"You're there, aren't you, Y/n-chan?"

Y/n flinched as she looked at her side. Hanako stood beside her, his hands in his pockets as he smiled at her. "I knew you'd be here after walking away."

"Yeah.." she looked at him with her eyes scanning him. "And you look... Badly beaten up. Did Minamoto-san do all that?"

"Yep."

"He's powerful." She closed the book she was reading. "For that guy to be so young yet on the same level as a high-classed exorcist.. he's powerful and talented."

Y/n raised a brow. "Anyway, why are you here? You aren't the type to come visit any time you want.."

Hanako smirked. "Us mysteries will be having a meeting tomorrow. I can tell that only a few of us will attend, so please, go with us too."

"Mhm.. I'll think about it."

Hanako's eyes left the girl. It was now focused on the book she had been reading. It was colored white, the book's title couldn't be seen, Y/n's arm was trying to cover it.

But even so, Hanako could already guess who owned it.

"It's yours?"

Y/n smiled. "Yeah." She then looked at him tiredly. "I've been reading it daily now.. just to see how things flow."

"Only that?" Hanako raised a brow. "I'm sure that's not the only thing you want to check. I'm sure there's something else." He didn't know what it was, but ever since the day Y/n stepped into the bathroom to complain, something had been off about her.

"You're right, Hanako-kun. As always." She grinned before opening her book and flipping it to the pages by the end. "You see.. something's been going on with my book. I've told sensei about it, but even he is confused."

"Why?"

"Well, this only happened once. And that was like, fifty years ago or something." She eyed him. "The thing is, my book has been..."

"Eh? Nene-chan?" She looked at the ombré-haired girl, who was sitting on the floor with multiple books scattered around her. And then, she looked at the green-haired girl leaning on the window sill. "And Nanamine-senpai?"

"You're L/n-san, right?" Nanamine crossed her arms, fiddling with her hair as she looked at the two. Y/n raised a brow. "Yes.."

Nanamine Sakura, a third year in the high school division. She wasn't the type of person who tried to stand out or something, but she was indeed a beauty, that's for sure.

"Hm.. you're friends with her, huh?" Nanamine looked at the book Nene was holding. "So you should also know about Hanako-san, am I right?"

Her words didn't seem threatening or something, in fact, when Nanamine speaks, she always had this kind and gentle vibe stringing along with her.

"Uhm... Yes..?"

Nanamine stayed silent for a moment. "Hanako-san.. the one that's like a cat.."

"What?" The two girls looked at her confused.

Nanamine placed her hands on both sides of her head, imitating cat ears. "Meow. Meow."

Both Y/n and Nene did the same thing out of utter confusion. "Cat...?"

"Capricious, selfish, and childish." Nanamine looked at them. "Is yours like that too?"

Y/n froze. Capricious, selfish, childish..? What does she mean by is ours like that too? She looked at Nanamine with a sharp gaze. Unless she's talking about-

"Yours isn't like that, isn't it?" Nanamine looked at Y/n intimidatingly, but the other girl could tell that she meant no threat, her gaze was just like that. "I can tell that L/n-san has a clue of who I'm talking about."

Y/n has never read Nanamine Sakura's book, but she has read Hanako's. And based on the description Nanamine said, she was well aware of which Hanako she was talking about.

Nanamine started walking away. "If you wanna know more about him, you should go see mystery five and his hidden assistant." She then went towards the boy who was waiting for her by the entrance.

"Uh.." Nene turned around with an uneasy expression on her face. "Wait..!"

She then started running towards them. But unfortunately, she ended up bumping on a teacher.

"You can't do that. No running in the library-"

"Please get out of my way!"

Nene ran out of the library. Y/n sweat dropped as she went towards the teacher, who stood up by himself, looking at the exit with an annoyed expression.

"Was that your friend?"

"Yeah.."

"You have rude friends."

"She's just in a rush, I apologize on her behalf."

The next
day...

"The fifth of the seven school mysteries." Aoi looked at Nene with an excited expression as she paused from wiping the chalkboard. "I've heard of it!"

"The fifth of the seven school mysteries is basically a place where you can find information on different people." Y/n walked towards them, holding a pile of papers she brought from the SC office. "Don't listen to Nanamine-senpai, Nene-chan.. it really isn't necessary to go to the 4pm bookstack."

"4pm bookstack..?"

"That's right." Aoi smiled. "School mystery number five, the 4pm bookstack.."

"In this school's library, there's a special storeroom you can enter at 4pm. The room is full of books with people's names. Each of these books contain a record of that person's life at this school. What they did here, what they're going to do here.. past, present, and future- it's all written in the book."

"It's all recorded..." Nene mumbled, looking at Aoi in thought.

"Even things that haven't happened yet. Doesn't that make you curious? And maybe, I wanna read other people's books too."

"Same here." Y/n raised her hand. "I'd love to see what's going to happen in the future or something."

Well... She already read hers so...

"L/n-san?" A classmate called out, waving at the girl. "A teacher is here to see you!"

"Eh?" Y/n flinched. When a teacher comes to see her, it's definitely bad news, that's what Y/n has learnt after living for nearly fourteen years.

She gave Nene and Aoi a wave before rushing over to the hallway. There, she saw her teacher standing there with a white book in hand.

"Oh, sensei." Y/n's scared look disappeared when seeing the man. "I thought it was some other teacher. What do you need?"

"Well, I'm here to ask you if you're gonna go to the meeting." Tsuchigumori closes his book before giving the girl a sharp look. "Number seven just came from informing me about it. I'll be quite busy later on, so attending the meeting might be hard.."

"Hm.." Y/n thought of the things she might do later. Then, something popped in her mind. "Right, Nene-chan might go to the bookstack later on today, maybe she'll invite Kou-kun or something." Y/n shrugged. "I might as well help her so that nothing can hurt any of them."

Tsuchigumori growled. "Remember, none of them are allowed to see the future. Period."

"Yes, sir.."

"So I'll be going to the meeting in our stead." Tsuchigumori looked outside the window. "And it looks like your break time is coming to an end. I suggest you head inside now."

"Oh, and by the way." Y/n turned to look at him once again. "Why is my book with you?"

Y/n could see the letters written at the side of the book, her name was clearly printed onto it. Tsuchigumori sighed before raising the book.

"I'd like to see who managed to do it again."

She grinned. "I'm amazing, I know," she said before walking back into her classroom.

Long story short, Nene, along with Kou and Y/n, found the hidden bookstack. How? You may ask.. well, some dark-colored butterfly flew pass them, and out of curiosity, they decided to follow it.

Which led them into the place they were in.

It was obviously a boundary. The water reached Kou's ankles, and maybe a little bit higher in Y/n and Nene's cases.

Both Nene and Kou scanned the room, unlike Y/n, who had already been to this place tons of times. Too much to even count.

"The white books are for living people, and the black books are for the ones that are deceased.. at least, that's what I heard." Nene raised the lamp the Mokke had given her earlier, trying to check the books on the shelf.

"There are a whole lot of white ones and only a few black ones, huh?" Kou mumbled. Y/n nodded as she crossed her arms, quietly watching over the two.

"Of course, most of them are still alive after all."

"All right!" Kou exclaimed, giving the two girls a grin. "Hanako's book would be black, right? So are you ready to get looking?"

Seeing how determined the boy was, Y/n couldn't help but feel guilty. After all, she had already read number seven's book.

To say the least, it was dark.

Hours later.

"It's no use..." Nene lowered her head on the table, her arm holding some random black book with a stack beside her.

Kou crouched down, tired from all the searching they had been doing earlier. "We haven't found even the slightest clue..."

"Y/n-chan... I think it would be better if you help us..." Nene cried as she looked at the girl who sat on top of the table, playing with the Mokkes. "I'm sure you could guess which one of these books is Hanako-kun's..."

"Mhm.." Y/n smiled. It wouldn't hurt to give them a clue, right? She needed to be as subtle as possible, after all, they still have no clue about her being the hidden mystery.

"If I had to guess..." Y/n took the book from Nene's hand and looked at it, like she was thinking about how Hanako's book would look like. "Hanako-kun's name probably started with an A or something.."

Nene's eyes sparkled, causing Y/n to sweat drop. "It's a gut feeling.."

"If it's Y/n-chan's gut feeling, then it must be true!" Nene looked at Kou excitedly. The boy nodded along, giving her a grin. "That's right! Y/n-chan's guesses are always accurate!"

I totally messed up...

"But wait. Senpai, something's on your hair.."

"Really? Where?"

A black butterfly flew away from them as soon as Kou took it off of Nene's hair. Nene followed the butterfly, she had seen it before, when it led them to the bookstack.

Maybe it can lead her to Hanako's book.

But boy, was she wrong.

Instead of a black book, she had took out a white book- her name written in bold letters.

"Look out!" Kou pulled Nene away from the huge, Nene lookalike standing infront of them. Y/n then held the two's hands before running towards the exit.

Oh goodness it hurts!

"Both of you read the red pages, didn't you?!" Y/n cried out. "I swear, I saw blood! That's when I knew you both were in trouble!"

Kou then tried to open the door, but like every situation, it wouldn't even budge. "I-It won't open!"

Nene looked at the two, tears ready to fall out in any second. "What do we do?!"

"Damn it!" Kou faced the monster, glaring at it with pure hatred. "If you want a piece of me, come and get it!" He then raised his staff, it's lightning started appearing and surrounding the room.

Y/n backed off. With water around the place, it will no doubt, strike her along.

But that thought didn't last long. Kou's staff had lost its spark. Nene, Y/n, Kou, and even the monster itself, looked at the staff blankly.

"Oh my God, the seal!" Y/n cried as she looked away from Kou in embarrassment. "Hanako-kun didn't remove the fudging seal!"

"You called?" Y/n opened her teary eyes to see and upside down apparition floating infront of the three. A playful expression on his face as his eyes landed on Y/n. "I guess Y/n-chan couldn't get enough of me~!"

Her breath hitched as she sniffed. This boy really loves embarrassing me. She gave him a glare. "Just help us here!"

"Yes, yes..." Hanako took out his knife before skating the monster effortlessly. He did it with so much ease, it kind of made Y/n wish that she had that kind of weapon.

"Hi there, kids!" He gave the other three a wave. Nene and Kou looked at him with pure admiration as he floated towards them.

Suddenly, he grabbed both Y/n and Kou's forearms, giving them both a little nudge as Hanako looked at Kou blankly.

Kou raised a brow. "... What?"

In a matter of seconds, Hanako wrapped his arms around Y/n, looking like he was protecting her from whatever. "Nothing~," he cooed, causing Kou to look at Hanako annoyed. "What?!"

"What have you done?!" Footsteps came splashing towards them from the opposite side of the boundary. Y/n turned around to see the familiar man in his lab coat. "No... What have you done to my precious books..?"

Nene and Kou's eyes widened. "S-Sensei?" The both looked at him surprised. They didn't expect one of their teachers to be in a boundary after all. "What are you doing here?!"

Kou and Nene eyed the monster which stood behind the man. Y/n wasn't even scared at this point. The man knew how to handle everything in the library, after all.

He managed to eliminate the creature with some kind of leg which suddenly can out from behind him. This immediately gave both Nene and Kou the sign that he wasn't normal at all.

"Here I am, trying to keep my mouth shut.. and you two just won't stop yapping. It's annoying!" Nene and Kou watched as the man took his hand away from the deceased monster. "Ugh. This is why I hate kids."

Y/n sighed as the man picked up Nene and Kou like they were some kind of bug. "These books have turned red. You read the entries from the future, didn't you?" The man gave Y/n a sharp look as he pointed at the book he held. "And you, didn't I tell you to watch over them while I was ou-"

He stopped talking as soon as he saw the dark expression on the girl's face. Not that he was afraid, this was a signal that he had talked to much.

He sighed before eating a butterfly. He then looked at the two he carried and gave them a smirk. "How are you planning to make this up to me?"

Both Nene and Kou shivered as they trembled in fear.

Just then, Hanako appeared behind the man, pulling on his lab coat for attention. As soon as he got the elder's focus, Hanako smiled. "No bullying."

The man looked at Hanako blankly before letting go of the two kids. "I know, I know. Oh Honorable Number Seven." He closed his eyes. "I was just kidding."

Y/n went towards Nene and Kou and helped them both get up. She then looked at the two apparitions watching them.

"Hanako, what's he..?" Kou started, looking at Hanako and the man in confusion.

The seventh mystery beamed. "Oh, you haven't been introduced!"

Hanako pointed at the man. "School mystery number five- the 4pm bookstack's curator, Tsuchigumori."

He gave them a close-eyed smile. "You kids play nice, okay?"

꧁꧂

y'all, it was three in the
morning when I
made this. so if there's
any typos, well... 🤷‍♀️.