Chapter 5

The Extra Ghost

"Please, Bossun, wake up!"

The first thing Bossun was aware of was his jumbled thoughts—they were running a mile a minute like nobody's business, making his already aching head spin a little faster. There was a hard throbbing behind his closed eyes, going in sync with the pounding in his head. He wondered if he was dead, but that was impossible if he could still feel the sores and aches all over his body.

So, he was alive then.

He wasn't sure what was going on here. The last thing he remembered was…

Himeko.

Himeko in his arms, soft and weak and a little cold on the four poster bed with the red embroidered bedsheet, in that strange windowless octagonal room.

He remembered the empty master bedroom. The fireplace dark and silent in the far wall before it roared suddenly with licking tongues of hot fire, setting the whole room ablaze.

The storm of red and bright orange flames. The smell of burning wood.

Sasuke.

His twin brother Sasuke desperately calling out his name, crying to him for help.

Where is he?

Bossun's heart thumped in the silence that had started to filter in, loud and interjecting in his ears as panic started to spread all over his body, his eyes fluttering open and he came to with a painful gasp that rattled his chest.

He was in a room with walls made of wood, no bigger than the Sket Dan clubroom, lit up in a warm orange glow by the dozens of lit candles placed all around the room. An old wooden closet stood in a corner, a few paces away from a door that Bossun hoped was not locked. There was a single window to his right but he couldn't see anything past the dark window pane. He sat up on the wide wooden bench he was apparently lying on.

His body felt strange; lighter, like he was floating. Like he wasn't real. He felt like he was existing on a different plane, a different dimension, if that was even possible. But when he looked down his feet were firmly planted on the ground.

Where am I?

"Don't worry. You are somewhere safe."

He whirled around, body tensing at the sound of the whispery voice coming from all around him. No one was there. There was just a silent, sad-looking stool shoved into a corner covered in cobwebs. He rubbed his eyes. He was sure he hadn't said the question out loud, either.

He stared harder at the corner, longer, and just about jumped off the bench when a figure materialized like morning fog on the stool.

It was a girl. A little girl about eleven years old. Bossun's eyes widened when he realized he actually recognized her.

She was the girl in the pictures.

Shimabukuro Rina.

"No way…"

He was suddenly covered in chills, goosebumps rising on his skin. He tried to move, to get as far away as he could from the apparition but his body refused to even twitch.

"Oh come on, you don't have to look that scared. I'm not going to hurt you," the girl said, her voice strange like an echo, as if Bossun was submerged in water and hearing her through it.

She wasn't going to hurt him? But she already did! She already hurt him by kidnapping Himeko! By burning Sasuke! Bossun felt a surge of anger rising in him.

"You!" he cried, his fear of the ghost girl half-forgotten in his rage. "Where the hell is Sasuke?! What did you do to him?!"

The ghost girl didn't seem perturbed by his yelling as she glided closer to where Bossun was sitting and that shut him up abruptly, stunned that she was advancing towards him in such an unnatural manner.

"I didn't hurt your twin brother. He wasn't even here," the ghost girl said calmly, her voice coming from everywhere.

Bossun hugged himself tighter, shivering like it was the height of winter. Chills were running rapidly up and down his body. "What are you saying? I saw him! Right in the middle of that raging fire calling out for me!"

The ghost girl moved to sit on the bench next to him slowly, making Bossun sit rigid like a statue.

"I was just messing with you. It wasn't real. I could see your thoughts and saw his image—of your twin brother—in your mind. I just pulled the thoughts of him from you and projected it in that way in your mind's eye."

What?

Bossun blinked, not sure if he should believe her. Why should he? She was a freaking ghost. He shouldn't even believe in her existence. But he wanted to. He wanted to believe so badly that Sasuke was at home, safely sleeping in his bed.

"He's safe? Sasuke's safe? It was all just in my mind?" he asked uncertainly.

"Yes."

"Ghosts can do that?"

The ghost girl tilted her head, considering. "I wouldn't call myself a ghost."

"Then, what are you?"

She shrugged. "A memory? A wandering spirit? Who knows?"

Bossun was stumped that the girl didn't even know what she was. Was she just a memory? Or a wandering spirit that had unfinished business? He didn't know what to make of her.

"You are the girl," he said after a while of staring.

"What girl?"

"The Shimabukuro girl."

The ghost girl shrugged again but didn't say anything.

Strangely enough, seeing how small and young the girl sitting at his side was, Bossun's fear of her had completely gone out the window. She didn't look like how he imagined ghosts to be. She just looked like a normal girl, except maybe a shade or two paler, like an image printed with a printer that was running out of ink. He began to gradually relax, taking in his surroundings a little more clearly this time.

"Where really am I anyway?" he asked. He didn't think he was still in the mansion. The small room didn't seem to be part of the main building.

"We're in one of the smaller rooms in the second outhouse."

"The second outhouse? You mean—"

"Your friends were here earlier."

Bossun's eyes widened with realization. "This is the shack Switch and Yuuki were trapped in!"

The ghost girl rolled her ghostly eyes. "They weren't trapped. At least, not for long. I was just playing a trick on them. It's funny to see the girl panicking and the guy with the weird computer voice not being fazed at all. I wished he was a bit more worried and spooked about not being able to leave." She let out a tinkle of laughter from behind her hand which she had brought up to cover her mouth. She stopped laughing when she saw the angry look on Bossun's face.

"Oh, come on, don't be so mad. I made sure they found the staircase again."

"It wasn't funny, alright? I was so worried about them!" Bossun half-yelled. He then felt bad when the ghost girl actually cowered from his yelling and looked genuinely chastised.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt them or anything. I just wanted to play around."

"Right. Play around."

Bossun let out a huff. The ghost girl acted just how any ten or eleven year old would act, even though she was a ghost. He didn't know what to say to that. He wanted to be angry at her for all the trouble she had caused him and his friends tonight but even though she was a ghost, she was still just a little girl.

"I really like your girl friend. She's pretty," the girl said after a stretch of silence.

"My what?" Bossun wasn't sure if he heard her right. What was this ghost on about?

"Your friend, the girl with the blond hair and violet eyes."

Bossun blinked. "Oh, you mean Himeko?"

"Himeko? Is that the name of your girl friend?"

"Yes—I mean, no! Yes to her name being Himeko—well, actually her name's Hime but I call her Himeko because it just sounds cuter, right?—and no to her being my girlfriend! Why would you ever think that? Wait—she is my girl friend—I mean, she's a good friend of mine who happens to be a girl, but she's not my girlfriend girlfriend…"

The ghost just stared blankly at him.

Bossun felt his whole face warming. What was he saying? Why was he blundering trying to explain his relationship with Himeko to this ghost girl? He was totally flustered and rambling nonsense. Maybe he should change the subject.

"Anyway, did you like Himeko so much that you had to kidnap her? What did you do to her? She was out cold when we found her."

"Oh, I just put her to sleep for a while. She was so pretty, like Sleeping Beauty! Sleeping Beauty is my favourite princess! Is she and the tall guy a couple? Are they going to get married like Sleeping Beauty and her prince?"

Bossun almost choked on his own spit when he heard that.

"Tall guy—? Wha—No!"

The hell? How dare this impudent little ghost girl thought Katou to be Himeko's boyfriend! Her prince!

The ghost frowned. "But he was the one who kissed her? To wake her up? Isn't he her prince?"

"No way! I was the one who was supposed to kiss Himeko but that freaking Katou couldn't get his hands off her!" Bossun clapped a hand over his mouth, surprised at his own outburst. Did he just say that? Did he just say he was the one who was supposed to kiss Himeko? What had gotten into him? "Anyway! Why are you pulling pranks on us? We didn't come here to be messed with!" He needed to change the subject. He didn't want to ponder why he thought he was the one who should have kissed Himeko.

The girl tilted her pretty little ghost head. "But you're the ones trespassing my property."

"Uh… well, yeah, you got a point there, but we didn't mean any harm. We came here for a reason."

"What reason?"

"A girl from my school lost her purse around here when she visited the mansion two days ago. She asked me and my friends to help her find it."

"A girl from your school?" The ghost girl put a finger to her temple, trying to remember. "Oh. That girl," she finally said. "I really liked her. She was pretty and outgoing. I was jealous of her."

Bossun raised an eyebrow. "Jealous?"

"Uh-huh. She has the same name as me but she gets to hang out with her friends and have fun and go to school while I'm stuck here with no one to talk to. But then she dropped her purse so I decided to safekeep it for her."

Now Bossun's arched eyebrow was raised even higher.

Wait a minute. Same name as her? But that couldn't be right.

"You said you have the same name as her? Whose name?"

"The girl who dropped her purse."

The ghost pulled out an orange purse out of thin air and placed it in Bossun's hand. He opened it slowly to see if there was a student's ID slipped into one of its pockets. And there it was, a card with Fujita Rin's picture and her name along with her student number.

"Your name is… Rin?" Bossun asked in confusion. "But your name is Rina."

He didn't think he was remembering it wrong. The name written on the back of the girl's picture he found in Shimabukuro Ritsu's journal clearly was 'Rina'.

The girl's eyes widened, like she was about to cry.

"I'm not Rina. I'm Rin. Rina left this house with my father after I died."

"Huh? What're you saying? You… you're Rina… right?"

The ghost girl gritted her teeth. "It's Rin," she said quietly, glancing her watering eyes away.

"But— You're Rina. I saw those pictures of you and it's written on the back—"

"I'm telling you it's Rin, dammit! I wished I was Rina but I'm freaking RIN!"

Bossun stared in surprise at her outburst, the whole outhouse rumbling a little along with her shaking voice. And he almost stopped breathing when all the little information he had gathered from the mansion that night came back to him in a rush. He remembered Himeko showing him the pages of the Sleeping Beauty storybook they found in the study room, filled with drawn bright pink hearts and the words rinarin.

Rinarin. Rina Rin. Rina. Rin.

Rina and Rin.

But then he remembered Shimabukuro Ritsu's journal entry that he had found quite sad; I wish the three of us will live happily ever after.

The three of us.

Three.

He had assumed Shimabukuro Ritsu was talking about himself, his wife and his daughter, Rina. So why—

Katou's words repeated themselves in his mind suddenly.

The girl Rin died in this house. She died from an illness, at least according to my grandpa.

He had said Rin. Not Rina.

And it's Rina, by the way, not Rin. We found a picture of the girl earlier with the name Rina written on the back. Rin's the name of the first-year girl who dropped the purse in here.

Himeko had corrected him right after, but now Bossun wasn't sure if she was correct at all.

And about the mother, Katou had said; I've only known that she died giving birth to her daughter.

If that was true, if the mother had died at childbirth instead of a few years before the father and the daughter left like he had initially thought, then who was the third person Shimabukuro Ritsu was referring to in his journal?

The two pictures of the girl he found in the journal flashed in his mind like neon lights. Same faces but different hairstyles. Same dresses but different colours. One held a teddy bear, the other held a storybook.

And suddenly, everything made sense.

"Oh my god… " Bossun gasped softly, running a trembling hand through his messy hair. "Twins… Rina and Rin. You two were twins… Rina was your sister…"

The ghost girl—Rin—nodded her head slowly, her eyes downcast.

"I'm sorry," Bossun said softly, feeling a little bad. "I never knew you had a twin. I didn't even think of the possibility…"

"It's okay. Even when I was alive, a lot of people mistook me for Rina because I was always confined to the house. I was always sick, you know. I could hardly go outside to play. So most people only see Rina running around the area. They thought there was only one daughter in the family."

"Did they really leave you here?"

"Yes. Only after I died, though. My father and sister couldn't stay in the house any longer where two of their family members had died, it was too sad for them. So I didn't blame them. I watched them leave and I was so lonely after that, alone in this big empty house. That's why whenever people come by here I always try to talk to them."

Bossun turned to look at Rin, a little surprised. "… Talk to them?"

"Yeah. I just wanted to talk. If I was nice enough to them, maybe they'd want to be friends with me." Rin paused, fidgeting, before continuing in a quieter voice. "And if they become my friend, maybe I could ask them to help me with something."

"Help you?"

She nodded slowly.

"You know, there's something I've been looking for for a very long time, something important. I've been looking for it ever since I became like this… a wandering spirit… a ghost. I need to find it or I can't rest peacefully."

Bossun folded his arms, thinking.

So she does have an unfinished business.

"What is it that you're looking for?" he asked.

Rin pointed to the closet in the corner of the room.

"There's a drawer in that closet with something I've wanted to be buried with me in it. But you see, I don't have the key to that drawer."

A key?

"I—if you don't mind… can you help me find it? Like, not right now, but maybe some other time? Whenever it's convenient for you? I know we're not friends or anything and you don't have any reason to help me—after all, I did play tricks on your friends and made you worry—I'm really sorry. I promise I won't do that to anyone anymore—"

Rin stopped talking abruptly followed by a gasp when she saw what Bossun had pulled out from his pants pocket.

"By any chance, is this the key you were looking for?"

Bossun had completely forgotten about the key he had slipped into his pocket when he and Himeko were in the garage.

In the ethereal light, the circular golden yellow pendant dangling from the key seemed to glow, its smooth, reddish brown surface shining.

"Oh my god, I've been looking for this for so long! I put it inside a box for safekeeping but then everything got moved and were not where they were supposed to be anymore and I couldn't find it again."

Bossun smiled. "Then it's a good thing Himeko grabbed this key when she did. I almost died getting buried under your family's junk because of it, you know."

"It's not so bad if you died trying to save your girl friend," Rin said as she glided towards the closet in the corner. Bossun ignored the warmth spreading all over his face and decided to never mention Himeko's name again as he followed Rin to the closet.

"Can you open it for me? It's hard for me to get a hold on it. You know, ghostly hands and all," the girl wiggled her fingers near the handle of the closet.

Bossun opened it and pulled out a drawer. Inside was a beautiful jewelry box the size of his hand.

"Is this what you wanted?" he asked, admiring the gorgeous inlaid shells on the lid.

"Yes, thank you. Can you take it out? We'll go outside."

As soon as Bossun stepped out of the door, he felt like he was wrapped up in a thick fog. It was definitely not the normal outside. Instead, it felt like walking through a cloud. He wasn't sure if he was moving or not. And in that short time—probably just a couple blinks of the eye—Bossun found himself standing in front of something huge and dark, looming over him.

It took him a while to recognize the old oak tree guarding the front gate of the Shimabukuro mansion. The dark hollow was gaping at him.

"I've always loved this tree. Me and Rina did. I still do."

Bossun startled at the sound of Rin's voice. He didn't see her in all that fog and for a moment he almost forgot about her or what he was even doing. He didn't realize she was there standing next to him. Rin motioned for him to open the jewelry box.

Inside were four circular gemstones similar to the one attached to the key of the drawer, smooth and small like a hundred yen coin with a hole in the middle. Two of them were a striking blue with small white streaks, while the other two were a pretty red brown with dark stripes.

Bossun realized that the brown ones were almost identical to the one on the key so he pulled out the key to compare it to the other four.

"These four came in pairs," Rin pointed to the two blue ones and the two brown ones. "The blue ones are lapis lazuli, and the brown ones are—"

"The lion's eye," Bossun blurted out, remembering what Himeko had told him in the garage.

Rin stared at him for a while before she burst out laughing.

"What?" Bossun asked, confused.

"It's not the lion's eye, dum-dum. It's the tiger's eye!"

"Huh? But Himeko said—"

Rin just continued laughing. "You really do love your girl friend, huh? You believe everything she says!"

Bossun suddenly felt so foolish being laughed at by a ghost. He didn't even understand what was so funny. He shouldn't have believed Himeko's words. But at least Rin looked happy now.

"Fine. I'll shut up now."

Rin's laughter slowly faded as she fell silent. She stared at the hollow in the tree but Bossun could tell that her mind was elsewhere, somewhere far away.

"I miss my family. I miss Rina the most. She always told me that the two of us will always be by each other's side, but now…"

"I'm so sorry, Rin," Bossun said softly, wishing he could do something for the poor little ghost.

Rin hovered a hand over the two red brown gemstones in the jewelry box.

"These two are mine and Rina's. She used to cherish hers so much she wouldn't even let it out of her sight. But in their hurry to get out of the house and leave the bad memories behind I think Rina forgot to take hers with her. I always wonder if she missed it…" Rin stared sadly at the two gemstones. "When I realized I lost the key to the drawer I was devastated. I've always wanted to bury our tiger's eyes together here in the hollow of this tree because it was our favourite place. I wanted the two of us to always be together. I couldn't rest until then…"

Bossun knelt down in front of the ghost girl, tilting his head so he could look her in the eye.

"We've found the key and the tiger's eyes are here. I can help you bury them," he said softly with a gentle smile.

Rin nodded as tears glided down her face. "Thank you," she whispered.

A shovel appeared in Bossun's hand like magic. He crawled into the hollow of the tree—which turned out to be quite spacious—and his fear of it vanished. It didn't take him long to dig a significantly deep hole. He took out the two gemstones from the jewelry box and carefully placed them side by side in the hole.

"Is this okay?" he asked Rin who had been watching him all this while with a little grateful smile on her face.

"Yes, that's perfect. Somehow, I'm feeling a lot lighter, like a burden is being lifted from my shoulders."

As Bossun shoveled earth back into the hole, burying the tiger's eyes, Rin's ghostly figure started to glow. When Bossun shoveled in the last of the earth and patted down the small mound, Rin had spread a pair of glorious wings, white and shining.

"I think I'm ready to go now," Rin said with a delighted laugh, her wings flapping eagerly behind her. She looked happy and at peace. "Thank you, Fujisaki Yuusuke-san, for your help. I can finally rest now."

Bossun smiled and wondered how she knew his full name. But then he remembered that she actually showed him a fake vision of Sasuke in his mind earlier when she hadn't even met him and he stopped wondering. Maybe becoming a ghost gave you superpowers.

"You're welcome, Rin. It's always been my life objective to help people in need."

"Those two lapis lazulis," Rin gestured at the remaining gemstones in the jewelry box Bossun was holding. "I want you to have them, as a token of my appreciation."

Bossun looked at the gemstones. They were very blue and very pretty.

"Are you sure? Don't you want to take them with you?"

"No. I'd rather you have them. In fact, I want you to give one to that pretty girl friend of yours. I'm sure she'll love it," Rin said with a little mischievous laugh.

"But—"

Rin had glowed very bright and was starting to fade away in the white light.

"Thank you again, Fujisaki-san, for your help. I am forever grateful to you. I'll return you to your original plane and I'll let your girl friend know where to find you. Goodbye!"

"Goodbye, Rin!" Bossun said as he was engulfed by the bright light.

.o.o.o.o.o.

The air was cool and biting against his skin. His body felt heavy like they were weighed down with stones. He couldn't open his eyes from how heavy his lids were and how drowsy he was feeling. But even with his eyes closed he could tell that he was somewhere dark. Somehow, he could feel the darkness.

He shivered. If only he had a warm blanket.

He couldn't really remember exactly what he was doing before this. Was he at home, playing video games? Or was he in bed, asleep? What time was it? What day? Where was he?

Bossun started to panic when he couldn't answer any of those questions. He was somewhere in the dark, his body so heavy he couldn't even move. He felt like he was forever falling. Or forever drowning, sinking into a bottomless lake. His mind drifted into a strange sleep as he tried to make sense of his being.

He gasped back into consciousness when suddenly he felt something warm pelting his cold face over and over again, leaving hot burning trails all over his skin.

"Whuh—"

The warm pelting didn't stop.

"Please, Bossun, wake up!"

Bossun was slow to realize what was happening—it felt like he was in a dream— keeping his heavy eyes closed as he savoured the warmth covering his face. He was being pelted with something soft and warm. He didn't want them to stop.

Oh, this was a very nice dream.

"Bossun, please…"

That voice was familiar, so close to his ear as his whole body was enveloped in something soft and even warmer. Was someone hugging him? He breathed in a familiar sweet, soapy scent and felt himself calming down a bit more. The warm peltings continued to assault him (or was it caressing him?); on his forehead, his nose, his chin, his cheeks, his eyes.

His mouth.

When the warm pelting touched his mouth, it set something inside him ablaze.

Bossun realized the peltings were actually a pair of soft, warm lips, kissing him all over his face. And now they were tenderly kissing his mouth.

His body was now as light as a feather, no longer heavy like lead was coursing through his veins instead of blood, and he raised his hands to gently cup the face that was fervently kissing him. He instinctively angled his face so that he could return the kiss properly. It felt so good he never wanted to stop.

When the mouth that was kissing him opened to let out a gasp of surprise, he took the chance to part his own lips and slipped in his tongue, deepening the kiss. He didn't know where he'd learned to kiss like that—he'd never even kissed anyone before—but maybe because this was a dream, he could be doing anything and be good at it.

He took his time kissing that sweet mouth, savouring every second, how warm it was, how soft. He could do this forever and he thought he was going to be kissing those lips forever when he heard—or more like felt—a moan going into his mouth that sent an electrifying jolt all over his body.

He finally pulled away, catching his breath. The dream was breaking into pieces, dissolving and fading away from the grasp of his muddled mind. He felt sorry that such a sweet, nice dream was ending. Even now, he was starting to forget what his dream was about. All he knew was that it was warm and nice and he was doing something he'd wanted to do from deep inside his heart, and it was incredibly wonderful.

"Bossun? Are you awake?"

It was hard to open his eyes but when he finally did, he saw that in the darkness there was a figure washed in white light hovering in front of him. He blinked a few times, trying to make sense of where and when he was. He looked around and could see almost nothing in the dark except for the source of the white light. It came from a flashlight sitting on the ground near him.

"Bossun?"

Himeko was crouched in front of him, a very worried look on her face.

"Himeko? What… happened?" he looked around again and realized he was in a small room, or more accurately, a small space. His eyes adjusted to the gloom gradually and he could see Himeko better. Even in the dark he could see her face was flushed, her lips somewhat red and swollen.

"Hey, you okay? Your face is red…" he asked, voice hoarse. He pushed a hand against the gritty wall he was leaning against but his legs were numb to get him moving.

"Huh? W-what do you mean?" Himeko looked flustered as she covered her mouth, her eyes darting away from Bossun. "I'm fine, so don't worry about me. You should worry about yourself. But let's get out of here first."

"Where are we?" Bossun asked as he crawled after Himeko out of the tiny space through a small opening.

"I guess your mind's fuzzy like mine was hours ago when you guys found me. We're at the Shimabukuro mansion. You remember that?"

Bossun nodded slowly. He did remember what they were up to now that she mentioned it.

"Yeah, we were looking for that girl's purse… and then…"

He turned around to look at the space he and Himeko were crouched in earlier and was surprised to see the dark hollow of the oak tree in the front yard of the Shimabukuro mansion.

"What the—? Wait, I was in the tree hollow? But how? I don't remember—"

"What's the last thing you remember, Bossun?" Himeko asked, brushing the dirt off her knees.

Bossun was silent for a while, trying to recall his memory.

"We were going through the master bedroom with the fireplace, and then…" Bossun blinked. "There was a fire? And… there was Sasuke…"

Himeko arched an eyebrow. "A fire? Sasuke? You saw Tsubaki in the room?"

Bossun looked at Himeko uncertainly. "Yeah… Sasuke was there, in the fire… and the whole floor raptured—" Bossun grabbed Himeko suddenly by the shoulders, a panicked look on his face. "Please tell me none of that happened! Please tell me it wasn't real! Sasuke, he—"

"No, nothing like that happened, Bossun. We were running through the room and when I turned around, you were not there anymore. You were gone."

"Thank god," Bossun let out a great sigh of relief. He immediately let Himeko go when he realized how hard he was gripping her. "Sorry."

He wiped his face several times, running his hands through his hair trying to make sense of things. "Man, what the hell happened?"

"You were taken by the Extra Ghost, Bossun," said a thin, papery voice coming from a few feet away.

From the darkness emerged a figure; a girl, followed by two taller ones.

"Yuuki! And Switch and Katou!" Bossun exclaimed, so glad to see that they were fine and unharmed..

"Are you alright, Bossun? We were so relieved when Himeko radioed that she found you in the tree hollow," Switch said, patting Bossun on the shoulder.

"What happened? How did you end up out here in that tree?" Katou asked curiously. "Were you really taken by the ghost?"

Bossun shrugged. "Yeah, I guess? I'm not so sure myself, my mind's so fuzzy right now. But I think I did see the ghost. It was a girl… and I remember we kinda had a talk or something…" he squeezed his eyes shut, scrunching his face trying hard to remember. It was difficult to hold on to his memories, like they were some kind of a dream already disintegrating.

"I guess she was a nice ghost," Himeko said with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Bossun asked.

"When we were frantically looking for you, I heard a voice whispering right in my ear. It said, 'Your boy frie—it said your friend is in the tree hollow out in the front yard.' I rushed out here and there you were, passed out in the tree. I immediately radioed these three to tell them you're found and safe."

Hearing Himeko talking about the ghost jogged something in his memories.

"I think I'm starting to remember things now, even just a little. The ghost girl… her name was Rin, and she had a twin named Rina. She died because of an illness here in this mansion. Her father and her twin left after she'd passed away. And as Katou had said, their mother died in childbirth."

"Oh, that's so sad," Yuuki said, looking back at the dark, gloomy mansion. "Does she have an unfinished business? Since she's still roaming the mansion all on her own."

"Oh, I think she has moved on, Yuuki. I still can't remember much of what happened but I think I helped her with her unfinished business and she's resting in peace now," Bossun said, his mind gradually getting clearer.

"True to form, Bossun's even helping ghosts now," Switch said with a laugh. "Doesn't mean I believe in them, though," he eyed Yuuki with a smirk.

"Suit yourself, Switch," Yuuki huffed.

"Also, guys. We've achieved our mission for tonight." Bossun pulled something out of his pants pocket that he'd just realized was in there. It was an orange purse.

"Is that…?" Himeko trailed off.

"Yes! This is Fujita Rin's purse that we were looking for!"

"Wow, that's great, Bossun! Where did you find it?" Switch asked.

"I didn't actually find it. The ghost girl gave it to me. She said she only kept it for safekeeping."

"What a thoughtful ghost," Switch said, like he couldn't believe a ghost would do that.

"I'm sure Fujita Rin will be happy to have her purse back," Himeko said with a big yawn.

"Now that everything's settled, I think it's time for us to head home," Katou said as he looked up at the lightening sky in the east. "I can't believe it's almost dawn."

"You're right. It has been a long night. I'm getting out of here," Switch said as he headed for the entrance gate. "Yuuki, you coming? I'll give you a ride home since you came here with me."

"Yeah, I'm coming. Come on, guys. I think we've overstayed our welcome on these haunted grounds," Yuuki said as they followed Switch out of the compound of the mansion.

"I guess that's mission accomplished, guys. Good job!" Bossun exclaimed, punching the air wobbly since his body was still mostly numb. Switch was the only one who cheered and clapped as the rest of the group ignored him and walked out the gate, exhausted.

.o.o.o.o.o.

It was a good thing that the next day was a Saturday. As it turned out, Bossun along with Himeko had come down with a high fever. According to Yuuki, it was normal for you to develop a fever when you've had ghostly encounters.

Bossun wanted to visit Himeko to make sure she was okay and vice versa, but since both of them were sick, they had to settle with texting each other instead.

Tsubaki actually came to visit Bossun when he heard that he was down with a fever, bringing some medicine from his family clinic and a broth his mother made.

"I heard from Katou you saw me at the Shimabukuro mansion," he said, sitting at Bossun's bedside as he watched his twin brother eat his broth.

"Yeah, I did. You were burning in a fire, screaming for me to help you."

Tsubaki was quiet for a while, like he was contemplating deeply what Bossun had just said, before saying, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience I caused."

Bossun stopped spooning broth into his mouth to stare at his brother. And then he burst out laughing.

"What are you apologizing for, you big weirdo. You weren't even there!" Bossun laughed even more, slapping Tsubaki good-heartedly on the shoulder. His twin brother could be quite endearing sometimes.

Bossun spent the rest of the weekend in bed, either sleeping or just staring at his ceiling trying to remember what happened that night at the mansion. And when he did remember things, he went down a spiral trying to decide what was real and what was not.

Eventually, he recalled most of his encounter with Rin the ghost; about what had happened to her family, why she was haunting the mansion, what she had asked him to do to help her rest in peace.

Some things, however, remained unclear.

Bossun couldn't stop thinking about the warmth he felt when he was waking up in the tree hollow. He remembered doing something pleasant that set his heart on fire but he didn't know what. And it didn't help that he couldn't be sure whether it was something that really happened or if it was just a dream. It felt like a dream but at the same time it also felt like it was real.

Thinking too much about it gave him a splitting headache, so he stopped. He then decided that it didn't matter whether it was real or not and he should just forget about it.

When Monday morning came, as Bossun sat alone in the Sket Dan clubroom waiting for the first bell to ring, his mind suddenly cleared up and his memory came rushing back to him like a tsunami.

He finally realized that just moments before he truly woke up in that tree hollow, he was most probably maybe kissing someone. That warm, pleasant, wonderful sensation he kept thinking about—it was the feeling of kissing someone. But he couldn't be completely sure because what did he know about kissing? He'd never kissed anyone before in his life!

He started panicking a little trying to make sense of that memory.

Was it just a dream? It felt like a dream. The memory had that hazy, ethereal quality that dreams always had but… it also felt real. But if it was real, then who was he (probably) kissing? There was no one there with him in the hollow.

No one except for…

"Himeko?" Bossun whispered to himself, the sound of her name loud in the stillness of the clubroom. "Did I kiss Himeko? Or… did I dream of kissing Himeko?" He gasped suddenly in horror. "Wait! Why would I kiss Himeko? I don't think I want to… or do I…?"

He messed up his hair trying to clear his head. Maybe he wasn't even kissing anyone. Maybe someone was just putting their hands all over his face for whatever reason and he… felt it was warm and nice? He was overthinking this dream-not-dream thing again and now he wasn't even sure if it was actually kissing he was doing back then in the dream-not-dream and not something else completely.

He jumped a foot into the air from his seat when the clubroom door opened suddenly with a loud bang.

"Bossun? Sorry, I thought no one was in here. You're really early." Himeko walked into the clubroom with a smile on her face. "How're you feeling? Better? As for me, I'm one hundred percent back to my healthy self."

The smile on her face was slowly replaced with a concerned frown when Bossun didn't say anything to her.

He'd been staring at Himeko ever since she'd walked into the clubroom, his eyes kept darting back to her mouth. He was aware that his heart had started racing and a strange feeling—the same strange feeling he'd felt when he was buried under the junk at the Shimabukuro mansion with Himeko trapped underneath him—was again blooming inside of him. He didn't know what it meant and therefore couldn't understand it.

"W-what? Why are you staring at me like that?" Himeko asked, flustered, her face turning red as she bit on her lower lip. "Are you okay? Are you still feverish? Your face's all red."

Bossun finally pulled his eyes away from her, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, no. I'm fine, I don't have a fever anymore." He watched Himeko come sit next to him and he suddenly felt a little shy.

What the hell is wrong with me? It's just Himeko! Dammit, that dream really messed with my head.

He decided to ignore the dream or whatever happened in the tree hollow. It was something he wasn't ready to deal with right now so he wasn't going to bring it up.

Himeko sighed softly beside him. "Over the weekend, I somehow remembered what happened when I was taken by the extra ghost—Rin, I mean. I remember we were in a nice little room, and she served me tea and cute little desserts. She asked me what school was like and that she wished she could go to school, too," Himeko sighed again with a faraway look in her eyes. "I feel so sorry for her."

"She really liked you, you know. She said you're very pretty, like her favourite princess, Sleeping Beauty," Bossun said, smiling.

Himeko laughed lightly, amused. "Yeah, she told me that, too. She was just a little girl, you know. She barely lived a life. I hope she's resting in peace now."

"I hope so, too."

"I'm so glad you were able to help her with her unfinished business, Bossun."

"Actually, it was thanks to you, HImeko. If you hadn't reached for that key with the tiger's eye pendant I wouldn't have been able to help her so quickly."

"What do you mean?" Himeko asked, looking at Bossun in wonder.

"Rin couldn't rest because she'd been looking for that key. It opened a drawer where she kept something precious to her and her twin. She needed that precious thing for her to feel at peace but she couldn't get at them because she lost the key. So, it was a good thing that you reached for the key, Himeko."

"Oh my god, really? I'm so glad then. When I saw that pendant, it was like it was calling to me to take it. It was such a pretty little thing, too."

"She actually had something for you, Himeko."

Bossun pulled out the two lapis lazuli pendants Rin had asked him to take with. He took Himeko's hand and placed one of the pendants in her palm.

"Oh, wow. Is this lapis lazuli? It's so pretty!" Himeko cried, holding up the circular donut pendant in admiration. "She wanted me to have this? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. She said to give it to 'your girl friend.'"

Himeko turned to look at him, stunned. "G-g-girlfriend? What d'you mean?"

Bossun laughed. "It's not what you think. She called you that because you're a friend of mine who happens to be a girl, so technically, you are my girl friend." Somehow, he felt his face and neck warming from saying those words.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right," Himeko agreed sheepishly with a shy smile. "Come to think of it, she also referred to you as my boy friend when she whispered to me where to find you. I wasn't paying attention to the details then because I was so frantic to find you."

"Thank you for finding me, Himeko. I don't know how long I'd be sleeping inside that tree hollow if you hadn't found me."

"It was all thanks to Rin. She told me where to find you, and when you wouldn't wake up even though I've shaken you like there was a freaking earthquake happening, I heard her saying, 'Wake him up like he's Sleeping Beauty!' And I immediately knew what to do after that," Himeko chuckled at the memory and then abruptly stopped when she realized what she had just said. She turned to look at Bossun who was staring at her, wide-eyed.

"You woke me up like I was Sleeping Beauty? So, you… kis—"

"No! No, I just—I uh—I pecked you on the cheek, that's all!" Himeko exclaimed, a soft blush blooming on her cheeks as she averted her eyes away from him.

Bossun stared at her for a while more before asking, "Hey, I'm not sure why I'm asking you this, but… did something happen right before I woke up in that tree hollow?"

Himeko blinked at him a few times, her face turning a bright crimson. "Um, what do you remember, Bossun?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know… It felt mostly like a dream, like, not real at all, but also real at the same time. It was… I can't describe what happened because I seriously don't know what happened, except that it could be a dream. A really nice dream, actually. I cannot stop thinking about how it made me feel even though I don't know for sure what happened." Unconsciously, Bossun's eyes had drifted to Himeko's mouth as he was saying all this. He quickly pulled his gaze away when he realized where he was staring.

Himeko smiled, fidgeting with the lapis lazuli pendant in her hand. "Y-you… think it was nice? That dream you had?"

"Yeah, really nice. I wished it was real." Those words came out of his mouth without him meaning to. Oh god, he was blushing so hard now.

They both looked at each other then, their faces as red as a tomato.

Bossun's heart thumped loudly in his ears. Seeing the look on Himeko's face, it almost confirmed that the dream that he liked so much was not… actually… a dream?

He looked away, trying to calm himself. Somehow, he knew he was not ready to dive deeper into whatever this was. He needed time to dissect and analyze it if he wanted to understand it. And he was just not ready for all of that.

"Uh, sorry, I don't know what I'm saying. Just forget it. It was just a dream anyway," Bossun muttered, thumbing the lapis lazuli in his hand, feeling sheepish.

Himeko was quiet for a bit before she let out a little tinkling laugh.

"It's okay, Bossun. Don't worry about it. You don't have to overthink it. But I'm glad you had that nice dream, though," she assured with a shy but warm smile.

Bossun looked at her uncertainly but when he saw that smile of hers, he felt relieved and all warm inside. He returned her smile, equally warm and shy.

His eyes slowly drifted back to Himeko's lips.

"Yeah, me too. I'm glad I had that dream. I hope it was a nice dream for you, too, Himeko."

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*END*

Hello, people! Happy New year!

I'm sorry it took me more than two years to get this final chapter out. I don't know if anyone's even still waiting for this chapter, but it doesn't matter! The important thing is I've completed this story. And I'm so happy there's a BossuHime kiss in this chapter because I wasn't planning on including one but it just happened as I was writing the second half of this chapter. I hope you liked it as much as I had fun writing the scenes.

Thank you all so much for reading (and for waiting for me to write the final chapter!). I'm hoping to be back with more Sket Dance stories!

Have a great 2025 and cheers!