Puppet Skin [OHSHC]

Chapter 17

Once Iiyo and Umehito arrived back to school after All Hallows Eve, they went back to what they had. A mutual friendship with a mutual intellectual curiosity of the occult and other strange oddities. With no touching. Iiyo was still mildly disappointed about still not being able to touch even one person, even if that one person was the oddball, Umehito, but she had been used to it. She had over a year to get used to it. On the other hand, she still had her mother to deal with.

Meanwhile, Umehito had been doing a research project of his own: finding out how and why physical touch hurts Iiyo. He had looked up aftereffects of NDE and found stories of people who were able to see glimmers of auras and able to see spirits, but it all seemed like sugar-coated fairy tales. They didn't seem to have any bad side effects, and most of them have claimed them to be wonderful gifts to have and that they were doubly blessed. He knew he wouldn't find the answers he was looking for this way. Instead, he began thinking of how he's been hiding himself from her. She couldn't see his aura, nor feel his "presence" but she still hurt when they touched. What was he doing that most other people weren't doing? Unfortunately, that was one question with hundreds of answers.

Surprisingly, after Halloween, a few of the divination volunteers had signed up for the Black Magic Club, but only as ghost members until next year. So while Umehito was happy that he had temporary members, he was disappointed that he didn't gain permanent members. Iiyo was partly glad for the additional members, but equally glad for the lack of daily additional presences.

Iiyo should have been happy—ecstatic, even—to hear that her story won first place. No, it wasn't her story in the children's book category, which won a respectable third place, but the other one. The story she wrote only in order to piss off her teacher who had told her to lay off the occult and black magic.

It didn't make him angry that the story had started off with a psycho-killer murdering the protagonist's friends and family, and then turned into the protagonist being the psycho-killer who went off her medication after her memories of the torture and abuse that she had suffered through by her parents, but then through bad therapy turned it into an episode of the Satanic Panic, had resurfaced and made her snap. It heavily referred to what she had been studying: the occult, which her teacher had specifically said to stay away from. Instead of her teacher just putting his stamp on it and passing it on to the contest, like he had done with the rest of her stories she had written over the course of the school year, he had sent his letter of recommendation, something he did to only exceptional stories he had read, along with her story to the contest. A week after the Halloween weekend, he had announced the winners with a smile and a round of applause.

Iiyo could do nothing, but rest her head on her arm and silently sulk.

"Iiyo?" Umehito cautiously sat down next to her in class the next morning. She had been glaring ahead of her all throughout first period, and had been glaring into her books during club hours the day before. The poor student who sat in front of her was scared out of his wits. "Are you feeling well? I heard your story won. That's usually an exciting event."

Iiyo inhaled through her nose, and exhaled through the same way, but it didn't make her feel better. "That story was a joke, and I only wrote it to make the teacher mad." All year, she had consistently earned third or second place, which she was fine with for one real reason: the first place winners had their picture taken by reporters for the small article. Her name was risky enough, but a picture? Just the thought made her jumpy. If she declined her winning status in the contest, her scholarship could be in jeopardy. Trying to piss off the teacher had drastically backfired.

Umehito didn't need to be able to see auras in order to tell that Iiyo was piqued, so he tried to change the subject. "You look nice today." He was being truthful. Instead of turtlenecks or her other black clothes with long sleeves, she wore a short sleeved yellow wrap with purple and blue floral designs, a long white skirt that brushed her ankles, and gold flats. The only thing she had to cover a part of her arms were her deep purple fingerless gloves that only reached the middle of her forearm. Her mother had insisted that she couldn't wear all black, and because Iiyo's wardrobe had drastically changed during the past couple of years, Iiyo had to borrow her mother's clothes. She didn't feel safe in these clothes which put her even more on edge than usual.

Her mother doting on her fashion trend for the single day was the first time that Iiyo's mother had began speaking to her again, and seemed genuinely excited that she had won despite the risk.

It seemed to mean that her mother had finally stopped her silent treatment, but they still had a hard time keeping eye contact. The occult was obviously still something that couldn't be talked about in the apartment, and Iiyo continued to wonder if she should keep bringing books home from the club. She wasn't worried about the possibility of her mother being a book-burner, but maybe if she didn't bring the books home, their relationship would start to heal more. It would mean hiding a part of herself again though, and that was the one thing she didn't want to do. "Thanks," Iiyo grumbled. "I mean it, thank you for the compliment for today. I know I'm in a sour mood."

"Do you not like having your picture taken? Is it because you believe that they suck out your soul?"

"No. And I definitely don't believe in that. I just don't want my picture in the article, that's all."

"Is it because you don't want that person to find you?"

Honestly, Iiyo had thought that Umehito had forgotten about that conversation, and not to mention that she herself had even forgotten she had told him that someone was probably looking for her. "Yeah. The point of us moving here was to move away from him and to move on, like nothing ever happened, but I still can't help but worry that it will happen all over again."

Umehito felt a familiar pang of not knowing how to comfort his friend. In the car, he didn't realize how much touching was a necessity of socializing and living with other people. What did it feel like to not be able to touch anyone for over a year? Before Umehito could say anything, the class president stood up to the classroom, "Everyone, I have an announcement about the Halloween festival. The tallies have been counted up."

Iiyo was thankful for a distraction, even if that meant focusing on a person she did not like. After the festival, he had, for the most part, completely ignored her, and she couldn't for the life of her figure it out. Even his aura didn't give her any hints.

"The honor for the Most Popular Class of the First Year Students goes to Class 1-B." The class erupts with cheers and talk. "The honor for the Most Popular Class of the School goes to 3-A for their Haunted Hallway." Iiyo and Umehito snicker in the back corner. "The honor for the Richest First Year Class goes to 1-B." The class cheers again, and even the class president expresses a cheeky grin. "The honor for the Richest Class in the School goes to . . . ," the president's face turns white, and Iiyo sees utter dread in his aura, "2-A for their Masque Shop." Not even the awing of the class could match the defeat and depression showing in the class president's aura, which is weird because no one should be feeling that much negativity from just a festival.

Later on, at lunch, Iiyo and Umehito walk towards the front of the school to meet up with the reporters, who are just school students from the Newspaper club, but their newspaper gets circulated to anyone who wishes to buy them. Iiyo was vehemently looking forward to pulling on her club's cloak just to finally be able to cover herself up, but couldn't because if her mother saw one out of place wrinkle, she was afraid of getting a lecture about it later.

"Hey, wait! Hold on, Fukuda-san!"

Iiyo and Umehito looked behind them to see the class president jogging toward them.

When he caught up, he looked around to make sure that no one was in the area.

He looked between her and Umehito. "Could we have a minute?" he asked toward Umehito.

Iiyo shrugged her shoulders. "I'll be nearby," he said, pointedly not stating that he would be keeping Iiyo within his sight and that if the president had done anything to harm Iiyo, he would curse him into oblivion.

"What's up?" Iiyo asks with a raised brow. His aura showed intense irritation.

"Fukuda-san, please go on a date with me!"