Good evening, everyone! I know I said that I would try to get this story out during the Christmas holidays, but I couldn't stop myself from uploading the first chapter. Also, the title of this story means 'Ghostly Vengeance'. This story is going to be a little different from my previous ones, since it's my first attempt at writing horror. One of my main inspirations for this story is Guillermo del Toro's film "The Devil's Backbone", which I highly recommend. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Disclaimer: Beelzebub belongs to Ryuuhei Tamura, not me.

Chapter 1- A Ghost Story

"Morning, Yumi," Shizuka greets me as I sit down in my desk. "How are you doing?"

"Mm?" I turn to face Shizuka before smiling. "Oh, I'm fine. You?"

Shizuka shrugs. "Everything's good," she says. "Though, I'm kind of missing Tora."

I nod slightly. "Yeah, feels kind of weird without the Ishiyama students here, hm?" I agree. "Well, I'm sure we'll be able to see them outside of school."

It's been awhile since the Ishiyama students went back to their newly-repaired school building, and since Hecadoth and Agiel left school. Why didn't I go with them? Well, I had registered here as a student, and I was slated to transfer into the third-year class once the Ishiyama students left. While it has been kind of strange, I've adjusted well to the new atmosphere and interacting with my classmates… once they've stopped being afraid of me. Oh well, since I'm a Konketsuji, I've always had people avoiding me because they're instinctively frightened of me.

However, Nanami Shizuka has proved to be a great friend. She and I get along quite well and we've worked together a few times, both in school and outside of school. As for my relationship with Hecadoth, it's still going quite strong. Our dates usually consist of just spending time at my home and either talking or just going on walks. And so far, nothing unusual has happened that has concerned demons or anything else.

"So, how's the studying for entrance exams?" Shizuka asks me. "Any idea on what you want to do?"

I nod. "Yeah. I'm planning on studying police studies at the University of Ishiyama," I say, smiling slightly. "I want to become a police officer, just like my dad." I turn back to her. "What about you, Shizuka?"

"I want to become a pediatrician one day, so I'm applying for medical studies," she tells me. "My dad's a doctor and my mom helps deliver babies, so that's what influenced my decision."

"Wow. Are you planning to study abroad?" I ask her.

She shrugs. "I want to, but I don't know yet," she admits. "Though if I do, I might apply for a university in Canada. I've been researching, and I found some good medical schools in Canada. But for now, I want to study closer to home, so it'll be the University of Ishiyama."

Right then, I notice one of my classmates, Inoue Makoto, leaning closer to the both of us. "Oi, Tanaka, Nanami," he starts, grinning slightly. "Do you believe in ghosts?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Er… why are you asking me this?" I ask, confused.

"No, I don't believe in ghosts," Shizuka adds, rolling her eyes in a friendly manner.

"Well you will, once you hear this story." Inoue-kun grins.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Ever heard of the ghost that haunts the third floor?" he asks.

"Inoue-kun, there are no ghosts in the school," Shizuka chides him gently.

"No no, this is seriously good! Trust me!" he insists. "So, there was once a second-year student who had moved from Kobe to here. However, there was always something a little, you know, different about her. She was unusually violent and she had been expelled from a few schools already before coming here. Suddenly, one morning, when the teachers arrived at the school, they noticed that there was a strong smell in the third floor hallway. When they went to investigate, do you know what they found?" He pauses for dramatic effect. Grinning once more, he lowers his voice to an eerie whisper. "Her bloody body." He grins sinisterly.

"Scary, huh?"

"Come on," I chide lightly. "You don't expect me to believe that, don't you?"

Shizuka rolls her eyes. "Seriously, Inoue-kun… that's disrespectful. You can't just make light of someone's death like that."

"But it's true!" Inoue-kun insists. "People have seen her ghost wandering the halls!"

"Look, that's impossible," Shizuka tries to reason.

At that moment, the chime sounds and our Math teacher comes in. Almost immediately, we all stop talking and start paying attention to the lesson at hand. However, for some reason, as I listen to the teacher, I can't help but let my mind wander to what Inoue had said earlier. A second-year student was murdered in cold blood. And it is said that her ghost wanders the halls of St. Ishiyama.

But hold on… when was she murdered? How long has it been since her death? And what's with these rumors about her ghost haunting St. Ishiyama?

That's not the only thing that's bothering me. Inoue-kun had said that the girl was rather strange, that she was rather violent. Was she a delinquent? Was she murdered by some punks in a fight? No… she was a St. Ishiyama student. Unless she was part of a gang, that would be highly unlikely. So then… what happened exactly?

"Yumi? Oi, Yumi!" Shizuka's voice brings me out of my thoughts, and I turn to look at her.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Math is over," she tells me. "You okay? You seemed kind of spaced out."

I blink. "Yeah, I'm fine," I reassure her. "I was just thinking, that's all."

"Don't tell me you actually believe that story that Inoue-kun was saying, do you?" she asks.

"Well…" I trail off, feeling uncertain before sighing in resignation. "Yeah, I'm kinda worried about it. What exactly happened to her, and why hasn't this been given more attention?"

Shizuka shrugs. "All we ever knew about it was that she was murdered by an unknown assailant," she says. "They never explained what really happened, since the case was unsolved. But try and forget about it for now. We have a test today, remember? In World History?"

I groan. "Don't remind me…"

She laughs lightly. "Don't worry! You'll do fine!"

I hope so… I think to myself as the chime rings.

"Five, six, seven, eight!" our Pom Team coach, Iwamoto-sensei, shouts while clapping.

Knowing my cue, I do a backflip from my fellow teammate Chihiro before getting into my ending pose along with my teammates. Once the song comes to an end, Iwamoto-sensei applaudes us.

"Okay, good job, girls!" she praises as we take our stuff and make our way to the change rooms. "You're all done for the day! Now go on and get changed!"

Once I've changed, I meet up with Shizuka outside the gym. "Yo," I greet.

"Hey," she greets back. "You ready?"

"Sure, let's go," I say.

We make our way to the shoe rack to change our shoes. However, as I bend down to change my shoes, I suddenly feel a chill in the air, causing me to look around. What the hell? Again, I feel that same chill, but it doesn't even feel like wind. It feels like… something or someone is touching my legs.

"Yumi?" Shizuka's voice brings me out of my surprised stupor.

"Mm?" I turn to look at her. "Oh, it's nothing. I'm good." I glance around nervously before putting my shoes on. "Let's just get the hell out of here."

"O-Okay…"

We start walking from the school, away from that ominous chill, but for some reason, it does little to calm me down. Sure, that chill could've been from an open door or something, but still, there was something unnatural about it. In fact, it felt like it could've frozen me to the bone. But still, I don't know why it's bothering me so much. Eventually, I decide to try to forget about it so I can calm down.

As we reach the railway crossing area, we suddenly run into Oga, Baby Beel, and Furuichi, much to our surprise. Upon seeing the two of us, they also seem surprised.

"Oh?" Shizuka and I stop walking in surprise.

"Eh? Nanami-senpai? Tanaka-senpai?" Furuichi asks. "What are you doing here?"

"Dah!" Baby Beel greets us.

"Going home," I say as the railway gates are raised.

"Ah, we're also on our way home," Furuichi says as we continue walking.

Oga looks at Shizuka in surprise before looking at me. "Oi, you…" He points at me, and I raise an eyebrow as he struggles to remember my name. "You," he finally says.

I roll my eyes in mock exasperation. "The name's Tanaka," I tell him.

"Whatever. Why are you hanging out with the Horsemen chick?" he asks me.

"Oi, it's Nanami!" Shizuka retorts.

I glance at him in surprise. "She's my friend," I say. "Also, we're working together on a project, didn't I just say that a few moments ago?"

Oga shrugs. "Dunno." He turns to Furuichi. "Oi, Furuichi. Did you get the new Dragonball Z game?"

Furuichi rolls his eyes in pretend annoyance. "Yeah, I did. You'd think I'd forget?" he huffs. "You've been hounding me since last week!"

I laugh slightly as I watch the banter between Oga and Furuichi. They are such dorks, and it's so funny to see the two of them like this. Eventually, I part ways with them before reaching my own neighbourhood.

"I'm home!" I call out as I enter the door.

"Welcome home, Yumi!" Mom calls back, entering the hallway. "How was your day?"

"It was fine," I say, shrugging slightly as I make my way to the main room. Upon entering, I see Dad sitting at the table, going through some files.

"Hey Dad. What's up?" I ask.

He looks up and smiles at me. "Hey Yumi," he greets. "I'm just reviewing an old case file that I decided to reopen."

"What case do you have today?" I ask.

He sighs. "It's a pretty peculiar one," he tells me. "Twenty years ago, a student was murdered in St. Ishiyama. Her corpse was found by the teachers in the third floor hallway the morning after her death."

My eyes widen in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah. This case was put off for a while because the officer who was working on it at the time died, but I've decided to reopen the case and see if more progress can be made in solving it," he explains.

Wait… could this be… "You know, I heard a story from one of my classmates about how a student was murdered in St. Ishiyama," I recall.

Dad looks at me in surprise. "That is exactly who I'm talking about," he tells me. "The case I'm working on right now. It's the murder of a girl named Shibuya Airi."

My jaw drops open in shock as I look down at the photo of her. There she is, in her uniform, with black hair in a bob cut, brown eyes, and a kind smile. She looks like a very pretty girl, yet for some reason, I can almost sense something about this deceased girl.

"But that's not all," Dad adds. "It's what I've read about her that is kind of disturbing me. I'm a little concerned about how she was described, and the circumstances she was in at the time of her death. She was being stalked by an unknown person, and because she had no parents, she was very much vulnerable. Not to mention, the autopsy is rather strange. She died from blunt force trauma to the head, but there were various stab wounds found post-mortem. There is definitely something off about this."

I nod slowly as I glance down at the photo from her crime scene. There she is, her dead body lying on the ground, blood flowing from her head, as well as from various stab wounds in her body. Her eyes are wide open and glazed, but there's something disturbing about her eyes. They're blank, and they seem almost promising of… something. I can't exactly pinpoint what the emotion is, but I can tell from the photo that something is not right. In addition, I feel an unnerving, haunting feeling just from looking at the photo. Inoue-kun had said that there was something off about her, but how so? For some reason, I can't help but be bothered by this. I just hope that this uneasiness goes away soon.