"Hello class. My name is Nakamori Aoko and I will be your homeroom teacher for this year." A 35 year old woman said to her class of teenagers. Several of them were eyeing the empty seat by the window enviously and she thought it best to go ahead and clear that up.
"I'm sure some have noticed the seat by the window doesn't have a name on it by now." She said, referring to the nametags she'd put on each desk. Carefully, she had sat friends by friends and loners in the back, just as they would've picked themselves so that no one would be tempted to ignore the clear assignments and sit in his seat. "Well, there is actually a reason for that."
"Aww, don't tell me that's a "Time Out" seat or something!" one of the girls said to her friend, but Aoko heard, nonetheless.
"Of course not, Namabuchi-kun." Aoko said. "Let me introduce my teacher aide, Kaito. Kaito, come up here please." She said and the class looked at her as if she were crazy. Suddenly, the empty desk chair scraped loudly across the linoleum. A book off a nearby desk was scooped up into the air and the pages ruffled through quickly.
"Hey, Aoko, we got new books this year!" he said, unheard by the rest of the class.
"Kaito, at least wait until after I explain to start up. Come on, just this once?" she said, exasperatedly.
The book landed back on the desk it had come from, the boy in the seat looking quite undone.
"Some of you may have heard this already, some of you might have not. This is class 2B, aka, the Haunted Classroom. Kaito is our resident trickster ghost and, to date, I and one little girl who passed through briefly on a dare, are the only to ones to ever be able to see or hear him. Though, if you like, he's more than able to prove he's here." Aoko said, grinning slightly.
The class looked at her in shocked silence. Finally, someone spoke up.
"You can prove it?" the boy asked.
"Of course. Though I'd advise the faint of heart to leave. Kaito's got a bad record of causing people to pass out on the first go. He likes to make an entrance." Aoko said and a couple of girls stood up and walked outside. "No one else? Okay then. Go on, Kaito."
"You sound so unexcited." He said, grinning and lifting the nearest desk, occupant and all, into the air.
"That's just because I know at least a couple of students are going to transfer out of my class after you get done with them." she said, sighing as he pulled the student from the desk and sat him on the ground before grabbing another desk, striping it of it's occupant and adding it on top of the other one. He continued the process with a detached air.
"Good riddance. Then we can be alone." He said, stretching the last word out suggestively.
"Kaito, I am over thirty years old and you, for all appearances, are a teenager. It's not happening." She said and the class simply watched as more and more of their classmates were pulled from their desks so that they could be added to what was looking like a Leaning Tower of Desks.
"I don't care, I'll wait for you, Aoko!" he said cheekily.
"Wait for what, Kaito? I'm not sticking around with you in this classroom for all eternity." She said, scowling in his direction.
"Then I'll just follow you then!" he said happily as he finished his tower.
"You left the other half of the class completely untouched." She pointed out and he grinned.
"Well, I can't add them to this, the classroom's too short. But I'll think of something." He said with a smirk.
"No property damage, Kaito! I mean it! That includes my students!" Aoko growled at him and he laughed.
"Right, right. How about this?" he said, dying one girl's hair purple and dropping another girl onto her desk.
"Change her hair back." Aoko said with little force and Kaito did as she said with a smile.
"Aren't you finished yet? Taku, what am I going to do with you?" Aoko said with a resigned air and Kaito frowned slightly before beginning to fix the classroom.
"That's precisely what I'm wondering, Aoko, you're getting old. Too old for all this. Don't you think you should move on? I'm trapped here for eternity, but you don't have to be. Go on and live your life, I won't hold it against you." Kaito said and Aoko frowned at him.
"I'll decide when I've had enough on my own, Kaito. Will you write your name on the board please? I'm going to get the ones out of the hall." She said and walked out.
Kaito sighed and began spelling out her name in katakana on the board. Underneath he introduced himself to the class as well. 'My name is Kuroba Kaito. I was killed in this classroom 28 years ago and haven't been able to leave since. I'm sorry none of you can see or hear me, but we can fix the seeing problem soon enough. I hope none of you will decide to transfer out of the class, I don't pull pranks very often, Aoko is a scary girl when she wants to be. I met her 18 years ago when she transferred here mid-semester. You're all very lucky to have her as your teacher.'
Kaito watched their eyes carefully as they read the information and when the last of them stopped moving from line to line, he erased all of it but the first sentence before Aoko came back in. After debating with himself for a moment, he added 'Yoroshiku.' Behind it as Aoko walked back through the door, reassuring the teenagers that Kaito wouldn't really hurt them, he was just fooling around.
After everyone was in their seats once again, Aoko walked to the front of the room and sat on top of her desk as she surveyed the classroom. "Okay, who wants to leave?"
None of the students raised their hands and Aoko beamed. "Really? None of you want to have a different classroom?" All hands stayed down and Kaito thought to himself that she looked happier than he'd seen her in a long time. "Great! Well, in that case, how about everyone introduces themselves and then we'll see if we can't make Kaito a little more visible for the rest of you, sound good?"
A young man in the front row volunteered to go first. "My name's Kudo Minoru. Yoroshiku."
Out of the corner of her eye, Aoko saw Kaito twitch at the name and look up.
The girl next to the boy stood up as he seated himself. "Kudo Minori." She said shyly before seating herself again quickly.
Kaito twitched again and moved closer to the two of them as the rest of the class began to give their names. "No way, Kudo had kids..." she heard him mummer as he approached their desks. Silently, he placed his hands on the boy's desk and leaned in closely to study his face. Then, without a sound to alert the two in question he moved on to the girl, who shivered as he scrutinized her face, but otherwise did not show signs of know he was there. "Mouri?" he whispered and Aoko barely heard it over the sound of her student's introductions.
"Is that everyone?" Aoko said after the room had fallen silent and she took the silence as a yes before moving on.
"Alright, Kaito, time to get dressed." She said and the students' eyes widened at her choice of words. Was he a naked ghost?
"Fine, fine, whatever." Kaito grumbled, good-naturedly and Aoko began to pull jackets and gloves out of a box in the corner, much to the students' relief as they finally got the picture. She handed them to Kaito, who put them on without much care, until nearly his entire body was covered. He probably looked ridiculous, like some invisible manikin wearing badly matching snow wear (Aoko snagged the stuff from the goodwill a couple of blocks down the street), but at least the students would know where he was now. He still couldn't believe Aoko went through with this every year.
"And that's it everyone! I know you guys still can't hear him, which makes does make it kind of awkward, having me sitting hear carrying on one side of a conversation, but I'm sure we can have a great year anyways. Besides, at least things won't be boring, right?"
"Want to know something interesting?" Kaito asked as Aoko tidied up the classroom after school.
"Sure." She said, sticking the broom in the closet.
"Those twins, the Kudos. I think they're the kids of one of my high school friends. He was a bit of a detective, he caught my murderer, you know?" Kaito said.
Aoko hoisted herself up on top of her desk. "Really? That's interesting, isn't it? That someone who you know has teenaged kids and they're in your classroom."
"Your classroom, actually, sensei." Kaito said cheekily. "I wonder what Kudo will say if his kids tell him there's a ghost in their class named Kuroba Kaito. He never believed in ghosts, you know. I mean, he really didn't believe in them. Got into a week long fight in middle with his best friend about it, because she most definitely did. It was pretty entertaining, actually. Good times."
"I bet." Aoko agreed noncommittally, staring out the window.
They sat in familiar silence for a long moment.
"She looked like you." Kaito said suddenly. "Kudo's best friend, Ran. She looked like you. Just about exactly. Her hair was neater and her face was a little sharper. But she looked like you." The apparition sighed. "She's probably all grown up by now. Her and Kudo probably got married and had those kids. They've probably had long and happy lives."
"Kaito?" Aoko said, wondering at the melancholy.
"Sorry, Aoko." Kaito cracked a smile for her. "I just….I'm never growing up, you know. You have to have realized there's nothing here for you, right? Even…even if you were to die, you probably wouldn't end up a ghost. You wouldn't haunt this classroom here with me. There's nothing here for you, Aoko, what are you doing here?" His voice was sad and lonely, even as he tried to drive her away for the billionth time.
Aoko smiled. "I'm fine where I am, thanks."
A slight breeze made the wind-chimes shake about, the bright ringing piercing the room as the orange glow of sunset settled around them.
"There's a whole life out there waiting for you. A big house and lots of kids and some guy who would take care of you and you could grow old together, you and that guy. You'd be happy like that, with those things." Kaito said. His voice did not come out as too fast like he thought it might when he started. He sounded reasonable this time.
Aoko hopped down off her desk and gave the ghost a hug that only she could give. He exhaled loudly before breathing in, lungs that he didn't need anymore filling with the scent of Aoko and wasn't it funny how she smelled like a teacher now? Like lemon scented cleaners and textbooks, new and old. He clutched at her while she was there, more desperate for physical touch than he'd ever thought he would be when he was alive. He took so many things for granted when he was alive.
"Thank you." He said softly, his face buried in the juncture of her neck.
"You're welcome." She said back just as quietly.
The wind-chimes sounded off again, the clear ringing in the room sounding a bit like starting over again. It always did.
Oh, yes, and I almost forgot about this. This has been sitting unfinished on my harddrive for a while now, so I finished it up real quick for you guys. Let me know what you think! (Also, now I have officially posted one story for every main couple in one night without purposely trying to do that, I might add. Go me!)