Rays of Sunshine Chapter 2: The Intruder

Aidan thrived off of peace and quiet.

He enjoyed playing mediocre indie games on his computer late at night with a cup of decaf coffee by his side. That was calm.

He enjoyed cooking to a small degree. Sure, he couldn't do it often, since he didn't have friends over all that often- that was to say never. But most importantly, it was calm.

Having Link kicking in his door like a SWAT officer, running into his apartment sword drawn with the spellbound section of wood still stuck to him as Aiko ran in?

Less than calm.

Aidan could swear his heart had been beating as loud as a drum when he'd first been aroused from his sleep.

It had all started so well too. Sure, when he first opened his eyes he had noticed the flash of white and yellow cross his vision, but he had simply chalked the flash of color to the morning sunlight stubbornly peeking through his blackout curtains.

As he stretched he could feel the tension running off of his shoulders and down his back like a waterfall, causing him to let out a loud yawn before he finally let his eyes drift open.

Yes, this was calm.

Until of course he realized that a second smaller yawn had accompanied his own.

That hadn't been a digitally rendered voice emanating from one of his many devices. It was real and it certainly hadn't been from outside.

His eyes snapped over to the source of the noise, half expecting to find Aiko laying there casually beside him. But instead the sight he found was much different.

A young woman, clearly no more than a few years his junior.

She was rather unremarkable in terms of stature. She was no taller than 5'4, with a thin frame that was well defined by a thin white robe that she wore in the fashion of a makeshift dress, which was accented by a strange cloth sachet that rested comfortably against her waist.

What set her apart though were her eyes. Her golden yellow eyes that seemed to burn with heat of the Sun itself. They seemed to stare into Aidan's very soul, as if probing his essence with their piercing gaze.

And it only got worse when she opened her mouth...

"Greetings. Are you aware that you snore?"

"You know this is your fault, somehow." Aidan growled as he glared over at a long brown haired girl sitting cross legged on his bed with a Celtic Guardian standing loyally by her side, with no clear emotion betrayed upon his stoic expression.

"What? How is this my fault?!"

"I don't know, it just is..."

"Don't you think you're overreacting a bit?" The girl, Aiko, mumbled with a roll of her eyes, "You've always wanted a Shadow of your own, and you seriously lucked out. You got a talking one."

"We don't know if she even is one. All I know is I woke up and she was sitting on my bed." Aidan pointed out as he stole a glance over to the young woman in question, who was sitting patiently in the apartment's tiny excuse of a kitchen examining a box of instant rice, "What if she's just some college student that broke in looking for food or money?"

"Broke in? Seriously?" Aiko raised an eyebrow in disbelief as she crossed her arms, "Have you taken a good look at her? She's barely over a hundred pounds; she wouldn't be able to break in if she tried. She's probably starving."

"Then make her the rice she's eyeballing."

"Fine..." Aiko mumbled, "You really need to lighten up though, stop being suspicious of your new Shadow. It's pretty clear you summoned her. Both the door and the Spellbinding circle were both in one piece when we arrived, so she logically couldn't have forced her way in."

"You're paying for that by the way."

"Yeah, yeah whatever... Hey I have an idea."

"Oh, joy. Ok?"

"If you really want proof-... You could try casting a Yellow Luster Shield on her."

Her words gave Aidan pause for thought. That actually wasn't such a bad idea. It would certainly give the two of them concrete proof as to whether or not this mysterious young woman was indeed a Shadow, as any reinforcement magic would do little to nothing for a normal human.

There was only one problem...

"I have no idea how to cast that."

"Huh? What?-..."

"Yellow Luster Shield is a spell to reinforce a Shadow's resilience. Exactly what use could I have possibly had for a spell like that up until 30 minutes ago?"

"Well-..." Aiko glanced over to her Celtic Guardian in a less than subtle fashion, puffing her cheeks.

"Let me repeat myself. Up until 30 minutes ago!..." Aidan growled, "I'm not your spare battery!..."

"Whatever... That's what Leon's for anyway." Aiko huffed haughtily as she stuck her nose into the air.

"You're still dragging him around by the?-..." Aidan clapped his hands together, causing both the yellow eyed girl and Aiko to jump, "Wait, wait! Off track! We still have to find out what this Shadow's all about."

"It's pretty obvious to me. She's a Utility Type. She doesn't look all that strong, but with a special ability like speech you've got one hell of a Shadow. Maybe it's karmic payout for having to wait so long for her?"

"Maybe.."

Aidan finally directed his full attention over towards the young woman, who had since begun using her nails to poke holes in the cardboard of the rice box. The satchel

That satchel...

Aidan's gaze was locked the cloth bag for what felt like an age before he even realized that he had made his way over and had reached for the bag.

However, even as he laid his hand upon the satchel, the girl showed no visible response to the blatant invasion of privacy.

"Hey... Can we look inside here?" Aidan tried, causing the girl's eyes to shift towards him slowly.

Surprisingly, instead of the rejection he had expected, Aidan watched as the girl flashed a warm, almost comforting, smile in his direction.

"Of course." Her voice was measured and calm. It possessed a serene, almost hypnotizing tone that could have subdued a raging bull, yet also carried a curious innocence that seemed to contrast that serenity like water and oil.

Aidan nodded, pulling the bag from the table and padding back over to his bed where Aiko sat, staring over at the bag with a decent amount of curiosity.

He quickly pulled open the rope bound satchel and rummaged around inside, pulling out several items before laying them out on his bed.

One stood above all however.

"I think that thing's an ankh." Aiko pointed out.

"Oh good. An ancient Egyptian religious symbol commonly associated with death." Aidan mumbled as he experimentally examined the object, twisting it around in his grip, "Good to know she doesn't have anything that'll actually put me at ease in here..."

"Actually it's a symbol for representing life."

"Don't you have rice to make?"

Aiko merely jabbed her thumb back to where the yellow-eyed young woman was happily crunching away at the contents of the dehydrated rice package.

"What the hell?-..." Aidan shook his head. Best not to ask. "Never mind, anything else in there I should know about?"

"Past that ankh? Not too much. A few scrolls and parchments, but I can't read any of it to save my life. It's complete gibberish to me."

"Let me see-..." Aidan raised an eyebrow as his eyes scanned the parchment in Aiko's grip, "Hmm?.."

"What's up?"

"You can't read this?"

"...No? It's just a bunch of squiggly lines. Like... That first one looks like a backwards E, and the second looks like an 'n', then a upside-down cross-..."

"Alright, I get it, you're high. Jesus."

"You can't seriously read this can you?!..." Aiko asked, shooting a glare at the black haired young man.

"Yeah... But from what I can tell it's just some weird prayer..." Aidan pointed at the top of the parchment, presumably where the message began, "It's talking about the 'Protector of the Sun', I think... It's disjointed. I'm not entirely sure it's all here."

"What's the exact translation?"

"Almighty protector-... Sun-... I beg of thee-... My cry-..."

"Aidan!"

"Huh? What-..." Aidan's gaze snapped up towards the kitchen, "What?!"

It wasn't a moment later before the room was overtaken in a blinding flash of light

Aidan felt himself soaring through the air as if he was no more than a piece of paper in a storm, though that was quickly replaced by the sensation of seering pain as he made contact with Link.

Wait... Link?

Even Aiko's Celtic Guardian had been thrown by the force of the blast?!

When he finally found the courage to pry his eyes open he found the young woman standing before the fallen trio, tilting her head curiously. "...Why are you all laying on the floor?"

"A-Aidan?..." Aiko's voice squeaked from behind him, though he found himself unable to break his gaze from the yellow eyed girl staring down at them.

"Hmm?..."

"She's not a Utility Type..."