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Kitty Shuttle
Time: 9:55am
“If the heart can speak, then it speaks the words of an incantation.”
I was deeply impressed by this sentence due to what happened a long, long time ago… after I’ve met him and before we parted.
The last sentence from the person whom I’d considered as my most important person.
* * *
Standing behind me was my other classmate.
“Ryan, so you were actually together with Yang Yang.” Chifuyu, who appeared without any sound, stared at me with eyes wide opened, I stared back at him, too, “I was with Miao Miao searching high and low for him for half a day. We thought he was swallowed by the mermaid sculpture!”
I wasn’t swallowed, and also, the thing it was swallowed before had already been spat out.
“I saw he was discarded by the side of the road, so I simply retrieved him.” The tramp… should be called Ryan now, replied towards his companion.
Wait a minute! What do you mean by discarded by the side of the road, and retrieved him!?
I felt like swinging my fist down on his head. I didn’t agree with coming here, boss!
“Oh I see.” Chifuyu actually acknowledged it.
Then Ryan, who had his back towards me, turned around.
Mom, he has completely changed. Just like a magic shape shifter.
After he had tied up his messy hair, his pair of blue eyes were exposed to the atmosphere, so sharp that they seemed like blades. The air across the edge of the blade seemed to have been cut as he blinked his eyes.
He had an equally sharp face. It was hard to describe but, there was a certain degree of handsomeness to it. Now, it was rather difficult to associate him together with the tall and slightly stooped tramp from earlier.
“Ryan Scar.” Stabbing the knife in his hand into the ground and ignoring the rotten palm, which was slowly crawling out, Ryan actually extended a hand of friendship towards me.
You should at least take note of the time and place for this!
“Chu Ming Yang.” But still, I reached out my hands to shake his.
I wonder if it was because there was an addition person, Chifuyu, I suddenly felt this place wasn’t as horrible as it was moments ago. The psychological law of having more people makes one feel more at ease?
At one side, Chifuyu inspected the spirit ghost’s hand slowly stretching out from the black fog. With voice full of doubt, he asked, “You guys already connected the path, how was it that this thing appeared?”
After connecting the path, this kind of thing was not supposed to appear?
“I’ve no idea, but according to the records, there is a one chance in a hundred chance for it to appear when opening the path.” Ryan was actually in high spirits, pulling out the dual knives from the ground, he drew a circle and let them hang by his side.
One chance in a hundred?
I was very embarrassed to tell this two people, who were thinking hard trying to come out with a solution to this problem, that it was most likely thanks to my bad luck they had met with such a wonderful one percent chance. After all, I’m someone who will run into bad luck even if there was a one in a million chance of it happening.
“Measuring spirit ghost’s strength, expanding the area for the barrier.” The ghost child who was floating at the top said. I wasn’t sure if this was an illusion, but I vaguely saw something shining shot out into the sky with him as the midpoint, drawing a huge bright mist with it, and covered the entire vicinity.
An illusion as well as my eyesight becoming worse?
Without giving me time to think too much, the second I set my sight back towards the black fog, a huge head squeezed itself out from inside. It was about the size of a one storey building, and its half rotten face just had to be facing me. It then exposed its teeth with black bloodied gums and roared.
A very smelly and rotting odor.
I started to feel extremely dizzy, with my eyes turning into a “@.@” look.
“Yuu, you’d better stand behind with Yang Yang.” Pulling out the dual knives on the ground, this time, I finally noticed the pair of knives seemed very heavy, because the tra… no, it’s Ryan, put down the knives without using any force, but the knives were firmly stuck, deep into the soil, and the depth was unknown.
Chifuyu turned around and handed something to me. I took it and gave it a good look; it was a small triangular piece of paper with an unknown red text on it, “This is?” Don’t tell me this was a paper to curse someone, type of item.
“You still don’t know how to protect yourself, use it first.” Chifuyu said to me, “Amulet of the Dragon God, disburse favorable articulative motion, 137 point to the ground, Move!”
By the same time he finished chanting, I found that my surrounding seemed to have quieted down. The smelly odor, ashes, smoke, and etcetera had all disappeared, replaced by a type of grass-like fresh air all around me.
“Amulet of the Dragon God, disburse favorable articulative motion, 246 soar into the sky, Seal!”
I heard the ghost child above follow suit. But after a long while, I saw another strange light, which then surrounded me, like little bits of starlight.
“Sure enough, even Tong Lang knows this.” Chifuyu lips curved into a smile and turned his head away.
Ryan, who pulled out his dual knives, had already started walking towards the spirit ghost who had already have half of his body out of the black fog.
Even if I could not smell the bad odor anymore, the ground was still violently shaking.
“Ignorant~little~brats~” The spirit ghost was still continuing his slow and loud sentence.
At that second—
“You’re ignorant yourself!” Ryan’s dual knives was a like a meteor drawing past, then the huge rotten head fell to the ground.
… That’s it!?
* * *
I widened my eyes, stunned. The huge head fell on the ground with a “thud”, and died.
That’s it!? That’s a little too simple, right?!
“Yuu! Yang Yang! Careful!”
Just as I was in a trance, the head that dropped to the ground suddenly enlarged right in front of my eyes. In less than half a second, the rotten face turned savaged and terrifying. The mouth was open until the bottom of its ears, and I could almost see the rotten bones under the rotten meat; so distinct that it almost made me puke.
However, it didn’t get to hit me in the face. I clearly heard a “clang” sound. The huge head seemed to have collided into something and was repelled.
“Creature who formed a contract with me, allow the attacker to witness your form.” Chifuyu smiled. Rather similar to Ryan’s, I saw him taking out a silverish-white gem bean with black wordings on top, and suddenly a gust of wind came rolling around us, “Swaying from side to side, pass through point 145, Fly and pierce.”
To be truthful, due to Chifuyu having his back towards me, I seemed to have vaguely saw a shining bow and arrow. After he had finished chanting his should-be-an-incantation, a sharp wind penetrated the forehead of the huge head. With black blood squirting out, the head was knocked back into the dark fog.
Then, Ryan waved the dual knives, savagely engulfed in flames, and inserted them into the black fog, burning the spirit ghost’s huge body.
I don’t know if I should say the scene was terrifying or glamorous.
The flames were burning all around the cemetery, but not even one of the gravestones was burned. It was only ceaselessly burning the spirit ghost, until only his bones were left, which then turned into ashes. The ashes scattered in the wind, but didn’t enter the area of the barrier around me. Then, the black fog dispersed.
I saw a vast expanse of stone ground, like a distorted picture, appearing at the place where the black fog had just disappeared.
“Ryan, only fifteen minutes left.” Chifuyu shouted, all around us was gray dust, and the dispersed black fog floating around.
“That’s enough.” Ryan raised his dual knives up high, looking like a pair of Meteor’s wing.
I didn’t get to continue looking at it, because Chifuyu covered my eyes, “Yang Yang, don’t look at what’s about to happen next.” His voice was rather soft, or perhaps it was the surroundings that were too loud.
I heard something not a human’s voice but a beast’s roar. I also heard screams and wails, and if the barrier wasn’t there, I think would have been some smell surrounding me when the wind blew.
After a few seconds, it quieted down. Chifuyu put down his hands, and the place I was currently at, was not the cemetery anymore. To say correctly, it’s was a garden, a huge garden full of blooming white flowers.
In the middle of the garden was an Elf statue, but it was not holding onto any weapons. It was sculptured in a sitting position in the middle of the white flowers, smiling.
I suddenly had a better understanding of Ryan saying it’s a scenic view and a positive atmosphere. There were also butterflies all around.
“I’m sorry, because just now I was going to cut open the spirit world, and I was afraid it might hurt your eyes.” Ryan walked over to us, and his dual knives had already vanished.
After smelling the abundant floral scent, I subconsciously realized the barrier should have already been dispelled.
The ghost child drifted downwards, floating in front of us in mid-air, “Time taken was less than expected. I would like to return and report this first.” He then turned into smoke and disappeared beside me.
In fact, I can probably guess what had happened. When my eyes were covered, they probably wanted to link the spirit world, and with the right timing, throw the cemetery back. Then according to all the common storyline, my level wasn’t enough to look at those things yet.
“Just now that disburse-whatchamacallit?” I looked at Chifuyu who was standing beside me, he seemed to be waiting for Ryan, and that person had let down his hair to cover up his face again, turning back into a tramp. I could not find any traces of the valor from earlier.
“It’s the words of our clan.” Chifuyu told to me, “Words can change into spirit and gather energy. It’s something all oracles needs to learn.”
To be truthful, it was similar to a tongue twister. I think if I were to learn it, sooner or later I’ll probably bite my tongue and accidentally commit suicide.
“You can keep the charm by your side until you’ve learn how to use your ability, then you won’t be needing it anymore.”
I nodded, putting away the object Chifuyu gave me.
Ryan walked over to us, “There’s no leakage over here, should have been completely taken care of.” He looked at me and nodded, “You’ve worked hard, classmate.”
Worked hard on what!? I was only feeling extremely scared the entire time!
It was definitely not my idea to be dragged here; in my heart I felt my stomach full of XX, but I felt rather embarrassed to say it out loud.
A really inexplicable morning.
* * *
When senior found me in the canteen, it was around 11 o’clock.
Ryan and Chifuyu seemed to have something going on, so after the both of them took me to the canteen, they left together.
Currently, the people inside the canteen were students I didn’t know walking around, I heard Miao Miao had also recently left school due to work.
“You really are just like a puppy.” As soon as senior stood in front of my table, the first sentence he said was this, “Next time, want to write a “bring me home” sign and stick it on the table?”
I wrinkled my face, tired, can’t be bothered to deal with him. I felt that, in less than one day, I was already starting to regret entering this school.
“I heard Ryan and the others accepted a school job today, and you were also there.” Senior said with an affirmative tone, “It can be considered as practical, that kind of scene wasn’t much.”
He totally didn’t think of the possibility I could have been killed with one hit by the spirit ghost.
“Don’t worry, with Ryan and Chifuyu present, you won’t have the chance to die. The worst case scenario for you is to be heavily injured with broken limbs, but it wouldn’t take too long to fix you back up.” I wasn’t sure if senior was trying to comfort me or not.
“They are both very strong.” I mumbled, once again I experienced the difference between me and others.
“They’re not bad. Ryan is already qualified as a white robe, and should be considered as one of the highest-level students in your class.” Senior stood up as soon as he finished saying this, and when he came back, there were two extra cup of beverages on his hands, he put one of the cup in front of me, “This is carbonated juice, freshen yourself up.”
Up till now, I still couldn’t understand the level of the colored robes, but according to what they have said, I should be able to understand it one day.
It was an ordinary white mug, with a bunch of white bubbles foaming on top. The bubbles suddenly disappeared, and appeared again, just as though there were a lot of gas in the drink.
Taking a glance at senior’s cup, very good, he was drinking an ordinary looking brown tea.
Looking at the bubbling cup, I suddenly thought of the show on TV where a witch was cooking her potions. Basically, the thing she was cooking looked almost similar to this cup, as both of them kept on bubbling.
“Feeling suspicious?” Perceiving my doubt, senior stretched out his hand, taking my cup and then drank a mouthful.
His face didn’t turn purple, nor did he scream and then topple backwards. I guess there shouldn’t be a problem then.
With a “thud” sound, the cup was back in front of me. I picked up the non-stop bubbling drink and drank a mouthful.
“Sppfft!” It’s sour, it’s completely sour!
“Feeling refreshed, right?” Senior smiled while drinking his beverage.
He actually drank such a sour drink without even changing his expression!
“Cough, cough…” The sour gas rushed directly to my brain, and my whole body was completely awake due to the sourness.
“I forgot to mention this, but that’s lemon flavoured carbonated juice.”
You deliberately neglected to mention this!
Senior exchanged the two cups; in front of me now was the cup of brown beverage. He even took the lemon carbonated juice and continued drinking it without batting an eyelid.
This cup tasted much better, at least it was sweet, with a taste of honey, just like some honey flavoured tea.
“Yagen… I know you want to ask for the name of this drink. The honey is made by some spiritual beast, different from the honey you get from bees. There will be a tea flavor when brewing it, and there’s also the sweet fragrance from the honey.” Senior continued drinking the cup of lemon carbonated juice without wrinkling his forehead.
So originally this wasn’t honey from bees. I didn’t try to imagine the appearance of the spiritual beast in my mind, because I was afraid I won’t be able to continue drinking the beverage.
After a period of time, just as I had finished drinking my beverage, senior also put down his cup, “It’s almost time. You shouldn’t have any classes in the afternoon, so I’ll bring you to the campus shuttle transport.”
Honestly, I’d always known of the existence of the school transport in this school, and in the school manual, it was also written that no money was needed when taking the school transport, providing the students a free ride home.
If we threw aside the mess and chaos in this school, I feel this school’s welfare was actually not bad.
Even eating inside the canteen was free of charge — this was what senior told me earlier because he had asked in passing whether I wanted to stay for lunch. I rejected his offer. What I needed the most was to go back to the warm embrace of my home, to better soothe my battered young mind. And also, Ryan gave me a rather big box of enigmatic rice balls, I thought those were more than enough for me to eat.
“Then, let’s go.” Senior stood up first, and I followed suit. One after another, we walked out of the canteen.
There were actually a lot of people in the school, coming and going, students wearing uniforms were everywhere. There were those who were much older than me, there were also those who were much younger. Then I remembered this school had recruited students from primary to university. Even if there were only three classes in each grade, the total amount of students would be quite high, too.
“Just now, Chifuyu mentioned something about words that change into spirit, I didn’t quite get it.” I didn’t know why, but I vaguely felt this was something I should know, however, I had no clue why I had to know this. Still, I tried asking senior, who was walking three steps in front of me, about this.
Senior paused for a while, turned around with a surprised expression, and then he suddenly brought up a cold smile, “Indeed, you should start learning from there… It is something really urgent and relevant to you.”
Didn’t quite understand what he had just said, his words sounded like a riddle.
The two of us stopped right in front of an Elf statue.
“Words can be changed into spirit, it’s a type of spiritual language, but not entirely.” Senior said, “Binding a person, an object, or something else with words. You didn’t use my name, but the form of addressing stopped me in my tracks, that is one type of spiritual language.”
I listened until I was totally confused.
“This is… something used in everyday life by everyone, but won’t cause too much of a harm.”
Name is a type of spiritual language, I had a little impression on this, because this appeared in manhuas before.
“Use your imagination, listen carefully with your mind, and then carefully think with your mind. The spiritual language is then spoken through your mouth, this method will allow the effect of spiritual language to become even more powerful.”
“Won’t this mean everyone knows how to use it?” I don’t understand, according to what he had said, everyone uses spiritual language every day, then wouldn’t everyone be able to become the same as Chifuyu and the others?
“Let’s put it this way, most people unintentionally used the divinity of this language. He called your name causing you to stop, but it won’t hurt any part of your body.” Senior frowned slightly, as though he was trying to think of a relatively simpler and easier way to explain it to me for me to have a better understanding, “But, those who genuinely have the power of this language, can turn a spirit into a real person. They can also can call your name and take away your life. Chifuyu and the others are rather similar to this.”
I stared becoming dizzy while listening to the explanation.
“Let’s stop here for today.” Senior revealed a small smile, ending this topic, “Let’s go, you still need to get back home.”
Then he continued on walking.
* * *
I’m getting more and more confused about this school. It’s a total mystery, I’m being very honest. This school itself is a big question mark.
Parked at the campus shuttle transportation area were not cars. They were the most mysterious thing I’d ever seen.
I saw a goldfish drifting pass right in front of my eyes. The big eyed goldfish looked very familiar, so familiar that I had an illusion I’d seen this before in some animation. Just that this one in front of me was a magnified version, almost the same size as a bus.
Then, a piece of leaf floated past, I wasn’t sure if I saw wrongly, but there were actually people riding on top of the leaf.
“What are those?” I opened my eyes wide, staring at senior.
“Shuttle transportations.” He as a matter of fact.
‘What kind of shuttle transportations are those!?’
I saw that all of them didn’t even have the shape of a car. There were lots of goldfish drifting past… Wait a moment! What the hell was that pink pterodactyl that just flew by above?!
“These are all special transports for this campus, which were either collected or created by the three directors of the school.” Senior was already used to this, he was actually moving naturally about around a bunch of weird objects, totally unafraid of being run over.
I nervously followed behind him, a huge trilobite suddenly moved past beside me, someone was waving at me on top. I once again heard the sound of my nerves breaking.
“Which one do you prefer?” After he brought me to the shuttle transportation station, senior asked.
Looking around; basically I didn’t like any one of them. However, I had to choose one, or else I won’t be able to go home, right? No matter what, even if I’m beaten to death, I won’t choose the goldfish and the leaf. Those two things were extremely strange. Then I saw it, a kitty shuttle parked at the corner.
I was stunned.
Nn, just like the one you are imagining right now. Those who have seen “My Neighbour Totoro” should know what this bus looked like. And this bus was just right in front of me. The huge cat eyes just so happened to be looking at me as well. There were some discrepancies with the appearance and shape of the cat; this one didn’t seemed to be the same type of cat as the one in the animation. The ears were very big, similar to the type of cat which was currently very popular… I forgot the cat’s name and place of origin. Anyway, it was a cat shuttle swaying around in the corner.
Looking at the whole area, this was the one which looked most normal (Probably because I’d watched too much anime that I became used to it already).
“You want to ride that one.” Senior clapped his hands once, and then the cat suddenly rushed over to us, stopping right in front of us.
I started fantasizing, the kitty shuttle being very soft and comfortable, lots of girls would be wishing they could ride on it. Now I suddenly really wanted to ride the kitty shuttle.
The huge cat meowed twice.
“Go in.” Senior placed the box of rice balls into my hands, and then he pushed me up to the open door of the kitty shuttle, he said, “You better not puke inside, otherwise the cat shuttle will throw you out.”
I had yet to understand what senior had said, when the shuttle’s door closed. The kitty shuttle seemed to instantaneously move forward with the speed of a Mercedes. Senior’s face immediately disappeared before my eyes. I finally understood the meaning of his words. The beating internal organs told me the answer.
“This can’t be happening…”
A regular “boom, bang, boom, bang,” noise resounded in the car, it was definitely not some music, but the resounding noise of the beating and squirming of internal organs. I even saw a very thick blood vessel right beside my feet. Warm blood red liquids were surging through it, and then it continued flowing to the inner parts of the soft internal organs.
Everything… was just like the models of internal organs in biology class. The only differences were this was real; able to move, and very much alive.
There was a drop of blood which fell from above me and landed on my shoulder.
The soft fluffy chairs had already disappeared and were replaced by soft and beating internal organs. This was really a very realistic version of a kitty shuttle’s feature.
I know what I was supposed to do right now.
Because I’d been hearing a similar nerve breaking sound that kept screaming inside my mind which sounded like some devilish music.
“Let me down——!!!”