Katawa Shoujo Forums

ShadowHunter23 wrote: Anyway, the story seems to be taking a turn for the best

It all goes to hell from here

and perhaps Emina could be Haruka in another body.

Emina is way too old to be a reincarnated Haruka, but i did briefly consider a body swap by way of drug induced brain death. But that'd be unfair to Emina.

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BD Reanimation: The Ghoul
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”It's beautiful.”

“I know, right? There aren't any places to watch a sunrise like this back home, huh?”

I didn't really think there was anything special about that sunrise. It was nothing compared to the faces the angel above me made when we became one.

Haruka and I spent the morning after our experiences with each other on the roof of the school's main building. On the same bench that Emina and I would eventually share lunches, we huddled close together under a blanket. With Haruka's body pressed so close to mine, I experienced familiar feelings that up until then I did not understand. My heart was hurting just by being next to her. But it was a good pain that only felt better whenever we were together.

I had experienced these feelings for some time, but hid them away because they confused me. They felt wrong. But now, it was okay. I was allowed to let my heart burn for her. We were in love. She wasn't my girlfriend. She was beyond that. She was my everything.

After spending more glorious moments together back in her room, we got dressed for our date in town, after which my parents would come by and take me back home. She wore the beige sun dress that she would eventually wear throughout my memories to come. It was a cheap, visibly worn piece made out of a bumpy, wrinkly fabric that clung to body and was cut low enough to expose some of her scars. Not much to look at on its own, but on her, it made her look like everyone's ideal girl-next-door.

Haruka and I were finally where we were meant to be. After that day, she came back home to visit me almost every weekend.

Six months later, she was dead.

...

“Yoohoo! Earth to Kato. Kato, do you read me?”

“Yeah, I hear you. What?”

Unsurprisingly, Rokurou was expelled from Yamaku as soon as he regained consciousness. The school had a zero tolerance policy for drug trafficking and abuse, unless you're within Hasegawa's sphere of influence. Yoshiko replaced him as my study partner in class. She might have been an annoying opinionated dyke but at least she could carry her own weight when it comes to schoolwork. Usually.

“Oh! I know that look on your face! Have you killed him yet?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

We were supposed to be helping each other rehearse our role playing as historical figures. I was going to make a speech pretending to be Vlad Dracula. Yoshiko was going to be Sappho of Lesbos. Seriously.

“That's the look of someone who's about to go on a killing spree of vengeance!”

“Well yeah, Vlad was a pretty brutal dude.”

“No I mean like, something personal. I've seen it before.”

“Where?”

“In movies, like you know, when the samurai guy or gunfighter gets betrayed by his masters and goes off to avenge his family and kill everyone.”

“Tachibana, those were actors who were faking it. You probably wouldn't know that look you're talking about if you really saw it.”

I swiped Yoshiko's hand mirror to get an idea what she was talking about. Rampaging vengefulness? No, not yet. More like seething anger. Barely contained rage, tops.

No, my master plan, should It happen, wasn't going to happen until tomorrow, September 20th, some annual end-of-summer fireworks festival. The town here has festivals and holidays for just about every occasion. I imagine that hundreds of years ago, the village elders got together over some sake and set out to make up as many festive ways to get drunk as possible. This event commemorated some historic battle, but in reality I think it was an excuse to ignite the fireworks left over from all the other local holidays.

I didn't have lunch with Emina that day. Beyond getting thanked for watching out for her, we didn't talk much since I spent the night... er, morning in her room. She said that she was going to have her friends take her to see a counselor or something. It was the least they could do after dragging her to that party and somehow losing track of her. I did feel some relief that things were out of my hands there.

I wouldn't have wanted her around to see what I was going to do.

After unloading almost my entire stock at near-charity prices and dumping what I wouldn't sell down the drain, I stopped by the pharmacy and told Hasegawa that I wasn't feeling well and that I would be out of commission for a while. He replied with “No worries” and later informed me that Masashi bought up my reserved inventory and had picked up my slack.

A virtuous man would've just flushed everything down a toilet instead of making one last fast profit, but then again, a virtuous man wouldn't have been selling drugs to begin with. It was my loss alone, anyway. I paid up front and didn't have any outstanding loans.

Besides, Hasegawa wasn't going to make a single yen from me ever again.

That night, I cleaned my room. Aside from my gun, a single carton of ammunition, and a bottle of Phenobarbital, you'd never know a pusher lived there. I considered writing letters to my parents, but I had nothing to say to them that they would listen to. I wanted to write a letter to Emina, but I just couldn't commit a single word to paper.

After doing my homework just to throw off anyone who would eventually retrace my activities this week, I set aside three freshly cleaned and pressed outfits for tomorrow. First, my usual school uniform, second, my most anonymous set of street clothes -a gray sweatshirt and jeans, and finally, my best suit for special occasions.

That night, I slept soundly in my bed for the first time in memory. I didn't dream of anything, and that was just fine with me.

The next day, Saturday the 20th, I cheerfully conducted myself in class, thoroughly creeping out Yoshiko. At lunch, I saw Emina again. And here's where it got weird. I was actually happy to see her again. Now, I wouldn't say that I was starting to care about her, but it was nice to have her company. She was still quietly distant but she did say she was feeling better.

After school, we met up again for an early dinner, which we ate in the cafeteria. It was a mellow, pleasant day. Perfectly suitable for one's last.

After seeing off Emina, I headed back to my dorm. On the way there, I stopped by Masashi's room to see if he could render some assistance. My newly realized friendship with Emina left me worrying about what she would think of me after today. Otherwise I wouldn't have cared if I died with my pants down and surrounded by freshly sheared sheep. The less Emina knew of my grand finale, the better.

Besides, Masashi owed me big for selling the roofies to Rokurou.

I pushed my way through the unlocked door and found Masashi in his usual evening state, curled into the fetal position in one corner of the room. Next to him was an empty plastic bottle filled with some sort of translucent residue, along with several expended tubes of modeling cement.

“Yo! Kataoka! Are you dead?”

“Hrmph... yeah, Coach...”

He was more responsive than usual today. Once Masashi keeled over onto the floor and started snoring, I rummaged through his dresser. I took the liberty of borrowing his two-way pager and his gun. I never bothered with pagers or cell phones for business. The less business related encumbrances, the better.

As for Masashi's gun... oh boy. It was a heavily weathered thirty-two caliber revolver with traces of orange paint in various spots on the frame. The barrel was chopped down to almost nothing and been bored smooth to remove obstructions, suggesting that it was a benign starting pistol in a past life. A spot on the grip was filed off, probably where it said “Property of Yamaku Academy Athletic Department.”

Could this thing really shoot? It had to. I didn't want to use my own piece. The cops here might not be able to catch a cold on their own but I couldn't take any chances. After tonight, my name would be all that remained. I wanted it to be as clean as possible for Emina's sake.

On my way out, I took out Kataoka's pager and punched in a message for Hasegawa.

“BIG DEAL LINED UP. I NEED MORE OF EVERYTHING. DETAILS LATER. HAVE MONEY.”

After a few minutes, I got a response.

“COME TO MY OFFICE DOWNTOWN AT 9”

On the bus heading to town, I ended up stuck next to “Sappho of Lesbos” and some college chick she was with.

“There! See, Eri? That's the boy I told you about. Doesn't he look like he's about to go on some quest for vengeance?”

“Yeah, wow. Just like in that movie we watched last week, except he's not a Latvian prostitute...”

“I know, right?”

I responded with a laugh that apparently creeped them out.

I didn't bother arguing with Tachibana over the expressions I was making. This time, she was absolutely right. That night, I was going to avenge Haruka, myself, Emina, and all those kids who got sick from Hasegawa's pills. Hell, I might as well avenge Rokurou too. The poor guy probably ended up short-handed from all those steroids. No wonder he preferred his women unconscious.

There was no way I could lose. Even if die in a blaze of futility and disgrace, I would still get to see Haruka again. I just couldn't go unless I tried taking care of those loose ends.

Mr. Hasegawa's office away from school was situated in a quiet commercial area away from the busier parts of town. Unfortunately, it may have been too quiet. A gunfight there, even with the fireworks going on, would definitely attract attention.

“Hey kid, aren't you going to light firecrackers tonight?”

“No, I don't have any.”

“Well, that's no good,” I told the boy while handing him a wad of cash from my pocket, “you can't have a festival day without fire crackers. Why don't you go to that stand over there and buy everything you want.”

“A-Are you sure? Do you anything from there, Mister?”

“Nothing for me. Go ahead and spend it all. Just be sure to light 'em up when the rest of the fireworks start.”

“Thanks!”

That settled that. Provided the kid doesn't just take the money and run, I should have a decent distraction.

At exactly nine, I knocked on the door of Hasegawa's office and was let inside. The fireworks should begin at any moment.

Hasegawa's office served mostly as a stockroom and a transit point between the school, his suppliers, and the nearby hospital.

“Odd. I was expecting Kataoka,” Hasegawa inquired while dipping a cotton swab into a small bottle of “medicinal” cocaine from his personal reserve and inhaling deeply with it up his nostril. “Did something happen to him?”

“Oh, no. I just borrowed his pager since you weren't at the pharmacy.”

“I see, I see. I take it you're feeling better. What's with this big deal you're telling me about?”

“Actually, I'm going to go back home on some family business for a while. Turns out there isn't any competition out there.”

“Expanding into new markets eh? Whatever book you're reading, hold onto it.”

Hasegawa cheerfully opened up his safe and used the keys inside to unlock some metal cabinets that lined the walls.

“What do you need?”

“Umm, the usuals, plus Fentanyl, Ketamine, Paxil, Adderall, and...”

“...And?” he asked, crouching down to fetch my order.

“...And Flecainide.”

Hasegawa slowly raised his head to ask for clarification, only to stare up at the barrel of my borrowed gun.

“What's this all about, Kato? A robbery? What do you need the heart pills for?”

“I've got a broken heart.”

I wished Tachibana was around. She would have been able to tell me if I'm making one of those grim smirks that 1980s vigilante action heroes made.

“I see,” he replied with a heavy breath while his eyes darted around looking for a way out. “A girlfriend?”

“Something like that.”

“Tell me, Kato...”

Hasegawa was obviously buying time, which was just fine by me. My fireworks haven't started yet. I kept my eyes on his hands and feet, just in case.

“...How did she die?”

“What? She got a heart attack from taking your rotten pills, that's how.”

“But how do you remember her, Kato? As a nice piece of ass, still in her prime? Or a withering invalid, wasting away in a hospital bed?”

“Well, uh.”

Hasegawa slowly got up, confident that he had full control of things again.

“I'll bet you two ended on a high note, probably fucking each other's brains out, huh? Aren't you glad that your last memories of her are pleasant ones? If only we all could be fortunate enough to not see death coming.”

Off in the distance, I heard the town's main fireworks display begin. But where was my backup?

“Cut the bullshit! She trusted your drugs to make her better, but you killed her instead.”

“Please, if anything, I probably gave her peace before she even felt any suffering. You should thank me.”

Finally, I started to hear a chorus of popping and screeching from across the street.

“Thank you.”

“PLACK!”

With a twitch of my finger, Hasegawa's eyeball was somewhere across the room. With the firecrackers still raising hell nearby, I emptied Kataoka's gun into the carcass. Shots from the modified starting pistol seamlessly blended in with the racket outside. My own gun might have too, but I wasn't sure.

There was no time to relish my victory. Frantically, I emptied some of the cabinets and scattered pills everywhere, then grabbed money out of the safe. If anyone saw this, it would look “drug related.” Hell, if you really think about it, it was. Briskly, I walked back into town, dumping the piece and the pager into a canal.

Kataoka served me well. I never did see him after that. I wondered if the police pinned him to Hasegawa's death, or if they just chalked it up to being a drug deal gone bad. At the very least, he must have been a person of interest if they ever found his prints on the gun and the pager last used to contact Hasegawa.

It didn't help that he was never the sort of person to have an alibi better than “I was fucking stoned.” Either way, Yamaku's biggest supplier of knock-outs was now out of commission, as was his supplier.

Back in my room, I got ready for my trip. I didn't think much more about what happened at Hasegawa's office. I must have really become a cold blooded sociopath that night. I totally freaked out when I found that I might be loosely connected to Haruka's death, yet I was breathing easy after just killing a man and probably destroying another. I had gone beyond the event horizon and become a complete robot.

In the hours before sunrise, I sat in my chair and remained still, savoring the mere sensation of being alive, trying to mentally record in describable detail just what it felt like to breathe, blink, be cold, to feel itchy...

The sky outside slowly brightened up to a bluish gray ahead of the sun. With my best suit on, I marked one more X on the calendar. Sunday, September 21st. Haruka's 21st birthday, incidentally.

My pistol went back to its hiding place. If someone finds it in the future, they'd never know it was mine. With mechanical stateliness, I glided through the empty halls and made my way up to the roof of the main building and sat on my bench.

I was done. I came to know that clearing Yamaku of its monsters was the one reason I continued to exist long after I've given up on life. With that out of the way, all that there was to do was leave.

There was one more demon to slay. The one who killed Haruka and raped Emina through apathy: Yuki Kato.

Smoku wrote:Oh and... guns are so easy to get now, are they?

I love this story. It's so serious and morally good.

Well I wouldn't say morally good, you have drugs and attempted rape and our main character here killing someone here. Is it sarcasm you're saying?

And er, I might accidentally skipped something but I didn't remember our dude raping Emina... did he?

Smoku might be referring to the end of the story

Xuan wrote:I didn't remember our dude raping Emina... did he?

Nah, he didn't. He just blames himself for what happened.

kosherbacon wrote:Smoku might be referring to the end of the story

yeah, this.
You'll see.

Yeah, the ending is a bit cliched, but dammit, it was fun to write! Thank you for your patronage. Two extra sorta-omake(cuz I'm a fucking weeaboo) chapters from Emina's perspective coming tomorrow or later in the week.

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BD Reanimation: Dirge
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As I popped open the bottle of Phenobarbital, I gave surprisingly brief and belated thoughts into what I'm leaving behind. With the mess downtown, the school was probably going to go through total shakedown and reevaluation of the medical care it provides. Hell, I might even shut down Yamaku. Wouldn't that be funny? As for the lonely corpse on the roof, he was probably just another one of those “if only we reached him in time” cases; a secretly troubled youth who obtained sleeping pills through the cracks in Yamaku's drug network.

And what about Emina? She has friends, so she'll be fine as long as she doesn't find out just what sort of person I was in life. That was the real reason why I wanted to cover my tracks last night. Not for my sake. Or my reputation. But for Emina's peace of mind. If it was just me at stake, I would've happily gone down, guns blazing and writing my name in blood everywhere I went.

“I'm sorry, Emina.”

Slowly, my limbs sank into crushing paralysis. Soon, I couldn't feel them at all. If I had any strength in me, I would be laughing, glad that I probably wasn't soiling myself. I tried my best to evacuate before coming to the roof.

My peripheral vision started to shrink, contracting around the growing sunrise. This must have been the tunnel of light people talk about. My body was gone. The whole world had vanished. All that was left was that distant point of light. After shrinking down to a flicker, it started to grow again, approaching closer until it had enveloped my entire field of vision.

The blinding light melted away and the white separated into blotches of warm, soft colors. The glowing patches crystallized into clarity more vivid than life itself.

...

I was in my... my front yard. Obviously, I was in Hell, because I hate this place.

“Yuki.”

“Ha-Haruka?”

Well, if Haruka was here, then it must be Heaven. I would've been happy spending eternity in a cesspit if she was there.

Suddenly, the feeling returned to my body and extremities. I threw myself off my reclining position in the garden and jumped towards the voice. There she was, better than I remembered her. Scars gone, in the dress, with her skin glowing with more life than it did in the living world. With a running jump, I threw myself into her outstretched arms, knocking us both over onto the lawn.

“Is it really you?”

“Yes, Yuki. It's me.”

“I missed you so much...”

“I missed you too,” she said with a laugh, “even here it feels like I've been waiting forever.”

“It's been so hard without you,” I sobbed. “But now we can be together forever, right?”

“Yuki...”

Haruka slowly pushed me off of her and looked me in the eyes. Her own started to fill with sadness.

“I don't want you here, Yuki. Not like this.”

“...I don't understand. I-I've got nothing back home.”

“You do... Yuki, please don't cry...”

At first, I thought she said that to comfort herself more than I. I reached up to my face and found that I had the waterworks on at full blast.

“...Do you know how much it hurt me to see you wandering around waiting to die? You could've done so much in the past four years. So much...”

“But I couldn't do any of it without you! The only thing I had to look forward to was seeing you again.”

“And you will see me again. I promise... but not today.”

“Please, Haruka! What do I have to do to?”

“Live. For the love of God, Yuki, live! For me. Do everything I couldn't. Go travel somewhere. Make up with your parents. Flunk out of college. Fall in love again. Something, anything! Whatever you do, die a happy old man.”

Suddenly, I felt pain wrap around my chest and stomach. You're not supposed to feel pain in Heaven, right? Or was this the actual feeling of death? Was I just hallucinating the whole thing?

“Ha-Haruka... I don't feel too good...”

“But you do feel something, right? You're going home.”

“Please...” I was betrayed. The woman I lived my death for was turning me down.

“...Y-You said you would stay by my side forever.”

Haruka took me into her arms and soothed me out of resenting her.

“Silly, I've always been by your side. And I always will be.”

“I-I love you, Haruka.”

“I love you too Yuki. You'll see me again. I promise.”

Haruka planted her lips on mine one more time, leaving an indelible sensation that far surpassed any I've felt with her before. For an all-too-short eternity, I was truly, truly at peace. When she pulled away, the crushing of my chest and the intense burning and churning in my stomach returned to consume me.

With a smile on her lips and tears running down her cheeks, Haruka placed me back down on the ground. Everything rapidly faded to a choking black fog. Haruka was the last to disappear.

...

“UUUUHHHLEEEECHH! HLACH! UUCH...HIH...BLAAARRRGGGHHH! GHACKGHACKGHAAACK!”

I've just gone from seeing the love of my life in Heaven... to staring at a pool of my own vomit back in the cold, harsh, smelly living world. It's official. God hates me.

Somewhere out in the rapidly clearing up blue haze that surrounded me, a figure was moving around.

“Yuki?”

“Haru...Emina?!”

“Yuki!”

Despite my rather horrid state, Emina saw fit to hug me tightly, restraining my shivers.

“Emina... I'm sorry, I...”

“It's okay. You don't have to say anything. We've both had a rough week. A-Are you okay?”

“Not really. What happened to me? Wh-Why are you here?”

“I was making your barf,” Emina replied, wiping down her fingers with a handkerchief, “to get that stuff out of you.”

“You're not supposed to do that for an overdose, dummy. You're supposed to turn me over onto my side and call for help.”

My rude response made Emina jump back. I sure am an ungrateful bastard, huh? Ashamed of myself, I took Emina back into my arms. I was frozen and weak. I needed her warmth to sustain me.

“I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you.”

“Just,” Emina sniffled while stretching her tiny jacket around me, “don't do anything like that again, okay? If you need help, I'm here for you. L-Like you were for me.”

“Don't say it like that, like you owe me. We're even... wait no. You did save my life. So I guess I owe you, huh?”

Emina laughed gave me a water bottle to rinse out my mouth.

“Thank you. Is there anything I can do to pay you back?”

“Just get better. The counselor I've been talking to is really nice. We can go together. But yeah... we gotta get you to the hospital to get that junk out of your stomach.”

Me? Talk to a counselor? I think my biggest issues have been pretty much resolved. I saved the world, saw Haruka, and my new best friend ushered me back to life. That chapter of my life is pretty much closed. Though, I guess there will be questions asked when I get my stomach pumped later. I guess I'll dig up some bullshit about not getting along with my parents. That'll probably work.

“What were you doing up here anyway? Where's your chair?”

“I used my crutches. I wanted to see the sunset. I was going to call and ask you to come. When I came up here you were already on the ground.”

“Why would you want to see a sunset with me?”

“Because... I wanted to. Oh, and another thing, Yuki...”

“What's that?”

“Happy Birthday.”

Emina pulled me down by the collar and inspected my face for sick. Satisfied that I was clean enough, she gave me a quick peck on the lips.

“So, birthday boy, what do you want to do after the doctors are done with you?”

“Well, I don't know if they'll let me out right away. I guess if I act cheerful and tell them it was an accident... Umm. I don't know, Emina. What would you like to do?”

“Oh! Have you ever used a Ouija board?”

While we waited for an ambulance at the nurse's office, I wondered how much of my old way of life was going to survive the end of the day. The mental image of a grim teenager permanently plugged into techno music made me laugh. I had just realized that don't even LIKE electronic dance music. Suddenly I realized that... I liked things! The clouds in my head lifted to reveal that I enjoyed cookies, the color green, nature documentaries, and high-tech gadgets. And you know what else I like? I think I like... Emina.

Emina complained that her crutches were too hard to use and that I'll have to carry her up stairs as soon as I got better. Pretty cruel, considering that I was literally dead a few minutes earlier. I didn't complain, though. I don't mind having her around me at all.

In the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of beige fabric and slightly tanned skin flare out and disappear.

“Thank you, Haruka.”

-End-

Ahhh, I can't even complain that it's too short! Damn you!

kosherbacon wrote:It all goes to hell from here

The fourth chapter really sucked for Yuki but in the end, his life is saved by Emina and probably got her as his girlfriend. Though, there's one thing that keeps me from saying it's a happy ending for Yuki. God may just give him a hail storm of shit in the end because of what he did.

ShadowHunter23 wrote: God may just give him a hail storm of shit in the end because of what he did.

Yep, he's got a lot to atone for. This will be addressed later.

Hell, I've got a lot to answer to as well. I just wrote a fanfiction that was basically a love story between a sociopathic drug dealer and a dead pedophile.

Anyways, here's some extra chapters. The first I actually did before the main story, just to get a feel for the characters, then the other I did afterwards to flesh out Haruka(har, har) and make Emina less one-dimensional. If you do not like POV changes and supernatural shit like ghosts floating around talking to people, then wait till the next update which will come very soon.

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BD Reanimation Pre-Extra: Necromancy
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“Is Aki fat?”

The three pajama-clad séance participants tensely planted their fingers on the Ouija board's planchette and stared at each other in the flickering candle light. The girls' fingers twitched as the marker moved slowly across the board.

“YES!” Hotaru shouted, her bad eye rolling backwards into her eye socket. “Aki is a fat pig!”

“HEY! You pushed that!”

“Nope,” Yui took a puff of her inhaler and clarified, “what you saw here was the work of the spirit world. If that's what the ether of the universe says, then it must be true.”

“Well, ghosts can lie!”

The serious metaphysical discussion in room 143 continued at a fever pitch until Emina returned from the vending machine in the common room with a tote bag containing the drink orders. Behind her was an unfamiliar older girl with short, brown hair and long bangs.

“Why do I have to be the one getting the drinks?” Emina complained to her hallmates after setting the door's chain and putting her crutches aside.

“Because,” Aki replied, “you're the host and we're the ones doing you a favor by exorcising your room of ghosts. Who's that anyway?”

“Oh, her?” Emina pointed at the stranger with her thumb. “I ran into her on the way out. She helped me carry the drinks, unlike you people. By the way, thanks...”

“It's Soro, Haruka Soro. And you're welcome. What are you guys doing here in the middle of the night? A pajama party?”

“Well, Miss Soro Haruka Soro,” Hotaru replied, “you may not be aware of this, but we are tackling the Seven Curses of Yamaku High. We haven't had any luck with numbers one to three, so now we're working on the fourth. There's a ghost lurking the halls of this floor.”

“Seven Mysteries?” Haruka scoffed. “I LOVE this cliché! Every school I've ever been in had some fun ghost stories to tell.”

“I-It's not a joke,” Emina Shivered, “I've seen it. Shadows in the shower room, the smell of watermelon even in the winter. Sometimes when I'm alone in this room, I could feel someone breathing on me.”

“Sounds more like you have a stalker who wears watermelon flavored stuff. You really ought to lock the door.”

“So are you gonna join us or what?” Yui asked.

“Nah, I'll pass on the spooky stuff. I'll just stick around with my new friend, Emina.”

Emina politely smiled at Haruka, but shuffled a bit across the floor to put some distance between them. Emina, Hotaru, Yui, and Aki circled around the Ouija board and placed their hands on the planchette, while Haruka spaced out on Emina's bed.

“Okay, now that everyone's here,” Yui asked, “what should we ask next?”

“Hey wait!” Aki interjected. “Our board is in English, right? What if the ghost doesn't understand?”

“Aki,” Hotaru said, “spirits don't have a language. They communicate through us and they understand the words and letters on the board through our own knowledge.”

“Okay,” Emina took charge, “how about 'is anyone in here with us?'”

Slowly, the marker lurched from its resting position on the middle of the board and landed on an answer.

”Yes.”

The four would-be mediums gasped in nervous amazement at the clear answer. Following Emina's lead, the girls chanted their next answer in unison.

“How long have you been on the other side?”

”4”

“Four years?” Yui questioned. “I'm pretty sure the Seven Curses have been around much longer than that.”

“How would you know?” Aki retorted. “Are you dumb enough to have been held back here that long?”

After Emina restored order, they resumed their séance.

“Are you a good spirit or an evil one?”

”I-D-O-N-T-K-N-O-W”

“It says it doesn't know.” Emina translated the message to the other girls, who had a hard time figuring it out.

“Why are you still here? What business do you have in the living world?”

”T-O-W-A-T-C-H”

“Ooo!” Aki squealed. “We have a guardian spirit watching over us.”

“Or just watching us in the showers.” Hotaru laughed.

“Okay okay, shut up. Next question.... Ummm. How did you die?”

”H-E-A-R-T”

“Oh my God!” Yui exclaimed. “Now all we need to do in order to find out if this is for real is to look up students who died of heart conditions four years ago.”

“Shh! Don't do something like that. You might anger her. Oh wait... Are you a female?”

”Yes.”

“Okay, good.” Hotaru exhaled with relief. “At least I don't have some dead guy admiring my goodies.”

“We've done really good,” Yui noted, “I've never gotten such clear answers so quickly before. This has got to be the real deal.”

“So what should we ask next?” Aki asked.

“Well,” Yui concluded, “we might as well unlock this mystery while we're on a roll.”

The girls exchanged glances and nodded before asking the big question.

“What is your name?”

”S-O-R-O-H-A-R-U-K-A”

“S-s-So...” Yui rubbed her chin as she tried to pronounce the ghost's answer. “Wait! Haruka Soro? Aw jeez, after all that buildup, it turned out to be a joke, which one of you rigged the answers?”

“Hah, very funny, guys. Did you hear that, Soro?” Emina looked up at her bed, only to be horrified. “H-Ha-Haruka? Hey, guys. Did anyone hear Haruka leave?”

“N-no...” Hotaru said, “the door never opened. The chain is still there.”

“H-H-Haruka?” Emina called out. “You can come out now! You got us good. We're really scared.”

After not getting any reply, the girls turned on the lights and searched every nook and cranny of the room. With their exhaustive search a failure, the girls stared at each other as they tried piecing together the situation.

“BWEEEEEEEEKKK!!!!” They all screamed, scrambling for the door with their hands fumbling all over each other trying to open the locks.

The girls dispersed out the doorway and into their rooms. Emina hobbled her way out with her arms around Hotaru's and Aki's shoulders and took refuge in Hotaru's room.

As the paranormal detectives hid under their blankets within the safety of their own fully illuminated rooms, Haruka stretched out on her old bed and relaxed.

“What's their problem, anyway?”

================================================================================================================================
BD Reanimation Extra: Vivisection
================================================================================================================================

In the dank confines of her room, Emina lit the final candle required by the spell. On her floor was a pentacle surrounded by ancient runes written in chalk. In the center of her evocation circle, she placed a picnic basket. Its dense and heavy contents were covered in a black cloth. She knelt in the middle of the circle in front of the basket and raised her Damascus steel dagger and chanted the spell she found on the Internet. Fully entranced with the dark magic that flowed through her being, she swung down her dagger into the basket. The blade struck with a thump, then pushed through, making curdling sounds as red fluid splashed up through the cloth and soaked her hands.

”Iway amway away upidstay ittlelay irlgay
owhay uysbay intoway agicmay ullshitbay
Iway eednay otay etgay away ifelay andway opstay
earingway ackblay ipsticklay.

ymay anagermay atway innaboncay avegay emay away aiseray
emay ovelay ouyay onglay imetay Soro Haruka.”

And.... Nothing. Emina frustratedly threw off the “authentic druid necromancer robes” and grumbled at her latest failure. She had not seen her “roommate” since the Ouija board incident. If it wasn't for the eyewitness accounts of her friends, she too would have had doubts of her existence.

Emina hopped back up on her bed and opened up the yearbook from 2005 that she borrowed from the library. Haruka was in there. So she was definitely real. So why won't she come back?

Her sulking was short lived, however. Just as Emina was about to fall asleep, she heard messy churning and crunching sounds from the sacrificial basket.

“Is this watermelon? It is! I LOVE WATERMELON!”

An apparition wearing a Yamaku uniform materialized in Emina's room.

“Haruka! You're real! I knew it!”

“Of course I'm real. I'm just... eh? What's with the voodoo stuff? You might burn down the building with all these candles.”

“Um, just practicing necromancy.”

“You know, I've been told that this sort of thing is a crime against nature. An abomination, in fact.”

“I-I'm sorry.”

“It was sweet of you, though. What can I do for you?”

“I was wondering if you could answer some more questions,” Emina flipped open the yearbook and pointed at a picture. “Is this you in here?”

“Ew, I wish it wasn't. I was totally breaking out that day...”

“So... you really are dead, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“So why do you...”

“My turn!” Haruka hopped up on Eminas bed and leaned against her, leaving a numb, tingly sensation on Emina's shoulder. “Why are you here all alone? Where'd your neighbors go?”

“I-I'm not sure. I guess something happened at the school, because they've been setting aside each homeroom to be interviewed by police and counselors and stuff, then sending them home one at a time until further notice. My class got dismissed yesterday but my parents have been overseas on business so I'm staying here.”

“Wow. An extra vacation and you're stuck in the dorms? Bummer.”

“It's fine,” Emina's eyes drifted to the floor while she nervously twiddled her thumbs, “I had some studying to do...”

“You didn't do all this hocus-pocus just to ask me some questions, did you?”

“No... I'm... I'm scared of being alone.”

“And you're not scared of hanging out with dead people? You're weird.”

“Well, it's different when I can see you. At least I know you're there.”

Haruka brushed Emina's cheek with the back of her hand.

“You're scared of something worse, aren't you?”

“I don't really want to talk about it.”

“I know; I saw what happened. Are you okay?”

“Yes... No.”

“Do you have someone to talk to about this?”

“I've been seeing a counselor at the free clinic in town but, I don't know. She seemed really helpful at first but now she just keeps asking the same questions over and over again. 'How do you feel? What happened? How do you feel?' My answer isn't going to change no matter how many times you ask!”

“What did your parents say?”

“I haven't told my parents yet. I keep putting off calling them, telling myself that I'm just going to wait till I see them in person but I think I'm just scared that they would just freak out and pull me out of school.”

“What's wrong with leaving the school?”

“Nothing, I guess. But I like it here. I've got friends now and nobody stares or talks behind my back because of my legs. And what happened could've happened anywhere, right?”

“Well, I suppose so,” Haruka conceded. “Do you have anyone else to talk to?”

“Um, I guess there's Aki, Hotaru and Yui but they don't really understand. They try to be helpful but I guess they just can't get it. When they found out, they just got all quiet on me like I might die if they say the wrong thing.”

“Maybe they feel guilty about talking you into going to that party with them and leaving you behind.”

“I suppose. They said something about that but I told them I wasn't mad. I just want things to go back to normal. I don't want to be handled like I'm all brittle, you know?”

“Well, if you need someone else,” Haruka replied while petting Emina's hair, “I'm always here.”

“Thank you,” Emina smiled. “Aside from Yuki- he's a friend of mine, you've probably seen him here once- you're the only one I really feel comfortable with now. But Yuki is hurt pretty bad already. He doesn't need my crap to add to his ow... Oh jeez. I've been talking about myself this whole time when I was supposed to be asking you things.”

“I don't mind. What do you want to know?”

“Well, first, let's get this out of the way,” Emina took a deep breath. “I can tell you're obviously attached to this room, so... D-Did you die in here, on this bed? I know it's a weird question but I've been having trouble sleeping since I found out you lived here.”

“Nope. I left somewhere between the school's gym and the nearby hospital. I do miss this room, though. I lost my virginity where you're sitting.”

“Ew!” Emina jumped off the bed and wiped herself off as if she was contaminated, hopping on her leg.

“Relax,” Haruka laughed, “I'm pretty sure the mattress has been changed a couple times since then.”

Emina reluctantly sat back on her bed, but not before checking for some spectral emissions.

“So... you had a boyfriend. Is he still alive?”

“Yeah,” Haruka finally showed signs of sadness, lowering the ambient temperature of the room noticeably. “I-I... I broke his heart and he lost his way. He only started getting better recently.”

“It's not your fault, though. You couldn't help what happened to you.”

“I know,” Haruka cried, her tears falling with slow-motion onto the beddings, where they vanished. “Still, I keep thinking that there had to be things I could've said or done with him to make sure he'd be okay without me. I'm sorry, but... this is still a really hard subject for me. Do you have anything else to ask me?”

“Uh, yeah,” Emina mumbled while trying to wipe Haruka's cheeks, which were lukewarm and dry to the touch.

“What's the meaning of life?”

“That's easy,” Haruka answered, warming the room up. “We're all here for each other.”

“What do you mean?”

“Every soul on Earth has built in gaps that they could not fill on their own. As a result, everything we do is an incomplete action. The only way to fix our natural defects is to seek out others and fill those gaps with each other, like a jigsaw puzzle. From the start, we're born injured and hurting. We can't make ourselves better; we need each other.”

“Wow, that's so... deep.”

“You think so? I just made it up!”

Emina fell back on her bed, cracking up at Haruka's improvised philosophy.

“So what about your family and stuff?”

“I check on them once in a while. My aunt and uncle are doing fine. My parents still need help, though.”

The two girls from opposite ends of the universe continued chatting through the night. For a dead person, Haruka was awfully talkative. Emina's wrist started to cramp from writing down her roommate's life story. Their conversation carried on through the night into the early morning.

“Hey, aren't you tired?” Haruka asked, catching Emina nod off to sleep several times.

“I am but... I want to stay up. I've got a once in a lifetime opportunity here. The spell expires at dawn!”

“You know, that magic stuff you've been doing doesn't really work. Not on me anyway?”

“Really? Then how did you...?”

“I like you, Emina. You're fun to hang out with.”

“So you won't disappear in the morning?”

“Not unless you want me to,” she obediently replied.

“Hey, Haruka...? Can you stay here with me? I don't like sleeping alone.”

“Sure. Just don't try having your way with me while I'm asleep.”

“You sleep?”

“Sort of.”

Emina found that sharing a bed with someone without any body heat did have advantages. She could use all of her blankets without getting sweaty and stifled. Despite her unusual choice of a guardian, Emina slept soundly for the first time since she had Yuki watching over her. To her relief, Haruka was still there in the morning.

“What are you going to do today?” Haruka asked while Emina was changing.

“I dunno. I guess I'll go to the library and get some studying done. Maybe go check on my beehive.”

Haruka paced around the room for a few moments, then stopped at the sudden realization of something.

“Hey, Emina, you remember what I said last night about people needing each other? Let me leave you one more bit of wisdom from the cosmos. ...You should go.”

“What?” Emina turned and asked just as Haruka disappeared. Someone was knocking on Emina's door.

“Yuki! You're back! How are you feeling?”

“I guess I'm okay,” Yuki pointed at the bandaged spots on his arms. “I've had all kinds of stuff pumped into me and out of me for the past few days. They say I'm physically okay, though.”

“And mentally?”

“That's why I'm here, Emina. I'm sorry.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I'm really messed up in the head,” Yuki confessed to Emina, putting his arms around her and making her drop her crutches. “I'm probably going to have to leave this school.”

“No, you... you can't go! You're not the first kid to try killing himself. Tell the officials that you're better!”

“It's not up to me. The vice principal said that I'd be allowed to return to class only if I have my parents' permission and approval from a psychologist.”

“Well, what did your parents say?”

“They freaked out,” Yuki grimly laughed. “Actually, I think this is the first thing I've ever done to provoke any real response from them. Maybe I should do this more often...”

“Don't do that! Your parents love you. I know they do.”

“Thanks, Emina. I'm sorry about all this. I just wanted to say goodbye before they pick me up today. We should exchange addresses and...”

“Let me come with you!” Emina shouted, realizing the meaning behind Haruka's cryptic instructions.

“What?”

“I was there. Maybe I can talk to your parents and explain some things to them that a school counselor couldn't. I saw you trying to die and I know how much pain you were in. But I also know that you're feeling better now and that you wouldn't do it again.”

“You don't understand, Emina. I'm really fucked up. I'm a monster.”

“I don't care!” Emina whined, “I know what you used to do and what kind of person you used to be. But I also know that you protected me and that you wouldn't do any of those horrible things again!”

“But... why?”

“I need you, Yuki. And you need me. You see, people are incomplete. We can't help ourselves completely. But we can help each other.”

“Where'd you hear that?”

“I read it somewhere?”

“That's funny. My friend used to say stuff like that.”

“So can I come with you?”

“I guess if I can show my parents that I actually have friends now,” he said with a shrug, “they might let me return to this school.”

...

Later that night, Emina opened the window to the upstairs guest room at the Kato household to investigate a humanoid silhouette lurking around outside.

“Haruka, wh-what are you doing in Yuki's house? I thought you were stuck the the school?”

“I'm from here too,” she replied while munching on a bag of corporeal cookies. “Anyways, I come back here a lot to visit myself. The neighborhood kids bring me cookies sometimes. Want one?”

“It's pretty good,” Emina noted, munching on the chocolate-chip cookie.

“It should be. It's my recipe. So how are things going?”

“Better, I think. When the school reopens, me and Yuki will start going to therapy together. I told my parents and my mom is flying back home to check on me.”

“That's good,” Haruka floated in. “Is something still bothering you?”

Emina yanked open the old, derailed drawer on the night stand and picked up something she found earlier in that room.

“I think I understand now,” Emina said, clutching the framed picture of Yuki and Haruka.

“So, you know that...” Haruka uneasily floated backwards, slowly.

“You're Yuki's sister, right?”

“Eh? Uh. Um. Yeah, sure. Something like that...”

“I knew it! So now that me and Yuki are closer, you can rest in peace, right?”

“Wha? I've already moved on a long time ago. I just like to visit a lot.”

wait till the next update which will come very soon.

And by very soon I mean now! Yeah, I HAD to get this story out of the way.

================================================================================================================================
BD Reanimation: The Executrices
================================================================================================================================

Finally, some peace and quiet. A girl of no more than twenty-five finally shooed away the middle aged man and woman who've been hovering around me all night. Don't these people have families to attend to? With my room empty and the windows curtained up, all I had left to distract me are the ceiling fan and the godawful hum of the fluorescent ceiling lights. I hate the buzz of lamps. It's probably the least romantic sound in the world.

I stretched out and cleared my throat for the evening. It's a bit hard to stay comfortable on these cold and slippery bed sheets but I managed. I was so tired, I could probably fall asleep in the front row of a baseball game. I nodded off for a moment, only to be interrupted by the soft footsteps of another intruder.

“Hello, Yuki,” my former wife warmly greeted from a chair next to me. “How are you feeling?”

As much as I hated visitors, Emina was a very welcome sight. Her auburn hair lit up the room far better than the ceiling lights, which had finally warmed up and went silent. The fan had inexplicably died, allowing the room to fill up with the heat of her radiance. It had been years since she looked that good.

“I've been worse,” I replied. “I'll live. How long has it been?”

“It's been about two and a half years since we've seen each other,” she answered.

“I've missed you. You're not going to be a tease and visit just to say 'Hi,' are ya?”

“You're still a jerk,” she chuckled, “but I still love you. I guess now's a good a time as any to say I'm sorry.”

“For what?”

“Leaving you.”

“Don't be sorry about that. I was probably hell to live with.”

“That's not true! You're all that's been on my mind since we parted ways. I want to go back to the way we were.”

“We did have fun back in the day, didn't we?”

Emina and I caught up on old times, starting with our friendship and occasional dating spanning from high school through college, to our eventual falling into love soon after graduating. Back then, we savored every moment we had as innocent lovers who had nothing to worry about but each other. Eventually, we became fully entrenched with each other and had no choice but to get married.

Well, maybe I worded that wrong; “no choice but to” sounds unpleasant. We did have a choice and I know it was the right one. Things were so idyllic before they came to an end...

Eventually, the conversation rewound back towards a grimmer subject, the earliest days of our friendship and our lives before we had each other. Even to this day, I still have trouble talking about things from that far back. But alas, all good things come to an end: life, love, marriage, and even this pleasant conversation. I didn't want the idle chit-chat to end, ever, but there are things that have been gnawing at my heart since I was sixteen, things that have been killing me from the inside all these years. There was no telling when I'd see Emina again. I had to spill things then or else I probably never would.

“Emina, I have to tell you something.”

“Yuki, you don't have to,” she replied, almost as if she knew what I had to confess.

“Do you remember back in high school? You were in your first year and I was in my second?”

“W-What about it?”

“I've done bad things.”

“I know. I know that you're the one who took care of the guy who hurt me back then. That's nothing to confess about. Any good friend would do the same thing.”

Tears brewed at the edges of my eyes as the knot worked its way up my throat. Emina's breathing got deeper as she braced for impact.

“No, i-i-it's worse than that,” my cracking voice leaked out, “I..I.. I killed a man, Emina. In cold blood! I planned things out, I covered my tracks, and shot him right in the eye! You remember when we were all sent home for a couple weeks? That was me! I did that! I...”

Emina's face didn't move or shake from her straight, neutral expression.

“I know. I've known all along.”

Suddenly, I couldn't bear to look at her anymore. There I was, a murderer, while she had the grace to pity and forgive me when it wasn't her obligation to.

“And you're okay with it? Emina, you married a murdering psychopath.”

“No, I didn't. Yuki, when I realized what you've done, I had to think really long and hard about it and I decided that I was fine with it. The man you killed was the real killer. We all trusted him to make us better but he fed poison to children instead.”

“And I enabled him. I bought up the extra drugs he was able to buy with the money he pocketed... and... and I sold them, myself! It's because of people like me that you almost got raped and Haru...”

“And you think somehow you killed Haruka too?”

“I might as well have. I can't say I'm sorry enough for everything. I've been living a lie all these years. You should hate me.”

“So all we've had together is a lie? I don't believe it.”

“Please don't forgive me, Emina. I'm a monster.”

“No you're not. You could've been one, but you aren't. You could've just kept selling dope and lining the pockets of a poisoner but you stopped and put and end to that rotten business. You could've continued your rampage and killed everyone who ever wronged you, but you didn't. You know what you've done since then? You've become a decent man that the world was better off having. Between the happiness you've brought me and our family, you have nothing to atone for.”

“Don't treat me like some kind of saint, I'm not done confessing yet.”

“What else is there?”

“There's been someone else in my heart. There's always been someone else there.”

“Are you talking about Haruka?”

“Y-Ye...”

“Tell me, Yuki, suppose Haruka never died but just went to live far away for many years. Suppose we got married like we did and settled together. Would you have left me if she came back and wanted to be with you again?”

“N-No.”

“Good. That's what I wanted to hear. I know she left part of herself with you and can never be replaced. But understand this, not for a single moment did I ever feel like a replacement for her. I know you love me. People aren't supposed to love just one person their whole lives. Hearts have room for different kinds of love for many different people. I've never felt like what we had was lacking.”

Emina got up and kissed me softly. Just looking up into her comforting eyes, I could feel my grief, guilt, and angst melting away. Suddenly everything was okay.

“Come on, Yuki. Let's go home. I want us to be together again.”

“Are we going or what?” a long gone but never forgotten voice complained from behind. I must have looked absolutely ridiculous grinning from ear to ear after hearing my other guest, especially after what was just said.

“Are you ready to come home with us?” Haruka asked, walking around my bed to face me.

“Yeah, let's get the hell out of here!” I excitedly shouted, jumping out onto my feet.

With a girl holding onto each hand, I swiftly exited my sterile, stark room to go walk in sunshine. I looked over my shoulder at my old companion, an old man of about ninety, with whatever color he had left quickly draining from his face.

Next to his bed was a framed family portrait. Pictured were the old man, his wife, one son, one daughter, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Must have been one hell of an adventure.

They'll be fine.

-End. Seriously.-

Needless to say, any further stories from these characters will happen before this chapter or in an alternate universe.

OoO, this is the first time I see a break up that is zero effective.

Highly awesome read, despite the lack of funnies ^_^

...

Hey, you don't -always- have to make me laugh to appreciate a good story >_>

I aww'd. And sniffled a little. Very bittersweet, yet at the same time heartwarming. For all your eccentricities (cough cough), you really are a superb writer.

Glad y'all liked it. What you just read was the result of my conflicting desires to give Yuki an actual happy ending, or just kill him off. Then I realized that with that crazy bastard, the two things weren't mutually exclusive and went for the OT3 ending.

Edit: Smoku pointed out that grad school might not exist in Japan as I know it. As of now, Yuki and Emina fell in love shortly after graduating college, after being friends and dating off and on since high school.

Edit 2: Apparently there is graduate school in japan but hardly anyone ever goes through it even though most universities have one. Not going to change story, just wanted to show that I do my homework, albeit a bit late.

That was beautiful man.