(Author's Notes)
I'm back with chapter two already! Surprisingly this story is just coming out very easily for me right now. Anyways, thanks for the reviews, I'm definitely taking the advice to heart! Have any of you been able to guess the song that inspired this story? It's actually "I'm Your Devil" by Tommy Heavenly6.
Right now the story seems to be mostly about Yuma and Mayu, but trust me a new face is coming next chapter~ Oh! And if you have any characters you'd like to have make an appearance, let me know! Thanks!
For the first time in her young life, Miku Hatsune felt completely and totally out of control. Everything seemed very surreal, almost like she was dreaming. There was a strangely beautiful girl sitting beside her too, with her legs crossed in a very ladylike fashion and a smile on her pink lips. Miku had never seen this girl before, and weirdly enough no one else seemed to notice her. But she kept whispering things in Miku's ear. Her voice was so intoxicating, every lilt and every syllable excited Miku. But why did she feel like something was wrong every time the girl's glimmering eyes peered through her?
"Are you okay? Miku?" She could vaguely hear her friend Meiko's voice through the fog that had settled in upon her mind. Ah, yes, Meiko. Miku was staying at her house that night. Miku didn't want to be there at all. She really didn't like Meiko much, now did she? The older girl was always making her do bad things to people. Mean things; things that Miku was ashamed of. And she always went along with her "friend" because she was afraid. So very afraid. Meiko must be who this strange girl with her now was talking about, mustn't she? Now that Miku thought about it... The girl was right.
"Kill her."
"Make it right."
"You know you want to."
That sweet, angelic voice made her dizzy, and Miku wanted nothing more than to please her. So she stood up.
Meiko looked confused and asked her something, but Miku couldn't hear her anymore. She fingered a strand of her long teal hair nervously as she walked into Meiko's father's office. Hanging up on the wall behind the elaborate desk was an old, rusty axe. Miku wondered if it was still sharp.
When Yuma awoke he felt much more tired than when he had fallen asleep. As he stared blankly up at his ceiling he recalled the weird dream he had had… that girl's tantalizing yellow eyes haunted him even now. Shaking off his strange feelings, he sat up and lazily rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He glanced over at the clock. It was noon already, and he wondered vaguely if he should even bother with school that day, especially after everything that had happened the day before. Yawning, he decided he'd better man up and face the music. Yuma got up out of bed and disappeared into his bathroom.
Twenty minutes later and Yuma was dressed, had scarfed down a piece of toast, and he was out the door. He failed to notice, however, the strange red splotches covering the rabbit plush's face and paws as it sat innocently on his desk.
He actually was quite fond of his school's red and black blazer style school uniform, and he was especially happy not having to wear something dorky on a day like today. He sighed as he made his way down the pavement walkway beside the street, his school bag slung casually over his shoulder and his trademark black beanie adorning his head.
It took him about fifteen minutes to get to his campus, and as soon as he stepped inside the gates, he could tell something was off. Lunch was already in full swing by the time he got there, and students were lounged about all over campus consuming their food. But everyone looked a bit shaken up; as if something awful or unsettling had happened.
"Can you believe what happened to Meiko?"
"And Miku the one who did it! I never would've thought she'd be capable of something so horrible."
Yuma stilled, staring at the girl whom had spoken. Noticing his gaze she flinched a bit, and looked quite mortified when he walked up to her, a curious expression on his features.
"Tell me." He growled.
"W-well, this morning Meiko was found d-dead in her house. Miku was at the scene and confessed to the m-murder." The girl mumbled, unable to meet his intense gaze as her friends exchanged worried glances. Apparently, the school now had a tragedy to take it's attention away from his social death yesterday.
Like usual, Yuma wasn't paying attention in class. After all, he was only here because, as long as he stayed in school, his grandparents sent him a little bit of money every month. It wasn't much, but it got him by. Of course they never came to visit him and neither did they bother with calling him, but he was fine with that.
However, things were a bit different today. Instead of simply spacing out like normal, Yuma was lost in the alleyways of his own mind.
Meiko was dead.
Meiko was dead.
And the murderer? The school's sweetest and most cherished idol - Miku Hatsune. What had driven her to it? He wondered, though he figured he'd never really know. Not that he felt sorry for either of them. In his eyes, they got what they deserved. He wasn't a very caring person after all, but still, it was shocking to say the least. Things seemed so different today; the teachers were more uptight than usual, and on more than one occasion he had seen students tearing up in the hallways. It left him feeling rather numb as he stared out the window beside his desk, the teacher droning on in the background. The elderly trees that lined the school's walkway looked as though they were grasping at the sun today, Yuma thought idly. The dead leaves fell from their branches and fluttered to the ground in colorful little piles, the wind rustling them every so often with a gentle nudge.
It was then, as his eyes fell upon the tallest of the trees, that he noticed something that sent shivers down his spine. Standing at the base of that very tree was a short girl, her pale hair drifting lightly on the wind and her glowing yellow eyes fixed on his own. She was grinning wildly, the now familiar rabbit plush gripped tightly in her thin arms with red splotches covering it's face. As he stared, lips parted in shock, she tilted her head to the side and gave him a little wave. Then she turned and began walking away, but before she could reach the sidewalk, her form evaporated into smoke. Yuma could feel his heart racing - but, strangely, not from fear. Oh no, it was something far worse. Excitement.
Back in his bedroom at home that afternoon, Yuma found himself face to face with the rabbit plush, staring deep into it's soulless eyes, just like he had been for the last forty-five minutes. He knew he should be scared - after all he was now convinced that not only had he been visited by a ghost girl twice, but that she and this stuffed animal had something to do with Meiko's murder. Still, he wanted to know more about her. Curiosity killed the cat, he thought with a wince.
"I know you're here."
Nothing.
"What's your name?"
Not a sound was made.
Yuma growled under his breath, clearly frustrated. Why wouldn't she speak with him? He knew she had last night. He still remembered her words, although then he had thought himself to be dreaming. With a sigh he turned his attention to his computer. If she wouldn't tell him, then maybe he could find answers elsewhere.
Many fruitless searches and a few hours later, he finally found something. It was a post on an urban legends forum, strangely enough the poster appeared to be local. It spoke of a beautiful young lady who appears to people who have been rejected or betrayed in a painful way by their crushes or lovers. Apparently, she kills the offending person in cold blood, always with some sort of axe. Yuma had no way of knowing if the axe part was true in his case, and although he didn't really see Miku as a "crush" or "lover" (not to mention the fact that Meiko was the one dead) he still scrolled down and continued reading.
"She always appears via a rabbit plush with a microphone on it's head. It's name is 'Usano Mimi', which you can confirm by a monogram on the inside of the cape it's wearing." He read aloud. With shaking fingers, Yuma reached for the plush on his desk and lifted the cape. Sprawled along the inside edge in beautiful golden script, were the words "Usano Mimi". Now he knew something was up.
Deciding simply speaking to her wasn't going to work, he tried to think of some other way to contact this ghost girl. As he mulled it over, he remembered a game he and his uncle had played when he was little. What was the name of that board again? Getting up, he scurried over to his closet and hurriedly rummaged through some of the boxes on the top shelf. He was pretty tall so it was easy enough to locate the item and, once he found it, he plopped it down on his bed. Blowing away the dust, he read the name.
"Ouija." He merely whispered. It was a yellowish board with the words "yes" and "no" painted elegantly across each of the top corners, the alphabet and numbers in the middle, and "goodbye" on the bottom. He remembered that his uncle had told him it could be used to contact spirits.
Tossing the little planchette that had come with it around in his hand, Yuma took a step back and thought about what he was doing. Things had gotten so very strange in such a short amount of time. If you had even mentioned the word "ghost" to him the day before he would have scoffed. But now…
Yuma could only smirk as he sat down on his unmade bed, grabbing the bunny off his desk and placing the planchette on the board. This was actually pretty entertaining for him, he had to admit. He hadn't had anything really interesting to deal with in quite a while, and for that, he thanked the cute ghost girl. He placed his long fingers on the planchette and thought about what he should ask first.
"Are you there?" He asked, gripping the planchette. He waited several minutes but received no response. Just when he was about to give up, the board sprung to life. Yuma felt a cold pressure against his hand and, of it's own accord, the planchette began to move.
"W"
"H"
"Y" He called out every letter, excitement flooding his mind.
"Why? Why what?" He waited for over a minute, and eventually she replied. The planchette moved more quickly this time, and he had a hard time keeping up. After it had stopped he mouthed her words aloud.
"'Haven't you gotten rid of me?' Why haven't I gotten rid of you?"
Her response was a simple "Yes". Yuma gave the board a smug smile.
"You're interesting." He said honestly, although he himself was wondering why he hadn't ended up like Mikuo. He received no response so he asked another question of his own.
"What's your name?" The answer was immediate.
"MAYU."
"… Did you kill Meiko, Mayu?" He asked finally, his voice shaky with anticipation. Everything seemed extraordinarily still and deathly quiet, and Yuma was even afraid that his breath would break the fragile moment. A low scraping noise picked up as the planchette slowly traveled across the board. Somehow, he could feel Mayu's nails digging into his skin as she moved the planchette. The answer was a firm "yes".
As soon as the planchette stopped moving, the lights went out with a loud "crack!". A shiver ran down Yuma's spine as his eyes groped the ominous darkness, trying to locate Mayu's presence. He longed for just a glimpse of her visage. Then, the planchette quickly and shakily, almost as if his other worldly visitor was tired, slid over to the spot marked "goodbye". A few moments later the lights flickered back on, and though Yuma asked many more questions, not a one of them was answered.
Yuma was unsure of how to feel. On one hand, he had made contact with her and that was a step in the right direction, but on the other he hadn't really learned much more.
"Mayu." He murmured, testing the name out on his lips before he got up. He grabbed his keys off the dresser and left the apartment in a rush. He needed some fresh air.
Mayu was not happy. In fact, Mayu was very unhappy.
She was sitting on Yuma's desk, right next to her precious Usano Mimi, her hair pulled idly over one shoulder and her piano edged skirt ruffling against her knees. With a sigh she stood up and faced Mimi, bending down so that their noses touched.
"What are we going to do, Mimi?" She asked, as though she expected the rabbit to solve all her problems. Everything had gone wrong since she had come into the possession of that pink haired guy. He was supposed to be afraid of her. He supposed to hate her. He was supposed to be like all the others.
He was certainly not supposed to call her "interesting".
If she didn't get to her next victim soon, things would only get worse. There were rules, after all. She could already feel it coming. That noxious, foul hunger and perilous weakness building inside her. Shaking her head, Mayu drove those thoughts away. She knew she could scare this guys away. She had to.
However, that loud crashing noise coming from the kitchen certainly was not a part of her plan either.
Yuma came home just as the sun was setting, ready for another round with the Ouija board. However, the sight that greeted him upon his entry into the apartment sent a scowl to his features. Swinging the door open carefully, he peered inside the dark apartment. He could see a pile of glass in front of the now shattered kitchen window.
"Shit!" Yuma cursed, walking inside. He did a quick once over of the place, determining, to his dismay, that the thief was long gone. At first he couldn't really determine that anything had been stolen; Yuma lived pretty sparsely and all the essentials like his T.V. and laptop were intact. However, when he returned to his bedroom after cleaning the glass in the kitchen, he noticed a certain rabbit he had grown quite fond of was no longer sitting in it's usual spot. Frantic, he rushed through the house, turning the whole place upside down looking for Usano Mimi. He found neither the rabbit nor any sign of the mystery thief.
His neighbors were not very enthused by the cursing and loud threats that transpired over the next twenty minutes.
