This Sucks (Open)

[urara]

Rain fell softly from the sky. Water gathered on the branches then dripped in rhythm onto the ground to collect in puddles. Plunk. Plunk. Plunk plunk plunk. There was little wind, but it was still rather cold. The blue-gray sky was grim; it was hard to tell where one cloud ended and the other began. But it wasn't so depressing in the forest with the multicolored leaves hiding the sky mostly from view. The leaves were hanging on stubbornly, but some had already given up; brown, crunchy leaves littered the forest floor. No animals were visible, yet there were undeniable sounds of life around. Twigs snapped, and brush rustled, but the woman floating through it did not make a sound.

Her feet appeared to be on the ground, but if one looked closely enough one would see the space between her feet and the ground. One foot moved before the other, but she seemed to be drifting rather than actually walking. She wore a plain, white kimono - the sort used to sleep in - but only that. She wore not even socks on her feet, but, of course, that did not perturb her. Her hair fell unbound behind her, floating around her like a cloud. Her eyes gazed sightlessly ahead as she moved through the forest. She had her head tilted at a peculiar angle, as if she was considering what was before her, but her expression was closed. Whether she was upset at the rain, or happy for it, anyone could say.

In truth, it was both. The rain had never made much of an impression on her when she was alive, but it was different now. As she lifted on pale, slightly translucent arm rain fell through it without so much as pausing. She lifted the other arm, and closed her pale blue eyes. The ghost woman stood out like a beacon; her whole body was gray or blue, or both, and glowed, fraying and blurring the contours of her body. She wasn't quite so expressionless now: An interesting combination of pleasure and pain crossed her features. She wore a small, sad smile and looked like she might start crying. But of course she wouldn't.

She could feel the rain. Oh, not like a live, flesh-and-blood person would, not like any live being would, but she could feel it. Maybe it was just a memory of how it should feel, but she could swear that she felt the sensation of something touching her. Just for a moment it would feel like rain was striking her skin. But then it was gone, and she was never more aware that she dead. It happened with other things, too. If she reached out to touch a tree, in the first second of contact she could feel its rough, uneven bark. Yet even if she did not removed her hand the sensation was fleeting. She hated that, hated the feeling she craved so much only for an instant before being forced to endure a sensation-less existence.

Urara sighed and lowered her arms. Sighing for her was a strange thing. Since she did not breath, it was more a whimper than the sound of breath being exhaled. She started to glide again for she had paused when she had lifted her arms. She was in no hurry as she had no destination in mind. There wasn't anywhere she could go, really. Oh sure she could walk through most walls and the like, but what was the point when people fled in terror at the sight of her? There was no denying what she was, so she didn't even try, but what in world did they think she going to do? It took a lot to possess someone, and she had no powers besides that. She was undead, but she had no physical body with which she could use to harm them.

She found that to be amusing. She had power even when she had none; all she had to do was jump out and shout, "Boo!" and humans would a all but pleading with her for their lives. So she avoided them for the most part. Youkai weren't impressed with her; in fact, they seemed to view her as some inferior substance. Still, even dead they spooked her a bit - that hadn't faded into nonexistence after death like so many feelings - so she avoided them, too. That left the animals and the other undead. Creatures weren't good company, and ghosts and clay people weren't terribly common.

It had been a lonely ninety-six years, though the feeling had gradually faded into a weak pang every now and again. Sometimes she would encounter a dying man, and they responded with first fear then curiosity. What was it like? Had she been to the other side? Was death so very painful? She tried to explain what it was like, but somehow she couldn't quite explain the horrible hollowness being a ghost brought. She had no knowledge of the other side; all she knew was that being a ghost was only too horrible to be borne, that only the hope that one day she would have a body sustain her. Then they died, and Urara hoped they wouldn't chose what she had chosen. She could always move on, albeit with help. She was acutely aware her family and Rie were waiting for her. But for some reason...she just couldn't.

A brave bird darted from the trees. It was flying at her, so she stopped to watch it. It was rapidly approaching and didn't seem to want to divert from its path. Then it was in front of her for an instant before flying through her. That was enough to put her in a sour mood. She sulkily continued her gliding through the forest with a cross look on her face.

[nozomi ayumu]

* * *
Now, being wet was not something Ayu was fond of. The way her armor pressed against her damp clothing was enough to put her in a less than blissful mood. The tiny sweeps of wind in the invisible air made her dark hair bounce and swirl behind her as she bounded (quite much like a ninja) through the muggy area. Her sandals hardly left their impressions in the earth as she both landed on and sprung off the ground.

CLINK-CHINK. SHUU. DRIP DRIP DRIP.

The subtle rhythms of the forest along with those her armor and weapons made caused the illusory spirit to feel somewhat soothed. She continued glancing about curiously and jumping like a graceful grasshopper. Although she never saw too many demons and other creatures in the forest, this was a new record for "most deserted area." She couldn't sense anything about her that wasn't a bird or snake or ant thus far. It confused her.

But then she glimpsed something out of the corner of her eye. However pale it was, it glowed subtly against the neutral grain of the forest.

She slowed her pace, and became intangible--some of the moistness that she and her clothing and hair retained was lost behind her gait. Jumping high above in the air straight through the branches above her--nearly floating, actually--she twisted about to look back where she first saw the pale glow among the grey, ground atmosphere. She spotted it, her satisfied blue eyes shimmering faintly in the dim lighting of the canopy as she fell. Ayumu landed with a gentle tap upon the moist dirt, and cautiously shortened the distance between herself and the luminous object.

The spirit felt an unsettling sort of aura, detecting a veneer of the feminine sort. Squinting, she found to her surprise that the pale object she had first seen was, in fact, another type of spirit. The undead sort, in fact. While Ayumu herself was not the spirit of a once-mortal being, she was, however, not exactly alive, not exactly dead. She couldn't die if she wasn't technically living, and she had long ago come to define herself as a being within the limbo between immortal and mortal.

Narrowing her eyes with a gleam of both curiosity and clemency, Ayumu approached the spirit from her right side. She was several meters away, but she was determined to make herself as friendly as possible. She felt that this spirit wasn't in a terribly good mood, but she also could feel that it wasn't hostile, either.

And so she took it upon herself to greet the entity in the most skittish manner as possible.

“H-Hello?”

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FFFFFF-
I finally posted something.
D: Sorry my short post is short.