"You must never step on the fourth step. If you break that rule, you will be dragged to the world of the dead. You'll be ripped into countless little pieces—and at twilight, that step drips with the blood of it's victims."

"It's the B stairs in front of the Art room~" Aoi lowered her tone as she tried to scare [Name] from the story she told her. Something about Aoi's stories that comes true later on after she tells the rumor, like that incident with Yousei-san. Where the hell is she getting these stories anyways?

"You sure know a lot, Aoi-san." [Name] stated while crossing her arms in disbelief. Just then, the teacher came into the room leaning against the doorway while holding up a piece of paper to Aoi. The two girls turned their attention to their homeroom teacher which is Nagisa-sensei.

"Akane-san, aren't you forgetting something? Career Counseling, 4:30 in the Art Room."

[Name] grimaced, she used to skip Career Counseling back when she was in Middle School—she rarely attends them nowadays even though it was beneficial for her to view her future. That's why she decided to skip them whenever she can and if she gets caught, she'll simply say that she wanted to think about it. "I have to go now [Name]-chan! I'll read more scary stories to cheer you up!"

"Yes, yes... good luck." [Name] waved her hand as Aoi left with Nagisa-sensei. Yashiro entered the room, said hello to Aoi and headed straight to [Name]. "Eyow Nene-chan, how's looking around for tall handsome boys?" She wasked with a smug grin on her face.

"[Name]-chan! You didn't tell me that you were a model?!" Yashiro shoves a magazine to an open page in disbelief where [Name] is wearing a crop top shirt over a tank top with a pair of long pants. [Name] had forgotten to tell anyone that she does modelling as a part time job just so she can make money to buy albums and lightsticks—even for a concert ticket.

"Ah. I didn't tell you...?" [Name] questioned. She didn't even mention it once. "Yeah, I do modelling as a part time job." Yashiro continued to flip through the pages and show [Name] the pictures of her modelling. [Name] was relieved that she was only there for three pages, she planned to quit the job next year since she's doing this for her own benefit.

"You look so pretty."

"That's because I have a makeup artist. I remembered that I literally have a magazine dedicated to me wearing a clothing brand's winter collection." [Name] shuddered at the memory enduring the insane amounts of preparation of her wearing clothes after clothes, but she got an extra pay after that so it's a win win situation.

"You don't model for swimsuits?" Yashiro closed the magazine and looked at [Name] in curiosity. [Name] shook her head and told her that the agency she works to only allow other models who are now adults to model that type of clothing, since [Name] is still in highschool she would only wear clothes that were suited for her age. "I can't believe Souho-kun ghosted you—like his annoying ego had to dump you not realizing that you're actually a model—"

"I never told him that I was a model." [Name] reminded. "Plus, I'm doing this for rare opportunities so don't expect any extra scenes of me modelling because we need to focus on the plot." She said while casually breaking the fourth wall.

"Right."

➽───────────────❥

[Name] enters the classroom while blinking repeatedly and smacking her lips due to the lack of sleep she's having. She covered her mouth as she yawned. "Good morning..." [Name] tiredly greeted while trudging her way to her desk. When she stopped to hang her bag to the side of her desk, she stopped. "Huh...? Something's not right..."

"Aoi's plants!" Yashiro exclaimed while pointing at the shelves where Aoi's plants were supposed to be lined up on the top. "They're gone!" [Name] hummed, still in a daze. She turned to the side to see that the plants were legit gone—which made [Name] feel wide awake instantly.

"Aoi's plants!" [Name] pointed out in a panic. "They're gone!"

"I just said that [Name]-chan..." Yashiro reminded her with a sweat-drop.

"Did someone clear it away?" [Name] wondered while looking around for the plants, maybe someone moved it to another place. She went to the mokkes who are innocently chewing on candy, [Name] suspected them at first but then she glanced at where Aoi is supposed to be seated.

The desk also disappeared. "What the fuck is happening...? Am I still tripping? Just kidding I don't do that shit, did sumn happen...?" [Name] scratches her hair in confusion. All of a sudden she remembered what Aoi told her about the stairs where it completely wipes out your existence by stepping on the fourth step. 'Don't tell me she stepped into that Misaki Stairs thingy...'

Without any word, [Name] grabbed Yashiro's hand and dashed outside, completely ignoring Nagisa-sensei calling their names. "We're getting to the bottom of this." [Name] told her as Yashiro pulled out her phone to dial Aoi's number but there is no service. "Try to call her family number or something?"

Yashiro decided to dial Aoi's family number, luckily her mom picked up the phone. "Hello, Akane residence." Yashiro tried to reason with her mom about Aoi's whereabouts but no luck, even her mom doesn't know she exist. [Name] puts her hands on her waist in annoyance as to why everyone is dumb—if this is a prank then she had to beat the shit out of them for bullying Aoi.

Then realization hits her when [Name] had a flashback moment where Aoi was last seen, she was supposed to have her Career Counseling with Nagisa-sensei in the Art Room. [Name] slammed her hand to her mouth in shock. 'Art room, B stairs—shit it's the Misaki stairs.'

"I think I know where she is, ever heard of Misaki Stairs?"

Yashiro nodded.

"I knew it. There could be one possibility as to why this is happening, the last time I saw Aoi was when Nagisa-sensei reminded her that she has Career Counseling and told her to discuss things in the Art Room...." [Name] puts on her hand on her chin like a detective in a mystery novel, exerting a hundred percent of her braincells for her hypothesis. "I think she stepped on the fourth step and went bye bye—whelp, we're going to consult Hanako-kun about this thing"

Just as Yashiro turned around, her face collided into someone causing her to fall to the ground. "Nene-chan, are you al—oh god." A tall brown haired boy takes her hand and picked her up as if he was a prince. [Name] thought it was kind of extra and she wanted to take a swan dive off the roof.

"Are you okay?" The guy said while handing Yashiro's phone back.

"Y-Yes." Yashiro replied with hearts in her eyes.

"Ight—cut it off you two." [Name] grabs Yashiro's hand. "Sorry about that dude, but we're in a hurry right now but thank you for helping my friend." [Name] smiled, even though deep down she was literally trying to get out of the situation.

"Don't think about it." The boy winked at the two and left. Yashiro was still fangirling about the guy helping her but [Name] doesn't even bat an eye at him—he looks like a guy who would fish girls into liking him.

"Please tell me you're not going to like that guy, have you seen the look on his face?" [Name] asked Yashiro in disbelief. "He screams playboy energy with that uwu face of his—!" [Name] sighed and motioned Yashiro that they should continue running to the third floor bathroom. What she didn't know that a black origami swan was following her all along.

➽───────────────❥

"Missing?" Hanako hummed while placing a hanafuda to its pair, then taking another card from the stack and placed it along the faced up cards. "Hmmm." [Name] sighed impatiently, crossing her arms in disbelief because they literally skipped classes for them to wait for Hanako but this ghost boy ain't helping them one bit.

"What do you mean 'hmm'? I need more than just a hmm." [Name] stated with a slightly pissed off tone that Hanako is not listening to her about the missing students. "You weren't around all day and I see you playing hanafuda instead of taking this seriously!" She caught Hanako already planning to place the bright card to the rest of the cards without it's pair. "Besides, why the fuck are you placing a bright card already—you could have waited for it's pair!"

"Well, I'm busy too." Hanako bragged while placing a bright card. "You could just call the police about it."

[Name] was even more pissed, her eye twitching a bit as she enclosed her fists. "Hold me Nene—I'm about to beat the shit out of someone—" Yashiro obeyed and held [Name] back as the latter squirmed like an aggressive cat to Hanako. "As if the police would believe that Aoi disappered in a blink of eye along with her stuffs and everyone around her doesn't know she exist!"

"Hanako!"

Kou slides into the bathroom with an angered look on his face as he stomps his way to Hanako. "Minamoto-san, this is the girl's bathroom why the hell are you sliding in like direct messages?!" [Name] asked as the blonde exorcist casually as if it wasn't a big deal. He grabbed Hanako by his shoulders and started to shake him back and forth until he was dizzy.

"Damn it! What did you do with Yokoo and Satou from my class?! Why doesn't anyone remember them?!"

"Whoa buddy, calm down—wait you're in Yokoo's class?!" [Name] tried to peel off Kou from hurting Hanako. "I was assigned to tutor him for two months in order to fix his grades in major subjects."

"Wait—so we're not the only ones who realized the mysterious missing students?" [Name] stopped as she looked at Kou then Hanako for an answer. "Then...?"

"Five Brights." The mokkes announced, [Name] cackled quietly at the corner knowing Hanako had lost to a game of hanafuda. She knew how to play hanafuda back when she was in middle school where she and her dad would play after eating dinner, making silly bets about this and that.

"Hanako, you suck balls in hanafuda." [Name] says with a smug. "Alright, then this is a nice opportunity to explain everything to you clearly." [Name], once again, explained to Hanako what happened today starting on how the missing students are connected to a certain rumor about the stairs.

"Missing students and rumors about the stairs. I think I have an idea." Hanako sighed while fixing his collar.

"I knew it! You no good—"

"Minamoto-san, hold on." [Name] warned the blonde 'kou'hai, blocking an arm in front of him to prevent Kou from attacking Hanako to get more information, they have to be patient or else Hanako wouldn't even say a thing to them. "I got this."

"There are seven places in the school that connects to the spirit world which are called the boundaries, those stairs are one of them. Their whole existence will be erased when they get there." Hanako explained, [Name] raised her hand to ask him a question that concerns her very deeply.

"Is there any wi-fi? Internet access in that so called Boundaries?" [Name] asked, getting her priorities straight. Kou knew about the boundaries since his brother told him about those things, because that is the place where everything is forgotten. Special humans like, Kou, Yashiro and [Name] can be aware of these supernatural occurances.

Hanako chuckled. "I doubt that there will be any service when you're in a boundary, so contacting someone in the human world while you're in the boundary won't work." [Name] nodded in realization after she didn't use her common sense, of course Aoi's contacts were out of service when she and Yashiro tried to call her from the phone.

"Then, the missing students must have been taken to the spirit world? Including Aoi?" Yashiro asked.

"It seems so—but we'll save them, right Hanako-kun?" [Name] unexpectedly grabbed the sleeve of Hanako's uniform with a concerned look on her face. Hanako could only smile and cupped her cheeks to look at him as he starts to squish them.

"Don't look so down, dear. It'll be fine, I'll save them." Hanako giggled while he continued to mush her face, he thought that her cheeks were like mochi considering how soft and chubby they are—like a mochi. "I'm the Seventh Wonder, it is my duty to maintain borders between humans and spirits."

"Hanako-kun..." [Name] pouted as he let go of her cheeks.

"There, there..." Hanako floated while patting the top of her hair.

"Hey!" Kou interrupted the moment by getting between the ghost and the ghosted. Hanako immediately wrapped and arm around [Name]'s head, moving away from the exorcist with a pout.

"What was that for, I was just getting to the good part." Hanako wriggled his fingers from his free hand while his other arm held [Name] firmly.

"Keep your sleezy hands off of [Surname]-senpai!" Kou pulls [Name] away from Hanako, but the ghost grabbed her hand to prevent the blonde haired boy from getting her. [Name] stood there with a deadpanned expression being fought over by two boys—then Yashiro decides to step in.

"Hey! You two!" Yashiro called the boys' attention. "You guys don't realize that..." The cream haired girl snatches [Name] away from the boys and hugged her. "I got [Name]-chan first—because I met her first before you guys." She bragged with a haughty tone.

"You guys should stop fighting over me..." [Name] sweat-dropped.

➽───────────────❥

my favorite trope, characters fighting over mc