The Takamori Story

Underworld

Unlike the vibrant wind of the surface, the underworld's remained silent and still. Despite the boring and colorless existance the souls carried out in the forever expanding place they were trapped in, there came a point where they'd all look at the same thing. Every hundred years or so, in an unpredictable place and time, particles of bright light would rise from the deepest parts of the void and travel through different places, as if they were swarms of fireflies, to finally come all together and merge into a bird-like shape that flew all the way up to the surface.
Most souls always looked forward to this event, for phoenixes hadn't been present in a long, long time.

~~~~~~~~~~

Past the construction site there was a city, one that was filled with houses that all looked similar, as if they were mass produced.
Kiara kept walking through the streets of the underworld, catching the attention of any soul that wasn't working at the time, yet not interacting with any of them.
She knew where she was heading, what she didn't know was that it was the same road someone else was taking.

She felt a touch on her shoulder.

-"What are you doing here?"

-"Eek!"

She flinched and turned around.

"Mori-san?!"

-"Yup, now answer"

Calli had a dead serious face and voice.

-"Ah well..."

Kiara showed herself nervous, she would have started sweating if she wasn't dead.

"I uhh... I woke up over there... For some reason"

She said, as she pointed at the wide empty space that marked the end of the city.
Calli turned around and then looked back at her.

-"And where were you going?"

-"I was just..."

Calli was mad last time she found her in her house, it was true, she couldn't just break in whenever she felt like it.

"...Looking around!"

She naturally lied.

-"hm?"

Calli raised an eyebrow. Despite her doubts and suspicions, she just let it slip.

"... Ah Well, I was just heading home"

She said, now more laid back than earlier.

"You're probably gonna vanish again soon, so just stand here until that happens"

Trying to save her time and keep the conversation short, she turned around and kept walking back home.

-"ah-..."

Kiara raised her hand on instinct yet didn't reach Calli.

Calli couldn't care less, she wasn't going to help her again or stand in her way, she just didn't want to know anything about her anymore.

-"..."

Most souls floated since having legs was a bother in the afterlife, that's why she was annoyed by the sound of footsteps behind her.

"Why are you following me?"

She said, annoyed.

-"Come to think of it, I only get to be here every time I die, and just for a bit as well, so I'd like to do more than stand still"