Dangerous Souls

Nightmare

Chapter 6-Death Doesn't Kill

February Day 3, 1:31 P.M.

"It's the reason I left Ryoukuryou."

Mai was frozen where she stood, she felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. This was some cruel joke, right? To make fun of her? But why would Kiko do something like that? "Kiko, I...what?" she couldn't even put the words together. Kiko wiped her eyes quickly and took a seat at the table. She motioned for her friend to come over.

"That's right, my ex is the reason why I left that school."

Mai sat down next to her. "But, when we met you, you told us that you have never been kissed."

Kiko chuckled and shook her head. "I lied," she stated simply. "Hey, I needed a way to get you and Ayako to stop teasing me about liking Yasu."

"So you do like him?"

She just shrugged and looked at her tea. "Well, he did rescue me. Or at least, he tried to."

***

"Well, this is an interesting team, if I do say so myself," Yasuhara commented as he followed Masako and Monk into the Academic Building. "I don't think we've ever been paired off like this."

"Nope, I don't recall," Monk said, turning to the medium. "So, where to?"

"There's a classroom at the end of the hall, where one of the attacks occurred." Masako had placed her kimono sleeve to her mouth as usual. "I sensed the spirit of a girl around my age in there yesterday."

"Awesome," Yasuhara remarked cheerfully as they headed in the direction the medium said. "Hey, do we have a tally on how many spirits we have here?"

"Aside from the spirit possessing people, we have several female spirits residing here," Masako said and sighed with her eyes closed. "They don't stay in one place so it makes it hard for me to count them."

"Perfectly, understandable," the college student said with a nod of his head. They walked into the empty classroom and he went over to the windows. "Guess we should close the blinds."

Monk placed the recording device on one of the tables. Masako sat down by it as he went over to the light switch. He made sure the door was closed and sat at the table as did the college student. "Shall we begin?"

The other two nodded and he turned on the recording device. "Classroom in the Academic Building, Takigawa."

***

"What do you mean?"

"Well, let's start at the beginning," Kiko sighed and thought for a moment. "It should put us around June of my freshman year. I had always been a reserved person, but I was also fairly social. My mother would tease me about being a reserved social butterfly. When it came to school, I was usually quiet, but get me out and about, I was very outgoing."

She took a breath. "Anyway, because I was so reserved, I was a little skeptical when I was asked out but the senior class president. But he managed to win me over and before we knew it we were one of the most talked about couples in high school. I was more popular, but still reserved. I was the quiet girl he took under his wing."

Mai listened intently as she poured another cup of tea from the still hot teapot. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. This was completely different from what Yasuhara had told her. Then again it wasn't. He just didn't tell Mai everything. After all it was her business, not his.

"He made me feel special, so I would almost always excuse the times he would tease me about getting second helpings of food. Joked about my weight. The sly way he would tell me he liked my old haircut better. How quickly he wanted to be in a relationship. His jealousy when I would talk with any guys, even Yasu."