This is the second time in a row I have to apologize for slow updating. But this time it was seriously not my fault! Last week, I was like half way done the chapter when my computer crashed and had to restore itself. For those who don't know, when a computer "restores" itself, it goes back to the setting of when it was last working properly or something like that. Meaning that everything I saved in the past few hours was erased. INCLUDING this chapter.
The only thing harder then writing a good chapter is writing it over again. Trust me.
OMG! This is the LONGEST chapter i have EVER wrote! just to let you all know :D
Well now that I finally rewrote it to my satisfaction… I present to you chapter 4!
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Oh and here is a shout out for all those in mourning because of Furareta's cancellation. I swear to god I cried when I read that authors note.
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Chapter 4: Apparitions
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I spent the rest of Friday and Saturday locked up in my room. Part of the reason why was because I was so freaked out. The other part was I was wracking my brain trying to figure out just what happened on the roof Friday morning.
There were some things I knew for a fact.
One, Hitsugaya Toushiro didn't transfer here for academic reasons. He was for sure connected in some way to the suicide cases I am working on.
Two, He was defiantly working with the Matsumoto woman I met on the train. And for some reason he wanted her to do research on me. The research includes spying. Hitsugaya seems to be her boss.
Three, for some reason my power don't work against him.
There were about ten times more things that I didn't have a clue about. Like why my powers don't work on him or why he had been exploring the homes of the victims. It was all giving me a massive headache.
I already debated with myself whether or not to just take his advice and just mind my own business. But I soon discovered that would be impossible. Being nosy is simply in my nature.
Speaking of the case, the fast growing number of suicide victims has slowed down in the past few days. It hasn't come close to stopping yet, but it has slowed down.
Sunday mornings were usually my sleep-in mornings so when my aunt woke me up at five in the morning I was more then a little surprised.
"Honoka you have to get up. Come on, it's an emergency." Aunt Kiko said shaking my shoulder.
"What?" I asked; feeling tired and disoriented.
"I just got a call from Hiroko. We are needed somewhere, now."
Hiroko was one of the best investigators at JNBCI. If he was the one who called it must be important.
I groaned audibly but dragged myself out of bed. I was still half asleep when I threw some clothes on, brushed my teeth, and left the house.
My aunt sped to the train station. We took the train and two buses to get to our destination. We managed to get there in a half hour.
We walked up to an old apartment building next to a large city center. This place was usually bustling with activity but now it was next to abandoned, because of the time. The eerie silence gave me a strange sense of foreboding.
We took an elevator to the top floor. Outside the door of room 704 was group of police officers. Two of the officers were trying to calm a young woman who was crying, while the rest tried their best to keep back a mob of curious tenants. Blood curdling screams were coming from the room.
The police officers let us in as soon as they saw us. We walked inside a small living room, with two couches and a coffee table placed in front of a small television. There was a glass sliding door on the far end of the room that lead to an old balcony. The door was open so there was a cool breeze softly caressing my face.
It seemed like a peaceful sort of place. However the atmosphere was sort of destroyed by the large amount of cops all over the place.
The source of the screams was an overweight middle aged man that was being pinned to the floor by two cops. He was screaming like he was being tortured, his eyes were rolled back into his head and foam was coming from his mouth. He was thrashing violently in his attempts to free himself from the police officers grasps. He managed to clip one on the chin with his elbow but a third cop soon arrived to help keep him down. I felt numb with horror.
It took every ounce of will power to continue acting professional rather then bolting back out the door.
My aunt took little time watching the screaming man. She was in business mode right away. She told me to follow her and we started looking for Hiroshi. We found him talking to some frightened old lady in a nightgown, a witness perhaps, in a quieter part of the house.
Hiroko Kujoh was a top notch investigator at JNBCI with ten years of experience on the field. He joined JNBCI two years ago. Before working at JNBCI he worked at some small private investigations unit up north, but my aunt managed to pester him into joining JNBCI. He has been one of the most valuable members of the team ever since. He has a thing for my aunt, but I am the only one who knows that.
When he saw us approach he sent the lady away, telling her she aught to get some sleep. She passed by us as she left, her eyes completely focused on me. I was happy to see he turn the corner and leave.
"So would you mind telling me what the hell is going on?" Aunt Kiko snapped, impatiently. The man's screams could still be heard from where we stood.
"Well, the man's name is Daiki Isamu. The police got a strange call from his daughter at a quarter to five this morning saying she thinks her father was possessed by something."
"Well if he was acting this way at the time I can see why she would think that." I murmured.
"The police asked, of course, why she thought that." Hiroko continued. "She said she arrived home from her night shift at work and she found her father trying to throw himself off the balcony, and when she tried to stop him he went berserk. She was forced to drag him inside the house, all the while her father was kicking and screaming and trying whatever to get her to let go of him. She was able to lock him inside the washroom for long enough for the police to arrive."
"And I am guessing that is not exactly in his nature?"
"Not at all, according to everyone I talked to he is usually a really peaceful nice guy. And it doesn't seem like he recognizes his daughter at all."
"And you think this has something to do with the case that Honoka and I and working on?"
"Yes, after all you are working on a case involving strange suicide occurrences, correct? This might be one of them. So I made sure to call you two right away."
In order to reduce the chances of news of the suicide cases reaching media ears, only the top dogs at JNBCI knew the details.
"Yes, thanks for calling us. Honoka?" She asked turning towards me. "Could you please go and introduce yourself to Daiki-san?"
This was a codeword for "go and search his mind" but seeing as that it is bit weird to put it that way, we stick to our code word even if we are alone.
I returned to the living room where the cops were still holding down Daiki Isamu. It seems that the ambulance must have not arrived yet.
"Excuse me, would you mind if I had a word with him?" I asked one of the officers, sweetly flashing my best fake smile.
"Uh…You could try, he hasn't exactly been responding to anyone, all he does is scream…" The police office tried explaining.
"Thank you very much officer. You and everyone else has done a great job thus far, thank you very much for your contributions!"
"We are just doing our job, Saki-chan." The police office said, embarrassed.
I walked up to the man, who was still being restrained by a rather large police officer, and tried saying hello. When he didn't respond with anything but more screaming I lightly touched his arm.
I felt a cold wall of despair hit me like an oncoming train. I felt every inch of happiness in me drain away and all that was left was sadness and despair. Just one name kept echoing in my brain. Miho… Miho… The name of his eldest daughter that committed suicide a few days earlier.
I pulled away, trying to hold back tears. What was that right there? It was like every happy memory of his was whipped out and all that was left was sadness. Most prominent was the memory of his eldest daughter's death.
I rushed to where my aunt was still standing with Hiroko.
"Hiroko, why didn't you tell us he had a daughter that committed suicide a few days ago?!"
"Oh sorry I was just telling your aunt that now. Was she also one of the strange suicide cases?"
"I don't know… Aunt Kiko could you..?"
"Yes I am on it." She said, for she already had her Blackberry out where the names were saved.
"There is no "Daiki Miho" listed but there was a "Watanabe Miho". Was she married to someone with that surname?"
Hiroko left to go ask the younger daughter (I haven't learned her name yet). In the meantime I gave my aunt an overview of what happened when I looked into the man's mind.
"That is really strange, if both his daughter and he are examples of the strange suicides we have been investigation, this would be a major discovery. We will have him looked into, and see how long these symptoms last. It might also prove to be contagious, but I am sure we would have seen other connections if that were the case." My aunt pondered this.
We went to the living room to go look for Hiroko. It appeared the ambulance has finally arrived. They were getting him ready to be strapped to a gurney.
He was struggling harder then ever to free himself from the police officers and paramedics who were trying to get him on the gurney without hurting him. He has long since screamed himself hoarse. All of a sudden he looked out the glass door towards the balcony in a transfixed sort of way.
I followed his stare and let out a horrified scream and fell to the ground.
Floating outside the window was a woman. She was dressed in a ripped, bloodstained white dress. Her long back hair stuck to her face in clumps in such a way that it reminded me of the girl from the Ring. She looked up at us and brushed the hair from her face revealing a pale scarred face, and bloodshot black eyes. She had chain wrapped around her neck that lead to some place in the sky.
I was distracted by a loud bellow and some shouting. I saw the man, who obviously escaped the police officer, run for the balcony. His hands reached out as if he was desperately trying to reach the bloodstained woman. The woman was holding out her hand, inviting him forward.
The man was falling before the police could reach him. I heard a bone-chilling thud which signified the man had reached the bottom.
I closed my eyes and covered my ears with my hands, trying to block out the horror of everything that had just happened. I felt tears pouring down my face and I heard myself sobbing. My entire body was shaking uncontrollably. I curled myself up in a tiny ball as if that would protect me from whatever it was that killed that man.
I heard the people in the room shouting and hurrying around. Amid all the noise, I heard the voice of my aunt and Hiroko calling my name. I heard my aunt trying to calm me down and Hiroko trying to get everyone to give me some space. Everything felt hazy, like some horrible dream.
Still sobbing and shaking, I uncurled myself off the floor and looked out where the woman was floating. There was nothing.
I could sort of hear my aunt asking me to calm down. I looked around at everyone else in the room. None of them seemed too worried about the fact that there was some floating zombie girl hovering outside the apartment. Was I the only one who saw it?
I felt my aunt leading me out of the apartment, still trying to talk to me. I was slowly starting to calm down, but my legs still felt numb.
When we exited the apartment building I noticed the unmistakable figure of Hitsugaya. Some strength returned to my legs. I told (more like ordered) my aunt to go without me. Shocked by my tone, she did as I said. Once I saw her car leave, I marched over to where he was standing. He was facing away from me and was talking on his cell phone, of course. He hung up right before I stormed up and grabbed him by his collar.
"Ok, I don't have time for your games right now." I hissed. "I just saw the fucking grudge floating outside that apartment window and I know you have something to do with it, or at least know a thing or two about it. So you are going to start explaining or so help me god." I was shocked by the venom in my voice.
He simply stared at me, his eyes searching mine and looking completely calm.
Angered by his attitude, and everything else about him, I backed up and tried to punch him in the face. He simply caught my wrist. His grip was strong and I couldn't get him to let go.
"Let go of me." I shouted, struggling to free my arm.
"So you can try to hit me again?" He let go of my arm none the less.
After rubbing my sore wrist I grabbed his shoulder as hard as I could to make sure he didn't escape again.
"Now tell me…What the hell is going on here!" Frustrated and tired, I could no longer hold back the tears that were threatening to spill since he grabbed my wrist. Sobbing frustrated tears I sunk to my knees.
He put a hand to his forehead and started muttering something that sounded like "of all the things I did not have to deal with right now…" and gave me a moment to pull myself together before he said.
"Things are starting to get out of hand, if you do not want to find yourself hurt, you must just keep your nose out of this. I understand that you are upset, but forget about what you saw here and go home and do what normal girls your age do. Shopping or something." He stared me right in the eye; he was pretty much begging me just to drop it.
I burst into tears again, but these were angry tears rather then frustrated ones. "Do you actually believe I can just "go home and forget" what I saw here?! I will be lucky to be able to sleep a week from now!"
"You would be lucky to sleep two weeks from now if you knew the truth." He stated.
"I still want to know. I have to know. I am already involved in this somehow, I can see that much. I could see that thing, and others could not. I want to know why I was the only one who could see that, and why I see the things I do when I touch things and why I can't see them when I touch you! I just don't understand… it's not fair…" I started sobbing frustrated tears again. I tried my best to stop myself; I never cry in front of other people. What the hell is happening to me?!
I pushed him back again and curled up my fist to try to hit him again. This time he let it land. I backed up and hit him again.
After a few moments of silence he lifted his hand, causing me to flinch back, to rub his cheek. "Does that make you feel better? Will that help answer your countless questions?"
I simply glared at him. I had nothing to say to that.
"In that case you are not suited to know the answers. And if you must know, I do have the answers for a few of them, but they are for people with more guts then you I am afraid."
All of a sudden a wave of nausea ran over me. A wall of dizziness hit me so hard that I fell to my knees. I started to throw up stomach acid, since I haven't eaten anything that day, and then the black splotches consumed my vision and I passed out.
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I woke up what felt like days later on a couch in a place I did not recognize. I bolted upright, and regretted that decision right away because I felt the throbbing pain of head rush hit me. It took a few seconds to be rid of that before I could properly take in my surroundings.
I was in a small living room on a small black couch. The room was rather empty; all it held was this couch, a love seat, a coffee table and some almost empty shelves. There were some books and an old, rather unused looking, television set also in the room. It smelt… fresh… like Fabreze.
I stared to freak out. Where the hell am I?
"You really do have a talent for being a huge pain in the ass." An irritated voice from behind me said.
I turned around and standing there with a steaming cup of something, was Hitsugaya.
"You passed out outside the apartment earlier, and since I didn't know where else to take you I took you to my place. Here, have this, you are probably dehydrated." He said, passing the steaming mug to me.
I took it, and I could tell by the smell it was tea. I hope he didn't poison it because I was too thirsty to care at the moment. I scalded my tongue but I still took a huge gulp.
"Be careful it's hot." He explained a bit too late.
We sat in silence as I finished my tea.
Surprisingly, Hitsugaya was the one to break the silence.
"So I guess you were wrong about the whole "not being able to sleep in a week" thing."
"Ha-ha you are so funny. How long was I out?" I snapped, remembering I was mad at him.
"About two hours." He said calmly as ever, not caring to take notice that I was mad at him again.
I was to angry to even thank him for helping me, after all he could have just left me lying there in front of the building. After all, I was not his responsibility. Maybe he should have. I don't want to be in his debt.
"It was my fault that man died earlier. I screwed up and wasn't there in time. I apologize." He said, rather sternly seeing as he was supposed to be apologizing. "And I understand that you saw something rather terrible this morning. You were not supposed to, but you did. There is nothing I can do about that. There are some people who are simply born being able to see ghosts and the like. They go through life without issues, for the most part, and you should too."
"So was that what that woman was? A ghost?" I asked, happy to finally be getting something out of him.
"Something like that."
"And there are other people like there, like me?" I asked, excited.
"There are other people out there with high enough spiritual energy to see spirits. Sometimes this energy gives a human certain abilities, yours would be different from someone else's."
"Is that the same with you?"
"Sort of."
"You say human like you are not one."
"You are imagining things."
"You are lying."
"Think whatever you like."
I realized that this cat fight we were starting wasn't going to get us anywhere.
"So… people like me… with high spirit energy or whatever… can see things like that floating woman… and she has caused all the deaths recently?" I will no longer call them suicide cases, because if this woman was behind it all, then it was no longer suicide. It was murder.
"Not all of them."
"So there are others like her?"
"Yes."
"And are you supposed to get rid of them or something?"
"Yes." I could tell he was starting to get annoyed with my onslaught of questions, but I wasn't about to quit until I milked all that I could out of him.
"Can I help you?" I asked even though I knew his answer.
"No of course not. You ask a lot of stupid questions."
"Well maybe because I have to. No matter what, I will continue investigating these deaths, and the woman I saw this morning. Nothing you can say or do can stop me. I know that, in movies, this is the point where you inform me that you are going to erase my memories or something. Is that right?!" I demanded feeling childish.
"You watch too many movies. But yes, it is that part."
"Well guess what, even if you did that would not stop me. You can go ahead and erase my memories, but you would also have to erase everyone who works at JNBCIs' memories as well. And even if you did that it would not stop my aunt from re-noticing the suicide trends and re-ordering me to investigate it. It would simply be one big circle and it would come down to the same thing; especially since I can see these floating murderers now." I said, feeling very in control of the situation.
"You are playing a very dangerous game right now. It could cost you your life if you don't stop trying to get involved in things that you really don't need to be a part off."
"I was not aware that you find hundreds and hundreds of deaths as a 'game' Hitsugaya." I growled.
We stood, staring at each other, in silence for a little while. He eventually growled in frustration, and stood up to leave.
"You may leave when you feel like it; I need some time to think about some things." And with that he started to leave.
"Anemia." I spat.
"What?" He asked, for once being the confused one.
"I am anemic. That's why I fainted earlier. When I am under to much stress it starts to act up." I growled, unhappy to be spilling my secret. It was also why I hadno appetite and I got dizzy and nauseous often. It also causes my body to reject food.
He looked at me thoughtfully for a second; he looked like he was going to say something but decided not to. He left the room.
I laid there to think about what he told me for a few moments. It was all too much to take in at once. Spirits killing people? Why? For revenge on the living or something?
I called my aunt to see if she was still in town to pick me up. I was glad to find out that she went to HQ instead of heading home. I had to go outside to see the address before telling her where to pick me up.
I chose not to tell my aunt about collapsing earlier. I just told her I went to a friend's house to calm myself down a bit.
On the drive home, my aunt said "Honoka, I don't think you should be working on this case any more."
"What?" I asked, making sure I heard correctly.
"You should pull out of this case, I have been overworking you recently and I can tell. You are as pale as a ghost, and you haven't been eating right lately. I am so sorry, I have been so selfish. I know you are sick but I still make you do all this. But enough is enough; you deserve a good long break. Do you remember that vacation we were talking about the other day? How bout it?"
"Uh…" As nice as a good vacation sounds, there really wasn't time for that right now. "Auntie… I really can't pull out right now… There are so many people dying, and I could be the one who can stop it, how can you expect me just to go take a vacation now?"
Aunt Kiko chuckled humorlessly "You take too much from me, do you know that? I very often forget that you are not my real daughter."
I just smiled, a bit embarrassed.
"Just be careful, you have to watch your health a bit better. I have been careful about keeping media away from you lately, to reduce stress. Is there anything else I could do for you?" She asked, very concerned.
"Buy me more ice-cream; that would be wonderful." I joked.
We both laughed, and stopped to get some ice-cream on the way home.
That night, my dreams were filled with woman covered in blood being cut in two by a white haired kid with a sword. It was the first time I felt cold in a dream.
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Holy shit how time does fly by when you are writing. It 4:14 in the fricken morning where I am right now! THAT'S INSANE.
Well I hope you all loved chapter 4! I worked my ass off writing this one :D and because of the ridiculous time I really hope I didn't make to many grammar/spelling mistakes that I didn't catch. I am to impatient to wait for my friends to proof read this chapter :D so I am gonna trust my half sleeping judgment and say this is good enough!
Oh and as I was saying earlier… WHO ELSE WANTED TO DIE WHEN THEY READ THAT FURARETA WAS BEING CANCELED!!!!
I promise you all that if I get that far into this story I WILL NOT quit on you guys! The feeling of having a favorite story of yours suddenly stopping after like two and a half years is HEARTBREAKING! Unless I die or something that is.
I was gonna say something else but I am too sleepy to think of it right now.
RIGHT
LAST CHAPTERS QUESTIONS!
1. It was pretty much a tie between calling him "Taicho" or "Captain". So I shall choose :D and I think I will be calling it "Captain" because I feel that I want to use as little Japanese as possible within my story. I find having random Japanese words ruins the flow of the story. I only use Japanese when I can't translate it properly. Like suffixes (chan, san, kun… ect) and bleach terminology (shinigami, gigai, shunpo,ect)
2. AND THE WINNER IS…. COOKIES!!! I half agree, because I would defiantly say cookies but salt and vinegar chips are like my life food. My three basic food groups are chicken, potatoes, and salt and vinegar chips.
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QUESTIONS OF THE CHAPTER!!!
1. How do you like how I am portraying Hitsu-chan so far? OOC?
2. I was trying to make the scene with the ghost woman scary. Did i succeed at all?
3. How many of you ACTUALLY read my authors notes. HAHA
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Well I am off to have some well needed sleep. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I will start up on chapter 5 real soon. Hopefully it wont erase on me this time :D
REVIEW! Or suffer the consequences. Bwahahahah