“ALICIA!!!!!”

Bandana Mask screamed at the top of his lungs as he looked at the spiky blood plunge right through Alicia’s chest and Ryuga’s hand. Ryuga was so shocked by the incident that he couldn’t utter a single word.

The only sane person at that point was Kirio who straight away looked at a few Ghosts arriving in the vicinity.

“The threat has been dealt with!”

There were a few high ranked Ghosts who had gathered within the vicinity. The sane Kirio straight away recognized the face of the Ghost that plunged the blood right through Alicia.

“Mayumi Revons...Or through what people call her, Bloody Blue. She’s a B-rank Ghost currently, isn’t she?”

Kirio looks at the girl with bluish hair, a skirt, and a short buttoned jacket.

Kirio walks straight to Mayumi and holds her collar,

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN BY THE THREAT HAS BEEN DEALT WITH?!”

Kirio angrily screams at Mayumi.

“I think so it should be obvious, that girl would have killed you if-“

Ryuga slowly pulled his hand off of the bloody spike that pierced his hand and Mayumi realizes that Ryuga is also here.

“Ryuga?”

Mayumi looks confused by Ryuga’s sudden appearance in front of her. Her thoughts are all hazy and she doesn’t know what to say.

At the same time, Ryuga’s expression turned cold. Almost as if he was a cold-blooded killer. There was a scary aura that he gave away. Everyone, including the Ghosts in the vicinity felt Ryuga’s aura as Alicia’s dead body fell to the ground with a strong *THUD*.

“Ryuga, are you safe? That Ogre didn’t hurt you did she?!”

Mayumi’s stoic expression suddenly turned into concern as soon as she saw Ryuga. Ryuga walked to the side and sat on the bench. He didn’t utter a word and wrapped his wound with a hander-kerchief he had in his short’s pocket.

“Oi Aragi, you good dude?”

Out of concern, Kirio asks Ryuga.

Ryuga looks and Kirio and smiles,

“Yeah, I am good. After all, the Ghosts just killed a person who went on a rampage, right? I am fine.”

Ryuga speaks but he doesn’t make eye contact with Kirio.

“Tsch!”

Annoyed by Ryuga’s tone, Kirio puts both his hands in his pocket and sits near Ryuga.

“Oh hey Mayumi, I didn’t realize you were a Ghost as well. Good for you.”

A few more Ghosts appear behind Mayumi while Ryuga speaks with her.

“Oh, you Ghosts want to investigate the scene, right? Feel free to do so. Also, feel free to interrogate us if you want to.”

Ryuga says with a smile on his face.

“Y-yeah...Right...”

The Ghosts that have gathered feel uncomfortable with the way Ryuga is talking.

A Ghost wearing red spandex and a red helmet covering his face walks to Mayumi. It’s almost as if cosplaying Super Sentai.

“Umm, Bloody Blue, I don’t understand that guy at all. How can he smile when someone just died in front of him? It’s almost a death of a Ghost has had no effect on him.”

The Ghost says.

Mayumi was about to say something but she soon changes her mind,

“Just interrogate him and know if they are alright or not.”

Mayumi says.

“If you say so..."

“You don’t have to put an act on mister good guy. It wasn’t your mistake she died.”

Kirio says to Ryuga.

Ryuga sighs,

“Remember I said I had no interest in Ghosts. This is one of the reasons. Some Ghosts are so dumb that they don’t even investigate what happened and why it happened and they take actions without any regards. I don’t particularly feel bad for Alicia dying because she was just someone I knew and not someone who I was close to but what I feel bad about is that I saved her and she died.”

Ryuga says.

“I understand where ya coming from. In all honesty, I am pretty pissed off about the whole situation. I just want to hit that ex of yours but fucking hell if I do that I am sure I will be banned from being a Ghost for the rest of my life.”

Kirio says.

(It hurts you know when you save someone and then you come to know that was all in vain. Everything you did everything you planned out, everything that you meant to do. It all was in vain. In this case, I planned out everything well enough to a point I gave my everything to save Alicia and that’s what I meant to do till the very end but someone else comes in and kills her just for me to fall into a hole and think, why did I even do all that if she was to die anyway? What hurts, even more, is that I told her I will save her and I did save her only to be killed by someone else.)

“YOU KILLED HER!”

In the corner Bandana, Mask held Mayumi by her collar just like Kirio and screamed angrily.

“Of course I did, there was no other way to save her.”

Mayumi regained her stoic expression.

The only time there were any emotions seen on her face was when she spoke with Ryuga for a minute or two.

“EVEN AFTER WE SAVED HER, YOU KILLED HER!” Bandana Mask slowly started to flow in tears,

“Even after the boy saved her...You killed her...”

Every Ghost who heard that looked surprised. Of course, no one knew that someone who was once controlled by the bug would again live to see another day.

“What do you mean by the boy saved her? Which boy saved her?”

The Ghost in red spandex quickly asked Bandana Mask.

Bandana Mask pointed at Ryuga. Mayumi looked at Ryuga, she was surprised by the fact that Ryuga had saved someone. The Ghost in red spandex begins walking towards Ryuga.

“Here comes trouble.”

Kirio says.

“I already know that. A Ghost is on his way.”

Ryuga says.

“His name is Ranger Chilli. He is an A-rank Ghost. If I had to guess that guy has the highest rank out of all the Ghosts that have gathered here. Yet I don’t understand why your ex is calling the shots.”

Kirio says.

“Isn’t it obvious? She is Bleed’s daughter. Obviously, she will be the one calling the shots.”

Ryuga says.

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

Kirio says.

“I ask you to answer me. How did you remove that bug from Alicia Arkwet? Are you a scientist? Are you a Ghost? Or even worse, do you work for Illuminati by any chance?”

Ranger Chilli questions Ryuga.

“Oi, dipshit-“

Before Kirio says anything Ryuga smiles and looks at Ranger Chilli.

“The first answer, Alicia Arkwet is an Ogre. Ogre’s have something called Frenzy mode when their hearts stop to beat. Now, the frenzy mode only lasts for 2 minutes and an Ogre could go rampage in those moments but if an Ogre could come back to their senses within those 2 minutes, their heart will beat again and they will come back to life. It is an Ogre’s special ability. So all I had to do was stop the Ogre’s heart from beating and bring out that bug which I did.

The second answer, no I am not a scientist. I don’t know anything about science, to begin with. Otherwise, I would have found a scientific way of dealing with this problem.

The third answer, you could say I am technically a Ghost because I am a student at Ghost World Academy but I haven’t been officially named a Ghost or anything of that sort.

Final answer, I do not work for Illuminati and I don’t like you either because you and them both of you just seem to kill people on the spot without thinking twice.”

Ryuga answered all the questions with a smile on his face.

“Wow...This guy really went and hit their nerves.”

Kirio looks shocked by Ryuga’s response.

“What you just said makes me really angry. You just insulted us Ghosts who risk our lives for you people. You don’t understand anything about being a Ghost yet and that’s why I will not say anything to you but once you grow up, you will understand everything.”

Ranger Chilli says and starts to walk away.

“Is that so? So let me ask every single Ghost who is here a question.”

Ryuga says.

“If this person was your mother, father, daughter, brother, sister, would you still kill them? In other words, would you have killed your family if they were infected with this bug thingy?”

Ryuga’s question put everyone inside the park in shock. Kirio looked the most surprised out of everyone. Ryuga gets up and walks away.

“If you guys don’t have the answer to that, you will never truly understand what someone’s life truly means.” Ryuga keeps on walking towards his house.

(It was about six years ago when I got into a fight and I used the word kill casually in front of everyone. I still remember, back in elementary, I told that kid that I would kill him and father said something like,

‘You won’t understand now boy but killing someone, that’s a hard statement. It’s something you will only understand when you understand how precious someone else’s life is.’

I just twisted those words and made my own interpretation of that but that sounded so edgy...

’If you guys don’t have the answer to that, you will never truly understand what someone’s life truly means’

...What does that even mean?! That something father once told me and that’s just what I used on them. I guess he wasn’t wrong. To be honest, I didn’t understand what life truly meant until Alicia got killed right in front of me.)

Ryuga stops walking forward. He looks at a person standing in front of him. An unknown person, he wears a mask, a dark monster-like mask with a creepy smile. Not to mention, he is also quite tall almost reaching 7 ft.

“Who are you?”

Ryuga asks the well-built 7 ft person.

“Thank you, for saving our dead Ogre. We will always remember what you did for us, Ryuga Aragi.”

That person suddenly disappeared from Ryuga’s sight and Ryuga suddenly wakes up with a jerk.

(The heck was that? A dream or did I really meet someone yesterday? That was still pretty weird. Not to mention, I have forgotten about my ex’s problem but yesterday’s incident is still haunting me. I hope today will be an alright day.)

~GHOST WORLD ACADEMIA~

A new day has begun. Ryuga sits at the table eating breakfast with his family. Kaori looks at Ryuga and realizes that something is wrong with her son.

“I heard that an Ogre was killed last night at Juno’s Park.”

Hiro says.

This makes Ryuga feel even guiltier for not saving Alicia.

“How awful! Who could have done such a thing?”

Kaori asks Hiro.

“Apparently, the reports say that the Ogre worked for Illuminati-“

A sudden *SLAM* from Ryuga’s fists makes everyone concerned for him.

“You okay, boy?!”

Hiro asks Ryuga.

“It’s nothing! I forgot I need to give my homework early today. So I need to leave early.”

Ryuga takes his bag and storms out.

“At least give a better excuse than that...”

Hiro says and stares at the door that Ryuga left through.

(I shouldn’t be affected by the fact that someone I didn’t know well died and I wouldn’t have been affected by it for long but...That fucking report...Saying that she worked for Illuminati. That’s a lie, a huge fucking lie!)

Ryuga punches a wall next to him and grits his teeth angrily. Ryuga continues to walk even after that but he isn’t walking to his school, he is walking towards another high school. The school’s name is Revons High.

A blood spike goes right past Ryuga’s cheek. It causes a small cut on his cheek.

“Hmm?”

Ryuga realizes that there is a fight going on inside the school.

“I heard an Ogre and Miss Revons are fighting.”

“Let’s go check them out. The Ogre might be a member of Illuminati.”

“Yeah, after what happened last night, Ogres are not trustworthy.”

A group of three students is talking to each other.

(News travels fast huh? That event was just like a few hours ago for me but for these people, it was like last night.)

Ryuga arrives at the scene where all the fighting is going. An Ogre who had a similar face as well as body structure as Alicia is fighting Mayumi. The only difference between this Ogre and Alicia is that Ogre’s cheeks are more puffed out compared to Alicia and she also has six-pack abs and decent body muscle which is seen through her skin-tight clothing. She is also holding a club that is almost a feet long.

(So she is fighting an Ogre huh? Mayumi Revons, I didn’t know she was already a Ghost. Not only a Ghost, a B-rank Ghost. That’s pretty good for her age. She would turn into a great Ghost.

In some cases, some teens become Ghosts before their graduation from Ghost World Academia. Those teens are special cases, in other words, they are prodigies.

In the case of Mayumi, she was always the best at everything she did. I know her enough to a point where I can say she isn’t even giving her all. If she is pushed, this fight will be over soon.)

Ryuga begins to walk away. He wanted to talk to Mayumi but he thought that this isn’t exactly the best time.

“YOU WERE THE REASON ALICIA DIED!”

Those words stopped Ryuga from leaving.

“YOU WERE THE ONE WHO KILLED MY SISTER!”

Ryuga had heard enough, he quickly turned around and looked at the Ogre fighting Mayumi.

“So what? She was working for the Illuminati. That was her end right there, she never should have been a part of that group.”

The words that Mayumi said made the Ogre burst in anger due to which she swings her club with brutal force. Mayumi wasn’t going to back down either. She was secretly readying her next huge attack.

A few spikes are sent towards the Ogre by Mayumi but a bag is thrown in front of Mayumi which blocks her vision,

“What the-“

and the club hits the head of none other than Ryuga who intervenes in the fight. He stands between both Mayumi and the Ogre.

The bag falls to the ground and Ryuga stands in Mayumi’s clear sight. The shock Mayumi gets after watching Ryuga get hit to the head brings a change in her expression.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

Mayumi screams as she tries to break the club,

“Stop right now!”

Ryuga turns around and says.

There is blood dripping from his forehead but he is conscious enough to a point where he looks angrily at Mayumi as well as the Ogre. There is a tense atmosphere that makes even Mayumi nervous.

“You are a student at Ghost World Academy, right?”

Ryuga asks the Ogre.

“Yes...How did you know?”

The Ogre asks Ryuga.

“Just a guess, so let’s walk together there. Let’s not create more trouble for Bloody Blue here.”

Ryuga says and picks his bag up from the ground.

“Ryuga, you are bleeding-“

Ryuga looks at Mayumi and smiles,

“It’s not a big deal, Bloody Blue.”

“It’s not a big deal for you but it’s a big deal for me, boy! That woman and your humans claim that my sister worked for Menos! How can I take that to face!”

The Ogre looks quite angry.

Ryuga sighs.

“If you get killed here, you won’t get revenge for your sister. Instead, this fighting just makes your sister look bad in front of everyone else. If your sister wasn’t that kind of person, don’t you think you should first gather info about things that happened yesterday night? This way you will know what happened last night and you can have your revenge in a peaceful way which will make your sister look better in front of everyone.”

Ryuga explains with a small smile.

The Ogre looks the other way,

“I can do that.”

The Ogre says.

“Let’s walk together. I am from Ghost World Academy as well.”

Ryuga says with a smile.

“I understand...I will walk with you if that is what you wish. After all, out of every human I have seen, you have been the kindest to me today.”

The Ogre says.

Ryuga smiles,

“Thanks!” Ryuga says with a smile.

“What about your wound, Ryuga?! Let me treat you first-“

Ryuga walks past Mayumi.

“Try treating the wounds you Ghosts have created first after that you can feel free to treat my wounds if you want.”

Those were Ryuga’s parting words the Ogre followed him out of the school.

Ryuga takes a bandage from a medical store nearby and the Ogre sits with him on a bench at his favorite Juno park treating his wounds.

“So, what’s your name?”

Ryuga asks.

“Jau Shiezel, that is the name that my parents gave me but you can call me Jau-Unfurn. Unfurn being the honor like you Japanese humans use like san and kun.”

The Ogre says.

“Interesting, Alicia felt like a human name. Your name sounds like a real Ogre.”

Ryuga says. He takes interest in Jau-Unfurn.

“That’s because Alicia was a unique being. She was definitely an Ogre but she was born after mother remarried to a human. So that human named her. I was a year and a half old so I vaguely remember my father too but I heard he was a great warrior who sacrificed himself in the battle against Menos.”

Jau-Unfurn says.

“Menos? Oh yeah, you said Menos previously too. I didn’t pay attention though. What’s Menos?”

Ryuga asks Jau-Unfurn.

“Menos is the same organization you humans call Illuminati. We just named them Menos since the moment they were formed while the humans took their time naming this organization.”

Jau-Unfurn says.

“You have something on your mind, don’t you?”

Ryuga asks Jau-Unfurn.

“Why did you trust me? Do you still believe that the Ogres are the good guys after what your fellow humans said about my sister? Do you not have any doubts?”

Jau-Unfurn asks Ryuga barrages of questions as she completes bandaging Ryuga’s head injury.

Ryuga looks at Jau-Unfurn who seems to be in disbelief that Ryuga would want to help her.

“Don’t get me wrong. I don’t trust you at all. We aren’t close friends or anything like that to trust you but I am an eyewitness of everything that happened yesterday night.”

Jau-Unfurn looks in utter shock after what Ryuga just said.

“I know what happened yesterday night or to be specific what happened a few hours ago. It all happened in front of me and I couldn’t do anything.”

Ryuga clenches his fists,

“That pisses me off...”

Ryuga says.

Jau-Unfurn slowly looks to be getting angry. Her horn is blinking between red and black over and over again. This is indicating that she is getting angry. Ryuga realizes that Jau-Unfurn is getting angry. Jau-Unfurn catches Ryuga by his collar,

“Why didn’t...Why didn’t you save her?!” Jau-Unfurn’s horn is starting to blink between red and light blue. “Why didn’t you save her...?”

Jau-Unfurn continues to ask the same question to Ryuga over and over again. Jau-Unfurn looked at Ryuga. She was angry and yet, there were tears in her eyes.

(I wish I had an answer to that. I wish I could have saved her. In all honesty, I didn’t think that Ghosts of all people would have put their blame on Alicia. I never thought such a situation would have occurred.

I wonder if I never joined Ghost World Academy would I never have known this truth and would I have been just like all those other people who didn’t believe in Jau-Unfurn.

I have never felt...This much anger before and at the same time, I haven’t felt this helpless before. Only if I could do something to clear Alicia’s name as an agent of Illuminati, only if I could do that...Maybe I will feel better for not being able to do anything for her.)

~GHOST WORLD ACADEMIA~

A few hours passed with Ryuga sitting calmly in the park with Jau-Unfurn. Both Ryuga and Jau-Unfurn skipped their classes.

“Have you calmed down?”

Ryuga asks as he looks at the kids play in the park.

“Yes, a little bit.”

Jau-Unfurn says.

“Alicia...What type of person was she?”

Ryuga asks Jau-Unfurn.

“Alicia was the kindest Ogre. She was so kind that she didn’t even hunt animals for food. She believed that even the animals of her forest were her friends.”

Jau-Unfurn smiles,

“She was mother’s favorite child. I was kinda jealous of her you know. I mean she never needed to train. Unlike me, my little sister was a prodigy. She was strong physically as well as had high magic potency. I even fought with her on many occasions so that I could prove that I am more powerful than her but she always went easy on me. She lost on purpose and never fought at her full strength. It really pissed me off at times but more importantly, she always had a goal in her mind.”

Jau-Unfurn continued to smile as she spoke of Alicia.

"“I want to be the best mage in this world, I want to be the hero of this world, I want to be sure to protect everyone I love and I want to protect them with all my power. That is the reason, why I, Alicia Arkwet will become a hero that will take down any and all villains that strike fear into people’s hearts.” Those were the words that Alicia said to me when I asked her about her goals. I know it must be very generic and sounds like a childish dream but she always was the first one to do any kind of heroic deeds.”

Jau-Unfurn looks at Ryuga with a sad face even her horns turn light blue.

“You know, Ryuga, I am Alicia’s big sister but never have I ever felt like I was her big sister. Instead, it felt like Alicia took all the responsibilities of becoming the big sister. Even if I didn’t have a big sister, I felt I had a big sister.”

Jau-Unfurn smiles as she looks at the sky and her horn turn light blue in color again.

(Mother told me something when some girl is sad I have to do this. If I am correct, an Ogre’s horns turn blue when they are sad. So maybe this might work...)

“This isn’t much but I hope that we can clear your sister’s name together.”

Ryuga soothes Jau-Unfurn’s head.

“Wha-Wha-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

Jau-Unfurn’s horn turns pink and her full face becomes red.

“I mean, I don’t like it that I couldn’t do anything about your sister so I will help you in any way possible.”

Ryuga say with a nervous smile.

“I don’t mean that you idiot! I meant what are you doing with your hand?! Why are you patting my head?! Isn’t that something that you human lovers do?!”

Ryuga keeps on staring at Jau-Unfurn as his cheeks get red.

Ryuga quickly takes his hand back.

“I believe so...That’s...Definitely...Umm-I...I...It’s...That’s right! It just means that I will always protect you.”

Ryuga says with a nervous smile.

“Protect me?! Pfft! Are you kidding me?! You are so scrawny, how will you protect me?!”

Jau-Unfurn laughs at Ryuga. Jau-Unfurn realizes that she is smiling due to Ryuga.

“I never said I will protect you physically. I meant to say that, I will protect that smile.”

Ryuga says with a nervous smile. At that time, Ryuga thought,

“How can I not say that when she is one helluva cute Ogre?”

Jau-Unfurn smiles and whispers,

“You protect my smile and I will protect you...Ryuga.”

Ryuga looks at Jau-Unfurn’s lips and realizes she said something to herself,

“You said something?”

Ryuga asks.

“Nothing...But thanks for today, I really appreciated that you spent some time with me.”

Jau-Unfurn smiles and gets up.

“My class is 2-A. Feel free to drop in anytime you want to speak to me. Also lets exchange numbers, since we will be working together.” Jau-Unfurn says to Ryuga and both of them exchange their numbers.

“I see. I will be sure to contact you.”

Ryuga says.

“Take care, Ryuga!”

Jau-Unfurn says and leaves.

“You too!”

(Now that she is gone, I will need to find about what is happening because this shit about Alicia being a member of Illuminati is really getting on my nerves. Maybe Dakai might be able to help me.)

Ryuga walks to Ghost World just in time. It’s lunchtime so he can freely enter the territory. Some students come late because they also work as Ghosts. So they can attend classes after lunchtime as well. Ryuga isn’t a Ghost though so there might have been a call or a message that might have gone out to his parents.

Putting all things aside, Ryuga quickly runs to his class in search of Kirio. He finds out that Kirio isn’t there. After a little asking around, Ryuga comes to know that Kirio is on the rooftop. Ryuga looks at Kirio who is on the rooftop.

“Dakai!”

Ryuga calls out for Kirio.

“Oh hey Aragi, how is everything?”

Kirio asks Ryuga with a smile.

“Dakai, do you know what they are talking about Alicia? How she is working with the Illuminati? Do you know, why this is happening?”

Ryuga shoots a barrage of questions at Kirio.

Kirio looks at Ryuga,

“Aragi...” The next thing Kirio said left Ryuga in utter shock,

“Dude, who in the world in Alicia?”

~GHOST WORLD ACADEMIA~