~Y/n pov~

I cracked my eyes open to realise I was in the bathroom.

Lifting my head, I noticed it had been rested on Amane's shoulder and he was leaning on me still asleep.

He looks so peaceful while he slept.

I gently swept his hair out of his face and readjusted him so he was leaning on the wall.

Do ghosts even need to sleep?

Quickly, I straightened out my uniform and fixed my hair while looking in the mirror.

Then, I left to go to class.

~*~

"Please come with me." Nene whined, "I don't want to be stuck with Hanako cleaning bathrooms."

I chuckled at her, "Okay I'll come."

And so Nene managed to convince me to come to the bathroom with her. I never said I'd help her clean.

~*~

The moment we opened the bathroom door, Amane came flying towards us.

He clung to me tightly, "You left me this morning."

"I had to go to class."

"Just don't." He whined.

Nene started cleaning in the background, half ignoring us.

"I can't just not go to class." I sighed.

Amane tilted his head up from the crook of my neck to look at me.

Then suddenly, he started nuzzling his cheek against mine.

"W-what are you doing?" I could feel a blush growing on my cheeks.

I could see Nene staring at us and daydreaming.

"Nothing~" he sang, finally letting me go and floating away.

Amane pulled me towards the windowsill where we both sat and watched Nene clean.

~*~

"Please let me go home for today!" Nene begged Amane.

He smiled, "Nope!"

"Just for today." She continued to beg.

"If you want to go then you should clean faster."

Nene cried internally.

I hopped off the windowsill and stood beside Amane.

"I could finish cleaning if Nene has something important to do." I suggested.

"No way." Amane replied instantly.

"But I finally got my big chance!" Nene continued to whine.

"What happened?"

"I've got a date!" She exclaimed happily.

"With who?" I asked.

Why hadn't she told me earlier?

"Fuji, the coolest guy in our class, asked me out." Nene exclaimed.

"Did he really ask you out?" I asked sceptically.

Nene huffed angrily, "Why don't you believe me?"

"A date?" Amane asked, floating towards her, "What are you going to do? Naughty stuff?"

Nene yelped, "You really want to know? I suppose I'll have to tell you. We're going to organise student council paperwork in an empty classroom."

"Nene, how do I put this...." I trailed off, "He's totally using you."

Amane nodded in agreement.

"No he's not! He's just shy, okay?" Nene defended.

"The fact you have to defend him proves it."

Nene frowned and then abruptly left.

Amane shrugged and floated over to me.

"I guess now it's just you and me." He smirked putting his face close to mine.

I gently pushed his face away, "Yeah no. I'll be leaving now since Nene is gone."

"No. Please stay." Amane latched onto me.

I gently ran my hand through his fringe, "I'll come back tomorrow."

Amane reluctantly let me go.

~*~

I sat in class, bored as usual. And of course, I was completely ignoring the teacher.

If only I had the window seat.

I zoned back in when the teacher asked Nene to read from the textbook.

She stood up and looked at her desk confused. There was nothing on her desk.

Nene awkwardly stood there.

I decided to help her.

"I'll do it." I stood up and read from my textbook.

"Yes. Thank you, Y/n." The teacher said once I had sat down again.

Nene sent me a thankful look.

I sighed and continued to ignore the teacher, just wishing for the lesson to be over. (Me everyday)

~*~

"I can't find it anywhere." Nene whined, flopping down face first onto the desk.

I stood beside her desk, "Did you lose your textbook?"

She shifted her head from its resting position to look at me, "Yeah. It was on my desk one minute and then it was gone."

"Could that mean that...Yousei took it?" Aoi asked her.

"Who?" Nene asked.

"You haven't heard? It's a rumour that's going round." She told us, placing her watering can down.

She proceeded to tell us the rumour.

Nene sent me a determined look and that was when I knew I was in for a ride.

She really wanted to go and find this Yousei... and like always I'm dragged into it.

"Hey has anyone seen my lunch?" Someone asked.

"The sports towel I was lent is gone!"

Everyone seemed to be losing things.

Someone ran into class, "The lockers are gone."

Nene dragged me outside to where she heard the commotion. Aoi picked up her watering can and followed behind us.

We saw that some of the locker doors were missing.

Something whizzed by and hit Aoi making her throw her watering can.

I stepped out of the way so it wouldn't hit me but Nene wasn't so luckily.

She smiled weakly as the water dripped down her face. The watering can fell onto the floor with a loud clang noise.

"Sorry, Nene!" Aoi yelled, panicked.

Realisation hit me.

Nene was going to turn into a fish.

I grabbed her hand and dragged her off, running towards the old school building.

"What are you doing?" Nene asked trying to catch her breath.

I stopped abruptly and she almost ran into me.

"Sorry about that. I thought you wouldn't want people to know you were a fish." I told her gesturing to the scales growing on her arms.

She looked down at her arm and screamed.

After she had calmed down, she noticed a towel on the floor.

"I'll be using this." Nene picked it up and wiped away the scales.

There were more objects leading towards a room.

Nene started picking up the objects, following the trail.

The trail led to the door.

This is how people normally die in horror films.

They open the door and then get killed by the thing hiding on the other side.

I cautiously followed behind Nene, keeping my distance.

She opened the door slowly and peered in.

This inhuman blob looking creature stared at her before growling out, "You....You saw us."

Nene screamed and fell back.

The creature advanced towards her.

When it was about to strike, I ran towards Nene and pulled her away.

Though, I realised I probably wouldn't have enough time to get away myself.

Closing my eyes, I braced myself.

"Scatter them, Haku-joudai!"

I opened my eyes to see the creature gone, looking down I saw lots of small pink bunnies.

Amane was stood in front of me, he turned and faced Nene, "You're a sucker for handsome guys and apparitions, huh, Yashiro. You're also dragging poor N/n into trouble."

He whined the last part as he wrapped his arms loosely around my shoulder.

Nene looked up at us from her spot on the floor.

Amane was looking over my shoulder at her.

"Hanako." Nene cried, "I'm sorry, Y/n!"

"It's fine." I chuckled.

It was then Nene seemed to notice the pink rabbits.

She stared at them with a confused expression, "What are these?"

"They're Mokke. Currently known as 'Yousei'." Amane explained, "They're apparitions who have lived with humans since ancient times, commuting minor thefts and pranks."

Nene poked one of them and it's skin squished.

A few gathered at my feet, staring up at me curiously.

"Candy?" One asked, holding up a sweet.

Amane continued to tell us about them, "Mokke cluster together like that and shapeshifter when they attack something. They normally aren't aggressive and don't attack humans, but...."

"We don't want to kill." One whined.

"Our rumour changed." Said another.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Most apparitions can't go against the rumours about them. Rumours humans spread get exaggerated and change over time. No matter what they become, apparitions have to act accordingly. Apparitions who don't match their rumours will eventually vanish from the living world."

"What if we change the rumour?" I asked.

Amane smiled, "That's what I was gonna ask Nene to do later. But since we're here, we might as well do it now."

The Mokke gathered around my feet.

"Please change our rumour."

I bent down and gently pat them on the head.

They made happy noises.

~*~

And so, I changed the rumour along with Yashiro.

After that, we went back to Amane.

"Does this mean I don't have to clean the bathroom anymore?" Nene asked excitedly.

"Do you really hate it that much?" Amane chuckled.

The dual haired girl sighed, "Not many girls are crazy about cleaning bathrooms."

"That's too bad." Amane pushed the door to the roof open and walked over to the railing.

I went and stood next to him. This felt familiar.

The roof. I feel like I've been here before so many times.

Though, I don't remember ever going to the roof.

Amane started talking, snapping me out of my thoughts, "I look forward to it. Doing something together after school. Making small talk. It's kind of like having a friend. It's....I don't know, nostalgic?"

He smiled softly while staring up at the sky.

No one said anything. But the silence wasn't awkward, it was nice.

~*~

We were now sat down on the roof.

Nene was reading a magazine.

I sat next to her, my head tilted towards the sky.

I don't remember ever having an interest in the sky....

Amane rested his head on my shoulder and slumped down.

"I wish a hot guy would fall out of the sky." Nene sighed.

"I doubt that will ever happen." I stated.

"I know that. I can tell the difference between fiction and reality." She replied, "Though I can't help but imagine a special encounter."

"Special how?"

"Like in this movie, for example." Nene turned a few pages and then showed us the book.

Amane stared at it for a few seconds before yelling, "Why am I getting exorcised?"

"I've finally found you, evil spirit!"

I turned to see a boy...falling from the sky?

What is happening?

"I'm Kamome Academy Junior High, third year....Minamoto Kou." He introduced himself.

Nene's eyes were sparkling as she started daydreaming, but as soon as the boy introduced himself she snapped out of it.

"Do you know him, Hanako?" Nene asked.

"We've never met in person, but he must be a member of the Minamoto clan." He told her.

"Exorcists?" I asked before realising...how did I know that?

"That's right." Amane cheered, "Back when the darkness of the night was far deeper than it is now, we apparitions were called youkai and we were way stronger than we are now. The youkai were dispelled by the brilliant exorcist Minamoto no Yorimistu."

Nene nodded enthusiastically, "I see."

"I'm gonna exorcise you." Kou pointed his umbrella at Amane.

Why did he have an umbrella? Was it some sort of concealed weapon?

Kou jumped up and brought his umbrella down on Amane.

Amane grabbed on to it, "Exorcise me? I doubt you could pull that off."

Suddenly, electricity came from the umbrella and Amane fell to the ground.

"Too bad, Hanako." Kou pulled out the handle of the umbrella and presented us with a staff, he then went on to explain its history not that anyone asked.

No one really cared anyway.

Nene immediately stood in front of Amane and told Kou not to attack him.

Kou stared at her blankly and they started having a conversation.

I went over to Amane and knelt beside his body, poking his cheek softly with my finger.

After a few pokes, he grabbed my finger to stop my poking him and slowly sat up.

He winced a bit before silently hopping up.

Then he offered his hand to me and pulled me up.

"He uses a kitchen knife as a weapon. That means he killed someone." Kou was shaking Nene back and fourth.

Amane looked down, his hat casting a shadow over his eyes.

"I wanted to keep it a secret a little longer..." a cloak appeared around Amane as his knife appeared in his hand, "It's true that I killed someone....but God told me that I'd I could fulfil this role, my sins would be absolved."

Why didn't I feel shocked he killed someone? It's as if I already knew all along.

Kou and Amane started fighting.

Amane snatched Kou's weapon and put a seal on it.

"Huh? What did you do?" Kou yelled.

"Oh that? It's dangerous."

Kou huffed because the electricity no longer worked.

Amane brought his knife down on Kou's head, though he hit him with the blunt side which just knocked him out.

~*~

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2175 words

A/n for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to write two books at the same time again...it never is but I never learn. I just have too many ideas I want to try. It'll take years for me to do them all.