The Upperclassman in the Nurse’s Office and the Ghost Panic
The Upperclassman in the Nurse’s Office and the Ghost Panic
Early that morning, I woke up with lots of pain in my joints.“...Again?” I sighed.
I’d woken up upside down again. My eyes were still too bleary to see where I was, but I was guessing the living room. Lately I’d been experiencing an odd phenomenon where I’d wake up in random places in the middle of the night.
I moved my legs off the back of the sofa and stood up, rubbing my aching shoulder. I was sure I’d gone to sleep in my bed...
I looked around the dark living room, and just as I’d suspected, the door was open. I had no idea how I’d managed to get it open while I was asleep, though.
“R, you there?”
“What is it?”
“Gyah!”
Don’t crawl out of the TV! It’s scary!
“Don’t scare me like that!”
“If you yell, you’ll wake up Harissa.”
“Oops...” I quickly put my hand over my mouth.
I listened carefully for a moment to see if Harissa was awake now, and sighed in relief when I didn’t hear anything coming from her room.
“So, what did you want to ask me?”
“I know we’re going over this on a nightly basis now, but... Was I sleepwalking around the house again?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Ugh...”
According to R, I would wake up in the middle of the night and start wandering around aimlessly. I’d heard this from her a bunch of times now. R was always near me, and she never slept, so I had every reason to believe her.
It wasn’t always in this weird of a position, but I always woke up somewhere different. If I had to guess, it was most often in the living room, I think? Well, at least I was lucky in that I hadn’t gone into Harissa’s room yet. There was no telling what I’d do in my sleep like this.
“If I woke up in Harissa’s room, Satsuki would kick my ass for sure.”
“I don’t think Harissa would mind, though,” R said.
R never made any sense.
“What girl would be happy to find a boy trespassing in her room?”
“You never know.” R sighed and slumped her shoulders. “Why not head back to your own room, then?”
“Yeah, I guess I should get back to sleep. It’s now... ugh, 5:30?”
I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to get up on time for school at 7:30. Harissa might have to rip me out of bed again.
My whole body ached. Was I slamming into the walls while I was sleepwalking or something? That would be bad enough, but if I started falling down the stairs next, I might really hurt myself.
Sheesh. What was going on here?
▽
As I expected, Harissa had to drag me out of bed when the time came. Thanks to her, I wasn’t late to school, but my lack of sleep caught up with me, and I ended up passing out in world history class. The teacher caught me napping, and I was ordered to take a bunch of teaching materials to the storeroom in the old school building as punishment.
“Ugh... These are so heavy.”
Lugging a tube with a world map that was bigger than I was inside of it, I quickly ran out of breath. If I was going to fall asleep, I should’ve done it in math class... This thing was seriously heavy. To make matters worse, I had to carry it all the way to the old school building.
It was an old building right next to the library. No classes were held there, so it mostly got used for storage. It was pretty far from the first-year classrooms, so I had to go through two connecting corridors to get to it. First, I had to go from the main building to the special classrooms, and then from the special classrooms to the old school building. The connecting corridor forked halfway through. Going left would take you to the library, and going right would take you to the old school building.
“Whew... That was a long walk.”
I set the tube down in front of the door to the old school building and took a minute to catch my breath. Maybe I should’ve asked Iris for help. Well, next period was electives and a short field trip, so I would’ve felt bad asking her to take the time to help me.
“You know, he said it was punishment for falling asleep, but I bet the teacher just didn’t want to carry this himself.”
“That might be part of it, too,” R responded in her usual monotone voice.
Even though it was almost the height of summer, she was still wearing her heavy military uniform.
“What do you mean ‘part of it’?”
“Oh? You didn’t notice? When you were napping, Iris and Satsuki were having an argument.”
“Yeah, that sort of rings a bell.”
Actually, their argument had been what had woken me up. But wasn’t Rosalind there, too?
“Iris was poking you in the face while you slept to entertain herself, and Satsuki tried to stop her. Of course, Iris didn’t listen. So then Satsuki tried to wake you up and Iris got mad at her... Eventually, Rosalind ended up joining in the argument, too.”
“Huh...”
What were those three girls doing while I was asleep?
“Wait, I know I shouldn’t have fallen asleep, but why am I the only one that’s being punished?”
“Who knows? Maybe this has nothing to do with it, but that teacher is single, isn’t he?”
“...”
I really hoped that had nothing to do with it.
“I always thought one of the heroines would stab you someday, but maybe it’ll be a man who stabs you first.”
“So, I’m going to get stabbed no matter what?”
I sighed and ended the conversation. I’d taken enough of a break.
I picked up the tube with the world map in it and went inside the old school building.
The whole place just smelled old. The building wasn’t so old that it was made out of wood, but the windows in the hallway were poorly constructed and rattled whenever the wind blew. The old building was in the shadow of the new one, so with the lights off during the day, it was actually pretty gloomy. It was exactly the kind of place you could imagine ghosts appearing at night.
I headed for the storeroom in the far back, feeling a little creeped out. I opened the door and went inside, still carrying the tube on my back. Let’s see... I was supposed to put it on the second shelf, wasn’t I?
“There we go.”
I lifted the tube by its center and set it sideways on the second shelf of a wooden shelving unit. It wasn’t quite long enough to hold the tube, so I had to slide it in carefully.
“...Ow!”
What? Suddenly, my hand hurt. I looked and saw blood on my hand like I’d scratched it on something.
“Ugh... Did I cut myself on something metal?”
I hadn’t turned on the lights when I came in, and the shelves weren’t very organized, so I couldn’t really see what I was doing clearly. But there wasn’t much time until next period, and the cut didn’t seem that bad, so I thought about just washing it out and going to class.
“Hmm, I guess that won’t work.”
Next period was electives, which included art class. I’d hurt my dominant hand, so if I ended up dripping blood on my painting, I’d be ruining weeks of work.
“I guess I’ll have to go to the nurse’s office.”
I took out my phone and asked Satsuki to tell the teacher I’d be late.
▽
The nurse’s office was on the first floor of the special classrooms building, right next to the old school building.
“Excuse me, I hurt my hand,” I said as I opened the door. “Wait, huh?”
There was nobody inside. That was strange. Normally the nurse should be there.
“Maybe she’s sleeping on that bed?” R said, pointing towards one of the beds with the privacy curtain closed around it.
“No way. Well, if she’s not here, then I guess she’s not here.”
I could disinfect my own hand. I thought I could, anyway.
“Huh? Where’s the first aid kit?”
I looked around the desk and through the medical cabinet, but I couldn’t find it. While I was searching, I heard the first bell for class ring.
“This isn’t good. I’ll have to hurry.”
“......i.”
“Hm?”
Did I just hear a voice?
“R, did you say something?”
“No, not a word.”
“Huh? Then who...”
I looked to the left and the right, but I didn’t see anyone. So then I turned around... and laid eyes on a girl who’d appeared out of nowhere.
“Uwah!”
“......”
The girl—she was a second-year student based on the color of her necktie—looked at me and opened her mouth a little, but I couldn’t hear anything.
Her hair was in a ponytail so long that it almost reached her heels. She’d tied it up with a butterfly hairpiece that might have been an antique. It looked really gaudy. Wasn’t something that flashy against the school dress code?
“...i...”
She opened her mouth again, but I still barely heard anything. She looked at me with oddly sleepy eyes and a confused expression.
“U-Um... Where did you come fro—?!”
She suddenly grabbed me and hugged me! I had no idea why! And wait, were those her breasts pushing up against me?!
“Oh, my. They’re much bigger than they look.”
You didn’t need to tell me that, R! I already knew!
She put her lips up to my ear and whispered, “The nurse is in the teacher’s office.” Her soft but husky voice tickled my eardrums.
“You... You don’t say...”
She pulled her head away and nodded. Was that what she’d been trying to tell me before?
“Thank... you.”
She held me tighter.
“You’re welcome.”
So, was she whispering in my ear because her voice was so soft? Whatever the reason, it was really bad for my heart.
“All of your fanservice events seem to revolve around hugs and breasts, don’t they? After all the time you’ve spent with these heroines, you still haven’t gotten a single panty shot... Perhaps your own tastes are affecting the power of the Namidare bloodline?”
Shut up, R! Nobody asked for your opinion!
“U-Um... I understand that the teacher isn’t here now, so do you think you can let go?”
After I said something, she finally moved away from me. And whew... It wasn’t a moment too soon. She’d really scared me.
“Wait, where were you until a moment ago?”
The room was empty when I first got there.
“......”
She pointed at the bed behind me. The curtains were now open a little. Had she been sleeping there? That would explain why she looked so tired and why her uniform was a little... hiked up!
“Um, I can see your belly button.”
Her clothes had probably gotten messed up in her sleep, and the hem of her shirt had come untucked when she’d reached up to whisper in my ear.
“......?”
She looked down, grabbed the hem of her shirt, and tucked it inside her skirt like she didn’t really care very much. Maybe she wasn’t the type to worry about that kind of thing...
“......”
She then got up and went over to a small box sitting next to the medical cabinet. She removed the towel that had been covering it up, then lifted up the first aid kit to show it to me.
“Oh! So that’s where it was!”
“......”
She again whispered something in a voice too hushed for me to hear, and then she pointed to a steel stool.
“Um... Do you want me to sit down?”
She nodded.
I sat down on the stool, and she opened up the first aid kit and took out the disinfectant. Was she going to treat my cut since the nurse wasn’t there?
“Thank you,” I said.
I decided to take her up on her kind offer and held out my right hand to her. She put some disinfectant on a cotton ball and began to dab at the wound with it. It stung a bit, but I didn’t say anything. When she finished, she put a piece of gauze over my cut. Now all she had to do was wrap a bandage around it...
“......?”
“What’s wrong?”
I followed her gaze and looked down into the first aid kit. There was nothing inside that looked like a bandage.
“Did they run out of bandages?”
“......i.”
She said something again. I wasn’t sure what, but I could guess based on the frown on her face. But then she suddenly looked like she had an idea and took out a plain handkerchief from her pocket.
“Huh? No, you don’t have to do that. It might get dirty.”
I realized that she was planning to bandage my hand up with her handkerchief. I tried to tell her no, but she ignored me and wrapped it around the gauze. She was surprisingly forceful.
“Th-Thank y—?!”
She hugged me again! Her breasts, her breasts!
“Who were you talking to a moment ago?” she whispered.
Uh-oh. I didn’t think there was anyone in the nurse’s office, so I’d been talking to R. To anybody else, it must’ve looked like I was talking to myself... Please stop squirming when you’re hugging me!
“Can you see things that other people can’t see?”
“N-No...”
She wasn’t totally wrong, but I didn’t want her to think I was nuts.
“I’m really curious...” she said, staring me down at point-blank range.
H-Her face was too close!
Suddenly the door to the nurse’s office opened with a clatter. I struggled to turn around, and I saw a female teacher in a white lab coat looking at us with an exasperated expression from the doorway.
“Inappropriate public displays of affection?”
“No!” I yelled.
“I’m kidding,” she replied, laughing a little as she closed the door. “Tokiwa, you’re scaring the first-year student. Let him go.”
“......i.”
She complied. Then she staggered back to the bed and flopped down on top of it.
“Tokiwa, don’t go back to sleep. Next period is history class.”
“......”
She slowly lifted herself off the bed and dragged a desk over from the corner of the room.
“Um, ma’am, is Tokiwa...”
“Hm? She’s just what she looks like—a regular here at the nurse’s office. If I let her, she’d sleep like a cat all day until it was time for club, so I’m teaching her some things so that she doesn’t turn into an idiot.”
That was a pretty rude thing for a teacher to say, I thought.
“So? What did you come here for? To feel up Tokiwa’s breasts?”
“No! I just hurt my hand... You weren’t here, so Tokiwa disinfected the cut for me.”
“Don’t look at me like that. You enjoyed it, didn’t you?”
“I...”
The sad part was that she wasn’t wrong. I’m a teenage boy, after all.
“That aside, I think class started a long time ago, didn’t it?”
“Gah!”
I looked at the clock in shock and quickly ran out of the nurse’s office.
▽
Lunchtime, three days later.
I was eating with Satsuki, Iris, and Rosalind like usual.
“A ghost in the old school building?”
“That’s right. A lot of the first-years have been talking about it lately.” Iris nodded at me with a smile.
“The old school building, huh? I was just there, and it certainly felt like the place was haunted.”
“Huh? Rekka, did you see a ghost?” Iris asked intently, leaning forward as she did.
“No, it just felt like a place where one would show up. I didn’t actually see anything...”
I took a miniature hot dog out of my lunchbox and ate it. The end of it was cut to look like the arms of a little octopus. Harissa had made my lunch today, and it was looking like she was getting even better with her cooking skills.
“I see. Anyway, get this. The ghost is supposed to have really long hair. She looks kind of like walking seaweed.”
“That actually doesn’t sound very scary...” I imagined a walking seaweed ghost and chuckled.
But it was a female ghost, huh? Well, that was a pretty common visual.
“They say if you go to the old school building after school, you can see her walking in the hallways. If you speak to her, she doesn’t answer and just vanishes.”
“Huh... Hey, Rosalind, have you ever seen a ghost?” I turned towards Rosalind.
As a vampire, she’d lived a long time, so I thought maybe she’d seen a real ghost somewhere before.
“I’ve seen something that looked like a ghost, but I’ve never spoken to one. I can’t even say for sure if it was really a ghost, to be honest,” she said before taking another bite of her red bean jam bun.
So she couldn’t be sure, huh? I guess none of us really had a sixth sense or anything. But... that did give me an idea.
“Hey, Satsuki, can’t you use the Magic of Omniscience to find out?”
“Bwuh?! F-Find out what?”
“Whether there’s a ghost in the old school building or not?”
Why was she acting so weird? She’d been quiet for most of this conversation, too.
“I don’t know anything about ghosts! And the Akashic record only talks of things that actually exist! And there’s no such things as ghosts because this isn’t a fantasy world with ghostsdapyah!”
“Ghostsdapyah?”
So, I guess she didn’t know then. Anyway, lunch break came to a close as we were talking. Next was gym class. It was pool day.
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah. Hey, be careful!”
I ducked underneath Iris’s swimsuit as she swung it around. I then grabbed my own swimsuit before heading off to the gym.
“You know, I look forward to pool more than anything,” she said.
“Yeah, I can understand that.”
It was July now, but it was still humid. And more than that, it was just plain hot. Nothing felt better than jumping into the pool and washing away all the sweat.
“I don’t like it that much,” Rosalind said, looking a little perturbed.
Well, vampires didn’t like water, after all.
“And this school swimsuit looks so stupid. A noble lady like me shouldn’t be wearing something like this.”
“Rosalind doesn’t understand how powerful the combination of being tiny, having blond twin tails, and wearing a school swimsuit is, does she? Of course, the tiny body in an adult bikini combo was pretty good, too, but you can’t beat the classics.”
I tried my best to ignore R.
“I like the design, but the chest is a bit tight,” Iris said.
“But that’s what’s great about it,” R replied.
Nothing. I heard nothing. Nothing at all. I was definitely not listening to R!
“Rekka, you’re grinning.”
“Gah!”
I failed! I could feel Satsuki’s cold glare like it was stabbing into me. I looked away, hoping to escape. But then...
“Huh?”
Was somebody just staring at me from the hallway? I lost sight of them almost immediately, and I wasn’t even sure that there had really been anyone there at all, but... it looked like someone with really long hair.
“No way.”
I thought back to our conversation over lunch, but I shook my head and drove the thought from my mind.
▽
After school.
I was visiting the nurse’s office.
“Excuse me!”
“Hm? Oh, you’re the first-year student that Tokiwa was hugging.”
“...Please forget that.”
I walked inside the room really wishing there was something else she’d remember me for.
“I didn’t realize it last time, but you’re quite the problem child, aren’t you?” She was grinning, and there was a light tone to her voice that belied her words.
“I’d like to think I’m an ordinary student.”
“I don’t know about that. I’ve heard you’ve gone after a bunch of the female students.”
“Bwuh?!”
What the hell?
“No way! Why would you possibly think that?”
“It came up at a faculty meeting.”
“Seriously?”
“There was a complaint letter sent to the student council that was signed by several boys.”
Ugh, that was definitely from some of my classmates. That part didn’t really surprise me, but I was honestly shocked to learn that the teachers thought of me that way, too. I just wanted to be a normal high school student...
“Don’t worry. I don’t care how many girls you chase.”
“I’m not chasing anybody!”
“So? What brings you to the nurse’s office, playboy? Are you here to seduce Tokiwa?”
“That’s not entirely wrong,” R said.
“No!” I yelled.
“Or are you after me? I can’t recommend that. You’re too young to waste your energy on a spinster like me.”
Oh my God. Somebody please tell me how to deal with this teacher. I... I’m at a loss.
“I came to give Tokiwa her handkerchief back. Is she here?”
“As you can see, she isn’t.”
Well, that was a problem. I didn’t know what class she was in, so I figured coming here would be the best way to find her...
“Do you know where she went? Did she leave for the day?”
“I don’t think so. She’s always in the old school building after school.”
“The old building?”
“She’s the president of the light literature club. The club uses the room in the far back on the third floor of the old building.”
“What are they doing in a place like that?”
“The club was just established last year, and there weren’t any other rooms available at the time.”
“I see. Thank you.”
I turned to leave.
“Make sure they don’t catch you when you’re feeling her up!”
“Goodbye!”
I shut the door, perhaps a little harder than I needed to, and hurried to the old building.
▽
I went to the furthest room back on the third floor, just like the nurse had said. I took a deep breath before I knocked.
“...Huh?”
There was no answer. The room... It was definitely the right one. Had she already gone home? I stood there wondering what to do for a moment before the door opened and Tokiwa poked her head out.
And then she jumped on me!
“Wha—?!”
“Welcome.”
Oh... Yeah, that’s right. Her voice was soft. But please... Please get off me.
I made it into the room somehow, my heart pounding, and then sat in the wooden chair she offered me. The light literature clubroom was as old as the rest of the building, and there were piles of magazines everywhere.
“I heard this was the light literature clubroom. What does your club do?”
“......”
Sh-She grabbed me again!
“Rekka, are you just talking to her because you like it when she presses her breasts against you?”
Of course not! But how was I supposed to talk to her otherwise? Telepathy?
“The light literature club is a writing club,” Tokiwa said, ignoring the fact that I was sweating bullets. “So, what’s your name?”
She squeezed me tighter, pushing her chest up against me as she talked. Did I have to keep talking to her like this? It didn’t feel like she’d let go unless I answered her.
“R-Rekka Namidare.”
“Did you want to join the club, Rekka?”
“N-No. I just came to give back your handkerchief...”
“My handkerchief?”
“Don’t tilt your head when you’re clinging to me!”
It makes certain things brush against me!
“I-It’s in my breast pocket... Can you get off me for a second?”
After Tokiwa moved, I took the (now washed) handkerchief out of my pocket.
“H-Here. Thanks for your help earlier. B-Bye... Gyah!”
I tried to leave after handing the handkerchief to her, but she grabbed me again.
“Rekka, why don’t you join the light literature club?”
“Um, well... I’m not that smart.”
“Your grades aren’t what’s important. Just how hard you’re willing to work.”
“No, um... Wait, why me?” I asked.
There was a pause.
“There’s nobody in the club but me right now. The student council is getting rid of the smaller clubs, so at this rate the light literature club will be shut down.”
“Oh, I think I remember the student council president saying that...”
Our student council president was pretty memorable... but that was a story for another time. Anyway, it looked like there was a good chance her club was gonna get the axe for low membership. That explained why Tokiwa wanted me to join.
“So join.”
Well, I’d heard she spent all her time in the nurse’s office, so she probably didn’t have a lot of connections with other students. And anyone in the second- and third-year classes had already decided what clubs they were joining, so there might not be much point in asking them. She’d probably just invited me because I’d happened to come visit her in the clubroom.
“Please.”
Stop sitting on my lap, rubbing up against me, and whispering into my ear!
N-No... I needed to calm down and use all my self-control to think this through. I didn’t know what the light literature club was really like. It was something she’d created, and she was trying to protect it. It must have been very important to her. And since it was about to be taken away from her, I had to think very carefully about how I responded.
“......”
Tokiwa was staring at me with sleepy eyes. That was probably her default mode. And then before I could answer...
“Is Rekka here?!”
The door suddenly flew open and Rosalind came barging in.
“Hmph! Rekka! What are you doing with that girl?!”
“Rosalind?! No, this is, um...”
I realized how it must look and quickly removed Tokiwa from my lap. The two of us weren’t so close now, but Rosalind still looked upset.
“Um... um... R-Right! Did you need something? It sounded like you were looking for me.”
“Oh! Right! The bakery we went to by the highway is having a ‘couple’s day’ special today. They have a new product they’re only selling to couples.”
As she spoke, Rosalind sidled up to me and subtly wrapped her arm around mine.
“W-Wait, not in front of Tokiwa...”
“What? You’ll let that woman sit in your lap, but I can’t even hold your arm?”
I felt an indescribable pressure from Rosalind when she looked at me that way.
“N-No, it’s not like that. It’s fine.”
“Indeed. That was the right choice.”
Rosalind smiled at me—then turned to Tokiwa and stuck her tongue out—before pulling me away.
“Okay! Then off we go.”
“W-Wait! Hold on!”
I wasn’t done talking with Tokiwa yet.
“Fool. What if they sell out? We need to hurry.”
Rosalind ignored me and pulled harder.
“......”
Tokiwa was still staring at me with her sleepy eyes. She seemed to have no intention of stopping me from going.
“Come on! We’re leaving!”
“Nwaaah!”
I was no match for the strength of a vampire, so I couldn’t do anything to stop Rosalind from dragging me out of the room, either.
▽
That night after I went to bed...
“...Hnngh!”
Something fell on my head and woke me up.
“Oh, it’s just the remote.”
I was in the living room again. I was starting to get used to this waking-up-in-strange-places thing. They say that you can get used to just about anything, but that really only made me worry more. This definitely wasn’t normal.
Bzzzzztt...
“Hm?”
I heard a high-pitched noise and realized that the TV was still on. Had I tried to watch it while I was asleep?
“R, did I walk down to the living room on my own?”
“Yup, you guessed it.” R was standing upright with her feet on the ceiling, looking down at me.
“Huh...”
I really needed to figure out what was going on here. I knew what sleepwalking was, of course, but I didn’t have any idea what could cause it. Unless... this was the work of a ghost or something.
“No, no way.”
Yeah, what a joke. Hahaha...
My mind must’ve been going in weird directions because of our conversation at lunch after Iris had brought up the ghost in the old school building. That whole story about a ghostly girl with long, black hair sounded like something straight out of a movie. Granted, the old school building was always dark, and it certainly felt like it was haunted. A place like that was probably a breeding ground for ghost stories. Someone probably just made it up after going there and...
Actually, there was that girl I’d seen staring at me from the hallway. Thinking back, she definitely had long hair... Three months ago I would’ve laughed, but right now, I was feeling a little unsure.
Man, come on...
“Hahaha...”
I managed a feeble laugh and looked out the window.
“...It’s raining.”
Dark rain was pouring down from the night sky.
▽
Second period ended, and I was headed back to the regular classroom from the physics lab with Satsuki, Iris, and Rosalind.
“What’s wrong, Rekka?” Iris asked when she noticed me looking around.
“It just feels like somebody’s been watching me all day...”
It wasn’t anything more than a feeling, but I couldn’t shake the impression that someone had their eyes on me. Of course, it was probably just my imagination...
“Iris, about the ghost in the old school building...”
“What? Did you actually see something after all, Rekka?”
“I really don’t want to think about it... but was there anything more to the story? Like, does it follow you home if you see it?”
“Huh, let me think... Oh, right. If it catches you, it’ll trap you inside its long hair and swallow you up! Head first!”
Iris thought we were just talking and messing around, so she did her best to liven things up.
“Y-You don’t say...”
Swallow you head first, huh?
“Ghosts were once human, right? Do they really eat people? What do you think, Rosalind?”
“Hm? I don’t know. I don’t know anything about ghosts, but once in a while, you’ll find monsters born from human desires or anger.”
...Seriously?
“And ghosts are the embodiment of the regret you humans leave behind when you die, right? So perhaps they could gain superhuman powers, too.”
“But eat people? Really?”
“I suppose if it eats people, it’s more of a monster than a ghost, yes,” Rosalind said.
That distinction didn’t really change much, did it?
“So, why the sudden interest in ghosts?”
“O-Oh, it’s nothing. I was just curious...” I quickly looked away.
“You sure you don’t want to ask for help?” R asked, but I ignored her as best I could.
For starters, I couldn’t actually say I was being haunted by a ghost. All that was happening was that I was waking up in weird places in my house. And even if there was a ghost at school, my house wasn’t anywhere nearby. And on top of that, the whole thing had started before I’d seen anything weird at school. All of this was strange, yeah, but strange didn’t necessarily mean supernatural. There was a chance I’d just imagined seeing someone with long hair in the hall...
“Or is it just that you’re embarrassed to say, ‘There might a ghost, so please help me’?”
Y’know, R was getting really good at figuring out just what to say to piss me off. Although... I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t embarrassing.
“Satsuki, even you don’t have any information on ghosts, right?”
“Huh?! I-I said that before, didn’t I?”
“Yeah...”
It would have been helpful to at least get a definitive answer on whether or not they were real.
As we were talking and walking down the hallway, we came across the world history teacher. He frowned when he saw me.
“Namidare, I’m glad I caught you. We’re using the world map next period, so bring it to the classroom for me.”
“What?!”
“I’m busy. You know where it is, right? Thanks.”
And then he vanished before I could refuse. Last time it was punishment for napping, but what was it this time? All I was doing was walking to class with the girls.
“Rekka, until you do something about that dense head of yours, you’re just going to keep making enemies.”
Please don’t say that.
Oh, well. It looked like I’d have to go get that heavy map again. The break after second period was a little longer than most, but I’d still have to hurry to make it to class on time.
“Oh, I’ll help you.”
“Really, Iris? Thanks.”
“Rats... She said it first.”
“If only I could use my magic, I’d help, too...”
Rosalind and Satsuki were both looking a little frustrated about not getting to help with my impromptu chore, but I couldn’t figure out why. Anyway, I said goodbye to them and went with Iris to the old school building.
“Happy you aren’t alone?”
Put a sock in it, R.
Honestly, I did get a little case of the heebie-jeebies when the teacher asked me to go back to the old school building. But once we got there and into the storeroom down the hall, Iris helped me pull the massive tube off the shelf where I’d left it.
“Okay, I’ll carry this side. Iris, you get the other.”
“Huh? I can carry it by myself.”
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea...”
I was the one who’d been asked to do it, after all. And so, Iris and I each held one end of the tube as we carried it out of the storeroom. It was still heavy, but it was a lot easier to hold with two people.
“Thanks for helping, Iris. I really appreciate it.”
“Really? Then next time I go shopping, come with me. That’s how you can thank me.”
“Shopping? Sure.”
“Yay!” I could hear Iris say from behind me. She sounded happy.
Did she want me to carry her bags for her? She was so rich that there was probably a lot to haul back home when she went out shopping.
“I can tell by your face that you’ve got the wrong idea about something again,” R sighed.
Wow, sometimes I really had no idea what R was talking about. She was acting like I’d done something wrong.
“Hm hm hmmm!” Iris, on the other hand, was so happy that she’d started to hum.
Together, we made our way down the hall with the map. It was still raining outside, making the place even darker than it usually was. We made it to the entrance of the old school building with no trouble, though, and from there there was the connecting corridor back to the other building. I turned to warn Iris because it was so dark...
“Oh, there’s a step here. Be caref—”
And that’s when I saw a girl with long hair. I froze, too shocked to scream. Her hair was almost freakishly long. I could just see the tips of her toes, but her face and body were hidden in dark shadows.
She was coming towards me, and it looked like her feet were just sliding across the floor. I could see that she had legs... but lately ghosts had legs in horror movies and stuff, right?
“What’s wrong, Rekka?” Iris asked as she turned around to see what I was staring at.
I was sure she’d see the girl, too, but she turned back to look at me as if nothing was wrong.
“Was there something there?” she asked, clearly confused.
She couldn’t... see it?
“......i......”
The strange girl took another step towards me. With each step she took, her long hair wavered. For a moment, I could see a single eye within the mass of hair.
“Gyaaah!”
“R-Rekka, what’s wrong?”
I was panicking too much to even answer Iris.
▽
Lunch break.
“You saw a ghost?”
“I think so.”
Tsumiki seemed slightly exasperated as she stared at me. I flinched.
“A ghost in the old school building, huh? Well, I’ve heard the story about it.” Tsumiki took a sip of juice from her straw and paused. “But why are you coming to me? Wouldn’t Otomo or Rosalind be better?”
“I asked them, but they couldn’t really help. I thought you might know something.”
“Why would you think I’d know anything about that? You know I’m not into occult stuff, right?”
“Yeah, but you have a lot of friends, so I thought maybe you might have heard something.”
“Sorry, I don’t think I can help you. I don’t really believe in that stuff.”
“I see...”
Hmm... So much for that. I’d officially hit the bottom of my list of people to ask for help.
“Why not go to the student council room and ask the president?”
“Why would I go talk to her about ghosts?”
“Her family runs Kibi Shrine.”
“Oh, huh.”
Kibi Shrine was a local shrine and a popular New Year’s destination for most of the town, including me. Should I go ask for an exorcism or something?
“Are you absolutely sure it was a ghost you saw?” Tsumiki took another sip from her straw, then pointed an almost accusatory finger at me. “You said you were sleepwalking, too, right?”
“Yeah, but maybe that’s the work of a ghost, too...”
“Stop talking about ghosts for a minute, okay?”
Tsumiki was quick to cut me off—a little too quick—as she turned to throw her freshly emptied juice box into the garbage can.
“They say sleepwalking can be caused by stress and stuff. Maybe you’re so stressed-out that you’re hallucinating, too?”
“Hallucinating...”
That might actually be the most reasonable explanation. And... come to think of it, that made sense. The Namidare bloodline only brought me into contact with heroines who needed saving from bad endings. It didn’t mean I was doomed to be haunted by monsters or anything weird like that.
“After all that’s happened, I could understand if maybe I’d just started to see the unnatural as being normal...”
“Right? Well, I guess in your case, it might actually be a ghost.”
Great.
“For now, why not try investigating each possibility one at a time?”
“And how would you suggest doing that?”
“Hmm...” Tsumiki thought for a moment. “Why not get counseling?”
▽
And so, at Tsumiki’s suggestion, I decided to pay the school nurse a visit.
“Sleepwalking, huh?”
The nurse nodded and stuck something long, white, and thin between her lips.
“It’s a candy cigarette. Don’t worry about it.”
She tapped her fingers on the steel chair as she pursed her lips, the candy cigarette tilting upwards.
“Sleepwalking’s usually got a psychological cause. Stress is a very real possibility. And so to fix the root cause, you’ll have to make some lifestyle changes.”
“Is there any way to tell if that’s all it is?”
If there was, maybe I could figure out if a ghost was behind it.
“That’s easy. Have someone in your family wake you up in the middle of the night. If you find yourself going down the stairs or opening the refrigerator door, it’s sleepwalking.”
“I see...”
I sighed. That wasn’t the answer I was hoping for. Iris hadn’t seen the girl in the old school building, which meant that even with someone watching over me, they wouldn’t know if I was just sleepwalking or if there was a ghost involved.
“Oh, and if stress is the cause, could that same stress also make me hallucinate?”
“Well, it’s possible for stress to cause hallucinations, but that’s an extreme scenario. You don’t seem that stressed-out to me. Or perhaps...” she said. “Maybe your situation is just really complicated?”
“Yes. In the worst case, the whole world might be destroyed,” R answered for me, even though the nurse couldn’t hear her.
Hmm... So in the end, I couldn’t be totally sure that it was stress, but I couldn’t be totally sure that it wasn’t, either. That meant I needed to look into the ghost possibility, too.
“I hate to change the subject, but do you know the story of the ghost in the old school building?”
“A ghost?”
“Um, yeah. There’s this rumor...”
“Sorry. I couldn’t say. I only started working here this year.”
“I see...”
I crossed my arms and sighed again, but I was suddenly accosted by a familiar squishy sensation.
“Uwah! T-Tokiwa!”
Tokiwa, who had snuck up on me without me realizing it, grabbed me from behind.
“Rekka, did you think about joining my club?” she whispered with her chin resting on my shoulder.
“U-Um... Not yet...”
Her breasts were on my back! They were touching me!
“Oh? Tokiwa, you certainly seem interested in him.”
Tokiwa nodded.
“That’s a little strange for you. You’re usually so shy.”
The nurse then suddenly slapped her hands together like she’d just realized something.
“I suppose this is exactly why you’re the biggest problem child in the school. You’ve already seduced Tokiwa, huh?”
“I have not! She just wants me to join the light literature club!”
“It’s still unusual. Does something about him catch your fancy, Tokiwa?”
Tokiwa didn’t really answer.
Was she really ordinarily that shy, though? She’d literally jumped on me the first time we’d met, so I hadn’t quite gotten that impression.
“I’m sorry, Tokiwa, can you wait a little longer for an answer? I’m dealing with a personal problem right now, so I haven’t had time to consider it yet.”
“I see...”
She sounded a little disappointed.
“By the way, Rekka, didn’t you say you were looking into the ghost in the old school building?” Tokiwa asked, still clinging to me.
“Huh?”
“I overheard you talking with the nurse.”
Oh, she heard all that, huh?
“Do you know anything about it, Tokiwa?”
“...Nope, I don’t.”
“I see.”
“Well...” Tokiwa fell silent for a minute before opening her mouth again. “Why not go to the library?”
“To the library?”
“Ghosts are the spirits of dead people, right? If somebody died in the old school building, the back issues of the school paper should have some information on it.”
Well, it couldn’t hurt. There wasn’t a whole lot else I could do at this point.
“Thanks for the idea. I’ll go after school and see what I can find.”
“You’re welcome.”
“...So, can you get off me now?”
“?”
It felt like it was taking all my willpower just to communicate with Tokiwa...
▽
After school.
I was in the library, looking through old issues of the school paper.
“......”
“Rekka, did you doze off?” R asked.
“...No.”
I really was tired, though. And this research wasn’t helping. It was surprisingly dull work. Most of the papers were just a long list of school events, followed by news about the weather and, for some reason, poems by the principal. There were also occasional stories about cats and dogs. The cute pictures were the one saving grace of the whole thing, honestly.
“Is there really anything in here that might lead me to the ghost...?”
“Who knows?”
R, as usual, was no help. Would it kill her to throw me a bone for once?
The library was quiet, and there were several other students around, so I had to be careful when I spoke to R. Really, I could have just not said anything to her at all, but I felt like talking was the only thing keeping me awake.
“...Oh, wait. I could just have Satsuki find this out for me.”
I was looking for something like an accident or a murder. The kind of traumatic, news-worthy death that might make someone haunt a place. And even if ghosts weren’t of this world, the events that created them were. Satsuki should still be able to look up something like that for me no problem. Once I realized that, I sent my childhood friend a message asking if she had a spare minute.
“...‘I’m in a meeting with the student council,’ huh?”
“That’s right. Satsuki’s the class representative, isn’t she?”
Yeah, I could remember her mentioning it when class was over. Something about a meeting and the lack of discipline among the students lately.
Well, whatever. I sent another message saying I’d be waiting for her in the library and then put my phone away.
“Okay... now what do I do until she gets here?”
“Why not do some more research on your own?”
I was too lazy for that.
“Then study, perhaps?”
That would just make me more tired... No, wait.
“I guess I can just go to sleep.”
After all the reading I’d done, I was pretty drowsy. I already felt like I needed a nap anyway, so I laid my head down on the table, using my arms as a pillow.
▽
“...ka. Rekka!”
“Hmm...?”
I woke up to the sound of someone calling my name.
“Rekka, are you awake?”
“Satsuki... is your meeting over?”
“That’s right. It took longer than I thought, so I hurried over here, but then I found you asleep.”
She puffed out her cheeks a little in a pout.
“Sorry, sorry. I was doing some research...” I apologized as I choked back a yawn.
“Research? Oh, that’s why.” Satsuki seemed to realize why I’d asked her to come. “You want me to look into something, right?”
“Yeah, actually...”
Just when I started to answer her...
“The library’s closing soon,” the librarian said. She’d walked over to us without me even noticing.
I glanced out the window and realized it was dark. I must’ve slept longer than I thought. I looked back over and saw the librarian staring at the pile of school papers on the table I was using.
“I-I’ll put them back right away!”
I hurried to gather up the papers and stood up to put them away.
“I’ll help you, too,” Satsuki said.
“Thanks.”
Satsuki took a handful from the stack I was holding and walked with me over to the corner where they belonged.
“So? What is it you wanted me to look into?”
“Um, it’s about the ghost in the old school building.”
There was a waterfall of paper as Satsuki suddenly dropped everything she was holding.
“What’s wrong?”
“I-It’s nothing.”
We both knelt down to pick up the papers.
“So, about that ghost...”
“I told you before that I can’t use my magic to learn anything about ghosts, remember?”
“No, it’s not the ghost I want you to look into. It’s about if there were ever any accidents or murders in the old school building.”
“Wh-Why do you care about that?”
“You know, if there’s a ghost, there must be a reason, right? I want you to find that out for me.”
“Wh-Why do you want to know so badly?”
“Huh?”
Oh, right. I hadn’t told her yet, had I?
“Well, um... I think I might’ve seen that ghost.”
“Pigyah?!”
Pigyah...?
“Satsuki, what’s wrong?”
“N-Nothing!”
Satsuki stuffed the papers onto the shelf, a little more violently than she should have, and quickly stood up.
“W-We’re done putting away the papers, so let’s go! We need to leave immediately! Now! Right this second! And if you take even a single step away from me and go off on your own, you’re definitely going to die, so don’t even think about it! Got it? Now stand up!”
“Huh? What?”
“Hurry!”
“Right!”
Satsuki had never yelled at me like that before. I was a little taken by surprise, but I quickly stood up and did as she said. She grabbed me by the hand and yanked me towards the entrance. The librarian was still going around the room and checking to make sure all the doors were locked before closing up.
“Um... You can use your magic to find out what happened in the old school building, right?”
“No!”
“Huh? Wh-Why not?”
“Because I said no!”
Satsuki seemed intent on us leaving school and going straight home. She marched right out of the library, opening the door with her free hand and nearly shutting me in it as she slammed it behind her.
“Hey, careful there.”
“......”
“Satsuki?”
I tried talking to her, but she didn’t respond at all. Confused, I looked around. That’s when something down the hallway caught my eye.
It was the ghost with long hair.
Both Satsuki and I froze in place. Wh-What were we supposed to do...? I wasn’t expecting this. I still hadn’t done any research. Think, Rekka, think...
“Huh, let me think... Oh, right. If it catches you, it’ll trap you inside its long hair and swallow you up! Head first!”
Crap! Wasn’t that what Iris had said?
“Satsuki...”
I tried to get between her and the ghost, but...
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Satsuki suddenly screamed—wailed, really—and pushed me out of the way with all her strength.
“Huh?!”
She then took off in the other direction, towards the old school building and away from the ghost.
“Hey, wait! Satsuki!”
I hurried after her. I took a quick glance behind me as I ran and saw the ghost dragging its feet along the floor as it followed us. I was lucky it was so slow, but where had Satsuki gone? I ran after her into the old school building, but I didn’t see her anywhere inside.
“She’s never this fast! Where in the world did she go?!”
“It’s all because you startled her, Rekka.”
“It’s my fault?!”
I was yelling at R, but I heard the door to the building open behind me. The ghost was definitely chasing me. It was slow, but it was still going to catch me if I just stood around.
“Tch!”
I headed upstairs, crossing my fingers that the ghost wouldn’t see me... if it even worked like that. I made it to the second floor and then the third. I was hoping to run into Satsuki in the hallway, but she didn’t seem to be on either floor.
Was she hiding in one of the rooms? If only she’d run back into the library or out into school courtyard... I guess she couldn’t do that because she was still wearing her school slippers. So, she was still the serious, well-mannered type even as she was running for her life, huh?
Squeak...
I heard the sound of rubber-soled slippers on the stairs. It was coming from below. The ghost was coming after me... and if it caught me, it was going to swallow me up head first.
“I need to get out of here and find Satsuki...”
“Good luck, Rekka!”
“You don’t even care, do you?!”
R was enjoying the show. Couldn’t she just take over for me or something just this once?
I tried to open one of the sliding doors on the third floor, hoping I could duck into a classroom and hide while waiting for the ghost to pass, but the door just rattled in the frame and wouldn’t budge. No one really used the building, so most of the rooms were locked up tight. And since no one really used the building, I couldn’t just try doors at random hoping that someone had accidentally left one unlocked...
No, wait. I was going about this the wrong way. Nobody really used the building, so the teachers probably didn’t patrol it that often. And that meant there was a good chance there wasn’t anyone checking to make sure things had been locked up properly at the end of the day. What rooms in this building had been used recently and might still be open?
“...The social studies storeroom on the first floor and the light literature clubroom...”
That was it. I’d opened both of those doors myself, so I was sure of it. There was a good chance Satsuki had to be hiding in one of those two rooms.
Squeak...
Crap! The ghost was getting closer. I could hear it on the third floor now.
First I’d go to the light literature clubroom to see if Satsuki was there. If she wasn’t, I’d wait for the ghost to pass and then head back down to the storeroom on the first floor. Once I settled on a plan, I made a mad dash for the clubroom.
“You’re running faster than usual. Did you know that?”
“Now’s not the time!”
She was definitely enjoying this!
When I reached the light literature clubroom, I said a little prayer as I reached out for the handle to the door... and it opened! I stepped in and tried to lock the door from the inside, but I couldn’t find the lock. I wanted to turn the lights on, but I felt like that would give away my location. I gave up on the lock, but even in the dark, I’d been in the room before, and I had a decent handle on the layout.
“...!”
Thinking about it, I remembered that the only real place to hide in here would be the locker for cleaning supplies in the back! I hurried across the room as quickly and quietly as I could, trying my best not to knock over the piles of magazines scattered about.
Click!
I opened the metal locker and laid eyes on just the person I was looking for. My childhood friend was hiding inside.
“Aa—!”
“Satsuki! Shhh!”
I put my hand over Satsuki’s mouth before she could scream. It was dark enough that she’d probably thought I was the ghost, so I brought my face close to hers so that she could see it was me. I saw the tension leave her body as she relaxed. Then I had her scoot over so I could fit into the locker with her.
It was... a little cramped.
I’d never been so irritated to be sharing a space with a mop and bucket in my life. The slightest movement made them clatter and rattle, so I couldn’t even move them out of the way without making a bunch of noise.
“...Oof!”
“S-Sorry...”
Satsuki sounded uncomfortable, so I apologized. We were so close that I could feel her warmth and even her breath. The sensation was starting to make my head spin...
“Even in the middle of a horror movie sequence, you’re still enjoying yourself, huh? Your power to turn anything into a romantic comedy never ceases to impress me.”
R, you really never change, do you?!
She just says whatever she wants because she knows that nobody but me can see her... Wait, nobody but me can see her...
Come to think of it, when I’d run into the ghost with Iris, she hadn’t been able to see it... or so it seemed. So how come Satsuki was able to? I didn’t have time to think about it.
Rrrrrattle...
Satsuki and I both jumped at the sound of the door to the classroom sliding open. All we could do was hold each other tightly.
Squeak... Squeak... Squeak...
The sound of slow footsteps got closer and closer, and I heard someone put their hand on the handle to the locker.
Ka-chak!
The door flung open, and I saw the ghost standing there, its face hidden by its long hair.
I turned to Satsuki and tried to shield her with my body. I didn’t know how much good it would do, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do trapped in a locker like this.
I felt the ghost touch my shoulder.
“I...”
I closed my eyes in terror... and then I felt warm breath against my ear.
“Rekka, I caught you!”
“...Huh?”
I knew that voice. It was a low, husky voice I was quite familiar with.
“...Tokiwa?”
“That’s right.”
The long-haired ghost—Tokiwa, apparently—put her chin on my shoulder and nodded.
▽
And so it turned out that the ghost Satsuki and I had seen was really just our upperclassman with her hair down.
“But why’d you let your hair down in the first place? Surely you can’t see anything like that.”
“A teacher fussed at me.”
Tokiwa explained that it was because of the flashy butterfly hairpin she wore. It was a violation of the school dress code, so one of the teachers had almost confiscated it from her once. After that, she only wore it while she was in the nurse’s office or the clubroom. Apparently the nurse didn’t care one way or the other. I asked her if she couldn’t just wear a different hairpin, but she said that the butterfly one was a gift from her grandmother and that it was very important to her.
“I’m wearing it until I can make my debut as an author. It’s the same with my hair.”
“That’s why you don’t cut it?”
That explained the length.
“So... By the way, Tokiwa, why are you clinging to Rekka like that?”
Now that she’d finally calmed down, Satsuki was staring at me rather dubiously.
“Um... Tokiwa can’t speak very loudly.”
“Then she can write on a piece of paper!”
“My handwriting’s bad,” Tokiwa said—not that Satsuki could hear her—as she held me tighter.
“Y-You...!”
Satsuki pointed a trembling finger at me, but with Tokiwa holding on to me like she was, I couldn’t even move. I just stood there in a cold sweat.
“U-Um, Tokiwa... I have a question.”
“What?”
“Um... Sorry if I’ve got this wrong, but were you waiting outside the library to ambush us?”
“...Why do you think that?”
Tokiwa was holding me so close that I couldn’t see her expression.
“You were the one who suggested I go to the library... and you were supposed to be in the clubroom after school, so it’s weird that you weren’t coming from the direction of the old school building, isn’t it?”
If she’d just finished up for the day and happened to be passing by the library, she should have been walking in the opposite direction. She never would have ended up cutting us off like she had.
“You’re pretty smart, Rekka.”
She quickly admitted that she’d done it deliberately.
“Can I ask why?”
She quietly let go of me... and then pinched my cheek.
“Rekka, you said I was a ghost.”
I guess she must’ve been mad, because I could hear her even though she wasn’t speaking directly into my ear.
“Oh...”
Did she mean back at the nurse’s office? Well... that’s fair. From her perspective, someone she’d just met had bumped into her in the old school building, then screamed and ran off. Even worse, then I went to the nurse and said I’d seen a ghost right in front of her. Even a quiet girl like Tokiwa would get mad at that.
“I’m sorry...”
I apologized as soon as I realized what I’d done. Tokiwa leaned forward to whisper to me again.
“Apology not accepted.”
“Then what can I do to earn your forgiveness?”
“It’s simple.” She paused to take a breath. “Join the light literature club.”
“I see...”
I should have known that’s what she was going to say.
“Can I ask you one thing before I answer?”
“You’ve already asked several.”
“Then one more.”
“Okay, but just this one.”
All right, then...
“Why me?”
The nurse had said that Tokiwa was shy, so I wanted to know she was so intent on getting me to join her club. If it was just to keep it from getting shut down, that was fine.
“You were talking to something I couldn’t see in the nurse’s office, right?”
“Huh? Th-That was...”
That’s right. She’d caught me talking to R. I’d totally forgotten about that.
“That got my attention.”
“Is that all?”
“No. At that point, I was just curious about you. I followed you a little to try and learn more about you.”
So, the girl with long hair I saw in the hallway was Tokiwa, too. Wait... did she just admit she was stalking me?
“I needed club members to keep the club from being shut down, and you came to return my handkerchief anyway, so I worked up the courage to invite you to join.”
But that apparently wasn’t everything.
“You were seriously considering joining when I asked you, right? I realized how nice you were, so I really wanted you to join the light literature club after that.”
“Nice? No way. I’m just a normal guy.”
It felt like she was giving me too much credit, so I averted my eyes as I answered. I heard her laugh a little.
“You’re really popular with girls, aren’t you, Rekka?”
“Huh?!”
“You’re always surrounded by them.”
“No, there’s a lot of reasons for that...” I stammered.
Sure, the bloodline of the Namidare meant I met a lot of heroines, but it’s not like they liked me... Wait, now Satsuki was scowling at me like a demon. There was no telling what would happen to me later if I didn’t get Tokiwa off of me somehow.
“You see, I want to write a novel about you.”
“Huh?!”
Tokiwa... Tokiwa wanted to write a book about me? That had to be one of the most embarrassing things anyone had ever said to my face.
“That’s why I want to spend more time with you. So, will you join my club?”
She must’ve felt like she’d said all that she had to say, because she took a step back and stared up at me expectantly. And with that earnest look in her eyes... I couldn’t turn her down, could I?
But I decided to get back at her a little for scaring me.
“If you’re okay with me being a ghost member.”
And speaking of ghosts, I later asked Iris about the one we encountered in the school building. She said all she saw when she looked behind me was Tokiwa in the process of taking her hair down, and that’s why she hadn’t thought anything of it. It was just a girl. Of course it wasn’t a ghost.
▽
Wait... Even after all this, I still hadn’t solved my sleepwalking problem, had I?
“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter,” I mumbled to myself as I flopped on my bed.
In the end, the ghost thing had all been a big misunderstanding. The sleepwalking was probably due to stress after all. I figured I’d go talk to the nurse about it again, or maybe just wait to see if things would get better. I closed my eyes, sleepily wondering how I would explain this all to the nurse.
▽
“TEN GIRLS AT ONCE?! What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I’m not dating ten girls at once! Give me some credit!”
“...Really?”
“It’s more than that.”
“Die!”
...What’s going on? And who’s talking? It sounds pretty heated...
I wasn’t even sure if I was awake or dreaming, but the pressure on my head sure felt real. It was like I’d fallen asleep upside down on the sofa again. If this was reality though, where were those voices coming from?
I opened my eyes. Just as I expected, what I saw was an inverted view of my living room. It looked like the furniture was on the ceiling. There was what looked like a dubbed foreign show on the television, too, and watching it intently... was R.
“...”
Question: Who was it who said I’d been “walking around on my own” all night? Answer: R.
Between that and what I was witnessing now, I had all the evidence I needed. I slowly righted myself, careful not to make any noise. Then I stealthily snuck up behind R. She was so focused on the TV show that she hadn’t even noticed I’d woken up. Now then...
“R!”
“Huh?!”
Got you!
“So, it was you the whole time?!”
“Waaaaah!”
“Man, your cheeks stretch a long way! Ahahaha! Look at you!”
“Stop. Shtop! Shhhtoppiiiiit!”
After a good ten minutes of stretching out R’s cheeks as far as they’d go, I sat her down across from me.
“So, what were you doing moving me around like that?”
“I can’t touch anyone but you, remember? So...”
Apparently that was R’s excuse. She’d been really into watching TV lately. There was a certain late-night program she wanted to see, but it aired well after both Harissa and I went to bed. R was only demi-material, so her hands passed through the remote and she couldn’t turn on the TV on her own. But there was a special exception. There was something she could touch: me. She could use my fingers to press the buttons.
“And so you brought me down here to the first floor after I fell asleep?”
“That’s right.”
“You know, I’d feel better if you actually sounded at least a little sorry.”
She’d even used my hand to open the door to the living room. And this explained the body aches I had in the mornings. She’d basically been dragging me down the stairs.
“Sheesh. My body isn’t some toy for you to play with, you know?”
“Yeah, I know, but...”
“But what?”
“When you can’t sleep, the nights can be pretty long.”
That’s right... R didn’t have any need for sleep, so it wasn’t something she’d been designed to do. She couldn’t even if she wanted to. A whole night, huh? I’d never thought about it, but that was a long time to spend with no one to talk to and nothing to do.
“...I’ll buy you a portable TV then. If I put it next to my bed, you won’t have to drag me downstairs, right?”
“Oh, my. Is there even enough money in your wallet to spring for something like that?”
“I’ll have my dad send me extra. But keep the volume down, okay? I can sleep with a little noise, but you might wake up Harissa.”
“...Huh.”
“What?”
“I was just thinking that you’re being awfully nice to an artificial life-form like me.”
“That doesn’t really matter, does it?”
Who cares if she’s artificial or not?
I sighed. R did too and seemed to relax a little.
“I knew it. I’m your main girl.”
“No way.”