Ghost

Kari Takaishi strode down the Tokyo streets at around 10:32 PM, humming "O, Christmas Tree" to herself. A gentle snow fell, coating the pavement and buildings with a soft white powder, the best kind of snow. Acting on a sudden impulse, Kari suddenly stuck out her tongue to catch a snowflake and tasted it, smiling at the peculiar sensation of the cool ice crystal melting in her mouth.

She'd been engaged to her childhood friend, T.K. Takaishi, for around two weeks now, and looking back, she could honestly say that her life had been pretty darn good. Considering that her new apartment was pretty close, she took her usual shortcut through an alleyway, unsuspecting of the potential danger. But who could blame her? She'd taken this path a few dozen times before and nothing had happened yet, so she had no reason to suspect anything tonight.

Once she was halfway through, however, she noticed a few more shadows than usual, and looking up, noted a tall man at the far end of the alley. As soon as she looked at his face, Kari knew she was in trouble, particularly considering the evident malicious glee behind his eyes and the lethal smirk. The man said, "Y'know what, lady? It ain't a good idea, walkin' down these mean streets at night wi'out an escort. Lucky for you, my boys an' I jus' happen ta be in the protection business."

Then, another man, with an expression identical to the first, walked out of the shadows behind her and added, "It's cold out here tonight. Cute girl like you, I'd bet ten dollars to a doughnut that ya can help us keep warm."

Both men started advancing on her, and Kari recollected that the street had been relatively deserted when she left it, so the odds of getting help were slim to none. She didn't have any real weapons aside from her own arms and legs, but she'd be damned if she let these creeps have their way with her without a fight.

Just as the first one got within touching distance, however, a third voice spoke, which seemed to instantly send chills up all three of their spines. It was of moderate pitch, but definitely very harsh and gravelly in its tone and sound.

"Friday night, and nothing better to do than make trouble for others, is that it?"

One of the men had heard that voice before, and it instantly froze the marrow in his bones. His face now a mask of terror, he turned and started running for the exit, only for the speaker to grab him by his face.

The speaker wore a tattered black coat that was left open, and a black t-shirt underneath it. The coat and his black slacks had flecks of white in the fabric, at once providing excellent camouflage in the snowfall and giving him a tattered, borderline ethereal appearance. It was too dark to discern his facial features or hair color, and there was a black bandanna covering his eyes.

The speaker, now directly addressing the one he'd grappled with, he said, "Shameless, filthy wretches. I've just thought of a wonderful present for you. Shall I give you pain?" (1)

Then, tightening his grip exponentially, he repeatedly slammed the bastard's head against the asphalt pavement, cracking the skull, before withdrawing his hand, allowing it to hover for a moment, inducing fear in the would-be rapist, and then finally punching his first "opponent" just over the heart, instantly knocking him out cold and causing numerous fractures in his sternum and ribcage.

The second crook, seeing that the nameless terror had now turned his/its attention onto him, quickly grabbed Kari and held a pistol to her temple as he shouted, "S-S-STAY BACK, OR I'LL KILL HER, I SWEAR!"

Frowning slightly, the terror replied, "Fool. If you kill her, you seal your own fate. If you want any chance of leaving this place in decent health, why don't you try shooting me instead?"

Still afraid, the bastard quickly did as suggested and shot the man who had so effortlessly taken down his comrade. The stranger in black didn't make a move, and was caught square in the chest, almost certainly hit in the heart, and he fell to the ground with a soft thud.

Unable to believe his fortune, the assaulter threw the still-stunned and in shock Kari out of his way, running to the recent corpse he'd made. Then, after kicking the man in the head to make certain he wasn't alive, he put the gun in his coat and turned back to his victim-to-be.

Right then, Kari bit back a scream, but not because of her apparent defender dying, or the brutality she'd already seen – because the man in the tattered clothes grabbed his shooter by the ankle and dragged him to the ground, before proceeding to literally pick him up and throw him fifteen feet away, the force of the impact with the brick wall being enough that it broke his neck.

Then, inevitable, he turned his attention to Kari, and walked in her direction, one slow and deliberate step at a time. Kari, having witnessed the strength and brutality of this… (here, she searched for an appropriate term to describe the force she'd seen in action) supernatural juggernaut, was terrified into total paralysis. However, the man-thing-monster-whatever-the-hell-he/it-was reached out for a moment to wipe away some tears of shock and fear, before removing his coat and giving it to her, at which point it changed until it was a regular-seeming black leather jacket.

He then spoke again, forcing Kari back to her senses.

"You looked cold, so I thought to… remedy that problem. Go out of the alley the same way you came in, and go south a block and a half. On the northwest corner, you'll find a small bakery, owned and operated by the Matsuki family. It's a recognized support center for victims of crime and close encounters of the criminal variety. Ask to use their phone to make a 911 call, and get the police. Tell them your name, the address of the bakery, and other than that, answer all questions asked honestly. The officers who come and meet you at the bakery will be Sergeant Cody Hida and Lt. Shisui Hayasaka. While they're on the way there, the Matsuki family will give you a free meal – just accept and eat it, you'll need the extra energy and blood sugar to perk you up. Trust me, nothing will happen to you on the way there."

Kari, somehow cowed into obedience by the (for lack of a better term) power of his voice, was about to comply when she asked, "But what about T.K.? And just who are you?"

The tattered tatterdemalion turned away, but tilted his head to show that he'd heard. He answered, "Hrm. T.K.… Do you mean Takeru "T.K." Takaishi, the ex-DigiDestined? If it will make you feel better, then I'll hunt him down and tell him about the situation in a few moments. And as for who I am… I don't really know. I don't have a name that I know of, not that I need one – I'm not a person, much less a good one like you or Takaishi. I'm more a ghost than anything else, I suppose. So if you must assign me a name, then call me the Ghost."

And with that, the Ghost exited the alley as the falling snow began to pick up speed, and he seemed to disappear into the darkness, fading into a flurry of white powder.

Kari, still in a state of shock, simply did as she'd been bidden, and the next hour seemed to fly by. Once she'd gotten to the Matsuki family bakery and made the 911 call, things went exactly as the Ghost had predicted. The Matsukis had, upon hearing what had happened, instantly set to baking a set of what they called "Guilmon bread", which was bread in the shape of an odd-looking little dinosaur, and was kinda sorta like a cupcake in some respects. Kari accepted and ate the odd, yet delightful treat, as well as the next three, at which point she was introduced to the bakers' son, Takato, who seemed like a pretty nice kid, and he even acted like he was beginning to crush on her a little bit – he definitely looked a tad bit crushed when she told him she was engaged, but the funny look on his face more than made up for it.

And around five minutes after that, sure enough, in walked two cops, both of whom she recognized: Cody was a high school buddy of Kari's back in the day, and Shisui had loosely associated with her older brother, Tai Kamiya and his group. Shisui hadn't been able to attend school that frequently, since the teachers had deemed him too much of a danger to the other kids – even though he'd usually seemed meek at first, once he'd gotten to the Digital World, he'd revealed his true nature as a borderline sociopath, although his eventual romance with Sora Takenouchi had him drastically calmed down and mellowed out. (2)

After Shisui and Cody had gotten Kari to give them a detailed report of what happened, they reminisced about old times for a couple of minutes, before Kari accepted Cody's offer to escort her home – Shisui had actually volunteered to do the paperwork that night, which was his "Christmas present to the entire effing PD so I don't have to spend a dime on those lamesters." Anyone whom he found boring or worthy of insult, he called a "lamester." Nobody knew the exact reason why, but some people found it amusing. It was also the least profane nickname in his vast repertoire.

Once Kari had reached her apartment, she found T.K. up on the couch, reading a sword-and-sorcery novel while waiting on his fiancée. Once he saw Kari in the state she was in, though, he dropped his book and rushed to her, immediately asking what had happened, what he could do to help, and was halfway to blaming himself for not being there when she silenced him with a kiss.

"T.K., I'll tell you later, or maybe you might hear it on the news or something, but right now, I just want you to be with me."

And for the next hour, they lay down on the couch in each other's arms, watching re-runs of shows like "Friends." A bit afterward, Kari fell asleep, and T.K., not wanting to disturb her by getting up, simply flipped through the channels for a while, although he kept the volume down. As the image on the screen continually changed, T.K. thought about a lot of things, like the tiredness in Kari's voice when she'd come in, the fear in her eyes that she'd attempted to hide and not quite succeeded in doing so, and the brand new leather jacket she was wearing.

And then he saw something on the news that made him flip the channel back to it, and the anchor went live to a reporter at the entrance to an alleyway just a block or two from their apartment. There were two men tied to a street lamp with what appeared to be their own belts and jackets, and each was very badly beaten and bruised. There was also a cop T.K. recognized, Shisui Hayasaka. He turned the volume up a few notches so he could hear what was being said.

Reporter: "Lt. Hayasaka, in your opinion, is this another example of the so-called "vigilante" activity that's been on the rise?"

SH: (sigh) "Well, someone sure as hell beat the shit out of these lamesters. I know for a fact I didn't do this to 'em, and I'm the only one on the force with a temper severe enough that I could. Therefore, since it wasn't a law enforcement officer who did this, it's kind of hard not to classify it as vigilante activity."

R: "Is there any indication of what exactly happened here, and who the victim was?"

SH: (glare) "Sergeant Hida and I met with the victim a little while ago, so we know very well their identity. I am not, of course, giving any indication as to her name, address, or description, since she specifically asked us to protect her anonymity. The only thing we can concretely hit these bastards with is assault."

R: "Is there a description of the vigilante who did this to the suspects?"

SH: "I'm tired of talking with you now, this conversation is over."

Exasperatedly, the reporter turned back to the camera while Shisui thought about how best to get the suspects down and said, "Well, there you have it, from the single most abrasive and least media-friendly officer on the Police Force, Shisui Haya—"

In the background, Shisui yelled, "Hey! Your fifteen seconds of air time are over, chump! Just cut the damn feed and get out of my way already!"

Terrified into submission, the reporter said, "This is Rei Saiba, reporting live. Back to you, Emiko."

As the news then went on to the local weather, T.K. shut off the television. So that was probably what had happened.

T.K.'s eyelids felt as heavy as lead, and before he fell asleep, he took one last glance at his lover's angelic face, before he noticed an odd pattern on the back of her jacket.

Something told him to stay awake for another few seconds, but he pushed it aside as something for the morning.

Had he listened to that inner part of him, though, he'd have known that it wasn't merely a pattern on Kari's back, but a very important symbol that he'd have recognized instantly:

The Crest of Miracles.

(1): Yes, I just combined fragments of quotes from Sephiroth (Advent Children) and Sorceress Edea (Final Fantasy VIII).

(2): Shisui's backstory will be explained in an upcoming fanfic, which is going to be titled "Retribution". It'll be an AU version of Adventure, and you'll see why it's titled "Retribution" after the conclusion of the first story arc.

To be honest, the "vigilante" you've just seen is pretty much a combination of the Spirit and Rorschach, although with a hint of Sephiroth's personality (as evidenced by the borderline arrogance in his power).

I'm not going to tell you the Ghost's identity, it should be pretty damn obvious anyway. If, for some reason, it isn't, though, then go read "One". That should make it abundantly clear.