Chapter Text
Yashiro Nene wanted love. She would have given anything to love and be loved (preferably by someone tall, dark and handsome but she’d take what she could get).
But now, she is dead. Drowned. Laying at the bottom of a muddy pond that was near the garden that she regularly visited. Had she tripped? Was she pushed? It didn’t matter to her now. All she cared about was the ache in her chest that reminded her that she had died loveless and alone. Remorses and regrets bounced around her head echoing with mocking tones. They knocked loose those memories of friends and family, leaving only the bitter taste of loneliness and longing. How close was she to love? A day? A week? A year? Hatred burned her fading corpse for all those who loved happily and cursed them with all her might. She wished that they all would taste hope, the same way she had hoped, and to have it only to have it taken away when was just within their grasp. Her soul hated and burned and if it had only been slightly more corporeal the pond would have boiled.
But unbeknownst to her, someone was listening to her spiral into madness. A young boy crouched at the edge of her pond, looking like he had been and will be up to no good. His choppy dark hair was mostly hidden under a school cap and went down to his wild looking yellow eyes. But what was most strange about this boy was the black piece of paper on one of his cheeks. The wheels in his head were visibly churning as his smile grew and grew. His hands went to his pockets and fumbled a bit before pulling out a small bag that he had stolen from his brother earlier. From the bag he pulled out something and held it high dramatically. It shone brightly in the sun, and sent sparkles onto the surface of the pond at his feet. He let go of the pearly thing and whistled as he watched it fall before saying “sploosh!” As it made contact with the pond.
“Bye bye mermaid scale!” He said as he turned and skipped away from the pond. What an exciting experiment! He rushed to sakura to tell her to start spreading a news rumor. He couldn’t wait to see how it turned out.
The scale fell almost perfectly into Nenes open mouth as her ghost screamed in despair once more. It seemed fate had been in favor of whatever the boy had set into motion. Nene choked on the scale and swallowed it down, sealing her fate. Normally a mermaid might have come to take her away but since she was a ghost, the mermaids didn’t seem to bother even coming to get her since she could not be moved far from where she had died. So she was left on her own as scaled erupted painfully from her skin and her legs merged together to form a tail. She felt herself shrinking smaller and smaller until she has the size and appearance of a guppy-like fish. She swam around her new home and tried get best not to look at her corpse before her.
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‘Did you fear the new Rumor?’ What rumor?’ ‘They say if you look into the ponds reflection it’ll show you what love you desire most, but in exchange it takes something.’ ‘Woah freaky.’
Aoi listened to the new whispers making their way around the classroom and looked for Nene. Her friend always did like to hear this kind of gossip. But Nene still wasn’t at school. She had been missing for only a day or two but her family seemed to always think the worst and were already in mourning. Aoi tried to keep hopeful but it was getting more and more difficult with each passing day. Aoi May have been popular with boys but their company could never replace Nene’s. She missed her friend, a lot. She hoped Nene would be found soon, alive. Aoi turned her attention to their teacher, Tsuchigamori, as he came in and even he looked a bit more stressed than usual. ‘
He must be worried for nene too. ‘ Aoi thought to herself before opening her textbook and beginning to read.
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Nene was trapped in her own cloudy thoughts of despair and such when she heard footsteps approaching her pond. There was something they wanted from her and something she must do, she seemed to know that instinctively. Nene seemed to already know what it was that was expected of her. She swam up towards the surface and hovered just beneath it. The persons face was distorted but it soon became more clear as the surface of the pond smoothed out like a mirror. Nene placed her fins against the underside of it and felt her hands becoming more and more human. The person leaned closer and closer to the pond and watched enraptured by whatever it was they saw. Nenes fingers and wrists were now fully human again and she pushed them out onto the other side. The student still looked like they were watching the surface even though Nene was pulling herself up out of the water and disturbing any image that might have been there. The student still looked on with a faraway gaze and Nene knew that they were trapped. She was human looking now to the waist and her tail had grown to match her size. She placed her hands on either side of her trapped prey and looked at them for a long time. A girl. An average looking girl with many heartbreaks behind and ahead of her.
‘She shouldn’t have to go through all that anguish. I know how horrible it is.’ Nene thought sadly. Then an idea occurred to her.
‘She should stay with me. She’ll never find the love she so longs for. But with me, she wont have to.’ The plan made absolute sense to nene so she started to slowly pull the transfixed girl towards her pond. As soon as they hit the water scales began to grow on the loving girl and she shrank to guppy size like Nene did. However Nene remained in her half human- half fish form, feeling much stronger than she was before. The fish swam happily around the pond and Nene laughed as they played.
Soon after that, more and more went missing after an unfortunate glance at the pond or a visit out of desperation. The story of the pond was retold many times and Nenes desire for friends and love became insatiable. Her pond became filled with little fishes that she cooed over. But her growing paradise would soon be disturbed.
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Aoi hadn’t thought much of the rumor when she first heard it, but after more and more kids were missing after visiting the pond, she began to wonder if that’s where Nene might have disappeared to.
So that day after school, Aoi went to the pond.
Nene didn’t think much of the pretty girl who was now within her grasp, fully lost in the haze of her power. That is until she was face to face with her and finally recognized who it was.
“Aoi!”Nene gasped and shrunk back from her, suddenly feeling guilt beyond measure that she had almost pulled her friend under. But Aoi was leaning forward now and would soon plunge unto the pond of her own accord even without Nenes help.
‘No.... No!’ Nene shoved Aoi away from the edge of the pond as hard as she could. Aoi tumbled back and landed and the tomato patch feeling quite dazed. She couldn’t quite remember anything after she had approached the waters edge. But there was something that she had seen.... it was a face but it evaded her as she walked home. It looked like...
Nene!
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Hanako was used to dealing with unruly ghosts. He was the seventh wonder after all and it was his responsibility to keep the campus relatively safe from uppity newcomers. But when he heard sudden burst of talk about ‘Lovers lake’ he began to worry that there was some other game at play. The myth seemed to come out of nowhere and become extremely popular seemingly overnight. Rumors had never spread that fast before. He tucked that thought away for now and began to make his way over to the pond.
By the time he got there a girl was already leaning there and over the edge, looking ready to fall in. But as hanako watched, a pair of pale arms shot out of the water and pushed the girl back away from the edge. What? That didn’t seem like something a ghost would do. That wasn’t what the rumor said would happen. Hanako grinned at this surprising new development and floated closer as his curiosity got the better of him.
“Hello~! Mr Ghost of Lovers Lake? I was wondering if-“ Hanako trailed off as he saw more reflections joining him on the surface of the pond. He vaguely remembered the rumors about the pond showing a love to people so he bent down closer to see what the pond had to offer. A girl with long light hair sat next to him and smiled brightly. She was pretty in Hanako’s opinion, with big eyes and chubby ankles. The girl looked vaguely familiar, a student at the school maybe. The girl leaned closer to him and he could almost feel her hand on his shoulder but when he turned away from the pond, there was nothing there. He looked back quickly at the ponds surface as she cupped her hand around his ear and whispered something.
‘I like you, Yugi Amane’ he heard a small voice say with much affection. Hanako’s eyes widened and shock rooted him still on the edge of that pond. How did this ghost know his name? Was it messing with him? But... no ghosts couldn’t fib their rumors. Maybe he’d try to find the girl after dealing with this ghost. As he was lost in shock and thought a pair of shaky hands was breaking the surface. They reached up and almost touched him but retreated quickly back under the water, seemingly guilty for even trying to pull him under. Hanako caught one the hands and yanked hard against it, pulling the ghost above water. Pinkish scales dotted the girls body and covered her tail as well. It was the same girl from the vision. A little more fishy than before but definitely still the same light blonde hair and big red eyes. Hanako masks his surprise as best he could.
“I caught a fish!” He grinned at her broadly. “Now,” he continued, “would you mind releasing whoever else you have down there? I’m sure you wouldn’t want to cause any trouble, would you?” His grin never changed but his eyes became murderous. Nene felt her stomach drop and tried to avoid his eyes all she could. This was the clearest she had been able to think in some time and everything that she had done was coming back to her. Aoi.... she had nearly pulled her under. Nene felt tears cloud her vision and roll down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry. I was just s-so lonely and they w-would have had their hearts broken so many t-times but what I did was so h-horrible. I just- i-“ she bit her lip to stop it trembling, it hurt much less than she thought it would. Pets, she had kept friends and students as pets for.. well who knows how long. Basking in their mindless love for her. She felt disgusting. How did this even start anyway? Nene remembered the cold water and the pain in her lungs and the heaviness of her feet and-. Nene was dead. She had drowned, and was now haunting a pond. But someone elsa had been there too... Another boy with the dark paper had held out his hand- Nene had screamed- and let it fall- she didn’t stop for breath for what felt like ages- the scale landed in- Nene choked- it slid down her throat- it was heavy in her stomach even now. Nene clutched her stomach where the heaviness persisted and looked into the boys face again. It was him. No this boy looked similar but his features were slightly different and a white paper was on his cheek instead of a black one.
“He made me?” She whispered. The boy had stopped smiling and was looking at her with an unreadable expression.
“Why would he make me eat that?“ Hanako had not expected her to be so lucid and was trying his best to piece together her mumbles but she was speaking so softly and quickly that much of it was lost on him. Eventually she looked up at him again and quieted.
“Will you help them find me?” She looked so scared and vulnerable that Hanako frankly felt a little uncomfortable. How was he going to tell her? He opened his mouth to break the news ro her that she was, in fact, dead but she spoke again.
“Help them find me down there?” She pointed behind her at the pond and Hanako leaned around her to see. At the bottom of the murky pond lay the girl. Perfectly human and half buried.
“Oh! Well its good that you already know that you’re, yknow, dead because I thought i was gonna hafta.” The girl didn’t seem amused and waited for a proper answer. Hanako sighed and let go of her arm to hold her hand with both his own. The girl looked a little flustered and blushed a little at the gesture.
“If you let go all those kids then I’ll do my best to have you found.” Hanako said seriously and smiled gently. The girl looked very relieved and smiled back at him. Hanako decided that even though she was dead and a bit more scaley her smile was just as nice as the one he saw in the pond. But her expression saddened again as she mumbled.
“But I’ll be so lonely again.” Hanako hummed and let go of her hand to bring his hand up to tap his chin in thought.
“Well then! You can be my assistant!” Hanako grinned at her.
“Really?” The girl questioned happily, eyes wide.
“Yup!” Hanako said, “I’ll try to get your rumor changed too!” Hanako sat up straighter and looked quite proud of himself. He held out his hand to the girl to shake her hand.
“My name is Hanako!”
“Yashiro Nene.”