chapter three – despite what you might think, I am alive

Hajime used to think that ghosts were vague shapes that you always saw at the corner of your eye but could never actually see face on.

He was very wrong and the ghost pacing his kitchen at four in the morning was proof of that.

"Go back to bed, shithead," the ghost says.

Well.

/

Someone knocks on his door at exactly midnight. Hajime doesn't get up from his couch.

"Are you gonna get that?" Fuyuhiko asks, throwing an egg up in the air and catching it. Hajime thinks about how at one point, Fuyuhiko is going to lose the ability to touch physical items and the egg is going to splatter all over the ground.

"I really don't want to," Hajime replies. He gets up anyway.

He sees Gundham and Sonia through the peephole. He opens the door against his better judgement.

"Aha!" Gundham exclaims. Hajime already regrets every decision he has made in his life. "I have a few questions for you – "

An egg smashes onto the ground somewhere behind him. Hajime sighs.

"Can ghosts move objects even when we don't see them move right in front of us?" Sonia whispers.

"It seems so," Gundham replies.

Hajime closes the door.

/

Fact: Fuyuhiko has a nervous tick. It is where he runs his right thumb along the side of his pointer finger.

Not a fact: he does this because he wants to go home. His home isn't this apartment. Hajime doesn't know this for sure. Hajime just suspects.

/

"I think Fuyuhiko needs to move on," is how Chiaki greets Hajime when he goes over to her apartment.

"Hello," Hajime replies. "I brought that tea you wanted. And what?"

"Oh," Nagito coos from the couch. "Chamomile."

Hajime collapses next to Nagito. Chiaki repeats what she had said. "You say that like he just got out of a relationship," Hajime says.

"In a way he did," Nagito muses. "His relationship with life."

"Dear god, how many drugs are you on?" Hajime says. Nagito grins.

Chiaki drops onto Hajime's lap and throws her legs over Nagito's. "I think he needs to find the closure that he needs and move onto the next level of life."

"Darling, we talked about you comparing everything to video games," Nagito says.

Chiaki drums her fingers on Hajime's shoulder. "Do you know how he died?" she asks.

"Nada," Hajime replies, looping his arms around her waist. "He doesn't remember."

"Well, he's famous, isn't he?" Nagito says. "Surely his death got some coverage when it happened."

"That's true," Hajime says. "Hey, good idea, Ko."

Nagito smiles at him. Hajime feels surprisingly light.

/

Fact: Nagito is a professional photographer. He usually takes photographs for weddings.

Also a fact: he makes extra copies of each photo he takes. He draws moustaches on them and sticks them up around his apartment. Hajime's favourite is the one of a woman with red hair who Nagito had drawn an eyepatch on.

/

"Do you want to pass on?" Hajime asks Fuyuhiko.

Fuyuhiko pauses where he stands in front of the oven, pretending that he actually knows how it works. "I guess? I don't want to spend more time with you than I have to," he says.

"Yeah, yeah, you hate me, et cetera, et cetera. Just wanted to warn you because Chiaki is coming over in about – " Hajime checks his watch. " – Two seconds with all the information surrounding your death."

Fuyuhiko opens his mouth to say something but Chiaki bursts in before he can get a word out. She thrusts a sheet of paper into the air above her head. "Severe head trauma," she cries, her chest heaving, her braid a wind-blown mess.

"Try again," Hajime says.

"Severe head trauma," Chiaki repeats, more solemnly. She turns to Fuyuhiko and shoves the piece of paper in his face. "You were smashed over the head with a three-kilogram weight. The police never found out who did it."

"Ah," Fuyuhiko says, distantly.

"You alright?" Hajime asks.

Fuyuhiko nods. "Yeah," he scoffs. "It's whatever."

Hajime and Chiaki share a look. "So, I was thinking if we can figure out who did this to you then you can move onto the next level of life."

"Chiaki. No game metaphors," Nagito calls from his apartment. Chiaki kicks the front door closed with her foot without looking.

"So, what's the last thing you remember?" Chiaki continues.

"Nothing special. I was having lunch with the band." Fuyuhiko frowns down at the cooker. "I feel like I knew something I shouldn't have. But I don't know what. The meal felt tense."

"What was tense?" Hajime says.

"All the members." Fuyuhikos stops and crosses his arms. "I think… I think I had found something out…about all of them. A secret. I just can't remember what." He looked frustrated at himself.

"Hey," Chiaki says, reaching out and patting Fuyuhiko's shoulder. "It's a start. As my mother liked to say, it's better than nothing." Fuyuhiko gives her a smile that is there and then gone.

There is a beat of silence.

"Chiaki, where did you get all that information?" Hajime asks, nodding to the sheets of paper clutched in her hands.

"Oh," she replies, smiling brightly. "I stole it from the library." Fuyuhiko chokes on a laugh while Hajime sighs and flops backwards onto his couch.

/

Fact: Hajime doesn't have a lot of love for coffee. He still drinks it. He drinks it too much.

Also a fact: he drinks it at three in the morning while Fuyuhiko nags at him to go to bed. (Once Fuyuhiko actually managed to smack the mug out of Hajime's hands. They had both stood in silence before Hajime made another cup. Fuyuhiko had looked exasperated.)

/

"I'm just saying what you're thinking," Nagito says.

"None of us were thinking that Fuyuhiko and Peko should date," Chiaki points out. Hajime nods his agreement against her thigh.

"Well, why not?" Nagito says, rubbing his hand up and down Hajime's shin. "He likes her, she likes him… subconsciously anyways."

"He's dead and she can't see him," says Hajime.

"A minor obstacle," Nagito says.

"Minor," Hajime repeats.

"You know," Chiaki interrupts. "We could ask that couple that live next to you if they have anything for seeing ghosts."

"The Ghostbusters?" Hajimes says. "I doubt they will. If they did, they would be using it themselves."

"Do they still think you're a ghost?" Nagito asks.

Hajime nods. Nagito snorts.

"Remind me to ask them anyway," Chiaki says.

/

Fact: Sonia and Gundham have a pentagram drawn in the centre of their living room.

Lie: this is the strangest thing that Hajime has ever seen in his life time.

Truth: walking in on Kazuichi chopping his hair in his bathroom is the strangest thing Hajime has ever seen. Despite the ghost that is haunting his apartment.

/

"I just don't know why you're cutting your hair in my bathroom," Hajime says.

Kazuichi looks sheepish. "Well, it needed a trim," he explains.

"In my bathroom," Hajime repeats.

"I try not to judge your choice of friends," Fuyuhiko says from the couch. "But this is on some next level."

"Stop stealing Chiaki's game metaphors," Hajime says to him.

"What?" Kazuichi asks, looking confused, his hand still raised over his head, a pair of scissors clutched between his fingers.

"Nothing," Hajime sighs. Having a ghost in his flat is proving to be more stressful than he was prepared for it to be.

/

Fact: Hajime has nightmares. They are always short flashes of times gone by. The shine of his mother's hair when the sun hit it just right. The glint of his father's reading glasses. His brother's hands, rough and work weary.

Not a fact: if Fuyuhiko could sleep, he would have dreams just like this. Hajime doesn't know this for sure. He just thinks.

/

Peko stares at Hajime, incredulously. "Let me guess this straight," she says. "You want me to put on these goggles and look around the apartment."

Hajime nods. "No questions asked would be preferable."

"This is so stupid," Fuyuhiko mutters. Hajime elbows him in the ribs as subtly as he can.

Peko sighs and shrugs. "What have I got to lose?" she says, almost to herself and puts the goggles on.

She looks around the apartment for a few moments, the goggles magnifying her eyes and making them look as though they are bugging out of her head.

She turns to Hajime and tilts her head to the left of him, where Fuyuhiko is standing. Hajime hears Fuyuhiko inhale sharply and Hajime feels his heart stop. Her lips purse for a second.

She looks away.

Fuyuhiko sighs and Hajime turns to see him looking at her, dejectedly.

She takes off the goggles. "Was I supposed to see anything with these on?" she asks.

"I don't know," Hajime replies. He takes the goggles off her and feels her pulse racing beneath her skin. "I really don't know."

/

"Oh my god," Nagito grins as he races into Hajime's apartment. "Guess what I saw when I was downstairs a few minutes ago."

"Still not wearing shoes," Fuyuhiko observes. "Picked a real winner here."

"What did you see?" Hajime asks.

"Peko with a book all about The Almost." Nagito spreads his hands out in a ta-da! motion.

Hajime looks over at Fuyuhiko and finds him staring at Nagito in a daze, his face flushing pink. "My band?" he asks, distantly.

"So that means she totally saw you when she put those goggles on." Nagito reaches into one of the kitchen cupboards and grabs a handful of Cheerios.

"Maybe she's just a fan of the band," Fuyuhiko points out.

"Honey, no one's a fan of the band," Hajime simpers and gets a cushion thrown in his face. "But she didn't say anything when she had the goggles on," Hajime adds.

"Maybe she knows something," Nagito says.

"Like what?" Fuyuhiko asks.

Hajime doesn't have an answer for him.

/

Fact: Everyone has secrets.

Also a fact: Hajime is determined to find them out.

/

author's note: thank u so much to the person who has posted a review, I owe you my life. that being said i do need reviews to keep motivated and if i don't get them then i will have to drop this story.

my tumblr is bravemccalll if you want to talk. - nic