The robot looked up at Tomoe with her big, cartoonish eyes and blinked.

“Where are we going then that’s more important than school? The dentist?”

Tomoe signaled for Ai to come, prompting the small rectangular android to rev up her motors and fly over to her owner.

“We’re getting off here. I’m going to the cemetery,” Tomoe stated.

The schoolgirl walked across the aisle as two suited men got off the train ahead of her. Taking a step off the bullet train, Ai hovered behind her until they caught up.

Tomoe breathed in the fresh morning air as the doors hissed shut behind her.

—I’m starving though... I shouldn’t have skipped breakfast.

Sighing as she submitted herself to another instant breakfast, she walked across the station to a large vending machine. It had a touch-based interface for customers to select their item of choice. As she approached it, the entirety of the machine’s surface revealed itself as a screen. A swirling animation of many colors all spiraled into a single orange shade that covered the high-definition surface, displaying the company’s logo.

—These stupid ads, god. Why can’t we have a vending machine that just skips straight to the menu?

She tapped her finger to the scuffed and smeared surface, swiping through options until she found a hamburger.

“Your mom said not to have those anymore, Tomoe,” Ai said in a lecturing voice.

“Yeah yeah, we all gotta die of something. Maybe when I’m dead I’ll come back as a hamburger ghost?” Tomoe said, turning to Ai with her hands raised in a mock-zombie pose.

“I fail to understand how that would work, Tomoe.”

“Ugh, nevermind. You must be fun at parties,” Tomoe cracked sarcastically.

The schoolgirl selected her method of payment and within ten seconds, a door in the machine’s screen slid open to reveal a steaming hot hamburger waiting for her. The screen changed to show an animated girl winking and waving goodbye with a drink in her hand, same as always.

Tomoe snatched up the fast food and crammed it into her mouth as she continued on through the station. She wasn’t too keen on the mayo they added, but it went well with the fried egg on top. Not too bad of a choice overall, but it wouldn’t be her next go-to item.

Exiting from the train station, Tomoe continued out along the sidewalk as a few people walked by her. Not wanting others to worry about Ai accidentally bumping into them, she held up her hand.

“Ai, return.”

“Yes Tomoe!” Ai responded, landing in the palm of her owner’s hand.

The rotors on Ai’s chassis retracted back into their shell, reducing Ai’s size drastically.

“Shall I eject my earpiece for you?” Ai asked, looking up at Tomoe.

“Sure, that’d be nice. Thanks.”

With her confirmation, a small earbud popped out of Ai’s shell and into Tomoe’s palm. Picking it up, she put the earpiece on while sliding Ai into her pocket.

“That’s better! A little dark though,” Ai responded into Tomoe’s ear.

“Mmpf-hmm,” Tomoe replied, in the middle of chewing her food.

Finishing the burger with one final bite, she crumpled up the wrapped and tossed it into a passing trash receptacle. Taking the time to wipe her mouth with the back of her arm, she crossed the street and took a right.

A woman who was stationed in front of a building smiled at her, presenting a package of pocket tissues as she walked past. Tomoe ignored the woman to the best of her ability, trying not to make eye contact. As she looked down, she spotted a few recycling droids no larger than Ai herself with blinking yellow lights. They beeped audibly over the traffic every few seconds, sucking up litter and other debris.

One of the droids nearly ran into Tomoe, prompting the girl to lift her foot in time to avoid it running into her.

“Stupid thing!” Tomoe snapped at the robot, causing it to look up with its white brick-shaped head. It quickly scurried off, showing off the Fukuju company logo printed on its back.

“I’m sorry?” the tissue lady asked, looking at Tomoe.

—Shit!

“No no, I just meant the… the robot, heheh,” Tomoe explained awkwardly, eliciting a sympathetic smile and nod of understanding from the lady.

Tomoe walked ahead with the cemetery in sight, feeling a tingling sensation in her burning cheeks.

“That’s karma for ya! Can’t be calling my brothers and sisters stupid now,” Ai said to Tomoe.

“Where’s your mute button again?” Tomoe replied back.

The noise from the streets seemed to die down as she approached the entrance to the cemetery. It was a traditional cemetery, not one of the vertical mausoleums from the Shinizu Pyramid or a light vault like the ones in Tokyo. It had high walls with clean stone walkways. On both sides were obelisks of shimmering polished granite, detailing the names of the families entombed there.

She walked along the path quietly. There was no one in sight, not even a monk or gravekeeper. That was alright with her though, as she had enough of seeing monks for one day.

“Which one is Junko’s?” Ai asked, unable to see.

They were approaching it, the family marker at the very end. She continued slowly; as if wishing to prolong the experience or perhaps even delay it.

“It’s here…” Tomoe said with a hushed, somber voice.

The Takagi family grave, having three names etched into the eternal stone with wooden sotoba stakes planted into the dirt behind it. The names of Junko’s mother and father were filled in with red paint, a technique used to denote them as living. Only Junko’s name was missing the paint, now depicted with the freshly washed black carvings.

“It wasn’t fair what they did to you, Junko…” Tomoe said quietly, taking a step up to the obelisk.

She knelt down on her knees, the stone surface slightly burning her flesh after being heated by the morning sun.

“And… it wasn’t fair of me. I said I would never abandon you, but I did! I-I left you here… while they buried you. Your best friend, and I was too weak to even stay.”

Tomoe heard the earpiece click off, as Ai felt this conversation should be left to her owner and the spirits of the deceased. Tomoe was glad too, as she felt tears begin to fall down her cheeks.

“I… don’t… I don’t want you to go, Junko. I feel so lost and alone, you-you were the only person who wasn’t scared or… or weirded out by me,” Tomoe said as her hot tears fell onto the grave.

“And now… I don’t know what to do without you. I don’t want you to be de—…”

Stopping herself to wipe her nose, a soft whimper escaped from her lips.

“I found out that I can talk to ghosts… And-And I think, maybe… I was given this power to help bring your killer to justice. It has to be for a reason, right? I mean, a spirit with eyes hanging out his head told me… You probably would have thought that was cool.”

Tomoe chuckled to herself slightly and sniffed.

“I just want to let you know, Junko… That no matter where you are, or even if you can hear me… You’ll never be alone. Never again.”

Tomoe placed her fingertips against the kanji that spelled out her best friend’s name. She tried to remember the face she saw that night, the face of the killer. But try as she might, it escaped her.

“I’ll find whoever did this. I’ll make them pay, for what they did to you and those other girls. For what they did to those families, taking their children away!”

Her fingers trailed off the granite, curling into a fist.

“And… I’m gonna do it for myself too. I can’t just give up and let more people die. I have to gain the strength needed to stop this, no matter what it costs.”

She wiped tears off her face and for the first time, looked up at the tower in front of her and toward the shining amber clouds in the sky.

“I’ll carry on your spirit. I swear it to you, Junko… because I… I love you.”

A small smile grew on her tear-stricken face. She felt a weight lift off her soul, a sense of peace coursing through her body. Only the slight breeze made a sound to break the silence as it wound through the trees.

“Tomoe…”

Her eyes widened, darting around to look where the unknown voice came from. It sounded like Junko, but all she heard now was the wind. Nothing remained in her line of sight.

“Junko?!” Tomoe called out, waiting for a reply.

None ever came to her. However, as if answering her call with something else, by some power, the last of her clouded memory came to her.

—“My dear little waif, you’re in hell~♥”

The face of a girl flashed into her mind, with eyes like the rind of a rotten lime. A purple braid hung along her shoulders as heavy ring of speckled blood decorated the underside of the figure’s eye sockets.

“What… who is this?” Tomoe said to herself as another memory filled in the cracks of her mind.

—“Junko? That was the name of the last mark I killed, so yes. I suppose I am~! Heeheeheehahahahaha!!!”

The laugh of Junko’s killer wreaked havoc throughout her heart and being. It wasn’t a human laugh, nothing with a soul could produce such a callous display of merriment in the suffering of others.

—“Blame the human who hired me if you feel so spiteful.”

Flashes of her punching the androgynous figure across a cave bombarded her, along with the two that accompanied her that night. A man with dark, disheveled hair bound in place by a crimson and jade headband.

—“She’d want you to live, not die alongside her!”

Those were the words she heard from the man that night. The man named Mura. She remembered looking at him, covered in dirt, blood and tears. She remembered the words she spoke to Mura.

—“Promise me… that you’ll help me kill him.”

Everything returned to her. The demons she fought, the fact Mura was a demon. The name she overheard from the killer’s lackey, who so proudly declared their deaths in the name of his master.

“Shuten… Your name is Shuten.”

A sense of finality washed across her as she felt the power and adrenaline leave her body. Tomoe felt faint, the deluge of emotions taking its toll on her mentality. Her eyes felt heavy and swollen from the shed tears.

Within the fuzziness of her addled mind, the schoolgirl heard a voice utter her name as she briefly shut her eyes.

“Tomoe?”

The voice wasn’t Junko’s. It was someone else’s, someone familiar to her. A man’s voice, one that was strong yet calming. She felt a hand touch her shoulder, as if to see if she was alright.

“Tomoe!”

It was louder now, someone was shaking her as another voice talked in the background.

“Not so hard, she isn’t a bottle of steak sauce!”

Tomoe’s eyes cracked open as she turned around to see a familiar face to match the words she had heard.

“I-It’s you!” Tomoe gasped as a man and a young girl stood before her.

“Long time no see, Tomoe!” Mura said.