Author's Note: Decided to make an AU of this since 1) this is an anime I'm starting to like and 2) there's only a few stories that focus on this paring, so I said to myself, You know what, if there's hardly going to be anymore stories written for this fandom, I'm going to do it myself. I hope you all enjoy this story, especially if you like this specific anime (or just anime in general) and if you like this pairing as well.
Disclaimer: I don't own TBHK or Jungle Cubs. They belong to their rightful owners.
Chapter One
The Seventh Mystery
Bagheera Kinchō is a first year student at Kamome Gakuen. He's a quiet, hard-working student. He had a clear plan in mind for his future. He wanted to leave this small town, and move into a bigger city instead, like Tokyo. He just had to work hard to achieve that goal. He can do it. Bagheera liked to keep to himself, and didn't like to be a burden to others; he was, after all, a very quiet, unacknowledged student — at least before his secret got out . . .
"Please!"
Snickering came from the other side of the door. Bagheera sniffled, pressing his paws firmly against the janitor door and pushing against the door, desperately trying to get out of the closet.
"T-This isn't funny! Let me out!"
More laughter erupted from the other side of the door.
"Kinchō-san!" one of the girls sang with amusement. "People like you are trash, and you shouldn't be seen by anyone. You should know that by now!"
Bagheera felt his face heat up. "I'm not trash!"
"You're not, huh?" another classmate mused out, her voice tingling through the air girlishly. "Are you sure? My mother said people like you don't belong in this world. Is that true?"
Opening, but then shutting his mouth, Bagheera blinked slowly. His classmate's words echoed through his head, making him shudder. A sickening sensation twirled through his stomach, making his shoulders slowly hunch upward.
"It's not true . . ."
It was quiet on the other side of the door. At first, Bagheera thought his peers had decided to leave him locked in the closet, but then, his ears began to pick up on whispering. He couldn't quite make out their words, but he had a feeling he knew what they were saying. His eyes began to itch, and a glossy layer formed across them. Bagheera fought the urge, but a warm shiver ran through his body, tears slowly beginning to peek out of the corner of his eyes.
"Please . . ." he mumbled out helplessly. "Even if you think I'm disgusting . . . just let me out . . ."
It wasn't fair. Why did this stuff always happen to him? Bagheera hadn't done anything wrong. He had never been mean to any of his classmates. He was always willing to help someone in need. Bagheera had always tried to be kind, friendly and nice to his peers. But, at this point, why did it even matter? It didn't change who he was, did it? Was it really so wrong?
The whispering from his classmates increased in volume. It sounded as if they were arguing among themselves before, finally, one sighed loudly and exhaustedly. Without so much as a warning, the door swung open, and Bagheera found himself stumbling forward. He let out a yelp of surprise and swung his arms blindly, trying to prevent himself from slamming face-first onto the ground. Instead, however, his body collided with another one.
Bagheera blinked awkwardly.
"Ew!"
"He's touching you!"
A pair of paws roughly shoved him backwards. Bagheera grunted as he hit the ground, landing painfully on his backside with his head smacking harshly against the wall behind him. He winced, lightly brushing his fingers across the throbbing bump on the back of his head.
"He touched me!" one of the boys yelled, holding his hands out, his paws trembling. "You don't think it would spread, do you? I don't want to be like him!"
One of the girls gasped, her paws covering her muzzle. "You should hurry! Quick, go to the boys' bathroom! You can wash his filth off!"
Bagheera sniffed, his eyes looking between the students; they were all from his class. A total of five students, three boys — a cheetah, lion, and a leopard — and two girls, one who was a vixen and the other was a cat. All of them had the very same expression of disdain and disgust. Bagheera's insides twist with fear and worry, especially when their dark eyes glared down at him. He pulled his feet close to himself, pressing his back up against the wall while watching them.
They wouldn't do anything to him, would they?
"Stop overreacting already, Kinchō-san!" the other girl huffed, rolling her eyes dramatically at him. "It was just a prank! You didn't have to jump at us like that!"
Eyebrows moving further up his forehead, Bagheera swallowed thickly. "I-I know! I know it was a prank! I didn't jump on you. I just wanted —"
"We know what you wanted!" the second boy grumbled, his top lip curling back as he bared his teeth.
Bagheera flinched as if one of them had hit him.
"I just wanted to have friends . . ." he mumbled softly.
The third boy snorted. He stuck his nose up, and pushed a bit of his mane out of his vision. "Who would want to be friends with somebody like you? You're unnatural! My father said so! He said people like you shouldn't even be at Kamome Gakuen! It's such a disgrace that they let you in here in the first place!"
"I'm not unnatural. It's n-normal!" Bagheera said, trying to defend himself.
"No, it isn't!" the boy snapped. "Why can't you just disappear! We don't need you here!"
Bagheera felt his face heat up again. He drew his knees closer to himself as the group began to walk away, all of whom were still laughing at him, not even bothering to keep their voices down as they said more hurtful things about him. He watched until they turned a corner, his eyesight blurring with tears. The small panther hiccuped and tried to wipe the tears from his face, which was flushing a hot color. Eventually, he climbed to his shaky feet, his body feeling sluggish and heavy.
Pranks. His peers had been pulling pranks on him ever since his secret was out. All sorts of things he had to put up with. From things like having his hair pulled, or small insects like worms or beetles being discovered in his backpack, to horrible, nasty things like having paint being tipped onto him or being shoved down the stairs. Of course, he had never been hurt too badly, other than a few scratches and bruises, but his teachers never seemed to care whenever Bagheera brought these incidents up.
It's just children being children. If you want to be included, maybe you should think about changing yourself. Maybe they'll accept you when you do, Kinchō-san.
Bagheera hiccuped deeply. He rubbed his face, sniffling deeply. Why did he have to change himself? It was already hard enough as it is. Why should he be the one to change, when he was the one that got hurt the most? It's not like he went out of his way to be bullied by his peers. It's not like he asked to be treated like this . . .
"Stop," Bagheera huffed to himself, shaking his head furiously. "Don't cry! You have only four more years, then you can get out of here!"
Just four more years of Kamome Gakuen, then he could leave. He can go anywhere he wanted, as long as he studied hard and achieved a scholarship. Bagheera knew he could do it; he was, after all, smart enough to achieve all A's in all his subjects — that would've been the case, but his teachers purposefully failed him just because of his secret, which now made him a C student. But it didn't matter now. Just four more years and he can move far, far away from here and start anew. He would never look back on his awful life here.
"Just four more years," he mumbled quickly, and forced himself to smile.
Once those four years were up, he will be somewhere new. Somewhere that would be better then Kamome Gakuen. He didn't know what would be in store for him outside of the town he lived in, but Bagheera hoped it would be better than what he was currently going through.
Inhaling sharply, Bagheera dried his eyes with the sleeves of his oversized, dark blue sweater. The young panther then began to walk forward, pausing briefly to grab his backpack that his classmates had kicked around the hallway while they locked him in the closet. Peeking into the backpack, Bagheera let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that all his books, papers and lunchbox were still inside. The last time they had gotten their greedy paws on his backpack, they had thrown all his things out the window. Bagheera had spent hours running around all over the school searching for the missing items and gathering them back up again.
Bagheera dragged himself through the hallway. Anyone he passed ignored him; only the few students that did take notice of him immediately began to stare and whisper among themselves. The poor panther could only sigh depressingly to himself, clenching his backpack straps and keeping his head down. Even his teacher ignored him when Bagheera slinked past her. Even when his classmates picked on him in class, she never told them to stop. Bagheera could tell the much older woman thought he deserved it.
His stomach felt heavy, like a large rock had been forced down his throat. Every footstep he took made him feel like there were heavy, thick chains wrapped around his body. Bagheera just wanted to sleep already. Why did the school day always have to drag on for so long? He felt as if he had been at the school for hours, when he had really only been there for three hours. It was only lunchtime when Bagheera was trying to find a good spot to hide to eat his lunch. That was when his classmates found him, and had effectively ruined his break.
Pressing his paws down on the metal banister of the staircase, Bagheera crept into the dark area. He stood at the top, biting down on his bottom lip. His eyes slowly lowered to peek over the stair rail, seeing his classmates gathering at the bottom. Bagheera watched them nervously, hoping he wasn't caught.
"Hey? Have you seen Kinchō-san?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, we did! We locked him in the janitor's closet!"
"You should have heard him! He was crying so much! Hahaha!"
Bagheera swallowed thickly. He straightened himself up, pressing his paws firmly to his sides. What should he do? Their next lesson was on the bottom level of the school, which meant he had to pass the students to get to his classroom. Should he just climb down the steps, or risk being late to class by going around the other way?
"Ew! He's so gross! Did you see how he was looking at you this morning?"
"What? Don't be creepy!"
"No, I'm serious!"
The panther bit back a whimper. He wasn't looking at anybody! Bagheera never looked at anybody, fearing that, if he did, somebody would retaliate and take it the wrong way. One time, a girl had forgotten her pencil, and Bagheera offered her one. She had freaked out, screaming until their teacher had sent Bagheera to the principal's office. He was always trying to be helpful, but it always resulted in him being punished instead.
"Are you for real? That's disgusting! Now I feel like I have goosebumps!"
"Maybe he likes you!"
"Shut up! That's gross!"
Bagheera clenched his eyes shut. He edged backwards, grabbing at the door behind him and yanking it open, deciding that he might as well risk being late instead of listening to his classmates talk about him. However, before he could —
"Let's go find him!"
"Yeah! Let's go teach Kinchō-san a lesson!"
He froze. His heart leaped into his throat, a chill running through his body. Teach him a lesson? For what? He didn't do anything!
"Oh! Look!"
"Kinchō-san is already here! How lucky we are!"
Bagheera's heart began to beat painfully. He arched his back, peeking back at the grinning students from the corner of his eye. It was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over him. He could feel the heavy footsteps vibrating through the steps. His classmates begin to climb up the stairs towards him, their voices sounding dark, almost demon-like, to his ears. A cry of fear coming out of his throat, Bagheera did the only thing he could think of.
He ran.
Shoving the door open, Bagheera launched forward. His ears throbbed with the squeals and cheers of the other students behind him, immediately jumping to follow after him, their voices dancing around him.
Bagheera ran as fast he could, feeling like many hooks were tied around his body, pulling at his skin. He skidded around the corners of the corridors, desperate to somehow outrun the other students. His yellow-green eyes were increasingly becoming hot, and his view was turning blurry again. His chest tightened up with a sharp sensation, making it difficult for him to breath, a burning shudder coursing through his feet.
A door that was slightly opened caught his attention. Bagheera harshly bit down on his bottom lip again, ripping into the sensitive skin. He shoved the door open, rushing into the room. However, as soon as he entered, his feet twisted together and he tripped over, falling face-first onto the ground. He laid still, twitching a little while listening to the thundering footsteps of his pursuers as they ran by. Swallowing thickly, Bagheera slowly pushed himself up onto his knees, his eyes turning to the door in relief. After a few more seconds, Bagheera decided to look at the room he had run into for shelter.
His face turned pale, once again feeling a sickly sensation. Bagheera's body slowly hunched upward, heat crawling through his muscles. Sweat began to gather on the back of his neck upon seeing the sinks and cubicles. Light pink and red in color, his heart automatically skipped a beat in shock, dancing through his throat, a high-pitched whine wedging itself free.
"No!" he said, leaping to his feet. "The girls' bathroom! Of course, just my luck!"
Bagheera clenched his teeth, shook his head, and spun around with the full intention of quickly leaving before somebody saw him. He could only imagine what type of rumors would be spread if he was caught. His life at school was hard enough without something untrue being added on. He was not a peeping tom, or whatever his bullies would label him if they found out about this.
Grasping the door handle with his sweaty paw, Bagheera turned it. He blinked once, then twice, repeatedly pulling it up and down. His brow raised slowly; no matter how much he tried to push the door open, it wouldn't budge. It was almost like there was a heavy boulder on the other side of the door that was keeping it shut.
"What? Why is it locked?" he said quietly.
Slowly, Bagheera stepped backwards. His paw dropped back to his side, his heart sinking. If the door was locked, that meant only one thing: He was caught entering the girls' bathroom in his desperate attempt of escape and the other kids had locked the door to teach him a lesson.
"Another prank . . ." he whispered, shoulders sagging. He could only imagine what type of things would be spread all over the school now.
Bagheera bite back a cry of frustration, and instead turned back to the bathroom. It wasn't very big, reasonably sized but not well-kept. How strange that was. Bagheera thought the girls' bathroom would have been much nicer, but even boys' bathroom was better than this. The bathroom itself looked like it was falling apart — the paint was chipped and faded, and the wood of the cubicles were all split. There was a musty smell in the air as well, and Bagheera grunted a little as he covered his nose, inching further into the area.
"I thought . . . girls' bathrooms were . . . nicer . . ." he said to himself, his forehead creasing.
Awkwardly, he inched further into the bathroom, his eyes flickering to the warned boards underneath his feet and the worrisome thought of accidently falling through the boards filled his head. The first thing his eyes caught was the window across from him. It wasn't very big, as it was quite small and more rectangular in shape. The glass of the window was stained brownish, with tiny cracks in the glass. There were cutout shapes of green and blue drawings stuck to the window of butterflies and flowers. It was probably the nicest thing in the bathroom. Even the light above him was looking old, blinking every so often with little sizzling sounds filling the area around him.
Bagheera shook his head, fighting back the chill of creepiness from overtaking him. The panther inched towards the window and tried to reach the handle, even standing himself up on his tiptoes, but he wasn't able to reach the window latch. A troubled frown took over his face, his eyes scanning the bathroom, noticing an empty bucket underneath one of the sinks. Eyes flickering, Bagheera reached for the bucket and dragged it to the window. He flipped it upside down, and used it to reach the window. His paw wrapping the rusty latch. Bagheera struggled to force the latch to move upward. At first, he couldn't get it to move, his paw beginning to burn the longer he tugged on the latch. The rusty metal screeched as it scrapped across the glass until, finally, it clanked open.
Leaning against the wall, Bagheera prompted his chin on the window edge, inhaling the crisp, but fresh, air in relief.
"That's better," he groaned, inhaling the air sharply. "So much better than the musky smell . . ."
Just then, a cold, but welcoming, breeze washed across his face. Bagheera smiled, just enjoying the sensation before his ears tingled. A tiny thud from behind him made the panther jump. He almost toppled off the bucket, but was able to gain his balance before he could hit the dirty ground again. Bagheera grunted, pulling his paws to his chest and peering around the dimly-lit bathroom.
"Hello?" he called out awkwardly. "If . . . if you're from my class, this isn't funny!"
Nobody replied. It was completely silent. Carefully, Bagheera inched away from the window, tilting his body forward to glance into the bathroom cubicles as he got off the bucket. Each one was empty except for the last one. The door was shut unlike the others, which were all open. Bagheera nervously stepped closer to the closed cubicle and lightly pushed two fingers against it. As he pressed his paw against the old, wooden door, he found that it was . . . locked?
"Hey, is somebody in there?" he asked, pushing against the door again.
When he got no reply. Bagheera straightened himself, his eyes nervously looking around. He couldn't see, or hear, anybody. The panther swallowed thickly, his eyes dropping to the small opening at the bottom of the cubicle door.
Bagheera bit down on his bottom lip a third time, thinking it over, before, at a slow pace, he climbed down to his knees. He tilted his head to see under the door, narrowing his eyes to see the toilet on the other side of the door.
"No feet . . . I guess nobody's there . . ." Bagheera said softly, straightening himself up and letting out a sound of relief. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and rubbed the back of his neck. "That's strange. I really thought . . ."
The panther let out a tiny laugh at how ridiculous he must've sounded. To have really thought somebody was on the other side of the door, spying on him. How stupid and pathetic he must be. With a smile of relief, Bagheera climbed to his feet. His eyes dropped to his hands, and swiftly, the smile on his face dropped and a frown took its place. Great. Now his hands were all dirty.
A disgusted grumble escaped his lips, and the panther turned towards one of the sinks. Like everything else in the bathroom, the sinks weren't in any better shape. They were old-looking and filthy, with tiny smudges of dirt all over them.
Bagheera felt a shudder run through him as he reached for the tap, and forcefully turned it. The tap made a gurgle of a sound, and then, water erupted from the tip. He let out a surprised yelp when the liquid flushed from the tap. However, unlike the water that Bagheera was hoping for, the water was instead a thick brown color. Immediately, he turned the tap off, his nose scrunching up in disgust.
"I can't believe it!" he hissed indignantly. "I'm pretty sure this is breaking tons of rules." Bagheera took a step away from the sink, frowning worriedly. "How could the principal or our teachers let this happen?"
How could a bathroom be left in such a state? They knew this was unhealthy, right?
The young panther sighed deeply, wiping the filth from his hands on his pants; no way was he about to ruin his favorite, and only, sweater. He dropped down just underneath the sinks, drawing his legs up to his chest and wrapping his arms around himself, resting his chin on top of them. Bagheera found himself staring at nothing in particular, but after a few minutes, his eyes looked towards the locked cubicle door. How strange it was that the door was locked, when nobody had used this particular bathroom in quite some time.
"I wonder if this bathroom has any ghost stories . . . probably . . ." he breathed out, closing his eyes briefly.
His thoughts were broken by a low growl escaping from his stomach. Automatically, Bagheera straightened himself. He moved so fast that, once again, he bumped his head against the sink above him. His eyes watered as he rubbed the throbbing spot on top of his head.
"Why do I keep hitting my head . . ." he whined.
His stomach grumbled once more, reminding him that he didn't get to eat his lunch before he was jumped by his classmates. Bagheera whimpered and unzipped his backpack, his eyes awkwardly swiping back and forth. He felt a little creeped out sitting in the middle of the bathroom, with many spiders probably hidden around the room, watching him with interest. It was unfair that he was in here by his cruel classmates. Still, he hadn't eaten since yesterday and, with a weak shrug, he tugged the old, worn-out box.
Unclicking the lid, he edged it open with delicate fingers. It was sad, he thought to himself. His lunch looked absolutely pathetic, but he wasn't rich. He didn't have money to buy a bunch of fancy ingredients to create a lunch, as he could only buy a few things with the money he had. It was an easy meal to make and didn't cost a lot either: a few chicken dumplings and a chocolate gateau that he had spent two hours making.
As Bagheera chewed on a chicken dumpling, his eyes returned to the locked cubicle again. It was in that moment that he noticed there was writing in the corner of the door, written in what looked like faded red words, and Bagheera's eyebrows pulled together in confusion. How could he have missed it? Leaning forward, Bagheera eyed the writing, and clocked his head in confusion.
"'The Seventh Mystery'?" he read. "What's that?" Bagheera carefully crawled towards the door once more. "'Knock three times, and call for Shutsugen-san. She will grant you a wish.'"
Swallowing the dumpling, Bagheera let out a hum. He pulled at his oversized sweater and pouted. "Shutsugen-san? I've never heard of that name before . . . I wonder who she is, and why she would be locked in a bathroom cubicle . . ." he muttered, putting a paw to his chin. When he had looked through the small parting at the bottom, he hadn't seen anything.
How could this 'Shutsugen-san' be inside?
"Is this supposed to be a ghost story or something?" he wondered, picking at a few tufts of his black mane.
Call Shutsugen-san, and she will grant you a wish. That sounded way too easy, and too good to be true. If it was true, then Bagheera was sure there would be a massive catch underneath the sugar coating. Still, he doubted it was real and was probably just something another student had written after seeing the state that the bathroom was in.
"Well . . . how much harm could it be? I've got nothing better to do . . ." he said, glancing over at the bathroom's locked door.
The frown on his face deepened. How long would he be stuck in here for? He hoped his classmates wouldn't forget that they had locked him in the bathroom. He didn't want to spend the whole night here.
Bagheera reached towards the door, and ranked his knuckles three times against the door. Each time he did so, he felt a vibration through his arm; the way his fist hit the wooden door echoed around the bathroom strangely. He gulped as an eerie chill rolled down his spine.
"Um, excuse me, Shutsugen-san, are you in there?"
The wind outside the window picked up. A high-pitched, windy-sounding whistle crawled through the open window, making Bagheera yelp in surprise. He snapped his head towards the window. He let out a sigh of relief. Nothing replied to his question. Aside from him, the bathroom remained empty and quiet.
"Guess it was just a fake story," Bagheera said, laughing to himself. He reached backwards from his lunch box to pick up his gateau, only for his fingers to wiggle through thin air. The panther blinked, and turned towards his lunchbox to find it completely empty.
"Huh? I could've sworn I didn't even take a bite out of it . . ."
A strange clicking sound came from in front of him. Bagheera felt his whole body freeze up, and his eyes widened so much that they burned horribly. His mouth became dry, his chest tightening in fear. Slowly, he turned back to the closed cubicle, his eyes dropping to the small space below the door. The clicking then changed into the sound of something being scratched by a sharp object. The space below the door was eerily much darker than before.
Bagheera crouched down again, moving at a slow pace as he placed his paws flat against the floor. Taking a deep breath, he then laid his head on top of them and peered into the dark space.
Red eyes stared back at him.
So here's the first chapter of The Tiger Ghost. What did you think of it? Let me know in a review.
Until next time.
— LionKingFan1234
