“Come one come all to the show under the stars~!” A cheering voice let out the ringmaster. She was dressed in colorful garments, a bright red top and black skirt flowed as she moved around energetically. “It’s almost time for the show to begin~” she said enthusiastically. As she pranced around the stands filled, many came to see the show. “Welcome to the Shadow Moon Circus!” she said with a cheer, “My name is Seraphina the ringmaster of this circus… you will see sights never before seen!” Seraphina proudly exclaimed, as she spun her staff and vanished into a puff of smoke vanishing from sight.
“Hello again for our first show we have the one and only, the master puppeteer, the boy who pulls the strings, Cain!” Seraphina’s voice boomed despite her not being present. Another puff of smoke and a young boy was seen, about 15 years of age with long black hair, a black and red top. He was dressed darkly, with heterochromia in his eyes of red and green. A doll was with him, one of similar age but shorter, it was effeminate with a long beautiful black dress and short black hair, she had dark red emotionless eyes. Her long sleeves and dress covering the joints as well as stockings going down her legs, the boy didn’t say a word as he moved his fingers the doll spoke in a regal appropriate tone. “Good evening, I am the doll Grace controlled by the master Cain.” She said, “Please enjoy our performance. My master has practiced hard to perfectly move me to capture your hearts.” Cain remained motionless besides his hands as they moved with incredible speed and precision.
Grace danced around the stage in a beautiful showing, occasionally stopping as they acted out a story through her song and her movement. A story showing a young girl, lost from her family as the show was nearing the climax, Cain finally began moving. Walking and narrating, a tale of the girl finding her new home and as the lights began to dim shining now only on Cain and Grace the she held Cain into the air, “And at last the girl had found her place to belong.” Grace ended her story with a bow as Cain leaped with a flip and landed in a bow, as smoke filled the stage the two vanished their show over.
After their show Cain exhaled a sigh, “What a show tonight huh?” He said, “It was a wonderful display master, the story you wrote I’m sure touched the hearts of many.” Grace responded stoically, she was no mere puppet as she was a true living doll. “Thanks Grace, you did great tonight, you don’t have to call me master you know… not even onstage we’re friends right?” The doll nodded, “If you’d like to consider me a friend, so be it master.” She once again said, “You’re the only human in the circus, I believe it’s only appropriate for a doll to treat you with respect.” Cain sighed at her answer but he knew it was pointless to argue for now. “Yeah yeah… come on let’s watch the rest of the show tonight.” He said, leading her to the flap near the stage so they could view the show from the shadows.
“Cain! Caaaiiiiinnn!!” a voice called as she ran to greet them, it was a black haired girl, a flower in her hair wearing predominately black and dark blue, most interesting about her was the fact she had horns atop her head! “Cain I’m up next watch me ok ok?!” she said brimming with energy, Cain couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, “Remember to hide your horns before you go onstage Elizabeth.” He reminded her, “Yes, proper etiquette and attire is important if we are to continue.” Grace added in. “Ack I almost forgot again haha!” Grace said. Elizabeth nodded, putting a fancy hat atop her head, a tall one that covered her horns entirely. “Ok I’m off I’m gonna put on the best show tonight you’re gonna definitely see right Cain?!” she said as she dashed onto stage.
The rest of the show went off without issue, the monsters of the circus using their abilities in hidden ways to fool the audience into believing they were extraordinary humans! As the show ended Seraphina waved the audience off before closing the tent, “Good work everyone!” she said to them all, “Cain make sure you go to bed soon, you have school tomorrow remember?” She said forcefully, Cain nodded and went off to bed, Grace following close behind him. As he laid in his small bedroom Grace took a spot by the wall, “You know you don’t have to go to bed when I do it’s just cause I’m human.” He said to her as Grace shook her head, “It’s ok Master Seraphina and you created me to be a partner and assistant to you.” Cain once again didn’t like the answer but accepted it as he rolled into bed preparing for the next day. Grace despite not needing sleep would rest as well in the corner of the room.
The next day Cain was woken up by the loud banging of a drum, “Rise and shine Cain! It’s time for school!” Seraphina was there banging a loud drum to wake Cain up as he groaned and rolled out too exhausted but having no choice but to comply. “Grace will take care of your room like usual. Come on, let's go!” she said, Cain nodded and got up doing his usual daily routine of basic hygiene before putting his uniform on and stepping out to meet the ringmaster. As he and Seraphina set off to his school, Elizabeth as usual came in charging, “Cain! Can I come with you today?! Can I, Caaaaaaaaaan I!?!?!” she begged eagerly. Cain gave her a small look and shook his head, “Sorry Elizabeth demons can’t come to school… sorry.” Seraphina chuckled and patted her head, “Maybe when you can better hide those demon horns and traits of yours you can attend too ok?” Elizabeth nodded and charged off though she would be back tomorrow to once again beg to go.
“Remember Cain, humans can not learn the secret of our circus.” Seraphina said as she walked the boy down to school, “Doing such could get us in incredible trouble.” Cain agreed, “I know Ringmaster… Don’t worry I won’t mention it. Almost no one at school talks to me anyways…” he said the last part quietly. Yes, almost no one, as a white haired girl with glasses and blue eyes sprinted as fast as she could to meet them on the way, “CAIN! MISS SERAPHINA WAIT FOR ME!” she said, Seraphina gave a warm smile as the girl ran to the pair. “Heheh Cain let’s walk to school together!” She said with an enthusiastic smile, before Cain could even react Seraphina pushed him towards her, “That’s wonderful Lala you both have a good day now.” Seraphina said as she turned and walked away
Lala, in the same class as Cain, was his only real human friend; she was kind and energetic, the two were childhood friends as Lala often visited the circus. “Weeeehh I missed last night’s show how was it?! Did you go on?!” She asked quickly. Cain quietly responded, “Yeah I was on last night….” Lala bounced excitedly “I bet you were great sorry I didn’t get it I was really busy last night!”
“Busy?” Cain asked, confused.
“I finally did it!” Lala boasted, holding up a small card, “I’m officially a member of the Spirits and Monster Commission!” she exclaimed.
“Huh? You did a nice job.” Cain said with a small smile.
“Mhm mhm! I had to meet my new team and register my Eidolon first so they had me alllll night I barely got any sleep last night…” she said with a sigh “But it’s all worth it! You really didn’t wanna join me though?! We’d be an awesome team!” She said with a big grin. “I don’t have an Eidolon remember so I can’t.” Cain reminded her but Lala simply laughed “Aww come on, any human can awaken an Eidolon we just gotta do some training!”
“That training never works for me Lala. It's fine, I'm happy at the circus.” he said bluntly.
“Aww, Ok but if you change your mind and wanna join me for the training just let me know!”
Cain chuckled under his breath, Lala was sure energetic but he knew it’d be fruitless. While in theory any human could awaken an eidolon Cain for some reason couldn’t he didn’t know why. Lala simply assumes it simply hasn’t manifested yet but the true reason remains a mystery to both the children.
As the two walked Cain’s eyes glanced into a nearby bush he noticed something hiding amongst the leafage. Small but menacing red eyes peering out, it must be a monster of some kind. Cain kept note of it as they continued, acting as if he saw nothing, “Spirit attacks have been on the rise lately, they had me at the commission so long because another person had shadow poisoning…” Lala complained and rambled, she was a talkative one, though Cain rarely responded he listened to her and let her speak. “You should be careful too! You know too much shadow energy is dangerous for humans. I'd hate to see you get shadow poisoning!” Lala continued. Cain nonchalantly responded, “I should say that to you you’re the one who’s gonna start monster hunting with the commission right?” Lala giggled in response knowing she didn’t have a rebuttal to that.
As the two approached the school Cain went through his day feeling uneasy, he knew now he had something to do after school. The day went by mostly uneventfully, Lala was the only student who even acknowledged Cain so he didn’t have to worry about too many questions or problems when it came to monster stuff. Eventually after a day of learning the final bell rang, and the students were released as Cain was quick to run out Lala stopped him, “Cain let’s walk home together!” She said excitedly, with big eyes, it was hard to deny her.
“I uh…” Cain said nervously, “I can’t tonight sorry Lala…”
Lala frowned a little but nodded acceptingly, “Awww… ok we can tomorrow at least!” She said, bouncing back with her usual optimism.
“Yeah tomorrow for sure I just got some errands to run for the ringmaster tonight.” Cain said, thinking up a quick excuse.
“Oooh I get it! Ok Good luck with those!” Lala said waving her friend off and running off in her own direction, now that he was truly alone again Cain’s expression became serious and he walked to that bush, waiting until dark.
As the moon rose lighting the streets below Cain would finally see it, purple flames emerging from the bush, a small figure stepping out burning. Its true shape was hard to make out as it seemed to be a bubble of purple fire. “A fire spirit huh? Guess I gotta handle this.” Cain said, removing a small hammer from his pocket and twirling it in his hand. The flaming spirit cackled with a booming tone, “A human? You have to handle this but you’re a mere human?! KAKAKAKAKA!” Its laugh rumbled as the figure grew in size to a mighty 15 feet tall. Now towering over Cain illuminating him in a purple light, Cain was not deterred in the slightest. He took a small knife from his other pocket as a purple aura radiated off him, the spirit boomed again this time with an angry tone. “A human?! Manipulating shadow energy?! Impossible! You should be dead, a human like you making a mockery of the power of monsters!” It said unleashing a deadly stream of purple fire directly towards cain.
Effortlessly Cain backflipped as he took his hammer and knife, purple energy flowed into his hammer as he hit his knife with it. “Yeah I’m human alright, but it’s not smart to underestimate us, humans can be more crafty than you think.” Cain taunted, his usual stoic demeanor replaced with a serious look as he slammed his hammer into the knife again slowly it grew, taking on a new shape as Cain returned his hammer to his pocket.
“Shadow Forge, Greatsword.” The once small pocket knife was now a large greatsword, with skulls adorning the blade and a purple handle of Obsidian, the blade itself forged purple, sharp to the touch and bursting with shadow energy. “I may not have an eidolon like other humans but I still got this.” He said with a smirk, looking at the spirit. “What do you plan to do in this realm, your answer will decide your fate.” he said as the spirit continued to grow it’s fire becoming brighter, the shade of purple changing from the dark midnight shade to a bright saturated booming purple.
“YOU THREATEN ME FOOLISH BOY?! A SPIRIT OF FLAME OF DESTRUCTION!?” the spirit’s voice boomed, “I WILL SMITE THEE AND I WILL SMITE MORE HUMANS. I WILL FEAST ON YOUR PATHETIC SOULS.” it said flinging a series of fireballs at Cain. The fireballs had little effect, Cain simply swung his new greatsword and they quickly petered out. “Wow, some spirit you are.” He taunted, “You want to smite us pathetic humans but you can’t even land a hit on a simple child?!” he said with a laugh.
The spirit rumbled more, now frantically firing its attacks yet like a dance Cain dodged them, gracefully weaving just to continue the irritation he gave to the evil spirit. “You really disappoint me, I was expecting something more.” Cain said finally taking initiative, leaping through the fires he ran his blade through the spirit, however it merely cackled “You foolish child! I’m a being of fire, I’m intangible!” Cain’s sudden wave of confidence stopped, of course…. You can’t simply cut fire. Many thoughts ran through his head as his blade slowly shrank back to its normal pocket knife size. “Foolish foolish child…” the spirit laughed, “Your recklessness is your downfall! I don’t care how you were able to use shadow energy but it’s no matter if you perish now!”
Cain backed away looking terrified until suddenly he smirked again and shook his head, “How naive you are huh?” Before the spirit could respond it suddenly started to shake violently. “What the?! What did you do?!” Cain took his hammer out and tossed it with a stylish catch. “What did I do? Simple really, I just filled you with my own shadow energy. After all, overloading a formless spirit….” Before Cain could finish his explanation the spirit grew and grew, “Stop! You foolish child!! Undo this! Undo it now!” Cain shook his head as the spirit grew “Return back to the depths where you came from, and don’t bother the human realm again,” he taunted as the spirit exploded into a mighty show of purple. Like fireworks in the sky before it fizzled out, “I don’t think he’ll be back for a bit…” Cain said with a laugh, as he turned to walk Lala suddenly appeared with a rare serious expression on her face next to her, a small figure was floating, a knight shaped figure holding a lance with white armor and beautiful wings behind it.
Cain gulped he had hoped she’d not seen his shadow energy after all, only monsters and spirits could manipulate that kind of energy, however Lala seemed to have other plans.
“Cain?! What are you doing here?!” she said, looking around in a panic.
“Lala?! And you have Valkyrie out!?” Cain said confused looking around
“I got reports of a sudden spike of shadow energy here! Likely a low level spirit, but still it’d be really dangerous to normal people my first mission was to dispatch it! Have you seen it?!” she questioned looking around, “ahh it’s too dangerous for you here! Hurry up and head home, I'll handle it!”
Cain couldn’t help but smile seeing his friend so passionate, the spirit was detected by the commission? That could make my work hard, Cain thought to himself but nonetheless he nodded. “Got it, sorry Lala I’ll head home now, good luck with your work!” He said waving her off, “Have a good night, tell Ringmaster Seraphina I said hi ok!” Lala said, waving her friend off before looking serious again as Cain left Lala walked around the area. “Shadow energy residue…” she said kneeling down by a small purple aura left on the ground. “The reading we got doesn’t match this… there’s another monster hidden around…” she said looking at Cain as he walked off. “Nah there’s no way it’s him!” Lala said walking around some more, as she walked she heard a twig snap, her eyes widened. “What was that?!” she said looking around, a shadowy figure was watching her, before suddenly vanishing. It was a figure taller than her, taller than even the adults she knew, she gulped as she walked forward and knelt where it had originally been at. “This… this isn’t normal shadow energy….” Lala said nervously. “There’s also been reports of both monsters and people disappearing all over the city…” Lala thought to herself, “Cain is a suspect…” she said sadly, “because he was here when that signal vanished, there’s no way it could be him right! Mmmmm I’ll get to the bottom of this…” Lala said with determination, “There’s something dangerous going on… I’m a new recruit but.” she said looking out at the park now with a warm smile on her face, “This is the city I grew up in… I won’t let any evil things hurt it any more!” With that Lala stood with her Eidolon floating close by, “Valkyrie… Eidolon of Light…” she said quietly looking out over the field. “A mysterious figure… hiding in the shadows it could be any spirit, or even a new undiscovered kind.” She said with a gulp, “And the fact even higher level monsters are vanishing… what mess is going on…” she said, sitting down and writing some notes. “I’ll send my report back to HQ, this may be bigger than us…” Lala said softly “that figure… was it actually Cain… or was it hunting for him next…” Seraphina shuddered at the thought and clenched her fists. “If that monster is after my friend… I can’t let it roam around any more!”
As Cain returned home he noticed Seraphina with a more worried expression on her face as she was checking something, “What’s wrong Ringmaster?” Cain asked with notable concern, Seraphina almost never seemed to have a care in the world. “Some of our performers have gone missing since you’ve been gone today…” she said quietly, shaking with rage. “There’s a deadly monster in town, and it’s abducting monsters…” Seraphina said as her voice boomed, dark wings forming on her back. “Ringmaster!” Cain exclaimed, quickly Seraphina took a deep breath as her wings faded and voice returned to normal. “Sorry… I don’t know what got into me.” Cain gave a reassuring smile to her, “It’s ok Ringmaster, but what are you planning to do?” Seraphina shook her head. “I don’t know yet… but I promise this. Whoever took our members… will learn hell is not the worst fate for something.” She said with a sly smile, her own monster side showing at last. Cain shuddered and returned to his room, worried about this new threat… What deadly monster could be lurking out there? Cain crossed his arms thinking about it. Tomorrow it seemed he would have some investigating to do.
