Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You were actually being serious?”

“I'm always incredibly serious.”

Mitsuba stares at him like he's grown a third head.

“You actually expect me to clean the school bathrooms with you?” he says, completely scandalized. He gestures towards himself with his pink sleeved hand. “Me? Cute little ol’ me?”

Kou just nods, unwavering. “Yeah. You lost the bet, so you pay the price.”

Mitsuba drops his head into his hands and groans.

They're standing in the hall where the lockers are at school. It's been about half an hour since the final bell rang to dismiss everyone, so they're the only ones here right now, which means Kou can talk to Mitsuba without it being a problem. Unfortunately for Mitsuba, he had recently lost a bet with Kou that involved him having to clean the school bathrooms with Kou, Nene and Hanako for a week, which Kou had cheerfully reminded him of when Mitsuba had appeared with the intent of bothering him.

“You're an evil little cheater,” Mitsuba moans, shaking his head dramatically. “You rigged all those games! I know you did! I call for a rematch!”

“I gave you a chance when we were at the arcade to have a redo of the last game,” Kou tells him, unsympathetic. He's currently sitting down on the bench between the lockers, rummaging through his bag for the school books that he doesn't need to take home. Upon finding them, he gets up to stuff them in his locker and swing it shut. “You declined.”

“Because I was traumatized,” Mitsuba mutters.

Kou rolls his eyes while Mitsuba can't see him. “I'm not taking that excuse now. You had your chance.”

From behind him, Mitsuba scoffs. “What are you, my mom?”

Without looking, Kou flips him off.

“Oh, wow. I see how it is.”

“Get up,” Kou says. He takes a look at his phone, seeing a text from Nene ping through asking where he is. “You're coming, and you don't get a say.”

Mitsuba lets out a long, drawn-out groan that trails off into a pathetic little whine.

Kou shoots him a look. Eventually, Mitsuba gets up, dragging his feet behind him as he follows. “Oh, alright, if I have to.”

Behind his hand, Kou smiles.

The school is rather quiet with almost everybody gone. A few people linger for after school clubs, but most of them stay in their designated classrooms and don't wander the halls. Mitsuba hums to himself as they walk, a familiar tune that Kou can't put a name to, trailing his fingers along the walls and being annoying by trying to tread on the soles of Kou's shoes.

Kou just ignores him. He's just being a pain because he's annoyed that Kou's following through on the bet. Well, Mitsuba had said he didn't want to be pitied. Kou's just showing that he isn't going to.

He hears Nene and Hanako before he sees them, even before they enter the bathroom.

“- No, you do this next.”

“With my left leg?”

“Yeah, it's all on the left first, then on the right. Then you toss your hair, like this.”

“...I'll just lose my hat if I do that.”

“Take your hat off then!”

Kou and Mitsuba exchange confused looks before they push the door open and step inside.

Nene and Hanako are standing in the middle of the room, both of them mimicking the same pose. They have their left hands on their hips, right legs stuck out, and Nene is giggling madly at Hanako's uncertain expression. When they step inside, Hanako lets out a shriek and snaps into a normal standing position, one hand on his chin and eyes observing the room like he'd never been doing anything else.

“Mm, ah, yes,” he says loudly. “We definitely need to scrub this wall in particular.”

Nene giggles into her hand, meeting Kou's gaze as her eyes twinkle. “I'm teaching Hanako that one dance from Vine.”

Hanako squawks indignantly, flushing bright red. “Yashiro, I thought that was our secret!”

Kou snickers, a grin spreading across his face as he dumps his bag and raiteijou in the corner of the room. He always feels the most normal when he gets to hang out with Nene and Hanako after school. Already, he can feel himself relaxing, the stress of the day melting off of him. “You're getting Hanako addicted to short form content?”

“He keeps stealing my phone to watch youtube videos,” Nene says with a grin. She reaches behind her to remove the mop from its bucket from where it's sitting against the wall, picking the thing up so she can fill it in the sink. She's wearing a neat white apron over her uniform, presumably to keep it clean while she works. Kou wishes he'd thought of that. He watches Nene wrestle with the taps on the sink, a sigh escaping her lips. “He really likes Minecraft videos. Kou, would you -?”

“Hang on,” he says, and strides across the room to hold the bucket still while Nene turns on the water. It's awkwardly shaped, making it difficult to work with. “Hey, Hanako, you can help at any time, you know.”

Hanako crosses his arms, pouting childishly. “If Yashiro stops spilling all my secrets, sure…”

Then Kou suddenly remembers. He turns around to face the door to call Mitsuba in, then realizes he can't see him. The bathroom door has been mostly closed, but is open slightly ajar. If Kou squints, he can see a raspberry coloured eye, peeking in to look at them.

“Oh, guys,” he says with a grin. He helps Nene set down the bucket, darting back towards the door. “We've got a surprise guest helping us out today.”

He swings open the door to reveal a disgruntled looking Mitsuba. He's slumped over unhappily, trying to make himself look smaller by hugging himself.

“You're enjoying this,” he deadpans at Kou's delighted expression. “You're enjoying my suffering.”

“Mitsuba!” Nene squeals, nearly knocking over the bucket in her efforts to race across the bathroom and throw her arms around Mitsuba. Kou watches Mitsuba stiffen, eyes widening in surprise. Nene lets go of him as quickly as she'd grabbed him, flushing awkwardly at her own enthusiasm. “Sorry. I haven't seen you since the festival. How have you been? I missed seeing you!”

“Hi, Daikon,” Mitsuba grins. His cheeks are pink, shoulders so high they meet his ears. His eyes wander past Nene to land upon Hanako across the room, and his smile flickers. “Number Seven.”

Hanako nods at him, standing awkwardly with his hands by his sides. “Number Three.”

Nene pulls Mitsuba further into the room, practically vibrating with excitement. “Mitsuba, are you here to help us clean?”

Mitsuba groans. “I lost a bet with Kou.”

Across the room, Kou hears Hanako make a huh! sound. Nene's eyebrows raise, and Kou realizes it's probably because of the name change. That was a recent development between them. Kou doesn't really care what they think, but he doesn't like Hanako's amused expression.

“What kind of bet?” Nene asks, tilting her head curiously.

Mitsuba rolls his eyes. “It's not important -”

Kou jumps in with glee. “Mitsuba's worse at arcade games than I am.”

Hanako cackles, and even Nene giggles delicately behind her hand at this declaration. From behind him, Mitsuba punches Kou in the arm, hard enough for it to really hurt.

“Ow,” he yelps, rubbing the spot on his arm. “You're actually, seriously abusive. I'm never hanging out with you again.”

“Good,” Mitsuba says fiercely. He's pink in the cheeks, a frown pulling at his face. “I don't even like your lame ass.”

He lets out a sudden shriek as something is tossed at him from across the room. In the direction it came from is Hanako, who is rummaging through the storage closet where all the cleaning materials are located and has just supplied Mitsuba with a washcloth, which he catches clumsily on reflex before giving it a dirty, disgusted look.

“You can start by scrubbing the mirrors,” Hanako says with a massive grin. He looks incredibly pleased with the situation, somehow even more so than Kou himself. “I mean, you'd want them to be clean, wouldn't you, Number Three?”

Following the washcloth comes a bottle of cleaning spray. This time, Mitsuba doesn't bother catching it and watches it land loudly in one of the sinks behind him. He glares in Hanako's direction, and Kou can sense the malice radiating off of him.

Hanako pouts dramatically. “Aww, don't be like that, Number Three. Aren't you here to help anyway?”

Mitsuba heaves out a sigh. “I'll clean what I choose to, not what you tell me to. And I've decided that I'm gonna start with…”

He does a walk around the room, observing every inch of it and grimacing at everything he sees.

“...The mirrors,” he eventually decides, in a disgruntled tone. “So, fuck you.”

“Such language,” Hanako says under his breath, but he's smiling victoriously.

While this has been going on, Nene's been on her phone, flipping through music. Now, she picks a song and grins broadly as the tune fills the room, spinning around and letting her skirt flow outwards. “I made us a playlist,” she says, reaching for the mop again and dipping it in the bucket. “Since Hanako's song requests are always terrible, I'm making him listen to modern music so he develops better taste.”

“Hah?” Hanako cries, startled. “What? Why am I catching strays all of a sudden?”

Kou grins in Mitsuba's direction as the supernatural shoots him an unimpressed look. “I taught him that one.”

So far, he hasn't actually done anything except dawdle, so while Nene and Hanako bicker over the music, he heads to the cupboard to get himself some cleaning supplies. Somehow, every time he helps out with doing this he always ends up being the one delegated to scrubbing the toilets, so he decides he'll skip the argument today and just start with that. He grabs some cleaning liquid and a toilet brush and disappears around the corner to where the stalls are, humming along to Nene's music as he sets himself to work.

Technically, he doesn't have to be here. Nene does - as Hanako's assistant, this is her job as long as Hanako continues to ask her to do it, which it doesn't look like he'll stop anytime soon. But Nene, more often than not, will beg Kou to come help her out after school whenever he's not already busy. “Please, Kou?” she'll plead, making her hazel eyes huge. “I can't keep up a conversation with Hanako by myself for long enough to clean, and I have to do it every single day! Eventually, we're going to run out of things to talk about and he's going to start asking me weird things!”

Originally, Kou had started saying yes because he'd had a bit of a crush on Nene and was happy for an excuse to spend more time with her. Now, he likes both Nene and Hanako just as friends, and doesn't mind having to clean if it means he has something to do after school. Besides, he does most of the cleaning at home, too, so it's not like he's not used to doing things like this already.

It's, weirdly enough, the only time where he feels like a normal teenage boy. There are no expectations on him - just his friends and conversations about whatever they'd done or seen that day. Sure, sometimes a particularly weird supernatural comes out of the woodworks and the three of them have to deal with it, but even then, Kou enjoys his time spent with them. He wonders sometimes if the other two feel the same way. He's sure Hanako enjoys having people to hang out with, and even though Nene complains, she's almost always smiling during these after school rendezvous, chattering away and laughing even as she gets her hands dirty.

Mitsuba being here is just an added bonus. Kou very rarely gets to hang out with him with the rest of his friends. The four of them being together just feels correct for some reason.

(He won't tell anyone that he sometimes longs to return to the picture perfect world Number Four had made for them, where they'd all gone to school together and Mitsuba and Hanako had even gotten to meet Satou and Yokoo, Kou's closest friends who aren't supernaturally affiliated. It's a little embarrassing, but Kou wishes he had been able to spend longer there, just pretending, even if nothing he experienced was real.)

“Hey, lame ass.”

Something flicks his ear, and Kou gasps at the pain. Of course, he already knows who's behind him, but he still turns around with a glare to see Mitsuba. The supernatural is standing uncomfortably with crossed arms, holding the cleaning supplies Hanako had given him gingerly like they might bite him.

“What?” Kou says. He feels rather awkward, kneeling in front of a toilet that he has his hand in as he is. “Do you not know how to clean or something?”

“Of course I know how to fucking clean,” Mitsuba hisses, and Kou notices that he's deliberately keeping his voice down, and is glancing out of the stall and around the partition between the stalls and the sinks with a pinched expression. He looks back at Kou and grimaces. “This is so awkward.”

That's not what Kou had expected him to say at all.

“Huh?” he says, confused. “How?”

Mitsuba raises his eyebrows and tilts his head in the direction of the sinks. Now that Kou's listening, he can hear Hanako and Nene, somehow still arguing about the music thing.

“- It's terrible. It's not even music. They're just whining about being in love in front of tunes they made on a computer instead of with real instruments.”

“You sound exactly like my grandpa. My grandpa, Hanako.”

“Well, your grandpa is right!”

“My grandpa is crazy! He thinks Japan would have been better off if Britain had colonized us!”

“Wha- You're setting me up right now! You're trying to make me look bad!”

“You make yourself look bad, Hanako.”

“You're mad because I'm insulting your terrible, terrible modern love songs. You're malding and seething.”

“I'm never letting you use my phone again, ever. You'll have to beg Kou instead. I can't deal with you learning any more internet slang.”

“Ah, Yashiro, that's not fair at all! I just got to the part where she's searching for the stronghold so she can go fight the Nether Dragon!”

“You're clearly not even paying attention to the game if you think that's what it's called!”

Kou and Mitsuba exchange glances before they both burst into peals of silent giggles. Kou has to bury his face in the crook of his elbow to stop himself from getting too loud.

“They're always like this,” he whispers, when he's regained stability again. “Either fighting or flirting. There's no in between with them.”

Mitsuba shakes his head with wonder. “Are you constantly third wheeling, then?”

Kou groans. “Unfortunately.”

“What a shame,” Mitsuba grins. Then he leans in, crouching down next to him so he can get close to Kou's ear. “I can trap Number Seven in my boundary if you want time alone with Daikon.”

The proposition sounds tempting, although not for the reason Mitsuba thinks. However, it is slightly confusing to him that Mitsuba still seems to be under the impression that Kou is romantically interested in Nene, especially given some specific occurrences that have taken place more recently. He really can't figure Mitsuba out, no matter how hard he tries. He's a total enigma.

“Nah,” he says, shrugging as he turns his attention back to the toilet he's supposed to be cleaning. “Hanako's the only one who can reach up high, so unless you wanna deal with the spiders that are constantly hiding in the ceiling corners, I wouldn't recommend it.”

Mitsuba makes a face. “Eugh. Spiders.”

Kou nods in agreement. “Disgusting little spindly creatures. He chased me around with one of them once. It was traumatizing.”

“Oh, you poor dear,” Mitsuba says mockingly, but he's snickering, probably at the mental image that Kou's words had provided.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Both boys pivot to see Hanako standing in the doorway to the stall, hands on his hips. Kou hadn't even noticed that the arguing and the music had stopped. He has a look of glee on his face, like he's just caught them in the act of something. Behind him is Nene, rolling her eyes as she dries off her hands with a paper towel.

“Fuck off,” Kou and Mitsuba say, in near perfect unison.

“ Such language,” Hanako chides, shaking his head. “Number Three, it doesn't look like you're helping.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Mitsuba says flatly. “I haven't seen you pick up a single piece of cleaning equipment that you haven't thrown at me since I entered that door. Besides, I cleaned the mirrors.”

Hanako glances past the partition, clearly scrutinizing Mitsuba's work. “...You didn't do a very good job.”

“I said, go fuck yourself!”

“How about we play a game?” Nene suddenly jumps in. She grabs Hanako's shoulder to look past him down at Kou and Mitsuba, smiling broadly. “We don't get to hang out with Mitsuba often, and it'll help us learn more about each other so we can bond as a team. Plus, it'll keep us occupied while we clean.”

Mitsuba furrows his eyebrows, clearly unimpressed. “Uh, no,” he says. “Games are for children.”

“We are all children,” Kou reminds him. He gets to his feet, stretching his arms out. He's stiff from all the time spent crouching down. “Even Hanako still counts as one.”

Hanako huffs. “Do not.”

“I meant like babies,” Mitsuba scoffs. He also gets up, leaning back against the stall nonchalantly. His eyes shift over to Nene. “What was your suggestion gonna be?”

She blinks innocently, although the curl of her lip suggests she's not. “I was gonna say truth or dare…”

“Pass!” Hanako says immediately. He holds up a hand as if to somehow physically prevent this from happening. “We'll never get anything done if we're daring each other to do things.”

“Yeah,” Mitsuba drawls, twirling a lock of hair around his finger. “And we all know Number Seven would just dare Daikon to kiss him, anyway.”

“What about Two Truths and a Lie?” Kou suggests, as Nene and Hanako splutter. “That'd be pretty interesting.”

“Oh, yes,” Nene says, brightening significantly after her original suggestion was shot down. “I actually have a really fun one that I always use when I play this with people.”

Mitsuba snorts. “Not to be a downer, but how would someone play that if they, hypothetically, have only existed for a few months as a supernatural and don't have memories of being alive?”

Nene pales. “Ohh… yeah, that would be a problem.”

Kou frowns thoughtfully. All of them fall into a silence for a moment, thinking.

Mitsuba looks rather put out, glaring into a corner like it had offended him. Kou swallows, feeling somewhat bad that his suggestion had been in any way upsetting. He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, determined to think of something better that they'd all be able to play with no exclusions.

“Aha!” he exclaims after a moment, grinning. “I've got one. I don't remember if this game has a name, but I played it with my friends in elementary school.”

Everyone shuffles closer, paying full attention with wide eyes like little children.

“Basically,” Kou explains, feeling rather intimidated by all the eyes on him. “We ask each other questions that they have to answer completely honestly. But they're not like truth or dare questions, not serious questions. It's all stupid stuff. When we answer one, we get to ask somebody else a question. Then they get to ask one, and so forth.”

Mitsuba blows a raspberry. However, Hanako and Nene seem to be into the idea, both looking at each other and nodding. “That sounds fun,” Nene says, flashing two thumbs up at Kou. “We can do it while we work, so we're still productive.”

Everybody exits the bathroom stall they'd all been gathered in for some reason. Kou's pretty much finished with the toilets, so he takes a rag to start scrubbing down the walls while Nene goes back to her mop and Mitsuba resumes his work on the mirrors. Kou watches as one of his hands begins to slowly slip through the glass, causing it to ripple, before he clears his throat to signal that he can see Mitsuba trying to escape. Mitsuba jumps guiltily, then flips Kou off with a stuck out tongue to accompany it.

“I wanna go first,” Nene says brightly. She's tied her hair up, and looks the most prepared out of all of them as they begin working. “Hanako…”

“Big surprise,” Kou hears Mitsuba mutter under his breath, and he has to cough to cover the sound of his laughter.

Nene shoots him a look before resuming. “Hanako, if you had to choose one animal to wipe from the face of the earth forever, what would you pick?”

Kou grins. “Very good question. That's exactly the kind of stuff I was thinking of for this game.”

Hanako doesn't even need a moment to think. “Mice.”

“Why mice?” Mitsuba asks scornfully. “You could have picked anything.”

“Yeah,” Kou agrees, looking at him over his shoulder. “Like rats. Those are the real monsters.”

Hanako shrugs, folding his hands behind his head as he floats on the spot. “I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to mice. Tsukasa tried to keep one when we were little and I always sneezed when he put it near me. Which he did extremely frequently before our parents made him put it out.”

Nene wrinkles her nose. “I've never heard of being allergic to mice before.”

“Neither had I,” Hanako says. Then his eyes widen. “Ooh, I wonder if I kept my allergies from when I was living as a ghost…”

“Sixty years and you never thought to test that?” Kou says scornfully.

Mitsuba pipes up. “I notice you're not cleaning.”

Hanako giggles childishly, cupping his chin. “Why would I when I have my little servants to do it?”

Mitsuba hurls a bottle of cleaner at him. It hits Hanako square in the forehead, and he yelps, rubbing the red welt that appeared there under his hair almost immediately. There must have been a lot of force behind that throw. Kou has to laugh, and so does Nene, although she seems much less shy to express her delight at seeing Hanako get humbled like this.

Floating back down towards the ground, Hanako scowls, then looks at Mitsuba in a way that makes him squeak and lean back towards the mirror again.

“Number Three,” he sings, then taps his chin, clearly thinking hard. “If you… could… if you had to… if you were…”

“Take your time,” Mitsuba drones.

Hanako hardens his expression and shakes his fist, clearly struggling. He must not have played this kind of game before, or at least not within the last sixty years. “If you had to… argh, if you could… If you had to date one celebrity, who would it be?”

Nene snickers, nudging the bucket across the floor with her ankles to get to a different area . “That's the best you could come up with?”

“Do you even know any modern day celebrities?” Kou asks, throwing up his hands. Leave it to Hanako to ask something ridiculous. “You won't have a clue who he's talking about.”

“I panicked!” Hanako protests, flailing his hands around with embarrassment. “I'm no good at thinking of these things! Isn't that the kind of question you're supposed to ask, anyway? Leave me alone!”

Mitsuba smiles wickedly, tossing down his washcloth and sauntering across the room to grab the cleaner he threw at Hanako. Once next to him, he flicks the brim of his hat, seemingly just to be annoying.

“Jeon Jungkook,” he says smugly. “Final answer.”

Nene lets out a startled laugh. Kou chokes on the air.

Hanako looks confused, as expected. “That means nothing to me. Someone with a phone google her for me, please.”

“I'm not getting involved in this,” Kou says, as Mitsuba wheezes. Somehow, Mitsuba's answer has flustered him. Maybe it has something to do with him saying the name of a man so easily without even caring if anyone would judge him. Kou would love to be that nonchalant.

Nene's still laughing as she shows Hanako a picture on her phone. Hanako is silent for a long moment while it loads, then makes a sound that's audibly somewhere between a yelp and a sneeze.

“That's a man,” he exclaims, adjusting his hat as if to help him see better. His orange eyes are enormous. “That's not exactly what I was expecting.”

“He's from BTS,” Nene coos. She's looking at her phone with hearts in her eyes. “He's gorgeous.”

“Show me too,” Mitsuba says, and stops what he's doing to curl around Nene's other side and admire the images she's looking at with a similar expression to what Nene is wearing. “Oh, yeah. Exactly how I remember.”

Hanako steps away, grimacing. He looks in Kou's direction as if searching for support. Kou just shrugs and sprays cleaner on a mysterious stain dripping from a crack in the wall.

Both of them spend a brief moment watching Nene and Mitsuba scroll through images of this K-pop band member, drooling, before Hanako clears his throat obnoxiously, frowning unhappily.

“Hello-o,” he calls, waving a hand in front of their faces. “Wakey wakey, you two.”

“Aw, man,” Mitsuba says sadly, as Nene yelps with embarrassment and puts her phone away. “And I was having such a good dream, too.”

Kou pretends to be particularly fixated on the wall as Mitsuba skips back over to the mirror and picks up his washcloth.

“Here's my question,” he says brightly. “Hanako.”

“Can you really ask me another question?” Hanako wails, palming his face. “I don't want to have to come up with something else to ask you guys!”

Mitsuba shrugs. “Sorry.”

Hanako gulps dramatically.

Mitsuba's eyes narrow, and he grins. “Pick a celebrity to date,” he says, “but it has to be a man.”

“Oh my God,” Nene cackles, and Kou has to grab the wall to stop from toppling over with laughter. Hanako's expression is completely priceless. He looks like he's been socked in the gut.

“Wh- how am I supposed to answer that?” he squeaks. “I'm not - I don't like -!”

“Pretend,” Mitsuba says, unrelenting.

“I don't know any celebrities!”

“Name one from your time,” Kou chimes in teasingly. “Come on, Hanako, it can't be that difficult to think of an attractive man.”

Hanako is silent for about thirty seconds. Kou's never seen him so deep in thought about anything in his life.

“Ok,” he says suddenly, clicking his fingers. “I got one.” He pauses, as if for dramatic effect. “Toshiro Mifune, but specifically in the movie Rashomon.”

Nene pulls her phone out again. “Hang on. I have to google something really quickly.”

“This really is productive,” Mitsuba comments lightly. He heads back over to Nene's side to look, and this time, Kou follows. He and Mitsuba end up right next to each other, so close to Mitsuba's hair brushes against his face. Kou swallows hard and ducks his head to hide the rising flush on his face.

Nene brings up a picture, and Mitsuba actually wolf whistles, nodding appreciatively. “Will you look at that,” he says. “Number Seven does have good taste.”

Hanako scrunches up his face. “And what's that supposed to mean?”

Kou just giggles, feeling weirdly exposed by how openly everyone else is expressing how good looking these men are. He hopes the topic of conversation changes soon. If Hanako asks him the same question, he might just dive into Mitsuba's boundary and disappear forever himself.

Nene squints at her screen. “I guess he's alright,” she says, sounding somewhat disappointed. “He's too masculine.”

“Of course he's masculine,” Hanako splutters, waving his hands around madly. His face is bright red. “He's a man. I was asked to name a man!”

“Men can be feminine,” Nene says, gesturing in Mitsuba's direction. “Look at Mitsuba. He could pass as a girl.” Her eyes suddenly bulge. “I hope that's not rude!”

“I take it as a compliment,” Mitsuba says, and makes a playful V with his fingers over his forehead.

Still reading on her phone, Nene makes a face, looking in Hanako's direction with horror in her eyes. “How old were you when you watched this film, Hanako?”

Hanako holds up both hands at the sides of his head defensively. “Me and Tsukasa snuck into a movie theater when we were maybe twelve. I know it wasn't age appropriate. That's exactly why we snuck in.”

“Who's idea was it to sneak in?” Mitsuba asks. “Out of curiosity.”

Hanako hangs his head in shame. “Mine…”

“Hanako,” Nene chides, audibly trying to hold back laughter. “That's so terrible. I can't believe you'd make your little brother watch that.”

“In my defense,” Hanako says, wagging a finger at her. “I definitely walked away from that film more traumatized than Tsukasa did. He was laughing the whole time like he was watching a comedy.”

Yeah, that sounds like the version of Tsukasa Kou is familiar with.

Mitsuba snickers. Then he glances at Kou with an inquisitive, almost malicious sparkle in his eyes that makes his heart sink. 

“You've been awfully quiet,” he says, faux innocently.

Kou coughs, staring pointedly at the wall and raising his cleaning supplies again. “I have no thoughts on any of this,” he says. “I'm cleaning, like I'm supposed to be.”

“Yeah, he's cleaning, like you all should be,” Hanako says. Still obviously flustered, he turns away, pretending to rummage through the supply closet even though he's clearly not helping. “Man, why do I have to ask another question… Uh, kid, what is… what's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?”

Mitsuba blows another raspberry and does a thumbs down motion to go with it.

“We should all keep asking Hanako questions,” he says with an evil grin. “Then he'll have to keep thinking of more things to ask us.”

“God, please don't,” Hanako groans. He yanks the brim of his hat down over his face.

Kou decides to spare poor Hanako, even though teasing him would be very funny. He doesn't need more attention brought to him. “Well, when I was a little kid…” he says, squinting as he recalls. He doesn't really need to think too hard about it - this memory has stuck with him for many years, extremely vividly. “I didn't really understand the whole exorcism thing my family did, or how supernaturals worked. So I was in class one day, and everybody was working in silence on something or other - and a Mokke jumped up onto my desk and said it was going to kill me.”

Kou doesn't even get to finish the story before everyone's laughing, even Hanako. “That would be traumatizing,” the supernatural comments. “The Mokke even scare me sometimes, and I've been able to see them for sixty years.”

“I freaked the absolute fuck out,” Kou admits. “I started screaming, and the teacher had to escort me out. The whole school probably heard me. My mom came and picked me up an hour later and I was still crying. It was that bad.”

“The Mokke are so cute, though,” Mitsuba giggles into his sleeved hand. “Surely it couldn't have been that scary.”

“You say that now,” Kou says, jabbing a finger at Mitsuba. “But no matter how cute it is, something that shouldn't be talking threatening your life is horrifying.”

“The Mokke are cute as a disguise,” Nene says, shaking her head seriously. “They're always trying to kill Hanako.”

“That's true,” Hanako confirms. He casts a dark look in Mitsuba's direction. “They'll be after you next, by the way. They want to take out a School Mystery so they can take their place.”

Mitsuba scoffs, crossing his arms. “I'd like to see a bunch of fluffballs try and take my seat. What are they gonna do, hug me to death?”

“Yes,” Hanako tells him. His eyes are wide. “Actually, seriously, that's what they try to do.”

“And you're scared of that?”

“Well - no, I'm just warning you! Be prepared for when they come for you!”

Kou rolls his eyes. “Ok, ok, it's my turn to ask. Uh… Mitsuba.”

Mitsuba makes an exaggerated, fearful expression, causing Nene to laugh. However, Kou can see that he actually does look slightly nervous. He wonders what Mitsuba is thinking right now, or what he's worried Kou might ask. He pretends to think, hemming and hawing even though he already has a question in mind, just so he can watch Mitsuba squirm.

 Eventually, he relents, the corners of his lips turning upwards and giving him away. “Mitsuba, if you had 20,000 yen right now, what would you do with it?”

Mitsuba looks moderately surprised at the question, like he'd really been expecting something else. It's not that there aren't questions that Kou has for Mitsuba that he'd like answers to more than this one - there's one incident in particular that he desperately wants to ask about. But Kou isn't so cruel that he'd ask anything personal in front of Hanako and Nene.

“Huh,” Mitsuba says aloud. His face scrunches up with thought. “Uh…”

“I know what I'd buy,” Hanako pipes up, sticking one hand in the air. “A phone. Then I wouldn't have to keep stealing other people's, and I could use it whenever I wanted.”

“We'd never see you again,” Nene snickers, eyes sparkling. “Mr Tsuchigomori would have to confiscate it because you'd stop doing your duties as a School Mystery.”

Hanako pouts at the scenario. “He could try. Who does he hypothetically think he is, my dad?”

“Shut up,” Kou scolds him, squirting cleaner in Hanako's direction and causing the supernatural to squeal like a cat. “This isn't your question.”

Mitsuba claps his hands together, clearly having come up with an answer. “A jetpack.”

There's a brief silence.

“I don't know exactly how money has changed since I was alive,” Hanako says. “But I'm pretty sure you couldn't afford a jetpack with that amount of money.”

“Plus, you can literally float,” Kou says. He tries not to laugh at Mitsuba's disappointed expression. “What would you want a jetpack for?”

Mitsuba glowers, pointing his nose in the air. “Well, since you clearly all hate my answer, I'm not telling.”

“I didn't even say anything,” Nene jumps in indignantly. She drops the mop into the bucket and skips over to Mitsuba, grabbing one of his hands with both of hers. “I think that would be awesome. Tell me what you'd use it for, Mitsuba, I really want to know.”

“Aw, come on,” Hanako complains. “I didn't say I hated your answer, I just thought it was stupid.”

Kou shoots Hanako an exasperated look, to which Hanako throws his hands up, as if to say, what? What did I say?

“Fine,” Mitsuba says, and a challenging glint creeps into his eye. He steps back, taking Nene with him away from Hanako and Kou. “But they don't get to hear my answer. Come into my boundary for a minute and I'll tell you.”

“Ok,” Nene agrees brightly. She looks delighted at being let in on the secret, even grinning teasingly at the other boys as Mitsuba takes her away. “Be right back!”

Then the two of them vanish into the mirror.

“What the hell?” Kou protests. He drops his cleaning supplies and walks over to bang on the mirrors, but to no avail. Mitsuba doesn't budge. He lets out a long sigh. “That's so unfair. I wanted to hear too.”

Hanako floats leisurely over, making faces at his reflection behind Kou's head. “He stole my assistant,” he grumbles. “What an annoyance. I didn't even say anything.”

Kou raises his eyebrows disbelievingly. “Yes, you did,” he says. “You said it was stupid.”

“Who cares,” Hanako says. He drops down to his feet at Kou's side, examining the bathroom with his hands on his hips. “We've done basically nothing. Why'd you invite Number Three, anyway? I don't have a problem with him, but he's just distracted Yashiro even more than usual.”

There's a jealous tone in Hanako's voice. Kou huffs and continues staring into the mirror as if it had personally wronged him.

“He lost a bet, like he said,” Kou explains. “We went to the arcade.”

“What's an arcade?” Hanako asks, eyebrows furrowed.

Kou hadn't thought about the fact that Hanako had actually just missed the era of arcade games. “It's like… a place full of video game machines that you can play with friends. It used to be way more popular back in the day.”

“Oh, I see,” Hanako says wistfully. He looks thoughtful, bringing a finger to his mouth to bite on. He does that sometimes, Kou notices, probably a bad habit that he never kicked. “I'm familiar with the concept. Yashiro told me she's going to bring her Nintendo Switch to school so I can use it. She showed me pictures of it. It's nothing like the stuff we had back in my day. I don't think I ever even got to use a computer in my lifetime, and now kids have computers in their pockets.”

It is crazy now that Kou thinks about it. It must be especially weird for Hanako, being trapped in the school and only being able to witness the evolution of society within its walls. At least Mitsuba can leave the school. Kou can't help but feel bad for the guy, even though Hanako is actually a huge jackass sometimes. He knows he's gone through a lot, even though he doesn't quite know the full extent of it.

(On one occasion, when the three of them had been cleaning, Hanako had reached up to grab something and his sleeve had slid down his arm, just slightly. Enough for Kou to see thick white scars on the underside of his wrist. He didn't question why Hanako never rolled up his sleeves while they were cleaning anymore - it was none of his business.)

“Yeah, I imagine it's strange,” Kou says, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. “Hey, maybe someday we'll be able to take you to an arcade. I'd love to absolutely destroy you at Mario Kart.”

Hanako grins. “Yashiro told me about that, too. It looks easy peasy. I would so beat you.”

Both of them glance at the mirror again.

“They've been in there a while,” Hanako comments. He scrunches up his face. “Skiving their duties. I'm going to have to have a stern talk with Yashiro.”

Kou snickers. “Oh, cut her a break. She cleans in here almost every day, it's not like it's that dirty. Besides, Mitsuba's barely even around. Isn't it nice getting to hang out with him?”

Hanako turns slowly to give Kou a look of what can only be described as suspicion.

“What?” Kou says. “What? Stop that. I hate it when you make that face.”

Finally, Hanako drops his head. “Fine, whatever… But I've got my eye on you.”

“For what?”

“Nothing…”

The mirrors ripple, and suddenly, Nene and Mitsuba are back in the bathroom.

“There you are,” Hanako says in a scolding tone. He floats over and grabs Nene's hand, yanking her away from Mitsuba and shooting the other supernatural a dirty look. “What were you doing to my assistant? What's going on? Tell me!”

“Hanako,” Nene laughs, adjusting Hanako's grip on her and interlocking their fingers. “He didn't do anything to me. He was asking me his question, since it was his turn.”

“What did he ask you?” Kou demands. He's desperate to know just as much as Hanako clearly is, clinging to Nene the way he is. He glances at Mitsuba quizzically. “Come on, I didn't even insult you or anything! Surely I deserve to know?”

Mitsuba sticks out his tongue and leans back against the wall. “Nope,” he says. “I don't like you.”

“The wall is wet,” Kou deadpans. 

A frown creeps across Mitsuba's face, but he doesn't move. “Don't care.”

“I can't believe this,” Hanako mutters. He's flushed in the face, probably at the way Nene is holding his hand. “Yashiro, you'd never try working for another School Mystery, would you?”

Mitsuba perks up, eyebrows disappearing into his hair. “That's an option? Hey, Daikon, do you wanna work for someone who's not a pervert freak?”

Hanako screeches unintelligably. “You absolute -”

“Nobody move,” Kou says, amused. “Hanako might be about to swear.”

Unfortunately, the moment is interrupted when the song New Divide by Linkin Park starts to blare from Kou's pocket.

Mitsuba stands bolt upright, eyes alight with wickedness. “Oh my God,” he gasps. “Which of you is the absolute nerd with the Transformers music as their ringtone?”

Kou flips him off as he struggles to get his phone out. “Who's the loser who recognized it was from Transformers?” he retorts, then gulps at the caller ID. “It's Teru. Everybody shut up if they don't wanna be exorcized.”

Hanako and Mitsuba go dead silent, lips pressed together as looks of panic overtake their faces. Hanako makes a gesture of locking his lips.

Nene comes closer to him, peering around his shoulder. “Why's Minamoto calling?”

Instead of answering, Kou clicks to accept the call so he can find out. “Hello?” he says, a question in his voice. He's holding the phone in front of him, on speaker so Nene can hear.

Teru's voice comes through the speaker. “Kou. Where are you?”

“Hi, Minamoto,” Nene calls from beside him. Kou hears the sounds of Teru moving around from the other end of the phone, but he goes silent when he hears Nene speak.

“Who's that?” he asks sharply, and Kou has to roll his eyes.

“It's Nene,” he says, and shoots the girl a look as if to say, can you believe that? She giggles behind her hand, trying not to make a sound. “What's up, Teru? Do you need me to get something?”

There's a short silence. “Do you know what time it is?”

“Yeah, it's -”

Kou checks the time on his phone and winces. “Oh my God.”

“It's six thirty?” Nene screeches, clapping her hands to the sides of her head. “I'm supposed to be home by now! I've gotta go!”

She rushes about grabbing her bag, shoving cleaning supplies into Hanako's waiting hands.

Kou grimaces, also going to get his stuff from the corner of the room. “I'll be back soon. I didn't even realize what time it was, Teru, I'm sorry.”

He hears his brother laugh softly. “If you're not home in twenty minutes, I'm touching the stove to make Tiara mac and cheese.”

“Don't you dare.”

“I'll do it,” Teru threatens. “She's asking for you. Princess, tell your brother to get home or else I'm gonna make your dinner for you.”

There's a rustling sound, then Tiara's voice comes through the phone, words clearly spoken through a solid pout. “Kou,” she says angrily. “You forgot about me.”

“I did not,” Kou protests. He picks up his raiteijou, meeting Nene's eyes as they both head for the door together. “Tell Teru not to touch the stove. I'll be back in, like, fifteen minutes. Bye bye, now. Love you.”

He ends the call before Teru can take the phone back and glances up at the supernaturals huddled in the corner. Hanako has a grin on his face. “Your sister sounds so sweet,” he coos, bringing his fists to his face. “I can't believe you're related.”

“She's five,” Kou says, with a roll of his eyes. “I've gotta go. My brother's threatening to burn the house down.”

He and Nene exit, with Mitsuba and Hanako in tow. “I don't think he said that,” Mitsuba says doubtfully, catching up to walk by Kou's side. “It kind of sounded like he was threatening to make mac and cheese.”

Kou shakes his head with a dark expression. “It's the same thing.”

They all head downstairs to the front entryway, where Kou and Nene stop to change their shoes. “See you tomorrow,” Nene tells Hanako, waving. She's standing before her shoe is even fully on her foot, hopping towards the door. “I gotta run, I have so much I need to do!”

“And we barely even cleaned anything at all,” Hanako sighs. “Bye, Yashiro.”

Kou grabs his stuff off the bench he was sitting on and flashes Mitsuba a grin. “See you tomorrow. Same time, since you'll be helping us again, and don't you forget.”

“If you can find me,” Mitsuba mutters. He smacks Hanako's hand away from where the boy is poking him repeatedly in the back. “Fuck off, what's your deal?”

“I need you - to tell me -” Hanako pokes him between every few words. “What you were doing - in your boundary! What did you ask Yashiro?”

“Don't be lame next time and maybe you won't miss out!”

Kou grins at their bickering and gets to his feet, racing towards the door. “Bye!” he shouts. He doesn't wait to hear if he gets a response, which he imagines he doesn't by how furiously Mitsuba and Hanako are going at each other.

He spots Nene outside. “Hey, wait up!”

Nene slows slightly to allow him to catch up. “Hey,” she says, out of breath. “I can't believe we spent so much time messing around. I've never been so unproductive ever.”

Kou grins. “That's not true at all. You're always trying to get out of work.”

“Ok, maybe,” Nene deadpans. Her hair flies around her face in the autumn wind. “But still, we did a good job with distracting Hanako. He barely pestered us at all today.”

Distracting Hanako… yeah, that wasn't exactly Kou's goal, specifically. Maybe it was Nene's, but Kou had more been looking to try and get Mitsuba involved with them. He hopes he did a good job of it. Still, a small part of him is still desperately curious about something. If he doesn't ask now, it might eat away at him forever.

“Hey, Nene,” he says. “What did Mitsuba ask you in his boundary? I know you weren't talking about jetpacks, so don't lie.”

They come up to a crossing, and Kou knows this is where he and Nene go their separate ways. They both stop, breathing heavily from how rapidly they'd been walking, just looking at each other for a moment.

Nene's grin widens. She takes a step forward and bops Kou at the end of his nose.

“He asked me,” she whispers, and Kou leans in, like he's about to hear a real secret - “If I would pretend he was asking me something important, so you and Hanako would get jealous.”

Then she skips away in the direction of her home, waving back at him as her laughter dissolves on the wind.