Geist: n. 1. Spirit 2. Ghost 3. Mind
When his father brings back a golden ring from Egypt, Ryo covets it. He begs his father to give it to him. He begs in the way that only small children can, until his father relents and gives it to him, making him promise not to damage it. Ryo promises and puts it around his neck. He takes care not to hit it against things and after the first few times, he slips it into his shirt where it will be safer. The gold is cold on his skin, but he doesn't mind if it means the ring won't get scratched. His school friends are impressed when he shows them during recess and Ryo spends the day boasting about his father, the greatest archeologist. When he gets home that night, he tells Amane all about it. She's happy for him.
A game called Monster World comes to school in a child's backpack and soon whole classes are talking about little else. Ryo's group of friends start a game and he becomes their DM. They have so much fun that he never wants it to end. Of course, it has to end sometime. This is their last year before graduating and going on to different middle schools. He is so acutely aware of time passing and an ache grows in his heart.
They have one last game, right before graduation. During the game Ryo's ring grows warm under his shirt, hot enough to burn, and he yanks it out. Its glow lights the dim room and shines on the faces of his friends. When it fades away again and the ring is cold in his hands Ryo looks around. The faces of his friends are slack and they slump to the table when he shakes them. Panic clogs his throat until he is sobbing with it. That is what the next adult to come into the room finds and parents are called and ambulances cover the house in lights. Ryo is the only one awake and there are questions but nothing comes of them. If the other parents are deeply suspicious and slightly afraid, they don't say anything. The little boy secrets away the tiny figurines that had represented his friends in a velvet bag.
Ryo goes to a new school where no one has heard of the 'incident.' He tells his friends about his favorite game because his psychologist says it would be best to make new memories with it. They are interested and he invites them over. Nothing happens and Ryo feels relieved. The games become a weekly tradition until he feels them drifting away and they have one last game. They have other things to be doing, the tell him. This will be the last game. Ryo barely notices the burning this time, the sound of his heart breaking in echoing in his head. This time he doesn't cry or try to wake them. He lays them on their makeshift beds and adds their figurines to the little velvet bag.
His parents find them in the morning when they come to wake them. Ryo plays the part of the scared child who doesn't know what's happened or why and his friends' bodies are carted off and they move again. It's harder to find a school that hasn't heard of Ryo, but they manage.
This time, he tries not to make friends. He tries, but he doesn't succeed and this time they introduce Monster World to him and he can't help but go along with it. It's different to be a player rather than the DM, but he likes it well enough. It takes six months before something goes wrong and Ryo is adding three more figurines to the bag. He hefts it and thinks he'll need a larger one, soon.
He pretends to sink into a depression that would seem only natural. His parents send him to his psychologist more often but he doesn't get 'better.' In truth, he is beginning to think there's something wrong with him. He feels washed out and grey. Not sad, but not happy and the depression is very easy to fake when it's based on apathy. He's not depressed, he knows he's not. He just…doesn't…care.
He cares when his mother and Amane die. He cares and he grieves, but it feels strange after so long not feeling anything. He feels something heavy in the back of his mind. It feels like an ache and nausea and a held breath all at once and he hates it, but he can't get it to go away. The ring feels colder and colder every morning and finally he takes to putting on two shirts to keep the cold away. It sinks in anyway and the sharp points seem to scratch at him through his undershirt. Like sharp fingernails tracing along his stomach.
Ryo is sent to Japan and left with a tiny apartment and an allowance for food and necessities. He sees his father less and less and then not at all and he can't quite bring himself to care, even though he knows he should. He's quiet in school and tries so hard not to socialize because it's hard to speak for very long anymore, like his jaws have rusted shut and his throat cut out. He breathes and eats and does his homework and tries to ignore the sickness creeping over his mind and invading his body.
He's not really surprised when He starts talking to him. That he only speaks now, when Ryo seems to have lost the strength to utter a word. He thinks that this sinister, creeping thing is what's been eating at him for years now.
He's right, of course.