The third-floor hallway of Sainan High felt less like a school corridor and more like the execution grounds of a medieval castle.
Rito stood completely frozen in his tracks. A cold, terrifying bead of sweat slowly rolled down the side of his cheek, dropping onto the collar of his school shirt with a tiny, silent splat.
Forming an impenetrable, terrifying blockade across the entire width of the hallway was an angry mob of girls. Leading the charge, radiating an aura that practically burst into visible, scorching flames, was Kotegawa Yui. Standing directly behind her, looking equally flushed and incredibly indignant, was Tenjouin Saki, flanked by her two loyal lackeys, Aya and Rin.
Behind them stood half a dozen other girls, their hair still slightly damp from the club bathhouses, glaring daggers at the orange-haired boy.
While a certain bald gym teacher had technically been a victim of this rampage as well, the man had been far too embarrassed by the sudden, breezy exposure of his shiny scalp to actually chase after the culprit. Thus, he was completely absent, leaving Rito to face a firing squad composed entirely of furious, blushing teenage girls.
"Yuuki Rito," Yui growled.
She simply raised her arm, pointing her trembling index finger directly at the space between Rito's eyes like a loaded weapon.
"You have exactly five seconds to explain your horrific, shameless, perverted rampage through the school before I execute you where you stand," Yui declared, her voice echoing off the lockers.
Rito blinked, his golden-brown eyes wide with genuine confusion.
"My... rampage?" Rito echoed, his voice cracking slightly.
"Don't you dare play dumb with us, Yuuki Rito!" Saki stepped forward, flipping her blonde drills over her shoulder with a dramatic swish. "You came bursting into the girls' locker room like a wild animal while we were right in the middle of changing out of our PE uniforms!"
While Saki had previously tried to seduce Rito and had even employed tactics which are far more embarrassing than having herself looked at while changing, she didn't like the fact that it was something outside her decision. If Rito wanted to look at her underwear… or even at her naked body, it would be on Saki's terms, or at least, that's what she had envisioned.
"T-That's right!" Aya chimed in, pointing accusingly. "You threw the door open so hard it nearly took the hinges off!"
"And you just stood there watching us!" Rin added, her face red.
"Exactly!" Saki crossed her arms, pushing her chest out slightly, though her face was burning. "You barged in, stared directly at my premium, imported lace bra with absolutely blank eyes, and then just sprinted away without even a single word of apology or praise! The absolute nerve!"
"And that wasn't all!" one of the girls with damp hair shouted from the back of the group. "You ran straight into the girls' club shower room right after that! You stared at all of us while we were trying to cover up with buckets, and then just vanished like a gust of wind!"
Gasp!
Rito sucked in a sharp breath, his face instantly draining of all colour. His stomach dropped like a lead weight.
'I did what now?!' Rito screamed internally, his mind reeling. 'Locker rooms?! The shower room?! Did all of that happened while I was…'
But the accusations weren't over. Yui stepped forward again, her face transitioning from a furious red to a violently explosive shade of dark crimson. Her entire body was trembling with a mixture of immense anger and deep embarrassment.
"And then," Yui hissed, her voice dropping an octave, practically vibrating with lethal intent. "After terrorizing the locker room and the shower room... you came sprinting toward the central stairwell. You stopped at the very bottom..."
Yui had to stop, violently biting her lower lip as steam practically whistled out of her ears.
"You stopped right at the bottom of the stairs... and stared directly up my skirt for like three whole seconds!" Yui shrieked, unable to hold it back any longer. "SHAMELESS! INDECENT! You didn't even try to look away! You just stood there and stared at my panties!"
The hallway fell dead silent.
Rito felt like his soul had just left his body. The weight of the offenses he had apparently just committed came crashing down on him. Even though he had absolutely zero memory of doing any of it, looking at the genuinely furious, embarrassed faces of the girls standing before him, he knew they weren't lying. His body had done it.
And he was not someone who would run away without taking responsibility for his acts, even if they were done under supernatural influence.
Without a single second of hesitation, Rito snapped his feet together.
Fwump!
He bent cleanly at the waist, dropping into a deep, perfect, ninety-degree bow. He kept his head firmly pointed at the floorboards, his voice ringing out through the hallway.
"I am incredibly, incredibly sorry!" Rito shouted, his voice laced with genuine shock and deep remorse. "I don't know how to explain it, but I truly, deeply apologize for whatever my body had done! I am so sorry for scaring all of you, for intruding on your privacy, and for... for staring at you guys! Please forgive me!"
The speed and sincerity of the apology momentarily stunted the angry mob.
Saki blinked, her arrogant posture faltering slightly. Aya and Rin exchanged confused glances. Even the girls from the bathhouse lowered their defensive stances.
They had expected him to make excuses, to run away, or to stutter out some perverted justification like most boys would. Seeing him instantly take full accountability and bow so deeply threw a wrench in their collective fury.
But Yui was not going to let it go that easily. She was the Morals Prefect, and a simple bow wasn't going to erase the memory of his glowing golden eyes staring directly at her underwear.
"An apology is not enough, Yuuki Rito!" Yui snapped, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. "I demand a full explanation! What kind of sick, perverted motivation drove you to sprint across the school like a programmed machine?!"
Rito stiffened. He kept his head bowed, cold sweat pouring down his face.
'An explanation...' Rito thought frantically. 'How am I supposed to explain this? I was possessed by a literal ghost!'
He knew that all these happened after Oshizu had possessed him or at least tried to. Given that he had woken up on the roof with Haruna. That meant his body had sprinted from the second floor, through the courtyard, up the stairs, and onto the roof all while the ghost was trying to take the wheel.
But he couldn't just say that.
'If I tell them a ghost possessed me, they're going to think I'm making up the worst, most pathetic excuse,' Rito realized with a sinking dread. 'None of them even know Oshizu exists! If I say a ghost did it, Kotegawa is going to call me out for lying on top of everything else!'
He was completely trapped and utterly speechless.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The soft, rhythmic sound of footsteps descending the nearby stairwell broke the heavy tension in the hallway.
"Umm... excuse me?" a gentle, sweet voice called out.
The entire mob of girls turned their heads. Rito slowly raised his head from his deep bow, letting out a massive, internal sigh of relief.
Sairenji Haruna was walking down the last few steps from the roof. She had a soft, apologetic smile on her face. But it wasn't Haruna that made the entire mob freeze in their tracks.
It was the girl floating right behind her.
Hovering about a foot off the ground, wearing a white kimono, was a translucent girl with long blue-violet hair and irises eyes. She had no legs beneath the hem of her kimono and purple sash, her spectral body glowing with a faint, ethereal blue light with light coloured wisps floating around her.
"H-HIIIIIIIEEEE!"
The collective scream from Saki, Aya, Rin, and the other girls nearly shattered the glass windows of the hallway. Several of the girls hugged each other in sheer terror, backing up against the walls.
*****
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✓ Killed For 100 Years in Hueco Mundo, Aizen Invited Me To Soul Society!
✓ Naruto: Senmei Asahi
✓ Naruto: Uchiha's Intelligence Dealer
✓ Naruto: The Fifth Hokage Is Naruto's Uncle
✓ Naruto: Who Made Him a Ninja?
✓ Bleach: In My Second Reincarnation, I Became The Ninth Kenpachi
✓ To Love-Ru: Spoiler Route [R-18]
✓ Naruto: The Accidental Incubus [R-18]