The Ghost

by Korii Shoujo

Chapter Two - Koyokaze

As her eyes closed lightly, almost transparently, she kept the last waking image she viewed deep within the recesses of her mind: the trembling face of Mitsuru, immensely worried even in his usually infuriated tengu form. She watched as a single teardrop fell from his encrimsoned eyes and on to her cheek, then knew no more in the material realm that she had lived in and loved most. However, the image still lingered, floating around her mind like a rampant ping pong ball, and suddenly, she felt that the framed picture of his face that she held dearly in her mind would be of some relevance; of what kind, she did not know at the moment.

Blackness and silence swirled around her, surrounding her in a lethal cacoon of chaos, rapidly twisting images, and disoriented songs that sang their strangled voice out into the silence that surrounded her, yet still the silence somehow remained in its whole. It was not a noise, yet something that encompassed her body and every breath she took; the blackness and the silence mixed in a dance that disgusted and worried her with some fear she could not identify, yet a fear that swallowed her up into its gaping mouth and held her prisoner there until it ran its course through the same votex that she was floating through like a ghost. She tried to speak, to scream, but the nothingness ate away at everything that she tried to do, chewing her up and spitting her out of its proverbial mouth with excessive violence. Shivering, she lifted her eyes up, which seemed to be the only movement she could force herself to do, towards a twinkling light that lay right above her face, shining out purely and justly.

The her surprise, there were pictures without sound moving across the infinite expanse above her, and she could see Mitsuru and her in various scenes at moments where time seemed to stop, or really did stop in her human mind. The images on the screen blurred sickeningly, lurching back and forth rapidly until they settled one lone event, and the girl blushed when she remembered what it was, yet remembered it with a feeling of warmth that spread from her stomach to her toes, perhaps the only warmth she had felt in the time since she had first lost view of Mitsuru's face. From the screen above her, sound beginning to creep to her ears, faintly at first, then growing louder like heavy footsteps in an impenetrable fog. It echoed cruelly, reminding her of everything she lost and feared.

"Mahiru," Mitsuru's voice growled out deep from within the confines of his throat, yet it held no anger or cruelty, instead an anxious tone underlying everything, "Please look at me."

Standing on the light, Mahiru saw herself lift her eyes slightly up to gaze at Mitsuru who, upon viewing this, took her wrist in his hand and pulled her closer to him. The Mahiru upon the screen gasped lightly almost trying to make pointless struggles of getting out of his grasps, yet she restrained herself and forced her eyes to look at the boy in front of her. The tengu moved his face closer to hers, the Movie-Mahiru's eyes widening as he did so.

"Why do you do this to me?" Mitsuru breathed, before placing his lips on hers gently before the movie began to fade swiftly, like the remaining rays of sunlight in the dusky twilight, before night ascended. The empty world where Mahiru currently lay began to spin again, seemingly trying to lurch itself against its invisible confines in desperate escape. Suddenly, the world righted itself in a shuddering vibration that shrilly screamed the word 'pain' in the princess's ears in voice of a child. The darkness birthed a sudden flash of misty light, and Mahiru could move again. She was right where she had begun, laying back on the bed with her eyes closed. Slowly, she opened them, and climbed off the bed, noticing that the pain from her illness had seemingly disappeared. Turning around the glance at the bed, her stomach dropped through the floor as cold fear stabbed her like an icicle.

Mahiru's body lay on the bed, flushed and smiling, as she had fallen asleep. However, it was completely void of all life as her chest was still and her body was not moving at all, like in the normal euphoria of sleep. She went numb, falling to her knees and staring increduously at her hands that seemed solid, but she knew otherwise. Tears coursed from her eyes as she realized the immenant truth of her dire situation.

"No," Mahiru choked out, burying her face in her arms, her chest heaving with the impact of her discovery, "I promised myself I wouldn't leave him just yet."

Suddenly, a door slammed open behind her and, whipping her head around rapidly, Mahiru saw Mitsuru standing paralyzed in the doorway, changed back into the form of a human man. The widened whites of his eyes were colored red, as was his entire face, colored red by the messy crayon of sorrow. Time stopped again, Mahiru knowing that he did not see her, as he was focused on the shell of a body that lay smiling on its deathbed. Letting out a strangled cry, the tengu rushed forward to the tangled mess of sheets, picking up the body encased by them and checking its pulse. After several tries of feeling nothing, Mitsuru gave up, staring blankly at the once vibrant girl who lay motionless before him.

"No, Mahiru, please," he begged softly, stroking her paled hand with trembling fingers, "You're not gone yet, are you? Damnit, don't leave me like everyone else has..." Tears built themselves up in Mitsuru's eyes, so much that he had to look away and sob softly, still ashamed of his tears in front of her, even if all that remained of her physically was a mere corpse.

Mahiru watched desperately, shocked and still with emotion. When Mitsuru began crying, a squeak emerged from her throat and she threw herself forward to embrace him tenderly in his pain. However, the princess only fell through her fiance, dropping painlessly to the floor as no physical pain is felt after death. She watched Mitsuru whip his head up and look around, the color draining from his face as if he had seen a ghost. Mahiru almost smiled, realizing how close he was to the truth of what had really happened, only to feel the stabbing pain of despair again when Mitsuru buried his face in her cold, lifeless hand and began to shake. He soon stopped, however, noticing the tears he had left on her still grinning face. Tenderly, he wiped away the warm droplets with his hand, his fingers tracing the gentle contours of her face as he placed one last kiss on her slightly parted lips, then he was gone.

"I'm sorry, Mitsuru," Mahiru gasped out, wanting to follow him but strangely bound the the room where her life had left like a lightening flash in a storm. She couldn't leave for some reason, and so was destined to remain there until her corpse was placed beneath the surface of the damp, dark earth.

With the wind literally at his feet, Mitsuru Suou threw himself through the air violently, reaching below him and grabbing at the air currents below him, shoving them behind him rapidly for increased speed. Pure fury was masked around his face as he flew, the birds scattering around him as he soared by. The animals could sense his anger and also his pain, not wanting to be in his way when he went by. His thoughts were clouded with the clues he had read in the scrolls that were in the Moon Palace's immense library. All pointed to what seemed to be some old, forgotton shrine just outside of Osaka. The tengu had not mentioned that this tear was rumoured to be the most powerful of them all to Misoka, as he wanted some chance to revive Mahiru before the Empress or Shirogane interfered with his plans. He also knew that the precious gem would be guarded by extremely powerful protection spells that still held their vigour, even after many years of existence. He would have to think of some way to get past them without causing himself any potential harm.

Greyish buildings peaked up in front of the sunrise suddenly, tearing at the sky with excessive force, fully earning their name as 'sky scrapers'. Mitsuru almost sighed in relief as he neared the city, yet fully knowing that this was only the beginning in his desperate quest to save Mahiru.

A/N: Erm...sorry it's so short. My computer crashed while I was nearly done with this chapter, so I had to rewrite it completely. Well, expect more later!

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