It's an honour to serve you

Darkness…

Emptiness… Ryan was surrounded by them, and yet, even then he remained calmly seated on the ground where its surface was like that of the ocean.

"Forgive me, but do you perhaps know where I am… "

His voice echoed in the void.

Was it him?

"Hey… can you hear me? Do you know where we are?" He asked again, looking at the individual seated opposite him.

Even though he was dressed in a black robe, far different from the outfit the individual in front of him was wearing… the resemblance was still very striking.

"Hey… Did you-"

Grab-!

The Individual placed his hand on Ryan's leg.

Shocked, Ryan wanted to stand up but noticed his body wasn't listening to him.

And to make matters worse, darkness seemed to be spreading from the hand of the man all the way to his body.

"Wow… hey man, what the hell?!" Ryan could only scream, his limbs were numb and his body wasn't under his control.

He felt like a manikin placed outside a store for show.

Was it fear? Or perhaps the crippling anxiety of having no control over a situation? Whatever it was, Ryan was at the brink of crashing out.

Baam!

The individual was now in front of Ryan, their faces only mere inches away from one another.

"What in…"

Words choked in his mouth when he saw the face of the individual.

It was him. An even scarier and demonic version of him.

"Chaos to the world." Said his doppleganger.

"What?".

"Chaos to the world!!!".

It felt like a dam was open, hundreds of thousands of dark energy poured from the mouth of the individual and landed directly on Ryan's face.

"Ahhhhh!!!".

His screams was soon oppressed by the darkness that swallowed him… nothing but pure darkness.

××××××

Gasp!

Ryan's eyes snapped open.

He had woken up.

Beads of sweat glued to his face as he stared at the familiar ceiling before him.

'A dream…'

Ryan took a deep sigh, his way of trying to calm himself from whatever he had just woken up from.

"I see you're awake. How was it? Did you enjoy your little nap, Darling?".

Even if he was about to be smashed and molested by a bear, he'd still recognise that voice.

A look of disappointment played on his face, "Migi." He called out silently.

Giggle ~

"Yes darling… Did you miss me that much? I feel so touched, who would have thought the famous Ramage would be excited to see me".

Migi smiled, positioning herself right beside Ryan's head.

But she wasn't in her human form, no, she had gone back to her fox-like appearance. A form best suited for her current situation.

"How long have I been asleep?" Ryan inquired from her. He was still lying on the bed, unwilling to move an inch.

"Somewhere around 1-3 days, I don't really do well with time." Migi replied, flapping her tail left and right while licking her paw.

Ryan couldn't help but turn his gaze towards her.

And no one could blame him for how confused he was.

When he first met Migi, he was a simple Contractor in training at the academy.

There are people who are born with a spirit partner right from birth.

And there are others who simply had the spirit capabilities and are only in need of a spirit to contract.

Ryan Hanley happened to fall under the latter.

Even though his spirit energy was low, he still had the honour of making contracts.

Migi just so happened to be one of the spirits that chose him on a monday morning and they've been together ever since then.

But not once did he think his spirit partner would turn out to be a beautiful red haired female in disguise.

Sigh ~

Ryan sat up right.

"Why are you in this form rather than the boobies?" he asked.

Migi paused, "It took a huge amount of spirit energy for me to stabilise your core. I'm currently in this form to conserve my energy… my human form isn't an easy trick to pull off".

"Hmmm… I see." Ryan, with a stoic look on his face, looked at his blanket.

Grrrrr~

Ryan grabbed his stomach. That loud rumble indicated that he was hungry.

Being asleep for three days and not eating would make anyone weak.

"Do you want me to help you get something? Don't worry…. I can probably maintain my human form for about 20 mins to go to the store and back." Migi suggested.

"You know how to do that?".

"I literally follow you everywhere, what do you think?".

° ° ° ° °

Ryan stared at her for a while. He still had a lot of questions, one too many that he didn't know which to ask first.

At the end, he simply settled on what was most important.

"Yeah, sure..".

And with that, Migi excitedly went off to get him food from the nearest Noodle shop. She knew his diet, so it was easy for her to get it.

××××××

Slurppp ~

A smile played on Ryan's face as he digested the instant noodle. That was his third box, and five more were on his bed, waiting to be feasted.

Migi was right between his thighs, watching him chow down on his lunch.

"Ahhhh~" He let out a sacrificed gasp after drinking the sauce, "That was amazing, food is by far my best thing in this world, after boobies of course".

"Are you done?" Migi asked.

"Why? Do you want to tell me something I don't know about? You have a hot mom somewhere?" Ryan uttered as he opened the next instant noodle pack.

"Why of course. Believe it or not, you're about to take a first step into something great, your identity is much bigger than you can comprehend and thus, I need to educate you on it quickly".

"Uhn? And what exactly are you educating me on? Being a Contractor? That sure would be helpful." Ryan uttered sarcastically.

Migi jumped down from the bed and landed on the ground.

Ryan's gaze followed.

With her head bowed, Migi uttered, "It's an honour to serve you once again, Spirit of Origin, Alaric Grayhart".

Ryan Hanley slurped down the remaining noodle in his mouth.

Yes, he was confused. But his confusion wasn't because of what Migi had just called him.

His confusion was directed towards the fact that the name 'Alaric Grayhart' sounded almost right… too right.

Almost like it was a name he had long forgotten even if he was just hearing it for the first time.

"Pardon?" Ryan blurted out.