Ever since she was little, Maki had a fascination with the paranormal. For as long as she can remember, her life revolved around the idea of an afterlife. When she was younger, Maki believed that she saw a ghost. It was a quick glimpse, but she knew for sure that it was real.
It was because of this fascination for the afterlife she started her own paranormal investigations club at Otonokizaka. There was no particular reason for the school to have a paranormal investigations club, but the school's president allowed it since Maki's mother was a close friend.
Otonokizaka never spawned any sort of paranormal rumors so most of the time the club was only made up of her and temporary members that wanted to see what it was all about.
Maki sighed and leaned back against her chair. She was alone in the club room as usual and she stared at the ceiling, "I wish this town was filled with more paranormal activity..."
Maki made a conscious effort to look for reports of paranormal activity around her town, but every time she did it ended up empty handed.
However, over the past few months during her search there had been a small rumor circulating around town about a ghost sighting on the large hill just outside of town.
Maki sat up and laid her notes across the table, there were numerous news articles and handwritten interviews that she conducted herself.
"The Ocean Maiden in White..." she whispered the ghost's nickname to herself.
"She was reported to be wearing a white dress and had dark navy blue hair..." Maki flipped through her notes and tried to make a connection between them.
"Hmm... the sighting is recent and she was reported as being around the high school age..." Maki flipped through some more notes and pulled out a list of people that have died over the last century.
She tossed it to the side and sighed, "Ugh... that won't help... if she's a teenage girl, she could have died during any time."
"Dark blue hair... High school girl..." she repeated the details over in her head.
Her eyes lit up and she sat straight. She reached for the list and grabbed a pen, "If I eliminate everyone who doesn't match the features, then that should narrow down on who she could be."
Not many women in the list adorned the dark blue hair that was described. There was a good handful of them but they did range over a large age group. Maki crossed off any of the people that weren't in the 15-18 age group and came down to a single girl.
"Sonoda Umi..." she whispered the name to herself and continued to read her information, "Born in 1983... age 16... reported missing... body never found..."
Maki sat back and thought to herself, "Reported missing and never found... that is terrible..."
Maki checked the time and noticed that the sun was about to set. She packed up her notes and quickly headed home.
Maki sat at her desk in her room and overlooked her notes again, "Most of the sightings were reported during the night around 9pm..."
She glanced at her desk clock, it was 8pm.
"Should I go tonight?" Maki bounced the question around in her head. It was a school night so there was no chance that her mother would let her leave the home.
If the hill was outside of town, it could take her a little under an hour to reach it. She couldn't go with the plan of getting something at the convenience store as an excuse.
With no easy solution available, Maki turned to the last thing she wanted to do. Sneak out through her second story window.
She heard a knock on her door and her mother peeked in, "Hey honey, just checking up on you before going to bed."
Maki turned around in her seat, "Oh! Hi Mom, I'm just finishing up my homework before I head to bed myself."
Her mom nodded, "Alright, I love you sweetie. Goodnight." Maki's mother closed the door gently and Maki sprang into action.
She grabbed a few pillows from her closet and posed them to make it look like she was asleep in her bed. She grabbed a wig with the same hair color as her that she stole from the drama club and placed it as the final touch to her fake self.
Maki puffed her chest for her "genius idea" and started packing a few things that she had hidden in her room into her backpack. There were some snacks, some drinks, her notes, and a very expensive looking polaroid camera that she had gotten from a pawn shop.
Maki then grabbed a rope that she had hidden earlier before and tied it to her bedframe. She cracked open the window and tossed the rope down. It ended up being shorter than she had estimated so she'll have to endure a small fall.
She climbed down the rope and jumped off making sure to not make any noise by bumping into the side of the house or knocking anything over. She snuck around to her backyard where she had hidden a bike and brought it out front.
She turned the flashlight on and made her way towards where the hill was. Since she was on a bike, her trip would be faster. If she was lucky she could be back home before anyone notices that she was gone.
Maki pedaled a 30 minute bike ride and she arrived at the bottom of the reported hill. She checked her wristwatch and she still had about 15 minutes until 9pm. She hiked her way up the hill and arrived at the top. There wasn't much up on the hill, it had a single tree.
Maki took a deep breath of the crisp air and exhaled. In the distance was a view of the ocean and the moonlight reflected off of it. The stars were reflected as well so it seemed like there were two night skies from where Maki stood.
She took off her backpack and set it down as she took a seat under the tree, "5 more minutes..." Maki sat with her knees against her chest in anticipation for this rumor to be true.
By the time it reached 9pm, a ghost will appear and Maki will finally be able to make contact with the paranormal for the first time since her childhood.
She jumped when her wristwatch's alarm went off to remind her that it was 9pm. She turned it off and stood up, surveying the area for the rumored ghost.
"Hmm.. I'll give it a few minutes..." Maki sat back down and waited for any sign of a ghost. She yawned and her eyes grew heavy.
"I should be in bed by now..." she yawned again and took one last good look around her before she closed her eyes.
Before she knew it, she opened her eyes to see a starry sky, "Hmm?" Maki sat up and rubbed her eyes, "I must have fallen asleep..." she brought up her wristwatch and the time was now 10:15.
"I can't believe that I fell asleep..." Maki yawned again and stood up, she reached down for her backpack and turned to look back at the ocean again.
Maki's eyes widened. There was a girl in a white dress that was standing a couple meters in front of her. She was staring out at the ocean just like Maki was. Her long blue hair blew along with the wind and she was slightly transparent.
The woman turned around,"Oh? You're awake."
Maki's eyes widened even more, the woman was beautiful and her voice made Maki feel warm.
"You shouldn't fall asleep outside, you'll catch a cold," the woman said.
Maki couldn't help but feel herself getting warmer. The woman had such a motherly aura to her that it made Maki feel comfortable. Like she could be safe in her arms.
"M-my name is Nishikino Maki! Who are you?" Maki asked.
The woman smiled, "My name is Sonoda Umi, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Her smiled made Maki's heart skip a beat. She quickly scrambled through her bag and pulled out the camera she had brought from home, "D-Do you mind if I take a photo of you?"
"Of course you may," Umi posed innocently for Maki.
The moonlight offered the perfect lighting and Maki took the picture. The photo printed out through the front of the camera and Maki shook it until it became clear.
It was a high quality picture and Umi contrasted greatly against the dark background. The camera picked up on her glow and even her transparency. Maki decided to take her phone out and take a quick picture to make a comparison.
The picture taken with the phone was much blurrier and it made Umi look like a fog.
"So what brings you to this hill, tonight?" Umi asked.
"Well... I came because I wanted to see you," Maki replied.
"Me? Why?" Umi asked.
"There have been rumor spread around about you being here at night. I wanted to see if they were true," Maki answered.
"Oh... I see..." Umi mumbled.
"Umi? You do know that you're... Dead, right?" Maki's voice dropped when she asked the question.
Umi nodded, "Yes... I am aware of that."
"Why are you still here? Is there something that is keeping you bound to our world?" Maki asked again.
Umi turned around to look back at the ocean, "I can't remember..."
Maki frowned and stared at Umi's back, "I-I'm sorry..."
"It's not your fault, so don't apologize," Umi walked over to Maki and smiled.
Maki blushed and closed her eyes before blurting out, "I... I can help you move on if you'll let me!"
When she opened her eyes, Umi was smiling back at her again, "You don't have to, but thank you."
Maki clenched her fists, "I-I'll do my best to help you move on!"
Umi nodded and held out her hand. Maki stared at it as it moved closer to her, if she was correct, Umi's hand would just go right past her. However, she felt a weight on her head, Umi was patting it. It wasn't as heavy as a normal hand would be, but contact was still present between the two.
"You can touch people?" Maki asked.
Umi nodded, "Yes, but you're the first one to be able to feel it. Most of the humans that I have touched don't feel it."
"That's interesting..." Maki scrambled through her backpack and pulled out her notebook to write down the observation.
Umi hovered over behind Maki to take a peek at what was in the notebook, "You sure do have a lot of notes about the afterlife."
Maki jumped and closed her notebook, "I-I just like the paranormal, that's all."
Umi smiled, "May I see everything you've gathered about me?"
Maki hesitated for a moment, she usually kept this notebook hidden from the kids and school and no one has ever seen it except for herself.
"Fine..." Maki sat next to the tree and opened her book.
"It looks a little old," Umi pointed out.
"I've had it ever since I was little, my mother bought it for me," Maki explained.
Umi smiled and Maki looked away. She flipped through the pages quickly until she arrived at the pages that involved Umi.
"Wow, that's quite a lot of information..." Umi said.
Maki nodded, "It took me a few days to figure who you were. Then I did a background check on you to see what kind of a person you were."
"I see..." Umi looked over the information.
"Were you able to retain any of your memories when you realized that you were dead?" Maki asked.
Umi shook her head and frowned, "Just little bits and pieces like my name, age and fragments of my memory."
Maki thought to herself before answering, "I have a lot of things about you here if that will help your memory?"
"Yes please, continue," Umi sat close to Maki.
She could feel Umi very lightly brush up against her and she blushed, "O-okay, you were Sonoda Umi, age 16 attending your second year at Otonokizaka. You were a part of numerous clubs like calligraphy, archery, and kendo. The reason behind this was because you were expected to inherit the Sonoda dojo."
Umi nodded along with Maki and waited for her to continue, "You went missing during the summer of 1999 and no one ever found your body," Maki frowned and glanced over at Umi to see her reaction.
Umi did look sad, but it was more mild that Maki had imagined.
"What year is it now?" Umi asked.
"Umm... 2015," Maki answered.
"So I have been missing and dead for 16 years," Umi stated.
Maki observed Umi's saddened face and stood up, "I promise that I'll figure out what happened!"
Umi looked up at her and smiled, she had a tear in her eye and said, "Thank you, Maki."