Early in the morning (cannot go more than a chapter without returning to morning) before even breakfast was ready, Mitsuru walked the halls. It was not much different from any other day. He had another attempt in him. At this point, blind optimism was about the only thing he could arm himself with anymore.

Already expected, his goal was Izumi’s room once more. Like every day before, it remained locked to everyone. Not him or anyone else could enter. Proof that it did open at someone point only was verified by the fact that her meals disappeared. However, never when anyone watched, Mitsuru knew this. He had actually stalked out her meal once and it never moved.

Like everyone else’s expectations, Mitsu did not have high expectations either for today. He figured on another one sided conversation. Not that he would stop visiting her. Persistence was all he had.

“Izumi? It’s me, Mitsuru again. Are you awake?” It was something that he was never certain about. Was she actually even awake to hear him in the morning. He assumed a lot in figuring her to be awake. But on any school day, he did not really have any choice in picking his time. It had to be early.

He waited a little longer before saying something again. “We’re going to be having breakfast soon. Would you like to come eat with us?”

A pause longer than needed drew out the emptiness. He started to open his mouth, but actually hear a voice come out of the room. “No.” Not quite the answer he wanted, but she replied to him finally.

Mitsuru nearly threw himself up against the door in his excitement to hear her finally. “Izumi! You’re up!” It was still locked and he was not getting anywhere with her. Still did not stop him from getting excited as if he was going in. She still closed him off. “How are you feeling? Have you been getting enough to eat? I can have the maids bring more for you!”

“No.”

Then he ground to a halt. He asked a lot of different things. Her reply did not point to which she was answering. Confusion spread over his face. “No? Umm…Izumi? Can I come in? I’ve been really worried and I want to apologize face to face to you.”

“No.”

Mitsuru started to fear that he made the situation worse with her talking. Like the saying, words can hurt, had significantly more weight to him in his situation. He did not want to give up hope with her, but he did not know what else he could say. Scratching the side of his face, he stood pensive. His brain rolled through ideas for her. He needed to do something. ‘I’ve just been ignoring her all this time. I check in like some absentminded doctor looking after a patient and then move on. I need to correct that!’

Pressing his hand to the door, he wanted to feel like he stretched out to reach her. “Izumi, I have an idea. You don’t have to open the door, but there’s something I want to do. Just wait for me!” He then ran off through the mansion towards the kitchen.

Usually, the time he spent on trying to talk to Izumi ate up enough time for them to be nearly ready with breakfast. He approached the head maid of the kitchen. “Excuse me, Miss.”

“Yes, Master Mitsuru?”

“You’re almost ready to serve the meal, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“May I have mine and Izumi’s right now?”

“Master, it is about to be served. It’s not proper to start eating before everyone else.”

“Oh, I won’t be eating at the table with everyone this morning.”

“Master?”

Clapping his hands together, he begged the maid to grant his request. She looked at him strangely, but eventually gave him. In the end, he was the one in charge of them. “Thank you so much!” He smiled at her and then walked out.

Tsukiko walked pass the back hall into the kitchen and stopped noticing him. “Mitsu? What are you doing?”

Beaming with delight, he hurried over to her. It took Tsuki to grab and balance him from falling over. “Thanks! Oh, let everyone know I’m going to be eating with Izumi this morning!” He did rushed off without giving her a chance to ask another question.

He arrived back at Izumi’s room or door, as was his perspective for a while now. “Izumi! I’m back! I’m brought your food, but I’m going to eat with you as well. I don’t want you to be alone when you’re eating. It’s too sad. You should have someone to eat with.” Mitsuru sat down leaning against the wall with her tray of food in front of the door. Remembering his previous attempts to see her open the door, he realized the situation. “But you don’t have to right away. I want to you feel safe and comfortable. So for now, I’ll sit out here. Even if it is for a little bit of time each day, I want you to know that you’re not alone. I’m here for you.”

Chapter 13 – The Thickness of One’s Shell

Breakfast concluded with as much as one hoped. There was no answer, but no rejection either. He jumped out of the threshold with enough energy to make an eight-year old jealous. “Come on, Tsuki! We need to get to the bus stop!” Beckoning her, he dragged her out of the mansion even if it was not physically.

“I know, I know! We’re leaving at the same time we always do. We’ll get there, the old man is always on time.”

“Hello! I’m Mitsuru Sakakibara and I used to be a normal high school student until I accidently unsealed some ancient swords keeping a portal to the demon world closed. Now I must protect my home and friends from demons.”

Tsukiko looked less than thrilled about the amount of energy that Mitsuru had for the morning. While it might not have been unusual for him to be full of energy, he was doing overtime with the amount that he was putting out. And it just made her more annoyed watching him. “What happened?” she asked, since clearly something had to have caused it.

He spun around to look back at her. “She talked to me!” The vague answer Mitsu felt should have been enough to clue her in to what he was talking about. And if she was not looking so bothered by his over abundance of enthusiasm, she might have stepped through the answer.

“What are you talking about?”

“Izumi! She talked to me!”

“Izumi is one of our guests at the mansion we’re staying at now. After finishing a fight with a demon, we found her nearby likely caught up in everything. The trauma has left her a complete recluse and I’ve been the only one that she doesn’t seem utterly afraid of, though I’m still working on improving our relationship.”

“You’re acting like a love-struck girl excited over your crush finally noticing you exist.”

Mitsu came to a stop immediately and bounced back towards Tsuki. “I’m not love-struck!” he yelled back at her before trying to walk a little more normally. Containing all of his energy proved difficult though.

Her eyes narrowed with a flat expression. “You didn’t deny being a girl as well.”

“I’m not a girl! That’s should be obvious!”

While having an overly excited Mitsu was hardly the worst thing she could have happen, it still made things infuriating. Mitsuru already contain a significant amount of optimism, more than a normal person. She had her share, but she took a little more pragmatic approach when necessary. So when an already bright person turns into the sun, it becomes difficult to watch.

Arriving at school met with expected results from their friends. Mitsuru’s attitude was too easy of a target for a little teasing. Kichiro dropped in at his side, though he did have a little trouble looking at his friend. The blinding glow was stunning. He pulled away a little to look over at Tsukiko. “What’s up with Mitsu? He’s acting like he had sex for the first time last night.”

Tsukiko looked over at Kichiro barely even fazed by his remarked and replied, “In his world, that seems to be a close equivalent.”

“Wow, Tsuki, not even a hint of red,” Kiyome noted from her side.”

“Yeah, I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t even get a stutter from you. I’m mean him being a complete puddle is expected.” It seemed that even boundless energy was not enough to immunize him from Kichiro’s joking. Mitsu was red from head to toe and completely paralyzed.

“I’ve been dealing with it the entire ride here. So a little break from it is nice.”

“So what’s got him so happy then?”

“One of our guests finally started talking to him again after they had some trouble.”

“Must have been really something to put him in that sort of mood.”

“I honestly don’t know. I never asked him what she said to him.”

Kichiro leaned in with great interest. “She? A girl? Has our Mitsu finally started looking at girls?” He picked up his friend from his collapsed state and pulled him back together. “How come you never mentioned you had a girl you were interested in, Mitsu? I’m your best friend! I’ve got to support you in your romantic pursuits!”

“Probably because he would be too afraid to tell you.”

“Hey, he’s my friend. I may tease him, but I take these things very seriously.” Suddenly, Kichiro was unlike anything that Tsukiko had ever seen before. True to his word, he did not seem to be joking or making light of anything about what he said. He looked completely genuine in his interest to support Mitsuru.

Such a serious look took her back. She had to gather herself before replying. She knew Kichiro cared about Mitsuru as much as Mitsuru did in return. None of that was in doubt, she was just used to seeing the jokester side of him. It was easy to forget that he could be serious when he wanted. “She’s just someone we found on our way back from school that seemed to be lost and have no memories. She attached to the first person that made contact with her. I doubt it’s anything more than that.”

He looked back at Mitsuru trying to get a read on him. The joke still left him in recovery, so it was hard to judge much of anything in his face with it all still very red. “Be that as it may, I’m still curious. So what she tell you, Mitsu?”

“Huh?”

“Tsuki said a girl talked to you and that’s why you’re happier than normal. What she say to you?”

“Oh, Izumi. She told me no.”

Everyone came to a halt at that moment. Tsukiko was already sighing. Kichiro stepped out in front of Mitsu needed to double check he heard right. “She said no?”

“Yup!” he answered with a big grin.

There was likely plenty of jokes Kichiro wanted to make at that moment, but he just ground to a stop. Like everyone else, he did not have a response. He just stared at Mitsuru. Who in turned looked around at everyone confused why they had stopped.

Since none of them seemed to moving, Mitsu broke free and walked on his own. He figured that they would catch up. Yet they did not. Nearing the steps into the school, he looked back at his friends. “You coming? You’re going to be late if you keep staying around.” He then walked in completely carefree.

Kiyome looked over at Tsukiko understanding some of her pain. “He does realize that a girl saying no to him is not a good thing right?”

“Not in his mind,” Tsuki said, “Though in the case of Izumi her saying anything is an improvement.”

“So his endless optimism is running wild then,” Kichiro inferred.

“Pretty much.”

The entire class had to deal with Mitsu for the day and time did not seem to temper him at all. He recovered quickly from Kichiro, meaning that his resilience was significantly higher. By the end of the day, even the teachers had enough of Mitsuru.

Tsukiko let him off on his own, as he was really eager to return home. He wanted to try talking to Izumi again. She had to hunt down a demon presence she detected. It was weak, so she planned on handling it. Mitsu was easily convinced and took the bus back up the mountain.

He charged through the forest and flung open the door. The maid barely got off an unnoticed greeting before Mitsuru threw off all of his things for her to catch. They all had surprisingly good aim and landed in a neat pile for her.

“Izumi! Izumi!” called Mitsuru with no contained excitement at all. For him his whole day waited for another moment to talk to her. She did not say anything back to him, but nothing could stop the steam he built up for himself. “I’m going to stay with you! I was hoping maybe to tell you about myself.” So began his one sided conversation.

Eventually, the maid came for him to notify him of his dinner. “I’ll be right back, Izumi!” He hurried off not wanting to leave her alone for too long. She locked herself in the room alone. Mitsuru could not take the thought anymore of her being alone. Even if he was just a voice for her. She needed someone to be there for her.

Passing through the dining room, he saw Tsuki already sitting down. “How was the demon?”

“Already dead before I got there. Akira’s seems to be fully healed.”

He came to a stop for a moment at the name. “Oh you saw Akira?”

“Not really, just his handy work. He’s just like the first time we met. Killing and running off. If nothing else, it’ll be good to have another pair of hands out there keeping the city safe.”

“Yeah, but I hope he’s taking care of himself. He’s pretty stubborn about his samurai pride.”

“You have enough to worry about with Izumi, Mitsu. Don’t start taking on even more burdens.”

“But we should be helping people! Grandfather said—“

“He also said to respect those that wish to stand on their own. We support those that wish it or need it. Akira right now needs to work out his problems on his own.”

“But...”

“Tsukiko’s right, Mitsuru,” agreed their Grandfather, who seemed to go a little missed by the both of them at the table. “You have a good heart, Mitsuru. One that wishes to help everyone, but you need to be mindful of who and how you help. Sometimes people need room to work through things.”

Mitsuru stared at him for a while getting a feeling as if he was implying something else besides the obvious. However, he remembered his dinner from another call. He then thought of Izumi and rushed off.

“I’m back!” Despite all of his talking, she said nothing further to him. It had him a little concerned about her. “How are you feeling, Izumi?” Nothing more was said that night. Mitsu held quiet staying with her until Tsuki pulled him away to work on his homework.

Day after day, the similar events played out for Mitsuru. He spent his meals with her trying to chat her up for anything. Sometimes he got a word out of her and other times she was completely silent. He felt like he was making progress, even though Tsukiko kept telling him to give her room.

“How are you today?”

“Good.”

Mitsu placed down her dinner and sat down in his usual place against the wall. He had become accustomed to eat without a table. It was not nearly as hard as it seemed. “I’m glad to hear to it.” He poked through his food with his chopsticks. “Remember my friend I told you about? Hisoka? He’s the one that you can’t say nerd around, he gets really upset for that. I heard from him today that his tennis team played against their rivals that they were practicing for.”

He paused and took in some food. It became common that he just talked about what happened to school with Izumi. Sometimes something interesting happened at school. He sort of hoped to get a reaction out of her. “Seems that they lost. Hisoka acted like he was not bothered by it, but I could tell he was upset. What makes it worse, they didn’t play him.”

“Is he good?”

“He’s great! I told you about I how got to see him practice right? He beat everyone on his team, not even their Captain was a match.”

“Why didn’t they play him?”

“I don’t know. He’s not on the regulars, so I guess there’s some rule about it. But that doesn’t seem fair to be holding back your best player because of some rule.”

“Would winning a single match have won it all for them?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask about the overall results.”

“Maybe that’s why.”

“You could be right.” It was then as the conversation ended that he realized that he had actually been holding a conversation with Izumi. It was not just him talking and her maybe inserting a vague single world. She talked to him, replied. Excitement charged through his body like lightning. He searched for something else that he could talk about.

Before he could he heard a strange noise that was unlike anything he had heard before. It almost sounded like glass shattering, but also like an engine slowing down combined with what seemed like maybe a chirping like a bird. He did not understand it or how really describe it. Just simply calling it unworldly seemed accurate yet completely failed to capture it.

“I’m hungry,” Izumi whispered just long enough for him to hear.

He looked down at the tray and then back at the door. It all clicked for him then. ‘She’s accepted me again!’ Mitsuru jumped up and grabbed the tray. He was not going to let the opportunity slip him by.

Slowly pulling the door open, it felt like unsealing a tomb. He could not remember how long it had been since he was in her room. It seemed longer than it actually was, but he had not even seen her face for so long. She locked herself away in fear. “Izumi?” he called, in search of her. Though he had the light of the hall to light his way, the room held darkness very well, unsettlingly well. She was difficult to find.

“I’m over here.”

Mitsu turned his head to find that she was actually in the corner near to the door. She had been near to him the whole time. “Izumi!” He rushed over to her side, the enthusiasm too difficult to control.

She pulled away a little at the sight of him. The closer he came to her the more she crawled away. Mitsuru did not understand. “Izumi?” His wide smile slowly started to disappear from his face.

“No!” Izumi shouted throwing her hand out. The door flew up completely and Mitsuru suddenly felt something grab him. It dragged him out of the room and threw him up against the wall of the hall. A pressure kept him from moving anything until the door closed. It was locked from him once more.

Freed, Mitsu ran up to the door calling out to her. She gave him no reply. He did not understand what had happened. When it became clear that he was not going to get anything done, he walked away. ‘I thought I had succeeded…what happened?’ His legs started to run, moving faster and faster until he did not know where he was going. It was happening again. He made the same mistake.

It was all familiar. Eventually, he ran out of breathe and had to stop. The forest once more. He stared at it blankly not really thinking about where he stood. He just dropped down. “I made things worse again… What am I doing? I can’t help anyone!”

“Are you giving up?” Hisako asked, appearing out of the sword. She grew out to a human size in ghost form.

Mitsuru looked up to Hisako. His face was twisted in pain left at the end of his rope. “What else can I do? I just keep making things worse with her every time!”

“So you’ll leave the girl to hide forever in her room from everyone?”

“I don’t want to! But maybe someone else should…”

“You’re the only one the girl trusts.”

“That’s not true! She’s afraid of me! She hates me!”

“Now you don’t think that’s true do you?” She hovered around to sit down next to him. Even as a ghost, she tried to lean against him resting her arms on him.

He looked over at her trying to keep his emotions in control. “How can she not?! Look at what I’ve done, twice!”

“Do you even know why she got scared this time?”

“Because…” He stopped because he did not have an answer. Mitsuru realized that he did not actually know what he did wrong this time. She just got scared so he immediately knew it had to be his fault. “…because I…did something…”

“But what was it?”

“I don’t know…”

“Think about the first time she got scared and locked herself away.”

“One of those armor fell on us and she got scared.”

“What else happened?”

“That was about it.”

“You sure? You didn’t do something?”

“I protected her.” He tried to remember the incident more clearly for what happened. It was all hazy now to him. Her running away was about the only thing clearly in his mind.

Hisako sighed a little and refocused her point. “And what about this time?”

“I just tried to give Izumi her dinner.”

“I see I’m going to need a different approach.” She looked away in thought to figure out how she was going to get Mitsuru to arrive at the answer. “Remember what your Grandfather said earlier?”

“Grandfather?” He thought back to the dinner where he talked to them. It was more recent so it was still in his mind. “He said sometimes people need to work through problems on their own. He was talking about Akira.”

“It wasn’t just Akira he was meaning.”

“But I’ve only been helping Izumi…I…what have I been doing?” He slumped over as he started to figure everything out. His hands gripped the sides of his head thinking about it all.

Hisako did what she could to comfort him. “You’re a good kid. I don’t think I’ve seen someone with a more pure, earnest and honest heart before. But it does blind you sometimes. Not everyone will respond in the same way to your intentions, even good as they are.”

“I haven’t been thinking about her feelings. I just so caught up in my own feelings that I didn’t stop to think how she was feeling. She’s so scared of everyone. I pushed too hard.”

“But it’s not the end. She might have been scared, but she’s not closed off.”

He looked over at her with a little more hope in his eyes. “You think so?”

“Definitely. Just take this as a learning experience and be mindful of how you approach her.”

Standing up, Mitsu clinched his hands together building his determination back up. “Right! I’ll take it slower and think about her.” He rushed off towards the mansion with a renewed sense of purpose. ‘I’m going to do it right this time! No mistakes anymore!’

He stood back at Izumi’s door. Closed once more, but it no longer felt like it was an end. He could see through it and to a day when it would be open. “Izumi, it’s me. I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking about how you felt. I was too caught up in my excitement that I didn’t think about you. I promise you, I won’t leave you alone, but I’m not going to rush things again. We’ll take things one step at a time. I want you to feel safe. So I’ll be waiting for you until that day.” Mitsuru placed his hand to the door thinking about Izumi behind it.

Inside the room, Izumi arose from her covers on her bed. The sound of Mitsuru’s voice drew her towards him. She lifted her hand towards the door cautiously and then pulled away.

“Izumi? Before I did things without think about you. I don’t want to do that anymore. Is it alright with you if I eat dinner with you? I’ll stay outside like I have before.”

She stretched her hand back out towards him. Her hand rested against the door where she heard his voice. “Yes. I’d like that.”

“Thanks!” Mitsu smiled with relief. It was like Hisako said. He was not closed off. There was still hope. He just needed to be more careful. Izumi was easily frightened. A slow and continuous approach was needed rather than being fast. He needed to think about her and let her feel safe and comfort. ‘It’s a step. We’re talking…’

Izumi suddenly softly smiled while staring at the door.

To be continued…


Omake Theatre

“So why did you call us here?” inquired Hisoka.

“Yeah, I never thought you’d be the one to actually call us,” Kichiro added.

“Aren’t you supposed to be working on the next chapter?” Etsuko pressured.

“I will. But there was something I needed talk to you four about.”

“And that is?” questioned Kiyome.

Just then, the door opens and the Grandfather stands in the doorway. “Were you the one that asked for an exorcist?”

“What is the meaning of this?” Kichiro barked, falling back with the others.

The creator moves over to the door. “You’ve all become trapped by the darkness and loneliness of the other harems. So I’ve called you here to free you!”

“This is quickly losing any sort of comedy,” remarked Kiyome.

“I think it lost all of the comedy as an omake a long time ago. Now I just need you to return to normal. Then maybe I can make some more amusing omakes.”

“These are the four with the souls of the unfulfilled?”

“That right.”

“You’re not even catholic,” argued Hisoka.

“You’re a little too caught up in your pop culture to believe that only the catholics and do exorcisms.” The Grandfather throws out a hand filled with talismans. He sends out four talismans to attach to the foreheads of the teens. He starts to chant in a low voice barely heard.

Light explodes out of all four of their bodies as countless souls escape. They all start to swirl around the room near the ceiling gathering more. “So many lost souls. Be at peace!”

“Never!”

A staff comes out from behind clutched in his free hand. A powerful barrier erects at the point of the staff until it expands to full the room. All the souls are pushed out with the room finally coming to a calm. “It is done.”

“Oh thank you so much! They’ve been tormenting for so long!”

“Give this charms to them. It’ll protect them from further possession.”

“Right! Thank you again!”

“I’ll be going now.”

The creator sits down at their desk. A smile comes over their face to be free finally from the torment. “It’s over.”

“It’s never over so long as you’re making a harem story,” whispered the disembodied souls over their shoulder.

The creator starts to cry. “This isn’t funny anymore! I’m doing something funny next! This is over because I say it is!”