Mixed Feelings

The hubbub over Kirei's untimely passing swept over the class and the entire school. The somewhat rural school doesn't have that many students to begin with so everyone practically knows each other.

"Everyone's talking about Kirei chan... hey, what did you tell her dad?" Mizuki asks Daisuke about yesterday.

"He was quite terrified of her before but now that it come to this though he's mourning her death, he's somewhat relieved."

"Terrified of Kirei? Her dad was? Does he know about the ghost?" Mizuki inquires.

"Kirei didn't say anything but she and her dad haven't been talking much since her possession, He already suspected something off with his daughter."

"But this situation... this could be troublesome..." Daisuke turns his glance towards the crowd, a troubled look sours his face.

"But forget about them, let's talk about us" he turns his gaze straight into her eyes, leering almost. With his forearm supporting his chin. Like he's trying to seduce her. Which surprises Mizuki a bit as it came a bit out of nowhere. Eyebrows raised, she turns to him at the other corner of the class. They have been speaking telepathically this whole time. But before she could response to that a couple of her classmates talked to her.

"Ne Mizuki san, you were talking to Kirei last night, right?"

They look a little concerned.

"Yes I was-" Mizuki replies impromptu but then thought

'wait! Don't tell me I'm a suspect of her death now! I totally was involved somehow! What do I do now?'

"Uhh I mean... I was just.. asking her for a pencil... as if heheh.." she tries for a cover story to not arouse suspicion to herself.

As she's talking, more of the girls start crowding her and listening in making her even more nervous.

"Um um I.. I... the truth is..." She starts panicking.

"That's not good Mizuki san! You're in danger now!" One of the girls says.

"Ah no I can explain-!.. Ueh?" Mizuki who's panicking from being a prime suspect gets feasibly confused by their worries.

"That's right! You could be next!"

"Heeeeehhh?!"

During their training activity after school hours, Mizuki explains the content of the conversation her classmates had with her.

"A cursed chain?" Daisuke tilt his head.

"Yes yes, apparently Kirei chan was afflicted with the curse"

She explains wide eyed, like foretelling a doomsday scene.

"Heeeh, interesting" he reacts undisturbed, maybe even piqued instead.

"It's not interesting at all! I'm next on the line here! What do I do?!" Flailing her arm worrying about her fate.

"Rumors are bound to fly with how weird and popular her death had become. It's just people assuming and falsely associating different occurrences and coincidences together, it's not real"

"I was doubting it at first, but then the signs of the curse is already showing up..."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Well they say... First, you'll see animals acting weird around you..." Although a bit hesitant, she recounts the signs of the curse as were told to her. Together with the earlier accounts of her in class noticing a couple of birds clumped together mid flight and falling off relatively next to her.

"...And then, the teachers would call you out more and you'll fail to answer their questions..."

Flashback to when Hirase calls out to her to answer a question in class which she failed, then she told her to pay more attention in class.

"...After that, you'll experience bad lucks throughout the day..."

"like this morning when I went to the cafeteria to buy lunch, I left my wallet in class. And other times, I ran into someone while carrying the exercise printout and dropped them all on the floor!" She narrates the specific events happening to her so far while thinking back on them.

"That's just a cheap mind trick to scare teenagers, you'd encounter those with or without the curse anyway"

Daisuke just brush it off.

"But but! the last one is..." She hesitates for a moment, measuring Daisuke's reaction. He waits in anticipation of her finishing her sentence.

"Gu- guys will suddenly start noticing you more... or like make a move on you..." She turns her eye somewhere else, unable to look at him. A little embarrassed to say that part out loud in front of said guy. Makes her feel more self conscious about it.

"Eehh? That's just nonsense." He looks put off by her explanation. "rather than keeping your mind busy with baseless rumor, keep it busy with me instead" and fires a seductive glare, almost trying to hypnotize her.

"Mou! that's exactly what I'm talking about! I'm being serious here!" Mizuki flustered and not knowing how to interpret his sudden increase in advances. She pushes him away in response.

Mizuki then retells how there has been real cases that could prove the truth of the curse which raises his concern, prompting him to launch an investigation case with her.

She shows him a picture shared to her from earlier, a picture of Kirei previously in the hallway, although it barely shows Kirei in it, only a part of her shoulder can be seen but she's recognizable by the two other friends walking behind her that are actually in the shot. However, between the two girls and Kirei, an apparition can be seen stalking her from beyond the window in an empty class. Or at least that's how it looks like from the camera's perspective.

"This is not the same ghost that we fought yesterday. Could it be the actual curse that affects her?" Mizuki points out.

Daisuke observe the picture for a while rubbing his chin.

"Hmm this could be something... Yosh! Tonight we'll investigate!"

"Ehh! We're going to investigate?! But but.."

"What's wrong? Isn't that why you showed me that"

"No! I'm trying to tell you that the curse is real and I could be next!! Are you even listening?!!"

That evening, they meet back up at school to investigate the case.

"In the end I still came..." A rather unenthusiastic Mizuki holding still while Daisuke helps her change form before they start their search.

"Owh? Looking great today! You've made quite the progress!" Daisuke praises Mizuki's SP form for their mission tonight.

"Wahaa- What are you saying all of a sudden!" Even if she was low-key looking forward to him noticing her changes and improvement, his character today made her especially more conscious about his compliment. Even more in regards to her appearance.

"Hmm... But how do you make this hair part? It shouldn't be possible at your level...-" he comments on her hair that imitates her real life hairstyles while holding her SP head.

Mizuki was about to stop him but her reflex and him already grabbing onto that part made it detach from her head, revealing a round bald head. The 'hair' was more of a hat that she shaped into her usual hairstyles, separate from her actual head.

"Hou I see, that's a creative wa-"

"Whaa- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!!" Mizuki panics and lands a slap on his SP form, bright red colors his cheek, swollen.

"Hahaha! It's good that you're so energetic. We can use that energy to locate our target tonight" he remarks as he casually walks ahead.

'seriously... he can be so insensitive sometimes'

Although, now that it's only them in the dark of the night, walking for a while without much conversation after that, she starts to notice his physical appeal more. His chiseled face, his sharp cat eyed lashes, his shapely nose. It could be the lunar lightings hitting him at a perfect angle tonight, it could be the influence of him constantly hitting on her throughout the day, it could be the psychological effect of their current situation alone in the school building. But Mizuki is starting to see... more of him tonight. Mizuki recalls Kirei's initial reaction towards Daisuke's look and thought 'he's actually quite the looker, so why aren't the other girls reacting towards him the way Kirei did? Come to think of it...'

"Ne Daisuke kun, why don't Kirei recognize you from our class?"

"Oh about that, I've placed a curse on school ground that changes my appearance to other people"

"A curse? You can do that too?"

"You could say it's the same type used by the ghost that possessed Kirei yesterday. Once you've learnt the basic, even you can do it."

Turning towards the empty hallway

"And that's why I don't think the current case is a curse"

"What do you mean?"

"If it's a light curse it couldn't do what the rumor claim it'd done, and if it's a heavy curse I would've noticed it when I placed my curse. And..."

"And...?" Mizuki curious to hear the end of his explanation.

"The only curse I'm falling into right now is that pretty eye of yours" reusing his seductive gaze from earlier.

"Mou! Stop fooling around!!"

She pushes him blushing, confused as to how to interpret his action

'What's with him today? Is it because of yesterday's case? Is he genuinely hitting on me? Or is this the effect of the curse? What's going on here?!!'

"Hahaha, though jokes aside-"

Mizuki even more irritated now 'that was your idea of a joke?!'

"That makes it harder for us to find it. The only witness account we have are of the curse and not the culprit itself, and that photo doesn't capture it's true face so we don't know how it looks like. With such a roundabout way of scaring people, it could be a much weaker ghost only beginning to raise it's reputation. We should split up to increase our odds" Daisuke suggests.

"S-Split up? But why? I think we're doing just fine so far" she answers worried.

"If it really is a weaker ghost, it'll be more likely to attack it's victim alone than when they're together"

"But, if we find it first we don't have to wait for it to attack right?" She suggests.

"Like I said, it's harder to find it in the first place. Hmm, don't tell me.." rubbing his chin,

"You're scared?"

"Wha- ..." A dissatisfied expression from Mizuki, she look like she's about to say something in disapproval but stopped herself.

"Yes that's right! I'm scared, you have a problem?! They're coming after me after all, why wouldn't I be scared!" lashing in response to Daisuke's cynical question.

"Hmmm no problem at all. The problem might be for you though, since you want to fight and hunt ghost. Maybe you're not cut out for this after all?" Side eyeing her in a mischievous manner, challenging her conviction.

She bites her lip, frustrated by his provocation.

"Nmmmmnn!!! Fine! We'll split up! Don't come crying to me once the ghost gets to you first!" Biting into his challenge, she angrily, but reluctantly, agrees to the idea.

As she's heading the other direction with shoulders raised and clenching her fist down, Daisuke teases her even more

"Fret not, despite the growing distance between us, I'll keep only you close in my heart"

But instead of making her swoon she gets even more annoyed.

In the dead of the night, in the almost empty school corridor, Mizuki walks alone with much thought filling her head and the scary situation she's in is the last thing on her mind. Her hands gestures and reflects what she's spouting at the moment. As if arguing with an invisible person in front of her as she walks.

"Play with a girl's heart won't you?! One moment he's being all prince charming and a second later he just throw me around, using me as he like!"

Some moment she would even go up stairways while resolving this turmoil inside her heart

"Are you actually making a move on me? Or is it that stupid curse's fault? If you say it's not real then why are you suddenly acting this way today? Which one is it? What the hell do you want?!!" She concludes with her hand smashing in front of her like smacking on an imaginary table.

"You idiot! Make up your mind already!" She shouts at the top of her lungs.

That final release seems to carry with it all her unresolved anger as right after, her quarrel with her imaginary listener stops.

'at first I thought it was his weird way of making up for his behavior from yesterday... But then there's the effect of the curse too if it's real... If he really meant what he said, why is he so inconsistent with it? What's going on inside your head?' she ponders it deeply after being slightly calmer.

Before she realizes it, while trying to figure out the mystery of her romantic life, she finds herself at the top floor. Now that she's already tired of her one sided quarrel, she starts to notice more of her surroundings. More than notice, a certain sight catches her eye, she turns to the side.

"This is...-"