I obviously own nothing. This story was inspired by Just like Heaven and The Lovely Bones.
Summary: Tsukino Usagi is your typical High School senior. She has got a group of friends that she loves and spends almost every waking hour with, she's a somewhat straight A student, Math seems to be the only subject that never hovers above a B. She lives with her Mom and Dad and her little brother who annoys the life out of her. She has a close childhood friend who also happened to be her cousin, Named Motoki that is like an older brother to her even though he's only five months older than her. Motoki's best friend is her only rival for Motoki's attention. She has a happy and completely care free life….she was also brutally murdered.
...3
The sound of curious chatter could be heard as the crowd that was forming around Silver Knight High School seemed to be growing larger and larger by the minute. On a normal week day a crowd of people in front of the school was nothing out of the ordinary but it was Saturday morning and the crowd wasn't supposed to be there. Police officers all stood around, holding back the people who leaned out over a little too much, instructing them to stay back and remain calm until the detectives were done with the scene.
"Hey!" The deep sound of one particular person that crowded the outer part of the human tsunami called out as another tall individual approached him. The two boys were wearing jackets in the cool autumn weather. One wore a Chiba Lotte Marines Baseball Jacket, he was a lean and perfectly built tall young man who had just turned eighteen two weeks ago, his eyes were a deep and dark shade of blue that resembled the depths of the ocean, and his pitch black hair was a little long, his bangs casually combed to the side. His eyes wondered around the crowd trying to figure out what had happened in his school that had the entire community gathering up.
"Man is this crazy or what!" The tall individual turned to his friend who wore a Silver Knight's school Jacket, he was to turn nineteen in the spring but for some reason he was dreading the idea of turning one year older. His hair was a dark blonde that was layered around his face; his eyes were a blue that could be described as the reflection of water, his eyes forever shimmering with life. The two had just returned from a training seminar as they were both Baseball players on the time, as soon as they got off the bus at school they were informed that someone's body was found at the school "Who do you think it is?" the tall man shook his head, a troubled expression on his face.
"Furuhata, Chiba!" The two turned towards the sound of the deep feminine voice that called to the two of them. A young woman ran up to them, her hair was chocolate colored and about shoulder length but kept in a tight ponytail, her eyes were an emerald green shinning brilliantly and depending on the light the brilliance of her eyes changed. She was unusually tall for a girl her age but that didn't bother her she wore a dark green sweater and tight black jeans; as she approached them they also happened to notice that her eyes were swollen.
"Whoa, Hey Kino." The blonde one of the two boys said smiling warmly at her though for some reason she didn't return the smile. Automatically that was a sign for the two boys that something was positively wrong, they looked at each other. "What's wrong?" She stared at them a moment, not really speaking. To the boys it was more than obvious that she couldn't find the right words to speak to them, her eyes began to water and she looked away silently cursing. The boys didn't speak they didn't know what to say to her; though in the pit of their stomachs they had a nasty feeling they knew why their friend was in tears. "Makoto what is it?" She finally raised her head and looked at the two, tears falling freely from her eyes.
"Oh Motoki." She whispered softly, her eyes looked at him with so much pain that it was as if she had already told him what she was going to say. His head snapped towards the crime scene beyond the crowd of people, he turned his head to her frantically, his hands reached out and gripped her hands and she simply cried.
"Makoto who did they find?" He asked calmly though his heart was racing furiously in his chest causing his vision to blur from the tears that threaten to fall. Chiba, the taller boy of the two, found his own beating fast if what he thought his best friend was implying was true then the body that had been found belonged to one of their own friends. "Makoto!" he shook her slightly and the girl finally broke down, her own hands gripping his arms, her head down.
"Usagi" She whispered softly. Motoki let go of her arms, his heart had completely stopped beating. The name echoed loudly in his mind as the images of his cute cousin flashed like a whirlwind in his mind. He didn't move for a split second trying to register what had just been spoken to him, he didn't understand he had just spoken to her the night before she had said that her and the girls would wait for his return so that they could celebrate him returning home after a week away at training…that's what she had said. When his heart decided to beat again it was pounding furiously in his chest, his ears burned up and his tears were like a never ending flow of water. "Motoki." Makoto's voice was broken but she spoke calmly. "You have to come with me, both of you." She said turning to Chiba who had not spoken or moved since she uttered Usagi's name, almost as if he was waiting for someone to shout April fools in the middle of August.
The next couple of minutes happened in a dazed blur for both boys as they followed Makoto to the other side of the school and entering from a side entrance, she guided them down the halls. In their minds they could hear the sound of students shouting and laughing. They turned right and walked into the Main Office. Makoto guided them all the way into one of the meeting room where Usagi's family, friends and teachers all sat surrounded by detectives. Motoki's mother stood her eyes red from crying. Motoki looked at his mother and then to his aunt whose face was hidden behind her hands. The two said nothing unsure as to what to say.
"What happened?" Chiba was the first to speak among the two boys, everyone looked away and an older man who both assumed to be one of the detectives spokes. His eyes a peculiar shade of blue and his hairs white, he looked at both of them solemnly.
"I was just about to tell your family and friends." He looked at the two boys before he introduced himself. "I am Detective Neko but feel free to call me Artemis." He smiled at them but neither of the boys made an effort to smile back.
"What do you mean you were just about to tell them? Don't they already know?" Motoki asked suddenly snapping out of his daze and starring hotly at the officer, his mother spoke then grabbing his attention.
"We just found out a few minutes ago. We had all come to welcome you home from your training camp." She had tears running from her eyes but her son seemed confused. He shook his head in disbelieve…no this couldn't be happening.
"How could you just be finding out? Why wasn't anyone with her!" he asked enraged, trying to comprehend what had happened to his sweet little cousin, his mother tried to approach him but he pushed her away. "Why wasn't anyone with her!"
"Furuhata-San" Detective Artemis said making Motoki turn to him frantically. "Tsukino-San has been missing since last night." Motoki stared at him even more confused, wasn't that even more suspicious! What the heck was going on? "According to her family she never came home but they just assumed she had stayed at one of the girl's house…when she didn't show up this morning…." The detective trailed Motoki could already figure out what happened after that one of them must have found the body and called the police and just moments before Makoto came for them, the police must have confirmed that the body they found had been Usagi's.
Motoki and Chiba were guided to the table where the rest of the family was seated. Chiba seemingly distant from everyone else and Motoki just entering into new waves of indescribable hysteria, Artemis waited until it seemed everyone had settled down before he decided to speak. The family was pain strikingly informed of the condition of Usagi's body, where the person who discovered the family simply found a corpse covered with a large fabric simply showing the legs, Artemis sadly informed them that her body had been greatly mutilated, they only managed to identify the victim as Usagi by the I.D found in the victims purse.
The detectives informed them that whoever murdered Usagi had done so in a brutal and sadistic manner. He had cut off her fingers and toes, he had stabbed her eyes out, her teeth had been pulled out one by one, and her the top part of her head had been completely scalped and her hair had been removed save for a few stranded that seemed to have come off completely intact and which he assumed with later analysis would prove to be the blond strands of Usagi's hair. They asked for images of the body but Artemis refused, claiming the images were far too graphic for them to view; he also informed them that they found semen on her which could point to a rape. The body he informed them would be further analyzed for this.
The days that followed the initial confirmation were unbearable to the family and friends of Tsukino Usagi. DNA samples of the hair strands found on the body further confirmed that mutilated body found belonged to Usagi and after further analysis doctors concluded that Usagi had been raped. Detectives speculated that Usagi had been abducted somewhere between a block or two away from her residence, they found traces of Chloroform suggesting that she had been attacked from behind and drugged before she was raped and murdered, bruising on her arms suggest she put up a hell of a fight, however they had no lead and no suspect, but the inevitable truth was she was dead.
The family arraigned for the funeral to take place a week after her death, it was an obvious closed casket. Every single faculty and student body from Silver Knight High School attended the funeral, as well as half the community and all those who knew Usagi. At the burial over several hundred people attended saying their final goodbyes to the young girl who was always cheerfully smiling.
...3.
The bell rang signifying the start of lunch. Students began to chatter as they stood from their desk and relaxed a bit as their next period was to be self study. The girls huddled together, grouping their chairs to be closer to one another. Guys all gathered at one particular guy's desk and talked nonsense, other students raced out of class hoping to make it to the cafeteria before the food ran out and they were stuck not eating anything at all. In the month since Usagi's death life had seemingly returned to normal for the students, occasionally her name was mentioned or murmured around but no one dwelt on her too much, her memory slowly fading away to everyone except those who were close to her.
"Yo Chiba!" The dark haired individual turned from his boxed lunch and turned to a small group of guys that casually made their way towards him, Motoki sat next to him silently eating. His cousin's death had struck a deep blow to the poor young man who was still having a pretty hard time coping with her death. Chiba smiled at the young men as they sat down around the two young guys, one of the guys reached out and comfortingly places a hand on Motoki's shoulder. "Man it must be weird for you Mamoru, not being able to fight with Usagi anymore." Malachite, which was like the leader of the four guys that currently surrounded Motoki and Mamoru, spoke. He seemed sad for he had also been friends with the deceased blond.
Mamoru smiled and looked down. "Yeah it is a little weird" He laughed, the other laughed with him trying to cheer each other up. Mamoru was the only one out of all of them that had yet to full accept Usagi's death, he was the only that had not cried or become frantic almost like he was just waiting for her to waltz into the classroom and say 'fooled ya!' the others began to talk about something else slowly drifting away from the topic of Usagi, like everyone else they had begun to avoid the subject. Mamoru sat quietly; he continued to eat as Malachite, Nephrite, Kunzite, Zoisite and Motoki began to chatter about useless stuff. Oddly enough Mamoru closed his eyes and began to think about the dead blond, in his mind he could hear her calling out to the class, calling out to her friends, calling out to Motoki….calling out to him. Her sweet voice rung in his ears, she was frantically calling out to her friends…Mamoru's eyes snapped opened as he realized he could hear her.
He looked up from his food and began to search the room and sure enough, there she stood, in front of Makoto and the other girls. Waving her hands frantically before the girls who sat all chatting quietly with each other, she stomped and shouted and called to them but they didn't react. Mamoru stared at her a moment unsure whether he had fallen asleep and begun to dream with the blond girl. Her back was turned to him as she tried to desperately catch her friend's attention. But he knew it was her from the long blond hair that was perfectly curled into small balls on her head resembling meatballs. After a while she seemingly gave up and buried her face in her hands, crying.
"Please see me" she said her voice breaking as she cried. She slowly fell to the ground crying. Mamoru stood from his seat then tuning his ears to listen to no other sound but her. He didn't notice when his friends stopped talking and began to call out to him, he didn't notice when they stood up and tried to figure out what it was he was looking at. They called for him softly at first, but when they said his name louder Usagi's head snapped up her clear sky blue eyes stared at him confused at first and then shock ran through her as she realized he was looking right at her. She stood slowly, not saying a word just looking at him and he just looked at her unsure as to what was going on.
When Motoki shook him and snapped him out of his stupor he finally took his eyes off of Usagi and looked at his friend. Disoriented and confused at first. "What?" He said as he missed the question his friend had asked, he turned his eyes back to where Usagi was but he found she was no longer there. Had he imagined the whole thing? Had he dreamt her up? "Huh?" he said finally focusing his attention on his friend who was giving him a funny look.
"You're not even listening." Motoki said crossing his arms. "Where were you just now man?" Motoki asked, Mamoru shook his head and exhaled. He didn't even know where he had been or what he had just seen but he knew one thing was for certain. That person had been, whether it was a dream or not, Usagi.
The rest of the day went by uneventfully, teachers and classes went by quickly. At the end of the day the class filed out quickly yet Mamoru had stayed back and after a few minutes found himself alone in his classroom. He heard distant chatter in the hallways probably from other students who had stayed back for clubs and what not. Mamoru had stayed back, hoping to see Usagi again, hoping to just catch a glimpse but after twenty minutes nothing happened and he gave up. Standing up from his chair he took his bag and walked out of the school.
His entire walk home all he could think about was if he had really seen what he thought he saw. Perhaps he had been caught in some weird realistic day dream that he confused for reality. Either way he wasn't sure what to think of it. The lights to his house were off letting him know that his parents had yet to make it home but that was no surprise to him, both of them were doctors so they were never really home. He walked into the darkness of his house, walking around in darkness until he reached his room, turning on the light he threw his bag on the floor and fell face down on his bed.
In his head he went through the last couple of weeks from the moment Usagi's death was announced. He had not quite accepted the fact that she had died, he still couldn't believe it. Even though there had been a Funeral and a Burial. Even though the Police had been all over the neighborhood and the town searching for potential suspects, even though she wasn't around anymore…he still didn't accept it. 'Why' he had asked 'why would the criminal go out of his way to make her physically impossible to identify by mutilating her body?' Artemis, the detective answered him by saying that whoever it was, had been someone who was trying to send a message. He said that since Usagi had been so beautiful he wanted the world to know that beauty wasn't everything, that maybe the perp was someone who Usagi might have rejected.
He exhaled and turned over on his back, his eyes remained closed as he placed his hands by his side. He didn't understand any of it, he didn't want to understand or maybe he just wanted to pretend none of it was real. Maybe he wanted to pretend Usagi was on a trip or that she had run away, yet still there had been a body and that body matched Usagi's DNA which meant no matter how he tried to escape the truth the fact still remained that she was no longer among the living but he would not acknowledge that truth, no he rejected that truth, because not being able to hear her, not being able to see her wasn't something he was willing to accept.
For the first time since he was told of her death, Mamoru felt the over whelming feeling of sadness. His eyes began to water behind the closed lids and he fought back hard yet still those hot tears seeped out and streamed down his cheek. He didn't want to accept it because if he so much as accepted her death the pain would be far to excruciating, he had never had the chance to tell her how much he cared for her, he had never got the chance to express himself. Exhaling sharply he opened his eyes and stared up at his ceiling….he blinked…cocked his head to the side….blinked again. "Eh?" he said softly as he looked up into a pair of clear blue eyes that seemed to be watching him with amusement.
She was floating above him, perfectly parallel to him except he was lying in his bed and she was floating a few feet above him. She rested her face on her hand, watching him with much intent. She said nothing just watched as his facial expression changed from confused, to shock, to confused, all in a matter of seconds. A grin formed on her lips as she watched him trying to register what he was looking at. She wasn't completely solid but she wasn't completely transparent she was somewhere in between. His eyes darted to her lower half and was surprised to find her feet which completely killed the theory that ghost didn't have feet for him.
He looked back into her eyes and stared at her, willing her for a while to go away but when she did not he came to several conclusions. One he wasn't dreaming, two she was real or as real as a ghost could be and three she was dead. All of which for some reason but him in a sour mood, leave it to Usagi to push his button even when she wasn't trying too.
"You done?" she asked, her voice making him jump a bit "Has your brain finally accepted and registered the fact that I am a ghost and not a dream?" Mamoru's eyebrow twitch as her question began to irritate him; he figured it had to be her because only Usagi could possibly extract such a reaction from him.
"Just barely." He responded making her nodded softly, she didn't move and neither did he. "I'm going crazy." He whispered to himself finding it crazy that he had talked back, finding it crazy that he could see her, finding it completely ludicrous that he very simply accepted the fact that she was a ghost as if someone had just told him to come down for dinner.
"No you were already crazy." She said, floating down so she came closer. "This just proves you're weird." He narrowed his eyes at her and she simply smiled, moving so that she somehow was lying next to him. He turned to his side to look at her as she looked at him.
"Why are you here?" He asked her softly, she grinned at him. Even as a ghost she made his heart stop.
"I always promise you didn't I?" Mamoru arched an eyebrow. "That I would haunt you when I died just to make your life miserable." Somehow those words made him smile because they brought a strange sense of comfort to his heart. He didn't say anything after that, he simply closed his eyes and dozed off with his entity watching him as he drifted off. He wondered before the darkness consumed him, if when he awoke she would still be there.
...
Yes I know an odd cliff but Oh well. So this story is like a sample Fic. I mean I'm not even sure if I should continue it. If I have enough Reviews I might but otherwise it might forever just stay like that. Tell me if you guys (The readers) Want me to continue this story or not.
Review.
Jme