Chapter 14: Possession over Possession

"Why did this Aki boy drag me to the rooftop? What does he want from me? Plus, we should wait for the others in the club room, or they might think I go back home!" - Mori, purely scared.

“What? Who?”

They have not given a sufficient answer when Mori has already absconded, running down the stairs and going further from the spot. They exchanged glances among them, inquiring each other by eye signs and face mimics. Tori and Kishi were the ones closer to the door, therefore each of them grabbed the door holder first. At the same time with Hiro and Ito waiting from behind, they simultaneously swung the door open.

Nothing much could be seen there. It was normal to not see any student up there, even during events. Izumi Junior High School was quite tall, and there was a rumor about a girl once killed herself by jumping off the roof fence, resulted in her unsettled soul prowling aimlessly there. The best part of the rooftop was that people could indulge themselves in the breeze and sky viewing, without rumpus.

Nevertheless, it was disparate on that day. Tori and Hiro could not discover why Mori was up there in the first place in that he has never set his foot there all these while, and the presence of another entity riveted them more. Kishi and Ito turned out to observe the same spectacle, stealthily smirking to themselves as they could comprehend what has actually taken place.

“Aki? What are you doing here?” Tori skeptically asked, out of pure novelty and deliverance. “So you’re in the school for the whole day, yet you played truant? Why, Aki?”

The entity was standing in the middle of the spacious floor, flailing his arms in uncontrollable guffaws and limply braced his body mass with his two slender legs. The school uniform was disarrayed, plus the mislaid neck tie and name tag. He did not wear indoor shoes which sparked escalated curiosity in Tori and Hiro.

“I just brought a senior here,” Aki hung his head, depicting them that he was acting scandalously odd at the moment. “I want to show him something he never sees in his life. Something he will regret for his whole life if he didn’t. Something special for him. Hee hee heeeeeee.”

Aki bent rearward, arching his back to the point that Tori and Hiro flinched in fidgety. He could snap his spine if he bent more, yet it was what he did with Tori, Hiro, Kishi and Ito as the witnesses. They heard cracking sound produced from somewhere on Aki’s bones, yet Aki did not seem to get affected that terribly. Instead, he stretched out his hand, pointing sternly to Tori’s pallid complexion. Tori’s twitching eyes displayed his dread yet he could do nothing but to watch vehemently.

“Aki, what has gotten into you?” Tori questioned, this time in much softer but shaky voice. He was purely terrified of the weirdness Aki acted out of nowhere. “Why didn’t you attend the class? Miss Maeko asked about you.”

“Don’t mention other people’s name when you were the one wondering, young boy,” Aki giggly stated. His hand was fixated towards Tori, stiffened.

Hiro came forward and shielded Tori from being taunted by Aki. The situation was utterly unpredictable – Aki’s behavior was beyond manageable. Kishi and Ito froze as they watched Aki showing off his white teeth and pinkish gum in his wide wicked grin. His entangled brows yet enlarged pupil validated one thing – Aki was possessed by a spirit!

“Who are you?” Tori impotently queried from behind Hiro. Hiro positioned his fighting stance on Aki. “How can you get into him?”

This is not Aki! Hiro gulped in massive contemplation. Evaluating from how unnerved Tori was, he could not bear seeing Tori all crumbled and surrendered because of the crushing lost soul in Aki’s body. The current Aki they were confronting was not Aki, especially when Aki swaggered undeniably like a sexy lady prone to attack in no time.

“Are you… the girl who was said to commit suicide here once upon a time?” In between stammers, Kishi mustered up his courage to ask. Both his hand clutched on Ito’s sleeve. Ito has already fallen into silence.

Upon Kishi’s inquisitiveness, Aki shifted from Tori and Hiro, to Kishi and Ito several meters behind the younger. His fiendish grin emitted ominous creepiness, displacing the fact that it was still noon when the scorching sun shone the brightest. “Eh, what made you think so, handsome boy?”

Tori and Hiro rolled their eyes in annoyance. Was this Kishi too gorgeous that even a spirit could praise him? As for the receiver, he stiffened with big eyes, probably stunned by the spirit’s appraisal.

“We’ve heard about a girl who killed herself up here,” Kishi’s shaking voice depicted his fright. He even tightened his grip on Ito’s sleeve, borrowing some strength from the silenced Ito. “What do you want from him?”

“Oh, this boy?” Aki thumped his palm onto his chest, hardly, that those four could hear the inner reverberation. Nevertheless, he did not recoil on the impact, which establishing the possession. “Nothing. I just want to borrow his body. He seems like a nice boy,” he said, then chortled till his mirth resounded across the atmosphere.

“Let him go, spirit!” Tori frantically screeched, nearly ruthlessly promptly at Hiro’s ear. It deafened the latter, judging from how Hiro pushed him aside after the shout. “Don’t you dare to harm him! Or-“

“Or what, young boy?”

In split seconds, Aki emanated in front of Tori, with only a few inches gap, and cupped his cheeks with one hand. Despite the grapple, Tori could not release himself from Aki’s grasp, causing Hiro to jump into action. He charged in an attack by jostling Aki on the abdomen, thus both of them rolled on the floor, indirectly letting Tori go. They broke the fight, and Aki was just about to sit upright when Hiro has already risen and pinned him down.

“If you’re not Aki right now, don’t you dare to touch Tori!” Hiro threatened Aki with gritted teeth. He showed Aki a fist, venous and bony, too close to be a peril. It was more to an untouched punch, which kids used to see it as ‘an invisibly powerful attack even without contact’.

As how the situation worsened at times, the spectators could do nothing but to be alarmed of what Aki might do, by wild prediction. It was their first time to view Aki as a problem creator, though there was an existence of another unperceivable entity who they had no idea how she actually looked alike.

Their mind rotated over diversity of possibilities. The overwhelming curiosity grew wilder as they witnessed how the pinned down Aki used only one hand to push Hiro aside. Hiro fell on his forearm, hissing in pain and wanted to get up when Aki hoisted his leg exactly above Hiro’s head.

“Aki!!”

Someone else has come to the scene. Rescue team? Tori doubted that. They turned around to see Mori has shown up with another two members of the media club, a concern Tani and a ‘why am I being here in the first place’ Ono.

“Please. Don’t hurt Hiro! He’s my brother!” Tani shouted, basically imploring Aki to spare Hiro. “What has made you become like this? How can you hit your friends?”

“Ah, another viewer on demand!” While landing his feet properly on the floor in replacement to Hiro’s face, Aki scornfully laughed at Tani’s simple-mindedness. “Why should I listen to you, young boy?”

“There’s no ample reason. You just have to be honest to everyone. What do you want, Aki?”

“Hee hee heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

A lunch break was supposed to be heart calming and mind soothing. They should be eating their respective food deliciously, and chatting gleefully while resting themselves from the lessons. A lunch break was obliged to be the period when students were consented to do almost everything but leaving the school. The rooftop should be a place where Aki, Tori and Hiro could run away from unnecessary problem, and also a spot that allowed either of them confessed their heart out. Regarding variety of issue which they could not utter it out to other people but themselves, it was almost what they needed for.

Somehow, they lost it today. Aki too. 

“Aki.”

The Aki before them was possessed by an evil spirit, a she. She must have been seeing them hanging out during recess for the whole month, which intrigued her who those three students were (Tori assumed). Tori has ensured himself a safe distance from Aki, as he did not plan to pounce on him.

Yet not to the others. They prepared their stance so that they were able to catch Aki while he was engrossed in Tori’s range.

“Just tell us. What do you want, frankly?”

Once Tori stepped forward, the others would tried to hinder him. As the closest friend to Aki, Tori had the thought to take this as his responsibility. Step by step, Tori enclosed the gap between him and Aki, which undoubtedly troubled them. Tori gave out his hand, a sign of opening up, so that Aki would not have to suffer all alone.

Till their gap was only five steps away, Tori drew himself nearer to four steps, three steps, two steps, one step…

“Mori.”

“Huh?”

For those who misheard him, the frown formed displayed their bewilderment. However, it was different in Tori and Hiro’s prospect. The widening eyes of Tori proved his astonishment, thus Hiro as the calmer one grabbed Tori on the shoulder to sedate him.

The marked prey cowered in panic. “What’s with me? I don’t know you! Even since my first year here! Who’re you, for heaven’s sake?!” The tone shivered, obviously, realizing that he has become an aim upon a vague reason.

“I want to show something to you!” Aki screeched to the highest pitch, defeating everyone’s. “Moriiiiiiii!!”

The floor beneath their feet quaked. The scream resonated with the particle of concreted blocks and steel frames, which vibrated together with Aki’s roar. Kishi and Ito squeaked in terror for that they have never instructed Aki to act that barbarous before this.

“I don’t know you! Don’t ask anything from me because we don’t even meet in person! I don’t even know what you are either!”

The tension peaked when Aki advanced tremulously angrily towards Mori in the guard of Tani and Ono. Stretching out his groping hands meant he wanted to strangle Mori, however he stopped in the middle way.

“Oh, no,” he whined in low volume.

Aki swiveled to Kishi and Ito, conjuring for answer. They stiffened themselves in awful awkwardness as they suddenly became the attention instead of Mori.

“Kishi-senpai, Ito-senpai, I’ve crossed the line. I think I’ve lost my voice. Should I proceed, or should I change our plan?”