My name is Muraguchi Shogo.

I go to Waseda Middle School (早稲田中学) and am the captain of the basketball team there. To anyone else, I can be seen as just an ordinary kid with good athleticism, but I have something that no one else has.

I can see ghosts.

The very first ghost that I saw was that of my classmate Iesada Takanori. It started during his funeral.

***

Takanori’s body was found inside a lake near a park close to our school. Because Takanori’s mother had died recently from a poor heart, people thought that he committed suicide.

The people at his funeral were all his friends from school and their families. He was a very popular kid mostly known for how smart and outgoing he was. My parents were close friends with his mother so we attended as well.

No member of Takanori’s family showed up it seemed. I heard his father left them when he was still a baby so of course he never showed up.

While everyone was grieving, I looked up at the casket and then saw Takanori. As if he had just woken up from sleeping, he stretched out his arms while letting out an annoying noise.

What?

“WHAT?!”

All the people present turned to look at me.

“Ie-Iesada-kun is alive!”

Takanori turned towards me.

“Of course I’m alive.”

But nobody else seemed to notice. I pointed straight at him.

“Iesada-kun is up right now!”

My mom came from the side and then hugged me.

“It’s okay, Sho. Takanori is in a better place now.”

Huh?

Takanori is still alive. What are you talking about?

Nobody could see him; only me.

I could see the worried look on Takanori’s face right before I lost consciousness. How could I have been the only one to be able to see him is all I could think about as I slept.

Without even giving me a time to doubt whether what I saw was real or not, the moment I woke up, Takanori was floating right in front of me.

Uwah!!

“Aha! I knew it, so you can see me! Sho, was it?”

Takanori seemed really happy.

“I think I need to get some more rest.”

I told myself before putting the blanket over myself again, but immediately, Takanori pulled on my sheets.

“Wait! Hold on, dimwit! You’re fully awake, I’m really here!”

“But then this makes no sense, how the hell are you floating?”

Takanori just lifted his shoulders as he shook his head.

“How would I know? The minute I woke up, I was in the coffin and you were screaming that I was alive while nobody else could see me.”

I looked at him in disbelief.

“Then after you went to sleep, I just followed you when your parents took you home.”

“I-I see…”

This was really too hard for me to comprehend, but it is actually happening right in front of me. It has to be real. There is a ghost right in front of me.

“Iesada-kun, did you really commit suicide?”

“…”

Takanori had a blank face in the beginning, but then he started looking around the room as he started thinking.

“I don’t think so.”

He let out a big sigh.

“I can’t. I’m trying to remember what I was doing, but I don’t ever remember being near that park.”

“So, what now, then?”

I gave him a confused look as I asked him that. He looked at the ground for a while before answering.

“Well, you’re the only one that can see me. So I guess I’ll just stick around you until we figure something out.”

He let out his hand.

“We never really talked in class, but let’s get along. I’m Iesada Takanori.”

“Yeah, let’s. My name is Muraguchi Shogo.”

I went to grab his hand to do a handshake, but my hand just went through his’.

“Hm. Let’s do an air shake.” Takanori suggested as he did a handshake motion so we just pretended to do a handshake.

“Now, let me check the other rooms in this house!”

“Wait, wait up!”

“Sho…”

He flew closer towards the door before continuing.

“I know you had no control in this, but I’m glad that someone can see me. So thanks.”

He flew through the door, leaving me inside my room in peace and quiet. I leaned back down on my bed.

What is going to happen now?

***

Just like any other day, I went to school. But this time, Takanori was floating beside me.

“Why do you wake up so early for?” He said as he started yawning.

“Do ghosts really need sleep? Why are you so tired? Anyways, I have basketball practice before classes since our big game is about to come up.”

“…oh right, our team is in the final four for the Winter Tournament, isn’t it?”

I kept walking in silence as I noticed another student from my class walking ahead.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Kanesaka Tomomi.

“Hey, isn’t that Tomomi? Wonder why she is going so early. You should go say hi.”

“I really don’t get how you can call everyone by their first names, Iesada-kun.”

“Hm? It’s just their name, right?”

“Ah how I envy your lack of worry.”

“Sho, just treat them how you want to be treated. If I want to get close to someone, I just do it.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Why are you such a worry-wart?”

“Ah, whatever! Forget you.” I started running towards the school gym.

“Hey, wait up, Sho!”

***

“Hey! Over here!”

I yelled out at my teammate. He immediately passed to me. The person that was guarding me was caught off so I took a shooting stance. I started my jump and I threw-

“Blocked!”

“Uwah!” I yelped as I was surprised by a sudden figure appearing before me. My shot air balled as I fell back.

It was Takanori. He was laughing as his prank had gone according to his plan.

“Captain, what happened there?” A teammate said as he lent a hand to help me stand up.

“My bad, a fly flew across my face.” I tried laughing it off. “Alright, it’s around 20 minutes before first class, everyone gather the balls and go get changed.”

“Hey hey, Sho. You have to admit that was pretty funny.” Takanori said while laughing.

I waited until everyone left before turning to talk to Takanori.

“We were trying to practice here, Iesada-kun.”

“That’s why I waited until the end to do that.”

I let out a soft sigh before going to exit the gym. “Okay, but I think we might need rules since you will be following me around for so long every day.”

“Rules? Like what?”

“Hm. Okay, you can’t bother me while I’m around other people, first of all. The last thing I want is for people to think I am crazy for talking to myself.”

Takanori laughs. “Okay, understood. Anything else?”

“You can’t follow me to the restrooms.”

“Come on, dude. We’re both guys, are you really that self-conscious about your body?”

“It was really awkward and disturbing when you were just talking to me while I was taking a crap in the stall this morning. And I couldn’t even yell at you because there were other people in the restroom. Just follow the rules, okay?”

“You know you could have just written a note on your phone and shown me.”

After taking a quick shower and changing, I went straight to class. Our homeroom was a little bit quieter since Takanori’s friends were sad over Takanori’s death, but Takanori seemed to be ignoring everything that was happening.

I’m sure inside, Takanori was probably really sad. He would never be able to be a normal student and live a normal life ever again. He will just be floating as a ghost for who knows how long. If it weren’t for me, I wonder how lonely it would be for him.

“Hey, Sho. Let’s go to the rooftop during lunch.”

Since I couldn’t talk during class, I wrote on my notebook. Why?

“I have something to talk to you about.”

Okay. I’ll have to go get lunch from the cafeteria first though.

“That’s fine. Just meet me up there when it’s lunch. I’m just going to wander around, it’s way too boring here.”

Got it.

Takanori nodded and then flew out of the room. I wonder where he is going right now. He also wanted to talk about something during lunch, wonder what it could be.

Before I knew it, it was already time for lunch. Nishio Ichiro, one of my friends and also Takanori’s old Math Club group mate, came to ask me if I was okay after what happened yesterday. My ‘fan’ as she liked to call herself was also there. Her name was Kataoka Aya. She was a year younger than me and comes to watch all of the school basketball games.

“Yeah, I’m good. I was just really tired so I just started seeing things.” I replied while giving a small scoff.

“You scared everyone yesterday. You were screaming that you saw Iesada-kun alive. After you fainted, they checked the body to see if he was still alive, but they confirmed that he was really dead.”

“I see. Yeah, I was just tired so don’t mind what I said.”

“…are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah! Anyways, I have to go get lun-”

“Muraguchi-senpai!” Aya yelled out.

“What’s the matter, Kataoka-san?” I asked, caught off guard by her randomly screaming out my name.

“I am-I mean, we are here for you if you need anything!” She said while looking at me with a serious face.

“Thanks, Kataoka-chan!” I put my hand on her head as I reassure her. She smiled shyly as I pat her head.

“So you can’t call people by their first name, but you can pat their heads?” A sudden voice spoke from beside me.

“Wh-!” I turned to my side and saw Takanori floating beside me. “I-It’s not-!”

“Who are you talking to? Senpai?”

The sudden realization that only I could see Takanori sank in. “O-oh no one!” I got up from my seat. “I have to go get food!”

I ran out of the classroom before I could get questioned any farther.

“You still haven’t gotten your food yet? Since you took forever to get to the rooftop, I thought you just waiting in a long line.”

“Sorry, sorry. Kataoka-chan and Nishio-kun were just worried about me.”

“Kataoka-chan? That was the girl you were petting?” I could see a grin on Takanori’s face.

“…Yes.”

“Oh ho~” The grin widened from cheek to cheek. “I see, I see~”

“She is not my girlfriend.”

“I didn’t say she was, Sho. She was cute though, I’ll admit.”

“Whatever, I’m just going to get my food.”

I just bought Yakisoba bread from the cafeteria and then we went to the rooftop. The rooftop was empty today.

“Did you know? I always came here during lunch because no one comes here.” Takanori said as he moved under the sunlight. “I just love this area.”

“I actually didn’t think this area was open. I always ate in the cafeteria.”

I sat down next to the wall and leaned back. There was a little bit of shade from the roof of the staircase room. “It is really nice up here. Even though it’s been getting colder, the sun is just right up here.”

“Right? That’s exactly why I came here. Plus, the cafeteria is just way too loud so I can never read anything there without losing focus.”

I began eating my bread. “So anyways, what did you want to talk about, Iesada-kun?”

“Just call me Takanori, Sho. Since I’m calling you by your first name, I want you to call me by mine too.”

“Well, if you really wanted me to, I guess I can.”

Takanori didn’t say anything. He was just floating there with a grin on his face.

“Are you going to tell me what you wanted to talk about or not?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, I will.”

He still didn’t say anything.

“Well? What is it?”

“I’ll tell you, but first, I want you to call me by my first name.”

“Huh?” Was he really waiting for that? Why does he even want me to say it in the first place? Is he trying to tease me?

“Ta-Takanori-kun.”

“Now remove the kun.”

“Are you having fun joking like this?”

“I just don’t get how you are finding this so hard to do. It just makes me want to pester you more!”

“Wha-!”

“Come on, just say it and get it over with.”

“Fine! Takanori!”

“There! Was that really that hard?”

I crumbled the plastic bag after finishing eating my bread. After Takanori finished laughing, he finally started talking. “I actually wanted to ask you something. Ever since I woke up, I noticed that there were these black things floating around everyone. I was wondering if you could see them too.”

“Black things?” I looked around, but aside from Takanori, nothing was out of the ordinary.

“You have one too. Right now, it’s floating near the right side of your face.”

I touched my face, but I felt nothing in my hands. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Ne-never mind, then. I just thought that since you could see me, maybe you could see that thing as well. Ah whatever. Let’s just ignore it.”

“Um are you sure?”

“Yeah! And anyways, it looks like your hands just goes through it so I doubt it’s anything we have to worry about.”

I wonder if what he is seeing is something only the dead can see. I wonder why I can even see Takanori in the first place. Can anyone other than me see him? There are so many questions that I want answered, but I have no idea how I can figure them out.

Ding dong. Dang dong.

“Oh I have to go to class. What are you going to do?”

“I’ll just sleep in class, I guess.”

“That reminds me, where did you go when you left during class?”

After a pause, Takanori answered. “It was nothing. I just wanted to wander around school since we don’t normally get to do that during classes.” Takanori seemed to be hiding something, but he probably has his reasons so I didn’t ask farther.

“Ah okay. Let’s start heading back, then.”

The rest of the school day went by pretty quick. And it was all going well until my teacher made a last announcement before ending the class. “I forgot to mention, but there will be a test tomorrow covering what we have learned the last two weeks.”

WHAT?

I could hear Takanori laughing behind me. “I guess a perk of being dead is no more tests!”

I just let out a sigh. I will need to cramp my studying tonight.

“He-hey, Sho.”

Hm? I turned to look at Takanori. His eyes were as if he was seeing a ghost. I turned to look at whatever he was looking at, but I couldn’t see anything that could scare him this much.

“What are you talking about, Takanori?”

“Tomomi!”

Huh? At first, I couldn’t see anything, but then suddenly, I could see a black ball floating near Tomomi.

“What is that?”

“You can see them now? The black things?”

“I can only see it on her though.”

“There is one on everyone here, but hers is the only one moving around like that.”

The ball was circling around Tomomi’s head. Right as the class bell rang; she stood up and grabbed her bag. Then all of a sudden, the ball started to grow.

“Wh-what’s happening?”

I have a bad feeling about this. The thing that used to be a ball was moving around and expanding in a drastic way. It looked dangerous and Tomomi was right next to it! Without thinking, I ran up to Tomomi.

“Kanesaka-san, watch out!”

I closed my eyes and then jumped forward to protect Tomomi. I grabbed onto her as we fell on the ground. I opened my eyes. I was holding onto Tomomi while we were both on the ground. She looked surprised.

“What’s wrong, Muraguchi-kun?”

“I’m sorry!”

“Sho!” Takanori yelled out.

Huh? I turned to look at Takanori, but before my eyes saw him, something else caught my eyes. It was Kanesaka Tomomi. She was looking at me while standing up. Then I looked back at the person I had held onto, it was also Tomomi. There were two different Tomomi in the classroom. What was going on? Where did the black thing go?

The entire classroom looked at me as I laid there on the ground.

“Huh?”