"I can't believe you really don't want any revenge for them,"
Farrel said as he rested on a tree trunk.
He had been chasing the ghost boy for quite a while to lay down the spell on him, but without any ghosts enchanting his body and the fact that Joy was an ethereal ghost, Farrel couldn't really keep up with the ghost that just ran straight through trees and bushes.
"It's not like I didn't feel angry towards those bandits, but I believe that helping people to not become the victims of those bandits felt more fulfilling than getting my revenge."
Joy replied, floating away a few meters from Farrel to make sure the latter didn't put any kind of spells on him.
"You're really one of a kind." Farrel sighed before leaning his head back, his eyes looking straight at the floating ghost boy in front of him.
"But I guess it's not that strange considering your aura and ability being nothing like those vengeful ghosts' auras."
Joy stayed silent, but hearing Farrel's words about him having a special, different, possibly unique ability, made him smile inwardly.
An excited feeling rose up from his chest. If he was still a human, his blood would be pumping fast, his chest would be beating fast and a red hue would appear on his cheeks or ears.
But since he was only a ghost now, only the unexplainable pumped-up feeling appeared on his ethereal body and a change in his aura appeared.
Seeing the subtle, yet noticeable change in the ghost boy's aura, Farrel opened his mouth.
"So, now that the bandits are gone, what do you want to do?"
Joy had wanted to make sure that no other people would fall victim to the bandits, not wanting another kid, or person, ever to be in the same situation as him before.
But now that all the bandits had been taken care of, Joy wouldn't be able to do what he wanted to do anymore.
People would not be seeing those bandits anymore so he should already be fine, and there shouldn't be an unpleasant stuck in his heart and he would be able to move on in peace.
However, what he had experienced for the past few days birthed another want, another wish in his heart.
He hadn't been a ghost for that long, but he already found and felt the feeling of being a ghost, an ethereal creature that couldn't interact as freely as humans with the world.
He felt how empty it was despite being able to fly and go anywhere and do whatever he wanted to do without worrying about ever dying of hunger or being hurt by cruel people.
Joy could feel an almost boundless sense of freedom. But that freedom somehow felt different than the one that he imagined.
With only a single want in his heart and no way to achieve it, Joy kept on living as a ghost, wandering around the forest and trying his best to get people away from going in certain directions. Away from the bandits' hideout.
But his endeavor didn't always end in success.
He was just a young ghost, he didn't even know how to use his ability or simply break a twig with his ethereal body, let alone showing his body to those people.
He just felt his wish was impossible to achieve as he could only do a very bad job at it, feeling as powerless as before when he was still just a human.
But all of that changed when he finally met Farrel.
Albeit it was quite a traumatizing experience for him to once again watch how his life was before when he was still a human, it was also the first time for him to experience something like that and his ethereal hand touching with a real human body.
It made him wonder, question, and particularly amazed by what Farrel was able to do.
And that feeling amplified even more when the two of them started gathering the small vengeful ghost army and they found out Joy had a special ability.
An ability that was said to be special and unique.
Although Joy could feel his energy was dwindling fast, making him feel tired and weak faster, something that he didn't like to experience again after finally being liberated from a mortal's body.
Knowing that he was the reason the vengeful ghosts that were so hard to talk and reason with suddenly being cooperative and wanting to make the deal with Farrel, made Joy find the missing piece in his being.
Joy finally felt like he succeeded in doing something splendidly.
He failed at surviving when he was still a human.
He also failed to save people from the bandits when he became a ghost.
But now, he succeeded in helping Farrel, calming the vengeful ghosts and even helping them get their revenge on those bandits.
Success was something that Joy rarely felt in his life. And him finally getting one was like an addict that could finally get a dose after being deprived of it for a long time.
Joy remembered how happy and fulfilling it was to help Farrel and those vengeful ghosts get their revenge.
And Joy wanted to feel more of it. More of that feeling of success and satisfaction that came from his hard work.
So after staying silent for quite a while after hearing Farrel's question, Joy finally answered,
"I don't know myself where I want to go or what I want to do now the bandits are gone."
"But I know for sure that what I want to do now is to follow you, do whatever you want, and go wherever you like, I want to follow you and do that together with you."
Farrel had expected this kind of answer when he saw Joy's aura, but hearing it with his own ears really made him showcase a genuine smile on his face.
Ghosts have been his friends ever since he decided to become a shaman, and they were the creatures that he had been spending most of his time with in his whole life, even more than other humans.
Losing the ghosts that had been residing within him not only made his body weak and powerless but also made him feel lonely without their presence.
Those ghosts were also the ghosts that decided to follow him. He met them all over the world when he was still on his journey to become the strongest shaman in the world.
And when he was already the strongest, those ghosts went along with him, accompanying him that lived alone in the forest in the middle of nowhere until he finally passed away himself.
Hearing that another ghost wished to follow him willingly, made Farrel smile as he extended his hand forward.
Knowing what he wanted to do, Joy floated close to Farrel and shook his hand.
The moment the two hands touched, a connection between the two entities was born.
Different from the vengeful ghosts that had made a deal to complete a single task, the contract between Farrel and Joy was stronger as the two of them now could literally feel each other's feelings despite it being quite vague.
And from that, the two of them knew how happy each of them was to make that contract and to help each other out.
"Welcome to the team, kid. Hope we could help more souls achieve their peace and make the bad humans pay for what they did."
"Thanks, Farrel. I would do my best to help you achieve that."
As the two of them finally closed the deal and Farrel was about to think of what he should do next, a distant voice of crying was heard in his ears.
And Joy seemed to also hear it as the two of them stared at each other while squinting their eyes.
Farrel shook his head, his hand moved upward to massage his forehead.
"I forget that this one is not a vengeful ghost and just likes to mess around with people."
"I see, so that's why she didn't disappear even after the deal was complete right?"
"Yup, you're learning fast, Joy. You'll get used to me and my antics soon. But don't worry, there are still other things I can teach you to do."
After nodding their heads, the two then raised their heads and looked toward the direction of the tree branch above them.
On top of it, the ghost woman was sitting with her hands covering her face as she continued crying and crying while peeping at Farrel's and Joy's direction towards the gaps between her fingers.
Her crying was loud and sounded as if it was a fake one, which Farrel knew was actually the case.
Just like a kid that cried to get attention, it was the same case with the woman ghost this time.
After releasing another sigh, Farrel finally asked,
"Okay, what do you want?"
The second her ears heard Farrel's words, the crying abruptly stopped as the ghost woman floated down from the tree branch.
She then stopped right in front of Farrel and gave him the best genuine smile she could muster.
The smile actually looked evil due to her wound-covered face and an unnaturally wide mouth, but Farrel saw her aura and knew that she didn't mean anything evil this time and she actually wanted, tried to be nice.
The woman then slowly raised her hand toward Farrel while maintaining the smile on her face.
It took Farrel a full second or two to get what the woman wanted, but he eventually got it.
'I actually didn't want this too much, but considering my current circumstances…'
'Beggars can't be choosers.'
He needed all the strength he could get in this unknown place and situation.
He didn't even know where he was and why he was there in the first place. Farrel couldn't risk being completely powerless when he was in such a situation.
After shaking his head and releasing yet another sigh, Farrel decided.
"All right, all right, I understand."
Farrel then raised his hand and met the woman's hand.
"Welcome to the team," He said as a new connection was established between the two of them.
"IKHIHIHIHIHII!" The wide smile then turned to full-blown laughter as the woman laughed while shaking her head left and right nonstop, seemingly feeling giddy.
Hearing the laughter that could make a person's hair stand on end, Farrel and Joy then looked at each other.
One stared with a 'I hope you know what you have done.' look.
And the other one stared with 'I do hope that I won't regret this decision later.' look.
The two of them then sighed as they turned their backs towards the giddy woman behind them.