Kaede adjusted the straps of her backpack, then turned to look at Shuichi. "Are you ready?"

Shuichi, who had blinked in and out of visibility five times in the last five minutes, nodded. He refused to let his nerves get the best of him now. "I think so," he said.

"Great!" Kaede swung the front door open dramatically. "In that case, Shuichi, welcome back to the world."

Shuichi didn't have the heart to tell her to point out that this was just the hallway, and that he'd been through it plenty of times already looking for ways to kill time. She was trying to do something nice for him. The least he could do was act impressed. He did his best, right up until it occurred to him that they were in a public space and he should probably be invisible.

The wait for the elevator seemed to last forever. He kept looking back to the apartment, trying to ignore the feeling that any moment the universe would notice that he'd escaped and punish him for it.

It only got harder when they reached the lobby. He carefully didn't look at the corner he'd broken down in all those months ago.

And then they left the building, and he was too stunned to remember to be nervous.

The entire world seemed to stretch out before him. The sky went on forever, its blue so much crisper than it had looked through the windows. Decorative trees lined the pavement. The leaves were such vibrant colors, reminders of all the time that had passed while he'd been trapped inside. And the people! There were so many people on the sidewalk, more than he'd seen in total since he'd died. It would have been nerve-wracking if any of them had spared him a second glance.

He probably would have stayed rooted to the spot if Kaede hadn't cleared her throat. "Here we are," she said. "I mean, assuming I haven't lost you."

"Ah, no, I'm still here," Shuichi said. "It's just. Wow."

Kaede smiled. "I'm so glad," she said. "Unfortunately, I do need to get to class, so we should probably be on our way."

"Oh, right, sorry." He drifted after her slowly, still looking around with wide eyes.

He realized rather quickly that he was going to have to float above the crowd if he wanted to avoid being stepped through. Other people couldn't tell where he was, and he certainly wasn't paying enough attention to notice them. There were so many other things to look at.

His wonder had barely died down by the time Kaede stopped in front of an imposing stone building. "I've got two lectures in a row this morning, and while you can come with me if you want, you definitely shouldn't feel obligated. They'll probably be really dull for you."

"I don't know," Shuichi said, but she had a point. He didn't want to be inside right now anyway.

Kaede looked up in his direction, eyes wide. Right, he was still invisible and hadn't warned her that he'd moved. "Sorry."

She shook her head. "Nah, you're good. Anyway, it's up to you. It's not like I'll be able to tell either way."

He ended up following her up to the classroom, just to see what it was like. The answer was not very impressive. It was just a room full of desks with a projector at the front. It had an air of familiarity, though. He'd probably spent a lot of time in similar rooms back when he was alive.

He didn't want to think about that too much. He said goodbye to Kaede, stepped through the wall, and floated back down to the ground.

For a while, he was content just to watch the world go by. Even the simplest of things felt new and exciting. He'd forgotten the waxy texture of grass, the way the clouds moved across the sky. Everything was so much more than he'd expected. He almost wanted to leave his existence behind, to fly away and never come back.

He knew better than to try, though. He seemed to have more freedom than when he was at home, but he wasn't particularly eager to test the limits of that. Staying close to Kaede was hardly a burden anyway. He could just stay here and watch the squirrels racing around the lawn.

One of them darted up a tree, and he crept closer, curious. That's when he noticed the mirror attached to the tree's trunk. He watched his own eyes widen in horror. He'd been careless, too assured in his invisibility. Someone could have seen him and he wouldn't even have noticed.

He forced himself to calm down and approach this rationally. A quick look around confirmed that there were no other mirrors in his immediate vicinity, which was something. And being noticed wouldn't be the end of the world. He liked not having to worry about other people and their opinions, but someone who passed by wouldn't matter anyway. They'd probably just assume they were hallucinating.

He eyed the mirror again. Himiko had said that the focus would let him improve his control over his abilities, right? Maybe now was the time to put that to the test.

Figuring out how to do it proved remarkably difficult. Normally invisibility was as easy as breathing had once been, but his ordinary methods weren't going to be enough this time.

Maybe he should think about it like he had when they'd first made the focus. All he'd had to do was concentrate and imagine what he wanted to do, so maybe this would be the same way. He tried to picture his reflection vanishing from the mirror. His reflection didn't respond.

Okay, so that wasn't going to be enough. Maybe he needed more intention behind it? He closed his eyes and tried to remember the feeling of his own energy. Instantly he was aware of his focus's location, still in the classroom where he'd left Kaede. He hadn't actually expected the knowledge to be that precise. It was a little creepy, knowing he could find Kaede's exact location without any effort.

He banished that thought and focused on the focus itself. He concentrated on its shape, on the magic stored within it, and once again imagined his reflection disappearing.

When he opened his eyes, the mirror showed only the grass behind him. He grinned. Having a focus was proving more useful than he'd expected.

He wasn't feeling particularly tired yet, so he decided to have some fun with it. He made only his head reappear in the mirror, then erased everything but his hat. He showed only his smile like he was some sort of Cheshire Cat.

He was so caught up in the game that he didn't notice the girl coming up beside him. "What are you doing?" she asked.

He jumped, then did the sensible thing and hid himself altogether. Hopefully she'd just assume she'd been seeing things.

The girl glanced at the mirror, then back at him. "That's a cool trick, but I can still see you."

Shuichi frowned. Had his ability to erase his reflection made him forget how to be invisible? He reached out to his focus and tried to keep her from seeing him.

The girl put her hands on her hips. "Okay, that was just rude. I don't know if you're just invisible or if you're actually gone, but either way, that's not the sort of thing you do in the middle of a conversation."

It was good to know he hadn't completely lost his abilities. It didn't look like he was getting out of this interaction, though, so he reappeared with a sigh. "Sorry about that," he said.

"It's fine!" She sounded cheerful again, like nothing strange had happened. Shuichi's confusion only grew when she introduced herself. "Nice to meet you, by the way. I'm Komaru, and in case you're wondering, I can see ghosts."

"Um." Shuichi wasn't sure how to react to that kind of straightforwardness about these things. "Hi? I'm Shuichi, and, well, I'm a ghost. As you can probably tell."

Komaru nodded in satisfaction. "I thought so! I guess you could also have been a vampire, but you don't have a cape or anything."

"…Right." Shuichi wasn't going to bother trying to follow that logic. It was just more proof for his theory that being weird made you better at magic. "So, uh, do you see a lot of ghosts?"

Komaru shrugged. "Not really. Mostly I'm just a normal high school student?"

"How does a normal high school student start seeing ghosts?"

"How would I know? It's just a thing I've been able to do my whole life. No one asks how you see in color." Komaru paused. "Actually, wait, that reminds me. Let me set up so no one thinks I'm crazy." She fished a phone from her pocket and brought it to her ear. "Okay, now I don't look like I'm talking to myself. So what's up?"

Shuichi resisted the urge to point out that she had been the one to approach him, and that therefore the burden of conversation was on her. "Not much," he said instead. It didn't seem worth going into the details of how this was possibly the best day he'd had since he died. "How about you? You said you're in high school, so what are you doing wandering around a college campus talking to ghosts?"

"I'm actually here to visit a friend." Komaru cocked her head. "You may have heard of her. Have you read So Lingers the Ocean?"

Shuichi nodded. It was one of the books Kaede had left lying around before she knew he existed. He'd mostly picked it up out of boredom, but it turned out to be surprisingly good.

"Well, she's the one who wrote it," Komaru said smugly.

"Wait, really? That's incredible!"

"She really is. She's only two years older than me, but she's so smart, and an amazing writer, too!" Komaru was practically beaming with pride. "I have to say, though, I'm a little surprised. You don't seem like the sort of person who would read romance novels."

"Normally I don't, but…" Shuichi trailed off, hoping she'd fill in the blank with something less depressing than the truth.

"That's fair," Komaru said. Shuichi gave a mental sigh of relief. "I'm generally more of a manga person myself," she continued. "Toko's just really good."

That was a cue that even Shuichi could pick up on. "What sorts of manga do you like?" he asked.

"Oh, all kinds, but mostly whatever's popular. Have you ever heard of The Bomb Inside Her?"

"I don't think so?" Shuichi thought he'd remember a title like that.

"It's so good!" Komaru said, and then she was off, describing the most convoluted and melodramatic plot that Shuichi had ever heard. He could barely keep up with it, let alone Komaru's intense feelings about each of the characters. All he could do was nod and try to make agreeable noises when she paused for breath.

It was kind of fun. Komaru clearly cared a lot about the series, and her enthusiasm was contagious, even if Shuichi had no desire to read the manga. Hearing it secondhand was probably more interesting anyway.

Komaru was about to explain the shocking revelation of who had planted the bombs in Yumi when she cut herself off. "Wait, what time is it?" she asked. Shuichi shrugged, so she checked her phone screen. Whatever she saw was enough to make her groan. "I'm so sorry to leave you hanging like this, but I promised Toko I'd meet up with her five minutes ago." She shoved her phone back in her pocket. "It was nice meeting you."

"Yeah," Shuichi said, somewhat surprised to find he meant it. "I guess I'll see you around?"

"Of course!" Komaru said. "I haven't even gotten to the good part yet."

She smiled, then turned and sprinted back down the path, leaving Shuichi alone once again.