The skies were already alight when I woke up. For a brief second, I forgot what had happened. I remembered anyway. I felt some sort of vibe when I got up from my bed. I had a feeling that something was going to happen. Anyway, I was beginning to slide down the pole when I smelt a familiar scent... "Good morning.". Of course. It was Blaze. How did he get in my house, when I was certain that I had locked it, I don't really want to know and find out. As if he read my mind, again, he replied, "I tried to use my feathers to pick your locks. Turns out that they're latches.". I walked outside and headed towards the Dining Hall with Blaze following in pursuit. It seems like that, since yesterday, everyone started respecting me. After all, I did get up two ranks. I made my way to the C rank table. I took a short glance around and saw that not many people sat in the higher ranked tables, like the B and A. No one except the Director was sitting at the S rank table. Must be really hard to get up there, I guess. There were about 30 people at the C rank tables, 15 at the B rank and 5 at the A. Just how do you get up to the S rank, I wonder. A few people greeted me when I joined the small group sitting at the C rank table. Most of them were older than me and some were 3 years older than mine, which, if you can remember, is 12. No one here was my age, which didn't help matters here. They were an alright bunch, I guess. I wasn't treated too badly for my age, which was a good thing. I don't really appreciate mean people anyway. When the morning notices were called out, I counted how many people were here on my table and others. I've written the numbers down below.
E rank:82 here, 18 absent.
D rank:46 here, 14 absent.
C rank:12 here, 13 absent.
B rank:7 here, 8 absent.
A rank:6 here, 4 absent
S rank:1 here, 0 absent.
It seems that the more higher ranked you are, the less amount of absence there is. I finally spoke up, "I thought that there were around 375,000 people living here?". "Ah, about that..." It was a guy around 15 who answered me. "A lot of people don't join in. Personal things like pride and family or something like that. A lot of people get hospitalised at a hospital that has come to understand what demons are. The sick and injured are taken there at the slightest cold, because if someone's infected with a virus that affects spirits, most of the people here will get infected, which is a bad thing 'cause almost everyone who, has spirit blood pumping inside of them, fights. Which, in turn, would make our defences weakened.". I replied back to him, "That doesn't exactly answer my question but still...". I sighed, thinking what to do next. The bell signalling that the food was prepared rang out and everyone rushed away to grab a bite. When the air was filled of the sound of mouths at work, I wondered what to do. A gunsman, who was cleaning his still smoking guns, (probably because of the shooting range)said to me, "If you're bored or somethin' you should just check the notice board. Got tons of useful things pinned up there. Lots of requests and bounties too.". He seemed a little bit quiet but okay, to me anyway. The earlier 15 year old just grinned. "He's pretty much like that all the time. Although..." His voice trailed off into the fairly small, noisy background. He defiantly wasn't concentrating. Forget about that topic. When we finished breakfast, (By 'we', I mean us C ranked people.)I headed towards the really big notice board, along with the other C rankers. There wasn't just one, there weren't two either. There were tons of people swarming around it, reminding me of flies for some reason. Something disturbed the quiet peace. A couple of people noticed the change of the aura in this building. Something appeared. I didn't recognise the scent that filled the air, but it wasn't something nice. I could see a small wisps of some sort of reddish mist. I tried to touch it, but when I did, I jerked my hand back. The mist burned in a intense way. It wasn't like flames nor was it like anything else that I had seen, or touched. Well, anything that I had dared to touch. I saw people scurrying around in panic. Must be their first time seeing something like this. It was really noisy. Guess that they had to finish it off quickly. I observed the movement of the strange mist. Shadows were infused inside. Blaze had rushed up and attacked the mist without hesitating as soon as he saw it. Strangely, he was overwhelmed and pushed back, landing with a heavy thud. I rushed over to him. "What happened?!" I shouted over all of the noise. Blaze coughed a couple of times and wiped his mouth. "Careful." He said. "That thing's dangerous.". I could barely hear him over the noise. "QUIET!!". It was the Director who spoke. She really had a loud voice. Seriously. "Calm down you twits!" She shouted to a couple of squealing kids around 7. "KURO!" She barked. Inside of me, my heart skipped a beat. "REPORT WHAT HAPPENED AND WHAT YOU SAW!". I nodded vigorously. "Well..." I started off. "First, there was a weird presence that was unfamiliar to me. The scent wasn't a peaceful one." Some people started shouting about how they felt it to. "Then..." I continued on. "The reddish coloured mist materialised in the air. It didn't look solid but," I gestured to Blaze. "When Blaze tried to attack it, it responded back aggressively. I don't think it's come here to be friends.". The 15 year old boy in my rank said, "Who would become friends with you anyway?". I stared at him pointedly. "Jk, 'kay? Just a joke." He laughed weakly. "Okay then." said the Director. "We can confirm that it attacks. I noticed something. You should've too, Kuro." She glanced at me sideways. I nodded. "Everyone, including me, who first noticed the presence of the mist, was part spirit. Not fully spirit and not fully human. Just hybrids like me.". The Director said, "I agree. But forget about that. Let's attack it using spirit mana." She turned and ran to the Broadcast Room. Moments later... "All people able to fight, head towards the bottom floor please! All unable to fight, please stay near the middle rooms. Please remain calm.". There was a loud shuffling of feet filling the air as we got prepared to go against the strange mist. A lot of people carried weapons. I ignored the weapons that were being handed out. I can just use myself and my own hands. I saw though... In the mist... I saw an unfamiliar face that felt so familiar. I just couldn't remember for some reason. Strange. It was a brief glance so I could've been mistaken, but I'm sure it was someone's face. I just didn't see it properly. Suddenly, the lights flashed and a monster appeared. It was a demon. The lightbulbs flickered and went out. Confusion and panic broke out as everyone rushed around, unsure who is who. I, on the other hand, could see clearly. I had lived in total, crushing darkness before, as a street cat. Compared to that, this was nothing. I looked around and saw the mist. It had formed into a humanoid shape. I ran towards it, hoping to uncover the secrets that it may have held. It was holding something, something that I couldn't see. The mist was shrouding it. Other nocturnal people had also bounded up after me, after getting over the quick power outage. I tried to attack it again with my hand, but it felt like trying to grab sand. I did, however, get ahold of the thing that it was holding. Words can't express what I felt after that, but they're all I got. The whole building, at this rate, was in a panic. I pulled the limp shape from the mist demon. The power started coming back on. I felt warm liquid run down my hands. Dread coursed through me. It couldn't be... I tried to hope, that, this person would survive. I desperately tried to find a pulse. I found the hand when the power went on. It was the gunsman. And he was dead. As soon as everyone saw his body, everyone quieted down immediately. It was completely silent. I couldn't move. I told my feet to move but they didn't respond. "Why..." It was Shokiru. She was wearing an expression on her face. Shock. "WHY DID YOU KILL HIM, YOU A**HOLE?!" She pointed to the mist. "WHAT DID HE DO TO YOU? WHY THE HELL ". Her voice quietened down into a sad whisper as she broke into tears. "What did he ever do to deserve this..." She had voiced what we all thought. It was then I felt it. The anger in the air. The sadness in the atmosphere. I felt the same. Rage started to rise like a ballon inside me. Furiously and quickly. "Here." I said and handed the gunsmans body to someone nearby. I said it quietly, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to stop from shouting. I stood up slowly. Suddenly, I didn't care that everyone was watching. I didn't care that I might've killed. Nothing mattered. I started running towards the mist demon. I jumped into the air. I don't remember what happened next. No one ever told me what I did on that day. I eventually did find out though. Something in me, on that day, died and withered away. I still remember the gunsman. But why... Even though that I had just met him, why do I feel like crying for a person that I didn't even know whose name was? ...How cruel this world can be...