The bamboo spirit started to tear up at the sight of the person in front of him. Emotions started to pile up inside his throat but he held them back. The spirit then quickly knelt down on one knee and had his head down looking at the floor.
"I, George, sub-leader of the Dragon Knights, give my respect to the leader."
Novis didn't understand what was happening and stood still stunned watching the two spirits interact. While Ashley and Daiki could feel the pressure from the room disappear but was afraid to interrupt what was going on.
Arthur himself was also confused
"You may stand."
George stood up and continued to stare at Arthur. He couldn't believe that he was really there stood in front of him
"I'm sorry, if I knew it was you, I would have ever attacked in the first place," George said.
Arthur held up his hand to signal George to stop talking then replied.
"It seems you recognise me, but I'm afraid I don't recognise you."
George was clearly saddened by Arthurs words but understood it had been a long time.
"I will be happy to explain but I am not able to remain outside of the bamboo sword for much longer. My body needs to reside inside of a human." George said as he looked over at Novis.
"Hey, why does it have to be inside of me!" Novis shouted pointing at himself. "I already have one spirit inside of me, why can't you go inside of her!" Novis pointed towards Ashely.
Ashley was flustered.
"Hey I don't know what you're talking about, but you can't just use my body without permission."
Ashley and Daiki were unable to hear what the spirits were talking about, so all they could hear was what Novis had said.
Daiki quickly came over towards Ashley
"Ashley do you not understand, this is great. The spirit is a master swordsman if this is possible, he can teach you. You can master what I could not!" It seemed as if Daiki was going to start jumping up and down form Joy any second now.
George shook his head.
"It is simply not possible, I tried speaking out to the girl when she was younger, she did not hear me. It simply means she is not a chosen one. We spirits can only reside in the body of ones that can hear us or that can see the marking on the blade."
Novis repeated the information that George had given to the other two. Daiki couldn't help but feel slightly depressed. Novis had given him hope time and time again but all Novis had given him so far was bad news.
Arthur then turned to look at Novis.
"It seems we don't have a choice, I'm sorry but Novis would you allow this man to enter your mind?"
Although Arthur didn't recognise the man, he had an odd feeling that he felt familiar somehow, the truth was Arthur knew there was a big gap in his memory. When he first met Novis, Arthur had told him a lie. Something believable at the time but this was only because Arthur didn't know anything himself.
"It's not like I could stop you anyway," Novis complained.
Arthur then quickly disappeared and went back inside Novis's subconsciousness. Then George started to turn into a white mist. The mist started to enter through Novis's holes. Yes every single one of them! Novis head started to ring and then slowly he started to fall on the ground and his vision slowly went to black.
When Novis opened his eyes again he could see Ashley by his side caring for him.
"What happened?" Novis asked.
"You passed out, don't worry it hasn't been long, only around five minutes. We didn't want to move you." Ashley replied.
After a few minutes of rest, Novis explained to Daiki about everything that took place. How the bamboo spirit now resided inside him. Ashley heard all of this and was finding it hard to believe. If it wasn't for her father taking the whole thing so seriously, she would have thought Novis was a crazy person.
Daiki was upset but knew there was nothing he could do. Instead, he was now happier than ever to allow Ashley to play the game with him. In fact, he even encouraged Ashley to spend as much time with Novis as possible in the hope that the spirit would be able to teach her through Novis.
Just as Novis was about to leave Daiki stopped him at the door to hand him something.
"Here take it," Daiki said as he handed him the bamboo sword.
"I really can't," Novis said.
Daiki shook his head.
"You must, this sword belongs to you now," Daiki said as he smiled.
Novis knew no matter what he said Daiki had already made up his mind. Ashley and Daiki waved goodbye as Novis headed back to his grandfather's dojo.
"You brought home a good man," Daiki said. "You must marry him in the future."
Ashley started to blush.
"What are you talking about, you're crazy. Both of you are. Talking about a stupid ghost." Ashley replied as she stormed off back into the house.
After heading back to his grandfather's dojo Novis placed his bamboo sword next to the sword that Arthur had come from.
Since Novis had passed out he hadn't heard Arthur or George say a word. Novis thought the two of them must be talking to each other about something and managed to block him out.
Novis decided to do his own investigation in the meantime. Novis picked up and inspected both weapons and as he thought the two of them had the exact same engraving of a dragon but just looking at these two things didn't tell him anything.
The information Novis knew so far was, Arthur came out form a sword which had an engraving of a dragon. George had come out of a bamboo sword that had an engraving of a dragon. The two of them knew each other. And for some reason, he was the only one that could hear and see them.
Novis struggled to fall asleep that night as he had many questions on his mind. When he eventually did, he was in a familiar place. Arthurs dream world, only this time George and Arthur were standing together.
The two of them saw Novis enter and George stepped forward,
"Novis right?" George said. "Arthur has asked me to tell you everything I know."