Finally, as we approached the edge of the prefecture, we disembarked at a bus stop in what could only be described as the middle of nowhere. After double-checking the map to get our bearings, we headed down the unpaved road toward the abandoned airfield. Soon, the sun began to set over the western horizon, and the skies above were gradually dyed a deep red.
All of a sudden, Aoi stopped dead in her tracks.
Ryo looked back at her. “What’s up?” he asked.
“Oh, uh… Nothing,” she replied. “I guess it’s just…finally settling in for me that we might actually see a ghost out here. Maybe I’m kinda getting cold feet. I dunno.”
“Well, if you wanna head back, go for it. But me? I wanna see this thing.”
And with that, Ryo set off walking once more. I followed suit. After a few moments’ hesitation, Aoi jogged up from behind to rejoin us. It seemed she couldn’t pass up this opportunity either. None of us knew whether the Summer Ghost was real or not, but it was our mutual desire to find and speak with her that brought us here today.
It wasn’t every day you got to ask questions of the dead, after all.
We had questions like… What does dying feel like? Or being dead, for that matter? Did it hurt? Does it still? How excruciating was it?
We all wanted to know exactly what death was like, and no living soul could answer such questions for us—but a wandering spirit who experienced it herself surely could.
As we reached the crest of a grassy knoll, we looked down to see a wide-open plot of land, surrounded on all sides by a chain-link fence. And there in the center of the rectangular lot sat the old, abandoned runway. Even from afar, it was plain to see it had gone unmaintained for many years. Where the airport buildings once stood, there now remained only large concrete foundation slabs. The whole place was overgrown with weeds.
We looked it over and talked among ourselves.
“So that’s the airfield, huh?”
“Sure looks like it.”
“And how do we get inside?”
“I’m sure we’ll find a way. C’mon.”
The three of us made our way down the hill. The chain-link fence enclosing the site was warped and rusted, and as we made our way along it, we found a break in it where someone had apparently wrested their way in by force. We crouched down, slipped through the gap, and made a beeline for the runway, parting the tall grass as we went.
“Oh, wow… Just look at this place! This is incredible!” Aoi was giddy with excitement.
The vast, open field reached all the way out to the horizon where it brushed up against the sunset sky. Ryo set down our shopping bags and began to lay out our extensive collection of fireworks across the runway. We’d certainly come prepared.
“So you really think this’ll work, huh?” he asked.
“Maybe, maybe not,” I said. “It could just as easily be nothing more than a rumor—a story some kid on the internet made up for kicks three years ago, which other people then picked up and ran with.”
“Why three years ago, specifically?”
“There weren’t any recorded sightings before then. You couldn’t even find a single mention of the term ‘Summer Ghost’ prior to the sudden uptick three years ago. It’s like the legend just materialized fully formed, right out of thin air.”
Ryo placed a large fountain-style firework a short way away on the asphalt. I pulled out a lighter, walked over to it, and lit the fuse. Shortly after, its stocky tube began to emit a shimmering shower of green and pink sparks. It wasn’t even fully dark out yet, but the striking colors were still dazzling enough to earn a few oohs and aahs from Aoi.
As the smoke wafted up into the air, so too did the smell of burnt gunpowder. It was an acrid scent, to be sure—but it wasn’t one I personally disliked. It reminded me of being a little kid again, running around the neighborhood and setting off fireworks with my friends.
Then, after about twenty seconds or so, the fountain of light sputtered out its last spark and was extinguished. As quiet fell over the runway once more, we were all left with a strange sense of melancholy dissatisfaction. Like, “Oh… Was that it?”
“Here, Ryo-kun! Let’s try one of these next!” said Aoi, perking up as she rummaged through one of the shopping bags for another firework. She seemed to be really enjoying all of this now—almost to the point that I wondered if she forgot why we were even lighting off fireworks in the first place, given how spooked she seemed at first.
As the last sliver of sun dipped down below the horizon, the skies finally started growing dark. The sweltering summer heat died down, and a cool breeze began to blow as the stars poked their heads out from behind the clouds. There were no obstructions out here to block our view—just an open plain, twinkling stars overhead, and an array of bright, multicolored fireworks briefly illuminating our faces as we set them off, one by one. We hadn’t even prepared a fire bucket or anything to extinguish them in case something went wrong; we were just letting the used ones pile up at our feet. But no matter how many burned-out fireworks we accumulated, no phantom appeared before us.
“Welp, looks like our ghost friend’s a no-show. And we’ve been at this for a while now too,” said Ryo. “Better head back soon. Don’t wanna miss our ride.”
He had a point. Considering how long it would take us to hike back to the bus stop, it would probably be smart to pack up and get going right about then. Not that there were really any fireworks left to pack up and take home, mind you—we even went through the entire set of little kiddy handheld fireworks. All that remained now was a pack of traditional Japanese-style sparklers that came bundled with them.
“All right. There are the last ones,” I said, handing Aoi and Ryo each a sparkler. They were the semi-crooked kind wrapped in colorful tissue paper, each with a small pinch of gunpowder embedded in the very tip. I lit both of theirs with my lighter before lighting my own.
“Y’know, for a minute there, I actually believed we might see a ghost out here,” Ryo confessed. “Feels kinda stupid, now that I actually think about it. But hey, at least I got to come out here and blow some stuff up with you two, right? Was pretty fun, honestly. A better time than I’ve had in a while. Thanks, guys.”
Ryo was not, evidently, the type to let his emotions show outwardly. One probably couldn’t tell just from watching him silently gaze at the fireworks all night that he was enjoying himself as much or as loudly as, say, Aoi had been. But from the way he described it now, it sounded like he actually had a really good time.
I was glad to hear that.
There was something to be said for having the ability to enjoy yourself, even when you know you’re standing right at death’s doorstep.
With the gunpowder in my sparkler now lit, I watched as the familiar red droplet formed slowly at its tip, softly sizzling as it swelled up into a molten marble before it started scattering sparks into the wind. Each orange speck then burst and branched out, like needles from a glowing pine branch, as they shot off in all directions around the sparkler’s tip.
“Yeah, I had fun too,” said Aoi. “This was the first time in a long, long while that I’ve been able to just kick back and enjoy myself, without having any intrusive thoughts.”
Just then, our sparklers went wild, shooting off even more sparks, and faster than before. The crackling grew louder and louder as they branched and burst into even more elaborate patterns—until eventually they reached a crescendo, accompanied by a flash of blinding white.