"λ ₣łŘŞŦ-ŘλŦE ÐEŦE₡ŦłVE ŞØŁVEŞ λ ₡λŞE BE₣ØŘE łŦ EVE₦ ҤλPPE₦Ş!"
_PŘλłŞ¥ ŦØMŞ
Praisy started noticing strange things happening around her from the moment she took in a cat from the streets. It felt strange having someone follow her around all the time...
A 13 years old was seen walking through the dark streets of the Yokohama Port City, searching every trash bins as she passes by them.
It was a full moon day, and the roads were illuminated by the light glow from the moon.
Everything looked so peaceful, so beautiful, serene...
But the child did not appreciate the beauty of the atmosphere. She simply didn't care.
Right now, she just wanted something to fill the aching stomach of hers. It's been one week since she ate something, and she's been surviving solely by drinking river water.
∆∆∆
Somewhere else, a white haired man and a cat stood by an office window, staring down at the city.
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"Shall we begin, Soseki-sensei?" The white haired man asked.
The cat looked at the human and tilted it's head. It's whiskers twitched indicating the cat was smiling.
"Meow!" With that answer, the cat jumped down from the third floor of the building and landed on his four legs.
The man watched as the cat disappeared into the dark streets.
∆∆∆
Back to the girl...
"GOD DAMMIT!!"
She yelled at particularly no one, clutching her burning stomach through the dirty rags that covered her.
Eyes gray eyes wandered around, finally falling on the semi-transparent man who's been following her with a worried and sympathetic look, since that evening.
He had murky red hair, and wore sand coloured overcoat. He had stubble decorating his handsome and young face.
"And who the hell are you? Why are you even following me around in the first place?" The girl practically growled at the ghost.
"Call me Odasaku." The ghost replied gently, ignoring the girl's snarky tone. "I just want to help you find some food."
The girl's face twisted into an annoyed smirk. "Why would I need your help?"
The girl walked right past through Odasaku, as he turned around and watched the girl walk away with a sigh.
The girl was walking away from the town when she came across a garden.
"Wow... Praisy... Why didn't you think about searching somewhere else than the town before?" The girl, Praisy, asked herself with a chuckle as she watched the red apples hanging from the trees in the garden. "Alright, desperate times call for desperate measures."
She shrugged and walked towards the medium height wall, and jumped over it.
'Hmm...no security? Are they that confident that this wall will protect their property? Or any hidden traps...' Praisy mused as she looked around, and was actually dumbfounded seeing that the garden wasn't guarded and it didn't have any traps.
"Are you planning to steal from another person's property?" A familiar voice asked from behind her.
Praisy's lip twitched, forcing herself to not shout profanities at the so very persistent ghost Odasaku who kept following here. This garden was made just for her to conveniently steal without any troubles. And she's not going to let a righteous ghost to ruin that for her.
She immediately turned around and her eyes glowed. The memories of the Odasaku's soul started playing in her head.
"Says the former assassin, Oda Sakunosuke." Praisy smirked and turned around, walking towards the apple trees, completely ignoring Odasaku, who blinked in confusion how she figured it out.
By the time Odasaku broke out of his confused trance, Praisy had already filled her stomach and was climbing down from the tree.
After making sure no evidence was left behind except for the disappearance of a few apples, Praisy immediately left the garden and walked towards the Yokohama city, followed closely by Odasaku.
"I wonder if the disappearance of the apples would cause trouble... It would be fun watching them trying to figure out MY CRIME." Praisy grinned as she continued walking, when a drop of water fell on her nose, followed by many water droplets falling.
It fucking started raining. Oh well, at least she wasn't hungry anymore.
Suddenly she found herself being dragged away by none other than Odasaku, who took her under the shelter of a shop.
"What the-" Praisy blinked at Odasaku. "Why did you drag me here?"
*You are a human. You would catch cold if you stand in the rain for too long." Odasaku nonchalantly replied, as if he didn't do anything bizzare.
That's his reason!? That reason is used by human beings, not ghosts!
"I- You know what? I'm don't care." Praisy said. That's right. It doesn't affect her no matter how ghosts or humans act.
"May I ask, how did you figure out what my job was when I was alive? Is it a part of your ability?" Odasaku asked after a few moments of silence.
"You are one curious ghost." Praisy raised an amused eyebrow. "Not only you kept following me ignoring my orders, now you've got questions?"
Odasaku stared at her, his face remaining passive.
Praisy smirked seeing that Odasaku is not expressing what he was feeling and turned to watch the rain.
"That's right. Apart from able to see other worldy creatures, I can also see their pasts, including living human beings'."
The two stood there in silence, and Praisy was glad the ghost wasn't nagging at her for stealing anymore. From what she saw from Odasaku's past, she knew that he too have an ability. So he'll be useful one day, better not try to chase Odasaku anymore then.
The rain didn't show any signs to stopping. She couldn't see anything as the rainfall was thick and hard.
Through the sounds of rain hitting the ground, Praisy suddenly heard a cat meowing, and before she could turn to look from where she heard a cat's cry, something wet touched her angles.
She was about to kick away, whatever that was, until she saw what it was.
An orange cat with dark brown patches, and white fur covering it's stomach and legs. It's fur was wet and it sticked together, making the cat shiver uncomfortably. It's body was stained by dirt, and Praisy cringed at the sight of the cat.
Praisy suddenly notice the semi-transparent hand of Odasaku trying to pet the cat, but his hands passed through it.
Seems like Odasaku recognise the cat from somewhere. And Praisy recognised the cat too, having watched Odasaku's memories.
Praisy couldn't help but laugh at the Odasaku's dissatisfied expression at his disability to touch the cat. Ghost can't interact with physical realm. However they can interact with Praisy as she held the power to communicate with spiritual deities. And of course with Praisy's help, they can come in contact with physical beings.
And that's what Praisy did, with a snap of her fingers, Odasaku found himself being able to pet the cat and his gentle expression returned. The cat looked when it felt the touch, but couldn't find anyone other than Praisy.
Odasaku stopped petting and stood back up, when he noticed he was making the cat uncomfortable.
The cat tilted it's head with narrowed eyes when Praisy started laughing. Praisy who noticed this, gently picked up the cat and cradled it close to her chest, hoping to transfer some of her warmth.
"What an intelligent cat." Praisy whispered to it, and the cat's ear twitched.
