Author's Note:

*gnaws fingers* I hope you'll like this. Writing this chapter is bad for my heart. Thanks for reading, as always.

Blessed Messiah

Chapter 2

Junpei buried his face in his hands, releasing a tense breath that he held for so long. His body went through a full shudder that shook his core as they sat in front of the station, staring at nothingness. Even Akihiko was affected, with the way he closed his eyes and swallowed a mouthful of Mad Bull. Then he decided that it wasn't strong enough and reached for the cold beer.

His attention was half directed on his senior, and the other on the semblance of a ghost that his dead dorm mate produced. Arisato's gaze was fixed on them, except that the ghost hadn't been staring at them.

It was as if the ghost was spellbound.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit." He rocked back and forth, trying to keep himself from shivering. Pathetic.

Junpei had expected the ghost to be vengeful, to be so hauntingly demonic that justified the unnatural death of someone so distant.

Instead, the spectre had simply walked forward, agonizingly slow and head bowed, eyes half-lidded and trembled so convulsively. His pace was slow and the solemn air warped around him like a thick blanket as he walked as if he walked towards his funeral march.

Then Arisato lifted his head and his eyes were wide with death.

He still remembered that he shivered once and fell to his knees. Akihiko was better because he could grasp the tree trunk in time. And as they watched, the ghost flickered like a broken TV and vanished. But only a moment later, the spectre had appeared in front of the closed door and turned towards them.

It smiled a grieving smile to the sky outside and lolled his head to the side as they caught the shine of a gun's barrel. But what made it painful was that it wasn't the smile of a suicidal, deranged teen.

No, it was the smile of someone who had chosen his fate. And even though it wasn't the smile of someone with every option unrestrained and free, it was still a smile of someone who knew what the future will be.

It vanished again, before it repeated its funeral march, while they watched. And again. Again.

And thousand images of his post-mortem body entered Junpei's vision and he willed the images away. It wasn't the time to throw up like a cowardly seventeen years old who found Arisato's slack body first.

Because for once, this wasn't like the horror movies he had watched. Ghosts were supposed to be vicious. They were supposed to scare-jump everyone in the immediate vicinity. They were supposed to be horrendously malevolent. They did not relived their funeral march over and over again, like a separate fragment trapped in an endless rewind of a memory.

Junpei stood up shakily and laughed, the sound wheezed in his ears. "Think it's just a nightmare?"

Akihiko shook his head and stared into his empty can, eyes blazing with regret. "...We should've talked to him more. But nothing to be done, right? ...We should continue living and leave that...ghost alone. We should leave Arisato to rest. It's better this way."

It would be simpler that way.

But the next week, Junpei broke out from his vow to let it rest because something gnawed on his conscience that left him missing practice by practice. It irritated him because it wasn't like Arisato was his friend.

Yet, it gnawed on him.

Akihiko stayed in the next town over due to an upcoming match, so he was alone as he took his feet to the Headquarter of Kirijo Group. Because if there was anyone who had the dorm's key, it would be Mitsuru. They weren't that close although they used to live in the same dorm, though, with everyone losing contact and not keeping in touch for years.

Once he was admitted to the luxurious receiving room, he only had to wait for a few minutes before Mitsuru entered the room with the grace of a queen. She was accompanied with bodyguards on each side that she dismissed when she saw who the guest was.

She nodded, stiff and controlled that Junpei replied with a wry grin. They went silent after that, though Junpei started the conversation after he looked up from fiddling with his thumbs.

"Arisato, he... The dorm- err..." He touched the back of his neck, suddenly nervous for no reason although it was for his own peace of mind.

To his surprise, Mitsuru lowered her head and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. She glanced away and took a deep breath before she looked at him with a firm, unchallenged gaze. But the rim of red around his eyes called out her bluff.

"...I thought that destroying the dorm would let it rest." Mitsuru began, her voice steady. It was a reasonable enough for a reason. "I don't know what it is. Arisato's death was unnatural but the police investigation hadn't reveal anything. No illness, no wounds, no stolen things, no coagulations, no heart failure, no skin discoloration, even his body wasn't damaged at all. Nothing, Iori."

The now-adult woman in front of his eyes lowered her head and struggled against tears, "It was as if he just saw it fit to leave."

Junpei didn't know what to do with a crying woman, so he panicked and grabbed the closest tissue he could reach. Mitsuru accepted it with a small smile, emotions tightly reined under the cool facade of the President of a multinational company.

"I don't recall you as the person who would be curious over a matter like this, Arisato and you were not even on speaking term."

He chuckled quietly, trying to reciprocate Mitsuru's effort to lighten the current atmosphere. "I punched the guy once, what to expect?"

Then, Mitsuru's face changed and contorted into a blank expression. "A fight? No, I don't think you ever got into any fight. I would remember, because I was the Student Council President."

Junpei frowned. He didn't even remember his high school years correctly. Maybe he really was more stupid than he thought.

"Oh yeah, I'm here for the dorm's key. Do you still have it?"

Mitsuru arched her eyebrows, a question hanging from her mouth. "For what?"

He only rolled his eyes, trying to come up with another discreet reason. "Nostalgia, duh. Let's just say that I'm having mid-life crisis."

A smile formed on Mitsuru's face, though she only stared at her hands. "Yes, I still keep the dorm's key." She sighed as she stood up and retrieved something from a small, lacquered wooden drawer, presenting a set of keys and dropping them into Junpei's waiting palms.

They walked together to the front desk and she shook Junpei's hands in a business manner. "I have no regards about the keys, you can keep them because the dorm itself will be gone next month."

Her chiseled face turned solemn, "...If you meet it again, just ignore it. The least thing we can give it is some space."

Perhaps, it deserved some privacy.

Her face fell, "It's mostly harmless. Please... just let it be."

Mitsuru covered her eyes with another tissue and this time, Junpei was polite enough to look away.