Sometimes, a moonless night can be dangerous. And if you're not careful, you could even disappear.

I looked to my left. And then I looked to my right. On both sides were two figures.

In dismay, I sighed and slightly shook my head. It was too early into the night to be dealing with things like 'this' so soon. But I was left with no choice. I placed my hands into my pockets and waited. 'They' watched me carefully as if they knew about what I was going to do. However, once they saw me as 'nonthreatful', they slowly moved closer, and closer to me. In their hands, something gleamed. They both circled around me slowly, watching my every movement. I too, was being cautious of my surroundings. But, it's just that I lowered my guard down for a reason. Their aura's, were both unsuitable for this area, just pleading to be a threat. The night was cold, and there was nothing but silence. I waited until they got too close.

"Those who wander the night in search for 'food'", I said sternly, "Stand down and accept the coo-existance or die."

And within seconds, a choice was made. 'They' both disappeared in an instant, however, it wasn't that they ran away. No. Again, I shook my head in disappointment as I shifted my position.

'What a shame.'

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I blankly stared at the white sheet of paper in front of me as I heard my name being called by a familiar voice. When I looked up, I saw Airi, who was holding a stack of some white papers. The both of us were in the classroom, sorting out some papers during lunch break. About a few minutes ago, Airi went out to go and get something from the copy room. I don't know how long it took her to get back, but she said that I looked pretty dazed when she came back.

"Jeez, what's wrong with you today ?", she asked as she plopped down into the seat across from me. "You've been out of it since this morning !" I pushed the paper that was in front of me to the side of the desk and rested my head on my arm. "Have I ?...", I mumbled, "I wonder... ""Just what exactly did you do yesterday ?" I thought about it, but then again, it was unnecessary to say. The memory was still fresh. After all, I was awake until about 4:00 in the morning. I shrugged and pulled a grin. "Dunno", I replied. "I can't remember." Airi sighed, and shook her head. "You know", she lectured, while sorting out the papers slowly, "If you keep this up, an honor student like you will definitely be questioned by the teachers. It's not like you to act this way." I chuckled bitterly. 

The recollection of today replayed in my head. It was somewhat amusing to me.

I felt a slight tap on my head as everything around me became silent. I slowly looked up and saw Sensei standing beside my desk, in her hands, a rolled up paper. 'So that's what it must have been.'  "Hanamura-san ?", Sensei asked me, a concerned look on her face, "Is there anything wrong ?" I lazily sat up and took a deep breath. And as best as I could, I feigned a smile. Shaking my head, I sighed. "Sumimasen Sensei", I replied, keeping eye contact with her to show that I was being serious. For a short moment, there was no response from her. Sensei sighed and held the rolled up paper in her hands. "Were you even paying any attention to the lesson ?", she asked as she walked back to the front. I could tell, all eyes on me. Today, there existed a groggy feeling. I slightly leaned against the window wall that was beside me. "No", I replied. "Not at all." Somewhere within the room, there was the faint sound of giggling. Though I didn't mind. My gaze went back to Sensei as she just overlooked the situation and continued on to do what she had been doing before I had interrupted it. Whichever lesson she was on, that is. And when class ended, she asked me to remain.

"'Hanamura-san', Sensei had said, 'It's quite unusual for you to space off like that. You've been doing very well in your studies. So what happen today ? Is there something going on that you'd like to tell me ?'" Though I merely laughed it off in my head. What was there to tell ? Like what I usually did, I just kept it to myself. "'No, there's nothing wrong', I replied back. 'Nothing wrong at all.'

"But you know, Airi", I replied, sitting back up, "Even honor students like to have fun every once and a while. We can't always be so serious." Airi stared at me with a look of disbelief before I felt her kick me from under the desk. "Since when have you ever been serious ?", she said, somewhat chuckling. "Having a serious Shiori would mark the end of the world." I reached for a paper and picked up a red pen. I lazily began doing what I was supposed to be doing. "Yes, yes", I muttered, "Whatever you say."

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When the last bell rang, Shuichi walked up to my desk with his usual, signature smile. "Hanamura-san", he said, "Let's work hard today as well." I guess he was waiting for me...? I stood up from my desk and nodded my head, smiling back. "Yes", I replied. As the both of us left our classroom and walked over to where our next classroom station was, I couldn't help but noticed that I was being stared down by a couple of his fans. Okay, well, maybe not even a couple. It was more like, very single girl that saw us walking by together. I didn't really mind, but I really didn't want any trouble.

The classroom that our next station was in, was classroom 1-5. While cleaning, I couldn't help but question Shuichi. It was when he was cleaning the windows. And it was when I was sweeping the floor. I guess that I was still dumbfounded from yesterday. 

Minamino Shuichi. The 'prince' of Meiou. Yesterday he...

 Slightly looking up, I began to remember about the classmate that I ran into a couple days back. 'Let's see....', I thought. 'So it really was him.' I guess that I hadn't noticed, but he was staring back at me. I didn't even realized until our eyes had locked. "Oh !...", my voice trailed off when I finally noticed. For some reason, he just continued to smile. "Is there something on my face ?", he asked. I shook my head and quickly averted my eyes. "No", I replied faintly, "I was just... cleaning." How careless. 

 By the time that the both of us finished cleaning, it was around 5:30, mid-afternoon. We had been so absorbed in cleaning that we both completely forgot about the time. Last time I had checked, it was only 3:50 in the afternoon. Not 5:30. We did at least, manage to get through 5 classrooms. When Shuichi and I started to leave the school building, some staff members were still running around, probably for some meetings. 

I actually didn't want to dally, so I quickly excused myself. Shuichi questioned me and even said that he would walk me home, but I refused as kindly as I could. I lied about needing to do some errands. In truth, I still wanted to have a slight distance from Shuichi, knowing how dangerous it was to be walking around with him alone. For a fact, I've seen how restless his fan club can get. And in truth, those errands weren't exactly lies. 

Lately, there were a lot of strange things happening around the area that couldn't simply be explained. I really didn't want to delay and let anything else become too dangerous. It was all because of the nights from before. On one of the nights, I encountered 3 of them. And a few nights from before that, I ran into 5 of them. And then just yesterday, I ran into 2 of them. During those nights, I observed quite a lot of hostility and restlessness. Between the coo-existance of this world were the dangers that lurked within every corner. 

There's a reason for why people like 'me', existed. Who knows of the origin, but 'our' job was to protect that 'coo-existance' from breaking. We were to erase anything that caused a disruption.

No questions asked.