Disclaimer, I don't own any of the Azumanga Daioh characters in this story, but to the best of my knowledge this story, and all original characters used in it are my original creations, so please do not copy this story with out my permission thanks!
The Custodian by bloo-96
On the night of January 15, 1987, a school custodian is mopping a flight of stairs.
"God what a mess!" said the tired custodian.
For more than thirteen years, Brian Hughes was the school custodian at the Tokyo high school, and every day someone would spill something on these stairs, normally a thing like this wouldn't bother him, but because they were the largest flight of stairs not to mention the most dangerous in the entire school, he had to be more cautious, which took more time, and since he didn't make overtime, this tedious task pissed him off.
"God damned kids always making a mess on these stairs, out of the whole fucking school these stairs!" he angrily shouted.
He looks out the window. It's already dark and snowing.
"Huh? Dark already, what time is it?"
He looks at his watch as the minute hand hits midnight.
"Son of a bitch!" he shouts throwing his mop on the ground. Because of the slippery wet floor he loses his balance and falls down the stairs.
He falls about three stories worth in stairs, and hits the bottom face first breaking his nose.
After a few minutes of laying on the floor in total pain he sits up, and starts laughing in relief.
"At least I survived the fall" he said now laughing even harder than before.
"Ha! So you thought you could kill me huh stupid stairs?!" he shouted while giving the middle finger.
suddenly in the corner of his vision he sees his mop bucket begin to tumble down the stairs.
After hitting one step after another it was catapulted into the air straight toward him.
"Shit!" was his last words as the bucket delivered a fatal blow to the head.
-present day-
It is a cold January evening, Chiyo-chan is finishing some studying in the library.
It's been four hours since school got out and other than a few faculty finishing work, the school is completely empty, giving Chiyo the perfect opportunity to really have some peace and quiet to study.
She closes the book she was reading and puts it back on the shelf.
"Good night" she said to the sleeping librarian on her way out.
As she walked down the hall, she notices an unopened pop can sitting on the floor next to a locker.
She picked it up and made sure it was safe to drink.
"Somebody really must have been in a hurry if they forgot this?" she thought.
After studying for more than four hours she was quite thirsty, so she opened it, took a drink and continued down the hall and down the stairs.
As she was half way down, she lost grip of the can, and it began to fall.
"Oh no" she said as she tried to catch it.
But by the time she reached out for it, it was too late the can fell and hit the edge of the step right side up.
"That was close" said Chiyo in relief.
The can began to tip over.
"No!" said Chiyo as she tried to save it
before she could even try to reach for it, the can tipped over and rolled down the flight of stairs making a huge mess.
"Not good!" said Chiyo as she ran down the stairs to survey the damage done.
It was a disaster almost every step had a huge puddle of pop on it.
Chiyo ran as fast as she could to the bathroom to grab some paper towels but every one of the dispensers where empty, as a last ditch effort she grabbed a roll of toilet paper, and raced back to the stairs.
She quickly began unrolling wads of toilet paper and attempted to wipe up the mess, but it was no good, all it did was dissolve and made the mess bigger.
"This isn't going to work!" she said.
"How am I going to clean this up" she thought
Usually at times like these she would be able of think of some clever way to accomplish the task at hand, but this time she couldn't think of any thing she could do.
After a while of thinking, she went with the only solution she could think of.
"Well I guess it isn't that big of a mess, the janitor will clean it up" she thought.
Chiyo looked around to see if there were any witnesses, there wasn't any.
"If I leave now, no one will ever know it was me, I'll be Scott free" she thought.
She checked one more time to make sure no one was around, once again there wasn't, so she casually walked off.
As she walked away a blueish glow ascended from the base of the stairs and then followed Chiyo out of the school.
Later that night, Chiyo is in her room reading a book, until the lights suddenly cut out.
An angry voice shouted from behind.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
Startled, Chiyo looked behind her to find a glowing large man in a custodian uniform.
She jumped back in her chair.
"Who,..who, . . . who are you?! she screamed.
"Hey! Who the hell are you leaving a mess at the school!" the man snapped back.
"Huh? How did you know about that!" asked Chiyo.
"I was there, I saw everything!" said the man
"Who are you?!" she asked
"Read the tag" said the man as he was pointing at a patch above his shirt pocket.
She squinted her eyes to read the patch, it read Custodian in bold red print.
"You're the school custodian, how did you find me? did you follow me?!"
"I was the school custodian, now I'm a ghost" the man explained.
"What! My mess killed you!" cried Chiyo
"I'm sorry, I really, really am! Please forgive me, I didn't mean to kill anyone!" She cried.
"Huh? . . . no, no,. You didn't kill me, I was the custodian for your school a long time ago. I've been dead for about ten years now" he explained.
"Ten years now?"
"Yes this very night,.. At least this very night,.. Or maybe this very night a week from now, or maybe it was a month, . . . hold on a sec." Said the ghost as he pulled out a little packet planner.
"Lets see I died on the night of January,15 and today is, . . . " he mumbled to himself
He looked up from his book at Chiyo
"When was leap year?" he asked
Chiyo stared at the man blankly, too shocked to answer.
"Never mind,.. Look, every year I suppose to kill some kid who messes up the school on the anniversary of my death, but obviously I lost tract of time, so whatever, prepare to die kid" he said as he threw the planner off to the side.
"Your going to kill me?!" cried Chiyo
"Yeah pretty much! What did you think I meant when I said prepare to die? That I was going to bake cookies with you or something, come on!"
"Why do you have to kill me?"
"I just got done explaining it to you! Every year on the anniversary of my death I got to kill some one!" he explained again.
"Why do you have to?"
"Because its what I'm suppose to do, . . .it's my thing, . . . cuss I'm a ghost,.. Boo!" he said
Chiyo at this point was petrified but still wounding if she should take this guy seriously or not.
"So I take your done preparing, OK here comes the big finish, say good bye kid" he said as he pulled out a big wrench from his tool belt, and held it like a baseball bat.
The ghost swung his wrench like he was going to hit a fast ball.
"Wait!" shouted Chiyo as a last effort to save herself.
The ghost's wrench stopped just about a half an inch from Chiyo's head and he lowered it.
Chiyo opened her eyes to find that he didn't hit her
"What do you want?! and make it quick kid, I got other things to do!" said the ghost.
"Um,. Wh,.. Wha,.." stuttered Chiyo
"Out with it!" shouted the ghost.
"What if I clean up the mess I made?" she said.
"Oh sure now you think about cleaning it up! Look kid if you really cared you would have cleaned it up after it was made! All you care about now is saving your skin!"
"I tried to clean it up! I swear I did, but there wasn't any paper towels" Explained Chiyo.
"You didn't try hard enough. You gave up too easily! Not only that but you made it worse with the toilet paper, come on, even a complete idiot knows that toilet paper dissolves in liquid!" said the ghost
"I know, but I was too worried about cleaning it up I forgot!" Chiyo said in defense.
" So what do you do after that? You make sure nobody saw a thing and you ran off! And you put the current custodian in the same situation that took my life, didn't you!"
"Um. . . . Well. . ."
"Didn't you!" shouted the ghost.
"Yes! Its true! . . . I'm sorry!" Confessed Chiyo
"You thought you would get away unseen, but unfortunately for you I was a witness! And now you will pay for your crime! Good-bye Chiyo Mihama! It was nice knowin' ya!" shouted the ghost as he swung his wrench
"Wait!" shouted Chiyo
The ghost stopped his swing again.
"Christ's sake kid, what now?!" shouted the ghost.
"How do you know my name?" asked Chiyo
The ghost was getting tired of the questions.
"It doesn't matter kid! Just shut up already and let me do my job!" he shouted.
"No seriously I at least want to know that before you kill me" said Chiyo
"Fine, if I let you know will you shut up?" he asked.
"Ye,.. Yes!" she stuttered
"Ok, . . .lets see here,. Hmm,.." He said as he dug in his pockets.
After a few minutes of digging he pulled out a list.
"It's on this" he said as he handed the list to her.
The list read
things to do . . .
1.mess with the lights (check)
2. Move books around in the library (classic!) (check)
3. Scare those damn skateboarders off the grounds (check)
4. Do other ghostly things and what not (check)
5. Kill Chiyo Mihama for spilling pop on my stair case
4. Walk hallways alone for the rest of the night.
"Ok that answers your question. Good bye now, time to die!" said the ghost as he swung his wrench.
Chiyo looked at number four on the list and looked at the ghost
"Wait!" Chiyo shouted.
The ghost threw the wrench down on the ground, and grabbed his head in frustration.
"WHAT NOW! God can I just kill you already, so I can go on with my life?!" the ghost shouted.
Chiyo wasn't petrified anymore. She actually felt sorry for the ghost.
"It must be lonely being a ghost huh?" she asked
"Huh? ...What are you talking about, it kicks ass being a ghost!.. I mean,.. I,.. I get to screw with people,.. I don't have to work,.. It's,..It's,.. Just wonderful," said the ghost as he broke out crying.
"You have no idea what it's like! Every day is the same! Nobody talks to me, or even notices me! it's like I'm a ghost or something!" He bawled.
"But... you are a ghost" said Chiyo, A little confused.
"Oh yeah, . . . Don't rub it in!" shouted the ghost.
Suddenly the perfect idea clicked in Chiyo's head.
"If I help your soul rest will you promise not to kill me?" asked Chiyo
the ghost stopped crying and looked up at Chiyo.
"what kid? are you trying to play a sick joke on me?"
"no, I'm serious" said Chiyo.
the ghost could see it in her eyes, she was as serious as anything could be.
"You would do that,.. For me?" Asked the ghost.
"If you promise not to kill me" answered Chiyo.
The ghost sat quietly for a while.
"...ok . . . we have a deal" said the ghost as he held out his hand for a hand shake.
"Deal!" Said Chiyo as she shook his hand.
The ghost got up and said, "Ok but I have one more thing to do."
He picked up the wrench, and held it like he was about to swing it.
"Hey wait a second! You promised!" Said Chiyo.
"I know, and I'm not going to break that promise, this is just something I have to do, just trust me kid!" he said.
He swung his wrench at Chiyo
"Wait!" she shouted, but the ghost didn't stop this time.
Chiyo's body fell to the ghost's feet.
The ghost dropped his wrench and picked up Chiyo and cradled her in his arms,
"Trust me, . . . this is the only way you're safe kid." He said quietly.
They disappear into the night.
End of chapter one.
Yay!! I'm back in the fan fiction scene after a year of sitting idle!! Bust out the champagne!! Not only this is my first story within a year, but this is also my first Azu fic!!! I hope you enjoy, and please leave some feedback!!
What is the fate of Chiyo? Did the ghost really kill her? Find out in chapter 2 "The Unseen Society"
-bloo96