~Y/n pov~

I was sat in the bathroom with Amane.

We were playing a card game with the Mokke when the door suddenly slammed open, and in ram Nene.

"Aoi is missing." She yelled.

"Missing? Why not call the police?" Amane asked.

"Well...it's weird."

"Weird how?" I asked.

"All of her belongings are gone and no one remembers her, not even her own mother." Nene exclaimed.

"Could it be the Misaki stairs?" I asked, "That rumour has been going round recently, right?"

Amane nodded, "Thats probably it."

Nene gasped, "We have to save her."

She grabbed my hands and pulled me up.

Just as she was about to drag me out of the room, the door opener again and in walked Kou.

"Hanako!" He ran up to Amane and grabbed him by his collar, shaking him back and fourth, "What'd you do with Yokoo and Satou from my class!? I know you did it! Why doesn't anyone remember them!?"

"Kou, calm down. It was probably the Misaki stairs." I told him.

"Huh?" He dropped Amane but luckily I managed to catch him before he hit his head on the floor.

Amane steadied himself and then went back into a standing position, resting his arm on my shoulder.

"There are seven places that connect to the spirit world in this school. The staircase is one of them. They're called boundaries." Amane explained.

"Boundaries? My brother told me about those." Kou told us, "Boundaries are the seas between the shores of this life and the next. The world of ghosts and apparitions with nowhere to go and things everyone's forgotten."

"Can people come back from there?" Nene asked nervously, her voice almost a whisper.

Amane chuckled, "It'll be fine. I'll save them."

He suddenly jumped onto my back, "Now go my trusty steed!"

I chuckled and walked forward. Nene quickly followed.

She then stopped walking, it was as if something had occurred to her.

"Hey, Y/n?"

I turned around and noticed she'd stopped, "What?"

"How come you can touch Hanako?"

At this, my mind went blank. Even I don't know the answer.

After a few moments of silence I responded, "I'm not sure."

"Hey! Wait for me." Kou came running down the hallway.

~*~

There was blood dripping down the staircase.

"What's this?" Nene asked.

"Let's go, then." Amane cut through the silence, "Step on the fourth stair, right? Here goes."

He steps up, pulling me along and counting his steps.

Then we land on the fourth step.

Everything went black and when I opened my eyes we were in a traditional looking place.

There were red buildings and bridges. We were stood in front of what looked to be an entrance.

"Is this the boundary?" I asked.

Amane nodded, "Let's go."

He was the first to start walking. I followed closely behind him cautiously.

Soon after, Kou and Nene followed behind us.

Nene stopped and stared at the floor of water. I could tell what she was thinking.

Kou gave her a funny luck before they continued walking.

"Hey, Hanako! Nothing's here." Kou told him, "Didn't you say I was gonna get shredded?"

"Not right away!" Amane smirked, "Ending things too quickly is boring, right? Isn't whittling away at someone little by little way more fun?"

Kou just stared at him blankly.

Suddenly, the sound of a phone ringing sounded.

I walked over to the phone with no hesitation and picked it up.

"What's up?" I asked.

There was silence for a bit and then someone replied.

Nene and Kou gave me a funny look for just picking up the phone and answering.

"I am Misaki." A feminine voice said, "I taught students in the schoolhouse at the tops of these stairs. But...I was sliced up and died here."

"Did I ask?"

Nene gave me a frightened look.

Amane coughed to cover up a laugh.

She ignored me and continued talking, "Right where you're standing. Hey, you there. Find my body for me."

"Okay I gotchu."

"First, my arm. My right arm. I use this hand to write with chalk."

I put the phone down not caring if she had more to say.

"So, we probably have to follow her rules so let's fine an arm."

Amane nodded, "You're right. It's number two's boundary so we have to follow her rules."

"What about Aoi?"

"If we do everything we asked we'll probably get to see number two and then you can ask about Aoi."

Nene nodded at me and then gave me a determined look, "Then, let's find that arm!"

"Yay! Let's go." Hanako cheered, immediately floating off somewhere to search.

He searched through a drawer, pulling out a magazine and showing it to Kou, "I found treasure."

I stood next to him and looked at the magazine, "Wow, that outfit is not it."

Amane chuckled, throwing the magazine away.

"Take this seriously!" Kou yelled at us.

We opened the other drawers and searched for something but there was nothing useful.

~*~

Nene came back over to us, "Did you find an arm?"

"Yep." Kou grinned, holding up a wooden arm with muscles.

Amane had a robot arm and I had a mini lego arm.

Nene stared at us blankly, "You just found the first things you found!"

We just smiled at her.

"Listen, Yashiro. I hate to say anything but is something off about you?" Amane asked her.

It was then I noticed her breasts looked bigger. Was she wearing a padded bra?

She started making excuses but the padded bra fell out.

We all stared at the floor blankly as Nene screamed and threw it.

"I'll pretend that never happened." I nodded to myself.

Nene sulked.

There were more phone calls and we had to search for the other limbs. Eventually, we found them all.

~*~

There stood a woman with blonde hair, wearing a kimono.

I looked next to her to see all the parts we collected were connected.

"That looks like something from a horror show." I commented.

Amane and Kou nodded in agreement.

"Oh, the bust size and left leg are perfect, but the rest...."

We all stared at Nene blankly. We seemed to be doing a lot of that.

The woman finally spoke up, "I see you've finally arrived. Hello."

She placed her hand on the body, "What a wonderful body!"

"Huh?" Kou asked, "You like it?

She approached us and held my hands, "I was in quite a bind, you know."

Amane glared at her and she flinched slightly before continuing, "I haven't the least idea what a human body is made of. I knew asking humans about humans was the right idea!"

She walked back to the body and tried to make it walk.

The body collapsed back into it's parts.

Everything was silent.

"Another failure. What a shame." She muttered.

"Hey, have you seen any other kids here?" Nene asked.

"Others? The failures? If you're looking for them..." she trailed off.

There was a huge pile of dolls. But they weren't just dolls.

I noticed they were all students from our school.

The woman in the kimono jumped at us with a giant pair of scissors.

~*~

"You need to find the Yorishiro." Amane told me.

I nodded jumping off the cliff.

A few seconds later, Nene landed beside me.

She was unconscious.

Mokke surrounded her and waited for her to wake up.

I walked over to a table and saw a book. Flipping through it, I saw it was a journal of sorts.

Nene shot up and looked around in confusion.

"Y/n?" She made her way towards me, peering over my shoulder to read the book.

When I heard footsteps, I turned around to see the woman wearing the kimono.

She was pointing her giant scissors at us.

"You wrote this, didn't you?" Nene asked.

"That's right."

"You aren't Misaki."

She went to attack us but Amane blocked it.

He looked a little beat up and was holding his arm.

Then, he started to fall.

I quickly reacted, catching him in my arms.

"I think I might die." He muttered, resting his head on my shoulder and relaxing into my arms.

Number two walked towards us.

Amane sighed before getting up.

"You need to destroy her Yorishiro." Amane told us.

"C'mon Nene." I grabbed her arm and pulled her away from Number two and Amane.

Nene opened the glass box and picked up a pair of scissors.

There was a seal on them.

She quickly ripped it off.

The boundary started shattering.

"Number two, you abandoned your duty. I'll need you to return your number."

Everything faded away.

~*~

When we got back, Nene was unconscious on the floor.

I knelt beside her and repeatedly poked her cheek until she woke up.

"Where's Kou?" She asked as soon as she woke up.

"If you're looking for him, here." Amane handed her a doll version of Kou.

"He ended up so cute." Nene gently pat his head.

We turned to see Number two in fox form,

"Where's your apology?" Amane asked.

She turned away from us.

Amane pulled out his knife and swung it up and down in front of her, "Time to make kitsune udon."

"What will happen to everyone who turned into dolls?" Nene asked.

"They'll all turn back tomorrow morning. I don't have much power left." The fox told us, "I doubt they'll remember anything."

I smiled, "See, Nene. It all turned out okay."

She smiled back, "Yeah.. thank God."

"My name is Yako." The fox told us before leaving.

Nene sighed, she still had Kou in her hands.

"Bye, Y/n. Bye, Hanako." She ran off, waving.

"Well that was interesting. Hey, Amane?"

He hummed.

"Can the mysteries not go against their rumours?"

He chuckled, "Well, you saw what just happened."

Suddenly, he came closer to me.

"What?"

Then he pressed his lips lightly to my cheek.

My face flared red, "W-what was that for?"

He smirked, poking my cheek, "You're cute when you blush."

We started walking down the hallways, going back to the bathroom.

It was silent but it wasn't awkward.

After a few minutes, we made it back to the bathroom and sat down on the windowsill.

I finally decided to speak, "Amane, what was our relationship?"

He was silent for a while before he responded, "We were dating."

Turning to me, he smiled sadly, "I love you."

My eyes widened.

I placed my hand over his shaking hand, "I'm not sure how exactly I feel. I don't remember everything. But I'll tell you how I feel when I can remember."

He nodded, "I'll wait for you."

I rested my head against his shoulder tiredly as he put his hand around my waist.

When I was on the brink of sleep, I felt lips press against my forehead.

"I love you...so much."

Amane pulled me onto his lap as my head flopped onto his chest.

His hand gently combed through my hair as I succumbed to sleep.

~*~

_____________________________________
1867 words

A/n this ended up being shorter despite two episodes being written into this part. Funny how that works. Anyways I'm hoping for her to meet Tsukasa soon, so don't worry.