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《 CHAPTER 4: Rooftop 》
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Nene didn't know when it started, but she began feeling weaker than usual.
Although she ate healthily and took her daily vitamins, she couldn't help but feel very drained all the time. She woke up late despite her mother's loud calls and her alarm clock ringing multiple times. When it was P.E. Class, she was barely able to catch up with their activities because of how tired she was.
It was now her English period, and Nene's eyes were giving up on her. The girl closed her eyes for a second to rest them, supporting her chin with her two palms that stood supported by her elbows. When she opened back her eyes, she was met by amber orbs staring back at her.
"What's wrong, Yashiro?" Hanako flashed his cheeky smile.
She screamed and accidentally slapped Hanako in his right cheek. Everyone in the room stared at her, and the teacher glared at Nene.
"I'm sorry, t-there was a huge cockroach that flew out of the window..." The daikon quickly made up an excuse that passed as a reasonable one. Some of her classmates giggled at her silliness. Hanako pouted at her, rubbing his cheek.
"Alright, just please don't interrupt my lectures again, is that clear Yashiro?" Nene immediately nodded, feeling the scary glare of her teacher pierce through her. The teacher turned his back on the board and wrote a few words relating to their topic.
Nene buried her head inside her book, glaring at the apparition who was beside her with his two familiars.
"What are you doing here?" She didn't fail to emphasize all the words she said. Hanako retained his cheeky smile, putting his hands behind his head.
"I just missed my assistant! It's pretty boring in the bathroom after losing so many times to the Mokke in Hanafuda." Nene rolled her eyes.
"So you came to bother me?" The ghost replied with a short 'yup'. The girl sighed.
"Anyways, I came here to tell you to meet me at the school rooftop instead of going to the bathroom." He told her, fiddling with her braids. She took hold of all the ends of her hair to make sure than Hanako wouldn't make it into a Christmas tree again. Hanako looked at her, surprised with her action.
"Why? Are you going to make me do something again?" She whispered to the ghost, who floated behind her. Suddenly, she felt arms wrap around her and Hanako nozzle his head inside her neck. In an instant, she became red as a beet.
"I just wanted to spend time with you, is that not okay?" He whispered in her ear before pulling away from the hug.
Nene fell silent, her heart pounding hard after what Hanako had just done. She felt shivers go down her spine. The boy smiled at her, floating back in front of her.
"Well, I'll be waiting for you, okay? If you don't go, then that's also fine with me."
"I-I'll go," She muttered softly, still a bit flustered with what he just did. The apparition grinned.
"Great! I'll be going ahead then," The ghost left, floating out of the classroom and to the rooftop. Nene sighed.
'Such an idiot. Why does he keep on leading me on?' Nene pouted before watching the teacher right a few things on the board.
After a few more attempts of trying to focus on the lesson, Nene gave up and decided to think.
'But what are we going to do up there? Is he going to tell me about another rumor I need to change?'
She pondered to herself the whole time until dismissal finally came.
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Nene opened the door to the school rooftop. The wind was breezy as she took her first steps into the sun. Looking around, she spotted Hanako seated at the edge of the water tank with his hakoujodai, waiting for her.
"Hanako-kun," Yashiro called out. The apparition turned his head to her direction, a smile on his face.
"Oh, Yashiro! You came," He waved in excitement, a huge grin plastered on his face. Yashiro immediately smiled, climbing the ladder up to reach him.
"Of course, I'm your assistant, aren't I?" She giggled, before sitting with Hanako at the edge of the tank. She fiddled with the ribbons on her uniform before facing Hanako.
"So, why did you want to meet here and not in the bathroom?" She asked the supernatural, who was looking out into the distance, adoring the houses and streets in the view.
Hanako looked at her, a genuine smile on his face, "I guess... I wanted to spend more time with you?"
Upon hearing him say that statement, Yashiro immediately turned red, flustered with what he said. Her heart started beating quicker than how it was beating just a moment ago. She was nervous.
"W-W-What a-are you s-saying?"
She stuttered, looking anywhere but at Hanako. She heard a laugh erupt from beside her.
"The daikon is turning red!" He continued to laugh.
All of what Yashiro was feeling just a while ago immediately disappeared as soon as Hanako finished his sentence. She suddenly turned and headbutted Hanako with her infamous headbutts.
"Ow!" The boy yelped in pain, touching his forehead.
Yashiro got up from the edge and started making her way to the ladder, a vein popping out in her forehead. Hanako saw her and panicked.
"W-Wait," He called out to her, "I really mean it, Yashiro!"
"Shut up!" She yelled out at him, turning to his direction angrily, a frown on her face, "If you're just going to keep leading me on like that and disturbing me, then I'll go now. I still have bean sprouts to transfer to pots, and soil to plow."
Nene was a bit angry. The whole day she wasn't able to focus because of what Hanako told her. Her attention was called at least twice during the day because of her overthinking. It was all stupid Hanako's fault.
Nene got back at the bottom of the tank, Hanako floating behind her. She immediately made a run for it, hurrying her way down to the practice garden. She was mad at Hanako, and she obviously wasn't going to give in to him so easily.
On the second floor, however, Yashiro immediately stopped upon almost bumping into someone. It was one of her upperclassmen who was in the same class as her school-girl crush, Minamoto Teru.
"A-Akiyama-senpai! I'm so sorry." She bowed, apologizing for almost bumping into him, before running down to the first floor. However, she was stopped when he suddenly grabbed her wrist and stopped her in her tracks. Yashiro looked at him confused, before feeling a cold chill run down her spine.
Her upperclassman had a dark aura surrounding him, "Who said you could go? I didn't accept your apology."
Suddenly, his skin and face tore apart, revealing an ugly humanoid creature that had eyes of different colors on his body. He was unrecognizable to her upperclassman, and he had a grin that was almost impossible for a human to make. He chuckled darkly as he opened his mouth wide ready to devour the girl. Nene screamed.
"Hanako-kun!" Almost immediately after she screamed his name, the evil supernatural's grip on her wrist weakened, and she was immediately taken away from him. She recognized her savior to be the same apparition who pissed her off.
"Jeez, why do you always attract evil supernaturals?"
Nene couldn't help but smile a bit, "Well, I don't really worry that much since I know that you'd save me."
That wasn't like what Nene would usually say at all, but she really wanted to tell him that. He stared at her surprised, before putting her down gently on the floor. Then, he brought out his knife and his cape appeared.
"Hakoujodai!" The two orbs immediately went to him. Nene watched in relief as the fight against the evil spirit finished in an instant with Hanako cutting the spirit in half. The spirit left the boy's body, and he collapsed, unconscious.
"S-Senpai!" Nene knelt down beside the boy while Hanako retracted his knife back inside his uniform.
"Don't worry, he'll wake up in a few minutes," The apparition assured her, before lowering the cap on his head, "And um, Yashiro?"
Yashiro stood up silently before looking at him with her brows furrowed, "What?"
"I just," Hanako looked away from her eyes, "I wanted to watch the clouds with you."
Yashiro's eyes widened. She didn't expect that as his reason, though she did feel a bit happy about it.
"I wanted to say sorry too, Hanako-kun," She smiled, putting a strand of hair behind her ear, "I've just been out of it lately, so I'm really sorry if I've been snappier than before."
Hanako smiled, his eyes crinkling, "Then, how about we return back to the rooftop?"
"But what about senpai?" Nene looked back at the upperclassman who was unconscious on the ground. Hanako just shrugged.
"Leave him there. He's about to wake up anyways."
"But--" Hanako just took her hand and led her back to the rooftop, persistently telling her to hurry up. She couldn't help but smile, realizing something.
What would she do if Hanako wasn't in her life?
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Hidden lurking within the shadows, a young boy watched as the low-level spirit he sent to attack the girl get defeated by Seventh Wonder. The boy frowned, watching the spirit live its final moments and eventually perish.
"Aw, it looks like Amane took down that spirit I sent after him," He pouted before a dark grin crept up to his face.
"That's fine, I can always attack him myself," The young boy giggled. He looked at the drawings he drew on the wall of the classroom using the blood of the low-level supernaturals he killed, his eyes dull with no good intent, and a smile that made him look almost insane.
"Shall we play again, Amane?"
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A/N: I know that I've never made any A/N's after a chapter before, but I just wanted to let something out. This isn't jshk-related but...
s o u r c e : mangapanda
a n i m e / m a n g a : akatsuki no yona
Holy cow, the new chapter of the Akatsuki no Yona manga was so... so... nakakakilig! (basically, I can't exactly express the Filipino word, "kilig," in English, but basically it's like the butterflies and overwhelming feeling of happiness you feel from love?). Yon-hi and Yu-hon's love story is really beautiful. I used to hate Yu-hon and Soo-won, but after reading the latest chapters, my view towards that throne-stealing blonde really changed.
Of course, I have not forgotten Chapter 64 in the jshk manga. Let's also talk about the new installment!
s o u r c e : mangakakalot
So, it was a bit short which I'm a bit sad about, but we got a view on how Kou sees himself. I was a bit interested in how he truly felt with everything going on since I needed an inkling of it to be able to write a POV of Kou (oohh, a spoil?). I knew that he felt useless and weak, but I needed a stronger basis on how he really felt.
I also needed more information on Mystery Number 6. So his name is Shinigami-sama, and he's "the secret to longevity." So there are a lot of theories about this. A lot of people believe that Shinigami is the key to Yashiro's long life span, but I don't think so. People say that since he has the power to bring the dead back to life since he manages life and death, he can make Yashiro live. The problem is if Hanako knew that Shinigami could do that, wouldn't he have done so before borrowing Shijima's power and trapping Kou and Yashiro in the painting world?
I believe that there is definitely a rule concerning Shinigami's powers, like how curators of the 4 PM Bookstacks (like Tsuchigomori) can't rewrite the books otherwise they'd dissipate.
Either way, the chapter really helped!
Also, how can we not talk about the Kou X Mitsuba moments in this chapter?
MITSUBA YOU SHOULDN'T BE SCARING PEOPLE LIKE THAT. ALSO, ALWAYS WASH YOUR HANDS AND DO YOUR DISHES GUYS.
"Minamoto-kun, what's troubling you?" THAT KILLED ME
Okay, I might have ranted too much and prolonged the number of words for this chapter, oh well.
See you in the next chapter!
Moirae x