1 Chapter 1: The Soul's Release

"Touya Omega. You have been deemed as a danger to our society. You will now be exorcised. Are you awake now?"

The unsettling, feminine voice was the first thing he was able to hear.

Touya opened his eyes, only to be greeted by complete darkness. He blinked again, in an attempt to adjust his eyes to the darkness. This proved fruitless, as he felt the fabric of a blindfold on wrapped around his head.

He moved to remove the blindfold, but his arms were stopped by the pulling of some cold steel. He pulled his arms again, and he still couldn't move completely. He was chained up against something.

He was able to tell that he was on his knees, and he must have been for a while due to how sore they were.

"Y..." It was only until the moment he tried to speak that he realized how clogged up his throat was. He cleared his throat to try again, "Yes...I am."

Silence...

This defeaning silence led to a throbbing pain ringing through Touya's head. He was familiar with headaches, but this was something new. The pain was crippling, forcing him to writhe in agony. He was thankful for the cold air that slightly eased his headache.

"Now. I must ask...Are you prepared for the exorcism?"

"Huh? Who are you?"

"That is irrelevant. I asked if you were prepared for the exorcism."

That did it. The gravity of the situation began to register within the mind of Touya. He started sweating, profusely. His body went cold, and numb at the same time. His breathing grew unsteady, and his muscles grew weak.

"Wh..what do you mean b..by exorcise?"

"As I've already stated, you have been identified as a threat to the human population due to the fact that you harbor a dangerous spirit within your body. You have been possessed."

It was too fast, he could barely comprehend any of the things the strange lady said.

"You are now going to be exorcised. I have some holy water with me just in case things go wrong, so don't worry about my safety."

If he weren't restrained and in pain, he would of scoffed. He obviously wasn't thinking of her safety at all.

"As for you. There's a 99% chance of you dying from this, but if you do live, you will speak nothing of this exorcism. Am I clear?"

He felt his heart sink to his stomach, "Did you say 99%?" He struggled against the tough chains, to no avail. He no longer had the strength to even attempt to stand on his feet. Tears began to run down his face.

"Yes. Now...I shall begin the procedure."

Touya heard something spark up, like a lighter. Then, he heard several flames ignite around him. The warm air dispersed into the atmosphere, heating up the area they were in.

How did this happen? I don't even know where I am...I'm gonna die...

-

Touya sat outside on top of a black Mercedes with his phone in hand. He was playing a drill rap song using the bluetooth from his phone to the car.

A teenage boy sat inside of the Mercedes in the driver seat. He used the rear view mirror in his car to fix his shaggy blonde hair. Taking a bite of his halfway wrapped hamburger as he did so. "Ok ok. This man can spit! Who is this again?"

"His name is Slick, but you spell it with an exclamation point instead of an I. I told you that this is his year."

In the backseat sat a girl with lavender colored hair that was tied into a messy ponytail. She let out a sigh of exasperation and threw her head back, "Matoi, turn on the AC, it's hot as hell in here."

"Kay." Matoi reached towards the button, and turned on the air conditioner.

Touya walked over to her side of the car and leaned inside of the window, "Come outside. It's cooler out here."

She looked at him before shaking her head no, "I'm still eating. I like sitting down while I eat."

"Hurry up. You've been eating for an hour."

"Matoi's still eating."

"Of course he is, he ordered three burgers."

They both laughed as Matoi took another bite out of his burger.

"If you weren't an athlete, you would 100% be obese right now."

Matoi looked at Touya and smiled, "When you're fighting as much as me, you need a ton of food in your system. Gotta keep those gains!"

"Yeah...that reminds me. When are you gonna eat Touya?"

He paused for a moment before moving away from the window, "Namika...don't start..."

"I'm just saying. You haven't eaten anything all day."

"I did. I had some cashews earlier."

"That doesn't count Touya. Sit down so I can feed you. And it's sad that I'm not even mocking you by saying that."

"What?"

"Why are you starving yourself?"

"I'm not."

"Yes you are. Come in here."

"No."

Matoi looked back and forth between them, "Guys. Calm down."

"No. Your bro is fucking stupid. Who starves themselves on purpose?"

"Namika...nevermind." Touya walked away from the car.

"Really? You're just gonna leave?" Namika opened the car door and followed Touya.

"Oh no..." Matoi took another bite of his burger before he left the car as well. This all too familiar situation was about to spiral out of control, and he wanted to stop it.

"What do you want? I'm trying to walk away."

"I can see that! Come here. I'm trying to talk to you!"

Touya stopped walking and turned to look Namika in the eyes. "Namika please. I don't want to fight..."

"I told you that I'm trying to talk to you." She grabbed Touya's wrist gently and pulled him closer to her. "Why aren't you eating Touya?".

"Namika. Can we just hang out? I don't want to talk about this while we're outside."

She continued to stare into Touya's quivering eyes before she felt herself choke up, "Oh. Ok..." She wrapped her arms around Touya and kissed him on his lips, "I Love you."

"You too."

They spent the rest of their time outside sitting in the car listening to music. Neither Touya nor Namika spoke to each other directly, but Namika did make sure to rub Touya's shoulder from time to time.

It was now 11 o'clock at night, and Matoi had dropped the two off at Touya's house.

They were both now sitting on the porch. The cool breeze had died down, leaving them with the still air of the night. There was a faint smell of rain in the atmosphere, but no rainfall yet. Due to the late time, no one else was outside, letting the sounds of nature ring out unfiltered.

"Touya...this is about Tia isn't it?"

They both turned to look at each other. As soon as they did, Touya's eyes began to swell with tears.

He quickly turned away from her and wiped his tears away. "I guess so..." He raised his head up, looking straight at the moon in an attempt to keep any tears from falling, "It's been three years...I just miss her...that's all."

Namika tried to pull Touya into a hug, but to her dismay, he pulled away.

"No...I'm fine."

"Touya. Stop it...You've been acting weird for the last few weeks. You can't just pretend that nothing hurts you anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"I talked to your mom the other day. She told me that you gave her a ton of money."

"I know. Isn't that a good thing?"

"It is, but where did it come from? You don't have a job." She felt her heart race as a grim thought filled her mind, "You aren't selling drugs are you?"

"No! I just sold all of my games..." He could feel Namika staring at him, but he refused to look at her. For some reason, he knew that he had a scolding coming.

"Why did you do that?"

"I wanted to help her out. I'm not gonna be a leech that doesn't give back to his parents."

"But you can't just..."

"I don't care. It's not like I'm doing anything bad. I could've been selling drugs, but I sold my games. It's a good thing anyways, I was too attached to them..."

"Touya. You're killing yourself. You can't keep on doing this. You stopped eating, you're selling all of your stuff, you barely socialize at school, what is wrong with you?"

"Nothing. I'm just trying to make things easier for everyone."

"What?"

"Ever since Tia fell into her coma...you can tell that things have changed. She was always the life of the party, she was smart, charming, perfect. You know that you miss her too."

"Of course I do, and can you look at me! I'm not some stranger!"

He turned back towards Namika, and his vision was blurred with tears. He continued to try and wipe them away. "Namika, if you had to pick between staying with me and having Tia wake up, which one would you choose?"

"What the fuck? What kind of question is that?!"

He clenched his fists before standing up, "Sorry. I meant to say that I'm fine. Nothing is going on."

"There you go again. Pretending like none of this is affecting you!"

"I'm not pretending. After all of the pain you guys are going through, why should I act like I'm hurting too? It'll just make things worse."

"Touya. You sound so stupid right now!" She stood up and grabbed a hold of his hands.

"Just listen...you have no idea how much it sucks to see everyone struggling. It sucks because I can't even help them. Imagine, just for a second, if you had two kids, and your favorite one fell into a coma. All of your attention would need to be directed towards the favorite right? Now imagine how stressed you would be if you have to focus on the other one."

"Touya...stop..."

He could see Namika's eyes swell with tears. He instinctively pulled her up into a hug, "I can't do a damn thing...do you know how it feels to see your parents this broken? Everyone around me, including you, is in pain. I can't help at all..." His body started to shake, but he continued to fight off the tears, "Tia is my older sister...I love her too. I just want to see her again, and I want everything to be okay again. I can't help at all...I feel so useless..."

"Touya. Stop talking like that..."

"No. I used to be okay with being nonchalant. I had no worries in the world, but now...I can't afford to just go with the flow. My mother has always told me that I needed something to do in life, but I never found it. This is my chance to give back to everyone...I'm the beacon that will absorb all of your pain."

"Touya. Stop acting like you can't grieve over your sister. What in the hell is wrong with you!?"

His shirt was now dampened with her tears. He moved her back and wiped her tears away with his thumb. "See? You just proved my point. I'm fine, but as soon as I tried to explain something to you, you started crying. That's what I want to avoid...I'll carry your pain. If I don't eat, my mom won't have to worry about feeding me...If I get good grades by focusing on school and nothing else, she won't worry about me failing. If I sell all of my games to give her money, she won't have to worry about providing for herself."

"Touya. The way you can help us is by making sure that you're okay. We're worried about you too!"

"Let's be real. If I were the one in a coma, who would care?"

They both went silent. Namika still had tears running down her face, smearing her eye shadow. She broke away from him and slapped him in his face, leaving a stinging red hand mark.

"Shut up! Where did you get this idea that no one cares about you!? Just because you were less outgoing than Tia doesn't mean that we love you less! Everyone loves you both the same!"

"Namika...we met through Tia. You know that she is a way better human than me. She had a goal in life, she got into college for free due to her achievements, and she even sells her own products. And she was only 19 years old. All of that, and she's only 19! Here I am...just the lesser sibling. People are always so shocked when they find out we're related. How can a goddess like her be related to such a failure?"

"Touya, you're number one in the class rankings-"

"Yeah. That's the only thing I'm good at. School work. As soon as I step into the real world, I'm going to get crushed. This is the first time I can help you all...and make your lives easier..." He couldn't stop it anymore, his voice cracked a little as tears fell down his face, "But I can't do a damn thing! I can't wake up Tia...this is the best I can do...and it's still not worth shit!"

He walked away, trying to pull himself together. He heard Namika running towards him, and he then felt her hug him from behind. It was so cold, even through his black jacket, he was cold. Her body provided the perfect warmth.

"Touya...I love you. Stop doing all of this! You and Tia are only two years apart, you guys grew up with each other! If anything, you should be allowed to hurt more than anyone else."

He was able to feel her body shaking while she held onto him.

"Stop crying Namika. I hate it when you cry..."

"I don't care...you need to start acting human again. You don't have to shoulder all of this alone. You're literally destroying yourself!"

"If I don't do this, I'll just be useless again. I want to help her...I want to help everyone! I bet God cursed her by mistake when he was trying to curse me as a failure. If I died, she'd probably wake up."

"Shut up T-"

Touya's vision grew blurry, and he felt a chill rush through his entire body. The powerful sensation never left. All of his strength was sapped from his body, and before he knew it, everything went dark.

Namika saw Touya's head drop as if he went to sleep. She then noticed how his body just went limp. He had turned into a lifeless husk. "Touya? Touya!?" She dropped down with him in her arms, and tears began to fall, "Touya?! Wake up! What happened?!" She continued to shake him back and forth. She saw his lifeless eyes staring into hers. She began to sob and whimper like a little kid as she held him.

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