06. Angel, Harmony & Eyes

Wack!

"Ow!" Alex complained rubbing his head. "What was that for?" He glared towards his adoptive father who'd just smacked him on the head with a stick for attempting to enter the forbidden room of the monastery.

The monk was stood towering over him, wearing open-toed wooden sandals and a black hooded kimono which covered his face. During his entire childhood, not once had Alex seen his face and was told it was a monk's common practise to hide their faces, it had something to do with his vanity. Alex wasn't too sure.

"Why aren't I allowed in there?" Alex queried.

All his life he had been intrigued by the forbidden room. He attempted many times to enter but was always stopped by the Monk. Now in his late teens he deserved to know what was in the forbidden room. The monastery held many secrets, some of which Alex had already worked out. Like the monastery once being a part of the castle of Camelot which fell during Mordred's rebellion against King Arthur. The monastery was all that was left of the castle.

"You wouldn't understand." The monk replied in his native language of Nippon. "Never go in there, do you understand me?"

Alex rolled his eyes and huffed walking off along the stone corridors. There were so many questions he wanted to ask but when he did or tried, the Monk would change the topic. All Alex knew was that he was abandoned on the front step as a child with a black bladed sword. He hadn't even seen this supposed black sword since the Monk told him about it. His father figure had apparently taken it from him and wouldn't give it back until Alex learnt how to use the sword and the basics of spirit magic. Not that Alex cared too much about the black sword, he cared more about the forbidden room and the secrets that lay within it. He would make it his life's ambition to find out what was in there.

He attempted many times, for months, but every time he was close to opening the door, he was stopped and punished by the Monk. The Monk took it as an opportunity to train Alex in the arts of fencing and teaching him about spirits within swords. If Alex managed to beat him, then the monk would let him into the forbidden room.

It had now been over a year since Alex started his crusade in attempting to open the forbidden room, to no success, he hadn't beaten the Monk once. In that past year, he had become stronger, fitter, and capable of using the sword, and already he was able to create spirit attacks with the training swords he had been provided with. However, none of the swords he was given felt right, they just weren't his sword.

"Happy Birthday." The Monk gifted him with a red longsword.

Alex frowned, today was his birthday? He'd never been told when his birthday was, or how old he was. He'd never been given a birthday present or been given a gift before. It was a topic he had always brought up but again the Monk would always change it.

"How old am I?" Alex looked down at the red sword in his hands.

"I don't know... eighteen... possibly." The Monk shrugged. "Today's the day you arrived here."

"Oh?" Alex's nose scrunched up.

So it wasn't his birthday, just the day he was abandoned by his family. That was another ambition of his, to find his family and prove to them they made the mistake in getting rid of him.

"Why are you giving me him?" The red sword hummed angrily in his hands. "Why can't you give me the black blade you always talk about?"

The Monk shook his head. "You're not ready to master the black blade, he's a powerful spirit. Practice with him first."

"I don't think he likes me." Alex swung the sword around him, letting himself get used to the weight of the blade.

"That's because I gifted him to you. Usually a master chooses their sword, they are never gifted or coaxed into choosing one."

That now made sense why he never liked the feel of the swords he practised with. But there was something different about this red sword. He liked it but it didn't like him. The spirit seemed to like the Monk more.

"Why not?"

"It can place a strain on your relationship with the spirit, but once you get used to him and name him, you'll soon both learn to like each other," the Monk explained.

Alex swung the sword once more and sheathed it into his belt, the red blade continued to hum angrily.

"He's going to learn to like me." Alex smiled, the first time the Monk had ever seen him smile since the day he started looking after him.

"Aren't you going to name him?" the Monk wondered why he hadn't yet?

"I want the name to be right." Alex held onto the red handle. "So I'll wait until it comes to me in the moment."

"In that case, you should know that spirits have many masters and many names throughout their life time. But a spirit has only one true name, if you name the spirit correctly then you'll be the rightful master." The Monk took the red sword from Alex and a ghost of a smile could be seen from beneath his hood and the sword hummed happily. "This is a mutilated sword, so be warned he'll try anything to free himself from Limbo, you best make sure he knows who is boss or he will try and possess you." The monk handed back the red sword to Alex, who graciously took it in his hands.

Alex knew all too well about Limbo, a depressing place no spirit liked to be. Now he understood why the spirit was temperamental, who knew how long ago it was when it last stepped foot in the spirit realm? From that moment on, Alex vowed to take care of his new blade.

For months Alex practised with his new sword, and was about to attempt his first spirit attack as instructed by the Monk who said he was ready. Alex swung the sword around him and the red mist spiralled around the sharp blade, but the attack did not shoot forward. Instead, the spirit hummed angrily and the attack sparked backwards going up the hilt of the sword instead.

"Ahh!" Alex painfully cried and let go off the sword when the red mist struck up his arm, almost slicing his limb off in the process.

Alex clutched onto his bleeding wound and the red blade hummed a laugh.

"What the hell are you doing?" Alex angrily picked up the blade, with a firm tight grip around the hilt. "Look here, Akatenshi, you're a powerful spirit any swordsman would love to master, but you're also a bit of a trouble maker aren't you? A good spirit only attacks the way its master directs it to. You're going to listen to me from now on!"

The sword fell silent to Alex's suprise. He was expecting it to fight back or hum angrily towards him, not obey him.

"You just named him, Akatenshi?" the Monk explained.

It was then Alex realised he had named his sword. "It just came to me. Akatenshi?"

"It's a vague translation of Red Angel," the Monk translated.

"Red Angel..." Alex grinned. "Yeah, that feels right. That's his name. He won't mind that I call it him in a different language will he?"

"It's his name, no matter the language."

For the second time, Alex noticed the Monk's smile from the shadow of his hood. Alex never asked why it made the Monk happy that he had named the sword Akatenshi but he was glad it had, for his father figure became more lenient with him and wasn't as harsh during their training sessions. The Monk's smile continued to show for days and weeks until it sadly disappeared when cries could be heard from Solaria City.

Alex immediately picked up Akatenshi, prepared to go down to the city to help out. He reached for the front door but the handle wouldn't budge.

"Unlock the door! I need to help the city!" Alex repeatedly shook on the handle but it wouldn't budge.

All his life, the door had been locked, not once had he ever been permitted to leave the monastery. He had tried but any exit he found he couldn't find the strength to open it. He cried in anguish when he couldn't move the handle. Plenty of times, he had easily seen the Monk open the door with ease but for some reason he couldn't.

The Monk stood back from the window he had been peering through. "You're not allowed to leave the castle."

"Can't you hear their screams! People are dying!" Alex pulled and pulled on the handle.

"It won't open for you." The Monk placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. "It's been spelled so you can't leave."

"Why not?!" Alex demanded an answer.

"Because you were locked in this monastery for your own protection and you're not allowed to leave until further instructions," the Monk immediately answered him.

"Protect me from what?" Alex slammed his fist against the door. "Instructions from who?"

The Monk looked out of the window, the hallow cries echoed across the streets. People screamed for help as the battle within the city waged on, a battle that would one day be called the War on Sunrise Island. The Monk wanted to help he really did, but he could feel a dark presence from the city and his instructions as apart of his mission was to look after and to protect Alex at all costs from all evil and stop him from ever leaving the monastery and to wait for further instructions.

"Instructions from Sasha Pendragon..."

Alex felt warmer then usual, as he groggily started to wake up the next morning, his strange dream slowly fading away. Except a name, Sasha, he'd been hearing that name a lot recently but had no idea what it meant to him.

He wanted to further pick at what his dream was trying to tell him. Instead, his hazy mind was puzzled by the warmth he could feel around him. He could have sworn he fell asleep on the cold snowy deck of the Leo when guarding the ship? The warmth felt nice and he curled up closer to the warm object, cuddling it close to his chest like a teddy bear. The object wriggled, and felt the warm breath of another person against his neck.

Was he hugging a person?

It felt like a body... a very tiny body.

His throat suddenly tightened and he stiffened not daring to move or even open his eyes.

It's just Oberon. He hoped, he begged that it was Oberon he was hugging.

His eyes slowly opened and he looked down at one sparkling ice white eye - the other was covered by a white eyepatch - that was looking back up at him with a playful grin. She had silk white hair that reached as far as her shoulders, and was wearing a simple cotton dress that hung as far as her knees and she looked to be around about four years old.

Alex blinked a couple of times, corresponding to the fact that he was in fact hugging a little girl to his chest.

"Morning, Alexander," the girl squeaked.

"Aaahhh!"

Alex jumped up onto his feet, dropping the little girl to the floor and stumbling backwards, tripping over someone who had been lying down behind him.

"Come on man, can't you see I'm trying to sleep here." The other body had groaned in annoyance.

Alex stared at the teenage boy he had tripped over. He looked like a punk rocker with a head of messy red hair and gold piercings lining his ears. He was wearing a black jacket with the sleeves rolled up, revealing his tanned arms littered with tattoos, a scruffy black top, studded black jeans, a red scarf and a pair of scruffy leather boots. The boy was lying on his side, with his head propped up with his fist. His eyes were still closed - one of which was covered with a red eyepatch - and he was snoozing away lazily.

Alex stood up, brushing the snow off his blue fur coat. Looking between the two children, a deep scowl on his face.

"Who are you and what are you doing on this ship?"

Someone stood next to him, and pulled on his sleeve. Alex looked down at the boy he could only presume was ten years old from his height and appearance which resembled the natives of Sapphire Island. His hair was as black as the night sky and flopped over his eyes, one of which was a deep soulless black and the other which was covered with an eyepatch as well. His skin was as white as the snow and he had a small shy smile on his face as he attempted to grab Alex's attention. He wore a grey woolly sweater over a pair of black jeans and a warm black scarf was wrapped tightly around his neck.

The boy parted his lips to speak but no words came out of his mouth. A panicked expression fell across his face as he reached up to his scarred throat. He suddenly looked scared and he disappeared in a puff of black mist.

The breath was caught in the back of Alex's throat, slightly freaked out from what he had just seen.

"Who are you?" Alex raised a confused brow.

The laid down teenager's good eye flashed open angrily, revealing it to be as red as his hair. "Didn't you hear me, I'm trying to sleep?"

Almost immediately Alex recognised his aura, it was familiar to him. His thoughts were soon distracted by the little girl making snow angels on the deck, giggling away, she was still only wearing a cotton dress and nothing else.

"Aren't you cold?" he asked, sweat dripping from his forehead as he continued to watch the girl playing in the snow, now making a snowman.

She shook her head and threw a snowball directly towards his face. His face tensed from the impact and he clenched his teeth, reminding himself it was just a little girl, he couldn't hurt her.

Another snowball hit him in the face and she innocently giggled. His blood was starting to boil. If there was one thing he hated more than anything, it was kids.

"That's it, you're leaving!"

He went to grab the girl but the second he touched her, she disappeared into a cloud of white mist and reappeared above him, sat on the yard of the mast. Her legs kicking out playfully, sucking on her thumb as she laughed at him and dropped more snowballs onto his head.

"Stop it!"

She pulled a tongue at him. "Catch me, if you can, Alexander."

She disappeared once again and a few seconds later, screams could be heard from the boy's dormitories below the deck.

"Cold, cold, cold, cold!" Levi came jumping out from the trapdoor on the deck, covered in a mound of snow and looked at Alex wide eyed. "There was an angel and it dropped snow on me."

Alex slapped a hand against his forehead and dragged it down his face.

"That was definitely not an angel."

"That's her!" Levi pointed behind him. "That's the angel!"

The girl was stood behind him, gripping tightly onto his leg. Her good ice-white eye looked intrigued as she stared at Levi like she knew him but couldn't remember him. Once again, she disappeared into a cloud of white mist and appeared next to Levi, startling him in the process.

"Hey, they can do that thing the green guy from the pub can do!"

Levi's eyes twinkled like stars, when the girl kept disappearing and reappearing around the deck, exploring the ship, Levi following after her.

Alex frowned, now that he thought about it, they were giving off traits like a spirit. Could they possibly all be spirits? He looked down at the sleeping teen by the mast and kicked his side.

"Oi, explain who you are or leave this ship and go home to your master and take your annoying friends with you?" Alex growled at the teenager.

The red-haired teenager heaved a sigh but didn't budge nor did he open his eyes.

"I am home," he stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

A vein twitched in Alex's forehead. The kid had really got on his nerves now. He looked around the deck for his swords, only to find they had all disappeared. He started to panic and dragged the teenage boy up onto his feet by his collar and glared down at him.

"Where are my swords?"

The teenager smirked at him, an amused look in his good red eye. "You'll work it out eventually, depending how dense you are."

He too disappeared in a cloud of red mist. Alex's eyes narrowed, as he looked around the deck for him and jumped out of his skin, when the teenager appeared seconds later, grabbing onto his right arm, his red eye glaring intently towards his limb.

"I was so close to chopping you off that day." He spoke to the arm.

"What the hell?" Alex pulled his arm back from the insane teen. "Who are you?"

He looked back up at Alex, a sinister smirk plastered across his face.

"My name's Angel, that's Harmony." He pointed to the little white girl who was hiding behind the mast. "And the boy who disappeared earlier is called Eyes."

The teenager walked back over to the mast and slumped against it. "Now if you don't mind, I'm tired."

There came a scream from the kitchen and Alex jumped up onto the quarterdeck and ran into the kitchen. Penny had her pink bow out and an arrow pointed at the black haired boy. Alex reached for his blades on his waist only to remember they were still missing and groaned.

Just like with Angel, Alex felt a powerful aura emitting from Eyes but he couldn't remember where he had felt it from but it was oddly familiar and extremely powerful. As soon as Eyes saw him, he immediately relaxed and the deadly aura disappeared.

"What happened?" Alex asked.

"I was having breakfast when this kid appeared out of nowhere." Penny explained, her hand shaking against her bow.

Alex sighed, this was going to be a long morning and a morning it was too. He spent the majority of his time time trying to capture the trio so he could gain some more information out of them. For some reason, it was his responsibility, while the rest of the crew took turns looking for Mirella or watched him.

Every time he was close to capturing one, they would disappear into their respective colours of mist and reappear elsewhere. The crew laughing at his situation, watching on like it was some sort of comedy act.

The one called Eyes, wasn't the problem, he was sat at the bottom of the mast acting shy and waiting patiently. It was Angel and Harmony that were the problem. Harmony wanted to play and Angel kept tripping him up, throwing objects at him and being an annoying fourteen year old teenager. Angel also found entertainment in terrorising Oberon, who was now hiding behind Levi. Alex noticed that all three of the spirits took particular interest in Baden, all of them having greeted him with big smiles.

Angel was running towards Alex, using his mystic power to reappear in different spots. Alex was ready this time, he knew he was, he could catch him. Angel kicked him hard from behind, tripping him up and sending him flying over and hitting his head hard against the deck. Alex groaned in annoyance and glared towards Angel.

"Twenty to me, zero to you," the teenager sniggered towards him.

"I really thought Alex would catch him this time, you win again, Penny." Baden flicked a joule coin towards her and she caught it in her hand with a cheeky grin.

"Stop betting against me!"  Alex snapped as he sat back up.

"I have some snacks for the show." Tommy came out from the kitchen, with a plate full of food.

All three children froze and looked directly towards Tommy like predators to the prey. All at once, they disappeared and reappeared next to Tommy. Like piranhas, they devoured the food and just as quickly scurried away, knocking Tommy over in the process.

"Damn it, Blondie!" Tommy jumped down from the upper deck. "Why haven't you caught them yet?"

Tommy raised his fist and the waters around the ship started to swirl alive with energy, ready to use his Atlantean powers on the first mate. Without his swords, Alex had no way to defend himself.

When the unexpected happened, all three spirits manifested in front of him like a protective wall. Their respective coloured auras glowing around them and their good eyes all glaring sharply from the depths of hell towards Tommy.

"Don't even think about hurting our master." Harmony's, voice was as cold as ice.

She was stood directly in front of Alex, with Eyes stood to her right and Angel to her left, both with their arms folded across their chests in a protective stance.

Tommy stumbled back feeling the power emitting from them. Never would he have believed that he would feel intimidated by a four year old girl.

"Master?" Penny questioned, her head lopsided. "Alex, who are these kids to you?"

Alex swallowed nervously, finally realising why he had recognised their aura's. Yet, he didn't want to believe it at the same time. However, it was the way they had referred to him as his master and their stance that finally got to him, he couldn't deny it any longer. But he didn't understand, he didn't call for them, they shouldn't be here unless he called for them, something he had never accomplished before.

"Washiro, vaguely translates as White Harmony."

The little four year old girl stood directly in front, flashed him a cheeky grin and pulled her tongue out at him.

"Kurome, vaguely translates as Black Eyes."

The dark haired boy, stood to Harmony's right, lifted his head up in his direction and gave him a small shy smile.

He looked to his final sword, a gift from his adoptive father. "Akatenshi, vaguely translates as Red Angel."

The menacing teenager, gave him a sinister smirk. "Took you long enough."

"You're not making any sense, Alex!" Penny said, the other's agreeing with her.

He took in a slow deep breath, eyes wide in shock unable to answer Penny.

"What Alex is saying..." Baden playfully twirled his orange cane around in his hand. "...is that they are the spirits of his blades."

Alex stared between the three kids, still not quite believing it but at the same time he knew it was them. It was the only explanation. But... how did this happen?

Alex was still yet to master such a complicated technique, to call upon the spirit of his sword. His eyes wondered over Kurome, after all the times he attempted to call for the black blade which possessed him, he had expected him to be some hotshot spirit who was extremely tall and powerful but he looked like a weak-stunted-child, with a slit throat and had a black eyepatch, meaning he had been mutilated twice during a point in his lifetime which Alex had suspected for sometime. In fact, they all wore an eyepatch over their left eyes. Which meant their spirit forms were trapped in Limbo whenever they reverted back to their sword form. A place no spirit wanted to be in, for they found themselves alone, with no company but their own sanity. It was a prison sentence.

What had happened to his blades and why were they all in their spirit form?

Next Chapter: 07. Blobs of Fat

☠️ What do you think about Alex's dream, what does it all mean?

☠️ What's his connection to Sasha?

☠️ Do you like Alex's spirits, who is your favourite?

See you next Sunday/Monday depending where you live in the world!

Thanks for reading!📖
Vote! ⭐️
Comment! 📝
Share! 💌

~ Robin Xxx