Spiritless Life

Fourth Life

Why didn't she consider Dolph as a play thing? On Earth, every good-looking man sent sparks filled with many glorious, wondrous ideas through her head. Dolph was as beautiful as any other hot man on her planet. So why didn't it happen with him? It was most definitely not because she had lost the desire... Or was it?

Karam tried to remember a time when she had looked at someone, on this planet, and drooled. Or looked at them and wondered what she might like to do to them. She couldn't think of a single time.

"Oh my god... I think I have died..." Karam mumbled to herself having lost the ability to follow Hakase and Dolph's conversation with her shocking thoughts taking her attention.

Hakase tuned out of what him and Dolph were talking about, "Of course you did. That's how you got to be on Sunijunki."

"What?" Karam looked over at him. She was pulled back into reality and was lost for a moment as she didn't realize that she'd said anything out loud.

"I said of course you died. I killed you, remember?"

"No, I know that..."

"Okay...?"

"My vagina. I think my vagina died! I haven't had a single dirty thought in years... How could I have missed this..." She trailed off and held her head, mumbling to herself again about hormones.

Hakase and Dolph both laughed, "You will, Kara. When your body grows!" Dolph smiled at her. He was slightly amazed at her innocence. Everyone knew that muscles are what gives one desires. Karam didn't have her fourth or fifth star yet so it was no wonder she didn't have those desires or thoughts yet.

"You don't have puberty here." Karam--having heard Hakase tell Dolph all about what puberty is earlier--knew that puberty wasn't an ordinary thing around here.

"It's a little different for them. Sex is more of an act of allowing their overly grown muscles to relax. As you don't have the growth yet of those it's no wonder you have clean thoughts. When you grow some more it will naturally build."

"Oh. Well, than I better hurry up and get my last few stars, huh?"

Dolph nodded.

"Oh, ya? How many you have left?" Hakase pricked up his ear. He wanted to show off how talented he was compared to the student that had always corrected him.

"I have to build muscle, fight the dog, than the seventh star test. The first level of muscle is kind of already done but... Seems I'm going to have to wait to grow some more before than."

"So just skip it."

"Skip what?"

"Four and five. That's what I did." Hakase shrugged as if it was natural.

"Oh. I don't have to do those?"

Karam and Dolph were both confused.

"Not anymore, not here, at least. I went to Kinji Academy. I taught them how to make a gun and they accepted my knowledge capabilities. Well, that and fighting off a number of rude, upperclassmen, then beating their two-years tests in three days... Well, there was also-" Hakase stopped, "Let's just say I did a few things... They don't like me, but they had to accept my knowledge and physical prowess. Anyway, the upper class schools have all taken to this new idea that there are numerous ways to fight."

"Oh, wow. That's awesome! I didn't know you were so good at fighting!"

Hakase pressed his lips together, "So, you know how I was obsessed with reincarnation?"

Karam snorted, "Reincarnation Professor, Hakase. Isn't that you?"

"Well, my life on Earth wasn't my first life. The life before that was the life I learned to fight." Hakase avoided the eyes of Karam. He'd felt bad for keeping it from her all this time, but he knew he had to before. There was no longer any reason to hide it seeing as this world was wrought with magic and newly reincarnated anyway.

"Damn. How many lives have you lives?"

"This is my fourth. My first life was as a cat. Ironic, right? Think maybe I'll have five more?" He laughed nervously, tousling his black hair.

Dolph squinted at Hakase. Dolph couldn't seem to catch on due to his severe lack of information. What is a 'cat' and why does it mean that he will have more lives? Also, is Earth the planet Karam lived on before, when she was an older woman? Didn't karam know everything about Hakase? How come she didn't know he'd had other lives? Isn't his lives what their relationship is based off of?

"... Think there are other cats out there like you?"

Hakase shrugged, slightly relieved she had accepted it so quickly. "If there are I've never met one."

"Where does that theory come from in the first place, the Egyptians? Think they might have been onto something? We should look into it."

"It's really just an old proverb; No one knows who said it originally. Nine is also known to be a 'magic' number and it could have simply been used for that reason. Cats have been both reared and feared throughout the ages- there's no way to know if there is any hidden meaning behind it. It could have simply been a coincidence."

Karam face palmed, "Of course. You've looked into it. I'm so insensitive, I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Rather, thank you." He laughed at her briefly. "What about you? You are a mysterious figure within the New Kingdom."

"Okay! I think it's time to get you back to school!" Dolph got up and tossed Hakase over his shoulder all in a single, smooth movement.

"Wait, Dolph! We need his help if we are going to figure this out!" She hurried to call him back but ended up in another coughing fit.

Dolph paused, "That's fine. But only after you graduate. If you don't need the fifth star than it shouldn't take you more than a month to heal and do the last two. Than we will get him-- through the proper channels--and be on our way to greet your grandfather. Bracken!" with that, Dolph opened the door and handed off the boy to Bracken, who had been waiting outside. "Take him back to his academy. I'll take care of Karam. And as you pass by send up another Spiritualist, okay? I want the to take another look at her. Make sure it's the same one."

"Is there only one Spiritualist who knows my identity?

Dolph nodded, "If possible, I want to keep it that way." He returned to his chair next to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright."

"You called him 'Professor', right? I thought his name was Hakase."

"Hakase is how you say Professor in Japanese. A Professoris really just like a glorified teacher... Though he'd probably hit me for saying that..."

"He was your teacher?"

"No, I was his assistant in his research. He was amazing! There were all these connections that he made that nobody else could have figured out that simply seemed to be obvious for him!" Karam's eyes sparkled as she remembered her past, "He's already published several theoretical papers of his own. In the whole world of Earth he's the best in his field!

"Though..." Karam calmed down and she looked off into the distance with a puzzled expression, "There were somethings that he couldn't grasp. He made amazing connections but there were many obvious ones that he didn't seem to ever see." She shrugged, "I would point out those few connections every once in awhile." She smiled again and her laughter again turned into a cough but she continued, "It started when I kept sneaking into his office to check out some of his genius ideas. Eventually, I got so tired of such obvious mistakes that I pointed them out to him. I was surprised he didn't kick me out of school. Instead I became his assistant!"

Dolph smiled with her. He found that, even though he wasn't a very clear-thinking man, he wasn't a bad one, either. At first he thought the writings on the wall were simply to spite Karam, but if he thought about it now it might simply be one of those connections he hadn't made. He might not have thought she would try to kill herself to save the world.

Dolph was right in his assumptions. Right than, with Bracken, he was just now questioning how she might have gotten her injuries.