Chereads / An unlikely crossing of paths. / Chapter 3 - The aftermath

Chapter 3 - The aftermath

"What was that ? Where did that kid even came from?" Miko thought to herself while remembering the encounter with the strange kid and her teacher a few moments ago.

Knowing that her power beads were completely broken and also because of Hana insisting, Miko decided to get new ones. The store they stopped by to purchase the beads was owned by an old women. The old woman was being praised by a lady for the the beads she have got, the reason was that she was approached by men, which she seemingly thought was the effect of the beads. The lady addressed the old women by the name "Mother", who said in return that if those power beads ever ran out of power, she would recharge it for 30,000 yen. The lady happily agreed and left. Mother, who seemed to have earned quite a profit, kept all the money in a locker while noting that those beads worn by the lady can only be used toe to three more times. "At this point.. i just dont want to be a burden.." she said to herself as she looked toward a letter right before she was approached by a voice.. "Excuse me, is there a strong prayer beads?" It was Miko who asked with Hana standing on her side, who added to Miko's question "that won't break so quickly!"

("Oh, just kids, huh") she thought, knowing that kids may not give much monry, she decided to give them any random beads for 3,000 yen. The moment Miko put the beads on her wrist, it broke into pieces just like before. Mother and Miko,both seemed to have noticed a "thing" behind Miko, although not as clearly, Mother was able to "see" the ghost as a black mist. The ghost was just similar to the one that was crushed by Spirit just a short time ago... it was just as strong.. or maybe.. even stronger.. acknowledging the weight of the situation and the danger the ghost possessed, Mother decided to take this seriously and brought multiple beads one after another, each one stronger than the previous one... yet... every single one of them just ended up same... in pieces. In the end, Mother decided that she will use her strongest beads to ward that ghost, she took out a box, upon opening it there was a power beads that shined golden, clearly indicating itself to be far stronger than anything before. Mother, being sure in beads power, handed them to Miko, who put them on. The beads started to show it's effect as the ghost was finally struggling... until the moment it used more of its power and the golden beads.. was broken to pieces... leaving Mother in utter shock..

The two, after not finding any suitable beads, headed home, being disappointed. But the one thing that went good is that the ghost that was following Miko was no longer to be seen....

"Sigh, I didn't expected more ghosts to get attached to her... i know it's not good, but I'm happy to see I'm not the the only one tormented by ghosts" a young man spoke as the little kid beside him crushed the ghost by calling another one, it was Yayoi who took care of the ghost that was following Miko without her noticing. "Now, from our "indirect - little conversation" with Miko, we know that the ghosts would get attached to people with strong spiritual power like Hana and you but.. they attack only when someone "sees" them.. " Yayoi spoke as the Spirit went back to the doll. Keitaro agreed in response "yea, seems like it but for people with strong spiritual power... ghosts may get attached to them without causing any direct harm but slowly feed on their power which, may in turn, affects them physically.."

Both of them were exploring the city while getting rid of the ghosts which may seem powerful enough to actually do something.

After "cleaning the area", they went to the hotel room they were temporarily staying at.

The same process went for two days before the city was "a little more safe" for people with strong spiritual power.

Meanwhile they were cleaning up the city, Miko was facing a different problem..

Since Yayoi took care of the ghost that was previously following Miko and Hana because of Hana's spiritual power, a new and more strong looking ghost had took it's place supposedly when they both parted ways for their home... seems like Yayoi's cleaning service wasn't enough after all... fearing the danger the ghost can put her friend into, Miko took Hana to a mountain known for it's spirituality. After reaching the top of the mountain, what they encounter is a strange, seemingly abandoned shrine. The ghost was still following them, and for worse, seemed to have changed it's form into a more disgusting yet powerful appearance.

Seeing no other way, Miko desperately prays at the shrine while saying in her mind, ("I'll do anything, just get rid of that ghost") after saying it a few times and dropping a coin, she looks back, but to her horror, instead of the ghost disappearing, a second ghost popped out of nowhere. Upon seeing this nonsense, Miko was on the verge of crying, but due to her pokerface skill, she barely managed to avoid creating a Nile river from the mountain. But to her surprise, the newly appeared ghost started to fight the ghost originally following them, the fight between two monstrosities was not a very one sided one, both did significant damage to other but due to two small, priestess look-a-like ghosts assisting it, the newly appeared ghost won and completely devoured the other ghost. Meanwhile the fight was still going on, Hana, who was taking pictures of the surroundings and few selfies as she can't see what the hell is going on infront of her, invited Miko to take selfies with her as well. While being reluctant, Miko, who was able to see the fight between ghosts while making the face thinking ("why do I exist?") took away her attention from the fight towards Hana as they both smiled and clocked the selfie, surprisingly, the selfie also captured the new ghost devouring the old one, leaving Miko in shock.

After the fight was over and Miko was waiting for the new ghost to disappear as well, the ghost did not disappeared. The ghost was big.. no, it was gigantic, only rivaled by the ghost Yayoi partially summoned in size, it was white in colour which was completely different or... opposite of all the ghost Miko has ever encountered which were black.... or at least released black smoke like aura... the ghost lowered itself, keeping face to face with Miko, leaving her with shoch and fear. It raised it's hand, not for attacking but as if telling or informing something.. it opened three fingers and then finally disappeared.

After that, many things happened... like Miko saving a cat.. giving it to a person followed by souls of cats glowing white, which means benevolent... she also met a guy who at first glance would look simple, but he was also being followed by the spirits of cats.. but vengeful ones.. and that guy was a new teacher at her school... worse, he was Miko's new homeroom teacher. The guy from a perspective of a psychic would look like an absolute monster.. but the monster has got his own story to tell... Zen tohno was not a bad guy but was haunted by the spirit of his mother who, from his childhood, wanted to keep him in her absolute control and now, even after her death, was following him.

While Miko was still not being used to see ghosts, when a ghost attacks her, the priestess look-a-like small ghosts that appeared at the mountain shrine appears infront of her and protects her from the attacking ghosts. After such two incidents and putting her thoughts on it, Miko realized that when the main ghost of the shrine opened three fingers, it meant that they will protect her three such times and after learning about Zen's past and true nature, she decides to use her third and final chance to free Zen from his possessive mother's spirit. After a brief fight in the hospital where Zen was admitted because of getting in an accident while saving a cat, the mother's spirit was finally devoured and Miko has lost all her protections.

While in sleep, Miko dreams of the shrine ghost asking her for it's payment, when Miko fails at guessing what it actually is, the ghost point it's finger.... on her.. Miko wakes up from sleep and realizes the mistake she made when she said that she will do anything infront of the mountain shrine.

"What should i do now? The ghost will be coming of me.. or was it just a nightmare? Anyways, I need to offer my thanks to that god or whatever that thing is as soon as possible or... ahhh! Mabye, just mabye... can I get help from..." she says while remembering the image of a girl with an alien doll...