With and Without You (AetherxAyaka)

Chapter 14: The Second Shrine

Aether took out the lenses given to him by the shrine maiden. The Golden metal surrounding the lens seemed to be aged many years, but at least glass lens itself was intact.

Even a blue aurora emitted from the lens, most likely the magic within it.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Paimon asked Aether, who was now standing before the miniature kitsuine fox statue he had knocked over to scare Ayaka.

He sat it up right before stepping back.

"Honestly Paimon? I've got no clue, but it's not like we have a whole lot of other options. Besides, this isn't the first time we've had to uh... innovate." Aether sounded confident in his ability to succeed, even if he didn't know exactly what to do.

Not knowing is a part of being an adventurer. He's grown quite used to adapting to the unknown.

He took a deep breath then extended his arm out, holding the lens towards the statue.

At first nothing happened, but as he kept the lens in place the statue began to react.

"The fox statue is glowing!" Ayaka chanted.

And indeed it was. The small purple streaks, engraved into the statue became more vibrant. Then that electric purple began to pulse and flash, at first slow but picking up in past going faster and faster.

A noise was made, a chim of some sort. It was a low and quiet ring, but none of the three could track where the noise came from.

Blue and white particles began to accumulate and Aether moved back towards Ayaka and Paimon to watch what was happening.

The particles were on the ground in to small circles, but then began to climb upwards about 6 feet high.

The particles became light and then...

Two illuminated spirits were revealed. One was a man, slightly on the older side, in a kimino. The other was a shrine maiden whom wore a fox mask, similar to the mysterious maiden Aether met before climbing down Konda village's well.

"...!" Ayaka gasped at the sight of the spirits.

She had moved much closer to the Traveler in response, close enough where he hear her quiet breathing. For some reason hearing her breathing soothed him. For her, his closeness and proximity quelled any fear.

Due to the form the spirits had taken, she was not too bothered by them. Surely if they were malicious spirits they would have manifested a form much less friendly.

Ayaka still had her skepticisms of the spirits nonetheless.

However, the spirits did not react to Ayaka, Aether, or Paimon in any shape or form. The spirits looked at each other and spoke   in disagreement. It wasn't much of significance from what Aether could tell. That or the conversation was so out of place he couldn't make a whole lot of sense out of it.

The spirits began to fade and the chime was heard once more.

Then they were gone and the miniature fox statue returned to normal.

"W-what was that?" Ayaka asked.

"I'm not sure to be honest, but it felt so out of place." Aether responded.

Paimon couldn't say for sure, but she had an idea.

"Paimon thinks that the momento lens was what made the statue react. Not both the statue and the lens are really really old. Paimon thinks that the statue capture a moment of the past from so long ago and the momento lens brought that event to current times. Well sort of, it seems to have more so recorded that conversation than anything." Paimon nervously laughed, rubbing her neck.