Hello and welcome to chapter 6 of "I need you now" :D
(This chapter doesn't correspond to any arcs as it is original.)
Title: "The nightmare within the party"

Art at the top: https://twitter.com/yukinko_0987/status/1252083787082592257
By @yukinko_0987 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yukinko_0987
Or https://pin.it/4vjKYCb on Pinterest.

Psychological fact: If you can't stop your stream of thoughts at night, get up and write them down. This will set your mind at ease so you can sleep.

***
Previously:

(Insert Misaki Stair's arc here)

***

Nene Yashiro is once again stuck in class, wow how surprising.
The class was mostly quiet apart from the small sounds the chalk do when the teacher uses it to write on the board, Yashiro still had the events of yesterday flying in her mind, including that, peek Hanako gave her at the very end.
Red crept on her cheeks and her heart went racing at the memory.

Stupid Hanako-kun.

Aoi notices the face her friend was making, even though she was a couple of feet away from her, and then she smiles.
"Seems like Nene-chan has a crush!" The bell rang, interrupting the teacher who was giving instructions for an exercise. He quickly gave the students homework, much to their disagreement, and step out of the classroom.

Nene began to pack her stuff as her best friend approaches her.
"Nene-chan!" She calls, snapping the cream haired girl back to reality.
"Ah! Aoi, hi!" She awkwardly greets her with a nervous smile, causing the other girl to laugh.

"Hey! So how are you doing right now?" Aoi asks, with a composed face. A lot of boys behind her watching the scene were beginning to give her love-struck eyes, making Akane's blood boil.
"I'm doing fine, what about you?" Yashiro was still a bit in the moon as she asks that, she was being quite unfocused on the conversation, to be honest, but she was doing her best to keep listening.

Nobody deserves to not feel not to listen to and ignored.
No one.

"Also, have you heard about the new rumor?" Aoi suddenly changes whatever subject they were discussing on and of course at the mention of a rumor Yashiro's interest was picked.
"What rumor?" Aoi laughs at the very alarm and exaggerated caution on her friend's face.
"Nene-chan, you really need to keep up with what is going on in school! But I will count you this story."

"Halloween is near, therefore, the apparitions living in this school will become more...
Aggressive..."

"It says that at twilight, a masquerade will take place in the old building,
Every supernatural in this place will be reunited here."
"If a living being were to invite themselves to the party with a mask on, it says they will be able to participate without the creatures going berserk.
But the reason why this rumor is so popular is that it says that if a couple were to confess during the ball, they will be bound by love together forever. However, if you disrespect any rules..."

"Your worst nightmare will become a reality."

Yashiro gulps, eyeing Aoi who was pointing at the old building through the window.
"Now everyone is excited to go to this party!" The indigo haired girl dropped the scary voice and she turns her head towards Nene with a wide grin.
"The school is also planning to make a masquerade, crazy coincidence right? There are even people who think the director and the supernaturals are communicating somehow and that they gave him this idea!"

The student blinks awkwardly.
"Wow, conspiracy much?" Aoi nods in agreement, finding this theory as absurd as the other one where people think the Earth is flat or even the clones thingy for the dead celebrities.

Yashiro groans, resting her hand on her forehead, hiding the rest of her face. She was practically leaning on her desk at this point.
"Is something wrong Nene-chan?" Aoi, who was a bit concerned, asks while putting her hand underneath her chin like she often does, you can even say that it was Aoi's iconic pose.
"If there's a masquerade then I'm pretty sure you will need a date right?" She nods, not connecting the dotes together.

"And?" Yashiro looks up to her with a desperate look, before sighing loudly, digging her face deeper in her arms.
"And then it most likely means I would be the only weirdo without a date." Aoi pats her head in comfort, giving her a pitying smile.
"Don't be pessimistic Nene-chan!" Aoi cheers, hoping to lighten her friend's mood. "I'm sure a cute will finally realize how beautiful you really are!"

"I don't think it will ever happen but 'when there's life, there's hope' right?"
"That's the spirit!"

"Nene-chan!" Aoi calls, her expression turning... dark?
"H-Huh?" Yashiro stutters, taking back by Aoi's intense expression. Did something happened or something?
"How could you..?" She has a betrayed look in her eyes and she bits her lower lip, her arms crossed around her chest.
"What are you talking about? How could I what?" Nene was now really confused and stressed out, did she do something wrong? And how could she not notice it sooner?

"How could you have a crush and not tell me!" Aoi whines, all of the previous seriousness of the conversation vanishing from existence. Yashiro froze, her brain still processing the information.
"I have what?" She thought she misheard her best friend so she asks her to repeat herself when she heard her previous answer again she starts to flushed red.

"So I was right! Nene-chan you broke the Sis Code!"
"I'm sorry I had to-"
"What do you mean you had to?!"
"I still don't know if I have a crush on him yet!"

"So what is he like?" She finally demands, dropping the argument.
Yashiro thought about it for a moment, after all, she couldn't just tell her that he was already dead, that would be... awkward.
"Well... He is shorter than me, he's surprisingly athletic and good at fighting..." Yashiro searches her words to describe him. "He doesn't have that much of a presence... Oh! And he has those big, round, and amber eyes!" She finishes her description, waiting for Aoi's reply.

"Hm... Strange, he doesn't correspond to your type but if he managed to make you fall for him then I totally approve!" Nene hits Aoi's arm with her elbow when she starts talking too loud, a few heads turned to their direction with curiosity but they quickly turn back. Yashiro sighs.
Her arm limps back to the side of her body and she crossed her arms together.
"Why don't you confess to him already-" Yashiro slaps her hand on Aoi's hand to muffle the rest of her sentence with a bloody red face, Aoi had a very fake innocent face on and her eyes were clearly glimpsing with mischief.

"Aoi I'm not even sure I like him! And I can't just-" The student starts, getting soon cut off by a soothing voice.
"Like who?" Hanako pops up at her right with a teasing smile, Yashiro, who didn't expect to see him, especially at this instant, had her face explodes into a brighter red and she backs away from her previous spot with a yelp.
Her right hand that was previously placed on Aoi's mouth was now bent in front of her, materializing a barrier between Hanako and her.
Aoi raises a brow, confused about Yashiro's reaction.

"Nene-chan, are you okay?" Now that the teacher has arrived, the class began with Aoi still waiting for an answer she will never get.
(The amount of time I said Aoi is ridiculous.)

***

"Hanako-kun!" Yashiro slams the door of the girl's bathroom open with a determined expression.
Hanako turns his upper torso towards Yashiro with barely any reaction, he was once again playing against the Mokke at cards and he was mostly losing to them again. One of his legs was crouched on the windowsill and the other was hanging at the edge of said object.

"Hey Yashiro, you okay?" He asks, looking kind of bored. Yashiro steps closer to the ghost, still wearing the same intense expression, her fists were also curled into a ball to avoid them getting too energetic.
"Can I go to the ball?" Hanako looks up to her with raised eyebrows, confusion drawn all over his face. He also bent a bit his cards and the Mokke could see them. Of course, they didn't say anything and peek in silence.

"Why do you ask me for permission? I'm not your father you know-" Yashiro shakes her hand frantically, her body still stiffened.
"No, I didn't mean the masquerade the school planned but the masquerade you're going to attend with the other supernaturals." Both Hanako and the Mokke stop playing and look at Yashiro with widened eyes.
"Uh... Weird question Yashiro but what date is it today?" The mirage demands with the Mokke repeating the word 'masquerade'? In the background.

"It's the 30 in October, why?" It was now Yashiro's turn to being confused, her shoulders relaxed even if she didn't felt them stiffened in the fist place. Hanako had a moment of blankness before his eyes widened and his brows furrowed.
"I completely forgot about the masquerade oop-" Yashiro facepalms, while the Mokke finally seemed to understand what was happening.

"That still doesn't answer my question though?" Hanako stares in Yashiro's eyes while standing up, his arms going limp to his side.
"Why do you want to go anyway? You know there will be all of the supernaturals of the school there right?" Yashiro nods and starts to find her shoes very interesting.
"I know and I have my reasons." He didn't question it and just let that one slip off.

Yashiro didn't say anything else and grab the familiar mop that was placed on the wall near the entrance of the bathroom.
She quickly searches for her gloves in her bag and once she puts them on, she starts to clean as she would usually do.

***
Tomorrow, at 5:20 p.m.

The cream-colored hair girl took a deep breath before stepping in the entrance of the old building. She may have been here countless times before, but today was different.
Music could already be faintly heard from the distance and she could see a lot of students rushing behind her, but unlike them, she wasn't going straight to the party but she was going to go on a trip to the girl's bathroom before that.

She cracks a tiny smirk, Hanako was going to be surprised.
Or at least she hopes so because if he ends up laughing at her she will throw herself in her grave that she digs herself.
And never come back obviously.

...
Just pretend you never read this part okay?

She walks to the bathroom, her steps echoing in the empty and dusty corridor of the old building. Her body was stiff and her fists were curled in a ball, expecting to punch a threat when it comes.
She also glances around, sweating and feeling uneasy.
No matter how many times she went here and knew that Hanako would always be here in case, she couldn't help but feel spooked by the hostile atmosphere surrounding this building.

Maybe because it was Halloween, she found the place even more frightening? Or maybe it was the fact that she knows at least one person died here.

She shook her head. "Brace yourself Nene! It's not like a random creature would attack me out of nowhere anyway since they are all in the ballroom!" Her breath starts to calm down each step closer to the bathroom.
She stops right in front of it and opened the door slowly, the soft light that the moon provided infiltrate the room via the door even if the room was already drowning by it because of the window beside the third stall.

Since she didn't saw anyone, she raises a brow in confusion. She steps deeper into the room, her hand still place on the edge of the door.
"Hanako-kun?" The silence was the only reply she received since the window was open, a cold breeze touches Yashiro's cheeks and made her hair float. Wait, the window is open?
Yashiro frowns. The window was normally never open and she knew that since she comes here almost every day.

She steps closer, her hand going back to her side, this time she calls the ghost's name louder and the room wasn't silent.
The window flew close, startling Yashiro deeply who nearly jumps out of her skin in pure fear.
"Hey, Yashiro-" Hanako appeared upside down in front of Yashiro.
The student screams slapping the ghost, hard, earning a massive ow from said person. He also, unfortunately, fell down with a loud thud, and of course like he wasn't suffering enough, his head was the first part of his body to hit the ground.

(F in the chat for Hanako)

"What was that for?!" He asks, rubbing his head in pain. Now he was on his knees, wincing with a bright red mark on his right cheek.
"You startled me!" Yashiro defends herself, crossing her arms with a pouty face. In truth, she felt bad because of that hit, and that fall, since it was rather loud, Nene figures it could have been at least a bit painful.
But pride was a jerk so she will never admit it.
Hanako groans one more time before lifting his eyes up to stare at Yashiro and then he froze completely.

"Yashiro, are you... cosplay as me?" And he was right, that was the surprise Yashiro had prepared all night and she wasn't going to lie, knitting Hanako's hat was really but like, really tough. Especially when you can't find the button hooked to it or that you can't reference the original since it is stuck at school with its owner.
Finding the uniform was quite easy but the hat was literally unobtainable, no matter where she would try to find it she never succeed so defeated, she started to knit last night.

So Yashiro originally wanted to disguise herself as a devil, because apparently, boys found them um... attractive, yeah that's the word, attractive. But since the costume would reveal her ankles she quickly abandoned the idea and went for the Hanako cosplay instead and she kinda mixed the clothes she heard in the rumor with Hanako's actual outfit:

So now she was wearing a black gakuran with gold buttons and red hems, a white long-sleeved western shirt underneath it, black shoes and white socks that were long enough to reach her knees. Instead of Hanako's black pants, she was wearing a red skirt like said in the legend of Hanako-san.
And of course with the messy hat, also, it looked like there were voodoo dolls drawn on it. Intentional or not it was kinda creepy.

Yashiro nods with a big smile. "Yup! Is it accurate enough?"
"I mean yeah," Hanako replies, resting his eyes on the ground and avoiding eye contact to hide the fact his face was a bloody red.
"Apparently even radish dresses- BWEH-" Before Hanako could have the chance to finish his sentence, Yashiro sends him flying to the other side of the room with a kick. He wanted to wince because he was pretty sure some of his wounds re-opened but he choose to not say a word about them and acts normal.

Yashiro sends him a death glare. "Hanako-kun, I swear if you-" She got cut off by Hanako who shouts that 'she needed to take a chill pill and that he was just joking!'
"What are you even doing here?" Hanako sighs, standing up painfully. Now it was confirmed some of his wounds reopened.
"Shouldn't you be with your date or something?" Yashiro froze in place.

She was so focused on what to wear for today that she completely forgot about bringing a date with her, not like any boys asked her but still! She brings her hand to her mouth to cover her shocked expression, which quickly turned into a frown.
Hanako steps closer to her with curiosity, he tilts his head to the side.

"Yashiro? Are you still listening?" He waves his hand in front of her face, which the human slaps away with furrowed brows. She wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with that.
"I... don't have a date." She confesses with a sigh, the fact that no one proposed her to be their date was honestly hurting her. It's not like she had a lot of hope in the first place but it was still upsetting none-less.

Hanako blinks awkwardly, not knowing what to do in this type of situation.
Where was his comforting side when he needs it? He scratches his neck for a few seconds before his dace lightens up.
He had an idea, plus Yashiro was kind of cheesy so she would probably like it right?
He got one knee in front of Yashiro, stunning her. Was he proposing to her or something?

He took one of her hands gently and kiss it. The simple, yet affectionate gesture made Yashiro flushed red and her talons curved.
He wasn't her type, nope, not at all.
"Well then, would you give me the honor to escort you to the masquerade Yashiro?" He gave her his iconic mischievous smile, making her blush even harder. She turns her head away and Hanako snickers.

"... You're exaggerating it this too much, Hanako-kun." She puffs her cheeks, which Hanako found adorable. "But yes, I accept you as my date for tonight- wait, can people even see you?" She cuts her original sentence in half, now she had turned her gape back to her ghost friend with a questioning look.
He releases her hand and it fell back to her side, he also stood up and got rid of the little portion of dust that sticks to his pants.

"Yep, they can see me. It's Halloween remember? The supernaturals can finally scare you, humans, as much as they want!"
He beams, as Yashiro deadpanned at him.
"Can we just depart to the party?" Hanako giggles childishly.
"As you wish."

***

"... You don't know how to dance?" On the sides of the room, Hanako and Yashiro were talking about some matters.
As expected, a lot of humans had sneaked in the supernaturals' masquerade but as the rumor said, they aren't able to attack them. Not until one of them break one of the law at least.

Yashiro chuckles nervously, rubbing her hand on her neck. Maybe she needed to learn how to think of two things at once or to prepare an event in advance because it was getting ridiculous at this point. First, she forgot to bring a date with her and now she even forgot to learn how to dance? In a masquerade?
"Oops?"

The ghost bursts out laughing, earning an embarrassing smack from Yashiro.
A few heads turn to look in their direction, but as soon as the apparitions saw the Seventh Mystery, they quickly turn their attention back to where it initially was, not wanting to anger him.
"It's not funny!" The human blushes, with a pout. It ended with Hanako laughing even more.

After a few minutes, he stops and wipes a tear from the corner of his eye.
"Phew... It's been a long time since I laugh that hard!" Yashiro groans, her arms crossed around her chest in frustration. Getting laugh at sucks. But she couldn't deny that she was having at least a good time with her friend.
Hanako chuckles one more time before dragging Yashiro to the middle of the dance floor, ignoring her noises of protest.

Many heads turn towards the sudden couple, a lot of them stared at Yashiro's ankles which made her cringe and want to cry or just bang their heads on the wall. She didn't decide yet. A couple of steps later, Hanako stopped in his track and turned around to look at her with a smirk.

He inches closer to her and put one of his hand on her shoulder and the other on her waist. The gesture made Yashiro flushed red for at least the fifth time and the ghost had to surpass a laugh to break through his throat. She gave him a warning glance and the apparition only feign an innocent smile.

"Why are you giving me that look?" He beams, tightening his hold on the human.
"You should be thankful I teach you how to dance." He gave her a look similar to this one: U_U.
"Oh... That's the only thing you want to do?" She sighs in relief and Hanako smirks.
"What? Did you think I would try to do something perverted in the middle of everyone? Yashiro you naughty dai-"
He then gets punched in the face, shocking deeply the beasts around them, some of them thought that she was perhaps crazy, some thought that she wished to die.

After this, everything was going smoothly, Yashiro did learn how to dance and it was really fun! So fun that she forgot why she was here in the first place. To be honest, Hanako kind of felt back for wanting to take her as bait but he had to make one of the students break one of the rules to destroy the apparition.
Every Halloween, this troublesome mirage always caused trouble in the school and sometimes it even killed some students while it was at it and this year the other mysteries had put the matter in their leader's hands for goodness know why.

He was surprised when that one girl who was talking to a guy with a blush suddenly tensed up and punched him square in the face while screaming profanities. The boy, taken by surprise, stumbles backward and fell limp, causing a group of monsters to go down with him.
Everything stopped at once, the music, the dancers, and even the guards. All of them stayed still like a statue and were staring at the girl and the boy with a blank yet dark expression on their faces.

The brunette couldn't even breathe because of the pressure she was put through and when all of the supernaturals at the exception of Hanako start to walk towards her, it almost seemed like a movie, a horror movie. Everything was going so fast but so slow at the same time it was indescribable, and the sound of her heartbeat was ringing in her ears and head constantly. She inches backward with a terrified grimace, the boy who was pushed down tried to follow but he was grabbed by one of the apparitions and he lets out a yell when he was swallowed by the ground.

Sweats start to form themselves on her forehead and she was starting to feel lightheaded, almost like she was going to blackout. With a last shaky breath, she turned away and started to flee towards the door of the ballroom, her stomach twirling in pain and stress.
Her eyes dilated in fear when she discovers that the passage that leaded her here was gone, with her felicity, it was a dead-end and the apparitions were getting closer and closer to her.

"Rules breaker, rules breaker."

It was the only sentence they frequently recite, it was even odder than you visualized as their faces didn't hold any sentiment in them, once they were like one foot away from her the compartment suddenly turned into a dark purple. It was like an artist had sketched a normal ballroom and had decided to put a "multiply" overlay over it, stained it in dark purple, and then turn the opacity down to 70%.

A sinister laugher echoed in the room and Hanako's expression turned dull. He protectively moves slowly closer to Yashiro as said person could only stare at the large silhouette that was commencing to materialize on the wall in horror. Two ruddy flecks burst in what seems to be like the line-art of a heqd, they appeared to glimpse at the direction of where the girl was being tangled.

Then, the orifices expanded and the girl howled at the same moment the anomalies hurled themselves to her. Her hand could be seen slowly sinking in the sea of beasts and when it totally faded away, the apparitions backed off and there was now no sign of the girl.
The living entities present in the room, minus Yashiro, start to dart at everyplace and jogging in hope to find an exit.

The group of monsters slowly turned to them and they all grew an unsettling smile at the same time.

"Who will be the next one?"

***

So yeah, chapter 6 is complete :D
Thank you all for having the patience to read this book!
For some reasons, I don't feel very proud of this one, I dunno,
I just have the feeling that the writing sucks for some reasons oop-

See you later! 😊👍🌸
-Asuka

Words: 4192