“Why is his body still here?” I asked Max.
“His soul left his body and went into yours. He didn’t physically go into your body.”
“None of this makes sense to me.”
“That’s okay. You’ll learn for now and eventually regain your memory.”
"Why did he do that announcement thing before entering me?"
"It's a formal thing a working spirit does before doing a job." He blandly explained.
It wasn’t long after that statement that I felt another quick sharp pain in my body. “I thought this would take you longer, dammit that hurts.” I complained as Baxter’s soul returned to his body.
“I thought it would take me longer too, but something was pushing me out, and I wasn’t strong enough to resist it. I could feel the aura, but I have no clue who’s aura it is. I also noticed two forms of the aura. It’s hard to explain, and it’s nothing I’ve experienced before.
Since I’m not strong enough to resist the push out of your body, I can’t investigate it. You’ll need an aristocratic arrogation demon. I’d also find an aristocratic arrogation angel while you’re at it.”
“I see. This is more serious than I initially thought it was.” Max remarked.
“Finding two aristocrats to work with shouldn’t be too hard for you, right?” Baxter inquired.
“I can do it, but I’d rather not. It will also mean that I will have to take Felix into the spirit realm and whatever was after him is part of the spirit realm. I’ll have to ask some other people to accompany us as we make our way to the Crown District.
“Who are you thinking of asking?”
“I think I’ll ask Lillian and her partners. They should be enough to keep someone distracted if I need to throw Felix back into the human realm. There is only one huge issue with this.” Max paused for a second and looked at Baxter.
In unison, they both stated, “The ocean.”
“What about the ocean?” I asked, not seeing what the issue was.
“Do you want me to explain the full scope of issues?” Max asked.
“Sure. I guess it will help me understand better.” I replied.
He readjusted his sitting position and started his explanation, “The Crown District is where most of the aristocrats stay. In fact, all aristocrats live in the Crown District, but occasionally, they will take business or vacation trips out of the district. Past these trips, Aristocrats will not leave the Crown District for various reasons that don’t really concern you.
This means in order to get an aristocrat to work on you, I will have to take you to the Crown District, which puts you in the spirit realm. It is still unknown who was after you and what for. It is possible that whoever it was could be waiting for you to enter the spirit realm to continue their task to kill you.
I can easily throw you back into the human realm, but the Crown District is built on the Pacific ocean, which means that if I threw you back into the human realm you’d be in the ocean far away from land. These are the issues we have right now. I’ll have to think for a few days to see if I can come up with a better solution.”
“Why not throw whoever is after me into the human realm so that they cannot hurt me?” I asked trying to help solve the potential problems that could arise.
“No can do. That would put the human realm in danger. We do not know the personality of the spirit who was after you, and he may have no problem killing humans. If I send him into the human realm, he may be able to make it back to land and harm the humans. This depends on his spirit type, though, and we don’t know his typing. As a guardian, I cannot put more lives in danger for the life of one.”
Then Baxter tried to suggest an option, “What if you put him into the human realm and put yourself in both. As long as you’re in both, you can stand on the ground of the Crown District, and you could hold Felix. This means it won’t be possible for the spirit to hurt Felix.”
“That’s a possible solution, but problems could come up if I have to fight. Felix could easily end up getting drowned by accident if I tried that method. Plus, we run into the issue of what if there are boats around. They will see me holding Felix while standing and walking on water. That isn’t good for my career.”
“So what if they see you on top of water. They may believe you to be the next Jesus. That’s what happened to Delaware. He forgot to take himself out of the Human realm and walked towards Marian, which is also built on water. The people could only see him walking on water and believed it to be the work of their God. I think you’re safe in that aspect.”
“That worked in his favor, I may be attacked if they don’t take me as a god. Not to mention this day and age has recording abilities. It would be easy to identify me. I could lose my position if I do something our government doesn’t like.”
“You worry too much. The government likes you.” Baxter said to him as he stood up, “Since I’m no longer needed, I will be leaving now. It was nice to see you again.”
“Thanks. See you around.” Max said, and Baxter walked out of the house and closed the door. Max then turned around and looked at me, “It’s almost lunch time. What do you want to eat?”
“Anything I guess.” I replied.
“Okay, I’ll make some sandwiches then.” He said as he stood up. He stretched once he was standing and walked away from me to make sandwiches.
I sat on the couch and waited for him to finish the sandwiches. As I waited, I rethought over everything I had learned. There was so much I didn’t understand about the spirit realm. It was a foreign and distant world to me, yet I had once been a part of it.
I started to feel empty as I realized that I was missing my whole life. It hurt to think about all of the things and people that I had forgotten. What about my parents? Did I even have any? Did I have siblings? Were they missing me?
“Max?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think anyone in the spirit realm will recognize and know who I am?”
“It’s possible. Depending on where you came from, the aristocrats could potentially know who you are. We could also ask a Persona Demon to analyze your aura.”
“What is a Persona Demon?”
“They work with souls and auras. They can look at and identify your aura and compare it to a database of auras that have been collected for over a thousand years. They also help lost souls move onto their next stages of existence.”
“What about their counterpart?”
“Persona angels, they manage and alter souls or auras. If someone wants to make their aura different, persona angels can make it different and record the new aura into the database. They also find lost souls and direct them to Persona Demons.”
“Why would someone want to change their persona?”
“To basically hide themselves from someone. Spirits tend to identify one another by their auras, since spirits can take on several different forms.”
“We take on more than one form!” I exclaimed. This sounded exciting to me. What could I turn into?
“Yeah. Right now you and I are in humanoid forms. We also have our true forms and our modified forms. True forms are the creature forms of spirits, but it is considered taboo to walk around in your spirit form if you are not working. In fact, most of the time you won't see a spirit's true form unless you're related to them or have a good friendship with them.
Modified forms are humanoid forms that express features of true forms. Someone can keep their horns, tails, and ears as well as being able to keep facial structures or body proportions. Modified forms are used to identify the status of an individual. You cannot express traits that are above your status, but you can express traits below your status. If nothing dangerous happens, I can show you this while we are in the spirit realm.”
“How do I change between my forms?” I asked with all intentions of trying it immediately.
Max stopped making sandwiches to look at me and placed a hand on his chin and thought for a moment. “That’s hard to explain. It’s something you learn as a child, and everyone does it differently.
It’s usually activated by a certain feeling or desire. Children find it by accident, and it usually takes a few transitions before they understand what is causing their change. It’s also almost impossible for beginners to work with modified forms. It’s either humanoid or true forms. I’m not sure how to tell you to switch between the three.”
“Is there a way I can force myself to find a way to change?” I asked, feeling disappointed that I couldn’t turn into my true form. I wanted to know what my true form was and what I looked like in it.
“Not really. Until you know what to hone in on, you can’t change on your own will.” He looked away from me and continued to make sandwiches.
While he finished making sandwiches, I sat on the couch and tried to look deep inside of myself for answers. If children find it in their youth, then I must have found it in my youth. I just needed to look inside myself to find the answer. It had to still be inside of me, right?
Soon Max sat down next to me and handed me a plate of sandwiches. I took the plate from him and asked him, “How do you change? What emotion makes you change?”
“That can be a bit of a personal question. I’d be careful about asking other spirits that.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t think about that.”
“It’s okay, you can’t remember spirit etiquette. I don’t really want to share how I transition, but if you’re curious, I can turn into my modified and true forms for you.”
I perked up at the mention of Max changing forms. Since I was curious I replied, “I’d love to see, if you don’t mind.”
Max placed his plate of food on a side table by the couch and stood up. He looked at me, “Hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to strip. I don’t really feel like ruining my clothes.” He quickly shed his clothes and stood bare in front of me. I blushed a little as I checked out his hot body.
Max smirked at me as he caught me checking him out. "Like what you see?" He teased me.
I blushed and responded, "So what? The t.v. is on, so I'm going to watch."
As I was looking him up and down, he slowly started to transform. It was a gradual transformation, which was contrary to my expectations. His eyes slowly changed from their dull green color to a piercing yellow. His height changed slightly as he changed forms making his legs look long and lanky. His hands became bulkier and more beastly with long black claws. His body grew out a little more hair, but not drastically so.
“This is my modified form. I can technically keep more of my true features due to my status, but I choose not to.” He said to me in a voice that’s hard to explain. It was a bit echoey and distant.
He did a little bit of a twirl for me before transforming more. His nose slowly sunk back into his face and basically disappeared into reptile nostril slits. His ears did the same thing by receding into his head and turning into openings on the side of his head. His pupils turned into slits making the yellow of his eyes stand out even more. He got even taller and his body widened.
Despite getting wider, he still looked skinny and lanky. I didn’t see it grow completely, but eventually I noticed that he had grown a tail. It was thick at the base and tapered to a point; it was rather scaly.
He stopped changing and spoke to me in that echoey, distant voice again, “This is my true form.”
As he spoke, I noticed that his fangs had grown longer as well. He twirled around for me, and as he did so, I saw that spikes had grown out of his back. They were boney and appeared as if they had grown from his spine. Then just as slowly as he transformed into his true form he digressed back into his modified form and then back into his human form. As he got back into his human form, he stretched as if he had just gotten out of bed.
Once he was done stretching, he picked up his clothes and began getting dressed again, and I took my last chance to check out his naked body.
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