A ghost's path

[Kon]

'Ello, Hiddenstreet. This is your new fiction.
Woot.

I'm going to introduce you right now to something special about this one in particular... at certain chapters YOU get to decide something (yes, you!) and I will give certain possibilities. The first person to reply to the thread and choosing the path will be heard, if you're not the first, then that's too bad (this is so we don't have to wait when the voices are equal.)

Prologue

Thick fog was floating around Samegawa River. At the riverbed there was a figure, tall, dressed in a grey shirt and blue jeans. The only light was brought to him by the stars, it was night and new moon.
The figure raised a hand and made movements that almost looked like he was playing with a puppet. Suddenly a white silhouette shot out of the ground - but more wasn't visible to the man hiding in the bushes. He only realized that the rumors were true as the silhouette shot into him.

Chapter 1

There was quite a cheery atmosphere at Samegawa High in the second year's classroom. The long vacations were finally over and with spring came the first term of school again. The teenagers were happy to see their friends again, which even brought down the disappointment about the vacations being over, and there were quite a lot of discussions about what happened during the vacations.

"Do you know who's the new homeroom teacher?" someone asked.
"No, we're supposed to wait for the teacher to come in here. It's planned like that to prevent people switching classes if they don't like the teacher."
"That's stupid. I prefer to switch the class if I get teachers I can't stand."
"That's the point... But did you hear? Apparently..."

The student moved close to the conversation partner and started whispering which caused their listener to lose the thread. The door suddenly busted open and student came running in. He had brown hair hanging to his chin and a pair of orange headphones was attached to his neck. He was wearing a white shirt with red tribal decorations on it and seemed to be very exhausted because he was wheezing.

"Phew, I'm glad that the teacher ain't here yet." he sighed.
"Late on your first day, Matt?" the student who had just listened to the rumors smiled. She had short brown hair (which almost made her look like a boy) and was wearing a green shirt with a green skirt.
"Well, as you can see I'm here just on time. But it's impossible to be earlier than you, Mia."

She grinned, watching him with her brown eyes as he sat down next to her in the middle of the classroom. "Middle rows this time, huh? I think I'll sit down behind you since you're gonna kick me off the chair anyway once Yukiko comes in."
"Of course I'm going to do that, Matt! Speaking about kicks... You still have my DVD. Trial of the dragon."
"Oh... about that, hehe... well..."

Matt was lucky since just in that moment a black haired girl entered. Her hair was long and reached down to her waist and she was wearing a red dress. A little red barrette was keeping her hair out of the face.
"That's her seat, Matt." Mia smiled. "You did get kicked by me once already..."
"Ouch, painful experience. I surrender."

Matt got up and sat down at the row behind them as Yukiko sat down next to Mia. "Hi, Mia!" she grinned. "Long time no see!"
"We met yesterday."

The two girls entered cheerful gossiping as Matt looked at the empty place next to him. He had moved in from the big city six months ago for the second term of last year as his parents had opened a mall in Samegawa. He'd had huge trouble making friends as people claimed that the mall was ruining the village's family-run shops. The only friends he made was Yukiko and Mia. That's why the seat next to him was empty, and probably would stay empty.

"And guess what, Mia! I found out who our homeroom teacher is this year!"
"Oh really?" Mia squeaked. "That's great! Who is it?!"
"Uh... mh. It's Roseboom."
"Oh hell no!"

Mr. Roseboom was known as the most terrible teacher at the school, insulting classes and students. He was leader of the faculty office which, as rumors said, just served him for having a valid reason to deny students and laugh at their misery.

Matt was now playing with his pen as suddenly the door got slammed open and a grown man with black hair and a huge chin that stuck out to the front entered the room. He walked up to the teacher's table and slammed a book right on it as suddenly the chatter around the room disappeared.

"Mh. Second years this time. Puberty power. Listen up, my dear little students... you know the school rules and I'm not going to repeat them unless you break one of them. In that case I'm making you repeat them 50 times while I repeatedly kick your butt. Is that understood?" he spoke.

"Yes, Mr. Roseboom." the class answered monotonely.

"Consider yourselves lucky, girls, this year you get an exchange student in your class. I can already see your eyes yelling for him. That's all guys like you want in puberty... guys keep staring at girls' chests and girls keep drooling and gossiping. But not in my class. Where's the new guy?"

Dead silence.

"WHERE IS HE?"

No one answered, again.

"Where the HELL is YOUR EXCHANGE STUDENT, Cupra?!"

"Here I am." someone said through the open door.
"Move your lazy behind into this classroom, NOW!"

A young man entered the room. He was tall and had black hair that hung down in spikes to his chin. He wore a white, blazing shirt and blue jeans. "Mmh, I should introduce myself, right? My name is Kaizi C-" he spoke as he pushed his frameless glasses up his nose, but the teacher interrupted him by slamming his book on the table. Kaizi remained calm. His blue eyes were scanning the class.

"What YOU are going to do is still what I want you to do. Now shut up, Cupra. I'm the one who gives the rules here. Class, look at him. He's just a pathetic loser like all of you are. He's none better and none worse than you EVEN though he comes from the big city, so show him how you appreciate him. NOW."

"Welcome to our class, Cupra." They spoke almost as monotonely as when they had greeted the teacher.
Matt raised his hand. "Can he sit down next to me?"
"Mmh. Sure. Back row. Watch yourself, Cupra, the biggest pest plants grow back there. Have you got anything to say now?"

The whole class stared at me as I remained calm, just listening to my heartbeat and smiling. I thought about what to do...

>> Sit down quietly - The path of thought
>> Request to sit somewhere else. - The path of caution
>> "Did you just call me a loser?!" - The path of courage

[Denunciator]

I'd go with the path of thought. Silence prevails, for now.

Great premise, love to see how it goes...

[gutterball930]

I'd go with the path of thought. Silence prevails, for now.

Great premise, love to see how it goes...

DUDE UR MENT TO CHOSE THE PATH OF COURAGE

DON'T LISTEN TO HIM KON KON DO COURAGE

[Kon]

Chapter 2

I decided to suck it up for now. That Roseboom guy probably was a too big enemy for me to handle right now.

Kaizi remained silent and moved to the seat next to Matt, sitting down and putting his black schoolbag next to the table. Mr. Roseboom was still observing him, then turned to the board and started writing down a timetable on it.

"So which one's your name now? Cupra or Kaizi?" Matt asked quietly, smiling at his new neighbor.
"My actual name is Kaizi, Cupra's just my last name."
"Don't worry 'bout Rosie. He's a jerk to everyone, he's the worst teacher at this school. You really do have bad luck."
"I can live with it."

"I CAN HEAR DIRTBAGS TALKING! Stop talking and copy the damn timetable!" Roseboom yelled and Kaizi took a sheet of paper out.
"Don't worry, he's just saying that. He has terribly bad ears. Everyone's talking quietly right now. Where you from, Kaizi?"
"I'm from the city. Okina."
"Hey, that's where I am from!"

Suddenly Mr. Roseboom turned around and threw a piece of chalk at Kaizi. Kaizi caught it loosely with his hand and grinned.
"Stop chatting! We both know you were."
"Why exactly did you throw this chalk at me, Mr. Roseboom?"
"To draw in your attention."

Kaizi looked at the chalk.
"We're not in a damn museum! Give it back, we're in a school."

Kaizi looked at the teacher and stood up with pride, slamming the chalk on his table. It broke in three pieces and he smiled when he walked back, pushing his glasses up.

"Ah, you're on my shit list."

Kaizi sat down on his chair again, leaning back on it and copying the timetable from the board. Mia leaned back and looked at Matt.

"So, how 'bout my Trial of the Dragon now?"
"Well... hmm... there's good news and bad news first. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"The bad news."
"I... I crushed the DVD, it's in pieces now."
"WHA-? How can you possibly be so stupid! What's the good news then?!"
"Doing it was incredibly fun."

Mia's left eye suddenly closed and the left edge of her lips started to twitch.
Yukiko looked at her. "Oh crap. Seems like you made her angry."

Her hand slowly reached out to Matt's throat and grabbed it.
"I'm going to kill you slowly!"
"No! Forgive me! I'll... I'll pay you back! I'll... treat you to dinner tonight! You and Yukiko! Promise!"

Mia's hand slowly loosened and her left eye opened a bit. "Yuki, do you think it's enough if he does that?"
"Hmm. Cupra, would you like to come with us?"
"You would save Matt's life."
Kaizi smiled at them. "Sure. Even if it's only for the food. And... call me Kaizi."
"Gah! The money! I can feel the money disappearing!" Matt yelped.
"Trial of the dragon."
"Okay, okay!"

Afternoon...
The school bells rang and there was quite a lot of traffic near the exit, so Mia decided for everyone else that they would wait and talk five minutes before eating beef steak on Matt's cost.
"So, Kaizi, where are you staying? After all you're an exchange student."
"My uncle lives here, as a detective. It's probably the only reason I can come to here, but I wanted to take a break from the big city, and besides, dad is on a business trip for pretty long, so I would have been by myself anyway."
"Your uncle's a detective? Hmm... I don't know any detectives called Cupra..."
"He's my mom's younger brother, the name's... if I remember right, the last name's Parren."
"Oh... oh, that one!" Yukiko smiled. "Sometimes his daughter buys stuff at our store. Man, she's so young and so mature already... I feel like I kid when I'm next to her."

"We're going to Junes. I can't pay for 4 people without my family discount there." Matt sighed after they left the school. They crossed a little river and soon entered a tiny mall where they sat down at the food court. It looked like a school cantine, but it was nicely decorated and they sat down at a white table and waited for Matt to order the food.

Mia and Yukiko talked about rumors they had picked up at school today and Kaizi leaned back. Matt had a very painful expression on his face when he came to set down between Yukiko and Kaizi.

"This costs approximately three times as much as your DVD, Mia! I hope you appreciate it."
"Who taught you math? I guess Roseboom did. My DVD was a unique collector's edition!"

15 minutes later, a waitress came with three grilled beef steaks. Mia and Yukiko immediately started to eat, but Kaizi wondered why there was only three.
"You're not eating, Matt?" he asked.
"My wallet is empty enough. I'm still saving up for a new tire on my bike."

Kaizi cut his steak in half and moved it nearer to Matt. "Let's share then. I'm not that hungry anyway."
"... That's nice. Thank you. But I promised it to Mia, and she's twitching her eye again."
"C'mon. Two and a half steaks are enough."
"Mia... can I?"

Mia slowly eyed Matt, then nodded. Matt let out a sigh of relief and chomped into the steak. Then everyone cheerfully ate, chatting about their first day at school and about their new teachers.


Evening...

After having walked through the mall and looked at the new things Junes had in store, everyone said their goodbyes to Matt as he lived in the higher floors of Junes, after all, it was his parents' store. Then Yukiko and Mia went along with Kaizi to see where he lived when suddenly, at an alleyway, they stopped.

Everything was blocked with yellow crime scene tapes and there were policemen standing there. One of them pushed the three away and told them not to look around, but Kaizi suddenly recognized his uncle in the crowd of policemen. He was wearing a black jacket and had short, hair that seemed to be green for some weird reason, but actually it was grey. Maybe because he had seen so many crimes...?

He turned around to see Kaizi and walked up to them.
"What're you doing here?" he asked.
"We were at Junes for dinner today, Roy." Kaizi replied.
"Mhm. So I see you got some friends?"
"Hello, Mr. Parren!" Both of them instantly spoke.
"That's really nice to see, Kaizi. But you should head home now. My daughter will help you pack out your stuff, last night when you came she was already asleep. You should head on."
"Alright then. Bye."

The three of them walked on, but at a sidestreet where Kaizi had to head straight, they needed to turn right. "Our homes are just past the shopping district. Will you find your way?"
"I guess so. G'bye!" Kaizi smiled, going on straight, when suddenly something to the left caught his eye. The yellow "crime scene, do not cross" was hanging between two houses, and there was no policeman guarding the crime scene.



I looked at the yellow line. My heart started to pound. If so many policemen were there guarding it, then it was probably something no one was supposed to know. But I started to feel curiosity. There was no one nearby...

>>Enter and snoop around the crime scene - Path of Courage
>>Try to see what happened without crossing the crime scene - Path of Caution
>>Return home without further action - Path of Thought

[Wyatt]

>>Enter and snoop around the crime scene - Path of Courage

[Kon]

Chapter 3

My heart was pounding and a sweat drop appeared on my forehead. What just appeared as a disadvantage to me, my uncle being a police detective, looked like an advantage now. They wouldn't punish me further... would they? I gulped and snuck past the line.

Kaizi now was in between two big houses. He wondered what actually had happened here as he pressed his body against the house behind him so he wouldn't get spotted. He was able to see one side of the crime scene which meant that whatever happened here had occured on the side he was at. He took all of his courage and ran to the other side, hiding between the houses there, when he saw it...

His eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped, his heart started pounding like crazy.

There was a middle aged woman pierced with a pole, hanging on one of the house walls. The pole was stuck right though her heart.
"Keep calm, Kaizi. Keep calm." he whispered as he was right about to puke. He breathed in deeply, but as he realized the stench of rotten flesh would make it worse, he stopped. Then he realized there was no rotten flesh here. There was no blood... how was this possible?

Suddenly he heard police voices and realized he shouldn't be here at all. No matter what his brain told him, he ran to the other side and slid under the crime scene lines again. Somewhere a policeman yelled something, but he couldn't think anymore. He could just run. Run home.

Or is it my home at all...?

Five minutes later, he stood in front of a small residence. He knocked on the door and a little, cute girl opened the door. She had short, brown hair with two pink ribbons in it. Her jaw dropped.
"Are you... are you Ka-Kaizi?" she asked shyly.
Kaizi tried to look as relaxed as possible, trying not to think about what he had just seen and asked, "Yes, I'm Kaizi. What's your name?"
He ducked to be on one eye level with her.

"My... my name is... Judy."

Kaizi smiled and took her hand. "Did your dad tell you who I am?"
"He just said you're going to be a guest... come on in." she explained. It was clearly hearable that she was still very unsure about this sudden guest, but after all, Kaizi was part of the family.

"Well, your dad is my mom's brother. So we're cousins."
"Hmm... I never had a cousin before. Do... do you want something to drink?"
"No... I'm fine. But I think I'll go to bed early today."
"Okay... You arrived at night yesterday, right? Then you know where your room is. Good night... cousin."

Kaizi looked at the little girl as she sat down on the ground and watched the turned on TV. There was a news report... the headlines said "Murder in Samegawa?"
"Hmm... Good night, Judy."

Soon, Kaizi was lying inside his futon, looking at the ceiling. It had not been the best idea to look at the crime scene, but on the other hand he heard they are thinking of murder in the TV.
Was it really murder...? How can someone be murdered with a wooden pole and no blood stains?

Soon, Kaizi closed his eyes and drifted off into sleep.


The next day, early morning...

Kaizi was walking towards school. He knew he would pass the crime scene again, but he was curious whether the police was still there. He pushed his glasses back up as he passed the crime scene, but there was no lines anymore and the body had disappeared. The houses stood empty, nobody lived in them probably, so the murderer chose this place.

"Yo, Kaizi!" someone yelled and Kaizi looked around. Matt closed in with a bike and braked near Kaizi. "Did ya hear? There was a murder yesterday. It happened right here. Did you see the crime scene with Mia and Yuki yesterday?"
"Mia and Yuki just passed by... I went in later. It was horrible... I didn't even wanna know the news."
"Then it's true that it was suicide?"

Kaizi raised his head and looked in Matt's eyes. "The news said it's suicide?"
"Yes."
"It's homicide for sure. But something's weird about it. Are you sure you wanna hear the details of what I saw?"
"Hmm... you surely don't wanna repeat it. Maybe you should tell Mia and Yuki as well, so tell us once we're all together. C'mon, hop on my carrier, I'll drive ya to school."

Kaizi sat on Matt's carrier and they took off towards school.

They soon arrived at their classroom where the teacher had not yet arrived and Kaizi told his story to his friends.
"Are you serious? How can that be possible...?" Mia asked.
"Uhm... I heard you don't bleed when you're dead and get hurt after that..." Yuki explained.

Kaizi looked at her. "I don't think that's possible. And after all, the police lied, they said it is a suicide on the news, maybe they just don't know what this is about too."

But then the teacher entered the class and they turned to the front.


After school...

"What you guys doing today?" Matt asked. "We could show Kaizi around town after all."
"Hmm... actually I was more interested in looking at the crime scene. Maybe we'll find some clues." Yukiko replied, and Mia just sighed, "C'mon, not this again. Kaizi, you decide."

All eyes were on me. I had never really been to Samegawa before, so I surely wanted to get to know the town... but what had happened yesterday still lied on my mind. I looked at them and thought what to do...


>>Search at the crime scene - Path of Courage
>>Take a tour around town - Path of Friendship

[gutterball930]

>>Take a tour around town - Path of Friendship

[Kon]

Chapter 4

Hmm... the police had probably cleaned the crime scene anyway, and I didn't want to go back there. The images were still carved deep in my head. I decided to let them show me around town...

Mia quickly took the position of leading the tour and started off by walking to the east, where, after about two minutes of walking, the Samegawa river ran through town.

There was a sympathic little picnic table with a wooden roof, and Kaizi tried to remember the place. Maybe he could take Judy out here to get to know her a bit closer. Then they walked on towards the south, past Junes, and arrived at the shopping district. "This is basically where many people from our town live." Mia explained. "That's because most people run a family business. People like your uncle who don't have a shop rent a house outside the shopping district. Look, over there's the Amagi Inn, that's Yukiko's place."

"And where do you live, Mia?" Kaizi asked.
"Hmm? Outside the shopping district, but you'd find my place easily. My dad's a karate teacher, so he's running a dojo." she answered.

"Well, Kaizi, the rest is just homes and residences. Here in the central shopping district you'll find just about everything. Let's go to the chinese diner and eat something." Matt suggested, and everyone agreed.

"Hmm... I wonder what I'll eat... any suggestions?" Kaizi asked, and in the end, they decided to take a family plate so each one would eat a quarter of it. It was tasty, but nobody except Matt was able to finish his quarter which resulted in Matt eating up what the others left over.

A young girl, maybe twelve years old, with short blonde hair and crying eyes entered the store. She screamed and pointed at the person near the other table. Then she went on crying. Kaizi watched her and something striked him as odd... why did no one bother?

He looked around and realized no one saw the girl, only he could. Did this have to do with yesterday? Kaizi looked at the others but they didn't seem to notice.

"Is something wrong, Kaizi? You look so shocked." Yukiko asked, and he thought of a way to escape the situation quickly. "That person over there -" he pointed at the woman that the little girl was pointing at. "- I think I saw her face already, but I can't remember, no matter how hard I try, where it was..."
"Oh, her? She used to be a news reporter on TV, but she quit her job and lives here now. They recently interviewed her again for the good old times. Maybe that's where you saw her."

"Oh, I see."

Kaizi watched the little girl. "We should get going, shouldn't we?" Mia said. "After all we're done eating. And it's getting late."
Everyone got up and took off out of the chinese diner, but Kaizi held on and knelt near the girl. "Why are you crying?" he whispered.
"Because she's going to die."

Kaizi's eyes opened wide as his pupils widened. "How do you know that...?"
She screamed and ran away... through a wall. Was that a ghost...? What was this about?

"Hey Kaizi, what's happening?" Matt yelled. Kaizi ran out of the diner and caught up with the others to say goodbye. He started walking out of the shopping district as Mia suddenly caught up with him. "Wait, Kaizi!" she yelled and he stopped. "Uhm... I have something to ask your uncle, my home is the other way, but... do you mind if I go with you?"
"No, sure, it's fine." Kaizi smiled.

But it was a fake smile. Because what happened in the diner still concerned me... was that reporter going to die? Who was that girl? Was I getting insane? I looked at Mia's cheerful eyes and started thinking... If there was anyone who wouldn't think it's fake, then it would be her.

>>Tell her about the girl straight out - Path of Courage
>>Keep it for yourself - Path of Thought
>>Invite her to tell her the next day - Path of Friendship

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Path of Friendship. =D

[Kon]

Chapter 5

I couldn't just say it on the street to her... maybe because too many people might be listening, but also because I was interested in Mia as a friend.

"Listen... there's something I saw in that diner, but I can't really tell you like this on the street." Kaizi explained.
"Hmm?" Mia had a curious look on her eyes.
"Do you wanna go to Junes tomorrow? We'll sit down and talk about it."
"Uh... but why tomorrow? Can't you tell me now?"
"I gotta think about what happened by myself first... it's all really weird. Maybe I'm just tired or something."
"Sure. I'll come with you tomorrow." Mia stated, a bit shocked.

They walked home, past the crime scene again, and Kaizi wondered whether he would be able not to think about what happened here everytime he passed the place. Soon, the two of them arrived at the Parren residence and Kaizi opened the door. Immediately they heard little footsteps on the ground and Judy welcomed them, a bit in positive surprise because Mia was there.

"Hello Mia... Dad is not at home. You need to give him that envelope from your dad again, don't you?"
"Yeah, Judy. Here it is." She handed a little envelope to the first-grade kid and then looked at Kaizi. "I guess I'm off then. See you tomorrow."
"Mhm. See you tomorrow." Kaizi replied and entered the residence, looking at Mia as she walked off, then closed the door.

"Do you like Mia?" Judy asked.
"Hmm... I don't really know her, but she's been very nice to me, so I guess I like her." Kaizi replied, smiling at Judy.
"M-Mia's very nice to me. She often protected me when there were people who wanted to steal my money when I had to do the groceries."
"You do the groceries yourself?"
"Yes. Because dad can't do them, he's working so much. I also do the laundry... I do everything here actually."

Kaizi looked at the first-grade kid and now knew what Yukiko had meant when she had said that you feel like a kid around her.
"The weather report said that it's going to be foggy again tonight." Judy said as both of them sat down on pillows on the floor at a little table. The TV was running, the weather report was just ending.
"Judy, is your father gone a lot?"
"Yes... I'm often lonely in here, so I watch the TV."
"Well, then you're not gonna be lonely anymore for now. I'm here now."
"Oh? I thought you would just sleep in our house... like dad. Dad hasn't played anything with me for years."
"What do you like to play, Judy?"
"I like playing chess... but dad always lost against me."
"Well, then get your chess board out! I'll play with you."

A hopeful, surprised glimmer showed up in Judy's eyes as she jumped up in joy. "Yoohoo! Someone plays with me!" She ran into her room to get the chess board and Kaizi looked at the TV while she was gone. The weather report was over and the news were back on, where he saw his own silhouette fleeing from the crime scene yesterday. They had filmed it? Would that mean he's a suspect?
Then Judy came in and Kaizi pressed the remote's power button.

After two hours of losing one after another chess match against Judy, it had gotten dark and Judy went to bed. Kaizi turned the TV on again.

"...no further clues as to what is happening, but the police has confirmed that they are sending out patrols tonight. Since they apparently cannot make any progress in the case, Samegawa police department has requested an ace detective to come visit the sympathic little town - Yurika Kusanagi, who already solved a few mysterious cases where the police had not been able to further advance."

A small, but mature-looking girl was on the screen now. She had silver hair long enough to reach her knees and looked like she was about his age, but there was an aura of knowledge and maturity around her. "Police hopes that Yurika Kusanagi will solve the mystery, since apparently, when compared to an older case from the 80s, the victims die at foggy nights. That is why we could not interview Ms. Kusanagi as she is hurrying on her way to Samegawa."

Kaizi turned off the TV and stood up. That probably meant that Roy wouldn't come home today. Maybe that's why Judy was so lonely... did this happen more often? Kaizi walked up to his room and went to bed.


The next day... early morning, in front of the school gates.

"Hey, Kaizi!" Someone yelled as Kaizi was near the school gates. He turned around to saw Yukiko chasing after him. "Good morning, Yukiko." Kaizi smiled.
"Seems like you're one famous guy now. Look at all the people chatting. I think they recognized you on that news show yesterday."

"If I keep denying it they eventually will stop thinking that guy was me." Kaizi replied.
"You're pretty lucky that you haven't been on the news this morning. But... that reporter you asked about yesterday? She was killed tonight. The same way the first guy got killed."

Kaizi sucked in air as his eyes widened, before his eyes he saw images again, images of the little girl crying, pointing at the reporter. She's going to die!

"...Anything wrong, Kaizi?"
"It's just... the fact that you can get up so early and watch the news. I always have to hurry."


After school...

Mia sat down with Kaizi at the Junes Food Court. Matt had wanted to come too, but fortunately he had to do work for Junes today and wasn't able to sit down with them.
"Well... what was it that you couldn't tell me in town?"
"Yesterday... in the chinese diner, I saw a little girl. I'm sure now that I wasn't hallucinating. She was crying and pointing at someone, saying 'She's going to die'. Then I asked you who that person is..."
"Are you kidding me?! Are you some sort of... fortune teller or something? You asked us about the reporter who died today!"
"I'm not... but the fact that I saw that girl scared me so much I wasn't sure what to do..."

Mia twitched her eye and looked straight at Kaizi.

"And you're sure that was no hallucination?"
"Mia, look! That reporter died!"
"That's true..."

Both of them just looked down at the table, thinking about what to do.
"Now I understand why you didn't want to tell me in the middle of town..." she muttered. "That's some spooky stuff."
"I thought... maybe you know what to do."
"For all I know, next time you see that girl you're going to have to ask some questions. Or maybe you could call the police and tell them who's next."
"Are you crazy?! They saw me at the crime scene already, and they would suspect me even more if I knew who's next! They probably wouldn't buy a story like that either, Mia!"

Mia observed Kaizi's face right now, seeing that he started to sweat and was heavily breathing. "Maybe... maybe... argh, I don't know what to do! For all I know, don't tell any others. The less know this, the better. If this starts going around as a rumor at school, you're going down..."
"I hoped you wouldn't tell anyone. It's hard for me to let one person know."

"C'mon. I'll buy us a lemon soda and we'll relax a bit. There's nothing to worry about as long as you don't see that girl again, okay?"
"Fine..."

They both got something to drink and sat down again.
"Man, it's so hard to change topics if you talk about something so exciting..." Mia sighed. "But we should talk about something else, Kaizi. It's no use to break your head over it if you can't do anything right now."

"Mhm, that's true." Kaizi looked at Mia and then slowly asked, "Are you good friends with Yukiko?"

Mia smiled and was happy about the topic change. "Well yeah, we became friends in elementary school. I was always watching kung fu movies, which I still do right now, and I always protected her from the bullies at school. Sometimes I stay at her inn, you wouldn't believe how useful it is that she has an inn!"

Kaizi smiled about the fact he could do smalltalk again and pushed up his glasses to his eyes. "Well, one of my old friends in the city was the son of hotel owners, but I didn't get any discounts there."
"Yeah, that's true. People like that probably care about the money only. "

"HEY! The city people don't care about money only!" A familiar voice yelled and Matt showed up near the table. "I'm finally done with my work. Time for some beefsteak!"


Evening...

Kaizi said goodbye, being happy that he'd gotten a bit closer to his new friends and that he had gained the possibility to talk about the things he saw with Mia. As he returned to the house, he saw that Judy was already fast asleep in her room, and the day had made him tired as well, so he quickly went to sleep.





Midnight...

Something slapped Kaizi's face and he immediately woke up, looking straight into the face of a blue-eyed blonde-haired girl.
"You saw me yesterday. I know you saw me. You talked to me." she said.

Kaizi's heart was beating faster than a machine gun could shoot as he crawled out from under his blanket. "Yes... Yes, I saw you. You were right about the woman... she's dead."
"They tell me who will die... they always tell me... and I can't do anything about it. But you can see me. I can show you who will die. You can see me and you can know who will die, and maybe you can stop them!"

So many open questions in just one statement... Kaizi sighed. "Who are they?" he asked, as he opened his bag and took out a pair of jeans and a black jacket which he put over his pajamas.

"The voices... the voices that I hear in my head..."

Kaizi suddenly felt sympathy with the little girl. The feeling to be paranoid... and to hear and see things that don't exist. But she didn't exist herself!

"What... what exactly are you?"
"I don't know... nobody can see me. I'm just a girl. And I can't play with anyone and anything and all I can do is listen to the voices and watch people... and see who is going to die next."

Kaizi was about to open the door to the living room as he realized that the TV was playing downstairs. Roy was home. Damn. He opened the window and looked at a little tree nearby. "Can you climb trees?"
"I don't have to. I can just walk past your uncle. I know he's your uncle, because you called him your uncle, and your cousin calls him daddy."

Kaizi jumped out of the window and grabbed a tree branch with his hands, then falling down to the ground and landing on his feet. The little girl walked through the house wall and Kaizi shivered.

"I'm trying to find out your last name. I just can't find out. I know you're not Parren. But I haven't watched you enough."
"My last name is Cupra."
"Oh. That's boring. Now I don't have to find out anymore."

The little girl started walking down the street and Kaizi followed her, wondering what the other people (there actually weren't many) would think. Did it look like he was talking to himself? Luckily no one passed him nearby.

"The voices are behind all this. I know it. The voices... they kill..." the little girl whispered and Kaizi gulped. This was actually kind of creepy... They walked for ten minutes, then the little girl turned to the right and stopped at the third house after they had passed the shopping district. "Over here. Second floor. I would walk up there, but you wouldn't be able to see who it is."
"Can't you tell me the name?"
"No... that would be boring..."

Kaizi looked around for a possibility to get up onto the second floor, luckily, the house was built on a hillside and with a tiny bit of luck, he was able to jump and grab a windowsill. Then he pulled himself up... looked in... and immediately fell down from the shock, hitting his head.
A tear started to appear in his eye as he realized who he had just seen.
All he could hear was the little girl laughing as he drifted off into thought.

What the hell is this... T-this can't be! But the girl was right last time... Is she really going to die? No. No, no, NO! Not yet. They die when it's foggy. It wasn't foggy yet. But I can't let her die like that... not Mia!

>>Climb into her room and wake her up - Path of Courageous Friendship
>>Tell her tomorrow and spend the night talking to the girl - Path of Thought