Bringing a hand to her throbbing skull the high school girl felt a warm liquid cover her hand. Sliding back farther into a corner as Neuro's acidic drool sizzled on the floor. He truly was an Imaginary Friend made from murder. Bringing her hand away from the pain Yako was unsurprised by her blood covering her palm where she landed on her head.
"But why is…"
"Yako, if I were you I would get rid of that unsightly head injury…wouldn't want your I.Q. to drop any lower." The hungry man turned in supposed disgust. Nodding, still uneasy about his strained reaction to her blood, Yako did as told. But, her vision blurred and she leaned forward about to fall, more blood pulsed out of the cut on her head and dripped to the floor at their feet. She waited for her skull to break on the floorboards for a second time.
"Ugh…My head hurts, Neuro." The disoriented girl used her hands to balance herself on the chest of her 'Friend' as the other stiffened his posture and did not respond to their creators' whimper of pain.
Roughly she was pushed away as the man walked as far from her dazed honey eyes and intense smell of blood. Yako ignored his antics and unsteadily made her way to the hallway and to the restroom.
Neuro watched the teenager leave with the too delectable scent, he glanced at the smudge of red where she had fallen when he let go of her; then to the splatters that made it to the floor when the dimwit stood up. He would get the little parasite to clean it up when she got back from mending the wound he gave her.
Suddenly his stomach growled; Neuro unconsciously brought a hand to his upper abdomen. It was a close call to say the least. If his naïve little creator used him as a damn crutch any longer the sweet aroma of red life would have made her an easy target for dinner.
When the demon brought a gloved hand to his face he frowned. Warm blood stained the pointer and middle finger. He licked his suddenly dried lips.
Giving the bedroom door a swift glance he yanked the glove off with his pointed teeth to reveal his long, claw-like fingers. The blood from the tip of his dark blue gloves grazed his tongue. Faint metallic flavors made the pink muscles tingle with want. Grazing the bare fingers over the jacket he pinched more of the violence onto his appendages and licked them clean.
Pupils dilating he starred, mesmerized by the droplets on the floorboards. Of course he had too much pride to lick anything off the floor. However, the cramping and growling of his gut told him his pride was about the go through the door.
Neuro knew he could not help himself. He was an Imaginary Friend born from red violence and death. It was only reasonable that it was the same thing he hungered for as nourishment.
Without warning Yako walked into her room with a bandaged head. And without meaning to the monster that is Neuro stared longingly at the girls forehead where blood was seeping through.
He wanted it.
He wanted to quench his hunger, to taste a mouth full of her warm, tangy blood. This was not strange; often Imaginary Friends look towards their creators for food. And little flea Katsuragi Yako was no different.
"Neuro, are you ok?" Neuro looked down at the girl who called him. The question numbed him for some reason, was he ok? Was he- God her low intelligence made him ground his teeth together. Of course he wasn't, he was in her stupid room that reeked of her sweet smelling life. It was driving him insane. He just wanted nothing more than to bite down on her and lick up any red that was spilt. Just grab the thin arm attached to the pathetically petite hand that was over his forehead as if to check for a temperature.
Neuro blinked. The shorter of the two stood so delectably close, oblivious of him picking the best place to bite down for nourishment.
"What are you playing at you dog? Imaginary Friends such as the great me cannot catch a human sickness." He bragged, punching her in the gut. Yako doubled over in pain and sat on her bed.
"N-Neuro!" She breathed.
"Oh no, don't tell me you are the one getting sick. How disgusting!" Said man mocked.
"Oww, what was that for?" She asked with her arms wrapping tighter around her now bruised gut.
"Yes," Neuro said more to himself with a nod, "A creator who is sick in the head." He pointed his bare middle finger at her head for emphasis.
"…Whatever…Ah it's so late, I'm going to sleep Neuro." The lights in the room went out and after a little shuffling of socks and blankets. Finally it was quiet, without a sound except for the girls' deep breathing.
The mental alarm clock in the Katsuragi child's head was going off. She opened her honey eyes and shot to the very edge of her mattress where the wall was to her back. Her mischievous house guest lay next to her on his stomach with his arms wrapped around one of her fluffy pillows. Drool leaked out of his thin, parted lips and burned a growing hole in her once spotless pillow. Sighing, the girl did not bother to wake the man up, she didn't want to find out if he was a morning person or not.
After coming to the realization that she had fallen asleep in her uniform she decided with how early it was, four o' clock to be exact, she would put it through the washer and dryer.
With her uniform in the wash, Yako made her way to the bathroom to take a shower. Before anything the girl let out a nervous laugh and locked the door. Although she doubted her Imaginary Friend would try anything, she was a girl who liked to take precaution. So, with another awkward pause, she used the shelf her mother put all of the towels and other restroom whatnots in front on the only door to the hallway.
It was lunch time now and Yako sat with her best friend Kanae at their usual table.
"I'm happy to see you back at school and eating, Yako." Kanae said flipping back her red hair. The brown haired girl stopped the serving of rice that she was about to eat, her happy smile dropped.
That's right, when her father died Yako had stopped coming to school and when she did try to go through the day she didn't touch even a crumb of food. Not only did the death mentally exhaust her, but it also affected her love of anything edible.
Honey eyes dropped to stare at the bowl of rice in her hands and sighed. She had been trying to avoid thinking of her father. The Katsuragi father was a business man who worked late at night and when he would come home he would make huge portions of food for the whole family to eat because he would usually be starving when he walked through the door. With the whole house hold and the house cleaner sitting around the table, talking about the food and their day, was one of Yako's happiest memories.
"Yeah…I guess with dad in the ground and all, my stomach can move on." She said at last.
"I was so worried for you since then Yako-chan; you refused to even touch your favorites." Said Kanae.
"Sorry…" The piggish girl sighed. Kanae giggled elatedly
"Nah, don't worry about it. On a lighter note, want me to help you carry these away?" The red-head pointed to the fifteen empty rice bowls off to the side.
"Yes, please!" The two friends laughed about everything as the bell rang.
"What's with the paparazzi?" The taller of the two girls said as the two high school girls walked up to their English classroom. Dozens of students crowed around the blocked entrance of the room where police officers were filing in and out.
"What do you thing is going on?" The wheat haired girl asked as the two pushed their way to the front of the scene. Kanae gasped in horror.
Staring at the scene before her Yako was hit with a familiar sense of dread as the blood stained her vision as well as the crime scene. The English teacher Kagura-sensei leaned against her desk, dead, and bathed in her own red gown.
"Tsk, tsk, what a mess." Said the deep voice by her ear that filled her mind, craning her neck Yako resisted the urge to gasp at Neuro standing arrogantly behind her; as obvious as the morning sun. He was enjoying the sight of all this blood.
"W-What are you doing here? I'm gonna look weird if I'm caught talking to myself!" She whispered, looking back at the grotesque scene.
"I just smelt something yummy and took a break from following you to see where it came from." He snorted.
"I see…Wait-what!" She said too loudly. The policemen at the door turned to stare at the girl. A tall man white silver-white hair and tired eyes glanced in the girls' direction.
"Yako?" He asked almost not believing his ears. Hearing her name called said girl turned to the man walking towards her and smiled awkwardly.
"S-Sasazuka-sensei, what a surprise!"
"Ah…what are you doing here, you should be in class." Sasazuka lectured.
"Um…well, this kinda is my classroom…Kanae-chan and I were on our way here when we saw this crowed." She pointed to the red-head to her left that turned away from the gore.
"I see…" Then without warning the Imaginary Friend at Yako's side gripped her shoulders in a bone crunching grip. She struggled to keep from flinching, what did this demanding creature want now?
"Ask about what happened here, flea!" He growled in her ear. A shiver ran down her spin as Neuro pressed his invisible body to her and whispered demands.
The teenager swallowed the flustered knot stuck in her throat before speaking.
"Umm, Sasazuka-sensei…"She started. Pulling his lazy-eyed attention from something over Yako's shoulder he looked at her. The girls gulped, did he see Neuro? Why was he staring past her shoulder? It was impossible, right? Neuro said a normal human couldn't see creatures like him, right?
"C-Can you tell me what happened here exactly?" The detective blinked at the teenager in morbid curiosity. It felt like he was mentally picking for any hidden meaning behind her words and unusual interest in a murder…And she was afraid he might just find something, like the tall Imaginary man standing over her body licking his lips, anticipating the bloody details. The white-haired man sighed.
"I guess it wouldn't matter either way…"
Throughout the explanation Neuro continued to murmur questions he wanted answered in Yako's ear and she would try not to shiver as he went about his action like everyone could hear him…Which they couldn't anyway.
"…So around the time lunch had started a teacher come to get Kagura-sensei so the two could have lunch. But instead they found her body. She has been stabbed several times and by the excess amount of bloodshed she put up a fight before finally falling by her desk. The police and I just arrived on the scene four minutes ago." Sasazuka droned on.
The high school girl let out a nervous laugh.
"Wow, thank you for telling us-I mean me Sasazuka-sensei. I should let you get back to work." She smiled awkwardly as she watched him glance at something emotionlessly over her shoulder. She could hear Neuro chuckle. She was half tempted to see if a toothy grin also painted his face, but somehow she knew the answer would be yes. Then she flinched, her 'Friends' claws dug painfully into her shoulders. Finally the detective turned away to continue to work…did he know?
Panic stricken the teenager stared at the adult, looking for any sign that he has seen the sadistic, blond demon that was lurking around her.
The warm breath of Neuro grazed her ear and turned into a devious laugh. Baby hairs on the back of her pale neck stood on end and another shiver ran down her spine.
"W-Why are you laughing Neuro?" She whispered. Another around of unheard laughter pierced her ears and constricting her mind.
"There you stupid cockroach, look behind the desk….there is more to the case than her little detective friend is letting on." With a flick of the wrist the green-eyed man roughly twisted his creators neck with a painful crack.
"Do you see it?" He asked with his choking grip transferred back to her arms.
Scanning the closest corner of the desk Yako let out a terrified gasp. Another set of leg to another body lay hidden behind the teachers' desk. Just as much blood poured from this body as her murdered teachers corpse. Yet the body was completely ignored by the unformed cops taking pictures or notes concerning the first body.
"What's going on Neuro!" She asked.
"That is the body of an Imaginary Friend." He said with a satisfied growl of his stomach.