Chapter 13: Wish

“Looks like we have to head underground.” Jude double-checked the coordinates where the fog was last seen in Kanagawa. 

“At least we would be out of the rain,” Felix muttered as he pulled his jacket over his head to shield himself from the drizzle.

“The underground network is huge!” Ace remarked. 

“I like how you can keep your enthusiasm up for little things like this,” Jude remarked dryly as tendrils of golden-yellow essence framed her eyes. “Looks like there are faint traces of Cursed Essence leading inside.”

Leonhart whistled for Gauss and signalled for it to stand guard at the entrance. It camouflaged itself so that no one else would spot it. “In case we get lost, Gauss will come to find us,” she said, fondly bopping it on its nose. 

The underground’s darkness seemed to extend indefinitely, with the sound of gushing water somewhere in the distance. Soon, they left the glow of the streetlights behind them. Felix conjured a small flame in his hand, which illuminated the entire landscape. Jude led the way, treading forward slowly. 

“Honestly, we could do with more of you,” Felix said. “It’s really troublesome to track down phantoms efficiently.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be leading us? Why am I doing all the legwork?” Jude retorted. “Also, we have the same set of eyes! Quit skiving!”

“Oops, this isn’t my mission!” exclaimed Felix.

Jude snarled softly but said nothing. They plodded on in silence, and Ace forgot how loud they were. He sighed so hard that it echoed through the tunnels. 

“You doing alright?” Felix asked.

“I’m fine, just a bit nervous,” Ace admitted. 

“Yeah, same,” Leonhart admitted. “Too bad Gauss is outside.”

The mention of Gauss set off a lightbulb. Ace manifested a sparrow that perched on the back of his hand while he walked. “A sparrow?” Felix asked.

“It helps me relax a bit.”

“Interesting choice.”

Ace noticed that Felix’s eyes had lost their usual childish glimmer. “Do you not like it?”

The mischievous glint returned to his eyes as quickly as it had vanished. “No, no. It’s very cute!” 

“Ooh! This reminds me of the story about the sparrow and the loquat tree you used to tell me,” Leonhart chimed in. “You’ve never told me how the story ended.”

Felix shrugged and tucked his hands in his pockets in response to Leonhart. Just as Leonhart was going to press him for the ending, Jude held up a hand. “Something’s strange,” she lowered her voice. 

“What is it?” Ace asked.

“The Cursed Essence–” Jude got cut off by a shrill ringtone. She clicked her tongue at Felix, who picked up the phone hurriedly. 

There was a short pause as Felix listened to the other end of the line. He rolled his eyes and gave a curt answer. “I’m not available. You don’t have to come up my ass whenever there is a suspected Reawakening. I have my students to look after.”

He huffed and hung up. “What was it about?” Ace asked.

“Agh, someone in the area experienced a Reawakening. They wanted me to keep an eye out for it, that’s all. Jude, as you were saying?”

Jude nodded and continued, “The Cursed Essence is getting fainter, but intuitively, its density should increase the closer we get. Unless… Let me broaden the search.”

Jude blinked. “Trace: Ess-”

There was a loud bang. Jude’s body was flung backwards like a rag doll. Ace caught her, but the impact sent him hurtling. The last thing he heard was the sound of his head slamming against the ground.

***

“Ace! Wake up!”

Ace opened his eyes and groaned. “How long was I out for?” he moaned.

“A few minutes,” Jude replied. “Thanks for catching me.”

“You didn’t choose who you flew into,” he sighed and rose to his feet with Jude’s help. He silently thanked the stars that his body had become much sturdier to withstand such beatings.

“We got separated from Leonhart and Felix. Signal’s horrible as well, I can’t reach either of them.” Jude shook her head, holding up her phone and waving it about for a signal.

“What now?” 

“Well…” Jude cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “You might want to cover your ears.”

Jude sure had a volume that dwarfed her petite frame. “LEEEEONHART! FEEEEELIX!” she bellowed. “LIGHT SOMETHING UP IF YOU HEAR US AND STAY WHERE YOU ARE! WE ARE COMING FOR YOU!”

“Nice idea,” Ace said.

Ace squinted his eyes, trying to find anything that indicated Leonhart’s location. “I see her,” Jude tugged on his arm and marched forth. As they got closer, Ace spotted a faint white light. “How’d you manage to see that?” he asked incredulously.

“I’m literally from the family known as Heaven’s Eyes. Besides, you need to get your eyes checked. I could see that without my ability.”

Leonhart waved her light enthusiastically. She was jumping up and down in the water to make some sound. “Thank goodness, I was going to look for you guys when I heard you,” she said.

“Any idea where Felix is?” 

Leonhart shook her head, “I sent Gauss to look for him. No response so far.”

Ace readied his staff, biting his lip. Perhaps he was overthinking it, but a small part of him knew that this was no ordinary phantom.

***

“Young man?” 

Felix moaned softly and pushed his drenched body up. Two women looked down from above. “Why are you down there?” the older of the two women asked. 

Eyeing Gauss, which was nudging his foot with its nose, he quickly tried to come up with an excuse that would hopefully placate both of them. “My dog jumped in here and I slipped,” he laughed nervously. “I’m fine!”

“What a strange dog,” remarked the younger woman. 

“Robot dog of the future! I’m a… computer scientist!”

“Computer scientists don’t build robots,” said the older woman. “My grandson doesn’t do that in university.”

“I’m a computer engineer!” Felix shot back. Old hag. 

After shooting him strange looks, the two women decided that they were no longer interested and slowly went on their way, strolling down the rain-soaked path. “Fuck,” he swore, massaging his forehead. “That bastard really went for the soft spot.”

“Hello, Buttface.” The way Gauss spoke unsettled Felix. Its lower jaw would unhinge, and a robotic voice would play from its gaping mouth. “It seems that you have regained consciousness. I have conducted a scan on you, and there appears to be a foreign Essence detected in your body, primarily in the head region. There is also minor swelling at the right knee and left ankle. Body temperature-”

“Yeah, yeah. Tell me something I don’t know,” he winced as he got up to his feet, using his flames to dry himself off. He surveyed his surroundings and quickly realised that he had been thrown all the way out to the entrance. “Gauss! Where are the rest?!”

“I will bring you to them,” it replied. “Leonhart has sent me her co-ordinates.”

Felix whipped out his phone, but Gauss stopped him, “Signals are very weak. Calling them would be inadvisable.”

“Then how the hell did Leonhart reach you?! What kind of wacky signal do you use?”

“Classified.”

“Fine,” Felix half-limped, half-ran towards the entrance only to crash into it. “What the fuck!”

There was no rubble blocking the entrance. Felix smacked the air in front of him, and his hand hit an invisible barrier. He turned towards Gauss. “Tell the kids not to move from their spot.”

“Copied. I have relayed the news that you are conscious as well.”

“Good. Now tell me why can’t I get in!”

“It seems that there is a dense barrier blocking the entrance. It is likely to be the work of a sorcerer from the Aiuchi family.”

The Aiuchis! Felix paused, but something did not quite add up. “What about the fog? Is there someone in that family with a fog-like ability?”

“Negative. However, here is a list of sorcerers with similar abilities: Hong Zhengnan, Water Purist-”

“No, that’s not right, what would two sorcerers be doing in the bloody sewers-”

Felix stopped short as he arrived at a sickening conclusion. Don’t tell me…

With a snap of his fingers, he set the barrier ablaze, overwhelming it with his own Essence. The rainwater vaporised into steam, but he hardly flinched from the heat. “Using your ability at this rate in these conditions is inadvisable. You may be able to withstand the heat, but they cannot,” Gauss said.

I can’t teleport or use my avatars! It’ll alert whoever is behind this! Felix paced about for a moment. “Gauss, is there another entrance I can use?”

“There is one about–”

“Cut the crap and lead me to it!”

***

“Look at what I found,” Leonhart held up pieces of mangled metal and held up a light to study them. She shook it a bit, and the tape holding the pieces together unravelled.

“It looks like a walking aid,” Ace said. 

“Maybe it got washed up here?” Jude interjected.

Leonhart shook her head, “It would have rusted for sure, given the humidity and the material. Besides the breakage, there isn’t much rusting, which means that someone brought it in here very recently.”

“Well, whoever is here is certainly the one who made this fog,” Jude noted. “This fog is made up of Essence. I can probably find out where it's coming from.”

“Felix told us to stay put. The best we can do is think about it here,” Ace said as he toyed with the prototype bomb that Leonhart had given him when they first met. 

“Hey Ace, gimme that.” Leonhart curled her fingers, asking for the bomb.

Ace tossed her the bomb, and she took out her kit. When she was done fiddling with it, she held it up, making sure that it was fully enveloped by the fog. There was a small click and a sharp hiss as the device whirred to life. 

“There,” she spun the modified bomb shut. “I disabled the discharge function so that the Essence can be stored. Maybe Dr. Farid or that creepy Shun can analyse it further.”

“Wait.”

“What is it, Ace?”

Ace took the device from her, feeling its weight in his palm. “Maybe I can do it,” he said quietly. “The analysis.”

Jude raised her eyebrow, “You sure? All these while you’ve been conjuring Visions…”

“Maybe I can use my ability to uh… conjure visions of the past? Technically, I am doing that for my memories of… my dog, for example. I’m not sure if it includes Essence that doesn’t belong to me.”

“We won’t know if we don’t try,” Leonhart said. 

Ace concentrated, but nothing came out. “Ugh, it’s no use.”

“Wait, hang on, lemme just undo some things…” Leonhart snatched the bomb out of Ace’s palm. She stuck the tip of her tongue out between tightly pursed lips and modified it again. After a bit of tinkering, greyish Essence flowed out of the opening. “At least you have something to work with now!”

Leonhart carefully balanced the device on Ace’s open palm. Ace took a deep breath and stared at it. For a moment, his eyes unfocused. “Hey, a bit of focus here, please.” Jude snapped her fingers next to his ears to rouse him.

“How did you know?”

“Your eyes were getting a bit spacey.” Jude frowned. “Now go on.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Seriously?” Leonhart scoffed. “You forgot the most important thing Felix taught us? Even with all those handwritten notes?”

“Right, I have to give instructions and visualise.” Ace felt the back of his neck warm. His mind scrambled to come up with the best representation of what he was going to do. “Uh… Allow me to see the lingering wills of the bygone past?”

“Not to be a negative Nancy, but was that all you could manage?” Jude remarked. “Instructions don’t end with a question mark.”

“Alright, shh!” Ace shushed loudly. “Let me do my thing.”

“Put on a wizard voice!” Leonhart suggested.

Ace rolled his eyes and cleared his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut and let his imagination run free. Think! How would you do this? 

“I got it,” Ace whispered under his breath. “I’ll mould his past with what I have.”

Nodding to himself, Ace held out the device. “Allow me to see the lingering wills of the bygone past!” he chanted, unconsciously deepening his voice like an aged wizard.

Bluish-green droplets emanated from his palm and floated lazily in the air. As more of it came out, they started to clump together with the foreign Essence and eventually formed a distinct shape.

“I’ll be damned,” Jude whispered.

“Are those people?” Leonhart asked as she pointed at the shapes.

Ace nodded silently and consciously put in more Essence to make the images more tangible and defined. There were two people to be exact: a woman lying on what seemed to be a hospital bed and a young boy with dark hair.

The boy had a missing leg.

Leonhart was about to speak up, but Ace shushed her, noticing that the boy’s mouth was moving. 

“Mummy, what’s your greatest wish?” the boy asked.

The woman placed a bony hand on the oversized teal knit cap with little yellow stars embroidered on it. The boy’s hair peeked out from under the oversized cap. 

“Mama wishes that she had a strong body to watch you grow up,” the woman whispered with tears flowing down her cheeks.

“Don’t cry.” The boy scrambled to get tissues for her. “You’ll watch me grow up! You will!”

The vision disintegrated as Ace released the new technique. Tears stung his eyes, but they were not his. There was so much gratitude and sorrow flowing into him, and his heart felt like it was going to burst. 

“Ace! Are you alright?”

Ace nodded, wiping his eyes. “I wasn’t expecting that,” he sighed. 

“And I wasn’t expecting guests.”