"So… you got a name?"
At first, Taro found it quite annoying that he's wet from the rain and not dry like he's accustomed to. But two minutes of silence accompanied by the startling fact that everybody he's used to passing by every day is now dead; getting wet doesn't seem like that big of a problem any more.
By minute three, as he's riding his newly acquired bike across town, he couldn't take the silence anymore. A thought occurred to him that whoever this spirit that's helping him, he's failed to provide him with something essential: a name.
He talks to the spirit residing in him again.
"Hey man, I asked you a question. You gonna give me your name or not?"
"Oh… Sorry." The spirit within him apologized. "It's been a while since I… actually HAD to use my name… years actually
It's… Kiseki Shinohara."
"Huh?" Something about that name just didn't sit right with Taro. If he remembers correctly, 'Kiseki' is the word for 'miracle.' "I kinda feel like I heard of that name before."
"I doubt it." Said Kiseki. "Look, can we just not talk about this right now? We're heading to your friend's home, right? Is there anything specific over there you need to be looking for? What's the plan here?"
Taro takes a breath. If it wasn't for Kiseki, the umbrella holding ghouls would have killed him already. He at least owes him an explanation.
"This friend of mine… he's all about superstition and stuff… Thankfully, he hadn't been boring me with it, but now, if anybody in this town has any info about how to better deal with these things, it's him. I'll need all the help I can get."
"That still isn't answering my question. Does this friend of yours have anything worth coming to his house for? It's a yes or no question, man."
"I don't know!" Yells Taro. "I just feel like this is somewhere I need to go! I don't know what we're facing! I don't know how we're going to face it! I don't know how long we have before we have to face it! So stop asking me all these QUESTIONS! Because I don't know!"
"Wow…" Taro could tell Kiseki felt disrespected.
"I gotta say, man. I don't fully blame you, but would I be asking you for too much to just dial it back a little? I mean, I know all you friends are dead, but come on!"
Taro sighs again. "We'll figure something out as we go along. Shin's home is just up ahead."
The house of Shin Higanonna is not that much different from every other house in middle class Buraza. He'd never been to his place before, but it's on the way to Ayano's place. That's where he should go next.
As soon as he stopped his bike, however, he could see two more of those 'Rain Walker' creatures roaming around the front yard.
Activating the spiritual power at his fingertips like he did earlier, he shouts at them, "Don't you bastards have anything better to do!?"
The Rain Walkers didn't say anything back. Probably because they are incapable of speech. They came charging at Taro with their arms outstretched.
Just like the fight from earlier, Taro made quick work against his attackers. Before he could relax, however, a third figure approached him from out of nowhere.
This one is different from the others, as this creature looks like a female business woman who's carrying a red umbrella, but the most noticeable difference is while the men who came before her are unarmed, she's holding a machete.
"What the…" Was all Taro could say before he noticed the figure began smiling at him. Just like all the smiles he'd been getting from all those girls back at Akademi.
Back when everyone was alive.
As the female creature started to approach him, he began attacking like she was any normal creature.
This proved to be ineffective as he soon notices that she isn't going down as easy as the others. Grasping her machete, she lunges at a frightened Taro.
"DUCK!" Kiseki takes control of Taro's body and dodges the attack. She falls down on the ground, dropping her weapon.
"Now's your chance, Taro! Finish her off!"
Without thinking, Taro, instead of attacking, went straight to arguing with his ally.
"Oh really, Kiseki-san? I thought I might start talking to her. Try to get her to fight alongside us." "OH FORGET IT!"
Kiseki takes control of Taro's arm and shoots down the creature as she was starting to get back up.
"Also, for future reference, these creatures have something I'd like to call their 'cores.' They act kinda like hearts."
Kiseki held Taro's free hand and expels light from his fingertips. Practically lassoing the creature's exposed core. After a bit of pulling, the core's ripped out, purging it from existence.
"Hey, thanks for saving my life… again." Said Taro. "Though you seem pretty knowledgeable about these spirits."
"I've been given… intrinsic knowledge by the one that pulled me over here."
"So this is like an isekai from your perspective?"
"Something like that."
Taro walks over to the front door and finds it locked.
"Damn. Gonna have to break it down." "Here, allow me."
Taro hears a click from the door knob before Kiseki uses his hand to open it.
"Ghosts can pick locks?" "I like to think of myself as more of a… astral projection." "Fair enough."
Inside the house was dry. So Taro took a moment to try and find a towel to dry himself off. Luckily he found some near the bathroom.
"So, Kiseki. Do you have a name for that female spirit that nearly cut my head off back there?"
Kiseki was quick to answer his question.
"I like to call them… 'Rain Slashers.' While Rain Walkers are the result of people being pushed to exhaustion, Rain Slashers are the product of the same thing, but in addition, there are also personal conflicts in the workplace.
Physical harassment. Verbal harassment. Nothing being done about it. All that stuff."
"Fuck." Taro drops the towel on the floor. "I swear, man. If I get through this, I'm probably going to apply for a job at a… fish market or something. I've never seen a fisherman who hates his job."
"I don't know." Said Kiseki as Taro kept searching for Shin's room. "Japan as a whole is a collectivist society. Something that I don't blame foreigners for not understanding. You know, I swear I knew a few people who-"
"Wait, hold on." Taro interrupts him. "Did you just refer to MY country as… Japan?"
"Yeah… you don't call it that?"
"I don't call it that… no."
Seeing a closed door in front of him, Taro opens it to find a room painted black with all sorts of posters for horror movies on the walls.
"Jackpot!" He yells as he steps in.
His excitement is short lived, however, as he finds out that Shin, during the time he was still alive. Wouldn't be of much use to him after all. Horror movies. Horror video games. Horror manga. (Taro could recognize Mieruko-chan in a second.) No journals filled with ghostly observations like he'd hoped to find.
"Okay… genius." He hears Kiseki say. "I hope you're satisfied now, because I'm more than ready to move on."
"I don't understand." Taro shook his head. "I know you're well equipped to deal with ghosts, Shin. Have I just been telling myself a lie?"
It was then that Taro heard another voice from behind him. This voice is equal parts familiar and unfamiliar.
"Taro." "AAAHH!"
When he turned around, he saw what he thought he'd never see in his life.
Shin Higaonna is dead… and his ghost is standing right in front of him.
"SHIN!" Taro dropped to his knees and on instinct, bowed his head to him. Whatever his friend is going through right now, he can't even begin to imagine.
"I can't believe it… It's really you! Oh my god, this is crazy! You're not alive right now and I'm talking to you!"
"I can't believe it either. You're alive right now and I'm talking to you." Shin's ghost responded. "What the hell is happening to everybody, Taro? And why do you of all people still get to breathe?"
"Listen… Shin…" Taro stood back up. "This goes without saying, but… Monsters are running around the streets of Buraza! Somebody bought them here! I don't know who! I'm actually partnered up with a… astral projection right now…"
Kiseki then made his presence known. "Hello Shin. I'm Kiseki Shinohara. I've been sent by a goddess to help bring down the one who attacked this universe."
"Some people have all the luck." Said Shin's ghost.
"Listen, I've seen these monsters you've been talking about. The damn things are attacking everybody who hasn't moved on to the spirit world yet.
I knew if I stayed behind, I'd cross somebody who escaped that… damn fog! Didn't think it'd be you though."
"So… you don't know about this anymore than I do." Said Taro. "Well at least now I know for sure."
"But that doesn't mean I can't help." Shin's ghost pointed to his bed. "Check under my bed. There's something I want you to have."
Taro was quick to do as he was told. Under Shin's bed was a large, black box. When he opened it, he was amazed at what's inside.
"A bow! And… arrows."
"It's amazing, the stuff you find that's for sale on the deep web. The description said that it had been stolen from a shrine or something, but I just had to have it. Although it's too bad I won't be using it."
The bow came with a few straps along with a quiver. It took Taro a bit of time, but with the help of Kiseki, the weapon is now strapped to his back. "Thanks again, Shin. I knew I could count on you."
"Hey, you can thank me when this is all over. Right now you've got some dead friends to avenge. Give them hell, soldier."
Before making his way out, Taro decided to give his friend's ghost one last question.
"So… what's it like being a ghost?"
"All my life, I fantasized about becoming one, but now…" Shin went silent for a bit.
"I'd like to scratch my nose."
As Taro walked out the front door, he was instantly greeted by trouble.
"So you're the one who's been resisting the change!"
Right in front of him, he could see a man his age who he could tell is a foreigner. Although, unlike any foreigner he'd come across in his life, this is the first one without any pupils.
"You… Bastard!" He shouts out at the man. "You MURDERED ALL THESE PEOPLE… FOR WHAT!?"
"Sacrifices needed to be made in order to create the new world that's destined to be free from that… demon! Nobody is ever safe as long as she draws breath."
"Who the hell are you, anyway!? Who is this demon!?" Kiseki shouts out.
The stranger smirks. "Ah… Another visitor… Very well; before I kill you, I'll let you know this…
The first life I've ever lived was in a town just like this one… Beautiful Nihon. Even after all these lifetimes… All these deaths; I can still recognize her on sight. My first life, I had taken for granted… until SHE ruined it for me!"
"Oh great… The pronoun game." Thought Taro. "Now I'm going to have more than TWO people to worry about!"
"Now… I stand in front of you now in a different body… and a different name… You may call me… Jack Lieber.
I suppose it doesn't really matter what I do to you right now. When SHE finds out that you're trying to hunt me down, she'll stop at nothing to protect me."
Confused, Taro takes a few steps forward.
"Wait, hold on. This woman you're talking about. You just said she ruined your life, right? Now you're saying she's PROTECTING YOU!?
Are you sure you're talking about the same woman?"
Jack didn't say anything. Instead he just started laughing, which annoyed Taro. "What's so funny?"
"There… isn't really a correct answer to your question, my friend. Maybe we'll meet again later… That is, if you don't die first."
After waving him goodbye, Jack vanishes out of Taro's sight, leaving behind half a dozen spider lilies sprouting out of the ground near him.
"I'm going to kill him." Taro mutters to himself as he walks towards his bike. "I don't care who or what is protecting him. He killed everybody, and you're going to help me, Kiseki."
As he began riding his bike again, not pausing to observe the fog gathering in front of him, Kiseki spoke. "Hey, I'm all for some good old-fashioned revenge, but do you have any idea where we're going now?"
"Ayano's house is about two blocks ahead of us. I keep getting this weird feeling that she isn't going to let something like everybody dying get in between the two of us. If Shin is a ghost now, maybe- AUGH!"
Little did Taro know, as he rode his bike into the ghastly fog, it would be too much for him to handle. It proved itself to be no ordinary fog as he could feel himself coughing up blood.
It took every ounce of strength to get back to the non-fogged up street. Carrying that bike only added to his struggle.
"Ugh." He sat down on a nearby bench before rubbing his eyes. His chest isn't the only thing he felt like it was on fire. His vision started getting pretty blurry and he feared he might go permanently blind. That fear did subside when his vision returned.
"Okay… the fog can kill me if I try to ride past it. Painful… but informative. Kiseki, you there?"
"Yeah, I'm here man." He hears him in his head. "I can accelerate the healing in your chest, but it will take me some time. Right now, this Ayano's house is unreachable, you're gonna have to go somewhere else not affected by the fog. Any ideas?"
Scratching his head, Taro thought of it for a little while. During that time, he could find himself breathing a little easier. Whatever Kiseki was doing, it's working.
It was then that he figured something out. An idea so crazy, it just might work.
"Nanahara Shrine."