I was sitting on a bench, looking at two kids running around near the Aokigahara Forest, the same one in which the shrine was.

"This stupid dream again..."

"I keep forgetting those dreams, only remembering them when I dream about them... that's so stupid."

My younger self was chasing the other kid, I still couldn't perceive them, only the black silhouette.

"Run faster, Sho! If you won't, I'll bite you very hard~!" They said, chasing after my younger self.

"Please... #####! Give me a break! You know I'm not as physically gifted as you are! After all, you aren't even a human!" I said, tears welling up in my eyes.

My eyes widened and the memory stopped.

"What the hell?! No fucking way! If those memories are real, how could I know about beings other than humans and ghosts or spirits!?" I said to myself in surprise.

The dream suddenly started to fall apart, and I found myself in the white void.

I heard footsteps coming from behind. I looked around and saw myself, though I had heavy bags under my eyes and no light in them. "You... who are you?" I asked.

"You clearly know who am I." He said, his voice was as tired as his looks.

"We are the same person, aren't we? It's just like with the priest me..." I stumbled backward.

"Exactly. The others call me Taida, I've waited for the opportunity to speak to you, Yokubo." He said.

"Why are we here... again... No one explained it to me before so maybe you can tell me what even is this place to begin with?" I asked.

"I won't tell you what is this place because it's against the rules... and why are you here, huh? I just infected your dreams to talk to you." He rolled his eyes.

"Infected my dreams to talk with me?! So you've seen my dreams, right?! Can you tell me what are those dreams even about? I need to know!" I pleaded with him for an answer.

"I won't answer your questions, I visited you because I wanted to ask you some." He said.

"You fucking hypocrite! What the hell?!" I walked up to him and grabbed his shoulders.

"Why are you wasting your time on family, and people whom you refer to as friends, when you could have been spending this time to grow stronger?!" He didn't even bother pushing me away or anything.

"I will give you some advice, you stupid me. Fuck everything else, train to get stronger, or else you'll lose the priest and you'll keep dying, over and over till you go insane, just like I did."

I released him and stepped back. "The fuck are you talking about? Lose the priest, keep dying over and over till I go insane...? Haha... you're high or something? I mean... I have been only killed two times... I'm glad that Carmilla at least gave me a painless one..."

"And yet you've still forgiven her and consider her a friend to this day. You should think about everything. I'm sure that with enough time, you'll listen to me." He smiled smugly.

I punched him in the nose. "Huh?! And why would I listen to such a fucking buzz killer like you?!" I screamed at him in frustration.

He fell to the ground and continued to smile smugly. "It's you against fate, Yokubo! And fate is a really bad bitch to mess with~!"

"Huh?! You're telling me that I will be controlled by some shifty thing like 'fate'?!" I started laughing. "If she's a bitch, then there's no way that she will control me~!"

Taida slowly stood up, wiping the blood that leaked from his nose.

"You'll see, you'll see... you'll suffer and you'll end up like me..." He said in a cruel tone, a smirk on his face.

"Fuck you!" I screamed and then everything went black.

I woke up in the middle of the night, not remembering what I'd been dreaming about.

As I was getting ready to leave the house, I heard a loud noise coming from the bathroom. "Oopsie!" Kaori said and peeked her head out of the bathroom, a smug smile on her face.

"What the hell happened there, Kaori?" I asked.

"I accidentally broke my makeup mirror! Can you buy me a new one, please?" She said, making a cute face.

"You broke another mirror?! Jesus Christ, it's the fourth one in the past three months! Kaori get a hang on yourself!" I rolled my eyes.

"Besides I don't know shit about mirrors used for makeup, you're alone on this one!" I sighed.

"Hmm... that's not good... Oh!" She looked playfully at Layla who was putting her shoes on. "Big Sister! Can you go with Shoji? Pretty pleaseeee~" She made that face again.

Layla turned around and looked at Kaori. "Uhh... m-me...? I think that... I cannot reject that offer after you let... me stay for the night..." She smiled softly.

"What is that stupid girl doing? Oh my God! Can't yall give me just one day off!? Oh, wait a second..."

"Nope! I cannot go today, I have club activities today!" I smirked.

"O-Oh!" Layla gasped. "I also have... my club activity... today... I can wait for you, and then we can go shopping...!" She smiled. "That's what friends do, right? Wait for... each other?" She asked curiously.

I stared at her for a moment.

"Jesus Christ... who hurt that girl so much... that she is so clueless about friendship... tho it's kinda cute... just look at her, Nakamura Shoji... I don't even feel any lust towards her, even tho she is very gifted physically." I looked down at her breasts.

She wrapped her arms above her chest, covering it and biting her cheek in embarrassment, her face slightly red. "Shoji... p-please... don't stare... it's embarrassing..!" She said in frustration.

Kaori giggled loudly. "I'm counting on you two! Buy me the best makeup mirror ever!" She said and closed the door.

Layla softly pulled my sleeve, looking up at me. "But... if you really need to... then at least... tell me before you do so..." She muttered under her nose and smiled softly.

I was frozen in surprise and disbelief at what I just heard.

"Huh?! What is she talking about...?! A girl who I have known for not even an entire day, and she's saying things like that?! I don't know the demon culture, and if it's normal for them to say things like that... but... not that I'm sad about it!"

"Fine, I'll be telling you whenever I look at your boobs."

We were walking to school, and I was looking at her. She was holding her purse with two hands and walked in a cute way.

"I wonder what her full face looks like without the bangs... maybe she would be even more cute than she is now..."

"Tho I still don't understand why was she acting so differently on Monday! I cannot get it off my mind... she was like a contrast to what she is now! Back then a snake and now a small kitten."

I noticed an expensive smartwatch on her wrist.

"Oh, I've seen this thing when I was watching something... it's kinda expensive... hmmm... I mean she is a Noble after all... she's probably wealthy as fuck!"

She looked at me and blushed again, softly hitting my arm.

"I-I told you to tell me... when you're staring at my... c-chest..." She blushed and sounded frustrated.

"No! I swear I wasn't staring at them now, I just noticed that you have a nice smartwatch!"

The blush quickly faded away and she smiled softly, raising her hand.

"O-Oh! Yes! I love my watch! Grandpa gave it to me... I can easily go back to the places I know when I get lost because it shows me where have I been, so I can easily go back!" She said with a lot of enthusiasm and happiness.

"It also requires a password to use! Look!" She types "Layla" into the smartwatch and it's unlocked.

"Did she just show me her password??"

I looked at her in confusion for a couple of seconds and she finally realized. "O-oh! My password... I didn't mean to show it... but... you won't tell anyone r-right...?" She smiled softly.

"Why do you think I won't?" I asked.

"Because... friends keep secrets! And I trust you, b-because you're my friend!"

I felt the blood gathering on my face and I rolled my eyes and looked away at which she just giggled softly.

"Is she really so naive? I thought she was smart, but it seems that it's not the case..."

"Hey Lay-..." Suddenly someone from behind wrapped their arms around my neck. "Hey, Shoji! Don't prevent it like you don't see us!" Haruki said, laughing softly.

"He's right, you creep... who is that with you anyways? Never seen you with a girl bef-..." Carmilla looked at Layla and her eyes widened.

Layla smiled softly. "Hi... Carmilla..."

"Shoji... everyone... you could've been talking with anyone else... but you end up talking with her..." Carmilla muttered under her nose.

"Oh... isn't that Layla? From our class? It's my first time seeing you walking to school together! Since when are you two friends, Shoji?" Haruki asked curiously.

"Yeah... it's weird, but she ended up in my house yesterday and spent the night here-... wait..." I looked at her curiously.

"What were you doing near my house, to begin with, Layla?" I asked.

"Oh... I-... Uhh..." She smiled softly as she blushed and looked away.

Haruki held his hand out to her. "From what I remember, we've never talked before, haven't we? I'm Haruki, nice to meet you, Layla." He smiled.

"Haruki! Stoooop!" Carmilla tried to pull his hand away from her, tho she failed.

"Why didn't she answer my question? I mean! It's not hard to just say a few words, even for her! Maybe she's hiding something? Maybe she wants to kill me, huh? I mean... that's always a possibility... the change of personality... then she's suddenly at my house and wants to be my friend... I can't lower my guard around this girl."

Layla hesitated for a moment, but she shook his hand in the end, a faint smile on her face, tho it wasn't a real smile I'd seen before, but an imitation. "Nice to meet you, I'm Layla." She said kindly, but the kindness also seemed kinda fake.

"I want to check something..." I took her hand.

She looked at me with a faint blush on her face, tho this time her smile seemed genuine. She intertwined her fingers with mine and held it tightly.

"What's up with that girl?!" I sighed deeply.

When we were in the middle of the English class. I looked over at the once empty seat which was now occupied by Layla. Haruki was sitting alone because Carmilla and Lilith had detention.

"You know that you don't have to sit here? Having a friend doesn't mean that you should just barge into their area without invitation. I myself prefer to sit alone, yknow?" I rolled my eyes at her.

She looked at me, biting her cheek. "But I want to be close to my friend!" She pouted. "Besides... y-you can always cheat on tests because I will give you the answers... I study a lot... y'know." She said.

"Tho... Shoji... oh my Devil... there's another thing... I-I can't hold it anymore... I need to ask... y-you about something..." Her smile faded.

"Oh shit... is she gonna ask me for something?! OH fuck... no way... it can't be! I just know her for one day!" I smiled at her awkwardly. "What is it?"

"I was wondering... and wondering... when will the time finally come... when will you finally... do it..." She fidgeted with her fingers under the desk.

"Do what?!" I was very impatient to hear the answer.

"When will you finally..."

"Get rid of Mrs. Takahashi." She said coldly.

"Huh? Why are you talking about it right now...?" I asked in surprise.

"Uhmmm... Y-You kinda accepted my request by shaking my hand back then..." She grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Ouch... the fuck..." I frowned.

"Why did you act so weird back then, you seemed like whole ass another person," I asked.

"O-oh... umm... yes..." She blushed slightly, shaking her head a couple of times, and released my hand.

When she was about to tell me the reason, Haruki turned around and looked at Mr with excitement. "Shoji! Sebas texted me! There will be an exorcism tonight! Are we going?"

Layla looked at him with curiosity. "Exorcism...?"

"Haruki you stupid idiot! What have you done!? She was about to tell me something I've wondered about for two fucking days! I swear... if we weren't in class... I would insult you soo fucking much!" I sighed, rolling my eyes. "Where? What time?" I asked.

"9 PM, Aokigahara District, on the subway next to the forest. We are going to the shrine which the media has been loud about lately."

My eyes widened and I looked at his ring, the memories of the Kitsune from that night flashing before my eyes.

I grabbed my neck in terror, remembering all the pain from back then.

"My legs... my fingers... my neck... I'm glad that someone cursed me... tho I never want to die like this again... no... I just don't want to die again... I don't want to experience death ever again!"

Layla pinched my elbow softly. "I-Is something wrong, Shoji? You've just zoned out..."

"Don't worry, Layla, he's been spacing out very often lately, even I don't know what's going on in his mind anymore, but I bet that he's fantasizing about girls." Haruki giggled.

I stared at him for a moment. "I'm in," I said.

"I-It.... It leaves me no choice then...!" She grabbed my hand again, it was getting kinda repetitive. "I'm going with you two... to this 'Exorcism' thingy! A-and then... to the mirror shop... with you..." She smiled softly, even tho I couldn't see her eyes, I could feel that she was looking into mine.