Chapter 12: SPIRIT SISTERS 

Inside the dormitory rooms of a rural-style church, a girl can be seen in the shower. This girl is the silver-haired nymph whose adventure in this world has taken a sudden twist in recent days. She was all but a dedicated nun, with her goal of reinstating the faith of her religious group, but now her mind is constantly cluttered with a certain magical blue-haired goddess. The girl finishes her shower, and walks into her private bedroom as she ponders her situation. "I have a long day tomorrow, we just got to Tokyo and we need to start our communions tomorrow…"After a long moment of pondering, she looks over at the body pillow on her bed, and a dirty thought inhabits her mind. Her face goes from casual to droopy and chibby-like before she lunges onto the bed. 

"Onee-sama!!! Onee-sama!" She says as she starts sniffing and grinding on the pillow. She thinks to herself, "This is so wrong, I shouldn't be giving into these temptations… but once in a while isn't so bad right!!!" Hibiki continues to moan out loud on her bed having a long and degenerative night to herself before falling asleep. Drooling on her pillow until her alarm wakes her up, she finds that he in fact overslept. "Onee-Sama… huh? Eh!?? Oh no, I'm going to be late!"

After arising from her abrupt slumber, Hibiki storms out of bed. The morning for the sister begins within the walls of the Egyptian Orthodox Church, though not the one she had previously called home. This was a newly built location designated in a central area of Tokyo, Japan. She does her daily morning routine, combs her hair, brushes her teeth, gets dressed, and does her morning prayers. Then as she enters the cathedral's main halls, she greets her fellow nuns and Sisters. "Ohayo! I hope everyone's having a good morning!" The nun sitting at one of the tables greets the silver-haired nun.

"Good Morning Hibiki, How is your morning?" Hibiki sits next to the quiet beauty as she sets herself up for some breakfast. "My morning was wonderful! I had a wonderful dream of my Onee-Sama last night! It was so real that I felt like I could reach out and touch her! Gosh, I miss her so much!!!" Silvia, not acknowledging the petite nun's delusions decided to pay her no mind.

"That's great and all Hibiki, but aren't you going to be late for your morning communions?" Hibiki urgently gets off the table after stuffing her breakfast. "That's right, I better get going then!" Leaving the halls of the cathedral Hibiki is seen walking outside the streets of Tokyo, Japan. Her church's deformation has been relocated due to the instructions of the Pope. All core followers, sisters, and priests dedicated to the Egyptian Orthodox Church have been swiftly relocated since the Ruins incident in Egypt. Standing in front of the church's doors, she earnestly greets those who are passing by.

"Hello, sir, would you be interested in becoming a member of our church?" Hibiki says confronting a Man walking his dog. "Oh sorry, I'm already part of another religious deformation!" The man responds. "That's alright sir, you have a blessed day!" Hibiki continues this ordeal for the entire morning, no different from any other morning. "Spreading the words and beliefs of the church is the sacred duty of any aspiring nun, even though most of her interaction comes in rejection.

"Hello, Ma'am would you care too…?"

"I can't, please forgive me."

"Sir if you have a minute…"

"I really must be going."

"Please, if you could spare a moment of your time sir…"

"Sorry, not interested!"

After hours on end of rejections, she is seen passing by a local park, feeling a bit discouraged. "This is hopeless." She thinks to herself as she sees a number of kids playing kickball with each other. Suddenly without warning, she is hit in the face with a ball kicked by one of the kids.

"Kya!" 

"Are you alright?" One of the many kids walks up to her while retrieving his ball. The boy is wearing a baseball cap and a blue jersey shirt. "I'm okay little boy, it was just a scratch is all." Hibiki Starts to bleed from her forehead as she says this, causing the kids to get concerned." "Sister you're bleeding!" Hibiki notices the trail of blood and smiles. "It's okay everyone, I'm fine really!"

Minor blue fractures of light start to form around her as she starts to emit a faint glow. The blue spirits surrounding Hibiki start to heal her wound, making her as good as new. "Wow!" The kids say in awe, and then immediately they all start to sing her songs of praise and joy. "Sister sister play with us!" "Yeah, come on it'll be fun!" Say the kids.

Hibiki looks down at the fliers she was supposed to hand out today and then back at the children's pleading eyes. "Oh, what the heck! Come on then, what's the game!" After a kickball montage ensues, the children are seen ready to go home saying their farewells to Hibiki. When the kids are out of her sight, she looks after her phone to see it's already way past the time she was supposed to get back. "Oh for goodness sake, Why am I so late today!" She wails in anguish.

Now kneeling in front of the church's leading Priest, she bows her head to the authoritative figure in disdain. " I see, so not only were you not able to seek out any new followers for the church, but you also goofed off today playing around with some children. I am incredibly disappointed in you Hibiki. As a nun, you must be setting a better example for all your sisters!" Micheal states to the petite girl. "Forgive me, Father, It will not happen again. But to my defense, I did attempt for many hours to gain the church more followers per my usual routine. But my efforts are not as easy here as they were back in Cairo." The older man looks down at the girl disinterested. "I will not tolerate any excuses for your failure to bring in results. If you are inept at spreading the beliefs of our church then I suppose we truly don't have any use for you."

"Father Issac, please! I'm only expressing the reality of the situation! The long-standing religions in Japan stem from both Buddhist and Christian beliefs. Attempting to throw people into another deformation is completely inapplicable in our day and age." Hibiki ponders before she continues. It was much easier gathering followers for their branch in Cairo, the root of the Egyptians' ancient mythology, but spreading those beliefs anywhere else across the world has proven to be quite troublesome. Even the Vatican, whose public beliefs center around Roman Catholicism, has made no attempts to convert the world's religious order, despite having coverts of churches and followers around the globe.

"Isn't that why you are here? To spread that face in the midst of adversary. They shine a light in even the darkest abyss, a spirit must guide those who are blinded by the truth and into the right path." Father Issac takes a moment before he continues. "No one ever said this would be easy, though if we are going to have any chance of saving the world from the evil clutches of Apophis, then you and every other member of the church are going to have to do your part in restoring the faith in the Egyptian pantheon. Do I make myself clear?" Hibiki, defeated in the argument with the high nun, sighs dejectedly.

"Yes. Please do forgive me, Father." The man wearing a dark blue priest outfit had dark skin and a bald head, he is a man who through his upbringing takes his faith and position very seriously. "With how things are going, it seems most likely we'll end up having to marry you off to the leader of the current Ogdoad after all. I believe Thot had informed me he was a man called the God of Gold. With your abundance of spirit magic, it'd be best if you stayed by his side at all times after all, so marrying you off to him would prove to be…"

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" Upon hearing this, Hibiki lunges forward and grabs a hold of the Priest's ankles. 

"PLEASE FATHER PLEASE! ANYTHING BUT THAT! I PROMISE I'LL BE A GOOD GIRL!"

"Gah! What the Hell! Get a hold of yourself Hibiki!"

"NO! I won't do it! You can't make me marry a Man! I'm GAY! I love Women! If I'm going to marry someone then it has to be a WOMAN!!!"

"What in the world are you talking about, let go of me!!!" At this, Father Issac kicks her to the side, having Hibiki roll over like a piece of trash.

"We'll talk more about this later, now compose yourself, this is no way for a sister to act." Father Issac says as he walks out of the room, muttering something under his breath with his face showing obvious disdain and stress. Hibiki composes herself before sitting up from the floor. 

 "He's right you know…" Hibiki turns her head to see sister Silvia, who has been listening to them the whole time. "Despite the amount of competition in the religious sect in the world, the world has spread its faith in those who have the most compassion in their beliefs. Christianity became the world's dominant religion through many many years of passion and commitment." Hibiki listens to Sister Silvia's input earnestly. "It's not an easy path, I agree, but the Ogdoad of legend has finally been born. This is the group destined to battle against Apophis, so the least we can do is start acquiring members for what is their church's religion."

Hibiki quickly thinks back to the blue-haired goddess that captured her eye. " Though try not to stress yourself too hard, remember you are still just a Spirit." Silvia leaves the room, with her last fleeting words echoing in Hibiki's mind. "A spirit…" After what seemed like a few hours. Hibiki is seen once again outside for communions. The sun starts beginning to set as she starts getting ready to go home, empty-handed once again.

"Waaaaah!~" Crying is heard from a distance as Hibiki looks around wondering where it's derived from. She walks around the corner to see the young people from before. With further inspection, she sees he's bruised his ankle likely from playing around irresponsibly. "Sister…" The boy says as he looks up at the kind silver eyes from before.

"Oh no! You're injured, here let big sister take a look." She says inspecting his bruise, getting a bit closer than the young boy's natural comfort zone. Blushing profoundly at the cute silver-haired angel in front of him he starts feeling his heart pound in his chest. "Here hold tight this will only take a minute." After only a few moments, the bruise had completely slipped away. The boy looks at his ankle in disbelief, with a smile plastered on his face. "Wow! Thank you, sister! You're an angel!" Says the boy with a big toothy grin. Hibiki, who is not used to such compliments, is shocked by the young boy's praises. "Oh don't be silly, I'm just a girl with a talent at healing is all. Come on now, I'll help you home!"

After only a few minutes of walking hand to hand Hibiki kindly handed the boy over to his mother who had been searching for him. "Oh thank you, sister! My child has a nasty habit of wandering by himself! Please if there's anything I could do to thank you just name it." Hibiki quickly turns down the offering from the pleading mother. "No miss please, it was no trouble at all! I'm just glad your boy is safe and sound. You two have a blessed day."

Waving goodbye to the family she starts heading in the direction of the church. "Another day has passed and not a single new follower. At this rate, I might never work up the courage to face Onee-Sama ever again." Hibiki thinks to herself with a saddened expression. Now making her way inside a local convenience store, Hibiki starts roaming the aisles. It had almost slipped her mind it was her turn to go grocery shopping for the church's orphans, and after all the interruptions that halted her day, she had already missed out on all the good early sales and discounts.

"Oh, today was a bust!" She sighs strolling through the market. "She picks out what she had come to know as all the kids' favorites. Fish, tofu, pork belly, scallops, and pickled plums. After acquiring everyone's favorite tastes and delights, she now jolts over to her guilty pleasure aisle. She walks over to none other than the fried squid section. "Hoho they have a new spicy Garlic flavor! Oh, but they don't have any more sweet mustard packs, that's unfortunate… Oh, what's this!? Onion Chocolate flavored!!!" Like a child going to the toy store, Hibiki fills up her cart with as much fried squid as possible.

Strolling over to the checkout station she passes by the beauty department, looking over the latest products and cosmetics. After glimpsing around for a few seconds she decided to carry on. "I don't necessarily need any of that stuff, my skin already glows to its perfect complexion after all.~" Before exiting the beauty section something familiar captures her eyes. A model in the latest Women's Beauty magazine sparks a sense of familiarity within Hibiki. "This woman, she's so beautiful…" After further inspection of the magazine cover, she darts to recall the specific facial features. "I swear I feel like I've seen this person somewhere…" Suddenly it all clicks within her. "Wait a second… Onee-Sama!"

Hibiki after weeks of dreaming and anticipation was now face to face with a picture of her dear Onee-Sama. "It's Onee-Sama, it really is Onee-Sama! Why is her hair dark!? Did she dye it? I didn't know she was a model! She looks so stunning!" Hibiki looks around and notices the girl in question is retroactively on the cover of multiple different magazines.

"Onee-Sama, Onee-Sama, Onee-Sama! So many Onee-Samas!" Hibiki starts drooling from the corner of her mouth, not expecting to be ambushed by the source of her infatuation. "Seriously, how long are you going to keep referring to me as that?" Stunned, she turns around to be met with a pair of blue eyes that shine with the light of the spirits themselves.

"Onee-Sama?" Wendy is seen standing in front of the white-clad nun.

"I reckon you've missed me? It hasn't been that long since we've last seen each other, Hibiki." Wendy says, greeting the still-shocked nun. "Onee-Sama! W-what are you doing here!?" Hibiki states as a small brush creeps onto her face, not expecting to reunite with her designated big sister here out of all places.

"Were you not told? Your church got relocated here in Tokyo per the Pope's request. This also just so happens to be my hometown. It's not much of a coincidence that we'd run into each other here. Not to mention I live right around the corner." Hibiki, surprised by the sudden lump of information, responds. "I see, well… what brings you here then?" Wendy then brings her hand up, showing pouches of beaned coffee. "We were running low." Hibiki stares at the coffee bags and then back at her Onee-Sama. "That's quite a lot of caffeine there, are you sure you didn't grab too much?" "I grabbed just enough, thank you very much!" Wendy replies cold-heartedly.

Now walking out together the duo is seen carrying the lump of bags in unison. "Really Onee-Sama you don't need to assist me! I can carry these all back to the church myself!" Says Hibiki, scared of being a bother. "Oh hush, these are way too many bags for a girl as petite as you. Not to mention, why would anyone ever need this much-packaged squid…" Hibiki immediately retorts, "Squid is Delicious!"

Rolling her eyes, Wendy continues, "Besides, I was planning on heading to the church myself one of these days. What better time than the present." Hibiki looks over to Wendy, surprised. "You were?" Wendy silently nods and looks straight ahead. "There are still a lot of things I'm unsure of, as well as a lot of things the Pope said that I don't necessarily agree with… But even so."

Now looking over at Hibiki Wendy continues. "I still have a duty to clean up this mess. Not for any religious reasons per se, but since It's kind of my fault the sins got released, it wouldn't be right for me to just let this be somebody else's problem." The girls continue to walk along the path, the sunset glistens upon the two's moving figures. " I won't commit to any pre-designed fate the church wants to implement on me, but I still intend to do something about these demons running around so…" Hibiki stares at Wendy wide-eyed, allowing her to finish.

"Until then, I suppose I'm in your care, Hibiki." She says, finishing off with a smile. After taking Wendy's words in stride, a smile is plastered on the young sister's face. "Hai, Onee-Sama!" The newly established pair of girls turn their heads forward, walking side by side toward the church.