Chapter Text
When Kou Minamoto brought raiteijou down on the spirit, he expected some sort of scream or at least some cursing, even just a little jolt of surprise, but when the gold staff slammed into Amane’s shoulder, he didn’t even budge. He simply turned his head to look where raiteijou now rested, and then he looked to Kou, comically repeating the motion a few too many times like a confused dog from a cartoon. He didn’t say anything, but he huffed a sort of laugh through his nose and grinned. He was a cheerful, cocky guy from the looks of it, and a risktaker too from the way he grabbed raiteijou with his hand. He made a little ‘nuh-uh’ sound in his throat, most likely in response to the blond’s promise to exorcise him, or maybe from the blissful obliviousness he had when it came to the Minamoto family heirloom.
“You don’t think I can do it, huh?”
Amane hummed in confirmation, nodding his head just a bit.
Kou grinned.
“Well, too bad, Hanako!”
Lightning flashed and traveled through raiteijou, straight into Amane’s ghostly body, shocking the boy into an aborted scream, sending him stumbling back. He was smoking, black clouds rising from his hand and arm as he cradled and inspected his palm. He was weak, he didn’t even try to get up yet, too focused on the change of pace to even process his inevitable doom. It gave Kou such a rush of confidence, being this close to exorcising his first big supernatural, and doing it so easily! Amane was just sitting there, ready to be sent away to wherever dead people went, and the battle hadn’t even lasted for more than two minutes!
Kou rushed forward, raising raiteijou above his head like a dagger, ready to stab it down quick to end this as fast as it had started.
Too bad that girl interrupted him again.
Yashiro Nene, a cute girl in the grade above him, threw herself in between the two enemies, becoming a human shield for Amane without prompt.
“Stop!”
Kou skid to a stop, reeling back from the pretty girl in front of him, confused, enraged, and nervous. He’d heard of humans befriending supernaturals, but it was never a good connection to make. In every circumstance, the supernatural manipulated or used the human for their own selfish or personal gain, playing them like a game until their mind broke and they were too broken to coerce. This girl must’ve been one of those victims, and he had to save her from that fate before Amane went too far!
“What are you doing? Get out of the way, I need to exorcise him!”
“No way! As Hanako’s friend and assistant, I’m-I’m gonna get super mad if you’re mean to him again!”
“Wait, but he’s a super-evil supernatural. An-And I need to exorcise him, for the sake of the school, so please step aside, Miss!”
Yashiro got up into Kou’s face and did her best to look commanding and scary, which was hard for her to do with her pink cheeks and wide eyes, and overall innocent and overall sweet disposition and appearance. He wasn’t too intimidated, but there was a part of him that wanted to be a little more cautious, choose his words carefully or something bad would happen.
“Hanako-Kun isn’t a bad supernatural! He even helped me.”
Kou did not, in fact, choose his words carefully as he grabbed Yashiro’s shoulders, trying to shake some sense into her brain.
“You’ve got it all wrong, Miss!”
Kou took a breath, calming his heartbeat. He needed to convince Yashiro who was evil and who was good, or she could get hurt, or worse…
“He’s not just any supernatural...It took all of my grandma’s strength to seal away Hanako-San of the toilet. He’s a really, really diabolically evil spirit! And look...He uses a carving knife for a weapon. That’s proof he used it as a weapon while he was alive, too. He used that knife to take someone’s life!”
“No…You’re lying.”
Yashiro lowered her hands, unclenching her fists. She was shaking, searching the blond’s face for any sign of deceit. He didn’t blame her. She thought Amane was her friend, of course hearing that he was a murderer would have a harsh effect, of course she’d want to deny it all and forget it. But she had to believe him. She needed to trust him.
“He’s fooling you, Senpai! You can’t trust him! You’re just gonna be…”
He trailed off as a pressure dragged across his throat, barely pressing at all, just lightly held there. A silent threat in the form of a carving knife.
“...another…”
Amane’s left arm was wrapped around Yashiro’s neck, keeping her in front of him, and yet he wasn’t hurting her at all, not cutting off her air supply. Just holding her there as a precautionary measure.
That ghost was smart.
His right arm was outstretched in front of him, knife in hand, tip pointed at the thin skin of the exorcist's neck. His eyes were dark, the previous blinding yellow enveloped with inky blackness, and his very gaze sent shivers down Kou’s spine.
Despite the knife pointed at Kou’s jugular, Amane didn’t look too upset. He had to be, but other than that void in his eyes, his face was cheery and all smiles, tight-lipped as it may be.
“Ha-Hanako-Kun…?”
“Hm?”
Yashiro had a cold sweat dripping down her forehead, and she’d gone stock still in Amane’s grasp. Kou had the overwhelming instinct to rush in and save her, but his curiosity got the better of him. He wanted to see what Amane would do, learn more about this mysterious boy who’d somehow befriended a human with no obstacle. He hesitated, debating his heroic side and his curiosity, but the conversation had already left him behind.
“Is-Is that...is that true? Did you really…?”
If Kou were a denser man, he wouldn’t have seen the droop in Amane’s shoulders, or the way he glanced up to the sky with some aura of longing.
For something better, for something easier, for something more violent, Kou had no idea. But this ghost wanted something, that was for sure.
There was a tense silence between the two humans and the supernatural, the tension growing thicker and thicker until even scissors were too dull to cut through it.
“Mm.”
Amane made a noncommittal noise, barely an answer, but he did nod his head twice. A solid response, it had to be enough proof for Yashiro to get out of his way so he could finish him off.
He released Yashiro and stepped back, head lowered and face shadowed over by his old school cap, covering those dark eyes and the chilling, sad smile he wore. His hand reached toward the sky, and in an instant, two floating eyeballs fizzled into existence, circling him in response to their owner's mental commands. A black cape apparated around his shoulder, billowing in the harsh wind like a superhero in a comic book. He lowered his arm, finished with his simple yet dramatic transformation, and chuckled.
He giggled like a little, creepy kid, and let it fade into a relaxed sigh.
Yashiro rushed to Kou’s side, one foot behind the other, ready to run if need be.
“Why? Why would you ever do that to someone?”
Amane tossed the knife in the air, catching it by the handle with ease, twirled it around his finger. He brought his other hand up to tap his chin in overdramatized thought, cocking his head to the side, ‘debating’ his answer.
As if it weren’t already obvious that he didn’t have an excuse.
Amane pointed the knife to his own chest, and then motioned toward Kou.
The two humans waited for something more.
They...did not get something more.
“Ah...Knife...you...me? Sorry, what the hell does that mean? I can’t understand your little charades, just tell Senpai why! Answer her!”
Yashiro huffed.
“He hasn’t said a word since we met. I don’t think he can talk.”
“Eh? For real? How’s he supposed to form wishes if he can’t talk?”
“He kind of just nodded and pointed at things, or I had to guess and play charades with him. Just like now.”
Kou whistled low.
“That’s gotta be rough...Man, I can’t imagine having to figure all that out. I can only understand his little ‘mhm’s and ‘nuhmm’s . Agh, supernaturals are so annoying!”
“I know right? Ugh, Hanako’s the worst. He doesn’t say anything, but oh, his actions speak louder than anything.”
She leaned in close and whispered into his ear.
“He’s actually just a pervy, slimy ghostie.”
Amane cleared his throat loudly, expression deadpan.
It seemed he didn’t like being gossiped about, which...yeah, that was fair.
He pointed the knife at his chest and then towards Kou, every movement accentuated by a loud ‘Mn! ’
“....You..me...kill? Are you saying you want to kill me? I think there are easier ways to say that, like, you already almost cut my throat open. You don’t need to spell it out for me.”
Amane wailed in frustration and flung his arms out, playing his exasperation up tenfold like a theater kid on too much coffee backstage with their friends. He hunkered down to the floor and brought his knife down, carving lines into the stone with loud scrapes, like nails on a chalkboard or meal against a porcelain plate. Kou cringed, but he didn't make Amane stop, and even approached once he stood back up and pointed indignantly toward the white lines.
It was two short, messy sentences, one above the other.
“Me or him.
Will b forgiven 1 day”
Yashiro read out, scrunching up her eyebrows in confusion.
“‘Me or him’? Does that mean… It was either you or him that would die? And you’ll be forgiven for it in the future? That...doesn’t really make sense.”
“No, I think it means he did it to save himself, like a, ‘only one of us will survive’ kind of thing. I don’t know about the second sentence, though. He’s so confusing…”
As Kou and Yashiro inspected the crude message, Amane snuck around to stand behind them, silent as ever, and slowly, carefully, pressed a seal to raiteijou, the weapons natural glow dimming some.
Before Kou could react to the sudden lack of energy in the air, the hilt of Amane’s knife hit into the back of his head, sending him toppling over and into unconsciousness.
Yashiro stood up fast.
“What did you do that for?”
Amane frantically held his hands up and waved them around as a signal for peace, before pointed to Kou.
“Uh-huh, I know! You knocked him out!”
Amane shook his head, pointing again, and then to himself.
And then he slowly dragged his pointer finger across the middle of his neck and made a gross, creepy ‘blegh’ sound that had to be an imitation of dying, or something along those lines. It was hard to tell with Amane.
“Okay, I guess he was going to exorcise you...but still! That’s so rude!”
Amane sheepishly smiled, rubbing the back of his neck. And then he wilted, frowning, and gestured half-heartedly to his knife. He wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Your knife…?...Oh. I guess you mean the killing thing, what Kou said…”
She bit her bottom lip, pouting.
“I don’t actually know if it’s true. If you did kill someone, then-then I bet you had a good reason! I think, even if you’re annoying sometimes, and gross, you wouldn’t kill for no reason. You had a lot of chances to kill me, and Kou, and Kou even tried to exorcise you! But you didn’t fight back, so...so I think you’re not the type to kill randomly. Whoever it was, I bet they did something awful to you, or someone else. I think you’re a good person, Hanako-Kun, so-so even if you did, even if Kou is telling the truth and you’re not just playing along, I still like hanging out with you!”
Amane took a sharp breath, eyes widening in surprise. He almost looked like he was going to say something, but before he could go through the motions and get his voicebox to work, he closed his mouth. Another aborted train of thought, it seemed. He lifted his hands, about to start another string of finger symbols, but he couldn’t figure out what to say. How to say it.
So Amane just smiled, and that was it.
Yashiro smiled back.
And also pointed to Kou.
“Ah...What do we do with him? You didn’t plan on just leaving him there, did you?”
Amane looked off to the side, shrugging. Yashiro gasped.
“You did plan on leaving him! Hanako-Kun, you brute!”
Amane laughed, and in Kou’s not-completely-unconscious mind, it was the cutest thing he’d ever heard before.