Chapter 27 –– Spirit Attack

“Haru?”

Haru came to his senses when Bing tried to call him. He just had a vision about what happened years ago, from the perspective of the tree. It seemed like the tree wanted to show him what it saw.

“Oh, sorry.”

Haru then returned to his senses, the reality.

“Why didn’t you visit them during the Day in Memoriam?” Haru asked.

“They didn’t let me leave the cemetery this year, probably due to the attack so they needed more guards. Besides, today is their remembrance day*, so it’s fine.”

Right when they were conversing, suddenly, Haru sensed some danger.

“Something is coming.”

Haru suddenly closed his ears, hearing shrieks of spirits in the forest. Bing could not hear it, so he was confused what happened to Haru.

Suddenly, a Divine Spirit came to them. It was a giant star-shaped spirit, floating in the sky.

“That’s––”

It was the spirit who killed Bing’s parents. After 9 years, it finally reappeared in front of Bing.

“Dentou!”

Bing summoned Dentou immediately. Dentou then appeared, in his normal form.

“Spotlight!”

Bing commanded Dentou to attack the spirit. However, being fellow spirits, Dentou refused to attack it.

“Come on! Dentou!”

Bing was frustrated and got mad at Dentou. Afraid of Bing, Dentou vanished and returned to the spirit world.

“Tch! I’ll just do it myself, then!”

Bing then coated his fist with fyx, trying to attack the spirit directly. He coated his legs and leaped as high as he could into the air, trying to attack the spirit.

Haru jumped using his lightspeed and appeared in front of Bing. He blocked him from attacking the spirit.

“Bing, stop!”

Haru shouted, telling Bing to stop.

The birds in the forest flew away, shrieking and running away from the battle.

“Why, Haru!?”

Because Haru was in the way, Bing punched Haru instead, sending him flying to the other side of the forest.

The two then met on the ground. Haru tried to talk to Bing.

“Why are you in my way? Do you even know what that spirit did to––”

“––to your parents. I know. But, please. Listen to me.”

Bing was surprised that Haru knew about that spirit. Haru didn’t tell Bing that he saw what happened in his visions shown by the tree, so Bing was surprised by how Haru acted.

Bing became a little bit calmer. He then tried to listen to what Haru had to say.

“That spirit is the guardian of this forest.”

Haru was attempting to be the mediator between the two.

Ever since Haru stepped into this forest, he had been sensing something weird about himself. He could see the lesser spirits that were floating around in the forest, which were usually invisible to the naked eyes. He also sensed a vast amount of fyx and spiritual energy in the tree, especially when it communicated with him to show an event that happened 9 years ago. It was as if Bing’s parents wanted to show Haru what happened back then, with the tree as a medium. He didn’t know how he could do and experience all these things, but he felt as if he was “awakened.”

“How did you know that?” Bing asked.

Haru was perplexed.

“I don’t know how to describe it to you in words, but.... I just know.”

It was a very weird sensation, but Haru was feeling some kind of spiritual connection between him and the spirits of the forest.

“The spirit also said that, the reason why it killed your parents was because they were harming this forest.”

“Harming this forest? What kind of bullcrap is this? They loved plants and animals! They even take care of the––”

Before Bing could finish his sentence, Haru interrupted him.

“––and they also experimented on them. They took samples of the plants and animals here, which the spirits were not fond of.”

Bing was shocked. He didn’t know that his parents were doing that.

“Listen. In this forest, there are more than just plants and animals here. There are spirits, lesser spirits, and even a Divine Spirit that guards this forest. True, your parents loved animals and plants. However, they were also doing experiments not only to plants and animals, but to spirits as well. They felt threatened, so they killed your parents.”

Haru told Bing the reason of the spirit’s attack, acting as a medium. Bing was silenced, not knowing what to say.

All his life, he believed that his parents were just some good-hearted explorers who bore no ill intentions. He never knew that his parents were doing such a thing. He was too young to know what his parents were actually doing outside of his knowledge.

Bing then stood in front of the spirit and made an eye contact with it.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Even though Bing was still mad at the spirit for having killed his parents, he also felt like the spirits deserved an apology.

After hearing his heart-felt apology, the spirit then floated away, leaving them two alone.

Haru pated Bing on his shoulder, he then hugged him.

“Thank you for coming with me, Haru.”

The two of them became good friends since then.

A few days later, in the middle of Dionsys**, there was a Snow Festival at Hanabi Square. The festival displayed multiple snow statues made by the contestants. The one with the most votes would come out as the winner and would be given a prize.

Since Yumi was in town, Meixia asked Haru if he wanted to hang out together with her, having a reunion after not seeing each other for a long time. Haru was thrilled to hear that. The three of them then met in front of the Temple’s front gate to go to the festival together.

Even though they lacked one more member from their friend group, they were happy enough to meet each other again as best friends from the academy after years of not seeing each other.

*remembrance day = death anniversary.

**Dionsys = December.