Mysteries of Akiramine: Undying Love

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Chapter 1

"I'm telling you, this is a job for the police."

The voice on the other end of the call sounded exasperated. "It's been a cold case for years. The police just aren't interested."

I held back a sigh, pacing as I tried to come up with a response. "We aren't criminal investigators. We agreed to check the place out because you said it might be haunted. You didn't tell me about the unexplained deaths."

"The former tenants think the place is haunted! The police gave up the search, so who else was I going to call?"

My teeth clenched and I pushed my glasses against my nose, trying to contain my anger. I spent much of my free time learning about folklore, religion, and the methods people used to deceive one another. This was all to serve my hobby; a passion project of sorts: to understand the truth behind the paranormal. It was for this reason that I created a side business in paranormal investigation, and for this reason that I despised people wasting my time with baseless rumors.

"Sir, I don't think you understand what my job is here." I forced myself to take a deep breath before returning the phone to my ear. "If there's a mundane explanation for what happened here, someone else should be looking into it. It just wastes everyone's time otherwise."

The man huffed. "Are you telling me that the building isn't haunted?"

"We've found nothing out of the ordinary since we arrived yesterday. None of the things your tenants noted as signs of the haunting were seen or heard."

There was a silence on the line. "I'm not paying you to do nothing."

"I don't expect to be paid. There was never a job here in the first place." I seethed, barely keeping my voice even. "If we don't see anything before we pack up, we're just going to leave."

"Some good you turned out to be."

The man hung up before I could say anything more. Clenching my free hand into a fist, I put my phone back into my pocket. I turned to the run-down apartment building, walking over to the steps leading to the second floor of rooms. When I climbed to the top, I saw Yuri exiting the last room from the stairs. She shrugged at me, frowning.

"Nothing?" I asked, looking at the doors to the other rooms. We had searched each one for clues, finding nothing of value.

"Nothing." Yuri put her flashlight into her backpack and hefted it onto her shoulder. "No signs of anything out of the ordinary."

"I should have known from the start. This whole trip was a waste of time." I sighed, shaking my head. "Let's go. We have work tomorrow."

We walked down to the train station and hopped on a train back to Akiramine. The city was a little over an hour away, so I took out a notebook and began reviewing information from previous jobs. Yuri took out her phone and seemed to be reading an ebook of some kind.

I frowned at a list of name ideas for the investigation business in my notes. None of them were good, and the only one not crossed out was "Hirose and Tachibana Investigations (HTI)". It was incredibly uncreative, just using my family name (Hirose) and Yuri's (Tachibana). Sighing, I flipped a few pages past it.

While looking through my notes, the thought didn't escape me that the only truly supernatural cases I had been involved in were both from before I decided to go out of my way to look for the paranormal. The first had been the Shireishi Incident, in my hometown of Nishioka, where a ghost had used a phone program to manipulate desperate people into committing violent crimes as a form of revenge. The second case involved the Nightmare Syndrome, an affliction caused by an inhuman entity that fed on fear and hid itself among normal people. Furthermore, both cases had technically been resolved by someone else, even if I had helped those people along...

I sometimes wondered why I thought I could find cases like these on my own. I hadn't intended to be a part of either of those investigations. Before hearing about Shireishi, I didn't even really believe in things like ghosts. How was I going to find information on the paranormal when even respected scientists and detectives didn't know what to look for? There were far more hoaxes and delusions than actual supernatural phenomena, it seemed to me.

The train stopping jolted me out of my reflections, and I reluctantly got up. Yuri and I got off the train and walked back to our apartment. We didn't make much at our jobs at a local bookstore, so we shared the place for the time being. If Yuri ever needed privacy to be with her boyfriend, she'd let me know and I'd visit the library or something.

Yuri's section of the apartment was as cluttered as usual; filled with an odd collection of novels and reference books mixed among her clothes. My side was a bit better, but I'd still leave whatever I was working on out on my desk until I was sure I was done with it. It wasn't late enough to sleep yet, so I sat in that desk now, opening a reference book to where I had left off.

"Still going to keep working?" Yuri asked, laying on her bed with her phone.

"As far as I'm concerned, I never started working today."

She shook her head, and from the corner of my eye I thought I saw a weird grin. "Don't stay up too late."

"Says the one who pulls an all-nighter when a new book comes in..."

Yuri didn't have a response or didn't hear that comment. She read on her phone, and I went to reading my book. As I did so, I slowly unbraided my hair.

I finished the last knot, freeing my hair completely. I closed my book and was about to take off my glasses when I heard Yuri stand up. I looked over to see her walk towards me.

"Hey, Shizuka, look at this..."

She handed me her phone, and I took it and read the headline of a news article: "Phantom Dog Waits at Midnight".

"A dog?" I scrolled through the article, skimming it. "Why do people say it's a phantom dog?"

"Apparently, it disappears with the dawn. As in, it fades away from sight. Doesn't move away or anything." Yuri rubbed her chin. "Want to look into it?"

After a moment of consideration, I shrugged. "Should be a quick case, especially if it's just a legend. Send me the link; I'll read it after work tomorrow."

"Got it!" Yuri took her phone back. "Goodnight!"

I said goodnight to Yuri and we turned off the light. I laid in my bed, looking at the ceiling. "I don't hear about ghost dogs often..."

The next day, Yuri and I made sure to take a nap after work so that we'd be able to stay up as long as it took to find the "phantom" dog. We made our way to the location mentioned in the article a little before midnight and made some preparations. Yuri made sure she still had space to record on a cheap handheld camera while I checked the batteries in my flashlight.

Aside from the occasional bit of midnight traffic that passed through any city street, there were a few people wandering around with phones or cameras out. I suspected they were here for the same reason as Yuri and I were. I considered approaching them a few times, but decided against it. I wanted to make sure the dog existed before I started asking around about details.

"What's the plan?" Yuri asked, looking up from the camera.

"First, we want to make sure it's not just a normal dog." I checked my pockets and pulled out a dog whistle and a handful of dog treats to show Yuri. "And if it's hostile, we'll want to make sure we can get away safely."

Yuri nodded, looking around. "Well, it's a little after midnight now, so it should show up soon."

"We'll see." I pocketed the dog supplies and turned on my flashlight. "Keep an eye out."

We walked down the streets, making sure not to stray too far from the neighborhood where the dog was known to appear. Every few minutes we'd see other people wandering the streets as well, likely more people who saw the article.

As the hours wore on, I became less inclined to think the dog was going to show. Even if this dog did exist, it was probably not going to show up when so many people were around. I turned off my flashlight, not wanting to waste the battery.

It was getting close to dawn when I was about to give up and call the thing off. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw a non-human figure move. I turned and switched my flashlight on, pointing it at the movement. My light illuminated a dog in the distance, sitting on its hind legs at the edge of the sidewalk.

"Yuri, start filming."

Yuri spun around at the command. Her eyes widened when she saw the dog, and she quickly fumbled the camera to make it start recording. "It's on!"

I walked toward the dog, trying to keep my pace even. I pulled out the dog whistle, holding it so I could quickly raise it to my mouth. The dog didn't move as I approached.

Eventually, I was only a few meters away. I switched off my flashlight and shoved it in a pocket, pulling out the treats. With those in one hand and the whistle in the other, I slowly crept toward the dog, making sure to stand where it could see me coming.

The dog didn't seem interested in me, but it did finally turn its head to acknowledge me. Now that I was closer, I could see that it had a fluffy brown coat of hair. Deep brown eyes latched on to me, and the dog's nostrils flared a few times as it sniffed the air.

"Friendly?" I asked. I held out one of the treats. I hoped that Yuri was ready to call for help if this was some wild dog we were dealing with.

The dog sniffed a few more times, then huffed and looked away. It was staring down the street, as if waiting for something. I looked down that direction, but nothing was there.

I turned to Yuri, frowning. "I'm going to try to touch it. Be ready to help if it becomes hostile."

"Uh... okay." Yuri bit her lip, keeping the camera focused on the dog.

I took a deep breath, then closed the remaining distance to the dog. Putting the treats away and keeping the whistle close to my mouth, I reached out slowly. When I got no reaction, I gently pat the dog on the head.

I felt the dog's soft hair under my touch. I drew back a few steps. It was probably just some stray, or a pet that lost its owner. If it had kept watch at a normal hour, it could have been the next Hachiko.

Just as I was about to look away, the first rays of sunlight passed over the street. As the dog's hair became illuminated, the creature disintegrated as if it were made of ash. I felt my jaw open as I stared at the spot where the dog had been.

Reaching out, I waved my hand where the dog had been. Nothing, just air. I turned to look at Yuri, who was frantically pressing buttons on the camera. "Did you see that?"

Yuri waved me over. "I'm checking the footage right now! I... I don't know what we just saw!"

I looked over Yuri's shoulder as she previewed the video. She scrubbed past me walking over to and petting the dog, then paused it to play the last few seconds before dawn broke. Just as I had seen for myself, the dog vanished from sight as it sort of... dissolved.

We both stood there for a moment, too shocked to say anything. Then, I took a deep breath. "Looks like we have a case."

Chapter 2

The next few days were exhausting as I forcibly regulated my sleep schedule to be awake during the pre-dawn hours when the ghostly dog appeared. Aside from making sure I got to work and checked on the dog each day, I began researching the origin of the dog. By the end of the first day, I felt fairly certain that the dog was of the "Shikoku" breed, and I used that information when I tried to find records of dog owners in the neighborhood where the dog stood watch.

After a few days, I had narrowed down a list of registered dogs in the area to ones that matched the breed and description of the ghostly dog. From there, I'd have to figure out which of the dogs were still alive...

During this time, Yuri researched reports of phenomena similar to what we witnessed when the light of dawn touched the dog. However, it seemed like she wasn't getting anything useful, and she spent a lot of time curled up on her bed checking sketchy blogs for any hint of something relevant.

Eventually, I decided I needed to confirm the identity of the dog somehow. While I would have preferred a more scientific means of dealing with the spirit, making it easier to prove to others the existence of supernatural occurrences such as this one, I knew most information about spirits involved dealing with more subjective aspects of the haunting. Things like the history and psychology of the ghost were often seen as more important than how they came to haunt the world of the living. It was for this reason that I had taken classes in psychology during my time at university. I just hope they'll come in handy...

I felt uncomfortable sending a mass email to the dog owners in the ghost's neighborhood, or even cold-calling a few of them to ask about their pets, so I needed a different option. I settled on making some posters asking for help identifying a lost dog, using stills from Yuri's footage of the dog. I left out any mention of the "lost" dog being a ghost.

In the meantime, Yuri and I kept visiting the dog about an hour before dawn each morning. We took turns trying to get its attention, but it mostly ignored us. It was waiting for something, or someone, and wouldn't let anything distract it.

One day, Yuri handed me the camera and crept closer to the dog before kneeling to peek under it. She looked up at me and said "I think it's a girl."

I was waking up from my pre-work nap and starting to braid my hair when I heard Yuri arguing with someone. I left my hair half-braided and quietly stood up, moving to Yuri's side of the apartment to see what was happening. She seemed to be on the phone with someone, so I couldn't hear the other side of the conversation.

"--important to me, okay?!" Yuri's breathing was heavy, making me wonder how long the conversation had gone on. "I'll make it up to you. Just... stop saying it's dumb."

I snuck back to my bed, finishing the braid in my hair and collecting my glasses. When I got to the common area, Yuri was slumped in a chair, her phone laying in front of her on the table.

"Something happen?" I asked.

"Kenji is being a dick about me forgetting we were supposed to go on a date yesterday." Yuri huffed, her cheeks red. Her brows were creased as if she had been upset for some time. "Told me I'm wasting my time with this ghost stuff."

"That is what most people think of us. It should be expected by now." I moved over to the kitchen area, looking for something I could eat quickly before we went to work.

Yuri sighed. "But this is my damn boyfriend. I expect him to at least try to care!"

Imagining being in Yuri's place made me hesitate in my search for food. An empty feeling opened in my chest as I tried to think of how to help her. But nothing came to mind. I had no experience with guys, so I had no way of knowing what would help her convince her boyfriend to take her hobbies seriously.

"When we finish this case, try to explain to him what you find appealing about this sort of thing." I offered, knowing it wasn't much to work from. I turned away from the kitchen area with a sigh, my appetite gone.

"Maybe he'll stop whining about it if he joins us sometime..." Yuri muttered, picking up her phone. "We better get to work. We don't want to be late."

We packed our things and headed out, making our way to our "day job". That is, we both worked at a bookstore in town to keep paying the rent on our apartment. Yuri was a shelver and cashier, while I worked with inventory and acquisition. So Yuri spent her work days trying to convince customers to buy more by figuring out what they liked and telling them were to find it, while I worked with my manager to figure out what was best to keep in stock. It paid enough for Yuri and I to live comfortably while we shared our apartment, but it might not have been enough if we lived separately. There certainly wouldn't have been many luxuries in our lives if we didn't work together on rent...

During my break, I checked my email for any responses to the posters I had put up. I had a few messages, and started scrolling through them. Most of them weren't useful, but a few of them mentioned dog names that let me scratch them off the list of potential identities for the ghost. I remembered Yuri's discovery of the dog's gender and went through the list again, deleting listings for male dogs. I ended up with just three names to work from.

After work was over, Yuri went to go buy groceries while I went home. While sitting on my bed, I went over the list again and checked for more emails. I was able to cross out another name, but I still had two that it could be. I decided I'd need to find out as much as I could about both of them, just in case. Making a note of which dogs were left to investigate, I took my glasses off and unbraided my hair. Laying on my bed, I closed my eyes for another nap.

When I woke up near midnight and checked my email, I had to quickly grab my glasses. I had hoped for more information, but this was more than I had expected to get. Not only did I find out which of the dogs from my list was still alive, but the message had information about the owner of the ghost dog. I hurried over to Yuri's bed, then gently shook her shoulder until she woke.

"Huh...?"

"Splash some water on your face or something. You'll want to hear this."

A minute later, Yuri and I were at the common area table. She was rubbing her eyes as she woke up, and I was skimming the email to prepare to read it out loud. When Yuri nodded that she was ready, I began.

"Going to skip the first part of the email so we get to the important bit. You can read the rest later." I cleared my throat. "'The dog in your photograph looks a lot like my Miyu, but younger. I think it might be that Yua dog that went missing a few years ago. The owner was a young man, maybe in his thirties at most.

"'Anyway, I stopped seeing the dog maybe two or three years ago. The man put up some posters asking for help finding the dog, then moved away just a month later. Some people say he found the dog--dead--and that's why he left.'" I looked up from my phone. "The rest isn't relevant to us."

Yuri yawned, probably still too asleep to fully register what she was hearing. "So if we find the old owner..."

"We'll be able to figure out what happened to make Yua show up every morning."

Yawning again, Yuri rubbed her forehead. "How will we find him, though?"

I considered this for a moment. "I'll see if I can look up housing records for the house he apparently lived at. I can say I'm trying to contact him for information about his missing dog."

"Will that work...?"

"It's the only thing that comes to mind right now." I shrugged. "Let me know if you get a better idea."

Yuri nodded, then stood up and walked toward her room. "I'm going to sit out today's dog watching. I need some more sleep."

Now that I had information to work from, I was also less inclined to simply stand in the street trying to get a dead dog's attention. Instead, I began looking up who I might be able to call for housing records in the city.

Chapter 3

It took two days of annoying negotiation with government workers to convince someone to let me call the dog's owner with information about his pet. As would be expected, many of the people I talked to were skeptical that the dog was still alive and around after a few years. And, to be fair, the dog wasn't still alive.

To make it more likely the man--whose name was Shibata--would accept my call, I decided to send him an email first. After a number of ideas, I decided on the subject line "Your Dog Yua". I tried to push back thoughts that I might have the wrong person or that he might not read the email to the back of my mind.

The next day, I was preparing to call Shibata when I realized that he responded directly to my email, rather than waiting for a call. I grumbled under my breath as I went to go find Yuri.

"Hey, Yuri!" I knocked on the door to her room. "Shibata took the first train into the city. He's waiting for us at a park near his old home."

Yuri opened her door and tilted her head at me in confusion. "Seriously? Just like that? We didn't even tell him anything we found out yet."

"He sent me an email when he got there, about two hours ago."

Yuri sighed and ducked into her room again. "Let me get changed, then I'll come with."

Turning back to my room, I went and grabbed my coat. I really hope there's a good reason why Shibata can't just talk on the phone about this...

When we reached the park, it was clear who Shibata was even before we asked. He was sitting on a bench, his head lowered so his eyes were boring into the sidewalk. He was dressed casually, with a simple t-shirt and jeans. He didn't seem prepared to spend the day sitting around waiting for someone: he had no signs of any food or entertainment with him. All of this, coupled with the slump from resting his arms on his knees, gave me the impression of a gloomy man.

"Are you Shibata?" I asked, certain he was the only kind of person that could have come running at the first hint of trouble. Guilt was almost his defining feature.

He jerked up, surprised at the sudden call. "Y-yeah. That's me."

Yuri sat down on the bench, but on the opposite end from Shibata. "You could have given us more warning."

"S-sorry." He lowered his head again.

I remained standing, crossing my arms as I considered Shibata. "The fact that you came to us without prompting, before we even asked anything... that suggests you have something to tell us."

Shibata nodded quickly. "You... learned something about Yua?"

I focused on Shibata's face, as much as I could from this angle. "What would you think if I told you that Yua was haunting the street near your old home?"

"I-I didn't know... I didn't know it was..." He rubbed his face, sniffling. "I thought it was over when I left. But she's still there?"

"...Yes." I answered slowly, feeling uncomfortable. "What didn't you know?"

"That it was tainted!" He looked up, his lips twisted. Grief? "I... didn't see the recall. I didn't know she'd die if she ate it."

Yuri frowned, leaning in closer. "You mean... dog food?"

"Yes... it was a bad batch. But I fed it to her anyway." Shibata clawed at his face. "I-I ate some too, afterward. But then I just threw it up."

"Hold on." I took out my phone and opened a new note file. "You're bringing up a lot of things at once. Let's go over this in order, okay?"

Once he had calmed down, we managed to get Shibata to tell us the story in order. It seems that he had bought a batch of tainted dog food, which he then fed to Yua. She died from the toxins inside, and he tried to kill himself by eating the tainted food. Out of guilt, it seemed like.

Then, he pretended the dog had gone missing, burying her in the backyard of his home. But Yua appeared as a ghost.

"She started haunting me..." Shibata muttered. "Like she was judging me for what I did to her. I killed her and hid her in the yard."

Yuri rubbed her chin. "If you live alone, how did you afford a house with a yard--"

"Focus, Yuri." I turned to Shibata. "Did Yua do anything to you as a ghost? Try to attack you, or anything like that?"

"N-no..." Shibata admitted quietly. "She just... tried to lay at my feet. And she stared at me. Always staring..."

I tapped my glasses while I thought. If the dog really hated Shibata, I don't think it would have hid that. The haunting surely had some tie to him. "Maybe she isn't as upset with you as you think."

"How could she not hate me?"

I put my phone away. "If she was a vengeful ghost, she would have attacked you. And since she has a solid form, she'd probably have tried to kill you." I shook my head. "It seems to me that it's more likely she wants something else from you."

"Like what?" Shibata crumpled, staring between his legs.

Yuri and I shared a look. It seemed we both had the same idea, so I let her say it. "Maybe Yua wants to say that she doesn't blame you. That you shouldn't blame yourself."

After some coaxing, we managed to convince Shibata to meet with Yua one last time.

We found a net cafe where he could sneak in a nap so he would be awake during the time Yua manifested, and then went home to rest ourselves. When the hour came, we all met at the spot where Yua appeared.

Shibata was shaking, holding one arm with the other. "I shouldn't be here. I killed her."

"I'm certain that Yua is bound to this place because of something left unresolved with you." I turned to look at him. "Unless you have another method of exorcising her, we have to try this."

He was quiet after that. Yuri took out the camera, making sure it was ready to go. She gave me a thumbs-up.

I didn't see Yua at first, but I knew she was present when I heard Shibata start crying. I looked around and saw the dog stepping toward us, eyes fixed on Shibata.

"D-don't... I don't deserve..." Shibata stepped away, his arms clutched close to his chest.

Yua kept coming, eventually laying at Shibata's feet and looking up at him. Yuri kept the camera on Yua while she frowned at me.

"Acknowledge her, Shibata." I said in a voice I hoped was authoritative without being frightening.

Shibata slowly knelt down, reaching out for Yua. The dog began to lick his hand, and I noticed that its saliva stuck to Shibata. Would that also fade with the sunlight?

Then, Shibata pet the dog's head with the back of his hand. It seemed odd to me, but the dog made a pleased-sounding noise that resembled a yawn mixed with a growl.

Moving to rub the dog's belly, Shibata sat down. Yua repositioned herself to be upside down, but pressed against Shibata's legs.

"I'm sorry..."

It was barely more than a whisper, but I heard it. Shibata was crying again. Yua stood up and licked his cheek.

"What am I supposed to do?"

To the question, the dog rubbed up against Shibata, and he hugged it. Then the dog faded away.

Silence. A long silence. Yuri ended it with a question. "It's not even dawn yet. Where did she go?"

A moment later, I noticed something on the ground in front of Shibata. "What is that?"

Shibata reached out and picked it up. His sobbing stopped for a moment as he examined it.

"It's... her favorite toy..."

He held it up, and I stepped closer to look at it. The toy was some sort of plush bone, with a few stray threads from being chewed.

Shibata stared at the bone, a far-off look in his eyes. "She used to bring it to me when I was at my computer when she wanted to play." He sniffled. "I should have played with her more..."

"Maybe..." Yuri stopped for a moment, then continued. "Maybe she wants you to keep it, to remember her."

"I... thought I did still have it. Did I lose it...?" Shibata shook his head. "I haven't gone through her things in so long..."

Frowning, I reached out for the toy. I took part of it between my fingers, feeling the soft fabric. It felt as real as anything else. "Does it look exactly the same?"

Shibata nodded, pulling the bone closer to him. I rubbed my chin, considering this. Had Yua brought the object here somehow? Or was this a replica she created as she disappeared?

Either way, Yuri had the right idea. "I think you should keep it. It will help you remember Yua. Particularly the good times. And what she tried to tell you today."

"That's right." Yuri nodded. "She wouldn't want you to keep feeling upset about what happened."

Standing up, Shibata took one last look at the toy bone before putting it in his pocket. "I'll take it, then." He gave us a slight bow. "Thank you. For letting me see her one last time."

When we saw Shibata off at the train station, we both felt a little concerned for him. Yuri was more obvious, trying to pester him into saying what he planned to do next, but Shibata was evasive. He left without answering our questions.

"Do you think..." Yuri began, looking over her shoulder at the train, "he'll be okay?"

"I guess it's not our business anymore." I shoved my hands into my pockets. This wasn't how I wanted the case to end. It didn't feel finished, even if Yua had passed on as she seemed to.

Yuri frowned, as if not agreeing with my statement. But she didn't say anything further.

We kept to our nap schedule for one more day, just to make sure we hadn't made a mistake in assuming Yua was gone. But she didn't show up again.