? To protect.” Ray said.

“Right, to protect. Even what we want to protect is different, it all comes down to the protecting shit. We can only fight at our strongest state if we have something to protect right?”

“Right. That’s what we learned on the first day.”

“Good, if you still remember it, then I don’t have to remind you that in the sake of protecting my belief, I am willing to cast aside everything. I will resort to any methods possible to bring down the threat to the organization, even if it means I have to take down my family, or my friends – If I have one obviously. I bet you understand that better than anyone, right Ray?” Zaire sudden raised his voice, a grin appeared in his face couldn't hide his threatening intent.

“I understand.” Ray replied to his superior with a solid look on his face.

“Then I have nothing else to say.” Zaire started to unwrap the burger.  “You know the importance of this mission don’t you? Failure is not an option here.”

“Yes. It was foolish of me to think like that.” Ray cast his eyes down.

“No no no, there’s nothing wrong with holding on to your code. It’s just that you have to consider the priority. And in this line of work, the priority of the organization should always come first.” Zaire talked while chewing.

“You know, sometimes your talk doesn't come together at all.” Ray sighed.

“It makes sense to me. That’s good enough. And Ray.”

“What is it?”

“Please do something about your height.” He tossed the wrapping paper to the bin.

“Shouldn't I be the one to say that?” Ray chuckled.

“Whatever. Alright, let get moving.” Zaire stood up from the bench and stretch his legs.

Two soul hunters were having lunch. Now they began the hunt again. 

-End chapter 14- 

Chapter 13

 Chapter 15

Chapter 13: The situation

“Say what?”  I said to the floating light in front of me.

“Your soul. S-O-U-L. It’s there. Can’t you see it?” the voice sounded mischievous while flying around a glass oval-shaped container.

“I don’t think so. It looks empty to me.” I tried to stare as hard as possible to the place where Laa wanted me to see, but still nothing appeared in my sight. I guessed thing didn't look good to me.

“Hmph….” Ibel didn’t say anything, she seemed to be lost in her own thought.

“Huh? What do you mean by that? How can you not see your own soul you incompetent fool?” Two parts of surprise and eight parts of scolding in her tone. She enjoyed jeering at me for some reasons. At the moment I didn't give much thoughts about it, there was something more important. I chose to ignore her and talked to her “master”.

“Umm..Ibel?” For a minute I thought she was napping, rather than thinking.

“Huh? What?” Yeap, she had fallen to sleep.

 “You look tired.” That’s not what I should say, but somehow it came out unintentionally.

“None of your concern. Shouldn't you worry about something else?” She reminded me of someone, who was…less talkative.

“To be honest, your health is the thing I should concern most right now. The fact that I can’t see him mean something really bad happened right? And as I am right now, there nothing I can do to fix it. So I have to depend on you. And if  you are not well, there are chances that I can never see my soul again.” I was being rational. Irresponsible, but rational.

“You brat know how to take advantage of people don’t you?” She talked while looking for something, a book perhaps. In general, I like Ibel’s personality, but sometimes she’s just…unlikable.

“I didn't ask to be saved at the first place remember? I could handle things well on my own.” I played along, aiming for nothing.

“Yeah yeah, I can tell that much. Now follow me. Laa, take care of things until I come back.”

“Roger.” Laa replied.

Ibel stood up, stretching herself for sleeping while sitting. Then beside her, the little fire started to burn vigorously. While I was still confusing, the fire burned out and took form of a human, Ibel to be precise. Even this was the second time I saw it, this still amazed me nonetheless.

“What are you staring at? Never see transformation before?” Laa gave me a glare in Ibel’s eyes, which sent a chill down my spine.

“Nah, but this is the first time I see you transform to someone. It’s quite amazing to watch actually.” I had to praise her ability.

“Hah, of course it is. I’m in a different level compare to you pathetic fools.” She’s just full of herself. How came this childish, ill-natured soul was Ibel’s? They were nothing alike, well, I wasn't sure about the ill-natured part though.

“Hey, are you coming or not?” Ibel’s urge had me moving.

“Right, coming.”

I followed Ibel to the upper floor of the store. From the outside, Ibel’s book store looked really small, and old. If the word old was not enough, then abandoned might work. Even though it situated near the shopping district, it didn't have any welcoming atmosphere just by looking at it. However, judging from who the owner was, I guessed there was no need for customers after all. The Ibel I knew, the bookshop owner, was just an act to cover who she really was. And I was about to find out. Nevertheless, having a bunch of questions I’d like to ask, I didn't feel like asking at all. Who were the two attack me? Where was Thera? What was happening? Who was the woman named Ibel? They had occupied my mind since I woke up, but the me right now didn't want to ask. I was just silently walking behind Ibel when she opened a door which appeared on the wall after she drew some signs on it. Then Ibel brought them up, as if she could read my mind.

“Why don’t you ask anything?” She said without looking back. The long corridor we were walking on was light by an unidentified source of light. I was pretty sure that the house was small. Looks really were deceiving.

“I don’t know. Maybe I am afraid.” That’s not the reason. Then why?

“Of what? Knowing the answer?” A dry chuckle I heard.

“Could be.” I couldn't tell if I could fool her or not.

“Care to know what your lovely sister say when she saw you?” Ibel asked. She knew how to grab my attention.

“What? Did you let she know…” I flustered the words.

“Nope, just want to see you scare shitless.” That’s Ibel for you. “Don’t worry, I had Laa to take your place. It’s really convenience to have she around in times like this.” She shrugged.

“I see, thanks for your concern about my family. If they knew I got myself into something like this…” I myself didn’t even know what would happen.

“Like I would let it happen. After all, you are special, do you know that?” She turned her head back, showing a faint smile.

“Me? Special? I don’t really…” Somehow Ibel’s words got into me.

“Nope, just another joke to see your flustered face. Worth it.”  I didn’t understand what was her thought process.

“So, where are we going?” I brought up the topic.

“My training ground, but I've not used it recently.” She drew another sign on the red brick wall in front of us. A wooden gate appeared, made a creaky sound as it opened. When was the last time she opened it I wondered.

“Your store look smaller from the outside you know.” The spacious area had puzzled me for a while.

“It’s just a deception. I've set up a sense-blinding field around my shop. Normal people can only see what I want them to see, to avoid unnecessary attention.” She said.

“So how big is your store?” I continued with curiosity.

“Does it matter? It’s as big as I want to, and as small as it need to be.” She gave out a sigh, probably didn't want me to ask more about her secret base.

“Here we are.” She stopped. Even though she said it, we were still in the middle of nowhere. I looked around to find any peculiar features of the place where we were standing, but it seemed to be another empty hallway.

“Is this the place? It’s nothing here.” I asked.

“What do you expect? A gym and a swimming pool?” Ibel wasn't happy with my question.

“No…but you said this is your training ground so I thought it would have sort of stuff like dummy target or something.” I imagined Ibel practiced as throwing those light balls to a target 50 meters away.

“Oh that? We don’t need it right now so I didn't brought it.” So she did such things too.

“Then what do we do?” I asked.

“First, we have to get things through to you. Started by giving you the big picture first.” Ibel opened the book she carried along, murmured some words and dropped it. To my surprise, the book kept on floating without falling to the ground. Then, she pulled something out of the book, like taking grocery from the bag. It was a blackboard.  “Here we go.” She placed the board in front of me.

“Is that your normal place to keep objects?” I thought it was something cooler.

“What? No. Who would keep stuff like this in a book? It’s just that I don’t have enough space to arrange my things, so I have to use this.” So this book was her bag, her closet and basically her storage. “Anyway, let’s start by the definition.” She adjusted her glasses. Since when did she put in on?

“Uhmm… Are we going to study something?” I felt like a middle schooler.

“I prefer the term ‘understanding what is going on’ more. But yeah, you’re going to study.”  She spoke while writing a word on the board. ‘Nohigu’ it said.

“Nohigu?”

“A long time ago, Nohigu were people who were blessed by the world with an amazing abili- no, a gift. They were favored by the world and therefore to be given special power.” She tossed the chalk in the air and it disappeared.

“The Nohigu used this power to serve the world as protector and counter-force. They were destined to eliminated any potential threats that can be harmful to the world. They were summoned in time when the world needed them the most, and would disappeared without a trace when their powers were not required. However, things weren't that simple.” She paused, took a slip from a who-know-where-it-came-from tea mug. Then continued.

“Among the species on the world, human sure is the most talented, resourceful and ambitious one. The most ambitious of all human gathered together as soon as they figured out the existence of Nohigu, planning to capture them to learn more about their mysterious power and hoped to master it. They created a secret society called the “Elements”. Of course, at first those human were no match for Nohigu, divined beings selected by the world. However, human had the most dangerous weapon, it’s their ability to learn. Eventually, after countless battle with the Nohigu, human had come to develop their own power. It’s called magic, or sorcery as we call them nowadays. They spent hundreds of year training, developing and mastering their own power. They passed on the secret to the later generations of the Elements, from whom even more power were generated. On the other hand, the Nohigu weren't able to find any successors as less and less human deserved to receive the gift, and their numbers decreased steadily. Human’s continuously growing strength and number finally outmatched the Nohigu. They kept on losing, and had to hide instead of fighting. As time goes by, the world Nohigu only exists on the papers of the Elements, and magic users.”

“Such a thing exists? In the history of the world?” I couldn't see any possibility of them being real.

“Well, that story is only known among the involving parties.”  Now she reminded me.

“Involving parties? So you are…” I didn't know how to react if she said she was a Nohigu or member of Elements. Actually, I didn't think those things have anything to do with me. Or did it?

“Nohigu, or informally called: soul-bearer. They are given a soul by the world and use the soul as their source of power. It’s who we are Kai. We are descendants of the Nohigu.” She took another slip.

Me? Nohigu? Divine being selected by the world? If this was a joke, then I admitted it would be the best joke I’d ever heard. But judging from the look on Ibel’s face, I knew I couldn't run from it.

“So this must be true.” I murmured to myself.

-End chapter 13-

Chapter 12
  Chapter 14