Chapter Four - Incident.
POV: Unknown l The Next Week.
Spending a decent amount of time in the Occult Club, Chara and Ayano had learned a few interesting things by piecing together information they knew and making some theories. Whilst Ayano no longer considered Oka Rudo a threat, she did at times question Chara's decision to remain in the Occult Club, with Chara explaining that there was something off about the place, he was bored, and had nothing else to do. A sufficient explanation for Ayano, her own curiosity was piqued about this club. Although Oka felt heartbroken regarding Chara's rejection of her feelings before she even had a chance to confess them, having learned about Chara's speech from her friend, she still had a greater desire to learn more about Chara's apparent supernatural link, that being that she still believed the only reason she was so smitten with him off the bat was the causation of supernatural incidents, Oka was determined to prove that the Supernatural existed, and this both interested, and concerned Chara.
As the days went by, Chara kept his agreement with Ayano, spending more time with her as a friend would, although Ayano is extremely clingy, he understood, given now he knew the situation regarding her feelings, which were most likely connected to her unusual SOUL that seemed to only be able to generate determination by leeching it off of Chara. Perhaps if Chara could learn more about this, he could discover a way for Ayano to control this trait and go bother someone else, being able to leech determination off of anyone else would be an advantage for her as she could have a normal life, Chara did not keep these theories to himself, throughout the lunch periods and their free time afterschool, he discussed his theories with Ayano, which also gave her a degree of hope. She truly didn't care how or why, as long as she never lost the ability to feel normal again. Ayano of course was always trying to convince Chara to stay over at her house every day, but Chara's home situation differed from Ayanos, which caused Ayano to resent Chara's parents in being too controlling. Whilst killing them would likely displease Chara, she considered other options and at times, painfully pulled herself away from Chara so she could consult Info-Chan in secret, she hated it and it took some time to be able to do this, but it was beneficial for her long term acquisition of Chara. She of course did hope Chara's plan would succeed and she would no longer need any specific individual to feel, but until that happened, she would operate under the assumption that Chara, and only Chara, can complete her.
In her time away from Chara at home, Ayano had discovered various recordings in the basement of her home, revealing that her mother not only understood her, but truly was like her in the past and had gone down a darker path to achieve her goals. Whilst Ayano didn't really care about what her mother had to go through to stay with her father, Ayano did hope such exertion was not necessary to gain Chara, but at least she now had an assurance that her mother would not only understand, but support any decision Ayano made to keep Chara around, though Ayano also understood her father's situation a little better and there was a hint of pity in her SOUL, though she sighed, recognizing that, in the end, it's not really his choice, nor Chara's.
A few days before the present, Chara and Ayano began to notice something off about the Occult Club. Chara noticed the presence of two entities around the school grounds, but couldn't pinpoint them or give them a description beyond the feeling of hunger and desire, whereas Ayano had been tailing Oka occasionally, whilst she didn't need to do anything unholy, apparently Miss Rudo had less concerns, digging up all kinds of occultist practices, spurred on by Chara's explanations of SOULs based on information supposedly acquired from Ebbot Village's Library in the past.
It had of course, been mostly dismissed by Chara, until he began to sense a stronger presence of one of the two disembodied entities. Other members of the Club were also becoming more reclusive, distanced, whenever Chara or Ayano questioned them on this, they were reluctant to speak and obviously withheld information, whatever was going on, Oka Rudo had clearly exerted some influence on them. Then one day, both Ayano and Chara were requested to come to the Club during the After-School Hours.
Present Time. l POV: Unknown
Chara could feel something wrong with the atmosphere of the school today, he couldn't explain it fully, but people seemed to be on edge, fearful. Nothing bad had happened like a student attacking someone or hurting themselves, everyone just seemed unexplainedably over-cautious, even the delinquents with their supposed fearless attitude were showing signs of fear.
Upon reaching the Occult Clubroom, the members were arranged around the pentagram rug, with Oka Rudo at a podium with a book, Chara sighed and Ayano was confused, when a club member shut the door behind them, causing alarm.
Chara sighed and said with a mocking attitude "Let me guess. You're so obsessed with me and can't handle rejection so you're going to try some half-assed demonic ritual to make me love you or else?"
Oka Rudo sighed and replied "No, I can handle rejection. But I do want payback, and I was planning on doing this anyway, but since you scorned me, you shall be the subject of my wrath. But I'll let you have a choice. You can either be the sacrifice to raise the demon so I can prove once and for all the supernatural exists, or Ayano can be the sacrifice. Please don't try to run, we have knives, you do not."
Chara and Ayano noticed the knives around them and Ayano once again, felt fear, fear of losing Chara, she looked at him and said "I'm not going down without a fight, but if we can't win, please Chara. Let my life save yours. I can't live without you, you know why..."
Chara looked over at Oka, who said "Then go ahead and fight, I'll still let you choose if you fail."
Chara sighed and said "You're not the first crazy person I've dealt with Rudo-san. 3 years ago, someone tried to perform an ancient ritual to break the barrier, wanting revenge on the village for something they did to wrong them. I was supposed to be a human sacrifice back then, well, let's just say not only did his ritual turn out to be a load of crap, but I'm clearly still standing, he however, is six feet under. I'll be nice and give you a chance to surrender, you've clearly got some kind of hold on your classmates, it's affecting the atmosphere of the school too. Don't do this, and live. Or be a bitch and get killed for it."
Ayano was shocked based on her expression, she clearly did not expect Chara to be so nonchalant about threatening someone with death. But it didn't matter, she would stand by his side, no matter what.
Oka Rudo cocked her head to the right slightly and put a finger on her chin, thinking, then saying "Crazy? After everything you've told me, I was able to make a few adjustments to the ritual. You believe in the supernatural too do you not? Why else would you join the club? Unless you just wanted to make fun of us. Feigning interest. No, you know too much, so many things make sense now. If I'm correct, not all monsters were sealed away in the underground, a few hid on the surface, including creatures most humans would call demons. I need a sacrifice to bind the creature's will to my own, not to summon it. Seize them and bring them before the pentagram!"
Chara sighed and said to Ayano "How good are you at fighting?" Ayano shrugged and said "Well, I'm not exactly an expert, but my mother taught me a few things." The others approached them, holding out knives.
Chara grinned and his eyes glowed red for all in the clubroom to see, saying "I've been feeling something was off about this place for a while now. Aishi-senpai, if you can, do avoid killing anyone if you can. Although even if we're forced to kill, we can always claim self defense.".
One of the occultists attempted to grab Chara, who displayed almost unnatural agility, swiftly disarming the occultist and taking the knife from their hands, then sending a firm kick between their legs, sending them rolling on the floor, screaming and crying. Ayano wasn't as skilled at fighting, but was able to keep her distance from the strangely subservient club members that tried to subdue her, Chara moved swiftly, deflecting or blocking with his knife, clearly having abnormal experience with combat for someone his age, despite intending to preserve their lives as he believed they were somehow being controlled supernaturally, he activated the battlespace, and it became clear. All the club members, save for Ayano and Chara, had mysterious crimson red tethers connecting their SOULs to Oka Rudo, who herself had tethers connected to the points of the pentagram, she had to power to summon whatever she was going to right now, likely she just needed a dying human to complete some part of the ritual that was either for some other purpose, or just a misinformed aspect of the ritual that wasn't really necessary. The battlespace made Oka Rudo a bit dumbfounded at first, the scenery had changed considerably, the walls were replaced with white and green grid outlines, Chara's movements seemed to distort slightly, as if he could temporarily speed himself up, or perhaps more accurately, slow everything else down.
Suddenly, as Chara quickly disarmed several students, he could sense the crimson strings connecting Rudo to the flooring shift color to white from red. Rudo stopped speaking and the white coloring spread throughout the strings.
Chara looked over at Ayano who was being backed into a corner and sighed, quickly darting back and disarming two students near her, saying "After this is over, we should probably have a discussion about your fighting skills. A damsel in distress persona doesn't suit you and would make this whole arrangement of ours even more annoying."
Ayano glared at him briefly before nodding. It's true her mother taught her some things, but Chara was on a different level, superhuman, he's managed to conceal it well, she wondered how and why he achieved this level of ability, additionally she knew she had to reach it if not surpass it, with that much power, he would never be able to separate from her.
Chara looked towards Rudo, whose eyes had turned black, as if filled with ink, her SOUL looked like it was fighting a tug of war with whatever force was manipulating it, Chara looked down at the pentagram and saw a white SOUL rise, he rushed forward, Ayano was about to protest his rapid movement, but everything else faded away, it was just Chara and that creature, in the shape of a reptilian, 4 more SOULs formed around it, none of them from the school, they felt as if they had been absorbed long ago.
The Monster shouted "I'm finally free. You have no idea how irritating it was to manipulate a human SOUL without absorbing it."
A slash interrupted the monster, it took damage, considerable damage, from Chara, who lept back to avoid a counterattack from the lizard monster's tail.
Chara spoke, saying "So I take it you're the force behind all this. I wasn't sure monsters even existed, but it looks like you've proven they do. What's your motivation? Revenge? A lust for power?" The monster slashed with it's left claw only for Chara to evade the attack, the monster then formed several fireballs of white color to flail about in snowflake like patterns, Chara was able to evade them, though took damage from two hits. The monster then said "I just simply wish to free my brothers and sisters. To do this, I need power, long ago I made an attempt, I failed and was bound to this place, which you humans thought it was a wise thing to build a school atop these grounds. Seriously, do you not keep track of the past?" Chara shrugged and said "Probably not too well. We've mostly forgotten monsters even exist."
The Monster didn't attack again, instead conversing with Chara, with a curious tone of voice and a casual attitude, saying "Seriously? What about all the books my puppet delved into?" Chara shrugged, not attacking, instead talking and saying "They're considered fringe and fictional at best. Not many people believe them, most of them are BS actually, how much do you know about humans?"
The monster relaxed a bit, saying "Not much, only that you're all evil powerhungry entities with an intent to exterminate my people from existence. What little I've learned of your existing society was from the Occult Club President's point of view, she doesn't hold a very high opinion of her own race and was easily manipulated due to her lack of familiarity with SOULs, you however. I tried to connect to you a while ago, I sensed you were stronger, but your determination was greater than my own, I can't exert too much or I'll melt."
Chara put a finger to his chin and made a thoughtful expression before saying "So, all you want to do is free monsterkind right? You do realize there are billions of humans on the surface, we aren't united, but we would in the face of a non-human invasion. Do you think there are enough of you to deal with that?"
The monster was silent, rethinking their entire plan, before then saying "You know, I never really thought that part through... I mean, these souls I took long ago were powerful yes, but compared to potentially billions..."
Chara sighed and said "Then I'll give you an option, since you seem to defy everything I've been told about monsters thus far. Release the students you have held captive. If you do this, I can accept not all sentient life are irredeemable, mostly humanity can't be trusted, but can monsters be trusted? Prove this to me."
The monster sighed and thought for a moment, indeed he had rushed things a bit, and was eager to be free, he then looked over at Chara and said "Alright, but what about me? A Determination Mage sealed me here long ago, I've finally broken free but humanity would likely hunt me down. Can I trust you to be silent as I make my way through the fringe reaches of this world? I only seek to return home to the Underground now, if you let me go, I'll also release the human souls I've taken in the past."
Chara nodded and said "Why not. I have no ill will towards you or your people. But if you reign in on this agreement of ours, I will hunt you down and end you."
The monster nodded, releasing control over the students and then the human souls, it no longer looked terrifying, as the human souls it had contained began to shatter and fade, no longer contained, the Battlescape ended with a child sized black scaled reptile, more like a cartoon reptile than a horrifying lizard monster, was in the center of the pentagram, shocking everyone around. The reptile winked and teleported out of sight with a smile.
Oka looked around and held her head, saying "Talk about headaches...What, happened?"
Similarly the other students were confused, not remembering what had transpired, Chara sighed in relief, that was convenient.
Explaining it off as their ritual failing because it was bogus, Oka Rudo's interest in Chara had waned, her last memories were meeting Chara, but everything after that was vague and forgotten. Ayano just stared in confusion, remembering what had transpired but not knowing what happened between Chara and the reptile, trying to piece together what could have happened, did Chara fight and win, did he make a deal with the creature? She didn't know, but all she cared, was that Chara was near and safe.
Eventually, things returned to normal, Ayano kept quiet at first, but later asked Chara to walk her home, intent on learning what transpired, and also it was an excuse to spend more time with him.
Chara was annoyed, but recognized her expression of curiosity, he could still feel his determination being leeched, well, as long as he didn't lose the will to live, it wasn't going to be a problem. So Chara explained what happened, Ayano listened intently.
Ayano sighed then said "Was it wise to trust them?" Chara shrugged and said "Dunno, maybe not. But they're not human, so I'll give them a chance. They weren't at all what I was expecting the big bad monster to be like. Pretty sure everything my parents taught me about monsters is a lie, perhaps even they themselves don't know it's a lie."
Passing by his own home, which was adjacent to Taro Yamada's, they continued on, with Ayano leading the way to her own house. Ayano gave this some thought, Chara was fine with trusting a monster, but not humans. She then worked up the courage to ask why, saying "Why do you favor other races over humanity? Not that I care, I'll side with you however you see things, but I'm curious, being around you makes me feel somewhat, normal I suppose, makes me want to learn more about the world around me where before, I didn't care."
Chara shrugged and said "Well, you're different and that makes you less annoying than other humans. Humans broke my trust long ago, as you may have overheard, someone tried to sacrifice me a few years before I came to Japan, I had to kill them in self defense. My father is apparently a member of some cult and my mother apparently is not happy about it, she could do more but hasn't, she's too timid. It's my experience that there are two types of people, those who ACT and those who do not, and both cause problems. Every human I've ever known thinks themselves above consequences, so I stopped trying to get to know others, I don't have a good opinion of humans. I'm willing to accept if I'm wrong, but I'm not looking to be proven wrong either. You seem to be an exception, what with your unique SOUL and all. So I suppose I have no need to distrust you, since we're connected in a way where as long as I'm present near you or destined to be near you, that you have no cause, nor desire to betray me. It's the only reason I agreed to our little arrangement."
Ayano listened intently to his explanation, understanding him a little better.
She was silent as they reached her home, Chara looked over his shoulder, sensing a SOUL nearby, but saw nothing. One presence is gone, but the other remains. He could feel it was getting restless as well, having a bit of hate towards this place. Curious, was it the departed SOUL of a human who was murdered? Chara has seen that SOULs can persist after death, if this restless SOUL was wronged seriously in the past, they could have become a vengeful spirit, though the details on that Chara did not know, he only had theories.
Ayano sighed as Chara turned, saying "I hate this, every moment spent away from you. I know we have an agreement but, I just want to hear it again. You promise to spend as much time with me as you can? You'll never grow distant from me?"
Chara looked over at her with a thoughtful expression, then said "Like I said, you're less annoying than other humans. Maybe you're not even human, maybe you're secretly a Monster, after all your SOUL is different from everyone else. I'm curious to see where this arrangement of ours leads. Maybe we can be happy for once. So yes, as long as you never betray me, I will keep to our arrangement."
Ayano felt hopeful with this reply, and also mindful, 'Never betray me'
She kept that in mind as he walked to his home, as he reached a certain distance, she felt her determination begin to fade, slower this time, perhaps spending so much time near Chara had an accumulative effect? No this felt different, as if there were now two connections of different natures between their SOULs. Perhaps, this was what it was like to have a Soul Mate? She didn't know, but she did feel more resolved to conceal her mother's secret now. Chara resented humanity, and until Ayano had his absolute trust, she could not risk him learning anything to shake that trust.
And so she would later call her mother just to talk about things, she didn't reveal the incident, only explaining that she's been spending more time with Chara lately. She only didn't talk about Chara's abilities and the incident because Chara sought her to stay quiet on that. 'Never betray me' echoed in her mind again. She never wanted to lose him, so she would keep his trust, so long as she needed it. But she would also scheme, to increase the trust yes, but also to gain the circumstances where his trust would be irrelevant. She would have him, and she would make absolutely certain she could never lose him, ever.
He didn't have a choice, she wasn't going to let him be in control of his own fate any longer.
Chara entered his house to the sound of another argument and walked straight to his room. An hour later however, there was an intruding knock on his door, it was his mother.
"Chara dear, are you okay?" she said, Chara sighed and replied "Yes. I'm a little tired right now."
She nodded and said "Okay. I just wanted to mention that, we will be moving back to Ebbot Village soon, I noticed you walking your classmate home and was wondering if maybe, you didn't want to leave so soon? Your father moving back is from my pressure, maybe if I eased up.."
Chara shook his head and said "It's not a problem, I have a feeling I won't be rid of her that easily." His mother had a puzzled look, as if she misunderstood Chara's relationship with Ayano, she thought walking her home meant he was close with her, was she wrong? She hated this, feeling like she could not understand her own child, but she had no control over the situation and had accepted that reality. She sighed and said "Oh, I thought you were, interested in her."
Chara shrugged and said "Not in that way, not for now at least."
She nodded, not pressing the issue further, closing the door behind her.
Chara's crimson red eyes glowed out of her view, he could sense another presence, not his parents, in the house. It wasn't human, nor monster, it was, different. That same restless presence. Sleeping would be a little difficult tonight it seemed.
To be continued...