It was just after school. The last bell had sent half of the students straight home while the other half went to their clubs. Hiyori was holding onto her bag, walking up the stairs, heading to the school library on the top floor. Just when she was unsure what to do, she suddenly felt compelled to go there, as the thought firmly settled down in her mind. Turning up in the corridor, she almost bumped into Everlong, who was standing there, waiting for her. 

"The library?" he asked, walking with her. 

"Yeah, I had a feeling I should go there. You too?"

"Nope. But I surveyed the flow of students, and most of them disappeared after leaving school grounds; only those who went towards the library remained tangible. So my guess is that something happened there, or it is where Yukari spent a lot of her hours of the day instead of going to a club or heading home."

"It was a powerful feeling..." Hiyori nodded, agreeing with him. "So you must be right!"

Everlong just smiled, letting Hiyori go forward while staying half a step behind her. Arriving at the pretty big library, she noticed around half a dozen students present alongside the old and usually unbearable librarian behind her long desk. Looking around, she tried to see if there would be something triggering her emotions, but for now, nothing had changed, even if she had let down her guard, allowing her demon's memories to seep further into her soul.

"Let's go, check out the rows at the back," Everlong whispered, going forward as they walked past the reading desks into the 2-meter tall bookshelves spanning multiple, elongated rows towards the back of the library. 

"Hmm… nothing…" Hiyori murmured, after going through all of the isles twice already. "None of the books catches my interest, nor do I feel anything… weird," she explained to Everlong, feeling unsure what they should do.

"Then it isn't about the books," he concluded, crossing his arms, thinking. "Let's take some anyway and go, sit at the reading tables. Check out students who are around the library; maybe we are looking for someone to trigger her next memory. I'll try to chat with the librarian; you focus on the people coming and going. I'll test the woman and see If she shows more responsiveness than a sockpuppet... If she does, we will know she is involved in something we are looking for. If we get Yukrai's background and affiliation... I can exorcise her." He smiled, going ahead first.

In the end, the books Hiyori picked out were all nonsense and gibberish; not even their titles made any sense as she flipped them open. It was a clear indication, just as Everlong taught it to her, that she was not in the real world and that Yukari never even bothered to take out these books. As she looked around, trying to see all the students' faces, she suddenly flinched. Her gaze passed one of the boys who had not been there previously.

He was relatively tall, clearly a fourth-year student, going by the number of thick books before him and by how focused he was in taking notes. He had short, black hair and a really masculine jawline, not to mention his focused, determined eyes. Hiyori could not help but pat her own chest, feeling her heartbeat speeding up like a young maiden's as she pressed her thighs together under the table.

"Damn it…" she murmured under her breath, "He looks cool, but… fuck…" she grunted as she bit into her lips, forcing clarity onto herself.

"Hm? Which one?" Everlong asked in a whisper, coming back to her. Hiyori involuntarily pointed towards the boy, her finger hiding behind one of the books she had brought with her, perched upright on the table while going red in the face.

"Ugh!" she flinched again, almost immediately, realizing what she was doing and how she acted before Everlong.

"Ahaha…" he held back a soft laugh, patting her back. "Don't be ashamed of it. He is a good-looking kid, for sure. There is nothing wrong with eyeing up someone!" 

"It's not that… and I am still older than he is!" She replied with a small pout.

"Are you? Don't forget, the year is 1991. If I remember correctly, you were only one year old at this time!" 

"Ah… I totally forgot about that…" Hiyori realized, freezing up for a moment there. 

"The guy should be around 47 or 48 currently. So… anyway, it is not a sin to check out guys you fancy~"

"It is Yukari who fancies him! Mostly…" she corrected him quickly, keeping her voice as low as possible. "I think the girl was in love with the guy," she explained, clearly feeling uncomfortable in her seat and constantly checking something under the table.

"Hmmm..." he straightened up his back, looking at the boy, "Suzuki Tsutomu is his name. So at least Yukari knew him." he tilted his head, recalling it from the same pool of memories as Hiyori had access to. Only, to him, it was much harder to do so. He was only capable of tapping into things that Hiyori had already touched upon. Otherwise, he would have to force it... which could hurt Hiyori. When Hiyori realized the boy had to do something with Yukari's past, now, if Everlong focused, he could also gain access to fragments of the demon's memories.

"Yeah…" Hiyori nodded, the name flooding her mind with weird and bizarre images. "I am clearly… I mean, Yukari was clearly madly interested in him. Ugh..." 

"How madly?" Everlong asked, looking down at her and standing next to her table. Hiyori, her face as red as a tomato, just raised a wet finger towards him, her facial expression grimacing uncomfortably as she squirmed on her chair. "Damn…" Everlong blinked as he clicked his tongue. "No joke!" 

"It is getting really annoying…" Hiyori whispered, flustered, that she was unable to control her own body fully right now, influenced by her own tormentor.

"But we have our next clue, then," Everlong chuckled, walking forward, stopping next to the boy's table and striking up a quick conversation with him. 

Hiyori, a bit stumped, kept sitting at her own desk, barely hearing them, but she could make out the fact that it seemed Everlong's current persona was someone who knew Suzuki well. Especially how respectfully he answered almost every question he was asking. As she was watching them talk, another batch of feelings rushed through her that oozed intense and disturbing jealousy and a sick desire for ownership. Hiyori didn't need the detective to tell him; that bitch was turning love and affection into horrible urges in her head. She heard whispers from the back of her mind to go and murder both of them... Slit Everlong's throat for seducing her 'prince' and stab Suzuoki in the hearth for getting tainted by another being.

"Damn it!" she closed her eyes as she lowered her head and took deep breaths, trying to shake out Yukari's presence from her mind.

"I say this is a bingo," Everlong muttered after returning, watching Hiyori's struggling expression and already guessing what was going on with her.

"You think? Shit… That bitch was not operating at 100% from the start!" she gulped, looking up at him with a tired smile. 

"Nobody sane goes through the process of becoming a demon." he looked back at the boy, who had already returned to his books, silently studying. "He is the school's male idol, the prince charming, right out of the fables of old. He has not just one of the best grades but also captained the football team before quitting to focus on his studies." 

"You learned all that from talking with him?" Hiyori asked, raising her head and listening to him seriously, happy to focus on his voice that helped shut out Yukari's incessant ramblings to kill them both.

"Even more. I have experience; I know how to extract information from memories~" he winked at her. "Until now, no girl had managed to conquer him. He refused all of them. From the first grade up until now."

“Wait… don’t tell me…”

"Ahaha, no, no, no! Nope, not Yukari! I'd bet my manhood on the fact that she never, ever spoke with him. Not even through letters." He laughed, the mocking in her tone making Hiyori twitch her mouth.

"Yeah… you know what?" She scoffed, "You are right! Because as soon as you said that now, I had the urge to kill you."

"See? Told you~" he answered nonchalantly. "Anyway! Try to dig into her memories and feelings. I'm sure that he was one, if not THE trigger, of what made her to flip." 

"Okay…" she murmured as she took another deep breath, looking at the boy once again, trying to subdue the conflicting feelings that were still ravaging her mind and body.