Except for the first day, my time spent at Shibata Tamae's house was uneventful. Nothing happened. No one came to try to hurt Tamae. I left under the pretense of "If someone were to attack in the immediate future, they would have done it by now." My feelings toward Tamae were also growing, and I wanted to leave because I wasn't yet sure about what to do with them.
The other issue was making sure that when Noriko and Rin grilled me about where I was for the past few days, they didn't find out it was at a woman's house. I didn't worry too much, because I thought I could produce a decent lie. As for my attendance record, I covered my tracks.
"Hey Nakano, would you mind covering for me?"
"Who is this?"
"It's Yuji."
"How did you get this number?"
"Don't worry about it, just do me a solid and make sure my absence for the last three days gets excused, okay?"
"Why in the hell would I do that?"
"I'll help you with the student council issue at some point if you can look out for me this once. I'll even assist elsewhere if you need."
"Fine. I'll Do what I can. Although, could you do something for me right now, pretty please?"
"What is it?"
"Don't call this number again."
"No promises."
She hung up. The nerve of that girl is unending.
When I returned home, I apologized for not saying anything about leaving and told them an emergency came up at a friend's house. Noriko called me out on my lie and said that I didn't have friends. That hurt my ego a little bit but I didn't deny it. In response, Rin threatened to stick a chainsaw in Noriko's abdomen. I did put a stop to this of course. Normally one would dismiss this as an empty threat, but I was worried because Rin is an individual with the temperament and mental state to go through with it, and it was also unconfirmed whether or not Rin owned a chainsaw. As I laid down in bed that night, I was reminded of my original goal, getting Yagi Izumi to return to the afterlife. This was when I felt a pain in my stomach, likely due to the dissatisfaction that I was going to have to "kill" Izumi's remaining presence without revealing the truth about her death like I wanted to. It just didn't sit right with me.
The next day, I began the day in a melancholy mood. I wasn't looking forward to what I had to do. As I was walking to the school doors, I was shot at. The assailant had taken advantage of my off mood that caused me to be to not be on guard and used it as a window of opportunity. I was lucky that normal weapons didn't work on me.
There was a hooded figure standing there when I turned around. He said "Impervious to bullets, huh? It seems that the War God Faction was right about you. You are a spirit-"
This threat needed to be taken care of. I used a wind spell to send him flying into the fountain outside the front of the school. I think I crushed his entire ribcage in the process. I hadn't fully accepted that I would be hurting a lot of people in the future. I also wasn't used to my hair turning white and my eyes red when I used any spirit ability.
"And a powerful spirit at that."
"Who are you?"
"I don't have a name."
"Why did you attack me?"
"To see if the War God Faction needed to be worried about you."
"The what?"
"Nothing. You'll find out when the time comes."
"Anything else you want to tell me before you drift to sleep?"
"I killed Yagi Izumi."
While I smashed his bones accidentally, I still had went easy on him. Hearing those words made me want to kill him. I didn't, because no matter how much I believed he deserved it, I wouldn't be fixing anything by causing more damage.
"Why? Why did you do that to a young girl? The method was too well orchestrated, did you have a grudge or something?"
"I was bored."
"I want to tell you that I hate you and want to kill you."
"I know. Well, rest easy now kid. You've uncovered the murderer and you've accomplished what you wanted to do."
By the time I thought "How did he know I was looking into it?", he was unconscious. Medical staff and police took care of things from there. However, I was careless. Things would not have been so smooth if that incident had an audience. Luckily, there wasn't one. I didn't believe that being a spirit was a secret to be hidden, but there certainly wasn't an excuse for sending a random guy flying into a fountain and crushing his ribcage without laying a finger on him. That kind of thing would ruin my non existent social life and reputation.
Later that day I met with Izumi.
"Hey Yuji, I'm glad to see you."
Knowing what was going to happen, seeing her made me sad.
"Hi Izumi."
"What's wrong Yuji, you seem down?"
"Izumi, I need you to listen to me, so I can tell you the real reason I'm here."
"You're here to being me back to the afterlife, right?"
"...Yeah, I am."
"I see. I knew something was odd when you told me that you were a spirit, and one who remembered his death no less. Well, I'll cooperate. I knew this day would come eventually. I was never expecting it to be you who was sent for me. Since it was you though, I can find some peace in it."
Listening to her was making me cry.
"Izumi, I think that before you go, you should have your memories of your death back, and I should tell you something."
Her eyes widened.
"You didn't commit suicide, you were killed like I suspected. Your killer attacked me this morning, he's now in custody. The teacher who found your corpse was forced to keep quiet. The legal system should help get the truth out."
Izumi was tearing up as I told her.
"Thank you Yuji. You doing this for me is more than anything ever did for me in life or death. I'm ready."
"I'm not. I'm sorry for not getting to spend enough time with you."
"It's okay. And I'm sorry for not doing this while I were both normal students."
She leaned in and gave me a kiss. Though we were both spirits, the kiss felt all so real. I didn't resist, because I knew this girl would be gone shortly.
"Thank you Yuji. For helping me. I'm sorry, I should have gone about this the proper way while I was alive, but I was too socially inexperienced to say it."
She leaned on my shoulder, both of us crying, and she said "I love you."
After she spoke her parting words, I wrapped my arm around her as I pierced her with my sword. She didn't feel any pain, and she was gone in an instant. The process causes no suffering, yet on the inside I felt like I had just subjected someone to the most cruel, excruciating pain that existed. The girl that I had know for so little time yet I was so fond of, was gone. So was my small hope that solving the case of her death would help her move on without me. After that, I left school and went home, and got straight in bed. I didn't speak a word to anyone about anything that day after Izumi was gone. I laid in bed and cried the day away. I knew what was going to happen, I knew it had to, but it still hurt. I still felt loss. Izumi made me really confused about whether or not taking Miwa's offer was the right decision.
The next day at school, I was treated to a pleasant surprise.
"Class, I'd like to re-introduce a returning teacher. She left for personal reasons last year, but she's back to teach. Please come in, Ms. Shibata."
"Hello. Nice to see you all again, and nice to meet you, new faces."
Tamae was having a hard time containing her excitement when she walked in. She was staring at me the whole time. But she found me during lunch. I was eating on the bench in the courtyard, where I had ate with Izumi. When Tamae saw me through the window, she ran out as fast as she could into the courtyard and wrapped herself around me.
I'm glad that Tamae did hug me, because I was sad, and feeling lonely. Even though I had people at home who cared about me, I couldn't help feeling lonely without Izumi. Just like Tamae, she was someone who I didn't know until recent, but she had known me for a while. Also similar to Tamae, it had taken her only a day to become an important person to me. I was sad and needed someone, and Tamae was there. Her hug made me happy.
"Isn't this great, Yuji? Now you get to see your girlfriend every day!"
Girlfriend, huh?
"Yeah, Tamae. It's wonderful. Welcome back."
I had no objections.