Antuki: A Little Boy's Story

Chapter 10: The Power of Prayer

"Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o'er His foes..."

Akio hummed the words of the hymn to himself in Japanese as he carried on his daily training. The angels Kamikaze and Hegai had charged him to continue sharpening his skills while he waited for his next assignment, and he'd made some good progress over the past three weeks.

The blue star radiance in his cells was the thing he required the most practice with. While he'd been astounded by its capabilities at first, he'd gradually learned to apply it to his mundane activities.

Fire had been its chief use ever since he returned to Japan – in those early, uncertain days, he and Yoko would scrounge for firewood in the forest and make a small campfire for themselves each night. Hunting for animals had also become much easier with this tool at their disposal, and Akio wondered if this was how the first humans had lived long ago.

Eventually, he discovered that by concentrating hard and visualizing an object in his mind, he could mold the blue energy into a physical form. He started off by building a few basic shapes: balls, sticks, boxes and cones. The trickiest part for him to master was lowering the temperature of the plasma enough for the constructs to solidify. Once or twice, he'd nearly set the surrounding forest on fire, a disaster which only Yoko's presence had helped to stave off. After much trial and error, however, he managed to create tangible tools such as axes and of course, his trademark bō staff.

Today, he was pushing the limits of his power further. Inspired by steppingstones he'd seen in local koi ponds, he was making little circular platforms in the air for him to climb into the heavens. This technique required expert timing and precision, as each step had a lifespan of five seconds at most. One wrong move and he'd be tumbling down to the earth below.

Ahead of him, Yoko was tracing out the path for him to take. It was her job to make things difficult for Akio, such as making sudden turns, descending steeply without warning or even briefly disappearing from sight. The angels had warned them that their mission would be difficult, so the two friends had to be ready for anything.

Akio was feeling pretty good about himself. They'd climbed about half a kilometre into the air without any mishaps, and the song was providing him a nice rhythm to follow. If he kept this up, the exercise would be over before either of them knew it. Down below, the Japanese landscape spread out like a lush green carpet, refreshing the little boy's eyes whenever he grew a little bit bored.

To his great surprise, he suddenly spotted what appeared to be a large brick castle in the distance. The structure was massive and foreboding, with sharp spires which stuck out like spears into the clouds. Akio had never heard of such a thing and wondered how such an edifice could have escaped the attention of aircraft pilots.

It must be an angelic fortress! he thought to himself with some gratification. He'd grown accustomed to regular sightings of angels and spirits and supposed that this was one of their heavenly bases. Excitedly, he told Yoko to turn around and head towards it. Perhaps there would be a friendly face there to welcome them and offer them some refreshments.

Slowly, the boy and his fairy made their way towards the castle. It was a mysterious place, planted firmly in the clouds and without a soul in sight. Akio thought that was odd, as angels usually went out of their way to minister to him and Yoko. Maybe they're busy, he theorised, or maybe they simply weren't expecting us.

Akio walked up to the main door of the castle and knocked loudly on it. The brass knocker was unlike any he'd seen before. It was shaped like a man's head – a very handsome man with sharp eyes and a trimmed goatee. Although there was nothing physically hideous about that visage, something about it just felt off. Akio felt a pang of fear and began to suspect he'd made a mistake.