｢... You ...
Have you heard?
There is a rule you must never break about these stairs...
Never step on the 4th stair of this staircase...
If you do...
You'll be transported to the other side...
Have you heard of this rumor, Misaki Kaidan...」
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Third Person's POV
The young (h/c) haired girl sighed once again looking at the sunset.
"(Y/n), are you alright? You've been staring into the sunset while sighing for a while... " The amber-eyed ghost said floating above the (h/c).
"Want me to kiss you?" The ghost said suddenly facing the girl upside down making a kiss face while pointing at his lips.
Immediately snapping out of her thoughts and jumping back from Hanako.
"What?! No!" (Y/n) said blushing crazily.
"Well that snapped you out of your trance" Hanako laughed getting closer to you.
"S-shut up!" She said, diverting eye contact from him looking at the clock.
"It's getting late... I should probably get home now, before my mom kills me..." She trailed off getting her bag.
"Bye Hanako-kun, see you tommorow!" She said leaving the bathroom.
"Bye..."
"You suddenly seem lonely."
"Is it because the girl left?"
"It's definitely because of the girl!"
"Shut it mokke." Hanako said getting out his knife and pointing it at the mokke.
"It's because of the girl isn't it?"
"That explains why he suddenly got sad."
"He has no one to annoy!"
"No! Not that!"
"So what?" Hanako said looking out of the window.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Y/n)'s POV
"Ah! (N/n)!" I heard a familiar voice say from behind me.
"Aoi!" I said turning to my childhood friend.
"You seem busy these days! So I haven't got the time to ask..." She said leaning closer.
"Who's the lucky boy to capture your heart?"
"Not you too Aoi!"
~The Next Day~
"(Y/n)? You're staring into the void again... "
"Ah! M-Minamoto-senpai! You scared me! " I said turning to the owner of the voice.
"It's rare to see you thinking of something for so long, (y/n)" he said going to the spot beside me.
"Ah, a lot of things have been going on for a while..." I trailed off while looking out the window of the old building.
He was about to say something but got interrupted by a familiar voice yelling my name.
"(Y/n)-chan!" Nene yelled running towards you.
"Huh? Nene-chan? What's wrong?"
"I nee-" she stopped when she landed her eyes on the person beside you.
"Ah! Minamoto-senpai?! Sorry I didn't notice you were there! But can I borrow (y/n) for a bit?" She asked him politely with hearts in her eyes.
"Sure, we weren't talking about anything important."
"Thank you!" She said bowing before dragging you away to who knows where.
"Nene-chan what's going on?"
"Aoi-chan went missing! All of her things are missing and nobody remembers her!" Nene said with tears threatening to spill.
"Huh?! Aoi went missing?!" I asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah. Just this morning when I arrived I noticed Aoi's things were gone, when I asked somebody they all said they don't know anyone with that name... "
"Then let's go look for her!" I said with determination as Nene nodded.
"Then I'll check the old building, you'll check the new one. "
~Timeskip brought to you by Author-san's laziness~
"Not here either... I'll call Nene-chan..." I said taking out my phone before bumping into someone.
"Ah! I'm sorry!" I apologized immediately standing up.
"It's okay. I think you dropped this." He said handing me my phone.
"Ah! I did, thank you!" I said before he walked away.
I quickly dialed Nene-chan's number but it seems though she can't be reached.
"Huh? Nene-chan..." I mumbled.
"Pick up, pick up, pick up!"
"(N/n), what are you doing?"
"Akane! Have you seen Nene-chan?" I asked him.
"Huh? Who's Nene? We don't know anyone by that name" he said tilting his head in confusion.
"Huh?! Yashiro Nene, she's our classmate!"
"Nope! Never met her. Are you okay?" He said worriedly.
"You've been staring into the void lately... Now you're looking for people who don't exist..."
"I... I just have to clear my mind. See you later... "I said before dashing away to the girls bathroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hanako-kun? Hanako-kun, are you here?" I asked entering the girl's bathroom and saw him playing cards with the mokke.
"(Y/n)? What are you doing here?" Hanako-kun said turning to me still playing cards with the mokke.
"Hanako-kun... " I said with teary eyes.
"What's wrong?" He asked floating over to me.
"Nene-chan and Aoi are missing! When I try to ask anyone if they've seen them, they keep saying they don't know anyone with that name!" I told him with tears threatening to spill.
"Hmm.... Missing people?"
"Yeah..."
"Hanako! What did you do to my classmates Yokou and Satou?!" Kou says dashing into the small bathroom.
"Minamoto-kun, this is the girls bathroom. You can't just barge in like that." I scolded.
"Ah! (L/n)-senpai!"
"Hanako-kun, do you have any idea where they are?" I asked.
"I think I have an idea... "
"You! What did you do with them?!" Kou said shaking Hanako violently.
"Minamoto-kun let Hanako-kun speak!" I said breaking them up.
"Thanks (y/n). As I was saying, there are 7 places that are connected to the Netherworld. Did you two here any new rumors lately?" Hanako asked straightening himself.
"Hm... I think I did. The Misaki Stairs.
｢...You...
Have you heard?
There is a rule in this staircase that you must never break...
Never step on the 4th stair...
If you do...
Then you'll be transported to the other side...」
That's what I heard. "
"Number 2..." Hanako-kun said darkly.
"As I said, there 7 places that are connected to the Netherworld. Those stairs just happen to be one of them, those are called 'boundaries'. "
"What are boundaries?"
"I think I heard of it from my brother once. Boundaries are the places in the middle of the Near Shore and the Far Shore. It's the border between life and death..." Kou explained.
"That's right! When a living human being enters a boundary, people forget them as if they never existed and their belongings disappear. But special people like you two, won't be affected. If we go there, then we may find your friends." Hanako-kun explained as I approached him trying my best not to cry.
"Hanako-kun, c-can people go back from the boundaries?" I asked him worriedly.
"Don't worry, I'll save them" he said pinching then squeezing my cheeks.
"But of course I need your help too. Don't worry about anything happening to you, I'll protect you." He said still playing with my cheeks then patting my head.
"Hey! You pervert what do you think your doing?!" Kou said pulling me away from Hanako-kun.
"Eh? Boy, why did you pull her away? Things were getting good too!" Hanako-kun said wiggling his fingers.
I zoned out their conversation, thinking to myself.
'Aoi... Nene-chan... I promise I'll save you two!'
"Hanako-kun, Minamoto-kun let's go!"
~The Misaki Stairs~
"No. 2 is going too far now..."
"Step on the 4th step, right?" Hanako-kun asked as we nodded.
"Then!"
"One!"
"Eh?! Already?!" Me and Kou said at the same time as we stepped on the 1st one.
"Two!"
"Three!"
As we stopped on the 3rd one I closed my eyes shut but I felt something warm on my hand.
I opened my eyes again and saw that it was Hanako-kun's, I looked up and saw him smiling at me, I smiled back and closed my eyes once again.
"Then, four!"
We all said at the same time as we stepped on the fourth one.
Slowly I opened my eyes to see a lot of stairs and traditional houses with lanterns.
"So beautiful..." I mumbled, breathtaken by the beautiful scenery.
"We're in no. 2's boundary so be careful." Hanako-kun warned still holding my hand.
I looked around to see if I can find anything or anyone who can lead us to Aoi and Nene-chan, but before anything else I saw a doll with a piece of paper saying '二'.
I screamed falling down as I closed my eyes for the impact, but instead felt myself falling into a chest.
"(Y/n) you're such a clumsy girl, you know?" I looked up and saw Hanako with his usual smile.
"H-Hanako-kun... "
"Oi! Hanako! I don't see anyone here!" Kou yelled from behind.
"Hm? Why would we do it directly? Why end the fun when it hasn't even started? Where's the fun in that if we do it directly? Whittling you away ever so slowly. That's the fun part!" Hanako-kun said with a sadistic grin.
"Your sick!"
"Hanako-kun, why do apparitions keep scaring people?"
"Because we the 7 Mysteries... We need to be known by as many people as possible because fun and happy memories don't stay long as long as scary ones" Hanako said going to the stairs.
Going to the stairs I noticed a puddle of water.
"A puddle?" Being the curious person I am, I touch it and my finger started growing scales.
"If I get wet all over I'll turn into a fish... Maybe my feet are alright..." I said wiping the scales with a hanker-chief.
"Senpai are you alright?" Kou asked as he looked at my distressed state.
"Yeah..." I said finally finished drying the scales.
"Hurry up you two! Time is gold!" Hanako-kun said as we started climbing the stairs.
As we climbed the long flight of stairs we heard the ringing of a phone.
We all turned to where the sound was and saw a red telephone. I looked at Hanako-kun and then Kou, but two of them didn't seem to want it so I walk over to the phone and answered it.
"H-hello?"
"I'm Misaki... A teacher who died and was torn to pieces at the place your standing... Say... Could you look for my body?" The voice said as I paled immediately hearing about what she said.
"But w---"
"First, my right arm... Every day I use my right arm to write on the board... once you find my arm put it in the shrine... Now do hurry... Class is starting soon... " The voice said, it sounded... Feminine?
"It hung up... " I said putting down the phone as I noticed there was suddenly an hourglass.
"Do I guess we have a time limit..." Kou muttered as we nodded.
"Guessing by the voice, it must be a girl" I said as I walked over to a cabinet.
"Do we put the arm there?" I said pointing at the small shrine beside the door.
"Dunno, but something will happen" Hanako-kun said before continuing.
"Then let's start looking!"
"Wait! Isn't there any other way to get there faster?! Forget about searching for body parts! Can't she do it herself?!" Kou said.
"There is... But it's not here. Each mystery is undefeatable in their own domain, in my case the bathroom. But this is No. 2's boundary... So there's no telling what she can do... " Hanako-kun said straightening his hat and stopping Kou from walking off the cliff.
"But I don't mind if you want to find out what happens..."
"So... We'll be able to escape if we do what she says?"
"Exactly!"
"If you say so, senpai..."
"So it's safer if we do it her way and find her body parts... Besides..." Hanako-kun said digging in one of the drawers.
"We could find lots of treasures in this place! Like this!" Hanako-kun said taking out the said 'treasure'.
"Oi! Get that thing away from me!" Kou's said running away from Hanako and the... -cough nrop cough- magazine.
"Look at this kid!"
"NOO! GET THAT AWAY FROM ME AND TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!!" Kou said using his weapon to point it at Hanako.
"... Hanako-kun...." I said with a blank stare as I went to another cabinet and started searching.
'Geez... I'm also a girl...' I thought to myself as I continued to search but stopped when they were getting ridiculous, I went over to them.
"You guys take this seriously!" I scolded them taking away the magazine and ripping it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"... Didn't I say to take this seriously..." I said looking at the arms they each found.
Kou found a wood carved muscular arm. While Hanako-kun got a robotic arm...
"Minamoto-kun you just found something you like and took it..." I sweatdropped holding the mannequin arm.
"But we did!" Hanako-kun said holding up the robotic arm.
"Hanako-kun, you didn't!"
"I did!"
I was about to say something when the hourglass was empty.
"Time is up! Class is starting! Who's the tardy one?"
Soon a pair of scissors came out if nowhere in front of me and dolls started clinging onto each of us.
"You are the late one..."
"(Y/n)/Senpai!"
Then the scissors were about to cut me when Hanako kicked it.
"Kid run!" He said as he hoisted me up and carried me.
"Hanako-kun I can run by myself!" I said as you tried squirming out of his hand.
We ran to the top with the scissors and creepy dolls following us.
"Minamoto-kun! Throw an arm to the shrine! "I yelled as he nodded in understanding.
Kou then threw the arm that he found as the doors opened and as soon as we entered, we immediately closed the door.
"T... That was... Close..." Hanako-kun said trying to catch his breath.
As soon as we began to breathe normally again the phone started ringing again and this time it was Hanako-kun who answered it.
"Hello?" He cleared his throat.
"Good job on finding my right arm. Next-"
"Hey No. 2, long time no speak!" Hanako-kun said grinning causing Misaki to pause for a moment.
"Next my left arm. Everyday I go to the shrine and pray, when I pray I clap my hands together. Do hurry class is starting soon. " Misaki said before hanging up.
"Well that was cold."
"Anyways let's go look for her arm!" I said running to who-knows-where.
~Timeskip~
"Good. This is the last piece..." I sighed in relief as the door opened.
"Where's..."
"Look! There's a person there!" Kou said pointing his staff at the silhouette.
Soon we saw the light and saw all of the parts we collected...
I scrunched my face in disgust.
"Is this really what...?" Hanako-kun said hiding behind me.
"It's weird..."
"Scary!"
"Disgusting..."
"You just had to give it weird legs kid..."
"Hey! You said it didn't matter as long as we get it in the shrine!"
"The bust size and left leg are perfect but the other other parts..." I said putting both of my hands on my cheeks as I sighed.
"You actually like that bust size?"
Soon we heard footsteps coming near.
We all turned to look at where we heard the sound...
To be continued...
Word Count: 2506