Forgiving Light

Chapter 29

Astral and I train for a long time. He throws powerful attacks, and I block them quickly. I retaliate with equally powerful counter attacks with the occasional clashes. It's very exhilarating, actually. Exhilarating and tiring. After the battle, he has me control all these things like plants and animals to see how good I am.

When the training's done, we stop. I open my eyes and see that it's almost dark out. I look to Astral, and he's smiling. A genuine smile. Probably only the third in his life.

"Good job," he says. "You did better than I originally thought."

I grin back at him. "Thanks, Astral." He has no idea how much that compliment means to me since he hardly ever compliments. You'd have to do something pretty impressive to get one from him.

"Now, it is only a matter of meditation in order to get stronger."

I nod, and we both get up. I turn in the direction of my house and start walking back.

"Cathy." Astral's hand rests on my bare arm. That's surprising since he can't touch skin. His hand feels warm like a human's, but it also feels cold.

I turn to him, and he looks more solid. "What is it, Astral?"

"Be careful of Yuma." With that, Astral leaves, turning himself into a new form of human so that no one will recognize him.

I look after him as he leaves. Be careful of Yuma? What could possibly be so dangerous about him? He's about as harmless as a butterfly.

Unless...

Unless Yuma has been corrupted like my parents!

Suddenly, that whole puppet thing makes sense.

Oh, shit!

How could this have happen!? When!? Where!?

I calm myself and think through it on the way home. Like Astral, I go through every possible explanation of when and where that I can think of. I come up empty. I concentrate harder. Still nothing!

I huff in frustration, entering the house and slamming the door shut. I sigh deeply, sinking slowly to the floor.

This is bad. I wonder if I've been corrupted. Wait, no. If I was, then I would be having those black out moments like Yuma. This brings some relief. I walk to Dark's room, my shoes making loud tapping sounds in the empty house.

"Dark?" I call, sensing that he's awake.

"Yeah?" a raspy voice calls back.

I walk into the room to see Dark sitting up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.  I go over to him and sit next to him.

"How do you feel?" I ask.

Dark coughs slightly. "My throat hurts. Other than that, all is good."

"I'll bring some water, then." I get up and I smile. "At least you're getting your voice back! That's a good thing, right?"

"Yeah..." Dark still doesn't smile.

I go to the kitchen and poor a glass of cool water. I place a drop of medicine in and take it back to Dark, who's staring into the fire again. I sigh and give him the water.

"Why so serious?" I ask him. "You never used to be like this."

"I know. I just have nothing to smile about." Dark talks mentally while he drinks. "Not since Nii-chan took my soul. He took everything I was. Mt personality... My sense of security... Everything."

"I see."

I sigh again.

Dark sets the cup on the floor and continues to stare into the fire, almost as if there's something interesting in there. Of course, if anything was there, I most likely might not be able to see it.

I start humming a tune. The one he always used to sing. Dark looks over to me, and he, too, starts humming mentally. After a while, he sings the words to the song. I hum along, listening to their meaning.

It's ominous. It's the song with the tune of "Ring Around the Rosie". Somehow, he makes that song sad, too. Or maybe it was always sad. Maybe he just made it sound cheerful.

I start singing with him. Somehow, I know the exact words. I guess I picked that up from Astral. Heck, I even understand the meaning!

The song has a story to it:

There's a meadow. A clear, beautiful meadow. Peaceful. According to the song, this is where the first Astral Beings lived. They kept the place looking just as nice and beautiful as before they got there.

That is, until the evil started spreading.

That happened after a few years. As soon as the dark outbreak started, they built a sturdy prison with their own mental powers. It was made strong and sturdy to keep the Prisoners inside. Years later, they built an execution grounds to kill the Prisoners to keep the peace of the meadow. There was the gallows and the place where the Numbers who turned bad were beheaded.

It even tells of the Light Forces, who once had bodies. They were a group of a direct line of descendents from the first inhabitants. They formed the Light Agents to capture the evil ones.

This story was made to tell the ones in their Early Years not to be influenced by the darkness lest they end up in the Prison as well.

The end of the song tells of a Number. A Dark Number, whose evil knew no bounds. His Number was Number 96. He always managed to escape the Light Agents by unleashing all of his darkness, which was much more than all of the targets combined.

He was never caught until years later. Before that time, he had secretly injected some of his DNA into a family, creating a secret line of descendents. They would be the oldest boy of the family.

He already knew he was going to die.

The Number gave up willingly but smugly. He said to them, "You can take me now, Agents. I already have a line of sons waiting to do what I have done. One of them will be my successor. On that day, you will have another Number 96 to worry about."

They chopped off his head on the execution day.

He died, but he got the last laugh.

"Do you know who the descendents were?" I ask Dark when the song is over.

"I know one," Dark says. "Onii-chan."