Soul Extension

Act 2: Sir Viz’s Café

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Thursday, November 18, 2021

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The doppelganger continues its assault on the students. The caretaker is knocked out and most of the students have fainted. The doppelganger begins its assault on the women.

“No, please!” Bianchi, one of Gene’s classmates, is so desperate that she tries to crawl away from the attacker, “Please have mercy on me!”

The doppelganger took the form of the caretaker and grabs the thighs of Bianchi. “I am going to have fun with you, woman!”

Upon of a sudden, the door of the mansion opens wide and behold in front of Gene is the mess of that has become. His classmates who tried saving him are all fainted down on the ground and Bianchi is crying for help.

“THAT’s NOT GONNA HAPPEN!” Gene yells at the doppelganger, “You hit me in the f*****g head, asshole!”

“You,” the evil spirit turns its attention towards Gene. “You’re supposed to be dead!”

“I’m not,” Gene makes a fist, “but you will be for the second time. Dark Claws…” Gene embeds the claws into the evil spirit’s chest.

The evil spirit struggles from the intense pain it received from the claws. It tries to escape but the claws are embedded deep that it went through its body. “This can’t be happening…”

“Oh it is,” Gene begins to suck the doppelganger, “bon appétit!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO-” the ghost gives a final shriek before Gene completely devours it.

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A few moments later, Gene opens the gate assisting most of the students stuck inside and asks those are left to help.

“You are to be blamed,” Ericus, the proud president grabs Gene. “You’ll have to be arrested!”

“He will not,” another student by the name of Cell grabs Ericus and punches him in the face. “You are supposed to be the one to be blamed for this!”

“He’s right,” Bianchi stands up for Gene. “You have no guts to do what Gene did for us. You have been bullying him and I also had enough of you fooling around!”

Ericus grabs Cell and punches him in the face, “You motherfuckers!”

Out of nowhere, Gene gives Ericus an uppercut, “You son of a b***h! I cannot believe that arrogance of yours. You are disgusting!”

Ericus stands up and seeing his situation he decides to back off. “I’m warning you Gene, you have gotten into my nerves even more.” Ericus leaves the place.

Ericus’ girlfriend, Alesa, talks to Gene. “Please forgive him,” she says and then goes after Ericus.

Bianchi approaches Gene, “You drove the spirit away. That was amazing!”

“I was just lucky…” Gene sighs.

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A few minutes later, the entire block had a serious meeting.

“Since we all came here and had this unexpected turn of events,” the vice president, Alesa, speaks in behalf of Ericus. “I suggest that we keep this incident to ourselves. We all do not want to get punished since we can’t afford to keep making any more excuses especially to our clinical instructors who pride themselves in giving us incident reports.”

A student shouts, “NOTHING HAPPENED!”

Another one yells, “WE WERE NEVER HERE!”

As they begin to disperse, Gene gazes at the mansion one last time. “Everything is going to change from here on out…” he sighs in relief and leaves.

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Friday, November 19, 2021

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The following day, Gene wakes up early to go to have breakfast at his favorite cafeteria near the neighborhood, Sir Viz’s Café. The centuries old cafeteria is famous in Cold-breeze City. Aside from being spacious, it has a comforting atmosphere that allows customers like Gene to feel very welcomed. It can hold up to two-hundred customers and it has an unusual second floor for special customers. There was also an incident that the ex-mayor of the town tried to reason with the owner to allow him a special place in the second floor but was declined deliberately by the owner. The ex-mayor of course, never returned. The one running the cafeteria is the direct descendant of the owner and the tradition of choosing special people for the second floor has been passed down through generations. They serve coffee, tea, chocolate, milk, and juice for drinks and a variety of food ranging from breakfast, snacks, lunch, and dinner type of foods. The overall service is great.

The bell chime rings alerting the people inside the cafeteria that there is a customer. Gene is a regular at the café and almost every personnel know him. This time though is different and as soon as he enters, they immediately notice him. Gene walks toward the counter and make his everyday order which is a glass of hot chocolate and two slices of blueberry cheesecake. However again, this time is different for Gene.

“Good morning,” the owner working at the cashier greets Gene. “You look unusually great today.”

Gene is puzzled by the way he is greeted. “Is unusually great a good thing?”

“Of course,” the owner nods. “By the way, would you like to experience the second floor from this point on?”

“Do you mean to say that I am special?” Gene awkwardly smiles.

“Yeah, of course, why not?” the owner takes a piece of blank document and gives it to Gene. “Show this to the person over there at the staircase and you’ll be taken to the second floor.” The owner reaches his hand to shake hands with Gene, “You already know who I am, but just in case… I am Vortex Vizard.”

Gene reaches and shakes hands with Vortex. “I am Gene Amano. Nice to meet you… again…”

“Nice to meet you again, Gene,” Vortex directs him to the staircase. “Talk to Priestess over there and show her that thing I gave you.”

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Gene takes the blank document to the girl in charge of the second floor.

“Hello there,” the woman greets him. “I see you have been accepted to join the second floor. May I have that document please?”

“So what now?” he asks her. “Actually, this is the first time for me to meet you…”

“I just need some basic information about you first,” she takes out a pen. “I am Priestess Camera Dolly. May I know your name and your age?”

“My name is Gene Amano and I am 18 years old,” he states.

“When is the date and month of your birthday?”

“It’s on the seventeenth of November.”

“Okay thank you very much,” Priestess gives him another document. “Go upstairs and welcome to our second floor.” She hands him his seat number.

“Number fourteen,” Gene wonders where. “Uh…”

“It’s on the terrace to the right,” Priestess smiles at him. “Look for Julie Smarty, he's a guy with the trimmed mustache but walks femininely.”

“Uh, thank you ma’am,” Gene goes upstairs.

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Upstairs, the environment of a normal cafeteria changes dramatically from simply to perplexing. There are a lot of empty seats and only a few customers spend their time there at the moment. Gene looks for the spot he is supposed to go to when a waiter suddenly approaches him.

“Oh so you are new here,” a man whose beard and mustache are very well trimmed with an effeminate voice, like what Priestess described earlier, greets Gene. He took out his phone and reads a message. Then he proceeds to greet him. “Good timing because I have to be asking a few questions. I am Julie Smarty and I am in charge of this special café. May I know your order?”

“I want a hot chocolate drink and uh two slices of blueberry cheesecake.”

“Okay Mr. Amano,” he smiles at Gene. “I will be right back. Take your seat and wait for me, okay?”

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A few moments later, Julie brings him his order. The first floor is usually self-service but it is different on the second floor, service deluxe. After bringing his order, Julie seats on the couch in front of Gene. He takes out a smartphone and begins to ask questions.

“I’m curious,” Julie begins the short interview. “These are the ones you usually order, am I right?”

“Yeah usually because those are my favorite…”

“What else would you order just in case both of which aren’t available?” he starts to take notes.

“I think um I would order pineapple juice and uh bacon cheese-dog with ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard for condiments.”

Julie then asks the next question, “Give me two lunch meals you would like to have everyday here.”

“Just in case I am here for lunch,” Gene thinks for a moment. “I uh would like to have some um chicken stew and fried shrimps.”

“Any vegetables in your mind?” he winks at Gene.

“Well I like a variety of meals so I would just need a tab,” Gene smiles at him. “My taste buds vary every time and the food here is quite expensive so…”

“Yeah,” he nods, “but you are now a special customer so the price of the food is cut in half.”

“Well if you put it that way…”

“Final question,” Julie gets serious. “What is your soul extension?”

“Could you say that again?”

“Your power,” Julie sighs. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be here in the special floor.”

“Am I to deduce that everyone working in this cafeteria and the customers here on the second floor is the same as me?” Gene breathes deeply.

“Yes,” he nods. “My soul extension is called Sonic Flare. Tell me your soul extension…”

“I am not sure but,” Gene tells his, “I call it Dark Claws.”

“Explain further,” he begins to tap down the table.

“Well there are ten claws, one each finger, but it comes out of my knuckles and each are um about one foot long and an inch wide.” Gene tries to recall. “They are um movable and they move with my fingers. They are unusually weightless, sturdy and very sharp.”

“That’s quite the power,” Julie stands up. “I’m gonna talk with the owner and recommend you to have some type of training, if you’d like?”

“Well I guess I’ll take the offer.” Gene smiles at him.

At that moment, “Gene,” a somewhat familiar female voice catches his attention. “What are you doing here?”

“Alesa…” Gene, surprised, opens his mouth wide absentmindedly, but somehow retains his composure, “You are also here... that means...”

“Of course I am,” she stands from her place and goes to Gene’s table. “Instead of asking why you are here, I would like to ask how you got your powers. Who chose you? Was it from what happened that actually never happened?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Let us not dilly-dally anymore,” she shows Gene her powers. It manifests as a third eye, “Malicious Eye.”

As soon as Gene sees it, he immediately averts his attention to somewhere else, “I am under the impression that you might hypnotize me.”

“That is unusually a good guess,” she smiles at him. “Show me your powers then…”

Gene raises his right arm and makes a fist, “Dark Claws.” Five sharp shadowy blades come out from his knuckles.

“Exceptional,” she touches the blades. “So that is why you were labeled as a weirdo.”

“Don’t make conclusions... I've been called a weirdo even before I got this...” Gene retracts the blades back inside his fists. “I just received these last night during the event that never happened...”

“I need to tell you something about the mansion’s owner.” Alesa sighs, “The mother-side portion of my family is Arcrat. We are related to the previous owner of the most haunted mansion here in Cold-breeze.”

“We shouldn’t be together right now,” Gene stands up and leaves his payment on the table. “You have a boyfriend and he might get jealous if he sees us together.”

“He can’t come up here,” Alesa stands up and follows him. “Although, a lot of people might see us if we go down together…”

Gene stops confused, “You don’t want me to leave…”

“Until you tell me who turned you into one like us,” Alesa glares at Gene.

“You know you are such an evil witty girl,” Gene goes back to his seat. “Take a seat…”

Alesa sits down. “So who is it?”

“A ghost,” Gene hesitantly answers. “Romani Arcrat…”

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Meanwhile, at the owner’s office, Julie discusses with Vortex.

“We need this person before the other organization takes him away.” Julie begins to contemplate, “he could be an asset to us.”

“We already have the daughter of the organization you are referring to, Julie.” Vortex thinks deeply.

Priestess enters the room, “I had Jodie take my place to discuss with you about the newcomer.”

“He is not a newcomer,” Vortex sighs. “He’s been a regular here for a while now.”

“A newcomer to our world,” Julie locks the door. “He might’ve gotten it very recently.”

Priestess looks at Julie, “From who actually?”

“Alesa is already asking him,” Julie smiles at her. “We need to train this kid, boss.”

“Alright, do what you want.” Vortex finally agrees, “He has similar powers as I have anyway.”

“One way or another, he has already left the normal world.” Julie unlocks the door and leaves.

“This is why we are here,” Priestess follows Julie outside. “We still have to work…”

“Yeah,” Vortex nods and leaves the room. “Life goes on… even in death…”

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FACTS

Gene Amano

 Age: 18; Birthday: November 17, 2003; Hair color: Blue-green; Eye color: Green; Skin tone: Fair; Personality: Mysterious

 Soul Extension: Dark Claws

Alesa Bach

 Age 18; Birthday: January 19, 2003; Hair color: Green; Eye color: Orange; Skin tone: Fair; Personality: Understanding

 Soul Extension: Malicious Eye

Romani Arcrat

 Age: 35 at death; Birthday: Forgotten; Hair color: Golden yellow; Eye color: Black; Skin tone: Pale; Personality: Perverted

 Soul Extension: Steel Wings

Maledi Concordia

 Age: 14 at death; Birthday: July 11; Hair color: Pink; Eye color: Blue; Skin tone: Pale; Personality: Accommodating

 Soul Extension: Substitute Body

Vortex Blade Vizard

 Age: 28; Birthday: March 11, 1993; Hair color: Brown: Eye color: Red; Skin tone: Fair; Personality: Serious

 Soul Extension: Shadow Blades

Priestess Camera Dolly

 Age: 27; Birthday: August 22, 1994; Hair color: Sky blue; Eye color: Brown; Skin tone: Fairly lighter; Personality: Mischievous

 Soul Extension: Smog Shield

Julie Bear Smarty

 Age: 28; Birthday: July 16, 1992; Hair color: Light blue: Eye color: Black; Skin tone: Fairly darker; Personality: Loquacious

 Soul Extension: Sonic Flare

Soul Extension is invisible to the eyes of an average person.

Only those who worship the Incarnum Religion can be given the Soul Extension powers. However, cases like Gene are exception to this because it was given to him. There are other types of powers given to those who worship this religion and all of which relate to the soul of the person and is mostly given by the Supreme Being of Life. The other powers, however, are for those who have already died.

When a soul’s energy gets absorbed, the soul of the absorbed does not dissolve but is turned into a tiny wisp that would eventually be lured by a grim reaper's light. Grim reapers are Death beings created by the Supreme Being of Death. They play a better role with the souls of the dead rather than with those of the living.

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