Thursday, after school
Muja's POV
As the doors closed behind Taro and his friend, Oka, Muja was left alone once again. She'd spent most of the day either daydreaming, or reading romance novels. She really needed someone to talk to. But, after the events in the morning, she wasn't sure if she didn't prefer to be alone in this school.
Thursday, before classes
After she came to school, a bit late, she stepped inside her office and saw two students inside. One of them was a girl, Oka Ruto, who was laying on one of the beds unconcious. She'd never learned the name of the boy who was sitting next to her. He stood up the moment she entered the room. He told her that his friend'd passed out and asked her to take care of her while she was asleep. She walked to her desk, in search of something that could help Oka. She still wasn't familiar with where the previous nurse kept everything. It was only her second day on the job, and the first patient. She didn't find anything useful, so she just wanted to examine the girl's potential injuries and decide what to do then. On her way, she slipped and started to fall. Suddenly, she could barely breathe. She felt a hand on the back of her uniform. She looked up to see the boy who cought her. His face had changed. A moment ago, he actually seemed nice, but right now she was scared of the deadly serious look in his eyes. He pulled her closer, a bit too close for comfort, and told her that if anything bad happened to the girl, she would regret it. She was smart enough to realize that it was a threat. And all of it for one girl who wasn't even concious to know what happened?
He let go of her and she lost her balance. The fall hurt. He didn't care about her a single bit. Only about this one girl. What was so special about her? Without a word, he left. Should she tell the rest of the faculty about what happened...? No, it wasn't that important. She stood up, and walked up to the girl.
She was afraid of doing anything to her and potentially hurting her, so she just checked if she was breathing and looked at her closely. She seemed to be fine. She didn't have any visible wounds, either.
The girl was wearing dark armwarmers and high stockings, that covered her whole arms and the majority of her legs. She decided to take off the armwarmers to check for injuries. She gasped aloud when she saw the girl's arms. They were both covered in symetrical, bruise-like black marks that started about ten centimeters above her elbows and ended on her wrist. What could have happened to her? She'd never seen something like this. Were those marks made today? Did they have anything to do with her passing out? Did the boy know about them? And, more importantly, did he have anything to do with them? These were all important questions, but ones she didn't know the answers to.
She put the armwarmers back on, and, deciding there was really nothing she could do, walked back to her desk.
Thursday, lunchtime
She was alone until lunchtime. She didn't leave her office, wanting to keep an eye on the girl. She was sitting by her desk when another boy came inside. His eyes landed on her immidiately when he entered.
He asked her about the girl who passed out. It surprised her. First of all, he didn't seem to know extacly what happened to her. So that meant he didn't know the boy she'd met in the morning. Interesting. She was curious what was going on beetween those three. She politely answered his question and walked up to him.
Why did this have to happen again? She fell again. She shut her eyes, afraid of the boy's reaction. She fell onto the ground, but it wasn't painful. She felt him under her.
Muja opened her eyes. Thankfully, the boy didn't seem to be bothered by her clumsiness. She was glad some people in this school were more forgiving than others. She asked him what was him name, and introduced herself. It was quite an awkward way of meeting someone, but once again, she was glad she'd actually met somebody nice.
They got up, and chatted for a while. Taro, as that was his name, asked her about the girl's condition. He also told her her name – Oka. It was great to actually talk to someone, and not sit in her office alone all day.
He was actually quite charming.
Thursday, after school
She blushed a light shade of pink, thinking about Taro. She'd never actually had a boyfriend, everyone was always so annoyed with her. She had no idea why. Maybe everyone in the world was just mean for no reason, Taro being the only exception. Or maybe he found her attractive in some way. Well, she would probably never even know because now she would probably never see him again. He didn't have a reason to come to her anymore. She let out a long sigh as she looked out of the window again, looking at the sky above the school It was such a nice day.
Oka's POV
She was slowly walking towards the Occult Club, dragging her feet even though she didn't want to.
But, although she didn't want to come back to her club, she felt slightly more confident. She felt stronger. After what happened to her this morning, facing her club didn't seem scary at all. She survived an attack of a demonic force and lived to tell about it. She didn't think anyone else in the club could say so as well.
She opened the door. Everyone was inside already. Supana raised her head from the book she was reading and looked at her. She seemed surprised at first, but then she smiled. She was happy that Oka was back..? She didn't expect a reaction like this. But it was really heartwarming, knowing she'd actually missed her. Maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe she'd just overreacted. But then she turned her head towards Shin.
She realized he was looking at her since she'd entered the room. It made her slightly uncomfortable. But the way he was looking at her was... different. Why was it? She tried to recall anything that could'd changed his mind about her since Tuesday. She still couldn't find an explaination.
She looked forward again and continued to walk to the centre of the room. She was almost there when he stood up, suddenly. She froze momenteraly, and looked back at him. He walked to her, never breaking their eye contact. She was standing still, waiting.
He grabbed her arm more gently than she would'd expected him to, and led her outside. It seemed like he had something important to tell her. He quickly shut the door behind them and stopped in the hallway leading to the northern exit of the school. He quickly glanced to his right, and before she knew it, she had her back pressed against the wall behind her. She looked up at Shin, who was standing in front of her, around half a meter away from her. The air seemed as cold as ice.
"What the hell happened to you?" he snapped. He had his hands on the wall next to her, preventing her from escaping. Why did he ask her that? And what extacly did he want to know? She knew there was no way out of this other than trelling him the truth. She swallowed, and opened her mouth to speak.
Shin's POV
He knew he was being too aggressive, but he had to know the truth. He hated not knowing what happened to her. What if this happened again and he had no idea why, or how? She either told him the truth, or... he wasn't sure what he would do. He would have to convince her. There was no way she was getting out of school now without telling him what happened.
He watched her face as she was preparing to talk. It must had been hard for her, which wasn't surprising. Whatever happened, it definetely wasn't something she was eager to share. But he really needed her to trust him. For her own good. Maybe he could help her. She had to understand that her life was more important than her feelings.
"I... I had... a vision..." she said. She was afraid. He could hear it in her voice. He didn't want her to be afraid of him. So he just waited for her to say something more.
Oka's POV
He didn't respond, so she assumed she had to tell him more. But what would she tell him? That demonic hands attacked her and ripped her into bloody pieces? That she was shown the murders of twelve girls? That she suddenly saw everyone's auras?
The one positive thing about this situation was that Shin would most likely believe her. Maybe... she could trust him this one time. It wasn't like she had a choice. She looked at him again, and said:
"I saw... so much death..." she said, barely able to spit it out. Partially because of the memories of y the horrible deaths that she'd seen, but mostly because of who she was speaking to. She had to tell him. At least he had to know. "Murders comiited in cold blood". Her hands were twitching. "All of them in this school" She stopped, she wouldn't say anything else. She waited for Shin's response.
He froze after hearing what she'd said. It was the first time she'd seen him genuinely shocked. She wouldn't believe it at first, too. But she saw it herself, and she knew what she saw was true.
"When... did it happen?" he finally asked her. She wasn't sure when did her visions take place. The only victim she could recognize was Kokona Haruka. Poor Kokona...
"I have no idea" she said, honestly. "Most of them seemed like decades ago, but the last one..." she took a deep breath and looked around, to ensure nobody would hear what she was about to say.
"I saw Kokona Haruka's murder. Last Friday" she said, lowering her voice almost to a whisper. "And the murderer is still here"
"Did you see their face?" he asked. Any normal person would express some kind of emotion, or be more surprised. But she knew they both weren't normal. Instead, he got straight to the point.
Shin's POV
It was almost too much to learn so quickly. A student killed another student at their school, and nobody except them seemed to know about it. It there was a killer in the school with them, they had to find them and stop them as fast as they could, before they hurt anyone else. Who knows who their next target is? The thought terryfied him. What if they wanted to kill Oka? No, they had to be stopped, RIGHT. NOW.
"No, it was just... darkness. But... they seemed like a girl, maybe a little younger than us" it wasn't very precise, but it still limited the amount of suspects. Finding the killer was his top priority, of course, but he still had no idea what happened to Oka before her vision in the morning. It was the reason he approached her in the first place.
"And what extacly happened before your vision?"
Oka's POV
She knew he would ask her that eventually. But she wasn't prepared to answer him at all. How should she start? She looked at him, and it was clear that she didn't want to tell him. But she had to. It was the right thing to do.
"I... I saw... a ghost... in the girl's bathroom on the third floor" she finally said. She decided to skip the portion of her vision when she saw the student's auras, and when she suddenly felt... powerfull.
"I don't know what it was, but it started walking towards me, and I couldn't move at all. Then somehow I found myself on the first floor"
She stopped. It was the hard part. The painful one.
"I-I... it..." she tried to talk, but the words wouldn't come out of her mouth. She was too afraid to tell him. She wouldn't even tell Taro about it, it was a miracle she managed to last so long. She hid her face in her hands and felt her knees weaken. She went back as much as she could, before she had her back pressed against the wall, and tried to breathe. It was too much to handle. She couldn't survive at this school. Not like this.
Shin's POV
He wasn't prepared for Oka's reaction. When she paniced, he took a step back. What should he do?
He didn't want to make her more anxious than she already was.
"If you can't tell me, you don't have to" he said. It was at least unusual for him to act like this... to back down. But the situation was unusual too, and he had no other choice.
She looked up at him, surprised by his reaction.
"It... it was.. so horrible..." she whispered softly. He wished he could help her somehow, but he couldn't. And he didn't think she told Taro about any of this.
He reminded himself once more to keep a safe distance beetween them. It wouldn't be hard for him to forget how much she wanted to stay as far away from him as possible. Yet... she came here, and she seemingly didn't have to. Unless she was hiding something from him.
Oka's POV
Silence followed her words. Her back was no longer against the wall, and she was slightly more comfortable.
Then she recalled what she was wondering about previously. She looked at Shin. He clearly knew about her passing out, but how did he learn about it? Then the horrible possibility hit her. Did he find her? Unconcious and defenceless..? Did he bring her to the nurse then? What really happened when she was asleep? She was afraid to ask him, but she was even more afraid of not knowing what happened to her.
"Were you..." she forced herself to talk. It wasn't easy at all. But she had to. She knew that once the words were out of her mouth, it would be over. She just had to spit it out. She had to. "were you the one who found me?"
Shin's POV
She knew. How did she know that? Was it just a guess? Or was she suspecting something..? He had no choice but to tell her the truth. She already hated him, so why was he so hesitant to to tell her?
Oka's POV
When she heard what she just said, she froze in fear. Shin took a step back.
At that moment, she realized what she did. She caught him off guard. She saw, even if for a moment, what he was really like, beneath all his walls, his masks. She broke his defences. He was so much like her. Afraid and insecure. He was pretending all the time, because he didn't want to be hurt like she was. She never realized why he acted like he did, but now she understood. And it was a fascinating discovery.
They were standing in silence, both too schocked to say anything. Finally, he said:
"I.. I was" it was the first time she'd ever heard him stutter. He looked away from her. She didn't know what to do, so she crossed her arms.
She forgot about the pain. She hissed.
Shin's POV
He looked at Oka again. What was wrong?
"Are you hurt?' he asked her. He didn't care if she hated him or not.
She looked back at him with slight surprise. Of course, she wasn't used to him acting like this.
"Oh, it's...I'm not sure what happened to me" she said. "My arms hurt since the vision. I don't know why"
He stepped a bit closer for the first time, and reached out to her. Before he could touch her, however, he stopped. He had no right to lay his hands on her, and she would be right to resist.
"Can I...?" he asked her, hesitantly. They were both motionless for a moment before she replied.
Oka's POV
He stopped before his hand could reach hers. She was surprised at first. He was asking her for permission only to briefly touch her skin. It seemed reasonable, after all, a few hours earlier she would try to avoid talking to him at all.
She could say no, but she didn't. Instead, she nodded in silence and raised her hands.
He grabbed the edge of one of her armwarmers. She felt the soft fabric slowly slip off. She wasn't used to having the skin of her amrs bare. It felt cold, but also more natural in a way.
She looked down at her amrs. She barely kept herself from gasping out loud.
Her whole arms were covered with black marks. Marks made of what the hands were made of. Whatever touched them hurt like the hands' touch. She hoped they would fade after sometime, but for now, she would have to live with them. As she kept staring at them, she realized that they looked a lot like claw marks.
She felt violated. She knew that they were all nothing compared to the unknown powers from the other world. They could play with her, she was merely a toy in their hands. It terrifiyed her, she always hoped that she could stop the dark magic from affecting her. But she was wrong. And she could see it clearly. The proof was covering her skin. She looked a bit closer. The marks seemed toform some sort of letters...
"T...r..." she started reading, slowly recognizing the signs. The language was ancient, but they all knew it at least a little. Shin looked at the signs alongside her, and read:
"TRAITOR" they looked at eachother, horrified. She remembered the dream she had two days before. The voice. It had to be him. The one controlling all of it. What was he, and why was she his target? She betrayed him. But how? What did she do wrong? Why did all this weight had to be put on her shoulders?
"Who did I betray?" she said, partially to herself. "What...?"
Before she could finish, pain ripped her skull apart. She whimpered softly. She recognized this... feeling. She opened her eyes. She saw a dark figure before her. She jumped back and her back hit the wall painfully. She lowered her head and closed her eyes. Her eyes were hurting now, and her heartbeat felt like it couldn't last for much longer. She was panting.
She opened her eyes once more and saw that everything was normal again. She was going crazy. If this continued, she would very soon lose her mind. Was this the point? To break her? Whatever the intention, it was working. She could already tell.
Shin was standing before her, and looking at her, shocked. He saw everything. She should really tell him the truth.
Wait... the truth... she saw everyone's auras. His, too. And it was pitch black.
"I saw... your aura" she said, finally. As he stepped closer, she lowered her voice to a haunting whisper. "It's black as night"
Shin's POV
She was lying, wasn't she? She had to be.
But he knew she was being honest. No one in the Occult Club would dare to make fun of something this serious. Why, though? What had he done to have such a dark aura..? Well, they didn't know for sure what extacly was affecting the auras, but they all knew a black aura meant nothing good. What if Oka decided he can't be a part of the club anymore? What would he do then?
In that moment they both realized they couldn't afford to have even more darkness in their club than they already did. They had no idea what kind of effects could a black aura have on a person and their surroundings, but combined with the incredible amount of power they could barely contain in the school, it had to manifest somehow. These two together were like a ticking bomb that could go off any moment, with terrible consequences.
"I should quit... " he said, and he felt that it was the right thing to do. Oka frowned.
Oka's POV
How could he even think about leaving the club? Without him, it wasn't the same club anymore. No, he couldn't leave them. Not when they had possibly their most dangerous mystery to life, and the lives of so many other students depended on them. She couldn't afford to lose any members now. She shook her head and took a single, confident step forward.
"No. You can't quit now." she said. It felt wrong, telling others what to do, but she was the leader and she knew the most about their research.
Shin took a few steps back and looked at her closely for a moment, without a word.
Shin's POV
She said he couldn't quit now. What did she mean by that? Did she have some plans for the club she didn't want to share with him?
Or maybe... she needed a replacement.
He already knew she wanted to leave the club, but was afraid of doing so. Maybe now she finally gained the courage to tell him? He didn't want to make it harder for her.
"If you want to leave the club..." he started, barely believing he actually managed to say it. "I will not stop you"
Silence followed. Oka was either considering her options, or was simply surprised.
Oka's POV
She shook her head.
"No, no that's not what I meant!" she said, slightly paniced.
How did he come to such a conclusion? Oh. She knew how. He always seemed to know what was she doing since Monday. She should'd asked him about it now, but the atmosphere seemed way too tense. She was too scared to make things worse beetween them to ask him.
"Well..." she said, knowing that whatever they had to say to eachother was said already. And she surely didn't want this conversation to drag on longer than it had to. "We better head inside. It's getting late"
She turned towards the Occult Club and reached out for the door handle when she heard Shin's voice from a few meters behind her.
"Oka... wait..." she turned around immidiately. They never adressed eachother by their names. It was always just 'you'. And it might had been the first time she'd ever heard him say her name.
"... yes?" she asked him, and they were looking at eachother without a word for a moment. Suddenly, he looked down and muttered:
"...Nevermind"
She knew there was more to it than that. Whatever he wanted to say was important, and she wanted to know. But she couldn't force him to tell her. One thing about Shin she'd learned over the time they knew eachother was that if he wanted to hide something, she would never learn the truth unless he told her himself. So it wasn't surprising she didn't really know that much about him. He was also incredibly stubborn. Maybe, when the time is right, he'd eventually tell her. She had a feeling she wouldn't have to wait very long. And she never doubted her 'feelings'.
She pushed the door open and greeted everyone inside. They were more confused than angry about her absense. She felt... welcome. She felt home again.
Shin's POV
Why didn't he tell her when he had a chance? He hated himself so much. But when she turned around and looked at him with those dark, purple eyes, he couldn't find the strenth to tell her. He watched as she took her place in the middle of the room. He would tell her sometime. It just wasn't the right time and place.
'Someday, Oka...' he promised her.