Authors' note: Hello everyone! This is Xabie and Da*mouse speaking! Surprise surprise! We're doing a….. *drumroll* joint fic!! Yay!!! Yup you got that right people, we're going to be working together for this Fic! We hope you enjoy this! Happy reading!
When insanity knocks on my door
Mikagami Tokiya, aged 19, aspiring artist, had moved out of his house and into another. To most people it was a surprise wrapped in a surprise. After all, who would imagine the intellectual scientific Mikagami becoming, of all things, an artist? No-one of course. When he had graduated from high school, everyone had speculated on his future career track. A forensic scientist, a lawyer, a doctor, an accountant, but no-one, not a single one of them had thought about him becoming an artist. His teachers thought it a waste that he was not furthering his education, but he had already decided, and no amount of cajoling would change his mind.
His moving out of his house was a surprise to a smaller group of people, more specifically, the Hokage. The house was his childhood home, containing memories of happiness, joy, love and peace. Memories of Mifuyu. Memories of a happy Tokiya. The Hokage hadn't expected him to move out, much less sell it. But sell it he did. And he moved away, into the outskirts of the city, to a ramshackle house, that was, surprisingly old and worn down, but still in rather good condition.
The Hokage had not tried to find out why, or persuade him against it. They knew that each of them had their own way of dealing with the unexpected lease of life that fate had bestowed upon them. The truth was, even though all of them knew they were facing certain death against Mori Kouran, only Mikagami had expected to die. And now that he, against all odds, had lived, he was at a loss for what to do. Though of course he did not tell them that. But the Hokage, though stupid at times, can be uncharacteristically perceptive when the need arose.
So they left him alone, and he moved into his old new house.
_
Though the house was rundown, it was still rather well kept (the pipes were in good condition and the walls were still sturdy), and Mikagami had been rather surprised that no-one had bought it before, considering that the price was cheap and it was a large house by anyone's standards.
He unlocked the door, and pushed the heavy oak door inwards. Stepping across the threshold, he could smell the scent of oldness, decay, death; he dropped his duffel bag onto the lackluster oak floor.
Slices of golden sunlight filtered in through the shuttered windows, creating yellow blocks of swirling dust.
Well, he thought, I guess I'm home.
_
The house had come with the basic furniture, beds, a sofa, closets, a working stove, and a fridge and so it was easier for him to settle in. He had only two boxes to unpack seeing as he hadn't many possessions to bring in the first place; his room at his old house was almost empty.
Perhaps the hardest thing that he had to do was the cleaning up; any and every exposed area was covered in layers of dust, grime, and cobwebs. It took him about two days to finish making it livable.
As usual, there was nothing decorative in the house, no thanks to Mikagami himself, who was never a very avid house decorator anyway. But there was however, two framed pictures sitting on the dresser in his room.
Mifuyu.
The Hokage.
_
After a week or so, Mikagami had settled into a routine. Wake up at 7, read the papers and eat breakfast until 8.30, then start sketching some research drawings. At around 12, he would stop for lunch and take a walk around the very large and overgrown labyrinth hedge in his backyard. When it reached 2, he would head back to a room that he had converted to his studio, and start painting. Then, at around 7, he would stop and order takeaway. At 8 he would read until 10 when he would get ready for bed. He was under his covers by 10.30.
Life was turning out better than expected, and Mikagami was starting to feel a modicum of satisfaction in his life.
_
Human beings are social creatures, and no matter how anti-social a person is, sooner or later, the need for human company is almost tangible.
Mikagami woke up one day for the first time in a long while feeling rather empty. Even the sky refused to wash out into a clear blue, instead languished in greys and whites. The sun was hiding under the clouds, casting pale fingers of weak light into the sky. The birds chirped tiredly. And the plants looked wilted and limp.
He had tried going about his daily business, tried to feel reassurance in doing normal things, tried to feel as if the world was not tilting too far off its axis. It hadn't worked.
In the end he had given up painting and had just lounged around in his room, sprawled on his bed, feeling sorry for himself. Wallowing in self-pity, he decided, needed much more energy than anyone else thought.
And so it was like this, that Mikagami Tokiya met them.
Met who you ask? Well, you just have to read on and find out won't you? I mean after all, what's the point of asking me, when you're supposed to be reading anyway? That just boggles my mind.
Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, it was like this that Mikagami Tokiya met them.
As mentioned before, our hero, was lying on his bed, feeling pathetic, knowing that he was pathetic, and doing nothing about it. Where, his thoughts were straying more and more dangerously close to Mifuyu.
At that moment, at that very moment, no earlier, no later, he saw a ghost.
A male's head, quite suddenly floated into his vision, looking down at his face. The head was attached to a body (thank god), but due to the position he and the ghost were in, Mikagami could only see its face. It was a face that belonged to a man in his middle twenties; clean-shaven, indigo-coloured hair neatly combed and gelled in place. His eyes were a clear blue and had a mischievous twinkle. Not to mention the fact that Mikagami could see the ceiling through his entire head.
Needless to say, Mikagami, was shocked. He was dumbstruck, thunderstruck, lightningstruck, and most appropriately, ghoststruck.
He sat up and backed away feeling as if the world was spinning twice as fast as usual.
The ghost was wearing a black suit, but the strange thing was, on his feet, were fluffy yellow ducky bathroom slippers.
Mikagami opened his mouth (not a wise move in this situation, but a traumatized brain acts in strange ways).
"Why are you wearing those slippers?"
That wasn't the question he had wanted to ask. But it had forced its way up his throat.
The ghost smiled, revealing two ghost dimples. From somewhere behind Mikagami, he heard a low chuckle of amusement.
Slowly, and not knowing whether he should or not, he turned his head over his shoulder and widened his eyes (the Mi-chan equivalent of a gasp).
There was (another) ghost popping through the brick wall over the headboard of his bed. It was a woman this time. Like the man she was in her mid-twenties. She had lilac coloured hair that tumbled down past her shoulders. Her brown eyes glinted with amusement.
She floated out of the wall, and went beside the man-ghost in front of Mikagami.
"I knew you were an interesting fellow, Mikagami-san. No-one else asks that kind of question when they first meet us."
tbc
Written by Xabie
5/1/04
AN: Review minna! We're waiting impatiently for your comments!