“Simply put, Kaori’s a vengeful spirit,” Hanako said, bluntly, folding her arms and crossing her legs in mid-air. “And a delusional one at that”

“So she still has regrets?” Niko clarified, his interested piqued, despite the frightening the facts that he had just heard. “Then if she’s so dangerous, why not fulfil those wishes?”

“Yeah…it’s not that simple, y’see…Kaori’s wish is cut every human alive”

“Again with the whole cutting thing…Why is she so hung up on that?”

“She picked up the habit from a past incident involving her man at the time”

“Well, couldn’t they just meet up and sort things out? I’m having trouble believing Kaori’s habit starting from a falling out with her boyfriend, Hanako”

The spirit chuckled to herself, whilst quickly snatching Niko’s cup of half-empty green tea and downing the lukewarm liquid in a single gulp.

“That was mine…” the teenager pointed out, not even going to bother asking why.

“Sorry, just wanted to get the taste of beer off of my tongue. Booze from Convenience Stores always have that nasty aftertaste, don’t they?”

Niko shrugged.

“Wouldn’t know, I’m a minor” he replied, casually. “Anyway, you went off track; what’s the deal with Kaori’s husband then?”

“Huh? Oh, I never met him; heard he was a real douche though”

“Right…Also, why are you addressing him in the past tense?”

“He died ages ago”

“Oh, sorry…”

“Don’t be. He committed seppuku for treason”

“W-What? Seppuku? In this day and age?” Niko exclaimed, in disbelief.

“Yeah. Sword straight through the stomach and then beheaded” Hanako replied, making a cutting motion to her own neck. “And what do you mean by ‘in this day and age’? I already mentioned that it happened way back in the day”

“How far back?”

“Edo Period”

The blank expression from Niko’s face forced Hanako to sigh and reword her statement.

“Tokugawa shogunate?”

Still no reaction.

“Samurais, Niko. Kaori’s husband was a samurai”

“No way! That’s decades ago!”

“Yeah, that’s what I said” Hanko replied, shaking her head. “Honestly, are you stupid or something?”

“W-Wait. If that’s the case, how old is Kaori?”

Hanako’s face suddenly lit up in mischievous glee.

“Oh? Curious about her age are we, sir?” she said with a wry smile. “In that case I’ll tell you her exact age”

“W-Well, I’m not that curious about it”

“Sure you are! Geez, are all young men these days so curious?”

The small spirit floated up to Niko’s left ear and readied herself to reveal Kaori’s devastating truth…

“I’m back! Kaori, when’s dinner? I’m starving!”

An unfamiliar, husky voice.

“Aww, too bad! I’ll tell you later, Niko” Hanako said, quickly putting some distance between the two of them.

“Hanako? You’re here again? You best not be drinking, not after what happened last time,” the voice said with a somewhat oppressive tone. Whomever the voice belonged to was already on the opposite side of the Common Room’s door.

The door suddenly flew open with such force that it almost came off its hinges as it slammed against the wall; it’s like the person had kicked it open!

The first thing that Niko recognised about the girl standing in the doorway was her height. Making a rough guess of six-foot something, the teenager also noticed her somewhat broad shoulders and the impressive amount of muscle on of her toned arms. She was also wearing a female version of the Ishimaku’s school uniform. Nevertheless, the most eye-catching thing was her messy, tangled black hair that rolled past her shoulders and the long, skin-coloured pointed horn that protruded from her forehead.

Her face suddenly changed from a neutral expression to a disgusted one.

“Something reeks…” she began, looking around. “Of human…”

Her eyes instantly locked with Niko’s and just by looking at her, the teenager could already feel the murderous aura she was giving off.

“Why’re you here? Answer me!” she spat angrily, snatching the transfer student up by his collar. “If you want to live, answer me!”

“W-Wait a second! Put me down!” he exclaimed, struggling against this girl’s brute strength, but he discovered that there was no way in hell he was going to escape her incredible grasp.

“Who the hell are you giving orders to, you piece of shit!”

“You just asked me to answer you, now let go already!”

“You lowly human, you’ll regret the day you made me your enemy, even when you’re dead!”

“Wait, what the hell are you talking abou…”

The girl suddenly cut the transfer student mid-sentence, quickly raised her right hand and balled it up into a fist before briefly smacking Niko across the face with terrifying force, knocking him out almost instantly. The only thing that Niko could make out clearly, before his consciousness faded entirely was the satisfied demonic grin of the girl in front of him…