This choice: Flip to another part of the book • Go Back...Chapter #25School for Demons, Chapter 1 by: Seuzz   You almost flip past the next page, for it's in a non-Roman script that marches down its length in narrow columns. But you pause long enough to study the lettering. It consists of thin, elegant line strokes—Chinese or Japanese.
You're about to continue when a word catches your eye: girlfriend.
But wait: How do you know it says "girlfriend"? The script isn't Roman, and the language isn't English.
A chill runs through you as your eye drifts up and down the columns, picking out words you shouldn't be able to read: locker, voice, door, shrank. Names, too: Taniguchi Hayato, Ota Gorou, Sugawara Momoka.
Then they start coming together to make sentences.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sano Sota was changing books in his school locker when he was very rudely punched in the back of the head by another student.
Please do not let it be Ota Gorou, he prayed as he flinched under the blow. If it is Taniguchi Hayato, maybe he will content himself with one blow. If it is Hayato's girlfriend Yuuna, she will certainly be gone before I turn around. Even if it is Akiko—
"Didn't you hear what I said, you little bitch?" a hoarse voice shouted, and Sota shrank up just as another blow smashed his face into his locker door. "How many times must I say it?"
"He's so rude," a girl snickered. "Come on, Sota. Hayato's waiting for you."
A sinewy arm grasped Sota about the neck and hauled him away from his locker. Sota slumped compliantly as he was forced to march along in front of his tormentors.
None of the other students met his eye, but they parted silently to let him pass.
At the school's central stairwell, Sota started to turn into the main corridor, but a rough hand yanked him back. "Not that way, asshole," Ota Gorou rasped. "Downstairs, to your fucking filthy hidey-hole." Sota sagged, and pulled open a door that led to the school basement.
Yellow lights flickered and buzzed inside metal brackets as the three students plunged down stairs made of flaking concrete. A stench of grease and dirt rose to meet them. Gorou grasped Sota by the shoulder and steered him between tottering towers of old desks and chairs. The girl—Ueno Akiko—clucked her tongue. "What a pig sty."
"Fits a filthy little pig like Sota," Gorou snickered. "Isn't that right, bitch?" He shoved Sota.
Finally they came to the furthest corner of the basement, where a dirty window let some natural light fall onto the stained concrete floor. It was a corner that Sota knew well, for it was a spot he sneaked off to every chance he got. To escape his teachers, to escape his classes, and most of all to escape his fellow students.
But today there were three of them waiting in his sanctuary. The two girls— Sugawara Momoka and Ishida Yuuna—stood in the middle of the floor, with their feet together and their arms folded, so as not to accidentally brush against any grime. Momoka peered up timidly at Sota from behind her glasses; Yuuna scowled down at him from her great height. But the boy, Taniguchi Hayato, slouched against a wall, unmindful of the dirt rubbing onto his school blazer. He was leafing through a manga.
Sota's eyes darted over to the box where he kept his books. The lid was up.
He was met with silence, and in the silence he began to tremble. He was alone, in a place no one could hear him if he yelled, surrounded by the five officers of the Elite Funtime Club—the most feared students at his school!
"You're a degenerate," Hayato said at last without looking up from the book. He was the tallest of the club members, and at fourteen he was the oldest. He was also the star of the soccer field as well as being the most academically excellent student, so when he called himself the president of the club, no one argued with him. He frosted his hair a platinum blonde but didn't care when the dark roots began to show.
"You're a fucking degenerate," Hayato repeated, and he flung the manga in Sota's face. The sharp corner hit the unfortunate boy just under the eye, and he cried out softly. "You jack off while looking at pictures of little boys," Hayato continued. "Cartoon boys, too." It was only a One Piece manga, but Sota knew better than to contradict Hayato.
"We always knew you were disgusting," Yuuna sneered. Like the others members of the Elite Funtime Club she got away with all manner of cruelty. In her case it was because she was rich and beautiful. Most of her hair was done up in a single long ponytail, but some trailed down the side of her face past her shoulders to rest on her large bosom. Her blazer was specially made for her—not like the school-issued uniforms that Sota and the other students made due with—and there was real gold thread running through braiding. She was almost as tall as Hayato, and she peered down her nose—which was wrinkled with disgust—at Sota.
"So we finally decided to do something about it," put in Akiko, who was still standing next to Gorou.
"I decided to do something about it," Hayato corrected her. She scowled but didn't contradict him. She was a tomboy, the star of the track team, and she bullied every girl (except Yuuna) at school, but even she wouldn't stand up to Hayato.
"So you're into magic and fantasy and shit like that," Gorou rasped out. He wasn't any taller than Sota, but his scowl made other students shy away from him. Those who didn't back off got acquainted with his knuckles, which could crack a cheek open when he threw a fist. Though he was only thirteen, he drove himself to school—the only student who did—and he smoked openly in front of the teachers between classes. "Momoka," he said, and snapped his fingers at the fifth member of the club.
She was the only one who didn't seem to fit with the others. She was small, and her large, dark eyes were magnified by her large, round glasses. Those and her overbite made her look like a scholarly woodchuck. She was pudgy all over, with dimpled knees that showed between her stockings and the hem of her heavy woolen skirt. She tied her hair up in pink ribbons. But even if her prim and mousy appearance didn't mark her off from the other Elite Funtime students, her attitude would have. She hardly ever smiled, and she usually looked out at the world with an expression of wet worry. She spoke in a small voice, and while the others sneered and jeered at their victims, she actually looked ashamed.
But still she helped them. From her book bag she now drew out a dumpy book with floppy covers, like a Bible, and handed it to Gorou.
But Hayato jerked it out of his hand and passed it to Yuuna. "Here, you do it," he said. Yuuna gave him a dirty look, but opened the book.
"We need to draw a circle," she declared in a loud voice. "Who brought the chalk?"
"Yeah, okay, I've got some," Hayato grumbled. He dug about inside a pocket.
"Fuck this magic shit," Gorou said. "Let's just shove it up this cocksucker's ass like a suppository." Hayato slapped him on the back of the head, and he cried out. "Fucker!"
Sota finally found his voice, though his mouth was parched with fear. "What are you going to do?"
"You're into magic," Yuuna sneered. "We're going to summon a demon, let him have some fun with you."
Sota bolted for the door. "Catch him!" Hayato yelled.
Gorou was too slow, but Akiko grabbed Sota by the hair as he ran past. He squealed and stumbled. She kicked his feet out from under him, and he flopped onto the hard, cold floor.
"Someone sit on him," Hayato said. "You, Gorou." He snapped his fingers. Gorou cursed, but sat on Sota's chest. He leered down at him and slapped his cheeks.
Sota shut his eyes and tried to ignore what was going on around him, as Hayato and Yuuna were arguing about how to pronounce some of the words, and Akiko cursed at them for rubbing out part of the chalk circle she was trying to draw.
Gorou suddenly barked, "Pay attention, asshole!" and he smacked Sota hard across the face. Tears stung his eyes as he opened them, but through the bleary streaks he saw that candles had been arranged around the circle.
"Get out of there, man," Hayato said, "unless you want to be cursed too," and Gorou jumped up. But he jabbed a finger at Sota. "Stay there if you don't want to die."
Sota kept very still and did not dare shut his eyes again as Yuuna went into a droning chant. It seemed to drag on forever, but when she stopped Akiko said, "Is that it? What happens now?"
"Nothing," Hayato said, and he kicked Sota in the side of the head. "It's all bullshit. But now this creep knows he's cursed. Come on." He sauntered off, and after a moment the others followed. Out of the corner of his eye, Sota saw Momoka turn and give him what looked like a pitying glance.
When the basement door clanged shut, Sota sat up and hugged his knees to his chest. His chest ached with unshed tears. Truly he was the unluckiest of boys! He only wished to be left alone with his books and his daydreams. Why did they hate him for it? He didn't trouble anyone. He knew he wasn't popular, and he didn't try to be.
A hot gust of air made him shiver, and he wiped his eye to clear his vision.
But when he looked again, he found his vision still blurred. A gray, misty figure was bowing over him.
* * * * *
To continue investigating the room: "Disposing of Lucy"    indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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