Prologue Cont.

...

The twin-headed fox laughed as it gave me this cryptic message.

"What the hell're you talking about!!" I asked, but just like that- they were gone like fine morning mist in the air.

The warmth of the air came back, with the spirit dandelions now calming down to a rest as well.

"Aghhh.... aghhh...." the ghost girl next to me collapsed to the floor, or more precisely collapsed to her knees, but was still floating in the air a foot above the ground.

"I- I almost died...again!"

"Aghhh... I've got to get out of here! I just have to; I can't keep doing this anymore!!"

"Keep doing what?" I asked.

But instead of answering, she instead turned her head slowly at me in disbelief.

"You just survived an encounter with a great spirit, and you lived!? Do you have any idea how lucky you are you idiot!!"

"A great spirit? Ah you mean a local god?" Now having seen the local god myself in person now, I could definitely see that this is what dad had meant about not messing with them in the slightest. If it weren't for my lifelong experience of seeing all kinds of scary looking ghosts, I would've probably died from shock before they could've bit my head off.

"It doesn't matter what they're called! The fact that you survived one, with insulting them by eating their offering of all things, is a miracle!!"

"What trick did you use to prevent the great spirit from biting you head off!??" She pointed at my perfectly intact head.

"I'm not so sure myself, it just said that I was a karma child or something like that." I shrugged.

"Maybe my dad would know, but- oh shoot, school's almost starting!" I checked my phone's time and saw that it was now almost eight, this time for real.

"Look, whatever nonsense the local god was talking about- I'll likely turn out alright, my dad could fix it anyway if it's 'that' bad." I began jogging out of the building.

But as I jogged, she followed me, keeping up with my pace as she hovered over the floor..

"Ehh!? Are you a moron! Didn't you hear the great spirit! You've been CURSED! C.U.R.S.E.D!!" She enunciated each letter.

"And? I've been cursed multiple times before; angry ghosts give them out like candy, nothing bad has ever happened to me so far."

"Actually there was this one time with I was cursed by this angry dead gangster and the following day I woke up with horrible diarr-"

"This isn't a ghost, it's a great spirit!! Don't you get that!?!" She hovered in front of me just as I had reached the doors leading outside; she was blocking my way.

"Move, please- I can't be late for my first day here!" I said, but she didn't move an inch.

"L-Look, let's talk here- you survived the great spirit's wrath, but now you've been cursed; a curse you don't even understand in the first place too! But, as I've been serving this great spirit for a long time now, I know exactly what it was talking about when it had cursed you. If we can cut a deal, I'll help-"

It looks like she wasn't going to move no matter what I would say, I only had five minutes left before I could get into the main building and get a good seat in class.

Getting a good seat in class is a paramount to a healthy high school life- it's also the single most important moment for any new student coming to school, as those few minutes of a grace period before class starts is your time to make life-long friends-

and meet potential girlfriend candidates, heheheh.

"W-What're you smiling like a pervert for?? Was what I said really that good of deal? Well if it was-"

"Sorry about this, but you leave me with no choice; I know how much ghosts don't like this, so once again, sorry."

I walked forward and right through the body of the girl- my head phasing right through her chest like thin air.

"EEEEEEP!!" She cried out, hugging her chest as she just had me walk right through her.

"Sorry! I'll see if I'm free at lunch or something to talk to hear about your deal-whatsit!! Maybe the local god would accept some instant noodles or something as an apology!!" I waved off as I ran to where the new building was, this was the beginning of my proper high school romance story- I can't let ghosts go ahead and ruin something like that for me!!

"DIE CREEP!!!"

"BYE CHIEF??? AH, THANKS!!" I said, as she became a dot in the corner of my eye as I caught up along with the crowd of other students entering the Academy.

...

"Hello, my name is Jay, what's yours?"

"Hey, names Jay, and yours?"

"Yo dude, name's-"

"H-Hey..."

No one can hear me say a single thing!!

They're all already in groups, talking to other classmates who share neighboring seats. Even the geeks of the class are kicking it off like a popular group at the front of the class, my weeks spent practicing my greetings in front of my mirror were all for nothing as none of them heard me say a single thing under the class's commotion!

It makes it worse finding out that it isn't like how it is in movies, where the teacher makes the transfer student come to the front of the room and has them introduce themselves- no, not at all! She just asked me for my name and told me welcome to the class- IN PRIVATE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM! AGHH!!

Ahh, please, please at least let me have a good seat in the middle row- that way at some point I can make some friends naturally as I'm in the middle throughout the school year.

Nope, nope- it's been taken, all taken by the popular looking girls- yep, figures.

I guess, I guess at least the back window seat is still left open- ha... haaa.

I wondered why nobody was sitting in it, but I realized the moment I took my seat.

The sun hit me squarely in the face, with the windows panning juuuust right to magnify the glare to also make my desk heat up; it burned my arms if I had them rest on my desk for too long.

Fantastic, absolutely fantastic- with no friends off the bat, a crappy seat, and a supposed local god's curse on me-

I can officially say that my dream high school experience was dead.

"Hey, you said your name was Jay, right?"

Huh?

I look to my right, and before me, I see the epitome of glowing high school youth.

She looked like she lived and breathed sports- she was wearing a trendy trainer over her uniform, and she had her auburn hair tied up in a messy bun, freckles dotted her nose and cheeks like one big pompom.

"H-Huh?" I stuttered out, entirely too confused as to why a pretty sporty girl like her was A) talking to me and B) sitting here in the back of class, she looked like she was serious middle row girl material.

"Wait so your name's H-Huh? I guess there's always a first time for everything haha!"

*Th-Thump*

Oh no, this is bad- this is bad, bad bad!

"N-No, I'm, I'm Jay!" I replied with unnecessary excitement.

Thankfully everyone else was too busy talking to their groups to notice.

"Oh that's too bad, I think I would've liked H-Huh a lot better than plain ol' Jay." She said accompanied with a toothy grin.

"I'm Melly, but you Jay, can call me Mel, or Melon like my friends call me- of which you are one now, haha!" She stuck out her tanned arm to me, extending it to give me a handshake.

I could feel my heartbeat pierce through what felt like a sheer black dress shirt to me now, I can't believe I've gotten a crush for a girl who've I've literally just met less than half a minute ago.

"But not Melony cuz' that's my mom's name, and that'd make me mad- so either Mel or Melon, but definitely not Melly because we're friends now, right Jay?"

"Y-Yeah, Melo- Melon." I grasped her light but firm hand and firmly shook it, thankful that I wasn't cursed with sweaty-hands syndrome.

"I see you've ended up with the sunspot seat, I bet you now know why nobody uses it now don't you?" She rested her head on her hand as she asked.

"Yeah, yeah I can tell why now." I said as I squinted from the harsh sunlight.

"Here's a free little tip, once after class, you can tilt the windows a certain way to prevent that from happening- they don't fix the windows until after the year is over, so before then, it'll just be a sunny seat, but nowhere near as annoying as it is now!" She pointed to a little adjusting knob next to the windowpane's frames.

"Just make sure the teach doesn't see you!" She giggled.

...

"So hey, I was thinking, wanna hang out at lunch?" I grew the courage to ask Melon if she wanted to eat together, as lunch was about to begin five minutes from now as class was about to end.

"I'd love to!! But I'm super busy right now with club work forms for the incoming freshman, I'll be forced to stay in class until I'm done personalizing them." She said as she gave me a frown.

"D-Do you want me to stay back and help you out??" I asked, knowing that I have no idea what I was getting into- as long as I can get on Melon's good side, that's all I really cared about!

"If you could that would be awesome!! But you should definitely grab lunch first and then come back after, I'll give you some of the easier forms to do so you won't feel lost if you're helping."

"Definitely! I'll do that and swing by back as fast I as I can."

"Awesome, I'll be here in the same seat."

...

Lunch came with the school's alarm, it alerting the student's who've been here for two years already like an old friend, but for me, a panicky scream to get me hauling fast at the cafeteria to get some food.

I left the room as I waved bye to Melon- I'm still in disbelief that someone as cute as her is giving a nobody transfer student like me the time of day.

I wouldn't say that I'm ugly, hell I'd say that I'm pretty above-average in looks. But the one thing that I struggle with is dealing with people, as most of my life, I've been dealing with ghosts- and dealing with ghosts does not translate well with talking to people.

And as such, I tend to scare away or just weird any potential friends or girls I'd be into with how I talk- or I would sometimes slip up and say something to a passing spirit.

And that reminds me, here's a passing spirit right now.

"Hey jerk, can't you see me floating next to you!! You know, I'm sure when I was alive, a lot of boys would have begged to even be seen standing next to me- hey, HEY!!"

It was the ghost girl that I thought I had left behind in the old school grounds in the morning, she had somehow found me in the new building.

"Look, can't talk much right now- too many people to say anything, or they'll think I'm crazy talking to thin air." I whispered expertly to say so without moving my lips- a skill that I've honed with years of practice.

"Besides, how are you here- ghosts usually can't leave their place of death just like that..."

Spirits who die in like a building or a notable place, are usually bound to that place permanently until either they 'move on' or manage to possess a person to leave. I had asked her this because she was just so casually fully manifesting herself way beyond the old grounds here in the new building.

"What're you talking about, I didn't die there." She flipped herself in a somersault as she floated by my side, surprisingly her black skirt didn't slip down with her flip move- that's ghost physics for you.

"Then why were you- oh,-" I shut myself up as I passed by a group of girls who caught me whispering, they gave me a brief weird look before they resumed their talking.

"That was close, but why were you there then??"

"Because I'm serving the great spirit."

"Why?"

"That's a secret- plus, if actually get to talking about what you had RUDELY ended earlier, won't apply to me any longer as I can help you with your curse if you help me with escaping my servitude to the great spirit."

"One basic lunch kit please, oh make that two instead." I asked the lunch lady behind her service counter, she in return gave me the food without question.

"Giving that to the great spirit would just make it likely give you another curse you know!!" She shouted, even though she was floating right next to me.

"It's not for it, it's for my new friend."