Work Text:
The room was almost painfully dim, lit only by the flickering flames of burning candles.
“Ugh… do you really need it to be this dark in here?” Aoi Asahina crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow to Yasuhiro Hagakure, who sat across from her at the kotatsu he kept in his room.
“Well you see, in Native American culture, candles represent the connection between the spiritual world, and our physical world. I wanna be sure me and any nearby spirits are pals, so they don’t feel like messing with me!” He turned to give a thumbs up to the air, as if to a person who wasn’t there. But Aoi shrugged off the notion, not wanting to question his odd thought process further.
“So, you came to see me about something? Need a palm reading? I can give you a little discount!” He leaned forward with vigor, gently picking up one of her hands in his before she broke it from his light grip.
“No, thanks. I just wanted to ask you some questions about spirits, and I figured you would probably know best.”
He looked at her with slight surprise, and then that dumb smile returned to his face. “Well then! Why didn’t you say so as soon as you walked in? What kind of questions do ya have in mind? Just… try not to offend any spirits here with dumb questions.”
She again raised a brow at him, he of all people shouldn’t suggest not to say anything dumb. She shook off the feeling and continued. “Yeah well, with all of this… stuff we’re being put through by that dumb bear, I just wanted to know if there was any chance the spirits here could lend us a hand and help us get out of here?”
Hiro grit his teeth at the question, but brought his thumb to his chin to ponder it. His eyes looked around the room, occasionally closing as he drank in the idea. “Hm, well… they rarely interfere with what life delivers us. But, that’s not to say they aren't watching us, and it’s not completely out of the question for them to do something in a situation.”
Hina let out a sigh hinted with sorrow, crossing her arms and leaning down on the table. “I didn’t think an idea like that would realistically rescue us, but it doesn’t really help with the feeling of hopelessness…”
Hiro clapped his hands together, snapping her attention back to him. “Hey Hinakins! Don’t slip down that emotional hole! Cheer up! Do you want to at least check to see if anyone’s watching over us?”
Aoi perked up at the idea, and clapped her hands together in return. “We can do that? Okay! I’d like to at least try!” She smiled back at him, a bit of hope returning to her eyes.
“That’s the spirit! Now c’mon, let me see your hands so we can try to communicate.”
She put her hands out to him, and he carefully took one in each of his. He nodded to her and closed his eyes, Hina following suit, her heart beating in newfound anticipation.
"Now, try to clear your mind of any thoughts floating around. They prefer an empty space for them to say hi.” She nodded at him, but quickly realized he probably couldn’t see that, but regardless he continued on.
“Greetings to any spirits who are joining us tonight, I am Yasuhiro Hagakure, joined by my friend Aoi Asahina. We would love to see any signs that you are in fact watching over us during this scary time!”
His statement was met with silence, nothing so much as stirred in the room around them. The anticipation within Hina faltered a bit, but that feeling was quickly replaced with a sudden tightening pain that struck her within her abdomen. A feeling that she would’ve considered as a sign on its own if it weren’t for the fact that she had started her period the day before.
“If you could show us any sign at all, we would be so grateful to be under your protective watch.” As soon as he said that aloud, the previously panging feeling that had just plagued her suddenly vanished as quickly as it came.
“Huh…” Aoi opened her eyes and looked around, as if trying to see if something physically removed the pain. Seeing nothing, she looked over at Hiro, who also opened his eyes when he heard her say something. But before either of them could express their confusion, a loud scream was heard from outside the room.
“Oh my god, I think another murder is happening!” Hina quickly scrambled to her feet, racing out the door.
“Gah! Spirits, I’m sorry, we’ll have to call you back later!” Hiro stammered as he got to his feet and ran after her.
As they exited the room, they saw Makoto run into the dining hall with the same amount of urgency, so Hina grabbed Hiro by the wrist and ran in after him. When they entered the dining hall, the picture of Byakuya Togami on the floor curled up in a fetal position flooded their brains. His body was shaking as it tried to curl tighter than it possibly could. His eyes were clamped tightly shut, and his teeth were almost cracking under the pressure of his grimace. It was unsightly seeing him like this, and it was practically guaranteed that scream from earlier had come from him.
By the time Hina and Hiro ran in, the group had already assembled to see the commotion. Sakura and Makoto were knelt down to his level, Kyoko was observing from a standing position, and Toko was freaking out behind her.
“Byakuya?!” Makoto called out to him, reaching his hand out to him only for Byakuya to swat it away. “What’s going on with you??”
Byakuya opened his eyes to a squint, sweat beading on his forehead. “I was just coming in for some coffee, and- Gh-! Suddenly my abdomen feels like it's tying itself in a knot!” His eyes slammed back shut as another wave of shaking took over him.
“That’s…” Hina looked over at Hiro, who was still ogling at the odd scene.
“Perhaps maybe something such as your appendix has burst?” Sakura suggested, being met with Kyoko calmly shaking her head. “No. Appendicitis has some gradual pain before a burst, and besides…” She rolled back her sleeve a bit, and touched her exposed wrist to Byakuya’s forehead. “He’s not running hot. A fever would be present if the appendix were the case.”
“M-Maybe someone here tried to p-poison his food!” Toko chimed in, in a rather accusatory way. “Don’t be a fool…” Byakuya managed a reply. “I have not eaten anything recent enough to have this kind of effect.”
As the rest of the group pondered the odd circumstances, Hina took a step back and leaned over to whisper to Hiro.
“This is something I would never share with you usually, but I was experiencing… menstrual cramps while we were trying to communicate to the spirits. Then all of the sudden after you asked for a sign, the pain disappeared. Do you honestly think that maybe…” She paused and motioned her head towards Byakuya, who was still trembling on the ground. Once the information settled on Hiro’s mind, his eyes shot up to finally meet Hina’s, and his jaw dropped.
He cried out, directing everyone’s attention towards the two. “You’re telling me the spirits gave him a period?!? If they can do that then… then there’s no telling what kinds of things they can do to me!” He dropped to his knees in a desperate prayer, mumbling into his clasped hands.
“What did he just say…?” Sakura looked to Aoi for any sort of clarity she could provide, but she was met with Hina looking down at the floor, processing her own statement.
“…Me and Yasuhiro were seeing if any spirits were here in the school with us…” She started off, avoiding eye contact with any of the group who were now staring at her. “We didn't even say anything to them! But suddenly, the cramping I was feeling from my period, disappeared… and I think-“
She was suddenly cut off by Byakuya himself. “Menstruation?! What the hell?! That’s utterly ridiculous!” He exclaimed while still laying on the floor, barely able to uncurl himself to look directly at her now.
“Although now that you mention it… I too was experiencing discomfort from my time of the month, but that feeling went away just a few minutes ago…” Sakura added on, her eyes filling with a new kind of shock, one filled with more disbelief rather than confusion. “I as well. This is most interesting…” Kyoko chimed in, a small smirk appearing on her face.
“So… Byakuya’s been hit with phantom pains, transferred to him from the girls by some spirits in the school?” Makoto got up on his feet as the words settled on everyone’s ears, and slowly, a few giggles sprinkled into the room from Hina, Sakura, Kyoko, and Makoto. Yasuhiro still knelt on the ground reciting some odd prayer while Byakuya seethed on the floor, unable to rescue himself from this ridicule.
“Well if you’re going to laugh, at least have the decency to tell me how I can subdue this pain.” With that, what once was giggles erupted into laughter. Even Toko couldn’t keep herself from giggling along now.
Makoto tried to calm himself down before speaking up. “Well, if having a sister has taught me anything, it’s that there’s nothing you can really do.”
Kyoko cleared her throat before adding on. “You just deal with it.” Her smirk never left her face, and now it was fighting to grow even more.
Byakuya cursed under his breath before laying his head back down on the floor in defeat, his abdomen cramping evermore.
“Well, now that our cramps are gone, anyone wanna go swimming?” Hina piped up, winking in the other girls’ direction. And with a few words of confirmation, all the girls made their way out of the dining hall. Leaving Hiro still mid-prayer, and Makoto to fetch the still trembling Byakuya some tea.