1.34 — Huh, I Really Did It

I did it?

I did it!

“I…I did it,” I murmured, staring at my hand now clear of any hard light covering. The Ruh still flew around me, caressing my fists, kissing them with their warm light. As if they wanted me to give them the permission to surround me again.

“Haha, I really did it!” I screamed and jumped, not being able to contain my excitement.

I defeated a Rakshas. By myself. Okay, fine, not by myself. Reizumi did help me.

But, I did land a major blow on it by myself so…

And yeah sure, there was doping involved with that yellow pill I took but hey, still! I’m gonna count that as a good and fair win. It was, afterall, my first time. Officially, my first time.

Quadro doesn’t count as official because—A, I did not kill it; and B, I had no idea about any of this.

But yeah, never gonna forget Quadro. It will always live in the memories of my heart. Rest in peace, brother…or sister. Never really got to find out who Quadro actually was.

“I-I-Is it d-dead?” A stuttering scared voice from behind me stopped my celebration and another tangent in my mind.

And when I turned to look back towards the voice, I almost had a heart attack.

I was met with the image of a sickly blind woman with her equally sick son creepily walking towards me. Add that with the broken-down structures and bad lighting, mixed with not yet calmed down adrenaline pumped body, my mind did make me visualise the whole scene as something from a horror movie.

Except, you know, this one was actually scary. Because, damn man, this got my heart pumping and jumping. I’m man enough to admit that I even squeaked. Quite loudly too.

I like to give the movies some benefit of the doubt so I won’t say they’re bad. They had no idea what the ghosts actually looked like, nor were they aware of their whinny nature.

So, it’s just that I’m too used to seeing actual ghosts, that’s all.

Not to mention, when all you see them doing is either crying, complaining or staring blankly at anything in their sight; you kinda realise that stuff like the neck turning girls or creepy nuns or flying and jump scaring ghosts were not exactly...real.

And hence, not scary. But still, they’re a good form of entertainment. Almost like a parody of real life. For that, A+ for efforts.

But, you know, not gonna lie, some of them do just suck.

“Um, I’m not really sure. This is sort of my first time...” I said looking back at the limp body of the green-skinned beast. I kicked it lightly to see if there was any reaction but the body made no motion. “Well, it seems dead for now, so, um, I guess that’s it. Yeah, you’re safe now,” I looked back at the pair of dead souls and gave them a huge smile.

The son broke off the contact from his mother and came running at me, ending it with a hug and spitting off tons of appreciation towards me.

“Thank you,” the mother said softly, staring at me with her clear eyes. I knew from my past experiences that any mortal disability and wounds were carried over as a ghost but I still wondered if she could somehow see me. “May I ask who you are?” the mother asked.

“I am...huh, well, I-I don’t...really know,” I said as I scratched my head.

What was I?

I mean, I don’t think I get to be called a human anymore, atleast not a normal one. And I swear that wasn’t my weird ego. No, it’s just...well, when you do the things that I did, doubts concerning your humanity do find a way to pop up in your mind.

I know I’m not a Sage too according to multiple people (and a particular Rakshas). Not that I know what a Sage even is.

Like I know the dictionary meaning of it—a person with a shit ton of wisdom in their mind...or that plant thing that witches in TV shows and movies burn during some ritual. And I doubt I’m a bundle of burning incense sticks to ward off evil. Infact, ironically, I’m doing the exact opposite.

But like, yeah, I have no idea what it meant in the context of this new world, especially now that it was filled with Rakshas’ and Grimmers and god knows what else.

Oh, I wonder if this means that God, or Gods, was real too.

It’s not like I never questioned that thought before. Hey, I had even asked several ghosts about that but no one really gave a clear answer. They themselves were very clueless about it. So I just assumed that God did not exist.

If you can’t see it, then it probably doesn’t exist, right? A very simple philosophy.

But now, maybe after seeing the holes in my simple philosophy, I’m starting to wonder if a God really exists. Or, you know, a whole pantheon of them.

Once the kid was done with his crying and getting his ghostly snot all over my pants, he returned back to his mother. What? I saved him. I get to be mean with him. That’s just how life works in my part of the world, deal with it.

I wondered what the next process is.

Like, now what?

The demon was defeated, the souls had been rescued and peace was achieved. Not to mention, a nice side benefit of some self-confidence boost. So, what’s next?

There’s no way that I had to come here every single day, right? To check up on them and see if they were safe or not? That would be fudging tiresome. I can’t do this on a daily basis. I have…homework.

Where was Reizumi anyways? After the battle, she just drifted off somewhere.

I walked over to the edge of the floor, cautiously since I did not really trust the reliability and strength of the structure anymore.

Unlike the pair behind me, I was still alive after all. Ofcourse I feared death.

I looked down to spot whether the Grimmer girl had flown down or something but the ground was devoid of any life.

Did—Did she really just leave me here by myself? Was I used by her? I suddenly feel weirdly violated…

“I wouldn’t really stand at the edge if I were you,” Reizumi said hovering from another direction as she made her way towards the pair of ghosts. “Then again, if you die, our process of taking you to Aatmahal becomes even easier so...I suppose, by all means, jump.”

“See? I knew it all along. You finally show your true colours. You just want me dead, don’t you?... Wait a minute, is that why you sent me to fight that damn thing?!”

“...No?”

“You—You paused! You really had intended me to die!”

“That’s a very strong accusation. I have no idea what you’re talking about, human. It’s simply a fallacy conjured up by your tired mind.”

“Fallacy, my ass! Your lazy ass just wanted a quick solution of getting me to your—”

“Calm down, human. There are more important matters to attend to than answering your stupid accusations,” She said standing in front of the pair with her right hand stretched out.

The nerve of this woman! I wonder if a fall from this height can kill a Grimmer.

Oh, by the way, let the record know that she said stupid accusations. Not false accusations. Big distinction in my books.

Deciding that further discussion is not gonna yield any meaning, I walked towards Reizumi.

She had her eyes closed and muttered something that I couldn’t really catch very well.

Suddenly her forearm started to glow red, causing the little kid to step back a bit and the mother to put herself inbetween the son and the strange lady.

“Um, Rei…zumi,” I called to her softly, not sure if she was comfortable with me shortening her name, “What are you doing? They’re getting kinda scared of you…”

“Preparing for soul extraction,” she said curtly as she opened her eyes and saw the reactions of mother and son.

And then a weird thing happened.

She smiled.

Like a genuine sweet kind.

I wasn’t sure she was capable of such an expression. Granted, I knew her for…how much time had passed—oh, 2 hours. Wait, really? Just 2 hours? This means that if I leave for home now, I would have more than enough time to actually do my homework.

You know, life screws you in multiple unique ways.