Chapter 6 : June I

"You probably don't have to worry much at this point."

The aging lead physician gave his diagnosis in his usual breezy tone.

"From what I saw today, your condition has stabilized. You aren't feeling any pain anymore, are you?"

"No."

"Then there's no problem with you going to school as normal."

Even his crisp delivery of this news couldn't wipe away my anxiety completely.

Still feeling fundamentally depressed, I took several deep breaths in front of the physician. Yeah, definitely no more ominous sensations in there. A slight difficulty breathing from the pain in my chest…a week earlier, the symptom had begun presenting again from time to time, but even that had vanished in the last two or three days.

"So then my gym class…?"

"Strenuous exercise is still out of the question. Let's see how things are in a month. It may take longer."

"Okay."

"Just to be sure, I want you to come in again this weekend. If there don't seem to be any changes, we'll meet again in a month."

I nodded, then lifted my eyes to the calendar that hung on the wall of the exam room. Yesterday had been the first day of June. This weekend—that would be Saturday the 6th.

When I witnessed Yukari Sakuragi's horrific accident on the second day of midterms—that had been exactly a week ago—the pain in my chest had arisen from the problem in my lungs. Just as the anxiety that flashed through my mind had warned me. I'd gone to the municipal hospital the next day to have it looked at, and received the unhappy diagnosis of "signs of a minor pneumothoracic event." However, they had also told me "It hasn't reached the stage of a second recurrence."

"Although there's a very tiny hole and a minor collapse, it appears that the surrounding tissue has healed. Thanks to that, you managed to stay in decent shape and avoid a deflation of the lung," the physician had explained. "You probably won't need any special treatment. Just get some rest at home."

And so, per the physician's orders—

Since I'd been shut up in my house all week, I hadn't been to school. So I had almost no idea what was happening in the class after the accident.

The barest of information that I'd gotten was that Sakuragi's mother, who'd been in a car accident, had died the same day. That the funeral for mother and daughter had been conducted quietly, for close relatives only. That, of course, everyone in class couldn't hide the intense shock they felt. That was about it.

I didn't know what Mei Misaki had been doing since then. I wasn't utterly without means to find out, of course, but I didn't want to use those means on her or on the other issues. For some reason I felt an overriding hesitation and I lost my nerve.

I still didn't have a class list, so the only student I could call directly and feel out was Teshigawara, whose cell phone number I had. And him, I'd tried to call a couple times during the previous week, but he never once answered. Maybe he knew it was me calling and he wasn't picking up on purpose.

My grandmother had heard about the accident, but all she had done was effusively repeat "How frightening" or "I feel so bad for them." It seemed her concern lay completely with the health of her grandson. Whether or not my grandfather understood what was going on, he bobbled his head to every word my grandmother said. Reiko was incredibly concerned about my mental state, but she still wouldn't get into the subjects we'd touched on. I couldn't bring it up, either. The mynah bird Ray shrieked as energetically as ever. There wasn't so much as a peep from my dad in India and I hadn't told him any of the news yet, either.

In the midst of it all, there was, in fact, one person I could talk to relatively casually. Funnily enough, that was Ms. Mizuno from the municipal hospital. It was two days after Sakuragi's death that she called me, the day after I'd gone to the hospital, in the afternoon.

"Are you all right? How are your lungs?"

She cut right to the point.

"After all, you did see a horrible accident up close. That's going to have an effect on you, physically."

"You know about that?"

"I heard from my little brother. You know, my youngest brother who's in the same class as you at North Middle? Takeru Mizuno. He's on the basketball team."

So that really was him.

"You came to the hospital instead of going to school yesterday, right?"

"Yeah."

"Nothing bad enough to hospitalize you, I guess?"

"Thankfully, no. I managed to pull myself through it, they said."

"When are you coming back? To the hospital, I mean."

"Next week, Tuesday morning."

"Okay, you want to get together after that?"

"Huh?"

Why…? Before I could say anything more, Ms. Mizuno went on. "Something's been bothering me. All kinds of things. I don't know what's connected to what, or how, and what's not connected at all. Plus there's still that thing we need to talk about."

That thing—about why I'd been asking all those questions about the girl who'd died at the hospital at the end of April?

"So now you're convalescing at home?"

"I'm trying."

"Don't start brooding. If you do have to be hospitalized again, I'll put everything I've got into taking care of you."

"Uh…okay. Thank you."

That's what I told her, but I wanted to avoid that happening at any cost.

"Well, I'll see you at the hospital on Tuesday, then. I'll call you before that, though."

Ms. Mizuno was being very considerate of my frame of mind, because she didn't once start talking about our common interest. She hadn't even called me "Horror Boy" like she always did, and deep down I was relieved.

I'd just witnessed real-life blood and gore two days earlier and, unsurprisingly, my emotions had suffered for it.

The nauseating red that had spread across the umbrella that day, the way Yukari Sakuragi had looked with the metal spike stabbed through her throat, the profuse amounts of fresh blood that had pumped out of her. It was all burned into my eyes and wouldn't go away. The sound of the umbrella snapping and her body rolling onto its side, Mr. Miyamoto's voice shouting, the siren on the ambulance, the screams and soft weeping of the students…All of it still lingered in my ears, raw.

As much as I tried to tell myself they were two separate things, I was taking a break from horror novels and horror movies for a little while—just then, in my state of mind, I genuinely couldn't take it.

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

Rain was falling again, just like the week before. Apparently the rainy season had truly begun, much earlier than most years. As usual, my grandmother had offered to take me to the hospital in the car, but I had firmly refused and come to the hospital alone.

I had promised to meet Ms. Mizuno as soon as my checkup was over. She'd said that she had to work the night shift and she'd go straight from that to the dorm at the hospital to nap. We'd arranged that I would call her when I was done.

Standing near the front entrance to the outpatient area, I called Ms. Mizuno's cell phone, then spent the time while I waited gazing at the rain-soaked scenery outside.

It was then that I thought about how the rain in Yomiyama was clammier than in Tokyo.

Considering the pollutants in the air, the opposite was probably true. So it was just an issue with my perceptions.

Maybe the word "clammy" isn't exactly right. Maybe I should say something more neutral, like "it had a richer quality."

The walkways to the building, the ebb and flow of people, the plants in the foreground and the mountains in the distance…The rain drenching all of these things seemed to take on intrinsically different shades and elements for each. I certainly don't mean that it was dirty.

My eyes came to rest on the puddles that had collected on the ground.

These were the same. How can I put it? They seemed to have more colors, and deeper colors, than the puddles in Tokyo. Perhaps the problem wasn't the rain itself, but the difference in the objects seen through it. Or maybe it really was nothing more than a mirror for the images in my mind.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

I heard a voice beside me. This was the first time I'd seen Ms. Mizuno without her white nurse's uniform. She wore a light blue shirt and a black denim jacket.

"How was your checkup?"

"It looks like I won't have to burden you, at least."

"That's too bad."

"I can go to school tomorrow, too."

"Oh yeah? That's great," she said with a sunny smile. She pulled her cell phone from a pocket of her denim jacket and glanced down at it. "It's a little early, but do you want to get lunch somewhere?"

"You were on the night shift, right?" I offered her the most basic level of courtesy. "I mean, you must be wiped out…"

"Oh, I'm fine! I'm off tomorrow, and I'm still plenty young. How do you feel about that restaurant over there?"

"Up to you."

Ms. Mizuno had driven over. She had a cute blue compact car, a huge contrast to the rugged black car my grandmother drove around.

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

The restaurant chain was the same one we had in Tokyo, but the table we sat at was much roomier than the ones there. After we'd ordered, Ms. Mizuno put both hands to her mouth and yawned hugely. "Fwa-a-a-h!"

"You're not getting enough sleep, huh?"

"Hm? Well, that's par for the course."

"I'm sorry. We shouldn't have…"

"What are you talking about? I'm the one who said we should meet up. Don't worry about it."

Her coffee and sandwich finally came. Ms. Mizuno first dumped a bunch of sugar into the coffee, then took several sips before biting into her egg sandwich, at which point she murmured, "Let's get started then," and turned back to me.

"First off, I had a chat with my little brother Takeru Mizuno, who I usually barely talk to. I wanted to ask him a couple things. The class you two are in seems to have some special circumstances."

"Special circumstances?"

"Yup. He wouldn't give me any details, although I didn't really know what I should be asking either, which is kind of a problem, but anyway: definitely special circumstances. You must know what."

"The circumstances behind the special circumstances, you mean?" I dropped my eyes and shook my head slowly. "I don't really know much, either. I'm pretty certain that something's going on, but I just transferred here and I guess no one's going to tell me about it yet."

"The girl who died at your school last week, her name was Sakuragi, right? She was your class representative for the girls?"

"…Yeah."

"I heard about what happened. And about how you apparently witnessed it. She fell on the stairs and some horrible twist of luck made her umbrella impale her in the throat?"

"…Yes, that's what happened."

"It looked like he was scared of something."

"Your brother?"

If he'd been shocked by the freak death of a classmate, that was only natural. But "scared"? What did that mean?

"What do you mean?"

"It's not like I asked him outright. But somehow it looked like he didn't think the accident last week was just an 'accident.'"

"Not an accident?"

I scrunched my forehead.

If it wasn't an accident, then was it suicide? Or maybe murder? That was impossible. Neither of those things could possibly be true.

It wasn't suicide, it wasn't murder, and it wasn't "just an accident." So what could it possibly…?

"What was he afraid of?"

"Who knows." Ms. Mizuno cocked her head uneasily. "Nothing specific."

Hey, Sakakibara, d'you believe in ghosts or curses or whatever? Is that your thing?

I suddenly recalled the questions Teshigawara had asked me. Was that the first day I'd transferred in?

So-called supernatural phenomena in general?

That had been the same conversation, a question from Kazami.

Of course I didn't believe in "ghosts or curses or whatever" or in "supernatural phenomena in general" and I didn't want to start believing in them now. Sure, the "Seven Mysteries of North Yomi" were all kinds of strange, but they were harmless ghost stories you just expected to find somewhere like a school. In the end, even that story about "Misaki from twenty-six years ago" had to be…

But then…

What if the death of Yukari Sakuragi last week really wasn't "just an accident"?

I dredged the memories back up.

That day, Sakuragi had come flying out of the classroom when she heard the news about her mother's car accident. She'd taken her umbrella out of the umbrella stand and, her legs tangling under her, she had first tried to come toward the East Stair, which was closest to where she stood. But then—yes, she had stopped. Maybe because she'd seen us standing by the window at the top of the stairs. The next moment, she had turned on her heel and run off in the opposite direction—to the West Stair.

What if…I wondered.

What if she had gone down the East Stair, following her initial impulse?

Then maybe that accident wouldn't have happened.

She'd bolted down the long hallway and run down the West Stair with all that momentum. And to top it off, the floor might have been wet right there and she'd slipped…That unbelievable accident had resulted from so many factors piling one on top of another. So…

Why had Sakuragi behaved that way? Why, as soon as she saw us—Mei and me—had she done what she did?

"Have you ever heard the name Mei Misaki?"

Even when the hot dog I'd ordered came, I didn't feel like picking it up. But I wet my parched mouth and throat with the iced tea I'd also ordered before posing the question to Ms. Mizuno.

"Misaki?"

Naturally, she reacted to the name. She must have recalled the name of the girl who'd died at the hospital in April, whose first name was Misaki.

"Mei…Misaki? Who's that?"

"She's a girl in my class—third-year Class 3 at North Yomi. Your brother's never said anything about her?"

Ms. Mizuno puffed out one of her cheeks slightly. "Remember, we hardly ever talk to each other most days. What about her, though? Did something happen?"

"You know that thing I promised I would tell you about sometime? The truth is, this girl Mei Misaki has something to do with it."

Ms. Mizuno blinked her goggle-eyes and nodded, murmuring thoughtfully. I explained the situation to her, trying to be as simple and systematic as possible.

"Hm-m-m."

She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded just as she had before, then took another bite of her egg sandwich.

"You told me about her before, this girl with the eye patch. I don't remember when. Heh. So you have a crush on little Mei, huh?"

"Wha—"

Hey…h-hold on a second, lady.

"That's not it," I replied, a little bit indignant. "It's just…there's something really strange about how she acts in the classroom. I can't stop thinking about it."

"We call that having a crush."

"I said I don't."

"Fine, fine. I get it. So let me try getting a handle on this another way."

I waited.

"That day at the end of April—I think it was the twenty-seventh?—the girl who died at the hospital was Mei's cousin Misaki Fujioka. Mei was very sad, and she was going to the memorial chapel to see Misaki and 'deliver' something to her. Right?"

"Yes."

"And? What's so strange about the way Mei acts in class?"

"I mean…"

I had to really think hard about how to answer.

"Um…I think she's just strange to start out with. But…you know what I mean? At first I thought maybe the class was kind of picking on her. Or maybe they were all scared of her."

"Scared of her?"

"It's not quite that either, though."

Several things that I'd seen and heard since that day when I'd first come to North Yomi floated lazily through my mind.

"I have this friend named Teshigawara, and he called me up out of nowhere and told me to 'quit paying attention to things that aren't there.'"

"What does that mean?"

"According to her, it means that she's invisible, which…"

Ms. Mizuno folded her arms over her chest again and murmured. "Hm-m-m."

I pressed on. "And then, with all that going on, that accident happened last week."

"Hm-m-m. Well, the obvious interpretation is that it's purely a coincidence. There's nothing to link the two together, is there?"

"When you take the obvious interpretation, no."

But…

"There's another issue that's been bothering me. It's something that happened twenty-six years ago…"

And then I told her "the legend of Misaki." Ms. Mizuno didn't make a sound the whole time I talked; she just listened in silence.

"…Did you know that story?"

"That's the first time I've heard it. I went to South Middle, after all."

"But your little brother knows about it."

"Oh, you think so?"

"I still don't have any idea how the two things are related. But there does seem to be a connection, and I…"

"I see-e-e."

Ms. Mizuno drained the coffee that remained in her cup.

"I haven't been back to school since it happened, so I don't know what's going on in the class right now. You haven't…heard anything about it from your brother, right?"

"This has really started to sound like a horror story. You aren't going to eat your hot dog?"

"Oh, yeah. Thanks."

It wasn't for lack of hunger, that's for sure. As she watched me bite into my hot dog, Ms. Mizuno said, "Why don't I see if I can find anything out? About what happened twenty-six years ago, and about Mei. Unfortunately I'm not very friendly with my brother, so I don't know how much he'll tell me. You're going to school tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah."

My first time going to school in a week.

The thought made my anxiety ramp up instantly. And also…

What was Mei doing right now?

My chest ached dully, in a way that was different from the symptoms of a lung collapsing, or nearly collapsing.

"If I find anything out, I'll call you. Are you coming back to the hospital soon?"

"This Saturday."

"Saturday…June sixth? Hey, did you ever see The Omen?"

"When I was in elementary school, I saw it on TV."

"I don't think Damien is in our town, but…" Ms. Mizuno's face took on the "novice nurse who loves horror" look and a teasing smile spread over her face. "But anyway, we'll both be careful. Especially for any accidents that would never usually happen."

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

When we left the restaurant, the rain had stopped and tiny bits of sunlight were peeking through the clouds in places.

I accepted Ms. Mizuno's offer to drive me home and got into the passenger seat of her car, but on the way there I realized we were in a familiar part of town, and I asked her to let me out. We were in the town of Misaki, near the doll gallery "Blue Eyes Empty to All, in the Twilight of Yomi."

"You live in Furuchi, don't you, Sakakibara? It's still pretty far."

She glanced over at me dubiously, so I told her, "I've been cooped up for so long, I want to walk a little," and I got out of the car.

I found "Twilight of Yomi" almost immediately.

Outside the entrance, a middle-aged woman wearing bright, marigold-colored clothes stood on the landing of the outdoor stairway that ran up the side of the building. Our eyes just happened to meet—or so it seemed. Is she from the doll workshop upstairs? I wondered, giving her a casual nod, but she simply climbed the stairs in silence, without the slightest reaction.

I folded my collapsible umbrella up neatly and put it away in my bag, then pushed the door open.

The bell over the door rang dully, just like last time.

"Hello there."

The same white-haired old woman was at the same table next to the entrance, and she greeted me in the same tone of voice as last time. It was the middle of the day, but still the inside of the shop—no, I should say the inside of "the gallery"—had the same dusky lighting as the last time I'd been here.

"What's this? We don't get many young men in here."

Even that was the same…

"Are you in middle school? No school today? Then you can go in for half price."

"…Thank you."

As I pulled my coin purse out of a pocket, the old woman added one more thing: "You take your time and have a look around. There aren't any other customers right now, anyway."

Feeling faintly lightheaded, I moved into the gallery.

String instruments playing a gloomy melody. Armies of dolls everywhere, both beautiful and eerie. Fantastical landscapes decorating the walls. Every last detail was the same as before. Feeling as if I were trapped in a peculiar recurring nightmare, I set my bag down on the sofa in the back. Then…

Taking deep breaths for those who had no breath, I headed toward the stairs that led down to the basement, as if pulled there at last by puppet strings.

The chill air of the basement room, so like a crypt, and the dolls (or, their various parts) lying all over the place were just as I remembered them. And in the niche-like depressions in the wall, the girl without the right arm, the boy with thin wings and the lower half of his face covered, the twins joined at the abdomen…And, yes, the black coffin that stood all the way at the back, and the doll shut up inside it that looked exactly like Mei Misaki.

Unlike last time, I didn't feel my head clouding or my body getting much colder. But, again as if led by puppet strings, I walked over to stand before the coffin at the very back of the room.

This doll had been made by Kirika—written to mean "fruit in the mists." That's what Mei had told me. I held my breath for a few moments, staring at the doll's face, even more waxen than the real Mei; at the mouth that seemed ready to speak at any moment—when…

Something happened then that was impossible to accept as reality right away.

From the shadows of the black coffin holding the doll, slowly, silently…

…How could that be?

All at once, I felt another faint wave of lightheadedness.

You take your time and have a look around.

The words the old woman had spoken just moments ago rang in my ears.

There aren't any other customers right now, anyway.

…Oh, of course.

The old woman had said that the last time I'd come, too. There aren't any other customers—I was sure of it. Her words had tugged faintly at my mind that day, too. There aren't any other customers—and yet.

Why?

Slowly, silently, from the shadow of the black coffin…

Why?

…She appeared—Mei Misaki.

She looked a little cold in this underground room, dressed in only a navy blue skirt and a white summer blouse. Her skin looked even paler than usual.

"What a coincidence. Meeting in a place like this again," Mei said, smiling faintly.

A coincidence…Is that what it was? I was struggling for a response when Mei asked me, "Why did you come here today?"

"I'm on my way home from the hospital. I happened to be walking by," I replied, then asked her a question in return. "What about you? You didn't go to school?"

"Well, you know. I ended up not going today," she said, smiling faintly again. "Are you feeling better, Sakakibara?"

"Just enough to avoid getting hospitalized again, I guess. How has everyone in class been since that—since Sakuragi's accident?"

Mei made a low noise, "Mm," then replied, "Everyone's…scared."

Scared. Ms. Mizuno had said that, too.

It looked like he was scared of something.

"Scared? Of what?"

"They think it's started."

"What's started?"

Mei abruptly turned her gaze aside. She looked unsure of how to answer.

"I—"

After a silence of several seconds, she spoke.

"I guess I've only ever half believed it, in the back of my mind. First that happened, then in May you came to our school and I told you all that stuff, but I still didn't believe it a hundred percent. I guess I still doubted some part of it. But…"

She cut herself off and turned her gaze back to me. Her right eye narrowed, questioning, and I cocked my head to one side, uncomprehending.

"But it really does seem like it's one of those years," Mei continued. "A hundred percent certain, probably."

I didn't know what to say.

"Because it's started. So…"

Mei's eye narrowed again, as if challenging me, What do you think about that? But all I could do was cock my head at her.

"So you still don't know, huh, Sakakibara?" Mei murmured, turning her back on me quietly. "Then maybe you're not actually supposed to know. If you found out, then maybe…"

"Hold on," I spoke up reflexively. "You tell me stuff like that and then expect me to…"

I wanted to just shrug my shoulders at her and say "no idea." "It's starting," "I doubted," "it's one of those years"…I wish she'd cut it out with the all-knowing act already.

"Do you think you'll be able to go to school?" Mei asked, her back still turned to me.

"Yeah. I go back tomorrow."

"Ah. If you're going, then I should probably stay away."

"What? Now come on. What are you—"

"Be careful."

She turned slightly as she spoke.

"And you shouldn't tell people that you saw me here."

Then she turned her back on me again and walked off, her feet making no sound, to disappear behind the black coffin.

After a few moments, I tried calling to her softly. "C'mon, Misaki."

I took a step forward—"Look, why are you…"—but my legs tangled slightly. A moment too late, I started to feel an odd, wobbly dizziness.

Don't you feel it being sucked out of you?

Everything you have inside you?

The words Mei had spoken the last time I'd seen her here flowed through my spinning head like a spell.

Dolls are emptiness. Their bodies and hearts are total emptiness…a void.

That emptiness is like death.

Somehow I managed to take a step forward and keep my balance.

Like death…

With trepidation, I peered behind the coffin. But there…

I found Mei was gone.

There was no one else there, either.

The dark red curtains hanging in front of the wall were fluttering slightly in the breeze of the air-conditioning. A shudder ran through me as I was touched by a sudden midwinter chill.

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

"Why? Why?"

Ray the mynah bird repeated the question with her (…I think) usual enthusiasm.

Why? Look you, I'm the one who wants to know why. I was glaring into the cage, but she never wavered.

"Why? Ray. Why? Morning. Morning."

After dinner, I went out to the porch on the first floor, where the signal was good, and tried calling my dad in India. Apparently his phone was turned off, though, because I called him three times and three times it didn't go through. Maybe he was still at work. Night hadn't fallen yet over there.

Well, whatever. I gave the idea up quickly.

Even if I told him about the accident last week or the bad turn I'd taken physically, he couldn't exactly give me advice on anything beyond that. The only thing I wanted from my dad, if anything, was to hear about my deceased mother's time in middle school. But of course I was still a long way from having a concrete idea of how her stories would tie into the events that were happening right now, or if they even would at all.

Part of me also wanted to ask if there were any pictures of my mother from back then. Or maybe a yearbook, but the school would be more likely to still have one of those. In fact, yeah—if I went to the secondary library in Building Zero…

I left the porch, abandoning Ray, and peered into the living room, where Reiko was watching TV for once. There was a stand-up comedy variety show on, which didn't seem like the sort of thing she would enjoy watching, but looking closer I saw that Reiko was sunk into the sofa, both her eyes shut tight…So she's asleep.

A cold breeze was blowing from the air conditioner, making the room incredibly cold. Come on, Reiko! You're going to catch a cold napping in a place like that. I was just about to leave the room to go shut the air conditioner off, at least, when—

"Koichi?"

She called out to me. I jumped and turned around. Reiko's eyes were lazily open.

"When did I doze off…? Argh, this is no good. No good!"

She shook her head heavily. Just then someone on TV laughed shrilly. Reiko's eyebrows dove into a scowl and she picked up the remote and turned the TV off.

"Are you all right?"

"Huh? Sure, I guess."

Reiko moved from the couch to a chair in the dining room. She poured water into a glass from a pitcher that was on the table, then swallowed some sort of pills.

"I've got kind of a headache," she said as I watched her. "It only takes this weak stuff to make it go away. But I've been getting so many headaches lately. It's getting annoying."

"You're just tired, aren't you? You've got all sorts of stuff to deal with, and um…"

She sighed softly, then replied, "I guess. More importantly, are you all right, Koichi? You went to the hospital today, right?"

"My condition has stabilized and there are no further issues, they said."

"Oh. That's good."

"Um, Reiko?"

I sat down in a chair in the dining room, too, directly across from her.

"Do you remember how you said there's a time for finding out about things? How there's a time for everything? But—how can you tell when it's time?"

I asked the question in all seriousness. But Reiko looked back at me with a morose expression.

"Did I say that?"

She cocked her head to one side. I was bewildered. Ray's shrill voice asking "Why?" rang through my mind.

Was she playing dumb, or did she really not remember? Which was it?

"Um…okay, then can I ask you something I just thought of?" I collected myself and went with a different question. "When you were in your third year at North Yomi, what class were you in?"

"When I was a third-year?"

"Yeah. Do you remember?"

When I said that, Reiko rested her cheek in one hand, her face morose again, and replied, "I was in Class 3."

"Class 3?…Really?"

"Mm-hm."

"So then in your year…I mean, did they say 'the curse of Class 3' about your class or anything like that back then?"

"Mm-m-m."

Her head still resting on her palm, Reiko seemed to be searching for an answer. But in the end she gave a soft sigh like she had before and said, "That was fifteen years ago. I forget."

Ignoring whether or not her excuse was genuine…

Fifteen years ago?

All of a sudden, I felt uncomfortable, but I wasn't sure why.

Fifteen years ago would have been…Oh. I see. Of course. But that was…

"You're going back to school tomorrow, right?" Reiko asked.

"Yeah. That's the plan."

"I taught you the 'North Yomi fundamentals,' right? Do you remember what to do?"

"Uh, yes. I already…"

"Even number three?"

"…Yeah."

Of course I remembered. I remembered number one and number two, which seemed like superstitions, and number four, which had the greatest meaning for me. And number three…I believe that one was…

"Obey whatever the class decides, at any cost—was that it?"

"That's right."

Reiko nodded slowly.

"What about it?"

Reiko suddenly gave a drawn-out yawn, then shook her head back and forth rapidly. Then, shaking it off, she said, "Oh, uh…What was it…?" and craned her head all the way to one side.

"We were talking about number three of the 'North Yomi fundamentals.'"

"Oh, were we? Let's see. You should adhere to all of them, really. I mean…"

"Uh. Are you all right?"

"Mm-m-m. I guess I really am pretty tired. Sorry, Koichi. I just can't do it."

Lightly thumping herself on the head with a fist, a feeble smile came over Reiko's face. I started to feel irritated, pained, but my emotions were more complex than just that.

I could tell Reiko about Mei, couldn't I? In fact, didn't I have to force the subject? I'd often thought so, but I couldn't manage to bring it up. The end result of my internal conflict this time, once again, was that I decided not to pursue it.

I wasn't very good at talking to Reiko like this. She made me so nervous…The biggest reason for that was because I would suddenly see in her the shadow of my mother, whom I knew only from photographs. So, see? I had already gone through the self-analysis. So why did I feel like that tendency was only getting worse? It had to be a problem with me after all. Or maybe…

I decided to go back to my room for the night and try to get to sleep as early as I could.

With that decision made, I stood up from my chair.

"Why?" a small voice whispered, though without any deeper meaning or intention.

"Cut that out!" Reiko said, her tone surprisingly harsh. "I can't stand that bird."

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

The next day was June 3, Wednesday.

Mei Misaki wasn't in the classroom at lunchtime.

And she hadn't left the instant fourth period ended, either. She hadn't been there all day. She was staying away today, just as she'd told me yesterday.

I hadn't been in school for a week, and the way my classmates acted toward me was, to put a positive spin on it, sensible—but in a more penetrating analysis, they were acting cool and perfunctory.

"Were you in the hospital again?"

No, I was resting at home.

"Same thing you had before? What'd you call it, a spontaneous pneumothorax?"

I got really close to having one, but it turned out all right.

"So you're okay now?"

Yeah, thanks. But no strenuous activity—doctor's orders. So that means I'm still sitting out of gym class.

"Well, I hope you feel better."

Me, too, thanks.

Not a single person mentioned the deaths of Yukari Sakuragi and her mother. The teachers were the same. The desk where Sakuragi had sat in the classroom was left empty. There weren't even any flowers set on it, like people sometimes do…Everyone was trying to avoid acknowledging her death. More than necessary, it seemed. I couldn't help interpreting their behavior that way.

When lunch started, Tomohiko Kazami was the first one to speak to me. I had called out to him as he was leaving the room.

"Oh…hey."

As he pushed the bridge of his silver-rimmed glasses as far up his nose as they would go, Kazami's stiff expression morphed into an awkward smile.

You know, I'm pretty sure this is how he acted when I first met him in April, too, when he came to see me at the hospital. Having known him for a month now, I'd thought he had opened up a little bit, but it felt as if we'd been reset back to zero.

The first time we'd ever seen each other and now—the main thing underlying them both, I would say, was "tension." The second-biggest thing was what seemed like a kind of "wariness." The realization hit me all at once.

"I'm glad you're better. I was worried about you. You were out for a whole week, so I thought maybe you'd relapsed."

"I was worried, too. To be honest, I'm sick of being in the hospital."

"You don't really need any of the notes from classes while you out, right?" Kazami said it sheepishly. "You're pretty good, huh?"

"I learned some of it already at my other school, that's all…I'm not really that good."

"Oh, so then do you want copies of the notes?"

"I think I'm still okay for right now."

"Ah. Okay…"

Even as we carried on this meaningless conversation, the stiffness never left Kazami's face. Tension and wariness and maybe, on top of that, "fear"…?

"The accident last week must have been really traumatic for you."

I decided I would be the one to bring it up.

"You were both class representatives, and you both came to see me at the hospital, and then for something like that…"

As I talked, I looked over at Sakuragi's desk. Kazami looked a little flustered.

"We're going to have to pick a new class representative for the girls. We're probably going to do that at the extended homeroom tomorrow…"

Then he hurriedly broke away from me and left the classroom.

"A new representative, huh?"

Kazami and Sakuragi had practically been twins, but I suppose there were tons of people who could fill in as class representative at a middle school…

Still sitting at my desk, I took a cautious look around the room. It was June now, and most of the students were wearing their summer uniforms.

There were girls who had constructed "islands" to eat at, here one, there a second. A group of boys had gathered in a corner by the windows to chat. There was one who was strikingly taller than the rest of them. He was pretty tanned and his hair was cut in a sporty buzz. That had to be Mizuno. Takeru Mizuno, from the basketball club. So his first name was written with the character for "ferocity."

I momentarily considered going over to talk to him.

I could use his sister to break the ice, and depending on how things went, I could talk about how I'd met up with her yesterday, and…No. That was a bad idea. For now, what I needed to do was wait for news from Ms. Mizuno. She'd told me, "Why don't I see if I can find anything out?" She'd said she and her brother weren't very close, so if I made a fumbling attempt to reach out to him now, it would just set off alarm bells in his mind and she might not be able to get anything out of him.

I stuffed myself with my grandmother's homemade lunch, filled with incredible gratitude as always, then I went out into the hallway by myself. The whole time, I'd felt as if Mizuno/Little Brother by the windows was constantly glancing over at me, and I don't think it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

Just as I'd done last Tuesday, I stood at the windows at the top of the East Stair.

There were a few clouds in the sky. It wasn't raining, but the wind was blowing too hard. Even though the window was closed, I could hear its high, intermittent howling.

Turning my back on the window and leaning against the wall, I pulled my cell phone from the pocket of my pants. I looked up Teshigawara's number in my call history, then pushed the call button without a moment's hesitation.

Teshigawara was at school that day. But he hadn't spoken to me once and he looked as though he would prefer to avoid even eye contact with me. By the time I'd looked around after lunch started, he had already disappeared from the classroom. Seriously, who does he think he is, Mei Misaki?

"H-hey."

After however many attempts, he finally answered the phone. I instantly asked, "Where are you?"

"Er…"

"No, you're not in 'er.' Tell me where you are."

"Outside…walking around the courtyard."

"The yard?"

I turned to look out the window and scanned the ground through the glass. There were more students milling around out there than I would have expected, so I couldn't tell where Teshigawara was.

"I'm coming down right now. Wait for me by the lotus pond?"

"Wha—uh, come on, Sakaki…"

"I'll be right there."

I cut the call before he could say anything and hurried to the place I'd told him to be.

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

Just as I'd instructed, Teshigawara was waiting for me at the pond where a bloody human hand was rumored to rise out of the water occasionally. The pond's surface was covered by the round leaves of water lilies, not lotuses. There were no students I recognized nearby. Apparently he'd been "walking around the courtyard" alone.

"I tried calling you a bunch of times last week, but you never answered."

I said it in the coldest voice I could manage. Teshigawara made an exaggerated gesture, bringing his hands together in front of him, and said, "Yeah, sorry 'bout that," but the whole time he was trying to keep his gaze from landing on my face.

"Whenever you called, I was always in the middle of something. I kept thinking about it, but it's not like I could call you. I mean, you weren't feeling good, right? So I didn't want to bother you."

It sounded like a flimsy excuse to me.

"You promised me," I said. "You said you'd tell me in June."

"Er…"

"I told you, 'er' is not an answer!"

The bleached moppet didn't try to hide how shaken he was. I fixed him with an uncharacteristically harsh stare. "I want you to keep your promise. You're the one who offered, after all. Something happened twenty-six years ago. There was a popular kid named Misaki in the third-year Class 3 that year, and they were killed in a freak accident…Then what happened?"

He didn't say a word.

"You guys said something about that being the year it started…So? What happened to third-year Class 3 after that?"

"Hey, hey, hold on, Sakaki."

For the first time, Teshigawara looked me straight in the face.

"Yeah, you're right, I did promise you. I said I'd tell you once we got to June. And what I meant was that I wanted you to sit tight the whole rest of the month."

Teshigawara gave a dejected-sounding sigh. A powerful wind moaned in the sky overhead.

"The situation has changed."

He turned his eyes away again as he said that.

"Things are different now than they were when I said that. So…"

"So you're saying you want out of the promise?"

"…Yeah."

How could he…? Obviously I had a lot of trouble accepting that. But judging from the way I could see Teshigawara acting, I got the feeling that it would be pointless to try and question him any more right now. Still.

There was one question I couldn't let slide. Which was…

"Remember that day you warned me to 'quit paying attention to things that aren't there'?"

Teshigawara nodded silently, his expression pulled tight.

"You told me 'it's dangerous.' So what did you—"

Just then, a crude buzzing came through the pocket of my pants. Who could that be? I ran through the names as I pulled out my cell phone, its incoming call light flashing. The name on the screen was Ms. Mizuno. I'd just seen her yesterday.

"Oh, Sakakibara? You're at lunch, right? Is it okay to talk right now?" Ms. Mizuno's voice sounded a little skittish just then. "I'm at the hospital right now."

"Huh? I thought you had today off?"

I was conscious of Teshigawara listening in, so I covered my mouth with my left hand and lowered my voice.

"Someone called out today, so they told me to come in. This job is seriously tough. Especially when you're a newbie."

After moaning about the cruelty of it all, Ms. Mizuno changed her tone and went on.

"So. I stole a couple seconds from the insanity and came up to the roof of the inpatient ward. That's where I am now."

"What's going on? Did you…?"

"I tried talking to him last night."

"Your brother? About that thing?"

"Right. When I talked to him…Well, there's one thing I want to confirm with you before I say anything else."

"What's that?"

"Ready?"

Ms. Mizuno made her voice a little louder. She was definitely on the roof—or at least outside—since I could clearly hear the shrill sound of the wind.

"That girl Mei you told me about yesterday. Mei Misaki," Ms. Mizuno said. "Is she actually there?"

"Excuse me?"

I didn't know what to say to that…

"Yes, she's really there."

"Right now? Is she nearby? Are you sure?"

"No, she didn't come to school today."

"So she's not there."

"What are you talking about?" I felt my voice getting louder. "Why would you ask…?"

"I told you, I talked to my brother last night."

Ms. Mizuno quickly gave me what information she had.

"I tried asking him about that thing twenty-six years ago and about the accident last week, but he just stalled me on all of it. He still looked like he was scared of something, too, like he was at the end of his rope. But then last of all, I tried asking about Mei."

Kksshh…I heard some interference on the line and her voice crackled.

"When I did that, his face went all red and he demanded, 'Why are you asking me that? There's no one like that in my class.' He looked totally serious, like I've never seen him before. So I thought maybe this girl named Mei Misaki really didn't…"

"He's lying."

I saw Teshigawara's face, looking over at me suspiciously. I turned my back on him, then recruited my right hand, which gripped the phone, to completely cover my mouth. Then—

"He's lying," I repeated fiercely.

"But…he was so serious. I don't see why he would have to lie…"

Kshhkkkshhsshk…I heard the interference again and Ms. Mizuno's voice broke off. I didn't care. I told her, "Mei Misaki exists."

Mei exists. I'd seen her dozens of times. Talked to her dozens of times. I'd seen her yesterday, even. Talked to her yesterday. How could she possibly not exist? It was crazy.

"…Wha—?"

Her voice cut through the interference, sounding somehow different than it had before.

"Uh…what's happening?"

"What is it?"

Kksshsshkksh…rmbbmmblrrrmmb…kkssh!

"Ms. Mizuno? Can you hear me?"

"…Sakakibara?"

Her voice crackled much louder than before.

"I got off the roof. I'm on the elevator. I need to get back soo—"

"Oh, so that's why the signal's so bad."

"…But this is…No! What's—!"

Rrmmrrmbbl…The interference grew thicker and more intense. Ms. Mizuno's voice seemed to be swallowed up in it, and then it broke off.

"Ms. Mizuno!"

I squeezed my hand tighter around the phone reflexively.

"Can you hear me? What's going—"

My words came to a stop; a strange sound was coming through the phone. It's hard to describe what it sounded like. A really strange, horrible noise…

I took the phone from my ear, unable to listen anymore.

What had happened?

She'd gotten on the elevator, and her signal had deteriorated…Was that why? Was that what the sound was? No, before that she'd…

Terrified, I put the phone back to my ear. Instantly I heard some kind of hard, violent sound. It sounded—yes, it was exactly as if the phone had been dropped on the floor.

Kkssshhkshhskkkshh, rrmrrmmmblrrmb…The interference finally grew more intense. In the last moment before the connection between the two phones was lost…

I heard, faintly but clearly, the sound of Ms. Mizuno groaning in pain.