196: 5.6 Spirit Animal

5.6 Spirit Animal

Kai — Lu Yizhou's current identity — was a sentinel with three senses. He had received a warning from the President to find a guide lest he would be suspended from his duty and today, he was on his way to the Guide Association to request for help only to be called in urgently to lead a team on a rescue mission.  1

Growing up, Kai only had eyes for his job and never cared about finding a guide. That's also the reason why he could become a General at a ripe age of 33 when the other Generals were almost twenty years older than he was. His reputation as an imposing, adept and cold-blooded General with a success rate of 95% made others fear and admire him at the same time.

And worse, he was a dark sentinel. 

It was a widely known fact that dark sentinels were more stable than ordinary sentinels, they possessed steel-like restraint and better control over their senses. They could even form a mind barrier to resist an attack from an offensive guide, making them the most valuable army to go on highly dangerous missions. Oftentimes, dark sentinels needed not a guide because they could only expand three senses at most until the end of their lives and so far, there was no risk of going feral. Unfortunately that's also the reason why they couldn't go beyond rank A. 

Different from sentinels who could achieve S or even SS rank, the most competent dark sentinels were recorded as A rank. 

Of course, all dark sentinels wanted to go beyond A, however the main problem lay with the guides. So far, the guides who could bond with dark sentinels were few and far in between. It didn't help either that sentinels and guides could only bond when their compatibility exceeded 85%. Sentinels and guides bonded together through spiritual or physical union and once they did, they would be tied together for life. 

As a partner and emotional support of sentinels, guides were heavily protected by the Association. In there, every single guide would be recorded and ranked. They were almost treated as national treasures; adored but monitored at the same time. Guides weren't allowed to get together with ordinary people and special action would be taken if such a thing happened and of course, all of them ended in tragedy because guides could only work properly when they maintained a calm and stable mind. 

A grieving guide could trigger the same emotion in other people. Depending on the rank, if it was an A or S rank guide, they could even trigger a massive breakdown in the middle of the city. That's why, once a guide was found to be emotionally unstable for a long period of time, they would immediately be executed. 

The Guide Association learned from the previous experience and once someone was identified as a guide, they would immediately be taken away from their family to receive proper education and lived in a quarter that was built specially for the likes. Their lives would be guaranteed and they needed not to worry about living expenses. Moreover, guides were allowed to reject sentinels if they found that their partner wasn't to their liking. But usually, guides and sentinels with high compatibility would be attracted to each other like two magnet poles. It was an undeniable law.

Each sentinel and guide would have their own 'spirit guide', generally in the form of animals. Their individual attributes would determine the kind of animal that was created. Only sentinels and guides with a 90% compatibility or above could see each other's spirit guide before their bonding and with the case of higher compatibility that exceeded 95%, guides could even appease their sentinels from afar.

Lu Yizhou's eyes abruptly snapped open. The black cat!

He propped his upper body up by elbow only to slump back when the movement tugged on his stitches. He let out a soundless groan as a damp sensation started to spread on his waist. Damn it, his wound must have been opened. For a while, he spent the time regulating his heavy breathing until the black dots in his vision slowly receded to take in white ceiling and creamy walls. He ought to be in a private ward and through the blurry glass on the door, he could see the outline of heads, presumably the guards that were watching over him. If he were to spread his hearing, he would be able to eavesdrop on them but Lu Yizhou had no intention of overtaxing himself at the moment.

The black cat… if that were indeed a guide's spirit animal—

All of a sudden, the hair on the back of Lu Yizhou's neck prickled and he immediately snapped to his senses, alert. All of the drug induced haziness ebbed away and he saved the thought to the back of his mind to be pondered later on. Someone was watching him intensely. Not the surveillance camera and there definitely wasn't a second person in the room either. Right…?

  Lu Yizhou slowly turned to the side only to come face-to-face with a pair of freezing cold silver eyes belonging to a… horned eagle? The animal was half his size, perching on his bedside and peering down at him with utmost nonchalance; there was even a hint of disdain as if it was looking at a repulsive trash.

Lu Yizhou ignored the bizarre sight of how an animal could be so expressive. He was sure that a hospital wouldn't allow an animal to sneak in especially if the patient was in a coma so the only possibility was…

[...My spirit guide?]

The horned eagle let out a shrill chirp and loomed above him like a cobra before he dove down to peck Lu Yizhou right on the bruise on his arm. "Fuck!" He avoided falling off his bed, but that was a near thing. Wasn't a spirit guide the representation of oneself? Why was this one so violent and vicious? Attacking its owner, wasn't it the same as attacking itself?! Lu Yizhou didn't know he had masochistic tendencies and he had no plans to be one! Scowling, he demanded. "What was that for?"

The eagle still had that you-are-a-piece-of-shit look but before it could attack again, Lu Yizhou caught it squarely on its beak. Its wings fluttered wildly as its feet kicked and thrashed around in his hold. Lu Yizhou sneered. He didn't mind having eagle meat for dinner. "Shitty bird. Think twice before you want to do that."

[666: Um… Host? 666 is sorry to inform you that you can't kill your own spirit guide. No, nobody can kill them either because they are literal spirits. Hence no eagle meat for dinner tonight. Meet Monroe, your spirit guide, your second most important after 666, of course!]

Monroe? It should be moron instead! Lu Yizhou eyed the flailing eagle with disdain and promptly hurled it across the room. 

Before it could crash into the wall and preferably break a bone or wing, it was abruptly caught by a black cat that came in through the solid wall. Lu Yizhou's breath hitched on his throat as he took in the cat's appearance. The silky, black fur, graceful movements, luminous golden eyes… how could he not recognize it sooner? His heartbeat accelerated and the beeping followed suit. A series of alarms sounded somewhere, but Lu Yizhou couldn't take his eyes off the two creatures.

The eagle became awfully meek under the cat's mercy, quietly letting itself be pulled here and there. They landed on the nightstand and the eagle spread open its wings to hug the cat only to be slapped away with a threatening hiss. With a proud harrumph, the cat started to lick its own paw and clean its face, no longer paying attention to the dejected eagle.

Lu Yizhou's lips parted without a sound.

Is that you…?

Sentinel and guide could only see each other's spirit guide when their compatibility reached 90% so Lu Yizhou had no doubt that the black cat was his lover's spirit animal. Where was he? How was he doing now? In this world, Lu Yizhou hadn't even searched for him yet. 

But it turned out, his lover had found him first.

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