บท 1: Chapter 1: The Beginning
"The game is about to start, Sis. Where are you?" Kaede asks her sister when he calls her.
"I promise I'll be there, bro, in a minute," her sister answers though Kaede can hear loud noises in his sister's background.
"What's that?" he asked her curiously.
"Just a bunch of my co-workers are fooling around, Bro. Alright, I have to hang up now. Make sure to win the game," she said.
"Yep! You don't have to tell me, Sis. I will win this game. I promise."
"Oh, that's the spirit. Goodbye, Kae."
"Bye, sis!"
Kaede put his phone inside his locker as his team's name announced to come and join the ground.
"Alright, boys, we have to win this game! This is the final, and we want our hands on that trophy. Give all your best!" his coach said. "Especially you, Kaede. Lead the team. I'm counting on you."
"Yes, coach!" Kaede nodded at him.
When the game started, Kaede gave all his concentration, but he also secretly looked at the chair in the bleacher where her sister should be sitting. It's empty.
The game is about to end, and the winning score belongs to his team. And still, Kaede's sister isn't there yet.
Kaede wiped the sweat on his head using his uniform before kicking the ball. For him, even if her sister can't make it, he has to win the finals. He promised it.
After the game with them taking home the trophy, Kaede's sister never showed up.
"Where are you going, Kaede? We have to celebrate in my house," his coach said.
"I need to go home, coach. My sister failed to show up during this game, and I needed to check on her. Sorry, I can't join right now," he apologetically said, bowing at his coach.
"Alright. You can go," Kaede told him, permitting him to leave before tapping his shoulder.
Kaede rode his bicycle, a gift his sister gave him a year ago during his thirteenth birthday. Their house isn't far from the stadium, and he doesn't need to hail a taxi.
When he arrived, many men and women wore black suits around his house. He parked his bike outside and asked one of them.
"What are you doing in my house?" He asked the guy that has been guarding the gate.
"Are you Minani's younger brother?" he asked him instead of answering Kaede's question.
"Yes. And where is my sister?"
"Come with me, young boy," said the other man who appeared suddenly.
"Why? Where is Minami?" he asked him.
"I'm taking you to her," the man said, looking at him.
"W-where?"
"Follow me," the man said before pointing him to the car where the passenger was already open.
Kaede did not ask more questions, rode into the car, and let the man drive him to where his sister was.
Kaede and the man didn't speak to each other until they arrived at the place, which made Kaede's eyes widen.
Satori Cremation.
"Wait. What are we doing here? My sister isn't working here," he said before he opened the passenger seat.
"I know, but she is here. She's waiting for you," the man said before guiding him inside the crematory room.
The man opens the door to where the bodies should be before cremating.
When Kaede entered the room, he saw someone lying on a metal bed with a white blanket tainted with blood.
Kaede confusedly looked at the man.
"Where is my sister? She's not here," he told him.
The man sighed and put his right hand on Kaede's head. He doesn't want to tell the kid that her sister is lying down and covered with a white cloth.
"That is her," he told Kaede after a few seconds of silence.
Kaede's eyes widen when he looks at the man's face.
"No, you're wrong. My sister is alive. She is at her work," he said almost to himself before stepping back from the man. "That's not her!"
"Kid, I know this is hard for you. The enemy killed Minami during her mission. I'm sorry," the man told him.
Kaede didn't accept what the man was telling him. So he walked towards the body and lowered the cloth covering it to see who it was. And he almost threw up when he saw the half face of his sister, and Kaede dropped the fabric more and nearly fainted when he saw that half of his sister's body was missing, as if something tore it apart.
"What did you do!? What did you do to my sister!" Kaede shouted at the man, ran toward him, and punched him.
The man didn't do anything while the kid was punching him while tears were falling down his face. The man needs the kid to calm down first.
Suddenly Kaede reverted his punch on the wall. He doesn't care if his hands are bleeding. Everything happened so fast. Before leaving for the game, his sister prepared everything he needed, including breakfast. But why? Why did she end up dead?
Kaede poured his heart out. He remembers when he was just six; even though he and Minami are half-siblings, Minami took him in after his parents died and brought him to Japan. She was fifteen then, and she was the only relative he had. Minami took care of him and pampered him. She gave him everything he wanted, and Kaede learned to trust his sister.
While he was growing up, he never dared to ask about his sister's job or what school she attended.
"Who are you? Tell me, what do you know about what happened to my sister?" he asked the man.
"My name is Shoma," said the man and sat on the bench he saw across the dead body. "And Minani is working under me as a Shaman," he answered the boy.
Kaede stopped punching the wall and looked at the man.
"What is that?! Does that work killed my sister!?"
Kaede doesn't understand what Shoma is talking about. He doesn't know what a shaman is or what was her sister's work. All he knows is that her sister leaves in the morning and returns in the evening or dawn. Sometimes she doesn't return for a week or even a month. She always told him that she had work to do there somewhere out of town.
Shoma sighed and lit the cigarette he had been holding.
"Not the work but the Yurei she had to fight," he answered his question.
Kaede looked at him helplessly. In Shoma's eyes, the kid is confused.
"Here," he said, giving him a black pouch. "This belongs to your sister. According to her letter, if she died during her mission, she wanted this to be given to you," he said.
Kaede, though still reluctant and unable to believe that his sister was dead, still took that pouch and put it inside his bag.
"You know, kid, there are things that are impossible to explain in this world. For example, the existence of Yurei," Shoma has begun explaining. Above the Earth, there lies space called the Celestial Axis. Inside that Celestial Axis is where the flow of Life and Death counterparts. This process is called Azure Lapiz. Azure is where souls are destined to be born, and Lapiz is the place where souls of the dead wait for their final destination. Azure Lapiz is the balance beam of Earth. Everything from humans, and animals to trees, everything that gives life to Earth, starts at Celestial Axis. But of course, since the Celestial Axis is a never-ending energy place, everyone beyond humans wanted to have a taste of it. And that is Yurei."
"Yurei? What are those?" the now calm Kaede asked him for the second time.
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