Shape of a Miracle EP 1 - The Pied Player

Huh?

Huh?

This "Creature" yawned, exposing its iddy biddy fangs before it slowly unfurled itself. As it stretched its stub like limbs in every direction, its long thin tail and thick black whiskers untwined from its body. Then it shot its piercing green eyes right at her.

Shoko nearly pinched her cheek, but she dared not. Even if this was a dream, or even a nightmare, she wanted to see this through.

Like a bullet, it shot right passed her, flying to the other side of the courtyard just to shove a yellow leaf into its mouth. It spat it out, of course, launching the plant all the way to the roof. Shoko would've applauded such a remarkable feat, but this particular spirit had already moved on and had dashed to the other corner of the yard to slobber its mouth all over a gold door handle. Then it rushed to the eastern window on the second floor, then to the top of the fountain, and so on. Whizzing around so fast, Shoko could barely keep track of it. She just wanted another good look at it, just to confirm that this magnificent tiny beast really was genuine, or if some third years were pulling a very impressive prank on her.

Then, like it could read her mind, it did just that. It flew right up to her face and stared her down. She stayed as still as a statue, unmoved from her kneeling position, as the spirit before her started...mewing? Was that what it was doing? She could just about hear something coming out of it, but it had a far too deep of a voice for a regular cat, in fact it didn't even sound like mewing. Curious, her fingers left her side to fiddle with the volume on her left hearing aid. The more she did so the less it sounded like a cat and more human, it almost sounded as if...

But before she could finish her thoughts her hearing aid had suddenly slipped away from her and into the "paws" of her new discovery. The cat spirit had stolen her hearing aid. She shot right up. The beast, who was only floating mere inches above her head, plunged the entire aid into its mouth. In absolute horror she started erratically jumping for the thing, desperate to snatch back her personal and expensive property, but the cat spirit continued sitting there in mid-air, just a little out of reach, seemingly oblivious to the anxious grasps below it. This ordeal, however, only lasted a few short seconds as the hearing aid was quickly spat out and flung into the air, right towards the fountain.

Shoko barely had time to shriek. She flung her whole body to its direction, tripping on her own two feet, and face planting right onto the side of the fountain. But the hearing aid was safely caught before it even touched the water.

She carefully looked over her hearing aid, looking for anything broken. But everything was ok. Relieved, Shoko slowly stumbled back onto her feet, facing back to the courtyard, her paranormal beast was nowhere to be found, but she knew better than to chalk it all up to her own imagination. She may spend more time in her own head than the average girl but that only made the difference between fantasy and reality much more apparent to her. This was no fantasy.

She looked down at her hands: one holding her hearing aid, the other, the clunky ring she uncovered from the fountain. The very ring the spirit seemingly released itself from. The spirit, who was probably loose in the school causing all sorts of mayhem as she stood there.

She huffed, grabbing her bag, placing her hearing aid inside it while she kept the ring in her right hand. This was her responsibility. She discovered this creature in the first place, she had to find it before it caused any more trouble.

And if she was being honest, she just had to see that creature again. It really was a miraculous thing to witness.