Andromeda

(Author notes: Yeah, this is a ghost story episode. I figured I would share a little amusing thing during the time I was writing this episode. While I was writing the second half of the episode I actually scared myself so much I had to stop writing for the rest of the night. I don't know if it will be scary for you, but when you are up at 2 am writing alone with the only light in the house and a vivid imagination, the slightest sounds become scary. I managed to finish it the next night, but I feel a little embarrassed that I scared myself so much that it prevented me from writing.)

The Inner Man – Episode 23 – Haunting

"Yeah I saw it! It was that ghost that they say haunts Class 4D again."

"Really? Isn't that the room at the end of the hall?"

"Yeah, the one that's been empty for years."

"Come on, do you really think ghosts actually exist? Quit trying to scare the class," Hakuro said looking at the three students gathered together in the corner.

"Honest, it's the truth," the boy said.

"Just spreading your lies again, Kazuo. You're always lying to get attention."

"But I'm not!"

Chiko sat in his chair eating through his lunch. It had been a couple days since he rescued Mashiro. The normalcy of children arguing over silly things seemed welcoming to him. He still let out a sigh, but there was something calming about it that made him enjoy hearing it. There were so many bad things happening to them lately that this simple thing was pleasant. He might have usually just ignored it or walked out, but this time he sat listening to them.

There was almost some pleasure at seeing Hakuro fighting with them. They had not really been fighting that much with each other, lately, to Chiko's relief. He still had problems with her every so often, but it was not like before where they never got along. The death stares were not completely gone, but he did not have the feeling of them every moment of the day. It was true they still had their moments when they would cross paths and Hakuro would look like she wanted to wipe him from the face of earth. He just tried to get past that.

Lately, he was trying to find ways of actually fitting in with the rest of the students. It was still an act that he had to perform every day and he really wondered how they were possibly buying it. However, since they still did not seem realize that there was something strange about him he was able to continue to try to blend in. He tried to watch the other students so that he knew how children this age acted. Unfortunately, it was just too embarrassing for him to actually think about doing it. Chiko was stuck in this body forever now, so he knew he had to find some measure of peace.

"I can't believe you still trying to push off those lies!" Hakuro yelled at Kazuo.

"B-but, I'm not!"

"Why are you bothering us anyway?" Tsuneo said, "We were just eating our lunch and talking. What's your problem with what we're talking about?" Tsuneo was one of the few children in the class that stuck with Kazuo. He usually did not seem to believe what Kazuo said, but he would stand up for him when something happened. It was usually against Hakuro as she had a grudge against Kazuo since the time at the shrine and the fake ghost.

"She's probably just scared about ghosts that are haunting the school," Daiki said. He was the best friend of Tsuneo and usually was found with Kazuo. Daiki did not typically stand up from Kazuo as Tsuneo would do, he seemed to enjoy the stories that Kazuo told. "Should have seen her legs shaking over there," he said with a sly grin.

"I'm not scared!" Hakuro said turning around and walking back to her group.

"Heh, yeah she's scared," Daiki said.

Chiko allowed himself a grin as he ate through a rice ball from his lunch. 'Glad to have Mashiro back, the doc's food was horrible.'

"Did you want some of mine, Kohana?" Sakura asked lifting her lunch up.

"No, my lunch is edible today. Thanks."

"Oh…and I had my mom make some extra."

Chiko paused in bite as Sakura looked down at her food. She seemed to be disappointed or sad about the food. He did not know why she was getting upset over it. The last couple days he had been sharing her lunch with her, not leaving her much to eat.

'Idiot!' Kohana said to Chiko mentally kicking him.

'Hey! What's that for?'

'Have some of the food. She went to the trouble of making it.'

'But she didn't make it! What's with you anyway? You're acting strangely.'

'I-I'm not!'

'Fine.' Chiko sighed to himself confused and cornered. He had gotten used to Kohana being in his head, but it was still weird at times when she would pop up for no reason. The medicine kept her in check most of the time, but they had a more manageable relationship now than before. She still seemed to be mischievous at times and act like a child, but other times she would be very serious and speak as though as she was an adult. None of it made a lot of sense to Chiko, but if she acted more like an adult than a child it would be easier.

"I guess I'm feeling pretty hungry today," Chiko said to Sakura reluctantly.

She turned to look at him looking happy again. "Really?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Here you go!" she said with a smile.

Chiko was not really feeling that hungry, since Mashiro's lunch was already pretty filling. He roughly and forcefully made himself eat some of it. The food went painfully down his throat as his stomach felt like it was going to burst soon. Chiko sweated in embarrassment as Sakura watched him. He still had plenty left over to eat from what Sakura handed him even after getting through the first few bites.

Sakura was watching him eat as he sweated shyly hoping to get out of eating two lunches. Chiko tried to turn himself away, but nearly hit a student walking up the aisle. 'Wish you had a stomach to feed,' he thought to Kohana. He slowly ate through the food that was in front of him until he could not eat anymore. She was going to have to be satisfied with what he had eaten.

Chiko began to clean up his mess at the table as he overheard the conversation about the ghosts picking up again. He did not like the topic of ghosts from the last time that they ran into one. It turned out to just be a fake with an old man that had too much time on his hands. However, it still left him a little on edge about them. He did not believe in them anymore than most people. It was however starting to disrupt the lunch as people were talking about all manner of ghost stories about the school that they could think up. There was little doubt that they were all made up by someone just to frighten people.

However, Hakuro was becoming agitated by their continued talks again. She marched over to the group that was telling the stories. Chiko watched on at the eruption that was about to happen. It was a pleasant change to be viewing the action rather than being at the center of it. He grinned to himself.

"Enough! Stop spreading all of these lies!"

"Come back crying again?" Daiki said mocking her.

Hakuro slammed her foot on Daiki's chair between his legs immediately sending him into a state of fear. Her entire face was red with anger as she glared at Daiki making him blue. "Don't talk to me like that again! You understand?" She slammed her foot down on the chair again to emphasis her point.

Kazuo tried to crawl away sliding the door open making enough noise that Hakuro heard him. "Where are you going?" she yelled at him. Kazuo bounced in surprise as his legs feebly tried to find the traction they needed to run. Hakuro bounded over the chair and tackled Kazuoo roughly into the sliding door. She pulled him up by his collar as he screamed to be let go. "Back to your seat!" Hakuro threw him across the room into his chair slamming into the desks.

'Maybe you should do something,' Kohana said.

'Its more fun to watch.'

Tsuneo stepped up to Hakuro as she stormed over to Kazuo again. She tried to get around him, but unlike most of the students at this point he was not scared of her. "Calm down, its just a story. Why you getting so upset?"

"Its not about the stories anymore."

"But its real. It happened yesterday leaving school!" Kazuo said insisting without regard to his safety. Chiko was uncertain if it was ignorance or pride at this point that he was trying to further anger Hakuro.

"Shut up already! You don't have any proof," Hakuro yelled. She backed away from Tsuneo realizing that she was not getting through him. Her friends were sitting by the window still seeming to try to disassociate themselves with her at the moment.

"Its there, I swear. You just see for yourself!" Kazuo said only digging himself deeper.

"I don't have to see them to know you're lying."

"Scared huh?" Daiki said taunting her.

"I'm not scared!"

"Then prove it."

"Fine, I will," Hakuro said having fallen into his trap. She then tried to back out of it. "Wait."

"Aw, getting scared again?"

"Hrmph!" Hakuro said turning away with her arms crossed and a blended expression of worry and frustration.

"Then it's settled, tonight at eight arrive at the school if you aren't scared," Daiki said slyly. "Kazuo and Tsuneo will be here as well."

"Oh, ghosts! That sounds like fun," Sakura said suddenly to the surprise of the class. Chiko nearly collapsed in his chair. As he pulled himself up Sakura pulled him up by the shoulder. "Can Kohana and I come along too?"

"Hey, wait a minute! I never said anything like that!" Chiko said protesting. He tried to pull himself out of her grip at Daiki slithered over to him.

"Scared too? No surprise you being a girl."

Chiko's eyes went flat as he coughed at the idea of him trying to goad him into this ghost hunt at the school. "Nice try, Daiki. You can trick Hakuro, but not me."

"Aw, but it'll be fun, Kohana," Sakura said trying to encourage to him go.

"Afraid Kitayama? No surprise, thought you were tougher than that."

Chiko looked at Hakuro through narrow eyes. He was not too surprised that she was trying to get more company, but it was still pretty dirty. However, he did not care if he was going to be called scared. This was not about him; he did not have his pride on the line. It seemed to matter more to Hakuro.

"Silence? Then you're coming," Hakuro said quickly.

Chiko did not have time to protest as Hakuro started making plans with the boys. She seemed to be getting into this now for reasons that Chiko did not understand. He just stared blanked at them as he was getting dragged into something against his will. 'Still doesn't mean I have to go. They can't make me.' Chiko decided not to argue the point further since he knew that there was not going to be a way out of it.

Everything was decided during lunch for them. There was going an investigation of the school after everyone had gone home. The three boys along with Hakuro, Chiko and Sakura were going to discover if the rumors were true or not. The rest of the class would find out what they had learned the next day. Fortunately, Mrs. Shimasuke was not in the room during this whole discussion to stop them. Chiko sort of wished that she had been just so he did not have to deal with this matter.

School ended for them and Chiko walked home along with Sakura. She was in a happy mood for the strangest reason. It was about seeing a ghost; she had wanted to see a real one. Chiko found her behavior odd, though for her it actually seemed fairly normal in spite of people's usual fear of them. He did wonder if she actually had the concept of fear in her or if she was always happy about everything.

Chiko trudged off home to find the Doctor in the kitchen with Mashiro fighting over the cooking. Mashiro was still supposed to be on bed rest and the Doctor was insisting on getting him back to bed. The Doctor was also insisting on making dinner for them with his new invention that he made. Chiko watched with embarrassment, but was cheering on Mashiro. He would die if he had to taste the Doctor's cooking. The man probably ordered his food when he lived on his own rather than actually cooking anything. Or knowing the Doctor he made himself a wife to do it. Chiko shuddered at the thoughts and walked away having made himself ill thinking about it.

He sat down in the living dropping his bag on the couch as he rested his head back. His hair flew up around him a little as he dropped himself back. Chiko pushed his hair out of his face and looked around. There was some reluctance in Chiko, but he reached into his bag. His hand searched around blindly through the bottom of the bag until he found what he was looking for inside. When his hand came out it was holding a hairbrush. Chiko let out a sigh looking at the hairbrush.

'If you're going to start living as an eight-year old girl you're going to need to learn to start doing things on your own,' Mashiro's voice said as Chiko recalled him giving him the hairbrush. He had given it to him shortly after their return from Tokyo. Chiko had a brush from before, but he never had much luck actually being able to work with the hair. This one was a sign of Chiko's change and hope that he would become used to his body.

"I still don't have the patience for this." Chiko started to work through his hair slowly trying not to get stuck. The hair was so thick that he was always making knots. It was painful to brush through and be pulling at his head. There was so much of it that it would take an hour just for him to get through it once. He usually stopped after a while and tried not to throw the brush at the wall, where there were already several impressions of the brush.

"Chiko, dinner's ready!" Mashiro called from the kitchen. He ran into the kitchen glad to have an excuse to stop brushing his hair. When he entered he found the Doctor tied up to the chair with was seemed to be cord from the electric mixer as it dangled from the back of the chair. Chiko slowly stepped in not certain what to expect.

"Er…everything alright in here?"

"Yeah, no problem at all. Right, doc?"

"Mmohmmo mohhomm," the Doctor mumbled through the gag.

"Glad to see the two of you working through your differences as adults," Chiko said sitting down in his chair.

"Yeah, pretty easy when he stops talking," Mashiro said placing out the meal on the table. He then walked over to the Doctor and untied his bindings.

"Do you have to remove the gag?" Chiko said noticing Mashiro pulling through the knot.

"Tempting as it is…" Mashiro said pulling away the dishtowel from the Doctor's mouth.

"I never…how dare you treat me like that!"

"Yeah, yeah. Quiet and eat," Mashiro said sitting down in his chair. They all ate the meal without saying too much. The Doctor continued to have an indignant look on his face through dinner while Chiko and Mashiro ate as though there was nothing wrong. There was a knock on the front door near the end of their meal that had them all looking at each other questioningly. "Who's over here at this hour. I doubt the Scarred Man would knock."

Mashiro walked over to the door as Chiko remained at the table finishing his food. Chiko nearly choked on his food when he heard Mashiro shouting through the house to him. "Hey, Kohana its Sakura!" He quickly realized why she was over here now. It was his hope that she would have just gone on without him, but he was not so fortunate. Mashiro walked back to the kitchen with Sakura following him cheerfully. "Hey, what's this about going to the school?"

"Nothing, just a little joke," Chiko said trying to find something on his plate to eat still.

"We're ghost hunting!" Sakura said without hesitation. Chiko nearly choked on his food as Sakura disclosed the information so casually. "Kohana said she wanted to come along."

"I see. Sounds like fun. Well don't stay out too late," Mashiro patting Chiko on the head.

"What? You don't have a problem with me going to the school?" Chiko said with surprise. He had hoped that if there were anyone that could get him out of this it would have been Mashiro. Chiko glared at Mashiro looking like he wanted to kick him for sending him to the gallows.

"Hey don't look at me like that. Should be fun, spend some time with your friends."

Chiko's eyes narrowed with dull enjoyment of the idea of spending time with his friends. They were a bunch of eight-year olds. The age gap between them was too great to even remotely consider them his friends. Most of the time he did not even understand what they were talking about. He had recently begun to figure things out, but it still puzzled him. "Gee, thanks. I'll make sure to bring you back a souvenir."

Sakura pulled Chiko by the arm out of the house and down the street. Mashiro waved to them from the doorway with a mischievous grin across his face. "Have fun!"

'Why does this always happen?'

Chiko was not even touching the ground as they flew through the neighborhood to get to the school. Sakura stopped abruptly losing the grip of Chiko as he flew forward narrowly missing the group gathered at the school. His face slammed into the brick wall as the rest of his body caught up and eventually bringing him to rest on the sidewalk twitching in pain. Daiki knelt down poking Chiko's body as he slowly woke up.

"Oh dear! Are you alright, Kohana?" Sakura said running up to Chiko. She picked him up off the ground still dazed and molded him back into a human being from the puddle on the ground.

"Still wearing your uniform, Kitayama? Don't you have anything else?" Hakuro said. Hakuro was naturally wearing something else other than the school uniform. A pink skirt and a white blouse with a simple necklace that Chiko did not remember seeing before. The boys were wearing the school uniforms with the collar of their shirt opened a little to be casual. Sakura was wearing her school uniform still too. Chiko looked at Hakuro blankly since she was the only one that seemed to find the need to change clothes. On the other hand, he probably would have if he had time to do so.

"Ready to go inside?" Daiki said.

Everyone looked around at each other some looking nervous and others hiding it or just looking ignorantly happy. Hakuro insisted that the boys go in first pushing them through the gate. Chiko followed up behind them with Sakura pulling him along through his protests. The boys lead them to a window on the first floor that was left open. They carefully entered through the window one at a time. Hakuro insisted on the boys turning away as Chiko helped her through the window.

"Don't want us to see your bear underwear again?" Daiki said as Hakuro landed on the ground.

"Do you want to die?" Hakuro said venomously as Sakura was lowered into the classroom.

Sakura walked up behind them arguing and joined in the conversation. "Its not a bear, but a cute little kitty cat," she said a little confused.

Hakuro's face became bright red as the boys laughed out loud. Chiko nearly fell over as he was climbing into the classroom from Sakura's statement. 'The girl has no common sense.' Chiko watched Hakuro chase the three boys around the classroom until they became too exhausted to continue.

'I thought it was cute too,' Kohana said.

'That's not the point.' Chiko sighed to himself and walked towards the group that was recovering themselves. He looked down at the four of them. Hakuro was trying to strangle Daiki who had been laughing the hardest, but Tsuneo and Kazuo were holding her back.

"I'm going to kill you when I get my hands on you!"

Daiki could say nothing but laugh at Hakuro while keeping the minimum safe distance from her reach. However, there was a loud noise that sounded like something falling that stopped everyone. They all looked at each other wondering if it was one of them knocking something over. The classroom they were in was still the same as it was aside from a couple chairs moved when Hakuro's ran through. All of them remained quiet hoping to hear something else following it, but it remained silent sending chills through everyone.

The entire school was dark and there was not supposed to be anyone else in the building, but something had to have made that noise. They all stood up looking around the corner of the doorway through the hall. Each of them looked at the other in process to make sure that they were not crazy. Chiko remained in the classroom with his arms crossed watching them blankly.

"What do you think that was?" Tsuneo asked Daiki.

"I don't know, sounded like something falling."

"I hope it's the ghost!" Sakura said as everyone let her fall out the group that was looking around. She collapsed to the floor and quickly stood up out in the hallway looking around confused. Everyone was watching her to see what reaction she would have.

"You see anything?" Hakuro asked.

"Nothing," Sakura said disappointed. The others walked into the hallway cautiously looking around before standing up straight, comfortable that they were safe for the moment. Chiko slowly walked out to follow them feeling bored and wanting to go home. He had Kohana in his head as excited as Sakura about a ghost making his dread all the more intense.

"Let's head to room 4D," Tsuneo said taking the front. The rest followed up around him as he turned on a flashlight that he brought with him. Everyone stayed close to Tsuneo except for Chiko, who kept himself a short distance behind.

"So, what is it about this room?" Chiko said. He did not know what the full story was and if he was going to be following them around he might as well know why everyone else is so scared. "I don't remember there being a room 4D in the school."

"There isn't anymore," Daiki said beginning the tale. "Many years ago there was a room 4D, it was the fourth room for the fourth year students. The teacher for 4D was Mrs. Tokushita. She had worked for the school for a few years until one year. She had a group of students that were mean to her and played tricks on her. They continued to play tricks on her becoming even more cruel."

Daiki paused in his telling to measure his audience. Hakuro was found hanging on to Chiko, who had been become a little worried himself. He could not see in the back and did not know who was actually grabbing on to him. The others were listening intently to him.

"They say that one the last day of school they played the worst trick on her and killed her!"

Hakuro was nearly in Chiko's arms at this point and Chiko was fighting to get her off of him. He was more scared of Hakuro and realizing whom she was getting so closed to than the actual story. It was then that Tsuneo quickly flash the light back on them revealing Hakuro and Chiko together. When Hakuro was found out she immediately pushed Chiko off of her.

"Don't touch me like, find someone else to cling on to when you're scared," Hakuro said to Chiko, who was lying on the ground dazed.

Chiko shook his head to get his bearing back and stood up. He dusted himself off and looked back at Hakuro annoyed to be tossed. "Keep your hands off me!"

"You were touching me."

"Whatever…" Chiko said walk away from Hakuro as the group continued. She quickly caught back up to them not wanting to be left alone in the school with all of the lights out.

"But that is not the end of the story. They say that at the funeral the students continued to play tricks on her body like painting her face. No one was able to stop them. Then after the funeral the children went to play in the playground nearby. When it was night and they were beginning to leave a stranger showed up at the playground. When one of the students got close to see who it was they disappeared.

"When the children got home and went to sleep they were woke up by a strange sound. It was the sound of someone's voice. They followed the voice only be caught in a prank, but it had gone horribly wrong and killed all of the students in each other homes. They say that people saw the faint image of a woman walking out of the houses laughing.

"Now the teacher and her students forever haunt the room of 4D never allowed to leave. They wait in the room with their pranks and traps to catch any student foolish enough to walk by. And every so often you will hear the faint laughter of children or the teacher coming from the hall near their room." Daiki accented the moment by letting out a quiet haunting laugh.

Hakuro was scared for a moment holding on to Chiko again. But in the next moment she was pushing the others aside to get at Daiki. "I'm going to kill you, that's not funny." As Hakuro raised up her hand there was laughter throughout the halls echoing eerily at a distance quickly coming closer. Everyone froze turning blue before looking around trying to accuse the other of making the sound. However, they all realized that it was not one of them that had made the noise.

In the moment of realization they all fled down the hall to the closest thing to hide under, which happened to be the stairs to the second floor. They were all on their hands and knees looking out of the shadows with their white eyes hoping that the sound was gone. The laughter had passed before they had even reached the stairs and remained silent. A tension built up through everyone's body in anticipation of what was to come next.

Even Chiko was scared at this point. He did not want to admit it, but the laughter was very convincing whatever it was. His heart was pounding out of his chest and his hands were shaking. None of his muscles wanted to budge; his mind felt safe where it was paralyzing him.

It was several minutes before anyone spoke or thought about moving. The group slowly recovered themselves as Daiki and Tsuneo stepped out from the stairs cautiously. The others watch the two of them to see if they would be all right before exiting themselves. Chiko was feeling a little embarrassed for being caught up in the fear, but he was not the only one that was scared.

"My stomach's not feeling so good, I think I'll go home," Kazuo said starting to walk for the doors out of the school. However, Hakuro was quick to grab him by the collar of his shirt to keep him from leaving.

"Its your fault we're here," Hakuro said, "You're staying until we find out what's really going on!"

Kazuo could do nothing and gave up quickly. Everyone looked around at each other to try to confirm their determination. They all put on brave faces, though it was clear that they were all feeling shaky. Sakura had seemed scared, though Chiko was not sure if it was just excitement that she was really having with this. He had recovered his composure and was willing to continue through to the end. They all agreed to move on and approached the stairs to the second floor of the school.

Chiko walked over to the elevator instead not wanting to dealing with a fear that he had no control over. The children looked at him a little strangely as he pushed the button to receive the elevator. Sakura rushed over to Chiko and tagged along with him. "I'll meet you up there," he told them as the door closed in front of him.

The elevator opened up to the second floor letting Chiko and Sakura out as the others came up the stairs shining the flashlight in their direction. They met up safely and continued through the hall to their end goal. The classroom was getting close and they began to walk slowly more cautious of what was going to happen next. Tsuneo began to scan the classrooms to make sure that there was no one around in them.

The flashlight ran across one classroom that looked as though the room was in a complete mess. Everyone paused to look at the room from the distance. The angle they were at left little to be seen, but it seemed that the wall was completely covered and broken in pieces. The sight set everyone on edge and Kazuo held close to Daiki. Hakuro was hugging Chiko as Sakura ran up to the classroom. Chiko did not know what had happened to the room, but there was something wrong with that. He ran after Sakura to stop her from going in. His arms were close to reaching her, he just needed another step and he could stop her.

Chiko pushed his legs hard to close the small gap left to reach Sakura. He grabbed for her barely missing her blouse and tripped over his feet sliding into the doorway. Chiko closed his eyes uncertain what it was that he was going to see. "Sakura?" he said searching for her. There was a pause as he waited for a response or reply from her, but there was nothing. The tension increased and he realized that he was could not keep his eyes closed. He opened his eyes slowly to see Sakura stared at the wall. Chiko looked to see that it was nothing but the chalkboard colored in several different colored chalks.

The others rushed to see what kept them and the flashlight was shined across the wall. None of it made any sense on the board, but in the darkness it had been deceiving. However, as they were breathing a sigh of relief there was a loud sound of laughter through the hallway that seemed to come from nowhere. It seemed to be everywhere and around them. Only a moment passed before they were all hugging each other trying to figure out where it was coming from and hoping that it was just a joke.

The laughter faded away again and they all paused. They waited to know if it was safe to breathe again. It was silent through the school again and everyone fell to the ground letting out their held breath. Chiko rested against one of the desk legs as the boys rested against the wall. Hakuro was staring at the ground catching her breath while Sakura started to walk around the room. If she had been scared it was already passed.

Sakura eventually made it to the hallway without anyone noticing until she returned. "Hey, everyone there's something red coming out of one of the classrooms!" Sakura said excited. Everyone else froze backing themselves quickly against the wall. She walked into the room confused staring at them. "Don't you want to see it?" Daiki looked at Tsuneo while Hakuro looked at Chiko, Kazuo was balled up in the corner mumbling a prayer. Sakura ran up to Chiko and pulled him by the arm up off the floor.

Chiko latched on to Hakuro quickly to anchor himself, but Sakura pulled the both of them. The result was a chain of children dragged through hall by Sakura to the spot. When they arrive Tsuneo shined the light on the area where there was a liquid pouring across the floor. There was even the dark silhouette of something sprayed across the window of the classroom door.

"Open it," Hakuro said to Daiki who looked back at her incredulously. "What afraid?"

"Yeah!"

"I'll do it," Chiko said. This was one thing that he could handle. He had seen enough blood not to be afraid something like that as well as death. Even in spite of his own reassurance his arms were still shaking profusely as he went to slide open the door. When his hand finally reached the door he paused to swallow. Then he throw it open sliding quickly into the doorway stopper and the light illuminated the entrance. It looked like it was covered in blood, half of the room seemed soaked in it.

Chiko stepped in and bent down to look more closely at the liquid. It looked like blood in the dark lighting, but he did not have the iron smell or metallic taste. He dipped his fingers into it to examine it more closely. The texture was thick, too thick for blood. It was paint as he quickly realized. "It's paint, not blood. Just red paint." Chiko looked up at the rest of them that seemed relieved until they suddenly became sharps as needles. He looked at them strangely not certain why they had changed their expression so quickly. Then he had the feeling that there was someone behind him, the chills crawled up his spine as he creaked his head around.

Behind him was a tall dark shadow towering over him. Chiko yelped out loud and jumped out of the way into Sakura's arm conveniently. After he recovered himself a moment he looked back to see the light brought up to shadowy figure. "Mr. Honiwa?" everyone said together in surprise. It was the school janitor, a not quite elderly man though also not young either. He was balding and gray hair with wrinkles (fine, he is an elderly old man but he does not like being called old or elderly.)

"What are you kids doing here at the school so late?"

"What are you doing here, Mr. Honiwa?" Hakuro said in a demanding tone.

"I asked you first," he said annoyed.

"Well uh…"

"We're looking for ghosts!" Sakura said without hesitation. Everyone else looked away from her sweating.

"Ghosts huh?"

"So what are you doing here?" Hakuro said again.

"I was cleaning the school as I always do. Is that so strange?" he said pushing close to Hakuro. She backed away into the group to keep her distance from him.

"What's with all of the paint? It's a mess," Daiki said.

"That, Mrs. Toki ordered me to go through the art room's things and clean up everything. You children are always leaving it in a mess!" Mr. Honiwa was suddenly become angry as he spoke shaking his hands and making a fist. "I keep cleaning it up, but you children mess it up the next day. Then she says that I'm not keeping it clean! Not keeping it clean!" Mr. Honiwa suddenly kicked one of the paint cans across the room spraying the paint across the walls.

Everyone backed into the hallway as he picked up and flung an open can across the room. The paint narrowly missed them as they watched Mr. Honiwa become more angry and frustrated. "I'll show her clean! What does she think of this?!" His eyes widened, as he seemed to become crazed by the fury. It seemed as though flames were coming off of him fueling his rage even more. They all backed up further to try to keep their distance from him. "Where are you going? Don't you want PAINT!" Mr. Honiwa said spraying another can of paint across the room, this time hitting them. They were splattered with blue paint across the front of their clothes.

The paint was enough to anger Hakuro into action without even being scared of the janitor. She marched into the classroom and picked up the nearest paint can and threw it, can and all, at Mr. Honiwa. Green paint spread everywhere across the desks and Mr. Honiwa. The can whacked him in the head sending him to the floor with a large round bump on his head developing quickly. Hakuro realized what she did and ran over to him to see if he was conscious. Everyone rushed into the classroom to try to help him.

"Ugh…" Mr. Honiwa said softly as he opened his eyes.

"Are you alright, Mr. Honiwa?" Hakuro asked as everyone helped to lift him up.

Mr. Honiwa sat up looking at the children, "Huh, what happened? The paint! Why is it all over the walls?"

"You don't remember?" Tsuneo said.

"Remember what?"

"Nevermind, at least that solves on mystery," Tsuneo said.

"Yes, but this doesn't answer the question, where was that laughter coming from?" Daiki said.

"Laughter?" Mr. Honiwa said confused for a moment. "Oh, do you mean the children in room 4D?"

Everyone looked blankly at him for a moment. Then they all decided at the same moment…to run for their lives out of the school. They left Mr. Honiwa to fall over with his support gone. The group was out of the school in mere seconds as Mr. Honiwa stood up still puzzled by their reaction. There was suddenly laughter through the hall again echoing through all of the rooms. He then walked out of the classroom down one more room at the end of the hall. Above the door was the room number '4D'. He slid the door open; the lights were still on in the room. The laughter became louder as there were two children sitting in the front two desk watching a show on the monitor.

"Hey, you're laughing so loud the entire neighborhood can hear you."

"Sorry, grandpa…" the two said in unison.

"We'll be going soon, I just have to clean up a little mess."

Chiko ran through the streets hardly able to breath until he reached the house. He regretted going along with them on that ghost hunt. All it solved for them was making them more terrified of the school than they already were to begin with. Now he was afraid to go back too. He could not get over the chills that he was having still even though he did not believe in ghosts.

He opened the door and closed it quickly behind him as he rested against it to catch his breath. Mashiro and the Doctor looked from the living room at Chiko with mixed expressions. Mashiro looked like he wanted to laugh, but he seemed even more confused that it was preventing him from laughing. "What's with the blue paint?" Mashiro said suddenly.

"Stupid janitor did it!"

"Huh?"

"You alright? You look pale," the Doctor said.

"I'm fine!" Chiko said quickly hoping to end the subject.

"Then why are you shaking?" Mashiro said as he walked towards him with a grin growing across his face. The Doctor followed up behind him. "Did you see ghosts?" Mashiro said teasing him.

"No!" Chiko said backing away.

"Heh, my little Chiko is scared of ghosts. You came running home with them chasing you."

"I did not!"

"You're still shaking," Mashiro said laughing.

"I'm not afraid!" Chiko said with a red face unable to hide the fact anymore.

Preview for the next episode:

"Glad to be out of the school. It's rather scary in there at night. I don't know if I want to go back in the morning."

"Aw, is my little princess afraid of ghosts?"

"I'll give you something to be afraid of!"

"Ow ow ow, stop it! Stop it! Eesh. You'd think you would have learned to temper that anger of yours after all this time!"

"Careful what you say or you'll be in traction!"

"Threatening me again? Guess you haven't changed as much as you say you have."

"You trying to start something?"

"Calm down you two, always fighting," the Doctor says.

"Hey, Daddy!" Kohana says.

"Stop doing that! You know I don't like being that close to him," Chiko says.

"Daddy..." the Doctor says whimpering off to the corner.

"After all of this, still the same, all of us. Hey, you're making me forget about the preview again! Really haven't changed. Once I'd like to get through a preview without being distracted!"

"Fine then, continue."

"Huh? Did it again! Argh! The next episode of The Inner Man, Self. It's been a long road that we have all traveled. We've made friends and enemies along the way. We've shared tears and smiles together. A lot has changed since we arrived in Osaka."

"That is has..."

"Better not missed it! I'll be kicking around Mashiro some more, shin attack! Tee hee!"

"Help me!"