Chapter 1: I'm a WHAT?

Yori's inner turmoil facing her fears and her mother begin~!

There are many definitions of the word "ghost" out there. One is, "the disembodied spirit of a dead person, appearing as a pale, shadowy apparition." Now, the chances are that the person who wrote this description was going off legends and myths, but not actual fact. Heck, you probably actually believe them. And that's fine. Ya'know, as long as you want to keep lying to yourself.

Instead of bombarding your brain with an endless supply of synonyms and terminologies that would probably just sound like gibberish to both you and myself, I'm just going to tell you how it is.

Ghosts are souls. Sure, I make it sound simple, but they're much more complex. I've met a few of them. They're pretty much like you and I except they're...dead. (And I'd be careful how you bring this topic up in a discussion if you ever happen to meet one. Believe it or not, not all of them are so happy to talk about how they've "kicked the bucket.")

See, since I can talk and converse with them, they like to find me and use me to have the average get-together, or if they need help doing something that would help them pass on. But there's something plain mystical about the way the move on that'll give me goosebumps: once they have found "peace," they leave this world but leave something behind. I call them"memory tokens." It's sometimes impossible to tell what, whether it's tangible or intangible, and other times it's not-so-hard. And sometimes that flower you may find resting on a grave of a person that hadn't been visited for years, was the souvenir piece of that late person themselves.

I'm pretty popular on the spiritual plane, if I do say so myself. But this can also be a bad thing. That's why I've always had to keep my guard up, because where there are good ghosts, there are bad ones. I haven't always felt loving towards ghosts though. We have a love-hate relationship once in a while, as well. But if I'm feeling generous, and there's a decent, sweet ghost out there, why wouldn't I lend a helping, tangible hand? But if one ghost were to, say, ask to control my body so that they could consume a burger every now and then, that's a no-fly zone. The possession of my body is off-limits. The saying "your body is a temple" is very dear to me.

Alright, so now I've updated you on what's what, I'm going to tell you my tale. Or more importantly, A Ghost Tale.

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Knock, knock!

"Mmmmm..." A murmur arose in a small bedroom, the girl owning it drunk with sleep.

Yori Ushio*, age 16, year 2 high school student.

KNOCK, KNOCK!

"Ugh!"

The annoyed, petite girl threw her covers from over her head and lazily rubbed an emerald-green eye with a fist. Then she rolled out of bed and glared at the alarm clock that read 6:55 a.m. If it had been next week on Monday she would've been on alert, since it would mean she barely had time to get ready for school, but today was different. It was a Saturday, two days before her first day of school. But no matter what, a Saturday would also be known to her as "Sleep-In Day."

Who the heck is visiting me at this hour? she thought to herself as she walked to the door with slumped shoulders. No one ever visits me.

This was Yori Ushio. She had moved out of her household that just consisted of her and her drunk mother just a few weeks before to be ready for the new school year. She enjoyed being on her own with no responsibilities, getting to do whatever she wanted, and with no visits from her older brother "checking" up for her like she was "some little kid."

Blissful with these facts, she opened the door with a satisfied sigh. Life is great.

"What's up, imouto-chan*?"

She immediately slammed the door closed and leaned her back against it with an expression of pure fright.

Scratch that, Yori thought, quivering. Life sucks.

Suddenly the door was thrown open with a force so strong it pinned her between it and the wall beside it.

"Nice place you got here," she heard a familiar, fear-invoking voice say as she limply face-planted from her painful position. "But it could use a little more cleanliness."

When she finally pulled herself out of the new dent in her wall, she plopped her body in front of the person in her house, groaning in pain. Yori willed herself to look up at the young man hovering over her and couldn't deny that dangerous, pointed smirk she had come to know and almost tolerate.

"Takeru!" she yelled while glaring and jumped to her feet. She got riled up as she inspected the outline of her body engraved into the wall. Her brother's strength never ceased to amaze and/or injure her.

"Get out of my house, you jerk! I'm gonna have to pay to get that wall fixed now!"

Takeru, also known as her big brother, now had a mischievous and violent gleam in his sapphire eyes. "As your older brother, I believe I deserve more respect than that," he chided as he caught her in his signature move.

Takeru Ushio*, age 22, College Senior. Special Move: Stomp of Death.

"Ow! Quit it! Fine, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, already!" Yori pleaded as she tried to escape his wrath.

Pinning her to the floor with a foot placed firmly on her back, he grinned a bittersweet smile. "That's much better."

Once he released her, Yori stretched her back out causing some kind of crack! to sound. "Geez, bro. Now I'm gonna have to pay to get that door fixed and visit a chiropractor. What'd you do, gain another ten pounds?"

"Thanks for noticing. I joined the wrestling team in my college." He plopped himself on her small but comfy sofa and put his feet up.

Sighing, she went into the kitchen. "Since I'm obviously not gonna to be able to get any sleep while you're here, I might as well fix something to drink. Tea?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Takeru Ushio was a good person, and not many people would guess this because of his violent demeanor. Upon first glance he was a very handsome young man, yet could seem hard to approach and intimidating. In reality he was actually a very intelligent college student attempting to get a degree in law firm to become a lawyer, a doting big brother, and an engaged man to his fiancee Erii Suzumi.

Yori prepared her tea with a spicy herbal tang and the other's a chamomile aroma. She handed him his and went to lean against the kitchen counter as she sipped her own. They stayed silent like this for a good minute until-

"What is it that you wanted, again? Or are you gonna make me guess," she blandly questioned.

"What makes you think I want something?" he said defensively. "Can't I just visit my dear baby sister?"

"No, you can't. Especially since I told you specifically not to."

"So cruel," he mumbled as he feigned a hurt look.

A vein popped on her forehead as she gruffly snapped, "Seriously, why are you here, Takeru?"

Her brother looked down at the cup of tea in his hands, seeming much more serious than he had been moments ago. It worried her.

"It's about mom."

Yori froze mid-sip. A rush of emotions coursed through her, but her outward expression remained devoid of any trace of them. Usually she wasn't able to keep her emotions inside well, but she had learned over time to become apathetic whenever it came to her mother.

Calmly walking over to her sink and putting her now tasteless tea in it, she made sure to keep her back facing Takeru as she forced the word, "And?"

"She had a heart-attack," he told her, now watching her figure carefully.

A gasp of air she couldn't stop filled her lungs as she gripped the counter so hard her knuckles turned a ghostly white.

"Is she-"

"Dead? No. She's in the hospital."

Exhaling slowly, she turned to face him now. There was a defiant look in her eyes. "Then why are you telling me?"

"Because I thought you might want to know," he said incredulously, his voice rising as he did so out of his chair.

"I told you, I wasn't speaking to her until she became the person I knew her as when we were younger. She was the reason I moved out, remember?"

"She hurt you," he said, forcing to stabilize his voice. "I know that. She hurt me too, Yori. But she's at that hospital right now, sitting all alone-"

"'All alone?'" she repeated with a bitter, humorless laugh. "Well, then she knows exactly how I felt when Dad died, and you were gone at school while she was at the bar getting drunk and doing who knows what else, and then coming home just to hurt me like she did that time she collapsed on the floor." She moved to stand in front of him. "I cried, I begged her to stop drinking. I told her she would lose me. Did she care? No. So if you ask me, she got exactly what was coming to her."

Takeru gave her his special leveled gaze he always equipped when he was skeptical and disappointed in her. "...You don't mean that."

Despite how much she wanted to, she couldn't bring herself to say "I do" for some reason unknown to her. All she could do was just stalk back to her bedroom and slam the door.

Yori sat on her bed for about ten minutes until she heard her front door open and close. She waited for another sound that would lead her to expect her brother to still be there, and then exited her room. Almost instantly she noticed a small piece of paper placed on her low table and went to it. Scribbled in Takeru's messy handwriting she could just make out:

Yagami Seiki Hospital*

324 S. 14th St., Wanake

Visiting hours: 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Room 401

P.S. You'll thank me later, sis.

With a scowl she tossed the paper aside and went to her bathroom to shower since she was already up. She ran a hand through her damp, short light-brown hair and then put on a short-sleeved green T-shirt and jeans. Drying her hair with a towel, she went back and entered her small living room and stepped on something. Looking down she saw the same paper. She then picked it up in one swift movement and read it over and over.

"If Takeru thinks I'm going just because he wrote down some stupid address," she growled to herself, "then he has another thing coming. There's no way I'm going. No way."

.OoO.

How did I let that b*****d get inside my head?!

Yori thought this rhetorically while her forehead leaned against the glass door of Yagami Seiki Hospital, angrily clutching the piece of paper with the address. People saw her emitting a depressed aura and gave her strange looks as they passed. She had thrown on a forest-green hoodie before she left the house, for the chilly October air rustled the brown, yellow, and red leaves floating on the breeze around her.

Like always, her brother had triumphed over her in a battle of will-power. She didn't tell Takeru, however, that there was more than one reason why she didn't want to visit her mother in the hospital, other than not knowing what to say if she saw her or not forgiving her for all the grief she'd caused her. The truth was that she simply hated hospitals. Because where there was a hospital, there would surely be dead people.

And where there were dead people, there were often those dead peoples' ghosts.

Ghosts had not bothered her much at this point in her life. The first time she realized she had been able to see them was when she had seen her neighbor at seven-years-old get buried six feet underground at his funeral, only to see him pop up while she was on her way from school. Needless to say, it wasn't really an experience she liked to remember.

Get it together, Yori, she attempted to prepared herself. You're not scared of a few ghosts. Ghosts should be scared of you. Besides, how high of a death-rate could this hospital possibly have? There may be only five or six in the whole building. Just don't show any sign of seeing them, and they'll leave you alone.

Coming to a resolve, she took a deep breath and walked inside. And then ran right back out.

Pale-faced, she looked like she had just seen a, well, ghost. Except she didn't.

She saw at least fifty of them.

Okay, so maybe this hospital just sucks at keeping people alive. No biggie. You've still got this.

Sighing, she ran a hand over her face and went back inside. The lobby desk was a mile away and everywhere she looked there was a ghost, looking as human as ever yet floating inches off the ground and having that faint unearthly glow that only they could have.

Forcing herself to focus, she looked straight ahead and put one foot in front of the other as she made it to the main desk. It was still hard to tune out all of the ghosts' conversations though.

"Oh look, another person here to visit this God-forsaken place."

"One of these days it might be her roaming these halls."

"May I help you, miss?"

"Think she's dying?"

"Nah, she seems to lively. What I wouldn't give to be that healthy again."

"You and me both, Saburu-san."

"Hello?"

"She's probably taking advantage of living even as we speak."

"She has no idea how lucky she has it."

"Life is just unfair..."

"Is something the matter?"

A voice Yori hadn't realized had been talking to her the whole time snapped her out of her trance-like state. The ghost-seer's eyes had been tightly shut as she unsuccessfully tried to block the dead's voices out, and when they opened they met the inquisitive gray ones of someone who was clearly alive. She had made it to the front desk without realizing it.

"A-Ah, yeah..." Yori awkwardly cleared her throat and looked at the paper now thoroughly crinkled in her hand. "Where's Room 401? The room Akira Ushio's staying in?"

"Are you related to her or a visitor?"

"I... I'm her daughter," Yori almost choked on the words she would've never said an hour ago.

She smiled. How could she be this cheerful in a hospital of all places? "I'll check for you." After a few moments of key-tapping she said, "Room 401 would be on the fourth floor."

"Thanks." She bowed and tried to keep her cool as she made it to an elevator.

She breathed a sigh of relief while standing in front of it when she saw that she was alone and hit the up button. Seconds passed and the elevator dinged, opening to reveal a ghost standing smack-dab in the middle of the tightly-enclosed space.

Yori's breath caught in her throat as she tried not to make eye contact with it - or him, by the looks of it. In the millisecond she had to look at him, he seemed about age nine with black locks of hair and soft violet eyes, clutching a big brown teddy bear in his arms.

Yori couldn't believe it. He was so…

Adorable. (A girl who has a shameful obsession of cute things.)

Her face looked screwed up in concentration, as if she were focusing too hard on something as she walked in and pressed the "U4" button, and that was because she was. She could feel the ghostly boy's eyes on her as she did whatever she could not to stare at him.

Snap out of it. A ghost is a ghost, no matter how cute he is or how much you want to glomp the life- er, I mean death, out of him. You can do this.

Ding! Floor One.

Suddenly a cold shiver ran up and down her spine, like a gust of icy wind hit her full-on. Like she had just been touched by a ghost.

When Yori looked down she saw the little boy had in fact placed a hand on her arm and was looking her in the eyes. His own seemed dull and apathetic but intense, like he was staring straight into her soul.

"I know you can see me," he said, sounding weary.

Yori quickly averted her eyes and acted like she hadn't felt or heard anything. Stay calm. Don't blow it.

The ghost then started poking her over and over, each time sending a new wave of chills.

Ding! Floor Two.

Finally she jumped back from his touch as far away as she could in the tight space they were in. "Eh... Could you...not do that?" she asked, knowing there was no going back now since she had just exposed her ability.

"You were ignoring me. I had to get your attention somehow," the little boy said, as if his reason was the only one that made sense.

"Well, you've got my attention now. What is it?"

The boy looked down at his feet and seemed shy. It was almost too cute for her to bear.

"I just wanted to talk to you," he said, his attention still directed downwards.

"To...me?" She blinked.

"I haven't talked to anyone that could hear me for thirty-five years. I wanted to say hi."

Ding! Floor Three.

She couldn't take it anymore and ruffled his hair. It felt like touching a cloud. The boy looked up, shocked at her for doing such a thing.

"What's your name?" she asked him, smiling. She didn't think she'd ever smiled to a ghost so openly before.

"Kai..." he said, his voice almost a whisper. "I...I can't remember my last name."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Yori," she continued to smile. "Yori Ushio."

"I know," he told her, sending her for a loop.

"Y-You do?"

"Of course. Some ghosts like to keep tabs on the few people that can see us. We have a special name for you."

"Really? What?" Yori questioned. This was the first she'd heard about something like this.

"A Perceiver. 'Perci' for short. It's used for those you can see and touch us whenever they want, rather than just passing through us unknowingly."

"'Perci,' huh? Well, at least they have a name for it," she mumbled under her breath. "I've been running out of things to call myself. Next I'd have to be calling myself the obvious, like 'freak' or 'weirdo.'"

He giggled, something she could tell he wasn't used to doing. "You're strange alright, but not because you can see ghosts."

She faked a pout as the doors to the fourth floor opened and the last ding! chimed.

"Well, this is my stop," she turned to him. "I've gotta get going. It was very nice meeting you, Kai. Will you still be here on my way back?"

He pretended to think about it. "You're interesting, and I don't have anywhere to go, so... Yep." He smiled bashfully.

She finally decided she had to hug him and squeezed him hard. To the random passerby - which happened to be an elderly lady with snow white hair pushing a walker - who stopped to watch, it looked like she was hugging air.

Realizing she was being watched, she turned to her with an almost challenging demeanor. "Something the matter?"

The lady just shook her head and hurriedly shuffled away. Kai looked at her with his inquisitive violet eyes. "You really are strange."

Yori stood up, smiling slightly. "Ya'know what? I'm gonna take that as a compliment for once."

She then just made it out the doors while as they began to shut, giving one last wave to her new ghost friend.

However, as soon as the doors closed her happiness gauge depleted and she was depressed again. This came with the fact that she still had to face her mom after not speaking to her for weeks. Sighing, she began the trek to her mother's hospital room while glancing at each number engraved on the door.

At last she came across a particular room number. Room 401.

Her palms suddenly grew sweaty as one gripped the door handle, her heart hammering in her chest. How could I be doing this right now?

Abruptly the door swung open and Yori jumped back, now truly feeling as though she were having a heart attack. But standing in the doorway was just a young female nurse, dressed in the typical white nurse attire. She blinked in surprise at Yori.

"Oh, I'm sorry. If you're here to visit this patient, she's currently resting. You could come back later if you-"

"But I have to see her now," Yori said sharply without meaning to. Because if I don't go now, there's a chance I won't come back.

The nurse scrutinized her closely before nodding. "Alright. But please, don't disturb her."

Yori bowed as the lady walked away, and then stared at the door she had left open for her. She then hesitantly took a step inside. Her eyes flickered to the woman on the bed hooked up to IV tubes, their chest slowly heaving up and down in contrast with her rapidly pounding one. She went to stand beside the bed to get a closer look at the face. The teal eyes were almost as clear as day in Yori's mind, even though at the moment they were hidden behind eyelids. Long brown hair was loosely splayed around her head, almost as decorative as rose petals.

Yori touched her mother's face while holding her breath, smoothing strands of hair out of her way. With one last glance she went to a nearby chair and sat in it. She waited for five, ten, and eventually twenty minutes before sleep got the best of her; being woken up on a Saturday before eleven a.m. made her drowsy. She dozed off, her snoring mimicking a chainsaw.

Author's Note

A/N: I'm really hoping I didn't disappoint here... I'd already had written at least the next two chapters after this, but since that turned out to be over 10,000 words all together, I had to struggle to figure out how to split them all up. ^^"

This could be thought as a good thing though, considering I'm known for never planning out my stories before hand and winging what happens next... Those of you who have read Silver Linings Come in Stormy Weather, my other story on here, know what I mean. *embarrassed laugh*

And since I'm trying to make this as similar to "real" published manga as possible, and I know that some mangaka (manga authors) like to have their own panels where they talk about the story and sometimes anything else, I'm going to give it a try! So here are the definitions as well as my semi-brief comments on the characters~! Feel free to skip if you couldn't care less why I chose their names or already know/don't care about the honorifics used... I won't feel bad if you don't wanna read their character development, either. I just did it for you guys if you needed/wanted them, since I'm no genius at Japanese culture.

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*Yori Ushio ~ Yori is a name that can be literally translated as "servant to the public." Considering that I thought finding names for the characters would be tough, especially finding one that clicks for the main heroine, I find "Yori" to be a GREAT fit. The fact that her "job description" as a Perci is to help ghosts that come to find her move on does make her a bit of a servant to the public in a way, wouldn't you agree? ^^

So, Yori is not my first teenage heroine to write, but I want to branch out with their personalities to make sure there aren't too many similarities since I personally love to read about fresh, different characters. Both Yori and Danielle (the main protagonist in my other story) are tomboys and independent, but Danielle had a habit of keeping her cool basically at all times unless she absolutely needed to act out. Yori, on the other hand, is loud when frustrated and extremely violent, which you can thank Takeru for implementing into her at a young age. ;P She's also easily depressed and is only nice when it comes to the people she's close with, like Erii for example, or cute things, such as Kai. Basically I wanted to make her more of a tsundere character (defined below), since I find them to be hilarious to write and watch when it comes to their interactions.

*Tsundere ~ It wasn't in this chapter yet, but I know I'll be using it sometime later, so I might as well define it now. Just keep in mind that tsundere is a Japanese concept of a character which describes a person with a conceited, irritable, and/or violent personality that suddenly becomes modest and loving when triggered by some sort of cause (such as being alone with someone). Yori's case, it's triggered by cute things. :P


*Imouto-chan ~ It means "little sister." -Chan is used for someone you're close to, like a close friend, brother, or sister. I wanted to use this instead of the English words "little sister" themselves to surprise those who didn't know what it meant when it came to Takeru's introduction. I hope it worked~!

*Takeru Ushio ~ Takeru, depending on which kanji is used to write it, can mean either "warrior" or "fierce." ...I think it's pretty self-explanatory why I chose his name. XP

Ahh, Takeru... If I had an older brother, I have feeling he'd be just like him. X) Takeru will most likely be my favorite character throughout the story, although he may not have as many appearances much later on... Still, he's going to have a very special place in my heart. I loved writing his interactions with Yori. In all honesty, they don't get along as well and have a love-hate relationship because they're both so much alike, definitely both tsundere. When we get to later chapters and you really get to see Yori's strength and endurance, let's just say you can thank Takeru for teaching her everything he knows. But he of course has more skills up his sleeve that he hadn't taught her... Yep. To sum it up, I love him. X3

*Yagami Seiki Hospital ~ Although I'm not sure about the exact translation with both of them together in a name, I know that Yagami can mean "eight, god" while Seiki has a literal translation of "treatment of life energy." Using Yagami's translation of "god/God" and the translation for Seiki, I think it's just an all-around cool name for a hospital. And the street it's on is just a fictional street name I made up. ^^"


*Kai ~ It can mean "ocean," "shell," "restoration," or "recovery." The "recovery" translation I find to be rather ironic, considering he...ahem...didn't recover from the reason of his death... -_-" I definitely felt bad when I found out it meant "recovery" when I had only named him because of the "ocean" and "shell" translations (which will be revealed later on in the story).

I don't want to spoil too much so soon about Kai, so let's just say he's an all-around cutie without even trying. :P

*Erii Suzumi ~ "Erii" was just the way I chose to write the actual name, Eri. It means "blessed prize." I suppose I could go all romance-y by saying she's like a "blessed prize" to Takeru... Yep, I'm doing that. X)

Reviews

[A. L. Allen]

D. Jay, another fantastic write. This piece defineitely shows a more mature level of writing than your other one (which is really good, too). ;)

You are absolutely incredible at character development. I'm only one chapter in, and I'm already attached to your characters. Keep it up! ^_^*

I did see a few errors, but they were minor and easily fixed. I'll probably dome back ans point them out when I'm a little less lazy. ;)

Keep up the amazing writing! Can't wait to read more from you!