First off, before you go any further, I'd like to say this has severe Shonen Ai. If you don't like Shonen Ai, please leave, because I don't want you to scream at me, saying "I can't believe you did that, you depraved sicko!" I've had people yell at me like that, and while I don't mind, I'm a little insulted for my Shonen Ai.

The main character is a little weird. O_o;

Anyway, the story progresses slowly, and it may get a little disturbing later, on, though, whether this disappoints you or keeps you from hitting the back button, there is no sex. I'm long winded, and I tend to be the kind of "shoot first, ask questions later, if ever" person, which translates into: I write references, then divulge those details later, in events and stuff. I hope it runs smoothly. O.o

Anyway, enjoy.

I hope.

Ghosts

::

Chapter One

::

The Cherry Trees.

When I first saw him, it surprised me; it's not everyday one sees a transparent boy. I was sitting on my roof, thinking about the fight I'd just had with my father. I knew he was trying his best – really, he was. It wasn't his fault my mother left him – for another woman. The stress was really getting to him, and my grades were dropping, I knew he was only worried about what was going to become of me. I knew, yet I also knew that until I solved my emotional problems, I wouldn't be able to do any better in school. He couldn't help me. I needed to find my own peace of mind on my own.

I was remembering the last words my mother had said to us when I saw him – he was standing alone in the courtyard below me, staring at something to the side. I blinked in surprise. I narrowed my gaze and scooted closer, peering over the edge at him – he had long hair, pulled back in a loose ponytail at the base of his neck. Bangs obscured his forehead and eyes. His dress was in the style of old Japan, a sword at his side.

I was confused as I gazed down at him. What was a boy doing in our courtyard at one in the morning? Especially a boy dressed like one of those samurai? It was then that I realized he had a faint glow and I could see through him. For a while, neither of us moved. The night was silent and still, and the sky was cloudless as the stars twinkled obliviously in the firmament.

I started as my father knocked on my door, yelling at me for lights out, and when I turned back, the boy was gone.

"No way!" My best friend exclaimed the next morning, staring wide-eyed at me as she sipped her coffee, sitting next to me on a bench in front of school. Hirami was the kind of girl who loved ghosts – I didn't believe in them, but that never stopped her from dragging me to psychic shops to get my palm read, my future told, my tarot cards revealed. It never ceased to amaze me how much she bought into the spiritual realm; to me, dead was dead. There were no supernatural events; they were all gimmicks, in my opinion. Everything could be explained logically, I believed.

"I'm telling the truth." I said, putting my hands up in surrender. She waved her hand at me, offering me some of her coffee.

"No, no, I believe you're telling the truth... It's just that I never expected something like this to happen to you!" She pouted as I sampled her coffee, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's not really fair. I'm the one who believes in all this stuff."

I coughed, chocking on the beverage. "You're jealous!?"

She gave me a look that always made me doubt I was intelligent at all. I hated that look.

"Of course I'm jealous! I've waited my entire life for something like this to happen to me, and instead it happens to you. Wah!"

I gave her my own look, the one she said made her doubt she was sane. She stuck her tongue out and the bell rang. Before we parted to our separate homerooms, I caught her arm. "Hirami, could you give me some advice at lunch? Please?"

She sighed, crossed her eyes at me, but nodded. "Of course, Kito."

For me, lunch didn't come soon enough, but when it did, I was grateful. I found Hirami as fast as I could, talking to a group of girls who waved shyly at me as I joined them. She bid her farewell, excused us, and we made our way to a secluded corner. We sat on a bench, and she suggested that we eat our lunches as we talked. I shrugged and unpacked my own lunch, something I made myself. She eyed it, stole a rice ball, then unpacked her own, which her mother had made her.

"It's not often you find a boy who can make his own lunch." She said, around her stolen goods she was chewing, savoring it. I made a face. She told that to me everyday.

"Uh, well..." I wasn't quite sure how to begin; she did.

"Well, just tell me about it again, and I'll see what I can do."

So I repeated last night's events to her, chewing on a piece of teriyaki chicken.

She looked thoughtful as she listened to me, nodding her head as I concluded my report, of sorts.

"Hm. I really don't know." I gaped at her and she smiled. "I can't tell from one night, you know. You said he was looking off to the side, right?" I nodded. "Well, did you look to see what had his attention?" I blushed and shook my head. She sighed. "How do expect me to help you if you didn't even check to see what he was staring at? Oh well. The best thing I can tell you to do is don't make contact until I tell you. I don't want you to get hurt."

"What? You mean, he can hurt me? I thought ghosts are insubstantial!"

"Oh, they are." She reassured me. "But that doesn't mean they can't influence the world we live in." I drew a blank – it must have shown, for she explained to me what she meant. "See, I use my chopsticks to grab my food, so I can eat it, right? And you think that my action is purely physical? Right?" I nodded. Of course. "Wrong. For me to even touch the chopsticks, I have to use my mind – my brain tells my hand how to hold them."

"Okay. I think I understand." I was hoping I understood.

"It's sort of the same for ghosts – although they don't really exist, not fully, in our world, they use their mind to influence things around them. Only, their reach is much broader then our physical arms and legs. That's because they don't exist in a substantial shell anymore. Their body died, but their souls linger, and their power over material objects remained with them."

"Oh. I kind of get it." I really didn't. They weren't real, so they shouldn't have any power in the real world, right? Maybe ghosts just weren't for me.

She was about to explain in depth, when the bell rang, startling the both of us.

Time always seemed to move faster when one is distracted.

I was on my roof again as the sun set, balancing my algebra homework on one knee, my calculator on the other. Soft music drifted through my window as I finished the last few problems in the dying light. I sighed and filed the papers together, leaning inside my window and putting my stuff away. I lay back on the roof, putting my arms beneath my head. I watched the clouds overhead change colors, from pink to red to purple as the sun sank lower on the ground. The clouds were whisked away eventually, and I was left with a diamond studded night sky above me, which I happily gazed upon.

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and my skin began to tingle – I sat up, sweeping my gaze over the courtyard.

There he was again! He was still looking to the side; I crawled silently to the edge of the roof and peered in the direction of his gaze. He was staring into a copse of blossoming cherry trees. I strained my eyes to see through their tangle of branches, but failed miserably. I looked back at the boy, who hadn't moved an inch; so I got comfortable, though I made myself obscure as best I could. He stayed for about ten minutes, never moving a centimeter as he stood. Then something strange happened. His hair moved, as if caught by the wind – but I felt nothing, and after a quick check, which told me the cherry tree branches hadn't budged, I decided there had been no wind.

Maybe I had something to tell Hirami after all.

"I think it's called a locked setting; it's when the ghost is reliving a particular time in their life." Hirami announced at lunchtime, poking a piece of shrimp she held in between her chopsticks at me for emphasis. "They remember every little detail from that point in time, and while nothing else is affected, because they are ignoring the real world, they experience everything that happened before – so our ghost remembered a night when he was looking in the direction of your cherry trees, and wind blew his hair."

She made it all seem so simple. I didn't understand.

"Okay – um, say something was being projected from one planet to another – or better yet, just from one continent to another. When that projection reaches a place where it's really not, you still see what's happening – so, if someone is standing in front of a street, and a red car drives by, then you see that person and the red car, though where you are, there is no person or car. Get it?"

"Oh, like... pictures – they aren't really there, only copies of the events."

"Yes! Ghosts can do that! Recreate events that happened a long time ago – usually ghosts aren't aware of what's really happening, so what they produce can either only be seen, heard, or just sensed, which is the rarest of all them. However," she raised her chopsticks sharply, sending a noodle flying, to which she said 'oops' and moved on, "some ghosts become aware that they are dead, and become vengeful – the scenes that they recreate can become physical and harm people. If your ghost wants revenge, you could be in serious danger."

"Ah – what do I do, then?" I asked her, hanging my head. This was getting complicated.

"Well, let's see. Don't go into the courtyard at night. In fact, just stay in your room, and don't change anything else about the house – it might bring it to the attention of our ghost. Um, take care of everything – don't let it grow shabby, some ghosts hate that."

I knew Hirami was doing her best to help me with such little information, but I was too scared to get anything more for her.

I resigned myself to watch him again that night.

It was about eleven o'clock when I climbed out my window and onto my roof. I had brought a blanket with me and wrapped it around myself as I leaned against the pane, scanning the ground below me. I didn't feel like he was there, so I looked beyond the immediate ground, past the gathering of cherry trees that always seemed a little darker then everything else, and to the town lights – I could tell some people were still awake, though it didn't surprise me. I knew people would still have on their lights even at three in the morning.

Then I felt that by now familiar prickling of the skin and glanced down. He was there again, still staring at the cherry trees. I tried to get a better look at him, but it was useless. He was too far away, and too translucent for me to get a good look. But I waited nonetheless. I could hear crickets and owls not too far away, chirping and hooting like nothing was wrong. Then I heard the trill of a nightingale. I blinked as the ghost started, looking around him, then shaking his head. I watched as he took an uncertain step towards the trees, then vanished.

A moment later, a bird took flight. It looked real.

"Wha-? So the guy heard a bird, took a step, then vanished, eh?" Hirami was again sipping coffee that morning – she loved the different flavors it offered her. I nodded, munching on a muffin she had given me. She liked feeding me for some reason I had yet to understand. "Hm. So, then, you saw the bird, right?" I nodded again, licking my fingers. "And it looked real... well, it seemed he was surprised... I think your ghost is recognizing the real world. In the time that comes, he might try to influence the things around your house. Don't move them back, it might anger him. And..." She tapped her jaw, deep in thought. "And... Ah. Don't do anything that will startle him or hurt him." She glared at me. "Ghosts have feelings, too."

I sighed. "Hirami, I don't even know if this ghost is out to kill me – I don't even believe in ghosts!"

"Don't tell that to him." She sang as the bell rang, running to class.

She was right – when I got home, my bed was made. I had been in a hurry that morning and had forgotten to do it, running out the door before I could remember. I knew my father didn't do it – he had left before me, and he never got home before I did. Not to mention he usually didn't go into my room. I was a little nervous as I sat on my floor, writing my history report due next week. I was the kind of person that finished everything when I had the chance, and I never procrastinated. It drove Hirami nuts; she was the most laid back girl I'd ever met – we always wondered why we got along as well as we did, as did most of her other friends.

Besides being my best friend, Hirami was really my only friend. She told me I was the shy, lone wolf type, having one true friend, and knowing that that was all that counted. She, on the other hand, socialized with everyone any chance she got – however, she threw all of her social life away just to talk to me.

"You sure know how to pick your friends." She told me once as we sat on a park bench one afternoon.

I paused as I wrote the fourth paragraph. I sighed. We were both extremely loyal to each other – if she was in trouble, I knew I'd be with her in a flash.

I leaned over, pressing the on button on my stereo, keeping the volume low. I listened to the lyrics of Letting the Cables Sleep, and returned to my work.

At about six I finished, stretching out, working my muscles back into order, then wandering to the kitchen to find something to eat – that was when I saw my father's note.

Kito, I'm working overseas for the rest of the week – I came back and packed my stuff after I grocery shopped. I hope there's enough food to last you. If there's not, there's 300 yen in an envelope on the coffee table in the living room.

Ps. your bed wasn't made when I came home. I did it for you.

I let out a breath. So it wasn't the samurai ghost. I folded the note and stuck it in my pocket, then opened the fridge. I scanned the shelves, and then settled for something simple like Ramen and tea. I was a sucker for simple meals.

I decided that since my father wasn't going to be home, I could listen to my music in the main room. While the Ramen cooked, I ran up the stairs to my room and retrieved my CD's, then ran back to the kitchen to check on the Ramen. I took it off the stove and let it cool as I prepared the tea, then scampered into the main room, turning on the stereo.

I didn't even have to choose what I wanted – I popped the CD into the stereo and, keeping the volume low but audible, pressed play as I went back to the kitchen and poured my Ramen into a bowl, and my tea into a cup. Grabbing a pair of chopsticks, I reached the coffee table, which was low to the ground, unlike the American style table it was modeled after, and settled down to eat my dinner.

I was swaying to my music, halfway done with dinner when I got the tingling sensation, racing along my skin. I blinked and dropped my chopsticks, looking around the room. For some reason, I didn't think he was in the house. I crept to the back door and cracked it open a little, just so I could peer into the courtyard that was below my room. And I saw him – standing in the middle, like the nights before, staring at the cherry trees. I sniffed and poked my head out a little more, thinking that since I was closer, I could get a better look at him.

I couldn't. He seemed hazy in the night – all I could make out was his hair, his sword, and the outline of his clothes. I knew he was going to be out there for a while, so instead of wasting my time, I went back inside and ate the rest of my dinner, though it settled strangely in my stomach.

Hirami grabbed my shoulders. "The ghost made your bed!?" She almost yelled, then lowered her voice after a cursory glance around the lawn in front of school the next morning.

I shook my head. "No – I went downstairs and found a note from my father –he's working overseas for the week, and he made my bed for me."

"Oh." She cocked her head at me and let her arms fall to her side. "Well, then, why didn't you tell me before?"

"You kind of interrupted me before I could tell you..." She blinked then grinned.

"Oops."

"Well, anyway, so what happened? I promise I won't interrupt." She threw her hands in the air.

"I was eating dinner when the skin on my arms started tingling – it happened the night before, remember? So I went outside and he was still standing there, staring at the trees like he always does. And that was it, I just went back inside – I figured I was too close for comfort."

"Hm... Actually, unless people are trained to detect ghosts, they have the natural ability, or the ghost wants them to know, people don't usually have those tingling sensations. And, since you are definitely not trained, then either you have the natural talent, or the ghost wanted you to see him, which means that he must already be aware of reality."

"Oh great."

"This is so exciting!" She burst out, hopping up and down in front of me. "Wow, I just whish this was happening to me!"

"So do I." I muttered and we walked into the school hallways, waiting for the bell to ring.

The next night, I decided not to go out on my roof. I lay on my bed, staring at my ceiling with my music on low again. Hirami said I listened to it too much.

Eventually I felt the tingling rush over my skin, but I ignored it and shut my eyes tight, rolling onto my side and facing the wall. It stayed for a while, and I fell asleep with it bothering my flesh.

It was Saturday the next day and I realized I didn't have anything to do. I finished my homework the day before, even my papers my teachers had given just so the students had the entire weekend to complete them. I wondered what Hirami was doing. Sighing, I rolled out of bed and went downstairs, checking the time and pouring myself a bowl of cereal as well. It was about seven in the morning, and I knew that Hirami would never be up at this time.

I sighed; it seemed so lonely at my house, and didn't help that there was some strange samurai ghost floating around in my backyard. I washed my dishes when I was finished, then walked out onto the back porch, staring over the grass. I had immersed myself into thought about my current situation when I heard something odd; it sounded a bit like children's laughter in the distance. I snapped my head up and glanced around. Nothing was out of place, but Hirami had said that ghosts had three different kinds of ways in which they expressed their memories; hearing, sight, and sense. I was experiencing two of them at the moment, though I was straining to hear the laughter again.

It came, louder this time, and I started, feeling as if the children who were producing it were near me. I stood still, listening to them call out to each other. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but they seemed happy – in fact, the entire feel I was getting was happy, not the foreboding I had at night.

"Oooh, another experience? Just this morning? Hee!" She hopped in her seat, leaning forward over the booth table as she sat just opposite of me. I told her about the laughter, and what I felt from it, and the leaned back, her eyes bright. "I think it's another memory from your ghost!" I gave her a look. "Well, think of it – the only ghost you've seen is the boy, and whenever he appears, you can feel him, right? So you sense him in the morning, but he isn't any near you, so he must have been recreating a scene that only he could see, but you could hear. Unless those children are haunting the place, too..." She calmed down with the thought and looked a little sad. That prospect also sobered me. She sighed, shook her head, and stole some ice cream from me, enjoying it a little more then she should.

"Hirami? Hirami!" A voice called from across the shop, and we looked up to see two people making their way towards us, a girl and a boy our age, both of whom I'd never seen before. They stopped at our table, chattering happily to Hirami. Startled, she nodded as they asked to sit; the girl sat next to her, and the boy me.

"Hirami! It's been so long since we've seen you!" The girl said, propping her elbows onto the table. She was about to say something when she caught sight of me, finally, and stared. "Ooh, who's this, your boyfriend?"

"Ah! No!" She said, waving her arms about her at the same I shook my head vehemently.

"No? Yay, he's cute." I shrunk towards the wall under her look, trying to look smaller.

"Er, Sara, meet Kitosa, my best friend. Sara, Nikiro, meet Kitosa." They waved and greeted me, and I waved back. Nikiro looked me in the eye.

"Just call me Niki. Everyone else does."

"Ah..." I really didn't like people, so Hirami got over her shock and covered for me.

"Oh, just call him Kito, it's easier. He's a little shy, don't worry. Um, what have you two been up to?" She thankfully drew their attention back to her – well, she drew the girl's attention, but Niki was still looking at me. He propped his elbow on the table and leaned his cheek against his knuckles.

"So, Kito, how long have you known Hirami?" He asked, his voice so low it sounded like he whispered the question; it made my stomach quiver. I swallowed.

"Uh... three years." I knew I was whispering, as I backed into the wall a bit more. It seemed like he was getting closer.

"Three years, really?" He smiled, as if he knew he was making uncomfortable. "I knew her back in Junior High. Rami, Sara and I had the same homeroom. We spent a lot of time together."

I murmured acquiescence as I stared into his eyes. He blinked, then smiled broadly.

"Say, you have blue eyes."

"Ah..." He was flustering me so completely I couldn't even make conversation, had I wanted to at the time.

"Strange, actually – you don't see many people with such black hair, then have brilliant blue eyes. They aren't contacts, are they?" He pulled his face closer to mine, his breath sweeping over my cheek warmly as he stared at my eyes, which had widened in surprise. I shrank back even further and was about to fall off the seat and under the table when Sara yanked him off me by his collar, admonishing him. He ignored her and grinned sheepishly at me.

"Nope. Your eyes are the real deal."

"What?" Sara said, shaking him. "What about his eyes?"

He gestured to me. "Check them out for yourself, they're really blue."

She blinked, then got on her hands and knees on the booth seat, staring at my eyes. "Yeah, they are! Cool!"

She popped off the seat, and, giving Niki a final kick in the shins, sat back next to Hirami. "Weehee, Rami, we're did you pick him up?"

Hirami grinned and winked at me, covertly stealing more of my ice cream as she did so. "It was actually when we were freshmen. We had the same homeroom and..."

I was looking around for people I knew – or, at least, people I thought I knew. The first day was complete chaos; teachers were trying to figure out which students were theirs, students were trying to find which teachers were theirs, and then they were trying to get into the right classrooms.

I thought I spotted a friend from middle school – you remember him, Mika? I decided to surprise him and snuck up, then grabbed his shoulders and said 'boo!'

He over reacted a little too much and nearly tore out of the classroom, until I managed to calm him down and apologize – then I realized he wasn't Mika.

But, wow, what a cutie! Those blue eyes, with his black hair, man, I was ready to make friends with him just for his looks, never mind that he wasn't Mika!

He smiled shyly at me and I almost swooned. I would have swooned, but the teacher had finally made heads and tails of the class and ordered silence, setting the seating chart out. Luck upon luck, I sat at the same group table as Kito! While the other kids were introducing themselves to each other, he stayed silent and stared at his desktop. So, of course, I greeted him properly and asked his name, in exchange for mine. I had to hold myself back from asking his favorite food, movie, color, and brand of shoe along with his home phone number and address.

So he told me his name, and I told him mine, and he gave me another one of those shy smiles of his – it's taken a long time, but I think I'm finally immune to them. I could hardly sit still, since I faced him throughout the entire class as the teacher introduced himself, then asked for each student to stand up, state their name and something about themselves. Some people said some pretty outlandish things, and soon the entire class was competing with each other, trying to see who was the most unique.

When it was my turn, I stood and said, "My name is Hirami Kasekawa, and I believe in ghosts." Well, that shocked the class. Then I realized that it was Kito's turn, but he looked pretty horrified at the prospect of standing and talking in front of class. So, taking pity on him, I stood, pointed to him and said, "His name is Kitosa Mi, and besides being deathly shy, which is horribly cute, he likes the color deep red."

The teacher frowned, but the next person was already standing and talking, although most of the girls' eyes were on Kito, every one of them ogling him.

Kito was watching me throughout the rest of class until lunchtime, shocked. When we were able to eat, he dragged his homemade lunch out, unpacked it, and had a face full of me in his way.

"Wooow, a home cooked meal? Did your mother make it?" I asked, knowing I was being nosy, and probably a big pain, but I couldn't stop myself. His blue eyes widened, and he nodded jerkily.

"I... h-how... did you..." I blinked at him.

"Eh? How did I what?"

"How did you know I liked red?" He forced out, swallowing.

I grinned. "Because I'm psychic." I told him.

"Y-You are?"

I sighed. "Pffft. I wish." I cupped my chin in my palm, watching him as he stared at me. "Nope, just a lucky guess."

"Oh." He said, looking relieved. "Because... you said you believed in ghosts, then you knew my favorite color... and..."

"No, don't worry, I'm not psychic. But that was pretty cool." I looked down at his lunch, then stole a rice ball. "Mind if I pilfer your meal?" He shook his head, gave me another one of his melting shy looks, and I munched away, completely ecstatic.

Sara was watching Hirami avidly, clasping her hands together as she leaned forward in the booth – Niki was even paying more attention to his old friend then he was to me, for which I was grateful, and I think Hirami knew it. But that didn't mean I wasn't sucked into her telling of our meeting, either.

She finished and grinned, earning herself another smile from me. "See! That's the smile! Oh, it's so cute." I thunked my head into my arms, which lay on the counter before me, my entire ice cream sundae gone – and in my best friends eager hands. Sara squealed and bounced.

"Ooh, that was so cute! I am so jealous of you! I want Kito, now." I shrunk into myself again, making myself smaller then I really was, which was small enough all ready.

Niki sighed and moved closer to me so I could feel his body warmth besides me. "Yeah. I want him, too."

"I think you're scaring him, Niki." Sara said, kicking him under the table.

"Ow! Sara, you're an abusive friend." Niki whined, reaching down to rub his injured shin. Unfortunately, he had to lean over to reach, and he chose to lean towards me. I stifled a groan, and remained still as his shoulder rubbed against my side. My face was becoming incredibly hot. I couldn't bring it up to face everyone; I thought it would just melt off. Thankfully, Hirami saved the day.

"Hey, I don't think he's feeling to well. Why don't you guys run along, I'll talk to you later? I'm gonna take him home." Sara pouted, but grabbed Niki, who was trying to climb on top of me to see just what was the 'matter' with me. My skin couldn't possibly burn any hotter.

"Oh, I wanna talk to Kito, too!" Sara said, hugging Hirami good-bye. They exchanged phone numbers, since they had lost them after ninth grade, and bid each other farewell. Sara had to yank Niki away before he could attack me again, and they shouted goodbye to me as well on their way out.

"Okay, Kitosa?" Hirami sat besides me, linking her hand with mine. I felt my skin cool off as she sat there, holding my hand, being a friend as only she could be. I leaned against her and she ran her fingers through my hair. My face was rapidly returning to room temperature. I sighed, and dared to raise my head.

"Thank you, Hirami." She grinned at me and winked again, kissing me on the forehead.

"Anything for you, kitten." I groaned and butted my head against her arm, making her laugh.

We went back to my house and hung out, as she liked to call it. I made her rice balls, Ramen, and tea, and we listened to some music she could understand as we ate, talking about random things. I realized that we weren't talking about the ghost, but I pushed the thought from my mind.

"So, I take it you didn't like Niki?" I chocked on my tea and she leaned over, patting me on the back until I got it out of my windpipe. I looked at her, wiping the corners of my mouth with a napkin.

"I... it's not that... um..."

"Okay, so you like Niki and Sara, but you just don't like their over eager, flirty friendliness?"

I nodded, at a loss. I could never hide something from Hirami. "And... uh. He was getting..."

"A little too friendly? Yeah, that's Niki." She shook her head. "He's always hitting on me or Sara – even though he likes boys."

It didn't surprise my, what with the way he acted, but I still blinked at her.

"He's nice, once you get used to him hitting on you constantly."

I smiled gently and glued my eyes on my tea.

"So, are you doing anything tomorrow?" I knew what this was getting to, and I figured she wouldn't make me do anything I couldn't handle – and if I couldn't, she'd get me out of there.

"No. I'll go, though. Don't worry."

She smiled and threw a noodle at me.

So the next day found me with Hirami, Sara, and Niki in the park, participating, however timidly, in a full out picnic. We found a secluded area, where there seemed to be no paths, and we couldn't hear the cars. Looking around, I realized we were close to my house.

Hirami had, of course, asked me to make the majority of the meal, but I made her help. Unfortunately, her idea of helping was making a mess and the end result was that most of the food ended up on the floor, and not in the picnic basket.

So I brought most of the food, Sara brought the blanket, Niki brought stuff to drink, and Hirami... brought me. Though it was simple, it seemed to please Sara and Niki... a lot.

"Kito, this is great!" Sara cried. "I love home made meals! I can't believe you know how too cook so well!" She didn't seem as interested in the food insomuch as she was interested with adhering me to her breasts. I didn't like it.

While Sara busied herself with trying to force me down her bra, Niki contented himself with sitting on my other side, watching the entire thing with an amused look in his eyes. Eventually, though, Hirami claimed me again and the two backed down, though they watched me as I cowered by her side.

Most of the time, Hirami, Niki, and Sara talked about 'the old times'; laughing as they remembered the crazy things they did when they were in middle school, I was content just listening to them, letting Hirami steal my food as I ate – she had some kind of a disease where she had to steal my food every chance she got. Either that or throw food at me. I called her the Food Kleptomaniac. Then she started reminiscing, on Sara and Niki's insistence, about our strange adventures.

"Well, there was this one time when the power went out, near the end of the freshmen year, and the teachers were all freaking out. It seemed that someone had blown a fuse, and no one could figure out how to fix it. Kito, here, offered, real quietly, to help, but no one thought he could do it. He just asked me, then, for my hair clip, which was metal, a nail clipper, and a rag, then went down to the fuse box, which was in the basement. Of course I went with him – let my cutie Kito die all alone in the basement of the school? Never! So, anyway, we brought this flashlight with us, right, and when we made it down there, he shone it on the wires. It looked pretty messed up, to me, and he said it looked like an animal had chewed through the plastic coating, then fried itself on the wires. So, well, he disentangled all the wires, and found the one that had been chewed through. Just then, the handyman found us, and asked us what we were doing. I explained as Kito worked, so I don't know what he did, but after a crackle of electricity came from behind me, the lights all turned on. The guy blinked, then pushed me aside to look at the wiring. He told Kito off, who just walked off with me up the stairs as the man starting cursing behind us. We got to the first floor and I told all the people who'd gathered there what Kito did, and they all cheered; as soon as I told them that we'd run into the handyman, and he was fiddling with the wires now, the science lab blew up."

Niki choked, then started laughing as Sara began to giggle. I smiled at the memory and laid my head in Hirami's lap.

"I remember that." I said, quietly. She brushed the hair away from my eyes and I stared at the canopy of tree branches above my. Niki laid on his stomach beside me, his face near mine.

"Ooh, he talks again!" I immediately flushed and turned my face so it was in Hirami's stomach. I could feel his breath on the nape on my neck. I curled onto my side, nervous again. "Say, Kitosa, why don't you have any friends besides Rami?"

I could hear Hirami and Sara clobber him, Sara yelling about indecent behavior, and Hirami saying something about wrong things to ask people. He apologized, fending them off as best he could.

But I answered him anyway.

"Because the day I met Hirami was the first day I'd ever been to school."

"Eh?" Sara said, all commotion behind me ceasing.

"What do you mean?" Hirami asked, almost as quietly as I had spoken.

"I home schooled my entire life before I met you, Hirami. It was my father's idea, so I could progress as fast or as slow as it fitted me. I progressed fast."

"Oh. You told me. You said that that was how you had learned English and French. But... you never said you'd been home schooled your entire life."

I nodded, then sat up, my back still to them and my knees drawn to my chest, my arms around them. "Yeah. I was well beyond freshmen classes when I enrolled, but my mother didn't want me to start in the wrong age group – and it was my mother's idea for me to attend a real school, so I could interact with other children."

"Why did your mom suddenly want you to go to public school?" Niki asked, for once not so near to me that I would go hot all over.

"Because – she said that it wasn't good for me to live my life with no human contact other then herself and my father. When my father asked her what she was talking about, she told him he would see sooner or later. About a week after that conversation, we went to a restaurant and my mother told me to give my order to the waiter, who was looking at me so... expectantly. I couldn't do it. I just sat in my chair, staring at the tablecloth, hunched over with my face getting hot. I heard my father gasp – he'd never realized just how estranged from humanity I really was. I couldn't even..."

"Give your order to the waiter." Hirami whispered, her arms going around me. "Oh, kitten."

Sara and Niki remained quiet as Hirami held me close. She was the one person I could talk to, and when I didn't, she already knew what I was thinking. She was my link to the human race. She was my best, and only, friend.

Since we were so close to my house, that's where we ended at the end of the day. I put the rest of the food away, the stuff we didn't eat, as the others got comfortable in the living room. Looking outside, I watched the sun set slowly over the horizon. When I finished, I walked into the living room and sat near Hirami on one of the couches. Niki was trying to stare Sara down, the winner getting who knows what, the loser getting a good whack on the head.

"Ha!" Niki yelped, jumping up and pointing at Sara, who hung her head, muttered, and slumped in the couch. He performed a little dance, then Hirami asked him what he prize was going to be – he eyed me, grinned, then pounced onto the cushion next to me, clinging to my arm. "I get to cuddle with Kito! Hee!"

I could feel my skin grow warm, but oddly enough, it wasn't the nervous heat I got when people usually touched me, though I was certainly nervous, if not downright anxious. He was attached to my arm, dangit! He almost purred with content and I exchanged looks with Hirami, who raised an eyebrow, then caught Sara pouting at her lost chance. Hirami proposed that we watch a movie, and, after I pried Niki away from me, I helped her choose, pretending to disagree just for fun. She knew what I liked, I knew what she liked, and we both liked to tease each other.

After the movie ended, Niki and Sara left with Hirami, Niki promising to come over again – though I was kind of nervous about this. It sounded a bit like a happy threat, to me. I hugged Hirami and watched them leave.

It was about eleven when I finally collapsed into my bed. I was tired from the days events, and was ready to sleep, but knew I couldn't. This was the first fun day I'd had with more then one person in my entire life. I thought about Hirami and her two friends. I could just picture them all in the seventh grade, being outrageous, flamboyant. She seemed to fit so well with them – I wondered where I fit in.

Then the sensation came to me, and I ignored it again, forcing myself to stay in bed. It had happened last night as well – both times I ignored it and fell asleep.

Tonight would be no different.

Throughout the next week, the tingling sensation became worse – I almost couldn't stand it, but I held my ground, clinging to the bed in refusal to answer the call. My father came home and checked on me, and I hadn't heard from Niki or Sara, though I was partially relieved about this. The school week progressed well, and I told Hirami how I was trying to ignore the call, and how it was getting stronger – needless to say, she was very interested.

"That's so weird. Well, not really, actually." She gave me a quick grin. "Whatever he's staring at is really important to him, obviously, and he's trying to tell you something. Maybe he doesn't even know he's trying to tell you something."

I frowned, then looked at her. "But he hasn't... become aware... to the real world, yet, right?"

"Probably not. You see, he could be unconsciously becoming aware of reality. Because you saw him, he might just be trying to get you to help him. It's not everyday that someone who's untrained sees ghosts."

I sighed. "This is getting complicated."

I felt the calling again, stronger than ever that night as I lay in bed. It almost hurt physically. I curled into a ball on my bed, tangling myself in the covers, ready to wait out the entire thing – then it stopped. I blinked. It had never stopped before. I became suspicious almost immediately, but refused to budge. I closed my eyes tightly.

Then the hair on the back of my neck stood on end and Goosebumps raised themselves on my arms and legs; I opened my eyes and he was right in front of me, staring out the window, watching something I probably wouldn't be able to see go by. I froze, my entire body tensing as I watched him, wide eyed. I wanted to sleep on the couch downstairs, but I didn't want to catch his attention by moving. I felt boxed in. I narrowed my eyes sleepily, keeping them open only so I could watch him. I wondered if he would stay for the rest of the night, or vanish in a few moments.

It was a tortured night, for me.

I was extremely tired the next day in school – I'd gotten no sleep last night, and what was worse was that I wasn't able to find Hirami before school started. I sat through homeroom barely alive; students at my group table became worried about me and a girl gave me some of her coffee, which helped a little, so I smiled at her, which made her blush. I wondered if Hirami was right about my smile.

When lunch came I asked that same girl to help me find Hirami, because I doubted I could find her on my own. She seemed ecstatic that I would ask for her help and took off, searching high and low for her. Eventually, she came back, dragging Hirami by the arm, fairly bouncing with excitement.

"Kito? What is it? Ooh, you look like a cute kind of hell." She said as she came closer. I just groaned and stuck my head on her shoulder, trying not to fall asleep. She thanked the girl for me and I smiled at her again, making her blush and float away. I didn't get it, but forgot about it quickly.

"Hirami, the samurai boy..." She lifted my head up and stared at me.

"What? What did he do? Did he hurt you?!"

"No..." I fell forward again. "He just drove me insane. Instead of staying outside and calling me, he came inside my room and I couldn't sleep. I couldn't run down stairs and sleep on the couch because he was right in front of my bed."

"Wow. He really wants you to look in the cherry trees."

"But I don't wanna!"

"Heh heh, Kito, I've never heard you whine before!"

I made a noise and buried my head farther into her shoulder.

"Aw, kitten, it's okay."

I went home and tried to figure out how I could get to sleep that night – an idea popped into my head and while I waited for my father to come home, I finished my homework, which was incredibly easy, seeing as I had done this kind of work when I was twelve. I heard the front door open and I set my papers aside and rushed downstairs.

"Dad!" I called, and he blinked and peered up at me.

"Yes, Kitosa?"

"Um..." I suddenly lost my nerve, but I knew I couldn't repeat today's events again. "I've been having trouble sleeping. I was wondering if we might get some sleeping pills from the pharmacy."

He smiled. "Of course, Kitosa. Just don't become attached to them, you could get addicted." I nodded.

"I know, dad. I've tried everything else I could conceive – this was a last resort."

"Alright. We'll go after I've put my things away, okay? Wait here." Again I nodded and stood by the door as he walked up the stairs and stowed his work jacket and brief case. He came back down and we left.

I just hoped this would work.

It only took a few moments to reach the store, and a few moments more to locate the sleeping pills. I was scanning the shelves, trying to decipher which would be the easiest to take, and keep from being addicted to it when I heard someone call my name.

"Kitosa! Kitosa, is that you?!" Sara walked up the isle, full of bounce. "Ooh, it is you, Kito! Wow, what are you doing here?" She latched onto my arm, staring into my face. I realized I wasn't much taller then her.

"I, uh, haven't been sleeping well." I stammered, trying discretely to dislodge my arm from between her breasts. She hung on, like always.

"Oh, poor you. Looking for sleeping pills? I'm here to pick up my brother's antibiotics. Niki's with me, somewhere."

I gulped and I heard a cough behind me. I turned and saw my father smiling, amused, down at me.

"Kito, mind introducing me to your friend?"

"Ahh..." I fumbled for the words for a moment, then gave up trying to reclaim my limb. "Father, this is Sara, Sara, this is my father." Just then, someone else grabbed me from behind. I think I knew who it was. "Father, this is Niki, Niki, my father."

Niki peered around me and up at my dad, who was watching this with hidden glee. I guess he was happy I had friends that... liked... me so much. If only he knew.

"Hi! It's so nice to meet you! I met Kito here last week in an ice cream parlor – he was with Hirami. Sara and I went to Junior high with her."

"Wow, you look nothing like your father – except for the hair, that is." Sara gushed, staring at my dad as well. "Do you get your looks from your mother, then?"

I coughed and blushed. My father's smile faltered for a moment. "Actually, yes, Kito does get his looks from his mother."

Niki grinned. "Really? I got my looks from my mother, too. Sara got hers from a dog."

Sara yelped and kicked him, and he amended his statement quickly. "A really cute dog."

She let go of me and chased after Niki, who ran as fast as he could. Sara yelled goodbye as they ran out the door, threatening Niki as she went.

"Seems like some nice kids." My dad noted idly, examining a box. I sighed.

"You're really excited about that scene, aren't you?"

He cocked an eyebrow at me. "Oh? And why would you say that?"

I pointed to the box in his hand. "You were reading the box upside down."

I made dinner when we returned home, and near the end I swallowed a pill, then fell into bed. I was completely drained. I felt like I'd been killed twice, dragged through two layers of hell, and had meat balls thrown at my in the course of an hour, then having that event filled hour repeat itself over and over for the time period of an entire day. I closed my eyes, feeling the effect of the pill wash over me already.

If he called me, I never knew.

I told Hirami about my plan, and after lecturing me about all the safety precautions I should take while using the medication, she patted me on the back and congratulated me for a good idea. Throughout the entire day I didn't feel tired in the least, nor did I feel any after effects from the pill.

I just hoped the samurai boy wouldn't take it personally.

The weekend came quickly. My dad had secluded himself in his room, working on a big project, so even though he was physically there, the house still felt lonely, and even more spooky because I knew the samurai boy could be within the walls. Saturday morning caught me padding down the stairs in a t-shirt too big so that it hung off one of my shoulders, and my red cotton pajama bottoms. My hair was a mess, but no one was around, so I didn't care. I reheated some rice and chicken for breakfast – not only did I like simple, but I considered anything breakfast food. I sat at the table and munched on my reheated fare, wondering what I would do.

It occurred to me that Niki and Sara might try to give me a visit – I wasn't particularly in the mood for them, but I knew that if I didn't answer the door while my father was upstairs, he would with glee, letting them have free reign in the house, which was probably a death sentence for me. It was nine when I washed my dishes and went upstairs to get dressed – I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, but I didn't want to stay in the house.

I wore a red shirt and a pair of jeans, pulling on two different socks, hoping that they were clean, then my sneakers, and grabbed my Discman and CDs and walked out the back door. I walked past the cherry trees, ignoring them on purpose as I angled myself towards the small forest that started on our land, then spilled a little over, making the park. I let my feet take me to the spot I wanted to go, with my headphones on and my pace casual. The sun warmed my back as I went, the breeze keeping any unbearable heat at bay. I loved these kinds of days. I walked through gatherings of trees, branches closely knitted together, relationships which I treated gently – I rarely broke away branches, merely tugging them so I could pass.

It only took me fifteen minutes to get to the creek – ten feet wide, five feet at the deepest area, with a slow, lazy current, the water was a healthy, unpolluted blue and green. When the sun got in the right place, the creek was dazzling, and warm, yet cool. I sat on the slope just above the water – If I took a running leap from the ledge, which was no more then a foot off the water, then I'd probably be able to almost make it all the way across the creek.

The grass at my back was cool – the sun had yet to touch it, with the branches of wide leafed trees yawning overhead. I closed my eyes, letting the lyrics from my earphones drift over me.

Hirami couldn't understand English, so she didn't know what the song was about – it was my favorite, but not even I knew if what I heard were the correct lyrics.

You were in the dark... You were in pain... You're in the wrong...

I let myself fall asleep to the slow pace of the song, the sad, nostalgic mood sweeping over me.

"I can't take this anymore! Why are you being so secretive!? Why? Are you having an affair? What?" I could hear my father and mother downstairs, arguing again – they had been arguing a lot, lately. I was just as curious as my father was as he asked what was wrong with my mother.

It was the summer after sophomore year – in fact, there were only a few days until I started my junior year at high school, and I was afraid that maybe... my mother wouldn't be with me anymore. I didn't know what was going on, but she was becoming distant and less interested in my father – she treated me almost the same as she had before, except it felt like whenever she touched me, she thought I would break.

My mother and I had made dinner that evening together while my dad worked on something down the hall, I wasn't quite sure what it was, but he came when the food was ready, and we had all sat down to eat. I hadn't noticed before, but meals together had been getting tense, with almost no conversation between anyone – my mother still spoke to me, but it was as if she couldn't bring herself to look my father in the eye – like she was guilty of something.

After dinner, I had wanted to get away as soon as possible, and so excused myself from the table and ran up the stairs to my room. I turned on my music, not loudly, as I never played my music loudly unless I had my earphones on, but even then the volume was soft. For a while, nothing happened. Then I heard the voices, angry, downstairs. I sat on my bed, staring at the door, not wanting to see what was happening. I thought I knew what was happening, and how it would end. My mother and father would sleep in separate bedrooms, still angry at each other. But I slipped out of my room anyway.

I was peering down the staircase, sitting at the railing, my hands curled around the vertical supports, one leg hanging over the edge, dangling. I listened to them – my father had never accused my mother before tonight. There was silence below.

"I..." My mothers voice drifted up to me, and my stomach froze. Oh no! She was having an affair!? "I..."

I heard my father sag onto the couch, and I could just image him with his forehead in his palm, fingers digging into his skull. "Oh god, you are having an affair." I heard my mother sit down, maybe next to him, I didn't know. I couldn't see a thing. "Why didn't you just... Tell me?"

"Mikura..." My mother said softly. I felt tears coming to my eyes. She always said my fathers name so gently.

"Who – Who is he?"

There was another bout of silence before my mother answered.

"It's... Kase Minin... a coworker of mine."

My father was quiet, digesting this. I couldn't believe it. My mother was cheating on dad.

"Suka, what does he have... that I don't? Do you think I don't love you enough?"

When she answered, I could almost hear a smile in her voice. "What does Kase Minin have that you don't? Try estrogen."

My father was only silent for a moment before he responded. "Kase is a woman?! You're having an affair with a woman?! I don't know... whether to be relieved or insulted."

I walked back into my room and shut my door, leaning against it.

The tingling sensation was what woke me from my memories. Before I could recognize it, I struggled to sit up, yawning and rubbing my eyes, noting off handedly that the sun was an hour away from being directly above me, which meant it was around eleven. I swept my gaze over the air, then blinked. On the other side of the creek in front of me, I saw two lines of short figures. Pale, see through, and tinted blue, I knew they were ghosts. Each had a kendo stick in their hand, one line facing the other. It looked like a practice of some sort. Then I noticed the samurai boy. With his own blade out, he walked between the lines, saying something I couldn't hear. He reached the end and turned toward them, demonstrating whatever he had been talking to them about.

The smaller forms, which I expected to be children, grinned at him, faced each other, then slowly moved towards the center, bowing, then presenting their swords. The left line executed the move the boy had shown them, the right line blocking. The longhaired boy smiled at them, then said a word, and they performed again. They did this multiple times, until the samurai boy was satisfied with the results. He moved on to the next move, which they copied with delight.

My mouth hung open, and I knew I was smiling a little.

"Kito!" Someone tackled me to the ground and startled me. Warm breath fell against my ear as I tried to pry them off. I knew the tactics – Niki had found me. How, I don't know, but the fact remained that he was on top of me and I was finding it difficult to get him off.

"Niki... Get... Off..." I gasped, trying to get some air. He blinked, then scrambled off me, to kneel on his hands and knees by my side, peering into my face as I caught my breath, still on my back in the grass.

"You okay, Kitosa?" He asked, somehow getting his breath to float across my cheek. I closed my eyes, trying to will away the flush that was starting to form. I groaned and sat up, rubbing my chest – I quickly glanced at the opposing bank, to see that the children and the samurai boy were still there, going on unmindful of Niki's antics.

Speaking of Niki, he was currently snuggling into my side as he lay next to me, grabbing my arm so I lost my support and fell back onto the ground. My head bounced on the ground, my free hand automatically reaching under it to nurse the bruise.

"This is a nice place." Niki observed astutely, once he'd stopped trying to get his face in my neck. I didn't quite know what to do, so I asked him if my father let him in. "Yup!" he cried, grinning. "I like your dad! He's cool. He told me that you were probably in the forest. Man, I thought that the park was near your house – I didn't know that you practically live on the park!"

"Not really." I squirmed. "We just don't have a fence to mark our property line. Besides, no one goes very far into the park, anyway, so not many people know."

He murmured something I couldn't hear, but what he said next was loud enough. "Hey, I didn't know that you were much of a nature fan. I figured you spent most of your time reading books or something."

"I like reading." I noted off handedly. "But I prefer being in here, listening to music. It's nice."

"Ooh, you listen to music? What kind?"

I think he realized he was getting a much better conversation out of me then usual, so he was trying to make the best of it. I wondered why I was talking to him – wait, I figured if I kept him talking, he would be too distracted to grope me anymore.

"Different kinds. I like blues the most."

"Really? What are you listening to now?"

I realized that I had my Discman with me. The words drifted out, audible now that I remembered about the devise.

... Silence is not the way ... We need to talk about it ... If heaven is on the way ...

I translated the words into Japanese so he could understand them.

He was silent for a moment. "That's... well... I don't really know. I want to say nice, but it's also ... strange."

I half shrugged. He asked me whose song it was.

"It's an American band. It doesn't matter." I just didn't want to tell him. I changed the subject. "How did you find me? This is a hard place to locate."

I could hear the grin in his voice. "I'm pretty good at nature stuff, so I could tell which way you'd gone because of your foot prints. It didn't take me long to find you!"

"Hm. Did you come with anyone else?"

"Nah. It's just me. Why? Planning on killing me?" I blinked.

"Was that a joke?"

"Depends."

"Uh... I'll take that as a joke."

"Whatever you want, Ki-chan." He seemed to have found a new nickname for me. "Hey, wanna go for a swim?"

Before I could protest or agree, he yanked me up, somehow set aside my Discman without damaging it, and tossed me into the water, fully clothed. I came up sputtering, trying to find him so I could glare... Niki was tossing aside his shirt and removing his socks and shoes when I saw him. He looked me in the eye, then jumped into the water as well, surfacing not too far from me.

I was thankful that I wasn't so short as I couldn't reach the bottom, being 5'3" and the area I was in was almost five feet deep – I could keep my chin above water, but little else unless I went to a shallower area. Niki grinned as he made his way to my side. I glared.

"That wasn't funny."

"Maybe not, but you wouldn't have come in with me if I hadn't thrown you."

"And how the hell did you throw me so far?"

To this, he laughed. "I'm a lot stronger then I look – and you're extremely light, did you know that? It's almost as if you were made of nothing. I think I could've almost thrown to all the way across if I hadn't realized you were that light in time."

I gaped at him, then glared again, then swam to the bank, pulled myself up and rolled onto the grass.

"Hey, what are you doing?!"

"Since you decided to throw me into the water with all my clothes on, I need to take them off and let them dry." I was busy unlacing my sneakers while I spoke, peeling off my socks and laying them over the ground where they would get the most sun.

" All of them?!" Niki cried, not even trying to hide the gleeful note in his voice.

" No." I said, emphasizing the word. Not with you around. I thought to myself as I yanked off my shirt and laid it out as well. Niki whistled appreciatively, and I glared again. He cocked his head to the side as I slipped back into the water, watching him warily.

"You know, Kitosa, you're a very different person in nature."

I blinked. "What?"

"Yeah. You seem surer of yourself here. You usually stutter a lot. Like in the ice cream parlor – you could barely keep your head up, much less talk to me. Then in the drug store, you could barely get out the introductions."

I went back to glaring. "Oh yeah? Well, what about the park, or my house? I didn't talk much there, either."

He grinned. "Are you kidding? At the park, you even revealed a little about yourself to Rami! You totally volunteered that information; we didn't have to drag that info from you in the least – and at your house, while you didn't talk, you seemed a little looser then usual. Maybe it was because you were so close to this place."

"So? What's your point?"

"My point is..." He maneuvered a little closer to me. I was a little nervous, but I held my ground, despite that strange look in his eyes. "You're so cute!" He pounced on me, dunking me under the water. I squirmed out from under him, coming up for breath. He splashed me, ducking under the water as I retaliated. He came up almost in front of me; before I could push him under, he grabbed my wrists and pushed me back against the ledge.

The sun peeked in the sky, and the creek was a collection of dazzling lights, refracting and casting an opalescent luminosity upon the entire area. The light reflected even into Niki's eyes – which I realized weren't exactly brown, but a little purple mixed in as well. Close up, his eyes looked like the color burgundy. He smiled.

"Really, really blue." He murmured, then closed in, capturing my lips with his own. My eyes widened as he cupped my face in his hands, his eyes already closed. I forgot to breath in that period of time, frozen in motion and brain function. He caught my lower lip lightly between his teeth, nibbling softly on it – I could feel the impression of a smile against my lips.

Then my brain sparked to life and I realized what he was doing – he was pinning me against the ledge and kissing me. His tongue darted out, and I realized; he was readily trying to open mouth kiss me. I managed to take a breath, and I pushed him away from me, feeling my skin tingle with anger. I glared at him as he opened his eyes, surprised, then I pulled myself, dripping wet with water running off me, onto the bank, rolling to get to my feet – I bypassed my clothes and Discman unconsciously and just stalked away from the creek and Niki.

Even in my anger, though, I followed my correct path, my feet knowing the way despite being bare. I walked across the field, then started as I saw the Samurai ghost in the courtyard, staring at the copse of Cherry trees again. I narrowed my eyes, on my last nerve, nerves which had been growing thin lately.

"There's nothing in there damnit." I snarled, and changed my direction so I walked towards the tangle of trees, apprehensions gone in favor of irk. I almost stepped within the darkness of the trees when I felt a slight tremor in the earth and a ghastly moan, unlike anything I'd ever heard before. I was about to take another step, which would have placed me in the darkness, but a cool hand wrapping itself around my wrist stopped me, yanking my back against an equally cool chest. My skin began to tingle, and I was about to get angry at whoever was behind me, thinking it was Niki; instead, I watched the cherry trees avidly. Something seemed to seep out of their shadows – I rubbed my eyes, thinking I had seen something. Then I heard a whisper in my ear, words belonging to a voice I didn't recognize.

"You woke it..." I shuddered, my eyes wide. Everything in me was creaming for me to run. To get away. I realized I was breathing hard when the person behind me lowered me to the ground, laying me on the grass and kneeling besides me. For some reason, I couldn't quite see them – it was as if the darkness had blinded me. Slowly, my breathing came under control as the panic I felt subsided. My mind raced – maybe the 'it' had only stirred. Maybe 'it' didn't really awaken.

I closed my eyes, squeezing them shut, trying to get them to work.

"Are you feeling well?" The voice asked, brushing my bangs aside in a way that comforted me, strangely.

"I think..." I whispered, not wanting to speak loudly at the moment. I was too shaken. Before I even opened my eyes, I spoke once more. I asked them, "Who are you?"

There was a moment's pause. "Ah. When I was alive... My name was Fue."

My eyes flung open.

It was the samurai boy.

The ghost.

[chapter end]

Yes, I know, it's pretty long – originally, this was going to be one long story, but then I decided – well, hell, why not? Maybe there will be four chapters or so – very long, telling most of the story. See, the reason I ended this and made it a chapter was because there's a major plot development on the way – I suppose this was a prologue, something a little before the story, but necessary, damnit! In the next chapter, Kito realizes that Fue's aware he's dead – and they kind of form a strange relationship – where Kito constantly has to reassure everyone he's not insane, because it looks like he's talking to himself! The only one who knows he's conversing with the ghost is Hirami, but she's so playful, she pretends she doesn't know, and gives him strange looks, anyway. ^^

Took me long enough to introduce Fue. This was actually a fanfic but I changed Fue's name to… uh.. Fue. Two guesses as to what fandom this story belongs to. There's a lot of shit that's going to happen later. A Lot. Surprisingly, too. Whatever.

Anyway, for you who haven't hit the back button a million times, trying to get out of this hellhole of a fic, please review and tell me what you think – I want input. It help me get better. Criticism, all of it, don't care, want. Want. O_o;