Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Things can’t get worse than that, can they?

Her thoughts probably weren’t the most uncommon someone could have while sitting next to an unconscious middle schooler in a high school nurse’s office, but the reason why was truly surreal, in Miko’s opinion.

In an attempt to distract herself from her thoughts - as well as the uncomfortable seating of a wooden stool and the pervasive smell of antiseptics - she reread the collection of posters and diagrams above the nurse’s desk to her side for the eighth time. This was about as entertaining and effective as you’d expect, and her mind quickly drifted back to the incident of a few hours ago.

How do these monsters even end up like that? What kind of perverted world could exist, that a human centipede with a cube head could happen to be living in a high school gym’s storage room? And those… things it sat on! That was a new dimension of horror that was just, really not needed!

If she had been anyone else, she would’ve still been shaking - if even conscious - but having dealt with monsters worse than her imagination for over a month, she could at least make herself look like she wasn’t scared out of her mind. Like she’d been nearly every waking and unwaking moment for far, far too long.

If she felt the urge to close the curtains around the bed, as well as the window behind her, just to make sure nothing could peek in, you could hardly blame her. She got the feeling though, that if she turned around or got up to do so, it would be inviting something to appear there.

Miko let out a soft, tense sigh. Why? What could she have possibly done in her past life to deserve this? Why was she the only one forced to live this nightmare hiding beneath the surface?

That’s not quite right, though, she corrected herself, as I’ve just found out, I’m not completely alone. For better or worse, I don’t know.

Looking at little miss mushroom on the bed, sleeping peacefully like she didn’t nearly get them both eaten alive by the most twisted squatter ever, Miko was incredibly envious. If only my biggest worries were tiny old guys and getting choked by a taller girl.

With the sunlight streaming in through the window, competing with the fluorescent lights that seemed specifically armed to stab the eyes of any patient with a headache, Yuria chose that moment to wake up, take one look at Miko, and panic.

Miko chose to ignore that.

“Oh, good. You’re awake.” Miko said, contrary to her inner monologue.

The response she got was even further panic, now with a bonus expression that said “I’m looking at a shambling corpse that is actively trying to eat my soul.”

“Y-You killed me!”

“Are you sure about that?”

With that parting jab, Miko stopped ignoring Yuria’s reaction, starting to feel a little guilty. I shouldn’t be blaming her. I probably would have done the same in her shoes - no, definitely. She must’ve thought I was trying to kill her for sharing this curse, or something like that. I finally found someone I can talk to, and I immediately put her in a chokehold. I don’t know if I can make it up to her, but maybe…

“H-Hey...”

Miko trailed off, still thinking. Wait. As much as I want someone to talk to, she can only see the little guys and the ghouls. Just knowing about the worse ones could put her in danger. Plus, I’m not sure she could handle knowing the truth if she’s getting scared by a high schooler…

With her mind made up, Miko was about to try to brush the events of the day off like they’d never happened - though she knew it probably wouldn’t work - when she got an image in her head. In it, she saw Yuria making a dramatic pose at a shambling corpse, with some sort of giant amalgamation of birds behind it, screaming as it reached its clawed wings towards her.

No. If Yuria keeps going like this, she’s going to get herself killed. She needs to know, she needs to learn how to survive. The moment she started seeing was the moment I stopped being able to protect her.

Miko spoke up again, looking away. “Okay, I-I know this was one of the worst introductions I could have possibly had, and I’m really sorry for choking you, but I had a good reason.”

Yuria froze, looking like she wanted to either run, scream, or run while screaming. “I g-got it. You don’t want anyone to know about your power. I won’t tell. I won’t get in your way either.”

“No, that’s not it at all! I was honestly really excited to find someone else who can see, it’s just… You seem to have a weaker curse than me. You’re only seeing part of the other world.”

Some of Yuria’s tension dissipated, and she finally met Miko’s eyes. “What? You mean… Were you trying to tell me being an exorcist would be too dangerous for me, by beating me thoroughly both spiritually and physically? You…” Yuria clenched her jaw, and was about to continue, when Miko interrupted her.

“No. I was trying to-” Miko blinked. “Wait, what do you mean I beat you spiritually?”

“What do you mean, what do you mean? You broke The Godmother’s rosary from across the room without even blinking!”

Oh. So that’s why she didn’t react the way she should’ve.

“Okay.” Miko continued. “Um, It would probably be easier to explain everything with a picture, could you give me a second?”

Yuria blinked a few times. “Uh, sure?” She answered out of reflex.

Grabbing her bag and taking a notebook and pen out, she scribbled for a while, the shaky hands and heavy breathing that appeared partway through revealing her thoughts on her art. Finished, she held it up.

On it, there were two stick figures: one tall, one wearing oversized mushrooms on their head. Clearly, little effort was put into them. The smaller was surrounded by small dots on the floor, and had a quote bubble above their head: “I CAN SEE THEM!”

Behind them, was a drawing that would look right at home on the wall of a psychiatric ward; a monster drawn in shaky, jerking lines, with a fleshy, emaciated, insectile body that sat on a very large, very disgusting pair of… a certain something, and had one giant eye that spun wildly in its socket, the other socket empty.

From its mutilated, drooling, bloodied mouth came a speech bubble spiked like it could be weaponized, filled with the words: “ D O  Y O U  S E E ? ! ? “

“I’ve only been able to see monsters for about a month.” Miko faltered. I don’t have any magic powers whatsoever, and I couldn’t have broken your rosary if I wanted to. This,” she taps the notebook. “Is what actually happened in that room. Knocking you out was the only way to save us I could think of in time.

“And monsters like this are more common than you’d think. I’m lucky if I can go a single day without seeing one as terrifying as this. If you’ve been as open about your sight as you were with me, I honestly don’t know how you’ve survived this long. But I do know that you need to stop now."

Yuria stared at her for a time, with her mouth partially open and her face twisted with a variety of emotions.

“Just drop the act already.” She demanded. “I already know about how you overpowered The Godmother and drove her off. You can’t trick me, and you didn’t even need to! What could you even get out of making this up, and what on earth is wrong with your imagination?”

“I’m sorry about what happened to your godmother, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never met her, and I’m positive I’ve never driven anybody off! Also, this isn’t my imagination, this—!“ Miko refuted.

“Are you actually pretending you don’t even—“

“Look, there’s absolutely no way this is my imagination.” Miko interrupted. “Every rosary I’ve put on has broken the moment they get close - other people’s rosaries too. People who can't see the monsters have still seen them break, like Hana and that one old lady that sold me some. There’s no possible way—.”

Yuria stood up and clenched her fists. “What did you just call The—“

Raising her voice, Miko looked her in the eye. “There’s no rosary, or charm, or ritual, or anything in this world that will even slow them, forget about exorcisms! If you want to survive there’s something you need to understand. We aren’t living in some exorcist shonen manga. We’re living in the most messed-up horror movie anyone’s ever thought of!”

Yuria relaxes and waits a moment before answering. “I get it.”

Miko looked away, still tense. “I’m so sorry you ha—“

“I get that having spiritual awareness doesn’t mean you can’t also be delusional.”

Miko’s eyes widened and she froze that way. Slowly, she turned back.

“I’m starting to think you actually believe what you’re saying. But you need to wake up to reality. If these ‘monsters’ were everywhere, if they could kill people, why aren’t we seeing people dying for no reason in the news all the time? The reason I’ve survived this long is because there’s nothing to survive against.

“I’m not going to throw away my dreams because of your imagination.”

Yuria got up to leave, paying little attention to Miko’s quivering lip.

“That- What? No! I don’t know why the monsters leave normal people alone, but if they weren’t real, how did your prayer beads break in the storage room? Please, I’m trying to help you! If you keep trying to fight, you’ll just get the attention of something no one can stop, and it’ll kill you!”

Yuria froze for a moment, before shaking her head and speaking. “You’re delusional, but I’ve gotta admit; you have a talent for breaking prayer beads.”

With that said, she walked out of the room. If you looked closely, however, you could see a slight jerkiness in her walk, a slight tremble in her arms.

The door shut behind her.

Miko choked back a sob, alone in an empty room.

I probably won’t be alone for long though. I never am.

As the final bell rang and Yuria walked out into the light of day, she made it clear in her stride and her ignorance of her fellow students surrounding her that she cared more about the speed of her exit than where she was heading.

What the heck was that? She asked herself, as well as the universe if it was listening. Seriously, what the heck?? That picture was way worse than what she could’ve come up with based on the monsters alone. Did she get it from a horror movie? What were her parents thinking, letting her watch something like that? There’s no way it could’ve been anything PG. And seriously, trying to drag me into her nightmare too? There’s no way that monster exists. Absolutely none at all.

She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the light at the intersection to turn green. At least it was aimed at me and not someone who hadn’t been a medium their whole life. They might have believed her!

Yuria scoffed at the idea as she crossed, drawing a strange look from a teenager crossing the other way. I’ll have to keep an eye on her. I don’t want to know what she’d do if she got her hands on someone else.

The bustle of a city and the numerous passers by served to muffle the next few minutes of her slandering as she walked. The crowd could not, however, hide from her a creature clinging to a coin someone dropped at the bottom of an apartment complex’s stairway. She stopped and scoffed again, this time getting a concerned look from an old lady who likely missed the ‘s’.

Okay, seriously, how did she manage to turn something this tiny and stupid into a universe of lovecraftian knock— Whoa!

A sudden gust nearly blew Yuria off of her feet, and she flailed her arms wildly trying to regain her balance, dropping her bag in the process but barely managing not to fall over. She brushed her hands through her now windswept hair in an attempt to regain some semblance of order, grumbling under her breath all the while.

If I seriously came that close to being knocked over by a stiff breeze, I’d better get to sleep on time tonight. I already spent hours awake last night thinking I’d finally found someone to talk to, I’m not wasting any more on her.

Grabbing her bag, she looked forward to face planting in bed, ignoring the clattering of a suddenly unmolested coin as walked the last few blocks to her home.

As Yuria opened the door of her family’s apartment, most reasonable people would have looked to the room at the end of the beige-painted hallway and wondered, “Why is that blonde lady on the couch wearing neon rainbow arm and leg warmers when it’s not even cold out?” Yuria, however, had been begrudgingly forced to get used to it ages ago. She was about to announce her arrival, when the woman beat her to it.

“Yuria! My pal, my friendo, my buddy, how’s it hangin’?” She grinned as she rushed to the door, picking Yuria up in a bear hug.

Yuria hissed as she pushed an intruding face away, and spat out some of the woman’s hair that swung into her mouth. “Mom, oh my gosh, you sound so stupid! Please, for the love of everything holy, at least try to pretend that you’re a somewhat functional adult! I’ll never understand how someone like you managed to keep a respectable job!

“What!” Yuria’s mother exclaimed as she set Yuria down and put her hands on her hips. “You know what happens when my little friendos try to diss me, don’t you?” Slowly, she reached towards Yuria’s hair, showing all the warning signs of “Incoming Noogie”. When Yuria occupied her hands with an attempt to stave off the coming doom, the crafty woman used the opening to dart in and give her a peck on the forehead instead.

Well, at least she tried.

Instead, all she accomplished was getting her eye-searing neon rainbow hair ribbons hopelessly tangled in Yuria’s mushroom hair ties, to the point you couldn’t tell where one’s hair ended and the other’s began.

“AGAIN?!” Yuria raged. “This is like the twentieth time, mom! Those things are a safety hazard, and I mean physically, not just visually!”

“Sorry, sorry!” She brushed it off. “Don’t worry, I’ll get these off in a—“

“You absolutely won’t!” She yelped as her mother pulled on the ribbons. “The last time you tried, you nearly ripped my head off!”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, I’ve been practicing!” She lied.

“Don’t you da— Ack! Dad! Dad help, mom’s trying to make me bald again!”

From the living room at the end of the hallway, a reedy stick of a brown-haired man appeared, wearing a short, tousled hairdo, a dopey grin, and a fancy orange apron that said “My wife is the breadwinner in this household”.

Not literally, though.

“I wouldn’t want to tangle with her, personally, but I’m always happy to see how inseparable you and your mother are.” He contributed in a raspy voice.

Yuria immediately stopped struggling. “Get it over with. Nothing could possibly be as painful as the toxic waste that just invaded my ears.” She got a chuckle, a snort, and a particularly painful tug on her hair out of her parents with that comment.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming. Let go for a second please, Ayako.” Yuria’s father relented, coming over and untangling them with at least a modicum of delicacy and competence. Once freed, Yuria took a few large steps backward, positioning her father in between herself and her tormentor. Then she looked up and realized who she was standing next to, and took a few more.

Ayako pouted at her husband. “Hey, I had that totally under control, Yian” she whined.

“Sure you did.” Yian placated with the utmost insincerity.

Turning around, he addressed Yuria, who braced herself for another verbal infection.

“So, Yuria. We got a call from the school about how you got brought into the nurse’s office, unconscious. Are you having trouble with bullies?” He flexed an imaginary bicep. “Because if you are, your old man could—“

“Dad, you have literally gotten beat up by a middle schooler. Don’t even think about it. Besides, the girl waited by my bed to apologize the whole time I was out. I probably don’t need to worry about her anymore. And if it does happen again, she’s the one getting knocked out. She only got me because I wasn’t paying attention, got it?” She insisted.

He tousled her hair. “Got it.” He sounded honest, but Yuria suspected otherwise.

Her mother grabbed onto her father’s arm in glee, peeking her head over his shoulder as he strained under the minimal weight. “That’s my little shroom! So precious, not even the bullies can stand to see her hurt!” Her face suddenly went blank, and Yian winced as her grip tightened. “But also, if that girl tries anything, just tell me and you’ll never have to worry about her again.” Her signature cheer popped back onto her face, like it never left to begin with.”

Yuria rolled her eyes. “You’re overreacting. Why am I the only person here that doesn’t jump to the dumbest conclusions?” She said without the slightest hint of self-awareness. “You two really have nothing to worry about. She’s a thoughtless weirdo, not a bully.”

“Oh?” Ayako inquired. “Sounds like there’s a story there, eh?”

Yuria froze for half a moment, before turning her attention to her father without deigning to respond.

“So, what’s for dinner? I hope you didn’t decide to just grill me and call it a day.”

“Aww, why didn’t we think about that babe?” Ayako butted in. “She’s always so cute I could just gobble her up!”

“Now now, dear, it’s bad manners to talk about crime just before a meal.” Yian admonished.

Yuria huffed. “Numbskulls, both of you. Why do I even try?” She complained, barely managing to suppress the smirk threatening her face as the three walked to the kitchen, the day’s events far from her mind.

In her dreams that night, a grotesque, mutilated face loomed above her, barely visible as it drooled and screamed, and she suffocated in the dark.

She awoke in a cold sweat, with a lingering feeling of recognition.

Chapter Text

Miko woke to a gentle sunbeam violently stabbing her in the eyes. In retaliation for this completely uncalled for assault, she threw her window’s curtain shut with equal aggression, before pulling her blanket back over herself and flopping onto her pillow, immersing herself in the softness of her bed as she attempted to return to sleep. However, it quickly became evident the intensity of the conflict would not allow her any chance of returning to her rest, and her mind groggily strayed to other topics.

As Miko stared at her bedroom ceiling, she had an epiphany based on yesterday’s late-night escapade with a random granny and her deceased husband. Huh. I thought only the yellow, normal-ish ghosts could be nice. That one knew I could see him, but he told me what would help his mother instead of attacking me. This could change…

A large amount of brown hair fell onto her face. As you might guess, seeing as no one in her family had brown hair, this was not a family member coming to wake her up. In fact, it wasn't even human. “̷̘̰̟͋̕Ẉ̴͕͝͝͠ą̶̣̈́͘̚ ̷̺̳̾ḳ̴̏̀̏e̵̲͎̽ ̷̈͜ͅù̸̥̗p̷̛̙̯̭͋̔,̵̻̰̬͌̂ ̵̥̄̇̂͜͜s̴͈̗̓̌l̵̡̮̈́̀͛ë̷̘́ę̷̼̾e̸̤̊̓ẽ̵͖̖͉̂̂ȩ̴͙̫͋͠p̴̖̅̆p̵͙͍̬̀͂̈-̴̢̎̒͝p̵͎̭̈̍p̶̪͠y̴̖͖̼̅.̴̙̂ ̷͔͊̿̚Ḩ̴͙͕́̽̈é̶̦̋a̶͎̿͋d̷̙̗̓.̴̢̨̾́”̵̹̩͓̌́ Said what might have been the face of a woman leaning over the bed, if you were on drugs.

… absolutely nothing. So that’s why the curtains were already open.

“̷̘̰̟͋̕Ẉ̴͕͝͝͠ą̶̣̈́͘̚aa ̷̺̳̾ḳ̴̏̀̏e̵̲͎̽ ̷̈͜ͅù̸̥̗p̷̛̙̯̭͋̔,̵̻̰̬͌̂ ̵̥̄̇̂͜͜s̴͈̗̓̌l̵̡̮̈́̀͛e̸̤̊̓ẽ̵͖̖͉̂̂p̶̪͠y̴̖͖̼̅.̴̙̂ ̷͔͊̿̚Ḩ̴͙͕́̽̈é̶̦̋a̶͎̿͋d̷̙̗̓dd.̴̢̨̾́”̵̹̩͓̌́

Ẃ̶̧̱̃͜ȃ̸̖̮k̴̢̲͎̕e̸͕̪̕.̵̦͔́̀ ̴̮̼̠̄͂W̵͍̓́͝a̸̖͊́k̸̨̅ę̶̦̏͗.̶͓̳̂̔́ ̷͚̐H̶̩̐́͆e̷̼̞̔a̴̜̦̐̕d̵̹̾͜ͅ.̷̫̬͂́̋ ̷͇̄S̸̱͉̤̓l̴̺̳̀̉̕ë̸̥͔̚ͅȇ̷͎̙̱́̊p̷̗̺̫̆.̵͚̲̽̄͘ ̵͈̅̋H̸̘̄́͝ȩ̷͕͒̉à̷̦a̵͍͆̃̄ͅǎ̸̡a̸̙̼̱̒͗̑d̸̨͇̭͐.̴͈̦̠̒͊ ̴̞̗̓̀̄

Miko, of course, gave it the precise amount of attention she’d give anyone chanting ominously over her bed at five in the morning, which is absolutely none. This might say more about how messed up her crisis response reflexes had become than it says about the being itself.

Eventually, it got the hint and walked through the door, looking for more people to deprive of sleep. Miko still decided to half-pretend to stare at her ceiling for a while, more for her own exhaustion rather than any fear of it returning. Eventually, her eyes drifted shut, and her mind drifted off.

“Wake up, sleepyhead.”

Miko startled awake, but caught herself before she could look at the ghost. Quickly though, she realized it wasn’t the same one as before.

“Huh, I wasn’t actually expecting that to work.” Her father remarked, sitting on her bedside table.

Recognizing the voice, Miko allowed herself to relax for once, drinking in the sound. At least my curse comes with one perk. She was tempted to go back to sleep in the comfort of the company she’d so sorely missed, enough so that she tried to make it seem like it had been a minor startle, and she was already halfway back to being asleep.

“Miko come on, it’s already 7:30, you’ve got to get up.

Internally, she started screaming, but she made sure to take a few seconds before externally flailing for her phone to check the time. Sure enough, it was 7:10; her dad was a bit off, but she wasn’t about to blame a dead person for not accurately keeping track of the time.

Now upright, she took a chance to stare at the door, using that as an excuse to search for monsters in her peripherals. Nothing in plain sight, check. No rattling noises anywhere, check. None of her three photos placed around the room seem to have been replaced by corpse-ified parodies, check. Her giant teddy bear still stood vigil near her door, for all the good that’s done. Nothing in her full-length mirror besides some dust she needs to clean, and nothing in the small mirror on her desk– Wait, there it is. Admiring itself in the desk mirror was something she almost could mistake for just another tiny old man, but its torso was so unnaturally long that it had to be something more dangerous in hiding.

So close! So close! If it wasn’t for that horrible tiny thing, she might have finally had a chance to talk directly to her dad for once! Was that too much to ask? Why were there so many monsters coming to her house anyways? Even one single day of peace, one single conversation, would be a gift beyond measure, but given her luck, Miko didn’t dare to hope.

She’s not sure if it would have been kinder for her to never see him again, instead of always having him just slightly out of her reach, taunting her with the possibilities, and day after day, snatching them away once again.

“Miko, sweetie. Why are you staring at the door instead of getting ready? You’re going to be late.” Her father reminded her.

hat’s just like dad, isn’t it. Not even death can stop him from bugging me whenever I’m even a few minutes behind. Miko reminisced. I’d tell him exactly what I think about his nagging, and he’d up the pressure until I relent. I never thought I’d miss it. I never knew I’d miss him, especially when he’s still here. How can I miss someone so much when they’re right in front of me?

Miko let out a soft sigh as she finally got out of bed, and prepared herself to face another day of horrors.

If she went a little out of her way to try and bump into her father, hoping to feel something, nobody could blame her right?

Instead, she passed through him, and felt nothing.

The next morning felt a lot better for Yuria, almost like she didn’t get strangled by a weirdo yesterday. All she had leftover from the ordeal was a severe lack of sleep! Quite the feat of mental fortitude, in her humble opinion. She was glad that she remembered to close her blackout curtains last night, though. If she had woken to a ray of sunlight, the headache probably would’ve left her in a coma.

She had one goal for today: the same goal as every day: become the world’s greatest exorcist! Yesterday’s events weren’t going to slow her down!

But what am I supposed to do without my one weapon? I waited my whole life to find a mentor, and now she’s left me, and the only thing she ever gave me is broken. Maybe… maybe this is a sign that I shouldn’t wait for someone else to show me the way. I should find it myself!

Full of newfound resolve, Yuria then turned to her greatest repository of spiritual lore, one she hadn’t dared to delve until she had someone to guide her safely. With a heart full of courage, she found the conviction to finally dive into the bottomless depths of…

Boogle. 

Well, since mediums must’ve existed since forever, techniques they’ve come up with probably made it into folklore. If I try everything, some of them have to work!

She also had a library of novels that filled the bookshelves around her room, mostly consisting of supernatural horror, mystery, and adventure novels, but there wasn’t any search function in a book so those could come later.

She got out of bed for the moment, feeling her way through the lightless room, until she touched the phone she left on her vanity. Immediately, she grabbed her spoils and jumped back into bed, flailing a bit as her complete lack of aim threatened to spill her straight off of the other side. Stabilized, she turned on her phone, and immediately regretted it as it gave her the very splitting headache she’d been trying to avoid. Her hands immediately shot to her face, and she peeked through her fingers as her eyes adjusted. Finally, she opened the browser, and thought of what to search for first.

There were a lot of possibilities for Yuria to sort through, more than she could usually get through before school. It was a good thing she woke up four hours early and couldn’t get back to sleep then, wasn’t it?

Yuria stretched out, resting on her elbows. Since these are Japanese demons, in Japan, let’s look at Japanese exorcisms first. She hummed. …Pretty much all of these seem to be Buddhist. I think I’d have seen some sort of religious entity, or at least a hint of one by now, so I’m not sure about the religion part, but maybe the religions figured out something that worked anyways? She dug into her first article. 

Ooh, training montage! She flipped onto her back. …This is probably overcomplicated by primitive mediums. I am not sitting on the top of a mountain in my underwear, pouring cold water over my head for months, thank you very much. What pieces are real, though… I guess the mountain could be a spot with high spiritual energy, and the cold is a side effect. She nodded to herself. Yes, that’s it, I need to find a good spot, and spend a lot of time there to absorb the energy! Gotta find more pieces, that’s only the start…

She let out a short squeal of excitement as she kicked her legs, knocking one of her mushroom-shaped pillows off of her bed in the process. Oh, swords! Heck yeah! More specifically… She visibly drooped. Oh wait. The sword is just some creative form of torturing the user with muscle soreness. Dang it, I was looking forward to that… I’m not so sure about sutras, but might as well try. Pure white clothes could help, too. Oh, they finally mentioned rosaries! Looks like I’m on the right track. Hitting a shelf with a mallet. She blinked. Um. Just gonna ignore that one.

Yuria shifted around, now leaning halfway off the side of the bed. Next article… Would everything from Shinto purification rituals work? Couldn’t hurt to try. She counted on her fingers. So that’s holy water, salt, haraigushi wands, shide streamers, she switched which hand her phone was in and kept counting. purified alcohol and… Oh, meditating under a waterfall! I’ve seen that one a lot, there must be something to it!

She slumped further down, head now resting on the floor, the pillow she’d knocked off now sitting besides her head. Huh… I’m not finding anything anymore, I must have seen enough. She snapped her fingers. Wait! They never even mentioned paper charms! Let’s look those up specifically… These all talk about ‘inviting the spirit whose name is written’ which isn’t exactly what I’m looking for, but maybe you can substitute the “spirit” with spiritual power? Or maybe that’s what it meant in the first place. 

She once again counted on her fingers, switching the phone back and forth between hands. So that’s absorbing from high spiritual energy areas, meditating under waterfalls, sutras, white clothes, drums, holy water, salt, wands, streamers, alcohol, gestures, chants, and paper talismans for me to try. Oh, and rosaries, of course, but I know those work.

She awkwardly rolled the rest of the way off the bed onto her pillow, stood up, turned on the lights, and sat at her vanity with a notebook to write everything down. 

Most of these things seem like they need spirit power to work, so I should work on improving that first. With how long it usually took those guys to get good, and how much time I can spend at hotspots, it’ll take me about… She furrowed her brow. Two years. Just to get decent. More than ten if I want to be the best. 

Yuria stuffed her face in her arms and groaned. If only I had that girl’s power! Why would all that innate ability go to someone who won’t use it?! If I had it I’d be on top of spiritual society by now! What kind of unjust world would give everything to the useless and nothing to the driven! It makes no sen— She stopped and looked up. 

Wait… Why am I so sure the world is this unjust? Why am I so sure I have nothing?

“Hah!” She exclaimed out loud. You may have gotten a head start on me, wrestler girl, but there’s no way someone like you is more powerful than everyone else! It’s time to realize my true potential as well! Now, I just need to figure out what trick you used to raise your powers so quickly.”  

She stuck her tongue out as she jotted down ideas. Since Miss Psycho Psychic seems to break prayer beads just by thinking they should be broken, maybe the secret is belief? Most mediums would probably doubt what they’re seeing, wondering if they’ve gone crazy. That must be why most exorcism strategies come from various religions, which are all about belief, and why someone who went far beyond acceptance became so strong!

A few test subjects for this theory quickly sprang to mind. Gestures and paper talismans are all I can get my hands on on short notice. Only problems are what to write on the talismans, what to write them on, what to say, how to gesture while using them… She chewed on the end of her pencil. I bet it doesn’t even matter. All that matters is believing it’ll work, rules only exist so that the simple-minded have something to cling onto. I have no need for that crutch!

She laughed maniacally out loud, like some sort of diseased middle schooler. I never would have guessed I’d be using notebook paper to destroy otherworldly beings, but the truly strong can kill with nothing but a pencil! 

Looks like it’s time for me to take the world by storm!

It would likely be more accurate to say it looked like Yuria was about to fall into a delirious coma induced by sleep exhaustion, but it would probably be a blow to her ego if you were to tell her that. 

She hastily wrote down a few ideas for gestures, chants, and talismans, all of which she had absolute, baseless confidence in. She then cut the talisman ideas into rectangles, carefully inserted said pseudo-talismans into her school bag, and scrambled to get ready for the day, as she had realized a few minutes ago that she was half an hour past the time she was supposed to start doing so. 

“I’m off!” Yuria yelled back at her parents, not bothering to wait for their most likely cringeworthy replies before rushing out the door. To the sound of bird song - or more accurately, what sounded like bird battle cries - she set off for school, keeping her eyes peeled for any test subjects for her ideas. 

Should I try and find an alley or something to try exorcisms in? She debated. I bet people would look at me funny if I started chanting in the middle of the sidewalk. She shook her head. No, I’ve been over this. The uninformed opinions of the masses are meaningless. If they laugh at me, I’ll be the one laughing at their laughter when I gain power beyond their wildest dreams!

Yuria spent the next eleven and a half minutes daydreaming about all the ways she’d rub her success in the faces of everyone who wronged her, not bothering to consider the fact that all her successes would be invisible, but when she was halfway to school, she was interrupted by the sight of her first quarry: a shambling corpse of a man standing by the curb next to an apartment complex, only discernible from the couple of nearby office workers that just looked like shambling corpses by the fact that he was only half-visible. And, you know, the fact that half its face had rotted off.

I was looking for a tiny old man as a first subject, but on second thought, why start small? This is the start of the rest of my life, I should make it something legendary!

Discreetly, she removed three paper talismans from her bag, holding them between her left hand’s fingers. With the world around tuned out, she raised her right hand to her face, the back facing the demon. With her other hand, she made a hand sigil, one of the ones she came up with less than an hour before, resting it right below her elbow. She planted her feet, stood tall, and finally looked the demon in the eyes. 

“Hear me, demon!” She commanded. “Today is the day you return to whatever abyss you crawled out of, for you have crossed paths with the greatest exorcist to have ever lived, The Enchantress, Yuria! The office workers looked at her with a combination of exhaustion, exasperation, and annoyance, taking her for just another middle schooler with an overactive imagination, as she pointed at the ghoul with her second custom hand sign. “With the weight of a lifetime, I call upon the power within me to banish you from this plane, never to return! Begone!”

With that, she swung her arm around and threw the talismans at her foe. 

They immediately fluttered to the ground, seeing as notebook paper is not very aerodynamic. 

Both of them stared at each other for a single lengthy moment. 

“̶̮̐Y̴͖̕o̴̜͊u̸̜͐u̶̥͝u̵͓̇…̶̼̾ s̵̖̒ĕ̷͓e̴̥͂?̶͈̓”̴͚̃

Yuria involuntarily took a step back. 

Y̴̘͆o̸͈̒u̶̡̚u̴̧͐u̷̺̅…̵͉̋ ̵̦͠s̵͓̐e̶̖̚e̵͘͜.̷̝̑ ̴̡̀Y̷̩͆o̷̰̾ȕ̶̡ ̶͙͐ś̸̨è̶̜ĕ̸̹!̸̠͝

̷͙̆Y̷̛̹ö̵͍́ǘ̸̟…̸͖̈́ ̶̡͒Ÿ̸̭́O̸̜͆U̶̗͝U̸̝̅U̴̺͛U̸͝ͅ!̸͓̑

Yuria’s thoughts were racing at two miles a minute as the monster’s screams grew to a fevered pitch. 

This… This isn’t over yet! I may have had some poor choice in material selection, but the talismans will still work! I just need it to step on them! So…

She maintained eye contact as she spoke, voice trembling imperceptibly. “Of course I can!”

The monster’s eyes bulged out of its head, the rotted one falling, hanging by a string. It screamed incoherently as it rushed her, Yuria taking multiple steps back. It stepped onto the fallen talismans…

And nothing happened. 

For a single instant, all of her faith in her abilities shattered, and she finally realized there was a shambling, rotted corpse screaming for her blood, and she was powerless to stop it. 

It took one more step, its arm nearly in reach of her throat. 

Its headless body crumpled to the ground. 

Yuria stared at the no-longer-shambling corpse for a time as the wind blew through her hair, the emotional whiplash nearly taking her head off too. 

I… did it?

She started giggling hysterically. 

I did it! I ACTUALLY DID IT! But how? The belief? No, it only was banished after it stepped off of the talisman. She paced back and forth. Did I make some kind of trap? I wasn’t using any pre-made symbols, so the only thing that should have mattered is what I intended, which was a kind of throwing knife. Think! What happened after it stepped off? 

She came to an epiphany. I… got scared? That… that makes too much sense. I’ve heard that mediums gain their powers after a brush with death. It could be that it’s the fear from the event that’s the specific cause. And a second one could increase their powers further! If a perceived brush with death also counts… She snapped her fingers. 

That must be how that girl got so strong! She’s constantly thinking she’s a moment from death, and every moment her power rises! Hah! I finally found her real secret, this time with proof! I’m coming for you now!

She stopped pacing, putting her hand on her chin. But… How am I supposed to copy her? No, not just copy her, surpass her! Do I just… Keep putting my life in actual danger until I’m all-powerful? That… She suppressed a shudder. There’s gotta be a better way, right? But first…

She turned her attention to the headless body at her feet, crouching down to better examine, despite the fact that she was feeling kinda sick. The constant squawking of birds that had been going on all day hadn’t helped either. 

It’s been kinda bugging me, but… Why did it lose its head after stepping on the talismans? Shouldn’t it have started at the feet? She spat out some hair that had blown into her mouth. And why is it so windy? It’s the middle of the ci— 

Her train of thought was derailed by a sudden torrent of wind from her right, nearly knocking her over. She didn’t have time to think, absorbed in trying to get enough footing to stand against it. 

Suddenly, it stopped. Yuria flailed her arms, the sudden lack of pressure completely throwing off her balance. 

What the heck was—

She overcorrected her balance, and stumbled backwards into the road, a hand involuntarily reaching out to prevent the coming fall. The center of her vision darkened. 

Yuria, mind reeling from the constant shocks, could not react in time to avoid the oncoming truck. 

“MMPH!”

But a hand wreathed in an orange corona could, pulling her to safety, and into a girl’s chest. 

“Whh mh hh—“ The girl swallowed the last of the toast in her mouth, and then repeated herself. “What the heck were you thinking?!”

In a rare moment in such a busy city, there was no one nearby on the street to see Yuria’s shame. The truck driver also seemed to have not noticed the deadly situation.

She wasn’t talking about nearly getting run over by a truck, she was talking about the fact that she was currently being suffocated in a girl’s chest. 

“Mph mh mh!”

Giving her credit, the girl at least managed to realize why Yuria couldn’t speak, and quickly loosened her embrace. 

It took Yuria a few seconds to catch her breath. With a final shake of her head to try and get her thoughts straight, opened her mouth to explain, but then realized she actually didn’t have the slightest idea what happened, herself. 

Are you kidding me? I just fought a monster, and the wind is nearly what kills me? How did it even get so strong in a city? And what the heck was up with my balance? I’m not usually that bad!

She was broken out of her spiraling confusion by the growling of a stomach

The girl holding her momentarily let go of her stern expression, grinning sheepishly. “Sorry about that, I really don’t know what’s up with my metabolism. I ate two meals’ worth of food for breakfast, and another on the way here! Why am I so hungry?” She refocused on Yuria. “Also, are you going to answer me someday?”

With her thoughts back on her surroundings, she stared in slight awe at the sheer size of the aura surrounding the two of them. At the same time, Yuria realized that this was the girl that was always with that scaredy-cat accidental powerhouse. 

This is ridiculous! The Godmother didn’t even have an aura that was visible! This must surpass hers by a factor of ten, at least! Also, why is it only visible now, when it wasn’t the other times I saw her. It’s… It’s shrinking?

She looked around, checking if it was just changing shape, but sure enough, it had shrunk noticeably in the few seconds she had been looking at it. 

What she also came into view during her examination, was the fact that the headless body of the monster she’d vanquished, somehow more visible than before, was crawling towards them. Before she could scream though, it touched the edge of the aura, and burned. Screaming, hysterical, it pressed on, as the aura shrunk faster, but all that reached them was a purified mist.

Yuria stared for a moment with her jaw dropped, looking back and forth between the girl and the space formerly occupied by a ghoul. Holy… I didn’t actually finish it off? And she didn’t even have to look at it! This- just- what?!

A growling stomach with a penchant for interruption once again made use of its talents. 

Her savior sighed. “Sorry, you don’t have to tell me right away. It was probably really scary for you. I’m gonna grab a snack while I wait.” Grabbing a packaged melon bread out of her school bag, she tore into it like a starving hyena. 

The aura exploded with power, not quite as large as it had been when Yuria first saw her, but too significant to ignore. 

Her power comes from… food. Okay, sure. The world runs on fear and eating. Why not? It’s not like any of the things that’ve happened these past couple days have been even remotely reasonable!

With the adrenaline fading, Yuria became acutely aware of the pain in her wrist. 

Did I injure it when I fell- wait, I didn’t end up falling. So what—

She looked at her wrist, and saw a small, angry gash. Turning her hand over, she saw an identical mark on the other side. A single drop of blood dripped to the pavement. 

…I didn’t have this when I stumbled into the road. When did I get it?

She turned around, looking at the place she was rescued from. She strained her eyes, looking for something, anything that could do this to her. 

She saw a black mist, exactly like the darkness that had clouded her vision in the road, pressing against the aura as it shrank. 

She turned back towards the apartment complex. 

She realized that wind can’t go through a building to reach her. 

A black mist. An inexplicable cut. A strangely defeated ghoul. A powerful wind coming from nowhere. An unusual stumble into a deadly situation. An aura that shrank when fighting a ghoul. An aura that kept shrinking for no apparent reason. “Somethin’ about discoverin’ the limits of her abilities.”

“If you keep trying to fight, you’ll just get the attention of something no one can stop, and it’ll kill you!”

She may not have been very good at puzzles, but when the solution is spelled out that plainly, even she could put the pieces together. 

She fell to her hands. Her eyes unfocused. Her body trembled like a leaf in the wind. 

She was telling the truth. She was telling the truth. Oh my god. She was telling the truth. She was- oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. 

Yuria was suddenly swept up into a hug. “There, there.” Her only defense comforted her. “It was really scary, huh? Don’t worry, you’re okay now.”

This wasn’t enough for Yuria to feel even slightly okay, but it was enough to break her out of her spiraling terror. 

THINK! I can’t-I can’t let it end here! There has to be some way to survive! The aura. Can I make it stronger? Food? My lunchbox? No, that won’t be enough, she’s already eaten twice and it hasn’t cared! This is just a shield to buy time! We need… A memory came to mind, of a time when she tried to tell someone about her sight. Someone who she now realizes was desperately trying to divert the attention of something Yuria couldn’t see. 

“Wait, uh, what are you talking about?”

“Wait, like cockroaches? There are cockroaches here?”

“Jeez, are you messing with me?”

Yuria made her decision. I can’t fight, but maybe I can pretend this is all a misunderstanding? It worked for psycho- for her! 

Yuria looked up at the aura girl, abandoning all sense of pride and making a teary face that required no acting ability whatsoever. “I-I’m sorry!” She blubbered. “I was pretending to be a superhero, and then I thought I saw a coin on the ground, and I went to pick it up, and then the wind blew really hard and I stumbled into the street, and- thank you for saving me from that truck! Thank you so much! You saved my life!” The last part was said without a hint of deception, as she quietly cried into the offered shoulder, still shaking

The girl quietly sighed. “Oh, it was just a freak accident, huh? That’s a relief, I thought— well that doesn’t matter, I’m just glad you’re okay.” She let go and stood up “C’mon, I’m gonna be late for class if we wait around much longer! Where were you headed? I’ll try and help you as far as I can.” She blinked in realization. “Oh, I never introduced myself, did I? My name’s Hana Yurikawa, nice to meet you!”

Yuria still had her eyes closed, terrified that if she opened them, she’d still see it there, pushing even harder. Still, she forced them open and looked around. 

All she could see was the girl’s aura, no longer fading. 

Though she still couldn’t manage to relax very much, Yuria turned to Hana, answering her earlier question somewhat aloofly in an attempt to regain some of her dignity, as she held her wrist as to not reveal her injury. “My name’s Yuria Niguredo. I’m going to Miyamasei High. And, um, thanks for the offer, but I’ll probably be fine now without an escort.”

“Oh hey, that’s my school! Are you going to see a sibling? Is it someone I know?” Hana inquired. 

Yuria stared at her. “I’m going because I’m a student there?”

“What?” Hana floundered.

“What?” Yuria repeated. “Why are you so surprised? Can’t you tell by my uniform? I’m in your grade. The class next door, even.”

It was Hana’s turn to stare. “Wait. So you’re- but I thought- Uh, whoops. Nevermind! Let’s hurry, we’re gonna be late!” She rushed off.

“Hana, you can’t just leave it like that!” Yuria insisted. “What did you think? Hana. Hana!”

Their voices trailed off into the distance, no longer heard by the dark mass on the roof of the apartments. 

Chapter Text

The sun was shining, birds were singing, flowers were blooming, and none of that stopped Yuria from feeling like she’d never be safe again. As the high-rise buildings along the sides of the street gradually shifted into more suburban ones, Yuria was amazed at how quickly she could turn from utter self confidence and hope for the future, to such an all-consuming dread that not even the roar of traffic could drown out her thoughts. Alongside her, Hana strolled along, sometimes humming out a fragment of some song or other, but also occasionally trying to throw “sneaky” concerned glances at Yuria, that would still be visible to a sixth grader.

Okay. Okay, this is fine. Yuria lied to herself. Get it together, Yuria! You’ve been facing monsters for your entire life, who cares if there’s been a difficulty spike? There’s a way to beat them, I just know it… As she mentally reviewed every tactic she had spent the morning learning, she quickly realized that all of them were for fighting vaguely human-sized beings, ones that caused severe but mostly survivable problems over time, not mutated abominations the size of trucks that could kill you in under a minute. But even if there was something she could use, it would be useless, since she couldn’t even see what she was fighting. Normally, at least. She still didn’t really understand how she got the power boost she needed to survive back then, but she wasn’t exactly about to test out if it was lasting.

There was only one path left for her that she could see, one that left her with numerous shades of despair and regret. I need to apologize to that black-haired girl. I mean, I’m not sure if she really deserves one, but I probably need to build a good relationship with her if I want to get anywhere with Hana. Seriously though, who just says that to someone? That they nearly got themselves killed, and the world is full of monsters–

Her mind suddenly flashed back to her elementary school days, and with many more shades added to her murky emotional palette, Yuria stopped in place with wide eyes, as she came to the realization that she’d been a colossal fool, an astounding idiot, and a hypocrite.

Oh. I’m just like them, aren’t I? No, I’m worse. I spent all this time cursing everyone who didn’t believe me when I said I could see things they couldn’t, but the moment someone says the same to me, trying to save my life from actual threats instead of just looking for validation like I was, I say the worst things to them, and leave. I-I really need to apologize. I feel like human garbage.

“Yuria?” Hana calls out to her, having stopped once she realized Yuria was no longer with her. “Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah.” Yuria answers with a grimace. “I just… realized there’s someone I really need to apologize to.”

Hana walked back to her, looking her in the eyes before speaking in a soft voice. “Hey, you don’t need to apologize to anyone for what happened. It was an accident, and you were the one who almost got hurt.”

Yuria blinked, almost applying Hana’s words to the mistake in question, before realizing that she wasn’t even there to make any judgment on what happened. At least, Yuria thought she wasn’t. Probably. “No, no, I’m not talking about earlier. It was earlier. I mean, earlier than earlier.” Yuria explained, fumbling with her words. “It was a completely unrelated thing, I just didn’t realize how badly I messed up until now.”

Hana took a moment to reorient, before trying again to comfort her. “Well, I don’t know what happened, but you’ve already done the hard part by realizing you’ve done something wrong. I’m sure that if you apologize sincerely, whoever it is will forgive you for sure!”

Yuria looked up at her with gratitude. “Thanks.” She played with her fingers and lowered her gaze as she continued. “So, um, do you think you could be there when I apologize? Having one of her friends there would probably help.”

“Of course!” Hana chirped. Yuria blushed slightly at how she yet again let go of her pride. “So who is- wait, friends? Do you mean…” Hana trailed off as the cogs visibly churned in her head, then ground to a halt as she tilted her head with an incredulous look on her face. “Wait, you’re the girl Miko murdered yesterday?”

“Wha- Do I really look like that much of a corpse to you?” Yuria baffled, before snorting at the familiarity of the situation. “Why is everyone assuming I’m dead when I’m obviously not, even me?” She wondered rhetorically. “Is it some sort of omen? Am I-” All sense of cheer immediately left her as she remembered what happened a few minutes ago, replaced by bone-weary exhaustion on multiple levels. “Let’s just… pretend I never said anything.”

Hana, caught off balance by the repeated tone swings, opened her mouth to reply, but closed it again when nothing came out. She repeated this a few times before making the choice to accept Yuria’s suggestion. “So, uh, yeah I can be there. Now that I know it’s Miko, I’m even more sure you have nothing to worry about. She’s never been the type to hold a grudge.” She paused and put a finger on her chin. “Though, she’s also never been the type to knock people out- Wait, I’m not helping, forget that last bit!” She fretted as she tried to wave away her slip-up. “Now that I know both of you, I know there had to have been some kind of misunderstanding. You’ll be fine!”

Yuria let out a short sigh of relief. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” She looked away. “Also, just, um. Thanks for everything, today.” She coughed. “Ahem. A-anyway.” She opened her mouth to try and change the subject, but found she was unable to come up with a subject to change to. As a replacement, Yuria decided to just speed up her pace in an attempt to hide her embarrassment. Hana blinked, expecting her to say something, but quickly followed after her, filling the lull in the conversation with mindless chatter. 

You know what, forget about the Godmother! Hana’s my new favorite spiritualist! Yuria resolved. I thought the Godmother was strong, but she just ended up being a hack who ran away the moment things got tough, never even sending me a message after agreeing to mentor me. Hana though even unarmed, she held off one of the things that scared The Godmother off! Not only that, she’s actually going out and fighting personally instead of sitting in a booth, and she’s so nice to boot! Yuria giggled, making Hana wonder what about P.E. was so funny. Oh my gosh, I can’t wait until we get a chance to talk in private! Or even better, a chance for me to see her in action, fully equipped! She pictured Hana, in a pure white robe, draped in dozens of loops of prayer beads, and paper streamers, and vines of glass tubes filled with flowing holy water. The imaginary Hana raised her hands, shining like the sun as a swarm of paper talismans rose into formation around her, standing against a tide of darkness and horror with a smile on her face. Alongside this image, the realization of just how lucky Yuria was to be in the safety of Hana’s presence finally got her to dispel most of her lingering terror over her near-death experience. I don’t get what’s up with Miko. How can anyone be scared when Hana’s around?

Coming back to reality, Yuria refocused on Hana’s words. 

After a few minutes of actually listening to the small talk, Yuria was somewhat flabbergasted at how Hana was such a basic high school girl underneath all of that power, but quickly realized that it must be a front to ward off any spirits that might have followed them, curious about the recent scuffle.

Hmm… Is it just a front though? Could it be… she’s also hiding messages in it? Yuria’s attention doubled as she examined every statement for double meaning

“By the way, have you heard about that new horror movie? I’ve only seen a trailer, but it’s absolutely terrifying! How can they show that on TV? There could be kids watching!” Hana shivered. “Ghosts are already bad enough, but putting more arms on it so it also looks like a spider? No way!”

  This is it! Yuria inferred. Okay, what is she trying to say? It’s about some sort of ghoul with extra arms that walks like a spider, that’s for sure. She deduced. On TV? Is that important or just cover? Can it crawl through it like that one movie I saw? She shivered, the idea making too much sense. Oh. Uh. That could have been bad if I didn’t know. I’m gonna stay away from televisions for a while then. How do I show I understood her?

“Yeah, I have. Honestly, it kinda makes me want to avoid TV in general.” Yuria commented with what might have been a wink, if you squinted, trying to make sure Hana knew she got the message.

“I totally get that. Oh hey, we’re almost there!” Turning a corner, the roof of Miyamasei High became visible, rising over the surrounding buildings just slightly. As they neared the school, hundreds of paths converged, leading them into a crowd of students both eager and dreading to start the day. Mostly dreading. The human tide sought to separate them, but as their destinations were near each other, they managed to stick through it until they reached their homerooms.

“Bye, Yuria!” Hana chirped. “Me and Miko eat lunch in a corner of the central courtyard, see you then!” Before Yuria could give confirmation, Hana entered her classroom, Yuria entering her own soon after.

As the bell rang, Yuria suddenly realized that Hana couldn’t stay with her all day, and now she had no defense against the monsters that were apparently everywhere, even at school. She cursed the entirety of the school staff for not putting her one class over, where she’d be safe, and in a single day, went from the student who cared the least about the lunch bell, to the one waiting the most fervently of them all.

Congratulations. Miko thought bitterly. I thought things couldn’t get any more unreasonable, but somehow, even my lowest expectations have been disappointed. 

Her science teacher emotionlessly droned on and on, managing to bore even the most studious students in class. This was bad enough, but the real problem was what could only be described as a snowman of flesh and bone sitting overlapped with the girl in the seat in front of her. If you’re wondering how this is different from a regular man, most men have skin. In addition, what would have been sticks on a snowman, here were replaced with jagged lances of bone. 

Clearly, whoever built this snowman rolled it over a few too many piles of sticks. 

It’s not even winter. This is stupid. You’re stupid. Miko silently complained to herself, and to the long, jagged shard of bone two inches from her nose, which was drenched in such an overwhelming scent of copper she could almost taste it. Well, I guess it’s not like it’d melt. 

Miko tried to peek around it to see the blackboard, before realizing how the rejected MicBurger patty could view this action, and switched into spying on Hana’s notes. As it turned out, the page was as blank as the unfocused stare Hana wore as she put her head firmly in the clouds. Miko followed her lead, sitting back down to stare past the things she didn't want to see, a skill in which Miko was far superior. She wasn’t very used to being unable to see the blackboard due to the back of a head blocking her vision, but it was fairly easy to make the decision to ignore the class completely. There was a good chance she’d have done it anyway. 

The class passed unbearably slowly, even more so than usual. It wasn’t exactly like she could try and relax, or zone off, considering, you know. That. She tried to pass the time by doodling in her notebook, taking extra care to not accidentally draw anything otherworldly, a task that was harder than she’d originally expected.

A few pointless sketches later, Miko looked up, trying to make a token attempt at pretending she was listening. It was more than some other students were doing, at least. 

A tiny, rational part of her brain deduced that the girl in the seat in front of her had leaned back, less concerned about appearances than most of their classmates. The rest of her, however, was screaming at how the girl’s seemingly disembodied head was growing out of the monster’s back, impaled on a bleached white spike that dripped with thick red blood. 

The rational part of her brain quickly dragged the rest of her into a back alley and beat it into submission. 

Now understanding the situation, though she hadn’t yet managed to disable her crisis mode, Miko was just glad the girl hadn’t turned around for some reason. If there was the addition of the face of a classmate, with eyes dulled - by boredom, though she likely wouldn’t have noticed or cared - it would be… She suppressed a shudder. For all the horrors Miko had endured, at least she’s never once had to see something with a face she recognized. 

Miko dragged her eyes from the optical illusion in front of her, and tried to continue her doodling, though she was too emotionally exhausted to come up with anything remotely creative or entertaining. 

Eventually, the lunch bell rang, and her torture ended. She used the rush of students eager to get away from a monstrously dull teacher to disguise her escape from her own monstrously monstrous monster. 

As she rushed to the lunch stall, she heard the huffing and puffing of something chasing behind her, which would have been a lot scarier if it wasn’t the unaltered voice of a teenage girl, one very familiar at that. 

Hana gasped for breath as she caught up, stopping with her hands on her knees at the side of the hallway, in order not to dam the flood of frenzied lunch-goers . “Mi- Miko!” She demanded, taking gulps of air between each pause. “Why a– are you– in such a– hurry?”

Miko simply gestured back where they came. “It was Teitsura-sensei, and now it’s lunch.”

Hana, having caught most of her breath by now, reflected on this, then nodded. “Good point. Let’s hurry, I’m extra starving today!”

Once again, they allowed themselves to be pulled into the current, enduring the occasional bumps and shoves as they were carried to their destination. 

However, on arrival, it seemed their short stop to talk had cost them more than they gained from rushing, and it took them some time to grab their meals; respectively, a plastic-wrapped tomato and lettuce sandwich, and five meal’s worth of omelets.

“Miko, did you see that look everyone gave me? I’m a growing girl, don’t judge me!” Hana hissed as they walked away. 

Miko felt some remorse for the students who may have to go elsewhere for lunch today thanks to Hana’s appetite, if they get any at all, but ultimately, Miko knew where her loyalties lie. “I wonder why.” Miko deadpanned anyway. “Are you even planning to eat all of those?”

“I wouldn’t buy something I’m not gonna eat.” Hana huffed. “I have no idea what’s happening today, but I’m so hungry it’s ridiculous.” Stomping lightly, she led Miko outside to the meeting and eating spot they had previously decided on. Halfway there, Hana ceased her tiny tantrum, perking up and turning to Miko. “Oh right! I have a friend coming today, if that’s okay. She’s been wanting to apologize to you for something.” Hana said, causing Miko to tilt her head in confusion as she racked her brain for an explanation for any part of that statement. As far as Miko was aware, she was Hana’s only friend, and the only person who had made Miko upset lately was more likely to demand an apology from her instead, one that was absolutely deserved.”

“Huh? Apologizing for what ? ” Miko asked. 

Hana mimed zipping her lips shut, and then walked off. “Why are you asking me?” Hana asked in return. ”She’s gonna tell you in like, three minutes.”

Sighing, Miko jogged to catch up, and they walked side by side to the outside and the sunshine. As they made their way through the courtyard filled with wide, brick-paved pathways, surrounded on all sides by shrubbery, they discovered that their bench was already occupied by someone they recognized, who was scanning the entirety of the courtyard intently with her lunchbox on her lap. 

Speak of the devil. Miko lamented. I’ll try and be as sincere as possible when I apologize. Hopefully she’ll leave before Hana’s friend comes, and won’t try to bring Hana into this. Hana probably wouldn’t believe anything, but it’d still freak her out.

Yuria noticed the two of them the moment they came into view, hastily setting her lunchbox to the side, then got up and moved to stand in front of Miko. 

Miko tensed up and closed her eyes, bracing herself to be berated. 

Yuria fidgeted for a moment, then opened her mouth, took a deep breath,

And bowed forward as far as she could. “I’m so sorry for everything I said. It was completely uncalled for. You were right. Please forgive me.” Yuria pleaded.

A few seconds later, Miko opened her eyes, blinking a few times, then staring blankly at Yuria for a moment longer. “Um. What?” Miko faltered.

Yuria barely managed to avoid falling flat on her face as she stumbled and jerked up, jaw dropped as she shot Miko the most incredulous gaze she could manage. “I- You- You’re playing dumb again?! Why?! I’m not even talking about the thing this time!”

Miko shook her head. “Sorry, it’s not that, I was just caught off guard.” She let out a low, tense breath. “Yeah, what you said hurt, but I’m not blameless either. I was being way too pushy, especially after you just woke up from me knocking you out. I forgive you, and I’m sorry too.” 

Yuria took a few seconds to rebalance, physically and mentally. “Really? Just like that?” She looked between the two of them in bemusement. They nodded. “Huh. That was way too easy.”

“Honestly, Miko’s just easy in general.” Hana commented innocently. 

“Hana!” Miko and Yuria chorused, scandalized. 

“Huh?” Hana blinked, then started, nearly dropping her armload of lunches. “Oh! Whoops, sorry! Sorry! Not what I meant!”

There was a few seconds of awkward silence, broken by Miko snickering. “So, now that all three of us have apologized, wanna sit down and eat?”

Hana, still having difficulty meeting anyone’s eyes, quickly nodded and moved over to the bench, Miko and Yuria following. Yuria, however, took a few uncertain steps away as soon as she grabbed her lunch. “So, um.” She looked back at the entrance to the school, before turning back to look at Hana. She took a deep breath. “Can I eat with you?” She asked, nearly stumbling over her words. 

“Uh, yeah!” Hana answered. “The more the merrier, right, Miko?”

“Sure?” Miko agreed, though with a bit of surprise leaking into her voice, not expecting Yuria to want to stay. 

Though somewhat uncertain still, Yuria sits down and opens her lunchbox, picking at a fancily crafted octopus-shaped hot dog piece, and chewing thoughtfully. 

Now that Miko wasn’t being distracted, she noticed Yuria was wearing a sloppily-made notebook paper bracelet, for some reason. A replacement for the beads that broke in the gym? She didn’t know how effective that’d be, but okay.

Hana also noticed, apparently. “So, what’s with that paper bracelet you’re wearing? You weren't wearing it this morning.

Yuria hastily covered it. “Uh, it’s a new trend that I found! Um… Making a bracelet out of notebook paper makes you study better, or something.” Phew, glad I came up with this to cover those cuts from the monster this morning. I wouldn’t want to make Hana think I’m weak enough to get injured by something that isn’t even tangible.

Hana’s eyes lit up. “That’s such a cute idea, I love it! Miko, we’ve gotta make some next period!”

“Sure. We could use all the help we can get, honestly.” Miko replied.

There was a few minutes of silence as the three returned to their meals, before it was broken by Yuria. “Anyway,” she whispers conspiratorially to the side, “Can we talk now?”

“Muh?” Hana mumbled beside her, half a sandwich already stuffed in her mouth. 

For most people, seeing someone shoving a feast down their gullet like an animal would make that person seem rather undignified; but with that flare of aura, shining like the sun, it could only reinforce Yuria’s awe instead. 

“Talk about what?” Hana responded, done inhaling part of her meal. 

“You know.”

Hana blinked. “Did I miss something?”

With Hana’s apparent lack of understanding now causing Yuria confusion in turn, she noticed Miko start rapidly shaking her head from Hana’s other side. 

“Oh.” Yuria choked, trying to keep her panic mostly internal as she frantically looked around, unable to spot whatever was keeping the other two from talking. 

Crap crap crap crap crap. What would reduce attention, quick!

“Um, like, talk about anything?” Yuria expanded intelligently. 

What the heck was that, Yuria! Worst recovery ever! It’s too late to take it back without being even more suspicious though, I just have to hope Hana rolls with it. 

“Sure!” Hana chirped. “So, you know that one actor that starred in Love and Luke? Turns out she…” Yuria tuned out the cover noise that came in between bites, distracted by her relief.

Wow, she’s good at this. Yuria thought. No one who heard this basic nonsense would ever think she’s actually a super powered demon slayer unless they saw her in action! I’ve gotta take notes!

Yuria tuned back in, absorbing every word with due diligence, attempting to analyze exactly what about it made it so unbelievably, unbearably normal. 

“…You don’t even wanna know what she did next. It’s so stupid!”

Romance, movies, romance movies, and celebrity drama are pretty good topics, Yuria deduced. Being vague reduces the chances of people contradicting your story and drawing suspicion. Also, throw in pointless reactions to what you’re talking about. Got it. Let’s test it out. 

With forced enthusiasm, Yuria chimed in. “Whoa, really?”

“Really! He wasn’t even doing anything! What’s up with that?” Hana expanded. 

“That’s crazy!”

“Seriously! How does she still have a career?”

“I know, right?” Yuria agreed, starting to die a little on the inside. 

How long do we have to keep this up until it goes away? Yuria lamented. 

Meanwhile, Miko nibbled on her sandwich, enjoying the conversation from the sidelines with a tiny smile. I’m glad to see they’re getting along. Hana must have made a much better impression than I did. 

Yuria’s torment soon ended, as it came time to head back to class. As they neared the point where they must split, Yuria spoke up, offhandedly asking, “Could you let me know when there’s a good moment?”

“Good moment for what?” Hana replied. 

Stiffening, Yuria choked out a simple “Mhmm”, then, looking torn about separating, power walked to her next class, leaving Hana in the dark. 

“What?” Hana asked a moment too late. “Miko, do you have any idea what she meant?”

Miko didn’t seem to hear her. “Miko?” She repeated, slightly louder. 

“Huh?” Startled, Miko belatedly answered. “Oh, uh, no clue, sorry.”

Miko returned to her thoughts as she and Hana left for their own class. Does Yuria think Hana’s in on this too? I’ve got to get a safe moment to explain to her everything I didn’t manage the first time. Though, with how hectic things have been lately, it might take a while to find one.

Chapter Text

Really?! Yuria silently screamed in an equally silent classroom. We were surrounded by monsters the entire lunch period?! I know she said they were common, but this is ridiculous! How am I supposed to figure anything out if I can’t talk to the only people that know?!

It was lucky for Yuria that this was a self-study period, because without a doubt, the teacher would only get a goldfish’s attention out of her right now. 

Ughhh. Is there any way we can talk quietly enough that nothing will hear? I probably wouldn’t want to risk it even if there is. Then… Yuria put her head in her arms over her notebook as she brainstormed furiously, then shot back up. Aha! Code words! Why didn’t I think of that sooner? Hana already used that tactic. Her pen blurred with barely legible handwriting, as she ignored all forms of academics and the purpose of the period to take all her questions and code them. Well, maybe you could call this a form of studying, if you squinted. 

After she finished with her questions, she got distracted by inventing codes for every possible situation, ones that would only be understood by mediums, until the bell rang and she was forced to break her train of thought and move to the next class. This pattern continued for the rest of the day, even as she was once again expected to listen. Luckily for her, her incessant scribbling was easily mistakable as diligent note taking. 

As the final bell rang, Yuria ran out the door and stood by the windows to wait for Hana to appear. When she did, wearing a brand-new paper bracelet, Yuria immediately approached to a distance that would be slightly invading most other people’s personal space.

As the simmering fear that consumed her throughout the day mostly dissipated under Hana’s presence, the deep exhaustion from multiple sleepless nights set in in its place. “Hi, um, mind if I walk home with you?” Yuria asked with a yawn. 

“Oh, sorry. I don’t usually take that path to school, I took a detour to help an old lady with groceries. Want me to take it again?”

“That’s fine. I can take a detour instead.” Yuria offered.

Hana nodded. “Sounds good! Miko will be coming along too, she’ll be out in just a second.”

They stepped to the side so as to not block the hallway, and Miko soon appeared through the throng, with a bracelet of her own. Yuria wasn’t quite sure what to make of the momentary look Miko shot her, but brushed it off.

Hana shot over and grabbed Miko’s wrist, holding it up. “Hey look at what we made, we match!”

“Um, yeah.” Yuria replied awkwardly. 

Hana waited a moment for her to say something else, but when nothing came, she continued herself. “Anyway, are we ready to go?”

“Unless you picked up a new friend in the three seconds I wasn’t looking, and we need to wait for them, yeah.” Miko commented. 

“How do you know I didn’t befriend an invisible person while you were looking? Hana shot back. 

“I’m pretty sure she’d know.” Yuria claimed, shooting Miko a small smirk. 

“A-anyway!” Miko jutted in. “Let’s get going now, okay?” She sighed and shook her head as she walked away.

“So, how’s everyone doing with their classes?” Miko said, hoping to redirect the conversation. 

“Ugh, not great, really, especially in physics.” Hana complained. “I mean, space is kinda cool, but Kelper’s laws are getting crazy. Square of the cube of the axis of the— Orbits are circles! What’s with all the squares?!”

Miko choked back a laugh. “Di-did you just call it Kelper’s laws?”

“Huh? Um, yeah?” 

Miko’s giggling spilled out, as she had to stop to catch her breath. “Kel-Kelper! Who is that? Someone who-who makes kelp? It’s Kepler!”

Hana’s eyes widened as she snorted. “Oh, whoops! Looks like these bracelets are gonna have a lot of work to do.”

Meanwhile, Yuria was looking back and forth between them in bewilderment. “Huh? I don’t get it.” 

Still catching her breath, Miko tried to explain. “Are our classes getting different lessons? That was like, an hour ago for us.”

Yuria looked away and started playing with her fingers. “So, um, I may or may not have perhaps, possibly, been ignoring classes all day?”

Hana’s eyes widened. “Oh. Were you still shaken up about this morning?” 

Yuria answered tensely. “Yeah, um, today’s kinda been a lot.” Okay, subject change time, I do not want to talk about this. Oh right, now’s the perfect time to use my codes!

“Anyway, there’s this horror movie I watched recently. It’s about this black mist that attacks people in the middle of the day. Apparently, there’s a whole lot of lore behind it, like weaknesses and things, but when I looked online, there was a lot of vague, conflicting information. Do either of you know anything?”

Hana blinked. “Sorry, but black mist? That’s it? That doesn’t really sound like a horror movie.”

Yuria blushed in embarrassment and frustration. Well, I’m sorry I’m not a fearless superhero like you! “It-it’s the context!” She defended. 

Hana put a hand on her chin. “Yeah, I guess anything can be scary if it’s shown the wrong way, huh? Have you seen it, Miko?”

Miko shook her head. “Nope. I really don’t like watching horror movies, so I haven’t heard about it either.”

Yuria stared blankly at Miko for a few seconds. Okay, I’m gonna need a moment to process all this. She turned away, then lowered her gaze in thought. Hana completely blew the question off, which means… She doesn’t want to tell me? But why? Because she doesn’t want anyone else on her turf? That doesn’t sound like her. Or is it… Is she trying to protect me? To tell me that it would be too dangerous for me? Yuria clenched her fists, tears of frustration forming at the corners of her eyes I… I know that now! I nearly died today! I didn’t even accomplish anything besides making myself a target, and I don’t know how to do any better, and I’ve got no powers whatsoever! But I don’t want to be a bystander all my life, a helpless civilian, every moment I’m not protected spent living in fear! 

“Yu-Yuria?” Hana’s voice cut through her thoughts. “That, uh, must have been a really good movie if you’re that upset about no one knowing more.”

Yuria quickly shook her head and faked wiping her eyes. “Sorry, that’s not it, I think a bug just flew into my eye.”

Hana gasped. “Ew! Ew ew ew ew! Are you okay?!”

“Mhmm, nothing to worry about.”

Yuria got her thoughts back on track, looking forward with resolve. Right, what am I thinking? I won’t give up! I’ll make her recognize me, I swear it!

Now, how to do it? I can’t keep using the same conversation, pushing the issue would look insane to everyone else… Agh, how about I just try asking Miko– Oh right, I forgot about Miko’s response! Is she pretending– No, that’s not it, she wasn’t pretending she’s normal during lunch, and besides, since it’s coded, she shouldn’t have any reason to hide. But what else could she have meant? Did she just… not understand me? Yuria silently snapped her fingers. Oh right, I keep forgetting since she can see more than me, but she mentioned she was only introduced to this world last month. She must have just assumed we’re having a normal conversation, since that was the norm most of her life. How can I get through to her, then? Anyway, I should probably hold off for a bit on trying again, I wouldn't want to look suspicious. 

The rest of the walk was spent how Yuria assumed these two normally did; Hana filling the silence, trying to draw people into her mindless chatter, and Miko mostly just listening from the sidelines. 

The conversation petered off as they approached Hana’s apartment complex - thankfully, a different one than the one that would be living rent free in Yuria’s nightmares for the rest of her life. 

“See you later!” Hana called over her shoulder as she jogged up the steps.

Yuria and Miko stood for a while in awkward silence, both of them too used to Hana carrying the conversation. 

Finally, Miko broke the stalemate, taking a step away. “So, um, I guess I’ll be going, then?”

Yuria shook her head, dislodging the next step of her plan from where it had been forgotten. “Before that, I wanna talk to you about something, quick. Could you tell me everything you know about… cockroaches? ” Yuria asked with a humorless nudge and a… ‘wink’. 

Is… is that supposed to be a wink? She looks like she’s just blinking really awkwardly. Miko thought with a confused grimace. “Excuse me, what?” She asked, bewildered. 

“You know, like we talked about in the gym?” Yuria expanded with a few more ‘winks’ and another nudge. 

Miko’s eyes shot open, and her hand shot to cover Yuria’s mouth. “ Shh! Not in public! I thought you knew that by now!” Miko whispered harshly. 

Yuria pushed her hand away. “I’m talking about cockroaches , not something strange. Why are you getting so worked up about it? It’s not like anyone will care if we talk about cockroaches for a while. ” Yuria pushed, with a ‘wink’ every time she said “cockroaches”. “I’d really like some answers before I go home today.”

Miko pulled her hand back, scrutinizing Yuria for a few moments, before sighing tensely. “So. Cockroaches.” Miko said uncertainly. “What do you want to know? From how you were talking before, it sounds like you know more than me.”  

“‘Cockroaches’ was just a way to get your attention.” Yuria said with false bravado. “What I actually wanna know about is the really big bugs, like in the gym.” Her tone turned normal for a few seconds. “Also, thanks for actually talking to me, Hana just brushed me off for some reason.”

Miko gave her an inscrutable look. “Well, that’s because she doesn’t know anything about bugs. Honestly, I’m wondering why you thought she did in the first place.” 

Yuria narrowed her eyes. “Really? You never figured it out? Of course she knows, she’s covered in all that… bug repellant. It’s pretty obvious.”

“Excuse me, what? Bug repellant?”

“Yeah, bug repellant. Don’t tell me you don’t know about it. I mean, the… smell is basically unnoticeable most of the day, but it flares up every time she eats, and you ate with her just a few hours ago. There’d have to be something wrong with your senses to miss it.”

Miko shook her head. “I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.”

Yuria facepalmed as she shook her head and took a deep breath. “I’m gonna trust that you’re not pretending like the first time. Basically, it kills bugs that get close to her. I saw a medium one try to get close to her, and it died before it could even reach her. It was a pretty nonviolent death, so it couldn't have been another bug. There was also this big one, and it couldn’t get close to her, though it probably survived.” 

She looked back up at Miko with a small, smug smirk. “I already know you’re terrible at fighting bugs, so basically, it’s like you just spent all your points on your eyes and ignored your uh, body and nose? Seems like you didn’t know everything about this world either, huh? You probably want to clear up this misunderstanding with her at some point.”

Miko took a moment to process this information, muttering under her breath. “So, bug repellent means… But I've never seen… Eating? I always wondered what was up with her metabolism…” Miko spoke up. “This is… kinda crazy, but even if she does have this… bug repellant, there’s no way she knows anything about it. There’s been a lot of times– No, those won’t work in public. 

“Umm… Well, I’m not really sure about sharing this, but there was this one time a pretty big bug crawled on her… somewhere I don’t want to mention. The repellant must not have been working because he stayed on for a while. She didn’t react, and didn’t do anything to try and get rid of him, so I had to try instead, though I didn’t actually accomplish anything. He only got off because it found a bigger target. If you don’t trust my judgment, even though I’m the one that’s known her for years,” She muttered the last part under her breath, “Then at least trust that Hana would have done something about that situation if she knew.”

Yuria took a step away, turning a little green as he mind spun at a mile a minute. He? That’s, I feel so sorry for Hana right now, but how did she keep- she didn’t do anything?! It- How big? Pretty big, not huge? She absolutely could have beat it if she ate- Why?! Was she en– No! Nononono, nope, no way, no chance, not going there. Then… But she’s gotta know! How would she know to save me from- But she never actually mentioned anything except the truck, but she wasn’t supposed to, but the code- did I get any confirmation? But she’s so good at pretending to be normal– that’s literally the worst argument for claiming someone’s not normal that I’ve ever heard. Anything I can use, anything…  

Finally, a memory appeared, of the first time she had seen Hana. Namely, how Hana would have walked right through a ghost if Miko hadn’t guided her away. Yuria sagged. Am… Am I an idiot? The first thing I ever learned about Hana is that she couldn’t see.

She spoke up in a tired, defeated voice. “So… We have one girl who can see but not fight, one girl who can fight but not see, and doesn’t even know what’s going on, and one girl who can… see the second girl fighting. And we’re up against… Everything.”

“Um, almost.” Miko corrected. “There’s a girl who can’t see and can only sometimes fight. Pretty rarely, from what I’ve seen.” 

Yuria drooped even further. “...What are we gonna do?”

Chapter Text

A few hours after she and Miko parted ways, Yuria sat on her bed, a blanket hiding her from anything that might be watching, her face illuminated by the phone she was pressing her nose against. 

After the revelation that Hana was, in fact, a mostly ordinary high schooler, Yuria hadn’t really been up to any further conversation, and made an excuse to head home. Before she left, Miko had suggested trading phone numbers as an alternative to waiting for a safe moment to talk or talking in code, which Yuria readily accepted. 

For a couple hours after returning, Yuria had been in a slump, stumped on how she could continue her dream now that every path she could think of had been blocked off. 

The godmother was a hack, Hana wasn’t what I thought, and I’m all out of ideas. Do I try going out and trying exorcism ideas again? That’ll just put me in the same danger as last time I tried it, and it’ll be completely useless if I don’t have a clue on where to start. Do I go try and track down a new mentor? It took me years just to find the Godmother, and there’s no guarantee the next attempt will work either. 

Am I… Is there really nothing left for me to do but keep my head down, like Miko? … No. No, I am not living like that for the rest of my life. This is… just a break! Yeah, I’ve been chasing my dreams for so long, my brain must’ve gotten fried! I’ll come up with something eventually.

Her attention returned to her phone. Now, what to say? Just “Hello”, and see how Miko replies? No, that sounds too passive. “Do you have a moment to talk?” That makes me sound like a missionary or something. How about-

Just then, her phone vibrated in her hands, startling her enough that she nearly dropped it. 

Hello, do you have a moment to talk? Miko had texted her first it seemed. Yuria was kind of annoyed that it was her wasting her time trying to figure out what to say, and it was Miko who just followed through not caring about how people would think. I’ve gotta work on that, she thought.

Fully stealthed and ready for cockroaches. Yuria replied quickly to make up for her recent failure.

Ew. Why did you have to put it like that?? And instantly, Yuria regretted everything. 

Anyway, want to continue our conversation? I’d like to make sure I tell you everything I know, and hear everything you have to share. Miko asked.

Sure, I guess. You go first. 

Oh, okay. I guess I’ll start with the different types of ghosts I’ve seen so far. There’s the little old men, like you showed me in the gym, the people-looking ones that are everywhere, the mutated people-looking ones, which look like humans twisted into weird shapes, and the monsters, that are giant and only kinda look a little human, if at all. Have you seen any other kinds?

Oh, and there’s one more really rare one, I think I’ll call them angels. I’ve only ever seen three.

Okay, I’ve never seen some of those, and they sound absolutely insane, but we need some better names than little old men, people-looking ghosts and mutated people looking-ghosts. Those are like, the worst type names I’ve ever heard of.

Sorry, I’m not all that good at coming up with names. Do you have any ideas?

Of course, who do you think I am? How about using a letter grade system? E-rank for the little men, D-rank for the people-looking, C for mutated ones, B for monsters, A for angels. It’s both simple and discreet.

Oh, like homework? I like it, but why did you put angels above monsters? I wouldn’t put them on it at all, personally.

Wait, what? With a name like that they sound crazy strong. What are they, then?

Basically, they’re just ghosts who manage to keep their entire personality and shape.

Keep it from… what?

When they were alive?

There was a long pause where Yuria just stared blankly at her screen

What are you saying? You’re talking like they’re people. Ghosts of people only exist in movies. The real ones are monsters from another world.

Oh, I thought you already knew. I only found out for sure recently myself. It’s a long story, but there was this senile old lady who needed help home, so I carried her there, but when I got there, a person-looking one kept looming over us, saying a series of numbers. I already had my suspicions from the ones I’d seen so far, so I tried discreetly typing the numbers into my phone. The lady immediately went inside and put the numbers into a safe. Apparently, her late husband had left her a gift, but the lady had forgotten the combination. I also saw a picture of the husband on the mantle. It looked really, really similar to the numbers ghost.

Yuria stared wide-eyed at her screen, trying to process the story.

If the person-looking ghosts are people, are the tiny old men also people? The mutated ones? The monsters?

Yuria’s hands shook as she typed the next text.

Is that what happens to anyone that dies?

I’m not sure about the tiny old men and the monsters, but it’s pretty likely the mutated ones are. And based on how many ghosts I’ve seen, and how often they get eaten… yeah. It’s probably what happens to most people.

Yuria dropped her phone.

Eaten?! Don’t you mean how often they disappear on their own?! You know, those places where they line up, and disappear at the end!

Oh. I’m sorry to keep dropping all these things on you, but it’s probably best to rip the bandaid off. Nothing disappears on its own. By the way, those line things? Stay away from them. No matter what.

Yuria set her phone to the side for a while as she had a minor nervous breakdown.

Okay. Sure. This isn’t even the craziest thing I’ve learned today! I’m fine! Absolutely fine! Anything else?! Do the ghosts have superpowers? Do gods exist, and want us dead?! Are freaking lovecraftian horrors about to pour out into the world and wipe every trace of humanity from existence?! Bring it on, I can take it!

Miko sent a sticker of a laughing rabbit. Wow, you really are more experienced than me, aren’t you? You’re taking this a lot better than I did. Well, the powers ghosts have is a good place to continue.

… Miko, I was joking. Please, please tell me ghosts don’t actually have superpowers.

Don’t worry, it’s not that bad. I guess I’ll start with something they can’t do, as far as I can tell. They can’t actually pass through walls, not even the monsters. They can pass through objects and people, though.

Yuria almost sighed in relief, until another text came in right afterwards.

Um, sorry, but I just realized I forgot about this morning. They actually can pass through doors, so uh. Yeah.

… Perfect. Just what I wanted to hear.

Anyway, another thing they can’t do is fly or levitate. Well, the bad ones at least, two of the angels I saw were able to.

Oh right, it’s been kinda bugging me, how did you figure out they have the same personalities and shape as their living selves?

Oh. Um, well actually, the two flying ones didn’t really have a living shape, they looked more like clouds, but like, really nice clouds. I’m sure they weren’t bad ghosts. And I kinda don’t actually know if those two had the same personality as when they were alive, I just lumped them in because they give off the same kind of feel as the first one. I know the first one has the same shape and personality as when he was alive because, um. He’s my dad.

Yuria’s eyes widened, and she hesitated on replying.

Oh. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.

No, no it’s okay! We’re in this together, right? I would have had to tell you eventually, anyway. Let’s move on to the next thing.

It was extremely tempting to Yuria to try and push, to find out what it was like knowing someone on the other side, if he could tell them anything that could help, but she restrained herself. She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like if she was in Miko’s shoes.

So, I’ve also seen that they can squeeze into places way smaller than they should be able to fit. It’s happened a lot of times. 

They can show up in pictures and videos, and you’ll be able to hear them too.

Some of them can stretch their body parts crazy far. Stretching the neck seems to be pretty popular, for some reason.

Um, I think that’s all I can think of right now. Do you have anything to mention?

Nothing about ghost powers, thank everything it wasn’t actually that bad, but I do have a question about yours. When do the ghosts start getting see-through? For me, I can see the little old men mostly fine, the people-looking ones are mostly transparent… Or people ones, I guess. I’ve never seen a mutant, and I only saw a monster once, it was pretty much just a faint black mist, and I’m pretty sure I only saw it because I was about to die.

Wait, what?! Yuria, you nearly died?! When? How? Are you okay??

I’m okay, don’t worry. It happened this morning… Yuria gave a brief overview of her first monster encounter, though edited to make her sound braver than she was.

Wait, I just remembered. There’s one ability that you didn’t mention, and it’s actually extremely important: They can hurt you. It cut up my wrist this morning, that’s the real reason I was wearing a paper bracelet. I think there’s limits, though, it was pretty small and shallow.

…I was afraid of that. Still, I am so, so glad you’re okay, that must have been absolutely terrifying. And about what you asked earlier, I didn’t even realize things could be see-through until you mentioned it. They’ve all been completely solid so far. I can even hear, smell, feel, and taste them just fine. Don’t ask how I know those last two. 

…Honestly, I wasn’t planning to. Also, how the heck are you so powerful??? That’s gotta be like, five times my ability, at least!

I wouldn’t call it powerful, personally. It’s not like seeing things lets you do anything to them.

Point. Still, it’s kinda comforting too, I guess. Things gradually get more invisible the more powerful they are, so if you’re not seeing anything, that means nothing worse exists!

Really? That’s at least one source of existential dread gone, now. I mean, unless I just haven’t met the worse ones yet.

Don’t jinx it. Jinxes might actually exist, I wouldn’t be surprised at this point.

Ugh, now I’ve got something else to worry about.

So, got any other questions or sanity-unfriendly knowledge?

All out of that, but I do have some questions. When I tried looking for anything that might help against ghosts, all I could find was those spirit beads. They only worked on the medium and small ones, but since you also found out that they partially worked, I was wondering if you might have found something better that I missed?

Yuria grinned. Heh. Are you sure you’re ready for the answer? I’ve spent my whole life researching. We could be here all night. The part about it being her whole life was a bit of a lie, seeing as she wasn’t three hours old.

That much??? Absolutely, I could use all the help I can get!

     You asked for it. Let’s start with my personal favorite, paper talismans, which are…

Yuria enthusiastically launched into a rambling showcase of the fruits of her research binge this morning, as well as many personal theories. Miko threw in a comment here and there, just to show she was paying attention. After what felt like an hour, Yuria’s texts slowed, then stopped, and Miko was finally able to get a word in edgewise. 

Um, this is nice and all, but most of these sound too much like fighting, which would basically be suicide. Are there any like, stealth things?

Miko waited a while for a reply, but after a few minutes of silence, she decided to try again. 

Yuria?

She waited a few more minutes, but once again, nothing came.

Oh, she must have fallen asleep. She did seem kinda tired today. I’ll just wait until tomorrow. 

At least, I hope that’s what happened. I’ve got no way to tell.

Miko turned off her phone and stared at her ceiling, trying not to let her paranoia keep her up too long. She was only somewhat successful.

Chapter Text

Miko woke up with a yawn and a stretch. Reaching over to her desk as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she grabbed her phone, grimacing at the time of half past five. She also noticed a text from Yuria, which simply read “Nope.”

Thank everything, I was just being paranoid last night. 

She considered going back to sleep, but before she could finish the thought, she noticed the shriveled husk of a ghoul curled into a ball in the corner of her room, and decided it just wasn’t worth it.

Miko got up, grabbed her clothes, and headed to the bathroom, because there was no way she was going to change in the same room as one of those things unless she had no other choice.

Opening the bathroom door, she was immediately faced with a child-sized ghost sitting on the counter, swinging its legs lazily. Miko sighed internally. Can I just go to school in my pajamas? Is that an option? Nonetheless, she entered, changed and brushed her teeth, despite feeling a little violated. Again. At least the little monster didn’t sit on her toothbrush, or she might have accidentally ‘forgotten’ to brush her teeth, and bought a new one on the way home for good measure.

In the kitchen, her mother was standing at the stove, cooking what smelled like eggs. Unless there was an egg demon in the house, or something. She wouldn’t put it past this messed-up reality to do something like that. Just to make sure, she walked up next to her and checked the pan. Luckily, it seemed the menu for today wouldn’t include “Egg monster looming over her menacingly.”

Her mother started slightly at Miko’s sudden appearance. “Oh, hello Miko. When did you get so quiet? It’s almost like you’re a ghost or something, sometimes.”

Miko, standing perfectly still, took one large breath, and let it out slowly. Hah. Hah. Very funny. “Hi. I woke up early, thought I could help with breakfast.”

“Sure, go ahead. I could always use the help.” She returned to the pan, checking to see if the eggs were done. “Could you grab some oranges? I already got the juicer out.”

Rubbing her eyes, Miko grabbed some out of the fridge. Thankfully, her half-expectation of having to pull them out of something’s mouth turned out to be wrong, this time at least.

The two of them worked in comfortable silence for a while, before her mother spoke up. “So, how have you been at school? I hope you haven’t been getting into any more fights recently. You were doing so well.”

Miko sighed in exasperation. “For the last time, mom, that wasn’t a fight, it was… It’s complicated.” 

“Well, then I hope you haven’t been getting into any more ‘complications’, then.” Her mother replied with air quotes.

Miko just shook her head. “Anyway, I made a new friend yesterday. Maybe. Probably. Not really sure? It’s actually that girl that I sent to the nurse’s office, Yuria. Apparently, Hana befriended her while I wasn’t looking, and she got us to make up. She ate lunch with us, and I talked with her a bit on the way home. She seems… Interesting. She jumps to conclusions a lot, though. It’s happened like, four times in the three hours I’ve talked to her.”

“Wow, you’re giving out some serious praise today, huh?”

“Well, now that you’ve said that, I will, thank you very much. She seems pretty nice, she was willing to forgive me for everything that happened, and she even apologized for yelling at me, even though I’m the one that messed up.”

Her mother looked up from cooking to give her a small smile. “I’m glad to hear you’re having fun at school. I know you haven’t been doing that well, recently. I hope having a new friend will help.”

Miko hummed. “You know, I think it just might.”

Yuria sneezed on her way to sit down, seasonal allergies acting up. She threw a glare at one of the bushes in the courtyard as she walked past, seething as if it was the ultimate source of all the world’s allergens. Just to make sure it learned its lesson, she gave it a light kick, stumbling halfway through as karma kicked in instead. 

She gave it another glare, before huffing and moving on, like she had decided to be the bigger person. Though she may have been larger than the bush in size, in pettiness, it was debatable. Bushes can be pretty petty, sometimes. 

Sitting at their favorite bench, Miko and Hana seemed to be unaware of the righteous war Yuria had just waged. This was fine. They would not likely understand her grand cause, anyways.

Walking up to them, she was suddenly hit with the realization that these were people, and she was trying to talk to them. She considered retreat, but she crushed that thought the moment it appeared. Retreat was never an option! Well, sometimes it was, but not over something like this!

“U-uh, mind if I sit here?” Yuria asked timidly, any confidence she had tried to build up fleeing the moment she opened her mouth. 

“Oh! Hey!” Hana said as she and Miko finally noticed her. “You came! Yeah, go ahead.”

Hana waited for her to sit down before she continued where she left off. “So, back to Seiya- Oh, maybe I should start from the beginning. Hey Yuria, did you hear what Seiya-chan did in class today?”

Yuria froze with a mouthful of sandwich already in her mouth, not expecting to get called on so soon. “Mm. Nho?” She half-squeaked, half-gurgled. 

“Okay, you’ve gotta hear this! So, it happened in science class. We were turning in homework - Teitsura-sensei’s kinda lazy and makes us walk up to his desk to turn it in, by the way - and a bit after everyone else turned in theirs, Seiya-chan walks up with this piece of paper covered in so many crayon scribbles that you could see them from the back of the class! Sensei was like,” Hana switched to a deep, nasally voice for a moment, ”’Care to explain this to the class?’ You wanna know what she said?”

Hana paused, waiting for a response. It took uncomfortably long for Yuria to realize this fact. 

“Uh, what?”

“Aliens, duh.” Hana broke down giggling, as Miko shook her head and Yuria snorted, getting a bit of lettuce up her nose. “And then she- she just- walked back to her seat and sat down!” Hana added. “Who just says to their science teacher, ‘Aliens scribbled on my homework, please excuse me?’ Where does she get all of that confidence?”

Yuria turned thoughtful. “Maybe I should try using that excuse sometime…” She pondered aloud. 

“What the heck?!” “Yuria!” Hana and Miko both choked as they broke into a fit; Hana laughing, Miko coughing. 

“Pick a different role model, please.” Miko firmly requested. 

“Hey, you’ve gotta admire the guts it took to pull that off!” Yuria argued on Seiya's behalf.  

Miko sighed. “Have fun failing your homework, I guess.”

Hana finally caught her breath. “Okay, no, seriously, I’ve gotta know. What part of that story just made you go ‘I want to do that?’”

“Um… I guess it’s just the sheer confidence it took? I didn’t really care about the homework part.”

Hana hummed. “I guess I can see that. Great, why’d you have to go and be reasonable about it? Now I’m a little interested!”

Miko scooted to the end of the bench, holding her fingers up in a cross symbol. “Oh no, it’s contagious. Please, please don’t infect me.”

Yuria immediately stood up. 

“Yuria…” Miko warned. 

She took a step closer. 

“Don’t you dare…”

She dashed forward, poking Miko in the forehead. “Gotcha!”

Miko made the flattest, most emotionless face she could. “Oh noes, I have been, ‘got’. It is now the time for the bafflement of the faculty.”

The silence lasted approximately two and a half seconds before Hana broke, and the other two snorted and/or giggled. 

“I ju- just caught my breath!” Hana whined. “Please give me at- at least a minute!”

At least a minute later, everyone was back on the bench with their lunches, only this time Yuria had ended up squeezed between the two of them. 

“I really wasn’t expecting you to be such a jokester, Miko. Where’d that come from?” Yuria asked

“Uh, my head?” Was Miko’s reply. 

“Ah, yeah, walked right into that one.”

Hana jumped into the conversation. “Yuria, why don’t you tell us a bit about your self, huh?”

Yuria opened her mouth to say one thing, then paused, thinking deeply. “Who am I?” She whispered. Besides the future greatest exorcist of all time, but I can’t tell her that. She added mentally. 

“An amnesiac, apparently.” Miko snarked. 

“Hey, you can’t just ask people that and expect them to have a character analysis of themself printed and ready! It’s a tough question!”

“You can, you’d just be disappointed.”

“Oh, silly me, how could I have forgotten! Thank you for the correction, Miss smart-Aleck.” Yuria replied sarcastically.

“It’s Miko.” Miko corrected.

Yuria groaned. 

And then paused. “Uh, I’ve got one thing, I guess. I’m usually a lot more socially awkward than this, and I have no idea how I just managed any of that.”

Hana grinned. “Got so caught up in the mood you forgot about social anxiety? I get it, it’s seriously the best. Oh, there’s an idea! What were you like when you were a kid?”

“Um… A lot like now I guess? But quieter and moodier.”

“Huh, I would’ve thought you were the sugar rush gremlin kinda kid. I guess you’d be surprised sometimes. Like, if I met Miko today, I’d have never guessed she used to be-“

Miko shot over and clamped a hand over Hana’s mouth. “A perfectly normal kid!” She asserted with a glare. 

Yuria thought about pushing, but the vehemence in Miko’s eyes was just enough to win out against her curiosity. 

There was a brief period where three returned to their lunches, unable or too awkward to come up with a subject change. 

As always, Hana came to the rescue. “So, Yuria, what do you do for fun?”

“Manga and anime.” Yuria immediately answered. “Shounen ones, specifically, and especially ones about exorcists.”

Hana tilted her head. “Aren’t those the ones made for boys?”

“Shoujo and Shounen have actually been switching targets recently, I think. I bet it’s because girls wanna look at cute boys and boys wanna look at cute girls, but that’s not what I’m there for.” Yuria gradually became more animated. “I’m there for the action, the willpower! Being broken down by an impossible task, only to stand back up, pick up the pieces, and build them into something unforgettable, unbeatable! Being mocked and scorned by the whole world, and then doing everything they said you couldn’t, again and again, until the fruits of your blood, sweat, and tears become a victory in an arena no one else has ever even reached, while you stand there laughing in the faces of everyone who ever doubted you!”

Yuria then realized that both of them were looking at her. She didn’t know what the look actually meant, but they were looking at her and oh my gosh I said way too much . 

“U-um, sorry for rambling.” She lamely finished, hunching her back as her face grew red. 

“No, no, you’re good!” Hana comforted. “I really liked how cool you made it sound!”

Yuria’s face got a couple shades redder. “Uh, so, how about you two?” She diverted. 

“Mostly going around the city, shopping and stuff.” Miko answered. “Oh, speaking of, weren’t we planning something today, Hana?”

Hana gasped and snapped her fingers. “Oh right, window petting!”

“Window… petting?” Yuria whispered uncomfortably, leaning away as far as possible. 

“Window petting! It’s like window shopping, but you go to a pet shelter, and you pet all the pets! It’s the pets thing ever!”

“I think you missed a ‘pet’ somewhere.” Miko added. 

“You pet I did!” Hana giggled. “So, Yuria, interested?”

The bell chose that moment to ring, nearly drowning out Yuria’s reply

“Um, sure, I guess?”

“Great! I gotta get to class, see you at seven!”

Before Yuria could get a word in edgewise, Hana was already gone. 

“I guess I’ll be going, too.” Miko added, walking off at a much more reasonable pace. “See ya.”

Yuria watched her go with a strange expression. Wait. Did I just do small talk for an entire lunch? And enjoy it? Huh. Weird. 

Chapter Text

At precisely twenty minutes too early, Yuria stood in front of a windowed storefront, (which seemed excessively large for a pet store, in Yuria’s opinion), examining the sign hanging over the blue sliding door that read “Inu & Aoto” and the stylized animal drawings that decorated it. 

Yuria twiddled her fingers nervously. This is gonna be a long wait. Why did I come so early? It isn’t like I was looking forward to this that much, I’m just here because I had nothing better to do. I’ve been fine by myself for years, I’m not gonna get attached that quick. I came because… I needed to scout the area! Yes, of course, I wouldn't want a ghost to get in the way of the first time I’ve ever been invi- I mean, get them while their guards are down, haha. 

Yuria looked both ways across the street she was standing by. There were a few ghouls mixed in with the regular crowd of living people, but that was true throughout pretty much the entire city. None of them seemed immediately hostile at least. 

The coast is pretty much clear. Now I’ve just gotta wait… seventeen more minutes. Ugh, hurry up you two!

After a few minutes of awkward loitering, staring nervously at the store before her, someone tapped her on the shoulder. 

“Gah!” She jumped, spinning around only to find Miko looking sheepish. 

“Uh, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. Did we keep you waiting?”

“Nope! Just got here!” Yuria immediately lied. “Also, how the heck are you so quiet? For a second, I thought you were-“ Yuria cut herself off. 

Miko sighed heavily. “You thought I was a ghost, didn’t you?”  

Yuria gave her a bit of a strange look at her saying it so openly, but nodded. 

Miko shook her head. “You’re actually the second person today to tell me that today, funnily enough. I hope it’s not a sign.”

Yuria paled. “Don’t jinx it!” She hissed. 

“Huh, I didn’t think you were the superstitious type- nevermind, that‘s the dumbest thing I’ve said all day.”

Miko stared off into nothing, tapping her leg.

“So, what kind of animals do you like?”

Yuria blinked. “That came out of nowhere.”

“I mean, we’re waiting in front of a pet shop. Seems pretty relevant to me.”

“Dogs then, for sure. They’re loyal, fluffy, strong, and cute, all at the same time, and I’ve seen them barking at gh- bugs pretty often, so they could probably help me out sometimes! At least a bit. You?”

“Cats, probably.” Miko answered. “I’d be too worried about a dog getting itself hurt trying to protect me if I had one, and I’d be even more worried about other pets that can’t see, because they wouldn’t know if they needed to run. Cats, though, know what’s going on, but also have the sense to run.”

“I can see tha- wait. Do ‘bugs’ even attack animals?” Yuria wondered. “I’ve seen dogs go after them so many times, but I’ve never seen a ‘bug’ try to get them for it.”

“Huh. That… that’s a good point, honestly. I haven’t seen anything like that either.”

Yuria scratched her head “Well, maybe they just don’t like how animals taste? Like having rotten food on your plate, but never eating it.” 

“Huh? But I’ve seen, uh, catbugs before. Wouldn’t they eat those if they got them?” Miko debated. 

“That doesn’t mean they taste good. Also. Catbugs? Tell me everything .”

“Hey guys! Whatcha talkin’ about?” Hana butted in, making Miko jump as Yuria turned, having just noticed her in the corner of her eye.

“Hah! Karma!” Yuria exclaimed. 

“Ah, of course. How could I have been so blind,” Miko deadpanned, “I have seen the error of my ways. Never again shall I so horribly, thoughtlessly tap another upon their shoulder.” She shook her head. “Anyway, Hana, we were talking about how catbugs are related to cats.”

Hana squinted suspiciously. “Catbugs? Are those a thing?”

Miko blinked. “I’m… not actually sure? Probably not.”

Yuria added her own suspicious stare to the mix. “They aren’t? But you’re the one that brought them up!”

“It was a theoretical thing?” Miko stated like it was a question, giving Yuria a look that said, ‘It was a code, what made you think I was talking about real bugs?’ Mixed with, ‘Why are you doing this to me?’

“Uh, okay then. You know what isn’t theoretical, though? Actual animals! Let’s go!” Hana changed the subject. 

Hana marched over to the shop’s door and threw it open with a flourish, her friends following after her like socially awkward ducklings. 

Yuria shut the door behind her, a puff of wind ruffling her hair, as she took a look around the shop. Along the right wall, small reptiles and rodents lazed around in windowed boxes decorated with fake natural features and straw-strewn floors, some of which turned their tiny eyes to stare, exasperated, as yet another batch of intruders invaded their territory. Along the left, colorful fish swam in glass tanks filled with artificial coral, fishing, or whatever it is that fish do, as the fluorescent lights high above reflected off the surface of the water. 

Walking past the aisles of toys and supplies that stretched out from the entrance, Yuria was led by the others to another section of the store, which had its own stylized and decorated sign, reading “Puppy Paradise”.

There, the floor switched from hard tiles to artificial grass, where brightly-colored plastic poles rose to form a fence surrounding a set of double doors that led to a seperate section of the store. A mother and her young son sat on a bench to the side, a bored-looking high school boy on the bench besides them. Standing by the gate was a brightly-uniformed employee, who gave the three a wide customer service smile. 

“Welcome to paradise, you’re just on time! Is this your first time here?” He asked brightly. 

“Not for us, but it is hers!” Hana replied, matching his cheer as she gestured to Yuria.

“Glad to have you! Inu & Aoto proudly partners with local animal shelters to bring you this fluffy heaven, for the low, low cost of free!” He explained fast enough that Yuria could barely keep up. “The dogs will be here in just a moment, but before that, let me go over some rules. 

“First, be careful! They can be more fragile than you’d think, and hurting any of them is absolutely not allowed. Second, be considerate! Some of them may be shy; please try not to make them uncomfortable. Lastly, enjoy!”

“As a final note, all of the dogs here are up for adoption, so if you take a liking to one of them, think about adopting it! If you adopt through us, we’ll also give you a ten percent discount on everything you’ll need to take care of it! Also, whether or not you adopt, think about leaving a donation to help support the shelters. Any questions?”

Yuria reeled a bit from the barrage. “Uh, no?” She said, preferring to avoid another faceful of word spaghetti. 

“Great! Come on in and let’s get started!” The employee said as he opened the gate, waving them in.

Closing the gate behind him after making sure everyone had entered, he walked over to the door at the back. 

“Everyone ready?” He called, receiving a chorus of yeses, as well as one childish scream of “Yeah!” from the boy. 

“Then it’s time to open the gates!”

As the doors swung open, a couple of the dogs immediately rushed out, running and jumping around as they investigated everyone there. The dozen or so remaining were led in by a few less colorful employees, as they sniffed around cautiously, not yet trusting these people they’ve never met. 

“Bubbie!” A child called a touch too loudly, startling a nearby daschund, making the other dogs inch away, and earning a gentle scolding from his mother. Meanwhile, a particularly fearless chihuahua sprinted towards a high school boy, attempting a tackle takedown which only managed to takedown the boy’s stoic expression. 

“So, it looks like they’re feeling a little shy today.” Said one of the employees, a woman in a ponytail. “Would anyone like to volunteer to come up and show them that there’s nothing to be afraid of?”

Hana’s hand immediately shot up. 

“Great! Thanks for the help.” The employee said, walking over. The two of them had a quick conversation before Hana walked up to a golden retriever on the beaver side, sitting down a few feet away, and then gently lifting her hand out palm-down. 

With a bit of coaxing from the employee, the retriever came over, sniffing her hand. Deciding it liked whatever it found, it gave her hand a lick, and jumped onto her lap, trying to get to her face as she leaned away with a giggle. 

The rest took this as a signal, plodding over to whoever they liked the look of. Out of the corner of her eye, Yuria noticed Miko, a few feet away, had gotten the attention of a German shepherd and some sort of unbelievably fluffy mid-sized dog that she didn’t know the name of, but she was a bit distracted by a surly-looking Rottweiler and the corgi that had finally stopped running circles around the room, now coming at her like some sort of comedy duo.

Copying Hana, she held out her hand, waiting for them to come to her. Within seconds, a corgi nose had stuck itself into her hand, licking furiously. 

Yuria promptly yanked her hand back. 

“Egh! Was that really necessary?” Yuria complained, like the dog could understand her.

“Yes.” Miko immediately answered as she gently stroked the two docile dogs that lay on either side of her, with hands that were noticeably slobber-free. 

“Oh yeah? Then why- ack!” The corgi capitalized on her moment of weakness, shoving its nose directly into her back. 

Miko laughed at her misfortune. 

Yuria refocused. “Okay, you…” Before she could even finish her sentence, he darted around her faster than she could react. 

Once again, a cold, wet press had confirmed her loss. 

“That’s it!” Yuria snatched the corgi up, placing him on her lap, facing forward. “Hah! Try licking me- oh come on.” She said as he twisted his head to lick the hands that were holding him. She sighed, defeated. “This is fine, I guess. I’ll just wash my hands when I’m done.”

Now that she didn’t have to worry about drowning in a sea of puppy kisses, she turned to take a look at the Rottweiler that had yet to approach, which Yuria could totally relate to, honestly. Now that Yuria had the corgi under some modicum of control, his companion walked over to stare at him. 

The corgi started wiggling, once again trying to stick his nose where it didn’t belong. 

He got a soft bap on the head for his troubles, as the Rottweiler walked off, sitting down at a comfortable distance to keep staring. 

Yuria related with this guy more and more every minute. 

Soft giggling from Miko drew her attention away. “They’re kinda like brothers, aren’t they? One’s overly excitable, and exists solely to annoy the other. I’ve been there.” Miko commented with a wide smile. 

Yuria was suddenly too distracted to reply. All of Miko’s previous smiles, few as they were, had had an edge of anxiety and fear, hadn’t they? Yuria just hadn’t realized until she saw this one, with how her eyes crinkled at the edges, as she was forced to squint a bit from how high her cheeks rose, the slight tilt of her head, and the relaxation of a body that’s normally so tense. Yuria once again felt a stab of guilt from how she had first treated her; Miko really had had a rough time, hadn’t she?

“Uh, Yuria?” Miko asked, breaking her out of her musing. Yuria realized she had gotten so distracted starting at her that she forgot to reply. 

“Uh, is that what having siblings is like? I wouldn’t know, I’m an only child.” Yuria said with a bit of embarrassment.”

“Oh, okay. Well, I have it on good authority that it’s an older sibling’s solemn duty to be incredibly annoyed by everything the younger does.”

“Huh.” Yuria said, thinking. I thought siblings were usually closer than that. At least, that’s how it is in the anime I’ve watched. 

Aaand, I’ve realized my problem. I’m so glad I didn’t say that out loud. 

Looking back at the two, she had a thought. “Do you think there’s even more story behind them? Like, they’re buddy cops on a mission to solve their estranged grandfather’s unordinary death?”

Miko snorted. “Why is that the first thing you came up with? I’m pretty sure the police don’t recruit dogs.”

“Uh, they do though? Ever heard of police dogs?”

“Clarifying: I’m pretty sure the police don’t recruit dogs as detectives .”

“Well, I never said they were detectives. What made you think that?”

“Probably the oversized mushroom that made it sound misleading.”

“What the-“ Yuria touched one of her hair clips. “Hey!”

Miko giggled into a hand as Yuria mock-glared. Meanwhile, the corgi on Yuria’s lap jumped on the momentary lapse in her guard to break free, running circles around her like a tiny, speedy moon. 

“Great, now look what you’ve-“ The corgi, currently behind her, barked loudly as it suddenly sped away. Simultaneously, the Rottweiler shot to his feet, barking and growling as he backed away. 

Looking around, startled, Yuria saw a few other dogs reacting one way or another, including the ones that were formerly sitting next to Miko. The rest seemed content to ignore whatever the commotion was. 

Speaking of Miko, Yuria immediately noticed the way her smile dropped, returning to that look of bundled tension that was typical of her. 

It didn’t take long for Yuria to put two and two together. 

Screw you! I can’t even have one nice day?!

Attempting nonchalance, she turned around, half expecting to see a monster of some kind, half expecting to see nothing, which would also mean there was a monster of some kind. 

Her thoughts stuttered as she found a third option: warm, wispy, small, with soft, non-threatening features and aura, whining in loneliness. 

Oh. That’s what those angels Miko was talking about look like. Huh. 

Chapter Text

Huddled in the corner of the enclosure, tail curled around itself, there was a faint, ethereal form, glowing a soft yellow as it whined. Its floppy ears wiggled a bit as it shook its head, its bright white fur wisping off into nothing as it did so, like a mist disappearing into the air. The most shocking part, to Yuria at least, was how it looked so whole and normal. She didn’t know what kind of breed it was, but she might’ve thought it a completely normal dog, if it weren’t for the special effects. 

As it turned her way, she caught a glimpse of its eyes - pure black, but soft somehow, like a storybook drawing more than an endless abyss. Its nose was similar, though it didn’t seem to have a mouth, as far as Yuria could tell. 

“Hey, Yuria, look over here.” Miko said, breaking her out of her reverie. 

Doing so, she saw Miko, sitting there exactly like she was earlier, nothing of particular note around her. 

“What am I looking at?” Yuria asked. 

“Nothing, just wanted you to look over here.” Miko said tensely. 

“Uh, okay.” Yuria was about to keep looking, when she had a thought: just because she can see one thing, doesn’t mean she can see everything. 

She nervously scooted closer to Miko to confirm, whispering, “Is it just the dog?”

Miko twitched slightly, before realizing the question was ambiguous enough to not need a code. “Um, yes.”

Yuria blinked. “Oh, okay,” she said, relaxing as she scooted back to where she was. Turning around once more, she saw the angel looking at her, head tilted adorably.

Look at that little cutie! The drawn-on eyes! The cloud floof! The wiggle ears! No living dog could compare! That last thought sobered her up a bit. Oh. It’s dead. Dead and curled up in the corner of a playpen, all the other dogs scared of it, waiting forever for someone’s comfort, but no one will ever come- Yuria made up her mind. 

“Are you sure?” She asked Miko to double check. 

Miko took a look around the room. “I’m sure.”

Yuria took a deep breath, steeling herself. “Okay then.” 

She stood up, wiping off her hands on her skirt, and, much to Miko’s shock, walked over to the angel and sat down. 

I’m gonna have to guess whether it’s a boy or a girl for my next step. Her instincts told her it was a girl, so she went with that. 

The angel jumped, staring at her with soft black eyes, as if in shock, as her tail started waving like a curtain in the breeze. 

Slowly, Yuria put on what she hoped was a friendly smile and, careful to keep her hand from going through, stroked her hand over the angel’s head, whispering, “Who’s a good girl?”

She froze, and Yuria froze with her. 

Then her tail started flapping furiously, like a flag in a storm, as she ran circles around her, yipping a faint, echoing bark all the while. 

She skid to a stop in front of Yuria, as if asking her to confirm that this was real. 

With a softer smile and a steadier hand, Yuria reached out once again, whispering more confidently, “Who’s a good girl?” She nearly jumped, however, when the angel leaned into her hand, and actually touched it. It felt strange, like touching the surface of a misty pond, as if her hand would sink in at the slightest bit of pressure. Nonetheless, Yuria doubled down on her petting and comforting whispers, adding the back and chin to her efforts. The angel leaned into every touch, with a panting like the sounds of a gentle breeze despite the lack of a mouth. 

In a momentary break, she hopped onto Yuria’s lap, managing to not sink through, if just barely. Yuria slowed down to a gentle, relaxing pace, as she took a look at how Miko was doing.

Miko, meanwhile, was staring at her, jaw dropped, as if she’d called an army general a manchild, to his face, on live TV. Yuria felt like it was a bit unwarranted, but gestured for her to come over nonetheless. 

Miko leaned back at first, but after a few moments spent steeling herself, she came and sat down next to them. 

“You know we look insane to everyone else, right?” Miko whispered. 

“Even if I cared, everyone’s too distracted right now to notice.”

Miko glanced over her shoulder to confirm, seeing the others entirely preoccupied with their own new friends. “Huh, I guess they are.” She whispered as she turned back to the angel’s general direction, not quite willing to look directly at it, yet. She gave an uncertain look to Yuria, who nodded encouragingly. 

Slowly, Miko reached out a hand and, making sure her back was turned to the rest of the room, gently gave a scritching on the ear. The angel’s head shot up as she stared at Miko, tail flapping even faster. Shooting out of Yuria’s lap, she practically tackled her, Miko freezing momentarily before she gently picked her up and set her on the ground, and ran her hand along the angel’s back, as if she wasn’t at all worried about her hand sinking in.

Yuria, though slightly miffed at being abandoned so quickly, quietly took up the duty of head scritches as she whispered to Miko, “Glad to see she likes you more than me, I guess.”

As if in response, the angel shrugged off her current attentions, jumping back into Yuria’s lap and settling down. 

“You were saying?” Miko rebutted with a small, uncertain smile. 

“Hmph. A triple agent is still a traitor.” Yuria whispered, contrary to the ear-to-ear smile on her face that she couldn’t have restrained if she tried. “Who’s the cutest little traitor?”

The three spent a few minutes in relaxed silence, the flapping of the angel’s tail slowing from hurricane speed to a gentle breeze. 

“You’re super strong, you know that, right?” Yuria whispered to the angel. “I can’t even imagine how terrifying things must have been for you, but here you are, still standing tall, still able to wag your tail like you’re the happiest girl on the planet.” The angel looked up as she spoke. “I know things have been bad, but you’re gonna be okay now.”

With a soft yip, like the snap of a flag, the angel stood up, giving Yuria a lick on the nose before laying back down. With a gentle huff, she laid her head down on Yuria’s knee, and closed her eyes, as the swaying of her tail slowed to a halt. 

But as Yuria was about to return to petting, the wisps of cloud flowing off of the angel increased, faster and faster, until her entire form started falling away, like sand in the wind. Yuria froze in shock, unable to act until the last moment, when barely anything remained. She reached out her hand. 

The angel looked up one last time, licking Yuria’s hand, and as the last of her faded away, Yuria heard a distant, happy bark, echoing on the wind. 

Yuria stared, unbelieving, at the spot where the angel had sat. 

“Are… are you okay?” Miko asked. 

“… yeah. Totally fine.” Yuria choked out. Distantly, she felt a wetness on her face, and realized she wasn’t even remotely fine, by any stretch of the imagination. “I was th- thinking about bringing her home. My apartment doesn’t allow pets, but they c- can’t ban something they can’t see, right?”

“Oh.” Miko said uncertainly. “I- I’m so sorry.”

Yuria shook her head, wiping her eyes. “I guess it was a little too much to hope for, huh? I didn’t even know they could disappear on their own like-“ Yuria felt a momentary, soul-rending mix of terror and rage, before she pulled herself back to her senses. “-like that. It was on her own, right?” Miko nodded, and she sighed in relief. 

“I’m not sure I’d call it just ‘disappearing’, though, with everything that happened before it. It looked more like moving on, to me.” Miko added. 

“Moving on?”

“Mhmm. Like, you made her happy enough that she was ready to let go of whatever was keeping her tied to this world.”

“Oh. That’s… a little better, I guess.”

Looking for something to try and distract herself with, Yuria was just in time to see a corgi carefully sneaking back, who froze when caught. 

The two of them locked eyes, neither willing to be the first to blink. 

Yuria lost. 

The corgi barreled towards her, and she barely got her hands up in time to catch him. 

“We’ve got a little sneak here, don’t we?” Yuria tried to snark, but her heart wasn’t really in it. The corgi clearly wasn’t doing great either, seeing as how her hands weren’t currently getting a fresh coat of slobber. 

Yuria felt kinda weird trying to drown her dog-related sorrows with another dog, but she’d take what she could get. 

The rest of the time passed in a hazy blur, to the point that she barely even noticed the shelter employees calling the dogs back. She wasn’t snapped out of it until one of the employees came up and talked to her directly. 

“Thanks for taking care of this one,” the employee said as she picked the corgi up out of Yuria’s lap. “Ollie’s been having a rough few weeks, so it’s nice to see he can still enjoy himself.”

“Oh, um, sorry to hear that. What happened?” Yuria asked. 

“Well, one of Ollie’s friends recently got adopted. Daisy was one of the few dogs who was just excited for these things as he was, and now he’s feeling a little like the odd one out. Max - that’s the Rottweiler by the way - has started being extra protective of him since then, too.”

Yuria was about to offer a few well wishes, when an inkling of a chilling idea sprouted in her mind. She took a chance. “Daisy didn’t get adopted, did she?”

The worker froze, confirming her suspicions. “You’re… more perceptive than you look. I’d rather not talk about it, Ollie’s right here.”

“That’s okay. I hope he feels better soon.”

With that, Yuria listlessly shuffled her way out of the enclosure. The donation jar caught her eye as she passed, and after a few moments of deliberation, she got a couple ten-dollar bills out of her wallet and dropped them in, before heading to the exit. 

“Um, Yuria?” Hana asked her hesitantly on her way. “You’re not looking so great. Are you okay?”

“Mhmm.” Yuria answered unconvincingly. Hana, though, seemed willing to drop the subject. 

The door closed behind them with the chime of a bell, leaving the three to stand around until someone spoke up. ‘Someone’ meaning Hana, of course. 

“I’ll see you at school tomorrow, then?” Hana said. “We should do something again sometime.”

Yuria may not have been the most socially adept, but even she could recognize that what this actually meant was, “This was kinda uncomfortable and I’d rather not do this again.” 

Probably. 

A shock to her social life such as this was enough to snap her out of her head; she slapped her cheeks and shook her head, berating herself.

“Wanna do an anime marathon next week?” She suggested without thinking, trying to stuff all her problems in the closet and salvage things. 

Both of the others looked at her in surprise, Miko replying first. “Uh, sorry, I like spending time with you, but I’m not really a fan of TV.” She grimaced. 

“Wait, what? Since when? Why??” Hana asked, switching all her surprise and more over to Miko instead. 

“It was pretty recent, and… Uh… It’s complicated, kinda gross, and involves lots of, uh, bugs.” Miko explained with a glance to Yuria, who quickly caught on. 

Hana paled. “E-excuse me? Bugs?? Actually, know what, don’t tell me, I don’t wanna know.”

Meanwhile, Yuria was trying to figure out what kind of ghost-related problem could make Miko scared of TVs. Is there an actual grudge-type ghost that can climb out? Racking her brain for ideas, she recalled a time when she was a kid, and she hid behind a couch so she wouldn’t have to see the news- or more specifically, the monstrosity behind the anchorman, that made the map behind it mostly unreadable. 

Yuria got up close enough that Hana wouldn’t hear her, whispering, “If it’s about bugs on the screen, anime is one hundred percent drawings or digital, so there’s nothing to worry about. That’s actually what got me into anime in the first place.”

Miko stiffened. “Okay, I changed my mind. That sounds amazing. 

“What’s so amazing?” Hana asked, surprised at how fast Miko changed her mind. 

Yuria hummed, then put a finger to her lips. “It’s a secret.”

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to find out when I join you two! Next week, on the weekend, Yuria’s place, right?” She blinked. “Where’s Yuria’s place again?”

Yuria rattled off an address as Hana fiddled with a calendar app on her phone. “Gotcha. Have a nice night!” Hana said, heading off, Miko and Yuria also taking the cue to say their farewells and head home.  

Yuria skipped her way home in the glow of a one-two combo of actual socialization . 

And then the cupboard she had stuffed her problems in spilled open, but she was just gonna have to deal with that, wasn’t she?

Chapter Text

As her history teacher droned on and on, Yuria was, once again, ignoring him so she could focus on other, bigger problems. Specifically, the supernatural kind. Besides, it’s not like knowing when this person started this war would help when she had to deal with- Wait. According to Miko, the ghosts are actually ghosts, not just monsters that look like them. It’s possible that some of them could be centuries old, maybe older. If I could figure out exactly when they came from, who they were, I might be able to gain an advantage. Maybe I should start paying a bit more attention. 

Her resolve lasted approximately five minutes. 

Okay, history might be helpful, but this guy sure isn’t. I’ll have to research on my own time. 

She went back to brainstorming for a while, but her thoughts just kept circling around the same unusable ideas she’d had again and again. Frustrated, she let go, and looked out the window in the futile hope that something outside would suddenly give her an epiphany. 

Her vision was blocked by a little old man, who was staring wantingly at her hair clips. 

Some people might have jumped at this, but Yuria, with a willpower born of having dealt with similar situations her whole life, only flinched. 

Oh, screw you. 

Yuria casually turned away to look at the blackboard. 

Well, I guess I’ll listen and work on my grades. She begrudgingly decided. Not like I have anything better to do right now. 

She pulled out some of the homework she had forgotten to do the past few days and zoned in, trying to get it done as fast as possible. 

After what felt like a moment, but was actually half an hour, she belatedly realized that the classroom was empty, and the bell had rung five minutes ago. She messily shoved everything in her bag and rushed out the door. 

In the hallway, she found Hana waiting for her. “Hey, there slowpoke, what took you so long?”

“Homework, I was kinda behind and needed to catch up.”

She looked around for Miko, but it seemed Hana came alone today. 

“Good job! Anyway, I came to ask if you wanted to come see a movie with me and Miko today.” Hana asked. 

Yuria shuffled nervously. “Um, wouldn’t I just get in the way? I mean, we just met like, last week.”

“What are you talking about? We’ve been best friends for eight years! Don’t you remember when we met in elementary school, and I ate all of your crayons?” Hana burst into giggles as Yuria gave her the same kind of look she’d probably give her if she’d actually done such a thing, right here and now. “Seriously though, I don’t really feel like you have to have known each other for a while before you can hang out. I like spending time with you, so I wanna spend time with you.” She looked down. “I mean, unless you don’t wan-“

“No, no that’s not it, I’ll come!” Yuria cut her off, before awkwardly looking away as well. “I just, um, thanks, I guess. When are we going?”

“The movie starts in about two hours, so we’ll be meeting up about half an hour before, at, uhh.” She pulled out her phone. “Here.” She said, pointing to a spot on the map she had pulled up. “See you then!”

“-And it was the last one!”

About an hour and a half after school had ended, Yuria had changed into a polka-dot t-shirt with a skull on the front, with some jeans and sneakers, and had met up with Hana at her apartment to walk there together. Now, Hana was chatting about all the desserts she had eaten yesterday as they strolled down a mostly empty street. A few other students were on it with them, each going their own ways. 

“Seriously, you should have tried it, it was basically heaven. The frosting was puffed up so big, it was like eating a pillow, or a cloud, but sweet! And the cake itself was so soft, I have no idea how it even kept standing! And there was frosting in between the layers, and, just, seriously.”

“Are you trying to make me hungry?” Yuria accused. “Because it’s not going to work. I am a paragon of self-control and-“ Her stomach interrupted with a growl. 

Hana snorted. “Perfect timing, she was just talking about you!”

Yuria huffed and crossed her arms, pointing her nose in the air haughtily. “Didn’t you know? Restraint isn’t the lack of temptation, it’s the will to ignore it!” She paused. “On a completely unrelated note, I’ll be getting the biggest bucket of popcorn they have when we get there.”

“I respect your pride in not having any restraint whatsoever.” Hana teased. 

“Hey, I could do it if I actually-“ Yuria was interrupted again, this time by Hana’s stomach, and she switched tracks. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, should they?”

“I’ll throw all the stones I wanna, thank you very much!”

Yuria put the conversation on hold for a moment, as she had to avoid stepping on a tiny old man that was standing in the middle of the sidewalk making weird noises, for some reason. “That’s gotta be some kind of illegal.” She replied. “Also, is Miko heading there on her own?”

“Yeah, her mom needed help with groceries. She’ll be getting a ride there.” She explained. “Back on topic, is it really? What if I’m at a lake and I’m skipping th-“ Hana’s voice was suddenly drowned out by the sound of sizzling and an unnatural scream. Yuria stopped and whipped her head around, seeing only an empty street, until she looked at Hana, and saw the tiny old man from earlier crawling on her chest as it burned to death in the light of her aura. 

Hana jumped at Yuria’s reaction. “Is-is something wrong?”

Yuria shook her head in exasperation. Seriously, I knew those things were stupid, but I didn’t think they were outright suici- Her thoughts were interrupted as the barely-alive creature rose up, floating in the air, and with a crunch, it twisted up into nothingness. So now it chooses to move on? I guess I might’ve too if I was burned half- And now, her thoughts derailed completely as she remembered something Miko told her last night. 

“Nothing disappears on its own.”

Yuria’s heart skipped a beat as her stride missed a step, and she barely stopped herself from falling flat on her face. She quickly switched into damage control mode, her mind running a mile a minute.

“N-nothing! Nothing’s wrong! I just uh, thought I heard something. Must have been the wind, haha.” Yuria lied with a forced laugh.

Hana scrutinized her for a moment. “Alright… are you okay? You really don’t sound fine, and that could have been a nasty trip. Do you need to head home?.”

“I’m fine! Everything’s fine! I tripped on my shoelaces!”

Hana looked down at Yuria’s feet, and both of them quickly realized that Yuria’s sneakers were velcro. Yuria, realizing that she was utter garbage at coming up with excuses, made the executive decision to shut her mouth and stare at anywhere except Hana’s general vicinity, where the monster probably was.

Hana turned her head with a sad smile. “... Sorry if I was too pushy. If you don’t want to talk about it you don’t have to…”

Yuria hurriedly shook her head. “No, no that’s not it! It’s just…” Yuria took a moment to collect her thoughts. “...it isn’t really something I can talk to anyone about.” Did I really just risk my neck just so Hana wouldn’t think I don’t like her? I can’t believe myself right now. “A-Anyway, I really do want to be here, so could we just, forget about this? Oh, and since we’re hungry, let’s stop by a food place on the way! It’s gotta be less expensive than theater popcorn, right? It probably tastes better too!”

Hana looked a little uncertain. “I mean, that sounds nice, but I wouldn’t want to make Miko wait.”

“I’ll ask her! She might be running late, you never know!” Yuria pulled out her phone and shot a quick text to Miko.

b on hana hepl, trying food, gonna late

“Well, I guess that could happen, but it kinda seems like a weird first idea.”

Yuria spent a few minutes staring at her phone, waiting tensely for a response.

A bee? Well, that sounds pretty uncomfortable, but I’m not sure how I can ‘hepl’ from halfway across the city. And did you mean that you and Hana are trying some food places on the way to the theater, and you’re going to be late?

not bee, B

There was a short delay before Miko responded.

sry. i’ll try, head to meet spot asap

“She is running a bit late, actually. We should have time to check a place or two out.” Yuria said distractedly, not looking away from her phone.

“Um, okay.” Hana replied. “Wow, what a coincidence. You said she was gonna be late, and she actually was. Are you psychic or something?”

Yuria nodded. “Something like that.” Then she actually realized what Hana asked, and backtracked. “I mean, no! Just a coincidence, haha! Anyway, let’s get going, I’ll look for some places while we walk.” Yuria clumsily changed the subject.

Switching back to her phone, she quickly Boogled ‘nearest restaurants’ and clicked the first link. 

“Oh hey, it’s just two blocks away, perfect! Race you there!” Yuria broke into a sprint leaving a confused Hana in her dust.

“What? Why are we racing suddenly? H-hey, wait for me?”

“Ahh, much better!” Said Hana as she walked out of the store, Yuria close behind. “I am so glad you came up with this, Yuria. You’re a lifesaver, honestly.”

If only you knew… Yuria thought. “It was nothing.” She said, halfway to collapsing from relief.

“No no no, you don’t get to say that after you bought me like, three entire lunches. Repeat after me: Yes, you’re welcome, I’m the best!” Hana grinned.

Yuria cringed internally at the reminder. That cost like half of my spare cash, but it’s a small price to pay for salvation. “Aren’t people supposed to help each other stay humble?”

“That’s that, this is this. Say it, cmon.” Hana cajoled, nudging her with an elbow. 

Yuria rolled her eyes with an indulgent grin. “Yes, you’re welcome, I’m the best.” Huh, that felt better than I thought it would.

“There you go! Now, you may have won that last race, but we’ve gotta hurry to get there in time, so it’s my turn! Let’s-”

“Wait.” Yurai interrupted. “Let me text Miko quickly, tell her we’re on our way.” And by that, I mean tell her that she has nothing to worry about any-

Her plans were instantly derailed when she pulled out her phone and discovered that she had no bars, even though she was in the middle of the city. “What?” She said intelligently. “I’m not getting any service, could I borrow your phone?”

“Huh. That’s weird, but sure.” Hana replied, passing Yuria her phone. However, once again, it was out of service.

Seriously? Both of our phones got messed up now? What are the chances– Come to think of it, Yuria knew exactly what the chances were, and it happened to be the exact same as the chance that Hana’s aura failed to drive off the ghost.

Crap. Crapcrapcrap. Why is it messing with our phones now, when it wasn’t earlier? Is it trying to make sure we can’t contact anyone for help? But it doesn’t even know I’m on to– I can’t count on that. If it’s smart enough to cut off communications, it’s probably smart enough to do so on suspicion alone. New plan, now.

“Well, what can you do, haha.” Yuria laughed nervously. “Anyway, I’m pretty confident in my speed, so how about we make things more interesting?”

“Oh, how so?” Hana replied.

“How about, uh, every time we reach a corner, the person in front picks which way to go?” If I can make our movements erratic enough, maybe I can throw it off our trail.”

“Huh? But how would we know that we’re still– Wait, do you hear that?”

Yuria had a moment of absolute dread as she strained her ears, before she finally picked up on the sound of a young boy crying, exactly what she didn’t want to hear.

“Um, yeah, but shouldn’t his parents have it covered? Cmon, let’s go.”

“I mean, maybe.” Hana said. “But what if he’s alone, and no one else is around to help him? It won’t hurt to at least check.”

Yuria still wanted to protest, but after a few moments of trying to come up with any reasonable argument, she just nodded her head and followed Hana, hoping they could be done with this quickly.

Nearing the source of the voice Yuria screeched to a halt, staring incredulously at where they ended up. It was a large, abandoned office complex, with massive holes and cracks on every window. The most noticeable factor, to Yuria at least, was the absolute crap ton of corrupted spirit energy flowing off it in waves.

Oh, you have got to be kidding me. 

Chapter Text

No. Absolutely not. Here, of all places? What’s probably the most haunted building in this entire city, and here we are, chasing a kid’s voice, into this place, while being chased by a truck-sized monster, and one of us doesn’t even know what’s going on. What the heck is this, horror movie bingo?

“Yuria?” Hana asked in worry.

“Let’s take a detour.” Yuria blurted out.

“What? Why? It’s coming from that building right- actually, I can already see him. C’mon.” Hana grabbed Yuria’s wrist, while Yuria was still too flabbergasted to resist.

As they reached the crying child, Yuria’s mind reoriented. He’s not in the building. Figure out what’s wrong and get the heck out of here, immediately.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Hana asked him, bending to try and be at eye level.

“Ch-Chiko!” The boy said between sobs. “She- Hic! She got off her– her leash and– and ran in there!” He pointed into the haunted building.

Hana, looking at where he was pointing, finally started to feel some of the pressure Yuria had been dealing with for the past half an hour. “Chiko?” Hana asked distractedly. 

“She’s my- my puppy.”

“Um… Isn’t that-”

“One of the most haunted buildings in the city?” Yuria finished Hana’s sentence fearfully. “Yep. Do you see why I wanted to avoid it?”

Both of them stood awkwardly as the boy continued to sob, until Hana made up her mind. “No need to worry!” She comforted nervously. “Big sis Hana will rescue Chiko!” 

The boy looked up, sniffling. “Really?”

“Wait, I don’t think this is a good idea.” Yuria spoke up, panicked. “There could be, like, rusty nails, and things. We could get tetanus. We should wait for an adult, or maybe the police could help.”

The boy started crying again, making Yuria feel like absolute scum, but she didn’t have a choice but to stick with what she said.

Hana leaned over to her to whisper. “That- That just means we need to go even more! What if poor Chiko stepped on a rusty nail?”

“Please, don’t. This is still a h-horrible idea.” Yuria begged, grasping at straws.

Hana gave her a pitying look, before standing up tall and speaking with determination. “You can stay if you want, but I’m going.”

WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO BE SO BRAVE?! Yuria screamed internally. This is the worst possible scenario. I can’t avoid an entire haunted building’s worth of ghosts AND a monster I can’t even see!

While Yuria was standing there, frozen, Hana was walking directly into her certain doom.

“W-Wait!” Yuria called out. Hana looked back, eyes filled with equal parts determination and fear, and Yuria’s words caught in her throat, as she realized that Hana wouldn’t back down. “I-I’ll come with you!” Is what came out instead, surprising even herself. WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH ME. I’ve become part of the horror movie idiot squad now, except it’s even worse, because I know the place is haunted. I’m going to die. I’m going to die like an absolute freaking idiot, and everyone’s gonna laugh at how dumb I am. That’s what they’re gonna put on my grave, “Here lies the dumbest person on the entire planet, killed by her own stupidity.”

Yuria found herself moving without thinking, as her mind continued to spin like a blender, her body shaking like one too. Can I back out? Hana’s nice, she won’t blame me. I won’t die, she’s got the aura so she’ll be- Yuria slapped her cheeks, startling Hana. Snap out of it. I. Am the GREATEST. SPIRITUALIST. To have EVER lived. I will NOT sit here, shaking in my boots, backing down like a freaking pansy, leaving people to rot. I’ll find a way to win, no matter what.

Steeling her will, she lifted up the tarp covering the entrance, and entered into the darkness.

“Chiko? Ch-Chiko, where are you?” Hana called out in a quiet, trembling voice, so quiet that a normal conversation could drown it out. However, in this empty, dilapidated building, the sound echoed off of every concrete wall and pillar, building into a cacophony that made Yuria wince. 

Yes, perfect, why don’t we just, loudly announce that we’re here and we’re terrified, what could possibly go wrong?! Yuria screamed internally.

“Chiko?” Hana continued. “C’mon Yuria, help me out here, please?”

  Do I have a choice? Not if I wanna keep my cover. Here I go, I bet I can draw in every ghost in the building at once, wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Chiko!” Yuria called in a voice so quiet and tense it’s a miracle it even got out at all. “Come here, girl! We, uh, we’ll give you some bacon!”

Hana looked over in surprise, leaning in to whisper. “Why’d you bring bacon? I th-thought we were gonna go see a movie.”

Yuria whispered back. “I didn’t I’m-I’m just hoping she’ll come out faster if I say I did.”

Hana giggled nervously. “Meanie. Poor puppy, t-trapped in a haunted building, promised bacon, left with broken dreams.”

“Broken dreams are wayy better than being h-here.” Yuria retorted.

Hana went back to calling, but Yuria froze before she could do the same, as she was beaten to it by a third voice.

“̸͚͝W̴̗͛a̶̰͐r̵̜͆m̷̜̓…̴̟͂”̷̞̆

Yuria barely restrained herself from whipping her head around, and kept moving forward, trying to play off her freeze as a brief stumble. It must have worked, because even Hana didn’t notice she stopped.

“Chi-” This time, her voice was actually too tense for it to come out. Yuria coughed at the sudden stop, before trying again, with a minimally successful attempt to relax. “Chiko, let’s go home, please? You d-don’t want to be here either, do you?”

“Y-yeah, I really don’t.” Hana answered.

“I was talking to-” Yuria turned to look at her, but one look at the levitating tiny old man floating over her shoulder, and her mind and voice stuttered. “To- to- Um.” Yuria watched in a mixture of morbid fascination and paralyzing fear as the creature was placed on Hana’s shoulder, and it was burned with a sizzling sound. “Grill.”

“Grill?” Hana asked.

“I mean girl. The dog. Whatshername. Oh right, Chiko.” Yuria floundered to cover up her mistake.

“Oh.” Hana said, having bought her recovery. Yuria hoped that, uh, griller monster (name pending) did too.

Haha. Grill. The girl is a grill. Haha. I wonder if it’ll try to grill some bigger ones. Just hang then over her shoulders. Haha. Yuria thought, swallowing, as she went so far beyond fear she reached hysteria. It’s huge. Maybe it could even swallow them whole. I bet that would- All of her thoughts ground to a halt as an idea jumped. What if… What if I pit them against each other? Slowly at first, then quickly building up speed, a plan formulated in her mind. It’s strong, but there’s no way it’s stronger than an entire haunted building. I’ll try and subtly bait one of them to attack me, then get behind the griller, and it’ll hit it instead! And then the griller will go on a rampage, and enrage all of the other ones! And while they’re distracted with each other, me and Hana make a break for it with Chiko! Yes… YES! Pitting dangerous enemies against each other, a classic move! Why didn’t I think of it sooner?! This is it, this’ll be miles and miles beyond my last exorcism attempt - even if I had succeeded! 

Slowly, Yuria’s nervous tension shifted in focus, a slurry of fear and excitement giving her an adrenaline rush like nothing else. She stood tall, stared forward, and started laughing, somewhat unhinged. 

“Yuria?!” Hana jumped, spinning around to look at her.

“Nothing to worry about. I just realized how silly it was to be scared right now. It’s just an empty building. Ghosts don’t exist!” Yuria said, giggling up a storm at the irony. “Cmon, let’s go! Chiko’s waiting!” 

Yuria skipped along as she called for Chiko in a singsong voice. After a few moments of blinking, Hana tried to mimic her, but her voice still had an audible undercurrent of fear.

Their efforts were quickly rewarded with a whine coming from the darkness, past a pile of rubble and snapped steel beams. Unfortunately for Yuria, she was too lost in her own world to hear it.

Hana stopped, looking at where the sound came from. “Hey, did you hear that?” She asked.

Upon hearing that classic ‘This is a horror movie and we’re all gonna die’ phrase, Yuria was given a swift kick out of her head, and she looked around in a panic. “What?!”

“I think I heard a whine. Come on, let’s go check.”

Yuria blinked, attempting to get her breathing back under control. “Huh, I didn’t hear anything, but okay.”

The two of them carefully made their way through the rubble, stepping carefully to avoid any of the sharp bits, until the concrete fragment-strewn path came to an end. 

“Weird, it’s a dead end.” Hana commented. Yuria’s Incoming Nightmare Fuel detector, finely honed from over a decade of otherworldly bullcrap, started ringing like a siren.

“Sh-She must be on the other side of the wall! Let’s head ba-” Yuria turned around to beat a hasty retreat, but her words caught in her throat as she saw the barely visible outlines emerging from the walls, ceiling, floor, even the pillars: mangled, misshapen corpses that looked like they’d been mauled by a monster and left to rot for a few decades. A logical part of her brain with an inclination towards categorization put the enemies somewhere around C rank. The rest of her brain chucked that part out the third-story window, because that wasn't the freaking problem right now.

Yuria took a deep breath. This is fine. All according to plan. We just ate, so Hana’s aura should hold them off for now, let’s find the dog quick so we can move on to stage two. We’re gonna be fine, absolutely fine!

While Yuria was lost in her sudden panic, Hana started calling out for Chiko. Yuria quickly followed her lead.

Hana jumped beside her for no apparent reason, startling Yuria into following suit.

“Ch-Chiko?” Hana asked fearfully, moving towards something covered in a tarp.

CODE RED, CODE RED, EVERY POSSIBLE HORROR FLAG HAS BEEN TRIPPED. Whatever that was, only she heard it, even though I’m the medium here. It has to be B or higher, maybe even above that, if it’s able to make itself known to normal people. Hana reached the tarp, grabbing the bottom. Yuria reached out her hand to stop her, but jerked it back at the last second. No, we’re surrounded. I can’t give any sign that I’m anything but perfectly normal. Her aura will last, I’m sure. Two high ranks, pit them against each other, grab-

Hana flipped the tarp before Yuria could finish her train of thought, and Yuria tensed for the showdown. She wasn’t sure whether she’d see a twisted monstrosity making itself known to her, or absolutely nothing. She wasn’t sure which would be worse.

Instead, she saw a large dog, curled up and shaking.

Oh. She got drowned out by the ghosts. That’s why Hana heard and I didn’t.

“Chiko!” Hana exclaimed. Chiko tensed, whining as she prepared to bolt. “Chiko, it’s okay, girl.” Hana continued in a much softer voice. “I’m here to take you home. Come on, let’s go.” Hana lifted her up without waiting for a response, a reasonable choice seeing as Chiko could not give one, and awkwardly shifted her into a princess carry, straining under the weight. Thankfully, Chiko was too terrified to give her extra trouble.

Power-walking, Hana traced her steps back towards the entrance, Yuria sidling up against her side, just to make sure she was as far within the aura as possible. Refocus. Stage two. She swept her gaze around the room to get a feel of the current situation, making extra sure not to look directly at any of the ghosts, and to make it look like she was just being nervous. The ghosts are following, trying to surround us, but not attacking yet. They look like they want to. Griller isn’t eating them yet. Need a plan. It took her a few more steps before she had a full strategy.

With a deep breath, she steeled her frayed nerves. Step one: Grab attention, she thought as she looked one of the ones in front of her directly in the eye.

‘I see you.’ She mouthed as subtly as possible.

The effects were immediate. It froze, twitching before, with a guttural scream, its face contorted into something out of a Picasso painting, and it rushed her, straining against Hana’s aura, but pushing through slowly.

Step two: Based on the last times it ate, Griller stands just behind Hana. You can walk through things you can’t see. Steel your will, jump through it.

She turned her gaze toward a spot on the ceiling that didn’t have any ghosts, then screamed as she jumped through the spot she’d marked. She was rewarded with a brief, yet bone-chilling moment of cold, evidence she’d guessed right.

The baited ghoul switched directions, heading towards her straight through the cold spot.

Step three: Wait until Griller reacts.

“AHH!” Hana yelped, nearly dropping poor Chiko. “Huh?! What happened?!” She asked frantically.

By the time she finished her sentence, the ghoul was within arm’s reach of the spot, and still wasn’t dead. Yuria only managed to keep her composure due to the sheer adrenaline and feeling of superiority suffusing every part of her being.

One more lumbering step, still alive.

One more, still going.

One more… And suddenly, it flew into a wall, leaving an arm behind, floating in the air.

The rest of the ghouls stopped, turning to look at the spot. In unison, they had the same reaction as the first, only this time it wasn’t targeted at Yuria.

Step four: Grab Hana and run like your life depends on it, because it absolutely does.

“I- I think-” Yuria stuttered, playing up her fear as much as possible. “I think I saw something crawling on the ceiling. It was huge, and looked wrong. I can’t- I was just acting brave before, this is too much. Let’s get out of here!” She finished with a yell, grabbing Hana’s sleeve and dragging her forward as fast as possible.

“What?! Holy- No, no no no no no! This can’t be happening!” Hana panicked, matching her pace, surpassing it, even.

When Hana was far enough ahead that she couldn’t see her, Yuria turned around to see if they were followed. Far behind them, she saw half a dozen ghouls seemingly floating in midair, dogpiling their invisible foe. For every one the Griller managed to throw off, two replaced it. 

Ha. Hehe. HA! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Yuria screamed internally, barely managing to keep her victory screech from becoming audible. I DID IT! I ACTUALLY FREAKING DID IT! One haunted building, weakened! One invisible monstrosity, neutralized! This is IT! This is the start of my legend, and what a heck of a start it is! Riding the high, grinning like a maniac, she threw all caution to the wind, and pulled her eyelid down as she stuck her tongue out at them all. Who cares? The ones bound to the building can’t chase me, and the Griller is toast! Hah, toast! Grilled toast! How does it feel for the shoe to be on the other foot, sucker?! To the glorious, glorious melody of spirits screaming as they fought to the re-death, Yuria followed Hana all the way out the building, and as they rushed out, the sunlight in her eyes and the warmth on her skin had never felt sweeter.

“Chiko!” The boy cried the moment they stepped out of the building. Chiko herself squirmed in Hana’s grasp, until she let go, and Chiko dashed at the boy, nearly knocking him over. “Chiko, you’re okay! He turned to Hana with a wobbly smile and tears in his eyes. “Thank you so much!” He sobbed.

Yuria stood tall with her hands on her hips, still breathing heavily. “Of course! Who would I be if I abandoned a poor little puppy? You’re very welcome!” She said proudly.

The boy gave her a momentary side glance. “Thank you, orange hair lady!” He specified.

Yuria froze in position as Hana responded uneasily, making an attempt to hide her recent panic. “You’re very welcome! Let’s uh, let’s get going, we’re blocking the sidewalk. Can you make it home yourself?” She asked.

The boy nodded tearfully. “Mhmm. Let’s go home, Chiko.” He got up, took a few steps with his hand on the dog’s back, made sure she was following him, then headed back the way Yuria and Hana came from, wobbling from relief.

Hana waited a few seconds to make sure he was off, then grabbed Yuria’s wrist, snapping her out of her daze. “Do you think it’s following us? I don’t wanna risk it, let’s get out of here.” Hana pleaded.

With a quick, distracted nod from Yuria, the two of them rushed the other way as the boy, until both of them once again had to catch their breath.

There were a few moments of silence, soon broken by Yuria. 

“That’s the thanks I get?” She complained. “That kid totally just ignored me.”

“I mean, you were the one that said to leave Chiko in there at first. He’s a kid, it’s totally understandable.” said Hana.

Yuria raised a finger to defend herself. There was a short pause. “That’s fair. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.”

There was a short lull in the conversation as they walked down the bright, empty suburban roads.

“So, are we just not going to talk about the ghost?” Hana asked.

Yuria fidgeted. “So, um.” She said, trying to come up with an explanation. “In hindsight, it… may have actually been a particularly big spider?”

Hana slowed down to a stop. She turned to look Yuria in the eyes so slowly you could practically hear a creak. She glared at Yuria, though her gaze had little heat. “Seriously?” She deadpanned. Throwing her arms into the air, she half-yelled, “OH COME ON! I thought we were gonna die! A spider?! How did you mistake a spider for a ghost?!”

Yuria grinned sheepishly. “I have no idea?” She said truthfully, as she also had no idea how someone would make a mistake like that.

Hana stomped petulantly as she continued again. “Great! I’m gonna have nightmares for years, and I don’t even get a ghost story?! Perfect! Fantastic!”  

Yuria made an attempt to follow her, but her left arm jerked behind her, holding her in place.

She blinked. “Huh?”

She turned around to see what she got caught on.

There was nothing there.

There was nothing there.

And suddenly, there was.

A black mist, in the vague shape of something almost human, stood before her, blocking out the sunlight as indistinct claws grabbed her arm. The scent of ash appeared suddenly on the breeze, thick enough to taste, and any noise was drowned out by the pounding in her ears. 

As it loomed over her, one thought filled Yuria’s mind, drowning out any other. 

I messed up. 

Chapter Text

As the black mist moved and twisted, there was a faint growling at the edge of Yuria’s hearing. 

This can’t be happening! I killed you! Yuria screamed internally, throat too tight to make a sound. I saw you get ripped to shreds! How are you here?! HOW?! No, I must be hallucinating, I must be. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening! This isn’t-

She felt a dull pain in her arm. Dragged back to reality, she saw a second stream of mist reaching out from the body, hovering over her arm.

She saw a single red gash ripping through her sleeve and into her arm, as the dark mist pierced through. 

Yuria’s mind blanked.

One gash became two, then three, then four.

In that moment, for what may have been the first time in her life, Yuria truly knew fear.

She tugged on her arm frantically, futilely, too terrified to scream, every fiber of her being consumed completely by the desperate need to escape.

The cuts formed letters, banding around her forearm, and then finally, it stopped as it formed a word: FAILURE.

With a final yank, Yuria’s arm came free, and she fell backwards onto the ground. She looked up. The mist was still there.

“Yuria? Did you trip?” Hana asked. Yuria couldn’t hear her through the buzzing in her ears.

She scrambled to her feet, and took off in a dead sprint. Light posts, buildings, streets rushed past her, but nothing registered to her but the burn of her muscles and the dull throbbing in her arm.

Reaching her absolute limits, she stumbled into a park, and collapsed with her back against a tree. Her tear-filled gaze was locked onto the way she came, as she gulped breath after breath, preparing to dash the moment it caught up to her. A minute passed. Five. Ten. 

Nothing came.

What? Why? Why didn’t it chase me? Yuria thought weakly. Did I lose it? …No way, if we could have lost it, we would have lost it after the building. The only… the only thing I can think of is that it had a better target.

Hana.

It’s using her. I was just a speck of dust to it.

This isn’t fair! Why is everything so ridiculously strong?! I could have died! I’m only alive because I’m not even worth it’s time!

Holy crap, I should have died. I would have died. What am I doing?! Why did I even think I could fight that thing?!

Yuria looked down at the word carved into her arm, blood slowly oozing out of it.

Failure. It’s right. Those things are monsters. They’re deadly, and they’re unstoppable, and nothing I ever do will even slow them down.

Is this what Miko has been feeling from the start? Is this how the Godmother felt when she ran?

It… It’s over. I’m never becoming an exorcist. I was never even close. Is it even possible? Maybe every exorcist in history was a fake, and anyone who tried to do it for real is dead. 

Yuria slowly pushed herself onto her feet.

All I can do is wait. It’ll eat its fill eventually.

Wait and hide. That’s all I’m good for, I guess.

Yuria dragged herself through her front door, hand clenched around her arm to hide her injury. 

“I’m home.” Yuria called softly out of habit as she tried to make her way undetected. Unfortunately for her, her father was sitting on the couch with a book, and noticed her the moment the door shut. Worse, he also immediately noticed the way she was holding her arm, and he shot up, rushing over. 

“Yuria?! What happened, are you okay?” He fretted. “Let me see-“

“I’m fine.” She muttered defensively, jerking her arm away. Pushing past him, she rushed into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind her. 

With a heavy sigh, she leaned her back against the door, sliding down until she was sitting and letting her arms flop to the sides. 

Ugh, I didn’t manage to hide it. I’ll just have to deal with him worrying about me, I guess. It’s not like I can tell him it was an accident, and blaming a living person would do way more harm than good. The only realistic culprit they could find would be… me, I guess. He’ll be less worried this way than if he thought I did this to myself. 

… Well, I guess I did do it to myself, in a way. I can’t exactly blame anyone else for me trying to take on a giant monstrosity alone. 

Shaking her head, she rolled up her torn sleeve to examine her cut-up arm more closely than she had the opportunity to before. 

They were not clean cuts. They were unevenly sized, and the edges were jagged, with little bits of ripped skin flaring out, each one surrounded by an angry red. The bleeding had slowed, but still hadn’t stopped. Despite being so clumsily made, each cut was just as deep as the others, strangely enough.

The most unnerving part was how it didn’t hurt the way it should. It felt more like if she was hurt in a dream, her subconscious mind trying to come up with some kind of alternative to pain. It was like that when she first got it, too. 

Just to make sure, she pinched her cheek. 

Ow. Definitely awake. 

Some part of her wanted to buckle down and investigate, pick apart every possibility behind this phenomenon, but there’d be no point, anyway. It wasn’t like she could use anything she learned. 

Oh right, I’d better get this bandaged before it gets infected, or something. 

Reluctantly, she dragged herself up and started rummaging through the cupboard under the sink. She found a few boxes of various sized bandaids, but there weren’t any bandage rolls like she needed. At least she found some antibiotic cream. 

Should I just use what I have and hope for the best? I’d rather not, putting the sticky part directly on the cuts sounds dangerous, and would also probably hurt like crap. 

 Maybe I can treat this like getting injured in the wilderness, cut up my uniform shirt and use that? She took a look at it in the mirror. It’s too ripped for me to wear anymore, anyway. I’ll have to come up with some excuse for why it’s missing. 

She gave the injury a quick rinse, just in case, put the cream in her pocket, and went to open the door a crack to see if the path was clear. Once again, her father stood in her way, his spindly fingers fidgeting worriedly as he waited for her to come out. 

Left with no other option, she pushed through the door, past her startled father, and rushed into her room, locking the door behind her. It only took a few minutes for her to cut her shirt into strips, wrap her arm up, change into her spare uniform shirt, and hide the remaining scraps of cloth under the bed in case she needed to change the bandages. At least, that sounded like the way things like this worked. 

Finally, she flopped onto her bed, silently staring at the ceiling since she didn’t feel like doing anything. She felt like she was forgetting something, though. 

She shot out of bed, scrambling for her phone. Miko! Hana! Are they okay?! How did I forget about that?!

Pulling out her phone, she saw she had two missed texts from Miko, timestamped ten minutes ago

B spotted, doing shrine visit. 

Heard what happened from Hana. Please tell me you’re okay. 

Yuria quickly typed a reply. 

     I’m alive. And it’s A, too big to be B. Yuria replied. She got a text back instantly. 

Sorry, the number you are trying to reach is no longer valid. 

…what? I was texting her less than an hour ago. Did I get the number wrong? She scrolled back through their past conversations just to make sure she had the right number. She tried calling instead. 

“Sorry, the number you are trying to reach is no longer valid.” An automated voice told her. 

Did her mom miss her phone bill or something? Now of all times? That’s ridicu- Another idea sprung to mind. A terrifying, horrible, nightmarish idea. I mean, probably what happened! Yeah, there’s absolutely no way they could have been erased from existence suddenly by some sort of reality-warping ability! We’ll be laughing about tomorrow at school, for sure!

…I don’t actually believe that. 

Yuria thought she knew fear. Being pinned in place as her arm was carved into was the single worst experience she’d ever had. 

But the moment she thought that her friends were dead, because she ran away when they needed her most… It wasn’t just fear. Horror, shame, anger, despair, and frustration boiled and crashed against each other into a slurry that brought her to her knees. 

They’re fine. She deluded herself. The ghost probably left already. It, uh. She drew a blank. They’re alive, at least. They’ve gotta be. 

Wait. I’m an idiot. It has a cellphone blackout ability. It must have turned that back on since she texted me. She let out a heavy breath. Duh, that’s what’s going on!  Ugh, I panicked over nothing! All I have to do is wait until…

…Until what, exactly? Even if the shrine has a real exorcist with them, what are they going to do against something like that?

She’s not dead yet, but it’s only a matter of time. No, actually, neither of them are safe. Why did I just assume that it’d just leave Hana alone when it’s done with her? 

No one’s coming to save them. Nobody even knows they’re in danger. 

Nobody except me. 

There’s nothing I can do. I’m literally powerless in every possible way. Why… Why am I even so hung up on them? I’ve only known them for a few days. No one’s expecting me to risk my life for them. 

Who cares if Hana’s kind and brave enough to run into traffic to rescue a girl who tripped, or dive into a haunted building even though she’s terrified, just to save a dog? Who cares how cheerful and optimistic she is, or how she lights up the whole room everywhere she goes? 

Who cares about the occasional sarcastic comment that sneaks through Miko’s excessive politeness and introversion, or the way she sits on the sidelines in conversations, happy just to listen to her friends talk? Who cares about how she can look a corpse in the eye without flinching, then idly comment on a chick flick a moment later, or the way she smiles when she finally gets a chance to relax? Who cares that she’s constantly looking out for Hana every moment they’re together to make sure she never walks through a ghost, even though Hana would never be in danger, or even notice? 

Who cares that she… that she didn’t run, even against an army-devouring monster beyond my worst nightmares?

Nobody. There’s not a single exorcist out there that’d risk their life to save a couple high school girls. Nobody cares. 

Nobody… except me. 

Heart beating like a wardrum in her ears, she pulled herself up on shaking arms. Eyes wide and unseeing, she took one step, two, five, rushing through the house, out the door. Mind racing, she searched through everything she had ever learned, seeking any hint of hope. 

I don’t know what I can do. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do. But the one thing that’s absolutely impossible, is doing nothing. 

Please, please let there be a way to save them.

Chapter Text

The warm, humid summer air felt like fire in her lungs as Yuria rushed her way through the city, and with the heat of the sun beating her while she’s down, her clothes were already starting to get soaked with sweat.

Where are they? I know where they were, and I know they’re heading to a shrine, but that’s it. Nearest shrine to the meeting spot? I’ve got nothing else to go on. Will they even still be there by the time I get there?

Slowing to a jog, she pulled out her phone and did a quick search, checking the average travel time by walking, and doing some quick math in her head, adjusted for how Miko was probably trying to walk a little faster. 

They’ll spend about thirty-eight minutes walking, it’s been ten since I got that text, that gives me about twenty-eight to get there. 

With a few more taps, she checked how far she currently was. 

From here, it’s going to take about an hour of walking to get there, so I need to keep a pace of twice that the entire way. She hissed. Okay, I’m never lazing around in gym class ever again. This is gonna be a nightmare. 

Yuria took a moment to memorize the directions, before putting her phone away and picking up the pace, recalling and utilizing every tip and trick about running she had ever seen in anime, hoping at least some of them were based in reality. All she knew for sure was that sticking her arms behind her did not help. 

Now, I need to figure out how the actual heck I’m supposed to help against something strong enough to take on over a hundred ghouls and win. Even Hana would probably only be able to exorcize a dozen or so on her own, and Miko and I combined wouldn’t even get one. Fighting isn’t an option, and trying to trick it into a fight against something stronger would be even more dangerous, if we could even find anything. Fight or flight, so we need to lose it somehow. How, though? I already tried running, that didn’t work, we’d have to be faster than a car, at least-

Wait, when I got attacked that one time, wasn’t the monster standing in the road when the truck passed? They might not be able to interact with vehicles! We could get away without it hitching a ride. Call a taxi, get a few miles away, and then loop around back home. 

That might not be enough, though. It probably doesn’t know where we live, but it’s in the area. We’d just run into it again. Could we bait it by saying we’re going somewhere on the other side of the country, use its intelligence against it? It’s worth a try. Miko can keep an eye on Hana, and if it comes back, we can try something else. 

Maybe I don’t have any real supernatural powers, but maybe the mundane can still make a difference. 

With a plan beginning to form in her mind, Yuria spent the rest of the journey going over it again and again, adding details and creating contingencies all the while, until she saw the signature red arches on the horizon. Huffing and puffing, every muscle in her body ached as they tensed, preparing for the flight of her life. 

“They’re not here.” She muttered to herself after combing the area. She had even worked up the courage to ask a few passerby if two high school girls had come recently, but no one had even seen them. “Did they get here and leave way faster than I was expecting? No, even then, I’m pretty sure at least someone would have seen them. Did I get the wrong shrine?”

She pulled out her phone to double check the nearest shrines to their meeting spot, but as she typed in the words, she had an epiphany. I’m an idiot! Against something like that, you don’t just go for the most convenient option, you go for the one with the best chance of working!

Switching tracks, she leaned against the brick wall that blocked the shrine from the road, trying to condense her usual research methods as small as possible. 

She found a few options that seemed probable, but she kept going anyway. There wasn’t time for another wrong choice like this one.

These seem interesting, but none of them sound impressive enough to convince someone like Miko. Do I need to reword my search?

After a few tries, she still had nothing, but the steady march of time running out didn’t care in the slightest. 

I can’t just search every variation of shrine I can think of, and I don’t have time to get it wrong again. What would she pick? Actually, she doesn’t seem like the shrine type to begin with. I’m pretty sure she’d mention if she thought shrines or anything in them would have any effect on ghosts. So she found it by accident? What more generic search would she use?

Well, she doesn’t seem like she thinks she can fight ghosts herself, she’d probably wouldn’t try to find an enshrined weapon. Come to think of it, I kinda doubt she has faith in exorcists after the Godmother, so no shrine maidens either. All that’s left is… gods? It could’ve come to mind if she was desperate enough. 

‘Strongest enshrined gods’… she’s not looking for the most convenient option, but it can’t be too far either, so add ‘near here.’

… Crap, not one of these sounds even remotely helpful. The nearest one that might work is over a hundred miles away. Did she just go for a small one anyway? That’s my best guess for now, but one more try. 

Take away the antiques, shrine maidens, and gods, what is a shrine? At that point it’s just a place… Place. Spirit power spots?

With a final search, she skimmed through the results. A few dozen links in, she froze as she found one that simply read “Wish Mountain,” alongside a picture of a dilapidated, run-down shrine. 

“At a certain spot, deep in the woods, there is a place that has been abandoned by humanity for centuries. Despite that, the building still stands with only minor amounts of weather damage, in defiance of all possibility. It has been the subject of countless tales of legends, and it has been said that, if you are able to find it and pray to the gods enshrined within, any wish you make will come true, without fail.

It can be found at XX.XXXXXX, XX.XXXXXX.”

This is it, there’s no doubt. She put the coordinates into her phone and did some rough calculations in her head, not liking what she found. so I need to keep nearly triple my walking pace for twenty minutes to get there on time. This had better be right. 

She put her phone back in her pocket and broke out into a run. She could only hope that she had gotten it right this time. 

“Is… This… The place?” Yuria, hands on her knees, wheezed to herself in a forest, the shade of the canopy as much a balm on her overheating, overused body as the humidity was a bane. She forced herself to stand up, wincing as a ray of sunlight sneaking through the trees found its mark directly in her exhausted eyes. Though the chirping of crickets and rustling of leaves tried to distract her, she kept her hearing focused on scanning for friend and foe. 

Looking around, she saw nothing to indicate an ancient, mystical shrine was nearby, not even a dirt road. The path she took just seemed to end at the clearing she stood at, without warning. 

Great… They couldn’t even bother to finish the road. Am I just gonna have to search blindly until I stumble into it? Or wait, maybe I can just look for signs of which way Miko and Hana went, snapped branches, crushed bushes? That sounds a bit better. 

Picking a direction at random, she weakly limped off. Okay, just gotta make sure I remember where the road is and- wait. I’ve seen this in manga sometimes. Characters take two steps into the forest and they’re suddenly lost; and that’s just normal forests. This is hiding a legendary spiritual site, I wouldn’t be surprised if magic was involved, too. I’d better mark the trees as I go. 

She searched through her pockets for something to write with, before realizing that she had rushed off without preparing anything whatsoever, like a complete idiot. 

I saw someone use a knife to make gashes once… I don’t have a knife, but maybe I can find a usable rock?

After a minute or two of searching, she found a hand-sized rock half-buried in the ground, and used it to bash a gouge in a nearby tree. 

Tried to, at least. She had used every last ounce of her strength to get here in time, and all she could accomplish with what she had left was making a knocking noise, and almost breaking her foot with a falling rock. 

Huffing, she left the rock where she dropped it, looking for a smaller one, preferably one with a jagged edge. 

She took one step before she felt something stab her in the foot. 

With a yelp, she jumped backwards, running and hiding behind a tree. She peeked out, searching for danger. 

The forest was empty, save for her. That didn’t make her feel any safer. 

Looking at the spot she stepped on, she saw that the grass she had crushed underfoot revealed what she was looking for. Well, what she was looking for that moment, that’d be one unreasonably tiny shrine. 

Sighing, she slapped her cheeks a couple times, then walked over and pulled it out of the ground. 

It was a bit smaller than her hand, with a triangle shape and one sharp end that made it look like it could’ve been used as some sort of primitive tool. Yuria poked the sharp edge to check how sharp it was. 

Yuria quickly discovered that she had bad ideas and should feel bad. 

With a squeak, she jerked her hand back and stuck it in her mouth. 

Oookay, apparently rocks can get sharper than I thought. 

Regardless, she carefully grabbed it by the blunt end, and slammed it against the nearest tree with what little strength she had, this time leaving a nice, noticeable mark to guide her. 

She repeated the process as she progressed, and when she didn’t find any tracks within a few minutes, she followed her marks back to the trail. 

Picking another direction, and another, she scoured the entire area, but in the end, she found nothing indicating someone had been through. 

With the setting of the sun casting an orange glow onto the clearing, Yuria sat on the ground with her chin resting on her fist as she tried to work through her predicament. 

What does this mean? There’s too many options. I could be bad at tracking. Magic might be hiding the tracks. I could have the wrong place. They could have gotten to the clearing and then never- She shuddered. No. I can’t think like that. So, for the first two options, I just need to look harder. I don’t have time for that. The third, I need to figure out where they actually went and get there. I really don’t have time for that. Look harder it is. 

She went back to her first trail of marks, getting to the second before she felt… Something. An overwhelming, unnamable feeling froze her in her tracks, and examining it, it felt like it was coming… behind her. She spun around, searching wildly. 

Back at the clearing, she could see something floating in the air. It was like a small, white and yellow ball of fire, except the wisps of flame shot in every direction, not just up, as if it decided it was in space, not on earth. As she watched, it grew brighter and brighter… And then it exploded. She didn’t even have time to panic before it rushed over her, along with a spike of that nameless feeling that nearly brought her to her knees. For a moment, she thought she was dead. But with the light fading without her feeling any different as she felt before (excluding how it felt like her heart would burst from her chest), she walked forwards, trying and failing to understand even a fraction of what had just happened. 

Where there had once been an empty clearing, there now stood an old, weathered stone staircase, leading somewhere she couldn’t see. But now that she was closer, she could make out faint voices in the distance. 

“-so glad you had the idea to come here. That picture alone is worth its weight in gold!” A voice called cheerfully.

Hana.

“...Digital things don’t weigh anything.” A second voice replied, sounding exhausted all the way to the soul.

Miko.

They’re alive. It wasn’t just desperation.

It’s showtime.

She moved to stand at the bottom of the stairs, and waited to be noticed.

“They have emotional weight! That’s gotta count for some- Yuria?!” Hana yelled, jumping when she saw her, before rushing down the stairs as she continued. “You came back!”

Miko started after her at a steadier, if slightly wobblier pace. “Are you doing okay now? There’s nothing to worry about here, if you were wondering.” Miko asked when she neared the bottom.

Yuria blinked. Nothing to worry about?! Then what the heck is that thing following Hana?! A pleasant coincidence? Wait. Waitwaitwait. Does she mean she beat it?! Yuria thought back to the explosion of light, and the… teleporting staircase? Okay, whatever the heck did that might’ve been even crazier than it. I think that was straight-up reality warping. What the heck? I’ve been living with the supernatural my whole life, you’d think I’d be more used to weird things happening, but even I can’t wrap my brain around this. 

So, I don’t even have to do anything? This is probably the best possible outcome, but come on! I basically just went through my entire shonen manga MC origin story arc today, and for this?! It’s so anticlimactic!

“Ah, um.” Yuria muttered, trying to reorient her brain from crisis mode. “Yeah, I’m okay. I’m sorry for, uh, ditching.” She apologized, looking at Miko.

Miko shook her head. “I’m sure you had a good reason. No need to apologize.” 

“No worries!” Hana added. “I’m just glad you’re okay, it was kinda scary just seeing you bolt like that.”

“Haha, yeah…” Yuria trailed off.

After a few moments of silence, Hana continued.

“So, wanna go back up and do a shrine visit? You didn-”

“No!” Miko interrupted. At Hana’s startled look, she backpedaled. “I mean, why don’t we all go do something else together? Wouldn’t that be more fun?”

“Uh, yeah, let’s do that!” Yuria agreed. “Cmon, let’s go!” 

She took one step, and immediately fell flat on her face.

“Yuria!” Both of them exclaimed, rushing over to check on her.

“W-what was that? I thought you were okay.” Miko asked.

Yuria stared blankly at the ground, belatedly processing what just happened. “I think I ran too hard to get here in time. It probably doesn’t help that I went to a different shrine my first try since I didn’t know where I was going.” She mumbled into the dirt.

Hana looked at Miko accusingly. “I thought you said you told her!”

Miko blinked. “I did tell her? I said we were- Oh. I forgot to say which shrine we were going to.” She finished sheepishly.

“Miko!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Yuria waved off, face still stuck in the dirt. “I… should probably head home now, though.”

“Yeah, you’d better!” Hana chided. “Help me out here.”

They each grabbed one of Yuria’s shoulders, dragging her upright with her arms around their shoulders. As soon as she was upright, she shrugged them off, taking a few unsteady steps by herself. “I’ll be fine, I just wasn’t expecting it. You don’t need to carry me.”

“But what if you fall again on the way back? That’d be like, mega bad. We’ll go with you.”

Yuria gave Miko a side glance. “Still, two people is kinda overkill. Miko’s enough, if you wanna head home.”

“Well, I still wanna come! The more the merrier, right?”

“Didn’t your mom mention she had a surprise for you for dinner tonight?” Miko mentioned, butting in. 

“Know what, three’s a crowd, so I’ll leave you to it!” Hana said, already jogging off. 

Once Hana was out of earshot, Yuria sniggered softly. “Wow, she’s a simple girl, isn’t she?”

“Mhmm.” Miko said, distracted. 

There was a slight pause before Miko started walking down the path, Yuria following behind her. The silence lasted all the way through the forest, only broken by the return of chirping crickets that Yuria hadn’t even realized vanished in the first place. 

“…So. What the heck was that?” Yuria finally asked. 

“I don’t know. It was wearing a kimono, there were eyes on its chin, and it’s normal eyes were gone and dripping black, and it had for eyestalks, and walked on eight arms and two legs, and there were heads growing out of its back, and-“

“Okay, I repeat, what the heck was that, but right now I’m kinda distracted by you and Hana ripping open spacetime.”

Miko blinked. “We what ?”

“I spent like half an hour looking for you two. That staircase didn’t even exist, and you two weren’t anywhere nearby. Then there was this thing that looked like a fireball in space, and it exploded, and there you were.”

Miko was quiet for a minute before she let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. It wasn’t a normal shrine. If every shrine had something like that, I’d never come within a mile of another one ever again.”

“Like what?” Yuria’s eyes lit up as everything clicked. “There was actually something at that shrine that could beat that monster?! Tell me everything!”

Miko just looked away, contemplating. “You know how, in the past, people feared the gods more than they loved them?”

She stared blankly into the distance. “I think they were right.”

Yuria’s breath caught in her throat. “G-gods? You met actual gods?” She asked weakly. 

“No. Yes. Maybe? Know what, I should probably just start at the beginning…”

Chapter Text

Leaning on a pillar outside a bustling mall in the middle of the city, Miko had been playing a game on her phone when the text came.

b w hana hepl

A weight she hadn’t even realized she was carrying was suddenly lifted from her shoulders. ‘Thank everything, Yuria actually didn’t get eaten. Seriously, isn’t she supposed to be the ghost expert? This is the second time she’s done this. You don’t just fall asleep in the middle of a conversation without telling anyone, and then not show up to lunch the next day. Even if they get it right, what if they make a habit of assuming everything is okay?’

A little annoyed, she took her time writing her reply. If a bit of her frustration leaked through, that was probably fine.

Yuria’s reply was instant. 

not bee, B

‘What is that supposed to mean? It’s just a letter-’ Her thoughts froze as if she had been drenched in ice water as she remembered the previous week’s conversation. ‘Oh.’

Shooting a short text to Yuria, she desperately started brainstorming ideas for what someone like her could do to help. Like time and time before, though, her ideas were crushed and washed away by an overwhelming terror of what would happen if they failed. The world faded away as her breathing grew short and rapid, imagining all sorts of monstrosities that could be clinging to Hana, clawing, scrabbling, huffing-

Something bumped into her, and she jumped. “‘Scuse me, coming through.” The girl apologized as she rushed away. Now broken from her spiral, she refocused. 

“This isn’t the time to worry about what could go wrong. This is the first time Hana’s ever been chased by something this strong. Her aura, whatever it is, might not hold out. Doing nothing could be worse than any of those failures. Think!

Diving back into her mind, this time she found that beyond just what could go wrong, all of her ideas had already been tried and had each failed horribly. She’d have to come up with something brand new.

‘I’m gonna need something crazy strong for this. Can I search the internet for it? It can’t be that easy, but it’s the only option I have right now.’

Pulling up a browser, she typed in ‘strongest spiritual’, hoping the articles would fill in the rest, she investigated them with the fervor of a girl possessed.

She was already nearly half an hour past when they planned to meet when she found what she was looking for in an article called ‘Wish Mountain.’

‘If I wish for it to go away, will it? I don’t know. It’s my only chance, though. I can’t just pray to the gods to save me. If gods existed, things wouldn’t have gotten this bad in the first place.

Still, she kept looking through any article she could find, hoping to find a backup plan, or even better, a main plan that actually had a reasonable chance of working. 

Ten minutes later, she heard Hana call out to her. Though she knew she wouldn’t like whatever she’d see, she looked over anyway.

One look, and her mind froze over completely. She recognized it. It was the one with a kimono and eyes on its chin that she’d avoided yesterday, except it was even more grotesque and mutated than before. Why was it here? Did she make a mistake somewhere?

“Miko?” Hana asked. “Something wrong?” 

“No, no I’m fine.” Miko hastily replied. Now that her attention wasn’t entirely consumed by the monster in front of her, she saw something that managed to chill her even worse than before. 

“…Where’s Yuria?”

Hana’s smile vanished, shooting another spike of cold into her heart. “So, uh, I think she went home? I don’t know what happened, but she just kinda stopped in the middle of the street, and then sprinted the other way. I think she was crying, too. That haunted building must’ve been harder on-”

“Wait, haunted building?” Miko interrupted. 

“Yeah, a kid was crying because his dog ran in. We couldn’t leave him like that, y’know?”

‘…Oh.’ Miko thought. ‘Great. It must’ve just ate an entire ecosystem of ghosts! That’s what I’m dealing with?! It must’ve been too much for Yuria. Just look at that thing! If it wasn’t chasing Hana, I’d be running too. I don’t know what it did to scare her off, since she can’t actually see it, but she’s okay, right? If she did something to anger it, wouldn’t it be chasing her, not Hana?

‘Unless it was something besides this chasing her. 

‘… I’m gonna pretend I didn’t think that. One disaster at a time.’

“I guess there’s not anything we can do besides hope she’s okay.” Hana continued. “Anyway, it was really crazy that she managed to guess you’d be running late because your mom needed extra help. It’s like she’s psychic!”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, it was a crazy coincidence, wasn’t it?”

‘That must’ve been the story she gave Hana for why they should stop and get food.’ Miko guessed. 

“…Yeah, it was.” Hana replied. 

With the conversation seemingly over, Miko started walking, following the directions her map app was giving her. 

“Uh, isn’t the movie theater that way?” Hana asked, pointing to the right. 

“The movie theaters are closed today. I thought we could do a shrine visit instead.”

“Oh. Okay, that sounds fun! We should probably tell Yuria though, in case she tries to come find us.” Hana suggested. 

“Yeah, good idea.” Miko sent a couple texts, then switched back to reading the directions. “Let’s get going, then.”

“…Nothing really important happened after that, until we got to the shrine. It seemed pretty normal at first, but then I made my wish and these… kitsune appeared? They looked like humanoid foxes, but their faces were made of cracked porcelain, and they spoke in some language I couldn’t understand. 

“They trapped the monster in some kind of vortex of energy, and blasted its arms off. I thought it was over, but then it… killed and ate one of them, and the vortex collapsed. I thought the other one was going to be eaten too, but then this 

giant porcelain fox appeared, also see-through and cracked, and bit off its head in one bite with a mouth that opened like a flower, but with too many teeth. 

“And then they went for me, and I thought I was next, but they just, did something to me and left. I don’t know what happened, or if they’re friendly or not, but they’re absolutely terrifying. ”

Yuria stared at her blankly for a while. “So. Literal gods.” A few more seconds of shocked silence passed before she continued. “Think we can, like, contract them to help us fight? I’ve seen a few shows with ideas like that.”

Miko shuddered. “Please no. Where would you even start? Making the tiniest mistake would be apocalyptic, and success wouldn't be much better.”

“Well, off the top of my head, there’s writing their true name on a paper talisman and charging it with a crap ton of energy, then binding it to you with your blood, there’s beating it in a fight until it’s weak enough to be captured by a spirit container of some kind, and there’s just mutually beneficial deals, if it’s smart enough.”

Miko gave her a bit of stink-eye. “And how, exactly, would one accomplish any of that?”

Yuria opened her mouth- “Without putting yourself in extreme danger.” Miko added. 

“Um, library research to find the name?” 

“Trick question, summoning that thing at all is dangerous as heck. How are you sure it won’t turn on you the moment it sees you?” 

Yuria turned away. “Fine, I’ve got nothing.”

After a short pause, Miko switched the subject. “So, uh, anyway, what happened to you? The haunted building, and everything.” Miko asked. 

“Oh, right. So, Hana ambushed me outside of class…”

Yuria gave a brief overview, but was interrupted she reached the part about her grand plan and its failure.  

“What?! You intentionally angered one? Right next to Hana?” Miko hissed. 

Yuria flinched back. “I was making them fight each other! Isn’t that basically what you did?” She defended. 

“I- not on purpose! What if it attacked you instead? What if it attacked Hana? She wouldn’t have even known what was happening!”

“I was careful! I never let the big one know I knew about it, and I made sure I only got one of the smaller ones. If my plan didn’t work, Hana’s aura would’ve been enough to hold it off.”

“How are you so sure?”

“I’ve seen her hold off worse! Besides, what was I supposed to do, just let that monster follow her?”

“I mean, isn’t that exactly what you ended up doing anyway?”

Yuria flinched, hard. 

“I- I’m sorry, okay?! Not everyone can look death in the eyes without flinching like you can! You wanna know why I ran?! This is why!” She hissed as she pulled up her sleeve and unwrapped her bandage, holding her arm up to her. 

Miko choked, all of her anger and frustration freezing over in an instant. “It- it did that to you?” She asked fearfully.

Yuria glared. “Yeah, it did, and it was the scariest moment of my entire life. But you know what? This is the first, and last time I will ever back down. Don’t go thinking I’m some kind of coward.”

Miko drew back. “I didn’t- Sorry. I wasn’t trying to sound like I was accusing you of anything, I think I’m still on edge. I just thought, if it was just after Hana, there wasn’t any need to put yourself in danger too, was there?”

“Is that really what you think? Then why did you do exactly that?”

“I mean, I couldn’t just leave her like that, right?” Miko’s eyes widened in realization. “I guess… what we did wasn’t really that different, was it? I don’t agree with how you did it, but in hindsight, it was probably better than nothing. At least if you didn’t know about that shrine.” She blinked. “Actually, I didn’t know either, I just had a vague hope it would work.” She shook her head. 

“Anyway, sorry, and, uh” Miko was suddenly reminded of Yuria’s arm, and the injury that was still stomach-churningly visible even when it wasn’t being shoved in her face. “That’s bad. That’s really bad. Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Yuria jerked back in horror. “No way! Don’t even joke about that.”

Miko tilted her head with an expression of utter confusion, with a touch of concern. “Uh, did I say something wrong? It seems like a pretty reasonable thing to suggest in this kind of situation.”

Yuria, in turn, stared at her like she’d grown a second head, before pausing and shaking her own. “Right, newbie. I keep forgetting. Listen up, this is something every medium learns very early on: Avoid hospitals like the plague. They’re one of the most commonly haunted locations there are.” She paused, looking at her arm. “I should probably get this wrapped again though, thanks for the reminder. Maybe I’ll get some more antibiotic on it when I get home, just in case. ”

Miko stared at her for a while. “How can you just… deal with it like that? A ghost nearly killed you, and carved a message into your arm, and you’re just, completely fine?”

Yuria turned a little pale. “Jeez, thanks for the reminder. For your information, I’m not fine, at all. I’ve just decided I’ve got more important things than whether I’m fine or not.”

“Oh.” Miko said simply. They walked in silence for a time, the canopy of the forest far beyond sight as the city came into view on the horizon. 

“It feels really weird that we’re just, going back to our everyday lives like nothing happened.” Miko commented. 

Yuria slowly turned to stare at her. “That’s because it would be weird? It’s been barely a week and my life’s been in danger more times than I can count. You can’t just pretend nothing’s wrong. Speaking of, what are our plans for getting strong enough to fight back?”

Miko stared right back. “What are you talking about? You’ve seen what we’re dealing with. There’s no fighting that. All we can do is ignore them hard enough that they leave us alone.”

Yuria gaped. “You’re joking. You’re joking, right? That’s the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard. How long can you go until something doesn’t care whether you can see it or not, like, I don’t know, today?”

Miko glared. “Longer than you can last just, going right up and attacking them, that’s for sure!” She replied, a little defensive. 

Yuria scoffed. “What, do you think I’d just walk up to the strongest thing I can find and start punching? Heck no! I’m figuring out exactly what makes spirit beads work, how to make functional talismans and holy water, how I can use them effectively and safely, and then I’m working my way up!”

“How are you even going to do that? Didn’t you say you’ve spent your entire life trying? Even if you do, what if there’s something worse nearby that you can’t see when you try to use whatever you find?” Miko rebutted

“That’s where you were supposed to come in! If you were with me, we could… actually come to think of it, I can’t picture you fighting. You could just keep an eye out for trouble while I handle everything myself.”

Miko shook her head. “That doesn’t solve anything! It’d still be way too dangerous for you!”

“Hmm… Would it, though?” Yuria wondered as she stared at her bandages. “How big were the claws on that monster?” She asked, seemingly out of nowhere. 

“Huh? What does that have to do with-“

“It’ll make sense in a second,” Yuria interrupted. 

“Um, I think, like, twenty centimeters long?”

“How wide?”

“Uhh, a centimeter or two?”

“All of them?”

“They weren’t crazy different sizes, if that’s what you’re asking?”

Yuria started unwrapping her bandages again, feeling a little awkward with how she had just wrapped it a couple minutes ago. 

“Hey, what-“

“Take a look at this.” Yuria said, holding up her arm, much to Miko’s chagrin. “Isn’t there something strange?”

Miko turned a little green. “Everything?”

“The gashes are weird sizes.” She said, pointing to a few of them. “This one’s half a centimeter-ish wide, that one’s nearly two. It was pretty sloppy with the cuts. But here, look how deep they all are.”

Swallowing her nausea, Miko leaned in to take a closer look. “…they’re all barely more than skin deep. That… that makes no sense. I didn’t get a close look at the claws, but you’re right. There’s no way they could have made marks like that. Were we fighting different ghosts?”

Yuria shook her head. “I got a glimpse of it at the end. It was vague, but it was pretty much what you described. You know what I think?” She said with a grin as she wrapped her arm up again. “I don’t think ghosts can actually interact with the living as much as we thought. I think they’ve been more bark than bite this whole time.”

Miko’s eyes widened. “But- but how can you be sure? If you’re wrong you’re dead. Actually, even if you’re right, you’re still in a crap ton of danger. And what about when you got shoved into traffic? They could still get you that kind of way.”

“That only happened because I picked a fight in the wrong place. If I’m smart, I bet I can make sure there’s nothing they can use against me. And the cuts? ‘Tis but a flesh wound!” Yuria giggled with a skip and a twirl to the side to stand in front of her. “Aw yeah, I always wanted to use that line!

“Battle-scarred warrior princess isn’t exactly the archetype I was going for, but I can work with it. It’ll be awkward trying to explain to mundane people, but it’s still better than waiting until something gets the jump on me on the street.”

Her gaze grew focused as she gained momentum. “I’ve thought this through. I’m not trying to breeze my way through like I was before. I know the risks, and I’ve got plans to manage them.”

“There’s no way you could plan for everything. Eventually, something’s gonna happen, and there’s no guarantee you’d make it out the other side.” Miko argued. 

“Maybe. It’d be risky, yeah. But tell me, Miko. Don’t you want to see it? A world where you can step outside without worry? Where you can go to the movies with your friends, and never have a fight for your life get in the way? Don’t you dream of the world you thought you had before you learned the truth?”

With the sun setting over the city behind her, Yuria held out a hand, a cocky smirk on her face as her eyes sparkled with excitement. 

“Then come with me, and let’s crush anything that tries to stop us from making our dreams a reality.”

Miko stared at her with wide, unbelieving eyes. She opened her mouth…

…and doubled over in a fit of giggling. “Where did you st-steal that speech from?” 

Yuria felt her soul flee her body, alongside every shred of confidence she had built up. “H-hey, I came up with that myself! I, uh,” she looked away sheepishly for a moment, muttering,” may have used a couple scenes from an anime or two for inspiration,” She spoke up again, “But it was mostly me!”

Miko got her giggling under control, though she couldn’t erase the smile on her face. 

“I… don’t really like this plan. I don’t think I ever will. But… maybe I can give it a try. From what I’ve learned today, if we mess up, maybe… maybe it won’t be the end of the world. At least, not right away.”

Miko got a serious look on her face as she pointed at her. “If this doesn’t work, we’re doing it my way though, got it?”

“Yeah, sure.” Yuria waved her off. “I don’t plan on losing, though.”

Miko sighed. “That’s the best I’m getting, huh?”

“You know it!” Yuria grinned with a laugh. 

“We forgot to use codes.” Miko belatedly realized, halfway to the city.

Yuria nearly missed a step. “O-oh. Uh, whoops.”

Chapter Text

Standing alone on the second-floor outdoor walkway of the apartment complex, Miko pressed the doorbell for Yuria’s apartment, then stood back, leaning against the railing as she waited for a response. 

After a minute of having to repeatedly brush her hair out of her face while the wind kept blowing it back, which was less than she was expecting since she came five minutes early, the door creaked open, revealing a woman with severe bed head and the absolute worst fashion sense she’d ever seen. Miko wasn’t exactly one to talk there, but even she knew not to wear a rainbow tie-dye pajama top with multi-color patchwork plaid bottoms. For a second, she thought she got the wrong door, but the red eyes and blonde hair made her fairly sure this must be Yuria’s older sister. Except she said she was an only child, so maybe her drunk aunt?

The woman yawned despite it already being ten o’clock in the morning. “If you’re trying to sell Girl Scout cookies here, you might wanna try a different place. I already get all the best cookies I’ve ever had whenever I want, homemade.”

“Um. I’m not a Girl Scout? Yuria invited me for a movie night. Is she here?”

The lady froze mid-headscratch. “Wait, are you this mysterious ‘friend’ she keeps mentioning? I almost thought she was making it up!”

Miko laughed nervously. “Well, it was probably me or Hana - that’s our other friend - she was talking about. I haven’t seen her with anyone else, yet.” 

The woman lit up momentarily, before examining her closely. “Wait. Aren’t you the girl that knocked her out?” She glared, which was surprisingly way scarier than someone like her had any right to be. “If you’re coming to mess with her you’re gonna regret it.” She said coldly. 

Miko felt a chill shoot down her spine. With a deep breath, she bowed down at a ninety degree angle, saying, “I am so sorry about that. It was a huge misunderstanding and I regret it immensely. Please forgive me.”

There was a pause, before Miko felt something grab her by the armpits and lift her into the air, and her heart skipped at least three and a half beats. “Aww, how can I be mad at a girl as sweet as you! If Yuria’s forgiven you, so do I!”

This was about the moment that Yuria came down to check on the door. She and Miko locked eyes, and felt their souls exit their bodies in unison. 

“MOM!” Yuria yelled. “Put her down right now or so help me-“

The weirdo complied immediately. “Oops, busted!” She said, sticking out her tongue and knocking herself on head with a head tilt and no trace of remorse. 

Yuria rushed over in a flurry of apologies. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I forgot to warn you about my mom. This is a nightmare.” She shuddered, mortified. 

Miko was flushing heavily, but attempted to compose herself. “Oh, so she’s your mom? I thought she was a drunk, freeloading aunt.”

Yuria’s mother twitched. 

“Oh, sorry, that must’ve been very rude. Nice to meet you! Your husband must have been incredibly reasonable and well-mannered to raise someone like Yuria.”

She flinched. 

“She must’ve also gotten his fashion sense. Really, you’re so lucky to have married someone like him.”

Yuria’s mother stared at her blankly, then walked over to the couch and flopped down on top of it. “Yuria, your friend’s a meanie.” She mumbled into the pillow. 

Yuria, meanwhile, was too busy trying not to die from the fit of laughter she was currently engulfed in. “I’m-I’m so glad we’re friends right now! Hahaha, I’ve never seen her get roasted so hard!” She suddenly sobered. “But never say that I got my dad’s fashion sense ever again. He’s not much better than her.”

“Did someone call?” Came a voice from the hallway, which was revealed to be a man with a stick-like physique, a pink polo shirt one size too large, and khaki shorts. 

“Oh. My condolences.” Miko consoled. 

“It’s fine.” Yuria twiddled her fingers. “So. Um. Not that I’m like, against it or anything, but what brings you here today?” She blinked. “And uh, how did you know where I live?”

Miko squinted. “Because you invited me?”

Yuria scratched her head. “Oh, right! Last week! Ugh, I completely forgot with how crazy things have been lately.”

Miko giggled. “No worries, I completely forgot too, until Hana texted me to say she was gonna have to cancel.”

Yuria snapped her fingers. “ That’s why she texted me she was going to the dentist today! I thought it was just small talk, or something.”

Miko giggled. It’s hard to believe this is the same girl that was giving me the coolest speech I’ve ever heard just yesterday. Not that I’m ever telling her that, she’s got a big enough head already.  

“So, would you two like something to snack on?” Yuria’s father suggested as he walked over to a small kitchen area at the side of the room.  

“Yes, please.” Yuria answered without hesitation, before returning to Miko. “His cooking is pretty much the opposite of his fashion sense, you’re gonna like this.”

“Hey!” Her father interjected. “I’ll have you know this was all the rage back in the day!”

“Then wear it back then, and save the present from having to see it!” She retorted over her shoulder.

“Oof, you’ve got no mercy for your poor old man, do you?” He shook his head as he got out a large bowl from the cupboard. “Anyway, it’ll only be a few minutes, so would you like to show your friend around the house in the meantime?” 

“Oh yeah, she hasn’t seen my room yet. Let’s go!” Yuria said, grabbing Miko’s hand and pulling her along. 

After just a couple corners turned, Yuria flung open her bedroom door with a grand gesture. “Behold! My stuff.”

Miko blinked a couple of times at the numerous bookshelves filled with books, metal bed frame, and general gothic theme. “Huh. I was expecting something more colorful, and plastered with anime posters. Maybe some more mushrooms, too.”

Yuria scoffed. “What kind of image do you have of me? I’m the picture of grace and ele-“ She suddenly turned her head, flushing. “I completely forgot to be cool and mysterious the entire time I’ve known you.”

Miko snorted. “Sorry for the loss of your reputation, but good luck trying to get it back. It’d honestly feel really weird seeing you trying to be all dark and broody at this point.”

Yuria slumped. “I guess first impressions are pretty important, huh?”

“Well, not that important.” Miko replied. “You remember our first impressions of each other, right?”

Yuria blinked. “I’d almost managed to forget about it, but thanks for the reminder, I guess. Ugh, that’s gonna keep me awake at night for years.”

“You and me both.” Miko added. 

Yuria took a look around the room for something else to talk about, then paused, leaning in to whisper. “By the way, bug check?”

“Not that I can see, but we should probably keep being discreet, in case we get overheard.” Miko replied, starting to get used to speaking in code. 

Yuria paled. “Great, I didn’t think about bugs hearing us through walls. I mean, better than messing up, but that’s not a fun thought.”

“Umm.” Miko said. “I was actually talking about your parents, but that’s a good point, now that I think about it.”

“Oh. Well, good thing I misunderstood you, then? That’s a weird sentence.”

“Accurate, though.” Miko walked over to the bookshelves. “Anyway, what kind of books do you have here?” She picked out one from the top shelf titled ‘The Way of Silence.’

“Eh, that one gave me a couple of ideas, but they’re not really my best ones, and it’s a bit religious for my tastes. It’s pretty clear it’s basically just a life improvement book dressed up in exorcism analogies.” 

Miko blinked in surprise. “Huh. Do you know all of them by heart, or did I just get a lucky pick?

“I mean, knowing them by heart is a bit of a stretch, but why would I buy a book if I’m just gonna leave it on a shelf and forget about it?”

“Ask, like, basically everyone who buys books.”

“If people actually do that, then no thanks, I try to avoid talking to idiots.”

Miko chuckled as she put the book back to grab another titled ‘The Walls.’ 

“Hold on, I’m seeing a theme here.” Miko took a quick look through the rest of the bookshelf, realizing the vast majority were, in fact, occultisms of some kind or another. “Yep. Why am I not surprised?”

Yuria shrugged. “Probably because it’s basically all I ever talk about?”

“Good point.” Miko said as she opened the book in her hand and read a bit of the opening aloud. “‘Have you ever heard something fall over suddenly in another room, even though you’re the only one home? Have you ever felt something rustle through your hair, only to write it off as the wind, despite the deathly stillness all around? This is a story of a girl just like that…’ Okay, this is a bit too relatable, but I’m kinda interested now.”

“Wanna bring it home with you, then?” Yuria suggested. “I’ve already read it twice, and it’s a pretty good place to start learning about the occult.”

“Sure, thanks. If we’re going all in on your plan, I might as well try to pitch in.”

Yuria huffed. “Thanks, but I’ve got enough ideas for the both of us, so no need to rush.”

“I’m more of a quality over quantity person, personally.”

Before Yuria could come up with a retort, her door opened, revealing her father with a large plate of nachos. “Everything’s ready, if you’re done with the tour.”

Miko stared at the nachos. “Already? That thing’s huge.”

Yuria shushed her. “Don’t question it. He’s a wizard.”

Miko looked back and forth between them, before leaning over. “Like, genuine wizard, or was that a joke?” She whispered, completely serious. 

Yuria blinked. “Joke. Did that really need clarifying? Are we that far gone already?”

“Yes, apparently.” Giving Yuria’s father a thumbs up, Miko headed back to the living room/kitchen area, Yuria following after. 

“Okay, there’s this one anime I heard of recently that I think we’ll like. The title is basically just ‘Ghost Hunting’, so it sounds right up our alley.” Yuria, jumping over the back of the couch onto the cushions, grabbed the remote with one hand and a handful of nachos with the other, while Miko decided to take the two-second detour around. With the lights out, the light of the TV drowned out the beams that sneaked past the closed blinds as Yuria pressed play.  

Yuria was clutching her gut as the ending theme filtered throughout the room. “Wha- What the heck was that? It was so reasonable until then but then, just, random zombie apocalypse with the most cliche scenes I’ve ever seen?”

“I think it’s more the random superpowers that gets me.” Miko said, giggling. 

“I’m still holding out hope there, don’t crush my dreams.”

“Oh, really?” Miko asked. “What are you hoping for?”

“Time travel.” Yuria answered without a hint of hesitation or remorse. “It’s basically as powerful as it gets. You’re completely unstoppable as long as you have the will to continue.” Yuria put her head on her chin. “Though, that doesn’t really seem like a spiritual power. Maybe future sight? Being a seer seems like it’d fit with what we’ve got, and I could, like, practice fights and learn weaknesses in advance.” 

She sat up straight, turning to Miko. “What would you want for a superpower?”

Miko hummed. “I guess I’d like something that’d let me know where gh- bugs are without having to look at them. 

Yuria squinted. “Really? All the powers in the world, and you go with having a radar?”

“The more reasonable it is, the more likely it is to actually happen.”

“I mean, yeah, but this is just for fun! C’mon, wildest dreams here!”

Miko rolled her eyes. “Okay, how about invincibility, invisibility, flight, laser eyes, and the ability to plug in a USB right on the first try at least half the time.”

Yuria snerked. “Okay, slow down there. That last one is just completely unrealistic.”

“More unrealistic than time travel?”

“Absolu-.”

Yuria was interrupted by the show ending, plunging the room into darkness. She scrambled over to the lightswitch, stubbing her toe on a chair on the way with a yelp. 

“What was that?” Miko called in the tone Yuria was starting to recognize as the ‘there’s something going on and I’m terrified but I don’t want to show it’ voice”

She gritted her teeth, shoving the pain down. “I’m fine! Just stubbed my toe.”

“Oh, are you okay?” Miko worried, but Yuria could hear the relief in her voice. Good, there wasn’t actually something in the room with them, then. 

“Pshh.” Yuria said as she flipped the switch. “Of course I’m fine. How am I supposed to handle a fight if a dinky little toe stubbing gets me?” She was very careful to hide her limp as she made her way back to sit next to Miko.” 

“By not getting hit in the first place?” Miko suggested. 

Yuria paused. “Yeah, that’s fair.” She changed the subject. “Speaking of those kinds of things, we’ve got a nice, inconspicuous excuse to start planning right now.”

Miko turned her attention to Yuria, tensing unnoticeably. “Oh, right. Is this why you invited me?”

Yuria’s breath caught in her throat, feeling like she’d messed up somewhere. “Uh, um. Partly? I, uh,” she rubbed her head. “I know I really should be focusing on the thing , but I just, you know, also wanted to do an anime marathon with you? Two birds with one stone, and all.” 

Miko gave her a soft smile. “No, I get that. I mean, stuff like this is why we’re trying to get better, right?

“Uh, yeah.” Yuria said, fidgeting, before she shook her head and got back on track. “So, I’ve got a lot of ideas, but first things first we’re gonna need to figure out how to test them safely. I was thinking we scope out some out some E’s in empty places, then drop our tests on them, but make it look like an accident.”

Miko shook her head violently. “No, no way. The little- the E’s are weak on their own, but they sometimes have connections to B’s. We can’t risk hitting the wrong one and getting noticed.”

Yuria paled. “What do you mean, connections?”

“Like, this one time I followed an E that I thought was cute-“

“Excuse me, what? ” Yuria interrupted. 

“I know it was a dumb idea-“

“No not that, you thought it was cute? ” Yuria accused with a judging stare that made Miko want to shrink back. 

“Like, in a hairless cat kinda way. Those are cute, right?” Miko said, folding her arms. 

“That’s- I can kinda see that, actually.” She slapped her cheeks. “Ugh, I keep getting off track. This is too important for tangents.” She crossed her legs, put her hands on her lap, and turned to face Miko. “So, connections. Continue.”

“Uh, right. Anyway, I turned a corner, and I found a bunch of E’s on this B that looked like a giant, mutated E. I’ve seen a few like that, actually. Maybe we could call them EB’s, or something? Anyway, I think E’s like to follow EB’s around, and the EB’s would probably notice if something happens to one of their followers. We’re gonna need a different plan.”

Yuria had dropped her pose somewhere along the conversation, and was now busy staring at her lap. “Okay. Gotcha. E’s aren’t safe either. So should we go after D’s?”

Miko shook her head even harder. “That’s worse, actually. There’s this one time I saw a C harassing a D, and the D totally flipped out and tore it to shreds in an instant. I think some B’s can disguise themselves. One wrong pick and it’s over.”

Yuria clenched her fists. “Can’t do E’s, can’t do D’s, definitely can’t do anything higher, what’s even left?” She started muttering under her breath. “It’s not technically that either of them are too dangerous on their own, it’s the danger of the big ones behind them. Can we observe the D’s until we can figure out which ones are safe? At that rate, we could just do E’s instead. It would take ages though, is there anything faster? For E’s, it’s specifically that something might come for them. How can we figure that out on a case-to-case basis without putting ourselves in danger? 

“…Would those EB things come if the E’s got stuck on their own?” The gears in her head started spinning faster than her mouth could keep up, followed by her slamming her fist on to her open palm. “I’ve got it! We know that E’s are obsessed with shiny things, right? Let’s leave some glass jars with coins with them lying around where people won’t mess with them, and check on them from a distance every now and then. If you’re right about how EB’s will act, they’ll either pick them up out of them or stay there with them. Either way, we’ll know which ones are safe to experiment on.”

“That… sounds like it might work, actually,” Miko said with a note of surprise in her voice. “How’d you come up with it so fast?”

Preening, Yuria laughed with the pride of a particularly arrogant honor student. “I’m a genius, duh.”

Miko hummed. “Though, if the jars are supposed to be big enough that they can’t get out, how are they supposed to climb in? And won’t buying a bunch of jars for no reason be pretty suspicious?”

Yuria coughed. “Uh, yes, of course I thought of those too. Um. Aha! We can get some wood planks for ramps, which also ties into the cover story. How do you feel about getting into arts and crafts?”

Miko squinted, but there was a bit of interest visible underneath. “Like, actually, or just pretending?”

Yuria paused, taking a moment to mull it over. “Either, I guess? If we’re doing it for real, that makes the cover story way better. I’ve heard that the best lies are actually the truth.”

“Think we could get Hana to join us, then? It seems like the kind of thing she’d really enjoy.” Miko asked, a small, excited smile starting to form on her face. 

“Not unless you wanna bring her into everything else, too.” Yuria said, a little disappointed, herself. 

Miko’s smile dropped before it could even appear. “Ugh, right.  Also, can we stop making it sound like we’re criminals? Imagine if someone heard us talking like this.”

Yuria groaned. “When you figure out how, let me know. It’s been bugging me this whole conversation, but I can’t think of any better way to word these things.”

“I guess sounding like a criminal isn’t the worst thing to happen, though. Like, when something inevitably goes wrong with this. I can’t figure out what’s gonna go wrong, but it will.” Miko said with a long-suffering sigh. 

Yuria gave her the stink-eye. “What did I say about jinxes?”

“I thought that only applied to saying things like, everything is gonna turn out perfectly fine? If anything, it was an anti-jinx. Like when people say ‘Break a leg.’”

Yuria blinked. “Oh. I totally thought you were expecting everything to go wrong for no reason.”

“I am, actually, it just also works as an anti-jinx. The best lies are actually the truth, you know?”

Yuria chucked a pillow at her. 

“Hey, what was that for?” Miko asked with a smile, hands in front of her face as she leaned away. 

“Getting my hopes up, stealing my lines, being a snark, do I need to keep going?” Yuria listed her crimes as she lifted a second fluffy gavel of judgment. “Do you plead guilty?”

Miko eyed her shiftily for a few seconds, before quickly grabbing and tossing her own pillow with a cry of “Innocent!”

The trial devolved into chaos, as the few poor pillows in the room were cruelly converted into little more than ammunition. After a frantic battle lasting ten long, long minutes, a truce was called, the slightly-out-of-breath combatants disgracing their victims even further by using them as seats. 

“Ugh, we got off track again,” said Yuria with a grimace. “At least there wasn’t much left, anyway. When should we start on the plan?”

“Right after school tomorrow?” Miko suggested. “I’d like to get this part over with as fast as possible.”

Yuria nodded. “Me too, honestly. I’ll look for places that sell jars and planks first thing in the morning.” She paused. “I’ll also see if I can find any crafts projects that actually use those things.”

Standing, Miko gave her a nod in return. “I’d better be getting home now, it’s getting pretty late.”

Yuria checked the clock on the wall. “Yeah, okay. See you tomorrow.” Yuria replied, surprising herself with the note of disappointment in her voice. 

Miko didn’t seem to notice, however, as she gave some parting words and left into the night, leaving Yuria to her fantasies of power and prestige.

Chapter Text

Yuria rubbed her hands gleefully at the spread of glass jars on her desk. Some were empty. Some were decorated with a mosaic, made of broken shards of colored plastic. One of them was half-covered in poorly made paper vines. She never got around to finishing that one. 

The one Yuria was really excited about, however, was one containing a small, misshapen man, only partially visible, pounding at the glass, screaming its tiny, quiet screams. 

It had taken a few weeks for them to get their first catch. Yuria had had to re-collect all of their jars a couple days in after a close call, random jars with money and tiny old men in them a bit too conspicuous to be ignored completely.  A quick addition of a ‘Donation Jar’ label to ward off suspicion seemed to do the trick, given the sudden drop in ghostly attention when they were scouting. 

Then, even after they got one that had been untouched for a week, Yuria ended up getting tracked back to her house anyway. If she hadn’t been ignoring the jar whenever Miko wasn’t there, just to be safe, things could have gotten seriously hairy. Next time, they decided after sneakily dumping the failure, they were gonna wait two weeks instead. 

Finally, nearly a month of careful planning and work had come to fruition. All of their alibis were in place: Yuria and Miko were ‘messing around’ with a jar covered in paper talismans, just for fun. If it ‘just so happened’ to have an actual ghost in it, and they ‘just so happened’ to stumble onto a functional talisman by accident, they couldn’t be blamed, could they?

Well, they could, but hopefully the alibi would let any serious trouble eventually change their mind after getting ignored. 

“We’re clear.” Miko called from the doorway, drawing Yuria from her thoughts. 

She cackled gleefully. “Well then. Let’s get started!”

Yuria’s experiment log, day 1: 

From what I’ve found online, it seems that most traditional paper talismans are made by writing the name of a spirit, or an enshrined god. Yeah, no. Not even trying that after the last ‘god’ Miko ran into. To start, we’re just gonna be coming up with magic-sounding sentences, if it’s just the intention that matters, maybe mess around with some poetry stuff to see if it’s the structure of the words that matters more than the words themselves. 

Day 2: 

No luck so far. Ugh, I was so looking forward to beating up bad guys with long, dramatic chants. Let’s keep trying. 

Day 3: 

Still nothing. I think we’re gonna have to shelf this idea for now. Next attempt: Buddhist sutras, Shinto legends, and a few other religious things. 

Day 4: 

Some of the sutras actually managed to get it to shy away. It didn’t seem to hurt it, even when we turned the jar so it couldn’t escape, but this is the first time since the prayer beads that we’ve been able to do anything at all! Woo!

Day 5: 

We’ve got the foundation, now to figure out how to weaponize it. 

Origami: no effect

Custom sutras (made from pieces of effective ones): doesn’t work at all anymore. 

Lots of talismans: doesn’t seem to be any different from the effects of single one. 

Quality ink and paper: slightly better. It’s a little more desperate to get away from those. 

Quality works, but quantity doesn’t? It might mean that these sutras aren’t based on a measurable amount of power. Something more abstract? Maybe it’s just that purer things are more effective, in general. 

Day 6:

That was close. Miko caught a C coming for us just in time for me to clean up, but then the E started jabbering at it, and I could feel my hair standing on end. Thank everything for Miko’s quick thinking, she pretended to get into a pillow fight with me, and one ‘just happened to’ land on the E, shutting it up. 

It took hours for the C to give up, though. We’ll be keeping some heavy-duty mufflers on hand from now on, that’s for sure. 

Day 7:

Holy heck, Miko is a beast. Barely a day after bailing me out, she apparently got axed in the head by a B and still managed to keep her cool enough to not blow her cover. She wasn’t even sure it would pass through, she just closed her eyes, tuned it out, and hoped that we were right about sight and the thing’s ability to hurt. 

This is huge though! I was right! I’m not about to be walking up the Shrine with my eyes closed, though. We’re still not sure if the thing’s malice towards you has anything to do with it, and besides, trying to completely ignore three-ton abominations doesn’t exactly sound like a walk in the park. 

Oh right, this is an experiment log, not a diary. We’ve done everything we could think of with the talismans, except the obvious but probably-gonna-get-us-killed one, so we’ve moved on to gestures. 

I spent three hours doing anime poses at a jar. 

Miko watched. 

I don’t wanna talk about it. 

Day 8:

Hana finally found out that we’ve been sneaking off together. We’d been making sure to spend time with her every now and then, coming up with excuses when we needed to check on jars, but apparently, Miko’s mom has been chatting with Hana’s about how often she’s been coming to my place, and it ended up getting slipped to her. 

I managed to come up with an excuse, saying that we were kinda embarrassed about being into arts and crafts. It was a bit of a hit to my pride, but still better than the truth. I’m not sure she was completely convinced, but at least she dropped it. 

One problem, though. Hana wants in. How are we supposed to get anything serious done when we’re trying to tiptoe around her? This would be so much easier if we could let her in on the secret, but honestly, I agree with Miko. She wouldn’t take it very well, even if she did believe us. 

On the plus side, though, having to go back to talismans let me come up with a new strategy: Custom-built Kanji. I found this online dictionary of the meanings of each individual line and component (which kinda blew my mind, since I didn’t even realize there was any), so I’m gonna try using them to create words specifically tailored for what I need, and use those in my incantations. Not sure if it’ll do anything, but there’s a chance. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow, there wasn’t enough time left today, even after Hana left. 

Day 9:

Yes! Yesss! They’re working! Around half of the talismans I’ve made suddenly started being able to outright burn the E’s! I’d suspect it was something else going after it, but Miko confirmed it was completely legit. Is this because Hana came over? Are they absorbing some of her power?

It’s amazing, but I’m so confused. I tried some tests to see which talismans are the most damaging, but the only pattern I’ve found is that all of the most damaging ones were on my desk, closest to Hana. Does it really not matter what’s written, as long as it gets charged? I can’t even find out either way, the target eventually had too much and disappeared. 

Wait. Wait wait wait, why do I sound upset about it?! That was my first successful exorcism, ever! Oh my gosh, I did it! We did it!! Miko isn’t nearly as excited as I am for some reason, but who cares?! I’m an exorcist!

Update: Apparently, the death cries of something slowly being burned to death makes her really uncomfortable. It doesn’t help that it’s happening because we’re testing experimental weapons on helpless humanoid subjects. 

You know, when I put it like that, this all sounds like the plot to some sort of dystopian sci-fi novel. Are we the bad guys here?

Nah, no way. 

Day 10:

I tried making some new talismans. These ones failed completely. It’s official, the functional ones had absorbed some of Hana’s aura. I’d better invite her again tomorrow. 

I came up with a new idea for talismans, though: magic circles. Can’t believe I missed those, they’re a classic. 

Tomorrow, I’ll be setting up stacks of different kinds of talismans, separated by how far they are from Hana. Hopefully this will give us a better idea of how they actually work. 

Day 12: 

I’m starting to run a bit low on funds, even with the support my parents are giving for hobby stuff. Turns out, charging stuff is just as much of a burden on Hana’s stomach as warding things off. I’d feel really bad if I drained her and then made her pay for food, so I bought a big stash of snacks, which she has gone through completely in one day. On the plus side, the extra boost she gets while eating seems to be making the talismans a bit stronger.  

Anyway, back to the experiments. We had to get two more subjects to get through all the talismans, but I’ve got some pretty good data.  

First, they get way more effective the closer they were to Hana. I pretty much knew that already, but it was good to check. It also looks like we’re already hitting the limit of how much power they can hold, since some of the ones I pulled away half an hour early were just as strong as the ones I left.  

High-quality ink and paper, as well as good handwriting, also seemed to help with every kind of talisman. After that, the order of effectiveness is like this:

Sutras

Magic circles

Shinto legends

Custom kanji

Written chants

Origami

Bible verses 

It’s kinda weird that the Bible was so ineffective, since I see it used so often in exorcist movies. Is it because the subjects are Japanese? Would the effectiveness be reversed on Western subjects? But the magic circles are more of a western thing, aren’t they? Are they universal, somehow?

I don’t have any answers, but we’ll be finding them soon enough. 

Speaking of answers, since we’re pretty much done with talismans, we’re moving on to testing holy water—though we’ll be substituting distilled water, since we don’t really have access to any priestesses. I’m looking forward to it. 

Day 14: 

Excuse me. What the heck? This isn’t even fair. Like, a tablespoon of Hana-charged water has the same effectiveness as an entire talisman. It loses its power pretty fast, though, so I guess it’s kinda balanced?

We ended up trashing the last of our usable subjects, though, and it’ll be a while before we’ve got more safe ones. I guess we get a bit of a break for now? 

I’ll still be trying to sneak stacks of talismans near Hana until we can get back to experimenting, though. More weapons can’t hurt, right?

Day 15:

Today was an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget. 

Me, Miko, and Hana were walking around the school, when we bumped into our English teacher, who’s going on maternity leave. 

At some point, this squiggly slug-looking thing came out of her, and me and Miko both jumped to thinking she had been possessed. I was scrambling to think of how I could get home and grab our talismans as quickly as possible while making Hana stay as close to her as possible, Miko was trying to ignore it. You know, the usual. 

And then it got worse. 

It floated to her stomach and… attached itself to her belly. I don’t know if there’s a word for it, but it looked like a parasite from a horror movie.

Honestly, it’s terrifying enough when they’re after us. Seeing something going after an unborn child… There’s no words to describe it.  

At this point, Miko changed her mind and tried to warn her—indirectly, of course. That’s when we found out this was her second pregnancy. 

That was also when it started glowing gold, fading, and we both figured out exactly what was going on. 

This is the second time I’ve seen a peaceful passing, and honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. That kind of haunting, melancholic beauty has a way of sticking in your mind forever. 

Ughhh. ‘Haunting.’ That was absolutely terrible, and I’d like to make it known that that was completely unintentional.

Right, this is a science log, not a diary. We’ve found out from this that Hana doesn’t burn the good ones, which is a huge relief. I was getting pretty worried about Miko’s dad. 

Now, taking a break while we wait for a few more test subjects to be prepared. 

Day 20:

Crap. We’ve got a problem. 

Miko’s little brother is getting haunted. It’s only a D, maybe low C, but he’s getting tired, and Miko’s having trouble being near him. We’ve already tried inviting Hana over, but it just avoids her. Hiding charged talismans in his room at least lets him be safe at home, but it just keeps coming back and following him whenever he leaves. We’ve only got one option left. 

We’ve got to exorcize it.  

I don’t know if what we have is enough to take it down, and we don’t know what’ll happen if we fail, and the haunting keeps going. It could attract the attention of something way worse, and her brother could get caught in the crossfire. 

I know it’s kinda sucky for me to be thinking this, but I’m starting to get pumped. This is it! This is the moment I can finally chase my dreams, start taking names and saving lives! Plus, think of everything I’m gonna learn from getting real experience! This book’s gonna get filled in no time flat!

We’ve got everything we could possibly have. Plans, backup plans, and backups for the backups. A huge stock of talismans and holy water. As much practice using them as we could fit in three days. The burning determination of ten thousand suns—that’s all me, by the way. 

My heart’s beating like crazy right now. I’ve been waiting my whole life for this. 

It’s time to be an exorcist.

…

…

There are no further entries. 

Chapter Text

Taking Out the Trash

As Yuria fiddled with the pair of belts attached to her waist, ensuring the bottles of charged water were still firmly attached, she scanned the street, then took a peek in the bag she held, making sure that her scrapbook of charged talismans hadn’t suddenly vanished. 

She’d been to this place multiple times before, but like a hospital with flickering lights, Miko’s neighborhood felt a lot different at one in the morning, lit only by a few scattered streetlamps. The fact that Miko’s house was literally haunted didn’t really help either.  

How long is it gonna take her? Yuria wondered as she started pacing in front of the entrance. It felt like it’d been an eternity, and after the fifteenth time a cricket’s chirp made her jump out of her skin, she was just about ready to barge her way in and drag Miko out herself. 

Seriously, how hard was it to come up with a way to excuse herself for an hour or two? To be fair, Yuria’s the one who said she’d rather stand outside than deal with the movie marathon they’d set up to keep Miko’s brother and Hana busy for a while, but still!

In a moment where her back was turned, the door slowly creaked open. She spun around, hand shooting to a water bottle as she analyzed the situation. 

Miko had finally come out, nerves on full display as she gave a half-hearted greeting. Don’t scare me like that! Yuria screamed internally, pointedly ignoring how she had been demanding this exact situation just moments prior. 

From just behind the door frame, came a gritty, distorted groan, reminding her why she was there. 

Plan A, step 1. 

“So, you need help with groceries?” Yuria said, following the cover story they had set beforehand. “I’ve only got a couple hours free, so let’s get going. Is Hana coming?” 

Yuria peeked past Miko pretending to look for Hana. Just as she predicted, their target had decided to follow Miko when its usual haunt became off-limits. 

She had seen the freakshow a few times before, but as she made sure to stare past it, instead of at it, she was reminded just what an ugly piece of work it was. It may have been a janitor in life, based on its uniform, but now, she could only call it an ‘it,’ not a ‘he.’ It had three arms, the third sprouting forward from its stomach, scrabbling blindly at the walls. Both of its eyes were dragged up from its sockets to its forehead, as if glued there to hide its massive amount of balding. To top it all off, its head was permanently snapped to the left, just past ninety degrees. 

“Nope, she’s staying with Kyousuke,” Miko explained, more for the ghost than for Yuria. 

“Ah, gotcha. Let’s get going, then,” Yuria said as she turned back. As she did so, she swung her bag around, making sure that it just barely brushed past the creature.

The results were immediate, and significantly larger than Yuria anticipated. It took all of her willpower to not jump at the shriek that pierced her eardrums from less than two feet away. 

Miko was not as prepared, and ended up flinching, hard. Luckily for her, she had stepped to the side of the door, and was out of its view just enough to be safe.  

Without a glance back, Yuria walked ahead, taking the lead with confidence she really, really did not feel at the moment. 

It took a significant amount of willpower not to turn around and take a look, but she couldn’t afford the slightest bit of extra attention drawn to her. They were balancing on a knife’s edge here. Just a bit too much, and the entire situation would devolve into dumpster fire territory. 

After a few minutes of walking, she moved onto the next step of the plan. 

“Do you think it’s gonna rain tomorrow?” Yuria asked out loud, a code meaning “Did it take the bait?”

“Uh, probably?” Miko replied after a short delay. 

It did, Yuria translated. Looks like everything’s going smoo- no, no jinxing it! 

Even though there hadn’t even been a minor hiccup yet, some part of her was internally screaming its head off. Something about a ghost stalking her just made the long, twisted shadows cast by the mailboxes and decorative trees so, so much worse. 

She shook her head, distracting herself by mentally double-checking she was going the right way. 

They made it to their destination without any kind incident, catching Yuria off-guard. She had thought it was almost inevitable that they’d be ambushed on the way, and have to figure out a way around it, but the streets were strangely quiet that night. Lucky break, she guessed?

Much like the streets, the park they had decided on was something otherworldly at night. Past an empty plain of grass, shadows cast on the ground by swaying leaves could easily be mistaken for thousands, millions of squirming black insects, ones far too large to be natural. Lit by a lone lamppost was a gravel pathway, winding from the road, through the trees, as it faded into black. 

Every breath felt like a trespass in the stifling darkness, the smell of cool, fresh air fading into nothingness, as she almost mistook a passing breeze for a hand on her shoulder. 

No, that actually was a hand on her shoulder. 

It wasn’t Miko’s, either. 

Stay cool. It’s just your imagination. Don’t pay it any attention. 

As she recentered her mind, taking a step away from reality, she distantly noted how the weight on her shoulder vanished, though she wondered if it could still be there, unseen. 

Aaand the hand was back. Empty thoughts, Yuria, empty thoughts. 

Okay. We’re here. We’ve got an open, yet secluded area, an alibi, equipment, and a plan. It’s go time. 

Plan A, step three. 

“Hey, mind waiting here?” She called to Miko. “I think I forgot something at the park today, I’m gonna go take a look.”

Miko just gave a small, “Mhmm,” not trusting herself to speak. 

Leaving Miko behind on the sidewalk, Yuria walked towards the lamppost, wanting to avoid a battle in the dark. The footsteps that followed behind her echoed in her ears, far louder than should have been possible on soft grass. Within seconds, the shadows under her feet made way for light, and she stopped after a few more steps. 

“Crap, I think my shoe’s untied.” She whispered just loudly enough for the monster behind her to hear, heart pounding in her ears as she set her bag on the ground in front of her. Discreetly, she grabbed her scrapbook, peeled three cardstock talismans off of it, holding them loosely between her fingers, minimizing contact so that the adherent wouldn’t stick to her too much. 

With that, she stood up, leaving her bag on the ground as she held the book in one hand, talismans in the other, and—

Plan A, step four: action

She spun around, hand following to slap her talismans onto the ghost’s face as she burst into a sprint, darting to escape its reach as fast as possible.  

One hand grasped uselessly at Yuria as two others reached for its face, scratching, as it screamed, an echoing cacophony that made its previous one seem a whisper in comparison. With a full-body flinch, Yuria clutched a hand to her ear on reflex, an extra step just enough to keep her footing as she pivoted, turning to face it.

With the ragged, filthy sound of tearing flesh, it ripped the talismans from its face, leaving black, oozing flesh in its place, its right eyeball torn away in turn, and scorching the tips of its fingers to the bone. Yuria’s mind raced like the engine of a car fleeing a hurricane. Surprise attack failed, plan B.

Peeling another talisman from her book, she threw it, a move she’d been practicing ever since her first failure all those weeks ago. The first slammed into it, but was knocked away by a wild swing, fluttering to the ground. So did the second, and third, but the fourth found its mark, attaching to its hand, the ethereal flesh beneath sizzling, evaporating. 

It had had enough. With a distorted cry of pain and rage, it rushed towards her, ignoring the second talisman that found a mark at its ribs. 

There wasn’t time to throw a third. Heart ramping up to a fevered pace, Yuria closed her eyes, held her book forward, and, with a dulled mind and a warcry to drown out the ghost’s own…

Leapt through the monster coming for her. 

She barely even noticed the book getting ripped from her hand, overwhelming adrenaline keeping her focused and dulling the pain blooming in her eye, leaving her free to slam her foot down, pivoting as her free hand grabbed one of her bottles. She released the latch, and a stream of charged water followed her spin, splattering the patwork burns covering its back and soaking into its right leg.  

Its screams reached a fever pitch, and it stumbled, head snapping backwards over its shoulder to stare at her with its one remaining eye, a baleful, mindless glare. Every part of its body twitched erratically, impossibly. Its mouth opened and closed randomly, muffling its screams in an offbeat rhythm.  

Panting, Yuria wiped the blood out of her eye and forced herself to stand tall. “Wanna learn how the trash feels when it gets taken out, huh? It’ll be my pleasure.” She quipped with a manic grin, hand reaching for her belt. 

It shuddered, head flailing like the world’s creepiest inflatable tube man, then burst into motion.

Only, it was running away from her this time. 

Yuria blinked, hand stalling in place. Plan E, then. Wasn’t expecting to need this one. “Oh no you don’t!” She yelled as she darted after it, its injuries slowing it just enough. With a kick, she dropped its bad leg out from under it, grabbing its arm and using both as leverage to topple it onto its face. Or chest in this case, as its face flopped around to its back, teeth gnashing as it stared blankly at the stars

With a crack, Yuria stomped down on its back, just avoiding the teeth and pinning it to the ground. “Thirsty? Here, have a drink!” She screamed as she pulled out her final bottle, opened the latch, and shoved it down the monster’s throat. 

It bucked like a raging bull, but she held her grip, as glowing veins appeared all across its body, thrashing wildly, desperately, until the lines grew blinding. With a final, vengeful screech, the veins burst, leaving Yuria tumbling to the ground, nothing but white mist remaining in the ghost’s place. 

She fell to her hands, gasping for air. A second passed, then two. 

And then, she started laughing. She choked, switching into a coughing fit, then continued to laugh as she rolled over onto her back, holding a fist to the air. “Haaahaha! Yes! Suck it, trash!” With a burst of energy she didn’t even know she had, she jumped to her feet, running over to Miko, a bright, beaming grin on her face, and sparkles in her eyes. 

“Did you see that? I was like, slam, zoom, whish, and it was like, aaaa! And I was like, “Get phased, idiot!” And it was like, “I’m out of here,” and I was like, “Have a drink before you go!” It felt like I was in an action movie!”

Throughout Yuria’s giggling rant, Miko just stared at her, eyes wide. “Yuria… your eye…” She whispered, horrified. 

Yuria blinked, pulling out her phone and opening the front-facing camera. 

The dark made it a bit awkward, but after wiping a bit more blood away with her sleeve, her smile faded away as she found two ragged scars running from her left eyebrow down to her cheek. 

She closed her right eye, looking around. “Vision’s fine,” she noted to herself. 

She looked back at the screen, and then, her smile returned in full force, twice as bright as before. “This is anime as heck.”

Miko choked. “Wha- that’s all you have to say? It could be permanent! You could have lost the whole eye! How are you gonna explain—”

A sudden gust of wind knocked Yuria into Miko, who caught her, stumbling a few steps back in the process. 

“Srry,” Yuria mumbled into Miko’s chest, trying to pull herself back upright. 

Miko only gripped tighter. 

After a few moments of struggling, she managed to pull her head up, gulping down a gasp of air as she did so. “Hey, um.” She looked away, flushing. “Sorry for worrying you, but you can let go now, you know—” Her instincts blared at her, and she actually looked at Miko’s face.

She knew that look. Miko wasn’t looking at her. 

She was looking past her. 

It clicked, and as she turned around, she saw it. 

A near-invisible mass of black smoke, backlit by a faraway streetlamp, loomed over them from feet away. 

“I forgot to look up.” Miko whispered to her, grip tightening further. 

Oh. So that’s why it was so quiet today.

Chapter Text

As streetlights cast stark shadows on the sidewalks through the moonless night, Yuria felt the once open air constrict on her, the lightless building to her back seeming to compete with Miko in suffocating her. 

In front of her, the vague, unnervingly familiar mist twisted and swirled, the light behind dancing through the gaps in a way that would’ve been hauntingly beautiful if she wasn’t in mortal danger. 

On the edge of her hearing, she picked up a whisper. No, a chorus of whispers, echoing and overlapping each other, over and over again, in a mindless chant. 

“We knew. You see. We see. You saw. We saw. You see. We know. You saw.”

Like the flash of a knife through her heart, a realization burst through her mind, dragging her heart lower than she could have thought possible. 

The wind.  It’s that first one, the one that pushed me into traffic. This wasn’t just bad luck. It came here for me, and me alone. 

Yuria flinched as the wind picked up once more, and she saw the mist swirl high, disappearing into the night sky. She had no delusions that it was gone.

Something within her screamed, and she moved before she could think, shoving Miko away, overpowering her grip in a burst of desperation. Looking her in the eyes, Yuria mouthed a single word:

“Run.”

She felt an impact from behind, throwing her into the wall. Even as the breath was knocked out of her, a distant, detached part of her was strategizing. She twisted, curling into a ball, hands defending her head as the wall defended her face.

A cut tore through her jacket, slicing into her back with a clarity unlike any other hit she’d taken, and she forced herself to choke down a scream. 

It’s not real, it’s not real, her mantra tried to drown out her mind, to block out the world, but the pain came once again, the strike’s sudden weakness doing little to prevent it from undoing all of her efforts. Again and again, her mantra was shoved back into place. Again and again, it shattered like glass. 

Finally, she came to a realization, hitting her like a train crashing through a tree. I’m going to die here. A second gash tore through her back, as her defenses fell apart at the seams. 

I hope Miko got away, she whispered in the back of her mind, as she waited for the next attack. 

But it never came. 

She took a chance, peeking over her shoulder to see— 

Her senses returned to her, and she realized that someone had been screaming ever since the assault had ended. 

Miko had been screaming. Hurling strange insults Yuria couldn’t make out, taunting something Yuria couldn’t see. 

Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, she saw Miko bolt away, as if the devil himself was on her tail. 

Seconds later, the black mist followed suit. 

“No,” Yuria tried to scream, but all that escaped was a strangled whisper. “No, no, what the hell, Miko?! If they’re stronger the better you can see them then—then that thing could rip you in half! Why didn’t you run?! Why—” She doubled over, falling onto her hands as she coughed and choked. She forced a gasp, and tried to stand. “I need to get to her. I need—”

“Yuria?!” Someone’s faltering voice came from behind her. She spun around, hoping against all hope that Miko had managed to lose it somehow, and had already returned. 

Instead, she found Hana, still in the pajamas she wore to the movie night, hands covering her mouth as she stared at Yuria, eyes wide and unbelieving. 

“Oh- oh my gosh, why- what happened?” Hana stumbled over her words as she rushed over, examining her wounds, and drawing a gasp from Yuria as she tried to help her stand. “Sorry! Sorry. Where- where are you not hurt?”

Wordlessly, she shook her head, forcing herself up, then collapsed, tipping over into Hana, who caught her gingerly as she winced. 

Yuria shook her head, putting her hands on Hana’s shoulders, and looking her in the eyes. 

“Listen to me. You need to get out of here. Now.” Yuria choked out, barely more than a whisper. “Please. You’ll be in danger too.”

Yuria felt Hana’s heartbeat quicken, even as her face hardened. “Everything’s gonna be okay,” her hand reached for her pocket, “Let’s get out of here and call the police-”

“No!” Yuria croaked, snatching her wrist. “Don’t. They’d only put themselves in danger, too.”

Hana’s hands began to shake, but she pulled them back anyway. “What’s going on? Please, just tell me.”

Yuria’s words caught in her throat. “It- it came out of nowhere, I- I tried to get her to run b-but she just—” Her pupils dilated, and she started struggling to get away. “She’s in danger, so much danger, I need to get to her, let me go—”

Hana held her in place, gently, but firmly. “You stay right here.” She commanded, somehow sounding imposing even through the shaking that permeated her whole body. “You’re in no condition to go looking for anyone. I’ll find her, and we’ll be back before you know it.” Her words turned to a mutter. “I swear to god, if I ever find the dickweed that did this to you, he’s gonna wish he was dead by the time I’m done with him.”

Yuria couldn’t help it. She laughed, a wet, hacking laugh that threatened to send her into another coughing fit. “S-Sorry, you’re a f-few centuries late.”

Hana blinked. “What’s that supposed to—”

“Hana?” Miko’s voice came from behind them. Yuria spun around faster than any of them could blink. 

Somehow, Miko was standing, right there, like nothing had even happened, a bemused look on her face as she seemed to—

As she—

As she seemed to glow with an ethereal—

Yuria felt her heart stop. 

And then, it became a thunderstorm. Her breath came quick, shallow, not enough, bile rose in her throat, her eyes unfocused, the world fell away, and she fell, collapsing to her knees, as her mind blanked, and—

“Yuria!” Miko’s voice came, distantly, as if it was just her imagination. 

No. Please, no. It was supposed to be me. It was my fault, it was supposed to be—

Suddenly, arms wrapped around her shoulder, and she was jerked into a hug. “Snap out of it. We’re safe.” Miko spoke directly into her ear, voice crisp, clear, and real. 

Yuria’s eyes snapped open, as she felt the arms around, solid, and warm. Afraid to even hope, she reached a hand up to Miko’s cheek.

She made contact, and finally, she truly saw. 

She saw Miko, right in front of her, opaque, and she saw the flickering lamppost in the middle of the park, backlighting her, creating the illusion of a glow. 

She paused for a moment. And then, she started giggling incoherently, choking on every other breath. “You- you’re here. You’re alive. I was- I was just seeing things. I was actually just seeing things, for once. I never could have imagined I’d be so glad to be wrong.”

And with the laughter leaving her system, Yuria felt the weight of the night crashing down on her. She collapsed, leaning on Miko’s shoulder as she cried, Miko breaking down on hers just the same. 

In time, their tears dried, and looking Miko in the eyes, Yuria launched a rapid-fire interrogation. “Are you okay? Is it coming back? Do we need to run? How did you even get away in the first place?”

Miko took a while to answer, looking a little dazed. “Well—“ 

“Is what coming back?” Hana interrupted. “Miko, make it short, we need to get Yuria to the hospital-“

“No!” Yuria instantly yelled, before quieting. “No hospitals. Please.”

Hana winced, but relented. “Okay, no hospitals, I’ve got bandages at home. Can you tell me what happened though? Please?” 

All Hana did was look at them, but her gaze somehow made Yuria feel condemned, like she was being interrogated on trial. 

“I think we should tell—“

“It was a bird—” Yuria and Miko both spoke up, after a few moments of uncomfortable tension, cutting each other off. 

Hana gave Miko a confused look. “A… bird. A bird did all this?” She said, gesturing to Yuria’s injuries. 

“It was very big, and very angry,” Miko tried to defend herself. 

“Okay. What kind of bird was it?

“Uh, I don’t know the species, but the feathers were black, fading to gray at the tips, it had a white head, and some yellow along the bottom of the beak. It was also pretty much all bones. Maybe it was starving, and that’s why it attacked?”

Hana seemed to take a few moments to mull it over, before slowly sighing. 

“Miko… all this tells me is that, at some point, you got really good at lying.”

She froze. 

“I know you two have been hiding something from me, and I’ve suspected it for nearly a month. But we don’t have time to argue. Right now, helping Yuria is more important than interrogating you. Yuria, can you walk?”

Shakily, Yuria put a hand on the ground, then winced and jerked it back, which caused her to hiss in pain, which then turned into a wet cough. Changing tactics, she slowly tried to stand using her legs alone—and immediately toppled forward, getting caught by Hana. Finally, she stood on her own feet, and took a few experimental steps. “Yeah,” she croaked, “It’s mostly my arms and back that got messed up. I can walk just fine.”

“Good. Miko, stay on her other side in case she trips. Follow me.”

Miko fell in line, and the three of them headed down the street. 

“I will be getting an explanation later, right?”

Miko’s silence told her all she needed to know.

Chapter Text

Sitting on a low-rising bathroom stool, with her modesty kept by a towel held firmly to her chest, Yuria hissed as Miko poured a bucket of warm water over the dozens of cuts on her bare back. Her hissing immediately cut off, making way for a whistle as she tried to play it off. It might’ve been less embarrassing to just admit that she was in pain, in Miko’s opinion, but who was she to judge? 

Miko had been near-obsessively vigilant on the walk back, but thankfully, it had been unnecessary. They’d had to take a detour to a 24-hour convenience store when Hana had realized she didn’t have enough medical supplies at home, but for the most part, all they had to deal with was a tense silence, and the occasional groans of pain that rose from Yuria as the adrenaline started to wear off. 

Currently, it was just the two of them, as Hana was still tied up distracting her mother for them. It’d almost looked like she’d just spill everything right then and there, but a pleading look from Yuria had been enough to get her on their side, for now. 

What on earth am I going to tell her? Miko wondered as she grabbed a handful of disinfectant wipes. Looking at what she had to deal with, she couldn’t help but wince. The smaller scratches were bad enough, looking like a particularly nasty raccoon attack, but two lacerations stood out like a sore thumb. Each crossed nearly her entire back, starting at the shoulder, ending at the opposite hip. Unlike all the other injuries Yuria had gotten, these looked natural, almost—as natural as arm-length gashes could look—like she’d had a close call with a broadsword, instead of a giant, six-headed amalgamate of undead birds. 

Speaking of, if Miko didn’t have enough proof before, that abomination was undeniable evidence that god was dead. 

It crawled on its feathers like a centipede. It was just, completely uncalled for. 

She shook her head. Right, bandages. She’d done a bit of research on the way to Hana’s place, and she could already tell that they really didn’t have nearly the equipment or expertise to properly handle something like this. Blood loss didn’t seem to be an issue, due to the slow, unnatural way Yuria was bleeding, but they were gonna need more than bandages if she wanted to avoid scarring.  

“H-How cool are they g-gonna look when they scar?” Yuria groaned, a hint of excitement leaking through.  

Clearly, she didn’t. 

For just a moment, Yuria’s question took root in her mind, and Miko considered the large, dramatic X covering her back, one that would have fit right in as makeup on some action movie star. It didn’t help that Yuria actually had her hair down for once, giving her a wild, untamed look that just added to the aesthetic.

“It’s gonna look so cool,” some small part of her whispered. 

That part was immediately punted off a cliff. 

Instead, she deadpanned, “It’s gonna look like a spork.” 

Yuria froze. “What?! No! Let me see!” she demanded, temporarily forgetting that she was in excruciating pain as she tried to turn around. 

She got an instant reality check to the face for her troubles, and she yelped as her back stretched, making it just that much more of a mess. Her attempt ended immediately. 

Ignoring Yuria’s pleas for a mirror, Miko grabbed a few disinfectant wipes, as well as a box of butterfly bandages she’d been lucky enough to find, to try and pull the sides of the gashes together. She didn’t do the best job, in her opinion, but it would have to be enough. If Yuria was to be believed, hospitals were even more dangerous to mediums than poorly-treated injuries, and even if they made it through, they’d still have a truckload of unanswerable questions to deal with.

Miko would have to look into taking that first aid elective. She just hoped this was the last time she’d need it. 

“How are you handling this so well, by the way?” Miko ended up asking as she worked. “With this kind of injury, most people wouldn’t even be able to think, much less joke about it. Is getting hurt by a ghost just that different?”

“M-most feel weird more than bad, yeah, but the b-big ones feel like… actual pain, or something. M-must be some combo of how angry it is and how aware of it you are. I’ve always had a p-pretty high pain tolerance, though. N-not sure why.”

As she put the final touches on the prep work, Miko’s face scrunched up for a moment. This next step felt kinda awkward, somehow. She shook her head. A real doctor wouldn’t get embarrassed. Why should she? Grabbing a roll of bandages, she started. 

“Drop the towel,” Miko ordered clinically. 

“H-huh?” Yuria sputtered, only to be ignored by Miko, who gave her a flat look. 

“Unless you’d prefer having it under the bandages?”

“O-oh, right. B-be gentle, ‘kay?” Yuria, as if only realizing what she’d said in the aftermath, gained a deep scarlet flush, as well as a blank, mortified stare. Miko just rolled her eyes as she got to work wrapping her up. Just after she said she had a high pain tolerance. Guess she can’t act tough all the time, Miko thought. 

“Uh, t-the bandages, I m-mean,” Yuria sputtered, suddenly unable to look Miko in the eye. 

“Yeah? What else would I need to be gentle about right now?” Was her bemused, deadpanned response. Somehow, this seemed to only worsen Yuria’s sudden awkwardness, as she slowly froze into a raspberry popsicle.  

Seriously, what’s going through her head right now? She’s so random some- Wait. Just then, Miko remembered hearing that phrase before, on a… certain kind of website, and realized how her last sentence might have sounded.  

Suddenly, her attempts to keep her composure by pretending she was a medical professional lost traction. “T-try again when you don’t look like a woodchipper safety example,” she tried to joke. 

Suddenly, Yuria’s frozen face was on fire, mouth opening and closing soundlessly as she gave her best impression of a small, particularly mortified fish. 

And there it goes, floating away in the breeze. Bye, composure. Enjoy watching me stick my foot in my mouth even harder. 

“T-the jokes, I mean.”

“O-oh, right. Save the j-jokes. That makes sense,” Yuria stuttered, still unable to look her in the eye. 

And with that, they fell into an awkward silence. You know, the type where you’ve pretty much said everything that needs to be said, but you’re both still reeling so hard that it feels like nothing’s changed, like you have to say something more. Miko briefly considered trying to come up with a way to change the subject. 

Instead, she decided to ignore it, hoping it would eventually go away on its own. She had more important things to deal with than a couple of misunderstood… jokes? Yuria had just been making some immature jokes, right? 

Right?

Yuria awkwardly fiddled with the mesh of cloth bandages that now served her as an undershirt. Normally, she’d probably be obsessing over how freakin’ awesome it probably looked, maybe trying to find a trenchcoat to complete the look. 

The fact that she wouldn’t be able to look at herself in the mirror right now was kind of a letdown, honestly.  

I’ve been corrupted, she despaired with her head in her hands, I watched one too many fanservice episodes, and now it’s infected me. Why did I think skipping them would be like quitting halfway through? Why was the trashiest scene I’ve ever seen the first thing that came to mind? Never again. Ne-ver. 

She snuck a quick glance at Miko, who was currently trying to untangle a new roll of bandages that had, somehow, tied itself into a massive knot on the way there. She looked away immediately, face burning. 

And why’d she have to say it like that?! She thought, remembering the perfectly reasonable words that, to Yuria’s corrupted, filthy mind, were twisted into something that stretched a bit beyond fanservice. She was all, like, cool, and confident, and stuff! It was like—like she knew exactly what she was saying, and meant every word! She’s not even embarrassed! You’re supposed to be a stuttering mess, saying things like that! It’s just not fair! 

Why am I getting so worked up about this, anyway? She reflected in a moment of self-awareness, I can handle dirty jokes and changing rooms just fine! What’s so different about this?

She paused. 

Do I have a thing for getting bossed around?

She shook her head frantically. No. No way. I’m the boss, I don’t get bossed! My head’s just woozy from the pain. That’s gotta be it. 

Oh, right. Pain. 

As embarrassing as it had been, the whole misunderstanding had been remarkably good at distracting Yuria from the fact that she was, currently, thirty to forty percent open wounds. 

Did she do it on purpose? She wondered, glancing at the girl, who was currently so entangled in a mess of knots that she had trouble moving. Maybe she read that distracting someone can make it hurt less?

Wow. She’s good. That was the most distracting thing I’ve seen in months. 

After a moment’s pause, Yuria’s mind finally caught up with Miko’s current predicament, and she stifled a sudden snort. Wait. How’d she even manage that?

The bathroom door slammed open, snapping Yuria out of her amusement, then shut just as quickly as Hana slumped down against it. “Okay,” she sighed, “I think Mom bought my explanations, for now at least. How has it been going with- uh.” Hana finally took a look up from the tile floor, and noticed how Miko’s arms were currently sitting in her lap, tied together and immobile. “Um. Need some help there?”

Miko nodded sheepishly. 

After a few minutes of careful work, Miko finally had a usable roll (and usable limbs) to work with, and Hana helped them finish up.

Sadly, Yuria’s shoulders ended up needing a full wrap, so she couldn’t quite get the lithe warrior/ninja look she was hoping for. Still, with a long sleeve shirt, she’d be able to get a nice dark, dangerous look going, so she wasn’t too torn up. 

Emotionally, at least.

With an eyepatch as a finishing touch, which Yuria was absolutely ecstatic about, she stood up to try and find a mirror. Her mind was already spinning, filled with dozens of outfits, hundreds of ways to incorporate her wrappings, and maybe one or two eyepatch-based one-liners to use.

Before she made it anywhere, Hana’s hand on her shoulder stopped her in place. 

“Let’s head to my room, ‘kay? Yuria needs a shirt, and it’s about time you two told me what happened out there.” She paused. “You will tell me, right?” 

It didn’t sound like a question. 

Yuria shared a glance with Miko, whose face was dawning with the same realization. Right. She’s not forgetting that easily.

This is gonna suck. 

Chapter Text

Hana’s room was pretty much exactly what you’d expect from her. Bright, pink, and about three times as fluffy as strictly necessary. Yet, even as Hana sank into her oversized, extra-soft bean bag chair, the expression on her face was enough to turn even that environment into something… intimidating, almost. 

 
Yuria and Miko had taken the bed, Hana sitting across from them with her legs crossed and her hands on her lap. To anyone else, it might have looked like a teenage sleepover. 

 
To Yuria, however, it was clear. This was an interrogation. 

 
“Where do you want to start?” Hana asked politely, attempting to put on a calm, understanding smile to ease the tension. It didn’t reach her eyes. 

 
Okay, explanation time. “Hey, I know I said I wasn’t coming to movie night, but I just so happened to run into Miko at the grocery store, and we just so happened to get in a fight with an eldritch monstrosity that ended up mauling me. Please, ignore everything that happened today.” Yeah no, she already knows something’s up. Any kind of ‘nothing-to-worry-about’ explanation is gonna make me sound crazy, after all my rambling at the park. What, am I supposed to blame some non-existent gang? 

 
She quickly glanced at Miko, who was currently fiddling with a fold in the blanket as she made her own attempts to explain it all away. She didn’t seem to be making much progress, either. 

 
Yuria’s attention drifted back to Hana, who was just sitting there. Menacingly. Like a mob boss waiting to— 

 
Wait. 

 
Now that Yuria was actually looking, Hana didn’t seem to be handling this very well. Her hands were clenched hard enough to shake, and there were hints of tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes. 

 
Yuria was struck with the sudden realization that this was the girl who, just last week, had screamed and hid under the covers at an advertisement for a horror movie, and had needed a whole three hours to calm down.   

 
And here she was, trying her best to put on a brave face.  

 
And here they were, trying to figure out the best way to lie to her.  

 
Why were they lying, anyway? Yuria couldn’t see the worst of their world either, but she would’ve hated it if she’d been kept in the dark all this time. Didn’t Hana deserve the same respect? 

 
Hana, seeing their hesitation, decided to make a suggestion. “How about we start with the time we got chased away from the movies?” 

 
Miko’s eyes widened. “How—“ She cut herself off before she could say anything more.  

 
“I wanted to see your reply, so I was looking over Yuria’s shoulder when you were texting. Also, I checked online when I got home. The theater was open all day,” Hana said, answering the partially asked question, the words tumbling out.” 

 
“On top of that, Miko’s been jumping at shadows for months, and the both of you have been going out on patrols around town every few days, and even though I can’t figure out what, I’m absolutely sure there’s something going on with those ‘arts and crafts’ projects of yours. I was going to wait for you to tell me, but just- just look at what happened!” She shuddered, as her facade started to crack.” I need you to tell me. Are you…”  

 She gulped. “Did you get blackmailed into a gang, or something?” 

 Yuria blinked, not noticing the hurt look that crossed Miko’s face. And then she starts laughing. “A-a gang! Me, and Miko, in a gang! Where’d you get that idea? Just look at her! Can you even imagine this absolute cinnamon roll as a— “ 

 Just to spite her, the image instantly popped into her head. She imagined Miko, wearing a long skirt and a leather jacket, with a bat over her shoulder and a disinterested scowl. “And what, exactly, would I need to be gentle about?” Yuria heard her say.  

 
She shut up, red spreading across her face like a tomato that had just gotten stepped on. “…she’d, uh, look really good with a bat, honestly, but, um, no. No gangs here.” 

 
Hana sighed in relief. “Good, I-I have no idea how to handle something like that, honestly.” 

 
Hana fell silent, but there was an unspoken question in the air: “What actually happened, then?” 

 
As the seconds passed, it seemed clear that Miko wasn’t inclined to answer it. Yuria though? 

 
She was sick of all the lies.  

 
“I’m not sure if you’ll believe us, but—” Miko’s hand slammed over her mouth, turning the rest of Yuria’s sentence into confused mumbling.  

 
“Miko?!” Hana yelped, caught completely off-guard. Yuria, of course, was similarly shocked, and in the process of turning to give Miko a nasty glare.  

 
Her indignation only lasted a few seconds, though. Where she’d expected an aggressively defensive holdout, stubbornly clinging to her secrets even when they’d been revealed, instead, she found a shaking, vulnerable girl, almost as shocked at her own actions as Yuria and Hana were. The hand on her mouth fell limply back to the bed.  

 
“…Is this about how easily I get scared?”  

 
Miko’s flinch told Hana she’d hit the nail on the head.  

 
“I know I’m bad with scary things,” Hana admitted, “I-I’m barely keeping my cool right now, if I’m being honest. But if avoiding my fears means I’d have to pretend my friends aren’t getting beaten up, that they don’t have to run away to keep themselves safe… I’d rather be terrified for the rest of my life.” 

 
Miko’s facade started to crack. “I… I can’t… Yuria was one thing. She keeps putting herself in danger, I thought she’d be safer if she knew what was going on… I couldn’t protect her, and if I can’t protect you either then… what am I even good for?” 

 
Hana’s face softened. “So many things, enough that it would take me all day just to say them, but…” Hana gulped. “You don’t have to stop. Protecting me, I mean. If it’s... If it’s really that dangerous, then we can protect each other. All of us. Wouldn’t that be better?” 

 
Even still, Miko looked torn, trying to find a way to let everything go back to how it used to be.  

 
“Miko…” Yuria says, putting a hand on hers. “Even with everything that’s happened, I’m still glad you told me, back then. She already knows the consequences, even better than I did at the time, and she still made this choice. Even if she wasn’t already a part of this, she deserves to know.” 

 
Miko put up one final defense. “Will she even believe us? You didn’t at first, even though you had half the story already.” 

 
Yuria sighs. “I know. That’s gonna be the hard part.” 

 
Hana added her own thoughts. “Of course I would! Miko, I’ve known you for years. Whenever you’re having trouble, you always try to play it down and pretend everything’s fine. You’re not the type of person to make things up for attention. Whatever you tell me, at worst, I’ll think you’re downplaying it. Honestly, at this point, I’d even believe it if government assassins were after you.” 

 
Miko and Yuria share a look. “This… is a little crazier than government assassins. I would’ve preferred that, honestly.” Miko says with a wince.   

 
Hana’s brain bluescreens. She looks at them for a while, brain rebooting, only to crash a second time. “Um,” she says when it finally turns back on, “Well then. Whatever’s going on, there’s no way it’s as crazy as the fact that you literally just said you’d prefer having assassins after you. That, like, doesn’t even compute.” 

 
Miko finally broke. Hands shaking as she took one last look at Hana, she inhaled deeply. And then she shut her eyes, her words rushing out before she could lose her nerve.  

 
“Ghosts are real, they’re everywhere, and Yuria and I can see them.”  

The long silence that followed said more than Hana ever could.  

 
“…what?” She finally whispered.  

 
The crack of Miko’s hope shattering was nearly audible. “Forget I said anything.” 

 
“N-no, I’m not saying I don’t believe you,” Hana tried to repair the damage, “it’s just… Just… I’m having trouble processing it, I guess? Ghosts. Really?” 

 
“Yep. Horror-movie-style, not the Casper kind,” Yuria joked morbidly in an ill-advised attempt to lighten the mood. 

 
“At least try to ease her into it!” Miko hissed, momentarily forgetting her attempt to pretend she hadn’t said anything.  

 
Hana paled, and Yuria could practically see the denial pouring off of her in waves. “A-are you sure you’re— “ 

 
“If you’re about to ask if we’re seeing things,” Yuria interrupted, “Take a guess how likely it is that two people hallucinated the exact same thing, without even knowing each other, for two months straight.”  

 
Hana shut her mouth. “It- it makes too much sense. All the weird things you two do, if you’re reacting to things I can’t see... But, ghosts? Ghosts aren’t real, right? Right?! Maybe they’re, like, holograms, or something? Illegal eye implants? Invisibility tech that doesn’t work on some people?” 

 
Yuria snickered. “I feel like those would be even less likely than ghosts, honestly.” 

 
Hana’s eyes drifted to the ceiling, unseeing. “Ghosts. Actual ghosts.” She gasped, her attention locking back onto Yuria. “Wait. My lights are flickering, like, all the time. Is my house haunted?!” 

 
Yuria and Miko shared a look, instantly letting Hana know they were trying to hide something. Again. 

 
“It is, isn’t it?!” 

 
“W-well…” Miko stumbled over her words, breath quickening, before Yuria took over for her instead. 

 
“It’s more like you're haunted. Like, constantly.” 

 
Hana blinked dumbly, her mind grinding to a halt.  

 
And then, something snapped. Yuria jumped away as Hana’s already-quickened breathing turned into a desperate struggle for air, and she clutched her knees to her chest with her eyes darting around the room. “Wha- me?! Why?! A-are they here now? They are, aren’t they?! What do I do what do I do what do I do?! Go away go away go away go away—“ 

 
As Hana retreated to the corner of the room, Miko clenched her fists, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “This is why I didn’t want to tell her! Why’d you make me?!” She hissed, choking. 

 
For a moment, Yuria’s thoughts stalled, unable to process anything that just happened. 

 
And then, Yuria felt the world fall out from beneath her, an empty void forming in its place. 

 
She’d messed up. She’d been trying to respect Hana by giving her the whole story, not dressing it up or cherry-picking the best parts. Instead, she’d just been callous. 

 
This was her fault. She should be the one to fix it. But how? She’d always focused on figuring out how to fight the bad guys. How was she supposed to stop both of her friends from having breakdowns at the same time?  

 
Had she watched an anime episode like this somewhere? She’d had to, right? She couldn’t remember. It probably involved some black-haired guy saying all the perfect words, in all the perfect ways.  

 
She opened her mouth and tried to say those words, even if she didn’t know them herself.  

 
Nothing came out.  

 
Oh… Great.  

 
Now there’s three girls having breakdowns.  

Chapter Text

Yuria could vaguely recall the door opening and closing somewhere within the past few minutes. Probably. She couldn’t see very well at the moment, only bits and pieces of the room visible past the knees tucked to her chest, and the hair falling over her face. 

Was it weird that she was starting to get used to the feeling of utter defeat? How many times had she failed like this, so badly that she couldn’t muster even a shred of hope? She couldn’t remember. 

If she’s losing count of her failures after the first fight, if she’s making her friends fall apart the moment she opens her mouth, where is she getting the idea that she could be an exorcist? 

What an arrogant, delusional piece of crap. 

She had no idea what she was doing. Anything she had managed so far was pure luck. Idiot. She should just give up—

Her hands slammed to her cheeks, ignoring her injuries as they screamed at her. Get a hold of yourself, Yuria! Enough of this quitter’s talk, I’m not about to be some kind of tragic, hopeless side character! I‘ve got no idea what I’m doing, but that’s not an excuse to do nothing!

She shook the hair out of her eyes and took stock of the room. 

Empty. Both of the others must have left at some point… Wait a moment. She could hear faint, labored breathing coming from somewhere. Hana probably wasn’t going to try leaving the room in her state, so it must have been Miko that left. 

Game plan: help Hana calm down, then go find Miko. Miko should be fine once Hana’s better. At least, I hope so. 

Yuria moved to get up, and suddenly, the breathing stopped. Crap, she’s jumping at every noise right now. I don’t actually need to find her, right? I’ll just talk to her from here. 

“Hana?” She called. Not expecting a response with just that, she continued, “I- uh, sorry for freaking out like that. And freaking you out. And Miko. Um. Just, it’s not as bad as it sounds?”

A few minutes of silence later, Yuria’s mouth was already halfway when a hiss came from the closet. “What do you mean, not that bad?! My house is haunted, I’m haunted, you’re haunted, everything’s haunted! Why are you so calm?!”

Perfect. She finally had some leverage. Making her way over to the closet, she sat down in front of it. “W-well, everything’s one-hundred percent ghost-free at the moment. You can come out, okay? It’s safe.”

“You hesitated! There’s something there, isn’t there?!”

Did she stutter? Crap, she must not be as recovered from her breakdown as she thought. Quick, what kind of evidence did she have? 

She spoke a little more slowly this time, trying to stamp down on any nervousness in her voice. “Sorry, I’m still trying to recover from… you know. I’m telling the truth. I wouldn’t be talking about ghosts so openly if there were any around.”

There was a pause. “You’re telling me they can hear when you talk about them?! How is that supposed to make me feel better?!”

Welp. One step forward, two steps back. Maybe she could use this for now, clear things up later?

“It’s not. That’s how you know it’s the truth.” There, that sounded confident and reliable, didn’t it?

The room was quiet for a time once again. “W-Well, what if something comes later? I’ll be in the open! Nuh-uh, no way, not leaving!”

Dang it, why was she so paranoid? Like, being terrified is one thing, but she was acting like she was actually in danger! Ridiculous. No ghost was getting through her—

…

Yuria had forgotten to tell her about the aura. So, uh, whoops. 

Yuria took a few moments to figure out how to best explain, before an idea popped into her head. 

An idea characteristic of only the trashiest anime protagonists, but aren’t all the best ideas like that? 

“Did you know that, when I first met you, I honestly thought you were a goddess? Or at least an archpriestess of some kind.” Flashy, cheesy, and completely out of left field, just how Yuria liked it. Hopefully it was enough to snap Hana out of her negative thought spiral, at least for a moment. 

Even unable to see her, Yuria could practically hear Hana’s brain reboot past the silence. “Uh. Why?” And with that, Yuria had an opening. Time for an encore. 

“Remember how I said you were already part of this? You’ve got your own power, too - an overpowering life aura, magnitudes beyond any exorcist I’ve ever seen. With it, any ghost that touches you is instantly vaporized.”

“You didn’t realize at the time, but the day I met you, I wasn’t just about to get hit by a truck. I was about to get eaten by a truck-sized monster, too.”

Hana gasped, closet hangers rattling. 

“I hadn’t actually been playing around by the street. I had been trying to exorcize a mid-sized ghost with half-baked techniques.” 

She laughed ruefully. “I didn’t even scratch it. I only survived that one because something even worse came along. It took the ghost’s head off, then spent the next few minutes playing with me before finishing me off. I didn’t even realize what was happening. - I thought I’d done it, and I was gloating like crazy. Right until it shoved me into traffic.

“And at that very moment, you came in like a guardian angel! Not only did you save me from the truck, you also single-handedly held off what was basically a spiritual tank ! You gave me the time to realize it was there, time for me to trick it into leaving. You even vaporized the headless ghost when it somehow survived, and rushed at me.” Yuria giggled. “I spent, like, three days after that hanging onto your every word, trying to decode specks of arcane wisdom from them.”

She shook her head. “I’m getting sidetracked. What I’m saying is, to me, the idea of something managing to put the slightest scratch on you is just, absolutely ridiculous. I wasn’t thinking about how you’d see things when I told you all the worst parts first. I am so, so sorry about that. I ended up making things sound way, way worse than they actually were.”

The silence stretched on, but Yuria kept clinging to hope, believing her words would get through to her. 

Slowly, the closet door creaked open.

“Really?” Hana asked, one bloodshot eye peeking out through the crack. “You’re not just making that up to make me feel better, right? It seems like the kind of thing you’d come up with.”

Yuria shook her head frantically. “No way. I’d be dead, like, three times over if it wasn’t for you. It’s why I trusted you enough to tell you the full story from the start, instead of trying to dress it up.”

Finally, blessedly, Hana stepped out of the closet, giggling nervously. “So, I’m… basically a superhero?” Yuria nodded with a Cheshire grin. “U-um. That’s a little better, I guess?” She paused a fearful look crossing her face. “Wait. Why were you trying to protect me if I’m basically invincible?”

Okay. This could go… very badly, but as much as Yuria was tempted to try and gloss it over, she didn’t want to keep hiding things. She’d still tell her, just… more gently?

“Well, ‘basically’ is the important part. You’ve got a bit of a weakness when it comes to endurance, since your aura can get drained over time, but there’s only been one ghost both strong enough, and persistent enough to be a problem.” She waved her hands, seeing Hana’s dawning horror. “Don’t worry, we already got rid of that one! You’re good!”

“But that’s just one time! What about the rest? Like, when you tell me there’s spiders when there aren't, or when you drag me through a bunch of detours?” Hana argued

Yuria blinked. “Other times? There are no…Oh, you mean when we help you avoid the smaller ghosts.” She waved Hana off. “That’s not really protecting, per se. Using your aura makes you hungry, so we try to get you to avoid everything you can. It’s more like a convenience thing.”

After a moment’s thought, Hana slammed her fist into her palm. “I knew it wasn’t just a fast metabolism! You’re telling me my daily five-stacks-of-pancakes breakfast has been fueling a laser death shield this entire time?”

“Laser death shield?” Yuria asked, giggling. “Not the first thing I’d call it, but I like your style!”

With a sigh, Hana flopped onto her bed, some of the tension starting to leave her voice. “Let me see if I’ve got everything right. The world is full of horrible, murderous ghosts, you and Miko are ghost hunters, and I’m a walking superweapon. Am I missing anything?”

“Well, we’ve also been using your aura to build magical weapons, but that’s about it, yeah.” 

Hana rolled over, staring at the ceiling in contemplation. After a few moments, she spoke up, whispering. “Do you think Miko’s only friends with me because of my powers?”

Yuria laughed incredulously. “What? She didn’t even know you had powers until last month!” 

“Oh.” Hana hummed. “What about you?” 

“No way!” Yuria said, shaking her head vigorously. “I’m friends with you because you saved my life, Hana. Even if you ignore the ghosts, you still dived straight into traffic to save me from a truck. You’re kind of my hero, honestly.”

Hana’s eyes widened at that, and she got a faraway look in them. Absent-mindedly, she grabbed a granola bar from under her pillow and started chewing nervously. “Is… is that what I’m supposed to be? She wondered aloud between bites, her aura flaring up around her. “Some kind of hero? I’ve got the superpowers, and… you’re getting hurt so badly, and the world’s in so much danger—”

Yuria scoffed, cutting her off. “You, on the front lines? That is, without a doubt, the worst strategy I could possibly think of. You’d be wasting all of your energy whenever you weren’t fighting, then chucking it randomly at your enemies every now and then. It’d be like using a nuclear reactor like a hammer!”

“Your job?” Yuria gave her a cocky smirk. “Sit there and look pretty while you power up my weapons. I’ll be the one tackling the world’s problems.”

Hana snorted, nearly choking on a piece of granola bar as she giggled. “I-I don’t know why, but hearing ‘Sit there and look pretty’ from a four-foot-five high school girl is just, kinda ridiculous.”

“Personally, I’d think the battle scars would make up for whatever I’m lacking in height,” Yuria said with a huff, trying to strike a 'tough and dangerous' pose as she did so. Sadly, her scars were fully covered, so it was just about as effective as you’d expect, coming from a girl as tall as her.

Hana snorted at that, but her laughter died in her throat as her thoughts drifted. “Um. About that. Are you sure you want to, uh, ‘tackle the world’s problems?’” Hana asked with a look of concern. “You… you didn’t see how terrible you looked after the fight. If that’s what it’s like just trying to take care of yourselves, isn’t saving the world just… impossible?”

“Impossible?” Yuria scoffed. “At every turning point in history, everybody says the same thing. No way, Wright Brothers , humans can't fly!” She stood up, pacing as her gestures grew more and more animate. “Silly Armstrong, you can’t walk on the moon! Computers are just a fad, and cars will never beat horse-drawn carriages. It’s all common sense!”

She stopped, pivoting on a heel to face Hana. “I only know one thing about impossibility: you’re wrong more often than you’re right. And the only way to find out is to give it everything you’ve got, no matter what anyone says. So yeah, maybe it is impossible. Maybe I’m wasting my time. Maybe, I’ll fail so badly that I can never recover, and end up as just another one of those ‘idiots who tried too hard.’

“Or maybe , it isn’t. Maybe I can make a world where no-one has to run for their life, only to find the dead at every corner. Where no-one has to be haunted and harassed by the monsters they can’t even see. Maybe, just maybe, I can set things right.”

She walked back to the bed, plopping herself back down, and giving a one-shoulder shrug as she leaned back. “Somebody’s gotta do it. It might as well be me.”

Eyes wide, Hana scanned Yuria’s determined face, examining her, as if she was someone she’d never actually seen before. “I used to think it was kinda funny when you talked about anime stuff with so much conviction. But somehow, when you’re talking about real stuff… it’s kinda inspiring, even when you say it the exact same way. I guess I’ll try and trust that you’ve thought it through. Just… try not to get hurt like this again?”

Yuria huffed. “I’m not exactly a fan of getting mauled, you know.”

“With how much you brag about your scars? Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised.”

Chapter Text

After a moment’s pause, Hana inhaled the last of her granola bar, then clapped her hands and stood up. “Okay then, we’d better go find Miko. She’s probably sitting in a corner somewhere, being all moody and stuff.” 

 
Standing up after her, Yuria nodded, heading into the hallway.  

Hana paused halfway to standing. “Oh, a-and let me know if we run into anything, okay?” 

Yuria turned around to tell her that yeah, that was pretty much a given, and there was no need to ask.  

Instead, the half-formed words died in her mouth as she noticed the monkey-faced bat clinging to the window. You know, the kind whose wingtips ended in human hands instead of claws. 

It had probably heard their entire conversation.  

And had absolutely noticed Yuria staring at it like an idiot.   

Yuria barely had time to react as it pressed its screaming face into the glass, then through it, rocketing towards her with a now-audible screech.  

As it passed through Hana’s aura, still flaring up from her earlier snack, it unraveled at the seams, falling apart into white smoke until it gently re-deaded a few inches from Yuria’s nose.  

Huh. 

Well that was a thing. She should probably be freaking out, but it happened so fast that there wasn’t even any time for her to react before it was already over. Should she even tell Hana? 

“What if they’re the ones that run into us?” Yuria asked, deciding that morbid humor was the best medicine for a brush with death. “Bird-and-window style. Just, immediately pancake on our faces.” 

Hana turned a pale green. “Don’t even joke about that. That is the literal worst image you could possibly put in my head.” 

Yuria’s sigh sounded like it came from a grocery store clerk three times her age. “I’m being completely serious. You just vaporized a dive-bombing hand-bat. Just, atomized it a moment before it hit my face. Didn’t even leave the dust.”  

For a few moments, Hana stood there blinking at her. With dawning horror, she swung her head back and forth between Yuria and the window, trying to find some hint of what happened. She settled on covering her mouth and gagging. “H-how can you say that with a straight face? Is this just… normal for you?” Hana asked with a look of overwhelming concern. 

Yuria shrugged, tilting her hand side to side. “Today’s a little on the intense side, I guess. Anyway, let’s go.” She walked off, missing how Hana backed slowly out of the room, paranoid eyes locked on the window. 

After a short walk through the hall, they stepped into Hana’s living room, which consisted of a small kitchen off to the side, as well as a low table with a cushioned chair on one side, and a couch containing Miko on the other. Yuria nearly called out to her, but stopped when she noticed her blank stare, aimed at a corner of the ceiling near an aquarium tucked to the side of the room. Quickly, Yuria checked to see what she was looking at.  

There was nothing there. That just made her even more concerned.  

She took another look at Miko, noticing the growing frown, and the irritated furrowing of her brow.  

Phew! All clear. If there was something big enough that Yuria couldn’t see it, Miko would absolutely not be glaring at it. 

Unfortunately, It seemed Hana was having some trouble interpreting Miko-ese at the moment. Her whole body stiffened, and she took a quick glance at the spot Miko was staring at. “What’s—” 

She cut herself off, jerking her eyes away. With a few labored breaths, she tried to put on a nonchalant smile. The key word there - try. “Wh-what’s up?” She asked instead. 
 

Miko startled, turning sideways to face them. Her eyes lit up when she saw Hana, but her face quickly twisted into a look of guilt and regret as she jumped up, rushing over to her. “You’re okay! I mean, are you okay? I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this, I just—”  
 

Hana, now realizing that Miko wasn’t having a staring contest with the undead, pushed past her to flop face-first on the couch Miko had just vacated. “M’okay,” she mumbled into the cushion, her moment of terror vacating just as fast as it arrived, and taking what remained of her usual energy with it. “Also not. Not supposed to be okay. Okay-er? That’s kinda the third freakout I’ve had in the last five minutes. I wish I could see what you guys see. I have no idea when it’s safe or not.” 

Miko looked like she had things to say about that, but decided that saying, ‘No you don’t, reality is much worse than your nightmares,’ wouldn’t be all that comforting. Instead, she walked past to take a seat on the unoccupied chair. 

Apparently, Yuria had missed the monthly ‘don’t put your foot in your mouth’ memo. “We’ll tell you wherever there’s something around, so try not to worry so much.” 

 
Instantly, she knew she’d messed up. For her comment, she was gifted with two nasty glares, Hana pulling her face out of the cushions just to do so. She held up one finger, “Emotions don’t work like that,” and a second, “and even if they did, you have literally never told me anything. Don’t try to tell me that you wouldn’t cover things up to make me feel better.” 
 

Miko looked away sheepishly. Yuria, on the other hand, doubled down. If she was gonna dig her own grave, might as well dig it all the way to China. 
 

“I wouldn’t. Not anymore.” She spoke, as if she was at the climax of an action movie. 

Hana actually paused at that. “Hmm. I can believe it. You’ve been pretty honest so far, Yuria. Still doesn’t make me feel better.” 
 

Yuria mentally pumped her fist, ignoring the stink-eye Miko was still giving her. That feeling, when your cheesy, audacious one-liners get validated, it’s absolutely beyond compare. I should do this more often.  
 

Hana rolled onto her back, shaking the fog out of her head and trying to put on a grin. “I’m really sorry for worrying you so much. It was kind of a lot to take in, but I’ll be okay!”  

 
It wasn’t quite enough to convince either of them, but they decided not to call her out on it. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing that would actually help. After a moment’s pause, Yuria clapped her hands. 

 
“So! Now that Hana knows what’s going on, what’s next?” 

 
“Next, we figure out how on earth you’re going to explain all of those bandages to everyone,” Miko replied. 

She felt a vague sense of regret as she watched a smirk slowly grow on Yuria’s face. “I am so glad you asked.”  

She snapped her arms out, then pulled them in just as quickly, her right hand resting on her forehead as the other supported her elbow. “The purpose of my bindings, you ask?” She said with a deep, dramatic voice, raising a hand to the sky with an evil laugh. “In one arm, I carry a fallen goddess of scorching light. In the other, lies an archdemon of suffocating darkness. Each grants power beyond compare - but at a price.” She closed her hand into a fist, pulling it down to her chest. “Should they be released, their battle will rage once more, and this world will surely be doomed. This is the burden I bear: to contain them, to oppose those who would see their lord placed on this world’s throne.” 

With a flash, she struck a new pose, one that framed her eyepatch between two fingers. “What happened to my eye, you ask? It is a long and storied tale, fraught with danger and destruction - though it’s a tale I am not at liberty to tell, I’m afraid. All I can say is this: Within this eye lies Nihilus. Nichts. Void . Pray that you never see what lies beneath, even for a moment — for that moment will be your last.” 

She struck one more pose, seeming to wait for a round of applause. 

Instead, she just got two incredulous stares for her troubles. After a moment, Miko put her head in her hands and sighed. “Why is that so effective? For a second, I completely forgot that you were trying to hide something.” 

Meanwhile, Hana was trying (and failing) to stifle her snickering. “Was that even an act? Or was it just an excuse for you to do what you wanted to do anyway?” 

Tellingly, Yuria refused to comment. 

Hana finally brought her giggling under control, sobering. “Well, I’m glad you’ve got a plan for that, but I’m more worried about… you know. What are we doing about all that?” 

Yuria's smile was blinding. “Once again, fantastic question! Now that we’ve got Hana on our side, I’ve got so many ideas. Water guns, talisman airplanes, maybe even a sword-” 

“Excuse me?” Miko asked quietly. Her words were soft, but somehow, to Yuria, they sounded harder and sharper than steel. “I thought we had an agreement. The moment something goes wrong, we’re doing it my way. That was the absolute worst-case scenario, on our first attempt. Do you really think a bit of better equipment would have saved you from something like that?” 

“It wasn’t the worst case,” Yuria argued, “I’ll admit, it caught me off guard this time, but I bet I’ll be able to lose them next time-” 

“What do you mean, lose them?” Miko interrupted, voice colder than Yuria had ever heard her. “Which part of that encounter gave you the idea that it would lose interest eventually? What made you think you could even avoid it long enough to matter?”
 

Yuria blinked. “Uh, the part where you did exactly that? I can’t imagine how else you could have gotten away from it.” 

Miko huffed, coming to a realization. “I guess I forgot to tell you. After I ran a few blocks, the bird-thing had nearly caught up to me, even though I was zig-zagging so it had to stop and change directions as much as possible. It was only seconds away from catching up when a couple of those fox-things from the shrine got in a fight with it. One of them got eaten, but the other blew a hole through it and drove it off.”
 

Her eyes glazed over, and her voice started shaking just as much as her hands had been. “I didn’t escape it. I just got lucky. We all got lucky. If it had gotten me, it probably would have gone back for you, and Hana might have gotten caught in the crossfire. One singular attempt, and it’s pure luck that any of us survived. Do you understand why we’ve gotta stop?”
 

Breathing heavy, Miko was blindsided by the tears that had formed in the corner of her eyes. She absentmindedly wiped at them, only for more to replace them. Slowly, she pulled her knees to her face, and the room fell into a deathly silence.
 

Hana clearly wasn’t doing much better. Her eyes were wide, and though she had only just managed to suppress it, the shiver of fear that had become her natural state returned full-force, as if she had never left her room to begin with. She’d probably need more coaxing to help her relax again.
 

Yuria’s mind was currently too preoccupied with other matters to worry about that, though. At first, she could only deny it. That wasn’t really what happened, right? She just came up with an elaborate tale to scare her off.  

Her denial didn’t last long. Miko wasn’t the type. Quickly, it was replaced with a single sentence, looping over and over, drowning out any other thought: “It’s pure luck that any of us survived.” It had really been that close to a complete wipeout? A game over at level one? No, saying it in gaming terms just didn’t sound right.
 

Her hero complex had nearly gotten her and her friends killed. Ripped to pieces by an eldritch abomination, only for their spirits to be consumed the moment they left their bodies. The mere thought was a horror beyond what she could mentally process - but not beyond what her imagination could conjure up.
 

She wanted to scream. She wanted to throw up. But all she could find within herself was emptiness. 
 

Her entire life, her entire being, had all been devoted to this one, singular dream. And now, she had learned just how much of a mistake that dream had been. It felt like losing her soul.
 

Eventually, she found herself lying in her own bed. She had no idea how she got there. She had no idea how long it had been since she went home. All she could do was gaze blankly at her ceiling. 
 

She spent hours staring at it, wondering when that tiny voice would come back, telling her that everything would work out. That she was the star of the show, an unstoppable force in the making. That it was time to stop wallowing in her misery, and take action to make things right.
 

It never came.

Chapter Text

“In the depths of the darkest twilight, they slumber.” Yuria paused her speech, checking her reflection in the bedroom mirror. Her bandaged arms were barely visible beneath the long sleeves of the shirt she’d borrowed from Hana, while her eyepatch was on full display. Her visible eye, however, was barely even recognizable as hers. Yuria didn’t normally pay much attention to how her eyes looked, but she knew they weren’t supposed to look so… Dead. 

A dead-eyed exorcist. Ironic. 

Former exorcist, she corrected herself. Or a fangirl that tried, but didn’t make the cut.

Though Yuria knew exactly how she wanted to appear, her flat voice,  drooping eyes, and unkempt, untied hair made her look more like some moody girl that’s obsessed with the occult to fill a void in her life, rather than a high-schooler that’s just messing around, and shouldn’t be examined too closely. 

Which was why she was hosting a one-girl World’s Biggest Chuuni audition at roughly ‘You-Should-Be-Asleep’ in the morning. 

If anyone saw her, she’d probably die of embarrassment. 

“Hmm. Too much darkness for someone saying it for fun.” Yuria thought out loud, getting back on track. “How about, ‘In the depths of the darkest dawn?’ That has some good alliteration. 

She continued fleshing out her speech for… some amount of time. Yuria wasn’t really paying attention. By the end, however, she knew that it was gonna be absolutely useless if she couldn’t look the part as well. 

She slapped her cheeks. “Okay, Yuria. Channel your inner Meguuni. Nothing in this life gives you more pleasure than pretending to be a demon lord.”

Calling up her most cherished memories of characters giving cheesily dramatic speeches, she launched into one of her own. 

She trailed off after the first sentence when she saw how nothing changed. 

She sighed in defeat. When you add together a sleepless night, constant pain, and broken dreams, the only possible result was one deeply, dangerously unmotivated Yuria. 

“Does it really matter if I get sent to a psych ward?” She wondered aloud. “It’s not like it’d get in the way of my nonexistent dreams.”

It was a nice thought. Just letting go, letting the world take its course. 

Imagining her parents’ reaction snapped her out of her doom-spiral.

She shook her head. “I’m not up to the class clown look. That’s not gonna change. Maybe I can go the opposite direction instead.”

Looking in the mirror, she slumped, stuffing hands in non-existent pockets. “Life is an endless black hole with no escape,” she deadpanned. It hardly even felt like acting, honestly. 

Huh. That just might work. And if someone tries to dig too deep, I can just say that I’m method acting, and they’d probably back off. 

Checking the clock, she knew she wouldn’t be getting back to sleep tonight. With a sigh, she got into her uniform. 

As she tried to put on her vest, she felt something in her back pull, her arm stopping before it was fully extended. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, either. She’d rather get scratched by another ghost.

Reflexively, she tried to push past the pain and get it on anyway. But as she felt like something was about to tear, she realized that nobody was watching, she wasn’t cool enough to act tough, and now she had to be extremely careful about how she moved if she didn’t want to go a full day with open wounds.

Silently, she dropped to the floor, hugged her knees, and let herself fall apart. 

Yuria huffed a sigh of relief as she sat down at her desk, careful not to let herself rest against the back of her chair. All in all, that had gone pretty well. At least, in the sense that she wasn’t immediately getting carted off to a psych ward while her friends got thrown in jail, because nobody would ever find the real culprit and they were the only ones with her at the time, or any of the other dozen worst-case scenarios she’d conjured up at five in the morning.  

Her homeroom class seemed to be fooled, so far. She’d caught a few concerned glances here and there, but most of her classmates were looking at her like she was an alien species. Just like she’d always wanted. 

That was sarcasm, if you couldn’t tell. 

She’d just barely managed to convince her parents, even with her pulling the ‘it’s an act’ card. She’d been hoping she wouldn’t have to use it. Now she had to pretend to be fine at some point, or they’d get even more suspicious than they already were. 

Her teacher was also going to be a problem. Mrs. Arai had always had a motherly air around her, and now that she was expecting, that air had only grown. From the moment Yuria had walked into class, Mrs. Arai had a conflicted look on her face, as if she was wondering whether checking on her immediately would be worth canceling class. Yuria would have been touched by her concern, if it didn’t threaten to ruin everything. 

She was going on maternity leave in a couple days right? Yuria could probably avoid her that long, then hope the substitute wouldn’t ask too many questions. 

Yuria sighed again. That didn’t solve the problem of when she came back. It hadn’t really crossed her mind before, but Yuria was gonna have to keep this act up for the rest of her life, wasn’t she? It was kind of intimidating to think about. Scratch that, it was majorly intimidating.

The most painful reaction was Miko’s. The moment Yuria had walked in the door, she had taken one look at her, then spent the entire speech staring at her desk, tension filling her entire body. 

Made sense. Who wouldn’t get upset, watching someone who had nearly killed them pulling jokes, and walking around like everything was fine? 

No use complaining about it, though. She had gotten herself into this mess, and now it was her job to keep everyone else out of it. 

For once in her life, she decided to try giving the teacher her full attention. She was just trying to distract herself, but it was still something of an achievement for her. Her attention lasted a good half of the class, even. Plus, she felt that she should get a freebie on that one lapse, given the circumstances. 

It’s kinda hard to keep your focus when a ghost peeks its head over the windowsill, inches away from your face. 

Involuntarily, she jumped in her seat, drawing a look from the girl sitting to her right, whose name Yuria had never bothered to remember. Crap, I got too focused on keeping the chuuni act up. I forgot about the mundane one. 

“You okay?” The girl whispered, leaning over a bit. The girl was one of those people that hadn’t been fully convinced, apparently. Just Yuria’s luck. 

“I felt the seals weaken, for a moment. No need for concern, for I have already reinforced them.”

The moment the words left her lips, she felt a chill shoot down her spine. She didn’t know what it meant, but given the ghost five inches away from her back, she assumed she’d messed up somewhere. 

Yuria coughed. “I absolutely did not nod in the middle of class,” she added. “Nope, no way”

Yuria’s well-meaning interrogator giggled at that, turning back to class with a small smile on her face. At the same moment, Yuria felt the strange sensation dissipate, leaving only the usual sense of burning that would likely become her new norm. She felt a small burst of satisfaction for her quick thinking, though it faded almost immediately. Congratulations, Yuria. You managed to trick and manipulate someone who was just worried about you - for good reason - while simultaneously running away from danger. You should be sooo proud. 

Keeping her guard up, she turned back to face the front of the class. Thanks to that, she only grimaced when she realized that there was now a rotting face half an inch away from her own. Hopefully, it’d take that as embarrassment, not disgust. 

Yuria sighed, and buckled down for an excruciating rest of the day. 

In history class, they were given the chance to pick their own partners for a group project. Yuria didn’t think Miko would like it too much if they were stuck in the same group, but when Hana had asked with a slight tremble in her voice, neither had the heart to say no. 

The project itself was fairly simple: pick a group of ancient people, and make a presentation about how they’ve influenced the world of today. She knew what her normal choice would be, but she doubted suggesting ‘exorcists’ would be very well received at the moment. Maybe she could suggest a religion of some sort, and work it in on the side?

…did she actually want to be reminded of her failures every moment of this project? No, she was just gonna suggest Rome. 

The screech of their desks sliding across the floor blended with the noise and chatter of their classmates doing the same. As they sat down, desks pressed together, Yuria wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Would they try to pretend everything was fine? Would they work on the project together, but leave her on the side? Would they go off and do their own thing, and leave her to do all the work?

Instead, they did nothing. Miko stared at the desk, hands clasped together tightly, while Hana stared out the window, and Yuria did her best to look like an idiot. They sat for a while in an uncomfortable silence, until Hana made her usual efforts to break it.

“S-so, we should probably start by picking a topic, right?” She fidgeted in her seat, entire body tensed. “Or maybe we can narrow things down first. Like, maybe we should start with things we shouldn’t talk about?”

It took a moment for Yuria to catch on, which she considered a personal failing given how obvious Hana had been. “I don’t think there’s anything in particular. Miko?”

Miko startled, head swiveling around the room. When her eyes landed on Yuria, they rested there for a moment, before she tore them away to look back down at her hands. “…no.” She muttered. 

Hana relaxed visibly with a sigh of relief, then winced as a bit of guilt flashed over her face. “O-okay, that’s good. Do either of you have an old country that you really like?”

Mustering her courage, Miko finally looked up, though she still avoided looking at Yuria. “I-“ she forced out, but the rest of whatever she was saying got stuck in her throat. She tried to force them out as well, but when that failed, she dropped her eyes once again. 

Hana looked back and forth between the two of them, probably wanting to try and salvage things again, but it seemed that even she was starting to run low on her supplies of helpfulness. She stared out the window, looking just as lost as Yuria felt. 

“…Rome.” Yuria said with a sigh. What was one more mess she had to clean up?

The next few days passed much the same. Yuria juggled a dozen emergencies every waking moment, Miko still couldn’t look her in the eye, and Hana stuck to them both like super glue on a flytrap. 

As the bell rang on the third day, she used a doctor’s appointment as an excuse to sneak off on her own. It wasn’t like she was avoiding them, it was just… getting to be a little much. They could make it home without her. 

With no destination in mind, she wandered the halls of the school, passing by a few of the regular ghosts that were starting to become a staple of this place. As she walked, her thoughts turned inward, trying to work through this disaster that had become her everyday. 

How was she going to handle an entire lifetime of this? Miko had yet to speak a full sentence to her, people were getting more and more concerned the longer the ‘joke’ went on, and now she was positive that her parents were just waiting to tell her what was—

She bumped into something as she turned a corner, derailing her train of thought. “Sorry, I wasn’t—“ Yuria said reflexively, cutting herself off when she realized that this situation was prime horror material. She took a step back to see what she was dealing with.

She was human, for one, which eased Yuria’s worries immediately. The girl was wearing a school uniform, with an unbuttoned blazer and extra-loose leg warmers to help her stand out. She had chin length, tousled, dark brown hair, with one streak of blue down her bangs to match her lazily lidded eyes. Currently, she was blinking in surprise, shaking herself out of her own daze. 

In short, it was impossible not to recognize her, no matter how few names Yuria could normally remember. It helped that, after hearing about her legendary ‘aliens-scribbled-on-my-homework’ excuse, Yuria had paid extra attention to the name ‘Seiya’ being called in class.

As she watched, Seiya seemed to recognize her as well. “Hey, you’re that chuuni chick everyone’s been talking about, right?” Her voice was softer than you might have expected from someone in her outfit, though her speech patterns were right on target. In a rare burst of mischief, Yuria retaliated. 

“If by ‘chuuni’, you mean Queen of the Darkest Dawn, then yes I am. Of course, I know of you as well, miss ‘Alien scribble-victim’.

Seiya snickered. “So you remembered, huh? Glad to see I’ve got a fan. That was one of my better works.”

So she wasn’t just being lazy. Yuria felt a smirk pull at her lips. You just gotta respect that kind of audacity.  

“I remember there being a character that was kinda like you. They had this sick contact that they covered with an eyepatch. Is that where you got the idea?”

Yuria prepared to deflect the question, but instead of waiting for her to answer, like a sane person, that idiot just grabbed her eyepatch and lifted it up. She tried to smack her hand away, but caught off guard, she was too late. Seiya’s hand had already jerked back, as her eyes widened in a blank, horrified stare. 

With her hands covering her exposed eye, Yuria glared at Seiya with everything she could muster. “ You. Saw. Nothing.” She coldly hissed, as she beat a hasty retreat.

Crap, what am I supposed to do now?! Threaten her? Bribe her? I’m already manipulating everyone around me. I can’t let myself fall even further. 

Maybe I can come up with an excuse and hope she won’t tell anyone? She doesn’t seem to be a teacher’s pet who would spill it to an adult, or a bully who would spill it to everyone. She might agree to keep it secret, if I come up with a good enough reason. 

Ugh. One more problem onto the pile, huh? At least we’re getting that substitute in a few days. I hope they won’t be as nosy as everyone else apparently is. 

Chapter Text

When Yuria arrived at school the next morning, she half-expected the police to be lined up in front of the door, ready to haul her in for interrogation. Barring that, she at least expected her newest life-threatening obstacle to ambush her, demanding answers. 

She wasn’t expecting the problem in question to walk down the hallway in a full set of blue-and-white polka-dot pajamas. She especially wasn’t expecting them to be the kind that was a little too close to underwear to comfortably wear in public.
 

Yuria, like the rest of her schoolmates, stared at Seiya in a mixture of horror and fascination as she strode down the hallway with a careless yawn, her tank top and shorts not seeming to bother her one iota. As she walked, the students she passed were soon left questioning whether or not they were an extra in someone else’s childhood nightmare. I mean seriously, what kind of obliviousness would it take for someone to mess up this hard in reality?.  

Did I really shake her that badly? Yuria wondered to herself. No, that can’t be it. If someone stumbled onto a secret so massive that they couldn’t even bother to dress themselves in the morning, they probably wouldn’t be looking that bored.

She shook her head. Regardless of what made Seiya seemingly sleepwalk to school today, Yuria still needed to try to get her alone, and convince her to keep a secret. She’d spent most of last night coming up with a believable cover story, and Seiya hadn’t thrown her quite off-balance enough for Yuria to let her efforts go to waste. 

…Maybe she’d wait until later, though. Yuria was trying to avoid attention after all, and stepping into that bonfire of gossip sounded like a quick way to get busted. 

The day had passed more peacefully than Yuria could have ever hoped. Even in the classes that didn’t include Seiya, her stunt that morning was all anyone could talk about. Even more legendary, apparently, were the scoldings she got from every single teacher she bumped into, and Seiya’s slowly growing embarrassment. Looked like the “Aliens doodled on my homework” girl still had limits, huh?

Even Hana and Miko had gotten swept up in the shock, when Hana burst into a storm of gossip as soon as the bell rang. If Miko had been drinking anything at the time, she might’ve done a spit take. Instead, she settled on a hissed, “Excuse me, what?! ” and a disbelieving laugh. As they went to get lunch, they seemed to completely forget about their troubles for a few minutes, smiling and chatting like any other pair of high school girls. 

Yuria… had eaten her lunch in a bathroom stall. She didn’t want her presence ruining the moment. 

On the plus side, not a single person had asked Yuria about her eyepatch. In fact, aside from the time one of her deskmates chatted with her about Seiya, Yuria was hardly even glanced at. She’d heard that the gossip mill turned quickly, but this was ridiculous. 

To be fair, it was a ridiculous situation. She could see how Seiya’s apocalyptic stunt could be more interesting than Yuria’s strange existence. 

Closing her lunchbox, Yuria opened the stall door and started to make her way to her next class. Tried, at least. Instead, the door immediately smashed into a person standing just in front of the stall. 

“Agh! Sorry, sor…ry?” Yuria’s tone changed as she realized who she’d accidentally assaulted. Brown hair, blue streak, tank top and shorts with  blue and white polka dots—yep, that was Seiya. 

“What, do people wearing pajamas not get apologies?” Seiya quipped past the hand clutching her nose. “Kidding, kidding. We’ve gotta stop bumping into each other like this, though.”

Well, even if it was unexpected, this was a perfect opportunity. Though as for what to do with it, Yuria’s thoughts warred between giving the explanation she’d spent last night rehearsing, or instead…

“Why am I wearing pajamas?” Seiya voiced Yuria’s unspoken question. “Y’know, I kept hearing people talk about these nightmares where you go to school in your underwear, and I just got kinda curious.” A blush crept up on her cheeks as she looked away and muttered, “I maaay have underestimated it a bit.”

If it had happened a few months ago, Yuria probably wouldn’t have noticed. But underneath the embarrassment in Seiya’s voice, she could hear a sort of resignation, a whisper saying “I knew this would be embarrassing, but I had to do it anyway.” With how many times this month Yuria had experienced that exact feeling, it stuck out to her like a sore thumb.

“Hey…” Yuria sighed, collecting her thoughts. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but did something else happen? Something bigger?”

Seiya blinked, before her shoulders slumped, and she gave Yuria a look and a sigh. “Got me, huh?” She groaned, all levity leaving her voice. “I didn’t want to worry you, but leaving you in the dark would probably be more worrying, at this point.” She took a deep breath, steeling herself. “So. Like you said, you don’t need to tell me anything if you don’t want to. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through, to get scars like that.

“I spent a lot of time thinking, though, and I realized that even if I don’t know what’s going on, even if I can’t really do anything to help… all that attention you’ve been getting can’t be very good for you, can it?”

Wait. This wasn’t part of the plan. 

“And then I wondered, ‘What could get people’s attention away from a high school chuuni?’ And then I had an idea.”

No way. Don’t tell me she actually… Yuria knew exactly what Seiya was getting at, but she still couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

“You’ve probably got an idea where that ended up, right?” She sighed, shaking her head. “Seriously though, you’re like, crazy strong, honestly. I’ve only been doing this for one day, and I’m already feeling the heat. Keeping your cool under that much bad attention, on top of trying to handle whatever hurt you like that? That takes some top-tier guts.”

Yuria blinked. It hasn’t been that hard on me, has it? I mean, I’m the one tricking everyone else. I’ve even been doing a pretty good job at it. And I’ve always been interested in trying out a chuuni routine. This was just a convenient opportunity. Sure, it’s a little uncomfortable having my entire life on the line if I mess up. And scars are a lot more restricting than I thought they’d be. And my friends hate me now, and I don’t have anyone to talk to, and there’s nothing for me to look forward to for the rest of my life… 

Absent-mindedly, she touched the wet spot she suddenly felt on her cheek. Another tear slowly rolled down onto her hand. 

Oh. I’m not doing nearly as well as I thought I was. 

The past few days all rushed down on her at once, the weight making her legs give out from under her. As she buried her face in her knees, she felt a hand gently rubbing circles on her back. 

“It’s been super, mega hard, hasn’t it?”

With that, all of her plots and plans blew away like a forgotten dream. 

“You okay?” Seiya asked a red-eyed Yuria, whose lingering tears reflected the sunlight streaming in through the windows in the unused classroom they found themselves in. When Yuria had collapsed, Seiya had led her to somewhere a little less public. Now, Yuria was sitting at a slightly-damp desk, Seiya sitting on a turned-around chair with her chin propped on her hands.

Yuria sniffled, wiping some snot on a long sleeve. “Not really,” she croaked. “I could’ve probably handled any one of them on their own, but it… it’s just too much, too fast.” Yuria shook her head. She was already sharing too much. She needed to try and change the subject before she could spill anything else. “How did you get so good at that?” Yuria asked, leaning forward with a slight tilt to her head. “I didn’t really peg you to be the caring type.”

Seiya smiled a little at that. “My sister’s a little scaredy-cat, so I’ve got a lot of experience.”

Yuria couldn’t help a small smile in return, hearing the warmth in Seiya’s voice. “Huh. You really like breaking expectations, don’t you? You’ve always had an ‘only child’ kind of aura, too.” Yuria looked down, twiddling her thumbs. “But… why would you go so far?” Yuria whispered. “You don’t even know me. Why would you sacrifice your social life for someone like me?”

“Bold of you to assume I had one to begin with,” Seiya quipped, drawing a snort out of Yuria. “Honestly though, I’d say… it’s ‘cause it was just too crazy to ignore? Like, if I ignored someone struggling that hard, I felt like it’d kinda bug me forever.”

Yuria rolled her eyes. “‘Kinda bug me’, she says. Isn’t it a little late for that?”

Giving her a quick smile, Seiya looked out the window, watching the dozens of gossipping students, chatting their hearts away over sandwiches, snacks, and the (very) occasional salad. She took a deep breath.

“By the way… Whenever my sister’s having trouble, it usually helps her if she tells me what’s going on, even if I have no idea what she’s saying. Wanna get everything off your chest? I probably won’t get even half of it, though.”

Aaand there it was. No way Yuria was gonna get off scot-free, was there? Looks like she’d have to improvise. 

…And keep lying to people. Especially the nice ones, who cared enough to dig deeper. But did she have any other choice? …Maybe. Maybe not.

“Are you sure?” Yuria asked, unable to restrain a hint of hope. “It’s kinda hard to believe. And by ‘hard to believe’, I mean you’re gonna wanna recommend me a psychologist.”

Seiya huffed, puffing out her chest. “You’re in luck!” Seiya said with a chirp, a bit of cheer coming back to her voice as she stood up and brought her hand to her chest. “It just so happens that I’m the heiress of a Martian spy organization, here with my family to monitor you insignificant Earthlings for potential rebellions. Nothing you say will be even remotely strange to me!”

Yuria snorted at the absurdity. Who on earth would believe…

…actually, that story might be less ridiculous than Yuria’s. At least Seiya’s didn’t completely ignore the laws of physics.

…Maybe she needed to double check. 

“Seriously?” Yuria asked, with as much sincerity as she could muster. 

“Seriously.” Seiya answered with an equal amount of seriousness. “It’s why I said aliens scribbled on my homework. My sister’s an alien, so I wasn’t even lying, was I?”

…Oh no. That was totally something Seiya would do, if she was actually an alien. 

“Seriously seriously? Just so you know, I will believe you, whether you’re lying or not. That’s a threat.”

Seiya blinked, dropping back down into her seat as she twiddled her thumbs.  “Uh. Threat received.” She coughed. “Not… actually a Martian heiress. Just so we’re being completely open and honest here.”

With a deep sigh of relief, Yuria leaned back against her chair. “Thank everything. One world-flipping revelation per year is more than enough, thank you very much.”

Seiya just blinked, tilting her head in confusion. “Wait. You’re saying your problem is that crazy?”

Sitting up, Yuria hummed, deliberating. “Well… I really don’t wanna lie to you, not after everything you’ve done. But if you’re this shocked by me believing your crazy backstory, there’s no way you’d believe mine.”

Seiya coughed, looking away. “Uh. I’ll take that as a yes? That’s fair. I guess. Maybe.” She scratched her head. “But like… Crazy people don’t think their stories are crazy, right? You think your crazy story is crazy, so you can’t be crazy. And if you can believe your crazy story, then I could too, right? Like, it’s not like we can pretend it didn’t mess you up like that.” 

Yuria winced at the reminder, but continued. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I’ve… I’ve had some bad experiences trying to explain it to people.”

“Oh.” Seiya hummed. “Well, if it’d make you uncomfortable, you don’t have to say anything. This is about you, not me.”

Yuria hummed right back. “Nah, not that, either. If I’m already breaking down, I probably need someone to talk to, and… you’re kind of my only option right now. How about I just tell you the sane parts?”

Feeling a weight lift off of her chest, Yuria explained everything that had happened since Miko’s brother got haunted, with small edits to remove the spectral aspect. Honestly, the only thing she really had to do was avoid clarifying that when she said ‘monster’, she meant it one-hundred percent literally.

“Oh. Oh wow,” Seiya whispered after a minute or two of stunned silence. “Uh. Shouldn’t you call the cops? I’m pretty sure they’d be pretty interested in throwing those creeps in jail.”

Yuria huffed. “I wish. That’s where some of the ‘crazy’ gets involved. As far as they know, nobody was stalking Miko’s brother, and my friends were the only ones with me that night. So basically…”

“…You’re worried they’ll go after your friends instead of the stalker.” Seiya finished the thought. “And that’s why you’re trying so hard to hide everything.” 

She leaned back, her chair stopping just before the point where it’d tip over completely. She took a deep breath, and let it out.

“Okay,” Seiya said, leaning back forward. “I’m feeling a lot better about my pajama stunt now, honestly. What’s a little bit of embarrassment compared to running from a law-immune psycho?”

Seiya stood up with an exaggerated stretch. “Well, looks like it’s about time to get back to class,” Seiya said, waiting for Yuria to get up and follow her to the door. Let me know if you need help burying a body. You can usually find me wherever people are making the biggest fuss.”

It took two steps before the words caught up to Yuria’s brain, and she completely flubbed the third, needing to catch herself on a desk before she faceplanted. Turning, she gaped at Seiya’s smirking face. “You’re too trusting, you know that?” Yuria snarked. “Two conversations and one extremely suspicious sob story, and you’re already prepared to be a criminal.”

Seiya puffed out her chest, preening. “I am kinda the best friend ever, aren’t I?”

Making a show of deep thought, Yuria shook her head. “Hana and Miko literally saved my life, so you’re only like, third. Good effort, though. 

Before she’d leave the near-frozen Seiya where she stood, Yuria felt like adding one more line. 

“Also, thanks for the offer, but there’s not really anything left to bury.

With that, Yuria took a walk down the steadily-filling hallway, a skip in her step as she joined the flow. 

One problem solved, a few mysteries sown. Today had been a pretty good day. 

Yuria hoped it would stay that way just a little while longer. 

——

In second period the next day, the door to History class swung open, and a tall, brown-haired man with tired hazel eyes walked up to the teacher’s podium. 

“Arai-sensei is on maternity leave,” he said as he wrote something on the chalkboard, “so I’ll be your substitute teacher for the time being.”

A few of Yuria’s female classmates seemed pretty excited. A tall, young, and fairly attractive substitute teacher; a high school girl’s daydream in the flesh. 

Oh, it was a dream all right. A living nightmare. 

Unseen to the smattering of smitten schoolgirls, the man was wrapped in a dark, writhing cloak of tortured cat spirits, ebbing and flowing in the air as they cried blood and vengeance on the one that killed them. “I look forward to working with you all,” he said with an attempt at a smile” A few girls blushed, but honestly, Yuria could only compare it to the smile of a particularly deranged sadist.

I jinxed it, didn’t I? Yuria thought, frozen to her seat. Me and my big, stinky mouth.

Chapter Text

Seiya woke up groaning, rolling over to try and slap the snooze button on her alarm clock. Unfortunately for her sanity, it took her almost fifteen attempts to find it. By that point, she had already lost any chance of getting an extra five minutes, and sat up, blearily rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. With a haphazard swipe of her arm, she threw open the curtains next to her bed, silently cursing the inevitable march of time that prevented her from sleeping thirty-nine hours a night.  

Out the window, she saw her bright, noisy neighborhood in an unusual dark and calm, the city also seeming to detest the idea of waking up - understandable, since it was basically five o’clock in the morning. Likewise, her room was exactly the way it had always been: bland, boring, beige, and the kind of room that people might’ve mistook for an unused guest room, if not for her bright blue bedsheets and the messy, open drawers on her dresser.

Given the day she’d had yesterday, she felt a strange sense of uneasiness at how normal this morning seemed. To be fair, she technically hadn’t yet learned any of the arcane secrets that were supposed to flip her world upside down, but shouldn’t things still have changed, even a little?

Unfortunately, Seiya didn’t think that an excuse of “I stumbled into a global conspiracy” was gonna get her out of school. She kinda wanted to try it anyway, but even though Yuria hadn’t told her to keep it a secret, it was probably better to stay on the safe side. 

Seiya rolled back, sliding off of her bed and onto the floor, then flipped over and pushed herself back to her feet. Combing her hand through her hair to get rid of the worst tangles, she headed out the door.  

Then she realized she was still in her pajamas, and rushed back to get a change of clothes. If she ever made that mistake for real, she wouldn’t be able to look at herself in the mirror ever again. The look of sheer mortification on her dad’s face when the school called him was already enough for like, at least two lifetimes.

After a quick shower, she went to make breakfast; this time, fully dressed. Making her way through  hallways that were just a bit too cramped for her tastes, she ended up in their all-in-one kitchen, dining room, living room, and public baths. 

That last one was a joke, by the way. 

Tapping her chin, she wondered what someone was supposed to have after a day as crazy as yesterday. Not something fancy, since she’d feel like she was celebrating Yuria’s rough situation, but someday, did she really wanna think back and remember how the first thing she did after learning about the coming AI apocalypse was… munch on eggs and toast? Screw it, she’d rather just wing it. 

Opening the fridge, her eyes were immediately drawn to the fist-sized box conspicuously placed front and center, with a sticky note stuck to the top. Gently, she pulled it off and read it. 

“Sorry, they kept me until pretty late yesterday, so I’m probably not gonna wake up in time to see you off. Here’s something I got for you two. 

Love, Dad.”

Seiya sighed, shaking her head with a smile. He really didn’t need to go through all this. It’d been pretty dang hard on him to raise two daughters all by himself, and she totally got that he couldn’t always be there for them, not if he wanted to put food on the table. Still… It felt nice to be reminded how much she was loved. 

Setting the note back on the top, she took a peek inside and—

“Oh my gosh, I love these,” she whispered. The box was completely filled with chocolate-covered, donut-shaped cookies, the kind with the coconut filling and caramel drizzle. She licked her lips, before laboriously placing the lid back on and putting it back in the fridge. “Gotta wait for Aya. Then I can eat them like popcorn.” As much as she was tempted to throw responsibility to the wind, what kind of heartless monster would steal her little sister’s cookies?

At least it made her breakfast plans pretty simple. Cookies needed milk, and milk needed cereal. Boom, done. One good deed deserved another though, so Seiya was gonna make her dad a homemade lunch to take to work. It should be something healthy and nutritious, since he needed all the help he could get, but he also deserved something that tasted amazing... 

Seiya lost herself in a storm of cooking, only coming back to herself when she was already done. Blinking, she gave her work another once-over. It looked pretty dang decent, if she said so herself; she’d done her best to balance taste and nutrition, mostly by burying all the healthy food under as many spices as she could fit without ruining the taste. Grabbing a fork, she gave it a taste-test. She wasn’t a professional chef by any means, but this was actually pretty good, if she did say so herself. 

Once she had it all boxed, she grabbed a sticky note and pen, and wrote down a note in return. 

“These cookies aren’t the best, but I’ll accept them anyway, since I’m nice like that. B-by the way, I happened to decide to make my own lunch today, and I happened to make a bit too much, so I thought I might just allow you to have them. D-don’t think this means I love you lots, or anything!

From, Seiya.”

Seiya snickered as she stuck the note on the box. It was just, so unlike her that it ended up being way funnier than it should be. She’d gotten her sense of humor from her dad, so he’d probably appreciate it too. 

As she put the lunchbox in the fridge, she heard footsteps from the hallway. Apparently, her sister had actually woken up on time, without needing a bucket of water to the face. What an achievement, really. 

The door creaked open, a young girl in a black-and-white school uniform coming through while she dried her hair with a towel. Seeing Seiya in the kitchen, she dropped it on the couch that was shoved in the corner, then stomped over to her. 

“Sis!” Aya complained. “Stop leaving your towels all over the bathroom! It’s like you want them to get all moldy! Do you like moldy towels?”

Seiya stopped, putting a hand to her chin in a big show of consideration. “Towels getting left out… you mean like that one on the couch? I don’t remember leaving that there.”

Aya, realizing that she’d walked straight into a trap, immediately turned and grabbed the discarded towel, sputtering, “That’s not fair! I was gonna put it away, you just distracted me!”

Seiya smirked, setting a pair of bowls, cups, and spoons on the counter as she waited for Aya to come back. She snuck a glance back at the box of cookies. If all else failed, it looked like she had a trump card today. 

Just then, Aya burst through the door with her head held high, as if she’d just done something incredible. “Hah! I’ve got you now! You’re not getting away—“ 

She was interrupted when Seiya walked over and started gently rubbing her head. “Look at you, being all responsible and stuff! I’m honestly so proud of you.”

Aya instinctively leaned into Seiya’s hand for a moment, before shaking her head and pouting. “But you made me clean up your—“

“You’re even cleaning up your sister’s messes! Really, shouldn’t you be the big sister here?”

The scowl on Aya’s face melted off, replaced by a small smile as she turned to look away, rubbing the back of her head. “Ehe, really?

Before she could get her mind back on track, Seiya pulled out the box of cookies she had hidden behind her back. “By the way, it looks like Dad left us a little something today. Wanna take a look?”

With her eyes suddenly glued to the box, Aya grabbed it before Seiya was even done speaking. Within seconds, she had ripped the lid off the box, nearly ripping it in the process. “Omigosh, yes.” She whispered, seeing what was inside. “Milk?”

Seiya wordlessly pointed to the counter, which already had a jug of milk and a box of cereal waiting. 

Any and all grievances were instantly forgotten as Aya rushed to her chair and took a seat, her legs swinging impatiently under the table. Having had her fill of teasing, Seiya gave Aya the go-ahead. After snatching one for herself, of course. 

Wordlessly, the two sisters savored their milk-soaked coconut cookies in a comfortable silence. It was times like these that made Seiya feel like she was basically the luckiest girl alive. An amazing dad, an adorable sister, living in a world full of all these wonderful things… it really could have been so much worse, couldn’t it?

Seiya’s thoughts were once again drawn back to yesterday’s events, and she felt another flash of guilt for just sitting there and snacking, while someone with the weight of the world on their shoulders was out there, struggling.

She shook her head. ‘Punish yourself for the pain of others, and the world will have one more person in pain’… or something. Good times don’t become bad just because someone, somewhere in the world can’t share them. 

Still… For someone as blessed as she was, she had a duty to spread the blessings around, didn’t she? She’d already done one thing to make Yuria’s situation better, so there were probably other ways as well. The problem was, how do you help someone if you don’t even know what they’re going through?

“Seiya? Hellooo? Anyone home?” Aya’s voice interrupted her train of thought, and Seiya realized that she’d been ignoring her for like, a minute straight. 

“Sorry, what were you saying?” She asked, feeling a little guilty. 

“I said I’m heading out. What, did those cookies melt your brain?” Aya paused. “I mean, I get it, but I still gotta let you know.”

“Oh, right. See ya later then.” Seiya turned back to the near-empty bowl of cereal, her thoughts returning to Yuria’s mysteries in turn. Honestly, what kind of monster out there would just target a random girl off the street… Wait. 

“A-And stay safe, okay?” She suddenly added.

“Uh… okay.” Aya said, a little off-balance from Seiya’s abrupt tone shift. “You too?” She added, before walking out the door.

I should’ve realized this earlier, Seiya thought, who says Yuria’s the only one in danger? It’s one thing if it’s just my curiosity I have to deal with, but if there’s a chance whoever did that to her could go after Aya, I can’t let her keep her secrets to herself. 

With Aya off to school, Seiya had no reason to linger, and she headed out as well. As she walked down the sidewalk, she took the time to hash out her plans. Yuria seems pretty cagey about the details, but she said it’s because she doesn’t think I’d believe her, not that she doesn’t wanna share. So… If I figure everything out myself, she’ll be fine with it, right?

Her and her friends are the only leads I have though… Do I just spend all day watching them, waiting for something to happen? It’s the only idea I can come up with. 

…Totally not stalking. It’s called investigation, haven’t you heard?

Let’s just hope none of the important stuff happens when I’m at my part-time job.

In preparation for her ‘investigation’, she grabbed a notebook out of her backpack, and—

There was no backpack. 

Seiya froze in the middle of the sidewalk, screaming internally. She had forgotten it at home. 

Frantically, she checked the time, and realized that she’d already gone too far; if she went back to grab it, she’d be late for school. Her only choices were tardiness, or coming to class unprepared…

It looked like Operation Chuuni Cover-up was getting a phase 2, whether she liked it or not.

Chapter Text

The moment Seiya got to her seat, she tucked her head into her folded arms, and groaned loudly enough for the whole class to hear. Apparently, this class's teacher still hadn't gotten over the whole pajama incident, and decided today's lecture would be titled 'Why Seiya is a terrible, terrible student, who should feel ashamed for being such an absolute mess'. 

Seiya was mostly just hamming it up to draw attention away from Yuria, but she had still kinda hoped her teachers would be better about this sort of thing. It was probably too much to expect perfection from someone who was paid that little, though. Still annoying, especially since the other two teachers she’d had that day had been (mostly) understanding.  

The school-wide attention on her had died down a bit since yesterday, but getting to the class she shared with Yuria had still been a major slog. Turning her head a bit, she noticed Yuria giving her a conflicted look from across the classroom, probably wondering whether Seiya's missing backpack was just another stunt for attention. 

Well, it was, but it wasn’t on purpose this time! 

…Actually, that made things worse. If anyone asked, Seiya was gonna call it 100% intentional.  

Once Yuria had seen enough and turned back to the teacher, Seiya noticed something off about Yuria today. She couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but it reminded her of how she looked when Seiya accidentally saw her scars. Only, this felt a little weaker, more like a low-level background noise. It could mean that Yuria had had a nightmare last night… Or, it could mean there’d been a new development with the underground crime empire she was fighting. Seiya had better pay extra close attention to her today. Not that she wasn’t already planning on that, mind you.  

Yuria’s eyes glazed over, clearly not all that interested in today’s lesson. Absently, she took a look out the window, probably to watch the birds outside that were definitely not government drones in disguise. Suddenly, she flinched, ducking down and away from the window.  

…Okay, that was unexpected. Seiya had kinda guessed it would take at least a week or so before she made even the slightest progress in her investigation, but apparently fate had thought five minutes was a good enough bargain. After what Yuria had been through, Seiya was pretty sure only the villains of her conspiracy would be able to scare her like that... 

And one of those villains was currently in their school courtyard. 

Yuria seriously needed a hug. Heck, at this point, Seiya probably needed a hug too. She may have been trying to investigate Yuria’s secrets, but she’d prefer it if anyone involved with them stayed at least a mile away at all times. Instead, Seiya was gonna have to figure out who on earth Yuria was scared of, and follow them instead.  

It felt like the kind of idiotic fumble a horror movie character would make. But if that’s what it was gonna take, Seiya might as well make it a five-star production. 

With all of the attention on her though, she had better make sure not to look at Yuria too much. “Seiya’s New Crush” showing up in the gossip rags would kiiinda ruin everything she’d done, and she was not letting her embarrassment get wasted like that.   

While she managed to turn her eyes back to the whiteboard, her attention stayed firmly on the possible criminal walking around the school. She felt kinda bad about it, since she usually tried to keep her grades at least somewhat decent, but these were some seriously… extrapolating circumstances? Whatever it was called.  

Since school was in session at the moment, the suspect had to be either a student, a teacher, or a visitor with permission. Or, you know, an eldritch mind-warping entity, but Seiya was gonna ignore that possibility for the moment. With how different Yuria’s attitude seemed from yesterday, they were most likely someone she didn’t know was coming. That left a visitor as the most likely option— 

Wait. The new sub that taught her previous class had, coincidentally, just arrived today. And sometimes, she’d see Yuria leaving that class just as Seiya got there, so she probably had class with him too… It wasn’t proof, but if Yuria started acting weird every time that guy showed up, he was gonna have ‘suspect’ written all over his face.

Well, lunch break was just around the corner. It was probably gonna be her best, if not only chance to watch them without getting caught.  

Now, if only she could actually focus on this assignment while she waited… 

Pretending to pack up her non-existent bag, Seiya nonchalantly spent a few seconds giving the sky a thoughtful look. The fact that Yuria was blocking the view had nothing to do with it, of course. As Yuria got up from her seat, rushing to the door in her best impression of a mouse hiding from a lion, Seiya decided that her current spot wasn’t cozy enough for lazing around, and left to find greener pastures. Again, the fact that Yuria just so happened to be going in the exact same direction was completely— 

—Aaand Yuria just went into the girl’s bathroom. Know what, that spot on the other side of the hallway seemed good enough. Hopping onto the windowsill, she tried out that one pose she saw in every otome game she’d ever played, the one where the prince tucks themselves into the corner of the frame, and someone comes and takes a ‘candid’ shot of him basking in the moonlight, as if the dude isn’t tryharding.  

…Okay, this was ridiculously uncomfortable. A few inches of sitting space was nowhere near enough to keep her balance, so she had to use everything else to compensate. It was practically a full-body workout.  

So, was she gonna stop? Heck no. Could you imagine what kinda face people would make, watching her pose dramatically in the middle of the hallway? 

Seiya was pretty sure she’d hear the door opening when Yuria came back out, so she decided to pass the time by looking longingly out over the courtyard. If you’re gonna pull a cool dude pose in the middle of the hallway, you might as well go all the way.  

It was kinda weird, watching the students walk around and chat like nothing was wrong. Just a few days ago, she would’ve been right there with them, and now she was leading them all by the nose as she tried to solve an (attempted) murder mystery. And still, here they were, talking and chatting like it was all business as usual. It was strange how the world could change so much, yet change so little. 

Not all of them were like usual, though. Off to the side, Seiya noticed a girl that looked like she expected the sky to crash down on her at any moment, sitting next to a girl with a serious poker face. Their names were… Hana, and Miko, right? She hadn’t interacted with them very much, but Hana’s chatting in-between classes had been loud enough for Seiya to catch a thing or two...  

Wait, weren’t those Yuria’s friends? The ones who’d saved her life at some point?  

If they were in on Yuria’s whole alien resistance thing, that’d explain the whole doom-and-gloom look going on with Hana. That Miko girl probably wasn’t doing too hot either, she was just a bit too stone-faced for Seiya to read. Not from this far away, at least.  

Still, it was plain to see how much unspoken tension there was between the two. Not the fun kind, either. They pretty much only talked to each other when Hana got spooked by her own shadow, while Miko only opened her mouth to calm her down. Otherwise, Hana was just left to fidget in her seat and swivel her head like a chicken, as Miko glared at her food like it had just called her mother something particularly nasty.  

Suddenly, Hana’s wandering eyes led her directly to Seiya’s hiding spot. The two of them blinked, Hana clearly not expecting to find a random classmate staring at her through the window, while Seiya realized that, if she was trying to be sneaky, she had picked a terrible spot.  

Seiya kinda expected her to panic again, but instead, she got a friendly wave and Hana’s best attempt at a cheerful smile. It took Seiya a few moments to wave back, as she remembered how creepy she’d look if she didn’t.  

Well, that was nice of her. If Seiya was stuck in her shoes, she really didn’t think she’d be able to muster any amount of cheerfulness for some random girl, especially if she’d been staring at her for the last half an hour.  

…Speaking of, lunch break was almost over, and while a couple of girls had entered and left the bathroom, none of them had been Yuria. What was taking her so long? Just as Seiya thought this, she saw the bathroom door opening, and the girl in question stepped out.  

So. Bad news, she immediately noticed Seiya’s conspicuous position on the windows, and squinted at her like she hadn’t seen Seiya come to school in her pajamas. Good news, it seemed she wasn’t pushing the issue, just shaking her head and heading for her next class like normal.  

Seiya, of course, followed after her, hoping to find out what kinds of crimes Yuria had been getting up to during lunch break.  

She got her answer pretty quickly, as Yuria tossed a sandwich wrapper into the garbage. She’d been… eating lunch in the bathroom. Truly, her heinous deeds knew no bounds.  

Seiya kinda wanted to drop the whole ‘investigation’ thing and invite Yuria to have lunch with her instead, but she’d have to wait until the gossip died down a bit. Infamy was a lot more restrictive than she’d anticipated, and Seiya was kinda getting tired of it.  

Honestly though, she was just glad that Yuria hadn’t— 

Seiya’s train of thought was interrupted by a growling stomach, which she quickly realized was her own. 

…Hadn’t gotten so caught up in her conspiracies that she’d forgotten about lunch. Y’know, like Seiya apparently had.  

Over the next few days, Seiya realized a few things. First, she did not have very many chances to see Yuria or her friends, at all. One class, one lunch, and a smattering of hallway encounters was all she got.

Second, all three of those girls needed like, a year’s supply of hugs at least. Maybe with an extra half tacked on, just to be on the safe side. 

If she ever found out who hurt them like this, Seiya was gonna have to seriously reconsider whether or not that body burying comment was a joke.  

Third, Seiya discovered it wasn’t just Hana who was jumping at shadows. She might’ve never noticed if she hadn’t been paying such close attention, but there were times when either Miko or Yuria would glance off to the side for just a moment, then strangely enough, they would spend the next few minutes very carefully focusing on a single spot that wasn’t wherever they’d looked. Given how secretive Yuria had been about everything, it made sense that, if she suspected something, she would try to avoid drawing attention to whatever out-of-place detail she’d noticed. What surprised Seiya, however, was how much less obvious Miko’s tells were, compared to Yuria’s. The way she had talked about it, Yuria was the one that’d gotten the other two roped into her mess, but it looked to Seiya like Miko had been doing this for even longer.  

As she stood in the crowded cafeteria, patiently waiting for the privilege of spending her hard-earned cash, Seiya wondered what, exactly, she was supposed to do with this information.  

Though she supposed she could pay a bit closer attention to Miko, she wasn’t sure how any of them would react to random hug attacks. It’s not like she could make more investigation chances pop out of thin air, either… Or could she? 

That train of thought might actually have some potential. But before she could dig deeper into it, there was a conversation or two that required her immediate attention.  

“…know what’s up with Hana?” A brown-haired girl asked her black-haired classmate, a note of concern carried in her voice. “She’s trying her best to hide it, but I can tell that something’s been really bothering her recently. She barely says more than a few words to anyone, even Miko.” 

The other girl sighed as she shook her head. “Tell me about it. Your class has it the best, actually. For some reason, she won’t even look at our new sub.” 

The brown-haired girl, who Seiya would now be calling ‘Gossip Girl 1’ for convenience’s sake, blinked in surprise. “Seriously? I thought she’d  be doing everything she could to make her feel welcome. That’s so unlike her.” 

“The sub’s a dude,” corrected Gossip Girl 2, who Seiya would now be calling ‘GG2’ for convenience’s sake. “But yeah, it is weird. Especially since Miko’s doing the same thing.” 

GG1 mulled over that information for a moment, before she got a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “Wait a moment. A new sub who’s a guy, two friends who look away whenever he shows up, two friends who barely ever talk to each other anymore… You know what this means?” 

As the GGs proceeded to horrifically misinterpret the situation, Seiya was busy processing the final piece of the puzzle that had been handed to her, from the most unlikely source. Given the circumstances, Seiya doubted that Hana or Miko were able to spare enough attention for a high school crush. That only left one possibility: Mr. Zen had to be a Chthonic cultist.  

Or at least involved in whatever conspiracy those three were up against. Y’know, in hindsight, Seiya would prefer literally anything except a lovecraftian doomsday plot. She might need like, at least two days of preparation before throwing hands with an elder god. 

That kinda went off track. 

The point was, Seiya now had enough breadcrumbs to work with that, if she wanted a few more, a quick after-school check-in with Mr. Zen was starting to look like a promising opportunity. Follow that trail to the end, and she just might be able to make a full loaf out of the pieces. 

Scarfing down the lunch she’d been provided - a plain slice of bread included, funnily enough - she got a head start on the race to her next class. Not to be a role model for her classmates of course, but a few moments of peace and quiet would probably help her figure out how best to stalk- investigate her target. 

In the hallway, she ended up bumping into a few familiar faces. Yuria, Miko, and Hana were shuffling their way into an empty classroom, looking just as tense and gloomy as they’d been for the past week. Giving them some space, she made her way— 

Wait, they were talking to each other again? 

Unable to resist her curiosity, she doubled back to see if she could pick up anything useful. Luckily for her, it looked like this class didn’t have studio-quality soundproofing, as Seiya didn’t even need her ear to the door to hear someone speaking.  

“We can’t keep going like this,” Miko said. “Every time we avoid Mr. Zen, we make everything else suspicious of us. Whenever we don’t, we make that thing angry. Even if it ends up being 100% stuck to that guy, we’ve got to try and get rid of it, somehow. 

There was the screech of a chair sliding across the floor, followed by what sounded like someone face-planting on a desk. Yuria sighed, the sound getting muffled by her folded arms. “What, are we gonna try fighting something again? ‘Cause I’m not forgetting our last attempt anytime soon.” 

“No… Just, no.” Miko said, already sounding exhausted. “Why did you even need to ask?” 

Seiya could practically hear Yuria’s eyes rolling. “Well, excuse me for not knowing ‘let’s get rid of that thing’ actually means something completely different. My bad, totally.” 

“Unless you think I like putting us all in danger,” Miko huffed, voice suddenly sharp enough to cut, “Then duh, of course I meant something else. It’s not like the only way to get rid of your problems is to start a fight.” 

Seiya shuffled her feet in her spot next to the wall. She’d come here for answers, but at this point, all she was getting was a great big box labeled “Hostile Territory”. Maybe she should leave them be?  

“Sure, ‘cause that makes sooo much sense—“ Yuria cut herself off, chair screeching a second time as she stood up. “Hold on, I think I just heard somebody walk by.”  

Oh, that was convenient. Quietly, Seiya slipped around the corner, just in time to hear a door opening behind her. Thankfully, it seemed like she’d just barely dodged Yuria’s notice, as the door closed again a few moments later.  

Welp, Seiya might’ve not gotten as much as she’d hoped - such as a single mention of what, exactly, they were up against - but luckily she’d gotten a few juicy details.  

…Or she would call it lucky, if the juice box wasn’t filled with ants.  

So. There was ‘something’ stuck to their teacher. Something that most people don’t notice, that gets angry when you look too closely, something that’s dangerous to everyone around them. There were a lot of possibilities. Sentient viruses, psychic manifestations of personal issues, hostile AIs hiding in medical implants… the one thing all of these possibilities had in common, is that they were all genuinely insane.  

No wonder Yuria had been hesitant to tell her anything. Like, if she had said any of that at the start, Seiya might’ve called a doctor to check if Yuria had chronic hallucinations. Even now, she was still questioning whether or not five Google searches about psychology was enough qualification to give someone else’s sanity the all-clear.  

Still… imaginary friends don’t leave scars. Whether or not Seiya was secretly living in a sci-fi novel, someone, or some thing, was going around mauling teenage girls and getting off scot-free. Right now, Mr. Zen was still looking like Suspect No. 1.  

If she could find some unrelated dirt on him and get the police to investigate that, it just might pull up whatever Yuria couldn’t tell them directly. It would be perfectly safe…ish. Safer than trying to fistfight the Terminator at least, or whatever the heck Yuria was trying to do over there.  

And if it was actually a ‘thing, and not a ‘one… Safe or not, there wasn’t a chance in hell Seiya was letting an alien parasite walk around in her school. Not if she had anything to say about it.

Chapter Text

Carefully, Yuria opened the door, peeking out into the empty hallway. With a sigh, she let it swing shut behind her, walking back to the two girls standing in the back of the classroom. As she returned to her borrowed desk, she wondered why, exactly, they didn’t just sit down. Well, it wasn’t all that important.

“Looks like they were just passing through,” Yuria said as she let her chin rest on her hands. With the way their conversation had been going, a quick interruption had probably been for the best. Still, she sighed, letting her eyes droop as she watched the others. 

While Miko let a tiny bit of tension fall away at the news, Hana looked just as uncomfortable as she’d looked since the moment they’d walked in. Guess she was more worried about the murderous pile of corpses they had for a teacher than the chance that some rando overheard them. 

Yuria, eager to get it over with, tried to get the discussion back on track. “So, what’s the magic plan, boss-lady?” she said. “It’s not like any of us can read minds.”

Miko rolled her eyes at the sass, but after a slow, deep breath, decided not to press the issue. “I don’t know. That’s why I wanted to talk to you two.”

Yuria sighed, giving the floor a thorough examination as she slumped further into her lumpy plastic chair. “Not sure why you called me then,” she muttered under her breath.

“Hmm?” 

“Nothing.” Yuria coughed. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure we came here so we could come up with a plan. Anyone got any bright ideas they’re willing to share?”

Well, if sitting around and twiddling your thumbs counted as a plan, at least they had something.

“Great. I’m just gonna throw some ideas out, see if it gives you two any.” She tapped a finger on her arm as she racked her brain, struggling to find an answer that wouldn’t get Miko mad at her. 

“We know that he’s that cat-killing psycho the police are looking for, so maybe we could blackmail him into skipping town?” Before anyone could share their opinions, Yuria shot her own idea down harder than they ever could. “No, there’s no way his ‘passenger’ would take that lying down. At that point, I might as well buy a shovel and head to a graveyard.”

Given the way Miko’s fists clenched, Yuria’s comment had done exactly the opposite of what she’d hoped. 

“Leave the blackmail at his door?” Yuria shook her head, groaning in frustration. “No, that’d mean we’d have to follow him to his house, and I just know that thing would pop up outta nowhere. One ambush is enough for one lifetime, thank you very much.”

And now Miko wouldn’t even look at her. 

Yuria’s voice grew hoarse, and she let her arms drop back onto the desk. “I don’t know, bait an even worse ghost into attacking him? Of course not, what am I even… Fine.” 

She shot up, startling Miko and making Hana give her a worried look. “All my ideas are trash, I get it.” She sighed, stomping her way to the door. “Call me when you need someone to get beat up, or something. It’s pretty much all I’m good for.”

Well, that was productive. Really, just the textbook definition of a skilled tactician. Her brightest ideas were all ripped from anime, and obviously didn’t work the same—

“Wait!” Miko called out behind her. Yuria paused, but didn’t turn around just yet. 

“…What’s up?” Yuria asked, feeling like she’d just gotten another ten pounds dumped on her shoulders. 

“I…” Miko swallowed, and Yuria started to realize how choked up she sounded. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I can’t believe that I tried to blame you for everything that happened. I was such an idiot.”

…What? But it was Yuria’s fault. Her plan had been full of more holes than a net, her execution was sloppy, and she’d made the fight so blatantly obvious that it must’ve been visible from the ISS. 

Miko took a deep breath, looking Yuria in the eye. “You… you took on a monster that I can’t even make myself look at, and you won. You came up with the plan, you invented the weapons, and all I was supposed to do was keep an eye out.” She let out a short, bitter laugh. “You saved my brother, but I couldn’t even do that one, tiny thing.”

The room fell into a weighty silence, as if waiting for a judge’s gavel to drop. But from Yuria’s point of view… that was way nicer than she could’ve ever hoped. She turned around, and one look was enough to dispel any doubt she had about Miko’s truthfulness. 

“You’re not mad at me anymore?” She asked, feeling a lot smaller than she had a few minutes ago. 

“I never should have been to begin with. I still don’t know why I ever thought…” Miko paused. “Actually no, I am still a little upset.”

…And there’s the catch, just as Yuria expected. 

“Not about the part where everything went wrong,” Miko backtracked. “It’s just, you’re way, way too reckless.” She shook her head. “Like seriously, why on earth would you ram yourself face-first through an angry ghost? You nearly lost an eye!”

Hana, who had been sitting awkwardly in the corner for most of the conversation, choked on her breath. She gave Yuria a disbelieving stare, questioning whether or not she’d hallucinated the last fifteen seconds. “Excuse me, she did what?! ”

Yuria breathed a sigh of relief, glad that it wasn’t anything serious . “Oh, that wasn’t me being reckless. I mean, it didn’t work like I thought it would, but you can’t tell me you’ve never stuck your face in a ghost before.”

Hana flippantly, (if hurriedly), waved it off. “Of course she hasn’t! No one in their right mind would even think about that, right?”

After a pregnant pause, Miko turned to look out the window, making no comment. 

“…Miko?”

Miko couldn’t look Hana in the eyes. 

She rubbed her arm, a weak crimson coloring her ears. “…You dropped your doll right under it, and it would’ve been suspicious if I didn’t pick it up.” 

Slowly, Hana walked over to a desk, sat down, and slammed her face straight into it. She sighed, with the deep, suffering tone of someone who was way too tired for this nonsense. “I used to think there were two sane people in my friend group,” she commented. “Now I realize there’s only one.” 

Miko shot her a look of betrayal, while Yuria giggled involuntarily. 

Ignoring them, Hana sat back up. “And here I am, still friends with them, still talking about the ghost haunting our substitute teacher. Maybe there’s zero,” she said, staring at the ceiling as if it held arcane secrets.

“I-I’ve still never tried to go through an angry ghost!” Miko sputtered, trying to recover her dignity. “And besides, that’s not even the big problem.” Shaking the distractions out of her head, she refocused on Yuria. “Your first exorcism was a complete and utter disaster, but all you could talk about was how it was basically the best day of your entire life, and how your scars were the coolest thing ever. It’s like, do you care about your safety at all?”

Yuria’s laughter died off slowly, as Miko’s words sunk in. “…Did I really sound like that?” She asked, clasping her elbow with a look of quiet contemplation on her face. “That’s not at all what I was going for. I… I don’t like getting hurt, you know. But even if I was in more pain than I’d ever felt before, I’ve spent my entire life dreaming about the day when I could finally fight back. It… may have made me a little too hyper, both during the fight and after, to see my dreams finally become reality. But let me tell you…” She shuddered, gently rubbing her arm. “…I’m gonna be a lot more careful from now on.”

“…Oh,” Miko whispered with an undertone of guilt. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed.”

Yuria shook her head. “No need to apologize, you were just worried about me, right? I’ll try not to worry you so much from now on.”

Yuria walked back to her borrowed seat and sat down. With a spark of light coming back to her eyes, she propped herself up on her elbows and changed the subject. “So, let me get something straight. You don’t want us to go the exorcist route because I need someone to watch for the big ones, and you don’t think you can do a good enough job at it?”

Miko hummed. “Well, also because I thought you weren’t doing a good enough job at taking care of yourself. But if you’re really being more careful now… I guess that’s it?”

After a few moments, Yuria let out something halfway between a laugh and a sigh. “Have you ever considered, I don’t know, trying to train your situational awareness?”

Miko huffed, rolling her eyes. “And how would I practice? It’s not like I can get better if every mistake leads to another disaster.”

“Who said you needed to fight ghosts?” Yuria asked with a look of genuine confusion. “You could just, I don’t know, ask us to chuck marbles at you every now and then? I’m sure we could find a way.”

For a moment, Miko looked like she wanted to argue. But before she could say anything, the rest of her brain caught up to her, informing her that Yuria’s idea was actually pretty sensible for once. “I… I guess that might work,” she admitted. “I still don’t think it’d be very safe though.”

Yuria sighed. “You say that like sitting around is any safer.”

Miko mulled that over for a few minutes, before conceding the point. “Fine. Maybe we can do some practice later, just in case.”

Yuria pumped her fist with a grin. “Well then, girls, it looks like we’ve got a plan! Now we just need to flesh out our tactics, arena, preparations—“

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold on!” Stomping over, Miko grabbed Yuria’s hands and slammed them against the desk, restraining them from their wildly animated gesturing. “I mean, for cases like Kyo’s! This one is still way out of our league. Heck, that thing is probably out of humanity’s league! There’s no way we’re taking it in a straight fight.”

Yuria leaned in close, with a cocky smirk from ear to ear. “Who said anything about straight? Straight is boring. ”

Two seconds later, she looked down at the hands holding hers, let her brain catch up with her words, and looked back to find Miko turning her face to the side, a pair of red-tinted ears now very much visible. 

Spontaneously, Yuria’s face combusted. Only her face, unfortunately. She would’ve preferred if the rest of her followed suit, and freed her from this endless pit of torment so foolishly called ‘life’. 

Over in the corner, Hana started giggling up a storm. “Yuria, I didn’t know you swung that way!” She said jokingly. Unfortunately for Yuria, the joke flew straight over her head, smashing into the wall clock and pushing the hour hand towards “Fumble o’clock”. 

“I mean, I do, b-but—!” she said before getting cut off, as if stumbling over every word wasn’t already enough. 

Miko, pushing down her embarrassment, chimed in with some ribbing of her own. “Oh, cool. If I knew, I would’ve put the door hinges on the other side this morn—“ She paused. “Wait, actually?”

Yuria wasn’t usually very self-conscious about this sort of thing, but for some reason, it was a lot more embarrassing when she said it by accident. “Well, uh, yeah. But I meant that I was gonna try and make a sneaky plan, like… finding some sort of weak point we can use against it, or something. It um, kinda came out weird, for some reason.”

“ You came out weird,” Miko muttered under her breath without thinking. As soon as the words left her lips, she slapped a hand over her mouth and turned to look away, her earlier awkwardness returning with a vengeance.

Meanwhile, Hana was giving the both of them a thorough look. After spending an uncomfortable amount of time with a hand on her chin, giving the gears in her head a chance to churn, she nodded approvingly. Exactly what she was approving of, Yuria had no idea. 

“Huh,” Hana said. “Okay! We should probably get back on track, though. Y’know, with all this… murdery stuff.”

“Good idea! Yeah, let’s go with that,” Miko added with a bit more enthusiasm than usual. Silently, Yuria thanked them both for the timely change of topic. Nothing like a good ol’ murder plot to help your friends forget that time you accidentally outed yourself.