Pink hair and a broken heart

Chapter 16. Comeback

{Location: Seliel's home}(Seliel's POV)

I pull open the front door. Dad looks up then stunned at me running with a ghost in tow, "Hey Dad. Can't talk right now. I'll explain everything in the morning." I storm upstairs as Marci passes through me. I get into my room and closed the door, "Now, where'd I put it?" I'm surprised at myself. One moment, I think of myself as stupid for being the Phantom Ninja, the next, I'm looking everywhere for it. And why? Marci is technically dead.

Marci passes through my closet and tries pulling something with her, "I wish I could make things pass through with me."

"Here." I open the doors to the lightweight light blue and grey suit. I take the hanger and start changing in the closet. I trip and find more of my armor on the floor. Maybe twenty minutes later I'd almost done. I just need my helmet. Then I see Marci looking at the little memorial for her on my desk. A picture of her, me, and my Mom exploring the nearby mountains. I remember that. After we needed more food then Mom left on an emergency trip to a near town patient.

Marci looks close to tears as she sees her sia forming a triangle above the picture, "These never got much use." She tries to pick them up.

I come up next to her and hold one up for her, "I'm sure their owner will keep using them."

She smiles, "Yeah. That's got to be the whole reason for me coming back. To be sure that the sia I used and still working."

I snicker, which makes her smile a tad bigger, "Who knows why anything happens." The world is a big place. With not a lot of the afterlives, we know of. Where did Marci go? Where is my Mom? Did Marci see her, "Maybe the place you left knew how important you are to me."

Marci looks down. Like she's grappling for memories, "I don't think she let me leave." She? What she? "She's too smart."

"She?" I fold my arms, "She who?"

Marci squeezes her eyes shut, bites her lips and takes a few deep breaths, "She. It's on the tip of my tongue. The pre-something."

"Pre-something." I make a note to visit the library for more information on a pre-soothing.

"No use in talking about something I don't remember," Marci turns to me with a grin and face saying, 'I really don't remember anything. Don't push.' "What have you been up to?"

"Umm." I've been boring the last few months. Get up. Get ready, go to the station. Come back. Sluk. "Nothing special."

Marci tilts her head right, "I guess being the Phantom Ninja isn't anything special anymore."

"That's not exactly it." I fold my arms, "I kinda...quit. After you died."

I had no idea someone could go through so many emotions so fast. Marci jumps from confused to surprised to upset in 3 seconds. "What?"

"I couldn't take it anymore." I keep my voice low so I don't bring Dad up here, "I shouldn't have fought Victor. I shouldn't have left you. I should have-"

Marci holds her hand up. "I'm gonna stop you right there." She brings it down, "You told me that you wanted this. That you wanted to be a hero to honor your Mom."

"Yeah and then you died. Not because I couldn't stop it. I could have. I could have saved you. You could be alive right now and I-"

"Could be dead." Marci finished, "I knew what I was getting into Seliel. I'm not dumb. I knew the possibility. If anything, this is Nom's fault. I'm not mad at him. But you shouldn't be mad at yourself for his mistake."

Maybe I'm not a hero. Maybe I never should have thought of this.

Marci drills a hole into my forehead as I look downward, "You said a ninja never quits. That determination is half the hero."