Aokigahara, Suicide Forest, Sea of Trees… This is the place when both of us meet… Our eyes locked and you smirked… Before then running away like you know I will be chasing after you…

The sky is dark. She doesn’t know what time it is. What she knows is her step always right. Walking forward to god know where. If people see, they will think she is crazy, she lost, and she needs to be saved. This is Suicide Forest in which people come here at night for merely one purpose; for suicide. But for her, she is what she is. She is searching for something that she doesn’t know. The end, it might be… But it might also be like other too…

She knows she heard it lately. More than she used to. She always knows when someone dies in the forest as the cries getting louder but nowadays, from her house, the shrine, the eerie sound is overwhelming. That makes her step light to go that day. With the thought, that lingers on her mind for years.

“I want to die…” the whisper of her voice heard faintly on the background of the silent forest. The eerie sound she used to hear is nowhere to be found. And the warning of Yūrei that people spoke is not in her heart at all.

“They were calling for you, you shouldn’t go. Never step your foot into the forest” warn that she still remember but never takes into the heart.

“You got the gift, that’s why… You need to avoid it at all cost” one of thing she shoves it away long before.

Yes. She got the gift to hear, to see, to feel of the other world. Usually, people will avoid, but she lives there, just near the forest. The cry is her lullaby and the visit is her entertainment. She is not scared. They will just stop later and will go away later when they know she doesn’t give a damn.

Each step of her she goes deeper into the sea of forest. She can hear the sound of step but it is not her. A pair of footstep of someone that’s faster, running or maybe walking playfully. She doesn’t know…

Her step quicken as her senses, her intuition telling her to catch the sound. And like always, like she did today, she follows it. To later stop and looked at someone standing on the falling tree, eyes looked up toward the moon that shining him.

He is unexpectedly different, unique, one of a kind that she never ever once in her life encounters. The blond hair shines in the silvery colour or maybe it been that colour from the start. She never know as this is her first time see someone like him. Blend and shine in the forest, the suicide forest, shine among the dead…

He moves and her eyes waver until both of their eyes locked for merely a few seconds that seem like minutes. Her eyes seen his lips move into a smirk and then suddenly he jumped down and start his run, his walk, his playful walk and she shouts “Wait!” before she starts to follow him.

The chase is hard. He is fast and she barely catches to his speed. His playful speed is faster than her hard run. The glance of him behind the trees and the smirk and his sparking hair can be seen alongside. The senses of hate but at the same time like linger upon her. He is stranger but there something onto him that she can’t put her finger in. Like she knows but at the same times she not.

The chase that she thought will be endless is ending when she sees him stand there before the cave looking at her with the same smirk and then he enters the cave. She follows him now slower as she knows, she feels it is ended.

She enters the cave that darker than the forest and colder to she know this must be one of the ice cave formed. But the step she took to here is not known. Maybe this place is not known by others but only him. And now by her…

“You’re daring” she heard coming from somewhere inside the cave but she can’t see him. The darkness just engulfing like no other and her eyes can’t get used to it. Yes. The complete darkness…

“Where are you?” she asked and what she heard is a laugh. A nice ring of laugh and she try to make it by her ears, trying to figure out where he is.

“You know you should be asking ‘Who I am?’ rather than ‘Where I am?’ Don’t you think so?”

She looked around from left to right and on her front; her back but she can’t find him. His voice is everywhere. “What the matter about whom you are? You’re either someone here who wants to suicide or maybe a Yūrei that want to eat me” she says loud and he suddenly appears in front of her vision, right in front of her.

“Why you think I’m either two? I might be someone who comes to camp or someone to looks out for anyone who will commit suicide?”

“You look nothing of that two. And in a matter of fact, you don’t look like someone who would commit a suicide too. That leave you’re a Yūrei”

“Funny. What if I am…? Aren’t you scared little Rotkäppchen?”

“A wolf then?” he laughs hearing that and she can finally see his laughing face. Her hand wants to touch it. The face of him…

He senses it. He senses her hand trying to reach to him and he back away a few centimetres even though it actually not working since she can easily touch him, but the meaning of movement anyway can be seen.

“Yūrei… You’re Yūrei right?” she asked because of his movement. Because he back away, avoiding.

He takes a step to the front, right in front of her. Only a few centimetres that differentiate both of them. She looked up as he a little bit taller than her. To match her eyes with him and he is just proudly helping her with his hand on her cheek. Holding her cheek to makes their eyes catch each other. Time like stopping and he leaned closer. Kissing her…

Light cross into her eyes and she twitches before open her eyes and looked around noticing her in her in her own room. The dark cave is nowhere to be found, the icy feels of air changed to warmer sunlight beaming in. She sits up and creases the nicely made futon and looks to the simple garden outside her room.

“What happen last night?” she asked herself before gets up from her bed walking toward the bathroom and before she even catches it, the standing mirror in her room makes her stop. Hand touching her neck. Even though her cloth already changed to her usual sleepwear, but on her neck, the long red ribbon in which she uses to tie her hair strangling her.

“This…” comes out of as she takes it off her neck. Holding it in her hand and faintly she can see it, the red mark on her neck. But she completely doesn’t remember anything happens. Her clock stops at the kiss that they shared…

She touches her neck. Trail her finger on the faint red and at that time she can hear it. The sound of the whisper in which completely silence from the time she woke up started to speak.

“You’re mine…” she heard and her eyes drifted toward the forest.

“Luna… Luna… Luna” the calls that called her name can’t be heard by her and only the third calls comes to her. “Yes” she says and looks toward the door.

“What are you doing? Wash up already and get ready” says her grandmother and she smiled with a nod. “Yes”

“Fast. Breakfast is ready” her grandmother says as she walks away back to the kitchen.

“Yes. I will be there in a few minutes” she says before headed to the bathroom and got a simple shower.

She sits on the chair in front of her uncle. He is who reading the newspaper looked at her for a second before looked back at the newspaper as he asked: “Are you going to stay home all day today?”

“Should I go to the mountain instead?” she asked quite sarcastic since her family is the one who always warns her that she shouldn’t go to the mountain.

“You really should not spend your summer vacation here” her uncle makes a remark and she just laughs it. “There nowhere I can go”

“You should spend your summer vacation in the city with your friends. Shopping, watch a movie and not in this secluded place with a scary mountain. Especially for you”

“Not like I can stay in my house back at Tokyo. Mom and dad keep fighting and the last time I heard they are planning to divorce. Rather than spend my summer vacation in bad condition, it’s better for me to be here with nature”

“With nature? You can’t step into the mountain. Just help your grandfather manage this shrine”

“I always do that, don’t worry” says her and her uncle looked at her. At that time he notices her neck. “Hmm… Your neck” he says and she became conscious. “My neck?” she says touching it.

Her uncle looked at her and then says “Nothing…” and continues to read the newspaper. From times to times he takes a glance toward her neck. “That red mark…” he thinks.

Like always she spends her time at the shrine helping her grandfather to swipe the floor and water the plants. Her grandfather as she knows from the morning after breakfast headed into the forest like always.

She is in middle of taking a rest when she heard the sound of leaf and takes a looks toward the way. She sure it is the sound of someone walking by the woods, but this place quite far from the entrance to the Aokigahara and there no path that will lead someone near here.

The sense of curiosity hit her and she gets up walking toward the place she looks at. “Is there anyone there?” she asked as she getting close.

“Is there anyone, answer me?” she says and then she heard a giggle of kids and the sound of a few different footstep running. She stopped