Mark ruffled his hair with his hand. His hands glided between strands of his jet black hair effortlessly, parting them to the left, and then to the right. 

Mark stared at himself in the mirror, tweaking with his hair.

“You look the same you know…” Vince commented. He was laying down on his bed, squinting at Mark.

Mark ignored Vince and slicked his hair up, letting it fall down naturally. He decided that the natural way would be the best. 

He took a deep breath and gave himself a final check in the mirror. 

He was not in the exorcist uniform. He was in his old High School attire. Today was one of the days where he had to go back to his High School. 

For some reason, it was extra nerve wrecking for Mark. He hadn’t been to school since that day he was attacked. 

He checked his phone. It was 28 February, a Monday. Two days had passed since the incident in the Nan Ching District. 

Ozai was still recovering in the medical ward and Khan was busier than ever, drafting reports on the incident. In fact, over the weekend, he had barely seen Khan, Shen nor Daiyu. They were mostly left to roam free around the building and do their own training. He and the other trainees had visited Ozai a few times in the medical ward but he was still unconscious. Khan told them that the Dispossession and failed Convergence took a huge toll on Ozai’s soul but he would recover with time.

“Mark, we gotta go!” Mai’s voice could be heard from outside the room.

The sliding door slid open with a wham. Mai stood outside in the same High School uniform as Mark. Her skirt had been obviously altered to a length that would make most parents disapprove. 

“Yeah…. Okay, let’s go..” Mark said in an unenthusiastic voice as he slumped his bag over his shoulder and walked out of the room, waving to Vince as he exited.

Mark didn’t know that Mai was studying in the same school as him. Well, he didn’t know most people in school anyways. 

He wondered what people would be thinking if they saw both him and Mai showing up at school together. He shook his head at the thought.

People don’t pay that much attention to me so nothing should change…. But….

Mark turned to look at Mai. Mai wasn’t someone you would call low-key. Especially with her silver hair. With a hair colour like that, they would definitely draw more than a few stares. Looking at Mai closely, Mark started to realise that she was actually rather cute. She had round eyes, naturally long eyelashes, and a sculpted nose with soft curves that didn’t distract from her eyes. She wore a navy blue choker around her neck, which added a bit of flair to her otherwise normal school attire. Mai was not wearing her contacts today, leaving her eye colour a natural brown, which Mark actually preferred.

“You know… don’t you think you stand out too much? Why haven’t I seen you before in school?” Mark asked. 

“What do you mean? They took me in once my hair colour changed, you forgot?” Mai replied as they walked out of the tori gate. 

Their surroundings warped and they were back in the SAIB building. They were used to this by now, having spent three days here.

“No, I meant, before your hair changed… Like, your looks stand out even without your hair colour…” Mark said bluntly.

Mai paused for a moment, trying to process what Mark was trying to say. She blushed slightly, her eyes briefly avoiding eye contact before looking back at Mark and smiling.

“Awww…did you just compliment me? You’re saying I look pretty right? Thanks!” Mai giggled as she teased Mark, nudging him on the shoulder.

Mark ruffled the back of his head and rolled his eyes. To Mark, he was simply saying what he thought was true. He didn’t mean to flatter Mai in any way. 

“You know what I mean… I just thought you would be more popular. Just looks by the way, not based on personality.” Mark nonchalantly said.

“Hey what? Take that back!” Mai nudged Mark in the ribs. 

Mark winced. Mai was actually pretty physically strong.

Mai’s frame didn’t show it, she wasn’t overly bulky nor did she have obvious muscles like Cadence. But she wasn’t skinny either. 

Mark didn’t want to admit it, but he was the one that got beat up first when they sparred with Cadence.

“Woah, how are you so strong?” Mark rubbed his ribs as he complained. 

“Hehehe! I guess my hard work in the gym is paying off!” Mai winked and flexed her arm.

“I want to be like Cadence one day! She’s sooo amazing…” Mai continued, squeezing her cheeks. 

Mark simply ignored her and walked faster.

“Weirdo…” Mark smiled as he made sure to say that out loud.

“Hey!” Mai exclaimed and chased after Mark.

The pair reached the train station shortly after. 

To get to school from the SAIB, they had to take a 30 minute train ride, followed by a 10 minute walk. Mark checked his phone, it was already 7:15AM. School starts at 8 so they would be able to make it on time but just barely.

“Hey, I need to tell you something…” Mai spoke in a softer, more serious tone.

“I’m sorry about that… You’re popular okay!” Mark instinctively blurted out, covering his sides as he prepared for another attack. 

“I’m serious now! And I’m not popular! I’ve got friends in school but not that much…” Mai averted her gaze as she spoke. 

Mark glanced at her, not used to seeing Mai so vulnerable. 

“Okay… okay… why are you so serious now?” Mark enquired seriously.

“Just let me explain, dummy!” Mai nudged Mark again

“You see, I’ve always grown up around my grandma, so I’ve sort of always been a grandma’s kid. I never hung out with friends after school because I wanted to go back to spend time with her…” Mai spoke.

Mark steadied himself, preparing himself to listen to Mai’s story.

“Oh… it’s not like you think! My grandma’s actually capable of taking care of herself! She’s actually working as a Wing Chun instructor at a dojo!” Mai pulled out her phone to show Mark a picture of her grandma.

Her grandma was in a proper Wing Chun uniform, holding a peace sign as she posed for the camera, the opponent she was sparring with lying on the floor.

“Uh.. I see… what about your parents?” Mark was taken aback slightly. 

“Oh, they’re fine too… they sort of decided to travel the world while I was young.” Mai showed Mark another picture, this time of her parents climbing Mount Everest. 

“Oh…”

“Anyways, you see, my family sort of has this free spirited energy running through them. They always had the need to go out and be adventurous. But I didn’t really get that. As long as I was at home spending time with family, I was okay. As a result, I wasn’t very sociable as a kid. I would often spend my days at the dojo with my grandma. Most people at the dojo were never my age. They were either really young, or really old. But I made friends there, even better than the ones at school.” 

“You see, I found it hard to talk to people my age. Most youths keep talking about the same old things that don’t matter to them or me. Kids and the elderly… they don’t really care about any of that. They say what they really think and feel. And since I’ve grown up around that, I couldn’t get used to talking to others about stuff that wasn’t… honest…” Mai paused for a bit, wondering if she said too much.

“Hahaha, sorry for rambling… but yeah, that’s how I feel. And I don’t really mind it. After all, you really only need a few friends!” Mai smiled at Mark.

Mark didn’t really know what to say. He wasn’t used to talking to people like Mai. the type that was overly honest about their feelings and didn’t mind saying what was on their mind. 

“Just a few friends huh…” Mark repeated what Mai had said. 

“Look, I’m telling you this because…” Mai continued.

“While you may not have seen me before… I’ve actually seen you. Um…You were a pretty big deal you know? About that girl and her death… ” Mai spoke slowly, like she was treading on dangerous ground. 

“You see… I heard the rumours about you. People were saying: ‘stay away from that guy!’ Of course, when you hear stuff like that, you get curious. Then, I saw you in the library once….”

Mark raised an eyebrow.

“I had this problem with my sleep you see, so I’d try to catch some in the library since it’s mostly empty and quiet. That one day you were reading a book, all alone in a corner. I recognised you and I watched you for a bit. But not in a creepy way okay! You were reading but then you stopped and put the book down suddenly and just stared into space. I saw your eyes and they reminded me of mine. You just had those sleepless, tired eyes that looked so alone….” Mai paused as she looked at Mark.

“What are you trying to say?” Mark asked, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Though this period of his life was only a few weeks back, he was trying his best to distance himself from it. Having the topic being brought up again felt like poking at an open wound.

“What I’m saying is… I opened up to you because we’re friends now… You don’t have to go through everything alone okay? You’ve got at least one friend in school now. I just thought you needed to hear that.” Mai said, her usual playful manner was gone and instead replaced with a mature vibe.

“So this is what happens when you hang out with old people all the time… you give off that older sister energy now…” Mark smiled and teased Mai.

“But thanks… I really appreciate it.” Mark smiled sincerely. 

“Looks like mister gloom and doom finally smiled.” Mai beamed. 

…

The pair reached the school gates on time, with 10 minutes to spare. 

[ROYAL HIGH] 

The words on the school gates were bold and in upper case letters. 

Mark felt a strange trepidation in his chest. Simply seeing those words brought back terrible memories. 

Mai nudged Mark and drew an imaginary smiley face in the air. 

Mark took a deep breath and exhaled. 

This would be a new start for him. 

Mark and Mai separated to go to different classes. 

Mark went to his classroom on the fifth floor.

As he walked through the hallways, he could feel the gazes of people and hear the murmurs of people around him.

“Hey, he’s back?”

“Ehhh, no way… I thought he killed himself…”

“Did you hear? Some people say he went back to the suicide spot… what a creep…” 

Mark lowered his head and walked past them. 

I almost forgot this feeling.

Mark slowly opened the doors to his classroom.

The classroom which was bustling with activity before, slowly started to quieten down as more and more people took notice of Mark.

Mark slowly made his way to his usual table. It was all the way at the back of the class, nearest to the back door. 

A fellow classmate was sitting on top of his table, talking to another classmate.

“Um, sorry,” Mark spoke, avoiding eye contact. 

“Oh, right, you’re back…” The boy said, hopping off Mark’s table. 

Mark plopped his stuff down and sat in his spot. The first thing he noticed was that his table had changed. Someone had swapped it with a defective one. This table was one of those tables that had two legs that were shorter than the others, causing it to wobble. 

Well, I guess that’s not the worst that could happen.

Mark settled down and prepared for the next class.

The classroom was filled with an awkward silence before slowly, people started to talk to each other again.

Mark heaved a small sigh of relief. It was a rocky start but it wasn’t as bad as he made it out to be.

“Hey… was it true, did you really go back to the suicide spot?” A voice asked Mark.

The classroom fell silent once again.

Mark looked up, the voice came from a girl. Mark recognised her as one of the girls who constantly picked on Ruby.

She had auburn hair and an oval face. Her ears donned shiny diamond-shaped earrings and she wore several bangles on her wrist. Her features were otherwise average and she would not have stood out so much if not for her accessories. 

However, Mark wasn’t so interested in her features. He noticed a faint distortion in the air around her, like light being refracted differently. Mark felt a strange familiar feeling creep up within him. 

Is this… spiritual energy?

“Um… why are you staring at me? I asked you a question…Hello?” The girl continued to probe.

But Mark wasn’t interested. He focused and concentrated on the invisible ‘lines’ around the girl. Slowly, he began to make out a faint aura surrounding her. The longer he concentrated, the more defined the aura became. It was a greenish sort of shadow that surrounded the girl. 

This girl… she’s surrounded by spiritual energy…

The shadow bundled together and appeared to be floating above the girl with the auburn hair. Upon Mark noticing, it began to morph and transform into a little floating gremlin-like creature. It had large eyes and a long crooked nose.  It’s skin was a pale green and it gave Mark a sly, crooked smile, revealing its sharp, stained teeth. Like how Mark was made aware of the spirit’s existence, the spirit reacted like he was made aware of Mark’s ability.

“Woah..” Mark uttered unwittingly. 

“Hey Sabrina… just drop it.” The guy sitting next to Mark spoke in a low voice, breaking the silence. Mark turned and saw that it was Jackie, the class president. 

“Whatever, silence is an answer in itself… creep.”  The girl muttered the last part quietly but Mark could hear it. 

The class largely took it as a sign to continue in their own little bubbles of conversation again. 

“Um.. Thanks.” Mark said, looking at Jackie. 

Jackie was a big-sized dude. He was naturally big-boned and had an immense presence. He had a large button nose and a tan face with eyes that always portrayed a sense of seriousness. He played for the school’s rugby team and has been consistently the team’s top athlete. With these facts, people were naturally intimidated by Jackie, but people very quickly found out that Jackie was in reality, a gentle giant. He generally kept to himself and never bothered anyone.

“Don’t mention it.” Jackie nodded and returned to his book. 

“Hey… did you notice anything weird about Sabrina? Like did you see anything around her just now?” Mark asked, he had to make sure.

“Umm… no?” Jackie replied, raising an eyebrow like he was asked some sort of insane question.

“Ah… haha nevermind then.” Mark brushed it off. 

So that really was a spirit.

Mark knew that man-made spirits could be formed by the emotions and thoughts of humans. This was the first time seeing one in a setting like this. A setting he was so used to. 

He looked out of his classroom and into the hallway. He began to see them. Small traces of energy, whizzing about, floating. Some latched onto students, others were just floating in the air. Most of them were faint and negligible, but others were starting to gather into small pools of energy. Mark could feel the energy and the rough intentions and emotions behind them.

‘Man… I hate school… this sucks…’

‘I can’t wait to see that cute senior again…’

‘Shit, shit, shit…. I’m gonna fail my classes!’

‘...He broke up with me…’

I guess this is what school has always really looked like… I might never get used to this…

Mark turned his attention back to Sabrina. The aura around her still lingered, and the gremlin spirit remained floating above her head. Mark could see it clear as day now. 

Compared to the rest of the energy around the school, Sabrina’s was the most potent by far. Something was going on. Sabrina had somehow manifested enough negative emotions to spawn a full spirit. 

That’s probably not good…

Mark could feel the negative spiritual energy emanating from Sabrina. This was almost like the time back in the carpark. 

Should I do something? I need to figure out how I can exorcise that thing…

With these thoughts, Mark glanced at the prayer bead bracelet on his wrist. Mark and the others had managed to exorcise a few unique spirits with Cadence the day before. He noticed that some of the prayer beads had started to change colour from black to a brownish turtle shell hue that seemed to glow under the light.

If I remember correctly, the entire bracelet will change colour once I reach 108 unique spirits. I’d say I’m at around four now…

Mark turned his attention to the gremlin spirit. 

Five, if I do this right.

With that, the day of classes carried on.

…

“Hey, Sabrina…” Mark called out to her once the break started.

The class was bustling, different groups going off to buy lunch.

Sabrina and her group of friends were about to leave and didn’t seem to hear Mark. Mark followed them out to the corridors.

“Um.. Hey Sabrina!” Mark raised his voice.

Sabrina turned around and immediately her expression soured.

Mark felt a wave of negative energy flow past him. 

“We need to talk about something…” Mark realised he had no idea how to approach the topic, there was no way Sabrina would talk to him about the negative thoughts that she was having that created that spirit. 

“Umm, I don't think there’s any need for that…” Sabrina uttered that line and quickly scurried off.

“This is going to be so much harder than I thought…” Mark muttered to himself.

“What’s going to be?” Mai’s voice startled Mark.

“Holy shi- it’s you…”

“Hey! You should be happier to see me. I came to eat lunch with you, you know…” Mai’s voice trailed, she was pouting. 

Mark didn’t care and just kept staring off at Sabrina.

Mai followed Mark’s line of sight and noticed it.

“You see that?” Mark asked.

“Holy moly… is that a spirit?”

“Yeah…”

“We… we should exorcise it right? That’s what we’re gonna do right?” Mai asked, eagerness in her voice.

“Yeah… but we need to approach this carefully… she’s one of the girls that bullied Ruby… she asked me about me going back to the suicide spot earlier in class… there’s definitely something up with her and Ruby’s death…” 

“Hmm…” Mai stroked her chin, genuinely thinking hard. 

Mark thought about the time at the carpark and how the spirit could remanifest itself if it had a tether. He knew they had to do this right, if not, things could spiral out of control and more people would get hurt.

“We might need to ask Shen-sensei when we get back…” Mark commented as both him and Mai kept their eye on the ominous being floating above Sabrina’s shoulders.

SAIB HQ

“Unfortunately, Shen-sensei and Khan-sensei won’t be in for the week. They’re currently busy resolving the latest crisis that has sprung up…” Kali announced, arms akimbo. She stood in front of the remaining year 1 trainees in the dojo. 

“Therefore… We have been instructed to stand in as substitutes.” Haru continued, he had his arms crossed. He had cut his hair and wore a renewed expression on his face. It was as if he had already moved past the sombre events of the previous days, or was at least trying to.

Vince and Hannah stood there slightly cautious at Haru’s new demeanour.

“As you know, we’ve had a pretty unexpected start to your training. And personally, after losing my brother, having to revisit the Nan Ching Massacre… I need to let off steam.”  Haru spoke nonchalantly as he began to stretch his limbs.

“So… let’s train fucking hard.” A smirk broke across Haru’s face, a sinister look now replacing his previous expression.