Chapter 4 - Spirit Animals

Omisha speed-walked through the hallways, fumbling with the cuff of her shirt as she hurried.

As she walked by a mirror, something about her reflection caught her eye, 'Black wings…?' she asked herself. Omisha backed up, but she couldn't see anything different.

"Huh…" staring at her reflection for a few seconds longer, she shook her head and continued walking.

Opening the door to the dining hall, Omisha joined the line of people waiting to get their breakfast. She impatiently tapped her foot as her eyes looked through the crowded hall before noticing Phoenix, James, and Katherine nearby. Taking her food, she hurriedly walked over to the table and sat down.

Phoenix greeted her first, "Oh, you're finally awake," she joked with a grin.

James nodded at her while Katherine waved.

"Ha-ha, very funny Phoenix," Omisha remarked, "Where's Tyler and Ash?" she asked, noticing the two empty seats at the table.

"Ash is probably asleep," James commented as he put down his fork.

Phoenix looked up, "I think Tyler's also asleep," she commented with a shrug.

"Heh, they're worse than me," Omisha joked with a grin.

Phoenix laughed as Katherine smiled, "Are you not a morning person, Omisha?"

Shaking her head, she replied, "Nah," she then noticed James wasn't in his uniform, "Don't you have class, James?"

He glanced up, "Hm? Oh, no, I don't,"

"Why?"

Phoenix interrupted him as he was about to go into an explanation, "He's part of the nighttime curriculum since he's a vampire," she grinned while James glared at her.

"Nighttime curriculum? What's that?" Omisha asked.

"It's for the supernaturals that are active at night. So, like Ash and James," Katherine explained.

Omisha glanced at her, "Huh, that explains why Ash got into his uniform that one time," she smiled, "I thought he got in trouble and had to do some extra class-" she was interrupted as she got hit by a book, "Ow!" she yelped.

Ash was behind her, holding a thick book, "I didn't get in trouble."

Omisha glared at him, "Okay fine but why did you have to hit me with a book?!"

He didn't reply and instead sat down with his food. Similarly to James, he didn't have his uniform on. "How did you not know that there was a nighttime curriculum?"

Omisha rubbed her head, "Because no one never mentioned it…" she muttered.

"So you never thought to ask why we had our uniforms in the evening until now?" he asked, glancing at her.

She glared at him, "That's because I didn't think about it much!"

As they bickered, James glanced around, "Is Tyler still not awake?"

"He is," Ash was pushing Omisha away as she tried to hit him, "he was rushing when I left the flat."

Omisha grumbled in defeat before glancing at the time on her phone. The numbers on her lock screen read 7:32, "Well, he better get here soon if he wants to eat breakfast."

As she said that, Tyler came running up with toast in his mouth and a tray in his hands saying something that was muffled by the toast in his mouth.

Ash glanced at him, "What?"

Tyler sat down and took the toast out of his mouth, "I said I'm here."

"About time you're here," Phoenix joked and Tyler glared at her.

"My alarm didn't go off!" he whined before scarfing down his toast.

"Or you just slept through it," James remarked with a smirk.

Tyler growled at him, "Hey! I got better hearing than all of you," he pointed to his ears, "So I would've heard the dang alarm!"

"Sure," Phoenix laughed as Tyler swerved to glare at her.

He huffed and pouted as he stuffed more food into his mouth.

Omisha laughed, "Well, you better hurry, Tyler. We got class soon."

"I know! I know!"

The pair quickly walked to the classroom, managing to arrive just before the bell rang. Omisha glanced around, although she came into this classroom every other day, she was still amazed by the number of spiritual items that decorated the large room. The professor then walked in and she quickly took her seat next to Tyler's.

"Hello, class!" the professor greeted the class with her usual gentle voice. The professor was Professor Harth, a ghost.

Everyone greeted back and she smiled before turning to the whiteboard. She quickly wrote down the subject before turning back.

"Today we will be summoning our spirit animals."

'Spirit animals, huh? I wonder what mine will be…' Omisha thought to herself as she listened to the professor explain the concept.

"A spirit animal is an animal that represents you. It has all your traits and sometimes it will look like you or be based on what supernatural you are."

"To summon a spirit animal, you must concentrate all your magic energy into your hand and voice the word for "summon" in the ancient language."

A girl raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"The word for 'summon�� is 'Shokan' (*place holder for the word atm*), right?"

Harth smiled, "That's correct!" she turned back to the board, "Oh, and most of the time, most of us can't summon our animal on the first try, so don't feel too bad if you don't succeed on the first try!"

Another student raised their hand, "Professor? Could you give us a demonstration?"

Harth smiled sadly, "Unfortunately, I can't. You can only summon a spirit animal once and the rest of the time, you can just call for them, or they appear on their own. Usually, whenever they aren't with you, they'll be in their sub-dimensions.

Omisha wondered to herself, 'I guess sub-dimensions are mini-homes…'

"Now, any more questions?"

No one else raised their hand.

Harth smiled, "Alright then, you all may try."

Omisha glanced around, watching as others tried to summon their animals on the first try. Most of them failed.

'Will I even have magic?' she thought to herself, doubting her ability.

Tyler glanced at her, "Aren't you gonna try, Omisha?"

"Huh? Oh- uh, I will," she quickly replied, "I'm… I'm just gonna watch the others first."

Tyler watched her before shrugging, "Alright."

Omisha inwardly sighed before watching her classmates quietly. There was no evidence that she had magic, so what if she never managed to cast the spell. There's also the possibility that her being a human could be revealed. The slight terror settled in her. She tried to shake it off before it could be smelled by someone like Tyler but failed.

Taking in a shaky breath, she decided to try even though everything could go wrong in an instant. Placing her shaking hand out, she closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on her palm. She quietly murmured 'Shokan'. Nothing seemingly happened.

Timidly, she opened one eye. Her other eye opened quickly as soon as she caught sight of a black cat.

The eyes of the cat reminded Omisha of her own; it also resembled her in appearance, even as a cat.

"Woah…" Omisha watched the cat in awe as it watched her as well.

Professor Harth then came up, "Oh, nicely done Omisha." she smiled.

"R-right." Omisha glanced at her. For a second, she thought she saw confusion cloud the eyes of the professor. It quickly disappeared though.

"Perhaps she was expecting a different animal." A voice then rang through her head.

Omisha flinched in surprise and glanced at the cat. Its eyes now seemed extremely intelligent and all-knowing. She then thought about what it said, "Wait, what do you mean by that?" she quietly asked, leaning in.

The cat licked its paw instead of answering. "...Thana." it then spoke.

"Hm?"

The cat stopped its cleaning and seemed to stare at Omisha with exasperated eyes, "My name is Thana. And stop calling me 'it'. I am a she." she swatted at her.

"S-sorry…" Omisha murmured in surprise.

Tyler leaned in with interest, "Huh, so your spirit animal is a cat?" he asked, poking the cat.

"You probably shouldn't do that…" Omisha spoke in exasperation, "but yeah, her name's Thana." she spoke as Thana swatted Tyler away, hissing.

He held his now scratched cheek, with a whine, "Ow!"

Omisha put her hand on her cheek, "I told you."

"Shaddap!"

She glanced behind him, noticing a dog. She raised an eyebrow, "Will all werewolves have a dog or something for their spirit animal?"

"Nah, my dad was a werewolf, but he had an eagle for his spirit animal."

"Huh. What's its name anyway?"

Tyler grinned, "It's Fang!"

"That's nice," Omisha then glanced at Thana, she was back to cleaning herself, "...Do you think they would get along?"

Tyler held his chin, "Well, they're not normal cats and dogs, so maybe? Plus we get along and their personalities are based on ours."

"Hm…" Omisha stood up and looked at Thana.

Thana stopped cleaning herself and looked up at Omisha, "What?"

Quickly, Omisha scooped her up before she could protest. Although she didn't, instead she just let Omisha carry her like a ragdoll.

"You're calm about this, huh?" Omisha asked

Thana glanced at her, "...It's not like you'd hurt me, you probably wouldn't be able to anyway."

Omisha sighed but smiled before placing Thana next to Fang. They sniffed each other but didn't do anything, instead they acted similarly to friends.

Tyler laughed, "Well, I guess it makes sense since we're friends."

Omisha giggled before hitting him weakly on the upper arm, "Yeah, sure."

The bell then rang.

Omisha picked up her stuff and grabbed her bag. Thana then jumped into her arms, fitting snugly in her hold. She looked at her in surprise, "...Are you, are you not going to go into a mini-dimension?"

Thana glanced at her, "I will at some point. But give me attention first."

"Eh?" Omisha looked at her in surprise, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead, "Uh...ok?"

"...By the way, you can just use your mind to talk with me."

"Oh, I see."

She started walking to her next class, talking with Tyler, as she scratched Thana's chin.

Omisha walked into the cafeteria. Thana had gone into her sub-dimension some time ago but reappeared in Omisha's arms as she walked in. She smiled before making her way to the lunch line.

Thana rested on her shoulders as she grabbed her tray and made her way to the usual table. Omisha greeted everyone as she sat down.

Katherine noticed Thana on her shoulders, "Oh, so your spirit animal is a black cat?"

"Yeah."

James glanced at it, "...doesn't the black cat represent-" before he could finish, Phoenix suddenly slammed her tray down on the table.

Phoenix was pale and she looked surprised herself, "I, uh, gotta go!" She quickly spoke and pushed her tray over to James, "Here, you can have my food!"

Katherine stood up "Phoenix? Are you ok?" She held out her hand.

Phoenix quickly dodged the hand, "B-bye!" She spoke hurriedly before walking away.

Tyler made his way to the table, "What's up with Phoenix?" He asked.

Omisha, Katherine, and James exchanged glances, unsure themselves.

Omisha then noticed that Ash was nowhere to be seen, "Anyways, what happened to Ash?"

"Ah, he's still sleeping," James replied as he took a bite of his food.

Katherine giggled, "Of course he is."

Thana suddenly hissed as she glared at something behind Omisha. Omisha then started to notice that multiple spirit animals had appeared and started making a racket.

"Thana? What's going on?" Omisha tried to ask the cat over the racket.

"Danger is coming. Prepare yourself."

"What?!"

Omisha could hear others starting to panic as they seemed to be told the same thing by spirit animals near them.

Katherine then pointed to the walls, "Look! Something's moving!"

Omisha turned around, noticing the shadows were starting to move strangely. They moved across the floor and some took on physical forms, picking up students all over the room.

Before she knew it, something had taken hold of her ankle and her face paled. Suddenly she was pulled into the air and Omisha shrieked as she quickly held down her skirt.

"Omisha!" she heard her friends yell.

She could see more people being pulled up, but they were quickly dropped. Omisha was the only one left in the air as everyone tried to do what they could help.

The shadow's grip tightened, cutting through her skin, making warm blood trickle down her leg. Gritting her teeth, Omisha pulled back her leg and tried to kick it, but her foot went straight through.

She could just barely hear Thana hissing over the commotion before leaping into the air and clawing at the shadow. It made a sound that sounded like a whimper before releasing Omisha's ankle.

As Omisha fell, she quickly twisted her body around like a cat, landing on her feet. She immediately hissed in pain and sat down, rubbing her ankle that was now covered in blood.

Katherine rushed over and crouched beside Omisha, "Are you ok, Omisha?"

Omisha gave her a quick smile with a nod before returning her attention to the shadows.

All the shadows seemed to sink back into the floor as they spoke ominously, "We will come back for the reaper…"

A hush came over the room as the shadows disappeared. Many wondering what the shadows meant.

Katherine's gaze then moved to Omisha's ankle. She put her hands over it and started to murmur something. A green light glowed from her hands as her ankle healed. When Katherine removed her hands, the ankle was no longer red and only had a few remaining drops of blood.

"Ah, thank you, Katherine," Omisha said as Katherine smiled. She was lent a hand by James.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Omisha smiled, "I am now thanks to Katherine." she answered as she took his hand. He helped her stand up and she dusted off her uniform.

The doors then suddenly slammed open. Everyone turned their attentions to the now open doors to see a tall man wearing glasses with a woman with wings beside him.

"What is going on here?!" he demanded.

Everyone started to speak all at once, trying to explain what happened.

The man sighed before holding up his hand and the room gradually silenced, "One at a time, please,"

"All of our spirit animals were going crazy, Mr. Niq!" a student spoke.

Another student beside him nodded, "Then the...The shadows came out of the floor!"

"Those...Those things! Picked me and a bunch of other students up from the floor!" A girl on the floor spoke as she sat on the ground trembling.

"Yeah! But we were all dropped except for her!" another student added as he pointed at Omisha.

Omisha flinched as the man's gaze fell on her.

"Hm… I see. Everyone who was picked up, follow Ms. Suriel." he spoke as he turned around, motioning to the woman next to him.

The woman, Ms. Suriel, waved to everyone with a smile. Many students gathered around her and Omisha turned to wave to her friends before joining the group.

Ms. Suriel led them all to the front office and each student was individually called to either Suriel's or the headmaster's office to be questioned about the event.

Omisha anxiously awaited her time to be questioned and Thana appeared on her lap. Omisha smiled, scratching the cat's chin, "thanks for helping me, Thana,"

Thana rested her head on Omisha's hand in reply with a small purr.

"Omisha Vermillious?" her name was called.

"Ah, here!" Omisha stood up and Thana swiftly disappeared as she walked towards the office.

She opened the door to find the man from before sitting behind a desk. 'So he's the headmaster, huh?' before taking a seat in front of him.

He looked up from his file, "Omisha Vermillious, correct?" he asked, pushing up his glasses.

Omisha nodded.

He straightened his posture, "It's nice to meet you Vermillious. I am Mr. Niq and I am the headmaster of this university. The woman who led you here is my assistant."

"It's nice to meet you, headmaster…"

"Now let's go onto why you're here," Omisha nodded, "Please describe what happened during lunch."

"Well…" Omisha explained to him what had happened. As she explained, Mr. Niq jotted down notes as he listened intently.

After a few minutes, she finished and he asked the second question, "Do you know why they could've picked you and others up?"

"No, sir,"

"Hm...I see. Then, do you have any special abilities?"

Omisha paused, unsure of whether to tell him or not. After a few seconds, she answered, "I do, although I am not sure what to make of it."

"Oh? And what is this special ability of yours?"

"...I can see souls and auras on command."

Mr. Niq pushed up his glasses and looked back down at his papers, "I see...Well, that is all I need to know. You may leave now."

"Right." Omisha stood up saying goodbye to the man before leaving.

Niq quietly glanced down at the file of Omisha, reading through it. His eyes landed on 'Supernatural Race'. Next to it were the words 'Grim Reaper'.

"It seems that this group is going after the Reaper…" he murmured.

Suriel then walked in. "We finished questioning all the students. Did you find anything, sir?"

"Yes. It seems that they may be after the Grim Reaper."

She looks at him in surprise, "Are you serious? How would they even know she's here?"

Niq looked away as he thought, "There may be a spy within our school."

"Ah…" Suriel glanced down at the clipboard she was holding, "Should we investigate?"

"...For now, no. I have a feeling this spy will reveal themselves in due time."

"I see."

"Oh, could you do a favor for me, Ms. Suriel?"

"Hm? Of course."

"Good, contact Orion about what happened and ask for his opinion." Niq stood up and walked up to the window, watching as Omisha walked passed.

"Yes, sir." Suriel bowed before leaving the office.