Days passed.
Negi was back to his usual cheerful self. He later told Sunset that he had indeed been to see Takamichi, and they had had a long talk that helped him work through some things. With Negi’s improved mood, the tension that had wound the class tight loosened significantly; only Sunset’s detractors - the cheerleaders and the Narutaki twins - held onto their animosity. Asuna was still upset with Sunset, but she’d called a truce once she’d seen that Negi was feeling better.
Her rapidly dropping grades might have also played a part in her wanting to reconcile.
Preparations continued for Mahorafest, with class 3-A scrapping the Maid Cafe idea (along with several even more extreme ideas) in favor of a haunted house. Drawing upon her experience dealing with warlocks and monsters, Sunset was able to both fascinate and horrify her classmates with innovative ideas. In the end, it was decided that most of Sunset’s contributions were too extreme for general audiences and would be reserved for a “Midnight Special” option for adults only. The rest of the class’s ideas were divided into three courses of varying levels of terror, and the class got to work creating the costumes, props, and movable walls required. Since so many of the girls had club activities throughout the day, most of the construction took place after hours, often going late into the evening or early morning.
One such work session was interrupted at the stroke of midnight when Fumika screamed.
*****
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”
Fumika fell out of her chair, staring wide-eyed and pointing in horror towards the front of the room. Everyone stared at their tiny classmate before turning their eyes in the direction she was pointing. Most of them missed it, but a few of them managed to get a brief glimpse of some sort of upright shape fading away. Makie managed to grab Asakura’s digital camera - which happened to be sitting nearby - to snap a shaky picture.
“Fumika-chan!” Ako cried, having missed the fading figure and more concerned with her classmate’s fall. She rushed over to Fumika and knelt by her side. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I-I-I-I-I don’t know!” Fumika stuttered, her face white as a sheet. “Th-th-there was a-a-a-a g-girl th-there!”
Sunset couldn’t resist. “Fumika, I don’t know if you noticed, but there are lots of girls in here.”
Fumika’s eyes snapped to Sunset, and she was surprised to see genuine terror in them. “N-n-not like th-that one! Sh-she was all p-p-pale and o-only half there and f-f-f-floating off of the ground!”
“Eh?” Konoka rushed over to Fumika’s side, more interested than fearful. “Really? You saw the class ghost?”
Sunset blinked in surprise. “This class has a ghost?”
Konoka nodded and, seeing the collection of confused faces, explained to the class. “There have been rumors for years about a ghost that haunts this classroom. But sightings of it are so rare that the rumor tends to die out rather quickly. There isn’t much information on who the ghost is, either.”
“B-but surely those are just rumors,” Ayaka insisted, trying to hide the tremble in her voice and the sweat beading on her brow. “A-after all, gh-ghosts don’t exist, right?”
“I got a picture!” Makie cried, waving Asakura’s camera above her head. “I got a picture before it disappeared!”
“What’s goi- OY! BAKA PINK!” Asakura, returning from the restroom, rushed into the room and nabbed the camera out of Makie’s hands, cradling it to her chest like it was a priceless treasure. “Don’t go waving my camera around like that!”
“But she caught the ghost with it!” Yuna defended excitedly. “She got a picture of the ghost!”
Asakura raised an eyebrow. “Ghost? What are you talking about?” She looked down at her camera and pulled up the picture. Her eyes went wide. “Huh.”
*****
The next day, the school paper led with the headline “CLASSROOM 3-A [GHOST] REAL!” The photo that Makie had snapped was blown up to fill a third of the front page. It showed Fumika freaking out and, right where she was looking, a blurry, broken image of a girl, one hand stretched out towards Fumika. The story was short on fact and filled with the same rumors repeated over and over, but it sold out faster than any issue in recent memory.
“Hm, do you think it’s true?” Yue asked Sunset as they studied a copy of the paper together in class.
“Could be,” Sunset muttered. “I mean, most ghost sightings wind up being hoaxes or overreactions, but I’m sure I saw something fading away right after Fumika’s scream. Could be a ghost.”
“You don’t seem very worried,” Nodoka observed.
Sunset shrugged. “I mean, this thing’s been around for years, right? Decades, if these rumors are to be believed. If that’s true, then it’s definitely not a poltergeist, and it probably isn’t a malevolent spirit.”
“Poltergeist?” Nodoka asked.
“It’s like a ghost,” Sunset explained, “but, rather than being the remaining spirit of someone who’s died, it’s more like the combined echoes of a bunch of departed souls, bound and twisted together until you get a new spirit. Poltergeists are pests, knocking things over, levitating furniture, slamming doors open and shut, things like that. Mostly harmless, but really annoying. Actual lingering spirits are usually categorized as either malevolent or benign, but there’s as much grey area between them as there is between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people.”
“Eh? You know a lot about this kind of stuff, huh, Nichi-chan?”
Sunset hid her wince before looking up from the paper. Yuna and Ako had wandered over at some point and had obviously caught some of what she’d said. “Well, this is just what I’ve heard from others in the Library Exploration Club,” she lied, grateful that Haruna was on the other side of the room and unable to call her out on it. “There’s a lot of rumors about ghosts in some of those abandoned corridors and trapped pits.”
“I don’t suppose they talked about how to get rid of them?” Ako asked nervously.
Sunset hesitated. “Honestly, I don’t see why we need to. If this spirit is malevolent - which I doubt - then it’s too weak to do anything. Better to just live and let live… so to speak.”
“Eh?! But we can’t just leave it like this!” Yuna exclaimed. “An actual ghost running around might be cool, but it will seriously mess up the timing of our scares in the haunted house.” She added as an afterthought, “and some of our classmates might be scared to work at night, too.”
“That is a good point,” Sunset admitted. Especially since it will likely be my route that’s affected the most. She sighed. “Great. Guess I’ll have to do something about it.”
“You?” Nodoka asked, surprised.
“You know how to perform an exorcism?” Yue asked dubiously.
About fifteen different spells and several rituals, but they all require unicorn magic. “Not quite.” Sunset quickly grabbed a scrap of paper and started writing out a list as Negi entered the room to begin their English class. “Get me these supplies after class,” she said, handing the list to Yue before she could head back to her desk. “And meet back here an hour before sunset.”
Yue scanned the list and nodded while Ako asked “should we be keeping this to ourselves?”
Sunset shook her head. “Not particularly. An audience won’t affect things. Just make sure that anyone who comes is able to be patient; a successful seance can take a while.”
*****
Dusk was fast approaching. Sunset had spent the last half-hour using chalk to draw out a large pentagram on the floor of the classroom, running it over chairs and tables where they stood in the way. At each point of the star, she’d instructed Ako, Yue, and Nodoka to place a black candle, ready to be lit. Bowls of incense were spread around in a symmetrical pattern, their scents mixing together into a strong - though not unpleasant - odor. Sunset was just finishing up the circle when the classroom door opened and a few more students arrived.
“Don’t want to miss this,” Asakura said, grinning widely as she held her camera at the ready. She was followed by Negi, Asuna, Konoka, and Akira. “Gotta document the first official contact with a genuine ghost!”
“I’m surprised the rest of the hoard hasn’t descended,” Sunset said, standing up and clapping her hands free of residual chalkdust.
“They’ll be here later tonight, I’m sure,” Akira said with a sigh. “Apparently, they’re procuring ‘ghost-hunting equipment’ from Hakase-chan.”
Sunset snorted. “Right. Better get this over with before that, then.”
“So, how does this work, exactly,” Asakura asked, taking pictures of the pentagram. “It certainly looks occult.”
“Well,” Sunset explained, “the diagram itself is a classic pentagram, fundamental in occultism and magecraft.” She saw Negi’s face scrunch in confusion at that, but continued. “Candle flame represents the spirit, the candle itself symbolizing flesh. The incense is a specific mix designed to calm the mind and open the third eye to spiritual senses.”
“Wow,” Ako said, starry-eyed. “Really?”
Sure, whatever. That explanation works, I guess. Let’s hope the ghose buys it. “Yup,” Sunset replied, stepping into the circle and sitting down, cross-legged with her hands resting folded in her lap. It almost looked like she was about to meditate. “Now, we’re going to need relative silence for this. Sunset approaches. Sunset, midnight, and 4AM - the beginning of the third watch - are the times when the veil between this world and the aetheric plane is thinnest. If we want any chance of contacting this spirit, it has to be now.” Before the rest of the class gets here and makes things difficult for her.
Everyone fell silent, and Sunset closed her eyes. “Ooooooooom,” she intoned softly. “Oooooooooom.”
There, that’s the mood set, she thought as she continued to chant. Now for the only part that actually matters. Sunset opened up her magical senses, extending small amounts of magic in an unorganized cloud around her. She could sense her classmates and teacher as gaps in the magic, a useful technique for blind unicorns, but one that was more trouble than it was worth for anyone else - eyes were easier to use and far more detailed in their sensing. If there was one useful application of this trick, it was in sensing things that the eye couldn’t.
As it was now. A figure sat across from Sunset in the circle. From what she could tell, it was imitating her pose.
A cooperative ghost, Sunset observed. Looks like she wants to be discovered. That’ll make this much easier. Sunset snapped her eyes open suddenly, as if she’d only just sensed something. “There!” She pointed straight at where she knew the figure sat, and was rewarded when she sensed the figure recoil. “There you are. You have come to see us, haven’t you?”
The air before her was empty for a minute. Two. Then, slowly, subtly, it began to fill. A barely-perceptible outline began to take shape.
Sunset heard Negi let out a gasp behind her. “A-Aisaka-san? Is that you?”
Aisaka? Sunset thought back, trying to remember where she’d heard that name. Wait… he doesn’t mean Aisaka Sayo, does he?
In Negi’s class roster, there was one girl who Sunset had never seen before, a lonely looking girl with red eyes who wore a different school uniform in her picture than the rest of the class. It had a strange note next to it, too. “1940~ Don’t change her seat.”
The outline became much clearer at Negi’s question, so Sunset decided to take the chance. “So you’re Sayo, huh? Gotta say, you’re cuter in person than you are in your picture.”
The outline began to fill rapidly with a shadowy form, and faint noises began to catch at the edge of Sunset’s hearing. Nodoka and Konoka let out gasps behind her, letting her know that they were beginning to see the ghost as well. Sunset listened intently while trying to act like she could see and hear the ghost before her plain as day.
“I always wondered why your picture featured a different uniform than everyone else’s,” Sunset continued. “Makes sense now; there aren’t a lot of clothing stores that cater to ghosts, are there?”
“...n_t re__ly… s_me unif_rm _or more tha_ ____ty years n_w…”
Sunset forced a chuckle. “Yeah, guess that would be annoying, being stuck in the same clothes for decades on end.” The outline filled completely, and Sunset began to be able to make out some detail. A series of soft gasps told her that the rest of the audience could now at least partially see Sayo as well. “But being stuck in the same class for so long has got to be even worse.”
“...c_n move bey_nd the s__ool a little… mo_t of the surroun_ing town… little s_arry in the schoo_ a_one at night… spending _ights in front of con_enience stores and s_ch…”
“Heh, a ghost that’s afraid of the school at night?” Sunset jibed. She could almost make out the ghost’s face. “Now I’ve seen everything. So why haven’t you talked with anyone else in all this time?”
“...tried, but no-one could ever hear me… thanks to your magic circle that I can talk to you now…”
“Well, thank goodness for Nichi-chan then, huh?” Asakura - apparently able to hear Sayo now - stepped into the circle and sat down, a pad of paper resting on her leg and a pen poised to take notes. “I mean, I always felt like there was someone sitting next to me in class, you know? Guess that was you, huh?”
“Oh! Yes! I didn’t realize you could tell I was there!”
“Heh, well I might not have any sort of supernatural sense,” Asakura admitted, “but I am a reporter; I’ve got a certain sense for interesting scoops. And you might be the most interesting girl in this class, and that’s saying something!”
“Eep! Oh, no! I-I’m really not that interesting! I’m just…”
Sunset stood up and excused herself, stepping outside of the circle as Sayo and Asakura began to talk in earnest. “Well,” she said, a self-satisfied smirk plastered on her face, “that went well.”
“She’s… real,” Akira whispered, both hands covering her mouth, her eyes wide with shock.
“As real as can be,” Sunset answered. “You know, without being alive, that is.”
*thump*
Sunset rolled her eyes. “And on that note, could you take Ako to the infirmary? I’m honestly surprised she lasted this long.”
Once Akira had carried Ako’s unconscious form away, Negi turned to Sunset with a frown. “That was an… interesting method you used, Nichibotsu.”
Sunset shrugged. “Had to improvise, honestly; all of the spells and rituals that I know require a rather significant part of anatomy that I no longer possess. This was the only method I could think of that had even a small chance of working.”
“But why didn’t you tell us about this sort of thing before?” Yue asked, frowning in unison with Negi. “You said that pentagrams are ‘fundamental’ in magic, but this is the first time I’ve heard you mention them.”
“Oh, that part was a lie,” Sunset said, waving her off.
Yue blinked in surprise. “...I see. And the thing with the symbolism with the candles?”
“A lie.”
“The incense and that ‘third eye’ thing?” Asuna asked.
“Another lie.”
“Sunset being an important time of day?” Nodoka added.
“Lies, lies all around,” proclaimed Sunset proudly. “Honestly, I didn’t do a thing. It was all Sayo.”
“Eh?! Wh-what do you mean?”
Sunset turned and smirked at Asakura and the thoroughly surprised ghost that sat across from her. Sayo was now fully visible, her long silver hair flowing down her back, her eyes a surprisingly vibrant crimson. Her uniform was a classic black sailor suit with a white collar and a long skirt that trailed to a wisp where her ankles should have been. Her cute face was full of shock as she stared from Sunset to the circle and back.
“I mean that this ritual was nothing more than a bunch of mumbo-jumbo,” Sunset answered, gesturing around. “A ghost’s power - including its ability to manifest - is drawn from its will. Most lingering spirits have some goal or regret that keeps them from moving on. How determined they are to see that goal through influences what they can do to affect the physical world. But if a ghost doesn’t have a strong will, it can’t do a thing. You’d probably mostly given up on anyone noticing you, hadn’t you?”
Sayo looked down and nodded sadly. “Y-yeah. It’s been a long time since anyone could see me. Even exorcists and such can’t. But,” she glanced up at Negi, “I got the feeling a couple of times that Negi-sensei could sense me, just a little. I… I thought that meant I might be able to talk to other people now, too.”
“And then you appeared last night?” Asakura asked.
Sayo buried her face in her hands and showed them that - even without blood - a ghost could blush scarlet. “That picture was so bad. It made me look like an evil spectre or something. I was- oh!” She suddenly looked up at Sunset, her eyes wide with understanding. “That’s why you did all of this! You wanted me to think that I’d be able to appear…”
“And with me reinforcing that belief,” Sunset finished, “it became confidence. And the more I reacted to you, and the more in-detail I did so, the more visible and audible you became to the point that even someone with no particular magical gift or training” she gestured at Asakura, “could see you.”
“So that means…” A massive grin split Sayo’s face. “I can manifest whenever I want to now? I can talk to others and-”
The door slammed open. Yuna stormed into the room, followed by Haruna, Sakurako, and Makie. All of them word strange metal cases on their backs, connected to gun-like devices in their hands by rubber hoses. Half of the class followed behind them, including a nervous Akira. “All right!” Yuna shouted. “Let’s go and kill that ghost! I bet it’ll…”
The room went quiet as all eyes turned to Sayo, still sitting in the middle of the “magic” circle. Her eyes went wide. “Oh dear,” she whispered and rapidly started to fade.
“KYAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
“THE GHOST!”
“IT’S HERE!”
“DEFENSIVE FORMATION!”
“SHOOT IT! FIRE AT WILL!”
Sunset sighed into her palm as their “weapons” started firing all over the room. “Well, this was almost a good evening.”