We got off the bus at the edge of the forest just outside the city. The landscape was peaceful, with tall, slender trees forming a dense canopy overhead. The forest had a natural sense of order, with trees carefully spaced apart, allowing dappled sunlight to filter through the leaves. In the distance, a small mountain rose up, its peak shrouded in mist. The cool air carried the faint scent of pine and damp earth, making everything feel calm and untouched by the city.

I glanced around, taking in the surroundings. The path ahead led us deeper into the woods, where only the sound of leaves rustling in the gentle breeze could be heard.

After about twenty minutes of walking, we arrived at a shrine nestled within the forest. The shrine was modest, built with wooden beams that had slightly weathered over time. The curved roof tiles were dark and glossy, and a bright red torii gate stood at the entrance, contrasting against the green backdrop of the trees. Stone lanterns lined the pathway leading up to the shrine, adding to the serene, almost sacred atmosphere.

"Alright, so what are we doing here?" I asked, looking around. The place was deserted; there wasn’t a soul in sight. The shrine looked abandoned, with leaves scattered across the stone steps.

“Let’s go in first and make an offering,” Tori said.

“An offering? Oh, you mean toss a few yen into the... uh, what’s it called again?” I struggled to remember the name of the offering box.

“The saisenbako,” Tori reminded me.

We approached the saisenbako, a large wooden box placed at the front of the shrine. We each tossed in a few yen coins, then rang the bell that hung above us, its clear sound echoing through the quiet forest. We clapped our hands twice and bowed our heads in prayer—standard practice at a Shintō shrine. After a brief moment of silence, we both clapped again to finish the ritual.

With that done, Tori turned toward the shrine building itself. “Now that we’ve taken care of that, let’s head inside,” she said, her tone more serious now.

As we stepped closer to the entrance, the wooden doors creaked softly.

Curious, I followed Tori inside. The room we entered was typical of a Shinto shrine—a simple, peaceful space that felt untouched by time. The floors were wooden and slightly creaky, polished to a smooth sheen, but with signs of age in the worn patches near the door. Traditional tatami mats were spread out in certain areas, giving the room a soft, natural feeling underfoot.

At the front of the room was an altar adorned with ceremonial items: ropes of braided straw (shimenawa) hanging across the top, paper streamers (shide) dangling down, and a mirror (kagami) placed at the center, reflecting the soft light that filtered through the open windows. Wooden plaques and charms hung neatly along the walls, each one inscribed with prayers and wishes left by past visitors.

Tori scanned the room, her eyes darting around as if she was searching for something. Her expression became more and more frustrated with each passing second.

"Damn it, where is she? She’s always here..." I heard her mutter under her breath.

After a few moments of fruitless searching, we stepped back outside.

"Look, maybe it would be easier to find what you're looking for if you told me what it is," I suggested, trying to break through her growing irritation.

"Shhh, quiet, I think I hear something," she whispered sharply. Grabbing my arm, she pulled me behind one of the wooden pillars. I wanted to ask what she’d heard, but before I could, I heard it too—a faint humming.

Tori motioned for me to crouch and follow her.

We quietly circled around part of the shrine, the humming growing clearer with each step. As we got closer to the source, I noticed a large tree adorned with shimenawa—a thick, sacred rope decorated with strips of white paper, marking the tree as significant in the Shintō tradition. Beneath the tree, a simple wooden swing hung by two ropes. The faint creaking of the swing echoed softly, swaying slightly in the breeze.

I looked around, trying to find whoever was humming. But before I could fully process it, Tori grabbed my head, gently turning it in the direction of the swing. She pointed at it, and I finally saw it—someone was sitting there.

Wait, how did I not notice her before?

Ah, right. More of this phenomenon bullshit. For a second, I forgot why we were even here.

Tori began to back away quietly, still crouched, and I assumed I was supposed to follow her. But she stopped me with a hand and shook her head, signaling that only she was retreating. Then, she motioned with her hand for me to approach the figure on the swing.

Ugh, what exactly am I supposed to do? At least last time she gave me some instructions.

I tried to gesture my confusion to Tori, but she just waved her hand dismissively, making a “sho, sho” motion as if to shoo me forward.

Great. Alright then.

I took a deep breath, stood up from my crouch, and began walking with purpose toward the decorated tree and the swing hanging from one of its branches.

As I got closer, the figure sitting on the swing—a young girl, clearly—started becoming more distinct. But in a strange way. I usually have pretty good vision, but it felt like she was... almost transparent? It was subtle at first, but the closer I got, the clearer it became that something was off.

She looked to be around eighteen, with long white hair that flowed down her back. She wore a white kimono that seemed to shimmer in the soft light filtering through the trees. Her skin was pale, and while her upper body was visible, the lower part of her form grew more and more transparent the closer it was to the ground. By the time I looked down, her feet had completely disappeared.

For a moment, I froze.

Was she... a ghost? I just stood there, trying to shake the thought. No, no, that can’t be possible. Right?

All the while, the ghostly girl gently swung back and forth, her back to me, humming a soft, nostalgic tune. There was something hauntingly beautiful about it—melancholic yet peaceful, as if the song itself was carrying memories of something long gone.

At one point, the girl swung a bit higher, and as she leaned back, she turned her head to look directly at me.

"Oh, we have a guest..." she said, stopping her humming mid-tune.

She jumped off the swing, and in slow motion, she landed gently on the ground, as if she weighed no more than a falling leaf.

"I guess I shouldn’t mess with the swing… it probably creeps people out" she muttered to herself, staring at the wooden seat she had just stilled with her hand.

"Hey," I raised my hand and gave her a little wave.

The girl lifted her head, her eyes widening as she stared at me like she was the one who had just seen a ghost.

"Everything alright? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost." I couldn’t resist. I mean, come on, a ghost looking like she just saw a ghost? I found the irony way too funny.

She began to raise her hand, as if to wave back, but halfway through, she muttered something under her breath, cursed, and suddenly bolted toward the temple.

Seriously? That’s the second time waving at a girl has made her run away from me. At some point, this is going to hurt my self-esteem.

I wasn’t about to chase her, but with a calm stride, I started walking toward the temple myself.

I heard a voice shout, “I won’t be exorcised! Leave me alone!”

Well, that pretty much confirmed my theory—the girl was definitely a ghost.

That, and the fact that she just flew straight through the locked temple doors to hide inside.

Huh. I stood there for a moment, processing what had just happened. I met a ghost. A living ghost... well, not living... you know what I mean. A ghost.

I walked over to the back doors of the temple, the ones she had just passed through.

I knocked three times. “Uh, hey, I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m not here to hurt you,” I said, realizing I was actually trying to calm down a ghost.

Shouldn't I be the one freaking out right now?

I sighed deeply. “Once again, I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk.”

I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to talk about, but it’s not every day you get the chance to chat with a ghost.

I waited a few more seconds, but still, no response.

“I’m going to come inside the shrine. I’m not dangerous, but if you don’t want me to enter, please say something.”

Silence.

I tried sliding the door open. It was one of those traditional sliding doors, but it wouldn’t budge. Stuck, just my luck.

Alright, so much for Plan A. Time for Plan B. I circled around the building and headed back to where we had made the offering earlier.

I checked the doors there, and thankfully, they slid open without resistance.

As soon as I stepped inside, I felt a strange tremor ripple through the room. The air itself seemed to shiver, like the walls were holding their breath. Across the room, the ghost girl stood, and it looked like she had been holding or blocking the door I’d tried earlier.

The moment she heard the sound of the door I opened, she spun around in a panic, tripped, and started frantically shielding herself with her arms, yelling, “Nooo! Leave me alone!”

Am I the bad guy here? No, definitely not—I haven’t done anything to her!

I raised my hands in front of me, trying to calm her down again.

“Look, you’re the ghost here, I’m the one who’s supposed to be scared! I don’t even know how it’s possible that I can see you, let alone how I would go about exorcising you.”

After my words, there was a moment of silence. The ghost girl hesitated, then slowly lowered her hands from her face and stood—or rather, floated a bit higher than before.

“Huh, so you’re not with the order of exorcists? Then what are you doing here?” she asked.

Because my invisible-to-others friend thought talking to you was some sort of training for me.

“I just wanted to visit the shrine, maybe pray for good luck for the upcoming school semester, but then I heard you humming.”

“But why can you see me?! Normally people can’t!” she exclaimed, clearly frustrated.

“My guess is as good as yours. Who are these exorcists you're talking about?”

She looked at me with a visible look of disgust on her face and started floating back and forth in the room, clearly annoyed.

“I’m an innocent spirit! And those bastards are trying to send me to the afterlife! I haven’t done anything wrong! I don’t even know why I’m here!”

“What do you mean you don’t know why you’re here?” I asked.

For a moment, the anger faded from her face and was replaced with genuine sadness. She stopped floating around and sat down on one of the stone steps in front of the shrine.

“I don’t know! I woke up two weeks ago just behind this shrine, and I don’t remember anything from before that. I don’t know who I was, what my name is, or why I’m even here,” she said, her voice trembling slightly.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Two weeks ago? First of September, huh?

She really looked crushed by it all.

"Hey, it's okay. It's not your fault that you don’t remember," I said softly. "I’m not one of those exorcists or whatever, I’m not going to hurt you."

I sat down next to her and, wanting to comfort her, placed my hand gently on her shoulder.

It felt like I was touching a regular person, except her skin was ice-cold.

She turned to me, eyes wide with shock.

“You can touch me! How is that possible?!” she exclaimed. Just as she said that, I felt the pressure on my hand start to disappear, like I was touching something soft that slowly melted away. Before I knew it, my hand passed straight through her as if she were made of mist.

“Well, I guess I could touch you… for a moment,” I replied, still processing what had just happened.

“Not only can you see me, but you're not an exorcist, and you can even touch me! You have to help me!” she pleaded, her voice filled with desperation.

The ghost girl sounded completely lost, like she was clinging to any hope.

"Alright, sure. I’ll help you however I can,” I said, trying to calm her down. “But what exactly do you need me to do?”

The girl began speaking quickly, recounting how, two weeks ago, after she first woke up behind the shrine, she tried to leave the grounds surrounding it. She explained that she could walk around the shrine itself and the open area in front of it, even a few dozen meters into the forest on either side. But whenever she tried to go beyond that point, it felt like she was hitting an invisible wall, trapping her within the perimeter.

She told me how she had tried talking to the caretaker or monk who managed the shrine, as well as several visitors who came by. But no one could see or hear her.

Well, except for one exorcist who had already tried to send her to the afterlife twice.

"It was awful! That weird sword of his and the prayers he chanted— they made me feel so weak, like all my energy was draining away! But for some reason, whenever I ran inside the shrine, after two or three hours, he would give up and leave. That’s why I was so terrified when you came in! I thought it was someone like him again!"

"Really, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you."

"It’s fine! You’re the first person who’s been able to talk to me. You have no idea how much of a relief it is to be heard," she said with a soft smile.

She went on to explain how she had learned to touch some objects—like the swing I found her on earlier. She also mentioned that since waking up for the first time, she hadn’t been able to sleep, so she had a lot of time to practice moving things around.

"Heh, that’s interesting. I’ve had a huge problem with sleeping these last few weeks too, but instead of being productive, I just end up staring at the ceiling," I replied with a slight chuckle, trying to lighten the mood.

She gave a small laugh, and for the first time, it felt like the tension between us eased a bit.

"Yes, that’s one of the few advantages of my current state—the ability to be productive 24/7. But about my request: Will you help me figure out who I am?"

"Of course! No problem, though I’m not really sure where to start..." And then it hit me—Tori had to know something. Somehow, she knew this girl would be here. A sinister grin crept across my face.

In fact, I’ll go get her right now!

"Wait here for a second, I’ll be right back..."

She reached out as if trying to grab my hand, but her fingers just passed through mine. I heard her soft, pleading voice, "No... don’t leave me alone."

"Don’t worry, I’m not leaving you. I’ll be back in a moment. I just need to introduce you to someone."

I stood up and looked around. After a brief moment, I spotted Tori hiding behind one of the trees, watching us. With a quick stride, I walked over to her.

As I got closer, she greeted me, "Report! How’s it going?"

"I need your help, right now. Come with me," I said, grabbing her hand and starting to pull her toward the girl.

Tori resisted a bit, but she was surprisingly light.

"Wait, Josh, stop! Hold on!" I heard her protest, but I wasn’t letting her off the hook. She clearly knew more than she was telling me, and honestly, I didn’t appreciate being thrown into this situation with zero guidance. It was time for her to step up.

I led her back to the shrine, only then turning to look at her.

If looks could kill, we’d have two ghosts here instead of one. Tori looked absolutely pissed.

"This is my friend. She can see you too and probably knows something about you. She should be able to help."

As soon as I said that, I felt a familiar tightness in my chest, and noticed how the wind around us died down, the trees standing unnaturally still.

I glanced at the ghost girl, her head tilted slightly in a gesture that made her look genuinely confused. A frozen smile was plastered on her face, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She began to look around, and then in a strangely stiff voice, she said, "What do you mean? There’s no one here."

So that’s how we’re playing this? Alright, let’s try this again.

I pointed both hands directly at Tori, who was still standing there, arms crossed like a bouncer outside a club, looking even more pissed off by the second.

"What do you mean? She’s standing right here, and you have to be able to see her. Take a good look—she can help you."

"I’ve got a bad feeling about this… it’s a mistake," I heard Tori mutter, her voice tense.

But it seemed like it was already too late.

TΓHΗεRΣ γΘυ AΛRΞ.

The ghost girl turned toward Tori, her eyes widening in shock. “I see her! I can see her now! Why didn’t I see her before?” she exclaimed, her voice trembling with confusion.

“WHY IS SHE THERE?” she shouted, her tone quickly turning from confusion to anger. But before I could even react she clutched her head and began to wail in agony. Tears started streaming down her face as a horrific scream ripped through the air:

“Aghaaaaaggaaaaraaaaa!!!”

That’s when I felt it—an overwhelming, excruciating pain unlike anything I had ever experienced before. It was as if every organ in my body was being squeezed by an invisible vise. Tori, who had been standing beside me moments ago, screamed and collapsed onto her back, writhing in agony on the ground, clutching her head.

Everything around us began to change—starting from where we stood and spreading rapidly outward. The world darkened, losing its color as if drained of life, turning a sickly mix of gray and blood-red. It wasn’t just the ground—the sky above twisted into this eerie, crimson hue, as though we were trapped inside some kind of nightmarish sphere.

Then came the worst part. From the red sky, strange holes began to open, and within them appeared massive, watching eyes. They blinked and darted around, surveying everything from all angles. Surrounding us, I could hear a grotesque sound—like the wet squelching of raw, pulsing meat being shifted and tossed.

Suddenly, everything went dead silent. All of the eyes stopped moving and locked onto us—every single one. Then, directly above us, a huge mouth opened between the eyes. Its rotting, jagged teeth gleamed ominously as the putrid stench of decay filled the air.

IιιΙ CςαN SΞΕ γθθUςςς.

The pain only intensified, gripping me in a fear so profound that I could barely breathe. Every instinct screamed at me that this was it—this was how I was going to die, in the most horrific, unimaginable way possible. My heart pounded in my chest like a drum of doom, and it felt like every breath I took was a struggle against the crushing weight of terror.

I fought against my own instincts, the primal urge to curl up, to give in, to surrender to the agony and let it take me. My mind was spinning, caught between the desperate need to escape and the sinking realization that there was nowhere to go. I was trapped, facing something far beyond my comprehension, and I was powerless to stop it.

It felt like my body was betraying me, my legs trembling, my vision blurring as the searing pain consumed me. Death felt so close—its cold hand on my shoulder, its breath on the back of my neck. I wanted to scream, but even my voice felt locked away, choked by fear. My instincts told me to collapse, to give in, to just let go and hope the end would come quickly.

But something deep inside refused to yield. Some last flicker of defiance burned through the overwhelming fear. In my mind, I saw the grim eyes and that grotesque mouth looming above, mocking me, daring me to crumble. And I couldn’t let that happen. Not like this.

Gathering the last shard of courage I had left, I forced myself to look up one final time, staring directly into the monstrous, grotesque eyes and teeth that filled the sky. My body screamed in protest, my mind drowning in pain, but I found a spark of fury, of anger born from having nothing left to lose.

With all the rage of someone standing on the edge of oblivion, I raised my middle finger toward the abomination in the sky and screamed with every ounce of my being, "FUCK YOU!"

And just like that, the unbearable pain that had crushed every inch of my body began to fade. The monstrous mouth above twisted into an even wider, more twisted grin, stretching impossibly far across the blood-red sky. And then, I heard it—the slow, rumbling, guttural sound of laughter. Low at first, but growing louder, faster, more manic with every second.

The sick, horrifying laughter echoed all around me, filling the air like a dreadful, mocking chorus. It felt like the world itself was laughing at me, taunting me for my pitiful defiance.

And then... silence.

WE FOUND YOU.

Suddenly, the sky started to shatter, as if it were made of fragile glass and someone had taken a hammer to it. Cracks spread, splintering outwards, until the blood-red sky full of eyes crumbled into a million tiny shards. In an instant, everything around us returned to normal—the colors of the forest, the natural sounds of rustling leaves, and the cool breeze that had been there before.

My ears were still ringing, and my heart pounded so hard I thought it might burst out of my chest. My whole body trembled, adrenaline surging in the aftermath of whatever the hell that was. The worst of the destabilization seemed to be over, but I was still rattled to my core.

Fuck... that was terrifying. Every nerve in my body was still tingling with fear, and the image of that monstrous thing leering down at me was seared into my mind.

I forced myself to look over at Tori, who was still on the ground, clutching her head. She had stopped writhing in agony, but the pain was clearly still there, lingering like a dark cloud over her.

"Are you okay?" I asked, my voice still shaking.

She opened her eyes slowly, looked at me with pure venom, and spat, "I hate you. Dear god, my head."

I offered her my hand to help her up, which she grudgingly took. As she dusted herself off, her face twisted with pain and anger.

"Next time I tell you not to do something, DON’T FUCKING DO IT!" she snapped, her voice sharp and laced with frustration. "My poor head…"

"You’re still in pain? I think the destabilization's effects are already wearing off for me," I said, trying to sound reassuring, but knowing full well that it wasn’t helping.

Tori shot me a murderous look. "Shut up, lucky boy. Everyone reacts a bit differently to this shit, and thanks to you, I’m in for 24 hours of splitting headache. I really fucking hate you right now."

I cringed. "Sorry..." was all I could muster. I genuinely felt bad, but I couldn’t change what had just happened.

Tori winced, rubbing her temples. "What about our new friend?" she asked, her tone dark, but less sharp.

We both turned our attention to the ghost girl—the reason we were here in the first place. She was hovering motionlessly a few inches above the ground, staring blankly into the space between us. Her face, which had shown so much emotion before, was now completely devoid of life, a hollow mask of apathy.

There was something deeply unsettling about how she was just there, suspended in the air, not reacting to anything. It was as if the spirit that animated her moments ago had been sucked out, leaving only a shell.

I waved my hand in front of her eyes, trying to get any kind of response.

“Do you know her name? And how did she even become a ghost?” I asked Tori, feeling like we were missing some big piece of the puzzle.

“Ugh, give me a second… let me look something up,” Tori grumbled, pulling out her phone and swiping through it quickly, her face growing more frustrated with each passing moment.

Meanwhile, the ghost girl remained frozen in place, completely still. The silence between us was starting to feel really uncomfortable.

“Uh, hey... you still there?” I said, waving my hand in front of her, trying to break the eerie stillness. “Hellooo? Ghost girl?”

Suddenly, her body twitched and, just like that, she blinked back to life. Her once-empty eyes lit up with a strange awareness.

“Tori’s going to help me? Really? That’s amazing! Thank you, Josh! Thank you, Tori!” she said, her voice filled with sudden excitement, like she had snapped back into the moment.

I froze. How did she know our names?

“Shit, um, Josh, come here for a second,” Tori said, still glued to her phone, but pulling me aside with her free hand. She was muttering under her breath, “Fuck fuck fuck…”

As we stepped a little farther away from the ghost, Tori finally looked up from her phone, her expression more troubled than I’d ever seen before. Her shoulders slumped, and there was genuine worry in her eyes.

“Damn it, Josh. It’s worse than I thought,” she said, her voice low and tense. “I know her name, but I literally can’t say it, or we’ll trigger another destabilization. My backstory just changed.”

I blinked. “Your what?”

“Remember that whole story about me being in a gang and beating up some girl? It was a total fabrication—a role I was given. One that I could play without actually doing much. It was perfect. But now... because of YOU, that massive destabilization has changed my role. And now I’m stuck helping dumb ghosts like her!” She was talking faster now, her frustration building with each word.

I felt a pang of guilt and quickly said, “I’m sorry, really. I didn’t mean for this to happen.” I wasn’t just saying it to calm her down—I actually felt bad about how everything had spiraled out of control because of me.

Tori threw her hands up in the air, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “If ‘sorry’ was enough, we wouldn’t have something like seppuku, Josh!Because of YOU, I’m stuck playing this ridiculous role! I have to go out on a quest to find her stupid name—even if I already know it—figure out who she is, and actually help her! And it’s not just her—I have to go out and find every ghost I can, then help them, or I’m screwed!. How the hell am I supposed to find these ghosts? What do I even do with them once I find them? And what even is a ‘spirit helper’ anyway?!”

She shoved her phone at me, showing a screen that read: ‘Tori, Spirit Helper: Seeks out lost souls and helps them out of the goodness of her heart.’

“Goodness of my heart?! I don’t have time for this crap!” she fumed, pacing back and forth like she was about to explode. She groaned and put her face in her hands. “Kris, where the hell are you? You’d know what to do.”

Kris? That other missing classmate?

“Look, it doesn’t sound that bad. I’ll help however I can,” I offered, hoping it would calm her down, even though I wasn’t entirely sure how much help I’d actually be.

Tori shot me a glare. “Doesn’t sound bad? It’s because you don’t have to do it! Do you know any ghosts? No? Well, neither do I! And now I have to go around finding them and solving their problems! Before, all I had to do was skip school, act tough, and threaten people a little. The points rolled in, no problem. Now? I’m stuck in this supernatural nightmare.”

“So, this backstory… it’s like a role you have to play to earn points?” I asked, trying to shift the conversation. “What’s my ‘backstory,’ then?”

She rolled her eyes. “You? You’re probably just some background character for all I know. Why are you even asking me?”

Who else was I supposed to ask?

Before I could respond, the ghost girl's voice broke through our conversation, her tone worried.

“Everything okay? You’re not going to leave me after promising to help, right?”

“Yeah, we’re coming back,” I called out so she could hear me. Then, lowering my voice, I said to Tori, “Let’s finish this later.”

Tori just rolled her eyes again, and we headed back toward the shrine entrance.