Finding Yourself

I woke up in a place that I didn’t remember. But things felt different. What that meant was, I could actually feel things. The cold air touching my skin, the ground that stood beneath, even the clothes that I always had on my body.

Pushing myself off of the floor, I looked around me. I saw colors in the air, an ethereal flowing backdrop to the disparate lands that were scattered amongst this realm. The sound of screaming souls pierced my ears as I saw the spirits of the dead floating across the lands that covered this place.

That was why I could feel something. I’m a ghost, and this is where I belong. The spirit of hope and justice was still, in all, just a spirit. It had no place in the world of the living.

No.

No!

I shook my head and clutched it. Just because I was here, didn’t mean I belonged here. I belonged back outside, out in the city. Helping people. Helping others. That’s what I stood for. Just because I’m inside of the afterlife, just because this is the place where I can feel the sensation of the air and the ground. This isn’t where…!

“Akina! Yoshio! Where are you?”

I was just with them. How could I lose them? Weren’t Akina and I soulmates? How could we be separated so easily? I looked around, and once again looked at the floating islands that surrounded me. There were a lot of them, looking like relics of the past. Old, archaic, and ruined. This was the afterlife, and the ground itself was being eroded by many lost souls flying wherever they could. Mindlessly. The sounds of their screaming being the only thing that filled my ears.

But, I needed to find them. I forced my feet to move in a way that I haven’t moved in a long time. One foot after another, it’s been so long since I’ve had to walk like this. I don’t even remember the last time that I walked… but… I’m starting to… remember…

“RAAAAGHHH—!”

The loud roaring of a monster snapped me out of my stupor. It was a man, similar to one of the apparitions from before, leaping at me. The large, burly, snakeskin man leapt at me from behind, knocking me down onto the ground.

“Agh! Hey, hey! Get off of me!”

I shouted and screamed as the creature jumped at me. The soul of the monster was aggressive, and trying to tear at my body. I kept on trying to push it off, but this thing was strong, and I didn’t have Akina. My strength felt weaker, and then… it slowly began to sink its teeth into me. It hurt.

It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It’s been so long since I felt this kind of pain. Akina had been beaten up all the time, but I didn’t feel it that way. This hurt. This hurt. How could Akina deal with getting put into so much pain like this?

“Ow… ow ow ow… ow!” I cried. I could feel tears coming from my eyes as I tried to weakly swat the lost soul off of me. A punch, a punch, and a punch. But then, as my essence began to be torn apart, there was something I began to remember.

***

“Who the hell does this idiot think she is? Come on little girl. Do you really think that you and your stupid red-riding cosplay can put a stop to me?”

I was standing up against someone who was way bigger than me. It was a little bit nerve-wracking, to be honest. It’s not like I haven’t fought before, but I was still relatively new to this. If I was going to be a hero of justice, then I couldn’t back down from a fight.

The man and his goat horns were looking at me with a cocky expression on his face. He was holding another girl by her neck, but tossed her to the side.

“I’m going to break you, little girl. And don’t expect me to hold back either.”

This man was scary. But, I couldn’t stop now.

“In the name of hope and justice, I’m going to stop you! Don’t you dare underestimate me, for I’ve become the protector of righteousness in this city!” I shouted back.

“How cute.”

The man simply scoffed at my declaration, but it didn’t matter. I would have to save this girl, no matter what.

***

“HHRRRAAAAAGHHH!”

I screamed, and with a strong punch, I sent the lost soul flying away and back into the sea of souls it came from. I didn’t know what came over me in that moment, or what happened to cause that reaction, but it was almost purely on instinct.

The strength that I had… that Akina had. It was flowing through my body. The wound that I received began to heal itself, reshaping my lost essence. I remember… I remember just a little bit more now.

“HELP! HELP!”

That was when I heard the sound of someone I knew. A small voice… Yoshio. He was still here! And close! Immediately, I turned around towards the voice, trying to piece out where it was. Then, I shouted. “Don’t worry! I’m coming for you!”

The voice seemed to be coming from another island, separated by the sea of swimming souls that blocked my path. The screams echoed throughout the land, trying to drown out Yoshio’s voice. Even still, I could hear it loud and clear.

How did Akina do this? She channeled my energy right? I pushed the energy that I had into my legs, before springing up from the ground. I cracked the floor beneath me, before attempting to jump through the sea of screaming souls.

This hurt. More than I expected. The souls tried to rip at me and tear at my body, but I pushed through as much as I could. The pain was almost insurmountable… but not completely so.

***

“Are you sure these nightly run outs are a good idea, sweetie? Don’t you need to get a good rest for school?”

Mom was pestering me, again, as I was about to go outside to perform my hero work.

“I already studied, mom. You saw my test scores. I think going out is fine,” I responded.

“Just… it’s dangerous, you know. A girl like you going out at night. I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you. Think about your brother. Who’s going to tutor him if something happens?”

“I’ll be fine. This city gave me these abilities. It truly does attract the weird, doesn’t it? Who knew I had this kind of magic in me the entire time. I would have to be heartless to not use them to help as many people as I can.”

Mom sighed. “Okay, sweetie. I know getting this kind of magic is a lot. Just, try not to get yourself in trouble, you hear?”

“I won’t. A hero needs to always try their best, right?”

With that, I ran out the door. Ready to go and save as many people as I could tonight.

***

“AGH!”

I crash landed onto the ground as I escaped the sea of souls. My body began to repair itself, but my mind hadn’t fully recovered from the sudden memory I was inflicted with. Mom? But who was my mom? I don’t remember…

I couldn’t dwell on it for too long though. Because Yoshio’s cries kept me grounded in this reality. I ran towards them, until on the island I saw where the sound was coming from.

“LADY…! GHOST LADY…! MOM…! HELP!”

He was shouting from a tree he had climbed on. That was his only defense from the bottom, where there was a herd of souls trying to climb up it as well. They were slow, and clumsy, but it would be a threat in any given time.

That’s when I knew I needed to leap into action. Using all of my energy, I jumped into the herd of monstrous souls, and began to fight them off.

“Yoshio! I’m coming for you!” I shouted. I kicked the first soul, then I punched the second soul. I was copying Akina, just a bit, but it felt natural to me, like I had already been doing this for a while. I was managing to outmaneuver, and outspeed quite a few of these souls, but perhaps I got a little bit careless.

One snuck up behind me, and bit me on the shoulder, right on my cloak.

***

Being able to use magic was insane to me. I never thought a normal girl like me could be gifted with such an ability. But in the wake of this weird city, I was blessed with a weird power. The power to exert my will onto objects, and manipulate them as a result. My body had magic, and it was so cool.

I looked out my bedroom window. I just moved to this city recently, and I have powers. I couldn’t get over how giddy I was. Maybe it was the stress of school every day, and maybe it was just the proximity to the weirdness, but I did.

There was only one thing I could do with this power.

Help people.

It was the only way forward, right? Any other way would be completely wrong. I would become the hero that this city wanted and needed. Miharu, the savior of hope and justice. That is what needed to happen.

The first thing would be to decide on a look. Something that people can see in order to know that they are safe. I opened my closet for the answers, and I found a perfect one. A red cloak.

I then looked at the mirror. It was dashing, striking, and perfect. An iconic look that the people of the city can look to when they are scared. I smiled, and struck a pose. “Yes. This works great.”

Then, I looked back at the city. It needed a hero, and I was ready to fulfill the call.

***

I had beaten down every single soul that was trying to eat at Yoshio, and I took a deep breath. Before I climbed up the tree to reach him.

“Miss… Miss Ghost Lady?”

“Yoshio!” I said, eventually reaching up to sit beside him. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“Where’s… Ms. Lady?” He looked around nervously.

“Akina? I’m sure… I’m sure she’s fine. She’s one half of the Yamiyami Solve Everything Agency. There isn’t a problem she can’t fix.”

“Mhm…” Yoshio was still nervous, but he calmed down just a little bit. I picked him up off the tree branch and held him in my arms. I never touched Yoshio before, this was my first time ever doing so.

“Ms. Ghost Lady… you feel so warm…” Yoshio said.

“And you’re a sweet little pea, you know that?” I responded. With that, I hopped off the tree, down onto the ground. I needed to get him out of here.

***

“Here we are! The city of Yamiyami, where we’ll be living from now on!” Mom spoke. She was driving us in the back of the car, as we were heading towards our new house.

“Fun! Fun! New places! New places!” My little brother seemed to be excited about the move. More so than I was, even. I didn’t mind the idea of moving, but it was a lot of effort and pain. Especially to a city that is known as the country’s designated “weirdness sinkhole”. Regardless, I tried to keep an optimistic outlook.

“Maybe going to a weird city could be fun,” I suggested.

“I hope so. Tokyo is fine, but it’s a bit much sometimes. At least, in terms of repeating the same thing over and over again. Maybe we’ll see a lot of new things around here.”

I watched as we drove into the city. My little brother got excited at every passing car, and it was pretty adorable. I pinched his cheeks sometimes to make sure he wasn’t getting too excited, at the very least.

Soon, we eventually parked at our new house. Small, but it was serviceable. This was our new beginning, a new life in this new city.

“Well. Miharu. Yoshio. This is our brand new home. I hope we enjoy our stay here.”

***

“Huh?”

I blinked. I looked at Yoshio. He looked at me back, cluelessly. He didn’t see what I just saw. My memory… it just told me. Yoshio… my brother?

How come he didn’t remember me, then? How have I known him for this long without even dragging a single trace of this into my memory. Did I really… did I really forget my own brother…?

“Is there something wrong, Ms. Ghost Lady?”

“No, no. It’s… it’s nothing.”

I shook my head. I couldn’t worry about that right now. There was something else that was way more important.

“Bullshit, that it’s nothing! We’re trapped in here for who-knows how long!” A shrill voice shouted behind me. I immediately turned around, placing Yoshio down and stepping in front of him. Emerging from the sea of souls and onto my island, was the familiar angry face of a catgirl. Honoha.

“Honoha! You threw us into this place! This is your fault!” I shouted back.

“And I’m not staying another god damn week in this place. I don’t want to fight off souls that want to tear me up for lunch! I just barely managed to tame one! But I can’t find an emotional resonance that’ll allow me to cut my way out of here.”

“So, what? Are we just stuck here then?”

“No, it’s simple. I’ll just make one.” The girl threw her knife into the air and caught it, before pointing it at me. “No matter which one I’ll have to use. Yours, or the boy’s.”

“What?” I said.

“Ms. Ghost Lady? What does she mean?” Yoshio asked.

“It means that I just need to get your negative emotions strong enough so I can carve my way back into the city! And the best way to do that is…”

“Like hell I’m letting you do that, Honoha! We’re finding a different way out of here!”

“I’m not sifting through the sea of souls again! I’m getting out of here, whether you like it or not—!”

BANG!

A ringing came into our ears as Honoha went flying above our heads, before crashing onto the other side of us. The scent of gunpowder filled the air as a hole in the sea of souls surrounding them burst open.

“I knew following that girl would lead me somewhere. Seems like I still have some of your juice in this thing, even without you attached to my body.”

The two of us looked in surprise, but also relief. A true familiar face, especially in this sea of torment. The messy brown hair, the persistent and annoying shotgun, and the fake-confident bravado.

“Akina Fudo! At your service. Let’s all get out of here while we still can, yeah?”