Hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 6:

Lost in his thoughts for more than a few minutes, Ze finally pulled himself together and looked around the room that was from this moment forth his.

Despite him being one of many students, this new home turned out to be quite spacious with the entrance hall connecting to a large living room that also had a little kitchen attached to it.

Although the Academy provided breakfast, lunch and dinner they apparently still gave you the option to cook something for yourself, which wasn’t bad at all considering he even had his own fridge now.

There was only two doors except the entrance door connecting to the living room, one led to a small bathroom where he found a shower, sink as well as toilet cramped together and the other opened up to a small room with an average sized bed, dresser and mirror.

One thing he did noticed was that there was no TV but that only made sense considering they weren’t really on earth anymore right now, it did intrigue him though how the principal managed to power everything with electricity.

It couldn’t be that the school had its own power plant right?

Pondering about this question for a bit he went back to the living room and opened the fridge only to find it empty which he somewhat half expected.

Closing it again he pulled off his hood for the first time all day and unpacked his school bag.

Considering he hadn’t known beforehand that this school was a boarding school, however that escaped his dad’s mind, Ze only had a limited amount of clothes and next to no money with him to buy more.

He quite literally owned only the things he wore right now and a few other school related items.

Sighing deeply he pulled up his phone and checked it for a connection, without any luck naturally.

Ze felt a slight headache coming and went to the mirror in his bedroom to check if it was the stress getting to him or something else.

In the reflective surface, a teenager with above average looks while donning quite the dark circles beneath the eyes looked back at him.

His hair was dark brown and cut short, styled to the latest trend.

Eyes sported a deep emerald color and his complexion was currently awfully pale, which was understandable if one took his current circumstances into account.

Staring into his own eyes that had the same panicked look like a wild animal being hunted down, Ze felt somewhat annoyed and pushed against the surface of the mirror while once again leaving the room.

He was stranded in this strange little world, alone as the only human and ridiculously unprepared for the dangers that lurked around him.

That brought his mind to the matter at hand and a possible idea of how to solve his lack of knowledge concerning Yokais.

As a student of the Academy he should have every right to visit all facilities which naturally included the library, a place where knowledge was more than abundant.

If he wanted answers, that was the only logical place to look for them without blowing his cover.

He knew next to nothing about Yokais, sure he had a general idea thanks to the news and the bad stories people told about them but actual facts he only knew very few.

Pulling up his hood he prepared himself mentally and with a deep intake of air left his little apartment.

Outside in the hall he met no one as he hastily made his way down the stairs.

Passing Jarred without even so much as a word, Ze could feel the stare in his back and tried to just ignore it.

The way back to the main building was uneventful as even here practically no one was outside as far as his eyes tell.

Most were probably still busy with exploring their rooms or the dorm itself so he didn’t feel too much pressure as he stepped through the big double doors and went up the stairs, following the signs just like he had done in the dorm.

It hadn’t caught his eye before but there was a lot of them all around, making it easy to find your way even when it was your first time exploring around the building.

This was probably done to lessen the burden on teachers or other personnel to verbally explain it every single time which made good sense.

Ze ascended the stairs three times before following the arrows through the long and empty halls to the back of the main building.

Looking at a set of majestic double doors with intricate designs carved in the wood itself he couldn’t help but feel that this was the right place without even needing to look at the letters carved next to it.

Putting his hand on one of the massive doors he was surprised to find little to no resistance as the heavy door swung inward silently.

Before his eyes unfolded a rather magical sight as a maze of bookcases that reached as high up as the room itself was tall blocked his view.

Only little pathways that were five feet wide allowed passage through it all.

Craning his head back in awe he examined the different backs of thousands of books displayed before him.

The door closed soundlessly behind Ze as he looked around himself in a slight trance, completely overwhelmed by this ‘library’ he was standing in.

When he first heard the word he thought it was going to be a little school library like they normally existed and not one that could very well rival the biggest libraries on earth.

How the hell was he going to find what he needed in this tsunami of knowledge?

Hearing a quiet “excuse me” to the right of him gave Ze nearly a heart attack and he quickly spun around on the back of his heels.

Standing behind a small desk that looked like a reception area was an old man with white hair.

His eyes were of golden color and the stare he gave him seemed to pierce through Ze’s body as if he was able to see through even the smallest of secrets.

This gaze alone sent shivers down his spine but he decided to ignore his instincts that were on high alert and instead walked closer.

“Can I help you somehow young man?”

The old librarian asked with a small smile.

“Yes, I am looking for books related to the origin of Yokais and one that contains some of the most basic forms of powers that dwell in most Yokais, it’s just that there is this one guy I met today and he… I don’t know how to describe it but I can’t-“

“-put your finger on it? I know what you mean boy. Just wait a second here while I look for the right ones that fit your request. You can use those tables over there to study them in peace later. I will be right back.”

Turning around, the librarian, to Ze’s absolute shock disappeared with a soft breeze before his eyes and only returned nearly 5 minutes later in the same fashion, this time carrying a pile of books of all sizes with him.

How he had done this feat of practically teleporting away and back was not something Ze had even the faintest clue of but he doubted that it was one of the ‘basic powers’ that Yokais possessed, otherwise mankind would have long gone extinct.

Accepting the rather heavy pile that nearly went beyond what he was able to carry he thanked the man and made his way to the nearest table with wobbly knees.

Dropping everything with a sigh of relief he sat down and pulled the first book that fell into his hands closer.

‘Mythical Tales of the Beast Yokai tribe and Humans’ was the name of it and Ze quickly began to read.

After flipping through 5 books he couldn’t help but scowl.

The information in these books was rather plentiful indeed and explained each category of different Yokai clans in great detail but what he wanted was not thorough explanation but rather a quick overview of ‘Yokai 101’.

Putting down another book labeled as ‘Harpies, Pixies and the magic of Chocolate’ he couldn’t help but sigh before grabbing for another.

2 hours had passed and they were quite fruitful as he now had an inkling of an idea.

There was something called Clans for the Yokais of this world.

Each clan had different characteristics and different powers that came with it, some were inherently stronger than others because they had decided to keep the blood pure and not mix with humans but most linages had diluted over the many centuries and only rare few had the powers or capacities of old as they even started to gain their true form only after hitting teenage years.

There was many marriages between Yokais to keep human blood out of the loop, which in turn created many more variations and combinations of species like Firelamias or Earthdragons for example.

Things that would normally oppose each other were possible, although most of the time weakening both powers, in a child between species.

Generally there were 4 categories of Yokais.

Beastmen that had the characteristics of animals or other creatures as well as some benefits from them.

These were nearly 90% of all Yokais.

Mythological creatures like Dragons, Phoenixes or others that were abundant in the legends of humans. They only had a population of 8% and were regarded as the ones with purer linages, ergo generally a lot stronger and the nobility of Yokai kind.

Mages, witches and wizards, a term used for humans that were born with so much magic potential in their bodies that they were monsters themselves and shunned by both humanity and Yokai kind for the most part, although they still counted as Yokais themselves thanks to the the characteristics of their magic and inherent ability being above and beyond normal humans who were never born with magic reserves like that.

This was a strange case where human DNA had diluted the linage of a Yokai so far that it mutated and instead of disappearing strengthened it to insane proportions.

Some of the strongest Yokai alive and to date one of the most feared came from this category.

Only a little more than 1% of all Yokais counted as one of the above and most did not have the crazy strength spoken of in myths and instead only average ability in magic or using their powers.

Demonic Yokai with an appearance rate of about 0.1% or less were the last kind.

These were the absolute abnormalities and monsters that threatened humanity many times to the brink of extinction and only a combination effort of both Human and Yokai kind were able to fend them off.

A rare combination that did not fall into any of the above categories but instead combined 2 or more of them together.

They were seen as mutant monsters, some with insanely strong linage and being able to tap into multiple powers while others had not only that but the magic reserves of Wizards and a few world shaking and unheard abilities of their own to boot.

Normally a Yokai had one power that it could expand in like increased speed that could be applied on each body part before finally evolving into increased movement speed and even further after enough training.

Demonic Yokais didn’t have these limits and could for example tap into speed, dexterity, strength, body growth, heightened senses and much more in one go, making their threat even at young ages all too real.

They were the only ones born without a humanoid or animal form and had to use years of practice to make themselves look akin to Humans, only after hitting puberty did they gain the ability to fully hide what they were with some added effort.

Nearly all Demonic Yokais had been exterminated and were still hunted down to this day as the possible danger they brought with their appearance was just too great.

These were the general categories that nearly all Yokai would fall into, naturally there was exceptions to this rule but they were even less common than Demonic Yokai so there was next to no records of them ever showing up in the past.

Sighing deeply, Ze closed the book in his hands and grabbed for the next one.

Just like this, hours flew by like minutes and the lamps around him turned on while the outside world turned dark.

Completely engrossed in the literature and unaware of what was happening around him, Ze read until his eyes hurt, gaining an abundant knowledge about many things.

One thing he managed to find out was that Yokais were genetically a bit different than humans and had a part of their brain that was bigger than that of humans, this abnormality allowed their mind to attune to what they called ‘essence’, a form of energy that supposedly existed all around.

If Ze compared it to the previous knowledge he had gained, then this would be the mysterious ‘mana’ that magicians used and that had been spoken of in another book before.

This essence was in nearly everything present on earth and even empty space was apparently not as empty as human scientists had thought it was.

It was untraceable, interacted with barely anything and could only be harnessed by Yokais or rare human cases.

One part of their brain would absorb and store this essence automatically without them having to do anything and when they reached a certain age, mainly puberty, their powers would show themselves.

These were mostly derived from their DNA and inherent talents but also influenced by the essence that could transform in nearly any other form of energy.

It was after all the essence of everything.

Through this, Yokais had the ability to change their form, enhance beyond the physical and even call upon the elements but all of that was only temporary.

Should they run out of essence then they would shift back to their human and or other form, whichever was their original one, and they would have to rest and let their mind absorb essence once again.

Apparently this process of recharging could be sped up by training but the book had only explained this far and Ze could already guess that this topic was also one of the classes in this school, the training and use of essence.

Knowing that humans had next to no way of sensing or using it he couldn’t help but feel cold fear grip his heart and his fingers tightened around the book’s cover.

With the hope of finding out more and maybe being able to fake out the teachers somehow he picked up the next book and the one after that, frantic for a golden ray of hope that dwindled farther and farther away the more he learned.

Holding up the last of the books in the before giant pile, it was already deep at night but no one had come to kick him out yet so Ze used the time to examine the last hope he had for now.

One thing that was a little odd was that the previous books were all rather thick and he had to glance over a lot of things as reading 600+ pages of information was just not viable in his current situation.

This one though was thin and a lot smaller, only 50 or so pages thick and wrapped in black leather without any letters or an image describing its contents.

Slightly confused about why this had been in the same pile as the others he opened it, only to find and empty and blank page.

Turning a few pages further everything was still empty as no words could be found inside this mysterious item.

What the hell was an empty book like this doing inside a library?

About to close the thing he reached the last page only to stop at the sentence that was written at the last bottom right corner, as if squished into it.

‘If you are human and in need of power, leave a blood dripped fingerprint to sign the contract, otherwise destroy this book.’

Stunned Ze examined the sentence over and over again before the words slowly faded away in front of his eyes as if they had never existed in the first place.

Feeling a little confused and amazed at this obvious display of magic he closed the book and looked up, it showed that it was close to 10 pm so he would need to hurry back soon otherwise he wouldn’t be able to get enough sleep to be awake for the examination tomorrow morning.

Glancing down at the black book in his hands he naturally didn’t need someone to tell him that this was a special item that should be handled with care and definitely not something ordinary.

Just why the hell was it here and asking for a human in the first place?

Ze knew that it was dumb and possibly dangerous what he was doing but stuck in his current situation he wasn’t able to resist the devil’s temptation as he brought the pile of books back to the patiently waiting old man.

Quickly leaving the reception desk and double doors behind him he made his way back to the dorm with the small black book tightly hidden beneath his clothes.

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As I said before next one arriving in 1 hour and still so tired -.- gotta...resist... the bed....

If you find any mistakes do tell below please!

PS: My sleep rhythm is out of whack and I can't even give two shits about it anymore XD

Abbadon out!