4 First Assignment

Happy Kindergarten celebrated its tenth year anniversary earlier this year.

In conjunction with the celebration, the kindergarten opened its doors to orphans and the less fortunate children.

During the first intake of the year, it accepted 10 orphans into the kindergarten in collaboration with the orphanage.

Everything started off perfectly, the orphans felt happy as they made friends, the less fortunate ones even felt warmth in the institution.

Despite the fact that it was just a slightly bigger two-storey building, the kindergarten did its best to maintain equal treatment to all the children, but apparently not all children were that fortunate.

Two months after the first intake, the teachers started to receive reports of bullying from the children's parents. The parents told the teacher their son or daughter were bullied by a pair of orphaned brothers.

When confronted by the teacher, the twins, Kazuhiko and Akihiko, claimed that they were the one being bullied and Kazuhiko, the elder brother, was just protecting Akihiko, the younger brother.

The teacher talked to the elder brother, telling him it wasn't right to beat other students for the sake of protection and she thought the case was closed.

Little did the teacher know, things went downhill from there onwards.

A week later, the elder brother Kazuhiko was found dead in the locker room and the cause of death was suffocation.

And a few days later, the younger brother Akihiko fell into the pool during nap time and drowned on the spot.

The kindergarten once sought a priest to purify the impurities and laid the twins to rest but it seemed like it wasn't that effective when a third death happened in the locker.

"This locker is really cursed."

Akira was standing in front of the said locker, where the elder brother and the third child died.

The locker was used to keep cleaning tools and heavy boxes were placed on top of the shelf.

The shelf and cleaning tools were brand new.

"Seems like they did clean this place up thoroughly." Akira checked the locker carefully and did not find anything peculiar.

He pouted and continued towards the classroom on the first floor.

There were only three classrooms lined up along the main corridor on the first floor, each could fit around 15 children at once.

Beside the third classroom was the kitchen and further at the end of the corridor was the locker.

Akira strolled down the corridor, checking each classroom as he walked past them.

"Mako, I got nothing on the first floor. Going outside to the yard and pool."

Touching his earpiece, he reported to Mako before going outside.

"Got it. Be careful." Mako was on the second floor, searching the teacher's office for clues.

She then went into the principal's office and started to flip through the files and documents in hopes of finding something useful.

"According to the teacher who submitted a request to the society, there were two deaths in the kindergarten before the latest one. A pair of brothers died one after another, the elder brother died in the same locker and the younger brother drowned in the pool." Mako talked to Akira through her earpiece.

"Really? Why isn't it on the news? Two deaths are quite serious." Akira answered as he walked towards the pool.

"It seems like the brothers were orphans. That really explains a lot."

Mako found the documents on the twins and went through the details.

"They are orphans so no one cared about their deaths? Wao, so much for Happy Kindergarten." Akira spoke in disdain.

"The brothers are named Kazuhiko and Akihiko, 7 and 6 years old respectively and based on the evaluation form on the two of them, the elder brother was rather aggressive since there is a report of complaint attached to his file. The younger brother on the other hand seemed to have suffered from autism, never spoke once since they enter kindergarten." Mako thoroughly went through the files on the twins.

"Meaning the brothers might be a victim of bullying and after they died, they sought revenge on the kid who is responsible for their death? I didn't know kids nowadays behave so aggressively."

Akira reached the pool, but it was already dried up after the latest incident.

The kiddy pool was 75 cm deep, around 5 meters long and 3 meters wide.

Akira carefully sized up the empty pool, he even jumped down and checked every inch but he still got nothing.

Disappointed, Akira jumped back up but just as he was about to leave, he heard a soft weeping.

He quickly turned around and he saw a little boy curled up in the middle of the dried up pool, weeping softy.

"Uh… Mako, I think I found the kid." Akira whispered softly.

"Hold on, I'll be right there." Mako slammed the documents shut and sprinted down the second floor.

"Uh… Hey kid, what are you doing there? Why are you crying?"

Akira jumped back into the dried pool and tried to approach the weeping boy.

"Are you scared? Where is your brother?"

As Akira slowly approached the little boy, the little boy suddenly turned around. The little boy had short hair and gray teary eyes, the moment he saw Akira, he was frightened even more.

He stood up, ran towards the end of the pool and leaned back on the wall, his teary eyes were horrified.

"Hey, hey kid, don't be scared, I'm not going to hurt you. See I'll put this stick down, don't be scared, I'm here to help." Akira put his Bladestaff down and laid his hands open, he tried to convince the kid that he was harmless.

The kid saw Akira disarmed himself, he was less wary than before and even softened his crying.

"That's right, I'm not going to hurt you. Now, tell big brother what happened to you, why are you alone, where's your brother?" Akira smiled with his waving hands.

The kid did not answer though, instead he pointed at the building.

"The classroom? The kitchen? The teacher office? Or… the locker."

When Akira mentioned the locker, the kid looked more frightened.

"The locker? Is there where your brother is? Or…"

Akira turned towards the direction, and a figure slowly walked out from the dark.

"Is that your... brother?" Akira asked.

As the figure slowly emerged from darkness, the kid behind Akira started to cry again and was even more frightened than before.

The figure turned out to be a boy, slightly tall and chubby, and had a buzz cut.

"This… looks nothing like your brother." Akira smiled bitterly.

He instantly knew it wasn't the elder brother who appeared but the 7 year old who died two days earlier.

The chubby boy was grunting heavily, his eyes were grudgeful as he gazed at the frightened kid behind Akira.

"You… wimp." the chubby boy said in rough voice.

"Now, now, kids at your age should not be harsh on the language." Akira pointed at the chubby boy, voicing his disagreement.

"You, adult! Trouble!" the chubby boy noticed Akira and seemed to be angered by his presence.

"Akira!" Mako came out from the porch, she saw the crying kid behind Akira and the grumpy chubby boy in front of him.

"What is going on?" Mako asked in confusion.

"I think I found the younger brother and… the other kid who seemed to have bullied him." Akira shrugged.

"More adult! Trouble... kill!" the ghost of the chubby boy was enraged by Mako's sudden entrance. Dark malevolence floated around his body and started to transform his body.

Both his arms engorged into the size of a barrel, the tiny shirt and pants on him were torn off by his expanding tummy and his cheeks blew up like balloons, setting off his puckered lips and bloody red eyes. His skin turned darker and bloody veins enveloped him like a spider web.

He also grew from a little boy which was less than a meter tall to an almost 3 meters tall Yoma.

Mako pulled out her tonfas and entered her battle stance, "His malevolence had grown stronger, something is transforming it into a Yoma, try not to get hit by that thick arm, otherwise you will be sorry."

"Roger that." Akira quickly grabbed his Bladestaff, twirled it in a circle in front of him and swung it down into his battle stance. He tilted his head backwards, "Don't worry kid, we got this."

The soul of Akihiko looked at Akira in astonishing eyes, notwithstanding the frightened state, there was a sense of comfort in his expression.

"Let's go Mako!" Akira said as he channeled his spiritual energy into his Bladestaff.

Mako too channeled her spiritual energy into her tonfas, unlike Akira's white energy, hers was orange.

"Be careful. Something is not right with this Yoma." Mako added her reminder before both of them jumped up to the bloated monstrosity.

Rawr!

The bloated Yoma roared at the jumping duo, its breath was like a heavy gale accompanied by a vile stench as it assaulted the jumping duo but Akira took the lead and swept his Bladestaff at the breath attack, he dived down like a swallow with his Bladestaff thrusting towards the bloated Yoma's head.

The bloated Yoma slightly lowered its head and the Bladestaff grazed its scalp with Akira flying over. However that wasn't the end of the attack, Mako who was right behind Akira swung her left tonfa down into a chop at the cut on the scalp.

Mako utilize the momentum and turned her body around with her right tonfa swinging into a roundhouse blow to the bloated Yoma's left cheek.

Bang!

Her kicks swiftly followed up by performing a double kick at the bloated Yoma's face.

Bang Bang!

With the momentum from her kicks, Mako pushed herself away, a mid-air backflip landed further away safely.

The bloated Yoma was caught off guard by Mako's furious combo attacks, it faltered a few steps backwards but little did it know Akira was waiting behind with an upper slash with his Bladestaff.

A long white trail was cut on to the broad back but this time, the bloated Yoma reacted quickly by swinging its barrel-like arms around. The swing was heavy, as if a tree log was swinging towards Akira, though Akira saw it coming. He jumped up, tiptoed on the swinging arm and pushed himself away with a backflip.

A heavy blast of wind later, the barrel-like arms missed its target.

"Wooooorah! Troublesome adults!"

The bloated Yoma was further enraged, it roared unwillingly and its eyes shone brighter.

A ring of air was blasted in all directions as it roar.

The enraged bloated Yoma raised its arms and charged towards Mako.

Mako didn't move away, instead she too dashed towards the bloated Yoma.

When both of them were around 5 meters away, Mako leapt up, landed her foot on the bloated Yoma's face, pushed it backwards and did a spin in mid-air.

A large size granted the bloated Yoma outstanding power but its agility and reflexes had to be sacrificed.

A step on the face later, the bloated Yoma faltered forward before it turned around angrier.

"Woooooorach!"

As Mako jumped to the other side, she regrouped with Akira and stood beside him.

"How's it going Mako?"

"Excellent! Let's end this quick!"

"Yes, ma'am."

Akira and Mako raised their spiritual energy higher.

Since the start of the battle, they had already infused their weapons, fists and kicks with their respective energy, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to touch a Yoma, let alone hurt it.

"Wooooooarch!" The bloated Yoma roared again.

It sucked in a huge amount of air and further bloated its stomach.

After inhale, exhale was bound to happen and it wasn't just mere air this time.

A corrosive dark energy was spat out from the Yoma's tiny mouth, it gushed out like a geyser at Akira and Mako.

However, when the corrosive energy attack was around 5 meters away, Akira took a step up, blocked Mako behind him and spun his Bladestaff.

Each exorcist cultivated their own techniques in order to combat the vile existence, and since Akira was the son of the descendant of Amaterasu, the techniques he cultivated were closely related to the sky and sun.

His bladestaff spun like a giant fan with Akira's skillful hands, it drew a white circle in front of him.

"Amaterasu Ascend—Counter Shield!"

The white energy circle formed an energy shield and in the nick of time, it blocked the attack from the Yoma but that wasn't the end.

Akira stopped his spinning, drew his Bladestaff slightly backwards with his right hand before he thrust through the white energy shield.

As the sharp blade at the tip of his staff pierced through the shield, it reflected the energy attack to the Yoma.

A bolt of white light was fired out like baseball at the Yoma with a heavy bursting whistle.

Kaboom!

The white ball of light exploded upon colliding with the Yoma's bloated face, causing a cloud of white smoke that temporarily blinded its sight.

"Aaaaargh!" the Yoma cried in pain.

"Nicely done, now it's my turn." Mako said after Akira's successful counterattack.

She dashed towards the Yoma like a leopard. The tonfas she wielded was overflowing with her orange spiritual energy, she hurled both of them out as she ran.

"True Blossom Hundred Art—Twin Swallow Dive!"

Both her tonfas were hurled out like shurikens, and even without her weapons, she was still dashing towards the Yoma.

The Yoma managed to clear the little cloud of smoke from its sight by shaking, but what it saw was two orange flying tonfas in front of its face. It widened its eyes in surprise and before it could even make a sound… Bang! Bang!

"Aaaaargh!"

Two loud thuds later, the flying tonfas hit the Yoma's eyes and blinded it. The Yoma faltered backward, it tried to cover its face with its hands in pain and protect its weak spot from further attack but the furious attack arrived before it could block.

After the two flying tonfas landed their respective blow at the Yoma, they flew back to Mako like a boomerang.

Mako gracefully caught her returning tonfas and upon grabbing them, she jumped up once again as she was almost in front of the Yoma.

"True Blossom Hundred Art—Triple Cyclone Kick!"

Mako spun her body then her right kick clockwise in mid-air. Her right kick left a red trail along the motion and when the first kick landed on the Yoma's face, the second kick arrived.

Thud! Thud! THUD!

After the second kick landed, Mako's body had turned a full circle and her right kick came back in the same direction, delivering the third and final kick.

Each kick that she landed on the Yoma's face caused a ring of air blasting out vertically.

The bloated Yoma might seem sturdy based on its looks but Mako's combined kicking force which precisely landed on its face sent it falling down on the ground.

"Woooooar!"

The bloated Yoma cried in pain but it didn't even bother to cover its head anymore. It was infuriated by the relentless attacks from the petty humans.

Moments later on the ground, the Yoma used its hands to push itself up. Its eyes were bleeding black and saliva was falling from its tiny mouth; the saliva wasn't water but goo.

"I WILL KILL YOU BOTH!"

"I don't think that's going to happen." Mako said as she jumped away.

"Huh?!"

While Mako was unleashing her furious combo attack, Akira wasn't doing nothing either.

He further burned his spiritual energy, allowing the white to enshroud himself.

He wielded his Bladestaff up straight and all the white spiritual energy gathered at the tip of the blade.

"Amaterasu Descend—Dharma Radiance, First Light!"

A faint contour of a dharma wheel appeared above Akira as he channeled his energy.

When the ball of light at the tip of his Bladestaff reached its limit, he swung it down and pointed it straight to the Yoma's face.

The ball of white, with a dash of yellow, unleashed a burning ray of light, as fast as a cannonball. A big shock wave was blasted out upon firing.

The ray of light was so fast that the Yoma couldn't even react, all it did was stare at the white light before its eyes and that was the last thing it will ever see. The precise ray of light blasted its head off its bloated body.

The headless body fell back to the ground with a thud and it swiftly disintegrated into dark energy particles.

Akira quickly went over Mako who was already beside the body after she dodged the ray of light.

As both of them performed a final inspection before the body fully disintegrated, they suddenly saw a purplish shard in the size of a card floated away from the body.

"What's that?" Akira asked

"I don't know. Get it quickly!" Mako told Akira to grab the purple shard.

Akira raised his hand up but before he could touch it, the shard shattered into pieces and vanished.

"Oh, it broke?" Akiran was confused.

"It seemed like that is the thing that transformed the soul into a Yoma." Mako added.

Both of them were helpless and clueless, they had no idea what caused the unusual transformation.

"We should check on the kid back there." Akira said.

He then turned back around, went over to the pool as he tried to search for Akihiko.

Akihiko reappeared in the middle of the pool after the battle was over.

Akira and Mako jumped down and tried to talk to the little soul.

"Hey kid, I hate to tell you this but you are…"

Before Akira could finish, another figure appeared right in front of Akihiko.

After the figure took form, it was revealed to be Kazuhiko.

"Oh… this is awkward…" Akira was baffled by the sudden entrance of the elder brother.

"Go away! Don't bully my brother anymore! I'll fight you if you don't!" Kazuhiko said as he raised his hand up and blocked his little brother behind.

"Kazu-nii…" Akihiko said softly.

"Hey, bigger kid, don't get so upset just yet, I think you got the wrong idea here. We are here to help your brother and possibly you." Akira waved his right hand helplessly as he explained himself.

"That's right, we are here to help you. Are you Kazuhiko, I'm Mako and this here is Akira, my partner. We are here to help you." Mako stepped up and introduced herself.

Kazuhiko was looking dubious, he still couldn't believe what Akira and Mako said. As his alarm builds up, the malevolence energy around him started to surge.

"Go away! I don't trust you!" Kazuhiko's voice started to change, it started to sound rough and wicked as the malevolence around him rose.

"I will not let you harm my brother, I…"

"Kazu-nii, stop!"

"Akihiko?"

Just as Kazuhiko was about to step forward, he was held back by his little brother.

The building malevolence instantly crumbled and the little boy returned to a normal soul in an instant.

"Kazu-nii, the bully came out just now and tried to bully me again, but this big brother and big sister came to help me, they chased him off! They are not bullying me." Akihiko held his brother's hand and looked him in the eye, the big bubbly eyes of his added an extra sense of pity to his look.

"Akihiko…" Kazuhiko looked at his younger brother with a slightly worried and then relaxed face, he nodded and turned to Akira and Mako.

"Since you two helped Akihiko, I guess you are not bad people." Kazuhiko said with a pout.

"Great! Then can you tell us what exactly happened to you and your brother?" Akira asked.

"Me and my brother are from the orphanage. One day, the orphanage sends us here, saying its a chance for us to study. At first Akihiko and I are very happy since it's the first time we can come outside, but when the bully came into our life, everything changed."

Despite being a 6 year old kid, Kazuhiko presented a very matured side and the sadness was obvious when he mentioned the bully.

"The bully laughed at us, he said that we are orphans, no people will like us, even our parents throw us away. He then started to gather the other kids to laugh at us, push us around and eventually beat us up."

"Akihiko was really frightened, so as a big brother, I stood up and resisted the bully but it was not much of a use. The bully even lied to the teacher, saying that we bullied him! I did not bully anyone, I just fought back to protect Akihiko!"

"The teachers then told us to be obedient and try to get along with the others. She even moved our seats away from the bully but the bully just doesn't give up. The bully continued, we started to feel scared and helpless, and then the incident happened."

"What incident?" Mako asked as she squatted down to the eye level of the two kids.

"That day, the bully and his friends surrounded us and tried to take our cakes, I fought back but I lost, they then throw me into the locker and locked me up. I cried and shouted because they were still beating Akihiko outside. I panicked, I started to throw the cleaning tools around in hopes of causing more noise to attract the teacher, but I fell down and bumped on the shelf. Heavy boxes and the shelf fell on me, and that's the last thing that I remember."

Kazuhiko's eyes were filled with tears as he explained, he was crying because he couldn't save his little brother and himself, he was sad that the adults did not believe him.

"I see. That must be very hard for you." Mako tried to comfort the crying kid.

Akihiko also held his brother's hand tight, he was much stronger than he looked though. He then looked at Mako with determined eyes.

"I know what happened! I heard loud noises in the locker room, and it attracted the teachers! The bullies stopped and ran when the teachers come, but Kazu-nii… he fell asleep under the heavy boxes and never woke up again." Akihiko was holding his tears back, despite being a soul, his face flushed from the sadness.

"A few days later, the bullies came to me again and drag me to the pool. They beat me up again and laughed at my Kazu-nii leaving me. I was pushed into the pool and…"

Akihiko couldn't hold back anymore, he broke into sobs and hugged Kazuhiko.

Mako reacted sadly, her face was utterly sad when she stood up.

"Then let me guess, you and your brother's soul lingered in the kindergarten because you died a wrongful death am I right? Then you somehow killed the bully for revenge?" Akira said after a deep breath.

"No! We stayed behind because there is no where else for us to go! We actually like this place a lot other than the bully!"

"And we did not kill the bully! We are not like him!" Kazuhiko said with tears rolled down his cheeks, he got very upset.

Akira and Mako were stunned for a moment.

"It's fine now! The bully is gone and you are reunited with your little brother!" Akira said in a joyful tone in order to calm the brothers down.

"Now, I hate to tell you this but you can't stay here anymore, but I will send you to a better place, a place where you can learn and have fun, and there will be no more bullies this time!"

"Really?"

Both of the brothers looked at Akira's bright smile with their teary eyes. Akira squatted down, "Of course, I promise you it will be much better than here."

He stood up, stepped back and said "Mako, I'll leave it to you."

Mako stepped up, took a rather huge paint brush from her utility pouch, and drew in the air before she chanted.

"The wronged souls that are no longer a citizen of this realm, collect your heart and leave behind the things you love, proceed to the other world with peace and tranquility."

As she chanted, Kazuhiko and Akihiko started to glow in white. They felt warmth and peace as the white light enveloped them, they looked at each other with relief before then turned to Mako and Akira with a warm smile.

"Thank you big brother, big sister!"

The white light covered them completely, it grew brighter for a moment before disintegrating into small light particles. The souls of the two brothers were purified.

"Guess that's the end of the brothers." Akira said with relieve.

"But if they didn't kill the bully, who did? And why did the bully's soul transformed? What caused it?" Mako was still troubled by the unanswered questions.

"Who knows? Don't worry Mako, we will find it out." Akira said.

The kindergarten returned to its peaceful state when all three of the souls were released, but whether or not the kindergarten will return to its former glory remains a mystery.

Akira and Mako then left the kindergarten by jumping on the roof and on to another.

However, the whole scene from the encounter to the battle and eventually the purification process entered the eyes of a man in black.

"Decent strength… but something is not right." the man said.

The man squinted his only exposed eyes and vanished into darkness.