Chapter 2: Shouldn't I Be Happier About This?

In this chapter Minoru becomes more acquainted with the mysterious girl than he'd like.

Chapter 2

                Beep! Beep! Beep!

                Minoru groaned as he felt through the darkness to turn off his alarm clock. Noisy piece of crap. It was 7: 20 a.m. Almost time for school. He groaned again, realizing he had to go through another day of school before the weekend. He didn’t want to remove the comfortable blue blanket that caressed his body. Didn’t want to leave the soft pillows. His bed never asked anything of him. In his bed, all he had to do was sleep, and forget about all his troubles, all the annoyances in his life. At least it was Friday.

                Wait a minute? How am I in my room? Minoru thought as he sat up in bed. He yawned, thinking that he had probably dreamt the previous day’s strange events. Too many late nights most likely. Besides, he thought, there’s no way I could have survived all that.

                “Good morning!” Before Minoru could react, a girl popped out from underneath the bed covers between his legs. She was wearing Minoru’s black school blazer. It was the girl from yesterday.

Minoru was more than startled. “What are you doing in my bed!?” he screamed, his heart pounding from the shock.

“I brought you back to your apartment last night,” she said, her red eyes staring deeply into his.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Minoru said, then sighed. “Look, I don’t have time for this, girl. Just give me my jacket so I can get to school on time.”

“I am not ‘girl’, I am Momo,” she said with a straight face.

 Minoru couldn’t tell if she was being serious or if she was trying to be funny. He wasn’t even sure what she was doing there. Either way, he wasn’t going to do anything until he got his blazer from her. He stared her down.

Not losing eye contact, Momo said, “I can take this off if you’d like, but I’m not wearing anything underneath.”

“Why not?” Minoru asked calmly despite the thoughts that were suddenly racing around in his head.

“My clothes are in your laundry machine.”

“Really made yourself at home, huh? Oh well, just take it off, I’ll look away.” Minoru sat on the edge of the bed, his back facing Momo so she could change in private.

“Don’t peek,” she jokingly called.

“My name’s Minoru Kusari, by the way,” Minoru said without looking back.

“Here you go!” Momo said as she threw the blazer onto Minoru.

“Uh, thanks, well, I’m leaving now. Make sure you get out of my house too, o--“ Minoru stopped mid-sentence because when he turned to look at the girl he realized she hadn’t been joking about not wearing anything underneath his blazer.

Momo stood stretching, completely naked. “Ah, that feels much better,” she said with a satisfied look on her face.

Minoru face turned red as he averted his eyes. “Uh, make sure you put on some clothes before you leave…”

*             *             *             *             *             *             *             *             *             *

“Whew, I made it here on time somehow,” Minoru said with a sigh of relief. He had made it to school. He was about to start walking to his first class when a voice called…

“Hey Minoru!”

Minoru sighed again, this time not from relief. He turned to see Konata Higyou standing there, with her hands on her hips. She was an attractive and smart girl, with long dark hair and blue eyes. Like most people, she was of mixed racial descent. Konata was wearing the typical girl’s winter uniform of their school: a sort of modified black sailor suit with a blue skirt. She was slightly taller than Minoru, standing at about five-foot eight. She looked angry. When she was angry, she was a bit of a pain to deal with.

“What happened to you yesterday? We were supposed to meet at my house so we could study, but you never showed up. You didn’t answer my calls either,” she said.

“Sorry, Konata, something urgent came up. Anyway, let’s get to class!” he said as he rushed off towards the classroom. Best to avoid her questions for now until I can think up a good cover story.

Konata watched Minoru walk off in a hurry. He’s hiding something, she thought.

Minoru made it through most of the day without a problem. Then came last period. Mr. Onsoku was giving a riveting lecture on calculus to the class, but Minoru wasn’t paying attention. What an annoying way to start the day! First Momo, then Konata. And how did that Momo girl know where I live anyway? Due to his irritated state of mind, Minoru was making fists and clenching his teeth while sitting at his desk two seats away from the window.

Tomaro Onsoku, who was sitting next to him as usual, had wanted to ask Minoru why he hadn’t been on Xbox Live the night before like he promised, but something about Minoru’s body language warned him not to bother. He decided to just pay attention and take good notes like he always did. At least in this class anyway, since the teacher, Mr. Onsoku, was his father.

 “…and I almost forgot, we have a new student joining us today,” Mr. Onsoku said.

Minoru didn’t care. He was falling asleep, so he put his head down on his desk and shut his eyes. He felt like he still hadn’t slept enough. Why would someone transfer in during the last class of the day? It’s probably just some guy anyway, Minoru thought.

He wasn’t interested in the new student. Every time he met someone new, he hoped they’d be interesting or different in some way, but unfortunately Minoru found that most people around him thought the same thoughts, felt the same two dimensional feelings. He couldn’t have a deep conversation with 99% of the closed-minded idiots out there, he thought. Minoru was tired of the mentally encumbered fools he had to spend five days of the week with. He just wanted to go home and enjoy his weekend.  

“Hey Minoru! Don’t fall asleep in class! You know what happens when Mr. Onsoku catches someone sleeping in class. Besides, I think you wanna see this!” a student’s voice called from behind him.

Minoru heard the classroom door open and a person walked in. All the students, despite usually being noisy, went silent. Minoru opened his eyes to see what was going on. Then they went wide with shock.

“My name’s Momo! Nice to meet you all,” the new student said. A series of cheers and marriage proposals erupted from the excited boys in the class room. Except for Minoru. Konata rolled her eyes at the boys’ behavior. The other girls all commented how cute the new student was.

“Well, now that you’ve introduced yourself, why don’t you pick a seat?” Mr. Onsoku asked politely.

“Sure!” was Momo’s enthusiastic reply.

I’m not sure what she’s doing here, Minoru thought immediately alert in Pensive Mode, but if this were a manga, she’d choose to sit next to me. However! On my left is Tomaro who sits next to the window, and on my right is Konata . Both seats are taken, and Mr. Onsoku wouldn’t move his son and he wouldn’t dare move Konata. Therefore, I deduce that I am safe! Minoru smirked.

“I choose this seat!” Momo said, pointing to the seat on the left of Minoru.

Minoru chuckled. “So sorry, Momo, but as you can see, that seat is ta"WHERE THE HELL DID TOMARO GO?!” he screamed, leaping from his chair.

The seat on his left was empty. It didn’t make sense. Tomaro always sat there, in fact, Minoru had seen him sitting there a minute ago. He couldn’t have gotten up and left without Minoru noticing. Yet there his desk was, empty. Minoru turned to look at Konata, hoping for answers. She would know, Minoru thought, nothing gets by her.

“Minoru, what are you talking about? That seat has always been empty,” Konata said, a hint of worry in her eyes. She was surprised to see Minoru, who was usually so calm, yelling at the top of his lungs.

“Don’t you look at me with eyes full of pity! You know damn well Tomaro has been in the same class as us since last year and he’s been sitting right there for two months!” Minoru was hysterical, throwing his hands in the air for emphasis.

Mr. Onsoku adjusted his glasses and said, “Kusari that is no way to behave in class, please calm down.”

But Minoru wasn’t listening. “Mr. Onsoku, surely you’ve noticed your son is missing,” he said with hopeful eyes, “You know, Tomaro?”

“ Oh, Tomaro, hmm…” Mr. Onsoku was in deep thought.

“You’ve remembered?” Minoru asked.

“Tomaro? Who the hell’s that?”

Minoru could have sworn he heard his jaw hit the floor. This can’t be happening! Did this Momo person just erase someone from existence!? Minoru, full of rage, turned towards Momo and yelled, “It’s YOU! I’ll get you for this!” he took an aggressive step towards her.

Momo put a hand on his shoulder and smiled wryly. Don’t worry, your friend’s not dead. I just “relocated” him to another dimension.

                “What?” Minoru said aloud awkwardly. He had heard her voice, but her lips weren’t moving! Was she talking in his head?  

                Minoru decided not to continue making a scene in class, so he sat back  down. Momo sat in her"in Tomaro’s seat and class resumed. After listening to Mr. Onsoku drone on for a while, Minoru decided to get some answers. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. He was just going to play it cool. He’d been letting her get under his skin, get him riled up. That wasn’t like him, he was usually in control. So with a sideways glance to Momo, while being careful not to let Konata or the other students overhear, he asked, “How and why did you transfer into my class at this school? For some reason I doubt you were going to come to school here until after we met last night.”

“My, my, aren’t we conceited?” she asked with a playful smile, also looking at him without turning her face.

“Answer my question.” Minoru was not amused.

“Well then the truth is,” she stopped and thought for a moment, “that I just want to be with you!” She finished with a big smile.

                Minoru responded with a horrified expression.

“What’s with that face? Actually, we need to talk ab"“

“Class dismissed! You may all go home now,” Mr. Onsoku said.

Minoru didn’t waste any time. He was out of his seat and out the door before Momo could finish her sentence. He really didn’t want to deal with her. She was just causing unnecessary stress in his life. As if he didn’t get enough of that already.

 He ran through the familiar city streets, passing all the familiar shops and buildings. A lot of grey in this city, he thought. Minoru didn’t hate his city, but he wished there was more nature around. The only nearby area with a decent amount of trees was the park. Normally, he’d like to go lay down in the grass and watch the clouds go by on a Friday afternoon, but today, he was in a hurry. He felt like something was compelling him to run all the way home. After what Minoru had seen so far, he wasn’t sure what that girl was capable of, so he took alternate routes and purposely round-about methods to reach his apartment.

When he arrived at his apartment on the fourth floor, he inserted his key, turned the knob and"

“Geez, you people are so slow. I even had time to change clothes,” Momo said with a bored expression on her face. She was standing near Minoru’s bed, wearing a free flowing white dress that left her shoulders bare and was tied around the waist with some weird blue cloth wrap. The dress stopped at skirt length, with the sleeves hanging past her hands, and she also had on long black socks that came up to her thighs. Seeing her stand there in front of him, Minoru realized how petite Momo was. She can’t be taller than 5’3 or 5’4.  

“Damn it! How the hell did you get here before me, and get inside?!”

“Don’t worry about little details…”

“I’m VERY worried! Now get out!”

“But you said I could live here.”

That stopped Minoru in his tracks. “I never said that.”

Momo sighed. “Just as I thought, you don’t remember what happened after I healed you and I bound you.”

“You bound me? Whoa, definitely think I’d remember something freaky like that.”

“Stupid, I’m referring to the kiss!” Momo said with a smile.

Minoru blushed at the memory. Her body pressed against his. Her lips had felt good. “O-oh yeah, something like that did happen. So you were healing me?”

“Yep. And in exchange for saving your life, you said you’d agree to any conditions I had. Remember? Living here is one of them.”

“…So there’s more?” Minoru didn’t like where this was going.

                Momo smiled again, something dark hidden behind those deep red eyes. “Do you remember what happened after you were stabbed yesterday?”

                Minoru hadn’t really thought about it until now. “Yeah, I felt a burning sensation throughout my body as I lay dying. But I got up and was stronger and faster than ever. After a short time, however, I was overcome with pain again, and I collapsed, completely paralyzed.”

                “It’s good you remember. Saves me part of the explanation. After you got stabbed, you changed"a sort of transformation, but not really"let’s say you awakened as an Akuma-jin.”

                “Akuma? As in a demon or devil?”

“ Yes, that’s what the power, or should I say curse, is called. A person with those powers is called an Akuma-jin.”

Minoru’s head was spinning, but he didn’t let it show. “So why do I have this curse thingy and what does it do? What does all of this mean for me?”

 “People who are unfortunate enough to be in your position are just victims of circumstance for the most part. As for what it does…It kills you,” Momo whispered, a devilish smile creeping across her face.

Minoru panicked. This time, he couldn’t hide his reaction. “Wait, I’m going to die?! When?”

Momo didn’t share his concern. “Relax, in addition to healing you also bound you. Among other things, it slows down the progress and growth of the Akuma parasite.”

“Wait, it’s a parasite?” Minoru was totally confused. It all sounded like some fantasy novel.

“Yes. I’ve been trying to explain this in steps so you could understand. Imagine an intangible spiritual parasite slowly eating away at your soul. That’s what the Akuma parasite is. My binding will buy you more time to live, but there is no cure known to man. You’ll still be killed eventually.”

“Great. So how long do I have?”

“There’s no way to know. It’s different with each case. It seems the parasite gives its host access to demonic energy in order for the host to keep itself alive long enough for the parasite to finish eating the soul.”

Minoru felt sick. “I’m not so sure I can believe all this…and how do you know so much about this stuff anyway?”

“Oh, don’t worry about little things like that!” Momo said with a smile.

“There’s still one thing I don’t get. Why are you following me around? You even transferred to my school and are now trying to move in with me,” Minoru said with a serious look.

“Because I’d like to learn more about people infected with the Akuma parasite,” Momo answered matter-of-factly.

“Then why not choose someone else?”

Momo put a finger to her lips to show she was thinking, then said, “Let’s just say I have a special feeling about you. Besides, it’s too much fun messing with you!” She laughed an airy, light laugh.

“Aw, well ain’t that cute? Look, it’s gotten late, and there’s been a heck of a lot of dialogue in this scene for my tastes, so I’m going to bed. Could you leave now?” Minoru was tired, in more ways than one. It was time for a rendezvous with his bed.

“What?”

“Get out,” he repeated adamantly.

Momo looked as if she were about to cry. “But, I have nowhere else to go…”she sobbed.

“Fine, whatever. You can stay, just don’t be a bother. I’m going to bed so good ni"“

“Let’s go to bed Min-chan!” Momo was already in bed, wearing a black tank top and light blue shorts.

“Don’t call me that! And do you plan on sleeping in the bed together!?” And when the hell did she change clothes again?!

“Of course!” Momo said with a wide grin.

Ten minutes later, Minoru lay in his bed, now occupied by an extra person, with the lights off. He wasn’t used to having someone share the bed with him. He wasn’t so sure he liked it. Minoru was, after all, a guy who likes his personal space. Don’t get me wrong, he thought, it’s not like I totally dislike this situation, it’s just that…He looked over at Momo’s sleeping face, her medium length peach colored hair falling over her face. Her lips slightly parted. It’s just that I might not be able to hold myself back and keep acting like the gentleman I am. Besides, I don’t trust this Momo person; she just isn’t normal. She somehow transferred into my school, she can use telepathy, she erased Tomaro from existence"erm, “relocated” as she put it, and last night she brought me home without me ever telling her where I live. Momo turned in her sleep to face him. Minoru tried his best to avoid looking at her breasts.

Oh well. Better sleep while I can. Minoru closed his eyes and allowed his exhausted mind to drift off into a dream world.

 

Author's Note

I felt this chapter had too much dialogue when I was writing it, as evidenced by Minoru's comment. But when I read it, it didn't seem like too much. Anyway, please read and enjoy. Again, comments, advice, or anything is welcome and appreciated.

Reviews

[Minoru Kusari]

Thank you very much, I'm glad to hear it!

[jazmin]

You did a good job. I can't wait to read more!

[Escape My Fate]

I likes it ;D Good job :) Can't wait for more