I’ve Been Lost Before. You Are Not Alone

I decide to take a little break from fast travel and leave the house like a regular person.

Once I’m out the door I head down the sidewalk skipping and spinning around with glee.

Ah, I feel so accomplished!

I wish I could celebrate with some strawberry ice cream or maybe even some wine.

Oh! A nice medium steak would be great.

At this point I’d even settle for a glass of milk and a candy bar.

My skipping starts to become a slow walk.

OMG I just realized I haven’t eaten anything since I got here two days ago!

Well really, it’s been four years since I last ate.

I know, I should have an offering at my grave.

Is it still there?

I know you’re not leave food there but, I think Shinichi left a can of something there.

I mean it’s supposed to be for me after all.

I don’t even care if it’s coffee as long as it’s something I can taste.

Can I really even drink it if it’s still there?

Only thing to do is try it.

It’s worked out for me well so far.

OK let’s see if there’s anything still there.

Well, so much for my little temporary ban on fast travel.

I close my eyes and think of my gravestone.

Once I open my eyes I am standing in front of my gravestone.

Here I am, I see my flowers and incense container is still here.

I look around and there is a lady a few graves over from me.

She looks as though she is crying.

Well, I’m a ghost so it’s not like she can see or hear me.

I glance back at my gravestone.

Oh, there’s the can still on top.

It’s a can of milk tea!

He knows me so well!

I let out a loud “Woohoo!”

“Is someone there?” I hear a voice let out.

Oh! She heard me!

“I’m sorry I disturbed you.” I let out instinctively.

Wait! She HEARD me!!

“You can…see me?” I ask her.

“Yes, I can.” She lets out softly.

“I assume that means you’re a ghost like me.”

“Yes, I am or so that’s what God had told me I would be. My name is Hiroko Asagiri (朝霧弘子), I am very pleased to make your acquaintance.”

She gives a deep bow.

She’s about my height with shoulder length wavy hair.

“I am so happy to be able to talk to someone directly. Oh, I’m sorry I’m Michiru Kinzawa. How long has it been since you arrived?”

“I have only just arrived from my visit with god. I’m sorry you saw me in such a state. It was just a little too much for me to see my own grave.”

She speaks in a very calm and polite manner, especially in contrast to my own tomboyish way.

She looks to be only a few years older than I was when I died.

Maybe in her late twenties.

“It’s ok I totally understand.” I reassure her. “I felt about the same way when I first visited mine.”

“Oh, how long have you been here, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“It’s been about two days now but, also four years since I died.”

“I see, I suppose it also has been four years for me as well.”

I glance over at her gravestone.

“Yup, it sure has been four years. I wonder what the significance of this time is. If you don’t mind me asking what did God have you come here to do?”

“It would be no imposition at all. I suppose I should start from the beginning.”

“Sure, if it’s not a problem.”

“Not at all. My husband, Hideki (朝霧英樹), and I had been trying to have a child for about two years. Finally, after suffering a couple of miscarriages I able to carry a child. We were so happy. About three months before my expected date, I had slipped coming out of the shower and hit my head. It was a minor injury but little did I know it was somewhat the cause of something greater. As the date of our son’s delivery approached, I was experiencing a number of headaches. The doctors said that it was due to a concussion from the slip I had exacerbated by the stress of pregnancy. The day of our son’s birth I died midway through. God told me it was due to something called a Colloid Cyst in my brain that was benign but came dislodged when I hit my head. During childbirth it ruptured and I died. Hideki and I never decided on a name but he combined our phonetics and decided to call our son Hiroki (朝霧宏樹). God also told me has the strong possibility grow to become a very important doctor using new technologies to develop new and influential lifesaving surgical techniques.”

“But isn’t your son like, four years old right now? Isn’t it a bit early for any of that?”

“That was what I had mentioned as well. I don’t fully understand it myself but, God mentioned that there was to be a series of events that would threaten not only his future but his life as well.”

I’d like to say this just a coincidence but, given who sent us here…well yeah, it’s no coincidence we met and have similar missions.

I have a good idea why we are standing here together.

Guess I better get into senpai mode.

“I have a feeling we were supposed to meet each other. Are you gonna be ok doing this?”

“I will admit my initial feelings of being able to see my husband and the son I never met clouded by judgement into accepting this duty.”

“Oh, I totally get you. I guess I should give you my background a bit and it might help you out.”

“If it is no trouble for you I would very much like to hear it.”

I tell her about Shinichi, the accident that killed me and everything I did for Takahiro.

It really felt like I was narrating a recap episode of some anime series.

“Wow I would never have thought to move things around like that and going to places in an instant is way beyond anything I would have thought about.”

“Aw, I’m sure you would have figured it out eventually.”

“I was just an OL and then became a housewife waiting for our son to be born. I am sure I would have wasted my blessings on something so trivial.”

She pulls out an origami crane.

Well, that’s an interesting shape.

I wonder what the story is behind it.

“I totally understand luckily, I had already had an experience that may put you at ease a bit. I used one of mine to try to find the boy I saved only to not have it not disappear.”

I pull my five remaining coins out to show her then continue.

“My thought is that the blessings, are used for something that will cause a significant effect to the people associated with it.”

“That is very interesting and quite good to know. I just wonder if I really would be able to come up the ideas that you do.”

“Hmm.” I let out as I start to think about how other people would feel being put in the same position.

“I got an idea. I’ll be right back. I promise I won’t leave you.”

“O…okay, thank you very much.” She says and gives me a bow.

I close my eyes and think of my room.

I open my eyes and here I am.

I head over to the bookshelf and focus myself to grab a book called, “Ghosts, Spirits and other apparitions – Tales of encounters with those from the afterlife.”

Once I lift it off the shelf, I hold it to my chest and then close my eyes once again.

Opening my eyes, I’m back next to Hiroko…chan?

I know she’s older than me but I am her senpai.

I guess just Hiroko will be fine.

Such formalities always bothered me.

“Welcome back, Kinzawa-san.”

“No need to be so formal. Just Michiru is fine.”

“Then please call me Hiroko.”

“Great! Now, I went to get this book. It was one that I was interested in a long time ago in middle school. I don’t think everything in here is true but, it makes sense to me now that I’m an actual ghost.”

“I see. So, you learned everything from here?”

“Not really. I guess I just wasn’t afraid to try anything I thought of. Here, you try to pick the book up.”

I set the book on top of her gravestone.

“Oh! I went right through it. It is not as easy as you made it seem.”

“Okay, try again but, this time imagine yourself picking the book up.”

She reaches out to grab the book with both hands and picks it up.

“I did it, Michiru-san! I mean Michiru.”

“Great work! But you can also be able to open the book and read it. You can have the book.”

“Oh no I could not accept something like this.”

“No worries at all. I got it for 100-Yen at the discount store anyway. I guess the thing to say is you should be careful reading it in public though. To everyone else it’ll look like a book floating and changing pages by itself and that is kinda creepy don’t ya think?”

“I think I understand what you mean.”

“Let’s try something out. Hold your hand out.”

“O…okay.” She puts her right hand out to me.

I reach out and try to grab it.

My hand meets hers and it is as solid as when I held the book.

“Whoa! I can feel you! No way!”

“Um… I can understand your enthusiasm but do you still need to hold on to my hand?”

“Oh, I’m sorry but, can you close your eyes for a second? I want to try something else.”

“S…sure.”

Once I see that she’s closed her eyes, I think of another place Shinichi and I were going to visit.

“Ok now open your eyes and tell me what you see.”

She lets out a gasp. “Is this the real Stonehenge?”

“Nah, it’s actually a replica that was built in the US as a memorial to those that fought in WWI. I came across it when I was doing research to go site seeing with Shinichi.”

“Amazing! I never knew such a thing existed. I wish I could have gone site seeing more with Hideki.”

“I know it’s not much but, you can visit places you always wanted to go to just by closing your eyes and thinking of the place. Here give me your hands again and you think of a place you wanted to go to.”

“O…okay. Here I go.”

I close my eyes and wait for a sign that we have arrived.

“I can’t believe it! It is more beautiful than the pictures made it out!”

That’s my sign to open my eyes and we are standing in a moderately sized pool of water that is the bottom of a very stunning waterfall.

The sun is shining brightly and the plants are ones you would find on a tropical island.

“Great job! See you can do it too.”

“Thank you so very much! I saw this waterfall in a travel book for Hawai’i. I believe it was called “Sacred Falls.” I thought it was so beautiful and wanted to visit it someday.”

“Hawai’i huh. Good choice.”

It seems she’s happy with her choice as well.

She wanders around the pool taking in the sights.

I guess one thing nice about being ghosts is we won’t have to dry our clothes from all this water.

She comes back to me and grabs my hands.

“Thank you so very much! You have taught me so much!”

“I am glad to help. Shall we go back now?”

“Yes. I am ready.”

We grab our hands again and close our eyes.

We open our eyes and we are in a girl’s room.

It is Yokoyama’s room.

She is laying, belly down, on her bed using her phone, doing something.

“I am unfamiliar with this place. I thought we were heading back to the gravesite.”

“I forgot two last things. As you can see, I got us here by not thinking of a place but of a person. It has been four years since you saw Hideki so he may not be living in the same place he was then. Thinking of a place to go to can only get you so far. The first few times you may not be as exact as I was getting here but that changes as you use your abilities.”

“Thank you very much again. However, you mentioned two things and you only mentioned one.”

“You’re paying attention. That will help you a bunch. This girl is, as of now thanks to my meddling, the girlfriend of the boy I saved from the truck that killed me.”

“Oh, I see. But why are we here?”

“Going to places and picking up things is great and all but the real power we can do is “touch” someone and hear their thoughts and also enter their dreams to relive past memories.”

“Whaaat?! No way. I would feel like I am invading their privacy.”

“I get ya but, remember we’re ghosts now. They can’t see, hear or feel us. We were sent by God to help them and we need to use everything we can to do it. We have to think like ghosts now. Not those mean ones though. We used to be nice people after all, right?”

“I…understand. Yes, I think it is probably better this way.”

“Right! We’re here to help them because they’ve lost their way toward the bright future waiting for them.”

“You are right. I am sorry this is still a lot to take in but, I understand now.”

“Great! Now let’s try this last exercise.”

I walk over to Yokoyama.

I glance over her shoulder and notice her chatting with Takahiro.

This ought to be fun.

I hold my hand on her back.

“Now, you just put your hand on the person maybe just breaking the surface of their body. Once you do that, close your eyes and let everything just flow into you.”

I hear Yokoyama’s thoughts.

Oh! These are some very juicy thoughts.

Takahiro is gonna have his hands full for a long time.

I take my hand away from her and walk back to Hiroko.

“Her thoughts were about thinking of things to say to her boyfriend while also thinking of things to do with him in the near future. As you can see there’s no reaction from her. Okay, now you try it.”

She takes a deep breath and walks over to Yokoyama and slowly puts her hand on her.

She takes another deep breath and closes her eyes.

“OH! Oh my! Oh my oh my oh my! These emotions are quite intense and…this girl… she is quite shameless.”

I swear if we still had blood Hiroko’s face would be red from embarrassment.

I can’t help but let out a chuckle.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help myself. You’re always so stiff and scared. I wanted you to relax a bit but, the goal of this exercise is done though. The flood of emotions can be lessened the more you get used to using this ability.”

“The imagery not withstanding I thank you for your tutelage.”

She gives me a bow.

“Glad to help. Now you know pretty much what I know. I guess the only other thing to go along with this last bit is you can use this ability to enter a person’s dreams and relive their memories as I mentioned before. It’s not something to try out now but, it’s a good thing to know when the time comes.”

“Thank you, I will remember that.”

“Great! Now, let’s head back for real this time, okay?”

“Of course.”

We join hands for one last time, close our eyes and head back to the gravesite.

We open our eyes and we are for real this time, back there.

I head back over to my gravestone and get the can of tea.

“Here, I think you need this more than me right now. Drink up, collect your thoughts and decide how to continue from here.”

I toss the can of tea over to her and she fumbles it but, catches it.

She focuses and then opens the can.

She drinks it all then lets out an, “ah!”

Once it’s empty the can falls through her hands and clanks on the ground and rolls toward me.

That’s new.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I really shouldn’t be littering.”

“Don’t worry I’ll get it. You go see your family. Go, go, go.”

I make a shooing motion.

“Thank you very much. I think I will be on my way to see my husband and son now that I know I can get to them no matter where they may be.”

“Well good luck on your mission.”

“And good luck on yours as well.”

“Thanks.”

With that she holds her hands together, closes her eyes and disappears.

So that’s what it’s like when I do it.

Oh, I forgot to tell her you can’t bring objects through walls, doors and stuff.

Pfft, she’ll be fine.

Aw man, so much for my celebratory tea.

Oh well, I guess I should at least put the can in the recycle bin like a responsible citizen.

I head over to the can, bend down to pick it up and notice something shiny behind the flowers in front of my grave.

I push the flowers aside and…it’s a chocolate croissant!!

Yes! This is much better than the tea!

I grab both the can and the pastry I loved so much when I was alive.

I drop the can in the recycle bin by the exit.

I open the wrapper of the fluffy, flaky goodness and take a bite.

SO GOOD!

I missed this so much!

I can’t believe I can actually taste this let alone eat it.

My thoughts start to go to the accomplishments I had in mentoring Hiroko.

Man, am I a great senpai or what?!

I know she’ll do fine.

I did teach her after all.

Now that I think about Hiroko, maybe she’s a sign in another way.

I know I’ll never be able to find another me.

I am perfect after all but, trying to find a kind motherly type like Hiroko would be a good call.

I think his kindness and her support would go well together.

Yeah, I think I’ll have to stop avoiding that issue and look for someone.

I’ll do it after Takahiro meets with him.

For now, time to prep Shinichi for his visit with Takahiro in a couple of days.