Ghost School

Second Meeting with Maeru

After our long conversation, finally the three of them who have high positions in spirit circles must return to duty. They just disappeared from before me and Yui.

We moved to sit on my bed with Yui embracing my pillow.

"It's the first time I've spoken to a spirit after entering High School. Plus, the spirit that spoke to me was the leader as well as his right and left hands. I became a little stubborn after my tension was gone" Yui muttered

I smiled thinly.

"Hows it? After talking to her, can you now think that Izumi isn't as bad as you think she is?" Much

Yui was silent for a while before finally answering my question.

"Yes. He was better than I thought at the beginning" Yui muttered

"But still, yeah! I just feel like he's a little better than I thought! That doesn't mean I like it! My two handsome men are much better than Izumi!!" Yui Shouted

I just laughed a little at Yui's behavior.

*

The next day, Yui and I went to school as usual. It's just that, Yui's face this time looks more relieved than usual. Maybe it's because he doesn't have to hide himself from me anymore.

We did our usual activities at school, then went home.

After returning home, Yui leaves for training with Kagusa and Kei. And since the two spirits are with Yui, so the task Izumi will be working on is three times more, which means that she can't meet me.

"Izumi right now must be in trouble because the tasks Kagusa and Kei used to do now must be done as well" I thought with a small laugh, imagining Izumi whining from exhaustion.

*

On the other side of the world, Izumi was now being surrounded by hundreds of bull-like monsters in front of her.

"Aaaargha... I shouldn't have had to have Kagusa and Kei help that fucking human!!" Shouted Izumi

"When this was supposed to be Kei's job, but now I do it. After this too I must meet the good spirit, which Kagusa should have done..."

"I still have to do my job. So when can I rest?" Izumi muttered

A single swarm of the monsters instantly attacked Izumi.

"Ohahhhh!!! I'm tired of all of you!" Shouted Izumi and continued to attack and fend off all the attacks of the monster fiercely

*

"Haaahs... I'm so lonely because they're all busy..." I muttered and leaned on the back of the chair.

I glanced at Izumi's book on my desk with another book.

"Let's take a look again. Will something else appear?" Mumbles

I grabbed Izumi's thick book and started to open it.

"There's nothing here" I thought and kept flipping through every page of the book.

And in the middle of the book....

"!!!"

"It's.... The photo I met at the school warehouse that day.... But why is it here?" Mumbles

"Is it okay to touch it? I won't be kidnapped by Maeru again, will I, because I touched this photo?" Mumbles

I carefully took the photo tucked in the middle of the book and looked at it. Just like before, in the photo there are 5 boys and 1 adult man in the middle.

"Aah!"

Then I realized 2 things after seeing the photo.

One of them was Izumi, the child on the left. Actually from the beginning I was suspicious because the posture, hairstyle and eyeballs were very similar to Izumi, only her hair was brown instead of black.

I also remembered my conversation with Izumi and Izumi's mother.

"It used to be 'she' still looks cute with her brown hair and blue eyes. His height was also at that time slightly higher than your body. 'He' was so adorable 5 years ago. Ah, naw. It seems like 6 years"

"The point is, 'he' is me, but not me"

Then considering that 'he' is described by Izumi's mother as having brown hair, Izumi in this photo is 'her', and is another Izumi's self, as he said before.

Then the second thing I realized was that, while alive, it seemed like Izumi and Maeru's relationship was closer than I expected. Because one of the 5 children was also similar to Maeru. His hair is orange, not black.

In essence, Izumi and Maeru seemed to be closer than just a normal classmate relationship. But I still don't know, what kind of relationship they had back then.

*

"One secret is solved, but there are other secrets that appear at the same time" I muttered

"You curious?"

I was shocked by the voice that suddenly appeared. I stood up and turned around to look behind me.

"You...." Mumbles

"It looks like you realized something after returning to look at the photo, yes" Maeru said

"Did you want to kidnap me this time?!" Much

"No. The same trick won't be of any use to Izumi. This time I came just to talk a little bit"

I became more alert and slowly moved away from him.

"I can't hear anything this spirit says! He is an enemy of Izumi now, so he must have come to have a certain intent. I can't let my guard down!!" Thought

"You're so wary of~ I don't have any particular intention of coming to you~"

"Nothing I want to talk to you about. Now go" I shouted

"As much as possible, I can't communicate with him too much and just make him leave, without the need for me to call izumi here" I thought

"What should I do?!" Thought

"Gdh...."

"Looks like you don't want to see me anymore, yeah. All right, I'll just get to the point"

"I can't hear it!" Thought

I close my ears tightly and close my eyes.

Then suddenly Maeru was right in front of me, and his left hand was holding my right. He took my hand down from my ear.

"What the...." I muttered in shock and reflexively opened my eyes.

Maeru brought his head closer to me and whispered.

"That's a family photo"

I was silent, not responding to her words at all.

"You don't believe it?" Ask Maeru

"There's no reason I should believe what you say!" I said and pushed him away

"Haha! Aaa... Interesting once~"

"I want to make you believe me"

"What do you mean?!" I'm just pissed

"It seems like I have to go now. Don't tell Izumi that I met you" she said, then disappeared

"He's.... Just leave...." Thought

Wuuushis....

And not until 10 seconds after Maeru's departure, now Izumi came.

"Izumi? Why are you here?" Much

"No, I just wanted to make sure. I felt like there was something with you, so I came here soon. But since those ugly monsters were fighting me, I got a little late"

"Did something happen before I came?" Ask Izumi

I was silent for a moment.

"No. Nothing happened, really..." I said and hid the photo behind me.

"Ah, okay. Then I'll go first. There's a lot of other work I have to do"

"Yes. Izumi was excited too"

Izumi nodded and disappeared from my sight.

"What's wrong. It's okay, really. Nothing happened between me and Maeru either. He didn't hurt me either. If I had just said, it would only add to the burden of Izumi's work" I thought

"Izumi has had enough trouble, so I shouldn't add to her load just because of a trivial matter" I thought