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Kazuko hated trying to find things in the spare bedroom. Her family kept putting more things in this room with the intention of going through it and putting things away and they never did. It was a holdover from when they’d first moved into this house for her father’s job far away from both grandparents. It was just boxes of things that no one had the time or energy to look through. If anyone needed something from one of these boxes, it was often a huge family event. This time, Kazuko was the only one lifting the boxes and trying to find…oddly, she didn’t know exactly what she was looking for. Until she found it. Or rather, found her .
A ghost, simply floating above one of the boxes with a pensive look on her face. What struck Kazuko was the sheer, overwhelming beauty she possessed. It probably wasn’t normal to have the urge to kiss a ghost. Should she say something? Kazuko was startled when the ghost looked at her.
“Sorry,” Kazuko said instantly, “I didn’t mean to intrude!”
“You can see me,” the ghost said, sounding stunned. She stood up, her dark red eyes bearing into Kazuko’s. “No one has been able to see me in years,” she said, her brow furrowing. Kazuko instantly found herself wondering what she could be thinking. “Is there a reason you can? What makes you special?”
“Nothing,” Kazuko replied with a shrug as a glint of gold caught her eye. Gold? Kazuko felt a pull towards the box, reaching into it and her hand grasping around the cool metal. She pulled out a set of scales that glinted, a strange warmth seeming to radiate from where she touched. “I’ve…never seen these before. I didn’t even know we owned this.”
Only then did she register the ghost’s alarm. “You shouldn’t be able to touch those,” the ghost said, a frown on her face. “Normally people who try touch the vessel of my soul…” She trailed off and Kazuko noted how intense her stare was. “Something is different about you.”
Kazuko wanted very much to believe this. She wanted to believe that she might be special. All evidence pointed otherwise, however. “I just realized I’m being rude,” Kazuko said instead of responding properly. “I never asked your name.”
An odd, twisted smile appeared on the ghost’s face. “Ah,” she said, glancing away. “I don’t…remember my name. I don’t even know how long I’ve been unable to interact with the world. The most I am certain of is that I had once been a princess.”
“Then I guess that’s what I’ll call you,” Kazuko said, glancing at the golden set of scales once again. Why would her family hide this away? She knew she could ask her parents about them, but that would mean waiting at least a few weeks for a chance to talk to them. The option to call her grandparents was there, but she’d rather not talk to them. “So you’re bound to these,” Kazuko remarked, turning over the scales to fully examine them. “Seems like an odd choice.”
“I do not think I had a choice in the matter,” the former princess said slowly, the furrow in her brow deepening. Kazuko got the impression that this ghost was trying very hard to remember. What could have happened that would lead to her being in this state? “Though… I suppose since I do not remember… I might have.” The smile was unsettling—as if she was trying to hide something. “It is strange to realize how little of myself that I know. I’ve never had to think much about it.”
“Then we should try to find out more about you,” Kazuko said, realizing that it was a task that might not be easy to accomplish. “I can ask my parents about these scales and see what they know about them. And from there, we can look up stuff at the Internet café! Maybe someone out there might know more about this.”
It was easier said than done. As Kazuko predicted, getting a moment to talk to her parents about anything was difficult. Thus the first few weeks were spent in the library, flipping through various books in an attempt to find something that might be a clue. It was fairly obvious how this went, considering she was diving in without an idea of what she was searching for. The one thing the two of them did wind up discovering was that that the ghost’s radius of travel was chained to the scales. If Kazuko picked the scales up and moved them, the ghost was bound to follow.
“I think maybe you should join me at the library,” Kazuko said as the ghost examined Kazuko’s room. Another thing they had discovered was that the ghost was unable to properly interact with the world. Her hands would frequently pass through objects, much to the ghost’s frustration. “Perhaps you might be able to know what we’re searching for.”
The ghost noted the books on Kazuko’s shelf’s spines and frowned. “I would not be able to help,” she said softly. “I cannot read this language.”
Kazuko frowned. If she remembered correctly, the kanji that was used on those books was invented in the fifth century. If the ghost could not read this, then either she was illiterate when she died, which didn’t seem like it’d fit with someone of royal status, or…she was older than kanji. “That gives me a date to work with,” Kazuko said as she realized she now had a way of testing to see if she could date this ghost. Another realization struck. “What if you’re not from Japan? Do you have an idea of where you might be from?”
“I think… I think I’m from Nubia,” the ghost remarked, the same look of thought on her face. “Though I get the oddest feeling that is not where I wound up dying.” Another hint. Kazuko shoved the scales into her backpack and grabbed her skateboard, racing out the door. “Wait, where are we going? Why are you taking me with you?”
“I’ve got an idea,” Kazuko said with a grin, her skateboard hitting the pavement and taking off towards the library. “If you were once royalty and from Nubia, then surely there’s gotta be information on you in a book on the subject, right?”
The former princess brightened up slightly and nodded. “That makes sense,” she said, looking just a little bit more excited. “Then perhaps we could also find out what happened to me and why I haven’t been able to move on.”
Kazuko nodded in response, shifting her focus to the road in front of her. She’d skated this road so many times; however, focusing on it allowed her to keep her thoughts from wandering. She wanted to avoid wondering how long this ghost had been haunting this world. All those thoughts started swirling and she was grateful when they’d made an arrival at the library. She kicked her skateboard up into her arm as she entered and immediately headed over towards the section dedicated to Africa.
The ghost examined the books, her lips pursing and her brow furrowing. Right—the ghost could not read the titles of these books. Kazuko grabbed one dedicated to Nubia off the shelf, figuring it was as good a place as any to start. “You don’t know where you died?”
She shook her head and shrugged. “I do not remember much of my life beyond vague feelings of it,” she remarked. “It’s more…like a gut feeling. It’s either ‘I know this to be true,’ or, ‘This does not seem right to me.’ I feel nothing towards my death.”
Kazuko tried to understand how that might feel. She couldn’t picture how it might feel to be a ghost with no memory of life. “You don’t remember anything but being a ghost,” Kazuko said slowly as she turned the pages, noting each of the nobles spread across the pages. None of them had a similar silhouette to the princess. “That has to feel weird…to not remember being alive, I mean. Surely you have to remember…something?”
Once again the princess shook her head, her head tilting thoughtfully. “It’s hard to feel the exact details,” she said slowly, testing each word out. “I’m certain of a few things. That I was born in Nubia, that I had been a princess, and that I had a family. As for the rest… It’s like… It’s like there’s this wall around it, preventing me from accessing it.”
“Strange,” Kazuko remarked, noting that almost none of the images looked like her ghost. Maybe she hadn’t gone back far enough? Maybe it was more than a thousand years ago. “I can’t seem to find any images of you in this one. It’d sure help if you knew exactly when you might’ve died.”
The princess was now hovering over one of the tables, crossing her arms and legs. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more assistance,” she said, frowning. “I wish I knew more. My entire existence has been nothing but questions so far.”
Kazuko pulled another book off the shelf, examining the table of contents. Not knowing what she was looking for certainly made things a little bit more difficult. “I wish I could help more,” Kazuko said with a frown as she flipped through the next book. No luck, again. “I honestly thought that knowing where you were from and what you were might help. But I just don’t know which book to look in.”
“And I’m afraid that I cannot possibly help you look through these books,” the ghost remarked with a frown as she examined yet another book over her shoulder. “Perhaps… Perhaps you could teach me how to read this strange language? I’d like to know more about what you’re reading.”
“I’d be happy to,” Kazuko said, grabbing a few more books off the shelf. “But not here. I don’t want people thinking I’m crazy. Can only imagine how it must look talking to myself as is. I’ll take some of these with me and we can start back at home.”
She knew she’d have to get insanely lucky for any of these books to actually wind up helping out. Despite trying her best, nothing was really giving them any insight. Perhaps she just wasn’t looking in the right places. There had to be a clue somewhere that she was missing.
“Wait,” the ghost said before Kazuko went to check out. “This book…feels right.”
Kazuko glanced at the book the ghost was gesturing too. It was a book on Egypt but she’d never seen it before in the library. It must be new to the collection. Still, she wasn’t about to turn down a gut feeling the ghost had. She picked the book off the shelf and took it with her as well. To her surprise, there was no way of actually checking the book out. It had no bar code and no catalogue number. It didn’t exist in the library’s system. Kazuko knew that normally this would be a sign to put the back where she got it from. However, considering that an actual ghost was involved? This was clearly the right track.
The ghost seemed uncertain that they’d find any answers. “I do not mind if we never find any answers,” she remarked, hovering ever so slightly above Kazuko’s desk as Kazuko poured over the first book of Nubian royalty. Once again, her ghost was missing. “Being with you like this is fine.”
Heat poured into Kazuko’s cheeks and she looked up at the ghost again. As per usual, her light was dazzling enough that it was difficult to look directly at her. “I enjoy being with you like this as well,” Kazuko said softly, looking back over the book before snapping it shut again. “This one didn’t have any answers either.”
Attempting to get answers had left Kazuko drained. There was just the one book left—the strange book that the ghost was certain might have answers. She opened it and the first thing in it was a drawing of a stone tablet. Kazuko sat up straighter as she noted the engravings in the tablet. Seven strange engravings, with one of them looking almost like the scales. The drawing of the eye next to it matched the scales perfectly. She glanced over at the ghost with a raised brow. The ghost glanced at the words on the page, a frown on her face as she asked, “Can you tell me what it says?”
“Of course,” Kazuko said, noting the name of the author—a Dr. I. Ishtar. “It says that this tablet is theorized to be where objects called Millennium Items were created,” she said as she read over the paper, “and that they were apparently important to the reign of a Pharaoh called… I can’t read that name. Says there’s a missing few years after his reign and that two of the Items went missing after Pharaoh Set’s reign.” A frown came on her face. “There’s nothing here that explains why you might’ve ended up trapped in one. Just that these Items were apparently religious in nature and their purpose unknown.”
“That name is pronounced Akhenamkhanen,” the ghost said automatically. Kazuko glanced up, noting the strange look on her face. “I… I feel like I’m supposed to have an attachment to these names. But I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel towards them.”
She almost sounded frustrated and Kazuko reached out to grab her hand. She expected her hand to pass right through. To her surprise, she could touch. “It’s… It’s okay,” she said, a flush blooming across her cheeks. The ghost was staring right at their hands, a look of surprise on her face. “You don’t have your memory. I’m going to help you, okay? We’ll find out what these names meant to you together. If… If I could give you my own, I would.”
The ghost’s eyes snapped to Kazuko, a strange look upon her face that was unreadable. “You are kind,” she said after a short moment and Kazuko’s heart skipped a beat. Her gaze was intense and neither broke it. The door slamming shut downstairs broke Kazuko’s gaze first. “What was that?”
“The door,” Kazuko said, leaping up out of her chair. “My parents must be home.”
Normally they didn’t come home until Kazuko was asleep. It was why she wasn’t surprised when she saw Sumiko instead. A sign that perhaps she should have been working on dinner for them instead. “Hey,” Sumiko said, looking a little bit relaxed upon seeing Kazuko. “Sorry I’m late getting home. Shizuka and I already ate so you don’t have to worry about dinner.”
“How is Shizuka?” Kazuko said as she picked up Sumiko’s bag that she’d thrown on the floor, hanging it up. “I know you said she wasn’t doing well last time…”
“She’s not doing any better,” Sumiko said with a shrug. “She apparently needs an operation, but her mom can’t afford it. She’s thinking that maybe she should reach out to her brother since she might lose her eyesight soon.”
Kazuko had her own private opinions on Shizuka’s mother. She didn’t speak any of them outloud to Sumiko, and instead forced a small smile. “Well, perhaps things will manage to work themselves out,” Kazuko said, pulling Sumiko into a hug. “Do you have any homework?”
Sumiko shook her head. “Nope! Finished it with Shizuka!”
“Then you should get ready for bed,” Kazuko said as she pressed a gentle kiss to Sumiko’s forehead. “I’ll get ready for bed myself soon too. We’ve both got classes in the morning, right?”
Kazuko stared after Sumiko running up the stairs, already lost in thought again. The move to Domino City had been the hardest on Sumiko. All her friends had been in their hometown. It hadn’t been too hard for Kazuko to pack everything up and leave. The one thing that kept her tied to Domino even now was Sumiko. It was a strange thing to come to this realization over and over again. Kazuko sighed before finally heading back up the stairs. A good rest was exactly what she needed right now.
Even when she’d fallen asleep, her dreams were full of strange symbology that she couldn’t make heads or tails of. She woke the next morning to light streaming in her room, and rushed to get out the door. And for the first time, she put the Scales in her bag, along with the book that had the first breakthrough that they’d managed to find.
“Is there a reason you’re taking me with you?”
“Thought perhaps it might help if you got to see the world at large,” Kazuko said as she adjusted the straps on her bag before grabbing her board with a grin. It had been a rather impulsive decision to take the ghost along, but it was one she was sure of. “If seeing two names helped, then perhaps seeing other stuff might also help! After school, we can go to the museum and check out the exhibits. Perhaps there’s something there that will tug at your memory!”
The ghost brightened at this and nodded. “Perhaps you’re right,” she said, hovering ever so slightly away from Kazuko. Kazuko tried her best to ignore the fact that the ghost seemed unaware of the concept of personal space. “Thank you, by the way. You have been extraordinarily patient in helping me to unlock the secrets of my past.”
Kazuko nodded. It wasn’t surprising when the ghost was excited about school, asking questions that Kazuko wasn’t able to answer in the middle of class. Kazuko wondered if there was an easier method of communication that did not require her speaking out loud to the ghost. Surely they could find a way to talk to each other. The ghost’s grasp of reading had not improved much, meaning simply writing notes was not an option. She’d been distracted all day by the ghost’s many questions and for the first time in a while, Kazuko did not do well in school.
She’d fumbled her way through school and had been eager to get away at the end of the final class. “You know, I think we really should buckle down on teaching you how to read so I can write down the answers to your questions as they occur,” Kazuko said, swerving around the crowd with an apologetic wave. “I can’t have you distracting me during class like that again.”
“Sorry,” the ghost said, seeming just a little nervous. “How do you control this thing?”
“I just do,” Kazuko said with a shrug, the board grinding against the railing down a set of stairs and hitting the pavement yet again. The route to the museum was fairly familiar. She’d been there a few times, but never with a ghost that was as old as some of the exhibits in tow. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I cannot help but worry about you,” the ghost said, a startled gasp elicited from her as Kazuko flippantly made her way towards the museum. In all honesty, Kazuko couldn’t understand what the ghost was worried about. She’d done this several times before. She grinned and winked at the former princess, who glared at her. “Aren’t you worried about getting hurt?”
“Nah,” Kazuko said as she came to a stop in front of the steps of the museum. Last time she’d tried to skate up the stairs, she’d gotten in trouble. So instead, she kicked the board back up into her hands. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. Let’s go see if we can jog your memory.”
It had been a lot to place on an exhibit of ancient Egypt to reboot an amnesic ghost’s memory. Kazuko knew that she shouldn’t be disappointed that nothing in the exhibit sparked any memory. A temporary part of the exhibit had been one of the objects that the curator had been excited to show off. Kazuko tilted her head as she noted the upside down pyramid on a leather cord behind the glass case. “Hey,” the ghost said, nudging as she pointed out the eye on the object. “Look at that. Does that not look familiar?”
Kazuko frowned as she examined it and nodded. Her eyes glanced over as she heard the curator nearby and caught only the promise of a sale. “Sounds like the curator has plans for it,” she remarked, a glare forming on her face. Something seemed to spark inside her and her fists balled up. “He’s planning on selling it.”
The ghost’s features contorted and for once, she was no longer pretty. No, she was unsettling…and Kazuko could feel the ghost’s rage. “My history is not for sale,” she snarled, and Kazuko felt the ghost asking for control. It was second nature to let the ghost in, to allow her to take full control of her body. They could settle it out later. Next thing Kazuko knew, she was on the outside of her body looking in. The ghost used Kazuko’s own hands to lift her hands to her chest, blinking in shock. “You have allowed me use of your body?”
“Yes,” Kazuko said, surprised by her own allowance. Of course she would. She could not see another option. “But what are you going to do?”
“I remember now what the use of the Scales is,” the ghost said, and for once, Kazuko wondered if perhaps she should not have allowed this. She watched her own body turn towards the curator’s office, following him down. The ghost brushed past people saying that she should not be back here. The door swung open of its own accord and the ghost stepped over the threshold.
“Who allowed you back here?” the curator instantly demanded, looking more irked than he had any right to. “You aren’t supposed to be back here.”
“And you are not supposed to be profiting off what is not yours,” the ghost said and Kazuko was struck by how her voice sounded. Did she always sound like that? The ghost spoke as if she was commanding authority. How did the ghost wear her body better than Kazuko did? Kazuko swore she’d never seen herself look like this. There was a coolness to her tone, measured as if she’d rehearsed it. “The tombs of Egypt are not yours. You have pillaged them as if they are of your own heritage. Do you deny the charge of tomb robbery?”
The curator snorted. “It’s not as if the mummies in there need what’s in there,” he said, shaking his head. “What am I doing? I don’t have to answer you. You are nobody.”
“You admit that you see the tombs of Egypt as belonging to nobody,” the former princess said and the glare that had settled on Kazuko’s features was unsettling. The ghost pulled the backpack off her shoulders, pulling the Scales out of the bag and placing them upon the table. “In the past, these Millennium Scales were used to weigh the hearts of wrong-doers.”
“You expect me to be scared of a set of cheap kitchen scales,” the curator barked with a laugh. “You’ve had your fun. Get out of my office before I call security.”
“If these are nothing but cheap kitchen scales, then you have nothing to be afraid of,” the former princess countered, a sly smirk upon her face as a feather appeared in her hand. For a moment, Kazuko wondered where that came from before realizing it didn’t matter. “Tell me, what do you understand about the Egyptian funerary customs?” The curator snorted again, clearly not considering a question worth answering. “Fine, then I shall explain. In Egyptian belief, the dead person’s heart would be weighed by Ma’at on a set of scales watched by Anubis. I shall tell you more if you pass this simple test.” The feather was placed upon the scales, and the curator for once was no longer laughing. “It is but a few simple questions. Again, you have nothing to fear if I am lying to you.”
“Fine,” the curator said, looking annoyed. “I’ll play your silly little game.”
“Thank you for humoring me,” she said, her smirk widening. “We will start with the simple. How did you come across the object you intend to sell?”
This seemed to disarm the curator. “Some kid had it around his neck,” he said automatically, suddenly now staring at the Scales intensely. It seemed he’d finally caught the eye on them, a confused look on his face. “How did you come across these Scales? These have been missing for three thousand years.”
“I will answer questions once I am finished with my own questions,” she responded evenly, almost soothingly. “It seems you have not lied. Good. My next question is this: do you often sell things that do not belong to you?” When the curator did not immediately respond, the princess’s grin widened. “You clearly stated that the object you intended to sell belonged to another and was around someone else’s neck. Is it standard practice of yours to sell that which does not belong to you?”
“He doesn’t know what the object is worth,” the curator stammered, looking a little bit nervous now. “Who are you, anyway?” The side of the Scale with nothing in it dropped. “How are you doing that? There’s nothing in there -”
“The first strike against your heart,” the princess said, cutting him off. “You have admitted to theft. However, sincere regret and restitution can change that. Do you intend on apologizing to this man that you have stolen from?”
The Scale tipped downward before the curator even answered. “That’s not fair,” he protested. “I didn’t even answer.”
“Your heart knows you better than you do. That you are a greedy, selfish, unrepentant man who steals from those who trust him,” she said, a nasty grin twisting upon her face. “Do you understand what happens next?” The empty side of the Scale hit the desk and the curator, for his part, seemed suddenly aware of what was happening. “The doors of darkness have opened.”
Kazuko could not process what happened next. She could’ve sworn she saw the same eye on the Scales blazed upon her own forehead. She could’ve sworn she saw the curator die.Kazuko regained control outside the museum and she wanted so badly to ask exactly what happened to the curator. She decided it would be best to not ask questions. Instead of questioning what just happened, she headed towards the Internet café she liked to frequent.
The option to return to the library was there, but considering the last time turned up more questions than answers, she figured it’d be better to turn to a larger pool of answers. Or at least, a theoretically larger pool of answers. The local library only contained so many books, after all. Or maybe it was just the slightly more unorthodox question forming in the back of her mind: should she kiss the ghost that's haunting her? It was tempting to just type that right into the search bar. However, Kazuko was fairly certain that it wouldn't really return any results.
Instead, upon getting to the computer, she went straight towards a different source of answers: the forums. The ghost peaked over her shoulder, a look of curiosity on her face. “What’s this?”
“Uh, a computer,” Kazuko said softly, attempting to avoid drawing attention to herself. “Allows me to look up information from other places. Ask other people who might know more about Millennium Items directly.” And, she added on mentally, ask if it’s totally normal to want to kiss a ghost . She’d leaned back in her chair, chewing on her lip as she poked around. She felt rather foolish.
She’d been about to give up when a reply finally came through. Not on any of her questions about the Items themselves, but instead, on if she should kiss the ghost that's haunting her. It was a reply from someone with a Kuriboh profile picture and a username that proclaimed them a lover of games. The answer they gave was simple. Not only should you kiss the ghost, but you have a moral obligation to. It might make the ghost happy.
Kazuko exited the browser, a flush on her face. That certainly was an answer to receive. It gave her something to think about as she left the Internet cafe. Between the fact that she was now thinking of kissing ghosts and the mysterious origin of the Scales, Kazuko had a lot on her mind. The familiar sound of the board on the concrete was comforting, grounding even. At least, until the ghost finally spoke again. “Would now be a good time to inform you that I can now read?”
Instantly Kazuko’s eyes widened as she recalled immediately the last thing she’d read before leaving the cafe. No, it was worse than that. She’d asked about kissing the ghost. The former princess knew that Kazuko wanted to kiss her. It was distracting to the point where she veered off course, crashing right into a wall before she could stop herself. “You can read,” Kazuko said, brushing off the ghost's offer for help. “How did that happen?”
The ghost shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she said. “Prior to taking control of your body, I had still been unable to read. After taking control, I can now visually understand your language.”
“But,” Kazuko stammered out before pushing herself back up and getting back on her board. This was mortifying. In fact, Kazuko wished that the ground would swallow her whole already. Instead, she remained firmly above ground. “How? Did it…unlock anything?”
“I do not think so,” the ghost said, frowning. “I wish I understood what happened. For a moment there, it felt as if our hearts were one. I could feel everything you felt…and I do apologize for scaring you. I did not intend to frighten you.” Her cheeks seemed to pinken for a moment before glancing down. “For the record… I agree with your anonymous advisor. I think you do, in fact, have a moral obligation to kiss your ghost.”
Permission. Kazuko came to a hard stop in an alleyway, glancing around. No one was around. A perfect place to try. Her hands were shaking and her heart was thudding in her chest. Would this even work? She’d been able to hold her ghost’s hand. Surely this was a good sign. “In that case,” Kazuko said softly, leaning in. “No harm in trying…”
It was a strange sensation to describe. It glistened and gleamed, the way a memory might. Physically, it felt like she’d pressed her lips to a spoonful of ice cream. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant. The emotions were what set Kazuko on fire. She wanted to drown in these emotions and never come up for air. It went all the way down to her toes. It had been the ghost who pulled away first, a pink coloring her dark skin. “That was an excellent try,” the ghost said, biting her lower lip as her hands slid into Kazuko’s and squeezed. “Perhaps…we might try again some time in the future?”
Kazuko nodded, beaming. Of course they could try again. As much as she’d like to try again right now, she did have her sister to worry about. “I should head home,” Kazuko remarked, a soft smile on her face. There was a lot of mystery left for her and her ghost to figure out. However, as long as they were together…there certainly was nothing the two of them couldn’t do.