The library felt colder after Shion left, like she took a part of my security with her.

The grey stone walls, tall and drafty, only felt that much more imposing without her biting, sarcastic remarks.

Without her, the place felt antagonistic.

But that could have been the gross zombie who stood at our table.

Skuzz waved like we were old classmates catching up at a reunion, his stapled jaw clicking with every too-wide grin.

His lips were gone, so it looked like his smile went on forever, like some twisted Jack-o'-lantern that no one bothers to carve properly.

"I'm so glad that you actually came. I thought I'd wasted my big idea just rotting around this place. Not that I mind rotting, obviously," he said.

His voice sounded wet, and he gurgled with every word he spoke.

Yuki wrinkled her nose.

"We didn't come here for you."

Skuzz waved his hand dismissively, and I stepped back.

I expected his appendage to come flying off at the wrist.

"Oh, sure, sure," Skuzz said. "But you're here, and I'm here, and you're here because of my awesome plan. That's my point! So, maybe it's destiny, maybe it's necromancy. Who cares? Same difference."

Inego groaned under his breath.

He pinched the bridge of his nose like he was calculating how much therapy money it was costing him to stay here.

Azuki, meanwhile, crossed her arms, keeping herself planted on the far side of the table as though Skuzz carried the plague.

It wasn't out of the question.

"What do you want, Skuzz?" I asked.

He slapped a pile of dust off one of the chairs, then dragged it up to the table with the kind of scraping noise that made me want to fold in half.

I felt the way the chair skittered across the floor in the roots of my teeth, and I had to clench my jaw shut.

The zombie sat down like this was perfectly normal, a friendly study session, and not some horrifying intervention.

"Simple," he said.

He propped his elbows on the table, nearly losing one, and began tapping his fingers as he explained.

"If Ryu hasn't explained my idea, let me give you the elevator pitch. It's like this: a night school. Uncredited, and available to anyone. Ghosts, ghouls, zombies, whatever crawls into town and through those creepy doors. Who cares if they want to shuffle around aimlessly, right? It gives us something to do!"

He looked around.

"Well? What do you think? Doesn't it sound… delicious?"

Even Yuki scrunched up her face.

"Ew. Skuzz, you're so gross," she said.

But then, of course, she shook her head, and I saw her hands tighten in her lap and her eyes quickly flicked towards me.

"However… your idea's not gross. The idea, by itself, is actually very good! I'd… love something like that. It'd be something people couldn't ignore. It'd be… real."

Her voice cracked when she said the last part, and my chest tightened.

Of course she wanted it.

Recognition, a place to belong, something more than floating through rooms hoping people would remember her.

Skuzz leaned in, his smell hitting us like wet dumpster on a summer afternoon.

"Exactly! Our sweet little ghost here gets it."

She narrowed her eyes at the dead man.

"Don't call me that," she hissed.

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He blinked his milky eyes at her, and I swear, one of them rolled in the wrong direction.

"Touche, I see you're the sensitive type. Whatever. Let me ask you all something. You've got the idea but… what's your next step?"

Yuki's face when blank.

She turned towards me, as though I were the expert in founding schools for the spiritually-inclined.

Skuzz placed his hands on the table, lacing what was left of his fingers together.

The thing he wore as a face attempted a smile, and all of us around him recoiled in disgust.

"Never mind. It's obvious to me that you kids have it all worked out, don'tcha?"

He let his sarcastic comment hang in the air, just like the foul scent emanating from his body.

"But, it seems to me, if you want a school, then you'll need a teacher. Preferably, one with some administrator experience."

And he spread his rotting arms like a magician revealing an empty hat.

"No offence, Yuki, but you've got zero teaching experience."

That landed like a slap.

Yuki looked downward at the table, her shoulders sagging.

"You're right," she said softly. "I'd like to start this school, but none of us have done anything like this before. We're out of our league."

Then, Inego stood up and pointed at Skuzz.

"Oi, back off, ya three-week-old meat pie," he said sharply. "You're not going to be the teacher. You're about as qualified as my plimsolls."

To my surprise, Skuzz nodded in agreement.

"Seriously," Azuki chimed in, her voice sharper than usual. "Nobody's trusting you with anything but maybe a fly infestation."

Skuzz chuckled at their comments.

His jaw clicked as one of his staples popped loose, and he calmly shoved it back in.

"That's actually an excellent point. I wasn't about to suggest that I step in as a teacher. I mean, gag me with a spoon, right?"

The four of us looked around the table, but Skuzz leapt up in a sudden burst of movement that none of us could have imagined the zombie were capable of making.

He was out of the chair and on his feet in less than a second, and his foot came down so hard on the library floor that it made Azuki jump.

Inego's wand was out in a flash, but Skuzz didn't even notice. The zombie calmly reached down to the floor, moved his foot to the side, and picked up what was left of a cockroach that he'd just crushed.

"Score!" Skuzz said triumphantly. "I'll just tuck you away for later. Still fresh too!"

Then he saw all of us staring at him.

"Oh, sorry! Didn't mean to frighten you all."

He grinned and sat back down like this was a regular part of his Saturday mornings.

Yuki shook her head in disbelief.

"Oh, I was saying, I know someone who could help. A real teacher. Retired, but that doesn't matter. Undead, like me, but unlike me used to be a hell of a teacher back in the day. But, there's just one teensy problem."

Of course there was.

"Did their mouth rot away?" I asked.

He just looked at me with his rotten mouth.

"Any of you kids professional comedians?" has asked, looking around the table.

No one said anything.

"I thought as much," Skuzz said, shrugging. "Look, if you want an actual teacher's help, one with experience, then I know someone. Either that or…"

He paused, acting like he was thinking.

"You could always ask Fushineko-sensei."

Inego scoffed.

"The nekomata teacher? Yeah right. She… vapes in the middle of class!"

Skuzz's cheek muscles twitched, like he was attempting to smile again.

"Oh? Not a good suggestion? So, maybe, you would like some help. Only, you need an invitation to get to this island."

Azuki sighed.

"Yeah. Nobody simply walks to Shin'yume. You can't. It's an island, so you've gotta swim."

Skuzz snorted, a sound akin to clearing a clogged garden hose.

Then, he produced a folded envelope from inside his disgusting blazer.

"An invitation… like this," he said.

The paper was yellowed, but the seal was unmistakable. Official. Embossed. And obviously stolen.

Inego's eyes went wide and Azuki gasped.

"Oh my gosh! Is that—"

Skuzz shook his head and quickly put the envelope back into the folds of his coat.

"You nicked one?" Inego asked.

Skuzz actually looked proud of himself.

"Borrowed," he said. "I doubt Hina will miss it. At least, she hasn't so far. And in case you can't tell, I didn't exactly grab the thing yesterday. I've been wanting to do something like this for a couple of years now, and I've finally got the chance."

Skuzz turned his milky gaze towards me, and I felt a weight pressing down on my chest.

"It's up to you," Skuzz said. "Just say the word, and it's yours, Ryu, buddy."

He gave me the kind of grin that could curdle milk.

I looked at Yuki, her blue eyes stared back at mine, uncertain.

"What do you think?" I asked.

Yuki pressed her lips together and her shoulders tensed, but Inego wasn't afraid to speak up.

"Mate, you shouldn't need me to tell you what an awful suggestion that is. First off, who is this mystery teacher. Why don't you give us a name?"

Skuzz's face was incapable of lighting up, but I think that's what it attempted.

"Gladly," he said, casually smacking the table with his decaying hand and leaving behind a brown stain.

Azuki scooted her chair closer to Inego's.

I saw his eyes register this.

Then, he shrugged a bit.

"Balthazar Myrrh," Skuzz said. "How's that for credentials! Ha! Top that. It's like recruiting Nolan Ryan to help coach your T-ball team."

Inego blinked.

"Yeah, mate… that's… impressive."

I looked from Inego to Skuzz, having no idea who this person was.

But Azuki asked before I could.

"Who's that?"

Skuzz sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"Of course, the tanuki wouldn't know," he muttered.

Inego, though, wasn't as judgmental.

"Balthazar Myrrh was one of the pioneers of a school of magic that eventually became foundational for everything we know about necromancy. He, um… I think he died sometime around Cleopatra's time."

Skuzz shook his head, causing one of his eyes to pop out of its socket.

"Egad!" Azuki said, hiding her face in her arm.

"It's fine, everyone. It's fine… this… happens."

Skuzz popped his eye back into place like he was adjusting his shirt collar.

Then he turned back towards me, reached into his blazer, and slowly slid the invitation across the table.

It sat in front of me giving off a faint, but unpleasant, smell.

"It's already filled out," Skuzz said. "All you gotta do is put it through the tunnel."

I didn't want to touch it, thinking it might leave some kind of residue on my fingers.

Instead, I just tiled my head, the way Shion did and looked at Skuzz.

"How am I supposed to do that?"

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