A connection with the other side

"All that happened while I was unconscious!?" Leticia raised an eyebrow.

"Yup," Kekeli nodded.

The blonde little girl sat down, agreeing to listen to the flame warrior's narration of the events that happened while she was unconscious.

"Many things happened…" Kekeli's voice suddenly lowered, suspicion reflecting in his eyes. "However, there were dark undercurrents that even I could feel. There are certain things that are being hidden right before our very eyes."

"Hmm? What do you mean?" the little girl tilted her head.

"Huh? Eh? Ahaha," Kekeli immediately snapped out of his brief musing. "I was just thinking out loud. You know, just another one of those wild-ass speculations. I mean, imagine Edem being the head of some cult group trying to take over every single realm in pursuit of ultimate power. AHAHAHA!"

Leticia's face contorted with disgust. Why was she still next to this idiot? She sighed; he was a lot cooler several years ago.

Her attention shifted to Edem and Zanetor. They seemed to be engaged in a serious conversation. The expression on the shadow soul's face was as fierce as ever, and Edem's smirk remained unchanged.

She couldn't quite hear them clearly due to the storm outside, but the intensity of their tension was evident.

Zanetor raised his chin, "I don't understand."

"Hm?" Edem rested his back on the wall.

"Why didn't you let me finish her off?" the shadow soul began. "So far, your plans have only made me feel like we're just here to throw ourselves out in the open. Wouldn't getting rid of her permanently deal with part of our problem?"

The cloaked man sighed, "Zanetor, are you perhaps…"

His eyes narrowed as he trailed off into silence, peering deep into the shadow soul's eyes.

"Are you perhaps afraid of her?"

A deep hole opened up within Zanetor's chest the instant he heard the question. Several images began to appear within his mind, and at that moment, all he could feel was his own existence being the only thing in the world.

Why?

Why was he reacting to Edem's question in such a way?

The only thing he was beginning to feel was the horrible experiences he had felt before. Some, he could vaguely remember, others he could not. It followed him everywhere – the suffering – it followed him even to the afterlife.

Several mocking voices began to fill his mind, and the noise caused him to instinctively clutch his head in an attempt to shut them up.

The shadow soul was just about to completely lose it when suddenly, he felt something cold touch his shoulder. He looked up, locking eyes with Edem.

"You see," the cloaked man's heterochromatic eyes gleamed. "This is exactly what I wanted to avoid."

Zanetor's eyes, slightly widened, gradually lowered and glistened with hidden rage.

"No matter how special you are, you're still a shadow soul," Edem began. "And you're bound by that existence. Your grudges will continue to haunt you, and once you let them get a hold of you, you could say goodbye to seeing your mother for good."

"What… What has that got to do with me getting rid of that spirit warrior?"

"Well," Edem looked away. "If your rage had gotten higher than it did at that point, there would've been no way to bring you back to normal. Before the battle began at the Great Eye city, Leticia's hair fibres were helping to keep your turbulent spirit energy at bay."

"Leticia's hair?" Zanetor's eyebrows rose.

"Yes," the cloaked man smirked. "Little Leti's hair has the innate ability to regulate spirit energy. I made sure she had strands of her hair on your coat every time so you wouldn't go out of control. It did make her wear out easily, however."

The shadow soul looked down and muttered, "Might explain why she got sleepy at odd times. Or the time she couldn't do much against that wind spirit warrior."

"Right," Edem closed his eyes. "It also explains why your spirit energy spiralled out of control. Another thing…"

The look in Edem's eyes intensified as he opened them, displaying a stern expression that grew on his face.

"There may be just a reason why you were barely affected by the removal of your soul core," the cloaked man spoke seriously. "Your soul core… it exists in two places at the same time."

"Huh?" Zanetor's eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Mm," Edem nodded. "I can only sense one spirit core that links to you. However, I noticed something that re-occurred twice. The first one was during your awakening, and the second one when your soul core was ejected."

Saliva went down Zanetor's throat as he braced himself for the information. What was so important that made Edem so serious?

"I sensed two presences during your awakening and during the time your soul core was taken out. It rarely happens, but sometimes souls have a link that connects them to the material realm even after death. These links could be as a result of many things. It could be an artefact, a memento from a loved one, or even a person."

"A person?"

"Exactly. Apparently, the link is such that events that happen to the connected entities in both realms affect each other," Edem explained. "If Xoese did take your soul core out, you shouldn't have been able to move at all. However, this link acted as some kind of secondary soul core, completely nullifying the paralysing effect of the soul core's ejection."

"So, what you're trying to say is, there is something in the material realm that I still have a link to?" Zanetor raised an eyebrow.

Just, what could this thing be? He didn't really feel attached to anything but his mother. Even with his mother, he barely spent time with her since school didn't really give him that much free time.

Maybe, there was something he was attracted to while he spent his time alone in his apartment?

Movies?

His laptop?

Television?

It surely would be hilarious if that was the case. Then again, his apartment must've been wiped clean of all his belongings by this time.

Zanetor just couldn't figure out what his soul core was linked to.

"My soul core…" he muttered to himself. "Two places at the same time, huh."

"Uncle Edem," a tiny voice interrupted the shadow soul's musing, prompting him to look up.

Leticia approached both of them, and Kekeli followed closely behind.

"Well, Little Leti!" Edem clapped and smiled. "Seems like you're doing well!"

Her eyes narrowed as she eyed the shadow soul, "Do I still have to do it?"

Edem patted the little girl on her head and assured her, "Bear with it for just a little while. Once he manages to control his spirit energy, you'll be free from this task. Oki?"

Leticia reluctantly nodded.

"Don't worry, little mistress!" Kekeli beamed with energy. "I'll be your protector, so you can call me whenever you feel threatened."

"Ugh," the blonde girl rushed behind the cloaked soul.

Several glass frames shattered within the deepest parts of Kekeli's heart, but he kept a smiley face firmly printed.

"Alright then!" Edem grinned. "We're going to continue with our initial plan. The crown plane isn't going to come after all."

"The crown plane?" Kekeli raised an eyebrow. "Pfft, you're actually not planning to head way up there, right?"

...

There was a silence that seemed to choke the poor flame warrior.

He gulped with great difficulty, "R- Right?"

"So we leave once the storm settles!" Edem walked over to the fire Kekeli had set up. "Kekeli, now that you're a part of us, I'll leave Zanetor to explain things to you. So you can ask him any question you want!"

"H- Huh!?" The flame warrior stared in the cloaked soul's direction and then slowly turned to face Zanetor.

Unfortunately, he still couldn't get used to the shadow soul's murky energy. It felt as if he was going to rip his chest open and devour his soul core!

...

...

(Material realm - Hamasaki mansion)

(9:30 pm)

"And done," Izumi sighed a breath of relief as she put the final letter down on her paper. "It's been a week since the Epoch industry's student internship program, and they're already sending in lots of research topics for us to work on…"

The black-haired beauty got up from her seat and took one last look at her study table.

Messy. That's how she could describe it.

She turned back and stretched as she yawned. The fatigued girl walked lazily towards her bed and plopped herself onto the thick, foamy sheets. Her face was buried into the bed, and before she knew it, several thoughts began to run through her mind.

Come to think of it, when was the last time she saw her mom?

Her father was always busy with family politics and stuff. That, she knew. But, her mom hadn't been checking up on her regularly like she used to.

Maybe she also found some kind of extra work to do?

Sigh.

She would have definitely been lonely if it weren't for Aku and Zanetor.

Izumi immediately raised her head, confusion evident in her eyes.

Zanetor?

Why was she still having him in her mind?

She sat on her bed and hugged her knees.

"Something's wrong with me," she muttered to herself. "Am I going crazy?"

Other thoughts began to fill her mind in an attempt to get the image of the strange boy out of her head.

"Ughhh!" she hid beneath her blankets and whispered to herself. "Ghosts don't exist."

With that, she filled her mind with the fun times she spent with Aku last weekend and the more fun she was going to spend the coming one.