Disclaimer: I do not own Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji (Wolf Girl and Black Prince) or any of the characters

"Why can't you just let me win one time?" Takeru joked as he lost to his friend, Kyouya, in chess for the third time in the row. Kyouya chuckled in reaction since they both knew that Takeru's pride wouldn't allow him to accept a victory given to him. The smug smile Kyouya had didn't irritate him since he knew that it wasn't meant to mock him.

"I still can't believe your father trusted you with his café." Kyouya remembered all the strange pastries his friend made him eat when they were younger and laughed. But he still tried Takeru's latest recipe. While his baking hadn't improved, he had surprisingly good business sense. Even with his busy schedule, he found time to eat with his friend and it was a good distraction from his work.

"Wanna go for another round?" Kyouya asked as he set up the board again. The custom glass pieces were differentiated by being clear and opaque. Takeru shook his head and mirrored Kyouya's action to help him. They were as different as two people could be but had been friends since they were kids. "At least you're able to give me a challenge now. When we were kids, the only piece you would use was the king."

"It's the king's job to protect the queen." Takeru pointed out and Kyouya wondered if Takeru would ever have the ability to be selfish. After interacting with so many people, he found that kindness was rare and refreshing. "If you really want to play with someone, why don't you ask one of your maids? I'm sure they're better at this game than me."

"They quit so it's just me in this house." Kyouya said without a hint of emotion. Most of them had left the previous year and part of him couldn't blame them. If the house hadn't been in his family for generation, he would've sold it. In the end it was wiser for him not to move. "Not many people want to work next to a haunted house."

"They never did find out what happened to that girl, did they? It's a shame that she died so young. Didn't she go to the same high school as you?" Kyouya thought back to his neighbour. In their last year of high school, she had simply disappeared and no one knew the truth but the police declared her dead. Some thought that she merely ran away while others said that she was kidnapped and murdered.

Kyouya distinctly remembered being questioned by the police but he had never so much as spoken with her. It was a shock to hear that someone had died so close to his home at the time. The neighbourhood they lived in was quiet and he wouldn't have expected something like that to happen.

Their conversation drifted away from murder conspiracies to their high school experiences. It was late by the time Takeru left and Kyouya saw him out. A part of him thought of the murder and made his friend promise to be careful when walking to not cause the police trouble. Takeru laughed when he said it though. "Why can't you just say that you're worried about me? You don't need to act tough all the time."

"If you don't stop joking, I'll be the one to murder you. Just get home safe so you can open your café on time for once." Kyouya scowled but it only lasted a moment before the pair laughed. With a final goodbye, Kyouya went back into his room to prepare for work. He was a teacher so he rarely looked forward to the dreaded Monday.

Kyouya entered his room to prepare for his next lesson but stopped when he spotted the chessboard left on his coffee table. One of the pawns wasn't in its place and tucked under it was a note reading, your move. For a moment, Kyouya wondered if Takeru was trying to mess with him but he didn't recognize the writing. Ignoring his gut reaction, he moved the piece back to its square.

"What is that guy trying to accomplish?" Kyouya sighed and stepped out onto his balcony, closing the door behind him. Taking a deep breath of the fresh air, he tried to clear his mind. But he found it difficult when he found himself staring at the balcony across from his. He couldn't help but think about the mystery and wondered what happened to the girl seven years ago.

They had lived across from each other for years and their balconies so close he could easily jump onto hers but he never spoken to her. He remembered seeing her out on her balcony but there was nothing remarkable about her. Even at school, they were classmates but they never spoken once and he had the impression that she was rather shy.

When the cold began to creep into his bones, he stepped back into his room. Kyouya reached for the sliding door but noticed that it was slightly opened and reminded himself to have someone inspect the house since it wasn't the first time he found the door open. The house was old so he always brushed off every occurrence as poor maintenance.

At times it seemed like it was his house that was haunted rather than the neighbouring house. Kyouya would find that some things were moved but he wasn't superstitious and thought the maids had misplaced them. When he asked them, they said they hadn't moved it. Even if they left his employment because of this, he didn't give it much thought.

The large house never made him feel uncomfortable though. He was used to the quiet of the house since his parents worked often and left him home alone ever since he was a child. The maids would often play with him but he found their company cold and disconnected. Later in life, he found himself content with the silence of the house.

He took out a pile of worksheets from his bag and placed them on his table to mark. Kyouya's hand stopped when he saw the chess board in the corner of his eyes. The pawn had moved again. He jumped back but didn't take his eyes off the piece. He was certain that he had put it away and there was no one else in the house that could've moved it again.

"I must be going crazy." Kyouya pushed away the uneasy feeling in his stomach and picked up the pawn. Nothing about the glass piece had changed. Deciding that it was best to forget about the issue, he put the glass board away in its box and was careful not to scratch the glass. He placed the box back into his closet and his eyes lingered on the cheery letters printed on it. Happy Birthday, Kyouya!

Still to this day, he hadn't thanked the person for the gift. The reason was because he didn't know who sent him the chess set. It was left on his balcony the last year of high school so he guessed that it was from his father since he would often leave his present in his room rather than giving it personally. It still confused him why his father would give him a chess set since he would usually only give him a card.

"I better get some rest before I start losing my mind." Kyouya decided that he had been over working himself and that was causing his mind to betray him. He wasn't superstitious so he told himself that he merely thought he moved the piece back when he didn't. "Hopefully this is all because Takeru convinced me to test taste that new recipe he made."

"The hell?" The curse fell from Kyouya's lips when he woke and found that the chess board had been set up on his desk. Praying that it was a trick of his mind, he threw his closet door open and found that the chess box had been opened.

He stared at the box, trying to find a logical explanation. Takeru wouldn't go so far as to break into his house for such a confusing prank. Maybe he went to sleep without putting it away and thought he did. He would rather be forgetful than loss his mind. Things were often moved in his home but he could always blame it on the maids until now.

A soft sound made him turn and his eyes widened when one of the opaque pawns moved. Kyouya sat across from the piece and studied it but it stopped moving. Already deeming himself crazy, he moved his transparent pawn as if he was playing with an actual person. Not long after he moved his piece, another opaque pawn moved in return.

"It's official, I'm crazy." Kyouya muttered to himself but continued playing. The time it took the opposing piece to move in reaction to him wasn't constant and he glared at the pieces, trying to find an explanation for the moving pieces. As the game went on, he grew more frustrated at his invisible opponent. Why was he even entertaining his insanity?

"Check!" A cheery voice chimed and he looked up to see a slightly transparent woman sitting across from him suddenly. Her brown eyes sparkled with life and Kyouya's heart stopped at the sight of her. The woman turned her gaze up from the board and smiled at him. "You need to move your king. It's feels like so long since I've played chess but I still remember the rules."

"How?" Kyouya swallowed the confusion he had that was stopping him from breathing. Instead of moving his king, he reached across the board to touch her. His hand passed through her brown hair and a chill crawled up his back. She watched him with curiosity when he was the one that should've been doing so. "How are you here? You're dead."

She dropped the defeated pawn she was playing with and her face paled. Looking at her closer, he could see that she was slightly transparent. But there was no question who sat before him now. She was Erika, his neighbour that died. She died in their last year of high school but she appeared to be the same age as him now. He wanted to question if ghosts could age but that would force him to admit he was seeing one.

Kyouya studied her but she seemed frozen. When he tried to shake her shoulder to force her to respond to him again, his hand passed through her. He followed her eyes to the pawns and moved his king, hoping to prompt a reaction from her. Thankfully she did and they continued playing. He wondered if he should speak to her again since she was so silent.

"I guess I always knew that I was dead." She finally spoke as her queen took his knight. Erika looked up at him and smiled. "You're the first person that has been able to see me. I've been trying for years but… I'm just so glad that I finally have someone to talk to. I always wondered who I was since I just found myself sitting on your balcony. Did you know me? Was I the previous owner of this house?"

"We didn't know each other personally and it would be generous to even say we knew of each other. You were my neighbour." Kyouya found himself telling her as he questioned his sanity. "We didn't speak to each other so there's not much I can tell you. So I don't know why you're here instead of in your house. Is it true that you don't remember anything?"

Erika thought for a moment before shaking her head. "It was really strange when I woke on your balcony. I don't understand much myself and talking to you feels crazy. I've been trying to get people to notice me for years now and it took everything I had to be able to move objects. But with you, it's easy now. Even if I'm a ghost, I'm glad that I don't have to spend the afterlife alone."

Her smile didn't reach her eyes that held some doubt and Kyouya knew that he couldn't allow a ghost in his life. How his life became one that involved ghosts, he didn't know. The only explanation he had was that the cake Takeru baked him made him go insane. He needed to regain his sanity or else he'll find himself in a padded room.

"Look, I'm not going to play ghost with you so go haunt someone else. Aren't ghosts supposed to haunt people they knew or the person that murdered them?" Kyouya pushed away from the table and began to put away the chess set.

"Was I murdered?" Her question was barely a whisper and she stared up at him with lost eyes. The confusion and pain in them made his heart sink. He didn't know if he should answer her truthfully or not since he didn't know how she would react to the truth. "I don't remember anything."

"Maybe that's for the best." He put away the chess set in his closet. He looked back to her to see her reaction but he faced an empty room now. "I definitely need to see a therapist."

"Good morning, Mr. Sata!" A student greeted him and he smiled back at them before he continued to walk down the hall. His conversation with Erika that morning was still on his mind but there were no other strange occurrence after that. Hopefully the effect of Takeru's baking had finally subsided. He couldn't teach his students with a ghost haunting him.

He was a physics teacher so he couldn't find any logic in believing in ghosts. Everything that happened in life could be explained and he didn't want to bother himself with abstract concepts like love or the supernatural. Ever since he was young, he had been an outstanding student so most didn't understand why he decided to become a teacher.

To be honest, Kyouya didn't know either. His teacher had asked him to help teach some students and from there he became a teacher. It was something he was good at and the students seemed to enjoy his classes. Working at the same high school he went to as a teen didn't feel strange anymore.

Before he went to teach his first class, he went into the room they kept the student records. He didn't want to entertain his insanity anymore but he found himself going through the student records until he came across Erika's name. Sitting at his desk, he looked over the notes teachers made on her.

As he read through the files, he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Her grades were average and she wasn't in many clubs but won an art contest for her glassmaking. She volunteered often but it seemed like she didn't have many friends. One teacher wrote that they thought she was being bullied. He didn't interact with the other students much so didn't know if it was true.

Looking at her school photo, a memory sparked in his mind.

Erika kept her gaze on the ground and tried to block out their laughter. Why didn't she listen to Sanda? If only she did, she wouldn't have to face their ridicule now. But she did and now she was facing the consequences of lying.

"I can't believe she'll actually lie about having a boyfriend. We should've known that no guy would want to be with a liar like her." Their words were whispers but Erika heard them from where she sat. Her first year of high school, she tried to relate to a group of girls by telling them she had a boyfriend but after a month they found out the truth.

It was difficult to make a friend when most of the school thought she lied for attention. If she could go back in time, she would've said anything else. Thankfully, Sanda was still her friend but she was in another class. So until the class was over, she sat alone with other girls glaring into her back.

"Erika?" She looked up when someone called her name and she was shocked to find Kyouya standing beside her desk. He was the prince of the school so she didn't know why he would speak with her. With a mixed smile, he placed a box of cookies on her desk. "Your friend, Sanda, told me to give this to you and to tell you that you should walk home without her since he has a student council meeting."

"Thank you." Erika was glad that she had a friend like Sanda looking out for her. Since he went out of his way to bring her the cookies, she handed him one. "Here. San-chan bakes the best cookies! I always burn the cookies I make since I'll get distracted and leave them in the oven too long. San-chan always laugh that I have the patients to make glass but not cookies."

"Do you think she's lying to get with the prince? You never know what she'll do to get attention." Erika heard someone whisper behind her and she knew that Kyouya could hear them as well. She tried not to show how much it affected her but she knew that no matter what she said, no one would believe her.

"At a student council meeting, she showed us some of your work. They were beautiful and we talked about displaying some of it. You have a talent." Kyouya acted like he hadn't heard them. The princely smile he gave her made her heart raced and the gossip behind her stopped temporarily. That smile burned itself into her memory.

Kyouya looked up at the clock and he saw that it was almost time for him to go to class. Thinking back on the rumours surrounding Erika, it seemed like pointless high school drama. Acting like a prince kept others from causing him trouble so he defended her that one time. The interaction was so short that he had forgotten about it until now and he wondered if he forgot anything else about her.

"Is that me?" Kyouya dropped the files when he heard her voice once again. And it was more than just a memory. Erika looked over his shoulder and stared at the photo. It felt strange staring at herself and not remember a thing about the person she was. He closed the folder before she could read the files though.

"Just ignore her, Kyouya. Finish teaching your class and regain your sanity," Kyouya instructed himself and rushed past her. He thought that the ghost had simply been a dream but she appeared before him again. If this wasn't a temporary case of insanity, he could find himself in a padded room. So he ignored her and walked briskly to his class.

"Wait, are you sure you didn't know me? You seem very familiar." Erika followed him and tried to stop him but he avoided looking at her. She had so many questions about herself and Kyouya was the closest she came to getting answers. She stood in front of him to block his path but he merely walked through her and his warmth passing through her gave her a chill.

"Kyouya!" She repeated his name but he slammed the classroom door in her face. Erika bit her tongue but she wasn't one to give up so walked through the door. Standing in the middle of the classroom, she felt oddly nostalgic but out of place. The only thing that she recognized with certainty was Kyouya standing in front of the class.

His eyes only lingered on her for a moment before he ignored her. The classroom made her feel small and alone despite it being full. Her foot took her to an occupied seat and she wondered if she sat in the desk like the student was doing now.

Who am I?

Erika was always in the corner of Kyouya's eyes. He was glad that she wasn't bothering him with questions since he was teaching but the lost look in her eyes haunted him. Was she remembering something? He didn't think of the irony that he was teaching in the same classroom that he learned in as student until Erika brought those memories back.

Something close to pity touched him as he watched her.

"You're not going to haunt this classroom and bother my students now, are you?" Kyouya threw a large textbook onto the desk Erika was sleeping in to gain her attention. It was late and they were the only ones in the classroom. During his lecture, she sat in an empty desk and promptly fell asleep. He didn't know if it was the subject or an emotional strain that made her fall asleep in such an uncomfortable position.

Erika groaned and rubbed her heavy eyes, still not fully awake. He recognized the expression vaguely and remembered that she would fall asleep in class sometimes. Her defenseless expression looked silly and he chuckled. He took a chair to sit across from her. "No wonder your grades were so bad. Now that I think back, you were an airhead back then."

"Was I?" Erika asked him and he nodded. Usually he would pretend to be a kind gentleman but he didn't see the point when he was speaking with a ghost. "I don't think I am. Maybe it's because science is too complicated and boring."

"Boring?" Kyouya raised a brow at her, slightly annoyed that she insulted his subject of choice. He pinched her cheeks and pulled them slightly. "Just because your brain can't understand it, doesn't mean it's complicated. Maybe if you try to learn instead of sleeping, you would've gotten better grades. Even a dog doesn't sleep through his training."

"Ow," Erika whined and he let go of her. She rubbed her now red cheeks and pouted at him. The expression reminded him of an unsatisfied puppy and laughed. Her animated face would've fooled him into thinking that she if he didn't know better. "That hurt, you meanie. You were nicer to your students when you were teaching them. Wait!"

She jumped and pinched his cheek in return. Before she would pass through him and she was happy at the new discover. But when she concentrated and tried to touch his face again, she passed through him. Things were strangely reversed with him. When she was relaxed with him, she was about to touch him but had to concentrate to touch other objects.

"I don't know much about ghost but I can't have you following me around." Kyouya told her and she looked slightly hurt. What he said was logical but she didn't know where else to go to. "I'm sure you'll be much happier if you try to find your way to heaven."

"It feels like something is keeping me here!" Erika stopped him from going on. "If you can help me find out about myself, I'll be able to leave. Please do this for me. You're my neighbour so you there must be something you can do for me."

"I don't know." Kyouya hesitated. He could tell her about her life but there was the uncomfortable question about her death.

"If you don't I'll haunt you for the rest of your life!" Erika interrupted his thoughts and he raised a brow at her. Did she truly intend to threaten him when she was the most docile person he knew? Her eyes were determined though and he held out her pinky to him. "Please help me move on."

"I check myself into an insane asylum." Kyouya sighed as he wrapped his pinky around hers. "I'll help you."

Starting a new fanfic for OSTKO ^-^ People who follow my other works know that I lose inspiration for mystery rather quickly but I love writing fantasy/supernatural so hopefully that would drive me to finish this