***

After school, I headed straight for Horikita's classroom. Once inside, I saw him sitting behind his desk reading a book. This is probably where he gives the counselling sessions. I wonder how many times he gave these counselling sessions already. Does he enjoy doing it? Maybe he likes to play psychiatrist with others, perhaps. There are some strange rumours about his sessions though.

His face was calm and composed, and his eyes glistened faintly with interest.

As I approached, Mr. Horikita closed his book and looked at me with composed expression. "Hello, Miss Yuu. You are finally here. You made me wait long enough."

"Hi. Hey, Mr. Horikita, is this really necessary?" I complained. "Don't you know it's rude to ask a girl to sit beside you, alone in the classroom and talk privately during her free time? Isn't this harassment? Aren't you harassing me?"

"Why do you complain so much? You should be happy that I even bother with such a hopeless girl like you. I give you an opportunity, an opportunity to improve yourself and get rid of your sloppy behaviour. So please don't ruin my good intentions and at least try to cooperate. Otherwise, you won't survive until the end of high school."

"...Huh?" What kind of conversation was that supposed to be? Wasn't he acting too rude to me?

"So, let's begin. First of all..." His voice became suddenly serious. As expected, he was quite intimidating when he talked seriously. "Tell me your name."

"What? My name what do you mean? Don't you know me already? You are so weird..."

Mr. Horikita looked at me with discontent.

"Just answer my questions honestly, please. Those are standard questions. I don't want to do this as much as you and your usual dumb behaviour want make it any more enjoyable to either of us."

Ugh, calling me dumb again. That idiot teacher. I hate him so much.

"Geez, fine, fine. Umm, my name is Yuu Takatsuki. Nice to meet you." I grumbled.

For some reason I felt uncomfortable answering him. I didn't feel like telling him my full name. Perhaps I shouldn't have answered him after all. But he continued asking anyway.

"Okay, that's great. Next question, how tall are you?"

I was taken aback by his sudden change in tone. Why does he want to know such things?

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Um, hmmm, about 155cm. Maybe."

"Maybe?" He frowned at me.

Damn it! Making me all nervous, stupid jerk!

"Well, yeah. It's 155cm. Humph."

Now I'm annoyed. Did I mention that I hated him yet? Of course I did. Well, I just did. Sorry about that. Anyway, damn him! I need to find a way to escape this situation. He continued to ask me all sorts of weird questions.

"Then, next. What do you think about night-time? Do you prefer daytime or night-time?"

"Night-time. Night is better than day." It's better obviously. All sorts of supernatural existences, like vampires and vampires, and ghosts and werewolves and also vampires, get active at night.

"Do you love darkness? Or are you afraid of the dark?"

"It's super exciting, but it can also be scary."

"Hmm, yes indeed. Very interesting. Tell me what you think about the Moon."

Moon...? Huh? The moon? Like the real one? The one that shines bright each month? Not the fake one, right?

No, no. Never mind. Forget it. I let my imagination go too far.

"Hmm, well, it's beautiful. A wonderful sight to behold."

It even has such a feature to transform people and make them grow fur. I wonder if werewolves’ fur is fluffy. They look cute. In fact they remind me of puppies, but their fangs are pretty frightening.

"Very fascinating. Then tell me, do you believe in aliens?"

"I don't believe in them."

Alien? Aliens? What is he even asking? Do I believe in aliens? Of course, I don't 'believe' that they exist. I 'know' that they exist.

'I'm pretty sure he is one. The alien I mean. He even kinda looks like one of those reptilian. Don't tell me...!'

Then I realised. Are all those questions, so he or others from his kind take over my other student's identities? Alien abductions must happen often in this world. Does he want to kidnap me? It kind of started to creep me out.

"That's all for our questions. Now, please look at this."

As he said that he showed me a small piece of beautiful stone. It had a dark blue colour on its surface and smooth edges.

"'This,' what is it? Is it valuable?"

"Yes, it certainly is," he replied nonchalantly. "But first show me your hand."

"W-what? Why would I want to touch some rock? Is there something interesting about it?"

"Come now, don't pretend you don't understand. Just hold it in your hand, and it will be over."

I felt weird. My head was starting to spin. My thoughts were slowly becoming muddy. Strange. I've never experienced anything like this before. I think. I reached toward the small piece of rock with my hand in a daze.

The moment I touched the object in my hands, it started to glow. Was I hallucinating? No, it's not possible. I shook my head trying to shake off the feeling of grogginess. Yet still nothing changed.

"It's glowing. How pretty. Hehehe."

"..."

"Why is it glowing?"

"Don't worry about it."

Then I heard a snap beside my head.

Suddenly the glowing stopped, and then everything went back to normal. Did something happen just now? I felt like something really important and mind blowing had happened, but I couldn't remember.

"Uhm, Mr. Horikita so what's about my counselling? You asked me all sorts of weird questions. Am I done yet? Can we leave already?"

He looked at me with a satisfied smile and nodded. "Indeed, you passed. Thank you for cooperating."

Weird! What just happened? I tried shaking my head as hard as I could but nothing worked. When I opened my mouth to speak, I found myself unable to form words properly. Before I knew it I was out of classroom.

"I wonder how the confession was. It's such a shame I wasn't allowed to witness it personally. Let's go find Kakeru and see how he is doing. Maybe they are behaving all lovey-dovey already. Hehe."

***