The Dream Shifter

Chapter 115

He reached out touching the linen and silk layers feeling some hesitation. It was only to stop the fighting. 'It's times like this when I wish you would have taken us with you mother when you left… Shoji likes this sort of life, but I'm more like you… You could never accept it…' Seiji lowly grumbled to himself trying to shake out the past. Dwelling was not something that he could afford.

A few minutes later Seiji stepped out of his room in the full robes including the peaked hat. There was a permanent angry vein of frustration that was attached at the border of the hat. 'So uncool…really…old man…bastard…' He was able to at least calm his arms and hands to flat out his features a little. By the time that he reached the doors of their house he had a fairly placid look on his face (very much not Seiji).

Seiji made a slow round through grounds checking on anyone that looked that they were looking worried or concerned. His fake expression and general roughness gave them an awkward feeling, but he was able to help most.

Near the back of the grounds Shoji was playing with the children. He was running ahead of them still carrying around the talismans from before. Every few support columns or poles that they ran by Shoji would show off to them by throwing them as he had shown Seiji. It was small entertainment, but they were kept happy. 'He really gets into it…' Seiji thought with his arms crossed and hidden the sleeves.

"Excuse me, young priest," said an elderly voice from behind Seiji.

Seiji tilted his head back to catch the man that was addressing him. When he caught sight of the elderly man he was taken back a little forcing him to fully turn his body to face him. 'What's with the clothes?' The man was wearing a very formal attire, but no longer in style. In the fact, they had not been style for several centuries.

The old man wore a confused yet gentle expression on his face. "I'm sorry to trouble you, but could you help me."

"…um…ye-ah…. What do you need?"

"See I'm going to be meeting His Imperial Majesty the Emperor tomorrow, but it's my first time to the court."

The response made Seiji pause for a moment. 'The Emperor? Really? I guess it's possible, but it seems a little strange…' He wondered what the reason for meeting with the Emperor was and why he had chosen their shrine rather than one in the capital. "What will you be meeting about?" Seiji began figuring to calm the man's nerves first.

"I'm representing my village to ask for aid. We have a lot of bandits that keep pillaging us and we need some samurai to protect us!" The elderly man started to become a little hysterical as he seemed to be thinking of his village. There was desperation in his voice, but also the hint that he was hoping for a meeting rather than having an appointment.

Seiji was able to pick up the inflections, but what concerned him more was the very old words he was using. He was able to still understand him, however something was making Seiji feel uneasy about the old man. "I'm sure it'll be—" A foul odor had blown in on the wind that interrupted Seiji. It made him turn away for a moment feeling something strange in the air that he could not place. His eyes caught a glimpse of the ema that clattered together loudly like a signal. "What? This smell…is like death…"

The air settled down and the scent disappeared leaving Seiji confused. However, he quickly turned back to the old man planning to apologize for interrupting him. "I'm sorry—" When he looked in front of him the man was no longer there or anywhere he could see. "What's going on here?"

Suddenly a woman's voice screamed a horrible ghastly sound that made several people's blood churn. It was not the end though as more screams were heard throughout the grounds. Seiji searched around from where he stood trying to understand what was going on. Out of the wall of the small shrine next to Seiji appeared a pale and translucent woman with blood coating her clothes. The sight made Seiji's eyes grow wide in shock. "A ghost?!"

"A ghost?!" exclaimed Seiji in stunned shock that could have almost been awe if he was thinking straight. It had taken him a full minute to come back to his senses enough to back away with the ghost staring on at him with a blank expression. The distant screams of the other patrons faded into the background as he was encroached upon by the ghost.

The bloodied woman wore a fine silk kimono in white and pale blues with a flower pattern. Blood seemed to be soaked through the entire material and dried. It covered from half away up the chest down to the legs, where the feet were not present. Most of her light brown hair was tied up around her head with a couple brass hairpins.

She floated in towards Seiji a little more when he backed away. A moment later the blank expression faded away into annoyed frustration, which Seiji never picked up on. "Yes! Yes, I am a ghost. If you would stop staring at me, young man."

"But you're a ghost!" Seiji repeated as a point of disbelief. The rest of him was still frozen as it was counting down until it had been completely and fully accepted.

The woman gave Seiji a ruffled pouting look back in response to him. "Yes, we've covered that fact. Move on!"

"B-But you're—"

"Ghost! Yes! Is that all you can say?"

The timer had finally hit zero on Seiji's body and everything quickly transferred into wide eyed surprised realization before his eyes rolled back. Everything went pale on him as his legs lost their strength followed by the rest of his body. He was collapsed unconscious on the stone tile path of the shrine within seconds. "…ghost…"

"For such a tough looking guy he's surprisingly frail!"

A fog hung around Seiji's head while he could see nothing but a black empty world stretched out before him. He had thought he heard a soft voice, barely a whisper, penetrating into the thick haze. The voice started a ripple in his mind that began to break through the fog. Seiji needed only a moment to understand that he was lying down and that he was being assaulted in the back by a very jagged stone.

"You're awake."

It was the same voice that he was hearing before, but it did not seem to be familiar to him. All he could tell was that it was soothing his spinning head. "Eh? Mother?" He tried to look up to see who it was that was speaking to him, but his eyes were having trouble focusing providing only a blur. The blur did not matter to him with the images of the ghost coming back him making his arms shake. "That's right! There was a ghost! I swear I'm not lying mom! I really saw one!" Suddenly, a blunt force had hit him in the head forcing him to snap up in pain.

"Now I'm your mother?!" snapped the voice quickly chattering with anger.

Seiji rubbed his hands over his head massaging the bump as he tried to focus his eyes again. He started to say something, but cut himself off as his eyes widened in surprise seeing the woman from before knelt down over him. "Wait! You're not…"

"No! I'm not!" She had her arms cross glaring at him looking like she had been insulted.

"I'm sorry!"

"Hrmph! I happen to only be twenty!" she declared having taken offense to the implication that she was old enough to be his mother. "Even though I've been dead for thirty years," the woman quietly said as an aside.

"I'm sorry!" The thought of her being a ghost had escaped him as he began to repeatedly apologize for the mistake he made. 'Wait a minute… Why am I apologizing to a ghost?!' All of his features became very small when the embarrassing realization hit him. It was then that his rage took over and he jumped up towering over the still knelt woman. "Why the hell am I apologize to you?! You're just a ghost!"

The woman stood back up to stare fairly evenly back at Seiji. She had even put a little lean in for extra emphasis that he was not frightening her. "Yes! A ghost! But ghosts have feelings too!"

"You're supposed to be dead! You can't have feelings anymore! You're not alive!"

It had been more than enough for the woman to take and she slapped him sharply for what he said to her. The fierce glare in her eyes burned stronger, but Seiji held his ground with her. "Narrow minded! Prejudice! That's it! You're prejudice against ghosts!"

"What?! I've never met a ghost before!"

"So then how do you know we can't have feelings then?! Hm?"

Seiji had to take a second with him suddenly being cornered by the ghost woman. It was not a matter that he considered. He tried to avoid thinking about ghosts, period, regardless of feelings or not. "You're dead! So how can anything be working still?!"

"I'm talking right now! So I still have a voice!"

"…well I guess so…" As he was thinking about what she said a different fact came to him. It was a fact that made him shrink again in embarrassment. "What the hell am I arguing with a ghost for?! You're not real! Ghosts don't exist! Period!"

"Don't exist, huh?" She had had enough of his disbelief and back talking. A thought came to her that turned her expression into a smirk. Her hand reached out from her hips, that it had been resting on, grabbing Seiji's arm by the wrist and pulled back forcing his hand to press up against her chest. "How's that for not real?!"

Changing seven shades of red was not Seiji's only problem. He ripped his hand free and clasped his other hand around his wrist checking it while he tried to get his breathing under control. "What you do that for?!

"Real enough?"

Seiji could only manage a loose nod at that point before shaking his head to get back on track. "That's not the point! You made me…touch…" His face went red again as he could not even finish his sentence in front of her.

Watching him only made her happier as she grinned mischievously. "So the tough guy get's all embarrassed from a dead woman's—"

"Don't say it!"

She could not help growing her grin wider the more flustered that Seiji became. The finishing touch was ready with the condition that he was in. The woman leaned in towards his left ear whispering to him. "Breasts!" Seiji jumped back nearly falling over to the ground leaving the ghost to giggle in delight. "Or perhaps boobs! So sensitive my young priest. They're just words!"