Edited by: Kuro and Lille
This chapter was sponsored by a collective effort of Nikki and two somebodies. One amazing somebody dropped 30 dollars worth of Ko-fi so thank you sooo much for your kindness and support! Love you all my Grandchildren! This is 1 out of 2 extra chapters so enjoyyyy.
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The Host regained consciousness in an abandoned house. He was standing in the living room of the house with a spirit floating in front of him.
"My name is Cameron Winter. This was my home before it was set on fire and I was trapped inside." The spirit's skin was peeling off. It looked scary, but the Host was not scared of him. "Even though I was burning, I think the smoke was the thing that killed me first."
Cameron Winter did not know how it happened, but somehow, he was the only one in the house when his house was set to flames. His wife and children were out and were able to avoid the crisis. He wanted to know what happened to him, whether it was deliberate or if it was just a simple mistake like leaving a candle lit and accidentally knocking it over. He felt like he could not rest until he found out! He didn't know why but he was really obsessed with finding out.
Though the Host couldn't see the world plot, he didn't panic. He listened to the man's story without saying a word before looking around.
"I will help you find the cause of this fire, but what happens if it is something quite disturbing?"
Like if his wife planned it or something, but he didn't say it out loud.
"That's fine, I just need to know." His lingering attachment to this world was that he was obsessed with finding out why.
After that, the spirit disappeared. It seemed that even the ghosts of this world had a recovery period when they used their powers too much.
When the Host got to his car, he didn't leave the driveway. He just closed his eyes and asked System 225 to send him the world plot.
[Understood, Host, sending world plot… now.]
The Host was currently on a mission sent to him by an agency. He was sent to check the abandoned house that was said to be haunted.
The house was abandoned and no one wanted to fix up the burned-down house. It could be seen that the wife was in too much grief to live in a house where her husband had died, but it was also because of the spirits or ghosts of this world.
This world had a thin veil between the realm of the living and the dead, so it wasn't too rare for people to see these ghosts.
The host was in the body of a man named Emery Hadi. He didn't know his real parents, but he had an adopted family. His adopted family lived right next door to Nora Labelle, the female protagonist of this world. The two had something in common which was why they were best friends. They both could see spirits.
The two were university students. Emery lived with his adoptive parents while Nora lived alone. Emery was over at her house most of the time though, so he contributed to her rent just a bit. He wanted to lift some of the burdens off her shoulders.
Anyway, they spent a lot more time helping spirits than they did at school.
Spirits and demons roamed the realm of the living. Spirits were souls who lingered in the mortal realm, while demons were those who were evil in their mortal life and were condemned to roam the earth, never living in peace as they were tortured to live through suffering day in and day out. Because of the thin veil between the land of the living and the land of the dead, many spiritual people awakened and were made to help guide those with lingering attachments to move on beyond the light.
No one knew what happened when people crossed over into the light, but for the Host, he knew that crossing over into the light meant that they were waiting to be reincarnated.
Nora, unlike Emery, ignored her ability at first, pretending that she couldn't see them because she wanted to be a "normal" person. But as she grew older, she realized that she couldn't hide this ability and decided that she was going to help people.
She had no male lead or female lead that she was interested in, but she did have a bit of conflict with someone. It was a demon who tormented her on her quests to help the spirits who struggled to move on. This demon was someone she knew. The demon was her father who was a serial killer when he was alive. Nora's mother was the one who killed him before killing herself. The mother had moved on, but her father, Jon, attached himself to Nora.
Not only did she help people, but she made it her goal to somehow get rid of her father. In the end, she learned a technique of some sort that could seal Jon into an item, forcing him to repent while attached to that item.
It came with a price though. Emery was the one who found that technique and was killed protecting Nora. The demon was able to cause a lot of problems for the people of the living. Since he was attached to Nora, he caused a lot of "accidents" to try to kill her. They started off extremely petty but then escalated into things like poles from construction sites falling, about to slip into canals, etc. A driver fell asleep behind the wheel going full speed while Nora and Emery were crossing an intersection on their day off. He ended up protecting her, dying with Nora in his embrace. Truly a tragic end.
'Some people, like Jon, just don't know when to give up.' Emery sighed as he thought about what happened to Emery and Nora. The two didn't deserve this kind of treatment from the world. It was like these world plots wanted their children to suffer before finally prevailing through hardships.
[*Chirp Chirp* Host, here are your missions:
[Main Mission: Seal Jon with Nora.
Side Mission: Help 100 spirits into the light.
[Good luck with your endeavors, Host.]
The side mission didn't need to be finished right away, but seeing only one side mission made him feel a bit wary.
Also sealing Jon would be fairly easy if he used a technique from another world, but he wanted to use something from this world. He didn't like to bring too much knowledge from other worlds since that could change the course of the world. He would only use a technique from another world if all else fails. Also, he would have to test it out because each world had different energy systems. Sometimes, the technique could be incompatible, so he would have to do more research on it...
The Host opened his eyes after getting all the information and headed back to his home. The original Emery had to go report to Nora after this, so the Host would do the same.
There wasn't much that Emery could say about this world. It seemed easy enough but he felt that there was something off. Emery knew that his gut feelings were always right. His gut always got him out of sticky situations and it helped him notice Arisa too.
'System, something is off about this world…' He couldn't put his finger on it, but he felt something was calling out to him.
*****
When Emery got home, his adoptive parents were still at work, so he headed to his room where the feeling of unease got stronger. He could hear Nora in there talking to someone but it seemed the other person was not replying back to her. He could hear the voice of the other person but it seemed Nora could not. She sounded distressed.
When Emery opened the door, another Emery, who was floating, was looking up at him in shock. Nora, who was crying, saw Emery, the Host, and was utterly confused.
"Emery! Why is your spirit here? What happened to you?" Nora rushed over to Emery and grabbed his arms. She felt that he was still warm and alive so why was his spirit still floating in the air?
The original Emery was shocked and he seemed speechless. His mouth moved but nothing could be heard.
Emery, the Host, felt like rubbing his head because of an oncoming headache.
'System 225, will I be kicked out of this world now that the original is still here?' That was all he could think of to ask System 225 who was also speechless.