I Fell In Love With A Girl Who Died Before I Was Even Born

Finally, the last class before school let out.

Unfortunately, we had a stupid Literature Club meeting. Apparently, Fushineko-sensei wanted us to talk about proper class etiquette, as if she hadn't been the one spurring us on before she split for the Get Graped Vape Shop.

But Kurogane-sensei's class was different altogether.

In a good way.

Maybe the best way, because her class was so mundane in appearance but highly philosophical in execution.

I got to class before Azuki, who usually sat next to me, so I took out my cellphone and sent Inego a text.

"Hey, sorry I missed you at lunch. Was getting my face looked at. What do you know about the Nightlands?"

A moment later, as students were beginning to file into class, I got a reply.

"Most, if not all, magical items, like my awesome AirPods, come from the Nightlands. It's a very dangerous place unless you're dreaming. You thinking of visiting, lol?"

Oh, what a comedian.

"Maybe. How do I go? Wanna come with?"

Two can play at that game.

"LOL. Hell no. You need an Achilles Gate, dude. Good luck finding one. No one knows what they look like."

I blinked, looking at his message.

How the hell had Shion and those Speed Nuts idiots gotten there?

I wasn't sure if the word Nightlands made me more curious… or made my skin crawl. Maybe both.

Before I could think about it anymore, Azuki came skipping into class and sat down beside me.

"Ryu-sama!" she said. "I've got great news!"

I could tell, just by the way her eyes twinkled, that I was about to be hit with some serious tanuki mischief.

"Oh boy," I said. "You'd better give it to me quickly, Azuki. I don't know how much I can take right now."

She giggled.

"Don't be so dramatic. You're a mighty black dragon. Hey, you've even got the scars to prove it now, don'tcha?"

She casually leaned over and lightly brushed the left side of my face.

She gasped when I winced a little.

"Oh no! I'm sorry! Of course it's sore. What was I thinking?"

She scrunched up her face, making her oversized round glasses shift, and for a moment she turned into a mess of static and mismatched body parts.

I politely looked away while she adjusted her frames.

"No, you're good," I said quickly. "It's not you, Azuki, it's just… does it make sense if I say the scales are uncomfortable?"

She studied me for a moment with her large, round eyes.

"Perfect sense," she said. "It's like when I shapeshift, you know? And suddenly everything goes where it's not used to going, and oh wow! Right? You've suddenly got to shift all your bones around, and everyone knows what a pain that is!"

She began kicking her legs under the desk as she spoke.

I nodded, not understanding, but also not wanting her to continue.

"Yeah… so you get it," I said.

She leaned back over.

"Ryu-sama, of course I do. You're a black dragon. I'm a tanuki. And you know what?"

I took a slow breath, preparing myself for anything.

"What's that?"

She lit up, filled with excitement.

"You're taking me to Dick's Discotheque tomorrow evening! Oh—and the news, too!"

I watched her blush, bringing her shoulders up to her ears as she did.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"The other tanuki said you could drop by after this class!"

I sighed.

"I can't. I've got Literature Club. We're having a short meeting thanks to Fushineko-sensei. I don't get it. You'd think if any teacher would want out of here on a Friday, it'd be her."

She thought about that for a moment.

"Yeah… okay. I've got an idea. You'll be at your meeting… but Yuki doesn't have to be!"

She turned to Yuki, who was busy studying Kurogane-sensei's world maps stapled to a corkboard.

"Yuki, would you want to come with me after class? You and I could talk to the tanuki while Ryu has his meeting. Then he can catch up."

Yuki floated to my side, a grin growing on her face.

"Azuki, that sounds lovely! You can count me in."

I hadn't forgotten my promise to ask Yuki about Skuzz's school for undead, but sometimes I wasn't sure what bothered me more.

The fact that Skuzz just seemed so unpleasant or the idea that Yuki would be spending even more time away from me if she liked teaching there.

No one said a word when Kurogane-sensei entered the room. It was instinctual, as though everyone suddenly knew to shut up or there'd be hell to pay. There were precious few people with that kind of aura in the world, but Kurogane-sensei was certainly one of them.

She calmly walked to her desk at the front of the class, set her cane to the side, opened the drawer, and took out a yellowish piece of chalk.

"Children," she said, not condescendingly, but matter-of-factly. "What have we covered in class so far?"

A multitude of hands shot up.

"Nyyyaa, on the first day you talked about how you threw salt in an oni's face," a young nekomata replied.

Kurogane-sensei nodded.

"And the next day, you talked about the creation myth, and explained that humans and yokai are one," Azuki said.

And from across the classroom, another student spoke.

"Yesterday you had us write about who we thought we were," another student said.

Kurogane-sensei's eyebrow shot up.

"Yes, you're absolutely right," she said.

The student tilted his head, confused.

"Yeah, but you didn't tell us who we are."

Kurogane-sensei snorted a laugh.

"You're damn right!" she snapped. "And I'm never going to either. No one should ever try to tell you who you are, and if you don't know, then you'd better find out."

She wrote down the meaning of her lessons on the board behind her.

Pride. Unity. Discovery.

Then she turned around and faced the class again.

"Today, students," she said. "We're going to talk about truth. This is a very important lesson, and everything so far has been building to this. You might want to write this one down."

Immediately, everyone got out a sheet of paper. Students shuffled around for pencils, pens, and others had to borrow.

"Is everyone ready?" Kurogane-sensei asked, looking around the room.

When everyone looked up at her, pencils in their hand, she began.

"The truth is that people, especially humans, when you're living among them, don't like the truth. They hate it, and they hate being reminded of it. Most people don't want the truth, they want validation."

I almost dropped my pencil because that hit home.

Hard.

A girl in the back of the classroom raised her hand.

I'd noticed her before, but something about her stuck me as oddly familiar. Like I'd seen her somewhere but couldn't place her.

"Excuse me," she said, hand up. "What do you mean when you say that most people don't want the truth? Like… how's that? Validation seems so… empty."

Kurogane-sensei simply smiled pleasantly at the girl.

"Most people like sugar too, but that doesn't mean it's good for them. People don't always know what they want. Remember that too."

Kurogane-sensei went to the chalkboard and began writing kanji on the board.

She wrote the kanji for truth on one side of the board, and validation on the other.

"How many of you made plans to go do something fun this weekend?" she asked.

Just about everyone raised their hands.

Azuki elbowed my arm and grinned.

"We're going dancing!" she said.

Kurogane-sensei nodded.

"And how many of you thought about the possibility that you might die this weekend?"

There was some light murmuring, but no one's hand went up.

At the front of the classroom, Kurogane-sensei leaned on her cane.

"The truth is that there's nothing guaranteeing all of you will still be sitting in those chairs come Monday morning."

She looked around the classroom at the students.

I realized that it had been awhile since I'd written anything down, but I had been too absorbed in the lesson at the time.

"I'm very sorry, children, but that's the truth."

No one said a single thing.

"And I'm afraid there's more. Truth is different from facts. Facts are measurable and quantifiable. Facts are fun, don't forget that. In fact, go ahead and write that down. Humans love their damn facts because it makes them feel like they're important."

I wrote down facts are fun and they make people (humans) feel important.

Then I wondered where the hell she was going with this.

"Oh, children, humans love facts like Mt. Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth, and The battle of Hastings happened in 1066, and it's important because some minor French nobleman found his way to England."

She snorted.

"What a bunch of nonsense."

I looked at everything I'd written and wondered if somehow I'd been scammed. My wrist ached. Figures, truth always comes with a cost.

Kurogane-sensei held out her hand to the class.

"Remember my lesson with the oni?" she asked.

The class nodded.

"Then come, children," she said, her voice suddenly lower. "Come with me and let us explore what truth really is. Because if facts are fun, then truth is dangerous. Do you know why?"

I saw the other students looking around, but no one knew why.

She held out her hand, and there, resting in her palm, was a pile of white sand. Not just sand. Something older. Too fine. Too perfect. Like time itself had been ground to powder.

"Here, in the shadow of Crescent Moon Academy, I will show you fear in a handful of dust."