85. Biking to the old temple of Mount Hua

Once we disembarked on the main island, instead of heading directly to the city, Yamazaki asked for us to wait and whispered something to the Lightning Veil, whose eyes glinted.

“Well, you’ve awakened my curiosity. Let’s do it.”

Under our confused gazes, she disappeared. She must have teleported, but… where? Then I saw her. She was at the foot of the cliffs, about a hundred meters away from us. What were they planning? By my side, Zeeta had turned pale. I was going to ask him if he was okay when Yamazaki turned to him.

“Leonardo Sakamoto. If you still want to change teams, how about this?” He glanced at the Lightning Veil. “At my signal, she will whisper some words. If you are able to hear and repeat them from here, you win.”

Zeeta looked upset. Why, though? He would have obviously been able to hear her whisper from much farther. I was still wondering, when Yamazaki raised a hand and Zeeta fastened his glaring eyes on Lizzie. Only then did I understand his reticence. Zeeta had lied to the instructors about his power. And Yamazaki knew. But how?

“Did you lie… about your power?” Zeeta said, repeating the Lightning Veil’s whispered words. Then he turned to the psychologist, adding: “So what if I lied?”

Yamazaki didn’t look victorious nor severe. Clasping his hands together behind his back, he commented:

“Some days ago, I heard the Independent Hero Association representative say great things about the Independent trainees. She mentioned that you were able to hear the song of a lighthouse keeper from the water train.” Damn. Cynsea the Hypnotist was probably just trying to brag about the Indies she was looking after… The instructor added: “Having good hearing is one thing, but being able to hear from such distances… Isn’t it too amazing to hide it, young man? Or are you playing spies?”

I grimaced under my mask, tense, as the other trainees looked at Zeeta with new eyes. Overreacting as always, Katya stepped between him and Cesarine. The situation got on my nerves, and I protested:

“Zeeta is not a—!”

“I hate spying on others,” Zeeta cut me off, his eyes fixed on Yamazaki. “My power is nothing special, and I don’t like it, that’s why,” he put an arm around my shoulder, adding brazenly, “I only use it for my friends.”

“Glad to hear it,” the Lightning Veil said. She had returned and was scanning intently his face, mine, and that of her son, probably wondering if such a suspicious, dishonest individual was a friend of Ray, too. She sighed imperceptibly. “I’ll have to report this later. Team One. Let’s go.”

Not even a word of good luck for her son…

As Cesarine’s team walked away along the path of the dyke, Yamazaki smiled at Zeeta.

“Welcome to our team, Leonardo—or is it Zeeta? Which is your real name, actually?”

“…!”

Zeeta and I looked at each other, clearing our throats. That instructor of ours didn’t let a single blunder slip, huh. As expected of a record keeper. After we explained to him about Zeeta’s di-namic family, he nodded.

“Zeeta O’Bell Leonardo Sakamoto. Zeeolesa, Zeebeellesa, Zeesabelle. Okay. Thanks for the explanation. I’ll call you Isabella, then.”

Isabella?! Was he joking? With the same serene expression, Yamazaki raised a finger, looked at the seven of us plus Curry, and said:

“Today, you guys will be showing me what you’re capable of in a mission. Supervisors are not supposed to intervene, but you won’t know how to solve this problem without my help, so let’s say I’ll let you do most of the work and see how you proceed. Okay?”

Noah protested:

“Aren’t you underestimating us? If you’re not supposed to intervene, then don’t intervene. Sir.”

Styzz agreed with a firm nod under his umbrella. Yamazaki’s lips went up.

“I knew you’d say that. Then I’ll leave it to you guys… until you beg for my help. Let’s go! To the haunted house.”

To the what?!

* * *

We encountered our first challenge way before we expected, when Yamazaki told us we would be renting some bikes at the cycle center to reach the house of our client.

“Holy Gods! Watch out, Electromorpheus, I’m coming through, it’s getting faster! The—The hell!”

“The brakes, champ!” I reminded him.

Noah went straight into a bush, shouting:

“Crap, I forgot!”

He didn’t react in time. It was the fifth time Noah had fallen off his bike. Well, he was doing impressively well considering he had never ridden a bike before.

“Are you hurt?” Styzz asked, still holding his umbrella with one hand. “I mean, more than you already are.”

Getting his bike out of the bush, Noah grumbled:

“I’m fine. More importantly, why is the stupidstar the only one on a tricycle? Hey, don’t look away, stupidstar, I’m talking to you.”

I looked down at my yellow tricycle then at Noah.

“You jealous?”

“That’s not it!”

“If you wanted a trike, you should have rented one, too, champ.”

“Yeah, that reminds me of the spiteful don’t-have-rice-then-eat-bacon kind of remark, you filthy rich kids.”

“Sorry, but it was a two-Corn difference. Besides, the instructor offered to pay for you, and you refused.”

“Tsk.” Noah glanced at Yamazaki, already climbing the next slope followed by Axel and Curry. Eder the European was, on the other hand, way behind us. “I don’t want money from a guy who acts all uppity saying we can’t complete a mission without his help. Besides,” he added, climbing back on his bike with dubious elegance. “I’m a fighter, unlike you. At Champion Institute, I didn’t get the chance to learn how to ride a bike. But I do now. Heh. I’m going ahead, cowardstar!”

Noah rode off a bit waveringly, but when he began to climb the slope, he recovered his balance. He was getting the hang of it at a surprising speed.

How nostalgic. I remembered I had learned how to bike in middle school. A classmate had been teasing Ray because he didn’t know how to ride one; I had stepped in and said in all honesty, ‘Oh, cool! Are you going to teach him, then? Can you teach me, too?’ And so, although it wasn’t his original intention, our classmate had taught us and become a good playmate… What was his name again? I shook my head. Anyway, cycling required a certain sense of balance, which I didn’t have anymore. Some weeks ago, Zeeta had already made me try to ride a bike, and I’d had to accept the obvious: I sucked at it. Arkill, on the other hand, had managed to ride quite far, so maybe with practice, I would be able to learn again. But we didn’t have time for that. Hence the tricycle.

“Whoa, he looks like a pro,” Ray said.

Noah was now standing on the bike as he kept climbing. Seriously?

“Did someone teach him how to use the gears?” Styzz asked.

No one had. The crimson-haired fighter was huffing and puffing. Zeeta snorted with laughter.

“What is he even doing?”

As Styzz speeded up to catch up with Noah and help him, I kept pedaling between Zeeta and Ray. We had left the houses behind, going up a road that ran alongside big, shady trees. According to Yamazaki, the hill was a sacred place founded centuries ago by Mount Hua, an ancestral sect of monks. The owner of the temple on the top was our client.

I listened to my friends’ breathing. Zeeta’s was steady while Ray’s was a bit fast.

“You should do sports more often, Ray.”

‘Ugh. I know. Well, I’m still sore all over.’

“Because you dug the garden on Wednesday?” I laughed. We were on Saturday now. “It’s so convenient to be dead sometimes.”

Ray and Zeeta abruptly looked at me, and the latter nodded:

“I understand you so well. It’s so much easier.”

“I didn’t mean it in that way, Zeeta.”

“I know, Straw Head. By the way, does Ray now only talk to you telepathically?”

Ray huffed:

“Ah. Sorry. I’m already… out of breath, so…”

“It’s okay, man,” Zeeta shrugged. “If you want to keep ignoring me, just do it. I’m not particularly interested in what you say, anyway.”

Ray glanced at him, and I heard his sulky thought:

‘Then I won’t bother to talk to you anymore, you stupid, tsundere stalker.’

My necro-heart sunk. I braked hard. They stopped, surprised.

“Ray, Zeeta,” I growled, putting my mask down. “You piss me off when you don’t get along.”

They both widened their eyes, exchanged a look, then to my amazement, snorted with laughter. Oi. Were they making fun of me now? Ray wiped the sweat from his forehead, saying:

“Don’t worry, Armen. We’re getting along just fine.”

“Yeah!” Zeeta agreed.

“How come I can’t see it then?”

“Ah, well, you can’t make a crystal out of a clay pot, of course.”

Zeeta frowned at Ray.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You can’t ask the impossible,” Ray replied, pushing on a pedal of his bike.

We slowly resumed the climbing. Well, at least, they didn’t hate each other. More like, for some reason, they didn’t want to get along more than they already did. Those two could be quite mysterious at times. I turned to Zeeta.

“How’s it going at the Sun House?”

“Eh? Oh. Not bad. What about you? How are your night hunts?”

Was he dodging my question? I still answered:

“At first, I felt like a hero in the shadows. I caught some bullies, and a thief, and also a rotten guy who was hitting his dog.”

“Whoa.”

“But I have the impression that I’m lowering my standards. Yesterday, I attacked a guy who threw a can in the street.”

“Well, it’s not just an impression…” Under my worried expression, Zeeta added: “Ah, but it’s bad to throw trash in the street, so you did well.”

“Did I?”

“Of course. And, remember, if you need my lifeforce—”

“Let’s not talk about that right now,” I cut him off. “So? How’s it going at the Sun House? Apart from the not bad. Don’t you know the story of Olympus the Bright? He kept saying, ‘it’s not bad’, to the poisoned gift he was given, to the cursed house he bought, to the wicked wife he married, to the nursing home he ended up in, then the residence was set on fire, and he kept saying, ‘it’s not bad, it’s not bad’—”

“Creepy!!”

“So, you’re not Olympus?”

“I’m not!”

“Right, haha, now you’re Isabella.”

“It’s not even funny, Straw Head.” He paused then answered thoughtfully: “What do you want me to tell you? It’s rather calm in the Sun House—Well, that if it weren’t for Sergei, the tall guy, you know, he’s the only guy among the Indies beside me. He’s a talking machine. And I have to share the room with him. At least, he doesn’t talk when he’s asleep, but he does when he brushes his teeth, believe me: he almost choked on the toothpaste once because he was talking about crystals. He’s a real crystal freak. And a history freak, too. Yeah, he likes to tell me stories about the Big Blend. Some are interesting, actually. Like, he says that Phoenix City was in a deserted, continental area, and when everything swapped, it popped on this orange Great Crystal, and it was only in the second century that it became the moving turtle that we know nowadays, because of a matter of magnetic points or whatever. The good thing is, when I ask him to shut up, he doesn’t get offended. That bastard carries on, anyway, but he’s a nice guy, I must say. Unlike Katya. Well, she actually bosses the girls around more than Sergei and me—Hey, what are you laughing for? Don’t complain that I’m talking too much.”

“Haha, no, I’m glad you are. Please go on!”

“… Well, I’ve said pretty much everything.” He paused. “Right. I was given a special, secret job by Lovecryce’s daughter.”

“For real? A secret job?”

“Mm… That girl’s not that bad.”

“She does look kind to me.”

“Yeah… You know, you’d think she would be bossy and full of herself, but she’s actually not. I guess I was wrong for putting all rich people in the same bag. Well, Cesarine is disconnected from the world in a lot of ways, though.”

I stared at him, surprised. He rarely talked about other people with such a thoughtful expression. I grinned.

“Well, do your best.”

“Yeah—Eh? Eh?!” Astonished, Zeeta lost his balance and almost fell off his bike, exclaiming: “I’ll do my best for the job, but I’m not into her!”

“Ah, sorry—”

“Really, Straw Head!”

“I believe you. Anyway, I’m glad to know you’re enjoying yourself, too.”

“Of course I am. I’ve been listening to your music from the Sun House.”

“You listened to my improvisation on that night?! How was it?”

“Heh. Keep pedaling, Straw Head, you’re going down.”

“Oops, thanks for the warning. So, how was it? Ray said it had deathforce in it. Oh, he’s fallen behind, by the way. Sorry, Ray!”

As we stopped to wait for my struggling master, Zeeta answered:

“Well, I’ve heard about musicians using qi to strengthen their music, but to think you did it unintentionally… Is that even possible? Anyway, Straw Head, it was awesome. It felt as if, the more discordant the melody was, the more heart-warming it got. A hell godly concert. An oxymoron, in a way.”

“Moron?”

“Oxymoron. Like, a dark light or… a trustful liar.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“It’s a figure of speech, Straw Head. Poetry is full of figures of speech. Life is, too. Well, Cesarine said to me last night, ‘A soul is a butterfly between a hyperbole and a litotes’. She’s a poet, too.”

“…! Whoa. Cool phrasing.”

“Seems deep,” Ray huffed, catching up to us.

“Inspiring at least,” Zeeta replied, and we resumed pedaling.

There was a silence, then I couldn’t help but ask:

“Are you meeting with her every night?”

Zeeta shrugged.

“She likes to talk.”

“Heh.”

He looked annoyed.

“Geez… There’s no way I’d fall for her.”

“Why?” I frowned. “Don’t tell me it’s because of her appearance? Well, yeah, she’s impressively fat, but she’s beautif—”

“Straw Head, remember, she’s Lovecryce’s daughter. Someone like me would end up dead in a ditch if the Nyomin director had any suspicions.”

“…! Aw. It’s better if you don’t fall for her, then,” I said, worried. “Ray can’t revive you yet.”

Zeeta rolled his eyes.

“Right. And in any case…” His eyes fixed on the intricate, dark red roof of the temple that was slowly appearing at the end of the road.

“In any case?” I echoed, curious.

He pondered, looked at a red-leaf tree, then at me pedaling on the yellow tricycle with my orange coverall; in no time, he stopped, grabbed his phone, and took a picture of me with the tree. Eh? He gave me a thumbs up.

“Nice one. Can’t be more artistic. I’m happy to be such a good stalker.”

“Stalkers are supposed to do it on the sly.”

“Why should I hide it? Didn’t you tell me, last year, ‘it’s fine if you stalk me twenty-four hours a day, you’re not weird at all’?”

“Eeeh? D-Did I say that? I don’t remember!”

He laughed.

“I’m just teasing you, Straw Head. Don’t forget to pedal. The last one to the top is a slacker!”

“…?! W-Wait, wait! I’m on a tricycle!”

I did my best anyway, pedaling like a madman, and came in second. Then Ray arrived, going at his own pace. We looked back at the slope. Eder was still way behind. He did say he was actionphobic.

In front of the large, traditional, wooden temple, Yamazaki was kneeling before the big statue of a black, slender dog. As we soon realized, he wasn’t worshipping it, but instead, he was tending to Noah, applying a translucent cream on his bruises. He was saying:

“… called a Noipanua dog, and it’s supposed to ward off evil spirits.”

“The cream is?” I asked, crouching beside them.

“The statue is, stupidstar,” Noah replied.

Oh? I looked up at the dog, svelte, divine-looking, and somewhat scary. Styzz was leaning against it, yawning, when suddenly, we heard a rubbing noise, a thud, and a loud clash. A tile had just fallen on Styzz’s umbrella and shattered on the ground. If Styzz hadn’t had a sturdy umbrella…

We remained speechless for an instant. Then Styzz turned to us with his mean-looking eyes wide.

“I-I’m not an evil spirit, though.”

Yamazaki had frowned. He stood up with a dark expression.

“Ah… It’s pretty bad, I see.”

Was he talking about the roof? But, though old, it seemed in a pretty good state to me…

“What the hell, the Noipanua is clearly not working!” Noah snorted, jumping to his feet.

Cautious, we moved a few meters away from the temple. Our supervisor explained:

“The Noipanua has nothing to do with it. I told you… this is a haunted house.”

I could feel the tension in the air.

“A haunted house,” Axel repeated. “You mean, there’s a ghost? I thought ghosts were harmless.”

“Usually, they are. But the ghost in this house is not a real ghost. This old temple of Mount Hua is haunted by the vengeful soul of its former owner, who blended with the whole structure of this place. It is a damned soul.”

“That’s right,” a sudden hoarse voice said. We turned to see a tall, old woman go down the front steps of the temple. Her long, white hair was tied back with a red ribbon, and a simple, tidy tunic reached her ankles. For some reason, when I met her light eyes, I felt all the tension dissipate. She added, bowing: “Welcome to our temple, sir Yamazaki, and thank you very much for coming. It is an honor to meet an inner disciple of Mount Hua.”

Zeeta gasped by my side. Yamazaki was an inner disciple of Mount Hua… Wait, hadn’t the temple been founded by Mount Hua? I raised an eyebrow, intrigued. The psychologist smiled and bowed.

“Don’t be so formal, please. Today, I come as the supervisor of these youngsters. I hope we’ll be able to appease your husband’s soul. Please, could you explain what happened?”

“Yes… It’s been four years since my dear Yi died. Ever since, this place has been deserted by disciples, even by our own family. Nothing can seem to appease his soul. Yi attacks every human that doesn’t belong to the direct family.” For real?! Then the tile… We all looked up at the roof as she went on: “However, last month, he attacked his own three-year-old granddaughter and sent her to the hospital.” Holy Gods… She shook her head sadly. “This temple, which we proudly called a haven for martial and spiritual artists, has now become the Haunted Temple, a place of bad luck and misfortune. Not even exorcists or Chaos Fighters have been able to do anything about it.”

“No wonder, for exorcists do not exorcise places but people, often in cases with psychological issues,” Yamazaki commented, and he scanned the old temple. “This isn’t a job for a Chaos Fighter either. This temple has an energetic balance of its own.”

The old woman frowned worriedly.

“So, you think…”

Yamazaki raised a hand.

“I was planning to help those young trainees in this case, but…” He looked at Noah then swept his gaze over the six of us as he said with confidence, “they’re all skilled future Heroes and they want to have a try on their own. So, guys, please go in and appease Yi’s soul for the sake of this temple, this venerable lady, her family, and business.” He waved at the open door. “Good luck.”

We gaped at him. Good luck? He was asking us to enter a cursed place that had already almost killed Styzz, and all he said to us was “good luck”? Was he trying to kill us?

A sudden crack was heard, and we all jumped, startled. The venerable lady apologized:

“I’m worried to let young people in, but since you say they are skilled, I’ll accept your help, young ones. It’s an old temple, but please feel yourself at home while you work.”

Her words were so kind, but… feel ourselves at home? How?!

At that moment, we heard a scraping voice say:

“G-G-Guuuys… I’m f-f-finally here…”

Noah and I shrieked at the same time as a pale figure covered in sweat arrived on a bike. It was Eder. As the European got off, worn out, we sighed in relief, then we looked at him in horror as he asked for water like a zombie and followed the venerable lady into the temple.

Yamazaki smiled at us.

“Your comrade is most probably in danger right now. You won’t abandon him, will you?”

He wasn’t joking. That damn psychologist… After exchanging looks, Noah was the first one to advance, defiantly, and we followed.

Dark clouds were piling up in the sky, and the first drops began to fall.