《Holders》006: Trepidations(1)
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The warmth of the morning daylight casted off the dusk, thus another new day arrived at the busy streets of Tokyo. Indeed another day for Rine to start.
"Ugh... Five more minutes..."
Cuddling pillows on his bed, Rine couldn't help dippin himself into another nap, as yesterday is the first time he had such a tiring day.
Soon, he rose up from the bed, arranged the sheets and went down for a breakfast.
He opened the fridge while thinking of a good meal to start his day.
"Hm... Eggs, Cereals, Leftover curry... What else..."
He then checked the upper body of the fridge and saw only frozen hotdogs to be eaten.
"Aw Fine. I guess I will end up, cooking sunny side up eggs again." he sighed dejectedly then took a pair of eggs from the shelf.
He proceed to the kitchen, Taking a frying pan and heated it up on the stove, applying some cooking oil and then put down the eggs afterwards. Therefore, he started cooking one of the most basic breakfasts to make, but the result doesn't look like it was easy for him at all.
"No- Argh!!! The yolk popped off!"
Inspite his gentle, know it all look, he had a huge weakness in terms of serving food in a proper, organized way. Though the taste was unseemingly delicious, rather than an average morning meal.
Still looking displeased, he had no choice but to ingest and savor the food he made for himself, even though it's lousy appearance.
Later on, nothing left on the plate, thus he cleaned out the area, just like the normal weekends he has. Moreover, he also did watered-down the backyard garden's plants, took a time in shower, and partially cleaned the house before his departure for work. He even feed stray birds passing by his household and what's more? The birds became fond of him and started coming here frequently. Such a pleasant guy, you could say...
Soon as he finished all of the tasks, a call came up from his smartphone, thus blared from the second floor.
Rine immediately went upstairs, receiving an anonymous number calling his.
Doubtless on its odds, He accepted the call, and so a elderly voice emerged...
"Rine! It is been a while since I called you."
The tone of his voice seems familiar from Rine's perspective.
"Wait... Grandpa!?"
A snap from his fingers could be heard from the other side, confirming his relationship with Rine.
"That's right! You sure remember this old man's voice huh..." gjested the old man.
"The other number of my phone was suddenly block last month, so I haven't called you for days. But How are you doing anyway? Are you eating regularly, Do you have enough sleep?"
Rine chuckled. "Grandpa. I'm already sixteen you know. You don't have to worry that much for me."
"Oh. That's great! It looks like you are now a well grown gentleman. Grandpa is so proud of you, my child." chuckled the old man
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"Ah- Grandpa. Stop flattering me like that! I told you I am not a kid anymore."
"Hahaha! Sorry, Sorry. It is just fun to see your reactions whenever I tease you from things."
Soon, a sudden interruption came up from the lines which hindered their talk. The communication system started to became static, thus going back again for an endless cycle.
"Oh God. It seems the connections were going down. Well anyways, I should get going now. Take care my grandchild!"
"Wait---"
Thus the call hung up.
"Ugh. Grandpa is such a worrywart." uttered Rine to himself, putting the phone on the cushion.
Kenichi Ishida, his beloved grandfather, was the one who took Rine from custody after the horrifying event happened. Though, the incident almost ruined Rine himself, the old man did not give up and happened to eradicate the extreme depression from the little boy. He then, took him home, taught him how to fight, thus raised Rine as a well grown man. Kenichi is well aware of his mystic powers, since he was also a Holder himself, but nonetheless of that fact, he never showed it to the young man until the present time.
Right now, he stayed living in the mountains by the seashore, which technology has its limits and the most possible reason why they had an interruption. It happens, always happens.
.....
"Hah! Alright. Time to go!"
Well going back on track , Rine had himself ready for his upcoming departure, out from his part time job. He already finished several preparations, thus proceed to the plaza.
Humming on the sidewalks, the bright daylight shone upon the sky, together with the gentle wafts of wind hitting Rine's skin while on his way. The streets barely has a number of passersby, not until reaching the road crossing, which gathered a lot of people in the area.
Suddenly, he had encountered a group of girls on the way and overheard the talk about their peers.
One of the girls pull his smartphone, thus faced the screen to her company. "Hey Hey, Look at this! Isn't he cute?"
On the screen, a pretty boy with an eyepatch on his left eye were showed up. The picture exposed his overwhelming appearance while hanging a black jacket under his arm.
"Whoa. Who is he? Is that your boyfriend" ask the girl of the left, wearing a white blouse.
"Nope. I happened to see him on my window last night. He was making such a good pose on the roof from the other house while gazing at the sky, so I took a single snap of it."
Just by what he heard, the said guy doesn't seem to be a local, since Climbing up on roofs of houses is an unusual thing for someone to do so.
Though later on, the road splits again, separating Rine from the group, thus progress to head at the bookstore where he works at weekends.
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A few more meters, more steps, and he soon arrived at the designated area.
Rine began stretching his arms up on the air. [ Ahh~ Finally.]
But a feeling of somewhat absence lingered the place...
Gently opened the door, Rine entered the bookstore then waved his hands on the workers. Their expression seems dull today, as if something unpleasant happened while he was gone.
Rine asked one of his co-workers, Shinji, whose putting back the supply books on the shelves.
"It doesn't look like you had a good morning."
Shinji's focus shifted to Rine all of a sudden.
"Well yeah. The customers became timid today. Just a number of them came in, third of the customers last week."
"Eh? Is something happened?" asked the clueless boy.
"Shinji did not respond, thus let Rine pass by towards the shelves.
To the counter by the left lies the employee room which only them could enter out to do some things regarding the their workplace.
As he opens the door, another two of his mates, Kenji and Shizuka were standing beside the room. They were chatting about various concerns which Rine overheard while passing by.
"Hey Ken. Didn't a fireworks display at The other side of the plaza broke up last night?" asked Shizuka as she touches her chin.
"Uh... Yeah. What about it?"
"Didn't you watched the news? The media broadcasted a video of the fireworks, and after it popped, the flames stopped mid air."
"The what!? How could that happen?" Kenji's shocked reaction while reforming himself after he nearly spilled his coffee.
"It's true. If you could've just watched the news last night, I'm sure it'll be jaw dropping."
"But its oddly creepy though. The flames are still present."
And their conversation progressed, leaving Rine unnoticed on the other side of the room. He heard everything, thus the same thing made a huge question mark hanging into his thoughts.
"Hm...That's bizarre..."
Even he wanted to investigate more of its matter, he don't have any choice but go on, as his shift starts at any minute.
Still intruiged, he started his preparations, hence threw himself at the counter.
"Alright. Let's get back to work..."
As he faced back to the outside, and so customers started going by the store.
And so the time flies by, they kept their numbers the at Homeostasis, Just like Shinji said a while ago.
Rine released a deep sigh. "Seems Shinji was right. The customers weren't plenty today."
The count of customers going by the store was essential to their service, since their pay will be measure around the shop's sales. But as the numbers were down, a worse outcome could come up for today.
Hours and hours have passed and their shift will conclude at any minute now, but their income still haven't reached the peak of their expectations. Shinji continued to restock the shelves while the other two back in the room started to give a helping hand on him. But even if they dry themselves out from work, no one will ever come if they have no interest in these merchandise.
And so another hour gusted in the plaza, leaving them unvisited despite the massive crowd just outside the door.
"Ugh... That damn fireworks stole out customers today. Most of them were our regular customers, but they refuse to give a visit and just swarming around." sulked Shinji as he leans on the walls and stared outside."
Suddenly, a certain thought caught the attention of Rine.
"Fireworks?"
"Yup. Perhaps you do not know, another mall opened up last night and they held a fireworks display at the same time. But it is strange that the sparks did not vanished after the show, thus hung up the sky until now."
"Well, no one knows how did it got there, but it must be a -------"
Shinji was about to finish his explanations, but Rine felt an unexpected spike of aura coming through, that even him couldn't comprehend.
The whole atmosphere changed. Everything was muted from his ears. The movements of people progressed, but the loud uproar turned into utter silence.
Everything became black and white... And all he could hear is an emerging impulse toward his direction.
"What is this trepidation I feel...?"
A feeling of dread hits deeply through his heart. Something is resonating with him outside the doors of the shop with an immense amount of power, which leading him in this poor state.
Though he could hardly calm himself down, he suppressed the presence overwhelming fear inside, hence went outside, hardly bearing this unexplainable feeling.
The pressure goes stronger and stronger as he take a step toward the ominous phenomena. And in the thickness of the crowd, a person resonated to his dilemma. Of all the people around but him, the one whom is leaning on a car while flipping cards onto his left hand
A man in a dark camiseta, covered with a brown, non-hooded jacket step forward onto the numbers of people. He touched his average beard, thus dropped the card on the pocket of his jeans as the wind tris to carry the cowboy hat he is wearing. None of them, but only the strange adult guy reacted to his thoughts.
His black shoes gently slams the road as he grow nearer from Rine, hence his heartbeat throbs crazily after another step, as if it will burst at any moment.
Then the man grinned. "Such a beautiful scenery eh?"
Rine hardly spoke from trembling. "You... W-Who are you..."
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