Hiro arrived home at the same time everyday, 6pm, when the room was dark enough to hear haunting moans in the corners of the house. The spirits in his house never got too close to him, they just appeared and disappeared as they wished, he bore them no mind.

Hiro would be alone for most of the night, other times his aunt would get home early enough to find him awake.

His aunt was a company executive so she barely had time to spare, at least that's what he told himself. On the days she was home she brightened up the place and he would never hear the tormented voices that whispered when he was on his own.

His aunt, Tanaka Karin, 36 years old, was his father’s younger sister. She took him in when his parents died and she made sure he didn’t lack a single thing. She gave him everything he wanted and cared for him as though he was her very own son, when she was around that is.

Hiro walked through the threshold and took his shoes off, putting on house shoes that made his feet warm, a silly smile spread across his face from it.

 In the foyer were family photos; from when his aunt was younger, a family photo with his father in it when they were younger, his grandparents were in it as well. Hiro placed his hand on the only picture of his family that he was in, his mother, father and himself as a toddler. He took after his mother a lot, she had dark skin like him but the white hair was unique. 

Hiro had been special his whole life, always being able to see spirits although he didn’t understand at the time that they were dead, he didn’t understand that he scared grown ups when he spoke to people they couldn’t see, he didn’t know that it scared his own parents, and they died before he could ever fully understand. When he finally understood that he was abnormal, he made sure he acted normal so that he wouldn’t cause trouble for his aunt. 

There was a hope that his power could be useful for something, since he could see the dead he thought he would see his parents again when they died. He never did. The only spirits he ever wanted to lay eyes on, he never got to see again.

He doesn’t remember what really happened since he was so young and his aunt never spoke about it so he avoided the subject all together but he was there when it happened. What he knew was they found him being shielded by his mother’s body, they’d gone on a family camping trip in the mountains.

“Hiro-kuuuuun!” Hiro whipped his head in the direction of his aunt opening the door.

“Oba-chan.” Hiro answered involuntarily, not having expected her home so early. “You’re back, so early.” He inquired.

“Of course I am! Have I ever let you spend your parents’ memorial alone?.” She smiled, her long black was in a high ponytail and she was wearing a black pants suit with a white blouse inside her jacket and a black sleek pair of heels. Even though she was looking sharp she still had a soft feeling that only she could give Hiro. A safety that only her presence provided, he smiled chuckling because he had forgotten it was his parents memorial day today.

He had just gone through so much that day.

“No, never.” Hiro said. “And you never will.” She finalised smoothing out his hair.

 She put the bags of food down and they started setting up.

It was a few hours and they were done with their tradition of remembering the dead. Whenever they did this many spirits would gather to watch them from afar. Hiro would look around hoping he’d see even a familiar head of hair but every year it was the same.

“Hey!” His aunt held his chin at the table when they were done eating. “You have bruises on your face.” She said carefully examining his face. He snatched his chin away.

“It’s nothing, I just hurt myself.” Hiro replied calmly.

“Doing what, Hiro? It looks really painful, did you disinfect it?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Hiro laughed nervously.

“You’re not being bullied are you?” She said and then suddenly looked angry, “Is someone hurting you?!”

“No!” Hiro stopped her, “No, it’s not that at all. Look at me, who would bully me?”

She looked at him with wide eyes and then started calming down. “Okay, that’s good, cause I was about to come to your school and mess some kids up.”

Hiro laughed, it was mostly a sigh of relief because he knew she wasn’t joking.

“So why is your face all bruised up?”

Hiro started to flounder again, grasping for anything, “Sports.” 

His aunt raised a brow at him, “Didn’t you quit all the clubs?”

“I did.” Hiro responded hurriedly, “But they needed help orienting the freshmen.”

“In the middle of the school year?”

Hiro was stuck, “Uh….. ye…yes.”

“Really?” She asked incredulously.

“Yes.” Hiro responded firmly, lying through his teeth.

She smiled softly at Hiro and reached her hand to hold him over the table and said, “Hiro-kun, you would tell me, if something was going on right?”

“Yes.” Another lie.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Liet sama”

“Liet sama…”

“Liet sama…..”

“Liet sama…….!”

Hiro could hear it’s baritone voice sounding like many voices in one but ignored it, something he’d never seen before was following him. He noticed it as soon as he left his house and walked through the suburbs. Hiro was now approaching the bridge and it was still following him groaning the same thing over and over.

The thing was a floating mass of flesh with eyes peering out of the folds of its skin, some unblinking and others hyper focused. It was large, completely blocking out the sun that was rising behind Hiro on his way to school.

Hiro was surprised to see it at first because it was nothing like anything he’d ever seen before but most of all no one else could see the gigantic thing, so he just ignored it yet it kept following him and he was getting upset.

Secondly it kept referring to him by a strange name. Repeatedly, riling him up more because it’s voice was scraping at his eardrums with how horrible it sounded.

Hiro arrived at the bridge and just on queue Shizuko appeared with an excited smile on her face, it quickly disappeared when she caught sight of what was looming above him.

“Wha..wha..wha…what is that?” Shizuko whispered while looking up.

“How should I know, you’re one of them, you tell me?”

Shizuko shook her head in terror and said, “Ive never,” She started almost out of breath, “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Why are you so scared? you’re already dead.” responded sharply.

“It’s so ominous. The negative energy coming off of it is suffocating.” Shizuko whispered while shaking her head as though she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Ignore it, I have.”

“You’re not worried that it might hurt you?” Shizuko pressed on with wide eyes, her hand securely clutching her red scarf for comfort.

Hiro gave Shizuko a bored look. As far as he could remember of himself nothing had ever hurt him that he didn't give permission to first.

Hiro’s smile turned sickening and his gaze focused on Shizuko, “Want to see it up close?”

Shizuko’s eyes went even wider and she took a weary step back. She shook her head vigorously. Hiro just laughed, grabbed her by the hand and threw Shizuko about 10 storeys up in the air towards the gigantic thing. Shizuko’s mind had not fully caught up to what was happening but she knew she was terrified.

She got so high that she was level with one of its eyes, the eyeball moved disgustingly in the socket making a wet noise while turning and then peered at her. Shizuko began to fall back down and the eye focused on her.

A bright light came out of the eye and Shizuko didn't even have time to scream. The light was a strong beam of white and orange and Shizuko disappeared into it.

Hiro’s eyes widened, not expecting that to happen. He rushed forward without thinking to try and catch Shizuko where she would likely fall. Suddenly, he felt a light presence land in his arms a few moments later.

Shizuko lay passed out in his arms, however, something was amiss, she was flickering in and out of existence her overall presence was weak. Hiro instantly felt bad and then got angry that he was pitying a spirit. Hiro set Shizuko down nearby and turned to the beast that was following him.

“Liet sama….”

“Liet sama…”

“Liet sama!!!” It roared.

“Hey…. Can’t you see it’s still early for you to be making so much noise.” Hiro said in a quiet tone, irritation dripping in his words. He shoved his hands in his pockets.

“If you have that much energy then I just have to get rid of it, to get some peace and quiet right?.” 

Hiro started walking towards it with his head bent to the side and his smile crazy, his eyes pure white and completely distant. All the frustration he had pent up hitting the back of his throat and making him spew words of vehemence.

“I am going to kill you now. Prepare yourself.”

Hiro had a different aura surrounding him, it radiated heat and neither spirit nor animal dared approach where he stood.

Hiro ran up jumping onto the railing like it was not his own shoulder length, one foot landing on the edge and the other creating momentum for his next leap.

He jumped into the air to be at level with the creature, it shrieked the name it had repeated countless times. At the sound of the noise Hiro’s eyes blazed a pure fiery white and he retracted his with all his might punching through the creature.

It’s flesh bulging up from the pressure and suddenly bursting entrails all over the landscape below. No one could see it though, the only sight was that of Hiro hurdling down towards the bridge once more.

He landed roughly on his feet and showering of entrails and eyeballs followed.Hiro stood up straight and in his hand was a gigantic eye that was hundreds of times his weight. He had punched through it and was stuck to his hand. He flicked it off in disgust.

Hiro’s white eyes shifted around and landed on Shizuko’s motionless form at the side of the bridge. Besides her was a burly spirit, looking worriedly over her with the appearance of a middle aged man in a suit. The spirit looked up at Hiro livid, Hiro stared blankly.

The burly spirit had a look of recollection on its face then one of shock and then fear. It looked down and away from Hiro.

Hiro walked up to where they were, peered down at Shizuko blazing eyes narrowing with intense focus as though trying to recall something important. He gave up and then started to walk away.

“It can’t really be you can it?” The burly spirit spoke suddenly in a whisper, turned to look at Hiro’s form, “Liet-sama.”

Hiro kept moving, he looked back and his eyes were back to their normal golden brown, the confusion apparent on his face was extremely evident.

“Why do you people keep calling me that?” He shrugged and left without another glance at the aftermath of what just happened.