Kyoshi Spirits

It was a quiet afternoon in Kyoshi, a small village in the far out reaches of Japan. Everything was calm and quaint, when suddenly, twelve streams of light flew out of nowhere into the skies. They were as bright as a comet, leaving behind trails of dust as they slowly vanished.

Akina Sumeragi, an eighteen year old University student was walking back home from school with her friends as she looked up and was in awe at what she saw.

While the people celebrated the took photos with their phones, a lone man in a temple looked on in horror as he ran towards the shrine and rang the bell.

"Oh? I have never heard that bell being rung at all! This is the first time that I heard it, I am surprised it even works…" One of her friends said.

"Yeah, you are correct, I have lived in Kyoshi all my life and this is the first time that I heard it being used." Another one added.

"Maybe it is another part of some outdated tradition by the old folks?" Akina joked around as she shrugged her shoulders. "Who knows?"

As soon as she stopped by in front of her home, she felt a loud thud and realized far too late that it was her head. Something had been thrown at her.

She turned around and assumed an 'attack' stance, ready to face whoever was foolish enough to throw rocks at a university student such as her. She held her umbrella forward, using it as her weapon.

After noticing that nobody was there, Akina was still suspicious. "That's weird, I could swear I did feel something hit the back of my head…"

She went inside her home and took a nap. A hard day at her classes only meant one thing: a nap was well deserved and quite needed.

When she woke up, Akina felt a painful migraine. She could barely even stand up. Akina gulped down a glass of water and tried massaging her temple. She noticed something or someone in her peripheral view, causing her to look up.

What she saw freaked her out so much that she jumped from her seat and fell down from the chair. It was a man, a fairly young looking man with old clothes.

Not 'vintage' old, but literally a hundred year old clothes on him. He had worn a similar garb as that of a samurai's. His face was actually quite beautiful, elegant and smooth. With black hair worn down in a parted manner.

"Wait, what? You can see me?" He asked in an equally startled manner.

While screaming, Akina threw all of the things on her table towards the suspicious intruder as he groaned in pain after each projectile was launched at him.

"Ouch! Hey! Calm down for a bit!" The man pleaded to him while raising his hands to cover and shield himself from Akina's rage.

"Calm down?! I am about to call the cops on you!" She threatened him, but he merely laughed. "The cops? What the hell is a 'cop?'" He was actually clueless; he was not even pretending.

"Huh? You are the only burglar who does not know what a cop is!" Akina tried to run out of the room, but the man grabbed her by the hand.

"Wait! I am not a robber or anything like that! Just chill out for a bit! I swear I can explain!" he desperately pleaded for her to do so. But before she agreed to it, she picked up a knife to try and defend herself if this man ever does something to her.

"Seeing as you are still able to move your body, it looks like I messed up the possession…" the man said to himself. "The name is Hakki, by the way. I am pretty sure this is not the first time that you have seen me." He said as he smiled with confidence.

But Akina Sumeragi just looked at him with disgust in her eyes. "What a shame, someone as young as you are is already resorting to stealing, and by the way – no, I have not seen you at all expect for this one instance!" She shook her head as she said that, still pointing her knife at him.

"Oh, I am pretty sure you saw me. I was one of those twelve streams of light in the sky earlier! One of the Twelve Kyoshi Spirits! Hakki!" His grand introduction was met with a poker faced reaction from Akina. "So, not only are you a thief, but you are also delusional as well?!" She was still not having it.

"I can prove it, alright?" Hakki desperately wanted her to believe him. They both went to the rooftop, Akina was still keeping her guard up around him.

"Now, you foolish mortal! Observe how one of the Twelve Kiyoshi takes flight!" Hakki exclaimed as he jumped off from the roof.

Splat.

Hakki fell face first as he was planted into the ground. A loud splat was heard as soon as his face met the floor below.

Akina went from being terrified of him to being perplexed by Hakki's stupidity. "That serves you right! If I ever see you around here again, I swear I will deal with you myself!" She shouted.

Akina Sumeragi shut the door behind her and locked the gates, leaving Hakki outside in the cold. "Damn, I guess a thousand years of doing nothing really can make me rusty, eh?" He smirked. After a few seconds, black-hued wings came out of his back as he flew upwards.

He flew towards Akina's window and tapped on it lightly. She did not hear it, however. He got more impatient and started smacking the window next.

"What?! I thought I told you that-" Akina opened the window but her words got cut off as soon as she saw Hakki's dark wings. "See? Still don't believe me?" Hakki had a smug look on his face as his white garbs were coated in dirt from the fall earlier.

Akina took out her phone and snapped photos of Hakki as he was flying mid-air. She opened the gallery and saw that the images were empty.

"H-How are you not in the pictures?" She was confused. "Because, my dear, I am a spirit."