Yashiro Nene/Synopsis

Hanako-san of the Toilet
Upon hearing about the rumors of Hanako-san of the Toilet, the superstition who would grant any wish in return for a price, Nene tried to summon him. She was surprised when it actually worked and was even more surprised when she realized that Hanako-san was a boy. She started off by accidentally insulting Hanako but soon won him over by calling him cool. She explained that her wish was for the boy (Minamoto Teru) she had a crush on to love her back. Hanako, despite what the rumors stated, could not do this, so instead, he pulled out a love strategy book. Nene was annoyed at this but Hanako explained that if he used magical items then she would've had to pay a larger price. She told him that she wanted her wish to come true, no matter what the price was. In response, he then told her that he didn't have any magical items on him so he couldn't do it anyways. Nene contemplated for a bit, finally deciding to go along with his suggestion, based off the idea that Hanako must've granted wishes about love all the time. Hanako chose to focus on Method 78 of the book, titles "capatilize on your special abilities."

Nene and Hanako then headed to the garden as one of her "special abilities" was gardening. At first, Hanako was disgusted. Nene revealed that she started gardening, as well as cooking and sewing, because a guy she liked for three years said he liked "feminine girls." She confessed to him around month ago, only to be rejected and insulted. Despite saying that she was over him, the way Nene acted said otherwise. She quickly covered it up by saying that she liked someone else and would make her previous crush regret rejecting her by getting together with someone great like Minamoto Teru. Hanako then told her that that meant that basically anyone would do for her, which she cheerfully denied, saying that Teru was the only one for her. However, he pointed out that she didn't seem to know much about him. Hanako asked her whether or not she even knew Teru's first name, a question in which Nene avoided.

Hanako gave her a heart-shaped card and, telling her to write a thank-you note to Teru for picking up her pencil case and to leave him a few of the things she grew, thinking that they would be flowers or something of the sort. Following up the next day, Teru walked into his class, which was making a huge commotion. They were all crowded around his desk where Nene had placed the note and her "gift", which turned out to be vegetables. Seeing Teru's friends making fun of her gift, her spirit sank, but she still listened along to Hanako's other ideas. The next attempt they try is for Hanako to steal Teru's button and for Nene to sew it back on, however Teru gets surrounded by other people trying to give him their buttons. Nene then makes a character bento for him, only to go overboard and for it to turn out terrifying. Another attempt, although being in no way linked to her abilities, is for Nene to run around a corner and "accidentally" bump into Teru, this fails as she accidentally runs into Kou walking next to him.

As all these fails, Nene tries to ask Hanako for a quicker way. He suggests for her to just confess to Teru. When she reacts by telling him that that's impossible, he slips and reveals that he's new at this. Hanako tries to prove that he's not by trying to find "unpure items" and in the process accidentally drops a bag of mermaid scales. She asks him to explain what they are and Hanako replies that they're for matchmaking. He then panics and tries to get her to give them back only for Nene to put one in her mouth and threaten to swallow it. Hanako explains what they are and that when two people ingest scales from the same mermaid they will be cursed yet bound together. Nene proceeds to swallow it. He panics again and tries to explain that she'll be cursed. She states that she doesn't care if she's cursed if she'll be with Teru. She storms away, believing that Hanako lied to her.

Nene finds Teru being confessed to by another girl and him turning her down as he has liked someone for a while and doesn't want to be with anyone else. Nene thinks she's lost all hope until she remembers about the scales. She is about to run towards him when she becomes covered in scales and loses consciousness. She sees herself falling through a sea of thoughts about how much she had invested in the wrong things and how selfish she had been.

She regains consciousness to the sound of Hanako's voice. She is confused as to why she is surrounded by water until she looks in the mirror she is being held in front of and realizes that she's become a fish. Hanako reveals that this is the Mermaid's curse and that having someone else swallow the scale only splits the fish between you and that it's only for "matchmaking" as people who share the same curse are bonded together. Nene reflects on how she really felt about Teru, she didn't like him, she just wanted romance, not caring who it's with.

She hears a voice coming from underneath the classroom when the floor opens up and reveals a fish with a human face (the mermaid) trying to make Nene her servant. She watches Hanako and the mermaid fight, Hanako pulls out a knife and easily defeats her.

Hanako offers to eat the other scale and humanize Nene as her true wish ( again with a consequence). Nene begs him to turn her human again. Hanako eats the scale saying that she'll have to pay him back with her body. He moves on top of her, implying something sexual, when he states that he'll just be taking her physical labor. He teases her for taking it dirtily only for her to push him away and being surprised when she realizes she can touch him now. He flirts with her, saying that being bound to someone is the same as being with someone, and points out the newly appeared scales on her arms, saying that they'll go away if she dries them.

The Faeries (Mokke)
While cleaning bathroom stalls, Nene begs Hanako to let her go for the day and points out how hard she has been working for the past week as his assistant. He immediately denies her request and questions her motive to leave. Nene reveals that she had been asked on a "date" by the attractive Fuji where the pair would organize papers; however, Fuji had left halfway and she was left to work by herself. Realizing Nene was being taken advantage of, Hanako unsuccessfully tries to convince Nene to stay with him. When Nene tells him she'd rather do paperwork, Hanako threatens to turn her into a fish which immediately makes her change her mind.

The following day, Nene sits in class and laments her task of cleaning toilets for Hanako. The teacher suddenly calls on her and she jumps up to answer, however, she notices her books and brooch are missing. Later that day, Aoi sees Nene's melancholic nature and tells her that perhaps "the faeries" were the culprit of her missing belongings. She describes their rumor: the faeries are beings that steal items. One must never look at them, otherwise they'll face death.

As Aoi finishes telling Nene the rumor, they see many of their classmates frantically look for missing items such as a towel, locker doors, and Akane's hanitaro. Their classmates' panic results in an object accidentally hitting Aoi, who spills her water can over Nene. Terrified at the prospect of someone seeing her scales, Nene immediately runs all the way to the old building.

Relieved at her narrow escape, Nene decides to dry off and head back. She spots a clean towel on the ground and sees a trail of missing items her classmates had lost earlier. She follows the items to an open room and glances inside, comimg face-to-face with a giant figure: the faeries. Nene cowers in fear as she remembers Aoi's words of how the faeries would take the life of anyone who sees them.

Suddenly, Hanako appears and commands his hakujoudai to strike the faeries, splitting it apart. He approaches a frightened Nene and tells her to be more careful given how easily she engages with supernaturals. Hanako introduces the now-split faeries as the mischevious "Mokke"—a type of weak supernatural—and they tell Nene that they were forced to attack her in order to abide by their rumor. Hanako explains to a confused Nene that supernaturals must follow their designated rumor, otherwise they will cease to exist. He then requests Nene to help change the Mokke's rumor so they can continue living peacefully among humans and preseve their relationship. Convinced, Nene hugs the Mokke and agrees to help out, thanking Hanako for saving her.

The pair make their way outside, and Nene questions Hanako if helping out the Mokke was the task for her he had in mind earlier. He responds that it was, in fact, something he had planned and an excited Nene asks if this meant she no longer had to clean toilets, quickly disappointed by Hanako deny. He wonders about her hate for the job and tells her that personally, he enjoyed being able to talk with someone like a friend. Hearing his words, Nene happily gives him the new nickname "Hanako-kun," stating that this way, they'd be more like friends.

Later on, Nene returns to the school and overhears some girls talking about their missing items and the chance of losing their lives to the faeries. Nene interrupts and gives them candy, telling them that the faeries would exchange the missing items for candy peacefully without any threat of death. She leaves to go clean toilets and when questioned over her new busyness, she describes the activity as hanging out with a friend.

The Misaki Stairs Arc
Nene is seen watering flowers with Aoi while thinking about Hanako's expression when she said she could be friends with a killer. At that moment Aoi calls her and tells her the rumors of The Misaki Stairs

"...Have you heard?

There is a rule regarding that staircase that you must never break. You must never set foot on the fourth step. Why? Because...

...you will be taken to the other side."

Afraid because all rumors that Aoi tells her come true, Nene got a bit nervous. Suddenly, Aoi got called by her homeroom teacher to art room, right in front of The Misaki Stairs. The next day, Nene saw that Aoi's chair and the flower that she had been taking care of disappeared. What was even weirder, Aoi herself had disappeared.

Nene immediately asked the homeroom teacher about this, who became very confused, claiming that there was no one named Aoi in that class. Upon hearing this, Nene came out of her class and called Aoi's family. However, they also did not know who Aoi was. Nene became even more confused and decided to go visit Hanako. Hanako told her that Aoi was probably stuck in No.2's boundary, the Misaki Stairs. Nene instantly wanted to go save Aoi and Hanako and Kou decided to go with her.

After entering The Misaki Stairs, they received a call from "Misaki" to find Misaki's left hand. Once you had gotten each body part, another section would unlock and you would be able to climb up another section of the stairs. Nene and her friends did as they were told to reach the top of the stairs, which Hanako decided held Misaki's Yorishiro.

After reaching the highest part of The Misaki Stairs, they meet a figurine made from they're collected body parts and a beautiful woman, who they presume to be "Misaki". "Misaki" rushed up to the body parts that Nene had collected and described it as a wonderful body,

Misaki infused some magic into the body, telling it to walk. The body tries to walk but falls soon after. "Misaki" referred to this as "another failure."

Nene asked that beautiful woman about where the missing students went. Suddenly, a pile of dolls appeared around. Nene looked around and realized that they were the missing students. Nene ran over to the Aoi doll and hugged her.

"Misaki" became very angry about the body's failure, trying to cut Nene, Hanako, and Kou with her weapon, a pair of scissors. It turned out that whatever is cut by the scissors becomes a doll, and, at that moment, Hanako realized that the part that held the Yorishiro was not the highest part of the stairs, but the very bottom. Hanako asked Nene if Nene trusted him, and once Nene said yes, threw her all the way down to the bottom of the stairs.

When Nene arrived at the bottom part, she found paper scattered around her and a diary which is seemed to be by a girl who fell in love with her teacher. The last page showed that that teacher had died, falling off the Misaki Stairs. At that moment, “Misaki” arrived in the bottom part to kill Nene and attempted to cut Nene many times. Nene had a really close call, and as she was about to be cut, Hanako sprang to the rescue. Hanako held "Misaki" off as Nene ran to find the Yorishiro.

"Misaki", realising what was going to happen, cried out that she needed to bring Misaki back. Nene then realised that the "Misaki" who had tried to kill her wasn't Misaki, but the young girl who had loved him. Nene then shouted back at the girl, telling her that she wasn't bringing Misaki back for him, but for herself, just like Nene had done in Chapter 1.

Nene soon realized that the girl's Yorishiro was at the shrine, and to break it, Hanako held the girl and told Nene to ripe out the white and black seal on a pair of scissors. As Nene ripped the yorishiro, all of the girl's memories flooded into her mind.

When Nene awoke again, she is in front of The Misaki Stairs and Hanako had a White Fox, who turned out to be school mystery No. 2, the Misaki Stairs. Hanako threatened No. 2 to apologize, which the fox did after many threats to turn her into udon.

After that fox apologized to Nene, Nene called her "Fox-san", for which the fox bit her hands. The fox revealed that her real name was Yako.

As Nene walked off, Hanako kissed Nene (for "protection"). Nene stared at Hanako.

"Wha--!!!!"

The Confession Tree
After the Misaki Stairs Arc, Nene kept getting images of Hanako asking her whether she wants to be kissed by him in the middle of her 'handsome prince' daydreams. She starts wondering about whether Hanako likes her, and she consults Aoi for advice. Aoi suggests that Nene should try dating him to get used to being in a relationship, even though Hanako is not Nene's type, and hints that he might confess to her soon.

Aoi then tells Nene about another rumor: The Confession Tree.

"They say the God of Romance grew that tree...and any couple that confesses their love under it will be bound together in love."

They then observe Akane practicing his confessions to Aoi with Yamabuki Lemon. However, Nene initially didn't believe that Hanako would really confess to her until the two were in the girl's bathroom after school.

"After school tomorrow, will you come to the giant tree in the practice garden with me?" Hanako asked her. Nene agrees out of disbelief.

The next day, Nene finds Aoi in tears. When asked why, she points to a crowd of students, who were surrounding Akane and Lemon. It turns out that they have decided to become a couple after the rehearsal yesterday. As Aoi was too conflicted to advise her, Nene finds herself becoming nervous as she walks to the Confession Tree to meet with Hanako.

When arriving at the Confession Tree, Nene notices that there may be some cool sides to him. He greets her with a smile before suddenly holding onto her shoulders. Hanako tells her that he loves her and wants to go out with her. Nene is overjoyed as this is her first time being confessed and getting a boyfriend, before something unexpected occurs.

"Hurry up and turn me down!" Hanako prompts Nene to reject him. Nene, confused, does so, which caused the Confession Tree to reveal itself as a supernatural: Kodama

The Kodama belives that it is love that leads to happiness, and admits to be the one bringing the couples together. Nene calls the Kodama gross, causing it to attack her. However, it causes no harm to her since she's protected by a spell Hanako placed on her by kissing her cheek. Hanako then reduces the Kodama to the size of a cute broccoli.

Nene realizes the confession was fake. She starts walking away, crying. Hanako, seeing that he hurt her feelings, removes his hat and apologizes to her, asking her to "stay here until you're done crying". Nene realizes that despite calling Hanako her friend, she never tried to find out anything about him.

"Today, at this moment, for the first time, I felt like I wanted to know more about him."

The 4PM Bookstacks Arc
"So you're interested in the seven mysteries?" asked a mysterious girl to Nene. Nene partly-affirms to the question as the girl continued. Nene was surprised when the girl said that Hanako was like a cat: capricious, selfish, and childish. Upon referencing from the mangas she read before, Nene assumed this girl was Hanako's girlfriend. The girl advised Nene to go to School Mystery No. 5 if she wanted to know more about him before leaving. Nene tried to pursue her, but she accidentally bumped into someone before losing track of the mysterious girl.

The next day, Nene was seen asking Aoi about School Mystery No. 5. Aoi answered that No. 5 is The 4PM Bookstacks.

"In this school's library, there's a special storeroom you can only enter at 4PM, the room is full of books with people's names. Each of these books contains a record of that person's life at this school. Past, present, and future it's all written in the book...!"

Nene believes that that girl's intention was that she should look for Hanako's book.

"But... If you do go to The 4PM Bookstacks you have to be careful." "There are three kinds of books in the bookstacks- white, black, and red. The white ones have the records of people who are alive, the black ones are records of people who have died. And those two kinds are okay, ...but the red books...! Those are the ones you should never, ever read. Or your life will be full of blood."

Nene wanted to read Hanako's book, but she didn't want to go alone. She also wants to know who the girl from yesterday was and wants to discuss with Hanako, but she believed that if she invited Hanako, then she couldn't read Hanako's book. Nene sees Kou arguing with someone she doesn't know. Nene asked what was the matter and Kou responded that she arrived on time. Kou said that this guy was his homeroom teacher, but he was being mean. Nene asks if Kou made a mistake, then the man replied he hopes that Kou would stop going into the girl's restroom because they got complaints from female students. Kou said he came to the girl's restroom to protect the students, but Nene does think it's wrong for a boy to go into the girl's restroom. Kou is confused about what he should do because Hanako is not there and how he promised Teru from the incident before. Nene asks why Hanako isn't there, and Kou replied that he found this letter when he arrived.

Then his teacher also just remembered that he also had a meeting and ask Kou what time it was before leaving. Nene deduces that if Hanako wasn't there, then that means she wouldn't have to clean. Nene then asks Kou what he knew about the 4PM Bookstacks.