Trigger Warnings:
Implied self-harm, implied faked self-harm, tell me if I should add something else.
Tarou stumbled through the halls, barely looking where he was going anymore. It felt so weird, so wrong, to still be at school after three of his friends had died. They'd gotten so close over the week he'd known them - and the lifetime he'd known Osana - and now they were gone, only left in his memories and most of those weren't pleasant, just graphic flashbacks to their deaths. It was like he was cursed, anyone who became his friend was killed in increasingly horrible ways.
"E- Excuse me."
The voice was so soft spoken and raspy, he almost missed it while lost in his thoughts. Instead he glanced up, greeted with Ruto standing awkwardly in front of him.
She fidgeted slightly, playing with her hands before talking. "I was wondering if you had an interest in the occult. You possess such s-supernatural qualities."
Tarou had never been interested in something like that, it seemed like intense make believe. But here was this girl who looked so shy and had still asked him and was probably expecting a positive answer. He smiled hesitantly, though it felt like so much effort to do so. It was the smile Kizana had taught him to uphold.
"I haven't really thought about it, why?" he said.
"It's nothing really," Ruto mumbled. "I was just wondering, you have a dark aura surrounding you, almost like a curse..."
A curse. His smile became more strained. "O- oh."
"Ahh, I shouldn't have said that," she said, already stepping back. "Sorry for bothering you."
"N- No, it's fine, sorry. If you really want to talk to me about this stuff I'm okay with that," Tarou said quickly.
His insistence to keep Ruto around was surprising even to him. But... could he really be cursed? Even if such an idea seemed so made up.
"Well-" She was back to playing with her hands. "- If you were really interested then you could come to the occult club at lunch time. We have many books on the various curses."
"Yeah, I'll come," he said.
"I guess I'll see you there, i-if you show up," she said softly, continuing to class before he could comment on the if.
There was something very distinct about the occult club. No one really payed them attention so it had been easy for Tarou to not notice before now but they all looked so similar. The same coloured hair, the majority having an eye covered, and the chokers. The chokers could be written off as the club token all clubs had but the rest... was sort of ominous. The only person who looked any different was a girl talking with Ruto. He'd seen her before but since they'd never really talked he didn't know her name.
"Ah, Yamada," Ruto greeted, and the other one spun around to face him quickly. Nothing about her really stood out, just a black ponytail and the girls uniform. "Aishi was just joining the club now but we're still free to research together."
Aishi flushed pink, fidgeting even more than Ruto. "Okay. It's good to meet you, Aishi," Tarou said.
She nodded shortly but said nothing, scampering over to a bookshelf and pulling out the first one she laid her hands on. Tarou kept his attention on Ruto who already had a book in hand. She moved to the edge of the circle she was standing in and sat down carefully.
"Unfortunately only club members are allowed to come in this circle, it's too dangerous for anyone else," she said seriously. "We should be able to sit like this though if you're okay with that."
He didn't bother asking what could be dangerous about the circle but sat next to her obediently.
"There are a large number of curses but we should be able to narrow it down by talking about the effects of yours," Ruto said.
It was a large book. Although the size of the cover was average the length was much longer. Even if they tried to narrow it down it would probably still take ages.
"Okay," Tarou agreed, preparing himself to be sitting there for a while.
"Are we sure it's even a curse? Maybe it's just... bad luck," Tarou said.
He'd been okay to go along with what Oka was saying for the most part, it gave him something to do and she was interesting to hang out with, but when the subject broadened onto demons it all got a little unbelievable.
"You think?" Oka sounded doubtful.
"A curse just seems..." He wasn't sure how to put it without totally dismissing her biggest passion. "Unbelievable. I mean, who would put a curse on me?"
Oka furrowed her eyebrows in thought, looking confused. "If it's not a curse then why am I-" she interrupted herself mid-murmur, her face flushing a soft pink. "You may have unseen enemies, have you angered someone recently?"
Tarou wasn't sure what she had been talking about before that, or why she reacted like that, but slowly shook his head in response to her question. "If I have I don't know about it."
She frowned. "Tomorrow's the weekend, I should be able to figure it out then."
"I guess I'll see you after school," he said, making sure to keep himself from stepping inside the circle as he stood up.
Oka nodded shortly and he left, passing by Aishi who watched his every move.
Did it hurt when you died..?
Tarou didn't know the feeling - had no way of understanding the feeling. Did poison hurt? Does it burn your throat as you choke to death or was it just like getting something caught in your throat? How did it feel to be burned over your whole body? A cook being prepared for death instead of a meal. If you were crushed was it over immediately? Or were there a few seconds where you could do nothing except wait to die?
...
What did it feel like when you ran a knife down your limbs and watched as it bled out? Did it feel different if someone else did it to you?
Somehow Tarou had ended up on the floor of the Occult Club, his whole body shaking and bile rising in his throat. There was a teacher in the room, blocking his view of the body.
Blocking his view of Oka Ruto as fresh blood still leaked from her wounds.
He assumed she was talking to him. Probably. People didn't usually talk to someone else while looking directly at you. Still, Tarou couldn't hear a word she was saying, the ringing in his head growing louder with every move of her lips, ringing that sounded suspiciously like screams.
"What on Earth do you think you're doing? Smile properly. No wonder you're so easy to fool, showing all your emotions on your face like that."
Tarou smiled shakily, the effort causing the bile to rise faster. "B- Bad luck, h-huh?"
The realisation comes that writing unique fics for ten rivals is getting harder and harder as this goes on... After this I have four more rivals to write and I am struggling, apparent by the increasing gap between these. Hopefully the next one will be out sooner and hopefully you enjoyed this one!