Jiragi The School of Ghosts

Chapter 1
Jiragi: The school of Ghosts

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Chapter Description: Mike gets a message from a friend, a message that forces him across the world as his younger alter ego.

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Jiragi

The school of Ghosts

Disclaimer: Okay I’ve never been one for horror, so when I found this online, I had to change the ending, so... the fallowing is based on a Manga comic by Yoshitomi Akihito, which can be found translated on: http://www.onemanga.com/School_Mermaid/

Also, another character is owned by the Cartoon Network, but I’ll let you figure out who that is.

“Why me, why me.” Mike says as he drudges his way from one building to the other. Outside of this urban Baltimore campus, the sun is bright and cheery, and the trees are full of leaves and life. People buzz around the campuses main mall, all looking for their next class (in some cases their next squeeze, but that’s another story all together), all in the nearly ninety degree, Florida like humidity day. Mike slowly moves over towards the bridge straddling Coldspring Lane and starts across with his thirty five pound backpack. He walks with a hunch as he sweets the few hundred feet towards his destination, the gym.

“Thank God the next class is a swim class.” ?Then again,’ he begins to think, ?that’s an ironic choice of words considering.’

To skip a bunch of boring junk, he eventually makes his way to the old, stone building, and down to the locker room from another era. He moves over to a set of lockers near the back, and up to his locker, number 667.

“Finally.” He states. “He lets his backpack drop to the ground were it hits hard, making a loud thud, almost cracking the concrete floor. He puts in his combination and opens the locker. He immediately moves to remove his sweet dipped shirt and places it inside of the locker, on one of the old hooks. It immediately falls to the ground as the hook gives way, all resting on the rust covered locker bottom.

“Figures.”

He begins changing, taking off his cloths and places them on the shelf above at the top of the locker, which subsequently falls to the floor. He watches the shelf fall, looking to it with only a flat expression. He reaches into the pockets of his jeans and removes his keys and cell phone, which he then places on the bottom of the locker, on top of the pile on the ground. As he does, the HTC smart phone screen turns on, signaling to an incoming message.

“What!” He bellows. “I told these idiots I don’t have texting.” He picks up the phone and looks at the messages. The small window on the bottom of the screen reads, of all things, an email address. “God, I definitely don’t have emailing on this thing.”

“Then what do you have it for?” A rather bulky (muscular bulky compared to Mike’s scrawny self) student says as he passes by.

“I got it because I can use Word.”

Mike looks at the phone for a moment, then notes the lack of a displayed message.

“Huh, it’s her.”

“A girl? You? Pya ha ha ha, yeah right.” The guy laughs.

“She’s in Japan...it was a high school pen pal thing. We just kept in touch.”

“Oh.”

“But she doesn’t have my cell number.” He says cautiously. He hits the screen and expands the window containing the email address. Suddenly, a bunch of 1’s and 0’s appear on the screen. They circle around for a while then form, of all things, a face. The face, that of a girl, mouths something, but it isn’t coherent or audible.

“Huh, what the.” Mike says shocked, but not completely.

“Wha, she sexting?”

“What, I don’t here...”

Suddenly, the image disappears.

“What was that?” Mike says once again.

The other boy comes over and looks over his shoulder.

“I don’t see not’in.”

Suddenly, the small cell phone begins to vibrate, and with it, a steady wave of water rises out of the phone and into the air a full three inches from the device. The little, gusher does not drop water down to the ground, instead, it hovers in the air, almost like a 3D model. In the water, a single piece of paper pops up to the top of the gusher, which subsequently disappears, leaving not a trace of its existence except for the sheet of paper which starts falling towards the ground.

The two boys fallow the paper as it dances its way towards the ground, then settles on the floor.

“Okay.” Mike starts. “I think I need to call somebody.”

“Yeah, like the ghost busters.”

“Actually, I mean GRIMMMM!”

At the edge of the aisle, a dark spot appears on the ground. It sits their for a while before molding its way into dark, hooded figure. The figure sticks out its boney hand and a scythe appears, clicking as the handle hits the ground.

The two boys turn towards the figure, which hovers towards the two, stopping only a few feet away.

“So wa-da ya want, you realize I am busy.” The figure says in a heavy Jamaican accent.

“Grim, I need a little help.” Mike states bending down and picking up the paper while his counter part watches the man, jaw dropped and eyes wide open.

“Are you...are you...”

“Yeah yeah, Death, the Grim Reaper, what ever ya got.”

Mike bends back up with the slip of paper and reads it over, then displays it for the Grim Reaper.

“Can you read this?” He asks.

“Aren’t you the one in college?”

“Yeah, but this school doesn’t have a Japanese class, and even if it did, I doubt my ability to translate this easily.”

Grim grabs the paper and reads over the Japanese Characters.

“That’s strange, the characters are in Japanese, but the language is much older.”

“Older?” the boy behind Mike asks.

“Yes. Its almost...a creature. But there suppose to be extinct.”

“What creature?”

Grim looks to Mike. “How did you get this?”

“I think,” he pauses for a moment, then continues, “a friend of mine sent a rather unconventional message, then a gusher came out of my phone and reviled that.”

“Hmmm, sounds like a type of spirit. They’ve been called many things, everything from lost children to land fish, to mermaids. But I think your friend has joined their ranks, and if that’s the case, then she’s in trouble.”

“Who... what are these things?” He asks.

Grim adopts a serious look. “About ten thousand years ago, a young girl stole a boy from another girl. The one girl, the one who’s boyfriend was stolen, cried for weeks, that was until a witch came along. The girl begged for the witches help, so the witch promised the girl that, at night, if she killed the girl who stole her boyfriend, and consumed some portion of her flesh, she would gain the boy back for as long as she wanted. At first, the girl was in so much grief, she agreed to go along with it, but what she didn’t know was that the witch wanted revenge on her family. So, that night, the girl went to kill the other, but she couldn’t go threw with it, and at sun rise, she realizes that she could no longer stand on the land. It was as if the ground below her was turning to water, and her mind was being...re-written. The witch used a spell that turned her into what I use to call a Selki. But she’s a special type, one that when someone manages to catch her, kill her, and consume her flesh, they would gain the male they were looking for, but only if their name started with the letter of the boy’s name. These Selki’s were originally made as a party gift back in old Egypt, and were originally made from small statues. The problem is when this happens with the living, their sole becomes trapped in this state, until they are killed.”

Mike stands and watches the angle of death with a dead serious tone.

“Can you do anything about them?” Mike asks.

“No. As a Selki, I can’t even reap the sole that is freed. Instead...they go to purgatory.”

“But why the hell would she contact you for help. You weak.”

“But yet I still swim better than you...I told her about Jiragi.”

“That explains a lot. Jiragi’s power is more than enough to recall the spirit, but there is a catch.”

“What’s that?”

“You’d have to use the awakening spell, then trap the one you want to restore. But that is sort of odd though.”

“What?”

“Selki’s are free spirited creatures with very little in the way of a functioning mind. When a person is made a Selki, they loose what makes them that individual. The fact that she new enough to contact you must mean that you must have a strong bond with her.”

“Well, we have been talking for a while?” Mike scratches his head. “But that doesn’t matter...”

“There’s one more thing. The note mentions, but not much, that someone’s coming for her, if they haven’t already. Your powers are useless in purgatory.”

“Why, how? Both issues.”

“Well, about purgatory, that was created when the almighty came to being, it’s a null space in the universe, between universes. There’s no jurisdiction. It s horrible place to be. The only way to get a soul from there is manual extraction, and only a few have ever been successful, matter a fact, I can only recall one.”

“Who was that?” The boy behind Mike asks.

“Some guy named Sparrow, but that’s not important right now. If you do this, you will only have till sunrise, then you will get trapped yourself.”

Mike looks down to his watch. “That means we have only five hours.” He pauses for a moment. “Aww, screw swim class, I’m the only one here who can swim anyway.”

“Hey, I can swim!”

“The doggy paddle.” Mike reaches deep within his mind. He triggers, and shuts down the safe guards that have been put into place, and activates his power. A glowing circle forms on the ground. The boy behind Mike spots this and backs off just before a wave of energy rushes up from the ground causing Mike to grab himself, as his older, 5’10” figure melts away to that of a young boy. His hair grows long, and his skin tone lights, as his facial features change, along with clothing. The light eventually clears, leaving a little child standing in a odd looking grey dress (literally dress) bottom, and white robe like top.

“What the...how is turning into a little white boy goi’na help that girl”

Jiragi looks back to the guy. “Save it, I’ve already gotten it from every last civil right leader who ever died for a cause. That included Gandhi.” He then takes one look at Grim. “Lets go.”

The boy then closes his eyes, and disappears in a flash of light.

“Great, first those two brats in Endsville, now him, why I auda...”

“Hey, how, but why...”

“He watched too much anime, its bad for you. Why don’t ya just read the introductory story.”

“Oh, well, see ya later.”

“This weekend if ya go to that party.” With that, Grim’s form twists like a piece of paper, continuing into infinity, and disappears.

The poor boy left behind rushes to his cell phone, hits a speed dial button, and places it up to his ear.

“Hey Marcus, I gotta cancel this weekend”

Kawasaki, Japan

川崎市

The area is dark and quiet. The streets are clear. The sky is full of lights, but all are from the nearby city of Tokyo. There are some street lights glowing dimly above the unused roads, but nothing more. The school itself is surrounded by a mid level wall. The building, plain, international style, with a primarily concrete exterior. A swimming pool is kept near the building.

Near the pool, a sharp burst of light gives way to Jiragi. He looks around the area as Grim twists back into existence.

“You realize I have work to do.”

“Yeah, whatever. What do we do?”

“Well first we need to find a body of water directly associated with the structure.” The two look forward at the swimming pool not even ten feet in front of them. “That was quick.” Grim states in a...well, grim manor. “Well kid, this is were I leave you.”

“Why,” Jiragi says looking to the reaper.

“Because, I am the Grim Reaper, and I can’t use the spell. It won’t affect me, and I know nothing to help you besides using the spell.”

Jiragi look at him with a look that hints to his disbelief, but then looks to the water.

“Then what’s the spell?”

“You do realize if you fail, you’ll become one of them?”

“She’s a friend, possibly one of the only ones I have in THIS world. I need to do this.”

The reaper raises an eyebrow at the boy, then returns to his normal depressed expression.

“The last hundred times I’ve heard that the person ended up, well, I think you can guess.”

Grim lifts out his hand, and a piece of paper appears, which then tumbles its way straight to Jiragi who catches it in the air.

“There, live long and prosper.” Grim announces in a huff, then disappears into a black hole with appears behind him, then closes around him.

Jiragi looks over the page. But just then, the black hole opens up just enough to show Grim’s face. “By the way, the Selki’s will be in the school, not in the pool.” The hole then closes.

Jiragi looks at the page one more time, then in a steady tone,

“Mermaid, Mermaid, Could you please, Make my love come true, give for me your flesh and blood?”

He looks at the page, the looks up and places it in his pocket.

“Sounds stupid, but then again.”

The world around him blurs out then re-focuses as a hallway inside of a structure. Jiragi stands still. He allows his mind to scan the building, but only one blot appears on his radar.

“There’s not much here. Can I not sense them?” He then looks up. “Yoshiko!” he calls. No one answers. He begins walking down the school hallway. The school is dark, as expected, the only light coming from the full moon outside. The classes all have windows for viewing inside, but there is nothing present in them but desk.

“Boy, this place is dead....possibly another bad choice of words, but...”

The boy suddenly stops when he notices something. He looks to the floor and to sees not one, but three shadows...three human shadows... constructed from the moon light.

“I have a feeling I should have just called Scooby Doo for this one.” He turns around and spots two girls, both dressed in dark blue swim suites with small, skirt like portion around the hips. He stands stunned for a while as the girls smile at him. “Uhh, high.” He states nervously as he waves.

“Hnhnhmm.” The girls giggle.

“I’m here to help you, I can restore you.” Jiragi says regaining his composure. He steps towards the girls just for them to perform back flips straight into the floor, sending a splash of water as they go. Its only then does the letters on a card on the front of their uniforms become evident to the boy.

“That’s what he meant by letters. But how do I trap something that obviously doesn’t care to come with you, or have any since that its in danger.”

He takes a few steps back, head dipped low as he thinks of a plan.

“No matter what, a Selki is a living being. Their made from living beings. I can trap them. May not be human, but if I can produce an energy cage, than I can trap them.” He then looks up, troughs a hand up with a figure pointed and yells, “That’s it!” A flash of lightning and thunder crashes outside, scarring the boy.

“I really need to do something about that.”

With that, he teleports out, and into the schools gym. He raises his arms and opens them. Around him, an aura of light appears. He tilts back his head, eyes closed, as he focuses the light into a large square shape threw out the central open area. Then he gives the light depth, extruding it up and into a cube shape. Suddenly, bolts of green electric light thunder from the floor and bend around the cube of light, forming a cage. He comes out of his trance, and watches the item in front of him.

“Good, that’ll work.”

A slight disturbance in the force causes him to look towards the nearest entrance, but nothing is there, but out of the corner of his eyes he spots more of the creatures. He turns around fully and spots two girls sitting on the wall, the lowest in elevation still a good teen feet off the floor.

“Now to catch them all.” He says as he spots the two girls.

Using his powers, Jiragi quickly teleports from his position, and winds up directly in front of the girls. They smile, and move to playfully run away, but Jiragi is prepared this time. He cups his hands to gather energy, producing a small ball of light in his hands. He then moves his hands apart breaking the ball into two units. He winds his right hand back, and as if pitching a baseball, throws the balls at the girls. The second the balls hit the girls, they expand and fully encompass them, then shrink back down, contents included, to there handheld size. The balls immediately float toward the cage, entering without problem, and releasing their captives, restoring their sizes.

“That will work.” He says. “Now, to get the rest.” He floats over towards the main entrance as the thought, ?Boy, in Scooby Doo, this is where the music would start for the chase sequence.’ Passes threw his mind.

For the next several hours, Jiragi will move threw the school capturing the girls as best he can. He uses ever trick in the book, from individual capture, to lining a room filled with the transformed school girls with the energy balls, and watching as they try to escape threw the orbs. By four a.m., he has the majority of them caught. Over twenty three by his count, but his friend is not among them. He continues searching the school. It is obvious the Selki’s are not concerned with their own personal welfare. They are more concerned with playful dancing or swimming threw the school. It takes all the boy’s energy to collect the stragglers. But since he can’t detect them, he can’t tell how many are left, nor track them. But, for some reason, they all come to him, as if attract to his presence, his...

“Life force.” He says coming to a dead stop while flying threw a hall way. “That’s it, Grim said it himself, they aren’t concerned with life of death, just play. Selki’s are concerned with having fun, and I’m the only thing here that’s dynamic, because I’m alive.” He teleports from the hallway, and back to the gym were he has the majority of the creatures caged. The ones in the cage playfully swim around in their enclosure, none being in the least bit concerned about their current predicament.

“Now, all I have to do is raise my energy level, and I should attract the last ones.”

He lands on the floor just in front of the cage. He focuses his energy, causing a light blue light to glow around him. He closes his eyes and adopts a calm posture as he manages to expand the light. The Selki’s in the cage all stop and take notice of this creature and its energy. The light is so great, that the room brightens as if the normal lightings were on. Eventually six more Selki’s appear. They huddle around the boy all watching him in earnest. They perform a slight dance around him, some even swimming in the air, reminiscent of Dolphins playing in the wake of a big ship. Eventually the light rises up and into the air, independent of Jiragi. The Selki’s fallow, not noticing the light passing into the cage, trapping them like the rest.

Jiragi releases his power and drops to the floor. He turns over and looks into the cage, and over the latest six.

“Where are you?” He notes as he realizes his target is still not present.

“Does it matter?” A voice says from behind. Jiragi rolls over, and moves to his knees as he sees the girl step towards him. “You capture all the other T’s that’s enough for me.”

“What?” He thinks for a moment. “You’re the signal I’ve been picking up.”

“Probably.” The casually dressed girl with her black hair in a pony tail wearing glasses says as she walks towards him. He figures the girl can be no older than eighteen. “I was hoping you’d catch them first, but they seem to be the most elusive. They don’t want me to have him. But I saw you capture the first, and I knew you’d get the rest. Now I will have him.”

“Him, he wh....” Jiragi pauses. ?Yoshiko’s full name is Taniguchi Yoshiko.’

“You... did that to her on purpose didn’t you.”

The girl suddenly gives off a cold vibe, one Jiragi has never felt before. And in a cold, killers voice she responds,

“That’s right. I tricked her into coming here. She’s too slow. She couldn’t even catch Ohhara. I had to kill her.”

“You’re a murder. How can someone do that.” Jiragi feels a cold chill overcome him. He begins to shiver, unable to calm himself from this information. “How can someone due that to someone else, how can they, all for what,” he starts remembering the words of the spell, “JUST FOR SOME DATE!”

“I will have him. Tanaka will be mine. I will consume Yoshiko. But I don’t need her. I have all the T’s. I don’t need her.”

The girl begins her approach, reviling a large steak knife, repeating. “She’s so slow. So cowardly. She could nev...”

As Jiragi struggles to his feet, breathing deeply in the process, he watches as the girls face turns from cold to coldly surprised. Jiragi looks to her surprised, then turns. Behind him stands one...last...Selki...Yoshiko. She stands their with an odd, almost knowing smile on her face.

“Yoshiko?” Jiragi says to the girl.

The girl continues her smile, but unlike the others she turns, and walks towards the cage and freely passes threw the bars, then turns and looks back out, still baring that smile.

“You came.” The girl says bareing a faint smile.

?She only showed herself when the other T’s were caught. She’s...sacrificing herself.’ Jiragi thinks.

“Then I will have you.” The girl bolts towards the cage at full power. She displays the knife in a stabbing position as Yoshiko stands, closing her eyes, as if accepting her fate.

?I have to stop this.’ Jiragi moves to use his powers to stop the girl, but a flash of light from a window on the wall makes slowly burns its way towards the girl, reaching her position. The assailant, who’s still a good fifty feet on the other side of the gym, seems to almost trip over nothing, then disappears into a puddle on the floor. The stake knife falls to the ground, making a metallic clinging noise as it bounces to a stop.

“The sunrise!” the boy exclaims. “Great, I don’t know how to undue the spell.” He looks the cage and too his catches. “I can’t do it.” But just then, the girl seems to almost point attention towards the window. He turns to the window. “The sunlight!” With that, he throws up his hands at the window. Instantly, a wave of bricks fly up from the ground in front of the large window, and all the others and the room, and the doors seal shut. The room is dark, only being lit by the electric green energy cage. Jiragi turns back to Yoshiko in the cage. “You wouldn’t know how to undue the spell would you?”

“Squeee.” Is the girl’s only response as she gives him a huge smile.

“Great.” He looks over to a clock barely visible on the wall. “Well, if this place is anything like American schools, people should start showing up about seven.”

BUM BUM BUM BUM! “Hey, why is this door closed, who’s in there?” Echoes from a door.

“Of course not! Well, I guess that’s why test scores over here are higher.”

Jiragi looks up to the sky and starts, “Come on, I’ve always admitted when I need help before. Well I need it now!”

He allows his head to drop down, as he turns to despair. “Great.”

“That I’m here.”

A hand arrives on the boy’s shoulder, causing him to rush around.

“You, I thought you were hiding out?”

The young looking woman looks down to him then smiles.

“Just feel lucky for your sake that I did come.” She then looks to the girls in the cage. “Well, I think I can walk you threw this.”

Outside the door, about an hour later, a man in blue overalls and tank on his back arrives at the door. He takes a small nozzle off his belt line as a man in a suite watches. The man lights the blow torch as the other starts,

“What ever student did this is going to pay.” The man in the suite says with anger.

The man in overalls slides a pair of goggles over his eyes with his free hand, then kneels at the door. He twists a small knob on the side of the nozzle, sharpening the flame. He moves the flame to the door as they open, reviling a set of school girls, all in their dark blue uniforms with small red string ties. They watch the man with an almost trying look.

“Is that really necessary.” One of the girls states.

The man shuts off the flame as the man in the suite yells,

“Why were you in their and the door locked?”

“Because are group was having a meeting. Check the schedule.” With that, the gang of girls begin filling out to a rather shocked principle.

Inside, Yoshiko, Jiragi and Kim stand around in the now empty gym.

“So, how were you able to operate, communicate with me, get in the cage, etcetera?” Jiragi asks.

The girl looks up in the air. “I don’t know. I just sensed that I could do those things, so I did them.”

“More likely it was because you too have a strong bond.” Kim suddenly announces.

The two look at her with blank stares. “Were international pen pals, this is the first time we’ve met.” Jiragi states.

“I know, but you’ve been so for about four years now, and you’ve never given up on it. You two have religiously been in contact with each other, that formed a bond. And since you,” she users to Jiragi, “were able to share your experience of these powers with her, your two’s friendship has grown deeper. It was something you could count on. With your heightened abilities, and your willingness to accept it (Yoshiko), you two formed a psychic connection that allowed you to keep a clear enough mind threw the spell. You two just figured that the six-thousand four hundred miles was enough to make any deeper relationships impossible. Then there’s also the fact that the spell was meant to hurt those who made the wrong decision. You were only trapped because, once you realized what the mermaids were, you couldn’t hurt them.”

The girl’s expression changes to one of acceptance.

“So what about Haruko?”

“I can come back tonight and free her.” Jiragi says looking towards the now uninhibited window.

“Yeah. She allowed herself to become so cruel. We’d only been friends for a few years but, I didn’t know...”

“Don’t worry about her for now.” Kim starts. “Right now, worry about your own life.”

The girl looks to the angel. “But what about all those girls that she...she...” the girl’s voice trails as she can not mention the word.

“There’s little we can do about that. They are not just dead. That, with the proper convincing, we could fix, but where they are...it will be hard.”

“But...I want to do it, I owe it to them.”

“Then I’ll help you.” Jiragi states.

The girl smiles to the boy who smiles back.

“So then, I’ll see you to night?”

“Yeah.”

The girl continues smiling as she looks up, walks off, and leaves the gym. Allowing Jiragi to switch subjects too,

“So...how long were you watching?” he asks.

“Why, about the whole time Shaggy.”

The boy looks to Kim with anger. “And you couldn’t help?”

“I told you, you need to learn to do this alone. I came in when needed didn’t I?”

“Yeah I guess.” He states in a little boy way. “But I’m expecting you to go with us on this end of the Earth field trip.”

“Deal.”

“Oh, one more thing? How am I speaking Japanese, she always wrote in English, I never knew a word of this language...”

The end (its not, but you get the idea)

 

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