My Spectral Sweetheart (Stonetribe x Averavic)

Hi there! My name is Rairakku Saionji. I'm 20 years old, my favorite food is Tempura Udon Noodles, and my biggest hobby is flower and vegetable gardening. These past few days have been super busy for me. Why? Because just recently, I've bought a house of my very own for the first time in my life! Isn't that exciting? I never would have thought that I'd be able to afford property at such a young age. Shoot, I've never even rented an apartment before! I must have hit the jackpot though, because I was able to get an amazing deal for this home. Apparently they had trouble selling it because anyone who moved in would suddenly move out a few months later. Of course, this made me more than a little suspicious at first, so I called up a friend of mine to take a look at the place (He's an awesome architect!) and he couldn't find any problems at all! A few home loans later, and BAM! I am now the proud owner of Castle Saionji! (That's what I said I would call my house when I was a little kid~)

The move has been going great so far. There's still some furniture I'll need to move in, but I've unpacked most of my personal belongings. Although, I feel like I've been noticing some strange occurrences around the house... Nothing too out of the ordinary, just little things like objects being in a slightly different place than where I remember putting them, or boxes that I haven't yet unpacked already being open.

Ah well I'm sure it's nothing. I Probably just have too much on my mind with the move and all.

"There... we.. go... and..... done!" Rairakku stood up and wiped the sweat off his brow with his sleeve. Even though Spring wouldn't be here for a couple more weeks, the temperature was already starting to get particularly warm. Rairakku had just finished preparing the soil in his backyard for his upcoming flower/vegetable garden. All that was left was to begin planting the seeds and wait for his first of many botanical masterpieces to emerge, then the real fun would begin. He let out a tired sigh and headed back inside.

He spoke to himself as he took off his gloves and boots. "Aw man, this is gonna be great! Back at mom and dad's house, there was hardly any room at all for planting. But now, I can turn an entire backyard into a garden!" He stopped for a second, thinking about the possibility of using the literal entirety of his backyard for gardening, before shaking his head and dismissing the idea. "No no, I have to leave some space for moving around, boring as that is" He went into his room, taking off his gardening duds and changing into the clothes he was wearing prior. "Hmm, so what should I do about dinner" He thought out loud. "I think I'll order take out, I'd say I've earned it" He reached for his phone on his bed stand, only to grasp thin air. "Wha- aw man not again. Now where did I put that thing?" He scanned the room, spotting his phone on top of his pillow. "Now why did I leave this here of all places? Man I've been much more of an airhead than usually lately" He picked up his phone and dialed his favorite ramen joint. He sat down on his bed and asked about today's specials when his call was answered.

The previous owners did indeed have their fair share of trouble, as Madoka Tsukimori disliked having her space disturbed. Of course the intruders didn't know they were encroaching on her home. Indeed, this hadn't truly been her home since she had died nearly three years ago. But she remained, at least in a sense. She was little more than an uneasy feeling to them for the most part. A tingle in the spine. That sense that someone was watching. But at times she discovered she could do so much more. Now, she was not a vengeful spirit by any means, oh no. But she tried very hard to reach out to these people. It was very difficult for her at first. She was only able to shift some paper here, knock something off of a table there... It took a long time for her to learn what she could do in her spectral form, and indeed she was still learning. Once with the last tenant, she even tried spelling out a message on the mirror when they got out of the shower. It was steamed up, and pushing tiny droplets aside took almost all the energy she had! But in the end the water ran down, and the words were twisted and messed up in an incoherent way. That was apparently the last straw for them because they up and left that evening and never returned.

But now someone new was here, and Madoka was ever so excited to meet them! She watched him working now, always staying close at hand. After all, there was very little to do as a ghost besides watch those who came in and out of her home. Fortunately for her, people watching had always been something she enjoyed. While Rairakku toiled in the soil, Madoka sat in the grass nearby, idly picking at blades of grass as she watched him work. She had never cared much for yardwork while she was alive. It was a simple grass yard with some lounging chairs when it was hers. The backyard had changed several times as each new owner tried to make it their own, and it seemed that Rairakku had his own plans in store for it as well.

She glided back into the house, following close at his heels. She chuckled to herself when he couldn't find his phone. She had actually tried to make a call earlier, but couldn't manage to press any of the buttons once she had had it on the bed. Sometimes her ability to manipulate the world around her was... tenuous at best. She took seat on the floor cross-legged, looking up at him as he talked to the delivery company on the other line. "You're a forgetful one, aren't you?" She said, smiling to herself. Usually they assumed it was them who moved things at first... But over time they all noticed her, one way or another. She wondered how he would react when he found out about her, and if she would be able to communicate this time.

"30 minutes? Okay great! Thank you" Rairakku hung up and put his phone in his pocket, lest he "misplace" it again. "Hmmm" He hummed. "Speaking of food, I should probably do some dishes. I know the ramen comes with a plastic bowl and fork but I've been putting the dishes off for long enough" He walked into the kitchen and started filling the sink with hot water. As he waited, he noticed that he "left" all of his cupboards open. "Ah jeez, not again. I don't think I'm even using some of these yet" He set about closing them all back up. "Maybe I'm working too hard on this move thing. I oughta take it easy tomorrow, or at least get some help from some friends"

He realized that he hadn't yet unpacked his dish soap. He walked over to the kitchen closet which held many of his yet to be opened boxes. Rummaging around, he found the box that he packed his cleaning utensils in. To his surprise though, it was already opened. "Huh that's weird, did I already wipe the windows or something?" He hadn't noticed it at first but upon further inspection he saw that most all of the boxes in there were already opened. Was he just opening boxes and not unpacking the stuff inside? He didn't remember really needing anything that could be found inside most of the move.

Before he could think about it too deeply, he was interrupted by the sound of water hitting the floor. "Ah crap!" He exclaimed, rushing back to the now overflowing sink and turning off the faucet. He let out a tired sigh, "Well then... Guess I can add cleaning up the floor on my to do list. Did I unpack my mop yet? I'm pretty sure it's in the-woahah woah!" He begins to make his way to his closet, only to slip on the wet floor after taking his very first step. He falls flat onto his back, bumping his head on the ground in the process. "Ow! Geeze!" He clutches his head, rubbing it in attempt to ease the pain. He sighs and closes his eyes. "Actually, you know what? I think I'll just, I'll just lie here a bit"

Madoka watched as Rairakku left the sink running to go and tidy up. She turned back to the sink, which was about to overflow. "Hey!" She said, waving her arms in front of his face. "You forgot about the sink!" He ran past her as he heard the sound of splashing water, and she followed him only to witness as he slipped and fell, smacking his head against the linoleum. She rushed over to float overhead, checking him over carefully. "Are you alright? That was a nasty fall." She looked around and floated over towards the closet door. "Well, at least I can help a bit, seeing as you only got distracted because of me."

She reached for the handle of the closet door, but her hand went straight through it. She sighed and tried again, but just slipped right through. She glided inside the closet, and laid a hand flat against the wood of the door. She readied herself to push, waiting for that sensation, that feeling of touch. When it happened, she suddenly felt the door, and was able to push it open slightly. "Ha ha! I did it!" She said gleefully with her arms in the air. She quickly looked around and found the mop leaning up against the wall. She grabbed hold of the handle, and was once again able to make contact! She pushed it towards the door and it clattered to the floor. "Hey, I think I'm getting better at this!"

Rairakku groaned as he lay on the now wet floor, knowing that he might catch a cold should he remain there. Though normally chipper and proactive, considering the turn of consecutive unfortunate events even he found himself lacking in motivation for the moment. Upon hearing the sound of the mop hitting the floor, he snapped out of his little slump. As he got up to inspect the source of the noise, he saw that it was in face the object that he was looking for, or rather about to look for. He smiled and spoke up. "Well there's one thing that went right at least"

He walked over and picked it up, ready to start cleaning the floor. He before he did though, he stopped himself. "Oh wait, I should change out of these wet clothes first" He headed back into his room to strip once more. He was going to put on a second pair of clothes, but he figured that he would be mopping and doing dishes anyways so he might as well stay in his boxers until he was finished. Besides, it's not like there's anyone else in the house, right?

Rairakku wasn't particularly toned, but due to the amount of yard work that he would often do plus good eating habits from all the vegetables he would grow, his body was rather lean and attractive, nearly a single ounce of fat could be found. He walked back into the kitchen, setting himself to work on mopping the floor, humming a little song he heard on the radio the other day as he did so.

Madoka stayed behind in the kitchen, throwing a few dish rags on the floor to try and stop the slowly spreading puddle before it reached any of the young man's boxes. She Felt embarrassed when Rairakku came back into the kitchen in nothing but his boxers. "Oh, so sorry!" She said, turning around so her back was to him. Even after all these years, she felt bad spying on people from time to time - even if she had no other choice. She couldn't help but notice his lean, tanned body though, and she found herself peaking back at him over her shoulder. When she realized what she was doing she made a sort of high pitched yelp, apologized again, and scurried up the steps to her bedroom. Well... His bedroom she supposed, as she looked about the room not recognizing anything.

He had changed so much about the place in such a short time. He certainly didn't seem to be the procrastination type. She poked around his things in his room for a bit while he cleaned up and hummed to himself. She looked under his bed, and through a couple boxes in his closet, just trying to get a bit of a handle on who this new guest of hers was.

Rairakku went about cleaning in the kitchen, oblivious to the embarrassment he might have caused Madoka. Then again, it's wasn't uncommon for his quirky nature to lead to similar such situations, even when aware of how fully clothed he was. Case in point, just as he had finished his kitchen chores, he heard a knocking on his door. "Oh goodie, the food's here!" He wiped the sweat off his brow and headed into the living room to answer it. "Hello sir, did you ord-ahh! D-did you uh, order some ramen?" Of course, he was still wearing nothing but his boxers. So when he opened the door, the delivery girl was treated to the sight of a nearly naked young man. "Yes, thank you!" He said cheerily. As he reached for his wallet though he realized his mistake, yet he stilled laughed it off like it was no big deal. "Ah gosh! I'm sorry, I forgot that I was cleaning the kitchen, my wallet is still in my pants. I'll be right back!"

He ran back up to his room, quickly spotting his pants upon entering it. "There it is" he said to himself. Rather than dressing himself before coming back down though, he merely dug into the pockets retrieving his wallet and heading back down stairs still wearing nothing but his underwear. Amusingly enough, only after he had exchanged the money for his food did he think to actually put his clothes on again. He finally sat down near his coffee table to enjoy his food, gleefully spouting off "Itadakimasu!" before digging in.

Madoka heard the door and had hovered nearby, thinking that Rairakku would have dressed himself to answer it. She was adorably wrong, and she chuckled to herself - still blushing - as she hovered by the ceiling fan watching the events unfold. She laughed outloud as he grabbed not his pants, but just his wallet and went back to the door fully nude to a poor delivery girl whose face was a deep scarlet.

The poor delivery girl was a little taken aback as she took her money and left. But by the end of the day, it was just another funny story for her to tell her boyfriend about. There were more than a few quirky customers in this neighborhood, but why did so many of them seem to move into that house she wondered as she slipped back into her car.

Madoka lowered herself back to the floor, taking a seat on a spare chair nearby. She put an elbow on the table and rested her face in her palm as she watched him eat. She thought she could feel her stomach growl as she watched him slurp up raman noodles, but she knew that it wasn't. She still craved food from time to time, but she was never hungry per se. She sighed, frowning as he watched him joyfully gobble down his meal, oblivious to her seated right next to him. "So close, but so far." She said, reaching out to touch a loose strand of hair that had fallen down his forehead. "I wish you could see me."

Rairakku was thoroughly enjoying his dinner, he only wished that had set up his TV so he had something to watch while he ate. He made a mental note to do that before going to bed, among other things on today's to do list. Still, he was a fairly easy to please person. Good food alone was enough to satisfy him for the moment.

However, when Madoka had reached her hand out near his face to touch his strand of hair, Rairakku felt... something. It was a very strong and sudden sensation, starting at his head and running down through the rest of his body. it caused him to let out a soft but audible gasp, and he visibly shivered for a brief moment. "Whoa whoa." He said out loud. "Was that a draft? I don't think I left any windows open..." He looked around the room, confirming that it wasn't the wind. "Weird, maybe somebody was talking about me. Wait no that's sneezes, not... whatever that was."

Finished eating, Rairakku discarded the plastic bowl and fork into the trash. He was still a little bit shooken up from what had happened so he decided that a hot shower would help calm his nerves. He grabbed a pair of pajamas from his room and entered the bathroom. He striped naked yet again and stepped into the shower, immediately feeling better as he turned on the hot water.

"Wait a minute, you felt that!" Madoka said, clearly overjoyed at this revelation. She got up off her chair and jumped in the air, and shouted, "Yatttaaa!", with a wide smile on her face. She rushed over to where he sat, smiling from ear to ear. He was going on about sneezes, but she wasn't really listening at this point. She followed him up the stairs, practically running circles around him while she talked. "This is huge! I've been able to move things for a long time now, but no one has felt me before! What is about you? Are you different from the others somehow? Maybe we can even talk eventually! Oh, wouldn't that be grand! I have so much to tell you." And on and on it went. She slipped through the door of the bathroom just as he was changing and did another little yelp in surprise. She turned around until he had got in the shower and then took a seat, leaning against the wall. "I got to stop wandering into the bathroom when people are here." She muttered, mostly to herself.

The bathroom began to steam and as she looked at the steamed up mirror she had an idea! "Okay, I know this didn't go well last time." She said as she got up and drifted over to the mirror. "But I have faith in you, Rairakku!" She brushed the 'dust' off her hands that was not there and raised a finger to the glass. She was concentrating so hard on what she was doing that her mouth seemed to move along with her finger as she spelled out a single word:

Hello

She stepped back to admire her handy-work and decided to add one more thing...

Hello!

"Perfect!" She said, on the verge of jumping up and down again.

As Rairakku showered, he started singing another little tune that he had recently heard on the radio. He had always enjoyed singing whatever song was on his mind to himself. During his school days, classmates would sometimes poke fun at him for it, or rather they would try at least. Rairakku's upbeat and quirky nature made it rather difficult to make fun of him. He would usually interpret jokes and insults as compliments or in other unintended ways.

As he was finished, he turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, stretching his arms up in the air. "Ahh, there's no better way to end the day than with a hot shower!" He said. "Where's that towel now?" He began searching around the bathroom trying to find it. After a few seconds, he spotted it near the sink. "There it is" He reached down to grab it, but as he got back up he noticed Madoka's message in his mirror and merely dropped it back on the floor.

He couldn't help but stand there, staring at the word and smile written in the fogged up glass. What did, did he do that? For all his antics, he was still fully aware that he would often do silly things. He was also aware of his somewhat forgetful nature. But when he did something such as that, he would usually remember it. Considering the other oddities that had happened today, most people would most likely suspect that someone or something were behind it. Yet this never crossed Rairakku's mind. Suddenly though, he had an idea. Without giving it much thought at all, he wrote his own message underneath Madoka's. Then he stood back, somehow actually expecting that something might happen by doing so. The message read as such...

Hello?

She squeeled in excitement when he saw the message and actually replied! She hurried to the sink, leaning over and traced a finger over the surface of the mirror. There wasn't too much room below his message, so she wrote something simple.

I'm Madoka

When she was done she turned her head to look at him. He was looking right at her! Well... At her message, she supposed. But still! She stepped back from the mirror, hands held up to her face. She felt somewhat nervous now that she had actually made contact. She had no idea how he would respond.

Rairakku watched as Madoka spelled out her name. There was no denying it now. Now that he had actually witnessed the message being written by (seemingly) nobody, any chances of him being able to write this off as his imagination were gone. The only question now was what is happening. He repeated her name as he read her message. "Madoka..." He was about to write another message but saw that there was almost no space left. He surely wasn't going to let that put in end to this supernatural experience though. He wiped the mirror clean and fogged up the glass again with his own breath and wrote a new message in that.

I'm Rairakku, what is happening?

He stepped back again, anticipating her next reply. He looked around the bathroom one last time, giving up on the idea that all this could just be an elaborate prank.

"You're not scared?" She said, her hands balled up in little fists hiding her petite fist. "Oh I can't believe it!" Before she knew what she was doing she was hugging him, with her head buried in his chest. A deep chill ran through his body. It were as if he had stepped from his hot steamy shower and fallen into a deep, frigid snow bank. But there was no tingling heat along with this chill. It was the kind of deep, spine-tingling sense of unease you only feel when every instinct in your body tells you to run.

However, Madoka knew none of this. What she did realize was that she had just hugged a man who was soaking wet and - she looked down to check - completely naked! Her face flushed a bright crimson and she squealed, yelling "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" over and over as she zipped out of the bathroom. She sped towards the stairs, accidentally sending a box toppling flying into a wall as she went. The contents of the box spilled out onto the floor, clattering about as she fled down the steps in embarrassment, completely unaware of the unnerving effect her hug had on him.

"Woah woahoah!" He exclaimed. The sudden sensation Rairakku felt when Madoka hugged him had caused him to uncontrollably and violently shiver. It only lasted for a few seconds, but in his mind it felt much much longer. It was like nothing he had ever felt before. Shortly after, he could hear the sound of the box and it's contents hitting against the wall. When it had passed, all he could do was to wait and see if anything else would happen. After a few moments though, got dressed and left the bathroom. "What, what was that?" He said to himself.

By this point, it was almost as if his body was on auto pilot while numerous thoughts ran rampant in his mind. When he went to investigate the noise he had heard, he was treated to the sight of the box tipped over and various things of his scattered on the floor. Mindlessly and silently, he picked them up and put them away. When finished, he returned to his bedroom and took a moment to do some deep breathing to calm himself down. Any other person would likely have already been panicking, but after breathing Rairakku had managed to calm down enough to the point where he could from coherent thoughts. Oddly enough though, even after all that Rairakku wasn't particularly alarmed. Partially, yes without a doubt. But still not entirely. He found it hard to believe that he could be so optimistic that he would consider himself to be okay with this situation. But.... Nothing bad happened, right? No harm was really done. And aside from say, leaving the house, there wasn't really much that could be done about... Whatever it was that had happened.

Just then, Rairakku realized how both physically and mentally exhausted all this had left him. He turned out the lights and did his best to shoo away any remaining thoughts about this whole ordeal. As he lay in bed though, he just couldn't bring himself to rest easy enough to fall asleep. As he tossed and turned, thinking of what else he could do, an idea came to him. He got out of bed and turned the lights back on. He opened up a desk drawer and took out a pen and notebook. After scribbling something down, he took them both back out to the living room and left them on the coffee table. He returned to his room and was able to find just enough peace of mind to be able go to sleep and finally end this extremely eventful day. The message on the notebook read as such.

Goodnight, see you tomorrow?

Madoka had stayed hidden throughout the rest of the evening. She was embarrassed about what had happened, and she felt an odd tense energy to the place. That was something new about being a ghost as well. She could feel the energy of her home. Sometimes it felt warm and happy and bright, and her world seemed to shine all around her. But other times - and this was one of those times - the world felt dark and cold. She was not entirely sure what had happened, but she was pretty sure it was her fault. And so she stayed up in the attic alone until the sensation slowly started to fade away to a more neutral energy.

The attic was one of her comfort zones in the house. Throughout the various people that have come and gone over the past two years, they had somehow missed a small box of items tucked away in a corner of the attic. It was mostly full of books that never made it to her shelf downstairs, but there was one item that was very special to her now - a small photo album. In life, she had never taken the time to fill the whole thing, and it had simply gotten misplaced with a box of books she had no space for. But now, with the rest of her worldly posessions gone, this little book was all she had to remind her of what she had lost.

And so, when she was lonely or frightened or sad, the ghost-girl Madoka would sit quietly in the attic, and absorb every little detail in those photos. She had spent so much time examining each and every one, that she felt she could write a book describing them and nothing would be left out. There were photos of her at school, a few pictures from a trip she took with a girlfriend, and some pictures of her and her boyfriend, Ukyo Sugase. It was not much. There weren't even any shots of her family, and she found it more and more difficult to remember them each day... But it was enough.

It was not until the middle of the night that Madoka had wandered back through the house. It may seem cliche for a ghost to be active in the middle of the night, but there is a very good reason for this! Life as a ghost is boring! And when folks are asleep, there is very little for them to do. So they fumble around, maybe play with a trinket here or there. And in the dead of night, some unsuspecting sleeper hears a thud or a creak and wonders what could that be? On this night it didn't take her long to spot the note, and when she did she felt overjoyed! "You really aren't scared of me?" She said, tears welling up in her eyes. She tried to pick up the pen and write a reply. It was quite difficult for her. She might get one or two letters on the page before it slipped through her ethereal grip, making her normally fluid penmanship rather sloppy, and somewhat illegible as the pen tended to scribble a bit on its own as it fell. She focused harder and tried to be much more careful about the letters she was spelling out. It took quite a bit of work, but in the end she had written a simple reply.

See you in the morning!

Despite the events of last night, Rairakku was able to sleep surprisingly sound once he was able to fall asleep in the first place. Being able to nap easily was another one of his traits and though it was a little challenging at first considering what had happened, getting a good night's rest wasn't all to difficult for him. As the morning light poured into his room and on to his face, his eyes blinked lazily. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and then stretching his arms up into the air while letting out an almost comically noisy yawn. He got out of bed and dug around in his drawer for a change of clean clothes. When he found something suitable he left his room and went down the stairs in a very fluid sort of motion due to still being half asleep.

He seemed to have completely forgot about the note that he left out last night as he made no effort to check it on his way to the kitchen to eat breakfast. Despite being a good sleeper, him not being a morning person wasn't necessarily the case. It wasn't really difficult to get him out of bed and he would never really get grumpy about it so to speak. Whenever he did wake up though his brain would always function at half capacity. It was always considered a rather amusing sight by those he knew him.

As he walked into the kitchen, he opened up the fridge and reached inside to grab the milk. However, he pulled out orange juice instead. He put it back to get his intended target, only to somehow manage to pull out the orange juice a second time. He tried again, managing to finally succeed on his third attempt. With that little milestone accomplished, Rairakku went to grab the cereal from his pantry. He had considerably more luck in this little endeavor as he was able to get it right the first time unlike the milk. He proceeded to combine these items in a bowl and began to eat his breakfast, his mind gradually coming online during the process.

Madoka was drifting back and forth from the kitchen to the living room when Rairakku stumbled sleepily down the stairs. She was there to greet him at the bottom of the stairs, waving happily. "Good morning, Rairakku! I got your message!" She said, drifting aside slightly and gesturing towards the coffee table. He seemed to have forgotten about it entirely and made his way into the kitchen. "Wait, but don't you want to see what I wrote? I want to talk more!" She said, following close on his heels as he wandered towards the fridge. She chuckled a bit when he pulled out the orange juice, and then broke out laughing when he did it again. She regained her composure slightly once he sat down.

She pulled the chair out across from him, the wood dragging against the floor seemingly by its own power, and plopped down on the chair. She placed her elbows on the table and nestled her head in her palms, watching him. "You know, I may be the ghost, but right now you look like the zombie."

Rairakku still wasn't quite aware enough of his surroundings at the time to notice Madoka pulling out a chair for herself. The process of him waking up really was a lengthy one. It was finally almost complete though. As he finished his meal he had reached a point where he could form coherent thoughts and was able to respond to stimuli in a timely manor as opposed to three seconds late. He rinsed off his dishes and headed back upstairs to get his phone, checking his email and texts on the way back down. He sat down on the couch to plan the day ahead of him. "Okay let's see, what's on today's agenda?" He said aloud.

Before he could think of any chores to do though, he spotted the notebook and pen on the coffee table. The memories of last night's events then came flooding back to his mind. In response, he could only mutter so much as a soft spoken and dumbfounded "Oh, right..." He read the message she left him. He could note that, ignoring all the other bizarre circumstances, the "conversation" they were having was still pretty casual so far. He picked up the pen and wrote another reply, and sat back to watch and see if anything would happen again when he finished. The message read as such.

Good morning?

Madoka hovered over his shoulder - practically breathing down his neck - as he went about his morning routine. He finally noticed the note, and she threw up her arms in an exaggerated motion. "Finally! Took you long enough, you goof." She walked around beside him and watched him scratch out a short reply. A simple Good morning? was all she got. "Hmm." She thought for a couple moments, running a hand through her hair as she thought it through. "I don't know what to say to you! It's hard when we can only write a few words at a time."

She grabbed the pen and it lifted over paper. It hovered there for a moment while she thought, and then it went down as she began to write. She penned out each letter meticulously, in case it phased through her by accident. The font was quite different than her normal cursive, but what could you do?

Welcome to my home!

Watching the pen float up into the air and then writing on the notebook was an incredibly surreal experience, to say the least, even more so than seeing words being written in the fogged up bathroom mirror last night. Not that he would have any idea or ever would at all for that matter, but he wondered if this was what taking hallucinatory drugs was like. When the pen finished writing and was set back down on the coffee table, Rairakku leaned forward to read the next message. When he did though, he leaned right back into the couch, closing his eyes and letting out a confused sigh.

Miraculously, he still wasn't necessarily alarmed or worried. However, the fact that he wasn't alarmed was what was really troubling him. Was he actually losing his mind? Actually crazy people don't notice themselves going insane, do they? Or was it the opposite? Or maybe still, going crazy would make one think that the actual case to be the wrong one and the wrong one to be the... right one? Ahh forget it. Whether he was going crazy or not he might as well make it easier on himself by not letting it stress him out. He sat back up to write another response, but when he opened his eyes something was... different.

Across the coffee table from him was a girl. Except she wasn't a girl, well no that's not right. She was a girl but she was...transparent. She was also floating. Transparent and floating. As he looked directly at her, the cogs in Rairakku's mind began rotating once more. After a brief moment of pondering, he uttered out but a single word.

"Madoka?"

Madoka was hovering across the table, watching him intently. When he looked directly at her, her breath caught in her throat. Well, metaphorically of course. What with having no working organs and all. But still! All she could think was Can he see me? No, he can't really see me. Can he? But before she could spiral too far, he actually said her name! Her face brightened up and a wide white smile spread across her face. She clapped her hands in front of her smile and squealed a little bit in joy.

"Yes - yes, I'm Madoka!" She said, lowering her cupped hands to her chest as if she were cradling a small precious trinket. Her wide hazelnut-coloured eyes were looking a little wet around the corners as tears began to form. "I can't believe you can really see me. It's been so long since I've talked to anyone."

Rairakku was astonished at what he was seeing, and a little more so by what he was now hearing as well. The act of actually seeing a ghost, not that he even currently, entirely realized she was indeed a ghost, would probably be enough to send most people running and screaming out the door. But because of the events leading up to this, he was actually a little relieved to see someone smiling and happy. His previously stressed expression gradually softened and was replaced with a feint smile.

"I'm- my name is Rairakku" he bumbled, forgetting that he had already sort of introduced himself to her last night during their little "conversation" using the bathroom mirror. "What are- are you a, a ghost?" He was still tripping over his own words, despite being a relatively simple question. Well, relatively simple considering the circumstances that is.

Madoka chuckled at that and ran her hand through the table a couple of times as if to get the point across. "What gave it away?" She cocked her head slightly, a quizzical look on her face. "But aren't you scared? I mean, I've tried to chat with people before, but it always freaked them out." As she spoke, she faded in and out slightly, her voice drifting eerily.

Even though Madoka made it pretty clear what she was, it still took Rairakku a moment to process that she was in fact a ghost. When he did though, everything in his head started clicking into place. "Ohhhhhhhhhhh!" He said as if he had just finally understood a complicated math problem. "So that's what was going on last night. Jeeze, you had me worried that I was actually losing my mind. I was just being haunted by a ghost the whole time. Man, that's a relief." Though he spoke in a joyful tone, he said all of this as if being haunted by a ghost was generally thought of as being a better alternative to becoming legally insane, or as if any of it were normal at all for that matter. "Nah, I'm not scared. I'm just glad to finally know what was actually happening."