ꜱᴀᴠᴇ ᴍᴇ. | ʜᴀɴᴀᴋᴏ

ꜰᴏᴜʀ

     After the mermaids defeat Y/N helped Hanako get off of the ground after checking for injuries, even though Hanako insisted he was fine since he was a ghost.

     "W... What about you Y/N? Are you injured!?" Yashiro fretted, concerned for her best friend's well being. Y/N turned around to look at the tiny fish and flashed a grin, giving her a thumbs up. 

     "I'm completely fine Yashiro! I'm just so happy that I was able to protect you." Y/N replied, her usual cheerful tone back into play. Yashiro blushed slightly at her friend's kind words, but she couldn't help but think back to how Y/N acted only minutes earlier.

     Was that really her best friend she saw a few minutes ago?

     Yashiro's thoughts were cut off by Hanako's loud voice interrupting the girls' conversation, a grin on his face as well. "I'm so glad that you and Y/N are safe as well! However, Y/N only temporarily got rid of the mermaid. She's pretty persistant though, and I know for a fact that she'll be back again soon if we don't fix your predicament.. But at least we brought ourselves some time to think things over." 

     "I don't want to go through that again!" Yashiro exclaimed, tears in her small beady eyes. "Can you guys keep her away...? I don't want to spend the rest of my life with that awful sea witch! This is all because I wanted a boy to like me.." Before Y/N could even try to reply or comfort her friend, Hanako stepped in front of the tank with a closed eye smile. That is, until he looked down into the tank, giving Yashiro a taunting expression, poking a finger at her head. 

     "You humans love ghost stories, but you don't take them seriously until someone gets cursed. You think that every spell will work in your favour. I begged you not to eat that scale, didn't I?" Hanako taunted, poking Yashiro's tiny head with his pointing finger repeatedly. "But.. You. Did. It. Anyway." He said with each word receiving a poke. 

     "Hey Hanako..." Y/N spoke up, causing the black haired boy to turn his head to the girl walking towards him and Yashiro. "Yashiro didn't use that scale on Minamoto, which means she still has a chance at becoming a human right?" 

     This question made one of Hanako's eyebrows raise up in interest before he nodded to agree with the H/C haired girl. "That's right!"

     "And that chance of becoming a human also comes with a price, am I correct?"

     "Correct." Hanako replied to Y/N, inspecting the scale he had between his fingers as his eyes flickered between the scale and Y/N.

    "That's fine then!" Y/N exclaimed, then snatched the scale right out of Hanako's hand, startling both Hanako and Yashiro. Though the ghost boy was even frightened than the latter because the young exorcist girl started to put the scale to her mouth, making Hanako panic even more if that was even possible. "I'll grant Yashiro the freedom to be a human myself, since you're going to make her pay a price! I'd rather take on Yashiro's suffering rather than her take it herself!" 

     Finally regaining his composure, Hanako stopped the girl by gently grabbing her wrist before snatching the scale back with his other hand. "Fine, fine! Her price wasn't even going to be life threatening or terrifying anyway.. But since you want to make her price as low as possible, how about we split the scale between the both of us? After all, I can't have my bodyguard turn into a fish on me." Hanako teased, before breaking the scale into two perfect halves, giving the exorcist one. 

     "Oh right, I forgot.. I already swallowed one. I guess swallowing two would make me a fish after all.. I guess I have to be cautious and think before I actually do anything.." Y/N thought before snapping out of her thoughts to place her attention back on Hanako.