Discover Top Posts Tagged with #9r.i.p

"first kiss problems"

"Don't you dare run away." Grabbing him by the cloak, Koyo holds onto Kureha with renewed conviction.

"That's right, tell us everything!" Eager to know more, Sena pressed the advantage, and followed up in pestering him too. Knowing he had no say in the matter, especially since Misa was involved, Kureha sighed.

'Misa, please come and save me.'

(MAJOR SPOILERS for Kureha's Neutral End, koyo, sena, hibiki mention, kureha x misa, koyo x misa, mainly both of them but, reverse harem, shenanigans, banter, comedy, Sena is a weirdo, friendship, bromance, 3.4k words)

"This is stalking."

"Oh, Koyo..." Shaking his head while clicking his tongue, Sena waves a finger in front of his best friend's face and speaks in a hushed whisper. "This is not stalking; this is observing! Look here—"

"This is totally stalking." Koyo shakes his head back at him and runs a hand through his hair, sighing. "How did you even know she was going to be here?"

Sometime during the afternoon, Koyo had come over to school during the weekend, thinking he could meet up with Kureha without the bustle usually accompanying school days. But instead, he found his best friend peeping through the windows of the classroom with his usual sparkly aura.

Upon further inspection, he realized that for some reason, Misa was here too, alongside what seemed like a few female classmates of hers.

"Shh! She'll hear you."

"..."

He realized this some time before, but Sena really did have some questionable habits. He just hopes that Seiya won't unexpectedly show up and drag him all the way down to hell as punishment for stalking.

But thinking about it, Seiya would be pretty unreliable himself in that regard.

"Answer my question." Koyo grabbed Sena in a headlock and continued on despite Sena's choked protests. "Please don't tell me you've been following her from morning till now?"

"Hack-! N-Not from morning!"

"Then since lunchtime?"

"Ugh..."

So that was a yes.

Misa probably hadn't noticed him yet, he concludes as he watches Misa chatter away with an innocent look on her face. Or else, she'd probably have called Sena out and sent him away.

"Quick, quick!" He hears the girls giggle. "Spin the bottle!"

It looks like they were playing a game, though as to why they were doing it in the school, Koyo had no idea. Finally, he removes his hold on Sena.

"Gasp—"

"Hey, I know for a fact that ghosts can't breathe, by the way." He takes a peek inside the classroom and sees the glass bottle spin between the girls. "C'mon, we shouldn't be spying on them like this. Let's go."

Before Sena could add in extra protests, Koyo sees a familiar figure walk down the hallway.

"Hm?" Kureha spots them and waves his hand in greeting. "I thought those voices were familiar, so it was you two."

"Hi."

"Kureha!" As if spotting his life savior, Sena waved at him with a smile.

Sighing, Kureha comes over to join them. "If the both of you were being this loud, Misa has probably already noticed the both of you. What are the both of you doing here anyways?"

Koyo jabs a finger at Sena. "He was stalking her."

But for some reason, Sena doesn't deny his accusations as he usually would. Instead, he asks, "Hey Kureha, you spend most of your time in this school, right? Do you have any idea why Misa is here at school on a weekend?"

"She said something about an outing with her friends?" Kureha scratches the back of his neck in thought. "They had already asked the teachers beforehand, and they allowed it under the pretext of a study gathering."

"Oh, so she told you..."

"It's not that weird," Koyo said, sighing as he patted Sena on the back. "You said it yourself, Kureha spends most of his time in this school, so it's a lot easier for her to tell him."

"Hm? What is it? Why is Sena acting like that?"

Jealousy, plain and simple. But knowing Sena would have wanted his pride intact, Koyo chose to stay silent.

"Oooh!" The three of them hear the girls exclaim, "The bottle landed on Misa!"

"Ah, er..."

It was Misa's turn apparently, but after having already noticed them some time ago, her eyes flickered to them in embarrassment, as if silently telling them, 'Please leave.' The girls pester Misa, asking her to pick truth or dare. She's hesitant as they do, despite having voluntarily placed herself in this situation.

"C'mon, Misa, if it's a dare, we won't ask you to do anything too weird," Sayaka says, trying her best to reassure her best friend. "Promise!"

"I don't trust you." Misa shook her head, not wanting to put her dignity in the hands of a bunch of girls starved for some fun. "Truth."

"We should get going. It's rude to eavesdrop." Kureha left first, his long cloak fluttering behind him.

"Agreed." Koyo tugged at Sena. "You heard him; c'mon."

"Urgh..." This time, Sena doesn't put up a fight, not wanting to disrespect Misa's wishes, and begrudgingly lets Koyo drag him out of her sight.

Kureha had already long left the hallway, but Koyo was still dragging a dejected Sena, so they could still hear the girls' conversation.

"Alright! Then..."

As Koyo heard the evil giggles of her friends, he couldn't help but feel a shiver crawl up his spine. Women were terrifying creatures when they wanted to be, and he inwardly prayed for Misa's pride.

"Okay, truth! Have you ever kissed anyone before?"

"Hack-!

Koyo had almost fallen over, as Sena had abruptly decided to dig his heels into the ground, the sudden force making him lose balance.

"Sena!" Koyo hissed at him. "This. Is. Not. The. Time."

"Aren't you curious?"

"No!" That was a lie. "And even if I was, it's rude to eavesdrop. I don't really care about the answer either."

That was a lie too.

Tugging him along, Koyo makes a dash for it while running away with Sena in tow, not wanting to hear Misa's answer, too afraid of what her answer may be.

'There shouldn't be a problem even if she had already kissed someone, right?' Koyo pondered, still dragging Sena by the collar up the stairs. 'In the end, it's not like it changes things the way they are now.'

"Uh..."

Hearing a familiar voice, Koyo spotted Hibiki in the mirror, who was watching him with widened eyes, gaze focused on the spot where Koyo had grabbed Sena. Having heard a few things about Hibiki beforehand, he quickly let go of Sena.

"It's not what you think."

"Oh! Don't worry, I understand the close relationship between the two of you." Hibiki smiled, but it seemed a bit strained. "If you were wondering where Kureha went, he just entered the library."

"...Thanks." Inwardly, Koyo let out a sigh of relief. He'd come here to see Kureha to begin with anyways, so he might as well let Sena tag along; better to keep him away from Misa while he can.

"Hi, Hibiki!" Ever the idol he was, Sena flashed a bright smile while waving to Hibiki, who he learned sometime ago was a fan. It seemed to cause some sort of reaction, as Hibiki jerked slightly on the spot and nodded his head shyly in greeting while blushing(?) furiously before disappearing into the mirror.

Honestly, it's been almost a year since he became a ghost, but Koyo can't seem to get used to the strange spirits he's met. Hibiki just so happened to be one of the scarier weirder ones.

"Well then." He looked at Sena with narrowed eyes. "Let's go meet up with Kureha."

"Yes...Mom."

"Don't call me that."

After walking up a flight of stairs and turning right, they finally made their way to the library and found Kureha standing there waiting for them.

"...Did the both of you stay back to—"

"No."

With a clear conscience, Koyo denied him. Kureha sighed with relief.

"Haah... I was worried that she might have gotten upset at us if we stayed around for too long. Looks like my worries were unfounded."

Koyo mentally patted his chest in satisfaction.

"Well? What were both of you doing here in the first place?"

"So here's the thing," Sena spoke. "I wanted to invite her over for another err... I mean I wanted to ask her for some help since I lost something recently, and came over to search for her."

"How did you know she was here?"

"Oh, that? I ran into that scary incubus on the way to her house and caught him grumbling and saying she wasn't at home, so I thought I'd try my luck at the school."

"So, in other words, you've been searching for her since this morning so that you could ask her out on a date without our knowledge, but since she wasn't at home, you came to the school and decided to eavesdrop on her instead."

"When you say it like that, I sound like a creep—"

"You are very much a creep."

"Anyways!" Kureha clapped his hands, sensing that the conversation had taken a strange turn. "If you want to speak with her, you'll have to wait. She said that her study date will last until evening at latest, from what she told me."

"She told you that too, huh..."

Kureha's eyes squinted in confusion. "Hey, I think you're looking a little paler than usual..."

"Ignore him, Kureha." While pushing aside his own jealousy, Koyo decided to get what he came here for. "I originally came over to invite you to a movie—"

"I refuse."

"It's not horror."

"I don't trust you."

Koyo couldn't help but burst out laughing as he tried to assuage Kureha's concerns.

"Look, if it's horror, you can just run out of the theater if you want to."

"That's a little rude to begin with—"

"Argh!!!" Wearing a look much like that of a kicked puppy, Sena yelled out in frustration. "Why am I the only one bothered about this and not the two of you?!"

Koyo sensed a foreboding feeling of dread, already having an idea as to what Sena was referring to. But before he could stop or warn Kureha, that innocent guy, Kureha asked, "What are you talking about?"

Dammit.

"About the 'truth' they asked Misa? The question about whether Misa has ever kissed anyone???"

"..."

"Look." Koyo sighed. "Even if she had kissed someone before, would that change how we feel about her?"

"Well, no..."

"Right?" He reached over to pat Sena on the back for the 2nd time of the day as if he were calming down a child. Damn, maybe he really was Sena's mom. "So calm down. Besides, Kureha wasn't there when the question was asked; of course he's not going to worry about it, though now he might..."

He could almost see Sena's sparkly aura dim, just a little. "That's true; sorry I brought it up, since it would have only just bothered Kureha needlessly to begin with..."

"..."

"Well then," Kureha's movements were janky as he tried to make his escape. "I'd better leave before you drag me off to watch another horror movie—"

"Don't you dare run away." Grabbing him by the cloak, Koyo holds onto Kureha with renewed conviction.

"That's right, tell us everything!" Eager to know more, Sena pressed the advantage and followed up by pestering him too. Knowing he had no say in the matter, especially since Misa was involved, Kureha sighed.

'A long time ago, I wished to become an actor,' Kureha lamented on the inside. If he couldn't even keep his own feelings under wraps, maybe he was never destined for a role like that to begin with.

'Misa, please come and save me.'

After an hour of coaxing, Kureha began to—reluctantly—tell them about their time during Misa's spiriting away. He left out the more personal details, but it was still hard to tell them about the day Misa kissed him. No matter how straightforward he was, this was his limit, and as strange as it was enough that ghosts could blush, Kureha's cheeks were red almost throughout the entire explanation.

"To be honest...," Kureha said slowly, "I can't really remember much of it."

Sena gasped, horrified. "T-That's...blasphemous! If she kissed me, I'd enshrine the entire moment in my head and replay it for time and time to come—"

Koyo gave Sena a whack on the head.

"Ow!"

He should make it a point to keep Seiya away from Sena, because his best friend has started to act way too much like that perverted Grand Warden.

"Go ahead, Kureha."

It was clear in the gloomy tone in Koyo's voice that he was rather...shaken by this new revelation. Nevertheless, he sought to keep his cool while reigning in Sena for the duration of the explanation.

"Right." Kureha shot him a worried look but continued. "At that time, I had almost lost my sanity, and was on the verge of becoming a wraith."

"The entire situation must have been extremely dangerous in that case, no? I've never met a wraith before, but Koyo told me about them."

He had no heartbeat, so in place of a beating heart, Koyo felt unshakeable chills run down the entire course of his body as fear gripped him at the mere thought of the danger the two of them were in.

"Are you sure..." Koyo swallowed. "Are you sure the both of you are okay?"

Kureha smiled bitterly.

"If Misa hadn't done what she did, neither of us would have made it out of that situation as we did."

Kureha cast his gaze down, his regret evident as guilt shadowed across his face. "Now that I think about it again," Kureha chuckled self-deprecatingly, "I do owe a lot to Misa."

Koyo groaned, and covered his eyes with his arm.

"So? What happened after that?"

"Well, while my mind was on the verge of losing it, Misa thought she could ease the burden of my painful memories by having me share them with her. And so, she kissed me."

"How does that work?!" Sena interjected loudly, all the while wearing a scandalous look, and a curious twinkle in his eyes.

'This guy is enjoying himself way too much,' Koyo thought.

"Apparently, if the dead made physical contact with a member of the living, their regrets and dark thoughts can be shared alongside them." Kureha held up his sheath and laid it across his lap. "This was something that the both of us found out during her spiriting away. In that case, she decided to take advantage of that knowledge to help me."

"Okay, while that's new information, and I can understand the reason, but why would she kiss you to do it?!?!"

"Well, there's only one reason, right?" Koyo pointed it out. "You heard what he told us the other day when we gatecrashed your stargazing date—"

"Oh, so you know you were being gatecrashers, huh? You spare no thought for me!"

"Quit being dramatic. Anyways..."

Koyo remembers the day he first met Misa. At that time, he'd been worried for Kureha, who had abruptly disappeared off the face of the earth alongside all the other ghosts that usually roamed in the school. He'd made it a point to visit every day in hopes of finding Kureha, and after 9 days, Kureha had finally come back.

And from then on, he watched as Kureha began to look after a peculiar young woman, that woman namely being Misa.

He was only intrigued at first, yes, but then things took a strange turn when, all of a sudden, Misa began to notice ghosts. He met her in the school hallway, and first thought, 'What a strange girl.'

Maybe there was a reason why she wanted to see ghosts again, that reason probably being;

"She was in love with Kureha at that time, right?" Koyo rested his cheek on his palm, trying to play it off nonchalantly while hiding away the painful burn in his chest. "So of course, she wanted to do whatever she could for him."

"..."

"...That's what happened, yes." Kureha nodded slowly, wary of their reactions.

"Aw, man..." Sena moaned in dejection. "So not only did I already lose in the race of love, Kureha even beat me to Misa's first kiss."

"Ew, don't say it like that."

"What, am I wrong?"

As if aware of Kureha's feelings, the both of them tried their best to revert the atmosphere back to its usual lighthearted mood. At that, he gave a slight smile.

"Whatever the case is!" Sena got up to his feet with self-sparked vigor and shouted, "Even if she used to be in love with Kureha before, I'll definitely win over her heart sooner or later!"

Kureha's face crumpled at Sena's words. "When you say 'used to be in love', it makes me feel a little hurt."

"And also, why're you so confident you'd win her over eventually? You think too highly of yourself." Koyo throws him a disgusted look. "I thought about it recently, but you're really starting to act too much like Seiya."

"But that's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?" Sena tilted his head. "He's a handsome fellow, nay?"

"He's a degenerate pervert."

"Are you saying I'm a pervert too???"

"...Also, is it just me," Kureha shifted uncomfortably while shivering as he called out to them, "or has it become a little colder in here than before?"

Out of nowhere, they all heard a composed and young female voice answering, "That's probably Hibiki."

"Gah!" Surprised by the sudden guest, Sena jumped in his seat, as he spotted Yui standing only a few feet away from them without their notice. They must have been too engrossed within their conversation and, as a result, failed to notice her presence.

"Oh, hi Yui. And what do you mean by Hibiki?"

Koyo watched as a young girl with a black ponytail walked up to them with a calm expression on her face. "Hm? Haven't you noticed? There's a mirror just outside of this door."

Unlike the rumor of "The girl in the nurse's office", Yui was a soft-spoken and good-natured spirit. She also wasn't the type to play around with jokes, so that means...

Kureha stood up slowly while throwing an apprehensive look towards the direction of where the mirror was assumed to be. "We should leave before Hibiki's aura grows darker; he must have overheard our conversation."

If ghosts could sweat, then Koyo would surely have felt a bead of sweat drip down his neck, as the scariest ghost of this school directed that 'black-thing' —as Kureha liked to call it—at them.

As they all got up, they noticed the sound of the library door sliding open, and saw Misa standing there at the entrance. Looking at the abnormal amount of spirits gathered in one place, she gave them a funny smile.

"What are all of you doing here?"

As if to add to the humor, the dangerous aura they felt before had abruptly disappeared.

"Misa!" Sena was quick to react, and ran up to her to greet her, followed by Yui. Before Kureha could go up to her too, Koyo grabbed him by the shoulder.

"What is it now?" Kureha asked him with a whisper.

"Kureha, just because her first kiss might've been with you, just because the person she loved first was you—and maybe is still you," Koyo stared straight ahead towards Misa, "doesn't mean I'm going to give up."

Kureha smiled in relief. "Is that so?"

"Hey, why do you look so relieved? Shouldn't you be more upset by this?"

"A little? But it only means you care about her that much, right?"

Koyo hated to admit it, but Kureha was spot on.

"Also." Kureha shrugged off Koyo's hold, and gestured at him to get a move on as he looked back towards him. "I wouldn't want this to ruin our friendship."

"...Hahaha."

In all honesty, when Kureha described how his and Misa's first kiss came to be, what he felt first was not jealousy, no. He was worried.

Koyo knew what wraiths were like, had seen them before a few times. He also knew how violent they could get, and how dangerous they could truly be. So when he heard that both Kureha and Misa were in danger of one, especially since the wraith in question was Kureha, he was scared.

And he's glad that the both of them are okay, sincerely. That meant so much more to him than his own feelings.

'Not that I'll ever say it out loud.'

But maybe he didn't have to. After all, Kureha knew just how kind of a person Koyo really was.

"Koyo?"

Noticing him standing there lost in thought, Misa called out to him, and Koyo felt his heart move for her.

'I guess it should be okay, since I like her this much.'

His feelings for her will not waver.

'Besides,' Koyo thought slyly, 'there are chances that her next kiss will probably be with someone who's actually alive.'

That, he could hope for.

Link for the 9RIP Drama CD "The strangest love story in the world", this includes the conversation referenced in this fic.

disclaimer: the video does not belong to me, credits belong to Ishikawa Goemon & Co. Research Center who translated and shared the audio.

#9r.i.p

Trending Tags

Recently Viewed Tags

#9r.i.p