"That's all I really have for you so you can leave early today." Felix said, shooing me out of his shop and slamming the door right behind me.
I stood there for a moment, trying to wrap my brain around what just happened. For the past four days, Felix had been working me to the bone at his shop but I guess I wasn't needed that much today. I'm not complaining though.
The streets were completely different from what they were like when I got here in the morning. Usually, I'd rarely ever see people walking around but now that it was the middle of the day the streets were crowded. It made hearing my own thoughts near impossible with how loud it was.
"Steven, right?" A voice from my left called out.
I looked over and saw Akari standing there with an unsure expression. We hadn't really talked much since she joined our group but from what John had told me, she was strong.
"Yeah that's right. What brings you over to this side of town?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"I heard there was a really good bookstore over here and wanted to check it out." Akari responded.
Bookstore? Oh right, there was one of those nearby. I never had a chance to check it out though since Felix usually released me late at night when every other shop was closed. Though with this newly acquired free time, I wasn't against checking out this place. This would also be a good chance to get to know about Akari.
"If you don't mind, can I tag along?" I asked.
Akari gave me a surprised look, "By all means. Honestly, I could use the help since I'd probably just get lost trying to find it."
I let out a soft laugh, "I feel you there. The bookstore is just around the corner though so I'm sure you'd be able to find it even without me."
"You'd be surprised."
The two of us began walking towards the bookstore and sure enough, there it was. This was my first time seeing it open so its appearance caught me off guard. On the outside, there were hundreds of books nicely stacked just outside the entrance. Looking through the window, I could see how busy the place was.
"You weren't kidding when you said it was right around the corner." Akari said, opening the door to the place.
We both entered the store and were met with a large area that was covered with shelves that were completely filled with books. It was almost overwhelming with how much stuff there was.
"So what kind of books are you looking for?" I asked, still looking around the shop.
"Anything related to aura really." Akari responded, taking a book off the shelf and skimming through it before placing it back.
"I only just activated my aura recently so I guess learning about it couldn't hurt." I said, looking through the shelves until I came across a book about the types of aura which I picked up.
Akari stopped moving suddenly which caused me to almost bump into her. I looked over to see why she stopped and saw that she turned around and was facing me.
"What kind of aura do you possess?" Akari asked.
"Shadow I think?" I answered.
The entire building got quiet for a second. Everyone including Akari had a shocked look on their face. Though some ended up just rolling their eyes as if they had just heard something stupid. After a brief moment, everyone else returned to their normal activities.
"You do realize that the Aura of the Shadows is an extremely rare type of aura right? I'm talking one-in-a-million." Akari asked like I was supposed to know this.
"Look, when I activated my aura I could control the shadows. Though I'm not entirely sure if that was my aura or genmochi."
Akari was silent for a moment, almost as if she was thinking to herself. While she was deep in thought, I took my time reading through the aura book I had grabbed earlier. The book explained each type of aura and made note of four special kinds of it that only a select few can use. Just as Akari had explained, the Aura of the Shadows was one of them. I only had time to read a little about it though before Akari snapped out of her thoughts.
"If you don't mind, can you show me the aura you possess?"
"Um… I'm not really sure how to activate it again." I said, avoiding eye contact.
"I see. Well I came here to buy books anyway so it works out." Akari shrugged, continuing her search for books.