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Kiyoomi was a good little boy.
All the neighbors were saying so and his grandma had always claimed he was her favorite next to his two older siblings. Everybody knew his grandma’s opinion was very valuable. So he made a promise to himself to always stay good to his grandmother. Because the truth was that she was his favorite too, for several reasons.
She would always cook him umeboshi, no matter the time of the year or the hour of the day. She understood he didn’t like to be touched if the gesture wasn’t coming from a family member or from someone he’d trusted for a long time already. Or just from someone that had really clean hands.
Most of all, she had always believed him when he had told her he could see ghosts.
He had talked to his parents about it once. About the old man who would come to his room late at night to chit chat about his grandchildren and his dog and how he missed going to the café down the road. Except there was no café down the road anymore. They had said he had a lot of imagination for a seven year old and Kiyoomi had known then and there that they had not believed him.
He had also explained to his sister that the reason why it had been so cold in her room lately was because there was a woman who was always running too hot staying in her room with the windows open wide while she was out. She had screamed at him that he was crazy and that his jokes were not funny before slamming the door in his face. Kiyoomi had felt like crying then but had swallowed back his tears and had gone back to his room. He had listened to the old man all night while he had been retelling some old stories about his wife and what a wonderful cook she had been.
When he had told his grandma about the phenomenon though, she had listened to him very closely, not interrupting him once. He remembered feeling really nervous when he had been done but she had taken his hands in hers and told him she had known what it felt like. Kiyoomi had doubted her at the time and she probably had been able to see it because she had shown him something really cool right after.
She had walked with him inside the forest behind her house and Kiyoomi had been scared shitless because he had never been great with dirt and nature. But then they had found themselves in a huge clearing and Kiyoomi had realized what her grandmother had wanted to show him.
There had been multiple ghosts moving there. Some of them had been human, others not. Some had been shimmering in the sunlight, others had been nothing but shadows. These had frightened Kiyoomi the most at the beginning. But his grandmother had taken the time to teach him all she could.
Kiyoomi was cursed. He could see ghosts and spirits whether they were human before or not. To him though, it was not really a curse.
He didn’t have a lot of friends at school because they thought he was weird, a freak really, when all he wanted was for them to respect his boundaries. He was made fun of daily, but since he had learnt about his curse, he had made new friends.
The old man in his room was now listening to his stories as much as Kiyoomi did his. He asked the woman in his sister’s room to close the window at least a half an hour before she would come back so that she wouldn’t complain about the freezing temperature. The woman had agreed easily enough, negotiating some time in his room instead. Kiyoomi had accepted.
But his favorite place was the forest at the back of his grandma’s house. He had made peace with the dirt there, with nature. Whenever he would go there, he would bring a book with him, would sit down in the grass and read until the sunlight was no longer powerful enough for him to see the letters. His grandma would join him sometimes and spirits would get curious at the two humans able to see them.
Today seemed like one of those days. But it was Kiyoomi’s interest that had been piqued.
There were two new spirits wandering around the clearing. They seemed young, younger than any of the spirits Kiyoomi had crossed paths with before.
One of them was shining like a beacon in the middle of all the other mild spirits and ghosts. He looked calm, floating around slowly through the blades of grass, occasionally talking to the other occupants of the clearing. The other was almost a carbon copy of the shiny one except he was made of nothing but shadows. And he was a lot more lively than his bright twin. He was jumping around, going from spirits to ghosts to spirits while asking a thousand and one questions. Strangely enough though, the others were ignoring him. Several of them seemed scared of the shadowy boy. To the point where he stopped meandering around and sat down a few meters away from Kiyoomi.
Hidden behind his book, Kiyoomi observed him. He was pouting, his knees close to his chest, his arms crossed above them. His eyes were trailing after his shiny twin.
Kiyoomi was reminded of something his grandmother had told him a year ago, after she had confessed their shared abilities.
Spirits were assigned to different roles after they passed on to the other side. The radiant ones were often associated with emotions, there to help the ghosts travel to the afterlife safely. Their purpose was more abstract than the one of the dark spirits. The dark spirits were bound to the earth, to help it grow back to life after tough winters or natural disasters.
“Aren’t ya scared of me? Like all of them?”
Kiyoomi went back to hide behind his book, unconscious of the staring he’d been doing. His cheeks were burning and his hands were trembling a little around the hardcover of his book. He made himself smaller before daring to glance above the top of his book. And a strangled scream escaped him when he saw the spirit had gotten much closer to him in the meantime.
Kiyoomi scrambled back, up against a tree, his book clutched to his chest like it could protect him from whatever would come his way. He was not afraid, per se, but never before did a spirit come so close to him. He knew it wouldn’t do him any harm because his grandma had taught him that most spirits were just lost souls trying to find their way, but he was not perfectly at ease with the young spirit being only an arm’s length away from him.
He gulped and answered the shadowy boy floating in front of him.
“I — I’m not scared.”
He felt a blush creeping up his face because of his stuttering but he tried to ignore it. He inhaled deeply to try and calm his small child's heart.
“And you? Why — Why do you think they are scared of you?”
The shadowy spirit’s eyes grew wide and the black wisps surrounding him became duller, more transparent, to the point it was almost no longer visible. And Kiyoomi thought he’d never seen someone so beautiful before.
The little boy hidden under the black clouds was indeed the twin of the shiny spirit, except for his hair, which was swept to the right when the hair of the shiny spirit was swept to the left. Without the blackness, he was as bright as his twin, his eyes gleaming golden when the sun rays were strong enough to break through the foliage of the trees. And Kiyoomi could see some crystal drops falling from his eyes, like tears made out of precious stones.
He was playing nervously with his fingers, the clouds coming back slowly around his frame.
“They think I’m a demon because of,” he pointed at the black tendrils wafting around him, “this.”
Kiyoomi frowned. Demons were not what humans thought they were, that was what Kiyoomi’s grandma had told him. She had not gone into details about them, like they were just a myth, and Kiyoomi had not wanted to ask more questions about them. But his grandma had promised she would tell him more about them in the future, when he would be older. But he knew this boy in front of him was not one.
He tilted his head to the side, his curls following the movement, and arched an eyebrow.
“You are not, though.”
And the spirit seemed surprised again, his shadowy clouds vanishing just like they had done before.
“I know right!? I asked my brother ‘Samu to tell them but he decided to be a meanie today.”
The pout was back on his face and Kiyoomi giggled a little at the sight. The spirit boy crossed his arms on his chest, petulant. He looked at Kiyoomi from the corner of his eye like the other boy had insulted him. Kiyoomi couldn’t hide the smile etched on his lips.
“Why are the clouds disappearing every time I talk to you?”
The spirit blushed then and Kiyoomi laughed again softly. This one was interesting. But he was puffing his cheeks and clenching his fists in a semblance of a tantrum.
“I dunno! Yer a weird human! Yer the first one I come across that can see me and it feels weird here when ya talk,” the end of the sentence was mumbled through his pout as the shadowy boy rubbed someplace on his chest. But all Kiyoomi had focused on was the fact he’d been called weird, again. By a spirit no less. He scowled and the change in his expression didn’t go unnoticed.
“Why are ya makin’ that face?”
Kiyoomi glared at the spirit boy and then stared at his twin, who was still navigating among the other spirits and ghosts peppering the clearing. He was starting to understand why “Samu” had left his brother fending for himself with the other spirits.
“I’m not weird,” he mumbled.
He was tired of being called weird. He thought spirits would never call him that.
“Yes, ya are.”
Kiyoomi glared at the spirit boy and got up quickly, closing his book and heading for the path that had formed after his grandma and him had made the walk towards the forest time and time again in the last year. He didn’t expect for the shadowy boy to block his way. He stopped and stared at the spirit with a deadly frown. The shadows were circling the spirit again.
“Wait! Yer weird, but it’s okay! I mean…” Kiyoomi waited for his next words, but could still see, through the black tendrils, that the spirit was rubbing at his neck. Kiyoomi stomped his foot on the wet dirt, once, twice, in a rhythm that even he found unnerving. “I mean, it’s nice… to have someone to talk to that is not another spirit, ya know? Maybe I’m weird too, for thinkin’ that way.”
The black clouds were almost hiding the spirit boy from view now, but Kiyoomi had heard his words clearly. And he knew he had misunderstood what the boy had meant. He himself had thought it was nice to talk to someone who was not a living person. He was too used to being mocked by all the other kids he was acquainted with.
He sighed, the small gesture making the spirit boy raise his head. And through the dark fog, Kiyoomi got a glimpse of his eyes, shining with hope. Well, they were probably both weird. It was fine though.
He shrugged and kicked a stone absent-mindedly.
“Yeah, you are definitely weird.”
The forest’s noises were breaking the silence that had taken place upon the scene. They stayed like that, unmoving, for a few minutes before the spirit boy screamed excitedly. He was back in Kiyoomi’s personal bubble, shadowy clouds nowhere in sight, a bright smile on his face and little stars glinting in his eyes. If Kiyoomi was honest with himself, he would say that to him, in that exact moment, the spirit boy was shining a lot more than his brother.
“I’m Atsumu! Dark spirit chosen to care for this forest’s nocturnal life! What’s yer name?!”
Kiyoomi was almost blinded by so much light. But the spirit boy’s — Atsumu — enthusiasm was contagious. A small smile tugged at his lips.
“Sakusa Kiyoomi. I’m cursed.”