That man was hiding something. Saihi just knew it. It was precisely why the prince decided he would return to that lake no matter what.

When the duo left Doctor Kennedy’s house, they returned to the palace but Saihi’s mind was still at the lake. 

Those girls had appeared, Saihi thought. Nothing, then suddenly there. Cranes, then girls.  

Kenta parted ways to visit Emiko and to check to see if Odilia had departed the capital for home. It was a relief for Saihi who was quickly forming a plan.

The prince first went to his room where he changed out of Kenta’s kimono and into his personal clothes. Then he hurried to the library, ignoring the piles of paperwork sitting on his desk. Saihi paused. He shouldn’t have paperwork on his desk. He had an office for that. 

He stepped back and looked down at the neat pile stacked on his desk. The first that caught his eye were creamy envelopes that looked like party invitations. Next to it was a stack of papers that was thick as a book on the history of ceremonial rites for the passing of the crown to the next emperor. A note was written on it by the head council member instructing the prince to thoroughly read the texts by the end of the week. 

Other things Saihi found on his desk were letters of congratulations and well wishing. A letter from the empress was there also. Assuming that it was likely about the wedding, Saihi ignored it and left his room altogether. 

Saihi stopped by the kitchen where he surprised the workers who happily provided him with a bowl of fruit before he left for his next destination. He went to the library where he immediately went to the shelves that promised topics regarding spirituality and ghosts. After gathering a handful, Saihi took a seat between the aisles on the marble floor and crunched on his red apple slices as he flipped through the pages of the book. 

The prince wasn’t really sure what he was looking for. Perhaps some validity to the words the doctor had said earlier. There was something in Doctor Kennedy’s eye that unnerved the prince. It made it hard to trust the man. Saihi wanted to believe the man spoke the truth. Not because he’d rather have hallucinated the seven girls he’d seen the previous night, but because there’s a few options on how to deal with seven spirits. Seven girls who turn into cranes however…

“Strange…” Saihi mumbled, flipping the page after reading an introduction to ghosts. According to the exorcist who’d recorded their findings, ghosts were spirits who couldn’t leave the physical world due to attachments. The journal wasn’t alphabetical, so Saihi had to flip through a couple of chapters before finding a page that spoke on the topic of sirens. 

Primarily young women, sirens are a type of ghost that bear a vengeful spirit. Ghosts are identified as spirits that haunt the mortal realm but cannot physically interfere with living beings in the mortal realm.The basic factor that identifies a siren would be its haunting space which would be a body of water.

So the part about their haunting space lined up with what Doctor Kenndey had said. However vengeful? The girl in the crimson dress had appeared to be hostile, but the others had cowered in fear when they’d seen his gun. Saihi didn’t think the dead could be afraid of a human weapon. 

He continued to read.

Although uncommon, sirens tend to also help each other if their spirits share the same resting space. A resting space is the same area that they haunt and is located in the exact spot of their passing. 

Saihi scanned the words once more, thinking. If those girls were the girls who’d died in the fire four years ago, it would make sense for their spirits to haunt the land… His thoughts trailed off. It still didn’t explain the cranes. He definitely saw them transform into humans from cranes.

Sighing, he continued.

Haunting the resting space of their passing is a general trait seen in most ghosts. What’s unique in sirens is the method of their death. Sirens are recorded to be the spirits of those who have drowned.

Saihi closed the book. So those girls weren’t sirens. Or they couldn’t be sirens if they were the ghosts of the seven girls who’d died in a fire. 

No… Actually, the more Saihi thought, the more odd the situation seemed to be. Who were those girls? And why were they there? Saihi’s mind drifted to the girl in the crimson robe. She had radiated confidence, seemingly unafraid. He thought that if the lake were a kingdom, that girl was the queen. 

The thought made the prince smile.

Saihi stood and tucked the books in the sleeves of his kimono, weighing down his arm. He picked up the now empty bowl and made his way out the library. He planned to return to his lounge where he would read through the other books while enjoying a private dinner. Maybe Kenta would even join him.

After asking a passing servant to bring up his dinner, Saihi entered his private lounge and was surprised to find the black eagle staring up at him from its nest. He’d long forgotten of its existence. 

Saihi sat on the couch across from the eagle and began filing through the books. The books were equally useful and useless, mainly confirming with each page that the girls he’d encountered were less likely to be ghosts. 

Dinner finally arrived on a steaming tray complete with a plate of roasted mahi-mahi, a bowl of rice, and a mixture of cooked and pickled side dishes. Sahihi began to dig in when he noticed the eagle still watching. Particularly, its golden eyes followed his chopsticks whenever he took a bite from the fish. 

He wondered if the bird had eaten anything all day. The poor bird had been abandoned by Kenta after its wing had been nursed. Did it even have a name?

“Okay, big girl,” Saihi stood and rang for another servant. “I suppose I should get you some food.”

Soon the bird also got its meal on a silver platter but not before rejecting the first which was topped with raw fish. The black eagle was eating happily after it was returned fully cooked. Saihi grew distracted watching the bird as it lapped up its fish. However, it wasn’t the feeding that the prince watched. He looked into the bird’s golden eyes which looked familiar. He’s definitely seen it before. 

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

Kenta might have returned later that night, but Saihi was long gone, cloaked beneath the dark of night. He was back in the forest looking for answers to questions unanswered.

He broke the clearing once more, reaching the lake which reflected half of the moon in its waters. The lake rippled, seven cranes basking in its waters. Saihi wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Perhaps someone to talk to that would give him real answers. 

He reached the waters and looked out at the cranes who ignored his presence. He was holding a trunk which he dropped near the banks of the lake. There were seven cranes. Just like there were seven girls.

“Hello?” he called out. “Pretty lady in red? Hello!”

Saihi’s voice was barely above a whisper, but any sound that wasn’t the rustling of the birds’ feathers made him wince. “Hello?” he tried again. “It’s me, Kenta!”

“Kenta,” spoke a deep, familiar male voice. Kenta spun around expecting to see the doctor, but instead faced the looming trees behind him. 

“Hello…?” he called out into the night.

This time, the voice came from the lake. Angry, and female.

“Why are you here again?” accused the girl who was dressed in red. Today, all the girls sank low into the lake, blushing under the moonlight. When Saihi turned towards her, her cheeks turned a darker shade of red. “Look away!” she snapped. “Don’t you have any shame?”

“Relax,” Saihi shrugged as he noticed that their wet cotton gowns were plastered to their skin leaving room for imagination. “It’s not my first time seeing women nearly naked.” Still, the prince looked away and brought to focus a trunk he’d brought with him. He carefully opened the lid so as not to startle the girls, and took out a kimono. One at a time. 

They were gray robes he’d been able to salvage from the servants’ quarters. It was the only place he could think of getting clothes of the quantity he needed without bringing notice. 

He pushed the trunk as near to the waters as he dared without risking the contents getting wet or laying his eyes on the girls. “We need to talk.”

“We do?” the girl who was dressed in red sounded offended. “More like you barge in and interrupt our agenda. Please leave.”

“I can’t,” Saihi turned back to face the lake. 

The girls who’d begun to leave the lake dove back into the lake, squealing. 

“Sorry,” Saihi turned his back on them once more. “Look, I stumbled upon you all by mistake last time and I really want to know the truth of it all. Like why are you birds? Are you human or bird? How did this come to be?” Saihi shook his head, trying to sort through his thoughts. “Actually, who are you…?”

There was a sound like barefoot stepping in mud, then the girl who was dressed in red, now in the gray kimono, stepped before Saihi. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her entire face shone in the light of the moon because she’d pushed back her wet, dark hair to hang behind her back. 

The girl pursed her pink lips. “Look, whoever you are-”

“Kenta.”

“Kenta,” she moved her hands to her hips. “Alright, so I’m flattered that you have questions, but I must ask you to leave. You’re intruding.”

“On what exactly?” Saihi asked. “You never told me who you are.” 

“And do I have to?” The girl looked annoyed, but signed nonetheless. “Look, I’m only asking you politely now. I can’t be polite forever.”

“That house isn’t yours.”

The girl stepped back. “What?”

“That house,” Saihi nodded at the red-bricked house next to the lake. “It’s not yours, is it?”

“Of course-”

“I spoke to the doctor who lives there earlier today,” interrupted Saihi. “He said he only had one daughter. Not seven.”

“I never said these girls and I are sisters,” said the girl.

“Oh?” Saihi smirked. “Are you implying the man who lives in that house is your father?”

“Of a sort,” the girl glared up at the prince. “Now can you leave?”

“Oh, um,” Saihi looked around in a mock impression that he was searching for something. “I lost something of mine yesterday. Have you seen this rifle of mine…?”

Two girls then walked over carrying the rifle between them. 

“There you go,” the girl who was dressed in red sounded satisfied. “Can you now please leave?”

“You know, the doctor who lives in that house said you girls were ghosts. What’s all that about?”

“Leave.”

“I’m just wondering why he’d say all of that if you’re like a daughter to him,” Saihi shrugged. 

The girl took a deep breath. “Leave. This is the last time I can say it nicely.”

Saihi bent down and closed the trunk. He held it in one hand and the rifle in the other. He looked back at the girl who’d worn red, now wearing gray, from under his lashes. “Can’t you at least tell me your name?”

“My name?” she scoffed. “Fine.” The girl leaned in and pulled Saihi close by the waist. “The man in the brick house told you that we’re ghosts, right? So hear this name and believe what he said.”

She leaned in even closer so that her soft lips touched Saihi’s ear. He was so shocked by her sudden closeness and touch that he’d been rendered speechless in the moment. 

“Remember my name,” said the girl who wore red. “It’s Ai Torizora. Now you know that I’m a ghost, right? So don’t come back,” said Ai. “Stay in the land of the living.”

Saihi left as promised. He didn’t even say a word back. The prince simply walked away in a trance. Trunk, rifle, and all. 

However, his mind was already moving its gears as the palace drew near. Two things rang clear in the back of his mind. 

One, that the girl in red, Ai, had held him close.

And the second, which was ghost’s can’t touch.