As I sat down on the couch, the doorbell rang. “Coming!” I shouted, walking towards the door. When I opened the door, a letter was laying on the floor in front of me. “Huh? What the hell is that?” I asked myself. I opened it out of curiosity.

The letter read the following: “Dear Ichiken Shuken, we are in deep agony because our daughter, Hana Camillé, recently passed away. She told us you were a good friend of hers. That is the reason we want to have you with us at her funeral. The funeral is on the 15th of May.”.

“That’s tomorrow! How am I supposed to get ready until tomorrow?!”, I thought to myself. Looking back at it, it was weird getting an invitation for the funeral of Hana since we only knew each other for about 10 minutes. Other than those 10 minutes before her death, I only looked at her during lessons.

But I guess I had some pity with her parents, so I still went to the funeral. I told my grandma I was going shopping with a friend. Looking through multiple shops, I noticed someone following me.

It was a tall man with brown hair and glasses. He still had his left arm, so it definitely wasn't the guy I was looking for. After looking around for a couple of hours, I finally found some sort of suit I’m gonna go to the funeral with.

As I was walking out the store, I noticed the strange man still following me. “Hey asshole! Stop following me around you creep!” I shouted. “Huh? Me? Following you? Never! I was just shopping for a suit for a funeral tomorrow. I’m a relative of hers.”, he answered in a slightly pissed off tone.

I just sighed and walked away.

15th of May.

I woke up at 8 am. It was unusual for me to wake up this early, but it couldn’t be helped I guess. I put on some clothes and went to school like any normal kid would. It's Friday after all. Summer break starts next Monday, so I only have to go to school today.

Hinata was absent today. He got sick apparently. If I ever see him again, I’m going to kill him for laughing at me like that back then.

After school ended, I went home and put on my newly bought suit. The day alone was already awkward, but also getting invited to a funeral for a person I’ve known for like 10 minutes? I didn’t want to seem like a bad person, and I couldn’t cancel at the last minute at a funeral, so I just went anyway.

On the way there, I felt like being watched, but I guess I had just gotten paranoid because of what happened the last time I left the house… The atmosphere at the funeral was pretty down, but I could already imagine why…

The weird man that followed me was also there, so I just went over to him and tried to talk to him. “Hey. I never got to ask you, what’s your name?”, I stuttered. “Johann. That’s my name.”, he replied without looking at me.

“How long did you know her for?”, he asked. “A couple of minutes only. I don’t know why she would even want me here.” I explained, feeling unwanted at the funeral.

“Y’know, she always talked about you when she got home from school. She was pretty in love with you.”, he explained, getting closer to my ear “These people here are only paid actors. This isn't a real funeral.

Hana is buried somewhere else. If you stay here, you’re gonna die. Run as fast as you can.”, he whispered. I slowly looked over to him, with sweat across my entire face.

“W-What?!”, I nervously stuttered. He just stood there, smiling at me. “Good luck, Ichiken.”, he mocked me. How does he know? I never told him.

“How do you… Know my name? I never told you my name.”, I asked nervously. “No no.. I’m pretty sure you told me earlier.”, “I didn’t.”. He looked at me, the smile vanished.

“No no, I’m pretty sure you told me. Look up a couple of lines, it should be there somewhere.”, he explained, convinced of himself. “Look up a couple of lines? What the hell do you mean?! This ain’t a book!”, I shouted.

“Hey! We’re still in a graveyard. Keep it down, man.”, he calmly exclaimed. “So where were we again? Ah, right. Start.. the music!”, he screamed. I was in shock when he started screaming. Telling me to shut up and then shouting himself? Weird guy.

I slowly heard an electric guitar getting louder and louder. As I turned around, one of the corpses started to rise from their grave with a guitar in their hand. He was playing some 70s or 80s rock song. Soon after, more and more corpses started rising.

One with drums, a microphone and one with speakers! What the hell is happening?

I turned around but Johann was already gone. The music got louder and louder. By this point, I’m sure the whole neighborhood could hear us.

“Hah hah hah hah! Turn up the volume, this is a funeral for the living!”, a voice behind me shouted. I turned around to see a corpse riding.. A train?! It was no ordinary train, some sort of ghost train or something.

He was jumping out of the ground and back into it like a dolphin on steroids. “Corpse Manipulation: Crazy Train!” he shouted as he was riding his weird train, the corpse band still playing their song.

“All aboard!” he exclaimed, raising more corpses from the dead. They started running towards me. Some of them even had weapons, like swords and knives. “Hey! That’s not fair! Why do they have weapons and I don't?”, I asked furiously.

They kept multiplying with each one I killed. Can you even say killed? I mean, they’re already dead, aren’t they? Each one I knocked out. Sounds better.

I couldn’t see the train anymore after the song ended, so I thought it was finally over. “Wrong! Here I am!”, he shouted, erupting from below my feet, pulling me into the air and crashing me down into the ground. “How does it feel getting hit by a train, Ichiken?!”, he mockingly asked.

“This suit is new, asshole!”, I scuffed. I need to kill him. Or knock him out. Whatever you wanna call it. I need to finally control my Trauma Arc. Would be pretty useful, I ain’t gonna lie.

“Arise!”, I shouted, hoping my Arc would manifest. “Uh.. Maybe this one will work! Show yourself!”. Still no sign. “Manifest!”, “Wakey Wakey!” I tried a dozen of things.

The weird corpse guy even stopped his train and looked at me. He wasn’t laughing but just confused on what the fuck I was doing. “Just show yourself! This is getting embarrassing!”, I shouted.

And would you look at that? It finally manifested! After what felt like an eternity, it finally manifested. “Okay, I know our relationship may not be the best, alright? But I just need your help this one time.

See this guy over there? We need to beat the shit out of him.”, I explained.

My Arc slowly turned around, scratching the back of its head and looking at the Corpse guy. “Hey! Corpse Guy! What’s your name!? It’s getting annoying to always write Corpse Guy, y’know?”, I asked.

“The hell you mean “writing Corpse Guy”? This ain’t a stupid ass book! But it’s Hajime!”, he explained. “Go!” I shouted, running towards Hajime.

“Flame Manipulation: Flame Punch!”. My hand was engulfed in fire and I got ready to punch him back into his grave! Got it? ‘Cause he just got out of the grave.? Ah, whatever.

He closed the train’s side door so I ended up punching the door instead, demolishing it with the Flame Punch’s 2nd impact. “H-How did you do that?!”, he stuttered nervously.

“My Flame Punch consists of 2 hits. The first hit is the initial hit. I engulf my hand in fire to burn the enemy. Then the 2nd hit. Shortly after I hit my target with Flame Punch, a 2nd, more dangerous hit is dealt.

If it hits a person, and not an object it will even “transport” those flames through the body of the target. Consider yourself lucky.”, I explained.

I quickly ducked, making way for my Arc to jump over me and deliver a devastating kick to his chin. “This ain’t fair! This is a 2 on 1! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?!”, he scuffed.

I engulfed my flames in fire again, throwing punch after punch at him but he dodged it all. “Corpse Manipulation: Crazy Train!”. I quickly dodged the train that was erupting from below me.

If he can just re-manifest his stupid train whenever he feels like it, there’s no point in fighting him. He’s dead anyways, so I doubt that he has any stamina so I would just exhaust myself.

“Hey! Hajime! Nice concert ‘n all, but I really gotta go now. See ya later.”, I shouted. He was too distracted acting like a dolphin again and having his concert, so I just ran off.

If my memory isn’t wrong, ghosts shouldn’t be able to leave their place where they died or something. As I left the graveyard, Kuzuma appeared behind me.

“Why are you running away? A free concert doesn’t occur every day, y’know?”, he mockingly asked.