Picture: https://pin.it/5Mkbdhj
(I'm sorry I couldn't find the other link and who did it-)

Hello and welcome to chapter 4 of "I need you now!" :D
(This chapter corresponds to the Misaki Stairs arc.)
Title: "Missing students?"

Psychological fact: It is possible to die from a broken heart, it's called Stress Cardiomyopathy.
Me: And that is why I always convince myself that I don't have a chance in the first place- But that's seriously concerning...

***
Previously:

"Are you okay?" The human asks in a worried voice, she glances at the staff next to her feet and picked it up.

"Now that we have a chance too we should hide this." She looks around to find a good hiding place as she's being watched by her ghost friend who had an amused smile and a curious gaze.
"You're concern about me?" He asks. Yashiro shots her head up.
"Of course I am! I'm your friend after all!" As soon as those words left her mouth, Hanako's face darkened.

"I see..."

***

"So you're so desperate to have a friend that you would even get along with a murderer huh Yashiro?"

Hanako had a venomous and cold aura around him that could have frightened even the devil itself. He may have tried his best to remain calm but his eyes were betraying what he was really feeling, maybe she noticed because of their bond?

"W... What are you talking about Hanako-kun?" She blinks a few times, trying to understand why was he so angry but then his whole expression had made a complete 180 and he was now having a cheerful smile.
"Nah I'm just kidding! And look at the time, it's time for you to go home Yashiro." Hanako gestures towards the sky, indicating it was late.

"Eh? But-" Before she could finish her sentence Hanako pushes her towards the stairs.
"Come on! You wouldn't want your parents to worry about you do you?" He smiles sweetly with his eyes shut. "And also you shouldn't worry about this boy, he's gonna be just fine." He waves goodbye to the girl.

Once she was out of vision, Hanako was sent back to the bathroom. He then starts to destroy everything in it.

***
Timeskip brought to you by Natsuhiko the simp

Yashiro faces Hanako's back. This one was standing right in front of a tree, with leaves falling from it everywhere.
The situation they were in was like in a romance novel or a manga, the love interest of the protagonist had called the heroine under the cherry tree, he will confess and the two of them will live happily ever after.
But it was real and Yashiro was 99% sure that it will turn our like that for them too.

So she confidently calls Hanako's name, this one turns around to face her and at the sight of her his whole face lifts up and that made Yashiro's heart skips a beat.
He was looking at her with so much fondness in his eyes that it almost felt like a dream-like she was sitting on a soft cloud just enjoying life.

"So you've come after all?" He flashes a sweet and genuine smile at her, because of that Yashiro's cheeks heat up lightly as she nods.
"Well, I know this is sudden but," He takes a step closer, intertwining his hands with her. "I love you Yashiro." He declares with pink tinting his cheeks, for some reason Yashiro thought that this face actually suits him a lot.

"I know that we haven't known each other for a long time but I'm really glad that I found you know? I haven't been happy for a while so..." He gently detaches his fingers from her hands and embraces her.
"Thank you for changing that Yashiro." He whispers softly to her, his mouth right next to her ear. That sent shivers down Yashiro's spine as her face would now be mistaken as a tomato.

The student could feel tears of happiness starting to form in the corner of her eyes, as she shakily hugs back the ghost.
"I want to have a normal life, I want to have children with a man I love..."  All of this didn't matter now, she had finally found someone to fill the hole in her heart, someone to wake up forward to.
She was going to reply with a classic "I love you too" when she heard Hanako snickering beside her ear.

"Did you really think I would say that?"

Yashiro wasn't able to say a word as Hanako pushes her, losing her balance, she fell flat on the floor.
"H...Hanako-kun?" The girl calls out with a wobbly voice, this time it wasn't tears of joy that were gonna come out but tears of sadness. She looks up, finding Hanako's flustered smiling face twisted into a dark mocking expression, a shadow cast over his eyes.

"You foolish little girl!" He mocks her, flicking her forehead. "Did you really think I would fall for someone as ugly as you?" Each syllable of his sentence felt like blades piercing her chest, she was speechless as tears roll down her eyes, who didn't hold any emotions besides shock.

"Did you actually thought I care about you in the slightest?"

*Dring dring!*

(What I imagine in my brain when I wrote that:
Y/N: Aww! That's so sweet-
Me: Sike!
Y/N: But-
Me: But the sike itself has a sike on its own! >:3
Y/N: ...Why? Why do you this...?)

Yashiro woke up in a cold sweat with tears rolling down her face, it took her several minutes to understand where she was, and when finally did she facepalms.
"So that was all a nightmare huh?" Yashiro thought while rubbing her eyes to get rid of the tears and optionally to wake up.
It felt so real but happily, it was just a nightmare well at least she hoped so.

But the bad news was that now she was in a very bad mood and she would have some difficulties to look at Hanako in the eyes.

***
Timeskip again brought to you by Amane Yugi! Oh sorry, wrong person.

Yashiro Nene is in her classroom distractingly watering some plants. She is thinking one the nightmare she had and the events of the other day, Hanako's upset eyes haunting her like she was the one who made him like this.

"Nene-chan!" Her best friend Aoi calls her loudly, bringing her back to reality. She shots her head up in surprise.
"Are you listening?" She asks with flowers surrounding her, she was once again in a good mood. Does she even have a bad day sometimes?
"Ah! I'm sorry what did you say?" Yashiro puts the watering can away, now her attention focus on her friend.

"You seem weary distracted these days, do you perhaps have a new crush?" Aoi teasingly remarks, giving her a Lenny Face.
"What? N-" Yashiro stops mid-sentence, remembering the bad dream she had last night. Only people who are in love with someone would have those types of dreams right?
"I don't know..." Yashiro sighs, her best friend looks at her with a concerned gaze before brightening up.

"Oh, I know! Have you heard of this one?" She cheerfully exclaims, getting weird looks from the remaining students in the classroom.

"N°2 of the seven mysteries, the Misaki Stairs."

"You must never step on the fourth step of that staircase."

"If you break that rule you will be sent to the world of the dead..."
"... And your body will be torn to thousands of pieces."
"They say that at twilight the blood of the victims drips down the stairs, even if no one can see the source."

"W-Which staircase is it?" She shakily questions, spooked by the story.
"Stairway B in front of the art room." She responds with a shadow cast over her eyes, looking menacing. That had Yashiro shivers. Then Aoi stars telling her about all of the testimonies the other students had dropped about the subject, she could have gone on for ages if it wasn't for their teacher calling Aoi over for her guidance counseling.

(Also on a side note, I really didn't like how that teacher called her over like why does he sound like he was trying to seduce her? Like dude back off she's your student >:/)

"Anyway Nene-chan get better soon! I will search for more scary stories for you!" Aoi waves goodbye, as Yashiro did the same.
"You're really an amazing friend Ao-chan." Yashiro smiles. "I'm happy to have you as a friend."

After the ring bells, signaling it was time to go home, Yashiro got to the bathroom. Today once again she was in a cleaning duty, she was so used to clean the bathrooms now that she didn't even remember when she wasn't there to clean it.
it may be really annoying to her, but she was still looking forward to this moment of the day because she knew that Hanako makes her do this to hang out with her.

Having a cursed ghost as a friend wasn't easy.

When she was near her destination, she was surprised to hear two male voices coming from the girl's bathroom. She immediately slows down her track, fearing two perverts were waiting there. But as she approaches she could recognize one of the voices belonging to Hanako.

She sighs in relief, she was still half right about her theory but she was certain that Hanako wouldn't anything beyond the line. He may be the biggest dirty-minded boy the student knew but he was always careful to not do anything bad, after all, it was all just playful teasing.

She concentrates her hearing to listen to the other voice, it was familiar but she couldn't put a face on whose voice was it.
But one thing was sure, he was, with no doubt, talking to Hanako.
And it seems like they were arguing, the other boy's voice was shouting reproaches at the ghost and Hanako was as chill as ever, she even heard him laughing at the boy at one moment, angering the other boy.

Being done playing 'guess who', Yashiro steps in the bathroom, stopping all chatter from the guys.
Hanako was sitting on the windowsill like he usually would, cards in hand seeming to play with the Mokke. The moment he saw Yashiro his blank face lifts up.
"Yashiro!" He happily jumps on her, clinging to her like an adorable koala, dropping his cards, and abandoning the game he was playing with the Mokke. "Welcome back!"

"Hey! Get away from senpai right this instant!" A hand tried to pull Hanako backward, Hanako responds by hugging tighter Yashiro while sticking his tongue out to the person.
The student tilts her head to the side as she saw the boy from yesterday.

"Huh?" Her eyes widened in shock. "W-What are you doing here? It's the girl's bathroom here!" Yashiro signals, pointing to the sign 'girl's bathroom' hooked to the wall.
"Yeah kid, you shouldn't even be here in the first place!" Hanako adds, with a mocking face directed to the exorcist. Of course, said one got angry.

"I am here to protect the school against demonic supernaturals like you!" Kou shouts, directing his staff to the ghost's head. "And you're in here too! So you also don't have anything to do here you pervert!" Hanako rolls his eyes with a grin.
"Well, I'm not exactly the one to blame you know? Your grandma was the one who chose to seal me here." The apparition replies, offending his 'opponent'.
"Don't bring grandma to this!"
"Make me!"

"ENOUGH!" Yashiro screams with a strident voice, startling the two boys. "You two are starting to destroy my ears here." Yashiro pouts with her eyebrows furrows. "How about you two just make peace or something?"
Silence washes over the room as the two boys stare at each other with blanks looks, they seem to look at each other's souls until they turn to face Yashiro.
"Sorry, we can't do that." The two of them simultaneity said, earning a sigh from the girl.

This was going to be a long afternoon for a certain radish leg girl.

***
Timeskip sponsored by Yandere Hanako.

The next day, Yashiro had a good night so she happily got to school with a big smile on her face.
As she approaches the school's gate, she could feel stares piercing into her again, destroying her whole mood.
"Guess I will never get some peace huh?" She groans now very much less enthusiastic than before, subconsciously she had closed her eyes at the same time she whispered so when she reopens them to discover the familiar amber eyes of a certain someone, she yelps, taking a step back.

That didn't go unnoticed by Yashiro's quiet tormentors, who starts muttering among themselves.
"Oh my! Is the radish leg girl now talking to herself? What a weirdo." One of them snickers, making laugh another one.
"First she's ugly, and now she's talking to herself? This proves that she will never have a boyfriend!" A boy whispers to his friend.

Yashiro sighs, trying her best to ignore the students around them. But unfortunately, it was already proven that if you try to deny or ignore something it will constantly bug you.
She walks away from the crowd of students and starts searching for somewhere a little more private to talk with her friend.
She finally decides to go to the gardening club, Hanako following her.

"Do you need anything Hanako-kun?" Yashiro asks, turning her head around to look at him in the eyes. It was pretty ironic how his eyes were eye-catching.
"I just missed you!" He smiles, then he looks around. "Hm? That's strange..." He remarks, Yashiro gave him questioning regarding.
"It's just that normally your friend... uh, what was her name again? Oh yeah Aoi!" He finally remembers with a triumphant expression. "Always arrives before you so-"

The bell rings, cutting off Hanako.

"Well see you later Hanako-kun!" Yashiro runs off, leaving Hanako before he could say anything else.
"Ah Matte-" The ghost sighs. "And she's gone..."

***
In class.

She did find it strange that Aoi wasn't there before her but being late happens so she didn't think much of it.
But when she didn't find the class' flowers that her best friend was supposed to take care of at their place she started to get suspicious.

She looks around in the classroom and noticed that one desk was missing, more specifically Aoi's. The place her desk was supposed to be placed was empty. Yashiro frowns, this wasn't a good sign at all.
The classroom starts to be flooded by her classmates who were chatting with each other in groups, seems perfectly normal.
Their discussion dies down when their teacher enters the classroom with books in hand.

"Alright class, we are starting with homeroom today!" Nagisa sensei announces as Yashiro approaches the door where he was standing.
"Um, Sensei!" The high schooler calls out, grabbing her teacher's attention. "The flowers that were there..." She gestures towards the spot she last has seen the flowers. "Do you know where they went?"

"Flowers?" The teacher seems confused for a moment, Yashiro's frowns deepened, that was just getting more and more suspicious.
"Aoi was on flower duty this week..." Yashiro states, the middle-aged man's mouth shaped into an 'oh' as realization seems to have washed over him.
"If you're talking about the class flowers..." The teacher points his finger to his right as Yashiro follows his gaze.

"W-What is that weed?!" Yashiro shouts in horror seeing Yamabuki failing at watering a flower that looks dead. This one wasn't even paying attention to what he was doing and immediately just straight up took his phone out and start scrolling on the Internet.
"He's our Summer Duty guy," Nagisa explains, ignoring Yashiro's outburst.
"And Aoi?..."

"There's nobody in our class with that name."

Yashiro's whole body froze and her expression went completely blank.
"Huh?" This was the only thought that had crossed her mind then, her brain couldn't take the information her teacher just told her.
Chatter then explodes in the classroom.

"Aoi? Who is that?" One of the students asks out loud, glancing at Yashiro with a worried look.
"I dunno... Is she okay?" Another one adds, frowning.
"Wow, the daikon really has a strong imagination!" Her classmate laughs but none of the remarks she received were capable to get to her, she was too concentrate on processing what was happening.

Without saying a word, she dashes out of the classroom despite Nagisa's reminder that they were in the middle of class.
Still running, she took out her phone and frantically dial Aoi's phone number while being on the verge of tears.
"Come on pick up!" But to her displeasure, the phone didn't even ring once and it immediately leads her to a vocal message.

"The number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number and-" Before it could continue further Yashiro slams the button cancel with frustration. She starts to slow down to calm down her breathing and to help her brain gain an idea to reassure her that Aoi was okay, anything would do.

Then an idea pops in her head.
"I know I'll call her house!" Since normally every student was supposed to be in class right now the corridor was completely silent the exception being the noises that came from her device as she taps her best friend's house number.
At the second ring, an adult's feminine voice picks up.

"Yes, Akane calling." The familiar voice of Aoi's mother echoes in her ears.
Yashiro lets out a sigh of relief, her mother wouldn't forget about her own daughter right?
"Um, this is Nene!" She introduces herself, hoping that she recognizes her after all she had come to her friend's house a lot of times when her parents had to go to another country.

"I guess Aoi isn't at school today." Yashiro starts her sentence with a little bit of hope in her voice. "Does she have a cold or-" But Aoi's mother cuts her off.
"Excuse me? We don't have anyone by that name living here." Yashiro's voice was caught in her throat, thoughts washing over her brain.
"Are you sure you have the right number?"

"She's not there?! Even Aoi's mom..." Panic starts to make its way towards her mind, she didn't even hear Aoi's supposed mother in the other half of the line.
Then like an illumination, she remembers the rumor that Aoi has told her about and where she and their teacher headed too.

"Hanako-kun must know something about this!" She hangs up the call, rushing in direction of the nearest bathroom.
In her hurry, though she didn't notice the tall figure turning around the corner and she crashes down after bumping into him, her phone also slips out of her grip and falls down with her. She rubs her head in pain, with her eyes shut.

"I'm sorry..." She apologizes, as the other human picks up her phone.
"No, I'm sorry." The student opens her eyes to see a tall boy with short, messy red, and black styled into an undercut. He has grey eyes and he is considered good looking by Yashiro. (I don't think he's attractive tho, especially next to the Yugi Twins- mostly Hanako because I kind of despise Tsukasa lol-)

He wears the usual Kamome Academy High School boy's uniform, its uniform's shirt is unbuttoned and has its sleeves rolled up to reveal a teal, long sleeved-shirt. He also wears a germanium necklace with a red cord (that was a present from Sakura apparently.) and a black sports necklace.

One of his hands was against the girl's back to keep her at least a bit stable and his other handheld one of Yashiro's hands. Yashiro's eyes widened as she blushes.
"Here you drop this." The guy hands the girl her phone as she quickly thanks him.

Both of them stand up and as the male student begins to walk away, Nene stares at his back completely love-struck (Nene you have a boyfriend >:/) until she came back to her senses and starts searching for her ghost friend again.
She didn't notice but a paper crane flew to her and hide in her pocket, the, apparently, handsome senior looks back at it with a grin before disappearing in his classroom.

***
Timeskip brought to you by the moon, not the real one because we don't have the budget for it.

"She has vanished?" Hanako asks after his assistant has finished explaining the situation, not paying that much of attention as he was playing with the Mokke at cards. "Hmmm..." Yashiro frowns angrily because of this reaction.
"Don't 'Hmmm...' me Hanako-kun!" She said irritated. "You weren't there anymore this morning and afternoon, I had to wait for you here all day!" Hanako gazes at his cards seeming uninterested.

"What can I say? I have the stuff to do. I'm not always in there 24H hours per day you know?" He remarks.
"Why don't you report it to the police instead?" The ghost was so concentrated on his cards that he didn't realize one of the Mokke was cheating by peeking at his deck.
"'Cause something is weird about it..." She starts, lowering her head. "Her flowers, her desk... Everything she owned is gone." She lists the things she noticed was missing.

"And everyone says that they don't know anyone called Aoi!" She exclaims loudly, startling Hanako.
"W-" But just as he was about to reply to his assistant a loud bang coming from the girl's bathroom entrance made Yashiro jolts around.
"Hanakoooooooooo!" Kou calls, sliding epically in the sight of the duo.

He stomps with determination towards Hanako as Yashiro warns him again that he wasn't supposed to be here. But a lot of girls that wanted to use the bathroom has seen him enter and whispers among them explode in the corridor. Someone has record Minamoto entering the room and they prepare to show it to the teachers.
With that, they all back away from the room "the pervert" was in and try to search the bathrooms from another floor instead.

Meanwhile, the Minamoto kid had walked far enough to be just right in front of the ghost. He grabs his collar as the spirit lets out a sound of surprise as the middle school student starts to shake him.

"YOU JERK!" He yells at him, with a worried Yashiro in the background. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY CLASSMATES YOKOO AND SATOU?!" Now the ghost was starting to see imaginary things, he also feels kind of dizzy, and his auditive system is officially broken.
"Wait please just calm down-" Yashiro tries her best to make the fellow student stop as she could see that the apparition was not going to make it.

"This is obviously your doing!" He reproaches him as the other could see the room spinning, or was it his head cut off that was spinning? No one knows...
"Spreading those weird ghost stories!" He continues his scolding with a frown on his face.
"Why doesn't anybody remember them?!" With frustration because of the ghost's silence (dude you're shaking him to 'death' what did you expected-), he shakes him even faster. Although, the sentence has tilted a certain person's interest.

"You mean..! You're in this case too?" Kou momentarily flinches and turns to look at the older girl. "Senpai you too?"
Hanako took advantage of the distraction to remove himself from the boy's grip, he sighs as he fixes his collar, damaged by the Kouhei.
"Vanishing students and a rumor about a staircase huh?" He recaps all the information the humans gave him briefly.
"You're right, I do have an idea on who is the culprit in this scenario." He sighs.

"I knew it! Damn you-" Kou growls but was immediately stop by Yashiro who puts her hand right in front of him before he could try to get rid of the apparition.
"Where is Aoi?" She asks with fierce in her voice, her partner blinks and fixates her before returning his gaze to Kuraijoudai who was floating right beside his face.

"In this school..." He starts explaining, putting his hands in his pockets. For some reason, Yashiro was nervous on what reply she was going to get and couldn't stop her lips from trembling a little.
"... there are seven locations in this school that are connected to the netherworld." Even Kou shuts down his trap for once.

"That staircase is one of them. The missing students were probably taken to the netherworld." He suggests, earning worried glances from both students.
"The netherworld..?" Yashiro repeats, putting her hands on her abdomen in an attempt to calm down her heart that was beating loudly in her chest.

"It's called the boundary. When a living human being crosses it, their whole existence disappears.
Although it looks like there are some special humans that aren't affected, like you, Yashiro, or the young one over here."
"The perks of being the assistant of a supernatural." He internally snickers.

"The boundary, my brother told me about that."
"It's the ocean that connects the two shores of this world and the netherworld. He said it's the world where things end up when they have nowhere to go. Spirits of the dead, supernaturals, and things that everyone has forgotten."

"Exactly. You're quite the knowledgeable Shounen." Hanako said, making flinch Kou who was now annoyed.
Yashiro discretely approaches the spirit with her head lowered, she tugs his sleeve, grabbing the ghost's attention.
"C-Can the people that go there ever come back?" Nene asks with tears welling her eyes, he stares at her for a couple of seconds before grabbing her face and makes her look towards himself.

"Come on don't make that face!" He grins the widest smile she has ever seen.
"It's alright. I will help them." Yashiro was going to reply to something before Hanako just randomly starts to squish her face.

"I told you didn't I? I am N°7 of the seven mysteries." Nene lets out some noises at his actions.
"It's my duty to maintain correct relationships between humans and supernaturals." This time, he pinches her cheeks, that's the Hanako way of making someone stop crying thought don't count on it as it will mostly make the person cry even more-
"But of course you'll be helping me Yashiro." He pets her head, finally letting go of her cheeks that were starting to rose up.
"Hanako-kun..." She sniffles her tears while whining.

"There, there..."
"HEY!" Kou jumps between Hanako and Yashiro, breaking his petting. (How dare you! You don't interrupt someone when they are being petted you jerk! I've always wanted to be pet;-; I say this but I have a little haphephobia lol-)
"What is it? I was just getting to the good part." He wiggles his fingers as the boy inches the girl away.

"Don't touch her you freaking perv!" He shouts as Yashiro makes a deadpanned look. "You were planning to take her to the boundary weren't you?"
"Well yeah." The apparition said this like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'm going too!" He points at himself when he says this, with Yashiro behind him. "I can't let you take senpai to a dangerous place like that alone..." He seems to shot a warning glance at the ghost who didn't have any particular reaction apart from thinking the boy is crazy.
"I'm going to protect her!" Hanako patiently waits for him to stop.

"Okay." He replies to the speech the younger boy just told him. "But you're not my assistant so you're on your own over there." Kou scoffs also backing away when the supernatural approaches.
"Like I would ever need your help!" He exclaims, pretty confident.
"Don't blame me if you end up as a piece of meat." The ghost wore a satisfied and mocking smile.

The two boys then start to fight each other under the disapproval gaze of Yashiro.
An image of her best friend flashes in her mind as she starts to space out.

"I promise I will save you Aoi."

To be continued.
***

So yeah chapter 4 is complete :D
Thank you all for having the patience of reading this book!
Also, the chapters just keep getting longer and longer oof
I will try my best to shorten it for the next chapter-

See you later! 😊👍🌸
-Asuka

Words: 4786