Ghost
Prologue
Dark, moist, and the smell of death; those were the basic compounds that made up the morgue. A lot of people probably wondered how people could consider this a "living". That's a story left for another day though. This is a story that essentially, for all you are concerned, "never happened" a tale that has been left untold for the sake of public sanity.
The weather for today was gloomy at best. The clouds seemed to bring an omen of death with them, just hanging over the city. Today was a day of change. Today was the day the clock would stop for just a few moments, the day the world would stop turning for just a second, the day that an unforeseen commodity would stop the hand of God, even for just a quick instant. Today was the end of everything we knew, it was the beginning of us understanding.
7:48PM, a delivery had just been made to the city morgue of a fresh new cadaver. Preparations for the autopsy had begun just seconds after it had entered. The new recruit had just reeled in the body and pulled the sheet down to reveal the face of the, "sleeping" victim.
There was an officer present for the unveiling, who emitted a sigh at yet another young life lost. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and nodded. He muttered out a simple "let's get some coffee before we do this."
"So, what's the deal Doctor?" Spoke the officer.
"Looks pretty standard, victim was shot in the heart, death occurred mere seconds later." Responded the doctor.
"Looks like we have got some work to do then, huh? Only question that remains: who was she?" The officer quizzed.
The doctor lifted up the clipboard with her information, reading it off. "Says here that her name was, Chikaru Minamoto. She was a detective, mostly of the crazy variety, but one of the best there was."
"So, we got a cop killer on our hands then?" He replied, sipping from his cup.
"I don't think so; I mean she had a lot of enemies, so this could easily be a revenge crime. It's too soon to assume anything really." Said the doctor.
"Doctor! Doctor! Doctor!" Screamed a voice from down the hall, getting closer with each call.
"What is it?" Asked the officer.
"Doctor, you have to see this. It's the body we just brought in, I've never seen anything like this before!" He wailed, almost in tears.
"I understand you're new, but surely you've seen a dead body before. Nothing out of the ordinary about it, she was shot in the chest and died, calm down." The doctor answered.
"No doctor, I don't think you've seen anything like this…" The other pointed out.
Curious, the doctor gestured for the officer to follow him to take a look. He obliged, but not before grabbing his cup to take with him. Making their way down the hall to the area with the bodies, the other doctor was behaving frantically the entire time.
The moment the trio entered the room, a loud shatter of a coffee mug pierced everyone's ears. The officer had dropped his mug in shock of what was being witnessed before him. There on the autopsy table, sat the previously dead Chikaru Minamoto. Completely naked, she gazed back at them through her thick locks. Life was in her eyes, not just that, but fire; passionate fire. The spark of life radiated from her so strongly that it was impossible for them to mistake her as dead previously.
There had always been stories of the detective's powerful gaze. Many had said that her amber eyes were rarely visible behind her unmanageable hair, but there they were, filled with fire.
A/N: Okay, so to make things clear as to what's happening for the reader: This is a mere few hours after the events of Near the Lake. So for those that remember (spoiler alert, but why are you reading a sequel before reading the original?) Chikaru, having just solved the Larkin, and Kaori case had just ventured into trying to stop Grace and Sophie. The death of Grace (Previously known as the Goddess of the Demon) had cost Chikaru her life. Last we all recall seeing her, Rayne was carrying her outside as the police were showing up. So we are only a matter of hours away from that instance.
So, how has everyone been? Yup, I'm pretty much an ass. I disappear for a long time, especially after promising more. Here's the story: I left fanfiction behind me to pursue more original works. I noticed however that the third Strawberry Panic! Light novel was finally going to be translated after about 2 years of delay, so I decided as celebration I would finally follow up on that promise of a SP FF since the fanbase is pretty much seeing the end of the series soon. So this is my present to you. I want to say you can expect fairly frequent releases. I am expecting this one to be fairly long, so get ready. What's to come? Well this IS going to be another Chikaru POV story, so don't hope to escape that. I won't give away much, but I WILL say that some of the other characters ARE returning.
Anyways, if you have questions, concerns, or just want to yell at me for taking 9001 years to produce crap, you are always free to PM me.
