Girls' Next Tour (A Girls' Last Tour fan-sequel)

Chapter 2: Blue Light

The mysterious layer was barely illuminated by the dying lights of the stars shimmering up in the cold sky and the 12 blue lights flickering in the far distance. The girls noticed those strange blue lights come alive in the evening as they hiked toward the center of the mysterious layer. Shivering from the cold and alone in the dark, Chito kept walking around in circles looking for Yuuri, whom she has lost a while back. Terrified, she kept shouting and calling out her name in vain.

"Yuu! Where are you!" she shouted and shouted to no reply.

So far the only sound she could hear was the echo of her voice in the far distance. Yuuri was deeply scared of the dark and she relied on Chito's support to get through it, finding her was of utmost importance.

As Chito kept walking for what seemed like an eternity, abruptly she noticed the eerie apparition of a tall person holding a rifle in their arms. The weapon strangely resembled the 'Arisaka' rifle that their grandfather gave to Yuuri back in the village.

"Yuu? Is that you?" Chito asked to no reply. Startled she carefully stepped back, as the apparition raised the rifle aiming at the far distance.

Wearing a white yukata, the apparition with immaculate precision fired at the lights in the distance, reloading a bullet in the chamber with each shot. Somehow even from this far distance, it managed to hit all of the blue lights, but only missed the ninth light on the far right. Throwing the rifle on the ground, the apparition took out a cigarette from the pocket of the yukata and lit it on fire. It seemed to be transfixed into the only remaining blue light in the distance.

Curiously, Chito approached the apparition from the back. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" she asked, still terrified that this person might hurt her.

Slowly the apparition turned around to face her and with a smile, he replied: "Wow, you've grown into such a beautiful girl Chii-chan." Even though his profile and voice seemed to be distorted, she could immediately recognize the familiar features of someone that saved her and Yuuri's life what felt like a really long time ago.

"Grandpa?" exclaimed Chito. "What - How!?" Even though their grandfather was the person that saved their lives, she still felt terrified by his ghostlike appearance.

Taking another puff of his cigarette, he smiled and started speaking in the same distant voice from before "Chii-chan - I am so sorry for everything. I had to protect you both. Chii-chan please go to the ninth light, you will see... and ... remember..." dropping the cigarette down on the ground he turned around and started walking in the dark distance. "I am so happy I got to see you one last time, please take care of Yuuri. I love you - my beautiful flowers - " walking further in the distance he slowly dissipated from this existence.

"GRANDPA!" With tears in her eyes, Chito yelled after him and wept as she started running after him, she was gaining momentum but no matter how fast she ran she could never reach him. "GRANDPA WAIT! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US AGAIN! PLEASE!" screaming with all her might she couldn't do anything else but keep on running and screaming into the empty dark distance.

The sky and the lights turned a dark shade of black... he was again gone from their lives!

° ° °

"Chii-chan?"

"Chii-chan?!" Trying to wake her up was Yuuri who was laying next to her. "Chii-chan, please wake up! You are having another nightmare!"

Opening her eyes, Chito glanced around only to see the terrified look of Yuuri laying huddled next to her. Chito was drenched in sweat and seemed to have been crying in her sleep. Her heart beating uncontrollably fast, she was still unable to comprehend if that was real or a dream she experienced. It was still late at night, the stars covering the dark sky like a carpet of shining glitter.