Rin lay awake in his bed. He had finally finished his homework and went to bed. He had drifted off into a light sleep, when suddenly, he felt a heavy presence in the area. Another low-level vengeful spirit more than likely. This spirit felt particularly heavy, however. It seemed this spirit was on the verge of becoming a high-level vengeful spirit and probably was about to manifest a physical body. That's not good.
Once these spirits manifest physically, they become a lot more powerful. Rin normally ignored the low-level demons and spirits around this city. They were pretty much harmless in the general sense and would only cause minor destruction such as causing spontaneous fires or major traffic accidents. Sometimes they would even tempt people to murder or commit suicide. Rin did not care about this at all. But this one he could not ignore. He needed to keep a low profile while he recovered his demonic powers and these types of spirits attracted too much attention.
This particular vengeful spirit had a heavy presence that made Rin feel unsettled. Rin had lost his demonic powers 18 years ago when he fled to the Human Plane. And since then, although his spiritual awareness of demons and spirits was higher than most humans, his demonic powers in contrast, were quite low. It had been almost two decades, and he still only accumulated a small amount of power. This was enough for the low-level demons and spirits, but not if they manifested into a higher level. Rin would be all but defenseless if that were to happen.
Rin threw the duvet off of him and opened the window by his bed, as he had done many times before. He leapt out of the window and straight onto the powerlines in front of his house. Swiftly running across the lines, it almost seemed as if he was gliding on them. Rin had a human body, but his demonic energy protected his body and prevented him from being electrocuted by the live wires.
He honed in on the heavy presence and quickly found the vengeful spirit. It was a female spirit. Her clothes were tattered and ripped in places. The sleeve on her shoulder was ripped in such a way that one of her breasts had been exposed. She wore no shoes, and her feet were covered in blood. Bruises and gashes decorated her body and her face. At one time, she was probably quite an attractive woman, but now with her face bloodied and lip split open, it was hard to tell. As Rin approached her, she wailed through tears repeating the same words over and over again, "You said you loved me!! Why didn't you love me?"
She scratched and gouged at her arms which caused thick rivets of blood to seep out of the wounds. It was a horrifying sight. Rin made his way to her and stopped a few feet from where she stood. Her head hung low muttering her mantra. Rin cocked his head and asked her, "Why are you here? Have you not found peace in your death?"
The woman grew silent. The silence stretched for a while before she started to snicker, then her snicker turned into a cackle as she threw her head back and laughed. Rin gave her no reaction but continued to stare at her. As her laugh grew quiet, she finally said, "No, I haven't found peace. My lover did this to me! He said he loved me, but it was a lie." She wrapped her bloody arms around her body and began to sway from side to side while biting her split lip.
"My lover said he would leave his wife, but he lied. We were supposed to go away together! He promised me!"
The woman's head hung low again and in an agitated voice she said, "He thinks I'm a fool! I called his wife and told her he was leaving her! And can you believe he got angry at me??? He came to my apartment and started to beat me! We fought but he was too strong…"
The woman sat on the ground now. She crouched and hugged her knees to her chest as she continued.
"I knew it was over between us then, but I couldn't let him go…I grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the shoulder. He took the knife away from me and told me that he never had any intentions of being with me. He said saw me at a coffee shop and decided to approach me because he thought I was pretty and would be nice in bed. He told me he only wanted sex from me…"
The woman began to rock back and forth.
"How could he lie to me? He dropped the knife and was about to leave… But I couldn't let him go! I ran to get the knife as he was leaving and stabbed him in the back of the neck. When he fell, I didn't know what to do…I just wanted to die with him, so I rolled him to his back and sat on top of him. I looked into his eyes as the life faded from them, took the knife and slit my own throat…I know suicide is taboo, but I wanted to be with him."
Rin sighed and looked away. He was growing impatient.
"I died in his arms…"
Rin then looked her in the eyes and repeated himself more forcefully, "Why. Are. You. Here?"
The woman looked as though she was going to cry again. Rin's patience finally ran out. He walked to the woman and picked her up by her tattered shirt, it ripped again now exposing both breasts. She whimpered.
"I couldn't rest! I wanted to be with him, but I felt regret! As much as I loved him…I wanted to do so much more…to be so much more! He took that away from me!"
And now the truth was finally out. She wasn't a vengeful spirit on the verge of manifesting, she was a regretful spirit.
Vengeful spirits were relatively easy to deal with if one had enough power. Their vengefulness originated from hatred in their former life. The source of hatred could be easily found usually. Scorned lovers, hatred for one's family or friends who had wronged them. Students who had committed suicide due to extreme bullying or overworked office workers who were constantly being berated by their boss and given tight deadlines.
Regretful spirits were a bit more complicated. Before exorcising them from existence, the specific regret had to be pin-pointed or else they'll just come back.
This woman did feel rage for her lost lover, but more than that, what truly kept her tied to the Human Plane was her regret. She was very young, probably early 20s and got tangled up in a love affair with a bored older man. She was failing at her college classes, growing distant from her family, all to win the affection of her lover who had a family of his own. For it to end like this…She died full of dreams unfulfilled.
It's true. It was indeed sad. However, Rin only gave a damn about a few people, and unfortunately for the regretful spirit, she was not one of them.
Rin was still holding the now shaking spirit with his left hand. With his right hand, it slowly lifted in the air stopping inches from the woman's face. Suddenly his nails grew longer and sharper. They were as refined and as strong as steel. With one look anyone could tell how much damage those claws could cause to a person.
The woman whimpered and began to struggle in Rin's hold.
"…P-please…I want to li…"
Before the woman could finish her sentence, Rin had already swiftly cut the regretful spirits throat with his sharp claws. Blood splattered across Rin's face. The blood from the wound sprayed and ran down the woman's neck and over the peaks of her breasts. Little droplets dripped onto the ground. The spirit fluctuated and dispersed into a cloud of grey smoke and ashes. The blood on the ground, already drying.
Rin wiped his face and retracted his nails. He had to destroy the spirit before it manifested into something beyond what he could handle.
He made his way back home and snuck back into his room. After washing the blood off his clothes and body he finally fell into a deep slumber.
The next day, Rin awoke well rested. The events of the night before barely registered in his brain before starting his morning routine. He readied himself for school and made his way into the dining room for breakfast. He was grateful he did not have to wake up early to cook breakfast for everyone. Cura had already mentioned the night before during dinner that he would take care of the cooking duties in the morning.
Rin plopped into his chair directly across from Kief and said his 'good mornings.' Kief was currently looking down into his notebook with his brows furrowed. Ruru and Arty chatted amongst themselves and teased each other as Cura walked in with plates of omelets and turkey bacon. As Cura, placed the plates in front of everyone, Kief did not look up from his notebook when he asked, "You have a long night?"
Rin stared in surprise. He did not answer.
"You must've been up late doing your homework again. You need to try to finish it earlier so you can get proper rest, Rin."
"Oh...ok"
Rin couldn't really say anything else to that. There weren't many times that Kief had expressed concern over Rin's welfare and to hear it now from his guardian's mouth momentarily confused Rin.
Kief said nothing more on the subject and continued to read whatever was written in his notebook.
After breakfast, Rin gathered his school bags and said goodbye to Ruru and Arty.
"You both be good today!" He rubbed both of their heads with a smile and off he went.
The school day went by as usual. By lunch time, Rin, Leah and Zel had found their usual lunch spot atop the school building on the roof. They all sat in a small circle diving into their lunch sandwiches.
As usual, Leah, being the bubbly personality, jabbered on about things while Zel and Rin listened, occasionally chiming in to comment.
"Ahhh! I know this movie is going to be even better than the book! The budget is HUGE! Why don't we all go see it this weekend? It'll be fun!" Leah said excitedly.
Zel frowned at his sandwich and picked something out of it. "Somehow, I doubt that. Movies are rarely better than the books. Also, the director has a terrible track record for his movies," Zel said, all while not even looking at Leah.
"You are such a downer Zel!" Leah pouted. But just then a small smile appeared on her face. This was their usual back and forth.
"What about you, Rin? Would you like to see it?" Leah asked as she snaked her arm around Rin's arm and leaned in.
Rin looked down into Leah's eyes and smiled. Leah was extremely pretty and very popular at their school due to her looks and her stellar grades in their class. She came from a pretty wealthy family and wanted for nothing. The exact opposite of Rin. Rin sighed.
"If you insist, I'd be happy to go with you," Rin said with a smile and took another bite out of his sandwich. He felt a pair of eyes on his face and looked up to find Zel looking at him with an odd expression before looking away.
Odd…If you want to come, then just say so, Rin thought to himself.
"Great! It's a date!" Leah chirped happily.
There was a strangled cough that came from Zel, but Rin ignored it.
The three continued to eat their lunch. Soon the day ended, and they walked out of the school as usual when Zel finally spoke up.
"If the offer is still open, I would like to come with you guys to see the movie this weekend…"
"Of course you can! It wouldn't be the same without you!" and when Leah said that Zel flashed a rare smile.
"So, you can smile, what an enigma," Rin said as he bumped shoulders with Zel. "I was beginning to think you didn't have the muscles necessary to pull it off. Well done!"
Zel glared at Rin, but eventually huffed out a laugh despite himself.
Despite knowing Zel for two years now Rin still felt it was sometimes awkward between them. He felt as though Zel constantly kept his guard up around him. Rin didn't know why, but noticed that he didn't do this with Leah. Around Leah, Zel became totally unguarded and unusually attentive when she spoke to him directly. He would smile at her and was never mean to her outside of their usual banter.
What a strange feeling…Rin didn't realize it before, but he found himself wanting to get closer to Zel. They were more alike than he dared to admit.
After walking some ways and confirming the movie date, they bid each other their goodbyes and went home.
On his way home, Rin encountered some low-level spirits and demons latched on to various human hosts. Of course, the humans were none the wiser while Rin sat back and observed.
There was a particular human, male, who was slouched over as he walked on the opposite side of the sidewalk. He was mumbling something to himself as he walked. Out of curiosity, Rin decided to follow this man. He remained across the street but leisurely kept pace with the man. There was a demon spirit resting on the man's shoulder. Every few seconds the man would grab his shoulder and rotate it as if that would somehow ease the heaviness he felt.
The man continued to walk, and Rin continued to follow. Rin wondered what the man was mumbling to himself and decided to heighten his sense of hearing. He hyper focused on the man and could finally make out the words, "…I can't do this…How could he fire me…It wasn't my fault the company lost the account…it's not fair…what will I tell my wife…I can't do this anymore…."
Oh. That's rough, Rin thought to himself. As the man continued to mumble the demon spirit grew more and more excited. It would hug the man's neck and whisper in his ear. The spirit then rubbed his head against the man's head as if to soothe him before becoming excited again. Finally, the man stopped. Rin stopped in his steps too. The man stared down at the ground for a long while before finally turning to face the street. He made eye contact with Rin.
Rin's eyebrows rose for a second before he cooled his expression. The man shed a single tear before crazily breaking off into a run, off the sidewalk and onto the busy road. The man never saw the delivery truck coming as it ran into him with a powerful thud. Breaks squealed and smoke from the tires could be seen. Burnt rubber filled the nostrils of Rin and the other people who had barely registered what happened.
A scream sliced through the air as what was left of the man was on full display to the crowd that was now starting to form. Blood pooled in spots while chunks of flesh had been discharged many feet away.
Rin cocked his head and put his hands in his pocket. He turned back toward the sidewalk and continued his walk home.
Being a demon, Rin never felt compassion or good-will towards humans. In fact, he thought most of them deserved their fate. He had not encountered many humans in the Demon Plane that were decent. They groveled and complained and plotted to kill one another. The strong would take advantage of the weak and would murder and pillage in order to gain. They would wage wars against each other for lands, money and power. Demons and evil spirits existed off the wicked whims and wishes of these humans, so naturally, turnabout is fair play. They were the cause of their own demise. How foolish.
Rin shook his head in resignation and continued his walk home. He probably had to prepare dinner again.