Chapter 1

A Dreadful Request

"Himeko, make sure you stay by my side always."

Sometimes, Bossun wished he wasn't part of the Sket Dan.

Just sometimes.

Because then he could guiltlessly turn down pain-in-the-ass requests that he knew would eventually drive him up the wall.

Whenever he saw Kuramoto Ayumi hovering near the Sket clubroom, Bossun prayed, like seriously prayed that she wasn't going to come to them with a request involving freaking Dante. He would literally offer money for someone to make Dante speak like a normal person and not with that ridiculous visual kei language of his because god he felt like scraping the inside of his skull trying to figure out what the hell Dante wanted to tell them every time he came to the Sket Dan with a request.

And had Bossun not been part of the Sket Dan, he wouldn't need to be here standing in the cold night, his knees buckling, his eyes watering from the howling wind as he stared at what was looming in front of him; a huge abandoned mansion that just screamed 'HAUNTED!'.

The dried leaves crunched underneath his feet as he shifted around uncertainly in front of the old rusty entrance gate of the mansion with its skewed, bent bars. The iron chain that connected the two leaves of the gate—secured with a heavy padlock to deny entry—clearly didn't deter trespassers from getting into the compound. Someone had pulled the gate off one of its hinges from the stone wall surrounding the huge area and pushed one of the gate corners inwards, creating a hole big enough for a grown man to pass through.

About thirty metres further in beyond the gate was a big old oak tree, its many huge branches growing in all directions, reaching out like a fat, static bursting firework, plunging the front yard into dark shadows. And beyond that tree and the darkness was the supposedly haunted mansion, mostly shrouded in overgrown brush and creepy shadows.

Bossun tried not to stare at the mansion for too long. The shadows enveloping it seemed to morph into something else entirely if he did—something eerie out of a nightmare and he definitely didn't want to see that.

The wind kept on roaring and howling, and just like in scary movies, rolls of dark clouds started parading across the new moon, making the dark night even darker. Bossun stood underneath an old street lamp that amazingly was still working, showering him in a pool of dim light but even that wasn't enough to push away the chill that was quickly gripping him.

"Bossun, are you sure about this?" a quiet voice whispered in his ear.

He knew she'd been there at his side all this while but he still jumped at the sound of her hushed voice.

Himeko had been clutching at his arm ever since they got there ten minutes ago, her nails digging into his skin even through his jacket. It hurt a lot but he couldn't really blame her.

Himeko had been against taking up this request from Fujita Rin since the get-go. The moment that first-year told them she had dropped her purse in the infamous abandoned Shimabukuro mansion at the outskirts of town, Himeko was already tugging furiously at Bossun's shirt sleeve and shaking her head no.

"Please help me find my purse, Bossun. There's a lot of important things in there," Fujita had pleaded again and again yesterday when she'd come to the clubroom with her request.

Bossun had almost yelled "No way!" the moment he heard where Fujita had dropped her purse but it was hard to say no to her shining, pleading eyes. Right after she had left the room happy and relieved that Bossun had reluctantly said yes to her, Himeko immediately started babbling all sorts of rumours she'd heard about the abandoned mansion.

"It's haunted, Bossun! There's no way we're dragging our asses into the Shimabukuro mansion!"

"But are they all true, though? They're just rumours, right?" Bossun had pointed out. Lately, he'd been hearing kids at school talking about the supposedly haunted Shimabukuro mansion but he didn't really pay much attention to the rumours as they sounded really typical and uninteresting.

"There must be some kind of truth in them! Nakatani from Class A said a lot of people saw a creepy-looking girl standing at one of the windows when they went past the mansion. And that there were flickering lights coming from the garage at night when there's obviously no electricity in there. Also, they say you could hear strange sounds coming from the walls if you stay inside the mansion long enough."

Bossun looked at Himeko skeptically, his eyebrow arched. Those things she was spouting sounded so damn generic and cliché, the most mundane stories of all ghost stories. They couldn't be real, no way.

"I don't think those rumours have any merit to them," a digitized voice said from the desks in the middle of the clubroom. Switch had been silent this whole while but his fingers had been typing rapidly away on his computer keyboard.

"I've done some research on the Shimabukuro mansion and I found this forum where people discuss supernatural stuff. Apparently, a handful of people had experienced some unexplainable incidents while they were there in the abandoned mansion."

There were sounds of furious clicking as Switch moved around his mouse on the desk.

"According to these people, while they were in the mansion with a group of friends, at least one of them disappeared for some time before reappearing in a different room inside the mansion, or outside in its large compound in a disoriented state with hazy memory. Then there's the typical stuff; seeing moving shadows, slamming doors, hearing footsteps and voices, etcetera, etcetera. Also, there is the so-called 'extra ghost'. These people were saying they heard a strange voice speaking in the mansion—"

"Nooo! Stop! Stop it, Switch! I don't wanna listen anymore! This stuff is creeping me out!" Himeko cried with her hands covering her ears, eyes squeezed shut.

"God Himeko, you're so damn noisy. It's just a bunch of rumours. And it's not even that scary," Bossun said with a roll of his eyes. "So what's the extra ghost?" he prodded, ignoring Himeko's wailing.

Switch's spectacles glinted as there were more clicking sounds.

"I'm not really sure myself. Here. Someone told their encounter with the extra ghost in the mansion. I'll read it out loud for you."

He took an exaggerated deep breath and started reading in an annoying, girly kind of way that made Bossun want to punch someone in the face.

"So, like, I went to check out the abandoned Shimabukuro mansion with five of my friends the other day in the late afternoon, right? The place was a mess, as expected, duh but it didn't look too creepy, really, so we were all kinda relaxed. We didn't think any ghosts would appear even if we summoned them because the inside of the mansion was so ordinary. Like, it could be your grandpa's home or something.

"I mean, the mansion was still mostly filled with stuff although it was obvious it'd been raided a few times and things got stolen from the way the furniture and things were in shambles and just lying around in the middle of the rooms. So anyway, me and my friends just hung out in a nice big room on the first floor where we could see the sun set through the huge windows. It was a really beautiful view, by the way. You guys should check it out!

"At some point while we were chillin' in there, we decided we should all take turns telling a story, didn't matter what kind as long as it's interesting. No one told a ghost story, though. Yeah, we were all cowards. We mostly told funny and embarrassing stories. We decided to go for three rounds before heading back home.

"So we lit a candle as the room was kinda dark and shadowy, sat in a circle and started telling our stories. After about an hour, I was the last person to tell a story for the third round. It was getting really dark by then I could barely see my friends' faces in the dim candle-lit room. When I was done telling my story, I got up and told the girls we should head home. But then someone said, 'But I haven't told my third story yet!'

"Now, you see, there were six of us there. So after three rounds there should be eighteen stories that'd been told, right? But one of my friends was insisting that she hadn't told her last one yet, which was strange because I was the last person to tell a story in every round. I couldn't tell which of my friends was saying that because the candle had completely melted and we were standing around in almost total darkness trying to figure out who was claiming that. It was difficult to tell because her voice sounded both familiar and not at the same time. It was really eerie.

"So, each of us started recalling all the stories we had told just to make sure and all of us had indeed told three stories each. But then I realized there were two stories that none of the girls had claimed were theirs. But that couldn't be, right? Because we have all told three stories each, eighteen in total.

"'Whose stories were those about seeing red eyes in the woods while playing hide and seek with their sister and sneak-drinking their father's sake thinking it would make them grow faster and they saw a shadowy figure inside the room?' I asked. It definitely wasn't me. But none of my friends said it was them. And that was when I felt someone breathing down the back of my neck, like a finger tracing my spine slowly, and I heard a creepy, whispering voice say from behind me in the dark, 'Those were mine!'"

"Kyaaahhh!"

Bossun almost jumped out of his skin from Himeko's shrill shriek at his side. He wouldn't admit it to anyone but he was actually getting a little creeped out by the story, too. A ghost unknowingly joining you and your friends hanging out? Please, just no. He tried not to show how much it bothered him when he saw Switch's little smirk.

"You think that girl's story is true, Switch?" he asked, his heart still racing from the shock earlier.

Switch shrugged. "Could be just their minds playing tricks on them. You know I don't believe in the paranormal."

Bossun almost forgot. Switch didn't exactly believe in this kind of stuff or he wouldn't be having his science-versus-paranormal debates with Yuuki Reiko from the Occult Research Club every now and then.

"I'm not convinced by this whole haunted house thing. Sounds like something someone made up just to scare people," Switch continued saying, turning to look at Bossun and Himeko. "We should help Fujita Rin find her purse. I doubt there's any ghosts in there. Besides, the mansion has only been abandoned for like twenty or so years. Not too long ago, in my opinion." He completely ignored the incredulous look both Bossun and Himeko were shooting him with. "It still looks like a normal house, just a little shabby and unkempt. And Fujita herself said she didn't see anything scary while she was exploring the mansion with her friends two days ago."

Switch was right. Bossun had passed by the Shimabukuro mansion a number of times before and honestly, it looked like any other ordinary house except, well, unnecessarily humongous and abandoned. Just because there were rumours flying around about people seeing ghosts in there didn't mean he shouldn't help people in need.

He leaned back on the couch he was sitting on, thinking hard while Himeko huddled unhappily on the other end. They were the Sket Dan. They shouldn't turn down requests just because they were a bunch of scaredy-cats.

"Alright. It's decided, then. We're going to the abandoned Shimabukuro mansion tomorrow after school to find Fujita Rin's purse!" Bossun had announced determinedly as he ignored Himeko's screaming protests.

And here he was now, feeling shivers running up and down his body as he took in the sight of the looming mansion, dark and ominous and ready to mess with him.

Man, this sucks.

Now that he was here, about to enter a freaking abandoned mansion rumoured to be haunted, he didn't think this was actually a good idea. Maybe he should have listened to Himeko. But he couldn't just ignore Fujita's request. The Sket Dan's purpose was to help people in need, after all. He was sure the girl would go take her request to Tsubaki and the rest of the student council if the Sket Dan refused to help her with this, and there was no way in hell he was going to let that happen.

I'll show everyone that the Sket Dan is a hundred times better than the shitty, Tsubaki-led student council.

The wind started to pick up then, making Bossun shiver even more.

"Damn, it's getting cold. Where the hell is Switch, anyway?" he asked as he pried Himeko's hand off him. He felt bad that she was actually shaking like a leaf but her grip was so strong it actually hurt a lot.

A faraway chime rang through the night, coming from the darkness of the narrow, foliage-covered pathway that stretched from the main road more than half a kilometre away, leading towards the entrance of the mansion where Bossun and Himeko were hovering about. Before long, they both saw a dim flickering light. Switch was heading towards them on his bicycle.

"Speak of the devil," Himeko muttered as they watched him cycle closer.

Bossun raised a hand and started waving. He was about to call out to Switch when Himeko's hands were suddenly back on his arm, clutching him even more tightly.

"Hey, you see that?" she whispered, eyes locked on the figure cycling through the dark road.

"What? Switch?"

"No, not Switch. That!"

"What is it?"

"There. There's… someone behind him. Behind Switch. You see that?"

Bossun squinted at the approaching figure. At first he saw nothing, just Switch swaying slightly as he pedaled his bicycle, nothing out of the ordinary. There was nothing to see. Himeko was just freaking out over nothing—

And then he saw it.

There was… hair.

Long black hair blowing in the wind behind Switch, reaching out in every direction like live tentacles, as if someone was floating behind him—

"Switch! Behind you! A… g-g-GHOST!"

Bossun screamed at the top of his lungs, already grabbing Himeko frantically to get them the hell out of there. He started to run—he didn't care where as long as he got them both away from the ghost—but his and Himeko's feet somehow got tangled in their frantic attempt to get away that they both stumbled onto the ground like sacks of potatoes.

They scrambled to get onto their shaking limbs, grabbing at dried leaves on the cool ground, screaming like a couple of crazy kids trying to crawl over each other to get up and run when Switch pulled the brake of his bicycle and stopped in front of them, the wheels letting out an ear-splitting screech and he pointed a bright flashlight right in Bossun and Himeko's freaked-out faces.

"The hell you guys screaming for down there? You two saw a ghost or something?" he grumbled as he got off his bicycle. "I brought Yuuki with me, by the way."

Bossun blinked as he and Himeko stopped struggling on the ground.

There, standing over him with her long black hair billowing in the wind was Yuuki Reiko, her sunken face and dark-ringed eyes looked even more eerie in the pool of the harsh white glow of Switch's flashlight.

"Hello, Bossun, Himeko," she said with a little nod, her voice wavering as always.

"Oh. Damn, it's just Reiko. Dammit Switch, don't scare us like that! Why didn't you tell us you're bringing Reiko along?" Himeko scolded, brushing dirt off her knees as she stood up, throwing Switch a scowl and flashing Yuuki a smile.

Yuuki tucked her wind-blown hair behind her ears, walking slouched towards the bent entrance gate and pointing her flashlight around the compound to have a better look.

"Don't be mad at Switch, Himeko. I overheard a bunch of first-years talking this morning about the Sket Dan helping their friend find something she lost in the Shimabukuro mansion. I've always wanted to take a look at this place, you know, since there's a lot of rumours flying around lately. So I asked Switch about it and he let me tag along."

"She didn't really ask me if she could come along. She just invited herself," Switch butted in.

"You say that like you don't want me here but you were the one who let me double-ride on your bicycle just now."

Switch shrugged, pushing his glinting spectacles up his nose bridge. "That's because you're a paranormal nut and this is the perfect opportunity for me to prove to you that ghosts don't exist."

"But they do exist! You just don't know where to look. I'll prove it to you tonight that—"

"Okay, okay, settle down you two. Now is not the time for your damn debates," Bossun interjected as he stepped in between the two of them, briefly giving Switch a look. He turned to Yuuki with an easy smile. "I think it's good that you're here with us, Yuuki. You can help us tell the real and fake ghosts apart."

"I'm glad to be of help to the Sket Dan," Yuuki said with a little smile.

Switch scoffed with a roll of his eyes but chose to remain quiet.

"Alright, now that we're all here, we can go ahead with our mission."

Just as Bossun said that, the old flickering street lamp they were standing under went out with a loud pop followed by Himeko's little shriek. The darkness around them seemed to grow thicker as everyone turned to look at each other with wide eyes.

"According to the occult, when a light goes out in the middle of—"

"So, here's the plan," Bossun said loudly, purposefully cutting off whatever Yuuki was trying to say as he pulled out his flashlight and switched it on. He wasn't going to listen to any scary occult stuff right before entering a freaking haunted house. "We go into the mansion, find Fujita's purse and then get out. We're not here for ghost hunting or anything else, alright? We're not here to prove anything." He pointedly stared at Yuuki for a second longer. "As soon as we found the purse, we get the hell out of here."

He looked around at the others to see all of them nodding.

"Seeing that we have four people here, I think it's better that we split into two groups. We can cover a lot more ground in a shorter time. Switch, you go with Yuuki. Himeko, you'll come with me."

Himeko pointed her flashlight right into Bossun's eyes with a disgruntled noise. "But Bossun, isn't it better to stick together? You know what happens when people split in scary movies," she said, sounding a little shaken.

"Movies don't really reflect real life," Switch said mildly almost mockingly, earning himself a glare from Himeko.

"Relax, Himeko. They exaggerate a lot of stuff in movies. Most of the time, ghosts are harmless," Yuuki said, squeezing Himeko's arm reassuringly.

"Really?" Himeko looked at her with shining, hopeful eyes.

"Yeah, really. They're harmless because they don't exist," Switch said before Yuuki could give an answer.

"Guys," Bossun said with an exasperated sigh. Switch could be really petty when it came to paranormal stuff and Yuuki Reiko. "Anyway, I have two walkie-talkies with me here. I'll keep one. Switch, you take the other. I heard a rumour that phones somehow don't work inside the mansion. Not sure how true that is but I'm not taking any chances. With this, even if we're not together we can still keep in touch with the other group." Bossun tossed one of the two-way radios to Switch who caught it swiftly. "Switch, Yuuki, I know you guys love to bicker but please try to stick together in there. The mansion is pretty big and I'm sure as hell it's gonna be really dark, so try not to get separated. Himeko, make sure you stay by my side always. I don't want to lose you—"

He whipped around in Himeko's way when she made an odd, squealing noise. Strangely enough, her face was a little too red even in the dim glow of their flashlights.

Don't tell me she's catching a cold or something. This is really not the time, Himeko. I don't wanna go in there alone.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, putting a hand up to Himeko's forehead.

"I'm fine, silly!" Himeko said, swatting his hand away, looking somewhat flustered. "D-don't just—say things like that!"

"Huh? Things like what? I was just checking to see if you're fine because your face is really red right now—"

"Shut up!" Himeko yelled, punching the confused Bossun in the arm.

"Wha—?"

"I-I'll stay by your side, Bossun, so… don't worry. I'm gonna be with you all night."

"Fufufu," came a gleeful voice from Switch's laptop.

Bossun looked at Himeko strangely. And what's with that smirk on Switch's face? Did he miss something? Whatever. As long as Himeko wasn't going to fall sick and make him explore the abandoned mansion alone, he was fine with anything. His friends were acting strange because they were scared. Understandable. He was scared, too. But as leader of the Sket Dan he obviously couldn't let it show.

He balled up his cold, slightly trembling hands, turning to look at all of them again.

"Everybody ready?"

"Ready!"

Switch was actually the only one who had enthusiastically answered verbally through his laptop with a fist punching straight up in the air. Yuuki just gave Bossun the okay sign with her long, bony fingers while Himeko barely nodded, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else but there.

Bossun sighed, already feeling weary. He had an inkling that tonight was going to be a very long night.

"Okay guys, we're heading in. No turning back now. Let's just pray that no ghost is going to greet us in there."

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Next chapter:

The Shimabukuro Mansion

"I could probably lose my way in here."