moonlight ; hanako x fem! reader

sᴜᴍɪʀᴇ (ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴏɴᴇ)

It had been a good thing that Kou was oblivious to what had happened at No. 6's boundary. Recently, he'd been stressed enough.

He was still at the study camp, helping out the school executive committee, but his mind wasn't there at all. He was supposed to be chopping vegetables but instead he thought about Yashiro and Mitsuba. Kou simply felt like he was stuck. He felt as if he couldn't do a single thing for them, and it left him completely stumped. Even his teammates couldn't ignore his behavior.

"Kou!" Yokoo yelled. "Are you okay? You shouldn't hold a knife if you feel sick."

"I can do it for you," Satou said.

"Ah..." Guilt began to overcome Kou. "You're right... I can't do anything right today."

Yokoo chuckled. "You said it yourself."

"Yeah you're pretty useless," Satou agreed.

"Sorry..." Kou mumbled.

Satou and Yokoo shared a similar look. Then Yokoo slapped Kou on the back and told him, "Don't worry about it!"

Satou crossed his arms. "Just buy us some juice and we'll be over it."

"You guys..." Kou gratefully looked at his two friends.

"Plus some chocolate," Satou added.

"Well, we should be done for now," Yakoo said. "Just ask the senpais if there's anything else to do."

"Leave it to me!" Kou ran off, completely missing the conversation that his friends had about him.

"It's rare," Satou said. "It always feels like Kou is running around without thinking, but these days, he seems very troubled. It would be easier for him if he just confided in us, but Kou never tell us anything."

"Maybe he's just that type?" Yokoo suggested.

"No, you wouldn't understand."

"Okay then?"

The two of them continued to talk, while a familiar ghost watched and listening in on the conversation from the window. Mitsuba rested his head on the ledge of the window, wondering what to do about Kou's situation.

In the end, his decision was to bug him until he fessed up about what bugged him. Mitsuba met with Kou in the bathroom. Yet, he didn't get an ounce of information from him. Instead, they both were caught off track when they heard someone in distress from nearby.

Kou had to take charge and rescue a student from a large supernatural whale that nearly swallow them whole. Yet, the student wasn't just some rando who got caught up in an incident. It was none other than Natsuhiko, who Mitsuba already knew.

"Eh?!" Mitsuba asked. "It's the airhead-senpai!"

"Hmm?" Natsuhiko turned towards him. "Mitsuba-chan?"

Kou looked back and forth between the two with a confused face. Then Natsuhiko grabbed Mitsuba and began ruffling his hair.

"Yo!" he said. "Funny meeting you here!"

"You know each other?" Kou asked.

"Please excuse me." Natsuhiko dramatically stepped onto a table and introduced himself. He pushed his hair back and gave Kou a friendly wink. "My name is Hyuuga Natsuhiko. The kind and cool onii-san. I am here to solve all of your problems. Nice to meet you, Kouhai-kun."

Kou was suspicious of him right off the bat. He leaned towards Mitsuba. "Hey Mitsuba," Kou whispered, "who is he? Don't you think there's something off about him?"

Natsuhiko wrapped his arms around them as if they'd been the best of buds. "Hey, hey, hey. No need to be so nervous. Want to hear something cool? How about a scary story?"