Chapter 48: The Occult Club
"Oh! Miko-chan! I didn't know that you're a member of the Occult Club!" cried Yumehara.
Yumehara was in a simple knee-length white summer dress, with a patterned short-sleeve jacket to add some color and fashion sandals. She looked like the vision of a summertime sweetheart.
Aiura, on the other hand, was dressed to kill. She wore a backless, ocean blue halter top with a knee-length white shirt that had scandalous slits cut so high that it nearly revealed her panty line. The only thing that was modest about her was the long straps of her half heels that hugged her sun-kissed calves. Her usually long acrylic pink nails were traded in for a far deeper wine red color.
Aiura beamed happily at Yumehara. They were good friends, after all. Aiura reached over and grabbed Yumehara's two hands. "Of course I'm part of the club. I'm a bona fide fortune teller. This is the only school club that suits me!" Aiura pulled Yumehara into a hug. "We're going to have such a good time! Let's make this a memorable last summer break together!"
Yumehara, feeding off the positive vibes from Aiura, enthusiastically hugged back, trying to avoid the natural jealousy of Aiura's womanly assets that pressed so firm yet softly.
Good thing that Kaidou was safely stowed away at a summer cram school. He had originally said that he'll try to get out of it, but changed his mind last second. Something about being a responsible son and setting an example for his younger siblings. Such words only made Yumehara like him even more.
"What about me, senpais?" asked the creepy girl with slick black hair and thick bangs that was neatly pulled back by a couple of carefully decorated snap hair clips. Like Yumehara, she wore a summer dress. Unlike Yumehara, the summer dress was calve-length with three-quarter sleeves. Creepy girl was modest and reserved, in a way that kinda turned people off.
"Er...who are you?" asked Aiura.
Yumehara immediately grabbed the creepy girl's hand and pulled the girl into a bow "Oh, Miko-chan, this is Makino Arisu. She's been with the club since the beginning. Arisu-chan, say hi to Aiura Mikoto-senapi."
Makino bowed respectfully, as expected of an underclassman when meeting with an upperclassman.
"Oh, spare me," said Aiura with a roll of her eyes. Without warning, Aiura shamelessly hugged the underclassman. "Nice to meet you Ari-chan!"
Makino stiffened. She had heard of the school's famous gyaru fortune teller who was in Yumehara senpai's class in third year, Class 1. Noted to be sassy and spicy, Aiura-senpai's behavior that totally disregarded the traditionally reserved etiquette, wasn't unexpected. Still, Minako never had someone who held her so close physically, or gave her such a nickname so quickly.
Or touch such a curvaceous woman who obviously knew how sexy she was.
Or had thoughts like how nice lesbians had it.
It took a while for Makino to realize what was going on as her cheeks turned red, either from jealousy or embarrassment.
The school rumors were true. While Teruhashi-san was a goddess, Imu-chan was a princess and Yuemhara was a love master, Aiura-senpai was a woman. The former three girls, in their own rights, were adored, but the woman everyone respected was Aiura.
God, Aiura even smelled like a woman, and this was coming from another female.
"Now we got that out of the way," said Yumehara with a false, wide smile, she dramatically put on an expression of outrage and pointed to the two boys who were also at the scene. "What are these guys doing here?"
It was the Toritsuka and Akechi, better known by their condescending nicknames of Germ and Talky.
Or as Aiura liked to call them, Penis Aura and Can't Shut Up.
They were all at the Desire Temple, at the front receiving area where there was decent tree shade and gravelled space for everyone to stand at a comfortable distance to each other.
Things had returned to normal-ish since the incident a few weeks ago involving a 2-ton bell. The temple was opened to visitors again through fewer came. It could have been the impact of summer, where it's so hot outdoors and people rather stay home in the air conditioning.
Toritsuka, true to form, wore his blue samue, wooden geta, and large red prayer beads on his neck and right wrist. He looked genuinely innocent. "Uh...I live here?" offered Toritsuka. Seeing that obvious statement wasn't going to spare him from a sudden kick in the knee, he added, "I was the one who planned the camp? And I'm president of the Occult Club, again?"
"President?" Yumehara's tone had a hint of outrage in it. "When did that happen?"
"Um...a couple of days ago, right before the end of the first term," said Toritsuka. He rubbed the back of his neck in the universal gesture of embarrassment. "Since Saiki's thing, I thought it'd be good that I take back the role of Occult Club president. I don't think he's going to be doing any club-related activities any time soon. You know that he got a job now and he just had that thing."
Yumehara narrowed her eyes, trying to think of something wrong with that explanation but could not.
Ever since the news, everyone was trying, in their own way, to help their pink-haired friend. It was obvious to everyone that immediate 'cheering up' was too ambitious of a goal.
Not that Saiki made it easy, by any stretch, since Saiki was infamous for ignoring his phone. The main gang had tried to visit Saiki at his house, but the young man's father, Saiki Kuniharu, who answered the door, said that Saiki was not home.
Heck, even Teruhashi's fail-proof charm did not work. Teruhashi had told Yumehara that she was able to catch up with Saiki. Whatever happened, didn't sound pleasant, judging by the panicked, incoherent, emergency girl talk session from a couple of nights ago.
"How much did Saiki tell you?" inquired Yumehara in a challenging manner.
"About what?"
Yumehara tried not to let her irritation come through too much to the point of being crude. "Saiki's thing."
Despite how socially oblivious Toritsuka could be, even he knew enough to guess what Yumehara was trying to get at. "Only that it was completely unexpected and he was there when it happened. Saiki-san didn't elaborate any more about it than that." Toritsuka glanced over to Akechi and Aiura. "He seemed calm when he told us, but I think he was extremely upset by it."
Yumehara nearly rolled her eyes and retorted with 'how could anyone not be upset when their sibling just died?' Instead, Yumehara felt a strange sort of jealousy.
Was Saiki closer friends to these academic losers and the transfer student Akechi?
While Saiki simply told his core friend group that he no longer had an older brother, Saiki told these social misfits details.
That was unfair. Yumehara had been in the series for a lot longer!
Still, this concerned their grieving friend, so Yumehara pushed away the pettiness. Instead, she continued the conversation by sharing gossip. "You know, I've heard that Saiki wasn't close to his older brother and that his older brother was sort of a jerk."
At that Toritsuka added mysteriously, "Yeah. Well, that's probably the understatement of the century."
Yumehara's eyes suddenly shined. She could smell paydirt. "Oh, why is that?"
"Well..." Before Tortisuka could elaborate, Aiura dug an elbow to Toritsuka's ribs. "Ouch! What the hell was that for?"
"That's for you being more chatty than Akechi," justified Aiura. She had taken on a rather sanctimonious posture, her arms akimbo. "Is it your place to tell people about Kusuo's older brother?"
"Well, no. But, he's dead. So I don't think he'd mind. Plus, that's the reason for the occult club summer camp. It's the reason why we're all here."
Now that was interesting. Completely ignoring the progressively increasing confusion on Makino's face, Yumehara asked. "Why are we here?"
Before Aiura or Akechi could stop Toritsuka, the spirit medium blabbed, without hesitation. "We're here to summon the ghost of Saiki-san's older brother."
