Wataru swore that he saw glistening tears in the corner of Natsukawa's eyes.
"Natsukawa?!" Standing up Wataru called out to her retreating back, though that only made her run faster.
Not wanting something to happen to the girl, Wataru followed her out, "Hey Natsukawa! Wait!"
"Leave me alone you idiot! Didn't you say that you were gonna stay away from me?! Why come after me now?!"
"How could I leave you alone in such a state? Calm down for now and stop running, we can talk about this." Wataru had seen and read enough stories to know that leaving someone heartbroken like this alone was not a good idea.
"What more do you wanna talk about?!"
"Natsukawa, why are you acting like this? And are you crying?"
"I thought you would be happy, I am not gonna pursue you anymore and will try to stay as far away from you as possible. Is that not what you wanted?"
Natsukawa abruptly stopped and turned around fiercely, "Yes! Yes! I am really happy you idiot! Now leave me alone!"
After shouting that she sped away, leaving a bewildered Wataru behind.
'Then why are you crying?' Wataru could only think that to himself.
*****
'What was up with her?' Wataru was sitting in his room while thinking about what had just transpired.
'Does she actually like me or what? Why did she always deny my advances so much then?'
"....Tsundere maybe?"
Muling over the word, Wataru realised that mentally ill were the only women he was capable of attracting in both lifetimes.
Was that a bad thing or a good one, he couldn't decide.
'Let's set that aside for now, I will talk to her properly after the task I issued is completed,'
Bring out a pen and paper, Wataru started detailing the plan for tomorrow.
'10 shrines to visit, and while I am at it let's try to find a real martial arts dojo, the aura sensing should help with that.'
'After doing these two things I will go over to Miko's place. She asked me to get rid of the spirit in her house, so some preparations will have to be made for that.'
While Wataru was confident in dealing with some minor spirits, being more cautious wouldn't hurt.
'Last is studying, hmm thankfully with such high intelligence stats it's not a problem anymore.'
"I sure have a lot of things to complete tomorrow."
"What things are you talking about?" Turning towards the sudden interruption, Wataru frowned, "At least knock before entering sis."
"This room used to be mine before!" Saying disdainful, Kaeda sat down on the bed, acting like she owned the place.
"That was 3 years ago! Mom already built you a new room anyway."
"Come on now, don't sweat the small details." Looking at him concentrating on his desk she asked, "What are you doing?"
Exasperated, Wataru asked, "Don't you have anything else to do except bother me?"
"Your beautiful sister is trying to spend time with you and that's what you have to say? You will never get a girlfriend at this rate." Pausing she snickered, "Well not like there was any chance before."
"Just tell me what you want." Wataru just wanted to get back to doing his thing.
"Come to the student council tomorrow."
"Huh? Why?"
"There is a lot of information to organize for the summer vacation campus open day, I want you to help with it." Kaeda said, folding her hands.
"Sorry can't do, I got some things planned for tomorrow." Turning to face her, Wataru continued, "And don't you have other people you can ask that of? Just pick some hapless volunteers from the juniors."
"Plans? What plans?" Ignoring his question, Kaeda asked back.
"Why should I tell you? And if you have nothing to do now, how about getting out?"
"You are not doing anything shady right? Don't make me have to get you out of trouble later okay?" Kaeda put on a serious face as she said.
"Seriously, what do you want? Stop bothering me if you have nothing better to do, I seriously got things to do okay?" Looking at her serious face he continued saying, "And don't worry it's not something to worry about."
"..."
Kaeda kept quiet, still supporting a serious expression. Wataru didn't know what was wrong with her. It had only been two days, could she really have discerned that he was up to no good in such a short time?
Seeing that she was not about to leave, Wataru thought it better to go down and prepare some snacks for later. He still had some studying to do.
*******
After finishing his morning routine, Wataru made his way out.
The first shrine he was gonna visit was named Suga Jinja, it was known for its lush landscape, elegant buildings and it had a unique feel to it because of being in a residential area. It was close to his place too.
As he walked down the road, he couldn't help but feel that there were more spirits around his house than yesterday.
Wataru couldn't help but feel uneasy, was it just him or did it seem like these beings were looking at him?
"Can you see me? Can you see me? Can you—-"
Feeling something was really wrong, Wataru tried to keep a straight face and started walking faster.
As he passed one spirit after another, the growing sense of unease intensified. It was as if he was being targeted by death itself, slowly sharpening its scythe as its victim moved closer to the gallows for his rightful beheading.
'There is something seriously wrong here, I gotta get out! What do I do? What do I do!?' Wataru tried his best to keep calm. Using return wouldn't help and it might even put his family into danger and the only skill worth using in this situation was the Ki movement. Maybe he could try putting his all into running as fast as possible and try to reach a shrine or a holy place? Or maybe he could outrun the lesser spirits and try to engage with the one that was making him feel this unease when it was all alone.
"You can see us, can't you?" He was out of time.
******
Author - I was a bit conflicted what other supernatural anime to mix in this fic. First I was thinking of just going for JJK. Then I thought, "Why not Noragami too?" And then some more came to mind. Got any ideas?