Chapter 6: The Chase

Hazel spent the remaining two hours of the day churning out article after article for the journalism club. The room was quiet enough for her to work in peace, but she had always preferred the library’s atmosphere instead. Not like it was in any state for her to do anything there now, unfortunately.

Not after Tomoko’s antics.

Annoyance rose within her again at the memory of her friend’s tasteless prank. Hazel wondered if that was how her past victims felt about her mischievous antics back then.

The last school bell rang for the day. Hazel hurriedly packed her bag and left the empty room before the security guard locked her in for the night.

The girl slipped behind a pillar expertly just as footsteps echoed around the corner. She aligned her shadow with the wall, waiting patiently for the security guard to walk past her, none the wiser. Hazel hurried over to the back door and unlocked it without a sound.

She slipped out and waited. Hazel had stayed back late enough times to know that the guard would normally walk back down the hallway without double-checking that he had locked all the doors. Coupled with all the experience she had as a prankster in her old school, sneaking back into school after closing hours was child’s play to her.

Hazel opened the door and re-entered the building after the guard strolled back to his post at the school gates.

“Right on time. Brilliant.”

She turned around, facing Chester and Liam who were already back in the school compound. Hazel didn’t even bother asking how they got back in through the locked gates this time. Magic certainly was convenient.

“Casting muffling spells, and… done,” Liam muttered to himself. “Now we have a little privacy to ourselves.”

“Oh, I’m so excited!” Hazel squeaked. “Do we need to prepare anything el—”

The girl fell to her knees all of a sudden, clutching her chest as an abnormally strong surge of supernatural energy hit her. Hazel shook her head groggily, trying to stand to her feet. She had never felt such a malicious presence so clearly before.

“Oi, Hazel. What’s wrong?” Chester helped her up. “Blimey, your skin is boiling!”

He let go of her, fanning his hands to cool them down.

“H— Huh?” Hazel winced. Her chest was still throbbing, but at least the supernatural presence was gone now.

Liam tilted his head slightly. “Hazel, are you… magic?”

“What do you mean?”

The boy held her wrist for a brief moment. “Your body temperature is back to normal, which means you don’t have a fever. I just sensed a strong magic resonance flash through your body. What’s going on?”

“Is that what it was?” Hazel said. “I’ve always had the ability to detect paranormal activity. My Grandfather taught me how to focus my senses to do so. I just felt something earlier, that’s all. It’s probably the Hahakigami’s presence.”

“Your Grandfather? What’s his name?”

“Hubert Chekov. He was a famous medium back in the sixties,” Hazel replied. “Though I’m sure all he knew how to do was help people with exorcisms. I’ve never seen him use magic like you guys.”

Chester turned to Liam. “Wow, do you think she might be part Magus or something?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m almost certain she has a powerful innate connection to the supernatural world,” Liam commented. “In fact, her connection might even be stronger than my House.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Hazel waved at them in confusion.

“Each House of Magus have their own affinity to certain aspects of old magic. For example, members of my House can detect presence more keenly than others. Chester’s House is highly adept at conjuration magic,” Liam explained. “But although I possess that power as well, my magic is still more combat-oriented like Chester’s. When your body resonated earlier, I caught a glimpse of how much detail your senses took in. I don’t know if you’re part Magus, but your senses seem highly attuned to the supernatural world somehow.”

“That’s one hell of a surprise.” Chester broke into a wide grin. “So you have a gift for sensing the supernatural, eh? We’ll be counting on you to locate the broom spirit for us.”

Hazel shook her head vigorously. “W— What? No, I can’t control this power! I don’t know how to locate spirits!”

Laughter echoed around the empty school.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just taking the piss, ya?” The British boy tapped her shoulder lightly. “What kind of man would I be if I put a girl like you in danger?”

Hazel heaved a considerable sigh of relief.

“Alright, stop ‘faffing’ around already,” Liam chuckled. “We’ve still got a job to do.”

“That’s not how you use that phrase…” Chester commented absentmindedly.

“Everything’s already in place, but there’ll be a slight change in plans. We’ll go in two groups instead of splitting up individually.” Liam gestured at Hazel. “Since Hazel can also sense magic, she’ll cover the right wing of the school with Chester. I’ll cover the left wing on my own. Keep searching until you get a presence. I believe you remember the rest of the plan.”

Hazel and Chester nodded.

“Great. Time to catch a Yokai.”

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Hazel pushed open the faculty office door slightly, trying to scan the room without scaring any poor soul who still might have been working overtime. Fortunately, the office was as quiet as a morgue. It felt just about as creepy as one too.

“Pst Pst Pst Pst… Over here, little monster…” Chester’s voice cooed from behind her like he was trying to get a stray kitten to follow him. “We’ve got plenty of leaves for you to sweep…”

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“Cut it out, you’re going to attract trouble,” Hazel whispered back as they walked into the faculty office.

“That’s the point, ain’t it?” The boy popped his head over her shoulder. “Hey, wait. Isn’t that the test answers for next semester’s midterms?”

Hazel glanced at the half-open drawer. She could barely see anything in the darkness, but there was no mistaking the huge title on the paper sitting among the pile of student assignments. Chester whipped out a handheld camera immediately and snapped a picture with a blinding flash.

He turned his attention to the other worksheets.

“Oof, Stanley is going to be so disappointed.” The boy set down a piece of paper filled with red markings and a huge, ugly ‘thirty-three out of one hundred’ score on the top right side.

He continued flipping the marked assignments. “Wow, Liam scored eighty-one! Look, Hazel. You passed too!”

Hazel ignored him, keeping her eyes closed in concentration. The Hahakigami was definitely somewhere nearby, judging by how strongly her senses were resonating with supernatural energy. And it might have been just her inexperience, but it felt a lot tamer than the one she had sensed earlier. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought she was sensing two entirely different things.

“The Yokai is somewhere close,” she blurted out randomly. “I can feel it.”

They headed back for the doors.

“Sucks for Liam, having to wander the school at night for no reason,” Chester commented breezily as he stepped out of the faculty office. “I guess we get to—”

Hazel inhaled sharply as she froze in her tracks. There was no doubt that the Hahakigami was right in front of them. No, not because she could sense its presence this time.

Because a broom was floating by itself, sweeping the dried leaves that Chester had scattered along the corridor.

“Get it!”

Hazel’s body moved without thinking, pulling out the Shide from her blazer pocket. She thrust it forward, and the broom dropped to the ground immediately. Dried leaves rustled as something invisible pushed them aside, fleeing from the warding talisman like a wild bat out of hell.

“Keep pushing it to the canteen!” Chester yelled from behind.

Purple glyphs ran along his legs as the boy leapt ahead of Hazel, floating to the second floor as though he had been pulled up by invisible wires. He disappeared from view.

Hazel panted with exhaustion, struggling to keep up with the invisible Yokai. The monster was probably only the size of a small dog, judging from the little thumps it made when colliding with the corridor walls. But boy, was it agile.

The sound of metal falling echoed around the empty canteen as the Yokai crashed into the tables and chairs, heading straight for the left exit. Dull thuds followed as Hazel struggled to manoeuvre through the maze of long benches littering the canteen. She gritted her teeth in frustration; she was falling behind fast. At this rate, she was going to lose the Yokai before—

“Aha!”

Chester burst into the canteen with his talisman attached to his chest, blocking the Yokai’s escape.

Metal rattled as a fenced-up food stall shook violently, presumably from the impact of the startled Hahakigami crashing into it. More dried leaves parted, forming an obvious path towards the right exit now.

“Hazel, come here!” Chester gestured to Hazel as both of them ran towards the exit. Hazel changed directions, running towards the boy instead.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, staring straight ahead at the school entrance behind the exit.

“Flash… Forward!”

The world spun into a kaleidoscope of colour and sound as Hazel felt her insides lurch. White light overwhelmed her vision for a brief moment before darkness flooded back again.

“Gotcha!”

It took Hazel a few moments to realise that Chester had teleported the both of them a few dozen metres forward, and she was facing the locked school gates now. A high-pitched wailing caught her attention as she turned around.

A broom-like creature was writhing on the floor in front of a huge mirror, its bristles fluttering around what looked like its face. Its saucer-sized eyes were rolling around, while its four bamboo legs flailed in the air like an overturned cockroach.

Hazel stared at the creature in awe.

Purple flashed before her eyes as Chester threw out a glowing chain that wrapped itself around the Hahakigami. The boy muttered some kind of incantation under his breath, and the Yokai dissolved into a glowing yellow orb.

It floated into his palm gently. Chester pulled a small rectangular box out of thin air and stored the orb.

“That went… just as well as I’d expected it to go.” He grinned, keeping the box in his pocket. “Thanks for helping me to corner it, Hazel.”

A shiver went down Hazel’s spine as the familiar resonating feeling flooded her body again. Her breath caught. It didn’t make any sense. If the Hahakigami was already caught, why was she still sensing a malicious presence? Unless…

“Hazel?”

The girl dashed towards the left wing of the school without warning, guided by pure instinct. Her heart flew to her mouth as the murderous presence got stronger with each step. Blood pounded in her head, muffling Chester’s calls from behind.

“Watch out!”

A blue chain wrapped around her waist and yanked her back. She screamed as something sharp slashed dangerously close to her neck, leaving a gash on the wall beside her. The girl tumbled on the floor, staring in shock at the monster hovering in mid-air.

A disembodied woman’s head snarled, revealing rows of sharpened teeth coated with brown patches of dried blood. Its eyes were completely black, while its long black hair flowed all around like it was underwater.

Glowing shurikens rushed towards the floating head as Chester dashed forward, but they were easily swatted aside with a few flicks of the monster’s unnaturally long tongue. The Yokai glared murderously at the boy sprawled on the floor.

It lunged towards him, intent on making one final attempt at taking his life.

Liam flipped around just in time, blasting it back with a powerful-looking fireball. The decapitated head shrieked and charged towards Hazel instead.

She screamed.

“NO!”

Brown flashed before the girl’s eyes as Chester stood in front of her, blocking what would have been a fatal slash to her neck.

Blood gushed from his forearm and stained the floor.

Yellow chains charged at it from behind, but the floating head turned around and shattered them with its tongue instead. It shrieked one last time at the trio before fleeing into the darkness at an incredible speed.

“Ugh, dammit,” Liam hissed, punching his palm. “Slippery bastard. We’ll get you soon.”

He turned his attention back to Chester, who was already in the process of magically sealing up the huge gash in his arm.

“You… You saved me.” Hazel knelt beside Chester, although he was clearly capable of taking care of himself. “Thank you.”

“That makes two times, eh?” the boy chuckled softly. “Wasn’t expecting the Rokurokobi to be here as well.”

“Shame it managed to get away,” Liam said. “Please tell me you’ve at least caught the broom spirit.”

“Sure did.” Chester showed him the rectangular box now filled with glowing runic symbols. “I don’t think we should split up like this again. I have a feeling the rest of the Yokai won’t let themselves get caught this easily.”

“Agreed.” Liam nodded. “If everyone’s alright, shall we call it a night? I’m feeling rather tired.”