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Halloween, oh halloween~ The time of the year where kids all around the world go on adventures to collect candies while using the coolest costumes their parents can make for them.
In Sakura Miko’s case, to her Halloween is the scariest day of the year. She is a young girl of eight years old who gets easily scared, the scary costumes of other kids and their pranks always ends up with her running back home and crying while hugging her mom.
Unfortunately, kids love to mess with her. They enjoy scaring her and get funny reactions from her, which gave her a reputation of an easy target anyone can easily bully. This caused the young Miko to have zero friends besides her mom.
The poor and lonely Miko suffers everyday from this loneliness, she hates this weakness of hers, she wishes with all her soul to become someone strong and brave, someone who others can trust and become friends with.
The night of Halloween is getting near and fear and concern is taking over Miko’s heart. Miko wonders, what can she do this year? Surrender to her fears? Give up and stay home instead of facing the cruelty of the other kids?.... No, even at her young age she knows she is not the kind of person who gives up without a fight first.
With the determination to face her fears, Miko asks her mom to prepare a cool costume for her so she can join the other kids in their traditional adventure to search for candies and that way, if destiny wants, maybe become their friend.
The day of Halloween arrives and young Miko is dressed in a cute and not scary at all vampire costume, with the classic dark suit and pants, red cape, pale makeup and fake vampire fangs.
Miko takes a deep breath to get courage before leaving her house. That plus a kiss on her forehead by her mom increases the confidence Miko has in her plan. Now feeling ready to face the scary halloween and the other kids is that Miko sets off on an adventure.
The pink haired kid doesn’t take long to join the other kids who are patrolling the neighborhood in the search for candies. As usual, the kids laugh by just looking at her, something that usually depresses Miko for the entire day, but at least today she is not going to let their cruelty let her down, she is not going to give up so easily.
Miko and the other kids successfully get some candies after saying “Trick or threat!” To the adults of the neighborhood. The pink haired kid got nice compliments about her costume from the adults, something that made her smile like never before.
Everything was going surprisingly pretty well for Miko, even some kids were not mean to her and happily talked and joked with her, but as time went by and night turned darker, this big group of kids was getting smaller, to the point that at some point it was only Miko and four other girls, girls who always were super mean and cruel to her.
“What is our next stop?” A blonde girl asks.
“Hehe, of course it has to be… That place.” A brown haired girl, the leader of the group, says mischievously.
“Hm? Which place are you girls talking about?” The young and innocent Miko asks.
“Fufufu, you’ll see it with your own eyes pretty soon.” The mischievous girl replied with a strange laugh.
The group of four bullies lead Miko to a mansion that, just by looking at it, our protagonists understands it has been abandoned for god knows how long. The mansion is made of old wood, it has broken windows, big spider webs on the outside and a garden full of rotten and dead flowers and trees.
Miko, as the person she is that gets scared easily, can’t help but shriek and jump by the big fear she feels by just looking at such scary place. Of course this causes laughs among the group of girls.
“Come on Sakura, don’t be a chicken~ We come every year here and nothing happens~ Right girls~?”
Two of them reply yes in a rhythmical way, but the third girl says, “Well, to be fair we actually never get inside the mansion. We just come here with the most chicken and weak kids we can find to make them run away in fear and that way steal their candies and keep them for us.”
The leader of the group gives a slap at the back of the head of that girl. “You idiot! Don’t say that in front of this year’s victim or we will lose her candies!” They all look awkwardly at Miko, who somehow still doesn’t understand the situation. “Ehem! Anyways, why don’t we all explore this mansion and see if it’s really haunted?”
“EH!? HA-HA-HAUNTED!!!?” Miko screams in fear. She is so terrified by this revelation that she hides behind one of the bullies.
“You idiot, it’s just a local legend that adults say to keep us away from this place, it’s not real.” The leader shrugs and smiles as if she is the only person who is smart here. “The legend says that 30 years ago, here lived a family of three people, a mom, a dad and the protagonist of the story, a teenage girl.”
“Te-Teenage girl? She is the protagonist? Wh-What happened to her…?” Miko asks, stuttering from how scared she feels.
“Well, legend says that she loved Halloween. It was her favorite day of the year. She loved to decorate her mansion with the scariest decoration and dress in super well done and crazy costumes. She always invited every year in halloween’s night the kids and teenagers of the neighborhood to celebrate. She was loved by everyone in this town, but one day…”
“O-One day what?”
“One Halloween day, as usual, she was preparing the decorations of her house, but she had an accident. She fell from the stairs and broke her neck. She died instantly, there was nothing her parents could do to save her. If the story ended here, it would be a dramatic and tragic story to tell, but it continues. After her death, her parents told their neighbors that the spirit of their daughter was hunting their mansion, and that on Halloween nights she turned so aggressive that she literally became a demon. People didn’t believe them, even after they abandoned their mansion and the town. Everything changed when, years later, kids explored the mansion on a certain halloween night. The ghost of that woman attacked the kids! The kids ran away to their mommies and cried and were traumatized by such a scary creature. The legend says that, if you visit her mansion and she catches you… The spirit of that teenage girl will curse you until the day of your death…”
“Eeeeeeeeeeek!!” Miko shrieks and jumps. Her reaction makes the other girls laugh, also giving them a boost of confidence to get inside the mansion and that way get more funny reactions from her.
“Ok then! What are we waiting for? Let's do some Ghost hunting!” The leader of the group says.
Miko was reluctant to go inside the mansion after hearing that story, but the group of girls forced her to go inside with them. As soon as they get in, the atmosphere has a dramatic change, with cold and heavy air that makes them have problems breathing, added with a smell similar to rotten meat that is all over the house. There are multiple insects and spiders crawling around the walls and floor as well, something that has the five girls pretty afraid already.
“Shit, it's so dark here! Does someone have a flashlight?” A girl asks.
“Maybe we can use our phone’s flashlight, that will help.” Another girl replies. As soon as she said that, the bullies activated the flashlights. Miko is the only one who doesn't, she left her phone at home.
This place might be creepy, but so far there's nothing out of this world, just a dirty place that clearly has been without human presence in decades. Everything changes when they find the stairs that lead to the second floor.
The bullies have an internal crisis, nobody wants to actually go upstairs. They don't want to believe in the ghost legend, but the creepy atmosphere has them on their nerves, feeling like at this point anything can happen. Is there when they remember the presence of a certain pink haired baby.
“Eh? Girls? Why are you looking at me like that?” The coward kid asks, her voice shaking.
The bullies force Miko to lead the way as they illuminate her with their flashlights. The pink girl stops moving a lot of times thanks to the big fear she has, but the bullies ignore her feelings and push her multiple times as they laugh, forcing Miko to keep moving.
The suffering and fear from the small pink haired kid is funny enough for the bullies to somehow stop their fear and instead feel like this scary adventure is actually a great comedy, but suddenly their fun time is interrupted…
Crack… Crack… The sounds of footsteps stepping on the old wooden floor behind them appear, as well as objects like chairs and toys falling to the ground.
This stopped being funny for them, now they share the same terror Miko is feeling. All this paranormal activity increases to the point where they all feel how the entire mansion is shaking! That added with the scary sound of the voice of a woman who is singing a mysterious song.
The five girls are about to explode, hugging each other in the middle of the second floor instead of running away. They are so afraid that their brains have stopped working.
Little by little a round and bright blue sphere is growing in front of them. This sphere is getting some kind of human shape, looking like a pale white skin woman with a ponytail hairstyle, something that at first sight is not that scary, but the real horror is in her face. She has no eyes, just empty spaces with a dark void that by just looking at it, the girls feel like their souls is being stolen by this creature from hell.
“You girls are so foolish… Didn't listen to your elders warnings… Now because of your selfish actions, you're gonna pay the consequences… Your souls now will be mine!!!” The Ghost screams, her voice sounds like a demon.
Her face turns so ugly and terryfing that the five girls jump and scream in absolute terror. The bullies can't take it anymore and drop their phones and run away, not before pushing Miko without noticing and leaving her on her own.
“Girls!! Hey Miko is still here!! Help me!!” The terrified kid, with her stomach on the floor, screams. She can hear how the bullies open the entrance door and leave the house, still screaming as loudly as they can.
A sudden cold feeling takes over Miko's body. Slowly she looks behind, noticing how the face of the ghost girl is now inches away from her.
“Poor kid… Your friends left you behind? Don't worry… Now you'll join me for all eternity and become a pretty ghost just like me. Now come here and accept your fate!” Her mouth opens, revealing an infinite amount of sharp fangs. Multiple women's screams come out at the same time from her mouth.
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” Miko screams like crazy before passing out in that same position.
The pink kid wakes up minutes later. Her emerald green eyes open little by little, and what they can see is that, instead of a terrifying and ugly ghost, there is a pretty girl with blue eyes looking closely at her face.
“Oh, you’re finally awake~ Haha, it was about time. For a moment I thought you died for real~ Hahaha, man, I truly must be a pro at doing pranks to make you react like that~” The mysterious girl says in a cheerful voice.
“....... Eh? Who-Who are you?” Miko asks with confusion, she has never seen this person in her neighborhood.
“Hm? Oi are you ok? Did you really not hit your head against the floor or something? You and your friends screamed like crazy when I appeared right in front of you. You remember, right?”
“Scream? Don’t tell me… You’re…. The ghost of that teenage girl?” Miko’s green eyes open wide at this realization.
The ghost of the blue haired girl grins happily and nods. “Exactly~ You’re speaking with the owner of this mansion, the person who died 30 years ago and became the coolest ghost in this town. My name is Suisei, Hoshimachi Suisei~ Nice to meet you, scared little kid.”
“Ghost… So you’re really a ghost… I see… Haha, haha… I have finally gone crazy, haven't?” Miko laughs as she speaks, holding her head and shaking it in an attempt to wake up from this crazy dream, but the reality before her eyes is not changing.
“Fufufu~ You’re really an interesting fellow aren’t you? I thought you would faint or scream and run away after telling you that, but you are still here. Questioning your own sanity, but here at the end of the day.” The ghost says with a friendly attitude.
“We-Well, to be honest I do feel afraid… But I feel like that almost every day when I’m at school so it’s not that different… And besides, the fact that you look like a completely normal person is helping me a little to keep my composure.” The shy kid admits.
“Ehhhh~ You’re more brave than what you look like! Well done kiddo, in these 30 years you’re the only one who didn’t run away and scream like a bitch after telling them that I would curse their souls. Fufufu, you have earned the right to leave in peace.”
“Eh? You will let me go? Just like that? Even when you cursed me?” The pink girl asks in confusion and disbelief.
“Hahahaha! That was just a prank! I love doing pranks as I said! I don’t have the power to curse souls, it’s all just acting! I love to do this every Halloween when I have the chance! Seeing the faces of horror from kids and adults and their screams has always been music to my ears~ Even when I was still alive hahaha~”
“Oh… Now that you mention that, the legend I heard about you said that when you were alive you loved halloween and did parties where you invited the other kids in the neighborhood… So it was all true after all.”
“Yes! It’s all true~ I have heard my legend from other guests who came to my mansion, and I must say that the story is very similar to what they say. I died at my 15 years old, thirty years ago. Since then I have been stuck in this mansion, unable to leave. My existence is very weak and ethereal during the year, nobody can see me or hear me, I barely have the strength to move a few objects but just a little… But everything changes when halloween comes, the anniversary of my death. On this day I’m at my full power! I can move! I can fly!” To probe her point she starts flying around the hallways to a surprised Miko. “I can control every object and room from this mansion! I can talk and sing and be heard by everyone else! Haha, if Halloween was my favorite day when I was alive, now as a ghost I love it even more!!”
“Wow… You really are the real deal, huh?” Miko says, her eyes looking at Suisei with some kind of respect instead of the fear they showed before.
Suisei stops flying and stands in front of Miko, smiling at her. “You know what? I like you kiddo, you are the guest who has talked and listened the most to me. Everyone who comes here runs away when they just see me, but you don’t seem to want to run away, am I right?” Miko is surprised to hear this, realizing that the ghost is telling the truth. The idea of running away has not crossed her mind since she woke up. “Since I like you, I’ll give you two choices. You can leave and pretend this never happened, or… You can stay here for a bit more and chat with me! It has been decades since I had a 5 minute conversation with anybody! If you decide to stay, I can tell you a lot of interesting and funny stories, fufufu~”
The young Miko thinks deeply about what to do. For one side she doesn’t want to worry her mother, but on the other side, just like the ghost lady, this is the first time she is having a long and real conversation with anyone who is not her family. Miko deep down knows she is starting to like the friendly attitude from this ghost girl, she wants to know more about her. Why? The reason is simple. She is the only person besides her mom who has actually treated her as another human being, like a friend.
“Alright, I’ll stay.” The pink girl says with conviction in her voice. Carefully she stands up and smiles at the ghost girl. “Please tell me more about you then, Sui-chan!”
“Sui-chan?” The ghost girl looks shocked.
“Hm? What’s wrong? You don’t like that nickname?” Miko asks with confusion in an innocent and cute voice.
“No, it’s not that~ It’s just… That’s how my parents and friends used to call me…” A sad smile appeared in her pale face for a few moments, but quickly changed to a more positive and friendly smile. “Hahaha~ Thanks kid, I’ll allow you to call me like that!” Now she looks smug, with her phantasmagoric arms crossed. “Oh right, I forgot to ask. What’s your name?”
“My name is Miko, Sakura Miko, hehe.” The small girl grins.
“Miko, huh? Fufufu, in that case I shall also give you a nickname! That’s what friends do!” Suisei happily shouts as she levitates in the air after jumping. “Mmmmm, ok I got it! I’ll call you Mikochi!”
“Mikochi?”
“Yes! Do you like that name?” Suisei smiles and looks even more smug than ever before.
“Mikochi… Mikochi… Wow… This is the first time I have received a nickname from another person… So that’s how it feels, huh?” She is experiencing so many emotions that her face can’t show them, having a neutral expression.
“Eh? You have never received a nickname before? Seriously?” Now Suisei is the one who looks seriously confused.
Miko innocently nods and says, “Yes, I have never had friends after all.”
“............ I see… Wow, now I can see that you also have a lot of stories to tell, Mikochi. Don’t worry, you can start first. Sui-chan will listen to your story first and afterwards I can tell you more about me, hehe~ Deal~” The ghost girl grins and extends her little finger to the little kid.
“........ Sure!” Miko replies with excitement. She also extends her little finger and tries to touch Suisei’s, but it passes through, it’s not physical. Both girls look at each other and laugh at what happened.
The pink haired kid told everything about her to Suisei, her story, her experience with other kids, how they bully and laugh at her, the awful school life, about her family, etc. The ghost listened with attention to everything Miko said, even giving her opinion in some cases.
They both were so into the conversation that without noticing, the morning sun is starting to come out. The first one to notice was Suisei, who felt how her existence as a ghost was losing power.
“I'm sorry Mikochi, but we will have to leave our conversation on standby. The sun is already out, it's no longer halloween. At any moment I'll disappear from your perspective, so I think it's better if we say goodbye now.”
“Oh damn it, you're right! I'm so sorry Sui-chan, I was talking so much about myself that I didn't give you time to tell me your stories!” The pink girl tears up from how sad and guilty she feels.
“It's alright Mikochi, don't worry, ok?” Suisei tries to give headpats to the pink kid, but fails at touching her head. “I’m glad u had fun with me. I also had fun! Thanks for making this Halloween into the best one I have ever had as a ghost!”
“You're welcome!!” Miko jumps happily after hearing that, grinning.
“And… If it's no bother… The next halloween in next year… Will you return here? So we can continue our conversation and so I can tell you my stories, hehe…” The ghost says with embarrassment, but still smiling.
“Sure!! Next year I'll come back here to have fun with you, Sui-chan!” Miko replies without thinking. Both girls shake hands as a promise and say goodbye.
Miko leaves the mansion and returns to her house, where a very worried and upset mom receives her. Miko's mom scold her and cried a lot, to which the pink girl had to invent the excuse that she met with a girl from another town who was lost, she tried to help her get back with her parents and ended having a lot of fun together, falling asleep in the park after playing for hours. Miko is not sure if her mom fell for that excuse, but at least she stopped scolding her daughter to instead give her a lot of love.
At the next school day, Miko gave to the 4 bullies the phones they left inside the haunted mansion. She expected they would finally be kind to her after this, but they just blamed Miko for the whole incident on Halloween and pushed her to the floor, leaving without even saying thanks.
Miko was surprised to see this didn't affect her, not when she was called as someone brave by a real ghost and getting along pretty well with her.
For the rest of the year, Miko continued as usual, going to school and having kids laughing at her, but she started to ignore them, which helped her to be able to enjoy school in her own way. She was changing, becoming someone a bit more confident about herself and her likes, and this thanks to the experience she had during halloween.
One year passed by and Halloween returned to Miko's life. The pink kid dressed as a cute zombie and as soon as she left her house, she went straight to the Hoshimachi mansion instead of the candy search the other kids were doing.
Just as promised, Suisei was there! The beautiful ghost was happily waiting for the silly kid to once again have a fun time together.
“Mikochi!! I'm very happy to see you again!! I missed you! Thanks for coming, seriously! For a moment I feared you wouldn't return, hahaha.”
“Hehehe, of course I would come. I made a promise after all, remember?” The pink kid grins and closes her eyes.
“Hehe, you truly are an interesting person, Mikochi. Now, get ready to listen to my 30 years of story content~ I hope you have your popcorn ready because this will take a lot of time, haha~”
“Don't worry! I came prepared!” Kid Miko shouts, taking from inside her backpack a bucket of popcorn. “I'm ready Sui-chan! Tell me your stories please!”
And so, the ghost told some stories about her doing pranks to different visitors through the years, stories that sounded so crazy and entertaining that Miko couldn't help but spend most of the time laughing and grinning.
The ghost in one moment shared her regrets to the young kid, about how she would have loved to spend more time with her family and the friends she had back then. To Miko's surprise Suisei didn't feel anger towards her parents for abandoning the mansion, the ghost can't blame them for feeling afraid from her manifestations as a spirit.
Suisei also revealed that after her parents left, more people came to live at the mansion. She admitted to not having a problem with this, but the mean and annoying attitude from all those people made Suisei to constantly haunt them and make them feel afraid, accomplishing her objective of making them leave. This continued until, at one point, nobody else in this town was interested in coming to live at the mansion with the reputation of being haunted.
Unfortunately the time to say goodbye comes once again. Miko promised her mom she wouldn't come back home so late this time, so around midnight she leaves the mansion, not before promising to Suisei that next year she will return as well to hear more stories.
One year later, Miko returns to visit her ghost friend. This time the pink haired girl proudly reveals she can stay the night in the mansion because she told her mom she would have a sleepover in a friend’s house, friend that sadly doesn’t exist.
Even though happy to hear that Miko would stay all night listening to Sui’s stories, the ghost feels worried about the fact that her human friend still hasn’t made one single friend at school or her neighborhood. Because of this, this Halloween the beautiful ghost, besides telling a few stories, also gives Miko some advice on how to approach other kids and become friends with them.
Although reluctant about this, the pink girl promises she will follow Suisei’s advice and make an attempt to get friends. Another year passes and in their annual reunion, Miko reveals to her ghost pal that she made two friends at school, girls called Fubuki and Mio. Suisei was so happy to hear the good progress of her human friend that she felt like dancing with her, something they tried but failed, but at least this made them have a lot of laughs.
The blue ghost listened to Miko’s stories in this time they didn’t see each other, telling her thoughts and advice of what Miko was saying. The next year it was similar, with both girls having the typical conversations good friends who didn’t see each other in a long time would have, sharing funny stories about Miko’s friends and Suisei’s old friends.
The next year Miko surprised Suisei when she told her there was a girl at school she liked, as usual asking advice to her mature ghost friend. The topic about romance was something that Sui loved since she was a child, so she had more fun than ever giving advice to Miko and sharing stories about kids she liked when she was still alive. The blue ghost had to wait a whole year to find out what happened with Miko and that girl, to which the pink girl explained with an awkward laugh how the girl rejected her. To cheer up her human friend, both ghost and human ate chocolate ice cream together. Well, Hoshimachi just pretended she was eating since she couldn't.
The following year, as usual, Miko returns to the haunted mansion, but this time with news she knows Suisei will love. The pink girl heard some students at school talking about their plan to raid the haunted mansion this year and find out if the legend about the ghost girl is real.
After the first incident between the ghost and the group of bullies, those girls made sure to spread the story that the ghost woman was real, something so scary that made the kids their age stay away from the haunted mansion for years. This time the intruders were younger, they wanted to check the so feared legend with their own eyes.
As Miko expected, her ghost friend is super excited to once again perform a halloween prank after all these years, so to make things better, Sakura has decided she will help in the prank as well and give those brats the biggest fear of their lives.
Miko came prepared, with a speaker that has a great variety of scary sounds ready to scare the intruders, as well as red painting she spreads on different areas of the mansion to give the impression of being dried blood. After the setup is done, both human and ghost wait for the arrival of the young students.
The intruders arrive two hours late, around midnight. Both friends have delight at seeing how all those students look like they are about to shit their pants by how scared they are. The prank begins, Miko plays a creepy melody in her flute while Suisei sings as if she is part of an opera. That made the kids jump in fear, which with other scary sounds by Miko’s speaker makes half of the group leave before the prank is over. The kids who are more brave find their defeat at the moment when Suisei reveals herself before their mortal eyes, showing them a face that comes straight from hell.
The students, more scared than ever before in their entire lives, run away while screaming, “MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! SAVE MEEEEEEEE!!!” A reaction that made Miko and Suisei laugh nonstop for the following hours.
The prank was successful, Miko feels like she has never felt so much fun in her entire life… Realizing that the bond she has with Suisei is stronger than with anybody else she has met before. Realizing that makes her wonder if her ghost friend feels the same, but she is too shy to ask her something like that.
Halloween is over, but the following days and weeks Miko keeps missing Suisei, wishing to see her again and talk to her. Because of this she does something she has never done before, and that is, visit the haunted mansion on a day outside Halloween.
Sakura remembers perfectly what her ghost friend told her when they met, how she is invisible to anyone’s eyes when Halloween is over, but still she wants to check this by herself. She arrives at the mansion and calls Suisei by her name, but minutes pass by and she is not here.
Feeling defeated, the pink haired teenager returns back home, wondering if Suisei noticed her, and if that’s the case, how sad she must have felt after trying to call Miko’s attention but being unnoticed by the human. This causes a feeling of sadness and regret in Miko’s heart.
Sakura continued with her normal life until one day, a few weeks later, a great idea comes to her mind.
The pink girl brings a bottle of milk to the mansion. She sits on the stairs and places the milk right next to her. The human speaks about how her week was and her life at school, glazing from times to times at the milk in the bottle.
“Sui-chan… If you’re listening to me, please shake the milk or the bottle.” Miko says. She waits for around 3 minutes but nothing happens. She is about to give up and leave when the bottle moves a little bit. This instantly causes a happy smile to form on Miko’s face. “Sui-chan!!!”
The following weeks and months, Miko went to visit the haunted mansion every time she got money from her mom, money she used to buy bottles of milk that she would bring with her and give to Suisei as a gift. All the milk disappeared from the bottles every time she returned, which made her assume that somehow Hoshimachi can drink it even if she is a ghost.
Miko’s favorite day of the year has returned one more time, Halloween day. The cheerful teenager of 15 years old dressed in a cute werewolf costume hurries to visit the haunted mansion and hear Suisei’s point of view from her last visits through the year, but as she gets close to her destiny, she can notice something weird is going on.
The kids in costumes are not asking for candies, in fact they are right next to their parents, all of them with concern and fear in their faces, looking in direction of the Hoshimachi mansion.
“Hey, what’s going?” Miko asks a kid.
The kid points her finger to the sky. “Over there! There is smoke! That haunted house is on fire!!”
As soon as she hears this, Miko stops thinking and runs in the direction of her friend’s house. Just like the kid said, there is a lot of smoke coming out from the house. Sakura feels despair at this horrible image. “WHAT HAPPENED!?”
“Oh Sakura, you’re here.” Miko instantly recognizes this voice, it belongs to the leader of that bully group. The bully proudly shows our protagonist how she is holding an empty gas can in her left hand and a lighter in her right hand.
Miko is in disbelief at the beginning, but quickly fury takes over her. “YOU!!! WHY DID YOU DO THIS!!?”
“Hm? Why are you angry at me? We are doing a good thing for this town! After last year’s incident with those students, there was no doubt between us that the spirit who lives in this mansion is evil and demonic. We won’t let her keep living in this town! It’s her or us! That’s why we are burning this house! To get rid of her presence forever!!”
“No! You’re wrong! She is not a bad spirit, she is the best person I have ever met! She is ten times worth it than all of you combined, pieces of shit!” Miko screams furiously at the group of bullies, who look surprised to see the shy girl they loved to bully react like this. “Shit! Sui-chan! Sui-chan!! Please wait, Miko will save you!”
The pink haired teenager runs into the mansion. “HA!? HEY SAKURA WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? GET BACK HERE! YOU’LL DIE!!” The bully girl screams with concern.
Sakura Miko is now inside the mansion, which at least on the first floor is covered with fire everywhere. “Shit! Sui-chan, where are you!?” The pink girl overcomes her fear thanks to how much she cares about her ghost friend and runs through the fire, reaching the stairs that lead to the second floor.
“Mikochi!? What are you doing here!?” The blue ghost shouts with shock.
“I came here to save you, you idiot!” Miko shouts angrily, as if Suisei’s question is stupid to even ask.
“But why!? I’m not alive, you idiot! This fire is not going to kill me! All it will do is to destroy this mansion, but I’ll stay as a ghost!”
“Are you really sure about that!?” Miko shouts furiously. “Sui-chan, you said it when we met. You’re trapped in this mansion, you can’t go out! If this place is destroyed, then what will happen to you!?”
“I… I don’t know…” A bit of concern can be seen in the ghost’s face.
“See? That’s why I came here! I’m not going to let you disappear, Sui-chan! I’m gonna save you!”
“Idiot, you can’t save me! You can’t stop this fire anymore, there’s nothing you can do!” Suisei shouts, also furious now. “And what if I disappear!? It won’t matter! I already died 37 years ago!! My time in this world was extended in this form, but I became a shadow of my living self! This is not being alive! It’s a prison! Perhaps if the fire consumes this mansion, then maybe… Maybe I’ll finally be free…”
“No! I won’t let that happen!!” Miko screams desperately.
“Why!? Why do you want me to stay here so badly!? I don’t get it!!”
“Because you’re my best friend Sui-chan!!!” Miko screams as loud as she can, the smoke and fire extending through the second floor at the same time.
“Mikochi…”
“Perhaps you don’t want to stay in this world, but I don’t want you to leave! I need you in my life! You’re the person most important to me! The one who gave me hopes to keep living and enjoy my life! To keep fighting! To feel like I was not alone! It was all thanks to you, Hoshimachi Suisei! I know it’s selfish, but I don’t want you to leave!!”
“Mikochi…” Suisei is so shocked she doesn’t know what to say.
“So please… Please let me save you, ok? Please stay with me for more time…” Tears begin to fall from her green eyes.
“......... Alright… Since you need me so badly I guess I’ll stay here a little longer.” A weak smile forms on her face. Miko smiles as well, but this moment is interrupted by the heavy smoke, which causes the human to start coughing. “Mikochi! What are you going to do!? How are you going to save me!?”
“Do-Don’t worry! I have a plan!” The pink girl grabs one of the empty bottles she gave to Suisei during the last year. “Get inside here!!!”
“........ Huh!? You have to be joking!!!”
“No I’m not! This is the only choice we have! If you get inside here, I’ll bring this bottle back home and you’ll have a new house! Please trust in my plan Sui-chan!”
“But the bottle is dirty…” Disgust can be seen in her ghost face.
“Shut up and get in the bottle!!!” Miko shouts angrily.
“Okok! Coming!” The blue ghost jumps into the bottle. Miko closes the bottle with its cap and places it in her pocket.
“Alright Sui-chan, let’s go!”
Miko intends to return to the first floor and escape, but the fire is so much that she has no choice but to retrieve to the second floor. The fire and smoke are spreading even more, making the atmosphere in this place hard to breathe, weakening the human.
“Mikochi!! Please don’t die!!” The ghost shouts with despair.
“Haha, don’t worry, that’s not my intention. I want to return to my house alive with you, meet with my mom and keep enjoying her tasty food. That’s the life that I, Sakura Miko, want to have till the day of my death.” The pink girl covers her mouth with her hand and continues to try to find a way out of here.
Eventually she realizes how the only way to escape is through a window on the second floor. She opens the window and quickly she is noticed by the people outside the mansion, who inscream with concern at noticing how there is a girl trapped in the fire.
A group of adults quickly reunite in the area below the window. “Come on kid! Jump! Hurry and get out of there!”
Miko nods and jumps, escaping from the fire and saving her life just as she promised Suisei she would do. Of course, this didn’t save her from being scolded by the adults and later on her mom, who was more furious than ever. Just 5 minutes later, the haunted mansion is reduced to ashes, destroying what once was the Halloween castle of the Hoshimachi family.
Although sad for being punished with no cellphone for an entire month, Miko is glad that she is still alive and back in her house, this time with a new person living with her. She opens the bottle and from there comes out a blue ghost. “Hehe, what do you think Sui-chan? What do you think of my house?”
“Hmmmmmm, looks pretty humble and poor compared to mine, but I can’t complain.” The ghost says in a sassy voice.
“Omaeeeeee!! Respect other people’s houses please! And now this will be your house as well, so get used to it, rich lady.” Miko says while having a cute grumpy face.
“Hai hai~” Sui replies in a lazy voice.
“Hehe, let me show you Miko’s room~ I’m sure you’ll be surprised~” Miko happily says. The pink girl climbs the stairs but suddenly, just when she was about to reach the last stair, she slips and falls back into the first floor, releasing an awful sound of something breaking when her head impacts the floor.
“Mikochi……?” Hoshimachi watches with disbelief at the body of her best friend, body which as minutes pass by is not moving at all. But suddenly…
“Sui-chan?” Miko’s voice sounds from behind the blue ghost. Suisei turns back and realizes how her human friend has now turned into a pink ghost. “Hey… Don’t tell me… Miko… Just died?”
“Omae……. GOD, YOU’RE STUPIIIIIIIIID!!! ALL THAT EPIC MESSAGE OF FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE WAS FOR NOTHING! YOU DIED AT THE END OF THE DAY! WHY!?”
“Hahaha~ Relax~ Think about it, this is not that bad. Now the two of us are the same, from now on we will always be together.” Even though she has just died, Miko smiles as cheerful as always.
“Mikochi…” Suisei didn’t even think about that, but she knows Miko is right. As ghosts, they will have the same kind of existence. Even if it’s not Halloween, Suisei will have someone who will see her and talk to her… She will never be alone anymore.
“Hehe, I hope my mom can accept this and don’t die from sadness as well… I would like that at least she can live longer, hehe.” The pink hair chuckles nervously. “Anyways, let’s enjoy our time together from now on, Sui-chan. If one day we ascend to heaven, I hope we can go together. But if we have to stay here for all eternity… Well, If I’m with you I won’t complain.” She smiles in a cool way.
“Fufufu, I say the same.” Sui also smiles. “Thank you, Mikochi. Thanks for changing my life even after death.”
“Hum! You’re welcome! Hehe, now that I'm a ghost please teach me all the cool tricks you know, Suichan-sensei!” Miko says in a joking tone.
“Haha~ Sure sure~ I’ll do that, but take it easy ok? We have an eternity for us after all…”
And just as both wished since the day they met, from now on they’ll be together forever.