April 11th, 1996

Within the library of Harajuku Gaien Junior High, Anju roams, searching for two specific types of genres; paranormal and supernatural, subjects that revolve around the same thing but are considered separate, sometimes. After going months, perhaps years, without a shadow person entering her sights and unintentionally darkening her doorstep, she recently began encountering them again; what never bothered her as a child is now quite disconcerting, thus the research into paranormality and the supernatural.

Unable to locate anything of use through the library books, she tries the next best thing; the computer. Luckily, no one is using any of them, so she starts her research relatively quickly and without lingering eyes. At first, nothing of interest catches her attention; there's only talk about the typical spirits, ones you see through video or photographs and ones you hear. For most of her available time, she cannot find anything dealing with her specific situation; seeing shadows and occasionally seeing what can be mistaken as a living person, if it wasn't for the fact no one else can see them and said people are always walking through them.

Only six minutes of her freetime remain when she finally locates something promising. The results are astonishing; although a grand amount of people claim to have seen spirits, there's only a small number of citizens that truly can be called mediums, folks that are able to properly communicate with the deceased; the spirits appear before them in many forms, the most common being that of a shadow. Her eyes become wide. She reads further; the shadows are ghosts with the potential of accomplishing their unfinished business, very capable of moving into the afterlife.

That explains why I haven't been seeing the same ones, she thinks. 'Very rarely, the spirits will seem almost as if they're still a living being; in this case, they have lost their chances of moving on and are now doomed to roam the Earth for eternity, permanently bound to the object of their sorrow that they dared not to part with, whether it be an actual physical item or an emotion they refuse to let go of', she reads in her mind. That's depressing… She frowns.

The bell rings, startling her; it's time for another class. She huffs, exiting out of the website and clearing the browser history before standing up. She leaves the library, the newfound information endlessly zooming through her mind; this remains so for the rest of her school activities.

At the end of the day, she finds herself within her bedroom, silently lying in bed, staring at the ceiling instead of visiting the Yagami household again; she's got a lot on her mind, today in particular, therefore she has no time for dilly-dallying, even though she'd rather be relaxing with her extended family right now and not contemplating her returned abnormality.

With a sad sigh, she rolls onto her side. Immediately, she flinches, clinging onto her pillow and blanket; looming over her is a shadow spirit, one of the few she's been seeing lately. The girl appears to be only slightly older than her; her uniform is befitting of a high school student. Around her neck, there's a rope burn; it doesn't take much imagination for Anju to figure out how the spirit met her demise.

The ghost speaks in a raspy tone. "You can see me; they said you would."

They? Anju wonders. …Other spirits, maybe. She's still a bit baffled by the sudden appearance of this ghost girl. In addition, compared to the others, this one is more intimidating, somehow. She slowly sits up in her bed, keeping her eyes on the spirit. "...Yeah…" She takes a deep breath; her hesitation to communicate with the ghost fades quickly. "What's your name?"

"My name?" The spirit girl tilts her head, narrowing her eyes. "I don't think it matters anymore who I was. Call me whatever you want; I don't care about much these days."

Anju gulps; this spirit scares her, just a bit. "I'm-"

"I know of your name," the spirit interrupts, sounding bored. "I don't care, nor do I wish to use it."

Anju feels more anxious now. She opens her mouth to speak again, but closes it seconds later; she'll just avoid talking about names, then. Lesson learned. She bites her cheek, thinking. Soon, she finds herself eyeing the ligature marks; the rope burns on the spirit's neck. Her hesitation remains, having made a return. "...Did someone, or something, cause you to…be this way, a spirit…?"

The spirit girl suddenly smiles cruelly. "That doesn't matter either, at least not anymore; he's gotten what he deserved."

Anju grimaces. Onryō, a vengeful spirit; I've heard about them. I never expected to…meet one, though. No wonder the spirit is making her feel so nervous; she's capable of taking away a living being's soul. She squirms on the bed, uncomfortable, slowly maneuvering away from Onryō. "I-I'm truly, deeply sorry that this…man has caused you so much pain."

Onryō glares at her. "I don't want to hear your pity. I'm dead; it'll do me no good now."

"I-Isn't there a way for you to move on, though…?" Anju questions.

Onryō thinks about it momentarily. "If there is, I doubt it'll work painlessly." Now that I've killed someone; these words are left unsaid but implied.

"..." Anju doesn't know what to say at this point.

Onryō smirks at Anju; she seems amused, suddenly. "Looks like you'll be stuck with me for a while." She starts messing with some of the objects sitting on Anju's nearby dresser, which horrifies the living girl; the spirit can pick up things. "I wonder if I can scare someone to death by making something float in front of them," the spirit ponders aloud. Anju makes a face of worry.

This is likely to end very poorly for everyone.

March 18th, 1998

Nearly two years have passed by since Anju first encountered Ryō, a self-proclaimed nameless spirit capable of murdering the living. As surprising as it is, another homicide never occurred; instead, the ghost has been creating so much mischief, making life more exhausting for Anju.

Throughout all this time, Ryō has been staying around the Murasaki and Yagami households; as a result, Anju has become slightly estranged from her mother and extended family of four again, most who had previously thought this 'shadow people' nonsense was left in the past. Saddened by their continued lack of belief in her, she spends far less time around them than before; she still loves them, of course she does, and still sticks around them from time-to-time, but it's best she avoids making them uncomfortable any more than necessary.

Another issue Ryō has created, besides the recreation of a rift between Anju and her family, is the amount of other spirits that come visiting; what was once two-to-three encounters per week has become four-to-six appearances per day. Although she has learned not to flinch at the suddenness of their arrivals, Anju continues the habit of staring at them in public settings; she can't help but to acknowledge their presence, ultimately gaining odd looks from passersby.

Someday, perhaps everything will return to normal again. Or maybe someday, she can fully embrace this strange ability of hers. Time will tell.

After a tough and seemingly prolonged day of school, Anju slowly walks down the sidewalk, getting closer and closer to her neighborhood, fidgeting nervously. Today has been a particularly stressful day for a reason; she'll be tutoring Light's friend at her own home for the first time, in mathematics. For the past few months, she'd been assisting both boys at the Yagami household; only recently did it become just Hajime. It was through her mother's suggestion that their tutoring session was relocated; it'll be quieter, the woman claimed. Anju, unable to explain why that wouldn't be the case, agreed.

Behind her, Ryō walks; very recently, the spirit girl became completely solid, symbolizing that she can no longer move on. Lately, now that she's officially doomed to wander around Earth for eternity, instead of just lingering around either household, she's started roaming around, antagonizing strangers near and far. She is the reason for Anju's current anxiety. Ryō's mood changes periodically; it was through sheer luck that she never did anything during the past tutoring sessions but there's no guarantee she'll behave today, too.

Anju is only twenty steps away from her home. She fidgets some more, unable to keep calm or still.

The movement attracts Ryō's attention. "Now, why do you keep on fidgeting? You're never this nervous." She gets an evil look. "Got a date or something? Scared I'll ruin it? You should be; without a doubt, I absolutely would."

"...No," Anju hesitates. "Not a date."

Ryō grumbles. "Damn it…" She's quiet for a split second. "...Mmm?" She claps her palms together, keeping them that way. "Ah, this is about the tutoring thing, right? The one that's happening at your place this time?"

"...Maybe," Anju answers. Just five steps away from home now… "...Would it be too much to ask that you behave today, like you did during the other sessions?"

"Yes," Ryō bluntly states. "And for your information, I didn't behave; I just wasn't around to cause havoc." She chuckles darkly. "Guess you're outta luck this time, sugar."

Anju frowns, looking very worried. "Please, Ryō, I can't…" …drive away Light's friend because of you.

Ryō scoffs. "Are you dense? I said no. Maybe not explicitly, but it was implied." They are now standing directly before the household. "Ain't that the Yagami kid's friend?" Sitting at the front door is Hajime; he appears to be writing in one of his notebooks.

Anju just hums, sounding a bit annoyed. With a deep breath and a greater amount of inner dread, she steps towards her home. Hajime hears her approaching, glancing up from his notebook. She smiles kindly, despite her deteriorating mood. "Hey, I hope you weren't waiting for too long; my…thoughts distracted me." Not exactly a lie…

Hajime shakes his head shyly. "O-Only a-a m-minute."

Ryō snorts. "That stutter, though."

Anju's hand twitches in anger; thankfully, Hajime doesn't seem to notice. "Alright then. Well, let's go inside and get started." Unlocking the door, she lets him enter the house first. His back turned, she takes that brief moment to shoot a glare at Ryō for her comment about his verbal flaw; the spirit just rolls her eyes and flips the living woman off. Anju enters her home shortly afterwards, wishing she could lock Ryō out of the house.

For a short time, the tutoring session goes off without a hitch. Halfway through, however, is when Ryō decides to disrupt the peace; knowing the young boy is off limits, not that she'd mess with a child anyway, the mischievous spirit starts flipping the pages of the textbook Anju's holding.

Anju stares at Ryō's hand, which is currently still on the textbook; the spirit is still flipping through the pages, back and forth. Having an inner panic, Anju shifts her eyes towards Hajime; he hasn't noticed anything, too busy writing in his notebook and looking at his math workbook. Holding in her sigh of relief, she looks at Ryō and glares. "Don't make me call a priest," she mutters beneath her breath.

"Go ahead; you'd be dead before you grabbed the telephone," Ryō comments, very nonchalant.

"Just stop, okay?" Anju hisses back, irritated but trying to remain quiet, as to not alert Hajime.

"Why?" Ryō questions, flipping through the textbook again. "He already knows that I exist, so I don't see the point in behaving." Anju's mouth drops in shock. Ryō glances up, expecting such, and smirks. "What? Did I fail to mention that earlier? Oops~."

Anju quickly recovers and narrows her eyes, grumbling. "You're a…very bad spirit."

"Mean," Ryō corrects. "Just because I killed a man doesn't necessarily make me bad. Rough around the edges, more like." She leaves the textbook alone and moves to sit criss-cross on the floor, right beside Hajime. "Besides." She gently takes the pencil out of the young boy's hand; to him, it's floating. "I think he rather likes me."

Hajime, instead of freaking out like Anju expects, just pouts. "Ghosty, I'm doing homework. We can play later." He takes the pencil back; Ryō lets him take it.

Ryō gives Anju a pointed look. "See?"

Anju is very surprised, for a moment; she probably should've guessed that the spirit would reveal herself to the children at some point, out of spite towards her. She sighs. "...You're very manipulative, too…" she quietly complains.

Ryō shrugs. "It's not my fault you never asked me where I'd wander off to."

Anju scoffs, forgetting to keep her tone low. "Because you would've answered with something vague, like 'somewhere'."

Ryō grins widely. "That's very true."

"You talk to Ghosty, too?" Hajime asks, suddenly staring at Anju instead of doing his homework.

"Uhhh…" Anju sweatdrops.

Ryō cackles. "Busted~."

Anju gives Ryō a warning glare. "For once in your undead life, be quiet, Ryō." The spirit girl in question raises her hands up in defense, smirking like usual. Hajime looks where Anju is staring; he sees nothing but now he's got an idea of where 'Ghosty' is; somewhere next to him. "Hajime," Anju gently calls. He looks back at her, blinking, giving her his full attention again. "I do more than just talk to her; I yell at her, too," she half-jokes, even though that information is very true. "However, I can see her, too."

"I would hope so or you looking at nothing just now would be really weird," Hajime innocently comments.

Ryō snorts. "I like him."

Anju laughs a bit, too. "Heh, yeah, I suppose."

Hajime hums and stares at the space where he believes 'Ghosty' is at; she's sitting more so to the left of where he's looking. "Ghosty's name is Ryō?"

"...No," Anju answers with honesty. "She never told me her name, so I've just called her that these past few ye-"

"Kairi," Ryō states, standing up. "My name was Kairi." She crosses her arms, looking away with what appears to be a pout. "Like I've told you before, it doesn't matter anymore." She briefly glances back at Anju before looking away again. She gestures at Hajime without looking. "Tell him you were mistaken; my name is Ryō."

Anju smiles innocently. "I will if you leave us alone for the rest of the session."

Hajime looks back and forth between his tutor and where he hopes Ryō is located.

Ryō looks back at Anju, eye twitching. Whatever vulnerability she had just moments ago is gone now. "I could always kill someone in your family, you know, and you'd be blamed."

"Please, just leave us alone," Anju lightly begs.

"Nope," Ryō replies.

Hajime seems to be getting uncomfortable, likely because of the one-sided conversation he was hearing. "C-Can we g-get back to math n-now…?"

"Yes, I'm sorry," Anju apologizes. She flips the textbook pages back to where they need it to be. Then, she takes his workbook to look over his answers; in the meantime, Hajime starts doodling inside his notebook anxiously. Noting his newfound behavior, Anju glares at Ryō.

Ryō puts her hands up in defense again. "Hey, you're the one he can actually hear; if anything, you made him uncomfortable just now, not me."

Anju looks horrified at the revelation.

July 4th, 1998

Nine-year-old Hotaru sulks behind her mother as they walk through a grocery store. For once, they're having a break from the cruelness that naturally irradiates from her father, but truthfully, the little girl would rather be in their disruptive household than be within a public and relatively peaceful space; the rowdiness of her fighting parents has become a comfort of sorts, preventing a dreadful silence.

Despite the calm atmosphere, her mother continues fuming, grumbling to herself about her horrid husband, Hotaru's father. She angrily tosses things into the cart as they go; do they actually need most of that, probably not, but expensive shopping is one of many ways her mama gets back at her papa. "Good for nothing, piece of shit, mother fucker, assface looking man whore," she quietly hisses, rambling on.

Hotaru just shakes her head, still pouting about the change of scenery.

Suddenly, something thin and red crosses the corner of her vision. Intrigued, she turns her head to look for the object, only to find nothing there except for many cans of food, none featuring the color of interest. She blinks, confused, briefly freezing in place, searching for what she'd seen. Never finding it, she huffs, shrugs it off, and quickly catches back up with her mother, who continues filling up their shopping cart. She immediately forgets about it.

A few days later, the thin and red object reappeared within her line of sight, revealing itself as a string; however, the encounter was rather intense, very overwhelming…

She should be in her first class right now, but instead, she's hiding inside a bathroom stall, breathing heavily; she's panicking. She doesn't understand why she's suddenly seeing them, but she hates it. She's been cursed, somehow. The red threads of fate, invisible cords wrapped around the fingers of those destined to meet one another; she can fucking see them.

The day before, she'd seen a few of those ribbons, but she hadn't realized it at the time; it just looked like someone tied their thumbs and pinkies, for whatever reason. Now, she knows better and absolutely hates it. What she'd seen were strings not yet connected; those people weren't fated to someone, yet. And that's not even the reason why she's hiding inside a bathroom right now. No, she's ditching class because just about ninety percent of the student and staff's threads are connected; too many goddamn soulmates.

The strings were stretching and entwining all over the place, never breaking. Adults paired with other adults, children tied to other children, and more disturbing matches that she'd rather not think about. Yeah, the bathroom is probably the safest place she can be from those threads.

She deals with enough in her life already; she was just starting to accept her harsh reality of being in such a dysfunctional family, only tolerating it before because that's just how things worked.

Of all the people in the universe… "Why did it have to be me…?" Hotaru whispers, close to tears. She rests her head against her knees, sitting in a fetal position on the floor in the bathroom stall. She remains there for the rest of the school day, leaving only when her mother came searching for her.

She doesn't say a word about why she ditched every single class; instead, she fakes an illness. Because no one needs to know about it.