Daisuke here. Last time we met I joined a secret organization of exorcists who hunt down evil monsters which are disguised as regular animals. My training was going great until a super powerful fox monster attacked and my teacher tried to kill me. Now my friends and the organization are accusing me of being a monster in human form, but that can’t be possible, can it?
Chapter 13
I thought it was pointless to continue the whole super exorcist routine, so I decided to come clean to my friends. I already felt bad about lying to Shuro and everyone at school, so the least I could do was be honest with the people who actually knew about monsters. Mana and Nina looked a little taken back, Kurumi was as impassive as always, but Taisei and Kiyori just stared at me in awe like I was a brand new toy.
"It talks," said Kiyori as he poked me with a stick like I was an exotic insect.
"Hey stop it!" I said while trying to fend of his assault with my arm.
"You guys don't hate me?"
"Hate you? Why would we hate you," said Taisei as he casually rested one elbow on my shoulder. "We are like the only branch ever who has their own personal attack monster, just wait till I tell all the other exorcists. They're going to be so jealous!"
"But aren't you worried about me being some terrible killer monster?" I asked.
"Nah," said Taisei. "You probably don't know this but there are lots of good Obake out there as well."
"Yeah, we just never see them because we're too busy killing the bad ones," said Kiyori.
I was overjoyed to have some friends on my side, but I had to protest when Taisei started trying to take pictures to add to his photo wall.
"Come on, you'll be like the main attraction," said Taisei. I covered his camera lense with my palm to stop him from taking more pictures. "Why won't you just pretend to be dead so that we can take a group picture in front of you. I got Kurumi to burn one of my old school uniforms just so it'll look like you were beaten by Itsuki and everything."
I almost agreed to it until Taisei realised he could make the pictures more realistic by setting me on fire. He said that it was all part of his super secret plan to convince the organization that I was dead, but I knew he just wanted a cool photo.
Souta was a little more hesitant compared to Taisei and Kiyori. He curiously watched all three of us like he was still trying to judge whether I was okay or not.
Itsuki had been unnaturally happy (and even stopped trying to kill me) after everyone acknowledged that he'd been right all along. I saw him humming in the living room, but I doubted that his happy mood and smiles wouldn't last long before he tried to have me killed again. I knew that Itsuki's hostility towards monsters was nothing which could be solved over night, so I decided to confront the problem by talking to Itsuki myself. I also managed to find an ancient copy of Obake are our Friends from behind a library shelf. It only had twenty pages, but I thought it was enough to get my point across.
"Hey Itsuki," I said as I approached him in the hall. He stopped and stared at me blankly, but it was better than all the times that he shunned me.
"I'm sorry that no one took your side and believed you," I said. "And now it's great that every one knows that you were right, but don't you think it's time that we put an end to this animosity between us?" I said nervously as I noticed that he didn't share my enthusiasm. "Things don't have to be this way man, Obake can live in peace and harmony alongside people. Check this out." I flipped through the book and pointed to one of the ancient pages. "It says here that the Zhang clan in Sichuan China have been living peacefully with Obake for centuries. The Obake even protected them from foreign invaders and helped them to construct housing and farmlands."
"That's the way things used to be," said Itsuki. "Until those monsters betrayed them during a famine and ate everyone alive."
The book dropped from my hands and landed with a thud on the carpet.
"Look," said Itsuki sternly. "I know that you didn't know anything, and even now you don't know who you really are, but I have no intention of ever being friends with you again. I'm one of the organization's exorcists, so I will respect Akito's decision for the time being, but if you make even one attempt to hurt my friends, I will dust you without a second thought," and with that he spun on his heals and quickly walked away. I thought he looked a little sad, but that could have been my imagination.
Our chat hadn't gone as well as I hoped, but on the positive side we were now talking which was definitely an improvement. Itsuki also stopped glaring at me every time we were in the same room which was great.
I considered skipping school until forever (who ever heard of an Obake going to school?) but every time I was alone with my thoughts I would begin to mull over my situation and it was driving me insane. Nina's brother and Hugo also looked more threatening. There was one time when I thought my freedom would come to an end when I overheard them talking in the garden.
"I don't know why Hugo," said Nina's brother as he and Hugo practiced charms. "But I have a strange feeling that Kanako Matsumoto may be bluffing about that."
"Really? Why do you think that?" Asked Hugo.
"It's hard to explain why," said Nina's brother. "Maybe it was the tone of her voice, or her lack of any physical evidence, but I thought I had been so careful. I didn't think that anyone could possibly know about that."
"If you think she's bluffing then why don't you just tell the organization about that kid," said Hugo. "I'm sure if you ask nicely they might make it a quick exorcism and he won't have to suffer."
"Your right Hugo! I'll go call them straight away! But then again maybe I shouldn't," he said while looking conflicted. "I could loose everything, you saw what happened to that French guy David or whatever his name was."
"Devin?"
"Yeah that guy, he made one small mistake, and now he's doomed to spend the rest of his life in the lower rungs of the organization with no hope of promotion."
"Didn't he accidently blow up the east wing?"
"Yeah, but it was only a small explosion."
"I heard three people died."
"But he had no idea that was going to happen!"
"Are you saying that is even worse than three people dying?"
"Shhh, someone might hear you!" Nina's brother hissed. "My career is on the line here!"
After that they retreated into Akito's tool shed and began talking so softly that I couldn't hear them through the wall, but the organization never showed up to take me away so it seemed like I was still safe.
I needed a break from headquarters and the people who wanted me dead, so I went to school as soon as the first bus arrived. It was the earliest I'd been to school in my life, and I had no idea that there were so many people there half an hour before homeroom.
I felt fine until I reached the school gate, but as soon as I caught sight of my classmates I suddenly lost confidence and stopped. I stood there frozen and watched everyone walk past. They were chatting, laughing, moaning, yawning, and none of them seemed to notice that they'd spent the whole semester with a freak. I wondered how they would react if they discovered that I wasn't human. Would they think it was cool like Taisei? Or would they come after me in the dead of the night like a scene from a Frankenstein movie. I didn't know if even my monster powers would be enough to defend myself from five hundred teenagers.
As much as I wanted to stand there all day, the bell was about to ring so I couldn't waste anymore time. I mustered every ounce of energy I had and nervously put a smile on my face. I hoped that if I could fake it well enough, I could continue pretending that I was nothing more than a normal high school student like the rest of them.
I put one foot in front of the other and began to walk towards my class, but suddenly a short girl with curly hair dashed out in front of me.
"Hey Matsumoto!" She said so quickly that I could barely understand. "I need to talk to you."
She grabbed my jacket sleeve and began to drag me away. I obediently followed her because I was too shocked to do anything else. My heart beat frantically in my chest and I began to wonder if the girl had already uncovered my secret. Maybe she was like Itsuki and had a secret ability to detect monsters? Or maybe she was a spy for the exorcist organization? I knew they couldn't possibly keep believing Nina's brother's terrible lies forever.
She pulled me away from the gate and into the middle of the school garden. I stared at her with my eyes wide in terror before I realised that I was just making myself look suspicious. I then tried my best to smile and look composed.
"So," I coughed. "You, me, this bush. Fancy being out here this early in the morning."
"Will you go out with me?" She asked.
"Huh," was all I managed to say as my mouth dropped open in shock.
"I mean," she said nervously. "I saw you run on sports day and that was super cool, so I've kind of liked you since then."
"Oh," I said. "Well.."
I could vaguely remember seeing her in the class next to my own. A week ago I would have gone out with her in a heartbeat, but now how could I possibly allow someone to unwillingly date a monster. Nothing positive could ever come out of it, and in the end I would only hurt her.
"I'm sorry…...," I paused when I realized that I didn't know her name. "You seem like a nice person, but I think it's better if you go ask someone else."
I thought I'd turned her down kindly and we could part ways without any problems, but her nervous smile quickly turned into a frown.
"Why?" She asked. "Why don't you want to go out with me?"
"It's difficult to explain," I said while searching for the right thing to say. I wasn't used to turning down girls. Usually I was always the one who got their heart crushed. "I just don't think that I'm ready for a relationship at the moment."
"Liar," she said. "It's because you like that girl Mana Shinya in your class right? Everybody knows that you engraved her name into your desk."
"No," I protested. "That has nothing to do with it!"
"If my name was Mana Shinya would you date me?"
"No."
"How about that girl in third year? All the girls in your class said that you have a thing for older women."
"How do you even know that?"
"So it is true!"
"No, I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Do you think I'm ugly?"
"You're not that ugly!"
"So you do think I'm ugly!"
"No, no, you're very beautiful," I said while desperately trying to save myself from the small angry girl. "Look, I have intimacy issues!"
"You didn't seem to have intimacy issues a few months ago when you were hitting on girls in your class!"
"Things have changed!" I yelled. I didn't intend to get angry, but all the stress from the past few days made it impossible to hold back.
"Yeah you tell her!" Said a voice from behind me. I turned around to see that we had gained a crowd of thirty onlookers (and Kiyori and Souta) who were standing in a semi-circle watching us fight. One of them was happily filming everything on his phone. I was certain that it would all be on the Internet by the end of the day.
"Hey, you shouldn't let a guy talk to you like that," said one second year girl with her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, what she said," said Kiyori who was standing there watching with a half eaten apple in his hand. "This could be your last chance to tell him how you really feel."
"Aww, maybe we should do something," said Souta anxiously.
"We could, but it's way funnier this way," said Kiyori.
The small girl seemed like she was going to take their advice seriously. I could see her begin to turn red before my very eyes and I was certain that she was going to explode.
Maybe it was a good thing that I had decided to befriend Keira at the start of the year, because he was the only one to push through the crowd and save me from my horrible situation.
"Excuse my friend," he said to the angry girl with a smile before he grabbed my arm and yanked me away.
"Dude what was that?" Asked Keira as we power walked towards our classroom. "That's gotta be like the tenth best looking girl at school. Weren't you always talking about how much you wanted a girlfriend?"
"I changed my mind," I snapped.
"What's with you?" Asked Keira. "You seem kind of dark and moodier than usual."
"You know, I slept in, and then I burnt my toast, and then my favorite cartoon wasn't on TV," I said while trying to make up a legitimate excuse which was unrelated to being a man eating monster.
"What do you mean you slept in? This is the earliest I've seen you at school all year?"
"I ran," I snapped.
"But I could have sworn I just saw you get off the b-"
"Look," I said in an attempt to quickly change the conversation. "I just need some time to find myself, and discover who I am before I can start any serious relationships."
"Okay, whatever you say," He muttered. I didn't know Keira that well, but even I could see that he doubted me. We reached our classroom and took a seat at our desks. There was still a few minutes before the start of class, so I pulled out my textbook and pretended to study to avoid talking to anyone. I got so involved with faking it that I even began to read the book. I had no idea that the answers to all the tests had been written there all along.
"Hey Daisuke," said Yuto as he gave me a friendly nudge on the shoulder when he walked past. "Heard you turned down a girl today?"
"Shut up Yuto," I muttered.
I looked over my shoulder to see Itsuki enter the room and sit down. He pulled out his homework and began checking his answers without paying any attention to me. I was relieved that the harrassment had stopped, but Mana was nowhere to be seen which was a concern. I tapped the shoulder of the girl sitting in front of me.
"Hey, have you seen Mana Shinya?" I asked.
"Beats me," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I haven't seen her in days."
"What do you mean you haven't seen her in days?"
"Well, you guys in the community service club are always absent," she said. "So shouldn't you know where she is?"
I sat there stunned for a moment while trying to think of an answer, but my mind went blank, so I instead picked up my textbook and returned to pretending to study with a passion.
In the past Mana had always been a good student and attended most classes, but her attendance had gone downhill ever since she got out of the hospital. Her health seemed fine now and there were few monster sightings around town, so I had no idea why she wasn't in class. I had a feeling that something was up, and it must have been something related to what Kurumi told me about her face. I may have decided to stop pursuing Mana, but it was difficult to let go of my feelings towards her. Just the thought of something terrible happening to her made it difficult to breathe.
My history teacher entered the room and began the lesson. Class was a great distraction from my inner turmoil, and I even started taking notes for the first time all year. I even went one step further and began to color code them with highlighters.
"Can anyone tell me the year of the Russian revolution?" Asked my history teacher as he walked around the room with a textbook in his hands.
"Me, me!" I said as I waved my arm enthusiastically in the air. "Pick me."
"Okay, Dai-su-ke," said my teacher hesitantly as he read my name off my pencil case. It was the first time I had volunteered in class so he probably didn't know who I was.
"Just wait a moment," I said as I flipped through my textbook and scanned the pages. "1920," I said proudly.
"Close," said my teacher hesitantly.
"1945?" I guessed. I was certain that if I kept saying numbers I had to be right eventually.
"Anyone other than Daisuke?" Asked my exasperated teacher as he looked around the room.
"Hey Matsumoto," said the guy next to me as he nudged me with his elbow. "This is for you." He passed me a small piece of paper which had been folded up multiple times and sealed with tape. My name was written on the outside with red ink, and there were also several love hearts drawn around my name. It looked like a love letter, but I had already fallen for this trick before. I wasn't going to allow Itsuki to send me anymore threatening messages, so I tossed it into the waste paper basket across the classroom. I heard what sounded like a girl sigh behind me, but it could have just been my imagination.
The day passed more quickly than I could have imagined (possibly because I took a nap through math) and the school bell rang at three before I knew it.
I despised studying and I was usually overjoyed to go home, but on that day fear coursed through me as I watched my classmates pack up their belongings and leave to go home. School was the only place left where no one treated me like a monster and I was reluctant to leave it. The idea of going back to headquarters filled me with dread.
I spent an hour chilling in the library after class, and I then started wandering the halls after the librarian kicked me out. My homeroom teacher Mr. Yamada found me and tried to send me home, but luckily for me he had a tone of stuff that I could help him with.
"Are you sure you don't need help with anything else?" I asked him after I finished sweeping my classroom floor and organising the textbooks.
"You've already helped me enough Daisuke," said my teacher as he marked notebooks at his desk. "Don't you want to go home?"
"No way," I said. I noticed how dirty some of the windows looked so I picked up a cloth and began polishing them straight away. "I love school, I want to stay here forever."
"But you wrote that essay titled School is a Prison."
"Yeah, but that was ages ago," I replied.
"The gray brick building resembles a jail from medieval times," recited my teacher. "The teachers are like prison guards who lock in poor unsuspecting youth and force them to conform."
"But that was before I realised how great school is," I said. "You get to learn new stuff, hang out with friends, talk about what you want to be when you grow up. It's the greatest place in the world!"
"Go home Daisuke," said Mr. Yamada. "It's already five and the rest of us will be leaving soon."
"Fine," I said. I hesitantly stopped cleaning and picked up my stuff. I couldn't help but feel jealous that all the teachers were allowed to stay as long as they liked.
I sat on the school oval and watched the soccer team practice for another hour until they finished and went home. I knew that I couldn't avoid my life forever, so I sighed and made the long journey back to headquarters as the sun began to set.
Luckily it wasn't as bad as I had imagined and no one seemed to notice when I returned. Only Nina's brother looked up when I entered and began writing notes like he was still observing my every move.
I spent the evening in the library looking through books and scriptures for something which could give me any clues to my past identity. I knew it was a long shot, but there was a chance that I could find a picture of myself on one of the pages. I almost had a panic attack when I found a sketch of an Obake which kind of looked like me, until I realised that it was a girl. It would have been easier to concentrate if Taisei and Kurumi hadn't kept distracting me by making out in the attic space above the library.
"Tell me that we'll be together forever," said the muffled voice of Kurumi from above me.
"Forever baby," said Taisei in a strange deep voice which sounded like he was trying to imitate a romance movie.
"Say it again," said Kurumi.
"Forever and ever and ever" said Taisei before I couldn't take listening to them anymore and I left the room.
I was a little glad that at least things were going well for some people.
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Other Stories by M.C.Queen
Memories of a Soul in the UnderworldSummary: Ethan is a soul doomed to spend eternity as a slave in Hell for reasons he can't remember. After centuries of torment he finally snaps and goes on the run from those who enslaved him. Can he escape and become more than a regular soul, or is he doomed to spend an eternity in The Underworld? Read here for free
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