Chapter Text
"That wasn't your name back then," A-ya said. He tapped the newspaper clippings spread between them, doing his best to keep his voice level and calm. Yet his eyes lit with an excitement that couldn't be hidden. It bled into the rest of his face, tugged the corners of his mouth into a smile. "Nobody seemed to remember you at all, despite the strange circumstances of the accident. If I hadn't spotted you outside the school I would've doubted your existence altogether. You did a good job covering your tracks."
She was a striking young girl, with features that were a step above appealing. Not a strand of her chestnut hair was out of place, not a single blemish marred her clear skin. If a stranger passed by they would call it a friendly lunch between acquaintances. They wouldn't have noticed her hands curling in her lap, crumpling her skirt.
The fun of rumors was in ambiguity and its reveal, not detail. How the story was delivered in the end would ultimately decide its fate. A-ya breathed in deep the winter air. It cut deep into his lungs.
"No human being could've survived. The force of a trash compactor enacted upon the body would crush it for sure." He glanced down at the newspaper. FREAK ACCIDENT IN XX PREFECTURE, the headline screamed. Beneath was the picture of the girl sitting before him. "But what would that make you, then?"
Those fine hands curled even tighter. "Who did you say you were?"
A-ya's smile widened. "Sorry. I didn't mean to forget. It's nice to meet you again, Miss B-ko. I'm A-ya."
It was cold atop the roof. In his excitement he'd forgotten to put on a jacket, but he was beyond the touch of the world. All his focus was on her, awaiting her next move.
B-ko's expression was that of practiced composure. When she pressed her hand over her chest, she looked so sincere that he almost believed her. "I'm not sure what you're talking about, Mr. A-ya," she said. "It all sounds really scary, though... but you have the wrong person. I don't know who this girl is."
"There was a boy alone at home when the girl fell in," A-ya said. He spoke nonchalantly, tapped the clippings with a finger. "His parents wouldn't return until that evening. Since the compactor was closest to his house he was in the best position to hear her screams."
B-ko said nothing.
"When he went outside," he continued, "he was the first to see the girl's remains. She shouldn't have been able to move, but she was clawing her way out of the compactor with her splintered fingers. When she saw the boy, she stopped moving." A-ya snapped his fingers. "Just like that. She became a pile of bone and flesh, like she was supposed to be."
"That's a horrible story."
"It is." He tapped the side of his eyes. "But despite the state she was in, the boy managed to see her face."
"Was the boy the one who called the police?"
"No. It would be his friend that did it. All the boy did... was take the pictures."
B-ko's face became cold, rigid.
"You're the one who's been spreading those rumors," she said.
"So you did notice."
"Why do you want to find this girl so badly?"
A-ya stood up. B-ko watched him, her body tense. He had expected her to behave differently. With more subtlety, perhaps, and less emotion. Monsters and supernatural phenomenon in stories were always indiscernible. If she didn't fit that criteria, would that mean that such creatures were as mundane as humans?
The thought of it made him frown.
"Shouldn't the 'why' be obvious? You and I are two different beings." As he spoke, he listed off his points on his fingers. "People have a fascination with what they don't understand. And life is a bore for those who devote themselves to such things. The thought of something that can be taken in by all five sense yet can't be understood... for someone like me, it breaks the monotony."
The building itself was old, having been left floundering with minimal repairs by its owners. Parts of the fence that lined the roof's edges had long since rusted away. Those parts were marked off by yellow caution tape. With his back turned to her, A-ya ripped the tape.
"Do you talk about everyone like that?" B-ko's voice was low. "You're doing all this because you're bored?"
When he held the tape up it tangled in his fingers. "You aren't a person," A-ya said. "I'd say you're someone much more interesting. I didn't mean to lump you in with the rest of us humans."
There was the sound of the chair scraping. B-ko was getting up. "Quit talking about me like I'm some sort of creature! What's your deal, huh? If all you're gonna do is spout that nonsense--"
"You wanted to apologize," A-ya said. He spoke quickly, so that she wouldn't have the chance to interrupt. "Nobody was supposed to see you that day. Certainly not a young child. But you couldn't return to the city after such a visible death. When I contacted you, you took it as a chance to make amends, didn't you?"
He took a step towards the edge. B-ko's eyes widened.
"Wh-What are you...?"
"I'm not sure what you are exactly," he said. "There's countless folklores and stories of creatures with shapeshifting and regenerative abilities. I thought about asking you, but I see now that I won't find out anything just by talking."
"Quit bluffing. I'm not what you think I am."
A-ya grinned as he turned to face her. He could feel the sturdiness of the concrete beneath his thin soles, the gentle balance between life and death. The wind felt stronger in this spot, made him quiver with a tight feeling in his throat. If he moved too soon his story would come to an end.
"Miss B-ko. That's who you are, right?" Another step. "That's all I need to know."
He didn't know what gave first: her shout or his footing. One moment he was standing.
The next, he was falling.
It was said that in the impending seconds of a person's death, their life would flash through their eyes. Staring up at the stony sky, the breath stolen from his lungs, A-ya saw nothing.
Arms, slender and warm, tightened around him.
When he comes to he doesn't remember the impact. The roof's edge he'd been standing on a minute ago was little more than a hard, white line floating above him. A-ya wondered if this was an out-of-body experience. Maybe this was what being a ghost felt like. Was his heart supposed to beat so wildly?
The winter wind cut, but his back was warm. As he felt around for his cell phone his fingers dipped into wet blood.
The asphalt surrounding him sunk into a darker shade and gave off a nasty, iron smell. There was so much blood, he realized. He never thought that leaping off a roof could do so much damage.
"Ow," a quiet voice beneath him murmured.
A-ya suffered little damage from his stunt. B-ko wasn't so lucky. Red seeped through her hair, pooling onto the ground. When she breathed her breaths came out ragged. Her legs bent at awkward angles, bones jutting out like splinters. She should've been dead. Yet she opened her eyes, sucked in air, and cursed.
"Ah," he said. His tongue felt clumsy. "So you really are one."
"Shut up," she said. "What the hell's your problem?"
His ears rang. It made everything sound strange and distant. He couldn't get a good grip on his phone because his hands shook so much. After a fruitless effort to type coherently, he set it down. "Immortality," A-ya said, though he didn't know why he was bothering, "has an impressive range of definitions. Asking you to demonstrate doesn't mean you'd be willing to. I wanted to see what your limits were."
"You're an asshole," was her reply.
"You have the ability to heal from this, don't you? B-ko?"
"Go away."
"... did it hurt? I'm sorry."
There was no response. B-ko's breathing was so soft that he had to lean in close to hear it. Calling her name didn't even cause her to stir. A-ya gripped his phone tighter.
She's probably had worse as an immortal. She'll be fine, he told himself. Yet he couldn't stop shaking.
His phone chimed softly.
Subject: (no subject)
Sender: C太
Message: Stay where you are.