“Still can’t believe she sent us back out to school, though…” Ibuki muttered as she and her new roommate began walked up to their gates of their familiar high school. “Even after we got attacked like that…Kaori really is a demon, huh?”

“I never knew she was this serious about anything other than Masahiro and cutting things” Niko added, as the two friends quickly arrived at the shoe lockers.

“Well, she’s always been a stickler for education ever since I first met her”

“At least she treated your wounds before we left though, otherwise it wouldn’t have been tough to get here”

“Yeah, you’re right about that”

After switching their shoes and exchanging goodbyes, the two roommates headed off for their respective classrooms, Ibuki quickly taking off down the corridor for the first year classrooms and Niko heading up a flight of stairs for the second year ones.

Passing a bulletin board that had postings all over it, the transfer student decided to take a moment to glance over it, after all he was already late so what would a couple more minutes matter? The postings were all about Ishimaku’s sports and cultural afterschool clubs. The colourful flyers were all announcing that the majority of clubs were now accepting new members. Back at home, Niko had never really been one for staying at school for any later than he had to, once the bell rang he was usually on the first people out of the classroom. However, he figured that now he was in a foreign country it wouldn’t hurt to try and spend his time afterschool a little more wisely. After all, time at school meant time away from those familiars that tried to kill him and Ibuki earlier.

‘I should probably look into this later’ Niko thought to himself as he went to turn away from the board and continue on to class; but out of the corner of his eye, the transfer student noticed a poster that wasn’t promoting any sort of clubs. It instead was warning students of staying too late afterschool and to avoid any suspicious people.

Heeding the warning, Niko remembered the rumour about the man in the white van that he’d heard somewhere before, apparently he was still at large. Nevertheless, how hard could it be to catch a guy in a white van that lurks outside a highschool? Were the police in the area slacking off or something?

‘Well, its not like I need a sign to tell me not take candy from strangers, but I should probably keep an eye out’ the student thought to himself, before realising he’d spent too much time dawdling in the hallway.

It would be a miracle if he got away with just a detention for this one…

“You want to join a club?” Hanako parroted as she watched Niko chew on some dry-looking bread from the school cafeteria. “I never really took you to be the athletic type, Niko”

‘Hey, I can be athletic if I choose to be! Besides, I was already thinking of joining a cultural club’ Niko replied using the telepathy skill he’d recently got from the small spirit. ‘I want to try something completely new and exciting’

“Well, I guess that’s fine. Still isn’t this image a little bit too sad?”

‘Huh? What image?’

“This one. The one of you sitting alone at your desk at lunch, eating some bread whilst all of these other kids are talking and having fun in their own little circles. ”

‘Oh, that one…’

“So you’re aware of it, that just makes it even sadder, you know. Even Ibuki has her friends from her sports club”

‘S-Shut up! This is your fault! If you never blew open the classroom door that one time, then it wouldn’t be so difficult for me to approach my classmates!’

“Can’t blame me for this one, Niko. You’re young! Go and talk to somebody and have a rose-coloured highschool romance! Youth doesn’t last forever, you know…”

‘Who’s having a rose-coloured highschool romance?!? I don’t want to hear that from you, Hanako! You’re the last person I want lecturing me on romance and even highschool for that matter!’

Just as the duo were about to get into fully-fledged argument, (again) Niko spotted somebody walking towards his desk.

This was big. Somebody was actually going out of their way to talk to him.

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The person in question was a rather plain-looking, polite girl. Her black hair was in two pigtails and she had on a pair of thick-rimmed black glasses. Just under her normal-looking eyes, there was cluster of freckles on her cheeks.

She truly was the type of girl someone would just overlook or even forget about. Nothing about her seemed even remotely note-worthy.

“Uhm…Kamawari” she began a little sheepishly. “Are you in any clubs at all?”

“Uh…no. None, in fact” Niko replied, just happy to have a conversation with someone other than the noisy spirit that was currently floating beside him. “Actually, I don’t think we’ve met before. Are you in my class?”

“No, I’m in the next class over 2-D. I’m Sawako Reiko”

“Cool, well nice to meet you then, Sawako”

“L-Likewise. So about the clubs…”

“Oh yeah, are you in any?”

“Yes, the Sewing Club. I was just wondering if you were interested in joining us. You don’t have to join straight away if you don’t want to, how about you just come and check out the club afterschool today?”

“Sewing, huh? I was never good at that, but sure why not! Where’d you want to meet up?”

After deciding on meeting up outside of the Library, Sawako briefly said her goodbyes and headed back to her own classroom. Niko, however, seemed to be looking rather smug.

‘How’s that, Hanako? Who’s a loner now?’ he said, triumphantly. “Sawako approached me to be in her club, so I can’t be as lame as you think!”

Rolling her eyes, the spirit grimaced at the sight of her in front of her.

“No, you’re still lame. You got invited to join the Sewing Club, I wouldn’t call that the most exciting and youthful club ever” she replied, folding her arms. “Well, whatever. I’m gonna go drink or something, don’t get too excited at your new club, okay?”

‘Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I know I’m right!

“Sure…Well, I’ll see you later then”

“Ah, here we are” Sawako said, smiling as opened the sliding door that lead to the Sewing Club’s clubroom. “Welcome to the Sewing Club, Kamawari! The clubroom’s a little out of the way, but at least its nice and quiet around here.

“Yeah, its good to have a little quiet now and then” Niko agreed as he followed the girl into the room.

“Still, I can’t believe you actually accepted my request. Nobody really cares about this club, so we were in danger of shutting down”

“Well you seemed like you really wanted me to join, so I just decided why not?”

“I was really lucky to ask such an easy-going person like you, Kamawari. But you know, that its bad to let your guard down so often”

“That so? People often tell me that” Niko replied, chuckling as he looked around the clubroom for the first time.

It was empty.

Nothing not even a chair was lying about.

“Uh…I was kind of expecting more, you know…sewing stuff” he remarked turning around just a small clicking sound echoed through the room. “D-Did you just lock that door, Sawako?”

“Sure did. Boy, was it tough pretendin to be a good girl this entire time. Shit really wears me out…”

The voice that answered didn’t even remotely sound like the hushed, polite tone that Sawako usually spoke in. Instead, the voice sounded confident and somewhat seductive, not to mention the obvious change in dialect.

“Boys like you are the best, ya know? So trustin and innocent. It just makes it all the more satisfying when I…taint you”

“Who are you?” Niko asked, instantly getting as far away from the imposter as quick as he possibly could. “What do you want with me?”

“What do I want? Well, to eat ya, obviously” the fake replied, as her hair rapidly began to grow to an insane length. “Ah…that’s so much better, its so restricting having it tied up like that”

“Your name! Your real one!” Niko demanded as the hair began to slowly wrap around his ankles.

“Its not important, but I guess I can grant you your dying wish” the imposter began, smiling smugly. “People around here call me Kejoro, but calling me Keji is fine too”

“So you were pretending to be Sawako then?”

“Huh? That girl never even existed. She was just a persona for me to use. After all, if I approached you like this, I’m sure that little girl and that muscle-headed Oni would’ve killed me straight away”

“You knew about Ibuki and Hanako?”

“’Course! Those two are bad news; even a girl like me knows that!”

Niko clenched his teeth and tried to rip the hair off his legs, but no matter how much he removed, even more replaced it.

“Nobody’s comin to save you, so struggle all you like, boy” Kejoro laughed as she transformed some of her hair into a blade. “It’ll only make you even tastier…”

“You won’t get away with this!” Niko screamed as Kejoro’s hair enveloped his entire body, leaving just his head free.

“Oh, what a cliché line” she smiled. “You been reading too much manga or something?”

The tip of the monster’s blade was thrust directly into Niko’s right thigh, causing him to screech out in pain.

“What a great voice! This is so much better than those old geezers from this morning!” Kejoro cried out, a manic smile stretched out across her lips.

“I think that quite enough” The voice was unusually deep and husky.

“You again, Keji? I could have sworn I killed you last time we met. I have other missions, so I can’t play with you for too long today, alright?” the voice said, sounding exparated.

“Always getting in my way, aren’t you, Whitey?” Kejoro replied, clicking her tongue in irritation as turned around to see an unlocked door and a slim-looking man in a completely white three-piece suit complete with a shiny mask of the same colour. The mask was totally blank apart from two eyeholes that had been cut messily into the prop with a pair of scissors. It also seemed almost identical to the cheap ones that you would find in a convenience store.

“Now, let’s end this. I don't have a lot of time, you know. So feel free to come at me from anywhere” the person in white said, confidently.

“You bastard. Today’s the day I rip off that damn mask and devour you whole!” Kejoro declared as she totally ignored the injured and immobilized Niko. “Not like an old guy like you would taste any good, but still. Oh yeah, you sit tight, Kamawari. I’ll get back to you in a minute”

Well, it wasn’t like he was going anywhere. Niko attempted to block out the numbing pain coming from his thigh and find a way to somehow escape Kejoro’s hair, whilst he was forced to watch the deathmatch that was just about to unfold right in front of him.