A Ghost's Oneshot Compendium

[SpoopyGhost]

It seems that sometimes the best cure for writer's block is to write something completely different. Or so, that is the hope at least. In any case, I have a number of miscellaneous ideas that do not warrant becoming their own full projects, but which I still wished to write out in some form, so this is meant to be a collected repository for those one-time works. I can only hope that these will help rather than hinder my two primary projects. Content warnings will be provided with each story as necessary, though here I offer a blanket warning for shoddy, un-beta'd prose.

Table Of Contents:

Noticed By Senpai - (Magical Girl, Romance)
~~~ A quiet girl is asked out by her longtime crush. Yet they both have secrets, and her senpai may know more about her than even she does.

A Game Of Darts - (Magical Girl, Comedy) [Coming Soon?]
~~~ Longtime rivals at the office dartboard competitions finally have a chance to settle their grudge, once and for all!

All In One - (Magical Girl) [Coming Soon?]
~~~ It is an exhausting job, being a magical girl. It is even harder to be several of them.

Writing On The Wall - (Magical Girl, Romance) [Coming Soon?]
~~~ Magical Girls' complicated lives are complicated further in a world where soulmates are pen-pals.

True Colors Of Authority - (Magical Girl, Horror) [Coming Soon?]
~~~ The color of a magical girl often corresponds to her outlook and personality. Here, though, it corresponds to something much more sinister.

My Friend Died Here - (Horror, Supernatural, Romance) [Coming Soon?]
~~~ A woman investigates the site of her childhood friend's murder, and learns more than she bargained for.

 

[SpoopyGhost]

Spoiler: Trigger Warnings

Warning for internalized homophobia, and indirect references to parental abuse and school bullying.

It all begins with two very strange events, several months apart yet inextricably, inexplicably linked.

The first event was when the existence of magic, and a secret war between the forces of good and evil itself, became revealed to the public. Mahou Orchidflare and Mahou Seasparkler, partners against a dizzying array of alien Generals who appear weekly to brainwash ordinary people into their personal armies. All of it, localized within your hometown.

The second event, infinitely more cataclysmic, is when one day out of the blue, you are asked out on a date by the girl of your dreams.

Your name is Yorumi Kitakami, and you are a background extra's background extra; a gloomy loser with a one-sided immoral crush and no close friends. So why is it that your dazzling, gorgeous senpai Yuuki Shinano, one you have always forced yourself to only admire from afar, is standing before you now? There must be something deeply wrong here. You mentally retrace the day, attempting to understand how this could have happened...

~~~ ZZZ ~~~​

Until now, it has been an ordinary school day, which in recent times means that you missed a period and a half worth of class due to yet another Magical Girl fight breaking out on school grounds. The enemy general REM-Maker had been at play again this time, her somnopathic aura forcing everyone without magic unconscious for the duration of the fight; as usual with her, only security camera footage and collateral damage prove what had happened after the fact. Fortunately, Mahou Seasparkler and Mahou Orchidflare are, as always, more than capable of taking her on.

…At least you had not missed lunch period, this time.

So yes. An ordinary school day. You woke up, went to classes, ate lunch, went to your next class, woke up from a magically-induced mass-sleep-hypnosis event, and went to more classes as if nothing had occurred. The only thing different today is that you must have collapsed at a bad angle during the fight, as your back has been aching ever since; but other than halfheartedly cursing REM-Maker for the inconvenience, there is little you can do about it. She is some sort of evil alien attempting to conquer the world; she has no obligation to care about a random background character like you. You just hope that it will not leave any lasting damage.

After the final bell rings and the controlled chaos of end-of-day cleanup subsides, you slink through the crowds of students and slip into the Manga Club room, hoping to claim the softest beanbag chair to soothe your aching back. It turns out even easier to do than you expected, with everyone else clustered around the table, where Tamaki-kun has laid his phone out flat to play a video. At first you ignore them, dropping your backpack beside the beanbag to claim it as yours, then moving to the bookshelves to pick out the next volume of Paired Hearts. Then something in the video makes everyone, girls and boys alike, squee in unison.

Despite knowing better, you find yourself creeping over to join them, peering over Tamaki-kun's shoulder to see security footage from today's battle playing out. You know at this point not to question how he was able to get that, but you do find yourself wondering how he hasn't been in trouble with the school multiple times over by now, with several other instances of successful subterfuge like this.

Besides, you are swiftly much more distracted with what the footage shows; none other than Evil General REM-Maker pinning Mahou Seasparkler against a wall, their faces so close together their noses are touching. Even as her opponent gloats in a strangely monotone voice, even as the General has both hands wrapped tight around her neck and her cheeks flush from shortness of breath, Mahou Seasparkler remains calm and undaunted.

Oh, is that all? You lose interest as immediately as you gained it, and feel vindicated a moment later when Mahou Orchidflare whirls into view to kick the evil general away from her partner. The dashing rescue leaves most of your clubmates swooning, while a handful groan in disappointment, both of which you quietly scoff at. You never understood the appeal of that "enemies to lovers" trope in manga, and you appreciate it even less when it involves real people with their own secret lives, and real evil aliens who wish to control and hurt countless innocents. Besides, they are all girls - you may be broken and wrong, and of course the wicked Generals would be a pack of depraved lesbians, but surely the heroic, beautiful Magical Girls who protect everyone are too pure for such things.

However, everyone else at school seems astonishingly supportive, to the point of arguing over preferred pairings between the Magical Girls and Generals; the Orchidflare x Seasparkler faction is naturally the most numerous and outspoken, but there are plenty who support Orchidflare x Rage-Ailia for their constant heated banter, and several other groups promoting increasingly niche combinations.

You do not need to wonder what your parents would say if they knew about such widespread sentiments… But you have not said anything of it to them, for the same reason you have not told them about your own impure feelings for Shinano-senpai. Lying to them, hiding things from them, even as you live under their roof and eat their food like a disgusting leech. You really are selfish, in the end.

Returning to the beanbag you claimed and sinking down in a sudden depression, you find yourself unable to escape into Paired Hearts like you wished to. The beautiful cover art, with the pure, rightful love between the soft demure heroine and her strong, handsome boyfriend, seems suddenly accusatory to you, smiling faces hiding the disgust they would surely feel towards you if they were real. You wonder what kind of man Shinano-senpai may marry someday, and feel sickened by how disconsolate the thought of it makes you.

It is a normal feeling, and it will pass like it has on any other day. For the time being, you simply decide to nap; it is not as though your clubmates would notice you enough to wish to disturb you. Just as you have gotten comfortable, however, the club door cracks open, and a vision of unparalleled beauty steps sheepishly inside. "Is Kitakami-san here?"

Shinano-senpai is tall, slender, and graceful, with a dancer's poise and a kindly sparkle in her emerald eyes. Her warm tanned skin, speaking to her Okinawan heritage, always seems to glow even in the coldest and darkest of winter days, and her hair flows long and wavy like a waterfall, in a seafoam to indigo natural ombre. She is at once handsome and gorgeous, and treats everyone with a friendly, forthright altruism that would feel unnatural or forced if she were not so plainly sincere about it. Her smiles, freely given, always seem to sparkle.

It is no wonder you have fallen for her… and no wonder you have stayed away, so that you cannot drag her down just by association. You have hoped sometimes that she would never even learn your name.

Yet now here she is, asking for you specifically.

Robotically, you stand up and follow her out the door, and let her lead you down the hallway to a destination unknown. You try your best to hide your face, pulling your hair forward like a curtain, as much to conceal your blush as to hide your confusion. Walking behind her like this… you force yourself to focus on putting one foot in front of another so that you are not distracted by staring at her beautiful waterfall hair.

Finally, she stops only when the two of you are in a remote, private corner of the school, unused until a repair crew can come to fix the severe damages caused by one of Rage-Ailia's attacks two weeks ago. Shinano-senpai whirls in place, gazing down at you with a strange look in her eyes, something about her smile seeming almost… predatory. Without thinking, you shrink away, until your back bumps against the wall, and without missing a beat, she smoothly places a hand against it just beside your head, blocking you from leaving with the world's most gentle kabedon.

"Wh-what's this a-about?" You stammer out, eyes flicking nervously between her face and the shrinking stretch of floor between you. "C-can I help y-you with someth-thing?"

"Don't worry," she simply says, with a wink that makes you even weaker in the knees than you already were. "Your secret is safe with me."

Icy dread plunges into your gut. How did she find out about your crush? She should be so disgusted, there is no way a good girl like her wouldn't be disgusted. You hunch your shoulders and hide your face beneath your bangs, unable to stand her clear lack of disgust. What does she want from you?

As if reading your question, she continues. "In light of that, I want…" Her free hand brushes against your chin, tilting your face back up to meet hers, only a faint tremor betraying her own nerves. "I want to ask you out on a date this weekend. There's an ice cream shop that opened recently, and I thought we could go there and get to know each other better." She is blushing now too, apprehension and desire conflicting in her face, and on seeing that your mind shuts down entirely.

After it reboots, the situation is still the same: out of the blue, you are being asked out on a date by the girl of your dreams. You mentally retrace the day, attempting to understand how this could have happened…

No, it still makes no sense. You feel faint.

~~~ ZZZ ~~~​

Today, everything finally makes sense. You feel giddy.

Your name is Yuuki Shinano, and at last you have found the insight and courage needed to ask your beloved kouhai, Yorumi Kitakami, out on a date. After years of silent pining and struggling to decipher her stares, you are ready to step forward and be with the girl of your dreams.

She is a head shorter than you, petite and mousey in a way you find adorable. Her amber eyes always remind you of candles burning in the windows of a cozy, tucked-away cabin in a distant forest, and her sleek, wavy black hair that she always hides her face behind is as dark and beautiful as the night sky itself. Even the dark circles under her eyes are attractive to you, speaking of countless evenings staying up reading or researching whatever topic she deeps interesting, and her consistently high test scores prove your impression right.

Every time you see her you want nothing more than to hold her close, sink into her ample chest, but until now you were in a stalemate, unsure what she thought of you in return and caught between your crush on her and similar affections from another beautiful girl. You could never have dreamed that both of these issues could be resolved at once in such an elegant way.

Of course, she is a shy girl, so first you need to stop her from fleeing before you can actually explain yourself, and then you need to reassure her that this is not a trap. She is already backing away nervously, doubtless fearing retribution, so you quickly corner her against the wall and set a hand against it to prevent her from slipping away. The memory of her own hands on you threatens your composure, but you tamp down the desire as much as you can, and simply offer gentle reassurance and a conspiratorial wink. "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."

Yorumi-chan immediately hunches her shoulders and hides her face, and you give her a moment to let what you said sink in. The dread and guilt in her posture is understandable, but more importantly, you understand that she needs someone safe to confide in before she can accept help. Despite your romantic intentions, this part is not something you wish to risk rushing before she's ready.

But that does not mean you cannot ask for what you want. "In light of that, I want…" You gently guide her chin, her beautiful curtain of hair parting to let your eyes meet once more, and it takes all of your willpower not to lean down and kiss her on the spot. "I want to ask you out on a date this weekend. There's an ice cream shop that opened recently, and I thought we could go there and get to know each other better." You already know the biggest thing, but you still wish to hear it from her, when she feels comfortable enough to discuss it; but just as importantly, there is so much more about her you have yet to discover, and you want it all. You just hope you are not making her uncomfortable…

Her face goes blank for several agonizingly long moments, then twists in such absolute confusion that your chest aches. "But w-why me?" She asks. "I-I'm just some ba… I'm just a kouhai, nobody interesting. Why would you want to get to know me?"

At first, you are tempted to laugh and congratulate her dedication to keeping up the act, but her question is too heartbreakingly honest to dismiss. How can she think that way of herself, you wonder, when you have seen so much good in her? The way she has helped evacuate classmates to the shelters during magical fights, or keeps them away from danger in her own way. The way she has been bullied relentlessly by Ran Hino, (no matter how many times you have told your ex-friend to knock it off,) yet quietly helps others pick up dropped papers or with defusing confrontations. And the way she has stared at you so often, looks you once feared were full of resentment yet you now understand to be full of longing… how could she possibly think you wouldn't notice her in turn?

Despite yourself, the words refuse to come out right; instead you simply cradle her face in your hands, and lean in to kiss her forehead. "Because I know just enough to know I need more. Kitakami-chan… I do not want to push you into anything. If you would prefer not to think of it as a date, then we can simply go as two new friends. But I would like it very much if you would go with me."

Conflict still wages in her eyes, but soon enough it gives way to determination. "I-I would like to go with you, too." You exchange phone numbers and plans to meet, and then soon enough you watch as she scurries adorably back to her club. You wait until she is gone, then check to ensure you are alone, and finally let yourself leap into the air and cheer happily.

It will be a complicated love, of course, you understand that. She has her reasons for what she does, not all of which you are privy to yet, and you will need to take care that your efforts to understand and help her don't do more harm than good. Her shockingly minimal self-esteem must be at the center of it all, you suspect, and that will take time to repair and build back up, too. You know it will not be easy, and you know you have your own flaws to work past as well. But you are ready for that, and you can only hope that your love (requited!) will be enough to carry you both through.

But that is all in the long term. For the time being, this first outing together will give you plenty to worry about, from the right clothes to the right mood. But it is also cause enough for celebration. You are Yuuki Shinano, and you finally have a date with Yorumi Kitakami. All because earlier, as Mahou Seasparkler, you caught a glimpse of her detransforming from your other mutual crush, General REM-Maker.

 

[ColdGoldLazarus]

I see someone's on the enemies-to-lovers grindset. Which is hilarious given how the first gal isn't into that and doesn't realize she's part of one.

 

[SpoopyGhost]

I see someone's on the enemies-to-lovers grindset. Which is hilarious given how the first gal isn't into that and doesn't realize she's part of one.

Click to shrink...

Heh. It was not intended to be comedic, moreso simply another point of dramatic irony in hindsight, but I suppose there is still humor in that.

Of course there is also an element of delayed horror, just by virtue of Yorumi's situation and unawareness thereof, but even if they are not quite on the same page as much as they believe themselves to be, this is the kind of scenario where love (and by then, a better-developed relationship) will win out in the end. I may be tempted to write a sequel set sometime later, but for now my focus should be elsewhere.