Chapter Text
Shuichi sees things no one sees.
In retrospect, he never really noticed when he started seeing these...things.
It was, vaguely, he remembered, around two years ago, when he had just graduated from university. At first, he didn't think too much of it, having had experienced hallucinations in the past, mostly – as his therapist says – out of stress. But a fact he never mentioned was that, what he saw were not just hallucinations, they were dead, lifeless people, who stared at him. The fear that he would be labelled 'insane' kept that thought stuffed in the back of his mind.
As he waited at the platform for his train in the evening post-work hours, when the crowd rush was the highest – night about to fall, everyone was returning home to their families. Shuichi noticed a man standing few feet away; his pale, lifeless, green eyes just as dull as his hair, blood splattered all over it. His grey striped shirt and brown pants were drenched in the same liquid, the metal accessories on the shell of his ear gleaming underneath the red. He stood with his arms folded across his chest, eyes never leaving him. They maintained eye contact for a while, his dull gaze piercing into Shuichi, who was forced to draw away his gaze first. His heart was slowly but surely beginning to pick the pace. He looked at the strangers around him. How come nobody else could see this man, was astonishing.
Now, it had only been a few months since Shuichi had graduated at the time, being a fresher and having just gotten a job at one of the most prestigious detective agencies in the city, if not the country; he hadn't yet been exposed to dead bodies.
He clenched his hands into fists. He was safe, he was in a crowd. Shuichi tried to convince himself as he stepped onto the train, not looking back.
This was perhaps the fifth or sixth incident he had seen something like this. It was not like he could avoid the train whatsoever, as it was his only form of transport home. So whenever he would see that ghost, spirit – whatever the hell it was – man, he would avert his eyes, or avoid looking in that direction altogether.
He was no paranormal investigator, nor did he believe in ghosts or poltergeists. But in an attempt to calm his growing anxiety, he did not have a very hard time looking up cases of deaths on trains or at train stations. Comparing the photos of mentioned victims to that man, he came out empty handed. None looked like him.
But then that green-haired man started appearing in other places he went to.
At the convenience store, at the mall, near the river; once at a crime scene – standing silently, watching him with those eyes of a dead fish, as if trying to find a way to converse with him. None of the medications or conversations with his psychiatrist (atleast to the point where he wasn't labelled 'insane'), rid him of his hallucinations. It became so regular that at one point he had gotten used to it, and didn't even bat an eye to that man anymore.
But then other dead people started appearing.
He didn't know how to describe it. A small and stout child? Man? with a cap atop his head of short orange hair. Endless, round, bulging eyes, a piercing gaze, and a cigarette in his mouth. He kept gnawing on it, unable to take it out because of the handcuffs around his hands holding him in place. His head was bloody, same as the first. But what was most terrifying, was that some parts of his flesh were torn, as if having been eaten by some miserable creature, exposing the flesh and bone underneath it. Shuichi first saw him outside the prison centre of one of the cases his team had to attend to, and then at the convenience store behind the clerk, looking at the cigarettes stacked behind him. Shuichi couldn't look straight at the clerk, and held himself from hurling before the man.
Same as the first guy, his death had no connections to any place.
Third was at the shrine he always visited since a child with his grandfather. A place he cherished in his heart. Now, he couldn't even do that anymore. A foreigner with dark skin stood at the steps of the temple, her low, silver pigtails hanging off her shoulders, wearing a simple two-piece top and skirt with what looked like metal sharpening tools – the ones used for carving wood – hooked to it.
Drenched in blood. Her silver strands were matted in red, chrome jacket looking more like crimson. Blood flowing down her back, her nape showing an unsightly, sickeningly smooth, deep incision.
What was worse, was that after praying at the shrine and descending down the small steps that evening, Shuichi tripped over her body, falling to the cold stone floor.
Had there been more steps, or it have been any steeper, it would have surely been certain death for him. Shuichi braced himself on his arms, cringing at the pain that would definitely bruise later. His bag fell some distance away, some items having tumbled out of it. He grunted, turning around to sit up.
His blood froze in his veins. The girl lay in a fetal position at the top of the stairs, chillingly looking down at him, glowing blue eyes wide and bloodshot. A creepy smile appeared on her face and a giggle echoes bouncing off the trees, through the deserted shrine.
Her blood slowly trickled down the steps like a waterfall, pooling near his feet. Shuichi fled. The next time he visited the temple alone, after mustering a hell lot of courage to do so, no one was there. He barely saw her after that.
It was the first time the so called 'ghost' had actively interacted with him. It was the first time the ghost had actively tried to kill him.
___
He decided to talk to someone whom he was more acquainted with. His therapist was someone his uncle had assigned to him, not out of choice. He doubted anyone would remotely believe him except give him a pathetic excuse of, "Yeah, it's all in your head. Maybe you should take time off on that detective work for a while. The dead bodies must be getting to you."
He wasn't going crazy. None of the victims in his cases looked anything like them, and that came from a person who studied his cases diligently.
These things, existed.
Maki Harukawa was a stoic woman. And one of the few people Shuichi had been able to trust, despite her unwelcoming personality and sharp tongue. Though she disliked children, she somehow came to be a kindergarten teacher. Shuichi's ears felt like falling off every single time she complained about school and her students. But, despite all that, she was a personal favourite of all the children there; and Shuichi wondered suprisingly why she hadn't murdered them yet. Besides that, she was also an undercover agent for the detective agency he worked at; quoting something along the lines of, "Taking care of snotty brats won't pay my bills". Shuichi would have to give it to her, she was an excellently capable woman.
But what was Shuichi even getting himself into? Then again telling the other person he knew would probably believe him right off the bat considering how childish she was.
"I think you've come to the wrong person."
That was the first thing she said off the bat. Shuichi tried to convince her, "Maki, please, you have to believe me."
Maki stared at him incredulously. Emphasising her words, she said, "Give me. A reason. How and why I should believe you. Go to Himiko, this is her forte."
Shuichi wilted. "Maki, I swear I am not hallucinating. I have never seen these people before; ever."
"Shuichi, do you even hear what you're saying? You are saying you are seeing dead people. You've never seen them before. Had I known better before I would have advised you to never become a detective. This is really messing with your head."
"Maki..", Shuichi plead desperately.
This was surprising. Maki had never seen Shuichi be so desperate. So... how could she describe it? – fearful. She knew Shuichi wasn't frail-minded. How in the world could he become a detective in the first place then? The only area he fell short in was his confidence. A pity, really, for such a talented person. She sighed.
"Fine, I'll believe you; only if I see it for myself." It was not fine by a long shot. However, embarrassingly enough, Maki was concerned for her friend's distress and would do anything to relieve it.
The bell of the kindergarten school rung followed by children's screams echoing around the area as they ran back inside to class. Maki gave him a last look before going off to usher them in.
Shuichi calmed down a bit after that conversation, agreed to her condition. But, there was a problem.
He didn't know How to get proof?
The next incident happened at his work place. He had been working late hours into the night, stuck with a poor excuse of a report. It wasn't even his job to do this in the forst place, but as a new employee, he had to. As he typed, the letters seemed to blur, the bright intensity of the screen awakening a much despised headache at the back of his head.
Guess he'll have to get a lecture from his boss the next day. He was just unable to function.
He was so busy this week, that no thoughts of the strange people had entered his mind. Not a single incident had occured. At one point, he actually believed that he might have been hallucinating. Begrudgingly, mentally preparing for his lecture the following day for not finishing his work; he packed up his items, yawning every few seconds. He looked at the time on the clock.
11:30 pm.
Crap. The last train must've left already. Shuichi considered spending the night in his office, but it would not be feasible. Guess he would have to take an Uber home today.
He switches off his computer and picks up his bag, stretching and sighing in relief at the pop in his back. He starts walking towards the exit of the small, but cozy office. Just as he was pulling the door open, he heard something fall behind him. Not thinking much of it, he turned around.
His eyes widen in fear.
A few feet away, right in the middle of the aisle of the neatly arranged working desks, stood a woman.
She wears a blue full-sleeved sailor top, with a white collar and a matching blue frilly skirt reaching till above her knees, followed by socks under them to her sandals. She stood relatively muscular and slightly tanned.
She had long, thin black hair flowing down her shoulders into two low braids touching her shins. A green pinwheel bow was clipped to the back of her head, a cat collar around her neck.
The gold of the bell barely shines through the blood in the dim lighting.
Blood.
Covering the back of her head, the lovely pinwheel bow and the bottom half of her face. Splattered across her clothes, across her sleeves. Pooling on the floor under her feet. The warm green of her eyes made nothing but chills go down Shuichi's spine. She opens her mouth and crimson flows out of it -- shredded vocal chords. She mouths something but the blood blocks it out.
Shuichi doesn't spare a moment to run outside. He calls the first person on his call log.
"You better have a damn good reason to call a full-time working-with-miserable-brats teacher and an undercover agent who for the first time in months gets a proper holiday before going to deal with said miserable brats early the next day--"
"Maki! I have to stay at your place tonight." Shuichi runs as fast as he could on the empty street to the closest location-- Maki's home.
"What the-- ! No! Why!" Maki yells.
Shuichi looks back and forth continuously, "It's them! It's freaking- shit! It's them! Maki I can't get home! I don't think I'll be able to live alone tonight!" Shuichi yells, hysterical.
"What the fuck! Are you saying those damn GHOSTS are haunting you again!"
"Maki!"
"I'm so tempted to end this shit right now. You're lucky I have a heart. Fuck! Oh god these stupid papers! You're going to be the reason I get grey hairs early. I'll be waiting in the lobby downstairs. You owe me your whole month's salary and a lot of more things before I swear to god-- you own me a good night's sleep-- you owe me a lot of shit and you're never going to get the end of this--"
"Maki! Freaking stay on the phone please!" Shuichi yells.
"I HEARD YOU! DO YOU WANNA DIE!?" Shuichi flinches, pulling the phone away from his ear.
Man, Maki was scary as hell, but at this point he would take anyone who was human.
He keeps on running, and does not fail to notice the green-eyed man and the silver haired girl standing side-by-side on the opposite side of the street, smiling at him, menacingly. He was so close to passing out.
His legs were on fire, on the verge of collapsing. He rushes into the entrance of the apartment building, nearly colliding into a very furious, frazzled Maki in her pajamas.
"You better have a DAMN good excuse for ruining my sleep or you're not going to see the light of day!"
They head inside the building. None notice the figure with the pinwheel bow standing in the middle of the street as a car passes through her.
___