Hirari Hirari (Lucien)

picks up after Heat Haze Days. Lucien feels bad and Suki needs a hug. All aboard the angst train! Today was also my last day of school :)

Waking from a dreamless sleep at some ungodly hour of the night I hear voices. I poke Valan “Is anyone else awake?” He shakes his head sleepily “Why do you ask?” I give him a look “You don't hear that?” I gesture to the door “No. I don't.” He shakes Yuuri, asking him the same question I originally asked him “What? No. No one else is awake except you two. Go back to bed.” Valan takes his advice and falls back asleep quickly. Getting agitated I get up and walk through the empty house. I hear what sounds like running feet and turn around but see no one. I walk upstairs following the noise toward the usually empty wing of the Seki house that mostly houses guest rooms and would have housed servants originally. I look out the window and see a light coming from the Shrine and faint singing. I turn away from the empty wing and go to investigate.

It's Sakura, Takayama’s wife. I wonder what she's still awake for. I wait until she finishes her song and whispered prayer before walking up to her. “Hello.” I say softly, I can see she's been crying. “Why are you still awake? Everyone else is asleep.” She looks at me “You're not.” Sakura points out “Well I'm a ghost, I don't really need sleep.” She smiles and places a flower on one of the graves, the smallest one. “I miss them.” She says softly as we stare at the three graves of polished stone. “I'm so sorry.” A terrible attempt to offer condolences though she seemed to appreciate it. “Thank you. Good night Lucien.” Sakura leaves silently going back inside. I continue to hear voices and go back inside, turning a corner I see a slight glowing figure, similar to myself. Curiously I follow the light source until I come to a dead end. It's a little girl outlined in a whitish light running through the halls yelling for her father. “Wait! Who are you?!” The girl stops in her tracks and turns to me “You can see me?” Her white kimono is devoid of any dust or debris and glows slightly as the rest of her is outlined in a similar way. “Yes. And you can see me?” The girl laughs and pushes a lock of black hair behind her ear “Well of course I can!” She squeaks out. The mysterious girl looks no more than seven at most and I feel a pit in my stomach drop as I realize who it may be. “What's your name?” I ask stepping closer and kneeling down so I'm at eye level with the girl. “Suki. What's yours?” I swallow and try to calm the storm of emotions that threatens to overtake me “Lucien. It's nice to meet you, Suki.” She shakes my hand “why are you here?” She asks me excitedly moving back and forth “I'm visiting with some friends. We are some close friends of Yuuri.” Suki’s eyes widen “I had a cousin named Yuuri! He was really cute as a baby, even after he got in an accident.” I nod “I'm his friend, he's all grown up now.” Suki’s expression changes from one of excitement to one of sadness “I wish I could see him. I can of course...he can't see me though. No one else can.” She sits on the carpet and pulls loose strings from it. “I can.” I reply sitting with her. “That's ‘cause your dead.” I look at her “How do you know that?” Suki looks up at me “You're dressed in mostly all blue and glow slightly. That's how I know. You're like me, I guess. Only if your a friend of Yuuri’s you must be a spectre, not a regular spirit.” I nod “You're correct, my little friend.” I pat her head “Did you hear that song my mom sings sometimes? Hirari Hirari? It means looking for. Did you know they never found most of my brothers body?” I shake my head “No. No I didn't know that. Why couldn't they find him?” Suki sighs “Gabe was in the military, his unit got ambushed. Then there was an ash storm, we only got part of him back. But it's okay, he's still fully intact as a ghost, and he was cremated anyways. It's the custom in Morrowind.” Suki explains but goes silent as we hear a door open and she shoves me into a doorway “Just so they don't ask questions.” Takayama walks into the hallway and Suki runs after him “Papa! Papa!! Ada!!! Ada it's me!!!” She shouts after him but her shouts fall on deaf ears. He turns to look out the window and Suki stands eagerly, thinking by some means he’ll notice her, though in reality, all he sees is a dark empty hallway before going back to bed. Suki follows him back to his room and stands in the doorway looking at her parents before coming back to her place on the carpet and gesturing for me to come out. I sit next to her silently and she begins to cry, as any six year old would had they been subject to the same turmoil. “Why can't they see me?!” She wails in frustration and clings to me. I let her cry, it must be incredibly lonely her existence, with only other spirits and her two brothers company, while the rest of the world goes on without acknowledgement. Suki gets up after a while and walks over to the closed door where her parents sleep and stands silently for a moment. Then she kicks it, hundreds of years of loneliness and pent up frustration. Again and again she kicks the door as she continues to cry. “Why. Can't. You. See. Me!!” Each word punctured by a kick, yet to Sakura and Takayama, everything is silent. Their two world existing side by side except for an impassible divide of life and death. Suki collapses onto her knees, her head against the door. She takes a breath and wails, crying for her parents. I feel my heart sink watching her. It really is a painful existence.