Chapter 15: Truthseeking

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I had more trouble concentrating than usual today. My thoughts kept drifting back to what Alicia said earlier. Each time, I told myself her advice was ridiculous and she never would have given it if she knew the full context.

A week ago, if someone told me they had a relationship with a ghost, I would have wondered why they were allowed to walk around free and weren’t in a straightjacket. Even if ghosts exist in this world, Yuki was dead. I was alive. Our circumstances were just too different.

What would a date with her look like? I imagined myself in a fancy Italian restaurant sitting alone over a plate of spaghetti, the accordion player giving me strange looks as I conversed with the empty seat across from me. Do ghosts even eat spaghetti? No, it was too absurd to consider.

Sure, Yuki was attractive in her own unique way. A fascinating macabre beauty, sort of like those nerdy goth chicks that like to cosplay and pretend they’re vampires at conventions and LARP events. That did have a certain appeal…

But there was a huge difference between dressing up and the real thing. Plus, she was a weird, obsessive stalker. She followed me around for days, spying until she trapped me somewhere I couldn’t run away. Then when she appeared, she didn’t even say anything. She just stared like a creep.

In fairness, she did try to get my attention in more subtle ways first. I just never noticed until she made herself impossible to ignore. So it was partially my fault, but did that excuse everything? Even her disturbing infatuation?

What if things didn’t work out? Would I need to worry about my safety? Everyone has that one crazy ex, but this would be on a whole nother level. She scares me shitless now. How much worse would it be if we had a messy break-up and she hated me?

Don't get me wrong. Yuki wasn't a bad person. I understood why she’s so fixated with me, even if it was uncomfortable. Her circumstances had to have made her lonely. She might have gone years or even decades without interacting with anyone.

Given her isolation, it was forgivable she wasn’t the best at expressing herself. It was too much to call her insane just because of that. Maybe a little neurodivergent.

From an objective standpoint, her actions weren’t that bad, just strange. She never actually did any harm. Sure, she was a bit frightening to be around, but she's a ghost. What the hell did I expect? It's not like it's her fault she's scary.

At the end of the day, all she really did was follow me around and give me a flower. If she was a regular living, breathing human girl, that might’ve been endearing or even cute. It was like she was shy and needed to work up the courage to approach her crush.

Was it really so absurd to accept her feelings? Perhaps I was still letting my biases affect my judgment. I was too accustomed to the way things were in my first life. That kind of thinking was exactly what kept me from noticing Yuki for so long in the first place.

I needed to remind myself that this was a new world with different rules. It seemed obvious in retrospect. I had a system for fuck’s sake, of course other impossible things might be real here. You never notice your own cognitive blindspots.

For now, I pushed these thoughts out of my mind. I needed to focus on the task at hand.

Class had just finished for the day. I could have gone back to my dorm as usual, but instead I stuck around the academy after hours. I wanted to meet the mysterious group who published that article online, the so-called "Truthseekers". More and more questions kept piling up. Hopefully, with their help, I’d finally get some answers.

[Story Quest: Strange Events - Difficulty: Easy]

[Objective: Discover the identity of the hanged girl.]

[Reward: Gain a random trait.]

Knowing Yuki’s first name wasn’t enough to complete the system’s quest. Apparently, her 'identity' consisted of more than just a name. It probably also wanted me to learn her history. As in what events led to her death. Only then, would I finally get to see how traits work. Fair enough, I suppose. Besides, Yuki wasn't going away anytime soon, so it was probably prudent to learn more about her.

These 'Truthseekers' people had been fairly difficult to locate. I knew they were a student organization, but they weren’t listed on the club registry. They didn’t have a supervising teacher or advisor either.

That in itself wasn’t so strange. Lots of small clubs with only a few members were the same. If they didn’t need any funding or equipment, there was no reason to bother becoming official. However, it made it annoying to track them down.

With a name like the Truthseekers’ Society, I pictured some secretive cabal coming together in the dead of night, their faces obscured underneath masks and black cowls as they discussed forbidden knowledge by candlelight. In reality, they met in an empty classroom the same as any other club. It was simply a matter of asking around if anyone had heard of them.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

My destination was on the second floor. Once I reached the place, I stopped in front of the door. First, I made sure I had the right room, double-checking the number matched what I’d scribbled on a slip of paper. Then, I took a breath to settle my nerves.

Anticipation rose up within me. Who exactly were these people? Paranormal investigators? Professional ghost hunters? Would they even be willing to share their expertise? There was only one way to find out. I opened the door and stepped inside.

As expected, the room was just an ordinary classroom. There were a few posters and diagrams hung around. One listed the four fundamental forces. Another had a caricature of Newton lying under an apple tree. Instead of individual desks, there were shared tables arranged with various measuring tools.

Besides myself, there were only three people, all male students the same age as me or perhaps a year or two older. The first was tall and lanky with a bad case of acne. He stood with a slouch and had long ‘heavy-metal’ hair that he let hang down over his face. The second was a chubby ginger kid covered in freckles, nearly as round as he was tall. And the last of the trio had a DIY bowl cut with thick coke-bottle glasses that magnified his eyes to cartoonish proportions.

As I entered, Metalhead and Glasses were in the midst of a heated discussion. I didn’t catch the beginning of their conversation, but I heard phrases thrown around like “Illuminati” and “ancient aliens”. Immediately, my brain started firing off all kinds of alarm signals. I had a bad feeling about what it was I’d just walked into.

Nerds. The word jumped into my mind involuntarily. This wasn’t a gathering of hidden experts. It was just a bunch of conspiracy nerds playing pretend.

I felt a sudden surge of deja vu. These guys reminded me of my past life and the closest thing I had to a social circle back then. Except, for me it was less conspiracy theories and more Dungeons and Dragons.

Wait, stop. Let’s not jump to conclusions. I needed to remember what I said before about the rules being different here. I was being too hasty with my judgment. Urban legends were real in this world, so maybe wacky conspiracies were too. I should keep an open mind.

My appearance drew the attention of Freckles. His mouth fell open in surprise when he realized their club had a visitor. He jumped up and rushed over to greet me at the door, pressing in a little too close for comfort.

“Ah, welcome! It seems we have a newcomer. Tell us, friend, do you see the true face of this world?”

“Uh…” My eyes darted left and right, unsure how to handle his overbearing enthusiasm.

He continued on before I could think of a response. The intellectual air he put on went somewhat at odds with his heavy open-mouthed breathing.

“Then you’ve come to the right place, for we are the Truthseekers! While others are but simple sheep content to wallow in blissful ignorance, not us! We seek only the truth, no matter how ugly it may be. Because we are not afraid. We will not be kept down! Here, we never shy away from discussing the big topics. Even the things they don’t want you to know.”

He clasped his hands together as his eyes sparkled up at me expectantly.

I let out an awkward cough into my fist. “I-I see… That’s very noble. I’m not sure who they are, but it’s good to think for yourself instead of just accepting rumors.”

Freckles crossed his arms and scoffed, disappointed with my lukewarm response. With the exasperated tone of an elder instructing a kindergartener, he began to lecture me on my idiocy.

“You don’t get it. This isn’t simple innocent rumors we’re talking about. Have you never heard of scopolamine? Truth serum? Hello~! News flash: The government has been experimenting with mind control for decades.

“Maybe at first it was only to extract information from criminals and foreign agents, but that kind of power is a slippery slope. Since then, they’ve perfected the art of altering a person’s psyche and now they’re unleashing it on a global scale! It's called chemtrails and it’s happening right now!

“Think about it. What’s the most important thing to any politician? Power. And what could make them feel more powerful than literally manipulating your thoughts, your mind. Deciding who. You. Are. Fundamentally as a person. All the way from the media you watch, down to what you eat for breakfast. All of it.

“The powers that be want that and more. They’ll settle for nothing less than total control over the populace. They'd see us all become nothing more than their slaves. Mindless puppets. If we don’t resist now we…”

I take back what I said about keeping an open mind. This guy was fucking crazy.

At first, I was able to follow along with his rant. But as he continued on, he gradually began speaking faster and faster, until I couldn't keep up and his words all ran together. I raised a hand to shield my face from the droplets of saliva that spewed out alongside the passionate speech. Eventually, I realized that I needed to cut him off or I'd never get a chance to bring up my reason for being here.

“That does sound worrying, but to be honest, I’m not too interested in this mind control stuff. I was actually hoping to talk about something else… Something happened to me recently. I was hoping to talk with an expert on ghosts.”

Freckles was positively outraged that I could just casually blow off an existential threat to humanity. He started sputtering with disbelief. Still, my words had the desired effect.

Glasses perked right up when he heard that. He pushed those sturdy black frames up the bridge of his nose, before calmly turning to face me.

“Paranormal research is something of my specialty. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m an expert, but I know a thing or two. Can you describe the entity?”

Thankfully, he seemed a little more rational than the first guy.

“I think she’s the Wraith that’s mentioned in your club’s article about urban legends.”

He nodded in understanding. “I wrote that article. Go on, what did she look like?”

“Well… She’s average height for a girl. Maybe like 5’4”. Long black hair, super pale. Oh and red eyes. She has blood-red eyes that almost glow. Her skin is cold as ice. When I touched her hand it felt like she was pulling the heat straight out of my veins. And her-”

“Hang on a second. Red eyes? And did you say touch? You had physical contact with the entity?”

Glasses grabbed a bag from beside his feet and dug around inside, pulling out a notepad and pen. His eyes met mine and he wore a serious expression. Clearly, he was paying much closer attention than he had been a moment ago.

“I think you better start again. Tell me your experience from the beginning. Leave nothing out, not a single detail.”

I scratched my head, confused by his reaction. Did I say something weird?