It was nearly noon when the two catgirls arrived at the park. The park was crowded on this sunny Saturday, children ran about everywhere, shouting and chasing each other. They looked about, but could find no trace of the previous night’s encounter, until ReaNeko noticed the faintest line cut into the pavement when her sister had said the hole in the air had opened.
As they stood looking at the deep, narrow scar, BekkaNeko heard a familiar voice. “I’m happy to see you again young lady.
This is your sister?” To her it sounded like this was more of a statement than a question.
Both of the girls looked up. Akira stood there, dressed much the same way he had before, except for the color of his shirt. Yesterday it had been green; today it was a blue shirt with text faded beyond recognition. No that she had a closer look, BekkaNeko noticed that his coat was not the dirty white trench coat she’d thought. Instead it was an old lab coat.
“You said you tell me more about what was going on last night,” BekkaNeko said, standing.
“Yes I did. You should hear this too, ReaNeko. It concerns you was well.”
ReaNeko did a double take. “What? Me?” The old elf nodded in reply and fished around in his pocket.
“This is yours,” he said, handing a crystal necklace to her. It was the same size and shape as the one he had given BekkaNeko; but instead of being dark blue; this one was bright red. She nodded mutely, and slipped the braided cord over her head.
“Come, sit over here with me while I tell about these crystals.” Akira led them over to a bench between the fountain and a small copse of trees. “I know the two of you are going to have many questions, so lets get started.
“What do you two know about magic?”
The two catgirls looked at each other for a moment. Finally BekkaNeko spoke, “Magic was an ability that people used to have. But after the Revolution, Kami-sama took it away from the races when Oni-sama and the dark races were sealed away.”
Akira shook his head. “That’s not entirely correct. Kami-san did not take magic away from the races. He took the knowledge of magic away from people. With the proper understanding, it is still possible for humans, elves, half-elves, and even catgirls to do magic.” He looked pointedly at the sisters.
“Do you know how to do magic?” ReaNeko asked.
Akira nodded. “Yes. I’m doing magic now.”
The catgirls looked at him incredulously. “Look around,” he said. “What do you notice?”
They looked around. The children were still running around, playing various chasing games. There was a group of students gathered together doing homework as a collaborative effort. Everything sounded the same; the scent of the freshly mown grass rode the light breeze. There were no strange tastes in the air. As they watched, a group of jocks from their school walked right past them and set up a pick-up game of soccer, shirts versus skins. Then it dawned on BekkaNeko.
“Nobody has noticed us,” she said.
“Exactly. I’ve used a little bit of magic to shield us. Nobody can see, hear, taste, or smell us. To keep them from running into us, I used another spell to make them walk around this bench, or find another one to sit on.”
“That’s incredible. Imagine what you could do with such a power,” ReaNeko fantasized. “Can you teach us to use magic?”
“Yes, but with great power comes great responsibility. Those crystals I gave you are magic stones. They are called soul-crystals. Every single person on this planet has a soul-crystal. Most of them are buried deep in the earth, never to see the light of day.”
BekkaNeko interrupted. “Just what are these then?”
“Just what they’re called. These crystals store a soul. If you are lucky enough to possess your own crystal, you can use it to look back into your past lives to retrieve dormant memories and learn things that you knew in previous lives. Magic is just one thing you can learn this way. Indeed, it is the only way that someone can learn magic now.”
The two girls sat stunned, looking at the crystal necklaces they wore. BekkaNeko wasn’t sure what to think of the old man’s story. It seemed possible. Even plausible after what she’d witnessed the night before. She glanced at her sister, who seemed almost lost then she looked at Akira. “Why are you telling us all this?”
The old elf sighed. “In spite of what everyone here seems to think, Kami-san is not infallible. The seal holding in Oni-san and his minions is failing. Already some of the stronger entities have managed to force their way through the barrier to this plane. They are working to remove it completely, so they can completely overrun this dimension. And without magic to oppose them, Oni-san’s dark armies are almost certain to win. Right here is one of the largest holes in the barrier. The demoness that you encountered last night is one of the strongest to have made the crossing.
“I need help in fighting them back and resealing the barrier. I am trying to find the current lives of the soul-crystals I’ve managed to find. Each one is a representative of each of the five elements. You two are Water and Fire. I still need to find Earth and Air.”
“What about the other one?” ReaNeko asked, holding up her red crystal and staring into it.
“Void. Well...” Akira sighed. “Void has proven to be a bit more headstrong than I imagined. I don’t know where the bearing of the black soul-crystal has gone.”
“What can we do to help?” BekkaNeko asked.
“I can teach you how to begin searching through your past lives to learn from them. I can also teach you how to use the latent power of your crystals to do weak magic, which you can improve upon, in time.
I cannot force you to accept this responsibility. If you do accept, you will place yourself, and possibly your family, in danger. You cannot tell anyone about this. If knowledge of the failing barrier became widespread, who knows what kind of chaos that would bring? Only Oni-san would profit from that. On the other hand, if you don’t, there maybe nothing to stop Oni-san’s return.”
ReaNeko looked doubtful. “What about Kami-sama? Isn’t he going to come down from Heaven to save us? Or send a great hero to lead us against Oni-sama?”
Akira grinned. “Don’t you think its more likely that Kami-san would choose to have someone from this world rise to the challenge of defeating the forces of darkness? Doesn’t that sound more like something He’d do?”
The girls thought about this for a moment. “I saw what these look like,” BekkaNeko said, “I saw how they can be. I don’t want them to take over. Everyone would suffer terribly if they gained control. Just let me know what I can do, and I’ll do my best to help.”
ReaNeko debated another second. “Me too. I can’t let my littermate do this by herself. She’ll need my help too.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. I must go now. Come back here tonight at midnight. I will begin teaching you how to use your soul-crystals then. Before I leave, do you have any last questions?”
“If magic is real, and people can learn to use it, does that mean that magic weapons really exist?” BekkaNeko asked.
“Yes. There aren’t as many still around as there used to be, but they do exist.”
“Then, Emperor Furvert’s sword was magical, like the stories all say?”
Akira nodded slowly. “Yes. That terrible weapon is real. And I’m not sure where it has disappeared. I hope with all my heart that our enemy does not have it. That could be the end of everything.”
The catgirls looked worried. “What can it do?” ReaNeko asked. The old elf sighed again. “Daeghrefn is more than just a physical weapon. While it shares the nature of most magic weapons, such as the simple ability to never break or dull, Furvert’s sword has one devastating power. One that most people never realized or imagined. It eats souls. That means that anyone killed by that blade is Dead. They will never be reborn, nor can they be brought back to life by someone highly skilled in magic.”
BekkaNeko and ReaNeko looked at each other, stunned. “I must be going,” Akira said. “Remember, be here tonight at midnight.”
As they nodded, he walked off into the copse of trees and vanished. A few minutes later the soccer game broke up as the players drifted over to the bench, wondering why they hadn’t noticed the two pretty young catgirls until just then.