Oninoka

[ikima]

(New story with a character I am currently working on at this moment. Please comment!)


Chapter 1: A new pet in the house.

Sam Chambel is a 16 years old boy with short black hair, blue eyes and often wearing a blue shirt with a black vest over it and jeans for the bottom. He love animals and he wanted to work into a pet-shop, but he didn’t get a place there, though he tried hard to get it. Instead he works into a bakery shop where he’s well there. He often works with Alina who’s older than him and has a lot of experience in baking. Sam only places the stuff and sometime takes care of selling the pastries. His boss Mrs. Molino is also a good person, though she can be very strict too, but that’s understandable, she runs the best bakery shop in the town.

After placing a few more pastries, cleaning everything and counting the money, Sam ended his day closing the store while everyone was already gone. He often leaves last because apparently Mrs. Molino says he’s a boy and that robbers don’t try to rob when a guy is there. Sam also follows Martial arts lessons, which could be added to that reason. Sam walked all the way back home for dinner where his mother Melina, his father Leon and his older brother Yan were waiting for him. His mother’s a kind woman with long brown hair, green eyes and who often wear skirts and shirts of any colour, as long as the colours fit together, but sometime is hysterical. She works with kids at kindergarten every days and loves it there. Sam even gets treated like one of them sometime too. But his father isn’t like her. With his sunglasses on almost all the time, his black leather coat on from the job, he’s more serious and works into the security of the town, though sometime he can be a bit paranoid with all this. And the last member of his family is Yan, his older brother who has brown short hair and blue eyes just like his brother. His leather coat often on so he can try to seduce the girls he meets. He’s in college and works temporary too into a video store. He likes to charm girls and now he has a new way to do it. With his money he bought a dog and likes to show it to cute girls. So now they have a dog, yet Yan keeps saying it’s his dog and only his. He named him Buster. Sam was a bit jealous, so he told his parents if he could have a pet too. After thinking a little, they told him that he could, as long as it wasn’t a dog or a cat or any other animal out of a cage.

The next day Sam was at the job earlier, but was leaving sooner too. After a short speech from Mrs. Molino telling him that he did a few mistakes, she let him go home and that’s where he went to a pet-shop with his mother since his father was working, but not her. Once on place Sam looked around. He saw so many of them, birds, cats, rabbits, dogs, fishes and even ferrets. He couldn’t pick any of them, but since he entered in, he had a rabbit looking at him and never looking away, like it wanted him to take it. The young boy walked back to the rabbit section and the rabbit kept looking at him, smiling. It was a white female one with a grey spot around the left eye and he just kept looking at it while it was looking at him, sometime tilting its head to the left or the right, then his mother came to him and asked ‘’ Why don’t you choose this one, Sam? You’ve been looking at it for three minutes now.’’

Sam turned around to her with a smile to say ‘’ Yeah, I guess I’ve made my choice.’’

So he went to the counter and tell the woman there that he wanted the rabbit. She went to pick it and put it in a small cage while his mother was looking for a cage for her to be in once they would be back home.

Shopping was made, they paid everything and now they’re heading home. In the car Sam was holding the cage on his knees and looking at the rabbit that was still looking at him with a smile on it’s face. It looked so happy and Sam was too because now he had his own pet. He then enters the house and hurries up to his room with the cage and the rabbit. Once in his room he puts down the cages one next to each others and opens up the rabbit’s cage where she suddenly jumps out and lands on his bed. ‘’ Aaah, finally I’m out! Geez you took long to find me!’’ She then said while stretching. When she spoke Sam couldn’t help but scream of surprise and at the same time frightened since rabbits shouldn’t talk. Then he heard his mother asking if everything was all right and he lied to her saying that he just dropped something on his foot, but that it was all right. Sam then closed the door of his room and looked at the rabbit surprised and curious at the same time, not saying a word. ‘’Can you speak?’’ She asked looking at him with an uncertain look.

‘’Y-Yes I can… but you shouldn’t!’’ Sam tells her pointing at her.

‘’Why shouldn’t I?’’ She asks like it was all normal, her little paws crossed.

‘’You’re a rabbit and rabbits don’t talk!’’ He repeats. A long silence got installed, they were looking at each others and she then sighs and started talking again.
‘’I guess I was wrong then…’’ She says turning around.

‘’Wrong about what?’’ He ask her.

‘’About you being my new master. That’s odd, I sensed enough energy into you for you to be my master.’’ She says turning back to Sam.

‘’A master? Master of what? What are you?!’’ Sam asks starting to be a bit hysterical.

‘’I’m a rabbit… I thought you knew by now.’’ She tells him joking.

‘’I know that… Look, do you have a name or anything? Where are you coming from and what is all this master thing?’’ He asks calming down and walking closer. She jumps off his bed and jumps on his table next to a laptop.

‘’My master. You see, this world isn’t in peace. Soul thieves run everywhere now and someone needs to stop them. When I heard about it, I felt like I needed to find my next master and h-‘’ She gets interrupted in her talk.

‘’Hold on now… soul thieves?’’ Sam then asks all puzzled.

‘’Yeah, demon like creatures that steal the souls of people and devour them. They have appeared again and that shouldn’t have happened… They were sealed away thousands of years ago.’’ She explained.

‘’W-what?! Thousands of years ago?! That means… You’re a couple thousands years old?!’’ He asks even more puzzled and confused. It all seemed to be like dreaming, which is what he thought until I pinched his hand.

‘’Hey! How rude saying I’m old! I’m not thousands of years old! Only a few hundreds.’’ She tells him looking away insulted.

‘’But a rabbit should live for about… somewhere near 10 years only, so you’re obviously not normal!’’ Sam tells her, knowing rabbits quite well enough. She jumped off the table and was heading to his face with a paw ready to kick.

‘’Onini kick!’’ She says before reaching his face and hitting him hard in the face to make him fall down. Sam then gets up with a hand on his face covering his nose, which is where he got directly hit.

‘’For a rabbit… you’re pretty strong.’’ He says trying to find back his balance. He has to put his hand on the wall to stand up until he could feel better.

‘’Don’t ever insult me again. You know how to be rude. I thought my new master would have at least some respect for girls.’’ The rabbit says unhappy. Sam then walked to his bed and removes his hand from his face.

‘’Anyway… what’s your name?’’ He asks her.

‘’I’m Oninoka, but you can call me Onini.’’ She introduces taking a cute pose.

‘’Oninoka, huh… I’m Sam. Sorry for the rude welcome.’’ Sam apologises.

‘’Sorry for the hit then!’’ Onini says with a happy tone.

‘’Yeah anyway… what’s with these… soul thieves you told me about?’’ Sam asks now wanting to know about them, making Onini looking more serious.

‘’You see… these monsters come around and suck out the soul of someone and devour it. The more they get, the more powerful they are and once a soul is taken away from them, it’s gone forever… They show no mercy and must be stopped! That’s why I’m asking you to help me out. I chose you to be my master because… I sensed you have great capacities! Do you accept?’’ Onini asks him.

‘’That sounds important but… what could I do against something that would suck out my soul? L-look I’d like to help, but I already have my life to live.’’ Sam answers not wanting Oninoka to be sad about it, but she looked down, letting her arms drop down and sighed.

‘’Fine… I can’t force you. I’ll just go and do this myself, so no worries, I’ll be fine.’’ Onini says trying to look cheered up. She walks up to the window and opens it alone and jumps down, but Sam went jumping on her to catch her.

‘’What are you doing?! Where are you going?’’ Sam asks her panicked as he brings her back in.

‘’But I have to go.’’ Onini answers him. ‘’Unless… you care too much for me to be hurt.’’ She says with a smile.

‘’I just met you and you… couldn’t you stay at least one day?’’ Sam asks her putting her down on his bed, then sitting next to her.

‘’I guess that I could. How are you going to explain the others though?’’ She asks him.

‘’Um… I’ll find something, don’t worry.’’ Sam tells her. Footsteps could be heard coming up ‘’Quick, in your cage!’’ Sam says picking Oninoka and quickly gets her in the rabbit cage, goes pick a book and starts to read it at a random page. The door opens and his mother shows up.

’’Is everything all right here? How is your new pet, honey?’’ Melina asks her son.

‘’Oh hi mom. Everything’s fine. Onini and….’’ He stops after he just said her name, realising it could have been a mistake.

‘’Onini? Is that the name you gave to your rabbit?’’ She asks smiling.

‘’Y-Yeah, thought that it was fine… what do you think?’’ He asks looking nervous, yet hiding it.

‘’It’s pretty cute I think! Honestly I think it’s a bit weird sounding, but it’s still cute.’’ Melina says. In her cage Oninoka was building up rage after she heard that her name was odd sounding. ‘’Well, it’s being late fast. You should go to bed soon, honey. I’ll see you tomorrow, I’m tired..’’ His mother says before closing the door, that instantly gets opened by his brother Yan who jumps on him and starts rubbing his hair rudely.

‘’So I heard little bro got a pet, huh? Hehe.’’ Yan says not stopping rubbing.

‘’Yan, stop that… ouch! That hurts already!’’ Sam says fighting to get free and succeeds in it. ‘’Yeah I got a pet.’’

‘’Can I see it?’’ Yan asks being more calm now.

‘’Yeah, she’s over there.’’ Sam says pointing to the cage where Oninoka was. Yan walks up to her with his hands in his pockets.

‘’A rabbit… pretty cool. A female?’’

‘’Yeah, a female.’’ Sam answers.

‘’Did you gave her a name yet?’’ Yan asks looking closer at Oninoka who wasn’t facing him.

‘’Oni…Oninoka.’’ Sam says a bit fearing he would receive a laugh from his brother because of the name.

‘’Hmm… Not bad. Anyway, I’ll leave ya with her. Just be careful that she doesn’t get too… you know what we say about rabbits, hehe.’’ Yan says walking out and stops in the doorway ‘’Well I’ll see you later. Tonight, I got a date.’’

‘’This late?’’ Sam asks wondering.

‘’Yeah, going to see a movie. I’ll be back in the middle of the night.’’ His brother answers and closes the door.

Oninoka opens the cage and jumps out ‘’What did he mean about ‘you know what we say about rabbits’?’’ Oninoka asks crossing her little arms.

‘’Wah, uh… well you see, here the rabbits have a tendency to be… um how to say… They like to do it often?’’ Sam tries to answer without wanting Oninoka to go out in rage against him again.

‘’You’re not very clear… Come on, say it.’’ Oninoka says tapping with her foot, waiting for a better answer.

‘’Can we talk about that later? I’d rather go to sleep now…’’ Sam says trying to avoid it all.

‘’I wanna know.’’ Oninoka says insisting on it.

‘’You promise you won’t kick me?’’ Sam asks.

‘’Promise. Go on.’’

‘’All right…’’ He starts with a sigh. ‘’Here we say that rabbits like to have sex often.’’ Sam says only to receive a punch in the face this time. ‘’Ow! You promised!’’

‘’I promised no kicks, but not punches.’’ Oninoka says. ‘’Your statement is wrong!’’ She then yells at him.

‘’You might look like a rabbit, but you might just not be like any rabbits we know…’’ Sam says rubbing his nose.

Later in the evening, Sam was preparing to go sleep. Oninoka still on his bed was looking at him preparing himself. Sam then picked up Oninoka and puts her in the rabbit cage ‘’Sorry, but you’ll have to sleep here for the night.’’ He tells her.

‘’Aww, you’re no fun. This is so small in here! There’s no space!’’ Oninoka says as she walks a little inside.

‘’Sorry, but that’s how it is. I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night.’’ Sam says getting under the blankets. Oninoka waited for him to fall asleep before she would close her eyes. But as soon as she closes them, she senses something from outside and opens them fast. Oninoka opens the cage and walks out, goes to the window and opens it. Before jumping down, she looks behind her and looks at Sam. She then jumps off and looks up before running away. Later in the night, Sam could feel the wind blowing on him, which awakes him. He removes the blankets and looks at the window wondering why it was opened. He then looks at the rabbit cage to see if his rabbit was still asleep, but after a few seconds focusing, he sees she wasn’t there. He gasps and then realises that she must have jumped down the window. He himself jumps off the window and starts running to look for her ‘’Onini… where did you go like this in the middle of the night!’’ He tells himself. He starts calling her name not too loud so only people outside, including Oninoka could hear him. He could hear a noise that wasn’t anything from a town. He runs into the direction the noise came from and appears in front of a snake like creature. A black body, head which wasn’t like any snake. The head was like a leech and it had sharp teeth that could easily go through anything. Down close to that giant creature was the white rabbit Oninoka who seemed to be tired. ‘’Onini!!’’ Sam yells as he sees her.

‘’Sam! Don’t distract me!’’ Oninoka tells him, then dodges an attack from the creature.

‘’But what is that thing?!’’ Sam says referring to the monster.

‘’That’s a…’’ She jumps to avoid another attack ‘’Soul thief!’’ She finishes. ‘’I sensed it while you were asleep. I couldn’t let it go! Now help me or get out!’’

‘’What am I to do?!’’ Sam says standing there looking at the creature. The soul thief then turns to Sam. Sam looks at it, breathing hard. The creature quickly charges at him.

‘’Get out of the way, Sam!’’ Oninoka shouts at him, but Sam didn’t have enough time to react, he puts his arms in front of him to protect himself, but instead, Oninoka ran fast enough and jumps on Sam to make him fall, yet a tooth from the soul thief scratched her badly. Sam sits up and looks at her. She was bleeding badly because of her size, she could get hurt easily. Already weakened by the attack she was unable to fight right now.

‘’Onini! Are you okay…’’ He asks her even though he already knew the answer.

‘’Call… call out my name… use me against it and defeat it…’’ Oninoka says weakly.

‘’W-what do you mean?…’’ Sam asks worried about her more than anything.

‘’Shut up… get up… and do what I said…’’ She replies. Sam gets up as he holds her and looks at the soul thief that wasn’t attacking.

‘’All right… Then let’s do it! Oninoka!!’’ Sam says calling out her name loud enough. Energy was emanating from him and a white circle appears at his feet. Oninoka started to float out of Sam’s hands and was glowing. Her form was slowly changing to the one of a spear. It’s handle being pink, a bow tied under the blade and the blade itself being shaped like a heart downside. Sam catches it ‘’What the… wah!!’’ He says surprised at what he was seeing. His weapon being so girly he just couldn’t believe he was holding that.

‘’What are you waiting for?…. Use me against it..’’ The voice of Oninoka was echoing to Sam. The boy snapped out of it and looks at the soul thief. He holds the spear with two hands and take a fighting stance. ‘’Be careful… the soul thief can attack any moments.’’ Oninoka tells him. Sam nods and doesn’t look away from the soul thief. He then sees the tail of the monster coming at him. Sam jumps back quickly and tries to slash at the tail, yet misses it. The monster charges at him with it’s mouth and Sam now jumps on his left to avoid it fast. The monster hits the ground hard enough to make a small crater. ‘’What are you waiting for now? Attack!’’ Oninoka tells him. Surprised everything he gets talked to by a spear, Sam stabs the soul thief near the head, but it gets up lifting Sam and the spear with it and it starts moving in every ways to remove the spear. Sam having difficulties to hang on, he puts his foot on the beast to get a better hold onto it and with one hand tries to reach it. With effort he grabs it and helps himself to now get on top of it while it was still moving around. Sam grabs back his spear and wait for a moment before he succeeds in planting the spear in the back of the soul thief to harm it. The spear then starts glowing.

‘’What’s that?’’ He wonders to himself as he still holds it.

‘’I’m charging for an attack, you only need to release the energy now! Do it!’’

‘’But how?’’

‘’Do it!!’’

‘’All right… Take that you stupid thing!’’ Sam says making the spear go deeper in the soul thief and concentrates to try and release the energy. Eventually a blast of energy goes off the spear and is sent onto the monster that receives a direct hit, which makes it explode, sending Sam and Oninoka away on the ground. He slowly sits up, holding his spear in one hand, which then gets back to the form of a rabbit. Oninoka still had her wound in her back and was unconscious too. The blast had her run out of energy. ‘’Onini… Onini!!’’ He calls out, but Oninoka wasn’t answering him. Sam got up and ran back to his house in the middle of the night. On his way home, he meets Yan his older brother who was about to get inside, but stops his action as he sees Sam running in.

‘’Sam? What the heck are you…’’ Yan starts and sees how dirty he got and in what state Oninoka was. ‘’Wow what happened?’’ He asks.

‘’I can’t explain now! Open up I need to help Oninoka!’’ Sam says almost yelling. Yan opens the door and Sam rushes in and then to the bathroom where the first aid kit was. Yan followed behind.

‘’She looks severely hurt… what could have happened?’’ Yan asks.

‘’She… I let the cage open and she fled by the window that I let opened… I woke up and saw she disappeared so I went after her.’’ Sam lies as he was helping Oninoka.

‘’Without telling mom or dad? Look at you, you’ve been into the garbage or something?’’ Yan asks.

‘’Well… I found her being attacked by a cat and… there was a container nearby… The cat had her in its mouth and I jumped at it. It was on top of the container so I fell in as I caught the beast…’’ Sam says trying to find a plausible story.

‘’I see… you should be more careful next time. Well I’m going to bed. Hope she gets better tomorrow.’’ Yan says walking away.

‘’I hope so too…’’ Sam says finishing making a bandage for Oninoka.

[Maxi]

Awesome story. A few typos, but very enjoyable. I hope Oninoka get's better! The spear thing was kind of weird but funny. I liked it and if your making this a character, I can't wait to meet them! ^_^

And on a side note, I know why you put please comment, cause I've made like two stories and only you commented on one, the newest one nobody commented on. T_T

[ikima]

Leave typos alone! Just kidding XD I'm already working on the other chapters, just making a short plan for each chapters so I can have some preparation and which will really follow everything. Planning on writting 12 chapters in all.

The spear was all in the concept I had to put that in and it will stay there for sure! I just like the idea too much. So chapter 2 should come out somewhere this week or next week!

As to answer your side note, yeah... I need to read more of the others' stories as well >_<

[Maxi]

Well sounds cool. I made a story that freddy said I should post cause he liked it so I did but it got no commentns and I reposted it a few times.

[ikima]

(Chapter 2 is here!)

Chapter 2: Sam’s new and hidden identity.

It’s seven in the morning, Sam was already up, preparing to go to work. Taking a shower first and then putting on his uniform, he walks into the kitchen and gets himself a bowl of cereal. The television was turned on and on the news channel. After a few advertisement they came back and cameras were zooming onto a now familiar place for Sam. The broadcaster on place talking and saying that they didn’t know what happened.‘’An incident occurred last night. The police has already started an investigation on the subject. All over the place, a strange substance is scattered…’’ Sam looked at the television like he saw it for the first time, he didn’t even started to eat his cereals so much he was absorbed by the news. Of course it was him on this place with Oninoka. He was now remembering this night like it happened a long time ago with him and his rabbit who took the form of a spear fighting against a giant snake like creature that could suck out your soul and destroy it. ‘’This isn’t good…’’ He told himself with a low voice. He now had to hide his new identity. Good for him his parents and his brother were not there, but Buster was lying next to him, his tail going from left to right, he was looking at Sam able to sense his feelings just now, but a dog wasn’t able to tell anything to anyone anyway. Sam looks at the time, he had thirty minutes left before going to work. He eats a little and puts the bowl next to the sink and walks to his room upstairs. By looking at the cage where his rabbit was, Oninoka was still sleeping. She needed to recover from that rude fight they had. Sam wanted to tell her what he saw on the news, but time was missing for him and couldn’t take the risk to wake up the rabbit. It’s only twenty minutes later that he was now ready to go, but with the time he had left, he just sat on his bed hoping that Oninoka would wake up. But that was in vain, he had to go.

Outside, Sam was looking around him everywhere being paranoid about being suspected for the incident of the last night. Everything was fine and he got to the bakery shop without having anyone on him. Once inside he sees Alina to the counter who was cleaning it up before really opening the shop and greets him with a smile. Her blond hair reflecting the light and her white apron that she made herself, a simple white yet looking so soft and so incredibly well made. But every time he was looking at her, Sam was always noticing her eyes first. Brown and so gentle, it was impossible to notice them at first . In the back was Mrs. Molino who was in her papers, her small beret on her head and her glasses on her nose. Her blue eyes moving so fast as she was reading and not paying attention to Sam who just got in her office to get in to work. Saying good morning to Mrs. Molino and getting a quick reply from her, Sam just goes back to the front with Alina. ‘’Have you heard about what happened tonight?’’ She asks him all of a sudden that Sam just got stiff after hearing the question.

‘’That, y-yeah I did. It was on the news this morning. Wonder what happened?’’ Sam says in a normal tone.

‘’I don’t know, but I’m very curious to know.’’ Alina says. ‘’They don’t even know what is that substance.’’

‘’I hope they find it soon, I’m also curious to know!’’ Sam says with enthusiasm as he goes to the door to turn the little paperboard on which ‘close/open’ was written and turns it on open so customers could come in. ‘’What do you think it could be?’’

‘’Hmm…’’ Alina starts with a finger on her chin, thinking ‘’Well, I would have to see that mysterious substance for myself to get an opinion from all of it.’’ She then answers.

‘’Uh-huh, right.’’

‘’Hey, did you get your animal? You talked about it yesterday.’’ Alina asks.

‘’Ah, yeah! I bought a rabbit.’’

‘’And you gave it a name yet?’’

‘’Oh yeah, that went pretty well. I called her Oninoka.’’

‘’A female? How cute.’’ Alina says and giggles gently.

‘’I guess so. It’s more like it’s her who chose me though…’’

‘’What do you mean?’’

‘’Since I entered the pet-shop, she kept looking at me all the time, so I just picked her since I couldn’t make a choice.’’

‘’Ah I see. Oh, someone’s coming, you should start to work.’’ Alina says interrupting the chat and gets ready to sell something while Sam goes and place stuff, yet there wasn’t many things to place. The person just took one thing and paid then left. ‘’Morning is so unpredictable. People can come in at anytime.’’

‘’Life itself is unpredictable…’’ Sam says low, referring to what happened when he bought Oninoka. Never he would have expected something like this to happen.

‘’Did you say something?’’ Alina asks when she heard him talk.

‘’Ah, uh no… I was just talking to myself, nothing important.’’ Sam says defending himself. Then from the office they hear Mrs Molino calling for Sam. ‘’Yes, I’m coming.’’ Sam answers to his boss and walks there. She was sat in her chair and turned to him, smiling.

‘’Today I’d like you to start baking. Alina will start showing you while I take care of the selling.’’ His boss tells him.

‘’Huh? But I’ve got no experience in this.’’ Sam replies to this.

‘’That’s why she’ll show you. You see, you’re doing a good job already, but I’d like you to be more than a clerk. First, do you agree?’’ She asks.

‘’Well, I guess that would be great. Is this some kind of promotion?’’ He asks with uncertainty.

‘’If you’re able to bake, then yes.’’ Mrs. Molino tells him.

‘’All right, well thank you. I’ll do my best.’’ Sam says.

‘’Go tell Alina about it and wait for me to be there before starting.’’ She tells him. Sam nods and walks back to the front to tell Alina about it. For now they had to keep doing their stuff until Mrs. Molino take their place in the afternoon.

Oninoka was awake, food and water in her cage. Being hungry she slowly walks to the dry food, her back hurting because of the last night’s battle. Taking a bite she instantly spits out the food ‘’Ah, this is awful… Why do I have this stuff to eat? Aww, I won’t eat until he comes back that’s for sure…’’ She complains in her cage then walks to the water and drinks some. Her ears then perk as she senses a strong negative energy. Right away she could say it was a soul thief. Stopping to drink and slowly going to the cage’s door, she opens it with difficulties as every time she was moving her left arm or leg, she was feeling the pain in her back, but managed to get out of it ‘’I must… go for it… I need to stop that monster!’’ She tells herself determined to go, but no matter how much efforts she could put in her movements, she couldn’t do anything for it. Trying to walk, she suddenly trips and falls off the desk she was on. She tries to get a grip on the edge, but wasn’t able to and lands on the floor, hurting her right side a little. She wanted to get up, but she was lacking the strength to do so. With all the energy she’s spent in just wanting to get out of the cage, she was already too weak to keep on, the only thing she could do now was to rest more, but the soul thief was now worrying her.

‘’After that we just need to put it in the oven, all right?’’ Alina was now practicing bakery with Sam to show him.

‘’For 20 minutes, right?’’ He asks her.

‘’That’s right, so when it’s done just take it out and tell me. Ah and don’t burn yourself.’’ She tells him before going away to do some other pastries.

‘’Yeah, figured that one myself.’’ Sam answers to her. He looks at the time and sees that he didn’t take his break of the afternoon yet. ‘’Hey Alina, I’ll go take a break so… mind if you check it for me?’’ he asks her.

‘’Go ahead, but be sure to be back so we can keep on baking together.’’ Alina tells him, not looking away from her work.

‘’Yes.’’ Sam answers and walks to the front telling Mrs. Molino he was going to take his break outside. Five minutes have already passed, Sam was just resting on the bench next to the shop until he notices a strange form far away. A black creature that was only walking in, no one noticed it but Sam. ‘’Not that thing again… If what Onini says about it, then I got to tell her…’’ He says getting up and starting to run home.

He quickly opens the door of his house and then of his room once he reaches the place ‘’Onini! I think we’ve got trouble out…side… Oninoka?!’’ Sam precipitates on Oninoka, taking her in his arms. She opens her eyes half way and looks at him.

‘’Soul… thief… I need to...’’ She says before Sam interrupts her.

‘’We need to do something about it… I’ve defeated one yesterday, I can do it again. Just tell me what to do.’’ Sam tells her.

‘’First of all… you won’t do much alone… You’ll have to use… me again… just like last night.’’ Oninoka says weakly.

‘’But look at you… you’re hurt, I can’t risk anything with you in this state.’’

‘’Don’t worry… when you use me in a weapon form, I can’t be hurt… Only you can be hurt…’’

‘’Well gee thanks, that’s reassuring…’’

‘’That aside… now call my name and let me guide you to it, but I warn you… I don’t think I’ll be of much help… like last night… I don’t have any energy left to do anything, so… you’ll have to use your own…’’ She explains. ‘’So hurry!…’’

‘’Fine… then guess I have no choice. Let’s do this, Oninoka!!’’ The boy says calling out her name. Oninoka floats out of his arms and changes form into the same spear from the last night. A pink handle with a ribbon and bow tied under the heart shaped blade. ‘’I feel ridiculous…’’ Sam tells himself after he sees the spear for the second time.

‘’You’ll have to deal with that for a long time, master, so get used to it now!’’ The voice of Oninoka echoing to him said.

‘’Care to explain me why this is like this?’’ Sam asks having this urge to know now.

‘’Shut up and go defeat the soul thief before it kills someone.’’ Oninoka tells him.

‘’You’ll owe me some explanation later, though.’’ He says before opening the window of his room and jumping down and starts running to where he saw the figure, but it wasn’t where it was anymore. ‘’Crap… we’ve lost it.’’

‘’Don’t give up so fast. Keep going straight, it’s just gone further that way.’’ Oninoka tells him. Her voice sounded like she was feeling better, but that was only because she was in her weapon form. Even then she was too weak to do anything. It was all up to Sam. Eventually he and Oninoka now reached where the soul thief was. Fortunately for them, no one was around. ‘’You should lure it out if you don’t want anyone to see us.’’

‘’That’s exactly what I thought.’’ Sam says and charges at the soul thief aiming at its leg. This one had the appearance of a mantis, but the head was just like the snake one. A leech head that was ready to suck out your soul. The soul thief sensed Sam and turns around to slice at him with one of it’s scythe-arm.

‘’Watch out!’’ Oninoka yells out. Sam just cancelled his move to go roll away from the slash and gets up. ‘’Close one… be more careful!’’

‘’Sorry I worried you… Time to end this outside.’’ Sam says ‘’Follow me, mantis thing.’’ He tells the soul thief that turns around showing it’s face to Sam who just was surprised to see it at sunlight ‘’Aaah…that’s pretty much the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen now.’’ He comments.

‘’Would you please stop talking and finish this?’’ Oninoka tells him being annoyed. Her master nods and runs away to leave the town. The soul thief was obviously following them and was surprisingly fast. ‘’Careful! It’s coming! Bend forward!’’ Oninoka tells Sam who listens to her by bending forward and then avoiding an incoming attack from the soul thief. Sam looks behind the mantis to calculate how far they were from the town to avoid a mess like the previous night and gets his eyes back on the mantis. ‘’Now show that monster who’s boss!’’

‘’You know the look of this spear really doesn’t fit you right now…’’ Sam comments again.

‘’Enough already! Fight!’’ Oninoka yells at him, making Sam laugh a little.

‘’Just teasing you. Now back to being serious. Come get me if you can!’’ Sam says provoking the beast that slashes at him again. Sam protects himself by using the spear to stop the attack from the sharp scythe. The mantis slashes with it’s second arm. Sam removes the spear to block this second attack and goes in for a stab. He hits the chest of the beast. ‘’Gotcha!’’ but the mantis grabs the spear and removes it, ‘’huh?’’ and throws Sam away with it, hitting a tree. ‘’Ow…’’

‘’Get up, fast!’’ Oninoka orders him sensing the soul thief charging at them. Sam gets up fast and moves away only to see the soul thief slashing through the tree in one slash, completely cutting through it. ‘’That would have been lethal.’’

‘’Yeah.. I still wonder how you can easily resist this, but not a tree!!’’ Sam says with a surprised expression.

‘’You’re saying you blocked the previous attacks without even having a concern about me?!?!’’ Oninoka shouts out furious.

‘’My mistake for talking… But that’s not what’s going to stop that thing. Please guide me, Oninoka!’’ Sam says becoming serious once again, having a good grip on the spear, ready to counter any attack. The mantis was attacking them without thinking. It was slashing wildly at them, Sam was blocking the attacks with the help of Oninoka guiding him and when an opening was there, Sam does a quick spin-attack at the leg of the monster, cutting it. ‘’That’s the end of you now!’’

‘’Don’t be too certain…’’ Oninoka says. The mantis’ leg just grew out and formed again. ‘’You’ll have to finish it with one blow, use your energy against it!’’

‘’And how am I supposed to do that? You talk like I should know everything!’’ Sam says as he dodges an attack.

‘’Remember yesterday when you released my energy? Well it’s the same, but you have to transfer your own energy into me and then release it! Concentrate.’’ Oninoka explains. ‘’I know you can do it. You’ve go to!’’

‘’Don’t have any other choice anyway…’’ Sam says. He jumps back to take some distance and closes his eyes to focus his energy. ‘’Here…’’ He says as he tries to do so. He could feel something in his arm, a warm wave of energy was flowing through it, he just had to transfer it then, but that wasn’t like he could do it right away.

‘’Up!!’’ Oninoka yells to him as the mantis had charged on them. Sam opened his eyes and gasps seeing the mantis close, about to slice them with both scythes. He quickly puts up the spear to protect himself from it and tries pushing the soul thief back. After doing it he takes some distance against it again to start focusing.

‘’This time it’s for real now…’’ he says closing his eyes again and focusing again, this time transferring the energy into the spear.

‘’Okay, ready up and use a magic, come on!’’ Oninoka says feeling the energy flowing through her now. ‘’Release your energy!’’

‘’All right… Just like yesterday!’’ Sam says charging at the mantis and slashing at it. It dodged the first slash, Sam gives a second one that it blocks this time. ‘’Take that!’’ he then trusts his spear, but it catches it with it’s other arm. Sam was pushing as hard as he could to be able to stab the monster, but it was too strong. He had to pull it out and do it again.

‘’You’ll never get it from the front! Take on it’s back!’’ Oninoka says. Sam nods to her, not leaving the monster from his sight and starts running around it for now. The mantis was following his movements well and it was fast enough to keep with Sam. Then Sam stops and look at him, thinking about something to do and gets an idea. He smirks and charges at the monster starting to slash at it.

‘’Onini, guide me!’’ Sam says.

‘’Okay!’’ She answers and both were teaming up again to fight. By dodging a couple of attacks and blocking some, then slashing at it or trusting his spear, Sam just waited for an opening. Once he sees an opening, Sam slashes at its leg like before, cutting it again, but this time instead of waiting for it to repair itself, Sam ran around it and before it could regenerate its leg he just stabs the soul thief in the back and pushes the spear deeper with all his strength.

‘’Now!!’’ He yells as he releases a blast of energy into the soul thief that makes it explode… again. The creature scattered around again, Sam covered with its rest. ‘’Ugh… not again…’’ He says.

‘’Well that’s what you get for making everything explode.’’ Oninoka replies with a giggle. ‘’I’ll have to teach you a lot about your powers.’’

‘’I guess so. But now at least there’s no more danger.’’

‘’Maybe not for the people, but you yes.’’

‘’What do you mean?’’

‘’Aren’t you supposed to be working today?’’

‘’Aaah! I forgot I was just taking a break!! I’ve got to go back!’’

‘’Like this?’’ Oninoka asks him, reminding him that he wasn’t really pretty to look at with all this stuff on him.

‘’I’m in serious trouble…’’ Sam says with a sigh.

‘’At least you’ve done a good job. You really are my new master and a new Animal knight.’’ Oninoka tells him before retaking her rabbit form, in which she was unconscious now.

‘’Animal knight?’’ He wonders. ‘’You will need to give me details about a lot of things later…’’ He tells her.

After going back home and putting Oninoka into the cage, Sam was back at the job, having no time to wash his clothes. Outside was Mrs. Molino looking at him coming over. Sam had the feeling he would get one of those speeches from her once he would reach her, making him nervous. ‘’You’ve taken a break of 30 minutes, Sam. You had 10 minutes only.’’ She tells him.

‘’Yes, I’m sorry…’’ Sam says looking down.

‘’Why exactly did you take so long and… what happened to you?’’ She asks him seeing how dirty he was.

‘’Uh, I… Well you see yesterday there was an incident with a cat and my rabbit… And to make a short story, I just fell into a container while catching that stupid cat. Well today I happened to meet that cat again and I think it didn’t forget me so… well I ended up in the container again.’’ Sam explains without much credibility, but Mrs Molino wasn’t into the mood to argue about it. She lets him go back inside. Of course Alina asked him the same thing and was looking deceived because he was late. Sam only had to answer the same lame excuse to her that he said to his boss. But Alina was more worried about Oninoka since she was hurt because of a supposed cat. ‘’I took care of her wound. She should recover soon. She looks like a strong rabbit so I don’t worry much.’’ He answers her. ‘’Oh by the way, do you think I could bring her here tomorrow? I thought maybe I could she you and Mrs. Molino.’’

‘’You’d have to ask her, not me. But maybe that could be a good idea! To have an animal in here could be fun.’’ Alina tells him with some enthusiasm.

‘’I’ll ask her at the end of the day.’’ Sam says before returning to his normal tasks.

At the end of the day, Sam and Mrs. Molino had a conversation about Sam’s idea for bringing Oninoka here. She agreed after having to argue with him, yet the main reason Sam wanted her with him was because he didn’t wanted to run home in case another soul thief would appear.

[ikima]

(And now I am back with more of my story, woot! Make sure to read and enjoy!)

Chapter 3: The secret of the soul thieves

The morning was cloudy and Sam had to go work, yet this time with him he was bringing his rabbit like he told Alina and his boss Mrs Molino. He was getting prepared, taking his breakfast fast while watching the news on the TV. They were still talking about the incident that happened on that night so he didn’t have to worry much about the last day where he fought his second soul thief. After he finished eating he quickly puts everything in the sink and goes up in his room where Oninoka was in her cage and who had woken up. The little rabbit was feeling much better and had her wounds healed. ‘’Now can I come out?’’ She asks gripping the bars of the cage like a prisoner.

‘’Yes, one second.’’ Sam replies as he was getting his uniform on. Oninoka decided that while he was busy she would make her paw go from left to right on the bars to make some noise. ‘’Would you stop that, please?’’ Sam asks her. Oninoka giggled and stopped. Once he was done dressing himself up he opened the cage and took Oninoka and goes out his room to walk down the stairs and outside. Sam looked up in the sky ‘’Strange, they said it would be sunny today and it’s all cloudy… looks like it’s about to rain. We should hurry.’’ He says before starting to run. Oninoka looked up while they were running and questioned herself about these clouds. To her they didn’t look natural. By the time he got to the bakery store, it had started to rain. Sam opens the door panting and Alina who was behind the counter greets him and gasps when she saws Oninoka.

‘’She’s so cute!’’ She says her hands to her face and ran to Sam.

‘’Hello…’’ Sam answers to her once she got there. ‘’Meet Oninoka.’’ He introduces her.

‘’Can I pet her a little?’’ Alina asks acting like a little girl. Sam agrees and lets Alina pet the rabbit a little. Oninoka seemed very pleased to be treated that way. ‘’Aww she’s adorable. I’m being jealous.’’

‘’Hehe, I like her a lot too. She helped…’’ Sam starts saying. He almost was going to talk about the soul thieves and the battles he delivered with them, but held it before he would continue talking. ‘’…me feel better about having a pet of mine.’’ He finishes with a nervous laugh.

‘’I understand. It must be so fun to have a pet at home. It’s too bad my boyfriend has allergies to animals.’’ Alina explains.

‘’Oh really? That’s too bad.’’ Sam replies.

‘’It’s all right. Shall we open now? You’re in the way.’’ Alina says. Sam walks away from the door and Alina turns the open/close paperboard to open so customers could come in. ‘’Also, today we’re going to do what we couldn’t finish yesterday.’’ She says and went back to the counter while Sam puts his apron on and goes in the back store to get the stuff that needs to be placed at the front. While in there he puts Oninoka on a small table.

‘’You stay there and don’t touch anything, all right?’’ Sam tells his rabbit.

‘’You brought me here and all I can do is watch? You’re boring.’’ Oninoka replies crossing her paws.

‘’I don’t have much choice. I took you with me so if something happens we’ll be able to act fast.’’ He whispers so Alina wouldn’t hear him. Once he was done with her Sam takes a few freshly done cakes and brings them at the front to put them on the shelves. Oninoka at the back was sitting there, looking around and sighs.

‘’He works eight hours a day and he expects me to do nothing?’’ She tells herself. Her belly starts to growl and she puts her paws on it. ‘’And I haven’t eat this morning…’’ She sighs ‘’I’m sooo gonna die of boredom and hunger…’’. Sam was passing sometime in the back store to get a few things that were missing, but customers started to come in and Sam was busy dealing with them as well as Alina. Poor Oninoka she had nothing to do and she’s been there for maybe 1 hours already, but not for long… The little rabbit decides to jump off the small table she was on and starts to explore the place. Unfortunately for her, Sam entered the room and saw her.

‘’Ah! Onini what are you doing there? Get back here!’’ Sam says walking to her and grabbing her quickly and going back to the table to put her there again. ‘’Stay there, I’m working.’’ He tells her bluntly before going back to work. Another hour passed, Oninoka looked very annoyed and didn’t want to let it be that way. She jumped off again to explore again, only this time she made sure Sam wasn’t coming in the back. It was perfect for her, Sam was dealing with someone at the moment. She took this moment to fly through a few pastries and smell them. Some smelled good and others smelled very good! Saliva to the mouth, she couldn’t resist but take one bite just to taste. Right when she was about to, a shadow appears on her. She looked who it was, her mouth wide opened only to find out it was Sam who didn’t look happy with his fists on his hips and tapping with his right foot on the floor. ‘’How many did you eat?’’ Her master asks waiting for an answer.

‘’None, I promise.’’ Oninoka answers looking nervous, yet telling the truth. Sam sighs and grabs her.

’’I know it’s boring for you, but that’s not a reason to try and mess up with my work.’’ Sam tells her, going back to the table and putting Oninoka there again.

‘’Isn’t there anything I can do to get out of this boredom?…’’ Oninoka asks.

‘’Nothing I can think of… Sorry.’’ Sam says, taking a few pastries and bringing them to the front. An hour passes again and now Oninoka had enough. When Sam passes she interrupts him in what he was doing. ‘’What is it?’’ He asks.

‘’Play with me.’’ She says childish, her feet balancing right and left.

‘’I’m busy now, Onini. I don’t have the time for that.’’ Sam says and gets back to what he was coming for.

‘’Hmph!’’ Oninoka does looking away being sulky. By looking away she finally noticed something. The oven to bake was in her sight and points at it. ‘’What’s that, Sam?’’ She asks.

‘’It’s an oven. We use it to make the pastries.’’ Sam answers about to go out of the room.

‘’And that?’’ Oninoka asks pointing at a table with powder everywhere.

‘’The table to prepare the pastries before putting them in the oven.’’ Sam answers about to go outside again, but Oninoka stops him by asking another question.

‘’And this thing over there?’’ She asks pointing an egg beater.

‘’Egg beater. We use it to beat the eggs.’’ Sam answers.

‘’Why?’’ Oninoka asks right after he said this. A voice was heard calling Sam though.

’’I don’t have time to explain.’’ Sam says getting over where he was called to.

‘’Aw man here he goes again… guess I’ll figure it out myself then.’’ Oninoka says jumping down the table for the third time and going to where the egg beater was. She takes it and looks at it in every angles. It was an electric one that was already plugged. She saw the button to activate it, not knowing it herself and presses it as it starts off. She lets out a ‘yikes!’ dropping the machine that hits a bowl that was full of flour and reverses it, spreading the flour all over the table. Oninoka stepped back on the edge of the table as the egg beater was still on and still hitting a few things here and there. Oninoka didn’t see there was nothing behind and lost her balance. She tried to get it back, but fell behind. As she fell she gripped a bowl of beated eggs that drops on her head, spreading it all over her and the floor. Hearing the mess in there, both Sam and Alina went to see what was happening. Good for them no one came to buy anything, but they did see all the chaos caused by the little rabbit. Oninoka slowly raises the bowl that was on her head and looked at Sam nervously.

‘’How did she get there?!’’ Alina asks surprised. Alina didn’t care much about the mess though, she was more concerned about Oninoka because she walked to her and removed the bowl from her. ‘’Poor little rabbit…’’ She says taking her while Sam turns the egg beater off. Oninoka was in shame of that. She looked down and was slowly pushing her fingers one on one. Sam did a facepalm and sighed. After that it was now Mrs. Molino’s turn to enter the place.

‘’What in the name of God happened here?’’ She slowly says surprised and shocked by this. ‘’Samuel Chamber, is that your rabbit I see? The one you said you would bring here?’’ She asks.

’’Y-yes… I’m very sorry about this all, I’ll clean it up.’’ Sam says nervously. Mrs Molino was in her office all the time so she haven’t seen Oninoka yet. She knew she could trust Sam, but mostly Alina to open the store and do the work. Mrs. Molino sighs to this, not really knowing what to say. To her Sam was a good employee, but in two days he made two big mistakes now.

‘’Make sure that this doesn’t happen again or else I’ll have to send you back home so you can think about this all for some time.’’ Mrs. Molino says, making Sam swallow his saliva. She then went back to her office to continue what she was doing. Sam takes Oninoka from Alina.

‘’It’s all right, you can go back to the front, I’ll take care of this.’’ Sam tells Alina.

‘’But is she all right? I want to make sure she has nothing.’’ Alina says worried about Oninoka.

‘’Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. I know her well on this.’’ Sam says ‘’Make sure to close the door so no one sees what’s in there.’’

’’I know. Well good luck.’’ Alina says getting back to the front and closing the door behind her.

‘’Thanks… I guess…’’ Sam says before looking at Oninoka. ‘’Oh you… why did you… It’s just- Dah!!’’ Sam says almost shouting.

‘’Hey hey, calm down now it was just all an accident!’’ Oninoka says being a bit scared of Sam.
‘’You did it and I am scolded! And look at yourself! You’re all covered in egg yolk now!’’ He says and puts her back on the table and goes take a towel in the bathroom so he could wipe Oninoka. ‘’I swear if it wasn’t for the soul thieves you’d be going home right now…’’ Sam says as he wipes her.

‘’Sam… you hate me now?’’ Oninoka asks looking at him with a sad look.

‘’It’s not that, only you’ve been causing me trouble and I’ve had enough already.’’ Sam says and notices her face, tears in her eyes about to cry. ‘’Oh don’t give me that look…’’ He says, but too late she started crying like a baby quite loud. ‘’Hey hey! Shhh! Please be quiet, it’s really not the moment for that!!’’ Sam whispers trying to make her stop. The door opens and Alina shows up.

‘’Did I hear someone cry?’’ She asks. She looked at Sam who was holding Oninoka completely wrapped in the towel.

‘’N-no it was probably just your imagination, hehe…’’ Sam answers anxiously with Oninoka moving a lot in the towel so Sam had to hold it tight. Alina shrugs and closes the door. At this instant Sam lets Oninoka out.

‘’Why’d you do that for!’’ She shouts at him, but Sam puts his hand on her mouth.

’’Quit it with the yelling!’’ Sam tells her. ‘’If they find out about you talking I’ll have to explain myself into this, so be quiet!’’ He says and removes his hand. Oninoka looked away for a second before coming back to him. ‘’Now you stay there and do nothing, okay? I need to clean everything.’’ Sam says starting with the egg yolk on the floor with the towel he used to wipe Oninoka.

‘’At least let me help you…’’ Oninoka says feeling bad.

’’No, this is not necessary.’’ Sam says continuing to clean up. After having cleaned it, Oninoka was sit on the table, feeling guilty of what she’s done, feeling like Sam would never forgive her. Suddenly her ears perked up and she got up to see Sam.

‘’Sam, I sense one nearby!’’ She tells him.

‘’This is no time for jokes.’’ Sam says not believing her.

‘’It’s serious, I’m not kidding! There’s a soul thief nearby, we’ve got to go destroy it!’’ Oninoka says sounding serious. Sam stopped for a second, the mop in hands to look at Oninoka who didn’t have the look of someone making jokes.

’’Got it… let’s get going.’’ Sam says picking her up and walking outside to get to the front of the store. ‘’Alina, I’ll be taking a break with Oninoka.’’ He informs her and walks outside.

‘’But it’s raining…’’ Alina says, but was too late. Sam was already outside. The rain was strong as well as the wind.

‘’Those clouds…’’ Oninoka says looking up with the rain pouring on her face. She then notices something strange in the sky that was black and flying. ‘’There! It’s the soul thief!’’ She says pointing at it.

‘’Okay, then let’s do this! Oninok-‘’ Starts Sam.

‘’Silly, don’t do this there you could be seen!’’ Oninoka interrupts him as he was about to summon out her weapon.

‘’Oh…’’ Sam simply says and runs for the soul thief that was further away. The good thing about this rain was that no one was coming outside of it. The soul thief seemed to be near the center of the city, where the first one was. Once they get there, they look up and can see a black bird with a leech’s mouth for the head. ‘’I don’t think this one’s going to be easy.’’ Sam comments watching that.

‘’We have to do it anyway. Now you can call my name and today we’ll work together for real. I’ll be able to help you better.’’ Oninoka says with a smirk. These two last days she was wounded so she couldn’t help very much, but today she’ll be able to give all she got.

‘’That’s perfect. Oninoka!’’ Sam says calling out her name and the rabbit quickly takes the form of the pink spear. Again Sam thinks he lost all credibility holding that, but this time didn’t comment on it. So he grabs the spear with two hand and looks up ‘’How should we lure it down?’’

‘’Don’t worry about that, it’ll come fast.’’ Oninoka says her voice echoing to Sam.

‘’I’m ready to finish this fast.’’ Sam says on his guard. The soul thief finally spots them and dives fast at them unleashing a screech. As it was about to hit with it’s mouth, Sam jumps to the side to avoid, but unexpectedly is hit by one of the wings and is sent on the ground, dropping his spear. He gets up and is about to get to his spear, but the bird puts a paw on it and looks at Sam when Sam looks at it. Sam cusses to this, not knowing what to do. He just knew that Oninoka couldn’t be hurt like this. The bird started to fly with the spear in it’s talon and tried to stab Sam with it. Sam rolls and quickly gets up no unarmed. ‘’Onini, are you all right?!’’ He asks her.

‘’Me I’m fine, but please do something and get me out of there!!’’ Oninoka almost yells. Sam decided to act by charging at the bird and dives to try and get the spear, but it flies away. Sam hits the ground with his fist before getting up. The bird was just at a small distance from Sam. Sam tries again and tries to punch the soul thief, but all he receives is another flap of the wing that sends him away. ‘’Seriously, I got to do everything myself…’’ Oninoka says starting to gather her energy. ‘’Now come grab me and release what I have gathered.’’

‘’Easy to say.. that thing isn’t going to let me get near it.’’ Sam says, but the bird lifts off and flies at Sam before swing his own spear at him. Sam ducks to avoid any hit and the bird tries again, but this time Sam grabs the spear’s handle and pulls on it. Both the bird and him were pulling now. ‘’Isn’t there anything you can do to help?’’ Sam asks getting a tighter grip on it.

‘’If you’re able to turn me up you could release my energy on it.’’ Oninoka tells him. Hearing it, Sam starts pushing the spear so the blade would point up. The bird kept pulling and was bending backward in the air. ‘’Do it!’’ Oninoka orders.

‘’Take that!!’’ Sam yells pushing harder and focusing to release the energy. He was being more used to it by now and releases a blast of energy that misses the bird, but was enough to scare it and make it release it’s grip on the spear so Sam had it back. Sam took advantage of this to go in the back of the beast and jumps on it’s back wanting to stab, but the bird had jumped back before he could try his stab so he just were on the bird’s back now. The creature starts to fly up with Sam on it’s back and flies around quite fast, not able to reach Sam, but it wants to make him fall. Sam holds onto the feathers of the neck while he holds the spear with the other hand. He had to be able to get a good balance before trying anything. ‘’Hey, help me a little now!’’ He tells Oninoka.

‘’I can’t do much right now. Try pointing me at it.’’ Oninoka tells him. Sam does his best to turn the spear to point the bird. ‘’Okay, give me some time!’’ She says and again she gets herself energy ready to be shot. ‘’You can do it now!’’

‘’Perfect! All right, aaaaaaah!!!!’’ He yells and the tip of the spear glows before letting out a ball of energy that hits the side of the bird violently and makes it go down to the floor. Once it hits the ground hard, Sam is launched off its back and hurts his back on the ground. ‘’Ahh… that hurts…’’ He says.

‘’Can’t give up now, you need to finish it.’’ Oninoka says. ‘’Get up and finish it.’’ She orders. Sam slowly gets up and walks to the bird that was severely hurt. ‘’Stab it’s mouth.’’ She then tells him. Sam raises the spear and stabs the mouth of the monster that disappears after it’s killed. After it’s done Oninoka takes back her form. ‘’See? No explosion this time.’’ She says and jumps to the floor to check where the bird was.

‘’You never told me that before… could have been useful.’’ Sam says. The rain that was falling had suddenly stopped as well as the strong winds. Sam looks up to see the sky being cleared and the sun returning. ‘’Strange…’’

‘’That was an effect of the soul thief. Some have this power to change their surrounding.’’ Oninoka explains looking at Sam. When she goes back to looking she notices a small object that she picks up. A purple gem in a triangle shape. She gasps. ‘’Sam!’’ She calls. He makes a few steps to get to her and picks her up. ‘’Look!’’ She says showing him the gem. Sam takes it and analyse it from every angles.

’’What’s that? It’s pretty.’’ Sam says.

‘’Maybe, but it’s not all that pretty! I know what they are and everything is much clear now.’’ She says.

‘’What are they?’’ Sam asks, but then realised something before Oninoka could start to speak. ‘’You’ll tell me later, I’m late again!!’’ He shouts starting to run all wet toward the bakery store. Once he got there, Mrs. Molino was waiting for him again in front of the store. ‘’Oh man I’m so dead…’’ He says before reaching.

‘’15 minutes this time. Not too bad, but still Sam… You’re late again. I don’t know what’s up with you, but something will have to be done with this.’’ She tells him and sighs. Sam thought for the worst… that’s it, he’s fired. ‘’You took 30 minutes yesterday, this morning there was a real mess in the back store and now this? Sam that’s becoming ridiculous. You’ll have to get some time home thinking about this.’’ She tells him.

‘’I’m so sorry Mrs…’’ Sam says.

‘’Listen to me, boy. You’re a very good employee. Having to fire you wouldn’t be what I want to do. So come in and get to finish your day.’’ His boss tell him before getting back inside. Sam follows behind and Alina looked at him a bit sad for him and deceived too. Sam walks in the back store. Someone had finish the job there for him so he puts Oninoka on the table and goes dry himself with a towel in the bathroom before coming back to work.

For the rest of the day Sam had worked with Alina on how to bake. He was already getting better at it, only this time Oninoka could follow him and made sure to watch only. Lucky little rabbit she could even taste a few pastries which looked weird to Alina, but Sam told her she was really special. So his day ended and Mrs. Molino reminded him to stay home for some time. Once at home he went in his room after saying hello to his parents and his brother who were already there. He soon was called for dinner and let Oninoka in his room who was busy looking at the gem they found. ‘’How was your day son?’’ His father asks first.

‘’Oh… pretty busy and rough. I made a few silly things.’’ Sam says ‘’An accident happened in the back store and I had to clean it up.’’ He says and sighs. ‘’So for a few time Mrs. Molino told me to stay at home.’’

‘’Oh poor baby…’’ His mother tells him her hands on her heart.

‘’Oh mom, he’s not a baby anymore now. Things like this happen to me too, you know.’’ Yan his older brother says. Then it was Leon’s turn to tell about his day. Sam’s father did like to talk about what he did in the day. Still wearing his sunglasses and his leather coat he started to tell how he stopped this guy into a street today. The wind and the rain made it hard for him and all that stuff.

‘’Speaking of the weather. It changed rather radically today, wouldn’t you say?’’ Leon adds. Sam could only think of the soul thief as an explanation so he didn’t speak up.

‘’We must say forecasters keep being wrong all the time, haha!’’ Yan adds.

After dinner Sam went to his room where Oninoka was waiting for him on the bed. ‘’Hope you ate well.’’ She says when he shows up.

‘’Yes it was good. Hope you weren’t too bored like this morning.’’ Sam says with a grin.

‘’No, I just was thinking about everything that happened. Now listen Sam. Things are changing. The soul thieves we’re chasing are not the same. They are revived in fact, but not totally resurrected. They are under some sort of control. This gem gives you the opportunity to revive anything. This thing is what makes them live. Someone is behind all this and this isn’t good. Now we need to find out who is doing all of this and defeat all the other soul thieves.’’ Oninoka explains.

‘’What would that person want then? Why are the soul thieves sent here?’’ Sam asks puzzled.

‘’I don’t know yet about that. There has to be something in this city that he wants. It could be you or maybe even me… I don’t know, but we’ll have to stay on our guards.’’ Oninoka says.

‘’In any case I can’t let anyone know who I really am now. That would only mess up everything.’’ Sam says with a serious look.

‘’We’ll make you a costume then!’’ Oninoka says so suddenly and with enthusiasm. Sam loses the seriousness he had and only changes it into a disappointed look on the kind of thing Oninoka just said.

‘’Riiiight…’’ He simply says. Oninoka though found back her seriousness.

‘’Anyway, joke asides we need to be more cautious from now on. I’ll have to follow you anywhere you go no matter where it is.’’ Oninoka says.

‘’Don’t you think they’ll have more of a chance to know what I am if I carry you everywhere?’’ Sam asks.

Oninoka just looked at Sam straight in the eyes. ‘’Sam, you might have not noticed, but they already know who you are. Only the people of your family and your friends don’t know that. I knew who you were just when I saw you at this pet-shop. The soul thieves are also able to sense your energy, just like me. Whoever controls those beasts probably already know by now and will destroy you if he needs to. Starting tomorrow it’s training time!’’