If you are not familiar with Japanese names, then I would suggest you to read the second chapter.

This fic idea came to me last Halloween when I came across a fanart of Hobohodou and Chihiro. I wish I could show it to you guys directly since it's a great picture, but sadly fanfictionnet doesn't allow any links in fanfics... oh well. If you really want to go and look, go to pixiv, search with keyword 'ナルチヒ'. Three results will come up and the one titled '千尋さんと'is the one I'm talking about.

I'm proud of being a MiaxNick fan! They need moar love T_T

I do not own anything. The characters in the fic may be a little OOC. And criticisms are welcomed!

Cultural note: In one of Asian superstitions, when you think of a dead person (especially your relative) really dearly for a long time, they become your guardian spirits.

If someone else saw it, they would say it was such an odd situation. Minuki was sitting in the corner of Naruhodou's bedroom, shaking with fear. If Naruhodou tried to comfort her, she wouldn't really want him to embrace her. Yet, if Naruhodou was to get away from her, then she would sob harder. Naruhodou sighed, not knowing what to do about his newly adopted daughter in situations like this. He was worried about her but nothing seemed to work on her.

It all started few hours ago, when a commercial of a movie for the Halloween specials came up on televison. It was called 'The Highschool of Despair and the Student of Hope', and the bear named Monokuma, which seemed to be the mascot of the movie seemed creepy-cute enough so Naruhodou thought it was a slightly scary movie for small kids. And he thought watching a little scary movie might make a good family memories.

How wrong he was. Curses to those character designers who made such a scary character that looks so cute. After the first few minutes of the movie, Naruhodou realized how inappropriate this movie was for eight-year-olds like Minuki and turned the TV off, but it was too late. Minuki was shocked out of her mind. At first, she tried to look okay about it. Although she tried to shake it off, the first few minutes of the movie traumatized her fragile mind.

Finally, after another hour of cooing and soothing and persuading, Naruhodou got Minuki to sleep. Naruhodou was worn out. Minuki was a sweet girl, and Naruhodou did everything to make her feel at home ever since he adopted her. But she did not seemed to adapt to the fact that Naruhodou was her father yet. Some nights, Minuki would wake up in the middle of the night, crying. She would try not to show her feelings, but she definitely was not all-comfortable with her new dad. No matter how hard he tried, it was sort of a natural thing for girls to not feel very comfortable with new dad... especially if they are dead frightened like Minuki is right now.

Naruhodou sat by Minuki's left side, watching her sleep with look of woe on his face. What a fool he had been to show her the movie! He should have realized that the movie wasn't for kids! As guilt bit Naruhodou's heart, Minuki began to sob quietly in her sleep. Alarmed, Naruhodou patted her shoulder, saying 'There, there' but Minuki would not stop sobbing. Presence of Naruhodou was not comforting her. When Naruhodou was feeling hopeless, someone spoke to him.

"You seem troubled, Naruhodo-kun."

Startled by the familiar voice, familiar name mispronounciation he had not heard for so long, Naruhodou looked around wildly. No way... he thought she finally departed for afterlife when the case with Diego ended. It can't be her. It' can't.

His long dead mentor, Chihiro Ayasato was sitting there, on the right side of Minuki.

"Chi...Chihiro-san? But ho...how...?" Naruhodou stammered. Chihiro gave him a mysterious smile and put her forefinger in front of her mouth, asking him to be quiet. Was Naruhodou imagining things? Strangely, Chihiro looked quite solid today unlike usual.

"Let's calm her down first, and then talk." said Chihiro, giving Minuki a worried look. She began to sing an old lullaby softly, while brushing Minuki's forehead gently and holding on to Minuki's left hand. Soon, the soothing melody filled the room. As the song continued, Minuki's sob died out. Even Naruhodou, who was tired from all those hassles, relaxed and felt like falling asleep.

After the song finished, silence filled the room. After a while, Naruhodou spoke.

"How did you come back? I thought... I thought you departed for the afterlife after our last meeting." said Naruhodou, trying to keep his tone calm. Somehow, it was hard to keep himself calm. Something in him was growing hot and rising up.

"All those times without you, going through hard affairs..." said Naruhodou, his voice shaking a little. He was trying to keep his emotions from bursting out. Sad, negative emotions.

On the outside, Naruhodou was cool about everything that had happened to him in the past few months, but he was a weak man with fragile heart who got lonely easily inside. At that time when he lost his badge, as if losing an attorney badge wasn't bad enough, the media gossiped his banishment. And although many attorney friends of his came to comfort him for the first few weeks, all of them eventually walked out of his life. He became lonely.

Concentrating on making Minuki feel at home sometimes distracted him from those painful thoughts, but he was still hurt very badly inside. No one stayed near him long enough to heal the wound. Even Mayoi couldn't stay long because of important event. He wanted someone to lean onto, but there was no one. Because he had to be the one whom Minuki could lean onto, he kept these feelings to himself. Now that he met someone whom he can lean onto, all those feeling he kept deep inside were rushing out like a giant tsunami. Noticing the change in Naruhodou's mood, Chihiro wrapped her arms around him. Although he couldn't feel much, her action was all that was needed. Unable to resist the emotions any longer, tears began tickling down Naruhodou's cheeks.

"Why did you turn up now...? It... everything was so difficult without you... I missed you so much..." said Naruhodou, unable to stop himself. Chihiro did not say anything but patted his shoulder. After a while, Naruhodou stopped sobbing. He regained control of himself. Chihiro spoke.

"I'm so sorry about what happened, Naruhodo-kun. Things must have been really hard for you... You see, as a normal spirit you sometime lose the contact with the world, sometimes you find the contact again... At that time, I lost contact with the world for such a long time. When your spiritual powers grow weaker, the time you're out of contact with the world grows longer. In the end, you totally lose contact with the world. Similar symptoms has been happening to me recently." explained Chihiro, in a quiet tone.

"Does that mean... I won't be able to see you... ever again...?" said Naruhodou in disbelief. Chihiro let go of him. Chihiro, his mentor was disappearing now? When they've just met? When he just realized how important her support was? At the thought, Naruhodou felt as if his whole body was sinking into the darkness.

"You might have been... until a few weeks ago. It seems like that I became a guardian spirit, seeing that I stayed on earth for too long." said Chihiro, smiling. Naruhodou's heart skipped a beat.

"Does that mean...?" Naruhodou asked, pleading that his current assumptions were right. He did not want to lose anyone close to him ever again. Ever...

"It means that I can stay on earth as long as what I protect lives on."

Naruhodou froze there, taking a while to process this infromation in his head fully.

"Congratulations! Really!" said Naruhodou. Overcome with glee, he hugged Chihiro. But, his arms closed on a thin air instead of Chihiro. To his shock, Chihiro was turning transparent again. It seemed that her time as a solid being was coming to an end.

"However, even as a guardian spirit I can't stay materialized for too long. Tonight was possible because it was Halloween." said Chihiro with a sad smile. It broke Naruhodou's heart to see her like that.

"Chihiro-san...!" said Naruhodou in disbelief. She was disappearing now...? Now when he just felt like he had a reunion with her she was leaving so quick?

"It might take a long time, but we will see each other again one day..." said Chihiro. Though her lips were smiling, her eyes looked quite sad.

"Although you won't be able to see me, please remember that I will be by your side to help you always." said Chihiro. Lower half of her was gone now. Naruhodou noded. Again, tears were falling from Naruhodou's eyes again.

"Sweet dreams, Minuki." said Chihiro softly. Then Chihiro bent over and kissed on Minuki's forehead.

"Thank you so much for visiting today... really... I can't tell you how much I appreciate it." said Naruhodou, tears still falling from his eyes. With kind smile, Chihiro wiped tears off from Naruhodou's eyes with disappearing hands.

"You look better when you're smiling, Naruhodo-kun. Take care." said Chihiro. Lastly, she gave a short kiss on Naruhodou's forehead and left Naruhodou there deep in thought, alone with Minuki.

Next morning

Minuki had a surprisingly good sleep. A kind, warm woman had came to her in the dream and kissed her a goodnight. It felt so nice. She felt as if she was with a real family in her dream. So she was in a very good mood even when Naruhodou failed to fix a decent breakfast.

"I'm sorry about what happened last night Mi-chan." said Naruhodou, handing Minuki a half-burnt scrambled eggs. Minuki sniffed it suspiciously a few times and took a nibble.

"It's all right papa. I don't even remember the movies name now, anyways." said Minuki, reaching out for a salt.

"For that, I'll give you anything you want for Christmas." said Naruhodou apologetically.

"Anything?" Minuki asked. This was quite rare for Naruhodou to say something like this as his income hadn't been great recently.

"Yeah. Anyth...ing I can afford." said Naruhodou, scratching his head. Minuki laughed.

"Oh, sure you can afford this one papa." said Minuki slyly. "I want a mom."

"What? You already have a great mom." said Naruhodou, smiling at Minuki. Minuki looked puzzled and stared at Naruhodou so she didn't notice the salt grains on her scrambled eggs pacing out evenly by themselves.