"Y-You know… I'm not so sure about doing the trial of courage anymore," I said as the shadow of our empty school building loomed over us. Not a single light was on inside or outside around the courtyard, save for a few close calls with flashlights. We hopped over the gate and snuck past a couple of security guards, but our plans were temporarily foiled when the front doors were locked.

Fortunately— or unfortunately, depending on who you asked in our group— we discovered the walkway path that connected the gymnasium and school building was unlocked.

"Why are you scared? A succubus of your calibre's got nothing to be afraid of." Mio grinned.

"Fighting other succubus is one thing, but ghosts are another." I trembled at the thought of possibly encountering one. I never imagined succubi and magic were real, what's to say ghosts weren't real either? "Th-There aren't ghosts in your world, is there?"

"Of course there is. Who knows. Maybe some of them slipped into your world." She lowered her voice, a shadow fell across her face, and the smile became a wicked smirk.

Hana chimed in and said, "There are even things called banshees! Anguished souls of women that roam the land searching for their loved ones!"

"God, damn it, guys." I ran past them to catch up to Kana.

As our group headed further down the dark hallway. The sound of our echoing footsteps and shallow breathing was all that could be heard.

Kana jumped when I grabbed his arm.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Mio and Hana are being mean again," I said, clinging to him.

"I guess you've always been weak to this sort of thing. At least in here, I can finally be the reliable one again." He settled down to let our fingers interlock, but as Takumi and the others glanced back, we quickly let go.

"Is it just me, or are you two kinda closer?" Takumi asked.

"W-Well, we are childhood friends…" Kana said.

Takumi squinted. Normally, that would be enough. After all, it wasn't a secret to anyone that Kana and I were friends for ages now.

"Ah, man. Sounds nice, though. Having your best friend turn into a girl. It's like the perfect set up for a romantic comedy like in those manga. Too bad I'm stuck with these guys," Takumi teased Nao and Furuya.

"Hah. If I turned into a girl, I wouldn't give any of you guys the time and day. I'd hook up with another girl from class," Nao said.

Furuya sneered at both of them. "You guys are too small-brained. The rise of e-girls is on an uphill trend. Becoming a full time streamer playing games all day and taking donations just to shout out some desperate guy's name is my dream."

"You're the worst!" they both shouted at him.

I laughed at all three of them. My fear was suddenly washed away. With these guys, it might not be so bad exploring the school at night.

"Mio, Hana. Do you guys want to check out our class—" My two succubus companions went missing.

"What?" Kana turned around and also realized who had gone missing. "Oh. That can't be good… right? Should we turn back? Hey, Takkun?"

Kana and I turned back around to find that Takumi, Nao, and Furuya had also disappeared. My hands suddenly gripped Kana's arm harder.

"But they were right in front of us…" he said.

"Do you think… ghosts?" I asked, clinging to his back.

"There's no way. Ghosts don't exist." Kana shook his head.

"We said the same thing about succubus back then!" It was then that I started smelling a sweet scent wafting from Kana's body. I looked down between his legs to see a bulge

"S-Sorry… this happened because you're pressing your boobs to my back," he said.

"Now's that the time to get horny. Ahhh!" I grabbed my own hair out of frustration and terror.

No. Calm down, Saeko.

This was expected. Mio and Hana were the most excited about coming out here. They for sure wanted to scare the shit out of us. Anything that happened was likely going to be them.

Though… just because you knew fire was hot, didn't make any less likely to burn you. On the off chance that any of us freaked out and blew a hole in the wall with magic, we'd be screwed.

"Alright, Kana. How about we—" My source of stable ground and mental fortitude in the form of my best friend had disappeared. "Not you, too!"

I had to get a hang of myself. There was no doubt in my mind Mio or Hana swept them away with a charm. The boys were somewhere around here. I just needed to keep my eyes peeled.

But as I stared up and down the incredibly dark hallway, a chill ran up my spine. I'd walked these halls countless hundreds of times in the three years I attended Tsukiji High, but at night it was a completely different world. The many doors lining either side of the hallway seemed like entrances to oblivion. Each step I took terrified me.

"For now, I can at least make some light." I ignited a small flame in front of my face that illuminated the surroundings. It was a good idea, but if I accidentally ran into the other guys who turned out to not be charmed, I wouldn't be able to explain myself without putting a spell on them.

Well. I'd cross that bridge when I get there. Looking for people was my top priority.

"Mio! Hana!" I shouted the two troublemakers' names which I was quickly learning was in vain. Even if they did hear me, they wouldn't bother revealing themselves. Yumi told me how those two would get in all sorts of pranks back in Elza that it'd get on the demon lord's nerves.

I just hoped they wouldn't overdo it here in the human world...

Something wet and slimy smacked the back of my neck. I leapt forward and into the air, heart beating like mad. A slab of jelly hanging by a swung listlessly from the ceiling where I was just standing.

"Really? Can you be anymore cliched with konjac jelly?" I slapped it away only for another to hit me from behind. 

More continued to fall around me, more than it was humanly possible for someone to have set up so soon. I ran down the hall, shielding my face from the hail of jelly.

"Ahhhh! What the heck, guys?! Why is this happening—" I bumped hard into someone around the corner and fell on top of them.

"Ow…" Nao rubbed the back of his head.

"Nao! Thank goodness…" I couldn't resist hugging him even though we were just friends of a friend. It felt like my chest was going to explode, and I needed someone's comfort.

"S-Saeko?" His hands hovered above like he was afraid to put his hands on me. I was beginning to smell the lust oozing off him. "Are Kana and the other girls with you?"

"Everyone just disappeared. When I tried to look for you guys, a bunch of jelly kept falling all over the place." I pointed behind me, but when we checked down the hall, there was nothing hanging from the ceiling.

Nao walked out from the corner and squinted down the corridor.

"I don't see a thing. Are you sure?" he asked.

Was I sure? I knew for sure. My neck and face was still a bit sticky from getting smacked.

"No, no. I definitely had things hitting me. Feel it." I marched up to him and clasped his hand on my cheek.

Nao jerked back and blushed. I realized what this looked like and let go.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to…" I muttered.

"It's fine! I believe you. Let's stay close and find the others from now on," he said.

Neither of us knew where we were to start. Eventually we made a circle around the entire first floor. The upper floors, cafeteria, and gymnasium were the only places left to check. It was possible the others to have gone upstairs, but for what?

"Wait a minute, what were we supposed to look for in the trial of courage anyway?" I asked.

"Takkun hid a couple of things for us to find. The plan was for us to split into groups and look for them. But as you know, we all got separated…" he answered.

I stuck close to his back as we approached the stairs. No where else left to go except up or in the classrooms.

"Oooh…"

"Uurrk…"

"What was that sound?!" I whipped around but saw nothing down the hall from where we came. Just darkness and closed doors.

Nao pointed to a custodian's closet. "I… I think it came from there…"

"Help… me…" a trembling voice said.

The blood in my veins froze.

"Mio? Hana? Is that you? Come out already! This isn't funny!" I shouted at the door.

Bang!

Both of us staggered back, surprised by the loud knock from the other side.

"It might be one of our friends. Should I open it?" Nao asked.

"No! It doesn't sound like any of them! I just want to get out of here…" I shivered like it was winter in school.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The doorknob rattled, and whatever was behind it knocked harder.

My brain went blank with terror. Nao grabbed my hand and took off running upstairs. He opened the first classroom door on the second floor, threw us both in and shut the door, making sure to twist the lock shut.

"Are you okay, Saeko?" he asked. Without a word, I threw my arms around him. "O-Oh. Well, I'm alright with this, too."

"Can you just hold me while we sit down?" I asked in return.

Nao swallowed hard and nodded. 

We sat behind the teacher's desk while I had my back to his chest. He had his arms wrapped around my stomach, but I could tell by how they slowly crept up, he was trying to cop a feel of my boobs. 

I felt so pathetic being scared and relying on a human. Even though I changed mentally and physically, I had yet to mature. So much for being a succubus.

"Are you feeling better?" Nao asked, his hot breath blowing in my ear. It sent a different kind of shiver up my spine. One that was getting my crotch wet.

"Yeah. Thanks for staying with me," I said.

We should probably get going. Fifteen minutes had already passed. My heart didn't feel like it was about to burst anymore. The others might be worried sick. I just hoped Mio and Hana didn't scare them to death yet.

I stood up, but Nao remained sitting on the ground.

"What's wrong?" I asked

His legs were squeezed shut, and his face was red up to his ears. I knew exactly what was wrong.

"Yeah. Just give me a few minutes, and I'll be good to go," he answered.

The longer we stayed here, the more time Mio and Hana could set up their stupid tricks. Nao's erection was looking mighty delicious right about now… and he was nice enough to put up with me.

"If… If you'd like, I could take care of that for you," I said.

Nao must have drawn a blank, because he just stared past me, eyes blinking.

"By 'take care of' you mean…" he trailed off.

I positioned myself between his legs and unzipped his pants.

"Wait, I don't know about this! I mean, I think you're really hot— okay, maybe I do want this… but— ahhh!" Nao's incessant rambling was cut off as soon as I put his dick in my mouth. Unsurprisingly, he came quick and spurted a load into my mouth. The look on his face was that of someone on cloud nine as I licked him clean from shaft to tip. "I didn't know you were like that… You and Kana must be doing it like rabbits since you're a girl now, huh?"

With the taste of his cum in my mouth and the sight of his still erect cock, it became difficult to resist the temptation.

I knew we shouldn't, but I found myself asking, "Do you want to know how lucky Kana is?"

Nao had no warning and was at a loss when I took my jeans off to show him my wet pussy. He sat there, petrified like he was staring at Medusa. Since he didn't resist, I acted first and sat on top of his cock, accepting it all the way down to the base. His body shuddered, and he put his arms around me again.

"You came, didn't you?" I asked, feeling the hot ejaculate squirting into me.

"W-Was that okay? This is my first time, and I'm not wearing a con— mmph?" He was rambling, so I covered his lips with a kiss as I bounced on top of him until he came a third time.

When our lips parted, I saw that he was in a daze.

"Sex… is amazing… your inside is so hot and wet," Nao said, a line which I'd heard too many times and made me sigh. He became self-conscious now. "Am I doing something wrong? Is it not feeling good for you?"

I shook my head, then threw my jacket and shirt off to pull his face into my breasts, muffling a yelp in the process.

"You were wondering about these, weren't you? I know your hands were trying to grope me earlier," I said.

Nao started sucking on my nipples. His hips were moving now, no need for me to urge him anymore as his sexual instincts took over.

"Yes— fuck me, ahh! Make me forget that we're in school— I'm cumming, aaahhh!"

"Uh, oh. Don't faint on me…" I tried to shake Nao back to consciousness.

I realized coming back to my senses that I might have drained Nao too much. He was foaming at the mouth, eyes going in circles. Good thing I had Yumi teach me healing magic in my free time. Ironically, the sexual energy I drained from him was used to restore some of his stamina and hopefully prevented a migraine.

"Come on, Nao… I don't want to walk around alone." A few more seconds of channeling, and he began to stir. No point in continuing healing him otherwise I'd just get hungry again and attack him. 

"Nnh… hmm? What happened? And why does my dick feel good for some reason…" Nao stared between his legs, still groggy from being drained.

He didn't seem to remember what we did. I was getting better at this whole memory manipulation thing.

"We were just sitting around, but you fell asleep. We should get going already," I said.

"R-Right."

We left the classroom and back into the second floor of the school building. Very gentle piano music was being played, just quiet enough to be heard.

"I'm not hallucinating. You hear that, too?" I asked.

"Takkun and Furuya don't play the piano," Nao said.

"Neither do Kana, Mio, and Hana," I added.

Both of us gulped hard.

"This isn't funny anymore. I'm going to call one of them." He dialed who I assumed was either Furuya or Takumi, but the call went straight to voicemail.

Slam!

The door we came out of shut close with a load crash. I looked at Nao, but he shook his head, and then hid behind my back. All of the doors in the hall began to slam open and close, so loudly the noise hurt our ears.

"Run for it!" I yelled.

The only place we could go was the third floor, but by the time we got upstairs, the cacophonous doors had stopped. The piano music, however, was much louder up here. Our eyes fell to the end of the hallway where the music room was— the only place that it could be.

It sounded like a recital, like someone who had been playing for years. But none of us here knew how to play the piano.

"Oh, god… I don't want this…" Nao was losing his mind now, too.  It was still terrifying as crap not knowing if it was Mio and Hana pulling these pranks or not. If I wanted to, I could fly right out these windows.

The problem was, I didn't want to leave everyone else here.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A blood curdling scream from downstairs made my hair stand on end. Nao went as pale as a ghost and fainted in my arms.

Drip. drip.

A wet sound was coming from behind us. I made the mistake of turning around, and witnessed the terrifying visage of a black-haired woman crawling up the stairs, leaving a trail of water behind her.

That was the last straw. I picked up the unconscious Nao, flew down the hall, and slammed the door behind us.

I froze up and kept facing the closed door. The music was loud. In my haste to get out of the hall, I went straight into the music room. I didn't want to look into the room. The classical music grew louder, and louder, until I was about to lose my mind.

"No more being scared!" I conjured a fireball on my palm and faced the room.

"BOO!"

"Eeek!" My hand acted on its own and punched the figure in front of me, launching them into the ceiling. "What the…"

It was Hana. Her head was stuck in the ceiling, and the rest of her body dangled like a pinata. I recognized her by the black and white knee socks.

"Kahahaha!" Mio came out from behind the grand piano, waving her phone that was playing the music. She pressed pause and dropped to the floor laughing, clutching her stomach. "That was too good! Oh, man. The look on your face was priceless. I even got it on camera, do you wanna see?"

"No, I don't want to see! It was all really you two after all…" I put my back to the wall and slid down to my butt.

Mio yanked Hana down by her legs. The pink-haired helion crashed to the ground, groaning in pain after I uppercutted her.

"Uwaaah… I'm seeing stars… I think Saeko might have a career in boxing…" she said.

"The music teacher isn't going to be happy about a hole in the ceiling." I stared at the Hana's head-shaped size hole up there.

"Ah, who cares. No one knows we were here anyway." Mio was flicking through the slideshow of pictures she took of my terrified expression.

"Where are the other boys anyway?" I asked.

Hana pointed to the corner of the room. Three pairs of legs were sticking out from behind a storage locker.

"We put them to sleep. Man, did we wait long up here for you," Hana said.

Wait a minute.

"Long? How long?" I tried to piece together how much time had passed by. But it shouldn't have been more than forty minutes.

"Maybe about half an hour. Hana and I spent that whole time on the third floor arguing about where we should prank ya," Mio said.

My brain was going into overdrive, and my stomach was queasy with fear.

"Y-You set up all those jellies on the first floor, the banging closet, and the dripping woman on the first two floors, too. Right?" I asked.

Mio and Hana looked at me with genuine confusion.

"I… I'm done. I don't want to be here anymore!" I went to pick up Kana, opened the window, and flew out of the third floor.