Untouchable (Part 1)

Perhaps I didn't see her because of my hair covering my entire left eye, or maybe I was just in so much of a hurry that I didn't notice her in the middle of the walkway. Either way, I guess how it happened doesn't really matter.

I was on the way to school, in a hurry, since I was already about to be late. After parking my bicycle at one of the lots in the compound I dashed straight toward the block that my classroom was in. As I rounded a corner, that's when it happened. I sprinted straight into her. Or I should probably say, I sprinted straight through her.

 

My name is Hayashi Shimura. I'm an anomaly hunter, anomalist in short. Or rather, that's what I used to be. Killing monsters and dealing with anomaly-related problems was my job. Since I was around 7 years old, over and above my basic education, I've been rigorously trained to fight against monsters. The world is dangerous. Monsters coexist with us humans, and both parties don't get along very well. Fighting them is what I was trained for. They cause problems for humans, and people pay anomalists like me to fix them.

Anyway, I'd like to put emphasis on the words "used to". As of now, I'm studying in high school, trying to work towards a future which would preferably not involve near-death experiences at least twice a week.

...

Tsubaki Nagano. At the time, she'd been my classmate for about a year. A rather quiet and mysterious girl. I didn't really see her talk to anyone outside of school, and she was the type that stayed dead silent in class. I guess I'm not one to talk, though, since I'm a very introverted person myself.

I had definitely collided with her, but strangely the only opposing force I felt on my body was just her clothes just brushing against my jacket.

She didn't react much either, I noticed. Her body hardly moved at all despite the impact, probably because she didn't feel it either. It was as if I had just passed right through her. With all these thoughts running through my head, I nearly forgot my manners. I turned back to face her.

"Sorry," I managed to say, still trying to deduce some kind of logical reasoning as to what just happened.

She didn't say anything in response. She narrowed her eyes at me, almost menacingly in fact. It didn't really matter to me if she didn't want to accept my apology. I'd gotten pretty used to being treated like dirt by everyone during the many years I spent as a pseudo-vampire.

I flipped the hood of my jacket on and went on my way. I made sure to take another staircase so that we wouldn't have to walk near each other.

I arrived to class just on time.

 

The incident kept playing itself over and over again in my head. For whatever reason, I couldn't really get over it. I thought I'd just imagined myself not feeling any impact, but I was very sure she didn't feel it either. Normally I wouldn't be so surprised over such a thing, since I've dealt with much more bizarre things in my time as an anomalist. But after not taking jobs for about a year, having something strange like that happen again just felt weird.

...

The class was dismissed for recess. I trudged slowly down the stairs to the canteen, my hands in the pockets of the same hoodie I used to wear to block out sunlight.

"Hayashi?"

I blinked twice as I was jolted out of my thoughts. I spun around to see Aria, another one of my female classmates.

 

Aria Shio. Contrary to Tsubaki, she's always been very popular, and I'd wager it's because of her looks. Her cute face was always charming in its own way, even when she wore those glasses of hers that had huge frames. She had nice, long brown hair which often rested on her shoulders, and her petite appearance just added on to her features. I'd never really seen her wear anything else besides the school uniform, but it did a good job at showing how nice her figure was. On top of that, she's headstrong, smart and caring at the same time. Pretty much everything any guy would look for in a girl, huh?

But all that aside, I've never thought of her in that way, although I would agree that any guy wouldn't mind dating her. Aria is probably one of the closest people to me in school. Well, I only personally know about 2 or 3 people, so it'd be more accurate to just say she's one of the only people I actually know in school. She's done a lot to help me not just in terms of my academics, but she also helped me in the past when I was still an anomalist, suffering from the curse of a vampire queen. To put things simply, I'm deeply indebted to her.

Apart from all that, she's also mostly the only one who keeps me company at school. Although she has many other friends as well, she seems to like being around me more than other guys, probably because I don't just hang out with her out of infatuation.

 

She beamed and waved at me. She was holding a bunch of papers and her pencil case.

"Are you alright?" Her voice was as gentle as ever.

"Yeah, I just..." my voice trailed off. How was I supposed to explain such a weird situation to her?

"I was just thinking about something." I completed my sentence. My eyes darted around, still pondering over what had happened.

"Do you... want to talk about it?" She smiled warmly.

"Yeah, sure. Let's get something to eat, too."

...

We sat at the usual table we used every recess.

"Is something like... bothering you?" She asked as she scribbled things down intently on her notebook while looking at a worksheet.

"It's not bothering me, but it's difficult to explain it to someone else." I answered, stirring my drink. "Do you... talk to Tsubaki much?"

"Tsubaki?" She stopped writing and tilted her head slightly. "Not really..."

"I see." Tsubaki didn't talk to anyone in class. I guess Aria was no exception.

"Why'd you ask? It's not like you to care about other people."

She was right. Truth be told, I've never really liked people in general. Partly because most guys my age seem like complete airheads to me, but mostly because I'd seen the nastier side of humans during the time I'd spent under the influence of my curse. People saw me as a vampire, and I was treated like one. It was pretty bad. I'd still offered help to humans as an anomalist, but I never helped them because I actually cared about them, it was more just for myself. A form of self-fulfillment, you could say.

"That's true," I replied. "I just want to find out a bit more about who she is."

"Hmm.." She started to spin her pen and tilted her head even more. "Well, I did hear some rumors..."

"Anything helps."

She leaned in to whisper in my ear. "Some people have been saying she's got a problem with her body, like... no matter how hard you try you can never touch her, but it's hard to say for sure since it's obvious that she's able to touch inanimate objects."

I narrowed my eyes. What she said had a strange connection to my experience. I could try to explain what happened earlier today, but perhaps it would be best not to worsen the rumors and say something that might not even be true.

"That's interesting," I said, trying to feign ignorance. "Well, I can't really tell you what happened because I'm not even sure if it happened or not, but thanks for talking to me anyway."

"Glad I could help!" She said cheerfully, smiling happily at me. She put a spoonful of rice into her mouth and went back to scribbling things down.

I watched silently while taking a sip from my drink. Aria took her studies extremely seriously, probably to the point where it was actually unhealthy. Her grades were undoubtedly outstanding, but it was as if all she ever did was work. Studying during breaks was perfectly normal to her. The amount of time she spent studying was so much to the point that it bugged me.

"It's uh... called recess for a reason, you know," I said, trying not to snicker.

She finished chewing. "What do you mean? We're not in class now, I'm aware of that," she replied. She was expressing genuine confusion.

That's not okay.

I exhaled and smirked to myself. I'd talked about this with her a few times already, but it was still worth a shot. "That's... that's not my point." I tried to explain. "I uh... looked up the definition of recess the other day, it's actually meant to be a break. Like, it's there so you can rest."

"I am resting," she replied. "I'm just making notes now, I'm not doing any work."

Does that not count as work to her? What the hell?

"And I can take breaks while doing work too, you know. It's called multitasking." She added on.

Is that how multitasking is supposed to work? Is she some kind of superhuman?

"I don't think the words 'break' and 'work' go together in a sentence like that..." I responded. "Well, I tried. Let's have this exact same conversation again in 3 days."

"You're relentless, aren't you?" She giggled as she continued writing. "You won't convince me to stop bringing my things down during recess to study-"

"So you do get what I'm trying to say!"

Recess eventually came to an end, and we headed back up to class.

...

I opened my eyes. My head was resting on my arms, which were sprawled out on my table. I shifted my head slightly and looked around the classroom. Empty.

Huh. I must have slept through class again. I rest my head on my table very often during class, and it usually results in me dozing off, not really because I'm tired, but because I just can't bring myself to be interested in anything being taught in class. It doesn't help that I sit all the way at the back, either. Well, it didn't really matter. I could always just ask Aria about what I missed, and she'd probably be able to recite everything the teachers said, word for word.

I shifted my vision to the clock hanging at the front of the room. Class ended a while ago. I had nothing to do in school anymore, so I decided to just head home. I yawned as I lifted my head slowly, preparing to stretch my arms.

The back of my neck touched something sharp. I immediately stopped moving.

To be continued.

2: Untouchable (Part 2)

Untouchable (Part 2)

"Don't move."

The voice was a female's, and took on an intimidating tone. Was I being robbed? Couldn't be, since whoever it was could have just stolen my things while I was asleep. It's also in pretty bad taste to try to rob your own schoolmate. So what could this person be after? Interesting. I did as I was told and remained still.

"Stand. Slowly."

In reality, I could have just spun around and disarmed the person, but I decided to just play along to see what her motivations were. I didn't recognize the voice, but I'd already taken an extremely wild guess as to who the person was. As I got up, the sharp object against my neck was slowly lifted as well, but did not break contact. The person moved my chair aside as I stood up.

"Hands up, and turn around. No sudden movements."

I obeyed once more. As I turned around, the object touching my neck remained stationary, and was pointed at my throat after I had fully turned. My raised arm had passed straight through the person's limb. My guess was correct. Before me was none other than Tsubaki Nagano, the girl I had passed through earlier today. I wanted to say something, but I decided to remain silent. The stance she took while pointing her Swiss army knife at me was impressively delicate and precise. She seemed to have some background in knife fighting.

"Hayashi Shimura." she said in a sullen tone. "I have a request, or rather, an order for you."

I remained completely still. The tip of the blade was still against my throat.

"And for the sake of your life, you will adhere to it." The features on her face were completely still, and the only thing that seemed to be moving was her mouth.

I nodded slowly.

"Assuming you haven't already realized, my body is incorporeal." she continued. "However, this is only the case for humans. I am able to touch other objects normally, like this knife, for instance."

Strange. In all my years as an anomalist, I'd never dealt with something like this before.

"Your order from me," she narrowed her eyes and increased the pressure of her knife on my throat. "is to keep what happened this morning a secret, and remain quiet about it no matter what. If you fail to comply with this, I will kill you."

Killing me would probably just land her into even more trouble. And unfortunately for her, such a threat would have worked on anyone that wasn't me.

"If it makes you feel any better, I will tell you the reason behind my condition. I encountered a demon a long time ago, and it cast a spell on me."

Huh. Demons don't normally use magic that isn't of destructive nature. Her description was probably inaccurate.

"So, from this moment forth, you will not speak a single word about me. There are already enough rumors going around, I don't need you to go around confirming them by spreading what happened this morning." She glared menacingly at me.

This had gone on for long enough. I had already found out what she was after, so I had no reason to remain silent anymore.

"Do you think," I tilted my head slowly to side. "I'm afraid of you?" My hair moved just enough for her to get a glimpse of my left eye.

She did a good job of hiding it, but I could see a hint of shock and fear in her eyes during that split second. I seized the moment and grabbed the blade of her knife, yanking it out of her hands and cutting my palm in the process. I dropped the knife on the floor next to me. It was covered with my blood, which was still oozing out of the wound it had sliced in the middle of my palm. She stood there dumbfounded, probably not knowing what she should do next.

"I have no intention of taking any orders from you." I said sternly. "But I will tell you this." I raised my injured palm. The wound was already rapidly closing. Some of my vampiric powers remained, one of them being enhanced regeneration. "I can help you with your problem. If you're willing to let me." I wiped the blood off my palm with my other hand, showing my now fully healed palm.

Her eyes widened in shock. "How... is that possible?"

I smirked faintly to myself. Her reaction was somewhat satisfying. I grabbed my things and exited the classroom. She continued standing idly behind my table with a look of awe and shock on her.

...

I made my way towards the school's main gate where my bike was parked, like I usually did every day after school was over.

"Hayashi? Oh my goodness, are you alright?" Aria ran up to me from behind. "Your hands, they're..."

Shoot. I forgot to go wash the blood off my hands. That tends to happen a lot, since after my wounds healed I would completely forget about everything because the pain had gone away, and just leave the blood there. I stopped walking and turned to face her.

"..they're bleeding! What happened? Did you get into a fight? Weren't you sleeping in class?" she rattled off a bunch of questions in rapid succession, sounding extremely worried.

"I'm fine, I'm alright," I chuckled. "You of all people should know that." That was true. Aria was one of the few people who knew about my vampiric curse, and she'd seen me recover from injuries that were way worse before. Yet, she always overly concerned herself with my well-being, which I found to be slightly amusing at times. I showed her my palms. They were perfectly fine.

"Oh, thank goodness. What happened to you?" she continued questioning me anyway.

After what had just happened in the classroom, I decided that it would probably be best to keep it between me and Tsubaki, so I came up with a lie.

"I was... playing with a penknife when I woke up. Because I was bored."

Crap. That wasn't very convincing, was it? Do I even have a penknife in my pencil case?

"What? Why would you do such a thing? You're so silly sometimes, you know that?"

Wow. She believed me.

"Just because you can regenerate doesn't mean you can go around doing dangerous things like that! What if one day you lose your powers? What if one day your body can't regenerate anymore and you die? And what if you got an infection? Your powers won't help with that!" She began lecturing me.

"Sorry, sorry!" I apologized. "It won't happen again, I promise!"

As caring and innocent as she was, she was also very easy to deceive, which was probably a side effect of those two qualities.

"So... what are you still doing here? Class ended quite some time ago." I said, trying really hard to find a way to change the subject.

"You know I stay back for night study very often, did you really need to ask?" She smiled.

I smiled stupidly. I'm not good at talking. I needed to make my escape.

"Anyway, I'm going to head home, we have a lot of homework today, don't we?"

Needless to say, I actually didn't have any idea what homework there was for today.

"Mm!" She nodded. "That's true, you'd better go home quickly and get it done! Bye-bye!" She waved and ran off.

I waited for her to round the corner before letting out a sigh. I enjoyed her company and all, but sometimes I felt she worried about me way too much for her own good.

...

As I neared the main gate, I saw a person leaning against one of the walls near to the bicycle lots. She most likely decided to take my offer. I approached her neutrally.

"I accept your offer." Tsubaki said, eyeing me sternly. "However, if I begin having doubts about your true intentions, I will take action."

"That's perfectly fine." I replied confidently. I had no thoughts of betraying her in any way, to me this was just another job.

"First, explain to me. How are you going to return me to normal?"

I told her about how I was an anomalist, and that if a demon was what caused her problem, it was a job that probably only an anomalist could take on. But in all honesty, I didn't really have any ideas as to what I should do or where to start.

"Very well." She seemed convinced enough. "What do we do now?"

I got on my bicycle. "Hop on, we're going to go find somebody."

She sat on the back seat. "Who?"

"Somebody who can tell us what we need to do."

 

Toshi Sokuhara. My mentor as an anomalist. Loves money. Loves sleeping. Taught me swordplay.

Back during the time when him and I were journeying together, we made a very good team. Then, my strength far surpassed his thanks to my curse, so I was the "brawn" of the team, so to speak. I could easily cut down any monster and was extremely resistant to injuries. Toshi on the other hand, was more like the "brains" of the team. Although I do have basic and fundamental knowledge of monsters in general, Toshi has always been very good at identifying exactly what kind of monster a problem is caused by, and the best way to deal with it. He was also good at formulating strategies to fight against more intelligent monsters and finding ways to exploit weaknesses of very powerful ones.

He's past his prime now, but thankfully his knowledge and intuition from his experience still lingers. I figured that if there was someone who could help me find out what to do to fix Tsubaki's problem, he was probably the only person.

To be continued.

3: Untouchable (Part 3)

Untouchable (Part 3)

I stared blankly at the screen of my phone. I had sent Toshi a message letting him know that I'd found someone that could use our help, and asked him if it was fine for us to come over to his apartment. He saw my message, but the only thing in his reply was a smiley-face emote wearing sunglasses.

What the hell is this supposed to mean? Is that a yes or a no?

Well, whatever. We'll just go anyway. If he wanted to say no he would probably have done so. Although it wouldn't have killed him to just type in three letters.

 

It had been a while since I last shared my bicycle with someone. Tsubaki wasn't very heavy, but it was tiring nonetheless. I wasn't used to pedaling with the weight of two people on the bike. For the first minute or so, she remained silent. I couldn't really tell how she was feeling because I didn't look at her face. I had to look forward since I was the one controlling the bicycle.

Should I say something? What is there to say to her? I wonder what she's thinking. She most likely wasn't the kind of person who would appreciate petty reassurances, and small talk was something I had always been terrible at. Although I normally didn't feel anything towards my clients in the past, I felt compelled to comfort her for some strange reason. Perhaps it's just been a long time since I've accepted a job.

"Hayashi?" she suddenly spoke up.

I nearly lost my balance because I was so surprised. The chances of me winning a lottery were probably about a hundred times better than the chances of her starting a conversation with me.

"Hm?" I responded.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, go ahead." I saw no harm in answering.

"You just use this bicycle to travel to school, right? Why did you buy a two-seated cargo bike? Isn't that a very big overkill?"

I could see why she was curious. Nobody in their right mind would have bought such an expensive bicycle if they were just going to use it to commute back and forth from one place every day.

"Well, you're right to say I just use it to travel to school, but I used this when I was journeying around as an anomalist as well. During that time, I shared this bicycle with someone else, and we rode on it together. In fact, we're on our way to go see that person."

"I see." She replied.

We remained silent for another minute or so.

"That eye..." she started talking again. "... it's a vampire's, isn't it?"

"You could tell?" I was somewhat impressed. A regular person would probably be able to tell that my left eye wasn't a human's, but for her to be able to tell exactly what kind of eye it was surprised me.

"It was a guess. I've seen pictures, but yours still looks slightly different."

"That's because it's not just an ordinary vampire's eye. It's a queen's." I explained. Regular vampires had red eyes with a white sclera, unlike my left eye which had a black sclera.

"Oh." She sounded satisfied with herself for some reason.

The conversation ceased for about another minute.

"Sorry if I scared you. Back in the classroom." I decided to speak up this time. I figured it would be an appropriate time to apologize, since we were just on the topic about my eye. I wasn't the kind of person to care a lot about other people's feelings, but since we were probably going to be stuck together for a while, it would probably be better to get on her good side. If she even had one.

"I appreciate the apology, although it's based off the assumption that I was afraid." Her voice took on a much lighter tone all of a sudden.

"You were afraid." I rolled my eyes.

"I wasn't, the only reason you were able to snatch my knife from me was because I was surprised. Being surprised and afraid are two very different things, although I guess someone as dense as you wouldn't be able to tell." She suddenly started speaking a lot faster.

My jaw nearly dropped. That definitely wasn't the reply I was expecting. "I..." I didn't even know how to respond. I wasn't even annoyed at what she said. Just extremely, well, surprised.

"But since you went out of your way to grovel, I guess I'll accept your apology out of pity." She said triumphantly.

I shook my head. "Whatever you say."

She seemed like an interesting person, to say the least.

 

We arrived at the apartment building Toshi lived in. It was a quaint and small building by the roadside, similar to the one I lived in. The walls were painted brown, and you could see a few windows higher up. I parked my bicycle nearby and got off with Tsubaki.

"He lives here on the third floor." I said.

"I must say, Hayashi, you're not doing a very good job at making me feel safe."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"For all I know, you could be lying about us going to see someone, and this may actually be your home which you intend to lure me into, and do undesirable things to me." Her tone had a proud feel to it, but I could tell she wasn't serious.

I narrowed my eyes. "Do I really look like that kind of-"

"Yes." She didn't even let me finish my question. What she was implying didn't even make sense, considering that I wasn't even able to physically touch her in any way, let alone attack or abuse her.

I sighed. "Alright, you have your Swiss Army knife, don't you? Point it at my neck again or something while we walk, do whatever you want to make yourself feel comfortable."

An extremely faint smile appeared on her face. "I will admit however, that you have made an adequate effort in trying to be nice to me, so for this one time I will trust you."

...

I pounded on the door for the third time. The bugger was definitely asleep. I knew something like this was bound to happen, which is why I took the effort to send him a message before visiting. But even that didn't prevent this problem. I looked at Tsubaki. She didn't really have an expression written on her and was just staring blankly at the door, but I knew I probably looked like a complete fool.

As I was about to start pounding again, the door unlocked and opened slightly.

He looked almost the same as when I was a child and we first met. His long, white hair was in a mess as usual, he had a white and short beard, and his lazy smile that he always wore hadn't changed one bit.

"Hayashi? What are you doing here?"

I specifically told him in my message. Did he even read it?

He opened the door more and saw Tsubaki. "And who's this young lady? Already gotten bored of the last one?" he said jokingly.

"Don't make me seem like such a sleazy person like you." I rolled my eyes. He liked to tease me when I was around other people. Especially Aria.

He chuckled. "Heh, come on in."

He opened the door fully. I went in, and Tsubaki followed suit. His apartment wasn't very big, and the living room occupied around eighty percent of the entire place. There was a large sofa with a blanket on it in front of a small television, probably where he was just sleeping. I removed the blanket, put it on a table and sat down on the sofa. Tsubaki sat next to me, and Toshi pulled a chair from the other side of the room and sat opposite to us.

"So uh, do you need something?" He asked.

He definitely didn't read the text I sent him.

I explained the situation and Tsubaki's condition to him briefly, with Tsubaki's input here and there.

"I see." He eyed Tsubaki curiously. "Miss, would you mind if I tried..."

"Go ahead." Tsubaki extended her hand forward.

He leaned forward and tried to touch her hand with his own. His hand passed straight through.

"A demon, huh?" He leaned back into his chair.

Tsubaki nodded.

"Demons don't use non-lethal spells," he said, scratching his head. "So for one to have actually cast a spell on you which made you this way is extremely unlikely."

"What do you think happened to me, then?" Tsubaki asked.

"Do you remember what it looked like?"

"It was hard to see because it was covered in this dark smoke, but I know it was quite small... and I saw horns on its head too."

"Heh," Toshi tilted his head and looked at her. "It was probably a shadow imp."

"A shadow imp?" Her eyes widened.

"Don't worry, imps are very weak types of demons, but they're playful, in a sense. They like to toy around with humans, but they don't target just anyone. There's probably a reason why this particular imp chose you. On top of that, your description matches them quite well, and they're able to turn incorporeal, just like you are now." Toshi said.

"Do you know what to do to help me?" Tsubaki seemed very serious.

"Heh, of course I do. You weren't put under a spell or anything of that nature, your current condition is just a side effect of being linked to that imp. It's around you somewhere, probably in your shadow."

"My shadow?" Tsubaki looked down.

"All we have to do is draw it out and get rid of it. It's a simple ritual. There's an abandoned cathedral nearby, we can go there and perform it now, if you want."

"Can you give me some time?" Tsubaki asked. "I'd like to go home and prepare myself mentally."

"I understand," Toshi replied. "But you'll have to meet me there before the sun completely sets. You won't have much of a shadow then, and it'll be much harder to get it to come out. Hayashi knows where the place is, he can bring you there."

Tsubaki looked at me in expectation. I nodded. I knew how to get there.

"Then, I'll see you two there later." Toshi was about to get up from his seat.

"What about the reward?" I asked. "You're obviously not going to help her for free." Toshi loved money, sometimes he probably valued it even more than his own life. There was no conceivable way he was going to do this if he didn't get something out of it.

Tsubaki shifted uncomfortably. Toshi looked at her.

"Well Miss, you seem like a poor thing, so how about this. Normally I'd charge a fixed sum depending on the type of monster we're dealing with, and demons, weak or not, are no joke. But... just for you, I'll decide how much the work was worth after we're done. If it's as simple as I think it's going to be, it shouldn't cost you more than a hundred."

"Thank you very much." Tsubaki said. She seemed slightly troubled.

 

We exited the building.

"You said you wanted to go home?" I asked Tsubaki.

"Yes, just go back the way we came and I can tell you how to get there from school."

With that, we rode off.

To be continued.

4: Untouchable (Part 4)

Untouchable (Part 4)

The trip to her house took no longer than 15 minutes. She didn't live very far from school. We remained mostly silent during the journey there. I figured that she had a lot to take in at that moment, so I decided to just let her have some quiet time to herself.

Her house was average sized and had some kind of modernist architecture to it. It looked quite nice on the outside. There was a gate with a small yard in front of the front door. The second floor of her house extended above the yard and acted as a shelter as well. I leaned my bicycle against a wall in the yard.

As we were entered her house, she spoke up.

"Hayashi, can I ask you a question?"

The same words she'd said to me around 45 minutes ago.

"What is it?"

"You don't have to answer if you don't feel comfortable with it, but why did you decide to help me?" She sat down on the step at the main entrance and untied her shoes. "Even after I threatened you and took such a hostile approach, why did you offer your help?"

I sat down and began to take my shoes off as well.

"I'm just doing this because it was my job. It's like a form of self-fulfillment to me. Nothing else really matters." That was a lie. Although I honestly felt that way about my work previously before I settled down in this town, I felt different this time for some reason. I wanted to fix her problem not just because it would make me feel good about myself, but also because it would help her.

Normally I only cared about a job because I'd feel satisfied with myself after dealing with an anomaly, and what happened to my client afterwards didn't mean anything to me. Yet somehow I felt obligated to fix her anomaly. I felt like if I wasn't the one to do it, nobody else would be able to and she'd stay incorporeal for the rest of her life. And that bothered me. I don't know why.

"I see," She replied. "I suppose I can see where you're coming from."

...

Her house was huge on the inside. At least compared to my home. There was a large television mounted on the wall in front of a big sofa and a couch, and a dining table of some sort as well as the entrance to the kitchen on the other side of the room. The back of the room had stairs leading to the second floor, and a corridor leading to a few other rooms.

She brought me upstairs to a relatively large room. One of the walls had an entirely mirrored surface, there were a bunch of shelves and drawers around the sides, and a big bureau. There was also a small table with a few cushions around it in one of the corners of the room. I also noticed a sheathed rapier leaning against one of the walls. My guess that she learned some kind of swordplay was probably correct.

"I'm going to go wash myself up and change, you can wait for me and do whatever you want in this room."

I nodded in response, and she exited the room and left the door slightly ajar.

I sat down at the table, facing the wall. What should I do now? I looked at my bag.

Right. Homework.

Aria said there was a lot to do earlier today, but I didn't actually know what was specifically given out for us to do. I could go ask Tsubaki, but I'd rather suffer whatever punishment I'd get for not doing my homework than walk in on her showering right now. I rummaged through my bag and dug out a few math worksheets. They weren't finished, so I figured that there would be a high chance that they were homework and decided to start completing them.

Now I don't mean to brag, but for someone who missed a large portion of their education, I cope quite well in school, and it's probably nothing to be proud of but I still find myself elated every time I do something any other normal student would be able to do. In other words, I tend to get very excited when I do something as simple as solving a math problem.

Time went by, and I completed around six sums in the worksheet. I happened to finish the seventh one right as Tsubaki walked back in. And I may have high-fived myself in front of her.

...

"I'll pretend I didn't see that."

My face instantly turned red. I turned my head to look at her. I didn't get a good look, but all I can say is that I saw way too much skin.

"Ah- put some clothes on!" I immediately turned to face the wall again and covered my eyes.

"What do you think I'm wearing, idiot?"

I turned to face her again slowly. My bad. She was wearing clothes. She had a loose tank top and a pair of running shorts on. Can you really fault me, though? Compared to her school uniform, those were pretty revealing.

"Sorry," I tried to regain my composure. "I just, didn't expect you to come in wearing something like that."

"They're comfortable," She retorted. "You're pretty blind for someone with such a fancy eye."

Well, I can't really argue with that.

She walked over to the table I was sitting at and looked at what I was doing. She snickered to herself.

"Why are you even doing this now? This was supposed to have been done in class. We didn't even have any math homework today."

"Ah.. that's right!" I pretended to know. "But I didn't do this in class, so I decided to catch up now."

"Don't flatter yourself." She bent forward and skimmed through the question roughly. "And you got it wrong, by the way." She was trying very hard not to smile.

"You're in a good mood," I commented while erasing my workings.

"I realized while I was showering that I should be. After all, this anomaly that I've had for so long is about to be dealt with. Why wouldn't I be happy?" She took out her Swiss army knife and walked over to the front of the mirrored wall, practicing her stances. Her footwork looked similar to those of fencing stances at some points, but they were altered, most likely for using a knife.

"Why don't you practice using the rapier instead?" I asked snidely.

"Do you think I can carry a giant sword with me wherever I go?" She answered with another question.

"Does the technique still work with something as small as that?" I answered.

"It's not meant for small knives, but some of the knowledge carries over, in a way." She continued to step back and forth, practicing her approaching and covering.

I watched her intently. Her movements were precise and fast. I knew quite a lot about swordplay as well, but the style I used was very different from hers.

"Are you trying to show off?" I said, trying to sound unimpressed. Why was she practicing right now, anyway?

"I'm about to go up against a demon in around half an hour's time, what do you think, genius?" She shot me an unamused look.

What she said did make sense, but nobody had said anything about fighting anybody. The ritual probably didn't require that, and even if there was fighting, a mere Swiss army knife wouldn't help her much. But to someone who had no experience with anomalies like her, she probably thought the only way to deal with monsters was to kill them. Which wasn't true.

"Nobody said you'd be fighting anything," I replied. I paused and considered for a while. "And you really think I'm stupid, don't you?"

She turned her head. "If we're talking about the same person who high-fives himself after getting an easy math problem wrong, then yes, I do think you're stupid."

My face reddened. I wasn't all that bad at my studies, apart from having a bunch of careless mistakes I could usually do quite well academically, mostly thanks to Aria's help.

"Oh yeah?" I said challengingly. "Let's compare grades. Name me any subject you want."

"Physics."

"I scored a distinction for Physics in the latest semestral assessment. 75 percent exactly." I said proudly.

"Ha, I scored a distinction too." She replied confidently. "74.4 percent."

"That's not a distinction!" I responded accusingly. You needed at least 75 percent in a test to score a distinction, and I had actually gotten 74.4 percent at first, but argued my way into getting an extra mark for one of my answers in the test just to get 75 percent for a distinction.

"What are you talking about? Of course it is. The school always rounds up the percentages as long as there's a decimal in them because the total marks of the papers usually aren't 100. So my 74.4 percent would round up to 75 percent, which is a distinction. Although, I guess it's not surprising that you wouldn't know."

I wanted to believe that was a lie, but then I realized I had heard something similar from Aria before.

"I worked so hard for that one mark..." I said in despair. "I thought 74.4 didn't count..." I planted my face into my palm.

"Ha, that just proves my point. You are stupid."

"Well, I still scored a higher percent than you." I snapped back.

"Who cares? In a major exam you can't get anything higher than a distinction. That extra mark doesn't mean anything."

I let out a deep sigh and covered my face with both my hands in defeat.

"But don't worry, as long as you can solve my anomaly, you can be as stupid as you want." She assured me.

To be continued.

5: Untouchable (Part 5)

Untouchable (Part 5)

"We should get going soon. We have to be there before sunset." I reminded her, trying to change the subject from my intelligence to something else.

Tsubaki sighed. "Well, I'm not fully warmed up yet, but it should be fine."

She walked over to one of the drawers in the room and took out two dresses. One of them was white, and the other was black.

"Which one should I wear?" She asked while showing them to me.

"Huh? Um..." I looked at the dresses in her hands. I wasn't really sure, but the white one seemed like it would look nicer on her. I'm not really the best person to ask for fashion advice anyway.

"That one." I pointed at the white dress.

"Wait for me outside," she replied. "I'll be down shortly."

I did as I was told and waited outside the front door. Tsubaki came out of the house shortly afterwards, wearing the black dress.

"Why'd you ask me if you were going to wear the black one anyway?" I asked.

"I asked you so I'd know which one not to wear. Did you think I'd listen to someone who wears the same hoodie almost every day? Do you even wash that thing?"

"Heh. You have a point."

We got on my bicycle and rode off to the cathedral we agreed to meet Toshi at.

 

The trip took around 10 minutes. We arrived at the place and went past the gates to the building. Toshi was standing outside the cathedral, leaning against the wall next to the entrance, which was covered by a large set of wooden double doors.

I stopped my bicycle and parked it against the wall next to the doors, and got off with Tsubaki to meet him. He had also changed his clothes from the last time we saw him, and was wearing his old anomalist-gear gloves. I was slightly puzzled as to why he was only wearing the gloves, but I supposed he had a good reason.

"Are you ready?" he asked. "I've set up everything inside already."

Tsubaki nodded firmly. She didn't seem to be nervous or afraid anymore.

He walked over to the doors and pushed them wide open. "These doors only open towards the inside," he turned and winked at me. "Don't close them." I shot him an unamused look. What is he trying to imply?

The sunlight filtered into the interior of the cathedral. Apart from the light coming in from the entrance which formed a bright rectangle across the hallway, the rest of the place was completely dark. The hall was huge. There was a circle of small cupped candles right before spot where the light ended at the opposite side of the hall.

We entered the cathedral and walked to the end of the hallway. The place gave off a very eerie feeling. The patterns on the walls were peeled and scratched, and the entire place was very run-down. There were a few benches left intact and an old altar at the end of the room. I took a seat at one of the benches in the shadows by the side of the candles. I wasn't really needed for anything, so it would be best for me to stay out of the way.

"Make yourself comfortable here, Miss." Toshi gestured towards the center of the circle of candles.

Tsubaki sat in the middle of the candles and crossed her legs with her hands on her lap. There was just enough light for her shadow to be fully visible in front of her.

Toshi stood right where the light ended, in front of the altar.

"Shall we begin?"

"Yes."

Toshi muttered an incantation to himself, and the candles around Tsubaki lit up.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions. All you have to do is answer them truthfully." He explained.

Tsubaki closed her eyes and nodded.

"What is your name, miss?"

"Tsubaki. Tsubaki Nagano."

"How old are you this year?"

"Eighteen."

He asked a few more simple questions like this, likely just to warm her up. He probably didn't actually need the information from those questions. I continued watching curiously. Toshi's methods of dealing with monsters were always interesting to me, and I enjoyed observing them.

"From now on my questions will begin to get a little personal, so please bear with me."

Tsubaki nodded again. Her head was bowed, and she seemed to be in deep focus.

"Have you ever fallen in love before?" He asked the first question.

I narrowed one eye and widened the other. That escalated kind of quickly.

"No." She replied firmly.

"Have you ever been framed for something serious that you never did?"

"No."

I could tell what he was trying to do. Usually, demons would target humans who were emotionally damaged as they were easier to exploit. Toshi was trying to stir up Tsubaki's negative emotions to see what it was that attracted the imp to her. From her answers to the first two questions, heartbreak and incrimination probably weren't it.

"Have you ever done anything you desperately wished you hadn't done?"

Tsubaki considered for a while. "No."

Regret was out.

"Is there anyone out there you extremely detest for a certain reason?"

"Not really. No."

So it wasn't a grudge or hatred either.

"Have you ever been depressed?"

She pondered over this for a while. "I don't think so, no."

Depression wasn't it, too.

...

"Have your actions ever caused something very serious to happen to someone else?"

She flinched.

"I... I'd rather not talk about it." her tone became shaky.

"I understand Miss, but you have to answer me truthfully for me to help you. I know it's difficult, but I promise nobody else will have to know." Toshi said patiently.

Tsubaki took in a deep breath. "I... many years ago... my younger brother..."

"Take your time. It's alright."

"He met this strange man..." Tsubaki closed her eyes tightly, as if she was trying not to remember. "He gave my brother a pendant, he said it was a lucky charm that could grant him any wish..."

"Go on..." Toshi tried to sound as warm as possible.

"A few days after he showed it to me... A wraith began to appear in my house at night..."

"A wraith?"

"Yes... And eventually... I realized that my brother was the one who was turning into it at night."

I shuddered. I'd heard a lot of scary things before, but nothing like this.

"He was transforming into the wraith to grant his own wish. At that time, he was in middle school, so he wanted money to buy the kind of things kids would want. While he was a wraith, he would go to other people's homes and steal their money, but he wouldn't remember any of it the next morning. I told him to take the pendant off because of what it was doing to him, but he didn't believe me. My parents never realized what was happening, either..."

"What happened afterwards?" Toshi asked. He seemed to find the story intriguing as well.

"Eventually, after he'd gotten enough money he stopped transforming. But he went to find that man again... to get another pendant from him." Tsubaki started to quiver. "I... I followed him and tried to talk him out of doing it... but he wouldn't listen to me..."

"And?"

"Eventually after he couldn't find the man, he started trying to make more wishes on the pendant that he already had... I kept telling him to stop using it because it was dangerous, but he just ignored me... Eventually he began to transform again and did other bad things..." Tsubaki paused to take a deep breath. "And one day when I decided to take the pendant away and destroy it so he wouldn't be able to use it..."

Toshi and I remained silent.

"He died when I took it off."

My eyes widened. So that was what attracted the imp to her. Guilt. And just what on earth was that pendant?

Tsubaki began to sniffle. "But... it wasn't my fault... He would have died anyway... I didn't do anything wrong... did I?"

Her shadow moved.

"But in the end, you were the one who directly caused his death... Am I wrong?" Toshi asked, trying to invoke more emotion.

"I... I don't know..." She looked down in despair. "If he had just listened to me it wouldn't have happened! It was his own fault! It was that man's fault!" Her shadow was growing rapidly.

"Miss..." Toshi started to move forward.

The imp had appeared. Or maybe it wasn't appropriate to call it an imp anymore. Although it resembled a shadow imp, it looked way too large for an imp. It was a mess of black, shadowy smoke, but I could still barely make out a figure in the middle with my left eye. It had fed on Tsubaki's guilt for so long that it was already the size of a middle-schooler.

The shadow imp grabbed Tsubaki's throat with one arm and hissed angrily. Tsubaki cried out in pain and grabbed onto the imp's arm, trying to get it to let go. The imp seemed to be able to make contact with her body. I started to get up, preparing to help her.

"I'll handle this, Hayashi." Toshi grabbed the imp from behind and yanked it away from Tsubaki, pinning it down with his gloves. The imp yelped and screeched in pain. Toshi's gloves were plated with silver, which monsters were generally weak to. Even if the imp turned incorporeal, it wouldn't be able to escape from him. He continued to apply more pressure, threatening to crush the imp's neck.

"Stop, you're going to kill it!" I exclaimed. We didn't have to kill the imp to fix Tsubaki's problem.

"Sorry Hayashi," Toshi grunted. "but this time, you're not the one who gets to decide what happens to the monster. It's up to her." Toshi and I looked at Tsubaki.

Tsubaki was still struggling to catch her breath.

"Well, Miss? What do you want to do? If I kill it, your problem will be solved right away, but if you can convince it to leave you, that would work as well. The choice is yours."

Tsubaki slowly approached the imp, whose face was pinned against the floor. "I'll talk to it."

She kneeled down in front of the imp. The demon hissed and growled at her menacingly.

"I'm sorry," she began with. "I know why you're upset, and I'm sorry."

The imp calmed down slightly.

"I now know that you're the one who dealt with my guilt for me all these years so I could live in peace, and I'm thankful for that. But eventually I would have had to come to terms with the truth. Surely you understand that, don't you?"

It remained silent.

"So I'm sorry, but I have to let you go. I'm responsible. I'm guilty. I can't keep depending on you for the rest of my life. I'm sorry that you'll no longer be able to feed on my guilt."

The imp growled in response.

"So please..." Tsubaki began to break down. "Return me to normal... Return my brother to me..."

The demon grumbled and stretched out a limb that wasn't being held down by Toshi. Tsubaki reached out and touched it with her hand. A dark flow of smoke from the imp formed around Tsubaki. She smiled gratefully at the imp as she cried. After a few seconds, the smoke around her disappeared.

Toshi got off the imp, and it let out one final hiss before turning incorporeal and disappearing into the ground. Tsubaki was sobbing uncontrollably on the floor.

"Is it done?" I said as I got off my seat and stood next to Toshi.

"Yes. But she'll need some time to recover emotionally, I think." He replied. "Her guilt has returned to her, and it's probably a lot for her to handle right now. The imp isn't there to get rid of it for her anymore."

I nodded as I turned to look at Tsubaki, who was still sitting down and crying.

"It's true that she isn't fully at fault, but the fact still remains that she's the one who took the pendant off, causing her brother to die. She didn't want to accept that, though. So she blamed everyone else to convince herself she wasn't guilty. The imp just decided to help her in its own selfish way." Toshi explained to me.

She chose to lie to herself.

"She tried to put her brother behind her completely, but deep down she knew it wasn't what she wanted. Probably 'cause, well, she's his sister. She loved him." He looked down at Tsubaki. "But who knows, maybe getting rid of the imp wasn't so good for her. It doesn't change the fact that she caused her brother's death, and she'll have to live with that fact."

"It doesn't change anything, you're right." Tsubaki sniveled. "But what's done is done. Nothing can change what happened. But like I mentioned earlier when you were asking me questions, I don't regret what I did. I'd rather have watched my brother die once than see him turn into a monster every night."

"I see." Toshi said. "I'm not in any position to tell you what you did was right, but if you truly feel that way it's fine."

"Still, you can't be fully blamed for your brother's actions. Don't be too hard on yourself, that isn't good, either." I added on.

"Well, I'll be on my way now. I'll let Hayashi know how much you owe me some time later." Toshi started making his way towards the exit.

I approached Tsubaki and stretched a hand out, offering to help her up. Tsubaki grabbed my hand. I could feel her palm just fine, and she could grab my hand normally now as well.

Tsubaki got up slowly and wiped her tears. "Thank you..."

Ah, she almost forgot to thank Toshi after everything. Although it probably didn't take too much effort from him, considering how experienced he was. But then again, things like gratitude didn't matter much to him, he'd gotten a pretty fair share of it during the time we journeyed together.

"...Hayashi."

"Uh?" I let out a sound because I was so surprised. Why was she thanking me? I hardly did anything at all this entire time.

"If you hadn't offered your help to me in school, none of this would have happened. Thank you." For the first time ever, she smiled at me in a friendly manner.

"I..." I had no idea what to say or do.

"If you don't mind... I'd be happy if we could get along from now on..."

Get along? Me and her? Uh... What?

My face reddened and I started chuckling stupidly to myself. "Yeah, of course..."

Toshi was looking back and grinning at me too. He seemed happy for me.

 

The sun was already setting by the time we were done, so I sent Tsubaki home on my bicycle after bidding Toshi farewell.

"See you tomorrow." She got off my bicycle.

"See you," I replied.

As I was about to pedal off, she stopped me.

"Hayashi?"

I turned to look at her.

"Um... bye-bye." She smiled and waved awkwardly at me, and turned around to unlock the gate to her house.

End of Untouchable

6: The Gatekeeper (Part 1)

The Gatekeeper (Part 1)

[2 days after events of Untouchable]

I strolled lazily into the classroom. Almost everyone was present already, and class was about to start very soon. I took off the hood of my jacket and looked around. Tsubaki was already in her seat, reading a book while listening to music. Everyone else was either talking to each other loudly or screwing around in one way or another. I let out a sigh. Class was always so noisy and rowdy whenever a teacher wasn't around.

I scanned the room for Aria. No sign of her still. She hadn't been present yesterday, either. Strange. She's always been very conscientious and always turned up for school unless she had a very good reason. The last time I had seen her was right before I went to see Toshi together with Tsubaki the day before yesterday. For some reason, that all seemed very distant already.

She probably fell sick. Maybe I'll go pay her a visit after school. I sat down at my seat and took out my things to get ready for class.

...

The next few hours leading up to recess passed by uneventfully. Even though I'd only been back in school for around a year I already found classes to be horribly mundane. It made me wonder how regular people who had spent the last 10 years or so of their lives as students hadn't completely lost their minds from how dull school was. Or perhaps I was just too used to doing more stimulating things like fighting for my life against monsters that were trying to kill me.

Class had been dismissed for recess, and I was lying lifelessly on my table with nothing to do. I usually spent my recesses with Aria, so without her around there wasn't really a reason for me to go down to the cafeteria. I wasn't feeling very hungry, either.

"My, my, you're giving off such a depressing aura that I can feel it from across the class. It's as though your puppy died or something. It's unsettling."

I shifted my vision upwards to see Tsubaki standing in front of my table, her arms folded. Speaking of Tsubaki, I hadn't talked to her since we got rid of the imp. I kind of just left her alone for a while because I thought she'd need some time to herself. She's clearly been holding up quite well, though.

"Oh, Tsubaki," I said lazily. "um... I can go lie around somewhere else if you want me to."

She shook her head and sneered. "It was just a comment, you don't have to do anything."

"So... what are you doing here? It's recess right now, shouldn't you be downstairs eating?"

"Speak for yourself." She put her hands on her hips. "I wouldn't even be here if you had went down."

"Hm?" What did she mean by that?

"Well." She broke eye contact and turned away a little. "I thought I should talk to you and get to know you better. That's what friends do, right?"

Seeing as I didn't have anything else to do for the rest of recess, I decided to play along. "Well, I don't mind answering anything, what you want to know?" 

Tsubaki grabbed a chair from another table and placed it at the opposite side of my table. She sat down on it to face me.

"Hmm..." She pondered over what to ask as I lifted my head from my table and rested it on one of my palms. "I don't know, what's your favorite color?"

I tried not to show my amusement. What a lame question. "Black and red."

"Oh, that explains the jacket."

I was trying very hard not to smirk, but I think she caught onto it anyway.

"You're mocking me, aren't you?" she asked, sounding disheartened.

"Sorry," I said, still trying to keep a straight face. "That question was just kind of lame. And the answer was pretty obvious, too."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I've never tried to make friends with an idiot before, so I don't know what kind of questions I should ask you." she snapped. "What else could I have said? When's the last time you spelt your name correctly?"

"This morning." I replied sarcastically.

"Hmph." She turned away and pouted.

...

"Oh, you never explained to me how your hand healed so fast. Back when you cut it from snatching my knife." She faced me again, still looking sightly upset.

"Oh. That's a long story. Like, very very long." I scratched my head.

"Tell me." She rested her head on her palms as well.

I sighed. I really didn't feel like explaining everything to her, but it's not like I had anything else I'd rather be doing anyway.

I told her a summarized version of how I was cursed by a vampire queen when I was young and dealt with her several years later. She listened intently while asking a few things here and there. She seemed to find my story quite interesting, which wasn't really a surprise, since she probably wasn't as familiar with monsters as I was.

"...so to be completely precise, the curse was never actually lifted, it's just extremely suppressed. It only strengthens when my hatred towards monsters grows. That's why some symptoms like my healing powers remain. The more I hate monsters, the closer to a vampire I become." I finished.

"I see." She nodded. "Your life must have been very tough, then. I can see why you decided to stop journeying around and settle down after all that."

"Mhmm."

She tilted her head. "So, from what you've been telling me, you're very fond of Aria, aren't you?"

"Yeah, she's the main reason I was able to suppress my curse. If I hadn't encountered her, I'd probably be dead." I replied.

"She hasn't been coming to school lately." She turned her head to look at Aria's empty seat.

"I was thinking of visiting her later today. She might have fallen ill."

Tsubaki turned back to face me. "Do you think she'll mind if I come along?"

"No, I don't think so." I paused. "Wait. You didn't even ask me what I think." I gave her a morose look.

Her eyes shifted away from me. "Your opinion doesn't matter, I've just always kind of wanted to get to know her, that's all." 

Really? I had a hard time believing what she said.

"I don't have a problem with it anyway." I rolled my eyes.

"By the way," she looked back at me and blushed. "I've... been wanting to thank you properly."

"Why me? All I did was sit at the side and do nothing that day. You should be thanking Toshi, instead."

"That's true, but I'm already rewarding Toshi with money. From what I understand, that's already more than enough for him, isn't it? I wanted to ask you if there's anything I can reward you with. It can be anything, really."

"Anything?" I looked at her skeptically.

"Anything." She shot me a look that was almost flirtatious.

"Uh..." I couldn't really think of anything I really wanted at the moment. "Is it ok if I save my reward for later when I need it?" I was probably going to completely forget about it and never use it.

"Sure," she replied. "just let me know whenever."

The conversation ceased for a few seconds. I looked at the clock at the front of the classroom. 20 minutes had already passed by since recess started.

"So... would you like to know anything about me? So far I've been the one asking questions and making you talk." Tsubaki started.

"Oh, uh..." I thought about what I could ask her.

"If you ask me something lame, I'll stab you."

"It's kind of weird for a guy to be questioning a girl, though, don't you think?"

"In what sense?"

"I don't know... it's easier for a girl to ask a guy questions, but if I would sound kind of creepy if I asked you a lot of things."

"Try me, then." She said challengingly.

Good. I managed to stall enough time to come up with a decent question.

"Why did you decide to learn fencing?"

"Hm? That's a good question." She sounded rather reluctant to compliment me. "There's not really a strong reason behind it, it's just something I decided to pick up after I lost my brother. It helped me take my mind off him. Afterwards, I picked up knife fighting by myself because it seemed more practical."

"Were you and him... particularly close?" I asked hesitantly. Don't want to pry too much.

"Well... he was an idiot, just like you, but I cared a lot for him." She seemed ok with talking to me about it.

"How are things with your family right now, then?"

"My parents don't know exactly how my brother died, I only told them about how the pendant was turning him into a wraith. They were quite saddened when he passed away, but right now we're doing fine."

"I see. Sorry if I asked too much." I looked away for a split second.

"It's alright." She gave me a small smile. "Speaking of family, how's yours doing?"

I cringed slightly at the question. I didn't really know how to answer it.

"I uh... I live alone. Off the money I made with Toshi from our journey and some subsidies from the government. Toshi also has a job that he earns money for both of us from. My family's in some other town."

"Why did you decide to live here, then?" She questioned.

"Well, I'm not really wanted by my family. The reason I became an anomalist was because my parents wanted a daughter and decided to 'donate' me to the academy when I was born."

Tsubaki was taken slightly aback. "Oh, I..."

"It's alright, I came to terms with that a long time ago. They mean nothing to me." I assured her.

She looked down. "How do you do it?" She asked solemnly. "How do you just... accept things the way they are? Regardless of how miserable they might be?"

I sighed. "Well, you just learn to live with them. Some circumstances are beyond your control, and you shouldn't blame yourself for them."

"You make it sound so easy." She looked up at me.

"That's just how life is." I shrugged. "But at least whenever you feel unfortunate you could always just compare yourself to me, you might feel a lot better."

"If you always compare yourself with those who are worse off than you, things will never improve. That's what I believe, at least." she replied.

"Yeah, that's true as well."

We remained silent for a while.

"Hayashi, can I ask you something completely random?" Tsubaki spoke up.

"What is it?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?" A faint smile cracked on her lips.

...

That caught me rather off guard. "Er..." I shifted my eyes around nervously. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason in particular." She shrugged casually. "I was just curious. You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

I studied her carefully before deciding whether or not to respond. Whatever, she seemed genuine enough.

"No. I don't have a girlfriend. Never had one before, either." I answered.

"Hah, just as I expected." She grinned.

"I don't suppose you've ever had a boyfriend, either." I responded grouchily.

"Well, I at least have an excuse for it. I'd never be able to get intimate with anyone else while in my previous state." She replied smugly.

I rolled my eyes. What kind of crappy excuse is that? Relationships aren't all about that... right? I wouldn't know.

"Whatever you say," I said.

"But you're the kind of person who doesn't like other people very much, aren't you?" she asked.

"You're not wrong to say that."

"So I guess I'm amazing for being able to get along with you." She snickered and got up from her chair. She turned to looked at the clock. Recess was ending in around 10 minutes.

"I'm going to go downstairs and eat something before recess ends." She put the chair back and walked towards the doors of the classroom. She turned back to face me. "Um... thanks for talking to me." Her face turned slightly red.

She opened the door and stepped out of the room.

"Tsubaki? Can I tell you something very quickly?" There was one small thing regarding her I needed to clarify.

"What is it?" She stepped back in and looked at me again.

"I just wanted to say... don't feel obliged to be friendly with me just because I helped you with your imp problem. It's fine if you don't really want me around you."

She looked shocked at first, but her lips eventually curled into a smile.

"Don't worry, it's not like that." She assured me warmly.

She waved at me one last time before leaving the classroom.

I continued to stare at the door. I'd only really known Tsubaki for 3 days, yet she had changed such a considerable amount while retaining some parts of her old personality. Or maybe this was just the way she was before she became emotionally damaged. Well, either way, I'm curious to see how she'll interact with Aria.

To be continued.