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"Speaking"

'Emphasis'

Sounds

Tsukune's Perspective

Today was the last day of my middle school. As I looked around the room I saw that many of classmates were staring at the clock instead of listening to the teacher talk. All of the eyes of my peers kept shifting back and forth, but I couldn't for the life of me understand as to why they even bothered to pretend to be paying attention to lecture when that was clearly not the case.

Tick

Because if they had been paying attention, they would have realized that the man giving out the lecture simply didn't give a damn over the fact that everyone was intently staring at the machine that hung above his head. If the others had been focused, they would have actually found that his 'lecture' wasn't a lecture, but a rather interesting tale about his youth that seemed fairly pertinent to the situation at hand. But alas, his tale won't ever be remembered by my fellow classmates given the fact that they only cared about the exact moment when they could clock out for the year.

Tock

Who could blame the students though? School was, quite frankly, boring. School was just a monotonous routine: sit through class, listen to lectures, wait for the underpaid adult to set us free, and go do homework. It was the same process every day. There were only three real exceptions to the routine. One was when there were exams, which everyone but the most studious loathed. The second was when the faculty decided to hold us hostage in auditoriums and drill messages into our minds. The last was when we had our yearly scheduled festivals, which should have been more fun than tedious so long as enough people put in the effort to help prepare for the event.

Tick

The funniest part of the whole thing was that today was the last day, and everyone was here. Not even the delinquents had decided to cut class. How or why such a miracle occurred was beyond me. Anyone from the graduating class could have easily decided to cut the last day of class given the fact that the school wouldn't be able to reprimand us for doing so. It wasn't as though they were all here just to attend the graduation ceremony either since we had it the day before. The 'lesson' didn't even matter since anyone going to high school had already taken the exams, and everyone knew which schools they had gotten accepted to.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggg

"Class is dismissed. Now if you will excuse me, I'll be off to celebrate," the man said while removing the tie that he had often compared to a leash.

The room was soon filled with exasperated gasps of relief as their last day of middle school was finally over. A few guys and girls sitting next to each other turned and started to chat about the future. But they weren't talking about the future in the long run. All they were talking about was what to do on the last day.

Were we all going to go a karaoke box? Were we all going to go bowling? Were we all going to celebrate the next stage of our lives?

"So Aono, what schools were able to get into? You haven't told us yet," a rather smug boy asked with an expression that reminded me as to why I didn't feel comfortable around my classmates.

But it wasn't only his posture, tone, and question that reminded me of where I was. I noticed that with one simple question many of the students around went silent. It was as though the festive mood had suddenly become one that would have been present in a trial. Was I being paranoid? Unfortunately for my situation, this was not the case.

Looking back up at the student who was hovering over my desk with a certain glint in his eye, I responded to him as I would have to anyone else in the room. I just stated the facts without acting proud or frustrated over whatever I had to say. I made sure to control my expression, tone and wording so as to avoid causing conflict.

Whether or not the information I had to deliver would offend him or anyone else in the room was an entirely different story.

"I got accepted to a few schools in Tokyo and the one private school around here that awarded scholarships based on interviews rather than grades. Unfortunately, I was unable to receive the scholarship."

Che

Though I couldn't tell who made that sound, I already knew that it was pointless to try to find out who did. These were just my classmates who I would probably never see too much of after today.

I started to get up and pack my things when I started to hear whispers.

"What a show off."

"How the hell did he get into those schools anyways, he is always reading those books about monsters and fairytales."

"Didn't you know? He usually places around the twentieth in this school when it comes to tests. But yeah, how the hell does he get those grades if all he thinks about is things that don't exist?"

"He probably cheated for them as well as the high school exams. Some of the people who scored higher than him couldn't even get admitted to that private school."

"I wouldn't doubt it. I mean he was involved in that incident a while back…"

The whispers continued as I got up to leave. There was no point in staying where I wasn't welcome anyway.

The last day of school was tiring in itself for simply being the last day. Wanting to go home I started to walk past the gate.

Shuffle

Mmph

Turning to my left I noticed that there was a man in priestly clothes lying with his back on the gate. All of the other students seemed to be extremely wary of him by standing back or giving him glares.

"Why is he here? He should just go find another place to disappear to."

While it seemed cruel, I couldn't help but see the reason as to why everyone was keeping their distance. A suspicious man sitting patiently at the doors of a school in an era when the current consensus of strangers being that they were too dangerous to trust. No matter how you looked at it, the students were simply obeying the common sense that had been instilled into them the moment they were able to go to school.

Despite knowing this, I couldn't help but wonder if anyone knew the word empathy.

Concerned that the priest would get into some trouble with the authorities if he didn't leave, I thought it was in everyone's best interest if I could at least get him to stand up and leave.

"Are you okay? Can you stand up?"

The priest shuffled slightly and looked up to my attempts to help him. I couldn't see his face clearly since it was covered by a hood, but I could sense that he seemed to be confused. I couldn't tell whether he was confused about where he was or why I would want to help him. Maybe it was both. Warily he grasped my hand and pulled himself up. I could hear the other students begin to mutter, probably about how they always knew that I was in some shady cult.

"Are you lost?" I asked ignoring the blatant stares and gossip of the other students.

The priest began looking around his surroundings and then shook his head. But he didn't state whether or not he meant to be here. For all I knew, he could have been waiting for someone or he could have found himself at the gates by accident.

Grrrrr.

The priest shuffled slightly as we both realized that the source of the sound emanated from his stomach. I guess he was really hungry.

Grrrrr.

I guess I was really hungry as well.

"Do you want to go get some food with me? I know a pretty good store near here."

The hooded man seemed to take my offer as a surprise. I couldn't blame him too much for his response. Here was a middle school student, a complete stranger, offering to eat with him while the student's peers were just giving some dark looks. The very nature of the situation defied the common sense that was ingrained into everyone's mind.

In a low, and almost whispering, voice he said, "I don't have any money though."

"I'll pay. It's not like there is anything else I could be spending it on," I said as I began to notice that the once small group of students was growing larger and larger by the second. "Besides if we don't leave here soon I'm pretty sure that someone is going to try to get rid of you."

"Why are you helping me young man?"

I started to turn towards the direction of the shop and just asked, "Why not?"

Aside from the store owner, the small shop was empty. I walked to my usual corner of the store and sat down. The priest had followed me and sat in front of me. I still couldn't see his face due to the hood, but I did see a yellow glint of light of what I assumed were his eyes. I didn't bother asking about it though since most people would take offense to others pointing out what might be considered distinctive 'flaws' or deviations from the norm.

"Hey, Tsukune congratulations on finishing middle school today! Ordering the usual for tonight's meal?"

"Hey Aiya-san, and I'll be ordering the usual. It's been awhile. How has your daughter been doing? Is she out doing deliveries?"

"Oh you know, still looking for a good boy to settle with and yeah she is delivering food right now. By the way your food is on the house today. As for your friend, still full price," the man said with a small chuckle over his little stingy insert. "Tell me when your guest is ready to order his food."

After Aiya-san walked away, the priest asked, "Do you normally bring in other people here to eat?"

"It's boring to eat alone isn't it?"

"Don't you have friends to eat with you…"

"Oh sorry, my name is Aono Tsukune, and to answer your question, not really. Most of the students around here caught whiff about something in the past, and over-exaggerated the rumors. Now everyone thinks I'm too weird to be around and won't give me the chance to smooth out the problem. What should I call you by?"

"Call me Mikogami. Why do they think your weird Aono-san? You seem like a nice boy."

"… That's a little bit too personal," I said with a dry chuckle.

I couldn't really respond immediately while I tried to collect my thoughts for a moment. Why didn't people like me? I could think of a number of reasons as to why. Some were jealous that I could do well academically. Others found the fact that I enjoyed fairytales and legends more than sports on TV to be a bit disconcerting. Most probably just decided to pin some other odd reason since everyone else was doing it.

All that I could really gather was that people just saw me as an aberration and mimicked the majority.

"I'm sorry if I brought up anything that I shouldn't have," the man said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it. Just about everyone who I invite here asks me the same question," I said quickly to get rid of any form of guilt that the priest could have gotten from making a small mistake.

"Can you tell me this though? Why did you decide to reach out towards me?"

"As I asked before: why not, Mikogami-san?"

The priest didn't respond but simply stared at me with his yellow luminescent eyes. He wasn't asking for a small blurb to quickly brush aside the question, but demanding a real answer.

"Tell me something. Why shouldn't I have helped you other than the obvious answer that you are complete stranger? Tell me the first thing that pops up in your head other than the fact that you are a stranger or that you might be some raving lunatic with some sort of undesirable need for young boys."

"But what if I really did crave young lads such as yourself?" the priest asked with a fairly disturbing tone.

"… Should I actually be concerned?"

"No, but you don't know whether or not I had such an interest prior to meeting me. What makes you so sure that I wouldn't have such a taste? Why take such a risk?" the priest commented with a rather wicked grin.

"Because I don't know who you are."

"Pardon, but I don't quite understand your answer. Are you actually saying that you would befriend someone simply because you don't know them?"

"That isn't quite right Mikogami-san. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I befriend those that I find more or less agreeable."

"But you still haven't answered the question that I'm getting at. Why would you take such a huge risk?"

"Is it really that much a risk?" I asked rhetorically before continuing, "Setting aside the age and background difference, is it any different from meeting new classmates when going to school? Is it any different than meeting new coworkers at a job?"

The priest only nodded as he listened to me start what must have sounded like a rant at this point.

"It really isn't. There are always going to be inherent risks when meeting new people. I will admit though, I may be a bit more… adventurous than others are when it comes to who I would be willing to extend my hand to," I said with a light chuckle.

"That's all fair and good, but riddle me this. Why don't you have any friends? Not to sound rude, but it is odd that one such as yourself would find himself alone. I mean, you are basically extending your hand out to everyone and doing so with such a noble ideal. It would only be natural that you should have made some friends in your school."

"Ouch… That kind of stings, but I do understand as to what you are saying. Though I may be willing to reach out to others, most of my peers do not hold the same values that I hold. As to why they won't connect with me, I would like to leave that topic alone for now. I don't feel too comfortable discussing about it as of the moment," I sighed out as the bad memories associated to the incident started to peek their ugly heads in my mind.

The priest only nods as a means to show that he would drop the issue for now or forever.

"Enough about me, what about you? Why were you sitting at the front gates?"

"For someone who doesn't want to be questioned, you sure like to do so," Mikogami-san said with a light chuckle.

"Karma, treat others how you want to be treated, equivalent exchange, etc. Take your pick, but I am rather curious as to hear your story."

I wasn't completely sure, but I could sense that the priest was smiling. Did he like my response or find it funny? As I was wondering this, he started to talk again.

"I had business to attend to. Care to take a guess as to what that maybe?"

"Indoctrinating the minds of the youth to join your cause?" I said sarcastically.

"Just one in particular. And I must say, things seem to be going swimmingly as of the moment," the priest said with a noticeable increase in his eyes' luminescence.

While I could have simply dismissed that statement as his means of just playing along, something inside of me froze at his comment. My common sense, which hadn't really rung in such situations before, came blaring through my mind. A part of me really wanted to take it as a joke, but the rest of me knew that Mikogami-san was completely serious.

"What is this about?" I asked cautiously as I realized that my habit of befriending strangers might have just come around to bite me in the ass.

"Through the education grapevines, I heard about a very admirable lad. You see, he was a very good student. Placed very well in terms of exams and was highly praised by teachers for being a model student, but had no friends. He seemed to have a problem making friends despite having such a reputation with the teachers. These facts didn't interest me though since education and personality do not necessarily share a linear relationship. What was really eye-catching was that this boy would often extend a hand to strangers who seemed down on their luck. And I must say, I am quite pleased with what I have seen."

"I'm sorry Mikogami-san, but if you are trying to recruit me to join your school, I must decline at this point. I have already been accepted to some very promising schools in Tokyo and a private school near home," I said formally and apologetically so as not to arouse the anger of this mysterious priest that had just admitted to have been more or less stalking me for whatever purpose.

"That's a shame really because there was another thing that I found most intriguing. In fact, I would even say it was the main reason as to why I'm scouting you. But if you really insist, I will remain quiet so as not to bother you too much," the devil in priest clothing said with a sly smile.

Oh the irony. Leave it to a priest to know how best to manipulate someone. Of course he would use the very same trick the snake used to seduce Eve into eating the fruit of knowledge.

"For a priest you are quite the snake. Please do tell," I said with a sigh.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha…"

The sudden laughter of the priest startled me because it was his first sudden reaction. And as he was laughing, I noticed that his chin and teeth became exposed. His teeth were quite sharp and his skin seemed to radiate a disturbing aura. After laughing out a bit he then looked me in the eyes.

"Do you believe in monsters?"

"Yes, Mikogami-san."

"Are you afraid of them?"

"No."

"And why not young man?"

"Haven't I explained already? Why should I be afraid of something that I have not met? Unless they are truly trying to tear me apart, should I be afraid of another person? In fact I think life would be very interesting if I could get along with monsters. Anyways, what does this have to do with our earlier conversation?" I stated with a smirk.

Fppp

There was now a vanilla folder in front of me. The folder was titled Yokai Academy Registration: Aono Tsukune. I could really see the man smiling under the hood as I looked between him and the folder.

"Let me guess Mikogami-san. You want me to join this Yokai Academy. A school probably designed for monsters based on the name alone. And you want me to be friends with the fellow students. As an aside, I will probably be executed by the student body should they realize that I am a human so as to maintain the secrecy of the existence of monsters."

"I'm glad I didn't pick a fool for this project. Yes, Aono-san. I want you to join our school for the next three years," said the smiling priest.

"Please stop making fun of me, Mikogami-san," I said firmly with an unamused look on my face.

"Pardon?"

"Even if I believe in monsters, how do I know that you aren't just messing with me because I believe in them? Several others have tried, and even some teachers have reprimanded me for having my head stuck in a fantasyland. For crying out loud, you're dressed as a priest and talking about having me join a school of monsters. Even for me, this is a bit much for me to take. And it does make me angry when someone pokes fun at me simply because I do enjoy reading about the stories or thinking how interesting the world would be if humans and monsters did live side by side."

The priest smiled as if he knew that I was going to question him. Just talking to him this long I could tell that he had planned this all out. I could tell that no matter the response he was prepared for it, but that was what pissed me off even more. How serious he was wasn't something I could gather since everything was clearly planned.

"I can assure you that I am not making fun of you. I can show it to you Aono-san. I can show you that interesting world. A world where monsters and myths are real! Where magic is real! A world where you can meet the very beings that you so wish to see! A future that you can mold to your liking using your hands! Doesn't that in itself sounds interesting Aono-san! I can even show you the school and some of the faculty members right now. Let me show you the hidden world and prove that I am not just spouting nonsense! I can even get you to the academy seconds from this very moment and be back in time so that your parents need not worry! But as you said, maybe I'm just messing with you. So understand if you decide to decline my offer yet again after hearing all of the details."

I couldn't help but stare at him. I was speechless. Here was a priest who I found lying on the ground. A priest everyone avoided and just waiting for the one person he was waiting for to actually to talk to him. A priest, who until today was a complete stranger, guiding my thoughts down what I could safely assume was his entire goal. The priest seemed to have no prospects, and yet he was offering me a new world to explore. This priest sought me alone as though to grant my one wish and his offer was no lie. He was far too convincing to have been lying. I was staring not at a priest with a silver tongue, but possibly the devil himself.

I could see him clearly, a white robed man with yellow glowing eyes and a large smile that seemed to reach the edges of the hood itself. He was possibly… No he was leading me down to a dark and dreadful path. Mikogami-san was dangerous and devious. He already knew my answer before I met him.

Gulp

"Show me."

"Very well, but I would like to have an order of the Buddha set."

Mikogami's Perspective

What an interesting boy. I can't wait to see what he will bring to the academy. I wonder if he will last longer than my last subject.

Author's Note(s)

#1: For the most part these notes will just be here to clarify some things that may not have been so obvious while reading. Please favorite and follow if you liked this story. Also send reviews of things you liked or disliked so that I can try to improve the work. Send questions and I will probably respond to some of them in the next chapter.

#2: If I have not posted a chapter as an update status, then here it is. I am currently rewriting the story to add content and hopefully improve the grammar. Most of the stuff will more or less be the same, but I may decide to change up a few of the story's aspect to hopefully improve the story's progression. Why am I doing this? I am doing this because I like the idea of tempering my work and ensuring that what my readers read and what they think are how I want them to think.