Haunted archer

His sister

Rieko had been mostly silent and as she insisted on sending Touji outside, he didn't protest. As they were waiting for the elevator, Rieko started talking. 

"At first I thought that, how could the superior beauty of Houka's academy come at our door. Though I have never heard of this friendship of yours, I really could not be sure. Maybe it really did happen." Touji didn't dare to look at Shino who was obviously as startled by this line of conversation. He too was silent and didn't move.

"But when I finished this ridiculous letter, I knew that something is really fishy. If you wouldn't mind, let's go up to the roof and talk for a bit. I am apologizing if I'm rude, but the situation seems a bit unusual to me." 

Touji didn't dare say anything and stepped inside the elevator after Rieko and Shino and just looked at the wall. Shino had no problem with talking of course. "Touji, don't worry, I'll tell you what to say up there. But I think the best thing to do is to stay with the same story. There isn't any way she could prove anything and I don't remember her believing in ghosts so we can't say anything about that."

When they were up, on the rooftop, Shino's sister showed finally her real emotions. She was sad, but also really angry. "I know I shouldn't talk to you like this, but how can you come to our house and insult our brother's memory. He could never have written this letter months before his death!" Touji looked at her startled. Just a moment of thought and he decided to not take into consideration the words Shino had just said.

"How can you be so sure?" Touji knew that this was like admitting the truth, but he wanted to lie as little as was possible. And he thought that under the fighter like spirit he sensed from Shino's sister, was obviously a girl who had lost her brother and her closure wouldn't come in a way her mothers would.

"Because I said those words to him, the morning before he left home. That our mother was too young to live only to us, she needed her own life too. However well you knew Shino, you should have known, how slow he was when he thinks of other people's feelings. He might have been smart in school and so straightforward that you'd want to kill him. But he always had a hard time to manage, to understand the nuances of people feelings. He needed to think about them for a long time before he could understand everything well and thoroughly."

Shino gaped at his sister and Touji gave him a look before he turned back to Rieko. This needed quick thinking and as honest an answer as he could give "He wrote that letter on the day he died. And he did leave it to my house. The assignment part stays the same. There are maybe some things, that I feel I can't tell you because I think you are too young, but he did write that letter himself. Can you believe this much?" Rieko was watching him quietly and finally, she nodded and lowered her head.

"Do you know, if he was depressed that morning?" Touji understood what she was asking, but agreed with Shino who had decided in the morning before writing the letter, that his family gained nothing from knowing, that he was stepping in front of that car on purpose.

"No, he wasn't. I didn't see him like that. I think it was just an accident." The girl was lowering her head and silently she cried a while. Touji just looked at her and Shino and understood better the close relationship this family had. Also in retrospect had a look into his own family's past.

"Thank you for coming here. I think my mom really needed it. I believe she will be better now." Then Rieko left the rooftop and Shino came to stand before Touji.

"I have to thank you too. You did everything as it was needed. Thank you Touji for doing this for me." Shino hugged him tightly.

When they were walking back home and Touji already saw the gate to his house, Shino pulled him to stop.

"I think it's happening again." Touji watched him and got all worried.

"Don't forget to come back soon!" But he was late. Before he could finish his sentence Shino had disappeared. He did it sometimes. Usually, it happened in the evening and then he would be back at some time in the night, to snuggle up behind Touji again. Hugging him in his sleep, but as Shino himself had noticed, so had Touji, the recurrence in these disappearances was rising. Touji tried to calm himself down as he was walking through his front door.

It was almost starting to get light again, soon it would be morning when Touji felt how the bed tilted and he was hugged by Shino from behind. He had not been able to close his eyes until now. Though he smiled when he could finally close his eyes because Shino was here again. Still, a nagging feeling of real uneasiness grew inside his mind.

*Well this chapter wasn't planned.. It just went too far again and I wanted to write it till the end.
Only three chapters more. Maybe it will help you to read this story to the end if I say, that though not over with the hardship, there is a happy ending..? Well, I'll see, If you can get to the end with me :)

*song: Wait for me - Kim Feel. It's a beautiful song, not maybe ex about brother and sister love each other, but maybe it can be felt a bit, how Shino loved his family, and promises to love them in the next life... Okay, this is my sleepy mind thinking. Still love the song, and I have a special fondness for his raspy voice. Hope you like it.