Author/Artist: Chie Shinohara
Publisher: Flower Comics
Style: Shojo -- Horror/Adventure
# of Books: 4
Rating: PG-13
Summary written by: Gloria Oliver
Ryoko Midorikawa
Ryoko was a normal 15 year old until the day her cat Po died. A friend from earliest childhood, Ryoko knew all of Po's moods and was therefore surprised as well as distressed to find that he'd drowned in the bathtub. She knew that Po hated water and never went near it. She couldn't understand why he would have gone there at all.
Saddened by her loss, Ryoko buried Po out in the yard beneath a flower bush. For the next few nights Ryoko keeps waking to strange sounds in the night. Then one morning, her mother and brother are happily fusing over a cat that strayed into their home. To Ryoko's astonishment, he looks just like her dead cat Po!
Po/Taku Kusakabe
Po's dead body has been inhabited by the spirit of a young man. At first he has no memory of who he is or what has happened to him. He is quite sure, however, that his body is out there somewhere, alive. All that he wants now is to find it so that he can try and return to it. For that, he needs Ryoko's help.
After the death of her cat Po and his consequent return with the spirit of a man she believes to have killed him, Ryoko is roughly introduced into the realm of the supernatural.
Though at first she is unwilling to believe in Taku's innocence, once she finds out that he didn't kill Po, but that it was the angry spirit of her home's previous murdered owner, Ryoko reluctantly agrees to help Taku find his body. Yet now that she has come in contact with him, Ryoko comes to find that she has actual latent abilities to communicate with restless spirits killed or buried near plants. Taku also proves to have a number of powers despite the fact that his spirit is housed in the body of cat. Not only is he able to teleport himself where he wishes, he is also able to beat back ghosts and take over the bodies of unconscious humans. (Ryoko's brother wakes up a number of times not having the faintest idea where he picked up this ache or that!) These powers become a great boon to them both, as they seem to constantly run into restless spirits.
As Ryoko continues her search for Taku's body, she stumbles across the fact that both she and Taku were both born on December the 12th at midnight! They also come to find that all their encounters with restless spirits may not be so coincidental -- there is an entity out there that is persuing them both and is ultimately responsible for most of their troubles!
Chie Shinohara has a wonderful sense of timing where horror is concerned. The disturbed spirits in Ryoko's stories will send chills coursing down your spine!