CHAPTER 3 – THROAT IN THE SKY
With eyes wide open, Kasumi stared at the black portal in the sky as its form shifted with the turbulent clouds around it. Though ascertaining its size from such a distance was difficult and unreliable, Kasumi reckoned that the portal could fit the length of three or four typical houses through its aperture. White lightning periodically erupted from the opening, like jagged tendrils of light seeking prey, which were followed moments later by thunderous booms loud enough to shake Kasumi to her core.
The rain, which had been mild the days previous, was now torrential. Engorged raindrops fell from the sky ceaselessly, battering Karakura Town without mercy. A thick mist had formed, caused entirely by the relentless splashing of water against the ground. The canals on the sides of the streets were at full capacity, the drainage system overwhelmed by the wrathful tempest. Branches were torn from trees and roof tiles had been ripped from houses. It all hardly seemed real to her. The storm that was ravaging her home was comparable to the apocalyptic typhoons that she had seen before in old news articles, which left nothing but ruin in their wakes. The image of Karakura Town reduced to rubble flashed in her mind. It terrified her.
But the sight of Shin's ghost terrified her the most. Kasumi couldn't believe it. Somehow, Shin had died while Kasumi was asleep. Dreadful visions of a flooded house dominated her imagination, Shin clawing at the ceiling as he desperately struggled for air. Looking down at her hands, she realized she was trembling. Whether it was because of fear, the cold, or a mix of both, Kasumi did not know. All she knew was that she was alone.
Turning away from the window, Kasumi walked to the foot of Yasuhiro's bed and sat down, rainwater dripping from her clothes which had become soaked from her brief time leaning out of the window. Her breathing became frantic as terror overcame her. A cataclysmic disaster had emerged out of what seemed like a relatively benign storm while she slept. It threatened to sweep away everything that Kasumi knew, snuffing out hundreds of lives in the process. And worst of all, Kasumi was powerless to do anything about it. She wanted to fall into the bed of her missing guardian and lose herself in her tears, shutting away the terror outside.
But her body did not crumple, nor did any tears fall from her eyes. With quivering hands, Kasumi wiped away the rainwater on her face. Placing her hands back on the edge of the bed, she gripped the covers tightly, her knuckles turning white. Taking deep breaths, Kasumi tried to calm her panicking heart. The chain hanging from Shin's chest looked different, she thought. It didn't disappear like the others. It looked like it ran all the way up the road, towards his house. Wait, what if…?
Steeling herself, Kasumi stood up and walked out of Yasuhiro's room, the wind howling behind her. In the hall, she stopped to collect her thoughts. I have to do something. Anything. I won't be able to forgive myself if I let Shin go.
She took another deep breath, and after her heart stopped pounding in her chest, she bolted downstairs after quickly rushing to her room to retrieve her phone. In the living room, she looked around for anything that she needed to bring before running outside. She took her school backpack and emptied its contents, letting folders and textbooks fall to the floor. With the bag in hand, she frantically rummaged through every nearby drawer and cupboard, retrieving a flashlight, spare batteries, and food. For a few minutes she searched for a first aid kit, but turned up nothing. Though she was hesitant to leave the house without one, she decided that it would be better to leave as soon as possible.
Zipping up her backpack and putting it on, she headed for the door leading out of her house. Before leaving, she opened a cabinet by the door and took out a black raincoat. She draped it over herself and pulled up the hood. Afterwards, she put on a pair of black boots that were a size too big for her. With her hand on the doorknob she readied herself to face the storm on the other side. Taking another deep breath and clutching her necklace with her free hand, she twisted the knob and pulled the door open.
Immediately, Kasumi was soaked by the unrelenting barrage of rain. Her eyes were forced shut by the wind and raindrops. She had to keep her head down to avoid being blinded. The wind was strong enough to tear the hood from her head, so she had to grip the edge of her hood to keep it on. Taking her first few labored steps, she came down from her home's concrete doorstep and placed her feet on the her yard, which was reduced to mud and mulch. She kept her eyes trained on the ground, both to watch where she placed her feet and to avoid looking at the horde of souls right outside her front gate. She could only avoid them for so long, though, and once she arrived at her gate she had no choice but to look at the marching dead up close.
On their own, the ghosts looked no different from those Kasumi had already seen. It was the sheer amount of them that disturbed her. Worse yet, she would have to walk through them to get to Shin. At least, she assumed that she'd have to walk through them. Kasumi had never actually touched a ghost before, but she guessed that they would all be incorporeal. But now that she stopped to think about it, that assumption was based on nothing. They could very well be as physically tangible as they were visible. Kasumi shuddered at this thought. She equated touching a ghost to touching a corpse; it was inherently disgusting. But she had to power through if she wanted to get to Shin. I've already went out the door, Kasumi thought to herself. That was the first roadblock. Now I've got to get past the others.
Kasumi undid the latch on the gate and pulled it open, removing the only barrier between herself and the undead. Taking a step forward, she came as close to the ghosts as she's ever been. She noticed that even as they walked, their chests stayed still, not rising nor falling to draw breath. They did not blink when rainwater ran from their hair into their eyes. They walked with single-minded purpose, unhindered by the terrible storm that hung above them. Mustering every ounce of courage that she had, Kasumi stepped onto the pavement.
She recoiled sharply when her shoulder brushed against one of the ghosts, a middle-aged man wearing a long black coat with his hat pulled low, casting a shadow over his eyes. So I can touch them, she thought. The undead man didn't react when Kasumi touched him, and he kept walking as if Kasumi wasn't there. Collecting herself, Kasumi continued pushing through the crowd, unsure of where to look. She didn't want to look at their faces, since their blank stares frightened her. Yet she didn't want to look at their bodies, since the chains that hung from their chests were no more pleasant to look at. So she kept her head down, only glancing up every now and then to ensure she was going the right way.
Shoulder to shoulder with the walking dead, it took all of Kasumi's strength to stop herself from falling to the ground and curling up into a quivering ball. She fooled herself into thinking that since she had spent the last week passively observing the ghosts from a distance, she'd quickly grow accustomed to their presence, even in this exceptional situation. This was not true, however, as each and every labored step that Kasumi took trudging through the horde of undead threatened to be her last as her resolve slowly left her body. But even as fear crept into her heart like the chill of the rain, she pressed on, determined to make it to Shin.
After a while, Kasumi was forced to look up from the ground to ensure that she was going the right way. After confirming her surroundings, she accidentally locked eyes with the ghost that was walking in front of her. It was one of her neighbors, Mr. Matsuzaki. She saw him just the other day watering his plants. Though she always thought he looked a little skeletal, he was far from dead. Looking down at his chest, Kasumi noticed that the chain, like Shin's, extended up the road towards Mr. Matsuzaki's house. In fact, it seemed like most of the chains attached to the surrounding spirits were anchored to some place in town.
This strengthened Kasumi's resolve. Maybe Shin is still alive. If I drag his spirit back to his body by following the chain, then maybe he'll come back. I have to try.
Kasumi continued slowly pushing through the horde of ghosts, which seemed to be getting denser as she approached the eye of the storm. Her progress was mired even further by the brutal weather conditions. Although she didn't lose sight of Shin among the many spirits, Kasumi was unable to catch up to him. For every misstep and hesitation, Shin seemed to grow more and more distant, but Kasumi pressed on.
The motions of the marching souls led Kasumi through flooded streets, with water high enough to reach her knees and pool in her boots. She shuddered as cold and filthy floodwater drenched her feet. This hampered her movement even further, and soon Shin was little more than a hazy silhouette in the mist. Kasumi struggled to move faster, trying to weave between ghosts and trudge through knee-high water. She passed the riverbank, the raging river just about ready to swell over and worsen the already disastrous flood. Then she passed a small park that she used to frequent, which now resembled a swamp. Shin was getting farther away, and Kasumi was getting closer and closer to the eye of the storm.
Before she knew it, Kasumi found herself standing in an arterial roadway cutting through the commercial district of Karakura Town. The squat concrete buildings were not as affected by the storm as the houses in Kasumi's neighborhood, but they certainly weren't unscathed. A few windows had been shattered by flying debris, leaving empty window frames with jagged glass edges. Power lines swung wildly above, tossed about by the wind. The flooding was less severe, though still deep enough to slow her down significantly. By now, Shin was barely visible in the distance through the mist, but Kasumi felt like he was still within reach. Overhead, the eye of the storm cast its hateful gaze on Karakura Town, devastating it with wind and rain of biblical scale. It seemed much larger to Kasumi now, and every step she took to rescue Shin only brought her closer.
After what seemed like hours of wading through the apocalyptic tempest, Kasumi found herself approaching a wide intersection in the center of town. She was almost directly below the eye of the storm now, and the wind was stronger than ever. It felt as if she was only a single careless step away from being caught in the wind, forced to join the hailstorm of debris flying through the air. Kasumi pushed the image out of her mind and continued. Shin can't be far, she reassured herself. I'll save him, and the two of us can just wait for all of this to blow over.
Kasumi felt an ache in her heart when she remembered Yasuhiro. I have no idea where he is. I can only hope that he's okay. She desperately wished that she could save him too, but it was out of her hands. There wasn't a single clue of where he could've gone, so Kasumi resolved to do what she could.
While Kasumi was trying to squeeze through a pair of spirits in Karakura High School uniforms, her gaze was suddenly drawn upwards by a dark shape in her peripheral vision flying upwards into the sky. Her breath caught in her throat, and her eyes widened in disbelief. Another figure flew through the sky soon afterwards, followed by several more. The spirits gathered in the intersection were getting sucked into the stormy vortex above and disappearing through the dark opening in its center. Is this why the ghosts are converging here? Kasumi asked herself. I need to get to Shin now, before he gets sucked in.
Standing on her toes, Kasumi saw that her persistence had paid off, and Shin was now closer than ever. However, there were still dozens of densely packed spirits blocking the way, and it got harder and harder for her to squeeze through them as she neared the middle of the intersection. Every now and then she would take a breath and look up through the rain, seeing that more spirits were getting sucked into storm like the heavens had opened up for the rapture. Kasumi's efforts grew more desperate.
After a few agonizing minutes of fighting the press of ghostly bodies, Kasumi finally managed to glimpse the back of Shin's head past a few more spirits. Energized, she pushed through with renewed vigor, unbothered by the raindrops falling onto her face. With every second that passed, more and more nearby spirits were being ripped from the ground and getting sucked into the gravitational pull of the storm. It wouldn't be long before Shin followed, disappearing into the floating abyss forever. Summoning the last of her energy, Kasumi forced her way past the final spirit that was blocking her way, reaching forward to grab Shin and pull him away from oblivion.
But her fingers only met cold air, a fraction of a second too late. Kasumi could only watch, with terror in her heart, as Shin was slowly pulled into the storm. In that moment, the world seemed to slow down. The raindrops froze in the air, and the swirling clouds above suddenly became still. The only sound was Kasumi's heart, pounding so loudly and sinking so deeply. Her hand was still stretched outward, frozen, unable to accept that Shin was about to disappear forever.
"SHIN!"
All at once, the rain fell to the ground. Before she knew it, Kasumi's body brought her further forward in an attempt to grab Shin again, only to just barely graze the heel of his foot with her longest finger. Shin rapidly ascended into the sky, his body now out of reach. But Kasumi refused to watch her best friend disappear into God-knows where. Looking down, she saw that the chain hanging from his chest was trailing behind him as he was pulled upwards, skittering across the surface of the murky floodwater. The metal links sped past in a silver blur. Thinking quickly, Kasumi grabbed ahold of it with both of her trembling hands, stopping Shin from being pulled any further. Kasumi dug her heels into a pothole under the water and began pulling, each labored movement pulling Shin back towards the ground inch by inch. I've got him! He's going to be okay! He's—
A spirit mindlessly walking forward bumped into Kasumi from behind, knocking her loose from her foothold. Suddenly, her body felt weightless and her feet felt the cold open air for the first time since she left her house. Looking down, she saw that her boots had been ripped from her feet by the inertia, and that the ground was now rapidly shrinking below her. Returning her gaze upwards towards Shin, she watched him disappear through the void above, a fate that she was about to share very soon. With eyes widened from fear, Kasumi watched the tear in the sky grow larger as she hurtled towards it, blackness slowly encompassing her vision. Rain stopped falling, and the only thing she felt was the wind rushing past her.
Sorry, Shin. I messed up.
That was her last thought before she was sucked into the stormy abyss, her shrill screams lost to the void.