“I came by to grab a bite to eat, but seeing as how the counter is out now…”
“Looks like I knocked a bit too much into him. He can fix this in a day. Is food all you ready came for?”
Masahiro tenses up for a moment. He takes a deep breath and keeps his focus on Jasmine. She looks back at him and narrows her eyes, taking on a more serious tone. She leans against the rest of the counter.
“So you’ve made up your mind about who you’re picking?” Jasmine asks.
“No. Not yet,” Masahiro gives as a simple answer.
Jasmine sighs and shakes her head. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a long, wooden smoke pipe. She takes a long pull from it and blows the smoke into the shop, “Sorry to rush you, but you’ll have to make a decision by tomorrow morning.”
Surprised, Masahiro’s eyes widen at her response, “What?! You can’t be serious? Why do I have to choose by tomorrow morning?”
“Remember how I said a while ago that your decision will affect not only you, but one other person?”
“Yeah?”
“Change of plans. Now, your decision will affect you, one other person, and the entire planet.”
The entire planet…?
Confusion takes over all of Masahiro’s mind. Even though Jasmine’s words were direct and to the point, Masahiro can’t fully comprehend what she means. Seeing through the discomfort and confusion in his face, Jasmine takes another pull from her pipe and blows into the air. She swirls one finger in the middle of the smoke cloud and it forms into a perfect sphere.
“Come here, Hiro,” Jasmine says.
Hoping to find answers, Masahiro walks over to Jasmine and looks into the smoke cloud. The cloud starts out as a simple, white sphere, but is slowly darkens and becomes a floating ball of black and red.
“What’s happening to the smoke…?” “Masahiro hesitantly questions.
“Keep watching.”
Masahiro doesn’t take his eyes off of the smoke cloud. After a minute of watching, the smoke begins shaking and it changes once more: a bright, yellow eye emerges from the center of the smoke.
“Wh… what the hell is that?!”
“It’s a Yōma.”
Luka's Notebooks 