Despite the fact that the tiny suburbs of Funbari were a part of the much larger Tokyo, the streets were oddly still for this time of night, even if it was only a bit past 10:00 PM.
Though…
Perhaps it was the proximity to the cemetery that was what caused the lack of the living. Many would even go as far to say that the cemetery omitted a particularly unpleasant and unwelcoming aura. More so then any other cemetery.
As always there were tales and rumors designed by teenagers and young children with the intent of frightening their friends and classmates, and as the warm spring air became more humid with the promise of the summer rainy season, the tales seemed to become more and more frightening.
After all, summer was the season for ghost tales in this country called Japan.
Thus for a young, studious boy and the many people he was bound to meet along the way as he embarked on his journey of self-discovery and growth...the season was forever summer.
For there are always people whose year, and their entire life is filled with visits from ghouls and spectres, some friendly and some…not so much…
But, regardless of the ghosts' intentions, there were people who had to deal with them. Treat them like they were alive, and interact with them like they were alive, and sometimes punish them as if they were still alive. To them, ghosts were real, made out of flesh and bones and not ectoplasm or any of the various materials ghosts are said to be composed of…
The tiny boy had thought the boy he met in the cemetery that faithful night was strange and odd. A boy who spoke differently and acted differently. He thought that boy was the only one like him….someone that could see and interact with ghosts as though they were people…
But the boy had known another months before that. A girl who had transferred into his class at the beginning of the school year just as mysteriously as the boy did, and said a cryptic message that struck Manta to the core, "My best friends are ghosts" He thought she was crazy, an occult freak...until that night...
Together they all met that night, the strange boy seated on a gravestone, the strange girl who claimed to befriend ghosts, and the boy who found himself caught in the middle...and a new door was opened…
What was beyond it unknown…
And so…their tale began...