Chapter 2 - Sasayaki: Whispers

1

Shun ended up feeling so sick that he spent that afternoon in the nurse’s office. As he lay in bed looking up at the white ceiling, he couldn’t help but recall everything that had happened in the Jailhouse. It only unsettled him more. He tossed and turned restlessly until the final bell rang.

Once school was over, he felt much better. Perhaps he’d just been that anxious about returning to class. The hellish days of enduring Takuro’s bullying must have affected him more than he’d imagined, and they still had a terrible hold over his heart.

Thanking the nurse, Shun left the infirmary. He went back to the classroom to grab his bag, and could hear some of his classmates whispering to each other as he approached. Peeking in from the doorway, he surveyed the room. It was two female students with grave looks on their faces. There was no one else there. He couldn’t just barge in, so instead, he waited by the door with bated breath.

“Hey, you know that email everyone in class got?”

Email? What’re they talking about?

Shun was confused.

“You think it was true?”

“Don’t, Yukari. You can’t talk about that at school. That’s what it said, remember?”

“Anna didn’t come to school again.”

The short-haired girl named Yukari suddenly mentioned Anna’s name. Shun hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but he couldn’t help hearing that part. His palms began to sweat.

Their conversation continued.

“I think maybe she was eaten by the Jailhouse monster, too... I was worried, so I called her during lunch.”

“And?”

“She was at home. Apparently she caught a cold.”

“Oh, is that it? Jeez, you scared me for a second there.”

“Well, something was weird. I can’t explain it, but she seemed different from the normal Anna.”

Shun couldn’t hide his surprise. Carefully, so as not to be noticed, he leaned in through the doorway to get a better look at the two girls. The short-haired one he’d seen plenty of times before with Anna. They were probably pretty close. Really close, even, if she could discern from just a phone call that it wasn’t the real Anna. Shun had been none the wiser up until seeing her strangely blue, wide-open eyes after spending an entire night with her.

“But she isn’t the only one who hasn’t come to school for two days. That super studious guy... What was his name?”

“Hiroshi?”

“Yeah, him. He was always going on about how monsters couldn’t possibly exist. Maybe he was killed, too.”

“Now that I think about it, I remember seeing them together a lot recently... Huh? Did she get mixed up with him?”

Shun was so focused on their conversation that he didn’t notice another one of his classmates approaching from behind.

“What’re you doing out here?” someone said, tapping him on the shoulder.

Shun reflexively yelped, and the two girls in the classroom turned around at the same time.

“You spent all day in the nurse’s office ’cause you were feeling sick, right? You should have listened to me. I told you to take it easy.”

It was Kazuya. He was wearing a white lab coat, perhaps a member of the science club.

“Oh... yeah, thanks. But I’m really okay now.”

As Shun fumbled for a response, the two girls exited the classroom. They hurried by silently, not making eye contact.

“What’s with them? Weirdos,” said Kazuya, lips pursed.

“Hey,” Shun said as he turned to him. “What’s this about an email everyone got?”

Kazuya’s expression changed dramatically. It was the same reaction Shun had gotten when he’d asked him about the Jailhouse that morning.

“I haven’t been to school in so long, I’m out of the loop.”

“Huh? You didn’t get it?” Kazuya’s wide eyes stared straight at Shun. “But why? Because you’re new? Or because you weren’t at school? You weren’t the sender, were you?”

Kazuya’s lips were trembling. He was clearly afraid. Shun finally realized his impression that the class had been too peaceful on his first day back was all wrong. A mysterious ghost was haunting class 2-3, and Kazuya’s endless shivering caused a new fear to bloom in Shun, as well.

2

Shun practically fled from school to the only public phone in town, punched in Hiroshi’s home phone number, and asked if he could come visit him immediately. Of course, this sick visit was just an excuse to see him. In truth, Shun was beyond worried. His classmates were incredibly afraid of something. As long as he didn’t know what that was, he couldn’t rest.

“There’s no need to come to my house. I will head to you,” Hiroshi said calmly.

“Huh? Are you better now? It’s really cold today, so maybe you shouldn’t go outside—”

“No need to worry. In fact, it would be more detrimental to my health to stay cooped up here.”

“You’re not forcing yourself, are you?”

“No, not at all.”

“Really?”

Hiroshi was always as cool as a cucumber, so sometimes it was hard to read him. Even for Shun.

“Let’s meet at the usual spot in 30 minutes,” Hiroshi said.

“The usual spot?”

“The hills behind school.”

That was where they’d played Shun’s computer game together. It had only been three weeks since they last saw each other there, yet it seemed like an eternity ago.

“Got it. See you in 30 minutes, then.”

With that, Shun finished their conversation and hung up. He was concerned about Hiroshi’s health, but he was also grateful that he’d get to talk to him without having to meet Hiroshi’s family. It wasn’t like his natural shyness had suddenly gone away.

3

Shun headed for the hills behind school to meet with Hiroshi. He made sure to buy him a get-well gift from the convenience store along the way and everything.

The snow was deeper than Shun had expected. It even came up to his shins in places. The air was seasonably chilly, but walking in the snow was so arduous that by the time Shun reached their rendezvous point, he was so hot that he wanted to rip his jacket off.

Complicated emotions came over him as he stared at the familiar marsh. Thin ice had formed on the water’s surface. He looked to the sky. With evening setting in, the clouds had parted just enough that a bit of blue was visible. There was no sign of the biting cold letting up, however. Even with gloves on, Shun’s fingertips were numb.

Within a few minutes, Hiroshi arrived. Slight bags remained under his eyes. His cheeks were also a bit more gaunt than they had been two days ago. It was worrying, but Shun was mostly just happy to see him.

“Um... here.”

Shun handed over the present he’d bought.

“Thank you very much. I was just craving something sweet. This will be good.”

Hiroshi wasn’t one for niceties, so if he said he was grateful, Shun knew it was the truth. In fact, he dug into the pudding cup right away.

“This is good,” he said with no expression.

Even so, Shun was delighted. He then took out a pudding cup for himself. They couldn’t sit in the snow, so both just stood there together. It was something of a strange way to eat pudding. Shun chuckled to himself.

When they were done, Shun explained what had happened at school. Hiroshi listened intently, not interrupting once.

“So you believe the rabbit killer was the monster with the ability to morph into Anna?” he asked when Shun was done. “Still, ripping off the ears at the hutch and leaving the heads behind the school building... I thought that blue monster would have a bit more manners than that.”

Shun pressed down on his throat at the thought of the horrific scene under the cypress tree. If it was a joke, it wasn’t funny. Then again, he doubted Hiroshi was making a joke.

“If it does anything to stand out and raise an alarm, it will be caught sooner rather than later. Thus, the monster attacked the rabbit hutch and took its meal out behind the school building where no one would see it—that is your line of thinking, yes? But if that’s true, then why leave the ears and heads? Does that not seem contradictory?” Hiroshi said plainly as he pushed up his glasses frames.

He had a point. Shun was embarrassed that he may have jumped to conclusions.

“By the way, what’s this thing about everyone in class getting an email?” That was what Shun was really dying to get an answer about. “Did you get it too, Hiroshi?”

“Oh? You didn’t?”

Shun shook his head. He felt a little awkward, like he’d been left out of something.

“Two days ago around noon, after I had been released from police questioning and returned home, I saw an email. It was sent earlier that day at about eight in the morning. The subject line read: ‘Vengeance to commence.’ I believe the sender was ‘J’s monster.’”

“Was there anything in the email?”

“I have a copy of it here. Would you like to see?”

With that, Hiroshi took out a familiar-looking tablet PC. It had originally come from the Jailhouse, but apparently he’d managed to keep it from being confiscated by the police.

“I had only used desktops before, but this is actually quite convenient. My fieldwork is going to get much more productive, I can tell.”

Shun was simultaneously stunned that Hiroshi could, without hesitation, use a cursed item that had caused such disaster, as well as reassured. He took the tablet and looked into the orangey glow of the screen. Just as Hiroshi promised, he’d pulled up a copy of the email from “J’s monster.”

To everyone of Iwano Middle School’s Class 2-3,

Warning. Your class is cursed. You know why. My curse has already claimed five victims. It will not cease until you are all dead. Know the graveness of the sin you have committed and regret it. Don’t bother going to the adults. If you tell anyone about this curse, you will be next.

-J’s monster

Shun finally understood what was really behind the strange mood in the classroom. The first thing that popped into his mind after reading the email was that “J’s monster” was short for “Jailhouse monster.” After all, the five victims mentioned in the message were all classmates that had last been seen at the Jailhouse. That was why no one wanted to talk about it. It was no wonder Kazuya’s attitude had changed the moment Shun brought it up.

Naturally, there were some who thought this was nothing more than a prank. But as long as most of the class was taking it seriously, there would be no talking to anyone about it. Some may have even already gone to the teachers or other adults, but they were most likely scolded for getting worked up about spam mail. Nothing would have come of it.

That girl who’d broached the subject after school, Yukari, most likely thought it was a prank. So did Hiroshi. Shun didn’t believe it, either. He wasn’t as skeptical as Hiroshi, but he still didn’t believe in curses. Having experienced the afterlife for himself once before, he was certain on that matter.

“Who could have sent this?” Shun asked.

“The sender used a free email service, so there’s no way to discern who did it,” Hiroshi replied.

“I wonder why I didn’t get this email,” Shun wondered out loud.

“Perhaps they simply didn’t know your email address. We made a list of everyone’s during the fall festival so we could all contact each other, which was before you transferred in.”

“Who kept that list?”

Perhaps they could find the sender that way.

“I... don’t know. My apologies. I don’t much keep up with class activities.”

Typical Hiroshi.

“It wouldn’t be strange for the class representative to have the list, would it?”

“You mean to suggest Anna is the sender?”

Shun nodded.

“To be precise, the monster disguised as Anna,” he clarified.

“But why? As I explained earlier, its main priority should be to blend into human society without creating any fuss. I doubt it would send such a taunting email and call attention to itself. Furthermore, Anna knows your email, does she not?”

Maybe I didn’t get one because Anna had special feelings for me.

Or was that too vain to consider?

“We should regard this email as a prank, in my opinion. However, there is no guarantee Anna will not make a move in the future. We will need to get down to figuring out this problem right away.”

Something about what Hiroshi said struck Shun. It wasn’t Anna, but the monster in Anna’s form that posed a danger to the town. But getting defensive and objecting on that point wouldn’t change anything, so Shun quietly let it slide.

“There is one thing I would like to try. Could you pass me the tablet?”

“Oh... sure.” Shun handed it over, cocking his head quizzically. “What are you testing?”

Hiroshi answered without any hint of change in his expression, “It might be possible to eliminate the monster.”