Duran-kun and Kiyo-chan's Omake Theater

(featuring the Tokiha and Minagi family pets)

"'So,' she said, her voice soft and delicate, like a wisp of silk passing over the skin, 'you think that I remind you of someone, do you? Might I ask who that could be?' And she turned around…

"And she had no face!"

"Eeeek!" Mai and Chie squealed at once. Mikoto yelped in shock, tried to stand up in a defensive reflex even as her fear made her recoil, and ended up falling over onto her back, scattering (thankfully unlit) candles across the rug.

Smugly, Aoi lifted her candle up before her, pursed her lips, and blew out the flame with a single puff.

"Blast it, Aoi, how are you so good at this?" her girlfriend pleaded. "My stories barely get a gasp from you guys, but every darned one of yours hits home!"

Aoi favored her with a serene smile.

"Professional skill."

"Hey, no, but I'm the writer, even if it is just news stories instead of fiction. You're planning to major in maid arts!"

Indeed, Aoi had been accepted to university in England, home of the world's most elite maid studies programs. Chie had joked that she should study in Paris instead, but then, Chie was an inveterate flirt. She was also a loyal girlfriend, and was looking into a Searrs Foundation scholarship grant to pursue a journalism degree in the U.K. as well.

"Precisely. It is the solemn duty of a maid to provide a comfortable environment for her employer. Didn't Mai suggest playing Hyaku Monogatari because it was a hot summer night and being frightened would cool us down?"

"…There is no way that that's the real answer," Chie muttered. "Whose turn is it next?"

Kagutsuchi and Miroku poked their heads out from behind Mai, hoping that it was safe. Aoi's turn was done, and Mai and Chie's ghost stories tended to be relatively mundane or ones that everyone had already heard. The point of Hyaku Monogatari was, as the name implied, to tell one hundred stories of ghosts, youkai, and other supernatural horrors. Everyone took turns, blowing out a candle at the conclusion of each tale. As legend had it, when the final tale was told and the last candle extinguished, a supernatural being would be summoned. The kind of being varied from telling to telling, but the legend was fundamentally consistent: Hyaku Monogatari was as much a ritual as it was a game.

Of course, that was only a story.

Wasn't it?

"It's Mikoto's," Aoi said, and both pets vanished back behind Mai once more, Kagutsuchi adding a little squeak as he did. It wasn't that Mikoto's stories were particularly scary or even all that imaginative. The problem with them was that they were all just a little bit…off, reminding everyone that Mikoto had been raised in near-seclusion, taught to value things like family bonds, love, and human life in very different ways than the other three. It was like being told a fable by one of the fae. The stories weren't scary, but they left the listeners with a lurking disquiet that lingered far after an ordinary jump-scare would have passed.

Mikoto, of course, knew none of this. She was just happy that from the others' reactions, she seemed to be good at the game! Eagerly, she picked up a candle and dove into a tale of ghostly revenge in which a samurai ordered to commit seppuku haunted his wife for dishonoring him by asking his lord to spare his life. She finished up, blew out her candle, and smiled broadly, happy that everyone seemed appropriately creeped out.

"It's your turn, Mai!" she announced, then reached for a handful of squid chips.

"All right. I think we're almost done—we shouldn't have more than three or four each."

"Really? It looks like there are a lot more candles left than that."

Mai looked around. Mikoto was definitely right; even without a precise count it was easy to estimate that there were around forty flames still flickering away.

"I could have sworn we'd told more stories than that," Mai said.

"Me, too," Chie agreed. "I'm not sure I have that many more left in me."

"You're both right," Aoi said. She held up a page; prepared as always, she'd made a list of stories she could tell. "I'm up to number twenty-two now."

Chie shuddered.

"Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me that there actually are candles still lit that shouldn't be? Why? How?"

A shiver ran through Mai. It didn't make any sense. They'd carefully counted the candles when they started, and certainly no one had forgotten to put one out after their story, not even Mikoto. It was as if some unearthly force was re-lighting them, preventing them from getting to the end of the game.

She spun around in place.

"Kagutsuchi!"

Her CHILD froze, his lips already pursed to exhale a puff of fire at the unlit wick an inch from his mouth. He turned and looked at her, trying his very best (and utterly failing) to present an impression of lamb-like innocence.

"Mrowr?" he asked, sounding like a whale was trying to meow.

"If you were scared that a real ghost was going to show up when we were done, you should have just gone over to Reito's and watched the baseball game with him and Tate."

Kagutsuchi's head sagged. "Mrorow."