Sunset Ghost

Find Me

Reassured, Kageyama nodded again and pulled on a discarded shirt, retrieving a stack of empty talismans from the shop counter. As he shrugged on his jacket and approached the gaping hole where the door used to be, he took a deep breath and clenched his fists. This was it. Anything could happen after he stepped through the threshold. Kageyama knew there was a large possibility he may never come back.

Oh well. He'd always loved taking risks.

_____________________

The rain poured down in thick streams, restricting the view to three feet in any given direction. Hinata shivered, but not from the cold. Fear kept his feet firmly grounded to the spot next to his grave, legs shaking and unshed tears clawing insistently at his eyes, though he refused to let them fall. Instead, he glared harshly at the figure across from him with as much courage as he could muster.

Despite the firm resolve, his voice shook more than his legs when he spoke. "Why did— Why did you bring me here?"

"This is the location where your emotions are the most heightened." The Ikiryō rose from his previous position kneeling in front of a stone angel statue and turned to him with a crooked, blurred frown. "At least, I had thought so. Your aura was brighter at that shop earlier." He let out a forlorn sigh. "Ah, oh well: I suppose it doesn't matter all that much."

Hinata pressed himself closer to the comforting familiarity of his well-worn gravestone, biting his trembling lower lip. "Why... why can you touch me when I'm not in my physical manifestation? And what's wrong with your spirit? It's so... so warped."

"Hideous, isn't it?" The Ikiryō laughed, though there was no real humor behind it. "That's what happens to humans who bite off more than they can chew, I suppose." He held out his hand and the sparkling blue energy from before crackled around it for a moment before he clenched his fist and it disappeared. "I got too greedy: messed with things I didn't understand. Iwa-chan and the rest, they tried to warn me, but I didn't believe them." His dark eyes flashed desolately. "And now... here I am, forced to wander between the worlds like a common nomad."

"So you really were human before..." Hinata whispered in horror. "Can't you... stop? Go back, somehow?"

"As if I haven't tried." He let out a strained breath. "The hunger becomes too strong for you to handle. You start to go crazy with the feeling of emptiness." His red eyes turned towards the sky, as if he were searching for something amidst the rain clouds. "Even in my human body, I feel it clawing at me... The only thing that offers the tiniest bit of relief is consuming souls. Souls like yours."

Hinata flinched when those unsettling empty pools fixed on him and the monster took a step towards him. "But you— you can fight it," he tried bargaining desperately as the threat moved closer. "You don't have to do this. There's gotta be a way for you to change back!"

"Shut up." The shadowy figure appeared in front of him in the blink of an eye, slamming his back against the grave. "I'll make this quick." Blue energy crackled along his arms and Hinata tried to tug himself free to avoid the deadly power he'd seen strike Kageyama earlier, but to no avail. As the electricity grew nearer to his skin, he could only squeeze his eyes shut and pray for a miracle.

A miracle? his brain echoed faintly. Those don't exist. You need to fight. Fight him!

Wishing he wasn't so bravely stupid, Hinata gritted his teeth and tore his eyes open, pushing the man off him with all of his strength and using the momentum to sprint past him, off into the rain. His feet pounded soundlessly against the puddles of muddy water and soft soil as he tore through the graveyard and towards the gate several plots away, but he could feel his energy dimming. It was as if the Ikiryō had began sucking the soul out of him just by making contact. Whatever the case, he couldn't let him catch up. He needed to make it out of the cemetery and find someone—Kageyama, Suga, Tsukishima: anyone who could help him.