Chapter 12: Jinx's Night Out

The seven were getting closer to the town areas of Pure Heart Valley, getting a better glimpse of the brightly lit streets awash with radiance emanating from the hung lanterns strung from window to window. The playful voices of other Sweetypies faintly reached the group's ears as they grew louder with each step closer taken; the same was said about music and the jingling of toys.

"Sounds like the pie-cutting ceremony's coming very soon," Momo notified her friends and the Sheriff's Department. Her frog and fox friends, plus Adorabat, were rather giddy at the anticipation of pie. Baderclops was in a similar mood, but leaned more to the salivating side.

"I can't wait," the badger shuddered in a pseudo-whisper. "Let's go."

At the same time, the little ghost that was disguised under the modified bedsheet was excited as well. This was going to be the first time it was going to see an actual Sweetypie celebration, one where people would live and behave happily without fear of anything else coming to ruin the lively mood – the ghost hoped it would be able to live among them without fear as well. It also inwardly praised Adorabat and Badgerclops for their help in giving it the best Harvest Moon costume suited for it. It never would have imagined that it could have just gone as itself.

The seven were just within reaching distance of Town Square, where all the other Sweetypies had gathered in preparation for witnessing the pie-cutting event, when Momo spoke up in a worriedly frantic tone.

"My hat! Where's my hat?"

Everyone's attention was turned to Momo who was currently bent over and looking left and right across the grass and surrounding shrubs, her breathing rapid as indicative of a panicking state of mind. As she just asked of everyone, the top of her head was completely bare of her pointy hat that she was wearing as part of her costume earlier. Everyone watched her look long enough for her to get on her knees and look further to the ground.

"Did you lose your hat?" Mao Mao asked her, not caring that he just stated the obvious.

"Of course, I lost it!" Momo blurted without nary a moment to reconsider her answer. "I'm absolutely sure it fell off somewhere around here! I need to find it!"

Mao Mao immediately felt concerned for Momo's situation, considering how she expressed her worry about such a thing happening to her. He couldn't imagine how he'd feel if he ended up losing his sword and had to look for it in the darkness – he would definitely be much louder and more demanding if he had to get other people to help him search. He turned to the remaining five standing behind him. "Everyone, look around. Momo's hat has to be here somewhere."

As everyone, both the fox-frog pair and Badgerclops and Adorabat, got down to search for where Momo's hat fell, the costumed ghost floated for a bit. It looked left and right, briefly examining each of the others searching for the hat. It floated past each and every one of them to take careful examinations of the neighboring shrubs, grass, and even a few trees…and then its eyes were caught by a distinct sight. There, sitting on the grass and nestled at the base of a dark green bush, a bright yellow pointy hat was present within the leaves. Without no other reason to hesitate, the ghost picked up the hat and drifted back to where Momo was.

Momo was just about to have another panicking fit when she noticed a presence next to her. She looked up to see that the mysterious costumed Sweetypie kid was in front of her, holding in both hands the hat she was looking for. The ghost-dressed costumer lifted and extended the hat out to her. Momo couldn't have been happier. "You found my hat? Thank you!" she told the ghost happily, which made the spirit feel a little flutter in its transparent chest. Momo turned to the others who were still looking around. "Everyone," she called to them and waited until she had all their attention, "The hat's been found. We're all clear."

Everyone let out an audible sight of relief, especially by those who felt they had wasted enough time delaying themselves for the trip to Town Square. Momo turned back to the ghost-wearing person in front of her who was still holding her hat. Not wasting another second, she gently took the hat from the other and checked it over in her hands for any damage, stains, or any additional sticks or leaves that may have gotten on it. She turned her attention back to the hat's returner. "Thanks a lot," she said again. "I actually think you're very nice."

The ghost beneath the sheet couldn't help but smile despite no one being able to see it from the outside, feeling even more aflutter on the inside. As far as it understood, it did the impossible – it got a Sweetypie, a member of the living, to like it. The ghost achieved the act of kindness that proved to others and itself that it wasn't a bad ghost, that not all ghosts were bad. Conveniently, a breeze began to blow and pick up in speed shortly after returning Momo's hat, which may have told the ghost and everyone else that it was time to go to Town Square.

It would have been smooth sailing if the wind didn't blow the bedsheet off the ghost.

The ghost wasn't able to visibly react to the realization its cover was blown in front of everyone, but everyone's eyes were wide open – with shock from Mao Mao, Momo, and the other two Candy Cup Witches, and panic from Badgerclops and Adorabat who had set up the costume for the ghost beforehand. The wind died down, leaving absolute silence hanging in the air as no one said a word or even made a sound, too engrossed in disbelief that the alleged Sweetypie dressed as a ghost turned out to be a real ghost.

"Ghost!" Mao Mao shouted and pointed at said ghost. He looked absolutely alarmed and almost pulled out his sword when he remembered he couldn't harm ghosts. "Momo!" he yelled to the black cat girl who still looked upon the ghost in front of her with an agape look on her face. "You have your wand? Get that ghost, now!"

"Sheriff, wait! I know it's a ghost!" Momo yelled back to Mao Mao once she snapped out of her stupor. She turned back to face the ghost, which continued to just float in front of her without doing anything else. Her mind was racing with thoughts:

She had no idea that there was an actual ghost under that ghost costume. Apart from asking if this was some kind of joke, this was the first ghost she had seen since the attack on the school all those months ago. She remembered how she read that all ghosts were different, that not all of them were malicious like the ones she neutralized with her magic. She felt like she was being tugged at from both sides – one side telling her to do what Mao Mao said and attack the ghost without taking any risks, and the other side telling her to spare the ghost and give it a chance after the act of kindness it showed her in returning her hat.

She spoke again, but this time directed to the ghost. "You didn't want to scare anyone, did you?"

The ghost didn't speak, but shook its head gently that indicated a no, even softly putting both its hands together in an awkward manner to show nonaggression.

Mao Mao seemed to notice the ghost's lack of hostility even as it hovered very close to Momo. "Momo?" he called to her a little more quietly. "What are you doing?"

Momo didn't answer right away. Instead, she looked at the ghost for a moment and then looked down at the hat in her hands, remembering the good deed. She looked the ghost in the eye and gave a big smile. "It's okay," she said assuredly to the spirit, "I think you make a great Harvest Mooner." To the ghost's surprise, Momo jumped up to place her yellow hat on top of the ghost's head, never letting her smile down for a moment. The ghost looked upon its own head curiously, wondering why the little black cat decided to gift the ghost with her own hat to wear, though it did admit to itself that the hat felt quite comfortable.

The bewilderment in Mao Mao only increased, however, and he marched over to Momo and nearly got between her and the ghost. "Okay, Momo. What's the deal here? There's a real ghost in front of us and you're not worried at all. Are we forgetting about your school incident?"

Momo noticed the ghost slowly starting to look down again. "This ghost isn't like those ones," she reasoned to the sheriff, "It's shy and kept quiet the whole time, plus it found my hat and gave it back to me. That doesn't look malicious."

"And how do we know it's not pretending, biding its time?" Mao Mao further objected, "In all likelihood, it's responsible for the toilet paper incident!"

Momo turned her head back to face the ghost. "Did you do that?" she asked the spirit in a pensive manner. The ghost hesitated but then slowly nodded, its head lowered in shame.

Mao Mao narrowed his eyes at the spirit, approaching it steadily as though he was going to deal with it personally in some sheriff-like manner somehow, someway. But he didn't get far when he was interrupted by Momo's pirate-costumed frog friend running by him and directly into the ghost. Everyone was startled by how the frog boy phased right through the ghost's body and out the other side, leaving a rippling effect on said ghost.

"Whoa, that looks so cool," the frog remarked in amazement, even sticking his own hand through the ghost again to confirm that it still went through the ghost, even repeating the same audible and visible ripple that vibrated the ghost's form as he stuck his hand in and out again multiple times. "I have no idea how you can be like this and be able to wear stuff on you at the same time!"

"Uh, we're still talking about the ghost being the culprit of a crime," Mao Mao politely interrupted.

The frog was well aware of what the sheriff said. "I know. It's not weird that kids who dress up as mummies use stuff like toilet paper. Besides, Momo's right in that this ghost is a nice person. It was probably just an accident."

"But –"

"Didn't we all agree to let this incident go for Harvest Moon?" the little fox friend, the one dressed like a robot, interrupted with that reminder.

Mao Mao paused upon remembering that agreement. He definitely agreed that he had wasted enough hours chasing after a small time felon, and he enjoyed Harvest Moon as much as the next person. But still, this was a ghost…He took another look at the ghost, who also exchanged eye contact with him as well. Mao Mao analyzed the spirit long, hard, and carefully. He decided to use the ghost's current attention on him to get one last confirmation in. "You."

The ghost became more focused on the sheriff.

Mao Mao continued, "You did put the toilet paper on those houses, right?" The ghost slowly nodded again, looking kind of sad. "Why?"

The ghost grabbed leaves off a bush and made motions with its hands, enabling Mao Mao to deduce that it was imitating the act of wrapping cloth around its own body. The ghost continued the demonstration, moving in one direction after doing a charade-action indicating the end of a cloth getting caught on something – it used another nearby bush as a reference point. Everyone's eyes followed as the ghost continued to move, then seeing the spirit slow down and then launch itself into the air like a spring-loaded toy, zinging in several directions up above before nosediving back down to the ground again. Before it made its descent, it threw the leaves everywhere and allowed them to slowly drift down to the ground.

Everyone understood the situation immediately.

"Aw, it's okay," Adorabat consoled the ghost, going right to its side. "We know you didn't mean it." She tried to give it a comforting pat, but her wings ended up phasing through its transparent body. "Whoa," Adorabat became amused in a flash, "it really does feel like touching mist!"

"Mao Mao?" Momo gently got the sheriff's attention one more time.

Mao Mao still took a moment to gather his thoughts, analyzing everything that had just transpired before him. He had just gotten the full explanation of why the incident happened the way it did, what the ghost had been doing all this time, and its true intentions. But despite having all this knowledge together in his head, he still didn't know what conclusion to come to. Well, did he really want to be bothering with this? It was almost time to be headed to Town Square.

Mao Mao spoke to the ghost one last time, "Alright. You can go." He was completely calm and diplomatic as he spoke. "I can see you mean no harm and you want to have fun, but…" he emphasized a strong pause, making the ghost tensed up momentarily, "I'll be willing to let you go as long as you don't try anything funny, you get my drift?" The ghost nodded rapidly, not wanting to unnecessarily incur the wrath of the fierce-looking sheriff.

Momo, on the other hand, wasted no time at all with indulging the ghost in getting prepared for the Harvest Moon mood. "Here!" she exclaimed jovially to the ghost. Without saying more, she placed her basket, the one she held in her hands and gathered neighborhood candies in this whole time, into the hands of the ghost, giving the spirit a chance to indulge in candy-holding of its own.

The ghost looked upon the basket of candies in its hands, relishing the new opportunity to further move among the Sweetypies like a true Harvest Mooner. It felt…happy.

"Come on, let's go," Momo implied the ghost, gently taking the spirit by the hand and pulled out along with her as the rest of the group went for Town Square. It was almost time for the pie-cutting and no one wanted to be late. The ghost smiled.

"You know, I don't think it's practical to just call you 'ghost' all the time," Momo amicably said to the ghost, "how about a name?" The ghost tilted its head in confusion, as though it never heard of the concept of a name before. It didn't stop Momo, regardless. "Hmm…how about…Jinx?"

The ghost perked up in curiosity. Some of the group did too. "Why Jinx?" Mao Mao asked Momo on the ghost's behalf.

"Because the ghost really brings a sense of magical joy to the season," Momo answered without a doubt in her mind, "not to mention how wacky it is to find something fittingly good for the holiday." She referred back to the toilet paper fiasco from earlier that was so easily the result of the ghost's costume troubles. She turned back to the ghost. "What do you think? Is it okay if we call you Jinx?

The ghost thought for a little bit, but then nodded at Momo with a wordless smile.

"Okay then," Momo responded proudly with her hands on her hips while readjusting the yellow hat atop the ghost's head, "Jinx, it is!" The walk to Town Square continued. "Let's go, Jinx. Wouldn't want you to miss the pie-cutting ceremony. There's a big valley-wide party after this!"

With that said, the ghost – now known as Jinx – followed their new friend closely. Looking up, the moon shone brighter than they thought it did before. Tonight was truly going to be a good night.

Jinx really loved Harvest Moon.