“D-D-do come a-again!”

Eiji sighed at the man stuttering before him, before sparing a glance at his wrist watch.

“I’m off, shift’s over.” The young man announced, much to his stuttering manager’s dismay.

“Wait! Eiji-kun!” He beckoned his employee before he could escape, his eyes betraying exactly what it was that he wanted to propose.

“I’m not doing unpaid overtime.” Yet Eiji replied sternly, removing the nametag pinned on his shirt.

“It won’t be unpaid! You’ll just get it in… uhm… due time! That’s all.”

“I’ve heard that shi—“ Eiji caught himself just in time, “…stuff before.”

“Come on, Eiji-kun! Just this one last time?” His manager pleaded, pressing his palms together.

Eiji working overtime wasn’t a new thing in any way, yet after Eiji realized he wasn’t being paid properly for it, he started declining those requests. Especially after the sudden rise of malevolence, his primary job, required more of his time on the regular. It wasn’t a fantasy to say Eiji even considered quitting the convenience store job altogether.

“No means no. I’m off the clock.” Eiji proceeded to the back room without looking back, causing his manager to slump back down on the counter in clear disappointment.

                                                                <*><><><*><><><*>

After his shift was over, and considering the fact he was still mulling over the very real fact he couldn’t get past that specter’s barrier, he opted to cool his head with a beverage.

“Yo, Hayato.”

As Eiji pushed the door open, a familiar scent of cigarettes, cologne and alcohol painted a very familiar picture in his head.

The very same picture he was currently gazing at:

The bar called “Dream”

“Yo, Hayato.”

“Yo, if it isn’t the one and only, Kanzaki Eiji!”

The man behind the counter chuckled briefly, before smiling at the young man he had known since he was a boy.

Of course, Eiji wasn’t the only one who the passage of time was visible upon, as Hayato himself had grown a decent beard in the place of that pathetic stubble he used to don.

“Oh, Eiji-kun…. Heya!” The only one still completely unchanged though, Shigeru, greeted, that same goofy grin as ever on his face. His voice still had that same light and almost high-pitched hue, and his physique was still thinner than a healthy man his age would allow.

“Hey, Shig.” Eiji greeted back, and as if moving by muscle memory alone, took his usual seat across the counter.

“How can I help my favorite customer, today?” Hayato grinned cockily.

“Your only customer.” Eiji corrected.

“Hey, if you were my only customer then this place wouldn’t have been running for 6 years now, would it?” Hayato retorted, “Plus, Yume comes by too, sometimes…”

“You’re contradicting yourself. Yume works here.” Eiji raised a brow, while Hayato tried to sweep the subject under the rug.

After Hayato had a rough time with making some steady income from the bar, he decided to turn it into a 24-hour shop instead, serving coffee from mornings to evenings as well. Of course, that was the reason why he employed his own sister to work in the weekends, since Shigeru alone was bound to cause some sort of blunder if left unsupervised for too long.

“Heh, so what will it be?”

“Just the usual.” Eiji replied, fishing a few coins out of his pockets.

“Cool, one non-carbonated juice, coming right up.” Despite the snarky comment, Hayato quickly got to work. What with so little to do after all in terms of work, it was evident he longed for some bartender duties. Although some may argue prepping a juice was more of a grandma’s job rather than a bartender’s.

“Now that I think about it… Why didn’t you come by yesterday?” The man asked, as he prepared his friend’s beverage with utmost efficiency.

“Yeah, Hayato was lonely.” Shig commented with a smug grin.

“I was not! Pfft! Don’t listen to that fool!” Hayato shook his head about frantically denying the accusation.

“Hayato isn’t being honest…” Shig whispered in a low tone,

“I heard that, you twat!” Yet not low enough for Hayato to not hear.

Eiji snorted slightly at their exchange, clearly finding it amusing. It was evident how even after all these years, these two remained the same no matter what. That was one of the reasons Eiji kept coming back every day for the past few years after all. Despite knowing of his family’s death, Hayato and Shig never uttered a word to Eiji about it. They just kept on being them, which is what helped Eiji the most during those dark times.

Not to mention Eiji was quite fond of Hayato’s handmade juice as well.

“Say, Eiji-kun! How’s work going?” Shig asked in clear anticipation.

“There’s been more movement lately. And I’ve also hit somewhat of a roadblock.” Eiji looked skeptical, as he was reminded of that one problem he just couldn’t seem to solve.

“THAT talk again?” Hayato sighed, as he served Eiji his juice in a plain old glass, primarily used for serving vodka.

As Hayato himself took notice, it was evident Eiji and Shig weren’t talking about the young man’s shift at the convenience store, but his job as an exorcist instead. A talk Hayato wasn’t particularly fond of, to say the least.

For some weird reason, Eiji had confided in Shigeru, who unlike others was more than happy to listen let alone believe all that sounded like nonsense to a regular person.

It was as if the man was fascinated by Eiji’s stories and heroics, and pressed him for more of his adventures, like a teenager eagerly waiting for the next volume of his shonen manga.

“Roadblock? What do you mean, Eiji-kun?” Shigeru cocked his head to the side.

“I need to get inside some sort of barrier… yet I can’t. It keeps repelling me back…” Eiji took a big sip of his juice, like a drunkard drowning his sorrows in booze.

“What do you need to get inside that barrier for anyway?” Hayato scoffed at the two guys “…I swear you’re too old to be a chuni dude.”

“There’s a specter I need to kill.” Eiji voiced flatly, causing Hayato’s hair to stand on end.

“Pfft! Specters!” Although he tried to mask it, his fear was quite visible on every inch of his face. “As if ghosts exist!”

It was quite clear Hayato was too much of a scaredy cat to even address the matter with even a slight shred of honesty.

“Eiji-kun, do you NEED to get inside the barrier?” Shigeru asked, still looking lost in thought.

“Of course I need to get inside…” What was he talking about? Eiji wondered.

“How else would I get to that—“

Eiji’s mind froze for a second, as if something in it had just clicked in place.

Did he really need to get inside that barrier himself? If he can’t get inside, then how about getting that spirit OUTSIDE of the barrier of its own accord?

Eiji felt like smacking himself across the face. How could such an obvious answer have escaped him?

He just needed to lure that spirit out of the barrier…

“Thanks, Shig.” Eiji nodded to himself, before gulping down the remaining juice in one go.

“Eh? But—“ Before Shigeru could provide any further questions. Eiji had already risen from his seat.

“What? Leaving already?”

“Yeah, I think I got something.” Eiji said, as he picked up his bag and left the bar in a flash. “See ya, guys.”

“There he goes…” Hayato sighed.

“Too bad, I wanted to hear more about that specter.” Shigeru sighed too, in quick succession.

“Psychos, the lot of you…”

…

Walking is such a drag, Eiji seemed to be thinking as he took the long way back to his apartment in an attempt to think things through. Having heeded his shikigami’s warning of probable rain, and without his bike to make his way back home more entertaining it was safe to say the young man was in a foul mood. Instead of cussing out his Shikigami for a false warning though, he opted to not call him out on it, seeing as to how annoying he could be during a long peaceful silence such as this one.

How would he go about luring that specter out, though? Maybe he could ask that girl affiliated with the curse in the first place? Although that could prove to be too much danger for a person unrelated to exorcism and the like.

Then again, did he have any other choice?

As he went about in circles inside his mind, his feet had better luck at reaching their desired destination. The young man was back home in no time.

As he ascended the rusty and creaky staircase to the first floor, and walked up to his apartment in mechanical motions, a light touch on his leg caused him to snap out of a trance he didn’t even know he was in.

Purrr

There it was nuzzling its cheek against Eiji’s leg, the small black kitten he had ignored this morning, and the night before.

As the kitten followed him all the way to his door, at which it had slept before yesterday, the young man sighed at the creature.

“Haaah.”

With a slight meow, the kitten replied back, although its meaning was lost on everyone but it.

As the young man unlocked his door, he resigned himself to his fate, and took no caution in not letting the kitten in. After all, he had made up his mind. Or rather, the cat had forced him to.

“Come on.” Eiji spoke, as he beckoned the cat inside the apartment, who meowed in delight.

“Eiji-dono! I don’t think the landlady approves of pets…” Meh popped up with his usual piece of advice.

“I’ll just tell her the cat is a ghost too.” Eiji retorted, as he opened his almost empty fridge.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Meh, spoke once more, as it flew closer to the kitten, who had taken it upon itself to explore the run-down apartment.

Although such an estate would come rather cheap in terms of rent, Eiji managed to seal the deal for even cheaper, after he exorcised the presumed “ghost” that had lowered the value of the apartment to a third of what it was originally worth.

It was fair to say though, that the landlady was quite terrified to hear the news, probably even more so than the ghost itself. It’s not every day you hear of a high schooler that lives alone and is capable of banishing evil spirits after all.

As the Shikigami hovered around the cat’s field of view, it hummed in puzzlement “…It doesn’t seem to be afraid of me…”

As unnatural as it sounded, cats were the only animal species that were able to view spirits just as exorcists themselves. While other animals could sense the presence of spirits too, only cats were able to view them in whole. They had what exorcists called, the “Sight”, and some cats even returned as nekomata spirits, although it was quite the rare occurrence.

The kitten in response to Meh’s hovering about, meowed playfully.

“What’s with this creature…?” The Shikigami froze briefly. “Its… positively adorable!” Meh stated in delight, enamored by the kitten’s playful attitude.

“I guess milk will do…” Eiji muttered, as he brought over a small bowl filled with cow’s milk, before the wandering kitten.

With another delighted cry, the cat began feeding as if it were starved.

“I think he likes it Eiji-dono!”

“Yeah I can see, now pipe down will ya?” Eiji sighed before changing out of his school uniform.

“What shall we name him Eiji-dono?!”

“Just a minute ago you advised me against keeping it…” Eiji muttered. “Also, it’s a she.”

“It is? Then what shall we name her?”

“We’ll think of something.” The young man shrugged as he threw his hoodie over his shoulders.

“How about… Yamata-no-Orochi?”

“That’s a historical being,”

“How about Susano?”

“That’s a deity.”

“Baba, then?”

“Now that’s just plain stupid…” Eiji sighed yet again, as he looked at the cat delightfully gulping down the milk.

Purrrr

Another loud purr, yet it wasn’t the cat this time, but Eiji’s own stomach.

“Phew....” Eiji exhaled as he threw a jacket over his shoulders and made for the door.

“Eiji-dono, where are you going?”

“Convenience store. Dinner…”

The teenager replied, as he exited the apartment only to see a downpour of rain. With another wordless sigh in order to avoid a long talk about how Meh had predicted it right, Eiji grabbed his umbrella and set out on his quest for food.

…

Thankfully, the closest store wasn’t far, so he stocked up on instant ramen cups and barley tea, before making his way back.

On the way back, the streets felt even more deserted than usual, what with the sudden shower falling from above, as if to punish those who dared stay out late on a weekday. Despite the lack of proper lighting near his block and lack of any color therefore, Eiji felt at ease during a time like that. Less people didn’t amount to loneliness after all. With the sparkling lights of the night district barely visible on the horizon serving as some sort of compromise to the abundance of gloominess around him, Eiji walked back to his house.

“Eiji-dono!” Shattering the peace of the night, Meh did what he does best.

The young man, albeit reluctantly addressed his Shikigami. “What is it…?”

“There! Over by the bus station!” The floating creature cried out in urgency, as it blinked towards a lone bus station just across the street.

Eiji squinted through the rain, and focused his vision across the road. Sure enough, there she was, standing underneath the roof of the cramped bus station, the bullied underclassman Eiji had just helped a few hours ago.

“What is she doing?”

Drenched from head to toe, the girl sat on the bench staring almost thoughtlessly at her wet shoes, an unreadable expression painted across every inch of her face.

She looked as though her mind was completely devoid of any thought, and she was just standing there waiting. Waiting for something. Waiting for someone. Someone to spirit her away perhaps. Someone to listen to her. Someone to help her. Someone to…

Save her.

With a resigned sigh breaking through the constant pitter-patter of rain against his umbrella, Eiji crossed the street, his feet making a beeline for the lone girl against the water filled concrete.

It seemed fate had a strange way of bringing those two together time and again…