Chapter Text
Nene heard someone enter her bathroom and instantly jumped to alertness. She heard the stall beside hers slam closed, shaking the walls momentarily, and couldn’t help but wonder who was in such a hurry.
Of course, there were many reasons someone could be bolting to a bathroom, reasons Nene would rather not know.
Still, she didn’t see many students come into this building, much less use the 3rd story bathroom. So, with a morbid curiosity, she peeked through the crack of the door to peep at her visitor.
She knew it was very unladylike and pretty creepy to do such a thing, but she was a ghost after all, who cared?
Through her limited field of view, she saw a boy, probably around the age she’d been when she died, with choppy brown hair and fearful amber eyes like round moons. He had climbed up onto the toilet seat, hugging his knees with shaking arms.
*He looks so scared…* Nene mused, feeling pity for this boy she knew nothing about. Through the bathroom stall, she heard shouting as footsteps ran past quickly, then dissipated as they hurried down the stairs.
The boy flinched, turning his head toward the sound, but slowly seemed to relax as the noises trailed off, his shoulders sagging in relief. Slowly, still apprehensive, the boy crept out of the stall and Nene lost sight of him.
She sighed, thinking that was that, and went back to her perch atop the grimy toilet she had dominion over. Nene just began to rest her chin on the palm of her hand when she heard three quiet raps on her door, followed by an unsure voice.
“Hanako-kun… Hanako-Kun… Hanako-Kun are you there?”
Nene wasn’t surprised at first that the boy had tried to summon her, she got five or ten “summonings” a year.
But the difference was…
None of those summonings worked. In fact, no one, in her entire time as a ghost, had ever successfully made a wish with her. She had become well accustomed to hearing the downcast sighs of students, wishing for love, popularity, or other worthless high school aspirations, as she herself was disappointed to find they couldn’t see her.
But this time was different; she could feel some latent tug pulling her toward this boy. She hopped off the toilet and giggled with excitement. Nene started to creak the door open, before pausing and deciding to have some fun.
She heard the boy gasp in fear as he stepped closer to the stall door and Nene took her chance to phase through the other stalls in order to appear behind the boy.
With ghostly quietness, she stood behind her target, watching with an amused smile as he peeked into her now vacant stall and chuckled with relief.
He probably thought she wasn’t real, like the students that had come before him. To them, she wasn’t real, rather she was just the creaking of old pipes or the rushing of wind outside a window. But to this boy…
She was about to be very real.
Suddenly, she leaned right up to the boy’s ear as he took a step back, reveling in the way the hairs on his neck suddenly stood on end, already alerted to her presence before she’d even said a word.
“Not over there, silly~!” She cooed.
At the sound of her voice, the boy immediately jumped back, nearly reeling so far back that he toppled over.
Nene was mesmerized by this. No normal human had ever been able to hear or see her, and by the way this boy made direct, terrified eye contact with her, she knew he could see her ghostly appearance.
However, Nene wasn’t able to marvel for long, as the terrified boy screamed and, no doubt because of some life-or-death reflex, tried to throw a punch in her direction.
“Eek! ” she yelped, alarmed. For a moment, she herself was now scared, until the boy’s fist passed right through her face momentarily before she jumped back. She should have known he couldn’t touch her and felt a bit embarrassed for getting so scared, yet, she didn’t have any experience with a situation like this.
Nene shook off the odd feeling that gave her and turned her attention back to the boy in front of her.
“Y-you’re a ghost!” The boy screamed as he fell back, catching himself with his palms as they impacted the old wood floors.
Nene leaned down, scowling and crossing her arms, “Yes, and you’re rude! Don’t you know you shouldn’t hit a lady?”
The boy simply stared, an embarrassed blushing creeping up his cheeks as he flapped his mouth open and shut like a fish. Nene couldn’t help but giggle at how cute he looked, so she decided she would forgive him.
“No mind! I’m Hanako-kun!” She promptly grinned, seemingly excitedly to get to introduce herself.
She held out her hand, though she knew the boy couldn’t take it, it just felt proper.
“Number Seven of the school’s Seven Wonders, nice to meet you!”
The boy just gaped like he’d seen a unicorn, which in Nene’s mind she supposed he had. Supernaturals were nothing new to her at this point, but she assumed for a boy like him, he’d never once encountered anything as otherworldly as her.
Slowly the boy’s voice came back to him, and his eyes darted up and down, trying to make sense of the figure before him.
“You’re… Hanako-Kun?”
“The one and only!” Nene chirped back.
“But uh… aren’t you supposed to be a boy? And wear some kind of old-timey guy’s uniform?”
“Well uh- I guess you could call me Hanako-san if you want- plus that uniform isn’t really in style anymo—“
The boy didn’t even let Nene get a word in before he battered her with more questions.
“Well, then why are you wearing a guy’s hat- and why are you in the boy’s restroom? Are you some kind of creep!? also, your ankles are huge—! Like huge huge! Like radishes!”
“Okay then, you can just forget it.“ Nene started floating back toward her door at the mention of her ankles and radishes. This guy definitely seemed more and more by the minute like he wasn’t worth the headache.
“Wait! Don’t go- I still have a wish!” The boy cried apologetically, “I’m sorry- your ankles are totally uh… normal sized! They’re great even!”
“Great?” Nene turned her head, her pouting lip forming into a big smile.
“Okay then!” Nene practically skipped back and pulled a pen and paper from her jacket pocket. “I grant wishes for the living! And for the right price, I can grant yours!”
“So… state your name and wish for me!” Nene said, pointing at him with the pen she had materialized.
“Okay— uh- Yugi Amane. That’s my name,“ The boy apprehensively tugged at his collar, watching as heart-shaped hakujoudai bobbed on either side of Hanako.
“I’m from class 1-A of the high-school division and my wish is… uh…” Amane seemed to shuffle, and Hanako realized with an amused smile how shy this boy was.
“Go on!” Hanako nudged, tapping the top of her notepad excitedly.
“I want friends,” he cringed as he finally said it, frowning like it wasn’t a want he voiced very often. Still, Hanako carried on without mentioning her observation, it was her job after all.
“Okay! Yugi Amane… and your wish is… friendship…” Hanako murmured as she wrote down the words in her notepad, making sure to add a little heart at the end to punctuate her sentence.
“Is there anyone in particular you want to be friends with?”
Amane shook his head. He hated to admit it, but he didn’t really know many people in his class, or in the whole school for that matter.
“Well, that’s okay! I think I can still grant your wish anyway…” Hanako nodded in resolute determination, folding her notepad back into her pocket.
Amane immediately seemed to get very interested, peeking around the bathroom in wonder.
“So how does it work? Is there some kind of scientific method you use?”
“I’ve got something even better than science!” Hanako chirped, digging in her pockets that Amane assumed were bottomless somehow.
“What’s that?! Some magical force science is yet to explain?!” Amane seemed to get *really* excited now, eyes wide as he got ready for Hanako to unveil whatever she was about to show him.
“Oh definitely! It’s called…”
Suddenly, Hanako pulled out a book and placed it in Amane’s hands.
“The magic of friendship!!”
Silence.
“Are you kidding me.”
Amane looked down at the book Hanako had handed to him. It was tattered, looking as though a corner had been taped back onto the frayed book. Scrawled across the front in glittery decorum was “A Guide to Friendship: for Social Rejects”.
Amane felt insulted, as if that was even possible coming from a ghost that lived in dilapidated boys’ toilets. Still, Hanako looked at him with the most innocent smile.
“What’s wrong? This book has everything you need!”
“You’ve got to be joking- you’re a ghost! Can’t you just snap your fingers and make it happen?”
“Tsk tsk tsk- not everything comes so easy, Yugi-Kun!”
The ghost girl hopped up onto the window sill behind her with an 'umph!' and folded her hands together.
"Maybe you don't know this... but in seeking my help- supernatural help- you have to pay an equal price!"
"So..." Hanako shot him a cheeky grin, her eyes crinkling at the edges, "If you want me to do something crazy magical, you'd have to give me something just as crazy good in return. So just trust me when I say, this route is a whole lot safer!"
Amane sighed, feeling his frustration and annoyance grow.
"It'd be a miracle anyway if anyone liked me enough to be my friend, so what If I'm fine paying that price?"
Amane stared evenly at Hanako as her eyes widened a little and some emotion Amane couldn't parse crossed her features. Her voice seemed to catch before she simply grinned, her eyes shut as she hopped off the sill.
"Well, I don't have any magic items anyway, whoops!"
Amane groaned, he felt there was more to this than this ghost was letting on. But who was he to bargain with a ghost anyway? For all he knew, this 'ghost' was probably some hallucination set on by a half-a-century-old bathroom stink.
But still, Amane relented, shoving the book toward Hanako, "Whatever fine. So what's your first method? You've got to help me since you are a wish-granting ghost after all, aren't you?"
"Of course I am!" Hanako puffed up her cheeks indignantly and grabbed the book, flipping through it quickly before realizing it was upside down and, with a huff, flipping it to the right side to search once more.
"Here!" She pointed out after a few seconds of close reading, "It says, '64: give yourself a makeover to make yourself more relatable'!"
Relatable...? Amane raised his eyebrow suspiciously but Hanako paid it no mind, clasping her hands together in determination.
"C'mon Amane! I'll make you super hip to the other youth~!"
Amane groaned, "No one says that-! How old are you?!"
"Don't ask a lady her age!" Amane was sure if this ghost could touch him physically, she'd have given him a stern smack. But he didn't have much time to think about that before he was getting various articles of clothing hurled at him.
"Time for a little fashion show, Yugi~!"