Chapter 13: The Final Registration
1336 Words
Lily’s family drove Lucy to the Spirit High School of Shadow Masters, the high school she had enrolled in. Lucy went out of Lily’s RV, thanked her for hospitality, and went into the building, leaving Sam at Lily’s disposal.
The building was huge, with dark walls and floor. Lucy stood in a line of a wide range of students who had also been enrolled, just like her, and now wished to complete the final registration – present their guardian spirit and the Bond Item, as well as demonstrate the maximal spiritual energy they held within before they would start the courses. This examination was also used to determine who was capable of becoming a Warrior Spirit Host, and later participate in Spirit Battle Tournaments, as well as have an opportunity to reach high administrative positions throughout the whole East Land, such as the ministers or the mayors of the cities.
The line before Lucy was fast shortening. Many students would walk out of the administration office with gloomy faces, meaning they were deemed unsuitable to become Warrior Spirit Hosts and were rejected for the advanced class. Lucy eagerly waited for her turn. She wished to become a Warrior Spirit Host too, like the other students, but her reason wasn’t only to show off her skills. She had a clearer and more important goal – she wanted to become a skilled warrior in order to avenge her parents. However, deep down, she still felt fearful of her guardian spirit who had turned out to be destructive not only for her enemies but her own self.
Soon, there was only one boy left before Lucy and he too entered the administration office. Lucy was now standing before the door which would lead to her new, exciting future. As she was so close to the door, she could hear the voices of two men, a woman, and a young boy from beyond:
“Please, present yourself,” the strict voice of the woman spoke.
“Wang Tang.”
“Wang is your last name, right?” Now one of the men took up.
“Correct.”
“Alright, Mr. Wang, please, show us your Bond Item!”
Shortly afterwards, astonished cries came out:
“A Yin-and-Yang ring?!”
“Amazing!”
Lucy widened her eyes – they said, ‘Yin-and-Yang ring’?! So, not only Huli Yuehong, her guardian spirit, was the wielder of the Yin-and-Yang symbol?
Interesting…
She listened more carefully to the conversation.
“Please show us your guardian spirit,” the second man’s voice spoke in a calm, grim tone. Lucy didn’t know why, but it brought her shivers. The young boy’s exclamation followed:
“Wake up, Xiongmao[1] Meili[2]!”
Xiongmao?! As far as she knew, Xiongmao was a panda spirit family, the sub-branch of the large bear clan, Xiong[3], and these latter ones were man-eaters! So, she was not the only one with a vile spirit? That guy too, was doomed like her? Or had he… had he actually befriended the man-eater spirit?! She could hear the administrators’ frightful exclamations too. It seemed they were as startled as she by this unexpected outcome:
“Oh, my!”
“A Xiong Clan representative!”
“Is it safe?”
A deep female voice sounded:
“Do not worry. I only attack those whom Tang commands me to.”
Yes, indeed, that panda spirit was a friend of the boy, not his enemy! It was she speaking, there was no doubt, and if she said she completely obeyed her host, then it meant she was a bonded friend of his, because whenever she begged or yelled at Yuehong not to hurt people, he still went on fulfilling his selfish desires, not giving a pin for her words. This panda spirit was not the same. Instead of feeling excited that it was possible to tame even the man-eater spirits, she felt down:
If young people like me can manage to tame these man-eater spirits, how come I am the only one getting threatened and persecuted by mine?
However, the worst was still forward:
“Well, Tang Wang, congratulations! You are officially enrolled in our advanced class of Warrior Spirit Hosts, under the guidance of our best Warrior Spirit Host teacher, Seiji Yamada!”
So, he got enrolled right away… What a pain! And there she was standing, waiting for her days to pass and the time to come when her spirit would appear and devour her, while these Tang Wang guys would spend time training with their man-eater friends and become cool Spirit Hosts…
The door opened and Tang Wang – a young man with short black hair and blue eyes, wearing two golden ear-rings and a Yin-and-Yang ring on his ring-finger – walked out, not even looking at Lucy, and headed upstairs, apparently, to his dormitory. Lucy pouted – he didn’t even look at her?! Who the heck he thought he was? That wimp…
They called ‘next’ from the administrative office. Lucy recalled it was actually her turn, so she entered the room and closed the door behind. She glanced at the three people in front of her – two men and a woman. One of the men was exactly the black-haired man from the train before, the one who wore sunglasses and got interested in Lucy’s powers. However, since Lucy paid no attention to him back then, she hadn’t recognized him. He, on his part, widened his eyes from behind his sunglasses once saw her:
It is that girl from the train before! Just as I expected, she was coming here to Shadow Masters High School. Very good… Let’s see how much she can do.
“Present yourself, please,” the woman demanded.
Lucy felt uneasy. She had never been on interviews before.
“Um, Lucy Caldwell…” she murmured.
The woman’s look grew sterner, making Lucy more nervous. She wrote something in her notebook. Apparently, she counted her nervousness as a weakness. Sweat poured off Lucy’s forehead:
At this rate, I’m not going to make it into the warriors’ group…
“So, what’s your Bond Item, Miss Caldwell?” Another man, a short chubby fellow, asked.
“Um, this one…” Lucy showed them the Yin-and-Yang golden-chained necklace she wore.
All the three administrators gasped in shock – the Yin-and-Yang necklace?! Just how many Yin-and-Yang symbol possessors had enrolled this year in their school?
“H… How did you obtain it?” the woman couldn’t hide her stupor.
“Um, long story…” Lucy heaved a sigh, reminded of the encounter with that vile fox spirit.
“So, who’s your guardian? Please show us,” the man with sunglasses demanded.
Let’s see just how much power her tailed fox has… He thought.
He knew tailed foxes were quite powerful, but this girl’s fox, as he remembered, had only five tails out of the maximal amount of nine, so, he shouldn’t be too mighty. However, he would soon understand that he shouldn’t judge a book by its cover…
“Okay,” Lucy put a hand on her locket: “Yang – Huli Yuehong.”
The administrators’ jaws dropped – she said what?! The man with sunglasses was no less perturbed. Shudders ran down his spine:
No way…
When he noticed the red light had come out of the girl’s locket and begun to take a tailed-fox shape, he realised it was truly him – the eternal king of all spirits, Huli Yuehong!
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[1] Xióngmāo (**) – panda (Mandarin Chinese)
[2] Měilì (**) – beautiful (Mandarin Chinese)
[3] Xióng (*) – bear (Mandarin Chinese)
- Writer
