Chapter 09 - The More, The Mary-ier

Who is Mary-san or Mary-chan, you may ask?

Mary-san is a popular Japanese urban legend that ends with the line "I'm right behind you now." This, along with the building dread of Mary-san getting closer and closer, made it extremely popular, as it's left to the imagination what happened after the ending. This also led to several variations of the story, however, where people tried to fill in the gaps.

Why are the Quints using Mary-san as their costume for the test of courage when it will be difficult to copy her?

Mary-san can teleport after she ends the call. While the Quints cannot teleport, they can imitate it by having one Quint call while the other can sneak up behind them and give them a scare.

What will Futaro do while the Quintuplets are doing the test of courage?

He will guide the students along the correct path, as there are two paths - one leading back to camp and the other leading to the cliff.

Now, back to our characters.

The first group arrived. They walked along the path. As they continued walking, a phone ringing from within the bushes caught their attention. Curiosity piqued, they approached it and one member picked it up. To their surprise, there was a caller on the other end. The person answered the call.

The place where they picked up the phone was a very bushy area. People could easily hide in the bushes there. That's probably what the group expected. Someone would suddenly appear out of the bushes and scare them. They were fifty percent correct. And the other fifty were people sneaking up on them and scaring the living daylights out of them.

-This is Mary-san. I'm right behind you now.- The voice on the phone said.

The group, though half scared, was curious. And they couldn't help but look behind them and shine their lights towards their back. There stood a person.

They saw curly brown hair, a ruined face, a frilly dress, and completely white eyes. In fright, they fell down. The figure looked at them and eerily smiled. This caused them to quickly stand up and run away.

As they continued to run, the voice behind the call went out. Ichika then placed her hand on Miku's shoulder. The rest of the Quints and Fuutarou emerged as well.

"Let's scare the next group too!" You might think that it's Yotsuba who said that, but it was actually Itsuki."

"I thought you hated scary things, Itsuki." Fuutarou remarked.

"Doing the scaring and being scared are two very different things." She replied.

"I didn't expect it to actually work." She said while using her towel to dab Miku's sweat, not wanting to ruin the makeup Nino put on her. All of them had makeup and when the next group came, it would be Ichika's turn to scare them.

"Me neither." Miku replied as she allowed Ichika to wipe her sweat from her forehead; the dress she wore was really hot inside.

"There you go." Ichika said.

"Miku, face here." Nino said and took her makeup and started applying it to the places where her sweat had stained. Nino had fixed Miku's makeup before Fuutarou said.

"Hmm? It seems that the next group is coming."

Ichika started to walk to the bushes and hid behind them. Miku picked up the phone from the last group and placed it on the path. She and the others hid.

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A lot of people started coming and going. Most of the people who got scared shared the news about the test of courage to their classmates. And new people who came were extremely on guard, even doing research on how to counter Mary-san. Unfortunately, unlike the urban legend, the Quints weren't affected by it and continued scaring the people.

Sometimes, the Quints would even change their strategy just to scare them. Strategies Fuutarou had thought up. Like all five of them would come out and scare the people together.

Maeda, whom Futarou once had a problem with, came with a girl from his class named Matsui, his future wife. But that's a story for another time. Matsui screamed and clung to Maeda when she got scared. She hid her face on his chest. Maeda gave a thumbs up to Fuutarou, who in turn, gave a thumbs up back.

The Quints, who had scared Matsui, swayed their heads from left to right as if to say, "Boys will be boys..."

Seven out of ten people got scared and turned back. When the students weren't scared, Fuutarou came out and told them the directions.

Alas, like all things, it must come to an end. It was time to clean up and leave. There's still two hours before lights out, but the Quints decided to end it early since they still had to clean their makeup and take a bath.

Fuutarou went to the restroom and when he came back, he looked a little pale. People who saw him were left wondering, 'What had he seen that made his face so pale?'

Fuutarou tried to sleep but couldn't. He had been awake since one am and was exhausted by the time he finally fell asleep. When he woke up, he was already tired, even though he had just woken up. Fuutarou was furious, furious at the Quints for pulling the prank.

Fuutarou met up with the Quints who were looking at him with worry and concern. Nino, who was worried the most, asked, "Fuu-kun, are you alright?"

"I'm fine; I just need some sleep." He replied and yawned.

"Other students have been talking about you. They say that after you came out of the restroom, you looked very pale." Ichika said.

"And whose fault is that? One of you acted like Mary-san and scared me last night." Fuutarou said in a pissed voice.

"What are you talking about?"

What do you mean, "what am I talking about?" Didn't one of you guys call and scare me?

"Fuutarou... All five of us were in the public bath when we parted ways...."

"If you hadn't come to scare me last night, then who?"

Fuutarou and the Quintuplets suddenly heard a mischievous child's laugh.

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☆★☆ Canon Side Story(Omake 2) - Mary-san of the toilet? ☆★☆

After entering the restroom, Futarou washed his face and dried it with a towel. His phone suddenly rang. He checked it and saw a different number. He answered it, thinking that it was someone who had the wrong number.

"Excuse me, but I believe you have the wrong number." He said

"This is Mary-san. I'm in front of camp entrance." Then the phone hang up.

"Pffft. Haha." Fuutarou laughed. He found the call a bit funny; he thought the Quintuplets might be pranking him.

Then his phone rang again. Thinking it was the Quintuplets, he picked it up and said, "Nice try, but I know you're one of the Quintuplets."

"This is Mary-san. I'm in front of the dorms." And hang up again.

"Not admitting it? Fine, two people can play this game." Fuutarou said and then waited for the phone call. His phone rang again and he answered it.

"Oh no, I think Mary-san is really haunting me~!," Fuutarou said in a playful tone

"This is Mary-san. I'm in front of the restroom." Once again, she hung up.

"Okay. This is no longer funny." Fuutarou said as he started getting goosebumps.

Then, for one last time, his phone rang. Fuutarou was hesitant to answer it, knowing full well what Mary-san would be calling about. However, driven by curiosity, he answered it anyway.

"This is Mary-san. I'm inside one of the stalls." It hung up.

Fuutarou thought, "Wouldn't she be telling me that she's behind me? What does she mean by 'stalls'?" And then he looked in the mirror. On the open door of one of the stalls, a head peeking out at him could be seen. Fuutarou spotted that and was scared shitless. He blinked and looked at it again, but it was gone.

Without any second thoughts, he left the restroom looking quite pale. While walking, he thought that it might have been due to what had happened earlier in the day, and his mind was imagining things, which is why he thought he saw a head inside one of the stalls.

Even so, he vividly remembered the face he had seen and couldn't sleep because of it. However, by one o'clock in the morning, and due to exhaustion, his eyelids finally closed and he didn't realize that he had fallen asleep until he woke up in the morning.

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Author Section :

1039 chapter words.

402 side chapter words.

Another week has gone by and here I am writing a new chapter. Even though I said that the voting last until the end of this fanfic, I expected a vote to come. Dunno why.

There's 3 more months before October comes and I already wrote a horror side story. Not really a scary side story because I didn't find it scary just a bit mysterious, but I can't say the same to you guys.

Anyway, thanks for reading this fanfic. I'm trying to create a chapter during weekdays but my mind is having a hard time focusing on one thing.

Get the title pun? The More, The Mary-ier (Merrier)

A message for MintUniverse (Even though I know other people are going to read it.) :

I'm a bit sad that MintUniverse isn't commenting, I'm reading your comment. I just don't know how to respond. If you're a bit busy then it's fine.

Well, that's all. See you next week.

Next chapter, Two Hearts, Beating As One