化物狩団

Chihaya walked beside him after the meeting was over. It had been more of a success (could you call three other people a success?) than he thought it would be. He thought about it. A kid who knew a lot about this kind of stuff, some freak who seemed really excited to hunt anything, and a girl whose father also hunted monsters. Raizou had no idea people actually did that kind of thing. Did that even count as a job-

"Hey, Commander!" Chihaya was pulling on his sleeve. She looked a bit peeved, so she must have been trying to get his attention for some time. After ending the meeting, they had begun walking home.

"What." She wasn't going to let up about that, was she?

She smiled. "I think this'll be a lot of fun, don't you?"

Not really, not when ghosts are trying to kill you.

"Are you still having that 'ghost' problem?"

In fact, the last couple nights, Raizou had awoken with long scratches on his arms. Luckily, there was no bleeding, but they had hurt. Chihaya would probably take it the wrong way, though. "Yeah, a bit."

"Hmm." She put her palm on her cheek. "We can take care of that first."

"I don't even know what it is."

They stopped in front of Chihaya's street. She stared at him. "Want me to come over later?"

"No, thanks; I'll be fine."

She made a non-committal noise. "See you tomorrow, then!" She waved as she walked away from him. Raizou continued on his way.

"I'm home," he called as he entered his house.

"Welcome back!" His mother was in the kitchen. His brother's shoes were also in the front. He went straight to his room.

That night, Raizou had trouble sleeping. Nightmares were the only thing that he ever dreamed, and eventually he woke with a start. He sat up and put his head in his hands, sighing. His arm stung with a piercing pain. Nothing new, though, as he probably had been scratched again. He stared down at his blanket, and his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. Funny, the blanket didn't have a dark stain when he went to bed. He touched it with his hand; it was wet and sticky.

That was not a good sign.

He hurriedly looked at his arm; his right forearm had three, distinct scratches running along it. All were gushing blood.

He must have screamed because his mother came rushing in moments later.

"What happen- oh my God!" She stopped in the doorway.

Raizou looked down; there was a lot more blood than he had thought. It had soaked into his futon and a little in the tatami. He wondered for how long he had been bleeding.

"Raizou, what did you do?" She sounded a bit desperate.

He shook his head as his mother dragged him out of his futon and into the kitchen. It took a few minutes to slow the bleeding and apply a bandage. Raizou was sent to her futon to sleep while she cleaned up his room.

He winced every time something touched his arm or when she had to move it. This quickly became a problem since he was right handed. It also didn't help that Chihaya greeted him that morning by jumping on his arm and almost knocking him over.

"Gooooood morning, Commander!" She smiled as she unknowingly tried to kill him.

Raizou quickly pulled away and grasped his arm. He glared at her.

Chihaya's smile faded. "What's the matter? Is something wrong?"

He rubbed his arm. The scratches must have been deeper than he thought; they still stung, and that morning they were still bleeding a little. "Nothing's wrong." That wasn't going to work for too much longer. Chihaya knew him too well. He didn't want to tell her yet. She would take it the wrong way, absolutely.

She stared at him for a moment longer, then turned and started walking towards school. "Fine, whatever. Let's go or we'll be late."

Raizou followed after her.

The rest of the day went in a similar manner. He checked his arm periodically to see that it was, in fact, still bleeding slightly. Chihaya kept trying to find out what had happened, and he kept avoiding her. Her patience wouldn't last much longer, though. He could tell by the end of the day; her prying questions had become angry glares in his direction every time he looked at her. Raizou couldn't take much more of that.

This continued until the club meeting. Nothing much else was happening. Everyone had shown up, though, and that was a surprise. He had really expected the quiet one, Mihoko, to not come back (what with Chihaya all over her yesterday).

"Anything planned for today?" Kintarou asked.

"Actually," Raizou stood up, "I'd really like to take care of this ghost. It's trying to kill me."

"Uh huh." Chihaya was very convinced.

Raizou stared at his friend as he pulled up his right sleeve, exposing the bandage and his wounded arm (which was still bleeding). The whole room became silent, everyone becoming wide-eyed. Mihoko gasped and put her hands to her mouth.

"Raizou, what did you do?!" Chihaya jumped out of her chair and ran over to him. She grabbed his arm and pulled him closer. He cringed at the pain that seared through where she touched him.

"I didn't do anything!"

She glared at him. "If it's like that one ti-"

"Chihaya." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her out into the hallway. Whatever she was about to say didn't concern anyone else.