Tale of Chocora

Chapter 1: Destiny?

The day had started out great, with clear skies and sun. Now it was covered by dark clouds.

"It's raining..." I said as I left the college campus. "I hope it doesn't keep this up for Easter..."

I was really looking forward to the holidays and taking it easy in the sun. Classes had just ended and I didn't have an umbrella. I had no choice but to run through the rain to get to the bus stop. As I ran the rain only got worse. There was an abandoned shrine not far from the campus. It was old, dusty and tattered. If the old shrine wasn't so ruined, it would have been magnificent.

I went inside the shrine to escape the heavy rain, it was better than nothing. My long auburn hair was dripping wet and I was soaked to the bone. I was glad I was just an average height, otherwise, I'd hit my head on the sinking ceiling.

The rain was only getting worse and worse.

"There is no way I can go anywhere with it raining like this and my papers are soaked too. Guess I'll have to wait till it lightens up a bit before going anywhere."

While waiting the storm out, I decided to check the place out. The ceiling had sunk in and fallen down in some places and the floor had holes and was creaking, felt like it would break under me at any moment.

As I went in further I saw remnants of an old picture of war, I think, on the walls with two gods or goddesses. The pictures were so worn out it was hard to tell but it was indeed the image of a battle. Being a student of the art department made it hard for me to resist having a closer look. As I went in closer, the floorboards broke beneath me.

As I open my eyes, I saw I had fallen a great distance down.

"OUCH.... I fell quite far, uh..."

Looking up.

"Well, I'm not going back that way."

It was dark. I took out my phone to shine some light around me. It wasn't much help. I was lucky I wasn't badly hurt just a few scratches at most. As I got up I started looking for another way out, a hint would have been great. I started walking at a direction. Seeing as there were no signs. There was so much rubble down here it was hard to not fall. I had walked for awhile into the dark. I think I saw a glimpse of light ahead. A way out!

I started running at towards the light, careful not to fall. The light grew as I neared and finally...

It was a room. I looked around but saw no exit.

"Great, I went the wrong way." I took another look to be sure. Yep, no way out but I had noticed there were weird signs on the walls and floor. A seal of some sort!? Or maybe a ritual like in those Egyptian tombs!? This was a shrine after all.

As I looked around I began to wonder. This room was underground, the shrine has no personnel and the room has no lamps or torches. So, where did the light come from?

I took another look around and found that the light came from the center of the room. But there was only some junk on the floor, a scroll standing on a stone stand and a ceremonial doll lying on the floor in front of the stand. It wasn't fancy looking or anything valuable. It was just a normal scroll with signs on it just like the rest of the room and a doll on the floor. So how did the scroll glow? I went for a closer look. One mystery lead to another as I noticed that it looked new. The shrine was old but the scroll looked new. Was this a kind of prank maybe? The scroll didn't look it had decayed or even have dust on it but the doll looked like it had seen better days. I picked the doll up and put it next to scroll. Just as I reached for the scroll.

A blinding light came from it. I couldn't see a thing. When it stopped I found the scroll... Empty!

"Aaah, it feels great to stretch again."

A voice!? I spun around. "WHO'S THERE!?" I took the first thing I could use, bamboo stick, and took my stand.

"You can see me?"

"Of course I can you think I'm blind."

"Ha! You definitely have the spirit of a warrior! It is your destiny to be here... But seriously you can poke someone's eye with that."

Was he provoking me? "YOU! I don't know who you are or this destiny thing or what this prank is for. To scare someone to death? If so, you failed and I know how to use this thing."

"Wait! I'm not trying to prank you or scare you to death... Where did you get the idea of being scared to death?"

"I don't now. I was just... Look who are you?"

"I am the Priest Hikari-Oshou and has been stuck in that doll for centuries. You are the one that set me free, you are a warrior chosen by our great Megami-sam..."

"Wait!!! A priest, trapped in a doll for centuries!? Are you saying you're a ghost?"

"Yes, it would seem so."

I took another close look at him. He was floating just above the floor and ... Where did his feet go? He was kind of see-through and had blue flame thingies floating following him where he went. This had to be another part of the prank.

I hit him with the stick.

"Hahahaha. What are you doing, that tickles. Stop it. Hahahaha..."

I stood in amazement but mostly shock. He was a real ghost. As it sank in, I sank down.

"Hey there, you alright? I never asked but what's your name?"

"I'm Mei. Mei Tsuki."