Chapter Two - First Hate.

POV: Chara l Location: The School Cafeteria l The next week.

She was good, but whatever emptiness that once filled her SOUL was gone, as they distanced, she became harder to detect, but whenever she was close, her SOUL lit up like a bonfire.

Only Chara could see things like this, and it was getting annoying. She was following him almost everywhere now, trying to be sneaky about it, not to avoid giving credit where credit is due, she was good at evasion, but Chara by now had gotten a little better at sensing her nearly empty SOUL, it was harder and required a willed effort, but it could be done.

He was very observant too, some classmates have noticed this so apparent dance between Ayano and Chara lately, but have tried to keep to themselves about it.

He groaned in annoyance as he chomped down on a chocolate bar he got from a vending machine, not because of anything wrong with the chocolate, it was divine.

But there was Ayano, sitting across the hall, clearly eating the exact same thing he was. Chara has never been stalked before, and it's annoying, not that he'll confront her on it, because what's the point, he'll be back in Idaho in a month.

Chara shrugged it off and took a look around, two upperclassmen, Osana and Taro, had apparently gotten together. It confused Chara a little, Osana always berated Taro whenever he saw them together, Chara chuckled and whispered to himself "Tsundere, figures."

Finishing Lunch and as the next class came, Chara was annoyed yet again. The seats were being reshuffled and as fate would have it, Ayano was now right behind him, at least he had a window view now though.

The look on Ayano's face when she entered, as well as some strange vibe from her SOUL. Chara couldn't help but wonder, did she orchestrate this somehow? That would be taking it up a notch, but again, he didn't care, one more month and then he'd be back in the only place he remotely considers home. Chara despite being bored and somewhat socially distant from the rest of the school, did get remarkable grades, in fact if not for his social awkwardness, he'd probably be classed as an Overachiever, which is what most of the popular kids in Japan could be classed as. To be honest, it was one of the things he liked about this country, intelligence was valued over brute strength, not that Chara was a weakling mind you, he was more than able to hold his own against the top athletic students, the only real inhibitor to his social interactions was his own despising of pretty much everyone around him. Even the so called overachievers were so focused on themselves, , them, I, me. Sure a few had less of an ego, a focus on working with other people, but always for the sake of a goal that benefited themselves. Chara could see past the veiled friendliness of most. He's learned to read a person's expression quite well.

There is admittedly some bias of course, but it didn't matter, most humans were the same, Chara had yet to meet any real exception to that rule and he wasn't going to waste any effort trying.

POV: Aishi Ayano

She never had an opinion on any particular food before, only eating to avoid an emaciated appearance. But now, since Chara clearly had a thing for chocolate, it seems Ayano did too.

After finishing lunch, she resumed her cautious stalking of Chara, he occasionally glanced over at her, was he suspicious or was perhaps their interest mutual?

She debated just simply walking up and confessing to him, of course there was the legend of the cherry blossom tree, but if he felt the same, was it really necessary? She sighed as she walked towards class, wondering what to do, which was the safer decision to make him hers, patience, or bravery?

She kept to herself during class, after which however, something happened. Something that made her once again, feel fear.

POV: Chara

Another school attendee had approached Chara, looking for new members for her club, the Occult Club. Almost as soon as Chara was out the door, there was her striking up a conversation.

Oka Ruto, or Ruto Oka, depending on whether you prefer an eastern or western naming structure.

Oka was apparently absent for some time from school but Chara never bothered to learn why, she apparently had returned. Chara was bored, Ayano was watching, so he had a thought.

The perfect revenge for this little stalker, maybe if he joined this girl's club and spent some time with her, either Ayano would lose hope and bugger off or at least feel some negative emotion, which would be payback for stalking him.

Oka invited Chara to her school clubroom when he had time and Chara agreed, she seemed strangely interested in him, it was rather sudden, they had only just met. He could feel something off with Oka's soul, but it was different than the situation with Ayano, her SOUL wasn't tethered to his but rather, it simply increased in determination in his presence.

Now that he thought about it, Ayano's presence annoyed Chara more than usual lately, he felt it took just a little bit longer to be motivated, though not in any capacity that was increasing or decreasing. Was she somehow leeching determination from him? Was she even conscious of it?

POV: Unknown - Occult Clubroom

Chara followed Oka and Ayano followed Chara, he entered the occult clubroom and eventually, so did Ayano, both apparently interested, or feigning interest in the club.

Chara wanted payback for Ayano's stalking.

Ayano wanted an excuse to be near Chara, and also to learn more about this Oka girl's interest in him, if she was a threat, and find out the best way to deal with that threat, by any means necessary.

Oka herself found it strange that she was so suddenly smitten by Chara just by being near him, she wondered if something supernatural was at work here, so in the interests of both her feelings and her interest in the occult, she wanted to learn more, maybe this was the proof she was searching for. If not for coming across that book in the library regarding Mt. Ebbot, she would have been away for longer, but she had, at a price of self-humiliation, traded with Info-Chan for information, which led her to learn that Chara was previously a resident of Ebbot Village and would be moving back in a month, or longer if delays occurred.

She expected him to have some information about the myths and legends of Monsterkind, many culture of course had their own tales of monsters, but oddly, she had been digging up articles in her occult research pointing to similarities in all cultures, from North America, to Africa, to Japan. All have tales of a goat monster king who ruled during some mythological war between humans and monsters, the legends state that the conflict eventually cornered the monsters to a mountain, Mt. Ebbot specifically, and seven mages sealed the monsters under there.

She brought this up with Chara as he looked about in the clubroom, scoffing at some things he looked at.

Now she felt insulted, just like everyone else who laughed at her, but she was used to it, she spoke up.

"It, really is real. Souls, ghosts, spirits. I will prove it one day." said Oka, Chara, knowing Ayano was within earshot, though talking with another club member, spoke, saying "Oh don't get me wrong. I know for a fact that SOULs exist, it's just. The Ebbot Library had more up to date information than this stuff. Most of this is just hoaxes, hearsay and wishful thinking." Oka's fascination exploded, her usual reclusiveness replaced with a bombardment of questions and inquisitiveness, she spoke, saying "Wha, What do you know? Have you seen a SOUL? What's in the Ebbot Library? What do you know about the Monsters of legend? What about Mt. Ebbot and the Barrier? Are they real?"

Chara sighed and rose up his index finger to stop her chattering, this physical contact angered Ayano, but she kept her cool more or less. It's not like he was going to kiss her or anything. Right? That thought terrified her, but she knew it wouldn't make sense in the context.

Chara then said "First of all, slow down." he then removed his finger from Oka's lips.

"Second of all, I haven't seen a SOUL, but I've read up on what was in the Ebbot Library." he lied, he's seen souls, if he focused his power, he could even see Oka's soul. He was curious and did so, thankfully, Oka didn't notice the slight increase in the starkness of Chara's crimson red eyes.

Purple, the trait of Perseverance.

Chara resumed speaking, saying "From what I remember. SOULs are, believe it or not, shaped like the anatomically incorrect portrayal of a heart, they have colors based on the dominant traits. Red for Determination, Blue for Integrity, Cyan for Patience, Orange for Bravery, Yellow for Justice, Green for Kindness, Purple for Perseverance, Black for Hate and Pink for Fear. Although admittedly Hateful and Fearful souls are extremely rare, so there may be some variation or inaccuracy as to their trait colors, though black would make sense for a hate..ful, soul..." he found himself slowing down briefly, noticing something, Ayano's SOUL, which had been leeching his Determination and thus was normally Red in his presence, had turned Black, but her face didn't show it. He made a glance at her briefly, which made Oka suspicious and confused at the same time.

Chara's done it now, he screwed up. He was normally so careful as to not give any hint that he can see souls.

Oka was also now feeling slightly jealous, why was Chara staring at this girl? Did he think she was so pretty that he'd stop talking in the middle of a conversation, the look on his face was of surprise and shock. She spoke up, saying "Is something wrong?" Chara realized what he'd just done, though Oka probably wouldn't make a guess that he can see souls, this might have interfered with his plan to shake Ayano from his trail, but with that pitch black SOUL of Ayano's, Chara knew his plan had backfired, so the book was right with hateful souls.

"Sorry, lost my train of thought. Anyway, as for the monsters, there's not much information that survived those times, it was so long ago that nobody knows for certain how long ago it truly was. Certain kingdoms are mentioned but none of their names are recognized and they're supposedly in the proximity of Idaho, which would either mean it's outright fiction or everything we know about North American history before the arrival of Europeans is wrong." said Chara, shifting the interest of the conversation away from his slip up, Oka's fascination with the occult and supernatural thankfully, made it work.

The rest of the time was spent idly talking about various things, Oka straight up invited him into the club, to which Chara said he'd think about it.

Indeed he would think about it, seeing Ayano's SOUL turn hateful was one thing, but he could also faintly feel it radiate that hate.

It wasn't entirely unpleasant though, it was like he was being reminded of something deep within him, that existed there before, and had just felt someone else have similar feelings.

As he left the clubroom, of course, Ayano cleverly followed, her hate was slowly diminishing, but it wasn't gone for good.

For Ayano, she had just found a Rival.

To be continued...