Chapter 2: Yurei and Keirei

"Yurei is a group of wrathful ziels or relentless souls. In Azure Lapiz, only those who died at the right time can enter the Axis. But those who died untimely stayed and wandered on Earth. They are often the victims of war, murderers, and accidents. Not being able to enter the Celestial Axis will doom them for eternity. And since this will make them vengeful souls. Their negative energy will attract one another and eventually create a Yurei. By attracting other souls, a yurei will become a first-grade entity named Onryo, which will take a grotesque form," Shoma explains to Kaede.

Kaede, though still confused focused on what Shoma is saying.

"They will start to look at humans for food, eating their flesh. The second form of Yurei will be Gonyo, the second grade will be much stronger than Onryo, and that will take the form of animals. And they will feed on the source of life, the human's life form or their soul, even if they are still alive," Shoma continued.

Kaede took note of that. He felt like he should take note of that for the reason he doesn't know, yet b

"And then the third one is Dybbuk, stronger than two and can copy human form. They are those who are strong enough to attack the Celestial Axis and feed on the souls in Azure Lapiz. And their presence can cause depression in the living, pushing them to commit suicide and eating their lost soul. Let's say that the accumulation of negative energy within them will be converted into limitless power and strength. The more negative a Ziel is while remaining in the living world, the stronger a Dybbuk can become."

This is his first time hearing about should after death and Kaede doesn't have any idea of everything after death.

"The wrath, vengefulness, and hatred that a soul can turn into a Ziel will strengthen the negative energy they had. They can rival Kerei, a Celestial Axis Defender, when it comes to fighting. There have been reports over thousands of years that a handful of Dybbuks broke into the Celestial Axis and consumed at least half of the soul in the Azure Lapiz. It caused a lot of calamities on Earth, and that the legions of Ziel have tripled in number," Shoma said after putting his cigarette back on his lips, inhaling the smoke, and exhaling it.

"What happened to the Dybbuk who invaded the Celestial Axis?" Kaede asked him.

"Imprisoned because they become fully awakened. A fully awakened Dybbuk becomes a Diablo, the strongest among all Yureis. Tasting eternal food, the dybbuks who invaded the Celestial Axis become hungry for more and revert their eyes to each other. They become hungry for power, and they attack each other. The winner took its prize, and that was to consume the defeated Dybbuks. They can evolve into Diablo after consuming another Dybbuk, which is rare," Shoma said before throwing the cigarette's butt.

"A dybbuk can rarely be seen nor stay in the same place with another one. It took thousands of exorcists and shamans to imprison those Diablos in selected locations on the planet. The record has been destroyed after a dybbuk attack on the temple. The fire burned most of the records, and those left were the record of ten Diablos still locked up. Your sister has been with us, a shaman, since she was five. She was trained hard on behalf of your father, who vanished and married someone else. I can say he was one of those skilled in shamanism back then. Skilled is underestimated; he was one of the three great shamans during his time. Celestial Axis choose humans to be its defender along with Keireis. Keireis and chosen humans need to bond to allow them to work as one. Whereas Dybbuk possesses humans."

Shoma pulled another stick of cigarettes and lit it up.

"And he and your mother died in a brutal way which made me think that some Yurei probably knew him and decided to kill him as revenge."

Now that Shoma mentioned it. Kaede remembered that he was there. The night his parents were murdered by a man, someone saved him. He doesn't remember the one who helped him, but he knows what he saw.

"What's wrong? Why do you become so quiet?" Shoma asks him, studying him.

In his mind, if this kid can see Yureis or Ziel, he can be a potential candidate. He hopes someone may inherit Rodriguez's ability and the clan Setsuwi came from. Shoma knew that Rodriguez was one of the three clans that knew how to do the sealing technique and manipulate nature's power. Minami and this kid potentially inherited Setsuwi's ability.

But what bothered him most was why he was killed that easily. Was it Dybbuk? Or more?

"Nothing," Kaede stood up and waited for the cremator to call his name to gather her sister's cremains.

Shoma followed him.

"You came from a family of shamans, kid. Maybe you bare the ability of your father-"

"I'm sorry. I'm not interested. I want to mourn peacefully. Please give me some time," Kaede answered before he took the vase of cremains and left Shoma.

"You didn't mention to him that a lower class Yurei will come and try to eat Minami's remains, ash or not," a woman suddenly appeared on the left side of the door where Shoma existed. "You are cruel, Shoma."

"I have my reason, Clara. The kid is lying to me," he added.

"Give him a break first. It's not like he will run away or something. Are you going to pursue him?"

Shoma heaves a sigh.

"I have to. Or someone will snatch him away."

On the other hand, Kaede is walking his way back to his house. Tears were still in his eyes while hugging the cremains of his sister.

He fished his keys inside his bag and put them in the keyhole. While inside the house, he shuts the door and puts the vase on the table.

He can't believe it. He doesn't even know that something like this will happen. He has no family left and doesn't know how to continue his life anymore. He walked to the kitchen and saw a red gift sitting on the table. He stepped closer to the present and found a card attached to the gift. He takes it off and reads it.

"To my little brother Kae,

Advance happy birthday tomorrow. I know you hate celebrating birthdays, but I bought this gift for you. I hope you will like it.

Minami.

Kaede smiled. Though he hated birthdays, he appreciated his older sister's last first and last gift. He unwrapped it, and he found his dream sneaker in the box. He has been saving for that shoes. But he never told his sister about it. How did she know about it?

Kaede tried the shoes, and it fits him. He also never mentioned to his sister the size of his feet.

For Kaede, his sister probably knew a lot about him; on his side, he didn't know much about her sister. He already misses her. He was used to seeing her sister smiling. It cheers him up if he has a bad day. Now, she's gone. All he can do is miss her and cry.

Later that night, Kaede woke up to someone knocking on the door loudly as if whoever was outside was trying to destroy the door.

"Who's it!?" Kaede shouted to who was outside.

The banging suddenly stops as Kaede approaches the door. He grabs his baseball bat on the sofa in the case and peeps on the door's peeping hall.

He didn't see anyone outside. Instead, he heard a whining sound.

Kaede cursed.

"Who the hell in their right mind of freeing their dog in the middle of the night and banging on someone else door?" he said to himself.

And then suddenly, the realization hit him.

Kaede's neighbors are far from him and don't have a dog. He suddenly remembers Shoma's word: a goryo can copy animals' form…

Kaede swallowed the lump in his neck, and fear started to crawl into his body.