Soft and Chewy

Kōtō, Tokyo 2018

"Come on Haruki or we'll be late for school"

"I'll be right there"

Haruki puts his lucky charm around his neck and walks with his sister to school

Zorana Haruki a 14 year old student at *Tokyo International School in Koto-ku*.

Haruki and his sister enter the classroom and the teacher greets them and tells them that they are late and to take a seat quickly so they take a bench where they sit and quickly take out their school material to copy what is written on the blackboard.

The bell rings and Haruki's teacher pulls him aside and tells him to meet on the school roof after class because they have something to discuss.

The hours pass slowly but finally the class ends and Haruki tells his sister to take her to the front because he has something to discuss with the teacher so his sister listens to him and goes home.

Haruki goes to the roof of the school where he sees his teacher holding a sheet of paper.

"Haruki I know it sounds absurd but take this sheet and when you think you're ready sign it" says the teacher to Haruki

"Okay" says Haruki with a question mark.

"On the back of the sheet it says what it is and what happens if you sign the sheet" says the teacher

Haruki looks shyly at the sheet and sees that it says *Tokyo Curse School*.

"What is this school?" asks Haruki

"It's a school where everything is absurdly weird but don't worry you won't die" says the teacher

"What do you mean I won't die? Is it something dangerous?" asks Haruki

"No it's not normally but you'll see" says the teacher walking past Haruki and going downstairs and then the teacher says "I wish you good luck" and disappears down the stairs

Haruki runs down the stairs and runs home and his sister asks him why he ran like that and Haruki just says he wanted to catch up on his homework

"Since when do you like homework?" his sister asks curiously

"None of your business" says Haruki coming up to his room

Meanwhile

"Where the hell is that sword?" says a voice

"This sword?" says another voice

"Yes, give it to me" says the first voice

"100 yen first" says a second voice

"Give me the sword or I'll beat you" says the first voice

"Fine" the second voice gives him the sword and they go in search of a demon

Back to Haruki

Haruki reads the sheet and writes on it

Dear Zorana Haruki I am Akuhei Nakotsu and I wrote this so that you can be part of the Tokyo Demon Research Society abbreviated "TDRS" if you agree please sign below and then.. well you'll see what happens next

~ Tokyo Demon Research Society? What kind of crap is that? ~ says Haruki in his mind followed by ~ Well I can't know unless I try ~

"What does it say?" says Haruki's sister

Haruki flinches and quickly hides the sheet trying to look calm but failing and telling a lie to his sister to which his sister tells him it doesn't matter and just to come because their mom and dad came home from work and Haruki tells her he'll be there in 5 minutes

Haruki calms down and goes downstairs spending the evening with their parents

Haruki after a hearty meal and a few family games goes upstairs to his room and ignoring the sheet and goes to bed

Haruki hears some knocking on the window but sees nothing.

on that sheet below it says "If you hear knocks on windows, doors or so on and you don't see anything don't open under any circumstances it's possible they are after you" but Haruki ignores the warning and opens the window seeing a boy and a girl fighting with some horned monster to which the boy yells at Haruki to close the window immediately and Haruki listens and in a split second the monster slams into the window

Haruki hides under the bed and after 30 minutes nothing is heard outside so Haruki decides to sign the sheet and after doing so he is pulled into the sheet ending up in a place falling on his butt

"Ouch!"

"Looks like you signed the sheet, welcome to the Cursed School of Koto" says a nicely dressed guy

"Who are you?" asks scared Haruki

"I'm Akuhei Nakotsu, your new teacher" says this guy

"I expected you to look uglier" says Haruki

Nakotsu makes a frowny face because he doesn't understand what he just heard

"Anyway, from now on you're a student of this school" says Nakotsu

"What's the point of this school? You said in that letter that it's a Society that investigates demons, right?" Haruki asks

"Yes, you see lately there are many cases of disappearances due to these demons and of course we need students to fight demons" says Nakotsu

Haruki gets up and tries to run away but bumps his head against an invisible wall

"You can't get out of here unless I give you permission" says Nakotsu

"Why should I be one of your guinea pigs?" Haruki asks

"At this school everyone is equal no one is my guinea pig but you see when you signed the sheet your teacher handed you you signed your own responsibility that you will be part of this school at the cost of your life" says Nakotsu

"Where did it say that?" asks Haruki in fright

"With small text at the bottom of the page next to the place to sign" says Nakotsu smiling at Haruki

"I don't want to participate, I don't want to die" says Haruki

"Very well, if you don't want to participate I can just as easily kill you here" says Nakotsu ready to teach Haruki a lesson

"No, please, fine I'll be part of this school even at the cost of my life" says Haruki still scared

"You see it's possible?" says Nakotsu smiling at Haruki and gets up from his seat

Nakotsu lifts the spell and on a couch next to it is that girl and boy from earlier

"May I present Zorana Haruki" says Nakotsu excitedly

"You see Haruki this is Rika and Akio" says Nakotsu

"That stupid kid for opening the window even though he shouldn't have?" says Akio

"You're a kid just like him and let's not be mean even though he was stupid opening the window" says Nakotsu

"It doesn't matter he is an idiot anyway" says Akio nervously

"Shut up Akio" says Nakotsu

"Fine" says Akio

"Anyway Haruki, like I said this is Akio and Rika both are like you 14 years old Akio is from Shibuya Special Sector and Rika is from Bunkyō Special Sector" says Nakotsu

"How did you guys end up here? Is that how the old man brought you both here?" asks Haruki

Nakotsu stays with his jaw on the ground and tells Haruki that he's not old and he's only 25 and Haruki laughs at him saying he's still old and Akio and Rika laugh too

Nakotsu leaves leaving Akio, Haruki and Rika alone to get to know each other better and after a few hours they are already joking together and having a good time but once Nakotsu shows up Haruki asks him when he can see his family and Nakotsu says anytime if he is not on a mission