《Holders》005: An Unexpected Meeting
Advertisement
The dusk came deep from the outside of the mansion, and so does Rine's accidental slumber because of tiredness. Since he fought a formidable enemy barehanded, thus his body got almost worn out.
Unaware, He then opened his eyes after gaining consciousness. "Uwaa~"
He doesn't remember anything for a second there, wandering his eyes inside a medium sized space. Possibly, someone's bedroom.
From beside him, an unknown object was bulging from the blankets that intruiged him a bit.
"Wait, What if its..."
Thus out of curiosity, his fingertips lifted up the blanket whom he thought to be someone.
His hearts throbs as the tension progressed.
"This is more like the scene of an anime which the main character wokes up and see their heroines sleeping with them. But it can't be Rei isn't she?"
And so he completely disposed of its concealment, expecting if his guess was right, but then, on the contrary, it is a long pillow all along.
"... Gah-"
He couldn't believe himself to expect those things out of the blue "Ugh... I'm wrong! Totally wrong! I suck too much for thinking things!" Or so he thought...
A pair of arms wrapped to his body and grabbed it tightly as it could.
"Rin!" shouted its voice.
"Eh? Rei!?!?"
Rine's reflexes couldn't react fast and Reika had already locked him onto her grasp.
She directed her lips onto his ear and whisphered. But the tone of her voice doesn't seem cheeful
"I'll give you three seconds to fall back now, before I mince you with my Procure." warned the girl.
"Why would you have to do that in the first place? Its me, Rin."
"Rin huh? I just got deceived a while ago, and you'd really think your words could subdue me?"
She moved her arms onto his neck and began restraining his breathing.
"Now choose. Go away, or die?"
Thus Rine have left no choice but agreed to go away falsely just to lead her guard down for a moment. And she let him go, opening the chance to grab her arms and stop her entirely.
"You greedy Holders! You took everything from me once, and I won't let that happen again." her violent response.
"What's with you, Rei? This is me ok. You don't have to be so alarmed!"
Thus Reina's eyes widen because of extreme anger. "Then get out of my sight and never come back here!"
"But why? Why are you pushing me away like this? I have spent my whole life, finding you from nothing! I don't want to turn back again."
In a quandary of two emotions swirling around the atmosphere, no one couldn't choose to give up. They had their own sides, their opinions which has yet to be heard. Their inner sorrows were slowly showing up, no until a bother came entering the room without further ado.
He Shouted at them."Tch. Shut your frickin mouths, I'm trying to sleep! Just what are you doing in here!?"
But he saw these two at the exact moment we overlapped each other on the bed and had thought of doing such shameless things that only couples do.
"Oh, I see... You two seems having a good time after your first meeting eh? Unbelievable."
Advertisement
"No No No, You misunderstood something-".
Reika then took the opening and grabbed Rine, throwing him back. "Stop pretending already!"
"Whoa wait up, wait up. Beating your beloved Rin won't help your anger issues"
"But how am I supposed to calm down!? Even you have been decieved!"
Their little arguments have taken a long turn of denying each others' points thus alarmed the whole household. They were peeking through the door while watching them.
"Ugh! Settle down, Please! " adjured Matsuo to his exasperated sibling.
"Tsk. Fine! I'll hear you out. But if ever thid guy took a wrong move, make sure to clean out the mess I might make." replied Reika, with an edgy bravado.
Then the poor Rine has escaped sudden death.
They went downstairs and discussed their concerns on the mansion's dining room. The dining table seems enough to handle five persons at once, yet the free space of the room is too wide with huge windows on its side, enough for seeing the full moon, hanging onto the starry skies.
Thus their discussion have ended in mere minutes and left Reika's boldness defeated after knowing the truth.
She started to stutter as embrassment grows onto her thoughts. "A-Ah- I-"
"I deeply apologize for threatening you earlier! I'm sorry for being dumb and moved without knowing anything."
"Don't worry about it. Its natural for people to react like that whenever they sense dangers around." replied him timidly.
"Well, anyway. This is the first time you two met right?" meddled Matsuo on the two.
Fine got confused from what he said and asked. "First time? But we've already talked once at school."
"Nah. This is actually the first time..."
Matsuo, then put his hands and started to talk. "You see. My sister doesn't like to socialize from anyone at the school. She found it very difficult, especially when the whole school began recognizing her as one of the intellects throughout the school. Possessing this cute face of hers and wits does feel bad for her, yet she loves studying otherwise, So..."
Matsuo paused for a moment.
"So..."
"She had to lie about everything."
His tone of voice doesn't seem dubious. Matsuo's expression right now isn't typical from the Matsuo he knew from the campus.
"Lie about what? Do I still know nothing about you two?" He asked.
"Well, Uh... How could I say this..."
"The ones you were seeing at school lately... Its was just the power of Reika's Procure. She could cast a copy of our shadows and make them look like us. And then, we usually use them to attend school whenever we had to go in absence."
They weren't supposed to say this to anyone, but since Rine is already confirmed to be legitimate, then there's no point of hiding the truth from him, thus his expression couldn't hide his shock.
"Shadows? Only excellent Holders could cast shadows, in exchange of a worth a day's mana right?"
Matsuo answered. "Yeah. I have heart about that too, but that's not the case."
"Because she wis the Holder of Eternal Darkness itself."
And once more, Rine's thoughts had blown out after the big revelation.
Advertisement
"Hm? Why are so surprised?-" queried Matsuo while gazing at Rine's astonished face.
"Of course I would be! Who wouldn't be this surprised if you had this direct contact on this Legendary Procure!"
"Ugh. Enough of this serious talk now. It is been a while you two had quite a chat, so you should have fun instead."
Matsuo rose up from his seat and took his exit. "Well, this is the moment for you two though, byebye~"
"Hey wait-- Tsk. He ran away." Spoke Rine with a slight glum.
"I wonder what is with him today? The Matsuo I usually see at school doesn't have any kindness." He continued.
"U-Uh... He told you about you my Procure right? It was just his shadow which attends the school everyday."
"As you have heard from my brother, I dislike talking to people that much, so I had to make copies of ourselves to attend school. Unlike him, I attend my school sessions regularly, but I always mess up socializing, that I had to hide and let my shadow do the things for me at the surface while I'm doing my written works."
Rine touched his chin as he gaze at her."Hm... So that's what he meant by shadows huh. But what about the incident earlier? Was those fakes too?"
Reika nodded back. "Yes. We were suspecting that guy as one of the agents of a certain organization who wants to eliminate us and take the artifact we possess."
"Artifact you say... Was the sixth shard wasn't it? I have read and heard so much about them from my Grandpa. The legends says that a single one of them could even change the natures of the world itself."
the girl partially agreed "That was the probable cause. So we had to expose that guy and his motives on that right moment, but who would've thought you'll show up and entirely ruined both of our plans."
Rine chuckled "Well, I guess I'm sorry? Haha."
She giggled back cutely. "I don't mind it though. The issue it already finished and it is thanks to you, that he scrammed back to his own cave."
Hence the two smiled at each other. Those smiles they never had for a long time. Those smiles Rine had longed for all this time.
"Well, it is been a while since we had talked, but I'm glad you're doing great this far. Sadly, I have to go home now. I'll be doing my part-time tomorrow."
Standing up from the seat, Rine had no regrets from coming in here at the first place. Their fun chat unseemingly short, but its worth a while after seeing his secretly loved friend's fine condition.
"Eh? You're already going? The night is still early."
Rine smirked "Don't worry. I'll pay you a visit tomorrow."
Thus Reika replied dejectedly "Aw. Fine..."
And so Rine waved goodbye, despite gazing at her dispirited exoression is pulling him back.
Walking outside the dining room lead him to an endless threads of paths before taking the exit. The mansion has a lot of staircases which has relevance to each other's appearance. It is enough for a single person to get lost after taking several floors without looking back.
He scratched his head. "Was the house like this when I came in?"
Hopefully, a middle aged-man in a butler's uniform happened to pass by the hallways. It was James, going out from one of the rooms.
"Ah... Mister. What a great time to see you wandering by. Is something troubling you?"
"Uh... I was actually on my way home, and I forgot my way back to the exit." answered him, dumbfounded.
"Hm... Well, I you wouldn't mind, I could guide you to the exit right away." offered the butler as he lend me a hand.
"Wow. That's a great help then."
And so he lead the way from the staricase to the right side that also guided us to another selection of tracks toward the ground floor.
But it feels like they were just looping inside the mansion, despite arriving down floor by floor. Rine noticed it right away, as every floor is always relevant from the past ones.
"Hey, sir. I was just Wondering if how many floors was this house when it was built? I kinda feel like we were just circling around here forever"
"Its alright Mister. This mansion is indeed confusing for the newcomers, since the floors is completely similar from each other. But worry not, It only has four floors to explore within." chuckled the old man.
"Is that so? Then I should make a map of it some time. I might get lost again the next time." jested Rine.
Thus a minute or two and they finally arrived at the ground floor. Rine is quite exhausted from taking a number of stairs before having his leave from this house.
"Phew. I didn't thought it'll be this tiring..."
He took a breather while leaning closely at the outside walls.
"Haha. You'll get used to it soon enough." the old man jokingly cheered him up.
"Well, thanks for guiding me back here, Sir James."
James nodded back "Its my pleasure to help you then, our dear guest."
And as soon as he regain his breath, Rine had soon left the gates of the bizarre residence and went his way back home, directly going to bed while humming his joy onto the air.
"My, what an amazing day." he thought to himself as he nuzzle at the pillows against him.
Soon the drowsiness began to consume his thoughts, thus taking him to the dreamland, unaware...
| -Unknown- |
Meanwhile at a far distance. Just by a harbour on Tokyo, a man on a cowboy hat, with cigar hanging on his mouth, emerged at the dark corridors of the area.
"Ah~ How I've missed this bright city of Tokyo~"
He took off his hat and felt the wafts of air hitting through his cheeks, feeling the refreshing scenery, after going back to the city he have left for a long time.
"I guess, this is the right time for a great introduction~"
And as soon as starry nights flickers from above the plaza, a curtain call brewed the winds of Tokyo.
Advertisement
- In Serial108 Chapters
Artificial Fantasy
While the revolutionary discovery of Advanced Dive Virtual Reality (ADVR) lead to the birth and trend of VRMMOs, 18 years old Hayate Palmer only cares about his future for his younger brother rather than living out his fantasies in a virtual world. However, when Kazuki convinced him of playing Isekai Online, he decided to give this trend a try for his brother's sake. Yet what they don't know is that they are stepping not into a life-or-death or some kind of world-changing prophecy, but a special adventure that discovers the life of the game's AI and their brotherly love. (Cover drawn by me)
8 190 - In Serial14 Chapters
Medley of Fates Worse than Death
Rick wakes up in a world unknown to him. He doesn't know what exactly happened or why he is there, he just feels he's not from that world as if he had Dissociative amnesia. Soon after waking up, he gets attacked not once, not twice but three times in a single day. Our hero can know how strong enemies are thanks to a special ability of his, but the thing is... What good does it do to know just how weak you are compared to a deadly creature chasing you? This is a LitRPG Fantasy Adventure in which battles are won (or lost) with strategy and wits as our protagonists aren't necessarily the strongest... So if you enjoy more strategic battles I think you will love this story!About the chapters: I will post mostly 1,300 or so word chapters, I love weekly manga and feel like that pacing is similar to the one in a weekly serial chapter, hopefully, you enjoy these chunk-sized chapters :) I only do this for fun in my free time so I think I will probably post a chapter a week, but if my patreon ever gets busy I might put more time into my hobby xD If you feel like checking out some of the newest chapters, I have them over on my Patreon (Currently 5 chapters in advance): www.patreon.com/rija Extra info (Might get spoilery): As the story progresses I intend to add more strategy, politics and economics into the story, but it will still be mostly a LitRpg action-adventure. (Also if you had read my synopsis previously I changed it a bit because the elements I mentioned before in the synopsis won't come into play until much later into the story, and that's why I changed it.)
8 139 - In Serial8 Chapters
The Lord of Mischief
In an epoch where transcendental entities roamed the lands and religions of opposing doctrines contend for ideological supremacy, Mephistopheles, an ancient evil had emerged from the deepest crevice of the abyss onto the mortal realm.He ventures throughout the land to reclaim his lost authority and return to his rightful throne as the Venerable Lord of Mischief and Deceit. Although with his profligate and debauched nature, he is bound to take countless detours before he could achieve his ultimate goal. Will his inevitable encounters with unique individuals redefine his hardened perspective and reshape his philosophy in life?Honestly, no one knows.
8 56 - In Serial12 Chapters
Try Again
How do you picture the phrase, incapable of dying? Invulnerability? Invincibility? Immortality? Whatever word you choose, it seems like a useful ability to have, right? While others might think it would be great to never die, I think it might just be a curse. Would you choose to be incapable of dying if it meant that every time you were going to die you just restarted your whole life all over again?
8 133 - In Serial11 Chapters
Monarch of Alchemy
After Yi Yun died, he found himself in another world. A world where everyone who wanted to reach the peak had to drench the skies in blood. One good thing was that he found a space within his ring that had followed him into this world where he found a farm. This is called the Heavenly Garden, one of the Nine Heavenly Treasures. Here, he can grow anything, every plant will grow fast with the best quality. The beasts raised here would evolve into Divine Beasts. But most importantly, there was a beautiful woman who inhabited this garden, she claimed to be a fallen Goddess, once standing above the Nine Heavens. With such extraordinary luck at the starting point, even in this world filled with blood, he found things not as difficult as he had imagined. However, he still had to be careful not to get killed because this truly was a world full of cruelty and schemes.
8 66 - In Serial31 Chapters
I hate politics
You're a genius alongside Spencer Reid. It was your one year anniversary with the BAU when you got a case in your home town. A little town in no where Connecticut. What happens when you're up one late night, who joins you outside?~~~~~I make a lot of spelling errors so just deal with it. Some parts are based off Gilmore Girls. If you haven't seen it it's fine. My logic doesn't always make sense so don't think to hard about it. Also posted on AO3
8 191

