It’s the day before the first big break of the school year, and the Paranormies are gathering for a reverse going away party for Saito at a nearby family restaurant. Yuuri wanders through the school, trying to locate Saito.

“Hellooooo? Saito?”

Her feet catch onto something, and she nearly stumbles. She turns towards where she tripped, and finds Saito sitting on the ground with his legs stretched out.

“There you are!”

Saito’s eyes are glued to his phone. “Shhh, give me a second. Full combo.”

Yuuri pouts, but lets him finish his game before continuing.

“Yes, new high score!”

She looks at him with a smile and reaches her hand out. “Saito, it’s about time to get going.” He takes it and pulls himself up.

“Hey.”

“Hm? What’s up?”

“Why...do you care so much about me that you’d organize this?” He looks at her with genuine perplexity. “No one’s ever treated me like you do.”

Yuuri’s face heats up. “W-well, I never told anyone else...besides Katsuki...about the whole video game thing, so we kind of share something special.” She fidgets her thumbs, unsure of what else to say, especially with the upcoming break.

“Really?” Saito cocks his head curiously. “I thought she would have let that spill by now.”

Yuuri shakes her head, “She knows I still feel embarrassed acting like...a dork.”

“I don’t think it’s dorky at all.” Saito looks away from her. “I’m...happy you decided to share such a secret with me.”

The two look away from each other, their eyes sometimes meeting before quickly turning away again.

“So…”

“So…”

Yuuri’s eyes flash. “I can’t take this anyaamore! You two are so hopeless!”

“Y-Yuuri? What do you mean?”

“Big sis is opening herself up to you, can’t nya take the hint?! She’s too shy to make a move on you, dummy.” She puts her hand to her mouth. “Hehe, sorry if I ruined the mood but myew were making me pissed off.”

“I...don’t really get it, but I kind of do. So you’re saying I should do this.” Saito grabs Yuuri by the shoulders and pulls her in for a kiss.

“Waitwaitwait!” The girl occupying Yuuri’s body puts her finger over his lips. “Wait for her to come back.” She winks, and Yuuri’s eyes dull again.

Saito nods, and presses his lips against hers. Yuuri’s eyes widen in shock, but close as she enjoys her first kiss. She wraps her arms around him, pulling him in closer.

Saito breaks away after some time. “I wish we could stay like this just a bit longer.”

“I know, but we have to get back with the rest of them. Ahhh, should we tell them?”

Saito smiles. “Let’s keep it our secret for now.” Yuuri smiles back and takes his hand, and they walk together out of the school.

The two make their way to the restaurant and find the rest of the club crowded into a booth and adjacent table in the corner of the not very busy diner, sitting shoulder to shoulder but chatting merrily.

“So, why are we here?” Saito inquires.

Yuuri smiles. “So we can eat like the family we are!”

“No, I mean at a family restaurant instead of an arcade or something I’d actually like.”

Akina glares at him across the table. “Nobody cares about what you want.”

“Then why drag me- wait, you don’t even have a family either! Why aren’t we doing this for you instead of for me?”

“I have a house. I’ll be going there, you’ll be staying here.” Akina says smugly.

Yuuri lightly pouts. “Now now, don’t argue with me! We’re here to eat as a family and we’re going to stay here and eat as a family!” She raises her tone at both of them.

Katsuki lets out a nervous laugh. “H-hey, I’m supposed to be the president, I’m the one who should be saying that!” She turns to the other two, “But she’s right, we only have one more day together, you two can last that long, right?”

With a sigh and a shrug, Saito says, “It’s only a week, Katsuki. C’mon, it’s not that important.”

Yuuri slams her hand. “It’s important to me! A whole week without you!” She pauses. “A-all! You all!”

Cerys smiles. “Hey, I’m with headphones on this one. But, free food is free food.” She looks over at the pres. “At least, it’s free to us since you’re paying for it, riiiight Yuuri?”

“Nyaa? M-me? I don’t have that kind of money! This is a bring your own money meal!” she stammers out in surprise.

A collective groan rises from the table. “You know, you should have told us before we left!” Saito says.

“Yeah! I don’t even have my wallet on me!” Yuudai adds.

“It's ok we can just sit here and have fun without food!” Katsuki tries to save the situation.

“We coulda sat ‘round an’ had a good time with ahselves at the dorm if we couldn’t eat.” Mari says, leaning back in the booth. “Fine bahn voyage yer givin’ us.”

“It’d kind of defeat the point, Mari. We couldn’t have the boys over at the dorm if we stayed there. Hard to give Saito a happy goodbye that way!” Katsuki quips.

“Hey, you could have had a great time without me. And I could have stayed in and practiced my rhythm games all day. Would have been the perfect party!” Saito exclaims.

Katsuki looks over. “Surely you couldn’t do that for a whole day?”

“That was my schedule for the whole week, Kats.” Katsuki and Yuuri look at him slack-jawed, not believing him. “What? I mean, I’d get a couple hours of sleep, too!”

“A night, right?” Yuuri says worriedly.

“Y-yeah, a night.” Saito says to defuse the situation.

Kirika pouts and turns to Yuuri. “See? He doesn’t even want to be here anyway! He could be in whatever pit he came from and I wouldn’t have to look at him!”

“Yeah, that’s the idea!” Saito looks at her, then looks back to Yuuri. “Leave me in my pit of a room and I’ll be fine!”

“No, Saito, we couldn’t do that when we’re about to be apart for so long!” Yuuri raises her voice, ”A-and Kirika! You should be nice to him, we’re all friends here!”

Akina and Cerys shake their heads simultaneously. “Nope, we’re not,” they say in unison.

Yuuri looks over at Katsuki. “At least you and Yuudai appreciate this party, right?“

Yuudai smiles. “Yep! Though it’s kinda funny we’re calling it a goodbye party when we three are going to hang out all break!” He says with a laugh.

Mari perks up. “Eh? What you doin’ with two girls all break, Yuudai?”

Yuuri smiles. “Shopping! We’re going shopping!”

Yuudai looks at Yuuri. “Shopping? For what?”

Katsuki looks at him with a confused look. “Yuudai, we’re going clothes shopping. Remember, we told you this specifically in plain words yesterday?”

“Clothes shopping, right! But I don’t think I can shop for a week straight.” The two girls drop their heads on the table and groan.

“That was just the first day, dummy.” Katsuki says into the table.

Kirika leans forward into Yuuri’s face. “Oh? Now you’re hanging out with HIM too? Soon you’re going to be spending time with ALL the boys, aren’t you! Miss Popular With Boys!” She sticks her tongue out.

“H-huh? What? Why is it bad to spend time with Yuudai?”

“You heard me! You spend time with… That!” She points at Saito. “And that!,” then points at Yuudai. “And you won’t even look at me once!”

“T-that’s not true! You’re my cute kouhai, I look at you all the time!” Yuuri says in surprise.

“Liar! You don’t go on fake dates with me! Or real dates! Or clothes shopping or arcade shopping or anything! It’s like you don’t think I’m any good!”

“K-Kirika, calm down, le-let’s talk about this later, o-okay?” Yuuri pleads, to no avail.

“No! We need to talk right now, or I’m going to leave and you’ll never see me again! And I won’t be your friend ever again either!”

The table falls silent, the only noise being Kirika’s angry huffing. She stands up and stares directly into Yuuri’s eyes. Yuuri can’t find any words to answer Kirika.

“I figured as much.”

Kirika begins to walk out but is stopped by Yuuri yelling, “Kirika wait!” The younger girl turns around and looks at the girl she admires so much. “I… I didn’t know you felt this way about me Kirika.” Yuuri places her hand on her heart. “I would have been more considerate if I did, I promise.”

Her words have the opposite effect than she was hoping for as the little girl begins to visibly shake with anger. “Of course you don’t know my real feelings because for the past month all you’ve done is smile in the face of that thing there.” She shoots Saito a quick look full of hatred and brings her attention back to Yuuri. “After everything I’ve done. You humans are just so ungrateful.” She turns on her heel and leaves the restaurant.

Her words hang in the air around the table. Yuuri sits wordlessly and stares directly at the door as if she is hoping her friend was going to come back in and declare everything she said was a joke. After the longest moment passes Mari gets up. “I have to go talk to Lil’ Bat.”

Yuudai stands and stops her. “No, Mari. Just let her vent. She just needs to clear her head.”

“Letting her vent is wha’ lead to this sitiation, she thinks we don’t care ‘bout her so we gotta find her and prove ‘er wrong.” She looks at the other members sitting at the table. They all give off looks of confusion.

Yuuri finally breaks out of her haze and stands up. “You’re right. Kirika needs us to be there for her, now more than ever!” She claps her hands and points to the door. “Let’s go find Kirika!”

“Do we have to? This seems like a lot of trouble,” Akina moans from behind a menu. Mari looks at her and grabs her out of her seat. “Hey what the hell? Put me down.”

As the others decide to try and find her, Kirika runs back to the school. She pulls out her phone and starts to write a text. “You’re right, they don’t care about me…”

She receives a response almost immediately, as if the recipient was waiting for her. “I told you so. Why don’t you meet up with me at the school and we can discuss a solution to your issue?”

She races back to the main building, bending over and panting once she reaches the steps. A voice calls out from above her. “So you saw it right?” Kirika looks up to see Kairu standing at the top, his sly smile showing off his teeth. “Humans aren’t to be trusted, and that's why we need to take over.”

The anger Kirika was feeling dissipates. “T-take over?”

He starts to walks to Kirika. “Yes, the humans have forgotten all about the demons they used to stay up at night fearing.” He puts his hands on her shoulders. “And look at the state of Earth right now, wars and killings every single day. They need us now more than ever.” He looks deeply in the eyes of Kirika, the impressionable girl looking more unsure with every word.

“I-I don’t know about this…”

The pretty teen boy’s smile leaves his face. “You still want to try to be friends with the humans?”

“No! I’m just… Why do you want, well, myself to help you with this?”

He chuckles. “Don’t you worry about what your role is going to be, just come with me.”

Kirika nods her head as he moves his hand behind her back and leads her through the school mostly in silence. As he leads her up the stairs to the final floor of the school Kirika suddenly feels a sense of dread come over her. She begins to visibly shiver as Kairu laughs. “Don’t worry, darling. There’s nothing up here that means you any harm.” Kirika looks up at him with an uneasy expression on her face, but she cautiously follows him up to the highest level of the building.

She looks around as she follows his lead, stopping at a door. She gasps as she looks at it, feeling demonic energy radiating from behind it. Whether from fear or courage, she is finally able to speak, only to ask, “W..what’s behind this door? It… it feels scary…”

Kairu reaches out to the handle of the door, his smile seeming more menacing than before. “As I said, there’s nothing here that will harm you.”

“What… what about my friends?”

“They’re not your friends. Only I am your friend now. Those… scum don’t deserve to have your companionship… or their lives.”

“You… you mean…” she stares in horror, only able to blink before she angrily blurts out. “We’re gonna kill people? The people who accepted me into their club? Y-You monster!”

“Oh? I thought they didn’t accept you, what’s this now?” Kairu says in a sultry voice. “Are you having doubts, darling?”

“I.. I was just jealous! I thought you’d help me get back at them so I could get their attention again! Not… Not this!”

“You thought wrong, my little bat. And now it’s too late to go back.” He points at Kirika with his free hand. “You’ve already brought this on them. You’ve assigned to them this fate.”

“I...I didn’t… Y-you’re the one-”

“Under whose suggestion, Kirika?”

“I…. I…” Kirika drops to her knees, unable to make sense of his words. She can only hold her hands to her ears as he laughs.

“And to think, we only wanted to draw out your father, but you made it too easy for us. Now we have you, along with your summoning talents.” He lifts his head to the air and laughs. “And now thanks to your foolish desire for affection, I’ll be able to summon my legions back to this plane and claim it in the name of my master! Or destroy it, if she wishes. Such is the right of beings who stand above humans!” He punctuates his mad speech with a burst of even madder laughter that echoes through the hallway.

The rest of the Paranormal club meet up back at the door of the diner, looking at each other with frowns. Katsuki looks at the remaining members. “You mean, none of you could find her?”

“Hey, I don’t know anything about her, I don’t know where to look. There’s no bat stores out here, so I ran out of ideas.” Cerys says with a chuckle.

Yuuri snaps at her. “Cerys, now isn’t the time for jokes. She could be out there getting kidnapped, or beaten up, or… or anything!”

“Jeez, calm down,” Cerys says, “I’m sure she could summon some big monster thing to take out anyone trying to hurt her anyway. Heck, I’m sure sooner or later we’ll find her just like that.”

Suddenly Mari and Katsuki look up and to the north. “Hey, do… do you all feel that?” Katsuki asks.

“Yeh, Ah do… an’ it don’t feel good at all.” Mari says looking around.

The other paranormies look at the two. “What do you mean? I’m not feeling anything!” Yuudai says. “Nothing besides a nice breeze!”

Before anyone can speak again, they see a small something fall in front of them, seemingly exhausted. It tries to get up, but before it can Yuuri rushes over and scoops it up. “K-Kokoro! I-Is that you, Kokoro?” The bat in her hand can only let out a weakened squeak of approval. “W… what the hell are you doing here? What happened to you? What happened to Kirika, what… what is going on!” she all but yells at it before Katsuki runs up and grabs her by the shoulder.

“Calm down! Kokoro’s hurt and confused enough already, pummeling it with questions isn’t gonna help any!”

The bat shakes its head, then begins to start squeaking more energetically. “It looks like it’s in a panic… is it about Kirika?” Yuuri asks. The bat squeaks in affirmation. “Do... Do you know where she is?” she asks more frantically, resulting in the bat squeaking, then jumping out of Yuuri’s hand, hovering in the air.

Yuuri turns to the others and says with fear in her voice. “Guys…. I think Kokoro knows where Kirika is! Let’s see where she takes us!” She turns and heads towards where the bat is heading.

“It’s flying in the direction of… the school, right?” Cerys asks Akina.

Akina nods. “There’s a… demonic energy coming from that way.”

“Are you kidding me? A demonic energy?” Cerys asks bewilderedly. The others stare back at her with determination in their eyes. Cerys looks back at everyone confused. “Are we really going to follow this bat into the danger zone?”

Katsuki shouts at Cerys. “Kirika’s our friend! We just said we should be there more for her, and she needs us now more than she could ever need anyone!”

“Friendship? Feh.” Akina shrugs. “I’m more concerned with what or who is giving off that energy.”

Katsuki glares at them both. “You two are coming whether you act cool or not. That’s an order!” She then leads the Paranormal Club towards the school, unknowing of the danger but brave enough to face it.