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.
7
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.
Chapter 7
June II
1
Ms. Mizuno was dead.
I learned the frankly debilitating truth that evening. The only information I was able to get so far was that there had been an accident at the hospital, but I think I had been prepared for the worst, even before that.
That phone call during lunch…
There was no doubting the fact that some kind of abnormal calamity had befallen her. But no matter how many times I tried to call her back, I never got through. As a result, I had no way of finding out what happened, so I was forced to spend hours tortured by anxiety and restlessness.
“Ms. Mizuno? That young nurse?”
When she heard about it, my grandmother seemed truly shocked, too. She had met Ms. Mizuno several times while I’d been hospitalized in April.
“Mizuno…Sanae, wasn’t it? You two got along so well. She would talk to you about your books…”
“I saw her once at the hospital, too, I think. The day I came to visit you, she was…”
Reiko looked extremely depressed. After dinner, she’d taken the same medicine as the night before. I guess she had a headache again.
“She was still so young. I hope her little brothers will be okay.”
“She had brothers?” my grandmother asked.
I replied, “One is named Takeru. He’s in my class, actually.”
“Oh, my.” My grandmother’s eyes went round. “How awful. Didn’t a girl from your class just pass away in an accident?”
I knitted my brows pensively, my temples throbbing.
“They said there was an accident at the hospital…I wonder what it could have been.”
Nobody could answer.
But the horrible sound I’d heard over the phone at lunchtime boomed again in my ear. And Ms. Mizuno’s pained moaning, fading in and out of the intense interference.
Unable to bear it, I shut my eyes tightly.
I thought about telling them, right then, what had happened at lunch. As I thought it over, there was no reason for me to hesitate so much over it…and yet.
I didn’t tell them. No—I couldn’t tell them. I think because I felt something akin to guilt deep down and I couldn’t shake free of it.
My grandfather had been quiet, but now he let out an “Ah-h, ah-h” in his papery voice. He pressed both hands to his wrinkled, colorless forehead.
“When someone dies, there’s a funeral. I don’t…I don’t want to go to any more funerals.”
For whatever reason, maybe because there was an inauspicious day coming up, the wake was the day after tomorrow and the memorial service would be the day after that, on Saturday. Saturday? Oh, right…June 6.
Did you ever see The Omen?
I vividly recalled the conversation Ms. Mizuno and I had had at the restaurant. It was only yesterday.
We’ll both be careful. Especially for any accidents that would never usually happen.
She was dead.
The day after tomorrow was her wake, and the day after that was her memorial service. It seemed so unreal. Shock was the only thing I felt at first. Emotions like sadness couldn’t get a grip on me yet.
“…I don’t want to go to any more funerals.”
As I listened to my grandfather sluggishly repeat himself, the word “funeral” created a dark stain somewhere in my heart. Before I could even react, a black whirlpool had begun to turn slowly around it, until finally—how can I put it?—a strange, low frequency sound rose up from everywhere at once, Vmmmmm…
I closed my eyes tightly again. At the same moment, something in my mind came to a halt.
2
The next day, June 4, an oppressive climate filled the classroom in third-year Class 3 within moments of starting the day.
Ms. Mizuno’s little brother Takeru hadn’t come in. By the time second period was over, the rumor that he was absent because of his older sister’s sudden death had spread through the class. And in third period, before starting the language arts class, the head teacher, Mr. Kubodera, openly told everyone it was true.
“Mizuno’s older sister met with a sudden and unfortunate incident yesterday…”
Instantly, an odd silence smothered the room. As if the breath of every student had crystallized in the air in an instant…
Worst of all, Mei Misaki entered the room just then.
Without so much as apologizing for her tardiness, without showing any self-consciousness whatsoever, she sat down in her usual seat, silent. I watched her as she went, uneasiness thrumming in my chest. Then I turned my attention to the reactions of everyone else in the class, too.
Not a single one of them turned to look at Mei. They all had their eyes fixed, almost unnaturally, straight ahead. Mr. Kubodera was exactly the same. He didn’t look at Mei or speak to her. It was as if…
Yes, it was as if there simply was no student named Mei Misaki in this class. As if she didn’t exist.
When the language arts class ended, I quickly got out of my seat and hurried over to Mei.
“Come with me,” I said, pulling her into the hall. Ignoring whoever might be listening, I asked, “Did you hear about what happened to Mizuno?”
She cocked her head slightly and asked “What?” so apparently she didn’t know about it yet. The eye not hidden by the eye patch blinked wonderingly.
“She died. His older sister died yesterday.”
I thought I saw surprise color her face for an instant. But it disappeared almost immediately.
“…Oh.” Her voice revealed no emotion. “Was she sick? Or was it an accident or something?”
“They say it was an accident.”
“Ah.”
Several students had clumped up near the door to the classroom. There were a couple of boys and girls whose names and faces I knew, but whom I still hadn’t really talked to. Nakao, Maejima, Akazawa, Ogura, Sugi
ura…Teshigawara was among them, too. He hadn’t spoken a word to me since lunch yesterday.
I knew they were all shooting looks over at us. As if watching how things developed from a distance.
Could it be? I had to give the idea pretty serious consideration now.
Could it really be that what they saw now was only me?
And—
When the next class started, Mei had vanished from the classroom. Naturally, no one but me paid it any attention.
As soon as lunch started, I went over to Mei’s desk, farthest back in the row by the windows that faced the schoolyard, and gave her desk a fresh inspection.
It was a wooden desk, of a clearly different shape than the rest of the desks in the room. The chair that went with it was the same. Like something that had been used dozens of years ago. An incredibly old desk and chair.
Why was that? I asked myself, feeling behind the curve. Why is Mei’s desk the only one like this?
By now I’d decided to ignore the watchful eyes of those around me, so I sat down in her seat. The surface of the desk was notched all over and uneven. I doubted it was possible to fill out a test, say, and write clearly at all without a backing sheet.
There was a lot of graffiti among all the cuts in the desk.
Most of the graffiti was old—extremely old—like the desk. Some was written in pencil. Some in pen. Some carved in, probably with the tip of a compass. Some had almost vanished; some was only barely legible. And there in the middle…
My eyes fixed on a row of letters that looked freshly written. They were recent.
They were written small, on the right edge of the desk, in blue pen. There was no real way to judge the penmanship or anything, but as soon as I saw it, I knew that Mei had written it.
Who is “the casualty”?
That was what she had written.
Another, Volume 1 Page 16