"You're kidding. You want me to get a job at your son's school?" Yukari remarked in alarm after hearing all about Tsutomu's tragic death and his unfinished business from the ghostly man himself. "That's a crazy idea..."

"I need someone living to get in touch with Tetsuya and let him know how much I still care. You're a prime candidate because you're close to him in age and none of my acquaintances will know who you are."

Yukari inched further away along the couch. "Nice try, but have you forgotten that I'm actually seventy years old? I should be qualified to become a senior citizen."

Tsutomu crossed his arms in disapproval. "Sounds like Futoshi was right. You only claim to be old when it suits you. Otherwise, you're just another washed up delinquent making a pathetic effort to stay cool. Tell me, does that sound right?"

"Hey, you'd better watch your words!" Yukari jabbed her finger into Tsutomu's shoulder. "I'm the real deal! I've done drugs! Beaten people up! Even lost a brother!"

"What a surprise. I've done the first two as well," Tsutomu claimed in a blatant attempt to upstage her. "I was a complete idiot as a young man. How do you think I became a father so early?"

Yukari considered the implication in his words. "Wait, how old are you again?"

"Thirty-eight."

"And what about your son?"

"Seventeen."

"Oh." The truth dawned on Yukari. "You were only twenty-one when he was born. That must suck."

"Yes, I suppose it did. I had to give up on my dreams and accept a stable but exhausting job to support him and my wife Sachiko. I suppose she never really overcame the fact that I'd ruined her youth as well."

"And you think that's why she cheated on you in the end?"

Tsutomu's face fell for the second time that afternoon. "I don't think. I know, because she made it very clear during our divorce."

"I find that hard to imagine," Yukari admitted despite her wish to stay detached from her own sad past. "My parents were almost polar opposites, yet they still cared about each other deeply. My dad had a complete breakdown when they recovered my mother from our collapsed house after the earthquake. I ended up hating him when he took his grief out on me, but the point still stands. Most couples don't start out resenting each other."

"You know, that's the most mature thing you've said since we first met." Tsutomu rose from the couch. "It's like you've been hiding part of yourself as a coping mechanism."

Yukari's immediate impulse was to confirm his praise with a smile, but then she remembered that such a gesture would make her seem insipid, so she put on a frown instead. "What coping mechanism? I only told you that because you needed to hear it. Don't expect wisdom from me all the time."

Tsutomu wisely avoided questioning her motives further, which allowed Yukari to direct the conversation back to his earlier request. "So, how do you expect me to infiltrate a high school? It's not like I have any qualifications."

"Simple. You can join the school lunch staff."

With visceral dread, Yukari imagined herself donning the customary drab white uniform and cap so that she could spend hours slaving away to feed an endless line of brainwashed teenagers.

"No thanks," she declined while tensing up all over. "I refuse to be part of that soul-crushing system."

Tsutomu reached for Yukari in earnest, only for his ghostly hands to slip right through her arms. "All the more reason for us to check on him. Tetsuya can't be doing well at school now that he's lost me."

Yukari saw the desperation painted on his face and couldn't put aside her conscience anymore. "Oh, hell. Why do you have to make it so hard for me? I give up..."

"Yes!" Tsutomu sprung from the couch with such velocity that he began to drift towards the ceiling. He kicked his feet to bring himself back down. "I knew you wouldn't let me die without regrets!"

"Aren't you already dead?" Yukari questioned.

"Right." Tsutomu's smile faded and he sunk his head in dismay. "I wouldn't recommend it to anyone..."

Yukari watched him wallow in his grief and contemplated saying something to cheer him up, but Futoshi came out from the kitchen while looking as fed up with her presence as ever.

"I'm tired of you two being constant freeloaders at my place." Futoshi crossed his thick arms and sucked in his wrinkled lips further. "But I can't expect much from a ghost, so you'll have to be the one to pull their weight. Starting by helping me with lunch."

The timing of Futoshi's request left Yukari with a sense of grim amusement as Tsutomu raised his thumb in encouragement. She accepted her fate by getting off the couch to accompany Futoshi into the kitchen, hoping that she could recreate the same magic that had come with shadowing her grandmother so many years ago.

******

Yukari helped herself to the product of their labor by spooning a generous amount of curry onto her rice despite Futoshi's protestations. She sat down with a smug look once her rice had disappeared completely beneath the chunks of chicken and various other vegetables, for there was always something satisfying about seeing people disapprove of her behavior.

She suspected that the feeling stemmed from a need to affirm her own free will and personhood, both of which had been stifled to a tragic degree when she was a child.

"I humbly receive," she and Futoshi said in unison once he had sat down too. Then, she raised her head to see Tsutomu looming over the old man's shoulder with crazed eyes and a slightly open mouth that was leaking ghostly saliva.

"That looks so delicious," Tsutomu muttered hoarsely before wiping his mouth. "I would kill for a chance to enjoy this meal with you both..."

Futoshi dropped his spoon in alarm, which caused globules of golden-brown curry to splash out of his bowl. "Hey. What did I say about watching me eat?"

He rotated his upper body to throw a pointless punch in Tsutomu's direction, and Yukari fought the impulse to laugh. She forced a spoonful of drenched rice into her mouth without caring how much it burned, then gave a pained smile after swallowing.

What little contentment she felt was extinguished the moment a door slammed from out in the hallway and none other than Kumiko came charging into the dining room, holding a cackling red demon under her left arm while her right was barely keeping a rabid Ichiro from tearing himself free.

"Thank goodness you three are here. I could really do with some-"

"Listen, you lowly cretins!" Ichiro screamed with all the ferocity of an animal fighting for its life. "Surrender your tools of enslavement now! I shall destroy them and show you what it really means to be free!"

Kumiko put an end to his rage by slamming him headfirst into the nearby wall and rendering him unconscious. Unfortunately, her diverted strength allowed the tiny red demon to drop from beneath her left arm, and it ran straight for Yukari with an obnoxious chuckle.

She readied her fist to strike in defense, but the strange little creature vanished as soon as it came within an inch of her body. Yukari glanced around the room in confusion, making eye contact with Futoshi, Tsutomu, and Kumiko, all of whom were equally stunned by the turn of events.

Then it hit her. The desire to eat as much as her stomach could handle, combined with an uncontrollable and primal urge to have sex with the object of her desire right this moment, whether they felt the same way or not.

With a guttural roar, Yukari shot out of her chair to claim beautiful and bewitching Kumiko for herself. Unfortunately, Kumiko proved herself to have lightning-fast reflexes by responding to Yukari's advance with a punch that was swift and devastating enough to shatter bone and dislocate several teeth.

Warm and salty blood pooled in Yukari's mouth as she plummeted to the floor beside the unresponsive Ichiro. She rasped and writhed in agony, struggling to see through her stinging tears before she passed out with a single filthy thought on her mind.

This isn't the way I wanted to be dominated, but I guess it's better than nothing...