“May all that have life be delivered from suffering…” the burnt, obese monk uttered again.

Tomoe felt a cold chill run down her back.

—Again… It’s another one of those monsters. How many of these things am I going to see!?

She had been experiencing bizarre encounters throughout the past two weeks. They ranged from ghostly voices in the bathroom stall next to hers to images of a man walking down the street with a noose around his neck. She had been trying to brush aside those instances as stress-related hallucinations, but this was the first time Tomoe had seen something like this so close.

“Ai, do you see this guy in front of us?” Tomoe asked nervously.

“My scanners and cameras do not detect any lifeforms within my line of vision, Tomoe? Is everything okay? Should I call your mom?”

“No, no… Well, I don’t know! J-Just go!”

Tomoe spun on her heels and began to run back the way she came. There was another path to the train station that she knew of. Taking off as fast as her legs could carry her, she sprinted up the road as Ai sped after her.

“Tomoe, wait! What’s happening!?” Ai cried out.

Tomoe didn’t answer back. There wasn’t any way Ai would believe her, so she concentrated primarily on rounding the upcoming corner down to the park nearby.

—Why is this happening!? It’s just like that thing, on the night… that Junko…

Her chest heaved, but not from exhaustion. Panic swept over the teenager as memories of her dead friend flooded back from the pits of her mind. Now wasn’t the time, she told herself mentally.

It couldn’t afford to be.

Shifting her weight, she made the sharp turn on foot to lose the disturbing man. Without stumbling, she continued down the narrow trail surrounded by house paneling and brick walls. Trees and a field were in sight! From there she could cut across the grass and a fence to reach the train station.

Breathing a sigh of relief as Ai buzzed behind, Tomoe blinked and slammed into a hard object; knocking her to the ground.

Gravel pebbles and dirt, stained her thighs and hands as she fell back. Shaking off her confusion as to what she ran into, she looked ahead and saw a bewildering sight.

Her pupils shrank as the burnt monk stood a meter ahead of her.

“Decay is inherent in all conditioned things…” the monk spoke, his voice serrated from the melted vocal cords in his throat.

Tomoe crawled away from the ghastly image, unable to take her eyes off the terrifying monster before her.

“The hell are you!? Get away from me! Help! Someone help me!” Tomoe cried out, overwhelmed by her panicking brain.

The monk stood still and smiled at Tomoe, his eyeballs swaying in the slight breeze coaxing across his brittle skin.

“…Work out your own salvation, with diligence. This I say unto you.”

Tomoe screamed as Ai hovered next to her, also frightened from Tomoe’s apparent madness.

“What’s happening?? I cannot diagnose the situation, Tomoe!” she cried.

Tomoe continued to quickly gain distance from the ghoulish monk, but still remained grounded. As she was about to get up, she felt a cold hand on her shoulder.

“It’s okay… He won’t hurt you,” a boyish voice said from behind.

Tomoe, shocked at the unknown voice, turned and scuttled to the side so she could keep an eye on the monk and this stranger.

She saw a young boy, no older than ten. He had long black hair that covered one of his eyes. The boy was dressed in a simple white kimono and looked perfectly fine, if a bit pale.

“W-What?” Tomoe squeaked out. “What’s happening to me!? C-Can you see that thing??”

“Yes,” the lad answered. “That is a yokai, a specific type called a Nuribotoke.”

Tomoe blinked as she recalled the nightmare of her fighting a similar monster two weeks ago. At least, that’s what her brain rationalized it as.

“A… yokai?” Tomoe asked.

“Yes! Young human… it would seem as though you can see spirits!”

Ai looked at Tomoe, then at the boy. A puzzled expression loaded onto her avatar.

“Spirits? Yokai? What is this boy talking about? I didn’t sense him anywhere near us until a moment ago…” Ai asked quietly.

—It was all real… Everything that happened? Unless I’m dreaming still. Yeah, I’m still dreaming! My alarm will go off any second now, ghosts can’t be real.

As if reading her thoughts, the Nuribotoke teleported next to the boy. The sudden act elicited a squeal from Tomoe as Ai didn’t react at all.

“Get away!” Tomoe yelled, raising her fists and trying to kick at the monk.

“No, stop!” the boy pleaded, shielding the monk from harm. “Harming a Nuribotoke is terrible luck! You’re actually very lucky to meet one, you know! Besides, I happen to be friends with this particular Nuribotoke. His name used to be Kurobou in his previous life.”

“P-Previous life?” Tomoe and Ai said in unison.

Ai looked around, unable to see Kurobou. She hovered close to Tomoe and turned her volume down.

“Are my sensors malfunctioning, or is this Kurobou invisible?”

“Oh, he’s just shy! He only appears to those he wills, right Kurobou?” the boy responded.

The monk clasped his hands together and nodded.

“A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity…” Kurobou uttered eerily.

The boy smiled sadly and patted the charred yokai’s exposed shoulder.

“Him and I are both dead, you see. I just exposed myself to your automaton there so she wouldn’t think you were entirely nuts,” he explained. “I was poisoned by my mother in the Heian period… but Kurobou here wasn’t so fortunate.”

Tomoe stood up, brushing herself off.

“What happened to him?” Tomoe asked the spirit.

“The same fate that befell all Nuribotoke. He was a priest who dedicated his life to the Buddha, but along the way, fell prey to the sins of the demon Mara. Mara despises the Buddha due to their past, so he gets revenge by tempting his faithful servants.”

—Demons… and Buddha too!? So everything I was taught by my grandparents was true?!!

“Back in those times, monks who indulged in heretical sins like Kurobou here were disgraced and burned at the stake. All Nuribotoke are forced to spend their afterlife guiding others towards salvation, with the only things they can speak being the wise words of the Enlightened One,” the boy finished as Kurobou smiled and nodded.

“I see…” Tomoe said. “But, how am I supposed to believe that you’re a spirit too? It’s not like you’ve got eyeballs hanging out your skull like him! Maybe this really is some elaborate prank, or a TV show?”

The young spirit sighed and simply disappeared briefly before reappearing again. Tomoe gasped in disbelief as Ai began to run self-diagnostics, believing she was malfunctioning.

“This is insane… insane. That night weeks ago… I really can see you things now,” she gasped.

“It usually happens to humans who experience magic first-hand, which is quite a rare occurrence I think!”

“I’ll take your word for it…” Tomoe said apprehensively as both spirits stood silently. “So that monk is Kurobou, but what about you?”

“Oh! I’m so sorry!” the boy bowed. “I can’t remember my original name anymore, so I call myself Hitotsume! Pleasure to make your acquaintance!”

“I’m Nagata…” she said, still suspicious.

—Can’t remember your name? Please, who’d forget something like that? These two might be spirits or hallucinations or whatever, but they could also be just like those same ones that killed Junko.

Ai finished rebooting and looked around to find everything was the same.

“So this really is happening! Apparently we discovered a new species! Should we report it to the government?” Ai chirped happily.

“No, Ai! Restrict ever doing that, okay?” Tomoe said seriously.

“Restricting!” Ai responded with glee.

Tomoe turned to face the two spirits.

“So wait a sec, does God also exist then?” Tomoe exclaimed with questioning eyes.

“Mhm,” Hitotsume replied.

“God exists, Tomoe! Do you want to report this to—“

“Restrict, Ai!”

“Restricting!” the android squeaked cluelessly.

“I see, well… I have a lot to think about. You’re telling me demons and ghosts and… and gods are real,” Tomoe sighed, shaking her head. “I have to get to school…”

Kurobou and Hitotsume exchanged quick glances.

“Before you go, can I ask you a favor? You see, spirits like Kurobou only appear to people with discord in their souls and—“ Tomoe cut Hitotsume off before he could continue.

“Sorry, but like I said, I have to get going. My elders always said don’t talk to strangers and I’m pretty sure nothing is stranger than you two,” Tomoe shot back. “There’s nothing in my soul, in my mind or in my heart that you need to know about. So buzz off, I can’t afford to be tardy again.”

Ai hovered in place with a perplexed expression as her owner walked past the ghosts and continued on her path toward the train station. The android was silent, looking at the boy and back to Tomoe. Once it was clear that she wasn’t returning, Ai’s virtual avatar bowed to the boy and flew after the teenager.

The boy and the monk stood in place, not even turning to look back at Tomoe.

“Humans are as fickle today as they were a hundred years ago, aren’t they Kurobou?” Hitotsume sighed before turning to his yokai friend.

“The greatest prayer is patience…” Kurobou uttered with a smile.

Hitotsume turned to the monk, somewhat surprised.

“You think she’ll be capable of finding peace, even after that? How you stay so optimistic surprises me.”

“For the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world…” Kurobou said, his voice hoarse yet kind.

“I see… You’re right… I’ll keep an eye on her. Make sure she stays out of danger, you know? As long as she doesn’t see me it should be fine.”

As Tomoe made her way through the trees and dry leaves on the dirt, Ai finally caught up with the girl.

“Tomoe! That was very rude back there! Why would you say such things to that boy, he was just trying to help you?”

Tomoe said nothing, only trying to concentrate on reaching her destination.

—I’m sorry Junko… I can’t... I… Are you a spirit too? A ghost like them? A fate like that, away from heaven and stuck here like them… That’s even worse than death. Is any of this real anyway? Maybe… Maybe I am losing my mind.

Tomoe sniffed and blinked away the urge to cry. The train station was in sight. That’s all that mattered.

—Maybe I should just… No! That stupid-ass kid, thinking he can talk to me like that. Trying to read my thoughts and feelings. What the hell gives them the right?! Stupid… stupid!

“Tomoe? I can sense that your heart rate has elevated, are you stressed?”

“No!” Tomoe turned and shouted, tears running down her face. “What’s with everything today, just readin’ me like I’m some open book!? I’m fine! I’m perfectly okay!”

Ai’s avatar blinked and looked somewhat sad at her friend’s outburst.

“Should I… leave you alone?”

“No…” Tomoe said, immediately regretting snapping at her android. “I’m sorry, just… let’s get the ticket and have some silence, okay?”

“Yes, Tomoe,” Ai said. “Accessing your train pass…”

As Tomoe and Ai entered the station’s perimeter, Ai’s avatar changed to flip through what resembled a thick scrapbook. Finding her intended target, Ai flew beside Tomoe and gave her a thumbs up.

“Your seat has been reserved, Tomoe! We’re sitting in Row C, Seat 2.”

Tomoe nodded as they approached a swarm of people on their way to work and other locations for the day. Blending into a sea of suits and uniforms, she and Ai walked into a white corridor and descended down a flight of stairs.

After two sets of stairs, they reached the underground metro where her train was waiting.

“Come Ai, we gotta move fast!” she said, spotting the train marked for her school’s district.

The student and robot squeezed past others with a string of apologies and thanks. With a sense of relief, they managed to step past the platform and onto the train. Everyone was already seated or standing inside, so Tomoe didn’t need much time to find her seat’s location.

Luckily for her, the surrounding seats were empty. She disliked sitting next to others she didn’t know anyway. Right now she just wanted some time to reflect.

A chime rang over the speakers within the train as the doors hissed shut. Seconds later, the train began to crawl out of the station before picking up speed.

Tomoe sat as Ai stopped hovering and landed on the table in front of her owner’s seat.

“I’m just gonna update in the meantime, okay?” Ai said, her avatar looking up at Tomoe.

“Okay, Ai. Have fun,” Tomoe responded with a weak smile.

Ai’s screen powered off as a yellow light glowed on her chassis. Tomoe sighed audibly and put her feet up on the seat next to hers, resting her head atop her fist.

—I don’t deserve to see you again. I don’t… and I can’t.

Junko was buried at a cemetery not far from the academy. She had attended the funeral, but left prematurely. It helped release her from her obsession. The conclusion was in front of her at that moment, after all. Her best friend was dead. She wouldn’t come back, at least that’s what she thought.

The killer was still at large, the real killer. That person the police arrested was some kind of patsy, she always thought it. But now, suddenly the supernatural existed. A whole new world with rules she couldn’t comprehend. The killer possessed weapons and powers beyond the imagination of mankind.

She felt defeated. Crushed. Every time she tried to rationalize the events of that night in the forest, she couldn’t. But thinking of them as real only brought a sense of fear and confusion.

Tomoe sighed again, brushing her arm against her tear-stricken cheeks to wipe away the evidence.

—I couldn’t protect you… and I can’t even avenge you. What am I supposed to do?

For once, her mind was blank without her trying to force away thoughts or memories. Nothing came to her as the train’s speed rocked her body side-to-side slightly.

—I’m too weak.

She looked down at her lap, then over to Ai’s resting form. Closing her eyes to reduce the stinging from the tears, Tomoe took a deep breath.

Words echoed into her mind as she exhaled softly. Words she had heard earlier that day.

—“Work out your own salvation, with diligence…” What does that even mean?

She tried brushing it away like the rest of her irksome thoughts, but it didn’t budge.

“Damn ghost…” she cursed under her breath. He was telling her to find her own salvation, forge her own path. It reminded Tomoe of similar words she heard as a child. Words from her father.

—“Strength is a gift, Tomoe… But not one to be handed away. Not one to be bought or sold. It is a gift you must toil to create through hardship and perseverance. That strength will never fail you and it can never be stolen.”

“… Ai, wake up.”

The android’s screen blinked on as the avatar looked at Tomoe.

“Yes? Are you okay?”

“Send a message to the school that I’m sick.”

Ai gasped in surprise.

“Oh my gosh, you’re sick!? I—”

Tomoe laughed and stood up as the train slowed to a stop.

“I’m not actually sick, Ai,” Tomoe said calmly. “I just have somewhere more important to be.”