“It’s time, it’s finally time!” He screamed,
“Koenjikita here we come!”
“Why is he always so loud?” He thought to himself while trying to fall asleep.
“Come on show more excitement, we are going to start high school in Tokyo; Say bye to that boring prefecture”
“The only thing I’m feeling right now is second-hand embarrassment. You’ll never get a girlfriend like that dude, we’re in Tokyo man, it’s time to act cool around the girls” He said with a smug face while nodding confidently.
With a very serious face, Takemi replied,
“We’re not here for that nonsense!”
“Oh, here we g-”
“When we were kids, I got lost in the woods while playing hide and seek with you, remember?”
Akira, having heard him talk about the same anecdote for what has felt like a decade, tried to cut him off but Takemi’s loud and persistent voice overpowered Akira’s.
“I remember as clear as the day, we were getting tired of playing hide in seeking in that little boring town so I had the great idea to play in the creepy ol’ forest”
“You got lost for 5 hours, nobody could find you but you eventually found your way back thanks to an alleged spirit bla bla bla” The fussed Akira finished quickly before it got out of hand.
“Wait but the best part is wh-”
We have arrived at the Koenjikita stop, thanks for choosing Shinkansen as your way of transportation.
Akira and Takemi arrive at Koenjikita and shortly make their way to their high school dorms. Akira looks forward to gaining popularity over the girls of his new high school while Takemi wishes to find out more about the strange appearance of a spirit in his childhood.
Sooner than expected, they’ll find out how bizarre the world they live in is.
Making his way to the school entrance, Takemi spotted Akira.
“GOOD MORNING Meru-Kun” Takemi thundered at the top of his lungs to greet Akira.
“Sorry, do I know you?”
Takemi, not noticing Akira’s intent exclaimed, “What do you mean Meru-Kun, It’s me Takemi we know each other for years! did that sleep give you amnesia?” he jokingly said.
With a passive-aggressive smile, Akira got close to Takemi.
“Stop making a scene, they’ll think I’m crazy too”
“Nevermind that” Takemi said, ignoring Akira’s feelings
“Meet me at lunch, super amazing new information has come up, bye!!”
Before Akira could even question him, Takemi rushed through the main entrance of the school.
“Seriously, he needs to get his brain checked; That amount of energy he has in the morning can’t be healthy”
As Akira makes his way nonchalantly through the day, the bell for lunch break rings.
Takemi who was impatiently waiting felt like Akira was taking an eternity “GEEZ Meru-Kun, what took you so long!?”
Akira, very heated, started to sarcastically rant while they were making their way to the “Super Important Thing” that Takemi wanted to show him.
“Maybe it's because you just said to meet you at lunch and not where to meet you, so I had to take a bunch of educated guesses to finally spot you, but maybe I’m wrong, I should’ve been fas-”
“Ok ok I got it, we have way more important things to talk about”
“This guy likes to cut me off..”
“Look!”
Takemi with a lot of excitement points at the room in front of him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Apparition club?” It takes Akira a second to process the name but eventually realizes the situation “Oh no-”
“Oh yes!”
“I’m not going in there”
“Yes, we are!”
“Are you crazy?” He asked knowing the response
“Look, behind those doors awaits a bunch of weirdos and I’m not looking up to that, we leave now!”
Before Akira could continue, Takemi gripped his hand with strength and opened the club’s door.
The door opens silently revealing an ominous dark room supported by the dim light of a candle revealing a silhouette with round glasses reflecting the light of the candle.
A female voice can be heard.
“U-uhm if you wish to open the gate to the apparition club-”
“Huh? doors? but I already opened them” Takemi said with confusion/
“O-oh yeah well if you would like to continue, I will need your name and your companion’s”
“Hi the name’s Takahashi Takemi and this is Suzuki Akira but you can call him Meru-Kun”
“What do you mean she can call me Meru-Kun? That's for me to decide,” Akira said with irritation.
“Welcome Takemi and Meru-Kun, the name given to me on the day of my birth is Kaminari Yui, please to meet you”
“Are we like roleplaying?” Akira thought to himself.
A student similar to Yui entered the club room with elegance.
“Well, what do we have here Princess Yui”
“So we are roleplaying huh” Akira verified his previous claim.
“So you’re a princess! and this is your butler?” Takemi rejoiced.
“This is my brother, Yuki Kaminari”
“Please to meet you”
Takemi shared his interest in apparitions and mentioned his story with the Kaminari siblings.
As Yui was preparing to tell her story about an apparition, the bell rang for it was time to go back to class.
Not wanting to be late to class, Yui grabbed onto her books as fast as possible, while saying her goodbyes she suddenly slipped headfirst to the ground.
“ooowww…”
2x“Are you okay?”
“Your Majesty, I always tell you to not rush things,” Said Yuki while picking her up to the ground “My apologies, Your Majesty can be clumsy sometimes” “Come on, let’s go to the infirmary”
Takemi and Akira make their way to their classes, but before they separate, Takemi goes up to Akira.
“I’ll meet you at your room at midnight”
“Aren’t you supposed to ask? And that’s a no by the way”
“¡Bye!”
“Great, now I won’t be able to sleep either”
Akira spent the night doing his physics homework while listening to music wishing that Takemi forgot to meet up with him or even went to sleep, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
“I know you would wait for me!”
Akira hears Takemi’s voice but doesn’t know from where, he didn’t hear a knock and nobody was inside the room.
“So I’m going crazy now, those weirdos got the best of me”
“What are you talking about? I’m at your window”
“Right, why would I ever think you would enter a room the normal way”
Takemi confirmed the claim to later waste no time and explain to Akira the situation.
“Remember when Yui-Chan tripped?”
“Yui-Chan? So close already?” “Yeah, I remember”
“Well when she picked her stuff up, she left this piece of paper on the floor, so I had to pick it up right?”
“This ‘left on the floor’ you’re talking about seems more like a robbery to me but go on”
“It looks like a pentagram and it has something written on it”
“I already know where this is going”
“Yep! So let’s go to the park right now”
“Great, more roleplaying”
The dynamic duo makes their way to the park unnoticed.
Takemi starts drawing down the pentagram while Akira can barely keep his eyes open from the fatigue.
“Meru-Kun, wake up!”
“Done? see? it didn’t work, now let’s go back and sleep”
“No, I still haven’t done the chant”
“You can’t even read it”
“Silly Meru-Kun, why did you think it took me so much time to get to your room?”
“You were procrastinating?”
“Well, yes but I also found out through intensive research that this was written in greek, so I learned how to pronounce the alphabet”
“Well hit me with it, I just want to sleep, bro”
Takemi was nervous but also excited since it would have been his first try at manifesting an apparition; Though showed no interest Akira was also curious about whether this “roleplay” could be legit, the only thing left was for them to find out the truth.
Takemi cleared his throat and inhaled to relieve his nervousness and proceeded with the manifestation.
“Eíthe na klitheí epáno mou to polykéfalo kynigóskylo ton chantón”
“....?”
Nothing happened…
“Oh well, what did I expect?” Takemi lamented.
Akira was slightly disappointed that nothing happened but not surprised by the conclusion.
“Well, you can’t give up on your first try, because it didn’t work the first time doesn’t mean that it won’t the second… or tenth,” Akira said to console his downed friend.
His words successfully cheered up Takemi
“Thanks, man, you’re right”
“No problem, dude”
“WELL, SEE YOU TOMORROW AT THE APPARITION CLUB!”
As the sun rises for another day, it can see in the distance, a young man sitting near the window daydreaming through the class, waiting for the lunch bell to ring, surprisingly, this was not Takemi but Akira who was interested to see what weird conversation would Takemi bring up today at the apparition club; Soon enough, the bell rings and he consequently aims for the club.
“Hey, guys. Is Takemi here?”
“Hi, Meru-Kun. I haven’t seen Takemi all day” Yuki answered
“Maybe he’s sick?”
“No, I think he’s just sad about yesterday and stayed home”
Since Akira didn’t give enough information, Yuki didn’t seem to understand what he was talking about, Yui shyly joined the conversation to question Akira.
“Shoot, I don’t want to tell her what he did,” Akira contemplated. He decided to not say anything and go check on Takemi himself.
As he makes his way to Takemi’s room he finds the door unlocked.
“Oh my lord, Takemi, how can you be this filthy, the door is open and it reeks in here!” Akira tries to get Takemi’s attention but doesn’t get a response.
He enters the room to find Takemi under his blanket.
“Come on, man, I know that you’re bummed out about yesterday but don’t let that get through your dreams. I actually have been getting interested in this weird spirit stuff lately, maybe it’s because I’ve been hearing you babbling for the longest time haha...”
Akira still gets no response...
“Look, man, 12 years ago I was the only one that believed you, and to this day I still do; spirits exist, ghosts exist, apparitions are real even gods exist, because if you say so I’ll believe. And I will continue believing in them even if you stop ”
Akira got no response for the third time.
Standing in front of Takemi’s bed he notices two unusual things: The terrible odor that he noticed at the start is only getting worse by the time, but the most concerning thing he noticed is that Take is showing no signs of breathing under the blanket.
Akira was so anxious that he could barely move his body, he was paralyzed, it seemed like there was no oxygen in the room, he could barely breathe. His hands slowly make their way to the blanket.
Akira drops down the blanket.
Akira was in disbelief about what he saw, his brain couldn’t handle the insanity of the situation. He collapses onto the ground.
Takemi’s corpse was revealed.
The top right part of his head was bitten off.
His left arm was torn off.
His right foot was crunched.