Ghost Girl

~ ichi ~

I began to feel tears flow down my cheeks. "The girls... suffering... how horrible."

The whispers grew louder and louder, voices of men and women layered over each other. It was so loud I could barely hear myself think. Hearing their stories all at once was overwhelming me very quickly.

At this point my hand was moving on its own, the memories I felt being written in quick jumbled notes. "It won't stop... Oh, make it... Make it stop!" My voice rung out in the alleyway, desperate for the voices to stop.

The blue light surrounding me suddenly died, as I forced my hand to stop moving. There was a hand clamped on my shoulder, his own blue glow emitting from his hand.

The voices were gone. Just like that.

I had gone over the files I had managed to get my hands on all of Atsushi's coworkers a while back, so I knew most of the names but no faces. This must be Osamu Dazai, then. The man who is able to nullify abilities.

How familiar.

He pulled away and without a word, he moved back to the wall. He leaned against it, smiling at me reassuringly.

I dropped the pen and book after a few seconds, clutching my wrist as if in pain. The book snapped closed against the ground. "Ouch..."

"Hanako-chan, are you alright?" I heard Atsushi's sweet voice ask me, reaching down to grab my book and pen to hand back.

"No! Don't touch it yet!"

Atsushi stopped immediately.

"The ink... will fact-check and change facts if needed. If it smears it may become inaccurate." I explained, as I massaged my wrist. Flexing the fingers, I nodded as I quickly wiped my tears away with the back of my hand and wiped it on my jacket.

"Alright. Let's see." I reached down at my feet and picked up the book. Flipping it open, I went to the page where I wrote.

"This is from the view of... Mitsukawa Sanji. 'That day was horrible. Me, my wife Akane, and our daughters Eriko and Ren... were attacked by the Port Mafia.'"

There was a deep inhale from the mysterious man.

I paused. "Sorry. Is something the matter ojisan?"

"O-ojisan...?" Dazai seemed surprised, tilting his head.

"Uhm, yes. Ojisan. I am only 12 years old after all, and I'm assuming you're older than me by quite a bit."

"Eh?! Where are your parents?" Dazai seemed shocked at how young I was.

"They're... That's not the point. This is." I gave Dazai a pointed stare, then turned my eyes to Mitsumi. "'They fired first. It hit Akane. Ren and Eriko ducked under the table. I could hear Ren cry out for her mother. Then the bullets hit me. I fell backwards, the back of my chair hitting the ground. I was fading in and out, but I saw Eriko climb from under the table and sprint towards the men, giant transparent claw-like tentacles coming out from her back, with a dark mist surrounding them. Ren, meanwhile, had her-'"

It ended there.

"That day you were off, was the day your former employers died."