The Dream Shifter

Chapter 118

Seiji was breathing heavily hearing his own heart pounding in his head from the teasing he was being dealt. In all of the arguing he had forgotten that he was dealing with a ghost. However, the moment that he saw her lack of feet just floating in front of him it all started to come back to him. He realized that she was semi-transparent and covered in blood, two facts that he had been ignoring. There was nothing blocking his sense straightening everything out in his mind where he could no longer do anything but focus on the fact. "G-Ghost!"

The woman could not help but sigh loudly upon hearing him. "Back to that? Thought we already covered that fact! Yes! Ghost! Can we move on?" She dropped her hands back down to her hips and leaned over to Seiji, however it was more than he could take causing him to speed off. Through the fading dust cloud see watched him disappear out of sight looking insulted. "I didn't mean it literally…"

Half of the shrine was put between them before Seiji was looking at his surroundings. Until that point he did not know what was happening having been almost in a bubble isolated from the world. Seiji slowed down when he finally starting to take things in. "What the hell is going on?!"

Nearly surrounding him was more than twenty creatures of the undead. Seiji had never study the undead or mythology behind it, but he knew they were more than just ghosts. There were some ghosts, but the rest were corporal in form. He even saw a couple of skeletons clattering along looking very lost. However, there did not seem to be any of the patrons around anymore confusing Seiji since it used to be too crowded. Further investigation into the distance and behind him made it clear to him that he seemed to be alone and twenty was a far underestimation of how many undead were on the shrine grounds.

Unfortunately for him, the initial confusion was starting to wear off of him and he realized that he was being flanked by ghosts. These ghosts had a darker aura about them in purple with eyes that seemed to be glowing. Regardless of intent, ghosts were still ghosts and he quickly went into a dumb shock as it looked like his spirit was being set free through his mouth. "…so many…ghosts…" Seiji was checked out.

"Is someone there?" a deep panicked voice called. "Help me!"

Seiji heard the man and came back alive. The call for help had awakened his courage. He sharpened his senses to focus on the sound of the voice. "I'm coming! Hang on!" Seiji tried to keep the man talking to him until he was able to locate him through all of the mess. There were too many undead wandering forcing him to start pushing through him. It was not until he began to make contact with them that they detected his presence. The closest to Seiji shifted their attention to him trying to grab a hold of him at his arms and shoulders. He was strong enough to keep out of their grasp, but they refused to give up. "What's wrong with you?" he shouted realizing that he was gaining even more followers.

The push through had finally revealed a middle aged man lying on the ground with two undead creatures pinning him. There was an unnatural sense that he got from what the two beings were attempting to do to the man. It increased his urgency to reach the man in time. The middle aged man was flailing about the ground trying to get free when one of the creatures pressed its horrifically disfigured face up to the man's own face. A strange white glow started to be emitted from the creature that slowed the man's movements down. 'There's too many of them!'

Seiji stopped caring about trying to avoid or fight of the undead and plowed straight through yelling from his lungs. The noise pulled in even more from the accompanying area trying to drag down Seiji. A fierce glowing fury surrounded Seiji in his charge as he collided through the last few causing the undead to explode to powder. While he was still in motion Seiji transferred his strength into his legs and kicked the creature's head that looked like it was attempting to suck the life from the man. The second undead was immediately drawn away to Seiji only to receive a crushing kick that cleaved vertically down the creature's body until there was only a crumbling mass on either side of the man. "Sir! Sir!" shouted Seiji kneeling down trying to snap him back to reality; unfortunately a weak bony hand on Seiji's neck from behind changed his mind.

"I'm sorry, sir…but there's no other way!" Seiji lifted the man up throwing him over his shoulder and re-ignited his rage to start creating him a path. Running like an enraged bull Seiji was unable to be stopped by the feeble attempts.

Coming around the front of the shrine where the stairs to their house stood it began to clear out some. "Big Brother?!"

Hearing Shoji shout out to him had brought Seiji to a quick halt. "Shoji?! Are you safe?"

"Yeah, Seiji! Come in here!" Shoji motioned to him quickly from the top of the stairs. He seemed to have avoided any harm from the creatures.

Seiji nodded back as he fixed the man trying to slide off his shoulder. When he reached near the top of the stairs there was an electrical feeling that ran through him. It felt warm and inviting rather than painful leaving him a little unsettled. He did not let it stop him until he reached the spot next to his little brother. The moment that Seiji had turned around, to see if he was being followed, a nearly transparent yellow screen with a small opening appeared before him. The hole did not last long as it closed up completing the screen that ran around the entire house perimeter.

"All done!" Shoji exclaimed before jumping up with excitement. "I'm starting to get a hang of it now, Big Brother!" He looked over to Seiji with a proud expression that Seiji could only return with complete confused shocked. "What's wrong?"

"What's going on? That…that thing… You did that, Shoji?"

"Yup! Pretty cool ain't?"

"How? What?" The words coming out of Seiji had to be kept short as he was having difficulty taking it, as opposed to Shoji (who thought it was natural). He had to let the man he was carry down, resting against the outer supports of the house.

"It seems to be keeping those creatures at bay," bellowed their grandfather's voice from the house. Once he had their attention he opened the door the rest of the way, revealing the countless patrons behind him. He stepped out onto the porch that surrounded the house staring at his grandchildren. "I don't understand fully, but it seems Shoji was able to erect a divine barrier using those talismans that he's been throwing around the shrine all morning."

Seiji turned towards their grandfather still unable to accept things. "How is that possible? None of this is possible!" It seemed to be completely beyond imagining, like a dream. He shook his head thinking that he just had to awake up. Then his mind suddenly jerked back to a memory that felt familiar to this situation. 'Yuki?! Is this Yuki's doing? Like before when he did that strange stuff?' Seiji looked around in the house quickly trying to check his theory. He stepped back out catching his family's strange looks. "Either of you see Yuki this morning around here or in the house just before all of this?"

"No," his grandfather said gravely as the name immediately turned his rough mood foul.

"Oh, so this is where you ran off to!" a soft voice said before appearing hanging off Seiji. The ghost woman from Seiji's encounter had returned. She was still grinning widely, enjoying how much Seiji was already being freaked out.

"What are you doing here?!"

"I was so lonely out there when you left me! That was very rude of you!" The woman poked him in the cheek as she pouted to accent her displeasure with his actions.

Seiji grabbed her by the waist to rip her away from him and set her a more comfortable distance apart. She quickly ignored it and floated back up to him. "That's not what I'm asking! How'd you get through the barrier?" He had to stop looking at her to keep his fear from overrunning him again. Seiji turned down to look at Shoji and his grandfather. "I thought you said this kept the undead out!"

She jumped up on his back and leaned in with her face brushing up against the side of his head. There was a playful look in her eyes. "Oh that little thing? I can answer you that, my fearful priest. You see that barrier only wards off spirits with negative emotions or intent. So I can slip on through like it's not there!"

"What?! All you have is negative intent!" snapped back Seiji as he turned to address her finally having enough of her unnerving breathing on his neck.

"The nerve of people!"

Shoji came up behind Seiji and tugged on his sleeve. "Hey Seiji… Who's this pretty lady?"

"Oh my!" the ghost said starting to blush at the compliment. "Seiji you have such a cute little brother!"

Seiji was caught between the two becoming conflicted on who to answer with the woman's responses becoming even more annoying to him. He had to turn back to deal with her first. "Enough from you!"

"Is she your girlfriend, Big Brother?"

The word girlfriend had hit Seiji hard enough to turn him red to blue and eventually purple before returning to red. At his side the woman had let out a loud laugh having more fun than she could have hoped for from the young man. She moved in around the petrified Seiji and wrapped her arms around him looking a little seductive at him. "Oh we're more than just that! We're lovers!" Anything that might have been holding Seiji together was gone as he shattered to pieces with the words echoing in his mind.

"Oh wow!"

"Hey! Wait a damn minute!" Seiji said having instantly reconstituted himself. He glared over at the woman, who was still hanging from his shoulders. "Stop putting weird ideas in my brother's head! We're nothing of the sort!"

"But you felt me up!" insisted the ghost as she got perverse pleasure in watching Seiji blush again. She could see that he was thinking about that moment.

Seiji shook his head getting the image out of his mind. "You grabbed my hand and did it yourself!"

A rumbling cough came from their grandfather as he forced himself into the conversation and interrupted it. "I'll have a talk with you later about this Seiji…"

"Old man!? Not you too!"

"But we have a more important matter at hand." Their grandfather raised his hand out towards the shrine grounds. There was a horde of undead amassing around them only being held back by the barrier from Shoji. "We can't stay here forever, especially with so many people inside. This problem needs to be dealt with first."

The serious of his tone changed the entire mood and straightened up Seiji. It cleared his head putting it to focus. Seiji stepped away from the woman leaving her forgotten behind him. "Leave them to me, old man!" He pounded his hands together to get himself psyched up for the fight that he was going to be heading into. His grandfather approached Seiji from his right giving him a questioning look of concern for his safety, knowing it was pretty much suicide. "Worried about me, old man? I'm touched, but I can't let you go out there with me. Can't have you breaking a hip with your age!"

"Hrmph…"

"Well let's get this party started!" Seiji shouted with a smirk pulling up across his face. "It's been a while since I've had a worthy challenge!"