Festering Desire

On a certain morning, in a certain maiden's bedroom, a certain high school girl woke up from a hellish nightmare. A droplet of cold sweat slid down along the light tanned skin of her delicate neck and finally submerged into her bosom. Checking up to the time on her phone, it was 7:00 AM on a sunny Wednesday.

The girl dressed up in her school uniform and sat down to look at the mirror on her desk. Her complexation was tiring and her skin had been turning paler and paler each day. It almost seemed like her tans had been reverting back to the old milky white skins she had during childhood. There was a pair of heavy bags beneath her eyes, as the past several days had not been pleasant for her.

However, from the mirror, she also saw a ghostly and gruesome humanoid figure in dark miasma phasing through the wall behind her back. It approached the girl on the chair and slowly circled around her head with its eyes on an elongated neck. Her body was shivering and tears were brimming in her eyes; yet, the girl continued to apply make up on the eye bags as if she couldn't see the creature.

Eventually, the humanoid spirit phased through another wall into her neighbor's apartment. It was then, the girl finally broke out in more cold sweats and panted heavily on her desk. She was trying her best to ignore the ghostly figure, which she had been doing to many other spirit entities that she randomly started seeing.

Typically, these spirits were mostly harmless and ignored her if she also ignored them. This was what she learnt over the past several days after getting chased by a bunch of lesser spirits that she reacted to in panic. As for the big and menacing ones that sometimes roamed the town, her guts told her things will not end well if those things learned that she could sense them.

A quick buzz from the phone spooked the girl. Then with a sigh of relief, she checked the message sent by her friend.

"Rika, I am going to get Dunkin Walnuts for breakfast. Want to come? Marin is probably still asleep." - Katy.

She was part of the trio of girls that always hung out together all the time. This was their group chat.

"I will be there. Fifteen minutes please." - Rika.

"Hey, who is asleep? I woke up on time today, ok?" - Marin.

"Will you come?" - Katy.

"Of course." -Marin.

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Biting down on the walnut waffle in her hands, Rika paid no attention to the few small spirits that followed her as she tried to maintain a normal conversation with her friends. These things normally walk away on their own and find themselves another target sooner or later.

Further down the streets, she saw another black spirit poking its head out from the corner, staring down on another group of students. Recently, she was able to notice more and more of them roaming around the town.

Shortly after the horror from the ramen noodle stall, Rika started seeing all kinds of supernatural entities that nobody else seemed to be able to notice. Starting from small spirits that sometimes even looked cute depending on their type, now she could see human sized or even large grotesque monsters as her senses developed.

Just yesterday, the girl saw a middle-aged man who had a sinister looking spirit following him, slowly sipping away the yellowish aura surrounding the person with its tentacles. The man had a tired look on his face and kept yawning heavily as he walked. Rika took a quick glance at her friend's aura; a thin layer of yellow lights was glowing around them. It seemed like they were not being siphoned.

Of course, knowing the existence of supernatural entities and Anima, she tried to research the reasons behind her current condition. The only conclusion she drew based on the internet was that she had already awakened.

However, despite her keen senses to so-called Anima, Rika had no control over it or had any other special powers. What could have been an exciting news turned out to be more like a frightening curse instead. The girl had been living the past week in constant fear of what she was able to perceive.

Fortunately, there was one thing that seemed to brighten her mood. Arriving at her classroom and sitting down with her friends, Rika continuously peeked at the door. She was waiting for something incredible, something that appeared like a beacon of hope to her terrifying situation. At last, from a distance down the hallway, a magnificent golden radiance shone through the door.

"It seems even brighter than yesterday..." Even with a tiny bit of difference, Rika was able to notice the change with her keen sense.

The owner of that radiating aura was Leo; he had another small serving yesterday from a mission with Jean.

"Rika, did you say something?" Marin asked.

"What's brighter?" Katy heard a few words.

"Ah no, it's nothing." Yet, at the same time, Rika's attention was obviously on the boy that walked in.

"You seem to be looking at him every day ever since, don't think I won't notice." Marin was intrigued.

"Heh? Did you really fall for Leo? I am grateful to him, and maybe have a slight interest, but I don't have much feelings for him." Katy had a playful tone.

"He is a great choice, I guess I will lend him to you. Good luck Rika!" Marin was willing to give him up for her friend.

"You guys!" Rika protested against the little teases of her friends.

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The presence of the boy brought peace to Rika's mind. Like a grossly incandescent sun, when basking under the warmth of his brilliant aura, all of her fears and worries seemed to melt away. It felt gentle and alluring to her senses. Amongst the Anima users she knew from school, only his aura shone the most magnificently.

Peeking at his back during class, Rika saw a giant dark centipede spirit crawling along the classroom window. It was lured in by the radiating aura Leo unconsciously leaked out. However, the moment it drew closer to his sphere of influence, the dark spirit was burnt to a crisp and then quickly engulfed by his golden aura.

Rika could faintly hear the cries of the spirit as it was mercilessly devoured within the lights. Occurrences like this, as she recently observed, were a daily phenomenon that happened around the boy all the time.

Yet, the girl also noted that Leo seemed to be completely oblivious to the lesser spirits he unconsciously consumed. Like other Anima users she had met, the boy could not see them or hear them, totally unaware of their existence despite the keener sense to Anima. But regardless, the fact that Leo can eradicate all the horrifying creatures in the vicinity brought peace to her mind.

Little did she know, the overwhelming majority of the spirits that lingered in this world had too weak of a spiritual signature, as well as being too trivial, to be noticeable by Anima users without special means. Generally, only spiritual entities that were strong enough to influence reality were given the much-deserved attention. Rika had yet to meet a real threatening Yoma or evil spirit.

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During the lunch hour after physical training, Rika cautiously sneaked into the men's changing room. The girl was on a mission, and she brought with her a trusty lock pick. The target of this burglary was the locker of a certain boy with a very special presence.

"This is the one time where I learned something useful from Marin." Rika muttered as she opened the lock.

What the girl carefully took out from the locker was an ordinary gym T-shirt. It was thoroughly soaked with a certain boy's manly scent. However, what Rika saw in her eyes was the brilliant golden aura emitting from the shirt; it was the gentle, warm and glamorous waves of energy that deeply attracted her.

"I remembered he said this was the extra shirt he doesn't wear anymore because it was too tight." Rika muttered to herself.

At the corner, there happened to be a tiny innocent wandering spirit in hiding. Rika put the shirt close to the spirit and it incinerated like it was too close to the sun. With a satisfied smile, she hugged the fabric deeply into her bosom and took a heavy sniff at the dense flavor of that certain boy.

But just before she made for the exit, Rika heard the door slammed open with a loud crash of a person being tossed onto the ground. The girl was startled; there wasn't supposed to be anyone here during this hour. Peeking the front from behind the lockers, she saw the infamous princess Elizabeth and her rumored fianc Yuuto, who was already kneeling down on all fours.

"Just what is this blasphemy?" Elizabeth tossed a phone onto Yuuto.

The young man caught the phone and played the video on a certain famous social media. It was a recording of him and a random girl from class C secretly making out in the bushes near the school warehouse a week ago. The topic of this video somehow went viral after the poster wrote a paragraph long back story smearing Yuuto's name. After watching the short recording, his face turned pale.

"Please! I can explain. Somebody must be trying to damage our relationship." Yuuto pleaded.

"I don't care what you do outside of our deal, but you dared to tarnish the reputation of my family."

Elizabeth stepped on his face with the sole of her shoe, then pushed him back onto the floor. Unintentionally, this position also revealed the bottom of her skirt to the young man down below. It was indeed a sight to behold and worth risking his life. Noticing his perverted stares, she looked down beneath with disgust.

At the same time, the young lady seemed to enjoy the dominance.

Yuuto expected mercy when the princess moved her foot away from his face. Yet, the next thing he knew, she placed her foot above his crotch and mercilessly stepped down. Even as a girl, Rika felt the pain in her nether region transmitted through the agony of his cries.

"Proud of your useless meat? Show me that pathetic thing of yours." Elizabeth said in a vexing tone; Yuuto would not stop glorifying his manhood in the video.

Despite the tormenting torture, Yuuto somehow gotten stiff under her soft, delicate and tender foot behind a thick layer of the shoe's frame. The state of the young man looked as pathetic as the princess expected of him. To her eyes, this pathetic creature was only her pet toy, and it was in desperate need of discipline.

"Oh? You want to fuck me? Your fianc?" Elizabeth said in response to the repulsive erection.

There was fear and lust with hints of hate hidden within Yuuto's eyes as he begged for the young lady to stop. Unfortunately for him, she quite appreciated the look on his face; his cries of pain only excited her further. It was time to try something more exhilarating.

Elizabeth peeled the panties under her skirt to reveal the plump flower budding and her neatly trimmed white furs before Yuuto's eyes. However, just as he raised his head to get a closer look, yellowish fluid began to stream out from the flower garden and rinsed all over his face.

"Ah... that felt much better. Make sure you clean up before you leave." The princess fashionably turned around and pridefully left the locker room; but before that, she sneaked a glance at the locker where Rika was hiding.

"Hmph! Humans."

If it weren't for her family's order, there was no way she would agree to have this scum as her fianc. Yuuto's family, utilizing their wealth, made a great sacrifice and begged her parents for this engagement. Even as a powerful and prestigious family of Anima users, there were conveniences with joining Yuuto's affluent family.

There was a certain boy in this school that caught her interest instead, it would have been a great pleasure to have someone as worthy as him to be her consort. Thinking about that scum would only spoil her mood.