by Ono Fuyumi
Prologue
It was completely dark inside the room. A blue penlight's glow was moving around. A light too weak to illuminate the entire room. The blue light shone on the floating silhouette of the girl holding the penlight.
It's raining outside. The voice of the young girl is sweeping somewhere throughout the lonely sounds of the falling rain.
"...This is a story I heard from my uncle.
One summer my uncle went to the mountain with a friend. They walked, aiming to see the summit of that mountain."
She paused for a moment.
"...And you know, the weather was nice, but they lost their way, even though they had been there before.
They should have arrived to the top in about three hours, but no matter how much they walked, they couldn't reach it.
Strange as it may seem, they kept on walking, and then a completely unknown mountain ridge appeared above them and they couldn't understand where they were anymore. Anyway, under these circumstances they decided to return and took the way from which they came, but after they walked for a while the same place appeared before them.
No matter how many times they walked that way, they always came to the same ridge. Eventually it got dark and they had no choice, but to camp at that place."
No one was able to open their mouths now.
"Night came. They sat by the camp-fire, chatting, when they heard a man's voice. A voice asking for help. The two of them looked around for the voice's owner, but couldn't see anyone. Trying to call for him didn't give a result either.
And just when they thought that it was just their imagination, they heard the voice again. This time it was closer than before, they searched again, but still there was no one around.
The same thing happened many times again, and the voice was steadily closing in to them. At the end the voice got so close to them that it was coming from the campfire. Someone's breath, footsteps and even clothes' rubbing sound could be heard, but still they couldn't see anyone there. As anyone would, they got a very bad feeling about that, so my uncle's friend began chanting a 'namuamidabutsu' prayer.
All the sounds started to tone down.
The two of them couldn't sleep that night at all and waited for dawn. In the morning they realized that near the camp there was a cairn."
"A cairn?"
"Yeah. When a man died in the mountain, they piled up some stones at that place instead of a grave.
That's called a cairn.
――You see, that cairn was about an average man's height. It was impossible to miss it. Still they didn't notice it the day before.
The dead person probably felt lonely and tried to invite them...or something like that.
I still wonder what could have happened if my uncle's friend didn't do the 'namuamidabutsu' prayer.”
Yuuri finished her story, leaving the rain's sound to be the only sign of activity around us.
She quietly turned off the penlight.
Another two lights remained inside the room.
"Next is Mai."
Keiko suggests from the darkness.
As the expert, I started my story.
"...It's a story I heard when I was a grade student.
On a street at night there was a woman going back home. That was in the Autumn, so her body got cold midway and she felt she needed to go to the toilet. She was just passing near a park and thought she could use the public toilet there.
A public bathroom at night doesn't feel right, does it? Because it's dark and all...
Although she didn't want to, she went into the restroom. Then, she heard a voice calling out of thin air."
I made my high-pitched voice tremble.
"’Do you want a red mantle?’
‘No-o!’
Someone screamed.
That woman was totally frightened and left the restroom.
But somehow the door was stuck.
The door jolted and again she heard the same voice, 'Do you want a red mantle?'.
She hit the door with all her might, but it didn't open. And when she heard the voice for the third time she answered,'No, I don't want it'.
Right after that the door opened quickly."
No one could speak. Only a weak rough noise of breathing mingled with the sound of the rain is audible.
I continued the story.
"The woman got out of the restroom in a haste and was so scared that she just couldn't go home by herself, then she saw two patrol policemen passing by.
She greeted the policemen and told them about what happened while going home. They told her, ‘That was probably a molester who had hidden himself somewhere inside the bathroom. We can't catch him by ourselves.’, so she had to go inside again.
Before she entered the toilet again the police man told her ‘When the voice asks you again, please say yes.’
Then the woman entered the toilet and soon after that she heard the creepy voice say ‘Do you want a red mantle?’ She, as instructed, answered with ‘Yes’. And at the same instant a terrible scream filled the midnight silence.
The door opened quickly, and the woman there was dead."
Raindrop sounds. Just raindrops...
"She was covered in red just like she was wearing a red mantle.
She was dyed in deep red blood. Her body was pierced so that it looked like the pointer of a compass, full of small holes everywhere."
Everyone screamed.
"No!"
"Waah!"
Hearing the screams, I turned off the penlight.
Only one light was left.
Only one blue light was still shining... Michiru started her story.
"It's a story about this school..."
The blue light is shining on Michiru's hair, her hair that is hanging down from around her face.
"Mai, have you heard the story of the old school building?"
I turn my face, shaking my head in a negative answer.
"Strange.
At the ex-school building there is a wooden building at the opposite side of the sports ground. The half-collapsed building."
"...So.
It wasn't collapsed. That's where the reconstruction stopped."
"Why...?"
Michiru smiled like a ghost.
"Curse..."
"C-c-curse?"
"Yes...
That building was cursed... a lot of strange incidents happened there. Every year a teacher and a pupil died there... Was it a fire or an incident, only bad things happened there."
I saw that right after I entered this school. The old building had half-collapsed. It was full of broken glass and walls around. Really, that building is a scary place.
"The new school building was built ten years ago.
That time, when they had to demolish the old building to start the construction, strange things happened. A machine stopped and workers got ill. But still they tried to break the west wall, and the roof fell down. All the way from the second floor. All of the workers on the first floor died."
Diseases, injuries, incidents...
"Thereupon the construction was suspended. It was left like that, with the west side collapsed, for a long time.
After that unpleasant things continued to happen. A child from the neighborhood was found dead in the ex-building, three days after that a teacher committed suicide there...
...The demolition was restarted last year in order to rebuild the gym. But again only the half of it got demolished, before the work got suspended. The same as last time. A machine broke, a worker got..."
...huh.
"O
nce a truck went out of control and drove through the sports ground during class. Two students died and seven were severely injured. It was on the newspapers too."
...I don't like this.
Michiru keeps on in a low voice.
"My senpai's friend saw a man's ghost at the ex-building...
A person's white shadow was looking at her from the second floor, she said. The road around the school fence isn't a place to walk at night. When I was walking my dog at night at that street I felt someone looking at me. When I turned around, from the window of a half-collapsed classroom a white silhouette was..."
"It can't be..."
Keiko raises her voice.
"It's true. ...and that person was waving his hand like he was inviting me. I got the feeling that I shouldn't go inside the old school so I left staggering on my feet."
"A-and..?"
"That's all. When I started walking, my dog burst out barking with great energy, so I got back there. I looked again at the window, but the person wasn't there anymore."
"Hyaa..."
"...I'm turning it off."
Michiru said quietly. The room got quiet again.
With a weak sound Michiru's penlight disappeared. The vicinity was wrapped up in the darkness and the sound of the rain.
Keiko says with a hazy voice from inside the darkness.
"One..."
Her voice is trembling. After we tell the ghost stories and turn off the lights we have to count upwards from one. The last one should be a ghost.
Yuuri's voice.
"Two..."
Mine.
"Three..."
Michiru's low voice.
"Four..."
There are four of us. Are we about to hear a fifth voice?
We strained our ears.
Raindrops*
"FIVE"
KYAAA!!!
We all screamed, horrified at once. We fell into panic with agonizing cries.
What was that!? This voice!?!
Keiko and the others embrace themselves in fear.
"No-o, no-o！"
At that instant, the dark room was lit up. Near the door there is a light switch. Under the small green light there is a group of unsociable looking students among the desks. In the school basement there is a Audio-Video room, that's where we are. We turned around, and saw a tall boy standing near the door, looking at us with interest.
He has an impressively beautiful face. His hair as dark as night, and a deep gloomy look in his eyes. With well-matched black clothes. His white face and hands are like the melting moonlight inside the twilight abyss.
Without a uniform. Is he an exchange student?
Keiko asked, "W...was that you?"
"Yes... did I do something wrong?"
A nice peaceful voice.
Michiru sits down relieved.
"Ahh, that surprised me. I thought I was going to die."
"Excuse me. The lights were off so I thought there was nobody in here, but suddenly I heard voices... so I just.."
"That's... it's alright!"
Keiko says joyfully,
"Are you an exchange student?"
He paused a little.
"...is it like that, I wonder..."
What's with the pause?
"A first-year?"
"...I'm seventeen this year."
A strange way to answer.
"So, you are a senpai."
Keiko says that with a lively voice. She is the kind that is attracted only by the looks. Actually this guy is really handsome. A tall figure. Long legs too. And again, a beautiful face.
...But I kind of feel something weird from him. It's just a feeling, but I can tell we don't match.
Michiru says with a smiling face.
"We are sorry to have surprised you too! We were telling ghost stories."
"Heeh…"
He said and smiled.
"Would you mind if I joined you?"
Everyone screamed in delight.
"Please, please... Sit here."
Michiru pulled his arm.
"What's your name?"
"Shibuya..."
Keiko's eyes formed a heart at that moment.
"Shibuya-senpai, do you like ghost stories too?"
"Sort of."
He smiled.
Everyone screamed happily again, but after all I had this feeling of unrest coming from him. I wonder why, but I didn't really like him.
"Shibuya-san..."
I said, and he turned at my direction.
Mm? As I said his face was expressing a smile. But I felt it. This guy had something hidden under the surface. His eyes aren't smiling.
"What are you doing in a place like this?"
"I had something to take care of."
"Then do it faster, because we're going home now."
"Eeh!"
Keiko and Michiru exclaimed, dissatisfied. Even Yuuri who has been quiet until now, pulls my uniform.
"That Mai...Don't worry about it senpai.
What is it that you have to do here? We will help you!"
"...Ah, it's only some tape dubbing..."
Shibuya-senpai once again forces his smile.
"The truth is, I'm in a hurry right now. How about, next time you tell ghost stories, you let me join in?"
"Then, tomorrow after school!"
Keiko wags her tail.
"Alright. Where?"
"Our homeroom! Room 1-F!"
He smiled, bowing his head in assent.
"Okay, then we are off. Goodbye."
Michiru stood in an unusually graceful manner.
"Take care."
"Yess.(♥)"
Everyone was in high spirits, Keiko and the others were pleased with themselves, but for me, I was the only one unsatisfied and thinking about what had just happened in the A/V room.
Chapter 1 - Pressure Falling
1
The following day had nice weather and the sakura trees on the road to school were forming a beautiful white tunnel.
Along with the nice weather I, for some reason, was feeling better too. In the morning, when I saw the sky clearing away and the sun rising, I suddenly felt myself full of energy, and went to school earlier than usual.
I was passing through the tunnel of roadside sakura trees on my way to school when I suddenly felt like seeing the old school building.
The old school building was standing on the opposite side of the sports ground facing the new one. A wooden, half-demolished building. A building that had many bad rumors going around about it. Everyone considered it a haunted mansion.
Are the rumors true?
I decided to go.
Maybe it is true. Being abandoned for a long time, the windows are clouded in dust. More than half of them are broken so one could see the gloomy inside of the school beyond them.
Dark hole openings in the windows. I feel something different from these holes, like they belong to another place, a different world than the one I know.
A distorted tiled roof. Half of the building is covered in a blue sheet. That originally beautiful blue color is soiled too, deeply ruined.
I approached the old school building.
The entrance way has an old-fashioned door with a glass window, which is clouded and broken too. A transparent vinyl put there is looking rather lonely.
I peeped in through that window.
Inside the entrance way the color of dusk is dominating. A rattly shoe shelf disposed to the faint light is standing there like a gravestone. A terrible amount of dust. A spider's nest. Its threads are dusty too. A completely dilapidated building.
Broken glass is scattered on the floor, something that looks like an old bowl, and other garbage is all over the place. Ruins. Dilapidated building. A haunted house. An old school building of bad rumors.
Peeping in, I suddenly notice a strange thing inside the entrance way.
What could it be?
A black machine.
Prett
y big, looks like a video camera. Set on top of a tripod.
Why is such a thing here I wonder, I have to make sure what it is.
Spontaneously, I put my hand on the door knob.
A very dusty and rough sense of touch.
The door opened with a very unpleasant creak to let me inside.
I entered right after the door opened. As I thought, it's a video camera. It can't be... someone lost this?
I got closer to the camera.
Why would there be a camera?
This thing totally puzzles me. It's like seeing a car stopped in the middle of the living room of a friend's house.
Er, what is this?
Just when I stretched my hands towards the video camera...
"Who is it?"
A man's sharp voice.
In that ex-school building of bad luck. In that dark entrance way, inside that completely dilapidated building, there just when I saw a strange thing and felt curious...
At that time all of a sudden I heard a voice, it's impossible not to get surprised.
Of course I was surprised. Not just surprised. I literally jumped back. While jumping I unintentionally crashed into the almost collapsed shoe shelf.
At that moment the shoe shelf swayed turning around.
On my vision's edge I see a man's figure standing at the door.
I try to avoid the shoe shelf that was inclining towards me for the second time.
At the spur of the moment I trip and fall and the shoe shelf collapses grazing my uniform skirt, on top of that it directly hits the video camera... I take an innocent breath… that surprised me...
Huh, I thought I was going to get caught under it.
Taking a breath of relief, I turned to face the man just like a rogue would in front of two monks.
Not good.
Now it is completely broken. The previously broken shoe shelf. And the man is lying on the floor.
"Are you alright?"
I rushed over to him. And at the same time heard a voice.
"What's wrong?"
A man's voice.
The one who rushed over here from the door is the exchange student who made me feel unrestful since yesterday. Shibuya. Today he isn't wearing a uniform either. He is as black as ever.
He ran over to check the collapsed man near me.
"Lin?"
Does he know him? Saying that, he notices me, giving me an intense look.
"What happened?"
"Ah, that's……"
Just when I was about to answer the fallen man raised his body.
