Following the death of Matthew Harrows, the esteemed scientific spirit researcher, in 2009, the Spirit Hunter Association was given the question of what to do with the overabundance of equipment and other miscellaneous items he had stashed away in his lab. In the end, they decided to leave most of the decision making process in the hands of his, at the time, fifteen year old son, Wayne Harrows. Whatever he didn’t choose to keep as mementos of his father’s legacy would be preserved by them.


    The following is an audio excerpt from a CD that Wayne decided to keep, containing an unaired interview with Dr. Harrows himself, recorded in 1985. The reasoning for its unaired status remains unknown…


    “Before I get started, Dr. Harrows, I just have to say how incredible it is that you’re doing what you’re doing at such a…a relatively young age, for someone in your field, right?”


    “Yes. Twenty-nine years old, sir, thank you.”


    “Incredible, absolutely incredible stuff. Most people in your field don’t make any significant breakthroughs until their…late thirties, if I’m not mistaken.”


    “Well, It’s my passion that drives me the most. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything if I didn’t love doing It.”


    “Fantastic. So, you recently published a paper on…the relationship…”


    “Between one''s emotional state and the spirit arts.”


    “Right, right. Do you mind just giving me a quick history of how you came to develop the ideas in your paper?”


    “Absolutely. Well, I do a lot of reading you see, and I came across an old unfinished philosophical paper that intrigued me. It was titled, ‘Emotion, logic and Desire’ by an anonymous author.”


    “I see. What, um, what did they have to say in that unfinished paper?”


    “Well, the idea is that these three components are what ultimately define who we are as individuals. Our desires, the things we want in any given moment; our emotions, how we feel in response to external or internal stimuli; and logic which encompasses a lot of elements on its own. I''ll simplify that one to mean how we rationalise how we interact with, and respond to the world and other people.”


    “...Interesting.”


    “They proposed that emotions, quite metaphorically, come from the ‘heart’. Not the organ itself. They used the term ‘heart’ to refer to the capacity we have as humans to feel emotions towards one another, or our current circumstances.”


    “And what did they say of logic?”


    “Logic, as I said, is complicated. The paper mentioned that It’s not nearly as universal a language as emotions. You can see someone smiling and safely assume that they are happy, even if you don''t agree with or even know what they’re happy about. People''s personal brands of logic, however, are capable of completely opposing one another."


    “I see. Well, how about desire?”


    “Now, this is why the paper is unfinished, you see. There’s absolutely zero reference to the concept beyond the title of the paper. I''m not sure of the reason behind its unfinished status, but I decided to use it as a jumping off point for my own research.”


    “And the conclusion you eventually came to, which you wrote in your own paper was…”


    “That apart from the brain, the part of the body most closely linked to desire is the spirit. Someone who’s more in tune with their desires in particular, will be able to use their spirit energy much more efficiently and effectively. We have the tests and data to support that.”


    “Right… And the elemental affinities, do they link into any of this at all?”


    “Ah, no, no, no. There’s still decades of research to be done on why those eight in particular are the ones that people are born with. But going back to those three components, I asked myself a lot of questions. The biggest being the question of what would happen if one of them were… removed from the equation. Say for example… What would happen if we entirely removed the concept of human emotion from the process of using the spirit arts?”


    “...What would happen?”


    …


    “Dr. Harrows?”


    “...I''d like to say first that I’m not against the idea. But it’s something that should only be done by someone who is strong-willed enough to stop themselves if things escalate beyond a certain level. Of all those three components, it''s my personal belief that emotions are the most important. Depending on the desire, someone who lives his life based only on that and logic alone can be extremely dangerous."


    <hr>


    WAYNE HARROWS


    Still in freefall through the warehouse. Dust, mixed with the dissipating remnants of Wayne’s smoke and filled the air.


    His perspective of time; sluggish.


    He stared down in horror at the rogue’s growing smile, Its disfigured mouth taking up more than fifty percent of its face.


    Its exposed core, convulsing in a sporadic nature, produced a high pitched ringing noise that reverberated and bounced off the walls.


    Activating amplification, Wayne began lifting his arms up to his face to block whatever would arise from the spirit on death’s door. With its voice strained and distorted by all the damage it had taken, he heard it utter a condescending jeer.


    “you tried real hard, eyepatch…”If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Less than a second passed.


    It''s core extended, blitzing towards Wayne and hitting him right in the gut. The shockwave of excruciating pain shot up through each of his limbs then back to its point of origin in an instant.


    Up he flew, Stunned by an overwhelming sense of agony. His vision blurred as the warehouse got further and further away from him, and he was unable to even breath because of the impact he’d suffered. Not a single limb in his body obeyed his pleas, so he was forced to bend to the whims of gravity.


    “...But it was never gonna be enough! What you humans call the fear of death is nothing but a playground for a rogue like me, and you’ve just given me a brand new toy! Even better, my core’s already telling me all the info on how to use it!”


    A barrage of purple liquid projectiles pierced through the warehouse’s roof. An omnidirectional attack that left no room for evasion. The stinging sensation they inflicted when they entered his open wounds forced his body to wake up again. He covered his face, leaving a gap just wide enough that he could see the crumbling roof he was about to land on.


    However much strength he could muster was built up before his feet made contact with the metal, and when they did, he launched himself to the side like a bullet entirely coated with amplification. He crashed through one of the adjacent warehouses and into a stack of metal crates and wooden boxes.


    A shallow breath was followed by a fit of coughing as he dragged himself over to the wall to collect himself. The stinging sensation from the rogue''s attacks had grown in a considerably short amount of time.


    The inability to use his secondary technique during the fight had handicapped him greatly. The bug rogue spirit he had a link with would be able to eat away at his target’s spirit energy extremely fast and effectively. The cost of that effectiveness was the time it took to prepare. Eight seconds. He needed to hold emission for eight seconds before the shot that summoned the spirit would actually leave his hand. During such a high intensity battle, there just wouldn''t have been any time to do so.


    There was no point in dwelling on it now. Gritting his teeth, he squeezed the liquid out of a wound on his arm, which was numb to the touch. It was when a shower of sweat started to rapidly drip down his face that he realised he’d been poisoned.


    It hadn’t spread too far just yet, but naturally, Poison created from spirit energy could be fought off with more spirit energy. Activating his amplification, his own reserves would be gradually depleted, and his physical condition wasn’t going to get any better, but it also wouldn’t get worse either. He could manage this much until he took care of the rogue. He had to.


    “I’m…not finished yet!” The rogue’s coughed up words rang through the air, and following them shortly after was a thud. Then silence.


    Wayne took a deep breath to gather his strength and peered around the wall to see the spirit laid out on the ground. Its torn up body was putting itself back together, but not nearly as fast as it once was. It was the perfect opportunity to strike, but there were two things preventing him from doing so.


    One was his own physical condition. Just getting up onto his feet was a battle in and of itself. The second reason was the multiple sources of spirit energy he could sense rapidly approaching his location. Even without using his sixth sense, the sinister feeling hanging over him was enough to make him freeze for a split second.


    It wasn''t long until he could put a visual to his fear. Near the two large silos on the perimeter of the construction site was the blurry silhouette of another humanoid rogue spirit, masked by dust. Its much burlier frame would have been Wayne''s main concern. If not for the army that tailed behind it.


    Tens, possibly even hundreds of rogue spirits. Their snarls and growls blended together into a twisted symphony, perfectly matching their wide array of monstrous appearances. Some small, some with limbs where they shouldn''t have been, some floating above the ground; none of that mattered. This level of cooperation between rogue spirits was unprecedented, but what needed to be done to them remained the same.


    Wayne crept backwards and slightly lowered the intensity of the amplification to stay out of view and watched on as the ongoing situation unfolded.


    The muscular rogue gently picked up its bloodied associate, and placed it on the back of one of the others from the army. There was a conversation going on, But Wayne could only make out a select few words.


    “...Can’t fight…”


    “Go… The city…”


    “....Finally… Phase two…”


    “...Let me… Useful info…”


    The shapeshifting rogue’s weakened, disfigured arm looked like it was creaking as it slowly lifted, but when it finally stopped, Wayne found it was pointed directly at him. The muscular rogue spirit, turned to the building he was in, a calm intensity being reflected in it''s face. It commanded the rogue army away, surely in preparation to have Wayne for himself.


    Knowing he couldn''t afford to stay there for much longer, Wayne wiped what felt like a gallon of sweat from his brow.


    Two do or die situations back to back. He stumbled forwards into a weary fighting stance as the muscular rogue made its way over to him, with heavy steps and eyes full of malice. “You’re far too weakened,” it said with a booming, commanding voice, “It’d be wise of you to accept your death now, but I''m sure you''ll remain stubborn.”


    “Stubborn?” Wayne chuckled.


    Perhaps a human opponent would have already been able to understand him. Obligation, duty. Those were the words that suited his actions much more than stubbornness. Somebody to guide and protect the next generation, that''s the type of person he desired to become. That desire had been radiating brighter through Wayne''s every move and now was the time to make sure he saw it through.


    Nothing else mattered.


    In a fight between highly skilled combatants attacks can sometimes seem like they come out of nowhere to the untrained eye, but this is never the case. For every single move taken, there will always be an indication beforehand, no matter how small.


    The rogue spirit’s fist twitched ever so slightly, and in a pre-emptive response to its incoming punch, Wayne dashed backwards towards the boxes he''d crashed into on his way in. The spirit was clearly underestimating him. Even as it lunged towards him, the look on its face was one of sheer boredom and uninterest.


    Releasing the amplification from only his right arm, Wayne used the split second to create a spirit link with one of the boxes and hurled it at the rogue. An impromptu smoke bomb. It swung its arms wildly, searching for a stray hit within the smoke, but by that point Wayne had already escaped its range.


    “A prolonged game of cat and mouse isn’t a benefit to either of us, human!”


    No doubt, it was correct, but there was a certain internal condition that needed to be met before Wayne wanted to attack. With all his senses slowly losing their effectiveness, the process had been prolonged, but If all went well, it''d only take one punch.


    ---


    The indication for his next move was intentionally drawn out. He knelt down into a running start and let out a long exhale, with his eyes glued to his target. After fanning the rest of the smoke away, the rogue acknowledged the indication, and respected it, choosing to lift its arms to block instead of attacking again.


    It was pointless. Wayne lifted himself up and zipped towards the wall behind it, his real objective. After less than a second with his feet planted against its surface, he kicked off and made his way to the roof. From there to the floor, then to the other wall. Every sound had a slight delay due to his overwhelming speed and from the looks of the blurry purple blob in the centre of the warehouse, the rogue was desperately trying to track his movements, but to no avail. Thanks to that, his mind could be at ease.


    Slowly but surely his condition was being met.


    In actuality, a spirit hunter’s attacks can never reach one hundred percent of their potential, at least under normal circumstances. The primary factor preventing them from doing so is their emotions. Feelings of doubt, and even excessive feelings that aren''t necessarily in conflict with one''s desire, like overconfidence; they all prove to disrupt the flow of spirit energy within the body. Suppressing those feelings, in other words, operating on only desires and logic, is how one reaches the state known as perfect flow.