Possession 21: Just Another Day

                It was a beautiful fall day in Kakidashi City. The sky was a clear blue and a light breeze swept through the streets, trees, and buildings. Leaves of every color danced on the wind, their trees beginning to release them earlier than usual. There was a smell in the air, the kind of smell that always seemed to accompany such days. It was the type of day whose sheer beauty seemed to drown out all other concerns in the world, be they blaring horns in the city proper or the average fight between students of Kakidashi High in the suburbs.

                At that moment, it was lunch time at the school. Outside, in the nearby parking lot reserved for the use of students, there was a small crowd gathered around a tall blonde-haired boy who sat upon a deep red sports bike. There was a broad grin on his face as he revved the engine, drowning out the sounds of the impressed teenagers around him. His helmet rested on the ground nearby.

                Saishi Tenshi was among the crowd, arms folded over his chest, admiring the machine with a smile on his face. When there was a lull in the revving, he spoke to his friend on the bike. “You’ve been saving up for this for a long time, eh Kai?”

                The blonde boy ran a hand through his bangs and smirked. “Oh yeah. I’ve worked everywhere between here and the city limits trying to raise enough for Sazuka.”

                “You named it already?”

                “Yep.” Kitsunaki Kai patted the gas tank. “Sazuka’s top of the line. She should be, considering what I paid. Which will remain unknown to all you vultures.”

                Floating alongside the bike and boy was another girl, clad in the uniform typical for girls of Kakidashi High, but she was not like them in any other way. For starters, she floated. There was also the fact that only Saishi Tenshi could see her. Her name was Kodama Rei, and she was a ghost.

                “I do not understand,” she murmured as she bent close to poke a finger through the windshield. “What is this machine? It’s… half of a car...?”

                Tenshi smiled slightly. The priestess from the north left the bike to move through the air to Tenshi’s side. When she was close enough, he spoke in a whisper so no one else would overhear. “It’s a motorcycle, Rei… like a bike that runs on gas.”

                Rei frowned and touched down lightly. “It seems somewhat redundant though, isn’t it? A car is more effective, even if it is horrid to the environment… And if you wanted a bike, why not just buy a normal one? It’s healthier, after all.”

                “I don’t think you need to worry about health anymore.”

                “True,” Rei admitted with a sigh.

                Tenshi smiled again and checked his watch. There was still a few minutes left, but he thought that he would try to get to class early. Now that I started defending myself from those bullies, I’ve been on time for all of my classes. I guess Kai was right all those years. If only I figured this out before I became such a big target…

                Shaking his head, Tenshi raised a hand to the blonde boy who was once more revving the engine of his bike. “Hey Kai, I’ll catch you later!”

                The other teenager waved then went back to showing off his toy.

                Turning away, Tenshi began to slip through the crowd. Rei followed in his wake, passing through the students she couldn’t avoid and causing them to shudder at their sudden chills. She didn’t really like doing that, but sometimes she felt like walking instead of floating.

                “You’d think they could move for a passing spirit,” she grumbled to herself.

                “Right. It’s their fault they can’t see the dead.”

                “Exactly. It’s your fault that you can, isn’t it?”

                Tenshi glanced at her. “Hey, I don’t know why I can. And so far, it’s only you. I’m not a psychic or anything.”

                “I know. But the fact you can see me at all is surprising. The trick we can do with changing our bodies is even more surprising. Then there’s the Spirit Resonance.” Rei tapped her chin. “And you remember what Tobias told us, right? You’re in sync with the spiritual plane. It’s just a matter of time before the spirits start appearing to you again. You can already feel them now, can’t you?”

                Tenshi paused and leaned on chain-link fence that separated the parking lot from the school grounds. The priestess could tell that this was something he didn’t want to admit, least of all to himself. “…Yeah,” he finally muttered. “…I can, I guess. Well… I don’t know. Ever since the stuff at the cemetery… I get this… feeling... Sometimes I feel like I’m being watched, or that something is trying to get my attention… It’s weird. I don’t like to think about it.”

                “But it’s happening,” Rei responded gently. “You have a gift… you should try to use it to help.”

                “No way,” he responded flatly. I’m just in this to get rid of Tenma. That’s what you got to do, right? After that, I can quit. Lock it all back up. I was… maybe I wasn’t happy before this began, but at least I didn’t have to worry about being killed.”

                Rei frowned, but she didn’t try to change his mind. It’s my fault he’s in this after all, she thought to herself. I gave him no choice… it’s only right for him to want to be normal when it’s all over…

                “Yo, Saishi!”

                Tenshi groaned. “Oh no… I really don’t want to deal with this…” He stared as Oda Izumi approached him, flanked by his cronies, Nezumi and Uchiro. I thought they would have stopped bugging me by now… I’ve been winning all our recent fights… And I don’t even have to throw a punch!

                The priestess chuckled. “I know what you’re thinking, Tenshi. But if it wasn’t for them always coming back, then you would have never got all the other bullies off your back. Izumi may not be the toughest guy in Kakidashi High, but the others know you’re not a push over.”

                With a sigh, Tenshi pushed off of the fence and warily watched as the black-haired boy walked over, arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his face. Uchiro moved steadily along with him, the short, stocky boy’s expression unreadable. Nezumi was grinning as well, rubbing his hands together, looking for all the world like an rat about to be fed.

                “We was just lookin for ya, Saishi. We wanted to talk to ya.”

                “Look, Izumi,” Tenshi said, “I don’t want to do this today. Alright? Can’t you just walk away, or something? Just this once.”

                Izumi wagged a finger. “No way, Saishi. You gonna hear what we have ta say, and you gonna hear it good. Got that?”

                “I don’t know anyone who spoke as horribly as he does,” Rei muttered.

                “Look, Izumi-” Tenshi began.

                Suddenly, all three of the other boys were bowing at his feet. “We pledge ourselves to you, Boss!”

                Tenshi crashed to the ground.

                Rei blinked. “Well, that’s new.”

                Tenshi quickly scrambled to his feet. “Wait…wait, hold on, I think I missed something. What?”

                Izumi looked up, and he looked actually humbled. “We never met anyone who could whoop us like you Sai—er, Boss. You whooped us good and never hit us. So we was talking, and we decided to make you our boss.”

                Rei had to stifle a giggle. “Well, it does make sense.”

                The startled teenager ignored her. He continued to gape at the three bowing boys in front of him. “You cannot be seriously…”

                This time, Nezumi looked up, licking his lips nervously. “No, no, it ain’t a joke, Boss. Yeah. We’re really serious. Yeah. Yeah!”

                “Exactly,” Izumi added.

                “Look, there’s no way… Oh, get up already!” The boy did as they were told. “Look, I’m not a bully… I can’t do what you guys… do. Okay? So I can’t be your boss.”

                “Oh, don’t worry ‘bout that,” Izumi said with a wave of his hand. “We got that planned out. See, you don’t have to lift a finger, Boss. We can do all ya work for ya!”

                Tenshi turned away and rubbed his head. “No way. Just go away and bother someone else…”

                Rei blinked. “Tenshi! Watch where you’re-!”

                “Oof!”

                Startled, Tenshi stumbled backwards and fell on his rear end. It felt like he had walked into a rock… a rock that pushed him away. After shaking his head, he looked up and felt his heart skip a beat. Ukyo, the dark-skinned, crimson-haired bully who was built like a mountain stared blankly down at him.

                “You watch where you goin,” he growled.

                Rei gently kicked off of the ground, floating above the heads of the gathered teenagers. “Well, it looks like Ukyo has been doing well since we exorcised Gouka Ryouken from him…”

                The memory was still fresh in Tenshi’s mind. The vicious Hell Hound trainer had possessed the other teenager through a dog’s skull that hung from Ukyo’s neck. Gouka would control him from that thing and summon Hell Hounds with it. Tenshi and Rei had dealt with him, however, and the demon was gone now. Of course, Ukyo was always a bully— a big bully— and it looked like things hadn’t changed very much.

                Tenshi swallowed hard. “Er… Ukyo… Sorry about that… heh…”

                Izumi stepped forward, glaring up at the larger bully. “”Ey, Boss was walkin here. You got in his way, right? So get a move on, tough guy.”

                Ukyo stared dully at him. Tenshi stared in alarm.

                Finally, the dark-skinned teenager moved forward to stand before Izumi and stared down at him. “Or you do what, huh?”

                “Ya want some of this, big man? Do ya?” The smaller teenager shifted from foot to foot staring defiantly up at Ukyo. “Ya wanna rumble? Let’s do it!”

                Tenshi covered his face with a hand. “I am soooo gonna get mauled because of him…”

                “Well, Izumi’s got spunk, you can’t deny it.” Rei smiled then looked back at the two bullies staring each other down. Or in Izumi’s case, staring up. “Now if I could get my hands on some kind of snack, this will be very entertaining…”

                Ukyo didn’t respond to Izumi’s challenge, so the smaller boy took that as a ‘yes’. He smirked and cracked his knuckles. “Alright then, so ya just gonna let me whoop ya ass? Fine with me!” Pulling his amr back, he swung his fist forward as hard as he could straight into Ukyo’s gut. The larger boy didn’t even try to move.

                He didn’t respond to the blow either.

                Izumi stared. He slowly withdrew his fist, moving it behind his back where it twitched and throbbed. He looked up in Ukyo’s blank face with a nervous smile. “So, uh… no hard feelings, right? We’ll just be on our way…”

                Ukyo grasped Izumi’s shirt with both hands and lifted him into the air. “Right.”

                “Well, that was just great, Izumi. This is why I don’t want anything to do with you.”

                “Don’t be so hard on us, Boss! We was only trying to protect ya reputation!”

                “What reputation? I don’t have a reputation! Other than being an easy target for guys like you, which, thanks to Ukyo, has been thoroughly reinforced.”

                Uchiro was helping pull Tenshi from the dumpster where he, Izumi and Nezumi had been stuffed. Naturally, the short, stocky boy had run away when things started to get ugly, leaving him the only one who didn’t smell like day-old cafeteria food.

                Rei floated in air above them, reclining in air, arms folded behind her head. “I was right, that really was entertaining. Why didn’t you fight back though?”

                Tenshi just ignored the priestess and hopped from the dumpster side to the ground. He brushed some food that clung to him off of his shirt and sighed. “Well… at least I have the spare set of clothes I brought…”

                Izumi, who was still climbing out, blinked. “You bring spare clothes to school?”

                “Yeah,” the boy muttered. “When you have a tendency of getting thrown into dumpsters, you like to be prepared… which means extra clothes.”

                “You’re a genius, Boss! I would have never thought of that!”

                “You wouldn’t.” Tenshi sighed again and headed toward the nearest door.

                “Hey! Where ya goin, Boss! Wait for us! Hey! Oda, get ya damn hands off of me, I’m fine! Nezumi, wait your turn! Boss! Wait! GAH!”

                Izumi fell out of the dumpster to crash into the cement below.

                “Oww…”

                In the boy’s locker room, Tenshi pulled out his spare clothes and went to the sink in the restroom. Rei followed idly, smiling and giggling. “You know,” she said, “perhaps having them around might not be so bad. It would certainly keep things interesting between demons, wouldn’t you say?”

                Tenshi ignored her and unbuttoned the uniform top, holding it at arm’s length and staring at the grime on it with disgust. “This is horrible… I can’t afford to get all my clothes ruined like this…”

                Beneath that, he wore a sleeveless white shirt. Rei couldn’t help but notice how his body was more muscular now than when they had began, a product of the priestess’ gifts to the boy for letting her possess him, much like her gift of accelerated healing. She couldn’t take all the credit, though. It was a lot of strain to be possessed for long periods of time, even more strain to change body shapes, something Rei still had yet to find out the reason for. But now, she realized that she had never taken a good look at Tenshi’s new streamlined shape. She blushed and looked away.

                The teenager glanced up at the priestess. “Alright, shows over. Make yourself scarce while I change.”

                “Alright…” Rei quickly vanished to hide her own embarrassment for staring at him for so long.

                Tenshi groaned and ran a hand through his bangs, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

                “Just another day….”