Daisuke here. Last time we met I joined a secret organization of exorcists who hunt down evil monsters which are disguised as regular animals. My training was going great until a super powerful fox monster attacked and my teacher tried to kill me. Now my friends and the organization are accusing me of being a monster in human form, but that can’t be possible, can it?
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Chapter 4
The exorcists agreed to let me temporarily stay with Sis on the condition that I didn't go to school. I also had to go to headquarters every day in case someone from the organization showed up. Sis was dead against it and threatened to tell the organization about the time Nina's brother did the other that, which completely freaked him out, but Akito convinced her to let me go in for observation just in case my super awesome exorcist powers decided to surface without warning. Shinta had important exorcist business that he had to attend to, so he assigned Hugo and Nina's brother to watch me. They made me sit in a cage and took photos of me pretending to be in agony to prove they were conducting proper experiments. Apparently they were a great hit back at the main branch. Shinta kept calling to congratulate them and I had to scream in the background. On nights when I wasn't there, they made Kiyori or Souta substitute. They were also supposed to constantly observe me and write about my progress, but Nina's brother spent most of the time trying to convince me to turn on my sister, while Hugo wouldn't stop telling me about his ex-girlfriend.
"One moment she was talking about living together, and then the next month she was packing her bags for Russia," said Hugo. "I just don't understand how anyone can be so cold."
"When did you guys break-up?" I asked.
"About three years ago," he said.
I asked if they could teach me any cool moves (I would need a bunch of them as a super exorcist) but they just stared at me blankly and mumbled that they weren't allowed to teach new recruits. But then an hour later I caught them teaching Taisei and Souta fire charms in the garden.
Both of them continued to believe that I was some sort of monster, so I hit the books in the library along with my friends to prove them wrong. Our friend Kurumi wasn't seriously injured, so they let her out of the hospital the next day, but I was told that Mana needed more time. I hadn't seen her since the night the fox monster attacked her.
"No, no, not this one either," said Souta as he flipped through the encyclopedia of 100 Cute But Deadly Obake. He turned to a page with a picture of a rhinoceros monster and held the picture up to my face like he was comparing us. "No," he said before sighing and putting the book down.
"Hey, check this out Dai-chan," said Kiyori as he held up a picture of a puffer fish monster for me to see. "I think I found a picture of you!"
"Kiyori," hissed Nina. "You shouldn't say that."
Kiyori ignored her and instead held up a picture of a two-headed beetle monster. "And look, I found your mother."
I wanted to say a smart comeback, but I was too busy trying to prove that I was human. I furrowed my brow and looked back to my book on exorcist abnormalities with a passion. There were cases of abnormal spiritual power amongst young exorcists, but so far nothing about exorcists undergoing amazing transformations that could be mistaken as turning into an Obake. Maybe I was the first case. Maybe they would even write a book about me.
"No, no, no, not here either," muttered Souta as he turned the pages of his giant textbook.
Kurumi was also helping out, but she and Nina were sitting on either side of the room like they were trying to stay as far away from each other as possible. Apparently the table wasn't far enough for Nina, so she was sitting on the floor with her back leaning up against a bookshelf. Nina and Kurumi were cousins, but all they did was fight. I'd never seen them get along well, but it felt like the atmosphere between them had become worse recently.
Taisei was also called in to help, but he complained that he had an assignment to finish. Although when I walked past his room he was just playing games on his computer.
"Ha!" Laughed Kiyori as he held up a picture of a toad. "Just imagine if you really looked like this?"
"I don't think it would suit Daisuke at all," said Kurumi. I thought she was going to say something nice before she added "I think it looks more like Nina."
Nina immediately slammed her book shut. She frowned and I was certain that she was about to unleash a tidal wave of insults towards Kurumi, but she just sat there silently fuming. I shuddered and turned back to my research. I closed my book and stood up to get another one, when a textbook suddenly went sailing over my head and hit the bookshelf behind Kurumi.
What followed was a violent book war between Nina and Kurumi with us in the middle. It went on for about ten minutes and Souta and I had to hide under the table. Kiyori on the other hand just took it as an excuse to throw books around, and he occasionally threw a book or two at both girls when he thought they wouldn't notice.
"You're such a shit exorcist that can't do anything!" Cried Kurumi as she pelted a book at Nina's head. "You're a waste of space that wouldn't be able to find anything in these books, even if your life depended on it!"
"What do you know!" Yelled Nina. "At least I actually study instead of wasting my time on stupid hairstyles."
"You wouldn't be able to kill an Obake even if it begged you!" Cried Kurumi.
"All your clothes look cheap!" Screamed Nina.
"Your little sister has more spiritual power than you!"
"I hope the bleach makes your hair fall out!"
"Fat!"
"Ugly!"
"If I'm ugly, but I can still get a boyfriend, then what are you?" Said Kurumi, and it made Nina the angriest that I'd ever seen her.
The battle only came to a close when Nina's brother (thinking that I had turned into a monster and begun devouring the library) ran into check. By then Nina had whipped out a fire charm and he had to pry it out of her hand to stop her from setting the library on fire.
"What the hell are you doing!" Yelled Nina's brother. "Are you trying to kill us all? What would the organization say if they saw my sister acting like this?"
"You're supposed to be my brother!" Shrieked Nina. "Why do you always take her side? She's vain, cruel, and obviously trying to make my life miserable!"
"Vain or not she's still your," he paused for a moment as though searching for words. "Special cousin, and things haven't always been easy for Kurumi, so I expect you of all people to show a little more compassion!"
"That still doesn't give her the right to be a complete and utter bitch towards me!"
"Enough! What would father say if he saw you acting like this?"
"It's not fair!" Yelled Nina. She screwed up her fists, kicked the table, and then stormed out of the library.
Her brother exhaled and turned to Kurumi. "Kurumi-" he said before she cut him off.
"Don't you dare lecture me," she said. "What gives you the right to tell me what to do!" She threw the book she was holding on the floor, and then stormed out of the room.
"Kurumi! Kurumi wait!" He yelled and ran after her. "You three clean this up!" He yelled at us from over his shoulder as he dashed out the door.
"Ow," said Souta as he buried his head in his hands. "How come whenever Kurumi and Nina get into a fight, we're always left to clean up the pieces?"
"Story of my life!" Yelled Taisei from his room down the hall.
I later found Nina sitting on the stairs to the back veranda. She was furiously skimming through a textbook with enough force to rip out the pages. Being the kind guy I am, I sat there and patted her on the back. Everyone was trying to stay out of Nina and Kurumi's feud, but I was attempting to get on the good side of someone since the organization turned against me. Kurumi was kind of scary, so I decided to take Nina's side.
"I don't get it," she muttered. "Why does everyone always defend her? It's been like this since we were children. Everyone in the family feels sorry for her because her family is poor and her father died a few years ago, but that's no excuse for her to treat me like crap."
"It's okay, just let it all out," I said.
"When we were in middle school she couldn't afford textbooks, so she used to borrow mine and graffiti all the pages. The teachers didn't believe me and accused me of lying."
"I know," I said. "Life can be so hard."
I could sympathize with how Nina felt because Itsuki was also trying to turn everyone against me.
Luckily for me Itsuki's lack of social skills finally paid off in my favor when everyone refused to take his side. He tried holding a secret meeting with the others in the attic that evening, but whoever installed the sound proofing at headquarters must have done a terrible job because I could hear everything from the library.
"Hey, do you think he can hear us?" Said the muffled voice of Souta from above me.
"No way," said Taisei. "Itsuki asked for the most secret part of our secret headquarters, and there ain't no place more secret than here, right Kurumi?"
I felt like banging on the ceiling with a broom, but part of me wanted to know what Itsuki was thinking, so I remained silent and listened.
"Akito's too optimistic," said Itsuki. "Some of you might not have seen it, but I was there. That thing wasn't Daisuke. It wasn't even human. I could fe- I knew deep down that it was an uncontrollable monster that would destroy anything and everything in its path. It's only a matter of time before that thing destroys us as well. We have to act now before it's too late."
"But Aki-" said Souta before Itsuki cut him off.
"Forget Akito and the organization, we can convince them later," said Itsuki. "It's better to go against Akito now and get into trouble, then to let that thing go unchecked."
"I don't know Itsuki," said Taisei. "I mean the guy spent the last few months living and training with us, we can't just exorcise him like he's some raccoon monster or something."
"Yeah!" Said Souta. "What if he really is a super exorcist?"
"There's no such thing as a super exorcist!" Snapped Itsuki.
"I agree with Taisei. Daisuke knows plenty of charms, so can't he just exorcise himself?" Asked Kiyori. Taisei must have shot him a stern look because Kiyori quickly said, "or whatever Taisei wants to do."
"Okay, let's have a vote," said Taisei. "All in favour of going against Akito and doing what Itsuki says raise your hand."
There was a moment of silence and I anxiously waited below them to see if my friends would turn on me, but the silence was interrupted by Itsuki shouting "You're all a bunch of idiots!"
Akito and the organization may have thought that I was some sort of monster, but most of my friends seemed to be on my side. Kurumi and Kiyori didn't look convinced that I was a super exorcist, but both of them were close to Taisei so they followed his lead.
After the meeting Itsuki spent most of his time at school and didn't come home until dark. Eventually Akito became frustrated and forced him to remain at headquarters to help with the repairs, but our relationship didn't improve.
Every time Itsuki and I made eye contact he would either ignore me or duck into a nearby room. I eventually mustered up enough courage to peek through his bedroom door, only to find Itsuki furiously writing out lightning charms like there was no tomorrow. I thought his behaviour was a little excessive, but I told myself to be patient and wait for the whole thing to blow over. I was sure that once Akito and my sister discovered Grampa's super exorcist stash, Itsuki would definitely come back begging to be my friend again.
As much as I hated to acknowledge it, I had considered the possibility that I could be an Obake.
For half a minute.
Itsuki had some supernatural exorcist ability to detect Obake, but my super exorcist powers were probably just sending his sensors off. There was no way that I could possibly be an Obake. Shinta and his minions were just jealous that I was obviously way more awesome than them. They just didn't want to admit that my grandfather was a genius, and they were trying to dispose of me by faking that I was a monster.
But I wasn't going to take it.
I was going to fight back!
I was going to let my sister handle everything while I shouted words of encouragement from behind her!
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