Chapter Text
Momo Ayase is having a pretty bad day. Her boyfriend just broke up with her and her friends are…not as sympathetic as she’d like. Sure, they warned her he was nothing but trash and the only reason she was even going out with him was because he looked like her celebrity crush Ken Takakura, but c’mon! At least give her a “There there…” or something! At the very least they could have asked if she was okay after getting literally kicked to the curb! That asshole was, begrudgingly, pretty damn physically strong. She could have beat his ass if she used her psychic powers, but she promised Grandma not to use them on regular humans. Something about there being rules for these things.
So, here she is, angrily stomping through the school hallways, looking for some way to blow off steam before she winds up hurting someone. She just happened to stop in front of a classroom and look through the open door to see three jerkwads crumpling up paper balls and tossing them at someone. She turned to look at the bullies’ victim and saw- Holy crap, that dude’s cursed! The guy had pale, ashen skin with red streaks down his cheeks and equally red eyes hidden behind round glasses, his white hair occasionally streaked with red flowing in a non-existent breeze, and parts of his clothes trailed off in wisps of smoke. Hold on! This is, like, really bad! That cursed boy is bound to snap any second now and thrash those three jerks (not that they wouldn’t deserve it) and Momo’s the only one who could actually do something about it! Sure he seems calm now, not reacting to the thrown projectiles and quietly reading his…magazine about UFO sightings? Well, there are weirder hobbies to have- No, not the point!
Suddenly there’s a quiet but resonating THUNK as a paper ball bounces off the cursed nerd’s forehead and onto his desk. This time he actually reacted, having his head tilted up slightly. He slowly uncrumpled the ball and removed a magnet from inside. With a heavy sigh that bordered on a growl, a black mask suddenly formed around his lower face, jagged teeth sliding into place with a cringe-inducing KLIK KLAK sound. He closed the magazine and stood from his seat. Momo got ready to step in before she realised he was coming towards HER instead of the bullies. Did he know she was about to stop him? Did he think she’s the cause of this? Does he have ulterior motives? Was he…
“Excuse me, Momo-san…”
…Walking right past her? Oh, he’s leaving the room and she’s standing in the doorway. That guy’s got a good lid on that curse. Crisis averted!
Wait, no! There’s still an angry cursed guy walking around school, that’s bad!
Her previous woes of a broken heart forgotten, Momo was a woman on a mission, giving chase to the cursed occult fanboy. Eventually she found him all alone on the roof draped precariously over the railing, more of him hanging over the edge than actually on the building. She didn’t know his name, so instead she called out “Hey, Occult-kun!” It took him a little while to turn around and point one of his gnarled black fingernails at himself, asking “You talking to me?” she stormed up to him, “Obviously! Who else is here?” she pointed out, making him look around and see they were the only two there. Momo then bulldozed onwards, “Anyway, I’m here about you being cursed!” He…didn’t seem surprised about the mention of being cursed. “Huh. You’re the first person to notice.” was all he said. She was confused by that.
“What, your parents didn’t notice anything different about you?”
“Overseas.”
“Your friends?”
“Don’t have any.”
Oof. Right, she just watched him sitting alone getting bullied, she should have expected that. Cursed AND lonely, rough combination. Thrown slightly off kilter by this guy’s brutal honesty, she ended up just getting down to business, “Look, You seem to have a handle on it, but I can’t just trust you to wander around all cursed and stuff.” “Bummer.” he interrupted her, but she kept going, “Lucky for you, my Grandma is a spirit medium. We’ll be able to help you.” she boasted. “Cool.”
And then the bell rang to signal it was time to get to class. “Meet me after school and we’ll head to my place.” She told him as she started leaving, “Don’t even think about ditching me, I’ll find you.” were her parting words as she entered the stairwell. Weirdly, Momo didn’t feel Occult-kun following her to go to class as well.
Momo waited at the school gates for Occult-kun to walk out. She hoped he’d see her and follow willingly, but as she caught sight of his flowing white locks and saw him looking away from her, she grabbed him with her spiritual hands. “Where do you think you’re going?” she asked as she strutted up to him. He turned to her as best as he could whilst being held and replied “Thought you were messing with me, yo. Didn’t think you’d actually wait.” He didn’t seem too surprised about being psychically held in place. She let go and walked past him “C’mon, let’s go.” she ordered. He sighed, “What a drag…” and trudged after her.
Occult-kun didn’t seem to have any trouble with the silence between them during the walk, but it was killing Momo with how awkward it felt for her, so she latched onto the first topic she could think of, “So, how long have you been cursed for?” she asked and immediately regretted it, that’s a horrible conversation starter. “Two days ago.” he answered, to her surprise, “Was taking a shortcut through a tunnel, blacked out and woke up back outside the tunnel stuck like this.”
Well… At least now she knows what happened? The silence that followed was somehow even more awkward for Momo and having not learned her lesson, she latched onto the next topic she could think of, “I saw you readin’ a magazine earlier…you really think aliens are real?” “I know they are. Got abducted by some yesterday.” he claimed. Momo whirled around in disbelief, ready to verbally lay him out for such a bald-faced lie only to see his face, look into his eyes, and realise he was completely deadass. “The abandoned hospital that blew up yesterday was a UAP sighting hotspot. Went to check it out, creatures called ‘Serpoians’ grabbed me because they were interested in this curse. Wanted to steal my ‘banana organs’ only to find whatever cursed me got ‘em first. Fight broke out, and the UAP crashed into the hospital.” Damn, this guy is cursed, lonely, AND unlucky!
“You got abducted by aliens?!”
“Yeah.”
“You survived an explosive crash?!”
“Somehow. Probably the curse.”
“The curse took your…uh…family jewels?”
“It sucks.”
“What’s a UAP?”
“Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. UFO to those less knowledgeable.”
There was almost some emotion in his voice for that last answer. And it was kinda nice to hear. It’s clear that this curse is affecting his personality, but it’s good to know the nerd’s still a nerd deep down. “Has the curse done anything else to you?” Momo asked him. “I’ve been surging with power, it feels like I could run forever. Too gloomy to use much of it, though.” the boy told her, “No filter, either, but my anxiety is gone. Probably wouldn’t have the guts to use your first name otherwise.” That’s…a little concerning. Is the gloominess part of the curse or coming from the lack of a filter? And the mention of anxiety is worrying, too.
There’s time to worry about that later, they’ve arrived at Momo’s home.