Chapter 20: Kiyojuji Paranormal Investigation Squad

When Rikuo arrived at the park where he promised to meet with Kiyotsugu and Jiro at the Ukiyoe Child Park, which is present beside two buildings from their school.

"Rikuo! Here... here..."

Kiyotsugu noticed Rikuo enter the park from one of the seesaws he was playing on with Jiro.

Noticing Kiyotsugu waving at him, Rikuo walked towards him.

"Rikuo, you are right on time. Do you know what Jiro and I were discussing?"

Kiyotsugu stopped playing seesaw, walked beside Rikuo, put his hands on his shoulders, and asked excitedly.

Um~

"Are we going to the arcade to play games?"

Looking at the excited Kiyotsugu before him, Rikuo said his guess, which had snickers from Kiyotsugu.

Sigh~

"Nura, Kiyotsugu-san wants to start a club."

Seeing Kiyotsugu acting like this, Jiro said with a sigh.

"Oh... what type of club are we going to start?"

Hearing Kiyotsugu wanted to start a club, Rikuo became curious.

'What type of club will it be? Gaming club, baseball club, football club—something new...'

Rikuo became excited and wanted to know what type of club they were going to start.

"Well... it is... the only club!!! Which will investigate mysteries beyond the dark... symbol of bravery... the light among the darkness... the club's name is... Kiyojuji Paranormal Investigation Squad!"

Looking at the build-up given by Kiyotsugu, both Rikuo and Jiro became hooked and waited for him to reveal the name of the club they were going to start.

"Oh~"

"Oh~"

"What type of club is this, Kiyotsugu-san? Are we going to start?"

Rikuo, who was hooked on the idea of starting a club, curiously wanted to know what type of club they were going to start.

Hearing Rikuo's question, Jiro nodded and looked at Kiyotsugu curiously for an answer.

"Well..."

"Hehe~"

"Our club activity is investigating supernatural things... such as yokai, ghosts, etc..."

Looking at his friends, who were hyped after hearing the speech he carefully crafted before coming to the park to meet his friends.

"Wow... are we going to meet Yokai? Are they real?"

Hearing they were going to look for Yokai, Jiro became very excited.

"____"

While Jiro was excited, Rikuo was shocked, and his face turned pale.

If things go like this, his secret will be exposed to his two friends, and they might become afraid of him and break up with his friendship.

He needs to somehow stop his friends from this crazy act they were planning to do.

"Haha... what are you saying, Kiyotsugu-san? There are no such things as yokai. Why don't we form another club instead of looking for something that does not exist?"

With nervous laughter, Rikuo tried to change the minds of his friends.

"What you said is right, Rikuo-kun. There are no such things as yokai and ghosts."

Suddenly, they heard a girl's voice behind them.

When they turned to look, they saw Kana Lenaga, Natsumi Tori, and Saori Maki standing behind them.

"____"

"____"

"____"

"What are you saying, Kana-chan? Yesterday I saw those who saved us from the attack are yokai."

Noticing Kana, who was standing behind them saying there was no yokai, Kiyotsugu immediately rebuked.

Even though he fainted when the bus was attacked, he can't forget the image of a person slashing at one of the men who covered his face with a katana. He believes it was Yokai who saved them from the scary attacker.

"Yeah... the ones who attacked us were scary."

Saori nodded her head and shivered, thinking of the scary incident that happened yesterday.

"I don't know if yokai are real or not, but I wanted to join the club. It looks interesting. What do you say, Kana-chan?"

Hearing Saori, who was afraid of yokai, Natsumi chimed in, expressing her interest in searching for yokai.

"____"

Seeing the situation was getting out of hand, Rikuo started to panic and wanted to interrupt.

"Um~ If you say it that way, it seems interesting. I wanted to join too."

But before Rikuo could interrupt them, Kana, after thinking for a few minutes, also expressed her willingness to join.

"____"

'That's all; I am finished... I am finished.'

Seeing all his friends express their willingness to join the club and looking at him eagerly anticipating his answer.

"Ah... I... I am also interested in joining the club. Let's look for yokai. Haha..."

With a forced smile on his face, Rikuo joined the club.

He can't let his friends go to dangerous places.

Even though most of the yokai in the Nura clan will listen to him and not appear and scare his friends, there are also stray yokai who are very dangerous and might target his friends.

So there is no option for him; he needs to go with them in case they go to any dangerous place, he could do something to stop them.

"Hehe~"

"Then that's decided. Now shall we start with our first task? Let's go to my house. My grandma knows many stories about yokai; it will be perfect for us to start as beginners."

With a knowing smirk, Kiyotsugu invited Rikuo and others to his house to meet his grandma and start their first task.

Hearing Kiyotsugu's suggestion, all the others nodded and accepted the invitation.

Sigh

Seeing his friends were not going to go somewhere dangerous, Rikuo sighed.

Time passed...

When everyone nodded and left Kiyotsugu's house, it was already late; the sun started to set.

Rikuo and others bid farewell to Kiyotsugu's house and started to depart.

"Hey, Rikuo, isn't that your mother? Who is it beside her?"

When they were walking through the street, Kana noticed Rikuo's mother with a young man and called Rikuo to ask him.

"What? Mother?"

Hearing Kana, Rikuo looked in the direction Kana pointed at and saw his mother was with a young man.

"Who is he? Why is Mother so close to him?"

Looking at his mother, who was smiling wholeheartedly, Rikuo became curious.

Even though his mother always welcomed him with a gentle smile whenever she was with him, he knew how sad his mother was.

The evident change was she was talkative and became silent after his father's death.

Now, seeing his mother chatting happily like her old self made Rikuo happy.

An hour earlier...

Leo, noticing Wakana's worry, informed Mavis he would be out for some time and accompanied Wakana to help her look for her son.

When they arrived at the park where Rikuo informed her he was going, they couldn't find him, which made Wakana worry about him.

Sigh~

"Don't worry, Miss Wakana. He will be somewhere nearby."

Seeing Wakana's worry, Leo consoled her that Rikuo might be with his friends.

While they were looking around, they arrived before a huge stall with a name board hanging on the top of the entrance: "Play Here."

A considerable number of kids with their parents and couples were going in and out of the stalls.

"Kids are going in there. Your son might be in there."

Looking at the kids going inside the tent with wide smiles, Leo suggested.

Seeing it was a hangout spot for kids, Wakana nodded, and both of them entered through the entrance.

Looking at the funny games in the stalls, Leo curiously looked around.

When they were chatting, Wakana suddenly noticed Rikuo and his friends were standing and looking at her at the entrance on the other side of the big stall.

"There he is."

Wakana walked towards Rikuo with a gentle smile.

"Mother! Why are you here?"

Seeing his mother notice him, Rikuo, with a smile, asked her.

"Your mother was quite worried about you, so she came looking for you."

Hearing Rikuo's question, Leo spoke with a smile, looking at Rikuo.

"____"

Noticing he made his mother worried about him, Rikuo looked down, depressed.

Sigh~

"Sorry, Mother. Today Kiyotsugu invited us to his house, so we went there to play, and I couldn't keep track of time."

With a sigh, Rikuo apologized to Wakana for making her worry about him.

"It's okay, Rikuo. But next time, inform me, okay? Huh... let me introduce you to our neighbour, Leo Morningstar."

Looking at Rikuo, who had apologized to her, Wakana accepted his apologies and introduced Leo to him.

To which he nodded and greeted Leo with a smile.

"Haha~ I want to try too, Kana-chan. What about you?"

Seeing two kids fail miserably in one of the games where they needed to shoot the prize, Natsumi invited Kana to play with her.

Kana nodded and bid farewell to Rikuo and went to the stall with Natsumi and Saori to play games. Rikuo looked at them longingly.

"Wakana-san, I wanted to try this game here too. Shall we go there?"

Looking at Rikuo's look at Kana, who went to play games, Leo asked Wakana to help this kid satisfy his fantasy of playing games with his crush.

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(Author's POV)

(A/N): What type of Business MC should do... Any Thoughts...

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