~ Three years later, in 2019, Spiritual Realm
A woman sat inside a boat with her baby in her hands, singing him a sweet melody while many other people stood on the shore at the camp.
"A good day as ever!" Ayuka called out and stretched her arms in the air, accompanied by the same-year girl next to her. "You seem to be full of spirit today. I guess you must've slept well."
Her name was Asuka. She seemed to be of the same height as Ayuka herself. She had yellow eyes, and black hair dropped down to her middle back. She wore a casual outfit which consisted of a black t-shirt, short jeans, and two red threads around her wrists.
"If I wouldn't, I'd never make it to this camp. Just look at all of those people. They seem to have times of their lives. People are camping on the shore. Some people use boats on the lake, and even children, playing around, and adults other things."
The camp was a free time event inside the 'Spiritual Realm' where people had the chance to meet and make new friends. It consisted of several activities that children and adults could attend, while some were organized for children of the age of seven or above.
"True, but I don't think there's much to worry about you. You're incredibly skilled in all sorts of stuff and even received a commission at the age of sixteen!" added Asuka as she shared Ayuka a kind and innocent smile. "Huh? I guess I am that good, haha!"
Both girls continued to explore the campsite while attending to some of the challenges, but usually, Ayuka won over Asuka. They fooled around for about half an hour until Asuka raised her arm and surrendered.
"Okay, okay. You're much better at everything than I am! It makes me a little jealous." Ayuka put her arms on her hips and smiled. "I'm sure you'll find something you're better at than me. You just gotta look and wait for the unimaginable. Although I'll tell you, I'm pretty good at everything."
Asuka nodded, "We should get back to our dorm and take a nice rest before it becomes dark. I'd rather not stay out in nature and be attacked by some unknown evil spirit."
Ayuka agreed and with a nod, suddenly heard the screams of a woman. "Please, help us!" people's eyes locked on everyone, and spotted a woman and her baby slowly getting dragged down the river to the waterfall.
The lifeguards who were assigned to watch over the camp immediately acted. They were a skilled duelist, specifically trained in the 'Human Rescue Attendance' so they had lots of knowledge on how to rescue people in danger.
They began to communicate with one another using their arms as a message and hurriedly rushed to the shore and whipped out a rope that one of them hurled at the mother. "Miss, grab this!" his throw was top-notch, and his accuracy was that of a sniper. She grabbed until the boat slammed into a rock and broke from the wood colliding with a sturdy rock.
Before the mother could react her lower body slipped into the river, which caused her baby to cry and fall into the water. Immediately the lifeguard pulled out the woman. "My baby!" she shouted as the lifeguard holding rope immediately hurled his part over the rock and tied it around in an instant. "Hold on!" he called.
The lifeguard rushed along the shore one more time, then quickly dove into the water as the second lifeguard tossed another rope in his direction, who tried to search for the baby, but the waves made it impossible to see his smaller frame.
"I can't find him!" shouted the man while quickly rasping the rock and continuing to search. He dove underwater a few more times, but never located him.
The mother, who was pulled out of the water, screamed from fear as she knew her baby wouldn't be able to survive much longer, unlike adults.
A cyclone of wind blasted through the air and caused Ayuka's clothes and hair to wave behind it. Ayuka bent her torso forward and immediately unleashed a devastating pressure from behind her that instantaneously blew back Asuka's clothes, who had to cover her face from it.
She yelled out her name, but Ayuka's body already darted across the shore at breakneck speed, and people at the campsite couldn't even see a hair tip in front of them. All they felt was a roaring wind, almost destroying their tents and tossing the sand around them.
Asuka's eyes shook in amazement. She spotted her friend leap in the air at the river and then dove underwater.
While underwater, Ayuka managed to overcome the water pressure and swim through it without too much difficulty. She felt the water mass slamming her body. Its pressure made it worse for her to hold her breath, and searching for the baby seemed to have been an additional problem she needed to face.
But as she spotted the baby, she accelerated through the underwater currents and immediately reached out for him. She struggled as the baby continued to get dragged further and further through.
Her vision started to grow blurry, and slowly realizing she was passing out, but determined to save him, she held on and finally managed to grasp him.
She used one of her hands and legs to swim, while making sure to hold the baby tightly in her other arm. Soon she surfaced and rushed to crawl up on the shore, soaked and breathless.
The lifeguards approached her and checked her condition. "She's just unconscious!" claimed the lifeguard. One of them picked up Ayuka's body, while the other brought the baby back to her mother, who was happy to see her baby still breathing. But he still needed to be checked.
Two days later.
Asuka came rushing through the hospital corridors and checked on Ayuka after hearing the good news. "Ayuka, it's Asuka!" she shouted, and hurried in the room. Ayuka met with her friend's eyes and hugged each other with happiness.
"I was worried you wouldn't make it, but what you did back then was absolutely crazy!" Ayuka chuckled and grabbed the back of her head. "I wasn't thinking much. I just did what I thought was right."
"Ehehe... I won't lie. You were kind of sexy too." Ayuka immediately blushed and became embarrassed. "Oh, t-thank you, haha." Instead of feeling disturbed, Ayuka felt impressed and heard her heart beat faster.
"If you're ready to return to the dorms, I'll be waiting for you outside to get dressed." In that moment, Ayuka reached out for her left arm. "Um, sure. I'll be outside in a minute."
Asuka left the room and left Ayuka alone. She continued to think about Asuka's statement and held her left arm tightly. "I feel so strange..." She finished and dressed up into casual clothes.
For several months that Ayuka lived inside the Spiritual Realm, she attended numerous dangerous activities; she usually stole Asuka's time to shine who wanted to prove to Ayuka that she was capable to help people in danger. Slowly, that started to infuriate Asuka to point she would do the unthinkable.
Ayuka sat on her bed, looking through the night, smiling as she called Alexis. Once she picked up, she quickly asked. "Hey. Why are you calling me so late, Ayuka?"
"Well, usually you're not free at the day, so I never have the chance to speak to you, but Alexis, I'd only like to check if you have any commissions for me to attend tomorrow morning." She chuckled.
Ayuka could hear that Alexis had been searching through papers and looked at it more thoroughly. "Hm? Let me see. Most of the commissions have already been occupied by other duelists, so if I'm not mistaken, you should have free time tomorrow. Why? Don't you want to spend some time with Asuka?"
Without Ayuka being observant, she couldn't notice or hear somebody creeping behind her. "I'd love to spend the free time with her, but I'd also like to help those people in need of assistance."
"Haha, you're overworking yourself. Look, you've already done enough for these last few months. People are starting to consider you as one of the best commissioners at the Spiritual Realm, but none of the commissions for tomorrow shouldn't be too hard for anyone to accomplish. You catch me?"
Ayuka chuckled out loud as she heard Alexis joke around for a little. "Of course, I do. Thanks so much, Alexis." But then, Ayuka suddenly became solemn.
"But there's... something else I wanted to ask. Yesterday, there was this strange feeling at the camp. People didn't seem to have been as calm as usual. Most of them looked like they were stressed out, and there were fewer people than before. They were talking about some kind of curse inside the Spiritual Realm. Could you tell me more about it?"
Alexis stopped moving through the pages and noticed the newspaper that informed people about the curse.
"We don't know, exactly, only a little. Citizens started to become more and more anxious visiting the camp. Some claimed that everytime they visited the campsite, more and more people started to disappear.
"Most of us believe that there's been a new breed of spirits that somehow started to manipulate people into going deeper into the woods. We've been trying to search more thoroughly for the cause, but many of our best duelists ended up never returning. We think that the spirit might be trying to find a specific target for it to locate and that could be the only reason why the curse hasn't stopped.
"Ayuka, be careful. We don't know who their target is, but if it is, I'd prefer for you to stay away from those woods."
Ayuka looked at the phone a little and became unimpressed. "Let me guess. All of those commissions have been surrounding the curse of the woods, and that's why you don't want me to attend them. Am I missing the point?"
Ayuka despised the idea of being kept in the darkness, and even after Alexis's confirmation, she still wanted to attend them. "Look, Ayuka. If the curse is actual, we can't afford to lose you. You're a mystery to us. It's not because we think you're the reason behind it. We were told to keep you away from mischievous places; reasons unknown."
"What if I told you that, Asuka is the-"
Ayuka stopped the call and dropped the phone, only to hear a voice behind her. "Ayuka..." She flinched for a moment as she felt someone's breath scraping her cheeks. She turned around and noticed Asuka.
She could feel a strange presence around her and immediately crawled away from Asuka, petrified as she didn't understand what was happening. Asuka slowly stood up and then turned to look down at her.
Her eyes were shivering. "A-A-Asuka..." Asuka stood calmly and looked, holding a scary face. "Care to explain what's going on?"
"I-It's not what you think, Asuka! Just let me explain!" she called as Asuka's eyes shadowed. "You said you wouldn't mention the curse. And now you're trying to fix the problem?" Asuka inquired whereas Ayuka continued to tremble on the floor. "And now... Alexis will become the cursed one? Are you risking her life for your curiosity?"
Ayuka immediately reached for the taser and prepared to escape in silence. However, Asuka caught her ankle and caused her to fall onto her front. "I'm not done talking, Ayuka."
"Didn't we agree you wouldn't tell about my identity?" Ayuka immediately pointed the taser ahead as tears dripped from her eyes. "Stay back!" She didn't want to harm a friend, but she didn't want to die either.
"Don't come any closer!" she was hesitant to use the taser on her friend, and Asuka knew that as she slowly crouched in front of her with a lifeless expression. She saw Ayuka being clueless about what to do.
"It's your fault that the curse is now targeting Alexis. If something happens to her, it'll all be your fault. Your fault, Ayuka."
Asuka's eyes hollowed, and she seemed to have been violent deep inside her mind. "Did you come here to steal others' lives? Did you not believe my tale?" Ayuka screamed out right after. "I told you to stay back!" she triggered the taser to be zapping right in front of Asuka's face; unfazed.
"You must've thought that the curse I mentioned wasn't real. Look at you now; the one targeted too. You doubted my words, and now you're hesitant to do anything."
Her tears continued to slip down her cheeks more and more as she could barely speak. "Are you afraid I'm going to kill you? Are you afraid to harm me? You're always the one pulling the strings."
"You didn't know that curse was real?" she concluded, as Ayuka immediately shut her eyes and shouted. "I don't know! I don't! Why would I know?!" then, Asuka slowly reached for the taser and caused Ayuka's eyes to open more. "Please, don't..." she covered the taser and then closed her face to Ayuka's who said her name. "Asuka..."
Ayuka pushed her arms forward, shoving Asuka's body back. But she heard the taser's zap that zapped her back. Her eyes opened wide as her pupils shrunk. She fell to the floor once again.
Her mouth had been dripping with saliva from the electrocution as her body continuously twitched. She tried to speak, only to be held back by the pain. She tried to slowly crawl away. "Where are you going? We're not finished, yet."
Asuka slowly walked behind her, seeing how Ayuka tried to run, but instead, Asuka pressed the taser on her back and zapped her again. The second electrocution was worse and Ayuka's saliva drooled more than before, with her face planted into the ground.
Her limbs were shaking. She was paralyzed, brutally, and her mouth couldn't stop shivering either. There was a small puddle of her drool below her face which was revealed after Asuka rolled Ayuka's body to the side for her to look at the ceiling.
Asuka crawled on top of her body, silently listening to Ayuka's begging. "P-Please... stop..." she cried.
Asuka's face was only an inch away from Ayuka. All she could do was look in a straight line, not even what was happening around her. She heard Asuka say, "I really don't want to do this," she triggered the taser right in front of Ayuka that brightened her face blue. She tossed the taser to the side, only to make her believe it was finished.
However, just then, Asuka's hands grabbed around her neck. She forcefully began to choke her, the tight grip audible. "But I have to do this. Someone has to put an end to this, tired tradition."
Ayuka was gagging, wheezing, and could feel Asuka's hands roughly grabbing her neck, choking her to no end. Asuka's grasp became stiffer and more violent. Ayuka's arms and legs were trying to break free by waving her arms and legs, but in the position, she was in, it was helpless.
"I must end it. To expel the evil from the realm." Ayuka's noises continued to become more and more brutal, louder, and more rushing as the gagging continued to sound outward. "And... to protect it." Ayuka's arms softened, her legs struggling to stay up until finally, the gap between her legs opened; her legs fell to the ground, not moving anymore.
Veins in Ayuka's eyes were visible and the drool was all around her lips, along with the tears soaking her eyes. Then, slowly, Asuka's eyes opened wide and lost their creepiness. The presence Ayuka felt beforehand disappeared, and Asuka looked down at Ayuka's immobile body.
"A-Ayuka... D-Did I... kill..." Asuka's eyes shivered and soon afterward, tears started gathering in her eyelids. She couldn't stop looking at Ayuka's still eyes. "Did I kill Ayuka...?" she couldn't hold it in and gently reached for her cheeks until she finally broke down.
She bowed forward, closer to her face as she grabbed the floor next to Ayuka's still body. She screamed out loud a sound of hatred, sorrow, and fury and continued. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, Ayuka!" as she was crying out loud she tried to wake her up while slowly petting her forehead, screaming even louder, and then pushing her face into Ayuka's chest, hugging her tightly.
In the end, the curse that killed people resided deep inside Asuka's body, until it finally moved on to the next person. ~
On the ship, others looked at Ayuka who had been slowly falling asleep from boredom as nobody talked to her. "I don't know how she managed to survive or how it happened; she never told me that. But something about her bloodline was special, so the curse didn't affect her. To Asuka's eyes, it seemed like she truly killed her."
To be continued...