Chapter 2: If Nobody at University Seems Weird to You, You Might Be the Problem

The morning sun cast a ray through the closed curtains right on his face, and Haruto had no choice but to accept that it was morning again.

With his high school days still weighing so heavy on his eyelids that he refused to open his eyes to his new life, the now freshman student was too tired to even think about waking up. He had spent the last night out with his new classmates, and even the thought of getting out of bed had now become a chore that could be postponed to tomorrow.

"Darling... Wake up. You can't start skipping school already."

Sweet words were whispered from the other side of his bed, and the boy suddenly felt an urge to turn around and cover the one who spoke with his arm.

Turning his heavy body from one side to the other, Haruto did his best to also make a sound himself.

"Shhh..." he whispered as he gently let his palm fall over the lips that were trying to make him start his day.

"It's exactly because these are the first days that I can be a bit late. I can say I had trouble finding the class and..."

Still, something felt weird to the boy. While the other voice had certainly gone silent, he didn't feel as if his palm had covered anything. Instead, all he felt was the soft cold pillow.

Haruto's curiosity started taking hold of his consciousness, and as the sleepiness he tried so hard to hold on to faded away, the boy slowly opened his eyes to see where his palm had landed.

There, right before his eyes, what he saw was not his hand, but the face of a beautiful lady. Her fine features—as if painted by an artist—were not unfamiliar to him, and her supple body that could fit in the small space between Haruto and the wall was one he had only ever seen donning school clothes.

Something else that was in line with his memories, were her bright pink cheeks. However, what was out of place was the long pink hair covering her small body. Together with her widened eyes of the same color, and her stiff movements, the girl looked as shocked as if she was the one to see a ghost.

"Haruto... I wasn't sure I still had a heart, but now it feels like it's about to burst..." the girl said, her gaze straying from the boy's in a bashful manner.

"KYAAAAAAAAA!!!"

Needless to say, at the sight of Yuurei's ghost, Haruto found new motivation to jump out of bed, letting out a screech he would later, as a young man, be ashamed of.

****

"Come on... it's been weeks! Shouldn't you have gotten used to it by now?"

"How is that something I'm supposed to get used to? One second I had a beauty next to me, whispering sweet words in my ear, and the next I opened my eyes to see my hand phasing through a damn pink-haired ghost! ... Wait ... what happened to the pink hair?"

On the way to college, Haruto walked down a quiet street abundant in sakura trees, and while his heart was still startled from the scare he had gone through in the morning, he couldn't help but notice that the falling petals of the trees around didn't match the color of the hair of the flying ghost at all anymore.

"Hm? This? It changes with the mood, I guess~" Yuurei answered the boy's sudden question with a wide smile.

"And what kind of mood would this bright red be then?"

"I don't know~ Maybe you should confirm with 'that,' or with the 'damned ghost'~" the girl continued, her smile having not faded but having certainly changed, turning its allure around in Haruto's eyes.

As for what happened next, maybe the scene would be funnier from the perspective of a bystander on his way to his meeting, but even that salaryman could explain to himself why a student was on his hands and knees begging for forgiveness from a tree.

*****

"If you truly want me to forgive you, I think you should say it back..."

"...It back?..."

Yuurei's hand phased through Haruto's stomach, prompting a girlish scream from the boy and a cheeky grin from the girl.

"Oh?... Could it be that you're actually too shy to admit your feelings? It's quiet all right, darling. We've been waking up in the same bed for the past few weeks. There's nothing to be ashamed of at this point~"

"I always go to sleep alone. Aren't you the one who jumps in my bed before I wake up? Wait, do you ever go to sleep?"

"I'll fly through you again~" Yuurei answered, strands of her hair turning from the pink she had regained for the past few minutes to red again, and making Haruto rethink his choice of words.

"Ahem... I mean... It's not... Look..."

Listening to the boy who was unable to find his words, Yuurei tilted her head to the side, teasing the boy by letting him take a peek at her bare neck. A bold strategy that would have many boys lose whatever petty excuse they had.

The way it was tilted looked just like...

"Hngh!"

When he saw Yuurei like that, Haruto felt his stomach turn, memories that he wanted to never again remember popping up in his mind. As he tried to hold his insides where they should be, the boy's leg went numb, and he fell on his knees.

"Haruto!"

No matter how agitated Yuurei was next to him, she could do nothing but ask him whether he was okay, her hands passing right through whenever she tried to help the young man up. Every time she tried and failed to touch him, the girl bit her lip frustrated.

"Haruto! Shouldn't you keep that for when you graduate? What point is there in kneeling before the campus with no exam in sight?"

Fortunately for the girl who was no longer among the living, someone who could still make use of his own body came out the gates of the university campus and, while making fun of the boy who couldn't hold himself straight, grabbed Haruto by his hand to help him up.

"Wait! For real... Is the guy aight?"

Another voice spoke from behind the gates. It was a feminine voice that spoke in a dialect exclusive to teenage girls and young women. The one from whom that voice came was a girl with hair dyed blonde, with a short skirt that wouldn't have been acceptable in almost any school, and with a shirt missing its top two buttons altogether, so that she may never make the mistake of buttoning up too much of it.

"Ah, he's fine. Don't worry about it. He does this when he gets emotional. He's probably seen how cute Airi-chan-senpai is and couldn't help but grovel before you. One more second and he might have proclaimed his love for you in front of everyone. You should thank me, really!"

"Eh~. Is that so~?" the blonde girl answered, a smug grin blooming on her face.

"Maybe I wasn't wrong picking the two of you to have fun with until I graduate."

Waking up from his dazed state, this time it was Haruto who spoke up.

"Please don't say things like that, Airi-senpai... I came here to get a degree, not be put on a leash."

"We'll see about that!~"