They had assumed the Paranormal Research Club would enjoy yet another uneventful day—until a frantic phone call shattered the calm. Tatsuki answered.
"Tatsuki-kun!"
Yui Yuigahama's voice burst out, equal parts delight and panic.
"What's wrong?"
He could clearly hear her trembling.
"The school building… something ghostly… I'm at—ah!"
Zzzzz!
Her words disintegrated into static, and after one sharp scream only a harsh electric hiss remained.
"Yui?"
Yukino looked up; she, too, had caught that scream. Tatsuki rose from his seat. "She said 'ghostly.' Sounds like Yui's stumbled into the other side—our club's very first commission," he muttered, realizing that the inaugural request came from one of their own members.
…
"Yui, what do we do? This has to be some kind of paranormal incident, right?" The speaker was a stunning blonde with long hair—Miura Yumiko—who was squeezing Yui's hand so hard her knuckles were white.
Moments ago the two girls had been walking toward the classroom building together; then the structure shattered like glass, and the next blink dumped them into a dusk-colored wasteland of broken ruins. Dim light, desolation, rubble stretching to the horizon—nothing remained of their familiar campus.
Yui held her now-useless phone in a death grip. She was terrified herself, yet still tried to comfort her companion. "Yumiko, don't worry. I already called Tatsuki-kun. He'll come save us."
"Tatsuki?" Yumiko frowned in confusion. She knew Yui and Tatsuki were close, but what could even he accomplish here? True, within their class—no, within the whole school—no student surpassed Tatsuki. Yumiko had once thought of getting friendly with him, yet the obvious affection between Yui and Tatsuki, and her suspicion that Yui liked him, had made her keep her distance for fear of misunderstanding. Excellence, however, meant little in a paranormal crisis.
"Yui, is Tatsuki your boyfriend?" she asked bluntly. Love makes all things beautiful; perhaps that explained the blind faith Yui placed in him.
"Uh… no." Yui scratched her cheek in embarrassment. Strictly speaking, she and Tatsuki had never made anything official. They liked each other, sure, but all the girls orbiting Tatsuki left her heart in turmoil.
"If he isn't, why trust him so completely?"
Yui hesitated. There was no way she could reveal that Tatsuki possessed psychic powers.
"Gagaga-ROAR!"
An eerie screech split the air. Both girls jumped. Then their fear spiked: a grotesquely swollen, many-meters-tall creature, its flesh twisted into nauseating lumps, crawled out of the ruins. An enormous maw crowded with black-and-yellow teeth gaped at them, and eyes capable of spinning a full three-hundred-sixty degrees locked onto their forms.
"Gagaga-ROAR!"
It howled again, ropes of saliva splattering the ground as it lurched forward.
"Monster! Run!"
Yumiko's legs trembled violently, yet she forced herself to yank Yui's hand and sprint. Terror, however, made their bodies limp; after only a few steps Yumiko's knees buckled. She fell, yanking Yui with her. Both crashed hard onto the rubble, and Yui's knee split open, blood welling immediately.
"Hiss—so painful!" she gasped, teeth clenched. In those precious seconds the creature closed in, one gigantic hand clamping around Yumiko and hoisting her toward its foul, reeking maw. It wanted to devour her!
"Don't—help me!" Yumiko shrieked.
"Let Yumiko go!" Yui sobbed, scrambling to her feet. She tried to leap and grab her friend's ankle, but her wounded knee refused; pain slammed her back down.
Yumiko was inches from being swallowed—when the monster abruptly froze.
"!"
To Yumiko it seemed the beast had simply reconsidered, but from Yui's vantage everything looked unnaturally still, as if time itself had halted. The creature's massive fingers then spread apart.
"W-wah—!" Yumiko plummeted; a scream caught in her throat as strong arms caught her mid-fall.
"Tatsuki-kun!" Yui cried, elation flooding her voice.
"Tatsuki-san!" Yumiko echoed, stunned. After landing lightly, Tatsuki set her down.
Yui had been right—he really had come.
"Why is this place so strange?" Yukino scanned the wasteland, brows knitted.
Yui called out in relief. "Yukinon, Marin, Megumi, Miko—you're all here too!"
Eriri was busy in the art club, so they'd left her behind.
"Heh-heh, who'd have guessed our Paranormal Research Club's very first field assignment would come from one of our own members?" Marin Kitagawa waved cheerfully at Yui.
Miko Yotsuya hurried over to support Yui.
Yumiko, still shaken, blurted, "A-aren't any of you shocked? That was a real monster!" Fear colored her voice; she couldn't fathom why none of them seemed scared.
Megumi Kato delivered the cover story Tatsuki had prepared: "We're the Paranormal Research Club. Dealing with supernatural events is literally our job."
"Eh? So Yukinon—you all have powers?" Yui asked, wide-eyed. The group merely nodded, offering no details.
"So I'm the only ordinary one?" Only now did Yui feel how out of place she was.
"Um… actually, I'm just a regular person who can see evil spirits," Miko admitted shyly.
"…" That confession gave Yui the tiniest bit of comfort.
"By the way… are you all right…?" Tatsuki had stayed silent for quite a while, debating whether to speak—his arms were damp.
"…"
At last Yumiko realized the scene that made her want to die of shame: she had been so frightened she wet herself—right in Tatsuki's arms—and soaked his sleeves!
I'm dead, I'm dead… If Yukino and the others looked over now, she would really go jump off a cliff.
Head hanging, Yumiko clutched the front of Tatsuki's jacket, desperate not to suffer social death.
Tatsuki sighed. "Well—might as well finish the good deed."
A moment later the skin where she had been wet turned pleasantly warm; in seconds, every trace of dampness vanished.
"Yumiko, are you okay?"
Yui, supported by Miko, hurried over, her face full of worry.
Yumiko shot Tatsuki a complicated look before shaking her head. "I'm fine—just scared half to death."
"Are your legs still jelly?" Tatsuki asked.
"N-no… not anymore…" She sounded a little stiff in front of him.
Seeing she could stand, Tatsuki set her down. Yumiko checked herself—bone-dry, light as a feather. How did he do that? she wondered.
"Tatsuki, what is that thing?" Yukino spared Yumiko only a glance before pointing at the frozen monster.
"No idea. First time I've ever seen one." This wasteland and the creature were both new to him.
Yumiko stared at the motionless beast. "Tatsuki-san, why did it suddenly stop moving?"
"My ability is holding it."
It was doing more than that—Tatsuki had tried probing its memories, only to find it had none, just a nauseating swirl of chaos in place of a brain. "Looks like a useless lump," he muttered and prepared to finish it off.
"Get down—now!" A sharp feminine voice rang out.
Everyone turned just as a girl in a white fox mask streaked toward them, dual blades flashing. Kak-kak-kak! In mere seconds she diced the monster into dozens of pieces; the chunks crumbled into ash and vanished. Dead beyond dead.
"Uh… did Tatsuki-kun just have his kill stolen?" Marin asked, dumbfounded.
"Kill stolen?" The masked girl echoed the phrase, puzzled. Then she said, "That was a Kegare. You've been dragged into this place. Please come with me so we can leave." She produced a paper talisman—
Hiss!
The charm burst into spontaneous flame.
"What's going on?" she blurted, completely lost.
"Ah-hahaha, looks like I've stumbled onto a feast!"
The speaker's cackle was downright deranged, unsettling everyone.
Up in the sky hovered a black-skinned figure—white hair in twin tails framing a face that was only mostly human. The right eye looked normal; the left was pure black with a single red point, nothing a person should possess.
"A humanoid Kegare? You're a Basara! " The masked girl clearly recognized the newcomer.
"Call me Hijirimaru," the Basara replied, licking her lips. "Onmyouji and humans alike—what a banquet." Her gaze swept the group; excitement twisted her smile. She plainly thought they were already in her belly.
The masked girl shouted back, "Run! If you stay you'll die!"
A Basara was the highest-class Kegare—far beyond her current strength—and an Onmyouji's duty was to protect civilians, even at the cost of her life.
"So this place is Magano." Tatsuki's quiet comment snagged the tense atmosphere. Listening to the girl's words, he had pieced things together: Onmyouji, Kegare, Basara… Yes—this ruin was Magano from Twin Star Exorcists.
"You—!" Hijirimaru had just opened her mouth to question him when Tatsuki's voice turned frosty.
"I hate having someone over my head. Get down here—yourself."
"Hah?" The syllable barely left her lips before her pupils dilated. Her body moved on its own—flipping, tumbling—then dropped like a stone, slammed the ground, and rolled to a kneel at Tatsuki's feet.
"M-my body! Why can't I control my body?" Hijirimaru screamed in panic, staring up into Tatsuki's star-bright, disdainful eyes.
"What in the world—?" the masked girl whispered, half in awe, half in fear.
Ignoring her, Tatsuki looked down at Hijirimaru. "Hijirimaru, a Basara, correct?"
"Yes," her mouth answered without permission.
"I pronounce you guilty." Black wings unfurled behind him; a haze of darkness engulfed the Basara.
"AAAAAAAH—!"
Her agonized shriek was the perfect opposite of the gleeful laugh from moments earlier. In a blink, the towering Basara disintegrated to grey dust.
"What?!" The masked girl gasped.
Yui, Yumiko, and Miko weren't frightened by Tatsuki's transformation or the instant cremation of a humanoid monster—they were startled instead by the masked girl's shriek.
Tatsuki folded his wings. "You all should head back. I need to tidy up Magano."
With a single beat of chaotic wings he shot away—no air disturbed, yet he moved at dozens of times the speed of sound. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, leaving the group staring at one another.
"Um… is Tatsuki-san a god?" Yumiko stared blankly into the distance; her worldview lay in ruins.
"I'm not sure either. Tatsuki-kun only told me he's an esper," Yui replied, then looked at Miko, who was still holding her arm.
"I-I didn't know Senpai was that powerful!" Miko shook her head rapidly. She had assumed Tatsuki specialized only in dealing with evil spirits.
Yumiko noticed that Yukino, Megumi Kato, and Marin Kitagawa all seemed remarkably calm. What she did not notice was that Megumi's presence had already been adjusted by Tatsuki—he had installed a remote in her thoughts that could modulate how noticeable she was. Now she could make people perceive her whenever she wished—precisely why Yumiko and the others could see her at all.
...
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