New Oddity of an Odd School

Ishikawa Yuuto

Ishikawa took a step into the sunlight, thoughts fluttering at the back of his mind. He was supposed to be the brave one, damn it. Meek had never been a part of his nature. In the darkness of the forbidden forest, it had been so easy to pretend everything was normal. Like he had not gotten himself so foolishly and senselessly killed there. Once out in the sunlight, however, he felt like the entire illusion would be stripped away. Still failing to feel properly deceased beyond a strange sense of emptiness, he really wondered if maybe he were simply going insane.

Then he remembered that it had been hours since his last breath. The habit kept slipping his mind.

He was putting off going to the administrative building for the time. Cowardly, yes, and it filled him with the deepest shame. But he preferred to think that he was being wise instead. What was he supposed to say? Good day, I seem to have caught an unexpected case of death. Is there anything I can do for you?

The man wandered agitatedly, lost in his thoughts. Another thing about dying, he found, was that it suddenly set him up in this fantastic cycle of constantly blanking out at random times. The next thing he knew, he was stumbling over a random passerby.

Ishikawa Yuuto

The moment he hit the ground, Ishikawa snapped back to attention. Hurriedly, he picked himself off the ground, feelings of genuine self disgust starting to well up. In public of all places. In the school of all places. It would have been humorous, maybe, to say that there was nothing more that he would have liked to do except die and then remember that, wait. He already had.

But that would be a cliche and the truth was, what Ishikawa really wanted to do was go and hunt something down. Preferably whatever it was that had killed him. He have might settled for a demon or so if he found one, however.

"Excuse me," he said to the person he had passed through. It was, true to his expectations, a student. Seemed like one, in any case. Ishikawa frowned a little at him in consideration.

Just what had he been doing, now?

Ishikawa Yuuto

He started just a little at the boy's question, as if he really had not been expecting him to say anything at all. "Yes, of course," Ishikawa said after a pause. "Yes, of course. My apologies." Though his tone was terse, his expression stayed tinged with confusion.

Just how had he managed to do that, anyways? He looked down at his hands worriedly. The phasing was something new to him. To the best of Ishikawa's memory, this was the first time for it. With how reliable that was nowadays, however-

He shuddered a bit. Right, time to go back to whatever he had been doing. Scouting out the campus? Or was it supposed to be heading to the offices?

"I do not suppose that you would be very familiar with the staff here, would you?" Ishikawa asked slowly. Better this than wasting his time.

Ishikawa Yuuto

"Ah." If the boy was a new student, then he really was no help, was he? On the other hand, Ishikawa had never had a reputation for being lucky. Neither him nor his family. "Ishikawa Yuuto. It is nice to meet you." The words, accompanied with a bow, were mechanical.

He looked in the direction of what he knew to be the admissions building. "Have you been there yet, at least?" If he was going to start losing his mind, he did suppose he would rather not be exorcised without first having the chance to explain what had happened.

Ishikawa Yuuto

Maybe, Ishikawa pondered idly, it was its own sort of luck that he blanked out somewhere relatively safe rather than back in the forest. A beggar could hardly chose the fortune that he received.

"Very well, then." He started off in direction of the offices, walking along the path a little before turning back. "Administration is where both of us ought to be heading," the man said. "If you think you have better things to be doing, well. I think you should reconsider."