S

by Kōji Suzuki

  “She’s so cute!” some students said, giggling at the way an expecting woman walked as they passed her by.

  Everyone at the school knew that Akane was five months pregnant. Just before summer vacation, she and Takanori had gotten married, and at the end of break they’d held a small wedding party, with relatives and friends in attendance. Since they’d also invited people from the school, Akane’s marriage and pregnancy was now officially acknowledged.

  In fact, had they not invited anyone from the school, scarcely anyone would have attended on Akane’s side, and she wouldn’t have had enough guests to balance out Takanori’s.

  Most of the friends who’d come to celebrate were about their own age, but some older men could also be seen here and there. The nonfiction author Kihara had been one of them.

  After being greeted by Akane, Kihara had been unable to conceal his wonderment at first. Eventually, he’d opened up enough to divulge his future writing plans.

  Kihara had felt that they shouldn’t publicly reveal that the true culprit behind the serial abduction and murder was Niimura and not Kashiwada. Despite having gone to great lengths to gather materials, Kihara had no intention of turning his research into a nonfiction title. The impact on society would be too great if people learned that the real killer not only had been found after an execution was carried out, but that he had then taken his own life. Plus, all the events that occurred twenty-five years earlier relating to Ring would have to be revealed. Reopening that can of worms would merely prompt needless fear, and nothing good would come of it.

  “Instead,” Kihara had prefaced his intention to try his hand at something new, “I’m thinking of this as a chance to start writing a novel. I’ve wanted to for a long time.”

  Originally having aspired to become a novelist, Kihara believed that taking the fiction route would solve the problem. He’d shown real enthusiasm for tackling a new form.

  He had even told them of his idea to make it into a trilogy, with Takanori and Niimura serving as models for the first and second volumes.

  There were still many mysteries surrounding Hiroyuki Niimura. He had died without offering up whatever his real purpose was in abducting and killing the girls.

  Now Kihara was researching how Niimura had grown up, interviewing his friends and acquaintances.

  For his own part, Takanori had drawn up plans to make a cheerful, fantastical musical-style film featuring an abundance of CG technology. He was working out the scenario now.

  Everybody was moving forward in his or her own way.

  It was just fifty yards to the school gate. Almost all of the students were running because the chime signaling the start of classes was about to go off. Nevertheless, there were students right behind Akane who were taking their time and chatting. The voices of two girls sounded so near that they seemed to cling to Akane’s back.

  She didn’t recognize their voices, but they were surely students at the school.

  They seemed to be having fun discussing some sort of rumor.

  “Don’t you think it’s weird?”

  “What is?”

  “I mean, it doesn’t sound scary.”

  “No way! Of course it’s scary.”

  “Okay, so let’s take a look.”

  “No, don’t. I’m sure you’ll regret it.”

  “Regret it? How come? It’s just a video, right?”

  “Like I said, there’s a creepy rumor.”

  “If it’s not a brutal scene or anything, it’ll be all right.”

  “That’s exactly the trap. You know, like how people say that every rose has its thorn.”

  “What’s that? You just made me want to watch it even more.”

  “Okay, but don’t blame me after you watch it.”

  “I’m not gonna bother you, so just tell me how to watch it.”

  “Just enter ‘S’ and search for videos. You’ll see a lot of them.”

  “Then we can play together forever, right?”

  “Yeah, we’re not gonna get bored for a good while.”

  The two girls sounded so joyful somehow.

  Stopping in front of the gate, Akane took advantage of the chance to turn left and looked around. The girls had seemed to be right behind her, but they were nowhere to be seen.

  Flanked by trees, the road for the bus route stretched straight ahead. The girls’ vigorous laughter shook the leaves and glided over the trunks and rolled away toward the train running on the elevated tracks.

  From past where their laughter receded came the subtle scent of autumn.

  Passing through the gate as if nothing had happened, Akane walked along the flowerbed toward the classroom where her students were waiting.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Koji Suzuki was born in 1957 in Hamamatsu, southwest of Tokyo. He attended Keio University where he majored in French. After graduating he held numerous odd jobs including teaching college-prep courses. A self-described jock, he holds a first-class yachting license and has also made a motorbike trip across the U.S. from Key West to Los Angeles. The father of two daughters, he has written a number of books on childrearing, having become quite the expert in his days as a struggling writer and househusband.

  In 1990, his first full-length work, Paradise, won the Japanese Fantasy Novel Award and launched his career as a fiction writer. Ring, written with a baby on his lap, catapulted him to notoriety, and its multimillion-selling sequels Spiral and Loop cemented his reputation as a world-class talent. Often called the “Stephen King of Japan,” Suzuki has played a crucial role in establishing mainstream credentials for horror novels in his country. S: Es is his tenth work to appear in English.