by Unknown
I was thinking about what else to offer Kurumi until I noticed an unknown girl standing with her back towards us in front of the shrine. Her short black hair gleamed in the sun, and she was dressed in our school uniform. She had a duffel bag strapped over her shoulder, and I thought she may have been one of Taisei's ex-girlfriends who'd come to stalk him. But she was just staring hesitantly at headquarters like she didn’t know what to do.
“Wow, who’s that?” Asked a bewildered Souta who suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.
At the sound of his voice the girl quickly turned to face us. Her hand was wrapped in bandages, and there was plaster covering most of her face. I thought she looked familiar until I realized that it was Mana.
“Mana?” I asked in disbelief.
“Hey, it's Mana,” said Kurumi with a smile.
“We missed you so much!” Cried Souta as he dove in and gave Mana a very awkward hug.
I wanted to run up and greet her too, but my body froze and I stood back and watched while everyone rushed towards her.
I suddenly recalled Taisei's words about her never wanting to see me again, and I lost the courage to approach her.
Who could blame her for not wanting to see me? She had every reason in the world to hate my guts.
If it wasn’t for me, the fox monster would never have come that night, and Mana wouldn't have been caught in the middle. If she had never met me, Mana would still be at school smiling and laughing with her friends instead of stuck in the hospital.
I anxiously clenched my shirt jacket with my fists, and looked at her while waiting for the moment where Mana’s eyes would make contact with my own. I was certain that she would flinch and cringe in fear before brushing me off and treating me like I didn't exist.
I turned to walk away, but Mana finally looked up towards me and I felt the bottom drop from my stomach.
I knew what was coming. I was sure it was the moment where our friendship would finally end, and I would gain another mortal enemy who would look down at me with hatred and fear.
Mana pried Souta’s arms off her and slowly made her way towards me. I could hear the grass crunch under her feet with every step, and I could already imagine my heart being crushed to pieces.
I clamped my eyes shut so that I wouldn’t have to witness her anger and disgust when she ripped me apart in front of everyone. But instead of punching me in the face, Mana reached out and took my hand. I opened my eyes to see her smiling at me like an angel.
“Thank you for trying to save me Daisuke,” she said. “It was my fault that I got hurt. If I hadn’t dashed off without thinking I wouldn’t have gotten injured.”
I wanted to say something cool, but I was too overwhelmed with joy. I couldn’t believe that Mana was holding my hand. It felt warm and soft, but she had many rough calluses from her exorcist training.
I wanted to take hold of that hand and go skipping off into the sunset like a romance movie, but Kurumi quickly grabbed her other arm and began dragging her away.
“You have to see all the redecorating,” said Kurumi. “I finally managed to convince Akito to get rid of all that moldy junk he used to call furniture. Just wait until you see our room.”
I looked down at my hand which was still warm from her touch. It was the first time that Mana had ever wanted to hold my hand.
“See, what did I say?” Said Taisei with a smile as he patted me on the back. “It was all me. Didn’t I say that I would convince her?”
“Taisei, you are officially the greatest guy ever!” I cried out in joy and ran after the others.
I was over the moon that things were going to be normal between us again. I couldn’t believe that I’d ever given up on our fabulous future together. I knew deep down in my heart that someone as terrible as Itsuki would never be able to keep the two of us apart.
Chapter 7
Life returned to normal once I started going back to school again. I was hanging out with my friends, training to be an exorcist, Itsuki had gone back to being my arch nemesis, and I was failing math. The whole monster thing had almost been forgotten, and against my sister’s expectations Shinta didn't returned to dissect me. I was a little worried that Nina’s brother would eventually figure out a way to outsmart my sister, but he instead gave up and spent most of his time trying to win the other exorcists over to his side.
“Souta my friend,” he said while throwing an arm around Souta’s shoulders in the hallway at headquarters. “Is it true that your uncle was best friends with the current head of the organization?”
“He was back in high school,” said Souta. “Before he was eaten alive by a shark monster on a school trip, but everyone thinks it might have been a regular shark.”
“But surely the current head must have a soft spot for you. I mean, it probably wouldn’t be too hard for a guy like yourself to recommend a guy for a promotion in the future.”
“Maybe,” said Souta. “But I did vomit on him when I was three.”
“Hey Nina’s bro,” I said while eating a bag of potato chips. “Don’t you want to like put me in a cage and send videos to Shinta or something?”
“Shhhh,” he hissed over his shoulder. “Can’t you see that I’m trying to make connections?”
Hugo was also walking down the hall dressed from head to toe in black like usual. I was unsure if his eyelashes were unusually thick that day, or if he’d started using make-up.
“Hey Hugo,” I said with a smile. “Don’t you want to torture me or something?”
“Life is already cruel enough,” he muttered before disappearing into the living room which was unusually pitch black.
Nina’s brother was so busy trying to make connections with Akito, Taisei, Kiyori, Souta, Souta’s uncle, Souta’s grandfather and Souta’s second cousin's uncle, that he didn’t seem to notice when the others took me out for patrol.
Patrol was like a field trip where we went searching for monsters on the mountain side with a special detector charm. It glowed whenever we got closer to an Obake. We weren’t allowed to have cool weapons because that would be against the law or something, but Taisei was kind enough to lend me a wooden pole which I’m sure must have once belonged on a broom. All my exorcist friends were there except Nina who still wasn’t talking to Kurumi after a recent argument.
After being locked up for weeks I was itching to fight some monsters and rid the town of evil. Every animal we passed looked like a potential monster that was waiting to devour some poor unsuspecting townsperson.
“Is that an Obake?” I asked while pointing to an owl in a nearby tree.
“No, Daisuke,” said Mana. “I think that’s just an owl.”
“Is that an Obake?” I asked while pointing to another bird in the distance.
“No,” snapped Kiyori. “If we see a monster we’ll tell you.”
“Well, I know where a monster is,” said Itsuki.
“Can you shut up and give it a rest already,” said Kurumi. “We’ve already talked about this a million times already, it’s getting old.”
Itsuki looked like he wanted to say something, but he instead crossed his arms and fumed.
“It’s okay,” said Souta while patting Itsuki on the shoulder. “I know that it can be hard to be wrong sometimes.”
“Shut up,” said Itsuki. “I don’t need advice from you.”
I saw Mana glance back at Itsuki. I was sure that she was going to console him like always, but instead she said nothing and looked away. Itsuki and Mana had always been close, and the two of them were always together, but I hadn’t seen Mana say more than two words to Itsuki since she returned from the hospital. Maybe Itsuki’s strange and rude behaviour was even too much for her to deal with.
“It looks like there might be something here,” said Taisei while looking at the detector charm which was glowing bright blue. “But it’s hard to tell sometimes when Daisuke is around.”
“Yeah! Great one Daisuke,” said Kurumi. “Now we don’t even know where the m
onsters are coming from anymore thanks to you.”
“Is this an Obake?” I asked while pointing to a small white rabbit which was chewing on a leaf at the base of a nearby tree.
“For the hundredth time, if we find an Obake we’ll tell you!” Growled Kiyori.
“Awww, it’s so cute!” Said Souta as he began patting the rabbit. “It’s fur is so soft and silky. I want to take it home.”
“Hey, you shouldn’t touch it Souta,” said Mana. “It might have some strange disease.”
“It's fine,” said Souta. “This little guy wouldn’t hurt- OUCH!”
The rabbit jumped forward and chomped on his hand. Souta screamed, fell back, and stared in terror at his hand which was shaking and bleeding. The bite was clear to see, but I thought the teeth marks looked too large for such a tiny bunny.
“Someone’s going to get weird rabbit disease,” said Kiyori in a spooky voice.
“Nooo! I don’t want to get Ebola!” Souta cried.
“Don’t be an idiot, everyone knows that you can’t get Ebola from rabbit-” Said Kurumi before she was suddenly cut off by the sound of the rabbit growling. I'd never heard a rabbit growl before, but I didn’t have long to think about it because the bunny suddenly began to shake and grow larger. It was turning into a monster.
“Into formation now!” Yelled Taisei as everyone jumped back and readied their weapons. “Kurumi load your bow, Itsuki start chanting a charm, and Kiyori get my camera ready!” He said and threw Kiyori his phone.
“Roger!” Said Kiyori. Kiyori’s family still hadn’t given him a new axe, so he’d recently become Taisei’s personal photographer.
I was ready to take down the crazy bunny with my wooden pole, until the rabbit grew twice my size and suddenly sprouted giant teeth, which looked like they could break my weapon with a single bite. It rapidly continued to grow larger and more horrifying until we were faced with a five foot giant bunny with blood red eyes and three inch teeth and claws. It began growling something which sounded like “carrrotsssss,” as Souta’s blood dripped from its teeth.
Taisei was under the false impression that I had the ability to unleash all my powers at will. Maybe he'd hoped that I could be their pet super human who would destroy monsters for them while they sat back and watched.
“Go Super Dai-chan! Go defeat that monster!” He yelled while dramatically pointing at the rabbit monster. “Just do what you did the night the fox monster attacked!”
“It doesn’t work like that!” I protested. “I can’t just do that whenever I feel like it! I need Akito to undo the seals on my back.”
“Then what good are you?” Yelled Kiyori who was recording everything. “I had to delete our favourite TV show for this video and everything!”
“Yeah, why did you even come?” Asked Kurumi as she loaded her bow and took a shot at the giant creature. She landed a direct hit at the monster’s back and it let out an anguished scream of pain.
“It's okay Daisuke,” said Souta who must have noticed my anguished face. “You can stand back and watch with me." He then pulled some cloth from his pocket and began bandaging his bleeding hand.
I gritted my teeth. I looked down at my crappy wooden pole which was obviously useless. I was supposed to be a super awesome monster exorcist, but I felt mortified about how powerless I was against every monster I’d encountered so far.
I decided to try sending a fire charm at the monster just for the sake of it. I pulled a piece of charm paper from my pocket, held it between two fingers, and chanted the mantra Akito had taught me while focusing my spiritual energy into the paper.
I hadn't expected much to happen (mainly because every charm I made failed) but to my surprise a flaming ball of fire emerged from the paper and went speeding towards the crazy rabbit.
The monster let out a scream of pain as it was engulfed in my giant fireball. The blaze burned brightly before the bunny was reduced to charcoal in under a minute to the surprise of everyone around me.
“Wow..That was,” said Taisei with his mouth wide open with shock. “Amazing! Did you guys see that? Kiyori, tell me that you got that on camera? You got that on camera right?”
“Huh,” said Kiyori who had started playing a game on Taisei's phone. “Did Itsuki kill it already?”
Itsuki on the other hand was staring in shock, and looked like he was half-way through chanting up one of his giant lightning balls. I may have been desperately waiting for my old friend to get over his weird monster issues and be my buddy again, but it made me happy to see him so stunned and horrified.
“That was great,” said Taisei and he patted me on the back as we walked home. “Now all we have to do is film it next time. I’ll be the envy of the junior exorcist world. Just wait until those noobs at the East Branch see this.”
“Come on, you have to admit that wasn’t normal?” Said Itsuki. “No normal person has that much spiritual energy. Spiritual energy comes from Obake, so it’s safe to assume that only an Obake could use charms that effectively.”
“Hey! I’m standing right here,” I said, but Itsuki proceeded to treat me like I was invisible.
“You’re just jealous,” said Kiyori. “I know it’s hard to adjust when someone else becomes the star.”
“I never said that I was the star!” Itsuki protested. “Please, you agree with me right Mana?” He reached out to touch her on the shoulder, but she flinched away and began to walk faster.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Everyone keeps telling me different things. It’s all so confusing. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Mana had always been bright and outgoing, but she seemed different after her return. Mana used to complain to Taisei about never being allowed to fight monsters, but on that day she’d been silent and tried her best to stay away from the rabbit. I assumed that she was still a little shaken up from the fox monster attack. Maybe she just needed more time to get back into the swing of things before beating up deadly Obake like they were nothing.
I didn’t spend any more time lamenting over Mana’s strange behaviour because it was my best day in months. I got to use my superpowers, I destroyed a monster like it was nothing, and Itsuki was too shocked to come up with any witty responses to bring me down.
I felt like there was nothing which could destroy my happiness. Absolutely nothing at all.
* * *
Unfortunately I’d forgotten that it was the day I’d been dreading for weeks. Report card day. My long absence from school combined with my lack of studying, had created a deadly combination of Ds and Fs that were just waiting to make my sister and her husband explode.
I hoped to stash my report in a nearby dumpster after my teacher passed them out, but unfortunately most of my classmates had the same idea, so the school decided to mail them to our homes instead.
Sis was already reading it when I arrived home. I opened the kitchen door to grab a snack, only to find her glaring at me from the counter and there was no escape. I was caught like the rabbit monster that had been dusted by my charm.
“Despite his outside school commitments,” said my sister while holding the card between her hands. “Daisuke’s grades would most definitely improve if he focused more of his energy towards studying, instead of trying to impress the female population of the class by lifting tables with one hand!” She threw the report card down on the counter in front of me. “You said that you would act normal at school! What were you thinking?”
“I didn’t want to do it,” I protested. “But then Yuto Murakami bet me ten dollars!”
“Are you serious? Are you honestly going to put your life on the line for ten measly dollars?”
“Ten dollars is a lot of money!”
“I don’t think you understand how thin the ice you’re treading on is. All you need is for Shinta to return, and he could be chopping you to bits before the day’s over!”
“Ha,” I laughed. “Shinta would never do that because I’m a super exorcist. Just think about how ba
d that would make him look.”
“Shinta can do whatever he wants because of his reputation within the organization. I once heard rumors that one of his men was caught in his explosion, but they swept it under the rug like it was nothing.”
“That’s ridiculous. No one can get away with murder.”
“They can if they have one of the highest success rates after my brother!”
I was pretty sure that Sis was over exaggerating the whole Shinta thing. The guy seemed pretty old and angry, but he eventually handed me over to Akito, so he couldn’t be too crazy.
“You should just chill Sis,” I said. “The guy might have been scary ten years ago, but he’s probably too busy playing lawn bowls to come and get me himself. That's why he left Hugo and Nina’s brother to do his dirty work instead.”
I thought it was a great explanation, but Sis just screwed her face up in rage and hissed. “You don’t understand anything about the organization. It’s not just a bunch of people merrily saving humanity from monsters. There are plenty of agents who have spent their entire lives killing Obake who look like people, and they probably wouldn’t hesitate to do terrible things to a suspicious looking teenage boy. All I’m trying to do is help you, but you refuse to listen to me. If this continues any further you’re going to-” she paused because her husband Shuro had suddenly entered the kitchen and began rummaging through the fridge. “Fail math!” She said in an effort to cover up our conversation. “Just look at these grades, how are you ever going to survive in the real world if you can’t do calculus!”
“I could help him,” said Shuro as he pulled out a tub of yogurt and started eating it with a spoon. “I once got second place in the inter school math championship when I was in tenth grade.”
“We’re fine Shuro!” Sis snapped, but then her face suddenly lit up like someone had switched on a light bulb inside her head. “Actually, that would be a great idea. You should tutor him, every night if possible, I’m sure Dai-chan would appreciate it very much.”